Evening star., 1923-02-27
C0SSACKS
TURN TO FARMING
Picturesque Fighters I'm
potent to Foe From Gift
of Catherine.

America is the great immigrant
| nation OF modern times, yet even
Americans find it hard to conceive the
sort of migration contemplated by the
announcement that the Russian gov
ernment is willing to throw open to
large mass of Armenians the fertile
farming region of the Don and Kuban
rivers east of the Black and Azov
seas" says a bulletin from the Wash
ingtor headquarters of the National
Geographic Society \
I'm times of our greatest foreign
influx immigrants filtered through
our ports and attempts were made to
ass!milate them through some regions
almost choked in the process.
THE racial map of Russia is
splotchy with such mass migrations,
and the. kuban district might well be
called the king row of Russia's racial
checkerboard. Geographically. the
two seas and the two rivers men
toned on three sides and Ciscaucasia
on the east. Its population. however,
! is bounded by the Cireassians and the
Russians and the Don Cossacks on
the north and the kalmucks on the
east.
kuban Cossack Country.
"kuban. as the inter-river district is
known. is inhabited by Cossacks who,
aside from the manner of their COM
ing. suggest two important features
OF American development. the New
England town meeting and the rough
rider days of our far west
Catherine the Great deported the
Dnieper Cossacks, or Zaporogians, en-
masse to this land of black earth and
future wheatlands. and here they at
rrst strung along from the AzoV to
the Caspian, as guardians of the
frontiers
When an American automobile
manufacturer or steel company cre-
ates a city for its employees, IL fol-
lows the precedent of Catherine. who
not only gave her fercest fighters
great tracts Of Russia's richest soil.
but built them houses, stores and
churches, forming the city which still
bears her name, Ekaterinodar, Cath
crimes gift
These Zaporogians had a demo-
cratic custom in their old home which
they retained. for q time. in their
promi ised. and promising land Yearly
at an assembly they elected from
their number their hetman. or head
man. and his predecessor went back
into the ranks with no more official
status. and none of the prestige of
an American eX-President Bear pa
tiently, Cossack: you will one day be
hetman,' was slogan of their dis
cipline.
Literal MudsIinging.
The inauguration of the new het-
man gave premonition Of what an
offfceholder in any democracy must be
prepared TO withstand-they pelted
him with mud, and rubbed mud into
his beard
1T is the marvellous horsemanship
of the kuban Cossacks of old which
brings to mind their likeness in this
particular, to the plainsmen Of our
own frontier days. The CossackS of
Russia. the gauchos of the Pampas
and the cowboys of the plains. are
world
Treatment of their babies in the.
days along the Dnteper attested the
Spartan qualities Of these Zaporogian
mothers. and assured the sturdy quail
ity of the race which held fast
against the Tatar and Moslem i'm
pacts. Upon birth a baby either was
plunged into the snow or ducked into
solution of salt and water. Nat
urally only the fit survived These
Cossacks also might claim to have
applied an early form of aptitude, if
c.
as a baby could walk he was taught
to ride and, at a tender age. he had
to cross SWift-fioWing stream on
horseback. The wedding out of the
inept. and their disposition. were
simultaneous.
, There was no moron problem in
kuban.
Fighter Turns Farmer.
Before 1914 You could have seen
the old-time Cossack in all his glory
as member of the imperial guard TO
the czar. Then, as now. had YOU
looked for him in the Kuban you
would have found him casting a fish
net or tilling his fields. If. indeed. his
sturdy wife was not performing the
latter task.
BLACK earth and family increase
quelled him as the Turk and Tatar
changed rivers. from the Dnieper to
the Don, agriculture was punishable
by death.
After Kerensky fell Kornilov en-
rolled a few thousand Kuban volun-
teers to fight the bolshevist army.
Hope ran high that the Don Cossacks.
north of the river, would join this
nucleus and become the 'saviors of
Russia Farmer Cossacks hesitated
about reyeTtIing to Fighting Cos;
that he killed himself.
when the Cossack laid down his
sword for the ploughshare he got
the. latest American model of the lat
ter Up-to-date implements of all
kinds were used in the Kuban fields.
in contrast to primitive Russian
farming.
Northern slopes of the Caucasus
and ranges Of the Black mountains,
as well as marshy lowlands of the
Azov sea, encroach upon the province.
The mountains, thickly wooded. are
made almost impossible by thick un-
dergrowth.''