By the beginning of the reign of Emperor Alexander II, the position of Russia, both externally and internally, was difficult. The finances were pushed to the extreme. Bloody wars were fought in the Crimea and the Caucasus. Austria occupied Moldavia and Wallachia, entered into an alliance with England and France and was ready to oppose Russia. Prussia hesitated, not joining either side. The Sardinian king took the side of the allies and sent a corps to the Crimea. Sweden and Spain were ready to follow his example. Russia found itself in international isolation. On September 8, 1855, the Malakhov Kurgan was taken by the allies and the Russian army left Sevastopol. Among the failures of the Crimean Front, a report suddenly came from the Caucasian Front about the capture of Kars and the surrender of a large Turkish army. In this victory, the Cossacks of the legendary Don general Baklanov played a decisive role. By this time, all the opponents were tired of the war and a lull set in on all fronts. Negotiations began, which ended with the Paris Peace Treaty, which was signed in March 1857. According to it, Russia regained Sevastopol, returned Kars to the Turks, withdrew its fleet from the Black Sea, which was declared neutral, and the Bosphorus and Dardanelles were closed to warships of all countries.
For many decades there has also been a war in the Caucasus that was considered endless. However, in 1854-1856, very successful expeditions were made against the non-peaceful mountain villages, and the entire left bank of the Sunzha River was inhabited by Cossack villages. Tired of the endless war, the Chechens began to swear allegiance to Russia in the late 1950s. Shamil fled to Dagestan to the mountain village of Gunib, where he was surrounded and surrendered on August 25, 1859. After the capture of Shamil in the Caucasian War, a turning point came.
After the end of the Crimean War and the conquest of Chechnya and Dagestan, internal reforms began in Russia, which also affected the Cossacks. There were different points of view regarding the internal position and status of the Cossacks in the government. The liberal part of society had the idea of dissolving the Cossacks in the general mass of the Russian people. Minister of War Milyutin also adhered to this point of view. He prepared and on January 1, 1863 sent a note to the troops, which suggested:
- to replace the general service of the Cossacks with a set of eager people who love this business
- to establish free access and exit of people from the Cossack state
- introduce personal land ownership of land
- to differentiate in the Cossack regions the military from the civil, the judicial from the administrative and to introduce the imperial law into the legal proceedings and the judicial system.
On the part of the Cossacks, the reform met with sharp opposition, because in fact it meant the elimination of the Cossacks. In a response note from the Chief of Staff of the Don Troops, Lieutenant-General Dondukov-Korsakov, it was pointed out to the Minister of War for three unshakable beginnings of Cossack life:
- public land ownership
- caste isolation of the Troops
- the custom of elective principle and self-government
Decisive opponents of the reforming of the Cossacks were many nobles and, above all, Prince Baryatinsky, who pacified the Caucasus mainly with Cossack sabers. Emperor Alexander II himself did not dare to reform the Cossacks proposed by Milyutin. After all, on October 2, 1827 (9 years old), he, then the heir and the Grand Duke, was appointed the august ataman of all Cossack troops. The military chieftains became his governors in the Cossack regions. All his childhood, youth and youth were spent surrounded by Cossacks: uncles, orderlies, orderlies, instructors, coaches and educators. Ultimately, after many disputes, a charter was announced confirming the rights and privileges of the Cossacks.
