COS'SACKS (Russ. Kusak), a race whose origin is hardly less disputed than that of their name. The latter has been variously derived from words meaning, in radically distinct languages, " an armed man, a saber, a rover, a goat, a promontory, a coat, a cassock, and a district in Circassia." The C. are by some held to be Tartars, by more to be of nearly pure Russian stock. The most probable view is that they are a people of very mixed origin. Slavonic settlers scent to have mingled with Tartar and Circassian tribes in the regions to the s. of Poland and Muscovy, in the Ukraine and on the lower Don; and to have given to the new race, first heard of as Cossacks in the 10th c., a predominantly Russian character. Ou the conquest of Red Russia by Poland, numerous Russian refugees fled to the Cossack country; and more on the Tartar con quest of Muscovy. The numbers of the C. were also recruited from time to time by adventurers or fugitives from Poland, Hungary, Wallachia, and elsewhere; but in physique, as in language and religion, the C. have always been mainly Russian. They distinguished themselves in war against Turks and Tartars, and were known as a power ful military confederacy in the 15th century. The kings of Poland and the czars of Muscovy employed them largely to defend their frontiers, especially against nomadic neighbors; but the connection between the C. and their lords paramount was always very elastic, and was frequently repudiated to suit the convenience of either party. The C. are still the outposts of Russian authority towards Siberia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. Living near, or as " free Cossacks" amongst, hostile peoples, the C. devel oped their peculiar military organization—either forming a cordon of military settle ments along the confines of occupied territory, or as isolated camps in the nomad country beyond. Agriculture they eschewed; self-reliance and readiness at all times for defense or assault were their chief characteristics; though such of them as inhabited the banks of the Don and Dnieper, and their islands, became and still are skillful boat men and fishers. Their political constitution was completely democratical; all offices
were elective for one year only; and every Cossack might be chosen to any post, includ ing the supreme one of Attaman or Heunan. This organization they have in great measure retained, though the office of was abolished by the emperor Nicholas, except as a title hereditary in the imperial family. There have been two main branches of the C.—the Malo-Russian and the Don Cossacks. To the first belonged the Zaporogian C., those dwelling near the Porogi or falls of the Dnieper. From them again are descended the Tschernomerian C„ those of the Kuban valley and of Azov. From the Don C. spring those of the Volga or of Astrakhan, of the Terek valley, of Orenburg, of the Ural, and of Siberia. They furnish a large and valuable con tingent of light cavalry to the Russian army, and are very patient of fatigue, hunger, thirst, and cold. The Don, C. give name to a province with an area of nearly 60.000 so.m.. and a population of over a million inhabitants (of whom 20.000 aru Kalmucks). Though the C. have generally been represented in the w. of Europe as little better than fierce savages, they have left a very favorable impression on those who have dwelt among them. Jonas Hanway found them in 1743 " a civilized, and a very gallant as well as sober people;" and many more recent travelers agree in asserting that the C. are in intelligence, cleanliness, refinement, and en terprise greatly the superi ors of the average Russians. See Springer, Die Kosaeken (1877), Wallace Mackenzie's Russia (1877), and an article in the Geographical Magazine for 1878.