Modern Christian propaganda has declared the Cossacks "a stronghold of the Christian faith." "Warriors of Christ" - the Cossacks, perhaps, many do not know, as well as the bulk of the deceived Russian people, about the true attitude of the Cossacks to the Church for many centuries. Let's try to analyze on the basis of historical truth how it all happened.
Don't go to church
and weddings around the birch drive,
according to the ancient customs...
from the instructions of S. Razin
The roots of the Cossack Family are very long and number more than one thousand years. The falsifiers of Russian history deliberately accustom us to celebrating the "millennium of Russia", although the history of our Fatherland goes back thousands and thousands of years, and the beautiful, rich cities of the Russians were known to the entire near and far abroad long before the baptism of Russia, with which they link the emergence of statehood, writing, culture, and even Russia itself, these cynical provocateurs or ignoramuses from history. The history of the Cossacks is also skillfully distorted, many facts are hushed up.
The non-Russians, who have slandered and will slander our history to this day, are vigorously introducing the idea that the Cossacks are runaway serfs (!), Who converged on the outskirts of Russia in gangs and were engaged in robbery and robbery. We will prove otherwise. Kuban, Don, Penza, Terek Cossacks, living on a vast territory from the Don and Taman to the foothills of the Caucasus, are not aliens, but the indigenous population of this land. The Scythian (Proto-Slavic) tribes initially took part in the ethnogenesis of the Russian Cossacks, and related Aryan peoples, in particular, the Alans and even the Turkic white peoples - Polovtsy, Volga Bulgarians, Berendeys, Torks, black hoods, Russified for many years, also took part in the formation of this subethnos. centuries of cohabitation with the Slavs.
The ancestors of modern Cossacks, whom ancient authors indicate under the names: "Cossacks", "Cherkasy", "helmets", "Gets", lived their free way, according to their own laws for thousands of years. The Cossack freemen, the Cossack Spirit, the Cossack brotherhood were also attractive to the surrounding peoples, who willingly became related to the Cossacks and went under the auspices of the ancient Cossack republics. Especially in ancient times, when neither Christianity nor Islam divided kindred peoples into "God's chosen", "orthodox", "Orthodox". In the Cossack environment, religious tolerance was normal, especially since all peoples professed their Native Father's Natural cults (later Christians would label the Ancient Aryan cults as "filthy paganism"). The Cossacks were no exception. Together with the soldiers of the Great Svyatoslav, the Cossacks participated in the defeat of the Khazar Khaganate and the destruction of Christian churches and Jewish synagogues. Arab and Persian chroniclers often write about the Cossacks and Rus, who raided the Persian possessions and describing the customs and customs of the Cossack clan-tribe, they write about them as sun-worshippers.
After the baptism of Russia, in all its outskirts, adherence to the Ancient Ancestral Faith remained for centuries - so, until the accession of Alexei Romanov, father of Peter the Great, the inhabitants of the Vyatka region and the Russian North adhered to the Slavic Faith. The lands of the modern Don and Kuban Cossacks from ancient times were part of the Tmutarakan principality, while the Christian princes did not encroach on the customs and beliefs of the consanguineous Russian Cossack population, cut off from the main Russian lands by the Wild Field, inhabited by nomadic Turkic tribes, by the way, pagan Tengrians (sky worshipers). The outskirts of Russia were defended by bogatyrs, who were called Cossacks in the Russian folk epic: "... Glorious is the young Cossack Ilya Muromets ..." It was later that he was elevated to the "Christian saints", but Ilya Muromets was not a Christian and even church domes in Kyiv knocked down with a mace. And the famous Slavic heroes-border guards Usynya, Dobrynya and Gorynya, who lived long before the very "baptism" of Russia and whom folk tradition and considers the first of the famous ancestors of the Russian Cossacks? ..
It was among the Cossacks that a kind of "heresy" took root, as the priests wrote about it: not only the Old Believers and supporters of the Old Orthodox Church found shelter among the Cossacks. On the Cossack land, the protest against the official church intensified in the form of such currents as “priestlessness” (!), where all the sacraments were performed by the laity themselves, communicating with God without “intermediaries”-priests, “Netov’s consent”, which does not recognize the construction of churches and is rooted in native Slavic-Russian paganism. But most of all, attention should be paid to the faith of the "dyrniki" - the Cossacks who lived on the Yaik and in the Altai steppes. The Cossacks-Tengrians (sky-worshippers) were so called "dyrniks" because they cut holes in the roofs of houses so that even in inclement weather one could pray at home, but looking at the sky. The most valuable testimony was left to us by deacon Fyodor Ivanov, who lived in the second half of the seventeenth century: "... many villagers, living in their villages, worship God the Sun, where the cross will not happen to them ..." Another testimony from 1860 , the case of Vasily Zheltovsky, who was tried for not going to an Orthodox church, but was baptized, looking at the sky and saying: "Our God is in heaven, but there is no God on earth." It should be added that the cross was revered in Russia long before the "baptism" (we recognize the cross, but do not recognize Christ!) And it was an equilateral cross, a runic cross or, as the priests said: "pogan kryzh" (pagan cross), and the symbol of Christians - not a cross, but a crucifix, an instrument of execution! And the Khazars crucified the captive Slavs on crosses, for which the crucifixion among the ancient Russians was always a symbol of death, execution and misanthropy.
The state and the Church fiercely pursued any freethinking and encroachment on the foundations of the Orthodox faith - the main instrument for enslaving the people. "Heresies" (namely, in this form the rejection of cynicism and lies of Christianity could be manifested) were brutally suppressed, people fled to the most remote parts of the country, but even here they were pursued by punishers and supporters of the "folk faith" were burned, as was customary everywhere and in all century by Christian inquisitors. Even children were not spared. With fire and blood, Christianity was introduced in Russia, with fire and blood it passed through the cities and towns of Russia and in times that I would like to pay more attention to ...
A little more than half a century has passed since the uprising of Ivan Bolotnikov, whom the Church cursed and anathematized for leading the uprising of the people and destroying hated palaces and temples. (By the way, the people's leader was treacherously captured and executed by the tsar's serfs after severe torture. The last thing the executioners told him was the following: "You will fall into hell, apostate."). The Christian Orthodox Church split into Old Believers and New Believers, bonfires blazed with heretics burned "in the name of the Lord". The people looked with hatred at the masters and waited for the people's intercessor. And he came. And he came from where the freedom-loving Slavic Spirit lived for centuries and will live forever!
Stepan Razin was born in the village of Zimoveyskaya on the Don. His father, Timothy Razya, from childhood instructed his son: "Take care of the honor of the Cossacks from a young age. Don't rot your hat in front of the strong, but don't leave a friend in trouble." The young Cossack saw who and how they live in Russia, and the millennia-old Slavic folk foundations were close to him, and it was not in vain that he loved to say: "I am for such Russia: there are neither poor nor rich. One is equal to one!".
One of the researchers of the life of ataman Razin noted: "As you know, the Cossacks were not distinguished by piety ..." These words accompanied the description of one of the first appearances of the young Cossack leader on historical arena: the Cossack freemen Razin took the Yaitsky town without a fight. Unable to take the town with a small detachment, Razin and his comrades undressed two dozen pilgrim monks, despite all their pleas, and in monastic cassocks entered the city ... In 1670, Stepan Razin raised an uprising. Not only Cossacks go to his army, but also runaway serfs, peasants, miners, Bashkirs, Tatars, Mordovians, and other destitute people. And boyar estates and churches blazed in a significant part of the Russian state. Razin sends out his "charming letters" to all the surrounding territories, where he grants the people "former liberties" and promises equality and justice.
From the very first months of the uprising, the Church takes the side of the ruling class and calls for reprisals against the "blasphemer and thief" Stenka Razin.
Storm of Astrakhan. From the city walls, Metropolitan Joseph daily curses the rebels as "thieves and ungodly deeds." After the Razintsy broke into the fortress, the metropolitan takes the remaining soldiers to one of the temples turned into a fortress, and says to the governor Prozorovsky: "In Holy place they will not turn up." Razintsy broke in and destroyed the temple, and threw the governor from the bell tower. Having established his own order in the city, Razin ordered the sexton from the Order Chamber to bring all the scrolls and burn it, and it was announced to the people: "Freedom to all of you, people of Astrakhan. Stand up for the will, for our great cause!" Metropolitan Joseph becomes the stronghold of resistance to Razin in Astrakhan, secretly sending out letters with information about the rebels, and in the city he sowed confusion and sent blasphemy against Razin and all (!) The people of Astrakhan, who supported the ataman and him In the annals of P. Zolotarev, a contemporary of those events, "The Tale of the City of Astrakhan and the Suffering of Metropolitan Joseph of Astrakhan," it was said that "Joseph, Metropolitan of Astrakhan, threatened with punishment from heaven, the wrath of the Lord, the curse of the archangels ..."
