When did the Pugachev uprising take place? Pugachev's rebellion. About the “history of the Pugachev rebellion”

Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev (1740 or 1742-1775) was born in the Zimoveyskaya village on the Don (it was also the birthplace of S. T. Razin), into a family of poor Cossacks. From the age of 17 in military service. Participant of the Seven Years and Russian-Turkish Wars. For the courage shown in battles, the junior officer received the rank of cornet. During military campaigns, Pugachev fell ill and tried to retire due to illness, but he was not released. Avoiding military service, from the end of 1771 Pugachev hid in the Kuban, Terek, Lower Volga and Southern Urals, where popular unrest was taking place at that time. In February 1772 he was arrested, but he soon escaped and hid among the Old Believers. Based on a denunciation, he was arrested again. In January 1773 he was taken to Kazan and sentenced to hard labor in Siberia. But in May 1773 he fled again. The famous portrait of Pugachev was painted over the image of Catherine II.

The instigators of the uprising were the Cossacks. And this is no coincidence. The position of the Cossacks changed in the 60-70s. XVIII century. Some ancient rights and liberties were taken away from the Cossacks, and the government increasingly interfered in Cossack self-government. At the beginning of 1772, a riot occurred among the Yaik Cossacks. Despite the fact that the protest was suppressed, the Cossacks did not resign themselves. They were ready to continue the uprising, but the leader was absent. It was at this moment that Emelyan Pugachev appeared in the circle of Yaik Cossacks, who declared himself Emperor Peter III, forcibly deprived of the throne by his “evil wife Catherine.”

In September 1773, on Tolkachev’s farm, Pugachev’s manifesto was read out to the Cossacks. According to this document, “Emperor Peter III” granted the Cossacks land along the Yaik River, grain wages and money. A detachment of 80 people gathered around Pugachev and moved towards Orenburg, the largest fortress in southeast Russia. Along the way, the rebels captured small towns, the military garrisons of which went over to the side of the Pugachevites. The number of rebels increased every day: so attractive was what Emelyan Pugachev promised in his manifestos. The detachment was joined by serfs and state peasants assigned to factories, artisans, as well as Bashkirs, Mari, Tatars, Udmurts and other peoples of the Volga region. As a result, a whole army of 2.5 thousand people, with 20 guns, approached Orenburg.

At the beginning of October 1773, Pugachev surrounded Orenburg. The siege lasted six months, but the rebels failed to take the fortress. At the same time, the popular movement grew. Pugachev's associate Salavat Yulaev raised the Bashkirs to revolt. The Kalmyk army came out on the side of the rebels. As a result, Samara, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, Krasnoufimsk were captured, Yekaterinburg, Ufa, and Kungur were blocked.

Separate groups of rebels continued to resist. In November 1774, Salavat Yulaev was defeated and captured; until May 1775, Pugachev’s Colonel Pyotr Roshchin fought in the Mordovian forests. Only brutal repressions and a terrible famine that gripped the southeast of the Russian Empire pacified the rebels.

Pugachev was sent to Moscow in a wooden cage. On January 10, 1775, he and his closest supporters were executed on Bolotnaya Square. The authorities also dealt cruelly with ordinary riot participants: they were hanged, and rafts with gallows were sent down the Volga and other rivers. This, according to the government, was supposed to scare the people and prevent new protests.

Catherine II generously rewarded the punishers of the Pugachev uprising: she granted Mikhelson 600 peasants, majors of punitive detachments - 300, captains - 200, lieutenants - 150, second lieutenants - 100, warrant officers - 80.

Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev - leader of the popular uprising and the Peasant War of 1773-1775. An impostor posing as an emperor.

The future rebel was born in 1742 in the village of Zimoveyskaya (now Volgograd region) into the family of a Don Cossack. The people inhabiting the lands of the Don region had a freedom-loving disposition. 110 years before Emelyan’s birth, his predecessor was born here. Pugachev’s grandfather bore the nickname Mikhail Pugach, which formed the basis of the family name. The family of the boy’s parents, Ivan Mikhailovich and Anna Mikhailovna, also raised a son, Dementy, and two daughters, Ulyana and Fedosya. The Pugachevs professed Orthodoxy, unlike their fellow Old Believers.

In 1760, the young man enlisted and immediately found himself in a military campaign against Prussia. Periodically visiting his relatives, Pugachev attended the battles of the Seven Years and Russian-Turkish Wars. After 10 years, Emelyan was elevated to the rank of standard bearer, but after serving in this rank for a year, he went on the run to the foothills of the North Caucasus. This opportunity arose after an infectious disease, which caused him to be sent home. Having recovered, Emelyan meets with his sister’s husband and persuades S. Pavlov to become deserters.

Mutiny

The reason for the rebellious sentiments to which Emelyan Pugachev was subjected was the adoption in 1762 of the imperial decree “On the liberties of the nobility.” Serfdom was legally established for another 100 years. At that time, free settlements of the Cossacks, merchants and fugitive peasants grew on a large scale throughout Russia. The forced people yearned for freedom, but their situation did not change. A conflict was brewing between the oppressed sections of the population and the landowners. Pugachev, as a spokesman for people's ideas, took on the position of a leader who managed to temporarily get closer to the peasant dream of a free state.

Emelyan Ivanovich constantly migrates, never staying in one place for a long time. Often a Cossack resorts to lies, calling himself an Old Believer or a schismatic when necessary, but he himself often resorts to pagan rituals. In three years, Pugachev visited Chernigov, Gomel, the Polish lands, on the Irgiz River, lived in the villages of the Terek Cossacks and Nekrasov Cossacks.

In 1773, after an unsuccessful rebellion, Pugachev was arrested and, by decision of a secret meeting on cases of high treason, sentenced to lifelong hard labor in the village of Pelym. But he successfully escaped from prison in the summer of the same year.

Insurrection

Emelyan heard about the suppression of the uprising of the Yaik Cossacks and hurried to the Urals to impersonate Peter III and become the head of the Cossack army as the deposed emperor. Pugachev decided to gather a strong army in order to break through to the free lands of Transkuban and settle there with the Cossacks. Companions I.N. Zarubin-Chika, M.G. Shigaev, T.G. Myasnikov, D.K. Karavaev, M.A. Kozhevnikov prepared a legend for the leader and began to call the ataman Peter III.

The dashing Cossack dreamed of creating a free Cossack-peasant kingdom, headed by a peasant king. Pugachev’s naive views found a response in the hearts of the dissatisfied Cossacks and depressed peasant people.

Pugachev goes to the main goal, using violence, outrages, and unreasonable terrible reprisals against landowners and the military. Because of robberies and robbery, the Don Ataman’s detachment was often called a gang. Historical sources disagree on whether Pugachev was a welcome guest in the cities and villages he visited, or whether the people were afraid of the rebel. Due to the concealment of documents on the Pugachev rebellion for more than 200 years, many facts are still hidden from historians.

Peasants' War

A large military offensive by Pugachev’s troops was planned for the autumn of 1773, which was to be supported by the serfs. Emelyan also relied on the national communities of Bashkirs, Tatars, Kalmyks, and Kazakhs dissatisfied with Russian rule, thereby popularizing hatred of the Russian government. In carrying out military operations, the Russian impostor was helped by the hero of the Bashkir people Salavat Yulaev and his army.

In the winter of 1773, the impostor managed to gather an army of 25 thousand, whose arsenal included 86 cannons and supplies from military Ural factories. At the head of the military organization was the Council, which dealt with the settlement of military, political and social issues within the rebellious Cossacks. Pugachev’s “Secret Duma” was located in the Berdskaya Sloboda, whose emissaries distributed manifestos with tempting promises on behalf of Emperor Peter III throughout all captured volosts.

Despite Pugachev's obvious organizational merits, he made a number of strategic mistakes that influenced the outcome of the uprising. The first city that the rebels took was Yaitsky town, then Orenburg fell. Having cleared the northern territories, Pugachev captured weapons factories, thereby providing the army with artillery. An equipped army of thousands of Cossacks descends to the lower reaches of the Volga, meeting people welcoming the Tsar in all occupied cities.

