Home Vegetable garden on the windowsill Popular uprising 1773 1775. Historical significance of the uprising. Pushkin in the village Berdy

Vegetable garden on the windowsill

Popular uprising 1773 1775. Historical significance of the uprising. Pushkin in the village Berdy

Introduction

Prerequisites and reasons for the uprising of 1773 - 1775

1 Prerequisites for the uprising

2 Causes of the Peasant War

3 Personality E.I. Pugacheva

The course of the uprising, its main stages

1 Participants of the uprising

2 Stage I: beginning of the uprising

3 Stage II: peak of the uprising

4 Stage III: suppression of the uprising

Reasons for the defeat of the uprising

Results of the Peasant War of 1773 - 1775

Conclusion

Introduction

In the second half of the 18th century, Russia emerged as a great power. Major achievements in economic, political and cultural development have raised the country's prestige.

The development of large-scale industry entailed the inclusion in the class struggle of the so-called assigned peasants and factory workers. Spontaneous uprisings of the oppressed peoples of the outlying regions of Russia against serfdom and tax burdens also reinforced the class struggle of 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 widespread 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, based on existing literature, the course of the peasant war under the leadership of E.I. Pugacheva

Objectives of this essay:

Identify the prerequisites and causes of the peasant war.

Describe the stages of military operations in 1773 - 1775.

Investigate the reasons for the defeat of the peasants.

Analyze the results of the peasant war.

Peasant war led by E.I. Pugacheva is the most hot topic, within the framework of which the true motives and aspirations of the peasant population are examined, the reconstruction of an integral class struggle against the oppressors, as well as historical, comparative and sociological analysis the contents of documents of this time represent a pressing problem historical science. They need further study from the perspective of the political consequences that they caused.

Pugachev uprising became the subject of attention of writers and poets, revolutionaries and educators. Artists and scientists who sometimes had not only a direct, but no relation to history.

The historiography of the Pugachev uprising began to take shape back in those days when the Volga region was swayed by the glow of fires of burning noble estates. Notes, additions and other materials from the pens of contemporaries of the uprising, often participants in its suppression, being, at times journalistic works, at one time, subsequently became historical sources. They are of interest to us because they indicate how the formidable peasant movement was assessed by representatives of various state class groupings. One of the first works of this kind is “Daily Notes” by Orenburg priest Ivan Osipov. Notes from an eyewitness speak about the political beliefs 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 emphasized in his works that Pugachev’s uprising was “deeply suffered” and was aimed at achieving, first of all, “freedom” and establishing a “common peasant kingdom.” He paints the uprising itself with 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 across the Volga region and the Urals, claiming many lives and destroying 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”, writer - democrat D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak, who created his vivid work “Okhon’s Eyebrows,” truthfully and vividly depicts the Pugachev uprising in the Urals.

Historiography Peasant War 1773-1775 Over time, it increasingly acquires a new character. It is not limited to the historical works themselves, the works of professional historians, but covers the works of representatives of advanced, progressive socio-political thought, journalism, fiction, fine arts, theater, music, cinema, as in the works of masters of the pen and brush, stage and screen is reflected, which is very important, the interest of the broad masses in Pugachev’s uprising.

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

1 Prerequisites for the uprising

The peasant war led by Emelyan Pugachev (or simply Pugachevism) in the east captured the Western Siberian regions, in the north it reached Perm, in the west - to Tambov and in the south - to the Lower Volga. In total, Pugachevism 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). The reason for this 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 when added together, they led to what was actually the most ambitious civil war in the history of Russia, right up to the war of the Reds and the Whites.

The main driving force behind the uprising were Yaik Cossacks. Throughout the 18th century, they lost privileges and liberties one after another, but the times still remained in their memory complete independence from Moscow and Cossack democracy. No less tension was present among the native peoples of the Urals and Volga region (Bashkirs, Tatars, Mordovians, Udmurts, Kalmyks and Kazakhs). The situation at the fast-growing factories of the Urals was also explosive. The situation at the fast-growing factories of the Urals was also explosive. Starting with Peter, the government solved the problem work force in metallurgy, mainly by assigning state peasants to state-owned and private mining factories, allowing new factory owners to buy serf villages and granting the unofficial right to keep runaway 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 lack of rights and hopeless situation of the fugitives, and if anyone began to express dissatisfaction with their situation, they were immediately handed over to the authorities for punishment. Former peasants resisted forced labor in factories.

Peasants assigned to state-owned and private factories dreamed of returning to their usual village labor, while the situation of peasants on serf estates was little better. The economic situation in the country, almost continuously waging one war after another, was difficult; in addition, the gallant age required the nobles to follow latest fashions and trends. Therefore, landowners increase the area under crops, and corvée increases. The peasants themselves become hot commodity, they are pawned, replaced, and simply lost by entire villages. To top it off, Catherine II issued a Decree of August 22, 1767, prohibiting peasants from complaining about landowners. In conditions of complete impunity and personal dependence, the slave position of the peasants is aggravated by the whims, caprices or real crimes occurring on the estates, and most of them were left without investigation or consequences.

In this situation, the most fantastic rumors easily found their way about imminent freedom or about the transfer of all the peasants to the treasury, about the ready decree of the tsar, whose wife and boyars were killed for this, that the tsar was not killed, but he is hiding until better times - all of them fell on the fertile soil of general human dissatisfaction with their current situation. There was simply no legal opportunity left for all groups of future participants in the performance to defend their interests.

2 Causes of the Peasant War

People's dissatisfaction - main reason uprisings And each part of the social group that participated in the peasant war had its own reasons for discontent.

The peasants were outraged by their powerless situation. They could be sold, lost at cards, given without their consent to work in a factory, etc. The situation was aggravated by the fact that in 1767 Catherine II issued a decree prohibiting peasants from complaining to the court or the empress about the landowners.

The annexed 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 structures 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 elect and remove the ataman as before. Now the Military Collegium did it for them. The state also established a monopoly on salt, which undermined the Cossack economy. 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 elite. 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 sorts of rumors that circulated among the people. It was rumored that Emperor Peter III had survived, that it was planned to liberate the serfs and grant them lands in the near future. These unsubstantiated words kept the peasants in tension, which was ready to result in an uprising.

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

1.3 Personality E.I. Pugacheva

Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev (1742-1775) came from simple Don Cossacks of the village of Zimoveyskaya on the Don. As a young man, he helped his father cultivate the arable land. Then, as part of a Cossack detachment, he participated in the Seven Years' War with Prussia, and later in Russian-Turkish war 1768-1774, where he acquired rich combat experience. He knew artillery especially well. In the army he was whipped for misconduct and promoted to the rank of cornet for bravery. Having fallen ill, he asked to resign. Not receiving it, he fled and began to wander.

Having escaped from the army, Pugachev experienced many vicissitudes of fate, he was arrested several times, he fled and hid. Sometimes with the help of security - “he knew his word.” In his words, “I walked all over the earth with my feet.” He pretended to be either a merchant or an Old Believer suffering for his faith. Pugachev decided to impersonate the miraculously escaped Emperor Peter III. He said: “I could not endure the oppression of the people; throughout all of Russia the poor mob is suffering great insults and devastation.” 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 looked alike. Thus came Pugachev’s finest hour.

Brave, 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 of the uprising

The movement under the leadership of Pugachev began among the Cossacks. The uprising was given a special scope by the participation in it of serfs, artisans, working people and assigned 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. Orthodox Christians, Old Believers, Muslims, and pagans fought together under his banner. They were united by hatred of serfdom.

A.S. called them “amazing examples of folk eloquence.” Pushkin several manifestos and decrees of E.I. Pugachev, giving an idea of the main slogans of the rebels. These documents differed in form from the “lovely letters” of I.I. Bolotnikov and S.T. Razin. In the conditions of the established administrative-bureaucratic apparatus of power, the leader of the rebels used forms of state acts characteristic of the new stage of the country's development - manifestos and decrees.

Historians called one of the most striking manifestos of E.I. “a charter to the peasantry.” Pugacheva. “All those who were previously in the peasantry and in the citizenship of the landowners” he granted “liberty and freedom,” lands, hayfields, fishing grounds and salt lakes “without purchase and without quitrent.” The manifesto freed the country's population "from taxes and burdens" "inflicted by the villains of the nobles and city bribe-takers."

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

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

Meanwhile, rumors about the appearance of Emperor Peter III on Yaik and his intention to stand for the ordinary Cossacks quickly spread in the villages and penetrated into Yaitsky town. In August and the first half of September 1773, the first detachment of Yaik Cossacks gathered around Pugachev. On September 17, the first manifesto of Pugachev - Emperor Peter III - was solemnly announced to the Yaik Cossacks, granting them the Yaik River “from the peaks to the mouth, and with earth, and herbs, and cash salaries, and lead, and gunpowder, and grain provisions.” Having unfurled pre-prepared banners, a detachment of rebels, numbering about 200 people, armed with guns, spears, and bows, set out for the Yaitsky town.

The main driving force of the uprising was the Russian peasantry in alliance with the oppressed peoples of Bashkiria and the Volga region. The downtrodden, ignorant, completely illiterate peasantry, without the leadership of the working class, which was just beginning to form, could not create its own organization, could not develop its own program. The rebels' demands were for the accession of a "good king" and the receipt of "eternal will." Such a king in the eyes of the rebels was the “peasant king”, “father tsar”, “Emperor Peter Fedorovich”, former Don Cossack Emelyan Pugachev.

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

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

In my personal decree it is depicted to the Yaik army: Just as you, my friends, served the former kings to the last drop of your blood, your uncles and fathers, so you will serve for your fatherland to me, the great sovereign Emperor Peter Fedaravich. When you stand up for your fatherland, and your Cossack glory does not expire from now to forever and from your children. Wake me, the great sovereigns, to grant: Cossacks and Kalmyks and Tatars. And which I, Sovereign Imperial Majesty Peter Fedorovich, were guilty of, and I, Sovereign Peter Fedorovich, forgive all guilt and reward you: with ryak from the top to the valley, and food, and herbs, and monetary salaries, and lead, and powder, and grain magistrates.

“I, the great Emperor, pity you, Pyotr Fedaravich.”

This is naive monarchism, where the desire to believe in a miracle is stronger than reason. Where strengthened faith in the saved king forces people with all their souls to come to the one 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 Uralsk), led by E. Pugachev, approached the Yaitsky town. The detachment consisted of about 200 people. The attempt to take possession of the town ended in failure. It contained a large detachment of regular troops with artillery. A repeated attack by the rebels on September 19 was repulsed by cannon fire. The rebel detachment, which replenished its ranks with Cossacks who went over to the side of the rebels, moved up the river. Yaik and on September 20, 1773 he stopped near the Iletsk Cossack town (now the village of Ilek).

Even on the way from near the Yaitsky town to the Iletsk town, a general circle was convened according to the ancient Cossack custom to select the ataman and esauls.

The Yaik Cossack Andrei Ovchinnikov was elected ataman, the also Yaik Cossack Dmitry Lysov was elected colonel, and the captain and cornet were also elected. The first text of the oath was immediately drawn up, and all the Cossacks and elected leaders swore allegiance to “the most illustrious, most powerful, great sovereign, Emperor Peter Fedorovich, to serve and obey in everything, not sparing their belly to the last drop of blood.” The rebel detachment already numbered several hundred people and had three cannons taken from the outposts.

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

The decree, written on behalf of Emperor Peter III, said: “And whatever you wish, all benefits and salaries will not be denied to you; and your glory will never expire; and both you and your descendants will be the first to obey me, the great sovereign. And I will always be given enough wages, provisions, gunpowder and lead.”

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

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

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

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

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

Around noon on October 5, 1773, the main forces of the rebel army appeared in sight of Orenburg and began to encircle the city from the northeastern side, reaching Forstadt. The alarm was sounded in the city. The siege of Orenburg began, lasting for six months - until March 23, 1774. The garrison of the fortress during its forays could not defeat the peasant troops. The rebels' assaults were repelled by the city's artillery, but in open battle success always remained on the side of the peasant army.

Having learned about the approach of Golitsyn’s corps, Pugachev moved away from Orenburg to meet the advancing troops.

The government realized the danger the Pugachev uprising posed. On November 28, the State Council was convened, and Chief General Bibikov, equipped with extensive powers, was appointed commander of the troops to fight Pugachev, instead of Kara.

Strong military units were sent to the Orenburg region: the corps of Major General Golitsyn, the detachment of General Mansurov, the detachment of General Larionov and the Siberian detachment of General Dekalong.

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

On December 1773, after stubborn resistance from 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 advanced detachment entered the village of Pronkino and settled down for the night. Warned by the peasants, Pugachev with the atamans Rechkin and Arapov at night, during a strong storm and blizzard, made a forced march and attacked the detachment. The rebels broke into the village, captured the guns, but were then forced to retreat. Golitsyn, withstanding Pugachev's attack. Under pressure from government troops, peasant detachments retreated up the Samara, taking with them the population and supplies.

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

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

The peasant army lost about 2,500 people killed (1,315 people were found killed in one fortress) and about 3,300 people captured. Prominent commanders of the peasant army Ilya Arapov, soldier Zhilkin, Cossack Rechkin and others died near Tatishcheva. All the rebel artillery and convoy fell into enemy hands. This was the first major defeat of the rebels.

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

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

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

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

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 atamans Ovchinnikov and Perfilyev broke through the Samara line and went to Bashkiria to join with Pugachev.

The attempt of the Orenburg and Stavropol Kalmyks to break into Bashkiria ended less happily - only a small part of them could go there. The rest went to the Trans-Samara steppes. On May 23 they were defeated by government forces. The Kalmyk leader Derbetov died from his wounds.

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

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

At the 2nd stage, the main events unfolded on the territory of Bashkiria. In the south, Kaskyn Samarov, Kutlugildy Abdrakhmanov, Selyausin Kinzin and others operated. In the area of the Sterlitamak pier, the fight against punitive detachments was led by Karanai Muratov.

With the approach of Pugachev's main troops, the struggle on the Osinskaya and Kazan roads intensified. Through Pokrovsky, Avzyano-Petrovsky, Beloretsk factories and the Magnetic Fortress, Pugachev headed to the Bashkir Trans-Urals.

On May 1774, the Pugachevites occupied the Trinity Fortress, and on May 21, Dekalong’s detachment approached it, hurrying to catch up with Pugachev. Pugachev had an army of more than 11,000 people, but it was untrained, poorly armed, and therefore was defeated in the battle of the Trinity Fortress. Pugachev retreated towards Chelyabinsk. Here, near the Varlamova fortress, he was met by a detachment of Colonel Michelson and suffered a new defeat. From here Pugachev's troops retreated to the Ural Mountains.

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

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

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 peasant troops, the Buguruslan rebel ataman Gavrila Davydov, who was taken there after his capture, was stabbed to death in prison by a guard officer. But on July 12, troops under the command of Colonel Michelson approached Kazan. In a battle that lasted more than two days, Pugachev was again defeated and lost about 7,000 people.

Having been defeated in bloody battles with the punitive corps of I.I. Mikhelson 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, calling on them to fight against the nobles and officials, granting them freedom, the peasants began to rebel without waiting for his arrival. This provided him with movement forward. The army replenished and grew.

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

By the grace of God we, Peter the third, are the emperor and autocrat of all Russia: and on and on, and on and on.

It is made public news.

By this named decree, with our royal and paternal mercy, we grant all those who were formerly in the peasantry and under the citizenship of the landowners, to be loyal slaves to our own crown, and we reward with the ancient cross and prayer, heads and beards, freedom and freedom and forever Cossacks, without requiring recruitment , per capita and other monetary taxes, ownership of lands, forests, hayfields and fishing grounds, and salt lakes without purchase and without abroki, and we free all previously imposed taxes and burdens from the villains of the nobles and bribe-taking city judges by the peasants and the entire people. And we wish you the salvation of souls and peace in the light of life, for which we tasted and suffered from the registered villains-nobles a journey and considerable misfortune. And since our name is now flourishing in Russia by the power of the Almighty Right Hand, for this reason we command by this decree of ours: who formerly were nobles in their estates and vodchinas, those who were opponents of our power and troublemakers of the empire and spoilers of the peasants are to be caught, executed and hanged and in the same way as they, not having Christianity in themselves, did with you peasants. After the destruction of the opponents and villainous nobles, everyone can experience the silence and calm life that will continue for centuries.

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

This stage is characterized by the massive accession of the Bashkirs, who now made up the majority in Pugachev’s 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 rebel headquarters and the increase in government punitive forces in the Urals, under the pressure of which Pugachev begins to suffer tangible failures . 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 region. Salavat Yulaev, who led the rebel movement on the Siberian Road, Karanai Muratov, Kaskyn Samarov, Selyausin Kinzin - on Nogai, remained in Bashkiria. They held a significant contingent of government troops. The military command and local authorities considered Bashkiria as a place where Pugachev could return for support.

In August, Pugachev’s troops approached Penza and took it almost without resistance. On August 4, Petrovok was captured, followed by Saratov in the coming days. Entering the city, Pugachev released prisoners from prison everywhere, opened bread and salt stores and distributed goods to the people.

On August 21, Dubovka was taken, and on August 21, the Pugachevites approached Tsaritsyn and launched an assault. Tsaritsyn turned out to be the first city after Orenburg that Pugachev could not take. Having learned that Mikhelson’s detachment was approaching Tsaritsyn, he lifted the siege of the city and went south, thinking of getting to the Don and raising its entire population in rebellion.

