1721 Russia put the Host under the administration of the Military College and
created a Chancery of Elders to improve communications with Moscow and co-opt
more of the Cossack elite into Russian service. At crucial moments (1718, 1723)
Don Cossack leaders acquiesced to Russian demands by deposing elected atamans;
in 1720 they conducted a census to register members and cut off Cossack status to
newcomers, instituting a passport system. They cooperated with imperial foreign
policy by respecting afixed border with the Ottoman empire and ceasing their
raiding across it. They deployed to war wherever the tsar sent them throughout the
century (three Turkish wars, Polish wars) and even wars against Napoleon.
In return the Don Cossacks preserved their most important autonomies: inde-
pendent military regiments, local self-government (with Russian oversight), tax-free
status, and exclusive landholding. They became an exclusive, territorially bound
group that called itself already in the eighteenth century a“people”(narod). The
highest among them became a wealthy landholding class with enserfed Russian or
Ukrainian peasants; the ataman position become de facto hereditary in a few
families. Social inequities between the wealthy elite and impoverished lesser
Cossacks sharpened over the century. In 1775 after the Don Cossacks had served
loyally in the Pugachev rebellion, Governor-General G. A. Potemkin reorganized
Don Cossack government, paralleling in some ways the 1775 administrative
reforms but different enough to perpetuate the Host’s autonomous status. Potem-
kin introduced a Host Civilian government in the form of a collegial chancery,
much like those at the gubernia level elsewhere. It was composed of the ataman and
six Cossack members, paid by state salary, and subordinate to the governor-general,
who also de facto oversaw the military deployment of the Host under the ataman’s
putative authority. St. Petersburg retained significant oversight, but the provision
of elected assessors from the Don Cossack elders maintained some autonomy.
Potemkin both introduced mechanisms to regularize access to office status and
also moved to equate the Don Cossack officer elite with the Russian nobility,
paralleling the 1775 reform’s reliance on noble officials. In 1796 all Don Cossack
officers were given noble rank.
In many ways the Don Cossacks were the most successful of the many Cossack
Hosts under Russian control since they preserved culture and territory across
generations. Catherine II founded a Guards Regiment of Don Cossacks to reward
those who had stayed loyal during the Pugachev rebellion and by the next
generation, educated Don Cossacks were writing histories extolling the Don
Cossacks’ long devotion to tsar and empire. They maintained their military
autonomies and fought prominently in the tsar’s service to the end of the empire,
becoming identified with fervent Russian nationalism and devotion to the tsar. But
they had also evolved significantly from their original autonomies and military
esprit de corps. Over the eighteenth century, thestarshinaelite became wealthy on
Russian favor, noble status, landed wealth, and living the life of country gentlemen;
the rank andfile was falling into poverty, unable to carry out military service.
Reforms in the 1830s were needed to reorganize the Don economy and redesign
military training so that the Host could maintain its privileged status as honored
irregulars in the tsar’s service.
100 The Russian Empire 1450– 1801