page_title: Cossacks
section_title: Don Cossacks
hierarchical_section_title: Cossacks / Russian Cossacks / Don Cossacks
caption_attribution_description: Українська: Донський козак 1821 року. English: A Cossack from Don area in 1821.
context_page_description: The Cossacks, a group of predominantly East Slavic-speaking Orthodox Christian people, became known as members of democratic, self-governing, semi-military communities, originating in the Pontic steppe. They inhabited sparsely-populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper, Don, Terek and Ural river basins and played an important role in the historical and cultural development both of Ukraine and of Russia.
  After World War II the Soviet Union disbanded the Cossack units in the Soviet Army. During the Perestroika era in the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, descendants of Cossacks moved to revive their national traditions. In 1988 the Soviet Union passed a law allowing the re-establishment of former Cossack hosts and the formation of new ones. During the 1990s many regional authorities agreed to hand over to these Cossack hosts some local administrative and policing duties.
  In the 2002 Russian Census, 140,028 people claimed Cossack ethnicity, with 67,573 people identifying as ethnic Cossack in the Russian Census of 2010.
context_section_description: The Don Cossack Host (Russian: Всевеликое Войско Донское, Vsevelikoye Voysko Donskoye) was either an independent or an autonomous democratic republic, located in present-day Southern Russia. It existed from the end of the 16th century until the early 20th century. There are two main theories of the origin of the Don Cossacks. Most respected historians support the migration theory, according to which they were Slavic colonists. The various autochthonous theories popular among the Cossacks themselves do not find confirmation in genetic studies. The gene pool comprises mainly the East Slavic component, with a significant Ukrainian contribution. There is no influence of the peoples of the Caucasus; and the steppe populations, represented by the Nogais, have only limited impact. 
  The majority of Don Cossacks are either Eastern Orthodox or Christian Old Believers (старообрядцы). Prior to the Russian Civil War, there were numerous religious minorities, including Muslims, Subbotniks, and Jews.
caption: A Cossack from the Don area, 1821, illustration from Fyodor Solntsev, 1869
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