The emperor paid particular attention to the position of the military settlements. Let me briefly recall the history of this issue. The brilliant victories of the Cossacks in the war against Napoleon attracted the attention of all of Europe. The attention of the European peoples was drawn to the internal life of the Cossack troops, to their military organization, to training and economic structure. In their everyday life, the Cossacks combined the qualities of a good farmer, cattle breeder, and business executive, lived comfortably in the conditions of people's democracy and, without breaking away from the economy, could maintain high military qualities in their midst. Fighting qualities and good military training were developed by life itself, passed from generation to generation over the centuries, and, thus, the psychology of a natural warrior was formed. The outstanding successes of the Cossacks in the Patriotic War of 1812 played a cruel joke in the theory and practice of European military development and over the entire military-organizational thought of the first half of the 19th century. The high cost of numerous armies, tearing off large masses of the male population from economic life, once again gave rise to the idea of creating an army on the model of the Cossack way of life. In the countries of the Germanic peoples, troops of the Landwehr, Landsturms, Volkssturms and other types of people's militias began to be created. But the most stubborn implementation of the organization of the army on the Cossack model was shown in Russia and most of the troops, after the Patriotic War, were turned into military settlements for half a century. This experience continued not only during the reign of Alexander I, but also during the next reign of Nicholas I and ended, both from the military and economic point of view, with a complete failure. A well-known Latin proverb says: "What is allowed to Jupiter, the bull is not allowed", and once again this experience proved that it is impossible to turn men into Cossacks by administrative decree. Through the efforts and efforts of the military settlers, this experience turned out to be extremely unsuccessful, the productive Cossack idea was perverted and turned into a parody, and this military-organizational caricature became one of the compelling reasons for Russia's defeat in the Crimean War. With an army of more than a million on paper, the empire could hardly send only a few truly combat-ready divisions to the front. In 1857, General Stolypin was instructed to audit the military settlements and establish their real significance in the state's defense system. The general presented a report to the sovereign with the conclusion that military settlements were materially disadvantageous and did not achieve his goal. The system of military settlements did not produce a soldier-warrior, but lowered the qualities of a good farmer. On June 4, 1857, the Regulation on the new structure of military settlements was approved with the conversion of their population into state peasants. The destruction of military settlements freed up to 700,000 Russian people from abnormal living conditions. Only Cossack and irregular troops remained under the jurisdiction of the Department of Military Settlements, and on August 23, 1857, the department was transformed into the Directorate of Cossack Troops, for the Cossacks demonstrated a completely different situation. Their experience in the formation of new Cossack settlements, by relocating part of the Cossacks to new places, was also not simple and smooth, but had extremely positive results for the empire and the Cossacks themselves. Let us illustrate this with the example of the creation of the New Border Line in the Orenburg Cossack Army. In July 1835, the Orenburg military governor V. A. Perovsky set about constructing this line and outlined 32 places for the Cossack settlements, numbered from 1 to 32. The way of life of Cossack warriors, plowmen and cattle breeders, developed among the nomads, in the centuries-old struggle with them, and was adapted for service on a hectic, dangerous and distant border. Their ancient way of life taught them to drive the plow in the furrow or save herds with one hand, and hold the gun with the cocked gun with the other. Therefore, first of all, the Cossacks of the inner cantons of the old border lines and the remnants of the Volga Cossacks of the Zakamsk line, the Samara, Alekseevsky, Stavropol baptized Kalmyks (meaning Stavropol on the Volga, renamed Togliatti in 1964) were asked to move to the New Line, or go to the military settlement. The Cossack population of the old lines was accustomed to discipline and law-abiding, so the resettlement to new places took place without major excesses. Despite the large government and military assistance, the transfer to the New Line and parting with the habitable places for most of the settlers became an ordeal and great grief. Thousands of people, having loaded part of their belongings onto carts, pulled long carts across the Ural ridge. The order to move to the New Line was carried out quickly and abruptly. They were given 24 hours to collect, the hostesses did not have time to remove the rolls from the oven, as all the families with belongings were loaded onto carts