Editing Cossacks (section)

=== Later history ===

The Zaporizhian [[Sich]] became a [[vassal]] [[polity]] of the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] during feudal times. Under increasing pressure from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, in the mid-17th century the Sich declared an independent [[Cossack Hetmanate]]. The Hetmanate was initiated by a rebellion under [[Bohdan Khmelnytsky]] against Polish and Catholic domination, known as the [[Khmelnytsky Uprising]]. Afterwards, the [[Treaty of Pereyaslav]] (1654) brought most of the Cossack state under Russian rule.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Y8GNIp42ysC |via=Google Books |title=From Tak to Yes: Understanding the east Europeans |first1=Yale |last1=Richmond |publisher=Intercultural Press |year=1995 |page=294 |access-date=2015-10-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160425202655/https://books.google.com/books?id=2Y8GNIp42ysC&printsec=frontcover |archive-date=2016-04-25 |url-status=live |isbn=978-1-877864-30-8 }}</ref> The Sich, with its lands, became an autonomous region under the Russian protectorate.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://historydoc.edu.ru/catalog.asp?cat_ob_no=15249&ob_no=16146 |script-title=ru:Андрусовское перемирие. 30&nbsp;января 1667 |website=Historydoc.edu.ru |access-date=2015-10-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151004003218/http://historydoc.edu.ru/catalog.asp?cat_ob_no=15249&ob_no=16146 |archive-date=2015-10-04 }}</ref>

The Don Cossack Army, an autonomous military state formation of the Don Cossacks under the citizenship of the Moscow State in the Don region in 1671–1786, began a systematic conquest and colonization of lands to secure the borders on the [[Volga]], the whole of [[Siberia]] (see [[Yermak Timofeyevich]]), and the [[Ural (river)|Yaik (Ural)]] and [[Terek (river)|Terek River]]s. Cossack communities had developed along the latter two rivers well before the arrival of the Don Cossacks.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Andrew |last1=Gordeyev |title=The History of Cossacks |location=Moscow |year=1992}}</ref>

[[File:The Cossack - The man the Prussian fears (The War Illustrated Aug-Dec 1914).png|thumb|Portrait of a Terek or Kuban Cossack during [[World War I]] (''The Cossack - The man the Prussian fears'' - [[The War Illustrated]], 1914)|150px]]By the 18th century, Cossack hosts in the [[Russian Empire]] occupied effective buffer zones on its borders. The expansionist ambitions of the Empire relied on ensuring Cossack loyalty, which caused tension given their traditional exercise of freedom, democracy, self-rule, and independence. Cossacks such as [[Stenka Razin]], [[Kondraty Bulavin]], [[Ivan Mazepa]] and [[Yemelyan Pugachev]] led major anti-imperial wars and revolutions in the Empire in order to abolish [[slavery]] and harsh bureaucracy, and to maintain independence. The Empire responded with executions and tortures, the destruction of the western part of the Don Cossack Host during the [[Bulavin Rebellion]] in 1707–1708, the destruction of [[Baturyn]] after Mazepa's rebellion in 1708,{{efn|See, for example, [[Executions of Cossacks in Lebedin]].}} and the formal dissolution of the Lower Dnieper Zaporozhian Host after [[Pugachev's Rebellion]] in 1775. After the Pugachev rebellion, the Empire renamed the Yaik Host, its capital, the Yaik Cossacks, and the Cossack town of Zimoveyskaya in the Don region to try to encourage the Cossacks to forget the men and their uprisings. It also formally dissolved the Lower Dnieper Zaporozhian Cossack Host, and destroyed their fortress on the Dnieper (the Sich itself). This may in part have been due to the participation of some Zaporozhian and other Ukrainian exiles in Pugachev's rebellion. During his campaign, Pugachev issued manifestos calling for restoration of all borders and freedoms of both the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Lower Dnieper (Nyzovyi in Ukrainian) Cossack Host under the joint protectorate of Russia and the Commonwealth.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}

By the end of the 18th century, Cossack nations had been transformed into a special military estate ([[Social estates in the Russian Empire|''sosloviye'']]), "a military class". The [[Little Russia|Malorussian]] Cossacks (the former [[Registered Cossacks]] also known as "Town Zaporozhian Host") were excluded from this transformation, but were promoted to membership of various civil estates or classes (often Russian nobility), including the newly created civil estate of Cossacks.

