Guards of the Motherland
21 December 2005 - 7 June 2006

The Cossacks first appeared in the southern and south-eastern outskirts of the Russian State and they were freedom-loving peasants, who escaped from the serfdom oppression. Alongside the rivers Don, Volga, Dnepr, Terek, Yaik (Urals) liberal Cossack communities were formed and during short period of time they have reclaimed vast lands till the Black and Caspian Seas and the Caucasian Mountains. The Cossacks actively assisted the Russian pathfinders on their way to Siberia and the Far East. In the beginning of the 20 c. in Russia there were 11 Cossack troops: Don, Kuban', Terek, Astrakhan', Ural, Orenburg, Semirechensk, Siberian, Baikal, Amur and Ussuriisk. Yenisei troops and Yakutian Cossack regiment first appeared in 1917. In 1916 in the Russian Empire there were 4 434 000 Cossacks, among them only 480 000 served. Cossacks were of different nationalities: besides the Russians, there were the Ukrainians, Tatars, Bashkirs, Kalmyks, peoples of the Caucasus, Kazakhs, Buryats, Yakuts and many other peoples of Russia.

In the Soviet Russia in 1917 Cossack formations were abolished. The revival of the Cossacks in the Russian Federation started in the 80-s of the 20c.. The exhibition "Guards of the Motherland" for the first time sets its mission with the help of the authentic objects of the Cossack culture, documents, photographs, artworks to tell about this interesting phenomenon in the life of the Russian State.

The exhibition is housed in four halls of the museum.

At the exhibition there are items from the museums of Starocherkassk, Novocherkassk, Rostov, Urals, Omsk, Stavropol, Chelyabinsk, Irkutsk, Krasnodar, Astrakhan', also from the State Hermitage Museum, from Peterhof, Tsarskoe Selo, Moscow Kremlin and State Historical Archive.

Standard of the 14 Orenburg Cossack Regiment
1915
Larger view

Portrait of Matvei Platov
1815
Larger view