14 - A borderline state of mind: the closing of the Don steppe frontier (1708–1739)

Summary

Though the disastrous deal concluded at Pruth in 1711 was a great setback for the Russian Empire, the treaty allowed Peter I to turn his back on southern affairs for over a decade. The retreat from the Black Sea and the bitter lessons of the Petrine Azov endeavor, however, only increased the Russian government's resolve to minimize conflict in the Don region. Under Peter's successors Russia modified the imperial objectives that first called borderlines into creation, but the empire retained its commitment to finalizing boundaries in the Don steppes.

As the final closing of the Don steppe frontier approached in 1739, more and more Cossacks found themselves on the frontlines of expansion in other parts of the empire. Thousands of Don Cossacks loyal to the Romanov dynasty participated in the opening of new frontiers in the Caucasus, while hundreds of Nekrasovite Cossacks abandoned their adopted home in the Kuban' region. In the face of the final eradication of the old steppe and closing of imperial boundaries, they chose emigration as a final assertion of Cossack liberty.

RE-ASSERTING BORDERS AGAINST THE NOMADS

In spite of the fact that for Russia both the war and the peace were lost at Pruth in 1711, a successful campaign conducted the very same year marked a turning point in the history of the Pontic steppes. In summer 1711, Kazan' governor P. M. Apraksin led four thousand Russian cavalrymen and four thousand foot soldiers in a campaign against the Kuban' region.