Kuban Cossacks
Kuban Cossacks ([Кубанские кaзаки, Kubanskiye Kаzaki] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help)) are Cossacks who live in the Kuban region of Russia; they consider themselves direct successors to the Zaporozhian Cossacks. The Kuban Cossack Host (Кубанское казачье войско) is the administrative and military unit that was formed out of the Cossacks who existed from 1860-1918 and from 1990 since.
History
End of Zaporozhia and aftermath
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By the late 18th century the combat ability of Zaporozhia was greatly reduced, especially after the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca and the Russian annexation of Crimea, when the need was lost for the Host to guard the now extinct borders. At the same time the Zaprorozhian's other enemy, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, was also weakened and on the verge of being partitioned. This meant that militarily the Zaporozhian Sich was becoming increasingly superfluous, but at the same time their existence caused friction with Imperial Russian authorities who wanted to colonise the New Russia lands that the Cossacks inhabited. After a number of attacks on Serbian colonies and with the support offered to Yemelyan Pugachev, the Russian Empress Catherine the Great issued an order to General Pyotr Tekeli to dissolve the Sich. Afterwards five thousand men,[1] approximately 30% of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, fled to the Ottoman controlled Danube area in June 1775, and the Zaporizhian Sich was destroyed in a bloodless operation by the Russian Army.
With respect to the twelve thousand Cossacks[2] that remained, much of the upper leadership including the Cossacks' leader were exiled to the far North. Among those who were not, those of higher ranking were offered dvoryanstvo, whilst the poorer Cossacks were allowed to join Husar or Dragoon regiments, but the stricter army regulations were foreign to the Cossacks and only a few managed to master them. At the same time, due to the threat from the Ottoman Empire, strengthened by the exiled Zaporozhian Cossacks who formed the Danubian Sich, the Russian authorities, under the initiative of Grigory Potemkin chose to re-generate the Host of the loyal Zaporozhians in 1787.[3]
Black Sea Cossacks
The new host played a crucial role in the Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792), and for that the Russian Empress rewarded them with eternal use of the Kuban land in the North Caucasus, an uninhibited steppe region that was gained by the Russian Empire in 1784, which was nonetheless crucial as a foothold for the Russian expansion into the Caucasus. Renamed the Black Sea Cossack Host, a total of 25 thousand men made the migration in 1792-93, settling on the regions north of the Kuban River. Initially some of the traditions from Zaporozhia persisted in the Black Sea Cossacks, such as the formal election of the host government, but in many cases, the traditional organisation were replaced by new ones. Instead of a central Sich, they formed defence line from the the inlet of Kuban River into the Black Sea to the inlet of the Bolshaya Laba River, and colonised the land north of this line with stanitsas. To administer the land, the city of Yekaterinodar (literally Cathrine's gift) was built. At the same time, however, the Black Sea Cossacks also sent men to many major campaigns of the Russian Empire's demand, such as the suppression of the Polish Kościuszko Uprising in 1794, the ill-fated Persian Expedition of 1796 where nearly half of the Cossacks died from hunger and disease, and sent the 9th plastun (infantry) and 1st joint cavalry regiments as well as the first Leib Guards (elite) sotnia to aid the Russian Army in the Patriotic War of 1812. Further participations of the new host was in the Russo-Persian War (1826-1828) where they were to victoriously storm the last remaining Ottoman bastion of the northern Black Sea Coast, the fortress of Anapa, which fell on June 12, 1828. In the course of the Crimean War, the Cossacks foiled any attempts of allied landing on the Taman Peninsula, whilst the 2nd and 5th plastun battalions took part in the heroic Defence of Sevastopol.
At the same time, for the land they left behind the Buh Cossacks were able to provide a strong buffer from the Danubian Sich. However after the Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829) under the patronage of Nicholas I most of the Danube Cossacks officially turned themselves over and under amnesty were resettled between the Mariupol and Berdyansk forming the Azov Cossack Host.
