Somewhere in the deep, dark, Eastern European half of my mongrelly ancestry --half Russian, half Polish, half German, and half French, there are Cossack/Ukranian roots.
And somewhere in my boxes of old family photographs there is a picture of one of my ancestors in full Cossack regalia.
I remember at one of the great family gatherings --a wedding, a baptism, whatever, one of my Uncles doing the Kazatzka, with everyone clapping and whistling short blasts, "Wheet! Wheet Wheet," in time with the music.
That really impressed me --it's like a Youtube in my head --and my father told me about our East European ancestry. Later, I tried to imitate that vigorous dance of my uncle's, with little success.
Maybe that's why my knees are shot now, 70-ish years later.
So that deep-knee-bend video of the OP tickled that memory of the Kazatzka dance and my somewhat diluted Cossack roots, and in a poorly-written article from Wiki on the Cossacks, I found:
The expansionist ambitions of the [Russian] empire relied on ensuring the loyalty of Cossacks, which caused tension given their traditional exercise of freedom, democratic self-rule, and independence.
Maybe that explains a lot about my personality.
HEY!
Terry, 230RN
Entertaining (Kazatzka at ~2:00 into the vid):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH0DYT1jvvoHorsemanship vignettes:
http://wn.com/cossack_showAmusingly, there's a Cossack in modern camo at 00:20 in there. Hmmmm... Tallpine might like that idea. :)
