Ural Cossacks - all the details. Ural Cossacks - anti-Bolshevik struggle and exodus to Persia

Who are the Ural Cossacks

Strong and reliable harness harness,
My dashing horse argamak,
Pike red-hot, saber damask,
I myself am a Ural Cossack!

The Ural Cossack Army is rightfully considered one of the oldest, and perhaps the most original of all the Cossack Troops of pre-revolutionary Russia. The Urals were among those few Cossacks who themselves formed on the borders of Russia, being "natural" Cossacks, and not peasants and soldiers settled on the royal decree and called "Cossacks".

The time of settlement of the territories of the lower reaches of the Ural River (Yaik) by gangs of free people has not been precisely established. Historians call different time frames for the appearance of the Cossacks in the Urals: from the XIV to the XVI centuries. For the first time in official documents, the Yaik Cossacks were mentioned in the 30s of the 16th century. It is believed that their detachments participated in the capture of Kazan in 1550, however, the documented first service of the Yaik Cossacks is 1591, when, by the “order of Fyodor Ioanovich”, they participated together with the archery regiments in hostilities against Shamkhal Tarkovsky, the ruler of Dagestan. From this year, the seniority of the Ural (Yaitsky) Cossack Host is considered.

Equally different are the opinions of researchers as to where the Yaik Cossacks came from. Someone deduces their genealogy from the Turkic tribes, others talk about detachments of Cossacks who moved to Yaik from the Volga or the Don. This question still remains open, but it is obvious that the Yaik Cossack community was formed by free people who, having settled on Yaik, set up a number of towns along the river, on its right bank. From the very beginning of their existence, the Yaik Cossacks clashed with their restless neighbors, first it was the Nogais, then the Kirghiz-Kaisaks. Their hordes, wandering along the left bank of the Yaik, crossed the river and attacked Cossack towns and outposts, stole cattle, set fire to houses, and took people into slavery. Therefore, the Yaik Cossacks from the beginning of their existence were all warriors, from childhood they learned to ride a horse, hold a weapon in their hands and protect their home and their household. Fighting skirmishes with nomads continued until the middle of the 19th century. With the beginning of the service of the Cossacks to the Moscow sovereigns, the functions of protecting their own territories grew into the functions of protecting the entire Moscow state. For the protection of the borders, the kings paid the Cossacks a salary, sent gunpowder, weapons, etc. to Yaik. The Nizhne-Yaitskaya line was built along the Yaik from the Yaik town to Guryev down the river, consisting of a number of fortresses and outposts erected at the places of possible crossings over the Yaik by nomads and performing protective functions. The Verkhne-Yaitskaya line was built up the river from Yaitsky town to Iletsky. Subsequently, when the need to defend their lands disappeared, these fortresses and outposts turned into Cossack villages and settlements.

So, the Yaik (Ural) Cossacks from the very beginning of their settlement on Yaik were, first of all, warriors. Therefore, it is not surprising that they participated in almost all the wars waged by the Russian Empire. They fought against the Crimean Tatars, Poles, Swedes, Turks, French, Germans and many other peoples, fought bravely near Smolensk, Poltava, Zurich, Leipzig, Balaklava, Ikan, Mukden, etc., took Silistria, Paris, Samarkand, Geok -Tepe, Przemysl and other strongholds, repeatedly went to war against the Khiva and Kokand khanates. Many Cossack bones are scattered from the Caucasus to Turkestan, hundreds of Cossacks died in the First World War, thousands - in the Civil.

It is a paradox, but, despite the fact that the Urals were faithful servants of the tsar and the throne, who more than once proved their loyalty on the battlefield, the Yaik (Ural) Cossack Army was considered the most "rebellious". The disobedience of the Urals was manifested at the slightest intention of the authorities to infringe on their rights and freedoms. Free people could not come to terms with this. Unrest and unrest, sometimes turning into open disobedience, and into armed confrontation with the tsarist troops, occurred regularly on the lands of the Ural Cossacks. Everyone knows that the Yaik Cossacks were the driving force behind the uprising of E.I. Pugachev in 1773-1775, and after his suppression they wanted the whole Army, like the Don ataman Ignat Nekrasov, who took away K.A. Bulavin part of the Don Cossacks to Turkey, go abroad. For the edification of posterity, and in order to forever eradicate the memory of the Pugachev uprising on Yaik, Catherine II ordered in 1775 to rename the Yaik River into the Urals, the Yaitsky town - into the Urals, and the Yaik Cossack Army - into the Urals. So the Yaik Cossacks became Ural Cossacks.

Among peaceful professions, first of all, the Ural Cossacks were engaged in fishing. This is not surprising, knowing what gifts the Ural (Yaik) concealed in itself, which the Cossacks worshiped as a deity. They guarded and cherished the river, protected it, cherished it like their own child and loved it endlessly. And the river paid the Cossacks for this with its treasures. Since 1732. every year, the Ural Cossacks sent summer and winter “villages” (embassies) to the capital to the royal court with gifts from the Urals - sturgeon and black caviar. It is not for nothing that a sterlet is depicted on the ancient coat of arms of the Ural Cossacks, and under it is the legendary Ural warrior Ryzhechka, who defeated the Swedish hero in the Battle of Poltava. In addition to fishing, the Urals were engaged in hunting and animal husbandry, while the land in the Army was in general, communal use.

The Ural Cossacks have always been famous and proud of their originality. They always sought to emphasize their own characteristics, their difference from the "Russian people", their superiority over other classes. Until 1917, more than half of the troops were Old Believers. Orthodoxy in the Cossack environment took root extremely slowly and reluctantly, there were always much fewer Orthodox churches on the Cossack territory than the Old Believers.

Repeated, at different times, "persecution of the faith" also served as a catalyst for unrest and discontent among the Cossacks, to suffer for the "true" faith was considered among them a "charitable deed." In this regard, it becomes clear why they met the apostates of the Bolsheviks as the coming of the Antichrist, and almost without exception took up arms. For two whole years the Army fought heroically for their freedom, for the right to be called "Cossacks". The history of this heroic struggle, full of feats and courage, has not yet been written and practically not studied. Many Urals died in the winter of 1919-1920. retreating with families, cattle and property along the Urals to the Caspian Sea. It was not the bullets of the Reds who defeated the Urals, but the typhus and frost that raged in those years. The Ural Cossack Army, betrayed by its allies, chose not to surrender, but to die in an unequal struggle.

Now the remaining descendants of the Ural Cossacks live on the territory of the state of Kazakhstan. The territory of the Ural Cossack Host was shredded by the Bolsheviks - a small part was given to the Orenburg region, everything else was given to the Kazakh SSR, including the richest Urals, the large city of Guryev with access to the Caspian Sea, and numerous oil fields. The new owners of the land started from the main thing, they wanted to erase all the memory of the Cossacks, as if they had never been on these lands. They renamed the Urals for the third time in a short time, now it is in the Kazakh style - Oral, there is no more the city of Guryev - there is Atyrau, there is no Ural region - there is West Kazakhstan. In Uralsk, there are still streets named after the executioners of the Cossacks - Chapaev, Furmanov, Petrovsky (chairman of the local Cheka). Monuments to a new hero are erected on them - Abay, Srym Datov and the like. The existing Ural Cossack community is split, there are two chieftains, two newspapers, several Cossack organizations, each of which solves different goals and objectives. But no matter how we are called, no matter how we are humiliated and put on our knees, we have something to be proud of, because we are the descendants of the glorious Ural Cossack Host, and, as you know, “there is no translation for the Cossack family.”

Both in tsarist times and today, the Ural Cossacks remain the most deprived in terms of information. There is neither a partial, nor even a complete history of the Army, there is practically no description of military service, campaigns and exploits of the Cossacks, there is practically no memoir literature. There is no reference literature about Ural heroes, there are no biographical publications. The most ancient Army seems to be forgotten, and many do not even know that such a thing existed. Our task is to eradicate this injustice, to restore the names of the forgotten Ural heroes - "Gorynychi", to remember their exploits and to pass on the Ural Cossack spirit to future generations.

Gradually, the number of Cossacks on Yaik grew, and they began to settle down the river, moving towards the sea. From the island of Kosh-Yaik, the Cossacks moved to the Goluboe Gorodishche area, then part of the Cossacks moved to the Oreshnaya Luka tract and in 1620 (according to other sources in 1613) settled on the site of modern Uralsk, at the confluence of the Shagyn River in the Urals. From two sides, the Yaitsky town was covered by rivers, and from the third, steppe side, the Cossacks dug in ditches and ramparts, erected towers, kurens and a wooden church.

The Cossacks lived according to their free laws, not recognizing anyone's authority. All issues were discussed and decided in a circle where everyone had the right to vote. They obeyed the chosen atamans, and Yesauls were elected to help them. The entire army was divided into hundreds and tens, for treason, theft, escape or murder of their own Cossack, they were sentenced to death in a circle - “into a sack and into the water.” The cruelty of the Cossacks knew no bounds, they did not even spare their wives and children. Leaving on a long campaign in the spring, they often killed them so that in their absence they would not become anyone's prey, and in the fall they brought new wives from the campaign, some of which were common at the same time. Superstitious Cossacks brutally beat their wives, believing that if they did not beat her to the point of blood, then nothing could come of the business he had planned.

P.I. Rychkov reports that among the Cossacks there was a custom for a long time to kill their own children so that they would not interfere with their lives. A.B. Karpov cites information that the Cossacks captured Kalmyk women and married them. If a boy, a future Cossack, appeared, he was left alive, if a daughter, then the Cossacks jointly decided to kill them, as useless creatures. And this practice continued until one Cossack hid his own daughter, taking pity on her. Soon the deception was revealed and the Cossacks decided to kill both, but changed their minds and canceled their inhuman sentence. Apparently, the saying later went from here: “Cossacks are usually dogs.” However, the Yaik Cossacks apparently adopted the custom of “throwing babies into the water” from the Don Cossacks, where in the early period of the existence of the Cossack community there was a tradition of killing young children who interfered with military camp life. Go time this wild custom has disappeared.

Nogai and Kazakh tribes, Bashkirs and Kalmyks, who roamed near Yaik, very soon felt what a new, cruel and merciless enemy they had. The Nogai, unable to withstand the endless attacks and robberies of the Cossacks, left their native places and left, declaring: “It’s crowded on the Yaik and on the Volga”, “we are all from the abyss of the Cossacks: our uluses and wives and children will be caught ...”. Neighborhood with such thugs did not bode well, and people preferred to get away from these places. The Cossacks immediately showed themselves to be real highway robbers. Having settled into a foreign side, having grown bolder, they took up their usual business - robbing the surrounding peoples, capturing prisoners, booty, and new territories.

Having gathered on a campaign, they descended on plows into the Caspian Sea, gathered on Peshnoy Island, elected a marching ataman and yesauls, often joined with the Don and Volga Cossacks and went to the Volga or to the sea to rob merchant, trade and embassy caravans, attacked the Persians and Turkmens, Azerbaijani coast.

