Cossack: Warrior Riders of the Steppes

by Mike Groushko

Book by Groushko, Mike

Genres: History

143 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Laura Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice illustrations and informative narrative on the history of the Cossacks.

[Ariel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little book, filled with pictures, that paints a good portrait of the Cossacks, some of the key events in their history, and of their leaders. However, even the least discerning reader can see that the author has glossed over or minimized some of the extreme outrages and barbarous acts of this people. Khmelnitsky in 1648, for example, didn't incite the Cossacks of the Ukraine to kill "as many as a few hundred Jews." He incited them and roused them up to kill something like 300,000 Jews over a period of a few weeks. It was the worst massacre of Jews until the Holocaust... Not to be misunderstood, Groushko does not shy away from all egregious aspects of Cossack history. For example, their willing and enthusiastic role in crushing any and all forms of popular or democratic dissent, as quasi-military goon squads under the last of the Romanov tsars. He also makes clear, however, that they were the first to ride to war for Russia, and the bravest and most effective of soldiers. Without the Cossacks, Russia could not have beaten the Swedes, the Poles and Lithuanians, the Turkish, nor the French under Napoleon, or the Germans under Hitler. They were not afraid to fight and to die for leaders they believed in. And their love of freedom, to live their own lifestyle free of the serfdom, poverty, and crushing servitude to others that trapped their brethren in other parts of Russia, Poland, and Ukraine is something that really captures the imagination. In any case, an interesting book about a compelling people. I'd like to give it five stars, but I can't get past the way the author minimized that 1648 massacre.