In September 1773, on the distant southeastern outskirts of Russia, on the banks of the river. Yaik, an uprising broke out among the Yaik Cossacks under the leadership of E. Pugachev. In the process of its development, it acquired the character of a genuine peasant war against the feudal-serf system of Russia in the 18th century. Therefore, in the history of our homeland, this spontaneous uprising of the peasantry is called the peasant war under the leadership of E. Pugachev.
The Peasant War of 1773–1775 was a natural consequence of the socio-economic conditions of feudal-serf Russia of the 18th century, an expression of the acute class struggle of the multinational peasantry of Russia against their oppressors and exploiters - the nobles and landowners, against the noble-landlord state.
The peasant uprising was spontaneous and unorganized. The downtrodden, dark, completely illiterate peasantry could not create their own organization and develop their own program. The demands of the rebellious peasants and all exploited people did not go further than the desire to have a “good king” who would free the peasantry from the oppression of the noble landowners, who would grant land and freedom. Such a king in the eyes of the rebel peasants was the leader of the uprising, the Don Cossack Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev, who took the name of Emperor Peter III.
Being the leader of the uprising, E. Pugachev did not have, however, a clear program of action. His aspirations were also associated only with the accession of a “good tsar” to the Russian throne.
The spark of uprising that broke out in September 1773 on the banks of the Yaik a month later blazed with a bright flame and engulfed a huge area within a year: from the Caspian Sea in the south to the modern cities of Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Kungur, Molotov in the north, from the Tobol, Ural and Kazakh steppes in the east. to the right bank of the Volga in the west.
The uprising lasted more than a year - from September 1773 to the beginning of 1775. The tsarist government, led by Catherine II, mobilized large military forces to suppress the uprising. The uprising was brutally suppressed. The leader of the uprising, E. Pugachev, was betrayed by traitors to the tsarist authorities in September 1774, and was executed in Moscow on January 10, 1775.
Prerequisites for the uprising
Despite the struggle that the Bashkirs waged for decades, resettlement to Bashkiria increased, the seizure of land continued, and the number of estates owned by landowners grew; At the same time, the area of land that remained in the use of the Bashkirs decreased.
The riches of the Urals attracted new entrepreneurs who seized huge tracts of land and built factories on them. Almost all major dignitaries, ministers, and senators participated with their capital in the construction of metallurgical plants in the Urals, and this resulted in the government’s attitude towards the complaints and protests of the Bashkirs.
The Bashkirs unite in groups of several people, attack newly built factories and landowners' estates, trying to take revenge on their oppressors. A situation was increasingly created in which the various peoples inhabiting the region had to protest against colonization, reaching the point of open struggle.
The uprisings of the Bashkirs, the departure of the Kalmyks from Russia to China, the wariness, the hostile attitude of the Kazakh people towards Russia - all this suggests that the tsarist policy was clear to these peoples, that it was hostile to them.
Due to the fact that the population was still sparse, the demand for labor increased. The factory owners sought government instructions in 1784, according to which factory owners were given the right to assign and use from 100 to 150 households of state peasants in factories. Peasants assigned to factories were not paid for their work at the factories. Since the population of the region was very sparse, peasants from villages located at a great distance were assigned to the plant. This type of corvee became even more difficult, since the peasants almost whole year were cut off from the villages and did not have the opportunity to work on their farms.
The breeders tried with all their might and means to completely liquidate the farming of the peasants, tear them away from the land and take them completely into their own hands.
There is no way to convey all the techniques and methods that the factory owners used in their desire to ruin the peasants and deprive them of their economic base. They sent special detachments that burst into villages in the midst of field work, during spring sowing, harvesting, etc., grabbed peasants, flogged them, tore them from work and took them to the factory under escort. Stripes remained unplowed and crops remained unharvested. The peasants complained to the local authorities, went all the way to the capital, but at best they were not accepted, and sometimes even, without examining the matter, they were called rebels and put in prison.
Clerks at the factories closely monitored to ensure that there were no “parasites”, i.e. so that not only men, but also women and children work. As a result of this exploitation, overcrowding, poor nutrition and exhaustion of strength, infectious diseases developed and mortality increased.
Peasants repeatedly rebelled against being assigned to factories, but these uprisings were purely local in nature, arose spontaneously and were brutally suppressed by military detachments.
Not only peasants worked at the factories; the majority of fugitive people were concentrated here. Among them were serfs, various criminals, Old Believers, etc. Until there was a decree on fighting the fugitives and returning them to their place of residence, they lived relatively freely, but after the decree, detachments of soldiers began to pursue them. Wherever the fugitive appeared, everywhere he was asked for his appearance, and since there was no appearance, the fugitive was immediately taken away and sent to his homeland to deal with him there.
Knowing that the fugitives had no rights, the factory workers hired them without any restrictions, and soon the factories turned into a place where the fugitives were concentrated. The Berg Collegium, which was in charge of the factories, tried not to notice violations of the decree on the capture and deportation of all fugitives, and the troops of the Orenburg governor did not have the right to conduct raids at the factories.
Taking advantage of the lack of rights and hopeless situation of the fugitives, the breeders put them in the position of slaves, and the slightest dissatisfaction or protest from the fugitives caused repression: the fugitives were immediately captured, handed over to soldiers, mercilessly flogged and then sent to hard labor.
Working conditions in the mining factories were terrible: the mines had no ventilation, and workers suffocated from the heat and lack of air; the pumps were poorly equipped, and people worked for hours, standing waist-deep in water. Although the factory owners were given some instructions to improve working conditions, no one followed them, since officials were accustomed to bribes, and it was more profitable for the manufacturer to give a bribe than to spend money on technical innovations.
The situation of the serfs was no better. In 1762, Catherine II, the wife of Peter III, who assisted in the murder of her husband, ascended the throne. As a protege of the nobles, Catherine II marked her reign with the final enslavement of the peasants, giving the nobles the right to dispose of the peasants at their discretion. In 1767, she issued a decree prohibiting peasants from complaining about their landowners; those found guilty of violating this decree were subject to exile to hard labor.
With the growth of foreign trade, imported goods appear on the markets: beautiful fine fabrics, high-quality wines, jewelry, various luxury items and trinkets; they could only be purchased with money. But in order to have money, landowners had to sell something. They could only throw products onto the market Agriculture, therefore, landowners increase the area under crops, which puts a new burden on the peasants. Under Catherine, corvée increased to 4 days, and in some areas, in particular in the Orenburg region, it reached 6 days a week. Peasants had only nights and Sundays and other holidays to work on their farms. One of the types of landowner farming was plantation farming, when serfs worked all the time for the master and received bread for food. The peasants were in the position of slaves, they were the property of their masters and were dependent on them.
The decree of Catherine II prohibiting peasants from complaining about landowners gave impetus to the rampant passions of the unbridled Russian master. If Saltychikha, who lived in the center of Russia, personally tortured up to a hundred people, then what did the landowners who lived on the outskirts do? Peasants were sold wholesale and retail, landowners dishonored girls and women, raped minors, and abused pregnant women. On the wedding day, they kidnapped the brides and, having disgraced them, returned them to the grooms. The peasants were lost at cards, exchanged for dogs, and for the slightest offense they were brutally beaten with lashes, knouts, and rods.
The peasants, despite the decree, tried to complain to the Orenburg governors. The Orenburg regional archive contains several dozen “cases” of rape of minors, abuse of pregnant women, peasants flogged, etc., but most of them were left without consequences.
Not only the various peoples inhabiting the region, the mining workers and peasants were dissatisfied with the existing state of affairs, but also deep discontent was brewing among the Cossacks, as their former privileges and benefits were gradually being abolished.
One of the main sources of income for the Cossacks was fishing. The Cossacks used fish not only for their food, but also exported it to the market. Salt was of great importance in fisheries, and the decree of 1754 on the salt monopoly dealt a huge blow to the Cossack economy. Before the decree, the Cossacks used salt for free, extracting it in unlimited quantities from salt lakes. The Cossacks were dissatisfied with the monopoly and considered charging money for salt a direct encroachment on their rights and property. Class stratification grew among the Cossacks. The senior elite, led by the atamans, takes power into their own hands and uses their position for personal enrichment. The atamans take over the salt mines and make the entire Cossacks dependent. For salt, in addition to monetary payment, the atamans charge the tenth fish from each catch for their benefit. But this is not enough. The Yaik Cossacks received a small salary from the treasury for their service; the atamans began to withhold it, supposedly as payment for the right to fish on Yaik. Subsequently, this salary was not enough, and the atamans introduced an additional tax. All this caused discontent, which in 1763 resulted in an uprising of ordinary Cossacks against the senior elite.
The investigative commissions sent to the Yaitsky town, although they removed the atamans, but, being supporters of the kulak ruling part, nominated new atamans from among them, so the situation did not improve.
But in 1766 a decree was issued that caused discontent among the rich. Before the decree, the Yaik Cossacks had the right to hire others to serve in their place. The rich had the means to hire for service, and this decree, which prohibited hiring, was a hostile meeting for them, since they again had to serve in the army. Some of the Cossacks were also dissatisfied with the decree; due to their financial insecurity, they were forced to replace the sons of rich Cossacks in military service for money.
At the same time, orders for service are growing; hundreds of Cossacks are taken away from their homes and sent to various places. As men are separated from home, farms begin to wither and fall into disrepair. Indignant at the ever-increasing hardships, the Yaik Cossacks, secretly from their superiors, sent their walkers to the queen with a petition, but the walkers were received as rebels and were subjected to corporal punishment with whips. This incident made it clear to the Cossacks that there was nothing to hope for help from above, but that they needed to seek the truth themselves.
In 1771, a new uprising broke out among the Yaik Cossacks, and troops were sent to suppress it. The immediate causes of the uprising were the following events. In 1771, the Kalmyks left the Volga region for the borders of China. Wanting to detain them, the Orenburg governor demanded that the Yaik Cossacks go in pursuit. In response, the Cossacks stated that they would not comply with the governor’s demands until the taken away privileges and liberties were restored. The Cossacks demanded the return of the right to choose atamans and other military commanders, demanded payment of delayed salaries, etc. A detachment of soldiers under the leadership of Traunbenberg was sent to the Yaitsky town from Orenburg to clarify the situation.
Being a power-hungry man, Traunbenberg, without delving into the essence of the matter, decided to act with weapons. Batteries struck the Yaitsky town. In response to this, the Cossacks rushed to arms, attacked the sent detachment, defeated it, cutting General Traunbenberg himself into pieces. Ataman Tambovtsev, who tried to prevent the uprising, was hanged.
The defeat of Traunbenberg’s detachment caused alarm among the provincial authorities, and they did not hesitate to send fresh military units under the command of General Freiman to the Yaitsky town to suppress the “rebellion.” In a battle with superior enemy forces, the Cossacks were defeated. The government decided to deal with the Cossacks in such a way that the Cossacks would be remembered for a long time. To deal with the rebels, specialist executioners were called from different cities, who carried out torture and executions. In its cruelty, this reprisal resembles the execution of Urusov. Cossacks were hanged, impaled, and branded on their bodies; many were sent to eternal hard labor. However, these executions excited the Cossacks even more, and they were ready to light the fire of a new struggle.
The situation of the Orenburg Cossacks was no better. They never had the liberties and privileges for which the Yaik Cossacks fought. The Orenburg Cossack army, organized by virtue of the decree, was in a much worse position than the Yaitskoye. Orenburg Cossacks lived in villages scattered throughout the region; As a rule, villages were built near fortresses, in which the Cossacks were in military service. In form, they had elected village authorities, but in essence they were subordinate to the commandants of the fortresses. At first, the commandants extend their power only to men, forcing them to do work on their personal farms, but over time it seems to them that this is not enough, they begin to exploit the entire population of the villages. The position of the Orenburg Cossacks was in many ways similar to the position of serfs. Being full of power and almost uncontrollable, the commandants established a difficult regime in the villages and interfered with the family and everyday affairs of the Cossacks. Moreover, the majority of Orenburg Cossacks did not receive any salary. They were also dissatisfied with their position, but, being scattered throughout the region, they silently endured all oppression and waited for an opportunity to deal with their offenders.
From all this it is clear that the entire population of the region, with the exception of tsarist officials, landowners, factory owners and kulaks, was dissatisfied with the existing order and was ready to take revenge on the oppressors. Rumors began to appear among the people that the local authorities were to blame for the hard life, that they were acting willfully without the knowledge of the queen; Rumors are spreading that the queen is also to blame, who does everything according to the will of the nobles, and that if Tsar Peter Fedorovich were alive, then life would be easier. Behind these rumors, new ones were not slow to appear, that Peter Fedorovich, with the help of the guards, saved himself from death, that he was alive and would soon cry out the cry to fight against officials and nobles.
The Orenburg province was like a powder keg, and it was enough to find a brave person and throw out a rallying cry, and thousands of people would rise to him from all sides. And such a brave man was found in the person of the Don Cossack Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev. He was a brave, strong, courageous man, had a clear, inquisitive mind and powers of observation.
Pugachev's personality
E. I. Pugachev |
Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev is a Don Cossack by origin, a native of the Zimoveyskaya village, a participant in the Seven Years' War with Prussia and the first war with Turkey (1768–1774). He first came to the Trans-Volga steppes in November 1772, after several years of wandering in search of a better life. Having received a passport to settle on the Irgiz River, E. Pugachev in November 1772 arrived in Mechetnaya Sloboda (now the city of Pugachev, Saratov region) and stopped at the abbot of the Old Believer monastery Filaret. From him Pugachev learns about unrest among the Yaik Cossacks and their intention to leave for new places.
Pugachev comes up with a plan - to take the Cossacks to the Kuban River. To find out the intentions of the Cossacks, on November 22, 1772, he arrives under the guise of a merchant in the Yaitsky town, introduces several people to his plans and for the first time calls himself Emperor Peter III. Upon returning to Irgiz, Pugachev was arrested following a denunciation and on December 19, chained, sent to Simbirsk, and from there to Kazan, where he was imprisoned.
Thanks to his exceptional resourcefulness and courage, Pugachev escaped from a Kazan prison at the end of May 1773 and reappeared in the Trans-Volga steppes in August. This time he finds shelter on Stepan Obolyaev’s Talovy Umet, 60 versts from the Yaitsky town. Here Pugachev again “admits” that he was Emperor Peter III, who miraculously escaped death, and arrived on Yaik to protect ordinary Cossacks from the elders and grant them their original liberties.
In connection with Pugachev’s escape, the authorities sounded the alarm; special detachments were sent to capture him, who grabbed the Cossacks and, through torture, tried to find out where the fugitive was.
The Yaik Cossacks remained on their guard. Rumors spread with renewed vigor that Peter III was alive, that his superiors were looking for him, and that Pugachev was the tsar who had escaped death.
These events accelerated the progress of the uprising. Pugachev announced that he was really Tsar Peter III, that his evil wife and nobles decided to kill him in order to rule the people at their own discretion.
Testimonies of contemporaries and eyewitnesses - participants in the uprising describe the appearance of Emelyan Pugachev. He was of average height, broad at the shoulders, thin at the waist, slightly dark in complexion, lean, with dark eyes and hair cut in Cossack style.
This is how Pugachev looks in the portrait painted during his stay in Iletsk town.
The original of this portrait has survived to this day and is kept in the collections of the State Historical Museum in. Moscow. The portrait is painted in oil on canvas; its dimensions are 1 arshin? an inch at 12? Vershkov. Icon painting techniques indicate that the author of the portrait was a self-taught icon painter from the Old Believers. At the top of the portrait, on its left side, there is a date: “September 21, 1773,” and on the reverse side there is the following inscription: “Emelyan Pugachev comes from a Cossack village of our Orthodox faith and belongs to that faith of Ivan son Prokhorov. This face was written on September 1773, 21 days.”
The dates given on the portrait completely coincide with the time of E. Pugachev’s stay in Ilek. Painting a portrait of the leader of the uprising was not an accidental occurrence; it had a certain political meaning, namely: to show a portrait of his “peasant” king, who granted the peasants “eternal freedom.” The restoration of the portrait revealed an interesting detail. It turned out that Pugachev’s portrait was drawn on the portrait of Catherine II. The portrait of Catherine II was bigger size, as indicated by the cut edges of the canvas, and was pierced, probably deliberately, in ten places. The torn places were repaired, the portrait of Catherine II was primed and E. Pugachev was written on it. It is very possible that the portrait of Catherine II hung in the Ataman’s office of the Iletsk town. Here, in a fit of hatred for the noble queen, he was pierced by the rebels, and then used as material for the image of the peasant king Peter III - Emelyan Pugachev.
Pugachev was distinguished by endurance, courage and knowledge of military affairs. He was extremely familiar with the artillery of that time. The clerk of the Military Collegium, Ivan Pochitalin, subsequently testified during interrogation: “Pugachev himself knew better than anyone the rule on how to keep artillery in order.” Pugachev personally participated in battles with government troops, fighting in the front ranks.
The beginning of the uprising
The events of 1772–1773 paved the way for the organization of the rebel core around E. Pugachev-Peter III. On July 2, 1773, a cruel sentence was carried out on the leaders of the January uprising of 1772 in the Yaitsky town. 16 people were punished with a whip and, after cutting out their nostrils and burning out their convict badges, they were sent to eternal hard labor in the Nerchinsk factories. 38 people were punished with whipping and exiled to Siberia for settlement. A number of Cossacks were sent to become soldiers. Moreover, a large sum of money was demanded from the participants in the uprising to compensate for the ruined property of Ataman Tambovtsev, General Traubenberg and others. The verdict caused a new explosion of indignation among ordinary Cossacks.
Meanwhile, rumors about the appearance of Emperor Peter III on Yaik and his intention to stand for the ordinary Cossacks quickly spread in the villages and penetrated into the Yaitsky town. In August and the first half of September 1773, the first detachment of Yaik Cossacks gathered around Pugachev. On September 17, the first manifesto of Pugachev - Emperor Peter III - was solemnly announced to the Yaik Cossacks, granting them the Yaik River “from the peaks to the mouth, and with earth, and herbs, and cash salaries, and lead, and gunpowder, and grain provisions.” Having unfurled pre-prepared banners, a detachment of rebels, numbering about 200 people, armed with guns, spears, and bows, set out for the Yaitsky town.
The main driving force of the uprising was the Russian peasantry in alliance with the oppressed peoples of Bashkiria and the Volga region. The downtrodden, ignorant, completely illiterate peasantry, without the leadership of the working class, which was just beginning to form, could not create its own organization, could not develop its own program. The rebels' demands were for the accession of a "good king" and the receipt of "eternal will." Such a king in the eyes of the rebels was the “peasant king”, “father tsar”, “Emperor Peter Fedorovich”, former Don Cossack Emelyan Pugachev.
On September 18, 1773, the first rebel detachment, consisting mainly of Yaitsky Cossacks and organized on the steppe farms near the Yaitsky town (now Uralsk), led by E. Pugachev, approached the Yaitsky town. The detachment consisted of about 200 people. The attempt to take possession of the town ended in failure. It contained a large detachment of regular troops with artillery. A repeated attack by the rebels on September 19 was repulsed by cannon fire. The rebel detachment, which replenished its ranks with Cossacks who went over to the side of the rebels, moved up the river. Yaik and on September 20, 1773 he stopped near the Iletsk Cossack town (now the village of Ilek).
Village Ilek
In the 18th century. Ilek was called the Iletsk Cossack town. The inhabitants of the town - Iletsk Cossacks - were part of the Yaitsky (Ural) Cossack army.