The opposition of Joseph and his intrigues against the rebels continued during the subsequent occupation of the city by Razin's associate Vasily Us. Us was the first of Razin's associates to introduce civil marriage in the city he occupied (!). Although the churches were not closed, he sealed marriages on paper with a city seal, the symbols of which were a sword and a crown. The dissatisfaction of the clergy intensified, and the metropolitan again began to conduct active subversive activities. The Cossacks saw this and demanded from Ataman Us to execute the vile metropolitan. The cup of patience was filled with the news that the metropolitan was compiling lists of Cossacks and townspeople who had taken the side of Razin for the subsequent transfer of the lists to government troops. Joseph made a speech to the Cossacks, where he called them "heretics and apostates" and threatened them with death if they did not surrender to the mercy of the king's troops. The Cossacks gathered a circle and made a decision: "All the turmoil and misfortune are repaired from the metropolitan." The metropolitan was charged with lying and treason, after which he was executed. On the same day, pogroms of the houses of the rich and the clergy took place throughout the city.
An interesting piece of evidence has been preserved about Razin's visit to Tsaritsyn, which he conquered. A young guy Agey Eroshka approached Razin and asked for help: the priests refused to marry him, for the bishop ordered that those who met and helped Razin refuse to marry. All the local priests harbored a grudge. Razin ordered: "Popov - on the rack! I'll pull up my beards. Harmful seed." But then he calmed down and said to the guy: "To hell with the long-maned ones! Let's play a wedding in a Cossack way: a wedding in the wild. Under the sky, under the Sun." At the wedding, bowls of wine and beer were salted - in a circle, as has been done for thousands of years! So the Cossacks remembered the ancient customs of their ancestors! At a celebration in honor of the young, Razin threw up a drunken cup to the sky: "Let free will. Let happiness be to anyone. For our boundless free Russia!" And he ordered from now on not to listen to the priests, but to marry the young with his ataman's name: "Weddings are not God's, but the people's business. Let not priests, but people repair court here."
Other authentic words of the ataman have been preserved in historical chronicles: "... Don't go to church, but have weddings around a birch, as ancient customs dictate..."
One of Razin's associates had a daughter. The Cossack turned to his ataman what to take for the name of his daughter. Razin said: "Will, Volushka." The Cossacks doubted that there was no such name in the holy calendar, to which the chieftain fervently replied: "So what. We will write this name!" The attitude of the Cossacks to the "long-maned" hypocrites and to the genuine Ancient Faith (which, in their worldview, was an interweaving of the Slavic Faith with Orthodox Christianity) can also be traced in other moments: when Razin ordered two young Cossacks to learn to read and write from a defrocked priest, they murmured: "Why torment in vain? That we are a priestly clan-tribe?"
Under Razin’s army, there was a fortune teller who, with one word, could inspire a cowardly fighter or a cowardly person to a feat of arms. During the assault on Simbirsk, the young warrior sat all day in the bushes, saying: "Mother of God, Queen of Heaven ..." The Mother of God did not help, so he missed the whole battle. But as soon as the grandmother-sorceress said the cherished word, and then the guy walked in the heroes: he climbed the fortress walls first. Perhaps this is a legend, a folk fiction that always surrounds figures of such magnitude as Razin. But it is worth recalling that Razin's associates themselves considered him a sorcerer. In Cossack legends, sorcery (witchcraft, sorcery) is an integral gift that distinguishes Razin from other folk heroes: "Pugachev and Yermak were great warriors, and Stenka Razin was a great warrior, and a wizard, so, perhaps, more than a warrior ... "People's rumor, long after Razin's death, talked about his miraculous rescue, about his service to the people already in the band of Yermak. Yes, Razin really remained alive - in the heart of the people ...
One of his bravest associates was also considered a sorceress - the old woman Alena, the governor of the Arzamas peasants, the Russian Joan of Arc. This courageous Russian woman, a simple peasant woman, led the struggle of the common people for freedom and justice. who tried to seize the communal land. She knew firsthand about the hypocrisy and abomination of monastic customs. Alena was a herbalist, that is, an herbalist: she healed with herbs and conspiracies, and priests usually declared such people "witches" (although "witch" used to mean "knowledgeable", "knowledgeable" woman). In her "charming letters" Alena urged not to believe the priests, who broadcast that serfdom was "approved by Holy Scripture and pleasing to God." When the boyar troops captured Alena, they declared her a sorceress and after fierce torment was executed by the execution so beloved by the Christian Inquisition: they were burned alive at the stake (remember Joan of Arc!).
Folk tales about Razin and his associates, songs, were and fables were imbued with primordial Slavic spirit. In contrast to them, state and church records were of a character hostile to the insurgent people, were filled with a religious and mystical spirit, ideologically tried to justify the victory over the Cossack army and the people themselves. There are two characteristic historical documents of that era, describing the current events from the point of view of the clergy - the most reactionary part of Russian society. In "The Tale of the Invasion of the Monastery reverend father of our Macarius, who was from thieves and traitors of thieves' Cossacks "and in" Tales of the Miracles of the Icon of Our Lady of Tikhvin in Tsivilsk "the Cossacks were declared the bearer of" theft and blasphemy. Cossacks - auth.) to the Spasov Monastery and all sorts of fortresses and letters of commendation, but tore up debt records in order to establish their peasant truth ... "So, then, what's the matter! The monasteries and the Church were large owners: they owned huge land, forests, water areas, millions of serfs. In his letters, Razin favored the peasants with his will and promised them land, his slogan (and later Pugachev would have a similar one) was: "Land. Will. Truth."
In unison with church appeals, the royal charters also everywhere emphasized not only the “robbery” beginning of the rebels, but also “apostasy”: “Last year, traitors, thieves, the Don Cossacks Stenka and Frolko Razina, with their comrades, having forgotten the Christian faith, betrayed the great sovereign ..." From the very first days of the uprising, royal letters declared him an apostate, and among one of the arguments it appeared that he introduced civil marriages instead of a church ceremony, he led the newlyweds "around the tree" - willow or birch. AT official documents, written in a heavy, bureaucratic language, often incomprehensible to those to whom it was addressed (in contrast to the "charming letters" of the rebels, written in a simple, bright, understandable language), Razin was declared as a "pleaser of the devils" and "breeder of all evil." And after, when Razin was treacherously captured, cruelly tortured, he was sentenced to the most cruel execution: "Execute an evil death: quarter." Even during his lifetime, Razin was anathematized and excommunicated from the church. He was ordered to be buried in the Muslim (Tatar) cemetery.
Since 1761, the Patriarch of All Russia Iosaf ordered to curse the "thief Stenka" from the ambos of churches, but this caused a backlash among the people. Among the people, Stenka was more loved and revered than Patriarch Josaf.
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was keenly interested in the details of the Razin rebellion, calling the chieftain "... the only poetic face of Russian history."
His poetic cycle "Psni about Stenka Razin" was personally reviewed by Nicholas I. Through Benckendorff, he conveyed to Pushkin: "For all their poetic dignity, they are indecent for printing in their content. Moreover, the church curses Razin, as well as Pugachev." Later, Pushkin gave both leaders an assessment that the highest indicator of historical truth folk love to Razin and Pugachev, who became the main characters of the national epic.
Pushkin writes a story about the Cossack Razina, and according to his own testimony, this whole story is permeated with motifs of folk poetry, dating back to the distant times of the ancient Slavic epic and paganism.
The great Cossack ataman attracted the attention of many Russian poets, artists and writers. The wonderful work "Stenka Razin" was left by the poet Koltsov. Ogarev's revolutionary poem "Goy, guys, Russian people" contained the following lines:
"... And we will cleanse the Russian land
From all enemies, yes loafers,
That they eat our bread and do evil to us:
From priests, merchants, and officials ... "
Navrotsky's song "Cliff" became famous. The Soviet classic Shukshin wrote in his work "I came to give you freedom": "... the memory of the people is legible and unmistakable. How Razin hates fear and slavery - just as initially they are cursed by the people. You can not argue with the Lord of the People ..." Having ascended on the scaffold, Razin did not ask for mercy, and under the sonorous howls of a deacon reading the sentence "to a thief and blasphemer", he thought about the people's will. For the people, Razin became immortal! For a long time the boyars and priests imagined the fires of the Razin uprising ...
Curious is the fact that during the Pugachev rebellion, the Cossacks pursued the same policy towards the Church and the priests. In the memoirs of eyewitnesses, it was said that "Pugachev himself did not go to church, but walked with songwriters through the streets, especially loving the invigorating refrain:
"Walk straight, look bravo,
Say that we are free ... "
(Yu. Salnikov, "... And I welcome you with liberty!")
Eyewitnesses of the storming of Kazan by Pugachev recalled how the Cossacks destroyed and set fire to merchant shops, monasteries and churches. The frightened clergy greeted "Peter III", for whom Pugachev pretended to be, with bread and salt and "kissed the cross of allegiance to Tsar Peter."
Also, during his lifetime, Pugachev and his associates were anathematized by the Church and excommunicated from her bosom. Pugachev, on the other hand, explained his attitude towards the Church simply: "... he destroyed the temples of God, the holy altars, he desecrated the altars not for the sake of robbery, but because he dreamed of creating a free life for all the downtrodden people!"
