Saber sheathed at her side, greatcoat over her shoulders, Yulia Tkachenko patrols the forest with 10 of her men, dressed in the red and black uniforms of the Cossack.
To an outsider it might seem a strange sight. However, Tkachenko, the only woman ataman, or leader of the legendary warriors, sees nothing incongruous in her role.
“Today, the men are a bit weak,” she says. “They are helpless ... the women are stronger. Maybe not physically, but morally certainly, we are the stronger.”
Tkachenko, a small, gray-eyed woman of 66, is dwarfed by the Cossack troops under her command, each one of whom is at least a good head taller.
However, there is no doubt who is in charge, for it is she who issues the orders assigning each team the territory they are to patrol.
Tkachenko and her men help ensure security in the Alexandrov region, about 100km from Moscow. Working alongside the local police and fire services, they patrol the region on a purely voluntary basis.
“We want our Russia to be strong and it is the role of the Cossacks to help get the country back on its feet,” she says.
The Cossacks were originally warriors in the service of the czar.
Crushed as counter-revolutionaries by the Bolsheviks after the 1917 Revolution, they were persecuted during the Soviet era.
However, in the post-Soviet era, the Cossacks have enjoyed a resurgence of the culture. Today, 740,000 people are recorded as Cossacks in Russia, official statistics show.
About 10 years ago, Tkachenko decided to revive the Cossack community in the Alexandrov region. She mobilized the youth and registered the Cossack presence with the authorities in Moscow.
It was this activism that earned her current position at the head of the 320-strong Cossack troop.
“Yulia Pasalkovna is our mother,” says Vladimir Stukatchov, referring to Tkachenko by her patronymic, the name derived from her father.
“She tells us to do this or that and we obey her with pleasure. It’s not like a chief who gives orders, it’s more like a mother who asks,” the 50-year-old Cossack says.
“Yulia, she’s our Russian Joan of Arc,” he adds.
However, not everyone has accepted her election as head of the troop.
The Cossacks are traditionalists: their values are church, family and country.
One local cossack, Valentin Gusev, who runs a garage in Alexandrov, does not approve of Tkachenko’s status.
“It’s not good that a woman is ataman. There are rules,” he says. “You must not break with the traditions.”
Tkachenko is aware of the hostility among some sections of the community: She says she has even received threats.
“I’m not afraid,” she says. “I’m brave. You only die once, that’s why I’m not afraid of death. I will fight to the end to accomplish my mission.”
She is determined to be worthy of her origins, which according to family legend has her as a descendant of Yermak, one of the most famous Cossack chiefs whose exploits include the conquest of Siberia.
After a hard day’s patrolling, Tkachenko goes home, exchanges her uniform for a dress and applies a little lipstick.
“Out there, I am ataman, I have my uniform and I go to fight,” she says. “But once I come home from combat to the house, I am a woman. I go to the stable, I milk my cow, I get the food ready and I am there for my family.”
As she speaks, she is already preparing a meal of veal liver pastries for her son, her husband and any of the Cossacks who regularly come and eat with them.
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