PUTIN'S BILL ON COSSACKS' STATE SERVICE SUBMITTED TO DUMA

RIA Novosti ^ | 2005-04-13

[jb6]

MOSCOW, April 13 (RIA Novosti) - Vladimir Putin submitted a draft law On State Service of the Russian Cossacks for consideration by the State Duma.

According to the presidential spokesman, the head of state sent a relevant letter to Boris Gryzlov, chairman of the lower house of the parliament.

The draft law spells out the legal and organizational fundamentals for involving the Russian Cossacks in state service based on the current practice of regulating the issue by other Russian law-making instruments. The draft law does not regulate any other activities of the Cossacks, unrelated to state service.

The law covers only Russian nationals being members of Cossack societies.

To this end, the draft law defines "Cossack society" as a voluntary association of citizens in the form of a non-profit organization established under the federal law and included in the Russian Federation's Cossack societies registry, with its members having committed to state or other duty according to the established procedure.

The Russian Cossacks are to exercise state civil service under the law of the Russian Federation and military and law enforcement service in accordance with the federal legislation.

The Cossacks are a military estate that existed in Russia before the revolution of 1917 and served in border areas. Russia's Cossacks numbered more than 4.4 million in 1916. There were 11 Cossack military formations in the country in the early 20th century. The Cossacks were abolished as an estate in 1920. In 1936, several Cossack cavalry larger units were activated and later fought Nazis in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45.

The revival of the Russian Cossacks began in the late 1980s with the emergence of the early public organizations.

[Monterrosa-24]

Hiya jb. Do you know anything of the current state of Cossack culture? Do the young still identify proudly with traditions or do most prefer --Metallica and Puff Daddy? Do many still have horses?

[Lion in Winter]

I guess it was about 5 years ago, that I was at the dentist's office and found a copy of National Geographic Magazine... not all that old either. It was after the fall of the USSR for sure.

Well, it had an article about the Cossacks.

I was real interested in the article. I was a kid in the thirties and had read about the adventures of the Cossacks on the plains of Russia in the old days. They always conjured up exciting images for me. You know, like our own cowboys and Texas Rangers, Tom Mix and all the western heroes of the movies of my youth. I was a fan of anything about horses too.

Well, the article showed them at a huge funeral with what appeared to be hundreds of NEW coffins with Crosses on them. It seems they were re-interring their dead who died under the commies..... this time with a Christian burial. Russian Orthodox priests were there as well as many of their troops.

On one page, there was even a picture of a young Cossack soldier marrying his lovely sweetheart in a very old Russian Orthodox Church.

The article was about their Cossack history and their present devotion to Russia and their Church.

I wish I could have had the magazine. Sure made the wait for that root canal seem short. GRrrr.

[jb6]

Very good questions, I frankly don't know. I know a lot of volunteer groups went to fight the Islamics in Chechnya and backed up the S.Ossessians and Abhaz against the Georgians. But other then that, I don't know.