SUMMARY:

The article explores Soviet and post-Soviet historiography of the Cossack Host of the Transbaikal region of Siberia. The author provides a historical overview of the emergence of the Transbaikal Host, noting that the presence of the Evenk (Tungus) and Buriat Cossacks in the Host made it different from the rest of the Russian Cossacks. The author points out the initially neutral coverage of the Transbaikal Cossack history by Soviet authors, who saw in the emergence of the Host a combination of the governmental need to protect the imperial border and of the Buriats’ and Evenks’ attempt to acquire a prestigious status as state servitors. In the 1930s some Soviet authors saw the Cossacks as the most loyal group to the Tsarist regime, while the emergence of the Cossackdom in Transbaikalia was explained in terms of an imperialist manipulation by the government. Post-Soviet researchers tend to stress the ethnic unity of the Buriats and the Evenks and prefer to build a model of interaction between the Russian state and the native peoples of Siberia without the interfering Cossackdom. During both Soviet and post-Soviet periods the Cossack culture was studied only from the viewpoint of folklore. Although some post-Soviet researchers saw the re-vitalization of Cossackdom as a sign of the emergence of a more tolerant and multiethnic identity, Basharov disagrees with this point of view. He argues that today’s Cossacks of Transbaikalia are overwhelmingly Russian. Popular literature written by the Cossack representatives today stresses specific ethnic origins of the Cossacks, although points out the age-old ties between them and the Russian people.