The revival of the Cossacks in Australia owes much to the enthusiasm of Semyon Boykov
Photo: personal archive
To my question, can I depict him in the note as a hereditary Cossack? Australian Semyon Boykov laughs:
– For our liberal audience, such a definition causes only laughter and doubt. Pfft, Australian Cossack! What is it?!
Many, in fact, will have a similar question: where did the Cossacks come from in the land of kangaroos and koalas? And for a while, in Australia there are about 10-20 thousand! But we go in order.
OUR COSSACKS GO FOR SYDNEY
The first Cossack detachments came to the Green Continent after the Civil War. The pioneers were the detachment of the ataman of the Ural Cossack army, Vladimir Tolstov. When in 1922 there was no longer any hope of preserving the tsarist empire, they went first to China, and then to Australia.
The Russians settled in the suburbs of Brisbane. He bought a small plot of land that couldn’t feed everyone, so he decided to get to work.
“Perhaps the most difficult is for the Russians who have settled in North Queensland. The only way to get work is on the plantations, cutting sugar cane. The work is terribly tiring and requires great strength and stamina,” Stukov, a journalist for the Harbin-based Rubezh newspaper, wrote at the time.
In 1930, the first Australian General Cossack village appeared in Kordalba (300 km from Brisbane). At that time, the Transbaikal Cossacks, the Don Cossacks, the Kuban Cossacks already lived on the mainland. They all wanted to keep theirs.
Semyon Boikov’s ancestors moved to Australia from China in the early 1960s. His father, the Orthodox priest Mikhail Boikov, was already born on the green continent.
– Upbringing was strict, military-patriotic. When I was 14, I used the first money I earned – $70 – to buy a gilt frame into which I inserted a portrait of Nicholas II, says Semyon, who was born in the seaside city of Geelong. – The family always spoke Russian, so when I went to school there were problems, I had to learn English from scratch.
Today, according to Semyon, one can find more sympathy for Russia among Australians than among most of the descendants of Russian emigrants.
Photo: personal archive
WITH FLAGS IN SUPPORT OF THE DPR
The Cossack revival in Australia owes much to the enthusiasm of Semyon Boykov. In 2011, upon his return from Russia, where the young man studied at the seminary and traveled throughout Transbaikalia, studying the villages where his ancestors lived, he decided to found a Cossack society. The traditions of the Cossacks still shined, those new Australian Russians who were born in the 80-90s still remembered the old people who talked about life in the Chinese Three Rivers (the area where white emigrants settled) and sang old Cossack songs .
At first, the Australian authorities closely watched the Cossack society and favorably treated, they say, culture, songs, dances, folk costumes. Colorant! But, when in 2014 the Cossacks suddenly sided with Donbass and supported the annexation of Crimea, the attitude changed dramatically. The authorities did not like the pro-Russian propaganda videos, and the actions in which the flags of the LDNR were draped with flags, and the demonstrations against Navalny (recognized as a foreign agent and extremist).
Photo: personal archive
australian cossack
World fame came to Semyon Boykov with the light hand of the English tabloid Daily Mail. After the crash of the Malaysian Boeing MH17 in eastern Ukraine, the publication published an article about Semyon, where he was called an Australian Cossack (“Aussie Cossack”) and posted a photo montage: an Australian on a horse with a saber in his hands flaunts over the wreckage of the Boeing, and below is the comment: “Has this Australian Cossack shot down a Boeing now in Ukraine?”
The harassment Boykov suffered afterwards led him to sue five British tabloids to protect his good name. Themis was on the side of the Cossack.
New persecution of Russian Australians began during the coronavirus pandemic. The government has introduced some of the toughest quarantine measures in the world. “People hated the authorities at that time, they needed a national hero,” recalls Semyon. Then the army of Boikov’s supporters and Russian Cossacks grew significantly. The authorities, who put the police in Semyon (almost 60 searches were carried out in his house in two years), only caused the growth of the popularity of the YouTube channel Aussie kossak. The Russian Cossack decided to run for the Australian Parliament.
Photo: personal archive
EXTREMELY DANGEROUS
With the beginning of the NWO, Boykov’s life changed dramatically. Australian authorities announced a manhunt for him. The reason was a video in which Semyon names the name of the alleged pedophile. The police considered that the law on non-disclosure of personal data was violated. Well, as general intimidation, Boikov was sent to prison for 10 months for this, declared a threat to national security and classified as a “particularly dangerous criminal”. But as the Cossack served his sentence in one of Australia’s strictest prisons, Moscow worried about his fate. Thanks to the support of lawyers and the Russian Foreign Ministry, Semyon was released early, but as it turned out, not for long.
In mid-December, on the eve of a trip to Russia, Boikov became an accidental witness to a rally in support of Ukraine. Yellow and black flags, red and black flags of the “Right Sector” (banned in Russia) flew over the meeting.
“I couldn’t stand it, I went to disperse them, turned on a live broadcast on my channel,” Semyon admits. Suddenly, an old man grabbed his hand, and when the Cossack tried to push his hand away from him, the stranger began to spectacularly fall to the ground, shouting “Police! He hit me.”
Photo: personal archive
“They began to provoke me, the women ran up, threw the phone out of their hands, broke the screen,” Boykov continues. – Immediately 40 police officers arrived. No one at the police station heard that it was self-defense, they refused to watch the video. They demanded to hand over my passport, although I asked to leave it, but I had to fly the next day.
But the next morning an Australian “funnel” came for Semyon. But the Cossack was not at home. That night, he decided not to spend the night at his house and, after learning of the impending arrest, he went directly to the Russian consulate in Sydney.
– I thought, since the Russian state fought so fiercely for me, if I go to the consulate, I will have the opportunity to resolve the situation and protect myself, but in prison there will be no such opportunity.
WHAT DO YOU DO FOR UKRAINE?
Now Boikov sadly notes that many Russian emigrants in Australia, and even some descendants of the Cossacks, are trying to distance themselves from Russia as much as possible. Even the Russian Orthodox Men’s Choir, which for many years performed pre-revolutionary and Soviet songs, suddenly removed from its social networks some compositions from the war years, the Russian anthem and “God Save the Tsar”.
Australian Cossack Semyon Boykov applied for Russian citizenship
Photo: personal archive
Today, according to Semyon, one can find more sympathy for Russia among Australians than among most of the descendants of Russian emigrants. He is sure that thanks to the activities of the Cossacks, it was possible to make the Australians think first of all about their country, and not about distant Ukraine.
– We put a lot of pressure on the authorities, we changed public opinion. Now Australia no longer gives weapons to Ukraine, says Semyon. – I always put the question like this: “What do you care about Ukraine, Russia? Let’s think about Australia. There will be a nuclear war, missiles will fly, Australia should not be on this list. When you say that, people start thinking about their homeland.
PS Semyon has been living on the territory of the Russian consulate for half a year.
– I applied for Russian citizenship. It is possible that after receiving a Russian passport, the Australian authorities may deprive me of citizenship, ”she explains, turning to the Australian authorities. – Let me go to Russia, I will leave.
