During the Great Patriotic War, the German army occupied a number of Cossack regions of Southern Russia, including the areas inhabited by the Don Cossacks. The German occupation authorities hoped for the Cossacks’ support and conducted special ideological propaganda. In the difficult conditions of the occupation, the civilian population of the Cossack villages and provinces was focused primarily on the strategy of survival. The lack of evidence of mass voluntary transitions of the Cossacks to the side of the occupiers proves the Pro-Soviet mood of the Cossack population.

The establishment of Cossack educational institutions in Russia met the demands of the Cossack revival movement and was one of the directions of ethnocultural education development in the system of Russian school. The dynamic development of these institutions showed their relevance in the society. But the discrepancy of the goals and tasks of the Cossack revival movement passed to the Cossack educational institutions.

The factor of memory played an important role in development of Cossack revival. The participants of the revival paid special attention to the Cossack history, historical cultural forms and traditions. Special meaning for Cossacks was given to those events and images that formed the positive image of Cossacks as the defenders of the native land or showed the tragedy of the Cossack history regarding the Civil War.