The book contains a concise and rich in real factual material a set of problems of the historical path of development of the Cossacks, subordinate to the answer to the question: is it necessary to talk about the Cossack community? Cossacks are a new social phenomenon in the life of multinational Russian society in the 1990-2010s. Many works have already been published, which contain an answer to the question: who are the Cossacks - "people" or "not people," but an ethnographic group. However, we will push aside scientific disputes, a verbal game and turn to what was the path of the Cossacks in the 20th - early 21st centuries, how the Cossacks live, what their faith remains, what problems disturb.