Russia’s Cossack Movement Holds Second “Great Circle” in Two Years

Executive Summary:

• Russia’s state-registered Cossack movement held its “Great Cossack Circle” meeting on February 25, highlighting Moscow’s growing investment in using the Cossacks as a state-managed substitute for authentic civil society.
• The “Great Cossack Circle” meeting emphasized Cossack military identity and pro-war sentiment, comparing Russia’s war against Ukraine to World War II. Out of 140,000 registered Cossacks, 50,000 have fought in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
• Government support for the consolidation of Cossack organizations around military identity is an indication of the regime’s intent to make the Cossacks a Kremlin stronghold within Russian society.

On February 25, Russia’s state-registered Cossack movement held its second “Great Cossack Circle” meeting of the past two years as the Cossacks continue to be a pillar of support for the Kremlin. The last “Great Cossack Circle” held in 2024 was the first since 2018. Even though regional Cossack meetings have been held, the only “Great Circle” meeting before the one in 2018 was in 1990, during which the “rebirth of the Cossacks” was announced just prior to the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991 (see EDM, February 14, 2024). The sudden surge of Kremlin-backed Cossack events is a sign of Moscow’s plan to use the Cossacks as a simulacrum of authentic civil society (in the sense of one created through state action, rather than being grassroots).

The most recent “Great Cossack Circle” took place in the Moscow Church of Christ the Savior and brought together representatives of Cossack hosts throughout Russia, Cossack youth organizations, unregistered Cossack societies, and government officials. It achieved quorum with 260 of the eligible 288 Cossack representatives in attendance (RIA Novosti; All-Russian Cossack Society, February 25). Dmitry Mironov, Presidential Advisor to the President on Cossack Affairs, gave the opening speech, including a note from Putin. Mironov focused on Cossack military achievements, saying:

For many centuries, the Cossacks courageously fought for the freedom and the independence of the Fatherland … Today, following the example of their fathers, grandparents, and great-grandfathers, representatives of the Registered Cossacks are similarly showing unparalleled courage and fortitude. All of Russia is proud of its deeds (All-Russian Cossack Society, February 25).

Mironov went on to discuss the participation of Cossacks in Russia’s war against Ukraine and the construction of new Cossack Cadet Corps throughout the country (see EDM, February 4; All-Russian Cossack Society, February 25).

The representative of the Synodal Committee for Interconnections with Cossacks, Metropolitan Kirill of Stavropol and Nevinnomyssk, praised the meeting as “not simply a tradition, but a living moment of conciliation and aspiration toward truth where the prayerful voice of every Ataman, every young Cossack is heard” (Russian Cossacks, February 26). State Duma Deputy and longtime supporter of the Cossacks, Viktor Vodolatskii, used the platform to underline upcoming changes in federal law regarding Russian Cossacks being developed by himself and other deputies (All-Russian Cossack Society, February 25; Russian Cossacks, February 26). This enhanced legal status and prominence builds on other signs that the Kremlin is looking to expand the role of Cossacks in Russian society, such as doubling the Cossack budget (see EDM, November 27, 2024).

The spectacle of the Great Cossack Circle increases the Cossacks’ symbolic power as an image to the world. The Russian government is consolidating Cossack organizations, preventing the proliferation of small groups of “fake Cossacks,” as occurred in the 1990s and 2000s, which made the whole movement seem risible. The leader of the All-Russian Cossack Society (Всероссийское казачье общество; Vserossisskoe Kazach’e Obshchestvo), General Vitaly Kuznetsov, declared:

[Such] [c]lownish image(s) should remain in the past! As should the possibilities of ‘Cossack marshals,’ false Cossacks, and intergalactic Atamans. We will not allow ridiculous statements and stupid deeds to erase the Cossack glory earned through blood and sweat in the special military operation (Russian Cossacks, February 26).

The meeting heavily focused on pro-war sentiment and Cossack military identity. Representative of the Federal Nationalities Agency, Stanislav Bedkin, provided greater detail on upcoming changes to Cossack legislation, which will purportedly ensure that “service to the Fatherland [will] become synonymous with the very word ‘Cossack’” (All-Russian Cossack Society, February 25). Metropolitan Kirill claimed that Russia’s war against Ukraine is “comparable to the feat of” the Soviet army in World War II, and the Kuban Cossack choir closed the event with a song titled “A Cossack is only afraid not to die in battle,” epitomizing the meeting’s support of Russia’s war against Ukraine (All-Russian Cossack Society, February 25).

Cossacks play an important role in Russian “volunteer” forces in Russia’s war against Ukraine (see EDM, May 1, January 16, 2024). While claims vary, reports put the number of Cossacks who have rotated through the warzone as high as 50,000 (see EDM, September 16, 2024). Kuznetsov provided what he called “dry facts” at the Great Circle about the total number of registered Cossacks being 140,000. He explained that 114,000 of these Cossacks have “assumed obligations to perform public service” (All-Russian Cossack Society, February 25). Today Kuznetsov claims there are more than 2,200 Cossack societies in 77 out of 89 federal subjects of Russia (he included Russia’s internationally-unrecognized claims to the Ukrainian territories of Zaporizhzhia oblast, Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk as federal subjects) with the number of regions likely to grow (All-Russian Cossack Society, February 25). Assuming “public service” means a contribution to the war effort in some way, the whole Cossack movement now appears engineered to buttress Russia’s war against Ukraine.  

Cossacks work with Russian police forces in addition to the military. After thanking the Cossacks for their policing work, Russian First Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Gorovoi highlighted what they had done in Crimea, Belgorod, Kursk, and Bryansk. Cossack soldiers assisted the National Guard at checkpoints and filtration camps as the Russian army “liberated” the “Western portions of the Donetsk oblast” (All-Russian Cossack Society, February 25). Gorovoi claimed that over 5,000 people had been detained by the Cossacks and that they uncovered more than 350,000 administrative offenses.

Finally, Kuznetsov addressed the “rapid growth” of Cossack organizations for the young. He claimed that enrollment in the Cossack Union of Youth had increased 20 percent in the past year to over 200,000 (not all of whom go on to join adult Cossack societies).  Continuing, he praised the largest event for Cossack youth, one of Russia’s three largest youth forums. Cossack youth organizations are “training future atamans, chiefs of staff, and specialists who will become pillars of the community in the new historical conditions” (All-Russian Cossack Society, February 25).

The most significant point of the Great Cossack Circle was ultimately not the content of the event itself, but the fact that it is a clear demonstration that the Kremlin is forging a loyal, militarized civil base in the Cossacks as its war against Ukraine continues. The Cossacks’ contributions to the Kremlin’s goals in Ukraine, combined with their role in providing an example of authentic civil society, are a clear sign of the importance of the Cossack movement to Moscow’s domestic legitimacy and militarization of public life under the guise of tradition.