Decossackization: categorial-conceptual and personalized historical discourse

Abstract

The word “decossackization” in recent decades has entered into a free and familiar conversation about individual Cossacks and about the Cossacks as a whole, which, it would seem, does not make sense to explain its semantic content, because it is already clear from its very spelling. It is understood that we are talking about the destruction of a very large number of Cossacks. When the question naturally arises, who committed such a terrible act, the answer immediately follows without hesitation: «The Cossacks were killed by the Soviet authorities!». There is nothing to think about here, because the Bolsheviks destroyed almost all the Cossacks. Terrifying figures flicker in the press: from 2 to 10 million people. Further judgments follow in the spirit that it is not worth analyzing anything, since there will never be any justification for the committed crime. And in general, there was one big era of Soviet decossackization. However, this will be only part of the historical truth!The article attempts to understand in detail and separate the wheat from the chaff. First, to determine the historical semantic limits of the concept of «decossackization». Secondly, to bring real historical facts about tragic events for the Cossacks. Thirdly, to find out the temporal historical boundaries of the implementation of the decossackization policy. Fourthly, to delimit the true history of the Cossacks from the political situation of the «guardians for the Cossacks». Fifth, to give the author’s answer to the classic Russian questions: who is to blame, and what to do?!

Keywords

• bolsheviks
• genocide
• discussions
• historical process
• cossacks
• repressions
• village