The Cossack issue has become relevant in Russia against the backdrop of the outflow of ethnic Russians from the North Caucasus (http://expert.ru/ratings/izmenenie-doli-russkih-v-naselenii-respublik-severnogo-kavkaza/). Chechnya and Ingushetia have practically become ethnically homogeneous and Dagestan will soon become the next republic to shed its ethnic Russian population entirely (http://skfonews.info/article/124). Ethnic Russians are also leaving North Ossetia and Kabardino-Balkaria (http://www.riss.ru/my-v-smi/2075-status-i-perspektivy-russkogo-naseleniya-na-severnom-kavkaze#.U2CWsrp_v-k). Adygea and Karachaevo-Cherkessia have had large ethnic-Russian populations over the past century and a half, and the situation there is still under MoscowÂ’s control. It should be noted that the outflow of ethnic Russians from the North Caucasus differs from republic to republic. The outmigration of Russians from Dagestan is not the same as the outmigration from North Ossetia, for example. In the first case it is caused by the growth of radical Islam and its confrontation with the authorities, while ethnic Russian are leaving North Ossetia because of the republicÂ’s bleak prospects against the backdrop of a general deterioration of the situation in the area.
It is not surprising that the Russian state has decided to place its bet on the Cossacks, who historically performed the mission of a paramilitary community on the edges of the Russian Empire and moved into the territory of the mountaineers under the protection of the Russian army. The Russian EmpireÂ’s presence was affirmed through the presence of the Cossacks. Naturally, the outflow of ethnic Russians today includes Terek Cossacks, which is why Moscow is paying so much attention to propping up the Cossacks in this part of Russia. Sixteen laws, government decrees and amendments involving the Cossacks that have been adopted over the past 20 years, which testifies to how important the Cossack issue is to the Russian government (http://www.cossacks-lb.ru/laws.html). Twelve of these measures were passed while Vladimir Putin was either president or prime minister.
The mountaineers view the rebirth of the Cossack community with alarm. Dispatching a Cossack battalion named after General Alexei Yermolov to Chechnya during the first Russian-Chechen war of 1994–1996 was a great blunder on the part of the Russian government. Yermolov has always been considered a murderer of civilians during the period of Chechnya’s colonization in the 19th century (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miZ61StT3KU). The unveiling of a monument dedicated to Yermolov in the center of Pyatigorsk was seen as a challenge to the North Caucasian mountaineers (http://www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/178797/). At the same time, the Russian government warns the mountaineers not to erect monuments to people who resisted the Russian generals who conquered the Caucasus in the 19th century (http://rbcdaily.ru/society/562949988962292).
Both the Kuban and Terek Cossacks are located in the North Caucasus. The Terek Cossacks are considered to reside on the most problematic territory, which includes parts of Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Stavropol region. This explains why in January 2010, then-president Dmitry Medvedev made the decision to establish the North Caucasian Federal District, which was carved out of the Southern Federal District. Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachaevo-Cherkessia, North Ossetia–Alania, Chechnya and Stavropol region were included in the new district. This territory was part of Russia’s Terek and Dagestani oblasts prior to 1917 (http://www.runivers.ru/maps/podratlas/24/).
