Anybody wanna be a Cossack?

[Walter Comins-Richmond]

RFE/RL Russian Political Weekly
Vol. 2, No. 27, 21 August 2002

.....................

ANYONE CAN BE A COSSACK. For the first time since the tsarist era,
Cossacks will be included in the national census in 2002 as a separate
"nationality," "Vremya novostei" reported on 2 August. According to the
daily, the motivation for the Cossacks to participate in the census in
this fashion is financial. As General Ataman Viktor Vodolatskii
explained, "If the census shows that a large number of Cossacks live
compactly on the territory of the All-Great Forces of the Don, then we
can compete for federal allocations." He noted that the people of the
Engels Raion in Saratov Oblast live well, "with good roads, gas, and
electricity," because that region has been designated an area inhabited
by Volga Germans and is therefore eligible for additional federal funds.
The All-Great Forces of the Don unites Cossacks living in Rostov,
Voronezh, and Volgograd oblasts, and the forces' apparatus intends to
launch a wide-scale campaign among residents of those oblasts to
identify themselves as Cossacks, an identification "whose authenticity
Ataman Vodolatskii will promise in advance not to check." JAC


_____________________________________________________________
http://www.kavkazweb.com

_____________________________________________________________
Promote your group and strengthen ties to your members with email at yourgroup.org by Everyone.net  http://www.everyone.net/?btn=tag

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                  http://home.attbi.com/~lists/seelangs/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------