And just like that, after the cruel execution, Pugachev remained to live in the hearts of the Russian people, in folklore ...
From all the facts listed above, the true attitude of the Cossacks to the priests and the Church is clearly visible, while to the True Faith, to the Truth (and the Cossacks understood "Orthodoxy" as "praise the Rule, the Truth", and it was not a pity to lay down your stomach for the Truth!) there was a special relationship.
And it’s not for nothing that the Cossacks wanderers, led by ataman Ploskinya, went over to the side of the Horde, accusing the Russian princes of betraying their father’s Slavic Faith, while the Horde adhered to Ancient cults - understandable and native to the Cossacks.
Now, those Cossacks, in whom the Sacred Voice of the Ancestors woke up, as in the old days, glorify the Native Gods and the Bright Sun with a wave of their hand. A young talented Slavic artist from the Ancestral Cossacks, Vladimir Gribov, said figuratively and accurately: "The Slavic Gods were born in Heaven, not in a barn."
And it is worth, perhaps, for people who have declared their involvement with this Great Glorious Cossack Family to listen to the voice of their own blood and understand that the age-old commandments of their ancestors, the Cossack freedom-loving Spirit, Cossack military prowess cannot be brought into the thousand-year-old web of Christianity. The Cossacks have never been slaves, nor should they be "God's servants"!
Cossack Family - no translation!
Glory to Rod!
Glory to the Sun!
Glory to the Ancestors!
Orthodoxy from time immemorial served as the spiritual core of the Cossacks, and the Cossacks were faithful defenders of the Orthodox Church.
Returning from campaigns, they carried all the most valuable of military booty to the temple as a thankful sacrifice to the Lord for their salvation. Cossack banners, relics, Kleinods were kept in God's temples. Military priests with a cross in their hands, along with the Cossacks, went on the attack, raising them to a feat by the word of God. It is a known fact that in 1790, during the assault on Izmail, a military priest and a Cossack were the first to climb the wall. In the villages and farmsteads, the Church of God was the spiritual center, thanks to which education, morality, culture developed, almost every village church had a parochial school. The main decoration of the Cossack capitals - Novocherkassk, Orenburg, Omsk and others - were undoubtedly majestic military cathedrals. In addition, there were Cossack monasteries, for example, the famous Ekaterino-Lebyazhy in the Kuban. The Cossacks themselves were deeply religious people. It could not be otherwise: spending most of their lives in battles and campaigns, on the edge of life and death, the Cossacks more acutely felt the temporality of being and understood that only with God is eternity, and asked him for protection and victory over the adversary.
Many outstanding ascetics of Orthodoxy, canonized as saints, left the ranks of the Cossacks. This is the hero of Russian epics, the “old Cossack” Ilya Muromets, who at the end of his life became a humble monk Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, and the famous Saint Metropolitan Dmitry of Rostov (in the world - the Cossack Daniel Tuptalo), who compiled the famous Menaion, and Saint Joseph of Belgorod. The Mother of God enjoyed special reverence among the Cossacks. Her holy icons - Don, Kazan, Tabyn - were considered the patrons of the Cossack troops. Day of the Intercession Holy Mother of God was a common Cossack holiday, the day of all Cossack troops. It was on this day that young Cossacks took the oath of allegiance to the Fatherland. Of the saints, the Cossacks venerated the Archangel the most. God's Archangel Michael - the leader of the heavenly host, Nicholas the Wonderworker, John the Baptist, George the Victorious, John the Warrior, Alexy - the Man of God and the holy noble prince Alexander Nevsky. In addition to them, in each Cossack army there were "their own", locally revered saints. At the same time, the Cossacks were quite religiously tolerant and treated representatives of other religions with respect. In the ranks of the Cossacks were Muslim Cossacks (Tatars and Bashkirs) and Buddhist Cossacks (Kalmyks and Buryats). But over 97 percent of the Cossacks have always been Orthodox.
Addressing the resurgent Cossacks, Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia said: “Dear Cossacks and Cossacks, dear brothers and sisters! The Russian Orthodox Church, like the whole of Russia, is now looking with hope at the revival of the Cossacks, believing that not only the form, but also the spiritual basis of "Orthodox chivalry" is being revived. Voluntary service to the Church and the Fatherland, readiness to defend the Orthodox faith and native land to the point of self-sacrifice - these feelings were characteristic of the Cossacks. The Cossacks in Russia have always been guided by the Gospel words of Christ the Savior: “There is no greater love than if someone lays down his life for his friends” (John 15, TK). And throughout the centuries, the Cossacks confirmed their loyalty to this truth with their lives and deeds. Today, the Russian Cossacks again have the opportunity to serve the faith and the Fatherland. The time of trials and oblivion of the devoted service of the Cossacks to the Russian state is over. We look forward to your participation in the revival not only of our historical lands, but of Russia as a whole. May the Cossack be glorious not only in earthly service, but also in tireless service to the Lord God and the holy Orthodox Church, for without this the true revival of the Cossack warrior, tiller and pioneer will be impossible. I express the hope that the life, service and work of the Russian Cossacks for the benefit of the Fatherland and in the bosom of the Church will contribute to the preservation of peace and harmony among the peoples of the entire Fatherland. Keep our Russia - the House of the Blessed Virgin Mary! May the Lord bless you all for faithful service to the Russian state and our people!”
Picture of our brother Cossack Yesaul A.P. Lyakha
V. E. Shambarov, 2006.
"COSSACKS The path of the soldiers of Christ"
COSSACKS AND ORTHODOXY.
Strengthening the position of the state on the outskirts of the Cossacks in many ways contributed to the strengthening of the Church. If in the 17th century temples were available only in the centers of the Cossack regions (in Siberia - in cities and large villages), then under Peter I the construction of stanitsa churches began with might and main. By the way, only then, along with the construction of churches, Peter forbade the Cossacks to marry without priests, on the Maidan. New monasteries sprang up. For example, on the Don, men's - Cherniev, Kremenskoy, women's - Starocherkassky, Efremovsky. Bekrenevsky and Ust-Medveditsky were at first male, then they were transformed into female ones. But Cossack Orthodoxy still retained some specifics, combining Christianity and military traditions. The basis for this combination was the words of the Lord: “There is no greater love than if a man lays down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Therefore, icons and weapons hung on one wall in the hut. Cossack monasteries, as before, served as a haven for crippled warriors. And in nunneries widows left whose husbands did not return from campaigns. By the way, a very eloquent detail - unlike Central Russia, the Cossack monasteries never used the labor of serfs.
The position of the priests was also special. They were important figures of the Cossack community, they were always present at the village circles, they could even interrupt them, although they themselves did not have the right to vote. They monitored the morality of parishioners, kept records of those who were born, married, and died. They also performed the functions of physicians and sanitary control. But with priests sent from outside and not knowing the Cossack environment, difficulties arose. And they tried to cook from their own. Candidates were trained at monasteries and sent for ordination to the diocese. And in 1757, Ataman Efremov achieved the establishment of a seminary in Cherkassk. However, even a person who was ordained a priest could not immediately receive a parish. He was evaluated by the authorities and was elected on the village circle. An “instruction note” was drawn up about the election, with which the candidate went to the bishop in order to receive the appropriate place.
Only in the second half of the XVIII century. such a situation was considered abnormal, in 1762 the Voronezh Bishop complained that the Don foremen, considering themselves “excellent in everything from others”, “not only attest to the church’s account, but by their own consideration and into the clerks themselves determine and directly into church affairs come in and letters of parish from themselves give behind their seals. But, despite the intervention of the Synod, the influence of the Cossack authorities on the local church remained very strong. But how else, if the temples were built and maintained at the expense of the Cossacks? Later, an independent Don diocese was singled out, and the contradictions were smoothed out: the bishop was in contact with the military chieftain, and thus both could influence each other's subordinates.
But a significant part of the Cossacks remained Old Believers - all the Urals, Grebensky, many of them were among the Orenburg, Siberians, on the Upper Don. However, it is perhaps incorrect to divide into Old Believers and "Orthodox", as is done in some sources. Aren't the Old Believers Orthodox? It would be more correct to speak of supporters of the Old Russian and Greek Russian rites. In addition, the Old Believers themselves were divided into a number of areas - Beglopopovtsy (who accepted fugitive Greek Russian priests for service), Bespopovtsy (who managed without priests), etc. The Cossacks also had their own specifics here. In this case, the example with combs is typical.
