The uprising of Pugachev. Briefly. Popular uprisings of the 18th century in Russia Catherine II generously rewarded the punishers of the Pugachev uprising

Popular unrest PLAGUE Riot - a spontaneous uprising in Moscow in October 1771 during a plague epidemic. The "plague plague," as the plague was called in Russia, appeared from Turkey and since November 1770 it has claimed 200,000 lives. The authorities' measures to combat the epidemic - vaccinations, quarantines,

Invariably referred to as the golden age. The empress reigned on the throne, similar in her main aspirations to the great reformer Peter, just like him, who wants to make Russia a part of civilized Europe. The empire is growing stronger, new lands are joining by means of powerful military force, sciences and arts are developing under the supervision of an educated queen.

But there was also "the horror of the 18th century," as Catherine the Great called the Pugachev uprising. Its results, as well as the reasons and the course, revealed sharp contradictions hidden behind the luxurious facade of the golden age.

Reasons for the uprising

The first decrees of Catherine after the removal of Peter III were manifestos on the release of nobles from compulsory military and state service. The landowners received the opportunity to engage in their own economy, and in relation to the peasants, they became slave owners. Serfs received only intolerable duties, and even the right to complain about the owners was taken away from them. In the hands of the master was the fate and the very life of the serf.

The share of those peasants who were assigned to factories turned out to be no better. The registered 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.

No wonder it was in the Urals and the Volga region that the Pugachev uprising flared up. The results of the repressive policy of the Russian Empire in relation to the national outskirts - the appearance in the rebel army of hundreds of thousands of Bashkirs, Tatars, Udmurts, Kazakhs, Kalmyks, Chuvashes. The state drove them out of their ancestral lands, building new factories there, planting a new faith for them, forbidding the old gods.

On the Yaik river

The impetus, from which the huge space in the Urals and the Volga was taken up by the flame of popular anger, 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 chieftains supported by the authorities) of 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 a version that the Pugachev uprising, the reasons, the course, the results of it were largely determined by the top of the Yaik Cossacks. They managed to subordinate the charismatic Pugachev to their influence and make him their blind instrument in achieving Cossack liberties. And when danger came, they betrayed him and tried to save their lives in exchange for his head.

Peasant "anpirator"

The tension in the socio-political atmosphere of that time was supported by rumors about the forcibly overthrown royal wife of Catherine - Pyotr Fedorovich. It was said that Peter III prepared a decree "On the liberty of the peasants", but did not have time to proclaim it and was seized by the nobles - opponents of the emancipation of the peasants. He miraculously escaped and would soon appear before the people and raise them up to fight for the return of the royal throne. The belief of the common people in the correct tsar with special marks on his body was often used in Russia by various impostors to fight for power.

The miraculously saved Pyotr Fyodorovich did appear. He showed obvious signs on his chest (which were traces of the transferred 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. At birth, his name 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. The uprising of Pugachev, the results of his campaigns along the Volga and the Urals, frightened the authorities so much that they tried to destroy the very memory of the "peasant tsar". Very little reliable data on his life has survived.

Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev from his youth was distinguished by a lively mind and a restless disposition. He took part in the war with Prussia and Turkey, received the rank of cornet. Due to illness, he returned to the Don, could not obtain an 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 - It was believed that it was one of the prominent schismatics - Father Filaret - who gave Pugachev the idea of ​​being a miraculously saved true emperor. This is how the "anpirator" Pyotr Fedorovich appeared among the freedom-loving Yaik Cossacks.

Riot or Peasant War?

The events, which 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 a tremendous attractive force for the majority of the empire's population: the liberation of the peasantry from serf bondage and unbearable taxes, the allotment of land to it, the elimination of the privileges of the nobility and bureaucracy, elements of self-government of the national outskirts, etc.

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

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

To manage 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, the will and knowledge of the Pugachev commanders did not suffice, although the actions of the rebellious army sometimes caused surprise among the regular officers and generals who opposed them with their organization and united mind, although this was a rare phenomenon.

Gradually, the confrontation acquired the features of a real civil war. But the rudiments of an ideological program that could be seen in Yemelyan's "royal decrees" could not withstand the predatory nature of his troops. The results of the Pugachev uprising later showed that the robberies and unprecedented cruelty in reprisals against the oppressors turned the protest against the state system of oppression into the very - senseless and merciless - Russian revolt.

The course of the uprising

The fire of the uprising covered a gigantic space from the Volga to the Urals. At first, the performance of the Yaik Cossacks, led by the self-styled spouse, did not arouse concerns in Catherine. Only when Pugachev's army began to replenish quickly, when it became known that the "anpirator" was met 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 really care. It was precisely the unforgivable negligence of the authorities that Pushkin explained the rapid increase in Cossack indignation, who studied the results and significance of the uprising. Pugachev led to the capital of the Urals - Orenburg - a powerful and dangerous army, which defeated several regular military formations.

But the Pugachev's freemen could not really 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 Tatishcheva fortress in March 1774. It seemed that the uprising of Pugachev, the results of which consisted in the flight of the impostor with a small detachment to the Urals, was suppressed. But this was only the first stage.

Kazan landowner

Three months after the defeat at Orenburg, a 20,000-strong insurgent army came to Kazan: the losses were made up for by an instant influx of new forces from among those dissatisfied with their position. Hearing about the approach of "Emperor Peter III", many peasants themselves dealt with the owners, met Pugachev with bread and salt and poured into his army. Kazan almost submitted to the rebels. They could not take by storm only the Kremlin, where a small garrison remained.

