Talk:Cossack

The original article here simply said "From an old encylcopedia". It is obviously from the 1911 EB article, available at http://63.1911encyclopedia.org/C/CO/COSSACKS.htm, so I am editing the remark accordingly. -- Jmabel 00:27, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Where did you found this bullshit? What about neutral point of view? Can you tell me some valuable sources (books or internet resources)? 62.138.55.46 18:20, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)

"where?" - the references are in the text.

"NPOV?"

• if you have something to contibute, you are welcome.
• if you know or suspect that something specific is wrong, you are welcome to correct or raise doubt.
• if you think it is bullshit and have nothing more to say, GFY. Mikkalai 20:17, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I have found that in this article (there are also other) Cossack (in meaning warrior on ukrainian territory, Zaporizhzhya) and Kazak (rusified offsprings of Cossack in Imperial Russia. They lived in Don, Kuban, Terek, Astrakhan, Ural, Orenburg, Siberian, Semiryechensk, Amur, and Ussuri voiskos) often used in the same meaning. It seems to me that some peoples means that Cossacks were nation. This is wrong! Today there are no Cossacks but there are Kazaks. My english is not good enought to write such a stuff but i will try to find some sources in Internet and will post here. 62.159.105.210 11:51, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)

and Jews

I removed the following piece:

The Cossacks are known of of anti-Jewish pogroms, both in Poland (Chmielnicki Massacres) and in Imperial Russia.

It appears that this phrase mixes oranges and orangs here. While it is generally true, but it is not so easy. While the case of Chmielnicki is clear, in Imperial Russia the main History of cossacks article claims that Jews were not allowed to settle in the cossack territory, hence we can speak about anti-Semitism in this case, but not about pogroms. Mikkalai 18:44, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)

--- The sentence removed: Most present-day Cossacks live in or near the Ukraine.

As it stands, the sentence is meaningless ad hardly verifiable. First of all, "cossacks" is not a nationality, therefore it is difficult to count them; no census data of today has an item "cossack". Second, the number of those who can consider themselves as descendants of cosacks in Russia vastly greater than in Ukraine, for various reasons. Mikkalai 01:10, 24 May 2004 (UTC)

Agreed, I think it is fair comment however to say that the Cossacks evolved in the Ukraine despite the fact that they were employed by the Russian authorities to carry out almost all their invasions, raids, conquests and pogroms resulting in their dispersal throughout the former Soviet areas and even beyond.210.118.226.38 08:58, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Ataman

An anon added: or more likely derived from "ataman" in Turkish. What does in mean in Turkish, when did the word enter Turkish language; what is the relation with Hauptmann? Mikkalai 18:39, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Some thoughts

I'm reading Mikhail Sholokhov's 'And quiet flows the Don' and checked out this article to get some historical context. Would it be possible to add in the role of the Don Cossacks in WWI? That's the main focus of the book and it is almost entirely absent in this article.

Also -- could some info be added about the "mercenary" status of the Cossacks until WWI? That's the impression I get from Sholokhov, how true is it to reality?

I think the book itself should be mentioned in the article, along with Polish and Ukrainian works (unfortunately I'm not too familiar with them) It's quite a jumble with sorting out the Polish, Ukrainian, and Russian (not to mention Soviet) versions of history and trying to make everything mostly fair and impartial.

You're to be commended for your efforts! Matthias5 23:24, 24 May 2005 (UTC)