title: Cossacks

text: The Don Cossack Host (, "Vsevelikoye Voysko Donskoye") was either an independent or an autonomous democratic republic, located in present-day Southern Russia. It existed from the end of the 16th century until the early 20th century. There are two main theories of the origin of the Don Cossacks. Most respected historians support the migration theory, according to which they were Slavic colonists. The various autochthonous theories popular among the Cossacks themselves do not find confirmation in genetic studies. The gene pool comprises mainly the East Slavic component, with a significant Ukrainian contribution. There is no influence of the peoples of the Caucasus; and the steppe populations, represented by the Nogais, have only limited impact.


title: Cossacks

text: The majority of Don Cossacks are either Eastern Orthodox or Christian Old Believers (старообрядцы). Prior to the Russian Civil War, there were numerous religious minorities, including Muslims, Subbotniks, and Jews.


title: Cossacks

text: Kuban Cossacks are Cossacks who live in the Kuban region of Russia. Although many Cossack groups came to inhabit the Western North Caucasus, most of the Kuban Cossacks are descendants of the Black Sea Cossack Host (originally the Zaporozhian Cossacks), and the Caucasus Line Cossack Host.


title: Cossacks

text: A distinguishing feature is the "Chupryna" or "Oseledets" hairstyle, a roach haircut popular among some Kubanians. This tradition traces back to the Zaporizhian Sich.


title: Cossacks

text: The Terek Cossack Host was created in 1577 by free Cossacks resettling from the Volga to the Terek River. Local Terek Cossacks joined this host later. In 1792, the host was included in the Caucasus Line Cossack Host, from which it separated again in 1860, with Vladikavkaz as its capital. In 1916, the population of the host was 255,000, within an area of 1.9 million desyatinas.


title: Cossacks

text: The Ural Cossack Host was formed from the Ural Cossacks, who had settled along the Ural River. Their alternative name, Yaik Cossacks, comes from the river's former name, changed by the government after Pugachev's Rebellion of 1773–1775. The Ural Cossacks spoke Russian, and identified as having primarily Russian ancestry, but also incorporated many Tatars into their ranks. In 1577, twenty years after Moscow had conquered the Volga from Kazan to Astrakhan, the government sent troops to disperse pirates and raiders along the Volga. Among them was Yermak Timofeyevich. Some escaped to flee southeast to the Ural River, where they joined the Yaik Cossacks. In 1580, they captured Saraichik. By 1591, they were fighting on behalf of the government in Moscow. Over the next century, they were officially recognized by the imperial government.


title: Cossacks

text: As a largely independent nation, the Cossacks had to defend their liberties and democratic traditions against the ever-expanding Muscovy, succeeded by Russian Empire. Their tendency to act independently of the Tsardom of Muscovy increased friction. The Tsardom's power began to grow in 1613, with the ascension of Mikhail Romanov to the throne following the Time of Troubles. The government began attempting to integrate the Cossacks into the Muscovite Tsardom by granting elite status and enforcing military service, thus creating divisions among the Cossacks themselves as they fought to retain their own traditions. The government's efforts to alter their traditional nomadic lifestyle resulted in the Cossacks being involved in nearly all the major disturbances in Russia over a 200-year period, including the rebellions led by Stepan Razin and Yemelyan Pugachev.


title: Cossacks

text: As Muscovy regained stability, discontent grew within the serf and peasant populations. Under Alexis Romanov, Mikhail's son, the Code of 1649 divided the Russian population into distinct and fixed hereditary categories. The Code increased tax revenue for the central government, and put an end to nomadism, to stabilize the social order by fixing people on the same land and in the same occupation as their families. Peasants were tied to the land, and townsmen were forced to take on their fathers' occupations. The increased tax burden fell mainly on the peasants, further widening the gap between poor and wealthy. Human and material resources became limited as the government organized more military expeditions, putting even greater strain on the peasants. War with Poland and Sweden in 1662 led to a fiscal crisis, and rioting across the country. Taxes, harsh conditions, and the gap between social classes drove peasants and serfs to flee. Many went to the Cossacks, knowing that the Cossacks would accept refugees and free them.


title: Cossacks

text: The Cossacks experienced difficulties under Tsar Alexis as more refugees arrived daily. The Tsar gave the Cossacks a subsidy of food, money, and military supplies in return for acting as border defense. These subsidies fluctuated often; a source of conflict between the Cossacks and the government. The war with Poland diverted necessary food and military shipments to the Cossacks as fugitive peasants swelled the population of the Cossack host. The influx of refugees troubled the Cossacks, not only because of the increased demand for food, but also because their large number meant the Cossacks could not absorb them into their culture by way of the traditional apprenticeship. Instead of taking these steps for proper assimilation into Cossack society, the runaway peasants spontaneously declared themselves Cossacks and lived alongside the true Cossacks, laboring or working as barge-haulers to earn food.


title: Cossacks

text: Divisions among the Cossacks began to emerge as conditions worsened and Mikhail's son Alexis took the throne. Older Cossacks began to settle and become prosperous, enjoying privileges earned through obeying and assisting the Muscovite system. The old Cossacks started giving up the traditions and liberties that had been worth dying for, to obtain the pleasures of an elite life. The lawless and restless runaway peasants who called themselves Cossacks looked for adventure and revenge against the nobility that had caused them suffering. These Cossacks did not receive the government subsidies that the old Cossacks enjoyed, and had to work harder and longer for food and money.


title: Cossacks

text: The divisions between the elite and the lawless led to the formation of a Cossack army, beginning in 1667 under Stenka Razin, and ultimately to the failure of Razin's rebellion.


title: Cossacks

text: Stenka Razin was born into an elite Cossack family, and had made many diplomatic visits to Moscow before organizing his rebellion. The Cossacks were Razin's main supporters, and followed him during his first Persian campaign in 1667, plundering and pillaging Persian cities on the Caspian Sea. They returned in 1669, ill and hungry, tired from fighting, but rich with plundered goods. Muscovy tried to gain support from the old Cossacks, asking the ataman, or Cossack chieftain, to prevent Razin from following through with his plans. But the ataman was Razin's godfather, and was swayed by Razin's promise of a share of expedition wealth. His reply was that the elite Cossacks were powerless against the band of rebels. The elite did not see much threat from Razin and his followers either, although they realized he could cause them problems with the Muscovite system if his following developed into a rebellion against the central government.


title: Cossacks

text: Razin and his followers began to capture cities at the start of the rebellion, in 1669. They seized the towns of Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan, Saratov, and Samara, implementing democratic rule and releasing peasants from slavery as they went. Razin envisioned a united Cossack republic throughout the southern steppe, in which the towns and villages would operate under the democratic, Cossack style of government. Their sieges often took place in the runaway peasant Cossacks' old towns, leading them to wreak havoc there and take revenge on their old masters. The elder Cossacks began to see the rebels' advance as a problem, and in 1671 decided to comply with the government in order to receive more subsidies. On April 14, ataman Yakovlev led elders to destroy the rebel camp. They captured Razin, taking him soon afterward to Moscow to be executed.


title: Cossacks

text: Razin's rebellion marked the beginning of the end of traditional Cossack practices. In August 1671, Muscovite envoys administered the oath of allegiance and the Cossacks swore loyalty to the tsar. While they still had internal autonomy, the Cossacks became Muscovite subjects, a transition that was a dividing point again in Pugachev's Rebellion.


title: Cossacks

text: For the Cossack elite, noble status within the empire came at the price of their old liberties in the 18th century. Advancing agricultural settlement began to force the Cossacks to give up their traditional nomadic ways and adopt new forms of government. The government steadily changed the entire culture of the Cossacks. Peter the Great increased Cossack service obligations, and mobilized their forces to fight in far-off wars. Peter began establishing non-Cossack troops in fortresses along the Yaik River. In 1734, construction of a government fortress at Orenburg gave Cossacks a subordinate role in border defense. When the Yaik Cossacks sent a delegation to Peter with their grievances, Peter stripped the Cossacks of their autonomous status, and subordinated them to the War College rather than the College of Foreign Affairs. This consolidated the Cossacks' transition from border patrol to military servicemen. Over the next fifty years, the central government responded to Cossack grievances with arrests, floggings, and exiles.


title: Cossacks

text: Under Catherine the Great, beginning in 1762, the Russian peasants and Cossacks again faced increased taxation, heavy military conscription, and grain shortages, as before Razin's rebellion. Peter III had extended freedom to former church serfs, freeing them from obligations and payments to church authorities, and had freed other peasants from serfdom, but Catherine did not follow through on these reforms. In 1767, the Empress refused to accept grievances directly from the peasantry. Peasants fled once again to the lands of the Cossacks, in particular the Yaik Host, whose people were committed to the old Cossack traditions. The changing government also burdened the Cossacks, extending its reach to reform Cossack traditions. Among ordinary Cossacks, hatred of the elite and central government rose. In 1772, a six–month open rebellion ensued between the Yaik Cossacks and the central government.


title: Cossacks

text: Yemelyan Pugachev, a low-status Don Cossack, arrived in the Yaik Host in late 1772. There, he claimed to be Peter III, playing on the Cossack belief that Peter would have been an effective ruler but for his assassination in a plot by his wife, Catherine II. Many Yaik Cossacks believed Pugachev's claim, although those closest to him knew the truth. Others, who may have known of it, did not support Catherine II due to her disposal of Peter III, and also spread Pugachev's claim to be the late emperor.


title: Cossacks

text: The first of three phases of Pugachev's Rebellion began in September 1773. Most of the rebels' first prisoners were Cossacks who supported the elite. After a five-month siege of Orenburg, a military college became Pugachev's headquarters. Pugachev envisioned a Cossack tsardom, similar to Razin's vision of a united Cossack republic. The peasantry across Russia stirred with rumors and listened to the manifestos Pugachev issued. But the rebellion soon came to be seen as an inevitable failure. The Don Cossacks refused to help the final phase of the revolt, knowing that military troops were closely following Pugachev after lifting the siege of Orenburg, and following his flight from defeated Kazan. In September 1774, Pugachev's own Cossack lieutenants turned him over to the government troops.


title: Cossacks

text: Opposition to centralization of political authority led the Cossacks to participate in Pugachev's Rebellion. After their defeat, the Cossack elite accepted government reforms, hoping to secure status within the nobility. The ordinary Cossacks had to follow and give up their traditions and liberties.