Under a semi-feudal system retained until the end of the Russian Empire, Cossack families received grants of land which they retained free of taxation, provided that commitments to perform military service were met.  Typically a single father or son from each registered family would serve several years full-time with his Host before becoming a reservist liable for recall only in the event of emergency or general mobilisation. When joining his regiment a Cossack was required to bring his own horse, uniform clothing, and basic weaponry (sabres and lances) although the larger and more affluent Hosts might assist in sourcing these essentials. The Russian central government provided only firearms plus food and accommodation. Lacking horses, the poor served in the Cossack infantry and artillery. In the navy alone, Cossacks served with other peoples as the Russian navy had no Cossack ships and units.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}} Cossack service was considered rigorous.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}

Cossack forces played an important role in Russia's wars of the 18th–20th&nbsp;centuries, including the [[Great Northern War]], the [[Seven Years' War]], the [[Crimean War]], the [[Napoleonic Wars]], the [[Caucasus War]], many [[Russo-Persian Wars]], many [[Russo-Turkish Wars]], and the [[World War I|First World War]]. In the late 19th and early 20th&nbsp;centuries, the Tsarist regime used Cossacks extensively to perform police service. Cossacks also served as border guards on national and internal ethnic borders, as had been the case in the Caucasus War.

During the [[Russian Civil War]], [[Don River (Russia)|Don]] and [[Kuban Cossacks]] were the first people to declare open war against the [[Bolsheviks]]. In 1918, Russian Cossacks declared their complete independence, creating two independent states, the [[Don Republic]] and the [[Kuban People's Republic]], and the [[Ukrainian State|revived Hetmanate]] emerged in Ukraine. Cossack troops formed the effective core of the anti-Bolshevik [[White Army]], and Cossack republics became centers for the anti-Bolshevik [[White movement]]. With the victory of the [[Red Army]], Cossack lands were subjected to [[decossackization]] and the [[Holodomor]] famine. As a result, during the Second World War, their loyalties were divided and both sides had Cossacks fighting in their ranks.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

Following the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], the Cossacks made a systematic return to Russia. Many took an active part in [[post-Soviet conflicts]]. In the [[Russian Census (2002)|2002 Russian Census]], 140,028&nbsp;people reported their [[ethnic group|ethnicity]] as Cossack.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.perepis2002.ru/index.html?id=17 |title=Russian Official Census |year=2002 |quote=Cossacks and Pomory are accounted in the records as separate ethnic subgroups of Russians. |access-date=2019-02-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006125801/http://www.perepis2002.ru/index.html?id=17 |archive-date=2014-10-06 |url-status=live }}</ref> There are Cossack organizations in Russia, [[Kazakhstan]], [[Ukraine]], [[Belarus]], and the [[United States]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kazaksusa.com |script-title=ru:Конгресс Казаков в Америке: Рассеяны но не расторгнуты |website=Kazaksusa.com |access-date=2012-08-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120626152414/http://www.kazaksusa.com/ |archive-date=2012-06-26 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kazarla.ru|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071020015215/http://kazarla.ru/|archive-date=2007-10-20 |script-title=ru:Этническое казачье объединение Казарла |website=Kazarla.ru |access-date=2012-08-13}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fstanitsa.ru |script-title=ru:Вольная Станица |website=Fstanitsa.ru |access-date=2012-08-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120815114900/http://fstanitsa.ru/ |archive-date=2012-08-15 }}</ref>