The reasons for the low losses of the Don Cossacks in the wars of the Russian Empire

The article describes how in the XVIII–XIX centuries the Don Cossacks acquired the skills of conducting combat operations with minimal losses that were preserved until the beginning of the twentieth century. The number of wounded among the Don Cossack elite was calculated and the nature of the wounds themselves was clarified, the ratio of the minimum combat losses of Cossacks and losses of regular units of the Russian army, sometimes reaching a quarter or even half of the personnel, was obtained during the Swiss campaign of 1799, the Patriotic War of 1812 and the liberation campaign of 1813–1814, as well as during the First World War. It was established which layers of the Don Cossacks suffered the least losses. They turned out to be the children of officers involved in the service in adolescence. The greatest losses from cold steel were borne by the sons of priests who fell out of the Cossack education system in childhood, but reached higher ranks due to their literacy.