Peasant uprising 1773 1775 table. The beginning and course of the uprising. Consequences of the Peasants' War

Introduction …………………………………………………………...3

The Peasant War of 1773-1774…………………………...6

Conclusion………………………………………………………...14

List of used literature …………………………...15

Introduction

The history of our village is rich in events. The very history of the emergence of a settlement on the territory of our village is connected with the events of the forced baptism of the Tatars of the Kazan Khanate. Izhboldino is one of the few Tatar villages in our region.

On the territory of our settlement there are many mountains, rivers, ravines and meadows connected by numerous legends. One of the legends is connected with the events of the Pugachev uprising. My interest was attracted by the fact that the retreating troops of Pugachev passed through our settlement and the headquarters of the rebels was located on one of the mountains. During the retreat, the rebels were forced to bury their wealth at the foot of a small mountain south of the village. The people call these mountains Khazna-tau and Kala-tau.

The second fact that drew my attention to the events of that period was the fact that in Pugachev's army one of the main rebel commanders was a resident of our village - Yarmukhamat Kadermetov.

In the book by S. Taimasov “The Uprising of 1773-74 in Bashkortostan” about Yarmukhamet Kadermetov, brief information is given: “A yasak Tatar of the village of Izhboldino, Uransky volost, Osinskaya road. Chief Rebel Colonel.

In another book by the same author, more extensive information is given. Yarmukhamet Kadermetov joined the rebels on December 18, 1773. He fought fierce battles with the army of Empress Catherine II in the territory from Birsk to Sarapul. On August 30, 1774, a 2,000-strong detachment under the command of Kadermetov was defeated by the army of the Empress, led by Prime Minister Major Shterlich.

On September 6, already the 3,000th detachment of Kadermetov again ran into Shterlich. On September 28, 1774, the Birsk clerk I. Guryev defeated Yarmukhamet and captured his family.

After that, in October 1774, he voluntarily surrendered royal authorities and was sent to the Kazan secret commission.

The name of our countryman is found among the prisoners who arrived at the Kazan secret commission. I got excited by it further fate. Questions arose: was he still alive, or was he executed? Was he able to return to his home village? What happened to his family? Are there any of his descendants among today's residents of our village? I began searching for his fate with the hope that I could find answers to these interesting questions for me in the future.

To rise to the rank of chief rebel colonel Pugachev, you need to be a fearless, courageous person. Kadermetov probably had the qualities of a leader, because he was a foreman, and could lead a huge army.

Studying the history of Yarmukhamet Kadermetov, I found interesting facts about the history of our region. Of the Tatars who took part in the uprising, 26 people were foremen, and 6 of them were from the Yanaul region. At that time, the Yanaulsky district belonged to the Osinsky road of the Uransky volost. I will give the names of the foremen: from the village of Karmanovo - Abduk Cheptazarov and Utagan Nurmukhametov were marching foremen at Pugachev. From the village of Yabalak - Magdi Medyarov, was the commander of the rebel detachment. From the village of Kumovo - Ait Saitov, colonel. From the village of Mesyagutovo - Muksin Madiyarov - Colonel. And Yarmukhamet Kadermetov was the main rebel colonel.

The names of some Pugachev colonels, such as Salavat Yulaev, Kinzya Arslanov, Karanay Moratov, Batyrkay Itkinin are known to many, their names are in legends, historical books have been written and written about them, songs are dedicated to them. I would very much like the name of our countryman Yarmukhamat Kadermetov not to be forgotten.

And Asfandiyarov also writes: “There is very little information about such Bashkir colonels as Keyek Zi2mb2tov, Y2rm0x2m2t K2derm2tov, Mizkh2t Mindiyarov, !t2y Yaratkolov.”

I made inquiries to the historical archives of Kazan and Moscow.

According to the results of the search, I found out that Y. Kadermetov was released from prison by decision of the Secret Chancellery of the Senate dated May 31, 1775. After that, he returned to his native village.

Studying in the Republican archive, in the revision tales for 1834, I found information about his family. Yarmuhammat died in 1819 at the age of 77. native village. On the same page of revision tales, history keeps the names of his sons, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. This means that his descendants still live in the village! Which of the current families of my fellow villagers are the descendants of this legendary personality, I have to find out.

The Peasant War of 1773-1775.

The Peasant War of 1773-1775 under the leadership of E.I. Pugacheva was the most powerful armed uprising of the working masses of Russia against the regime feudal exploitation and political injustice. Peasant wars were a real war between the state and the people, which they fought with the forces of the government army and the rebel army. They covered large territories, were distinguished by persistence and duration of the struggle, were characterized by simultaneity of performances, a multinational composition of participants and a large number of rebel detachments, which, relying on the commonality of the demands put forward, often fought together, shoulder to shoulder, closely interacted with each other. The participants in these speeches fought for "land and freedom", against feudal serf oppression. During the peasant wars, the country's population literally fell apart into two warring camps: government and rebel.

Peasant War 1773-1775 covered a vast territory in the south-east of the country (these are the provinces of Orenburg, Kazan, Siberian, Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh, Astrakhan), where 2 million 900 thousand male inhabitants lived, for the most part consisting of peasants of various social categories and the service population. The uprising was the result of the strengthening of feudal and national oppression of the working masses by the state and landowners, the aggravation of crisis situations in the socio-economic life of the country. The culmination of the people's struggle was the performance of Pugachev, which quickly grew into a broad peasant war. The southern Urals became the center of the insurrectionary movement, the territory where its main events and for two years the multinational Pugachev detachments staunchly fought for "land and freedom".

Skirmishers of the Peasants' War of 1773-1775. the Yaik Cossacks came forward. The Cossacks already at the stage of preparing the uprising focused on supporting the peasantry.

Nominated by the Yaik Cossacks, the leader of the people's war, the Don Cossack E.I. Pugachev said on the eve of the uprising that "he will follow with the army to Russia, which - de all will stick to him."

September 17, 1773 is considered the beginning of the Peasant War - the day when E.I. Pugachev published his first manifesto, where he granted them the old Cossack liberties and privileges, and then, with a detachment of only 60 people, set out on a campaign to the administrative center of the army - the Yaik town.

The Cossacks appreciated the mind, determination, strong-willed and energetic character of Pugachev; appreciated his resourcefulness, ability to understand events and people, organizational skills. With their consent, Pugachev assumed the name of "Emperor Pyotr Fedorovich."

Supporting the imposture of Pugachev, the Cossacks took into account two points here, which, in their opinion, should have ensured the success of the uprising. Firstly, their performance led by the illegally deposed "Emperor Peter III" acquired a high moral criterion of a just struggle for his restoration to the throne. Secondly, the movement would certainly attract the peasant masses, fascinated by the popular legend of the "tsar-deliverer"

On the way of the movement of the Pugachev detachment, the fortresses surrendered one after another, and their permanent and temporary residents replenished the Pugachev detachment. The tactic of sending nominal decrees of the “sovereign emperor Peter III”: the population as a whole took the side of the rebels, the local garrisons were in disarray.

On the way to Orenburg, Pugachev first came into contact with the Bashkirs of the Nogai road closest to Yaik. On September 30, the foreman of the Bushmas-Kipchak volost, Kinzya Arslanov, with 6 Bashkirs, came to Pugachev in Seitov Sloboda and declared that “their entire Bashkir horde, if they send their decree to them, will bow to it.”

On October 1, two personal decrees “Peter III” - Pugachev, written in Turkic, were sent to Bashkiria: the leader granted the Bashkirs lands and waters, monetary and grain allowances, as well as “your faith and laws”, i.e. declared freedom of religion and the exercise of national customs and rituals.

Kinzya Arslanov arrived with a detachment of 500 people, for which he was immediately promoted to the rank of colonel.

With the decrees of "Emperor Peter III", who generously bestowed many favors on the Bashkirs, the transition to the side of the uprising of the Bashkir teams began. By mid-November, detachments of Bashkirs and Mishars, assembled on the instructions of the governor in the area of ​​​​the Sakmarsky town, at the Sterlitamak pier and in the Verkhneyaitskaya fortress, joined the Main Insurgent Army near Orenburg. Together with them, 5 thousand horsemen. By the end of the year, the Bashkir detachments that came to Berda already numbered 10-12 thousand people.

By the beginning of November, the rebel army moved to the Berdskaya settlement. The main headquarters of the rebels - the Berd rebel center - played a significant role in organizing and expanding the people's struggle in the South Urals. In mid-November, Pugachev created the Military Collegium here as the highest military-political and administrative-administrative institution of the new insurgent power throughout the territory covered by the Peasant War. Pugachev entrusted the leadership of the Main Insurgent Army, providing it with weapons, artillery, shells, gunpowder, as well as provisions and fodder, to the military collegium.

By the end of 1773, there were up to 26,000 rebels in the Berdsk camp. Pugachev and his Military College tried to build their army on the model of regular and Cossack troops.

The army was divided into parts or regiments of 500 people each. Their commanders received the rank of colonel personally from "Peter III" - Pugachev.

These were people who distinguished themselves in battles, who managed to recruit several hundred people for service. Following the model of the Cossack troops, the regiments were divided into hundreds (companies). The commanding staff included foremen, Pentecostals, centurions, Yesauls, chieftains. There was a rank of chief colonel or brigadier. Name lists of fighters were compiled for the distribution of salaries, weapons and provisions. Military exercises were held in Berd, and great importance was attached to maintaining strict discipline in the detachments.

Subsequent reports of the military successes of Pugachev's detachments caused great concern for Catherine II and the government. General-anshef A.I. Bibikov, in his report to Catherine II, writes: “The success of this villain in defeating Brigadier Bilov, Colonel Chernyshev, General Kara’s retreat, and, finally, the last success in defeating Major Zaev and his team in the Ilyinsky Fortress, multiplied this villain and his accomplices, his audacity.”

The undoubted merit of E.I. Pugachev and the Military Collegium was the initiative in organizing rebel centers to unite the scattered actions of numerous rebel detachments, which, moreover, consisted of representatives of different peoples and social strata. And in the rebel areas, where, due to various circumstances, stationary centers did not develop, Pugachev's envoys, whom he personally trusted, also became leaders of the popular movement. Since the end of November, atamans I.F. Arapov, a serf from the Orenburg district and F.I. Derbetev. On the border with the Perm province in the Krasnoufimsko-Kungur rebel region, the movement was led by colonels Salavat Yulaev and Kanzafar Usaev sent from Berda. To the west of this region, the Osinsky-Sarapulsky insurgent region was formed, which also included part of the territory of the Ufa and Perm provinces. Here the Bashkirs were commanded by Colonel Abdey Abdulov, Bashkirs from the Nogai road and Colonel Yarmukhamet Kadermetov. Karanay Moratov, a Bashkir centurion of the Burzyansky volost of the Nogai road, led the movement between Menzelinsk and Yelabuga.

As already noted, Yarmukhamet Kadermetov joined the rebels on December 18, 1773. And “on December 24, a 2-thousand detachment of the Pugachev emissary Karanaya Muratov and the insurgent foreman of the Tatar village of Izhboldino Yarmukhamet Kadermetov occupied the center of the Sarapul volost - the village of Sarapul.”

For looting, ruining the inhabitants of villages and factories, the Pugachev colonel, the yasak Tatar Yarmukhamet Kadermetov, hanged the Teptyar foreman of the Osinskaya road, Isen Elmetov, in Sarapul.

In the spring of 1774, in Bashkortostan, on the territory of the Ufa and Isset provinces, 4 centers of the insurgent movement were formed, the activities of which were to a large extent directly related to the goals and objectives facing Pugachev and his main army. One of the centers is on the Siberian road, the second is on the Nogai road, the third is on the Kazan and Osinskaya roads, the fourth is in the Iset province. In the western and northwestern parts of Bashkiria, on the Kazanskaya and Osinskaya roads, the efforts of the rebels were aimed at preventing the "allied" actions of military teams, as well as destroying such large settlements as Birsk, Angasyaksky and Yulandinsky distilleries, which served as strongholds for punishers.

The leaders of the local detachments maintained constant contact with the headquarters of Salavat Yulaev. The detachments formed on the territory of the Kazan and Osinskaya roads were part of the corps of Salavat Yulaev. Together with Arslan Rangulov, the actions of the rebels in this area were led by colonels Bakhtiyar Kankaev, yasak Tatars of the Osin road Abdulla Toktarov and Yarmukhamet Kadermetov, Mari Izibay Akbaev, Bashkir atamans Aladdin Bektuganov. Their detachments included not only the Bashkirs, but also the multinational peasantry of the Kazan and Osinsky roads. The rebels fought fiercely with government troops, defended and attacked.

By order of General Shcherbatov, since April, teams were recruited throughout Bashkiria to fight the rebels. They attacked small groups of rebels and took those captured to the tsarist officers. In captivity, threatening the Pugachevites with the "eradication" of families, they demanded an oath to "submit" to the authorities.

In May - June 1774, Pugachev fought with his army from the Beloretsk plant to Krasnoufimsk. After the June battles with Mikhelson, he spent about a week in Bashkiria. The leaders of the Bashkir rebels and, first of all, Salavat Yulaev, supplying thousands of militias to the Main Army of the rebels, did not allow the defeat of Pugachev. From Bashkiria, the army went to Kazan. Following the advance of the Main Army, detachments of the rebels of the Osinskaya and Kazan roads concentrated in the lower reaches of the Belaya River and on the Middle Kama in order to ensure as unhindered a passage for Pugachev as possible. They attacked government military teams passing by, guarded river transports from them, some detachments went towards Pugachev. The detachments under the command of Bakhtiyar Kankaev, Medet Mindiarov, Adyl Ashmenov, Saifulla Saydashev, Yarmukhamet Kadermetov, Ait Saitov showed the greatest activity.

The decree of June 13 ordered Bakhtiyar Kankaev and Yarmukhamet Kadermetov to recruit "both Russian and Bashkir" to replenish the "Big Army", to organize a rebuff to the punishers. By mid-June, the detachments of colonels Bakhtiyar Kankayev and Yarmukhamet Kadermetov numbered 3,000 people. And they continued to recruit fighters: they sent out instructions in the "Tatar letter" and demanded "in the service of people." On the way to Kazan, Pugachev attacked the city of Osu and on June 30 the fortress was taken. By July 11, a 20,000-strong army approached Kazan. On July 12, the Main Army stormed Kazan. But Pugachev did not celebrate victory for long, on July 15 he entered into a long battle with Michelson's corps and was defeated. In the battles of July 12-15, the "Bashkirs were ahead" of the Pugachev army.

The rebels lost up to two thousand killed, 5 thousand were captured. The rest of the rebels were ordered to return to their villages.

With the departure of Pugachev's Main Army, the popular struggle in the Southern Urals did not die out. Salavat Yulaev remained, who from now on took over the leadership of the insurgent Bashkortostan.

