Volgograd conference finds measures of Cossacks' rehabilitation insufficient

The Russian legislation fails to consider the cultural and ethnic specificities of Cossacks; therefore, possible measures for the rehabilitation thereof are limited, said the participants of a conference held in Volgograd. In their view, the rehabilitation may facilitate the recognition of the decossackization process a form of genocide.

The conference "Russian Cossacks of the 20th-21st Centuries: from Decossackization Tragedy to Revival and Development" was held today in the Volgograd Cossack Music and Drama Theatre, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports. It was organized by the Cossack Centre of State Service with the assistance of the Committee for Nationalities' and Cossacks' Matters of the Volgograd Region.

On January 24, 1919, a circular-letter on Cossacks was adopted by the Organization Bureau of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party of Bolsheviks (RCP (b)), Alexander Biryukov, the chairman of the public council under the above Regional Committee, has reminded.

The circular was "a clear instruction on physical liquidation of a whole nation," Andrei Zuev, the director of the Volgograd Cossack Music and Drama Theatre, has noted.

Archpriest Oleg Kirichenko, the spiritual mentor of the regional Cossacks, said that the law "On Rehabilitation Measures of Repressed Nations" failed to provide the necessary support to Cossacks. According to his version, the rehabilitation of Cossacks is also prevented by discord among them and absence of bright leaders.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.