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History of Kazashko: from the Nekrasovites to today
Kazashko is one of the youngest villages near Varna, but its roots lie three centuries back and thousands of kilometres away, in 17th-century Russia. This is how refugees of faith reached the northern shore of Lake Varna.
The schism: why the Old Believers left Russia
In 1653–1656 Patriarch Nikon of Moscow carried out a church reform. The liturgical books were corrected according to Greek models, the two-finger sign of the cross was replaced with a three-finger one, and some of the rites were changed. Many believers refused to accept the changes and stayed true to the “old faith”. This is how the name Old Believers (also called Old Ritualists) came about.
Persecution against them intensified at the end of the 17th century. Under Peter the Great new obligations were added, along with the Europeanisation of daily life, including the notorious shaving of beards. Thousands of Old Believers fled to the outskirts of the empire and beyond its borders.
Ignat Nekrasov’s Cossacks
Some of the refugees found shelter among the Don and Kuban Cossacks. After the Bulavin Rebellion was crushed in 1707–1708, the Cossack ataman Ignat Nekrasov led his people out of Russia. They first settled in the Kuban, and later in the lands of the Ottoman Empire, along the Danube, in Dobruja and partly in Asia Minor. Their descendants became known as the Nekrasovites. In Romania the Old Believers are called Lipovans.
“They would sooner have their heads cut off than their beards.” That is how people in Kazashko still speak of the elders of the first generations.
From Wallachia to Lake Varna
In Wallachia and Northern Dobruja the community lived undisturbed for a long time. In 1894 Romania passed a new law on civil registration. The Old Believers saw it as an attack on their faith, and a group of elders complained to the minister, but he rejected their demands. The council of elders then decided to send people from the village of Sarichioi to negotiate with the Bulgarian government.
On 16 November 1897 Matvey Rusov led a group of men to Sofia. They were warmly received there but given a condition: to gather at least 100 families so they could have their own settlement and their own registers of births and deaths. The elders had demands of their own. They wanted the children to learn Church Slavonic and church singing, and the village to have its own church with five or six bells.
In 1905 Matvey Rusov set out with his family from Sarichioi, in Tulcea County. The journey took him to the northern shore of Lake Varna, where he settled and began fishing. He is considered the founder of the village. After him came families from Tulcea, Jurilovca and Carcaliu.
1908: “Kazashka Mahala”
By 1908 the settlement already had more than 50 houses. By decree of Prince Ferdinand I it was recognised as a settlement under the name “Kazashka Mahala” (“Cossack Quarter”). In 1937 the Ministry of Public Works approved its development regulations. In 1935 the Church of the Holy Protection (Pokrov) was built, and it remains the spiritual centre of the village to this day.
By Decree No. 50 of September 1924 Tsar Boris III gave the Cossacks additional land east of the village. The houses east of Yasen Street stand there today. In 1927 the Varna District Inspectorate permitted a private Cossack school for 20 children to open. The villagers built a wooden hut for it. The first teacher was the deacon Feodor Prokopov. The school was called the “Slavonic School”, and it taught reading, writing and Church Slavonic. Twice a week a Bulgarian teacher also came to teach arithmetic and Bulgarian.
Locals also remember the visits of Tsar Boris III. He came to hunt in the reeds and to fish with the Cossacks. According to tradition, he ordered the road to Varna to be built.
The war and the departure of 1946
According to local memories, in the winter of 1944/45 Kazashko took in a whole trainload of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, many of them wounded. The villagers treated them, fed them and took them to their Russian bathhouses. It is said that General Fyodor Tolbukhin, later a marshal, also prayed before the old icons in the Cossack church. The small window of the house through which he looked is now in the village museum.
In 1946 a representative of the USSR arrived in Kazashko and invited everyone who wished to return to the “old homeland”, promising them land. Around 60 families accepted. According to archival research by A. Prigarin (2024), this wave took in about half of the Old Believers in Bulgaria, from Kazashko and from Tataritsa. They settled in present-day Ukraine, around Kherson and Mykolaiv. As a result, relatives of people from Kazashko are now scattered across Ukraine, Moldova, Russia and Siberia.
The first Bulgarian bride
For a long time the community was closed and mixed marriages were not allowed. In 1949 the Cossack Karney Grigorov brought home the first Bulgarian bride, Zhivka. From then on the village gradually became mixed. In many families today both Old Believer and Orthodox holidays are celebrated.
Kazashko from 1952 to today
From 1944 to 1966 the mayor of the village was the Don Cossack Vladimir Malakhiev. During his time the village was connected to electricity (1950), received drinking water (1956), and the school and community centre (chitalishte) buildings were built. In 1952 the village officially received the name Kazashko and the new school building was built. In 1956 some families left for the USSR in a second wave of emigration. In 1958 the Mikhail Sholokhov community centre was founded. Today Kazashko is the smallest settlement in Varna Municipality, with around 400 residents. The village is young, with many families with small children. In 2016 its history was collected in the book “Kazashko – minalo, nastoyashte i badeshte” (“Kazashko – Past, Present and Future”), and the documentary film “Odna dusha” (“One Soul”) was made about the village. In 2019 a Sunday school teaching Russian opened in the old school building. Since 2000 the mayor of the village has been Gergana Petkova. She holds a master’s degree in theology and founded the Centre for Cossack Culture. According to an article on Blitz.bg, during the socialist years the village was nearly relocated and survived after intervention from the Soviet side. It keeps the Centre for Cossack Culture, the Kalinushka folk group and its big summer festival, Sailors’ and Fishermen’s Day.
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Frequently asked questions
When was the village of Kazashko founded?
The first settlers arrived in 1905, led by Matvey Rusov. In 1908 the settlement was officially recognised under the name “Kazashka Mahala”.
Why is the village called Kazashko?
It was founded by descendants of the Nekrasov Cossacks, Old Believers who fled Russia. Its first official name was “Kazashka Mahala” (“Cossack Quarter”), and since 1952 the village has been called Kazashko.
How many families left for the USSR in 1946?
Around 60 families. They settled around Kherson and Mykolaiv in present-day Ukraine.
Published: 27 September 2026
Sources (9, mostly in Bulgarian)
- Казашко - Варна, официална страница във Facebook
- Казашко, Уикипедия (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- „Бежанци от Руската империя основали Казашко“, В. Роев, „Стандарт“
- „Един есаул пази наследството на донските казаци край Варна“, Е. Василева, Dnes.bg
- „Есаулът на варненското село Казашко“, Provaton.bg
- „Село Казашко е като магнит за руснаци и западняци“, Кр. Маринова, „Труд“
- А. Пригарин, „Реэмиграция старообрядцев из Добруджи: «болгарский» этап 1946 г.“, 2024
- „Гергана Петкова – една необикновена жена“, М. Игнатов, Blitz.bg
- „Изгубени във времето“: Руското село в България, bTV