On the eve of the peasant war, Iletsk town was a relatively large settlement. Academician P. S. Pallas, who passed through the Iletsk town in the summer of 1769, describes it this way: “The left bank of the Yaik is deliberately high, and on it stands the Iletsk Cossack town, fortified with a quadrangular log wall and batteries... In this Cossack town there are more than three hundred houses, and in the middle of it stands wooden church. The local Cossacks can supply up to five hundred troops and are classified as Yaik Cossacks, although they do not have any participation in fishing rights and are forced to provide themselves with food by arable farming and cattle breeding.”
On September 20, the rebels approached the Iletsk Cossack town and stopped a few kilometers from it. The rebel detachment was an organized combat unit. Even on the way from near the Yaitsky town to the Iletsk town, a general circle was convened according to the ancient Cossack custom to select the ataman and esauls.
The Yaik Cossack Andrei Ovchinnikov was elected ataman, the also Yaik Cossack Dmitry Lysov was elected colonel, and the captain and cornet were also elected. The first text of the oath was immediately drawn up, and all the Cossacks and elected leaders swore allegiance to “the most illustrious, most powerful, great sovereign, Emperor Peter Fedorovich, to serve and obey in everything, not sparing their belly to the last drop of blood.”
Approaching the Iletsk town, the rebel detachment already numbered several hundred people and had three cannons taken from the outposts.
The joining of the Iletsk Cossacks to the uprising or their negative attitude towards it had great importance for the successful start of the uprising. Therefore, the rebels acted very carefully. Pugachev sends Andrei Ovchinnikov to the town, accompanied by a small number of Cossacks, with two decrees of the same content: one of them he was to hand over to the ataman of the town Lazar Portnov, the other to the Cossacks. Lazar Portnov was supposed to announce the decree at the Cossack circle; if he does not do this, then the Cossacks had to read it themselves.
The decree, written on behalf of Emperor Peter III, said: “And whatever you wish, all benefits and salaries will not be denied to you; and your glory will never expire; and both you and your descendants will be the first to obey me, the great sovereign. And I will always be given enough wages, provisions, gunpowder and lead.”
Even before the rebel detachment approached the Iletsk town, Portnov, having received a message from the commandant of the Iletsk town, Colonel Simonov, about the beginning of the uprising, gathered the Cossack circle and read out Simonov’s order to take precautions. By his order, the bridge connecting the Iletsk town with the right bank, along which the rebel detachment was moving, was dismantled.
At the same time, rumors about the appearance of Emperor Peter III and the freedoms granted by him reached the Cossacks of the town. The Cossacks were indecisive. Andrei Ovchinnikov put an end to their hesitation. The Cossacks decided to honor the rebel detachment and their leader E. Pugachev - Tsar Peter III - and join the uprising.
On September 21, the dismantled bridge was repaired and a detachment of rebels solemnly entered the town, greeted by the ringing of bells and bread and salt. All Iletsk Cossacks swore allegiance to Pugachev.
Pugachev’s detachment stayed in Iletsk for two days. E. Pugachev himself lived in the house of a wealthy Iletsk Cossack, Ivan Tvorogov.
The chieftain of the town, Lazar Portnov, was hanged. The reason for the execution was the complaints of the Iletsk Cossacks that he “had done great harm to them and ruined them.”
A special regiment was formed from the Iletsk Cossacks. The Iletsk Cossack, later one of the main traitors, Ivan Tvorogov, was appointed colonel of the Iletsk army. E. Pugachev appointed the competent Iletsk Cossack Maxim Gorshkov as secretary. All serviceable artillery in the town was put in order and became part of the rebel artillery. E. Pugachev appointed the Yaik Cossack Fyodor Chumakov as the head of the artillery.
Two days later, the rebels, leaving the Iletsk town, crossed to the right bank of the Urals and moved up the Yaik in the direction of Orenburg, the military and administrative center of the huge Orenburg province, which included within its borders a huge territory from the Caspian Sea in the south to the borders of the modern Yekaterinburg and Molotov regions - in the north. The goal of the rebels was to capture Orenburg.
In 1900 p. Ilek was visited by the famous Russian writer V.G. Korolenko, collecting material on Pugachev and getting acquainted with the places of the peasant uprising. Korolenko wanted to see the remains of the ancient fortress, the bridge on which the Iletsk Cossacks met Pugachev’s detachment. And he turned to one of the experts in antiquity. “He was sitting in the courtyard of his house,” writes V. G. Korolenko in his essay, “above the very steep slope of the high Ural coast. We sat down on a bench nearby. The river rolled its waves under our feet, its sands, shallows, meadows were visible...
To my question, Ivan Yakovlevich smiled.
This,” he said, “is almost the entire old fortress.” Only this corner remained... The rest was swallowed up by Yaik Gorynych... Over there, in the very middle of the river, was the house where I was born...”
What remained of the Iletsk fortress under V.G. Korolenko has now long been washed away by the muddy, fast spring waters of the Urals. In place of the Iletsk town of the Pugachev era, there are now meadows and green coastal groves on the right bank of the Urals.
More than a hundred years ago, the author of a detailed description of the Ural Cossack army, Lieutenant A. Ryabinin, wrote down the legendary legend about Pugachev in Ilek. According to a legend told to A. Ryabinin by one old man, Pugachev was charmed “from a bullet, from a knife, from poison and other dangers, which is why he was never even wounded.” “When he began to enter the Iletsk town,” the old man said, “his gun did not want to go onto the bridge. No matter how much they dragged it, no matter how much they harnessed the horses, they could not move it from the bridge. Then Pugachev got angry, ordered the cannon to be flogged with whips, and then its ears were cut off and thrown into the Yaik River. So what do you think, sir,” the old man said, turning to me, “as soon as the cannon roars in a human voice, just a groan and a roar goes throughout the whole town. “If you don’t believe me,” he added, noticing that I smiled, “ask people, and now sometimes in the water he moans so loudly that it’s far away.”
In the epic style, the same narrator told A. Ryabinin the legend about Lazar Portnov. In the legend, actual events are intertwined with folk fantasy. “When Pugachev began to enter,” the old man said, “they came out of the town to meet him with icons and banners, with bread and salt. He accepted the bread and salt, kissed the icons and called the ataman to him. And at that time Timofey Lazarevich was the ataman, have you heard of tea? Timofey Lazarevich did not go, but they brought him by force. So Pugachev began to tell him to bow to him, spoke again, spoke a third time. Lazarevich did not want to bow and reviled Pugachev with all sorts of nasty words. Pugachev then said:
“I wanted to live with you, Timofey Lazarevich, in love and harmony, I wanted to eat from the same cup with you, drink from the same ladle, I wanted to give you a brocade caftan, apparently that’s not going to happen.” And then he ordered Lazarevich to be hanged on the spot, to the fear of all his opponents.”
Nizhne-Yaitskaya distance
On September 24, a detachment of rebels left the Iletsk town and moved up the Yaik. The first on the detachment’s route was the Rassypnaya fortress. In the era under consideration, on the entire right bank of the Urals from Orenburg to the Iletsk town, there were only four settlements: the fortresses of Chernorechenskaya (the village of Chernorechye, Pavlovsky district), Tatishcheva (the village of Tatishchevo, Perevolotsky district), Nizhneozernaya (the village of Nizhneozernoye, Krasnokholmsky district) and Rassypnaya (village Rassypnoye, Iletsk district).
All these fortresses were part of the so-called Nizhne-Yaitskaya distance of the Orenburg military line (the so-called system of fortifications along the Ural River). The main one was the Tatishchev fortress. The commander of this distance was also in it.
Between these fortresses, as well as along the entire line, on high, elevated places along the banks of the Urals, observation points - pickets, outposts, lighthouses - were built at a certain distance from each other. Cossack teams were usually here only in the summer. On each of them there was a high observation tower, and next to it was a lighthouse, that is, a structure made of poles, wrapped in straw at the top or having a vessel with resin. In case of alarm, the guards set the lighthouse on fire. The column of flame was visible from a nearby lighthouse, whose guards were also setting their own lighthouse on fire. Thus, the news of the alarm quickly reached the fortress, far ahead of the mounted Cossack galloping with a message to the fortress.
The names of the tracts along the banks of the Urals - “Mayachnaya Mountain”, “Mayak” - indicate the location of former Cossack observation posts with a “lighthouse”.
The fortifications, which bore the loud name of fortresses, were very simple and uncomplicated. Built on the high right bank of the Urals, they were surrounded by an earthen rampart and a ditch. Along the shaft there was a wooden wall with a gate. The fortress was armed with several cast iron cannons. The state of these fortresses is perfectly conveyed by A.S. Pushkin in his description of the Belogorsk fortress in the story “The Captain's Daughter”.
The population of the fortresses consisted of Cossacks and soldier teams, consisting mainly of elderly soldiers and disabled people. The soldiers carried out garrison service, and the Cossacks were responsible for guard, observation and reconnaissance service on the line. The Cossacks carried for life military service. In addition, they also had underwater duties along the line.
The composition of the Cossack population of the fortresses was made up of a wide variety of elements: fugitive Russian peasants enrolled in the Cossacks, exiles settled at the fortresses, various service people transferred from the Volga fortified lines, retired soldiers, etc. The Cossack population consisted mostly of Russians, but in some fortresses there were many Cossack Tatars, immigrants from Bashkiria and the Volga region, included in the Cossack class.
Like all the peasantry of Russia in the 18th century, the Cossack population of the fortresses of the Orenburg region experienced the same oppression of the feudal-serf regime. Therefore, the promise of “eternal freedom” proclaimed by E. Pugachev was as close and dear to the Cossacks as to the entire peasantry, and they readily joined the ranks of the rebels. The territory of the Orenburg Cossack army, organized in 1748, began with the Rassypnaya fortress.
Village Rassypnoye
The Rassypnaya fortress was founded somewhat later than the Iletsk Cossack town. In the year the uprising began, there were already 70 households in the Rassypnaya fortress. Settlers were attracted here by lakes rich in fish, abundant meadows and convenient places for arable farming.
Judging by the descriptions in the documents, the fortress had a quadrangular shape, was surrounded by a ditch, and fortified by an earthen rampart with a wooden fence built on it. Two gates were made in the rampart and wooden wall, and two wooden bridges were thrown across the ditch opposite the gate. Inside the fortress there was a commandant's house, a military storeroom, wooden church and the houses of the inhabitants of the fortress.
The fortress was armed with several ancient cast-iron cannons. Before the approach of the rebel detachment, the commandant of the fortress was Second Major Velovsky. The garrison of the fortress consisted of a company of soldiers and several dozen Cossacks led by their chieftain.
On September 24, E. Pugachev’s detachment left the Iletsk town and, not reaching the Rassypnaya fortress, a few kilometers from it, settled down for the night near the Zazhivnaya river. On the morning of September 25, the rebels appeared in sight of the fortress. They send two Cossacks to the fortress with a decree from E. Pugachev, which stated that for going over to the side of the rebels, the Cossacks would be rewarded with “eternal liberty, rivers, seas, all benefits, salary, provisions, gunpowder, lead, ranks and honor.”
The commandant of the fortress Velovsky rejected the appeal to surrender and go over to the side of the rebels. The rebels began their assault. Velovsky opened cannon fire on the besiegers. The rebels responded with their guns, and then, rushing to the attack, smashed the fortress gates and broke into the fortress. One of his contemporaries indicates in his notes that during the assault the Cossacks went over to the side of the rebels and dismantled two walls of the fortress. Through the resulting gap, the rebels broke into the fortress.
E. Pugachev subsequently recalled in his testimony that Major Velovsky and two officers locked themselves in the commandant’s house and fired back from the windows. The Cossacks wanted to set fire to the house, but he forbade it “... so as not to burn down the entire fortress.” For armed resistance and for the losses caused, Velovsky and two officers were hanged. The fortress's Cossacks and soldiers swore allegiance to Tsar Peter III, the Tsar who marched in defense of the oppressed peasantry.
On the same day, taking cannons, gunpowder and cannonballs from the fortress and leaving a new chieftain in Rassypnaya, a detachment of rebels moved up the Yaik to the next fortress - Nizhneozernaya. Before reaching it, the rebels stopped for the night.
The situation in Orenburg
To understand subsequent events, you need to remember what was happening at that time in Orenburg, the residence of the Orenburg governor Reinsdorp. Let's turn to archival documents. Thirteen thick leather-bound volumes contain Reinsdorp's correspondence from the period of the uprising.
The gray sheets of ancient cursive take us back to the era of the uprising, and one after another we see pictures of the events on Yaik in the fall of 1773...
At the moment when E. Pugachev solemnly entered the Iletsk town and the Iletsk Cossacks swore allegiance to Peter III, the couriers of the commandant of the Rassypnaya Fortress Velovsky rode with a report about the movement of the rebels to the Tatishchev Fortress. On the same day, the commandant of this fortress, commander of the Nizhne-Yaitskaya distance, Colonel Elagin, sent a report to Orenburg Reinsdorp outlining Velovsky’s report on the approach of the rebels to the Iletsk town. Elagin's report was received in Orenburg on September 22.
Contemporaries say that on September 22, at about 10 o’clock in the evening, a courier galloped to Orenburg with a message about the capture of the Iletsk town (probably it was Elagin’s messenger) and came to Reinsdorp in the midst of a gala ball held in honor of the coronation day of Catherine II.
Rumors of the beginning of the uprising spread throughout the city. Until this day, according to P.I. Rychkov, city residents knew almost nothing about the uprising. At the same time, Governor Reinsdorp himself was aware of the brewing events. On September 13, 1773, he received a decree from the State Military Collegium on Pugachev’s escape from the Kazan prison and taking measures to capture him, and on September 15, a report from the commandant of the Yaitsky town, Colonel Simonov, dated September 10, about “a certain impostor wandering in the steppe” to search for whom Simonov sent a small detachment. Finally, on September 21, Reinsdorp receives Simonov’s report dated September 18 with the message that “the well-known impostor is already in the meeting and on this date, when he gathers even more, intends to be in the local city.” These alarming news were known only to a narrow circle of the Orenburg military administration.
On September 21, Reinsdorp sent an order to the Chief Commandant of Orenburg, Major General Wallenstern, to put the garrison on alert. In the following days, Reinsdorp receives additional reports about the movement of the rebels up the Yaik and, in particular, about their capture of the Iletsk town.
While E. Pugachev was in the Iletsk town and preparing for a campaign up the Yaik, Reinsdorp was also forming military forces to defeat the rebels. On September 23, he sent an order to the commandant Major Semenov in Stavropol to send 500 Stavropol Kalmyks to the Yaitsky town with instructions to defeat them in case of meeting with the rebels.
On September 24, Reinsdorp sent Baron Bilov's corps of 410 people from Orenburg to meet Pugachev, including 150 Orenburg Cossacks under the command of centurion Timofey Padurov.
On the same day, Reinsdorp sends an order to Seitov Sloboda to prepare 300 mounted and armed Tatars, ready to immediately, upon order, march to Orenburg; On September 25, an order was sent to Ufa: to gather up to 500 Bashkirs and send them to the Iletsk town to suppress the uprising; On September 26, an order was sent to the commandant of the Yaitsky town, Lieutenant Colonel Simonov, to send a military detachment under the command of Major Naumov up the Yaik, following the detachment of E. Pugachev and towards the detachment of Brigadier Bilov.
Reinsdorp's plan was this: to strangle the uprising by enclosing the rebels with the help of detachments from Orenburg, Yaitsky town and Stavropol.
The method of bribery was not forgotten either. Reinsdorp's decrees promised 500 rubles for capturing Pugachev alive, and 250 rubles for delivering him dead.
With secret letters dated September 24, Reinsdorp reported the beginning of the uprising to the Astrakhan and Kazan governors, and on September 25 he sent a report to Catherine II about the outbreak of the uprising and the dispatch of Bilov’s corps.
On September 25, when the rebels stormed the Rassypnaya fortress and then moved on to the Nizhneozernaya fortress, a detachment led by brigadier Bilov, having replenished its ranks and artillery with soldiers and cannons from the Chernorechensk and Tatishchevoy fortresses, arrived late in the evening at the Chesnokovsky outpost, located between the Tatishchevoy and Nizhneozernaya fortresses. It was probably located on the site of the modern village of Chesnokovka, Krasnokholmsky district. Here, Brigadier Bilov receives a report from the commandant of the Nizhneozernaya fortress, Major Kharlov, written on September 25, about the capture of the Rassypnaya fortress by the rebels, about the appearance of rebel forces near Nizhneozernaya and with a request for help. Frightened by this report, Bilov, fearing encirclement and, apparently, not relying on his team, stood indecisively for several hours at the outpost, and turned back to the Tatishchev fortress. Bilov's retreat made it easier for the rebels to capture the Nizhneozernaya fortress.
Nizhneozernoye village
The Nizhneozernaya fortress was founded in 1754, i.e. just 20 years before the start of the uprising. During the era of the uprising, there were approximately 70 households in the Nizhneozernaya fortress. In addition to excellent natural protection - a high steep cliff on the river side, the fortress, according to surviving descriptions, was surrounded by an earthen rampart, surrounded by a moat and had a log wall.
As in other fortresses along the river. Ural, inside Nizhneozernaya there was a commandant’s house, an earthen powder magazine, a military warehouse, houses of Cossacks, soldiers and a wooden church. The fortress was armed with several ancient cast-iron cannons. The garrison of the fortress consisted of a small detachment of soldiers and Cossacks. The commandant of the fortress was Major Kharlov.
Late in the evening of September 25, the commandant of the fortress learned from prisoners captured by the scouts he had sent about the capture of Rassypnaya and that the rebel detachment was only 7 versts from Nizhneozernaya.
Major Kharlov sent a report with this information to Baron Bilov, who was standing with the troops at the Chesnokovsky outpost, after which Bilov retreated to the Tatishchev fortress.
Rumors about the decrees of the leader of the uprising E. Pugachev, who granted the Cossacks and all working people “eternal liberty,” quickly reached the Nizhneozernaya fortress. The proclamation of “eternal liberty” satisfied the cherished desires of the Cossacks. On the same night (from September 25 to 26), 50 Cossacks went to the rebels. The soldiers who remained in the fortress had no desire to fight: the slogans of the uprising were also close and dear to them.
At dawn on September 26, the rebels launched an attack on the fortress. Kharlov opened fire from the cannons. The rebels responded. The shootout lasted about two hours. Then the rebels rushed to storm, broke the gates and broke into the fortress. In the ensuing battle, Kharlov, officers and several soldiers were killed. According to other reports, Major Kharlov, warrant officers Figner and Kabalerov, clerk Skopin and corporal Bikbai were hanged.
According to A. S. Pushkin’s recording made while passing through the Nizhneozernaya fortress, Bikbai was hanged by E. Pugachev for espionage. A. S. Pushkin’s extracts from the archives indicate: “Pugachev in the Nizhneozernaya fortress hanged the commandant for sinking gunpowder.”
After the fortress passed into the hands of the rebels, its inhabitants swore allegiance to E. Pugachev, and the soldiers were enlisted in the ranks of the rebels.
On the same day, having taken the cannons, gunpowder and shells and leaving their commandant in the fortress, E. Pugachev’s detachment moved further up the river. Ural to the Tatishchevo fortress (now the village of Tatishchevo) and, having walked about 12 miles, spent the night at the Sukharnikov farms.
