THE COSSACKS
Lawlessness on the Steppe--Slave-markets of the Crimea--The Military
Cordon and the Free Cossacks--The Zaporovian Commonwealth Compared with
Sparta and with the Mediaeval Military Orders--The Cossacks of the Don,
of the Volga, and of the Ural--Border Warfare--The Modern Cossacks--Land
Tenure among the Cossacks of the Don--The Transition from Pastoral to
Agriculture Life--"Universal Law" of Social Development--Communal versus
Private Property--Flogging as a Means of Land-registration.
No sooner had the Grand Princes of Moscow thrown off the Mongol yoke
and become independent Tsars of Muscovy than they began that eastward
territorial expansion which has been going on steadily ever since, and
which culminated in the occupation of Talienwan and Port Arthur. Ivan
the Terrible conquered the Khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan (1552-54)
and reduced to nominal subjection the Bashkir and Kirghiz tribes in the
vicinity of the Volga, but he did not thereby establish law and order on
the Steppe. The lawless tribes retained their old pastoral mode of life
and predatory habits, and harassed the Russian agricultural population
of the outlying provinces in the same way as the Red Indians in America
used to harass the white colonists of the Far West. A large section
of the Horde, inhabiting the Crimea and the Steppe to the north of the
Black Sea, escaped annexation by submitting to the Ottoman Turks and
becoming tributaries of the Sultan.
The Turks were at that time a formidable power, with which the Tsars of
Muscovy were too weak to cope successfully, and the Khan of the Crimea
could always, when hard pressed by his northern neighbours, obtain
assistance from Constantinople. This potentate exercised a nominal
authority over the pastoral tribes which roamed on the Steppe between
the Crimea and the Russian frontier, but he had neither the power
nor the desire to control their aggressive tendencies. Their raids in
Russian and Polish territory ensured, among other advantages, a regular
and plentiful supply of slaves, which formed the chief article of export
from Kaffa--the modern Theodosia--and from the other seaports of the
coast.
Of this slave trade, which flourished down to 1783, when the Crimea was
finally conquered and annexed by Russia, we have a graphic account by
an eye-witness, a Lithuanian traveller of the sixteenth century. "Ships
from Asia," he says, "bring arms, clothes, and horses to the Crimean
Tartars, and start on the homeward voyage laden with slaves. It is for
this kind of merchandise alone that the Crimean markets are remarkable.
Slaves may be always had for sale as a pledge or as a present, and every
one rich enough to have a horse deals in them. If a man wishes to buy
clothes, arms, or horses, and does not happen to have at the moment any
slaves, he takes on credit the articles required, and makes a formal
promise to deliver at a certain time a certain number of people of
our blood--being convinced that he can get by that time the requisite
number. And these promises are always accurately fulfilled, as if those
who made them had always a supply of our people in their courtyards.
A Jewish money-changer, sitting at the gate of Tauris and seeing
constantly the countless multitude of our countrymen led in as captives,
asked us whether there still remained any people in our land, and whence
came such a multitude of them. The stronger of these captives, branded
on the forehead and cheeks and manacled or fettered, are tortured by
severe labour all day, and are shut up in dark cells at night. They are
kept alive by small quantities of food, composed chiefly of the flesh of
animals that have died--putrid, covered with maggots, disgusting even
to dogs. Women, who are more tender, are treated in a different fashion;
some of them who can sing and play are employed to amuse the guests at
festivals.