and, along with the cattle, were driven hundreds of miles to unknown lands. By 1837, 23 Cossack villages were rebuilt and populated on the New Line, 1140 houses and barracks for local garrisons were built in them. But some Cossacks were not enough for resettlement. Therefore, the military governor V. A. Perovsky disbanded the 4th, 6th, 8th and 10th infantry battalions stationed in the Orsk, Kizilskaya, Verkhneuralskaya and Troitskaya fortresses and, turning them into Cossacks, evicted everyone on the New Line along with their families. But what was possible for the Cossacks turned out to be very difficult for the infantry soldiers. In the new place, many turned out to be simply helpless and became a burden for the army and the state, 419 families never built houses and did not start farms, languished idle in poverty, waiting to return to their former duty stations. The experience with the resettlement of soldiers' battalions once again showed that the only suitable service contingent for the border troops and settlements of that time were the Cossacks. The situation with the peasants was even worse. According to the Regulations on the Orenburg Cossack Host adopted in 1840, all the lands of the New Line, as well as the lands of the state peasants of the Verkhneuralsky, Troitsky and Chelyabinsk districts entered the territory of the army, and all the peasants living on these lands became Cossacks. But 8,750 peasants of the Kundravinskaya, Verkhneuvelskaya and Nizhneuvelskaya volosts did not want to become Cossacks and rebelled. Only the arrival of the Cossack regiment with two guns humbled and convinced some of them to turn to the Cossacks, while the rest went to the Buzuluk district. The unrest spread to other peasant villages. The entire 1843 Order Ataman N. E. Tsukato with the regiment of Colonel Timler, where by persuasion, where by promises, where by flogging he pacified the peasants in other villages and made them into Cossacks. This is how they drove the "disenfranchised" peasants into the "free" Cossack life. It was not easy to render the Russian peasants. It is one thing to blindly dream, buzz and strive to "get the Don" and the Cossack order of people's democracy. It is another matter to live in this very democracy, bearing full responsibility for the service, the Fatherland and the border. No, the Cossack lot was not sweet, it gave bitterness to most of the service Cossacks. Only courageous, patient and strong in spirit and in body warriors could withstand the restless, difficult and dangerous service on the line, and the weak could not stand it, died, were put on the run or ended up in prison. By 1844, 12,155 male souls were resettled to the New Line, including 2,877 Cossacks-Nagaybaks (baptized Tatars) and 7,109 white-arable peasants and soldiers, the rest were Cossacks from the old lines. Later, all numbered villages were given their names in honor of honored people, glorious victories of Russian weapons, or the names of those places in Russia, France, Germany and Turkey, where the Cossacks won major victories. This is how settlements and villages with the name Rome, Berlin, Paris, Ferschampenoise, Chesma, Varna, Kassel, Leipzig, etc. appeared and still exist on the map of the Chelyabinsk region. Eight new Cossack troops were created along the borders of the empire in a short, by historical measure, period in this way or in this way, not by washing by rolling.
Since 1857, other reforms have been taking place in the Cossack troops, but they were closely related to the reform of Russia as a whole. After the liquidation of military settlements, the service life in the army was reduced from 25 to 15 years, in the navy to 14 years. On March 5, 1861, a manifesto was promulgated on the emancipation of the peasants from the dependence of the landowners and it began to be implemented. Judicial reform began in 1862. The judicial branch was separated from the executive, administrative and legislative powers. Publicity was established in civil and criminal proceedings, the legal profession, the institute of attorneys and assessors, the cassation court and the notary were established. In foreign policy during these years, there were no significant misunderstandings with foreign powers. But there were unrest in internal politics in Poland. Taking advantage of the weakening of power, the Polish gentry provoked and staged riots, which grew into a rebellion. 30 Russian soldiers were killed and over 400 wounded. Troops and Cossacks were sent to Poland, and after the change of several governors, General Bars captured the "jon" leading the rebellion and by May 1864 the rebellion was over. European courts were indifferent to the Polish rebellion, and Bismarck even offered Prussia's services to suppress it. He wrote: "The possession of the Polish provinces is a heavy burden for both Russia and Prussia. But a united Poland will violate the state integrity of both Russia and Prussia, and the Poles will become the most zealous and ambition will continuously be directed at reclaiming the old Polish borders. In this matter, the delimitation between Russia and Prussia is simply unthinkable. The Poles have despaired in life itself, I fully sympathize with their position. But if we wish to preserve ourselves, we have nothing to do but destroy them. It is not the wolf's fault that the Lord created him this way, but this very wolf is killed as soon as the opportunity presents itself. " In order to cut off the Polish people from the pernicious influence of the gentry, on February 19, 1864, a manifesto was issued, endowing the Polish peasants with land. And in Europe at this time there were great military and political changes. 