[lbo-talk] Overconfidence is a disadvantage in war, finds study joanna 123hop at comcast.net Sun Jul 2 09:44:40 PDT 2006
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>Ironically, if by "advanced segments of the
peasantry"
>one means "best educated" or "most literate," that
was
>the Cossacks, whom the Bolsheviks brutally repressed
>for a couple of years and were never too comfortable
with.
>
Wasn't that because the Cossacks were the tzarist's
special forces?
Joanna
---
Sort of.
Cossacks were/are the descendents of escaped serfs, religious dissidents and criminals who fled the Russian Empire and established farming villages on its borders, usually intermarrying with the local peoples there (Chechens, Tatars -- the Cossack hat for instance is a copy of the Chechen one). They were problematic for the Empire for obvious reasons. (It was I believe Prince Potemkin under Catherins the Great who declared an amnesty for serfs who became Cossacks.) Eventually, in the 19th century they were gradually assimilated into the state system, i.e. they were promised that their local customs and religious practices would not be interfered with by the state and they would not pay taxes, in exchange for providing troops for the Empire's armies. It was/is a distinct peasant subculture with its own folklore and customs (e.g. the classic "Russian" kick-dance is actually a Cossack custom).
It is my understanding from researching the subject that the Cossack resistance against the Bolsheviks was something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The Bolshies expected that they would be pro-tsarist because of their "class character," but in fact by 1917 practically nobody in Russia supported the Tsar, not even peasants. In fact most Cossacks in Russia (as opposed to in Ukraine, where things were somewhat different) were either neutral (until they started to be repressed) or were in favor of an independent Cossack state. They didn't start to support the Whites until around 1919 or so.
Then there were the famous pro-Bolshevik Red Cossacks led by the Cossack Semyon Budenny who fought for the pro-Soviet side in Poland. Isaac Babel writes about them in Red Cavalry.
25% of peasants were Cossacks in 1917 BTW. It was not a small group.
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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