Kuban Cossacks (Russian: Кубанские кaзаки, Kubanskiye Kаzaki) or Kubanians (кубанцы) are Cossacks who live in the Kuban region of Russia. Most of the Kuban Cossacks are of descendants of two major groups who were re-settled in the Western Northern Caucasus during the Caucasus War in the late 18th century. The Western part of the host (Taman Peninsula and adjoining region to the northeast) was settled by the Black Sea Cossack Host who were originally the Zaporozhian Cossacks of Ukraine, from 1792. The eastern and southeastern part of the host was previously administered by the Khopyour and Kuban regiments of the Caucasus Line Cossack Host, who were re-settled from the Don from 1777. The Kuban Cossack Host (Кубанское казачье войско) is the administrative and military unit formed by the Kuban Cossacks from 1860 to 1918 and from 1990 since.
Contents |
| Part of a series on |
| Cossacks |
|---|
| Cossack hosts |
| Azov · Black Sea · Buh · Caucasus · Danube · Don · Volga · Ural · Terek · Kuban · Orenburg · Astrakhan · Siberian · Baikal · Amur · Semirechye · Ussuri · Zaporozhia |
| Other groups |
| Danube (Sich) · Tatar Cossacks · Nekrasov · Turkey · Jewish Cossacks |
| History |
| Registered Cossacks · Kosiński Uprising · Nalyvaiko Uprising · Khmelnytsky Uprising · Hadiach Treaty · Hetmanate · Colonisation of Siberia · Bulavin Rebellion · Pugachev's Rebellion · 1st Cavalry Army · Decossackization · Betrayal · XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps · 1st Cossack Division |
| Famous Cossacks |
| Kondraty Bulavin · Petro Doroshenko · Bohdan Khmelnytsky · Petro Sahaidachny · Ivan Mazepa · Yemelyan Pugachev · Stenka Razin · Ivan Sirko · Ivan Vyhovsky · Yermak Timofeyevich |
| Cossack terms |
| Ataman · Chupryna · Hetman · Kontusz · Papakhi · Plastun · Szabla · Shashka · Stanitsa · Yesaul |
In a different part of southeastern Europe, on the middle Dnieper in Ukraine, lived the Zaporozhian Cossacks. By the late 18th century however, their combat ability was greatly reduced. With their traditional adversaries, the Crimean Khanate and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth now all but defunct, the Russian administration saw little military use for them. The Zaporozhian Sich, however, represented a safe haven for runaway serfs, where the state authority did not extend, and often took part in rebellions which were constantly breaking out in Ukraine. Another problem for the imperial Russian government was also the Cossacks' resistance to colonization of lands the government considered theirs.[1] In 1775, after numerous attacks on Serbian colonisers, the Russian Empress Catherine the Great had Grigory Potemkin destroy the Zaporozhian Host. The operation was carried out by General Pyotr Tekeli.
The Zaporozhians scattered; some (five thousand men or 30% of the Host) fled to the Ottoman controlled Danube area.[2] Others joined the Imperial Russian Army Husar and Dragoon regiments, while most turned to local farming and trade.
A decade later, the Russian administration was forced to reconsider its decision, with the escalation of relations with the Ottoman Empire. In 1778, the Turkish sultan offered the exiled Zaporozhians the chance to build a new Danubian Sich. Potemkin suggested that the former commanders Antin Holovaty, Zakhary Chepiha and Sydir Bily round the former Cossacks into a Host of the loyal Zaporozhians in 1787.[3]
The new host played a crucial role in the Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792), and for their loyalty and service, the Russian Empress rewarded them with eternal use of the Kuban, then inhabited by Nogai remnants, and in the cause of the Caucasus War a crucial progress in further pushing the Russian line into Circassia. Renamed the Black Sea Cossack Host, a total of 25,000 men made the migration in 1792-93.
During the Russo-Turkish War (1768-1774), the Don Cossacks on the Khopyor River took part in the campaign, and in 1770 then numbering four settlements requested to form a regiment. Owing to their service in the war on 6 October 1774 Catherine the Great issued a manifesto granting their request.