Pugachev succeeded in his victorious march due to his promises to abolish serfdom and reduce taxes. The territory covered by the uprising grew from Western Siberia to the Perm region, Tambov province and descended to the lower reaches of the Volga. Pugachev captured the cities of Saransk, Penza, Saratov, Chelyabinsk, Ufa, Krasnoufimsk. The ataman established power in the Magnitnaya, Karagay, Peter and Paul, Stepnoy and Trinity fortresses. But the Volga region fortifications left in the rear become a springboard for government troops to respond to the rebels.

At the end of the summer of 1774, Michelson's army defeats the Cossacks near Tsaritsyn, putting the enemy to flight towards the Caspian coast. For 100 thousand rubles, Pugachev is betrayed by his comrades F.F. Chumakov, I.P. Fedulev and I.A. Tvorogov, and in the steppes of the Trans-Volga region, near the Bolshoi Uzen River, the leader of the uprising is arrested.

Pugachev is placed in a cage in which it is impossible to straighten up to his full height, and in this form, under personal escort, he is taken to the capital. The case of the impostor and his henchmen is being investigated in a closed Senate court. The death sentence is agreed upon personally with the Empress. In addition to Emelyan Pugachev, his comrades A.P. Perfilyev, M.G. Shigaev, T.I. Podurov, V.I. Tornov are sentenced to quartering.

The result of the hostilities of the Peasant War was the destruction of more than 3,000 noble families and 60 Ural factories. Military fortresses were destroyed, Orthodox churches were looted and destroyed, cities were burned. Pugachev's Cossacks mercilessly slaughtered government officers and raped their wives and daughters. The rebels killed priests, as well as ordinary people, sparing neither infants nor the elderly. The crimes were made public at the trial. Pugachev never achieved his goal, becoming mired in bloody crimes.

The Peasant War truly frightened the ruling elite of the Russian state. The government and, above all, Tsarina Catherine II took extreme measures to eradicate the memory of the rebels among the people. The village in which Emelyan was born was moved to another place and received the name Potemkinskaya. The Yaik River was renamed the Ural, and the Yaik Cossacks were renamed the Ural Cossacks. The Zaporizhian Sich ceased to exist forever as a free entity potentially dangerous for the state power. Many Cossack settlements were moved away from the center and fragmented.

Death

After the trial, Pugachev and four comrades were sentenced to quartering. But behind the scenes, the harsh execution was softened, and on January 10, 1775, on Bolotnaya Square, all five were first beheaded and then wheeled.

Before the execution, Emelyan Pugachev was calm, constantly crossed himself on all four sides, at the cathedrals visible in the distance, and asked for forgiveness from the Orthodox people.

Personal life

In 1760, Emelyan Pugachev married Sofya Dmitrievna Nedyuzheva, a native of the village of Esaulovskaya. But soon the newlywed was sent to war with Prussia, and his wife was left in the care of his parents. After a short-term return of the Cossack to his homeland in 1764, the first-born son Trofim is born into the family. Subsequently, Sophia gave birth to several more children, but only the daughters Agrafena and Christina, born in 1768 and 1770, survived. After Pugachev fled to the Yaitsky Cossacks, he finally broke ties with his wife and children and began to lead a free lifestyle.

At the beginning of 1774, having arrived in the Yaitsky town, Emelyan Pugachev drew attention to the young girl Ustinya Kuznetsova, the daughter of a local Cossack, who was at most 17 years old. Pugachev sent matchmakers to the bride’s house several times, but was refused each time. Finally, the ataman decided to take possession of Ustinya by force and cunning, and already in early February the wedding took place in the local church.

After the wedding, the girl settled in the “royal chambers” and could not deny herself anything. But Ustinya was still burdened by her own situation. Marriage to a simple Cossack woman weakened the atamans’ trust in Pugachev, as the named emperor, and struck distrust in his person, which ultimately led to betrayal.

After Pugachev’s arrest, the first family and Ustinya Kuznetsova, despite the fact that they were found innocent, went into exile to the Kexholm fortress, where they were kept in prison conditions for the rest of their lives. Catherine II, even after a while, did not cancel the verdict.

Pushkin about Pugachev

The history of the rebellion led by Pugachev was hidden by the government for many years, but the image of the hero was kept in the memory of the people. One of the first researchers to become interested in Pugachev’s personality was.

The writer created two literary works dedicated to Emelyan Ivanovich: “The History of Pugachev” and “The Captain’s Daughter.” In the first essay, the author describes the actions and deeds of the brave rebel, based on all the information known at that time. The second work is written in artistic language, but the characterization of Pugachev in it is correct, which was confirmed by documents released later.

Memory

Pugachev's biography has constantly aroused interest among writers and film industry figures. 13 films were made on the theme of the Pugachev rebellion. The first Soviet film about the ataman appeared in 1937, the main character in the drama was played by Konstantin Skorobogatov.

The most famous film incarnations of Pugachev are considered to be the works of Evgeny Matveev in the film “Emelyan Pugachev” and in the historical chronicle “Russian Revolt”.

• In addition to Stepan Razin and Emelyan Pugachev, another rebel revolutionary Vasily Denisovich Generalov was born in the village of Zimoveyskaya. The Cossack became involved in the preparation of a terrorist attack to eliminate the emperor, but the operation was unsuccessful and the conspirators were arrested. The generals were executed in the same way as their predecessors: the young man’s head was cut off.
• Catherine II hid information about the Pugachev uprising from Europeans. But the German ambassador Count Solms noticed the absence of black caviar in the capital's markets and made the correct conclusion about the conduct of military operations on the Volga.

• It is assumed that Emelyan Pugachev collected countless treasures of the eastern khanates. The rebel’s contemporaries repeatedly confirmed that the ataman had a saddle embroidered with sapphires and a diamond ring. But after Pugachev’s arrest, no treasures were discovered. The treasures were subsequently searched for in the sites of the Pugachev army in the Southern Urals, but nothing was found.
• It has been proven that Emelyan Ivanovich received financial assistance from the Ottoman Empire and France. It is difficult to establish exactly, but according to one version, Emelyan Pugachev was a foreign agent who was supposed to weaken Russia and interfere with the Russo-Turkish War. Having transferred large forces from the front to fight the ataman, Russia was forced to end the confrontation with Turkey on unfavorable terms.

The leaders of the riot and Pugachev’s wife were sent into custody in Orenburg. The instigators of the riot were punished with whips, and many were sent to prison. Major General Freiman, sent from Moscow, was able to suppress the riot. Many rebels fled but were caught. At the same time, Pugachev published a document according to which the peasants were to be freed from serfdom. Next, it remains to briefly describe the defeat of Pugachev’s uprising.

Emelyan Pugachev was an ordinary citizen of Russia, born in 1742 (presumably) in the village of Zimoveyskaya. There he showed his ambitions by calling himself Peter III and starting an uprising.

However, the peasants, having learned about the arrival of Pugachev, began to join the ranks of the army en masse, which became a serious threat to Moscow. In the same year, he took six cities, but after the failure of the assault on Tsaritsyn, the Don Cossacks and Kalmyks betrayed Pugachev, which led to the failure of the uprising.

Strict measures were taken to suppress the rebellion, but the rebels won the battle. The rebels sent their elected officials to St. Petersburg. Pugachev took the fortresses of Rassypnaya and Nizhne-Ozernaya, as well as the fortress in Tatishchevo. News of Pugachev’s successes came to Orenburg one after another.” Troops were in Turkey and Poland, recruitment increased the difficulties.

The cold has begun. Pugachev and his army settled in the suburbs. The wounded were taken to the church, the icons in it were torn off, the temple was desecrated with sewage.

Pugachev's rebellion in brief

By order of Pugachev, Khlopusha managed to take the Ilyinsky fortress; in Verkhne-Ozernaya he was repulsed, which is why Pugachev hastened to his aid. The Yaik Cossacks, in case of failure, thought to betray Pugachev into the hands of the government and thereby earn themselves a pardon.”