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

On the night of August 24-25, Mikhelson’s detachment overtook the rebels near Cherny Yar. The great final battle took place. In this battle, Pugachev's army was completely defeated, losing more than 10,000 people killed and captured. Pugachev himself and several of his associates managed to get to the left bank of the Volga. They intended to raise the peoples roaming the Caspian steppes against the government, and arrived in a village located near the Bolshiye Uzeni river. In Ufa, I. Chika-Zarubin and I. Gubanov were executed. 8 of Pugachev’s comrades-in-arms were exiled to lifelong hard labor in the Rogervik fortress, 10 to settlement in the Kola prison. The capture of Kanzafar Usaev, the concentration of government troops in Bashkiria and the transfer of many senior officers 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 groups continued resistance until the summer of 1775.

The government sent out manifestos everywhere, promising 10,000 rewards and forgiveness to anyone who would hand over Pugachev. The Cossacks from the kulak elite, seeing that the uprising had turned into a campaign of the poor against the exploiters and oppressors, became more and more disillusioned with it. Those close to Pugachev - Chumakov, Tvorogov, 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, as wild animal, Pugachev, accompanied by his wife Sophia and son Trofim, was taken to Moscow, where the investigation began. The investigative commission tried to present the case in such a way that the uprising was prepared on the initiative of hostile states, but the course of the case inexorably showed that it was caused by unbearable oppression and exploitation to which the peoples of the region were subjected.

The empress appointed M.N. as the chairman of the investigative commission 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, investigators again and again found out the roots of the “rebellion” and “villainous intentions” of Pugachev, who took the name of Peter III. It still seemed to her that the essence of the matter was the impostor of Pugachev, who seduced the common people with “unrealistic and dreamy benefits.” They again looked for those who pushed him to revolt - 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 and 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 boards. The court was headed by Vyazemsky. In spite of the judicial practice included two main members of the investigative commission - 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 under the leadership of Emelyan Pugachev ended in the defeat of the rebels. It suffered from all the weaknesses inevitably inherent in peasant uprisings: unclear goals, spontaneity, fragmentation of the movement, and the lack of truly organized, disciplined and trained military forces.

The spontaneity was reflected primarily in the absence of a well-thought-out program. Not to mention the ordinary rebels, even the leaders, not excluding Pugachev himself, did not clearly and definitely imagine the system 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 their heroism, they were separately defeated by government forces.

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. What subsequently led to the liberation of the peasants in 1861.

4. Results of the peasant war of 1773-1775.

After carrying out 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 and which did not put her rule in the best light in Europe, first of all, issued decrees to rename all places associated with these events. Thus, the village of Zimoveyskaya on the Don, where Pugachev was born, was renamed Potemkinskaya, and the house itself where Pugachev was born was ordered to be burned. The Yaik River was renamed into the Ural, the Yaitsky army - into the Ural Cossack army, the Yaitsky town - into Uralsk, and the Verkhne-Yaitskaya pier - into Verkhneuralsk. The name of Pugachev was anathematized in churches along with Stenka Razin; to describe events it is possible to use only words like “well-known popular confusion,” etc.

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

The policy towards the Cossack troops has been adjusted, and the process of their transformation into army units is accelerating. Cossack officers were increasingly given the nobility with the right to own their own serfs, thereby establishing the military sergeant major 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 being pursued in relation to the peoples of the region of the uprising. The decree of February 22, 1784 established the nobility of the local nobility. Tatar and Bashkir princes and Murzas are equal in rights and liberties to the Russian nobility, including the right to own serfs, although only of the Muslim religion. But at the same time, the 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, cantonal administration was introduced in Bashkiria; in the newly formed 24 canton regions, administration was carried out on a military basis. Kalmyks were also transferred to the rights of the Cossack class.

In 1775, Kazakhs were allowed to roam within traditional pastures that fell outside the border lines of the Urals and Irtysh. But this relaxation came into conflict with the interests of the expanding border Cossack troops; some of these lands had already been registered as estates of the new Cossack nobility or farms of ordinary Cossacks. Friction led to the fact that the unrest in the Kazakh steppes, which had calmed down, began to explode new strength. The leader of the uprising, which ultimately lasted more than 20 years, was a member of Pugachev’s movement, Syrym Datov.

Pugachev's uprising caused enormous 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. total amount losses from destruction and downtime of factories are estimated at 5,536,193 rubles. And although the factories were quickly restored, the uprising forced concessions to be made towards factory workers. The chief investigator in the Urals, Captain S.I. Mavrin, reported that the assigned peasants, whom he considered the leading force of the uprising, supplied the impostor with weapons and joined his troops, because the factory owners oppressed their assigned peasants, forcing the peasants to travel long distances to the factories and did not allow them engaged in arable farming and sold them food at inflated prices. Mavrin believed that drastic measures must be taken to prevent similar unrest in the future. Catherine wrote to G.A. Potemkin that Mavrin “what he says about the factory peasants is all very thorough, and I think that there is nothing else to do with them but to buy the factories and, when they are state-owned, then provide relief to the peasants.” On May 19, 1779, a manifesto was published on the general rules for the use of assigned peasants in state-owned and private enterprises, which somewhat limited factory owners in the use of peasants assigned to factories, limited the working day and increased wages.

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

Conclusion

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

She was characterized by more high degree organization of the rebels. They copied some organs government controlled Russia. Under the emperor, there was a headquarters, a Military Collegium and an office. The main army was divided into regiments, communication was maintained, including the sending of written orders, reports and other documents.

The Peasant War of 1773-1775, despite its unprecedented scale, was a chain of independent uprisings limited to a certain area (local). Peasants rarely left the boundaries of their village or district. The peasant detachments, and even Pugachev’s main army, 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., Voenizdat, 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. The story of Pugachev. M.1950

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PEASANT UPRISING UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF E.I. PUGACHEV 1773–1775- the largest protest movement of peasants, Cossacks, urban poor and “working people” of the first Russian manufactories of the late 18th century. In pre-revolutionary Russian science it was called the “Pugachev rebellion”, in Soviet science it was called the Third (after I.I. Bolotnikov, S.T. Razin), less often the Fourth (after the Bulavin uprising) or the last peasant war.

The prerequisites for the uprising were the aggravation of relations between the authorities and the Cossacks after the liquidation of Cossack privileges in 1771 and the deterioration of the life of the Cossack “golytba” in comparison with the “foremen”. The personal dependence of the peasants on the landowners increased, state taxes (postal, yam) increased, caused by the process of market development and the need to replenish the treasury in the conditions of the Russian-Turkish war of 1768–1774. The socio-psychological situation in the country was tense with the hopes of the peasants that following the “liberation of the nobles” (Manifesto of 1762 On the granting of liberty and freedom to the entire Russian nobility) a “manifesto on peasant freedom” will follow. There were rumors that Tsar Peter III prepared it, but the “evil henchmen” hid it and made an attempt on the life of the emperor.

The territory covered by the uprising included the Orenburg region, the Urals, the Urals, Western Siberia, the Middle and Lower Volga regions, which allows us to consider it a peasant war. Among the rebels, in addition to the Russians, were Kalmyks, Bashkirs, Tatars, Chuvashs and other nationalities of the Trans-Volga region. The social composition of about 100 thousand rebels is peasants, the working strata of the Cossacks, partly the urban poor and factory workers. The main core of the uprising were the Yaik Cossacks and the peasants who joined them, townspeople dissatisfied with the increased tax oppression, as well as working people who provided the rebels with artillery.

The slogans of the rebels were initially limited to the return of privileges to the Cossacks, but as the movement grew and peasants and working people were included in it, demands emerged for the liberation of peasants from serfdom, from extortions and taxes, and the transfer of land to them. None of the rebel documents set out to change the forms of state power (monarchy); The rebels hoped to “kill the troublemakers of the empire and the ruiners of the peasants” (nobles) and at the same time place a “good king” on the throne.

First period of the war

begins in August 1773, when the Cossack Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev, who came from the village of Zimoveyskaya on the Don, gathered on farms near the Yaitsky town ( modern Uralsk) of his supporters and taking the name of the deceased Emperor Peter III, he assembled the first rebel detachment of 80 Cossacks.

In a manifesto dated September 17, 1773, the self-proclaimed Peter III “returned” the ancient Cossack liberties and privileges to the Cossacks, Tatars, and Kalmyks who served in the Yaitsky army. His army, which reached 3 thousand, approached the Yaitsky town on the same day, but could not take it by storm without artillery. Pugachev headed towards Orenburg and took a number of outposts (Rassypnaya, Nizhneozernaya, Tatishchev, Chernorechenskaya and Iletsk town) and captured cannons, weapons, and ammunition. On October 5, the rebels blocked Orenburg, having up to 2.5 thousand soldiers with 20 guns. But the city was also well fortified; there were about 3,700 people in it. with 70 guns. An attempt by the governor of Orenburg I.A. Reinsdorp to make a sortie and defeat the rebels failed, but the Pugachevites were not able to take the fortress by storm (October 22 and November 2). The siege lasted about 6 months.

During this time, the detachment was quickly replenished with Cossacks, “passportless” soldiers, landowner peasants, and working people from Ural factories. The branded convict Khlopusha (A.T. Sokolov), who joined the rebels, became responsible for Pugachev’s supply of artillery to the army. In order to unite the motley and multilingual freemen, to control the army on November 6, 1773, the rebels created the “State Military Collegium, headed by the Cossack Andrei Vitoshnov, with its own judges, secretary and even Duma clerk. The detachments directed by her made attempts to take relatively large cities (Ufa).

Pugachev's headquarters was located 5 km from Orenburg in Berd, which became the capital of rebellious Russia. The imperial palace was the house of the Cossack Sitnikov, the walls of which were covered with gilded paper, and 25 Cossacks stood guard. Here lived his common-law wife Ustinya Kuznetsova, whom he ordered to be called “the Blahover Empress,” here Pugachev organized reviews and training for the army, drew up decrees and manifestos of “Peter III,” which he, being illiterate, did not know how to sign. In them, “His Imperial Majesty” declared eternal will, liberation from labor for landowners and factory owners, from taxes, distributed land and called for the extermination of serf owners. It is significant that the decrees proclaimed freedom of religion. Here, in Berdskaya Sloboda, there was a military treasury; here reports were received from the rebel authorities of neighboring lands. The leadership of the Big Army was entrusted to Andrei Ovchinnikov, the emissary functions of a liaison between Berda and other cities of Bashkiria were assigned to the Cossack Zarubin, nicknamed Chika, who later called himself “Count Chernyshev.”

Meanwhile, government troops under the command of Major General V.A. Kara and Brigadier A.A. Korf pulled up forces to Orenburg. Skirmishes with the rebels ended with varying degrees of success. Only one Korf detachment managed to break into the city to help I.A. Reinsdorp. In January 1774, a bloody battle broke out near Orenburg, but the rebels failed to take the city again. And on March 22, 1774, punitive troops inflicted a serious defeat on the rebels near the Tatishchev Fortress. Pugachev with the main part of the army managed to escape to the Urals with difficulty. He did not lose heart, saying: “My people are like sand. I know that the whole mob will welcome me with joy.”

Second period of the war

opens with the successes of the Pugachevites in the Urals, their capture of the Voznesensky, Avzyano-Petrovsky, Beloretsky factories. On the approaches to the Orenburg fortified line (Karagai, Stepnaya, etc.) fortresses, the number of rebels reached 8 thousand. True, in the May battle of Magnitnaya, where the rebels were led by Ivan Beloborodov, a significant part of the army was killed, but by June 3-3 joined Pugachev’s army. thousand a detachment of Bashkirs led by Salavat Yulaev. Pursued by the tsarist troops, but quickly replenished and reaching 20 thousand by June, the rebel army reached Kazan. Having managed to enter the city, but without taking the Kazan Kremlin, the Pugachevites were soon defeated by the arriving corps of I. I. Mikhelson. The Pugachevites were in Kazan for only a day, but in a drunken bacchanalia they managed to plunder and burn the city and “rape” many women. Eyewitnesses testified that the rebels killed not only men, but old people and children. Therefore, having received news of this, Catherine II declared herself a Kazan landowner as a sign of solidarity with the affected nobility of the province. The defeated rebel troops meanwhile crossed to the right bank of the Volga. “Pugachev fled, but his flight seemed like an invasion” (A.S. Pushkin).

Third period

characterizes the rapid replenishment of the numerically impoverished detachments of the rebels at the expense of the serfs. Beyond the Volga, Pugachev found himself in a zone of complete serfdom, and he did not have to beg anyone to move to “Peter III”. On July 20, 1774, he took Kurmysh, on the 24th - Alatyr, on the 27th - Saransk. In Saransk, the most famous of Pugachev’s manifestos was read out - Letter of grant to the peasantry, in which he awarded “liberty and liberty” and “eternal possession of lands and all other lands.”

From here Pugachev turned his army south, hoping to raise Don Cossacks. Mikhelson hurried after him, without giving a break. On August 1, the Pugachevites were in Penza, on August 5 in Petrovsk, on August 21, 1774, Pugachev approached Tsaritsyn, but could not take the city. At the Salnikova gang, Mikhelson overtook the rebels and forced them to take battle on August 24. Of the 10 thousand rebels, 2 thousand were killed and 6 thousand were captured. This was the end of the Great Army. 200 people, together with Pugachev, crossed to the left bank of the Volga. But there, on September 7, 1774, a group of conspirators (Tvorogov, Chumakov, Fedulyev, Zheleznov, Burnov) arrested him in order to buy forgiveness from the Empress and receive the 100 thousand rubles promised for his capture. On September 15, Pugachev was taken to Yaitsky town. The investigation was carried out further in Simbirsk and Moscow, where some of his associates were also taken. By court verdict, on January 10, 1775, the rebel leader was executed on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow. “Forgive the Orthodox people” - they were last words Pugacheva. Perfilyev, Shigaev, Padurov, Tornov were executed next; the rest of the accused were subjected to corporal punishment and were sent to hard labor. In February 1775, Chika-Zarubin was hanged in Ufa. Pugachev’s legal wife Sophia, their son and two daughters, and his common-law wife, the “empress” Ustinya, were exiled forever to Kexholm. But the “ordinary timids”, supporters of the rebel, were treated more severely: hundreds were quartered, hung by the rib, hanged on gallows in the Kalmyk, Kyrgyz, Bashkir steppes, a lot of Ural working people were wheeled. At least a thousand died under the cane.

The reasons for the defeat of the uprising, in addition to its weak organization, insufficient and obsolete weapons, lack of clear goals and a constructive program for the uprising, lay hidden in its predatory nature; the cruelty of the rebels caused indignation in society. Pugachev was destined to be defeated because the state mechanism worked quite smoothly, and Catherine II managed to quickly mobilize the necessary resources to suppress the uprising.

The Peasant War did not lead to any changes in the social status of the peasantry and did not make their lives easier. On the contrary, the government made its own conclusions: in 1775 a new provincial reform was carried out in the country, increasing the number of provinces. The autonomy of the Cossack troops was eliminated once and for all. The Yaik River was renamed the Ural. But the fear of a new “Pugachevism” forced educated society to discuss solutions to “ peasant question", which prompted the nobility to subsequently soften and then abolish serfdom in 1861.

The history of the “Pugachev rebellion” attracted many creative people, historians, writers, poets - A.S. Pushkin ( History of Pugachev, 1830s), S.A. Yesenin (poem Emelyan Pugachev), M.I. Semevsky, N.F. Dubrovin ( Pugachev and his accomplices, 1884), in Soviet historiography dozens of books and articles were devoted to it as the most organized of the peasant wars. In the 1970s, based on Yesenin’s poem, a rock opera of the same name was written about this people’s war (music by V. Yarushin, libretto by V. Yashkin), and a film was released in the late 1970s Emelyan Pugachev(directed by A. Saltykov, starring E. Matveev).

Sources: Documents from E.I. Pugachev’s headquarters, rebel authorities and institutions. Compiled by: A.I. Aksenov, R.V. Ovchinnikov, M.F. Prokhorov. M., 1975

Lev Pushkarev, Natalya Pushkareva

In September 1773, on the distant southeastern outskirts of Russia, on the banks of the river. Yaik, an uprising broke out among the Yaik Cossacks under the leadership of E. Pugachev. In the process of its development, it acquired the character of a genuine peasant war against the feudal-serf system of Russia in the 18th century. Therefore, in the history of our homeland, this spontaneous uprising of the peasantry is called the peasant war under the leadership of E. Pugachev.

The Peasant War of 1773–1775 was a natural consequence of the socio-economic conditions of feudal-serf Russia of the 18th century, an expression of the acute class struggle of the multinational peasantry of Russia against their oppressors and exploiters - the nobles and landowners, against the noble-landlord state.

The peasant uprising was spontaneous and unorganized. The downtrodden, dark, completely illiterate peasantry could not create their own organization and develop their own program. The demands of the rebellious peasants and all exploited people did not go further than the desire to have a “good king” who would free the peasantry from the oppression of the noble landowners, who would grant land and freedom. Such a king in the eyes of the rebel peasants was the leader of the uprising, the Don Cossack Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev, who took the name of Emperor Peter III.

Being the leader of the uprising, E. Pugachev did not have, however, a clear program of action. His aspirations were also associated only with the accession of a “good tsar” to the Russian throne.

The spark of uprising that broke out in September 1773 on the banks of the Yaik a month later blazed with a bright flame and engulfed a huge area within a year: from the Caspian Sea in the south to the modern cities of Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Kungur, Molotov in the north, from the Tobol, Ural and Kazakh steppes in the east. to the right bank of the Volga in the west.

