Terek Cossacks

The Terek Cossack Host was a Cossack host created in 1577 from free Cossacks who resettled from the Volga to the Terek River. The local aboriginal Terek Cossacks joined this Cossack host later. In 1792 it was included in the Caucasus Line Cossack Host and separated from it again in 1860, with the capital of Vladikavkaz. In 1916 the population of the Host was 255,000 within an area of 1.9 million desyatinas. The host would be destroyed during De-Cossackization between 1919 and 1933, however, in the 1990s Russian speakers living in territories formerly controlled by the host have attempted to revive Cossack traditions and culture but were largely expelled from the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, their main power base, due to the First Chechen War. A "Terek Cossack Host" was formed in Stavropol on February 12, 1997, however, has no connection to the original host, and is instead a "Registered Cossack" paramilitary.