title: Cossacks

text: Cossack relations with the Tsardom of Russia were varied from the outset. At times they supported Russian military operations, at other times they rebelled against the central power. After one such uprising at the end of the 18th century, Russian forces destroyed the Zaporozhian Host. Many of the Cossacks who had remained loyal to the Russian Monarch and continued their service later moved to the Kuban. Others, choosing to continue a mercenary role, escaped control in the large Danube Delta. The service of the Cossacks in the Napoleonic wars led them to be celebrated as Russian folk heroes, and throughout the 19th century a "powerful myth" was promoted by the government that portrayed the Cossacks as having a special and unique bond to the Emperor. This image as the Cossacks as the ultra-patriotic defenders of not only Russia, but also of the House of Romanov was embraced by many ordinary Cossacks, making them into a force for conservatism.


title: Cossacks

text: By the 19th century, the Russian Empire had annexed the territory of the Cossack Hosts, and controlled them by providing privileges for their service such as exemption from taxation and allowing them to own the land they farmed. At this time, the Cossacks served as military forces in many wars conducted by the Russian Empire. Cossacks were considered excellent for scouting and reconnaissance duties, and for ambushes. Their tactics in open battle were generally inferior to those of regular soldiers, such as the Dragoons. In 1840, the Cossack hosts included the Don, Black Sea, Astrakhan, Little Russia, Azov, Danube, Ural, Stavropol, Mesherya, Orenburg, Siberian, Tobolsk, Tomsk, Yeniseisk, Irkutsk, Sabaikal, Yakutsk, and Tartar "voiskos". In the 1890s, the Ussuri, Semirechensk, and Amur Cossacks were added; the last had a regiment of elite mounted rifles.


title: Cossacks

text: Increasingly as the 19th century went on, the Cossacks served as a mounted para-military police force in all of the various provinces of the vast Russian Empire, covering a territory stretching across Eurasia from what is now modern Poland to the banks of the river Amur that formed the Russian-Chinese border. The police forces of the Russian Empire, especially in rural areas, were undermanned owing to the low wages while the officers of the Imperial Russian Army hated having their units deployed to put down domestic unrest, which was viewed as destructive towards morale and possibly a source of mutiny. For the government, deploying Cossacks as a para-military police force was the best solution as the Cossacks were viewed as one of the social groups most loyal to the House of Romanov while their isolation from local populations was felt to make them immune to revolutionary appeals. Traditionally, Cossacks were viewed in Russia as dashing, romantic horsemen with a rebellious and wild aura about them, but their deployment as a mounted police force gave them a "novel" image as a rather violent and thuggish police force fiercely committed to upholding the social order. This change from an irregular cavalry force that fought against the enemies of Russia such as the Ottoman Empire and France to a mounted police force deployed against the subjects of the empire caused much disquiet within the Cossack Hosts as it was contrary to the heroic ethos of frontier warfare that the Cossacks cherished.


title: Cossacks

text: In 1879, the Shah of Iran, Nasir al-Din, who had been impressed with the equestrian skills and distinctive uniforms of the Cossacks while on a visit to Russia the previous year, requested that the Emperor Alexander II sent some Cossacks to train a Cossack force for himself. Alexander granted his request and later in 1879 a group of 9 Cossacks led by Kuban Cossack Colonel Aleksey Domantovich arrived in Tehran to train the Persian Cossack Brigade. The shah very much liked the colorful uniforms of the Cossacks and Domantovich devised uniforms for one regiment of the brigade based on the uniforms of the Kuban Cossack Host and another regiment had its uniform based on the Terek Cossack Host. The uniforms of the Cossacks were based on the flamboyant costumes of the peoples of the Caucasus, and what in Russia were viewed as exotic and colorful uniforms were viewed in Iran as a symbol of Russianness. Nasir al-Din, who was widely regarded as a deeply superficial and shallow man, was not interested in having his Cossack Brigade be an effective military force, and for him merely seeing his brigade ride before him while dressed in their brightly colored uniforms was quite enough. Over the shah's indifference, Domantovich and his Cossacks worked hard on training the Cossack Brigade, which became the only disciplined unit in the entire Persian Army, and thus of considerable importance in maintaining the shah's authority.


title: Cossacks

text: By the end of the 19th century, Cossack communities enjoyed a privileged tax-free status in the Russian Empire, although they had a 20-year military service commitment (reduced to 18 years from 1909). They were on active duty for five years, but could fulfill their remaining obligation with the reserves. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian Cossacks numbered 4.5 million. They were organized as independent regional hosts, each comprising a number of regiments. The need for the government to call up Cossack men to serve either with the Army or a mounted police force caused many social and economic problems, which compounded by the growing impoverishment the communities of the Hosts.


title: Cossacks

text: Treated as a separate and elite community by the Tsar, the Cossacks rewarded his government with strong loyalty. His administration frequently used Cossack units to suppress domestic disorder, especially during the Russian Revolution of 1905. The Imperial Government depended heavily on the perceived reliability of the Cossacks. By the early 20th century, their decentralized communities and semi-feudal military service were coming to be seen as obsolete. The Russian Army Command, which had worked to professionalize its forces, considered the Cossacks less well disciplined, trained, and mounted than the hussars, dragoons, and lancers of the regular cavalry. The Cossack qualities of initiative and rough-riding skills were not always fully appreciated. As a result, Cossack units were frequently broken up into small detachments for use as scouts, messengers, or picturesque escorts.


title: Cossacks

text: In 1905, the Cossack hosts experienced deep mobilization of their menfolk amid the fighting of the Russo-Japanese War in Manchuria and the outbreak of revolution within the Russian Empire. Like other peoples of the empire, some Cossack stanitsas voiced grievances against the regime by defying mobilization orders, or by making relatively liberal political demands. But these infractions were eclipsed by the prominent role of Cossack detachments in stampeding demonstrators and restoring order in the countryside. Subsequently, the wider population viewed the Cossacks as instruments of reaction. Tsar Nicholas II reinforced this concept by issuing new charters, medals, and bonuses to Cossack units in recognition for their performance during the Revolution of 1905.


title: Cossacks

text: In September 1906, reflecting the success of the Cossacks in putting down the Revolution of 1905, "Polkovnik" (Captain) Vladimir Liakhov was sent to Iran to command the train and lead the Persian Cossack Brigade. Liakhov had led a Cossack squad in putting down the revolution in the Caucasus, and following the outbreak of the Constitutional Revolution in Iran he was sent to Tehran to recognize the Cossack Brigade as a force for power to the shah. The Persian Cossack Brigade had not been paid for months and proved to be dubious loyalty to the House of Qajar during the Constructional revolution while its Russian officers were uncertain what to do with Russia itself in revolution. Liakhov, a vigorous, able, and reactionary officer firmly committed to upholding absolute monarchies whatever in Russia or Iran, transformed the Persian Cossack Brigade into a mounted para-military police force rather than as a combat force. Liakhov was close to the new Shah, Mohammed Ali, who ascended to the Peacock Throne in January 1907, and it was due to the shah's patronage that Liakhov transformed the Persian Cossack Brigade into the main bulwark of the Iranian state. In June 1908, Liakhov led the Cossack Brigade in bombarding the "Majlis" (Parliament) while being appointed military governor of Tehran as the shah attempted to do away with the constitution his father had been forced to grant in 1906 Reza Khan, who became the first Iranian to command the Cossack Brigade led the coup d'état in 1921 and in 1925 deposed the Qajars to found a new dynasty.


title: Cossacks

text: After the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Cossacks became a key component in the cavalry of the Imperial Russian Army. The mounted Cossacks made up 38 regiments, plus some infantry battalions and 52 horse artillery batteries. Initially, each Russian cavalry division included a regiment of Cossacks in addition to regular units of hussars, lancers, and dragoons. By 1916, the Cossacks' wartime strength had expanded to 160 regiments, plus 176 independent sotnias (squadrons) employed as detached units.


title: Cossacks

text: The importance of cavalry in the frontlines faded after the opening phase of the war settled into a stalemate. During the remainder of the war, Cossack units were dismounted to fight in trenches, held in reserve to exploit a rare breakthrough, or assigned various duties in the rear. Those duties included rounding up deserters, providing escorts to war prisoners, and razing villages and farms in accordance with Russia's scorched earth policy.


title: Cossacks

text: At the outbreak of the disorder on 8 March 1917 that led to the overthrow of the tsarist regime, approximately 3,200 Cossacks from the Don, Kuban, and Terek Hosts were stationed in Petrograd. Although they comprised only a fraction of the 300,000 troops in the proximity of the Russian capital, their general defection on the second day of unrest (10 March) enthused raucous crowds and stunned the authorities and remaining loyal units.


title: Cossacks

text: In the aftermath of the February Revolution, the Cossacks hosts were authorized by the War Ministry of the Russian Provisional Government to overhaul their administrations. Cossack assemblies (known as "krugs" or, in the case of the Kuban Cossacks, a "rada") were organized at regional level to elect atamans and pass resolutions. At national level, an all-Cossack congress was convened in Petrograd. This congress formed the Union of Cossack Hosts, ostensibly to represent the interests of Cossacks across Russia.


title: Cossacks

text: During the course of 1917, the nascent Cossack governments formed by the "krugs" and atamans increasingly challenged the Provisional Government's authority in the borderlands. The various Cossack governments themselves faced rivals, in the form of national councils organized by neighboring minorities, and of soviets and "zemstvos" formed by non-Cossack Russians, especially the so-called "outlanders" who had immigrated to Cossack lands.


title: Cossacks

text: Soon after the Bolsheviks seized power in Petrograd on 7–8 November 1917, most Cossack atamans and their government refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new regime. The Don Cossack ataman, Aleksey Kaledin, went as far as to invite opponents of the Bolsheviks to the Don Host. But the position of many Cossack governments was far from secure, even within the boundaries of their hosts. In some areas, soviets formed by outlanders and soldiers rivaled the Cossack government, and ethnic minorities also tried to acquire a measure of self-rule. Even the Cossack communities themselves were divided, as the atamans tended to represent the interests of prosperous landowners and the officer corps. Poorer Cossacks, and those serving in the army, were susceptible to Bolshevik propaganda promising to spare “toiling Cossacks” from land appropriation.


title: Cossacks

text: The unwillingness of rank-and-file Cossacks to vigorously defend the Cossack government enabled the Red Army to occupy the vast majority of Cossack lands by late spring of 1918. But the Bolsheviks’ policy of requisitioning grain and foodstuffs from the countryside to supply Russia's starving northern cities quickly fomented revolt among Cossack communities. These Cossack rebels elected new atamans and made common cause with other anticommunist forces, such as the Volunteer Army in South Russia. Subsequently, the Cossack homelands became bases for the White movement during the Russian Civil War.


