The word "Cossack" in translation from the Turkic language means "free man." This definition most accurately reflects the meaning of the concept, although different peoples have their own interpretation of its meaning. Hot discussions of the relative origin of the word do not stop until now. Not everyone knows who the Cossacks are, and when they generally formed as an estate.
They were first mentioned in the 13th century. The French ambassador Guillaume de Rubruck back in 1253 went to the Mongols and saw the Don Cossacks.
When asked about who the Cossacks are, most Russian historians claim that this is an integral part of the Slavic nation, its special branch. Some experts argue that the above class was formed among the nomadic peoples of the Indo-Iranian race, who left the territory of the eastern part of Lake Baikal and went to live on the Angara coast. Other scholars, answering the question of who the Cossacks are, suggest that they are descendants of the Black Sea and Azov tribes, who connected themselves by kinship and formed a unique nation. There is such a point of view that the North Caucasus has always been the birthplace of the “Cossacks”.
You can argue about who the Cossacks are to infinity. One thing is unclear - how such tribes as Khakass, Tanana, Alan-As, Kaisaki, considered the ancestors of the described estate, were able to adopt Russian culture, traditions and customs, thereby becoming de facto Slavs. The reason probably lies in the fact that the huge warlike horde of Russians that conquered the southern territories was much larger in number than the detachments of local tribes. Among other things, the vast expanses of the south were completely deserted, so the Slavic tribes had no one to assimilate here - no one bothered them to live according to their centuries-old foundations.
Based on the above, we can conclude that the Cossacks is a unique Slavic symbiosis of peoples, which was formed outside the territory of the Russian state in conditions independent of it. Leaving for various reasons outside their homeland, Russian people reached the southern steppe borders of Russia, where they "settled", despite the fact that there were enemy neighbors nearby. It is from here that the Kuban Cossacks “originated”. They defended their homes from the attacks of nomadic tribes, and subsequently they themselves raided. The war became a professional occupation for them, it tempered their character and influenced their way of life. In between military battles, the Cossacks raised livestock, hunted and fished.
As already emphasized, the Don Cossacks were first mentioned in 1253 by the French ambassador Guillaume de Rubruck. The Don Cossacks officially began to form after the collapse of the Golden Horde. Its “backbone” was composed of Russian Christians. Some scholars claim that they were warriors who did not want to serve with the Mongol-Tatar khans, others believe that they were robbers from the Khlynovsk land. One way or another, the army of the Don Cossacks was the largest and most efficient in the Russian Empire.