Conclusion

Abstract

Late Imperial Russia was a dynamic polity, making great strides towards modernity. It was also riven with contradictions, most notably the lack of congruence between its political system on the one hand and its social and economic system on the other. Throughout the Empire, different peoples found themselves caught between these contradictions, pushed in one direction and pulled in another. The Don Cossacks were no exception to this. Changes in Late Imperial Russia threatened their identity, their way of life and even their very existence as a distinct people. However, their tradition, their institutions and their communities were sufficiently strong to withstand the buffeting from the forces of modernity. If anything, by the start of the First World War their sense of their own distinctiveness was stronger than ever as they shed remaining attachments to the dynasty. It is my belief that the Cossacks had taken the first steps towards recreating their own nation and state. The crises of world war, revolution and civil war intensified this process, but the Bolshevik victory stopped it in its tracks, destroying any possibility of a Cossack nation re-emerging on the Don steppe.