The service of the Yaik Cossacks to the autocracy began in 1586, when, at the request of the government, 150 Cossacks - chieftains Maxim Meshcheryak, Ermak Petrov, Artyukha and Tikhon set out from Yaik to Astrakhan to help Tsarevich Murat-Girey, who was about to go to war in the Crimea, against the khan. The second time the tsar called the Cossacks to serve in 1591. 500 Yaik and 1000 Volga Cossacks as part of the military detachments of the Astrakhan governors of Sitsky and Pushkin were to march against Shamkhal Tarkovsky, the ruler of Dagestan and the Kumyk steppe. Whether the campaign took place is unknown, information about this has not been preserved. From then until 1717, i.e. in just 125 years, the Cossacks participated in 24 major campaigns of the tsarist troops.

Inspired by the first successful campaigns on the sea and in the steppe, robberies of peaceful nomads, merchants and merchants, the Yaik Cossacks turned their predatory eyes towards the rich Khiva Khanate. Apparently, they hoped to repeat the success of Ataman Yermak, who in 1582, as a result of an unexpected and swift raid, captured Siberia, annexed it to Russia, and thereby earned the tsar's forgiveness for his former deeds. But Khiva was too tough for the Cossacks.

In the spring of 1603, 17 Khiva merchants went to Russia on trade business. They were met along the way by Yaik Cossacks, who killed all but two. One of the survivors told the Cossacks that there was no khan and troops in Urgench, only simple people, the city was defenseless and easy to capture. After discussion, the Cossacks decided to make a sudden raid and rob the capital of the Khanate, take booty and prisoners. Their route to Khiva is unclear; the Cossacks reached Urgench by sea or land route. A.B. Karpov believes that the Cossacks went down the Yaik to the Caspian Sea, through the old channel of the Uzboy reached the Amu Darya and approached the city along the river without being noticed by anyone. Through the open Murzin gates, they entered Urgench completely unhindered. None of the Khiva residents could even imagine that the bearded and terrible “zhaik-Cossack” could find themselves here. 500 Cossacks led by ataman Nechay took possession of it, about a thousand civilians were killed, the city was betrayed by robbery, robbery, fires and debauchery. They say that one khan's concubine from the harem warned Nechay about the imminent return of the khan. Only after that, intoxicated with an easy victory and prey, the Cossacks, taking with them a thousand girls and young men, loading various goods onto carts, set off on their way back. But time has been lost. Khan of Khiva Arab-Muhammed caught up with a huge convoy, surrounded the Cossacks, made a dig and put up chains. A fierce battle lasted for two days, on the third the Cossacks broke out of the encirclement. The Khiva army again surrounded the Cossacks, circled them with a dig and put iron chains in order to prevent the Cossacks from reaching the river. The battle lasted five days, the Cossacks ran out of water, they began to drink the blood of the dead and repulsed the attacks of the Khivans, hiding behind the carts, but soon became exhausted. On the seventh day, the Uzbeks broke into the camp and struck with sabers, destroying many Cossacks. About a hundred of them took refuge in a wooden fortification near the river, caught fish and fed on it.

Khan besieged the Cossack town for 15 days and took it. Only four Cossacks survived, and they brought terrible news to Yaik about the death of the detachment of ataman Nechai. This event happened, according to the Khiva chronicle “Firdaus al-ikbal”, in June 1603.

Between 1620-1625 a new campaign against Khiva was made by another detachment of 300 Cossacks with Ataman Shamai. In the steppe, they fought with the Kalmyks, they captured Shamai, and the Cossacks captured two Kalmyks. To the offer to exchange prisoners, the Cossacks self-confidently replied that everyone could be their chieftain, and escorts in the steppe were more expensive, and did not agree to the exchange. Then they continued on their way to Khiva, but got lost and stayed for the winter on one of the islands of the Aral Sea, near the Kulandy peninsula. Soon famine began, the Cossacks began to kill each other by lot and eat each other. Many died of starvation, there was a long winter ahead, and the Cossacks decided to come to Khiva and surrender in order to escape starvation. They sent people to Khiva, a detachment arrived from there and took the surviving Cossacks.

During the reign of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich (1613-1645), the Yaik Cossacks submitted to the Moscow government, began to receive salaries, gunpowder, lead, weapons, food, wine, cloth, etc. from the royal treasury. They were also allowed to take in fugitive peasants. The tsar allegedly gave them a “ruling charter” for the Yaik River “from the top to the mouth”, and although this charter seemed to have burned down during a fire in a military hut in 1680, the Cossacks considered themselves the “legitimate owners” of this primordially Kazakh river. Later, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Princess Sophia, Peter I also allegedly confirmed the “right” of the Cossacks to own the river. However, this is nothing more than a legend.

In the 80s of the XIX century. attorney at law I.F. Nevodnichansky, on behalf of the Governing Senate, conducted many years of searching in the archives of the capitals for traces of this deed of deed, or at least indirect evidence of its existence, but to no avail. In 1721, the Cossacks applied for its restoration, but were refused, because the government did not know from which order such a letter was given to the Cossacks and when. The Cossacks were exempted from taxes, received various privileges and benefits. Nevertheless, they often opposed the central government with weapons in their hands, robbed Moscow merchants at sea, defeated archers on the Volga, causing the tsar's wrath. The primitive rebellious spirit dominated the minds of the Yaik Cossacks for a long time, accustomed to a violent and free life.

In exchange for royal patronage, the Cossacks, on demand, had to go on campaigns. The 17th, 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries were filled with the participation of the Yaik Cossacks in the wars of Russia, in suppressing the uprisings of the peoples of the empire. They went to the service at will, by lot, hiring was practiced, when wealthy Cossacks hired the poor and paid them from 20 to 100 rubles. They served from the age of 16-18 until old age.

In the old days they said: “Yaik was conceived on blood, and it will end on blood.” The validity of this statement can be seen in the chronology of the military routes of the Yaik Cossacks in the Russian army. XVII century: 1629 - campaign to the Crimea, 1634 - near Smolensk, 1677 - to Chigirin, 1681 - to pacify the Bashkirs and Kalmyks, 1681-1682 - again to Chigirin, 1683 - to pacify the Bashkirs, 1684-1685 - campaign to the Crimea, 1687 - again to the Crimea, 1689 - again to the Crimea with Russian troops, 1695-1696 - a campaign near Azov. In the XVIII century: 1701-1706 - participation in the Russian-Swedish war, 1708 - pacification of the Bashkirs, 1711 - campaign against the Kuban, 1717-1718 - campaign with Prince A. Bekovich-Cherkassky to Khiva and the death of the entire detachment (for the third time , “Khiva is a cursed city”, said the Cossacks), 1723-1724 - bloody battles with the Nogais and Karakalpaks on the Utva River, 1735-1740 and 1755 - again to pacify the Bashkir “rebellion”, etc.

In 1696, a thousand Bashkirs stopped near the Yaitsky town, who fled to the steppe to the Karakalpaks in 1683 after the suppression of the Bashkir uprising. They entered into negotiations with the authorities of the army and the region on the conditions for returning to their former residence in the Ufa district. In response, the military ataman Menshikov and Yesaul Vakurov, in collusion with a group of wealthy Cossacks, treacherously attacked the defenseless Bashkirs at night, arranging a merciless massacre and robbery of civilians. Almost the entire ulus was destroyed, the Cossacks left only 46 men alive, as well as women and children, who were divided among themselves.

For faithful service, the tsarist government gave the Cossacks a salary. The first time it was issued in 1660 for 260 Cossacks, in 1664-1665 - for 300, in 1667-1668 - for 370, from 1680 - for 600 Cossacks. The troops were also given a year 12 pounds of hand gunpowder, 14 pounds of cannon gunpowder, 12 pounds of lead and 100 cannonballs.

In the intervals between serving the government, the Cossacks continued to do their usual thing - robbing caravans on the sea and the Volga, raids into the steppe against the Kalmyks, Nogais, Karakalpaks, Kazakhs. In 1636, for example, they robbed a huge caravan of Persian ships on the Volga, near Cherny Yar, and captured 500 merchants. In 1660 they robbed Guryev-gorodok and “walked along the sea”. In the early spring of 1677, ataman Vaska Kasimov, with 300 Cossacks, went to sea, having previously plundered Guryev-gorodok, destroyed the fish farm, and seized state-owned gunpowder and lead. The tsarist governors came from Astrakhan to pursue them, the Cossacks withstood the battle with them and made their way to the Turkmen coast, from there they went to Baku, wintered on the island, so that in the spring they could go through the Terek and Kuma to the Don and return to Yaik.

For another 20 years, the Cossacks went to the sea for "zipuns", but without much success. In the spring of 1698, Ataman Ivan Shamenok with 150 Cossacks again captured the Guryev town, plundered it and went to sea. He was defeated and executed in Moscow. After that, the sea campaigns of the Cossacks finally stopped. In 1679, the Yaik Cossacks robbed the Khiva ambassador Nadir-Bahadur, who was returning from Moscow, in the steppe. In 1743, the Karakalpak khans wrote to St. Petersburg about entering into Russian citizenship and that they had sent 300 merchants to trade, “who were then killed by the Yaik Cossacks of all that V.i.v. there is notorious, but after that no one went as merchants and ambassadors.,.” Such facts irritated the tsarist government, which sought to finally subjugate the Cossacks to their will.

The ethnic composition of the Yaik Cossacks was very diverse. Basically, their ranks were replenished with fugitive peasants from the central and northern Great Russian regions, Cossacks from the Volga, Don, Terek and Ukraine, as well as people of Turkic-Mongolian and Iranian-speaking origin (Nogais, Tatars, Kalmyks, Bashkirs, Karakalpaks, etc.). P.S. Pallas noted the presence among the ancestors of the Cossacks, even the Persians, who fled from the Khiva captivity, they contributed to the development of irrigated agriculture, melon growing, horticulture, and horticulture. They were called “Kyzylbash” for a long time.

In social terms, the Cossacks came from different groups of serfs and serfs, as well as archers, bobyls, townspeople and courtyards, Belodvortsy, etc. And the surnames, nicknames or names of the Cossacks spoke eloquently about the origin of their owners: Hungry, Ragged, Mortgage, Stolen, Tailor, Yaryzhka, etc. The first royal census of the Yaik Cossacks was carried out in 1723, and there were only 3196 of them, the old Cossack families 74 people, the rest - from the beginning of the 17th century, who arrived in Yaik from the same northern and Volga lands and cities. There were among them captured Turks, Swedes, Germans, Finns, Poles, Caucasians.