A. S. Pushkin’s travel notebook contains several entries made by him during a short stop in the village. All of them were used in “The History of Pugachev”. Three entries relate directly to the personality of E. Pugachev. Here is one of them.
“In the morning Pugachev came. The Cossack began to warn him.” “Your Tsar’s Majesty, don’t approach, they’ll kill you from a cannon.” “You’re an old man,” Pugachev answered him, “do guns rain on kings?”
It is interesting that the last entry of A. S. Pushkin almost literally coincides with the testimony of one of E. Pugachev’s associates, the Yaik Cossack Timofey Myasnikov. Timofey Myasnikov showed:
“He, Myasnikov, like others, served him faithfully; Moreover, everyone was encouraged not only by rivers, forests, fishing and other liberties, but also by his courage and agility. For when it happened (to be) at the attacks on the city of Orenburg, or at some battles against military commands, then (Pugachev); He was always in front, not a little afraid of the fire of either their cannons or their rifles. And when some of his well-wishers sometimes persuaded him to take care of his stomach, Pugachev said, smiling: “The cannon will not kill the Tsar! Where can it be seen that the king’s cannon could kill him?”
This curious coincidence speaks of the reality of the legend recorded by A.S. Pushkin, possibly from a participant in the uprising who was still alive. Obviously, E. Pugachev used this half-joking expression more than once. And the incident conveyed to A.S. Pushkin in Nizhneozernaya and included by him in “The History of Pugachev” could actually have taken place during the capture of the Nizhneozernaya fortress on September 26, 1773.
In 1890, 80-year-old Nizhneozerninsky Cossack E. A. Donskov, whose grandfather served as a clerk for E. Pugachev, said that after the uprising “a strict check began. If anyone said: “served Emperor Peter Fedorovich,” they were not persecuted, but if they said: “I was with Pugach,” they were exiled, punished with sticks and, in some cases, beaten to death.”
Village Tatishchevo
The village of Tatishchevo is one of the first Russian fortress settlements on the banks of the Yaik. It was founded in the summer of 1736 at the mouth of the Kamysh-Samara river by the first head of the Orenburg expedition I.K. Kirilov and named the Kamysh-Samara fortress.
The choice of place to found the fortress was not accidental. From here began a short portage to the upper reaches of the river. Samara (from the village of Tatishcheva to the village of Perevolotsk, located on the Samara River, is only 25 kilometers), through this place there was a road down the river. Ural.
In 1738, Kirilov’s successor V.N. Tatishchev strengthened the fortress with a rampart and moat and named it after himself.
With the founding of fortresses along the Urals (Chernorechenskaya, Nizhneozernaya and Rassypnaya), the Tatishchev fortress acquired important strategic importance as a junction point from where roads branched up and down the river. the Urals and to the west - along the river. Samara. Possession of it ensured control over these roads. Therefore, throughout the entire 18th century, the Tatishchev fortress was considered the main fortress of the Nizhne-Yaitsky distance. Its subordination included the fortresses of Chernorechenskaya, Nizhne-Ozernaya, Rassypnaya and Perevolotskaya.
Due to the important strategic significance of the Tatishchev Fortress, its fortifications were somewhat better than those of other fortresses: it had an earthen rampart with a moat, a log wall, batteries for cannons, and better artillery than in other fortresses. There were warehouses with ammunition, provisions, and artillery supplies.
Academician P. S. Pallas, who passed through the Tatishchev fortress in 1769, i.e. four years before the start of the uprising, describes the fortifications of the fortress this way: “It was built in an irregular quadrangle, surrounded by a log wall, slingshots and fortified with batteries in the corners.”
The population in the Tatishchev fortress was greater than in other fortresses along the Yaik. According to P.I. Rychkov and P.S. Pallas, in the 60s of the 18th century there were up to 200 households. Pallas emphasizes that “this place in Orenburg can be called the largest, most populous of all the fortresses along the Yaitskaya Line.”
During his trip to the sites of the Pugachev uprising, A.S. Pushkin twice in September 1833 passed through the village. Tatishchevo: on the road from Samara to Orenburg and on the road from Orenburg to Uralsk.
In memory of the visit to the village by the great Russian poet, a memorial plaque was installed in Tatishchev.
The Belogorsk fortress from Pushkin’s story “The Captain’s Daughter” is connected with the village of Tatishchev. A. S. Pushkin coincided the location of the fortress described in the story with the location of the Tatishchev Fortress. “The Belogorsk fortress,” we read in the novel, “was located forty miles from Orenburg. The road went along the steep bank of the Yaik... (chapter “Fortress”). Nizhneozernaya was located about twenty-five versts from our fortress (chapter “Pugachevshchina”).” Indeed, according to the “Topography of the Orenburg Province” by P. I. Rychkov, which A. S. Pushkin used when working on “The History of Pugachev”, the Tatishchev fortress is shown 54 versts from Orenburg and 28 versts from Nizhneozernaya.
The village of Tatishchevo occupies a special place in the history of the first period of the peasant war under the leadership of E. Pugachev. Two major events of the first period of the uprising (September 1773 - March 1774) are associated with it: the brilliant success of E. Pugachev and his comrades in the storming of the Tatishchev fortress on September 27, 1773, which ended with the capture of the fortress and the transition of its garrison to the side of the peasant army, and a major the defeat of the peasant army on March 22, 1774, suffered in a battle with government troops under the command of Prince P. Golitsyn, which decided the fate of the uprising within the territory of the modern Orenburg region and moved the uprising to Bashkiria and the regions of the right bank of the Volga.
This is how the events unfolded on September 27, 1773, when the rebels approached the Tatishchev Fortress. Its garrison after the return of Bilov’s detachment amounted to at least a thousand people. The fortress was armed with 13 guns.
At dawn on September 27, the rebel forces appeared in front of the fortress. A. S. Pushkin in “The History of Pugachev” reports that the rebels “drove up to the walls, persuading the garrison not to listen to the boyars and to surrender voluntarily.”
E. Pugachev recalled in his testimony that even before the rebel detachment approached the fortress, he sent a manifesto to the Tatishchev fortress.
The rebels also made an attempt to enter into negotiations with the garrison, sending a group of Cossacks to the fortress for this purpose. A group of Cossacks also left the fortress for negotiations. The rebels convinced them to surrender voluntarily, saying that Tsar Peter Fedorovich himself was traveling with the rebels.
Returning, the Cossacks handed this over to Baron Bilov. The latter ordered to tell the rebels that all this was “lies.” The rebel delegation replied: “When you are so stubborn, then don’t blame us later.” Negotiations were interrupted. The fortress, which had stopped cannon fire during the negotiations, again began to fire at the rebel forces. The rebel artillery responded with their own guns. Colonel Elagin suggested that Brigadier Bilov leave the fortress and fight outside its walls. Bilov refused, fearing that the Cossacks and soldiers would go over to the side of the rebels. The cannon duel lasted eight hours.
In order to prevent the movement of the rebels up the Kamysh-Samara River, brigadier Bilov, before the assault on the fortress, sends a detachment of Orenburg Cossacks under the command of centurion Padurov. Padurov's detachment completely went over to the side of the rebels.
The assault on the fortress begins. On the one hand, the rebels were advancing led by the Yaik Cossack Andrei Vitoshnov, on the other hand, Pugachev himself led the attack. The attack was repulsed, but Pugachev’s sharpness and resourcefulness came to the rescue. Near the wooden wall of the fortress there were stables with haystacks stacked near them. E. Pugachev ordered them to be set on fire. The weather was windy, smoke and flames were driving towards the fortress.
Soon the wooden wall of the fortress caught fire, and from it the fire spread to the houses inside the fortress. Cossacks and soldiers who lived in their own houses in the fortress rushed to put out the fire and save property. Taking advantage of the confusion, the rebels broke into the fortress and captured it. During the storming of the fortress, Brigadier Bilov and Colonel Elagin were killed. The soldiers and Cossacks offered no resistance.
Having entered the fortress, Pugachev ordered to put out the fire. The captured soldiers were taken out of the fortress and sworn in. In the Tatishchev fortress, the rebels captured a significant supply of provisions and money, replenished their ranks and especially artillery, capturing, in the words of P. I. Rychkov, “the best artillery with its supplies and servants.”
The number of E. Pugachev’s detachment after the capture of the Tatishchevo fortress reached over 2000 people.
The transfer of the Tatishchev fortress into the hands of the rebels was of great importance for the further development of the uprising. The path to Orenburg was open. The Chernorechensk fortress, located on the way to Orenburg, could not delay the movement of the rebels. On September 28, the fortress garrison evacuated to Orenburg, abandoning provisions. Only three dozen miles of straight road separated E. Pugachev’s detachment from Orenburg.
Several legends and stories about Pugachev are associated with the village of Tatishchevoy.
A.S. Pushkin, passing through Tatishchevo twice during his trip to Orenburg and Uralsk in September 1833, made the following entry in his travel book: “Pugachev, having come to Tatishchevoy a second time, asked the ataman if there was food in the fortress. The chieftain, at the preliminary request of the old Cossacks, who feared famine, answered that no. Pugachev went to inspect the stores himself and, finding them full, hanged the ataman at the outposts...” In Tatishcheva, indeed, there were food warehouses, and after the suppression of the uprising, the Orenburg Chief Provision Master Commission tried to collect provisions taken from the warehouse by the inhabitants of the fortress “with the permission” of E. Pugacheva.
In the same travel notes of A. S. Pushkin we read another brief entry characterizing the personality of E. Pugachev: “In Tatishcheva, Pugachev hanged an egg Cossack for drunkenness.”
An interesting legend about E. Pugachev’s stay in the Tatishchev Fortress was recorded in 1939 from a resident of the village. Arkhipovka, Sakmarsky district, I.I. Mozhartsev, whose two great-grandfathers, according to him, participated in the uprising of E. Pugachev.
According to the story of I. I. Mozhartsev, E. Pugachev helped build a hut in Tatishcheva for the widow Ignatikha and gave her in marriage. I remembered Ignatikh E. Pugachev to the grave. “And Ignatikha was not the only one who commemorated the deceased with kind words. Radelny was Pugachev before the peasants,” I. I. Mozhartsev concludes his story.
Village Chernorechye
The capture of the Tatishchev fortress opened up two roads for Pugachev and his detachment: down the river. Samara - in the Volga region, in areas densely populated by serfs, and up the river. The Urals - to the city of Orenburg - the administrative center of the huge Orenburg province. Pugachev and his comrades chose the second path. On the road to Orenburg there was the Chernorechenskaya fortress (now the village of Chernorechye, Pavlovsky district), the last fortress in the Urals before Orenburg.
S. Chernorechye was founded approximately in the same years as Tatishchevo. In 1742, in the Chernorechensk fortress there were already 30 huts and 9 dugouts with 153 inhabitants. Later, the Orenburg authorities settled here exiles exiled to the Orenburg region for permanent residence. In 1773, i.e. the year of the uprising, there were 58 households.
The inhabitants of the fortress were serving and retired Cossacks, serving and retired soldiers and exiles. The commandant of the fortress at that time was Major Krause. After Brigadier Bilov, heading towards the rebels, took most of the soldiers from the garrison of the fortress, only 137 people remained in it. During the days of the uprising, between the Chernorechenskaya and Tatishchevo fortresses there was a single settlement - a farmstead owned by P.I. Rychkov. It was located on the site of the present village. Rychkova. Near the farm there was a Cossack guard post. After E. Pugachev captured the Tatishchev fortress, the serf peasants of Rychkov and the Cossacks joined the rebels. Residents of the Chernorechensk fortress and its garrison were also waiting. Pugacheva.
On September 28, Major Krause received Reinsdorp's order to abandon the fortress in case of imminent danger. On the same day, saying he was ill, he left for Orenburg, leaving the fortress under the command of Lieutenant Ivanov. The sound of drums notified the inhabitants of the fortress about the evacuation. But only a few residents left for Orenburg, while most remained and waited for Pugachev’s arrival.
On September 29, E. Pugachev entered the Chernorechensk fortress. The residents of the fortress solemnly greeted Pugachev and swore allegiance to him.
With the occupation of the Chernorechensk fortress, the road to Orenburg was open. Only 18 versts along a straight road separated Orenburg from the Chernorechensk fortress. With a swift, rapid offensive, the rebels could capture Orenburg, whose fortifications were in the same disrepair as those in the Chernorechensk fortress. A contemporary of these events reports that they entered the city on carts through an earthen rampart and ditch without any difficulty, and the city gates did not have locks. The rebels missed this opportunity. After spending the night in the Chernorechensk fortress, they moved not directly to Orenburg, but bypassed it, up the river. The Urals and its tributary Sakmara, Seitov Sloboda and the Sakmara Cossack town. The rebels hoped to replenish their ranks with Tatars and Sakmara Cossacks. The Kargaly Tatars came to the Chernorechensk fortress to invite E. Pugachev to Seitov Sloboda.
During the uprising, untouched steppes stretched between the Chernorechensk fortress and Seitova Sloboda, and dense coastal forests grew near the Urals and Sakmara. Only above the river mouth. Sakmara, opposite the Berdskaya settlement, there were several farms. They belonged to the Orenburg high authorities and nobles: Reinsdorp, Myasoedov, Sukin, Tevkelev and others.
Moving towards the Chernorechensk fortress, the rebels entered farmsteads and took away the property of the nobles. Serf peasants living on farmsteads joined the ranks of the growing rebel army. The rebels also visited the village of Reinsdorp, where there was a large house of 12 rooms, furnished with luxurious furniture. A contemporary reports that E. Pugachev, entering the rooms of Reinsdorp’s house, said to his comrades: “This is how my governors live gloriously, and what do they need such chambers for. I myself, as you see, live in a simple hut.” With these words, Pugachev wanted to emphasize that if the nobles build luxurious mansions with funds extorted from the peasantry, then he, the peasant Tsar Peter III, fights for the interests of the people, does not need luxurious mansions and is content with a simple peasant hut.
On the way to Seitova Sloboda, E. Pugachev’s detachment spent the night at the Tevkelev farm and on October 1 set out for Seitova Sloboda.
Village Kargala
By the time of the peasant uprising led by E. Pugachev, Seitova Sloboda, one of the first settlements on the territory of the Orenburg region, was a fairly large settlement. The population of the settlement consisted of several thousand people. The bulk of the settlement's population were Tatar peasants, and a smaller part were merchants. Peasants were engaged in cattle breeding, agriculture, various crafts and were hired by merchants as workers and clerks. Merchants carried out large trade with Central Asia and Kazakhstan, rented and bought land from the Bashkirs for farmsteads.
The approach of E. Pugachev’s detachment to Seitova Sloboda was not a surprise for its population. Rumors about the beginning of the uprising were confirmed by Reinsdorp's order. On September 26, by order of Reinsdorp, a detachment of 300 people set out from Kargaly to help Brigadier Bilov, but upon learning of the capture of the Tatishcheva fortress by the rebels, they returned from the road. On September 28, a military council was held in Orenburg, which decided to transfer all Tatars from the settlement to Orenburg. But only a very small part of the population, mainly merchants and wealthy peasants, left the settlement for Orenburg. The majority remained in the settlement and sent their representatives to Pugachev in the Chernorechensk fortress with an invitation to come to Seitov Sloboda.
On October 1, the population of Seitova Sloboda solemnly welcomed E. Pugachev, who was here several times and later, coming from his headquarters - Berdskaya Sloboda.
The population of Kargalinskaya Sloboda actively participated in the uprising. Residents of the settlement formed a special regiment of Kargaly Tatars. He fought bravely in the ranks of the rebel army near Orenburg. P.I. Rychkov, in his notes on the siege of Orenburg, writes that in the battle of January 9, 1774 near Orenburg, the Kargaly Tatars “let loose a very brave spirit.” Residents of the settlement provided the rebels with great assistance with food, sending them to the camp in Berdy.
Considering the significant role of the Kargalinskaya Sloboda in the uprising, E. Pugachev and the rebels called it St. Petersburg.
Among the Kargaly Tatars there were literate people. With their help, on the day of E. Pugachev’s arrival in Kargaly, a decree was drawn up in the Tatar language, addressed to the Bashkirs, and sent to Bashkiria. Written with great feeling and enthusiasm, the decree called on the Bashkirs to revolt and granted them all kinds of freedom: “lands, waters, forests, residences, herbs, rivers, fish, grain, laws, arable land, bodies, cash salaries, lead and gunpowder.” “And come like the steppe animals,” the decree said, i.e. live as freely as wild animals in the steppe.
On October 2, the rebel detachment moved up the river. Sakmara to Sakmara Cossack town. From the village Kargaly to the village. Sakmarsky 16 kilometers.
Village Sakmarskoye
In the village of Sakmarskoye, the oldest Russian settlement in the region, at the time of the uprising there were over 150 households.
News of the uprising, of course, quickly reached the town of Sakmara. They were confirmed by Reinsdorp’s order of September 24, which ordered the ataman of the town, Danila Donskov, to send 120 Cossacks up the river. Yaik for guard duty. Ataman Donskov carried out the order. A small number of serving Cossacks remained in the town. A few days later, Reinsdorp ordered the rest of the serving Cossacks with all the artillery and military supplies to arrive in Orenburg, break the bridge across Sakmara, and the entire population of the town to move to the Krasnogorsk fortress. The serving Cossacks with the ataman, with guns and military supplies moved to Orenburg. The rest of the population - retired Cossacks, Cossack families and others - remained at home and did not allow the bridge across the river to be destroyed. Sakmara. Residents of the town were waiting for Pugachev.
On the night of October 1-2, prominent participants in the uprising, Maxim Shigaev and Pyotr Mitryasov, arrived in the Sakmara town with a group of Cossacks and read out the decree of E. Pugachev, Tsar Peter III, at the Cossack circle. The Sakmara Cossacks joined the uprising. On October 2, the population of the town greeted Pugachev with great honor and took the oath. After taking the oath, a detachment led by Pugachev entered the Sakmara town to the sound of bells.
Sakmara Cossacks actively participated in the peasant war. During interrogations, E. Pugachev testified that the Sakmara Cossacks “were inseparable from him.” Among the Sakmara residents, a prominent participant in the uprising was the Cossack Ivan Borodin, a village clerk.
Pugachev did not stop in the town of Sakmara. On the same day, the rebels crossed the bridge over the river. Sakmara and set up camp on its left side. Here they stayed until October 4. There were copper mines near the Sakmar town. They belonged to the miners Tverdyshev and Myasnikov, who owned copper and iron factories in Bashkiria. Copper ore extracted from the mines was sent to Preobrazhensky, Voskresensky, Verkhotorsky and other copper smelters. With the arrival of Pugachev in the village. The Sakmara miners quit their jobs and joined the uprising.
An interesting episode took place near the town of Sakmara. On October 3, a man about 60 years old came to the camp, in a torn dress, with torn out nostrils and convict marks on his cheeks. He approached Pugachev, who was standing next to the Yaik Cossack Maxim Shigaev, one of the leaders of the uprising. “What kind of person? - E. Pugachev asked Shigaev. “This is Khlopusha, the poorest man,” answered Shigaev. Shigaev knew Khlopusha, since he was in Orenburg prison with him, having been arrested for participating in the uprising of the Yaik Cossacks in 1772. E. Pugachev ordered to feed Khlopusha. Khlopusha took four sealed envelopes from his bosom and handed them to E. Pugachev. These were orders from the Orenburg authorities to the Yaik, Orenburg and Iletsk Cossacks to stop the uprising, seize E. Pugachev and bring him to Orenburg.
