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Terek Cossack Host (Russian: Терское казачье войско) was a Cossack host created in 1577 from free Cossacks resettled from Volga to Terek River. In 1792 in was included into Caucasus Line Cossack Host and separated again in 1860, with capital of Vladikavkaz. In 1916 the population was 255,000 within the area of 1.9 million desyatinas.

The formation of the Terek Cossacks was partly influenced by after Russia expanded into Transcaucasia. Most of the mountain peoples refused to accept Russian dominance of the territory. As their tactics included guerilla raids upon Russian convoys and settlements in the mountains normal army was useless to combat them. The Russians then settled the foothills with Cossacks which eventually acted as guard and in the end succeeded in taming the mountain peoples.

As with most Cossacks, the Tereks found themselves on both sides of the conflict during the Russian civil war. Most however fought against communists. The host was disbanded in 1918. In 1920 some of the Terek Cossacks were deported to Ukraine and Northern European Russia. The mountain peoples were encouraged to settle in the empty stanitsas and the Terek oblast was split into Autonomous Soviet Socialist republics of Dagestan, Checheno-Ingushetia and Northern Ossetia.

During World War II, most Terek Cossacks fought for the Soviets. But some Terek Cossacks joined the German 1st Cossack Division. They made up the VIth Regiment of the 2nd Brigade.

The alleged Chechen collaboration and the massacre of Russians in Grozny in 1942 caused the whole populations of Chechen and Ingush to be deported to Kazakhstan. The Terek Cossacks successors once again took absolute majority in the newly established Grozny Oblast in the RSFSR. After the rehabilitation of Chechens in 1957 the territory of the Cossacks was split between the Dagestan and Checheno-Ingushetia republics. Afterwards most of the Cossacks moved into other parts of the USSR, notably the Baltic.

By the time of the 1990's the remaining Terek Cossacks were living in North Dagestan. During the regime of General Dudayev in Chechnya, the surviving Cossacks and other non-Chechen ethnic groups were subjected to repeated oppression, and most of the surving Cossacks were ruthlessly massacred in the independent Chechen Republic of Ichkeria that preceded the first Chechen War. The areas of Nadteretchnij, Naurskij and Shelkovskoj of the Republic of Chetchnia practically lost the traditional Cossack population. In both Chechen wars the Terek Cossacks fought along with other Cossacks against the Chechen Nationalists.

Today many still demand that the Northern Dagestan and two northern Chechen regions be separated into a separate subdivision for the Terek Cossacks.

Information about the Terek Cossacks

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