Festive costume of a Don Cossack woman. The Russians. Second half of the 19th century. Province of the Don Cossack Host.

Russians: Cossacks: Don river Cossacks

Costume, women's

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Province of the Don Cossack Host, as well as the territory inhabited by Kuban Cossacks, were often included in Novorossiya, if the Black Sea region in general was meant. The traditional culture of the Don Cossacks was generated over a long time, and the history of that sub-ethnic group is traced to settlements that appeared on the lower and middle Don in the 15th century, when this land was called the Wild Field and it was unsafe to live there due to its frontier position between state nations (Muscovy, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and Golden Horde), with continuous military clashes. In those days, people of various ethnic origins settled down there who fled from authorities looking for freedom and were ready to stand for it arms in hand. From the early 19th century, the Cossackdom became part of Russia’s socio-political and economic life as a military service class; this is indicated by the "Provision on the Governance in the Don Cossack Host” issued in 1835. In the foundation of the Don Cossackdom’s traditional culture, general Russian traditions can be traced, but its generation was without doubt affected by various ethnic traditions and the warlike lifestyle. For instance, the women’s costume with a kubelyok (two-flap skirt) common in the 19th century reminded, in its cut and appearance, women’s clothing of peoples inhabiting the steppe and mountain regions of North Caucasus; ethnographers reckon this clothing complex among the basic types of the Russian people’s women’s costume. It occurred in the areas of the lower and middle Don. In other localities of the Don basin, one can come across other versions of women’s traditional costume – with a sarafan (pinafore dress), a caftan, a ponyova (wrap skirt), and a skirt. In days of old, a Don Cossack woman’s clothing also included trousers of thin fabric, but by the end of the 19th century, the girls and women had quit wearing them. The Russian Museum of Ethnography keeps a few articles indicative of the culture of the Don Cossackdom. Among them are garments and decorations of young and quite well-to-do Cossack women – chemises, kubelyoks, sarafans, fur coats, sashes, bonnets and headscarves, “chiriki” footwear, kubelyok buttons, earrings, shawls etc. This unique collection was acquired by the Museum in the early 20th century, in the first years of its functioning, from P. N. Beketov, a Navy officer and local lore student, and A. A. Miller, archeologist and ethnographer.