Who led the peasant war 1773 1775. Pugachev's uprising. Causes. Move. Consequences. Continuation of the Peasants' War

In the autumn of 1773, the Pugachev uprising broke out. Until today, the events of those years do not reveal all their secrets. What was it: a Cossack revolt, a peasant uprising or a civil war?

Peter III

History is written by the winners. History Pugachev uprising is still considered a controversial moment in Russian history. According to the official version, Pugachev and Peter III are different people, they had neither physiognomic resemblance nor similarity of characters, their upbringing was also excellent. However, until now, some historians are trying to prove the version that Pugachev and Emperor Peter are the same person. The story of Emelka, a runaway Cossack, was written by decree of Catherine. This version, albeit fantastic, is confirmed by the fact that during the “investigation” of Pushkin, none of those whom he asked about Pugachev knew about him. People were absolutely convinced that the emperor himself was the head of the army, no more, no less. According to sources, the decision to call himself Peter III came to Pugachev not by chance. He, in principle, liked to mystify. Even in the army, for example, showing off his saber, he claimed that Peter I gave it to him. It is not known for certain whose idea it was to assign the name, but the fact that it was strategically beneficial is obvious. The people would not follow the runaway Cossack, but would follow the Tsar. In addition, there were rumors among the people at that time that Peter wanted to give the peasants freedom, but "Katka ruined him." The promise of freedom to the peasants, in the end, became the trump card of Pugachev's propaganda.

Peasant war?

Was the war of 1773-1775 a peasant war? The question, again, is open. The main force of Pugachev's troops were, of course, not the peasants, but the Yaik Cossacks. Once free, they suffered more and more oppression from the state and lost their privileges. In 1754, by decree of Elizabeth, a monopoly on salt was introduced. This move dealt a severe blow to the economy of the Cossack army, which made money by selling salted fish. Even before the Pugachev uprising, the Cossacks organized uprisings, which over and over again became more massive and coordinated.

Pugachev's initiative fell on fertile ground. The peasants did take Active participation in the campaigns of the Pugachev army, but they defended their interests and solved their problems: they slaughtered the landowners, burned the estates, but, as a rule, did not go further than their allotments. Binding the peasantry to their land is a very strong thing. After Pugachev read out the manifesto on liberty in Saransk, many peasants joined him, they turned Pugachev's campaign along the Volga into a triumphal procession, with bells, the blessing of the village priest and bread and salt in every new village, village, town. But weakly armed, tied to their land, they could not ensure a long-term triumph for the Pugachev uprising. In addition, it should be noted that Pugachev did not manage his troops alone. He had a whole staff of specialists who were definitely not of peasant origin, and some were not even Russian, but this side of the issue is a separate conversation.

money question

The Pugachev uprising became the most massive uprising in the entire history of Russia (not counting the revolution of 1917). Such a rebellion could not have taken place in a vacuum. Raising thousands and thousands of people to an armed long-term rebellion is not holding a rally, this requires resources, and considerable resources. Question: where did the fugitive Pugachev and the Yaik Cossacks get these resources.

It has now been proven that Pugachev's uprising had foreign funding. First of all - the Ottoman Empire, with which Russia at that time was at war. Secondly, help from France; that historical period it is the main opponent of the growing Russian Empire. From the correspondence of the French residencies in Vienna and Constantinople, a figure emerges of an experienced officer of the Navarre regiment, who had to be transported from Turkey to Russia as soon as possible with instructions for the "so-called Pugachev's army." Paris allocated 50 thousand francs for the next operation. Supporting Pugachev was beneficial to all forces for whom Russia and its growth were a danger. There was a war with Turkey - forces from the fronts were transferred to fight against Pugachev. As a result, Russia had to end the war on unfavorable terms. Such is the "peasant war" ...

To Moscow

After the triumph of Pugachev's troops in Penza and Saransk, everyone was waiting for his "Moscow campaign". They were waiting for him in Moscow. They waited and feared. Seven regiments were drawn into the old capital, Governor-General Volkonsky ordered that cannons be placed near his house, “cleansing operations” were carried out among the inhabitants of Moscow, and all those who sympathized with the rebellious Cossack were seized.

