{{Cossacks A plastun or plastoon (

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

, russian: пластун) was a

Cossack The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...

foot

scouting Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth Social movement, movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hik ...

and

sentry Sentry or The Sentry may refer to: Comics *Sentry (Kree) *Sentry (Curtis Elkins) * Sentry (Robert Reynolds) *Senator Ward (comics) or Sentry Vehicles *Sentry (AUV), an autonomous underwater vehicle used to measure deep-ocean data *E-3 Sentry AWAC ...

military unit Military organization or military organisation is the structuring of the armed forces of a state so as to offer such military capability as a national defense policy may require. In some countries paramilitary forces are included in a natio ...

. Originally, they were part of the

Black Sea Cossack Host Black Sea Cossack Host (russian: Черномо́рское каза́чье во́йско; uk, Чорномо́рське коза́цьке ві́йсько ), also known as Chernomoriya (russian: Черномо́рия), was a Cossack host ...

and then later in the 19th and 20th centuries Kuban Cossack Host.

Early history

The tradition of foot scouts, vanguard troops, and ambushes, together with the term ''plastuny'', belong to the early Cossack history of the

Zaporizhian Sich The Zaporozhian Sich ( ua, Запорозька Січ, ; also uk, Вольностi Вiйська Запорозького Низового, ; Free lands of the Zaporozhian Host the Lower) was a semi-autonomous polity and proto-state of C ...

and mentioned, e.g., by Vladimir Dahl in his '' Explanatory Dictionary of the Live Great Russian language''. Plastun foot units were introduced during the Russian-Circassian War to guard and scout beyond the "Kuban Line", a frontier in the

Kuban Kuban ( Russian and Ukrainian: Кубань; ady, Пшызэ) is a historical and geographical region of Southern Russia surrounding the Kuban River, on the Black Sea between the Don Steppe, the Volga Delta and the Caucasus, and separated ...

plains, against sudden Circassian raids. Later, the name "plastoon regiments" was applied to all Cossack

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...

. In the

Russian Imperial Army The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian A ...

, whole plastun regiments were formed. Normally, Cossacks had to buy their horses and

horse tack Tack is equipment or accessories equipped on horses and other equines in the course of their use as domesticated animals. This equipment includes such items as saddles, stirrups, bridles, halters, reins, bits, and harnesses. Equipping a hors ...

with their own money, and plastuns did not have these expenses. Despite this, regular plastun units were not popular, since they did not fit the traditional notion of Cossack pride. Therefore, plastun units tended to consist of poorer people.

Soviet period

The term was revived in the

Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...

during the

Great Patriotic War The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), an ...

and used in the names of several Cossack

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions ...

s and

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscript ...

s. The only plastun Cossack division of that time was the 9th Krasnodar Plastun Division, which fought in Northern Caucasus, Poland, and Czechoslovakia, and was one of the elite Soviet military units. Germans called them "Stalin's cutthroats". At the same time, "plastun" (i.e., infantry) regiments existed in the Cossack military that fought on the German side, in the 15th SS Cossack Cavalry Corps.

Name

The name derives from the word ''plast'', "sheet" via an expression "to lay like a sheet", i.e., flat and low. The word "plastoon" also can refer to a member of a Ukrainian

organization ''

Plast The Plast National Scout Organization of Ukraine ( uk, Пласт Національна Скаутська Організація України, ''Plast Natsionalna Skautska Orhanizatsiia Ukrayiny''), commonly called Ukrainian Plast or simply P ...

'', named after the original plastoons. Military organization of Cossacks