Cossacks and the James Bond movie Goldeneye

[PhoenixOrion]

I remember in the James Bond movie Goldeneye that Cossacks are not to be trusted and/because they are two-faced, something like that.

Started reading about the Cossacks/Kozaks and the history of the Ukrainian people so I have a little bit of background info.

Anyone know exactly what it meant within the context of the James Bond movie of Cossacks being untrustworthy?

I don't have copy of the movie to quickly view it.

 

[lyssword]

I don't remember the movie (I might have seen it long time ago tho or maybe parts of it) but I think it means Kozaks were only looking out for themselves and didn't belong to any country really. But I think I found another reference on wiki:

"One notable group of those who fought for the Germans in the Wehrmacht was the XVth SS Cossack Cavalry Corps under the German General Helmuth von Pannwitz in combat against the partisans in Yugoslavia. They surrendered to the British Army in Austria in 1945, hoping to join the British to fight Communism. There was little sympathy at the time for a group who were seen as Nazi collaborators and who were reported to have committed atrocities against resistance fighters in Eastern Europe. They were accordingly handed over to the Soviet Government. At the end of the war, British commanders "repatriated" between 40 to 50 thousand Cossacks, including their families, to the Soviet Union. An unknown number were subsequently executed or imprisoned. Reportedly many of those punished had never been Soviet citizens. This event is widely known as the Betrayal of the Cossacks or the Secret"

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cossack . I'm also interested in this stuff as I was born in Eastern Ukraine where Cossacs lived centuries before 😛

 

[pontifex]

I'm not sure either but I've been reading a book (fiction though) called Wolf of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures vol. 1. The stories are about a Cossack named Khlit during the 17th century.

They are pretty much referred to as only living for battle and not really showing allegiance to anyone but themselves.

As I said, its fiction written in the late 19th century/early 20th century, but the author seems to have really done a lot of research or know a lot about the time period and people.

 

[PhoenixOrion]

I read more about the background story of the movie and found that Trevelyan's parents were ones of the few who escaped when the Kozaks were surrendered by the Brits to the USSR and only for Stalin to have them all executed.

The main villain, Trevelyan, took it very personal and understandably has his hate towards both the British and the Russians. Hence, Bond took this personal characteristic and generalized his lineage/people as not to be trusted.

 

[RbSX]

They were right wingers that fought for Germany against the Soviet Union.

At the end of the 2nd world war they defected to England where they thought they would get the opportunity to fight against the Soviets. Instead they were 'betrayed' by the British, send to Russia and were all executed.