Cossacks Deputies Gatherings as an Element of Political Autonomy of the Host Don in the Late Imperial Period

Abstract

The second half of the 19th century is usually perceived in the historiography on the Don as the time of crisis for traditional Host institutions which maintained the Don Cossacks autonomy. Thus the question of relationships between the Host Don and the imperial government has remained outside the scope of researchers of the Russian outskirts. However, between 1863 and 1899 elected deputies in the Don area were convened four times to discuss the most acute economic and legal issues. Based on the archival materials from the State Archive of Rostov Oblast, the Russian State Historical Archive, the Nation Library of Russia Manuscript department, memoirs of contemporaries and modern scholarship, the author reveals that opinions of these deputies were usually opposed to the government. Despite that, the imperial authorities twice had implemented important measures suggested by the Don deputies; one time they managed to sway their original opinion in their favour; and only once the will of the Don deputies was rejected. At the same time, the Don deputies had always demanded extension of the Don Host independence, thus, virtually, full political autonomy. The Ministry of War rejected such demands each time, referring to the absence of precedence “in the spheres of local and State Imperial management”. The paper concludes that although the Host Don in did not enjoyed full political autonomy in1860–1890, there were some elements of it, and the Don Cossacks repeatedly achieved actual adjustments to government course in accordance with their preferred direction, even though the scale of such adjustments was limited.