Volosts located along an arc from northwestern to northeastern Bashkiria. The uprising is led by Salavat Yulaev, who gathered a large detachment and coordinated the actions of other rebel groups. Punishers sent significant forces against him. The rebel detachments, numbering several thousand people, repeatedly fought here with the teams of Colonel tsarist army AND I. Yakubovich, majors I. Shterlich, Zholobov, Gagrin. These are, first of all, detachments of atamans Aladdin Bektuganov, Ait Saitov, Yarmukhamet Kadermetov, Arslan Rangulov, Abdulsalyam Ramzin. They fought steadfastly against regular troops; retreating, remained combat-ready; defeated and scattered, they again gathered forces, carried out mobilization, prepared weapons and equipment for themselves. Salavat Yulaev rendered all possible assistance to his associates atamans Aladdin Bektuganov and Yarmukhamet Kadermetov. At the end of July-September, rebel detachments in the interfluve of the Belaya and Bui engaged dozens of times in battle with teams of government troops and local punishers. On August 30, near the village of Muzyakino, the team of Shterlich was met by a united 2,000-strong detachment of Ait Saitov and Yarmukhamet Kadermetov. On September 4, Shterlich had to withstand the onslaught of Salavat Yulaev. Two days later, he again fought with Yarmukhamet Kadermetov.

Thus, the center of the insurgent movement in Bashkortostan was in the ring of government troops. As early as the summer of 1774, the activity of voluntary punishers from among the local population increased.

On September 28, in the upper reaches of the Buy River near the village of Sikiyaz, the clerk I. Guryev with a team of recruits from the Perm province hardly managed to defeat a large detachment of Pugachevites.

The family of Yarmukhamet Kadermetov became the "prey" of the clerk.

The offensive of the troops, the betrayal and servitude of many foremen and centurions, the widespread notification of the population about the capture of E.I. Pugachev led to the decline of the uprising in Bashkiria. On November 22, the last battle took place and Salavat Yulaev. From now on, the two thousandth army of the Pugachev brigadier represented the entire rebellious Bashkortostan.

The vast majority of the population of Bashkortostan took part in the Peasants' War. And this was the best indicator of the community of interests of the masses.

Conclusion

The Pugachev movement was the last peasant war in the history of Russia. The peasant war was an ordeal, a real tragedy for the people. During military clashes, punitive operations of government troops, many people died from the massacre, and great damage was done to the country's economy. A feature of the war of 1773-1775 was that the Bashkirs became one of the main driving forces of the popular movement. Despite the scope of the people's struggle, the selflessness and heroism of the rebels, the Peasants' War was defeated. But this war had a certain effect on the course historical development countries.

List of used literature:

1. S. Taimasov. The uprising of 1773-74 in Bashkortostan. -Ufa, Kitap, 2000.

2. From the memoirs of the first director of the Izhbolda school in 1923, Islamov Agzyam. His manuscripts, preserved in the museum of the school.

3. From the memoirs of the first chairman of the collective farm Galiev Sharigi. His manuscripts.

4. I.M. Gvozdikov. Bashkortostan on the eve and during the Peasant War under the leadership of Pugachev. -Ufa, Kitap, 1999.

Peasant war of 1773-1775 (Pugachevshchina, Pugachev uprising, Pugachev rebellion)- the third peasant war in Russia against feudal serf oppression. It covered a huge territory: the Orenburg Territory, the Urals, the Urals, Western Siberia, the Middle and Lower Volga regions. Involved in the movement up to 100 thousand active rebels - Russian peasants, working layers of the Cossacks and non-Russian nationalities - openly revealing antagonistic class relations in the conditions of further development and strengthening of new relations in the bowels of the old system.

The situation in the country on the eve

The class struggle on the eve of the peasant war of 1773-1775 took the most diverse forms of social protest, which, however, did not affect the foundations of the existing system. It was only in the peasant war that the people spontaneously rose to fight for their national class interests: for the overthrow of the feudal system, but while maintaining the old, traditional forms of state power in the form of a monarchy headed by a "good peasant tsar".

On the eve of the peasant war, major uprisings engulfed up to 250,000 landlord, monastery, and mining peasants. The unrest affected the Kalmyks, Bashkirs and other peoples of the Trans-Volga region. In September 1771, an uprising broke out among the urban lower classes in Moscow. Years of unrest of the labor Cossacks of the Yaitsky army led in January 1772 to an uprising against the foremen's elite. In 1772 there were unrest among the Cossacks of the Volga and Don villages. The government of Catherine II with great difficulty kept the people in obedience. The war with Turkey in 1768-74 and the events in Poland further complicated the situation in the country, aroused people's dissatisfaction with new hardships.

The beginning of the uprising

The peasant war began in September 1773 in the Volga steppes with a new uprising. Yaik Cossacks, headed by the Don Cossack E.I. Pugachev. Back in August 1773, he gathered reliable supporters from the Cossacks on farms near the Yaitsky town, while seeing the main social force of the movement not in the Cossacks, but in the serfs. Pugachev took the name of Emperor Peter III, which objectively corresponded to the naive-monarchist illusions that lived among the people. By mid-September 1773, preparations for the uprising were completed. Pugachev gathered the first rebel detachment of 80 Cossacks. On September 17, he published a manifesto to whom he granted the Cossacks, Tatars and Kalmyks who served in the Yaik army with old Cossack liberties and privileges. On September 19, the rebels approached the Yaitsky town, but, having no artillery, refused to storm the fortress. From here, Pugachev undertook a campaign to Orenburg, replenishing the detachment with Cossacks, soldiers, Tatars, Kalmyks, Kazakhs and landlord peasants, capturing guns, weapons and ammunition. On October 5, the rebels blocked Orenburg, having up to 2.5 thousand fighters with 20 guns, and kept it under siege for about 6 months.

The siege of Orenburg and the first military successes

Rumors about the military successes of the rebels caused spontaneous unrest among the landlord and mining peasants and the non-Russian population of the Orenburg province. Pugachev began the systematic organization of the uprising, spreading it to new areas. Envoys were sent from Berdskaya Sloboda to villages and factories with manifestos of Pugachev, who announced to the people eternal will, freed them from forced labor for landlords and factory owners, from taxes and duties, granted land, called for the extermination of serf-owners, proclaimed freedom for any religion. A significant part of the Orenburg province passed under the authority of the rebel center. Thousands of volunteers went to the camp of the rebels. The peasants brought food and fodder, guns, weapons, and ammunition were delivered from the Ural factories.

By the beginning of December 1773, Pugachev's detachments near Orenburg had up to 25 thousand fighters with 86 guns. To control the army, Pugachev created the Military Collegium, which at the same time was the administrative and political center of the uprising. The government organized a punitive detachment led by General Kar. In early November, he came to the aid of the besieged Orenburg, but in the battle of November 7-9 near the village of Yuzeeva he was defeated. In November, other punitive detachments were defeated, following to Orenburg from Simbirsk and Siberia. In November 1773 - early January 1774, the uprising swept the Southern Urals, a significant part of the Kazan province, Western Siberia, Western Kazakhstan. The people of Bashkiria rebelled, led by Kinzei Arslanov, Salavat Yulaev. Large pockets of insurgent movement were formed near Ufa - I. Chika-Zarubi, Yekaterinburg - I. Beloborodov, Chelyabinsk - I. Gryaznov, Samara - I. Arapov, Zainsk - V. Tornov, Kungur and Krasnoufimsk - I. Kuznetsov, Salavat Yulaev, Yaitsky town - M. Tolkachev). The lack of a unified strategic plan, weak communication with remote areas of the uprising led to the fact that the Military Collegium was unable to lead the movement throughout the entire territory. Busy with the siege of Orenburg and the Yaitsky town, Pugachev abandoned the campaign in the Volga region, which was ready for an uprising. This limited the strategic base of the peasant war, allowed the government to gain time and gather military forces.

Military defeats and expansion of the Peasants' War area

In December 1773, several cavalry and infantry regiments headed by General A.I. Bibikov were sent to the areas of the uprising, which led the offensive and inflicted a number of defeats on the rebels near Samara, Kungur, Buzuluk. Pugachev was unable to provide assistance to his avant-garde detachments, who fought an unequal struggle and retreated along the entire front. Only after the fall of Buzuluk, he withdrew part of the forces from Orenburg and tried to stop the further advance of the enemy. For the general battle, Pugachev chose the heavily fortified Tatishchev fortress. In the battle of March 22, the rebels were defeated, lost all artillery and suffered heavy losses. On March 24, the corps of Lieutenant Colonel Mikhelson defeated the rebels near Ufa, and soon captured their chieftain I Chika-Zarubin. Having lifted the siege of Orenburg, Pugachev retreated to Kargala, where on April 1 he gave a new battle to the punitive troops, but, having suffered heavy losses, having lost prominent assistants captured (M. Shigaev, T. Podurov, A. Vitoshnov, M. Gorshkov, I. Pochitalin), took refuge in the Ural Mountains.

Large centers of the uprising were defeated by mid-April 1774, but separate detachments were active in the Zakamsk Territory, in Bashkiria (Salavat Yulaev), in the factories of the Southern Urals (Beloborodov), in the Orenburg steppes (Ovchinnikov). Pugachev led an active organization of the new rebel army, with his appeals raised the whole of Bashkiria, the factory Urals to rebellion. Having gathered 5 thousand fighters, Pugachev captured the Magnetic Fortress on May 6 (May 6) and joined here with the detachments of Beloborodov and Ovchinnikov. Moving up the Yaik, he stormed the Trinity Fortress), but on May 20 he was defeated and again went to the Ural Mountains. The Michelson corps, pursuing Pugachev, inflicted a number of defeats on him, but Pugachev, skillfully using the tactics of partisan struggle, each time evaded pursuit and saved the main forces from the final defeat, and then again gathered thousands of detachments. Forced out of the regions of the factory Urals by mid-June 1774, Pugachev decided to withdraw his troops to Kazan, take it and undertake a long-planned campaign against Moscow. On July 12, rebel detachments stormed Kazan, captured the suburbs and the city, but could not take the fortresses, where the remnants of the garrison settled, and were defeated by Michelson's corps that came to the rescue. A new battle for Kazan took place on July 15. Having lost all the artillery, up to 2 thousand killed and 5 thousand prisoners, Pugachev withdrew to the north and crossed to the right bank of the Volga near Sundyr.

Defeat of the uprising

The appearance of the rebels on the right bank of the Volga caused a general peasant uprising, supported by the non-Russian peoples of the Volga region. On July 18, Pugachev published a manifesto on the liberation of the peasants from serfdom, on the gratuitous transfer of land to the people, on the widespread extermination of the nobles. The forces of the rebels grew. In the Volga region, in addition to the main rebel army, there were numerous peasant detachments, numbering hundreds and thousands of fighters. The movement covered most of the Volga districts, approached the borders of the Moscow province, really threatened Moscow, where the urban lower classes, factory and lordly people were worried. There were real conditions for the campaign of the insurgent army against Moscow, relying on the numerous centers of the peasant movement. But Pugachev made a strategic mistake, leaving the areas of the greatest scope of the peasant movement, and rushed with the main forces to the south, to the Don, where he hoped to replenish the detachments with Don Cossacks and only then undertake a campaign against Moscow. Pugachev's detachments, moving south, met the support of the common people everywhere. On July 20, the rebels took Kurmysh, July 23 - Alatyr, July 27 - Saransk, August 2 - Penza, August 4 - Petrovsk, August 6 - Saratov. Gathering volunteers from peasants, townspeople and Cossacks, Pugachev went farther south, leaving behind dozens of local, scattered rebel detachments.

The erroneous strategic plan of Pugachev allowed the punishers to defeat the peasant movement in the Middle Volga region in parts, to push the main rebel forces to the south - to the sparsely populated areas of the Lower Volga region. In August 1774, Catherine II gathered a huge army to fight the rebels: up to 20 infantry and cavalry regiments, Cossack units and noble corps. Pugachev's army managed to take Dmitrievsk (Kamyshin) and Dubovka, to drag the Kalmyks along with them, but the attempt to take Tsaritsyn by storm failed. Here Pugachev left many Don Cossacks, Kalmyks left. Pursued by Michelson's corps, Pugachev retreated to Cherny Yar, having lost hope of raising the Don Cossacks to revolt. On August 25, the last thing happened at the Solenikova gang major battle. Due to the betrayal of a group of conspirators - the Yaik Cossack foremen - the rebels lost their artillery at the beginning of the battle. Pugachev was defeated, fled to the trans-Volga steppes, but was soon arrested and taken to the Yaitsky town on September 15.

The investigation of Pugachev was carried out in Yaitsky town, Simbirsk and in Moscow, where other prominent figures of the Peasant War were taken. On January 10, 1775, Pugachev, Perfilyev, Shigaev, Podurov and Tornov were executed in Moscow on Bolotnaya Square by a court verdict; the rest of the accused were subjected to corporal punishment and were sent to hard labor. In February 1775, Chika-Zarubin was executed in Ufa. The peasant war did not end after the defeat of the main insurgent. troops. Until November 1774, detachments of Salavat Yulaev were active in Bashkiria. The peasants of the Middle Volga and Central provinces continued to fight. The movement in the Lower Volga region was suppressed only by the summer of 1775. Mass repressions against the population of the Volga region and the Orenburg province continued until the middle of 1775.

The reasons for the defeat and the results of the Peasant War led by Emelyan Pugachev

The peasant war of 1773-1775 suffered a defeat, inevitable for any spontaneous uprising of the peasantry in the era of feudalism. The reasons for the defeat of the Peasants' War were rooted in the spontaneity and fragmentation of the movement, in the absence of a clearly conscious program of struggle. Pugachev and his Military Collegium were unable to organize an army for a successful fight against government troops. Spontaneous performance of the people ruling class and the state opposed the regular army, the administrative and police apparatus, finances, the church. The people suffered a heavy defeat, but gained experience in the revolutionary struggle. The Peasant War shook the people's faith in the inviolability of the feudal system and hastened the collapse of serfdom. The subsequent development of the class struggle of the Russian peasantry in the 18th and 19th centuries proceeded under the influence of the example of the Peasant War. Fear of a new peasant war forced tsarism in 1861 to carry out the peasant reform of 1861.

• The main driving force behind the uprising was the Yaik Cossacks. Throughout the 18th century, they lost privileges and liberties one by one, but there were still times complete independence from Moscow and Cossack democracy.
• No less tension was present among the heterodox peoples of the Urals and the Volga region. The development of the Urals that began in the 18th century and the active colonization of the lands of the Volga region, the construction and development of military border lines, the expansion of the Orenburg, Yaik and Siberian Cossack troops with the allocation of land that previously belonged to local nomadic peoples, intolerant religious policy led to numerous unrest among the Bashkirs, Tatars, Mordovians, Chuvashs, Udmurts, Kazakhs, Kalmyks.
• The situation in the rapidly growing factories of the Urals was also explosive. Since Peter the Great, the government has been solving the problem work force in metallurgy, mainly by assigning state peasants to state-owned and private mining plants.
• In this situation, the most fantastic rumors about imminent liberty or about the transfer of all peasants to the treasury easily found their way, about the ready decree of the tsar, who was killed by his wife and boyars for this, that the tsar was not killed, but he hides until better times - they all fell on the fertile ground of general human dissatisfaction with their present position. There was simply no legal opportunity to defend their interests with all groups of future participants in the performance.

Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev

• Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev was born in 1742 in the homeland of Stepan Razin - in the village of Zimoveyskaya on the Don. During the years of the Seven Years and Russian-Turkish wars, he fought bravely and received the rank of cornet for success in his service. In 1771, Pugachev deserted from the army, was caught several times, fled. In August 1773, he went to Yaik and declared himself "miraculously saved" by Emperor Peter 3. Soon he managed to rouse the Cossacks to rebellion.
• "Tsar Pyotr Fedorovich" was a brave, energetic man, possessed of outstanding military and administrative abilities. To attract new supporters to his side, Pugachev sent out "charming letters." In them, he promised to make all participants in the movement free Cossacks, welcome them with land, lands, a “cross” and a “beard”, herbs, lead, gunpowder, free them from recruitment kits, high taxes, called for the execution of landowners and bribe-takers-judges.
• He hoped to overthrow Catherine 2 and take the "father's throne", on which he would be his "muzhik" king for the people. Such a program attracted more and more people to his side. Peasants, working people, Tatars, Bashkirs, Kalmyks joined the Yaik Cossacks. All of them saw in Pugachev a liberator from the oppression of the landowners and the tsarist authorities.

First stage

• It began on September 17, 1773 with Pugachev's speech to the Cossacks, in which he "revealed the secret of his name." The very next day, the number of his supporters, who initially numbered only 80 people, doubled. For three weeks, more and more new forces poured into Pugachev's detachment, and he himself conquered one fortress after another almost without a fight. October 5 "Pyotr Fedorovich" approached Orenburg and laid siege to it. The number of rebels who participated in the siege was about 30 thousand people. Among them were the Bashkirs, headed by Salavat Yulaev, mining and factory workers in the Urals.
• Meanwhile, the government sent a detachment of General Kara numbering 1.5 thousand people against the rebels. It was defeated by detachments of Pugachev's associates - A. Ovchinnikov and I Zarubin-Chiki. Panic seized not only the "Orenburg inmates", but also Kazan. Fears began to be expressed in St. Petersburg. General A. I. Bibikov wrote to the tsarina: “It’s not Pugachev that matters, it’s the general indignation that matters.”
• The siege of Orenburg lasted six months and did not bring success to the rebels. In the meantime, large government forces were assembled against them, led by Bibikov. The battle of the tsarist army and the forces of the rebels took place on March 22, 1774 near the Tatishchev fortress. The king's troops were victorious. The first stage of the peasant war ended with the failure of Pugachev during the siege of Orenburg and in the battle near the Tatishchev fortress.

Second phase

• Lasted from April to July 1774. Pugachev lifted the siege from Orenburg, withdrew to the east (to the territory of Bashkiria and the Southern Urals). Here, the thinned army of the rebels was replenished by the working people of the Ural factories. They brought guns and equipment to Pugachev. Soon the number of rebels was 10 thousand people, and after the accession of the Udmurts, Maris and Chuvashs, it grew to 20 thousand. Pugachev led his army to Kazan. In July 1774, he managed to take the outskirts of the city. But the Kremlin, with the remnants of the tsarist garrison settled there, could not be occupied - the tsarist troops led by Michelson came to the aid of the besieged. The dispatch about the capture of Kazan and the proclamation of a campaign against Moscow by Pugachev horrified Catherine. By her order, a ship stood ready in St. Petersburg, ready at any moment to take her out of the country.

Third stage

• It was the most massive in terms of the composition of participants. It was the "peasant" stage. In an effort to attract the peasants to his side, Pugachev issued a manifesto on July 31, 1774, in which he freed them from serfdom and taxes. Peasant uprisings now flared up not only in the places of action of the Pugachev army, but also on the right bank of the Volga. Pugachev approached Tsaritsyn, but could not master him and was defeated. Having crossed to the left bank of the Volga with a small detachment, Pugachev was captured on September 12, 1774 and handed over to Mikhelson by the Cossack elite, who thus wanted to buy themselves forgiveness for participating in the peasant war.
• However, despite the defeat of Pugachev, the peasant uprisings were finally suppressed only a year later.

execution

• In November, all the main participants in the uprising were transferred to Moscow for a general investigation. During interrogation, E. I. Pugachev gave detailed testimony about his relatives, about his youth, about participation in the Don Cossack army in the Seven Years and Turkish Wars, about his wanderings around Russia, about his plans and intentions, about the course of the uprising.
• On December 30, the judges in the case of E. I. Pugachev gathered in the Throne Room of the Kremlin Palace. They heard the appointment of the court, and then the indictment was announced in the case of Pugachev and his associates. Early in the morning of December 31, he was transported under heavy escort from the casemates of the Mint to the chambers of the Kremlin Palace. After a questioning, the court ruled: "Emelka Pugachev to be quartered."
• Together with Pugachev, Afanasy Perfilyev was also sentenced to quartering. 3 more people - M. Shigaev, T. Podurov and V. Tornov were sentenced to hanging, and I. Zarubin - to beheading, and Chika-Zarubin was to be executed in Ufa, the siege of which he led.
• On Saturday, January 10, 1775, an execution was carried out on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow. Pugachev behaved with dignity, ascending the place of execution, crossed himself on the cathedrals of the Kremlin, bowed on four sides with the words "Forgive me, Orthodox people."
• The captive Salavat Yulaev was taken and subjected to executions in the Bashkir villages, after which, having pulled out his nostrils, he was exiled to hard labor.

• To bring down the wave of rebellions, punitive detachments began mass executions. In every village, in every town that received Pugachev, on the gallows from which they barely had time to remove the officers, landowners, judges hanged by the impostor, they began to hang the leaders of the riots and the city heads and chieftains of local detachments appointed by the Pugachevites. To enhance the frightening effect, the gallows were mounted on rafts and launched along the main rivers of the uprising.

Results of the Peasants' War

• After the executions and punishments of the main participants in the uprising, Catherine II, in order to eradicate any mention of events related to the Pugachev movement, issued decrees on renaming all places associated with these events.
• By decree of February 22, 1784, the nobility of the local nobility was fixed. Tatar and Bashkir princes and murzas are equated in rights and liberties with the Russian nobility.
• The policy towards the Cossack troops has been adjusted, the process of their transformation into army units is accelerating. The nobility is more actively transferred to Cossack officers.
• The peasant war did not change anything for the better in the situation of the peasantry, the indigenous peoples of the Volga and Ural regions. Only at some mining plants in the Urals were measures taken to increase wages and improve working conditions for workers.
• But the peasant war, which shook the feudal-serf empire of Catherine II to its very foundations, forced the authorities to look for ways to resolve the peasant issue, which remained the most important in the public life of Russia, since the specter of "Pugachevism" began to haunt the landowners and government representatives from then on.

• Bibliography

• 1. Danilov, A. A. History of Russia: the end of the XVl - XVlll century [Text]: textbook. for 7 cells. general education institutions / A. A. Danilov, L. G. Kosulina. - M.: Enlightenment, 2007. - S.180-183

• 2. Celebrities of Russia. Pugachev Emelyan Ivanovich - biography [Electronic resource]: http://www.bankgorodov.ru
• 3. Pugachev, Emelyan Ivanovich [Electronic resource]: http://en.wikipedia.org

Introduction

Background and causes of the uprising of 1773 - 1775

1 Background of the uprising

2 Causes of the peasant war

3 Personality E.I. Pugacheva

The course of the uprising, its main stages

1 Participants in the uprising

Stage 2 I: the beginning of the uprising

Stage 3 II: the peak of the uprising

Stage 4 III: suppression of the uprising

Reasons for the defeat of the uprising

The results of the peasant war of 1773 - 1775

Conclusion

Introduction

In the second half of the 18th century, Russia moved into the ranks of great powers. Major achievements in the economic, political and cultural development raised the prestige of the country.

The development of large-scale industry led to the inclusion in class struggle the so-called ascribed peasants and working people of manufactories. The spontaneous uprisings of the oppressed peoples of the outlying regions of Russia against feudal enslavement and tax hardships also reinforced the class struggle of the Russian peasants.

The class struggle in the period of late feudalism is characterized by the highest aggravation of social conflicts, the transformation of popular movements against the exploiters into broad and formidable armed uprisings aimed at overthrowing the feudal-serf system. Four peasant wars and the further development of the mass peasant movement ultimately determined the fall of peasant law.

The purpose of the abstract: to analyze, on the basis of existing literature, the course of the peasant war led by E.I. Pugacheva

The objectives of this abstract:

To identify the prerequisites and causes of the peasant war.

Describe the stages of hostilities in 1773 - 1775.

Explore the reasons for the defeat of the peasants.

Analyze the results of the peasant war.

Peasant war led by E.I. Pugachev is the most relevant topic, which examines the true motives and aspirations of the peasant population, the reconstruction of a holistic class struggle against the oppressors, as well as a historical, comparative and sociological analysis of the content of documents of this time, represent an urgent problem of historical science. They need further study, in terms of the political consequences that they caused.

The Pugachev uprising became the subject of attention of writers and poets, revolutionaries and educators. Artists and scientists who sometimes had not only direct, but nothing to do with history.

The historiography of the Pugachev uprising began to take shape back in the days when the glow of fires of burning noble estates swayed in the Volga region. Notes, additions and other materials that came out from the pen of contemporaries of the uprising, often participants in its suppression, being sometimes journalistic works, at one time, later became historical sources. They are of interest to us, since they testify to how the formidable peasant movement was assessed by representatives of various state class groups. One of the first works of this kind are "Day notes" of the Orenburg priest Ivan Osipov. Eyewitness notes speak about the political convictions of their author, about his attitude towards the uprising.

Describing the class struggle of the peasantry in Russia, F. Engels wrote that the Peasant War in Russia in 1773-1775. - this is "the last great peasant uprising." He emphasized that the Russian people staged "endless scattered peasant uprisings", which he distinguished from the "great peasant uprising" led by Pugachev.

N.N. Firsov in his works emphasized that Pugachev's uprising, "deeply suffered", was aimed at achieving, first of all, "liberties" and establishing a "common peasant kingdom." He paints the uprising itself in gloomy colors, emphasizing the cruelty and "vices of the rabble hordes of the impostor."

Noble and bourgeois historians such as N. Dubrovin and D. Anuchin, P. Struve and S. Bulgakov characterized the peasant uprising as a senseless and merciless rebellion that swept through the Volga region and the Urals, claimed many lives, destroyed the material values ​​of the peasants.

Naturally, the Pugachev uprising attracted the attention of prominent Russian writers. A.S. wrote about him. Pushkin in The Captain's Daughter, M.Yu. Lermontov in "Vadim", T.G. Shevchenko in "Moskaleva Krinitsa" and in the story "Twins", the writer - democrat D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak, who created his vivid work “Ohonin’s Eyebrows”, truthfully and vividly depicts the Pugachev uprising in the Urals.

Historiography of the Peasants' War of 1773-1775. over time, it takes on a new character. It is not limited to the historical works proper, the works of professional historians, but covers the works of representatives of advanced, progressive social and political thought, journalism, fiction, art, theater, music, cinema, because in the work of the masters of pen and brush, stage and screen, the interest of the broad masses in the Pugachev uprising is reflected, which is very important.

1. Background and causes of the uprising of 1773 - 1775

1 Background of the uprising

The peasant war led by Emelyan Pugachev (or simply Pugachevism) in the east captured the West Siberian regions, in the north it reached Perm, in the west - to Tambov and in the south - to the Lower Volga. In total, the Pugachev region covered an area of ​​​​more than 600 thousand square kilometers, shaking "the state from Siberia to Moscow and from the Kuban to the Murom forests" (A.S. Pushkin). His reason was the miraculous announcement of the escaped "Tsar Peter Fedorovich." At its core, Pugachevism had a complex of reasons that were different for each of the groups of participants, but with a one-time addition, they led to actually the most grandiose civil war in the history of Russia up to the war of the Reds and Whites.

The main driving force behind the uprising was the Yaik Cossacks. Throughout the 18th century, they lost privileges and liberties one after another, but the memory still remained of the times of complete independence from Moscow and Cossack democracy. No less tension was present among the native peoples of the Urals and the Volga region (Bashkirs, Tatars, Mordovians, Udmurts, Kalmyks and Kazakhs). The situation in the rapidly growing factories of the Urals was also explosive. The situation in the rapidly 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-owned and private mining plants, allowing new breeders to buy serf villages and granting the informal 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. At the same time, it was very convenient to take advantage of the lawlessness and hopeless situation of the fugitives, and 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 labor, while the situation of peasants in serf estates was little better. The economic situation in the country, which was almost constantly waging one war after another, was difficult, in addition, the gallant age required the nobles to follow latest mods and trends. Therefore, the landowners increase the area of ​​crops, corvee increases. The peasants themselves become a marketable commodity, they are mortgaged, exchanged, they simply lose by entire villages. On top of this, the Decree of Catherine II of August 22, 1767 on the prohibition of peasants to complain about the landowners followed. In conditions of complete impunity and personal dependence, the slavish position of the peasants is aggravated by the whims, whims, or real crimes happening on the estates, and most of them were left without investigation and consequences.

In this situation, the most fantastic rumors about imminent liberty or about the transfer of all peasants to the treasury easily found their way, about the ready decree of the tsar, who was killed by his wife and boyars for this, that the tsar was not killed, but he hides until better times - all of them fell on the fertile ground of general human dissatisfaction with their present position. There was simply no legal opportunity to defend their interests with all groups of future participants in the performance.

2 Causes of the peasant war

The dissatisfaction of the people main reason uprisings. And each part of the social group that participated in the peasant war had its own grounds for discontent.

The peasants were outraged by their disenfranchised position. They could be sold, played at cards, given away without their consent to work at a factory, etc. The situation was aggravated by the fact that in 1767 Catherine II issued a decree forbidding peasants to complain to the court or the empress about the landlords.

The attached nationalities (Chuvash, Bashkirs, Udmurts, Tatars, Kalmyks, Kazakhs) were dissatisfied with the oppression of their faith, the seizure of their lands and the construction of military installations on their territories.

The Cossacks did not like that their freedom was being infringed upon. Their rights were increasingly limited: for example, they could no longer choose and remove the chieftain as before. Now the Military Collegium did it for them. The state also established a monopoly on salt, which undermined the economy of the Cossacks. The fact is that the Cossacks mainly lived by selling fish and caviar, and salt played an important role in increasing their shelf life. The Cossacks were not allowed to extract salt themselves, the Cossacks were also not happy with this. Finally, the Cossack army abandoned the pursuit of the Kalmyks, which was ordered to them by the top. The government sent a detachment to pacify the Cossacks. The Cossacks responded to this only with a new uprising, which was brutally suppressed. People were horrified by the punishments of the main instigators and were tense.