Wishing to support the Volga nobility and the landowners of the region engulfed in the uprising, the empress declared herself a "Kazan landowner" and sent a powerful military grouping under the command of Colonel I. I. Mikhelson to Kazan, who was ordered to finally suppress Pugachev's uprising. The results of the Kazan battle were again unfavorable for the impostor, and he left with the remnants of the army to the right bank of the Volga.

The end of the Pugachev uprising

In the Volga region, a former zone of continuous serfdom, the fire of the uprising received a new boost - the peasants, freed from captivity by the manifesto of "Peter Fedorovich", joined his army. Soon, already in Moscow itself, they began to prepare for the rebuff of 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 a final defeat on the rebels. Pugachev tried to escape, but was betrayed by the Cossack foremen, captured and handed over to the authorities. In Moscow, a trial took place over Pugachev and his closest associates, in January 1775 he was executed, but spontaneous peasant uprisings continued for a long time.

Prerequisites, reasons, participants, course and results of the Pugachev uprising

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

Mark on history

After the defeat of the Pugachev region, Catherine the Great tried to do everything to make the memory of the uprising disappear forever. It was renamed into Yaik, the Yaik Cossacks began to be called the Ural Cossacks, the Don village of Zimoveyskaya - the birthplace of Razin and Pugachev - became Potemkin.

But the Pugachev unrest was too big a shock for the empire to dissolve in history without a trace. Almost every new generation evaluates the results of Yemelyan Pugachev's uprising in its own way, calling its leader either a hero or a bandit. It just so happened in Russia - to achieve a good goal by unrighteous methods, and to hang labels, being at a safe temporary distance.

Catherine II and her reforms. Historical assessment of Catherine's time.
As a result of a palace coup in June 1762, Peter III was dethroned by his wife Catherine II. The policy of Catherine II was based on the ideas of the European philosophers and educators M.F. Voltaire, Sh. L. Montesquieu, D. Diderot, J.J. Russo. They argued that a harmonious society could be achieved through the activities of enlightened monarchs who would help the cause of enlightening the people and establish just laws. The policy of Catherine II was called "enlightened absolutism." The largest event of Catherine II was the convocation of the Legislative Commission in 1767. As a guiding document of the commission, the Empress prepared the "Instruction", in which she theoretically substantiated the policy of "enlightened absolutism." The commission was convened to draw up a new set of laws. During the discussion of orders from the localities, contradictions emerged: each estate demanded privileges in its favor, it was impossible to abolish serfdom. In 1768, under the pretext of starting a war with Turkey, the commission was disbanded. It was not possible to work out a new code. Catherine II carried out a course of reforms in the socio-political and economic life of Russia. In an effort to strengthen state power, Catherine II established the work of the Senate (1763), dividing it into 6 departments with specific duties and powers; abolished the autonomy of the rights of Ukraine; subordinated the church to the state, secularizing church lands (1763-1764). In 1775, a reform of local government was carried out, as a result of which Russia was divided into 50 provinces, estates courts and a clear division of power by function (administrative, judicial, financial) were introduced on the ground. This reform strengthened local government. The economic reforms of Catherine II were aimed at promoting the development of domestic industry and trade. In 1765, the Free Economic Society was created for nobles and merchants. In 1776, 1782 and 1796. customs tariffs were introduced, which kept high duties on foreign goods. In 1775, the Manifesto on the freedom to open enterprises and the Certificate of Merit to the cities were published, confirming the privileges of the merchants and introducing city self-government. Catherine II introduced a new form of trade - shops and paper money - banknotes. During the years of her reign, the number of manufactories increased (under Peter I there were 200 manufactories, under Catherine II - 2000). Estates policy of Catherine I! was aimed at strengthening the nobility. Decree of 1765 allowed the landowners to exile their peasants without trial to Siberia to hard labor, and the Decree of 1767 forbade peasants to complain to the Empress about their owners. Serfdom is growing stronger. In 1775 the nobility received a Certificate of Merit confirming the estate privileges of the nobility. The nobility is awarded the title of "noble". Thus, the reforms of Catherine II preserved and strengthened the absolute monarchy and serfdom in Russia.