title: Cossacks

text: Throughout the civil war, Cossacks sometimes fought as an independent ally, and other times as an auxiliary, of White armies. In South Russia, the Armed Forces of South Russia (AFSR) under General Anton Denikin relied heavily on conscripts from the Don and Kuban Cossack Hosts to fill their ranks. Through the Cossacks, the White armies acquired experienced, skilled horsemen that the Red Army was unable to match until late in the conflict. But the relationship between Cossack governments and the White leaders was frequently acrimonious. Cossack units were often ill-disciplined, and prone to bouts of looting and violence that caused the peasantry to resent the Whites. In Ukraine, Kuban and Terek Cossack squadrons carried out pogroms against Jews, despite orders from Denikin condemning such activity. Kuban Cossack politicians, wanting a semi-independent state of their own, frequently agitated against the AFSR command. In the Russian Far East, anticommunist Transbaikal and Ussuri Cossacks undermined the rear of Siberia's White armies by disrupting traffic on the Trans-Siberian Railway and engaging in acts of banditry that fueled a potent insurgency in that region.


title: Cossacks

text: As the Red Army gained the initiative in the civil war during late 1919 and early 1920, Cossack soldiers, their families, and sometimes entire stanitsas retreated with the Whites. Some continued to fight with the Whites in the conflict's waning stages in Crimea and the Russian Far East. As many as 80,000–100,000 Cossacks eventually joined the defeated Whites in exile.


title: Cossacks

text: Although the Cossacks were sometimes portrayed by Bolsheviks and, later, émigré historians, as a monolithic counterrevolutionary group during the civil war, there were many Cossacks who fought with the Red Army throughout the conflict. Many poorer Cossack communities also remained receptive to the communist message. In late 1918 and early 1919, widespread desertion and defection among Don, Ural, and Orenburg Cossacks fighting with the Whites produced a military crisis that was exploited by the Red Army in those sectors. After the main White armies were defeated in early 1920, many Cossack soldiers switched their allegiance to the Bolsheviks, and fought with the Red Army against the Poles and in other operations.


title: Cossacks

text: On 22 December 1917, the Council of People's Commissars effectively abolished the Cossack estate by ending their military service requirements and privileges. After the widespread anticommunist rebellions among Cossacks in 1918, the Soviet regime's approach hardened in early 1919, when the Red Army occupied Cossack districts in the Urals and northern Don. The Bolsheviks embarked on a genocidal policy of “de-Cossackization”, intended to end the Cossack threat to the Soviet regime. This was pursued through resettlement, widespread executions of Cossack veterans from the White armies, and favoring the outlanders within the Cossack hosts. Ultimately, the de-Cossackization campaign led to a renewed rebellion among Cossacks in Soviet-occupied districts, and produced a new round of setbacks for the Red Army in 1919.


title: Cossacks

text: When the victorious Red Army again occupied Cossack districts in late 1919 and 1920, the Soviet regime did not officially reauthorize the implementation of de-Cossackization. There is, however, disagreement among historians as to the degree of Cossack persecution by the Soviet regime. For example, the Cossack hosts were broken up among new provinces or autonomous republics. Some Cossacks, especially in areas of the former Terek host, were resettled so their lands could be turned over to natives displaced from them during the initial Russian and Cossack colonization of the area. At the local level, the stereotype that Cossacks were inherent counterrevolutionaries likely persisted among some Communist officials, causing them to target, or discriminate against, Cossacks despite orders from Moscow to focus on class enemies among Cossacks rather than the Cossack people in general.


title: Cossacks

text: Rebellions in the former Cossack territories erupted occasionally during the interwar period. In 1920–1921, disgruntlement with continued Soviet grain-requisitioning activities provoked a series of revolts among Cossack and outlander communities in South Russia. The former Cossack territories of South Russia and the Urals also experienced a devastating famine in 1921–1922. In 1932–1933, another famine, known as the Holodomor, devastated Ukraine and some parts of South Russia, causing a population decline of about 20–30%. While urban areas were less affected, the decline was even higher in the rural areas, populated largely by ethnic Cossacks. Robert Conquest estimates the number of famine-related deaths in the Northern Caucasus at about one million. Government officials expropriated grain and other produce from rural Cossack families, leaving them to starve and die. Many families were forced from their homes in the severe winter and froze to death. Mikhail Sholokhov's letters to Joseph Stalin document the conditions and widespread deaths, as do eyewitness accounts. Besides starvation, the collectivization and dekulakization campaigns of the early 1930s threatened Cossacks with deportation to labor camps, or outright execution by Soviet security organs.


title: Cossacks

text: In April 1936, the Soviet regime began to relax its restrictions on Cossacks, allowing them to serve openly in the Red Army. Two existing cavalry divisions were renamed as Cossack divisions, and three new Cossack cavalry divisions were established. Under the new Soviet designation, anyone from the former Cossack territories of the North Caucasus, provided they were not Circassians or other ethnic minorities, could claim Cossack status.


title: Cossacks

text: In World War II, during the German invasion of the Soviet Union, many Cossacks continued to serve in the Red Army. Some fought as cavalry in the Cossack divisions, such as the 17th Kuban Cossack Cavalry Corps and the famous Lev Dovator Corps, later awarded the honorific designation “guard” in recognition of its performance. Other Cossacks fought as partisans, although the partisan movement did not acquire significant traction during the German occupation of the traditional Cossack homelands in the North Caucasus.


title: Cossacks

text: The Cossack emigration consisted largely of relatively young men who had served, and retreated with, the White armies. Although hostile to communism, the Cossack émigrés remained broadly divided over whether their people should pursue a separatist course to acquire independence or retain their close ties with a future post-Soviet Russia. Many quickly became disillusioned with life abroad. Throughout the 1920s, thousands of exiled Cossacks voluntarily returned to Russia through repatriation efforts sponsored by France, the League of Nations, and even the Soviet Union.


title: Cossacks

text: The Cossacks who remained abroad settled primarily in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, France, Xinjiang, and Manchuria. Some managed to create farming communities in Yugoslavia and Manchuria, but most eventually took up employment as laborers in construction, agriculture, or industry. A few showcased their lost culture to foreigners by performing stunts in circuses or serenading audiences in choirs.


title: Cossacks

text: Cossacks who were determined to carry on the fight against communism frequently found employment with foreign powers hostile to Soviet Russia. In Manchuria, thousands of Cossacks and White émigrés enlisted in the army of that region's warlord, Zhang Zuolin. After Japan's Kwantung Army occupied Manchuria in 1932, the ataman of the Transbaikal Cossacks, Grigory Semyonov, led collaboration efforts between Cossack émigrés and the Japanese military.


title: Cossacks

text: In the initial phase of Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, Cossack émigrés were initially barred from political activity or travelling into the occupied Eastern territories. Hitler had no intention of entertaining the political aspirations of the Cossacks, or any minority group, in the USSR. As a result, collaboration between Cossacks and the Wehrmacht began in ad hoc manner through localized agreements between German field commanders and Cossack defectors from the Red Army. Hitler did not officially sanction the recruitment of Cossacks and lift the restrictions imposed on émigrés until the second year of the Nazi-Soviet conflict. During their brief occupation of the North Caucasus region, the Germans actively recruited Cossacks into detachments and local self-defense militias. The Germans even experimented with a self-governing district of Cossack communities in the Kuban region. When the Wehrmacht withdrew from the North Caucasus region in early 1943, tens of thousands of Cossacks retreated with them, either out of conviction or to avoid Soviet reprisals.


title: Cossacks

text: In 1943, the Germans formed the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division, under the command of General Helmuth von Pannwitz. While its ranks mostly comprised deserters from the Red Army, many of its officers and NCOs were Cossack émigrés who had received training at one of the cadet schools established by the White Army in Yugoslavia. The division was deployed to occupied Croatia to fight Tito's Partisans. There, its performance was generally effective, although at times brutal. In late 1944, the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division was admitted into the Waffen-SS, and enlarged into the XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps.


title: Cossacks

text: In late 1943, the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories and Wehrmacht headquarters issued a joint proclamation promising the Cossacks independence once their homelands were “liberated” from the Red Army. The Germans followed this up by establishing the Cossack Central Administration, under the leadership of the former Don Cossack ataman, Pyotr Krasnov. Although it had many attributes of a government-in-exile, the Cossack Central Administration lacked any control over foreign policy or the deployment of Cossack troops in the Wehrmacht. In early 1945, Krasnov and his staff joined a group of 20,000–25,000 Cossack refugees and irregulars known as “Cossachi Stan”. This group, then led by Timofey Domanov, had fled the North Caucasus alongside the Germans in 1943, and was moved between Kamianets-Podilskyi in Ukraine, Navahrudak in Belarus, and Tolmezzo, Italy.


title: Cossacks

text: In early May 1945, in the closing days of WWII, both Domanov's “Cossachi Stan” and Pannwitz's XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps retreated into Austria, where they surrendered to the British. Many Cossack accounts collected in the two volume work "The Great Betrayal" by Vyacheslav Naumenko allege that British officers had given them, or their leaders, a guarantee that they would not be forcibly repatriated to the Soviet Union, but there is no hard evidence that such a promise was made. At the end of the month, and in early June 1945, the majority of Cossacks from both groups were transferred to Red Army and SMERSH custody at the Soviet demarcation line in Judenburg, Austria. This episode is known as the Betrayal of the Cossacks, and resulted in sentences of hard labour or execution for the majority of the repatriated Cossacks.


title: Cossacks

text: Following the war, Cossack units, and the cavalry in general, were rendered obsolete and released from the Soviet Army. In the post-war years, many Cossack descendants were thought of as simple peasants, and those who lived in one of the autonomous republics usually gave way to the local minority and migrated elsewhere, particularly to the Baltic region.


