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Cossacks and Cossackdom

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Cossacks and Cossackdom Scottish Geographical Magazine ISSN: 0036-9225 (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rsgj19 Cossacks and Cossackdom V. Dingelstedt To cite this article: V. Dingelstedt (1907) Cossacks and Cossackdom, Scottish Geographical Magazine, 23:5, 239-260, DOI: 10.1080/00369220708733748 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00369220708733748 Published online: 27 Feb 2008. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 16 View related articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rsgj20 Download by: [Arizona State University Libraries] Date: 27 June 2016, At: 11:34 THE SWISS VALAIS: A STUDY IN REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY. 239 that the Alpine regions benefit a proportionately much larger number of persons than do the Highlands. In the alps one sees man as, at .least to some extent, the conqueror of nature, rather, than as the conquered, as in the Highlands. COSSACKS AND COSSACKDOM. By V. DINGELSTEDT, Corr. Member of the R.S.G.S. THE Cossacks have perhaps primarily an historical and political interest, for they have powerfully contributed to the extension and maintenance of the huge Russian Empire; but they possess also considerable interest for geographers and ethnographers, for they occupy an area more than double the size of that of the United Kingdom, their number 'equals that of the population of some independent states, and their ethnic composition is more complicated than that of many other nations. The Cossacks are now attracting the particular attention of the civilised world; for, after having won for Russia immense territories, they are now actively employed in crushing the internal troubles, due to popular discontent and a desire for change in the political and social regime. - Literature about Cossacks is not abundant. There are many. erroneous notions about them, and the author of the present article deems it useful to" gather together what is known about them just at the present moment, when they are playing such a conspicuous part on the scene of contemporary history, and perhaps are on the point of under- going themselves ^ome important transformations in accordance with new popular tendencies incompatible with the existence of Cossackdom. Cossacks are not a nation, nor a particular tribe nor race: they are a distinct and privileged part of the heterogeneous Russian population, a social body of soldier-husbandmen, a class (soslovii), an hereditary order {confririe) with its own duties, rights, privileges, customs, manners and traditions. They are not governed by the common law, but by rules constituting a part of the military code. They are not burghers nor citizens, but militiamen, and their interests are not those of common Russian subjects. Napoleon I. was strongly impressed by the deeds of the Cossacks; Downloaded by [Arizona State University Libraries] at 11:34 27 June 2016 he prophesied that in a century Europe would be either republican or Cossack. It does not seem that the great leader proved himself a great prophet, but he did not certainly much err in attributing to Cossacks an eminent importance and value. Let us cast a glance on the origin of Cossacks and their past prowess, before considering the territory they occupy, their divisions, their strength, occupations, customs, character, etc. Name and origin.—The name of Cossack—Russian Kosah—has been variously derived from the Turkish haz&h, meaning a robber, and other words in different languages signifying " an armed man," " a sabre," " a 240 SCOTTISH GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE. rover," " a goat," " a cassock," etc. It was first heard of in the tenth century. MaQOudi calls them Kechek, . and Nestor somewhat later gives them the name of Kassghar. For the Russian mind the name of Co3sack conveys an idea of a free, rough, weather-beaten, and rather happy fellow. There is a Russian saying:— " It is for that The Cossack is so fat: From sweet repast To calm repose He turns." It is probable, however, that this description refers more to the past than the present state of Oossackdom, and gives a clue to its remote origin. According to Scherer (Annals of Russia Minor) the first Cossacks were descended from Komans obliged to flee before the invasion of Tartars, who in 1272, under the leadership of Batu-khan, came to occupy the part of. the empire left by Tchinghis-khan. The Komans settled at first in the lower Yaiik (Uralsk), but, later on, on the approach of Batu-khan, were forced to flee as far as the Dnieper and the Don, and take refuge in the caves, the islands and the marshes of the lower parts of these rivers. Hence they made their raids into the neighbouring states and enlisted all the roving and discontented elements, Tartars, Kalmucks, etc., for rapine and pillage. They gave origin to a number of