ied the Sultan with any number of casi belli, and were often ready
to turn their arms against the power to which they professed allegiance.
During "the troublous times," for example, when the national existence
was endangered by civil strife and foreign invasion, they overran the
country, robbing, pillaging, and burning as they were wont to do in the
Tartar aouls. At a later period the Don Cossacks twice raised formidable
insurrections--first under Stenka Razin (1670), and secondly under
Pugatchef (1773)--and during the war between Peter the Great and Charles
XII. of Sweden the Zaporovians took the side of the Swedish king.

The Government naturally strove to put an end to this danger,
and ultimately succeeded. All the Cossacks were deprived of their
independence, but the fate of the various communities was different.
Those of the Volga were transfered to the Terek, where they had abundant
occupation in guarding the frontier against the incursions of the
Eastern Caucasian tribes. The Zaporovians held tenaciously to their
"Dnieper liberties," and resisted all interference, till they were
forcibly disbanded in the time of Catherine II. The majority of them
fled to Turkey, where some of their descendants are still to be found,
and the remainder were settled on the Kuban, where they could lead their
old life by carrying on an irregular warfare with the tribes of the
Western Caucasus. Since the capture of Shamyl and the pacification
of the Caucasus, this Cossack population of the Kuban and the Terek,
extending in an unbroken line from the Sea of Azof to the Caspian, have
been able to turn their attention to peaceful pursuits, and now raise
large quantities of wheat for exportation; but they still retain their
martial bearing, and some of them regret the good old times when a brush
with the Circassians was an ordinary occurrence and the work of tilling
the soil was often diversified with a more exciting kind of occupation.

The Cossacks of the Ural and the Don have been allowed to remain in
their old homes, but they have been deprived of their independence
and self-government, and their social organisation has been completely
changed. The boisterous popular assemblies which formerly decided all
public affairs have been abolished, and the custom of choosing the
Ataman and other office-bearers by popular election has been replaced
by a system of regular promotion, according to rules elaborated in
St. Petersburg. The officers an