POSITIONS AND OPINIONS OF THE COSSACKS ON THE STATE AND LEGAL ISSUES IN THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD (1918–1920) Erokhin Igor Urievich, PhD in history. <...> Place of employment: Croydon College, London, U.K. E-mail: eiu21@ya.ru AnnoЭaЭion: In ЭСО pОrioН oП ЭСО CoЬЬaМФЬ’ rОvivaХ, аСОn the first Cossack social structures were born, and up to the present day, the governmental bodies have been extremely concerned about the state of things with respect to the development of the Cossack law and the documents that would regulate the norms of life of those communities. <...> There has still been no definite answer. <...> Lawyers and historians have tried to apply the pre-revolutionary norms of the civil and administrative laws of Russia; that work has been partially carried out. <...> But beyond the study remained the historical and legal mechanisms of the life and activities of the Cossack communities in the Civil War period (1918–1920), with their ideas of establishing state and legal and territorial autonomy. <...> This article represents an attempt to partially eliminate that blank spot found on the pages of the historical sciences. <...> The major methodological principles used here are those of historicism, analysis and synthesis, and discursive practice. <...> The article analyzes the prerequisites for emergence of the legal norms related to the life of unrecognized independent Cossack state structures, which makes the article highly topical in the conditions of the processes taking place worldwide and in Russia today. <...> Don Cossack Republic [Electronic online resource]. – Access mode: http://sites.google.com/site/donrepublika – 45 pages. 2. <...> The New Russian Cossacks: the Cossack Communities. 29.07.2004 [Electronic online resource]. – Access mode: http://combcossack.0pk.ru/viewtopic.php?id=2480 5. <...> Organizational and Legal Bases of the Cossack Activities in the South of Russia: from the Middle of the 16th Century till the Early 20th Century: PhD in Law Theses (Specialty Code 12.00.01). – Krasnodar, 2007. 474 pages. 6. <...> Historical Aspects of Building the SelfConsciousness of the Ural Cossacks and the Modern Problems of the Cossack Self-Identification [Electronic online resource]. – Access mode: http://forum/kazakia.info/ vievtopic.php?p=1556 http://www.yail.ru/rus/about/index.php?about=2148 7. <...> Self-Government in the Cossack Provinces, Oblasts, Settlements and Villages [Electronic online resource]. – Access mode: http://www.samoupravlenie.ru/46-04.php 8. <...> В период возрождения казачества, эпоху <...>