In one fortress, up to one thousand three hundred rebels fell... In June 1774, the convict was executed. The impostor dared to go to Orenburg, but was met by troops and lost his last guns and people. His main accomplices were also captured. Bibikov fell ill with a fever and died. Mikhelson was able to break them. The rebels entered Magnitnaya thanks to treason, and the fortress was burned. Pugachev's rebels were able to take Kazan. Mikhelson entered Kazan as a liberator.

Pugachev fled into the forest. A few days later he rushed to the Volga, the entire western side of which rebelled and surrendered to the impostor. However, before the Prime Major met with Pugachev, the latter managed to visit Penza, Saratov, and Sarepta. The Cossack uprising quickly grew into a peasant war that engulfed the entire Volga region. The detachment sent to Orenburg was defeated by Pugachev. The victory over the regular troops inspired the rebels and horrified the nobles.

ABOUT THE “HISTORY OF PUGACHEV’S REVOLT”

The uprising, which began in 1773 under the leadership of the Don Cossack Emelyan Pugachev, broke out in Cossack settlements on the Yaik River (Ural). At the same time, the Cossack elite, who supported the impostor and adventurer Pugachev, did not believe in his “magic royal signs” on his body, in his stories about his escape from St. Petersburg.

Due to illness, he demanded resignation, but the military command refused him this, so he deserted, falling into the hands of the authorities only in 1772, after which he ended up in Siberia for hard labor. He refused to take a small city on the Yaik River, since he did not have artillery, but on the way to Orenburg his improvised army was replenished with many dissatisfied people. Pugachev won the first battle with government troops, losing all his guns. Pugachev’s ambitions were great enough for him to set out to carry out a raid on Moscow in the summer of 1774.

Pugachev's rebellion in brief

On the farm where the meetings of the attackers were held, Emelyan Pugachev, a Don Cossack and schismatic who had escaped from a Kazan prison, appeared. For this, all that was needed was a rogue, daring and decisive, still unknown to the people. Their choice fell on Pugachev. They searched for the escaped Pugachev, but to no avail.

His biography can be briefly described as follows: in 1769 he completed military service, participating in the Seven Years' War, as well as in Russia's war against Turkey. Pugachev fled to the Volga steppes, where he was caught as a result of betrayal.

Invariably called the golden age. An empress reigned on the throne, similar in her main aspirations to the great reformer Peter, who, like him, wanted to make Russia part of civilized Europe. The empire is growing stronger, new lands are annexed through powerful military force, and sciences and arts are developing under the supervision of an educated queen.

But there was also “the horror of the 18th century” - that’s what Catherine the Great called Pugachev’s uprising. Its results, as well as its causes and course, revealed acute contradictions hidden behind the luxurious façade of the golden age.

Causes of the uprising

Catherine's first decrees after the dismissal of Peter III were manifestos on the exemption of nobles from compulsory military and public service. Landowners were given the opportunity to engage in their own farming, and in relation to the peasants they became slave owners. Serfs received only unbearable duties, and even the right to complain about their owners was taken away from them. The fate and life of the serf was in the hands of the owner.

The share of those peasants who were assigned to factories turned out to be no better. The assigned workers were mercilessly exploited by the miners. In terrible conditions, they worked in difficult and dangerous industries, and they had neither the strength nor the time to work on their own plots.

It was not for nothing that Pugachev’s uprising flared in the Urals and Volga region. The results of the repressive policy of the Russian Empire in relation to the national outskirts are the appearance of hundreds of thousands of Bashkirs, Tatars, Udmurts, Kazakhs, Kalmyks, and Chuvashs in the rebel army. The state drove them away from their ancestral lands, building new factories there, implanting a new faith for them, banning the old gods.

On the Yaike River

The fuse that ignited the flames of popular anger in the Urals and Volga was the performance of the Yaik Cossacks. They protested against the deprivation of their economic (state monopoly on salt) and political (concentration of power among elders and atamans supported by the authorities) freedoms and privileges. Their performances in 1771 were brutally suppressed, which forced the Cossacks to look for other methods of struggle and new leaders.

Some historians have expressed the version that Pugachev’s uprising, its causes, course, and results were largely determined by the top of the Yaik Cossacks. They managed to subjugate the charismatic Pugachev to their influence and make him their blind tool in achieving Cossack liberties. And when danger came, they betrayed him and tried to save their lives in exchange for his head.

The peasant "anpirator"

The tension in the socio-political atmosphere of that time was supported by rumors about the forcibly deposed royal wife of Catherine, Peter Fedorovich. It was said that Peter III prepared a decree “On Peasant Freedom,” but did not have time to proclaim it and was captured by the nobles - opponents of the emancipation of the peasants. He miraculously escaped and will soon appear before the people and raise them to fight for the return of the royal throne. The faith of ordinary people in the right king, who has special marks on his body, was often used in Rus' by various impostors to fight for power.

The miraculously saved Pyotr Fedorovich actually showed up. He showed obvious signs on his chest (which were traces of scrofula) and called the nobles the main enemies of the working people. He was strong and brave, had a clear mind and an iron will. His name at birth was

Don Cossack from the village of Zimoveyskaya

He was born in 1740 or 1742 in the same places where another legendary rebel, Stepan Razin, was born a hundred years before him. Pugachev’s uprising and the results of his campaigns along the Volga and Urals frightened the authorities so much that they tried to destroy the very memory of the “peasant king.” Very little reliable information has survived about his life.

From a young age, Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev was distinguished by his lively mind and restless disposition. He took part in the war with Prussia and Turkey and received the rank of cornet. Due to illness, he returned to the Don, was unable to achieve official resignation from military service and began to hide from the authorities.

He visited Poland, the Kuban and the Caucasus. For some time he lived with the Old Believers on the banks of one of the tributaries of the Volga - There was an opinion that it was one of the prominent schismatics - Father Filaret - who gave Pugachev the idea of ​​​​being miraculously saved by the true emperor. This is how the “anpirator” Pyotr Fedorovich appeared among the freedom-loving Yaik Cossacks.

Revolt or peasant war?

Events that began as a struggle for the return of Cossack freedoms acquired all the features of a large-scale war against the oppressors of the peasantry and working people.

The manifestos and decrees proclaimed on behalf of Peter III contained ideas that had enormous attractive power for the majority of the population of the empire: the liberation of the peasantry from serfdom and unbearable taxes, allotment of land to them, the elimination of the privileges of the nobility and officials, elements of self-government of the national outskirts, etc.

Such slogans on the banner of the rebel army ensured its rapid quantitative growth and had a decisive influence on the entire Pugachev uprising. The causes and results of the peasant war of 1773-75 were a direct result of these social problems.

The Yaik Cossacks, who became the core of the main military force of the uprising, were joined by workers and assigned peasants of the Ural factories, and landowner serfs. The cavalry of the rebel army consisted mainly of Bashkirs, Kazakhs, Kalmyks and other inhabitants of the steppes on the edge of the empire.

To control their motley army, the leaders of the Pugachev army formed a military collegium - the administrative and political center of the uprising. For the successful functioning of this rebel headquarters, there was not enough will and knowledge of the Pugachevo commanders, although the actions of the rebellious army sometimes surprised the career officers and generals who opposed them with their organization and common mind, although this was a rare occurrence.

Gradually, the confrontation acquired the features of a real civil war. But the beginnings of the ideological program, which could be seen in Emelyan’s “royal decrees,” could not withstand the predatory nature of his troops. The results of Pugachev's uprising subsequently showed that robberies and unprecedented cruelty in reprisals against oppressors turned the protest against the state system of oppression into that very senseless and merciless Russian rebellion.

Progress of the uprising

The fire of the uprising engulfed a gigantic space from the Volga to the Urals. At first, the performance of the Yaik Cossacks, led by their self-proclaimed husband, did not cause any concern to Catherine. Only when Pugachev’s army began to quickly replenish, when it became known that the “anpirator” was being greeted with bread and salt in small villages and large settlements, when many fortresses in the Orenburg steppes were captured - often without a fight - did the authorities become truly concerned. It was the unforgivable negligence of the authorities that Pushkin, who studied the results and significance of the uprising, explained the rapid increase in Cossack indignation. Pugachev led a powerful and dangerous army to the capital of the Urals - Orenburg, which defeated several regular military formations.

