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[[Cossacks]] were groups of professional warriors first recorded as a separate group of society around late 15th century. Russian Cossacks are typically seen as agile cavalry armed with lances and sabres, while Ukrainian Cossacks mostly fought on feet and were notorious for their mastery of musketeer tactics. Cossacks based near Black Sea river mouths also became pirates/privateers taking advantage of the Ottoman Navy's reduced presence in an area they had thought secure and of the difficulty seeing their low profiled raiding vessels.
There were two main groups of cossacks:
* Zaporozhian Cossacks, named so because their stronghold (Zaporozhian Sich) was located on an island beyond ("Za") the rapids ("porogi") of the river Dnieper. For a while the Zaporozhians helped (for Sich Cossacks) or served (for Registered Cossacks) Poland fighting off Crimean
* Don Cossacks, named because of the river Don. Gradually formed after Brodnici ("ford men", a large multi-ethnic group in southern Ruthenia) intermingled with Mongols and Cumans (traditional seminomad rivals and allies of Ruthenian princes) in the Steppe and thus adopted independent steppe-wandering style of life, as well as their name (the word "Cossack" has Turkic origins, usually reffering to "free men", who could not find their place in society and went into the steppes, where they acknowledged no authority - some other Turkic names have the same etymology - the [[
Other groups included Terek Cossacks, Ussuri Cossacks, Ural Cossacks etc. Cossacks were exempt from tax and were granted some land in exchange for military service, and as such considered minor nobility (that was especially the case with Registered Cossacks in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). Cossack settlements were called "stanitsa" in Russia and "sloboda" or "zymivnik" in Ukraine. These settlements enjoyed higher liberties than common villages, e.g. a serf who managed to join the Cossacks was free from his former owner's pursuit. Cossack numbers swelled during the rule of Ivan IV with people running from plagues as well as from consequences of [[The Purge|oprichnina]] (both removing unfair advantages the top land-owning aristocracy gave to itself, along with their heads, and redistribution of their former lands to the new nobility, which obviously had an impact on said lands' economy), but apparently there was no bad blood, since these actions were perceived as fair, and he was able to rely on Cossacks later.
Zaporozhian Cossacks were "stationed" between the core Ukrainian lands and the peninsula
In XVI century, a group of Don Cossacks led by the famous ataman Yermak embarked on a campaign to conquer Siberia. Yermak perished during this campaign, but it started the Cossack colonization of the Siberian frontier, and Siberian cossacks becoming a new large Cossack group.
In XIX century, the cossacks became a military force trusted by the Empire. Many new cossack hosts were recognized in south-eastern border regions of Russia, such as the Zabaikalski and Amurski cossack hosts in Siberia, and the cossacks became some kind of Russian equivalent to the Texas Rangers.
During the Civil War, the cossacks divided; the poorer ones fought for the Reds, the richer ones for the Whites, though there were also the idea of independent Don and Kuban Republics. In Soviet Russia, the Cossack hosts were eliminated in 1920. During WWII some old Cossack commanders from the Civil War supported the Nazis (and were recognised as "Ostrogoths" by Hitler's regime to mask the idea of working together with the Slavs), while Soviet Union also "restored" old Russian Cossack Hosts, even though these were mostly formed from new guys,
Sometimes this backstory is [[Recycled in Space]] to a greater or lesser degree. When this happens see [[Space Cossacks]].
{{examples|suf= in fiction}}
* ''[[Sienkiewicz Trilogy|Ogniem i Mieczem]]'' Polish historical novel from 1884, set during the Khmelnytsky Uprising of the Zaporozhian cossacks.
* ''[[Taras Bulba]]'' 2009 Russian film featuring Zaporozhian cossacks, based on novel of the same name by N.Gogol.
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* One can only assume this is where the Russian Dr. Cossack got his name from in the Megaman series.
* The Cossacks are Russian unique national units in the recent ''[[Civilization]]'' games.
* In the [[James Bond]] film ''[[
* Cossacks are one of the units for the Russian civilization in ''[[Age of Empires III]]''.
* In [[Mount
* In [[The Most Dangerous Game]] General Zaroff says that Ivan is a Cossack, and considering that Ivan is a [[Husky Russkie]] this seems to be used as a form of [[Mother Russia Makes You Strong]], which is followed up by a similar comment about himself.
* ''[[An American Tail]]'' opens with the Jewish village of Shostka being subjected to a pogrom by Cossacks, while the equivalent cat versions of the Cossacks terrorize Jewish mice.
* ''[[Cossacks: European Wars]]'' appears to be{{verify}} a real-time strategy game where the player takes the role of the cossacks.
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