The meaning of empire in the Eurasian steppe. The military motivation of serfdom. The northern wars. Cossacks, Poles and Swedes. Land versus sea empires
If you go to Kuban, you will find that the Kuban Cossacks take this being Zaporozhian thing really seriously. Which makes their participation on the Russian side in the war in Ukraine rather ironic, given the nationalist Ukrainian narrative
Perhaps it isn’t so ironic. Ukrainian nationalist media and ideology (on a state level, since Zelensky officially made territorial claims to southern Russia several months back on this basis) claims that southern Russia, Kuban and so on belong to Ukraine because there are many descendants of the Zap Cossacks there, many still even speak a Ukrainized form of Russian.
But this ignores the fact that precisely these regions of Russia are the most stridently Russian imperialist/nationalist in popular ideology. Rostov, for instance, is famed for its status as a rightwing, imperial city today. Which is in no small part due to the fact that the Cossack movement is so strong there (of course, Don as well as Zap).
In a broader historical sense, one is reminded of the fact that the 1906 Duma elections saw Kiev and Odessa elect by far the most rightwing, black hundreds-sympathetic representatives (and almost no leftwing/liberal representatives), while Moscow and St Petersburg elected leftwing/liberal representatives. Most of the Zap cossack elite was seamlessly integrated into the Russian nobility in the 18th, 19th centuries, and became its most militaristic, imperialist wing.
For instance, Pavlo Skoropadsky, the rightwing Hetman of Ukraine 1918, kept in power by German guns (and removed by Ukrainian peasant uprising). He was from a very influential Cossack/noble family - Ivan Skoropadsky was hetman of leftbank Ukraine from 1708-1722, after Mazepa betrayed Russia to join the Swedes. Ivan was pro-Russian, and worked closer with Peter the Great. Mykola/Nikolai Skoropadsky was also an officer in the Imperial army in the 19th century. And so was Pavlo - his leadership, though ‘Ukrainian nationalist’ - was also distinguished by his rehabilitation and close cooperation with Russian white officers, to the chagrin of the more populist, extreme Ukrainian nationalists like Petliura, Vynnychenko.
Ironically, Skoropadsky is more idolized in modern Ukraine than Vynnychenko and Petliura, who are often condemned as too leftwing (Petliura less so, especially because his murder by a Jew gave him the aura of martyrdom. Poroshenko, for instance, models himself as ‘the Hetman’, just like Skoropadsky (this conservative Cossack title was not adopted by Petliura)
By coincidence, I was in Taman (Kuban) yesterday, where there is a monument to the first Zaporozhian Cossacks to settle the place in 1791. (Also, I knocked on the door of the Kuban Cossack stanitsa government building, but nobody answered. Lazy Cossacks!)
The Cossacks and Ukrainians as a whole played a massive role in the colonization of the non-slavic regions of the Russian empire. Nowadays it isn’t so popular to discuss.
Cossacks did, which were Zaporozhian in the case of Kuban. Other Cossack voiska had different origins.
My wife's grandmother was a Don Cossack. We were in Kalmykia last summer, and our taxi driver turned to her and asked, "are you a Cossack?", The Kalmyks were part of the Don voisko, with close proximity to the Slavic Cossacks next door in Rostov, and he could tell by her physiognomy.
If you go to Kuban, you will find that the Kuban Cossacks take this being Zaporozhian thing really seriously. Which makes their participation on the Russian side in the war in Ukraine rather ironic, given the nationalist Ukrainian narrative
Perhaps it isn’t so ironic. Ukrainian nationalist media and ideology (on a state level, since Zelensky officially made territorial claims to southern Russia several months back on this basis) claims that southern Russia, Kuban and so on belong to Ukraine because there are many descendants of the Zap Cossacks there, many still even speak a Ukrainized form of Russian.
But this ignores the fact that precisely these regions of Russia are the most stridently Russian imperialist/nationalist in popular ideology. Rostov, for instance, is famed for its status as a rightwing, imperial city today. Which is in no small part due to the fact that the Cossack movement is so strong there (of course, Don as well as Zap).
In a broader historical sense, one is reminded of the fact that the 1906 Duma elections saw Kiev and Odessa elect by far the most rightwing, black hundreds-sympathetic representatives (and almost no leftwing/liberal representatives), while Moscow and St Petersburg elected leftwing/liberal representatives. Most of the Zap cossack elite was seamlessly integrated into the Russian nobility in the 18th, 19th centuries, and became its most militaristic, imperialist wing.
For instance, Pavlo Skoropadsky, the rightwing Hetman of Ukraine 1918, kept in power by German guns (and removed by Ukrainian peasant uprising). He was from a very influential Cossack/noble family - Ivan Skoropadsky was hetman of leftbank Ukraine from 1708-1722, after Mazepa betrayed Russia to join the Swedes. Ivan was pro-Russian, and worked closer with Peter the Great. Mykola/Nikolai Skoropadsky was also an officer in the Imperial army in the 19th century. And so was Pavlo - his leadership, though ‘Ukrainian nationalist’ - was also distinguished by his rehabilitation and close cooperation with Russian white officers, to the chagrin of the more populist, extreme Ukrainian nationalists like Petliura, Vynnychenko.
Ironically, Skoropadsky is more idolized in modern Ukraine than Vynnychenko and Petliura, who are often condemned as too leftwing (Petliura less so, especially because his murder by a Jew gave him the aura of martyrdom. Poroshenko, for instance, models himself as ‘the Hetman’, just like Skoropadsky (this conservative Cossack title was not adopted by Petliura)
It is in fact a Ukrainized, Turkified, Cherkessified form of Russian!
I am in Adler (suburb of Sochi) right now, and I had half a mind to go visit the Cossack voisko HQ here, but I don't really have time.
By coincidence, I was in Taman (Kuban) yesterday, where there is a monument to the first Zaporozhian Cossacks to settle the place in 1791. (Also, I knocked on the door of the Kuban Cossack stanitsa government building, but nobody answered. Lazy Cossacks!)
The Cossacks and Ukrainians as a whole played a massive role in the colonization of the non-slavic regions of the Russian empire. Nowadays it isn’t so popular to discuss.
Cossacks did, which were Zaporozhian in the case of Kuban. Other Cossack voiska had different origins.
My wife's grandmother was a Don Cossack. We were in Kalmykia last summer, and our taxi driver turned to her and asked, "are you a Cossack?", The Kalmyks were part of the Don voisko, with close proximity to the Slavic Cossacks next door in Rostov, and he could tell by her physiognomy.
Very enlightening