The Cossacks played an important role in the formation of the Russian Empire. They lived in
communities called hosts on the edges of the empire. They operate under
a military hierarchy ruled by a chief,
the Ataman. Due to their loyalty to the Tsar, the Cossacks were repressed by the
Bolsheviks after 1917.
Credit: Journal “Chronicle of War”, 1915; Nicholas II among officers
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the Cossacks’ descendants
called for a “rebirth”.
In 2005, a bill submitted by President Vladimir Putin allowed registered Cossack organisations members
to serve in military units and police forces.
Credit: tamvesti.ru
New hosts were created in traditionally non-Cossack lands with a
variety of institutions
to direct them. In 2018, the government
united them in the “All-Russian Cossack
Society”. Putin tries to marginalise the traditional Cossack groups, analyst Paul Goble told
Bellingcat while the ones “he has created for his own purposes” play a “major role in military and
patriotic education”.
Credit: Kremlin
According to Kuznetsov, the VSKO
priorities are “development of military Cossack societies in all directions: education, culture,
history, and most importantly, youth. Everything through youth.”
EVERYTHING THROUGH YOUTH
Cossack education can be divided into primary, secondary, and tertiary levels, all with the goal
of
promoting a unified system.
At the primary level are the Cossack kindergartens, which compete
nationally
to be named the best.
There are Cossack schools and regular schools with a Cossack affiliation.
Data from 2022
claim there were just under 2000 such institutions with around 210,000 students, but
recent claims point to over 300,000
students.
The most intense level of Cossack education is the Cossack Cadets Corps, of which there are
31 across the country, with the newest corps created in Russia’s Far East.
They
also
compete nationally.
Finally, the Association of
Cossack
Universities has 26 members,
with many concentrated in
Rostov and Krasnodar. There is also a
Union of Cossack Youth, which
in 2022
had more
than 163,000 members. More than
5,500
Cossack youth
took part in military exercises on training
grounds in 2023.
Oleg’s story demonstrates how young people outside formal Cossack education can still get pulled
in. It also shows that the Cossacks are but one of several interlaced strategies for
“military-patriotic” education.
Credit: Image of youth practicing putting on a gas mask, posted on VKontakte by Lyceum N.3.
He studied in Lyceum N.3, a state-funded educational institution in Saratov. Often, the school
promotes events like the national
Zarnitsa
competition. It includes activities like “putting on gas masks” or “sniper games” for third
graders.
The school’s
military club “Fakel”
acts as an intermediary for these events and other nationwide military education initiatives such as the 24-hour-long
Avangard training for tenth graders.
In 2024,
Natalia
Saprykina,
the director of Lyceum N.3, was
awarded
a Letter of Gratitude for her “contribution to the patriotic education of the younger
generation” by
a Deputy of the
Regional
Duma.
Oleg graduated from high school in 2023 at the age of 17.
In the same year he enrolled in InPIT, a higher education
institution of the Saratov State Technical University.
By November Oleg had turned 18 and was
wearing
military fatigues and practising survival skills alongside other candidates of a
“military-patriotic” student association named Berkut, at another local university, the
Saratov State Law Academy (SSLA).
Though Berkut is not explicitly a Cossack organisation, we established several
connections between the head of Berkut, Alexander Andreevich, and Cossack organisations. As
we’ll see, Andreevich was present at multiple military style training camps that Oleg took
part in.
Neither does its
page
in the University website.
The association’s official objectives are “forming a positive image of military service” and
“popularisation of service in the Russian army and law enforcement agencies”. It is headed by
Alexander Andreevich.
However, some of Berkut’s
videos
include the banner of a
Молодёжная казачья
организация.
A Telegram
post
by Andrey Fetisov, the Saratov District Ataman, refers to Berkut as a “Cossack Youth Movement”.
Even though Berkut (left) shares a name and eagle iconography with a notorious
Ukrainian special police
force (right), part of which defected to Russia during the occupation of Crimea in 2014,
Bellingcat found no link between the two organisations.
FROM WAR GAMES TO REAL WEAPONS
By December 2023, nearing the end of the first semester, Oleg and the other candidates
took the Berkut oath,
making them official members. Oath-taking ceremonies are
“invented
traditions”
among Cossack forces.