But the Pugachev freemen could not truly resist the punitive forces sent from the capital, and the first stage of the uprising ended with the victory of the tsarist troops at the Tatishchev Fortress in March 1774. It seemed that Pugachev’s uprising, the results of which was the flight of the impostor with a small detachment to the Urals, was suppressed. But this was only the first stage.

Kazan landowner

Just three months after the defeat near Orenburg, a 20,000-strong rebel army reached Kazan: the losses were made up for by an immediate influx of new forces from among those dissatisfied with their position. Hearing about the approach of “Emperor Peter III,” many peasants themselves dealt with their owners, greeted Pugachev with bread and salt and joined his army. Kazan almost submitted to the rebels. They were unable to storm only the Kremlin, where a small garrison remained.

Wanting to support the Volga nobility and landowners of the region affected by the uprising, the empress declared herself a “Kazan landowner” and sent a powerful military group to Kazan under the command of Colonel I. I. Mikhelson, who was ordered to finally suppress Pugachev’s uprising. The results of the Kazan battle were again unfavorable for the impostor, and he and the remnants of the army went to the right bank of the Volga.

The end of the Pugachev uprising

In the Volga region, which was a zone of complete serfdom, the fire of the uprising received new fuel - the peasants, freed from captivity by the manifesto of “Peter Fedorovich,” joined his army. Soon, in Moscow itself they began to prepare to repel the huge rebel army. But the results of Pugachev’s uprising in the Urals showed him that the peasant army could not resist trained and well-armed regular units. It was decided to move south and raise the Don Cossacks to fight; on their way there was a powerful fortress - Tsaritsyn.

It was on the approaches to it that Mikhelson inflicted the final defeat on the rebels. Pugachev tried to escape, but was betrayed by Cossack elders, captured and handed over to the authorities. A trial of Pugachev and his closest associates took place in Moscow; he was executed in January 1775, but spontaneous peasant uprisings continued for a long time.

Prerequisites, reasons, participants, course and results of Pugachev’s uprising

The table below briefly characterizes this historical event. It shows who participated in the uprising and for what purpose, and why it was defeated.

Mark on history

After the defeat of the Pugachev era, Catherine the Great tried to do everything so that the memory of the uprising would disappear forever. It was renamed Yaik, the Yaik Cossacks began to be called Ural Cossacks, the Don village of Zimoveyskaya - the homeland of Razin and Pugachev - became Potemkinskaya.

But the Pugachev turmoil was too great a shock for the empire to disappear into history without a trace. Almost every new generation evaluates the results of the uprising of Emelyan Pugachev in its own way, calling its leader either a hero or a bandit. This is how it happened in Rus' - to achieve a good goal by unjust methods, and to hang labels while at a safe temporary distance.

Since 1769, Russia has waged a difficult but very successful war with Turkey for the possession of the Black Sea region. However, Russia itself was very uneasy; at that time a rebellion began, which became known as the “Pugachev rebellion.” Many circumstances prepared the ground for such a rebellion, namely:

1. The discontent of the Volga peoples with national and religious oppression, as well as the arbitrariness of the tsarist authorities, intensified. All sorts of obstacles were created for traditional folk religion and in the activities of imams, mullahs, mosques and madrassas, and part of the indigenous population was imprudently subjected to forced Christianization. In the Southern Urals, on lands bought for next to nothing from the Bashkirs, entrepreneurs built metallurgical plants and hired Bashkirs for pennies to do auxiliary work. Salt mines, river and lake banks, forest dachas and pastures were taken away from the indigenous population. Huge tracts of impenetrable forest were rapaciously cut down or burned for coal production.

2. In the second half of the 18th century, serfdom oppression of the peasants intensified. After the death of Tsar Peter, a long period of “women’s rule” began in Russia, and the empresses distributed hundreds of thousands of state peasants to the landowners, including their many favorites. As a result, every second peasant in Great Russia became a serf. In an effort to increase the profitability of their estates, landowners increased the size of the corvee, and their rights became unlimited. They could flog a person to death, buy, sell, exchange, send him to become a soldier. In addition, life was influenced by the powerful moral factor of class injustice. The fact is that on February 18, 1762, Emperor Peter III adopted a decree on the freedom of the nobility, which gave the ruling class the right to choose either to serve the state or to resign and go to their estates. Since ancient times, the people, in their different classes, had a firm conviction that each class, to the best of its strength and ability, serves the state in the name of its prosperity and the people's good. Boyars and nobles serve in the army and institutions, peasants work on the land, in their estates and in noble estates, workers and craftsmen - in workshops, factories, Cossacks - on the border. And here the whole class was given the right to sit back, lie on sofas for years, drink, debauch and eat free bread. It was this inactivity, uselessness, idleness and depraved life of the rich nobles that especially irritated and oppressed the working peasantry. The matter was aggravated by the fact that retired nobles began to spend most of their lives on their estates. Previously, they spent most of their lives and time in the service, and the estates were actually ruled by elders from their own local peasants. The nobles retired after 25 years of service, in mature years, often sick and wounded, wise from many years of service, knowledge and worldly experience. Now young and healthy people of both sexes literally languished and toiled from idleness, inventing new, often depraved, entertainments for themselves that required more and more money. In fits of unbridled greed, many landowners took the land from the peasants, forcing them to work in corvee all week. The peasants understood with their guts and minds that the ruling circles, freeing themselves from service and labor, were increasingly tightening the bonds of serfdom and oppressing the working but powerless peasantry. Therefore, they sought to restore the fair, in their opinion, past way of life, to force the presumptuous nobles to serve the Fatherland.

3. There was also great dissatisfaction among the mining workers with hard, backbreaking labor and poor living conditions. Serfs were assigned to state factories. Their work at the factory was counted as corvee work. These peasants had to receive food from their subsidiary plots. Those assigned to the labor force were forced to work in factories for up to 260 days a year, leaving little time for them to work on their farmsteads. Their farms became poor and impoverished, and people lived in extreme poverty. In the 40s, “merchant” owners were also allowed to “export all kinds of people” to Ural factories. By the 60s of the 18th century, the factory owner Tverdyshev alone acquired over 6 thousand peasants for his factories.

The serf breeders forced the slaves to work out a “lesson” not only for themselves, but also for the dead, sick, runaway peasants, for the elderly and children. In a word, labor obligations increased many times over and people could not get out of lifelong hard bondage. Along with the assigned and serfs, laborers, artisans and runaways (“skhodtsy”) people worked in the workshops. For each runaway soul hired, the owner paid 50 rubles to the treasury and owned it for life.