The Yaik Cossacks also accepted Kazakhs into their ranks, but only if they converted to Orthodoxy and were baptized. Historian A. Ryabinin in this regard noted that "these cases are rare." However, the archives have preserved a number of such materials. For example, in March 1815, 18 Baigush Kazakhs applied to the Ural Military Chancellery with a desire to join the Cossack estate, 17 of them were serving Cossacks, and one was a Cossack youngster. The Orenburg Border Commission agreed to accept Kazakhs into the Ural Cossacks. All of them were given a privilege from military service for 10 years, they were monitored so that they would not communicate with the Kazakhs beyond the Urals and would not leave without permission. It is curious that three of them were married to Tatar women, two to Cossack women, and eight people had long lived in Cossack families as workers. There were many cases when the Cossacks on the line without any documents for years kept the Kazakhs as slave servants, bought the children of the poor, baptized them and then turned them into Cossacks. There were especially many such cases in the Iletsk town. Among the Cossacks who served for hire in the line service in July 1853, there were such as Akhmet Suleimenov, Kurman Khasenov, Ibrai Izmailov, Boltai Rakhmankulov, the Ablaevs and others.

Tsarism had not yet interfered in the inner life of the Cossacks, who continued to live according to their ancient traditions. At the head of the army was an elected ataman, he was assisted by two captains and a clerk. With Peter I, a military foreman and military judges appeared, salaries were established for all officials. All issues of Cossack life were resolved in a circle, where the Cossacks were obliged to appear as sober as possible. The military chieftain, although he was elected by the Cossacks, was already approved in St. Petersburg and appeared to them for life. Since 1744 (according to other sources, in 1760), the Yaik Cossack military was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Orenburg governor (before that, it was subordinate to the Kazan and Astrakhan governors, the Senate and the Military Collegium), “without interfering in the internal affairs of the troops, with the provision for him to punish the guilty according to the Cossack custom.

Troop atamans and foremen became reliable conductors of the will of the tsarist government, independent of ordinary Cossacks. Even the decisions of the Cossack circle - the highest body of the Cossack democracy, were not valid without the approval of the military ataman. Many atamans, captains, military clerks and foremen came from the same families of well-to-do / wealthy Cossacks, were related to each other, were bound by mutual responsibility, nominated their representatives to chieftains, had the lion's share of military booty and the royal salary, abused their position. For example, there are cases when atamans accepted runaway peasants for bribes to the Cossack estate. In 1723, Ataman Grigory Merkuliev went on an open betrayal, secretly selling weapons, gunpowder, lead, steel and tin to Khiva and Bukhara on 12 camels, which nevertheless got away with it.

The Yaik River from the Iletsk town down to Guryev was covered with a network of fortresses, outposts, villages and farms with pickets and lighthouses to prevent Kazakhs from entering the inner side of the river with rich pastures and meadows. On April 11, 1743, the tsarist government sent a letter to Yaitsky town about the construction of two towns in convenient places at the expense of troops with garrisons of 500 Cossacks each to suppress the raids of the Volga Kalmyks and Karakalpaks. In return, the army was assigned eight sazhens in the Guryev uchug for catching fish. In 1759, there were 18 outposts and 5 fortified towns on the river. By the beginning of the 19th century, the Ural Cossack army had become a numerous, organized and combat-ready military unit on the border with the Kazakh steppe. In total, there were 29588 Cossacks, incl. in Uralsk itself - 17 thousand Cossacks, on the bottom line - 6 thousand, on the top line - 7 thousand Cossacks.

The way out to the Cossacks - sea corsairs in the Caspian Sea was closed by the foundation laid in the 30s of the 17th century. Yaroslavl trading man Gury Nazarov, 7 versts above the mouth of the Yaik, a wooden prison-city, originally called the Yaitsky town and later renamed Guryev. The main purpose is to protect fishing industries from raids by Cossack gangs from the Don and from the sea. In 1662, the construction of a stone fortress modeled on the Astrakhan Kremlin was completed, in the form of a regular square with eight towers, the corner ones were hexagonal and the middle ones were square. In service were 27 guns, 4 mortars and howitzers with two officers and 51 artillerymen. The garrison of the Guryev fortress consisted of 250-300 Cossacks, led by the ataman of the Guryev Cossack team. In 1763, the Collegium of Foreign Affairs of Russia decided to build a redoubt at the mouth of the Emba River for 30 Cossacks with cannons, however, this was not then carried out due to the remoteness from the line and the proximity of numerous Kazakh nomad camps.

On December 23, 1781, by the Highest Decree, Uralsk and Guryev with the villages, the mouth of the Emba River were separated from the Orenburg province to Astrakhan, and on January 24, 1799, the tsarist government issued a decree on the construction of a cordon from Astrakhan along the Caspian Sea to the mouth of the Ural River " to prevent the Kirghiz-Kaisaks from crossing the border”, since the Kazakhs in winter along the ice of the sea with their herds of cattle crossed to the inland for wintering in the sands of Naryn-Kum, rich in pastures.

On December 26, 1803, a new Regulation on the Ural Cossack Host was introduced, consisting of one Life-Ural Hundred and ten cavalry regiments from No. 1 to No. 10, uniform clothing. In terms of civil and economic administration, a military office was established under the chairmanship of a military ataman, two advisers and two assessors.

The office was divided into military and civilian expeditions, the latter also considered court cases.

The number of the Ural Cossack army throughout the XIX century. grew, although in other periods it decreased due to the reorganization and reassignment of certain distances to neighboring Cossack troops. So, in November 1819, the Cossacks of Iletsk and Sakmarskaya villages were added to the Ural army, the number of cavalry regiments increased by two, which were assigned numbers 11 and 12. Later they were transferred to the Orenburg Cossack army.

According to N.E. Bekmakhanov, in the 30s of the XIX century. in total, the Ural army numbered 39,408 souls of both sexes and consisted of six distances or military lines: Verkhneuralskaya, Nizhneuralskaya, Sredneuralskaya, Iletsskaya, Chizhinskaya and Uzenskaya, the centers of which were the fortresses of Kulagino, Sakharnaya, Kalmykovskaya, Iletskaya and others, where the headquarters of the Cossack regiments were located . The distances were divided into villages headed by stanitsa boards and chieftains, the distances and villages included outposts, farms, pickets, cordons, sidings, the distances between which ranged from 10-12 to 25-30 versts. The headquarters of the troops was located in the city of Uralsk, it was headed by a chief ataman, not necessarily of the Cossack class, appointed by the Orenburg Governor-General, he was at the same time the military governor and commander of all the troops of the region.

From 1845 to 1862 the population of the Ural Cossack army increased from 62 thousand to 82 thousand souls of both sexes. Serving and retired (officers, lower ranks and Cossacks in families) amounted to 71695 people, the rest were representatives of the clergy, nobles, serfs, etc. Nationally, almost 90% were Russians, the rest were baptized Bashkirs, Mishars, Tatars, Kalmyks, Karakalpaks and Kazakhs. The latter numbered only 200 people. In 1856, there were 1 generals, 23 staff officers, 259 chief officers, 552 officers, 13,173 Cossacks, and 1,021 young Cossacks (under 17 years old); 3,754 retired Cossacks, 91 sergeants, 91 officers.

Tsarist historians note such character traits of the Ural Cossacks as unwavering devotion to faith, the throne and the fatherland, desperate courage, composure in battle, dexterity, sharpness and sobriety of mind, good spirits, diligence and firmness. The militancy of the Ural Cossacks stemmed, in their opinion, from the proximity to the "independent, violent and predatory savages-Kyrgyz", with whom they waged an irreconcilable war for centuries. The chronicler of the Ural army frankly wrote: “Day and night, and in reality, and in a dream, I wish that the Cossack had not only what was necessary, but also superfluous. Kirghiz for me is a completely extraneous creation...”. These words are the real credo of Cossack chauvinism and intolerance towards other peoples. Therefore, over the centuries, the relationship between the Ural Cossacks and local Kazakhs has been very complicated, especially in land and water use, although both of them have long been subjects of Russia. P.I. Nebolsin wrote about it this way: “The Ural Cossacks are non-Christian, inhumanely look at the Mukhamedians in general, and at the Kirghiz in particular. To oppress, disgrace, bark at, deceive the Kirghiz is nothing to him: the Urals from time immemorial looked at the Kirghiz as an object that can be profited in every possible way. He sharply criticized the government's policy of setting the Ural Cossacks, especially their leaders, against the Kazakhs. These relations became especially aggravated after the formation of the Bukeev Khanate, or the Inner Bukeev Horde.

On March 11, 1801, Emperor Paul I adopted a Decree on “permission for the Kyrgyz people to roam between the Urals and the Volga and start settlements in the forest areas as convenient.” Thus arose the Inner Horde, or Bukeevskaya, after the name of its first khan Bukei, the grandson of Abulkhair. But the formation of an independent khanate did not bring relief to the masses. From the east, the territory of the Bukeevskaya Horde was surrounded by outposts of the Ural Cossacks, who were against the permission to move the Kazakhs to the inner side, arguing that they themselves allegedly did not have enough land. From the west - the cordons of the Astrakhan Cossack army, and from the north - the outposts of the Uzen military line.

In 1813, the Ural Military Chancellery arbitrarily confiscated a vast territory between the Bolshoi and Maly Uzen rivers, rich in reeds, pasture, and convenient for wintering. To save livestock from starvation, the Kazakhs were forced to pay 15 kopecks for wintering. from a sheep, 50 kopecks. from one head of cattle and 80 kop. for one camel. Of course, not everyone could pay such a huge amount of money. Kazakhs were also forbidden to fish in the Urals and Kamysh-Samar lakes, extract salt in steppe lakes, use watering places, and arbitrarily cross back to the steppe side of the river.

Poverty forced the Kazakhs to sell even their children in order to escape starvation. Documents report that in December 1812, the Kazakh Bukenbai Karazhigitov, due to the extreme need of his large family, sold his six-year-old daughter Atykey to the cornet Ivan Zamyatin for 14 rubles.

When passing the Kazakhs to the inner side, the tsarist authorities and Cossack posts allowed a lot of abuse. So, in the winter of 1812, an official of the colonial administration, Sazonovich, exacted a thousand sheep, 167 cows, 49 camels and 9 horses from the Kazakhs of the Sherkesh clan, 44 cows, two camels from the Kazakhs-Adays, 400 sheep, five horses and four camels from the nomads of the Taz clan. , capturing three Kazakhs. In the winter of 1817, another official, Topornin, without any reason, detained Zholaman Tlenshin, the biy of the tabyn family, chained him in iron and, with a lasso around his neck, took him from outpost to outpost to intimidate others, threatened to send him to Siberia, took 50 rams from him, one camel, and only then let go. When trading Kazakhs in Guryev-gorodok, they were obliged to give people as hostages, they were subjected to deception and violence by the authorities.

The territory of the Ural Cossack army in the middle of the XIX century. amounted to over six million acres, which was equal to the area of ​​​​Bavaria or the Kingdom of Belgium (see table No. 1). For one adult Cossack, there were 500 acres of land, but it seemed to them that everything was not enough, they sought to seize new territories. In 1828, the military ataman appealed to St. Petersburg with a request to give the Cossacks the entire left bank of the Urals, its rich floodplain, as well as the Uzen River in the Inner Horde, seizing them from the Kazakh nomads. Only the intervention of the chairman of the Orenburg Border Commission G.F. Gens, his intercession for the Kazakhs did not allow lawlessness to happen. The dispute between the Ural Cossacks and the Bukeev Kazakhs over the Small and Big Uzen rivers and the Kamysh-Samarsky lakes arose immediately after the formation of the Inner Horde. In 1827, the then Orenburg military governor, Count Essen, allowed the Cossacks and Kazakhs to use these territories jointly, which only temporarily relieved the severity of the land dispute.

