I.

Introduction

Cossacks, name given to a group of people in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), chiefly of Russian and Ukrainian stock, who lived principally on the steppes that begin north of the Black Sea and the Caucasus Mountains and extend eastward to the Altay Mountains in Siberia. Those inhabiting the regions of the Don and Kuban’ rivers are known respectively as the Don and Kuban’ Cossacks.