HISTORICAL NOTES ON THE ORENBURG COSSACK HOST
Compiled by Colonel P. I. Avdeev.
Advisor, Host Economic Administration.
1873.
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Manuscript presented to the Host by the author’s heiress,
Vera Mikhailovna Polozova.
Published by the Orenburg Cossack Host, 1904. Orenburg.
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[Istoricheskaya zapiska ob Orenburgskom Kazach’em Voiske. Translated by Mark Conrad, 1993 & 2005.]
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CONTENTS
The state of the Orenburg territory up to the organization
of the Orenburg Cossack Host.
Cossacks Arrive in the Territory
Immediate reasons for building the town of
Orenburg
The building of the town of Orenburg
Unification of the territory’s cossacks into
one Orenburg host
1755 organization table for the host and administrative measures
taken up to 1803.
1798–1803
Establishment Table of 1803 and further organization of the
Host to 1840
Polozhenie of 12 December 1840, and the organization of the
Host to 1865
Later organization of the Host, with changes in its
administration by the Polozhenie of May 1865
Territory of the Host
Host finances and their allocation
Material condition of the Host inhabitants
Educational resources in the Host and their
development
Host population and numbers on active
service
Host participation in military operations
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Colonel P. Avdeev’s historical notes are printed at the direction of the Orenburg Cossack Host’s Government Ataman, Lieutenant General Ya.F. Barabash. It was edited by the host’s chief of staff, Major General Baron F.F. Taube, with the active participation of Colonel V.N. Polozov. The notes are the property of the late Colonel Avdeev’s widow, V.M. Polozova, and she placed them at the disposition of the Orenburg Host.
These notes, prepared as long ago as 1873, were for various reasons not printed as an individual publication until the present time, and existed only in manuscript form. During that time it served as the basis for several works on the history of the Orenburg Cossack Host.
P. Avdeev’s historical notes were the first of the number of works on the history of the Orenburg Cossack Host and based mainly on information that the author was able to collect in the Host Archives, with which he became very familiar during the many years he served in the Host Economic Administration [Voiskovoe Khozyaistvennoe Pravlenie]. Some incompleteness in the work is explained by the fact that the host archives were almost the only source used. There is uneven analysis over the covered time period; in some places there are significant problems and no overall explanation of incidents in the Orenburg Host in connection with larger outside events of the era.
Nevertheless, the Host command decided to publish Colonel Avdeev’s notes because of its many undoubted qualities, of which first of all must be the documented description of the gradual development of the Orenburg Cossack Host, in particular beginning with the reign of Empress Catherine II.
There is no doubt that this, the first work on the history of the Orenburg Cossack Host to be written, will occupy an honored place among other works to follow that will naturally be more complete and consider more of the historical background of events.
In writing this historical account of the Orenburg Cossack Host the following material was used:
1) Complete Collection of Laws [Polnoe Sobranie Zakonov].
2) Documents in the Host archive.
3) Karamzin’s Istoriya Rossiiskago gosudarstva.
4) Rychkov’s Topografiya Orenburgskago kraya.
5) The journal Voennyi Sbornik from the years 1863 through 1873.
6) Historical articles in Vestnik Yevropy from the years 1870 and
1871 and in Russkii Vestnik from 1872.
7) Pushkin’s Istoriya Pugachevskago bunta.
8) Lists of settled places in the Russian empire, drawn up by the Ministry
of Internal Affairs’ Central Committee, for Orenburg and Samara
provinces.
9) Permskii Sbornik, book I, 1859 edition.
10) Traditional lore and stories from eyewitnesses.
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The state of the Orenburg territory up to the organization of the Orenburg Cossack Host.
The organization of the Orenburg Cossack Host is closely connected with the history of the Orenburg territory, and it was the fate of the cossacks to play a large role in that region’s development. Therefore it is necessary to look at the situation of the territory before it began to be organized.
In the beginning of the sixteenth century Bashkirs occupied most of the Orenburg territory, part of the Omsk, Verkhneural’sk, and Chelyabinsk districts, all of the Troitsk District as well as the Shadrinsk, Yekaterinburg, and Krasnoufimsk districts of Perm Province, and most of Ufa Province and part of Samara Province. To the southeast of the Bashkirs roamed the Kirgiz [Kazakhs-M.C.] who at that time were much stronger and occupied what is now the Turkestan region. To the south, between the Ural and Volga rivers, were the nomadic remnants of the Great Tatar Horde. Raids by the Kirgiz on one side and the growing power of the Muscovite tsar on the other, along with continuous internal quarrels, weakened the Bashkirs and forced them to voluntarily recognize the suzerainty of Muscovy, so that as early as 1557 they brought yasak tribute to Kazan. But the long distance to Kazan was very inconvenient for the Bashkirs and they asked that a town be built among them, to which they would be able to bring their tribute and, if necessary, in which they could take refuge from Kirgiz attacks. In response, the town of Ufa was founded in 1574 and the town of Samara was built at almost the same time, with Birsk and Menzelinsk following close behind. Although the Bashkirs acknowledged the suzerainty of the Muscovite tsar, their constant revolts, as well as raids by Kirgiz and Kalmyks from the south that sometimes penetrated as far as the Kama, caused the Trans-Kama Line [Zakamskaya liniya] to be built as a barrier against these attacks. The Trans-Kama Line consisted of a ditch and rampart with guard posts. Its construction was begun under Tsar Michael Feodorovich and continued under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. This line ran from Ufa southwest to the present-day site of Stavropol and included Ufa, Birsk, Menzelinsk, and the forts of Nagaibatsk and Yel’dyatsk. But Bashkir revolts still did not stop. They took in various fugitive heterodox Muslims and idolaters and grew in strength so much that they began to think of completely throwing off allegiance to Russia and establish their own autonomy, and so the revolts continued for many years. Before the establishment of the Orenburg Commission, the most significant Bashkir uprisings were those of Seitov (1662-1683), which coincided with Stenka Razin’s revolt, and Aldarov (1704-1708). The rebels marched on Ufa, Birsk, and Menzelinsk, and reached Verkhotur, Tyumen, and Kungur. They penetrated Kazan district and in the last named revolt came within 20 miles of Kazan itself, pillaging and burning villages and killing and kidnapping the inhabitants.
Emperor Peter I foresaw the importance of strengthening Russian control in the Orenburg territory in order to develop trade with Central Asia but was unable to devote time to this, being preoccupied with affairs in the empire’s northwest. Thus it was decided to settle Aldarov’s revolt by concessions and in 1708 a full amnesty was announced for the rebels. In 1728 the authorities in Kazan and the Solikamsk and Ufa districts reported the intention of the Bashkirs to attack Russian towns in alliance with the Kalmyks and other steppe nomads. Therefore orders were sent to Kazan, Siberia, and the Solikamsk and Ufa districts to encircle towns and settlements with palisades as much as possible and refurbish old fortifications. It was also ordered to build alarm towers in Ufa district and Siberia. These were to be built on high ground and placed at intervals so that each could see its neighbor’s signal fire when lit. These precautions were not for nothing, since the Bashkirs did rise up in revolt and in 1732 even besieged Ufa. The attacks by the Bashkirs, Kirgiz, and Kalmyks who penetrated Kazan Province showed that the old Trans-Kama Line was not a reliable defense, and so in 1731 it was ordered to begin construction of a new Trans-Kama line. It was to run from the suburb of Alekseevsk, built under Peter I some 15 miles from the town of Samara, through Sergievsk to the border of Kazan Province and the Kichui Stream, and there join the old Trans-Kama Line. Work on the line began in the following year of 1732. It consisted of a ditch with rampart and fortified posts. The work was done by the inhabitants of the settlements beyond the Kama in what was at that time part of Kazan Province, for whose protection, in the words of the Highest Ukase, the line was being built. They were each paid 20 altyns [1 altyn = 3 kopecks] a month for their labor. The following forts were built: Kondurchinsk, Chereshansk, Krasnyi-Yar, Sheshminsk, and Kichuisk, in which were settled the Alekseevsk, Sergievsk, Shauminsk, and Bilyarsk Land Militia Regiments. These units were charged with protecting the line, and to man them there were established the following land-militia settlements: Krivolutsk, Kinel-Cherkassk, Savrushsk, Sarbaisk, and Amansk. Thus the old and new Trans-Kama lines contained Bashkiria from the northwest and west, but it was open from the south and east, enabling Kalmyk and Kirgiz raids on the Bashkirs as well as joint attacks by all three on Russian towns and settlements.
Soon after the construction of the new Trans-Kama Line one of Kalmyk Khan Ayuka’s grandsons, who had accepted baptism under the name of Prince Petr Taishin, felt ill-treated by his relatives in regard to his inheritance and appeared in St. Petersburg to agitate for the restoration of the ulus [native villages] that had been taken from him. He also asked to be given all Kalmyks who embraced Christianity and permission to build them a town in a suitable location. After Prince Petr Taishin died, his widow, Princess Anna Taishina, continued his petitions. In response a site on the upper reaches of the Ik River was chosen for settling Princess Taishina with her Kalmyks, then another one on the Tok River, and finally in 1738 a place between the new Trans-Kama Line and the Volga River, on a tributary of which (called the Kun’ya-Volozhkaya and which was a favorite refuge for bandit gangs) the town of Stavropol was founded. These Kalmyks settlers became the basis of the Stavropol Kalmyk Host that existed until 1842 when a Highest Order joined it to the Orenburg Cossack Host and resettled it on lands that had been given to the latter.
Cossacks Arrive in the Territory.
This was the situation of the Orenburg territory at time it was first organized in the 1730’s. When cossacks first settled in the Orenburg territory and from whence they came-there is no definite information. But it may be supposed that their appearance dates from the sixteenth century when cossacks were already living along the Volga and even had small towns there, and when the Don freebooters, who had lived by robbery and raiding on the Volga, were fleeing from the bloody reign of Ivan the Terrible and in general the unsatisfactory order of things in Muscovy. The cossacks increased in strength to such an extent that the government found it necessary to sent soldiers under stolnik Ivan Murashkin to force the wandering robber bands to scatter in all directions: some to Siberia, others to the Terek, and some to the Yaik (the Ural River). These cossacks were usually the first colonizers. They always occupied the edges of Russian suzerainty, moving onward when their territory had been tamed and order installed. Therefore there is no doubt that after the conquest of Kazan and the expansion of Muscovy to the east cossacks also appeared on the new frontiers, especially when towns like Ufa, Samara, Birsk, and Menzelinsk began to be built here. That cossacks were present when Samara was first founded is evident from a 1630 petition for land by sotniks Shilov and Slavinov who with their comrades wrote, “in past years the town of Samara was built and in it were settled military personnel, nobles, lesser boyar gentry, foreigners, Polish nobles, horse cossacks, and foot soldiers, and the town had land to be given to these persons.” In regard to this petition, we must explain that in former times cossacks were considered by law to be “military service personnel.” In 1697 stolniks Gotovtsev and Skryabin were sent to various towns and districts, including Samara to force streltsy and cossack settlements to return runaway peasants, Mordvins, and Tatars to their own towns and villages. And among the treaty articles concluded by the boyar Prince Boris Golitsyn with Kalmyk Khan Ayuka was language referring to “sending Government ukases to Ufa, to the Yaik, and to Don settlements ordering that the cossacks and Bashkirs have no strife or quarrels of any kind with them (the Kalmyks) and live in peace, and fulfill this command upon pain of death.” From these official documents it is clear that cossack settlements were already around Samara and Ufa at the end of the seventeenth century, and that not only were they known to the government, but also to the steppe nomads who inevitably clashed with them. At this time there was no overall name for the cossacks in this territory, and they were called after the locale in which they lived, either Samara or Ufa cossacks. The first was counted at 487 persons in 1734, but this number included only 332 actual cossacks, the rest being various nobles, foreigners, youths, and soldiers. In this same year the number of Samara cossacks was increased and they were given a regulation organization by which they were divided into four companies: one noble and the others of cossacks. The noble company was commanded by Rotmistr Maksimovskii, and the cossack companies, under the name of Samara and Alekseevsk, lived in the Alekseevsk suburb with Sotnik Ivan Chernov as their ataman. They were all authorized the same pay as men in the land militia, and for better administration they were placed under the management of militia regimental commanders. The cossack companies were given four flags from the main commissariat, and in the following year of 1735 the noble company was given two flags from those kept in Moscow, “like those issued to the cossacks.” There is no positive information on how many Ufa cossacks there were at this time, but judging from the fact that in 1732 when the town of Ufa was being fortified the War Collegium ordered that of the soldiers and cossacks in the garrison there a thousand of each were to be sent in alternate turns to perform labor duties, it may be concluded that by that time the number of Ufa cossacks was sufficient. Such a conclusion is further confirmed by the fact that in 1735 State Counselor Kirilov found he was able to take 350 cossacks with him when marching from Ufa to the Ural River to establish Orenburg, and this was when Ufa itself was threatened by rebel Bashkirs. The Ufa cossacks were also given a flag and two emblems [znachki], but when they were issued is unknown since documents about them were lost either during the Pugachev revolt or in one of the several fires that periodically burned through Ufa. In 1832 the flag and emblems were taken to the host chancellery for safekeeping, at which time old cossacks commented that the flag and emblems had been issued before 1792.
