Brief information from the history of Kuban. Interesting history of Russian Kuban

HISTORY OF KUBAN

4.1. Main events in the history of Kuban

About 500 thousand years ago.

The settlement of Kuban by ancient people

About 100 thousand years ago.

Ilskaya site.

About 3-2 thousand years BC.

Bronze Age in Kuban.

End of IX-VIII centuries. BC.

The beginning of the use of iron in Kuban.

V century BC. – IV century AD

Bosporan kingdom.

VII-X centuries

Khazar Khaganate.

X-XI centuries

Principality of Tmutarakan.

1552

Adyghe embassy to Ivan IV.

1708-1778

Cossacks are Nekrasovites in Kuban.

1778

Construction by Suvorov of the Kuban fortified line.

1783

Annexation of the Right Bank of Kuban to Russia.

1792-1793

Relocation of the Black Sea Cossacks to Kuban.

1793

Founding of Ekaterinodar (renamed Krasnodar in 1920)

1794

The base of the first pages.

1812-1814

Participation of the Black Sea Cossacks in the war with France.

Beginning of the 19th century – 1864

Caucasian War.

1860

Formation of the Kuban region and the creation of the Kuban Cossack army.

1875

The first railway in Kuban.

1918-1920

Civil War.

1929-1933

Creation of collective farms.

Education Krasnodar region.

The beginning of the battle for the Caucasus.

Fighting on Malaya Zemlya.

Liberation of Krasnodar from fascist invaders.

Complete liberation of Kuban from the German occupiers.

Novorossiysk was awarded the title of hero city.

The law on symbols of the Krasnodar region has been adopted.

4.2. The first settlements in Kuban

The Krasnodar region is an area of ​​ancient human habitation. Primitive man appeared in our region 700-600 thousand years ago. A chance find helped establish this.

On the bank of the Psekups River, a tool of primitive man was found - a hand ax. The climate of our region was relatively warm. Its lands were distinguished by fertility and rich vegetation. The mountains and forests abounded in a variety of animals. There were deer and roe deer, bison, bears and leopards here. The waters of the region and the seas washing it abounded in fish. Man collected edible plants, roots, fruits and hunted animals.

With the gradual cooling of the climate associated with the advance of the glacier from the north, human life changed. Hunting large animals becomes one of the main activities. Man uses caves as dwellings, and where there were none, he settles under rocky overhangs, building simple dwellings, covering them with animal skins. There are many known cave sites. These are the Big Vorontsov Cave, the Khosta Caves, etc. Hordes of primitive hunters at that time lived not only along the Black Sea coast, but also along the northern slope of the Caucasus Range. Herds of mammoths, bison, deer, wild horses and words grazed on the vast steppe expanses of the Kuban region. All of them became human prey.

4.2.1. Mounds and dolmens.

About 4.2 thousand years ago, during the Copper and Bronze Age, people already began to cultivate the land with hoes, but cattle breeding played the main role. About 3 thousand years ago they learned to mine iron and make tools from it, including a plow for cultivating the land.

In the mountainous regions of our region and on the Black Sea coast in the second half of the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. Tribes lived who left the most interesting funerary monuments - dolmens. Typically, dolmens were built from five huge slabs, four of which made up the walls, and the fifth made up the roof. In the front slab, as a rule, there was a hole that was closed with a stone plug. Sometimes dolmens were carved in whole blocks and only covered with a slab on top. Dolmens served for burials and were like above-ground crypts.

There were many dolmens in the upper reaches of the Belaya River (a tributary of the Kuban). On Bogatyrskaya Polyana, near the village of Novosvobodnaya, back in the late 19th century. there were 360 ​​dolmens - a whole city with straight streets. The Cossacks called these burials “heroic huts,” and the Adyghe people called them “syrp-up” (“houses of dwarfs”).

At the beginning of the twentieth century. Most of the Caucasian dolmens were broken in order to use the stone to build roads and houses, despite the fact that the burial structures erected more than 4 thousand years ago were revered by the local population.

During excavations in dolmens, copper axes, adzes, spearheads, and clay vessels were found. They built these huge tombs and were engaged in hunting, hoe farming and lived sedentary lives.

At the same time, tribes of cattle breeders lived in the steppes of the Kuban region. They bred cows, sheep, and a horse had already been tamed. Tools were made of bronze, although stone ones also continued to exist. Monuments of those times remain the mounds that are found throughout the Kuban steppe.

Scythian mounds first appeared in the steppe about 5 thousand years ago. Some of them are more than 7 m high and 20 m in diameter. The mounds are visible from afar on the flat steppe expanses where their creators roamed in ancient times. Researchers believe that the stone woman on top of the mound is a statue of a person buried in the mound.

Questions and tasks

1. How did people learn about ancient settlements and their way of life?
2. What are dolmens? Why were they built by the ancient inhabitants of the region? In what places were they preserved?
3. What did people do in ancient times?

4.3. Peoples of the Kuban region in the 1st millennium BC

4.3.1. Scythians and Maeotians

The Scythians lived in the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region. The Kuban region and the eastern coast of the Sea of ​​Azov were inhabited by the Meotian tribes. Just like the Scythians, part of the Meotian tribes that lived in the steppe regions of the Kuban region led a nomadic lifestyle, raising huge herds of horses, flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, moving from place to place in search of new pastures. But the bulk of the population were farmers. They lived sedentary lives in small villages located near rivers and estuaries. The coast of the Kuban River was especially densely populated. The river with its steep banks provided reliable protection from enemy attacks. On the ground side, the villages were surrounded by earthen ramparts and ditches. Fortress walls were sometimes erected along the rampart, built from two rows of fence with earth poured between them. Behind the walls, small adobe houses, covered with straw and reeds, huddled closely together. Life in the settlement began when the first rays of the sun illuminated the east and the darkness of the night left the steppe. Plowmen went out into the fields, shepherds drove herds of cows and sheep, fishermen went down to the river to cast large nets. Plowing was done with a wooden plow harnessed to several pairs of oxen. They sowed wheat, barley, and millet. Millet was stored not in barns, but in pits - granaries. There were stone hand mills in the courtyards. They consisted of a wooden table with a vertical stand and two rectangular stone slabs of millstones. The grains were used to make flour and various cereals.

Craftsmen also lived in the villages. From time to time, thick columns of smoke rose on the outskirts of the village - these were the potters starting to light the kilns in which the dishes were fired. And what kind of vessels did the ancient masters not make! There were jugs here various shapes and sizes, bowls, glasses, bowls, mugs, vases, etc. Some jugs were painted with white and pink paints. Every house had a loom on which women spun yarn.

Sometimes large rowing ships loaded with various goods sailed to the village. The entire population hurried to the market place. Bosporan merchants unloaded expensive multi-colored fabrics, gold jewelry and beads, copper helmets sparkling in the sun, armor and other products of craftsmen of the Bosporan cities. Residents of the village offered in exchange leather and furs, grain bread, dried fish and “live” goods - slaves. These were prisoners of war who were sold into slavery to the Greeks. The former equality in the clan and tribe is disappearing, and rich and noble families are being singled out. They bury their leaders in large mounds with magnificent burial rites. Just like the Scythians, the Meotians killed the leader’s servants, his male and female slaves, horses, and buried them in the grave along with their ruler.

The ordinary population buried their dead in simple shallow holes in common cemeteries. According to the Meotian ritual, vessels with food and drink and personal belongings of the deceased were placed in the grave: weapons for warriors, jewelry for women.

Questions and tasks

1. What tribes lived in the Northern Black Sea region?
2. What territories were inhabited by the Meotians?
3. Compare the occupations of the population at that time with modern types economic activity. What common features can be identified?

4.4. Bosporan Kingdom

On the northern coast of the Black Sea in the 5th–4th centuries. BC. a large slave state was formed - Bosporan. The city became the capital of the state Panticapaeum, present-day Kerch. The second large city was Phanagoria (on the southeastern shore of the Taman Bay.) The city was surrounded by a powerful stone wall and properly planned. Its streets were located perpendicular to each other. The entire territory was divided into an upper and lower city. Currently, due to the partial subsidence of the coast and the advance of the sea, part of the city is under water. The center is located on the lower plateau. There were large public buildings, temples, statues of the ancient Greek gods Apollo and Aphrodite here. The streets of the city were paved, and drains were installed under the pavements to drain rainwater. There were numerous stone-lined wells. In the western part there was a large public building intended for physical education. In the houses of wealthy slave owners, the rooms were plastered and covered with paintings. On the southeastern outskirts of Phanagoria there was a quarter of potters. Residents of Phanagoria and nearby villages were engaged in agriculture. They plowed with a heavy wooden plow and a team of oxen. There were iron hoes and sickles. They sown mainly wheat, as well as barley and millet. Around the city, orchards were cultivated in which pears, apples, and plums were grown. Cherry plum. There were vineyards on the hills surrounding Phanagoria. A large amount of fish was caught in the strait and seas, especially sturgeon, which were exported to Greece, where they were highly valued.

Phanagoria had two harbors - one sea, where ships arriving from Greece moored, and the second - a river on one of the branches of the Kuban. From here, ships loaded with goods sailed up the Kuban to the lands of the Meotians. In the 4th century AD, Phanagoria experienced a catastrophe - a significant part of the city was destroyed and burned. The city was destroyed during the invasion of nomads - the Huns.

Questions and tasks

1. Where was the Bosporan kingdom located?
2. Name the capital and second major city.
3. What was Phanagoria?

This is interesting Phanagoria The Bosporan state was at one time the largest Greek state entity in the Northern Black Sea region. It was located on both sides of the Cimmerian Bosporus, now the Kerch Strait, and occupied its European part (Eastern Crimea, including Feodosia, and the entire Kerch Peninsula) and the Asian part (Taman Peninsula and adjacent territories up to the foothills of the North Caucasus, as well as the area at the mouth of the Tanais River – Don). Phanagoria was one of the largest cities of the Bosporan kingdom. At that time it had its own acropolis or fortress, which was burned during the Phanagorian uprising against Mithridates. After the victory of the townspeople and the death of Mithridates VI, Phanagoria gained autonomy under pressure from Rome, since it contributed to the death of the enemy of the Romans and the establishment of the latter’s influence in the Bosporus, but the son of Mithridates VI Pharnaces around the middle of the 1st century. BC. besieged and destroyed the city. During the period of Queen Dinami's struggle with Roman influence in the Bosporus, Phanagoria took the side of the queen. Rome was forced to recognize the new Bosporan dynasty, and Dynamia, in turn, as a sign of loyalty to Rome, renamed it around 17-12. BC. Phanagoria to Agrippa. At the beginning of our era, three wineries were built among residential areas - cemented or stone platforms for squeezing grape juice. The grapes were crushed with their feet, and the remaining pulp was further squeezed out in bags or baskets. Growing grapes and selling wine were important species the economy of Phanagoria, as well as Panticapaeum and other cities of the Bosporus. It is about this period that Strabo writes that in the Bosporus they carefully protect the grapevine, covering it for the winter with a large amount of earth, which suggests that special creeping grape varieties were cultivated here. In the 3rd century. AD on the site of public buildings in the city center there is a winery, from which the remains of two cisterns (reservoirs) for draining the squeezed juice have been preserved. It is interesting that initially local grape varieties were cultivated in the Northern Black Sea region, and at the beginning of our century. As a result of selection and importation from Greece, grapes with larger seeds and berries appear here. It must be assumed that grape cultivation was carried out mainly on lands located near Greek cities. In the 4th century AD Phanagoria still remains a major city, while many cities of the Bosporus were ravaged by the Goths. At the end of the 4th century. The Huns invaded the Bosporus. The first wave went west, and the second, rounding the Sea of ​​Azov from the east, attacked Phanagoria. From that time on, the Bosporan state ceased to exist, but the destroyed city was restored. Excavations have hidden the remains of structures from the 5th to 9th centuries. In the Middle Ages, the ancient Russian Tmutarakan principality was located on the Taman Peninsula. In 965 Kyiv prince Svyatoslav attacked the Khazars who lived along the Donets and Donets, after which former lands The Bosporan kingdom became a colony of Kyiv. Svyatoslav's son Vladimir, baptized in the Crimean Chersonese, divided his lands among 12 sons who had grown up in paganism, so that together with them they would escape from themselves and their former wives. One of the younger sons, Mstislav, inherited distant Tomatorkan (Greek “Tamatarkha” on the site of the current village of Taman, 23 km from Sennoy). After the death of Vladimir in 1015, Mstislav's appanage became a separate principality, breaking ties with its metropolis. She maintained this position for about 100 years, and then the Circassians conquered her. The Byzantines and Venetians traded here, but in 1395 the city was thoroughly destroyed by the troops of the Mongol Khan Tamerlane (Timur), and in 1486. - Muslim troops. Thus passed the earthly glory of Phanagoria.

4.5. Principality of Tmutarakan

In the 10th century, according to chroniclers, the Kiev prince Vladimir founded on the Taman PeninsulaPrincipality of Tmutarakan.Its center was the city Tmutarakan. In the city there was a princely house, many beautiful buildings, some of them decorated with marble, and a towering church built of stone. Most Tmutarakan residents lived in houses made of mud brick, covered with sea grass. Some streets were paved with stone. The city was protected by defensive walls. Behind them were craft gardens. Residents of Tmutarakan were engaged in crafts, trade, agriculture and fishing. The city itself was located on the shore of a good sea harbor, connecting water and land routes from the east and west. Kievan Rus used them for lively trade with the peoples of the North Caucasus. Merchant boats brought furs, leather and bread here, and returned back along the Black Sea and Dnieper, loaded with fabrics, jewelry, glassware and weapons prepared in the workshops of eastern artisans.

With the feudal fragmentation and weakening of the ancient Russian state, the position of the principality in the Kuban also changed. It became the subject of a struggle between contenders for the Kiev throne. Thus, the envoy of the Byzantine emperor, taking advantage of the gullibility of the Tmutarakan prince, entered his house and poisoned him. Another prince was captured by the Byzantines and kept for two years on the island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean Sea. However, the treacherous neighbor of Rus' managed to take possession of Tmutarakan only in the middle of the 12th century, when Kievan Rus was fragmented into warring principalities. Subsequently, the Polovtsians took possession of the principality.

Questions and tasks

1. Visit the local history museum. Get acquainted with the material on the history of our region dating back to the 10th – 12th centuries.
2. Where was the Tmutarakan principality located? What is the connection between the history of Tmutarakan and the history of the Kyiv state?

Legends were the Black Sea region

Pearl of Gorgippia

In ancient times Anapa was called Gorgippia. The greatest of the commanders of antiquity, Iskander (Alexander the Great was called Iskander in the Caucasus) had a military leader who combined courage, high military leadership and nobility. Iskander sent him on the most difficult campaigns, and they always ended in victory. This was the case in the last battle. But here Iskander’s favorite was seriously wounded and soon died, leaving behind his wife and son. Iskander did everything so that the wife of the deceased would not need anything, and he adopted young Konstantin and was personally involved in his upbringing.

Young Konstantin could not be blamed for his lack of courage. But to a greater extent he inherited from own father nobility, from the adopted - intelligence, from the mother - tenderness. Iskander saw in his adopted son not a warrior, but a politician, and chose the appropriate business for him. He sent him to the northern shores of the Black Sea to Gorgippia in order to come into contact with the northern peoples, establish trade with them and ensure a wide flow of necessary goods from there. Constantine arrived in Gorgippia surrounded by a retinue of magnificent servants, accompanied by a detachment of brilliant warriors. This made a strong impression in Gorgippia. The leaders of both the nearest and the most distant tribes sought to see the messenger of the great Iskander. Konstantin generously showered everyone with gifts and won everyone's respect. From the northern shores of the Black Sea, bread, honey, timber, furs, wool, and leather went to Iskander's empire.

Konstantin received many reciprocal signs of attention from the local nobility. One of the leaders of the Dzikh tribe presented him with five young slave girls as a gift. They were one more beautiful than the other. According to Constantine himself, the young Russian princess Elena was distinguished by her divine beauty.

