Frontier Army

Frontier Army (liniine Viisko, liniini kozaky, liniitsi). Cossack forces organized in 1832 by the Russian government to serve in the central and eastern part of the Caucasian frontier along the upper and middle Kuban River and the Terek River. The army consisted of nine regiments formed of various Cossack and non-Cossack units. Most of the soldiers were from the Don region, but there were also many Ukrainians and local men. After the Caucasian frontier line was abolished and the Kuban and Terek oblasts were organized, the Frontier Army was disbanded in 1860. Its western part, consisting of six brigades, was united with the Black Sea Cossacks to form the Kuban Cossack Host. The eastern part of the Frontier Army was reorganized into the Terek Cossack Army (see Terek region). The former Frontier Army soldiers within the new Kuban Cossack Host proved to be a Russophile element, hostile to Ukrainian political aspirations.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]