4. The Cossacks were also unhappy. Since ancient times, the Yaik Cossacks were famous for their love of freedom, steadfastness in the old faith and in the traditions bequeathed by their ancestors. After the defeat of the Bulavinsky uprising, Peter I tried to limit Cossack liberties on Yaik, disperse the Old Believers and shave the Cossacks' beards, and received corresponding protest and opposition that lasted several decades, outlived the emperor himself, and later gave rise to powerful uprisings. Since 1717, Yaik atamans were no longer elected, but began to be appointed, and continuous complaints and denunciations were sent to St. Petersburg against the atamans appointed by the tsar. Inspection commissions were appointed from St. Petersburg, which, with varying degrees of success, partly quelled discontent, and partly, due to the corruption of the commissars themselves, aggravated it. The confrontation between state power and the Yaik army in 1717-1760 developed into a protracted conflict, during which the Yaik Cossacks were divided into “agreeing” atamans and foremen and “disagreeing” ordinary military Cossacks. The cup of patience was filled with the following incident. Since 1752, the Yaik army, after a long struggle with the Guryev merchant clan, received rich fisheries in the lower reaches of the Yaik. Ataman Borodin and his elders used the profitable trade to enrich themselves. The Cossacks wrote complaints, but they were not allowed to proceed. In 1763, the Cossacks sent a complaint with the walkers. Ataman Borodin was removed from his post, but the walker - military foreman Loginov was accused of slander and exiled to Tobolsk, and 40 Cossack signatories were punished with whips and expelled from Yaitsky town. But this did not humble the Cossacks, and they sent a new delegation to St. Petersburg led by centurion Portnov. The delegates were arrested and sent under escort to Yaik. A new commission headed by General von Traubenberg also arrived there. This foreigner and bourbon began his activities by flogging seven elected respected Cossacks, shaved their beards and sent them under escort to Orenburg. This greatly outraged the freedom-loving villagers. On January 12, the authoritative Cossacks Perfilyev and Shagaev gathered the Circle and a huge mass of Cossacks went to the house where the cruel general was located. Old men, women and a priest walked ahead with icons; they carried a petition, sang psalms and wanted to peacefully achieve a solution to controversial but important issues. But they were met by soldiers with guns and gunners with cannons. When the Cossack masses entered the square in front of the Military Hut, Baron von Traubenberg ordered cannons and rifles to open fire. As a result of the dagger fire, more than 100 people died, some rushed to flee, but most of the Cossacks, despising death, rushed to the guns and killed and strangled the gunners with their bare hands. The guns were deployed and the punitive soldiers were shot at point-blank range. General Traubenberg was hacked to pieces with swords, Captain Durnovo was beaten, the chieftain and foremen were hanged. A new chieftain, elders and the Circle were immediately elected. But a punitive detachment led by General Freiman, who arrived from Orenburg, abolished the new government, and then carried out the decision that arrived from St. Petersburg in the case of the rebel Cossacks. All participants were flogged, in addition, 16 Cossacks had their nostrils torn out, the mark “thief” was burned on their faces and sent to hard labor in Siberia, 38 Cossacks with their families were deported to Siberia, 25 were sent to become soldiers. A huge indemnity was imposed on the rest - 36,765 rubles. But the brutal reprisal did not humble the Yaik Cossacks; they only hid their anger and malice and waited for the moment to strike back.

5. Some historians do not deny the “Crimean-Turkish trace” in Pugachev’s events; this is also indicated by some facts from Pugachev’s biography. But Emelyan himself did not admit his connection with the Turks and Crimeans, even under torture.

All this gave rise to acute dissatisfaction with the authorities and encouraged them to look for a way out in active protest and resistance. Only instigators and leaders of the movement were needed. The instigators appeared in the person of the Yaik Cossacks, and Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev became the leader of the powerful Cossack-peasant uprising.

Rice. 1. Emelyan Pugachev

Pugachev was born on the Don, in 1742 in the village of Zimoveyskaya, the same one where the rebellious ataman S.T. grew up. Razin. His father came from simple Cossacks. Until the age of 17, Emelya lived with his father’s family, doing housework, and after his resignation he took his place in the regiment. At the age of 19 he got married, and soon went with a regiment on a campaign to Poland and Prussia and participated in the Seven Years' War. For his quickness and quickness of mind, he was appointed adjutant to regiment commander I.F. Denisova. In 1768, he went to war with Turkey and received the rank of cornet for his distinction in the capture of the Bendery fortress. But a serious illness forced him to leave the army in 1771, the report says: “... and his chest and legs rotted.” Pugachev tries to resign due to illness, but is refused. In December 1771, he secretly fled to the Terek. Before the Terek ataman Pavel Tatarnikov, he introduces himself as a voluntary settler and is assigned to the village of Ishchorskaya, where he is soon elected village ataman. The Cossacks of the villages of Ischorskaya, Naurskaya and Golyugaevskaya decide to send him to St. Petersburg to the Military College with a request for an increase in salary and provisions. Having received 20 rubles of money and a village stamp, he leaves for a light village (business trip). However, in St. Petersburg he is arrested and put in a guardhouse. But together with the guard soldier, he escapes from custody and comes to his native place. There he is arrested again and escorted to Cherkassk. But with the help of a colleague from the Seven Years' War, he escapes again and hides in Ukraine. With a group of local residents, he goes to Kuban to join the Nekrasov Cossacks. In November 1772, he arrived in the Yaitsky town and personally saw the tension and anxiety in which the Yaitsky Cossacks lived in anticipation of reprisals for the murdered tsarist punisher, General von Traubenberg. In one of the conversations with the owner of the house, the Old Believer Cossack D.I. Pyankov, Emelyan pretends to be Emperor Peter III Fedorovich, and he shared the incredible with his friends. But following a denunciation, Pugachev was arrested, beaten with batogs, shackled and sent to Simbirsk, then to Kazan. But he flees from there too and wanders around the Don, the Urals and other regions. Just a real Cossack Rambo or ninja. Long wanderings embittered him and taught him a lot. He observed with his own eyes the difficult life of the oppressed people, and a thought arose in the violent Cossack head to help the powerless people gain the desired freedom and live with the whole world in the Cossack way, widely, freely and in great prosperity. Upon his next arrival in the Urals, he already appeared before the Cossacks as “Sovereign Peter III Fedorovich,” and under his name began to publish manifestos promising broad freedoms and material benefits to all those dissatisfied. Written in an illiterate, but lively, imaginative and accessible language, Pugachev’s manifestos were, as A.S. rightly put it. Pushkin, "an amazing example of folk eloquence." For many years, the legend of the miraculous salvation of Emperor Peter III had been walking across the vast expanses of Mother Russia, and there were dozens of such impostors at that time, but Pugachev turned out to be the most extraordinary and successful. And the people supported the impostor. Of course, he admitted to his closest associates D. Karavaev, M. Shigaev, I. Zarubin, I. Ushakov, D. Lysov, I. Pochitalin that he adopted the name of the Tsar to influence ordinary people, so it was easier to rouse them to revolt, and he himself is a simple Cossack. But the Yaik Cossacks were in dire need of an authoritative and skillful leader, under whose banner and leadership they would fight the selfish and self-willed boyars, officials and cruel generals. In fact, not many people believed that Pugachev was Peter III, but many followed him, such was the thirst for rebellion. On September 17, 1773, about 60 Cossacks arrived at the Tolkachev brothers’ farm, located 100 versts from the Yaitsky town. Pugachev addressed them with a fiery speech and a “royal manifesto” written by Ivan Pochitalin. With this small detachment, Pugachev set off towards the Yaitsky town. On the way, he was accosted by dozens of ordinary people: Russians and Tatars, Kalmyks and Bashkirs, Kazakhs and Kyrgyz. The detachment reached a strength of 200 people and approached the Yaitsky town. The leader of the rebels sent a threatening decree to the capital of the troops on voluntary surrender, but was refused. Having failed to take the town by storm, the rebels went up the Yaik, took the Gnilovsky outpost and convened the Cossack Military Circle. Andrei Ovchinnikov was elected military ataman, Dmitry Lysov as colonel, Andrei Vitoshnov as captain, and centurions and cornets were also elected here. Moving up the Yaik, the rebels occupied the outposts of Genvartsovsky, Rubezhny, Kirsanovsky, and Irtek without a fight. The Iletsk town tried to resist, but Ataman Ovchinnikov came there with a manifesto and a garrison of 300 people with 12 guns stopped resisting and greeted “Tsar Peter” with bread and salt. The dissatisfied crowds joined the rebels, and, as A.S. Pushkin would later say, “the Russian revolt began, senseless and merciless.”