Expansion
As the years went by the Black Sea Cossacks continued its systematic penetrations into the mountainous regions of the Northern Caucasus. Taking an active part in the finale of the Russian conquest of the Northern Caucasus they settled the regions each time these were conquered. To aid them, a total of 70 thousand additional ex-Zaporozhians from the Bug, Yekaterinoslav, and finally the Azov Cossack Host migrated there in the mid 19th century. All three of the former were necessary to be removed to vacate space for the colonisation of New Russia, and with the increasing weakness of the Ottoman Empire as well as the formation of independent buffer states in the Balkans, the need for further Cossack presence has ended. They made the migration to the Kuban in 1860 and merged with the Caucasus Line Cossack Host, which consisted of migrated Don Cossack elements. Finally in 1864, the Black Sea Cossacks and the Azov Cossacks were united into the Kuban Cossack Host, ninety years after the Zaporozhian Sich was destroyed. During this time links with the Ukrainian homeland were maintained. The Kuban Cossack leader Yakiv Kukharenko, for example, had belonged to a Ukrainian circle in St. Petersburg and had a close friendship to Ukraine's national poet Taras Shevchenko [2].
Apogee of the Kuban Host
The new Host grew to be one of the most prominent in the Russian Empire as well as the largest, second only to the Don Host. The Kuban Cossacks continued to make an active part in the Russian affairs of the 19th century starting from the finale of the Russian-Circassian War which ceased shortly after the hosts' formation. A small group took part in the 1873 conquest that brought the Khanate of Khiva under Russian control. Their biggest military affair was the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), on both the Balkan and the Caucasus fronts. The latter in particular was a strong contribution as the Kuban Cossacks made 90% of the Russian cavalry. Famous achievements in the numerous Battles of Shipka, the defence of Bayazet and finally in decisive and victorious Battle of Kars where the Cossacks were the first to enter. Three Kuban Cossack regiments took part in the storming of Geok-Tepe in Turkmenistan in 1881. During the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) the host mobilised six cavalry regiments, five plastun battalions and one battery to the distant region of Russia.
The Cossacks also carried out the second strategical objective, the colonisation of the Kuban land. In total in the host owned more than six million tithes, of which 5.7 million belonged to the stanitsas, with the remaining in the reserve or in private hands of Cossack officers and officials. Upon reaching the age of 17 a Cossack would be given between 16 to 30 tithes for cultivation and personal use. With the natural growth of the population the average land that a Cossack owned decreased from 23 tithes in 1860s to 7.6 in 1917. Such arrangements, however ensured that the colonisation and the cultivation would be very rational.
The military purpose of the Kuban was echoed in its administration pattern. Rather than a traditional Imperial Guberniya (governorate) with uyezds (districts), the territory was administered by the Kuban Oblast which was split into otdels (regions, which in 1888 counted seven). Each otdel would have its own sotnias which in turn would be split into stanitsas and khutors. The Ataman (commander) for each region was not only responsible for the military preparation of the Cossacks, but for the local administration duties. Local Stanitsa and Khutor atamans were elected, but approved by the atamans of the otdel. These in turn were appointed by the supreme ataman of the host, who was in turn appointed directly by the Russian Emperor. Prior to 1870 this system of legislature in the Oblast remained a robust military one and all legal decisions were carried out by the stanitsa ataman and two elected judges. However afterwards the system was bureaucratised and the judicial functions became independent of the stanitsas.
The more liberal policy of the Kuban was directly mirrored in the living standards of the people. One of the central features of this was education. Indeed the first schools were known to have existed since the migration of the Black Sea Cossacks, and by 1860 the host had one male gymnasy and 30 elementary schools. In 1863 the first periodical Кубанские войсковые ведомсти - Kubanskiye voiskovye vedomsti began printing, and two years later the host's library was opened in Yekaterinodar. In all by 1870 the amount of schools in rural stanitsas increased to 170. Compared with the rest of the Empire, by the start of the 20th century the Oblast had a very high literacy rate of 50% and each year up to 30 students from Cossack families (again a rate unmatched by any other rural province) were sent to study in the higher education establishments of Russia.