Besides the Samara and Ufa cossacks, in the Orenburg territory there were also the Iset cossacks, so called from their dwelling in the former Iset province. There is no information as to when cossacks settled in that province, but it must be supposed that when the Chelyabinsk fortress was built in 1658 cossacks must have been settled in it and its environs. This fortress, built to protect settlements along the Iset River, was formerly under the Siberia government, to which also belonged present-day Perm Province, and in the latter the military presence mainly consisted of streltsy and cossacks. At the end of the sixteenth century these cossacks had Pinaya Stepanov as their ataman, who was one of the cossack atamans who had served in Siberia after Yermakov’s conquest and had been summoned by the Stroganov’s, leading figures in the Perm region. Therefore there is no doubt that the Iset cossacks owe their origins to the same famous wave of Don cossacks that with Yermak conquered Siberia and formed the Siberian cossacks. Later, in 1736 when new forts were being built in the Orenburg territory, it was ordered to accept up to one thousand volunteers from cossacks and free gentry in nearby Siberian towns who were not subject to the soul tax to join the Iset cossacks.
Thus, there is sufficient basis to date the appearance of cossacks in the Orenburg territory to the end of the sixteenth century and consider them the heirs of the Don cossack wave driven from the Volga by stolnik Murashkin.
With the building of the town of Orenburg the cossacks were collectively referred to as the Orenburg cossacks but they officially received this title only in 1748 when their first host ataman was named—Vasilii Mogutov, to whom were assigned a host captain [voiskovoi yesaul] and host clerk [voiskovoi pisar’] to help in administration. These three persons comprised the host “hut” [izba] or chancellery that conducted host business. It follows that the Orenburg Host was formed from the Samara, Ufa, and Iset cossacks-all descendents of Don cossacks. To this cossack core were joined Yaik cossacks, nobles, Smolensk gentry [smolenskie shlyakhtichi], cossack descendents from Siberian towns, streltsy, retired soldiers and dragoons, Little-Russians [malorosskie cherkasy], run-away estate peasants, peasants from Siberian frontier settlements who were already used to resorting to arms to defend against Bashkir and Kirgiz raids, newly baptized Meshcheryaks and Nagaibaks who distinguished themselves by their loyalty and service during the Bashkir revolt of 1732-1740, Tatars in military service, baptized Kalmyks, exiles, and even foreigners. In the cossack muster rolls of past years one not only encounters Polish names, but also German ones such as Becker and Schreider. And even today some cossacks hold traditional memories of descent from streltsy.
The immediate reasons for building the town of Orenburg.
In 1731 the khan of the Lesser Kirgiz Horde, Abdul-Khair, whose people roamed the region between the Aral Sea and the Ural River to the north of the Emba River, and who was pressed by constant Bashkir raids from the north and attacks by the Zyungorsk Kalmyk chieftains from the south, decided to accept Russian suzerainty and try to persuade the khans of the Karakalpak and Great Kirgiz Hordes to do likewise. This event led to State Counselor and ober-sekretar Ivan Kirilov drafting measures to take to establish Russian control over the Kirgiz and in general develop the region this side of the Ural. Empress Anna Ioannovna confirmed the plans on 31 May 1734 and charged Kirilov himself with carrying them out. Colonel Murza Aleksei Tevkelev was assigned to help Kirilov, as he had played a significant part in negotiating with Khan Abdul-Khair to bring the Kirgiz under Russian suzerainty.
The building of the town of Orenburg; constructing the Samara, Orenburg, and Ui lines, and the part played by cossacks.
The plan chosen to create the Orenburg territory and establish Russian control was very successful. Forts were to be built along the southern and eastern borders of Bashkiria and thus obtain three important goals: turbulent Bashkirs would be confined by lines of forts on all sides; Bashkirs would be cut off from communication with the Kirgiz of the trans-Ural steppe; and lastly, it would be easier to keep watch on Kirgiz movements, of whom the Middle Horde had still not recognized Russian authority. In 1733 that horde had intended to attack the Bashkirs and to that end about twenty thousand men had been gathered, but the assault had been warded off only by timely intelligence from Khan Abdul-Khair. State Counselor Kirilov was ordered to establish a town at the mouth of the Or’ River and call it Orenburg. To perform the work he was to draft as many Teptyars and bobyli [lower class peasants] as needed. To initially occupy the town Kirilov was told to transfer half of a regiment from the Ufa garrison and one or two regiments from the Kazan garrison. Also to be taken from Ufa were half of the noble companies. Ufa and Menzelinsk cossacks and youths were also made available, and as many Yaik and Sakmak cossacks were to be levied as possible, which was to be coordinated with the Yaik host ataman. All the military personnel, regulars as well as irregulars, were allowed to be used in building the town, magazines, and other construction projects. They were to be paid for their labor, the amount depending on their work. It was forbidden, however, to draft Bashkirs for labor so that “their willingness to serve would not be soured.” On 7 June 1734 Highest Authority confirmed a charter of privileges for Orenburg. Among other things, it stated that “all and every Russian citizen, merchant, craftsman, and raznochinets [person not belonging to a specific social class], as well as foreign merchants and artisans of European nations, local Bashkir, Kirgiz, and Karakalpak tribesmen, and from Asian countries Greeks, Armenians, Indians, Bukharans, Khivans, Kalmyks, and others of any status and religious faith-all are allowed to come, live, and settle, and to trade and engage in any kind of industry; also, to freely and unhindered leave and return to their former dwelling places, without any delay or hazard.” Persons wishing to come and settle were promised free plots for courtyards, warehouses, storerooms, and shops, and to be given lumber and stone on credit, to be repaid in ten years at no interest. Additionally, it was ordered that no taxes were to be collected on goods for three years, i.e. until 1738.
At the end of 1734 Kirilov arrived at Ufa with troops and a sufficient work force. Before anything else he prepared provisions and undertook the construction of a wharf on the Ural River so that he would be able to float supplies and materials to build the town on the Or’ River. The site chosen for the wharf was where now stand the district town of Verkhneural’sk and the cossack settlement of Verkhneural’skaya, and it was the first Russian settlement on the Ural River. By the time spring arrived in 1735 Kirilov was ready to march, and in April he left Ufa with 15 infantry companies, 350 cossacks, and 600 Meshcheryaks, not having availed himself of the possibility of also taking Yaik and Samara cossacks. Just six miles from the town, however, he encamped and waited for five companies of the Vologda Dragoons from the Trans-Kama Line. Having waited in vain until 15 June, Kirilov moved on even though just before starting emissaries from the Bashkir Kil’myak-Abyz arrived to warn that the Bashkirs would resist the march with all their might. Kirilov paid no attention to this warning, being misled by the Bashkirs’ expressions of readiness to send regiments to serve under him. However, while on the march he learned that the approaching companies of the Vologda Dragoons had been attacked by Bashkirs. This news forced him to reinforce the Vologda Dragoons with a detachment consisting of 3 corporal-led infantry squads [3 kapralstva pekhoty] and 200 cossacks and Meshcheryaks, but this detachment was forced to turn back by rebellious Bashkirs. So Kirilov sent a second detachment that also consisted of 3 corporal-led units of infantry but now with 300 cossacks and Meshcheryaks. The detachment joined up with the Vologda Dragoons 180 miles from Ufa and on 10 July they all arrived together at Kirilov’s location. Kirilov had now received more unpleasant news: Bashkirs had attacked the supply train coming from the Siberian settlements to the Verkhneural’sk wharf, captured and looted about 40 wagons, and were besieging the remainder at Karagaisk Lake (the site of present-day Karagaiskaya). Kirilov sent a force to rescue the supply train, but it had already been saved by Lieutenant Colonel Arsen’ev who had been sent out from the Siberian settlements. Arsen’ev safely delivered the train to the wharf. Meanwhile, Kirilov’s column, still not having reached the mouth of the Or’, ran short of provisions. Hope was placed on a supply train that was supposed to reach the Or’ River before the column, but on 6 August the column arrived at the mouth of the Or’ alone, the train having been delayed by the Bashkirs. Until its arrival the column’s personnel had to make do with horsemeat and some extra provisions for the Meshcheryaks. Finally, on 15 August the town of Orenburg was laid out, and soon afterward Kirilov went off to Ufa after sending Colonel Tevkelev to the Siberian settlements to prepare provisions, leaving Colonel Chemodurov in the new town with a strong garrison. Winter began early that year, in the beginning of September, so Colonel Tevkelev and his command reached the Siberian settlements only after great difficulties, and Kirilov’s journey to Ufa was just as hard. There were few provisions in the new town and they would only last until the middle of December. Winter set in and the supply train that had been sent did not arrive-it had been plundered by Bashkirs. To avert starvation Colonel Chemodurov, following Kirilov’s orders, sent over 800 men to the Verkhneural’sk wharf where there was a store of grain. But in three days this column had only covered 18 miles and turned back in the face of heavy frosts. About 150 men suffered frostbite and 5 had frozen to death. Colonel Chemodurov again selected 773 men, gave them provisions to last until 13 December, and sent them to follow the Ural River to the settlement of Sakmarsk. This column was even more unfortunate than the first. Over 500 men died of hunger and the freezing cold and only 200 reached Sakmarsk, of whom 80 had frozen feet and hands. These are the circumstances which accompanied the founding of Orenburg, the second Russian settlement on the Ural River and the third on the edge of Europe within the borders of present-day Orenburg Province, where in 1725 there had only been the lone Sakmarsk settlement built by Ural cossacks with the government’s permission. Sakmarsk had been built with the goal of preventing Kirgiz and Karakalpaks from entering Russian territory and reaching Samara, Alekseevsk, Sergievsk, Sheshminsk, and Ufa, to which places the cossacks were to send intelligence when they learned of the appearance of large enemy bands.