The reasons for the uprising can also include all kinds of rumors that circulated among the people. It was rumored that Emperor Peter III survived, that it was planned to soon release the serfs and grant them lands. These words, unconfirmed by anything, kept the peasants in tension, which was ready to turn into an uprising.

Also speaking about the reasons for the Pugachev uprising, one cannot but say about the leader himself. After all, in those days there were many impostors, and only he was able to gather thousands of people around him. All this thanks to his mind and personality.

1.3 Personality of E.I. Pugacheva

Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev (1742-1775) was a native of the simple Don Cossacks of the village of Zimoveyskaya on the Don. As a young man, he helped his father to cultivate arable land. Then, as part of a Cossack detachment, he participated in the Seven Years' War with Prussia, and later in the Russian-Turkish War of 1768-1774, where he gained rich combat experience. He was especially good at artillery. In the army, he was beaten with a whip for offense, promoted to the rank of cornet for bravery. Ill, asked to resign. Not having received it, he fled and began to wander.

Having escaped from the army, Pugachev experienced many vicissitudes of fate, he was repeatedly arrested, he fled and went into hiding. Sometimes with the help of guards - "knew the word." According to him, "I walked the whole earth with my feet." He pretended to be either a merchant or an Old Believer suffering for the faith. Pugachev decided to impersonate the miraculously saved Emperor Peter III. He said: "I could not endure the oppression of the people, in all of Russia the poor mob suffers great insults and ruin." In Belarus, among the schismatics, he hears news about "Peter III" (one of the impostors who appeared then), about the uprising on Yaik. Soldier Logachev, who saw Peter III, told Pugachev that they were similar. So the finest hour of Pugachev came.

Bold, intelligent and possessing considerable adventurous inclinations, Pugachev decided to impersonate the "miraculously saved" Emperor Peter III.

2. The course of the uprising, its main stages

1 Participants in the uprising

The movement under the leadership of Pugachev began among the Cossacks. Particular scope was given to the uprising by the participation in it of serfs, artisans, working people and ascribed peasants of the Urals, as well as Bashkirs, Mari, Tatars, Udmurts and other peoples of the Volga region. Like his predecessors, B.I. Pugachev was distinguished by religious tolerance. Under his banner, Orthodox, and Old Believers, and Muslims, and pagans fought together. They were united by hatred of serfdom.

"Amazing samples of folk eloquence" called A.S. Pushkin several manifestos and decrees of E.I. Pugachev, giving an idea of ​​the main slogans of the rebels. In form, these documents differed from the "charming letters" of I.I. Bolotnikova and S.T. Razin. Under the conditions of the existing administrative and bureaucratic apparatus of power, the leader of the rebels used the forms of state acts characteristic of the new stage in the development of the country - manifestos and decrees.

Historians called one of the most striking manifestos of E.I. Pugachev. "All who were previously in the peasantry and in the citizenship of the landowners" he favored "liberty and freedom", lands, hayfields, fishing and salt lakes "without purchase and without dues." The manifesto freed the population of the country "from taxes and burdens" "inflicted from the villains of the nobles and city bribe-takers."

Stage 2: the beginning of the uprising. (September 1773 - early April 1774)

The events of 1772-1773 paved the way for the organization of the insurgent core around E. Pugachev-Peter III. On July 2, 1773, a cruel sentence was executed on the leaders of the January uprising of 1772 in the Yaitsky town. 16 people were punished with a whip and, after cutting out their nostrils and burning out hard labor marks, they were sent to eternal hard labor in the Nerchinsk factories. 38 people were punished with a whip and exiled to Siberia for settlement. A number of Cossacks were sent to the soldiers. Moreover, a large amount of money was collected from the participants in the uprising to compensate for the ruined property of Ataman Tambovtsev, General Traubenberg and others. The verdict caused a new outburst of indignation among the ordinary Cossacks.

Meanwhile, rumors about the appearance of Emperor Peter III on Yaik and his intention to stand for the ordinary Cossacks quickly spread in the farms and penetrated into the Yaitsky town. In August and the first half of September 1773, the first detachment of Yaik Cossacks gathered around Pugachev. On September 17, the first manifesto of Pugachev - Emperor Peter III - was solemnly announced to the Yaik Cossacks, granting them with the Yaik River "from the peaks to the mouth, and land, and herbs, and monetary salaries, and lead, and gunpowder, and grain provisions." Having deployed banners prepared in advance, a detachment of rebels, numbering about 200 people armed with rifles, spears, and bows, marched towards the Yaitsky town.

The main driving force of the uprising was the Russian peasantry in alliance with the oppressed peoples of Bashkiria and the Volga region. The downtrodden, ignorant, completely illiterate peasantry, without the leadership of the working class, which had just begun to take shape, could not create its own organization, could not work out its own program. The demands of the rebels were the accession of a "good king" and the receipt of "eternal will." In the eyes of the rebels, such a king was the “peasant tsar”, “father tsar”, “emperor Pyotr Fedorovich”, the former Don Cossack Emelyan Pugachev.

Manifesto E.I. Pugachev to the Yaik army about granting him a river, land, cash salary and grain provisions, 1773, September 17

“The autocratic emperor, our great sovereign Pyotr Fedarovich of All Russia: and so on, and so on, and so on.

In my personal decree, the Yaik army is depicted: As you, my friends, served the former kings to the drop of your blood, uncles and your fathers, so you serve for your fatherland to me, the great sovereign Emperor Peter Fedaravich. When you stand up for your fatherland, and your Cossack glory will not expire from now to forever and with your children. Wake me, great sovereigns, complained: Cossacks and Kalmyks and Tatars. And which to me, sovereign Imperial Majesty Pyotr Fe (do) Ravich, there were wines, and I, Sovereign Pyotr Fedorovich, forgive and complain about all wines: from the top to the mouth, and earth, and herbs, and monetary salaries, and lead, and gunpowder, and grain rulers.

I, great sovereign emperor, favor you Pyotr Fedaravich.

Here it is naive monarchism, where the desire to believe in a miracle is stronger than reason. Where strengthened faith in the saved king makes people wholeheartedly come to someone who can give them what they want.

Thus, on September 18, 1773, the first rebel detachment, consisting mainly of Yaitsky Cossacks and organized on the steppe farms near the Yaitsky town (now the city of Uralsk), led by E. Pugachev, approached the Yaitsky town. There were about 200 people in the detachment. An attempt to take over the town ended in failure. In it stood a large detachment of regular troops with artillery. A second attack by the rebels on September 19 was repulsed by cannons. The rebel detachment, which replenished its ranks with Cossacks who had gone over to the side of the rebels, moved up the river. Yaik and on September 20, 1773 stopped near the Iletsk Cossack town (now the village of Ilek).

Even on the way from under the Yaitsky town to the Iletsk town, according to the old Cossack custom, a general circle was convened to select the ataman and the captains.

Andrey Ovchinnikov, a Yaitsky Cossack, was elected an ataman, Dmitry Lysov, also a Yaitsky Cossack, was elected a colonel, and a Yesaul and cornets were also elected. The first text of the oath was immediately drawn up, and all the Cossacks and elected chiefs swore allegiance to "the most illustrious, most powerful, great sovereign, Emperor Peter Fedorovich, to serve and obey in everything, not sparing his life to the last drop of blood." The rebel detachment already numbered several hundred people and had three guns taken from outposts.

The joining of the Iletsk Cossacks to the uprising or their negative attitude towards it was of great importance for the successful start of the uprising. Therefore, the rebels acted very carefully. Pugachev sends Andrei Ovchinnikov to the town, accompanied by a small number of Cossacks with two decrees of the same content: one of them he had to transfer to the ataman of the town Lazar Portnov, the other to the Cossacks. Lazar Portnov was supposed to announce the decree to the Cossack circle; if he does not do this, then the Cossacks had to read it themselves.

The decree, written on behalf of Emperor Peter III, said: “And whatever you wish, you will not be denied all benefits and salaries; and your glory will not expire until forever; and both you and your descendants are the first to learn under me, the great sovereign. And salaries, provisions, gunpowder and lead will always be enough from me.”

But before the rebel detachment approached the Iletsk town, Portnov, having received a message from the commandant of the Yaitsk town, Colonel Simonov, about the beginning of the uprising, gathered the Cossack circle and read Simonov's order to take precautionary measures. By his order, the bridge connecting the Iletsk town with the right bank, along which the insurgent detachment was moving, was dismantled.

At the same time, rumors about the appearance of Emperor Peter III and the freedoms granted to him reached the Cossacks of the town. The Cossacks were indecisive. Andrey Ovchinnikov put an end to their hesitation. The Cossacks decided with honor to meet the rebel detachment and their leader E. Pugachev - Tsar Peter III and join the uprising.

On September, the dismantled bridge was repaired and a detachment of rebels solemnly entered the town, greeted with bell ringing and bread and salt. All Iletsk Cossacks swore allegiance to Pugachev, they formed a special regiment. The Iletsk Cossack, later one of the main traitors, Ivan Tvorogov, was appointed colonel of the Iletsk army. E. Pugachev appointed a competent Iletsk Cossack Maxim Gorshkov as a secretary. All suitable artillery of the town was put in order and became part of the rebel artillery. Pugachev appointed the Yaik Cossack Fyodor Chumakov as head of artillery.

Two days later, the rebels, leaving the town of Iletsk, crossed to the right bank of the Urals and moved up the Yaik in the direction of Orenburg, the military and administrative center of the vast Orenburg province, which included within its borders a vast territory from the Caspian Sea in the south to the borders of the modern Yekaterinburg and Molotov regions - in the north. The goal of the rebels was the capture of Orenburg.

The capture of Orenburg was of great importance for further progress uprisings: firstly, it was possible to take weapons and various military equipment from the warehouses of the fortress, and secondly, the capture of the capital of the province would raise the authority of the rebels among the population. That is why they tried so persistently and stubbornly to seize Orenburg.

Around noon on October 5, 1773, the main forces of the rebel army appeared in sight of Orenburg and began to go around the city from the northeast side, going to Forstadt. The alarm went off in the city. The siege of Orenburg began, which lasted for half a year - until March 23, 1774. The garrison of the fortress during their sorties could not defeat the peasant troops. The assaults of the rebels were repelled by the artillery of the city, but in open battle success always remained on the side of the peasant army.

Upon learning of the approach of Golitsyn's corps, Pugachev moved away from Orenburg to meet the advancing troops.

The government understood the danger of the Pugachev uprising. On November 28, a state council was convened, and General-in-Chief Bibikov, who was equipped with extensive powers, was appointed commander of the troops to fight Pugachev, instead of Kara.

Strong military units were thrown into the Orenburg Territory: the corps of Major General Golitsyn, the detachment of General Mansurov, the detachment of General Larionov and the Siberian detachment of General Dekalong.

Until that time, the government tried to hide from the people the events near Orenburg and in Bashkiria. Only on December 23, 1773, the manifesto about Pugachev was published. The news of the peasant uprising spread throughout Russia.

December 1773, after the stubborn resistance of the detachment of Ataman Ilya Arapov, Samara was occupied. Arapov retreated to the Buzuluk fortress.

On February 1774, a large detachment of General Mansurov captured the Buzuluk fortress.

In February, a detachment of Prince Golitsyn moved from Buguruslan to the Samara line to connect with Major General Mansurov.

March Golitsyn's advance detachment entered the village of Pronkino and camped for the night. Warned by the peasants, Pugachev with chieftains Rechkin and Arapov at night, during a strong storm and snowstorm, made a forced march and attacked the detachment. The rebels broke into the village, seized the guns, but then were forced to retreat. Golitsyn, having withstood the attack of Pugachev. Under pressure from government troops, peasant detachments retreated up Samara, taking with them the population and supplies.

The decisive battle between the government troops and the peasant army took place on March 22, 1774 near the Tatishchev fortress. Pugachev concentrated here the main forces of the peasant army, about 9,000 people. The battle lasted over 6 hours. The peasant troops held out with such stamina that Prince Golitsyn wrote in his report to A. Bibikov:

“The matter was so important that I did not expect such impudence and orders in such unenlightened people in the military trade as these defeated rebels are.”

The peasant army lost about 2500 people killed (in one fortress 1315 people were found dead) and about 3300 people captured. Prominent commanders of the peasant army Ilya Arapov, soldier Zhilkin, Cossack Rechkin and others died near Tatishcheva. All the artillery of the rebels and the convoy fell into the hands of the enemy. This was the first major defeat of the rebels.

The defeat of the rebels near the Tatishchev fortress opened the way for government troops to Orenburg. On March 23, Pugachev, with a detachment of two thousand men, headed across the steppe to the Perevolotsk fortress in order to break through the Samara line to the Yaitsky town. Having stumbled upon a strong detachment of government troops, he was forced to turn back.

March was broken peasant army near Ufa. Its head, Chika-Zarubin, fled to Tabynsk, but was treacherously captured and extradited.

Pugachev, pursued by the tsarist troops, with the remnants of his detachments hastily retreated to Berda, and from there to Seitova Sloboda and the Sakmarsky town. Here, on April 1, 1774, in a fierce battle, the rebels were again defeated. The leader of the uprising E. Pugachev left with a small detachment through Tashla to Bashkiria.

In the battle near the Sakmarsky town, prominent leaders of the uprising were captured: Ivan Pochitalin, Andrey Vitoshnov, Maxim Gorshkov, Timofey Podurov, M. Shigaev and others.

April, government troops entered the Yaitsky Cossack town. A detachment of Yaik and Iletsk Cossacks in the amount of 300 people under the command of chieftains Ovchinnikov and Perfilyev broke through the Samara line and went to Bashkiria to join Pugachev.

The attempt of the Orenburg and Stavropol Kalmyks to break into Bashkiria ended less happily - only an insignificant part of them could go there. The rest went to the Zasamara steppes. On May 23, they were defeated by government troops. The Kalmyk leader Derbetov died of his wounds.

The events of the beginning of April 1774 basically ended the Orenburg period of the peasant war under the leadership of E. Pugachev.

Stage 3 II: the peak of the uprising (April - mid-July 1774)

At the 2nd stage, the main events unfolded on the territory of Bashkiria. Kaskyn Samarov, Kutlugildy Abdrakhmanov, Selyausin Kinzin and others acted in the south. Karanay Muratov fought against the punitive detachments in the area of ​​the Sterlitamak pier.

With the approach of Pugachev's main troops, the struggle on the Osinskaya and Kazanskaya roads intensified. Through the Pokrovsky, Avzyan-Petrovsky, Beloretsky factories and the Magnetic Fortress, Pugachev went to the Bashkir Trans-Urals ..

On May 1774, the Pugachevites occupied the Trinity Fortress, and on May 21, the Dekalong detachment, hurrying to catch up with Pugachev, approached it. Pugachev had an army of more than 11,000 people, but it was not trained, poorly armed, and therefore was defeated in the battle near the Trinity Fortress. Pugachev retreated towards Chelyabinsk. Here, at the fortress of Varlamova, he was met by a detachment of Colonel Michelson and suffered a new defeat. From here, Pugachev's troops retreated to the Ural Mountains.