Russian Revolution and Civil War
During the Russian Revolution and the resulting Civil War, the Cossacks found themselves conflicted in their loyalties. In October 1917 simultaneously the Kuban Soviet Republic and the Host Rada (Soviet) was formed both of whom proclaimed their rights to rule the Kuban, and shortly afterwards the Rada declared a Kuban National Republic but was soon dispersed by Bolshevik forces. Although most of the Cossacks, initially sided with the Rada, many joined the Bolsheviks as well, who promised them autonomy.
In March 1918, after Kornilov's successful offensive, the Kuban Rada placed itself under his authority. However, after his death in June 1918 a federative union was signed with the Ukrainian government of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky, after which many Cossacks left to return home or defected to the Bolsheviks. In addition to that there was an internal struggle among the Kuban cossacks between loyalty towards the Russian Volunteer Army of Denikin and Ukrainian nationalist forces.
On November 6, 1919, Denikin's forces surrounded the Rada, and with the help of the Ataman A.Filimonov arrested ten of its members, including the Ukrainophile, P. Kurgansky, who was the premier of the Rada, and publicly hanged one of them for treason. Many Cossacks joined Denikin and fought in the ranks of the Volunteer Army. In December 1919, after Denikin's defeat and as it became clear that the Bolsheviks would overrun the Kuban, some of the pro-Ukrainian groups attempted to restore the Rada and to break away from the Volunteer Army and to fight the Bolsheviks in alliance with Ukraine,[4] however by early 1920 the Red Army took most of Kuban, and both the Rada and Denikin were evicted.
After the Soviet victory, many Kuban cossacks, fled the country to avoid persecution from the Bolsheviks. A notable eviction point was the Greek island of Lemnos where 18 thousand Kuban Cossacks have landed, though many would die of starvation and disease. For the many who were left behind their fate would prove no better. Soon after the Red Army's victory, the Kuban Cossack Host was officially dissolved. With their past loyalty to the Russian Emperor and the White Army, the new Soviet Government viewed all Cossacks as a threat to its still fragile power. An anti-Cossack campaign began immediately and the Kuban Cossack families would endure deliberate segregation by giving a lot of the Forecaucasus territory to the new autonomous provinces of local minorities and encouraging the settlement of the pre-mountain steppes by them, sometimes forcefully evicting the Cossacks from their native homes. Collectivisation of the also began, with the fertile soil on the steppe. Most of the Cossacks became local peasants and worked in the new conditions. In 1933 the Kuban was hit by the massive man-made famine (Holodomor) and many of the Cossacks descendants have died of starvation, along with millions of other people in the Union.
World War II
Collaborators in Wehrmacht and Waffen SS
The first collaborators were formed from Soviet Cossack POWs and deserters after the consquences of the Red Army's early defeats in the course of Operation Barbarossa. After the horrors of Collectivization and Decossackization in summer of 1942 many of the Germans reaching Kuban were greeted as liberators. [5][6][7] Many Soviet Kuban Cossacks chose to switch to the German side either when being in POW camps or on active service in the Soviet Army. For example, Major Kononov deserted on August 22, 1941 with an entire regiment and was instrumental in organizing Cossack volunteers in the Wehrmacht. [5] Some Cossack emigres, such as Andrei Shkuro and Pyotr Krasnov chose to collaborate with the Germans as well and stood at the helm of two Cossack divisions on German service. However most volunteers came after the Germans reached the Cossack homelands in summer of 1942.[8] The Cossack National Movement of Liberation was set up in hope of mobilizing opposition to the Soviet regime with an intent to rebuild an independent Cossack state. [9]
While there were several smaller Cossack detachments in the Wehrmacht since 1941, the 1st Cossack Division made up of Don, Terek and Kuban Cossacks was formed in 1943. This division was further augmented by the 2nd Cossack Cavalry Division formed in December of 1944. Both divisions participated in hostilities against Tito's partisans in Yugoslavia. In February of 1945 both Cossack Divisions were transferred into the Waffen-SS and formed the XVth SS Cossack Cavalry Corps. At the end of the war the Cossack collaborators retreated to Italy and surrendered to the British army, but, under the Yalta agreement, were forcibly repatriated with the rest of the collaborators to the Soviet authorities and some executed. [10] (see Betrayal of the Cossacks)
Red Army Cossacks
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Despite the defections that were taking place, the majority of the Cossacks, remained loyal to the Red Army. [11] In the earliest battles, particularly the encirlclement of Belostok Cossack units such as the 94th Beloglisnky, 152nd Rostovsky and 48th Belorechensky regiments fought to their death.
