The Cossack, Eastern European Soldiers of Fortune
The dictionary definition of a ‘Cossack’ is ‘a member of a people of southern Russia and Ukraine, noted for their horsemanship and military skill.’
The Cossacks are most definitely a military society, but beyond that essential understanding, they are quite difficult to define. They do not exist as a nationality or a religion, and they serve no particular power. In fact, historians today are still undecided in regards to what a Cossack actually is. The best hint is probably the Turkic origin of the name, which is Qasaq, meaning free man and adventurer.
Popular myth tends to portray the original Cossacks as somewhat like Robin Hood’s Merry Men, outlawed for one reason or another, and living as free agents outside of feudal law and society. Initially, they were hunted down, but when eventually they achieved the sort of numbers to form protective communities, they were brought back into the fold. It was not long after that powerful local lords and chieftains began to make military use of them.
The warrior cult within the Cossack tradition derived from the early days of the group’s existence when fighting was a way of life. Adventurers from any society and any background were welcome, with Christianity the only criterion. Once accepted, an individual became a Cossack, obedient to no other loyalty but to their fellow Cossacks.
Almost from birth, Cossack boys were, and still are inducted into the military tradition. Like the Mongols, horsemanship was a way of life, and adding to that proficiency with a rifle, a sword and a lance was a short step. A powerful sense of community and belonging cemented the essentials of military proficiency. A regimental structure was soon added to the mix, and by the beginning of the 18th century, Cossacks were more or less a branch of the Russian Army. However, the mercenary nature of Cossacks tended to preclude unswerving loyalty to the Crown, and on occasions, the Cossacks could be found supporting a peasant rebellion or in some other way expressing their displeasure with the Tsar.
Under the Tsars, however, the Cossacks enjoyed the status and privileges of a military elite, and by the advent of the Romanov Dynasty, they were identified almost exclusively with the defense of the Crown.
In the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution, the Cossacks, thanks to their traditional loyalty to the royalists, were heavily persecuted, and during WWII, they split, some fighting for the Nazis and some for the Russians.
Cossack rehabilitation began with the collapse of the Soviet Union, after which the group was recognized as a distinct ethnocultural identity, and a military elite without specific alliance. Today they exist as a dispersed society in pockets throughout the northwestern Caucasus, Kuban, Krasnodar and Stavropol regions of Eastern Europe.