Richard Alexis Georgian with his new book, Cossacks, Indians and Buffalo Bill.

A Lehigh Acres author Richard Alexis Georgian has just published a book titled Cossacks, Indians and Buffalo Bill. And it may become, if not already, one of the more important books ever written about Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Shows in the 1800s.

Georgian’s book has been 16 years in the making and he admits that he started writing and doing research before the Internet age.

His research turned out an interesting history of the Russian Cossacks, a group of warriors that originated in Russia and eventually came to be the colorful horsemen in Buffalo Bill or William F. Cody’s Wild West Shows. One of those was his grandfather.

For many, the Cossacks may not be readily known, but the history of Georgian (Russian) horsemen in the Wild West shows began in 1892 when they first joined the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West in England.

In 1893 they went to the United States, where they performed under the name of Russian Cossacks in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West as well as other circuses and shows.

Georgian’s book

The Gurian riders, as they were known, were called Cossacks for different reasons, including that Georgia was part of the Russian empire at that time. Georgia was annexed by Czar’s Russia in 1801 and by Soviet Russia in 1921 and that the Cossacks had a colorful reputation.

Richard Georgian, a well-known civic leader in Lehigh, who served on both the Lehigh Acres Community Planning Council and the Lehigh Acres Community Planning Corp., also helped to write the bylaws, along with his partner, David King for the East County Water Control District.

He has pulled away from local affairs in the last year, it seems, in order to finish his book which is likely destined to become one of the remarkable books on both the history of the Wild West Shows and the Cossacks and Indians that performed across America.

Asked by a Voice of America reporter what would he want to write about Russian Cossacks in Wild West shows, Georgian said it all started with a photograph of his grandfather, Alexis.

“I asked my father about it,” Georgian said. His father’s reply was: “Oh, didn’t I tell you Alexis worked for Buffalo Bill as a ‘Russian Cossack’ trick rider?”

Georgian said he replied no to his father, but it sparked an interest which has led to his brand new book, Cossacks, Indians and Buffalo Bill.

Georgian, his last name being associated with the original Cossacks in Russia, was 50 years old when he first saw that photograph of his grandfather.

Sixteen years later after intensive searches of information which led him around the world, has made him a leading expert on Russians Cossacks in America’s tent shows.

Georgian said his travels took him to the British National Archives where he found Georgian rider names among the passenger lists. And in the Republic of Georgia today, he visited the National Library and Archives.

Now with a desire for the finding out all he could, he interviewed relatives of riders in Ozurgeti and Lanchkhuti. His research began before the Internet age and he spent years in the U.S. National Archives and Library of Congress reading Wild West show books, New York Clipper, Billboard, Variety, and hours with his head buried in microfilm readers.

His adventures included traveling across the U.S. visiting every possible archive or museum containing primary source materials.

Georgian is 66 and says he has lived in the U.S., India, Vietnam, Australia, Bahrain, Italy and Puerto Rico. In his early years, he visited Calcutta, India, where he first experienced a British school curriculum and his education was further advanced in a St. Louis, Mo., private school headed by an English headmaster.

The family returned to Calcutta and Georgian attended Woodstock in Mussoorie, located in the Himalayas. He returned from India on a backpacking trip through the Mideast and Europe at the young age of 17.

His adventure didn’t stop there. He served in the U.S. Navy and was a radioman. He says he started off by pounding a Morse key and finished his 22-year career as a master chief radioman, managing multi-million dollar satellite terminals and as a command master chief. He graduated from the University of Maryland, University College with a bachelor of science degree, cum laude.

Georgian became a civilian communications software systems analyst and wrote technical documents, proposals and marketing material. He developed a curriculum and taught basic writing skills. His career continued, traveling around the world for the U.S. Army managing a team of engineers assessing new communications facilities.

Today he is a member of the Circus Historical Society and spent three years (2008-2010) as president of the Gulf Coast Writers Association in Southwest Florida.

Georgian moved to Lehigh in 2005 where he retired. He owned property in Lehigh, he said.

Georgian said that in 1890, William F. Cody, Buffalo Bill, found himself in a fix.

He said the Secretary of the Interior decreed that no more Indians would be permitted to leave their reservations to take part in any shows.

Cody sees his business about to crumble, Georgian said. His solution was to create a Congress of Rough Riders from around the world. A French impresario imported men from the Russian occupied Kingdom of Georgia that Cody’s press agent described as “The Czar’s Russian Cossack Warriors.” In reality, they were Georgians eager for work overseas and Buffalo Bill, meanwhile was able to pull strings in Washington to re-instate his Indians.

He said the Georgians’ introduction in 1892 at Earl’s Court amazed London crowds and visiting heads of state. Queen Victoria requested a command performance to see the Czar’s “Russian Cossacks.” Georgian said this event so impressed Cody that his “Russian Cossacks” never left his show.

“Readers will pull back the canvas of Wild West shows and circuses and peek into the daily lives of these trick riders. The tragedies of train wrecks, blow downs, fires, accidents and murder are uncovered. You will delve into the management practices of the owners and business partners. We take you behind the scenes and explore the human side of life.

“Ocean travel, learning to wash out of a bucket, playing poker, getting drunk, going out on the town, or dealing with injuries are all facets of life on the road for the Cossacks, American Indians and Buffalo Bill,” Georgian said in his promotional materials.

Georgian said their story ends with death of Buffalo Bill and the Russian Revolution in 1917. Joseph Stalin, years later decreed that “anyone who has been to America is an enemy of the state. The former riders are imprisoned or sent to Siberia and their families conceal their history.

But in Georgian’s well researched and entertaining book, their history is revealed today for those who read the 436-page book. It is completely sourced with notes and bibliographies.

Georgian’s book is $20 with tax and he will be at the Sept. 17 Constitution Day activities in Lehigh at the Arts of the Inland booth to sell and autograph his books.

The activities will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Majestic Golf Club on Homestead Rd., both inside and outside. There will be all types of fun activities and non-voters will have an opportunity to register to vote, one of the aims of the sponsoring of Constitution Day.

Irakli Makharadze, author of Wild West Georgians and Gurian Outlaw said Georgian knows this field very well.

“His grandfather Alexis Gogokhia-Georgian was one of these trick riders. His work is a remarkable book, scrupulously researched, detailed, creatively imagined and wonderfully told. This is the book to be savored,” Makharadze said in a flyer promoting Georgian’s book.

You can also order the book at www.barringerpublishing.com or at www.RichardGeorgian.com. It is also available at Barnes & Noble (www.bn.com) and nook, Amazon (www.amazon.com) and Kindle Barringer Publishing. They can be found by “googlizing” the book.