Khlopusha confessed to Pugachev that he was sent by Governor Reinsdorv to convey orders to the Cossacks, dissuade them from the uprising, burn gunpowder and shells, rivet the cannons and hand Pugachev over to the Orenburg authorities. Having gone over to the side of the rebels, Khlopusha eventually becomes one of Pugachev’s closest assistants. At the Ural mining factories, where he is sent, he raises workers, Bashkirs, organizes the casting of cannons and cannonballs. Pugachev appoints him colonel of a detachment of Ural workers.
From the camp near the Sakmarsky town, E. Pugachev sent a decree to the commandant of the Krasnogorsk fortress, the Cossacks sent from the Sakmarsky town to perform guard duty in the Krasnogorsk and Verkhneozernaya fortresses, and “all ranks to the people.” The decree called for serving the new, peasant king “faithfully and unfailingly to the last drop of blood.” For the service, the people and the Cossacks complained “with a cross and a beard, a river and land, herbs and seas and a monetary salary, and grain provisions, and lead, and gunpowder, and eternal freedom.”
The decree to the Sakmara Cossacks, having become widespread, raised peasants, Cossacks, workers, oppressed nationalities against the nobles and landowners.
On October 4, E. Pugachev left the camp near the Sakmar town and went to Orenburg. Before reaching the city, the rebel army stopped at Kamyshov Lake, near Berdskaya Sloboda, for the night. Residents of Berdskaya Sloboda joined the rebels. The rebel army numbered about 2,500 people in its ranks, of which about 1,500 were Yaik, Iletsk, and Orenburg Cossacks, 300 soldiers, 500 Kargaly Tatars. The rebels had about 20 cannons and 10 kegs of gunpowder.
Orenburg
During the era of the uprising, Orenburg was the administrative center of the vast Orenburg province, on the territory of which such Western European states as Belgium, Holland, and France could freely accommodate.
The Orenburg province included in its territory the modern West Kazakhstan, Aktobe, Kustanai, Orenburg, Chelyabinsk regions, part of the Samara and Yekaterinburg regions, and the territory of Bashkiria.
At the same time, Orenburg was the main fortress on the military border line along the river. Yaik and the center of barter trade with Central Asia and Kazakhstan in the southeast of Russia.
The capture of Orenburg was of great importance for the further course of the uprising: firstly, it was possible to take weapons and various military equipment from the warehouses of the fortress, and secondly, the capture of the capital of the province would raise the authority of the rebels among the population. That is why they tried so persistently and stubbornly to take control of Orenburg.
In terms of size, Orenburg during the Pugachev uprising was many times smaller than the current city of Orenburg. Its entire area was located in the central part of Orenburg, adjacent to the river. Ural, and was 677 fathoms long (about 3300 meters) and 570 fathoms wide (about 1150 meters).
Being the main fortress in the southeast of Russia, Orenburg had more solid fortifications than other fortresses along the river. Yaiku. The city was surrounded by a high earthen rampart in the shape of an oval, fortified with 10 bastions and 2 half-bastions. The height of the shaft reached 4 meters and above, and the width - 13 meters. The total length of the shaft on its outer side was 5 versts. In some places the shaft was lined with slabs of red sandstone. On the outside of the rampart there was a ditch about 4 meters deep and 10 meters wide.
The city had four gates: Sakmarsky (where Sovetskaya Street adjoins the House of Soviets Square), Orsky (at the intersection of Pushkinskaya Street with Studencheskaya), Samara, or Chernorechensky (at the intersection of Pushkinskaya and Burzyantseva streets), and Yaitsky, or Vodyany (at intersection of M. Gorky and Burzyantsev streets).
Academician Falk, who visited Orenburg in 1771, reports that the streets of the city are unpaved and there is “great mud” in the spring, and “heavy dust” in the summer.
With the exception of a few churches, the governor's house, the provincial chancellery building, the guest house and some other buildings, the city's buildings were made of wood.
Among the city buildings, the Gostiny Dvor stood out - the city bazaar, surrounded by a massive brick wall. In its appearance, it resembled more a fortress than a place of trade.
On the eastern side, the Orenburg Cossack settlement of Forshtadt adjoined the city. The houses of the Cossacks began under the very walls of the fortress. On the steep bank of the oxbow of the Urals stood a Cossack church. Apart from Forstadt, the city had no other suburbs. Beyond the city walls stretched endless steppes. Academician Falk points out that in the city of Orenburg in 1770 there were 1,533 philistine houses.
For trading purposes, a large barter yard was built several miles from Orenburg.
This was the appearance of Orenburg during the era of the peasant war of 1773–1775. On September 28, Reinsdorp convened a military council, where it turned out that the city was able to field about 3,000 people, of which about 1,500 were soldiers. The fortress had about a hundred cannons. With the approach of the rebel forces to Orenburg, they began to prepare the fortress for defense: they transferred the Cossacks of Forstadt residents to the fortress, cleared the ditch of clay and sand, straightened the ramparts, surrounded the fortress with slingshots and prepared manure for blocking the city gates. Already on October 2, there were 70 cannons on the ramparts of the fortress. On October 4, the garrison of the fortress was replenished with a detachment of 626 people with 4 cannons, who arrived from the Yaitsky town at the call of Reinsdorp.
The fortress and the population of the city did not have sufficient food supplies. The time to prepare it was lost.
Such was the military state of Orenburg at the time Pugachev approached the city walls.
Around noon on October 5, 1773, the main forces of the rebel army appeared in sight of Orenburg and began to encircle the city from the northeastern side, reaching Forstadt. The alarm was sounded in the city.
Small groups of daring riders rode close to the city, inviting residents to submit to Emperor Peter III and surrender the city without a fight. The Yaik Cossack Ivan Solodovnikov galloped up to the rampart of the fortress and, deftly bending down from the saddle, stuck it in. ground a peg with a pinched piece of paper. This was Pugachev’s decree addressed to the garrison of Orenburg. E. Pugachev called on the soldiers to lay down their arms and go over to the side of the uprising. Cannons thundered from the ramparts. The rebels bypassed the empty, partially destroyed Forstadt and, descending from the high bank into the Ural valley, set up a temporary camp near Lake Cow Stall, 5 versts from Orenburg.
Pugachev in Forstadt near the St. George Church. Reproduction from a painting by Petunin |
Smoke and flames rose over the city. It was Forstadt that was burning, set on fire on the orders of Reinsdorp. Only the Cossack church on the banks of the Urals survived the fire. During the assault on Orenburg, the rebels used it as a place for a battery: cannons were installed on the porch and bell tower. The rebels also fired rifles from the bell tower.
The first one ended with the rebels approaching Orenburg, First stage peasant uprising and the next stage began - the period of the siege of Orenburg and the development of a local uprising into a people's war.
A detachment of 1,500 people under the command of Major Naumov set out from Orenburg. The Cossacks and soldiers of the detachment acted with great reluctance. According to Major Naumov, he saw “timidity and fear in his subordinates.” After a two-hour fruitless firefight, the detachment entered the city.
On October 7, Reinsdorp convened a council of war. It resolved the question of what tactics to follow in the fight against the rebels: to act against them “defensively” or “offensively.” Most members of the military council spoke in favor of “defensive” tactics. The Orenburg military authorities were afraid of the garrison troops going over to Pugachev's side. They believed that it was better to sit outside the walls of the fortress under the cover of fortress artillery.
Thus began the siege of Orenburg, which lasted for six months, until the end of March 1774. The garrison of the fortress during its forays could not defeat the peasant troops. The rebels' assaults were repelled by the city's artillery, but in open battle success always remained on the side of the peasant army.
On the morning of October 12, troops under the command of Naumov left the city and entered into a fierce battle with the rebels. Pugachev, having learned in advance about the impending sortie, chose a convenient position. “The battle,” a contemporary noted, “was stronger than before, and our artillery alone fired about five hundred shots, but the villains fired much more from their cannons, acted... with greater audacity than before.” The battle lasted about four hours. It started to rain and snow. Fearing encirclement, Naumov's corps returned to the city, suffering losses of 123 people.
On October 18, the rebel army left its initial camp in the Cossack meadows near Lake “Cow Stall” east of Orenburg and moved to Mount Mayak, and then, due to early cold weather, to the Berdskaya Sloboda, located seven miles from the city and numbering about two hundred households .
On October 22, Pugachev with all his forces (about 2,000 people) again approached Orenburg, set up batteries under the ridge and began a continuous cannonade. Shells also flew from the city wall. This powerful artillery fire continued for more than 6 hours. Orenburg resident Ivan Osipov recalled that on this day people “from the cannonballs and extraordinary fear almost found no place in their homes.” However, this very strong “aspiration towards the city” did not lead to the capture of Orenburg, and the rebels retreated to Berda.
Reinsdorp's attempt to defeat the rebel army and occupy the Berdskaya settlement ended in complete failure. On January 13, 1774, the Orenburg garrison suffered a complete defeat. The rebels completely defeated the government troops, who retreated in panic under the cover of the fortress artillery. The troops lost 13 guns, 281 people killed and 123 people wounded.
After this battle, the Orenburg garrison did not make a single serious attempt to defeat the rebel army. Reinsdorp limited himself to one passive defense. On the other hand, the fortifications of the city, significant artillery with a sufficient supply of military supplies, as well as the weak weapons of the rebels, their lack of fortress artillery and the necessary military knowledge to wage a siege of the fortress prevented the rebels from capturing Orenburg.
Meanwhile, food supplies in the city were scarce. Pugachev knew this and decided to starve the city out.
Already in January, there was an acute shortage of food in Orenburg; there was also no fodder for the Cossack and artillery horses. Prices for products have risen many times. The city was on the verge of surrender. Only government units that arrived in time prevented the capture of Orenburg by peasant troops.
Such a long “standing” of the Main Insurgent Army near Orenburg was considered by some to be a big mistake, a gross miscalculation of Pugachev. Catherine II herself wrote in December 1773: “...One can consider it fortunate that these rascals became attached to Orenburg for two whole months and then wherever they went.” Probably, Pugachev could not do otherwise; the very logic of the spontaneously developing events of the peasant war, the locality of the aspirations and actions of the rebels, who consisted mainly of residents of the Orenburg province, led to the desire to take Orenburg.
Expansion of the area of uprising and military successes of the peasant army
While the siege of Orenburg was going on, the uprising was spreading with extraordinary speed. In October 1773, fortresses along the river. Samara-Perevolotskaya, Novosergievskaya, Totskaya, Sorochinskaya - passed into the hands of the rebels. The serf peasantry, national minorities of the Orenburg region and, first of all, the Bashkirs, join the uprising.
An example of the inclusion of the serf peasantry of the province in the Pugachev uprising is the speech of the residents of the villages of Lyakhovo, Karamzin (Mikhailovka), Zhdanov, Putilov, located north of Buzuluk. On the night of October 17, a mounted rebel detachment, consisting of Yaik Cossacks, Kalmyks and Chuvash newly baptized from neighboring villages, numbering 30 people, galloped into the village of Lyakhovo. They declared that they had been sent from the armies by Tsar Peter Fedorovich to destroy the landowners' houses and give the peasants freedom. Having entered the landowner's yard, they “plundered all the belongings and stole the cattle,” and the peasants, according to the testimony of the local priest Pyotr Stepanov, “did not put up any resistance to preventing this robbery.” The rebel cornet told the peasants: “Look, guys, don’t work for the landowner and don’t pay him any taxes.”
The peasant attorneys Leonty Travkin, Efrem Kolesnikov (Karpov) and Grigory Feklistov, chosen at the gathering, went to the camp to Pugachev and brought a special decree given to them by him, which they promulgated at the church in the village of Lyakhovo. The Karamzin priest Moiseev read this decree three times, in which the peasants were called upon to “serve me, the great sovereign, to the last drop of their blood,” for which they would be rewarded with “a cross and a beard, a river and land, herbs and seas, and a monetary salary, and grain provisions , and lead, and gunpowder, and all sorts of liberties.” Leonty Travkin said that Pugachev ordered: “If someone kills a landowner to death and ruins his house, he will be given a salary - a hundred money, and whoever ruins ten noble houses will receive a thousand rubles and the rank of general.” The peasants received a combat mission from Pugachev to create local armed detachments and not allow government troops moving from Kazan into their region.
In November 1773, the Cossacks and other population of the fortresses along the Samara line joined the uprising. The Buzuluk fortress became the center. Its residents, having listened to Pugachev’s decree, brought from Berda on November 30 by a detachment of retired soldier Ivan Zhilkin, happily went over to the side of “Sovereign Peter Fedorovich.” On the same day, another rebel team of 50 Cossacks arrived in Buzuluk under the command of Ilya Fedorovich Arapov, a serf peasant from near Buzuluk who became a prominent figure in the peasant war. On the basis of Pugachev's manifestos and decrees, he everywhere freed peasants from serfdom, dealt with landowners and their servants, and plundered noble estates. Having taken the carts from the local residents, “the rebels loaded them with 62 quarters of crackers, 164 bags of flour, 12 quarters of cereals, five pounds of gunpowder and 2010 rubles of copper money.” Sergeant Ivan Zverev, a participant in the events, testified to this during the investigation.
I. Arapov's detachment quickly grew due to the influx of local peasants and Cossacks. On December 22, 1773, Arapov moved to Samara, and on December 25 he victoriously entered it, peacefully greeted by “a great multitude of residents” who came out with a cross, images, and the ringing of bells. Residents of the Buguruslan settlement also joined the uprising, forming a detachment led by Gavrila Davydov, a former deputy of the Legislative Commission.
The noble government took measures to suppress the peasant uprising. On October 14, 1773, Major General Kar was appointed head of the troops to suppress the uprising. On October 30, he arrived at the Kichuy Feldshanets, a former fortification on the New Zakamsk line, on the Orenburg-Kazan highway. Even before Kara’s arrival, the Kazan governor von Brandt sent a detachment of the Simbirsk commandant, Colonel Chernyshev, along the Samara line. From Siberia, military teams were sent from Tobolsk and from the Siberian line of fortifications. The coordinated actions of these detachments could decide the fate of the uprising. However, the rebels defeated these government troops
Having learned about the approach of Kara, the rebel detachments, under the leadership of Pugachev and Khlopushi, came out to meet him and near the village of Yuzeeva (Belozersky district) inflicted a huge defeat on him. Kar retreated with significant losses.
On the morning of November 13, under Mount Mayak near Orenburg, a detachment of Colonel Chernyshev was captured, numbering up to 1,100 Cossacks, 600–700 soldiers, 500 Kalmyks, 15 guns and a huge convoy. Only Colonel Korf’s detachment, coming from the Verkhne-Ozernaya fortress (the modern village of Verkhne-Ozernoye) consisting of 2,500 people and 25 guns, managed to slip into Orenburg.
To prevent advances by government troops from Siberia, Pugachev sent Khlopushu up the Yaika River in November and followed him himself. On November 23 and 26, peasant troops unsuccessfully attacked the Verkhne-Ozernaya fortress. On November 29, they stormed the Ilyinsky fortress and captured the detachment of Major Zaev, who was going to the aid of besieged Orenburg. Major General Stanislavsky, moving after Zaev, retreated in fear to the Orsk fortress, where he remained with his detachment until the defeat of the uprising forces. On February 16, 1774, Khlopushi’s detachment captured Iletskaya Zashchita (the modern city of Sol-Iletsk).
The defeat of government troops had a huge impact on the expansion of the uprising.
Already in October, Bashkir rebel detachments appeared near Ufa, and in mid-November the siege of Ufa began. The rebel center was located 20 kilometers from Ufa, in the village of Chesnokovka. The leaders of the rebel forces in Bashkiria were the Bashkir national hero 20-year-old Salavat Yulaev, the Yaik Cossack Chika-Zarubin, specially sent by Pugachev from Berd, and the retired soldier Beloborodov.
On November 18, its commandant, Lieutenant Colonel Wulf, fled from the Buzuluk fortress. A detachment of peasants and Cossacks moved down Samara under the command of the rebel chieftain Arapov, a simple serf. On December 25, 1773, he was solemnly greeted by the residents of Samara. In December, residents of the Buguruslan settlement also joined the uprising, sending two deputies to Berdy to Pugachev. One of them - Gavrila Davydov - was accepted by Pugachev and appointed ataman of the Buguruslan settlement. Teams were organized everywhere, atamans and esauls were elected.
By the end of December, the entire western part of the modern Orenburg region and the adjacent part Samara region right up to the Volga passed into the hands of the rebels. The cities went over to their side: Osa, Sarapul, Zainek. The leader of the rebel detachments in the Middle Urals was the retired artilleryman Ivan Beloborodov. Separate rebel detachments appeared near Yekaterinburg.
At the end of December 1773, Yaitsky Cossack rebels captured the Yaitsky Cossack town (Uralsk). The commandant of the town, Colonel Simonov, who had built a fortification inside the town, found himself under siege.
In January 1774, rebels led by the 20-year-old Bashkir national hero Salavat Yulaev occupied the city of Krasnoufimsk and besieged Kungur, and the Chelyabinsk Cossacks, led by Ataman Gryaznov, captured the Chelyabinsk fortress. The population of the Ural mining plants goes over to the side of the uprising.
Thus, at the end of 1773 and at the beginning of 1774, a huge region was burning in the fire of an uprising. The landowners fled to central Russia in fear. Kazan is empty. Entire convoys were drawn to Moscow with property and families of landowners. A member of the secret investigative commission, Lieutenant Captain Mavrin, sent to Kazan, wrote to Catherine II that despair and fear were so great that if Pugachev had sent about 30 of his supporters, he could easily have captured the city.
Berdy village
At the beginning of November the cold weather set in. On November 5, the peasant army moves into Berdskaya Sloboda. The rebels settled in huts, dugouts dug in courtyards, in the vicinity of the settlement.
Berdskaya Sloboda becomes the center of the uprising, the main headquarters of the rebel army.
The significance of the settlement as the center of the uprising was well understood by the participants in the uprising. In their letters and official papers they call it “the city of Berdy.” Contemporaries say: “They call the Berdsk settlement Moscow, Kargalu - St. Petersburg, and the Chernorechensk fortress - a province.”
Peasants came from all sides to the Berdskaya Sloboda: some to see their peasant king, who was simply called “father,” and to receive a decree on “eternal freedom,” others to join the ranks of the peasant army. Chika-Zarubin, one of the main figures of the uprising, later testified during interrogation: “Rarely a slave was taken into his crowd, for the most part they themselves came in crowds every day.”
This is how a multinational peasant army was formed.
The size of the peasant army in mid-November 1773 reached 10,000 people, about half of which were Bashkirs. Later, in February-March 1774, the size of the peasant army grew to 20,000 people.
The entire army was divided into regiments, partly according to nationality, partly according to territorial and social characteristics. So, there was a regiment of Yaik Cossacks, a regiment of Iletsk Cossacks, a regiment of Orenburg Cossacks, a regiment of Kargalin Tatars, a regiment of factory peasants, etc.
Cavalry regiments were organized from the Cossacks and Bashkirs who had horses, and factory workers and peasants made up the infantry.
Each regiment stood in its own dugouts and had its own regimental banner. The regiments were divided into companies, hundreds and dozens. Regiment commanders were selected from the military circle or appointed by Pugachev. As a rule, all commanders were chosen in a circle.
The leadership of Pugachev's army reached two hundred people, of which 52 were Cossacks, 38 were serfs, 35 were factory workers. Among the leaders there were 30 Bashkirs and 20 Tatars.