After his bitter experiences in supplying Orenburg, State Counselor Kirilov spent much time and effort in ensuring the delivery of provisions, and all the more so since the Bashkir revolt continued despite the presence of considerable numbers of troops under the command of the Kazan governor, Lieutenant General Rumyantsev. It was also despite Kirilov’s own stern measures such as in the spring of 1736 when with his own column he burned about 140 Bashkir villages. In trying to find possible ways of supplying Orenburg in the future from the direction of the Siberian settlements, State Counselor Kirilov became aware that the upper reaches of the Samara River were not far from the Ural River and the Sakmarsk settlement, and that from the latter there was a cossack track to the town of Samara. Meanwhile, on 11 February 1736, Kirilov received Highest orders directing him, among other things, to: “add another company to the one already authorized at Tabynsk, and there install serving Meshcheryaks, hunters, cossacks, and exiles to the number of 300, and give them land and privileges as for settlers at Ufa and other places in the territory. For their loyal service, newly baptized persons at Ufa are to be registered into cossack service to be carried out at Menzelinsk and other newly built towns on the upper reaches of the Iset and between Ufa and Menzelinsk. The yasak fur tribute is to be collected from them. You are to act as you judge best regarding building new settlements to secure safe passage of caravans and supply trains to Orenburg and for the necessary better control over the Bashkir and Bukhara [Trans-Ural] steppes. Regarding retired dragoons, soldiers, and sailors with free passports who wish to be in service and settle in Orenburg and other new places there: such persons, as opportunity permits, you are allowed to enroll and send to those places to settle, assigning them 30 to 45 acres of land per family, and for the journey and settlement loan them money and grain from government offices, in amounts corresponding to the distance and time until they can subsist on their own harvest. Such persons are to issued firearms and accouterments from those withdrawn from regiments or found in settlement arsenals and magazines. Regarding the settlement of light troops in Orenburg and other towns: accept volunteers from the Yaik cossacks, not to exceed 500 men. Accept cossacks from the nearest Siberian towns and lesser gentry who have not been reduced to the soul-tax population, to the number of 1000. For serving Meshcheryaks in Ufa, upon resettlement give them the same monetary amount for building homes as Volga cossacks, and afterwards for their maintenance when they are settled and ready to farm give them land and other privileges in the same way as has been done for Ufa nobles and cossacks except that in all localities Meshcheryaks are to be settled between Russians. From the frontier Siberian settlements and from the Techinsk settlement enroll volunteer peasants as cossacks to the number of 1000 and use them for patrols along the Tobol and Ishim rivers and up to the Irtysh to guard against the Zyungorsk Kalmyks and Kaisaks; draw their individual payments from Orenburg, and to replace those chosen for paid patrolling take just as many underage cossack youths who are living without providing any service.” Additionally, in 1736 the privilege of untaxed trade that had been granted in 1734 was extended for six more years. And to increase the number of Russians in the new places it was ordered to send exiles to State Counselor Kirilov instead of to Siberia. Of these exiles, those who were suitable were to be enrolled in irregular service, the others to farming, and those “who were guilty of serious crimes or were of untrustworthy behavior were to be put into tents.” Anyone in excess of needs was to be sent as before to Siberia to the state mines and works. It was also ordered that when time permitted, “soldiers and dragoons were to participate in farming and cultivation or in temporary work, and for this monthly allotments were to be issued for them, their wives, and their children.”
Using this authority, State Counselor Kirilov directed his father-in-law, naval Lieutenant Bakhmetev, to go to Simbirsk and from there immediately travel to Samara where he was to prepare everything needed to build forts. Taking an adequate force with him, he was to travel upriver on the Samara constructing forts in suitable places at intervals of 20 to 25 miles. In this way there appeared during the course of 1736 the forts of Krasnosamarsk, Mochinsk, Borsk, Yelshansk, Buzulutsk, Totsk, Sorochinsk, and Tevkelev-Brod [“Tevkelev’s Ford”], also called Novosergievsk. Kirilov himself went to Sakmarsk and built the forts of Chernorechensk and Tatishchev, at first called Kamysh-Samarskaya, on the Ural River, and Pervolotsk on the upper Samara. At the same time Kirilov issued ukases permitting cossack elder Shatsk at Sakmarsk and cossack Ivan Maslov to each recruit 200 volunteers from the Ural cossacks, Meshcheryaks and other non-Christians, and lesser gentry and established settlements, the former along the Berda River and the latter at a group of lakes. Thus appeared the forts of Berdsk and Verkhneozernaya. Kirilov’s ukases also declared that settlements would be built “beyond any Bashkir or Russian habitations” and that persons of the above named statuses, registered cossacks, and Ufa non-Christians not subject to the soul tax could settle along the Moscow road from Orenburg to Alekseevsk, and along the Siberia road up to Verkhneural’sk and Techinsk, “where suitable and satisfactory places to live are known.” It was ordered to grant not only land and all privileges “connected with subsistence, but also at the initial settlement provide loans like those for the Volga cossacks, 12 roubles for each family, and thenceforth a yearly payment for service of 5 roubles, as well as giving 5 quarters each of rye grain and oats for each person of both sexes.” The settlers were to be allowed to trade in vodka, spirits, beer, and tobacco when the proper excise taxes were paid, and charge any military or government persons of any rank, merchants, and craftsmen who were passing through an appropriate fee for lodging and hay, and for carriage and convoy services payment by the mile. It was also stipulated that heads of settlements [sadchiki] were to always have a copy of the ukases with them and leave copies wherever might be required, and they were to submit lists of recruited persons for examination and assignment to cossack status. Additionally, Shatskii and Maslov themselves were promised promotion to settlement atamans [stanichnye atamany]. In 1736 the fort of Krasnoufimsk was established (now a chief district town in Perm Province), in which new arrivals were settled as cossacks. The new forts were surrounded by a rampart and ditches, traces of which may still be seen today in some places, and by palisades and double wattle fences with their chinks stuffed with clay, or fortified by other means according to local resources and the direction of the immediate authorities. The forts were provided with cannons and garrisons of dragoons and infantry. Thanks to the preparations described above and the promised benefits, the forts appeared quickly, one after the other, and were successfully settled with cossacks and various other persons who were then also enrolled as cossacks.
In the beginning of 1737 State Counselor Kirilov died of fever. With his death the construction of forts stopped because Privy Counselor Tatishchev, named to replace Kirilov, considered the top priority to be establish administrative control in the territory and quell the ongoing Bashkir revolt. Upon arriving at the town of Menzelinsk Privy Counselor Tatishchev summoned a council consisting of the commander of troops, Major General Soimonov, the Ufa governor [voevod] Shemyakin, Colonel Bardekevich, Colonel Tevkelev, and the rest of the field-grade officers. At the council it was decided to divide the territory into two provinces: Ufa—on this side of the Ural River, and Iset—on the other side. Ufa and the Chelyabinsk fort were designated as the locations for provincial chancelleries. The territory’s main administration, which at first had been called the izvestnaya ekspeditsiya [information office] and then the Orenburg ekspeditsiya, was renamed the Orenburg Commission [Orenburgskaya Kommisiya]. At this same time the site chosen for building Orenburg was recognized as unsuitable for the government’s purposes because of the location’s remoteness and barren terrain. Therefore another site at Krasnaya Gora was chosen and a plan drawn up for re-founding the town of Orenburg there, with the administration of Orenburg territory being left in Samara until the town was actually constructed. The years 1737 and 1738 were spent in quelling the Bashkir revolt but it was not possible to reestablish order even though the rebellion’s main instigators-Kil’myak, Akai, and Yusup-were captured and sent to St. Petersburg. In 1738 Privy Counselor Tatishchev went to the mouth of the Or’ to inspect the forts being erected at the direction of his representative, and to found the fort of Guberlinsk along the way. Tatishchev stayed in Orenburg until September and established an annual trade fair there to which Tashkent merchants, Khivans, and Kirgiz were invited. He sent out the first Russian caravan, carrying goods valued at 20,000 roubles, but this caravan did not reach Tashkent, being plundered by Kirgiz of the Great Horde on the second day of the journey. At the beginning of 1739 Tatishchev was summoned to St. Petersburg and did not return. Lieutenant General Prince Urusov took his place. When he took up the administration of the territory the construction of new forts resumed its previous pace. In 1739 there were built: Karagaisk on Lake Karagai, Uisk and Stepnaya on the Ui River; Petropavlovsk on the Kidysh River, Chebarkul’sk on Lake Chebarkul, Miyassk on the Miyass, and Yetkul’sk on Lake Yetkul. In the following year of 1740 preparations were made to build the town of Orenburg at Krasnaya Gora and in 1741 actual construction started. The old settlement on the mouth of the Or’ River was renamed Orsk. At the same time operations to suppress the Bashkir revolt continued, to which end in May of 1739 about 6000 regular and irregular troops arrived at Orenburg with Prince Urusov. They set up a camp on the upper Sakmara at Lake Talkas, from which probes into Bashkiria were made until the end of July. However, a full restoration of order and peace between the rebellious Bashkirs were only achieved in 1740 thanks to energetic measures taken in that year by Prince Urusov and General Soimonov.
Therefore the Bashkir revolt, preparations for which were begun as early as 1728 and which opened with an attack on Ufa, lasted almost nine years until the Samara, Orenburg, and Ui lines were completed with their forts and military garrisons of cossack settlers. The core of these were the Samara, Ufa, and Iset cossacks, reinforced by volunteers from the Yaik and Siberian cossacks, lesser gentry, descendents of cossacks, newly baptized natives from Ufa, non-Christians, and peasants from Siberian frontier villages and the Techensk settlement, as well as retired dragoons, soldiers, and sailors. In this way cossack settlements in the new lines undoubtedly played an important role in suppressing the Bashkir revolt of 1732-1740, especially considering that after this revolt there was only one more Bashkir uprising, instigated by the Meshcheryak mulla Batyrsha Aleev in 1755 and which was put down that same year with no special effort and with the participation of the Orenburg Cossack Host. Previously Bashkir revolts had always lasted for several years and their suppression required much effort and sacrifice on the part of the government. According to Rychkov, the well-known expert on the Orenburg territory who lived there around that time, this was because the Bashkirs were so strong that they thought they could even throw off Russian suzerainty completely. That the Bashkirs really were powerful can best be seen from their many and repeated revolts and how long they lasted. And just how much the Bashkirs were unreliable subjects can be seen from how hostages [amanty] had to be taken from them, and how in 1728 people dwelling on the border of Bashkiria were ordered to “have any kind of firearm they could get, and during spring and summer when going to work in the fields, set out in large groups carrying weapons and set out guards for defense so that they do not fall into enemy hands by surprise, since these evil-doers habitually fall upon small parties of workers and take them captive.” Additionally, it was not only forbidden for Bashkirs, Teptyars, and lower class peasants [bobyli] to carry firearms, ride with them, or keep them in their homes, it was prescribed: “not to have smiths, either male or female, in Ufa District or Bashkir localities, and not to allow smiths or workers of cold metal [nasekal’shchiki] outside towns, having them only inside towns, and only of the number necessary without any surplus; anyone needing plows, scythes, or horse bits may buy and trade them in the towns.” It was also ordered that “firearms, gunpowder, lead, armor, swords, bows, spears, and arrows may not be brought in from other districts, nor sold or traded, which governors [voevody] are to especially alert in preventing and punish violators in accordance with the laws.”
In July of 1741 Prince Urusov died from plague and General Soimonov, commander of troops in the territory, took over as head of the administration. Soimonov spent all of his time in recriminations with vice-governor Aksakov and in settling complaints by the Bashkirs, until in 1742 Privy Counselor Neplyuev was appointed head of the Orenburg territory. This was a man to whose administration the territory would owe much.
Earlier, in 1739, Empress Anna Ioannovna at Privy Counselor Tatishchev’s suggestion ordered that land-militia regiments be resettled from the Trans-Kama Line. Prince Urusov proposed settling them along the Sakmara River starting at its upper reaches. To this end he designated ten places for settlements where the land-militia regiments, protected by forts along the Ural, could engage in farming and agriculture. However, Privy Counselor Neplyuev considered these settlements unnecessary and in June of 1742, upon arriving in Orenburg, he sent Lieutenant Colonel Budkevich of the Shatsminsk Land-Militia Dragoon Regiment [Shatskminskii landmilitskii dragunskii polk] from the Pervolotsk fort to the Sakmara River to obtain timber for only two sites. It was at these that in September of that year the Prechistensk and Vozdvizhensk forts were established. In these two forts were settled the entire Shatsminsk Land-Militia Dragoon Regiment and two companies of the Alekseevsk Land-Militia Regiment. The rest of the dragoon and infantry land-militia regiments were distributed among the forts of the Samara and Orenburg lines. The Shatsminsk Regiment was settled in only two places, one not far from the other and only 30 miles from Orenburg. This was so that if necessary the regiment could muster quickly and be used as a reserve. At the same time the Razsypnaya fort was established, in which about one hundred Little-Russian families were to be settled in accordance with ukases of 1739 and 1740. To recruit them, Captain Kachalov of the Alekseevsk Land-Militia Regiment was sent to Little Russia where he accepted 209 families as cossacks. However, they turned out to be unsuited for cossack service, as in 1743 Kirgiz took 82 men and women captive from the Razsypnaya fort as they were harvesting grain. After this devastating blow, the Little Russians who had been resettled in Razsypnaya as well as at the Tatishchev and Chernorechensk forts did not want to live in those places and were let go, some to the Kinel’ River inside the line and others back to Little Russia.