Finally, in August 1774, Lieutenant General Alexander Vasilievich Suvorov, at that time already one of the most successful Russian generals, was recalled from the 1st Army, which was in the Danubian principalities. Panin instructed Suvorov to command the troops that were supposed to defeat the main Pugachev army in the Volga region. Moscow "exhaled", Pugachev decided not to go there. The reasons are still not clear. It is believed that the main reason for this was Pugachev's plans to attract the Volga and, especially, the Don Cossacks into his ranks. The Yaik Cossacks, who had lost many of their chieftains in the battles, were tired and began to grumble. Pugachev's "surrender" was brewing.

Salavat Yulaev

The memory of the Pugachev uprising is kept not only in the archives, but also in toponyms and in the memory of the people. Salavat Yulaev is considered to be the hero of Bashkiria to this day. One of the strongest hockey teams in Russia bears the name of this outstanding person. Its history is amazing. Salavat became Pugachev's "right hand" when he was not 20 years old, took part in all the major battles of the uprising, Pugachev assigned the rank of brigadier general to his young handy. In the army of Pugachev, Salavat ended up with his father. Together with his father, they seized him, sent him to Moscow, and then into eternal exile in the Baltic city of Rogervik. Here Salavat was until his death in 1800. He was not only an outstanding warrior, but also a good poet who left a solid literary legacy.

Suvorov

The danger that Pugachev's uprising hid is evidenced by the fact that not anyone, but Suvorov himself, was attracted to pacify him. Catherine understood that delaying the suppression of the uprising could result in serious geopolitical problems. Suvorov's participation in the suppression of the rebellion played into the hands of Pushkin: when he was collecting material for his book on Pugachev, he said that he was looking for information about Suvorov. Alexander Vasilievich personally escorted Pugachev. This suggests at least that Emelyan Ivanovich was a person not just important, but extremely important. To regard the Pugachev uprising as another rebellion is highly unreasonable; it was a civil war, on the consequences of which the future of Russia depended.

Mystery shrouded in darkness

After the suppression of the rebellion and the execution of the main participants in the uprising, Catherine ordered to destroy all the facts about the peasant war. The village in which Pugachev was born was moved and renamed, Yaik - renamed Ural. All documents that in one way or another could shed light on the course of those events were classified. There is a version that it was not Pugachev who was executed, but another person. Emelyan was “eliminated” back in Butyrka prison. The authorities were afraid of provocations. Like it or not, now it is impossible to prove. Half a century after those events, Pushkin could not "find the ends", it remains to wait for new research.

Meanwhile, uprisings were rising in the country. After the government, in dire need of funds to continue the difficult war in Ukraine, issued copper money (and taxes were collected in silver), the position of the masses became very difficult. There was a lot of counterfeit money. For one silver ruble they took twelve copper ones. Some prominent guests and close associates of the king were involved in abuses with copper money; among them - the father-in-law of the tsar I. D. Miloslavsky. Service people refused to take copper money. Streltsy and soldiers fled from the regiments. An attempt by the government to obtain a silver loan abroad was unsuccessful. In 1662, in the conditions of several years of crop failure, a new collection of the “fifth money” was announced, and the archery tax was ordered to be paid in bread. All this led to acute discontent among the townspeople and a new major uprising in Moscow, known as the "copper riot".

Moscow uprising of 1662

On the morning of July 25, 1662, on the Lubyanka and in other parts of the city, sheets were found glued by someone with an inscription that the boyar I.D. guest Vasily Shorin - traitors.
A large group of townspeople went to the king in Kolomenskoye. There they handed over the “sheet” to the tsar and demanded that the persons named in the paper be extradited for reprisal. Meanwhile, in Moscow, attacks began on the yards of wealthy merchants, hated by the mass of townspeople. The uprising was headed by the archer K. Nagaev, the townspeople A. Shcherbok, L. Zhidkiy and others. The rebels, as in 1648, broke into Shorin's house and ruined it, and Shorin's son was captured as a hostage. Soon, however, the uprising was crushed by the tsarist troops. At least two and a half thousand people died under torture and were executed. The Moscow uprising of 1662 again revealed differentiation within the urban population. According to G. Kotoshikhin, “trading people were in that confusion, and their children, and bakers, and butchers, and pie-makers, and village, and walking, and boyar people ... But guests and trading people did not stick to those thieves one person, they also helped against those thieves, and they received praise from the king.

