Of all the eleven Cossack troops of Russia, the Don army is considered most famous. Its history is closely intertwined with the history of our country. Cossack freemen - in the service of the state.
Officially, the seniority of the Don Cossack army was established on May 25, 1579, when Tsar Ivan the Terrible sent a letter to the Cossacks, in which he called on the Don Cossacks to serve him, and for this he promised to "grant" them.
The salary included gunpowder, clothing, bread, lead and money. The tsar wanted not only to control the Don Cossacks in battles, but also to know everything about them. However, there were many fugitives and criminals among the Cossacks who came here for the sake of a free and free life. All the Cossacks were accepted, if only they believed in God and were brave in battle. Hence the names of the Don went to: Mesheryakovs - from Meshchery Tatars, Tatarinovs - from Tatars, Grekovs - from Greeks, etc. The Don Cossacks had a law that read: "There is no extradition from the Don", which is why the Don army became the center of freedom and military courage. This is confirmed by Cossack proverbs and sayings:
- "He who is afraid of a bullet is not suitable for the Cossacks"
- "The Cossack would rather die than leave his native land"
- "A Cossack in battle, like an eagle in the sky", etc.
Since then, the Don Cossacks have participated with the tsarist troops in all wars: for Kazan and Astrakhan, against the Tatars and Turks, but they themselves did not forget to go on military campaigns (“go for zipuns”) against Azov, or capture a caravan on the Volga.
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At this time, the Don Cossacks settled along the entire course of the Don, Seversky Donets, Medveditsa and Khopru. In that era, the Don Cossacks were divided into two military communities. Those living along the lower reaches of the Don were called "grassroots", and those who settled in its upper reaches were called "upper". Initially, the Cossacks lived in small towns, which later turned into villages and farms. In the towns at first there were no women at all, and the Cossacks were celibate.
Cossacks brought their wives from military campaigns. Mikhail Sholokhov told about this in his novel “Quiet Don”: “In the penultimate Turkish campaign, the Cossack Melekhov Prokofiy returned to the farm. He brought his wife from Turetchina - a small woman wrapped in a shawl. " In the Don Cossacks, the whole life was controlled by the chosen ataman, whether it was the life of the village or a military campaign. All adult Cossacks elected the ataman at the Circle - it was Cossack democracy. "Without the ataman, a Cossack orphan" - so they say in a well-known Cossack proverb.
At the beginning of the 17th century, events called the Troubles took place in Russia, by this time there were 1888 Cossacks in service in the Army. There was not a single chieftain.
Lack of information about what was happening in Moscow, Polish agitators and faith in the tsar - all this led to the fact that the Cossacks initially supported False Dmitry I, then Vasily Shuisky and False Dmitry II. Ataman Zarutsky was close to this "Tushinsky Thief". When the Cossacks saw that the Poles were seizing "Flint Moscow", it was decided to oppose the invaders and join the ranks of the militia. The significant role of the Cossacks in the liberation of Moscow made it possible for the Cossacks to take part in the Zemsky Sobor in 1613, at which they elected a new Tsar and a new Romanov dynasty. This is how the free Cossacks established the tsarist power of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov.
The Don Cossacks received the banner from the new tsar, thereby becoming part of Russia. Over time, among the Cossacks, their own strata appeared - well-to-do, "brownies" and barebones, who often did not obey the tsarist power. Therefore, in the capital of the Don Cossacks, Cherkassk (now the village of Starocherkasskaya), these two "parties" of the Cossacks often argued about the future of the Cossacks. In such disputes, Stepan Razin and Emelyan Pugachev, who led one of the most massive uprisings in Russian history, showed their authority. To fight against the Cossack freemen, Peter I subdued the army of his Military colleague, thereby controlling the army through the military chieftain. Since that time, instead of the elective atamans on the Don, there appeared order atamans, the first of them was Andrei Ivanovich Lopatin. Under Catherine the Great, the Don Army became an administrative unit of the Russian Empire. In 1763, the compulsory life-long military service of the Cossacks was introduced, and the main occupations of the population in the 18th century were agriculture and horse breeding. The regulation on the military service of the Don Cossack army established a 30-year service life for a Cossack (from 1875 the term was reduced to 20 years) with his own weapon and two horses. For this, the Cossacks received a land share of 30 dessiatines, however, on average, a Cossack had 14 dessiatines. From 1805 Novocherkassk became the capital.
Thus, by the beginning of the twentieth century, the Cossacks became the main military force of the Russian Empire, its vanguard. The courage of the Cossacks became an example of serving the Fatherland. All military victories were associated with the name of the Don Cossacks. By the beginning of the Civil War, more than 1,500,000 Cossacks lived in the area of the Don Army. According to the 2002 All-Russian Population Census, 87.5 thousand people in the Rostov Region called themselves Cossacks.