The uprising continued more than a year- from September 1773 to the beginning of 1775. The tsarist government, led by Catherine II, mobilized large military forces to suppress the uprising. The uprising was brutally suppressed. The leader of the uprising, E. Pugachev, was betrayed by traitors to the tsarist authorities in September 1774, and was executed in Moscow on January 10, 1775.

Prerequisites for the uprising

Despite the struggle that the Bashkirs waged for decades, resettlement to Bashkiria increased, the seizure of land continued, and the number of estates owned by landowners grew; At the same time, the area of land that remained in the use of the Bashkirs decreased.

The riches of the Urals attracted new entrepreneurs who seized huge tracts of land and built factories on them. Almost all major dignitaries, ministers, and senators participated with their capital in the construction of metallurgical plants in the Urals, and this resulted in the government’s attitude towards the complaints and protests of the Bashkirs.

The Bashkirs unite in groups of several people, attack newly built factories and landowners' estates, trying to take revenge on their oppressors.

A situation was increasingly created in which the various peoples inhabiting the region had to protest against colonization, reaching the point of open struggle.

The uprisings of the Bashkirs, the departure of the Kalmyks from Russia to China, the wariness, the hostile attitude of the Kazakh people towards Russia - all this suggests that the tsarist policy was clear to these peoples, that it was hostile to them.

The breeders tried with all their might and means to completely liquidate the farming of the peasants, tear them away from the land and take them completely into their own hands.

There is no way to convey all the techniques and methods that the factory owners used in their desire to ruin the peasants and deprive them of their economic base. They sent special detachments that burst into villages in the midst of field work, during spring sowing, harvesting, etc., they grabbed peasants, flogged them, tore them away from work and took them to the factory under escort. Stripes remained unplowed and crops remained unharvested. The peasants complained to the local authorities, went all the way to the capital, but at best they were not accepted, and sometimes even, without examining the matter, they were called rebels and put in prison.

Clerks at the factories closely monitored to ensure that there were no “parasites”, i.e. so that not only men, but also women and children work. As a result of this exploitation, overcrowding, poor nutrition and exhaustion of strength, infectious diseases developed and mortality increased.

Peasants repeatedly rebelled against being assigned to factories, but these uprisings were purely local in nature, arose spontaneously and were brutally suppressed by military detachments.

Not only peasants worked at the factories; the majority of fugitive people were concentrated here. Among them were serfs, various criminals, Old Believers, etc. Until there was a decree on fighting the fugitives and returning them to their place of residence, they lived relatively freely, but after the decree, detachments of soldiers began to pursue them. Wherever the fugitive appeared, everywhere he was asked for his appearance, and since there was no appearance, the fugitive was immediately taken away and sent to his homeland to deal with him there.

Knowing that the fugitives had no rights, the factory workers hired them without any restrictions, and soon the factories turned into a place where the fugitives were concentrated. The Berg Collegium, which was in charge of the factories, tried not to notice violations of the decree on the capture and deportation of all fugitives, and the troops of the Orenburg governor did not have the right to conduct raids at the factories.

Taking advantage of the lack of rights and hopeless situation of the fugitives, the breeders put them in the position of slaves, and the slightest dissatisfaction or protest from the fugitives caused repression: the fugitives were immediately captured, handed over to soldiers, mercilessly flogged and then sent to hard labor.

Working conditions in the mining factories were terrible: the mines had no ventilation, and workers suffocated from the heat and lack of air; the pumps were poorly equipped, and people worked for hours, standing waist-deep in water. Although the factory owners were given some instructions to improve working conditions, no one followed them, since officials were accustomed to bribes, and it was more profitable for the manufacturer to give a bribe than to spend money on technical innovations.

The situation of the serfs was no better. In 1762, Catherine II, the wife of Peter III, who assisted in the murder of her husband, ascended the throne. As a protege of the nobles, Catherine II marked her reign with the final enslavement of the peasants, giving the nobles the right to dispose of the peasants at their discretion.

In 1767, she issued a decree prohibiting peasants from complaining about their landowners; those found guilty of violating this decree were subject to exile to hard labor., With the growth of foreign trade, imported goods appear on the markets: beautiful fine fabrics, high-quality wines, jewelry various items luxury and trinkets; they could only be purchased with money. But in order to have money, landowners had to sell something. They could only throw products onto the market

Agriculture

The peasants, despite the decree, tried to complain to the Orenburg governors.

The Orenburg regional archive contains several dozen “cases” of rape of minors, abuse of pregnant women, peasants flogged, etc., but most of them were left without consequences.

Not only the various peoples inhabiting the region, the mining workers and peasants were dissatisfied with the existing state of affairs, but also deep discontent was brewing among the Cossacks, as their former privileges and benefits were gradually being abolished.

One of the main sources of income for the Cossacks was fishing. The Cossacks used fish not only for their food, but also exported it to the market. Salt was of great importance in fisheries, and the decree of 1754 on the salt monopoly dealt a huge blow to the Cossack economy. Before the decree, the Cossacks used salt for free, extracting it in unlimited quantities from salt lakes. The Cossacks were dissatisfied with the monopoly and considered charging money for salt a direct encroachment on their rights and property. Class stratification grew among the Cossacks. The senior elite, led by the atamans, takes power into their own hands and uses their position for personal enrichment. The atamans take over the salt mines and make the entire Cossacks dependent. For salt, in addition to monetary payment, the atamans charge the tenth fish from each catch for their benefit. But this is not enough. The Yaik Cossacks received a small salary from the treasury for their service; the atamans began to withhold it, supposedly as payment for the right to fish on Yaik. Subsequently, this salary was not enough, and the atamans introduced an additional tax. All this caused discontent, which in 1763 resulted in an uprising of ordinary Cossacks against the senior elite.

The investigative commissions sent to the Yaitsky town, although they removed the atamans, but, being supporters of the kulak ruling part, nominated new atamans from among them, so the situation did not improve.

At the same time, orders for service are growing; hundreds of Cossacks are taken away from their homes and sent to various places. As men are separated from home, farms begin to wither and fall into disrepair. Indignant at the ever-increasing hardships, the Yaik Cossacks, secretly from their superiors, sent their walkers to the queen with a petition, but the walkers were received as rebels and were subjected to corporal punishment with whips.

This incident made it clear to the Cossacks that there was nothing to hope for help from above, but that they needed to seek the truth themselves.

In 1771, a new uprising broke out among the Yaik Cossacks, and troops were sent to suppress it. The immediate causes of the uprising were the following events.

In 1771, the Kalmyks left the Volga region for the borders of China. Wanting to detain them, the Orenburg governor demanded that the Yaik Cossacks go in pursuit. In response, the Cossacks stated that they would not comply with the governor’s demands until the taken away privileges and liberties were restored. The Cossacks demanded the return of the right to choose atamans and other military commanders, demanded payment of delayed salaries, etc. A detachment of soldiers under the leadership of Traunbenberg was sent to the Yaitsky town from Orenburg to clarify the situation.

Being a power-hungry man, Traunbenberg, without delving into the essence of the matter, decided to act with weapons. Batteries struck the Yaitsky town. In response to this, the Cossacks rushed to arms, attacked the sent detachment, defeated it, cutting General Traunbenberg himself into pieces. Ataman Tambovtsev, who tried to prevent the uprising, was hanged. The defeat of Traunbenberg’s detachment caused alarm among the provincial authorities, and they did not hesitate to send fresh military units under the command of General Freiman to the Yaitsky town to suppress the “rebellion.” In a battle with superior enemy forces, the Cossacks were defeated. The government decided to deal with the Cossacks in such a way that the Cossacks would be remembered for a long time. To deal with the rebels, specialist executioners were called from different cities, who carried out torture and executions. In its cruelty, this reprisal resembles the execution of Urusov. Cossacks were hanged, impaled, and branded on their bodies; many were sent to eternal hard labor. However, these executions excited the Cossacks even more, and they were ready to light the fire of a new struggle. than Yaitskoye. Orenburg Cossacks lived in villages scattered throughout the region;

As a rule, villages were built near fortresses, in which the Cossacks were in military service. In form, they had elected village authorities, but in essence they were subordinate to the commandants of the fortresses. At first, the commandants extend their power only to men, forcing them to do work on their personal farms, but over time it seems to them that this is not enough, they begin to exploit the entire population of the villages. The position of the Orenburg Cossacks was in many ways similar to the position of serfs. Being full of power and almost uncontrollable, the commandants established a difficult regime in the villages and interfered with the family and everyday affairs of the Cossacks. Moreover, the majority of Orenburg Cossacks did not receive any salary. They were also dissatisfied with their position, but, being scattered throughout the region, they silently endured all oppression and waited for an opportunity to deal with their offenders. From all this it is clear that the entire population of the region, with the exception of tsarist officials, landowners, factory owners and kulaks, was dissatisfied existing orders

and was ready to take revenge on the oppressors. Rumors began to appear among the people that the local authorities were to blame for the hard life, that they were acting willfully without the knowledge of the queen; Rumors are spreading that the queen is also to blame, who does everything according to the will of the nobles, and that if Tsar Peter Fedorovich were alive, then life would be easier.

Behind these rumors, new ones were not slow to appear, that Peter Fedorovich, with the help of the guards, saved himself from death, that he was alive and would soon cry out the cry to fight against officials and nobles.

The Orenburg province was like a powder keg, and it was enough to find a brave person and throw out a rallying cry, and thousands of people would rise to him from all sides. And such a brave man was found in the person of the Don Cossack Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev. He was a brave, strong, courageous man, had a clear, inquisitive mind and powers of observation.

Pugachev's personality E. I. Pugachev) and stops at the abbot of the Old Believer monastery Philaret.

From him Pugachev learns about unrest among the Yaik Cossacks and their intention to leave for new places.

Pugachev comes up with a plan - to take the Cossacks to the Kuban River. To find out the intentions of the Cossacks, on November 22, 1772, he arrives under the guise of a merchant in the Yaitsky town, introduces several people to his plans and for the first time calls himself Emperor Peter III. Upon returning to Irgiz, Pugachev was arrested following a denunciation and on December 19, chained, sent to Simbirsk, and from there to Kazan, where he was imprisoned.

Thanks to his exceptional resourcefulness and courage, Pugachev escaped from a Kazan prison at the end of May 1773 and reappeared in the Trans-Volga steppes in August.

This time he finds shelter on Stepan Obolyaev’s Talovy Umet, 60 versts from the Yaitsky town. Here Pugachev again “admits” that he was Emperor Peter III, who miraculously escaped death, and arrived on Yaik to protect ordinary Cossacks from the elders and grant them their original liberties.

In connection with Pugachev’s escape, the authorities sounded the alarm; special detachments were sent to capture him, who grabbed the Cossacks and, through torture, tried to find out where the fugitive was.

The Yaik Cossacks remained on their guard. Rumors spread with renewed vigor that Peter III was alive, that his superiors were looking for him, and that Pugachev was the tsar who had escaped death.

These events accelerated the progress of the uprising. Pugachev announced that he was really Tsar Peter III, that his evil wife and nobles decided to kill him in order to rule the people at their own discretion.

Testimonies of contemporaries and eyewitnesses - participants in the uprising describe the appearance of Emelyan Pugachev. He was of average height, broad at the shoulders, thin at the waist, slightly dark in complexion, lean, with dark eyes and hair cut in Cossack style. This is how Pugachev looks in the portrait painted during his stay in Iletsk town. The original of this portrait has survived to this day and is kept in the collections of the State Historical Museum in. Moscow. The portrait is painted in oil on canvas;

The dates given on the portrait completely coincide with the time of E. Pugachev’s stay in Ilek. Painting a portrait of the leader of the uprising was not an accidental occurrence; it had a certain political meaning, namely: to show a portrait of his “peasant” king, who granted the peasants “eternal freedom.” The restoration of the portrait revealed an interesting detail. It turned out that Pugachev’s portrait was drawn on the portrait of Catherine II. The portrait of Catherine II was bigger size, as indicated by the cut edges of the canvas, and was pierced, probably deliberately, in ten places. The torn places were repaired, the portrait of Catherine II was primed and E. Pugachev was written on it.

It is very possible that the portrait of Catherine II hung in the Ataman’s office of the Iletsk town. Here, in a fit of hatred for the noble queen, he was pierced by the rebels, and then used as material for the image of the peasant king Peter III - Emelyan Pugachev.

Pugachev was distinguished by his endurance, courage and knowledge of military affairs. He was extremely familiar with the artillery of that time. The clerk of the Military Collegium, Ivan Pochitalin, subsequently testified during interrogation: “Pugachev himself knew better than anyone the rule on how to keep artillery in order.” Pugachev personally participated in battles with government troops, fighting in the front ranks.

The beginning of the uprising

Meanwhile, rumors about the appearance of Emperor Peter III on Yaik and his intention to stand for the ordinary Cossacks quickly spread in the villages and penetrated into the Yaitsky town. In August and the first half of September 1773, the first detachment of Yaik Cossacks gathered around Pugachev. On September 17, the first manifesto of Pugachev - Emperor Peter III - was solemnly announced to the Yaik Cossacks, granting them the Yaik River “from the peaks to the mouth, and with earth, and herbs, and cash salaries, and lead, and gunpowder, and grain provisions.” Having unfurled pre-prepared banners, a detachment of rebels, numbering about 200 people, armed with guns, spears, and bows, set out for the Yaitsky town.

Such a king in the eyes of the rebels was the “peasant king”, “father tsar”, “Emperor Peter Fedorovich”, former Don Cossack Emelyan Pugachev.

On September 18, 1773, the first rebel detachment, consisting mainly of Yaitsky Cossacks and organized on the steppe farms near the Yaitsky town (now Uralsk), led by E. Pugachev, approached the Yaitsky town. The detachment consisted of about 200 people. The attempt to take possession of the town ended in failure.

It contained a large detachment of regular troops with artillery. A repeated attack by the rebels on September 19 was repulsed by cannon fire. The rebel detachment, which replenished its ranks with Cossacks who went over to the side of the rebels, moved up the river. Yaik and on September 20, 1773 he stopped near the Iletsk Cossack town (now the village of Ilek).

On the eve of the peasant war, Iletsk town was a relatively large settlement. Academician P. S. Pallas, who passed through the Iletsk town in the summer of 1769, describes it this way: “The left bank of the Yaik is deliberately high, and on it stands the Iletsk Cossack town, fortified with a quadrangular log wall and batteries... In this Cossack town there are more than three hundred houses, and in the middle of it there is a wooden church. The local Cossacks can supply up to five hundred troops and are classified as Yaik Cossacks, although they do not have any participation in fishing rights and are forced to provide themselves with food by arable farming and cattle breeding.”

On September 20, the rebels approached the Iletsk Cossack town and stopped a few kilometers from it. The rebel detachment was an organized combat unit. Even on the way from near the Yaitsky town to the Iletsk town, a general circle was convened according to the ancient Cossack custom to select the ataman and esauls.

Approaching the Iletsk town, the rebel detachment already numbered several hundred people and had three cannons taken from the outposts.

The joining of the Iletsk Cossacks to the uprising or their negative attitude towards it 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 was to hand over to the ataman of the town Lazar Portnov, the other to the Cossacks. Lazar Portnov was supposed to announce the decree at the Cossack circle; if he does not do this, then the Cossacks had to read it themselves.

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

On September 21, the dismantled bridge was repaired and a detachment of rebels solemnly entered the town, greeted by the ringing of bells and bread and salt. All Iletsk Cossacks swore allegiance to Pugachev.

Pugachev’s detachment stayed in Iletsk for two days. E. Pugachev himself lived in the house of a wealthy Iletsk Cossack, Ivan Tvorogov.

The chieftain of the town, Lazar Portnov, was hanged. The reason for the execution was the complaints of the Iletsk Cossacks that he “had done great harm to them and ruined them.”

A special regiment was formed from the Iletsk Cossacks. The Iletsk Cossack, later one of the main traitors, Ivan Tvorogov, was appointed colonel of the Iletsk army.

E. Pugachev appointed the competent Iletsk Cossack Maxim Gorshkov as secretary.

All serviceable artillery in the town was put in order and became part of the rebel artillery. E. Pugachev appointed the Yaik Cossack Fyodor Chumakov as the head of the artillery.

This,” he said, “is almost the entire old fortress.” Only this corner remained... The rest was swallowed up by Yaik Gorynych... Over there, in the very middle of the river, was the house where I was born...”

What remained of the Iletsk fortress under V.G. Korolenko has now long been washed away by the muddy, fast spring waters of the Urals. In place of the Iletsk town of the Pugachev era, there are now meadows and green coastal groves on the right bank of the Urals.

More than a hundred years ago, the author of a detailed description of the Ural Cossack army, Lieutenant A. Ryabinin, wrote down the legendary legend about Pugachev in Ilek.

According to a legend told to A. Ryabinin by one old man, Pugachev was charmed “from a bullet, from a knife, from poison and other dangers, which is why he was never even wounded.” “When he began to enter the Iletsk town,” the old man said, “his gun did not want to go onto the bridge. No matter how much they dragged it, no matter how much they harnessed the horses, they could not move it from the bridge. Then Pugachev got angry, ordered the cannon to be flogged with whips, and then its ears were cut off and thrown into the Yaik River. So what do you think, sir,” the old man said, turning to me, “as soon as the cannon roars in a human voice, just a groan and a roar goes throughout the whole town. “If you don’t believe me,” he added, noticing that I smiled, “ask people, and now sometimes in the water he moans so loudly that it’s far away.”

