FORMATION OF SOVIET COSSACKS COMMUNITY IN THE SOUTH OF RUSSIA IN THE MID-1930s-EARLY 1940s

In the mid-1930s the campaign "for Soviet Cossacks" was launched in the USSR. The campaign represented the planned system of measures aimed at forming the Soviet image of the Cossacks. In the course of this campaign the authorities held a number of events which had to demonstrate the loyalty of Cossacks to the Soviet regime, their participation in kolkhoz building, the urge to use their military potential for defending Soviet power. The campaign was of practical character as it included the application of the Cossacks' military and economic potential to the execution of the military, economic, and social reforms. It was the continuation of the Cossacks policy that the Soviet authorities had pursued in the mid 1920s. The aim of the new stage of the policy was to employ Cossack warfare and patriotic traditions for strengthening the state defense potential, to use the Cossacks economic skills for development of horse breeding, and in general, to form the united Soviet society. The Cossacks' image was used in ideological campaigns. As a result, by 1940s the "Soviet Cossacks" community was formed that showed its loyalty and desire to serve their Motherland during the war.