The Cossacks - Shane O'Rourke

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Résumé :
This is an exceptional book covering 500 years of the history of the Cossacks - the recklessly brave, wild horsemen or the romantic hero of the steppe or the brutal mounted policemen, as they have been remembered throughout history. Starting with a description of the world of the steppe before moving on to a more detailed analysis of the circumstances in which the Cossacks emerged and flourished in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the author considers the relationship of the Cossacks to the surrounding states in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries through the prism of three great conflicts: the revolts of Bohdan Khelmnytsky, Stepan Razin and Emel'ian Pugachev. The author then looks at the Cossacks from the end of the Pugachev revolt in 1774 until the outbreak of the First World War, as well as the Cossacks in the Russian revolutionary period and under Soviet power. A lucid and engaging book that conveys the passion, exuberance and tragedy of these extraordinary people, it will be enjoyed by students, scholars and general readers interested in Russian history....

Biographie:
Shane O'Rourke is Lecturer in History at the University of York

Sommaire:
Acknowledgments List of Maps List of Illustrations. Part One: Beginnings to 1600 Introduction Prologue Chapter One: The Origins of the Cossacks Part Two: The Era of Cossack Rebellions 1600-1774 Chapter Two: Bodan Khmelnytsky Chapter Three: Stepan Razin Chapter Four: Emel'ian Pugachev Part Three: The Cossacks in the Long Nineteenth Century 1774-1914 Chapter Five: Government, Administration and Economy Chapter Six: Cossack Women Chapter Seven: Economic Crisis and Revolution Part Four: The Cossacks in the Soviet Era Chapter Eight:The Cossacks and the February Revolution Chapter Nine: The Cossacks and the Civil War Chapter Ten: The Cossacks Under Soviet Power Epilogue: The Return of the Cossacks? Bibliography Index...