In the epic style, the same narrator told A. Ryabinin the legend about Lazar Portnov. In the legend, actual events are intertwined with folk fantasy. “When Pugachev began to enter,” the old man said, “they came out of the town to meet him with icons and banners, with bread and salt. He accepted the bread and salt, kissed the icons and called the ataman to him. And at that time Timofey Lazarevich was the ataman, have you heard of tea? Timofey Lazarevich did not go, but they brought him by force. So Pugachev began to tell him to bow to him, spoke again, spoke a third time. Lazarevich did not want to bow and reviled Pugachev with all sorts of nasty words. Pugachev then said:

“I wanted to live with you, Timofey Lazarevich, in love and harmony, I wanted to eat from the same cup with you, drink from the same ladle, I wanted to give you a brocade caftan, apparently that’s not going to happen.” And then he ordered Lazarevich to be hanged on the spot, to the fear of all his opponents.”

On September 24, a detachment of rebels left the Iletsk town and moved up the Yaik.

The first on the detachment’s route was the Rassypnaya fortress. In the era under consideration, on the entire right bank of the Urals from Orenburg to the Iletsk town, there were only four settlements: the fortresses of Chernorechenskaya (the village of Chernorechye, Pavlovsky district), Tatishcheva (the village of Tatishchevo, Perevolotsky district), Nizhneozernaya (the village of Nizhneozernoye, Krasnokholmsky district) and Rassypnaya (village Rassypnoye, Iletsk district).

All these fortresses were part of the so-called Nizhne-Yaitskaya distance of the Orenburg military line (the so-called system of fortifications along the Ural River). The main one was the Tatishchev fortress. The commander of this distance was also in it.

Between these fortresses, as well as along the entire line, on high, elevated places along the banks of the Urals, observation points - pickets, outposts, lighthouses - were built at a certain distance from each other. Cossack teams were usually here only in the summer. On each of them there was a high observation tower, and next to it was a lighthouse, that is, a structure made of poles, wrapped in straw at the top or having a vessel with resin. In case of alarm, the guards set the lighthouse on fire. The column of flame was visible from a nearby lighthouse, whose guards were also setting their own lighthouse on fire. Thus, the news of the alarm quickly reached the fortress, far ahead of the mounted Cossack galloping with a message to the fortress.

The names of the tracts along the banks of the Urals - “Mayachnaya Mountain”, “Mayak” - indicate the location of former Cossack observation posts with a “lighthouse”.

The fortifications, which bore the loud name of fortresses, were very simple and uncomplicated. Built on the high right bank of the Urals, they were surrounded by an earthen rampart and a ditch. Along the shaft there was a wooden wall with a gate. The fortress was armed with several cast iron cannons. The state of these fortresses is perfectly conveyed by A.S. Pushkin in his description of the Belogorsk fortress in the story “The Captain's Daughter”. The population of the fortresses consisted of Cossacks and soldier teams, consisting mainly of elderly soldiers and disabled people. The soldiers carried out garrison service, and the Cossacks were responsible for guard, observation and reconnaissance service on the line. The Cossacks carried for life

The composition of the Cossack population of the fortresses was made up of a wide variety of elements: fugitive Russian peasants enrolled in the Cossacks, exiles settled at the fortresses, various service people transferred from the Volga fortified lines, retired soldiers, etc. The Cossack population consisted mostly of Russians, but in some fortresses there were many Cossack Tatars, immigrants from Bashkiria and the Volga region, included in the Cossack class.

Like all the peasantry of Russia in the 18th century, the Cossack population of the fortresses of the Orenburg region experienced the same oppression of the feudal-serf regime. Therefore, the promise of “eternal freedom” proclaimed by E. Pugachev was as close and dear to the Cossacks as to the entire peasantry, and they readily joined the ranks of the rebels.

The territory of the Orenburg Cossack army, organized in 1748, began with the Rassypnaya fortress.

Village Rassypnoye

The Rassypnaya fortress was founded somewhat later than the Iletsk Cossack town. In the year the uprising began, there were already 70 households in the Rassypnaya fortress. Settlers were attracted here by lakes rich in fish, abundant meadows and convenient places for arable farming. Judging by the descriptions in the documents, the fortress had a quadrangular shape, was surrounded by a ditch, and fortified by an earthen rampart with a wooden fence built on it.

Two gates were made in the rampart and wooden wall, and two were thrown across the ditch opposite the gate.

wooden bridge

The commandant of the fortress Velovsky rejected the appeal to surrender and go over to the side of the rebels. The rebels began their assault. Velovsky opened cannon fire on the besiegers.

The rebels responded with their guns, and then, rushing to the attack, smashed the fortress gates and broke into the fortress. One of his contemporaries indicates in his notes that during the assault the Cossacks went over to the side of the rebels and dismantled two walls of the fortress. Through the resulting gap, the rebels broke into the fortress.

E. Pugachev subsequently recalled in his testimony that Major Velovsky and two officers locked themselves in the commandant’s house and fired back from the windows. The Cossacks wanted to set fire to the house, but he forbade it “... so as not to burn down the entire fortress.”

For armed resistance and for the losses caused, Velovsky and two officers were hanged. The fortress's Cossacks and soldiers swore allegiance to Tsar Peter III, the Tsar who marched in defense of the oppressed peasantry.

On the same day, taking cannons, gunpowder and cannonballs from the fortress and leaving a new chieftain in Rassypnaya, a detachment of rebels moved up the Yaik to the next fortress - Nizhneozernaya.

Before reaching it, the rebels stopped for the night.

The situation in Orenburg

To understand subsequent events, you need to remember what was happening at that time in Orenburg, the residence of the Orenburg governor Reinsdorp. Let's turn to archival documents. Thirteen thick leather-bound volumes contain Reinsdorp's correspondence from the period of the uprising.

Rumors of the beginning of the uprising spread throughout the city. Until this day, according to P.I. Rychkov, city residents knew almost nothing about the uprising. At the same time, Governor Reinsdorp himself was aware of the brewing events. On September 13, 1773, he received a decree from the State Military Collegium on Pugachev’s escape from the Kazan prison and taking measures to capture him, and on September 15, a report from the commandant of the Yaitsky town, Colonel Simonov, dated September 10, about “a certain impostor wandering in the steppe” to search for whom Simonov sent a small detachment.

Finally, on September 21, Reinsdorp receives Simonov’s report dated September 18 with the message that “the well-known impostor is already in the meeting and on this date, when he gathers even more, intends to be in the local city.” These alarming news were known only to a narrow circle of the Orenburg military administration.

On September 21, Reinsdorp sent an order to the Chief Commandant of Orenburg, Major General Wallenstern, to put the garrison on alert. In the following days, Reinsdorp receives additional reports about the movement of the rebels up the Yaik and, in particular, about their capture of the Iletsk town.

While E. Pugachev was in the Iletsk town and preparing for a campaign up the Yaik, Reinsdorp was also forming military forces to defeat the rebels.

On September 23, he sent an order to the commandant Major Semenov in Stavropol to send 500 Stavropol Kalmyks to the Yaitsky town with instructions to defeat them in case of meeting with the rebels.

On September 24, Reinsdorp sent Baron Bilov's corps of 410 people from Orenburg to meet Pugachev, including 150 Orenburg Cossacks under the command of centurion Timofey Padurov.

On the same day, Reinsdorp sends an order to Seitov Sloboda to prepare 300 mounted and armed Tatars, ready to immediately, upon order, march to Orenburg;

With secret letters dated September 24, Reinsdorp reported the beginning of the uprising to the Astrakhan and Kazan governors, and on September 25 he sent a report to Catherine II about the outbreak of the uprising and the dispatch of Bilov’s corps.

On September 25, when the rebels stormed the Rassypnaya fortress and then moved on to the Nizhneozernaya fortress, a detachment led by brigadier Bilov, having replenished its ranks and artillery with soldiers and cannons from the Chernorechensk and Tatishchevoy fortresses, arrived late in the evening at the Chesnokovsky outpost, located between the Tatishchevoy and Nizhneozernaya fortresses. It was probably located on the site of the modern village of Chesnokovka, Krasnokholmsky district. Here, Brigadier Bilov receives a report from the commandant of the Nizhneozernaya fortress, Major Kharlov, written on September 25, about the capture of the Rassypnaya fortress by the rebels, about the appearance of rebel forces near Nizhneozernaya and with a request for help. Frightened by this report, Bilov, fearing encirclement and, apparently, not relying on his team, stood indecisively for several hours at the outpost, and turned back to the Tatishchev fortress. Bilov's retreat made it easier for the rebels to capture the Nizhneozernaya fortress.

Nizhneozernoye village

The Nizhneozernaya fortress was founded in 1754, i.e. just 20 years before the start of the uprising. During the era of the uprising, there were approximately 70 households in the Nizhneozernaya fortress. In addition to excellent natural protection - a high steep cliff on the river side, the fortress, according to surviving descriptions, was surrounded by an earthen rampart, surrounded by a moat and had a log wall.

As in other fortresses along the river. Ural, inside Nizhneozernaya there was a commandant’s house, an earthen powder magazine, a military warehouse, houses of Cossacks, soldiers and a wooden church. The fortress was armed with several ancient cast-iron cannons.

The garrison of the fortress consisted of a small detachment of soldiers and Cossacks. The commandant of the fortress was Major Kharlov.

Late in the evening of September 25, the commandant of the fortress learned from prisoners captured by the scouts he had sent about the capture of Rassypnaya and that the rebel detachment was only 7 versts from Nizhneozernaya.

Major Kharlov sent a report with this information to Baron Bilov, who was standing with the troops at the Chesnokovsky outpost, after which Bilov retreated to the Tatishchev fortress. Rumors about the decrees of the leader of the uprising E. Pugachev, who granted the Cossacks and all working people “eternal liberty,” quickly reached the Nizhneozernaya fortress. The proclamation of “eternal liberty” satisfied Cossacks On the same night (from September 25 to 26), 50 Cossacks went to the rebels. The soldiers who remained in the fortress had no desire to fight: the slogans of the uprising were also close and dear to them.

At dawn on September 26, the rebels launched an attack on the fortress. Kharlov opened fire from the cannons. The rebels responded. The shootout lasted about two hours.

Then the rebels rushed to storm, broke the gates and broke into the fortress.

In the ensuing battle, Kharlov, officers and several soldiers were killed. According to other reports, Major Kharlov, warrant officers Figner and Kabalerov, clerk Skopin and corporal Bikbai were hanged.

According to A. S. Pushkin’s recording made while passing through the Nizhneozernaya fortress, Bikbai was hanged by E. Pugachev for espionage. A. S. Pushkin’s extracts from the archives indicate: “Pugachev in the Nizhneozernaya fortress hanged the commandant for sinking gunpowder.”

After the fortress passed into the hands of the rebels, its inhabitants swore allegiance to E. Pugachev, and the soldiers were enlisted in the ranks of the rebels.

On the same day, having taken the cannons, gunpowder and shells and leaving their commandant in the fortress, E. Pugachev’s detachment moved further up the river. Ural to the Tatishchevo fortress (now the village of Tatishchevo) and, having walked about 12 miles, spent the night at the Sukharnikov farms.

A. S. Pushkin’s travel notebook contains several entries made by him during a short stop in the village. All of them were used in “The History of Pugachev”. Three entries relate directly to the personality of E. Pugachev. Here is one of them.

“In the morning Pugachev came. The Cossack began to warn him.” “Your Tsar’s Majesty, don’t approach, they’ll kill you from a cannon.” “You’re an old man,” Pugachev answered him, “do guns rain on kings?” It is interesting that the last entry of A. S. Pushkin almost literally coincides with the testimony of one of E. Pugachev’s associates, the Yaik Cossack Timofey Myasnikov. Timofey Myasnikov showed:“He, Myasnikov, like others, served him faithfully; Moreover, everyone was encouraged not only by rivers, forests, fishing and other liberties, but also by his courage and agility. For when it happened (to be) on the attacks

This curious coincidence speaks of the reality of the legend recorded by A.S. Pushkin, possibly from a participant in the uprising who was still alive. Obviously, E. Pugachev used this half-joking expression more than once. And the incident conveyed to A.S. Pushkin in Nizhneozernaya and included by him in “The History of Pugachev” could actually have taken place during the capture of the Nizhneozernaya fortress on September 26, 1773.

In 1890, 80-year-old Nizhneozerninsky Cossack E. A. Donskov, whose grandfather served as a clerk for E. Pugachev, said that after the uprising “a strict check began.

If anyone said: “served Emperor Peter Fedorovich,” they were not persecuted, but if they said: “I was with Pugach,” they were exiled, punished with sticks and, in some cases, beaten to death.”

Village Tatishchevo The village of Tatishchevo is one of the first Russian settlements

-fortresses on the banks of the Yaik. It was founded in the summer of 1736 at the mouth of the Kamysh-Samara river by the first head of the Orenburg expedition I.K. Kirilov and named the Kamysh-Samara fortress.

The choice of place to found the fortress was not accidental. From here began a short portage to the upper reaches of the river. Samara (from the village of Tatishcheva to the village of Perevolotsk, located on the Samara River, is only 25 kilometers), through this place there was a road down the river. Ural.

In 1738, Kirilov’s successor V.N. Tatishchev strengthened the fortress with a rampart and moat and named it after himself.

With the founding of fortresses along the Urals (Chernorechenskaya, Nizhneozernaya and Rassypnaya), the Tatishchev fortress acquired important strategic importance as a junction point from where roads branched up and down the river. the Urals and to the west - along the river. Samara.

Possession of it ensured control over these roads. Therefore, throughout the entire 18th century, the Tatishchev fortress was considered the main fortress of the Nizhne-Yaitsky distance.

The population in the Tatishchev fortress was greater than in other fortresses along the Yaik.

According to P.I. Rychkov and P.S. Pallas, in the 60s of the 18th century there were up to 200 households. Pallas emphasizes that “this place in Orenburg can be called the largest, most populous of all the fortresses along the Yaitskaya Line.”

During his trip to the sites of the Pugachev uprising, A.S. Pushkin twice in September 1833 passed through the village. Tatishchevo: on the road from Samara to Orenburg and on the road from Orenburg to Uralsk.

In memory of the visit to the village by the great Russian poet, a memorial plaque was installed in Tatishchev.

The Belogorsk fortress from Pushkin’s story “The Captain’s Daughter” is connected with the village of Tatishchev. A. S. Pushkin coincided the location of the fortress described in the story with the location of the Tatishchev Fortress. “The Belogorsk fortress,” we read in the novel, “was located forty miles from Orenburg. The road went along the steep bank of the Yaik... (chapter “Fortress”). Nizhneozernaya was located about twenty-five versts from our fortress (chapter “Pugachevshchina”).” Indeed, according to the “Topography of the Orenburg Province” by P. I. Rychkov, which A. S. Pushkin used when working on “The History of Pugachev”, the Tatishchev fortress is shown 54 versts from Orenburg and 28 versts from Nizhneozernaya.

The village of Tatishchevo occupies a special place in the history of the first period of the peasant war under the leadership of E. Pugachev. Two major events of the first period of the uprising (September 1773 - March 1774) are associated with it: the brilliant success of E. Pugachev and his comrades in the storming of the Tatishchev fortress on September 27, 1773, which ended with the capture of the fortress and the transition of its garrison to the side of the peasant army, and a major the defeat of the peasant army on March 22, 1774, suffered in a battle with government troops under the command of Prince P. Golitsyn, which decided the fate of the uprising within the territory of the modern Orenburg region and moved the uprising to Bashkiria and the regions of the right bank of the Volga.

This is how the events unfolded on September 27, 1773, when the rebels approached the Tatishchev Fortress. Its garrison after the return of Bilov’s detachment amounted to at least a thousand people. The fortress was armed with 13 guns.

E. Pugachev recalled in his testimony that even before the rebel detachment approached the fortress, he sent a manifesto to the Tatishchev fortress.

The rebels also made an attempt to enter into negotiations with the garrison, sending a group of Cossacks to the fortress for this purpose. A group of Cossacks also left the fortress for negotiations. The rebels convinced them to surrender voluntarily, saying that Tsar Peter Fedorovich himself was traveling with the rebels.

Returning, the Cossacks handed this over to Baron Bilov. The latter ordered to tell the rebels that all this was “lies.” The rebel delegation replied: “When you are so stubborn, then don’t blame us later.” Negotiations were interrupted. The fortress, which had stopped cannon fire during the negotiations, again began to fire at the rebel forces. The rebel artillery responded with their own guns. Colonel Elagin suggested that Brigadier Bilov leave the fortress and fight outside its walls.

Bilov refused, fearing that the Cossacks and soldiers would go over to the side of the rebels. The cannon duel lasted eight hours.

In order to prevent the movement of the rebels up the Kamysh-Samara River, brigadier Bilov, before the assault on the fortress, sends a detachment of Orenburg Cossacks under the command of centurion Padurov. Padurov's detachment completely went over to the side of the rebels.

The assault on the fortress begins. On the one hand, the rebels were advancing led by the Yaik Cossack Andrei Vitoshnov, on the other hand, Pugachev himself led the attack.

The attack was repulsed, but Pugachev’s sharpness and resourcefulness came to the rescue.

Near the wooden wall of the fortress there were stables with haystacks stacked near them. E. Pugachev ordered them to be set on fire. The weather was windy, smoke and flames were driving towards the fortress.