Peasant War 1773-1775
Eve of the Peasant War. In 1771, an uprising of the townspeople broke out in Moscow, called the "Plague Riot". The plague, which began in the Russian-Turkish theater of operations, despite strict quarantine, was brought to Moscow and killed up to a thousand people a day. In an extreme situation, the city authorities were at a loss, which increased mistrust towards them. The reason for the uprising was the attempt of the Moscow archbishop Ambrose and the governor P.D. Eropkin to remove the miraculous icon of the Mother of God from the Barbarian gates of Kitai-gorod (thousands of Muscovites kissed it). Ambrose was torn to pieces by the crowd in the Donskoy monastery. For three days a mutiny raged in the city. From Petersburg, the favorite of the Empress G.G. was sent to suppress the uprising. Orlov with a guards regiment. Over a hundred people were killed, many were punished with whips, rods, and whips. In the decade preceding the Peasant War, historians have counted more than 40 performances by serfs. In the 50-70s of the XVIII century. the flight of desperate peasants from their masters reached a large scale. Among the population, forged decrees and manifestos were spread, containing rumors about the alleged imminent liberation of the peasants from serfdom. There was also imposture: there is information about six cases of appearance before the beginning of the Peasant War "Petrov PG - doubles of the emperor who died in 1762. In such a situation, the Peasant War broke out under the leadership of BI Pugachev. EL Pugachev. Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev. was born in Zimoveyskaya stanitsa on the Don (it was also the homeland of ST Razin), in a family of poor Cossacks. From the age of 17 he took part in the wars with Prussia and Turkey, received the junior officer rank of cornet for bravery in battles. Pugachev more than once acted as a petitioner from peasants and ordinary Cossacks, for which he was arrested by the authorities.In 1773 B.I. Pugachev, who was then 31 years old, escaped from a Kazan prison. he introduced himself as Emperor Peter S. With a detachment of 80 Cossacks, he moved to Yaitsky town - the center of the local Cossack army.Two weeks later, B.I. Pugachev's army numbered more than 2.5 thousand people and had 29 guns. Movement n under the leadership of B.I. Pugachev began among the Cossacks. A special scope was given to the uprising by the participation of serfs, artisans, workers and peasants of the Urals, as well as Bashkirs, Mari, Tatars, Udmurts and other peoples of the Volga region in it. Like his predecessors, B. I. Pugachev was distinguished by religious tolerance. Orthodox Christians, Old Believers, Muslims and pagans fought together under his banner. They were united by hatred of serfdom. "Amazing examples of folk eloquence" called A.S. Pushkin several manifestos and decrees of B.I. Pugachev, giving an idea of ​​the main slogans of the rebels. These documents differed in form from the "lovely letters" of I.I. Bolotnikov and S.T. Razin. In the conditions of the existing administrative-bureaucratic apparatus of power, the leader of the rebels used the forms of state acts characteristic of a new stage in the country's development - manifestos and decrees. Historians called one of the most striking manifestos of B.I. Pugacheva. "All those who were formerly in the peasantry and in the citizenship of landowners" he bestowed "liberty and freedom", lands, hayfields, fishing and salt lakes "without purchase and without rent". The manifesto freed the population of the country "from taxes and burdens", "the nobles and bribe-takers of the city from the villains." The course of the Peasant War. The peasant war began with the capture of B.I. Pugachev of small towns on the Yaik and the siege of Orenburg - the largest fortress in the southeast of Russia. Tsarist troops under the command of General V.A. Kara, sent to the rescue of Orenburg, were defeated. The Bashkirs, led by Salavat Yulaev, who were marching with V.A. Karom, took the side of E.I. Pugacheva. The insurgent army was organized along the lines of the Cossack army. The headquarters of the rebels - the Military Collegium - was formed near Orenburg. Discipline and organization in the army of B.I. Pugachev's were relatively high, but in general, the movement, as in the previous peasant wars, remained spontaneous. Separate detachments of the rebels led by E.I. Pugachev - Salavat Yulaev, the workers of the Ural factories Khlopushi and Ivan Beloborodov, the Cossack Ivan Chiki-Zarubin and others seized Kungur, Krasnoufimsk, Samara, besieged Ufa, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk. Frightened by the scale of the peasant movement, Catherine II appointed the former head of the Legislative Commission, General A.I. Bibikov. Catherine II herself declared herself a "Kazan landowner", emphasizing the proximity of the interests of the tsarist government and the nobility. In March 1774 E.I. Pugachev was defeated at the Tatishcheva fortress in the Orenburg region. After the defeat at Tatishcheva, the second stage of the Peasant War began. The insurgents retreated to the Urals, where their army was replenished by attributed peasants and factory miners. From there, from the Urals, EI Pugachev moved to Kazan and took it in July 1774. However, soon the main forces of the tsarist troops under the command of Colonel I.I. Michelson. In a new battle E.I. Pugachev was defeated. With a detachment of 500 people, he crossed to the right bank of the Volga. The third, final stage of the uprising began "Pugachev fled; but his flight seemed like an invasion," wrote A.S. Pushkin. The peasantry and peoples of the Volga region met E.I. Pugachev as a liberator from serf bondage. At the head of the government troops, instead of the deceased A.I. Bibikov was delivered by P.I. Panin. A.V. was summoned from the theater of the Russian-Turkish war. Suvorov. The detachment of E.I. Pugachev moved down the Volga in order to subsequently break through to the Don, where he hoped to receive the support of the Don Cossacks. During the movement to the south, the Pugachevites captured Alatyr, Saransk, Penza, Saratov. The last defeat of E.I. Pugachev suffered after an unsuccessful attempt to take Tsaritsyn from the Salnikov plant. With a small number of people loyal to him, he tried to hide behind the Volga, in order to subsequently continue the struggle. A group of prosperous Cossacks, striving to earn the Empress's favor by betrayal, seized E.I. Pugachev and handed him over to the authorities. In a wooden cage E.I. Pugachev was sent to Moscow. January 10, 1775 Y.I. Pugachev and his closest supporters were executed in Moscow on Bolotnaya Square. Tsarism dealt with ordinary participants in the uprising just as cruelly: rafts with gallows floated along the Volga and other rivers. The corpses of the hanged, swaying in the wind, were supposed, according to the punishers, to intimidate the population of the country and thereby prevent new demonstrations. The peasant war led by E.I. Pugacheva ended in defeat for the same reasons as other major demonstrations of the popular masses: she was characterized by a spontaneous nature, the locality of the movement, the heterogeneity of its social composition, poor weapons, naive monarchism, the lack of a clear program and goal of the struggle. The peasant war forced Catherine II to carry out a series of reforms to centralize and unify the governing bodies in the center and in the localities and to legislatively consolidate the estate rights of the population.

After the Time of Troubles, the Cossacks rebelled against the state twice: during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich under the leadership of Razin and under Peter the Great under the leadership of Bulavin. After Peter in the first half of the 18th century, impostors also appeared, but the rebellion did not flare up. During the reign of Catherine II, the Cossacks gathered their last strength, and a terrible rebellion flared up, in many ways similar to that of Razin.