In the opening phase of the war, during the German advance towards Moscow, Cossacks became extensively used for the raids behind enemy lines. The most famous of these took place during the Battle of Smolensk under the command of Lev Dovator, whose 3rd Cavalry Corps consisted of the 50th and 53rd Cavalry divisions from the Kuban and Terek Cossacks, which were mobilised from the Northern Caucasus. The raid, which in ten days covered 300km and destroyed the hinterlands of the IXth German Army, before successfully breaking out. [12]. Whilst units under the command of General Pavel Belov, the 2nd Cavalry Corps made from Don, Kuban and Stavropol Cossacks spearheaded the counter-attack onto the right flank of the VIth German Army delaying its advance towards Moscow.
The high professionalism that the Cossacks under the command of Dovator and Belov showed (both generals would later be granted the title Hero of the Soviet Union and their units raised to a Guards (elite) status) resulted in many new units being formed such that if the Germans during the whole war only managed to form two Cossack Corps, the Red Army in 1942 already had 17.[11]. Many of the newly formed were filled with volunteers. The Kuban Cossacks were allocated to the 10th, 12th and 13th Corps. However the most famous Kuban Cossack unit would be the 17th Cossack Corps under the command of general Nikolay Kirichenko.
During the opening phase of the Battle of Stalingrad, when the Germans overran the Kuban, the majority of the Cossack population, long before the Germans began their agitation with Krasnov and Shkuro, became involved in Partisan activity.[13] Raids onto the German positions from the Caucasus mountains became commonplace. After the German defeat at Stalingrad, the 4th Guards Kuban Cossack Corps, strengthened by tanks and artillery, broke through the German lines and liberated Mineralnye Vody, and the city of Stavropol.
Whilst they did prove especially useful in reconnaissance and rear guards, the war did show that the age of horse cavalry has come to an end. Of particular fame came the IVth Guards Kuban Cossack Regiment which took part in heavy fighting in the course of the liberation of Southern Ukraine and Romania. After the war the Cossacks were once again removed from the military, but not before they proudly marched on the Red Square in the famous Victory parade of 1945.
Modern times
Following the war, the Cossack regiments, along with remaining cavalry were disbanded and removed from Armed Forces as they were thought to be obsolete. Most of the cossack descendants living in the rural territories nevertheless kept their traditions alive even though postwar USSR refused to officially recognise their existence.
Since the late 1980s there were renewed to revive Cossack traditions which went great lengths, in 1990 the Host was once again recognised by the Supreme Ataman of the All-Great Don Host (Всевеликое Войско Донское). With the help of the governor of Krasnodar Kray Alexander Tkachev, the host has become an integral part of the Kuban life, there are joint combat training operations with the Russian Army, policing of the rural areas with the Militsiya, preparation of local youth for the draft service. Not only is their aid in military, during the floods in 2004 of the Taman Peninsula they provided men and equipment for relief missions. Today the host numbers 25 thousand men and has its own distinct forces: a whole regiment of the 7th 'Cherkassy' Guards Air-Assault Division (the 108th "Kuban Cossack' Guards Airborne Regiment) in the Russian VDV; 205th Motorised Rifle Brigade, within the North Caucasus Military District in the Russian Ground Forces, in addition to border guards.
