Don Сossacks in the Caucasian War: Peculiarities of Military Service and Contemporary Assessment

This article analyses the peculiarities of the military service of Don Cossacks in the Caucasus during the Caucasian War (1801–1864). The key problem is to determine the reasons for the decline in the combat effectiveness of Cossack regiments and the spread of negative assessments of their service. The author refers both to published historical evidence such as memoirs of participants in the Caucasian War and to archival documents not previously introduced into scholarly circulation. The temporary service of the Don Cossack regiments on the empire’s southern outskirts prevented their adaptation to “Caucasian methods of war”, as well as local climatic conditions. Another factor that did not allow the Don Cossacks to show their best qualities was the fragmentation of regiments into small groups for convoy duty. The annexation of the Caucasus was a great test for the Don Cossacks. Government resettlement by decree caused the uprising of 1792–1794, which managed to defend the traditional principles of resettlement (voluntarily and by lot) but did not stop Don Cossack colonisation of the Terek and Kuban. The Don Cossack regiments, which went to the Caucasus every three years, experienced serious difficulties in adapting to regional conditions of war and peace. The failures of the Don Cossacks in the Caucasian War accelerated the discussion about reforming the organisation of the Cossack army, from creating a permanent headquarters for the Don Cossack regiments in the Caucasus to holding military exercises for Cossacks.