The peasant war of Stepan Razin Stepan Timofeevich Razin (born unknown - died in 1671) - Don Cossack, leader of the peasant uprising in 1667-1671. Born into the family of a prosperous Cossack in the village of Zimoveyskaya on the Don (it is significant that Pugachev was born there).

The leader of the Cossacks Stepan Timofeevich Razin, also known as Stenka Razin, is one of the cult figures Russian history, about which we have heard a lot even abroad.

The image of Razin was overgrown with legends during his lifetime, and historians still cannot figure out where is the truth and where is fiction.

Rebellion or war against invaders?

Under Alexei Mikhailovich, a rebellion broke out in Russia in 1667, which was later called the uprising of Stepan Razin. This rebellion is also called the peasant war.

The official version is as follows. The peasants, together with the Cossacks, rebelled against the landlords and the tsar. The mutiny lasted four long years, engulfing large territories imperial Russia, but the efforts of the authorities were still suppressed.

What do we know today about Stepan Timofeevich Razin?

By birth, Stepan Razin, like Emelyan Pugachev, was from the Zimoveyskaya stanitsa. The original documents of the Razin people who lost this war have hardly survived. The officialdom believes that only 6-7 of them survived. But historians themselves say that of these 6-7 documents, only one can be considered the original, although it is extremely dubious and looks more like a draft. And no one doubts that this document was drawn up not by Razin himself, but by his associates, who were far from his main headquarters on the Volga.

Russian historian V.I. Buganov in his work "Razin and Razintsy", referring to a multivolume collection of academic documents on the Razin uprising, wrote that the overwhelming majority of these documents came from the government camp of the Romanovs. Hence the suppression of facts, and tendentiousness in their coverage, and even outright lies.

What did the rebels demand from the rulers?

It is known that the Razins performed under the banner great war for the Russian sovereign against the traitors - the Moscow boyars. Historians explain this seemingly strange slogan by the fact that the Razins were very naive and wanted to protect poor Alexei Mikhailovich from their own bad boyars in Moscow. But one of the Razin letters contains the following text:

In the current year, October 179, on the 15th day, according to the decree of the great sovereign and according to his letter, the great sovereign, we, the great army of the Don from the Don, went out to him, the great sovereign, to serve, so that we, this from them, the traitor boyars would not completely perish.

Note that the name of Alexei Mikhailovich is not mentioned in the letter. Historians consider this detail to be insignificant. In their other letters, the Razin people express an obviously disdainful attitude towards the Romanov authorities, and they call all their actions and documents thieves', i.e. illegal. There is a clear contradiction here. For some reason, the rebels do not recognize Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov as the legitimate ruler of Russia, but they go to fight for him.

Who was Stepan Razin?

Suppose that Stepan Razin was not just a Cossack chieftain, but a commander of the sovereign, but not Alexei Romanov. How can this be? Following new chronology, after the great turmoil and the coming to power of the Romanovs in Muscovy, South part Russia, with its capital in Astrakhan, did not swear allegiance to the invaders. The governor of the Astrakhan king was Stepan Timofeevich. Presumably, the Astrakhan ruler was from the clan of the princes of Cherkassk. It is impossible to name him today due to the total distortion of history by order of the Romanovs, but one can assume ...

The Cherkasskys were from the old Russian-Ardynian clans and were descendants of the Egyptian sultans. This is reflected on the coat of arms of the Cherkasy clan. It is known that from 1380 to 1717 the Circassian sultans ruled in Egypt. Today, historical Cherkassia is mistakenly placed on North Caucasus, adding that at the end of the XVI century. this name disappears with historical arena... But it is well known that in Russia up to the 18th century. the word "Cherkasy" called the Dnieper Cossacks.

As for the presence of some of the Cherkassk princes in the Razin troops, this can be confirmed. Even in Romanov's version, history brings us information that in Razin's army there was a certain Alexey Grigorievich Cherkashenin, one of the Cossack chieftains, named brother of Stepan Razin. Perhaps we are talking about Prince Grigory Suncheleevich Cherkassky, who served as a voivode in Astrakhan before the start of the Razin war, but after the victory of the Romanovs, he was killed in his fiefdom in 1672.

