TWO TYPES OF INDIVIDUAL ARMED COMBAT OF THE KUBAN COSSACKS BEFORE WORLD WAR I: REASONS, CONTENT AND ESSENCE

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to reveal the reasons for the existence and content of two types of individual armed combat of the Kuban Cossacks before World War I and to identify the differences of their distribution and significance in the Cossack environment. The methodology of the study is based on the basic principles of historical knowledge (science, historicism, systematic, etc.), associated with the use of a number of general and special-historical methods (the most important were the comparative and typological ones and author's approach to the reproduction and reconstruction of the Cossack individual armed combat. The scientific novelty is that for the first time, on the basis of little-known sources (in particular, unpublished materials of the archival institutions), the reasons for the appearance and the essence of two types of individual armed combat of the Kuban Cossacks that existed at the beginning of the XXth century have been determined, as well as the differences in their distribution in the Cossack environment and the consequences of this process have been analyzed. The Conclusions. At the beginning of the XXth century among the Kuban Cossacks there were two types of individual armed combat due to the traditional division into cavalry and infantry, inherited from previous Ukrainian Cossack formations, and due to new conditions of armed struggle and imperial unification of military training. We mean, first of all, a good use of sabers and rifles by the Cossack cavalrymen, and by the Cossack infantrymen – rifles and bayonets during combat. The Cossacks achieved a high level of a combat skill owing to a long-term training during service and owing to their own militarized environment. The methods of using cold weapons became the basis for the emergence of Cossack martial art (a military-applied fencing using a saber and a bayonet). The individual armed combat of the infantrymen during that time reality was inferior to cavalrymen, but it was a striking manifestation of the identity of the Kuban Cossacks. Under new conditions the individual armed combat of the infantrymen had prospects for a further development. In the future, it is appropriate to continue investigating the individual armed combat of the Kuban Cossacks during World War I and the Revolution