Features of the bashkirs' transition to the structure of the Yaitsky (Ural) and the Orenburg Cossack hosts (XVIII-XIX centuries)

Abstract

One of the understudied facts in military history is the Bashkirs’ service in the Cossack hosts of the Ural region. The first data on the Bashkirs serving in the Yaitsky host belongs to the first half of the XVIII century. During that period the presence of the Bashkirs in the host was sporadic. Only in 1832, after the accession of the 9th Bashkir canton of the Saratov province to the Ural host, the Bashkirs became more numerous part of the army («The Bashkir office» of the Ural Cossack host). Those Bashkirs had no rights of natural Ural Cossacks and had no obligations of service. Generally they carried out police functions and post duties.In 1865 «The Bashkir office» was disengaged from submission to the Ural host (according to statistical data there were more than six thousand people in the office). Some Bashkirs were left in Uralsk, but those cases were sporadic and didn't influence the general statistics.Mass transition of the Bashkirs to the Orenburg host began only in the mid-XIX century. After decrees of March 12, 1831 and August 14th, 1848 where it was authorized to accept various «Asians» (the Bashkirs, the Kirghizkaysaks etc.) to the Ural Cossack hosts, large numbers of the Bashkirs sent applications and asked to submit them to the Orenburg Cossack host.According to statistical data, the 1870s became the peak of demographic growth of the Bashkirs among the Orenburg Cossacks. At that time there were more than five thousand Bashkirs in the host but by the end of the XIX century for various reasons the quantity of the Bashkirs in the Orenburg Cossack host was considerably reduced.