Unification of the territory’s cossacks into one Orenburg host and its role in defending the line.
After arriving in Orenburg, Privy Counselor Neplyuev recognized that the site at Krasnaya Gora was not suitable for the development of a large town. In counsel with the field-grade officers most knowledgeable about the territory he chose a new site at the Berdsk fort. His proposal was confirmed by Highest Authority on 15 October, and in 1743 General Shtokman founded for the last time the town of Orenburg, at its present-day site. The Berdsk fort was relocated to the Sakmara River where the hamlet of Berdsk is now. The Krasnogorsk fort was built at Krasnaya Gora where a town had been laid down in 1741, but work had proceeded so slowly that in 1742 only a ditch had been dug, and that only for a length of 900 yards. In the same year of 1743 550 cossacks transferred from Ufa and Samara were settled in a special suburb of Orenburg. Along with the Berdsk cossacks they made up the Orenburg irregular corps [Orenburgskii neregulyarnyi korpus]. The other cossacks were called “Orenburg Province irregulars” [neregulyarnye lyudi Orenburgskoi gubernii]. To replace the cossacks transferred from Samara to Orenburg, the former received 100 persons from the cossack population of the Mochinsk settlement. Additional forts were built: Tanalytsk, Urtazymsk, Kizil’sk, and Magnitnaya on the Ural River; Ust’uisk, Krutoyarsk, Karakul’sk, and Troitsk (now a district center) on the Ui River. With the construction of these forts the line’s extension was complete, and Russian control was so firmly established in the territory that it was recognized as useful to form a province [guberniya] there. This was done by a ukase signed by Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, and Privy Counselor Neplyuev was appointed as the first governor. Placed under the new Orenburg Province’s administration were all the forts built under the Orenburg Commission and all regular and irregular troops in them, Iset and Ufa provincial districts, and all Bashkir affairs, the Kirgiz people, and frontier affairs.
Privy Counselor Neplyuev constantly worked to put the cossack population on a firm footing since he recognized cossacks as the best suited for frontier defense and pursuing and punishing the Kirgiz. Thus in 1743, in response to a Highest Ukase of 3 February of that year on the return of runaway peasants with all their goods and grain to their former places of residence, using carts belonging to the landowners who were keeping them, he reported that although a ukase of 28 August 1736 stipulated that “suitable persons found wandering are to be enrolled in regular military service, with their landowners being credited with having supplied recruits, but those who are not fit for regular service are to be sent to Orenburg,” But State Counselor Kirillov had enrolled even fully fit men as cossacks. In this Kirillov had been swayed by the fact that in the new forts, “to achieve their most rapid establishment, such persons are needed no less than they are in regiments,” and that if persons enrolled as cossacks were given back to their landowners, then in the forts there would remain “only a very few persons, and the money and provisions expended in setting up these forts will have been spent for nothing, and here such irregulars are not only indispensable for all the patrols and guard duties required in frontier areas made so dangerous by robbers making sudden raids, but also as inhabitants whose farming and other pursuits can supply the needs of human subsistence.” Kirillov therefore asked that runaways already settled and registered as cossacks in the newly built forts, “who are carrying out active service, not be sent away, but rather left as they now are—cossacks.” On 27 July 1744 this was agreed to by Highest Authority. There turned out to be 2415 such men registered as cossacks, with productive households and carrying out cossack duties, and in the end they remained cossacks. But even after this Privy Counselor Neplyuev did not stop making efforts to increase the cossack population, and at every opportunity he told the government that the newly constructed forts and towns “covered the greater part of Bashkiria so that this people are now kept in apprehension and complete restraint. The Kirgiz-Kaisak hordes, in small or large bands, make frequent raids to pillage, commit outrages and every kind of villainy. These people are like the wind and cannot be caught by dragoons. Light troops [legkie lyudi] are needed. For the stated reasons, we require good cossacks here, and they cannot be poor since each one is required to have two strong horses and a good-quality firearm, sword, and lance.” He stated that well-administered irregulars were proven to be able to find and pursue any nomad band, especially in Orenburg where in the summer there were many gatherings of steppe peoples for trade and exchanges, and also in Ufa Province where the population was all non-Christian, and in Iset Province, inhabited by various natives and which included all of trans-Ural Bashkiria and the region right next to the Kirgiz Steppe. In the face of this, garrisons of dragoon and infantry regiments, “due to the character of these peoples (Bashkirs and Kirgiz) are only suitable to maintain and protect the forts. While dragoons may be used for patrols, in case of raids by marauders and exceptional outrages, they are not suitable for being sent out quickly with little preparation, since they are burdened with muskets and accouterments and entirely unable to overtake the raiders, as proven by many examples and which the Kirgiz themselves are well aware.” Additionally, an increase in the cossack population was recognized as necessary to protect the territory in case regular troops were withdrawn. At the same time, forts on the Orenburg Line were mostly at some distance from each other, and for better communications and defending the territory from various raiding parties, it was imperative to build new settlements along the line where redoubts had been constructed between the forts, and gradually populate these with cossacks.
Cossacks were used for various services in developing the line: hauling timber and building forts, transporting various official travelers, carrying mail, and providing convoys. Along with the garrison soldiers, dragoons, and land militia, they provided guard mounts in forts and above all in advance posts and pickets. They manned outposts and were on patrol day and night. Since they were acknowledged as the most capable, groups of cossacks were the ones most often sent out to pursue Kirgiz bands that had penetrated the line and not only driven off livestock, but also carried off people, sometimes in large numbers as seen in the instance related above when 82 persons were taken captive from the Razsypnaya fort in 1743. Overall, because of their small numbers cossack service in Orenburg was burdensome and difficult. They had to serve at their own expense, keep two horses and find their own clothing and weapons including lance, saber, and turok [a kind of short-barreled, smoothbore, wide-mouthed hunting firearm, akin to a shotgun - M.C.]. If necessary, in place of the turok they were to have a set of bow and arrows [saidak], which however was only authorized for cossacks of Tatar origin who could not shoot muskets accurately. Regarding release from service, it was laid down that “at all times those released must be the weakest and most disabled.” Just living was not easy, as cossacks had to always be alert and on guard, and when riding out to work in the fields they had to be armed and in large groups, and return to the fort at night. For carelessness the price was death or captivity. Even for those who were authorized some recompense, that money was not always given out in accordance with regulations. Thus, in November of 1740 Prince Urusov reported that cossacks at the town of Tabynsk had not been given their pay from the Kazan provincial chancellery since the second half of 1737. The cossacks had “constantly asked for their pay, declaring that they were continuously on patrol and other missions and performing government labor, and from lack of pay they were suffering greatly and had fallen into permanent poverty. Since the town of Tabynsk was built inside Bashkir territory itself it was an important post, but the number of cossacks there had not only not increased, but of those recruited by State Counselor Kirilov many had gone away because of lack of provisions, and there only remained the ataman, his lieutenant [yesaul], a clerk, ensign [khorunzhii], and 69 privates [ryadovye]. If those remaining are left without pay, they will also go away.” If conditions in Tabynsk, located inside the line, were so difficult for the cossacks, it may be imagined how it was for cossacks on the Orenburg Line itself where they were not allowed to leave their dwelling places except during the winter, and then only with the governor’s permission. However, in spite of the hardships of service, nowhere except at Tabynsk did cossacks desert. In 1748 their numbers were as follows: in the Orenburg Corps [Orenburgskii korpus] in Orenburg and the Berdsk fort—650; under the Orenburg administration [Orenburgskoe vedomstvo], in the forts of Orsk, Guberlinsk, Verkhneozernaya, Krasnogorsk, Chernorechensk, Tatishchev, Razsypnaya, Pervolotsk, Novosergievsk, Sorochinsk, Totsk, Buzulutsk, Yelshansk, Borsk, Krasnosamarsk, and Mochinsk—770; under the Stavropol administration, in the towns of Stavropol and Samara and the Alekseevsk suburb—250; in Ufa Province, in the town of Ufa and the Tabynsk, Krasnoufimsk, Yeldyatsk, and Nagaibatsk forts—1150; and in Iset Province, in the forts of Chelyabinsk, Miyassk, Ust’uisk, Krutoyarsk, Karakul’sk, Yetkul’sk, Koel’sk, Chebarkul’sk, Uisk, Stepnaya, Petropavlovsk, and Karagaisk—1230, for a total of 4050 men. Of these, some 1702 atamans, officers, and cossacks received pay amounting to 11,570 roubles, and the rest served without pay.
It was shown above that the creation of the Samara and Orenburg lines separating the Bashkirs from the Kirgiz and Kalmyks was an important part of the suppression of the Bashkir revolt that was especially active in 1735, and was significant for the establishment of peace and order in Bashkiria. And from the extracts we have given from Privy Counselor Neplyuev’s reports it can be seen that the settlement of a cossack population along the Orenburg Line was important for the defense and security of the inhabitants beyond the line, and in consequence for the development of agriculture and industry in the territory. Before this time there was no organized industry of any kind, but in the short time from 1745 to 1762, 15 copper and 13 iron works were built and had acquired settled populations, some having up to two hundred persons, and one had 370 peasant households. Proof of the great importance that the Orenburg Line had for the development of the territory can be seen in State Counselor Kirillov’s 1734 report to Highest Authority, in which among other things he says that the Kirgiz “until now were unfriendly and continuously sending small raiding parties to rob Kazan, Yaik, Volga, Ufa, and Siberian frontier inhabitants, and every year they drove off captives like cattle and sold them into servitude in Bukhara and Khiva; they plundered merchants’ caravans and committed every kind of outrage, of which there is no open acknowledgment, but the extent may be judged from the fact that Russian prisoners were dragged to Khiva and Bukhara where one discovers many thousands at work, not to speak of other lands where they also can be taken.” If installing a cossack population on the line had not stopped the kidnappings, it had at least reduced it to very significant degree and limited it almost exclusively to inhabitants on the lines themselves. Nevertheless, until the 1830s there was not year in which some line inhabitants were taken captive by Kirgiz, and in the host archive there are many documents on “the kidnapping of line inhabitants and on persons returned from Kirgiz captivity.” Thus, among other cases, in 1823 Yesaul Padurov (later a major general and government ataman) was wounded and taken prisoner by Kirgiz as he was traveling on official business from the Pervolotsk settlement to Tatishchevsk. He was the captive of the chieftain [batyr’] Dzhulaman and forced to herd sheep, endure hunger and various insults, and was ransomed after about ten months by the Armenian Shakhmirov who had traveled into the steppe for such negotiations. Therefore, one must agree that although cossack service in the territory of the Orenburg Host was unenviable and not accompanied by momentous deeds, nevertheless it was service that was hard and honorable. By its own dangers it purchased the safety of others.
Cossacks in the Orenburg territory were named after where they lived: Samara, Ufa, Iset, and Orenburg. At first they were subordinated as follows: Samara cossacks—to the former Simbirsk provincial chancellery and later to the land-militia regimental commanders; Ufa and Iset cossacks—to their provincial chancelleries; and Orenburg cossacks-to the Orenburg Commission. For local administration they had settlement atamans [stanichnye atamany], lieutenants [sotniki], ensigns [khorunzhie], and clerks [pisari]. In Iset Province there was additionally a special ataman of the Iset Host with his own khorunzhii and clerk, all three making up the Host office [izba- literally “hut”] and receiving salary from the cossacks’ own resources with their voluntary assent. With the establishment of Orenburg Province all the territory’s cossacks were subordinated to the governor and provincial chancellery in regard to both military and civil matters. There was no dedicated host administrative office until 1748. The unsuitability of the previous manner of controlling the cossacks’ military aspects, along with their growing numbers and the settlement of the Samara and Orenburg lines, showed the necessity of placing them under a single authority and in 1748 a ukase from the Military Collegium ordered: “appoint an ataman for the entire irregular corps and also subordinate to him the Samara and Ufa cossacks and nobility with their atamans, officials, retired men, and underage youths, and register them all in one command.” The first host ataman to be appointed was Sotnik, later Colonel, Vasilii Mogutov, who occupied this position for thirty years, until 1778. Working under him were a yesaul and host clerk, and all the host’s administration was concentrated in these three individuals, the host from this time on being called the Orenburg Host. Along with this, the Military Collegium instructed the territorial chief to give the Orenburg Cossack Host a table of organization and various administrative directions, which Privy Counselor Neplyuev also submitted to the collegium. A special commission was formed at the Military Collegium to examine these submittals, and Ataman Mogutov was summoned to take part in its activities (he had been confirmed in his office by a Highest Ukase of 25 February 1754, and placed over all irregulars in Orenburg Province). At the same time an ataman, khorunzhii, and clerk from the Orenburg cossacks were appointed for the cossacks of Iset Province, with salary as follows: ataman—60 roubles; khorunzhii—30 roubles; clerk—20 roubles. These appointments were made because the cossacks of Iset Province turned out to be “in such a poor state that not only the privates, but also the atamans were all illiterate.”
