Baikal Cossacks were cossacks of the Transbaikal Cossack Host (Russian: Забайкальское казачье войско), a Cossack host formed in 1851 in the areas beyond Lake Baikal (hence, Transbaikal).
The Transbaikal Cossack Host partially consisted of Siberian Cossaks, Buryats, Evenkian (Tungus) military units and peasant population of some of the regions. The army included three cavalryregiments and three unmounted brigades. Its main purpose was to patrol the Sino-Russian border and perform everyday military duties. Nakazny ataman (the one who was appointed) was in charge of the Transbaikal Cossack Army. He would also serve as a military governor of the Transbaikal oblast with its headquarters in Chita, starting from 1872.
In the early 20th century, the Transbaikal Cossack Host normally supplied 1 polusotnya of guards (50 men), 4 cavalry regiments, and 2 batteries in the times of peace. During the World War I, it supplied 1 polusotnya, 9 cavalry regiments, 4 batteries, and 3 reserve sotnyas (100 men). In 1916, the Cossack population of the Transbaikal Cossack Host numbered 265,000 people, out of which 14,500 men served in the military.
Cossacks first became widely known in western Europe in the mid-17th century as a result of the great revolt of Bohdan Khmelnytsky and the Zaporozhians against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in what is now Ukraine, which shook the geopolitical foundations of eastern Europe.
Cossacks for their part were mostly happy to plunder everybody more or less equally, although in the 16th century, with the dominance of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth extending south, the Zaporozhian Cossacks were mostly, if tentatively, regarded by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as their subjects.
Cossack ambitions to be recognised as equal to the szlachta were constantly rebuffed, and plans for transforming the Polish-Lithuanian Two-Nations Commonwealth into Three Nations (with the Ruthenian Cossack people) made little progress due to the Cossacks' unpopularity.
Cossacks first became widely known in western Europe in the mid-seventeenth century as a result of the great revolt of Bohdan Khmelnytsky and the Zaporozhians against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which shook the geopolitical foundations of eastern Europe.
In the fifteenth century, the Cossack society was described as a loose federation of independent communities, often forming local armies, entirely separate from the neighbouring states (of, e.g, Poland, Grand Duchy of Moscow or the Khanate of Crimea).
Cossacks for their part were mostly happy to plunder everybody more or less equally, although in the sixteenth century, with the dominance of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth extending south, the Zaporozhian Cossacks were mostly, if tentatively, regarded by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as their subjects.
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