Strengthening the flight of peasants and townspeople

The Moscow uprising forced the government to abandon the further issue of copper money, which was stopped in 1663.
Following the suppression of the uprising, the government again increased pressure on the townspeople. In the autumn of 1662, the “streltsy bread” was doubled, which had a particularly hard effect on the position of the townspeople, who were not engaged or little engaged in agriculture. The townspeople were ruined, people fled from the towns. The peasants also fled, and in many cases they sacked the estates.
By a decree of 1661, for the reception of a fugitive peasant, in addition to the fine of 10 rubles established by the Cathedral Code, it was prescribed to take one "surplus peasant" (later their number was increased to four). For four years, in 1663 - 1667, about 8 thousand fugitive peasants and serfs were returned from the Ryazan district alone.
The main stream of fugitives was heading for the Don. Having no means of subsistence, many of the newcomers found themselves forced to go into bondage to the prosperous "household" Cossacks. After Azov remained behind Turkey, the Cossacks lost the opportunity to raid the coast of the Azov and Black Seas. The activity of the Cossacks now began to be directed to the Volga and the Caspian Sea, which contradicted the foreign policy plans of the Moscow government, which was interested in maintaining peaceful relations with Persia. The Cossack foreman, who was guided by Moscow, counteracted the desire of the Cossacks to march on the Volga and the Caspian. All this further aggravated the situation on the Don.

The beginning of the peasant war under the leadership of S.T. Razin

In the summer of 1666, the Cossack ataman Vasily Us undertook a campaign in the central regions of the Russian state, approaching Tula. The movement of the Usa detachment, which numbered about 500 people, caused strong excitement among the local peasantry. The detachment of the rebels grew to 3 thousand people. Before reaching Tula a few versts, Us turned back. Many peasants and serfs who fled from their masters left with him. Usa's campaign was a harbinger of a mass popular uprising that was brewing in those years. In the late 60s, the governors repeatedly reported to Moscow about the appearance in different places of detachments of "thieves' people", as they called in official documents all those who were recalcitrant to the government.
Under these conditions, the appearance of a bold and energetic leader of the movement acquired the significance of a long-awaited signal for a mass action. The Cossack Stepan Timofeevich Razin became such a leader. Having collected several hundred "bads", Razin in the spring of 1667 led them to the Volga for "zipuns" (prey). The Razin Cossacks attacked the merchant and royal caravans of ships, seized and divided wealth, exterminated the "primary people". Archers and working people who accompanied the caravans, as a rule, were released. In early June, on thirty-five plows, more than one and a half thousand people gathered under the command of Razin sailed into the Caspian Sea and went by sea to the mouth of the river. Yaik, to the Yaitsky town, and in March 1668 the Cossacks headed for the shores of Persia.
The Persian government put up large military forces against Razin, but Razin, apparently for tactical purposes, announced that he wanted to become a Shah. Soon, however, clashes began between the Cossacks and the inhabitants of the city of Rasht, where the Cossacks were waiting for negotiations with the Shah. The Persian government refused to accept Razin's Cossacks as Shah's subjects and sent a strong fleet against them. In June 1669, the Cossacks defeated the Persian fleet and turned to the Volga with rich booty. Actions of Razin on the Volga and the Caspian Sea in 1667 - 1669 were a spontaneous act of the Cossacks, who were looking for means to improve their share and saw these means in extracting wealth by force and dividing it among themselves.
In early August 1669, Razin went to the mouth of the Volga, captured the metropolitan fisheries and Persian ships that were going with gifts to the king, and on August 25 appeared at Astrakhan.