During the reign of Catherine, the Yaik Cossacks worried several times, for which the unjust acts of officials towards them gave rise to. The Cossacks refused to go in pursuit of the Kalmyks who left the Russian possessions as a result of official oppression. Severe punishments for this disobedience further embittered the Cossacks: in January 1771 they rebelled, defeated and killed General Traubenberg, and established a new government of their own.

General Freiman, sent from Moscow against the Cossacks, defeated them, and the former Cossack rule was destroyed. The instigators of the riot were whipped, 140 people were exiled to Siberia, others were given up as soldiers. Order was apparently restored, but the Cossacks hinted at some important enterprise against the state, which they still had a reputation for under the name of Moscow. "Whether there will still be," they said, "are we still going to shake Moscow!" Secret meetings took place in the steppe umets (inns) and remote farmsteads. The Cossacks were waiting for someone, and meanwhile in Russia and abroad there were rumors that the former Emperor Peter III was alive.

Soon a man of about thirty, of medium height, strong build, with fiery and penetrating eyes appeared on Yaik. It was the Don Cossack Emelyan Pugachev, who visited the Vetka, in the famous schismatic den. Having learned about the Cossack unrest on the Yaik, he went there and began to persuade the disaffected to go beyond the Kuban and surrender to the protection of the Sultan. At the same time, on the advice of two schismatic merchants, he declared himself Emperor Peter III. This was reported, Pugachev was captured, shackled and sent to Kazan in January 1773. Here he found intercessor friends, also schismatics. They treated Pugachev easily, hid the imposture case, allowed him to go to his acquaintances, accompanied by a guard, with whom he managed to negotiate, after which he fled.

All summer, Pugachev hid in remote farmsteads, and in September he again declared himself Peter III and managed to assemble a detachment of 300 people with whom he came to the Yaitsky town. The history of the Razin uprising began to repeat itself: a Cossack detachment sent against the impostor went over to his side. Cossacks who wanted to remain loyal to the government were hanged. Not daring to fight the Yaik garrison, Pugachev went to the Iletsk town, promising to welcome the local Cossacks with a cross and a beard, rivers and meadows, money and supplies, lead and gunpowder and eternal will. The Cossacks also joined Pugachev's detachment.

The means of the impostor increased rapidly: at the beginning of October, with 3000 troops and several guns, Pugachev set off for Orenburg. The Bashkirs, Kalmyks, Mordovians, Chuvashs, Cheremis, as in the time of troubles and Razin, ceased to obey the Russian authorities; the landlord peasants clearly showed their adherence to the impostor.
Meanwhile, the state was in a difficult situation: troops were occupied in Turkey and Poland, measures against the plague and recruitment kits worried the mob. On October 5, Pugachev laid siege to Orenburg, wishing to starve it out. Soon the number of Pugachev's troops reached 25,000. Its core was the Yaik Cossacks and soldiers captured in the fortresses, and the rest were Tatars, Bashkirs, Kalmyks, fugitive peasants, convicts and every rabble, as in the days of Bolotnikov and Razin. Pugachev taught his army almost daily, executions took place daily, daily a church service was performed in the camp. Pugachev's gangs of robbers went in all directions, drinking in the villages, robbing the treasury and property of the nobility. Pugachev was not domineering among the Cossacks: in front of others, they showed him outward respect, without outsiders treated like a comrade.

The government sent an army against the rebels under the command of General Kara, but, approaching the troops of Pugachev, Kar chickened out, began to retreat, left the army without permission and, under the pretext of illness, rode off to Moscow. The Empress wrote: “God knows how this will all end. I begin to resemble Peter the Great in the adventures of my age; but whatever God gives, but, following the example of my grandfather, I will not lose heart. " To remedy the case, ruined by Kar, the Empress appointed Alexander Ilyich Bibikov.

Arriving in Moscow, Bibikov found things in a bad situation: the inhabitants were in fear; many noblemen came to Moscow from provinces that were already ravaged by Pugachev or under threat. The peasants spread the news about liberty, about the extermination of masters throughout the squares. The mob, drinking and staggering through the streets, with obvious impatience waited for Pugachev, as in the days of Shuisky they were waiting for the Tushino thief.

On December 25, Bibikov arrived in Kazan; he found neither the governor nor the chief officials here; most of the nobles and merchants also fled to safe provinces. Bibikov's arrival revived the city; the residents who had left began to return. Bibikov gathered the nobility, presented to him how the benefits of the estate require decisive measures, donations. The nobility decided to arm the army at their own expense. To encourage others, Bibikov seemed cheerful and contented, and meanwhile he wrote to his wife: “Evil is great, terrible! Wow, it's bad! " The army was few in number and unreliable, the commanders left the place and fled, seeing a Bashkir or a factory man with a club. Winter has multiplied the hardships; the villages were empty, the cities were under siege, others were occupied by the Pugachev troops, the factories were burned out, the mob everywhere was agitated and outraged. The government troops moved slowly, and the faster the riot spread, engulfing the Kazan, Astrakhan, Nizhny Novgorod provinces, and penetrating into the Perm. But from February 1774, things began to take a favorable turn: the government troops took Samara and moved to Orenburg to the rescue, Pugachev was already preparing to escape, and the Cossacks thought to betray him into the hands of the government and thus earn forgiveness. Bibikov wrote: "Pugachev is nothing more than a scarecrow played by the Cossacks thieves: it is not Pugachev that is important, the general indignation is important."

