Azov Cossack Host - The End of The Azov Host

The End of The Azov Host

After the Crimean War, Gladky attaining rank of General-Colonel retired and moved to Aleksandrovsk (modern Zaporizhzhia) where he died in 1866. However the Northern shore of the Azov, during the 30 years of the Cossack presence became a prosperous region, where the Cossacks numbering 10 thousand men were involved in fishery, farming and trade. In 1860 however the Caucasus War approached its decisive finale, and Russian General Nikolay Yevdokimov initiated several reforms of the Caucasus Hosts, forming the Kuban and Terek Cossack Hosts out of the previous Black Sea, Caucasus Line Hosts.

The Circassian front, particularly the Western Caucasus, after decades of stationary action began a process of capturing Circassian land and moving the peaceful Circassians from mountains to the ravines, and expelling (see Muhajir (Caucasus)) those hostile to Ottoman Empire. To help settle the empty mountainous land, Yevdokimov suggested to Emperor Alexander II to bring the Azov Cossacks, whose military role by now was expiring, as the Imperial Russian Navy in the Black Sea has made provisions for taking over their coast guard roles.

Originally Yevdokimov proposed to move 800 Cossack and eight officer families to the Western Caucasus with financial compensation and free transport promised to them. After freeing those who lacked elder sons, adolescent orphans and those older than 45 or were sick to travel, it was planned to use the draw method of selection. However no draw was required. All Cossacks who were descendants of the Danubian Sich, the Nekrasovites (Nikolskaya and Pokrovskaya stanitsas) as well as the Cossacks of the Starodubskaya stanitsa (descendants of Chernigov migrants, whose ancestors were Cossacks in the Sloboda) agreed to move to the Kuban. Whilst the dwellers of the Novospasskaya and Petrovskaya stanitsas who were local peasants and traders that were enlisted into Cossackdom in 1832 chose to stay.

All in all 1093 families (5224 people) nearly half of the Azov Host left the Azov in 1862, and were settled in the stanitsas of the Abinsk and Adagumsk Regiments of the Kuban Cossack Host. They participated in the finale of the Caucasus War which ended two years later in 1864. Afterwards the ex-Azov Cossacks became fully integrated into the Kuban Host shared their history since. To this day their descendants live in the mountainous stanitsas of modern Krasnodar Krai and Adygea in Russia.

The remaining Azov region was passed to the Yekaterinoslav Governorate and afterwards to the Ukrainian SSR, where the former Petrovskaya stanitsa was renamed to Volodarske in 1924 (modern Donetsk Oblast). At present there are attempts to spread the knowledge of the Cossack heritage that the region has.