The rise of the popular movement

Soon the Cossacks left Astrakhan and on October 1 they were already in Tsaritsyn, where they released all those who were in the voivodship prison and tried to kill the voivode. From here they went to the Don. Crowds of Cossacks and runaway peasants flocked to him in the Kagalnitsky town. The Cossacks said that they were going AGAINST the boyars and the initial people, but not against the tsar - the tsarist illusions among them were very strong. Razin himself spread rumors that “Tsarevich Alexei Alekseevich” and “Patriarch Nikon”, who was then in disgrace, were allegedly with him.
In mid-April 1670, Stepan Razin approached Tsaritsyn with 7,000 men and soon took possession of it with the active support of local residents. In the captured Tsaritsyn, Razin introduced a Cossack device. On June 19, he approached the heavily fortified Astrakhan, and on the night of June 22, he began an assault on it. The people of Astrakhan, who remembered Razin well, supported his actions. The initial people, governors, nobles were killed; documents of the Astrakhan voivodeship administration were burned. The management of Astrakhan was organized according to the Cossack model. Vasily Us, Fyodor Sheludyak and other atamans stood at the head of the department.
From Astrakhan through Tsaritsyn, 8 thousand Cossacks moved up the Volga. Saratov and Samara surrendered without a fight. Razin’s “charming letters” (sometimes on behalf of “Tsarevich Alexei Alekseevich” or “Patriarch Nikon”) dispersed throughout the Volga region with a call to exterminate boyars, governors, clerks, “worldly bloodsuckers”. Serfs and serfs, townspeople, schismatics - everyone who suffered from the requisitions and oppressions that were becoming unbearable, saw their leader in Razin. Successes in the fight against government troops gave hope for a quick outcome of the struggle. It seemed that it was enough to beat the boyars and nobles, ruin and destroy the master's estates, divide their property among themselves - and everything would go on well, under the rule of the "good" tsar, a new, free life would begin.
The people rose up to fight for freedom with the greatest energy and determination. In this struggle, the traditions of the class struggle were formed and strengthened, the traditions of the heroic joint struggle of the Russian and non-Russian peoples against the oppressors of the tsar and the nobility.
The uprising more and more assumed the character of a peasant war. Now, in 1670, in the Volga region, the bulk of the rebels were peasants. And among the Cossacks of Razin there were many peasants who fled from their masters to the Don.
September 4 Razin approached Simbirsk and began its siege. Government troops took refuge behind the walls of the fortress, but most of the city was in the hands of Razin. At this time, the uprising swept the new regions of the Volga region. Atamans Razin dispersed from under Simbirsk and raised the people to fight. Osipov took Alatyr, went further down the river. Sure, then occupied Kurmysh and Kozmodemyansk. In this area, detachments of Chuvash, Mari and Tatars joined the rebels. The uprisings took place in the commercial and industrial villages near Nizhny Novgorod - Lyskovo, Murashkin, Vorsma, Pavlov, etc. Having united with Osipov's detachment, the rebellious peasants besieged the Makaryev-Zheltovodsky monastery and took it. Ataman Mikhail Kharitonov occupied Saransk, moved to Penza, took it without a fight, captured the Lower and Upper Lomov. In the Kadom district, the rebels were led by the peasant Chirok, in the Shatsk district, by the peasant Shilov, and in Tambov, by the Cossack Meshcheryakov. The former peasant woman - the monastery old woman Alena - at the head of a detachment of rebels took possession of Temnikovo. On the left bank of the Volga, uprisings of the peasants of the Galich district took place, unrest also swept the Udmurt peasants.

Defeat of the uprising

The position of Razin's main forces near Simbirsk was difficult. The three-time assault on the Simbirsk fortress did not lead to success. Near Simbirsk, Razin suffered a serious defeat. For several more months, uprisings continued in the Volga region. In the autumn of the same year, an uprising broke out in Sloboda Ukraine, where Stepan Razin's brother, Frol, went.
The punitive actions of the tsarist troops everywhere ran into exceptionally stubborn resistance. In the second half of November, the uprising began again in the Arzamas district. The rebels stubbornly defended themselves in Temnikovo, big battles took place near Tambov. Only at the end of November was the suppression of the uprising in the Nizhny Novgorod region completed. Penza was taken by government troops only by the end of December 1670. Until the spring of 1671, the rebels defended themselves in the Yadrinsky and Tsivilsky districts. Until November 1671, the rebels held Astrakhan in their hands.
But the forces were unequal. The government dealt with the rebels with monstrous cruelty. Strugs with gallows slowly sailed down the Volga to intimidate the population. At least 11,000 people were executed in Arzamas.
Soon, the fate of Razin himself was tragically decided - in April, he, along with his brother, was captured by homely Cossacks and handed over to the government. On June 2, he was brought to Moscow. Two days after the interrogation, accompanied by torture, Razin was executed (quartered) in Moscow. Even captured and chained, even executed, Razin was terrible to the Moscow government. Triple ranks of archers and soldiers separated Razin from the assembled people. Only a small number of boyars and foreigners were admitted to the place of execution.
However, the resistance of the masses continued in different parts of the country and in various forms. Many people went to distant schismatic sketes. It is in those
years, terrible self-immolations began, when the schismatics preferred martyrdom to surrender to the tsarist detachments. In some places, the schismatic movement took on the character of a mass uprising, as happened in the Solovetsky Monastery.