The end of the war and the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca brought Russia's frontiers south from the Kuban River's entry into the Azov Sea along its right bank and right to the bend of the Terek River. This created a 500-verst undefended border and in summer of 1777, the Khopyor regiment in addition to the remnants of the Volga Cossacks and a Vladimir Dragoon regiment were re-settled into the Northern Caucausus to build the Azov-Mozdok defence line. This marked the start of the Caucasus War, which would continue for almost 90 years.
The Khopyor regiment was responsible for the western flank of the line, they founded the fortress of Stavropol (22 October 1777) and three stanitsas: Moskovskaya, Donskaya and Severnaya with 140 Cossack families in each. In 1779 the Khopyor regiment was given its own district. The conditions were desperate as the Circassians would mount almost daily raids onto the Russian positions. In 1804 the regiment began its first expansions, by pushing westwards deeper into the Kabarda territory, moving to the bend of the Kuban River and founding six new stanitsas (the so-called new-Kuban line: Barsukovskaya, Nivinnomysskaya, Belomechetskaya, Batalpashinskaya (modern Cherkessk), Bekeshevskaya and Suvorovskaya. The next expansion took place in 1828 when the Khopyor Cossacks completed in the conquest of Karachay, and were part of the first Russian expedition to reach the summit of Elbrus in 1829.[4]
However the Russian progress on the Caucasus was desperate, and to ease administration in 1832 military reform united ten regiments from the mouth of the Terek River all the way to the Khopyor in the western Kabarda forming a single Caucasus Line Cossack Host. The Khopyor regiment was also given several civilian settlements raising its manpower to 12 thousand. With the further advance to the Laba River the Khopyor district was split into two regiments, and forme the Laba line: Spokoynaya, Ispravnaya, Podgornaya, Udobnaya, Peredovaya, Storozhevaya.
Many traditions of the Zaporozhian Cossacks continued in the Black Sea Cossacks, such as the formal election of the host administration, but in some cases, the traditionals were replaced by new ones. Instead of a central Sich, a defence line was formed from the Kuban River Black Sea inlet to the Bolshaya Laba River inlet. The land north of this line was settled with villages called stanitsas. The administrative centre of Yekaterinodar (literally Cathrine's gift) was built. The Black Sea Cossacks 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. The new host participated in the Russo-Persian War (1826-1828) where they stormed the last remaining Ottoman bastion of the northern Black Sea Coast, the fortress of Anapa in1828. 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 Defence of Sevastopol.
In the land they left behind, the Buh Cossacks were able to provide a strong buffer from the Danubian Sich. After the Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829) most of the Danube Cossacks officially turned themselves over and under amnesty were resettled between the Mariupol and Berdyansk forming the Azov Cossack Host.
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 had ended. They made the migration to the Kuban in 1860 and merged with the Caucasus Line Cossack Host.
The new Host grew to be the second largest in Russia. 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 largest military campaign 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, 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. Afterwards, however, 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 high school 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 number of schools in rural stanitsas increased to 170. Compared with the rest of the Russian 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.
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 Kuban Rada were 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 Lavr 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 fight the Bolsheviks in alliance with Ukraine;[5] 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 by the Bolsheviks. A notable eviction point was the Greek island of Lemnos where 18 thousand Kuban Cossacks landed, many of whom died of starvation and disease. Soon after the Red Army's victory, the Kuban Cossack Host was officially dissolved. Because of 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 was implemented and the Kuban Cossack families would endure deliberate segregation as the Bolsheviks gave much of the Forecaucasus territory to the new autonomous provinces of local minorities, and encouraged the settlement of the pre-mountain steppes by the latter, sometimes forcefully evicting the Cossacks from their native homes. Collectivization of the fertile steppe also began. Most of the Cossacks became local peasants and worked in the new conditions. During the Soviet famine of 1932-1934, many Cossacks died of starvation.
The first collaborators were formed from Soviet Cossack POWs and deserters after the consequences 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.[6][7][8] Many Soviet Kuban Cossacks chose to switch to the German side either when 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.[6] 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.[7] 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 1944. Both divisions participated in hostilities against Tito's partisans in Yugoslavia. In February 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)
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 300 km 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 Dovator and Belov (both generals would later be granted the title Hero of the Soviet Union and their units raised to a Guards (elite) status) ensured that many new units would be formed. In the end, 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 units were filled with ethnically Cossack 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][14] 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 Stavropol.