In May 1774, the commander of the regiment of "working people" of the Ural factories, Afanasy Khlopusha, was executed in Orenburg. According to a contemporary, “they cut off his head, and right there, close to the scaffold, they stuck his head on the spire on the gallows, in the middle, which was removed this year in May and in the last days.”

After several battles with government troops, he turned to the north of Bashkiria and on June 21 took Osa.

Having replenished the army, Pugachev moved to Kazan and attacked it on July 11. The city was taken, with the exception of the Kremlin. During the storming of Kazan by the peasant troops, the guard officer of the Buguruslan rebel ataman Gavrila Davydov, who was brought there after his capture, was stabbed to death in prison. But on July 12, troops under the command of Colonel Mikhelson approached Kazan. In a battle that lasted more than two days, Pugachev was again defeated and lost about 7,000 people.

Having been defeated in bloody battles with the punitive corps of I.I. Michelson near Kazan, the rebels crossed the Volga on July 16-17.

Although Pugachev's army was beaten, the uprising was not suppressed. When Pugachev, after the defeat in Kazan, crossed to the right bank of the Volga and sent out his manifestos to the peasants, urging them to fight against the nobles and officials, granting them freedom, the peasants began to revolt without waiting for his arrival. This gave him momentum. The army grew and grew.

Manifesto E.I. Pugachev to the landlord peasants about granting them freedom, lands and exemption from the poll tax, 1774, July 31

By the grace of God, we, Peter the Third, Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia: and so on, and so on, and so on.

Dressed in national news.

By this personal decree, with our royal and paternal mercy, we grant everyone who was previously in the peasantry and under the citizenship of the landlords to be loyal slaves to our own crown, and we reward with an ancient cross and prayer, heads and beards, wave and freedom and forever Cossacks, without requiring recruit sets , per capita and other monetary taxes, possession of lands, forests, hayfields and fishing, and salt lakes without purchase and without abrok, and we release all the nobles and bribe-takers-judges who were previously charged from villains and bribe-takers-judges by the peasant and all the people of imposed taxes and burdens. And we wish you the salvation of souls and peace in the light of life, for which we have tasted and suffered from the prescribed villainous nobles wandering and considerable disaster. And as now our name is flourishing in Russia by the power of the Almighty right hand, for this we command by this our nominal decree: who were previously nobles in their estates (ies) and vodchinas, these opponents of our power and rebellions of the empire and despoilers of peasants to catch, execute and hang and act in the same way, as they, not having Christianity in themselves, repaired with you, the peasants. After the extermination of which opponents and villainous nobles, everyone can feel the silence and a calm life, which will continue for a century.

The arrival of Pugachev was awaited by the workers and peasants of Central Russia, but he did not go to Moscow, but headed south, along the right bank of the Volga. This procession was victorious, Pugachev moved, almost without resistance, and occupied settlements, cities one after another. Everywhere he was met with bread and salt, with banners and icons.

This stage is characterized by the massive annexation of the Bashkirs, who now made up the majority in the Pugachev army and the working people of the mining factories of the Urals, which had a negative role due to the weakening of the organizing role of the main insurgent headquarters and the increase in government punitive forces in the Urals, under the pressure of which Pugachev begins to suffer tangible setbacks. . This forced him to move first to Kazan, and then cross the Volga. Thus ends the second stage of the peasant war.

2.4 Stage III: suppression of the uprising (July 1774-1775)

The th stage is characterized by the transfer of the center of movement to the Middle and Southern Volga regions. Salavat Yulaev remained in Bashkiria, who led the insurrectionary movement on the Siberian road, Karanai Muratov, Kaskin Samarov, Selyausin Kinzin - on Nogai. They held a significant contingent of government troops. The military command and local authorities viewed Bashkiria as a place where Pugachev could return for support.

In August, the Pugachev detachments approached Penza and took it almost without resistance. On August 4, Petrovka was taken, followed by Saratov in the coming days. Entering the city, Pugachev everywhere released prisoners from prison, opened bread and salt shops and distributed goods to the people.

August Dubovka was taken, and on August 21, the Pugachevites approached Tsaritsyn and stormed. Tsaritsyn was the first city after Orenburg that Pugachev could not take. Having learned that Michelson's detachment was approaching Tsaritsyn, he lifted the siege of the city, and went south, thinking of making his way to the Don and raising its entire population to rebellion.

A detachment of Colonel Michelson operated near Ufa. He defeated Chika's detachment and headed for the factories. Pugachev occupied the Magnitnaya fortress and moved to Kizilskaya. But, having learned about the approach of the Siberian detachment under the command of Dekalong, Pugachev went into the mountains along the Verkhne-Uiskaya line, burning all the fortresses on his way.

On the night of August 24-25, near Cherny Yar, the rebels were overtaken by Michelson's detachment. There was a big final battle. In this battle, Pugachev's army was finally defeated, losing more than 10,000 people killed and taken prisoner. Pugachev himself and several of his entourage managed to make their way to the left bank of the Volga. They intended to raise against the government the peoples who roamed the Caspian steppes, and arrived in a village located near the Bolshie Uzen river. I. Chika-Zarubin and I. Gubanov were executed in Ufa. 8 associates of Pugachev were exiled to life hard labor in the Rogervik fortress, 10 - to a settlement in the Kola jail. The capture of Kanzafar Usaev, the concentration of government troops in Bashkiria and the transfer of many foremen to punitive detachments forced the rebels to abandon the campaign against Ufa. After the capture of the Bashkir leaders of the Nogai road at the end of September and Salavat Yulaev on November 25, the uprising in Bashkiria began to wane. But individual rebel detachments continued to resist until the summer of 1775.

The government sent manifestos everywhere, in which they promised 10,000 rewards and forgiveness to those who extradite Pugachev. The Cossacks from the kulak elite, seeing that the uprising had turned into a campaign of the poor against the exploiters and oppressors, became more and more disillusioned with it. Close associates of Pugachev - Chumakov, Curds, Fedulov, Burnov, Zheleznov attacked Pugachev en masse like cowardly dogs, tied him up and handed him over to the authorities. Pugachev was delivered to the commandant of the Yaitsky town Simonov, and from there to Simbirsk.

November 1774 in an iron cage, like a wild beast, Pugachev, accompanied by his wife Sophia and son Trofim, was taken to Moscow, where the investigation began. The Commission of Inquiry tried to present the case in such a way that the uprising was prepared on the initiative of hostile states, but the course of the case inexorably showed that it was caused by unbearable oppression and exploitation to which the peoples of the region were subjected.

The empress appointed M.N. as the chairman of the commission of inquiry that interrogated Pugachev. Volkonsky, Moscow Governor-General, its members - P.S. Potemkina, S.I. Sheshkovsky, Chief Secretary of the Secret Expedition of the Senate. At the direction of Catherine II, the investigators again and again found out the roots of the "rebellion", "villainous intention" of Pugachev, who took on the name of Peter III. It still seemed to her that the essence of the matter lay in the imposture of Pugachev, who seduced the common people with "unrealizable and dreamy benefits." Again, they were looking for those who pushed him to rebellion - agents foreign countries, oppositionists from the highest representatives of the nobility or schismatics ...

December, two weeks later, Catherine II, who closely followed the progress of the investigation, directed it, determined by decree the composition of the court - 14 senators, 11 "persons" of the first three classes, 4 members of the Synod, 6 presidents of the collegiums. Vyazemsky headed the court. In it, contrary to the judicial practice included two main members of the commission of inquiry - Volkonsky and Potemkin.

According to the verdict of the Senate, approved by Catherine II, Pugachev and four of his comrades were executed on January 10, 1775, in Moscow on Bolotnaya Square.

Pugachev peasant uprising

3. Reasons for the defeat of the uprising

The peasant war led by Emelyan Pugachev ended in the defeat of the rebels. It suffered from all the weaknesses that are inevitably inherent in peasant uprisings: vagueness of goals, spontaneity, fragmentation of the movement, the absence of a truly organized, disciplined and trained military force.

The spontaneity manifested itself primarily in the absence of a well-thought-out program. Not to mention the rank and file of the rebels, even the leaders, not excluding Pugachev himself, did not clearly and definitely imagine the order that would be established if they won.

But, despite the naive monarchism of the peasants, the anti-serfdom orientation of the Peasant War is clear. The slogans of the rebels are much clearer than in previous peasant wars and uprisings.

The leaders of the uprising did not have a unified plan of action, which was clearly reflected during the second offensive of government troops in January-March 1774. The rebel detachments were scattered over a vast territory and often acted completely independently, isolated from each other. Therefore, despite the heroism shown, they were individually defeated by government troops.

However, this does not detract from the enormous progressive significance of the uprising. The Peasant War of 1773-1775 dealt a serious blow to the feudal serf system, it undermined its foundations, shook the centuries-old foundations and contributed to the development of progressive ideas among the Russian intelligentsia. Which subsequently led to the liberation of the peasants in 1861.

4. The results of the peasant war of 1773-1775.

After carrying out executions and punishments of the main participants in the uprising, Catherine II, in order to eradicate any mention of events related to the Pugachev movement and putting her reign out of best light in Europe, first issued decrees to rename all places associated with these events. So, the village of Zimoveyskaya on the Don, where Pugachev was born, was renamed Potemkinskaya, and the house where Pugachev was born was ordered to be burned. The Yaik River was renamed the Ural, the Yaitsky army - the Ural Cossack army, the Yaitsky town - Uralsk, the Verkhne-Yaik pier - Verkhneuralsk. The name of Pugachev was anathematized in churches along with Stenka Razin, to describe the events it is possible to use only words like “well-known popular confusion”, etc.

In 1775, the provincial reform followed, according to which the provinces were disaggregated, and there were 50 instead of 20.

The policy towards the Cossack troops has been adjusted, the process of their transformation into army units is accelerating. Cossack officers are more actively transferred to the nobility with the right to own their own serfs, thereby establishing the military foreman as a stronghold of the government. At the same time, economic concessions are being made in relation to the Ural army.

Approximately the same policy is carried out in relation to the peoples of the uprising region. By decree of February 22, 1784, the nobility 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, however, only of the Muslim faith. But at the same time, an attempt to enslave the non-Russian population of the region was abandoned, the Bashkirs, Kalmyks and Mishars were left in the position of the military service population. In 1798, canton administration was introduced in Bashkiria; in the newly formed 24 canton regions, administration was carried out on a military basis. Kalmyks are also transferred to the rights of the Cossack estate.

In 1775, the Kazakhs were allowed to roam within the traditional pastures that fell outside the border lines along the Urals and the Irtysh. But this indulgence came into conflict with the interests of the expanding border Cossack troops, part of these lands had already been formalized as estates of the new Cossack nobility or farms of ordinary Cossacks. Friction led to the fact that the unrest that had calmed down in the Kazakh steppes unfolded with renewed vigor. The leader of the uprising, which eventually lasted more than 20 years, was Srym Datov, a member of the Pugachev movement.

The Pugachev uprising caused great damage to the metallurgy of the Urals. 64 of the 129 factories that existed in the Urals fully joined the uprising, the number of peasants assigned to them was 40 thousand people. The total amount of losses from the destruction and downtime of plants is estimated at 5,536,193 rubles. And although the factories were quickly restored, the uprising forced them to make concessions in relation to the factory workers. The chief investigator in the Urals, Captain S.I. Mavrin, reported that the ascribed peasants, whom he considered the leading force of the uprising, supplied the impostor with weapons and joined his detachments, because the breeders oppressed their ascribed, forcing the peasants to travel long distances to the factories, did not allow them engage in arable farming and sell them products at inflated prices. Mavrin believed that decisive measures must be taken to prevent such unrest in the future. Catherine wrote to G.A. Potemkin that Mavrin "what he says about the factory peasants, everything is very thorough, and I think that there is nothing else to do with them, how to buy factories and, when there are state-owned ones, then make the peasants lean." On May 19, 1779, a manifesto was issued on general rules the use of peasants assigned to state-owned and particular enterprises, which somewhat limited the breeders in the use of peasants assigned to factories, limited the working day and increased wages.

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

Conclusion

characteristics of the uprising. All peasant wars are inherent common features and at the same time each of them had its own characteristics. Peasant War 1773-1775 was the most powerful.

It was characterized by a higher degree of organization of the rebels. They copied some of the government bodies of Russia. Under the emperor, there was a headquarters, a military board with an office. The main army was divided into regiments, communication was maintained, including by sending written orders, reports and other documents.

The peasant war of 1773-1775, despite its unprecedented scope, was a chain of independent (local) uprisings limited to a certain area. Peasants rarely left the boundaries of their village, county. The peasant detachments, and indeed the main army of Pugachev, were much inferior to the government army in terms of armament, training, and discipline.

List of used literature

1. Muratov Kh.I. Peasant War 1773-1775 in Russia. M., Military Publishing, 1954

2.Limonov Yu.A. Emelyan Pugachev and his associates. M.1977

Orlov A.S. History of Russia from ancient times to the present day. Textbook. - M.: PBOYuL, 2001.

Pushkin A.S. History of Pugachev. M.1950

Tutoring

Need help learning a topic?

Our experts will advise or provide tutoring services on topics of interest to you.
Submit an application indicating the topic right now to find out about the possibility of obtaining a consultation.

When the first major outburst of indignation occurred, and until the uprising of 1772, the Cossacks write petitions to Orenburg and St. Petersburg, send the so-called "winter villages" - delegates from the army with a complaint against the atamans and local authorities. Sometimes they reached their goal, and especially unacceptable atamans 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 of Russia. General Traubenberg went with a detachment of soldiers to investigate direct disobedience to the order. The result of the punishments carried out by him was the Yaik Cossack uprising of 1772, during which General Traubenberg and the military ataman of Tambov were killed. Troops under the command of General F. Yu. Freiman were sent to suppress the uprising. The rebels were defeated near the Embulatovka River in June 1772; as a result of the defeat, the Cossack circles were finally liquidated, a garrison of government troops was stationed in the Yaik town, and all power over the army passed into the hands of the commandant of the garrison, Lieutenant Colonel I. D. Simonov. The perpetrated massacre of the captured instigators was extremely cruel and made a depressing impression on the army: the Cossacks had never been stigmatized before, their tongues had not been cut out. 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.

No less tension was present among the heterodox peoples of the Urals and the Volga region. The development of the Urals that began in the 18th century and the active colonization of the lands of the Volga region, the construction and development of military border lines, the expansion of the Orenburg, Yaik and Siberian Cossack troops with the allocation of land that previously belonged to local nomadic peoples, intolerant religious policy led to numerous unrest among the Bashkirs, Tatars, Kazakhs, Mordovians, Chuvashs, Udmurts, Kalmyks (most of the latter, having broken through the Yaik border line, migrated to Western China in 1771).

