The Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences has been studying various aspects of the existence and development of the Don Cossacks for a long time. This paper discusses the beginning of the formation of a mass movement for the reappearance of the Don Cossacks in the last years of the USSR. The movement had a significant impact on the political, socio-cultural and other spheres of the country's life. The author considers the evolution of the movement for the reappearance of

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... the Don Cossacks from cultural, educational, historical and patriotic associations that studied the history, folk-lore and customs of the Cossacks to a socio-political force of a patriotic orientation. The contradiction between the traditionalist attitudes of the movement and the new socio-historical realities, which required the solution of urgent problems of society and the state, is analyzed. The paper deals with the problems of the politicization of the movement, which gave rise to the ideological division into "whites" and "reds", which led to the promotion of slogans about the introduction of ataman rule in the region and the creation of an autonomous entity. According to the analysis, it is concluded that in the last years of the existence of the USSR, Cossack organizations on the Don were unable to institutionalize the significant potential of the movement, consolidate its healthy forces and form an image of a social structure that was attractive to supporters.