Turning point in the war

Victory in this war was not easy for the Romanovs. As is known from the conciliar regulations of 1649, Tsar Alexei Romanov established an indefinite attachment of the peasants to the land, i.e. approved in Russia serfdom... Razin's campaigns on the Volga were accompanied by widespread uprisings of serfs. Following the Russian peasants, huge groups of other Volga peoples revolted: Chuvash, Mari, etc. But apart from common people Romanov's troops also went over to Razin's side! German newspapers of that time wrote: "So many strong troops got to Razin that Alexei Mikhailovich was so frightened that he did not want to send his troops against him anymore."

The Romanovs managed to turn the tide of the war with great difficulty. It is known that the Romanovs had to equip the troops with Western European mercenaries, because after frequent cases of going over to Razin's side, the Romanovs considered Tatar and Russian troops to be unreliable. The Razin people, on the other hand, had a bad attitude towards foreigners, to put it mildly. The Cossacks killed captured foreign mercenaries.

All these large-scale events are presented by historians only as the suppression of a peasant revolt. This version began to be actively implemented by the Romanovs immediately after their victory. Special certificates were produced, the so-called. "Sovereign models", in which the official version of the Razin uprising was presented. It was ordered to read the letter in the field at the clerk hut more than once. But if the four-year confrontation was just an uprising of the mob, it means that she rebelled against the Romanovs. most of country.

According to the reconstruction of the Fomenko-Nosovsky so-called. Razin's uprising was major war between the southern Astrakhan kingdom and the Romanov-controlled parts of White Russia, the northern Volga and Veliky Novgorod. This hypothesis is also confirmed by Western European documents. IN AND. Buganov cites a very interesting document. It turns out that the uprising in Russia, led by Razin, caused a huge resonance in Western Europe... Foreign informants described the events in Russia as a struggle for power, for the throne. It is also interesting that Razin's revolt was called the Tatar revolt.

The end of the war and the execution of Razin

In November 1671, Astrakhan was captured by the Romanov troops. This date is considered the end of the war. However, the circumstances of the defeat of the Astrakhan people are practically unknown. It is believed that Razin was captured and executed in Moscow as a result of betrayal. But even in the capital, the Romanovs did not feel safe.

Jacob Reitenfels, an eyewitness to the execution of Razin, reports:

In order to prevent the unrest that the king feared, the square on which the criminal was punished was, by order of the king, surrounded by a triple row of loyal soldiers. And only foreigners were allowed into the middle of the enclosure. And at the crossroads all over the city, there were detachments of troops.

The Romanovs made a lot of efforts to find and destroy the objectionable documents of the Razin side. How carefully they were searched is evidenced by the following fact. During interrogation, Frol (Razin's younger brother) testified that Razin had buried a jug with documents on an island of the Don River, in a tract, on a break under a willow tree. The Romanov troops shoveled the entire island, but found nothing. Frol was executed only a few years later, probably trying to get more accurate information about the documents from him.

Probably, documents about the Razin war were kept in both Kazan and Astrakhan archives, but, alas, these archives disappeared without a trace.

Source http://slavyane.org/history/stepan-razin.html

In the early 70s of the XVII century. a major uprising took place in the southern regions of Russia, where the lands along the Don were inhabited by Cossacks. The peculiarities of their position (the defense of border lands from the Crimeans and Nogai) determined their relations with the center, which provided them with a grain salary, and also did not require the extradition of fugitive peasants. Quite often the Cossacks had to organize campaigns "for zipuns" to replenish their property status. However, in the 60s, the government began to oppose them, then unrest began.