The transfer of the Tatishchev fortress into the hands of the rebels was of great importance for the further development of the uprising. The path to Orenburg was open. The Chernorechensk fortress, located on the way to Orenburg, could not delay the movement of the rebels. On September 28, the fortress garrison evacuated to Orenburg, abandoning provisions. Only three dozen miles of straight road separated E. Pugachev’s detachment from Orenburg.

Several legends and stories about Pugachev are associated with the village of Tatishchevoy.

A.S. Pushkin, passing through Tatishchevo twice during his trip to Orenburg and Uralsk in September 1833, made the following entry in his travel book: “Pugachev, having come to Tatishchevoy a second time, asked the ataman if there was food in the fortress. The chieftain, at the preliminary request of the old Cossacks, who feared famine, answered that no. Pugachev went to inspect the stores himself and, finding them full, hanged the ataman at the outposts...” In Tatishcheva, indeed, there were food warehouses, and after the suppression of the uprising, the Orenburg Chief Provision Master Commission tried to collect provisions taken from the warehouse by the inhabitants of the fortress “with the permission” of E. Pugacheva.

In the same travel notes of A. S. Pushkin we read another brief entry characterizing the personality of E. Pugachev: “In Tatishcheva, Pugachev hanged an egg Cossack for drunkenness.”

An interesting legend about E. Pugachev’s stay in the Tatishchev Fortress was recorded in 1939 from a resident of the village. Arkhipovka, Sakmarsky district, I.I. Mozhartsev, whose two great-grandfathers, according to him, participated in the uprising of E. Pugachev.

According to the story of I. I. Mozhartsev, E. Pugachev helped build a hut in Tatishcheva for the widow Ignatikha and gave her in marriage. I remembered Ignatikh E. Pugachev to the grave. “And Ignatikha is not alone kind words

she commemorated the deceased. Radelny was Pugachev before the peasants,” I. I. Mozhartsev concludes his story.

Chernorechye village

S. Chernorechye was founded approximately in the same years as Tatishchevo. In 1742, in the Chernorechensk fortress there were already 30 huts and 9 dugouts with 153 inhabitants.

Later, the Orenburg authorities settled here exiles exiled to the Orenburg region for permanent residence. In 1773, i.e. the year of the uprising, there were 58 households.

The inhabitants of the fortress were serving and retired Cossacks, serving and retired soldiers and exiles. The commandant of the fortress at that time was Major Krause. After Brigadier Bilov, heading towards the rebels, took most of the soldiers from the garrison of the fortress, only 137 people remained in it. During the days of the uprising, between the Chernorechenskaya and Tatishchevo fortresses there was a single settlement - a farmstead owned by P.I. Rychkov. It was located on the site of the present village. Rychkova. Near the farm there was a Cossack guard post. After E. Pugachev captured the Tatishchev fortress, the serf peasants of Rychkov and the Cossacks joined the rebels. Residents of the Chernorechensk fortress and its garrison were also waiting. Pugacheva.

On September 28, Major Krause received Reinsdorp's order to abandon the fortress in case of imminent danger. On the same day, saying he was ill, he left for Orenburg, leaving the fortress under the command of Lieutenant Ivanov. The sound of drums notified the inhabitants of the fortress about the evacuation. But only a few residents left for Orenburg, while most remained and waited for Pugachev’s arrival.

On September 29, E. Pugachev entered the Chernorechensk fortress. The residents of the fortress solemnly greeted Pugachev and swore allegiance to him.

During the uprising, untouched steppes stretched between the Chernorechensk fortress and Seitova Sloboda, and dense coastal forests grew near the Urals and Sakmara. Only above the river mouth. Sakmara, opposite the Berdskaya settlement, there were several farms.

They belonged to the Orenburg high authorities and nobles: Reinsdorp, Myasoedov, Sukin, Tevkelev and others. Moving towards the Chernorechensk fortress, the rebels entered farmsteads and took away the property of the nobles. Serf peasants living on farmsteads joined the ranks of the growing rebel army. The rebels also visited the farmstead of Reinsdorp, where big house

of 12 rooms furnished with luxurious furniture. A contemporary reports that E. Pugachev, entering the rooms of Reinsdorp’s house, said to his comrades: “This is how my governors live gloriously, and what do they need such chambers for. I myself, as you see, live in a simple hut.” With these words, Pugachev wanted to emphasize that if the nobles build luxurious mansions with funds extorted from the peasantry, then he, the peasant Tsar Peter III, fights for the interests of the people, does not need luxurious mansions and is content with a simple peasant hut.

On the way to Seitova Sloboda, E. Pugachev’s detachment spent the night at the Tevkelev farm and on October 1 set out for Seitova Sloboda.

Village Kargala

The approach of E. Pugachev’s detachment to Seitova Sloboda was not a surprise for its population. Rumors about the beginning of the uprising were confirmed by Reinsdorp's order.

On September 26, by order of Reinsdorp, a detachment of 300 people set out from Kargaly to help Brigadier Bilov, but upon learning of the capture of the Tatishcheva fortress by the rebels, they returned from the road. On September 28, a military council was held in Orenburg, which decided to transfer all Tatars from the settlement to Orenburg. But only a very small part of the population, mainly merchants and wealthy peasants, left the settlement for Orenburg.

The majority remained in the settlement and sent their representatives to Pugachev in the Chernorechensk fortress with an invitation to come to Seitov Sloboda.

On October 1, the population of Seitova Sloboda solemnly welcomed E. Pugachev, who was here several times and later, coming from his headquarters - Berdskaya Sloboda.

The population of Kargalinskaya Sloboda actively participated in the uprising. Residents of the settlement formed a special regiment of Kargaly Tatars. He fought bravely in the ranks of the rebel army near Orenburg. P.I. Rychkov, in his notes on the siege of Orenburg, writes that in the battle of January 9, 1774 near Orenburg, the Kargaly Tatars “let loose a very brave spirit.” Residents of the settlement provided the rebels with great assistance with food, sending them to the camp in Berdy.

Considering the significant role of the Kargalinskaya Sloboda in the uprising, E. Pugachev and the rebels called it St. Petersburg.

Among the Kargaly Tatars there were literate people. With their help, on the day of E. Pugachev’s arrival in Kargaly, a decree was drawn up in the Tatar language, addressed to the Bashkirs, and sent to Bashkiria. Written with great feeling and enthusiasm, the decree called on the Bashkirs to revolt and granted them all kinds of freedom: “lands, waters, forests, residences, herbs, rivers, fish, grain, laws, arable land, bodies, cash salaries, lead and gunpowder.” “And come like the steppe animals,” the decree said, i.e. live as freely as wild animals in the steppe.

On October 2, the rebel detachment moved up the river. Sakmara to Sakmara Cossack town. From the village Kargaly to the village. Sakmarsky 16 kilometers.

News of the uprising, of course, quickly reached the town of Sakmara. They were confirmed by Reinsdorp’s order of September 24, which ordered the ataman of the town, Danila Donskov, to send 120 Cossacks up the river. Yaik for guard duty. Ataman Donskov carried out the order. A small number of serving Cossacks remained in the town. A few days later, Reinsdorp ordered the rest of the serving Cossacks with all the artillery and military supplies to arrive in Orenburg, break the bridge across Sakmara, and the entire population of the town to move to the Krasnogorsk fortress. The serving Cossacks with the ataman, with guns and military supplies moved to Orenburg. The rest of the population - retired Cossacks, Cossack families and others - remained at home and did not allow the bridge across the river to be destroyed. Sakmara. Residents of the town were waiting for Pugachev.

On the night of October 1-2, prominent participants in the uprising, Maxim Shigaev and Pyotr Mitryasov, arrived in the Sakmara town with a group of Cossacks and read out the decree of E. Pugachev, Tsar Peter III, at the Cossack circle. The Sakmara Cossacks joined the uprising.

On October 2, the population of the town greeted Pugachev with great honor and took the oath. After taking the oath, a detachment led by Pugachev entered the Sakmara town to the sound of bells.

Sakmara Cossacks actively participated in the peasant war. During interrogations, E. Pugachev testified that the Sakmara Cossacks “were inseparable from him.” Among the Sakmara residents, a prominent participant in the uprising was the Cossack Ivan Borodin, a village clerk.

An interesting episode took place near the town of Sakmara. On October 3, a man about 60 years old came to the camp, in a torn dress, with torn out nostrils and convict marks on his cheeks. He approached Pugachev, who was standing next to the Yaik Cossack Maxim Shigaev, one of the leaders of the uprising. “What kind of person? - E. Pugachev asked Shigaev. “This is Khlopusha, the poorest man,” answered Shigaev. Shigaev knew Khlopusha, since he was in Orenburg prison with him, having been arrested for participating in the uprising of the Yaik Cossacks in 1772. E. Pugachev ordered to feed Khlopusha. Khlopusha took four sealed envelopes from his bosom and handed them to E. Pugachev. These were orders from the Orenburg authorities to the Yaik, Orenburg and Iletsk Cossacks to stop the uprising, seize E. Pugachev and bring him to Orenburg.

Khlopusha confessed to Pugachev that he was sent by Governor Reinsdorv to convey orders to the Cossacks, dissuade them from the uprising, burn gunpowder and shells, rivet the cannons and hand Pugachev over to the Orenburg authorities. Having gone over to the side of the rebels, Khlopusha eventually becomes one of Pugachev’s closest assistants. At the Ural mining factories, where he is sent, he raises workers, Bashkirs, organizes the casting of cannons and cannonballs. Pugachev appoints him colonel of a detachment of Ural workers.

From the camp near the Sakmarsky town, E. Pugachev sent a decree to the commandant of the Krasnogorsk fortress, the Cossacks sent from the Sakmarsky town to perform guard duty in the Krasnogorsk and Verkhneozernaya fortresses, and “all ranks to the people.”

The decree called for serving the new, peasant king “faithfully and unfailingly to the last drop of blood.” For the service, the people and the Cossacks complained “with a cross and a beard, a river and land, herbs and seas and a monetary salary, and grain provisions, and lead, and gunpowder, and eternal liberty.”

The decree to the Sakmara Cossacks, having become widespread, raised peasants, Cossacks, workers, oppressed nationalities against the nobles and landowners.

On October 4, E. Pugachev left the camp near the Sakmar town and went to Orenburg.

During the era of the uprising, Orenburg was the administrative center of the vast Orenburg province, on the territory of which such Western European states as Belgium, Holland, and France could freely accommodate.

The Orenburg province included in its territory the modern West Kazakhstan, Aktobe, Kustanai, Orenburg, Chelyabinsk region, part of the Samara and Yekaterinburg regions, the territory of Bashkiria.

At the same time, Orenburg was the main fortress on the military border line along the river. Yaik and the center of barter trade with Central Asia and Kazakhstan in the southeast of Russia.

That is why they tried so persistently and stubbornly to take control of Orenburg.

In terms of size, Orenburg during the Pugachev uprising was many times smaller than the current city of Orenburg. Its entire area was located in the central part of Orenburg, adjacent to the river. Ural, and was 677 fathoms long (about 3300 meters) and 570 fathoms wide (about 1150 meters).

Being the main fortress in the southeast of Russia, Orenburg had more solid fortifications than other fortresses along the river. Yaiku.

The city was surrounded by a high earthen rampart in the shape of an oval, fortified with 10 bastions and 2 half-bastions. The height of the shaft reached 4 meters and above, and the width - 13 meters. The total length of the shaft on its outer side was 5 versts. In some places the shaft was lined with slabs of red sandstone. On the outside of the rampart there was a ditch about 4 meters deep and 10 meters wide.

The city had four gates: Sakmarsky (where Sovetskaya Street adjoins the House of Soviets Square), Orsky (at the intersection of Pushkinskaya Street with Studencheskaya), Samara, or Chernorechensky (at the intersection of Pushkinskaya and Burzyantseva streets), and Yaitsky, or Vodyany (at intersection of M. Gorky and Burzyantsev streets).

Academician Falk, who visited Orenburg in 1771, reports that the streets of the city are unpaved and there is “great mud” in the spring, and “heavy dust” in the summer.

On the eastern side, the Orenburg Cossack settlement of Forshtadt adjoined the city.

The houses of the Cossacks began under the very walls of the fortress. On the steep bank of the oxbow of the Urals stood a Cossack church. Apart from Forstadt, the city had no other suburbs. Beyond the city walls stretched endless steppes. Academician Falk points out that in the city of Orenburg in 1770 there were 1,533 philistine houses.

For trading purposes, a large barter yard was built several miles from Orenburg. That's how it was appearance

Orenburg in the era of the peasant war of 1773–1775.

On September 28, Reinsdorp convened a military council, where it turned out that the city was able to field about 3,000 people, of which about 1,500 were soldiers. The fortress had about a hundred cannons. With the approach of the rebel forces to Orenburg, they began to prepare the fortress for defense: they transferred the Cossacks of Forstadt residents to the fortress, cleared the ditch of clay and sand, straightened the ramparts, surrounded the fortress with slingshots and prepared manure for blocking the city gates. Already on October 2, there were 70 cannons on the ramparts of the fortress.

On October 4, the garrison of the fortress was replenished with a detachment of 626 people with 4 cannons, who arrived from the Yaitsky town at the call of Reinsdorp.

The fortress and the population of the city did not have sufficient food supplies. The time to prepare it was lost.

Such was the military state of Orenburg at the time Pugachev approached the city walls.

Smoke and flames rose over the city. It was Forstadt that was burning, set on fire on the orders of Reinsdorp. Only the Cossack church on the banks of the Urals survived the fire. During the assault on Orenburg, the rebels used it as a place for a battery: cannons were installed on the porch and bell tower. The rebels also fired rifles from the bell tower.

With the approach of the rebels to Orenburg, the first, initial stage of the peasant uprising ended and the next stage began - the period of the siege of Orenburg and the development of a local uprising into a people's war.

A detachment of 1,500 people under the command of Major Naumov set out from Orenburg.

The Cossacks and soldiers of the detachment acted with great reluctance. According to Major Naumov, he saw “timidity and fear in his subordinates.” After a two-hour fruitless firefight, the detachment entered the city.

On October 7, Reinsdorp convened a council of war. It resolved the question of what tactics to follow in the fight against the rebels: to act against them “defensively” or “offensively.” Most members of the military council spoke in favor of “defensive” tactics. The Orenburg military authorities were afraid of the garrison troops going over to Pugachev's side. They believed that it was better to sit outside the walls of the fortress under the cover of fortress artillery.

Thus began the siege of Orenburg, which lasted for six months, until the end of March 1774. The garrison of the fortress during its forays could not defeat the peasant troops. The rebels' assaults were repelled by the city's artillery, but in open battle success always remained on the side of the peasant army.

On the morning of October 12, troops under the command of Naumov left the city and entered into a fierce battle with the rebels. Pugachev, having learned in advance about the impending sortie, chose a convenient position. “The battle,” a contemporary noted, “was stronger than before, and our artillery alone fired about five hundred shots, but the villains fired much more from their cannons, acted... with greater audacity than before.” The battle lasted about four hours. It started to rain and snow.

On October 22, Pugachev with all his forces (about 2,000 people) again approached Orenburg, set up batteries under the ridge and began a continuous cannonade. Shells also flew from the city wall. This powerful artillery fire continued for more than 6 hours. Orenburg resident Ivan Osipov recalled that on this day people “from the cannonballs and extraordinary fear almost found no place in their homes.”

However, this very strong “aspiration towards the city” did not lead to the capture of Orenburg, and the rebels retreated to Berda.

Reinsdorp's attempt to defeat the rebel army and occupy the Berdskaya settlement ended in complete failure. On January 13, 1774, the Orenburg garrison suffered a complete defeat. The rebels completely defeated the government troops, who retreated in panic under the cover of the fortress artillery. The troops lost 13 guns, 281 people killed and 123 people wounded.

After this battle, the Orenburg garrison did not make a single serious attempt to defeat the rebel army. Reinsdorp limited himself to one passive defense.

On the other hand, the fortifications of the city, significant artillery with a sufficient supply of military supplies, as well as the weak weapons of the rebels, their lack of fortress artillery and the necessary military knowledge to wage a siege of the fortress prevented the rebels from capturing Orenburg.

Meanwhile, food supplies in the city were scarce. Pugachev knew this and decided to starve the city out.

Already in January, there was an acute shortage of food in Orenburg; there was also no fodder for the Cossack and artillery horses. Prices for products have risen many times. The city was on the verge of surrender. Only government units that arrived in time prevented the capture of Orenburg by peasant troops.

While the siege of Orenburg was going on, the uprising was spreading with extraordinary speed. In October 1773, fortresses along the river. Samara-Perevolotskaya, Novosergievskaya, Totskaya, Sorochinskaya - passed into the hands of the rebels.

The serf peasantry, national minorities of the Orenburg region and, first of all, the Bashkirs, join the uprising.

An example of the inclusion of the serf peasantry of the province in the Pugachev uprising is the speech of the residents of the villages of Lyakhovo, Karamzin (Mikhailovka), Zhdanov, Putilov, located north of Buzuluk. On the night of October 17, a mounted rebel detachment, consisting of Yaik Cossacks, Kalmyks and Chuvash newly baptized from neighboring villages, numbering 30 people, rode into the village of Lyakhovo. They declared that they had been sent from the armies by Tsar Peter Fedorovich to destroy the landowners' houses and give the peasants freedom. Having entered the landowner's yard, they “plundered all the belongings and stole the cattle,” and the peasants, according to the testimony of the local priest Pyotr Stepanov, “did not put up any resistance to preventing that robbery.” The rebel cornet told the peasants: “Look, guys, don’t work for the landowner and don’t pay him any taxes.”

