Mythologies of the Cossack Tribes
The Cossack are a predominantly East Slavic Orthodox Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia . Historically, they were a semi- nomadic and semi-militarized people, who, while under the nominal suzerainty of various Eastern European states at the time, were allowed a great degree of self-governance in exchange for military service. Although numerous linguistic and religious groups came together to form the Cossacks, most of them coalesced and became East Slavic -speaking Orthodox Christians . The rulers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russian Empire endowed Cossacks with certain special privileges in return for the military duty to serve in the irregular troops. ( Zaporozhian Cossacks were mostly infantry soldiers, using war wagons. Don Cossacks were mostly cavalry soldiers.) The various Cossack groups were organized along military lines, with large autonomous groups called hosts . Each