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Feature: Cossack schools spread to revive ancient culture

Warrior horsemen who once struck fear into the hearts of nomads and czars alike, Russia's Cossacks are looking to seize power again -- this time through peaceful means.

In newly opened schools scattered across their historic homeland in Russia's south, young Cossacks are learning spectacular horse riding and sword fighting techniques in an attempt to revive a culture smothered by decades of Bolshevik repression.

"We did not succeed in seizing power in our traditional homeland when we had the chance" after the Soviet collapse, said Colonel Yury Dyakov, a top official in the Don Cossack leadership.

"Today we have another objective, to create an elite cadre to claim political power through civilized means," he said.

Emerging in the southern steppe in the 16th century, the Cossacks were former slaves who turned to militarism to survive on the Russian frontier.

Developing into armed groups who served the czars in colonizing Siberia and the Far East, the Cossacks were later crushed as counterrevolutionaries by the Bolsheviks after the 1917 Revolution.

Today there are officially 600,000 Cossacks in Russia -- spread across their traditional lands along the Volga, Dnepr and Terek rivers and in the Ural mountains -- although their leaders claim there are 10 times more.

The Don Cossacks alone boast 150,000 members, and a Cossack leader, or ataman, is deputy to the governor of the surrounding Rostov region.

To shore up their ancient culture, the Cossacks have opened six schools in the Rostov area since 1991 to hone a new generation of warriors. Some 1,500 boys aged 10 to 17 attend.

The corridors of the Alexander III school in Novocherkassk are again teeming with young Cossacks after an earlier generation of students was sent into exile 80 years ago.

Today the uniformed boarders wake at 6:30am and file to the canteen for a prayer and a modest breakfast.

"We prepare these young people to serve the state and the fatherland. Our objective is to form Russia's future elite," said principal Yury Fileyev, a former officer.

In addition to the ordinary Russian curriculum, the 300 boys study Cossack culture, Orthodox religion and the legendary riding and weapons skills of their forefathers.

"When I am older, I will become a soldier and defend my motherland," said Pasha Fyodorov, 13, who like many of his schoolmates hopes to continue in a military university.

Entry to the Cossack schools is tough, with as many as 10 boys competing for each place in a battery of physical and personality tests.

When they graduate, many follow their czarist ancestors in serving the government in Moscow.

Some 1,200 Don Cossacks are involved in law enforcement in Rostov region, after a 2005 federal law provided the legal foundation for their service in the army and police force, said Dyakov, senior Don Cossack official for military liaisons.

"Our men also serve in the special forces, the Northern and Black Sea fleets and in the presidential regiment in Moscow," he said.

Alongside the Cossack tradition of service to the state is a reputation for brutality they earned while fighting ethnic minorities on Russia's borders.

After the Soviet collapse, Cossack volunteers reclaimed their military heritage, fighting alongside pro-Russian separatists in Moldova's Transdnestr and Georgia's Abkhazia and Ossetia regions, as well as battling the independence movement in the Russian province of Chechnya.

There is no ethnic requirement to enter the Cossack academy, but those recruited are expected to be Orthodox believers, Dyakov said, noting that there was a group of Cossacks in his region from Armenia, an Orthodox ally of Russia.

Over the years the Cossacks have occasionally challenged the leadership in Moscow, with some Cossack regiments rebelling against Nicholas II in 1917.

Today's Don Cossacks are clear about where their allegiance lies.

"We work closely with United Russia," the fiercely pro-Kremlin party of power, said Igor Kazarezov, deputy to the region's top ataman, as a large photograph of Russian President Vladimir Putin loomed above him.

"We support the policies of President Putin," he said.
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