On April 7, 1828, Senator Engel, having examined the Inner Bukey Horde, considered it fair to return the river to the Kazakhs. Maly Uzen and all the space between the rivers Bolshoi and Maly Uzen and Kamysh-Samarsky lakes, allocate up to 600 thousand dess. empty land in the Trans-Ural steppe. On February 21, 1831, by the Highest Decree, the 1st Department of the Governing Senate determined: 1) Designate the border of the lands of the Ural Cossack army along the left bank of the Bolshoy Uzen, starting from the border of the Saratov province to Kamysh-Samarsky lake. 2) The entire space between the Malyi and Bolshoy Uzen rivers, except for five outposts on the left bank of the Malyi Uzen as an example for settled way of life (Verbovsky, Glinyany, Mokrinsky, Talovsky and Abinsk), to provide the Bukeev Kazakhs for free nomadism, but not for ownership, but only for use until further notice. This decision took into account the interests of the local population, since 42 thousand souls of the common sex lived in the Horde at that time, there were 500 thousand horses, 100 thousand cattle and 2 million sheep.

The Ural army already in the middle of the XIX century. was one of the wealthiest in the empire. For example, the Cossacks had 561,112 heads of different livestock alone, including: horses - 87,961, cattle - 88,013, sheep - 383,823 heads. Agriculture brought great profits: in 1835 8784 quarters were sown, 24095 were harvested, in 1844 35862 quarters were sown, 186108 quarters of rye were harvested. The revenues of the army consisted of duties on the sale of salted fish, caviar, for tickets for the right of bagreni, for the return to quitrent maintenance of military lands, from the sale of livestock, from interest on capital deposited in credit banks, the most merciful award, etc., the total income troops amounted to 92428 rubles. 29 kopecks, and the expense is only 53,620 rubles. 22 kop. (for salaries, maintenance of a military hospital, delivery of a “present” to the capital - red fish and caviar, for the purchase of bread in lean years, for fishing and salt collection, etc.). Nevertheless, the military office waged fierce long-term litigation for the right to own the left bank of the Urals (the so-called "Bukhara" side) and the territory between the rivers Uzen and Kamysh-Samar lakes - the most fertile and best parts of the steppe, rich in hayfields.

On March 23, 1833, the Governing Senate again created a special boundary commission for the delimitation of lands between the Ural Cossack army and the Bukeev Khanate on the following grounds:

1. The lands between the rivers Big and Small Uzen are presented to the Kazakhs only for temporary use.

2. The Ural army on the left bank of the Small Uzen each of the five outposts is assigned 40 square meters. miles on both sides of the river.

3. Inside the rivers, the Cossacks are allowed to cut the reeds near the fort Glinsky. The Senate pointed out that "the allotment of land should be done in the most harmless way." Sultan Chuke Nuralikhanov and foreman Altai Dosmukhammedov were appointed deputies from the Bukeev Kazakhs, and Yesaul Sumkin from the Cossacks.

In August 1830, the chairman of the commission of the General Staff, Major General Cherkasov, reported on the completion of the work "safely, there were no unrest on the part of the Bukeev Kirghiz." The military office submitted to the commission a “Note on the land needs of the Ural Army and on the positive delimitation of Cossack lands with neighboring lands and provinces”, which substantiated the “historical rights” of the Cossacks in the interfluve of the Uzen and Kamysh-Samar lakes, since they are connected to the Urals through the rivers Mukhor and Kushum . And since, allegedly, according to the charter of 1613, the Cossacks were given the entire Ural River from top to bottom and from top to bottom with all the tributaries and branches flowing into and flowing from it, this region of rivers and lakes undoubtedly belongs to the Cossacks. Although the military office admitted that the existence of the charter "was not proven by the Cossacks, and the government is not recognized."

The needs of the Cossacks were as follows:

1. The Ural River, representing "the nipples that feed their children from the Persians of their native land," should be at the "full and unaccountable disposal of the military authorities."

2. Coastal lands from the mouth of the Urals to the left and to the right for 111 versts have been the property of the troops since 1783 and should remain them.

3. Lake Chelkar on the left bank has long belonged to the Cossacks and "it is unnecessary to talk about it."

4. Both rivers Uzen and Kamysh-Samar lakes are needed by the Cossacks not for fishing, but for cattle breeding, which is "the second important half of the people's well-being of the Urals."

In the note, local Kazakhs were blackened in every possible way, who allegedly do not know how to manage, trample their meadows and invade well-preserved Cossack mowing. Further, the Cossacks asked to delve into their position as “children of their father”, hoped “for the preponderance of the inexhaustible mercy of the Monarchs in their favor”, promised the Tsar-Father and the gigantic Eagle to bring into obedience all the scattered Tribes of the steppe savages”, to serve as a “spear and chest”, they are even ready to subdue “impudent, recalcitrant inhabitants of the Amu Darya or some other tribe”, which the royal finger will point to. In conclusion, the Cossacks asked “what, on the contrary, can the government expect from the Kirghiz, even from the Inner Horde?” The Cossacks insisted on the transfer of the Uzen interfluve and the region of lakes to them.

The official of the Orenburg Border Commission, the collegiate assessor Kuznetsov, wrote in his note that the lands between the Uzens from the border of the Saratov province to the Kamysh-Samar lakes are more beneficial for the Kazakhs, since the Cossacks have domestic cattle breeding, and the Kazakhs have nomadic ones, so they need a larger area of ​​pastures, besides, they have wintering grounds with dugouts located near these lakes.

The chairman of the commission, reporting to Orenburg on the completion of the work of the commission, noted that the Cossacks settled between the Uzens, among 663 souls, were cut into 40 acres each. The border between the Ural army and the Inner Horde was drawn from Zhaltyr-Kul to the south to the Kurkhai Proran on the shore of the Caspian Sea.

Nevertheless, territorial disputes did not stop. So, in 1840, 369 Kazakh wagons at the Nizhne-Yaitskaya line mowed 22 haystacks. Khan Dzhangir Bukeev in the report of the Orenburg Border Commission dated February 7, 1842 N 265 reported that these barren sands are far from the line, the Kazakhs used to graze cattle and mow hay there, there were no incidents until the line commanders found out about this. As a result, this hay mowed by the Kazakhs was returned to the military office.

On April 6, 1845, the Minister of War of Russia, Adjutant General Count Chernyshev, wrote to the commander of the Separate Orenburg Corps stating that the State Council of the Empire had established a commission on the demarcation of the borders between the Ural Cossack Host and the Bukeev Khanate, requested information on the population of the troops, the number of settlements , livestock and how much pastures the Cossacks need, “should they try to spread Cossack cattle breeding or do they already have sufficient funds of their own to keep it in good condition”, about the sources of the well-being of the troops. The military office under the leadership of the ataman Colonel K.K. Goecke prepared an extensive note “Statistical information about the current situation of the Ural Cossack army”. It again proved the rights of the Cossacks to the territory they occupied on the basis of the charter of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich of 1613, and indicated the benefits and privileges given to the Cossacks in different years. For example, on October 28, 1732 - a ban on other residents, except for the Cossacks, to fish in the Urals; dated June 5, 1751 - only Cossacks were allowed to mine official salt; dated June 29, 1783, October 31, 1809, October 30, 1817 - on the prevention of Kazakhs in the 15-verst strip along the Urals. The note indicates the borders of the troops with neighboring Russian provinces and local Kazakhs. In the west, in particular, it passed along the right side of the Maly Uzen River and the Kamysh-Samarsky Lakes to the Porokhovinsky Hillock on the sea to the right of the Urals and to the Granny Hillock on the left side of the river along the Caspian coast (these hillocks were recognized as the border of the army by the State Council on November 9, 1842 .). In the Trans-Ural side, the border went to the Saraichikovsky fortress, bypassed the Inder salt lake, along the left side of the Ilek River to the Ozerny outpost, through it to the junction of the lands of the Ozerny and Linev outposts and the boundary between the Mukhranovsky outpost and the Razsypnaya fortress of the Orenburg army. The total area was 7 million 72 thousand acres of land.

Further, it was written that the Kazakhs have lived here only since 1801, that they are “wild and not only then, but now, a self-serving and envious people”, that they destroyed the steppe to the Volga and encroach on the good Cossack lands between the Uzens and near the lakes. As can be understood from the meaning of this note, the tsarist government wanted to solve the problem based on the population and livestock of the Kazakhs and Cossacks. The Cossacks, on the other hand, argued that 60 thousand inhabitants of the Inner Horde had another 872 thousand dessiatins. in the Saratov province; cattle breeding among them is falling, while among the Cossacks, on the contrary, it is growing from year to year; the Kazakhs have trampled their lands, while the Cossacks have them in good condition; the Kazakhs do not bear any official or zemstvo duties, and the Cossacks equip themselves, etc. At the same time, the Cossack authorities did not take into account that the cattle breeding and pastures of the Kazakhs fell into decline precisely because of the tightness of the land and the lack of fertile meadows and hayfields, which were seized and appropriated by the army. The military office concluded that "the Kyrgyz need an economic order for the use of land, and not new lands." For the Cossacks, however, population growth in the future will lead to a shortage of land, and the government will be forced to look for new ones, or to pay additional cash benefits.

The Khan of the Inner Horde Dzhangir complained about the oppression by the Cossacks, and not only in the land issue, in Orenburg. So, in a letter to the Border Commission on January 31, 1843, he wrote that in the Horde there was “perfect calm and prudence”, but “the Ural Cossacks act with particular harm, constantly not wishing us well, as I was convinced in my 20-year administration ". Khan informed Governor-General Obruchev that there had been riots twice in the Horde and the Cossacks were the main culprits both times, for which more than 20 Ural officers were demoted to ordinary Cossacks. In the winter of 1843, a group of Cossack officers, having arrived in Kazakh winter quarters on the Kamysh-Samar lakes and the shores of the Caspian Sea to buy reeds and camels, asked “unreliable people” about the state of affairs in the Horde, the mood of the nomads, the amount of taxes and “entered into discussions about this ". Khan said with concern that such behavior of the Cossacks and their persistent inquiries “on the subject of everything that is not related to them makes me doubt their real intentions, which I do not know, but from which, due to the fundamental hostility and lust for power of the Urals, I do not expect good consequences” . He asked the governor to enter "in defense of mine and the part of the administration entrusted to me." Khan, apparently, was afraid of some kind of subversive actions of the Cossacks among the Kazakh population, which could lead to unrest in the Horde, shake his power and authority, which he enjoyed in Orenburg, as a result, to infringe on the vital interests of the Horde.

In 1847, the governor of the Primorsky district, Yesaul K. Babadzhanov, submitted a report to the Provisional Council for the Administration of the Internal Bukey Horde about numerous and egregious cases of mass arbitrariness of the Cossacks over the peaceful Kazakhs living here and asked "to deliver satisfaction to the offended Kirghiz from cordon residents."