Having accepted the gift, Constantine secretly granted freedom to the four captives and helped them return to their homes. He kept Elena with him, creating conditions for her worthy not of a slave, but of a mistress. The girl was more than indifferent to this. Longing for her home, she did not notice the favorable attitude of the new owner towards her. She was not touched by the beauty of Constantine himself, who was admired by others.

You are as dissatisfied as before, Konstantin once told her.

Tell me, Elena, what are you missing? Everything will be for you!..

Frowning, without raising her eyes, Elena was silent.

I'm not a slave trader. I do not and will not have a harem. Four of your friends are already free,” Konstantin continued. “You are here with me because I don’t want, I can’t lose you.”

Elena's face expressed despair, tears rolled from her eyes.

Forgive me, Elena. It's not my fault that we met like this. But I love you and I’m ready to prove...

Do you love me?” Elena interrupted. – Are you ready to prove it? Then do with me the same as with your friends. Let me go home. Come visit us and let's talk about love. And now I am a slave, and you are the master who can do anything. I don't believe…

“I love you,” Konstantin repeated. – I can’t imagine love without reciprocity. I can't imagine life without you. What can I do to make you believe my love? Order...

For the first time, Elena glanced furtively at Konstantin. Yes, he's handsome. However, she responded:

I already said...

Sighing, Konstantin bowed and left.

Then a messenger who arrived from Alexandria delivered him Iskander’s challenge. Konstantin left. His father greeted him with a smile.

“I am pleased with your success and intend to encourage you,” he told his son, “Ask for whatever you want as a reward, Konstantin.”

“Thank you, father,” answered Konstantin. “Such a high appreciation of what I have done, your truly divine generosity is the highest reward for me.” I don't need anything else.

But I wouldn’t refuse your advice...

And Konstantin told Iskander about his feelings for the Russian slave Elena and his desire to achieve reciprocity from her. After listening to the frank story, Iskander thought for a moment, then said:

Build for her at the place of the first meeting a palace of such beauty that upon entering it, your Elena will answer “I love you.”

Constantine returned to Gorgippia with a caravan of ships loaded with precious building materials for the palace of love.

Arriving in Gorgippia, Constantine found Helen even more beautiful. Construction of the palace began without delay.

When Constantine brought the one in whose honor it was erected into the pentagonal palace, built of marble and decorated with yakhont, emerald and turquoise, a miracle happened. As soon as she crossed the threshold, Elena was transformed. The sadness and detachment disappeared, the face lit up with a smile, the eyes flashed with delight. She mechanically extended her hand to Konstantin and said, as if the mutual love between them was not the beginning, but a continuation:

You love... Oh, how you love me!...

Konstantin and Elena did not live long where they met. They ended their journey in Alexandria. The pentagonal palace became the pearl of Gorgoppa, which was later renamed Anapa. They say that when, many centuries later, Timur the Iron Leg, having completely destroyed seven hundred cities of the Caucasus, went to the sea and captured Anapa, the beauty of the palace struck him. For the first time, Timur’s hand, which knew no pity, did not rise to a building overshadowed by lofty love and nobility. He bowed to it and left it untouched. The palace disappeared later, during the fiercest battles for Anapa. But the legend of the palace, a hymn to the beauty of the Russian girl Elena, is still alive today.

4.6. Who are the Cossacks

Most of the modern cities and villages of the region were founded by Cossack settlers. The places for the first 40 villages were determined by lot, and the names of most of them the Cossacks brought with them from Ukraine, where they were derived from the names of famous Cossacks (Titarovskaya, Vasyurinskaya, Myshastovskaya) or from the names of cities: Poltavskaya (Poltava), Korsunskaya (city . Korsun).

One of the first villages was named Ekaterininsky. It was destined to become the capital of the Cossack region. According to legend, military ataman Zakhary Chepega, pointing his hand at the thorny thickets near Karasun Kut, exclaimed: “There will be hail here!”

For some peoples, armed border protection is entrusted to special groups of the population. In Russia they are called the Cossacks. Scientists believe that the word “Cossack” itself is borrowed from Turkic languages, where “Cossack” means “free man.” In the Middle Ages, this was the name given to free people who served as scouts or guarded borders in Rus'. The earliest group of Russian Cossacks formed in the 16th century on the Don from fugitive Russian and Ukrainian peasants. Subsequently, Cossack communities developed in different ways. On the one hand, they fled to the outskirts of the state from serfdom, on the other, they arose by royal decree to protect the borders of the empire. By 1917 in Russia there were 11 Cossack troops: Amur, Astrakhan, Don, Transbaikal, Kuban, Orenburg, Semirechenskoe, Siberian, Terek, Ural and Ussuri.

Cossack groups, as a result of contacts with the local non-Russian population, differed from each other in terms of language, way of life, and form of farming. At the same time, all Cossacks had something in common that set them apart from other Russians. This allows us to talk about the Cossacks as one of the Russian subethnic groups (“sub-peoples”).

Cossack settlers in the 18th century. The first villages began to be built in the Kuban. Construction usually proceeded according to plan. In the center of the village there was a square with a church, a school, and the village administration.

4.6.1. Cossack dwellings

The Cossacks built huts from local natural materials: straw, reeds, brushwood, clay. The hut was a frame made of twigs, coated on both sides with clay. The floor is adobe. Roof made of straw or reeds. The outside of the hut was whitewashed. It was divided into two living spaces: a great hut with a Russian stove in the back corner and a small hut.

Kuban, due to the peculiarities of its historical development, is a unique region where, over the course of two centuries, elements of the cultures of different peoples interacted, interpenetrated and formed into one whole.

House building – important element traditional folk culture. This is a big event in the life of every Cossack family, a collective affair. Usually, if not all, then most of the inhabitants of the “region”, “kutka”, and village took part in it.

This is how the turluch houses were built: “Along the perimeter of the house, the Cossacks buried large and small pillars in the ground - “plows” and “podsoshniks”, which were intertwined with vines. When the frame was ready, relatives and neighbors were called together for the first stroke “under the fists” - clay mixed with straw was hammered into the fence with fists. A week later, a second smear was made “under the fingers,” when the clay mixed with flooring was pressed in and smoothed out with the fingers. For the third “smooth strokes, chaff and dung (manure thoroughly mixed with straw cuttings) were added to the clay.”

Public buildings - ataman rule, schools were built of brick, with iron roofs. They still decorate the Kuban villages.

Rituals during housing construction

“They threw scraps of domestic animal hair and feathers at the construction site – “to keep everything going.” The uterus - svolok (wooden beams on which the ceiling was laid) was raised on towels or chains, “so that the house would not be empty.” A wooden cross was embedded in the front corner of the wall, thereby invoking God's blessing on the inhabitants of the house.

After graduation construction work the owners provided a treat in lieu of payment (they were not supposed to take it for help). Most of the participants were also invited to a housewarming party.

Interior decoration of a Cossack hut

The interior of a Kuban dwelling was basically the same for all regions of Kuban. The house usually had two rooms: a great and a small hut. In the small hut there was a stove, long village benches, and a table. The great hut had custom-made furniture: a cupboard for dishes (“mountain” or “corner”), a chest of drawers for linen, chests, etc. The central place in the house was the “red corner” - the “goddess”. The “Goddess” was designed in the form of a large icon case, consisting of one or several icons, decorated with towels, and a table-gon. Often icons and towels were decorated with paper flowers. Objects of sacred or ritual significance were preserved in the “goddess”: wedding candles, “paskas”, as they are called in the Kuban, Easter eggs, buttermilk, records of prayers, memorial books.

Towels are a traditional element of decorating a Kuban home. They were made from homemade fabrics, trimmed with lace at both ends and embroidered with cross stitch and satin stitch. Embroidery most often ran along the edge of the towel with a predominance of floral patterns, a flowerpot, geometric shapes, and paired images of birds.

One very common detail of the interior of a Cossack hut is photographs on the wall - traditional family heirlooms. Small photo studios appeared in the Kuban villages already in the 70s. XIX century Photographed by special occasions: farewell to the army, wedding, funeral.

They were especially often photographed during the First World War. Every Cossack family tried to take a photo as a souvenir or get a photograph from the front.

4.6.2. Cossack costume

Men's suit

Ancient Cossack clothing is very ancient. The Cossack costume evolved over centuries, long before the steppe people began to be called Cossacks. First of all, this relates to the invention of the Scythians - trousers, without which the life of a nomadic horseman is impossible. Over the centuries, their cut has not changed: these are wide trousers - you can’t sit on a horse in tight trousers, but your legs will wear out, and the rider’s movements will be constrained. So those trousers that were worn in the ancient burial mounds were the same as those worn by the Cossacks in the 18th and 18th centuries.

XIX centuries Shirts there were two types -Russian and beshmet.The Russian one was tucked into trousers, and the beshmet was worn untucked. They were sewn from canvas or silk. Steppe dwellers generally preferred silk to other fabrics - louses do not live on silk. On top there is cloth, and on the body there is silk! In winter, they wore short fur coats, which were worn with wool over the naked body - this is how the peoples of the North wear a kukhlyanka.

The friction of wool against the body creates an electric field - it’s warmer, and if a person sweats, the wool will wipe off the sweat, it will not be absorbed into clothes and will not turn into ice.

Cossacks have long preferred outerwear arhaluk – “spinogray” is a cross between a quilted Tatar robe and a caftan. In addition, it was worn over a sheepskin coat in winter and in bad weather. hoodie - a felted sheep's wool cloak with a hood. Water rolled down it, very coldy it did not burst like leather things. In the Caucasus, the hoodie was replaced by a burka, and the hood has long existed as an independent headdress - hood.

There were a great many boots - without boots, horse riding is impossible, and you can’t walk barefoot on the dry steppe. Soft boots without heels were especially popular - Ichigi and Chiriki - galosh shoes, which were worn either over the ichig, or over thick combed socks into which trousers were tucked. Worn and shoes - leather shoes with straps, so named because they were made from calfskin (Turkic shoe - calf).

Cossack stripes were of particular importance. It was believed that they were introduced by Platov, but stripes are found on ancient Cossack clothing, and even on the clothing of the Polovtsians, and even earlier - the Scythians. So under Platov, the wearing of stripes was only legalized, but they existed before, signifying that their owner belonged to the free army.

But the Cossack valued clothing most of all not for its cost or even for its convenience, for which the Cossack “right” was famous, but for the inner spiritual meaning that filled every stitch, every detail of the Cossack costume.

The men's costume consisted of military uniforms and casual clothing. The uniform has gone through a difficult path of development, and it was most influenced by the culture of the Caucasian peoples. Slavs and mountaineers lived next door. They were not always at odds; more often they sought mutual understanding, trade and exchange, including cultural and everyday ones. The Cossack uniform was established by the middle of the 19th century: a Circassian coat made of black cloth, dark trousers, a beshmet, a bashlyk, a winter cloak, a hat, boots or leggings.

Uniforms, horses, weapons were integral part Cossack “right”, i.e. equipment at your own expense. The Cossack was “celebrated” long before he went to serve. This was due not only to the material costs of ammunition and weapons, but also to the Cossack’s entry into a new world of objects surrounding the male warrior. Usually his father told him: “Well, son, I got you married and celebrated. Now live by your own wits - I’m no longer answerable to God for you.”

Bloody wars of the early 20th century. showed the inconvenience and impracticality of the traditional Cossack uniform on the battlefield, but they were put up with them while the Cossack was on guard duty. Already in 1915, during the First World War, which acutely revealed this problem, the Cossacks were allowed to replace the Circassian coat and beshmet with an infantry-style tunic, the burka with an overcoat, and the hat with a cap. The traditional Cossack uniform was left as a ceremonial uniform.

Woman suit

Traditional women's costume has been formed since the middle of the 19th century. It consisted of a skirt and blouse (blouse) called"couple" . The blouse could be fitted or with a basque, but always with long sleeves, and was trimmed with elegant buttons, braid, homemade lace, garus, and beads.

The skirts were made of chintz or wool, wide, with five or six panels (shelves) on an upturned cord - uchkur, gathered at the waist for pomp. The bottom of the skirt was decorated with lace, frills, and small folds. In Kuban, canvas skirts were worn, as a rule, as underskirts, and they were called “podol” in Russian, and “spidnitsa” in Ukrainian. Petticoats were worn under calico, satin and other skirts, sometimes even two or three, one on top of the other. The bottom one was always white.

Festive clothes were made of silk or velvet.

The importance of clothing in the system of material values ​​of a Cossack family was very great; beautiful clothing raised prestige, emphasized wealth, and distinguished them from non-residents. In the past, clothes, even festive ones, were relatively cheap for families: every woman knew how to spin, weave, cut, sew, embroider, and weave lace.

A woman's suit is a whole world. Not only each army, each village and even each Cossack clan had a special outfit that differed from others, if not completely, then in details. A married woman or girl, a widow or a bride, what kind of family she was, and even how many children a woman had - this was determined by her clothes.

A feature of the Cossack women's costume were head capes. Women are not supposed to go to the temple with their heads uncovered. Cossack women wore lace scarves, and in the 19th century. -caps, faceplatesfrom the German word “fain” - beautiful, tattoos and currents. They were worn in full accordance with their marital status - a married woman was never shown without a hairdress or tattoo. The girl covered her head and always braided her hair with a ribbon. Everyone wore lace scarves. Without him, the appearance of a woman in public was as unthinkable as the appearance of a Cossack in combat without a cap or hat.

It is important to note age differences in clothing. The most colorful and best quality material was the costume of brides and young women. The sleeves of their shirts were richly decorated with floral and geometric patterns. The wedding suit was supposed to be carefully stored in a chest: very often it was used as a funeral suit (“clothes for death”), and, if necessary, as a means of healing magic. In Kuban there is a belief that if you wrap a sick child in it, he will recover.

By the age of 35, women preferred to dress in darker, plain clothes with a simplified cut.

Children received a minimum of clothing and often wore out old ones. The shirt was considered home clothing. In poor families, a shirt and skirt could also be a wedding suit. It was sewn from homespun hemp canvas. The main material for the manufacture of homespun fabric was hemp, and less often wool. The fabric produced was bleached in special dugout beech barrels with sunflower or wood ash. In the Kuban villages, home decoration items were made from hemp fabric. Products made from homespun linen were included in a girl's trousseau, which were decorated with embroidery. Thisshirts, valances, skirts - shorts.According to legend, embroidery had the magical ability to preserve and protect from evil eye, diseases, contributed to well-being, happiness and wealth.

Questions and tasks

1. Collect photographs of your relatives and friends wearing ancient clothing. Find out and write down the names of those elements of their clothing that are not in the wardrobe of a modern person.
2. Tell us about fashion, fabrics, decorations in different time in Kuban. Make your own drawings.

Legends were the Black Sea region.

How a son carried his sick father across the mountains

The old Cossack Taras Tverdokhlib was famous and respected throughout the Black Sea region. He fought in the Kuban with the Turks under the command of Prince Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov himself. And he not only fought - Suvorov personally presented him with military awards twice and talked with him for a long time, because Taras Tverdokhlib was known as a brave warrior and a wise interlocutor.

The eminent Cossack also succeeded in peaceful affairs. He believed that a Cossack, if he takes deep roots into the ground, which he protects from adversaries, will stand more firmly on his feet in battle. And Taras Tverdokhlib had a good house, a nice woman, three sons, who, in addition to many enviable virtues, were endowed with the most important thing - respect for their parents. Dobre lived on the banks of the fleeting beauty of the Kuban, Taras Tverdokhlib. There's just one problem: happy Days run fast. The Cossack did not notice how old age crept up, bringing with it debilitating ailments. Over the years, the scarred body of Taras Tverdokhlib turned into a real nest of diseases. And this saddened everyone in the family. The sons were ready to do anything to ease the suffering of their sick father.

Tell me, dad, don’t be shy, how can I help you? - the eldest of the sons, Grytsko, asked.

At first, the father only waved his hand in response. And when Grytsko asked for the twelfth time, the old man said:

Only fire and water can help me, son. But she is far away: on the other side of the high mountains, in a foreign land, by the blue sea. There are no roads there. I can't get there on foot. You don’t have the strength to carry me on your shoulders over the mountains.