1755 organization table for the host and administrative measures taken up to 1803.
The submitted organization table [shtat] for the Orenburg Cossack Host received Highest Confirmation on 15 May 1755 with several amendments, including the addition of 1 colonel and 300 cossacks to the Orenburg Irregular Corps and that the host ataman’s salary would be 120 roubles instead of 100. By this organization table the number of serving cossacks in the host was set: in the Orenburg Irregular Corps, in Orenburg itself and the Berdsk fort—1094, with salaries of 120 roubles for the ataman, 120 roubles for the colonel, 50 roubles for the yesaul, 30 roubles each for sotniks, 24 roubles each for khorunzhiis, 21 roubles each for uryadniks [non-commissioned officers], 18 roubles each for corporals [kapraly] and company clerks, and 15 roubles for each cossack. Under the Orenburg administration [Orenburgskoe vedomstvo]: in Berdsk—103, with salaries of 12 roubles for the ataman, 8 roubles for a khorunzhii, 6 roubles for a clerk, and 3 roubles for each cossack. In nine forts along the Ural and Samara rivers—450, with the ataman of each fort receiving 9 roubles, the khorunzhiis 7 roubles, and the cossacks 3 roubles each. In the remaining six forts along the Samara River no one received any pay. Under the Stavropol administration—250 men, without pay. In Ufa Province—1250 men, of which those living in the town of Ufa received salaries: 12 roubles for the ataman, 8 roubles for the sotnik, 6 roubles for the clerk, and 4 roubles each for cossacks. In Ufa Province’s remaining four forts no one was authorized pay. In Iset Province—1380 men, all without pay. Thus the total composition of the host was 5877 serving ranks of whom 4080 did not receive pay, while the remaining 1797 were allotted salaries totaling 19,554 roubles per year, from the monies of the State Treasury and the revenues of Orenburg Province. Cossacks were grouped according to the amount of pay they received: paid, little paid, and unpaid [zhalovannye, malozhalovannye, i bezzhalovannye]. The first group consisted only of the ranks in the Orenburg Irregular Corps, of whom half were constantly on duty. The “little-paid” group had to have a third of its ranks on duty and only received money for military equipment [na voinskuyu spravu]. The unpaid group had to maintain themselves from their own resources and from them it was ordered not to take more than one quarter onto active duty. It was prescribed to use cossack children to keep the cossacks up to the strengths laid down by the organization table. These had be fit but because of their age not previously registered for service. If these were not sufficient, then cossack sons were to be taken from Samara, Stavropol, and Alekseevsk so that “in these places they do not lounge about and those living on the Volga cannot fall into robbery and other dissolute activies.” Also used to keep the Orenburg Host up to strength were 59 huts [kibitki] of baptized Kalmyks who had left the Volga in 1745 due to civil war and hunger. In those forts where cossacks served without pay, it was authorized to enroll as cossacks all cossack children once they reach age 17 even though the number of cossacks might be greater than that defined by the organization table, because “if the strength can be made still greater than prescribed by regulation, that would be all the more convenient and useful since they all serve without pay for the sole purpose of being exempt from the soul tax and to have good amounts of land and privileges; therefore, the greater their number, the better.” It was also ordered to assign services to cossacks enrolled in excess of regulation strengths. It was laid down that assigning cossacks to guarding forts was to be avoided, and instead they were to be used for other defensive guard postings, patrols, pursuit parties, convoys, and other appropriate duties. Cossacks were to have “the required equipment, i.e. good and well-fed horses, fully serviceable weapons, namely: swords, turok guns, and even bows and arrows if nothing else, and a lance. When on horseback they were to be able to perform any maneuver with confidence, and not be poorly clothed.” It was ordered not to conduct inspections during field labor time, and to assign the inspections to reliable persons. It was directed to especially see to it that atamans and officials were conscientious persons, reliable in military operations, and when in front of the cossack privates having their horse and weapons in the best condition. It was also required that deserving and reliable persons be promoted to ataman and officer positions by seniority, while undeserving persons were not to be promoted, nor anyone outside the line of seniority.
At this time there was no prescribed uniform clothing for cossacks, and they were only required to have good clothes in the cossack style, not old or worn. Nevertheless, we know that the usual style of cossack dress at that time was long dark-blue caftans reaching below the knees, with pleats in the skirt; wide sharovary pants also of dark-blue cloth, a belt-like sash around the waist, and a tall dark-blue cap. Along with this, Privy Counselor Neplyuev, promoted to Actual Privy Counselor for his activities in the territory, made a representation in regard to the lack of flags for the Orenburg Cossack Host. The Military Collegium, noting that recently new flags had been made for the Don and Volga hosts “in the characteristic manner,” directed that information be provided regarding the number of flags required and “the style and design customary for that place.” The territory’s chief asked for a host standard, called a bunchuk, a regimental flag, and ten standards for that number of companies in the Orenburg Irregular Corps. The flags had a depiction of the town of Orenburg below a radiant cross, and along the sides an irregular decorative frame. The flags and standards were prepared and presented to the host by Highest Authority, being received on 24 January 1757.
Once the Orenburg Host’s military organization was defined, the host leadership, concerned about the condition of the cossacks’ weapons, asked for muskets to be sent from the Tula factory. There the arsenal turned out to have ready 500 turok guns from the Slobodsk Sumy Regiment and 1500 muskets [ruchnitsy] from Little Russian regiments, which were sent in 1757. These guns were distributed to cossacks who were charged 2 roubles 37 1/2 kopecks for each turok and 2 roubles 21 1/2 kopecks for a ruchnitsa musket.
Meanwhile the host leadership tried to find ways to make cossack duties less burdensome. To that end they asked that a fixed payment be given for carrying the mail, which up to then was being carried by the cossacks with no recompense. The authorities also tried to make it easier for cossacks to carry out duties performed at their own expense. The Ruling Senate, in view of the fact that cossacks were “military persons, some paid a little and others not at all, and very necessary for the frontier conditions there,” decided to pay cossacks for carrying the mail at a rate of a kopeck for two carts during the summer, and according to distance traveled in wintertime, the funds to be taken from the fees collected by the postal administration for various weights of mail. In regard to the second problem, the host ataman, Lieutenant Colonel Mogutov, reported that “almost every summer a large part of the irregular commands on the lines and in the provinces are sent off, in addition to their normal service, to maintain outposts in other places and other lines, and even those who happen not to be sent off have to perform so much duty on the line or in the increased number of outposts established during summertime’s heightened level of alertness, so none of them can remain at home, and those called out, since they are separated from their homes for the whole summer at their own expense without pay, not only find their houses falling into ruin, but they themselves while on duty suffer greatly from hunger, and this is what happened last year with the unpaid cossacks who were in such extreme want that they could not buy salt, that most necessary item. And if they serve this year (1758) without pay, they will fall into such a condition that it will be impossible to help them recover. For those who remain after the annual duties mentioned, after the service at their own forts there will be no time left for their own farms and fields or for other undertakings, since they are sent to perform government labor such as transporting timber for building forts or repairing fortifications. They also carry the ordinary mail and provide carts for official travelers. And as for those who are paid and stay on the line the entire summer, due to the current conditions they almost all have to be on guard duties and the daily patrols along the line, and from that along with the frequent droughts that occur there, after the crops fail they fall into such want that for two years it has been necessary to give them provisions from government stores in lieu of their pay. But since that pay is so little, up to now not all of what is needed can be taken. Now the cossacks, because of crop failure and not being allowed time during the summer for their own livelihoods, suffer starvation, and ask if they cannot be given government provisions even if it has to be deducted from their pay. As for the orders to sell them livestock, and horses to those who have none, if under the current conditions they are allowed to sell their livestock then they will become very unreliable for service and it will be impossible to restore them.” Therefore Ataman Mogutov asked that Orenburg Host cossacks be given the same status as those of the Ural and Don, and of baptized Kalmyks. The unpaid Orenburg cossacks, if they were ordered to duty far away from their own fort, should be given a rouble a month and provisions, and if they had to stay away during the winter, then rations for that time, too. In the same circumstances, cossacks who now received “little pay” should be given full pay and also issued provisions, and when a half or more of a fort’s cossacks were on service, “as happened last summer upon the approach of large numbers of Kirgiz committing depredations in response to Bashkir thievery, an event that could reoccur any year,” then they should be given provisions for the summer period from 1 April to 1 November, without additional pay. The host ataman’s petitions received their deserved consideration from the chief of the territory, Actual Privy Counselor Neplyuev, and the Military Collegium, upon whose recommendations the Ruling Senate decreed the equalization of Orenburg cossacks with those of the Don and Ural in regard to pay, provisions, and fodder, but only for the times they were ordered to serve further than 70 miles [100 verst] from home, and for little-paid cossacks-when half or more of their fort’s or outpost’s complement were on service then they were to be given provisions on the same scale as for soldiers.
The cossacks’ difficult situation as described in the above extract from host ataman Mogutov’s report was not exaggerated. Just previously the Bashkir revolt had been put down, in the suppression of which the cossacks of the Orenburg Host had taken part along with the regular troops in the territory and two cossack regiments called out from the Don and Ural cossack hosts. Afterwards Kirgiz raids began, there being over 10,000 Bashkirs of both sexes who had fled to that people during the time of the revolt. On top of this there was hunger in the territory due to crop failures and because the cossacks, constantly on duty or on government labor, could not sow a sufficient amount of grain, Meanwhile the number of troops on the line had increased significantly resulting in a proportionate demand for provisions, and it had not been safe to deliver these foodstuffs from other places on account of the Bashkir revolt. For government labor on fortifications not only cossacks were used, but dragoons and garrison soldiers as well. However, in the forts the senior commanders were mostly regular officers who sought to ease the duties of their own soldiers and dragoons, and the bulk of the work fell upon just the cossacks. On their part, this finally led to complaints to host ataman Mogutov who in turn presented them to the chief of the territory and insisted that the cossacks should not be overworked. But at the time there was much work as new forts were being established and the line continued to be developed with the construction of redoubts and outposts. Thus, in 1748 cossack Kichigin of the Yetkul’sk fort, with comrades who brought about fifty families, founded the Kichiginsk fort on the Uvel’ka Stream, and in 1750 fifty families from the Borsk, Buzuluksk, and Berdsk forts established the Nizhneozernaya fort near the Ozernyi redoubt. On the Orenburg Line in 1764 there were already 22 forts, including Zverinogolovsk which had been transferred from the Siberian administration to Orenburg in 1753, 25 redoubts, and 78 outposts. Some of the last and all the redoubts were gradually settled by cossacks and exist up to the present day with their original names.
