RUSSIA'S TINDERBOX - Belfer Center for Science and International ...

The Cossacks are now perceived by the non-Cossack Russian population of the North
Caucasus as a retrograde and conservative group—harking back to a pre-modern past, demanding
and receiving subsidies and special privileges from the government, and interested only in seizing
land for themselves. Their focus on agrarian issues has alienated the urban Russian population and
those in the region interested in promoting entrepreneurial activity, industrial development and
economic reform. The fact that the Cossacks form an almost exclusively male society has also
complicated their claims to be an ethnic group and led to the active opposition of women’s groups.
The official from Stavropol’ noted that, since the Russian government’s decrees on Cossack
revival, the Stavropol’ and Krasnodar authorities have also become less interested in the Cossack
movement. They resent the attempted interference of Cossack atamans in local politics and the
repeated proposals from Cossack Congresses to create North Caucasian Cossack republics that
would concentrate power in Cossack hands. In addition, there have been no Cossack secessions from
administrative units and no direct clashes with local authorities, in spite of radical claims. Cossack
militancy is thus now seen in the region as narrowly-focused and concentrated on the protection of
the Cossacks’ individual and communal property and their new privileges from Moscow.
It would seem, therefore, that even if the Cossacks have not been completely neutralized as a
factor in North Caucasian politics, they have been bought off by the Russian state. The question
remains one of how successful this purchase has been and whether the Cossacks will be completely
absorbed into state structures or will instead prove to be a maverick organization operating on the
fringes of the state. The outcome of the conflict in Chechnya and its impact on the political situation
in the North Caucasus are key in this regard, as the next section of the report indicates.
supportive of the Cossack movement and Cossack revival (see Dzutsev, Frolova and Magomedkhanov,
“Problemy...”). In all of these republics, those surveyed noted that they felt threatened by the general political
and economic situation. The general conclusion from this is that where the Russian population feels threatened
by the other ethnic groups of the North Caucasus, the Cossacks are seen as the defenders of Russian national
interests. In Krasnodar and Stavropol’, where the Russian population far outweighs the other North Caucasian
groups, the perception of threat is not so great and a more critical attitude towards the Cossacks is thus adopted.
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