I'll try. I am the strongest in the village. Get ready for the journey, dad,” the eldest son answered.

He really looked like a hero. Only he was born and raised as a silent person, he did not know how to talk about himself and his strength.

The preparations were short-lived, and at dawn next day father and eldest son set off. We agreed: the father would slowly walk through his native place, and his son would carry him on his shoulders through the mountains. On the way, Grytsko was silent - he thought about how best to deal with the matter. Time passed slowly in silence. And although it seemed that the mountains were just a stone's throw away, the sick father was mortally tired at the first miles.

Near the mountains, after a short respite, Grytsko lifted his father onto his shoulders and carried him further. But the top of the mountain went into the very sky, the rise became steeper with every fathom. Grytsko somehow managed to overcome half of the climb, but in the second half he was completely exhausted. And ahead is a new, even higher mountain. Out of frustration, Grytsko burst into tears like a little child, but his father calmed him down, and they returned home.

After some time, the middle son Nikola volunteered to carry his sick father over the mountains. Although he was inferior to Grytsk in strength, he was more dexterous and cunning than his older brother.

But no matter what tricks Nikola tried, no matter what tricks he tried along the way, he failed to cross the mountains with his father on his shoulders...

“What are you doing,” the youngest of the brothers, Ivan, reproached Nikola and Grytsko. - So I have to carry my father through the mountains?

“Where are you going, you little brat!” the older brothers shouted at him. “Don’t torment your father in vain.” He will die on the road from just your chatter.

Ivane was the youngest of them, he was sick a lot in childhood, looked like a frail and weak young man and could only sing songs and tell all sorts of fairy tales incessantly...

However, Ivan stood his ground.

“But I’m not here, I’ll ask my mother for permission and I’ll carry my father through the mountains,” he answered the brothers.

Not only Grytsko and Nikola, Taras Tverdokhlib himself was quite surprised that his old woman blessed Ivan for the job.

“Don’t be timid, dad,” Ivan himself began to reassure his father. “You’d better listen to what big and difficult things are sometimes accomplished by small and weak-looking people.”

And Ivan told first one, then another, amazing legends that captivated Taras Tverdokhlib into another, magical world, imperceptibly lifted him out of bed, prepared him for the journey, and gave him strength.

This is how the first day passed.

Dear dad,” he said to Ivana, breaking off another story, “the sun has disappeared behind the mountains. It's time for us to have dinner and retire. You untie the knapsack with food, and I’ll run for water.

The next day, after a sound sleep, the travelers woke up at sunrise. Already at breakfast, Ivane began to tell new legends. Taras Tverdokhlib did not notice when and how he set off, as a new day passed. The same thing was repeated on the third and fourth mornings, and on the fifth Ivan said:

Here, dad, is the valley of happy springs. Another three miles down, and you will be at the fire and water.

How down? - the father was surprised. -Where are the mountains?

They are long gone, dad.

I can’t believe my eyes: you, son, carried me across the mountains so easily that I didn’t even notice. It turns out that you have the greatest power among us...

4.6.3. Cossack food

The basis of nutrition for the Kuban family was wheat bread, meat, fish, vegetables and fruits. The most popular is borscht, which was cooked with sauerkraut, beans, meat, lard, fast days– with vegetable oil. Each housewife had her own unique taste of borscht. The Cossacks loved dumplings and dumplings. They knew a lot about fish: they salted it, dried it, and boiled it. They salted and dried fruits for the winter, made compotes (uzvars), jam, prepared watermelon honey, and made fruit pastilles; Honey was widely consumed and wine was made from grapes.

In Kuban they ate more meat and meat dishes (especially poultry, pork and lamb) than in other places in Russia. However, lard and fat were also highly valued here, since meat products were often used as a seasoning for dishes.

Food was cooked, as a rule, in an oven (in the winter in the house, in the kitchen, in the summer - in the summer kitchen or in a summer oven in the yard). Each family had the necessary simple utensils: cast iron, bowls, bowls, frying pans, horn grips, bowls, pokers.

4.6.4. Family life

Families in the Kuban were large, which was explained by the constant need for workers and the difficult wartime situation. Kazk's main responsibility was military service. Each Cossack who reached the age of 18 took a military oath and was obliged to attend drill training in the village (one month each in autumn and winter) and undergo training in military camps. Upon reaching the age of 21, he entered into a 4-year military service, after which he was assigned to the regiment, and until the age of 38 he had to participate in three-week camp training, have a horse and a full set of uniforms, and attend regular military drills. All this required a lot of time, so in Cossack families a woman played a big role, running the household, caring for the elderly, and raising the younger generation. The birth of 5-7 children in a Cossack family was common. The Cossacks loved children and were happy about the birth of both a boy and a girl. But they were more happy about the boy: in addition to the traditional interest in the birth of a son, the successor of the family, purely practical interests were mixed in - the community gave out plots of land to the future Cossack warrior. Children were introduced to work early; from the age of 5-7 they did feasible work. Father and grandfather taught their sons and grandsons work skills, survival in dangerous conditions, perseverance and endurance. Mothers and grandmothers taught their daughters and granddaughters the ability to love and take care of their families and how to manage their household wisely.

Peasant-Cossack pedagogy always followed everyday precepts, based on the centuries-old ideals of strict kindness and obedience, exacting dignity and diligence to work.

The elderly were especially respected in the family. They acted as guardians of customs and played a large role in public opinion and Cossack self-government.

Cossack families worked tirelessly. Field work was especially difficult during the time of need - harvesting. They worked from dawn to dusk, and the whole family moved to the field to live. Household chores were handled by the mother-in-law or younger daughter-in-law.

In winter, from early morning until late at night, women spun, weaved, and sewed. In winter, men were engaged in all kinds of repairs and repairs of buildings, tools, vehicles; their responsibility was to care for horses and livestock.

The Cossacks knew how not only to work, but also to rest well. On Sunday and holidays working was considered a sin. In the morning the whole family went to church, a kind of place of spiritual communication.

The traditional form of communication was “conversations”, “streets”, “get-togethers”. Married and elderly people whiled away their time at the “conversations.” Here they discussed current affairs, shared memories, and always sang songs.

Young people preferred the “street” in the summer or “gatherings” in the winter. On the “street” people made acquaintances, learned and performed songs: songs and dances were combined with games. “Gatherings” were held with the onset of cold weather in the houses of girls or young spouses. The same “street” companies gathered here. At the “get-togethers” the girls crushed and carded hemp, spun, knitted, and embroidered. The work was accompanied by songs. When the boys arrived, dancing and games began.

4.6.5. Rituals and holidays

There were various rituals in Kuban: wedding, maternity, naming, christening, farewell to service, funeral.

A wedding is a complex and lengthy ceremony, with its own strict rules. The ban on holding weddings during Lent was strictly observed. The most preferred time of year for weddings was considered to be autumn and winter, when there was no field work and, moreover, this was a time of economic prosperity after the harvest. The age of 18-20 years was considered favorable for marriage. The community and military administration could intervene in the marriage procedure. So, for example, it was not allowed to extradite girls to other villages if there were many bachelors and widowers in their own. But even within the village, young people were deprived of the right to choose. The parents had the final say in choosing the bride and groom.

A towel (rushnik) was of great importance in the wedding ceremony of the Slavic population of Kuban. Holding a towel, the bride and groom walked to the church to get married. The wedding loaf was placed on the towel. The towel served as a footstool, which was spread in the church under the feet of the newlyweds. Various wedding officials (matchmakers, groomsmen, groomsmen) were tied with towels. Almost all wedding towels were richly decorated with hand-woven lace.

In the development of a wedding, several periods are distinguished: pre-wedding, which included matchmaking, hand-raising, weddings, parties in the house of the bride and groom; wedding and post-wedding ritual. At the end of the wedding, the main role was given to the groom's parents: they were rolled around the village in a trough, locked in a hill, from where they had to pay off with the help of a quarter.

As throughout Russia, calendar holidays were honored and widely celebrated in Kuban: the Nativity of Christ, New Year, Maslenitsa, Easter, Trinity.

Easter - Bright Sunday - was considered a special event and celebration among the people.

The story about this holiday must begin with Lent. After all, this is precisely the preparation for Easter, a period of spiritual and physical cleansing.

Great Lent lasted seven weeks, and each week had its own name. The last two were especially important: Verbnaya and Passionate. After them came Easter - a bright and solemn holiday of renewal. On this day they tried to wear everything new. Even the sun, we noticed, rejoices, changes, plays with new colors. The table was also updated, ritual food was prepared in advance: eggs were painted, Easter cakes were baked, and a pig was fried. The eggs were painted in different colors: red - blood, fire, sun; blue – sky, water; green – grass, vegetation. In some villages, a geometric pattern called “pysanky” was applied to the eggs. Ritual bread - paska, was a real work of art. They tried to make it tall; the “head” was decorated with pine cones, flowers, bird figures, crosses, and oiled egg white, sprinkled with colored millet.

The Easter “still life” is a wonderful illustration of the mythological ideas of our ancestors: paska is the tree of life, a pig is a symbol of fertility, an egg is the beginning of life, vital energy.

Returning from church after the blessing of ritual food, they washed themselves with water containing red dye in order to be beautiful and healthy. We broke our fast with eggs and paska. They were also given to the poor and exchanged with relatives and neighbors.

The playful and entertaining side of the holiday was very intense: round dances, games with paints, swings and carousels were arranged in every village. By the way, riding on a swing had a ritual significance - it was supposed to stimulate the growth of all living things. Easter ended with Krasnaya Gorka, or Farewell, a week after Easter Sunday. This is “parents day”, remembrance of the dead.

Attitude to ancestors is an indicator moral state society, people's conscience. In Kuban, ancestors have always been treated with deep respect. On this day, the whole village went to the cemetery, knitted scarves and towels on crosses, held a funeral feast, distributed food and sweets “for the wake.”

4.6.6. Folk arts and crafts

It is an important part of traditional folk culture. The Kuban land was famous for its craftsmen and gifted people. When making any thing, the folk craftsman thought not only about its practical purpose, but also about its beauty. Their simple materials - wood, metal, stone, clay - created true works of art.

Pottery production is a typical small-scale peasant craft. Every Kuban family had the necessary pottery: makitras, makhotkas, bowls, bowls, etc. The making of a jug occupied a special place in the potter’s work. Creating this beautiful form was not accessible to everyone; its production required skill and skill. If the vessel breathes, keeping the water cool even in extreme heat, it means the master has put a piece of his soul into the simple vessel.

Blacksmithing has been practiced in Kuban since ancient times. Every sixth Cossack was a professional blacksmith. The ability to forge their horses, chaises, weapons and, above all, all household utensils was considered as natural as cultivating the land. By the end of the 19th century. Blacksmithing centers were formed. In the village of Staroshcherbinovskaya, for example, blacksmiths made plows, winnowing machines and harrows, which were in great demand in the Stavropol and Don regions. In the village of Imeretinskaya they also made agricultural tools, and in small village forges they forged what they could: axes, horseshoes, pitchforks, shovels. The skill of artistic forging also deserves mention. In Kuban it was called “kovan”. This fine, highly artistic metal processing was used in the forging of grilles, canopies, fences, and gates. Flowers, leaves, and animal figures were forged for decoration. Masterpieces of the blacksmith's craft of that time can be found on buildings from the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. In the villages and cities of Kuban.

Eyewitnesses and writers of everyday life singled out weaving from all folk crafts. Weaving provided material for clothing and home decoration. Already from the age of 7-9, girls in a Cossack family learned to weave and spin. Before reaching adulthood, they managed to prepare for themselves a dowry of several tens of meters of linen: towels, tabletops, shirts. The raw materials for weaving were mainly hemp and sheep's wool. The inability to weave was considered a great disadvantage among women.

Integral objects of the Kuban home were weaving looms, spinning wheels, combs for making threads, beeches - barrels for bleaching canvas. In a number of villages, canvas was woven not only for their families, but also specifically for sale.

Our ancestors knew how to make household utensils of openwork weaving in the Slavic style. Cradles, tables and chairs, baskets, baskets, and wattles were woven from reeds, willows, and reeds. In the village of Maryanskaya this craft has been preserved to this day. In the markets of Krasnodar you can buy products for every taste - bread bins, shelves, furniture sets, decorative wall panels.

4.6.7. Traditions and customs of the Cossacks

A Cossack cannot consider himself a Cossack if he does not know and observe the traditions and customs of the Cossacks. The basis for the formation of the moral foundations of Cossack societies was the 1st Commandments of Christ. Accustoming children to observe the commandments of the Lord, parents, according to the popular perception, taught: do not kill, do not steal. Do not fornicate, work according to your conscience, do not envy others and forgive offenders, take care of your children and parents, value girlish chastity and female honor, help the poor, do not offend orphans and widows, protect the Fatherland from enemies. But first of all, strengthen your Orthodox faith: go to church, keep fasts, cleanse your soul from sins through repentance, pray to the one God Jesus Christ and added: if someone can do something, but we can’t - WE ARE COSSACKS!

Extremely strictly in the Cossack environment, along with the commandments of the Lord, traditions, customs, and beliefs were observed, which were the vital necessity of every Cossack family; non-compliance or violation of them was condemned by all residents of the farmstead or village. There are many customs and traditions: some appear, others disappear. There remain those that most fully reflect the everyday and cultural characteristics of the Cossacks, which have been preserved in the memory of the people since ancient times. If we briefly formulate them, we get some kind of unwritten Cossack household laws:

1. Respectful attitude towards elders.
2. Respect for a woman (mother, sister, wife).
3. Honoring the guest.

4.6.8. Cossack and parents

Honoring parents, godfather and godmother was not just a custom, but

the internal need for their son and daughter to take care of them. Filial and daughter's duty to parents was considered fulfilled after the commemoration of the fortieth day was celebrated, after their departure to another world.

The godmother helped her parents prepare a Cossack girl for a future married life, teaching her about housekeeping, needlework, frugality, and work.

The godfather was entrusted with the main responsibility - preparing the Cossack girl for service, and for the military training of the Cossack, the demand from the godfather was greater than from his own father.

Not only parents, but also the entire adult population of the village and village showed concern for the upbringing of the younger generation. For indecent behavior of a teenager, an adult could not only make a reprimand, but also easily “punch his ears”, or even “treat” him with a light slap in the face, and report the incident to his parents, who would immediately “add.”

The authority of father and mother was not only indisputable, but so revered that without the blessing of their parents they did not begin any work or make decisions on the most important matters. It is characteristic that this custom has been preserved in Cossack patriarchal families to this day.

Dishonoring father and mother was considered a great sin. As a rule, issues of creating a family were not resolved without the consent of parents and relatives: parents took a direct part in its creation. Divorce among the Cossacks in the past was a rare occurrence.

Restraint, politeness and respect were observed in dealing with parents and elders in general. In Kuban they addressed their father and mother only as “You” - “You, mother”, You, tattoo.”

Seniority was the way of life of the Cossack family and a natural necessity of everyday life, which strengthened family and kinship ties and helped in the formation of the character that the conditions of Cossack life required.

4.6.9. Attitude towards elders

Respect for elders is one of the main customs of the Cossacks. Paying tribute to the years lived, the hardships endured, the Cossack share, the advancing weakness and inability to stand up for themselves, the Cossacks always remembered the words of Holy Scripture: “Rise up before the face of the gray-haired man, honor the face of the elder and fear your God - I am the Lord your God.”

The custom of respect and veneration for the elder obliges the younger, first of all, to show care, restraint and readiness to help and requires adherence to some etiquette (when the old man appeared, everyone had to stand up - Cossacks in uniform put their hand on their headdress, and without uniform - take off hat and bow).

In the presence of an elder, it was not allowed to sit, smoke, talk (enter into a conversation without permission), and even more so - to express oneself indecently.

It was considered indecent to overtake an old man (senior in age); it was necessary to ask permission to pass. When entering somewhere, the eldest was allowed in first.

It was considered indecent for a younger person to enter into conversations in the presence of an older person.

The younger one must give way to the old man (senior).