Rice. 2. Surrender of the fortress to Pugachev

Orenburg Governor Reinsdorp ordered Brigadier Bilov with a detachment of 400 people and 6 guns to move towards the rebels to the rescue of Yaitsky town. However, a large detachment of rebels approached the Rassypnaya fortress and on September 24 the garrison surrendered without a fight. On September 27, the Pugachevites approached the Tatishchev fortress. A large fortification on the way to Orenburg had a garrison of up to 1000 soldiers with 13 guns. In addition, there was a detachment of Brigadier Bilov in the fortress. The besieged repelled the first attack. As part of Bilov’s detachment, 150 Orenburg Cossacks fought under the centurion Timofey Padurov, who were sent to intercept the rebels moving around the fortress. To the surprise of the Tatishchevskaya garrison, T. Padurov’s detachment openly went over to Pugachev’s side. This undermined the strength of the defenders. The rebels set fire to the wooden walls, rushed to attack and broke into the fortress. The soldiers hardly resisted; the Cossacks went over to the side of the impostor. The officers were brutally dealt with: Bilov’s head was cut off, the skin of the commandant Colonel Elagin was torn off, the body of the obese officer was used to treat wounds, the fat was cut off and the wounds were lubricated. Elagin’s wife was hacked to death, Pugachev took his beautiful daughter as his concubine, and later, having amused himself with the example of Stenka Razin, he killed her along with her seven-year-old brother.

Unlike all other Orenburg Cossacks, near the Tatishchevskaya fortress there was almost the only case of 150 Orenburg Cossacks voluntarily going over to the side of the rebels. What made centurion T. Padurov change his oath, surrender to the thieving Cossacks, serve the impostor and ultimately end his life on the gallows? Sotnik Timofey Padurov comes from a wealthy Cossack family. He had a large plot of land and a farm in the upper reaches of the Sakmara River. In 1766, he was elected to the Commission for the preparation of a new Code (code of laws) and lived in St. Petersburg for several years and moved in court circles. After the dissolution of the commission, he was appointed ataman of the Iset Cossacks. In this position, he did not get along with the commandant of the Chelyabinsk fortress, Lieutenant Colonel Lazarev, and, starting in 1770, they bombarded Governor Reinsdorp with mutual denunciations and complaints. Having failed to achieve the truth, the centurion in the spring of 1772 left Chelyaba for Orenburg for line service, where he stayed with the detachment until September 1773. At the most crucial moment of the battle for the Tatishchev fortress, he and his detachment went over to the side of the rebels, thereby helping to take the fortress and deal with its defenders. Apparently, Padurov had not forgotten his previous grievances; he had an aversion to the foreign German queen, her favorites and the magnificent entourage that he observed in St. Petersburg. He truly believed in Pugachev’s high mission, and with his help he wanted to overthrow the hated queen. Let us note that the tsarist aspirations of the Cossacks, their attempts to place their own Cossack king on the throne, were repeated many times in Russian history of the 16th-18th centuries. In fact, from the moment the reign of the Rurik dynasty ended and with the beginning of the accession of the new Romanov clan, “kings and princes” constantly emerged from the Cossack environment, contenders for the Moscow crown. Emelyan himself played the role of the king well, forcing all his comrades, as well as captured royal officers and nobles, to play along with him, swear allegiance, and kiss his hand.

Those who disagreed were immediately brutally punished - executed, hanged, tortured. These facts confirm the version of historians about the stubborn struggle of the Cossacks for their Cossack-Russian-Horde dynasty. The arrival of the intelligent, active and authoritative Cossack T. Padurov in the Pugachev camp turned out to be a great success. After all, this centurion knew court life well, could tell ordinary people in vivid colors about the life and morals of the queen, debunk her depraved, lustful and thieving entourage, and give visible truthfulness and real colors to all the legends and versions about the royal origin of Pugachev. Pugachev highly appreciated Padurov, promoted him to colonel, appointed him to be with the “imperial person” and act as Secretary of State. Together with the former corporal Beloborodov and the cornet of the Etkul village Shundeev, he conducted staff work and compiled “royal manifestos and decrees.” But not only. With a small detachment of Cossacks, he rode out to meet the punitive detachment of Colonel Chernyshov, who had gotten lost in the steppe. Presenting him with his Golden Deputy Badge, he gained confidence in the colonel and led his detachment to the very center of the rebel camp. The surrounded soldiers and Cossacks threw down their guns and surrendered, 30 officers were hanged. A large detachment of Major General V.A. was sent to defeat the rebels in Orenburg. Kara, who was appointed Commander-in-Chief, totaled more than 1,500 soldiers with 5 guns. With the detachment there were a hundred mounted Bashkirs of the batyr Salavat Yulaev. Pugachevites surrounded a detachment of government troops near the village of Yuzeevka. At the decisive moment of the battle, the Bashkirs went over to the side of the rebels, which decided the outcome of the battle. Some of the soldiers joined the ranks of the rebels, some were killed. Pugachev granted Yulaev the rank of colonel, and from that moment the Bashkirs took an active part in the uprising. To attract them, Pugachev threw populist slogans at the national masses: about expelling Russians from Bashkiria, about destroying all fortresses and factories, about transferring all land into the hands of the Bashkir people. These were false promises, divorced from life, because it is impossible to reverse the movement of progress, but they appealed to the indigenous population. The approach of new Cossack, Bashkir and workers’ detachments near Orenburg strengthened Pugachev’s army. During the six-month siege of Orenburg, the leaders of the uprising paid special attention to the training of troops. Being an experienced military officer, the tireless leader trained his militia in military affairs. Pugachev’s army, like the regular one, was divided into regiments, companies and hundreds. Three types of troops were formed: infantry, artillery and cavalry. True, only the Cossacks had good weapons; ordinary people, Bashkirs and peasants were armed with whatever they could find. Near Orenburg, the rebel army grew to 30 thousand people with 100 guns and 600 gunners. At the same time, Pugachev carried out trials and reprisals against prisoners and shed rivers of blood.

Rice. 3. Pugachev's court

But all attacks to capture Orenburg were repulsed with heavy losses for the besiegers. Orenburg at that time was a first-class fortress with 10 bastions. In the ranks of the defenders there were 3,000 well-trained soldiers and Cossacks of the Separate Orenburg Corps, and 70 cannons fired from the walls. The defeated General Kar fled to Moscow and caused great panic there. Anxiety also gripped St. Petersburg. Catherine demanded an early conclusion of peace with the Turks and appointed the energetic and talented General A.I. as the new commander-in-chief. Bibikova, and established a reward of 10 thousand rubles for Pugachev’s head. But the far-sighted and intelligent General Bibikov told the Tsarina: “It’s not Pugachev that is important, it’s the general indignation that is important...”. At the end of 1773, the rebels approached Ufa, but all attempts to take the impregnable fortress were successfully repulsed. Colonel Ivan Gryaznov was sent to the Iset province to capture Chelyabinsk. Along the way, he captured fortresses, outposts and villages; he was joined by Cossacks and soldiers of the Sterlitamak pier, Tabynsky town, Bogoyavlensky plant, the villages of Kundravinskaya, Koelskaya, Verkhneuvelskaya, Chebarkulskaya and other settlements. The detachment of the Pugachev colonel grew to 6 thousand people. The rebels moved to the Chelyabinsk fortress. The governor of the Iset province A.P. Verevkin took decisive measures to strengthen the fortress. In December 1773, he ordered the gathering of 1,300 “temporary Cossacks” in the district and the garrison of Chelyaba grew to 2,000 people with 18 guns. But many of its defenders sympathized with the rebels, and on January 5, 1774, an uprising broke out in the fortress. It was led by the ataman of the Chelyabinsk Cossacks Ivan Urzhumtsev and the cornet Naum Nevzorov. The Cossacks, under the leadership of Nevzorov, captured the cannons standing near the voivode's house and opened fire on the soldiers of the garrison. The Cossacks burst into the governor’s house and inflicted cruel reprisals on him, beating him half to death. But, carried away by reprisals against the hated officers, the rebels left the guns without proper supervision. Second Lieutenant Pushkarev with the Tobolsk company and gunners repulsed them and opened fire on the rebels. In the battle, Ataman Urzhumtsev was killed, and Nevzorov and the Cossacks left the city. On January 8, Ivan Gryaznov with his troops approached the fortress and stormed it twice, but the garrison bravely and skillfully held the defense. The attackers suffered heavy losses from the fortress artillery. Reinforcements from Second Major Fadeev and part of the Siberian Corps of General Dekolong broke through to the besieged. Gryaznov lifted the siege and went to Chebarkul, but after receiving reinforcements he again occupied the village of Pershino near Chelyabinsk. On February 1, in the Pershino area, a battle between Dekolong’s detachment and the rebels took place. Having failed to achieve success, government troops retreated to the fortress, and on February 8 they left it and retreated to Shadrinsk. The uprising spread, a huge territory was engulfed in the all-consuming fire of a fratricidal war. But many fortresses stubbornly did not give up. The garrison of the Yaitsk fortress, not agreeing to any promises of the Pugachevites, continued to resist. The rebel commanders decided: if the fortress was taken, they would hang not only the officers, but also their families. The places where this or that person would hang were outlined. The wife and five-year-old son of Captain Krylov, the future fabulist Ivan Krylov, were listed there. As in any civil war, mutual hatred was so great that on both sides, everyone who could wear it took part in the battles. The opposing forces included not only fellow countrymen and neighbors, but also close relatives. Father went against son, brother against brother. Old-timers of the Yaitsky town recounted a characteristic scene. From the ramparts of the fortress, the younger brother shouted to his older brother approaching him with a crowd of rebels: “Dear brother, don’t come near! I’ll kill you.” And the brother from the stairs answered him: “I’ll give it to you, I’ll kill you! Wait, I’ll climb onto the rampart, I’ll pull your forelock, you won’t frighten your older brother in the future.” And the younger brother fired at him from the squeak and the older brother rolled into the ditch. The brothers' surname, Gorbunov, has also been preserved. Terrible confusion reigned in the rebel territory. Gangs of bandit robbers became more active. On a large scale, they practiced kidnapping people from the border strip into captivity among nomads. The commanders of government troops, who tried by all means to extinguish Pugachev’s uprising, were often forced to get involved in battles with these predators along with the rebels. The commander of one of these detachments, Lieutenant G.R. Derzhavin, the future poet, having learned that a gang of nomads was rampaging nearby, raised up to six hundred peasants, many of whom sympathized with Pugachev, and with them and a team of 25 hussars attacked a large detachment of Kyrgyz-Kaisaks and freed up to eight hundred Russian prisoners. However, the released prisoners announced to the lieutenant that they also sympathized with Pugachev.