At the head of the insurgents was the homely Don Cossack Stepan Razin. His first campaigns "for zipuns" across the Caspian Sea to the Volga and Yaik in 1667, and then to Persia (1668-1669) were no different from others, the purpose of which was to plunder state and merchant caravans and Iranian possessions. New hike Razin, which began in 1670, turned into a peasant war, in which, along with the Cossacks and Russian peasants, the peoples of the Volga region participated; Mordvinians, Tatars, Chuvashs and others. In the spring, detachments of the rebels captured Tsaritsyn, and at the beginning of summer - Astrakhan. Then it was decided to move north - up the Volga. The uprising covered a significant territory of the Volga region. But after an unsuccessful siege in September 1670 of Simbirsk, the rebels were defeated by government forces. Razin went to the Don, where in February 1671 he was captured by wealthy Cossacks and handed over to the government. After his execution (June), the uprising subsided. The reasons for the defeat were the spontaneity and poor organization of the movement, the lack of clear goals of the struggle and its tsarist character.

Preconditions and driving forces of the liberation war of the Ukrainian people in 1648-1654.

One of the conditions of the Union of Lublin in 1569 - one of the key events in the history of Eastern Europe XVI-XVII centuries was the annexation of Ukrainian lands directly to Poland. On fertile land Polish feudal lords poured into Ukraine, like mushrooms began to grow farms - manor estates. The process of enslavement of the peasantry was steadily developing, gradually acquiring especially sophisticated and harsh forms on the territory of Ukraine. The landowners received the right to judge and punish the peasants, up to and including deprivation of life, and the peasant, in fact, was deprived of even the right to complain about his master. Well-worn foreign travelers never ceased to be amazed at the severity of the situation and the powerlessness of the Ukrainian "care". The position of the peasantry was also weighed down by religious oppression. After the union of 1569, the onslaught of the Catholic Church, which itself received vast land holdings in Ukraine, intensified. Representatives of the Jesuit Order appeared in the lands of Ukraine and Belarus, contributing to the spread of Catholicism. The introduction of Catholicism was also facilitated by the Uniate Church - created at the cathedral in Brest in October 1596. All this created a very peculiar situation: the pans belonged to one faith, and the "claps" to another. Needless to say, how dire the consequences were for the latter. It is clear that the "flock" could become one of the driving forces of the future war of liberation against the Polish nobles.

The city dwellers - the bourgeoisie - also found themselves in a very difficult situation. From the middle of the XVI century. there is a certain rise in urban life, old cities develop, new ones appear. The craft developed rapidly, acquiring guild forms. Polish feudal lords became an obstacle to city life. In the lands of Ukraine and Belarus, there was a phenomenon unknown to the Moscow state: along with state cities, which were administrative centers and were most often governed on the basis of Magdeburg law, there were many cities that belonged to magnates. But the development of cities was hampered not only by this, but also by the presence of numerous "juridical" - land holdings of secular and spiritual feudal lords on the territory of the royal cities. They did not obey the city courts and the administration, they brought confusion and confusion into the life of the cities. The townspeople begin to fight against the dominance of the Polish "mozhnolzharov", unite around Orthodox cathedrals, create "brotherhoods" - associations of the Orthodox population. Initially, these organizations set themselves educational tasks, sought to preserve and support Orthodoxy.

There were many reasons for dissatisfaction among the Orthodox gentry, the one that did not polonize and did not accept Catholicism. The Poles pushed her back from the occupation of "uryad" (government officials), persecuted her for Orthodoxy.

The Orthodox clergy found themselves in a similar position. Orthodox priests were expelled from churches, they were forbidden to conduct services in their native language. It is no coincidence that many leaders of the struggle against the Poles emerged from the ranks of the clergy.

All segments of the Ukrainian population were ready to unite in the struggle for their freedom. There was also a force capable of leading the movement militarily. The Cossacks became such a force. Since ancient times, in the vast floodplains of the mouths of the Dnieper, Dniester and Bug rivers, some people wandered, including multiethnic elements, experiencing the powerful influence of the neighboring Turkic-speaking steppe (it is no coincidence that the very name "Cossack" came from the Turkic language). With the development of social antagonisms, the intensification of foreign oppression, the number of such people constantly increased. At the end of the 15th century. for the winter they grouped around the southern cities: Vinnitsa, Cherkassy, ​​etc., and in the summer they went to their "fishing". Behind the famous Dnieper rapids, the Cossacks create their own fortifications - over time, the Zaporozhye Sich appears - a Cossack republic that inherited democratic traditions from the times of Kievan Rus. The main body of power here was the Cossack circle - the Rada, who elected the foreman, headed by the koshev ataman. The position of the Cossack republic, its relations with Poland were very peculiar. The Polish government, not without reason, saw the Sich as a threat, but needed the Cossacks, since they blocked Crimean Tatars behind which the mighty Ottoman Empire loomed. That is why, quite early on, the Polish government tried to lure a part of the Cossacks into its service, to include it in the so-called register (that is, a list). The Cossacks included in the list received a salary and thus acquired, as it were, official status. But the government was afraid to significantly increase the number of registered ones.

