Changes in the legal status of the Yenisei Cossacks in the 17th – early 20th centuries

The author examines in detail the issues of changing the right position of the Yenisei Cossacks in the period from the beginning of the 17th century to the end of the first quarter of the 20th century. The object of the study is the Cossacks of the Yenisei region of Eastern Siberia (Yenisei Cossacks) in the XVII – early XX centuries. The subject of this study is the evolution of the right-wing status of the Yenisei Cossacks in the period from the appearance of the first Cossack detachments in the Yenisei Region (early 17th century) to the announcement at the First Congress of the Yenisei Cossacks of the Krasnoyarsk Cossack Division by the Yenisei Cossack Army (May 25, 1917). The principles of historical materialism and a systematic approach to the study of historical phenomena. The author used both general scientific research methods, as well as special historical (periodization, historical-genetic, historical-systemic and historical-comparative) and legal (comparative-historical) research methods. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that the historical stages of the change in the legal status of the Yenisei Cossacks in the pre-revolutionary period of national history are highlighted, common features and differences in the legal status of the Yenisei Cossacks are revealed in comparison with the Cossacks of the Siberian and Trans-Baikal Cossack troops, as well as with the Russian peasantry. The results obtained can be used to create a textbook on the discipline "History of the Cossacks of the Krasnoyarsk Territory". The author comes to the following conclusions: The Yenisei Cossacks, as a separate territorial estate group of the population, have been formed since the beginning of the 17th century exclusively as a service category of the population, supported by the state, possessing rights and privileges, bearing duties established by the state to solve the tasks of expanding Russia's territorial possessions in Siberia and the Far East, and maintaining control over the acquired territories. The Yenisei Cossacks have never experienced the stage of free Cossacks, as a group of the Cossack population of the European part of Russia. In the history of the Yenisei Cossacks, four periods were identified in which the legal status of the Yenisei Cossacks changed.