WWW.RBTH.ASIA
A PRODUCT BY ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA (RUSSIA), DISTRIBUTED WITH THE AGE
RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES
15
History
MOST READ Back to Russia: Australian Cossacks announce repatriation http://rbth.asia/48457
Young Cossack-Australian leader is working to foster links between Russia and Australia
KATHERINE TERS RBTH
And it was with some curiosity that the Russian media reported on the story: that a Cossack organisation in Australia had been officially recognised by Russia's Zabaikal Cossack Voisko (The TransBaikal Cossack Army) and was going to be leading a group of 150 Cossack-Australian families in a repatriation movement, back to their traditional lands, east of Lake Baikal. (While the word “voisko” translates literally as army, in a contemporary context, it is probably better understood as a regional clan.) While the organisation, the Zabaikal Cossack Society of Australia, has clarified that a repatriation movement isn’t their plan – and it was a misunderstanding – the outlook of the group, based in western Sydney, suggests that a revival of Russian Imperialera traditions and values is under way, not just in Russia but among some Cossack diaspora populations as well.
Led by a young ataman (or chairman), 24-year-old Simeon Boikov, the group describes itself as a cultural and historical organisation. In Cossack terminology, it’s also a recognised stanitsa (or a settlement within a voisko). While Ataman Boikov (who also goes by “Simon”) cannot claim to represent all Cossacks in Australia – and has attracted considerable controversy within Australia’s Russian community – his passion for the revival of Cossack culture is indisputable. Born in Australia and raised in Sydney, Boikov says the last member of his family to serve as a Cossack under the tsars was his greatgreat-grandfather, Petr Georgievich Tonkih, born in 1890 in Siberia. Tonkih moved to Manchuria during the Russian Civil War, where Boikov’s great-grandparents were born. They migrated to Australia in the 1960s, during China’s Cultural Revolution. Boikov cuts an unusual figure in contemporary Australia. His yearning to connect with certain pre-1917 traditions and values seems noble and touching and, at the same time, out of step. A new version of traditional Cossack culture is being created in Russia in an envi-
PRESS PHOTO
It surprised Russians, earlier this year, to discover that there were Australians of Cossack descent saying they wanted to return to live in their historic homeland.
PRESS PHOTO
Australian Cossack group revisits traditions
rbth.asia/48743
Simeon Boikov, in Russia, with a Zabaikal Cossack Army flag (left), and at a Cossack community celebration in Fairfield, Sydney.
ronment of growing moral conservatism, political control and nationalism – and, in that context, Boikov’s focus makes more sense.
Boikov's stanitsa has been leading a volunteer program for restoring historic Cossack graves The new stanitsa, which Boikov says includes about 150 members, has its headquarters at the Russian Sports and Social Club at Kemps Creek, Sydney. The stanitsa uses the venue for
meetings, celebrations and umm...marching practice. Boikov says the stanitsa is connected to other Transbaikal Cossack groups in Australia, including those in Victoria and Tasmania. Culture and traditions vary between voiskos because Cossacks often adopted the cultural, musical and military customs of areas they conquered, courtesy perhaps of their policy of recruiting colonised locals into their ranks. Australia’s first Cossack stanitsa was established in Sydney in 1950, by a Ural Cossack group. Since 1981, it has been led by Ataman Dmitry Rechkalov who, at 75,
told me that sadly many of his members had passed away – and are buried in Sydney’s Rookwood Cemetery. Boikov's stanitsa has been leading a volunteer program for restoring historic Cossack graves at Rookwood. “Atamans and generals of the Tsarist Army are buried there,” Boikov said. “And in the process of restoring their graves, we’re learning fascinating details from older members about these people.” Cossack music is another passion of Boikov’s. “Every time Cossacks get together, they sing,” he said. His stanitsa has been making recordings of members singing tra-
ditional songs and sending them to Russia’s Ministry of Culture, which, Boikov says, is grateful, because many of these songs were lost or“perverted” under the Soviets. The Cossacks’ brand of patriotism fits well with the conservative policies and nationalist rhetoric that have come to characterise Putin’s third presidential term. “In the ’90s Russia adopted, and had forced upon it, some of the worst aspects of Western culture and morality,” Boikov said. “I’m proud that Russia is again becoming a great superpower and is reviving its traditional values.”
Cossacks lived in militaristic but democratic communities and were known for frequently being at war with their neighbours
The Cossacks both served and rebelled against the Russian tsars The Cossacks expanded Russia's territorities and protected its borders. Their neighbours were terrified of them but marvelled at their skills in battle. IVAN NIKOLAYEV RBTH
GETTY IMAGES/FOTOBANK
It was the Cossacks that discovered Siberia, protected Russia’s borders, both served the Tsars and rebelled against them. Europeans were terrified of them, while Napoleon’s marshals marvelled at their prowess in battle.
It’s hard to say exactly when the Cossacks came into existence, but during the 15th century, the term started to appear with regularity in historical texts. Escape from feudal oppression, famine, drought, disease, persecution from the Old Believers and other misfortunes forced the active and spirited people to set off in search of a better slice of the "no-man’s land" – in the literal sense of the word – along the troubled shores on the East European steppe, that is, in the lower reaches
of the Dnieper, Don, Terek, Volga and Ural rivers. It is on the banks of these rivers that self-governed Cossack communities formed, communities which frequently went to war with their neighbours. The Cossacks fought at one point or another with all of their neighbours (the Grand Duchy of Muscovy, the Crimean Khanate, Turkey and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), and when the need arose, they forged temporary alliances with erstwhile enemies.
With many trade routes under their control, the Cossacks charged a toll to anyone who wished to pass through their territories (or sometimes simply robbed travellers). But where exactly do the Cossacks come from? What is their bloodline? Researchers today tend to believe that, in addition to the obvious Russian and Eastern-Slavic elements and inter-marriage in areas they conquered, there are also Turkish and Caucasian influences; and many descendants of Cos-
sacks are dark-haired and dark-eyed. Cossacks speak, and have always spoken, in dialects of Russian that, with the exception of the occasional word, are understood by any Russian.While Cossacks have never had a particularly strong national identity as such, they do have a welldeveloped sense of class and confessional identity. The Cossacks were under constant pressure from the Tsars during the 17th and 18th centuries, who saw them as outlaws. Cossack atamans (leaders) staged numerous uprisings against Moscow, inciting thousands-strong peasant riots. Stepan Razin led a major uprising against Tsar Alexis (1670-71), which was followed by Kondraty Bulavin’s
rebellion against Peter the Great (1707-08) andYemelyan Pugachev’s uprising against Catherine the Great (1773-75). These activities angered the tsars, and in 1775, Catherine ordered the dissolution of the Sich – a bloodless operation, which involved the Cossacks being issued with an ultimatum and them agreeing to move on. They went south to the Kuban, a region around the Kuban River, on the Black Sea. A number of them moved further west to the Danube Delta, to Ottoman territory, and formed the Danubian Sich, which was loyal to the Ottoman Sultan. Others made it to Vojvodina, where they served the Habsburgs on the border of Austria and Turkey.