The situation in the rapidly 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-owned and private mining factories, 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. At the same time, it was very convenient to take advantage of the lawlessness and hopeless situation of the fugitives, and 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 labor, while the situation of peasants in serf estates was little better. The economic situation in the country, which was almost constantly waging one war after another, was difficult, in addition, the gallant age required the nobles to follow the latest fashions and trends. Therefore, the landlords increase the area of ​​crops, the corvee increases. The peasants themselves become a marketable commodity, they are mortgaged, exchanged, they simply lose by entire villages. On top of this, the Decree of Catherine II of August 22, 1767 on the prohibition of peasants to complain about the landowners followed. In conditions of complete impunity and personal dependence, the slavish position of the peasants is aggravated by the whims, whims, or real crimes happening on the estates, and most of them were left without investigation and consequences.

In this situation, the most fantastic rumors about imminent liberty or about the transfer of all peasants to the treasury easily found their way, about the ready decree of the tsar, who was killed by his wife and boyars for this, that the tsar was not killed, but he hides until better times - all of them fell on the fertile ground of general human dissatisfaction with their present position. There was simply no legal opportunity to defend their interests with all groups of future participants in the performance.

The beginning of the uprising

Emelyan Pugachev. Portrait attached to the publication of the "History of the Pugachev rebellion" by A. S. Pushkin, 1834

Despite the fact that the internal readiness of the Yaik Cossacks for the uprising was high, the speech lacked a unifying idea, a core that would rally the hiding and hiding participants in the unrest of 1772. The rumor that Emperor Peter Fedorovich, who had miraculously escaped, appeared in the army (Emperor Peter III, who died during the coup after a six-month reign), instantly spread throughout Yaik.

Few of the Cossack leaders believed in the resurrected tsar, but everyone looked to see if this man was capable of leading, gathering under his banner an army capable of equaling the government. The man who called himself Peter III was Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev - a Don Cossack, a native of the Zimoveyskaya village (before that, Stepan Razin and Kondraty Bulavin had already given Russian history), a participant in the Seven Years' War and the war with Turkey 1768-1774.

Finding himself in the Trans-Volga steppes in the autumn of 1772, he stopped in Mechetnaya Sloboda and here, from the abbot of the Old Believer skete Filaret, he learned about unrest among the Yaik Cossacks. It is not known for certain where the idea to call himself a tsar was born in his head and what his initial plans were, but in November 1772 he arrived in the Yaitsky town and called himself Peter III at meetings with the Cossacks. Upon returning to the Irgiz, Pugachev was arrested and sent to Kazan, from where he fled at the end of May 1773. In August, he reappeared in the army, at the inn of Stepan Obolyaev, where he was visited by future closest associates - Shigaev, Zarubin, Karavaev, Myasnikov.

In September, hiding from search parties, Pugachev, accompanied by a group of Cossacks, arrived at the Budarinsky outpost, where on September 17 his first decree to the Yaik army was announced. The author of the decree was one of the few literate Cossacks, 19-year-old Ivan Pochitalin, sent by his father to serve the "king". From here, a detachment of 80 Cossacks headed up the Yaik. New supporters joined along the way, so that by the time September 18 arrived at the Yaitsky town, the detachment already numbered 300 people. On September 18, 1773, an attempt to cross the Chagan and enter the city ended in failure, but at the same time large group Cossacks, from among those sent by the commandant Simonov to defend the town, went over to the side of the impostor. A second attack by the rebels on September 19 was also repelled with artillery. The rebel detachment did not have its own cannons, so it was decided to move further up the Yaik, and on September 20 the Cossacks camped near the Iletsk town.

A circle was convened here, on which Andrey Ovchinnikov was elected as a marching ataman, all the Cossacks swore allegiance to the great sovereign Emperor Peter Fedorovich, after which Pugachev sent Ovchinnikov to the Iletsk town with decrees to the Cossacks: “ And whatever you wish, all benefits and salaries will not be denied to you; and your glory will not expire until forever; and both you and your descendants are the first in my presence, the great sovereign, learn» . Despite the opposition of the Iletsk ataman Portnov, Ovchinnikov convinced the local Cossacks to join the uprising, and they greeted Pugachev with bells and bread and salt.

All Iletsk Cossacks swore allegiance to Pugachev. The first execution took place: according to the complaints of the inhabitants - "he did great offenses to them and ruined them" - Portnov was hanged. A separate regiment was made up of the Iletsk Cossacks, headed by Ivan Tvorogov, the army got all the artillery of the town. The Yaik Cossack Fyodor Chumakov was appointed head of the artillery.

Map of the initial stage of the uprising

After a two-day meeting on further actions, it was decided to send the main forces to Orenburg, the capital of a vast region under the control of the hated Reinsdorp. On the way to Orenburg, there were small fortresses of the Nizhne-Yaitskaya distance of the Orenburg military line. The garrison of the fortresses was, as a rule, mixed - Cossacks and soldiers, their life and service are perfectly described by Pushkin in The Captain's Daughter.

And already on October 5, Pugachev's army approached the city, setting up a temporary camp five miles from it. Cossacks were sent to the ramparts, who managed to convey Pugachev's decree to the troops of the garrison with a call to lay down their arms and join the "sovereign". In response, cannons from the city rampart began shelling the rebels. On October 6, Reinsdorp ordered a sortie, a detachment of 1,500 people under the command of Major Naumov returned to the fortress after a two-hour battle. On October 7, a military council decided to defend behind the walls of the fortress under the cover of fortress artillery. One of the reasons for this decision was the fear of the transition of soldiers and Cossacks to the side of Pugachev. The raid showed that the soldiers fought reluctantly, Major Naumov reported that he had discovered “in his subordinates timidity and fear”.

Together with Karanay Muratov, Kaskin Samarov captured Sterlitamak and Tabynsk, from November 28, the Pugachevites under the command of Ataman Ivan Gubanov and Kaskyn Samarov laid siege to Ufa, from December 14, the siege was commanded by Ataman Chika-Zarubin. On December 23, Zarubin, at the head of a 10,000-strong detachment with 15 cannons, began an assault on the city, but was repulsed by cannon fire and energetic counterattacks from the garrison.

Ataman Ivan Gryaznov, who participated in the capture of Sterlitamak and Tabynsk, having gathered a detachment of factory peasants, captured the factories on the Belaya River (Voskresensky, Arkhangelsk, Bogoyavlensky factories). In early November, he proposed organizing the casting of cannons and cannonballs for them at nearby factories. Pugachev promoted him to colonel and sent him to organize detachments in the Iset province. There he took Satkinsky, Zlatoustovsky, Kyshtymsky and Kasli factories, Kundravinsky, Uvelsky and Varlamov settlements, the Chebarkul fortress, defeated the punitive teams sent against him, and by January with a detachment of four thousand approached Chelyabinsk.

In December 1773, Pugachev sent Ataman Mikhail Tolkachev with his decrees to the rulers of the Kazakh Younger Zhuz Nurali Khan and Sultan Dusala with an appeal to join his army, but the Khan decided to wait for developments, only horsemen of the Sarym Datula family joined Pugachev. On the way back, Tolkachev gathered Cossacks in his detachment in the fortresses and outposts on the lower Yaik and went with them to the Yaitsky town, collecting cannons, ammunition and provisions in the accompanying fortresses and outposts. On December 30, Tolkachev approached the Yaik town, seven miles from which he defeated and captured the Cossack team of foreman N.A. Mostovshchikov sent against him, in the evening of the same day he occupied the ancient district of the city - Kuren. Most of the Cossacks greeted their comrades and joined Tolkachev's detachment, the Cossacks of the senior side, the soldiers of the garrison, led by Lieutenant Colonel Simonov and Captain Krylov, locked themselves in the "retrenchment" - the fortress of the Mikhailo-Arkhangelsk Cathedral, the cathedral itself was its main citadel. Gunpowder was stored in the basement of the bell tower, and cannons and arrows were installed on the upper tiers. It was not possible to take the fortress on the move.

In total, according to rough estimates by historians, by the end of 1773 there were from 25 to 40 thousand people in the ranks of the Pugachev army, more than half of this number were Bashkir detachments. To control the troops, Pugachev created the Military Collegium, which served as an administrative and military center and conducted extensive correspondence with remote areas of the uprising. A. I. Vitoshnov, M. G. Shigaev, D. G. Skobychkin and I. A. Tvorogov were appointed judges of the Military Collegium, I. Ya. Pochitalin, secretary, M. D. Gorshkov.

The house of the "tsar's father-in-law" of the Cossack Kuznetsov - now the Pugachev Museum in Uralsk

In January 1774, ataman Ovchinnikov led a campaign to the lower reaches of Yaik, to Guryev town, stormed his Kremlin, captured rich trophies and replenished the detachment with local Cossacks, bringing them to Yaitsky town. At the same time, Pugachev himself arrived in the Yaitsky town. He took over the leadership of the protracted siege of the city fortress of the Mikhailo-Arkhangelsk Cathedral, but after an unsuccessful assault on January 20, he returned to the main army near Orenburg. At the end of January, Pugachev returned to the Yaitsky town, where a military circle was held, on which N. A. Kargin was chosen as the military chieftain, and A. P. Perfilyev and I. A. Fofanov as foremen. At the same time, the Cossacks, wanting to finally intermarry the tsar with the army, married him to the young Cossack woman Ustinya Kuznetsova. In the second half of February and early March 1774, Pugachev again personally led attempts to capture the besieged fortress. On February 19, the bell tower of St. Michael's Cathedral was blown up and destroyed by a mine dig, but each time the garrison managed to repulse the attacks of the besiegers.

Detachments of the Pugachevites under the command of Ivan Beloborodov, who grew up to 3 thousand people on the campaign, approached Yekaterinburg, capturing a number of surrounding fortresses and factories along the way, and on January 20 captured the Demidov Shaitansky plant as the main base of their operations.

The situation in the besieged Orenburg by this time was already critical, famine began in the city. Upon learning of the departure of Pugachev and Ovchinnikov with part of the troops to the Yaitsky town, Governor Reinsdorp decided to make a sortie on January 13 to Berdskaya Sloboda to lift the siege. But the unexpected attack did not work, sentinel Cossacks managed to raise the alarm. The chieftains M. Shigaev, D. Lysov, T. Podurov and Khlopusha, who remained in the camp, led their detachments to the ravine that surrounded the Berdskaya settlement and served as a natural defense line. The Orenburg corps were forced to fight in unfavorable conditions and suffered a severe defeat. With heavy losses, throwing cannons, weapons, ammunition and ammunition, the semi-encircled Orenburg troops hastily retreated to Orenburg under the cover of the city walls, losing only 281 people killed, 13 cannons with all their shells, a lot of weapons, ammunition and ammunition.

On January 25, 1774, the Pugachevites undertook the second and last assault on Ufa, Zarubin attacked the city from the southwest, from the left bank of the Belaya River, and Ataman Gubanov attacked from the east. At first, the detachments were successful and even broke into the outlying streets of the city, but there their offensive impulse was stopped by the defenders' canister fire. Having pulled all the available forces to the places of the breakthrough, the garrison drove out of the city, first Zarubin, and then Gubanov.

In early January, the Chelyabinsk Cossacks rebelled and tried to seize power in the city in the hope of getting help from the detachments of ataman Gryaznov, but were defeated by the city garrison. On January 10, Gryaznov unsuccessfully tried to take Chelyaba by storm, and on January 13, the 2,000-strong corps of General I. A. Dekolong, who approached from Siberia, entered Chelyaba. Throughout January, battles unfolded on the outskirts of the city, and on February 8, Dekolong took it for the best to leave the city to the Pugachevites.

On February 16, Khlopushi's detachment stormed the Iletsk Protection, killing all the officers, taking possession of weapons, ammunition and provisions, and taking with them convicts, Cossacks and soldiers fit for military service.

Military defeats and expansion of the Peasants' War area

When news reached Petersburg about the defeat of the expedition of V. A. Kara and the unauthorized departure of Kara himself to Moscow, Catherine II, by decree of November 27, appointed A. I. Bibikov as the new commander. The new punitive corps included 10 cavalry and infantry regiments, as well as 4 light field teams, hastily sent from the western and northwestern borders of the empire to Kazan and Samara, and besides them, all the garrisons and military units located in the uprising zone, and remnants of the Kara Corps. Bibikov arrived in Kazan on December 25, 1773, and immediately began the movement of regiments and brigades under the command of P. M. Golitsyn and P. D. Mansurov to Samara, Orenburg, Ufa, Menzelinsk, Kungur, besieged by the Pugachev troops. Already on December 29, led by Major K.I. Mufel, the 24th light field team, reinforced by two squadrons of Bakhmut hussars and other units, recaptured Samara. Arapov retreated to Alekseevsk with several dozens of Pugachev’s men who remained with him, but the brigade led by Mansurov defeated his detachments in the battles near Alekseevsk and at the Buzuluk fortress, after which in Sorochinskaya it joined on March 10 with the corps of General Golitsyn, who approached there, advancing from Kazan, defeating the rebels near Menzelinsk and Kungur.

Having received information about the advance of the Mansurov and Golitsyn brigades, Pugachev decided to withdraw the main forces from Orenburg, effectively lifting the siege, and concentrate the main forces in the Tatishchev fortress. Instead of the burnt walls, an ice rampart was built, and all available artillery was assembled. Soon a government detachment of 6500 people and 25 guns approached the fortress. The battle took place on March 22 and was extremely fierce. Prince Golitsyn wrote in his report to A. Bibikov: “The matter was so important that I did not expect such impudence and orders in such unenlightened people in the military craft, as these defeated rebels are”. When the situation became hopeless, Pugachev decided to return to Berdy. His retreat was left to cover the Cossack regiment of Ataman Ovchinnikov. With his regiment, he staunchly defended until the cannon charges ran out, and then, with three hundred Cossacks, he managed to break through the troops surrounding the fortress and retreated to the Nizhneozernaya fortress. This was the first major defeat of the rebels. Pugachev lost about 2 thousand people killed, 4 thousand wounded and captured, all artillery and convoy. Among the dead was ataman Ilya Arapov.

Map of the second stage of the Peasants' War

At the same time, the St. Petersburg Carabinieri Regiment under the command of I. Mikhelson, stationed before that in Poland and aimed at suppressing the uprising, arrived in Kazan on March 2, 1774 and, reinforced by cavalry units, was immediately sent to suppress the uprising in the Kama region. On March 24, in a battle near Ufa, near the village of Chesnokovka, he defeated the troops under the command of Chiki-Zarubin, and two days later captured Zarubin himself and his entourage. Having won victories on the territory of the Ufa and Iset provinces over the detachments of Salavat Yulaev and other Bashkir colonels, he failed to suppress the uprising of the Bashkirs as a whole, since the Bashkirs switched to partisan tactics.

Leaving the Mansurov brigade in the Tatishchev fortress, Golitsyn continued his march to Orenburg, where he entered on March 29, while Pugachev, having gathered his troops, tried to break through to the Yaik town, but having met government troops near the Perevolotsk fortress, he was forced to turn to the Sakmar town, where he decided to give battle to Golitsyn. In the battle on April 1, the rebels were again defeated, over 2800 people were captured, including Maxim Shigaev, Andrey Vitoshnov, Timofey Podurov, Ivan Pochitalin and others. Pugachev himself, breaking away from the enemy pursuit, fled with several hundred Cossacks to the Prechistenskaya fortress, and from there he went beyond the bend of the Belaya River, to the mining region of the Southern Urals, where the rebels had reliable support.