In addition to infantry and cavalry, there was artillery, numbering about 80 guns, many of which were manufactured at Ural factories. The shells were also manufactured there.
The regional museum of local lore houses a rebel cannon, which is a copper barrel attached to an iron-bound wooden machine - a gun carriage. Carriage wheels made from solid pieces of wood. On the barrel of the cannon there is an image of a banner and the outline of the letter “P” - the initial letter of the name Peter. The cannon was probably cast in honor of the leader of the uprising at the Ural factories. It was sent to the museum from the St. Petersburg Artillery Museum in 1899, and was delivered there from the Izhevsk Arms Plant
The army's armament as a whole was weak.
The best armed were the Yaik and Orenburg Cossacks, who had their own weapons, as well as the soldiers who went over with weapons to the side of the rebels. The rest were armed “some with a spear, some with a pistol, some with an officer’s sword; there were relatively few guns: the Bashkirs were armed with arrows, and most of the infantry had bayonets stuck on sticks, some were armed with clubs, and the rest had no weapons at all and walked near Orenburg with one whip,” says one of the historians of the uprising.
The troops carried out guard duty, patrols were sent out. One of these patrols stood on Mount Mayak, from where the whole of Orenburg was clearly visible.
The troops underwent combat training. A. S. Pushkin writes: “exercises (especially artillery) took place almost every day.”
To command the army and manage the occupied territory, E. Pugachev created a special apparatus - the Military Collegium.
Pugachev appointed Yaik Cossacks Andrei Vitoshnov, Maxim Shigaev, Danil Skobochkin and Iletsk Cossack Ivan Tvorogov as members of the Military Collegium. The secretary of the board was the Iletsk Cossack Maxim Gorshkov, and the Duma clerk (chief secretary) was the Iletsk Cossack Ivan Pochitalin.
The Military Collegium dealt with a variety of military, administrative, economic, and judicial issues. She sent orders to the atamans, gave decrees on behalf of Peter III) took care of food, military supplies, sorted out complaints from the population, developed plans for military operations, etc.
The leader of the uprising, E. Pugachev, lived in the Berdskaya settlement in a peasant hut that belonged to the Berdino Cossack Sitnikov, which was known among the Berdino Cossacks as the “golden chamber” back in the 20s of the 19th century. A prominent participant in the uprising, Timofey Myasnikov, said during interrogation: “This house was one of the best and was called the sovereign’s palace, on whose porch there was always an indispensable guard of the best 25 Yaik Cossacks, called the guard. Instead of wallpaper, his chamber was upholstered with noise,” that is, with golden paper. Old-timers of the village of Berdy still remember the location of the “golden chamber.”
E. Pugachev's closest associates in the first period of the uprising were the Yaik Cossacks Andrei Ovchinnikov, Chika-Zarubin, Maxim Shigaev, Perfilyev, Davilin, the centurion of the Orenburg Cossacks Timofey Padurov, the exile Afanasy Sokolov-Khlopusha, the retired soldier Beloborodoye, the serf Ilya Arapov, the soldier Zhilkin, Bashkirs Salavat Yulaev, Kinzya Arslanov, Kargaly Tatars Musa Aliyev, Sadyk Seitov and others.
Pushkin in the village Berdy
In the fall of 1833, A. S. Pushkin made a trip to the distant Orenburg region to collect materials on the uprising of Emelyan Pugachev and to get acquainted with the places of events of 1773–1775. On September 18 (old style), 1833, A.S. Pushkin arrived in Orenburg. On September 19, accompanied by V.I. Dahl, he went to Berdy. In Berdy, A.S. Pushkin and V.I. Dal found a contemporary of the uprising, the old woman Buntova, who was from the Nizhneozernaya fortress. Buntova sang several songs about Pugachev to A.S. Pushkin and said that she remembered the uprising. Traces of this conversation are several notes in the notebook of the great poet with the notes: “In Berd from an old woman,” “Old woman in Berd.” Buntova and other Berdino old-timers showed the place where the “sovereign palace” stood, that is, the hut where Pugachev lived. From the high cliff of the old bank of Sakmara they showed the visible peaks of the Grebeny mountains and told, as V.I. Dal reports in his memoirs about a trip to Berdy, the legend of a huge treasure allegedly buried by Pugachev in Grebeny.
The trip to Berdy made a deep impression on Pushkin. Returning from a trip to his Boldino estate near Moscow, A.S. Pushkin, remembering his trip to Orenburg and... Uralsk, in a letter dated October 2, 1833 to his wife, he wrote: “In the village of Berde, where Pugachev stayed for six months, I had une bonne fortune (great luck): I found a 75-year-old Cossack woman who remembers this time, like you and I we remember 1830.”
Records made in the village. The reeds were used by A.S. Pushkin in “The History of Pugachev” and the story “The Captain's Daughter”. “Rebel settlement” is the village of Berdy during the uprising. The descriptions of the “sovereign palace” and the road along which the hero of the story, Ensign Grinev, rode to the “rebellious settlement” are based on the stories of Berdino old-timers, in particular Buntova, and the personal impressions of A. S. Pushkin.
The men lead Grinev “to a hut that stood at the corner of the intersection.” Indeed, the hut of the Cossack Sitnikov, where Pugachev lived, as already mentioned, stood on the corner of modern Leninskaya and Pugachev streets, on the very edge of the main bank of Sakmara. The Cossack woman Akulina Timofeevna Blinova also points to the same location of the sovereign’s palace in her memoirs, recorded in 1899. A. T. Blinova, being Buntova’s neighbor, was present during the conversation between A. S. Pushkin and V. I. Dal with Buntova. She recalled: “The gentlemen were asked to show the house” where Pugachev lived. Buntova took them to show them. This house stood on a large street, on the corner, on the red side. It had six windows. From the yard there is a wonderful view of Sakmara, the lake and the forest. Sakmara came very close to the courtyards.”
It is very likely that A.S. Pushkin was shown not only the place where the Cossack Sitnikov’s hut stood, but that during A.S. Pushkin’s visit to the village. In Berdy this hut still stood and A.S. Pushkin saw the “sovereign palace” itself. This is indicated, in addition to the memoirs of A. T. Blinova, and the message of the publisher of “Notes of the Fatherland” P. I. Svinin, who was in Orenburg in 1824. In one of the notes to his article “Picture of Orenburg and its environs,” P. I. Svinin reports that in the village. The Berdys still show the hut that was the palace of E. Pugachev. This hut, Buntova’s stories and documentary materials...
Suppression of the uprising
The government realized the danger the Pugachev uprising posed. On November 28, the State Council was convened, and Chief General Bibikov, equipped with extensive powers, was appointed commander of the troops to fight Pugachev, instead of Kara.
Strong military units were sent to the Orenburg region: the corps of Major General Golitsyn, the detachment of General Mansurov, the detachment of General Larionov and the Siberian detachment of General Dekalong.
Until this time, the government tried to hide the events near Orenburg and Bashkiria from the people. Only on December 23, 1773, the manifesto about Pugachev was published. The news of the peasant uprising spread throughout Russia.
On December 29, 1773, after stubborn resistance from the detachment of Ataman Ilya Arapov, Samara was occupied. Arapov retreated to the Buzuluk fortress.
On February 28, Prince Golitsin’s detachment moved from Buguruslan to the Samara line to connect with Major General Mansurov.
The whole winter passed under the siege of Orenburg, and only in March, having learned about the approach of Golitsyn’s corps, did Pugachev move away from Orenburg to meet the advancing troops.
On March 6, Golitsin’s advance detachment entered the village of Pronkino (in the territory of the modern Sorochinsky district) and settled down for the night. Warned by the peasants, Pugachev with the atamans Rechkin and Arapov at night, during a strong storm and blizzard, made a forced march and attacked the detachment. The rebels broke into the village, captured the guns, but were then forced to retreat. Golitsyn, withstanding Pugachev's attack. Under pressure from government troops, peasant detachments retreated up the Samara, taking with them the population and supplies.
Pugachev returned to Berdy, transferring command of the retreating detachments to Ataman Ovchinnikov.
The decisive battle between government troops and the peasant army took place on March 22, 1774 near the Tatishchevo fortress (the modern village of Tatishchevo). Pugachev concentrated the main forces of the peasant army here, about 9,000 people. Instead of burnt wooden walls, a shaft of snow and ice was built, and cannons were installed. The battle lasted over 6 hours. The peasant troops held out with such steadfastness that Prince Golitsin wrote in his report to A. Bibikov:
“The matter was so important that I did not expect such insolence and control in such unenlightened people in the military profession as these defeated rebels are.”
The peasant army lost about 2,500 people killed (1,315 people were found killed in one fortress) and about 3,300 people captured. Prominent commanders of the peasant army Ilya Arapov, soldier Zhilkin, Cossack Rechkin and others died near Tatishcheva. All the rebel artillery and convoy fell into enemy hands. This was the first major defeat of the rebels.
The defeat of the rebels near Tatishcheva opened the road to Orenburg for government troops. On March 23, Pugachev with a detachment of two thousand headed across the steppe to the Perevolotsk fortress to break through the Samara line to the Yaitsky town. Having stumbled upon a strong detachment of government troops, he was forced to turn back.
On March 24, the peasant army was defeated near Ufa. Its leader Chika-Zarubin fled to Tabynsk, but was treacherously captured and extradited.
Pugachev, pursued by the tsarist troops, with the remnants of his troops hastily retreated to Berda, and from there to Seitova Sloboda and the Sakmarsky town. Here on April 1, 1774, in a fierce battle, the rebels were again defeated. The leader of the uprising, E. Pugachev, left with a small detachment through Tashla to Bashkiria.
In the battle near the town of Sakmar, prominent leaders of the uprising were captured: Ivan Pochitalin, Andrei Vitoshnov, Maxim Gorshkov, Timofey Podurov, M. Shigaev and others.
On April 16, government troops entered the Yaitsky Cossack town. A detachment of Yaik and Iletsk Cossacks in the amount of 300 people under the command of atamans Ovchinnikov and Perfilyev broke through the Samara line and went to Bashkiria to join with Pugachev.
The attempt of the Orenburg and Stavropol Kalmyks to break into Bashkiria ended less happily - only a small part of them could go there. The rest went to the Trans-Samara steppes. On May 23 they were defeated by government forces. The Kalmyk leader Derbetov died from his wounds.
The events of early April 1774 basically ended the Orenburg period of the peasant war under the leadership of E. Pugachev.
On May 20, 1774, the Pugachevites occupied the Trinity Fortress, and on May 21, Dekalong’s detachment approached it, hastening to catch up with Pugachev’s detachment. Pugachev had an army of more than 11,000 people, but it was untrained, poorly armed, and therefore was defeated in the battle of the Trinity Fortress. Pugachev retreated towards Chelyabinsk. Here, near the Varlamova fortress, he was met by a detachment of Colonel Michelson and suffered a new defeat. From here Pugachev's troops retreated to the Ural Mountains.
In May 1774, the commander of the regiment of “working people” of the Ural factories, Afanasy Khlopusha, was executed in Orenburg. According to a contemporary, “they cut off his head, and right there, close to the scaffold, his head was stuck on a spire on a gallows in the middle, which was taken down this year in May.”
Having replenished the army, Pugachev moved to Kazan and attacked it on July 11. The city was taken, with the exception of the fortress. During the storming of Kazan by peasant troops, the Buguruslan rebel ataman Gavrila Davydov, who was taken there after his capture, was stabbed to death in prison by a guard officer. But on June 12, troops under the command of Colonel Michelson approached Kazan. In a battle that lasted more than two days, Pugachev was again defeated and lost about 7,000 people.
Although Pugachev’s army was beaten, the uprising was not suppressed. When Pugachev, after the defeat in Kazan, crossed to the right bank of the Volga and sent out his manifestos to the peasants, calling on them to fight against the nobles and officials, the peasants began to rebel without waiting for his arrival. This provided him with movement forward. The army replenished and grew.
The workers and peasants of Central Russia were waiting for Pugachev's arrival, but he did not go to Moscow, but headed south, along the right bank of the Volga. This procession was victorious, Pugachev moved almost without encountering resistance, and occupied settlements and cities one after another. Everywhere he was greeted with bread and salt, with banners and icons.
On August 1, Pugachev’s troops approached Penza and took it almost without resistance. On August 4, Petrovok was captured, followed by Saratov in the coming days. Entering the city, Pugachev released prisoners from prison everywhere, opened bread and salt stores and distributed goods to the people.
On August 17, Dubovka was taken, and on August 21, the Pugachevites approached Tsaritsyn and launched an assault. Tsaritsyn turned out to be the first city after Orenburg that Pugachev could not take. Having learned that Mikhelson’s detachment was approaching Tsaritsyn, he lifted the siege of the city and went south, thinking of getting to the Don and raising its entire population in rebellion.
A detachment of Colonel Mikhelson operated near Ufa. He defeated Chika's detachment and headed to the factories. Pugachev occupied the Magnitnaya fortress and moved to Kizilskaya. But having learned about the approach of the Siberian detachment under the command of Dekalong, Pugachev went to the mountains along the Verkhne-Uyskaya line, burning all the fortresses on his way.
On the night of August 24-25, near Cherny Yar, the rebels were overtaken by Michelsov’s detachment. The great final battle took place. In this battle, Pugachev's army was completely defeated, losing more than 10,000 people killed and captured. Pugachev himself and several of his associates managed to get to the left bank of the Volga. They intended to raise the peoples roaming the Caspian steppes against the government, and arrived in a village located near the Bolshiye Uzeni river.
The government sent out manifestos everywhere, promising 10,000 rewards and forgiveness to anyone who would hand over Pugachev. The Cossacks from the kulak elite, seeing that the uprising had turned into a campaign of the poor against the exploiters and oppressors, became more and more disillusioned with it. After Pugachev's defeat, they conspired to save their corrupt skin. Those close to Pugachev - Chumakov, Tvorogov, Fedulov, Burnov, Zheleznov and others - attacked Pugachev en masse, like cowardly dogs, tied him up and handed him over to the authorities. Pugachev was delivered to the commandant of the Yaitsky town Simonov, and from there to Simbirsk.
On November 4, 1774, in an iron cage, like a wild animal, Pugachev, accompanied by his wife Sophia and son Trofim, was taken to Moscow, where the investigation began. The investigative commission tried to present the case in such a way that the uprising was prepared on the initiative of hostile states, but the course of the case inexorably showed that it was caused by unbearable oppression and exploitation to which the peoples of the region were subjected.
“Maintenance on the death penalty for the traitor, rebel and impostor Pugachev and his accomplices.
With the addition of an announcement to forgiven criminals.
For this reason, the Assembly, finding the matter in such circumstances, conforming to the unparalleled mercy of Her Imperial Majesty, knowing Her compassionate and philanthropic heart, and finally, reasoning that law and duty require justice, and not vengeance, which is incompatible nowhere in Christian law, unanimously sentenced and determined , for all the atrocities committed, the rebel and impostor Emelka Pugachev, by virtue of the prescribed Divine and civil laws, shall be inflicted with the death penalty, namely: quartered, his head impaled on a stake, body parts carried to four parts of the city and placed on wheels, and then on those burn in the same places. His main accomplices, contributing to his atrocities: 1. Yaitsky Cossack Afanasy Perfilyev, as the main favorite and accomplice in all the evil intentions, enterprises and deeds of the monster and impostor Pugachev, most of all, by his anger and betrayal, worthy of the cruelest execution, and whose deeds are to the horror of everyone hearts can lead that this villain, being in St. Petersburg at the very time when the monster and impostor showed up in front of Orenburg, voluntarily presented himself to the authorities with such a proposal, allegedly motivated by loyalty to the common good and peace, he wanted to persuade the main accomplices of the villainous, Yaik Cossacks to conquer the legitimate government, and bring the villain together with them to confess. It was precisely on this certificate and oath that he was sent to Orenburg; but the scorched conscience of this villain, under the cover of good intentions, was hungry for malice: having arrived in the host of villains, he introduced himself to the main rebel and impostor, who was then in Berd, and not only refrained from fulfilling the service that he promised and conjured to perform, but, somehow to assure the impostor of loyalty, openly declared his whole intention to him, and uniting his treacherous conscience with the vile soul of the monster himself, remained from that time until the very end unshakable in zeal for the enemy of the fatherland, was the main accomplice in his brutal deeds, carried out all the most painful executions on those unfortunate people, whom a disastrous lot condemned to fall into the bloodthirsty hands of villains, and finally, when the villainous gathering was destroyed at last at Black Yar, and the most favorites of the monster Pugachev rushed to the Yaitskaya steppe, and, seeking salvation, split into different gangs, the Cossack Pustobaev admonished his comrades their own to appear in the Yaitsky city to confess, to which others agreed; but this hated traitor said that he would rather be buried alive in the earth than to surrender into the hands of Her Imperial Majesty to certain authorities; however, he was caught by the sent team; what he himself, the traitor Perfilyev, was accused of before the court; - quartered in Moscow.
The Yaitsky Cossack Ivan Chika, who is also Zarubin, who called himself Count Chernyshev, the ever-favorite of the villain Pugachev, and who, at the very beginning of the villain’s rebellion, confirmed the impostor more than anyone else, set a seductive example for many others and with extreme zeal protected him from capture when she was sent for the impostor There was a detective team from the city, and then, when the villain and impostor Pugachev was discovered, he was one of his main collaborators, commanded a separated crowd, and besieged the city of Ufa. For violating the oath of allegiance to Her Imperial Majesty given before Almighty God, for clinging to a rebel and impostor, for carrying out his vile deeds, for all the ruins, kidnappings and murders - cut off his head and impale it for a national spectacle, and burn his corpse with scaffolded together. And this execution should be carried out in Ufa, as in the main place where all his godless deeds were carried out.
Yaitsky Cossack Maxim Shigaev, Orenburg Cossack Sotnik Podurov and Orenburg non-service Cossack Vasily Tornov, of which the first was Shigaev, for the fact that, based on rumors about the impostor, he voluntarily went to see him, or inn to Stepan Abalyaev, located not far from the Yaitsky city, he conferred in favor of discovering the villain and impostor Pugachev, spread the word about him in the city, and because his message attracted the confidence of ordinary people, he created affection in many there for the rebel and impostor; and then, when the villain, having clearly stolen the name of the late Sovereign Peter the Third, approached the city of Yaitsk, he was one of his first accomplices. During the siege of Orenburg, whenever the main villain himself left for the city of Yaitsk, he left him as the leader of his rebel crowd. And in this hated leadership, he carried out many evils to Shigaev: he hanged the cavalry regiment of the Reitar sent to Orenburg from Major General and Cavalier Prince Golitsyn of the Life Guards with the news of his approach, solely for the said Reiter’s preservation of true loyalty to Her Imperial Majesty, his legitimate Empress . The second Podurov, as a real traitor, who not only gave himself up to the villain and impostor, but also wrote many letters corrupting the people, exhorted the Yaik Cossacks faithful to Her Imperial Majesty to surrender to the villain and rebel, calling him and assuring others that he was the true Sovereign , and finally wrote threatening letters to the Orenburg Governor Lieutenant General and Cavalier Reinsdorp, to the Orenburg Ataman Mogutov and to the faithful Foreman of the Yaitsk army Martemyai Borodin, by which letters this traitor was convinced and confessed. The third Tornov, as a real villain and destroyer of human souls, who destroyed the Nagaybatsky fortress and some residences, and, moreover, for the second time adhered to the impostor, hang all three of them in Moscow.