The younger one must show patience and restraint, and not argue in any case.

The elder's words were binding on the younger.

In general (joint) events, when making decisions, the opinion of the elder was necessarily sought.

In conflict situations, disputes, discord, and fights, the word of the old man (senior) was decisive and its immediate execution was required.

In general, among the Cossacks and especially among the Kuban people, respect for elders was an internal need. In Kuban, even in address, you rarely hear “grandfather”, “old”, etc., but it is affectionately pronounced “father”.

Respect for elders was instilled in the family from an early age. The children knew which of them was older in relation to whom. The elder sister was especially revered, whom her younger brothers and sisters, until she had gray hair, called nanny, nanny, since she replaced their mother, who was busy with housework.

Children under the age of majority were not allowed to be at the table while partying, receiving guests, or generally in the presence of strangers. It was forbidden not only to sit at the table, but also to be in the room where there was a feast or conversation among elders.

4.6.10 Birth of the Cossack

The Cossacks valued family life and treated married people with great respect, and only constant military campaigns forced them to be single. The single Cossacks (who had taken a vow of celibacy) nursed the newborn baby, and when his first tooth appeared, they certainly came to see him, and there was no end to the delight of these battle-hardened warriors.

A Cossack was born a warrior, and with the birth of a baby his military school began. All the father's relatives and friends brought a gun, cartridges, gunpowder, bullets, a bow and arrows as a gift to the newborn. These gifts were hung on the wall where the mother and baby lay. After forty days after the mother, having prayed a cleansing prayer, returned home, the father put a saber belt on the child, holding the saber in his hand, put him on a horse and then returned his son to his mother, congratulating her on becoming a Cossack. When the newborn's teeth were cutting through, his father and mother put him back on the horse and took him to church to serve a prayer service to Ivan the Warrior. The baby’s first words were “but” and “poo” - to urge the horse and shoot. War games outside the city and target shooting were favorite pastimes for young people in their free time. These exercises developed shooting accuracy. Many of the Cossacks could knock out a coin held between their fingers with a bullet at a considerable distance.

Three-year-old children could already freely ride a horse around the yard, and at the age of five they were galloping across the steppe.

4.6.11. Cossack woman

Cossack girls enjoyed complete freedom and grew up together with their future husbands. The purity of morals, which was monitored by the entire Cossack community, was worthy of the best times of Rome, where special censors were elected from the most trustworthy citizens for this purpose. Until the first half of the 16th century. The spirit of the east still remained - the power of the husband over his wife was unlimited. At the end of the 17th century. housewives, especially older ones, had already begun to acquire great influence in household life and often inspired the conversations of old knights with their presence, and when they got carried away in the conversation, with their influence.

Cossack women for the most part are a type of beauties that has evolved over centuries through natural selection from captive Circassian, Turkish and Persian women. In his story “Cossacks” already in the first half of the 19th century. L.N. Tolstoy wrote:

“The beauty of the Grebensk Cossack woman is especially striking due to the combination of the purest type of Circassian face with the powerful build of a northern woman. Cossack women wear Circassian clothes - a Tatar shirt, a bashmet, dudes, but they tie their scarves in Russian. Elegance, cleanliness and elegance in clothing and house decoration constitute a habit and necessity of life.”

It is to the credit of the Cossack woman that she takes care of the cleanliness of her home and the neatness of her clothes.

The Cossack woman considered it a great sin and shame to appear in public with her head uncovered, wear men's clothing and cut her hair.

Respectful attitude towards a woman - mother, wife, sister - determined the concept of honor of a Cossack woman, honor of a daughter, sister, wife. A man's dignity was measured by a woman's honor and behavior.

In family life, the relationship between husband and wife was determined according to Christian teaching (holy scripture). “Not a husband for a wife, but a wife for her husband.” “Let the wife fear her husband.” At the same time, they adhered to age-old principles - a man should not interfere in women’s affairs, and a woman should not interfere in men’s affairs.

Custom did not allow a woman to be present at the gathering (circle) even to resolve issues of her personal nature. Her father, elder brother, godfather or ataman interceded or presented a petition or complaint on her behalf.

No matter who the woman was, she had to be treated with respect and protected.

IN Cossack society women were so revered and respected that there was no need to give her the rights of a man. In the past, housekeeping was practically the responsibility of the Cossack mother.

4.6.12. Cossack in everyday life

The Cossack spent most of his life in the service, in battles, campaigns, at the cordon, and his stay in the family and village was short-lived. However, the leading role both in the family and in Cossack society belonged to the man, who had the main responsibility of providing material support for the family and maintaining the strict order of Cossack life in the family. The word of the owner of the family was indisputable for all its members, and an example in this was the Cossack’s wife - the mother of his children.

The Cossack perceived clothes as a second skin, kept them clean and tidy and never allowed himself to wear someone else's clothes.

The Cossacks loved feasts and socializing; they also loved to drink, but not to get drunk, but to sing songs, have fun, and dance. At the Cossacks’ table, vodka was not poured, but served on a spread (tray), and if someone intercepted the “excess,” they simply carried him around, or even sent him to sleep it off.

It was not customary to force oneself: if you want, drink, if you don’t want, don’t drink, but you must pick up a glass and take a sip, the saying said: “You can serve, but you cannot force.” The drinking song reminded: “Drink, but don’t drink away your mind.”

The Cossacks had a custom of both men's conversations (walking separately from women) and women's conversations without men. And when they got together (weddings, christenings, name days), women sat on the bottom side of the table, and men on the other, because under the influence of intoxication, a Cossack could take some liberties with someone else’s wife, and the Cossacks, quick to punish, they used weapons.

In the past, only married couples could participate in Cossack wedding celebrations. For unmarried youth, parties were held separately in the groom's house and separately in the bride's house - this was a concern for the moral foundations of the youth.

There was a cult of gifts and gifts. A Cossack never returned after a long absence from home without gifts, and they never went on a visit without a present.

4.6.13. Sea voyages

The sea voyages of the Cossacks amaze with their courage and ability to take advantage of all kinds of circumstances. Storms and thunderstorms, darkness and sea fog were common occurrences for them and did not stop them from achieving their intended goal. In light plows, accommodating 30-80 people, with sides lined with reeds, they descended into the Azov, Black, and Caspian seas without a compass, destroyed coastal cities right up to Farabad and Istanbul, freeing their captive Cossack brothers, boldly and daringly entered into battle with good armed Turkish ships and almost always emerged victorious. Scattered by a storm over the waves of the open sea, they never lost their path and, when calm came, united into formidable flying flotillas and rushed to the shores of Colchis or Romania, awe-inspiring the formidable and invincible, at that time, Turkish sultans in their own capital, Istanbul.

4.6.14. Cossack honor

The Cossacks in their community were tied to each other like brothers, they abhorred theft among themselves, but robbery on the side, especially from the enemy, was an ordinary thing among them. Cowards were not tolerated and chastity and courage were considered the primary virtues. They did not recognize eloquence, remembering: “Whoever loosened his tongue put the saber in its sheath,” “Excessive words make your hands weak” - and most of all they respected the will.

The good fame of the Cossacks spread throughout the world; both the French kings and the German electors, but especially the neighboring Orthodox peoples, sought to invite them to serve.

A characteristic feature of the Cossack soul was the need to show kindness and service in general, and especially to a stranger (to give something dropped, to help lift, to bring something along the way, to help when getting up or leaving, to give up a place to sit, to serve something to a neighbor or nearby during a general feast to the person sitting.Before he himself could eat or quench his thirst, he had to offer it to the person standing next to him (sitting).

It was considered a sin to refuse the request of a beggar and to refuse alms to a beggar.

(it was believed that it was better to give all your life than to ask). They were careful not to make a request to a greedy person, and if they showed greed at the moment of fulfilling the request, they refused the service, remembering that this would not serve any good.

As a rule, the Cossacks preferred to make do with what they had, and not with what they would like, but not to be in debt. Debt, they said, was worse than bondage, and they tried to immediately free themselves from it. Kindness, selfless help, and respect shown to you were also considered a duty. For this, the Cossack had to pay the same.

Drunkards, as in any nation, were not tolerated and despised. Those who died from overdrinking (alcohol) were buried in a separate cemetery along with suicides, and instead of a cross, an aspen stake was forgotten on the grave.

Deception was considered the most disgusting vice in a person, not only in deed, but also in word. A Cossack who did not fulfill his word or forgot about it deprived himself of trust. There was a saying:

“If a man has faith in a ruble, they won’t believe in a needle.”

Some historians, not understanding the spirit of the Cossacks - ideological fighters for faith and personal freedom, reproach them for self-interest, greed and a penchant for profit - this is due to ignorance.

One day, the Turkish Sultan, driven to the extreme by the terrible raids of the Cossacks, decided to buy their friendship by issuing an annual salary, or rather an annual tribute. Sultan's ambassador in 1627-1637. years, he made every effort to achieve this, but the Cossacks remained adamant and only laughed at this idea, even considered these proposals as an insult to the Cossack honor and responded with new raids on Turkish possessions. After that, in order to persuade the Cossacks to be peaceful, the Sultan sent with the same ambassador four golden caftans as a gift to the army, but the Cossacks indignantly rejected this gift, saying that they did not need the Sultan’s gifts.

4.6.15. Cossack's horse

Among the Kuban residents, before leaving home for war, the Cossack’s wife led the horse, holding the reins in the hem of her dress. According to the old custom, she passed on the reins, saying: “On this horse you are leaving, Cossack, on this horse you are returning home with victory.” Having accepted the occasion, the Cossack hugged and kissed his wife, children, and often grandchildren, sat in the saddle, took off his hat, crossed himself with the banner of the cross, stood up in his stirrups, looking at the clean and cozy white hut, at the front garden in front of the windows, at the cherry orchard. Then he pulled his hat over his head, warmed his horse with his whip, and left the quarry to the gathering place.

In general, among the Cossacks the cult of the horse prevailed in many respects over other traditions and beliefs.

Before the Cossack left for war, when the horse was already under the marching pack, the wife first bowed at the horse’s feet to protect the rider, and then to the parents, so that prayers would be constantly read for the warrior’s salvation. The same thing was repeated after the Cossack returned from the war (from battle).

When seeing off the Cossack on his final journey, his war horse walked behind the coffin under a black saddle cloth and a Cossack weapon strapped to the saddle, and his relatives followed the horse.

4.6.16. Cossack has a dagger

Among the linear (Caucasian) Cossacks and Kuban it was considered a disgrace to buy a dagger. The dagger, according to custom, is either inherited, or as a gift, or, oddly enough, it is stolen or obtained in battle.

4.6.17. Cossack etiquette

Parents refrained from clarifying their relationship in the presence of their children. The wife's address to her husband, as a sign of honoring his parents, was only by name and patronymic. Just as the father and mother of the husband (mother-in-law and father-in-law) were for the wife, so the mother and father of the wife (father-in-law and mother-in-law) were God-given parents for the husband.

A Cossack, as a rule, addressed an unknown Cossack woman to the eldest in age - “mother”, and to an equal - “sister”, to the youngest - “daughter” (granddaughter). To a wife - “Nadya”, “Dusya”, “Oksana”, etc., to older women - “mother” or by name and patronymic.

To greet each other, the Cossacks slightly raised their headdress and, with a handshake, inquired about the family’s health and the state of affairs. The Cossack women bowed to the man and his greeting, and hugged each other with a kiss and conversation.

When approaching a group of standing and sitting people, the Cossack took off his hat, bowed and inquired about his health - “Great, Cossacks!”, “Great, Cossacks!” or “Great bulls, Cossacks!” The Cossacks answered: “Thank God.” In the ranks, at reviews, parades of regimental and hundred formations, the Cossacks responded to greetings according to the military regulations: “I wish you good health, sir...”

During the performance of the Russian Anthem and the Regional Anthem, the troops, according to the regulations, removed their hats.

When meeting, after a long separation, and also when saying goodbye, the Cossacks hugged and touched cheeks. They greeted each other with a kiss on the Great Feast of the Resurrection of Christ, on Easter, and kissing was allowed only among men and separately among women.

Among Cossack children, and even among adults, it was customary to welcome even stranger appeared in a farm or village.

Children and younger Cossacks addressed both relatives, acquaintances and strangers: “uncle”, “aunt”, “aunt”, “uncle” and, if they knew, they called the name. An elderly Cossack (Cossack woman) was addressed: “father”, “father”, “didu”, “baba”, “grandmother”, “grandmother”, adding a name if they knew it.

At the entrance to the hut (kuren), they were baptized in the image, the men first took off their hats, and did the same when leaving.

Apologies for the mistake were made with the words: “Please forgive me,” “Forgive me, for God’s sake,” “forgive me, for Christ’s sake.” They thanked you for something: “Thank you!”, “God bless you,” “Christ save you.” In response to thanksgiving they answered: “You’re welcome,” “You’re welcome,” “You’re welcome.”

Without prayer they did not start or finish any task or meal - even in the field.

Immense respect for the guest was due to the fact that the guest was considered a messenger of God. The most dear and welcome guest was considered a stranger from distant places, in need of shelter, rest and care. Regardless of the age of the guest, he was given the best place to eat and relax. It was considered indecent to ask a guest for three days where he was from and what the purpose of his arrival was. Even the old man gave up his seat, although the guest was younger than him.

The Cossacks had a rule: wherever he went on business or to visit, he never took food either for himself or for his horse. In any farm, village, town, he always had a distant or close relative, godfather, matchmaker, brother-in-law, or just a colleague, or even just a resident, who would greet him as a guest and feed both him and his horse. Cossacks stopped at inns on rare occasions when visiting fairs in cities. To the credit of the Cossacks, this custom has not undergone any significant changes in our time.

4.6.18. Kuban speech

Oral colloquial Kuban speech is a valuable and interesting element of traditional folk culture.

It is interesting because it represents a mixture of the languages ​​of two related peoples - Russian and Ukrainian, plus borrowed words from the languages ​​of the highlanders, a rich, colorful text corresponding to the temperament and spirit of the people.

The entire population of the Kuban villages, who spoke two closely related Slavic languages- Russian and Ukrainian, easily mastered the linguistic features of both languages, and many Kuban residents easily switched in conversation from one language to another, taking into account the situation. Black Sea residents began to use Russian in conversations with Russians, especially urban ones. In communication with village residents, acquaintances, neighbors, relatives, they “balakali”, i.e. spoke the local Kuban dialect. At the same time, the language of the Lineans was full of Ukrainian words and expressions. When asked what language the Kuban Cossacks spoke, Russian or Ukrainian, many answered: “Ours, Cossack! In Kuban."

The speech of the Kuban Cossacks was peppered with sayings, proverbs, and phraseological units.

Phraseologisms—stable phrases—capture the rich historical experience of the people and reflect ideas related to the work, life and culture of people. The correct, appropriate use of phraseological units gives speech a unique originality, special expressiveness and accuracy.

4.6.19. Folk poetry

The most common and favorite genre were songs. The Kuban people’s passion for songs can be explained by the tradition of their ancestors, the Cossacks and Don Cossacks, which found favorable conditions in the Kuban, consolidated and developed. The widespread existence of songs was facilitated by the common life of the Cossacks on campaigns and at training camps. The song helped to express various feelings - the reckless prowess of the Cossack, longing for family and homeland. The song repertoire of the population of Kuban was distinguished by its unusual richness and diversity. Some of the Russian and Ukrainian songs made up the general Kuban repertoire. The weak development of calendar-ritual poetry in the eastern villages of Kuban is probably due to the fact that the Cossacks did not engage in agriculture until a certain time. Carols were more common. Shchedrivkas were adopted from Ukrainians and sung in Ukrainian or translated. At Maslenitsa they usually took a goat, that is, they dressed someone up as a goat and took them from house to house singing various songs. On Ivan Kupala - they jumped over the fire. Wedding songs, majestic songs praising the groom, and boyars were very popular. The basis of the song repertoire of the Black Sea Cossacks were historical and geographical songs that reflected the heroic past of their ancestors. Numerous Cossack songs not related to historical events, reflect the life of the Cossacks and their moods. Ukrainian love songs or family songs were also popular; some of them were part of the repertoire of official choirs.