In November 1773, the Cossacks and other population of the fortresses along the Samara line joined the uprising. The Buzuluk fortress became the center. Its residents, having listened to Pugachev’s decree, brought from Berda on November 30 by a detachment of retired soldier Ivan Zhilkin, happily went over to the side of “Sovereign Peter Fedorovich.” On the same day, another rebel team of 50 Cossacks arrived in Buzuluk under the command of Ilya Fedorovich Arapov, a serf peasant from near Buzuluk who became a prominent figure in the peasant war. On the basis of Pugachev's manifestos and decrees, he everywhere freed peasants from serfdom, dealt with landowners and their servants, and plundered noble estates. Taking from local residents carts, “the rebels loaded them with 62 quarters of crackers, 164 bags of flour, 12 quarters of cereals, five pounds of gunpowder and 2010 rubles of copper money.” Sergeant Ivan Zverev, a participant in the events, testified to this during the investigation.

I. Arapov's detachment quickly grew due to the influx of local peasants and Cossacks. On December 22, 1773, Arapov moved to Samara, and on December 25 he victoriously entered it, peacefully greeted by “a great multitude of residents” who came out with a cross, images, and the ringing of bells. Residents of the Buguruslan settlement also joined the uprising, forming a detachment led by Gavrila Davydov, former deputy

Laid commission. The noble government took measures to suppress the peasant uprising. On October 14, 1773, Major General Kar was appointed head of the troops to suppress the uprising. On October 30 he arrived in the Kichuy feldshanets, former fortification

on the New Zakamskaya line, on the Orenburg-Kazan highway.

On the morning of November 13, under Mount Mayak near Orenburg, a detachment of Colonel Chernyshev was captured, numbering up to 1,100 Cossacks, 600–700 soldiers, 500 Kalmyks, 15 guns and a huge convoy. Only Colonel Korf’s detachment, coming from the Verkhne-Ozernaya fortress (the modern village of Verkhne-Ozernoye) consisting of 2,500 people and 25 guns, managed to slip into Orenburg.

To prevent advances by government troops from Siberia, Pugachev sent Khlopushu up the Yaika River in November and followed him himself. On November 23 and 26, peasant troops unsuccessfully attacked the Verkhne-Ozernaya fortress. On November 29, they stormed the Ilyinsky fortress and captured the detachment of Major Zaev, who was going to the aid of besieged Orenburg. Major General Stanislavsky, moving after Zaev, retreated in fear to the Orsk fortress, where he remained with his detachment until the defeat of the uprising forces. On February 16, 1774, Khlopushi’s detachment captured the Iletsk Defense ( modern city

Sol-Iletsk).

The defeat of government troops had a huge impact on the expansion of the uprising.

Already in October, Bashkir rebel detachments appeared near Ufa, and in mid-November the siege of Ufa began. The rebel center was located 20 kilometers from Ufa, in the village of Chesnokovka. The leaders of the rebel forces in Bashkiria were the Bashkir national hero 20-year-old Salavat Yulaev, the Yaik Cossack Chika-Zarubin, specially sent by Pugachev from Berd, and the retired soldier Beloborodov.

On November 18, its commandant, Lieutenant Colonel Wulf, fled from the Buzuluk fortress. A detachment of peasants and Cossacks moved down Samara under the command of the rebel chieftain Arapov, a simple serf. On December 25, 1773, he was solemnly greeted by the residents of Samara. In December, residents of the Buguruslan settlement also joined the uprising, sending two deputies to Berdy to Pugachev. One of them - Gavrila Davydov - was accepted by Pugachev and appointed ataman of the Buguruslan settlement. Teams were organized everywhere, atamans and esauls were elected. By the end of December all West Side modern Orenburg region and adjacent part

At the end of December 1773, Yaitsky Cossack rebels captured the Yaitsky Cossack town (Uralsk). The commandant of the town, Colonel Simonov, who had built a fortification inside the town, found himself under siege.

In January 1774, rebels led by the 20-year-old Bashkir national hero Salavat Yulaev occupied the city of Krasnoufimsk and besieged Kungur, and the Chelyabinsk Cossacks, led by Ataman Gryaznov, captured the Chelyabinsk fortress. The population of the Ural mining plants goes over to the side of the uprising.

Thus, at the end of 1773 and at the beginning of 1774, a huge region was burning in the fire of an uprising. The landowners fled to central Russia in fear. Kazan is empty. Entire convoys were drawn to Moscow with property and families of landowners.

A member of the secret investigative commission, Lieutenant Captain Mavrin, sent to Kazan, wrote to Catherine II that despair and fear were so great that if Pugachev had sent about 30 of his supporters, he could easily have captured the city.

Berdy village

At the beginning of November the cold weather set in. On November 5, the peasant army moves into Berdskaya Sloboda. The rebels settled in huts, dugouts dug in courtyards, in the vicinity of the settlement.

Berdskaya Sloboda becomes the center of the uprising, the main headquarters of the rebel army.

The significance of the settlement as the center of the uprising was well understood by the participants in the uprising. In their letters and official papers they call it “the city of Berdy.” Contemporaries say: “They call the Berdsk settlement Moscow, Kargalu - St. Petersburg, and the Chernorechensk fortress - a province.”

Peasants came from all sides to the Berdskaya Sloboda: some to see their peasant king, who was simply called “father,” and to receive a decree on “eternal freedom,” others to join the ranks of the peasant army. Chika-Zarubin, one of the main figures of the uprising, later testified during interrogation: “Rarely a slave was taken into his crowd, for the most part they themselves came in crowds every day.”

This is how a multinational peasant army was formed.

The size of the peasant army in mid-November 1773 reached 10,000 people, of which about half were Bashkirs. Later, in February-March 1774, the size of the peasant army grew to 20,000 people.

Cavalry regiments were organized from the Cossacks and Bashkirs who had horses, and factory workers and peasants made up the infantry.

Each regiment stood in its own dugouts and had its own regimental banner. The regiments were divided into companies, hundreds and dozens. Regiment commanders were selected from the military circle or appointed by Pugachev. As a rule, all commanders were chosen in a circle.

The leadership of Pugachev's army reached two hundred people, of which 52 were Cossacks, 38 were serfs, 35 were factory workers.

Among the leaders there were 30 Bashkirs and 20 Tatars.

In addition to infantry and cavalry, there was artillery, numbering about 80 guns, many of which were manufactured at Ural factories. The shells were also manufactured there.

The regional museum of local lore houses a rebel cannon, which is a copper barrel attached to an iron-bound wooden machine - a gun carriage. Carriage wheels made from solid pieces of wood. On the barrel of the cannon there is an image of a banner and the outline of the letter “P” - the initial letter of the name Peter. The cannon was probably cast in honor of the leader of the uprising at the Ural factories. It was sent to the museum from the St. Petersburg Artillery Museum in 1899, and was delivered there from the Izhevsk Arms Plant

The army's armament as a whole was weak.

The best armed were the Yaik and Orenburg Cossacks, who had their own weapons, as well as the soldiers who went over with weapons to the side of the rebels. The rest were armed “some with a spear, some with a pistol, some with an officer’s sword; there were relatively few guns: the Bashkirs were armed with arrows, and most of the infantry had bayonets stuck on sticks, some were armed with clubs, and the rest had no weapons at all and walked near Orenburg with one whip,” says one of the historians of the uprising.

The troops carried out guard duty, patrols were sent out. One of these patrols stood on Mount Mayak, from where the whole of Orenburg was clearly visible.

The troops underwent combat training. A. S. Pushkin writes: “exercises (especially artillery) took place almost every day.”

To command the army and manage the occupied territory, E. Pugachev created a special apparatus - the Military Collegium.

The Military Collegium dealt with a variety of military, administrative, economic, and judicial issues. She sent orders to the atamans, gave decrees on behalf of Peter III) took care of food, military supplies, sorted out complaints from the population, developed plans for military operations, etc.

The leader of the uprising, E. Pugachev, lived in the Berdskaya settlement in a peasant hut that belonged to the Berdino Cossack Sitnikov, which was known among the Berdino Cossacks as the “golden chamber” back in the 20s of the 19th century. A prominent participant in the uprising, Timofey Myasnikov, said during interrogation: “This house was one of the best and was called the sovereign’s palace, on whose porch there was always an indispensable guard of the best 25 Yaik Cossacks, called the guard. Instead of wallpaper, his chamber was upholstered with noise,” that is, with golden paper. Old-timers of the village of Berdy still remember the location of the “golden chamber.”

E. Pugachev's closest associates in the first period of the uprising were the Yaik Cossacks Andrei Ovchinnikov, Chika-Zarubin, Maxim Shigaev, Perfilyev, Davilin, the centurion of the Orenburg Cossacks Timofey Padurov, the exile Afanasy Sokolov-Khlopusha, the retired soldier Beloborodoye, the serf Ilya Arapov, the soldier Zhilkin, Bashkirs Salavat Yulaev, Kinzya Arslanov, Kargaly Tatars Musa Aliyev, Sadyk Seitov and others.

Pushkin in the village Berdy

In the fall of 1833, A. S. Pushkin made a trip to the distant Orenburg region to collect materials on the uprising of Emelyan Pugachev and to get acquainted with the places of events of 1773–1775. On September 18 (old style), 1833, A.S. Pushkin arrived in Orenburg. On September 19, accompanied by V.I. Dahl, he went to Berdy. In Berdy, A.S. Pushkin and V.I. Dal found a contemporary of the uprising, the old woman Buntova, who was from the Nizhneozernaya fortress. Buntova sang several songs about Pugachev to A.S. Pushkin and said that she remembered the uprising. Traces of this conversation are several notes in the notebook of the great poet with the notes: “In Berd from an old woman,” “Old woman in Berd.” Buntova and other Berdino old-timers showed the place where the “sovereign palace” stood, that is, the hut where Pugachev lived. From the high cliff of the old bank of Sakmara they showed the visible peaks of the Grebeny mountains and told, as V.I. Dal reports in his memoirs about a trip to Berdy, the legend of a huge treasure allegedly buried by Pugachev in Grebeny.

The trip to Berdy made a deep impression on Pushkin. Returning from a trip to his Boldino estate near Moscow, A.S. Pushkin, remembering his trip to Orenburg and... Uralsk, in a letter dated October 2, 1833 to his wife, he wrote: “In the village of Berde, where Pugachev stayed for six months, I had une bonne fortune (great luck): I found a 75-year-old Cossack woman who remembers this time, like you and I we remember 1830.”

Records made in the village. The reeds were used by A.S. Pushkin in “The History of Pugachev” and the story “The Captain's Daughter”. “Rebel settlement” is the village of Berdy during the uprising. The descriptions of the “sovereign palace” and the road along which the hero of the story, Ensign Grinev, rode to the “rebellious settlement” are based on the stories of Berdino old-timers, in particular Buntova, and the personal impressions of A. S. Pushkin.

The men lead Grinev “to a hut that stood at the corner of the intersection.” Indeed, the hut of the Cossack Sitnikov, where Pugachev lived, as already mentioned, stood on the corner of modern Leninskaya and Pugachev streets, on the very edge of the main bank of Sakmara. The Cossack woman Akulina Timofeevna Blinova also points to the same location of the sovereign’s palace in her memoirs, recorded in 1899. A. T. Blinova, being Buntova’s neighbor, was present during the conversation between A. S. Pushkin and V. I. Dal with Buntova. She recalled: “The gentlemen were asked to show the house” where Pugachev lived. Buntova took them to show them. This house stood on a large street, on the corner, on the red side.

It had six windows. From the yard there is a wonderful view of Sakmara, the lake and the forest. Sakmara came very close to the courtyards.”

It is very likely that A.S. Pushkin was shown not only the place where the Cossack Sitnikov’s hut stood, but that during A.S. Pushkin’s visit to the village.

In Berdy this hut still stood and A.S. Pushkin saw the “sovereign palace” itself.

On December 29, 1773, after stubborn resistance from the detachment of Ataman Ilya Arapov, Samara was occupied. Arapov retreated to the Buzuluk fortress.

On February 28, Prince Golitsin’s detachment moved from Buguruslan to the Samara line to connect with Major General Mansurov.

The whole winter passed under the siege of Orenburg, and only in March, having learned about the approach of Golitsyn’s corps, did Pugachev move away from Orenburg to meet the advancing troops.

On March 6, Golitsin’s advance detachment entered the village of Pronkino (in the territory of the modern Sorochinsky district) and settled down for the night. Warned by the peasants, Pugachev with the atamans Rechkin and Arapov at night, during a strong storm and blizzard, made a forced march and attacked the detachment.

The rebels broke into the village, captured the guns, but were then forced to retreat. Golitsyn, withstanding Pugachev's attack. Under pressure from government troops, peasant detachments retreated up the Samara, taking with them the population and supplies.

Pugachev returned to Berdy, transferring command of the retreating detachments to Ataman Ovchinnikov.

The decisive battle between government troops and the peasant army took place on March 22, 1774 near the Tatishchevo fortress (the modern village of Tatishchevo). Pugachev concentrated the main forces of the peasant army here, about 9,000 people. Instead of burnt wooden walls, a shaft of snow and ice was built, and cannons were installed. The battle lasted over 6 hours. The peasant troops held out with such steadfastness that Prince Golitsin wrote in his report to A. Bibikov:

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

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

On March 24, the peasant army was defeated near Ufa. Its leader Chika-Zarubin fled to Tabynsk, but was treacherously captured and extradited.

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

On April 16, government troops entered the Yaitsky Cossack town.

A detachment of Yaik and Iletsk Cossacks in the amount of 300 people under the command of atamans Ovchinnikov and Perfilyev broke through the Samara line and went to Bashkiria to join with Pugachev.

The attempt of the Orenburg and Stavropol Kalmyks to break into Bashkiria ended less happily - only a small part of them could go there.

The rest went to the Trans-Samara steppes. On May 23 they were defeated by government forces. The Kalmyk leader Derbetov died from his wounds.

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

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

Although Pugachev’s army was beaten, the uprising was not suppressed. When Pugachev, after the defeat in Kazan, crossed to the right bank of the Volga and sent out his manifestos to the peasants, calling on them to fight against the nobles and officials, the peasants began to rebel without waiting for his arrival. This provided him with movement forward.

The army replenished and grew.

On August 1, Pugachev’s troops approached Penza and took it almost without resistance. On August 4, Petrovok was captured, followed by Saratov in the coming days. Entering the city, Pugachev released prisoners from prison everywhere, opened bread and salt stores and distributed goods to the people.

On August 17, Dubovka was taken, and on August 21, the Pugachevites approached Tsaritsyn and launched an assault. Tsaritsyn turned out to be the first city after Orenburg that Pugachev could not take. Having learned that Mikhelson’s detachment was approaching Tsaritsyn, he lifted the siege of the city and went south, thinking of getting to the Don and raising its entire population in rebellion.

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

The government sent out manifestos everywhere, promising 10,000 rewards and forgiveness to anyone who would hand over Pugachev. The Cossacks from the kulak elite, seeing that the uprising had turned into a campaign of the poor against the exploiters and oppressors, became more and more disillusioned with it. After Pugachev's defeat, they conspired to save their corrupt skin. Those close to Pugachev - Chumakov, Tvorogov, Fedulov, Burnov, Zheleznov and others - attacked Pugachev en masse, like cowardly dogs, tied him up and handed him over to the authorities. Pugachev was delivered to the commandant of the Yaitsky town Simonov, and from there to Simbirsk.

On November 4, 1774, in an iron cage, like a wild animal, Pugachev, accompanied by his wife Sophia and son Trofim, was taken to Moscow, where the investigation began.

The investigative commission tried to present the case in such a way that the uprising was prepared on the initiative of hostile states, but the course of the case inexorably showed that it was caused by unbearable oppression and exploitation to which the peoples of the region were subjected.

“Maintenance on the death penalty for the traitor, rebel and impostor Pugachev and his accomplices.