"When the slaves are led out for sale they walk to the marketplace in
single file, like storks on the wing, in whole dozens, chained together
by the neck, and are there sold by auction. The auctioneer shouts loudly
that they are 'the newest arrivals, simple, and not cunning, lately
captured from the people of the kingdom (Poland), and not from Muscovy';
for the Muscovite race, being crafty and deceitful, does not bring a
good price. This kind of merchandise is appraised with great accuracy in
the Crimea, and is bought by foreign merchants at a high price, in order
to be sold at a still higher rate to blacker nations, such as Saracens,
Persians, Indians, Arabs, Syrians, and Assyrians. When a purchase
is made the teeth are examined, to see that they are neither few nor
discoloured. At the same time the more hidden parts of the body are
carefully inspected, and if a mole, excrescence, wound, or other latent
defect is discovered, the bargain is rescinded. But notwithstanding
these investigations the cunning slave-dealers and brokers succeed in
cheating the buyers; for when they have valuable boys and girls, they
do not at once produce them, but first fatten them, clothe them in silk,
and put powder and rouge on their cheeks, so as to sell them at a better
price. Sometimes beautiful and perfect maidens of our nation bring their
weight in gold. This takes place in all the towns of the peninsula, but
especially in Kaffa."*
* Michalonis Litvani, "De moribus Tartarorum Fragmina," X.,
Basilliae, 1615.
To protect the agricultural population of the Steppe against the raids
of these thieving, cattle-lifting, kidnapping neighbours, the Tsars of
Muscovy and the Kings of Poland built forts, constructed palisades, dug
trenches, and kept up a regular military cordon. The troops composing
this cordon were called Cossacks; but these were not the "Free Cossacks"
best known to history and romance. These latter lived beyond the
frontier on the debatable land which lay between the two hostile races,
and there they formed self-governing military communities. Each one of
the rivers flowing southwards--the Dnieper, the Don, the Volga, and the
Yaik or Ural--was held by a community of these Free Cossacks, and no
one, whether Christian or Tartar, was allowed to pass through their
territory without their permission.
Officially the Free Cossacks were Russians, for they professed to be
champions of Orthodox Christianity, and--with the exception of those
of the Dnieper--loyal subjects of the Tsar; but in reality they were
something different. Though they were Russian by origin, language, and
sympathy, the habit of kidnapping Tartar women introduced among them a
certain admixture of Tartar blood. Though self-constituted champions of
Christianity and haters of Islam, they troubled themselves very little
with religion, and did not submit to the ecclesiastical authorities.
As to their religious status, it cannot be easily defined. Whilst
professing allegiance and devotion to the Tsar, they did not think it
necessary to obey him, except in so far as his orders suited their own
convenience. And the Tsar, it must be confessed, acted towards them in a
similar fashion. When he found it convenient he called them his faithful
subjects; and when complaints were made to him about their raids in
Turkish territory, he declared that they were not his subjects, but
runaways and brigands, and that the Sultan might punish them as he saw
fit. At the same time, the so-called runaways and brigands regularly
received supplies and ammunition from Moscow, as is amply proved by
recently-published documents. Down to the middle of the seventeenth
century the Cossacks of the Dnieper stood in a similar relation to
the Polish kings; but at that time they threw off their allegiance to
Poland, and became subjects of the Tsars of Muscovy.
Of these semi-independent military communities, which formed a
continuous barrier along the southern and southeastern frontier, the
most celebrated were the Zaporovians* of the Dnieper, and the Cossacks
of the Don.
* The name "Zaporovians," by which they are known in the
West, is a corruption of the Russian word Zaporozhtsi, which
means "Those who live beyond the rapids."
The Zaporovian Commonwealth has been compared sometimes to ancient
Sparta, and sometimes to the mediaeval Military Orders, but it had
in reality quite a different character. In Sparta the nobles kept in
subjection a large population of slaves, and were themselves constantly
under the severe discipline of the magistrates. These Cossacks of the
Dnieper, on the contrary, lived by fishing, hunting, and marauding,
and knew nothing of discipline, except in time of war. Amongst all
the inhabitants of the Setch--so the fortified camp was called--there
reigned the most perfect equality. The common saying, "Bear patiently,
Cossack; you will one day be Ataman!" was often realised; for every year
the office-bearers laid down the insignia of office in presence of the
general assembly, and after thanking the brotherhood for the honour they
had enjoyed, retired to their former position of common Cossack. At the
election which followed this ceremony any member could be chosen chief
of his kuren, or company, and any chief of a kuren could be chosen
Ataman.