Uprising in the Solovetsky Monastery

The monastery at the end of the 50s refused to recognize Nikon's reform. Attempts by church authorities to persuade the Solovetsky monks were unsuccessful. Archers sent from Moscow were met with cannon fire from the monastery walls. Thus began in 1668 the uprising in the Solovetsky Monastery. Large food supplies made it possible to withstand a long siege. The monastic peasants began to act more and more actively against the tsarist troops. The social composition of the rebels changed in the direction of strengthening the peasant elements. After the defeat of the Razin uprising, many of its participants came to the monastery. The leading role in the movement passed from the elders to the peasants. This was reflected in the attitude of the monks towards the uprising. As a result of their betrayal in January 1676, the monastery was taken by the tsarist troops. After the suppression of the Solovetsky uprising, the government intensified repressions against the leaders of the split. Archpriest Avvakum was sentenced to death.
With great difficulty, the tsarist government managed to drown the popular movements of the third quarter of the 17th century in blood.

B.A. Rybakov - "History of the USSR from ancient times to the end of the XVIII century." - M., " high school", 1975.

The Pugachev uprising (Peasant War of 1773-1775) is an uprising of the Cossacks, which developed into a full-scale peasant war led by Emelyan Pugachev. The main driving force behind the uprising was the Yaik Cossacks. Throughout the 18th century, they lost their privileges and liberties. In 1772, an uprising broke out among the Yaitsky Cossacks, it was quickly suppressed, but the protest mood did not subside. Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev, a Don Cossack, a native of the Zimoveyskaya village, pushed the Cossacks to further struggle. Finding himself in the trans-Volga steppes in the autumn of 1772, he stopped in Mechetnaya Sloboda and learned about unrest among the Yaik Cossacks. In November of the same year, he arrived in the Yaitsky town and, at meetings with the Cossacks, began to call himself the miraculously saved Emperor Peter III. Shortly thereafter, Pugachev was arrested and sent to Kazan, from where he fled at the end of May 1773. In August, he reappeared in the army.

In September, Pugachev arrived at the Budarinsky outpost, where his first decree to the Yaik army was announced. From here, a detachment of 80 Cossacks headed up the Yaik. New supporters joined along the way, so that by the time they arrived at the Yaitsky town, the detachment already numbered 300 people. On September 18, 1773, an attempt to cross the Chagan and enter the city ended in failure, but at the same time a large group of Cossacks, from among those sent by the commandant Simonov to defend the town, went over to the side of the impostor. A second attack by the rebels on September 19 was also repelled with artillery. The rebel detachment did not have its own guns, so it was decided to move further up the Yaik, and on September 20, the Cossacks camped near the Iletsk town. Here a circle was convened, at which Andrey Ovchinnikov was elected as a marching ataman, all the Cossacks swore allegiance to the great sovereign, Emperor Peter Fedorovich.

After a two-day meeting on further actions, it was decided to send the main forces to Orenburg. On the way to Orenburg, there were small fortresses of the Nizhne-Yaitskaya distance of the Orenburg military line.

2 Capture of the Tatishchev fortress

On September 27, the Cossacks appeared in front of the Tatishchev fortress and began to convince the local garrison to surrender and join the army of the "sovereign" Peter. The garrison of the fortress consisted of at least a thousand soldiers, and the commandant, Colonel Yelagin, hoped to fight back with the help of artillery. The shooting continued throughout the day. A detachment of Orenburg Cossacks, sent on a sortie, under the command of the centurion Podurov, went over in full force to the side of the rebels. Having managed to set fire to the wooden walls of the fortress, which started a fire in the town, and taking advantage of the panic that had begun in the town, the Cossacks broke into the fortress, after which most of the garrison laid down their arms.

With the artillery of the Tatishchev fortress and replenishment in people, the 2,000-strong detachment of Pugachev began to pose a real threat to Orenburg.