Prince Golitsyn inflicted a strong defeat on Pugachev, who was already getting out of Orenburg. Struck a second time by Golitsyn, having lost all the guns and a lot of people, Pugachev with only four factory men managed to escape to the Ural factories. Mikhelson took Ufa and restored calm in a large part of the rioting villages. The approach of Mansurov saved the town of Iletsk, which heroically withstood the terrible siege. But when it seemed that the matter was coming to an end, Bibikov died from a terrible exertion.

Pugachev again appeared on the stage, surrounded by the Yaik Cossacks, the Bashkirs rebelled again. It became impossible to pursue the impostor due to the muddy roads. Pugachev managed to cross the Ural Mountains, took several fortresses. He crossed the Kama and went straight to Kazan, before which he appeared on 11 July. The next day the city was taken and burned, but the fortress was saved by the arrival of Michelson, who struck the impostor seven miles from Kazan. Pugachev retreated, but on July 18 he suddenly crossed the Volga with 500 troops: the entire western side of the Volga rebelled and went over to the impostor, the governors fled from the cities, the nobles - from the estates; the mob caught those and others and led to Pugachev, who took Tsivilsk and cut off the communication between Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan.

The Empress appointed Count Pyotr Ivanovich Panin as commander-in-chief; she thought the impostor would go straight to Moscow. On July 27, Pugachev entered Saransk and hanged 300 noblemen; then he occupied Penza, put the lord's peasant here as a governor, and headed for Saratov. He took the latter thanks to treason, after which he set off down the Volga. On August 21, he approached Tsaritsyn, but was twice repulsed and, hearing about the approach of the government's troops, hurried further down, but 150 versts from Tsaritsyn he was overtaken by Michelson and suffered a decisive defeat. Meanwhile, Suvorov arrived in Tsaritsyn, took command of Mikhelson's detachment and set off into the steppe, where Pugachev wandered. The impostor was surrounded from everywhere by the troops of the government; accomplices decided to extradite him, tied him up and brought him to Yaitsk town, from where he was sent to Moscow, where he was executed.

“Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev is a hero and impostor, a sufferer and a rebel, a sinner and a saint ... But above all - the leader of the people, a personality, of course, an exceptional one - otherwise he would not have been able to draw thousands of armies along with him and lead them into battle for two years. Raising the uprising, Pugachev knew that the people would follow him ”(GM Nesterov, ethnographer).

The artist T. Nazarenko expresses a similar idea in his painting. Her painting Pugachev, in which she did not strive for a truly historical reconstruction of events, depicts a scene reminiscent of an ancient folk oleography. On it are doll figures of soldiers in bright uniforms and a conventional cage with a rebellious leader in the pose of the crucified Christ. And in front, on a wooden horse, Generalissimo Suvorov: it was he who brought the "chief troublemaker" to Moscow. The second part of the picture was painted in a completely different manner, stylized as the era of the reign of Catherine II and the Pugachev revolt - the famous portrait from the Historical Museum, in which Pugachev is painted over the image of the empress.

“My historical pictures, of course, are connected with the present day,” says Tatiana Nazarenko. - "Pugachev" is a story of betrayal. It is at every turn. Pugachev was abandoned by his associates, condemning him to execution. It always happens that way. "

T. Nazarenko "Pugachev". Diptych

Numerous legends, traditions, epics, and legends circulate about Pugachev and his associates. The people pass them on from generation to generation.

The personality of EI Pugachev and the nature of the Peasant War have always been assessed ambiguously and in many respects contradictory. But for all the differences of opinion, the Pugachev uprising is a significant milestone in Russian history. And no matter how tragic the story is, it must be known and respected.

How it all began?

The reason for the start of the Peasant War, which covered vast territories and attracted several hundred thousand people to the ranks of the rebels, was the wonderful announcement of the escaped "Tsar Peter Fedorovich". You can read about him on our website: Peter III... But let us briefly recall: Peter III (Pyotr Fedorovich, born Karl Peter Ulrich Holstein-Gottorp, 1728-1762) - the Russian emperor in 1761-1762, was overthrown as a result of a palace coup that enthroned his wife, Catherine II, and soon lost his life. For a long time, the personality and activities of Peter III were regarded by historians as unanimously negative, but then they began to treat him more carefully, evaluating a number of state services of the emperor. During the reign of Catherine II, many pretended to be Peter Fedorovich impostors(about forty cases were recorded), the most famous of which was Emelyan Pugachev.

L. Pfanzelt "Portrait of Emperor Peter III"

Who is he?

Emelyan I. Pugachev- Don Cossack. Born in 1742 in the Cossack village of the Zimoveiskaya Don region (now the village of Pugachevskaya, Volgograd region, where Stepan Razin was born earlier).

He took part in the Seven Years War of 1756-1763, with his regiment was in the division of Count Chernyshev. With the death of Peter III, the troops were returned to Russia. From 1763 to 1767, Pugachev served in his village, where his son Trofim was born, and then his daughter Agrafena. He was sent to Poland with the team of the captain Elisey Yakovlev to search for and return to Russia the fugitive Old Believers.

He took part in the Russian-Turkish war, where he fell ill and was dismissed, but became involved in the escape of his son-in-law from the service and was forced to flee to the Terek. After numerous vicissitudes, adventures and escapes, in November 1772 he settled in the Old Believers' skete of the Presentation of the Mother of God in the Saratov region with the abbot Filaret, from whom he heard about the unrest in the Yaitsky army. After some time, in a conversation with one of the participants in the uprising of 1772, Denis Pyanov, for the first time, he called himself the escaped Peter III: “I’m not a merchant, but Tsar Peter Fedorovich, I was also in Tsaritsyno, that God and good people kept me, but instead of me they spotted a guard soldier, and in St.... Upon his return to the Mechetnaya Sloboda, on the denunciation of the peasant Filippov, Pugachev, who was with him on the trip, he was arrested and sent to conduct an investigation, first to Simbirsk, then in January 1773 to Kazan.