Another disputed territory between the Kazakhs and the Cossacks was the left bank of the Urals, the most “fertile” due to the abundance of rich hayfields and forests. On April 19, 1862, the Orenburg military governor, Adjutant General Bezak, informed the Regional Administration of the Orenburg Kazakhs that Emperor Alexander II, according to his report, ordered that, until the end of the disputes, the Kazakhs should not be subjected to “any harassment by the Ural Cossacks” and proceed to resolve the dispute, to whom own the left bank of the river. On June 22, 1862, the Regional Board decided that the Ural army does not have any legislative act on hayfields and forests along the left bank, and therefore the left bank strip is divided between Cossacks and Kazakhs “according to the economic needs of both”, according to the number of households in the villages and a wagon in the villages. But the advantage in land use was assigned to the Cossacks. So, if the Cossacks on the right bank of the river do not have enough hay in terms of the number of livestock, then additional plots were allotted on the left "to the detriment of the Kirghiz." If the Kazakhs did not have enough hay on the left bank of the river, then the missing space of hayfields “to the detriment of the Cossacks” was not assigned to them on the right bank. Moreover, only small livestock (i.e. sheep) were taken into account among the Cossacks, and among the Kazakhs, in addition to sheep, horses (one for four sheep) and camels (one for three sheep) were also taken into account. At the same time, the Cossack villages, which did not need meadows on the left side of the river, did not receive them, and the entire bank in this area was assigned to the Kazakhs. The forest was also divided in proportion to the population, and not according to the number of livestock, i.e. again to the detriment of the local Kazakhs, who had more of it. The Cossacks were obliged to allow the Kazakhs to their plots for wintering in the fall, when all the hay was already cut. Kazakhs could mow unmown areas in their favor. The Cossacks had the right to keep guards on the left bank to protect their plots from damage. The authorities, trying to prevent the aggravation of land disputes between the Cossacks and Kazakhs and to observe justice, nevertheless vigilantly stood guard over the interests of the Cossacks, their privileges and considerable benefits. Disputes over hayfields and meadows on the left bank of the Urals, the rights of fishing and grazing there continued for a long time and often led to bloody outcomes. For example, on October 8, 1868, the head of the Saraichik fortress, cornet Rannev, with six Cossacks, found five Kazakhs of the Bershev family fishing on the left bank. They were severely beaten, so that two were barely alive. Taking two more with them, the Cossacks led them to the fortress. On the way, they were overtaken by the pursuit of local Kazakhs, who came to the rescue, armed with clubs and coinage. A fight ensued, the Cossacks defended themselves by using checkers and wounded many. Nevertheless, the Kazakhs managed to recapture their detained comrades.2 And there were many such cases.

Only on March 29, 1871, the opinion of the State Council on the distribution of the valley of the left bank of the Urals between the Cossacks and the “trans-Ural Kirghiz” from the mouth of the river was approved by the Highest. Ilek to the sea. The lands recognized by the Cossacks remained in the indefinite use of the Ural army, and the meadow allotments allocated to the local Kazakhs were transferred to their use. The Kazakhs were allowed unimpeded access to the Urals for watering cattle through Cossack dachas, for which special running ways were created. Lake Chelkar beyond the Urals was "temporarily" transferred to the Cossacks for fishing, while the admission of Kazakhs for watering livestock was carried out according to the rules developed by the Orenburg Governor-General.

Inequality in land use is also visible in the structure of the territories belonging to the Cossacks and Kazakhs. For example, in 1856 the Ural army had 6.2 million dess. land, incl. 4.7 million comfortable and 1.5 million dess. inconvenient, 522 thousand dess. arable land. The total land area of ​​the Inner Horde totaled 6.5 million dess. land, including 5.2 million suitable for pastures, among which there are many salt licks, small salt lakes and salt mud, sand and barren land, burned to the ground. The territory of the Horde gave the population "a livelihood only with moderation in food and limited wants and needs." The Ural army, on the contrary, possessed the Ural and Uzen rivers, Chelkar lakes on the trans-Ural side and Kamysh-Samar lakes on the inner side, and also used the famous Chizhin spills and the Ilek river for haymaking, the shores of the Caspian Sea with rich reeds.

On March 24, 1859, the tsar approved the Regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers on the resettlement of "Kyrgyz, nomadic on the lands of the Ural Cossack army, to the Internal or Trans-Ural Horde." But if, it was said in the document, they wish to be included in the Ural army or another estate, then leave them in place. Even earlier, the Rules for Admission to the Orenburg and Ural Cossack Troops dated August 14, 1848 for Bashkirs, Kazakhs and other Asians were published. They accepted the trustworthy and capable of military service, who had the means to settle and equip for service, and if the troops had free land. It should be noted that it was economic needs, land tightness that pushed the local Kazakhs to join the Cossack estate, adopt Christianity and be baptized.

The dispute between the Ural army and the Bukey Horde did not stop even 30 years after it began. On February 26, 1866, the Orenburg military governor, by his order No. 1498 to the Regional Board of the Kazakhs, established: neither the Cossacks nor the Kazakhs have ownership rights to the lands used. The Cossacks also do not have rights to the land between the Uzen and the Ka-mysh-Samar lake, but only access to it from the left bank of the Big Uzen, leaving the Cossack outposts on the Small. One of the official documents stated that the Cossacks “are not so much in need of the amount of land in general, but rather in the quiet use of the convenient lands of the mezhduzensky plots”, i.e. alone, not sharing them with the Kazakhs.

The governor's opinion boiled down to the following: 1) According to the number of Cossack population in the inter-Uzen areas, cut off a strip of land to the Ural army with the allocation of 40 dess. to each adult Cossack. land; 2) The border between the army and the Kazakhs should be parallel to the Big Uzen, 125 sazhens from the shore; 3) Separate the Cossacks from Rybnoy Sakryl Lake; 4) Kamysh-Samarsky lakes to dissociate in favor of the Kazakhs, providing the Cossacks with fishing on these lakes. Field boundary work on drawing the border line between the lands of the Ural army, the Kazakhs of the Inner Horde and the state lands of the Samara province were carried out repeatedly in 1866, 1871, 1879, remained unresolved until the overthrow of the autocracy and the abolition of the army.

For example, in March 1870, the Senate of the Empire again returned to the issue of the borders between the Ural Cossack Host and the Inner Horde, as now there was a dispute about the border line near the shores of the Caspian Sea, the right to fish on the sea. The dispute was decided in favor of the Cossacks, who were given a territory of one verst along the coast, starting from the borders of the “highest tide”. This opinion of the State Council was approved on March 29, 1871 by Emperor Alexander II.

One of the documents noted the actual needs of the Kazakhs and Cossacks in the space between the Uzens. If the Kazakhs needed it vitally, then the Cossacks needed it only for fishing on the rivers.

The Cossacks gave as quitrent their lands to the Kazakhs and peasants of the Novouzensky district of the Saratov province, i.e. did not use them themselves. The Kazakhs were forced to rent 418,630 dess. from outside agencies. 960 fathoms for the wintering of their livestock. The commission came to the conclusion that the resettlement of 4458 tents of Kazakhs from the Mezhduzen territories from 22290 souls of both sexes, from 178 thousand heads of livestock in the absence of free land is not feasible, therefore, it must be left here for an indefinite period until other places are found. be calculated from the livestock and not exceed the state tax, the Commission noted. In 1873, a new demarcation of the lands of the Cossacks and Kazakhs was carried out, and 2,743 Kazakh winter quarters were demolished and 7,075 dessiatins were cut off from them.

In 1865, the Ural military office came up with a proposal to relocate part of the Cossacks to the lower reaches of the Emba, where to establish a Cossack settlement at the mouth of the river. The resettlement was justified by the growth of the population of the troops, the fall of fishing and the inability of cattle breeding to meet the needs of the Cossacks. It was proposed to evict 200 families of Cossacks from the hunters of the most resettled middle and upper distances, the Iletsk village and the third Primorsky district. The Lower Embensky military post was erected only in 1872, after the administrative reforms of 1867-1868. A local team was kept there, subordinate to the military governor of the Ural region. The advance of the Ural Cossacks to the Emba was one of the links in the further military and economic colonization of Kazakhstan, which entailed the infringement of the rights of the local population in the land issue, its displacement from the fertile region and the restriction of fishing on the Emba River and the Caspian Sea.

The extraction of red fish and caviar was the most important part of the income of the Ural Cossacks, providing a high material standard of living. The tsarist authorities took all measures to protect the rights of the Cossacks to fish. So, already on May 25, 1752, the government transferred the Guryev fishery, customs and drinking fees to the maintenance of the Yaitsky army, setting a fee to the treasury for fishing and fishing 4692 rubles. 69 kopecks, fees - 754 rubles. 10 kopecks, total 5446 rubles. 79 kop. The income from sales far exceeded the expenses of the troops.

By the royal decree of October 18, 1827, the Ural army was allowed to export salted fish from the lakes of the Kazakh steppe duty-free. On December 25, 1850, the State Council of the Empire approved the Rules for the Protection of Military Fisheries of the Ural Cossack Host on the Caspian Sea: at the mouth of the Urals from Powder to Granny Hillocks from the shore for 5-6 soots. depth, 76 versts in one direction, 88 versts in the other, put guard vessels - two large and two small, four boats and 14 small vessels; from the opening of navigation until its end, this flotilla was supposed to ply along the border lines at the mouth, guarding the fishing grounds; the maintenance of ships and ship crews was assigned to the Cossacks themselves, and the audit - to the Astrakhan fishing expedition. On February 22, 1860, the State Council issued an opinion “On the protection of the fishing waters of the Ural Cossack army in the Caspian Sea”, which determined all costs to be attributed to military capital; order of Cossacks on ships to produce from Guryev and neighboring outposts; to cover the costs of protecting sea waters from seal fighting on coastal lands. On July 16, 1896, the decision of the Military Council of the Empire “On the protection of the river and sea waters of the Ural Cossack Host” approved by the tsar again followed.

Fishing in the sea and the Urals was extremely profitable and one of the most valuable sources of enrichment for the Cossacks, since the waters, like the lands, were the communal property of the entire army. For example, in 1847-1856. on average, 16517 pounds of red fish (sturgeon) and 334 pounds of black caviar were mined per year, in 1861-1880. - annually 27231 pounds of red fish and 9230 pounds of caviar, in 1882-1886. on average per year 19261 pounds of fish and 2866 pounds of caviar. For 1847-1856. 6946 pounds of other red fish - stellate sturgeon and 877 pounds of stellate sturgeon caviar were caught annually, and in 20 years, from 1860-1870. - an average of 50740 pounds of fish and 2907 pounds of caviar per year.

