Stanitsa: Difference between revisions

While the word ''stanitsa'' survives in modern usage, the stanitsa as a social system in its historic context was effectively destroyed in the aftermath of the 1917 [[October Revolution|Russian revolution]], when the [[Russian Civil War]] (1917–1922) and subsequent [[Collectivisation in the USSR| collectivisation]] (1928–1940) of the land by the state in the [[Joseph Stalin| Stalin]]ist period and the [[Holodomor]] (1932–1933) destroyed the culture and the economic foundations of stanitsas.

Historically, the stanitsa was a unit of economic and political organisation of the Cossack peoples — primarily in the southern regions of the [[Russian Empire]].

Each stanitsa held much of the local land [[held in common | in common]], subject to annual allocation to Cossack families by the [[Ataman]], the appointed leader of the community. This was a fully [[democracy | democratic]], unique process, characteristic of Russia's South only. (A similar democratic system operated only in the [[Novgorod Republic]], prior to its annexation by the [[Grand Duchy of Moscow]] in 1478.)

In modern [[Russia]], the administration classifies a stanitsa as a type of [[Classification of inhabited localities in Russia#Rural localities |rural locality]]. Stanitsas mostly predominate in the southern regions of [[Rostov Oblast]], [[Krasnodar Krai| Krasnodar]] and [[Stavropol Krai]]s and most of the Republics of the [[Northern Caucasus]].

[[Category:Rural geography]]

[[Category:Geography of Russia]]