Portrait of Pugachev, painted from life with oil paints (inscription on the portrait: "The original image of the rebel and deceiver Emelka Pugachev")

Escaping again and again calling himself "Emperor Peter Fedorovich", he began to meet with the instigators of previous uprisings and discussed with them the possibility of a new uprising. Then he found a competent person to draw up "royal decrees". In Mechetnaya Sloboda, he was identified, but again managed to escape and get to Talovy Umet, where the Yaik Cossacks D. Karavaev, M. Shigaev, I. Zarubin-Chika and T. Myasnikov were waiting for him. He told them again the story of his "miraculous salvation" and discussed the possibility of an uprising.

At this time, the commandant of the government garrison in Yaitsky town, Lieutenant Colonel I. D. Simonov, having learned about the appearance in the army of a man posing as "Peter III", sent two teams to capture the impostor, but they managed to warn Pugachev. By this time, the ground for the uprising was ready. Not many Cossacks believed that Pugachev was Peter III, but everyone followed him. Concealing his illiteracy, he did not sign his manifestos; however, his "autograph" was preserved on a separate sheet, imitating the text of a written document, about which he told his literate companions that it was written "in Latin."

What caused the uprising?

As usual in such cases, there are many reasons, and all of them, when combined, create fertile ground for the event to happen.

Yaik Cossacks were the main driving force behind the uprising. Throughout the entire 18th century, they gradually lost their privileges and liberties, but they still remember the times of complete independence from Moscow and Cossack democracy. In the 1730s, there was an almost complete split of the army into the starshinskaya and military sides. The situation was aggravated by the monopoly on salt introduced by the tsar's decree in 1754. The army's economy was based entirely on the sale of fish and caviar, and salt was a strategic product. The ban on free mining of salt and the emergence of salt tax tax farmers among the top of the army led to a sharp stratification among the Cossacks. In 1763, the first major outburst of indignation occurred, the Cossacks wrote petitions to Orenburg and St. Petersburg, sent delegates from the army with a complaint about the atamans and local authorities. Sometimes they achieved their goal, and especially unacceptable chieftains changed, but on the whole the situation remained the same. In 1771, the Yaik Cossacks refused to go in pursuit of the Kalmyks who had migrated outside Russia. General Traubenberg with a detachment of soldiers went to investigate the disobedience to the order. The result was the Yaitsk Cossack uprising of 1772, during which General Traubenberg and the army chieftain Tambovtsev were killed. Troops were sent to suppress the uprising. The rebels were defeated at the Embulatovka River in June 1772; As a result of the defeat, the Cossack circles were finally eliminated, a garrison of government troops was deployed in the Yaitsky town, and all power over the army passed into the hands of the commandant of the garrison, Lieutenant Colonel I.D.Simonov. The massacre of the captured instigators was extremely cruel and made a depressing impression on the army: never before had the Cossacks been branded, they had not cut out their tongues. A large number of participants in the performance took refuge in distant steppe farms, excitement reigned everywhere, the state of the Cossacks was like a compressed spring.

V. Perov "Pugachev's trial"

Tension was also present in the environment peoples of other religions in the Urals and the Volga region. The development of the Urals and the colonization of the lands of the Volga region, which belonged to the local nomadic peoples, and intolerable religious policy led to numerous unrest among the Bashkirs, Tatars, Kazakhs, Erzyans, Chuvashes, Udmurts, Kalmyks.

The situation at the fast-growing factories of the Urals was also explosive. Starting with Peter, the government solved the problem of labor in metallurgy mainly by assigning state peasants to state and private mining plants, allowing new breeders to buy serf villages and granting an unofficial right to keep fugitive serfs, since the Berg Collegium, which was in charge of the factories , tried not to notice violations of the decree on the capture and expulsion of all fugitives. It was very convenient to take advantage of the powerlessness and desperate situation of the fugitives: if someone began to express dissatisfaction with their position, they were immediately handed over to the authorities for punishment. Former peasants resisted forced labor in factories.

Peasants, assigned to state and private factories, dreamed of returning to their usual village work. To top it all, there was a decree of Catherine II of August 22, 1767 prohibiting the peasants from complaining about the landlords. That is, there was complete impunity for some and complete dependence on others. And it becomes easier to understand how the current circumstances helped Pugachev to captivate so many people. Fantastic rumors about imminent freedom or about the transfer of all the peasants to the treasury, about the ready-made decree of the tsar, who was killed for this by his wife and boyars, about the fact that the tsar was not killed, but he was hiding until better times fell on the fertile soil of general human discontent with his present position ... All groups of future participants in the performance simply had no other opportunity to defend their interests.

Insurrection

First stage

The internal readiness of the Yaik Cossacks for the uprising was high, but the performance lacked a unifying idea, a core that would rally the hiding and hidden participants in the 1772 unrest. The rumor that the emperor Pyotr Fyodorovich, who miraculously escaped, appeared in the army, instantly spread throughout the Yaik.

The uprising began on Yaik. The starting point of Pugachev's movement was the Tolkachev farm located in the south of the Yaitsky town. It was from this farm that Pugachev, who by that time was already Peter III, Tsar Peter Fyodorovich, addressed a manifesto in which he bestowed upon all those who joined him “from the peaks to the mouth, and earth, and herbs, and monetary salary, and lead. , and gunpowder, and grain provisions ". At the head of his constantly growing detachment, Pugachev approached Orenburg and laid siege to it. Here the question arises: why did Pugachev restrain his forces with this siege?