4.6.20 Cossack proverbs

1. The Atamanov community is strong.
2. Without an ataman, a Cossack is an orphan.
3. Not all Cossacks can be atamans.
4. Good Cossack, where is the ataman galloping?
5. He does not boast about the Ataman, but holds on to him tightly.
6. And the chieftain does not have two heads on his shoulders.
7. He left his post and missed the enemy.
8. Be patient, Cossack, and you will become an ataman.
9. Donuts for the chieftains, cones for the Cossacks.
10. A bad Cossack cannot make an Ataman.
11. The Cossacks are all atamans.
12. There are never enough Cossacks.
13. The Cossack is silent, but knows everything.
14. You can see a Cossack under the matting.
15. The Cossack even looks beautiful on matting.
16. I took the matting from the devil, and I’ll have to give back the leather too.
17. He is not a Cossack who is afraid of dogs.
18. For truth and freedom, eat to your heart's content.
19. A good Cossack does not disdain - whatever happens, he cracks.
20. What is great for a Cossack is death for a German.
21. Cossack, what are you doing: if you give a lot, he will eat everything, and if you give a little, he will be full.
22. A Cossack will drink from a handful and dine from the palm of his hand.
23. Dancing is not a job, and anyone who can’t do it is a shame.
24. First, don’t boast, but pray to God.
25. Bread and water are Cossack food.
26. A Cossack lives not by what is, but by what will be.
27. The Cossack is hungry, but his horse is full.
28. God is not without mercy, the Cossack is not without happiness.
29. Don’t scold, Cossack, don’t let your enemy cry.
30. Wherever the Cossack's fate takes him, he will be a Cossack.
31. The Cossack is amusing himself.
32. A Cossack does not cry even in trouble.
33. As it is in the threshing floor, so it is in war.
34. The Cossack Zhurba is not May.
35. Not the Cossack who swims with the water, but the one who is against the water.
36. Why is it cold there if the Cossack is young?
37. I don’t dare cry, they don’t tell me to bother.
38. Stand strong for the truth, then people will follow you.
39. In truth and power.
40. If the whole bulk dies, then the little one will die.
41. We will fight the devil with a council.
42. Whoever lags behind the partnership, let him lose his skin.
43. Where there is a Cossack, there is glory.
44. Walk straight, look boldly.
45. Even the bullet is afraid of the truth.
46. Believe in God, beat the enemy, destroy the earth, destroy the zhinka.
47. A Cossack's mother gave birth once, and once she died.
48. The Cossack is not afraid of death, our God needs him.
49. It’s more beautiful to die in poly, hem it in a woman’s bottom.
50. There is no translation for the Cossack family.
51. Where there is an enemy, there is a Cossack.
52. The man is waiting for the enemy, the Cossack is looking for the enemy.
53. If you want peace of mind, prepare for battle.
54. And there will be a war about a single Cossack.
55. God protects the careful, but the Cossack has a saber.
56. God save the mad louse.
57. The generous Cossack does not attack from behind.
58. He who takes pity on an enemy has a wife who is a widow.
59. Whoever loosened his tongue sheathed the saber.
60. Excessive words make your hands weak.
61. Whatever happens, it will, but the Cossack will not be timid about the lordship!
62. There will be no sign for the Cossack.
63. A dog's life, but a Cossack's glory.
64. If a Cossack is in prison, then he is free.
65. A Cossack is like a dove: wherever it flies, it will land there.
66. The Cossack custom is this: wherever there is room, go to bed there.
67. Not the Cossack who fought, but the one who escaped.
68. The Cossack is good, but he is penniless.
69. Get it - or not be at home.
70. Horse and night - Cossack comrades.
71. Without a horse, a Cossack is an orphan.
72. The Cossack mounts his horse, and his bride is born.
73. Cossacks are the eyes and ears of the army (Suvorov).
74. A Cossack without service is not a Cossack.
75. A Cossack burns in service, but goes out without service.

The Black Sea Cossack Army was formed during the Russian-Turkish War in 1787 from the remnants of the Zaporozhye Sich, which had previously been defeated by government troops.
A year later, the new army numbered 12 thousand people. Its numbers grew rapidly. Initially, the army was settled in the Dniester valley, the administrative center was the village. Slobodzeya (Transnistria). There was not enough land for settlement in the allocated territory.
Therefore, the Cossacks send a delegation to St. Petersburg led by military judge Anton Golovaty. The delegation asked Catherine II to grant them the lands newly annexed to Russia. The Black Sea people achieved success.

On June 30, 1792, with a special letter, Catherine II granted the Black Sea Cossack Army lands on the right bank of the Kuban from Taman to the mouth of the Laba. The Black Sea people were presented with a military banner and kettledrums, and the right to their own Cossack regalia (mace, feathers) and military seal was confirmed. The Cossacks were assigned to guard the Kuban borders of Russia.

Having received the decree, the Cossacks immediately began moving to the granted lands. On August 16, a squadron moved from the Ochakovsky estuary to the shores of Taman, which included a Cossack flotilla of 50 gunboats and one yacht under the command of Savva Bely, the brigantine “Blagoveshchenye” and 11 transport ships. The detachment landed in Taman on August 25, 1792, a total of 3,247 people. This day can be considered the beginning of the actual occupation of the granted land.

Following the sea settlers, 2 infantry regiments (some with their families) under the command of Colonel Konstantin Kordovsky crossed the Crimea by “dry route” and, having established an observation post at Old Temryuk, set up smoking camps for the winter. Cordovsky brought with him 600 people, several guns, oxen, and horses.

On September 2, the main detachment of Cossacks set off under the command of Koshevoy Ataman Z.A. Chepega. The detachment consisted of 3 horse and 2 foot regiments of five hundred, convoys of family Cossacks, a military headquarters and a military government - a total of 2,075 people. The detachment's route passed along postal roads; the autumn thaw prevented rapid progress. The last stop was in the Bataysk area, then through Azov along the Kopyl Way and on October 23 arrived at the Yeisk Fortification. Here the detachment was met by the Yeisk commandant, Second Major Andrei Nikolaevich Voina. The garrison of the Quarantine redoubt on the opposite bank of the river was subordinate to him. Eya in its lower reaches and garrisons on the Yeyskaya, Dolgaya, Kamyshevatskaya spits. The detachment, without stopping, passed by the Yeisk Fortification, went down to the road leading to the Black Ford, and stretched out along the road. In the 18th century crossing the river It was called the Black Ford, because. Since ancient times, the Tatars have driven people into slavery, and if before her people had the hope that the Don Cossacks would recapture them, then after the crossing, beyond which the lands of the nomadic peoples began, these hopes disappeared. Hence the name - Black Ford, i.e. sad, woeful. Having crossed the bridge on foot, we stopped at the Quarantine redoubt (on the site of what is now Staroshcherbinovskaya station). The Cossacks stayed here for 23 days, then went to the Yeisk Spit for the winter.

Zakhary Chepega, not wanting to subject his subordinates to further tedious movement, decided to stop for the winter at the Khan's fortress. When the Cossacks arrived, there was one person behind the ramparts of the Khan’s town, its guard and caretaker, Ensign Mikhailov from the Yeisk Fortification. On the Yeisk Spit, fish farmers employed 400-500 “barge haulers” without families or individual dwellings from among runaway serfs or people of various ranks who came to work. There are 170 barge haulers on the Dolgaya Spit, and 140 barge haulers on the Kamyshevatskaya Spit (according to the statement of Colonel of the Black Sea Army Mokiy Gulik dated July 15, 1792).

The parking place was chosen well: there was a sufficient supply of food in the fortification, and in its vicinity there were good winter pastures, an abundance of reeds for fuel, excellent fishing spots on the spits, where “the Cossacks pulled pike perch and ram fish for grub.” Having settled down for the winter, the Cossacks built dugouts, set up a camp church in the former khan’s house, in the steppe 150 versts from the site on the river. The Chelbas fielded a team of 2 hundred.

The rest of the Cossacks, under the command of military judge A. Golovaty, in 20 columns, would arrive in Taman by June 1793. They followed the route of Z. Chepegi through Zaporozhye to Cherkassk. In addition to family Cossacks, a mass of singles moved to the Black Sea region - “orphans,” homeless and economically unemployed Cossacks. In total, because of the Bug, up to 17 thousand Cossacks and 8 thousand women moved to Kuban in various ways. Places of settlement were determined by purely military considerations. Resettlement to the Kuban took place in two directions - through Taman and the Eya River. Therefore, the first settlements appeared here. Taman was the main residence of the military judge Golovaty, and Chepega was located in the Khan town, which he left in May 1793. On May 23, an order was issued to set up cordons down the river. Kuban is the date of the beginning of the creation of the Black Sea cordon line.

2. August 12, 1793 The demarcation of military land began, which took place under the leadership of Koshevoy Ataman Z. Chepegi and military judge A. Golovaty at the mouth of the Yeya River. 08/15/1793 The military government decided “to erect the military city of Ekaterinodar in Karasun Kut against the oak grove called Kruglik, in memorable memory of the name of Empress Catherine II.”

To determine the structure and management, on January 1, 1794, Koshevoy ataman Z. Chepega, military judge A. Golovaty, military clerk Kotlyarevsky drew up and signed an order of the military government, which they called the “Order of Common Benefit.” The document regulated the management, settlement and land use of the Black Sea Cossack Army. It officially confirmed the name and status of the military city.

The entire territory of the army was divided into 5 districts:

1) Catherine - for areas gravitating towards a military city;

2) Phanagorian in Taman;

3) Beysugsky in the area of ​​Beysug and Chelbas to Achuev;

4) Yeisk along the Yeya river with adjacent places;

5) Grigorievsky from the side of the Caucasian governorship.

In the formed military administrative units, district boards were established consisting of colonels, esauls, cornets and clerks. Each board had a distinctive seal with an image specific to the area.

District boards were accountable in everything to the military government headed by the Kosh Ataman. The main responsibility of the boards was to monitor the serviceability of weapons and the readiness of the Cossacks for military action. Next important step settlement was regularized. February 15, 1794 a collection of Cossacks from all kurens is going on. Each ataman drew lots indicating the place of settlement of each kuren for permanent residence. A month later, a list was drawn up showing which kuren was to settle. In October, a plan for laying out smoking villages was approved. The time of foundation of the first 40 Black Sea kuren villages is the end of February - March 1794. Since the spring of this year, the Cossacks have simultaneously served in the cordons and settled in new places. But many elders and Cossacks did not settle in kuren villages, but started their own farms along rivers and tracts.

3. The resettled army was so small in number that it could not perform its military functions. Moreover, he served not only at the cordons, but the regiments were sent for military operations in Poland and Persia. There were 4 thousand Cossacks in service, i.e. 30% of the combat strength, in conditions of combat activity of the Trans-Kuban highlanders, the government had to introduce 2 ranger regiments.

Therefore, the question of relocating new settlers to the territory of the Black Sea Army became acute. In the first half of the 19th century. The government organized 3 mass resettlement of Cossack peasants from Little Russia.

1. 1809 -1811 - 41,534 people (22,206 men and 19,328 women)

2. 1821 - 1825 - 48,328 people (24,679 from Poltava province, 23,703 from Chernigov province)

3. 1848 - 1849 - 11,949 people (6,472 settled in the Yeisk district).

The settlers brought with them horses, oxen, and cattle. But many families came on foot, and many had too little movable property to improve the economic condition of the Black Sea region. During the 3rd resettlement, residents of 14 villages of the Taman and Yeisk districts were replenished. Two villages were founded: Dolzhanskaya and Kamyshevatskaya.

At the same time, a number of villages were founded by the Don Cossacks: Ust-Labinskaya, Kavkazskaya, Grigoripolisskaya, Temnolesskaya, Vorovskoleskaya. 3 thousand families from 6 Don regiments were resettled. In 1802-04. Cossacks of the former Ekaterinoslav Cossack army moved to Kuban, who formed the villages: Tiflis, Kazan, Temizhbek, Ladoga, Voronezh.

According to the regulations on the Black Sea Cossack Army, already in 1842. The Black Sea region consisted of 3 districts: Yeisk, Taman, Ekaterinodar. By 1860, the population of the Black Sea region numbered 172,317 people (49.1% were women).

4. Two monuments are dedicated to the Black Sea and Kuban Cossack troops in Yeisk. The monument in honor of the 200th anniversary of the resettlement of the Black Sea Cossacks to Kuban was opened on June 12, 1992. In 1991, the region was supposed to solemnly celebrate the 200th anniversary of the resettlement of the Cossacks. The staff of the Yeisk Museum and the culture department took the initiative to install a memorial sign on the Yeisk Spit. The decision to create the monument was made by the Yeisk City Council. The monument is a rough block of black granite of pyramidal shape. On the front part, facing the waters of the port, there is a polished black granite board with the inscription: “In honor of the 200th anniversary of the resettlement of the Black Sea Cossacks 1792 - 1992”, below are crossed sabers in a laurel wreath intertwined with a ribbon. On the reverse side there is the same board with the inscription of words from Z. Chepega’s report about being on the Yeisk Spit. Installed on a concrete pedestal, fenced with anchor chains. There are 2 models of ship guns at the monument. The design of the monument was prepared by the city's urban planning and architecture department. The author of the project is architect A.V. Kuznetsov.

The monument “300 years of the Kuban Cossack Army” was opened on July 26, 1996 on Pervomaiskaya Square at the intersection of Pervomaiskaya and Pobeda streets. It is a forged four-pointed slotted metal cross with four rays emanating from the center. At the ends of the cross there are linings in the form of equal-ended crosses. The monument is installed on a small base, lined with stone. At the base there is a marble tablet with an inscription dedicated to the anniversary event. The army dates back to 1696, from the founding of the Khoper Cossack team (regiment), which in 1826 was resettled to the upper reaches of the Kuma and Kuban, included in the Linear, and since 1860, the Kuban Cossack army. The Kuban army began to calculate its existence by the seniority of this regiment. The solemn meeting was attended by Cossacks of the Yeisk kuren of the Kuban Cossack army.

In recent decades, the issue of the history of the Cossacks has attracted widespread attention from scientists, historiographers, political scientists, government agencies, and the public. This once closed topic in our country has recently received a huge surge. Scientific conferences are held, monographic studies are published, and countless articles and publications are published. The works of pre-revolutionary historians, as well as works published abroad by representatives of the Cossack emigration, also became available. And if the heyday of the Cossacks, their role in the history and fate of Russia in the 17th - 19th centuries were most fully reflected, although there is still a lot of work to be done here in terms of eliminating the negative stereotype of the Cossack that developed during the Soviet period, then the most ancient period of the history of the Cossacks, its formation, least studied.

In Russian, Soviet, and foreign historiography, three approaches to determining the origins of the formation of the Cossacks can be distinguished.
1). Some pre-revolutionary researchers, as well as Cossacks abroad, trace the process of formation of the Cossacks to the pre-Christian period and even say that the Cossacks are older than the Etruscans, who founded Rome. In their assumptions, researchers who defend this point of view refer to etymological data, sometimes drawing conclusions about the genetic connection of the Cossacks with the Turkic peoples who inhabited the Caucasus and the southern steppes.
2). Noble and Soviet historiography connects the origins of the formation of the Cossacks with the establishment of serfdom in the country and that runaway peasants were the fertile force on which the Cossacks grew. At the same time, the fact that in Russian chronicles the Cossacks are mentioned much earlier than feudal and serfdom relations arose in the country is not taken into account at all.
3). Today, one thing is certain, that the Cossacks were formed on a Slavic, Orthodox basis in the 4th - 5th centuries AD during the so-called migration of peoples - a process in which German, Turkic and Slavic tribes were involved. The most active zone through which the movement of peoples took place was the northern Black Sea region and the South Russian steppes. The appearance of the Slavs in the South Russian steppes dates back to the 4th century. There is no doubt that, under the influence of the Slavic population staying here, Prince Svyatoslav managed to make a campaign to the Khazar Kaganate and Taman. The adoption of Christianity by the Cossacks dates back somewhere to the 7th century, long before the official baptism of Rus'. Subsequently, the presence of the Slavic population in these territories led to the creation of the Tmutarakan principality, which was part of Slavic Rus'. In the subsequent period, the South Russian Slavs, cut off from the metropolis, being the indigenous people of this territory, experienced raids by nomads, both Polovtsians and Tatars. Carrying out military functions in the Golden Horde, the Cossacks never broke with Orthodoxy, which determined the need to create a Slavic diocese to satisfy the spiritual needs of the Slavic population. The struggle for survival in the hostile environment of the disunited Slavic population determined the need to form a military structure as a form of existence for the people, with an elected leader.