hordes, some of whom, after many adventures, settled in the islands of the Dnieper below its falls, and thus formed the Zaporog Setch. Zaporog Cossacks were the prototype of Cossacks. The world has never seen'such an audacious, enterprising, and terrible band of military men, with proverbial courage. In order to obtain admission to their number, it was required from the candidate to profess the Greek faith, to be a bachelor, to pass in a boat against the current the thirteen cataracts of the Dnieper, to have killed ten of his enemies, to be an excellent shooter, to be able to swim across the Dnieper, and so on. Their chiefs were elected every year. They had almost everything in common, and they rigorously excluded women from their midst. About, seventy thousand strong, they became a scourge to all their neighbours, a menace even for Russia at the time when Ataman Mazeppa made friendship with Charles XII., the king of Sweden. After the battle of • Downloaded by [Arizona State University Libraries] at 11:34 27 June 2016 Poltava, and later under Catherine II., they were partly dispersed and partly annihilated. Two things were necessary for the extension of Cossack states- space and discontent; and both Russia and Poland in the sixteenth; century had plenty of those gangs of adventurers, marauders, vagabonds, robbers, outcasts, cut-throats who, seeking freedom and fleeing from pursuit, were able to traverse badly delimited frontiers, and establish themselves on some masterless lands on the wooded banks of the Dnieper, the Don, Ural, etc. <• These predatory gangs of malcontents could not fail "to be organised COSSACKS AND COSSACKDOM. 241 under the headship of more distinguished men. To their formation into more orderly communities further contributed Polish and Lithuano- Eussian lords, and later on the princes of Moscovia, who impressed on them the ideas of knighthood and the stamp of patriotism. The Polish landlords obtained as a grant from their kings immense territories in the southern steppes of Russia, and, in order to people them, they promised to peasants willing to settle in these regions freedom from taxes and duties .and impunity from any crimes they had committed. The measure proved successful, the formerly uninhabited steppes changed their aspect, they were peopled and opened to culture; the stanitsas, at first independent one from another, combined for the election of a common chief or ataman (hetman); and already in 1649 a daring Cossack chief on the Dnieper, Hetman Khmelnitsky, had suc- ceeded in establishing a semi-autonomous state, at first allied to Poland and later transferring its allegiance to Russia (1654); other Cossack communities at the end of the fifteenth century, after the partition of the south-eastern steppes between Poland, Muscovia and Turkey, rose to considerable importance, acquired lands and rich booty, and were able to wage wars with all their neighbours, and especially the Moslems. The Tzars of Moskov knew how to profit by the valour and audacity of these turbulent freelances; they supplied them with bread, powder and lead, granted them lands and privileges, addressed them compli- ments, recognised their liberties, and at the same time prepared the way for submitting them to their rule.. After Zaporog's siez of Cossacks, crushed and suppressed by Catherine ir. (1792), the next great colony of Cossacks, and the most important one at the present day, was established in the middle of the sixteenth century, on the Don and Medvieditsa and the shores of the Azov Sea. The first Don Cossacks ataman which history mentions, bore the Tartar name of Sariazman, but the colony consisted mainly of outlaws and fugitives, rascolnick (dissidents) and adventurers from Russia, and Poland, and the Crimea. In the second half of the same century these colonists had already succeeded in forming powerful and aggressive com- munities. Lately their number has considerably increased by Zaporog Cossacks, the people of Ukraine, runaways, brigands and adventurers from all eastern Europe, all willing to enter into the ranks of Cossacks in order to enjoy liberty and the adventurous life of freelances and marauders.- In 1570 the Don Cossacks asked for and received the protection Downloaded by [Arizona State University Libraries] at 11:34 27 June 2016 of Ivan the Terrible, but his hand did not weigh heavy on them, and long afterwards they could repeat the saying: "The Tzar reigns in Moskov and the Cossack on the Don." In 1580, under the leadership of Yermak, an absconded criminal, a gang of Don Cossacks conquered a part of Siberia and thus laid the' foundation of the now important Siberian Cossacks' army. The power and prosperity of the Don Cossacks only increased their turbulence and aggressive spirit, and Peter the Great found it necessary to subdue them; he crushed their revolt under Bulavin, reduced their territory, and forbade further recruiting of their ranks.. VOL. XXIII.
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