Posted on 06/30/2005 9:17:54 PM PDT by Destro
Cossacks return to state service
MOSCOW (RIA Novosti political commentator Vladimir Simonov) - The Saiga hunting rifle beloved of Russia's Cossack community may soon be experiencing a boom in sales if a bill currently going through parliament becomes law.
The Duma recently approved in first reading a draft law submitted by President Vladimir Putin on state service by Russian Cossacks. If the bill is passed, Cossacks will be able to return to one of their traditional public roles for the first time in decades.
Although the draft does not specify Cossack uniform and military equipment, should it become law some 600,000 Cossacks will officially be able to guard the country's borders, support law and order, and even fight against terrorism.
It was for exactly these reasons that Cossacks formed an organized military community in the late 16th century.
The original Cossacks were runaway slaves who fled the central areas of Russia and settled the southern steppes along the Don River where they were unlikely to be caught. Later, they acknowledged the sovereignty of the tsar in exchange for the status of a special military community with its own rights and freedoms. Don Cossacks took part in all wars that Russia waged from the 18th to the early 20th centuries, and won renown as especially fearsome defenders of the nation. However, this could not save the Cossacks in 1920, when the Soviet government, encouraged by Lenin, abolished them by special decree.
Nevertheless, the Cossacks, who now predominantly reside in the Rostov Region next to the North Caucasus, have managed to preserve the unique customs, traditions and culture of their predecessors. In the early 1990s, they were officially rehabilitated and given the status of a public organization. But this was not enough for these patriotic and military-minded people: They were waiting for a chance to resume their traditional role of frontier guards, and the new law will give them a chance to do so.
The Cossack revival has been brought about by recent changes in the area. The North Caucasus and the Krasnodar Territory need protection from Islamic extremists, as well as from Chechen and international terrorists. In addition, migrants who have flooded the region often attempt to impose their order on the local population. As a result, the number of Russians is diminishing, and Russians no longer feel safe.
General Gennady Troshin, formerly commander of the federal troops in the Chechen Republic and now presidential aide on Cossack issues, is confident that the Cossacks will help protect Russia's southern borders. He considers the Cossacks a serious force, saying that they are already helping the government bodies to maintain law and order in their stanitsas (large villages). Cossack atamans, or chiefs, are usually members of the local administration, and their opinion carries weight with the local governors.
A rank-and-file Cossack made a typical statement in a recent televised report: "Today both [Islamic extremists] and our 'Western friends' are making attempts to split Russia again. Russia needs to muster its spiritual power. Something has to be done to oppose the rat race, the cult of violence and drug addiction. Who will serve in the Army tomorrow? Weaklings. We don't want this to happen. This is why we, the Cossacks of Russia, are restoring our traditions."
If the bill becomes law, draft-age Cossacks will gain the right to serve in traditional Cossack military units, as well as frontier and internal forces. The bill provides for Cossack involvement in the war on terror, in dealing with emergency situations, and in protecting public order. They will also take part in efforts to guarantee state and border security, as well as ecological and fire safety. The federal authorities will also be obliged to give partial funding to the Cossacks from the state budget, and to grant them certain tax benefits.
But the Cossack renaissance is not welcomed by some human-rights activists, who sense in it a tinge of rising Great Russian chauvinism.
"Needless to say, it is difficult to object to people's desire to unite. If they want to guard the frontiers, let them do this as a version of contract service," Lev Ponomaryov, head of For Human Rights, said. "But it is alarming that they may be given the right to maintain law and order within these borders. Experience shows that the Cossacks have their own interpretation of law and order."
Russian Cossacks are used to skeptical attitudes. But today they have a powerful supporter in Putin, who views the so-far-unregistered 10 million Cossacks as his potential assistants in consolidating Russia's integrity and ensuring its citizens' security. The Kremlin expects the Cossacks to reaffirm their historical reputation as patriots, defenders of the state and champions of moral values.
The gist of the Cossack phenomenon is manifest in a popular anecdote about Napoleon, who is quoted as saying: "Give me 20 thousand Cossacks and I will conquer the whole of Europe and even the whole world." The Don atamans sent him a prompt reply: "Send us 20,000 French women, and in 20 years you will get 20,000 Cossacks. But they will serve Russia nonetheless."
