Editing Cossacks (section)

=== Cossacks in the Soviet Union, 1922–1945 ===

Rebellions in the former Cossack territories erupted occasionally during the interwar period. In 1920–1921, disgruntlement with continued Soviet grain-requisitioning activities provoked a series of revolts among Cossack and outlander communities in [[South Russia (1919–1920)|South Russia]]. The former Cossack territories of South Russia and the Urals also experienced a devastating [[Soviet famine of 1921|famine in 1921–1922]]. In 1932–1933, another famine, known as the [[Holodomor]], devastated Ukraine and some parts of South Russia, causing a population decline of about 20–30%. While urban areas were less affected, the decline was even higher in the rural areas, populated largely by Cossacks. [[Robert Conquest]] estimates the number of famine-related deaths in the [[Northern Caucasus]] at about one million.<ref name="Harvest">{{cite book |year=1986 |title=The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-505180-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/harvestofsorrows00conq/page/306 306] |url=https://archive.org/details/harvestofsorrows00conq/page/306 }}</ref> Government officials expropriated grain and other produce from rural Cossack families, leaving them to starve and die.<ref name="Bibliotekar.ru">{{cite web |url=http://www.bibliotekar.ru/golodomor/33.htm |script-title=ru:Голод 1932–1933 годов, рассказы очевидцев. Голод в Казахстане, Поволжье, Северном Кавказе и Украине. Голодомор |website=Bibliotekar.ru |access-date=13 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120502133535/http://www.bibliotekar.ru/golodomor/33.htm |archive-date=2 May 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> Many families were forced from their homes in the severe winter and froze to death.<ref name="Bibliotekar.ru"/> [[Mikhail Sholokhov]]'s letters to [[Joseph Stalin]] document the conditions and widespread deaths, as do eyewitness accounts.<ref name="Bibliotekar.ru"/> Besides starvation, the [[collectivization]] and [[dekulakization]] campaigns of the early 1930s threatened Cossacks with deportation to [[Gulag|labor camps]], or outright execution by Soviet security organs.<ref name=Mueggenberg_2019/>{{rp|206–219}}

In April 1936, the Soviet regime began to relax its restrictions on Cossacks, allowing them to serve openly in the Red Army. Two existing cavalry divisions were renamed as Cossack divisions, and three new Cossack cavalry divisions were established. Under the new Soviet designation, anyone from the former Cossack territories of the North Caucasus provided they were not [[Circassians]] or other ethnic minorities, could claim Cossack status.

[[File:Konstantin Nedorubov (monument in Volgograd).JPG|thumb|Konstantin I. Nedorubov: Don Cossack, Hero of the Soviet Union, full Knight of the [[Order of St. George]]. Aged 52 when WWII began, he did not qualify for the regular draft and volunteered in the 41st Don Cossack Cavalry division. He was awarded the title [[Hero of the Soviet Union]] for his fight against Nazi invaders, credited in particular with killing some 70 Nazi combatants during the 1942 defence of Maratuki village.]]

In [[World War II]], during the [[Operation Barbarossa|German invasion]] of the [[Soviet Union]], many Cossacks continued to serve in the Red Army. Some fought as cavalry in the Cossack divisions, such as the 17th Kuban Cossack Cavalry Corps and the famous [[Lev Dovator]] Corps, later awarded the honorific designation "guard" in recognition of its performance.<ref name=ORourke_2000/>{{rp|276–277}} Other Cossacks fought as [[Partisan (military)|partisans]], although the partisan movement did not acquire significant traction during the German occupation of the traditional Cossack homelands in the North Caucasus.<ref>{{cite book |author=Cooper, Matthew |title=The Nazi War Against Soviet Partisans |location=New York |publisher=Stein and Day |year=1979 |pages=100–105}}</ref>

The [[4th Guards Cavalry Corps|4th Guards Cossacks Cavalry Corps]] took part in the [[Moscow Victory Parade of 1945]] on [[Red Square]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.slavakubani.ru/p-service/military-service/history-units/kubanskie-kazaki-uchastniki-parada-pobedy-v-moskve-24-iyunya-1945-goda/|title=Кубанские казаки - участники парада Победы в Москве 24 июня 1945 года|access-date=2020-07-07|archive-date=2020-07-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200707140319/http://www.slavakubani.ru/p-service/military-service/history-units/kubanskie-kazaki-uchastniki-parada-pobedy-v-moskve-24-iyunya-1945-goda/|url-status=live}}</ref>