Cossacks.

This is coolbert:

Just as the Sikhs of India are a people who have adopted a martial life style, so the Cossack of Europe are a people who have done the same.

The name Cossack is of disputed origin. Said to mean "freeman" or "adventurer". Is undoubtedly related to the word kazakh [as in the country Kazakhstan]. A warrior on horseback.

Cossacks first appeared on the scene as a group in the 16th century. Groups of "freeman" banding together to lead a communal existence for protection. This protection was primarily against Turkic and Tartar slave traders. Each Cossack male was expected to be a warrior and ready to fight on a moments notice. And fight they did as predations from slave traders in the area north of the Black Sea were numerous and a constant way of life.

The "homeland" of the Cossacks is in the area north of the Black Sea. The same area that 2000 years earlier had been the "homeland" of the Scythians, who were mentioned in a prior blog. And a similar life style is practiced by the Cossacks as was practiced by the Scythians. Horse culture people, semi-nomadic to a degree, living a communal existence [while each man still considers himself to be a "freeman" at the same time], herding animals and tilling the land for crops. And warriors. Each and every man is expected to be a fighter ready to go on a moments notice. Read further about the Cossacks by clicking here. And here.

Now, it is proper to think of the Cossacks as a people who identify themselves with certain cultural practices. Primarily Slavic, the Cossacks have accepted many other people into their fold. This Slavic ancestry could best be described as basically Ukrainian in nature, although Russians, Poles, Tartars, and even Kalmyks [an Asiatic Buddhist people living in the area just north of the Caspian Sea] can also be counted among the Cossack "host". One tradition that a Cossack must follow is an adherence to the Christian faith [Russian Orthodox version]. There is even a Persian and Turkic ancestry among the Cossacks, this coming from captured women who married into the Cossacks communes!

There are many contradictions in the history of the Cossacks.

One contradiction is faithful service to the rule of the Russian Czar, and also rebellion against the Russian Czar.

Of course, the military expedition of Yermak the Cossack leader was touched upon in a previous blog entry. And Cossacks were extremely instrumental in the settling and further conquest of all of Siberia.

The attitude of "freeman" and the rule of an authoritarian government in Moscow caused all sorts of headaches for the Cossacks. Loyal on one hand, seeking to maintain their independence on the other:

"One of the most important liberties, the Cossacks possessed, the right, not to deliver refugees to the government, was lost under Peter the Great (1672-1725). The attempt, to prevail the delivery of escaped men by force, caused the revolt of the Don-Cossacks by Kondraty Bulavin, which was suppressed by the government, with difficulty. Again, a part of the conquered rebels seeked the protection with the Khan of the Isle of Krim."

Another contradiction is that Cossacks have been the perpetrators of genocide, and also the victims of genocide.

In the year 1648, the Cossack leader Boghdan Khmelnitsky lead a rebellion against Polish overlords. In this rebellion, a particular target for the Cossacks were the Jews who were agents of Polish nobility. Khmelnitsky considered these Jews to be the "anti-Christ" and large scale massacres of Jews occurred as a result.

"Since many have seen Jews as a source of oppression, a lot of Jews were murdered during the uprising. The number ranges from 10,000 to 100,000 (1648 - 1649) by different historians."

As a result of the actions of Khmelnitsky, there is very bad blood to this day between the Jews throughout the world and the Cossacks.


During the massacre of the "kulaks" in the Soviet Union during the 1930's, one year occurred in the Ukraine where about six million Ukrainians were starved to death. The total death toll in that same year from genocidal massacre at the command of Stalin was about ten million persons. The area known as the Kuban was a geographic stronghold of the Cossacks, and about one million Cossacks are believed to have starved to death at the same time as the killing of the Ukrainians!!!

A more historical contradiction of the Cossacks is that they fought on both sides in World War Two. Cossack units fought bravely for the Soviet Union. And Cossack units, fiercely anti-communist, also fought bravely on the side of the Germans as well!

Cossack units employed by the Soviet forces would deploy scouts that would range far in advance of a Soviet Front during the war. Up to 100 miles in front of the advancing Soviet troops, would be single Cossack horsemen used as recon. These men would determine German unit locations and report back to their Frontal headquarters.

The Germans employed with great success Cossack units that defected en masse during the war. The Cossacks were not fighting so much as for Hitler as against communism. These Cossack anti-communist units who fought on the side of the Germans were declared traitors by Stalin. And were subject to Operation Keelhaul after the war. One of the most sickening and deplorable actions of the war occurred after the end of the war! By trickery, during Keelhaul [very appropriately named], the British overpowered, tied, and sent back to the Soviet Union an entire division of Cossacks who had sought sanctuary as political prisoners at the end of the war. This was all done at the behest of Stalin. Accounts of this episode are most chilling:

"On 27 May 1945, in accordance with the agreement signed in Vienna by British and Soviet authorities, the British began to hand over to the Soviets the interned soldiers of the Eastern formations as well as the Cossacks. On that day, in Graz, they handed over the generals von Pannwitz, Krasnov, and Shkuro. All three hoped to the last that they would escape this fate, for von Pannwitz held German nationality, and the other two had emigrated from Tsarist Russia and had never held Soviet citizenship.

