Welcome to Russian History Retold.

Episode 316, The History of the Cossacks, Part 3.

Last time, we covered the middle period of Cossack history. Today, we finished their story,

starting at the time of Catherine the Great, the last days of the Romanovs, their time under

Joseph Stalin, and the resurgence of Cossack identity throughout the world today.

After the vast rebellion led by Yemilyan Pugachov, the Cossacks were now incorporated into service for the Russian Empire, whether they liked it or not.

In his book, the Cossacks, Philip Longworth had this to say about them.

Quote, war.

The Cossacks were never without it.

They were a warrior class now, a cast of samurai, and as proud as the samurai of their traditions,

which distinguished them from the common peasantry.

Like the Texas Rangers, they provided their own clothes, mounts, and arms, and in return

for a coin or two, they went out to kill and die for Russia. They fought the Swedes, the Poles,

the Persians, and the Turks, and as Russian arms

entered the Western European scene against the Prussians and the French as well. There was no

war, hardly a skirmish, in which the Cossacks did not participate. They were the eyes and ears of the army,

the screen which fanned out before the advancing regulars,

the rear guard which covered their withdrawals,

the pursuers and devastators of a retreating enemy.

At the end of the long war against the Turks in 1775,

Marshal Rumi Anansev's reported that their exploits were an outstanding factor in hastening all the glorious successes of Russian arms.

They were daunted neither by want nor by disadvantage in both small and large-scale encounters.

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