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A stanitsa or stanitza ( /stəˈniːtsə/ ; Russian : станица [stɐˈnʲitsə] ), also spelled stanycia (станиця [stɐˈnitsʲɐ] in Ukrainian) or stanica (станіца [stɐˈɲitsɐ] in Belarusian), was a historical administrative unit of a Cossack host, a type of Cossack polity that existed in the Russian Empire.
The Russian word is the diminutive of the word stan (стан), which means "station" or "police district". It is distantly related to the Sanskrit word sthāna (स्थान), which means "station", "locality", or "district". [1]
The stanitsa was a unit of economic and political organisation of the Cossack peoples who lived in the Russian Empire. Each stanitsa contained several villages and khutirs. [2]
An assembly of landowners governed each stanitsa community. This assembly distributed land, oversaw institutions like schools, and elected a stanitsa administration and court. The stanitsa administration consisted of an Ataman, a collection of legislators, and a treasurer. [2] The stanitsa court made judgements regarding "petty criminal and civil suits". [2]
All inhabitants, except for non-Cossacks, were considered members of the stanitsa. Non-Cossacks were required to pay a fee to use the local land owned by the stanitsa. [2]
The stanitsa was first an administrative unit in the 18th century. [2] In the late 18th century, when the Cossack peoples largely lost their autonomy within the empire, they still kept self-governance at the level of the stanitsa; [3] each stanitsa was still allowed to elect its own assembly. [4]
In the aftermath of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, a new Soviet regime took power. Beginning in 1919, the Soviet regime pursued a policy of genocide [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] and systematic repression against Cossacks known as De-Cossackization. The policy aimed at the elimination of the Cossacks as a distinct collectivity by exterminating the Cossack elite, coercing all other Cossacks into compliance and eliminating Cossack distinctness. [10] As part of this policy, the Soviet forces sought to erase Cossack administrative structures, especially of the Don Cossacks. [11] The purpose of this was to "deny Cossacks any Don structure as a point of identification and to 'dilute' the Cossack population by appending portions of neighboring non-Cossack provinces". [12] This included distinctly Cossack names for administrative units, as the Cossacks were fond of these names "as markers of their distinctiveness from peasants." The Soviets sought to erase these identities. [13] On 20 April 1919, the Red Army's Southern Front issued an order renaming the stanitsas to generic volosts, or counties. Local revolutionary committees assisted in this, passing resolutions in parallel to destroy the stanitsa as a social unit. [14] The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine lists the specific end date of the existence of the traditional stanitsa as 1920. [2]
Later in the Soviet Union, the term stanitsa was used after 1929 to refer to rural settlements on former Cossack land that were governed by soviet councils. [2]
In modern Russia, the administration classifies a stanitsa as a type of rural locality in these federal subjects of Russia: [15]
The most populous stanitsa in modern Russia is Kanevskaya in Krasnodar Krai (44,800 people in 2005). Formerly, the most populous stanitsa was Ordzhonikidzevskaya in Ingushetia (61,598 people in 2010), but in 2016 it was reorganized into the town Sunzha. [15] The town Stanytsia Luhanska in Ukraine, originally founded by Cossacks, still has stanytsia in its name. [16]
Stavropol Krai, also known as Stavropolye, is a federal subject of Russia. It is geographically located in the North Caucasus region in Southern Russia, and is administratively part of the North Caucasian Federal District. Stavropol Krai has a population of 2,907,593, according to the 2021 Census.
Krasnodar Krai is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region in Southern Russia and administratively a part of the Southern Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Krasnodar. The third most populous federal subject, the krai had a population of 5,838,273 as of the 2021 Census.
Krasnodar is the largest city and the administrative centre of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. The city stands on the Kuban River in southern Russia, with a population of 1,121,291 residents, and up to 1.226 million residents in the Urban Okrug. In the past decade Krasnodar has experienced rapid population growth, rising to become the thirteenth-largest city in Russia, and the second-largest city in southern Russia, as well as the Southern Federal District.
The Mountain Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic or Mountain ASSR was a short-lived autonomous republic within the Russian SFSR in the Northern Caucasus that existed from 20 January 1921, to 7 July 1924. The Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus was created from parts of the Kuban and Terek Oblasts by the indigenous nationalities after the Russian Revolution; however, Soviet rule was installed on this territory after the Red Army conquered the Northern Caucasus in the course of the Russian Civil War, and the former republic was transformed into a Soviet one. The area of the republic was over 73,000 square kilometres (28,000 sq mi), and the population was about 800,000. It comprised six okrugs: Balkar, Chechen, Kabardian, Karachay, Nazran (Ingushetia), and Vladikavkaz Okrug (Ossetia) and had two cities: Grozny and Vladikavkaz. In addition, a special autonomy was provided to the Terek Cossacks: Sunzha Cossack Okrug, which included a large enclave in northern Ingushetia, and a smaller one bordering Grozny. Its boundaries approximated those of classical Zyx.
An okrug is a type of administrative division in some Slavic-speaking states. The word okrug is a loanword in English, alternatively translated as area, district, county, or region.