For the Yaik Cossacks, Orenburg was the administrative center of the region and at the same time a symbol of a hostile government, since all the royal decrees came from there. It was necessary to take it. And so Pugachev creates a headquarters, a kind of capital of the insurgent Cossacks, in the village of Berda near Orenburg turns into the capital of the insurgent Cossacks.

Later, in the village of Chesnokovka near Ufa, another center of movement was formed. Several more less significant centers arose as well. But the first stage of the war ended with two defeats of Pugachev - near the Tatishchev Fortress and Sakmarsky town, as well as the defeat of his closest associate - Zarubin-Chiki at Chesnokovka and the end of the siege of Orenburg and Ufa. Pugachev and his surviving associates leave for Bashkiria.

Peasant War Combat Map

Second phase

In the second stage, the Bashkirs massively participate in the uprising, who by that time already made up the majority in the Pugachev army. At the same time, government forces have become very active. This forced Pugachev to move towards Kazan, and then, in mid-July 1774, move to the right bank of the Volga. Even before the start of the battle, Pugachev announced that he would go from Kazan to Moscow. Rumors about this spread throughout the neighborhood. Despite the major defeat of the Pugachev army, the uprising engulfed the entire western bank of the Volga. Having crossed the Volga at Kokshaisk, Pugachev replenished his army with thousands of peasants. And Salavat Yulaev at this time with his detachments continued the hostilities near Ufa, the Bashkir detachments in the Pugachev detachment were led by Kinzya Arslanov. Pugachev entered Kurmysh, then freely entered Alatyr, and then headed for Saransk. On the central square of Saransk, a decree on freedom for the peasants was read, the residents were given supplies of salt and bread, the city treasury “Driving through the city fortress and along the streets ...... The same solemn meeting awaited Pugachev in Penza. The decrees provoked numerous peasant revolts in the Volga region, the movement covered most of the Volga districts, approached the borders of the Moscow province, and really threatened Moscow.

The publication of decrees (manifestos on the emancipation of the peasants) in Saransk and Penza is called the culmination of the Peasant War. The decrees made a strong impression on the peasants, nobles and Catherine II herself. The enthusiasm led to the fact that a population of more than a million people was involved in the uprising. They could not give anything to Pugachev's army in the long-term military plan, since the peasant detachments operated no further than their estate. But they turned Pugachev's campaign along the Volga region into a triumphal procession, with bells ringing, the blessing of the village priest and bread and salt in every new village, village, town. When Pugachev's army or its individual detachments approached, the peasants knitted or killed their landlords and their clerks, hanged local officials, burned estates, smashed shops and shops. In total, in the summer of 1774, about 3 thousand nobles and government officials were killed.

This is how the second stage of the war ends.

Third stage

In the second half of July 1774, when the Pugachev uprising was approaching the borders of the Moscow province and threatened Moscow itself, Empress Catherine II was alarmed by the events. In August 1774, Lieutenant General Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov was recalled from the 1st Army, which was in the Danube principalities. Panin entrusted Suvorov with command of the troops that were to defeat the main Pugachev army in the Volga region.

Seven regiments were sent to Moscow under the personal command of P. I. Panin. Moscow Governor-General Prince M.N. Volkonsky placed artillery next to his house. The police increased their supervision and sent informants to crowded places to grab all those who sympathized with Pugachev. Mikhelson, pursuing the rebels from Kazan, turned to Arzamas to block the road to the old capital. General Mansurov set out from Yaitsky town to Syzran, General Golitsyn to Saransk. Everywhere Pugachev leaves behind rebellious villages: "Not only peasants, but priests, monks, even archimandrites outrage sensitive and insensitive people"... But from Penza, Pugachev turned south. Perhaps he wanted to attract the Volga and Don Cossacks into his ranks - the Yaik Cossacks were already tired of the war. But it was on these days that a conspiracy of Cossack colonels began with the aim of surrendering Pugachev to the government in return for receiving a pardon.

Meanwhile, Pugachev took Petrovsk, Saratov, where priests in all churches served prayers for the health of Emperor Peter III, and government troops followed on his heels.

After Saratov, Kamyshin also met Pugachev with bell ringing and bread and salt. Near Kamyshin in the German colonies, Pugachev's troops collided with the Astrakhan astronomical expedition of the Academy of Sciences, many members of which, together with the leader, Academician Georg Lovitz, were hanged along with local officials who did not have time to escape. They were joined by a detachment of 3,000 Kalmyks, followed by the villages of the Volga Cossack army Antipovskaya and Karavinskaya. On August 21, 1774, Pugachev tried to attack Tsaritsyn, but the assault failed.

Michelson's corps pursued Pugachev, and he hastily lifted the siege from Tsaritsyn, moving to the Black Yar. Panic began in Astrakhan. On August 24, Pugachev was overtaken by Michelson. Realizing that the battle could not be avoided, the Pugachevites lined up battle formations. On August 25, the last major battle of the troops under the command of Pugachev with the tsarist troops took place. The battle began with a major setback - all 24 guns of the rebel army were repulsed by a cavalry attack. In a fierce battle, more than 2,000 rebels were killed, among them Ataman Ovchinnikov. More than 6,000 people were taken prisoner. Pugachev and the Cossacks, breaking up into small detachments, fled across the Volga. During August-September, most of the participants in the uprising were caught and sent for investigation to Yaitskiy gorodok, Simbirsk, Orenburg.

