Enisey Cossacks

Enisey Cossacks branched off from the Siberian Cossacks in the first quarter of the seventeenth century. In 1619 they built a fort at the Enisey river in Siberia. That fort became the base for further advancement of the explorers and colonists towards river Lena and further eastward. In 1626 there came a directive from Moscow to send four atamans and 400 Siberian Cossacks into the area. By winter 1628 about 300 Cossacks built a fort at Enisey, in the area known as Krasny Yar. The settlement was called Krasny (this word in Russian used to mean "beautiful", now it mostly means "red"). The fort grew into a big town – now it is Krasnoyarsk, one of the largest cities in Siberia.

Enisey Cossacks were responsible for maintaining the order in the area and for the guarding the transportation routes and a segment of Russo-Mongolian border.

After the leftist revolution of 1917 Enisey Cossacks tried to organize themselves in a fashion of other Hosts and elected Host Ataman. Their small community (about 25-30 thousand people) detached a cavalry brigade for the army of Siberian Cossacks to fight against the Red Army. With the end of the war, soviet government did all it could to eliminate the Cossackdom throughout the country. In Enisey area, like throughout the rest of the country, the Cossacks were a target of perhaps the most severe prosecution by the communist regime.

But Lenin and his successors did not have the complete victory. Generations after the abolishment of the Enisey Host, the Cossacks of the area still remember their roots and traditions. Since late 1980s the Enisey Cossacks, like other Cossack Hosts, are experiencing the revival of their culture and traditions.

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