title: Cossacks

text: The principal Cossack émigré leader after 1945 was Nikolai Nazarenko, the self-proclaimed president of the World Federation of the Cossack National Liberation Movement of Cossackia, who enjoyed a prominence in New York as the organizer of the annual Captive Nations parade held every July. In 1978, Nazarenko dressed in his Don Cossack uniform led the Captive Days day parade in New York city, and told a journalist: "Cossackia is a nation of 10 million people. In 1923 the Russians officially abolished Cossackia as a nation. Officially, it no longer exists...America should not spend billions supporting the Soviets with trade. We don't have to be afraid of the Russian army because half of it is made up of Captive Nations. They can never trust the rank and file". The journalist Hal McKenzie described Nazarenko as having "cut a striking figure with his white fur cap, calf-length coat with long silver-sheathed dagger and ornamental silver cartridge cases on his chest". Nazarenko was also the president of Cossack American Republican National Federation, which in turn was part of the National Republican Heritage Groups Council, and he attracted much controversy in the 1980s owing to his wartime career and certain statements he made about Jews. The American journalist Christoper Simpson in his 1988 book "Blowback: America's Recruitment of Nazis and Its Effects on the Cold War" called Nazarenko a leading Republican activist who made "explicit pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic" statements in his speeches.


title: Cossacks

text: During the Perestroika era of the Soviet Union of the late 1980s, many descendants of the Cossacks became enthusiastic about reviving their national traditions. In 1988, the Soviet Union passed a law allowing the reestablishment of former hosts and creation of new ones. The ataman of the largest, the Almighty Don Host, was granted Marshal rank and the right to form a new host. Simultaneously, many attempts were made to increase Cossack impact on Russian society, and throughout the 1990s many regional authorities agreed to hand over some local administration and policing duties to the Cossacks.


title: Cossacks

text: According to the 2002 Russian Census, 140,028 people self-identified as ethnic Cossacks. Between 3.5 and 5 million people associate themselves with the Cossack identity in post-Soviet Russia and around the world.


title: Cossacks

text: Cossacks have taken an active part in many of the conflicts that have taken place since the disintegration of the Soviet Union. These include the War of Transnistria, Georgian–Abkhazian conflict, Georgian–Ossetian conflict, First Nagorno-Karabakh War, 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh war, First Chechen War, Second Chechen War, and the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine and both the subsequent War in Donbas and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.


title: Cossacks

text: In early times, an ataman (later called hetman) commanded a Cossack band. He was elected by the Host members at a Cossack "rada," as were the other important officials: the judge, the scribe, the lesser officials, and the clergy. The ataman's symbol of power was a ceremonial mace, a "bulava". Today, Russian Cossacks are led by atamans, and Ukrainian Cossacks by hetmans.


title: Cossacks

text: After the Polish–Russian Treaty of Andrusovo split Ukraine along the Dnieper River in 1667, Ukrainian Cossacks were known as Left-bank and Right-bank Cossacks. The ataman had executive powers, and in wartime was the supreme commander in the field. Legislative power was given to the Band Assembly ("Rada"). The senior officers were called "starshyna". In the absence of written laws, the Cossacks were governed by the "Cossack Traditions" – the common, unwritten law.


title: Cossacks

text: Cossack society and government were heavily militarized. The nation was called a host ("vois’ko", or "viys’ko", translated as "army"). The people and territories were subdivided into regimental and company districts, and village posts ("polky", "sotni", and "stanytsi"). A unit of a Cossack troop could be called a "kuren". Each Cossack settlement, alone or in conjunction with neighboring settlements, formed military units and regiments of light cavalry or, in the case of Siberian Cossacks, mounted infantry. They could respond to a threat on very short notice.


title: Cossacks

text: A high regard for education was a tradition among the Cossacks of Ukraine. In 1654, when Macarius III Ibn al-Za'im, the Patriarch of Antioch, traveled to Moscow through Ukraine, his son, Deacon Paul Allepscius, wrote the following report:


title: Cossacks

text: Russian Cossacks are divided into two broad groups: the Stepnoy (Ru:Степной), those of the Steppes, and the Kavkas (Ru:Кавкас), those of the Caucusus. For example in 1917 the Caucasians were divided into two hosts, the Kuban and the Terek, while the Steppe were divided into the Don (the largest), Siberia, Orenburg, Astrakhan, Trans-Baikal, Semiretchi, Amur, and Ussurki voiskos.


title: Cossacks

text: Russian Cossacks founded numerous settlements ("stanitsas") and fortresses along troublesome borders. These included the forts Verny (Almaty, Kazakhstan) in south Central Asia; Grozny in North Caucasus; Fort Alexandrovsk (Fort Shevchenko, Kazakhstan); Krasnovodsk (Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan); Novonikolayevskaya stanitsa (Bautino, Kazakhstan); Blagoveshchensk; and towns and settlements along the Ural, Ishim, Irtysh, Ob, Yenisei, Lena, Amur, Anadyr (Chukotka), and Ussuri Rivers. A group of Albazin Cossacks settled in China as early as 1685.


title: Cossacks

text: Cossacks interacted with nearby peoples, and exchanged cultural influences (the Terek Cossacks, for example, were heavily influenced by the culture of North Caucasian tribes). They also frequently intermarried with local non-Cossack settlers and local inhabitants, regardless of race or origin, sometimes setting aside religious restrictions. War brides brought from distant lands were also common in Cossack families. General Bogaevsky, a commander in the Russian Volunteer Army, mentions in his 1918 memoir that one of his Cossacks, Sotnik Khoperski, was a native Chinese who had been brought back as a child from Manchuria during the Russian-Japanese War of 1904–1905, and adopted and raised by a Cossack family.


title: Cossacks

text: Cossacks initially relied on raiding, herding, fishing and hunting, despising agriculture as lowly. After the defeat of Stenka Razin in 1672, the cossacks began transitioning to agriculture, but this would remain a secondary concern for cossacks until the late 19th century.


title: Cossacks

text: Cossack family values as expressed in 21st century Russia are simple, rigid, and very traditional compared to those of contemporary Western culture. In theory, men build the home and provide an income, and women take care of the family and provide for the children and household. Traditional Russian values, culture and Orthodox Christianity form the bedrock of their beliefs.


title: Cossacks

text: Cossacks, particularly those in rural areas, tend to have more children than most other people in Russia. Rural Cossacks often observe traditional kinship systems, living in large clans of extended family. These are led by an elder patriarch, usually a grandfather, who often has the title of "Ataman".


title: Cossacks

text: Historically, when Cossack men fought in permanent wars far from home, the women took over the role of family leaders. Women were also called upon to physically defend their villages and towns from enemy attacks. In some cases, they raided and disarmed neighboring villages composed of other ethnic groups. Leo Tolstoy described such Cossack female chauvinism in his novel, "The Cossacks". Relations between the sexes within the "stanitsas" were relatively egalitarian. The American historian Thomas Barrett wrote "The history of Cossack women complicates general notions of patriarchy within Russian society".


title: Cossacks

text: When the Malorossian Cossack regiments were disbanded, those Cossacks who were not promoted to nobility, or did not join other estates, were united into a civil Cossack estate. Sergei Korolev's mother was the daughter of a leader of the civil estate of the Zaporozhian Sich.


title: Cossacks

text: Cossacks have long appealed to romantics as idealising freedom and resistance to external authority, and their military exploits against their enemies have contributed to this favorable image. For others, Cossacks are a symbol of repression, for their role in suppressing popular uprisings in the Russian Empire, during the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648–1657, and in pogroms, including those perpetrated by the Terek Cossacks during the Russian revolution and by various Cossack atamans in Ukraine in 1919, among them atamans Zeleny, Hryhoriv, and Semosenko.


title: Cossacks

text: Literary reflections of Cossack culture abound in Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish literature, particularly in the works of Nikolai Gogol ("Taras Bulba"), Taras Shevchenko, Mikhail Sholokhov (And Quiet Flows the Don), Henryk Sienkiewicz ("With Fire and Sword"). One of Leo Tolstoy's first novellas, "The Cossacks", depicts their autonomy and estrangement from Moscow and from centralized rule. Many of Isaac Babel's stories (for instance, those in Red Cavalry) depict Cossack soldiers, and were based on Babel's experiences as a war correspondent attached to the 1st Cavalry Army.


title: Cossacks

text: Polish Romantic literature also commonly dealt with Cossack themes. Some of the Polish writers of this period (for instance, Michał Czajkowski and Józef Bohdan Zaleski) were known as "Cossacophiles" who wholeheartedly celebrated the Cossack history and lifestyle in their works. Others, such as Henryk Rzewuski and Michał Grabowski, were more critical in their approach.


title: Cossacks

text: In the literature of Western Europe, Cossacks appear in Byron's poem "Mazeppa", Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade", and Richard Connell's short story "The Most Dangerous Game". In many stories by adventure writer Harold Lamb, the main character is a Cossack.


title: Cossacks

text: During the Imperial period, Cossacks acquired an image as the ferocious defenders of the anti-Semitic Russian state. Still, during the Soviet era, Jews were encouraged to admire Cossacks as the antitheses of the "parasitic" and "feeble dwellers of the shtetl." A number of Yiddish writers, including , , , and , presented fictionalized accounts of peaceful Jewish-Cossack coexistence, while efforts were made by the pro-Soviet press to present Khmelnytsky as a heroic figure and Cossacks as liberators from the Nazis.


title: Cossacks

text: Historiography interprets Cossackdom in imperial and colonial terms. In Ukraine, where Cossackdom represents historical and cultural heritage, some people have begun attempting to recreate the images of Ukrainian Cossacks. Traditional Ukrainian culture is often tied in with the Cossacks, and the Ukrainian government actively supports these attempts. The traditional Cossack "bulava" serves as a symbol of the Ukrainian presidency, and the island of Khortytsia, the origin and center of the Zaporozhian Sich, has been restored. The video game is a Ukrainian-made game series influenced by Cossack culture.


title: Cossacks

text: Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, many have begun seeing Russian Cossacks as defenders of Russian sovereignty. Cossacks have reestablished all of their hosts, and have taken over police and even administrative duties in their homelands. The Russian military has also taken advantage of patriotic feelings among the Cossacks as the hosts have become larger and more organised, and has in the past turned over some of its surplus military equipment to them.


title: Cossacks

text: Cossacks also play a large cultural role in the South of Russia. Rural ethnic Russian inhabitants of the Rostov-on-Don, Krasnodar, and Stavropol territories, and of the autonomous republics of the Northern Caucasus, regard themselves as consisting almost exclusively of at least spiritual descendants of the Cossacks. As such, the region has had a reputation, even in Soviet times, for its high discipline, low crime, and conservative views. These areas have high rates of religious attendance, and of literacy.


title: Cossacks

text: Cossacks are also mentioned outside Europe. The Japanese anime The Doraemons, part of the larger Doraemon anime series, has a Cossack character, Dora-nichov, who is from Russia.