Under Anna Ioannovna, when the Old Believers were again taken up in Russia, the Bishop of Astrakhan sent his "zakachist" Fyodor Ivanov to Kizlyar, who zealously began to "eradicate the schism." In 1738, the Grebentsy, led by Ataman Danil Auka, appealed to Bishop Hilarion, referring to the permission of Peter I to be baptized with two fingers. And he seemed to agree. Since the Cossacks had churches only in Kizlyar and Kurdyukovskaya, and in the rest of the villages there were prayer houses (without altars), Hilarion ordered the construction of altars and the celebration of liturgies. The Cossacks replied that they would do everything, except for the triplets. But new denunciations followed that "they are in a considerable split." The synod ordered to put things in order. And Illarion pointed out that if the Cossacks "in their two-fingered stubbornness are, then they will be punished not only by spiritual, but also by civil punishment." The answer was: “In our Grebensky Army, there is no split, because as our fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers from ancient times were in the Orthodox Christian faith and were baptized with a two-fingered cross, so we ... do not decrease or add.” They pointed out that all the former kings were sworn with two fingers, that many people from the mountaineers were baptized by them, and if the rite was changed, it would have a bad effect on them. Therefore, the Cossacks gave a signature of loyalty to the Church, but with the preservation of two-fingeredness - even if they had to "suffer and die" or leave the Terek.
And Illarion agreed, "because they have no other split except for the cross." But the Synod insisted on its own, the persecution began. They compiled lists of those who were not at confession, collected fines, took away icons of the old letter, removed and brought under investigation the priests who performed the service according to the old rite. This caused conflicts, escapes of the Cossacks. Here the secular authorities raised their voice, being more compliant than the spiritual ones. The Kizlyar commandant declared that it was impossible to eradicate the schism by force, it would be better to send learned preachers. And if there are none, then there is no need to send threatening consistorial decrees, "so as not to lead the Cossacks into corruption the most." The Senate, given the importance of protecting the borders, ordered that the combers not be forced in matters of faith.
In 1763 Peter III allowed the Old Believers, and Catherine confirmed his decision. However, the relief came too late. The Grebenians recoiled from the official Church. Another factor came into play. Church personnel on the outskirts of the local area was extremely lacking, and Orthodox Georgians emigrated from Transcaucasia. And it was decided to involve the Georgian clergy. It served in the churches of Kizlyar, founded the Exaltation of the Cross Monastery, and was sent to the villages. Some priests served in Georgian, accompanied the holidays with Georgian chants. For the multinational Terek-Kizlyar Army and the settlers from the Terek-Family, such a church was suitable, but there was no other. But for the old-timers, the combers looked "foreign", not Russian.
When the formation of the Azov-Mozdok line began, the Old Believers were also resettled from the Don and the Volga to the Caucasus. The sectarians from the Irgiz, from abroad, also came here. But they were of various interpretations and currents, there was confusion. Contemporaries wrote that the Terek Cossacks "are all of different splits." However, among the Cossacks, schismatics also transformed. The anti-state component has disappeared. And they remained faithful servants of God, the tsar and the Fatherland. Only they served God in their own way - as they were used to. Therefore, the secular authorities did not give offense to them. The all-powerful Potemkin obtained permission from the Synod for the Cossacks-Old Believers to build churches. There were sketes - near Kalinovskaya, Chervlennaya, Novogladkovskaya and others. However, the local sketes did not become places where the fugitives took refuge and conducted schismatic propaganda. They turned into a kind of traditional Cossack monasteries. The disabled, the poor, widows settled in them. They earned extra money by sewing, cultivating their gardens and vineyards, the villagers also helped - the children brought food and called the name of the one for whom they needed to pray. And the local authorities "did not notice" these sketes.
In 1800, on the initiative of Paul I, a provision was adopted on a church of the same faith - subordinate to the Synod, but carrying out worship according to old printed books and old rites. In principle, this was exactly what the combers had achieved before. And co-religionism spread widely in the Ural Army, more than half of the Cossacks switched to it. But on the Don, a common faith church arose only in one village, Verkhne-Kargalskaya. And the Terek was affected by the conflict with official Church and its "Georgian" character, and the innovation was not established. Only under the influence of the missionary activity of Fr. Nazaria (Puzin), the so-called "Nazar Church" arose, although its parishioners considered themselves not co-religionists, but the same Old Believers, only "with a real priest, and not with a self-appointed one."
In 1846, the Belokrinitskaya Old Believer Church was established on the territory of Austria-Hungary. The unity of the structure, the possibility of appointing priests allowed her to attract many supporters in Russia. But among the Cossacks there were few Belokrinitsky Old Believers (they were called "Austrians"). Basically, the religious life of the communities took place under the leadership of their elected guides. And for the sacraments of baptism, weddings, the full rite of the funeral, they used the services of either runaway priests, or once or twice a year, representatives of the community went to Russia and brought a priest from there for a fee. There were also rumors among the Cossacks, unknown among other Old Believers - nowhere, non-okruzhniki, holers. In general, we can agree with the conclusion of the historian N.I. Velikaya that “Cossack Old Believers cannot be attributed to the main currents (priests, bespopovtsy) or sects (pomortsy, netovtsy, Fedoseevtsy)”. Because it "had a pre-schismatic character." “In the absence of priests, special forms of religious activity developed, carried out under the guidance of the most moral and respected Cossacks.”
Penetrated into the environment of the Cossacks and heresies, sects. In 1818, Yesaul Yevlampy Katelnikov created a sect of “spirit bearers” on the Don in Upper Kurmoyarsk, his followers arranged exhausting fasts and vigils, reaching the ecstasy of “God-obsession”. The sect was banned, Katelnikov was exiled to Solovki. The Baptists (“Shtunda”), Molokans, Khlysty, eunuchs, Adventists, representatives of “Old Israel” and “New Israel” also spread their teachings. But the very direction of these sects did not correspond to the spirit of the Cossacks, and they found very few adherents.
In the Caucasus, the share of the Old Believers gradually decreased. Greek Orthodoxy dominated the Black Sea Host. And when the mass replenishment of the Cossacks with retired soldiers, Russian and Ukrainian peasants began, they were also “new believers”. By the way, after the annexation of Georgia, the Georgian clergy also fled there, and Russian priests began to be sent to the line. In 1829, the North Caucasus was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Don diocese, and in 1843 the Caucasian one was formed, and the Cossack villages were subordinated to the chief priest of the Caucasian Corps, Lavrenty Mikhailovsky.
Features here were observed the same as on the Don. The Black Sea people had their own monasteries, the Mariinskaya women's deserts, male Ekaterino-Lebyazhenskaya hermitage - which has also become a school for those wishing to enter the clergy. Cossack authorities constantly interfered in church affairs. So, in 1849, the ataman of the Black Sea Host Zavodovsky ordered all the priests to read the order of the governor in churches for three Sundays in a row (about the prohibition of the Cossacks to address the authorities over their heads direct superiors). All were fulfilled unconditionally, only Fr. Gerasim (Speransky). Zavodovsky sent a report to him to the chief priest, but unexpectedly received a sharp blow. L. Mikhailovsky pointed out that "an announcement in the Orthodox Church is appropriate only in the affairs of the Church or its dogmas, or ... in incidents relating to the affairs of state or the August Imperial House." In other matters, "the clergy should not be involved at all." Only after that, military and civil instructions began to be read out at gatherings or near churches.
And relations between representatives of the Greek-Russian and Old Russian rites in the Cossacks were much more tolerant than in the non-Cossack environment. Cossacks of one confession tried to live and stick together, but they did not have antagonism with other currents. For example, in 1801, when the news of the death of Paul and the cancellation of the campaign to India caught up with the Don people on the Irgiz, the entire Army met Easter in the local Old Believer sketes. Together - chieftain, officers, Cossacks. And it didn't bother anyone. What to do if there are no other temples and priests nearby?
Nicholas I launched a new persecution of the Old Believers, but he made an exception for the Cossacks, by decree of 1836 they were allowed to conduct worship according to their rites. And the clergy wrote that on the Terek “schismatics openly built prayer houses, openly kept fugitive priests, started sects, and obvious schismatics were appointed heads of the villages, even between the commanders of Grebensky and other regiments there were schismatics.” True, it was not without conflicts. In 1844, the Cossack of the Don regiment, passing through Chervlennaya, recognized the fugitive in the village guard. Bishop Jeremiah insisted on arrest. The villagers, bound by military discipline, could not resist. But the Cossacks stood up for the usher. Armed with men's rifles, sticks. In order to frighten them, they fired blanks from the cannons. But the women were not afraid and rushed at the soldiers. With difficulty, the "woman's rebellion" was still pacified. However, the secular authorities again took the side of the Cossacks. Viceroy Vorontsov reported to St. Petersburg that friction over matters of faith prevented them from serving. And in 1850, the tsar ordered that only "harmful sects" - Dukhoborists, iconoclasts, Judaizers, etc., be called schismatics, and the rest be called Old Believers and not be persecuted.