The Cossacks have actively participated in some of the more abrupt political developments following the dissolution of the Soviet Union: South Ossetia, Crimea, Kosovo, Transnistria and Abkhazia. The latter conflict was in particular special for the Kuban Cossacks, initially a number of Cossacks fled from the decossakation repressions of the 1920s and assimilated with the Abkhaz people. Before the Georgian-Abkhaz Conflict there was a strong movement of creating and Abkhaz-Kuban Host among the descendants. When the civil war broke out 1,500 thousand Kuban Cossacks volunteers from Russia came to aid the Abkhaz side. One of the notable groups was the 1st sotnia under the command of Ataman Nikolay Pusko which reportedly completely destroyed a Ukrainian mercenary group and then went on to be the first to enter Sukhumi in 1993.[14] Since then a detachment of Kuban Cossacks continue to inhabit Abkhazia, and their presence continues to influence the Georgian-Russian relations.
Culture
Because of the unique migration pattern that the original Zaporozhian Cossacks undertook the Kuban Cossack identity has produced one of the most distinct cultures not only amongst other Cossacks but throughout the whole Russian identity. The proximity to the Caucasus mountains and the Circassian people influenced the dress and uniform of the Cossacks - the distinctive Cherkesska overcoat and the Beshment scarf, local dance such as the Lezginka too came into the Kuban Cossack lifestyle. At the same time the Cossacks continued much of their Zaporozhian legacy, including a Kuban Bandura movement and the Kuban Cossack Choir which became one of the most famous in the world for their performance of Cossack and other folk songs and dances.[15]
National Identity
The whole identity of the Kuban Cossacks has always been a controversial issue. In the 1897 census 47.3% of the Kuban population (including extensive 19th century non-Cossack migrants from both Ukraine and Russia) referred to their native language as Little Russian (the official term for the Ukrainian language) while 42.6% referred to their native language as Great Russian. [16] Most cultural production in Kuban from the 1890-1910 period, such as plays, stories, etc. were written in the Little Russian/Ukrainian language, and one of the first political parties in Kuban was the Ukrainian Revolutionary Party. Briefly during the civil war, the Kuban Cossack Rada declared Ukrainian to be the official language of the Kuban Cossacks, before its suppression by Russian White leader General Denikin. [3].
After the Bolshevik Victory in the Russian Civil War, Kuban was viewed as one of the most hostile regions to young Communist state. In his 1923 speech devoted to the national and ethnic issues in the party and state affairs, Stalin identified several obstacles in implementing the national programme of the party. Those were the "dominant-nation chauvinism", "economic and cultural inequality" of the nationalities and the "survivals of nationalism among a number of nations which have borne the heavy yoke of national oppression".[17] For the Kuban this was met with a unique approach. The victim/minority became the non-Cossack peasants [18] who, like their counterparts in New Russia, were mixed population group, with slight Ukrainian majority. To prevent "dominant-nation chauvinism" a systematic policy of Ukrainization was introduced. According to the 1926 census, there were already nearly a million Ukrainians registered in the Kuban Okrug alone (or 62% of the total population) [19]
In addition to that a total of 700 schools with Ukrainian teaching were opened, and the Kuban Pedagogical Institute had its own Ukrainian department. Numerous Ukrainian-language newspapers such as Chornomorets and Kubanska Zoria were published. Historian A.L Pawliczko even claims there was an attempt to have a referendum on the joining of Kuban to the Ukrainian SSR. [20] Although no record of this taking place exists.
However in the early 1930s, the Ukrainization programme was largely ended and Ukrainian culture was actively suppressed, so that by the late 1930s the majority of Kuban Ukrainians chose to re-identify as Russians [21] Thus by the 1939 census, Russians in the Kuban were a majority of 2754027 or 86% [22] The 2nd edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia explicitly named the Kuban Cossacks as Russians.
