Did the soviets use cossacks in ww2?
they certainly did, in fact they had 2 whole armies of them at the beginning of the war and even in the final days in 1945 still had an entire cossack mounted corp. the germans also recruited cossacks into their military (from the many thousands captured in the first months of the war) and had several units in Italy and Yugoslavia on anti-partisan duties throughout the war. (they were responsible for several atrocities) (many cossacks were more than happy to serve Germany as before the war they suffered terrible oppression from the Soviet authorities, (who tried to ban their main religion, (Islam) and break up their tribal structure and settle them in Soviet style collectives, during the war Stalin who hated them anyway, used the fact many were fighting for the Germans to have the entire cossack nation transported from their homes to camps in the far east, (which is still on record as one of the largest mass deportations done in human history) perhaps a million died before the rest wer