Religious alienation in the Cossack environment sometimes manifested itself, but more often in cases where it related to newcomers. And it was explained by differences not so much in confessions as in customs, behavior, and thinking. But no alienation was observed, for example, between the famous regiment commander "Nover" N.P. Sleptsov and his subordinates, Old Believer combs, who became related to him in battles. And when in the 1840s. to reinforce the Grebensky regiment, migrants from the Kharkov province were sent to 5 villages, only Chervlennaya refused to accept them, and the Ukrainians, who they wanted to settle in it, founded a new village, Nikolaevskaya. The rest lived together. At different ends of the villages, in different settlements, they prayed separately. But they served and fought together. And gradually got used to it. Sometimes they changed their confession. Sometimes girls from Old Believer families tried to marry the Cossacks of the Greek-Russian rite, since their relations in their families were freer. And it happened that members of the same family belonged to different confessions. But they had nothing to share. They were Cossacks, which means that their highest values were the same.
And what can we say about relations between different branches of Orthodoxy, if the Cossacks have always been able to get along even with non-Christians and foreigners? In the Caucasus, in the midst of the war, they were quarreling with the highlanders. Often they accepted foreigners into their midst. In the Urals in the XVIII century. if prisoners wanted to become Cossacks, they were obliged to be baptized, but if the Tatars, Bashkirs, Kalmyks voluntarily passed to the Cossacks, they could remain in their faith. The Transbaikal Army, as already noted, included whole regiments of pagan Evenki and Buddhist Buryats. There were even lamas-Cossacks - the order was established that at the time of the gathering they were released from the datsans, and then they returned to monastic life. On the Terek in Borozdinskaya Kazan Tatars and Tavlintsy were settled, who retained the Muslim faith. Bashkir Muslims entered the Orenburg and Ural Troops, Kalmyk Buddhists - into Astrakhan, Donskoy, Ural.
And the Christian Cossacks perceived them as their brothers. Which, by the way, also manifested the psychology of the “warriors of Christ”. It is not the business of a warrior to discuss what has been decided from Above. If the Lord, in his inscrutable ways, admits that someone believes otherwise, is it necessary and possible to argue with such a situation? However, nothing resembling ecumenism arose. The Cossacks never had discussions about the "points of contact" of religions, about the possibilities of their "rapprochement". They respected other people's traditions, but also their own. They have their own, we have our own, and the state is something in common, and therefore general service difference of beliefs does not interfere.
Orthodoxy was not just a faith, but the foundation of all Cossack life. Like everyone in Russia, the Cossack was associated with the Church and birth, and baptism, and wedding, and burial. And the entire economic year was connected with the church year - after the Trinity, mow hay, after the Nativity of the Virgin, harvest grapes, etc. But there were also their own, Cossack traditions, their revered miraculous icons - the Aksai Mother of God, who saved the Don from cholera, the Uryupinskaya Mother of God, the Akhtyrskaya Mother of God, the Tabynskaya Mother of God, etc. There were their own specific customs. For example, a church ceremony of seeing off to a service. And a thanksgiving service upon returning from the service. The custom of military circles was also preserved. Atamans were no longer elected on them, no decisions were made, and the circles became just common holidays for the entire Army. All the regalia, banners were carried out, the ataman and members of the board marched to the military cathedral, where a solemn service was served. There was a parade, a treat ...
There were holidays that were considered their own, Cossack ones. The Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos (in memory of the capture of Kazan), the day of the Kazan Mother of God - the defender of Russia (in memory of the liberation of Moscow from the Poles), was also celebrated the Day of the Cossack or Mother's Day (it fell on the Introduction of the Virgin into the temple). There were special days of commemoration of ancestors. For example, on the Don there is a military memorial service, which was served on the Saturday preceding the day of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, and was accompanied by performances of singing choirs, military competitions, and a meal. And the patronal feast of the stanitsa church was also the feast of the village. Tables were laid on the Maidan, and they celebrated in houses. This was also accompanied by songs, dances, horse riding. And they walked for three days!
True, the Church tried to fight some customs (just like the military authorities) - say, with fisticuffs, and in the Kuban and Terek - with shooting in the air at weddings and holidays, “as a result of which a year does not pass so that they do not injure or didn't even kill a man." But such a struggle did not bring any special results, the Cossacks kept their traditions strictly. The same fisticuffs were preserved everywhere, on Maslenitsa - the capture of snow fortresses, it was played out especially magnificently in the Orenburg region, with masquerade mummers, special "voivods". And the Grebensky Old Believers also preserved archaic rituals in general. Let's say, on the Trinity - "launching ships." Such “ships” were made together, decorated with flowers, ribbons, stylized dolls of “Cossack” and “Cossacks” were planted on them, solemnly, they were carried to the Terek by the whole village and put on the water. After that, the “ship” needed to be sunk with shots, and a general festivity began with dancing and songs. Among the combers, a special form of the Cossack "communion" has been preserved from the unknown depths of time - to bite the tip of one's own beard. And contemporaries-officers noted with surprise that at any moment, having taken a beard in their mouth and considering themselves to have taken communion, the Grebensky Cossacks "go to obvious death without thinking."
Report of the Director of the Department of Interethnic Relations of the Ministry of Regional Development of Russia A.V. Zhuravsky at the XIX International Christmas Educational Readings in the Donskoy Monastery
The importance of Orthodoxy for the formation and life of the Russian Cossacks is difficult to overestimate. One of the main factors in the formation of the Russian Cossacks as a social force and service class in the XIV-XV centuries was the Christian faith. In fact, we can say that the Orthodox faith, the Cossack freemen and the sovereign service were (and in many ways still remain) the basis of self-identification of the Russian Cossacks.
These three foundations, three markers of Cossack identity are deeply interconnected. Indeed, the Cossack freemen is will, freedom. But even in Christianity we talk about freedom in Christ Jesus.
The concept of "service" has not only a military (military service), state (state service), but also a religious connotation - the service of God. History shows that without service there is no Cossack. Numerous examples are known of how, as vast territories were colonized, the need for Cossack settlements guarding the former borders disappeared, and the Cossacks moved to other classes, for example, to the peasant class (sovereign peasants or even monasteries).
Gentiles (representatives of other faiths, religions) in the Russian Cossacks were few, but foreigners (as in Russian Empire the non-Russian population was called) - a lot, these are Kalmyks, and Buryats, and Yakuts, and Nagaybaks, and Ossetians and other peoples. In modern Russia, this situation persists, because in ethnicity The Cossacks are heterogeneous, although there is a strong opinion among some of the Cossacks (especially in the Kuban and the Don) that the Cossacks are a nationality. Moreover, many recorded their nationality during the All-Russian population census. But as the results of the All-Russian census of 2002 show, the majority of those who registered as Cossacks are ethnic Russians, living mainly in the Krasnodar Territory, Rostov and Volgograd regions. This was reflected in the recently published "Map of the Peoples of Russia" by the Ministry of Regional Development of Russia, where the Cossacks are designated as an ethno-social group of the Russian people.
Although it is obvious to researchers that the Orthodox faith is an integral part of the self-identification of the Cossacks, unfortunately, the issues of interaction between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Cossacks are poorly covered in the scientific literature. Basically, interest in this issue was related to other scientific topics. Among pre-revolutionary researchers, S.F. Nomikosov, V.D. Sukhorukov, M.N. Kharuzin and others, in the pre-revolutionary period and at the end of the Civil War, the main works of I.F. Bykadorova, A.A. Gordeeva, M.A. Karaulova, E.P. Savelyeva, S.G. Svatikova, F.A. Shcherbina and others. In the Soviet period, certain aspects of the role of the Church in the history of the Cossacks were covered in the works of A.I. Kozlova, A.P. Pronstein, N.A. Mininkov and others.
Among modern works directly related to this issue, it is worth highlighting the study of M.G. Shkvarova - "The Russian Church and the Cossacks in the era of Peter I", which analyzes the reforms of Peter the Great aimed at limiting the independence of the Church (the abolition of the patriarchate) and the Cossacks (the abolition of the Cossack "liberties"), against the background of the difference in the views of the Russian Church and the Cossacks on the nature of their relationship .
It should be noted that in Ukraine in October 2010, at the initiative of the Synodal Department of the UOC for pastoral care of the Cossacks, the First International Conference "The Church and the Cossacks: aspects of interaction in history and modernity" was held. This is an important symptom of the return of the Cossacks, until recently torn apart by political, territorial and ideological contradictions, into the bosom of the Church.
At the same time, no systematic attempts have been made to study the entire centuries-old history of interaction between the Cossacks and the Russian Orthodox Church. This report does not claim to solve such a large-scale problem, representing an outline of the study of the history of interaction between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Cossacks and outlines some of the possible prospects for the development of this interaction.
Considering the history of relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Cossacks, let us assume the original nature of these relations at the following historical stages:
- The period of emergence and formation of the Russian Cossacks (XIV-XVI centuries);
- In the 17th century;
- During the imperial period (XVIII century - 1917);
- During the years of the revolution and the Civil War (1917-1921);
- During the Soviet period (1922-1991);
- AT Russian Federation(1991-2011).
The first centuries of the existence of the Russian Cossacks left little material and chronicle evidence of the role and place of Orthodoxy in the life of the first Cossacks. At the same time, according to indirect evidence, such as the letter of the Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Russia Theognost about the belonging of Chervleny Yar (historical area - the interfluve of the Don and Khopra) to the possessions of the Ryazan diocese (1330), it becomes known that the region is quite populated by Orthodox Christians, beyond the spiritual environment of which there was a dispute between the Ryazan and Sarai dioceses.