The protracted siege of Orenburg and the Yaitsky town allowed the tsarist governors to bring large forces of the regular army and noble militias of Kazan, Simbirsk, Penza, and Sviyazhsk to the city. On March 22, the rebels suffered a brutal defeat from government troops at the Tatishchevskaya fortress. The defeat had a depressing effect on many of them. Cornet Borodin tried to capture Pugachev and hand him over to the authorities, but was unsuccessful. Pugachev's Colonel Mussa Aliyev captured and extradited the prominent rebel Khlopusha. On April 1, when leaving the Sakmarsky town to the Yaitsky town, Pugachev’s army of many thousands was attacked and defeated by the troops of General Golitsyn. Prominent leaders were captured: Timofey Myasnikov, Timofey Padurov, clerks Maxim Gorshkov and Andrei Tolkachev, Duma clerk Ivan Pochitalin, chief judge Andrei Vitoshnov, treasurer Maxim Shigaev. Simultaneously with the defeat of the main forces of the rebels near Orenburg, Lieutenant Colonel Mikhelson with his hussars and carabinieri carried out a complete defeat of the rebels near Ufa. In April 1774, the Commander-in-Chief of the Tsarist troops, General Bibikov, was poisoned by a captured Polish Confederate in Bugulma. New Commander-in-Chief Prince F.F. Shcherbatov concentrated large military forces and sought to attract the indigenous population to fight the rebels. The rebels suffered more and more defeats from the regular army.

After these defeats, Pugachev decided to move to Bashkiria and from that moment began the most successful period of his war with the tsarist regime. One by one he occupied the factories, replenishing his army with workers, weapons and ammunition. After the assault and destruction of the Magnitnaya fortress (now Magnitogorsk), he convened a meeting of Bashkir elders there, promised to return their lands and lands, destroy the fortifications of the Orenburg line, mines and factories, and expel all Russians. Seeing the destroyed fortress and the surrounding mines, the Bashkir elders greeted with great joy the promises and promises of the “hopeful sovereign” and began to help him with bread and salt, fodder and provisions, people and horses. Pugachev gathered up to 11 thousand rebel fighters, with whom he moved along the Orenburg Line, occupied, destroyed and burned fortresses. On May 20, they stormed the most powerful Trinity fortress. But on May 21, troops of the Siberian Corps of General Delong appeared in front of the fortress. The rebels attacked them with all their might, but could not withstand the powerful onslaught of brave and loyal soldiers, they wavered and fled, losing up to 4 thousand killed, 9 guns and the entire convoy.

Rice. 4. Battle at the Trinity Fortress

With the remnants of the army, Pugachev plundered the Nizhneuvel, Kichiginsky and Koelsky fortifications, and went through Varlamovo and Kundravy to the Zlatoust plant. However, near Kundravy, the rebels had a counter battle with a detachment of I.I. Mikhelson and suffered a new defeat. The Pugachevites broke away from Mikhelson’s detachment, which also suffered heavy losses and abandoned pursuit, plundered the Miass, Zlatoust and Satkin factories and united with S. Yulaev’s detachment. The young horseman poet with a detachment of about 3,000 people was active in the mining and industrial zone of the Southern Urals. He managed to capture several mining factories, Simsky, Yuryuzansky, Ust-Katavsky and others, destroyed and burned them. In total, during the uprising, 69 factories in the Urals were partially or completely destroyed, 43 factories did not participate in the insurrectionary movement at all, the rest created self-defense units and defended their enterprises, or paid off the rebels. Therefore, in the 70s of the 18th century, industrial production throughout the Urals decreased sharply. In June 1774, the detachments of Pugachev and S. Yulaev united and besieged the Osa fortress. After a heavy battle, the fortress surrendered, and the road to Kazan was opened for Pugachev, his army was quickly replenished with volunteers. With 20 thousand rebels, he attacked the city from four sides. On July 12, the rebels broke into the city, but the Kremlin survived. The tireless, energetic and skillful Mikhelson approached the city and a field battle unfolded near the city. The defeated Pugachevites, numbering about 400 people, crossed to the right bank of the Volga.

Rice. 5. Pugachev’s court in Kazan

With the arrival of Pugachev in the Volga region, the third and final stage of his struggle began. Huge masses of peasants and Volga peoples stirred up and rose to fight for imaginary and real freedom. The peasants, having received Pugachev’s manifesto, killed landowners, hanged clerks, and burned their master’s estates. Pugachev’s detachment turned south, to the Don. The Volga region cities surrendered to Pugachev without a fight, Alatyr, Saransk, Penza, Petrovsk, Saratov fell... The offensive progressed rapidly. They took cities and villages, carried out trials and reprisals against the masters, freed convicts, confiscated the property of the nobles, distributed bread to the hungry, took away weapons and ammunition, recruited volunteers into the Cossacks and left, leaving behind flames and ashes. On August 21, 1774, the rebels approached Tsaritsyn, with the tireless Mikhelson following on their heels. The assault on the fortress city failed. On August 24, Mikhelson overtook Pugachev at Black Yar. The battle ended in complete defeat, 2 thousand rebels were killed, 6 thousand were captured. With a detachment of two hundred rebels, the leader galloped off to the Trans-Volga steppes. But the days of the rebellious chieftain were numbered. The active and talented General Pyotr Panin was appointed commander-in-chief of the troops operating against the rebels, and in the southern sector all forces were subordinated to A.V. Suvorov. And what is very important, Pugachev was not supported by the Don. This circumstance deserves special mention. The Don was ruled by a Council of Elders of 15-20 people and an ataman. The circle met annually on January 1 and held elections for all elders except the ataman. Since 1718, Tsar Peter I introduced the appointment of atamans (most often for life). This strengthened the central power in the Cossack regions, but at the same time led to the abuse of this power. Under Anna Ioannovna, the glorious Cossack Danila Efremov was appointed Don Ataman, and after some time he was appointed military Ataman for life. But the authorities spoiled him, and under him the uncontrolled reign of power and money began. In 1755, for many of the ataman’s services, he was awarded a major general, and in 1759, for his services in the Seven Years’ War, he was also a privy adviser with a presence in the person of the empress, and his son Stepan Efremov was appointed ataman on the Don. Thus, by the highest order of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, power on the Don became hereditary and uncontrollable. From that time on, the ataman family crossed all moral boundaries in its acquisitiveness, and in retaliation an avalanche of complaints fell upon them. Since 1764, based on complaints from the Cossacks, Catherine demanded from Ataman Efremov a report on income, land and other possessions, his and the elders’ trades. The report did not satisfy her and, on her instructions, a commission on the economic situation on the Don worked. But the commission did not work shaky or sluggishly. In 1766, land surveying was carried out and illegally occupied yurts were taken away. In 1772, the commission finally gave a conclusion about the abuses of Ataman Stepan Efremov, he was arrested and sent to St. Petersburg. This matter, on the eve of Pugachev’s rebellion, took a political turn, especially since Ataman Stepan Efremov had personal services to the empress. In 1762, being at the head of a light village (delegation) in St. Petersburg, he took part in the coup that elevated Catherine to the throne and was awarded a personalized weapon for this. The arrest and investigation into the case of Ataman Efremov defused the situation on the Don and the Don Cossacks were practically not involved in the Pugachev rebellion. Moreover, the Don regiments took an active part in suppressing the rebellion, capturing Pugachev and pacifying the rebellious areas over the next few years. If the empress had not condemned the thieving ataman, Pugachev, without a doubt, would have found support on the Don and the scope of the Pugachev rebellion would have been completely different.