There is no doubt that the Cossack population and army, as a form of its existence, included non-Slavic peoples and elements, and this determined the formation of the term Cossack. However, due to the fact that the life of the Cossack communities, and then the army, was built according to the commandments of the Lord, the willingness of everyone to come to the rescue of their neighbor was required, and sometimes to sacrifice their lives, and this required from everyone, including those who had arrived to some no matter what ethnic group they belong to, the adoption of Orthodoxy. This was not only a guarantee of unity, cohesion, mutual assistance and heroism, but also the spiritual salvation of all members of the community.

Initially, two branches of the Cossacks were formed, which later became Don and Zaporozhye, depending on the sphere of interests of which states they fell into, although the Cossacks themselves were sometimes located outside state territories.

The emergence of the Crimean Khanate after the collapse of the Golden Horde, the strengthening of the Ottoman Empire, and the capture of Constantinople in the mid-15th century created a real threat to the Christian Slavic states. But the conquests and raids of the Turks and Crimean Tatars met Cossacks on their way, who, in fact, were a hedge for both Russia and Poland. The Cossacks covered the Russian and Ukrainian population. It was from this time that the Cossacks became widely known in European countries and Russia.

Moscow princes and kings, as well as the rulers of Poland, which included Ukraine, in their fight against the Islamic conquerors, sought to rely on the Cossacks, paying them salaries in gunpowder and provisions. Both the Zaporozhye and Don Cossacks, creating a threat to Ottoman civilization, waging a constant struggle for their ancestral lands (and the Cossacks were the old-time population here) were outside the state territory. Therefore, business relations between the Muscovite kingdom and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the Cossacks were conducted through the embassy order. Against the background of the beginning of the process of enslavement of the peasants, the presence of such a freedom-loving center as the Zaporozhye Sich and the lands of the Don Cossacks was attractive to those serfs who sought to escape from bondage. That is why the process of replenishing the Cossacks with fugitive elements began. But by this time, the Cossacks had formed both structurally and spiritually, with their own life principles, military life, elements of culture and psychology. In this connection, no matter how many fugitives came to the army, they dissolved in it, losing everything they had and acquiring the qualities of a Cossack. This is how the Cossack type was formed, a genetic type that absorbs aliens, no matter what religion they are.

Since the middle of the 17th century, we can talk about constant contacts between the Cossacks and the state and the transition of the Cossacks to the service. But this did not exclude the fact that the Cossacks, Zaporozhye or Don, did not pursue their own policy towards neighboring peoples. Often the actions of the Cossacks ran counter to the policies of the Russian state.

To the greatest extent, the process of including Cossack troops into the state territory of Russia and their transition to public service is associated with the activities of Peter the Great. Since 1722, Cossack issues were dealt with not by the Collegium of Foreign Affairs, as it was before, but by the Military Collegium. Peter I sought to subordinate everything and everyone to state power, including the Russian Orthodox Church. He could not allow the existence of the willful and unbridled Cossacks. Moreover, the Cossack lands were already included in the Russian Empire.

The liquidation of Cossack liberties and the transfer of Cossack lands throughout the 18th century caused a constant movement of the peasantry, whose skirmishers were the Cossacks.

The state was interested in using the military experience of the Cossacks, accumulated over centuries and so lacking in Russia. Cossack troops have always fielded a military contingent distinguished by particular endurance, courage and assertiveness in achieving victory over the enemy, who often outnumbered the Cossacks. Cossack regiments were formed on a territorial basis, and this played a very important role in achieving the cohesion and courage of soldiers.

The state built its relations with the Cossacks on the principle of the military-feudal system. The state, owning the land, allocated lands to the Cossack troops on the condition that they performed military service. Land for a Cossack and a Cossack family was a decisive factor. Moreover, it does not matter at what historical stage the Cossack economy was located (natural trades, such as hunting and fishing, or agricultural production). Military lands provided a habitat for the Cossacks.

The Russian Empire, like other states, expanded its possessions. Starting from the 18th century, the state, understanding the role and importance of the Cossacks in ensuring the security of Russia’s borders, actively involved the Cossacks in the economic development of new territories. The process of forming new Cossack troops begins through the resettlement of existing ones. This process lasted more than 100 years. The constant relocation of Cossacks carried out by the state led to the fact that not a single generation lived on its territory for more than 25 years. This is how the Volga army arose, which subsequently moved to the Caucasus. The Terek family army, the Astrakhan army, the Black Sea, Orenburg, Siberian, and Amur armies were also a consequence of the state policy of settling Cossacks along the borders. In parallel to this, there was a process of free people's colonization of the lands transferred to the Cossacks.

Since the 17th century, i.e. Since the creation of the centralized Russian state, Russia has pursued a policy aimed at creating the isolation of each social group, in relation to each other. This was expressed most clearly in the 18th century. All Russian society was divided into classes. The Cossacks in this case were no exception, although if we talk about cultural and ethnic processes, then from the very beginning until the defeat, two processes took place simultaneously in it, which defined the Cossacks as the only and unique phenomenon in history. On the one hand, the state in every possible way implanted class into the Cossacks, defining it as a service class, emphasizing this factor more and more. This gave the state the opportunity to interfere in the life of the Cossack troops, resettle and abolish them. On the other hand, ethnic processes and the isolation of the cultural sphere, which was formed under the influence of neighboring peoples, were just as strong. This is how the customs, law, costumes, culture and self-awareness of the Cossacks were formed. Therefore, having gone through the crucible of trials at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Cossacks survived precisely as an ethnic group.

To the greatest extent, ethnic processes took place in the Don, Kuban and Terek Cossack armies, each of which was distinguished by its unique culture and identity. The Kuban and Terek troops (the so-called Caucasian) stood out especially. Their culture developed under the influence of the Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks, as well as under the great influence of the culture of neighboring mountain peoples. By the beginning of the twentieth century, these troops were actual ethnic groups, and closed ones, since there was no longer an influx of outsiders into the troops from outside, and they represented an integral part of the North Caucasian civilization.

Formation and development of the Kuban Cossack army

The Kuban Cossacks, as an independent ethnosocial unit (subethnos), was formed in the second half of the 19th century. The formal date of the emergence of this subethnic group can be considered November 19, 1860, the time of the formation of the Kuban Cossack army. It should be noted that initially the name “Kuban Cossacks” was applied to various groups of Cossacks (for example, Nekrasovites) who settled in the Kuban at the end of the 17th – beginning of the 18th centuries, but was not yet a self-name.

The Kuban Cossacks are multi-ethnic at their core. In Kuban, two components acted as the initial ethno-defining principles - Russian and Ukrainian, and in a peculiar way. organizational form Cossack troops. Therefore, it is advisable to analyze their history separately.

In the initial period of the Russian-Turkish war of 1787–1791. under the patronage of Prince G.A. Potemkin, the Black Sea Cossack Army was formed. Initially, it was staffed in the form of volunteer teams of Cossacks who had previously served in the Zaporozhye Sich. But, due to the small number of former Cossacks, representatives of different social strata of Russian society received access to the army as early as October 1787.

In 1792–1794 The Black Sea Cossack army was resettled to the Right Bank Kuban. And it is from this moment that it is generally accepted that the Cossacks began to develop the Kuban lands. However, the number of troops turned out to be insufficient to protect the border and economic development of this region. Therefore, the Russian government organized a three-stage resettlement of Ukrainian peasants (more than 100 thousand people) from Poltava, Chernigov and Kharkov provinces to Kuban.

The second branch is the folding of Russian ethnographic group in the form of the Caucasian linear Cossack army. In 1794, the Don Cossacks resettled in the Kuban founded several villages up the Kuban River from the Ust-Labinsk fortress and formed the Kuban Cossack Regiment. In 1801–1804 A number of Cossack villages in the Kuban were founded by the Cossacks of the Ekaterinoslav Cossack Army, thus forming the Caucasian Cossack Regiment. And in 1825, the Cossacks of the Khoper Cossack Regiment were resettled to the Kuban Line. Further, by the Highest Order of June 25, 1832, six linear regiments and three Cossack troops were united into the Caucasian linear Cossack army.

By decree of Emperor Alexander II on February 8, 1860, the right wing of the Caucasian line was transformed into the Kuban region, and the left wing on November 19, 1860 into the Terek region.

The Black Sea Cossack army was ordered to be called the Kuban Cossack army. In addition to the Black Sea troops, it included the first six brigades of the Caucasian linear Cossack army. The remaining brigades made up the Terek Cossack Army.

From this moment, the countdown of the existence of the Kuban Cossack army begins precisely from the date of its foundation.

However, the seniority of the Kuban Cossack army is usually considered to be based on the seniority of the oldest of the regiments that were part of the Caucasian linear Cossack army - Khopersky, namely from 1696.

Thus, there are three dates for the seniority of the formation of the Kuban Cossack army: 1696 - according to the seniority of the Khoper Cossack regiment of the Caucasian linear Cossack army, which later became part of the Kuban Cossack army; 1792 - from the moment of resettlement of the Black Sea Cossacks to Kuban; 1860 - from the moment of the unification of the Black Sea Cossack army and some parts of the Caucasian linear Cossack army and the formation of the Kuban Cossack army.

Before the unification, the number of the Black Sea Cossack army was about 180 thousand people. Almost 100 thousand people entered the Kuban Cossack army from the Caucasian linear Cossack army. According to the annual report for 1862, there were 195,636 men and 189,814 women in the Kuban Cossack army.

By July 1, 1914, the population of the army was already 1,298,088 people (644,787 men and 635,351 women).

The Cossacks actively participated in all wars of Russia in the 18th - 19th centuries. He gained particular popularity in the wars aimed at protecting Christianity and Orthodoxy, waged by Russia in Europe and the Caucasus. The memory of the valor of the Cossacks is still alive among the peoples protected by the Cossacks. In these wars, the Cossacks showed themselves as defenders of Christianity and Orthodoxy, only now not independently, but on behalf of the Russian Empire.

The procedure for completing military service was initially not regulated by any legislative acts. Service was not limited to a certain number of years. The period of active cordon service was set at one year, followed by two years of benefits. In 1818, a certain service life was established - 25 years. In 1856, by order of the Minister of War, new terms of service were established: officers - 22 years, Cossacks - 25 years (22 years of field service and 3 years of internal service). Since 1864, the term of field service was 15 years, internal - 7 years.

In 1882, the Regulations on Military Service were adopted. The military personnel are divided into three categories: preparatory, combat, and reserve. Cossacks were enrolled in the preparatory school for 3 years (from 18 to 21 years old). In combat – 12 years (from 21 to 33 years). Cossacks were in the reserve category for 5 years (from 33 to 38 years). After this, the Cossacks retired and were exempted from serving military service.

As a result of the unification of the two troops, the military composition of the Kuban Cossack Army in 1861 included: units - 42, generals - 47, staff officers - 84, chief officers - 652, non-commissioned officers and non-commissioned officers - 2460, ordinary Cossacks - 32071 .

According to the regulations on conscription of the Kuban Cossack army in 1870, its composition in peacetime looked like this: 2 Life Guards Kuban Cossack squadrons of His Imperial Majesty’s Own convoy, 10 cavalry regiments, 2 foot Plastun battalions, 5 horse artillery batteries, a cavalry division in Warsaw and the training division. The regiments were named: Tamansky, Poltava, Ekaterinodar, Umansky, Urupsky, Labinsky, Khopersky, Kubansky, Caucasian, Yeisk.

The total military composition of the lower ranks was determined to be 36,000 people.

In May 1889, the 1st Black Sea Regiment was formed in the army.

In 1860–1864 The actions of the Kuban Cossacks as part of separate detachments of troops of the Kuban region played an important role in ending the many years of the Caucasian War. During the unrest in Poland in 1863–1864. Kuban residents took part in hostilities against the rebels. The Cossacks also performed difficult service on the borders with Turkey and Iran. The Kuban Cossack Army deployed significant forces during the Russian-Turkish War of 1877–1878: 25 cavalry regiments, 12 Plastun foot battalions, 5 horse-artillery batteries and 2 hundreds of imperial convoys. One cavalry regiment and two hundred Plastuns were sent to the Balkans, 14 regiments, one Plastun battalion and four batteries were sent to the Caucasus-Asia Minor theater of military operations, the rest were located within the Kuban region and the Black Sea province.

In the 70-80s. XIX century Kuban residents took part in a number of Central Asian campaigns. In 1879, separate hundreds of the 1st Taman, 1st Poltava and Labinsk cavalry regiments as part of the Transcaspian detachment took part in a campaign to the Ahal-Tekin oasis.

Three hundred Caucasian regiment as part of the Murghab detachment took part in battles with Afghans on the banks of the river. Kushki.

For participation in Russian-Japanese war 1904–1905 In the Kuban Cossack army, the 1st Ekaterinodar, 1st Uman regiments, six secondary Plastun battalions and the 1st Kuban Cossack battery were mobilized. Despite the fact that the Cossacks arrived at the theater of operations in the final period of the war, they participated in a number of operations and their irretrievable losses in just over three months amounted to 116 people.

At the beginning of the First World War, the Kuban Cossack Army fielded 33 cavalry regiments, 18 Plastun battalions, 5 cavalry batteries, 32 special cavalry hundreds and two hundreds of the Warsaw division (approximately 48.5 thousand people). In total, during the years of the Great War, a little more than 106 thousand Kuban Cossacks were mobilized.

In the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Kuban Cossack army was at the zenith of its glory, in its heyday. The life of the troops returned to a stable direction. The army owned huge plots of land, had a government that was different from that of other Russian provinces, and had its own unique local self-government.

The Kuban Cossack army was controlled by an ataman appointed by the emperor, who was also the head of the Kuban region.

Since 1888, the Kuban region was divided into 7 departments, headed by atamans appointed by the appointed ataman. At the head of the villages and farms were elected atamans, approved by the atamans of the departments. Until 1870, executive power in the Kuban villages was exercised by the village board, consisting of an ataman and two elected judges. Since 1870, the court became independent and separated from the board, which included the chieftain, his assistant, clerk and treasurer. The most important function of the Cossack community was land distribution. The land area of ​​the Kuban Cossack army was over 6 million dessiatines, of which 5.2 million belonged to the villages. The remaining lands were in military reserve and in the ownership of Cossack officers and officials.

Communities allocated land to Cossacks from the age of 17 at the rate of 16 - 30 dessiatinas per 1 male soul. For equal use of land, stanitsa lands were periodically redistributed. With the natural growth of the Cossack population, the share allotment of the Kuban Cossack gradually decreased. In the 1860s it averaged 23 dessiatines, and in 1917 it was only 7.6 dessiatines.

In 1917, the Kuban Cossack army consisted of 262 villages and 246 hamlets, in which 215,311 Cossack families lived, which accounted for 52.3% of all households in rural areas. Being engaged in agriculture, Cossack farms were better equipped with agricultural machinery than other categories of the population.

Included in the system of all-Russian jurisdiction, the Kuban Cossacks retained their inherent democracy and original traditional culture, different from others.

For the beginning of the 20th century, the Kuban Cossacks also had a fairly high literacy level - more than 50%. The first schools appeared in Kuban at the end of the 18th century. In the 1860s. in the Kuban Cossack army there was only one military men's gymnasium and 30 primary schools. After 10 years, there were already 170 schools in the villages. At the beginning of the 20th century. up to 30 military scholarship recipients annually studied at the best universities in the country.

