cossack

plural cossacks

1. Alternative letter-case form of Cossack.

plural Cossacks · alternative cossack · alternative kozak · alternative Kozak

1. A member or descendant of an originally (semi-)nomadic population of Eastern Europe and the adjacent parts of Asia, formed in part of runaways from neighbouring countries, that eventually settled in parts of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Russian tsarist Empire and constituted a military caste, particularly in areas now comprising southern Russia and Ukraine.
2. A member of a military unit (typically cavalry, originally recruited exclusively from the above).
3. obsoleteA Ukrainian.
4. derogatoryA mercenary, a violent thug: a regular or irregular soldier, police officer or security guard employed to persecute or oppress disfavoured groups, such as Jews or (striking) workers.

   1865 The Coal and Iron Police are authorized by the Pennsylvania General Assembly to maintain order in the coal fields. The miners referred to these private policemen as "Cossacks" and "Yellow Dogs."

   1865, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, “Interesting facts”, in A Brief History of Coal Mining, Reclamation and Regulation in Pennsylvania, archived from the original on 12 May 2006

   4 more examples

   Southern and eastern European miners and other workers popularly referred to these hated troops as "Cossacks" because they acted like the similarly repressive troops used by the czar against workers in Russia during the Revolution of 1905 and on other occasions. "

   1906, Mildren Allen Beik, “Chapter 3: State Police Called in”, in Remembering the Strike for Union in 1906 in Windber, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection

   ... Pinkertons, Cossacks, militia, spies, etc., speaks well for the men who represent us? If they were not true to their men, would all these forces be arrayed against us? Sure not! Let the weak rail and the malicious slur; the[…]

   1907, Our Journal, page 18

   Capitalists want soldiers, marines, militia, cossacks, Pinkertons, "coal-and-iron police," and so forth - chiefly for THREE general purposes : FIRST : TO HOLD DOWN the wage-earners and force them to consent to produce a[…]

   1910, George Ross Kirkpatrick, War -- what For?, page 40

   It would be a physical impossibility to give in this article anything near a comprehensive account of the ramifications of this band of legalized ruffians[…] the Cossacks. […] The Pinkertons, with their gum-shoe methods, the Coal and Iron Police, the State Militia and State Constabulary, played an important part in these many industrial conflicts.

   1916, United Mine Workers of America, United Mine Workers Journal, page 13