The export of fish increased greatly over the years: in 1832-1842. - 705713 pounds, in 1843-1853. - 897178 pounds, and for ten years from 1877 to 1886. fish products (red, black and salted fish) and caviar (red and black fish) were exported 1,286,561.8 poods in the amount of 2,759,154.7 rubles. In general, the profitability of fishing was 282 percent. The net profit of the entire army from fishing was 2,114,904 rubles, while for each male soul there were 43 rubles. 26 kopecks, and for each participant in fisheries -159 rubles. in year. The seal fight on the coastal islands and waters belonging to the Ural Cossacks was not carried out due to its unprofitability and was leased to the Astrakhan fishermen.

The source of the material well-being of the Ural Cossacks was also the merciless exploitation of the local population, especially its poorest part, which was hired by rich Cossacks for seasonal or year-round work as domestic servants, shepherds, mowers, diggers, drivers, watchmen, etc. Saratov merchant Zharkov, who was in the middle of the XIX century. in one of the Kazakh auls, he wrote that the Ural Cossacks “for more than a hundred and fifty years exist only by the fact that ... they hire Kyrgyz for all kinds of work. They mow, and plow, and guard the yard, and go after cattle - they keep up everywhere; and we must do justice - the Kyrgyz are healthy for work.”

The historian of the Ural Cossacks L. Masyanov admitted that the poor Kazakhs “were deprived of rights, served as shepherds among the Cossacks and worked in the field, and, it must be confessed, the Cossacks exploited them greatly.”

The researcher of the economic life of the Cossacks, N.A. Borodin, gives the following figures for the use of hired labor of Kazakhs in the fishing industry, in all its types. In the spring kurhai (sea fishing) in 1883, the Cossacks hired 874 Kazakhs, in 1884 - 451, in 1885 - 616 people. 408 Kazakhs worked annually in autumn bagren fishing; 272 hired Kazakhs, and in 1 882-1886. - 601 people each On winter ice river fishing in 1846-1857. an average of 1196 people were hired annually, in 1882-1886. - 793 Kazakhs per year. On the Uzen rivers during the same periods, the number of hired Kazakhs ranged from 83 to 138 people. On Lake Chelkar, the Cossack fishermen annually employed from 100 to 200 hired workers from local Kazakhs, which accounted for half of all fish catchers. The hired labor of the Kazakhs was also widely used in the Cossack farms and in the conduct of cattle breeding, haymaking and other ancillary work.

The Ural Cossack army, until the very end of its existence, retained in its life and structure many archaic forms and customs that had long disappeared in other troops, for example, “hiring” and communal land use. This was explained by the nature of the appearance of the army, without the intervention of the tsarist authorities, the natural features of the region, where the river and the earth constituted a single biological feeding environment, the dominance of the old principles of military partnership and economic equality in nature management (for example, the Ural River with its rich fisheries was impossible, as land, divided into separate shares / allotments between the households of the Cossacks) and other reasons, and the Ural Cossacks sacredly guarded their independence and originality, up to open opposition to the authorities. For example, such a specific feature of the Ural Cossacks was the lack of share allotment of land, the entire military territory was considered collective common property of the Cossacks. The age-old communal organization of the Ural Cossacks was the cause of conservatism and isolation, isolation from other strata of society, class hostility to the so-called. "out-of-town" and in general to any social reforms. G.N. Potanin called the Ural Cossack community “an archaic monument of antiquity”, that in all of Russia one cannot meet such “solidarity of the population as here, age, social status, rank - everything is united here”, that the entire Ural territory of 600 miles long “is the common indivisible property of everything troops: the fish in the river is also common to everyone. Grass in the meadows, salt in the lake, licorice root, thorn berries, everything is common to everyone. The military economic administration watches with a watchful eye so that any kind of production does not turn out to be a loophole for a zealous individualist to create personal well-being to the detriment of his fellows.

The communal organization of the economic life of the Cossacks was approved in the documents of the Military Council of the empire: dated March 9, 1874 - “06 public economic administration of the Ural Cossack army” and July 5, 1880 - “Regulations on the public administration of the Ural Cossack army” and “Order to the military economic board for the management of the public military economy and common military capital, ”which stated that“ all lands and lands, until changes in economic conditions, are in the general use of the villages throughout the army. Therefore, the Ural Cossacks were economically highly dependent on their community, the exit from which immediately deprived them of any sources of livelihood. But at the same time, communal ownership of land and water, in general, a fair use of the natural resources of nature, contributed to the transformation of the Ural Cossacks into one of the most prosperous inhabitants of the empire. A high standard of living was ensured, as already noted, by unprecedented privileges and privileges of the government, undivided possession of the tastiest piece of Kazakh land and cruel exploitation of the powerless local population.

On the basis of the “Provisional Regulations on Administration in the Ural, Turgai, Akmola and Semipalatinsk Regions” approved by the Highest on October 21, 1868, the Ural Region was created from the lands of the Ural Cossack Host and part of the territory of the former Region of the Orenburg Kazakhs. At the head of the region was a military governor, who at the same time was the commander of the region's troops and the chief ataman of the Ural Cossack army, guided in his management by a special Regulation. Thus, the Ural Cossack army was included in the national system of military and local government without prejudice to its legal and economic status. In 1885, the military population of the Ural region was 99971 people, non-military - 36950 people, or almost 27 percent. all residents. The Ural Cossack community owned 6235335 dess. earth. There were 157 dessiatines per male soul, and 390 dessiatines per household, incl. convenient land - 46.2 dess. On the legal side, all military lands and waters were, by the Highest will, “in perpetual use” of the Ural Cossacks and did not constitute its legal property. Even for the Cossack officers and officials, who actually owned a significant amount of land and forest for life, there was not even a formal assignment to them, as in other troops.

On average, there were 5.2 people per yard. military class. In total, there were 19342 Cossack households, 8486 farmed independently, 2960 semi-independently, together they accounted for 59.3%, 29.3% of households were dependent, used loans from military capital. In 2071, the farm had one or more hired workers from both poor Cossacks and non-military class people (Kazakhs, Russians, Tatars, etc.). Almost 8 thousand households were sown from 1 to 10 dess. arable land, and 3040 households - from 10 to 50 dess. Free lands were leased to peasants and non-residents, which was an important source of income for military capital.

The army had 132,868 horses, 157,466 cattle, 649,547 sheep and goats, 9,416 camels, and 5,439 pigs. Horses and cattle were mostly kept in the northern part with developed arable farming (in the Ural department), sheep - in the south, in the steppe zone (Kalmykovsky and Guryev departments). Gross income from cattle breeding annually amounted to 1,702,159 rubles. On average, there were 6 horses and camels, 3.6 bulls per yard. About 4 thousand households had from 1 to 10 bulls, 1217 households had from 10 to 16 bulls, and 1300 households had 16 or more bulls. Over 6300 households kept from 4 to 50 horses and camels, 2.5 thousand households - two or three horses; 4565 households had one horse, they accounted for 23.5% of all farms. There were 2,705 horseless farms, or 13.9%. Thus, about a third of the Cossack farms were poor and the poorest. And 10.6% of households did not have any livestock at all.

Of course, the processes of property and social stratification were also observed in the Ural Cossack army, though less acute than in other Cossack formations of the empire. Along with such prosperous land and cattle owners as the officers and officials of the Akutins, Borodins, Donskos, Nazarovs, Mizinovs, and others, there were also completely pauperized Cossacks, horseless poor households. It is impossible to explain this phenomenon in the presence of vast and rich land and water sources, considerable privileges and benefits, assistance from both the treasury and military capital, only if we rely on the class approach in Marxist sociology, as before. The horseless economy in the Ural army cannot serve as the main criterion for class differentiation, the Cossacks were engaged in profitable fishing, cattle breeding, melon growing and gardening, trade, private carting, and various crafts. An important source of livelihood was the ancient custom of "hiring", etc. (see table No. 2). Much in the social behavior of the Cossacks and the motivation for their actions also depended on the peculiar Cossack mentality, the age-old psychology of social dependency, dislike for productive work and the habit of idleness, hope for the help of the state and the community, and other circumstances of a subjective nature that influenced the level of material well-being and consciousness of the Cossacks. .

However, despite such enormous privileges, disobedience to the authorities, apparently, was genetically inherent in the Cossacks. On March 9, 1874, a new Regulation on the Ural Cossack Army was approved, consisting of one Life Guards Ural Cossack squadron, nine cavalry regiments and one training hundred. A new provision was also introduced on the conscription of the troops, and the ancient custom of "hiring" was preserved as an exception among other Cossack troops. According to the Regulations, all those who reached the age of 19 were recorded and sworn in as Cossacks. For the first two years, young Cossacks were in the rank of internal servants, then they entered the field category for 15 years of military service, after this period of service they again entered the internal servants for five years and then retired. Each cavalry regiment was six hundred strong, in peacetime there were three regiments in service. A regulation on the public economic management of the Ural Cossack army was also introduced.

But the essence of these new documents was not properly explained to the dark Cossacks. Ridiculous rumors spread that soon the beards of the Old Believers would be shaved, all the girls would be taken to England, the Cossacks would be dressed in soldier's clothes, and the children would be forced to learn to read and write. Then there was talk that the Urals would be taken away from them and settled by peasants from the inner Russian provinces. The army rebelled and refused to accept the new Regulations, divided into two parties: those who agreed and those who disagreed. Cattle, poultry, yards, fishing gear and household tools were taken from the latter. The military field court in Uralsk carried out quick reprisals, the Cossacks were arrested, sentenced to exile, beaten to the point of blood. On May 24, 1875, an imperial decree followed on the deprivation of the Cossack rank and the eviction of 3.5 thousand families to the Turkestan region for disobedience. They were resettled along the Syr Darya in the forts of Kazalinsk, Karmakchi, Perovsk, Turkestan, Zhulek, they were enrolled in military working battalions of 600 people each. Many drowned themselves, throwing themselves from barges into the river. The Cossacks settled better on the Amu Darya, by right of the strong seizing fishing grounds, hunting grounds, tugai and reservoirs.

In 1877, in addition to the Amu-Darya department and the Syr-Darya, 200 Cossack families were evicted, including 555 people. Cossacks also moved to the villages of the Orenburg army with enrollment in the estate of rural inhabitants. During the conquest of Central Asia, General M.D. Skobelev put forward ideas about the creation of the Fergana Cossacks from among the repressed Ural Cossacks. On May 30, 1881, the repentant Cossacks were allowed to return to the Urals, which was used by 500 people. In 1891, in honor of the 300th anniversary of the Ural Cossack army, an amnesty was announced, but many refused and remained in their new place of residence. Turkestan Cossacks returned to the Urals only after the October Revolution of 1917.

In 1886, according to the states of peacetime, the Ural army fielded three cavalry regiments of 15 hundreds and one separate wartime hundred - eight cavalry regiments of 45 hundreds. The regular composition of the troops in peacetime was 103 headquarters and chief officers, 2662 conscripts and Cossacks, in wartime -181 officers and 7804 Cossacks. The armament of each combatant Cossack was regular - a rifle, a revolver, a saber and pikes at the first line. The Ural Cossack regiments, together with the Orenburg ones, were part of the 14th Cavalry Division and served partly in European Russia, partly in Turkestan and the steppe fortifications (Aktobe, Irgizsky, Nizhne-Embensky, Temirsky, Turgaysky, Uilsky, Fort Karabutok). As noted in the jubilee tsarist edition, the Ural (Yaik) Cossacks, occupying “the southeastern corner of European Russia”, became “the guard of the Russian people on the river, which serves as the border between Europe and Asia.”