Since 1863, the newspaper “Kuban Military Gazette” began to be published - the first periodical publication in the Kuban, from 1865 public military libraries appeared, in 1879 the Kuban Military Local History Museum was created, from 1811 to 1917. There were military singing and musical choirs performing classical, spiritual and folk works.

The Kuban Cossacks were deeply religious people. The first Church of the Intercession in Kuban was built in Taman at the end of the 18th century. In 1801, a five-domed Military Cathedral was erected in Yekaterinodar. At the beginning of the 20th century. On the territory of the army there were already 363 churches, 5 men's and 3 women's monasteries, as well as one monastery.

Kuban Cossacks during the years of Soviet power (Civil War, years of repression, emigration)

By the beginning of the 20th century, there were 11 Cossack troops in Russia with a total number of 4.5 million people. The largest of them were the Don, Kuban and Terek troops.

But the political events that followed the 1917 revolution almost wiped out everything that the Cossacks did for the country in previous centuries. On January 24, 1919, a directive was adopted on a merciless fight against the Cossacks. And for many years, even reminders of the Cossack defenders, their military exploits and glory were eradicated from history.

After the February Revolution of 1917, a political situation developed in Kuban that was different from the all-Russian one. Following the commissioner of the Provisional Government, K. L. Bardizh, appointed from Petrograd and the Kuban Regional Council that arose on April 16, the Kuban Military Rada at its First Congress proclaimed itself and the military government the highest governing bodies of the army. The “triple power” that emerged in this way lasted until July 4, when the Rada declared the Council dissolved, after which K. L. Bardizh transferred all power in the region to the military government.

Ahead of the developments in Petrograd, the 2nd Regional Rada, which met in late September and early October, proclaimed itself the supreme body not only of the army, but of the entire Kuban Territory, adopting its constitution - “Temporary Regulations on the Supreme Bodies of Power in the Kuban Territory.” After the 1st session of the Legislative Rada and part of the 1st regional congress of nonresidents, which began simultaneously on November 1, united, they declared non-recognition of the power of the Council of People's Commissars and formed the Legislative Rada and the regional government on a parity basis. N.S. became the Chairman of the Rada. Ryabovol, L.L. Bych became the chairman of the government instead of A.P. Filimonov, who was elected ataman of the Kuban Cossack army.

On January 8, 1918, Kuban was proclaimed an independent republic, part of Russia on a federal basis.

Having put forward the slogan of “fighting dictatorship on the left and right” (that is, against Bolshevism and the threat of restoration of the monarchy), the Kuban government tried to find its own, third way in the revolution and civil strife. Over the course of 3 years in Kuban, four atamans (A.P. Filimonov, N.M. Uspensky, N.A. Bukretov, V.N. Ivanis), 5 chairmen of the government (A.P. Filimonov, L.L.) were replaced in power. Bych, F. S. Sushkov, P. I. Kurgansky, V. N. Ivanis). The composition of the government changed even more often - a total of 9 times. Such frequent changes of government were largely a consequence of internal contradictions between the Black Sea and linear Cossacks of the Kuban. The first, economically and politically stronger, stood on federalist (so-called “independent”) positions, gravitating towards Ukraine. Its most prominent representatives were K. L. Bardizh, N. S. Ryabovol, L. L. Bych. The second political direction, represented by Ataman A.P. Filimonov, traditionally for Russian-speaking Lineists was oriented toward a united and indivisible Russia.

Meanwhile, the First Congress of Soviets of the Kuban Region, held on February 14-18, 1918 in Armavir, proclaimed Soviet power throughout the region and elected an executive committee headed by Ya. V. Poluyan. On March 14, Ekaterinodar was taken by Red troops under the command of I. L. Sorokin. The Rada, which left the capital of the region, and its armed forces under the command of V. L. Pokrovsky united with the Volunteer Army of General L. G. Kornilov, which set out on its first Kuban (“Ice”) campaign. The bulk of the Kuban Cossacks did not support Kornilov, who died on April 13 near Yekaterinodar. However, the six-month period of Soviet power in the Kuban (from March to August) changed the attitude of the Cossacks towards it. As a result, on August 17, during the second Kuban campaign, the Volunteer Army under the command of General A.I. Denikin occupied Yekaterinodar. At the end of 1918, 2/3 of it consisted of Kuban Cossacks. However, some of them continued to fight in the ranks of the Taman and North Caucasian red armies, which retreated from the Kuban.

After returning to Yekaterinodar, the Rada began to resolve issues of the state structure of the region. On February 23, 1919, at a meeting of the Legislative Rada, the 3-stripe blue-raspberry-green flag of Kuban was approved, and the regional anthem “You, Kuban, you are our Motherland” was performed. The day before, a Rada delegation led by L. L. Bych was sent to Paris for the Versailles Peace Conference. The idea of ​​Kuban statehood came into conflict with General Denikin’s slogan about a great, united, indivisible Russia. This confrontation cost the Chairman of the Rada N.S. Ryabovol his life. In June 1919, he was shot dead in Rostov-on-Don by a Denikin officer.

In response to this murder, wholesale desertion of the Kuban Cossacks began from the front, as a result of which no more than 15% of them remained in the Armed Forces of southern Russia. Denikin responded to the Parisian diplomatic demarche of the Rada by dispersing it and hanging the regimental priest A.I. Kulabukhov. The events of November 1919, called by contemporaries the “Kuban Action,” reflected the tragedy of the fate of the Kuban Cossacks, expressed by the phrase “one among strangers, a stranger among one’s own.” This expression can also be attributed to the Kuban Cossacks, who fought on the side of the Reds.

The capture of Yekaterinodar by units of the Red Army on March 17, 1920, the evacuation of the remnants of Denikin’s army from Novorossiysk to the Crimea and the capitulation of the 60,000-strong Kuban army near Adler on May 2-4 did not lead to the restoration of civil peace in the Kuban. In the summer of 1920, a Cossack insurrectionary movement unfolded against Soviet power in the Trans-Kuban region and the Azov flood plains. On August 14, in the area of ​​the village of Primorsko-Akhtarskaya, a landing of Wrangel troops under the command of General S. G. Ulagai landed, which ended in failure.

However, the armed struggle of the Kuban Cossacks in the ranks of the white-green movement continued until the mid-20s. Of the 20 thousand Kuban Cossacks who emigrated, more than 10 thousand remained abroad forever.

Kuban paid a heavy price for the establishment of Soviet power. From the memorandum of the Regional Rada it is known that in the spring-autumn of 1918 alone, 24 thousand people died here. Soviet sources provide an equally terrifying picture of the White Terror.

However, in 1918 - early 1920, the region managed to avoid the negative impact of the policy of military communism and decossackization, since from the autumn of 1918 to the spring of 1920, Kuban was in the rear of Denikin’s army. Combined with powerful agricultural potential and the presence of ports, this created, compared with other regions of Russia, more favorable conditions for economic development. The same can be said about the state of affairs in the sphere of culture and education. During the civil war, Ekaterinodar became one of the small literary capitals of Russia.

The bulk of the Kuban Cossacks ended up in emigration as a result of the Crimean evacuation in November 1920. Most of them were initially located on the island. Lemnos in the Aegean Sea. Here, after fierce disputes in December 1920, Major General V.G. was elected to the post of Ataman of the Kuban Cossack Army (instead of General N.A. Bukretov, who resigned). Naumenko, who was in Yugoslavia at that time. Members of the Kuban Regional Council and elected officials from military units took part in the elections.

By the spring of 1921, the efforts of General Wrangel and the Cossack atamans to export Cossack emigrants to the countries of the Balkan Peninsula were crowned with success. From May to September 1921 they were transported to Serbia and Bulgaria. About 25% of the Cossacks returned to Russia. A small part of the Kuban residents settled in Greece and Turkey.

A number of people from Kuban ended up emigrating in other ways. During the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion, more than 2 thousand Kuban residents went with the rebels to Finland. Others ended up abroad as a result of evacuation from the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, crossing the Soviet-Polish and Soviet-Georgian borders.

Many Cossack emigrants were initially held in military or internment camps. But while leaving for “their own bread,” the Cossacks tried not to lose touch with each other. That part of the Cossacks that remained in the ranks of their military units, even after they went into refugee status, tried to find a job where all the military ranks of a given unit could work. As part of their units, Cossacks worked in Yugoslavia on the construction of highways and railways, bridge construction, in Bulgaria - in coal mines. Individual Cossack units in full force were employed in factories in France. They tried to live compactly. The food in many units was “boiler” (general, from one boiler). Not only military ranks were on allowances, but also their wives and children. Mutual aid funds were created at the units. In addition, more than 300 Kuban residents stationed in Yugoslavia served as border guards on the border with Albania. During the years of the civil war and emigration, many Cossacks became so close to their unit and colleagues that even after leaving the unit for some reason, they tried, as far as possible, to maintain at least some connection with them.

The Cossacks, who broke with the army, also strengthened their ties with each other. Former village residents and fellow soldiers corresponded. In places of compact residence, Cossacks created villages and farms, which contributed to their communication, mutual assistance and the preservation of Cossack customs, rituals and culture far from their homeland. More often these were general Cossack associations, including representatives of various Cossack troops. In the places of their greatest concentration, the Kuban people formed their own separate villages and farmsteads.

In addition, the Kuban villages, according to the resolution of the Kuban Rada, could include all residents of the Kuban - both Cossacks and non-Cossacks. Sometimes villages and farmsteads were formed along professional lines. These are the various associations of Cossack students. For example, a general Cossack student village in Prague or a Cossack student farm near the Sofia village.

The habit of rural and generally hard physical labor contributed to the relatively painless adaptation of the Cossacks abroad. They willingly took on any work and performed it in such a way that in some branches of agriculture Cossacks were highly valued in many countries. In particular, the unemployment rate among Kuban residents in 1923 was only 23%.

There were also representatives of the Cossack intelligentsia abroad. Many Cossacks in exile sought to obtain or complete their education. The centers of the Cossack intelligentsia were Belgrade, Warsaw, Paris, Prague and Sofia. Special place in this regard, Prague was occupied, where the following were created: the Society for the Study of the Cossacks, the Society of Kuban Journalists and Writers, the Society of Kuban and many others. In particular, the Society of Kuban, with the assistance of the Czechoslovak government, provided support, including material, to many Cossacks who wanted to complete higher education and secondary educational institutions. Thanks to his support, about 300 Cossacks received diplomas as engineers, doctors, economists, etc. Among the Cossack emigrants there were many writers, poets, artists, sculptors, actors, scientists and many other cultural and scientific figures who contributed to the culture of foreign countries and Russian emigration.

Some of the emigrant Cossacks, in the hope of the revival of the Russian Empire, took part in the Second World War on the side of Nazi Germany, which is one of the saddest and “darkest” pages in the history of the Kuban Cossacks. Even separate units were created within the fascist troops, entirely consisting of Cossacks. These units were headed by both German and Cossack generals (P.N. Krasnov, A.G. Shkuro, etc.), who were subsequently executed and even after the collapse of the USSR were recognized as not subject to rehabilitation.

After the end of the war, some of the Cossacks were handed over by the allies to the Soviet government.

In the post-war period, the United States became the new and main center of settlement for Cossack emigrants, where the so-called “Kuban Cossack Army Abroad”, consisting of descendants of the Kuban Cossacks, still exists, led by its ataman.

At the same time, a considerable part of the Cossacks accepted Soviet power and remained in their homeland.

Kuban Cossacks took an active part in the Great Patriotic War, fighting bravely in the ranks of the Red Army, which also included regular Cossack units.

One of the clearest examples of this is the feat of the Cossacks of the 17th Cossack Cavalry Corps near the village of Kushchevskaya, Krasnodar Territory, who repelled the enemy’s largest tank attack on horseback. This feat went down in history as the famous “Kushchevskaya attack”, for which the 17th Cossack Cavalry Corps, formed from Kuban and Don Cossack volunteers, was renamed the 4th Guards Kuban Cossack Cavalry Corps.

At the end of the war, Kuban Cossacks, among individual Cossack military units, took part in the Victory Parade on Red Square in June 1945.

But even despite the fact that by special decrees of the country’s leadership the Kuban and Terek Cossacks during the Great Patriotic War It was even allowed to wear the traditional Cossack uniform (Circassian), all such Cossack military units were part of the Red Army and were subordinate to the command of the army, and, accordingly, to the leadership of the Soviet Union.

The Kuban Cossack Army itself ceased to exist in the territory of Kuban in 1920. Also, from this time on, the concept of “ataman” lost its meaning. There were no more atamans in Kuban until 1990, just as there were no more troops.

The life and everyday life of the Cossacks disappeared into the general Soviet environment. Cossack traditions, customs, traditional Cossack culture, folklore, Cossack way of life, traditions of Cossack self-government and the inextricable connection with Orthodoxy were mostly hidden by the “Cossack guards” and were not passed on to the younger generation due to fears for their own future, and therefore in the present time is mostly irretrievably lost.

The image of the Kuban Cossack, famous to the Soviet man in particular from the film “Kuban Cossacks”, was highly stylized and adjusted to the ideology of the Soviet era, and therefore, in many ways, did not correspond to the original Kuban Cossacks, whose meaning of life from time immemorial was serving the Fatherland and the Holy Orthodox Faith.

How did Kuban become part of Russia? And why does Ukraine...consider these lands its own

Before 1930s Ukrainian language was official in Kuban along with the Russian, and many Kuban Cossacks considered themselves ethnic Ukrainians. This gave modern Ukraine a reason to consider this territory historically its own, unfairly given to Russia.

Kuban Cossack Army

How did the Kuban Cossack army appear? Its history begins in 1696, when the Don Cossack Khopersky regiment took part in the capture of Azov by Peter I. Later, in 1708, during the Bulavinsky uprising, the Khopers moved to Kuban, giving rise to a new Cossack community.

A new stage in the history of the Kuban Cossacks began at the end of the 18th century, when, after the Russian-Turkish wars of 1768-1774 and 1787-1791, the Russian border moved closer to North Caucasus, and the Northern Black Sea region became entirely Russian. There was no longer a need for the Zaporozhye Cossack army, but the Cossacks were needed to strengthen the Caucasian borders.

In 1792, the Cossacks were resettled to Kuban, receiving land as military property.

This is how the Black Sea Cossacks were formed. In the southeast of it was located the Caucasian linear Cossack army, formed from the Don Cossacks. In 1864 they were united into the Kuban Cossack Army.

Thus, the Kuban Cossacks turned out to be ethnically two-part - Russian-Ukrainian. Is it true,

Until the beginning of the 20th century, class consciousness prevailed among the Cossacks rather than ethnic consciousness.

Changes made themselves felt already at the end of the 19th century, when two completely new “trends” emerged. On the one hand, the War Ministry of the Russian Empire began to think about eliminating the Cossack class - in the conditions of the beginning of the 20th century, the cavalry faded into the background. On the other hand, among the Cossacks the number of people not associated with military service, but engaged in intellectual work. It was in their midst that the idea of ​​the “Cossack nation” arose. Its development was accelerated by the connection of the Black Sea residents with the Ukrainian national movement.

The fragile neutrality was destroyed by the October Revolution, which the Kuban government did not recognize. Soviet Decree on Land, the Kuban Rada announced the formation of an independent Kuban People's Republic. It was stipulated that the republic was part of Russia with federal rights, but what kind of Russia were we talking about? It wasn't clear.

Neither white nor red

The new Republic was constitutional. Its main legislative body was the Regional Rada, but the Legislative Rada, elected from among its members, constantly acted and implemented current legislation. The Regional Rada elected the Head Ataman (head of executive power), and the ataman appointed the government responsible to the Legislative Rada. Kuban intellectuals - teachers, lawyers, transport service employees, doctors - joined the work of the new institutions.

In March 1918, the Kuban Rada and the government had to leave Ekaterinodar. The government convoy united with the Dobrovolsk army of Lavr Georgevich Kornilov, who soon died and his place was taken by General Anton Ivanovich Denikin. Since the Kuban government did not have its own army, an agreement was concluded according to which the Volunteer Army recognized the powers of the Kuban authorities, and Kuban agreed to the military leadership of volunteers. The agreement was made when both forces had no actual power and nothing to share.

