«We hate with the all force of our hearts slave tyranny, which reigned in every part of your governance»: about the reasons for the unpopularity of the ataman M.I. Chertkov on the Don

The figures of the Don atamans, who ruled the Don Host Oblast in the second half of the XIX century, until now attracted little attention of researchers. All of them were not Cossack origin, but the question about their relationship with the Don society remains unexplored. Meanwhile, these relationships were quite important for the history of the Don. For example, General M.I. Chertkov, the Don Ataman in 1868-1874, left the post at his own volition, because he and his family were the targets for a hail of anonymous letters from Don Cossacks. V.D. Novitsky, who was the confidant of ataman, wrote that the policy of M.I. Chertkov was ineffective, because general was very unpopular among the Cossacks. We have tried to specify what qualities of M. I. Chertkov made him so unpopular and why this experienced administrator could not realize his potential on the Don. Our research is based on archival materials of the State archive of the Rostov region (GARO) and Russian state military and historical archive (RGVIA), memoirs of the ataman's contemporaries (P.A. Valuyev, D. A. Milyutin, S. Yu. Witte, D. V. Novitsky, B. M. Kalinin, etc.) and the works of modern historians. According to the evaluation of the majority of contemporaries, M.I. Chertkov was an extraordinary person. Many memoirists emphasized the general's wife, a divorced Jewish woman, who had a great influence on her husband. This marriage was unacceptable for the conservative and xenophobic Don society, and the wife of M.I. Chertkov, O.I. Chertkova, aroused hatred among the Don Cossacks. Cossacks were negative to the rest of the ataman's entourage: M.I. Chertkov preferred the rich and titled officials, regardless of their working talents. Don officers could not stand competition with representatives of the Russian aristocracy, and, contrary to the traditions of the Don, non-Cossack officials increasingly surrounded the ataman. Finally, M.I. Chertkov was closed, arrogant and touchy. Therefore, he remained unpopular, despite some successful reforms. However, the Don society attributed these reforms to the popular companions of the ataman: for example, the reforms of the Don artillery in the early 1870 for memoirists associated with its chief P.A. Bashilov, but that does not correspond to archival documents. The authors of the anonymous letters believed that the ideal ataman was P.H. Grabbe, who failed to make significant reforms, but had outstanding personal qualities (the Cossacks remembered his kindness half a century later) and defended the traditions of the Don. We came to the conclusion that the Don Cossacks divided the non-Cossack atamans into "their", "outsider" and "intolerable". The basis for this division was not only the policy, but also the character of the atamans, and even their family life. P.H. Grabbe could become "their" for the Cossacks, and therefore the Don authors described him benevolently, despite the unsuccessful administrative activity. Other examples of "their" can be A.M. Dondukov-Korsakov and F.F. Taube. A lot of the atamans were "outsider", and the Cossacks carried out their orders without sympathy. But M.I. Chertkov became "intolerable" for the Don society, and was forced to leave the post of ataman despite the successful implementation of crucial reforms.

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