title: Cossacks

text: The official military march of Russian Cossacks units is "Cossacks in Berlin", composed by Dmitry Pokrass and Daniil Pokrass, with lyrics being made by Caesar Solodar. Solodar was present when Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel signed the act of surrender to allied forces. That same day, he left for Moscow and by the evening of 9 May, the song was written. The lyrics are as follows:


title: Cossacks

text: The S. Tvorun arrangement of the Zaporizhian March (known as the "Cossack march") is one of the main marches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, replacing "Farewell of Slavianka" in 1991 as the official sendoff music for army recruits. The Kuban Cossack Choir is a leading folkloric ensemble that reflects the dances and folklore of the Kuban Cossack.


title: Cossacks

text: The second movement of Mily Balakirev's Second Symphony is marked "Scherzo alla Cosacca", which means "scherzo in the style of the Cossacks".


title: Cossacks

text: The Russian Empire organised its Cossacks into several "voiskos" (hosts), which lived along the Russian border and internal borders between Russian and non-Russian peoples. Each host originally had its own leadership, ranks, regalia, and uniforms. By the late 19th century, ranks were standardized following the example of the Imperial Russian Army. The ranks and insignia were kept after the 1988 law allowing the hosts to reform, and the 2005 law legally recognizing the hosts as a combat service. They are given below as per all military tickets that are standard for the Russian Army.


title: Cossacks

text: As with the ranks Polkovnik and General, the Colonel ranks are only stable for small hosts, being given to atamans of regional and district status. The smallest unit, the "stanitsa", is commanded by a Yesaul. If the region or district lacks any other "stanitsa"s, the rank Polkovnik is applied automatically, but with no stars on the shoulder. As the hosts continue to grow, starless shoulder patches are becoming increasingly rare.


title: Cossacks

text: In addition, the supreme ataman of the largest Don Cossack Host is officially titled Marshal, and so wears insignia derived from the Russian/Soviet Marshal ranks, including the diamond Marshal Star. This is because the Don Cossack Supreme Ataman is recognized as the official head of all Cossack armies, including those outside the present Russian borders. He also has the authority to recognize and dissolve new hosts.


title: Cossacks

text: Cossacks were expected to provide their own uniforms. While these were sometimes manufactured in bulk by factories owned by the individual host, families often handed down garments or made them within the household. Accordingly, individual items might vary from those laid down by regulation, or be of obsolete pattern. Each host had distinctive uniform colourings. Similar uniforms are in service today amongst the Cossacks of Russia.


title: Cossacks

text: For most hosts, the basic uniform consisted of the standard loose-fitting tunics and wide trousers typical of Russian regular troops from 1881 to 1908, and shown in the two photographs opposite. The Caucasian hosts (Kuban and Terek) wore the very long, open-fronted, "cherkesska" coats with ornamental cartridge loops and coloured "beshmet"s (waistcoats). These have come to epitomize the popular image of the Cossacks. Most hosts wore fleece hats with coloured cloth tops in full dress, and round caps, with or without peaks, for ordinary duties. These caps were worn sharply slanted to one side by the rank-and-file of Cossack regiments, over hair trimmed longer than that of ordinary Russian soldiers. The two Caucasian hosts wore high fleece caps on most occasions, together with black felt cloaks ("burke") in bad weather.


title: Cossacks

text: Until 1909, Cossack regiments in summer wore white "gymnasterkas" (blouses), and cap covers of standard Russian army pattern. The shoulder straps and cap bands were in the host colour, as detailed below. From 1910 to 1918, they wore a khaki-grey jacket for field wear. The dress uniform had blue or green breeches with broad, coloured stripes in the host colour, which were often worn with the service jacket.


title: Cossacks

text: While most Cossacks served as cavalry, several of the larger hosts had infantry and artillery units. Four regiments of Cossacks formed part of the Imperial Guard, as well as the "Konvoi"—the tsar's mounted escort. The Imperial Guard regiments wore tailored, government-issue uniforms, which were colourful and elaborate. For example, the "Konvoi" wore scarlet "cherkesska"s, white "beshmet"s, and red crowns on their fleece hats. The Guard Cossacks of His Majesty and the Ataman's Guard Cossacks, both drawn from the Don Host, wore red, and light blue, coats respectively. The Combined Cossack Guard Regiment, comprising representative detachments from each of the remaining hosts, wore red, light blue, crimson, or orange coats, according to squadron.


title: Cossacks

text: Ethnic, or "born" ("prirodnye"), Cossacks are those who can trace, or claim to trace, their ancestry to people and families identified as Cossack in the Tsarist era. They tend to be Christian, practicing as Orthodox Christians or Old Believers; though there are growing numbers of Rodnovers, especially among Ukrainian Cossacks.


title: Cossacks

text: Others may be initiated as Cossacks, particularly men in military service. Such initiates may be neither ethnic Slavs, nor Christian. Not all agree that such initiates should be considered Cossack. There is no consensus on an initiation rite or rules.


title: Cossacks

text: In other cases, individuals may wear Cossack uniform and pass themselves off as Cossack, perhaps because there is a large ethnic Cossack population in the area and the person wants to fit in. Others adopt Cossack clothing in an attempt to take on some of their mythic status. Ethnic Cossacks refer to the re-enactors as "ryazhenye" (ряженые, or "dressed up phonies").


title: Cossacks

text: Because of the lack of consensus on how to define Cossacks, accurate numbers are not available. According to the Russian Census of 2010, 67,573 people identify as ethnic Cossack in Russia. Between 3.5 and 5 million people associate themselves with the Cossack identity in Europe and across the world.


title: Cossacks

text: The Cossack Congress in America unites the Cossack communities of the North American Continent. It has branches in the U.S., in Canada and in Colombia.


title: Cossacks

text: On April 24, 1999, the founding meeting of the International Armenian-Cossack Friendship and Cooperation Association was held in Yerevan. There is a Separate Cossack District of the Great Don Army operating in Armenia. The organization was established by the decision of the Council of Atamans on December 15, 2015. It is a partner of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia.


title: Cossacks

text: The Association of Cossacks of Azerbaijan operates in the Republic of Azerbaijan. The association was established in 1992 and registered with the Ministry of Justice of Azerbaijan on 16 November 1994, with 1,500 members. Many Cossacks under the association join the Azerbaijani Armed Forces.


title: Cossacks

text: There are 3 republican Cossack organizations in Belarus: the All-Belarusian United Cossacks, the All-Belarusian Unified Cossacks and the Belarusian Cossacks, which have existed since the mid-1990s.


title: Cossacks

text: The Registered Cossacks of the Russian Federation are the Cossack paramilitary formation providing public and other services, under the Federal Law of the Russian Federation dated December 5, 2005, No. 154-FZ "On State Service of the Russian Cossacks".


title: Cossacks

text: The All-Russian Cossack Society () is responsible for the coordination of the activities of all 11 registered Cossack hosts, particularly in the spheres of patriotic education and the continuity of historical Cossack customs and traditions. Both registered and non-registered Cossack organizations can be part of the society. On 4 November 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed Kuban Vice Governor and Kuban Cossack Host Ataman Nikolai Doluda as Ataman of the All-Russia Cossack Society. Cossack General Doluda was appointed two years after the atamans and the Cossacks created it in October 2017. The idea was first proposed in 1994. On 27 November 2018, delegates of the Constitutive Assembly voted for the establishment of the society and adopted its official statute. Doluda was then nominated for head of the society, in which he was backed by the Presidential Council on Cossack Affairs.


title: The Cranberries

text: The Cranberries were an Irish rock band formed in Limerick, Ireland. Originally named the Cranberry Saw Us, the band were formed in 1989 by lead singer Niall Quinn, guitarist Noel Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler. Quinn was replaced as lead singer by Dolores O'Riordan in 1990 and they changed their name to the Cranberries. The band classified themselves as an alternative rock group, but incorporated aspects of indie rock, jangle pop, folk rock, post-punk and pop rock into their sound.


title: The Cranberries

text: The Cranberries rose to international fame in the 1990s with their debut album, "Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?", which became a commercial success. Some of the band's hit singles include "Dreams" (1992), "Linger" (1993), "Zombie" (1994), "Salvation" (1996), and "When You're Gone" (1997). Five of the band's albums reached the Top 20 on the "Billboard" 200 chart and eight of their singles reached the Top 20 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart.


title: The Cranberries

text: In early 2009, after a six-year hiatus, the Cranberries reunited and began a North American tour followed by shows in Latin America and Europe. The band's sixth studio album, "Roses", was released in February 2012 and its seventh, "Something Else", followed in April 2017. On 15 January 2018, O'Riordan was found dead of drowning in a London hotel room. The Cranberries confirmed in September 2018 that they would not continue as a band; their final album, "In the End", was released in April 2019 and they disbanded afterwards.


title: The Cranberries

text: The Cranberries rank as one of the best-selling alternative acts of the 1990s, having sold nearly 50 million albums worldwide as of 2019. They have received an MTV Europe Music Award, a World Music Award, an International Group nomination at the Brit Awards, a Juno nomination, a Juno Award win, an Ivor Novello Award for International Achievement and a BMI Award with a Special Citation of Achievement. "In the End" earned them a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Album. With the video for their song "Zombie", the Cranberries became the first Irish band to reach one billion views on YouTube.


title: The Cranberries

text: Brothers Noel Hogan and Mike Hogan, descendants of the nineteenth-century Irish poet Michael Hogan, met Fergal Lawler in the mid-1980s. The young kids who grew up together in Limerick, Ireland, also shared their love of 1980s English/indie music and were "galvanised by punk's DIY ethic". Lawler received his first drum kit as a Christmas present when he was about seventeen; two months later, Mike Hogan received his first bass and his brother his first guitar. Niall Quinn, who also lived in the region, played with his own group called Hitchers and occasionally shared his experiences with the trio. Thereafter, they moved towards the idea of a four-piece ensemble and Quinn decided to stay on with the band.


title: The Cranberries

text: In mid-1989, brothers Mike (16) and Noel (18) Hogan formed the Cranberry Saw Us with Lawler (18), and singer Quinn. The initial release from Cranberry Saw Us was the demo EP "Anything" in January 1990. Shortly afterwards, Quinn left the band to return to his previous group Hitchers, although they remained on good terms. Despite this unexpected break-up, the three musicians transitioned to an instrumental group for several months, continuing to improve on ideas and song structures of instrumental pieces. Lawler and the two Hogan brothers then placed an advertisement for a female singer. Subsequently, Quinn introduced the trio to a friend of his girlfriend's sister, mentioning that she was a singer-songwriter looking for a group who would compose original music.


