V.V. Kapnist's Project of the Creation of Mercenary Cossack Regiments and its Fate

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Abstract

The article examines the history of V.V. Kapnist’s project of the creation of mercenary Cossack regiments. The author reconstructs in detail the context of the discussion of the project in the governmental public sphere in 1788–1789 and similar initiatives at the end of the reign of Catherine II. It is shown that in government circles, initiatives such as the Kapnist’s project received support from influential Great Russian officials and nobles. It is explained that the key factor blocking such initiatives was Vice-Chancellor A.A. Bezborodko, and not the policy of the Russian government. Unlike the Great Russians, Bezborodko saw any Cossack projects as a direct threat to the interests of the empire. This threat consisted in the possible return of the disorders associated with the institution of the hetmanate, which was liquidated in 1764. The Great Russians' support for initiatives like the Kapnist’s project is explained by the idealization of the Little Russian Cossacks as a kind of «wonder weapon». In the appendix to the article, Kapnist’s project and Bezborodko’s answers to G.A. Potemkin's opinion about the project are published for the first time.

About the authors

Y. A. Lazarev

Institute of History and Archeology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Author for correspondence.
Email: 9lazarev@gmail.com
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6141-2215
Yekaterinburg

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