Yaitshi Cossacks, Vasily Plotnikov, Denis Karavaev, Grigory Zakladnov, Meshcheryatsk Sotnik Kaznafer Usaev, and the Rzhev merchant Dolgopolov for the fact that these villainous accomplices, Plotnikov and Karavaev, at the very beginning of the villainous intent, came to the arable soldier Abalyaev, where the impostor was then located, and having agreed with him about the indignation of the Yaitsky Cossacks, they made the first disclosures to the people, and Karavaev said that he allegedly saw the Tsar’s signs on the villain... Thus leading ordinary people into temptation, he Karavaev and Plotikov, upon hearing about the impostor, were taken under guard , it was not announced. Zakladnov was like the first of the initial whistleblowers about the villain, and the very first to whom the villain dared to call himself Sovereign. Kaznafer Usaev was twice in the villainous crowd, he went to different places to outrage the Bashkirs and was with the villains Beloborodov and Chika, who carried out various tyrannies. He was captured for the first time by loyal troops led by Colonel Michelson during the defeat of a villainous gang near the city of Ufa, and was released with a ticket to his former residence; but not feeling the mercy shown to him, he again turned to the impostor and brought the merchant Dolgopolov to him. The Rzhev merchant Dolgopolov, with various falsely composed inventions, led simple and frivolous people into greater blindness, so that Kaznafer Usaev, having established himself more on his assurances, clung a second time to the villain. All five of them should be flogged, marked with signs, their nostrils torn out, sent to hard labor, and Dolgopolov of them, in addition, kept in chains.
Yaitsky Cossack Ivan Pochitalin, Iletsky Maxim Gorshkov and Yaitsky Ilya Ulyanov for the fact that Pochitalin and Gorshkov were the producers of written affairs under the impostor, compiled and signed his bad sheets, calling them Sovereign manifestos and decrees, through which, increasing depravity in ordinary people, they were guilty their non-participation and detriment. Ulyanov, who was always with them in villainous gangs, and who, like them, carried out murders, all three were whipped and, having torn out their nostrils, sent to hard labor.
Yaitsky Cossacks: Timofey Myasnikov, Mikhail Kozhevnikov, Pyotr Kochurov, Pyotr Tolkachev, Ivan Kharchev, Timofey Skachkov, Pyotr Gorshenin, Ponkrat Yagunov, arable soldier Stepan Abalyaev and exiled peasant Afanasy Chuikov, who supposedly were with the impostor, and contributed to him in false disclosures and compilation villainous gangs, flog them with a whip, tear out their nostrils, and send them to settlement.
Retired Guards Fourier Mikhail Golev, Saratov merchant Fyodor Kobyakov and schismatic Pachomius, the former for clinging to the villain and the resulting temptations from their disclosures, and the latter to be whipped for false testimony, Golev and Pachomius in Moscow, and Kobyakov in Saratov, and the Saratov merchant Protopopov for failure to maintain due fidelity in the right case, be flogged.
Iletsk cavak Ivan Tvarogov, and Yaitskikh, Fyodor Chumakov, Vasily Konovalov, Ivan Burnov, Ivan Fedulov, Pyotr Pustobaev, Kozma Kochurov, Yakov Pochitalin and Semyon Sheludyakov, by virtue of Her Imperial Majesty's gracious manifesto; release from all punishment; the first five people because, having heeded the voice of remorse, and feeling the severity of their iniquities, they not only came to confess, but I tied up the culprit of their destruction, Pugachev, and betrayed themselves and the villain and impostor himself to the legitimate authority and justice; Pusotobaev, for the fact that he persuaded the separated gang from Pugachev himself to come with obedience, and evenly Kochurov, who even before that time had turned himself in; and the last two for the signs of loyalty they showed when they were captured by the villainous crowd and were sent from the villains to the Yaitsky city, but when they arrived there, although they were afraid of falling behind the crowd, they always announced the villainous circumstances and the approach of loyal troops to the fortress ; and then, when the villainous crowd was destroyed near the Yaitsky city, they themselves came to the military leader. And about this Highest Mercy of Her Imperial Majesty and pardon, make a special announcement to them, through a member detached from the assembly, this Genvar on the 11th day, at a national spectacle in front of the Faceted Chamber, where to remove the shackles from them.
The death penalty determined for the villains in Moscow will be carried out in the swamp, this January 10th. Why bring the villain Chika, who was scheduled for execution in the city of Ufa, and after the local execution of the same hour, send him to his appointed place for execution. And for both the publication of this maxim and the predicate of mercy for those forgiven, and about the appropriate preparations and orders, send decrees from the Senate, where appropriate. Concluded on January 9, 1775."
(Complete collection laws Russian Empire. Year 1775.
January 10th. Law No. 14233, pp. 1-7)
The kulaks who betrayed Pugachev were pardoned. The sentence was approved by Catherine II. Convicts will not receive mercy.
On January 10, 1775, in Moscow, the tsar's executioners executed the people's leader and his associates. Pugacheva and Perfilyev were supposed to be quartered alive, but the executioner “made a mistake” and cut off their heads first, and then quartered them.
Ivan Zarubin-Chika was executed in Ufa. Salavat Yulaev and his father Yulay Aznalin were brutally whipped in many villages in Bashkiria and sent to hard labor in Rogervik on the Baltic Sea. Mass repressions in the Urals and Volga region continued until the summer of 1775. Ordinary participants in the uprising were sent to hard labor, designated as soldiers, and beaten with whips, batogs, and whips.
Brutal reprisals occurred against ordinary participants in the uprising. A mass of prisoners were thrown into prison. In Orenburg at the beginning of April 1774, up to 4,000 people were detained. The prison, Gostiny Dvor - everything was overcrowded. The prisoners were even kept in “drinking houses.” Members of the secret investigative commission, captains Mavrin and Lunin, were sent to Orenburg for the investigation. Particularly brutal massacres were carried out on the right bank of the Volga. The entire leadership of the uprising - atamans, colonels, centurions - were executed death penalty, ordinary participants in the uprising were flogged and “cut off several at one ear” and out of 300 people, by lot, “one was executed by death.”
In order to intimidate the population, executions were carried out publicly in public places, rafts with hanged people were lowered down the Volga. In all those places where active protests took place, “gallows”, “verbs” and “wheels” were built. They were also built within the modern Orenburg region in most settlements of that time.
The Orenburg governor Reinsdorf, Colonel Michelson and other commanders for suppressing the popular uprising received new ranks, villages with serfs and lands, as well as large sums of money.
Results of the uprising
The peasant war under the leadership of Emelyan Pugachev ended in the defeat of the rebels. However, this does not detract from the enormous progressive significance of the uprising. The Peasant War of 1773–1775 dealt a serious blow to the feudal-serf system, it undermined its foundations.
In order to prevent a repetition of the “Pugachevism,” tsarism began to hastily take measures to strengthen the positions of the nobility both in the center and on the outskirts.
In the Orenburg region, the distribution of state-owned lands in the form of “all-merciful grants” to officers, officials, and Cossack elders who participated in the suppression of the peasant war increased. In 1798, general land surveying began in the province. It assigned to the landowners all their lands, including those seized without permission. The government encouraged the colonization of the region by the nobility and landowners, therefore in the last quarter of the 18th century. The resettlement of landowners and their peasants increased, especially to the Buguruslan and Buzuluk districts. During the last quarter of the 18th century. 150 new noble estates were formed in the Orenburg province.
Catherine II, wanting to erase from her memory the hated names associated with the Pugachev movement, changed the names of various places; so the village of Zimoveyskaya on the Don, where Pugachev was born, was renamed Potemkinskaya; Catherine II ordered the house where Pugachev was born to be burned. A funny thing happened. Since Pugachev’s house had previously been sold and moved to another estate, they ordered it to be put in its original place and then, by virtue of the decree, it was burned. The Yaik River was named the Ural. The Yaitsky army is the Ural Cossack army, the Yaitsky town is the Uralsky one, the Verkhne-Yaitskaya pier is the Verkhneuralsky one, etc. The personal decree of the Senate on this matter reads:
“... for the complete oblivion of this unfortunate incident that followed on Yaik, the Yaik River, from which both this army and the city had their name until now, due to the fact that this river flows from the Ural Mountains, be renamed the Ural, and therefore and the army will be called Ural, and henceforth not called Yaitsky, and the Yaitsky city will also be called Uralsk from now on; about which it is published for information and execution.”
(Complete collection of laws of the Russian Empire.
It was strictly forbidden to even mention the name of Pugachev, and his uprising in documents began to be called “a well-known popular confusion.”
In an effort to subordinate the Cossacks to its interests, to transform them from the instigator of popular movements into a punitive force, tsarism, relying on the ataman-senior elite, makes some concessions to the Cossack administration, but at the same time gradually reforms it along army lines. The Cossack elite are given the right to own serfs and are given officer ranks and nobility.
The tsarist government contributed to the spread of serfdom among the non-Russian peoples of the region. By decree of February 22, 1784, the nobility of the local nobility was secured.
The Tatar and Bashkir princes and Murzas were allowed to enjoy the “liberties and advantages” of the Russian nobility, including the right to own serfs, although only of the Muslim faith. The largest of the Muslim landowners, who owned thousands of serfs, were the Tevkelevs, descendants and heirs of the famous translator and diplomat, later General A.I. Tevkelev.
However, fearing new popular uprisings, tsarism did not dare to completely enslave the non-Russian population of the region. The Bashkirs and Mishars were left in the position of military service population. In 1798, cantonal administration was introduced in Bashkiria. In the formed 24 regions-cantons, administration was carried out on a military basis.
The Peasant War showed the weakness of administrative control in the outskirts. Therefore, the government began to hastily transform it. In 1775, a provincial reform followed, according to which the provinces were disaggregated and there were 50 of them instead of 20. All power in provincial and district institutions was in the hands of the local nobility.
To improve monitoring of order in the region, a new reform was carried out in 1782. Instead of the province, two governorships were established: Simbirsk and Ufa, which, in turn, were divided into regions, the latter into counties, and counties into volosts. The Ufa governorate consisted of two regions - Orenburg and Ufa. The Orenburg region included the following counties: Orenburg, Buzuluk, Verkhneuralsky, Sergievsky and Troitsky. A number of fortresses were turned into the cities of Buguruslan, Orsk, Troitsk, Chelyabinsk, with the corresponding staff of officials and military commands. Samara and Stavropol, which were previously part of the Orenburg province, went to the Simbirsk governorship, the Ural Cossack army with Uralsk and Guryev - to the Astrakhan province.
Reasons for Pugachev's uprising
- The difficult situation of the people, serfs, workers of the Ural factories
- Abuse of power by government officials
- The remoteness of the territory of the uprising from the capitals, which gave rise to the permissiveness of local authorities
- Deeply rooted mistrust between the state and the population in Russian society
- People's faith in the “good tsar-intercessor”
The beginning of the Pugachev region
The uprising began with the revolt of the Yaik Cossacks. Yaitsike Cossacks were settlers to the western banks of the Ural River (until 1775 Yaik) from the interior regions of Muscovy. Their history began in the 15th century. The main occupations were fishing, salt mining, and hunting. The villages were governed by elected elders. Under Peter the Great and the rulers who followed him, Cossack liberties were reduced. In 1754, a state monopoly on salt was introduced, that is, a ban on its free extraction and trade. Time after time, the Cossacks sent petitions to St. Petersburg with complaints about the local authorities and the general state of affairs, but this led to nothing
“Since 1762, the Yaik Cossacks began to complain about oppression: the withholding of a certain salary, unauthorized taxes and violation of ancient rights and customs of fishing. The officials sent to them to consider their complaints were unable or unwilling to satisfy them. The Cossacks were repeatedly indignant, and Major Generals Potapov and Cherepov (the first in 1766, and the second in 1767) were forced to resort to force of arms and the horror of executions. Meanwhile, the Cossacks learned that the government intended to form hussar squadrons from the Cossacks and that it had already been ordered to shave their beards. Major General Traubenberg, sent to the Yaitsky town for this purpose, incurred popular indignation. The Cossacks were worried. Finally, in 1771, the rebellion showed up in all its strength. On January 13, 1771, they gathered in the square, took icons from the church and demanded the dismissal of members of the chancellery and the release of delayed salaries. Major General Traubenberg went to meet them with troops and cannons, ordering them to disperse; but his commands had no effect. Traubenberg ordered to shoot; the Cossacks rushed to the guns. A battle took place; The rebels were victorious. Traubenberg fled and was killed at the gates of his house... Major General Freiman was sent from Moscow to pacify them with one company of grenadiers and artillery... Hot battles took place on June 3 and 4. Freiman opened his way with grapeshot... The instigators of the riot were punished with a whip; about one hundred and forty people were exiled to Siberia; others were given up as soldiers; the rest are forgiven and taken a second oath. These measures restored order; but calm was precarious. "It's only the beginning! - said the forgiven rebels, - is this how we will shake Moscow? Secret meetings took place in steppe villages and remote farmsteads. Everything foreshadowed a new rebellion. The leader was missing. The leader has been found” (A. S. Pushkin “The History of the Pugachev Rebellion”)
“In these troubled times, an unknown tramp wandered around the Cossack yards, hiring himself out as a worker first to one owner, then to another and taking up all sorts of crafts... He was distinguished by the audacity of his speeches, reviled his superiors and persuaded the Cossacks to flee to the region of the Turkish Sultan; he assured that the Don Cossacks would not be slow to follow them, that he had two hundred thousand rubles and seventy thousand worth of goods prepared at the border, and that some pasha, immediately upon the arrival of the Cossacks, should give them up to five million; for now he promised everyone twelve rubles a month in salary... This tramp was Emelyan Pugachev, a Don Cossack and schismatic, who came with a false written appearance from behind the Polish border, with the intention of settling on the Irgiz River among the schismatics there" (A. S. Pushkin " History of the Pugachev rebellion")
Uprising led by Pugachev. Briefly
“Pugachev appeared at the farmsteads of the retired Cossack Danila Sheludyakov, with whom he had previously lived as a worker. At that time, meetings of the attackers were held there. At first it was about escaping to Turkey... But the conspirators were too attached to their shores. Instead of escaping, they decided to start a new rebellion. Imposture seemed to them a reliable spring. For this, all that was needed was an alien, daring and decisive, still unknown to the people. Their choice fell on Pugachev” (A. S. Pushkin “The History of the Pugachev Rebellion”)
“He was about forty, average height, thin and broad-shouldered. His black beard showed streaks of gray; the lively big eyes kept darting around. His face had a rather pleasant, but roguish expression. The hair was cut into a circle" ("The Captain's Daughter")
- 1742 - Emelyan Pugachev was born
- 1772, January 13 - Cossack riot in Yaitsky town (now Uralsk)
- 1772, June 3, 4 - suppression of the rebellion by the detachment of Major General Freiman
- 1772, December - Pugachev appeared in Yaitsky town
- 1773, January - Pugachev was arrested and sent into custody to Kazan
- 1773, January 18 - the military board received notification of the identity and capture of Pugachev
- 1773, June 19 - Pugachev escaped from prison
- 1773, September - rumors spread throughout the Cossack farms that he had appeared, whose death was a lie
- 1773, September 18 - Pugachev with a detachment of up to 300 people appeared near the Yaitsky town, Cossacks began to flock to him
- 1773, September - Pugachev’s capture of the Iletsk town
- 1773, September 24 - capture of the village of Rassypnaya
- 1773, September 26 - capture of the village of Nizhne-Ozernaya
- 1773, September 27 - capture of the Tatishchev Fortress
- 1773, September 29 - capture of the village of Chernorechenskaya
- 1773, October 1 - capture of the Sakmara town
- 1773, October - The Bashkirs, excited by their elders (whom Pugachev managed to reward with camels and goods captured from the Bukharans), began to attack Russian villages and join the army of rebels in heaps. On October 12, foreman Kaskyn Samarov took the Voskresensky copper smelter and formed a detachment of Bashkirs and factory peasants of 600 people with 4 guns. In November, as part of a large detachment of Bashkirs, Salavat Yulaev went over to Pugachev’s side. In December, he formed a large detachment in the northeastern part of Bashkiria and successfully fought with the tsarist troops in the area of the Krasnoufimskaya fortress and Kungur. Serving Kalmyks fled from outposts. The Mordovians, Chuvash, and Cheremis stopped obeying the Russian authorities. The lord's peasants clearly showed their allegiance to the impostor.
- 1773, October 5-18 - Pugachev unsuccessfully tried to capture Orenburg
- 1773, October 14 - Catherine II appointed Major General V.A. Kara commander of a military expedition to suppress the rebellion
- 1773, October 15 - government manifesto about the appearance of an impostor and an exhortation not to give in to his calls
- 1773, October 17 - Pugachev’s henchman captured Demidov’s Avzyano-Petrovsky factories, collected guns, provisions, money there, formed a detachment of artisans and factory peasants
- 1773, November 7-10 - battle near the village of Yuzeeva, 98 versts from Orenburg, detachments of Pugachev atamans Ovchinnikov and Zarubin-Chika and the vanguard of the Kara corps, Kara’s retreat to Kazan
- 1773, November 13 - a detachment of Colonel Chernyshev was captured near Orenburg, numbering up to 1,100 Cossacks, 600-700 soldiers, 500 Kalmyks, 15 guns and a huge convoy
- 1773, November 14 - Brigadier Korf's corps of 2,500 people broke into Orenburg
- 1773, November 28-December 23 - unsuccessful siege of Ufa
- 1773, November 27 - Chief General Bibikov was appointed new commander of the troops opposing Pugachev
- 1773, December 25 - Ataman Arapov’s detachment occupied Samara
- 1773, December 25 - Bibikov arrived in Kazan
- 1773, December 29 - Samara liberated
In total, according to rough estimates by historians, there were from 25 to 40 thousand people in the ranks of Pugachev’s army by the end of 1773, more than half of this number were Bashkir units
- 1774, January - Ataman Ovchinnikov stormed the town of Guryev in the lower reaches of the Yaik, captured rich trophies and replenished the detachment with local Cossacks
- 1774, January - A detachment of three thousand Pugachevites under the command of I. Beloborodov approached Yekaterinburg, along the way capturing a number of surrounding fortresses and factories, and on January 20, they captured the Demidov Shaitansky plant as their main base of operations.
