The Cossack Restoration Movement in the South of Russia in the Early 1990s: Organization, Ideas and Participants

In the early 1990s first Cossack organizations were formed in Russia and the process of Cossack restoration was launched. The role of the government was very important in the organization of the Cossack restoration movement and in forming its bodies. Nevertheless, initially the movement was pushed mostly by aspiration of Cossack descendants, i.e. by primarily social and cultural forces. In the first place those forces searched for a new social identity and the desire to regain the Cossacks' past and, probably, to live it again. The Cossack restoration movement is developing in many regions of Russia. The process is especially rapid in the south of Russia, on the traditional Cossack territories which were part of the Don, Terek, Kuban, and Astrakhan Cossack Hosts in the early 20th century. New Cossack organizations are formed by people of different professions and social status, Cossack organizations grow fast in number which is indicative of demand for Cossack movement in the Russian society. The principal ideas under the Cossack restoration movement are preservation of the Cossack culture and history, rehabilitation of the Cossacks as a politically persecuted people and its ethnic revival, and presentation of the Cossacks as the most patriotic part of the Russian society. These principal ideas vary in details in different Cossack organizations according to the changed social, territorial, and political conditions. Nevertheless, all the above-mentioned factors collectively led to establishing the Cossacks as a new distinct part of the Russian society and contributed to putting the Cossack restoration movement on a long-term basis in the social and political life in Russia.