1866 marked the beginning of the war between Prussia and Austria. The Prussians demonstrated to the world a new type of war organization (Ordnung Moltke) and an excellent martial art. In a short time, they broke the resistance of the Austrians and occupied Saxony, then Bohemia and approached Vienna. As a result, Prussia united all Germanic peoples (except Austria), and the Prussian king became the emperor of Germany. There was a reconciliation between Austria and Hungary and they created a two-pronged monarchy. Moldavia and Wallachia were merged into one state, Romania, and Prince Karl Hohenzollern was installed on the throne. Conflict began to brew between France and Germany over the legacy of the Spanish throne, with the result that France declared war on Germany in June 1870. Russia kept strict neutrality in this war. The complete defeat of the French at Verdun and Metz showed the superiority of the Prussian military doctrine and army. Soon the French army surrendered, and the Emperor Napoleon III was taken prisoner. Germany annexed Alsace and Lorraine, and France in three years pledged to pay 12 billion francs in indemnity. After the Austro-Franco-Prussian wars, the attention of the European peoples was drawn to Turkey, more precisely to the reprisals of the Turks against the Christian peoples. In the summer of 1875, an uprising broke out in Herzegovina. Serbia and Montenegro secretly supported him. To suppress the uprising, the Turks used armed forces, there were huge casualties. But the uprising only grew. The efforts of the Austrian Chancellor Andrássy and international mediators to resolve the situation in Herzegovina were unsuccessful. The situation was aggravated by internal unrest in Turkey, where the grand vizier was removed and the sultan was killed. Abdul Hamid ascended the throne and announced an amnesty for the rebels. But in the provinces, unauthorized and cruel reprisals of the Turks against the Christian population began, in Bulgaria the Turks brutally destroyed up to 12 thousand people. These atrocities caused outrage in Europe, Serbia and Montenegro declared war on Turkey, but were defeated. The Montenegrin prince appealed to the six powers with a request to help stop the bloodshed. In Russia at that time the ideology of reckless "Pan-Slavism" prevailed and the public widely discussed the issue of intervention in the Balkan War.
By this time, reforms were carried out in the Russian army, they were carried out by the Minister of War, General Milyutin. The service life of the soldiers was reduced to 15 years, in the navy to 10 years. The size of the army was reduced. The reforms also affected the Cossack troops. On October 28, 1866, when General Potapov was appointed ataman, he was named a military order ataman of the Don Army with the rights of governor-general and commander of a military district. The orderly chieftain was given the right to appoint regiment commanders. The military watch was transformed into a military headquarters with the rights of the district administration. Similar transformations took place in other Cossack troops. In January 1869, the Cossack regiments were subordinated to the chiefs of cavalry divisions in all military districts. In 1870, a disciplinary charter was introduced in the Cossack troops and a rapid-fire bolt-action weapon was introduced. In 1875, the "Charter on the conscription of the Don Host" was approved. Under the new regulation, unlike other estates, the Cossacks began their service at the age of 18. The first 3 years (from 18 to 21) they were considered in the "preparatory category", from 21 to 33 years old, i.e. For 12 years, the Cossacks were listed in the "combat rank", after which they were in reserve at the place of residence for 5 years (34-38 years), but with the obligation to regularly maintain horses, weapons and equipment. Service in the "combat rank" included 4 years of active service in the regiments and 8 years on the "privilege". Being in the preparatory category and on privilege, the Cossacks lived at home, but there were camp gatherings. Here are the stages of the Cossack service:
Rice. 1 pre-conscription training
Rice. 2 fist fight in prep rank
Rice. 3 on active duty
Rice. 4 on "privilege"
Rice. 5 in stock
In fact, the Cossacks served without compulsion from an early age to a ripe old age. Under the supervision and guidance of relatives and experienced Cossacks who were on the "privilege", long before they were enrolled in the preparatory category, young Cossacks (Cossacks) participated in horse races, learned horse riding and formation, horse breeding, virtuoso handling of cold weapons and firearms. War games and competitions, wall-to-wall fistfights and wrestling fights were held all year round. And the ceremony of recording a newly born Cossack woman in the register and putting a young Cossack woman in the saddle was truly ritual in nature.