In early April, the brigade of P. D. Mansurov, reinforced by the Izyumsky hussar regiment and the Cossack detachment of the Yaik foreman M. M. Borodin, headed from the Tatishchev fortress to the Yaitsky town. The fortresses of Nizhneozernaya and Rassypnaya, the Iletsk town were taken from the Pugachevites, on April 12 the Cossack rebels were defeated at the Irtets outpost. In an effort to stop the advance of the punishers to their native Yaik town, the Cossacks, led by A. A. Ovchinnikov, A. P. Perfilyev and K. I. Dekhtyarev, decided to meet Mansurov. The meeting took place on April 15, 50 versts east of the Yaitsky town, near the Bykovka River. Having got involved in the battle, the Cossacks could not resist the regular troops, a retreat began, which gradually turned into a stampede. Pursued by the hussars, the Cossacks retreated to the Rubizhny outpost, losing hundreds of people killed, among whom was Dekhtyarev. Gathering people, Ataman Ovchinnikov led a detachment through the deaf steppes to the Southern Urals, to join the troops of Pugachev, who had gone beyond the Belaya River.

On the evening of April 15, when in the Yaik town they learned about the defeat at Bykovka, a group of Cossacks, wanting to curry favor with the punishers, tied up and handed over to Simonov atamans Kargin and Tolkachev. Mansurov entered the Yaitsky town on April 16, finally liberating the city fortress, besieged by the Pugachevites from December 30, 1773. The Cossacks who fled to the steppe were unable to break through to the main area of ​​the uprising, in May-July 1774, the teams of the Mansurov brigade and the Cossacks of the foreman's side began to search and defeat in the priyaitskaya steppe, near the Uzen and Irgiz rivers, the rebel detachments of F. I. Derbetev, S. L Rechkina, I. A. Fofanova.

In early April 1774, the corps of Second Major Gagrin, who approached from Yekaterinburg, defeated Tumanov's detachment located in Chelyaba. And on May 1, the team of Lieutenant Colonel D. Kandaurov, who approached from Astrakhan, recaptured the Guryev town from the rebels.

On April 9, 1774, AI Bibikov, commander of military operations against Pugachev, died. After him, Catherine II entrusted the command of the troops to lieutenant general F. F. Shcherbatov, as a senior in rank. Offended by the fact that it was not him who was appointed to the post of commander of the troops, sending small teams to the nearest fortresses and villages to conduct investigations and punishments, General Golitsyn with the main forces of his corps stayed in Orenburg for three months. The intrigues between the generals gave Pugachev a much-needed respite, he managed to gather scattered small detachments in the Southern Urals. The pursuit was also suspended by the spring thaw and floods on the rivers, which made the roads impassable.

Ural mine. Painting by the Demidov serf artist V. P. Khudoyarov

On the morning of May 5, Pugachev's 5,000-strong detachment approached the Magnetic Fortress. By this time, Pugachev's detachment consisted mainly of poorly armed factory peasants and a small number of personal Yaik guards under the command of Myasnikov, the detachment did not have a single gun. The beginning of the assault on Magnitnaya was unsuccessful, about 500 people died in the battle, Pugachev himself was wounded in his right hand. After withdrawing the troops from the fortress and discussing the situation, the rebels, under the cover of night darkness, made a new attempt and were able to break into the fortress and capture it. As trophies got 10 guns, guns, ammunition. On May 7, detachments of chieftains A. Ovchinnikov, A. Perfilyev, I. Beloborodov and S. Maksimov pulled up to Magnitnaya from different sides.

Heading up the Yaik, the rebels captured the fortresses of Karagay, Petropavlovsk and Stepnoy, and on May 20 they approached the largest Troitskaya. By this time, the detachment consisted of 10 thousand people. During the assault, the garrison tried to repulse the attack with artillery fire, but overcoming desperate resistance, the rebels broke into Troitskaya. Pugachev got artillery with shells and stocks of gunpowder, stocks of food and fodder. On the morning of May 21, the insurgents who were resting after the battle were attacked by the Dekolong corps. Taken by surprise, the Pugachevites suffered a heavy defeat, losing 4,000 people killed and the same number wounded and captured. Only one and a half thousand mounted Cossacks and Bashkirs were able to retreat along the road to Chelyabinsk.

Salavat Yulaev, who had recovered from his wound, managed to organize at that time in Bashkiria, east of Ufa, resistance to the Michelson detachment, covering Pugachev's army from his stubborn pursuit. In the battles that took place on May 6, 8, 17, 31, Salavat, although he did not succeed in them, did not allow significant losses to be inflicted on his troops. On June 3, he joined up with Pugachev, by which time the Bashkirs made up two-thirds of the total number of the rebel army. On June 3 and 5, on the Ai River, they gave new battles to Michelson. Neither side achieved the desired success. Retreating north, Pugachev regrouped his forces while Mikhelson withdrew to Ufa to drive off the Bashkir detachments operating near the city and resupply ammunition and provisions.

Taking advantage of the respite, Pugachev headed to Kazan. On June 10, the Krasnoufimskaya fortress was taken, on June 11, a victory was won in the battle near Kungur against the garrison that had made a sortie. Without attempting to storm Kungur, Pugachev turned west. On June 14, the vanguard of his troops under the command of Ivan Beloborodov and Salavat Yulaev approached the Kama town of Ose and blocked the city fortress. Four days later, the main forces of Pugachev came here and started siege battles with the garrison settled in the fortress. On June 21, the defenders of the fortress, having exhausted the possibilities of further resistance, capitulated. During this period, the adventurer merchant Astafy Dolgopolov (“Ivan Ivanov”) appeared to Pugachev, posing as the envoy of Tsarevich Paul and thus deciding to improve his financial situation. Pugachev unraveled his adventure, and Dolgopolov, by agreement with him, acted for some time as "a witness to the authenticity of Peter III."

Having mastered the Wasp, Pugachev ferried the army across the Kama, took the Votkinsk and Izhevsk ironworks, Yelabuga, Sarapul, Menzelinsk, Agryz, Zainsk, Mamadysh and other cities and fortresses along the way, and in the first days of July approached Kazan.

View of the Kazan Kremlin

A detachment under the command of Colonel Tolstoy came out to meet Pugachev, and on July 10, 12 miles from the city, the Pugachevites won a complete victory. The next day, a detachment of rebels camped near the city. “In the evening, in view of all Kazan residents, he (Pugachev) himself went to look out for the city, and returned to the camp, postponing the attack until the next morning”. On July 12, as a result of the assault, the suburbs and the main districts of the city were taken, the garrison remaining in the city locked itself in the Kazan Kremlin and prepared for the siege. A strong fire began in the city, in addition, Pugachev received news of the approach of Michelson's troops, who were following him on the heels of Ufa, so the Pugachev troops left the burning city. As a result of a short battle, Mikhelson made his way to the garrison of Kazan, Pugachev retreated across the Kazanka River. Both sides were preparing for the decisive battle, which took place on 15 July. Pugachev's army numbered 25 thousand people, but most of them were lightly armed peasants who had just joined the uprising, Tatar and Bashkir cavalry armed with bows, and a small number of remaining Cossacks. Competent actions of Mikhelson, who first of all hit the Yaik core of the Pugachevites, led to the complete defeat of the rebels, at least 2 thousand people died, about 5 thousand were taken prisoner, among whom was Colonel Ivan Beloborodov.

Announced to the public

We welcome this nominal decree with our royal and paternal
the mercy of all who were formerly in the peasantry and
in the citizenship of the landowners, to be loyal slaves
our own crown; and reward with an ancient cross
and prayer, heads and beards, liberty and freedom
and forever Cossacks, without requiring recruitment kits, capitation
and other monetary taxes, possession of lands, forests,
hayfields and fishing grounds, and salt pans
without purchase and without quitrent; and we free everyone from the previously committed
from the villains of the nobles and Gradtsk bribe-takers-judges to the peasant and everything
the people of imposed taxes and burdens. And we wish you the salvation of souls
and calm in the light of life, for which we have tasted and endured
from the prescribed villains-nobles, wanderings and considerable disasters.

And how is our name now by the power of the Almighty right hand in Russia
flourishes, for this sake we command this by our nominal decree:
who used to be nobles in their estates and vodchinas - these
opponents of our power and rebellions of the empire and despoilers
peasants, to catch, execute and hang, and to do likewise
how they, not having Christianity in themselves, repaired with you, the peasants.
After the extermination of which opponents and villainous nobles, anyone can
to feel the silence and calm life, which will continue until the century.

Given on July 31st, 1774.

By the grace of God, we, Peter the Third,

emperor and autocrat of the All-Russian and other,

And passing, and passing.

Even before the start of the battle on July 15, Pugachev announced in the camp that he would go from Kazan to Moscow. The rumor of this instantly spread to all the nearest villages, estates and towns. Despite the major defeat of the Pugachev army, the flames of the uprising engulfed the entire western bank of the Volga. Having crossed the Volga at Kokshaisk, below the village of Sundyr, Pugachev replenished his army with thousands of peasants. By this time, Salavat Yulaev and his detachments continued fighting near Ufa, the Bashkir detachments in the Pugachev detachment were led by Kinzya Arslanov. On July 20, Pugachev entered Kurmysh, on the 23rd he entered Alatyr without hindrance, after which he headed for Saransk. On July 28, a decree on freedom for the peasants was read out on the central square of Saransk, the residents were given supplies of salt and bread, the city treasury “driving through the city fortress and through the streets ... they threw the mob that had come from different districts”. On July 31, the same solemn meeting awaited Pugachev in Penza. The decrees caused numerous peasant uprisings in the Volga region, in total, scattered detachments operating within their estates numbered tens of thousands of fighters. The movement covered most of the Volga districts, approached the borders of the Moscow province, really threatened Moscow.

The publication of decrees (in fact, manifestos on the liberation of the peasants) in Saransk and Penza is called the culmination of the Peasant War. The decrees made a strong impression on the peasants, on the Old Believers hiding from persecution, on the opposite side - the nobles and on Catherine II herself. The enthusiasm that seized the peasants of the Volga region led to the fact that a population of more than a million people was involved in the uprising. They could not give Pugachev's army anything in the long-term military plan, since the peasant detachments acted 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 the army of Pugachev 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, at least 3 thousand nobles and government officials were killed in the summer of 1774.

In the second half of July 1774, when the flames of the Pugachev uprising approached the borders of the Moscow province and threatened Moscow itself, the alarmed empress was forced to agree to the proposal of Chancellor N.I. rebels. General F.F. Shcherbatov was expelled from this post on July 22, and by decree of July 29, Catherine II endowed Panin with emergency powers "in suppressing the rebellion and restoring internal order in the provinces of Orenburg, Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod". It is noteworthy that under the command of P.I. Panin, who in 1770 received the Order of St. George I class, distinguished himself in that battle and the Don cornet Emelyan Pugachev.

To speed up the conclusion of peace, the terms of the Kuchuk-Kaynarji peace treaty were softened, and the troops released on the Turkish borders - only 20 cavalry and infantry regiments - were withdrawn from the armies for action against Pugachev. As Ekaterina noted, against Pugachev “there are so many troops dressed up that such an army was almost terrible to the neighbors”. It is noteworthy that in August 1774 Lieutenant General Alexander Vasilievich Suvorov, at that time already one of the most successful Russian generals, was withdrawn from the 1st Army, which was in the Danubian principalities. Panin instructed Suvorov to command the troops that were supposed to defeat the main Pugachev army in the Volga region.

Suppression of the uprising

After Pugachev's triumphant entry into Saransk and Penza, everyone was expecting his march to Moscow. In Moscow, where the memories of the Plague Riot of 1771 were still fresh, seven regiments were pulled together under the personal command of P.I. Panin. The Moscow governor-general, Prince M.N. Volkonsky, ordered that artillery be placed near his house. The police stepped up surveillance and sent informants to crowded places in order to grab all those who sympathized with Pugachev. Mikhelson, who received the rank of colonel in July and pursued the rebels from Kazan, turned to Arzamas in order to block the road to the old capital. General Mansurov set out from Yaitsky town to Syzran, General Golitsyn - to Saransk. The punitive teams of Mufel and Mellin reported that everywhere Pugachev left rebellious villages behind him and they did not have time to pacify them all. “Not only peasants, but priests, monks, even archimandrites revolt sensitive and insensitive people”. Excerpts from the report of the captain of the Novokhopyorsky battalion Butrimovich are indicative:

“... I went to the village of Andreevskaya, where the peasants kept the landowner Dubensky under arrest to extradite him to Pugachev. I wanted to free him, but the village rebelled and dispersed the team. From that moment I went to the villages of Mr. Vysheslavtsev and Prince Maksyutin, but I also found them under arrest by the peasants, and I freed them, and took them to Verkhniy Lomov; from the village Maksyutin I saw as mountains. Kerensk was on fire, and returning to Verkhniy Lomov, he found out that all the inhabitants, except for the clerks, had rebelled when they learned about the construction of Kerensk. Instigators: one-palace Yak. Gubanov, Matv. Bochkov, and the Streltsy settlement of the tenth Bezborod. I wanted to seize them and present them to Voronezh, but the inhabitants not only did not allow me to do so, but they almost put me under their own guard, but I left them and heard the cry of the rioters 2 miles from the city. I don’t know how it all ended, but I heard that Kerensk, with the help of captured Turks, fought off the villain. On my journey everywhere I noticed among the people the spirit of rebellion and a tendency to the Pretender. Especially in the Tanbovsky district, the departments of Prince. Vyazemsky, in economic peasants, who, for the arrival of Pugachev, fixed bridges everywhere and repaired roads. In addition to that village of Lipny, the headman with the tenths, honoring me as an accomplice of the villain, came to me and fell on their knees.

Map final stage uprisings

But Pugachev turned south from Penza. Most historians indicate the reason for this is Pugachev's plans to attract the Volga and, especially, the Don Cossacks into their ranks. It is possible that another reason was the desire of the Yaik Cossacks, tired of fighting and having already lost their main chieftains, to hide again in the remote steppes of the lower Volga and Yaik, where they had already taken refuge once after the uprising of 1772. An indirect confirmation of such fatigue is the fact that it was during these days that a conspiracy of Cossack colonels began to surrender Pugachev to the government in exchange for receiving a pardon.

On August 4, the impostor's army took Petrovsk, and on August 6 surrounded Saratov. The governor with a part of the people along the Volga managed to get to Tsaritsyn and after the battle on August 7 Saratov was taken. Saratov priests in all churches served prayers for the health of Emperor Peter III. Here Pugachev sent a decree to the Kalmyk ruler Tsenden-Darzhe with an appeal to join his army. But by this time, the punitive detachments under the general command of Mikhelson were already literally on the heels of the Pugachevites, and on August 11 the city came under the control of government troops.

