The Ural Cossacks in World War I and the Civil War: a Demographic Aspect

Abstract

The article is devoted to the Ural Cossacks’ demography in the first half of the XX century. The major focus is given to the periods of World War I and the Civil War as well as to the post-war years as the most significant changes in the Ural Cossacks’ demography took place at this time. Starting from 1914 the Ural Cossacks were drawn into the hardest demographic catastrophe, resulting from a sequence of politico-military and social conflicts. The catastrophe had led to a virtually complete disappearance of this social group. The article dwells on the analysis of the whole complex of social and natural factors, which influenced the Ural Cossacks’ demography in 1914 – 1922. During World War I the Ural Cossacks suffered relatively few losses. As for the Civil War, the losses of the Cossacks were significant, especially during the final stage when the front line was on the territory of the Ural Cossacks’ Host and the civil population started suffering from the losses. The Cossacks’ housekeeping economy also bore damages. This seriously effected the Cossacks’ demography. However, the post-war period, when the Cossacks’ population was influenced by a whole set of negative factors, such as political and economical repressions, drought, crop failure, and epidemic, was the period of major losses for the Ural Cossacks. It was the post-war time when, having born huge demographic losses, the Ural Cossacks stopped their existence as a social group. Thus, the death of the Ural Cossacks at the beginning of the XX century was a result of a whole set of negative factors, connected, first and foremost, with home policy processes.