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Originally Posted by svin
Hm... Just look at pictures of Cossacks and try to find non-white admixture. Very few, actually. Most of them are Terek Cossacks. Cossacks are just ex-Russian and Ukrainian peasants. Certainly, there is admixture but to associate Cossacks with Tatars is ridiculous.
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That's what I found on different theories of non-Russian origin of Cossacks (in Russian)
http://grants.rsu.ru/osi/Don_NC/Middle/Versia.htm
Seems like there's no mutual consent as to the origin of this people, but most agree that the core of Cossacks was formed by runaway Russian and Ukrainian peasants, but also traders, those sentenced to death, Poles, converted Tatars, etc.
Anyway, I'm not so sure it's a right thing to jump to conclusions about the racial make-up of Cossacks based solely on these pictures. Where do they originate, how authentic are they?