I am sure they will protect the southern border if they are anything like Taras Bulba.
OH COOL Destro
Seem that ole Vlad bring back some of Tsars's guards LOL!
Interesting...
This is far better treatment than than what was handed out by the Kremlin a few generations ago:
http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:eHbRWBZvwxMJ:www.faminegenocide.com/commemoration/mace_ch3.html+cossack+famine&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
"It is now generally accepted that in 1932-1933 several million peasants-most of them Ukrainians living in Ukraine and the traditionally Cossack territories of the North Caucasus (now the Krasnodar, Stavropol, and Rostov on the Don regions of the Russian Federation) -- starved to death because the government of the Soviet Union seized with unprecedented force and thoroughness the 1932 crop and foodstuffs from the agricultural population (Mace, 1984; Conquest, 1986). "
Maybe you should tell the NY Times and Walter Duranty....
The Famine also affected Kazakhstan, and even the Moscow region too, at least to some degree. See The Black Book Of Communism. In other words, not just Ukrainians suffered, but other ethnic groups as well, like Kazakhs, Russians, and no doubt others.
Not true - the famine stopped at the Russian border and the
Russians still deny the benefits derived from stealing the breadbasket of europe to fund chandeliered subways for Duranty to ride in.
http://www.faminegenocide.com/resources/famine_map.html
"should it become law some 600,000 Cossacks will officially be able to guard the country's borders, support law and order, and even fight against terrorism."
Mounties who can kick some *%#!
Spanlot - learn to read a map - this is second time I have seen you post it and you were corrected then as well - the hardest famine hit areas in the Ukraine map of yours are populated by ethnic Russians. The Soviets hit the Russians the hardest of all since they feared ethnic nationalism rising in the largets ethnic block within the USSR.
The Zaporozhian Cossacks' Answer
to the Sultan of Constantinople (Guillaume Apollinaire)
You are a hundred times more criminal than Barabbas.
Living as the neighbor of Beelzebub,
You wallow in the most foul vices.
Fed on filth since childhood,
Know this: you'll celebrate your Sabbath without us.
Rotten cancer, Salonica's refuse,
A terrible nightmare which cannot be told,
One-eyed, putrid and noseless,
You were born while your mother
Was writhing in fecal spasms.
Evil butcher of Podolye, look:
You are covered in wounds, sores and scabs.
Rump of a horse, snout of a pig,
May all the drugs be found
For you to heal your ills!
The story goes that the Zaporozhian Cossacks were prisoners of the Sultan and this was their reply to his invitation to join his forces. They were duly brutally executed.
Dmitri Shostakovich composed a setting of this poem for his Fourteenth Symphony - it's even harsher in Russian...
Whatever you might think about the Cossacks, you have to admire that attitude.
Can someone help me on this, please?
Make up you mind - either I don't know how to see the border with Russia ( its easy - look for the red) or whatever it is you are claiming now?
No Ukrainians in Eastern Ukraine? Stalin had no problem finding them when he killed 10 million.
http://www.faminegenocide.com/resources/famine_map.html
The only reason there are so many Russians in Ukraine is because the Kremlin exported them after getting rid of 10 million Ukrainians.
Why do you continue to deny this?
PS What do you think about the growing Ukrainian nationalism amongst your so-called "Russian" Ukrainians
"Genocidal famine and collectivization were not limited to Ukraine, Cossacks got their share, too"
Yes - the Cossacks are the "Russians" that all the Kremlinphiles keep referring to. The Ukrainians, Cossacks and German fundamentalists were the principal victims of the Kremlins genocide in 1921, 1932.
http://colley.co.uk/garethjones/soviet_articles/holodomor_letters.htm
This latter was a BIG part of the ground swell of support for the young Hitler. People saw the NY TImes getting a Pulitzer for the cover up of the genocide of a half millkion of their own and they came to fear for their own lives. Don't forget, Communism was becoming well established in Germany at this time.
I had heard they liked to wrestle bears as training...guess any hairy creature will do in a pinch.
When I was young and in my natural prime (hey! that could go in a song!), I frequented a bar owned by a Cossack. His name was Kristof Botagov, and he had a ferocious, snow-white moustache. He used to joke about us getting married, running back to Russia and raising lots of little redheaded Cossacks! LOL! Those were sure the days!
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