Prominent associates of Pugachev also understood the hopelessness of further continuing the rebellion. His comrades - the Cossacks Tvorogov, Chumakov, Zheleznov, Fedulyev and Burnov on September 12 captured and tied up Pugachev. On September 15, he was taken to the Yaitsky town, at the same time Lieutenant General A.V. arrived there. Suvorov. During interrogation, the future generalissimo marveled at the sound reasoning and military talents of the “villain.” In a special cage, under a large escort, Suvorov himself escorted the robber to Moscow.

Rice. 6 Pugachev in a cage

On January 9, 1775, the court sentenced Pugachev to quartering; the empress replaced it with execution by beheading. On January 10, on Bolotnaya Square, Pugachev ascended the scaffold, bowed on four sides, quietly said: “Forgive me, Orthodox people,” and laid his unfortunate head on the block, which the ax instantly cut off. Here, four of his closest associates were executed by hanging: Perfilyev, Shigaev, Padurov and Tornov.

Rice. 7 Execution of Pugachev

And yet the uprising was not senseless, as the great poet said. The ruling circles were able to convince themselves of the strength and fury of the people's anger and made serious concessions and relaxations. The breeders were ordered to “double payments for work and not force them to work beyond the established standards.” Religious persecution was stopped in national regions, mosques were allowed to be built, and taxes were stopped being taken from them. But the vindictive Empress Catherine II, noting the loyalty of the Orenburg Cossacks, was indignant at the Yaitskys. The empress wanted to abolish the Yaik army altogether, but then, at Potemkin’s request, she forgave it. In order to consign the rebellion to complete oblivion, the army was renamed Ural, the Yaik River - Ural, Yait Fortress - Uralsk, etc. Catherine II abolished the military circle and elected administration. The choice of atamans and elders finally passed to the government. All the guns were taken away from the army and they were forbidden to have them in the future. The ban was lifted only 140 years later with the outbreak of the World War. However, the Yaitsk army was still lucky. The Volga Cossacks, also involved in the rebellion, were resettled to the North Caucasus, and the Zaporozhye Sich was completely liquidated. After the riot for at least ten years, the Ural and Orenburg Cossacks were armed only with edged weapons, and received squeaks and ammunition only when there was a threat of a clash. The revenge of the victors was no less terrible than the bloody exploits of the Pugachevites. Punitive detachments raged in the Volga region and the Urals. Thousands of rebels: Cossacks, peasants, Russians, Bashkirs, Tatars, Chuvashs were executed without any trial, sometimes simply at the whim of the punishers. In Pushkin’s papers on the history of the Pugachev rebellion there is a note that Lieutenant Derzhavin ordered the hanging of two rebels “out of poetic curiosity.” At the same time, the Cossacks who remained loyal to the empress were generously rewarded.

Thus, in the 17th-18th centuries, the type of Cossack finally emerged - a universal warrior, equally capable of participating in sea and river raids, fighting on land both on horseback and on foot, with excellent knowledge of artillery, fortification, siege, mine and demolition. . But the main type of military action before was sea and river raids. The Cossacks became predominantly mounted later under Peter I, after the ban on going to sea in 1695. At their core, the Cossacks are a caste of warriors, kshatriyas (in India - a caste of warriors and kings), who for many centuries defended the Orthodox faith and the Russian land. Thanks to the exploits of the Cossacks, Rus' became a powerful empire: Ermak presented Ivan the Terrible with the Khanate of Siberia. The Siberian and Far Eastern lands along the Ob, Yenisei, Lena, Amur rivers, as well as Chukotka, Kamchatka, Central Asia, and the Caucasus were annexed largely thanks to the military valor of the Cossacks. Ukraine was reunited with Russia by the Cossack ataman (hetman) Bogdan Khmelnytsky. But the Cossacks often opposed the central government (their role in the Russian Troubles, in the uprisings of Razin, Bulavin and Pugachev is noteworthy). The Dnieper Cossacks rebelled a lot and stubbornly in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. To a large extent, this was explained by the fact that the ancestors of the Cossacks were ideologically raised in the Horde on the laws of Yasa of Genghis Khan, according to which only a Genghisid could be a real king, i.e. descendant of Genghis Khan. All other rulers, including the Rurikovichs, Gediminovichs, Piasts, Jagiellons, Romanovs and others, were not legitimate enough in their eyes, were “not real kings,” and the Cossacks were morally and physically allowed to participate in their overthrow, riots and other anti-government activities. And in the process of the collapse of the Horde, when during the strife and struggle for power hundreds of Genghisids were destroyed, including by Cossack sabers, the Genghisids also lost their Cossack reverence. One should not discount the simple desire to “show off”, to take advantage of the weakness of the authorities and take legitimate and rich spoils during the unrest. The papal ambassador to the Sich, Father Pearling, who worked a lot and successfully to direct the warlike ardor of the Cossacks to the lands of the heretics of the Muscovites and Ottomans, wrote about this in his memoirs: “The Cossacks wrote their history with a saber, and not on the pages of ancient books, but on This pen left its bloody mark on the battlefields. It was common practice for the Cossacks to deliver thrones to all sorts of applicants. In Moldova and Wallachia they periodically resorted to their help. For the formidable freemen of the Dnieper and Don, it was completely indifferent whether real or imaginary rights belonged to the hero of the moment. One thing was important for them - that they should get good prey. Was it possible to compare the miserable Danube principalities with the boundless plains of the Russian land, full of fabulous riches?

However, from the end of the 18th century until the October Revolution, the Cossacks unconditionally and diligently played the role of defenders of Russian statehood and the support of the tsarist power, even receiving the nickname “royal satraps” from the revolutionaries. By some miracle, the alien German queen and her outstanding nobles, through a combination of reasonable reforms and punitive actions, managed to drive into the violent Cossack head the persistent idea that Catherine II and her descendants are “real” kings, and Russia is a real empire, in some places "more abruptly" than the Horde. This metamorphosis in the consciousness of the Cossacks, which occurred at the end of the 18th century, has in fact been little explored and studied by Cossack historians and writers. But there is an indisputable fact: from the end of the 18th century until the October Revolution, the Cossack riots disappeared as if by hand, and the bloodiest, longest and most famous rebellion in the history of Russia, the “Cossack revolt,” suffocated.

Materials used:
Mamonov V.F. and others. History of the Cossacks of the Urals. Orenburg, Chelyabinsk, 1992.
Shibanov N.S. Orenburg Cossacks of the 18th-19th centuries. Chelyabinsk, 2003.
Gordeev A.A. History of the Cossacks.

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