Pro-cossack events in the Azov-Black sea region in the second half of the 1930s (historical and cultural analysis)

Abstract

The problem of cultural transformations in the Cossack regions of the USSR in the second half of the 1930s in the context of the launched at that time political campaign "for the Soviet Cossacks" is highlighted. Based on the materials from such important regions of the Azov-Black Sea region as Don and Kuban, the attempt to carry out a historical and cultural analysis of the process of implementing this political campaign and its results was made. The nature and degree of cultural changes in the Cossack villages in the second half of the 1930s were established, the degree of influence of the campaign "for the Soviet Cossacks" on the process of "decossackization" stimulated by the Soviet government, that is, the assimilation of the Cossacks into the mass of the USSR population, was revealed. Historical and cultural analysis allows us to speak about the duality of the campaign "for the secular Cossacks" and the results. On the one hand, it in no way meant resuscitating the estate status of the Cossack communities and was an attempt to design a new generation of "the collective-farming Cossacks" in order to use their military-economic potential in the interests of the state. At the same time, the campaign "for the Soviet Cossacks" led to the end of pressure and persecution of the traditional Cossack culture. Although the Party-Soviet structures still sharply opposed religious views, remnants of the patriarchate, manifestations of class arrogance, their attitude towards the bulk of the Cossack traditions became quite benevolent. Along with the Sovietization of the Cossack culture, the attention of the authorities and society to the Cossack traditions that did not contradict the policy of the Soviet government (in particular, to clothing and folklore) grew.