Atop the dais stand senior members of Berkut, including the head of the organisation – Alexander
Andreevich.
Andreevich is an active Cossack who has been working under the guidance of District Ataman Andrey Fetisov since at least April 2023.
More recently, in January 2025, they were both delivering a
lesson
to Cossack children for Yunarmiya,
exemplifying the overlapping network of youth militarisation initiatives.
In
July
2025, they both
attended
Saratov’s Council of Atamans that was hosted at the
Ministry of Internal Policy and Public Relations of
Saratov.
Local
organisations
often meet there.
In August 2024, Andreevich attended the
iVolga
Cossack Youth Festival, where he met
Kuznetsov.
The only two people featured speaking in an
official video.
Andreevich also led Oleg to two military-inspired events in April 2024.
The first, on April 13, was the annual Airsoft competition.
Five days later they went to a training that
included trench tactics and simulated helicopter jumps.
Since
2023,
Oleg often wore a distinctive yellow and red
“Скорпион”
call sign patch on his chest when wearing military fatigues, which distinguishes him from other
youth at the events. That and other distinctive features identify him even with a mask or
goggles.
Bellingcat was able to geolocate this place to be a
Rosgvardia
training ground
on the outskirts of Saratov.
Notably, the trenches are not visible on Google Earth but are on Yandex Maps, which has more recent imagery for
the region.
This group photo tells its own story. The flags visible are, from left to right, for the Volga Cossack Host, the Immortal Regiment, the Kuban Cossack Host, and Veteran News.
Oleg is at the far right wearing his “Scorpion” and Berkut patches.
This time, ex-fighters were there too.
Sergey Frolkov
is an
ex-fighter in the war on
Ukraine.
He
regularly
posts
photos
with an Akhmat special forces patch, associated with
Kadryovites
. He is also a
member
of the local
Combat Brotherhood
association.
As is
Oleg Mysov, another returned fighter who also
engages in “patriotic education of youth”
events.
Both have
attended Cossack events.
Even though in this photo they are holding the Volga Cossack Host flag, Bellingcat could not
clearly identify them as Cossacks.
A third man,
Andrey Berdnikov
is indeed
a
Cossack
and a former
fighter of BARS-15, the Battalion Oleg
joined, though he was
reportedly expelled by his Commander. On the
left, Alexander Andreevich.
Bellingcat contacted Sergey Frolkov, Oleg Mysov and Andrey Berdnikov before publication to
ask about their roles, but did not receive a response.
Five months later, in
September 2024,
Oleg
went
on a two-day training. Andrey Fetisov
got a special thanks
for the opportunity.
Bellingcat geolocated it to a military training ground in Samara, the same location where
other
Cossack recruits
trained before deploying to BARS-15. Fetisov himself
shared photos
of this training ground
two weeks after stepping down
as Ataman to join BARS-15. Andreevich left and Oleg right in
this
photo.
They used real weapons this time. A
video montage
shows participants firing live rounds.
This is
a
photo
that includes Oleg, Fetisov, and Andreevich. The first media we found for this event
is from early September
which is consistent with the
sun position
in this photo and the grass patches seen in satellite imagery from early September 2024.
Bellingcat contacted Kuznetsov, Fetisov and Andreevich to ask about their roles in the Cossack
community, but they haven’t responded.
This is the last time Bellingcat was able to trace Oleg’s whereabouts with open sources before
he joined BARS-15.
VOLUNTARY RECRUITMENT
Many countries have a volunteer reserve system for getting more soldiers in times of war. In
Russia, the system is known as
BARS,
created in 2015
and
intensified
in
2021.
All BARS fighters sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense and get paid.
Mapping the geolocated positions of these units in the
UAControlMaps Project dataset
reveal widespread areas of operations. BARS Battalions are often reorganised.
Estimates
put the total number so far at
over 30 BARS Battalions and 10 of them
have overt Cossack affiliation.
Cossacks also
operate
as detachments in other military structures.
By
their own reckoning,
in February there were more than 18,500 Cossacks on the front lines in Ukraine. In May the
first-ever national Ataman, Nikolai Doluda, gave a higher figure of 46,000
Cossacks.
As of 2024, British Professor Rod Thornton estimated
that BARS constitute some 10-30,000 troops in Ukraine, 15% of the total invasion force.