Prapor
Active member
In Russia, in the Southern regions, mostly, live a strong, proud, freedom loving people. They are called Cossacks, warriors of the steppe. According to them, their main duty in this life, as assigned by God himself, is to protect Russia’s borders. That is why they settle way out there, always on the frontier.
There were once some 3,000,000 Cossacks, under the last Tsar, Nikolai II. After the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin’s genocidal Decossackization purge nearly wiped them out. In 2002, by the Census taken that year, there were only 150,000 Cossacks in all of Russia. Today, due to a number of reasons, including a high fertility rate (5, 6 children in a family); people of Cossack heritage, particularly youth, returning home to their roots; and worthy outsiders admitted and initiated into the noble, elite caste; their numbers have grown once again. In 2010, there are an estimated 740,000 people in Russia who consider themselves to be Cossacks. Now, they are fighting to be recognized as a nation, a distinct ethnic group, within the larger Russian society.
Cossacks are, indeed, very different from other Russians. Since early age they undergo the rigorous, sometimes even brutal, ‘combat preparation’ training. This includes, but is not limited to, shooting of various weapons (AKs, Saiga 12, Dragunov sniper, and others)
, martial arts 
, mountain climbing 
, parachute jumping (for boys who want to go to VDV Airborne Paratrooper Forces) 
, medical aid training for girls
, and ‘tactical exercises’, where the children are thrown into battle situations that simulate real warfare in different environments, against different enemies, with different styles and ways of combat
It is hardly surprising, then, that the Russian Armed Forces go out of their way now, to recruit Cossacks. They get excellent fighters, professional, well trained, disciplined troops that do not need to be taught or trained, because they already know all there is to know about war. For example, 22nd Motor Rifle Brigade, in Stavropol Krai, a traditional Cossack area, is now to be formed entirely out of Cossacks. Cossacks are recruited en masse for the Border Guard, in fact, the Russia-Georgia border is now being secured almost entirely by Terek and Kuban Cossack volunteer units; and Amur Cossack militias are active in securing the Far East borders with China and North Korea.
A year ago, Internal Affairs Minister Rashid Nurgaliev signed an agreement with Cossack leaders, for Kuban Cossack Army to be official ‘Guard’ of Sochi 2014 Olympics. Cossack teams, on foot and on horses, will patrol the city during the Olympics, helping police enforce the law and maintain order. Similar Cossack patrols, which were widespread in the Tsars’ era, can now, again, be seen in many Russian cities, even, since about two months ago, in Saint Petersburg.
There are problems, to be sure. Some of the Cossack militias do not recognize the legitimacy of ‘Supreme Ataman’ (Russian Cossack self-proclaimed ‘Commander in Chief’) Vladimir Vodolacky. In return, he cuts them off from Federal funding that is now, supposed to be, allocated to Cossack communities. So, they are poor and underarmed. These men, for instance, are holding rifles and carbines from the War (WWII) era and even before
Also, there is a powerful patriotic sentiment among the Cossacks that often turns into an uglier form of nationalism and even racism, as this video shows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg66az1nbpE.
[FONT="]Overall though, the Cossacks thrive, and will keep on growing and thriving in the future. As they say, ‘Spasibo, Gospodi, chto mi kazaki’ ‘Thank God, we are Cossacks!’.
Some videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb2elymFNp8 (Cossack kids at training camp)
[/FONT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8AomZN9dZY (Cossack knife fighting)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDTiZVHGcwc (Cossack swordfighting with their traditional shashka)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZSqsHT3F4A (another traditional Cossack weapon nagaika)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJAIzdMfq-o (Cossack martial arts)
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There were once some 3,000,000 Cossacks, under the last Tsar, Nikolai II. After the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin’s genocidal Decossackization purge nearly wiped them out. In 2002, by the Census taken that year, there were only 150,000 Cossacks in all of Russia. Today, due to a number of reasons, including a high fertility rate (5, 6 children in a family); people of Cossack heritage, particularly youth, returning home to their roots; and worthy outsiders admitted and initiated into the noble, elite caste; their numbers have grown once again. In 2010, there are an estimated 740,000 people in Russia who consider themselves to be Cossacks. Now, they are fighting to be recognized as a nation, a distinct ethnic group, within the larger Russian society.
Cossacks are, indeed, very different from other Russians. Since early age they undergo the rigorous, sometimes even brutal, ‘combat preparation’ training. This includes, but is not limited to, shooting of various weapons (AKs, Saiga 12, Dragunov sniper, and others)
, martial arts , mountain climbing , parachute jumping (for boys who want to go to VDV Airborne Paratrooper Forces) , medical aid training for girls
It is hardly surprising, then, that the Russian Armed Forces go out of their way now, to recruit Cossacks. They get excellent fighters, professional, well trained, disciplined troops that do not need to be taught or trained, because they already know all there is to know about war. For example, 22nd Motor Rifle Brigade, in Stavropol Krai, a traditional Cossack area, is now to be formed entirely out of Cossacks. Cossacks are recruited en masse for the Border Guard, in fact, the Russia-Georgia border is now being secured almost entirely by Terek and Kuban Cossack volunteer units; and Amur Cossack militias are active in securing the Far East borders with China and North Korea.
A year ago, Internal Affairs Minister Rashid Nurgaliev signed an agreement with Cossack leaders, for Kuban Cossack Army to be official ‘Guard’ of Sochi 2014 Olympics. Cossack teams, on foot and on horses, will patrol the city during the Olympics, helping police enforce the law and maintain order. Similar Cossack patrols, which were widespread in the Tsars’ era, can now, again, be seen in many Russian cities, even, since about two months ago, in Saint Petersburg.
There are problems, to be sure. Some of the Cossack militias do not recognize the legitimacy of ‘Supreme Ataman’ (Russian Cossack self-proclaimed ‘Commander in Chief’) Vladimir Vodolacky. In return, he cuts them off from Federal funding that is now, supposed to be, allocated to Cossack communities. So, they are poor and underarmed. These men, for instance, are holding rifles and carbines from the War (WWII) era and even before
Also, there is a powerful patriotic sentiment among the Cossacks that often turns into an uglier form of nationalism and even racism, as this video shows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg66az1nbpE.
[FONT="]Overall though, the Cossacks thrive, and will keep on growing and thriving in the future. As they say, ‘Spasibo, Gospodi, chto mi kazaki’ ‘Thank God, we are Cossacks!’.
Some videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb2elymFNp8 (Cossack kids at training camp)
[/FONT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8AomZN9dZY (Cossack knife fighting)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDTiZVHGcwc (Cossack swordfighting with their traditional shashka)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZSqsHT3F4A (another traditional Cossack weapon nagaika)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJAIzdMfq-o (Cossack martial arts)
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