After Saratov, they went down the Volga to Kamyshin, which, like many cities before it, met Pugachev with bells 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 of whose members, together with the leader, Academician Georg Lovitz, were hanged along with local officials who had not managed to escape. Lovitz's son, Tobias, later also an academician, managed to survive. Having attached a 3,000-strong detachment of Kalmyks to themselves, the rebels entered the villages of the Volga army Antipovskaya and Karavainskaya, where they received wide support and from where messengers were sent to the Don with decrees on joining the Donets to the uprising. A detachment of government troops approaching from Tsaritsyn was defeated on the Proleika River near the village of Balyklevskaya. Further along the road was Dubovka, the capital of the Volga Cossack Host. Since the Volga Cossacks, led by the ataman, remained loyal to the government, the garrisons of the Volga cities strengthened the defense of Tsaritsyn, where a thousandth detachment of Don Cossacks under the command of the field ataman Perfilov arrived.

"The true image of the rebel and deceiver Emelka Pugachev." Engraving. Second half of the 1770s

On August 21, Pugachev tried to attack Tsaritsyn, but the assault failed. Having received news of the arriving Michelson corps, Pugachev hastened to lift the siege from Tsaritsyn, the rebels moved to the Black Yar. Panic broke out in Astrakhan. On August 24, at the Solenikova fishing gang, Pugachev was overtaken by Mikhelson. 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 died, among them ataman Ovchinnikov. Over 6,000 people were taken prisoner. Pugachev with the Cossacks, breaking up into small detachments, fled across the Volga. In pursuit of them, search detachments of Generals Mansurov and Golitsyn, the Yait foreman Borodin and the Don Colonel Tavinsky were sent. Not having time for the battle, Lieutenant General Suvorov also wished to participate in the capture. During August-September, most of the participants in the uprising were caught and sent for investigation to Yaitsky town, Simbirsk, Orenburg.

Pugachev fled to Uzen with a detachment of Cossacks, not knowing that since mid-August Chumakov, Curds, Fedulev and some other colonels had been discussing the possibility of earning forgiveness by surrendering the impostor. Under the pretext of facilitating the escape from the chase, they divided the detachment so as to separate the Cossacks loyal to Pugachev along with the ataman Perfilyev. On September 8, near the Bolshoi Uzen River, they pounced and tied Pugachev, after which Chumakov and Curds 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 delivered Pugachev to the Yaitsky town. The first interrogations took place, one of them was personally conducted by Suvorov, he also volunteered to escort the impostor to Simbirsk, where the main investigation was going on. For the transportation of Pugachev, a cramped cage was made, mounted on a two-wheeled cart, in which, shackled hand and foot, he could not even turn around. In Simbirsk, for five days, he was interrogated by P. S. Potemkin, head of the secret investigative commissions, and Count P. I. Panin, commander of the government's punitive troops.

Perfiliev and his detachment were captured on September 12 after a battle with punishers near the Derkul River.

Pugachev under escort. Engraving from the 1770s

At this time, in addition to scattered centers of the uprising, hostilities in Bashkiria had an organized character. Salavat Yulaev, together with his father Yulai Aznalin, led the rebel movement on the Siberian road, Karanai Muratov, Kachkyn Samarov, Selyausin Kinzin - on Nogaiskaya, Bazargul Yunaev, Yulaman Kushaev and Mukhamet Safarov - in the Bashkir Trans-Urals. They fettered a significant contingent of government troops. In early August, even a new assault on Ufa was undertaken, but as a result of poor organization of interaction between various detachments, it was unsuccessful. Kazakh detachments were alarmed by raids along the entire length of the border line. Governor Reinsdorp reported: “The Bashkirs and Kirghiz do not pacify, the latter are constantly crossing the Yaik, and people are being grabbed from near Orenburg. The local troops are either pursuing Pugachev or blocking his path, and I can’t go against the Kyrgyz, I exhort the Khan and the Saltans. They answered that they could not keep the Kirghiz, whom the whole horde was rebelling.. With the capture of Pugachev, the direction of the liberated government troops to Bashkiria, the transition of the Bashkir foremen to the side of the government began, many of them joined the punitive detachments. After the capture of Kanzafar Usaev and Salavat Yulaev, the uprising in Bashkiria began to wane. Mine last Stand Salavat Yulaev gave on November 20 under the Katav-Ivanovsky plant besieged by him and, after the defeat, was captured on November 25. But individual rebel detachments in Bashkiria continued to resist until the summer of 1775.

Until the summer of 1775, unrest continued in the Voronezh Governorate, in the Tambov District, and along the Khopra and Vorona rivers. Although the detachments operating were small and there was no coordination of joint actions, according to the eyewitness Major Sverchkov, “many landowners, leaving their homes and savings, drive off to remote places, and those who remain in their houses save their lives from threatening death, spend the night in the forests”. Frightened landlords said that “If the Voronezh provincial office does not speed up the extermination of those villainous gangs that turned out to be, then the same bloodshed will inevitably follow as it happened in the past rebellion.”

To bring down the wave of rebellions, punitive detachments began mass executions. In every village, in every town that received Pugachev, on the gallows and "verbs", from which they barely had time to remove the officers, landowners, and judges hanged by the impostor, they began to hang the leaders of the riots and the city heads and chieftains of local detachments appointed by the Pugachevites. To enhance the frightening effect, the gallows were mounted 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.

In November, all the main participants in the uprising were transferred to Moscow for a general investigation. They were placed in the building of the Mint at the Iberian Gates of Kitay-Gorod. The interrogations were led by Prince M.N. Volkonsky and Chief Secretary S.I. Sheshkovsky. During interrogation, E. I. Pugachev gave detailed testimony about his relatives, about his youth, about participation in the Don Cossack army in the Seven Years and Turkish Wars, about his wanderings in Russia and Poland, about his plans and intentions, about the course of the uprising. The investigators tried to find out whether the initiators of the uprising were agents of foreign states, or schismatics, or anyone from the nobility. Catherine II showed great interest in the course of the investigation. In the materials of the Moscow investigation, several notes of Catherine II to M.N. Volkonsky were preserved with wishes about the plan in which the inquiry should be conducted, which issues require the most complete and detailed investigation, which witnesses should be additionally interviewed. On December 5, M. N. Volkonsky and P. S. Potemkin signed a ruling to close the investigation, since Pugachev and other persons under investigation could not add anything new to their testimony during interrogations and could neither alleviate nor aggravate their guilt. In a report to Catherine, they were forced to admit that they “... they tried, during this investigation, to find the beginning of the evil undertaken by this monster and his accomplices, or ... to that evil enterprise by mentors. But for all that, nothing else was revealed, somehow, that in all his villainy, the first beginning took its place in the Yaik army..

The execution of Pugachev on Bolotnaya Square. (Drawing by an eyewitness to the execution of A. T. Bolotov)

On December 30, the judges in the case of E. I. Pugachev gathered in the Throne Room of the Kremlin Palace. They heard the manifesto of Catherine II on the appointment of the court, and then the indictment was announced in the case of Pugachev and his associates. Prince A. A. Vyazemsky offered to deliver Pugachev to the next court session. Early in the morning of December 31, he was transported under heavy escort from the casemates of the Mint to the chambers of the Kremlin Palace. At the beginning of the meeting, the judges approved the questions that Pugachev had to answer, after which he was led into the courtroom and forced to kneel. After a formal questioning, he was taken out of the hall, the court made a decision: "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 each of them to receive the appropriate type of execution or punishment. On Saturday, January 10, on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow, with a huge gathering of people, an execution was carried out. Pugachev behaved with dignity, having ascended to the place of execution, crossed himself at the Kremlin cathedrals, bowed on four sides with the words "Forgive me, Orthodox people." Sentenced to quartering E. I. Pugachev and A. P. Perfilyev, the executioner first cut off his head, such was the wish of the empress. On the same day, M. G. Shigaev, T. I. Podurov and V. I. Tornov were hanged. I. N. Zarubin-Chika was sent for execution to Ufa, where he was quartered in early February 1775.

Leaf shop. Painting by the Demidov serf artist P.F. Khudoyarov

The Pugachev uprising caused great damage to the metallurgy of the Urals. 64 of the 129 factories that existed in the Urals fully joined the uprising, the number of peasants assigned to them was 40 thousand people. The total amount of losses from the destruction and downtime of factories is estimated at 5,536,193 rubles. And although the factories were quickly restored, the uprising forced them to make concessions in relation to the factory workers. The chief investigator in the Urals, Captain S.I. Mavrin, reported that the ascribed peasants, whom he considered the leading force of the uprising, supplied the impostor with weapons and joined his detachments, because the breeders oppressed their ascribed, forcing the peasants to travel long distances to the factories, did not allow them engage in arable farming and sell them products at inflated prices. Mavrin believed that decisive measures must be taken to prevent such unrest in the future. Catherine wrote to G.A. Potemkin that Mavrin “what he says about the factory peasants, everything is very thorough, and I think that there is nothing else to do with them, how to buy factories and, when there are state-owned ones, then make the peasants lighter”. On May 19, 1779, a manifesto was issued on the general rules for the use of assigned peasants in state-owned and particular enterprises, which somewhat limited breeders in the use of peasants assigned to factories, limited the working day and increased wages.

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

Studies and collections of archival documents

• Pushkin A. S. "History of Pugachev" (censored title - "History of the Pugachev rebellion")
• Grotto Ya.K. Materials for the history of the Pugachev rebellion (Papers by Kara and Bibikov). Saint Petersburg, 1862
• Dubrovin N. F. Pugachev and his accomplices. An episode from the reign of Empress Catherine II. 1773-1774 According to unpublished sources. T. 1-3. SPb., type. N. I. Skorokhodova, 1884
• Pugachevshchina. Collection of documents.

Volume 1. From the Pugachev archive. Documents, decrees, correspondence. M.-L., Gosizdat, 1926. Volume 2. From investigative materials and official correspondence. M.-L., Gosizdat, 1929 Volume 3. From the archive of Pugachev. M.-L., Sotsekgiz, 1931

• Peasant War 1773-1775 in Russia. Documents from the collection of the State Historical Museum. M., 1973
• Peasant War 1773-1775 on the territory of Bashkiria. Collection of documents. Ufa, 1975
• Peasant war led by Emelyan Pugachev in Chuvashia. Collection of documents. Cheboksary, 1972
• Peasant war led by Emelyan Pugachev in Udmurtia. Collection of documents and materials. Izhevsk, 1974
• Gorban N. V. The peasantry of Western Siberia in the peasant war of 1773-75. // Questions of history. 1952. No. 11.
• Muratov Kh. I. The Peasant War of 1773-1775. in Russia. M., Military Publishing, 1954

Art

Pugachev uprising in fiction

• A. S. Pushkin "The Captain's Daughter"
• S. A. Yesenin "Pugachev" (poem)
• S. P. Zlobin "Salavat Yulaev"
• E. Fedorov "Stone Belt" (novel). Book 2 "Heirs"
• V. Ya. Shishkov "Emelyan Pugachev (novel)"
• V. I. Buganov "Pugachev" (biography in the series "Life of Remarkable People")
• V. I. Mashkovtsev "Golden Flower - Overcome" (historical novel). - Chelyabinsk, South Ural book publishing house,,.

Cinema

• Pugachev () - Feature Film. Director Pavel Petrov-Bytov
• Emelyan Pugachev () - historical dilogy: "Slaves of Freedom" and "Will Washed with Blood" directed by Alexei Saltykov
• The Captain's Daughter () - a feature film based on the story of the same name by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin
• Russian rebellion () - a historical film based on the works of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin "The Captain's Daughter" and "The Story of Pugachev"
• Salavat Yulaev () - feature film. Director Yakov Protazanov

Links

• Bolshakov L. N. Orenburg Pushkin Encyclopedia
• Vaganov M. Major Mirzabek Vaganov's report on his mission to Nurali Khan. March-June 1774 / Communication. V. Snezhnevsky // Russian antiquity, 1890. - T. 66. - No. 4. - S. 108-119. - Under the heading: On the history of the Pugachev rebellion. March - 1774 - June in the steppe of the Kirghiz-Kaisaks.
• Military travel journal of the commander of the punitive corps, Lieutenant Colonel Mikhelson I. I., about the military operations against the rebels in March - August 1774// Peasant war 1773-1775. in Russia. Documents from the collection of the State Historical Museum. - M.: Nauka, 1973. - S. 194-223.
• Gvozdikova I. Salavat Yulaev: historical portrait ("Belskie open spaces", 2004)
• Diary of a member of the noble militia of the Kazan province “About Pugachev. His villainous deeds// Peasant war 1773-1775. in Russia. Documents from the collection of the State Historical Museum. - M.: Nauka, 1973. - S. 58-65.
• Dobrotvorsky I. A. Pugachev on the Kama // Historical Bulletin, 1884. - T. 18. - No. 9. - P. 719-753.
• Catherine II. Letters from Empress Catherine II to A. I. Bibikov during the Pugachev rebellion (1774) / Soobshch. V. I. Lamansky // Russian archive, 1866. - Issue. 3. - Stb. 388-398.
• Peasant war led by Pugachev on the History of Orenburg region website
• Peasant war led by Pugachev (TSB)
• Kulaginskiy P. N. Pugachevtsy and Pugachev in Tresvyatsky-Yelabug in 1773-1775 / Message P. M. Makarov // Russian antiquity, 1882. - T. 33. - No. 2. - S. 291-312.
• Lopatin. Letter from Arzamas dated September 19, 1774 / Communication. A. I. Yazykov // Russian antiquity, 1874. - T. 10. - No. 7. - S. 617-618. - Under the title: Pugachevshchina.
• Mertvago D. B. Notes of Dmitry Borisovich Mertvago. 1790-1824. - M.: type. Gracheva and K, 1867. - XIV, 340 stb. - App. to the "Russian Archive" for 1867 (Issue 8-9).
• Determination of the Kazan nobility on the assembly of the cavalry corps of troops from their people against Pugachev// Readings in the Imperial Society of Russian History and Antiquities at Moscow University, 1864. - Prince. 3/4. Dep. 5. - S. 105-107.
• Oreus I.I. Ivan Ivanovich Mikhelson, winner of Pugachev. 1740-1807 // Russian antiquity, 1876. - T. 15. - No. 1. - S. 192-209.
• Pugachev sheets in Moscow. 1774 Materials// Russian antiquity, 1875. - T. 13. - No. 6. - S. 272-276. , No. 7. - S. 440-442.
• Pugachevshchina. New materials for the history of the Pugachev region// Russian antiquity, 1875. - T. 12. - No. 2. - S. 390-394; No. 3. - S. 540-544.

• Collection of documents on the history of the Pugachev uprising on the site Vostlit.info
• Cards: Map of the lands of the Yaik army, the Orenburg Territory and the Southern Urals, Map of the Saratov province (maps of the beginning of the 20th century)