Cossacks Today Script

However, despite the Soviets best efforts, the Cossacks refused to be stamped out. Ever since the
collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Cossacks have been reemerging into Russian society
(1) and in 2010, they were officially recognized as an ethnicity by the Russian population census.
In fact, there are over 2 million Cossacks living in Russia (4). The Cossacks have begun to be
seen as a symbol of Russian nationalism, like how cowboys are for the US (3).
As of last year, Cossack groups have been allowed to patrol the streets of major Russian cities,
such as Moscow and Stavropol (3), as a part of a Cossack comeback. The groups patrol the
streets on horseback, looking for illegal parking and unlicensed street vending (2). The act has
been backed by the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, who has been pushing for a nationalist
ideology for Russia (3).
However, the patrols arent all good news. The Cossacks have a history of conflict with several
Russian minorities, particularly Muslims (2), and some of their patrols have been used to target
and intimidate ethnic minorities. In addition, these patrols could aggravate tensions between
ethnic Russians and minorities (1).
However, the patrols arent the only part of Cossack reemergence. Special classes have been set
up to teach new Cossacks, which includes Cossack history and basic military training, and
requires mandatory church attendance (4).
Now, to shift topics just a bit, were going to move on to Cossacks in pop culture!
(Now, youve probably heard of the Russian stereotype of the husky Russian with a thick
Russian accent that fights bears and drinks vodka. Now, this stereotype is most likely an
exaggeration of Cossacks, because that is, a bit, what Cossacks were like.)
So, youve probably heard of that Russian dance that involves the squat/jump routine, right.
Well, thats actually part of a Ukraine folk dance called the Hopak, which is also known as the
Cossack dance (5).
The Cossacks have also appeared in the media, if only a little. They were the focus of a movie
called Taras Bulba, which was based off a book of the same name written by Nikolai Gogol (6).
There are two versions, a 1962 one (7) and a 2009 one (8).
They showed up in the beginning of American Tail, where the Jewish village is being subjected
to a pogrom, an attack made on an ethnic group, by Cossacks (9).

Work Citied Page

1. http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/1127/355495-cossacks-russia-moscow/
2. http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?219992-Cossacs-to-patrol-Moscowstreets
3. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/world/europe/cossacks-are-back-in-russia-may-the-hillstremble.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&
4. http://www.euronews.com/2012/04/30/the-return-of-the-cossacks/
5. http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages\H\O\HopakIT.htm
6. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1197
7. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056556/
8. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1242457/
9. http://www.cataroo.com/DBtail.html