For administrative convenience the Orenburg Line was divided into 6 sectors [distantsii] and 6 reserve corps [rezervnye korpusa], but the boundaries of one did not coincide with those of the other, with the exception of the first corps and sector. Sector commanders were appointed by the chief of the territory, but the assignment of commanders of reserve corps was sometimes left to sector commanders. As evidenced from an extant list from 1764, even in peaceful times the Orenburg Line was protected by the assignment of 1226 cossacks, 928 dragoons, 303 baptized Kalmyks, and 2004 Bashkirs, Meshcheryaks, and enlisted Tatars, or a total of 4461 men with 23 guns. Men chosen for line service were almost exclusively assigned to redoubts and outposts. The forts were left with their own garrisons to which were attached some Bashkirs to do government labor duties on the fortifications and carry messages to higher commanders. In the line forts, the whole population that was not on assignment was considered in reserve and used for patrols as well as fort guard duty, Cossacks were additionally used to guard horse herds and for parties sent in pursuit of Kirgiz bands that had penetrated the line to drive off livestock and seize careless inhabitants and travelers. Therefore the actual number of cossacks carrying out duties on the line was not that of the assignment list, but much greater. Nevertheless the host’s population was also increasing from before, so that according to information collected in 1768 at the order of the Military Collegium it amounted to 13,874 males. From 1758 until 1798 there were no changes in the host’s organization in spite of the fact that the Orenburg Line suffered to no small extent during Pugachev’s revolt when several settlements were razed. Still, the host continuously increased in size by sometimes incorporating single families and at other times whole settlements. In this way there were registered as cossacks enlisted Tatars of the village of Zubochistka and the Kondurovsk settlement, and merchant Tatars of the Seitovsk (or Karagalinsk) settlement. The latter settlement was established near Orenburg soon after its founding by trading Tatars from Kazan Province so as to develop commerce in the territory, but by 1787 they no longer answered to their previous purpose due to their poverty. These Kargalinsk Tatars turned out to be poor cossacks whose only contribution to the host was an increase in raw numbers, so in 1819 they were excluded from cossack status and returned to a tax-paying category. In 1796 141 families were resettled from the Don Host, being 578 souls of both sexes, after they had taken part in a revolt by five settlements of that host which used armed force to resist resettlement to the Caucasian Line. Among the persons transferred there were 30 demoted atamans, yesauls, sotniks, and khorunzhiis. The resettled persons were distributed among 15 forts from Verkhneozernaya to Zverinogolovsk.
In 1798 the Orenburg Military Governor, General-of-Infantry Graf Igelstrom, submitted to Highest review a description of the Orenburg Line in which he explained that the guard on the line was generally satisfactory, was maintained appropriately, and as evidenced by experience, was such that with the construction of the line the frontier was completely safe from its neighbors. If at times Kirgiz broke through or would do so in the future, then the reason for that would not be the line’s organization or a lack of guards on it, but rather the inadequacy of individual leaders or the weakness of poor troops deployed along the foreposts. It would be because of abuse by Bashkir elders and local police chiefs [zemskie ispravniki] who allowed the rich and better off to buy exemptions; for the most part it was the poor and propertyless who were sent out on service, inadequately equipped with weapons and horses and often not at all fit for duty. And part of the cossack population lived far from the line so that from lack of fodder cossacks arrived for duty by 16 May with wornout horses unfit for service, sometimes even losing them before reaching the line. Because of mismanagement in the assignment of periods of service for cossacks, it would happen that when the poor and propertyless were called to duty, they would fall into even greater poverty when their farms were left untended in their absence. To correct all this Graf Igelstrom proposed that yurt elders and headmen be made responsible for carefully ensuring that each man would be assigned to duty in his own turn regardless of any excuses. While on the road, cossacks living far from the line would be provided with provisions apportioned from all members of the community, even those on active service being obliged to contribute. Aid would be provided for the farms of cossacks absent on service, and authorities were to assiduously keep an eye on the shiftless and lazy.
In response to this representation, on 10 April of the same year Graf Igelstrom was given a Highest Ukase which ordered a detailed count of cossacks from 20 to 50 years of age and able to carry out service. They were to be divided into cantons [kantony], taking care that when duty assignments were made, cantons carried out their service in the line sectors nearest them. The line was to be divided into five sectors [distantsii]. The canton leader [kantonyi nachalnik] was to be given the authority to make duty assignments at a general meeting of stanitsa leaders [stanichnye nachalniki]. Field leaders [pokhodnye nachalniki] were to be installed in each sector and receive those coming on duty from the cantons, being responsible for their good order. Those assigned to duty were to be supplied with travel provisions by the community on an apportionment basis. Canton leaders were made responsible for seeing that the farms of those on service did not deteriorate through neglect, to which end aid was to be given based on individual circumstances, especially during harvest and hay-cutting time. They were to take equal care to keep an eye on the shiftless and lazy, compelling them to be better farmers. Canton leaders were to be charged with watching over cossacks in regard to the military sector, settling petty offenses by administrative action. For all other offenses and crimes serving personnel were subject to a military court, while those in the reserve or under age came under a criminal court. A master metalworker with two apprentices was to be installed in each canton to repair firearms. The master and his students were to be maintained by the cantons with the first issue of tools being provided by the treasury.
According to count there were in the host 227 serving cossack gentry [starshiny], 517 noncommissioned officers [uryadniki], 7506 cossacks, 3001 reservists, and 9976 underage youths, or 21,227 men in all. They were divided among five cantons to which were named the following canton leaders: for the first canton, made up of six stanitsy — Ataman Lieutenant Khanzhin; for the second, of five stanitsy — Ataman Ensign Osintsov; for the third, of four stanitsy — Ataman Sublieutenant Vetoshnikov; for the fourth, of fourteen stanitsy — Ataman Colonel Ugletskii; and for the fifth, of ten stanitsy — Ataman Ensign Ugletskii. The leader of the fourth canton was at the same time the Host Ataman [voiskovoi ataman]. Besides the above-mentioned number of cossacks there were another 2100 men in the city of Orenburg and in Berdskaya Stanitsa which did not come under the cantons. These cossacks formed the Orenburg Thousand Cossack Regiment [Orenburgskii tysyachnyi kazachii polk] and also provided replacments for the regiment’s losses.
The line was divided into sectors: the first from Zverinogolovskaya to Verkhneuralsk; the second from Verkhneuralsk to Orenburg Fortress; the third from Orsk to Orenburg; and the fourth from Orenburg to Uralsk to the town of Gurev. Of these the first three and part of the fourth to Razsypnaya Fortress were situated within the borders of the Orenburg Host, and it was laid down that each year 2624 Orenburg Host cossacks and 5516 Bashkirs and Meshcheryaks were to be sent to these. In this way at the end of the eighteenth century the line was protected exclusively by the local military population of the territory without any participation by regular troops. And although twice as many Bashkirs and Meshcheryaks were assigned to the line as cossacks, the main responsibilities for guarding the line and pursuing Kirgiz bands lay with the cossacks, as attested to by Military Governor Graf Essen who in a proposal he drafted for the organizational administration of the host stated, “…and although Bashkirs and Meshcheryaks were detailed to help it (the Orenburg Host), it was still the cossacks of the Orenburg Host who were always considered more reliable than the other irregular troops used for guarding the Orenburg Line, as is clear from the canton resolutions of General Graf Igelstrom which Highest Authority was pleased to confirm twice.”
The Establishment Table of 1803 and the Further Organization of the Host to 1840.
The organization of the host according to the ukase of 10 April, 1798, was found by those in charge of it to be unsatisfactory, and so Host Ataman Colonel Ugletskii, in the name of the host, sent the Sovereign Emperor a most humble petition in which, among other things, he sought equivalency in rank of host cossack nobility with army officers, as for other cossack hosts who were granted this through Highest favor, since the gentry of the Orenburg Host had no kind of equality with army officers except for only a few who by special Highest ukases had been granted substantive army ranks because of distinguished service. At the same time there were in the host several aristocratic families from noble and non-Russian lineages in the towns of Samara and Ufa which had been transferred to the city of Orenburg at its founding. The petition was delivered to the Minister of Military Land Forces, and the Military College, after examining the situation of the host, submitted its opinion to Highest review, receiving confirmation on 8 June, 1803. In agreement with this opinion, it was ordered that: the Orenburg Host be left under the direction of a host chancellery which was to be established along the lines of those for the Black Sea and Ural hosts, i.e. for military matters the host was to be subject to the Inspector of the Orenburg Inspectorate and for civil affairs under the control of provincial authorities, in particular the head of the province.
The cost of maintaining the Chancellery was to be borne by the host, except for the Host Ataman’s salary which was provided by the treasury. According to the official establishment table [shtat] the Host Chancellery consisted of: a Host Ataman with a salary of 600 roubles; two permanent members [nepremennye chleny] with salaries of 300 roubles each; two assessors [assesory] with 250 roubles each; two secretaries with 200 roubles each; and a public prosecutor [prokuror] with 250 roubles. For hiring Chancellery employees and other Chancellery expenses 800 roubles were authorized.
Those holding army officer ranks could be released into the reserve [otstavka] by Highest orders obtained either by petitions accompanied by the testimony of the Host Ataman and Chancellery regarding service and disability, or through applications by the Inspector of the Orenburg Inspectorate. However, only those lower ranks were released who through old age and decrepitude or because of illness and injuries were completely unfit for further service, this being done through the unbiased review of the Host Ataman and chancellery and confirmation by the Inspector, being subject to judicial investigation for any abuse.
Lower ranks serving in the host who showed or would in the future show their noble origins were given the choice of remaining in the host or leaving it, and as long as they were on service they were to be treated in accordance with the general laws concerning nobility.
Host officials, except those who had been granted army rank, who were serving in officer positions even though they did not have substantive army rank, “were in due respect to their service to be recognized and treated in the manner appropriate to officer rank; in accordance with this, punishments passed upon them for infractions were to be handled as prescribed for company-grade officers, in so far as they exist for these ranks.”
The Orenburg Thousand Cossack Regiment, settled in Orenburg and receiving an inadequate upkeep, being always either on service or in constant readiness to march out across the frontier, was to be maintained according to a new establishment table which set the regiment’s composition at: 1 colonel, 10 captains [yesauly], 10 lieutenants [sotniki], 10 cornets [khorunzhie], 1 quartermaster, 2 clerks, 40 noncommissioned officers, and 1000 cossacks, being 1074 men in all. Pay was set at: 300 roubles for the colonel, 100 roubles each for captains, 80 roubles each for lieutenants and the quartermaster, 60 roubles for cornets, 18 roubles for clerks, 20 roubles for noncommissioned officers, and 12 roubles for cossacks.
Since the pay for lower ranks was less than previously authorized, it was ordered that when they were living in their own homes or close by them, provisions were to be issued not for a third part of the men as before, but for all. If on the other hand personnel were detached 100 versts (66 miles) away or further or when they were sent beyond the Ural, for subduing “neighboring predatory peoples”, then lower ranks were to be issued forage for the winter months, enough for two horses each, while officers were to receive money for soldier-servants [denshchiki] and rations according to the tables for army hussar officers.
For normal losses the regiment was to be maintained, as on the previous basis, from the 2100 men settled in the city of Orenburg, but in case of being seriously understrength due to casualties in action with the enemy, then persons with families were to be selected in the cantons and resettled in Orenburg, being dropped from the canton rolls.
Rank in the regiment was to be equivalent as follows: the colonel [polkovnik] with the rank of an army major [maior]; an yesaul with an army cavalry captain [rotmistr]; a sotnik with an army lieutenant [poruchik]; a khorunzhii with an army cornet [kornet]; and the quartermaster with a quartermaster in the regular forces. Officers were to be enrolled in the regiment by Highest orders and only to fill vacancies, on approval by the Host Ataman in agreement with the host chancellery, merit being based on seniority, zealous dedication to service, and abilities.
Armament in the regiment consisted of a saber, pair of pistols, carbine, and lance with a pennant colored raspberry and white. The uniform was the standard one for cossacks: caftan [kaftan] and sharovary pants with raspberry collar and piping, raspberry caps with a black band, white girdles [kushaki], and blue shabraques with raspberry trim. All this was maintained at one’s own cost, as in other cossack hosts.
