Controversial issues of identification of Cossacks’ movement

The author examines the controversial issues of the genesis and existence of the Cossack movement (from the idea of ​​the Cossacks as a separate ethnic group to the restoration of the Cossack troops in the defense system of the Russian Federation) on the broad historical and conceptual background. He sees the obvious feature of the existence of the Cossacks as a logical manifestation of militia forms of military organization of the society. Consistently defending the idea of ​​the need to combine military and militia specialized forms in Russia, the author shows that reviving Cossack movement has a certain potential and seeks to recreate the militia territorial subsystem of the security and defense of the country. Such subsystem had existed in Imperial Russia, where Cossack troops officially had been operating in eleven regions and in the Soviet Union where territorial militia divisions had been created after the Civil War, in most regions of the USSR and lasted until the Second World War.