- 1774, end of January - Pugachev married a Cossack woman Ustinya Kuznetsova
- 1774, January 25 - second, unsuccessful assault on Ufa
- 1774, February 8 - the rebels captured Chelyabinsk (Chelyaba)
- 1774, March - the advance of government troops forced Pugachev to lift the siege of Orenburg
- 1774, March 2 - the St. Petersburg Carabineer Regiment under the command of I. Mikhelson, previously stationed in Poland, arrived in Kazan
- 1774, March 22 - battle between government troops and Pugachev’s army at the Tatishchev Fortress. Defeat of the rebels
- 1774, March 24 - Mikhelson in a battle near Ufa, near the village of Chesnokovka, he defeated the troops under the command of Chika-Zarubin, and two days later captured Zarubin himself and his entourage
- 1774, April 1 - Pugachev’s defeat in the battle near the town of Sakmara. Pugachev fled with several hundred Cossacks to the Prechistenskaya fortress, and from there he went to the mining region of the Southern Urals, where the rebels had reliable support
- 1774, April 9 - Bibikov died, Lieutenant General Shcherbatov was appointed commander in his place, which Golitsyn was terribly offended by
- 1774, April 12 - defeat of the rebels in the battle at the Irtetsk outpost
- 1774, April 16 - the siege of the Yaitsky town was lifted. lasting from December 30
- 1774, May 1 - the town of Guryev was recaptured from the rebels
The general squabble between Golitsyn and Shcherbatov allowed Pugachev to escape defeat and begin the offensive again
- 1774, May 6 - Pugachev’s detachment of five thousand captured the Magnetic Fortress
- 1774, May 20 - the rebels captured the strong Trinity Fortress
- 1774, May 21 - defeat of Pugachev at the Trinity Fortress from the corps of General Dekolong
- 1774, 6, 8, 17, 31 May - battles of the Bashkirs under the command of Salavat Yulaev with Michelson’s detachment
- 1774, June 3 - The detachments of Pugachev and S. Yulaev united
- 1774, early June - the march of Pugachev’s army, in which 2/3 were Bashkirs, to Kazan
- 1774, June 10 - Krasnoufimskaya fortress was captured
- 1774, June 11 - victory in the battle near Kungur against the garrison that made a sortie
- 1774, June 21 - capitulation of the defenders of the Kama town of Osa
- 1774, late June-early July - Pugachev captured the Votkinsk and Izhevsk ironworks, Elabuga, Sarapul, Menzelinsk, Agryz, Zainsk, Mamadysh and other cities and fortresses and approached Kazan
- 1774, July 10 - near the walls of Kazan, Pugachev defeated a detachment under the command of Colonel Tolstoy that came out to meet them
- 1774, July 12 - as a result of the assault, the suburbs and main areas of the city were taken, the garrison locked itself in the Kazan Kremlin. A strong fire started in the city. At the same time, Pugachev received news of the approach of Mikhelson’s troops, coming from Ufa, so the Pugachev detachments left the burning city. As a result of a short battle, Mikhelson made his way to the garrison of Kazan, Pugachev retreated across the Kazanka River.
- 1774, July 15 - Mikhelson's victory near Kazan
- 1774, July 15 - Pugachev announced his intention to march on Moscow. Despite the defeat of his army, the uprising swept the entire western bank of the Volga
- 1774, July 28 - Pugachev captured Saransk and in the central square announced the “royal manifesto” about freedom for the peasants. The enthusiasm that gripped the peasants of the Volga region led to the fact that a population of more than a million people was involved in the uprising.
“We grant by this named decree, with our royal and paternal mercy, all who were formerly in the peasantry and under the citizenship of the landowners, to be loyal slaves to our own crown; and we reward with the ancient cross and prayer, heads and beards, liberty and freedom and forever Cossacks, without requiring recruitment, capitation and other monetary taxes, ownership of lands, forests, haylands and fishing grounds, and salt lakes without purchase and without quitrent; and we free everyone from the taxes and burdens previously imposed on the peasants and the entire people by the villains of the nobles and city bribe-taking judges. Given July 31st day 1774. By the grace of God, we, Peter the Third, Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia and others"
- 1774, July 29 - Catherine the Second vested General-in-Chief Pyotr Ivanovich Panin with extraordinary powers “to suppress rebellion and restore internal order in the provinces of Orenburg, Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod”
- 1774, July 31 - Pugachev in Penza
- 1774, August 7 - Saratov was captured
- 1774, August 21 - unsuccessful assault on Tsaritsyn by Pugachev
- 1774, August 25 - the decisive battle of Pugachev’s army with Michelson. A crushing defeat for the rebels. Pugachev's flight
- 1774, September 8 - Pugachev was captured by the elders of the Yaitsky Cossacks
- 1775, January 10 - Pugachev was executed in Moscow
The outbreaks of the uprising were extinguished only in the summer of 1775
Reasons for the defeat of the peasant uprising of Pugachev
- The spontaneous nature of the uprising
- Belief in a “good” king
- Lack of a clear action plan
- Vague ideas about the future structure of the state
- The superiority of government troops over the rebels in weapons and organization
- Contradictions among the rebels between the Cossack elite and the Golytba, between the Cossacks and the peasants
Results of the Pugachev rebellion
- Renaming: Yaik River - to the Urals, Yaitsky Army - to the Ural Cossack Army, Yaitsky Town - to Uralsk, Verkhne-Yaitskaya Pier - to Verkhneuralsk
- Disaggregation of provinces: 50 instead of 20
- The process of transforming Cossack troops into army units
- Cossack officers are increasingly being given the nobility with the right to own their own serfs
- Tatar and Bashkir princes and Murzas are equated to the Russian nobility
- The manifesto of May 19, 1779 somewhat limited factory owners in the use of peasants assigned to factories, limited the working day and increased wages
In 1771, unrest swept the lands of the Yaik Cossacks. Unlike the local social uprisings that preceded them, this uprising of the Cossacks in the Urals was already a direct prologue to the largest social upheaval of the 18th century, and indeed the entire history of Imperial Russia - the uprising under the leadership of E. I. Pugachev, which resulted in the Peasant War of 1773-1775.
Objectively, the cause of this powerful social explosion was the monstrous strengthening of serfdom, which was distinctive feature Catherine's "golden age" of the Russian nobility. The legislation of Catherine II on the peasant question expanded the willfulness and arbitrariness of landowners to the extreme. Thus, the decree of 1765 on the right of a landowner to exile his serfs to hard labor was supplemented two years later by a ban on serfs filing complaints against their landowners.
At the same time, the government of Catherine II waged a consistent attack on the traditional privileges of the Cossacks: a state monopoly on fishing and salt production on Yaik was introduced, the autonomy of Cossack self-government was infringed, the appointment of military atamans and the involvement of Cossacks in service in the North Caucasus was introduced, etc.
It should be noted that it was the Cossacks who were the instigators and main protagonists of the Pugachev uprising, as well as during the Time of Troubles of the early 17th century, as well as the uprisings of S. Razin and K. Bulavin. But along with the Cossacks and peasants, other population groups also took part in the uprising, each of which pursued its own goals. Thus, for representatives of the non-Russian peoples of the Volga region, participation in the uprising had the character of a national liberation struggle; the goals of the Ural factory workers who joined the Pugachevites, in essence, did not differ from the peasants; Poles exiled to the Urals fought for their liberation in the ranks of the rebels.
A special group of rebels were Russian schismatics, who, during the persecution of them at the end of the 17th and first half of the 18th centuries. found refuge in the Volga region. They fought with government troops, but it was in the schismatic monasteries that the idea of Pugachev adopting the name of Peter III matured, and the schismatics supplied him with money.
All of these groups were united by “common indignation,” as General A.I. Bibikov, who was sent to suppress Pugachevism, put it, but with such different goals and positions, it would be correct to assume that if the rebels had won, conflict and split in their camp would have been inevitable.
The immediate cause for the uprising of the Yaik Cossacks was the activities of the next commission of inquiry, sent at the end of 1771 to examine complaints. The real task of the commission was to bring the Cossack masses to obedience. She conducted interrogations and arrests. In response, the disobedient Cossacks in January 1772 went with a religious procession to the Yaitsky town to submit a petition to Major General Traubenberg, who had arrived from the capital, to remove the military chieftain and foremen. The peaceful procession was shot from cannons, which provoked a Cossack uprising. The Cossacks defeated a detachment of soldiers, killed Traubenberg, the military chieftain and several representatives of the Cossack elders.
Only after a new punitive detachment was sent against the Cossacks in June 1772, the unrest was suppressed: 85 of the most active rebels were exiled to Siberia, many others were fined. The Cossack military circle was liquidated, the military office was closed, and a commandant was appointed to the Yaitsky town. For some time the Cossacks became quiet, but;
it was social material ready for uprising, which only had to be ignited.
In the summer of 1773, the Don Cossack Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev, who had escaped from a Kazan prison, reappeared among the Yaik Cossacks, who by this time had already formed a small detachment of his comrades.
The uprising began on September 17, 1773, when Pugachev, who had already declared himself miraculously saved by Emperor Peter III, published a manifesto in which he granted the Cossacks “a river, herbs, lead, gunpowder, provisions and salary.” After this, his detachment, the number of which quickly grew and reached 200 people, approached the Yaitsky town. The team sent against the rebels went over to their side. Having abandoned the assault on the Yaitsky town, the garrison of which significantly outnumbered the Pugachev forces, the rebels moved along the Yaitsky fortified line to Orenburg, encountering almost no resistance.
More and more forces poured into the detachment: the “triumphant” march of “Emperor Peter Fedorovich” began. On October 5, 1773, the rebels began to besiege the Orenburg fortress, which had a garrison of 3,000.
In November 1773, a “state Military Collegium” was established in the Berlin settlement near Orenburg, which became Pugachev’s headquarters for a long time. This body was created by analogy with the imperial institution and was designed to deal with the formation and supply of the rebel army. His tasks included stopping the robberies of the local population and organizing the division of property seized from landowners.
Then, in November 1773, the Pugachevites managed to defeat two detachments of government troops - General V.A. Kara and Colonel P.M. Chernyshev. These victories strengthened the rebels' self-confidence. They continued to Pugachev’s camp. landowners and factory peasants, working people of the Ural factories, Bashkirs, Kalmyks and representatives of other peoples of the Volga and Urals flocked together.
By the end of 1773, the number of Pugachev’s troops reached 30 thousand people, and its artillery numbered up to
80 guns.
From his headquarters in Berd, the impostor sends out manifestos through his assistants and atamans, which were sealed with the signature of “Peter III” and special seals, replete with references to “our grandfather, Peter the Great,” which gave these documents the appearance of legal documents in the eyes of peasants and working people. At the same time, in order to raise the “royal” authority, a kind of court etiquette was established in Berd: Pugachev acquired his own guard, began to assign titles and ranks to his associates from his inner circle, and even established his own order.
In the winter of 1773/74, rebel detachments captured Buzuluk and Samara, Sarapul and Krasnoufimsk, besieged Kungur, and fought near Chelyabinsk. In the Urals, the Pugachevites took control of up to 3/4 of the entire metallurgical industry.
The government of Catherine II, finally realizing the danger and scale of the movement, began to take active action. At the end of 1773; Chief General A.I. Bibikov, an experienced military engineer and artilleryman, was appointed commander-in-chief of the punitive troops. A secret commission was created in Kazan to combat the uprising.
Having accumulated strength, Bibikov in mid-January 1774 launched a general offensive against the Pugachevites. The decisive battle took place on March 22 near the Tatishchev Fortress. Despite the fact that Pugachev had a numerical superiority, government troops under the command of General P. M. Golitsyn inflicted a heavy defeat on him. The rebels lost more than a thousand people killed, many of the Pugachevites were captured.
Soon, near Ufa, the detachment of I. N. Chika-Zarubin, a comrade-in-arms of the impostor, was defeated, and on April 1, Golitsyn again defeated Pugachev’s troops near the Samara town. With a detachment of 500 people, Pugachev went to the Urals.
Thus ended the first stage of the Pugachev era. The highest rise of the Pugachev uprising was still ahead.
The second stage covers the period from May to July 1774.
In the mining areas of the Urals, Pugachev again gathered an army of several thousand people and moved towards Kazan. After a series of victories and defeats, on July 12, at the head of a 20,000-strong rebel army, Pugachev approached Kazan, captured the city and besieged the Kremlin, where the remnants of the garrison were locked in. The city’s lower classes supported the impostor. On the same day, a detachment of Lieutenant Colonel I. I. approached Kazan. Mikhelson, who followed on the heels of the rebels, and forced them to retreat from Kazan.
In the decisive battle on July 15, 1774, the rebels were defeated, losing many killed and captured. Most of the Bashkirs who joined the movement returned to their lands.
The remnants of the rebel army crossed to the right bank of the Volga and entered the territory covered at that time by massive peasant unrest.
The third and final stage of the Pugachev era began. During this period the movement reached its greatest extent.
Walking down the Volga, Pugachev’s detachment acted as a kind of catalyst for the local anti-serfdom movement, which swept the Penza, Tambov, Simbirsk and Nizhny Novgorod provinces during this period.
In July 1774, the impostor published a manifesto containing exactly what the peasants expected from the good tsar: it proclaimed the abolition of serfdom, conscription, all taxes and fees, the transfer of land to the peasants, as well as a call to “catch, execute and hang... villainous nobles."
The fire of the peasant uprising was ready to spread to the central regions of the country; its breath could be felt even in Moscow. At the same time, general shortcomings caused by disunity, social heterogeneity and insufficient “organization of the Pugachev uprising” began to show themselves more and more noticeably. The rebels were increasingly defeated by regular government troops.
Clearly aware of the danger threatening the state, the government mobilized all its forces to fight Pugachev. The troops freed after the conclusion of the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi peace with Turkey were transferred to the Volga region, the Don and the center of the country. The famous commander A.V. Suvorov was sent from the Danube Army to help Panin.
On August 21, 1774, Pugachev’s troops besieged Tsaritsyn. But they were unable to take the city and, seeing the threat of the approach of government troops, retreated.
Soon, the last major battle of the Pugachevites took place near the Salnikov plant, in which they suffered a crushing defeat. Pugachev with a small detachment fled across the Volga. He was still ready to continue the fight, but his own supporters handed over the impostor to the government. On September 12, 1774, a group of Pugachev’s associates, rich egg Cossacks, led by Tvorogov and Chumakov, captured him on the river. Uzeni. The impostor, chained in stocks, was brought to the Yaitsky town and handed over to the authorities. Then Pugachev was transported to Simbirsk, and from there in a wooden cage to Moscow.
On January 10, 1775, on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow, Pugachev and several of his loyal associates were executed.
After the suppression of the uprising, many Pugachevites were whipped, driven through the gauntlet, and sent to hard labor. In total, at least 10 thousand people died in battles with regular troops during the uprising, and approximately four times as many people were wounded and maimed. On the other hand, thousands of nobles, officials, priests, townspeople, ordinary soldiers and even peasants who did not want to submit to the impostor became victims of the rebels.
The Pugachev uprising had important consequences for determining the further domestic policy of Catherine II. It clearly demonstrated the deep crisis of the entire society and the impossibility of postponing the overdue transformations, which should have been carried out slowly and gradually, relying on the nobility.
The immediate result of Pugachevism in the field of internal policy of the government of Catherine II was a further strengthening of the noble reaction. At the same time, in 1775, one of the most important legislative acts of Catherine’s era, “Institution for the management of the provinces of the All-Russian Empire,” was issued, in accordance with which extensive regional reform was carried out and the system of local government was reorganized, and the structure of elected judicial-estate institutions was created.
However, the significance of the largest social confrontation in Russian pre-revolutionary history, which in its scale and dynamics of armed struggle quite fits into the category civil wars, cannot be reduced only to the immediate results reflected in the policy of the autocracy.
Historians have still not given an unambiguous assessment of this event. Pugachev's uprising cannot be called a “senseless and merciless” popular revolt. The main feature of the Pugachev uprising was an attempt to overcome the spontaneity of mass uprisings using methods borrowed from the dominant political system. The control of rebel troops and the training of these troops were organized, attempts were made to organize regular supplies of armed units. The radicalism of the rebels was expressed in the physical destruction of the nobility and officials without trial.
The movement caused enormous economic damage to the country. The rebels destroyed about 90 iron and copper smelters in the Urals and Siberia, many landowner farms were burned and looted in the European part of Russia. At the same time, the social explosion that shook the foundations of the serfdom system in Russia, despite the doom of peasant uprisings, made a significant contribution to the formation of new social relationships.
Pugachev's rebellion (peasant war) 1773-1775. under the leadership of Emelyan Pugachev - an uprising of the Yaik Cossacks, which grew into a full-scale war.
Rationalism and disregard for tradition, so characteristic of the imperial regime, alienated the masses from it. Pugachev's rebellion was the last and most serious in a long chain of uprisings that took place on the southeastern borders of the Russian state, in that open and difficult-to-define region where Old Believers and fugitives from the imperial authorities lived side by side with non-Russian steppe tribes and where the Cossacks who defended royal fortresses, still dreamed of the return of former liberties.
Reasons for Pugachev's uprising
At the end of the 18th century, the control of official authorities in this area became more and more noticeable. In general, Pugachev's uprising can be seen as the last - but most powerful - desperate impulse of people whose way of life was incompatible with a clearly expressed and clearly defined state power. The nobles received land in the Volga and Trans-Volga regions, and for many peasants who had long lived there, this meant serfdom. Peasants from other regions of the country also settled there.
Landowners, wanting to increase income and trying to take advantage of emerging opportunities in trade, increased the quitrent or replaced it with corvée. Soon after Catherine’s accession to the throne, these duties, still unusual for many, were fixed during the census and land measurement. With the advent of market relations in the Volga territories, pressure on more traditional and less productive activities increased.
A special group of the population of this region were the odnodvortsy, descendants of peasant soldiers sent to the Volga borders in the 16th–17th centuries. Most of the odnodvortsy were Old Believers. While remaining theoretically free people, they suffered greatly from economic competition from the nobles and at the same time were afraid of losing their independence and falling into the taxable class of state peasants.
How it all began
The uprising began among the Yaik Cossacks, whose situation reflected the changes associated with increasingly intrusive state intervention. They had long enjoyed relative freedom, which gave them the opportunity to mind their own affairs, elect leaders, hunt, fish and raid the areas neighboring the lower Yaik (Ural) in exchange for recognizing the power of the tsar and providing certain services if necessary.
The change in the status of the Cossacks occurred in 1748, when the government ordered the creation of the Yaik Army from 7 defense regiments of the so-called Orenburg Line, which was built in order to separate the Kazakhs from the Bashkirs. Some of the Cossack elders favorably accepted the creation of the army, hoping to secure a solid status for themselves within the “Table of Ranks,” but for the most part, ordinary Cossacks opposed joining the Russian army, considering this decision a violation of freedom and a violation of Cossack democratic traditions.
The Cossacks were also alarmed that in the army they would become ordinary soldiers. Suspicion intensified when in 1769 it was proposed to form a certain “Moscow Legion” from small Cossack troops to fight the Turks. This meant wearing a military uniform, training and - worst of all - shaving beards, which caused deep rejection on the part of the Old Believers.
The appearance of Peter III (Pugachev)
Emelyan Pugachev stood at the head of the disgruntled Yaik Cossacks. Being a Don Cossack by origin, Pugachev deserted from Russian army and became a runaway; He was caught several times, but Pugachev always managed to escape. Pugachev introduced himself as Emperor Peter III, who allegedly managed to escape; he spoke out in defense of the old faith. Perhaps Pugachev took such a trick at the prompting of one of the Yaik Cossacks, but he accepted the proposed role with conviction and panache, becoming a figure not subject to anyone’s manipulation.
The appearance of Peter III revived the hopes of peasants and religious dissidents, and some measures taken by Emelyan as tsar strengthened them. Emelyan Pugachev expropriated church lands, elevating monastic and church peasants to the more preferable rank of state peasants; prohibited the purchase of peasants by non-nobles and stopped the practice of assigning them to factories and mines. He also eased the persecution of Old Believers and granted forgiveness to schismatics who voluntarily returned from abroad. The liberation of nobles from compulsory public service, which did not bring direct benefits to the serfs, nevertheless raised expectations of a similar relief for them.
Pugachev's court. Painting by V.G. Perova
Be that as it may, regardless of politics, the unexpected removal of Peter III from the throne aroused strong suspicions among the peasants, especially since his successor was a German woman, who, moreover, was not Orthodox, as many thought. Pugachev was not the first to make a reputation for himself by assuming the identity of the injured and hiding Tsar Peter, ready to lead the people to the restoration of the true faith and the return of traditional freedoms. From 1762 to 1774, about 10 such figures appeared. Pugachev became the most prominent personality, partly due to the widespread support he received, partly due to his abilities; besides, he was lucky.
