An Actual Study of the History and Culture of the North Caucasus and the Cossack Troops of Southern Russia

Abstract. This review highlights the contents of a collection of scientific articles published by historians of Kuban State University in honor of the 85th anniversary of Valery Nikolaevich Ratushnyak, a leading researcher of the history of the Kuban Cossacks, economy and society of the Kuban in the second half of the XVIII–early XX century, the creator of the contemporary scientific school of the history of the region. The novelty of the information lies in the fact that the refereed articles introduce previously unpublished sources into scientific circulation, rethink many topical issues of the history of Kuban and the North Caucasus. The review describes such aspects of the collection’s subject matter as current problems of the agrarian history and economic development of the North Caucasus, issues of the political and social history of the region, and the history
and culture of the Cossacks of Southern Russia. A distinctive feature of this publication is that the authors of the articles systematically characterized the contribution of Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor V.N. Ratushnyak to the development of research on the history of the North Caucasus in general and Kuban in particular, the Cossacks, as well as the academic discipline “Kuban Studies”. The authors of the collection identify the perspectives and controversial aspects of research on these issues. The collective of participants in the collection includes representatives of scientific schools of Kuban, Don, Stavropol regions, Crimea and Donbass.

Keywords: history and culture of the North Caucasus, Cossacks, South of Russia, V.N. Ratushnyak, historiography.