In 1808 uniform dress for the Thousand Regiment as well as for the entire host was prescribed to be as for the Don Host, i.e. dark-blue chekmen or caftan with red piping on the collar and cuffs, to be worn from 1 September to 1 May while for the rest of the time there was the half-caftan [polukaftan] or jacket [kurtka], worn tucked into the sharovary; blue sharovary pants with red trim or stripes, these pants being permitted to be worn tucked into the boots; headdresses [shapki] of black fleece, 9 inches high with a red top; on these headdresses officers wore silver cords of gold and black silk and white plumes with black and orange feathers below, while lower ranks had white cotton cords on their headdresses. In addition officers were authorized a sash similar to the army pattern and spurs, while cossacks had girdles of unspecified color. All were to have leather pouches for cartridges on a crossbelt which officers were allowed to decorate with silver plates and galloon lace, as they were also allowed to do to the swordbelts for sabers. These sabers were to be of whatever kind one possessed. In case regiments were ordered out, the host ataman was to distinguish them by changing the color of the piping on the collar and cuffs and of the stripes on the pants, but girdles in each regiment were intended to be the same.
This pattern of uniform was changed in 1833 in that the dark-blue cloth was replaced by dark green and the cloth lining became light blue. And on the shakos [kivery] plumes were replaced by pompons: silver for the officers but light blue for cossacks. In 1838 the saber [sablya] was replaced by the cossack shashka sword.
During the confirmation of the 1803 establishment table it was noted that the division of the host into cantons, the carrying out of service, the system of making duty assignments, and the subsistence paid while on service or not on service all remained on the existing basis, while in the meantime since the 1755 establishment table the numbers in the host had increased, the system of carrying out service had changed somewhat, and subsistence payments were not being made on an equitable basis. So the Orenburg Military Governor, along with the Host Chancellery, was encharged with drafting local administrative regulations for the host along with the advantages they offered and including the responsibilities to be entrusted to the host in regard to serving on the line and in other places. They were also to deliver to the Military College for submission in a respectful report their opinion of “what kind of subsistence allowance from the treasury would it be necessary to have, and under what conditions would it be offered, and how would it be equitable for all personnel; included will be an explanation of the reasons and needs underlying this opinion.”
When the host received the establishment tables and Military College’s opinion as confirmed by Highest Authority, the Host Ataman asked the Minister of War to intercede for permission to send a deputation to convey on behalf of the host its gratitude for the favor shown it, but he received the reply that the Sovereign Emperor did not wish the dispatch of a deputation, but instilled with fatherly goodwill toward the host’s thankfullness, was pleased to accept the intention of sending a deputation as the action itself. Along with this the Minister of War, General Vyazmitinov, who before had been the commander-in-chief of the Orenburg Territory and was now replying to the thanks expressed to him for his part in host affairs, wrote that he began his participation as a responsibility required by his position “and later with great readiness, since he had the pleasure of being an personal witness of the zeal and effort with which the Orenburg Host carried out its service.”
Soon after this, the Sovereign Emperor, referring to the recently greatly increased predation by the Kirgiz who repeatedly plundered caravans, and to the reasons for such a state of affairs and measures for correcting it, issued an instruction to the Orenburg Military Governor encharging him at the first opportunity to travel around the territory and undertake the most detailed investigation into the state of the cantons, whether their organization was appropriate to the purposes for which they had been created, whether service was being carried out in the prescribed manner and that there was no abuse in making duty assignments, and whether, as far as it might be reckoned useful, it would be possible to reinforce the population on the line so as to create a larger militia and thus “significantly increase the security of the frontier without having to use an excessive number of regular troops who only with difficulty could be on this service without considerable expenses for provisions and other necessities.” It was ordered that when the report on these topics was delivered a conclusion be added to it detailing the sources and methods for carrying out such a reinforcement of the line.
It is not known whether, in accordance with this instruction, the Orenburg Military Governor made a tour of the territory or what he may have found, but already in August of the following year of 1804 Highest Authority established regulations concerning the organization of the Orenburg Line by which it was ordered to form four garrison battalions, these being renamed line battalions that same year. These battalions were specially intended for protecting the line by increasing the population on it, to which end they had to remain immobile in their locations, being settled in the Verkhneozernaya, Orsk, Verkhneuralsk, and Troitsk Sectors according to the judgement of local authorities. To form them it was ordered to use personnel in the first reserve who were unfit for field service, but so that at first they were at most three-fourths of the total strength. And in the recruit call-up of 1805 the following were to be used to fill the ranks: all recruits coming from Orenburg and adjacent provinces, who were to be accepted up to 7/8 of an inch below regulation height and up to 37 years old, but they all had to be married; also to be used were those who were the children of settled agricultural soldiers, accepting those who were unfit for field service due to illness and other causes.
It was ordered that personnel in the battalions were not only not to be diverted from, but instead encouraged to build homes, raise grain and livestock, and engage in other agriculture, allowing one-time aid grants that would be enough to enable the men to become farmers and agriculturalists. With this as a goal, the battalions’ personnel, except for routine small guard detachments, twice a year in spring and fall had to take part in training for 3 to 4 weeks. And recently called up recruits, once they had become used to discipline and acquired the necessary soldierly skills, would also engage in training two or three times a year.
In 1810 these battalions were withdrawn from the usual regulations for providing them with men so that their manning would be carried out under the direct care of the commander-in-chief of the Orenburg Territory in accordance with the time and circumstances and so that the persons joining the battalions would always be married, of good conduct, and industrious farmers. The entire service of the men in the battalions was to consist of guard duty where they lived, and if Kirgiz stole into the sector, then together with the cossacks they were to pursue them on their horses. Subsequently, in 1835, the personnel in these battalions were converted into cossacks.
In order to draw up the plan demanded by the Highest order of 8 June, 1803, regarding the local deployment of the host, the advantages offered by those dispositions, and the responsibilities entrusted to the host, along with suggestions as to what kind of subsistence allowance there should be, under what circumstances should it be offered, and how it was to be fair for each person when compared with others, Host Ataman Ugletskii summoned one representative from each stanitsa. But the draft scheme for the new administrative organization of the host, once it had been reviewed by the those in charge of the territory, was only presented to the Minister of War by Graf Essen in January of 1818. But here too confirmation of the projected scheme was delayed; it was presented several times and only confirmed on 12 December, 1840. In the meantime, various individual measures were taken in regard to the host with a view to increasing the cossack population on the line, for its greater security, and for the general well-being of the host.
These measures which concerned increasing the cossack population included the following. A settlement was set up on the Chesnokovka River where it entered the Ural River, 9 miles from Nizhneozernaya Stanitsa; the first settlers here were 70 cossack families from the Tatars of Seitovskaya Sloboda, also called Kargalinskaya. The population of the Nikolsk and Giryalsk redoubts was reinforced by the resettlement there of several families from the same sloboda. And in 1805, at their expressed wish, 1181 persons from Uiskaya, Kichiginskaya, Chebarkulskaya, Koelskaya, Chelyabinskaya, Miyasskaya, Yetkulskaya, and Yemanzhelinskaya stanitsy were resettled in eighteen line settlements. To each of these last resettlers the community had to give two horses with harness and saddlery for riding, a plow, harrow, and telega cart, and each laborer in a family was to receive an ax and sickle. For sowing each was to be given 360 pounds of wheat, for subsistence 144 pounds of rye grain or rye flour for those younger than 10 and 360 pounds for each older person, and 180 pounds of groats for every 10 persons. In calculating this aid the individual property of the resettlers was not to be taken into account, and they had the right to use it as they thought fit. In addition the resettlers were promised exemption from service and duties for five years, and the hay for their first winter was to be prepared for them by personnel on line service, these also having to get wood ready for houses and build dugouts as a first expedient.
In this way the costs of resettlement fell upon the community, which had to provide the resettlers with over 1300 horses and 720,000 pounds of grain, in addition to other items. The burden of this expense provoked agitation among the cossacks, but this was stopped by administrative measures and had no consequences of any kind except the punishment of those responsible.
In the next year of 1806, 455 active and reserve persons were resettled at the 12th settlement on the line from the towns of Ufa and Krasnoufimsk and Tabynskaya, Yeldyatskaya, and Nagaibatskaya stanitsy, but this time without community aid or any kind of discontent on the part of the cossacks.
In August of 1810 confirmation was given to a proposal by Active State Councillor Strukov, manager of the Iletsk Saltworks, about transporting salt to the town of Samara not through Orenburg, but by a new route going along the right bank of the Ilek River to the small town of Iletsk and from there to Razsypnaya Stanitsa. This route presented the advantage that it was straighter and passed through more level terrain, keeping the Obshchii Syrt Mountains to the right. But since it had to go to Iletsk over the steppe where Kirgiz still roamed, for the safety and convenience of the teamsters it was proposed to build settlements on the Ilek River and move the frontier line there from the Ural River, below Orenburg. Strukov himself voluteered to build the proposed settlement using cossacks from the Orenburg and Ural hosts, using no force but only those who wished to go. But he found no volunteers so the task of summoning them was given to the host atamans of the Orenburg and Ural hosts. The call-up was ordered to be done from stanitsy with little land and which were far from the line so that for them, due to distance, service on the line was burdensome. Resettlers were promised exemption from service for three years and that after this they would always serve near their homes, guarding the line. For farming, haymaking, and raising livestock a strip of land 6 miles wide was offered along the right bank of the Ilek from the Iletskaya Zashchita grant to the land belonging to Iletsk town. Fishing rights in the Ilek were offered along both banks, and likewise the use of forests. However, no volunteers were found in the Orenburg Host and so in 1822 Krasnoufimskaya Stanitsa was disbanded with its cossacks having to settle in the foreposts of Izobilnyi, Burannyi, Novoiletskii, and Linevskii. But the cossacks used every means to try to avoid resettlement. Through intermediaries they set petitions to the Sovereign Emperor, they refused to take their places, and so on so that finally 76 of them were court-martialed. In his confirmation of the results of this business the Sovereign Emperor ordered, “Leave unpunished those who were given over to the court, but only if they submitted to resettlement without the slightest opposition; in the opposite case, if there is the least stubborness on their part, punish them with running through the gauntlet and then put the able-bodied into army regiments and send the unfit to settle in Siberia.” But even after this the cossacks did not want to resettle, being spurred on by ill-intentioned persons who fabricated a copy of non-existent correspondence by the Chief of the General Staff, General-Adjutant Dibich, about releasing the cossacks of Krasnoufimskaya Stanitsa from resettlement. Only after the distributors of the false papers, some four persons, were punished and set to army regiments did the cossacks express their willingness to resettle. This finally took place in 1826 when the resettlers were granted 49,355 roubles in aid from the treasury.
With the organization of settlements along the Ilek River and the shifting there of the line, peasant villages began to be built along the left bank of the Ural River. These were assigned to the management of the Iletsk Saltworks and in addition to farming the peasants were obligated to engage in transporting salt to Samara. Eight such villages were built along the left bank of the Ural from Orenburg to the border of the Ural Host, and they were settled partly by Little Russian Cherkasses and partly by peasants from the Great Russian provinces of the interior, mainly Kursk and Penza. All these villages were enrolled in the host by the polozhenie of 12 December, 1840.
During the same period the Orenburg Line was reinforced by the enrollment of cossacks. Such enrollments in particular included the addition all at once in 1819 of 243 Little Russians from the village of Ostrovnaya and 176 Tatar souls from the villages of Novogumerovaya and Uskalytskaya, who were then resettled in Nikolskaya and Giryalskaya stanitsy. In 1826, in response to a proposal by Military Governor Graf Essen, Highest Authority ordered retired soldiers, soldiers’ children, and gunners’ children [pushkarskie deti] living in Orenburg Province, numbering 1927 persons, be enrolled. Of these, 142 persons were left in Orenburg and assigned to the Orenburg Cossack Thousand Regiment while the rest were settled in stanitsy along the line. In 1832 there were enrolled about 150 Poles who had taken part in the Polish rebellion and been taken prisoner in 1830 and 1831. In 1835 the lower ranks of the four battalions settled on the line were converted to cossack status along with their families, except for sons on active service outside the Separate Orenburg Corps and also field and company-grade officers, lower ranks of noble origins, and natives of Poland, whoever of which did not express a wish to enter the host. However, the incorporation of the members of these battalions under host control only took place in 1837. These battalions, as can be seen from the manner in which they were formed, were intended from the very first to be, if not cossacks, then at least military settlers, and so the conversion of the settled battalions into cossacks flowed logically from the existing order of things.
