Starshina is a senior military rank or designation in the military forces of some Slavic states, and a historical military designation. Depending on a country, it has different meanings, which sometimes are very different. In the 19th century with the expansion of the Imperial Russia into Turkestan and the Central Asia, the word was even used to identify some Turkic leaders as a basic Russian word for aqsaqal (white-beard) as an example.

The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Orthodox Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Historically, they were a semi-nomadic and semi-militarized people, who, while under the nominal suzerainty of various Eastern European states at the time, were allowed a great degree of self-governance in exchange for military service. Although numerous linguistic and religious groups came together to form the Cossacks, most of them coalesced and became East Slavic-speaking Orthodox Christians.