With the addition of an announcement to forgiven criminals. For this reason, the Assembly, finding the matter in such circumstances, conforming to Her unparalleled mercy, knowing Her compassionate and humane heart, and finally, reasoning that law and duty require justice, and not revenge, which is incompatible anywhere in the Christian law, they unanimously sentenced and determined, for all the atrocities committed, the rebel and impostor Emelka Pugachev, by virtue of the prescribed Divine and civil laws, inflict the death penalty, namely: quartering, having the head impaled, parts of the body carried to four parts of the city and placed on wheels, and then burned in the same places. His main accomplices, contributing to his atrocities: 1. Yaik Cossack Afanasy Perfilyev, as the main favorite and accomplice in all the evil intentions, enterprises and deeds of the monster and impostor Pugachev, most of all, by his anger and betrayal, worthy of the cruelest execution, and whose deeds are to the horror of everyone hearts can lead that this villain, being in St. Petersburg at the very time when the monster and impostor showed up in front of Orenburg, voluntarily presented himself to the authorities with such a proposal, allegedly motivated by loyalty to the common good and peace, he wanted to persuade the main accomplices of the villainous, Yaik Cossacks to conquer the legitimate government, and bring the villain together with them to confess. It was precisely on this certificate and oath that he was sent to Orenburg; but the scorched conscience of this villain, under the cover of good intentions, was hungry for malice: having arrived in the host of villains, he introduced himself to the main rebel and impostor, who was then in Berd, and not only refrained from fulfilling the service that he promised and conjured to perform, but, somehow to assure the impostor of loyalty, openly declared his whole intention to him, and uniting his treacherous conscience with the vile soul of the monster himself, remained from that time until the very end unshakable in zeal for the enemy of the fatherland, was the main accomplice in his brutal deeds, carried out all the most painful executions on those unfortunate people, whom a disastrous lot condemned to fall into the bloodthirsty hands of villains, and finally, when the villainous gathering was destroyed at last at Black Yar, and the most favorites of the monster Pugachev rushed to the Yaitskaya steppe, and, seeking salvation, split into different gangs, the Cossack Pustobaev admonished his comrades their own to appear in the Yaitsky city to confess, to which others agreed;

Imperial Majesty

Yaitsky Cossack Maxim Shigaev, Orenburg Cossack Sotnik Podurov and Orenburg non-employee Cossack Vasily Tornov, of which the first Shigaev, for the fact that, based on rumors about the impostor, he voluntarily went to see him, or the inn to Stepan Abalyaev, located not far from the Yaitsky city, consulted in favor of discovering the villain and impostor Pugachev, he spread the word about him in the city, and since his meaning attracted the confidence of ordinary people, he created affection in many there for the rebel and impostor; and then, when the villain, having clearly stolen the name of the late Sovereign Peter the Third, approached the city of Yaitsk, he was one of his first accomplices. During the siege of Orenburg, whenever the main villain himself left for the city of Yaitsk, he left him as the leader of his rebel crowd. And in this hated leadership, he carried out many evils to Shigaev: he hanged the cavalry regiment of the Reitar sent to Orenburg from Major General and Cavalier Prince Golitsyn of the Life Guards with the news of his approach, solely for the said Reiter’s preservation of true loyalty to Her Imperial Majesty, his legitimate Empress . The second Podurov, like a real traitor, who not only gave himself up to the villain and impostor, but also wrote many letters corrupting the people, exhorted the Yaik Cossacks faithful to Her Imperial Majesty to surrender to the villain and rebel, calling him and assuring others that he was the true Sovereign , and finally wrote threatening letters to the Orenburg Governor Lieutenant General and Cavalier Reinsdorp, to the Orenburg Ataman Mogutov and to the faithful Foreman of the Yaitsk army Martemyai Borodin, by which letters this traitor was convinced and confessed.

Yaitshi Cossacks, Vasily Plotnikov, Denis Karavaev, Grigory Zakladnov, Meshcheryatsk Sotnik Kaznafer Usaev, and the Rzhev merchant Dolgopolov for the fact that these villainous accomplices, Plotnikov and Karavaev, at the very beginning of the villainous intent, came to the arable soldier Abalyaev, where the impostor was then located, and having agreed with him about the indignation of the Yaitsky Cossacks, they made the first disclosures to the people, and Karavaev said that he allegedly saw the Tsar’s signs on the villain... Thus leading ordinary people into temptation, he Karavaev and Plotikov, upon hearing about the impostor, were taken under guard , it was not announced. Zakladnov was like the first of the initial whistleblowers about the villain, and the very first to whom the villain dared to call himself Sovereign.

Kaznafer Usaev was twice in the villainous crowd, he went to different places to outrage the Bashkirs and was with the villains Beloborodov and Chika, who carried out various tyrannies. He was captured for the first time by loyal troops led by Colonel Michelson during the defeat of a villainous gang near the city of Ufa, and was released with a ticket to his former residence; but not feeling the mercy shown to him, he again turned to the impostor and brought the merchant Dolgopolov to him. The Rzhev merchant Dolgopolov, with various falsely composed inventions, led simple and frivolous people into greater blindness, so that Kaznafer Usaev, having established himself more on his assurances, clung a second time to the villain. All five of them should be flogged, marked with signs, their nostrils torn out, sent to hard labor, and Dolgopolov of them, in addition, kept in chains.

Yaitsky Cossack Ivan Pochitalin, Iletsky Maxim Gorshkov and Yaitsky Ilya Ulyanov for the fact that Pochitalin and Gorshkov were the producers of written affairs under the impostor, compiled and signed his bad sheets, calling them Sovereign manifestos and decrees, through which, increasing depravity in ordinary people, they were guilty their non-participation and detriment. Ulyanov, who was always with them in villainous gangs, and who, like them, carried out murders, all three were whipped and, having torn out their nostrils, sent to hard labor.

Retired Guards Fourier Mikhail Golev, Saratov merchant Fyodor Kobyakov and schismatic Pachomius, the former for clinging to the villain and the resulting temptations from their disclosures, and the latter to be whipped for false testimony, Golev and Pachomius in Moscow, and Kobyakov in Saratov, and the Saratov merchant Protopopov for failure to save in when necessary due fidelity, whipped.

Iletsk cavak Ivan Tvarogov, and Yaitskikh, Fyodor Chumakov, Vasily Konovalov, Ivan Burnov, Ivan Fedulov, Pyotr Pustobaev, Kozma Kochurov, Yakov Pochitalin and Semyon Sheludyakov, by virtue of Her Imperial Majesty's gracious manifesto; release from all punishment; the first five people because, having heeded the voice of remorse, and feeling the severity of their iniquities, they not only came to confess, but I tied up the culprit of their destruction, Pugachev, and betrayed themselves and the villain and impostor himself to the legitimate authority and justice;

Pusotobaev, for the fact that he persuaded the separated gang from Pugachev himself to come with obedience, and evenly Kochurov, who even before that time had turned himself in; and the last two for the signs of loyalty they showed when they were captured by the villainous crowd and were sent from the villains to the Yaitsky city, but when they arrived there, although they were afraid of falling behind the crowd, they always announced the villainous circumstances and the approach of loyal troops to the fortress ; and then, when the villainous crowd was destroyed near the Yaitsky city, they themselves came to the military leader.

And about this Highest Mercy of Her Imperial Majesty and pardon, make a special announcement to them, through a member detached from the assembly, this Genvar on the 11th day, at a national spectacle in front of the Faceted Chamber, where to remove the shackles from them. The death penalty determined for the villains in Moscow will be carried out in the swamp, this January 10th. Why bring the villain Chika, who was scheduled for execution in the city of Ufa, and after the local execution of the same hour, send him to his appointed place for execution. And for both the publication of this maxim and the predicate of mercy for those forgiven, and about the appropriate preparations and orders, send decrees from the Senate, where appropriate. Concluded on January 9, 1775."
(Complete collection of laws

Russian Empire

On January 10, 1775, in Moscow, the tsar's executioners executed the people's leader and his associates.

Pugacheva and Perfilyev were supposed to be quartered alive, but the executioner “made a mistake” and cut off their heads first, and then quartered them. Ivan Zarubin-Chika was executed in Ufa. Salavat Yulaev and his father Yulay Aznalin were brutally whipped in many villages in Bashkiria and sent to hard labor in Rogervik on the Baltic Sea. Mass repression

in the Urals and Volga region continued until the summer of 1775. Ordinary participants in the uprising were sent to hard labor, assigned to the soldiers, beaten with whips, batogs, and whips.

Brutal reprisals occurred against ordinary participants in the uprising. A mass of prisoners were thrown into prison. In Orenburg at the beginning of April 1774, up to 4,000 people were detained. The prison, Gostiny Dvor - everything was overcrowded. The prisoners were even kept in “drinking houses.” Members of the secret investigative commission, captains Mavrin and Lunin, were sent to Orenburg for the investigation. Particularly brutal massacres were carried out on the right bank of the Volga. The entire leadership of the uprising - atamans, colonels, centurions - were executed by death, ordinary participants in the uprising were flogged and “cut off several at one ear” and out of 300 people, by lot, “one was executed by death.” In order to intimidate the population, executions were carried out in public in public places

, rafts with hanged men descended along the Volga. In all those places where active protests took place, “gallows”, “verbs” and “wheels” were built. They were also built within the modern Orenburg region in most populated areas of that time.

The Orenburg governor Reinsdorf, Colonel Michelson and other commanders for suppressing the popular uprising received new ranks, villages with serfs and lands, as well as large sums of money.

Results of the uprising

The peasant war under the leadership of Emelyan Pugachev ended in the defeat of the rebels. However, this does not detract from the enormous progressive significance of the uprising.

In the Orenburg region, the distribution of state-owned lands in the form of “all-merciful grants” to officers, officials, and Cossack elders who participated in the suppression of the peasant war increased. In 1798, general land surveying began in the province. It assigned to the landowners all their lands, including those seized without permission.

The government encouraged the colonization of the region by the nobility and landowners, therefore in the last quarter of the 18th century. The resettlement of landowners and their peasants increased, especially to the Buguruslan and Buzuluk districts. During the last quarter of the 18th century. 150 new noble estates were formed in the Orenburg province.

Catherine II, wanting to erase from her memory the hated names associated with the Pugachev movement, changed the names of various places; so the village of Zimoveyskaya on the Don, where Pugachev was born, was renamed Potemkinskaya;

Catherine II ordered the house where Pugachev was born to be burned. A funny thing happened. Since Pugachev’s house had previously been sold and moved to another estate, they ordered it to be put in its original place and then, by virtue of the decree, it was burned. The Yaik River was named the Ural. The Yaitsky army is the Ural Cossack army, the Yaitsky town is the Uralsky one, the Verkhne-Yaitskaya pier is the Verkhneuralsky one, etc. The personal decree of the Senate on this matter reads:

“... for the complete oblivion of this unfortunate incident that followed on Yaik, the Yaik River, from which both this army and the city had their name until now, due to the fact that this river flows from the Ural Mountains, be renamed the Ural, and therefore and the army will be called Ural, and henceforth not called Yaitsky, and the Yaitsky city will also be called Uralsk from now on; about which it is published for information and execution.”

(Complete collection of laws of the Russian Empire.

It was strictly forbidden to even mention the name of Pugachev, and his uprising in documents began to be called “a well-known popular confusion.”

The Tatar and Bashkir princes and Murzas were allowed to enjoy the “liberties and advantages” of the Russian nobility, including the right to own serfs, although only of the Muslim faith. The largest of the Muslim landowners, who owned thousands of serfs, were the Tevkelevs, descendants and heirs of the famous translator and diplomat, later General A.I. Tevkelev.

However, fearing new popular uprisings, tsarism did not dare to completely enslave the non-Russian population of the region. The Bashkirs and Mishars were left in the position of military service population. In 1798, cantonal administration was introduced in Bashkiria. In the formed 24 regions-cantons, administration was carried out on a military basis.

The Peasant War showed the weakness of administrative control in the outskirts. Therefore, the government began to hastily transform it. In 1775, a provincial reform followed, according to which the provinces were disaggregated and there were 50 of them instead of 20. All power in provincial and district institutions was in the hands of the local nobility.

To improve monitoring of order in the region, a new reform was carried out in 1782. Instead of the province, two governorships were established: Simbirsk and Ufa, which, in turn, were divided into regions, the latter into counties, and counties into volosts. The Ufa governorate consisted of two regions - Orenburg and Ufa. The Orenburg region included the following counties: Orenburg, Buzuluk, Verkhneuralsky, Sergievsky and Troitsky. A number of fortresses were turned into the cities of Buguruslan, Orsk, Troitsk, Chelyabinsk, with the corresponding staff of officials and military commands. Samara and Stavropol, which were previously part of the Orenburg province, went to the Simbirsk governorship, the Ural Cossack army with Uralsk and Guryev - to the Astrakhan province.

The main cause of popular unrest, including the uprising led by Emelyan Pugachev, was the strengthening of serfdom and the increased exploitation of all segments of the black population. The Cossacks were unhappy with the government's attack on their traditional privileges and rights. The indigenous peoples of the Volga and Urals regions experienced oppression both from the authorities and from the actions of Russian landowners and industrialists. Wars, famines, and epidemics also contributed to popular uprisings. (For example, the Moscow plague riot of 1771 arose as a result of a plague epidemic brought from the fronts of the Russian-Turkish war.)

MANIFESTO OF THE "AMPER"

“The autocratic emperor, our great sovereign, Peter Fedorovich of All Russia and so on... In my named decree it is depicted to the Yaitsk army: as you, my friends, served the former kings to the last drop of your blood... so you will serve for your fatherland to me, the great sovereign Emperor Peter Fedorovich... Wake up by me, the great sovereign granted: Cossacks and Kalmyks and Tatars. And those that were... wine to me... in all wines I forgive and reward you: with bark from the top to the mouth, and with earth, and with herbs, and with money, and with lead, and with gunpowder, and with grain rulers.”

IMPOSTERS

In September 1773, the Yaik Cossacks could hear this manifesto of “the miraculously saved Tsar Peter III.” The shadow of “Peter III” appeared in Russia more than once in the previous 11 years. Some daredevils called themselves Tsar Peter Fedorovich, announced that they wanted, following the freedom of the nobility, to give freedom to the serfs and favor the Cossacks, working people and other common people, but the nobles set out to kill them, and they had to hide for the time being. These impostors quickly ended up in the Secret Expedition, opened under Catherine II to replace the dissolved office of secret investigative affairs, and their lives ended on the chopping block. But soon a living “Peter III” appeared somewhere on the outskirts, and the people seized on rumors about the new “miraculous salvation of the emperor.” Of all the impostors, only one, the Don Cossack Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev, managed to ignite the flames of the peasant war and lead the merciless war of commoners against the masters for the “peasant kingdom.”

At his headquarters and on the battlefield near Orenburg, Pugachev played the “royal role” perfectly. He issued decrees not only on his own behalf, but also on behalf of his “son and heir” Paul. Often in public, Emelyan Ivanovich took out a portrait of the Grand Duke and, looking at it, said with tears: “Oh, I feel sorry for Pavel Petrovich, lest the accursed villains destroy him!” And another time the impostor declared: “I myself no longer want to reign, but I will restore the Tsarevich to the reign.”

“Tsar Peter III” tried to bring order to the rebellious people. The rebels were divided into “regiments” led by elected or appointed “officers” by Pugachev. He made his bet 5 versts from Orenburg in Berd. Under the emperor, a “guard” was formed from his guards. The “great state seal” was placed on Pugachev’s decrees. Under the “tsar” there was a Military Collegium, which concentrated military, administrative and judicial power.

Pugachev also showed his associates birthmarks- the people then were all convinced that kings had “special royal signs” on their bodies. A red caftan, an expensive hat, a saber and a decisive appearance completed the image of the “sovereign”. Although Emelyan Ivanovich’s appearance was unremarkable: he was a Cossack in his thirties, of average height, dark complexion, his hair was cut in a circle, his face was framed by a small black beard. But he was the kind of “king” that the peasant fantasy wanted to see: dashing, insanely brave, sedate, formidable and quick to judge the “traitors.” He executed and complained...

He executed landowners and officers. He favored ordinary people. For example, the craftsman Afanasy Sokolov, nicknamed “Khlopusha,” appeared in his camp; seeing the “tsar,” he fell at his feet and obeyed: he, Khlopusha, was in the Orenburg prison, but was released by Governor Reinsdorf, promising to kill Pugachev for money. “Emperor Peter III” forgives Khlopushu, and even appoints him as a colonel. Soon Khlopusha became famous as a decisive and successful leader. Pugachev promoted another people's leader Chika-Zarubin to count and called him nothing less than “Ivan Nikiforovich Chernyshev.”

Among those granted soon were working people and assigned mining plant peasants who arrived to Pugachev, as well as the rebel Bashkirs led by the noble young hero-poet Salavat Yulaev. The “king” returned their lands to the Bashkirs. The Bashkirs began to set fire to Russian factories built in their region, while the villages of Russian settlers were destroyed, the inhabitants were slaughtered almost entirely.

YAIC COSSACKS

The uprising began on Yaik, which was not accidental. The unrest began in January 1772, when the Yaitsky Cossacks with icons and banners came to their “capital” Yaitsky town to ask the tsar’s general to remove the ataman and part of the foreman who oppressed them and restore the former privileges of the Yaitsky Cossacks.

The government at that time pretty much pushed back the Yaik Cossacks. Their role as border guards declined; Cossacks began to be torn away from home, sent on long campaigns; the election of atamans and commanders was abolished back in the 1740s; At the mouth of the Yaik, fishing industry, with the royal permission, erected barriers that made it difficult for fish to move up the river, which hit hard one of the main Cossack industries - fishing.

In the Yaitsky town, a procession of Cossacks was shot. The soldier corps, which arrived a little later, suppressed the Cossack indignation, the instigators were executed, the “disobedient Cossacks” fled and hid. But there was no peace on Yaik; the Cossack region still resembled a powder magazine. The spark that blew him up was Pugachev.

THE BEGINNING OF THE PUGACHEVSHCHINA

On September 17, 1773, he read out his first manifesto in front of 80 Cossacks. The next day he already had 200 supporters, and on the third - 400. On October 5, 1773, Emelyan Pugachev with 2.5 thousand associates began the siege of Orenburg.

While “Peter III” was on its way to Orenburg, news about it spread throughout the country. In the peasant huts they whispered how everywhere the “emperor” was greeted with “bread and salt”, the bells were solemnly ringing in his honor, the Cossacks and soldiers of the garrisons of small border fortresses opened the gates without a fight and went over to his side, the “bloodsucking nobles” “the king” without he executes those who delay, and bestows their things on the rebels. First, some brave men, and then whole crowds of serfs from the Volga ran to Pugachev in his camp near Orenburg.

PUGACHEV NEAR ORENBURG

Orenburg was a well-fortified provincial city, it was defended by 3 thousand soldiers. Pugachev stood near Orenburg for 6 months, but was never able to take it. However, the army of the rebels grew, at some moments of the uprising its number reached 30 thousand people.