The increase in cossack population was also necessary because in 1835 there was an intent to put down a new line, something that had already been thought about since 1822. The old frontier line went from Orsk northward along the left bank of the Ural, past Verkhneuralsk to Karagaiskaya Stanitsa, covering a distance of about 230 miles. Here it made a right angle eastward along the Ui River to go past Troitsk to Berezovskaya Stanitsa, this also being a distance of about 230 miles. Thus the establishment of settlements along the straight line from Orsk to Berezovskaya Stanitsa shortened the line significantly and made it easier to protect. The construction of the line was carried out energetically, so that in 1835 itself there were founded the Imperatorsk, Naslednitsk, and Mikhailovsk settlements, and in the the next two years Novoorsk, Yelizavetinsk, Atamansk, Yekaterinsk, Konstantinovsk, Knyazhesk, Nikolaevsk, Yeleninsk, Nadezhdinsk, Verinsk, Varvarinsk, Kumaksk, Petrovsk, Pavlovsk, Andreevsk, Anninsk, Georgievsk, Olginsk, Vladimirsk, Aleksandrovsk, Sofiisk, Natalinsk, Alekseevsk, and Kirilovsk. All these settlements were built along the new line itself or a short distance behind it. The settlements that were built had ditches and ramparts dug around them and only one set of fortified gates, but in Naslednitskaya and Nikolaevskaya stanitsy where churches were built, the walls around these were made of stone with small turrets and loopholes, so that in case of an attack by the Kirgiz they would be a sure refuge for the inhabitants. In response to a request to build other gates, it was allowed only when there was a compelling need and with the permission of the commander-in-chief of the territory. Cossacks from the old line and interior cantons and personnel of the settled line battalions were installed in the new settlement. Also at that time the excavation of a ditch with rampart was undertaken along the entire new line, but the work was carried on only until 1843 when it was stopped, and the ditch with its rampart only ran from the Ora River opposite the small settlement of Novoorsk to the former Sevastopolsk settlement, for a distance of about 25 miles.
In 1837 there was a Highest directive that the Orenburg Cossack Host was to be on the Orenburg Line proper, to where the cossacks living in the interior of the province had to resettle. Whoever of them that did not want to resettle were to be transferred to the settled cavalry regiments. In accordance with this Highest directive all cossacks with the exception of 1256 families were resettled from the interior cantons. Some of them settled themselves along the old and new lines, but 915 families (3091 male souls) wished to settle between the old and new lines in the so-called New-Line Region cut off from the Kirgiz Steppe in 1835 and made a start in building settlements in this area.
But along with additions to the host there were also subtractions from it, sometimes individual families of noble descent such as those of Colonel Avdeev, Major Vetoshnikov, Sotnik Sokolov, Khorunzhii Arapov, the uryadniki of aristocratic origins Yenkov and Zubov, and that of the noble Polish Uryadnik Malkovskii, and at other times some tens of families at once. These last subtractions were after 1818 when there was a directive issued on the granting to the host of lands along the inside of the old line and not less than 15 versts (10 miles) from it. Because of this the Bashkirs and Meshcheryaks who had settled in that strip at various times had to either be enrolled into the cossacks or resettled on other lands which they would find and move to inside Bashkiria. However, the loss of the Bashkirs and Meshcheryaks to the host did not weaken it, but rather was beneficial since it relieved the host of people who did not have an attachment to cossack status or a calling to cossack service, in addition to being mostly people who were poor and unskilled at farming.
As regards the military organization, particular measures included the establishment in 1819 of Orenburg Cossack Horse-Artillery Companies Nos. 9 and 10, each of 12 guns, the number of lower ranks in both companies being fixed at 540 men, and they had to serve 15 years straight through, receiving their uniforms, weapons, and horses from the treasury. To form the companies and provide replacements later on, it was ordered to select persons from families that had three brothers so that their absence from the farm for a long period would not ruin them. Also to be used were poor persons not owning a farm, but men from small farm-owning families were not to be selected at all. The impetus for establishing cossack artillery was the proposed transfer of No. 57 Light Company from Orenburg to the ranks of No. 26 Brigade. The formation of the companies was carried out in the area around Orenburg: No. 9 in Seitovskaya Sloboda and the town of Sakmarsk, and No. 10 in Chernorechenskaya and Tatishchevaya stanitsas. Later these companies were renamed batteries and received the numbers 8 and 9 (subsequently 14 and 15). In order to be supplied with noncommissioned officers, in 1834 a brigade school was established in the batteries along the same lines as the existing battalion schools for field horse-artillery batteries in cavalry corps.
The cossack batteries continued in this form until 1840 when Highest Authority issued the polozhenie for the host, which at the same time completely altered the previously existing organization of the host as well as of the batteries.
In 1821 the Orenburg Thousand Regiment, sometimes called the Ataman’s, received the title of the Orenburg Cossack Permanent Regiment [Orenburgskii kazachii nepremennyi polk], and its ranks were issued with a thousand horse-jäger muskets which by Highest Authority had been delivered to the host that same year. These muskets were issued to the regiment so that it would be uniformly armed, while the cossacks’ old muskets were collected and issued to the poorest cossacks, primarily those living in line stanitsy.
In 1822 it was ordered that all cossack youths over the age of 18 were to be enrolled as cossacks, especially those whose fathers were still serving, so that children might take their turn on duty in place of their fathers and the farm might not be left without supervision or someone to work it. This directive of the military governor, Graf Essen, was occassioned by there being in the host “over-aged youths who were not of any use in any service and so in the past were discharged from active duty.”
Starting in this same year detachments from the Orenburg Host began to be sent to Nizhnii-Novgorod at the time of the fair, and to Kazan and Perm provinces and the city of Moscow. These detachments were distributed among the districts where they were used to establish posts for pursuing bandits and runaways, while in the cities they carried out police duties. In Perm Province, they were also used by the étappes for escorting criminals being transported to Siberia.
In 1823 it was directed that lower ranks of the Orenburg Host serving outside the boundaries of the corps districts be provided with a subsistence allotment of 75 paper roubles instead of with pack horses with fodder, the same as in the Don Host.
In 1827 it was prohibited to allow aristocrats and their families who were of cossack origin to leave the host. This was firstly because such exclusion was contrary to what was usual in other cossack hosts, and secondly because permitting the exclusion of cossack gentry who had been released from active service, given the existing ban on accepting non-Russian native elements into cossack hosts, could lead to a shortage of nobles by depriving these hosts of their own.
Due to the accumulation in the Host Chancellery of military judicial cases involving the host’s active-duty personnel, who were subject to a military court for all types of infractions, a permanent commission of the military court [postoyannaya komissiya voennago suda] was established in the Host Chancellery, for which were authorized a president [prezus], four assessors [assesory], and an auditor [auditor]. In 1834 reserve personnel were placed on an equal basis with those on active service as regards jurisdiction.
To alleviate the arms situation in the host, in 1836 743 muskets, 2800 pistols, and 346 sabers were issued to the host from the Moscow Arsenal at prices below cost, and in 1837 muskets given over to the host from the four disbanded line battalions were distributed at no cost.
In 1835 Highest Authority ordered the state treasury to disburse 150,000 paper roubles to the host for internal improvements, in return for precious metals and minerals discovered or possibly to be discovered in the subsurface of host lands. This disbursement provided a basis for a general host capital fund and helped the officials maintain their host administration, which began to receive its funds not from collections from the inhabitants but from monies issued from the treasury. And since 1836 the host ataman also began to receive his salary and other upkeep from host funds. With the growth of the host’s financial resources, in 1837 the salaries of officials in the host administration were increased to be as for the Don and Ural hosts. Along with this a chancellery was created for the host ataman, the organization of which, as well as of the Host Chancellery and the Military Court, was specially defined.
In order to develop trade in the host, in 1825 host personnel were granted the right within the limits of host lands to engage in the trade of any kind of goods and to build tanneries and other enterprises without having to obtain commercial licenses. And in 1836 a Cossack Commercial Association [obshchestvo torgovykh kazakov] was established in the host, the size of it being limited to 500 persons. In order to be free from service obligations, cossacks joining this merchants’ association had to deliver 200 paper roubles a year to the host funds. These cosacks were also exempted from actually carrying out stanitsa duties, but at first the number of cossacks in the Commerical Association was such that it was far from being full. Along with this, it was desired to develop craftwork in the host and make it easier for inhabitants to obtain military and domestic items, so from 1837 cossack youths began to be sent to the Tula and Izhev Arms Factories, to Moscow and St. Petersburg to the mechanics Butenop and Ishervud, to Kazan to the bourgeois Bulychev to learn how to construct the machines he had invented for producing bricks and tiles. By 1840 some 48 such young men had been sent out by the host.
In order to prompt host inhabitants towards farming, in 1822 the military governor, Graf Essen, established rules which charged local authorities to see that every family would sow at least two desyatinas (5 1/2 acres) of grain and oats and a chetverik (3/4 bushel) of potatoes. At the end of sowing, it was ordered that lists be presented to the Host Chancellery explaining who sowed how much of what kind of grain, and if someone had sown less than what was laid down by the rules, then for each case a detailed explanation was required of the reasons for this and of what measures were being taken to better impel the listless person to farming. And in 1835, to encourage agriculture among the common cossacks, it was decided to take out a sum from the grain capital each year as a prize for farming. The prizes were awarded to those who sowed more grain than others and also to those who increased their amount sown, as opposed to those who although they sowed more than others had decreased the acreage from previously and whose prize would be smaller. Eighteen such prizes for sowing were awarded in 1836 in amounts of 50, 75, 100, and 150 roubles, with cossack Aleksei Volkov of Vetlyanskaya Stanitsa receiving 30 roubles for sowing more than anyone else (1449 pounds). In all, 2050 paper roubles were distributed as prizes that year.
Up to that time the host had no communal grain reserve, so to ensure that the inhabitants would have supplies in case of failed harvests, a monetary collection of 25 kopecks per person was carried out to build up a special food supply capital which in 1835 amounted to 83,403 paper roubles. However, this fund did a poor job of providing the inhabitants with food because in the case of a failed grain harvest in the territory, the procurement of more grain would be difficult due to the territory’s distance from the interior provinces and to the miserable condition of the routes of communication. Therefore, the military governor at that time, General-Adjutant Perovskii, petitioned for reserve grain magazines to be built in the host and for the introduction of communal tillage. The proposal of the head of the territory was approved by Highest Authority on 16 February, 1835, and in view of his own experience, the carrying out of it to completion was assigned to General-Adjutant Perovskii, with the supply capital collected by the host going to the execution of this project. The main bases of the project included the following. Every noncommissioned officer, cossack, and youth from 17 to 60 years of age would each year have to each sow 1 pud (36 pounds) of either winter or summer grain and harvest it. Of the harvest itself, “a third and a half” [tretii c polovinoi] would have to go into the communal magazines as long as they did not contain a reserve of 560 pounds for each person. The excess harvest over the third and a half was to be sold and of the money received one-fourth was to be placed in the grain capital while the remaining three-fourths was to be divided among the overseers of the tillage, who did not receive any special salary for their management work. When a full reserve was stored in the communal magazines, then the entire harvest was to be sold and divided as related above.
When communal tillage was introduced in the spring of that same year, the stanitsy of the 4th and 5th Cantons, located on the roads to Samara and Orenburg, refused to carry out the tillage, which fact the canton authorities reported to the head of the territory. On the basis of these reports, which somewhat presented the refusal to till as a kind of mutiny, General-Adjutant Perovskii thought it necessary to act with strength and he himself immediately traveled out to the disobedient stanitsy, having ordered two infantry companies to move there with two cossack horse-artillery guns, two Bashkir regiments to be sent, and the Teptyar Regiment, (located near the town of Buguluma) to march without rest to the Samara road. But after he arrived at the first stanitsa, Chernorechenskaya, General-Adjutant Perovskii was convinced that the disobedience did not at all have the gravity which might be supposed judging by the reports of the canton authorities. Therefore he sent the force back to Orenburg after the second day’s march and halted the movement of the Bashkirs and the Teptyar Regiment, himself traveling onward without any escort. Those most responsible for the disobedience, some 46 persons, were made to run the gauntlet and then transferred to the New Line.
It must be noted that the disobedience was more a result of misunderstanding and neglect on the part of the canto