Supporting the Don Cossack Emelyan Pugachev, the Yaik Cossacks pronounced a death sentence on their freemen. There was no mercy from Mother Empress: Yaik became the Urals, and the Yaik army became the Urals. Thus began a new page in the history of the Yaik Cossacks, no less remarkable than the first ...

New army, new rules

On April 10, 1798, an imperial decree followed, according to which it was prescribed to "accurately count the Bashkirs, Cossacks and Kalmyks who could serve, counting by years from 25 to 50 years and divide them into cantons ..." By decree, the Ural army was divided into two cantons. The canton chiefs were endowed with full military and economic power, they were obliged to monitor the correctness of the service, sorted out quarrels, and appointed marching atamans. They also saw to it that the farms of the serving Cossacks did not fall into decay.

A new step in the management of the Ural Cossack army was adopted on December 26, 1803 Regulations on the management of the Ural Cossack army. Similar decrees were adopted in relation to other Cossack troops. According to the Regulations, all Cossack officers, who from now on were enrolled in the service only by the highest decree, were equalized in ranks with officers of the regular troops. In addition, a new staff of the military office was introduced. Moreover, one member and the secretary of the office were subordinate to the military ataman, and the rest - to the Orenburg civil governor. The ataman was now entitled to a salary of 600 rubles a year.

For the authorities, the benefit of preserving and strengthening the Cossack troops was obvious, which, on the one hand, were a powerful military force, and on the other, they cost the treasury quite cheaply, since they supported themselves.

Emperor Nicholas I continued the work begun by his father to unify the structure of the Cossack troops of Russia. The decree of October 2, 1827 declared the crown prince to be the august chieftain of all the Cossack troops of the country, which finally eliminated even nominal Cossack autonomy (election of chieftains was finally replaced by appointment). At the same time, the government increases the number of Cossack troops. As a result, in 1835 the total number of the Orenburg and Ural Cossack troops was 72 thousand people.

On March 9, 1874, a new regulation on the Ural Cossack army was approved, which determined the number of troops at 9,500 combatant Cossacks, while the neighboring Orenburg army numbered 19,278 Cossacks and officers. The service staff of the Cossack troops was divided into three categories: preparatory, drill and reserve. The Cossack had to come to active duty with his drill horse, a full saddle set, a set of summer, winter and ceremonial uniforms, a saber and a pike of established samples. The total cost of equipment was over 200 rubles.

Pugachev's uprising toughened the policy of the authorities aimed at the final elimination of Cossack liberties. During XIX century, the autonomy of the Cossacks was finally eliminated, and the heir to the imperial throne became the chieftain of all Cossack troops.

In the police service

Since the beginning of the 19th century, the government has been actively recruiting Ural Cossacks for military and police service in various provinces of the empire. From 1818, the Ural Cossacks for almost 50 years (until 1865) guarded public order in Moscow. As I. Zheleznov wrote, “Which Muscovite does not know that at almost every step of the ancient capital, where there is a police post ... you can meet a Cossack? However, the Cossack can be found everywhere and everywhere, not only in Moscow, but also in its vicinity ... ". The Cossacks performed police service conscientiously, honestly and skillfully.

The Ural Cossacks were also sent to other provinces, they were also sent to Perm and Kazan to carry out military and police service. More often than others, the Ural Cossacks guarded the Nizhny Novgorod Fair. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, there were few police at the fair, “but on the other hand, at every intersection one could see a Ural Cossack with an animal-like, tanned Kalmyk physiognomy, with a rifle over his shoulders and with a whip in his hand.”

Despite the fact that the "police" service was less dangerous and hectic, as on the Line, the Cossacks perceived it as a burden that tears them away from home and household. This irritated the Cossacks, who often behaved "freely" in this service. The historian of the Nizhny Novgorod fair P. Melnikov wrote: “In general, the Cossacks behaved at the fair as in some conquered enemy city. Cossacks ... often helped to rob. For what the robbers shared with them, or, having galloped, they beat both the robbers and the robbed with whips, and then they demanded a ransom from both of them ”.

Free in spirit, the Cossacks perceived the police service as an extra burden, but for almost fifty years it was the Cossacks who were the main guardians of order and peace for the citizens of the ancient capital - Moscow and other cities of the Russian Empire.

At war

The disgrace under Catherine II was replaced by the loyal attitude of Paul I, who not only consigned to oblivion the participation of the Ural Cossacks in the Pugachev rebellion, granted five imperial banners to the army, and also ordered the formation of the Ural Hundred as part of his convoy of the Life Guards.

Unfolded at the end of the XVIII century. a storm in Europe (the French Revolution) also captured Russia, which in 1797 joined the anti-French coalition. Thus began a long series of European campaigns. In addition, Russia constantly had to wage smaller, but no less important wars with the Ottoman Empire, Iran, and Sweden.

In 1798, two regiments of Ural Cossacks (800 people) were sent to participate in the Italian campaign, and the team of the Life Guards of the Ural Hundred showed itself in battles in Hanover. During the Russian-Swedish war of 1808-1809, the Urals took part in the capture of the Aland Islands, showing extraordinary courage: in 8 hours, the Ural Cossacks as part of the detachment of Major General Ya.P. Kulneva crossed the Gulf of Bothnia on the ice and occupied a foothold on the Swedish coast, being in close proximity to the capital of Sweden.

Four regiments of the Ural Cossacks took an active part in the Russian-Turkish war of 1806-1812, in the battles at the fortresses of Iskach, Brailov, Yantra and others.

Separately among the heroic pages of the Russian Cossacks is participation in the Patriotic War of 1812 and in the foreign campaigns of the Russian army. In the era of Napoleon, there was a revolution in military affairs, when the European armies abandoned the battle in close formations and switched to actions in separate columns. Under these conditions, ample opportunities opened up for the use of light Cossack cavalry, which could quickly attack the flanks and rear of the enemy, keeping him in constant tension. In the Patriotic War of 1812, all Cossack formations were headed by the Don Cossack M.I. Platov. In the campaign of 1813-1814, 6 Ural regiments were mobilized, distinguished themselves near Dresden, Leipzig and during the capture of Paris. Moreover, the Ural Cossacks were among the first to enter Paris: “Cossacks, brothers, all Urals / How they entered Paris, the French city, / They dismissed the royal banners.” Left in the cordon service along the Neman and Vistula rivers, the Ural Cossacks carried it incessantly for almost eight and a half years.

The Russian-Turkish wars, which happened so often in the 19th century, did not bypass the Ural Cossacks. The Ural Cossack regiments of B. Khoroshkhin and his son P. Khoroshkhin, who participated in the war of 1828-1829 and in the Crimean War (1853-1856), covered themselves with heroic glory. In the Crimean War, the Urals fought near Sevastopol, where they overturned the Cardigan brigade, Balaklava and near the Black River. In that war, the Ural Cossacks participated in 15 battles, and P. Khoroshkhin was awarded three orders and a golden checker with the inscription "For Courage".

Only a separate Ural Cossack Hundred took part in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, which was partly due to the mass unwillingness of the Ural Cossacks to accept the “new position” on the army (1874), but the main factor was that the war in the Balkans coincided with the end annexation of Central Asia, in which the Ural army took a particularly active part.

For the merits of the Ural army before the Russian state, in May 1884 he was granted the St. George banner, the inscriptions on which read: “To the valiant Ural army for excellent, diligent, combat feats marked by service” and “1591-1884”.

On the southern borders of the empire

The failures of the first campaigns of the Ural Cossacks in the Central Asian steppes temporarily suspended the activity of the Russian Empire in the southern direction. Here, the main task of the Cossacks was to carry out border service and build defensive lines. Of particular concern were the Kazakhs, who until 1925 were officially called "Kyrgyz".

On Yaik, the Nizhne-Yaik line was rebuilt, consisting of fortresses and outposts, where the Cossacks and their families lived. In addition, the Ural Cossacks were supposed to serve on the Orenburg and Siberian fortified lines. During the second half of the 18th century, the state gradually accumulated a population on the border lines, which was replenished at the expense of runaway and sent peasants, at the expense of exiled Don and other Cossacks. So, in 1795, 141 families of Don Cossacks were exiled to the Orenburg line for participating in the uprising. In July 1801, 175 male souls from the Tatars were enrolled in the Orenburg Cossacks. The Ural Cossacks guarded the border in small numbers, flatly refusing the help of "outsiders".

Having accumulated considerable strength and experience, since the beginning of the 19th century, the Cossacks, by the Highest order and under the guidance of officers of the General Staff, began to organize reconnaissance expeditions to the "Wild Steppe", and also guard convoys of merchant caravans heading to Bukhara, and embassy missions. The Urals, along with the Orenburg Cossacks, made up the first garrisons of Russian fortresses in the Transcaspian region.

The first attempt at military penetration into Central Asia was the expedition of 1839 in the direction of the Aral Sea, in which two Ural Cossack regiments took part. However, the campaign was unsuccessful: due to illness and cold, more than half of the detachment and almost the entire convoy were lost.

The next campaign, which was also led by the Orenburg Governor-General V.A. Perovsky, took place in 1853 and was more successful. The Cossacks managed to take two Kokand border fortresses - Julek and Ak-Mechet.

A short break in the advance to Asia, caused by the Crimean War and the change of emperor, ended in 1864 with a new military campaign against the Kokand Khanate. Despite the capture of the fortress of Turkestan, the most noticeable for the Ural Cossacks was the "Ikan feat": in reconnaissance near the village of Ikan, 108 Cossacks were ambushed and surrounded by a 12,000-strong Kokand army; during the three-day battle, 57 Cossacks were killed, 12 more died of wounds, the rest managed to break through the enemy units with sabers and pikes and return. The Kokand people lost about two thousand soldiers in that battle.

With the capture of Kokand (1865), Bukhara (1868) and Khiva (1873), the Russian Empire actually completed the annexation of Central Asia, in which the Ural Cossacks took an active part. With the formation of the Turkestan Governor-Generalship, the Ural Cossacks finally lost their border significance. However, a long period of relations with nomadic neighbors was not in vain: nomads familiar with the Urals more easily integrated into the Russian Empire.

On the fronts of World War I

In 1894, by the beginning of the reign of Nicholas II, the number of the Ural Cossack army reached 145 thousand people. Ready for military exploits, the Ural Cossacks showed themselves during the First World War. In total, almost 13.5 thousand Cossacks and officers participated in the war, more than 5 thousand of them were awarded St. George's crosses and St. George's medals.

The Ural Cossacks proved themselves in the Galician operation (August-September 1914), during which Russian troops entered Galicia, participated in the siege of the Przemysl fortress (1915). Cossack regiments often fought rearguard battles, reconnaissance, guarding headquarters and communications.

