By Vestnik Kavkaza
The second International Festival Cossack Village Moscow was held in Moscow on October 17. One of the key moments of the festival was the construction of a chapel devoted to Don Icon of the Mother of God in 24 hours. Grace Kirill, metropolitan of Stavropol and Nevinnomysk blessed the chapel. The day was nice, rain cleared up, and Cossaks’ “Lyubo!” was heard under the clear Moscow sky.
“Cossacks protected the Russian Orthodox Church and Motherland in the most difficult times,” the presidential plenipotentiary envoy in the Central Federal District, Alexander Beglov, stated. “Today Cossacks continue doing it and raise young people and children. Only in 24 hours Cossacks constructed a mobile temple and presented it to Krymsk on behalf of Moscow. It means Cossacks can solve any problem, can overcome any obstacles.”
“Last year we gathered in Gorky Park, but the park cannot house our festival in Moscow,” Kirill, metropolitan of Stavropol and Nevinnomysk, said. “Sooner or later Luzhniki won’t have space for us too. It means that today Cossacks are real power. I am glad to see here young people and children. Cossacks have future. This difficult year we protected Orthodox values, Orthodox shrines. Go on protecting Orthodox religions because it is the foundation of Cossacks, the foundation of life of our people. I thank you for your work on protecting our shrines and the Orthodox religion. Remember, together with God, love for our Motherland and raising our children in an appropriate way, we will revive our great country as it has always been. Lyubo Orthodox Cossacks!”
Cossacks shared traditional food, songs, and mead with Muscovites who came. Honey, baked food, souvenirs, cavalry equipment, Cossack clothes were very popular. The great influence on traditional Cossack clothes was brought by the Caucasian peoples – traditional sheepskin hat, fancy riding which used to be a secret of smashing attacks by Cossacks, according to Napoleon. The Kuban Cossack Choir impressed Moscow too. Other ensembles were as joyful and cheered as the Choir.
“Our group is called ‘Spolokh’,” its head Maria Doronina told Vestnik Kavkaza. “It is situated in Volgograd, Volgograd State Agricultural University, the Cossack Ethnic-Cultural Training Center. Our guys are ethnic Cossaks from villages who are studying not only in our university, but also in other universities of the city. They are united by belief in God, blood, and spiritual conditions of the Cossack peoples. Our songs contain width of culture, life, household, faith. Everything is inside it. One played song tells about the whole life of a Cossack and his family.”
One could try his forces on the sporting grounds and participate in ethnic Cossack games: throwing of knives, gun shooting, whip art, wrestling and fencing.
The Cossack Colonel Igor Kulichev told Vestnik Kavkaza that the Cossack society of south-eastern Moscow includes 13 initial Cossack societies. Six farm yard and seven village Cossack societies. Every society deals with issues required by the Federal Law on State service of Russian Cossacks: patriotic education of young generations, providing security and order in the district, training of young people ahead of going to army, liquidation of emergency situations, civil defense, and many other arrangements held by local authorities. The main tradition of Cossacks is serving in favor of the state and the society. Cossacks have always serviced to their motherland.
