From Estate to Ethnos

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, its former citizens have had to elaborate new narratives of identity for themselves and their new polities. ^* With the demise of socialism as ideology, history provided the essential material from which to fashion such identities. A particularly prominent marker in these narratives is ‘the Cossackry’. ¹ This comes as no surprise. The Cossacks have long figured in narratives of Russian identity, in both its ethnic (Rus’, russkit) and political (Rossiia, rossiiskii) configurations.