The comparison of these bold Borderers with the mediaeval Military
Orders is scarcely less forced. They call themselves, indeed, Lytsars--a
corruption of the Russian word Ritsar, which is in its turn a corruption
of the German Ritter--talked of knightly honour (lytsarskaya tchest'),
and sometimes proclaimed themselves the champions of Greek Orthodoxy
against the Roman Catholicism of the Poles and the Mahometanism of the
Tartars; but religion occupied in their minds a very secondary place.
Their great object in life was the acquisition of booty. To attain this
object they lived in intermittent warfare with the Tartars, lifted their
cattle, pillaged their aouls, swept the Black Sea in flotillas of small
boats, and occasionally sacked important coast towns, such as Varna
and Sinope. When Tartar booty could not be easily obtained, they turned
their attention to the Slavonic populations; and when hard pressed by
Christian potentates, they did not hesitate to put themselves under the
protection of the Sultan.
The Cossacks of the Don, of the Volga, and of the Ural had a somewhat
different organisation. They had no fortified camp like the Setch, but
lived in villages, and assembled as necessity demanded. As they were
completely beyond the sphere of Polish influence, they knew nothing
about "knightly honour" and similar conceptions of Western chivalry;
they even adopted many Tartar customs, and loved in time of peace to
strut about in gorgeous Tartar costumes. Besides this, they were
nearly all emigrants from Great Russia, and mostly Old Ritualists or
Sectarians, whilst the Zaporovians were Little Russians and Orthodox.
These military communities rendered valuable service to Russia. The best
means of protecting the southern frontier was to have as allies a large
body of men leading the same kind of life and capable of carrying on the
same kind of warfare as the nomadic marauders; and such a body of men
were the Free Cossacks. The sentiment of self-preservation and the
desire of booty kept them constantly on the alert. By sending out small
parties in all directions, by "procuring tongues"--that is to say, by
kidnapping and torturing straggling Tartars with a view to extracting
information from them--and by keeping spies in the enemy's territory,
they were generally apprised beforehand of any intended incursion. When
danger threatened, the ordinary precautions were redoubled. Day and
night patrols kept watch at the points where the enemy was expected, and
as soon as sure signs of his approach were discovered a pile of tarred
barrels prepared for the purpose was fired to give the alarm. Rapidly
the signal was repeated at one point of observation after another, and
by this primitive system of telegraphy in the course of a few hours the
whole district was up in arms. If the invaders were not too numerous,
they were at once attacked and driven back. If they could not be
successfully resisted, they were allowed to pass; but a troop of
Cossacks was sent to pillage their aouls in their absence, whilst
another and larger force was collected, in order to intercept them when
they were returning home laden with booty. Thus many a nameless battle
was fought on the trackless Steppe, and many brave men fell unhonoured
and unsung:
"Illacrymabiles Urgentur ignotique longa Nocte, carent quia vate sacro."
Notwithstanding these valuable services, the Cossack communities were
a constant source of diplomatic difficulties and political dangers. As
they paid very little attention to the orders of the Government, they
supplied the Sultan with any number of casi belli, and were often ready
to turn their arms against the power to which they professed allegiance.
During "the troublous times," for example, when the national existence
was endangered by civil strife and foreign invasion, they overran the
country, robbing, pillaging, and burning as they were wont to do in the
Tartar aouls. At a later period the Don Cossacks twice raised formidable
insurrections--first under Stenka Razin (1670), and secondly under
Pugatchef (1773)--and during the war between Peter the Great and Charles
XII. of Sweden the Zaporovians took the side of the Swedish king.
The Government naturally strove to put an end to this danger,
and ultimately succeeded. All the Cossacks were deprived of their
independence, but the fate of the various communities was different.
