DON COSSACKS

'Don Cossacks' () were Cossacks who settled along the middle and lower Don River, Russia. This population was formed in the second half of the sixteenth century, largely of runaway peasants. The 'Don Cossack Host', () was a frontier military organization since the end of the sixteenth century. Since 1786 the territory was officially called Don Voisko Lands, and was renamed Don Voisko Province () in 1870 (presently shared by the Rostov, Volgograd, and Voronezh regions of the Russian Federation as well as Luhansk and region of Ukraine). In 1916 the Don Host enlisted over 1.5 million cossacks. It was disbanded on Russian soil in 1918, after the Russian Revolution, but the Don Cossacks in the White Army and those who emigrated abroad continued to preserve traditions of their host.
Following the defeat of the White Army in Russian Civil War, a policy of decossackization (''Raskazachivaniye'') took place on the surviving Cossacks and their homelands since they were viewed as potential threat to the new Soviet regime.[1] The Cossack homelands were often very fertile, and during the collectivisation campaign many Cossacks shared the fate of kulaks. The famine of 1933 hit the Don and Kuban territory the hardest. According to historian Michael Kort, "During 1919 and 1920, out of a population of approximately 1.5 million Don Cossacks, the Bolshevik regime killed or deported an estimated 300,000 to 500,000".^[1]
During World War II the Don Cossacks mustered the largest single concentration of Cossacks within the German Army, the XVth SS Cossack Cavalry Corps. A great part of the Cossacks were former Soviet citizens who elected to fight not so much for Germany as against Joseph Stalin. The XVth Cossack Cavalry Corps included the 1st Cossack Division and the 2nd Cossack Division.

Contents

Don Cossack Chorus

Don Cossacks houses (Kuren')

See also

Don Cossack Chorus

The Don Cossack Chorus was a group of former officers of the Russian Imperial Army, discovered singing in Constantinople, where they had fled after the defeat of their army unit in the Crimea. They made their formal concert debut in Vienna in 1923, led by their founder, conductor and composer, Serge Jaroff.
They were immensely popular in American and international tours in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. The men, dressed as Cossacks, sang a cappella in a repertory of Russian sacred and operatic music, army songs and folk songs. Cossack dancing was eventually added to their programs.

Don Cossacks houses (Kuren')

See also

★ John Turchin Don Cossack General in US Union Army

★ Cossacks in Turkey

★ Genocides in history

★ Human rights in the Soviet Union

★ Population transfer in the Soviet Union