The Last Cossack

In 1939 a massacre on a remote Russian farm sees a Red Army militia slaughter everyone except for Katja, a young Cossack girl. Saved by a passing resistance unit, she is spirited away to the nearby town of Novocherkassk by the charismatic Captain Mikhail. There she plans to search for her brother, Mitri, and finds work in one of the new Soviet munitions factories. Unknown to her the battle at her family home had left one surviving Red Army officer – Ivan, whose hatred for all things Cossack has grown to an obsession, and whose hunt for the man who almost killed him has taken him to Katja’s town. As the Germans invade and the Red army pushes back, the Cossacks flee to Croatia where a brutal assault and rape by a Communist partisan leaves Katja damaged and pregnant. Forced into tricking a young Cossack horseman into believing he is the father of her unborn child she finds Mikhail’s troop again and joins the trail of soldiers and refugees as they risk a nightmare crossing into Austria, harried by partisans and blizzard conditions. Hundreds die on this trek but Katja, even with a new-born baby, survives. And finally, just as she loses her young husband in a partisan attack she finds her brother – wounded but alive. Settling in a tiny alpine village, the Cossacks believe they have reached safety. Katja is befriended by a local girl and begins to nurse her brother back to health as the war comes to an end. But Stalin has demanded the return of all Russians who opposed him so when the village is liberated by Allied forces, the Cossacks are forcibly repatriated, but not without a fight. As British troops clash with the unarmed Cossacks and refugees, Katja is hidden by locals and ultimately led to safety with her brother and her baby son. But Ivan is never far away, failing to catch up with Mikhail more than once. And he has his own problems as Stalin begins a purge within the military, a purge he barely survives. This is not the end of Ivan’s story for, as the Cossacks arrive at Judenburg at the end of the war, it is Ivan who supervises the execution of the captured officers. Ironically, as he orders his troops to open fire he is unaware that among the victims is Mikhail, whom he had been hunting for years. The story ends with Katja and the surviving Cossacks scattering into the mountains. This is a big movie, in the vein of Peckinpah's 'Cross of Iron'. Although this is Katja’s story, it offers strong roles to an ensemble cast, and a major role for a young female actor. This is also a true story, as told to me by my mother and father who were there at the time - my mother being the young girl who befriended Katja. As a footnote, in 2015, services of remembrance were held across the US, attended by the families of those Cossacks who escaped to America.