Since ancient times, the term "Cossacks" came into use in Russia, used in relation to the independent, but always armed population of various sparsely populated outskirts of the state. As a rule, these were peasants who fled from the hardships of serfdom, or schismatics who were persecuted by the state for their religious beliefs. According to the place of their settlement, they received one or another specific name. A vivid example of this is the Volga Cossacks, who settled on the banks of the great Russian river during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Let's take a closer look at their history.
The first information about the Volga Cossacks
The middle and second half of the 16th century were marked by a massive influx of fugitive peasants into the regions of the Middle and Lower Volga. Once away from government troops, they formed communities in which life was built on the principles of local self-government. The first mention of them as Volga Cossacks is found in historical chronicles relating to the conquest of Astrakhan by Ivan the Terrible in 1554.
However, in these documents theyare called not by local residents, but by people from the Don, who were engaged in robbery and robbery in the Zhiguli region. One way or another, but a significant part of this freemen participated in the conquest of Astrakhan and after its annexation to Russia remained to serve in the tsarist troops.
From this period, the history of the Volga Cossacks has a fairly complete documentary coverage. It is known, in particular, that in 1718-1720. their number increased significantly due to the former Moscow archers. After the suppression of the rebellion of 1698, Peter I sent them to various remote regions of the country, but then decided to gather them on the Volga to create the Tsaritsyno guard line. This military formation, staffed by former rebels and supplemented by the descendants of participants in the Astrakhan campaigns of the 16th century, became the basis of the Volga Cossack army that later became famous.
In the service of the Russian Empire
During the reign of Anna Ioannovna, the number of Volga Cossacks increased significantly due to the fact that by her decree of January 1734, immigrants from the Don were officially assigned to this category, who were seduced by high salaries and expressed a desire to move to perform military service in the areas of Tsaritsyn and Kamyshin. Since that time, an almost forty-year period of relatively calm life began for the Cossacks, who successfully combined the border service with taking care of their own household.
From the history of the Volga Cossack army, it is known that, according to the order of the military board, it was arranged on the same principles as all the otherssimilar military formations. Each Cossack received financial assistance from the state to build a house and create his own economy. In addition, cash and bread salaries were paid, which provided him and his family with a comfortable existence.
Participation of the Cossacks in the Pugachev uprising
However, under Catherine II, the times of prosperity ended, and the reason for this was the decree of the empress on the mass resettlement of Cossacks to the Terek to create defensive outposts there in the area between Mozdok and Azov. In 1770 alone, 518 families were forcibly sent to the North Caucasus. The need to leave their homes, ruining the economy established over many years, caused extreme discontent among the Cossacks and entailed very serious consequences.
In 1773, when Yemelyan Pugachev's uprising broke out, almost all of them joined the rebel army. From their number in those days a separate Dubovsky regiment was formed. When the “senseless and merciless” rebellion was suppressed, and the bloody feast gave way to a heavy historical hangover, the Volga Cossack army was officially abolished. The most active Pugachevites were executed or exiled to jails, and the rest were hastily resettled in the Sulfur Caucasus, from where some of them fled and secretly returned to abandoned lands.
Creation of the Mozdok Regiment
The main task of the former Volga residents, who found themselves on the banks of the Terek by the will of the Empress Empress, was to protect the region from the Kabardians, who regularly committedpredatory raids and thereby creating an environment of political instability. For this purpose, the Mozdok regiment was formed from among the settlers, at the head of which the authorities preferred to put not an elected military chieftain, as was the tradition of the Cossacks, but a regimental commander sent from the capital.
In 1777, an attempt was made to increase the number of its members by including 250 Kalmyks, who, for the welfare of their families, agreed to convert from Buddhism to Orthodoxy, which was a prerequisite for their admission. Over time, they again turned to the faith of their fathers, but, as exemplary campaigners, they were left in the army. Somewhat later, already in the late 90s, by decree of the military department, the garrison of the Mozdok fortress, which performed tasks related to the defense of the city from Kabardian raids, was included in the Cossack regiment.
Further participation of the Cossacks in hostilities
In the same period, due to the increased role of the Mozdok-Azov defensive line, its further development was carried out, and the Volga Cossacks were assigned a very important role in this. On a stretch of about 200 versts, five villages were arranged, in which the families of the military personnel of the Mozdok regiment relocated here, the total number of which by that time was more than 500 people, were settled. A characteristic feature of these military settlements was that they did not remain in one place for a long time, but constantly moved forward as the Caucasus was conquered by regular units of the Russianarmy.
Since the war in the North Caucasus was protracted and an increasing contingent of forces was required to complete the assigned tasks, in 1832 the Mozdok Cossack regiment was significantly increased. It included about a thousand residents of villages located along the banks of the Kuma River.
Despite the fact that in this case they were not required to convert to Orthodoxy, they all served the Russian Tsar with dignity and honestly worked out their salaries. Later, from the Volga Cossacks and those residents of local villages who fought in the same ranks with them, the Terek line army was formed with headquarters, located at first in Pyatigorsk, and later transferred to Stavropol.
The fate of the Cossacks who remained on the banks of the Volga
As for the Cossacks who managed to avoid forced resettlement to the Caucasus during the reign of Catherine II, and those who managed to secretly return to their native lands, they received official status at the beginning of the reign of Alexander I. All men were enrolled in the Astrakhan Cossack regiment, and at the same time they formed two large villages - Krasnolinskaya and Aleksandrovskaya. Both of them have survived to this day and are known as Pichuzhinskaya and Suvodskaya, respectively.
In a new and unusual setting
At the new place of service, the villagers, who grew up among people with whom they were united not only by faith, but also by a common way of life for all, found themselves in a very unusual environment. The fact is that Astrakhan although the regiment was called Cossack, it was formed from people of various nationalities and religions.
It was based on the Kalmyks, of which in 1750, by order of the Senate, a three-hundred armed formation was created. Subsequently, the Tatars and representatives of other peoples joined them. People from archers, raznochintsy and Don Cossacks also served here. To complete the staff, recruitments were made among the inhabitants of Krasny Yar and Astrakhan. Unusual for the Volga Cossacks was the uniform, which differed from that used by their fathers and grandfathers.
Defenders of Russian borders
However, gradually adapting to the new environment, they, together with everyone else, performed the tasks for which the regiment was formed. Their duties included protecting the Moscow tract and several nearby s alt mines, protecting Russian settlements from nomads, as well as those settlements in which foreigners who accepted Russian citizenship lived. But their main task was to protect the state border of the Russian Empire, which was located here, and to suppress any attempts to penetrate its territory, both by foreign military formations and by all sorts of smugglers.
