Description
Book SynopsisThis is an exceptional book covering 500 years of the history of the Cossacks - the recklessly brave, wild horsemen or the romantic hero of the steppe or the brutal mounted policemen, as they have been remembered throughout history.Starting with a description of the world of the steppe before moving on to a more detailed analysis of the circumstances in which the Cossacks emerged and flourished in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the author considers the relationship of the Cossacks to the surrounding states in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries through the prism of three great conflicts: the revolts of Bohdan Khelmnytsky, Stepan Razin and Emel''ian Pugachev. The author then looks at the Cossacks from the end of the Pugachev revolt in 1774 until the outbreak of the First World War, as well as the Cossacks in the Russian revolutionary period and under Soviet power.A lucid and engaging book that conveys the passion, exuberance and tragedy of these extraordinary people, it will be enjoyed by students, scholars and general readers interested in Russian history.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
List of Maps
List of Illustrations.
Part One: Beginnings to 1600
Introduction
Prologue
Chapter One: The Origins of the Cossacks
Part Two: The Era of Cossack Rebellions 1600-1774
Chapter Two: Bodan Khmelnytsky
Chapter Three: Stepan Razin
Chapter Four: Emel’ian Pugachev
Part Three: The Cossacks in the Long Nineteenth Century 1774-1914
Chapter Five: Government, Administration and Economy
Chapter Six: Cossack Women
Chapter Seven: Economic Crisis and Revolution
Part Four: The Cossacks in the Soviet Era
Chapter Eight:The Cossacks and the February Revolution
Chapter Nine: The Cossacks and the Civil War
Chapter Ten: The Cossacks Under Soviet Power
Epilogue: The Return of the Cossacks?
Bibliography
Index