Those of the Volga were transfered to the Terek, where they had abundant
occupation in guarding the frontier against the incursions of the
Eastern Caucasian tribes. The Zaporovians held tenaciously to their
"Dnieper liberties," and resisted all interference, till they were
forcibly disbanded in the time of Catherine II. The majority of them
fled to Turkey, where some of their descendants are still to be found,
and the remainder were settled on the Kuban, where they could lead their
old life by carrying on an irregular warfare with the tribes of the
Western Caucasus. Since the capture of Shamyl and the pacification
of the Caucasus, this Cossack population of the Kuban and the Terek,
extending in an unbroken line from the Sea of Azof to the Caspian, have
been able to turn their attention to peaceful pursuits, and now raise
large quantities of wheat for exportation; but they still retain their
martial bearing, and some of them regret the good old times when a brush
with the Circassians was an ordinary occurrence and the work of tilling
the soil was often diversified with a more exciting kind of occupation.
The Cossacks of the Ural and the Don have been allowed to remain in
their old homes, but they have been deprived of their independence
and self-government, and their social organisation has been completely
changed. The boisterous popular assemblies which formerly decided all
public affairs have been abolished, and the custom of choosing the
Ataman and other office-bearers by popular election has been replaced
by a system of regular promotion, according to rules elaborated in
St. Petersburg. The officers and their families now compose a kind of
hereditary aristocracy which has succeeded in appropriating, by means of
Imperial grants, a large portion of the land which was formerly common
property. As the Empire expanded in Asia the system of protecting the
parties by Cossack colonists was extended eastwards, so now there is a
belt of Cossack territory stretching almost without interruption from
the banks of the Don to the coast of the Pacific. It is divided into
eleven sections, in each of which is settled a Cossack corps with a
separate administration.
When universal military service was introduced, in 1873, the Cossacks
were brought under the new law, but in order to preserve their military
traditions and habits they were allowed to retain, with certain
modifications, their old organisation, rights, and privileges. In return
for a large amount of fertile land and exemption from direct taxation,
they have to equip themselves at their own expense, and serve for twenty
years, of which three are spent in preparatory training, twelve in the
active army, and five in the reserve. This system gives to the army
a contingent of about 330,000 men--divided into 890 squadrons and 108
infantry companies--with 236 guns.
The Cossacks in active service are to be met with in all parts of
the Empire, from the Prussian to the Chinese frontier. In the Asiatic
Provinces their services are invaluable. Capable of enduring an
incredible amount of fatigue and all manner of privations, they can live
and thrive in conditions which would soon disable regular troops. The
capacity of self-adaptation, which is characteristic of the Russian
people generally, is possessed by them in the highest degree. When
placed on some distant Asiatic frontier they can at once transform
themselves into squatters--building their own houses, raising crops of
grain, and living as colonists without neglecting their military duties.
I have sometimes heard it asserted by military men that the Cossack
organisation is an antiquated institution, and that the soldiers which
it produces, however useful they may be in Central Asia, would be of
little service in regular European warfare. Whether this view, which
received some confirmation in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, is
true or false I cannot pretend to say, for it is a subject on which
a civilian has no right to speak; but I may remark that the Cossacks
themselves are not by any means of that opinion. They regard themselves
as the most valuable troops which the Tsar possesses, believing
themselves capable of performing anything within the bounds of human
possibility, and a good deal that lies beyond that limit. More than once
Don Cossacks have assured me that if the Tsar had allowed them to fit
out a flotilla of small boats during the Crimean War they would have
captured the British fleet, as their ancestors used to capture Turkish
galleys on the Black Sea!
