Editing Cossacks (section)

=== Settlements ===
Russian Cossacks founded numerous settlements (''[[stanitsa]]s'') and fortresses along troublesome borders. These included the forts Verny ([[Almaty]], [[Kazakhstan]]) in south Central Asia; [[Grozny]] in North Caucasus; Fort Alexandrovsk ([[Fort Shevchenko]], Kazakhstan); [[Krasnovodsk]] ([[Türkmenbaşy, Turkmenistan|Turkmenbashi]], [[Turkmenistan]]); Novonikolayevskaya stanitsa ([[Bautino]], Kazakhstan); [[Blagoveshchensk]]; and towns and settlements along the [[Ural River|Ural]], [[Ishim River|Ishim]], [[Irtysh]], [[Ob River|Ob]], [[Yenisei River|Yenisei]], [[Lena River|Lena]], [[Amur River|Amur]], [[Anadyr River|Anadyr]] ([[Chukchi Peninsula|Chukotka]]), and [[Ussuri River]]s. A group of [[Albazin Cossacks]] settled in [[China]] as early as 1685.

Cossacks interacted with nearby peoples and exchanged cultural influences (the Terek Cossacks, for example, were heavily influenced by the culture of North Caucasian tribes). They also frequently intermarried with local non-Cossack settlers and local inhabitants, regardless of race or origin, sometimes setting aside religious restrictions.{{efn|name=Kaznakov_quote|"Сопредельные с ними (поселенцами – Ред.) по 'Горькой линии' казаки ... поголовно обучались Киргизскому наречию и переняли некоторые, впрочем, безвредные привычки кочевого народа."<br/>
"''Among [settlers nearby] the 'Gor'kaya Liniya' Cossacks ... everyone learnt Kyrgys' language and adopted some customs, though harmless, of the nomadic people''."<ref name=Kaznakov_1875>{{cite report |script-title=ru:Генерал-губернатор Казнаков в докладе Александру&nbsp;III |trans-title=Report of Governor-General Kaznakov to Tzar Alexander&nbsp;III |author=Kaznakov |year=1875}}</ref>}} [[War bride]]s brought from distant lands were also common in Cossack families. General Bogaevsky, a commander in the Russian [[Volunteer Army]], mentions in his 1918 memoir that one of his Cossacks, Sotnik Khoperski, was a native Chinese who had been brought back as a child from Manchuria during the [[Russian-Japanese War]] of 1904–1905 and adopted and raised by a Cossack family.<ref>Богаевский А.П. Ледяной поход. Воспоминания 1918 г.</ref>

Cossacks initially relied on raiding, herding, fishing and hunting, despising agriculture as lowly. After the defeat of Stenka Razin in 1672, the Cossacks began transitioning to agriculture, but this would remain a secondary concern for Cossacks until the late 19th century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=S. O'Rourke |title=Warriors and Peasants: The Don Cossacks in Late Imperial Russia |date=2000 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-230-59974-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=William Penn Cresson |title=The Cossacks |date=2016 |publisher=Wentworth |isbn=978-1-329-91984-6}}</ref>