About this page

I often get e-mails from people asking me why would I make this page and put all this
time and effort to make a web cite about Cossacks.  If you are one of those curious people,
read on for the explanation.  If you thought to find something different here, you can
leave and keep surfing. 

In the spring of 1996 I was studying at the Graduate School of Management at the
Georgia Institute of Technology.  I took a class "Electronic Commerce.  Business in
the Internet" taught by Dr. Riggins. 
And as one of the assignments was to make a personal web site, just to get an idea what is
HTML about.  I constructed a small page, and when I was writing about my ethnic background,
I wanted to make a link to a word "Cossack".  I searched the Internet for some
sites on Cossacks - and could not find what I was looking for. 

I found it strange - so much of all kinds of information in WWW, and practically
nothing on Cossacks, except some textbook-like articles with incorrect or stereotypic
information.  So, I decided to make a small sub-page on Cossacks myself, so to say "to
fill the gap".  A few weeks later I began receiving e-mails from Cossack-descent
web-surfers from all over the world (during the Civil War most of the Russian Cossacks
fought against the bolshevists, and then had to leave with their families to France,
Yugoslavia, Germany, Canada, Australia, etc.)  They were asking all kinds of questions.  I
decided instead of answering all the questions individually to make small sub-pages on the
question topics.  That's how my page began growing and expanding. 

The more info I was adding, the more people were coming to my page, and the more
questions I was receiving.  Soon enough there were songs in WAV and RA format, images of
Cossack weapons and uniforms, etc.  Then I began receiving e-mails from not only Cossacks,
but from people studying warrior cultures or military history (and of course, Russian
Studies students and professors).  Then I established contact with few other enthusiasts
who were publishing materials on Cossacks in the Web, we exchanged some information with
them. 

The site kept growing, and before I even noticed, it was pretty big.  Now you can spend
hours on this homepage.  And I can't even count how much time I spent writing, translating,
scanning, formatting data... Now the site pretty much lives on its own.  I do not
update it often, but once for a while I still add some new information, when I have
time. 

* * *

It is a usual norm for homepages to have some personal info.  If, on some
reason, you are very bored or have too much time, you can check
it out.  But I have to warn you, it would be a waste of time.