The “Southern” and Caucasian Elements in the Don Cossacks Army in the XVII – early XIX Century

The Don Cossacks were formed on the southern borders of Russia, on the traditional caravan route from Asia to Europe. Therefore, the participation of a number of representatives of other ethnic groups in its formation was inevitable. Modern
researchers have shown that the Slavs and Russians became the bulk of the Cossacks, as evidenced by language, religion and cultural traditions. However, in the course of its existence, Kalmyks and Tatars became part of the Don Cossacks in separate small but
stable groups. The question of joining the Cossacks and the influence of Caucasian ethnic groups on their way of life and culture remains debatable. The proposed article shows what contacts between the Don Cossacks and the inhabitants of the Caucasus existed throughout the history of the Don Cossacks, how the essence of these contacts changed. The most striking examples of the presence of representatives of the Caucasian peoples among the Don Cossack elite and their service in the Don army are shown. Nevertheless, the article says that for a number of objective reasons, there were much more representatives of Turkic-speaking peoples and Greeks among the Cossacks and their elite than representatives of the peoples of the Caucasus. Contacts between the Don Cossacks and the peoples of the Caucasus often had the character of a military confrontation. Don Cossack regiments were sent to the Caucasus, but they were there for only a few years, and then they were replaced, and this limited possible contacts in time. The number of Greeks in the ranks of the Don Cossacks increased during the Russian-Turkish wars. Tatars appeared in the ranks of the Don Cossacks at an earlier stage. Their detachments served the Russian tsars, and they sometimes determined the Don as their place of service.