COSSACK LITERATURE AS A CULTURAL PHENOMENON

In the article, the authors attempt to characterize the specifics and follow the dynamics of literature devoted to the history and culture of the Russian Cossacks, to describe the stages of the development of Cossack literature as a special cultural phenomenon. The article considers in detail that the way of life, the nature of social organization, life and culture, the morals and folklore of Cossacks have always been specific and thereby were of special interest of scientists, in connection with which a large number of scientific studies appeared on various aspects of this phenomenon. Special attention in the proposed work is paid to the regional features of Cossack culture and the multifaceted, internally rich images of Cossacks created by Russian writers (both classics and authors of the XX-XXI centuries), the article explains how the regional component is presented in Cossack folklore and literature, analyzes works devoted to Cossacks as a special socio-ethnic phenomenon. Cossack literature is considered by the authors of literature in the context of three historical periods: Cossack literature of the Russian Empire (before the 1917 Revolution), Cossack literature related to the era of the Soviet state (1917–1991), the latest Cossack literature (from 1991 to the present), it is noted that each era imposes its own imprint on the problems and system of images of works: the heroization of the Cossacks, who fulfill the historical mission of protecting their native land and developing new spaces, in the literature of the pre-revolutionary period, the tragic concept of the Cossacks in the literature of the Soviet era and the image of the process of reviving the spirit of the Cossacks in modern literature.