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Article: The Cossacks: a super-ethnos in Russia's ribs.
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- December 21, 1996
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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NOVOCHERKASSK AND MOSCOW
THE Supreme Ataman of the Great Brotherhood of Cossack Troops offered a plate of chocolate cake, and his aide de camp poured tea. The topic of conversation was a delicate one to broach with a Cossack leader (Ataman translates as "father of horsemen"), even in such urbane circumstances. Are the Cossacks truly a living people, as they-and the Russian government-say? Or are they more properly a historical phenomenon, a caste or social class, as historians have long agreed?
The Ataman-in civilian life Fyodor Moskalenko-elucidated patiently but firmly a bloodline for the Cossack nation, and, by implication, for himself, which stretched back ...