title: The Cranberries

text: On a Sunday afternoon in mid-1990, 18-year-old Dolores O'Riordan cycled to the audition at Xeric Studios dressed in a tracksuit and with a broken Casio keyboard under her arm. O'Riordan said of the first encounter "I really liked what I heard; I thought they were very nice and tight. It was a lovely potential band but they needed a singer – and direction". Noel Hogan gave her a rough cassette demo incorporating chord sequences of indie-jangly guitar sounds, then O'Riordan took home Hogan's tape and began writing lyrics and overlaying melodies which would underpin the group's future material. Within a week, she returned to the musicians with whom she sang along a rough version of "Linger". Mike Hogan later described it as "we were immediately blown away, her voice was something special". Noel Hogan elaborated, "she was so small and quiet... then she opened her mouth and this amazing voice, this huge voice came out for the size of her"; and then acknowledged: "how come she's not already in a band? [...] that day changed our lives". A musical relationship rapidly developed between O'Riordan and Noel Hogan, who had enough songs to design a demo. The fledgling band recorded a four-track demo EP called "Water Circle", released in cassette format by local record label Xeric Records.


title: The Cranberries

text: In July 1990, the group performed their first gig with O'Riordan at a hotel basement called Ruby's Club, Cruises Hotel, Limerick, performing six original songs to an audience of 60 people including three other local groups. The Cranberry Saw Us moved to Xeric Recording studio and recorded "Nothing Left at All", their first commercial three-track EP released on tape in 300 copies by Xeric Records, which sold out in local record shops in Limerick within a few days. The owner of Xeric Studios, Pearse Gilmore, became their manager and provided the group with studio time to complete a demo tape, which he produced. It featured early versions of "Linger" and "Dreams", which were sent directly to record companies in London by Noel Hogan, determined to leave the underground circuit of small Irish clubs and pubs. Rough Trade label founder Geoff Travis immediately gave his approval, and although the Cranberries did not sign on to his label the demo continued to earn the attention of both the UK press and record industry and sparked a bidding war between major British record labels.


title: The Cranberries

text: On 18 April 1991, the group played a decisive show in their hometown at Jetland Center as part of the University of Limerick's RAG Week to 1,400 students. In attendance was record producer Denny Cordell, who was then A&R for Island Records, and thirty-two other A&R men who flew from London. Shortly thereafter, the band changed their name to "The Cranberries". "Nothing Left at All" began to circulate in the UK with the support of John Best PR agency. Then, they performed their first UK tour opening for the British band Moose over the course of three weeks. The Cranberries received more letters expressing interest from Virgin, EMI, Imago, CBS, and Warner, which led the Hogan brothers to quit their jobs. Eventually the group signed a six-album deal with Island Records who won the battle through Denny Cordell. In mid-1991, the Cranberries headed back into the studio with Gilmore as their producer to "hastily" record their first EP "Uncertain" and created a music video for the title track, which was not released. Gilmore, in an incoherent gesture, made various alterations to the album's rough cuts. 5,000 total copies of "Uncertain" were printed and released in October 1991 by Island Records under the Xeric name. The EP received poor reviews in the press and led to tension between the group and Gilmore. By this time, Gilmore began restricting information to the Cranberries and made separate arrangements with Island's U.S branch. In October 1991 the Cranberries performed at Underworld in London during a UK and Ireland tour. Adding to this period of doubt, touring conditions and money were lacking with maximum earnings of $25 a day. On 9 December 1991, the Cranberries was supposed to support Nirvana in Belfast's Conor Hall, but Nirvana canceled their tour at the last moment as well as the five remaining shows due to Kurt Cobain's ill health.


title: The Cranberries

text: After a difficult recording session, intended for their first album on Island Records in January 1992, the band scrapped their work and fired Gilmore. Noel Hogan stated "we didn't have a problem with each other, we had a problem with this guy". During that period the Cranberries toured Ireland and the UK as the opening act for TOP, gaining more attention from the British press. Subsequently, they hired Geoff Travis as their new manager. The Cranberries headed back into the studio in Dublin in March 1992 to restart working on their first LP with Stephen Street, who had previously worked with the Smiths. The Cranberries began a UK and Ireland headlining tour during the last four months of 1992 to promote the subsequent release of "Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?". In October 1992, "Dreams" was released in the UK, becoming "Melody Maker"s single of the week. In November 1992, they performed at the emblematic Royal Albert Hall supporting Mercury Rev and the House of Love. Between 1991 and 1993, the band also recorded several studio and live sessions intended for Irish and British radio and television shows, including 2fm's "The Dave Fanning Show" in Dublin and BBC Radio 1's "John Peel Show".


title: The Cranberries

text: The second single of their debut album, "Linger", was first released in the UK in February 1993, peaking at No. 74. Their first full-length album "Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?" was released 1 March 1993. Neither the album nor the single gained much attention, nor did a second single, "Linger". When the band embarked on a tour supporting Suede, they caught the attention of MTV, which put their videos into heavy rotation. The defining moment occurred when mid-way through the tour running order was reversed and the Cranberries replaced Suede as the tour headliner. In late 1993, the band toured extensively throughout the US and "Linger" received heavy rotation on college radio stations across the country. The band's first big hit, "Linger" peaked at No. 3 in Ireland. It reached No. 8 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and stayed on the charts for 24 weeks.


title: The Cranberries

text: "Linger" was later re-issued in February 1994 peaking at No. 14. "Linger" was followed by "Dreams", released again in May 1994; the single peaked at No. 27 on the UK charts and reached the Top 15 on the US Alternative Airplay list, helping the band's debut album to top both the UK Albums Chart and Irish Albums Chart in June. By mid-1994, the Cranberries' North America tour drew an attendance of 10,000 to 13,500 per show.


title: The Cranberries

text: The group reunited with Street for "No Need to Argue", which was released on 3 October 1994. It would go on to peak at No. 6 on the US charts and eventually outsold its predecessor. Within a year it went triple platinum, spawning the number-one hit "Zombie" and the No. 11 "Ode to My Family" on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. By March 1994, the Cranberries won the Top International Act of Music Week (UK). On 13 August 1994, during their US tour, the Cranberries performed at Woodstock II in Saugerties, New York. Ed Power of "The Telegraph" wrote that the Cranberries "superstardom was sealed by a November 1994 rendition of 'Zombie' on "Late Show with David Letterman""; he said, "It was a dark, sludgy appearance, topped off by O'Riordan’s stunning transformation from indie urchin to blonde-dyed rock chick in high boots".


title: The Cranberries

text: In 1995, the band continued touring and released two more singles, "I Can't Be with You" and "Ridiculous Thoughts". "No Need to Argue" went 5× platinum in Canada, platinum in Switzerland, and 7× platinum in the United States. On 20 February 1995, the Cranberries received a nomination at the Brit Awards in the International Group category at the 15th edition of the annual pop music awards in the United Kingdom.


title: The Cranberries

text: On 15 May 1995, the Cranberries had planned an impromptu free acoustic set for 3,000 people at National Sylvan Theater, Washington, D.C., United States. The show was orchestrated by radio station WHFS, which had paid for the use of five US Park police officers. Before the show began, the organizers realized how erroneous their original crowd estimates were when a frenzied crowd of over 10,000 devotees appeared. The show started 40 minutes late, while stage diving started before the first guitar note was played. Park Police officers established that they could not control the crowd and stopped the show after one and a half songs. When the crowd were told that the Cranberries would not be returning, rioting began, with the crowd throwing rocks, food and beer bottles at Park Police officers. Some audience members jumped onstage, and O'Riordan's acoustic guitar was stolen. More officers in riot gear arrived, and dozens of mounted horse patrols cleared the south quarter of the Washington Monument grounds while the fracas continued outside.


title: The Cranberries

text: On 23 May 1995, at London's Grosvenor House, the Cranberries were nominated for Best Contemporary Song for "Zombie" at the Ivor Novello Awards. In mid-1995, the Cranberries had broken the American market; while the UK bands had failed. At that time, the band was Ireland's biggest musical export since U2. In 1995 the Cranberries performed "Ode to My Family" at the World Music Awards, winning the Award for Best Irish Recording Artists. They were named Best Irish Recording Artists at the 10th annual Irish Music awards, held at Dublin's Burlington Hotel. On 23 November 1995 the Cranberries won the "Best Song" award for "Zombie" at the 1995 MTV Europe Music Awards, beating out Michael Jackson's "You Are Not Alone". During the "No Need To Argue" European tour '95, the Cranberries performed to more than 500,000 people, with peak attendance reaching 20,000 people per night in United States.


title: The Cranberries

text: On 10 March 1996, the Cranberries received the Best-Selling Album Award for "No Need to Argue" at the 26th Annual Juno Awards. The band's third album "To the Faithful Departed" was released on 30 April 1996, peaking at No. 2 in the UK and No. 4 on the "Billboard" 200. Although "To the Faithful Departed" sold four million copies in six weeks and went double platinum in the US and Gold in the UK, it failed to match the sales of its predecessors. The album was "mauled" by the press due to the politically charged songs "Bosnia", "War Child", and the real, unaltered sound of gunshots in "I Just Shot John Lennon". The first single from the album was "Salvation", which topped the US Modern Rock Tracks chart. The second single from the album was "Free to Decide"; the single's peak in the UK was 33, and it reached number 22 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. In September 1996, the Cranberries' video for "Salvation" was nominated for a MTV Video Music Award for Best Art Direction. In November 1996 "When You're Gone" was released as a single in the US, peaking at No. 22 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: The Cranberries

text: By mid-1996, the band's combined albums had sold more than 22 million copies. On 9 June 1996, the Cranberries canceled the remainder of the Australian leg of their 117-date world tour, as O'Riordan re-injured her knee during a concert in Cairns on 8 June. The tour resumed in August 1996 in North America, but they never finished it and canceled the European leg, citing O'Riordan's "ill health". She said that she was exhausted, suffering insomnia, paranoia, and anorexia; she was down to 41 kg (91 lb.; stone). O'Riordan also complained about the press and photographers invading her private life. The circumstances had almost led to the band breaking up and they then took a one-year hiatus from the music industry.


title: The Cranberries

text: On 9 March 1997, Bruce Fairbairn and the Cranberries were nominees at the Juno Awards for their work on "Free to Decide" and "When You're Gone". On 19 May 1997, the band received an Ivor Novello Awards for International Achievement at London's Grosvenor House.


