The Ural Cossack Host was a
cossack host formed from the Ural Cossacks – those Eurasian cossacks settled by the
Ural River. Their alternative name, Yaik Cossacks, comes from the old name of the river.
They were also known by the names:
*
Russian: Ура́льские каза́ки (ура́льцы) (''Uralskiye kazaki (uraltsy)''); Ура́льское каза́чье во́йско (''Uralskiye kazachye voisko''), Яи́цкое каза́чье во́йско (''Yaitskoye kazachye voisko'')
*
Bashkir: Урал казактары (уралец) (''Ural kazktaryo (uralets)''); Урал казак ғәскәре (''Ural kazak ğəskərye''), Яйыҡ казак ғәскәре (''Yiyok kazak ğəskərye'')
History

The Yaik (Ural) Cossacks although speaking Russian and identifying themselves as being of primarily Russian ancestry also incorporated many
Tatars
Tatars ( )[Tatar]
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...
into their ranks.
According to Peter Rychckov some of these Tatars called themselves Bulgarians of
Khazar origin, and the first Yaik Cossacks, including these Tatars and Russians, existed by the end of the 14th century. These Tatars might be both
Chuvash people and Mishari (Meschera in Russian,
Mişär in Tatar language), the latter had not only Muslims and Jews, but Christians among them to facilitate their merge with Russians. Meschera were important on Don as well. Later, as Pushkin wrote, a lot of
Nogai joined Yaik Cossacks.
Twenty years after the conquest of the Volga from Kazan to Astrakhan, in 1577 Moscow sent troops to disperse pirates and raiders along the Volga (one of their number was
Ermak). Some of these fled southeast to the Ural River and joined the Yaik Cossacks. In 1580 they captured
Saraichik together. By 1591 they were fighting for Moscow and sometime in the next century they were officially recognized. In 1717 they lost 1,500 men on the
Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky expedition to
Khiva
Khiva ( uz-Latn-Cyrl, Xiva, Хива, ; other names) is a district-level city of approximately 93,000 people in Khorazm Region, Uzbekistan. According to archaeological data, the city was established around 2,500 years ago.
In 1997, Khiva celebr ...
. A census in 1723 showed 3,196 men fit for military service.
Yaik Cossacks were the driving force in
the rebellion led by
Yemelyan Pugachev in 1773–1774.
Their main livelihood was
fishery
Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life or, more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a., fishing grounds). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish far ...
and the taxation on it was a major source of friction between the Cossacks and the state. A revolt broke out in 1772, marked by the murder of General von
Traubenberg. Traubenberg headed a commission which was to investigate and settle Cossack complaints and grievances, but his behaviour only antagonized them further. In reprisal, many were arrested, executed and outlawed. Pugachev appeared shortly after and managed to rally them to his cause.
The Yaik Cossacks were renamed as part of the Ural Host after the rebellion.
The Ural regiments later took part in
Suvorov's Italian and Swiss expedition, the
Great Patriotic War of 1812, the
Russo-Turkish War, the
November Uprising
The November Uprising (1830–31) (), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution,
was an armed rebellion in Russian Partition, the heartland of Partitions of Poland, partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. ...
of 1830 and in the
Crimean War
The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...
. They also played a significant role in the
Turkestan campaigns of the 1870s.
In the Ural-Guryev operation of 1919–1920, the Red
Turkestan Front defeated the
Ural Army, which was formed from Ural Cossacks and other troops which rebelled against the Bolsheviks. During winter 1920, Ural Cossacks and their families, totaling about 15,000 people, headed south along the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea towards
Fort Alexandrovsk. Only a few hundred of them reached Persia in June 1920.
Distinctions
The distinguishing colour of the Ural Host was crimson/red; worn on the cap bands,
epaulettes and wide trouser stripes of a dark blue uniform of the loose-fitting cut common to the Steppe Cossacks. Individual regiments were distinguished by yellow numbers on the epaulettes. High fleece hats were worn on occasion with crimson cloth tops. No spurs were worn by the Ural and other cossack hosts. After 1907 a khaki-grey jacket was adopted for field uniform, worn with blue-grey breeches. The
astrakhan
Astrakhan (, ) is the largest city and administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast in southern Russia. The city lies on two banks of the Volga, in the upper part of the Volga Delta, on eleven islands of the Caspian Depression, from the Caspian Se ...
hats and broad crimson/red trouser stripes of the peacetime uniform were however retained during World War I.
References
{{Reflist
Russian Cossacks
Cossack hosts
History of Ural