Major General Kar rushed to the rescue of besieged Orenburg with troops loyal to Catherine II. But his detachment of one and a half thousand was defeated. The same thing happened with the military team of Colonel Chernyshev. The remnants of government troops retreated to Kazan and caused panic among the local nobles there. The nobles had already heard about Pugachev’s brutal reprisals and began to scatter, abandoning their houses and property.

The situation was serious. Catherine, in order to support the spirit of the Volga nobles, declared herself a “Kazan landowner.” Troops began to converge on Orenburg. They needed a commander in chief - a talented and energetic person. Catherine II could compromise her beliefs for the sake of benefit. It was at this decisive moment at the court ball that the empress turned to A.I. Bibikov, whom she did not like for her closeness to her son Pavel and “constitutional dreams,” and with a gentle smile asked him to become commander-in-chief of the army. Bibikov replied that he had devoted himself to serving the fatherland and, of course, accepted the appointment. Catherine's hopes were justified. On March 22, 1774, in a 6-hour battle near the Tatishchev Fortress, Bibikov defeated Pugachev’s best forces. 2 thousand Pugachevites were killed, 4 thousand were wounded or surrendered, 36 guns were captured from the rebels. Pugachev was forced to lift the siege of Orenburg. It seemed that the revolt had been suppressed...

But in the spring of 1774, the second part of Pugachev’s drama began. Pugachev moved east: to Bashkiria and the mining Urals. When he approached the Trinity Fortress, the easternmost point of the rebel advance, his army numbered 10 thousand people. The uprising was overwhelmed by the elements of robbery. The Pugachevites burned factories, took away livestock and other property from assigned peasants and working people, destroyed officials, clerks, and captured “gentlemen” without pity, sometimes in the most savage way. Some commoners joined the detachments of Pugachev’s colonels, others formed detachments around the factory owners, who distributed weapons to their people in order to protect them and their lives and property.

PUGACHEV IN THE VOLGA REGION

Pugachev's army grew due to the detachments of the Volga peoples - the Udmurts, Mari, Chuvash. Since November 1773, the manifestos of “Peter III” called on the serfs to deal with the landowners - “disturbers of the empire and destroyers of the peasants”, and to take the nobles’ “houses and all their property as rewards.”

On July 12, 1774, the Emperor took Kazan with a 20,000-strong army. But the government garrison locked itself in the Kazan Kremlin. Tsarist troops led by Mikhelson came to his aid. On July 17, 1774, Mikhelson defeated the Pugachevites. “Tsar Peter Fedorovich” fled to the right bank of the Volga, and there the peasant war unfolded again on a large scale. The Pugachev manifesto of July 31, 1774 granted freedom to the serfs and “freed” the peasants from all duties. Rebel groups arose everywhere, acting at their own peril and risk, often without communication with each other. It is interesting that the rebels usually destroyed the estates not of their owners, but of neighboring landowners. Pugachev with the main forces moved to the Lower Volga. He took on small towns with ease. Detachments of barge haulers, Volga, Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks stuck to him. The powerful fortress of Tsaritsyn stood in the way of the rebels. Under the walls of Tsaritsyn in August 1774, the Pugachevites suffered a major defeat. The thinned rebel detachments began to retreat back to where they came from - to the Southern Urals. Pugachev himself with a group of Yaik Cossacks swam to the left bank of the Volga.

On September 12, 1774, former comrades betrayed their leader. “Tsar Peter Fedorovich” turned into the fugitive rebel Pugach. Emelyan Ivanovich’s angry shouts no longer had any effect: “Who are you knitting? After all, if I don’t do anything to you, then my son, Pavel Petrovich, will not leave a single person among you alive!” The bound “king” was taken on horseback to the Yaitsky town and handed over to an officer there.

Commander-in-Chief Bibikov was no longer alive. He died in the midst of suppressing the riot. New Commander-in-Chief Pyotr Panin ( younger brother teacher of Tsarevich Pavel) had a headquarters in Simbirsk. Mikhelson ordered Pugachev to be sent there. He was escorted by the famous commander of Catherine, recalled from the Turkish war. Pugachev was transported in a wooden cage on a two-wheeled cart.

Meanwhile, Pugachev’s comrades who had not yet laid down their arms spread a rumor that the arrested Pugachev had nothing to do with “Tsar Peter III.” Some peasants sighed with relief: “Thank God! Some Pugach was caught, but Tsar Peter Fedorovich is free!” But in general, the rebel forces were undermined. In 1775, the last pockets of resistance in forested Bashkiria and the Volga region were extinguished, and the echoes of the Pugachev rebellion in Ukraine were suppressed.

A.S. PUSHKIN. "THE HISTORY OF PUGACHEV"

“Suvorov never left his side. In the village of Mostakh (one hundred and forty versts from Samara) there was a fire near the hut where Pugachev spent the night. He was taken out of the cage, tied to a cart along with his son, a playful and brave boy, and all night; Suvorov himself guarded them. In Kosporye, opposite Samara, at night, in rough weather, Suvorov crossed the Volga and came to Simbirsk in early October... Pugachev was brought straight to the courtyard of Count Panin, who met him on the porch... “Who are you?” - he asked the impostor. “Emelyan Ivanov Pugachev,” he answered. “How dare you, juror, call yourself a sovereign?” - Panin continued. “I’m not a raven,” Pugachev objected, playing with words and speaking, as usual, allegorically. “I am a little raven, but the raven still flies.” Panin, noticing that Pugachev’s audacity amazed the people crowded around the palace, hit the impostor in the face until it bled and tore out a tuft of his beard...”

EXECUTIONS AND EXECUTIONS

The victory of government troops was accompanied by atrocities no less than what Pugachev committed against the nobles. The enlightened empress concluded that “in the present case, execution is necessary for the good of the empire.” Prone to constitutional dreams, Pyotr Panin realized the call of the autocrat. Thousands of people were executed without trial. On all the roads of the rebellious region, corpses lay scattered, displayed for edification. It was impossible to count the peasants punished with whips, batogs, and whips. Many had their noses or ears cut off.

Emelyan Pugachev laid down his head on the block on January 10, 1775 in front of a large crowd of people on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow. Before his death, Emelyan Ivanovich bowed to the cathedrals and said goodbye to the people, repeating in an intermittent voice: “Forgive me, Orthodox people; forgive me what I have done wrong to you.” Several of his associates were hanged along with Pugachev. The famous chieftain Chika was taken to Ufa for execution. Salavat Yulaev ended up in hard labor. The Pugachev era is over...

The Pugachev era did not bring relief to the peasants. The government's policy towards the peasants became harsher, and the scope of serfdom expanded. By decree of May 3, 1783, the peasants of the Left Bank and Sloboda Ukraine were transferred to serfdom. The peasants here were deprived of the right to transfer from one owner to another. In 1785, the Cossack elders received the rights of the Russian nobility. Even earlier, in 1775, the free Zaporozhye Sich was destroyed. The Cossacks were resettled to Kuban, where they formed the Kuban Cossack army. The landowners of the Volga region and other regions did not reduce quitrents, corvee and other peasant duties. All this was exacted with the same severity.

“Mother Catherine” wanted the memory of the Pugachev era to be erased. She even ordered the river where the riot began to be renamed: and Yaik became the Ural. The Yaitsky Cossacks and the Yaitsky town were ordered to be called Ural. The village of Zimoveyskaya, the birthplace of Stenka Razin and Emelyan Pugachev, was christened in a new way - Potemkinskaya. However, Pugach was remembered by the people. The old people seriously said that Emelyan Ivanovich was Razin come to life, and he would return to the Don more than once; Songs were heard throughout Rus' and legends circulated about the formidable “emperor and his children.”

Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev

“Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev is a hero and an impostor, a sufferer and a rebel, a sinner and a saint... But above all, he is a leader of the people, an undoubtedly exceptional person - otherwise he would not have been able to captivate armies of thousands and lead them into battle for two years. When raising an uprising, Pugachev knew that the people would follow him” (G.M. Nesterov, local historian).

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

“My historical paintings, of course, are connected with today,” says Tatyana Nazarenko. - “Pugachev” is a story of betrayal. It is at every step. Pugachev's associates abandoned him, dooming him to execution. This always happens."

T. Nazarenko "Pugachev". Diptych

There are numerous legends, traditions, epics, tales about Pugachev and his associates. The people pass them on from generation to generation.

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

How it all began?

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

L. Pfanzelt "Portrait of Emperor Peter III"

Who is he?

Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev- Don Cossack. Born in 1742 in the Cossack village of Zimoveyskaya, Don Region (currently the village of Pugachevskaya, Volgograd Region, Stepan Razin was previously born here).

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

He took part in the Russian-Turkish War, where he fell ill and was sent into retirement, but became involved in the escape of his son-in-law from service and was forced to flee to the Terek. After numerous ups and downs, adventures and escapes, in November 1772 he settled in the Old Believer monastery of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary in the Saratov region with Abbot Philaret, from whom he heard about the unrest that had occurred in the Yaitsk army. Some time later, in a conversation with one of the participants in the 1772 uprising, Denis Pyanov, for the first time called himself the survivor of Peter III: “I am not a merchant, but the sovereign Peter Fedorovich, I was also in Tsaritsyn, but God and good people saved me, but instead of me they spotted a guard soldier, and in St. Petersburg one officer saved me.”. Upon returning to Mechetnaya Sloboda, following a denunciation from the peasant Filippov Pugachev, who was with him on the trip, he was arrested and sent for investigation, first to Simbirsk, then in January 1773 to Kazan.

Portrait of Pugachev, painted from life with oil paints (inscription on the portrait: “True image of the rebel and deceiver Emelka Pugachev”)

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

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

What caused the uprising?

As usual in such cases, there are many reasons, and all of them, when combined, create favorable conditions for the event to occur.

Yaik Cossacks were the main driving force of the uprising. Throughout the 18th century, they gradually lost privileges and liberties, but the times of complete independence from Moscow and Cossack democracy still remained in their memory. In the 1730s, there was an almost complete split of the army into senior and military sides. The situation was aggravated by the monopoly on salt introduced by the royal decree of 1754. The army's economy was entirely built on sales of fish and caviar, and salt was a strategic product. The ban on free salt mining and the emergence of salt tax farmers among the top troops led to a sharp stratification among the Cossacks. The first occurred in 1763 major explosion indignation, the Cossacks write petitions to Orenburg and St. Petersburg, send delegates from the army to complain about the atamans and local authorities. Sometimes they achieved 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 Russia. General Traubenberg and a detachment of soldiers went to investigate the disobedience of the order. The result was the Yaik Cossack uprising of 1772, during which General Traubenberg and the military ataman Tambov were killed. Troops were sent to suppress the uprising. The rebels were defeated at the Embulatovka River in June 1772; As a result of the defeat, the Cossack circles were finally liquidated, a garrison of government troops was stationed in the Yaitsky town, and all power over the army passed into the hands of the commandant of the garrison, Lieutenant Colonel I. D. Simonov. The reprisal against the caught instigators was extremely cruel and made a depressing impression on the army: never before had Cossacks been branded or had their tongues cut out. A large number of The participants in the performance took refuge in distant steppe farms, excitement reigned everywhere, the state of the Cossacks was like a compressed spring.

V. Perov "Pugachev's Court"

Tension was also present in the environment heterodox peoples of the Urals and Volga region. The development of the Urals and the colonization of the lands of the Volga region, which belonged to local nomadic peoples, and intolerant religious policies led to numerous unrest among the Bashkirs, Tatars, Kazakhs, Erzyans, Chuvash, Udmurts, and Kalmyks.

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

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

Insurrection

First stage

The internal readiness of the Yaik Cossacks for the uprising was high, but for the performance there was not enough a unifying idea, a core that would unite the sheltered and hidden participants in the unrest of 1772. The rumor that the miraculously saved Emperor Peter Fedorovich appeared in the army instantly spread throughout Yaik.

The uprising began on Yaik. The starting point of Pugachev’s movement was the Tolkachev farm located south of the Yaitsky town. It was from this farm that Pugachev, who by that time was already Peter III, Tsar Peter Fedorovich, issued a manifesto in which he granted everyone who joined him “a river from the peaks to the mouth, and land, and herbs, and cash salaries, and lead , and gunpowder, and grain provisions." At the head of his constantly growing detachment, Pugachev approached Orenburg and besieged it. Here the question arises: why did Pugachev restrain his forces with this siege?

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

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

Battle map of the Peasants' War

Second phase

In the second stage, the Bashkirs, who by that time already constituted the majority in the Pugachev army, took part in the uprising en masse. At the same time, government forces became more active. This forced Pugachev to move towards Kazan, and then in mid-July 1774 move to the right bank of the Volga. Even before the start of the battle, Pugachev announced that he would go from Kazan to Moscow. The rumor about this spread throughout the area. Despite the major defeat of Pugachev's army, the uprising swept the entire western bank of the Volga. Having crossed the Volga at Kokshaysk, Pugachev replenished his army with thousands of peasants. And Salavat Yulaev at this time with his troops continued fighting near Ufa, the Bashkir detachments in the Pugachev detachment were led by Kinzya Arslanov. Pugachev entered Kurmysh, then freely entered Alatyr, and then headed towards Saransk. On the central square of Saransk, a decree on freedom for peasants was read out, supplies of salt and bread, and the city treasury were distributed to residents “driving around the city fortress and along the streets... they abandoned the mob that had come from different districts”. The same gala meeting I was expecting Pugachev in Penza as well. The decrees caused numerous peasant revolts in the Volga region, the movement covered most of the Volga districts, approached the borders of the Moscow province, and really threatened Moscow.

The publication of decrees (manifestos on the liberation of peasants) in Saransk and Penza is called the culmination of the Peasant War. The decrees made a strong impression on the peasants, nobles and Catherine II herself. The enthusiasm led to the fact that a population of more than a million people was involved in the uprising. They could give nothing to Pugachev’s army in the long-term military plan, since the peasant detachments operated no further than their estate. But they turned Pugachev’s campaign across the Volga region into a triumphal procession, with bells ringing, the blessing of the village priest and bread and salt in every new village, village, town. When Pugachev’s army or its individual detachments approached, the peasants tied up or killed their landowners and their clerks, hanged local officials, burned estates, and smashed shops. In total, in the summer of 1774, about 3 thousand nobles and government officials were killed.

Thus ends the second stage of the war.

Third stage

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

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

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

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

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

Pugachev under escort. 18th century engraving

Pugachev with a detachment of Cossacks fled to Uzeni, not knowing that since mid-August some colonels had been discussing the possibility of earning forgiveness by surrendering the impostor. Under the pretext of making it easier to escape the pursuit, they divided the detachment so as to separate the Cossacks loyal to Pugachev along with Ataman Perfilyev. On September 8, near the Bolshoi Uzen River, they pounced and tied up Pugachev, after which Chumakov and Tvorogov went to Yaitsky town, where on September 11 they announced the capture of the impostor. Having received promises of pardon, they notified their accomplices, and on September 15 they brought Pugachev to the Yaitsky town. The first interrogations took place, one of which was conducted personally by Suvorov, who also volunteered to escort Pugachev to Simbirsk, where the main investigation was taking place. To transport Pugachev, a tight cage was made, mounted on a two-wheeled cart, in which, chained hand and foot, he could not even turn around. In Simbirsk, he was interrogated for five days by P. S. Potemkin, the head of the secret investigative commissions, and Count P. I. Panin, the commander of the government's punitive forces.

Continuation of the Peasant War

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

“Gallows on the Volga” (illustration by N. N. Karazin for “The Captain’s Daughter” by A. S. Pushkin)

Investigation into the Pugachev case

All the main participants in the uprising were transported to Moscow for a general investigation. They were placed in the Mint building at the Iversky Gate of China Town. The interrogations were led by Prince M.N. Volkonsky and Chief Secretary S.I. Sheshkovsky.

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

Sentence and execution

On December 31, Pugachev, under heavy escort, was transported from the casemates of the Mint to the chambers of the Kremlin Palace. He was then taken into the meeting room and forced to kneel. After a formal questioning, he was taken out of the courtroom, the court made a decision: “Emelka Pugachev will be quartered, his head will be stuck on a stake, body parts will be carried to four parts of the city and placed on wheels, and then burned in those places.” The remaining defendants were divided according to the degree of their guilt into several groups for each appropriate type of execution or punishment.

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

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

Features of the Peasant War

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

Consequences of the Peasants' War

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

Decree of the Government Senate

“...for the complete oblivion of this unfortunate incident that followed on Yaik, the Yaik River, along which both this army and the city had their name until now, due to the fact that this river flows from
the Ural Mountains, rename the Ural, and therefore the army will be called Ural, and henceforth not be called Yaitsky, and the Yaitsky city will also be called Uralsk from now on; about what for information and performance
This is how it is published.”

The policy towards the Cossack troops has been adjusted, and the process of their transformation into army units is accelerating. The decree of February 22, 1784 established the nobility of the local nobility. Tatar and Bashkir princes and Murzas are equal in rights and liberties to the Russian nobility, including the right to own serfs, but only of the Muslim religion.

Pugachev's uprising caused enormous damage to the metallurgy of the Urals. 64 of the 129 factories that existed in the Urals fully joined the uprising. In May 1779, a manifesto was published on the general rules for the use of assigned peasants in state-owned and private enterprises, which limited factory owners in the use of peasants assigned to factories, reduced the working day and increased wages.