ATAMAN ERMAK TIMOFEEVICH AND THE EVENTS OF THE 16th CENTURY IN THE HISTORICAL MEMORY OF THE DON COSSACKS
N.A. Mininkov
South Federal University, Institute of History and International Relations, 15, 247 M. Gorky street, Rostov-na-Donu, 344022, Russia
Keywords: историческая память, места исторической памяти, донское казачество, Ермак, Иван Грозный, А.И. Ригельман, Е.П. Савельев, массовое движение на Дону 1792-1794 гг, П.П. Сахаров, Новочеркасск, historical memory, key points of historical memory, Don Cossacks, Ermak, Ivan the Terrible, A. I. Rigelman, Е. P. Saveliev, mass movement on the Don in 1792-1794, P. P. Sakharov, Novocherkassk
Abstract
The article objective is the structure analysis of Don Cossacks’ historical memory, where events and personalities of the XVI century occupy a system-forming place. Among the most important historical figures are Ataman Ermak and Tzar Ivan the Terrible, whose images became the key points of Don Cossacks’ historical memory. These persons are linked with the Cossacks’ mentality, in which the idea of the right to the “Don river” and the Don land plays the decisive role. In the Cossacks’ consciousness this right stemmed from awarding the Don to the Cossacks’ ancestors for “the Kazan service” to Ivan the Terrible, when they allegedly participated in the capture of Kazan under Ermak leadership. The Cossacks believed in the existence of a special charter of Ivan the Terrible according to which their ancestors were granted the Don. This corresponded to the idea of the land rewarding for service, which applies to the most important principle of vassalage and is remuneration for the service to overlord. The Cossacks referred to the image of Ermak on many occasions. By referring to Ermak they justified their refusal to take oath to Tzar Mikhail Romanov, as well as to resettle to the Caucasian line on demand of the authorities in the XVIII century. In the XIX - early XX centuries the references to Ermak and awarding the Don by Ivan the Terrible to the Cossacks for the Kazan service became the argument in the struggle for the preservation of the Cossacks’ special rights to the land as well as other class laws. Central and local authorities maintained a cult of Ermak among the Cossacks. This was revealed in the founding a new village Ermakovskaya Stanitsa, in naming one of the Don regiments in honor of Ermak, in installing the monument to Ermak in Novocherkassk, and in distribution of his images. Worshiping Ivan the Terrible in the Cossacks’ historical memory had no official support as a whole. However it was reflected in the historical science and science-popular literature devoted to the Don. After the Revolution and Civil War, with the Cossacks’ abolition, the traditional historical memory about Ermak started to fade and to acquire the features of book memory.
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