Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic-speaking people who became kno

wn as members of democratic, self-governing, semi-military communities,[1] predo

minantly located in Ukraine and in Russia.[2] They inhabited sparsely populated
areas and islands in the lower Dnieper,[3] Don, Terek, and Ural river basins and
played an important role in the historical and cultural development of both Rus
sia and Ukraine.[4]
The origins of the first Cossacks are disputed, though the 1710 Constitution of
Pylyp Orlyk claimed Khazar origin.[5][6] The traditional post-imperial historiog
raphy dates the emergence of Cossacks to the 14th or 15th centuries, when two co
nnected groups emerged, the Zaporozhian Sich of the Dnieper and the Don Cossack
Host.[7]
The Zaporizhian Sich were a vassal people of Poland Lithuania during feudal times. U
nder increasing social and religious pressure from the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealt
h, in the mid-17th century the Sich declared an independent Cossack Hetmanate, i
nitiated by a rebellion under Bohdan Khmelnytsky. This uprising, which had been
preceded by genocide, enslavement, and major depredation of the Ukrainian popula
tion, culminated in purging and pogroms against Polish and Jewish communities.[8
] Afterwards, the Treaty of Pereyaslav (1659) brought most of the Ukrainian Coss
ack state under Russian rule.[9] The Sich with its lands became an autonomous re
gion under the Russian-Polish protectorate.[10]
The Don Cossack Host, which had been established by the 16th century,[11] allied
with the Tsardom of Russia. Together they began a systematic conquest and colon
isation of lands in order to secure the borders on the Volga, the whole of Siber
ia (see Yermak Timofeyevich), and the Yaik and the Terek Rivers. Cossack communi
ties had developed along the latter two rivers well before the arrival of the Do
n Cossacks.[12]
By the 18th century, Cossack hosts in the Russian Empire occupied effective buff
er zones on its borders. The expansionist ambitions of the Empire relied on ensu
ring the loyalty of Cossacks, which caused tension given their traditional exerc
ise of freedom, democratic self-rule, and independence. Cossacks such as Stenka
Razin, Kondraty Bulavin, Ivan Mazepa, and Yemelyan Pugachev, led major anti-impe
rial wars and revolutions in the Empire in order to abolish slavery and odious b
ureaucracy and to maintain independence. The Empire responded by ruthless execut
ions and tortures, the destruction of the western part of the Don Cossack Host d
uring the Bulavin Rebellion in 1707 1708, the destruction of Baturyn after Mazepa's
rebellion in 1708,[13] and the formal dissolution of the Lower Dnieper Zaporozhi
an Host in 1775, after Pugachev's Rebellion.[14]
By the end of the 18th century, Cossack nations had been transformed into a spec
ial military estate (Sosloviye), "a military class".[15] Similar to the knights
of medieval Europe in feudal times or the tribal Roman Auxiliaries, the Cossacks
came to military service having to obtain charger horses, arms, and supplies at
their own expense. The government provided only firearms and supplies for them.
[16] Cossack service was considered the most rigorous one.
Because of their military tradition, Cossack forces played an important role in
Russia's wars of the 18th 20th centuries such as the Great Northern War, the Seven Y
ears' War, the Crimean War, Napoleonic Wars, Caucasus War, numerous Russo-Persia
n Wars, numerous Russo-Turkish Wars, and the First World War. In the late 19th a
nd early 20th centuries, the Tsarist regime used Cossacks extensively to perform
police service (for example, both to prevent pogroms and to suppress the revolu
tionary movement, especially in 1905 7).[17] They also served as border guards on na
tional and internal ethnic borders (as was the case in the Caucasus War).
During the Russian Civil War, Don and Kuban Cossacks were the first nations to d
eclare open war against the Bolsheviks. By 1918, Cossacks declared the complete
independence of their nations and formed the independent states, the Ukrainian S
tate, the Don Republic, and the Kuban People's Republic. The Cossack troops form
ed the effective core of the anti-Bolshevik White Army, and Cossack republics be
came centers for the Anti-Bolshevik White movement. With the victory of the Red
Army, the Cossack lands were subjected to Decossackization. After the dissolutio
n of the Soviet Union, the Cossacks made a systematic return to Russia. Many too
k an active part in Post-Soviet conflicts and Yugoslav Wars. In Russia's 2010 Po

pulation Census, Cossacks have been recognized as an ethnicity.[18] There are Co

ssack organizations in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Poland, and the United State
s.[19][20][21]