Cossack with nagayka whips patrol Pastavy
- 20.12.2008, 11:18
Weird Cossacks have started to help police to ensure law and order. They can be seen in their uniform with nagayka whips everywhere: at a discotheque in the village club, and beside traffic policemen and so on.
Much had been said about assistance police needs from the community, and Vitsebsk region is not an exception in that. But in Pastavy district Cossacks have come to help policemen for the first time. To be more exact, they are members of the public organisation “Belarusian cossacks”.
Pastavy “ataman” Alyaksandr Zazulin said to Radio Svaboda that this assistance is absolutely altruistic and unpaid.
“I was born in Don region, I am Russian. But when I was giving oath, I said: “I swear to be faithful to the Orthodox faith, Belarusian nation and its leader”. We are not paid money for that by anybody. Cossacks are on duty in the night, from 8 p.m. till 2 a.m., together with policemen, with traffic policemen. They have certificates of “member of a voluntary public order squad” in the Republic of Belarus. They have only social guarantees: state insurance company “Dzyarzhstrakh” insured their life and health for the case of traumas and something like this.
The ataman believes that patrols with participation of Cossacks look more impressive. Some local dwellers find their initiative a positive fact too. Mr Uladzimer from Pastavy, for instance, is convinced that emergence of people in Cossacks cloths and with nagayka whips make local drunkards more disciplined.
“They are mostly former military, there were many of them in our town. Then they demobilized, but took root here. Maybe somebody’s grandparents were real Cossacks… And here in Pastavy we have many bars, cafés, where young people gather. If somebody would drink extra glass or drink too much beer, fights could occur. And when they will see Cossacks enter, everything becomes quiet immediately, and it is a positive thing,” Uladzimir said.
There are really many former military in Pastavy, but not all of them find it expedient to continue “service” in Cossacks army. The former commander of aviation regiment Uladzimir Barouka, for instance, believes that eligible state structures are to be responsible for maintenance of public order, but not fans of historical re-enactment.
“I have decided not to exchange an aircraft for a sabre! And in general, if Cossacks have appeared in Pastavy, first everybody though that a film was being shot there: collar patches, golden epaulettes, crosses on their chests, nagaykas, trouser stripes… It looks like a kind of another force structure. I think there is enough police in Pastavy, and it seems to me that Cossacks themselves are those trying to emphasize their importance and significance. But it is not congruous with the Belarusian history,” he believes.
Uladzimir Barouka reminds that Cossacks regiments usually were sent to Belarus to dispose of our insurgents. His fellow countryman Mr. Ivan from Lyntupy recalls real historical facts. For instance, he reminded the tragic life of Andrei Babolya (St Andrew Bobola), who was sanctified in 1939 and venerated by Belarusian Catholics and Greek Catholics.
“Cossacks have left a trial of blood in Belarus. There is an example of Andrei Babolya who had been tortured to death by Cossacks: they skinned him alive, and chopped by sabres. These facts are fixed and well-known. And now they are going to enforce order here. If they are “members of a voluntary public order squad” and want to help police, what have the uniform, sabres and whips to do with that?” Uladzimir Barouka said.
Cossacks visit the village of Lyntupy, where Ivan lives, like other villages of Pastavy district. They control teenagers at discos or seach traffic rules violators. Many dwellers of Pastavy district say that a poll should have been held first, to ask whether people agree that a paramilitary association of Cossacks is to keep public order.