The speed and maneuverability of the Cossack cavalry were often used by the command: in May 1916, the Ural Cossacks in equestrian formation took two guns and 483 captured Austrians from a raid; On June 2, the Ural regiment captured 24 Austrian officers, 1200 soldiers, 400 lower ranks of the German reserve battalion, took three guns and two machine guns.

The speed and maneuverability of the Cossack troops made it possible to carry out versatile military tasks - from reconnaissance and rearguard battles to raids. However, the prolongation of the war had a painful effect on the Cossack farms, and internal service already caused a muffled murmur from the Cossacks who were striving for the front.

Power is changing...

The Cossacks greeted the February Revolution and the emperor's abdication rather reservedly. The famous order No. 1 of the Petrograd Soviet, aimed at democratizing the army order, did not cause much excitement. The relationship of the Cossacks with their officers was much closer than in the army environment. There was practically no desertion in the Cossack units. The Cossacks did not succumb to any political agitation at all.

However, the Ural Cossacks used the new freedoms to restore the former liberties: portraits of the royal family were removed from the barracks, the army was renamed Yaitskoye, in which they again spoke of Pugachev with praise. On April 22, 1917, a new banner was approved: a red flag with two separate blue ribbons; On one side of the cloth was depicted St. George the Victorious and the inscription "Free Cossacks", and on the other - "Long live free Russia".

The views of the Ural Cossacks were very different from the freedom that the Bolsheviks carried. Calmly accepting the October coup (because of the Bolshevik peace decree) and the establishment of the power of the Soviets, the Ural Cossacks did not accept either Lenin's land policy or the policy of "decossackization". Faced with the threat of physical destruction, the Ural Cossacks (like other Cossack units) were ready to fight to the last "For Faith, Motherland, Yaik and Freedom." But the new government turned out to be stronger, destroying most of the male population in the Cossack settlements of the Urals and abolishing the Ural Cossack army in 1920.

***

For a long history, the Yaik (Ural) Cossacks have repeatedly demonstrated examples of courage, love of freedom and readiness to selflessly serve the Russian state. Opal, oblivion, military failures did not break the fighting spirit of the Ural Cossacks, which, with their military deeds, proved the devotion of imperial Russia ... with which it disappeared into oblivion.

Even many years after the Pugachev uprising, the Ural Cossacks believed that Pugachev was Emperor Peter III, and therefore trusted his son Paul I.

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Vladimirov. Ural Cossacks on a campaign

According to the historical legend cited in all studies about the Ural Cossack army, it is said that in the 16th century the Yaik Cossacks did not have permanent families. The Cossack brought his wife from a raid, and going to another, he left her, “getting” a new one for himself. But one day, Gugnya appeared among the Cossacks on Yaik, he came either from the Don, or from other places, but the main thing is that he came with his wife and did not agree to leave her. With this Gugnihi, the supposedly old custom was abandoned. Most likely, this legend had a real basis, until the 19th century, the Ural Cossacks put candles in churches in memory of grandmother Gugnikh.

Ural Cossacks participated in all Asian campaigns of Russia

In May 1772, the Governor-General of Orenburg, Reinsdorp, equipped a punitive expedition to suppress the rebellion. General Freiman scattered the Cossacks, led by the future Pugachev generals I. Ponomarev, I. Ulyanov, I. Zarubin-Chika, and on June 6, 1772 occupied the Yaitsky town. Then followed executions and punishments, the instigators, whom they managed to capture, were quartered, the nostrils were torn to the rest, their tongues and ears were cut off, their foreheads were branded.

The region at that time was deaf, so many managed to hide in the steppe on remote farms. A decree of Catherine II followed - "It is forbidden by this highest command until our future decree to converge in circles as usual."

Cathedral of the Archangel Michael (1741) in Uralsk - a witness to the Pugachev rebellion

The house of the Cossack Kuznetsov - the "tsar's" father-in-law

In March 1774, near the walls of the Tatishcheva fortress, the troops of General P. M. Golitsyn defeated the rebels, Pugachev withdrew to the Berdskaya Sloboda, Ovchinnikov, who remained in the fortress, covered the retreat until the cannon charges ran out, and then, with three hundred Cossacks, broke through the enemy chains and retreated to Nizhneozernaya fortresses. In mid-April 1774, the Cossacks, led by Ovchinnikov, Perfilyev and Dekhtyarev, set out from the Yaitsky town against the brigade of General P. D. Mansurov. In the battle on April 15 near the Bykovka River, the Pugachevites suffered a heavy defeat (Ataman Dekhtyarev was among the hundreds of Cossacks who fell in battle). After this defeat, Ovchinnikov gathered scattered Cossack detachments and went out to Pugachev at the Magnetic Fortress through the deaf steppes. Either a campaign followed, or a flight across the Urals, the Kama and Volga regions, Bashkiria, the capture of Kazan, Saratov, Kamyshin. Pursued by the troops of Michelson, the Cossacks lost their chieftains, some captured - like Chiku-Zarubin under Ufa, some killed. The army then turned into a handful of Cossacks, then again filled with tens of thousands of peasants.

After Catherine the Great, concerned about the duration of the rebellion, sent troops from the Turkish borders led by Suvorov, and heavy defeats rained down one after another, the top of the Cossacks decided to get forgiveness by surrendering Pugachev. Between the steppe rivers Uzen, they tied up and handed over Pugachev to government troops. Suvorov personally interrogated the impostor, and after that he led the escort of the "tsar" put in a cage to Moscow. The main associates from among the Yaik Cossacks - Chika-Zarubin, Perfilyev, Shigaev were sentenced to death along with Pugachev. After the suppression of the uprising, Catherine II issued a decree that, in order to completely oblivion of the unrest that had occurred, the Yaitsky army was renamed the Ural Cossack army, the Yaitsky town in Uralsk, the army lost the remnants of its former autonomy.

Ural Cossack army

Ural Cossacks (second half of the 19th century)

At the head of the Ural Cossacks were appointed chief ataman and military administration. From 1782, it was ruled by either Astrakhan or Orenburg governor-general. In 1868, a new "Temporary Regulation" was introduced, according to which the Ural Cossack Host was subordinate to the Governor-General (aka Ataman) of the newly formed Ural Oblast. The territory of the Ural Cossack army was 7.06 million hectares and was divided into 3 departments (Uralsky, Lbischensky and Guryevsky) with a population () of 290 thousand people, including the Cossack - 166.4 thousand people in 480 settlements, united in 30 villages. 42% of the Cossacks were Old Believers, a small part consisted of Kalmyks, Tatars, Kazakhs and Ibashkirs. In 1908, the Iletsk Cossacks were attached to the Ural Cossack army.

Medal for campaigns in Central Asia

For the first time, the Yaik Cossacks went on a joint campaign with the regular army to Khiva with the expedition of Prince Bekovich-Cherkassky in -1717. The Yaik Cossacks were 1,500 people from a four thousandth detachment that set off from Guryev along the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea to the Amu Darya. The campaign, which was one of the adventures of Peter I, was extremely unsuccessful. More than a quarter of the detachment died due to illness, heat and thirst, the rest either died in battle or were captured and executed, including the head of the expedition. Only about forty people were able to return to the Yaik shores.

After the defeat of the Astrakhan Governor-General Tatishchev began to organize garrisons along the Khiva border. But the Cossacks were able to convince the tsarist government to leave Yaik under their control, in return they promised to equip the border at their own expense. The construction of fortresses and outposts along the whole of Yaik began. Since that time, the border service of the Yaik army began, the time for free raids was over.

The Urals went on the next campaign to Khiva in 1839 under the command of the Orenburg Governor-General V. A. Perovsky. The winter campaign was poorly prepared, and although it was not so tragic, nevertheless it went down in history as an “unfortunate winter campaign”. From starvation, the detachment lost most of the camels and horses, during winter snowstorms, movement became impossible, constant hard work led to exhaustion and illness. Halfway to Khiva, half of the five thousandth detachment remained and Perovsky decided to return.

Since the mid-1840s, a confrontation with the Kokand Khanate began, since having taken the Kazakh zhuzes under its rule, Russia actually went to the Syr Darya. Under the pretext of protecting the wards of the Kazakhs, as well as preventing the abduction of their subjects into slavery, the construction of garrisons and fortresses began from the mouth of the Syr Darya to the east, and along the Ili to the southwest. Under the command of the Orenburg governor-generals Obruchev, Perovsky, the Urals stormed the Kokand fortresses Kumysh-Kurgan, Chim-Kurgan, Ak-Mechet, Yana-Kurgan, after the construction of the Turkestan border line was completed, they participated in numerous battles under the command of Chernyaev, stormed Chimkent and Tashkent, then under commanded by von Kaufmann take part in the conquest of Bukhara and the successful Khiva campaign of 1873.

Participants of the Ikan battle

One of the most famous episodes during the conquest of Kokand is the Ikan case - a three-day battle of hundreds of Cossacks under the command of Yesaul Serov near the village of Ikan near the city of Turkestan. Sent for reconnaissance to check information about the noticed gangs of Kokand, a hundred met with the army of the Kokand Khan, who was heading to take Turkestan. For two days, the Urals held a circular defense, using the bodies of dead horses as protection, and then, without waiting for reinforcements, lined up in a square, made their way through the Kokand army until they connected with a detachment sent to the rescue. In total, the Cossacks lost in the battle more than half of the people killed, almost all the survivors were seriously wounded. All of them were awarded the soldier's Georges, and Serov was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th class.

However, active participation in the Turkestan campaigns did not save the Urals from tsarist repressions. And the ataman Verevkin, with the same zeal with which he took Khiva with the Urals in 1873, in 1874 flogged and sent the Old Believer Cossacks to the Amu Darya, whose convictions did not accept the provisions on military service he had written.

The era of Central Asian conquests was completed by the campaigns to Khiva in -1881.

Ural Cossacks in the First World War and the Civil War

The wars of the 20th century began for the Urals from the Russian-Japanese, where the 4th and 5th Ural Cossack regiments were sent to the famous Ural-Transbaikal division of General Mishchenko P.I. , famous for daring raids on the rear of the enemy (in this division at that time he served as division chief of staff Denikin A.I. The village of Port Arthur in the Ural steppe remained in memory of this war.

During the First World War, the army fielded 9 cavalry regiments (50 hundreds), an artillery battery, a hundred guards, 9 special and reserve hundreds, 2 teams (over 13 thousand people in 1917). For valor and courage, 5378 Ural Cossacks and officers were awarded St. George's crosses and medals.

After the October Revolution of 1917, the Ural Cossacks suffered the same tragedy as the majority of the Cossack troops in Russia. Having initially taken a neutral position both towards the newly-minted rulers of Russia (the Bolsheviks) and their opponents, the Cossacks only sought to preserve their internal order, preventing the power of the Soviets over them. The Cossacks, especially the front-line soldiers, did not want to actively oppose, and at first they did not try, at the head of the first scattered rebellions were the old people, who cared for the Faith and antiquity.