A number of historians (E.P. Savelyev, N.A. Mininkov and others) put forward a hypothesis about the Cossack origin of the population of Chervleny Yar. close-up Christian center at the same time, Azov-Tana remains, where there was a Greek Orthodox church of John the Baptist, which later played a significant role in the spiritual life of the Don Cossacks. The extermination of the Don Christians during the campaign of Tamerlane in 1395 led to the desolation of Chervleny Yar and the outflow of the Orthodox population to the Ryazan lands, where the first urban Cossack detachments appeared.
In the XV-XVI centuries, the colonization of the Don by the Slavic population led to the strengthening of the role of the Cossacks, which became a serious geopolitical argument for the growing Russian state in its relations with Ottoman Empire, whose elite saw the mission of the empire in the unification of all Turkic lands. The decline of the Golden Horde led to the transfer of the episcopal see in 1454 from the Great Sarai to Krutitsy, with the establishment of the Patriarchate in Moscow in 1589. At the same time, the Don was directly subordinate to the Patriarch in ecclesiastical terms.
Reliable information about the existence Orthodox churches in the Don Cossack towns and villages belong to the 16th century. The oldest of them was the temple in the name of the Most Holy Theotokos in the Donetsk Razdora. The existence of chapels in Cherkasy and the monastery towns is mentioned in the documents of the Moscow embassy order of 1614. Around the middle of the 17th century. chapels were in all lower towns. The clergy, mostly widowed priests, were sent to the Don from Moscow. For service in the Monastery town, where in the middle of the XVII century. the headquarters of the Don ataman was located, the Cossacks invited hieromonks from the Kyiv Metropolis.
The growth at that time of the influence on the Cossacks of the ideas of the liberation of Christians from the oppression of the Gentiles can be judged by the intensified onslaught of the Cossacks on the lands controlled by the Ottoman Empire. The Don Cossacks saw as their goal the liberation of the fortress of Azov, both the main obstacle to free access to the sea, and a large slave market where the stolen Crimean Tatars fellow believers captured. In addition, on the territory of the fortress there was an ancient temple of John the Baptist - one of the main Orthodox shrines Lower Don.
The 17th century became a landmark for the Russian Cossacks - this is participation in the events of the Time of Troubles, and a significant role in the accession of the Romanov dynasty, and the gradual entry of free Cossack communities into the structure of the Russian state. The researchers put forward the following hypothesis about the nature of the interaction between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Cossacks - in the conditions of a specific way of life, the canonical service was difficult, the main sacrament was Baptism. Its commission was tantamount to acceptance into the Cossacks.
The great Russian writer N.V. Gogol in his work "Taras Bulba" gave the following description of the entry of a Cossack into the Sich:
“The visitor appeared only to the Koschevoi, who usually said:
- Hello! What do you believe in Christ?
- I believe! - answered the visitor.
- Do you believe in the Holy Trinity?
- I believe!
- Do you go to church?
- I'm going!
- Well, cross yourself!
The visitor was baptized.
- Well, all right, - answered the koshevoi, - go to which you know the hut.
This ended the whole ceremony. And the whole Sich prayed in one church and was ready to defend it until last drop blood, although she did not want to hear about fasting and abstinence.
The reluctance to fight against fellow believers, albeit Catholics, caused a conflict between the Donskoy Cossack army and the Moscow Patriarchate in 1630-1633. For the fact that the Cossacks rejected the demand of Tsar Michael and Patriarch Filaret to conclude a truce with the Turks and, in alliance with the Muslims, fight against the Commonwealth, the Patriarch anathematized them. In turn, the Don clergy ceased to commemorate the Patriarch and the Tsar at divine services.
A significant event of the 17th century in political and spiritual terms for the Russian Cossacks was the Azov siege seat of 1637-1642. On the eve of the campaign of the Cossacks to storm Azov, the anathema was lifted by the Patriarch. It should be noted that the very campaign of the Cossacks against Azov had a pronounced religious motivation, and the courage and selfless bravery of the Cossacks during the Azov "siege sitting" of 1637-1642. present tall example spiritual feat of Orthodox warriors.
This is how the Don Cossacks described what happened in the days of 1641, when against 5 thousand Don and Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, 120 thousand Ottoman army came under the walls of Azov in the "Tale of the Azov siege seat of the Don Cossacks":
“And during our siege sitting, we sinners kept fasting. Many prayed, kept their bodily and spiritual purity. In the siege, many of us experienced people saw in a dream and in reality - some beautiful and radiant wife, standing in the air in the middle of the city of Azov, others - an ancient husband, with long hair, in light robes, looking at the Basurman regiments. And the Mother of God did not betray us into the hands of the infidels, she gave us obvious help against them, exclaiming with tenderness: “Be of good cheer, Cossacks, and do not be horrified. This city of Azov from the lawless Hagarians, their wickedness, malice and cruelty was defiled, the thrones in the churches of the Forerunner and Nikolina were defiled. And they not only defiled the land in Azov and the thrones, but also darkened the air above it, they committed a marketplace here and torture Christians, separated husbands from their lawful wives, separated sons and daughters from fathers and mothers. From that much weeping and weeping, the whole Christian land groaned. But about pure virgins, about immaculate widows, and about those who are in infancy, my mouth cannot even speak, looking at their reproach. And God heard their prayers and their weeping. Seeing the creation of his hands, Orthodox Christians, perishing evil, gave you vengeance against the infidels, handed over to you this city and them themselves into your hands. Let not the wicked say, “Where is your Christian God?” And you, brothers, do not worry, drive away all fear from yourself, no infidel sword will touch you. Put your trust in God, accept the crown from Christ incorruptible. And God will receive your souls; you have to reign with Christ forever.”
And many atamans saw that abundant tears flowed from the image of Ivan the Baptist from his eyes on the day of each attack. And on the first day, during an attack, they saw a lamp near his image, full of tears. And during our sorties from the city, everyone saw the Basurmans - both the Turks, and the Crimeans, and the Nogais - a brave and young man, in military clothes, walking in the middle of the battle with a naked sword and striking many Basurmans. And we didn't see it. We know only from the dead that this is the work of God, and not of our hands: the Turkish people are cut in two! Sent from heaven was victory over them! And they, the infidels, asked us many times about who from us from the city goes out to fight with a sword. And we said to them: “Then our governors go out.”
During the Azov "sitting" 370 years ago, in 1641, the Cossacks vowed to erect a cathedral in Cherkassk in the name of the Resurrection of Christ. The vow was fulfilled in 1652. The wooden Resurrection Cathedral had the Annunciation, Predtechensky, Nikolsky and Alekseevsky limits. Sovereign Alexei Mikhailovich sent gifts to decorate the cathedral: 100 rubles in money, valuable icons in salaries, vestments, liturgical books, candlesticks, incense and wine. The first military cathedral burned down during the great fire of Cherkassk in 1670. Two years later, the temple was restored, but in 1687 this cathedral also burned down. In its place in the following year, 1688, a stone cathedral was laid, which was consecrated only in 1719.
Information about the oldest Don monastic cloisters is very scarce and unreliable. The oldest place in the Don land, where monastic service was performed, was the monastery tract, where in 1637 the monks blessed the Cossacks to storm Azov, and in 1642 they buried the fallen during the “sitting”. It is known that the inhabitants of this monastery were tonsurers of the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
According to modern researchers, the first of the Don monasteries with a long history and, consequently, a tradition of ascetic life was the Ust-Medveditsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery. It was founded in 1652 (according to other sources - in 1665). Around 1690, ten miles up the Don from the village of Migulinskaya, the monk Kapiton founded a monastery in the name of Holy Trinity. In 1693, "the builder Nikonor with the brethren" founded the Holy Ascension Monastery near the village of Kremenskaya. All these monasteries were founded as exclusively Cossack ones, i.e. those where the Cossacks were tonsured, who vowed during the war to devote the remaining days of their lives to God. The monasteries were maintained at the expense of the Cossack army.
In many regional archives, monastic, clergy, confessional and parish records have been preserved, which reflect information about the clergy, monastics, parishioners from among the Cossacks, about the time of coming to confession and the sacrament of communion of the Holy Gifts, about parish and monastic life, about property and buildings of monasteries and parish communities, etc.
In the 17th century, as a result church schism Cossack communities on the Don, Southern Urals and Terek are replenished with supporters of the traditions of the old rite, which eventually resulted in the participation of this part of the Cossacks in riots against the state as part of the formations of Stepan Razin, Kondraty Bulavin, Emelyan Pugachev.
The imperial period of interaction between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Cossacks is the longest and most productive. Thanks to the mass construction of churches on the Don, Kuban and Terek, a mass churching of the Cossacks takes place.