The modern Kuban dialect (balachka), like other Ukrainian dialects [4], is substantially different from the contemporary literary Ukrainian language. In the course of the 1930s several thousand Kuban Cossacks re-identified themselves as Russians, which is an identity that is prominent to this day. Although, like many other Cossacks, some refuse to accept themselves as part of the standard ethnic Russian people, and claim to be a separate subgroup on par with sub-ethnicities such as the Pomors. In the 2002 Russian census[23] the Cossacks were allowed to a have distinct nationality as a separate Russian sub-ethnical group. The Kuban Cossacks living in Krasnodar Kray, Adygea, Karachayevo-Cherkessia and some regions of Stavropol Krai and Kabardino-Balkaria counted 25 thousand men. However, the strict governance of the census meant that only Cossacks who are in active service were treated as such, and at the same time 300 thousand families[24] are registered by the Kuban Cossack Host. Many Kuban Cossacks not politically affiliated with the Kuban Cossack Host, such as the director the the Kuban Cossack Choir Viktor Zakharchenko, maintain a very pro-Ukrainian orientation. [5].
| All Russia | 145166731 | 140028 |
| Republic | Total Population | Cossacks |
|---|---|---|
| Adygea | 447109 | 470 |
| Kabardino-Balkaria | 901494 | 307 |
| Karachayevo-Cherkessia | 439470 | 2501 |
| Krasnodar Krai | 5125221 | 17542 |
| Stavropol Krai | 2231759 | 3902 |
| Total in Kuban | 9145053 | 24722 |
See also
Notes and citations
- ^ Taras Chukhlib Alexander Suvorov in Ukrainian history, Pravda.org.ua Retrieved on 21st of April
- ^ Taras Chukhlib Alexander Suvorov in Ukrainian history, Pravda.org.ua Retrieved on 21st of April
- ^ V.Golubtsky Black Sea Cossack Host from the Large Soviet Encyclopedia Retrieved on 22nd April 2007.
- ^ Kubijovic, V.. (1963). Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopedia. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 790–793.
- ^ a b Samuel J. Newland The Cossack Volunteers
- ^ "Cossacks in the German Army, 1941-1945". Retrieved 2007-09-20.
- ^ Stalin's Enemies "Combat Magazine" ISSN 1542-1546 Volume 03 Number 01 Winter
- ^ "Cossacks in the German Army, 1941-1945". Retrieved 2007-09-20.
- ^ Lt. Gen Wladyslaw Anders and Antonio Munoz Russian Volunteers in the German Wehrmacht in WWII
- ^ Gabby de Jong, Yalta Agreement Retrieved
- ^ a b Shambarov, Valery (2007). Kazachestvo Istoriya Volnoy Rusi. Algoritm Expo, Moscow. ISBN 987-5-699-20121-1.
{{cite book}}: Check|isbn=value: invalid prefix (help) Cite error: The named reference "Shambarov" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page). - ^ Kochetov V.N. (2005). "General Dovator". Preobrazheniye. 7.
- ^ Kuban Today, Vol.7 В годы суровых испытаний about partisan movement on the Kuban by V. Turov, 6th May 1998
- ^ "Кубанские казаки берут Сухуми 11 February 2004". Retrieved 2007-04-25.
- ^ History of the Kuban Cossack Choir, form official website
- ^ Demoscope.ru, 1897 census resultws for the Kuban Oblast
- ^ "National Factors in Party and State Affairs -- Theses for the Twelfth Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), Approved by the Central Committee of the Party". URL
- ^ Terry Martin, The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, Cornell University Press, 2001, ISBN 0801486777 [1]
- ^ Kuban Okrug from the 1926 census demoscope.ru
- ^ Ukraine and Ukrainians Throughout the World, edited by A.L. Pawliczko, University of Toronto Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8020-0595-0
- ^ Kaiser, Robert (1994). The Geography of Nationalism in Russia and the USSR. Princeton University Press, New Jersey. ISBN 0-691-03254-8.
- ^ Krasnodar kray, 1939 census results, available at demoscope.ru
- ^ "Russian census 2002". Retrieved 2007-04-22.
- ^ ИА REGNUM for Rustrana.ru, 21 October 2005 Retrieved on 23 April 2007