Pugachev's popularity increased largely due to the fact that he appeared in the image of an innocent victim who humbly accepted removal from the throne and left the capital in order to wander among his people, experiencing their suffering and hardships. Pugachev stated that he had allegedly already visited Constantinople and Jerusalem, confirming his holiness and power with contacts with the “Second Rome” and the place of Christ’s death.
The circumstances under which Catherine came to power actually raised questions about her legitimacy. Dissatisfaction with the Empress further intensified when she reversed some of her ex-husband's popular decrees, curtailing the freedoms of the Cossacks and further reducing the already meager rights of the serfs, depriving them, for example, of the ability to submit petitions to the sovereign.
Progress of the uprising
Pugachev's uprising is usually divided into three stages.
The first stage lasted from the beginning of the uprising until the defeat at the Tatishcheva fortress and the lifting of the siege of Orenburg.
The second stage was marked by a campaign to the Urals, then to Kazan and the defeat there from Michelson’s army.
The beginning of the third stage is the crossing to the right bank of the Volga and the capture of many cities. The end of the stage is defeat at Cherny Yar.
First stage of the uprising
Pugachev approached the Yaitsky town with a detachment of 200 people; there were 923 regular troops in the fortress. The attempt to take the fortress by storm failed. Pugachev left the Yaitsky town and headed up the Yaitsky fortified line. The fortresses surrendered one by one. The advanced detachments of the Pugachevites appeared near Orenburg on October 3, 1773, but Governor Reinsdorp was ready for defense: the ramparts were repaired, the garrison of 2,900 people was put on combat readiness. One thing that the major general missed was that he did not provide the garrison and population of the city with food supplies.
A small detachment from the rear units under the command of Major General Kara was sent to suppress the uprising, while Pugachev had about 24,000 people with 20 guns near Orenburg. Kar wanted to take the Pugachevites into pincers and divided his already small detachment.
Pugachev defeated the punitive forces piece by piece. At first, the grenadier company, without offering resistance, joined the ranks of the rebels. Afterwards, on the night of November 9, Kar was attacked and fled 17 miles from the rebels. It all ended with the defeat of Colonel Chernyshev’s detachment. 32 officers led by a colonel were captured and executed.
This victory played a bad joke on Pugachev. On the one hand, he was able to strengthen his authority, and on the other, the authorities began to take him seriously and sent entire regiments to suppress the rebellion. Three regiments of the regular army under the command of Golitsyn fought in battle with the Pugachevites on March 22, 1774 in the Tatishcheva fortress. The assault lasted for six hours. Pugachev was defeated and fled to the Ural factories. On March 24, 1774, the rebel detachments that were besieging Ufa, near Chesnokovka, were defeated.
Second phase
The second stage was distinguished by some features. A significant part of the population did not support the rebels. The Pugachev detachments that arrived at the plant confiscated the factory treasury, robbed the factory population, destroyed the factory, and committed violence. The Bashkirs stood out in particular. Often factories resisted the rebels, organizing self-defense. 64 factories joined the Pugachevites, and 28 opposed him. In addition, the superiority of forces was on the side of the punitive forces.
1774, May 20 - the Pugachevites captured the Trinity fortress with 11-12,000 people and 30 cannons. The next day, General de Colong overtook Pugachev and won the battle. 4,000 were killed on the battlefield and 3,000 were captured. Pugachev himself with a small detachment headed to European Russia.
In the Kazan province he was greeted with the ringing of bells and bread and salt. The army of Emelyan Pugachev was replenished with new forces and near Kazan on July 11, 1774 it already numbered 20,000 people. Kazan was taken, only the Kremlin held out. Mikhelson hurried to the rescue of Kazan, who was able to defeat Pugachev once again. And again Pugachev fled. 1774, July 31 - his next manifesto was published. This document freed peasants from serfdom and various taxes. The peasants were called for the destruction of the landowners.
Third stage of the uprising
At the third stage, we can already talk about a peasant war that covered the vast territory of the Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Voronezh provinces. Of the 1,425 nobles who were in the Nizhny Novgorod province, 348 people were killed. It was suffered not only by nobles and officials, but also by the clergy. In Kurmysh district, out of 72 killed, 41 were representatives of the clergy. In Yadrinsky district, 38 representatives of the clergy were executed.
The cruelty of the Pugachevites should in fact be considered bloody and monstrous, but the cruelty of the punitive forces was no less monstrous. On August 1, Pugachev was in Penza, on August 6 he occupied Saratov, on August 21 he approached Tsaritsyn, but could not take it. Attempts to raise the Don Cossacks were unsuccessful. On August 24, the last battle took place, in which Mikhelson’s troops defeated Pugachev’s army. He himself fled across the Volga with 30 Cossacks. Meanwhile, A.V. arrived at Michelson’s headquarters. Suvorov, urgently recalled from the Turkish front.
Captivity of Pugachev
On September 15, his comrades handed Pugachev over to the authorities. In the Yaitsky town, captain-lieutenant Mavrin carried out the first interrogations of the impostor, the result of which was the statement that the uprising was caused not by the evil will of Pugachev and the riot of the mob, but by the difficult living conditions of the people. At one time, wonderful words were spoken by General A.I. Bibik, who fought against Pugachev: “It’s not Pugachev that is important, it’s the general indignation that is important.”
From the town of Yaitsky, Pugachev was taken to Simbirsk. The convoy was commanded by A.V. Suvorov. On October 1st we arrived in Simbirsk. Here on October 2, the investigation was continued by P.I. Panin and P.S. Potemkin. Investigators wanted to prove that Pugachev was bribed by foreigners or the noble opposition. Pugachev’s will could not be broken; the investigation in Simbirsk did not achieve its goal.
1774, November 4 - Pugachev was taken to Moscow. Here the investigation was led by S.I. Sheshkovsky. Pugachev persistently confirmed the idea of people's suffering as the cause of the uprising. Empress Catherine did not like this very much. She was ready to admit external interference or the existence of a noble opposition, but she was not ready to admit the mediocrity of her rule of the state.
The rebels were accused of desecration Orthodox churches, which did not happen. On December 13, the last interrogation of Pugachev was lifted. Court hearings took place in the Throne Hall of the Kremlin Palace on December 29-31. 1775, January 10 - Pugachev was executed on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow. The reaction of the common people to the execution of Pugachev is interesting: “Some Pugach was executed in Moscow, but Pyotr Fedorovich is alive.” Pugachev's relatives were placed in the Kexholm fortress. 1803 - freed prisoners from captivity. They all died in different years without offspring. The last to die was Pugachev's daughter Agrafena in 1833.
Consequences of Pugachev's uprising
Peasant War 1773-1775 became the largest spontaneous popular uprising in Russia. Pugachev seriously frightened the Russian ruling circles. Even during the uprising, by order of the government, the house in which Pugachev lived was burned, and later his native village of Zimoveyskaya was moved to another place and renamed Potemkinskaya. The Yaik River, the first center of disobedience and the epicenter of the rebels, was renamed the Ural, and the Yaik Cossacks began to be called the Ural Cossacks. The Cossack Army that supported Pugachev was disbanded and moved to the Terek. The restless Zaporozhye Sich, given its rebellious traditions, was liquidated in 1775, without waiting for the next uprising. Catherine II ordered that the Pugachev Rebellion be forgotten forever.
Over its centuries-old history, Russia has experienced four peasant wars:
1) under the leadership of Ivan Bolotnikov from 1606 to 1607;
2) under the leadership of Stepan Razin from 1670 to 1671;
3) under the leadership of Kondraty Bulavin from 1707 to 1708;
4) under the leadership of Emelyan Pugachev from 1773 to 1775.
It should be borne in mind that the main differences between a peasant war and an uprising are as follows:
1) big square territory covered by the uprising;
2) enough big time the duration of the uprising;
3) the presence of a certain military organization among the rebels
(command and headquarters; military units; intelligence, etc.);
4) a significant number of troops.
All peasant wars in Russia had common features:
1) this was the reaction of the people to the strengthening of serfdom;
2) the participants in the uprising always set a goal - a march on the capital in order to install a “just king;
3) the desire to eliminate or mitigate feudal duties, to alleviate the situation of the working people;
4) the desire to turn the uprising into a nationwide movement.
Peasant war led by Ivan Bolotnikov took place during the Time of Troubles and was a reaction of part of the Russian population to the intensification of the struggle for the royal throne.
Immediately after the accession of Prince Vasily Shuisky, rumors began to circulate about the miraculous salvation of False Dmitry I. The center of the movement was the Seversk land, from where in the summer of 1606, on behalf of the saved tsar, I. Bolotnikov began his campaign against Moscow. His army included peasants, townspeople, Cossacks, serfs, servicemen of all ranks, as well as a large number of ordinary adventurers and robbers. The goal of the rebels was the overthrow of Shuisky and the accession of the legitimate Tsar Dmitry.
Initially, Bolotnikov gathered 1,300 people and with them attacked the five thousandth army of Prince Yu. Trubetskoy, completely defeating it. The reason for such an unprecedented victory was obvious - the troops “didn’t really want” to defend V. Shuisky. Bolotnikov’s success activated all the anti-Shui forces. Having united, they captured Tula, Venev, Kashira, Ryazan and a number of other cities. Soon, Prince Khvorostin raises an uprising in Astrakhan and goes to unite with Bolotnikov. The peasants of the Volga region willingly help the rebels with provisions and replenish their ranks. Having thus gathered significant forces, Bolotnikov’s army, although it was defeated by M. Skopin-Shuisky, managed to defeat Prince Mstislavsky and reached almost Moscow, stopping in the village of Kolomenskoye.
Shuisky negotiates with Bolotnikov, dissuading him from supporting the impostor. Remembering his recent successes, Ivan Isaevich replied that he would be in Moscow, but not as a traitor, but as a winner. However, in the battle near the village of Kotly, due to the betrayal of his governor, the boyar son Istoma Pashkov, he is defeated and retreats first to Serpukhov, and then to Kaluga. Even earlier, the Ryazan and Tula nobles with their troops left him.
Mstislavsky, who was besieging Kaluga, sent part of his forces to disperse the rebels, but they were defeated, after which the siege of Kaluga was lifted, while 15 thousand soldiers went over to the side of the besieged. As a result, Bolotnikov left Kaluga and united with False Dmitry II in Tula.
The situation again became critical for V. Shuisky. In May 1607, he gathered an army of 100 thousand and led it himself. In a fierce battle on the Eight River, the royal troops won. Bolotnikov with the remnants of his troops was forced to hide behind the walls of Tula again. A long siege began and on October 10, 1607 the city surrendered. Bolotnikov himself came to Shuisky, knelt down and, putting a saber on his neck, gave him his head to be cut off, “but if you leave me alive,” Bolotnikov said, “I will serve you faithfully.”
Shuisky’s cunning manifested itself here too: he promised Bolotnikov forgiveness, but instead exiled him to Kargopol, where six months later Ivan Isaevich was blinded and later drowned. Shakhovsky, one of the main organizers of the movement, was exiled by the tsar to Lake Kubenskoye.
The Peasant War under the leadership of I. Bolotnikov showed the enormous capabilities of the organized working masses, their desire to go to the end in the fight against serfdom and their oppressors, and the desire to achieve basic social justice in the country.
Peasant War led by Stepan Razin most clearly characterizes the events in Russia in the second half of the 7th century. and the serious political turmoil the country is experiencing. The main reasons for these upheavals were the dissatisfaction of the masses with the Council Code adopted in 1649, according to which the search for fugitive peasants became indefinite and former freedoms were eliminated, as well as the “copper riot” that broke out in 1662. This riot was a consequence of the introduction of copper money due to a lack of silver, and the increased production of copper money led to a rapid drop in their value and an increase in high prices, from which mainly the lower strata of the population suffered.
In the early 70s, a major uprising took place in the southern regions of Russia, where the lands along the Don were inhabited by Cossacks. The cash and grain salaries sent by the government for service (the Cossacks defended the border lands from the Crimean Khan and the Nogai Horde) were not enough, and an important source of income was robberies - “hiking for zipuns.” The targets of the attacks were Crimea and the southern coast of the Black Sea. After the Turks strengthened Azov, access to the Black Sea was practically closed for the Cossacks. Attempts to rob merchant ships on the Volga and Caspian Sea were resolutely suppressed by government troops. Unrest began. Soon the Cossacks had a leader - Stepan Razin. If Razin’s first campaigns “for zipuns” across the Caspian Sea to the Volga and Yaik, and then to the borders of Persia (1667-1669) were no different from other predatory expeditions, then the campaign, which began in 1670, took on a distinctly anti-government overtones. Razin united around himself peasants, artisans and boyars who were dissatisfied with the current state of affairs and were ready to fight with arms in hand for a “better share.” Stepan Timofeevich promised the common people to free them forever from the power of the nobles and introduce a free Cossack system, without any taxes or duties. Razin took Astrakhan, Tsaritsyn, Saratov, Samara and a number of other cities. The Peasant War covered a significant area of the Volga region, cities and rural areas; At the same time, the Mordovians, Chuvash and Cheremis rose up against Russian power. After the unsuccessful siege of Simbirsk in September 1670, the rebels were defeated by government troops, and at the beginning of 1671, Razin was handed over to the authorities by wealthy Cossacks and was soon executed.
S. Razin's war, like most other anti-government protests, was of a so-called royal character. It was believed that, unlike the “traitors” - boyars, nobles and other rich people who should be destroyed by taking possession of their property, the tsar was good. In this case, he was not Alexei Mikhailovich, but his son, Tsarevich Alexei, who allegedly was among the rebels (Tsarevich Alexei died in 1670). Having won the victory, the rebels, apparently, intended to introduce Cossack orders everywhere (universal equality, elective positions) and equally divide the property taken from the boyars and nobles.
In general, the peasant war led by S. Razin was directed against serfdom and had a certain revolutionary content.
Peasant war led by Kondraty Bulavin was a reaction to the reform activities of Peter I, which placed a heavy burden on the masses. A kind of prelude to this war was the mutiny of the archers in Astrakhan (1705-1707), which was actively supported by the Don Cossacks. K. Bulavin led this movement and ultimately it developed into a peasant war. It lasted from 1707 to 1708. The rebels opposed the tightening of the state's serfdom policy and the arbitrariness of local authorities.
The war quickly spread beyond the Don and engulfed the regions of Sloboda Ukraine and the Volga region. The Cossacks were dissatisfied with the restriction of their rights and independence by the state, the increase in violence on the part of the boyars, as well as the royal decree on the return of fugitives.
However, it should be borne in mind that these speeches were not directed personally against Peter I and not so much against his reforms, but rather against the methods and means of their implementation.
During the reign of Catherine II, serfdom continued to be actively strengthened in Russia. This led to the fact that her entire reign was illuminated by the glow of peasant wars and uprisings. In the first decade of her reign alone (1762-1772), there were 50 peasant uprisings in the Moscow, Tula, Voronezh, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, and St. Petersburg provinces. The assigned peasants of the Avzyano-Petrovsky and Kyshtym plants of Demidov, the Voskresensky plant of Sivers, Kaslinsky, Botkinsky, Nizhny Tagil and other factories in the Urals were worried.
For Catherine II, these speeches were not a surprise. She stated back in 1767 that “a revolt of the fortress villages will follow.” However, until the beginning of the 70s, the uprisings were of a regional nature and were not a threat to the autocracy, until the rebels were led by Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev.
The beginning of this movement can be considered September 17, 1773, when a detachment of 80 Cossacks led by E.I. Pugachev moved from the Tolkachev farm to the Yaitsky town. On October 3, the Pugachevites were near Orenburg, and their detachment already numbered 2,400 people and 20 guns. At the beginning of 1774, the army had about 30 thousand people and 100 guns.
Unlike the movements of Bolotnikov and Bulavin, which reflected the interests of certain sections of the people, from the war of S. Razin, which began as a bandit “going after zipuns,” the Pugachev movement from beginning to end was a nationwide movement, where the demands of all of Russia, the national liberation movement, Factory workers, Cossacks, and schismatics had their own demands.
The war proceeded with varying degrees of success for both sides, since at the first stage the rebels had no organization, and the government underestimated the strength of the rebels, and could not send large military forces due to hostilities with Turkey.
Near Orenburg, the rebels began to form into regiments, which were divided into hundreds and dozens. Cossack, Bashkir, peasant and mining regiments were created, the Military Collegium was organized - the highest body of the rebels, which performed the functions of the main headquarters, the highest court, and the military supply body. The command staff of the Pugachevites rallied around the Military Collegium. A. Ovchinnikov was appointed general ataman, F. Chumakov commanded the artillery, I. N. Chika-Zarubin, A. F. proved themselves to be talented commanders. Sokolov (nicknamed “Khlopusha”), I. N. Beloborodov, Salavat Yulaev and others.
As a result, although the Pugachevites failed to take Orenburg, they already in November 1773 defeated government troops under the command of Kara and Chernyshov, who were trying to provide assistance to the besieged fortress. The rebels captured Chelyabinsk and Kurgan. By January 1774, many Pugachev detachments were operating from Guryev to Chelyabinsk, Kungur and Yekaterinburg, from Stavropol and Samara to Ufa. The fire of the uprising spread to Siberia: the Pugachevites appeared near Yalutorovsk and Verkhoturye, and the peasants of the Volga region were waiting for them (they refused to pay taxes to the government). Even local military teams were ready to “serve” Pugachev.
However, the government took advantage of this scattered forces of the rebels. His troops attacked the small Pugachev detachments, and the Russian clergy and national feudal lords began to form their own detachments. As a result, in the spring of 1774, defeats for the Pugachevites began: the artillery was captured, the detachments of Pugachev himself, Chika-Zarubin, and Arapon were defeated.
E.I. Pugachev went to Yaik, recovered from the defeat and already in July, having an army of 20 thousand, moved to Kazan, and on July 12 captured the city. However, the approaching government troops under the command of Mikhelson defeated his army. With a detachment of only 500 people, Pugachev crossed to the right bank of the Volga and headed south, to the Cossacks, since only in them did he see a force capable of victory. His detachment was again replenished with fresh forces, and Pugachev won a number of victories, occupying Tsivilsk, Kurmysh, Saransk, Penza, and Saratov in one month. On August 24, 1774, Mikhelson again defeated the rebels. Pugachev was ready to continue the fight even after this defeat, but some of his comrades, including Chumakov, Tvorogov, Fedulyev, hoping to save their lives, grabbed Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev and handed him over to A.V. Suvorov, who by this time had been specially recalled from the theater of military operations of the Russian-Turkish war. The leader of the peasants was put on trial and executed on January 10, 1775 on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow, but the uprising continued for some time. For decades, the specter of Pugachevism became a psychological factor that restrained the autocracy of the feudal landowners and encouraged the strengthening of the military-repressive mechanism of the autocratic state.
In historical literature one can find polar assessments of peasant wars and uprisings. Those scientists who considered the state as a driving, positive force in Russian history assessed uprisings and wars as criminal acts directed against law and order (S. M. Solovyov, B. N. Chicherin, V. O. Klyuchevsky, P. N. Milyukov - representatives of the so-called state school in Russian historiography). In Soviet historiography, the dominant point of view was that the uprisings had a deep national revolutionary content, were directed against serfdom and were therefore progressive.
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