The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Orthodox Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of … See more

Max Vasmer's etymological dictionary traces the name to the Turkic word kazak, kozak, in which cosac meant 'free man' but also 'conqueror'. The ethnonym Kazakh is from the same Turkic root.
In written s… See more

The origins of the Cossacks are disputed. Originally, the term referred to semi-independent Tatar groups (qazaq or "free men") who inhabited the Pontic–Caspian steppe, north of the Black Sea near the Dnieper River. … See more

The Zaporozhian Cossacks lived on the Pontic–Caspian steppe below the Dnieper Rapids (Ukrainian: za porohamy), also known as the Wild Fields. The group became well known, and its numbers increased g… See more

The native land of the Cossacks is defined by a line of Russian town-fortresses located on the border with the steppe, and stretching from the middle Volga to Ryazan and Tula, then breaking abruptly to the south and … See more

At the outbreak of the disorder on 8 March 1917 that led to the overthrow of the tsarist regime, approximately 3,200 Cossacks from the Don, Kuban, and Terek Hosts were stationed in Petrograd. Although they comprised … See more