title: The Cranberries

text: On 12 November 1998, Dolores O'Riordan and Fergal Lawler made an appearance at the 1998 MTV Europe Music Awards in Milan and presented the award for best song. On 11 December 1998, the band played "Dreams", "Promises" and "Linger" at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert at Oslo Spektrum in Norway. "Promises" was performed live for the first time, four months before the release of "Bury the Hatchet". At that time, the Cranberries were named as one of the "Most Outstanding Irish Bands of All Time", along with Van Morrison and U2.


title: The Cranberries

text: In January 1999, the Recording Industry Association of America announced US sales of 5 million copies of "Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?", and a total of 28 million albums by the band sold. On 19 April 1999, the band released "Bury the Hatchet". The album's first single, "Promises", was released in February. "Promises" would be the only single from the album to chart in the US and the last U.S. chart single released by the band before their hiatus. The album peaked at 7 in the UK and 13 in the US and was certified gold in the US. The second single from the album was "Animal Instinct", which did not chart in the UK, although it did chart in France, Austria and many others. The album's third and fourth singles were "Just My Imagination" and "You & Me", respectively. The band had a guest appearance on popular television series "Charmed", performing "Just My Imagination" on the fifth episode of the second season, "She's a Man, Baby, a Man!".


title: The Cranberries

text: The Cranberries undertook a 110-date world tour which drew more than one million fans. The world tour started in April 1999 and was completed in July 2000. The group partnered with Ticketmaster.com to be the first artists to sell tickets for a national tour exclusively online. It was the biggest and most successful tour of the Cranberries' career. The tour brought them back to Ireland for their first date since May 2000. They performed at Millstreet in County Cork. As the tour rolled on, the band released "Bury the Hatchet – The Complete Sessions", a double CD featuring B-sides as well as live tracks taken from a show in Paris. Although "Bury the Hatchet" was a major seller, the album marked a sales decrease compared to their previous releases.


title: The Cranberries

text: In late 2001, the Cranberries had sold more than 33 million albums worldwide. On 22 October 2001, the album "Wake Up and Smell the Coffee" was released; the band's old producer Stephen Street returned to produce the album. The album peaked at No. 46 on the US "Billboard" 200, and No. 2 on the Spanish, Italian and French album charts. It went to No. 8 on the "Billboard" Canadian Albums Chart and reached No. 61 in the UK. The first single released from the album was "Analyse", which charted in the US Adult Top 40 at a peak of 26.


title: The Cranberries

text: In January 2002, they released the second single "Time Is Ticking Out", and some months later another one, "This Is the Day". In September, a greatest hits album was released entitled "", which was released alongside an of music videos. The album peaked in the UK at No. 20. The song "Stars" was released as a single from that album. They started a European tour in mid-October 2002 and ended in December.


title: The Cranberries

text: In January 2003, following advice from their legal advisors, the Cranberries parted ways with record label MCA, due to the band's dissatisfaction with the promotion of "Wake Up and Smell the Coffee". Noel Hogan observed "with little effort from our label, we have been pleased to see top-10 sales in many countries". Despite comments from MCA regarding that the album did not reach the "Billboard" 200's top 30, the 2002 concerts drew an average audience of 10,000 people, with many of the dates selling-out. O'Riordan told "Billboard": "since we were signed in 1991 by Island Records, we have gradually seen our label dissolve from a pioneering independent spirited label into a corporate monolith that completely lost touch with the group's creative vision". The Cranberries signed in 1991 with Island Records America, which was transferred to MCA in 2000 following a contract renegotiation.


title: The Cranberries

text: The band never replicated its earlier success; "Rolling Stone"s David Browne said that "even as their sound grew edgier and punkier, they never lost their fan base, for whom the troubled O'Riordan remained a relatable pop star".


title: The Cranberries

text: At the end of February 2003, the Cranberries started working with Stephen Street and debuted their work for the first time in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on 29 May 2003, performing the songs "Astral Projection" and "In It Together". In September 2003, the band announced they were taking some time to pursue individual careers, as well as concentrate on family, and scrapped sessions for a sixth studio release. Initially, a two-year sabbatical was confirmed, while O'Riordan assured that the group would just take a hiatus, she said "we've been together for 13 years; it's a much needed break. It was getting predictable and lacking in a challenge; time to experiment". Although a spokesperson for the Cranberries announced a "temporary shutdown in activities", the four members remained on good terms and in regular contact with each other.


title: The Cranberries

text: O'Riordan started collaborating with other musicians in 2004 before launching her solo career with the album "Are You Listening?" in 2007 and a world tour, following it with "No Baggage" in 2009.


title: The Cranberries

text: Noel Hogan started a new project called Mono Band, writing all instrumentation in his own studio and developing a "new way of working" with programmer Matt Vaughan. The project's first full-length self-titled album saw a limited release in 2005. Mono Band later became Arkitekt and released EPs in 2007 and 2009. Mike Hogan played bass with Mono Band. Noel Hogan has also been working as a producer with Supermodel Twins, from his native Limerick and Remma.


title: The Cranberries

text: In April 2006, Mike Hogan and his wife Siobhán opened a café called The Sage Café, on Catherine Street in the heart of Limerick City. The award-winning café closed on 25 September 2017. Mike Hogan also played bass with Mono Band.


title: The Cranberries

text: Fergal Lawler was a member of the Low Network, whose first album was released in 2007. He also worked with Walter Mitty and the Realists as well as Last Days of Death Country as both producer and musician.


title: The Cranberries

text: The Cranberries reunited in January 2009 to celebrate O'Riordan becoming an Honorary Patron of University Philosophical Society (Trinity College, Dublin). The group indicated at the time that this did not signify an official reunion, but on 25 August 2009, in anticipation of the release of "No Baggage", O'Riordan announced that the Cranberries would be reuniting for a North American and European tour. O'Riordan indicated that the band would be playing songs from her solo albums and a lot of the Cranberries' classic hits as well as some new group compositions.


title: The Cranberries

text: At this point of their career, the Cranberries were managed by Danny Goldberg, former Nirvana and Kurt Cobain manager. In 2011, the actual "Water Circle" demo tape emerged, widely assumed to be the first appearance of the Cranberries with the vocal of Dolores O'Riordan. A private collector from United States submitted the bid to US$1499.95 via eBay store; the offer was eclipsed later.


title: The Cranberries

text: The Cranberries recorded "Roses" at the Metalworks Studios in Mississauga, Canada, from 18 April to 15 May 2011 with Stephen Street, who previously collaborated with the band on their first, second and fifth albums. The Cranberries worked on 15 tracks during the "Roses" session, although not all were included on the album. "Roses" was released on 27 February 2012. The sixth studio album "Roses" peaked at 51 on the "Billboard" 200 chart and achieved numerous placements on other "Billboard" charts, such as No. 4 on the Independent Albums, No. 6 on the Canadian Albums Chart, No. 9 on the Alternative Albums, No. 10 on the Rock Albums and No. 20 on Tastemaker Albums chart.


title: The Cranberries

text: On 18 February 2012 the Cranberries returned to the stage of the Ariston Theatre where they presented their new single "Tomorrow" in Sanremo at the 62nd Song Festival di Sanremo, Italy. They performed "Tomorrow" and "Zombie", having been invited on more than one occasion to the festival.


title: The Cranberries

text: O'Riordan started legal proceedings against Noel Hogan in October 2013. The case was struck out in July 2015 and the cause was not divulged.


title: The Cranberries

text: In October 2016, the Cranberries received a BMI Award in London for three million radio plays in the United States of their single "Dreams" taken from their debut studio album. The award had been presented with a special citation of achievement.


title: The Cranberries

text: An acoustic Cranberries album titled "Something Else" was released on 28 April 2017, through BMG. "Something Else" featured orchestral arrangements of prior releases, re-recorded in 2016 acoustically with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, and three new songs: "The Glory", "Why", and "Rupture". With the release of the new album, the group announced a tour which was to include dates in Europe, parts of the UK, and North America. The shows were scheduled in smaller venues, with live orchestral accompaniment. However, in May 2017, shortly into the European tour, the Cranberries had to cancel the remainder of the European dates due to O'Riordan's health, with the band's website citing "medical reasons associated with a back problem". The North American tour dates were cancelled in July when her recovery had not progressed enough for her to participate.


title: The Cranberries

text: On 15 January 2018, O'Riordan died unexpectedly in London, England. She had recently arrived in London for a studio mixing session on her D.A.R.K. album and to discuss the upcoming album of the band with record label BMG. The inquest into her death was adjourned until 3 April while the coroner awaited the results of "various tests". On 6 September 2018, it was ruled that she had drowned in her hotel room's bathtub due to sedation by alcohol poisoning.


title: The Cranberries

text: In mid-September 2018, Noel Hogan confirmed the band's dissolution, which would occur after the release of their final album "In the End". During the 2017 tour, and the following winter, O'Riordan and Noel Hogan had written and demoed eleven tracks. Her recorded vocal demos for the album were stored in her personal hard disk drive from her home in New York City. Hogan stated: "We will do this album and then that will be it. No one wants to do this without Dolores..." "So there's a song called 'In the End', it's the last song on the album, and it just kind of summed up the whole album and the band. Because it's definitely the end of it for us. So we've called it that." At the time of O'Riordan's death, more than 40 million of the Cranberries albums were sold worldwide.


title: The Cranberries

text: On 15 January 2019, one year after O'Riordan's death, the band released "All Over Now", the first single from "In the End".


title: The Cranberries

text: The band released the single "Wake Me When It's Over" on 19 March 2019. The Cranberries released the title track of the album, "In the End" on 16 April 2019, which was the last song recorded by O'Riordan before her death. The Cranberries released "In the End" on 26 April 2019. The album peaked at No. 8 in Germany, No. 11 in France, No. 4 in Italy, No. 3 in Ireland, and charted in the Top 10 of the UK Official Charts. "In the End" also went to No. 7 on the "Billboard" Independent Albums chart, and No. 10 on the "Billboard" Top Alternative Albums chart.


title: The Cranberries

text: On 18 January 2019, Noel Hogan, Mike Hogan and Fergal Lawler were conferred with honorary doctorates by University of Limerick (UL). A posthumous award was presented to Eileen O'Riordan, mother of Dolores O'Riordan.