In old times, throughout the whole territory of the Don Cossacks,
agriculture was prohibited on pain of death. It is generally supposed
that this measure was adopted with a view to preserve the martial
spirit of the inhabitants, but it may be explained otherwise. The great
majority of the Cossacks, averse to all regular, laborious occupations,
wished to live by fishing, hunting, cattle-breeding, and marauding,
but there was always amongst them a considerable number of
immigrants--runaway serfs from the interior--who had been accustomed to
live by agriculture. These latter wished to raise crops on the fertile
virgin soil, and if they had been allowed to do so they would to some
extent have spoiled the pastures. We have here, I believe, the true
reason for the above-mentioned prohibition, and this view is strongly
confirmed by analogous facts which I have observed in another locality.
In the Kirghiz territory the poorer inhabitants of the aouls near the
frontier, having few or no cattle, wish to let part of the common land
to the neighbouring Russian peasantry for agricultural purposes; but
the richer inhabitants, who possess flocks and herds, strenuously oppose
this movement, and would doubtless prohibit it under pain of death if
they had the power, because all agricultural encroachments diminish the
pasture-land.
Whatever was the real reason of the prohibition, practical necessity
proved in the long run too strong for the anti-agriculturists. As the
population augmented and the opportunities for marauding decreased, the
majority had to overcome their repugnance to husbandry; and soon large
patches of ploughed land or waving grain were to be seen in the vicinity
of the stanitsas, as the Cossack villages are termed. At first there was
no attempt to regulate this new use of the ager publicus. Each Cossack
who wished to raise a crop ploughed and sowed wherever he thought fit,
and retained as long as he chose the land thus appropriated; and when
the soil began to show signs of exhaustion he abandoned his plot and
ploughed elsewhere. But this unregulated use of the Communal property
could not long continue. As the number of agriculturists increased,
quarrels frequently arose, and sometimes terminated in bloodshed. Still
worse evils appeared when markets were created in the vicinity, and it
became possible to sell the grain for exportation. In some stanitsas the
richer families appropriated enormous quantities of the common land
by using several teams of oxen, or by hiring peasants in the nearest
villages to come and plough for them; and instead of abandoning the land
after raising two or three crops they retained possession of it, and
came to regard it as their private property. Thus the whole of the
arable land, or at least the best part of it, became actually, if
not legally, the private property of a few families, whilst the less
energetic or less fortunate inhabitants of the stanitsa had only parcels
of comparatively barren soil, or had no land whatever, and became mere
agricultural labourers.
After a time this injustice was remedied. The landless members justly
complained that they had to bear the same burdens as those who possessed
the land, and that therefore they ought to enjoy the same privileges.
The old spirit of equality was still strong amongst them, and they
ultimately succeeded in asserting their rights. In accordance with their
demands the appropriated land was confiscated by the Commune, and the
system of periodical redistributions was introduced. By this system each
adult male possesses a share of the land.
These facts tend to throw light on some of the dark questions of social
development in its early stages.
So long as a village community leads a purely pastoral life, and
possesses an abundance of land, there is no reason why the individuals
or the families of which it is composed should divide the land into
private lots, and there are very potent reasons why they should not
adopt such a course. To give the division of the land any practical
significance, it would be necessary to raise fences of some kind, and
these fences, requiring for their construction a certain amount of
labour, would prove merely a useless encumbrance, for it is much more
convenient that all the sheep and cattle should graze together. If there
is a scarcity of pasture, and consequently a conflict of interest among
the families, the enjoyment of the common land will be regulated not by
raising fences, but by simply limiting the number of sheep and cattle
which each family is entitled to put upon the pasturage, as is done in
many Russian villages at the present day. When any one desires to keep
more sheep and cattle than the maximum to which he is entitled, he pays
to the others a certain compensation. Thus, we see, in pastoral life
the dividing of the common land is unnecessary and inexpedient, and
consequently private property in land is not likely to come into
existence.