It was the Cossacks who led a kind of military preparation for the liberation war. mid XVII v. End XVI- the beginning of the 17th century was marked by numerous Cossack uprisings. Talented leaders (Krishtof Kosinsky, Severin Nalivaiko) were promoted from among the Cossacks. The uprisings continued in the 1920s and 1930s. Pavel Bout, Teteria - these are the names of the Cossack leaders of this time. The Cossacks, however, at this time put forward "economic" requirements: an increase in salaries, inclusion in the register significantly more Cossacks, etc. But it is important to note that during the uprisings, the ties of the Zaporozhye Cossacks with the government of the Russian state were forged and the Cossacks increasingly began to see in it a support for themselves in the struggle.

Over time, "brotherhoods" also began to establish ties with the Russian government. It is necessary to distinguish between the consciousness of the Ukrainian and Belarusian populations of the unity of the fate of their lands with Great Russia and direct political contacts with the Russian government, which began to be established only in the first quarter of the 17th century. The "Brotherhoods" are conducting a kind of ideological preparation for the war of liberation. From among the fraternal authors comes the so-called "polemic" literature, which was directed against the Jesuit Catholics, where enlightened authors turned to the history and culture of the East Slavic peoples, proved the commonality of their destinies, the need for a joint struggle against the conquerors.

Peasant uprising of Stepan Razin (briefly)

The uprising of Stepan Razin (briefly)

To date, historians do not know the reliable date of Razin's birth. Most likely, this event took place around 1630. Stepan was born into the family of a wealthy Cossack Timofey, and the first mention of him appears in 1661. Due to the fact that Razin knew the Kalmyk and Tatar languages, he negotiated on behalf of Donskoy with the Kalmyks. In the years 1662-1663, he was already mentioned as one of the Cossack commanders who made campaigns on Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire.

For a failed attempt to escape with a detachment of Cossacks from the battlefield in 1665, Voivode Yuri Alekseevich Dolgorukov executed his older brother Ivan Razin. This event became fateful, influencing all subsequent actions of Stepan Razin.

After the events described, Stepan decides not only to take revenge on Dolgoruky for the death of his brother, but also to punish the tsarist administration. According to his plan, he also strove after that to organize a carefree life for the people around him. In 1667, he and his squad robbed a trade caravan on the Volga. At the same time, he kills all the rifle chiefs, blocks the path to the Volga and releases all the exiles into the wild. This hike is called the "hike for zipuns". The squad manages to successfully avoid meeting with the warriors who were sent from the capital to punish the Razins. This day is the beginning of the uprising of Stepan Razin.

Another rather important episode was Persian campaign when Razin's squad manages to take large loot. At the same time, such a successful military chieftain was able to enlist considerable support and gain authority on the Don. It should be noted that despite the fact that Kornila Yakovlev, who was Stepan Razin's godfather, still retained his seniority, Stepan was the most influential in the Don army.

Many peasants regularly joined Razin's army and a new campaign began already in 1670. Very soon the rebels managed to capture Tsaritsyn, Samara, Saratov and Astrakhan. Thus, the entire Lower Volga region was in their hands. This uprising instantly turned into a peasant uprising, covering almost the entire territory of Russia.

However, Stepan failed to capture Simbirsk and his biography again took a sharp turn. He was brought to the Kagalnitsky town, after being wounded in battle. Starting in 1671, Razin's authority began to decline, and within his army there were more contradictions than coherence. His soldiers also burned down the Kagalnitsky town, capturing Stepan, whose death took place on June 16, 1671.