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Rice. 6, 7 the rite of landing the Cossack in the saddle
Rice. 8 young Cossack cavalryman
Cossack regiments were divided into three lines. The regiments of the 1st stage, consisting of Cossacks of 21-25 years old, served on the borders of Russia. The headquarters and officer cadres of the regiments of the 2nd and 3rd stage were located on the territory of the Cossack regions. In case of war, they were replenished with Cossacks for 25-33 years and performed on the theater of military operations. In this case, the Cossacks of the "reserve" made up individual hundreds and also went to war. In an extreme case, with the announcement of a flash (general mobilization), a militia could be formed from the Cossacks who had dropped out of the "reserve" by age. In 1875, the same provision was adopted for the Ural army, then in 1876 - for the Orenburg, later - for the Zabaikalsky, Semirechensky, Amur, Siberian, Astrakhan. The last, in 1882, similar transformations took place in the Kuban and Tersk troops. The military reform and management reform significantly influenced the life of the Cossacks. The burden of service has become much lighter, but not enough to devote enough time to the farm.
During the Balkan War, the Serbs were completely defeated and the Turkish army moved to Belgrade. Russia demanded from Turkey to stop moving, but the Turks did not obey the demand. Russia carried out a partial mobilization and doubled the number of peacetime troops to 546 thousand people. By the beginning of 1877, there were 193 thousand people in the Danube army against Turkey, 72 thousand in the Odessa district to protect the coast, and 72 thousand more soldiers in the Kiev district. The Caucasian corps had 79 foot battalions and 150 squadrons and hundreds of Cossacks. The Russian mobilization made an impression, and the European countries worked out peaceful conditions for the preparation of a peace conference. But the Turks rejected these conditions. Bismarck was entirely on the side of Russia, Austria took a benevolent neutrality. On March 19, in London, representatives of the European powers put forward demands to Turkey to improve the situation of the Christian peoples. Turkey rejected them, in these conditions the war between Russia and Turkey became inevitable. The war ended with the Peace of San Stefano. Constantinople, Adrianople, Solun, Epirus, Thessaly, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina remained in the possession of Turkey on the European mainland. Bulgaria turned into a vassal principality of the Turkish sultan, but with a very large autonomy. The independence of Serbia and Romania was proclaimed, Kars and Batum ceded to Russia. But the peace conditions concluded between Russia and Turkey provoked protests from England, Austria and even Romania. Serbia was unhappy with the insufficient land cut for it. A European congress was convened in Berlin, at which all of Russia's acquisitions were preserved. The pliability of England was achieved by favorable conditions for her in Central Asia, according to which she strengthened her prestige in Afghanistan.
