КАЗАЧЕСТВО ВО ФРОНТИРНОЙ СРЕДЕ ЮГА РОССИИ

Abstract

The aim of the study is to analyze the influence of the frontier identity of the Cossacks on the socio-cultural processes of the South of Russia. In the framework of the work carried out, the main factors of the frontier nature of the modern Cossacks, their socio-cultural features of development in the environ-ment of the Russian border area, which developed after the collapse of the USSR, were studied. The Cossacks of the South of Russia have a long history of formation, due to their presence in the frontier environment, at the junction of civilizations, peoples, and cultures. Being between Orthodoxy and Islam, the Slavic and Turanian worlds, in a zone of constant tension and military conflicts, the Cossacks received in their socio-cultural code distinctive features, opportunities for stabilizing the habitat, reducing conflict with neighbors. Constant contact with representatives of other peoples, other countries is also reflected at the pre-sent stage of Cossack development. As a result, the author comes to the conclusion that the view of modern Cossack scholars on the very factor of the Cossacks-frontiersmen has to be revised in order to form a state policy towards the Russian Cossacks.