By 1917, the Russian Cossacks were one of the pillars Russian statehood along with the Russian Orthodox Church. It is not surprising that during the years of the revolution and the Civil War, the Cossacks, as a support, the service class of the Russian state and as Orthodox people, as well as the Russian Orthodox Church, suffered from the Soviet regime, which proclaimed militant atheism and atheism as its official ideology.
The Cossacks were subjected to repressions and "decossackization" and tragically split into civil war on whites and reds. For those for whom the Orthodox faith was a banner of self-determination and salvation in the conditions of organizing life abroad, in exile, and for those who voluntarily or under pressure accepted the conditions of life in the Soviet state.
At the same time, even during the years of militant atheism, the former Cossack regions remained faithful to the precepts of the fathers and carefully preserved the Orthodox faith. According to a number of researchers, largely because of the fear of the Soviet authorities to provoke mass demonstrations of the Cossacks, the “second Sun of the Don” was preserved - the Ascension military Cathedral in Novocherkassk. As an example of the loyalty of the Cossacks to Orthodox Christianity, it is worth noting the history of the Holy Transfiguration Church in the Cossack farm Obukhovka. This temple is the only parish of the Rostov diocese that has never been closed. During the years of persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church, the civil authorities repeatedly tried to close the temple, but the local residents defended the shrine by organizing round-the-clock duty at the parish. By local legends, in the 30s they tried to blow up the temple, and then the locals went into the temple and convinced the bombers that they could only blow up the temple together with them.
In the difficult years of trials that fell on our Motherland during the years of the Great Patriotic War, the country's leadership took measures to create Cossack military units and revive the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church. It is also worth noting that the Cossacks took part in the Victory Parade on Red Square
June 24, 1945
Over the two decades of the existence of the new Russia, the Cossacks and chieftains of the Cossack societies are again beginning to see in the Russian Orthodox Church their traditional spiritual mentor. But this is not yet a completed process, since the formation new form The service of the Russian Cossacks has not yet ended. Unfortunately, over the years there has been a lot of "foam" in the Cossack movement, a lot of speculation, often arising through the fault of regional and local authorities, who did not pay due attention to the Russian Cossacks.
At present, we are witnesses and, in part, participants in a clearly built public policy in relation to the Russian Cossacks. The President of the Russian Federation approved the Concept of the State Policy of the Russian Federation in relation to the Russian Cossacks, and the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Cossacks was formed. Two federal ministries responsible for Cossack issues have been identified: the Ministry of Regional Development of Russia received the status federal body executive branch authorized to interact with Cossack societies, and the Ministry of Justice of Russia - to maintain the state register of Cossack societies in the Russian Federation.
The Model Charter of the military Cossack society, approved by the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Cossack Affairs on February 11, 2010, for the first time takes into account the role of Orthodoxy in the life of Cossack societies, which indicates both a new level of cooperation between the Russian Cossacks and the Russian Orthodox Church, and the recognition of Russian states of deep interconnection between the Cossacks and religious tradition. Regularly, under the auspices of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for the Cossacks, methodological seminars are held for military Cossack societies, organized by the Ministry of Regional Development of Russia, the Ministry of Justice of Russia and the Synodal Committee of the Russian Orthodox Church on interaction with the Cossacks.
Today, the Cossacks take an active part in the restoration of religious buildings and the improvement of church courtyards, in ensuring security during mass Orthodox events and in organizing joint commemorative events (Days of Slavic writing and culture, the feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, etc.). Orthodox clergy participates in the education of the Cossack youth, including in the Cossack cadet corps. In many parishes located in Cossack villages and farms, Cossacks and their families are active members of the Orthodox community. So, on the territory of the Svyato-Donskoy Starocherkassky monastery the Cossack squad not only guards, but also monitors public order in the courtyard. Cossacks take an active part in religious processions performed on major church holidays or in connection with other important events in the spiritual life of the country. At the same time, one of the serious problems remains the superficial perception by many Cossacks (especially of middle and older age) of religious faith as a ritual tradition, rather than meaningful life and fundamentals Cossack life. In this regard, faith has a much greater influence on the consciousness of the Cossack youth, including pupils of the cadet corps.
Speaking about the prospects for further interaction between the Russian Cossacks and the Russian Orthodox Church, one cannot help but dwell on a landmark decision Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on the formation in March 2010 of the Synodal Committee for Interaction with the Russian Cossacks. The participation of the head of the Synodal Committee, Bishop Kirill of Pavlovsk-Posad, vicar of the Moscow diocese and abbot of the Donskoy Stauropegial Monastery in Moscow in the activities of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Cossack Affairs, gave a new impetus to the process of organized interaction between the state, the Cossacks and the Russian Orthodox Church. This was expressed not only in the creation under the Council of the Commission for Interaction with the Russian Orthodox Church, headed by Bishop Kirill, but also in taking into account the issue of religious self-identification of the Cossacks in a number of standard and teaching materials regulating the life of the Cossacks and the activities of Cossack societies.
In 2010, another significant event, which, it seems, will have a serious impact on the further process of institutionalization of interaction between the Cossacks and the Russian Orthodox Church. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia declared the day of the Don Icon of the Mother of God (September 1) the day of the Orthodox Cossacks. Thus, the Donskoy stauropegial monastery has become the All-Russian center of the spiritual life of the Russian Cossacks both in a canonical sense and in terms of its active activity as the headquarters of a church-wide body - the Synodal Committee for Interaction with the Russian Cossacks and a secular one - a permanent specialized Commission for Interaction with the Russian Orthodox Church under the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for the Cossacks.
Shkvarov A.G. Russian Church and Cossacks in the era of Peter I. - Helsinki: RME Group Oy; St. Petersburg: Aleteyya, 2009. - 112 p.
Gogol N.V. Taras Bulba // Collected works in nine volumes. T. 2. - M .: "Russian Book", 1994.
Oriental literature - a library of texts of the Middle Ages [ Electronic resource]/ network version - Thietmar. 2003, OCR - Alex. 2003, design - Voitekhovich A. 2001 - Electron. Dan. - The story of the Azov siege seat of the Don Cossacks (translated by T. A. Ivanova, Yu. S. Sorokin), the text is reproduced according to the publication: Military Tales Ancient Russia. L. Lenizdat. 1985 - Access mode: http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/rus7/Azov/frametext.htm, free. - Zagl. from the screen. - Yaz. Russian
Content
Annotation ………………………………………………………………. one
Introduction ………………………………………………………………….2
1. Traditions and Cossacks ………………………………………………….2-3
2. A Cossack without faith is not a Cossack! ..............................3-6
3.Christmas holidays…………………………………………..6-10
4. “Warriors of Christ”…………………………………………………........11
Conclusion……………………………………………………………..11-12
Dictionary………………………………………………………………….. 12
List of used literature…………………………………...13
annotation
The essay tells about the traditions and customs of the Cossacks. About the role of the Orthodox religion in the life of this wonderful people. How should we understand "traditions" and, in particular, "Cossack traditions". As something generally accepted, customary, worthy, respected, as moral unwritten laws. Traditions then become effective (i.e., law) when they become a way of life and are passed down from generation to generation. The abstract presents the Orthodox, everyday and cultural traditions of the Cossacks.
The people strongly value customs,
as their most sacred property.
V.G. Belinsky
Introduction
The relevance of the choice of the topic is due to the fact that in modern society there is an acute problem of preserving customs, traditions and rituals passed down from generation to generation. We must remember that national culture is an integral part of the common culture of all the peoples of Russia and it is our duty to preserve and develop culture, its material and spiritual values, because if all rituals and traditions are taken away from a person, he will forget everything and will unlearn everything and will be forced to start all over again.
1. Traditions and Cossacks.
Many beautiful customs traditionally existed in Russia. They helped people not to lose faith and optimism, in spite of all life's troubles.
XXthe century was difficult both for the whole world and for our country. Revolutions, wars, persecutions led to the fact that one hundred Russian folk traditions, customs and rituals began to be pushed aside, left and forgotten. Fortunately, interest in them is returning again.
For our ancestors, the holiday has always been not only a time of fun, but also invariably - a period of mystery and sacredness, in contrast to everyday life and the prosaic nature of everyday life. They believed that on holidays the border between the world of people and the world of miracles and magic disappears.
Cossacks is the custodian of the highest spiritual and moral values. The Cossacks are a phenomenon of the nature of the world. It is the "poetry" of antiquity, which cannot but excite the human soul.
2. A Cossack without faith is not a Cossack!
Orthodoxy determined the life path of the Cossack from the first day of earthly life, from baptism to the funeral service when he departed for another world, formed the worldview and the entire annual cycle of rituals.
The Cossacks attached great importance to the sacrament of baptism, arguing that before baptism, babies have no soul, and children who died not baptized would not appear on doomsday. Hence the great respect for the godparents (godmother and godfather).
Before carrying the child to the church (for baptism), they put him in a red corner (to the icons) and prayed: “God give him, Lord, talent and happiness, a good mind and many years.” A priest was called to the christening, who was richer, when the baby's teeth erupted, the parents, putting him on a horse, took him to church to serve a prayer service to John the Warrior that he be a brave Cossack. 