The situation changed in the fall of 1918, when the Volunteer Army was able to occupy most of the Kuban region and some territories in the Stavropol region. The question arose about the organization of power. First of all, it concerned the relationship between the Volunteer Army and the Kuban, since the region was the most important rear area for Denikin’s troops. In the army itself, Kuban residents accounted for up to 70% of the personnel.

And here a conflict began between the volunteers and the Kuban Rada about the balance of powers. The conflict went along two lines. Firstly, it was of a political and legal nature.

Kuban politicians associated Denikin's army with the old, tsarist Russia and its inherent centralism.

The traditional mutual hostility between the military and intellectuals was evident. Secondly, representatives of the Black Sea Cossacks saw the Volunteer Army as a source of national oppression. In Denikin’s army, indeed, the attitude towards Ukraine was negative.

Denikin's failed project

As a result, any attempt by A.I. Denikin's move to extend his power to the territory of Kuban was perceived as reactionary. The lawyers who were responsible for the agreement between the “reluctant allies” had to take this into account. As one of them, Konstantin Nikolaevich Sokolov, wrote:

“It was difficult to get Kuban to delegate part of its powers to Denikin.”

Throughout 1918-1919, several meetings of commissions were organized to regulate the structure of the white South.

But the debates each time reached a dead end. If Denikin's lawyers stood for dictatorial power, unity of command in the army and common citizenship, then the Kuban people demanded to preserve parliamentarism, form a separate Kuban army and protect the privileges of Kuban citizens.

The fears of Kuban politicians were fair: among the volunteers they were irritated by parliamentary democracy and the Ukrainian language, which was used in the Rada along with Russian. In addition, the conditions of the civil war required Denikin and his entourage to concentrate power and resources in their hands. The coexistence of several state entities, albeit united by the fight with Moscow, complicated the adoption and implementation of any decision.

As a result, an agreement was reached when it was too late. In January 1920, the “South Russian Government” was created, headed by Denikin, the Council of Ministers, the Legislative Chamber and the autonomy of the Cossack troops. But the front at that moment was already collapsed, the white armies were retreating to the Black Sea. In the spring of the same year, Ekaterinodar fell, and Kuban statehood was virtually eliminated.

As part of the RSFSR

The Soviet government transferred Kuban to the RSFSR, forming the Kuban-Black Sea region.

The Soviet authorities met the Cossacks halfway: for the first 12 years, Soviet authorities in the Kuban used the Ukrainian language along with Russian.

It was used for training, conducting research, office work, and publishing the press. However, this did not end well - real confusion began, since the locals only spoke it, and few knew literary language. As a result, there was a shortage of personnel. In 1924, Kuban became part of the North Caucasus region, which also included the Don and Stavropol regions, which contributed to further Russification. Already in 1932, the Ukrainian language in these places lost its official status.

Thus, Kuban in the first quarter of the twentieth century. went through a difficult evolution from a region of the Russian Empire with the special status of the Cossack class to a subject of the RSFSR, bypassing the specific periods of Cossack statehood and the experiment of Ukrainian national-cultural self-determination within the framework of Soviet society.

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History of the settlement of Kuban

THE HISTORY OF SETTLEMENT and founding of Kubami goes far into hoary antiquity. Tens of thousands of years ago, a brave primitive hunter in the forest-steppe part of the foothills of the Caucasus collected wild fruits and hunted bison, mammoths and deer. Social relations, the area of ​​settlement of people, and their ethnic composition changed. Who has not trampled the feather grass carpet of the Kuban, who has not been given shelter by the shady crowns of its forests.

Wars and epidemics, tribal feuds and raids by nomads drove more and more waves of multilingual tribes and peoples to the Kuban. Cimmerians and Scythians, Goths and Huns, Alans and Pechenegs, Khazars, Polovtsians... Long before our era, numerous tribes of Meotians lived along the eastern shore of the Sea of ​​Azov (the Greeks called it Maeotis), the indigenous inhabitants of the North-West Caucasus. They were engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding, fishing and crafts.

In the 6th century BC, the Greeks appeared in Taman and founded a number of trading posts and settlements here. The largest of them, Phanagoria, according to the famous ancient Greek historian and geographer Strabo, was essentially the capital of the Asian part of the powerful Bosporan kingdom, which existed about the 4th century. ad.

But not only the sons of ancient Hellas saw the Kuban steppes. Already in the 10th century AD, Slavic Russians appeared here. Obviously, this was connected with the campaign of the Kyiv prince Igor against Byzantium in 944. In the 60s of the 10th century, the armor of the warlike squad of Prince Svyatoslav shone under the rays of the sultry Ku6an sun. The Tmutarakan principality appears on Taman, which became the outlying fiefdom of Russian princes for decades.

In the first half of the 13th century. Kuban, and primarily the local Adyghe tribes, suffered devastating devastation from the numerous hordes of Batu Khan. Somewhat later, in the northeastern part of the Black Sea region, the Genoese colonies of Matrega (Taman), Kopa (Slavyansk-on-Kuban) appeared. Mapa (Anapa) and others. Enterprising Italians have been conducting brisk trade with the Circassians for two years, penetrating far into their territory.

In 1395, the hordes of the Central Asian conqueror Timur swept through the Kuban like a black tornado, smashing the Gold Horde and the peoples subordinate to it.

At the end of the fifteenth century. Turks appeared on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, gradually subordinating the Crimean Khanate to their policies. The fortresses of Temryuk, Taman, and Anapa are being built. Greedy Turkish merchants in the coastal fortresses of Sudzhuk-Kale (in the Novorossiysk region), Gelendzhik, Sukhum-Kale open trade in slaves. There was a special demand for young people and mountain women. The busiest trade in slaves took place in the area of ​​present-day Gelendzhik.

Fighting the Turkish-Crimean aggression, the highlanders turn their gaze to the Moscow kingdom, which in 1557 took them under its protection. At this time, the bulk of the highlanders live in the foothills, in the Trans-Kuban region. These are, first of all, heterogeneous tribes of the Adyghe ethnic group: Shapsugs, Abadzekhs, Natukhaevtsy, Temirgoyevtsy, Besleneevtsy and others. A separate group consisted of Abazas and Karachais who lived in the foothills of the northern slope of the Caucasus Range. And in the steppes of the Kuban, on its right bank, the steppe silence is broken by numerous tents of nomadic Nogais - descendants of the Turkic-Mongol tribes that were once part of the ulus of the Golden Horde temnik Nogai. For almost two and a half centuries, starting from the 16th century, they have been in the Kuban, submitting to the omnipotent power of the Turkish Caliph, being subjects of the Crimean Khan.

At the end of the 12th century, Russian settlers appeared in Kuban. They were schismatics. fleeing feudal oppression under the religious banner of the old faith. Kuban attracts not only Old Believers, but also disadvantaged people, including Don Cossacks. They settled at the mouth of the Laba River. At the beginning of the 18th century. Apparently, there were already quite a lot of them, if K. Bulavin himself turned to them for help during the siege of Azov by the rebels. In 1708, several thousand rebels led by Bulavin Colonel Ignat Nekrasov made their way to Kuban after suppressing the Bulavin uprising. Soon, two more rebel chieftains, Ivan Drany and Gavrila Chernets, arrived in the lower reaches of the Kuban River. Those who fled from the tsarist massacre and serfdom go to Kuban along secret paths. Here, in the Kuban floodplains - between Kopyl (Slavyansk-on-Kuban) and Temryuk, they tried to find a free life by building three fortified buildings.

In the last quarter of the 18th century. The final stage begins in Russia's long struggle with the Ottoman Porte for the possession of Crimea and Kuban. Russian fortifications are being built in the Kuban: Vsesvyatskoye (in the area of ​​​​present-day Armavir), Tsaritsynskoye (on the site of the current Caucasian village) and others. The Nekrasovites, whose villages were destroyed by the troops of the Tsarist General Brink, left Kuban and went to Turkey. In January 1778, A.V. Suvorov began to command Russian troops in the Kuban, and began construction of the Kuban defensive line along the right bank of the river. Kuban.

At the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. The military-Cossack development of the deserted region begins. On July 30, 1792, a royal decree was issued on the resettlement of the Black Sea Army to Kuban, the backbone of which consisted of former Cossacks of the Zaporozhye Sich, defeated by the troops of Catherine II in 1775. The Black Sea Army was charged with the responsibility of developing and protecting the annexed lands of Taman and the right bank of the Kuban. At the end of summer in Taman Because of the Bug, the first group of Cossacks, led by Colonel Savva Belm, arrived by sea, and in October the second group, led by the Koshe chieftain Zakhary Chepiga, approached the Yeisk fortification.

The Black Sea Cossack army was located in forty settlements, called kurens in Zaporozhye, on the right bank of the Kuban from Taman to the mouth of the Laba River. To the east of them the Caucasian Linear Cossacks settled. Unlike the Black Sea people, who came primarily from the southeastern lands of Ukraine, among the linear Cossacks the majority were Russians from the Don and the central black earth provinces.

According to the Adrianople Peace Treaty with Turkey in 1829, the lands of the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus were transferred to Russia. Seventeen Russian military fortifications are being built on the coast from Anapa to Sukhumi under the general name “Black Sea Coastline”

The military Cossack development of the region ended with the creation of the Kuban Cossack army in 1860. It included the Black Sea troops and six brigades of the right flank of the Caucasian line. With the annexation of the territory of Transkubanya to them, the Kuban region was formed.

Primitive eras in Kuban

Conventionally, three periods are distinguished in the history of mankind: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age (based on the material that was mainly used in the manufacture of pile tools).

The specifics of the Stone Age are reflected in the name - the main material for making tools was various types of stone. With the help of a stone, a person could influence other objects, changing their shape, and could obtain food for himself. An important feature characterizing the process of improving human labor skills and the level of his thinking was that throughout almost the entire Stone Age, man did not know how to change the properties of the raw materials used; he took what nature gave him.

The Stone Age is the longest period in human history. The oldest tools made of stone were made more than two million years ago, but metal has been used for only 8-9 thousand years. The stone was used even in the Bronze Age. Only iron completely replaced it from the sphere of production of tools.

The Stone Age is the time of formation of the physical type of man. Modern science dates the beginning of the separation of man from the animal world to five million years ago. In order to come to the idea of ​​​​making tools, the emerging man needed about three million. The modern physical appearance of man (homo sapiens - intelligent man) developed 40 - 35 thousand years ago.

The Stone Age is an important period in the formation of human society, the path from the primitive herd of relatives through the maternal and paternal tribal system to the first civilizations and states. During this era, human settlement occurs throughout the Earth.

TO stone age refers to a number of discoveries and achievements in the field of material culture: the “mastery” of fire and the construction of dwellings, the invention of the spear, and then the bow and arrow, the transition to a productive economy - agriculture and cattle breeding, the development of weaving and pottery production. And all this against the background of continuous improvement of stone processing technology.

The formation of the main types of art, many elements of future world religions - all that we call the spiritual culture of man - dates back to this time.

The Stone Age is divided into three major periods: Paleolithic (Old Stone), Mesolithic (Middle Stone) and Neolithic (New Stone). In turn, the Paleolithic is divided into two parts: the Early (Lower) Paleolithic and the Late (Upper) Paleolithic. Sometimes scientists also distinguish the Middle Paleolithic. Finally, the Early Paleolithic includes the eras (sequence - from ancient to late): Pre-Cheulian (or Olduvai), Old Acheulian, Middle and Late Acheulian, Mousterian era (the so-called Middle Paleolithic). Olduvai era - 2700 thousand years ago, Acheulian (in general) - 700-120 thousand years, Mousterian (Middle Paleolithic) - 150-35 thousand years. The Late Paleolithic is a time period of 40-10 thousand years ago. The chronological framework of the Mesolithic and Neolithic fluctuates even more: the law of uneven historical development comes into play. These two periods in relation to the territory of the Kuban region are the least studied. Based on the general characteristics of Caucasian antiquities, the Mesolithic falls within the framework of 10-8 thousand years ago, and the Neolithic - 8-6 thousand years ago.

The problem of human settlement and development of various regions is complex and far from being completely resolved. North-East Africa is considered the ancestral home of humanity, where Australopithecus lived and where the most ancient tools attributed to the Olduvai culture were discovered. Some scientists do not exclude the possibility that South Asia was also part of the area of ​​“humanization.”

The most difficult question is about the time of the appearance of ancient man within the Krasnodar region. There is no doubt that he moved from the south, from Transcaucasia, along the Black Sea coast and through passes not blocked by ice. Most experts agree that Transcaucasia was developed by humans already in the early Acheulean. At the same time, many years of research into the Azykh Cave in Azerbaijan, which is very interesting for scientists, led to the emergence of a new version: man lived in the cave already in the Olduvai era - more than 700 thousand years ago. It is important that a fragment of a human jaw was found in the Early Acheulean layer of Azykh. True, the attempt to attribute it to the remains of Archanthropus (Pithecanthropus) is doubtful. According to anthropologists, this jaw belonged to an early paleoanthropist (Neanderthal), which makes it possible to include Transcaucasia in the area of ​​so-called sapientation, i.e., the formation of modern humans.

This fact can also be considered as indirect evidence in connection with the problem of human settlement of the current territory of Kuban. Here, in the river sediments of the Tsymbal quarry on Taman (near the village of Sennoy), two stone tools and artificially split animal bones were found. Presumably (taking into account the technique of processing tools and the species composition of animals), scientists attributed these finds to the pre-Chelian (Olduvai) era. Unfortunately, the circumstances under which they were discovered (found on the surface) do not allow us to reliably determine their age. The dating of the recently discovered new Lower Paleolithic site of Bogatyri (in the Sinaya Balka area) on the Taman Peninsula is also controversial - 1.1 - 0.8 million years.

And at present, reliable evidence of human habitation in the North Caucasus in the Early Acheulian has been found only at one site - in the Triangular Cave (Karachay-Cherkessia). Its age is approximately 600 thousand years.

The Acheulean era is represented by several dozen monuments, most of them are so-called localities. Stone tools were found not in the cultural layer, but in a redeposited state, often far from the places where they were made and used. Quite often, for example, they are found in river beds. They are divorced from paleontological material, which would allow us to determine the habitat, and therefore (approximately) chronology, by the composition of animals. Therefore, archaeologists are forced to limit their analysis to the types of tools and their sets, and stone processing techniques.

In the Acheulean era, the most characteristic tool was the hand ax, or biface. A rough ancient Acheulean hand ax was made by beating with 10-30 blows. Middle Acheulean bifaces - more regular, sometimes even graceful in shape - required three operations: splitting off the workpiece, upholstering it and retouching (this was achieved with 50-80 blows).

A feature of the Acheulian monuments of Kuban is the small number of fasces among other finds. Cores are also found - cores left after obtaining flakes from large pieces of stone. Flakes, after additional processing or without it, served as certain tools, such as scrapers. Flakes are the most numerous finds among Paleolithic monuments.

Researchers identify several territorial groups of Early Paleolithic sites: Sochi, Kuban, Labinsk, Belorechensk (Maikop), Psekupskaya, Pshekhsko-Pshishskaya, Ilsko-Abinskaya.

One of the areas where Acheulian tools were found is the valley of the Psekups River in the area of ​​the villages of Baku and Saratov. In particular, the location of Ignatenki Kutok, which some researchers consider the most ancient of the Acheulean monuments in the Kuban region. A group of localities is known on the Belaya River, among them is Fortepyanka. The collection includes more than 500 tools, including hand axes, cores, scrapers, flakes, etc. The estimated time is Middle Acheulian.

Description of work

THE HISTORY OF SETTLEMENT and founding of Kubami goes far into hoary antiquity. Tens of thousands of years ago, a brave primitive hunter in the forest-steppe part of the foothills of the Caucasus collected wild fruits and hunted bison, mammoths and deer. Social relations, the area of ​​settlement of people, and their ethnic composition changed. Who has not trampled the feather grass carpet of the Kuban, who has not been given shelter by the shady crowns of its forests.