For the latter part of the war, although the Cossacks did prove especially useful in reconnaissance and rear guards, the war did show that the age of horse cavalry had come to an end. The famous IVth Guards Kuban Cossack Regiment which took part in heavy fighting in the course of the liberation of Southern Ukraine and Romania was allowed to proudly march on the Red Square in the famous Victory parade of 1945.
Following the war, the Cossack regiments, along with remaining cavalry were disbanded and removed from the Soviet armed forces as they were thought to be obsolete.
Starting in the late 1980s, there were renewed efforts to revive Cossack traditions which went to 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 de-Cossackization repressions of the 1920s and assimilated with the Abkhaz people. Before the Georgian-Abkhaz Conflict there was a strong movement of creating an Abkhaz-Kuban Host among the descendants. When the civil war broke out, 1500 Kuban Cossack 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 volunteer group fighting on the Georgian side and then went on to be the first to enter Sukhumi in 1993.[15] Since then, a detachment of Kuban Cossacks continue to inhabit Abkhazia, and their presence continues to influence the Georgian-Russian relations.
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, performed in both the Russian and Ukrainian languages.[16]
The concept of national and ethnic identity of the Kuban Cossacks has changed with time and has been the subject of much contention.
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 while 42.6% referred to their native language as Great Russian.[17]
Most cultural production in Kuban from the 1890-1910 period, such as plays, stories, etc., were written and performed in the Little Russian/Ukrainian language, and one of the first political parties in Kuban was the Ukrainian Revolutionary Party. During World War I, Austrian officials received reports from a Ukrainian organization of the Russian Empire that 700 Kuban Cossacks in eastern Galicia had been arrested by their Russian officers for refusing to fight against Ukrainians in the Austrian army.[18] Briefly during the Russian Civil War, the Kuban Cossack Rada declared Ukrainian to be the official language of the Kuban Cossacks, before its suppression by the Russian White leader General Denikin. [2].
After the Bolshevik Victory in the Russian Civil War, the Kuban was viewed as one of the most hostile regions to the young Communist state. In his 1923 speech devoted to the national and ethnic issues in the party and state affairs, Joseph 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 "remenants of nationalism among a number of nations which have borne the heavy yoke of national oppression".[19] For the Kuban, this was met with a unique approach. The victim/minority became the non-Cossack peasants[20] who, like their counterparts in New Russia, were mixed population group, with an ethnic Ukrainian majority. To counter "dominant-nation chauvinism" a policy of Ukrainization/Korenization 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)[21]
In addition to that, 700 schools with Ukrainian as the language of instruction 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.[22] In 1930 the Ukrainian Minister ("People’s Komissar") Mykola Skrypnyk, involved in solving national issues in the Ukrainian SSR, had put forward an official proposal to Joseph Stalin that the territories of Voronezh, Kursk, Chornomoriya, Azov, Kuban regions be administered by the government of the Ukrainian SSR.
By the end of 1932, the Ukrainization programme was reversed, and by the late 1930s the majority of Kuban Ukrainians identified themselves as Russians[23] As a result in the 1939 census, Russians in the Kuban were a majority of 2754027 or 86%[24] The 2nd edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia explicitly named the Kuban Cossacks as Russians.
The modern Kuban vernacular known as balachka differs from contemporary literary Russian and is most similar to the dialect spoken in central Ukraine near Cherkassy [25] Some regions the vernacular includes many Northern Caucasus words and accents. The infuence of Russian grammatic forms is also apparent.
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[26] 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 25,000 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 300,000 families[27] are registered by the Kuban Cossack Host. Kuban Cossacks not politically affiliated with the Kuban Cossack Host, such as the director of the Kuban Cossack Choir Viktor Zakharchenko, have maintained at various times a pro-Ukrainian orientation.[28] Zakharchenko has recently changed his position and proposes a unification of Ukraine and Russia.[29]
| All Russia | 145,166,731 | 140,028 |
| Republic | Total population | Cossacks |
|---|---|---|
| Adygea | 447,109 | 470 |
| Kabardino-Balkaria | 901,494 | 307 |
| Karachayevo-Cherkessia | 439,470 | 2,501 |
| Krasnodar Krai | 5,125,221 | 17,542 |
| Stavropol Krai | 2,231,759 | 3,902 |
| Total in Kuban | 9,145,053 | 24,722 |