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One of the earliest histories of the Cossacks to appear in English, with an emphasis on the exploits of famous Cossack leaders and Cossack struggles for political autonomy. Originally published in 1919.<br><br> From the Foreword: "It is the proudest boast of the Cossacks of today -- as of their forbears of the Ukraine -- that they have never been classed as serfs nor for a moment lost their freeman's instinct for the principles of liberty. While the peasants of North Russia were bowed in shameful submission to the Great Princes of Moscow and later to the 'dark forces' of the Tsar's court and the Baltic-German officialdom of the capital on the Neva, the history of the Cossack inhabitants of the southern steppes was (as we shall later see) a long epic of heroic resistance to the encroachments of autocracy." - Summary by Kazbek