title: The Cranberries

text: Saint Sister, a duo from Northern Ireland, performed an a cappella rendition of the song "Dreams" at Lyra McKee's funeral in Belfast on 24 April 2019; McKee was murdered by the New IRA in April 2019. On 1 September 2019, Noel Hogan joined Kodaline on stage at the Electric Picnic Festival in Stradbally, Ireland, to play "Zombie" in tribute to Dolores O'Riordan. A music video restoration campaign of the entire catalogue of the Cranberries on YouTube was launched on 3 October 2019, 25 years after the release of the album "No Need to Argue".


title: The Cranberries

text: The Cranberries' final album "In the End" was nominated for Best Rock Album at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards. On 18 April 2020, the official music video for "Zombie" became the first song by an Irish band to reach over one billion views on YouTube, becoming the third video from the 1990s, and the sixth from the 20th century, to reach the milestone on the video streaming service. Other artists whose songs have reached the billion-views mark include Guns N' Roses, Nirvana, Queen and A-ha.


title: The Cranberries

text: The Cranberries were defined as an alternative rock band. The band's sound, characterised by Noel Hogan's guitar-driven indie rock, combined musical genres ranging from jangle pop, indie pop, and folk music styles (notably Irish folk)to post-punk, embodied by the drumming style and O'Riordan's voice. Their debut single "Dreams", "introduced the world to the band's unique twist on the Celtic rock tradition"; "The Michigan Daily"s Kaitlyn Fox wrote, "one of the most well-known and influential groups from the Irish music scene is the Cranberries". They also incorporated string arrangements to various effect; writer Simon Vozick-Levinson described "O'Riordan's impossibly tender vocals" on "Linger", mingled with "the orchestral swoon, the just-this-side-of-shoegaze guitars". However, their music made a shift toward a heavier sound, in songs such as "So Cold in Ireland", "Hollywood", and "Promises", among others. "Salvation" has been considered as straight-ahead punk rock. "Loud and Clear" has a "boisterous middle eight and odd structure" defined by a "bridge, then verse, then wordless chorus all the way to the finish". "Billboard"s Dan Weiss said of the song that the "absurdist chorus ('People are stranger/ People deranged, are') would be appreciated by Jim Morrison". With their final album, "In the End", the Cranberries returned to their musical origins with the same "simplicity" that initiated their 1993 debut album, in a matured version.


title: The Cranberries

text: The band's music has been likened to Sinéad O'Connor and Siouxsie and the Banshees. O'Riordan stated her singing style incorporating yodelling was inspired by her father, who used to sing "The Lonesome Cattle Call": "I just kept with my father all the time, just copying him and eventually I learned how to do it. Then over the years there were artists like Sinéad O'Connor and Siouxsie from Siouxsie and the Banshees and even Peter Harvey was doing it. It was something that you could work into The Cranberries' format because a lot of that was used in religious Irish music". O'Riordan was influenced by Gregorian chant, and by her experiences singing solo in local church, school choir, traditional Irish ballads and songs in both English and Gaelic. She was a classically trained pianist and played the church organ.


title: The Cranberries

text: O'Riordan was influenced by the Smiths, Duran Duran, the Cure, R.E.M., and Depeche Mode. Lawler, Mike and Noel Hogan were inspired by the Cure, Joy Division, Echo & the Bunnymen, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Clash, and the Smiths. Noel Hogan stressed that at the band's beginnings, "All these roads led to the Smiths, who became very big in our lives later on."


title: God

text: In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. God is typically conceived as being omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnibenevolent, as well as having an eternal and necessary existence. God is often thought to be incorporeal, evoking transcendence or immanence.


title: God

text: Some religions describe God without reference to gender, while others use terminology that is gender-specific and . God has been conceived as either personal or impersonal. In theism, God is the creator and sustainer of the universe, while in deism, God is the creator, but not the sustainer, of the universe. In pantheism, God is the universe itself, while in panentheism, the universe is part (but not the whole) of God. Atheism is an absence of belief in any God or deity, while agnosticism is the belief that the existence of God is unknown or unknowable. God has also been conceived as the source of all moral obligation, and the "greatest conceivable existent".


title: God

text: Many notable theologians and philosophers have developed arguments for and against the existence of God. God is referred to by different names depending on the language and cultural tradition with titles sometimes used referring to God's attributes. Most scientists agree that God cannot be proven or disproven by the scientific method, moreover that science answers the natural while religion answers the supernatural.


title: God

text: The earliest written form of the Germanic word "God" comes from the 6th-century Christian "Codex Argenteus". The English word itself is derived from the Proto-Germanic *ǥuđan. The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form was likely based on the root , which meant either "to call" or "to invoke". The Germanic words for "God" were originally neuter—applying to both genders—but during the process of the Christianization of the Germanic peoples from their indigenous Germanic paganism, the words became a masculine syntactic form. In the English language, capitalization is used when the word is used as a proper noun, as well as for other names by which a god is known. Consequently, the capitalized form of "god" is not used for multiple gods or when used to refer to the generic idea of a deity.


title: God

text: The English word "God" and its counterparts in other languages are normally used for any and all conceptions and, in spite of significant differences between religions, the term remains an English translation common to all.


title: God

text: "El" is "God" in Hebrew, but in Judaism, God is also given a proper name, the tetragrammaton YHWH, in origin possibly the name of an Edomite or Midianite deity, Yahweh. In many English translations of the Bible, when the word "LORD" is in all capitals, it signifies that the word represents the tetragrammaton. In Judaism some of the Hebrew titles of God are considered holy names.


title: God

text: "Allāh" () is the Arabic term with no plural used by Muslims and Arabic speaking Christians and Jews meaning "The God", while "ʾilāh" ( plural "`āliha" آلِهَة) is the term used for a deity or a god in general. Muslims also use a multitude of other titles for God.


title: God

text: In Hinduism, Brahman is often considered a monistic concept of God. God may also be given a proper name in monotheistic currents of Hinduism which emphasize the personal nature of God, with early references to his name as Krishna-Vasudeva in Bhagavata or later Vishnu and Hari. Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa is the term used in Balinese Hinduism.


title: God

text: In Chinese religion, Shangdi is conceived as the progenitor (first ancestor) of the universe, intrinsic to it and constantly bringing order to it.


title: God

text: Ahura Mazda is the name for God used in Zoroastrianism. "Mazda", or rather the Avestan stem-form "Mazdā-", nominative "Mazdå", reflects Proto-Iranian "*Mazdāh (female)". It is generally taken to be the proper name of the spirit, and like its Sanskrit cognate "medhā", means "intelligence" or "wisdom". Both the Avestan and Sanskrit words reflect Proto-Indo-Iranian "*mazdhā-", from Proto-Indo-European mn̩sdʰeh, literally meaning "placing ("dʰeh") one's mind ("*mn̩-s")", hence "wise". Meanwhile 101 other names are also in use.


title: God

text: Waheguru (') is a term most often used in Sikhism to refer to God. It means "Wonderful Teacher" in the Punjabi language. "Vāhi" (a Middle Persian borrowing) means "wonderful" and "guru" (') is a term denoting "teacher". Waheguru is also described by some as an experience of ecstasy which is beyond all descriptions. The most common usage of the word "Waheguru" is in the greeting Sikhs use with each other - "Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh" "Wonderful Lord's Khalsa, Victory is to the Wonderful Lord."


title: God

text: Other names for God include Aten in ancient Egyptian Atenism where Aten was proclaimed to be the one "true" supreme being and creator of the universe, Chukwu in Igbo, and Hayyi Rabbi in Mandaeism.


title: God

text: Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. Agnosticism is the view that the truth values of certain claims—especially metaphysical and religious claims such as whether God, the divine or the supernatural exist—are unknown and perhaps unknowable. Theism generally holds that God exists objectively and independently of human thought. Theists also often subscribe to other positions such as that God created and sustains everything; that God is omnipotent and eternal; that God is personal and interacting with the universe through, for example, religious experience and the prayers of humans; that God is both transcendent and immanent; thus, God is simultaneously infinite and, in some way, present in the affairs of the world. "Theism" is sometimes used to refer in general to any belief in God or gods, i.e., monotheism or polytheism.


title: God

text: Some view the existence of God as an empirical question. Richard Dawkins states that "a universe with a god would be a completely different kind of universe from one without, and it would be a scientific difference." Carl Sagan argued that the doctrine of a Creator of the Universe was difficult to prove or disprove and that the only conceivable scientific discovery that could disprove the existence of a Creator (not necessarily a God) would be the discovery that the universe is infinitely old. Some theologians, such as the scientist and theologian Alister McGrath, argue that the existence of God is not a question that can be answered using the scientific method. Agnostic Stephen Jay Gould argued that science and religion are not in conflict and proposed an approach dividing the world of philosophy into what he called "non-overlapping magisteria" (NOMA). In this view, questions of the supernatural, such as those relating to the existence and nature of God, are non-empirical and are the proper domain of theology. The methods of science should then be used to answer any empirical question about the natural world, and theology should be used to answer questions about ultimate meaning and moral value. In this view, the perceived lack of any empirical footprint from the magisterium of the supernatural onto natural events makes science the sole player in the natural world. Stephen Hawking and co-author Leonard Mlodinow state in their 2010 book, "The Grand Design", that it is reasonable to ask who or what created the universe, but if the answer is God, then the question has merely been deflected to that of who created God. Both authors claim however, that it is possible to answer these questions purely within the realm of science, and without invoking any divine beings.


title: God

text: Countless arguments have been proposed to prove the existence of God. Some of the most notable arguments are the Five Ways of Aquinas, the argument from desire proposed by C.S. Lewis, and the Ontological Argument formulated both by Anselm and René Descartes. Immanuel Kant held that the argument from morality is valid.


title: God

text: Anselm's approach was to define God as, "that than which nothing greater can be conceived". Famed pantheist philosopher Baruch Spinoza would later carry this idea to its extreme: "By God I understand a being absolutely infinite, i.e., a substance consisting of infinite attributes, of which each one expresses an eternal and infinite essence." For Spinoza, the whole of the natural universe is made of one substance, God, or its equivalent, Nature. His proof for the existence of God was a variation of the Ontological argument.


title: God

text: Scientist Isaac Newton saw the nontrinitarian God as the masterful creator whose existence could not be denied in the face of the grandeur of all creation. Nevertheless, he rejected polymath Leibniz' thesis that God would necessarily make a perfect world which requires no intervention from the creator. In Query 31 of the "Opticks", Newton simultaneously made an argument from design and for the necessity of intervention: