--- Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> You know, I know a thing or two about Cossacks, that
> being my obscure area of specialization, but this
> anecdote does not ring true. From the point of view
> of
> a Civil War-era Cossack, while Russians were
> undoubtedly on a higher level than Jews, calling a
> Cossack a "Russian" was an insult to him or her. It
> was not a compliment. Cossacks considered Russians
> to
> be aliens and inferior to them. By the time they
> were
> reabsorbed by the Russian Empire, they had lived a
> separate existence for about 200 years. They were
> (and
> to some extent still are) a distinct group with
> distinct national traditions and in some cases a
> different religion. Cossacks don't even look
> Russian.
Allow me to quote this great little scene from And Quiet Flows the Don (translation by Stephen Garry). Here the "stranger" (a Bolshevik agitator) is trying to work up socialist sentiment among the Don Cossacks. This takes place just after a scuffle between Cossacks and Ukrainian immigrantson Cossack territory.
The man waved his hat in Ozierov's direction. "And who are you?" he asked.
Ozierov spat contemptuously and answered, as he watched the flight of the spittle:
"I'm a Cossack. And you -- you're not a gypsy, are you?"
"You and I are both of us Russians."
"You lie!" Afonka declared deliberately.
"The Cossacks are descended from the Russians. Do you know that?" the stranger declared.
"And I tell you the Cossacks are the sons of Cossacks."
"Long ago," the man explained, "serfs ran away from the landowners and settled along the Don. They came to be known as Cossacks."
"Go your own way, man!" Alexei advised, restraining his anger. "The swine wants to make peasants of us! Who is he?"
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