Children, according to the Cossacks, are a sign of well-being, a sign of “God's blessing over the family.” The absence of children was considered God's punishment, not to mention the wedding. Folk wedding rituals were recognized by Orthodoxy. After the consent of the bride and groom to the marriage, they were placed side by side and, having prayed to God, blessed, saying: “God grant us what we heard to see, what we desire to receive.”
Matchmakers, approaching the house, said three times: "Lord, Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on us." From the house they answered: "Amen" and opened the doors. All the main actions of wedding ceremonies were also accompanied by prayers. On the day of the wedding, with a blessing for mass, the father and mother blessed the bride with a holy icon, who, having made three bows to the earth, kissed the Holy Face, bowed at the feet of her parents. The groom, having received the blessing of his parents, went to the bride. A priest with a cross walked in front, then the boys carried blessed images with shrouds. The wedding was the only proof of the legality of the marriage.
It was believed that God would protect from the "evil spirits" - it is enough to overshadow yourself with the banner of the cross, say the Holy Prayer - "Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, have mercy on us" and no evil spirits of sorcerers will do anything.
The judges sat down at the table, having previously created Sign of the Cross and saying, "Bless, Lord." Removing an icon from the wall and kissing it was considered a means of proving one's innocence; in many cases, the thief did not dare to take such an oath - "remove the icon from the wall" and confessed to the crime. If the guilty did not confess, they served a prayer service to John the Warrior and put a candle (upside down) so that his conscience would torment him. They tried not to scold the thief, but to wish him well, they served a prayer service for his health, so that his conscience would torment him. Often this led to repentance. The stanitsa court could also sentence to church repentance.
The church among the Cossacks is the most important asset of the village, the Cossacks usually built the church with the whole society. Not without reason, the Cossacks, coming to new lands, began with the construction of a church or a chapel. So did the Cossacks Abroad, who were forced to find themselves in a foreign land.
Before the beginning of the liturgy, the parishioners poured wheat in front of the western doors of the church. After the liturgy, the clergy served a thanksgiving service over bread. Money from the sale of bread went to decorate the temple. In some villages, the church had a pole to which they tied an anonymous ram, goose, cow, etc. donated to the church. Sometimes fees for the church were determined by the stanitsa gathering. They could rent out part of the public land in order to build a temple with the proceeds. Cossack women washed and cleaned the temples at will.
3. Christmas holidays .
In the Cossack life, Christmas time was considered the biggest, noisiest and most fun holiday. They were held from Nicholas Day on December 6 to Epiphany on January 6, i.e. when the Cossacks, having completed all the main agricultural work, had the opportunity to rest.
Christmas time was considered a youth holiday, although the older generation did not remain indifferent to the general fun. As a rule, young people, gathering for gatherings, games and fortune-telling, brightened up the dull stanitsa winter. Christmas time was of particular interest for the Cossacks, because their strict everyday village life was replaced by wide freedom and a lot of fun and entertainment. At Christmas time, the strictest mother did not force me to spin yarn, sit at a loom, or sew. Fortune-telling at that time took a lot of time for the Cossacks, since every girl wanted to know whom fate would “send her as her husband” and what kind of life lay ahead of her. Almost throughout the Christmas season, the Cossacks lived a tense and even nervous life. When divining, their imagination drew all sorts of horrors for them: in every dark corner they seemed to have the presence of an unknown terrible force, in every empty room one could hear the clatter and fuss of the "devils" who, until the very Epiphany, could freely walk around the village and frighten all the Cossacks with their horned mugs.
But no matter how terrible such stories were for young Cossack women, they could not keep them at home on these holy days, and as soon as lights appeared in the windows, they tried to run to gatherings where a noisy company of young people gathered. sewed new clothes for themselves, and the young Cossacks tried to show off a new belt,Kubachi dagger orastrakhan hat .
In the evenings, gatherings gathered mainly along the streets, but sometimes Cossacks from other farms and villages came to them. If suddenly any Cossack-stranger decides to take care of the “our” Cossack woman, then quarrels arose. Evenings ended with a lot of pranks. The youth blocked the gates, and brought all sorts of rubbish to the doors of the huts: stakes, old plows, plows, harrows, etc., so that in the morning the household could not get out. Sometimes the guys climbed onto the roof and plugged the pipe with straw. The owners, noticing the lack of draft in the pipe, ran out of the house and threatened the mischief-makers with violence.
Adult Cossacks also did not like to stay at home. Having coped with the housework, they went to visit or invited guests to their place. Their favorite entertainment was games: cards, lotto, which were accompanied by mutual treats. At the same time, intensive preparation of Christmas food supplies was going on. Summer kitchens of the Cossacks turned into warehouses. Hams of pigs, carcasses of poultry were hung on massive nails or hooks. Homemade sausages and sweets were placed on the tables, stocks of pickles were checked in the cellars. Until Christmas Eve, no one was allowed to eat "fast". They ate potatoes, sauerkraut, pickles with lean fat, salted watermelons, pumpkin, pies with peas and beans,uzvar from dried fruits, juice from soaked blackthorn, fish.
Christmas Eve in Cossack families was held in strict fasting. food was used ( last time lean) only after the first star. Before sunset, and if it was covered by clouds. That time, the eldest in the house (usually a grandfather) invited all the household members to prayer, lit a candle and put it on a loaf of bread. After reading a short prayer, he went out into the yard, took bundles of hay and a sheaf of unthreshed wheat there, and brought them into the house. In the house, the bench in front of the icons was covered with a clean tablecloth or towel, covered with straw, and a sheaf of wheat, kutia and porridge were placed on it. A prayer was said again, and after that they began to eat. Straw and an unthreshed sheaf were considered symbols of a future abundant harvest. Kutia and porridge were bred with honey, seasoned with raisins and marked fertility. 
Having celebrated Christmas Eve, parents sent their children to distribute kutya to close relatives and neighbors. At night, the healthy and adult population went to church, while the elderly and children were looking forward toChristophers
.
At first, children ran around with carols:
Kolyada, you are a carol
The carol came
carols sang,
Congratulated the carol.
Hostesses - doves,
Donate bagels to us
Candy and money
For holy evenings
In the name of Christ's day.
Late in the evening, young people and even adult Cossacks came out to carols.
In a number of villages of the Don, Kuban and Terek, the custom of "gypsy" was developed, which was held before Christmas and the old New Year and boiled down to the fact that young Cossack women dressed in long dresses, threw large multi-colored sheepskin coats over their shoulders, went from house to house accompanied by an accordion player and they begged the owners for everything that caught their eye. After 12 o'clock at night, all the "carolers" gathered at someone's house and celebrated the feast of the Nativity of Christ together.
4. "Warriors of Christ"
The Cossacks have always united around the church, creating their own village parish. The Cossacks have a special attitude towards Orthodoxy, they are distinguished by a special religiosity, because the Cossacks are called "warriors of Christ." In the hour of mortal danger, the understanding that life is given by God, and only God can take it away, makes the Cossack, who prayed fervently to his patron saint, not only sincerely believing, but also fearless.
The ten commandments of Christ formed the basis of the moral foundations of the Cossacks. Teaching children to keep the commandments of the Lord, parents taught them in a simple way: do not kill, do not steal, do not fornicate, work according to your conscience, do not envy another and forgive offenders, respect parents, cherish girlish chastity and female honor, take care of your children, help poor, do not offend orphans and widows, protect the Fatherland from enemies. But first of all, strengthen the Orthodox Faith: cleanse your soul from sins through repentance and communion, observe fasts, pray to the one God - Jesus Christ, and they added: if it is possible for someone to sin, then we cannot - WE COSSACKS.
Conclusion
The Orthodox religion determined the whole life of a Cossack from birth until his death. Orthodoxy determined the "Cossack's share" - to give his life from the beginning to the end of his days to the active service of the faith of Christ with weapons in his hands in his youth and in maturity and spiritually serve the ideals of Orthodoxy in old age age.
The Orthodox Church strengthened among the Cossacks respect for the law and trust in state power. The moral preaching of the Orthodox Church with its principles of justice, piety, catholicity was close to the Cossack psychology of the warrior and plowman, which was especially in tune with the communal way of life of the Cossacks. The Orthodox worldview did not contradict such moral foundations of the Cossacks as love of freedom, the desire for independence, courage.
religion was integral part Cossack culture. The autocracy and the church formed the Orthodox consciousness of the Cossacks. The Orthodox clergy educated the Cossacks on patriotic and loyal ideals.
Dictionary
Cossacks – representatives of the Cossacks, complex social group, military class , which has developed on outskirts Russian state in XV - XVII centuries.
Astrakhan hat – men's fur head dress fromkarakul , common among the peoples of the Caucasus, the Cossacks and in Central Asia, element of military uniform.
Astrakhan - skin with fur, removed fromlambs karakul breed on the 1-3rd day after birth, when their coat is thick, elastic, silky hairy curl-forming cover various shapes and sizes.
