The cossack estate utopia: comments of Khoper deputies about the new draft of "Regulation of the administration of the Don host" in 1863

The social ideal of ordinary Cossacks of the second half of the XIX century has not attracted the attention of historians. This fact is determined by the specifics of the source base: it is difficult to reliably and explicitly identify the social ideal of the illiterate rural population in a state in which there were no representative authorities. But we found in the State archive of the Rostov region materials of the work of deputies from the Khoper villages on a new version of the draft of "Regulation of the administration of the Don Host" in 1863. We will compare this detailed text with the information about the work of village deputies in other election commissions and try to restore some aspects of the Cossack social ideal. In the article we show that deputies perceived the name "The Land of the Don Army" literally. They believed that the territory of the Don possess to the Cossacks. This was manifested in three spheres: the local administrative structure, the estate structure of society and the land tenure system. In the opinion of the Khoper Cossacks, civil officials were to be elected, but exclusively from the Cossack class and a majority of votes to be given to the cadet deputies. The rights of non-Cossack estate groups in the Don and subestate groups of the Cossacks, who stood out from the mass (the Don Nobility and the Don Kalmyks), should seriously cut back in favor of ordinary Cossacks. Finally, the Don land should have literally possessed to the Don Host, and individual people could only be its temporary users. The deputies demanded a redistribution of land, the destruction of landlordism and the increase of the village yurts to the size of thirty tithes per capita. The new "Regulation of the administration of the Don Host" was to become unusual "Cossack Constitution". Its text was supposed to legislate these changes. It would be impossible to make any correctives to this text without the permission of the Cossack deputies. Social ideal of Cossacks contained some elements that seem progressive (elected officials, development of local self-government), but in general it is anticipated return to the late medieval social structure and, therefore, was the utopia that ignored the realities of the Russian Empire in the second half of the XIX century. At the same time, it was quite stable, and it was defended by elected representatives from the villages in a many public commissions in 1860-1890, which hampered the dialogue between the Cossacks and the government.

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