Four colleges in southern Russia will start offering Cossack classes Tuesday in an attempt to train a new generation of Cossack chieftains, or "atamans," a local television station reported.
The "Cossack Science" classes will teach Cossack culture, history and traditions, Cossack ataman Nikolai Doluda told NTK television.
Students taking the classes at the four colleges will be primarily graduates of Cossack cadet corps, which now have the same status as Suvorov military schools, a privileged military-oriented boarding school for teenagers, the news report said.
There are currently four Cossack cadet corps in the Kuban region, a territory that includes the Krasnodar region, the republics of Adygea and Karachayevo-Cherkessia, and parts of the Stavropol region, it said.
A Kremlin reform of Cossack organizations unveiled last month will see Cossack groups throughout the country folded into one structure with a leader approved by the president, Gazeta.ru said.
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