The downfall of tsarism in 1917 left the peoples of Russia facing an uncertain future. Nowhere were those anxieties felt more than among the Cossacks. The steppe horsemen had famously guarded the empire’s frontiers, stampeded demonstrators in its cities, suppressed peasant revolts in the countryside and served as bodyguards to its rulers. Their way of life, intricately bound to the old order, seemed imperiled by the revolution and especially by the Bolshevik seizure of power. Many Cossacks took up arms against the Soviet regime, providing the anticommunist cause with some of its best warriors—as well as its most notorious bandits. This book chronicles their decades-long campaign against the Bolsheviks, from the tumultuous days of the Russian Civil War through the doldrums of foreign exile and finally to their fateful collaboration with the Third Reich.

Brent Mueggenberg is a purchasing manager and lives in Lake View, Iowa.

Brent Mueggenberg

Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 351
Bibliographic Info: 7 photos, maps, glossary, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2019
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7948-8
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3802-7
Imprint: McFarland

Preface 1
Introduction 5
1—Mobilization 21
2—Upheaval 31
3—Vacillation 50
4—Resurgence 64
5—Backwater 88
6—Rampage 113
7—Debacle 130
8—Retreat 142
9—Flight 156
10—Exile 170
11—Collaboration 190
12—Repression 206
13—Invasion 224
14—Regroup 243
15—Catastrophe 252
16—Repatriation 269
Epilogue 287
Glossary of Terms, Acronyms and Abbreviations 301
Chapter Notes 305
Bibliography 335
Index 341