Authors
Richard Arnold1; 1 Muskingum University, United States Discussion
How can we understand Russia's system of Cossack education? Does it produce primarily ideology or infantry? The question of whether Russia has an ideology is one which has motivated scholars recently (McGlynn, 2023; Snegovaya & McGlynn, 2024; Pain, 2016). Similarly, in the face of enormous losses in the war, the ability of Russia to sustain its manpower has come into question. Against the backdrop of the invasion of Ukraine, Russia's development of a national Cossack movement has gone largely unnoticed (Arnold & Neeman, 2025; Rvachaeva, 2018). Russia's Cossacks form a central component of civil-military relations, recruiting youth for direct enrollment in the military, and constituting several BARS battalions, including at least 8 which are currently fighting in Ukraine. Behind such contributions stands an elaborate system of education which recruits young Russians and sends them to die on the battlefield. Exploratory results (Ramalho & Arnold, 2025) suggest, furthermore, that Cossack structures play an important role in even ostensibly non-Cossack recruitment and training. This presentation argues that the Cossack educational system plays an important role in both recruitment and motivation and is part of a larger campaign by the Russian state which has seen the construction of a central museum of the Russian Cossacks in Moscow and a doubling of the budget for Cossack movements from 2025-2027. The presentation uses a web-scraped database of 60,000 articles, the pronouncements of public officials, and network analysis of Telegram channels to make this argument. Understanding the evolution and importance of the Cossack movement in Russia is critical for security and the country's ability to project force on land. 