With the introduction of agriculture appears a tendency to divide the
land among the families composing the community, for each family living
by husbandry requires a definite portion of the soil. If the land
suitable for agricultural purposes be plentiful, each head of a family
may be allowed to take possession of as much of it as he requires, as
was formerly done in the Cossack stanitsas; if, on the contrary, the
area of arable land is small, as is the case in some Bashkir aouls,
there will probably be a regular allotment of it among the families.
With the tendency to divide the land into definite portions arises a
conflict between the principle of communal and the principle of private
property. Those who obtain definite portions of the soil are in general
likely to keep them and transmit them to their descendants. In a
country, however, like the Steppe--and it is only of such countries
that I am at present speaking--the nature of the soil and the system of
agriculture militate against this conversion of simple possession into a
right of property. A plot of land is commonly cultivated for only three
or four years in succession. It is then abandoned for at least double
that period, and the cultivators remove to some other portion of the
communal territory. After a time, it is true, they return to the old
portion, which has been in the meantime lying fallow; but as the soil is
tolerably equal in quality, the families or individuals have no reason
to desire the precise plots which they formerly possessed. Under such
circumstances the principle of private property in the land is not
likely to strike root; each family insists on possessing a certain
QUANTITY rather than a certain PLOT of land, and contents itself with a
right of usufruct, whilst the right of property remains in the hands of
the Commune; and it must not be forgotten that the difference between
usufruct and property here is of great practical importance, for so long
as the Commune retains the right of property it may re-allot the land in
any way it thinks fit.
As the population increases and land becomes less plentiful, the
primitive method of agriculture above alluded to gives place to a less
primitive method, commonly known as "the three-field system," according
to which the cultivators do not migrate periodically from one part of
the communal territory to another, but till always the same fields,
and are obliged to manure the plots which they occupy. The principle of
communal property rarely survives this change, for by long possession
the families acquire a prescriptive right to the portions which they
cultivate, and those who manure their land well naturally object to
exchange it for land which has been held by indolent, improvident
neighbours. In Russia, however, this change has not destroyed the
principle of communal property. Though the three-field system has been
in use for many generations in the central provinces, the communal
principle, with its periodical re-allotment of the land, still remains
intact.
For the student of sociology the past history and actual condition of
the Don Cossacks present many other features equally interesting and
instructive. He may there see, for instance, how an aristocracy can be
created by military promotion, and how serfage may originate and become
a recognised institution without any legislative enactment. If he takes
an interest in peculiar manifestations of religious thought and feeling,
he will find a rich field of investigation in the countless religious
sects; and if he is a collector of quaint old customs, he will not lack
occupation.
One curious custom, which has very recently died out, I may here
mention by way of illustration. As the Cossacks knew very little about
land-surveying, and still less about land-registration, the precise
boundary between two contiguous yurts--as the communal land of a
stanitsa was called--was often a matter of uncertainty and a fruitful
source of disputes. When the boundary was once determined, the following
method of registering it was employed. All the boys of the two stanitsas
were collected and driven in a body like sheep to the intervening
frontier. The whole population then walked along the frontier that had
been agreed upon, and at each landmark a number of boys were soundly
whipped and allowed to run home! This was done in the hope that the
victims would remember, as long as they lived, the spot where they had
received their unmerited castigation.* The device, I have been assured,
was generally very effective, but it was not always quite successful.
Whether from the castigation not being sufficiently severe, or from
some other defect in the method, it sometimes happened that disputes
afterwards arose, and the whipped boys, now grown up to manhood, gave
conflicting testimony. When such a case occurred the following expedient
was adopted. One of the oldest inhabitants was chosen as arbiter, and
made to swear on the Scriptures that he would act honestly to the best
of his knowledge; then taking an Icon in his hand, he walked along what
he believed to be the old frontier. Whether he made mistakes or not, his
decision was accepted by both parties and regarded as final. This custom
existed in some stanitsas down to the year 1850, when the boundaries
were clearly determined by Government officials.
* A custom of this kind, I am told, existed not very long
ago in England and is still spoken of as "the beating of the
bounds."