The Cossacks: Their History and Country


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One of the earliest histories of the Cossacks to appear in English, with an emphasis on the exploits of famous Cossack leaders and Cossack struggles for political autonomy. Originally published in 1919.

From the Foreword: "It is the proudest boast of the Cossacks of today -- as of their forbears of the Ukraine -- that they have never been classed as serfs nor for a moment lost their freeman's instinct for the principles of liberty. While the peasants of North Russia were bowed in shameful submission to the Great Princes of Moscow and later to the 'dark forces' of the Tsar's court and the Baltic-German officialdom of the capital on the Neva, the history of the Cossack inhabitants of the southern steppes was (as we shall later see) a long epic of heroic resistance to the encroachments of autocracy."

- Summary by Kazbek (6 hr 33 min)

Chapters

Foreword 10:45 Read by Kerry Adams
Chapter I. The Origin of the "Free People" 29:59 Read by Owlivia
Chapter II. The Zaporogian Cossacks 40:34 Read by Wolfgang Bas
Chapter III. Yermak and the Cossack Conquest of Siberia 37:06 Read by roselbex
Chapter IV. Bogdan Hmelnicky: A Cossack National Hero 42:59 Read by Piotr Nater
Chapter V. The Struggle for the Ukraine 14:52 Read by thorolfhammer
Chapter VI. Mazeppa 36:30 Read by thorolfhammer
Chapter VII. The End of the Free Ukraine: Little Russia 23:56 Read by thorolfhammer
Chapter VIII. Pougatchev 37:49 Read by thorolfhammer
Chapter IX. The Hetman Platov 43:04 Read by roselbex
Chapter X. The Cossacks of To-day: Organization and Government 21:59 Read by roselbex
Chapter XI. The Cossacks of To-day: The Don 21:57 Read by roselbex
Chapter XII. The Frontiers of Europe 31:48 Read by roselbex