At the same time, the revolutionary ferment caused by the weakening of the central government during the period of reforms did not subside within Russia. The most prominent leaders of the revolutionary movement were Herzen, Nechaev, Ogarev and others. They tried to attract the sympathy of the masses and their attention was drawn to the Cossacks. They praised the Cossack leaders of the popular movements Razin, Bulavin and Pugachev. The Cossack way of life served as the ideal of the populist party. However, the revolutionary ideas did not evoke sympathy among the Cossacks, therefore, not finding support in them, the agitators declared the Cossacks hopeless, "tsarist satraps", gave up on the Cossacks and switched to other classes. To promote their ideas, the populists began to set up Sunday schools, under the pretext of teaching the common people to read and write. In the same place, leaflets of seditious content were distributed, demanding the convocation of a constituent assembly and the independence of Poland. At this time, fires broke out in St. Petersburg and a number of other cities. Sunday school students fell under suspicion, many schools were closed, and an investigation began. Several active figures were brought to trial, including Chernyshevsky. After some lull, a new movement began - Russia began to be covered with "self-education circles" with the same goals. In 1869, a "secret society of popular reprisals" was formed in Moscow, headed by Nechaev. After an internal bloody showdown, its participants were arrested and convicted. The ferment did not stop and its purpose was the murder of the sovereign. Several unsuccessful attempts were made on him. In 1874, revolutionary propaganda was directed to the villages, the revolutionaries moved to the people, but they were not understood by them. Moreover, the authorities received hundreds of complaints against seditious people. Thousands of populists were brought to justice, a commission of inquiry was set up, the chairman of which was Loris - Melikov. On February 11, 1881, an unsuccessful assassination attempt took place on him, and on March 1, Emperor Alexander II was killed. The new emperor Alexander III was the second son of Alexander II, was born on February 26, 1845 and ascended the throne with established political convictions, with a domineering, decisive and open character. He didn’t like much about his father’s management system. He was a supporter of the national-Russian system in politics, Russian patriarchy in everyday life, and openly did not approve of the influx of the German element into court and government circles. Even outwardly, it was very different from its predecessors. For the first time since Peter's time, he wore a powerful, thick, patriarchal beard, which greatly impressed the Cossacks. In general, the Cossacks gave a beard and mustache a very large, sacred, even sacred meaning, especially the Old Believers of the Ural army. Having resisted the will of Tsar Peter I to trim his mustache and beard in a European manner, rebelling and rebelling, the Cossacks defended their right to a mustache and beard. In the end, the tsarist government resigned itself and allowed the Don, Terek, Kuban and Ural Cossacks to wear mustaches and beards. But the Orenburg Cossacks did not have such a right, until they were 50 years old, while in the service, they were forbidden to have beards. It was especially strict under Nicholas I, who "deigned to command not to allow any oddities in the mustache and sideburns …" With the coming to power of Alexander III, two centuries of obscurantism with forced shaving gradually faded away. Pobedonostsev to draw up a manifesto with a firm statement that he will not allow an elective beginning due to the danger of dual power. All the time of the previous emperor's reign was accompanied by a revolutionary movement and terrorist acts. Revolutionary ideas of the West penetrated into Russia and took peculiar forms in Russian conditions. If the economic struggle of the working people in the West wore the nature of the struggle against the inhumanity of capitalism and for improving the economic conditions of oval ideas, refracted through the prism of their own imagination and unrestrained socio-political fantasies. The main feature of the Russian revolutionary leaders was the complete absence of constructive social principles in their ideas, their main ideas aimed at one goal - the destruction of social, economic, social foundations and the complete rejection of "prejudices", namely morality, morality and religion. Moreover, the paradox was that the privileged strata, the nobility and the intelligentsia were the main carriers and propagandists of seditious ideas in society. This environment, deprived of all roots among the people, was considered Russian, and yet in their way of life and in convictions they were either French, or Germans, or English, or rather, neither one nor the other, nor the third. The ruthless preparator of the Russian reality of that time, F. M. Dostoevsky brilliantly revealed "The Demons" in his novel and christened this phenomenon devilry. The age-old misfortune of the Russian educated classes was and is that they do not know the world around them well and often take the seeming, delirium, dreams, fantasies and fictions for reality and desires.
