Cossacks Facts for Kids

A painting showing some Ukrainian Cossacks. Painted by Ilya Repin from 1880 to 1891.

Cossacks (Ukrainian: Козаки) (from Cuman cosac, meaning "free man") are a group of people in the southern land of Ukraine and Russia. They are famous for their sense of being free. They are also well known for their military skill, mostly the way they ride horses.

The name Cossack means "free man". The term was first used in the year 1395. The most well known Cossacks are the Ukrainian Cossacks from Zaporizhie and the Russian Cossacks from Don, Terek, Kuban and Ural areas. They started after the Mongols attacked Kievan Rus. Eventually Russian Cossacks guarded land for the Russian government. Cossacks were in the Russian army in some wars throughout the 1800s and 1900s. In the Russian Civil War most fought against the Red Army but some were "Red Cossacks". In Soviet times, the Cossacks' life was subject to a lot of Bolshevik attacks and Cossack lands survived several famines. Cossack armies fought on both sides in the Second World War. In Russia today, Cossacks are ethnic descendants or are in the Cossack army and often both.

Images for kids

An American Cossack family in the 1950s
Cossacks marching in Red Square
Kuban Cossacks in the late 19th century
Cossack bandurist, 1890
Map of the Wild Fields in the 17th century
Ottoman Turks in battle against the Cossacks, 1592
Zaporozhian Cossack by Konstantin Makovsky, 1884
Bohdan Khmelnytsky's entry to Kyiv by Mykola Ivasyuk, end of the 19th century
An officer of the Zaporozhian Cossacks in 1720
Kozacy (Cossacks), drawing by Stanisław Masłowski, c. 1900 (National Museum in Warsaw)
Cossack wedding, by Józef Brandt
Imperial Russian Cossacks (left) in Paris in 1814
Ural Cossacks, c. 1799
Semirechye Cossack, Semirechye, 1911
A Cossack from the Don area, 1821, illustration from Fyodor Solntsev, 1869
Kuban Cossacks, late 19th century
Ural Cossacks skirmish with Kazakhs (the Russians originally called the Kazakhs 'Kirgiz')
Yaik (Orenburg) Cossacks from Sakmara settlement; Alexander Mertemianovich Pogadaev standing at left, 1912
Stenka Razin Sailing in the Caspian Sea, by Vasily Surikov, 1906
Stenka Razin, by Ivan Bilibin
Don Cossack in the early 1800s
Yemelyan Pugachev in prison
Conquest of Siberia by Yermak, painting by Vasily Surikov
Cossack patrol near Baku oil fields, 1905
Wiosna roku 1905 (Spring of 1905) by Stanisław Masłowski, 1906 – Orenburg Cossacks patrol at Ujazdowskie Avenue in Warsaw (National Museum in Warsaw)
Russian Cossack General Baratov meeting with British officers and leaders of Kurdish tribes in Kermanshah, 1917
Kuban Cossacks during the Moscow Victory Parade of 1945
Kuban Cossack Choir in 2016
Cossack on duty (portrayal of 16th–17th century), painting by Józef Brandt
Siberian Cossack family in Novosibirsk
Cossacks Dance – Kozachok by Stanisław Masłowski, oil on canvas 1883
Ostap Kindrachuk, Ukrainian Cossack, playing the bandura in traditional dress
Cossacks on parade in 1937.
Modern Kuban Cossack armed forces patch of the Russian military
Cossack officer from Orenburg, with shashka, early 1900s
Siberian Cossack c. 1890s
Flag of the Semirechye Cossacks
Flag of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast
Emblem of registered Don cossacks
Emblem of registered Kuban cossacks
Modern Kuban Cossack armed forces patch of the Russian military
Emblem of registered Terek cossacks
Emblem of registered Volga cossacks

Cossacks facts for kids

Images for kids

See also