Don Cossacks or Donians, are Cossacks who settled along the middle and lower Don. Historically, they lived within the former Don Cossack Host, which was either an independent or an autonomous democratic republic in present-day Southern Russia and parts of the Donbas region of Ukraine, from the end of the 16th century until 1918. As of 1992, by presidential decree of the Russian Federation, Cossacks can be enrolled on a special register. A number of Cossack communities have been reconstituted to further Cossack cultural traditions, including those of the Don Cossack Host. Don Cossacks have had a rich military tradition - they played an important part in the historical development of the Russian Empire and participated in most of its major wars.
A selsoviet is the shortened name for a rural council and for the area governed by such a council (soviet).
Kuban Cossacks, or Kubanians, are Cossacks who live in the Kuban region of Russia. Most of the Kuban Cossacks are descendants of different major groups of Cossacks who were re-settled to the western Northern Caucasus in the late 18th century. The western part of the region was settled by the Black Sea Cossack Host who were originally the Zaporozhian Cossacks of Ukraine, from 1792. The eastern and southeastern part of the host was previously administered by the Khopyour and Kuban regiments of the Caucasus Line Cossack Host and Don Cossacks, who were re-settled from the Don from 1777.
Kuban is a historical and geographical region in the North Caucasus region of southern Russia surrounding the Kuban River, on the Black Sea between the Don Steppe, the Volga Delta and separated from the Crimean Peninsula to the west by the Kerch Strait. Krasnodar Krai is often referred to as Kuban, both officially and unofficially, although the term is not exclusive to the krai and also accommodates the republics of Adygea, Karachay-Cherkessia, and parts of Stavropol Krai.
Slavyansk-on-Kuban is a town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located in the Kuban River delta. Population: 63,842 (2010 Census); 64,136 (2002 Census); 57,790 (1989 Soviet census); 56,000 (1975).
Labinsk is a town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located on the Bolshaya Laba River 145 kilometers (90 mi) southeast of Krasnodar and 50 kilometers (31 mi) southwest of Armavir. Population: 57,428 (2021), 59,330 (2020), 62,864 (2010 Census); 61,446 (2002 Census); 57,958 (1989 Soviet census); 53,000 (1972).
De-Cossackization was the Bolshevik policy of systematic repression against the Cossacks in the former Russian Empire between 1919 and 1933, especially the Don and Kuban Cossacks in Russia, aimed at the elimination of the Cossacks as a distinct collectivity by exterminating the Cossack elite, coercing all other Cossacks into compliance, and eliminating Cossack distinctness. Several scholars have categorised this as a form of genocide, whilst other historians have highly disputed this classification due to the contentious figures which range from "a few thousand to incredible claims of hundreds of thousands".
The Kuban People's Republic or Kuban National Republic was an anti-Bolshevik state during the Russian Civil War, comprising the territory of the Kuban region in Russia.
The Ukrainians in Kuban in southern Russia constitute a national minority. The region as a whole shares many linguistic, cultural and historic ties with Ukraine. Тhe area where Ukrainians live in Kuban is sometimes unofficially referred to as Raspberry Ukraine or Malynovyi Klyn.
Sunzha is a town and the administrative center of the Sunzhensky District of the Republic of Ingushetia, Russia. Before 2016 it was called Ordzhonikidzevskaya, after Soviet political leader Grigoriy Ordzhonikidze.
Poltavskaya is a rural locality and the administrative center of Krasnoarmeysky District of Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located on the Kuban River, 65 kilometers (40 mi) west of Krasnodar. Population: 26,490 (2010 Census); 28,639 (2002 Census); 23,788 (1989 Soviet census).
The Kuban oblast was a province (oblast) of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. It roughly corresponded to most of the Kuban and Circassia regions. It was created in 1860 out of Kuban Cossack territories that had once been part of the Crimean Khanate and the land of the Circassians. It was dissolved upon the assumption of supreme authority by the Kuban Rada in 1917 and the independence of the Kuban People's Republic in 1918. Its capital was the city of Yekaterinodar.
Leningradskaya is a rural locality and the administrative center of Leningradsky District in Krasnodar Krai, Russia. It is requested that the name of the town be changed. Population: 36,940 (2010 Census); 38,218 (2002 Census); 34,554 (1989 Soviet census).
Stanytsia Luhanska is a rural settlement on the banks of the Siverskyi Donets River in the Shchastia Raion of Luhansk Oblast in eastern Ukraine. Residence of Stanytsia Luhanska settlement hromada. Population: 12,258 . It is situated 20 km northeast of Luhansk. Prior to 2020, it was the administrative centre of the former Stanytsia-Luhanska Raion.
Syze is a village in Stanytsia Luhanska settlement hromada, Shchastia Raion (district) in Luhansk Oblast of eastern Ukraine, at about 10 km SE from the centre of Stanytsia Luhanska, at about 2 km west from the Russian border.
In the late eighteenth century the Cossacks lost their former autonomy. [...] However the Cossacks retained self-government on the village (stanitsa) level.
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