Failed projects of cossack nationalism ideology in the first half of the 20th century

Abstract

The article examines four projects of the ideology of Cossack nationalism in the first half of the 20th century in the context of the history of the Cossacks at the pre-revolutionary stage, the functioning of the "All-Great Don Army" during the Civil War, the formation of the emigrant community of the 1920s-1930s, and the emergence of Cossack collaboration during the Great Patriotic War. As an ideological trend, Cossack nationalism was formed on the Don in the first half of the  20th century, even before the revolutionary events of 1917, based on the works of Cossack historians, writers, and publicists. The totality of the nationalist ideas of the Cossack patriots was caused by the general crisis of the class system, the collapse of the Russian Empire, the subsequent raskazachivanie, the emigration of part of the Cossacks and other tragic events for the Cossacks. The main ideologist and practitioner of Cossack nationalism, Ataman Krasnov, was rejected by the White Cossack Military Circle during the Civil War, and after the Second World War was executed in Moscow for treason to the Russian people. At no stage in the development of Russian statehood did the projects of Cossack nationalism receive a logical conclusion in the form of a Cossack political party and in principle were not supported by the broad masses of the Cossacks and, moreover, by the entire Russian people, but the recognition of this fact does not mean the rejection of the Cossack identity. The Cossack idea as a symbol of Russian patriotism has every right to exist in modern conditions.