Causes

The uprising of Stepan Razin is sometimes called Peasant war... The riot was quite natural, it was prompted by the events of only $ 17th century. At $ 1649, it was published Cathedral Code... Serfdom was finally established. The enslavement caused an indefinite active search for the fugitives, including in the south, and "there is no extradition from the Don," as you know, so the people quickly began to show indignation. The increase in taxes and duties of peasants and townspeople took place in connection with the wars with the Commonwealth and Sweden. In addition, the "service officers" also felt an increase in oppression due to the duties and peculiarities of land use.

In character royal power tendencies of absolutism were traced. The authorities did not provide adequate support to the Cossacks, who guarded the southern borders from the raids of the Crimean Tatars; the way to Azov for the Cossacks was blocked by the Turks. Since the Cossacks could not deal with agriculture, due to the overpopulation of the region, they had to survive by robberies. The Don army responded to the looting with repression, causing even greater anger.

Remark 1

The economy was in a difficult situation. Several wars weakened the state, on the lands in which they fought fighting, there was a threat of hunger. In addition, the country did not overcome the consequences of inflation caused by the unsuccessful monetary reform.

The course of the uprising

V historical science there are disputes regarding the date of the beginning of the uprising. Sometimes the so-called "Hike for zipuns" or an even earlier hike Vasily Usa to Tula.

Stepan Razin was a Don Cossack, who at the time of the uprising was about $ 40 $ years old. In the $ 50th years. he was already ataman and plenipotentiary Don Cossacks, i.e. possessed vast military experience and authority. Stepan's brother was executed in $ 1665 Ivan by order of the governor of the prince Dolgorukova Yu.A. after the conflict that erupted due to the desire of the Cossacks to go to the Don during the carrying royal service... Probably, the death of his brother was the decisive factor.

So, in $ 1667 the "hike for zipuns" began. The Cossacks, about $ 2 thousand in number, went to the Lower Volga. Stepan Razin led the campaign, the main team was poor Cossacks. Beginning as an act of defiance and plunder, the campaign quickly became anti-government when captured Yaitsky town.

In $ 1668, the detachment entered the Caspian Sea. The number of participants grew. During this period, there were heavy battles with the army. Safavid Shah... As a result, the Cossacks had to turn to Astrakhan, where they handed over their weapons, part of the booty and prisoners of war to the governors in exchange for a return to the Don.

In $ 1670 a campaign against Moscow began. Razin sent out draft letters, declaring himself an enemy of all officials (governors, clerks, clergymen, etc.), since they allegedly betrayed the king. There was a rumor that the patriarch was on the side of Razin Nikon and the prince Alexey Alekseevich... In fact, the tsarevich was in Moscow, where he died after $ 2 a year, and the patriarch was already in exile.

With the beginning of the campaign, spontaneously flashed peasant uprisings in the Volga region and the revolts of the Volga peoples. The Razins captured Tsaritsyn, then the townspeople surrendered Astrakhan... The governor of Astrakhan was executed, the government was headed Vasily Us and Fedor Sheludyak... After Astrakhan, residents of Saratov, Samara, Penza, and in general the entire population of the Middle Volga region went over to Razin's side. Everyone who joined was declared free.

An unsuccessful siege took place in September $ 1670 Simbirsk... At the same time, the tsar sent the army of Prince Dolgorukov Yu.A. number of $ 60 thousand. In October, the rebels were defeated. Razin was seriously wounded, he was taken to the Don, but there the Cossack elite handed him over to the authorities, fearing for themselves. In June, Razin's $ 1671 was quartered in Moscow. Astrakhan held $ 1671 until September.

Effects

The uprising failed because there was no clear program, firm discipline, unified leadership, and proper armament.

The uprising showed depth social problems... However, no results were achieved, except that after the uprising, the Cossacks swore allegiance to the tsar and became a semi-privileged estate.

Remark 2

The scale of the punitive actions is striking. For example, in Arzamas alone, $ 11 thousand people were executed. In total, more than $ 100 thousand of the rebels were executed.