Although they consider themselves the most essential part of the Russian Empire, the Cossacks have always insisted upon maintaining their independence and are actually a state within a state. They were always wild and irresponsible and made guerrilla raids upon the adjoining provinces. In 1770 they supported a pretender to the Russian throne, who gave himself the title of Peter III. His followers ravaged the valley of the Volga and threatened Moscow, but in 1775 were beaten in battle with terrible loss. Pugatcheff, the pretender, was captured and executed. After a time the Cossacks were granted amnesty and made a treaty with the government of Catherine II, under which they were given a vast tract of land on both sides of the river Don, and were made practically independent. In return for these privileges they agreed to furnish the czar a certain number of soldiers for his army, without pay. That is the reason the Cossacks, the most important corps in the Russian service, receive no compensation or rations or other supplies. They provide their own horses and uniforms, their own guns and ammunition, their own camp equipage, and receive no money whatever from the public treasury.
Every Cossack is a soldier for life, subject to instant orders, and always keeps a horse saddled and a rifle loaded ready for service. A certain number are always in the army. Every Cossack is expected to serve fifteen years consecutively and be ready to answer every call that is made. The only exemption is made in favour of the sons of dependent mothers, bread winners of families dependent upon them, fathers who already have three sons in the service, priests and teachers, and one out of four brothers. A rich Cossack can hire a substitute if he pleases, and many of them do so.
Although the Cossacks are Tartars and come from Mohammedan stock, most of them belong to what is known as the “Old Believers,” a sect of the Russian Greek Church which condemns the splendour and extravagance displayed in the houses of worship, the ritual, and in the ceremonies of the Church, and advocates a return to the simple forms of worship practised by the Saviour and His disciples. A small number of the Cossacks still remain Mohammedans.
The beautiful black horses which the Cossacks ride and which are admired by every one who visits Russia come chiefly from the province of Tamboff, southeast of Moscow, northeast of Odessa, northwest of Rostov and adjoining the Cossack province. This stock was introduced from Arabia by Prince Orloff, the famous favourite of the Empress Catherine II, and were scattered by him among the stock growers in different parts of European Russia. Tamboff became the centre of the breeding business because conditions are most favourable there. It may be called the Kentucky of Russia. Nearly all the farmers have breeding studs. There are several estates with thousands of mares that drop a colt each annually. They are all dead black, without a blemish, with long tails, beautiful thick manes, gentle dispositions, great speed and endurance. The breeder never sells a mare; you never see a mare working in harness—always a stallion, and they cost on the farm from two hundred and fifty dollars up.
The farmers of southern Russia are quite contented with present conditions. They have always been loyal to the czar, but they applauded the constitution and unanimously approve of the legislative government. They are also very generally in favour of the platform of the constitutional democrats, which advocates making the ministry responsible to the duma, instead of the czar, and thus having a parliamentary party like that of Great Britain.
The government has established a string of land banks in order to loan money to the farmers to buy land and to improve their holdings. When a large estate is offered for sale the land is divided into small farms by government appraisers, who fix the value and make out the deeds to the purchasers. The land bank advances the money and takes a mortgage on the property for thirty-five years at 3¼ per cent., 2½ per cent. being considered as interest and ¼ per cent. being placed in a sinking fund to redeem the bonds that are issued to raise the purchase money.
The farmer pays his annual interest into the bank in four quarterly instalments. I was told that the sale of the lands belonging to the crown and to the church is practically a humbug. A large area belonging to both has been sold, but it was of comparatively little value. The best quality and the largest proportion of both church and crown lands have been reserved and will not be sold until some future revolution compels the government to dispose of them.
The revolution of 1906 is practically forgotten. As soon as the farmers of southern Russia got a law passed allowing them to buy farms of their own they accepted the situation in good faith and have relied upon the government to carry out its part of the agreement honestly. As soon as they have land that they can call their own they are perfectly contented.
Most of these peasant farmers are descended from serfs, who were emancipated by Alexander II and they continue to live upon the soil which their fathers worked as slaves, and they recognize the sons of the men who owned their ancestors as their “patrons.”
The average Russian peasant is honest and industrious; he pays his taxes and gives one fifth of all his income to the church, but he has a terrible appetite for strong drink, and vodka, the Russian brandy, made of potatoes, is his curse. The government, however, has done a great deal to promote temperance. It has a monopoly of the liquor business, both in manufacture and sale, and its policy to prohibit the sale of liquor in agricultural villages has been strictly applied to a considerable section in southern Russia, where no strong drink of any kind can be obtained. Some of the country districts, generally speaking, are strictly prohibition, but the sale of liquor as a beverage is still permitted in the cities and the larger towns, and at first-class restaurants, hotels, and eating houses.