Cossack Archives

A Turkish standard-bearer rides into battle. It was a sight all too familiar to Russian general Mikhail Kutusov, who lost an eye to a Turkish rifleman.

Cossack

General Mikhail Kutuzov and the Battle of the Danube

By Victor Kamenir

On April 1, 1811, one-eyed General Mikhail Kutuzov arrived in the Romanian capital of Bucharest to take command of Russia’s Moldavian army. Read more

Cossack

Napoleon Bonaparte & the Patriotic War of 1812

By Frank Quinn

For many, the fascination of military history lies in the “What if …” What if Hitler had not ordered the Luftwaffe to shift from bombing RAF airfields to bombing London in 1940? Read more

Cossack

Emelian Pugachev: Master Imposter of a Russian Czar

By Blaine Taylor

On August 12, 1772, a wandering Don Cossack named Emelian Pugachev crossed the Polish frontier into Imperial Russia on an official passport that entitled him, after spending six weeks in quarantine, to resettle as a free citizen on the Irgiz River in southeast Russia. Read more

The World War II Polish cavalryman was a well-trained and highly motivated elite mobile infantryman.

Cossack

Polish Cavalry Myth Debunked: CNBC vs the Polish Embassy

Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s Mad Money show, made a mistake on May 11th when he jokingly parroted a common misconception about the German invasion of Poland. Read more

Cossack

The Fate of Nazi Germany’s Cossacks

By Don Haines

Between 1944 and 1947, over two million Russians who had been living in the occupied countries of Europe, some voluntarily, some not, were forcibly repatriated to the Soviet Union. Read more

Cossack

How the Cossacks Were Betrayed by Britain in World War II

By Blaine Taylor

An estimated four million Red Army soldiers were captured by the Germans during the six months after the launching of Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, on June 22, 1941. Read more

Cossack

Michel Ney’s Retreat

By Jeremy Green

Napoleon Bonaparte’s Russian campaign of 1812 ranks as one of the worst military disasters in history. Only 50,000 men returned from an orginal 600,000, or of the 100,000 who marched into Moscow, less than 10,000 were to see France again. Read more