On 28 May 1945 the local British commander invited to a conference in the little town of Spittal in Austria the entire officer corps from the Cossack camp: 35 generals, 167 colonels, 283 lieutenant-colonels, 375 captains, 1,752 subalterns, 136 military functionaries and doctors, two chaplains, two band leaders, two photographers, and two interpreters: in all 2,756 persons. At the time of the departure from the camp, 2,201 Cossacks reported ready for the journey, the remainder having refused to board the trucks, or having disappeared. On the way to Linz, 55 of them committed suicide; the NKVD took 2,146 into custody. The prisoners included 1,856 Cossack officers, 176 Russians, 63 Ukrainians, 31 Caucasians, and a handful of other nationals. As to the fate of those delivered: 12 generals went to Moscow, Soviet soldiers of the convoy shot 120 officers on the way to Vienna, 1,030 officers died during interrogations by the NKVD, 983 officers were "passed along"; many of this group ended up in mines in the Urals, deprived of the right to come out to the surface of the earth.

On 1 June 1945 the Cossack camp in Linz held 32,000 persons, mainly old men, women, and children who were in fact refugees, but also including Cossack soldiers. On that day the camp handed over about 25,000 people to the Soviets. Even after the specified period of the delivery of prisoners, Soviet military missions made unexpected raids on Displaced Persons camps in the American and British zones, and took from them many people by force. In all, the Western allies handed over more than 150,000 Cossacks to the USSR."

Now, some comments about Keelhaul. It is not specifically mentioned above, but these Cossacks were overpowered by trickery.

Trickery perpetrated by the English.

The English told the Cossacks to turn in their weapons, as they were going to get new weapons.

The Cossacks, once disarmed, were then physically overpowered and tied. And then turned over to the Soviets.

You will also notice above that I have highlighted where 55 Cossacks committed suicide. Now, these were men who had their hands tied behind their backs.

And, you may ask the question, how could men whose hands were tied behind their backs commit suicide?

Well, there was a way.

These Cossacks, after being tied, were placed on railroad passenger cars. Cars that had glass windows in them. And what did the tied men do? Butted their heads through the glass to make a hole, then stuck their heads through the hole, and slit their own throats by rubbing their necks against the broken glass!!!!! This is how desperate these men were. In addition, an observation was made by an onlooker to these events.

It was observed that these Soviet NKVD men [forerunner to the KGB], bossed around the English soldiers who were in charge of rounding up the Cossacks for the Soviets as if they were insects or privates. And did so even to Alexander, a Field Marshal in the British Army!! Unfortunately, the government of England did not have a problem with this and complied with the Soviet demands without a murmur!?!?!?

Here is what one Englishman had to say about this incident [any person reading this ought to have any doubts erased as to why the U.S. stood against the Soviet Union in the Cold War]:

The statement of a Cossack emigrant quotes the impressions of a British sailor given here without alteration:

"I took part in the evacuation of Dunkirk. Our soldiers felt very badly.

I helped to fish out Germans from the sunken Bismarck, which received the greatest number of torpedoes in history.

I saw the population of Malta sitting in the cellars for many weeks.

I saw Malta being bombed incessantly and deafened by explosions of bombs and shells. They were exhausted from constant explosions and alarms.

I lived through the sinking of my own ship.

I know about jumping into the water at night, dark and without bottom, and the terrifying shouts for help of the drowning, and then the boat, and looking for the rescue ship. It was a nightmare.

I drove German prisoners captured during the invasion of Normandy. They were almost dying from fear.

But all that is nothing.

The real, terrible, unspeakable fear I saw during the convoying and repatriation of people to Soviet Russia. They were becoming white, green and grey with the fear that took hold of them. When we arrived at the port and were handing them over to the Russians, the repatriates were fainting and losing their senses. And only now I know what a man's fear is who lived through hell, and that it is nothing compared to the fear of a man who is returning to the Soviet hell."

DAMN!!

Both the forces of the Czar and the communists of the Soviet Union sought to do away with Cossack culture. In this regard, both parties failed. The Cossacks are enjoying a resurgence of their culture and identity. Cossack schools, Cossack communes, and Cossack culture in general is being reborn. And all follow the old traditions of military discipline and faithfulness to their creed. And the same contradictions still are present. While being faithful to Russian [Cossack units were said to have fought as distinct units in Chechnya], the Cossacks also demand autonomy that the Russian central government would be hesitant to offer to any other "nationality" or "people".

Read further about Cossack resurgence by clicking here.

coolbert.