ABSTRACT
Yakobi founded the fortresses of Ekatereenograd, Gheórghievsk, and Stavropol, initiated the colonisation by Crown peasants of the present government of Stävropol, and completed the Line from Mozdók to Rostóff (then known as Fort Dmeetri) by the addition of six minor forts.1 The settlers in these new colonies were Cossacks brought from the Volga and elsewhere, and, as usual, with their wives and children, their flocks and herds, their implements of agriculture and domestic uten sils. They were, like all Cossacks, bom fighters and horsemen, and imbued with a sturdy and independent spirit. They had by this time, moreover, become con firmed ploughers of the soil, though in earlier days agriculture was forbidden, at least amongst the most im portant of the Cossack communities, those of the Don.
