Cossackdom and power on the eve of Alexander II"s Great Reforms. Late 1850s - early 1860s

In the second half of the XIX century. In the Russian Empire, large-scale political and socio-economic transformations caused by defeat in the Crimean war, preparation for the abolition and the very abolition of serfdom took place. The presence in the empire of armed subjects - Cossacks, who had special social, legal and military status, gave its specifics the so -called great reforms. The military ministry, under the direct administration of which Cossack units and irregular formations, developed a program of reform in the Cossack troops, which provides for the creation of special administrative-legal norms for regulating the estate position of the Cossacks in order to change the "nature" of the Cossacks and send, if not all Cossacks , then at least some of them along the path of gradual release from estate. The first steps on the path to "citizenship" were made by the authorities and Cossacks in the late 1850s - early 1860s. It was at this time that the main actors of the Cossack policy are manifested, the current issues of the development of the Cossacks and Cossack territories in the official environment and in the public sphere are discussed, a specific transformation plan in the Cossack troops with civilian biases, etc. is developed