The main goal of the activities of Emperor Alexander III was to establish autocratic power and maintain state order. The fight against sedition ended in complete success, secret circles were suppressed and terrorist acts stopped. The reforms of Alexander III affected all aspects of state life and were aimed at strengthening the influence of the government, developing public (zemstvo) self-government and strengthening the authority of the government. He especially drew attention to the implementation of reforms and their best application. In the internal life, class improvements were made. A noble land bank was established to issue loans to nobles secured by their lands on favorable terms. A peasant bank was established for the peasants, which issued loans to peasants for the purchase of land. The means of combating land scarcity was the resettlement of peasants at public expense to free land in Siberia and Central Asia. Since 1871, in the Cossack regions, universal primary (4-grade) education for boys began to be introduced, starting from 8-9 years of age, gradually spreading to all children. The results of such effective measures turned out to be very successful: by the beginning of the 20th century, more than half of the population of the Cossack regions had primary education. To regulate workers' relations with employers, factory legislation was created and the position of factory inspectors was established to supervise order in factories. The construction of the great Siberian railroad to the Pacific Ocean (Transsib) and to Central Asia (Turksib) began. Foreign policy of Alexander III was distinguished by the fact that he decisively avoided interference in European affairs. He strictly guarded Russian national interests, while showing an enviable peacefulness, which is why he received the title of "Tsar-Peacemaker". He not only did not wage wars, but in every possible way avoided a pretext for them. Contrary to the policy of reckless "Pan-Slavism" based mainly on the lyrical fantasies of the educated classes, at the first manifestation of dissatisfaction with the policy of Russia on the part of the southern Slavs freed from Turkish dependence, who started mutual showdowns, he abandoned them, leaving Bulgaria and Serbia to their own fate. On this issue, he was absolutely in solidarity with the genius Dostoevsky, who back in 1877 wrote: “Russia will not, and never have had, such haters, envious people, slanderers and even outright enemies, like all these Slavic tribes, just Russia will free them, and Europe will agree to recognize them as liberated … ". In contrast to the alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary, Alexander III entered a defensive alliance with France, taking the enemy in pincers. The only military clash during the reign of Alexander III was with the Afghans on the Kushka River, which did not cause any complications with either Afghanistan or the British. In relation to the Don Host in the reign of Alexander III, some changes were made. In 1883, the Don Cadet Corps was opened. On March 24, 1884, the following were annexed to the army: Salsky district, Azov district and Taganrog. In 1886, the Novocherkassk military school was opened and a hundred Cossack junkers were established at the Nikolaev cavalry school. In 1887, the emperor visited the Don and confirmed the rights and advantages of the Cossack troops. By the end of the 19th century, eleven Cossack troops had formed in Russia. Contemporaries called them eleven pearls in the splendid crown of the Russian Empire. Donets, Kuban, Tertsy, Ural, Siberian, Astrakhan, Orenburg, Transbaikal, Semirechian, Amur, Ussurian. Each army had its own history - some were no less ancient than the Russian state itself, while others were short-lived, but also glorious. Each army had its own traditions, united by a single core, permeated with a single meaning. Each army had its own heroes. And some had common heroes, such as Ermak Timofeevich - a legendary and glorious personality throughout Russia. According to the 1897 census, the total number of Cossacks in Russia was 2,928,842 people (men and women), or 2.3% of the total population, excluding Finland.
Under the strong rule of the emperor, revolutionary illusions were forgotten, but despite the suppression of terrorism, its embers continued to smolder. In 1887, 3 students were detained in St. Petersburg and bombs were found on them. During interrogation, they confessed that they had the aim of killing the king. The terrorists were hanged, including Alexander Ulyanov. In 1888, when returning from the Caucasus, the tsar's train crashed, there were many killed and wounded, but the tsar's family did not suffer. Possessing great physical strength and health, at the age of 50, Emperor Alexander III fell ill with kidney disease and died on October 20, 1894. All European governments declared that in the person of the deceased emperor the support of the common European peace, balance and prosperity was lost. Nicholas II ascended the throne and his reign marked the end of the three-hundred-year-old Romanov dynasty. But this is a completely different, and very tragic, story.
