Cossack

People of southern and southwestern Russia, Ukraine, and Poland, predominantly of Russian or Ukrainian origin, who took in escaped serfs and lived in independent communal settlements (military brotherhoods) from the 15th to the 19th century. Later they held land in return for military service in the cavalry under Russian and Polish rulers. After 1917, the various Cossack communities were incorporated into the Soviet administrative and collective system.

There are many Cossack settlements in the northern Caucasus. Cossack movements demand the restoration of their traditional military role (granted in part by a 1993 decree) and collective ownership of land.