Pugachev under escort. 18th century engraving

Pugachev with a detachment of Cossacks fled to the Uzens, not knowing that since mid-August, some colonels had been discussing the possibility of earning forgiveness by surrendering the impostor. Under the pretext of facilitating the escape from the pursuit, they divided the detachment so as to separate the Cossacks loyal to Pugachev along with the ataman Perfiliev. On September 8, near the Bolshoy Uzen River, they attacked and tied Pugachev, after which Chumakov and Tvorogov went to the Yaitsky town, where on September 11 they announced the capture of the impostor. Having received promises of pardon, they notified the accomplices, and on September 15 they brought Pugachev to Yaitsky town. The first interrogations took place, one of which was conducted personally by Suvorov, he also volunteered to escort Pugachev to Simbirsk, where the main investigation was underway. To transport Pugachev, a cramped cage was made, installed on a two-wheeled cart, in which, shackled hand and foot, he could not even turn around. In Simbirsk, he was interrogated for five days by P.S. Potemkin, head of secret commissions of inquiry, and Count P.I. Panin, commander of the government's punitive troops.

Continuation of the Peasant War

With the capture of Pugachev, the war did not end - it developed too widely. The centers of the uprising were both scattered and organized, for example, in Bashkiria under the command of Salavat Yulaev and his father. The uprising continued in the Trans-Urals, in the Voronezh province, in the Tambov district. Many landowners left their homes and hid from the rebels. To bring down the wave of riots, punitive squads began mass executions. In every village, in every town that received Pugachev, on the gallows, from which they barely managed to remove those who were hanged by Pugachev, they began to hang the leaders of the riots and the city leaders and chieftains of local detachments appointed by the Pugachevites. To increase the intimidation, the gallows were installed on rafts and launched along the main rivers of the uprising. In May, Khlopushi was executed in Orenburg: his head was placed on a pole in the center of the city. During the investigation, the entire medieval set of tested means was used. In terms of cruelty and the number of victims, Pugachev and the government did not yield to each other.

"The Gallows on the Volga" (illustration by N. N. Karazin for "The Captain's Daughter" by A. S. Pushkin)

Investigation into the Pugachev case

All the main participants in the uprising were transported to Moscow for a general investigation. They were placed in the building of the Mint at the Iberian Gate of Kitai-Gorod. The interrogations were supervised by Prince M. N. Volkonsky and chief secretary S. I. Sheshkovsky.

Pugachev gave detailed testimony about himself and about his plans and designs, about the course of the uprising. Catherine II showed great interest in the course of the investigation. She even advised how best to conduct an inquiry and what questions to ask.

Sentence and execution

On December 31, Pugachev was transported under a reinforced escort from the casemates of the Mint to the chambers of the Kremlin Palace. He was then led into the conference room and forced to kneel down. After a formal interrogation, he was taken out of the hall, the court ruled: "To quarter Emelka Pugachev, stick his head on a stake, smash the body parts in four parts of the city and put them on wheels, and then burn them in those places." The rest of the defendants were divided according to the degree of their guilt into several groups for the imposition of each appropriate type of execution or punishment.

On January 10, 1775, on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow, an execution was carried out with a huge crowd of people. Pugachev was calm. On the frontal place he crossed himself at the Kremlin cathedrals, bowed on four sides with the words "Forgive me, Orthodox people." At the request of Catherine II, sentenced to quartering E.I. Pugachev and A.P. Perfiliev, the executioner first chopped off his head. On the same day they hanged M. G. Shigaev, T. I. Podurov and V. I. Tornov. I.N.Zarubin-Chika was sent to Ufa, where he was executed by beheading at the beginning of February 1775.

"Execution of Pugachev on Bolotnaya Square". Drawing of an eyewitness to the execution of A.T. Bolotov

Features of the Peasant War

This war was in many ways similar to the previous peasant wars. The Cossacks act as the instigator of the war; in many respects, both social requirements and the motives of the rebels are similar. But there are also significant differences: 1) the coverage of a huge territory, which had no precedents in the previous history; 2) organization of the movement different from the rest, the creation of central command and control bodies, the publication of manifestos, a fairly clear structure of the army.

Consequences of the Peasant War

In order to eradicate the memory of Pugachev, Catherine II issued decrees to rename all places associated with these events. Stanitsa Zimoveyskaya on the Don, where Pugachev was born, was renamed v Potemkin, the house where Pugachev was born was ordered to burn. Yaik river was renamed to Ural, Yaik army - to the Ural Cossack army, Yaitsky town - to Uralsk,Verkhne-Yaitskaya pier — to Verkhneuralsk... The name of Pugachev was anathematized in churches along with Stenka Razin.

Decree of the governing Senate

“... for the complete oblivion of this unfortunate incident that followed on Yaik, the Yaik river, along which both this army and the city had their name until now, due to the fact that this river flows from
The Ural Mountains, renamed the Ural, and therefore the army should be called Ural, and henceforth not called Yaitsky, and henceforth the Yaitsky city should be called Uralsk; what for information and execution
sim and is published. "

The policy in relation to the Cossack troops was adjusted, the process of their transformation into army units is accelerating. By the decree of February 22, 1784, the endorsement of the local nobility was fixed. Tatar and Bashkir princes and murzas are equated in rights and liberties with the Russian nobility, including the right to own serfs, but only of the Muslim faith.

The Pugachev uprising caused enormous damage to the metallurgy of the Urals. 64 of 129 factories existing in the Urals fully joined the uprising. In May 1779, a manifesto was issued on the general rules for the use of registered peasants in state and private enterprises, which limited breeders in the use of peasants assigned to factories, reduced working hours and increased wages.

There were no significant changes in the position of the peasantry.

Postage stamp of the USSR, dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the Peasant War of 1773-1775, E.I. Pugachev