3 Siege of Orenburg

The road to Orenburg was open, but Pugachev decided to go to Seitov settlement and the Sakmarsky town, since the Cossacks and Tatars who arrived from there assured him of universal devotion. On October 1, the population of Seitova Sloboda solemnly welcomed the Cossack army, placing a Tatar regiment in its ranks. And already on October 2, the rebel detachment entered the Sakmara Cossack town to the sound of bells. In addition to the Sakmara Cossack regiment, workers from neighboring copper mines, miners Tverdyshev and Myasnikov, joined Pugachev. On October 4, the army of the rebels headed for the Berdskaya Sloboda near Orenburg, whose inhabitants also swore allegiance to the "resurrected" tsar. By this time, the impostor's army numbered about 2,500 people, of which about 1,500 were Yaik, Iletsk, and Orenburg Cossacks, 300 soldiers, and 500 Kargaly Tatars. The artillery of the rebels consisted of several dozen cannons.

Orenburg was quite a powerful fortification. An earth rampart was erected around the city, fortified with 10 bastions and 2 semi-bastions. The height of the shaft reached 4 meters and more, and the width - 13 meters. On the outer side of the rampart there was a ditch about 4 meters deep and 10 meters wide. The garrison of Orenburg was about 3,000 men and about a hundred guns. On October 4, a detachment of 626 Yaitsky Cossacks, who remained loyal to the government, with 4 guns, led by the Yaitsky military foreman M. Borodin, managed to freely approach Orenburg from the Yaitsky town.

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

The siege of Orenburg that began for six months fettered the main forces of the rebels, without bringing any of the parties a military success. On October 12, Naumov's detachment re-sally was made, but successful artillery operations under the command of Chumakov helped repulse the attack. Pugachev's army, due to the onset of frost, moved the camp to Berdskaya Sloboda. On October 22, an assault was launched; rebel batteries began shelling the city, but strong return artillery fire did not allow them to get close to the rampart. At the same time, during October, the fortresses along the Samara River - Perevolotskaya, Novosergievskaya, Totskaya, Sorochinsky, and in early November - the Buzuluk fortress passed into the hands of the rebels.

On October 14, Catherine II appointed Major General V. A. Kara as commander of a military expedition to suppress the rebellion. At the end of October, Kar arrived in Kazan from St. Petersburg and, at the head of a corps of two thousand soldiers and one and a half thousand militiamen, headed for Orenburg. On November 7, near the village of Yuzeeva, 98 versts from Orenburg, detachments of the Pugachev chieftains Ovchinnikov and Zarubin-Chiki attacked the vanguard of the Kara corps and, after a three-day battle, forced him to retreat back to Kazan. On November 13, a detachment of Colonel Chernyshev was captured near Orenburg, numbering up to 1100 Cossacks, 600-700 soldiers, 500 Kalmyks, 15 guns and a huge convoy. Realizing that instead of a prestigious victory over the rebels, he could get a complete defeat, Kar, under the pretext of illness, left the corps and went to Moscow, leaving command to General Freiman. The successes inspired the Pugachevites, the victories made a great impression on the peasantry and the Cossacks, increasing their influx into the ranks of the rebels.

By January 1774, the situation in the besieged Orenburg became critical, famine began in the city. Having learned about the departure of Pugachev and Ovchinnikov with part of the troops to the Yaitsky town, the governor decided to make a sortie on January 13 to the Berdskaya settlement to lift the siege. But the unexpected attack did not work, sentinel Cossacks managed to raise the alarm. The chieftains who remained in the camp led their detachments to the ravine that surrounded the Berdskaya settlement and served as a natural defense line. The Orenburg corps were forced to fight in unfavorable conditions and suffered a severe defeat. With heavy losses, throwing guns, weapons, ammunition and ammunition, the semi-encircled Orenburg troops hastily retreated to Orenburg.

When news of the defeat of the Kara expedition reached St. Petersburg, Catherine II, by decree of November 27, appointed AI Bibikov as the new commander. The new punitive corps included 10 cavalry and infantry regiments, as well as 4 light field teams, hastily sent from the western and northwestern borders of the empire to Kazan and Samara, and besides them, all the garrisons and military units located in the uprising zone, and remnants of the Kara Corps. Bibikov arrived in Kazan on December 25, 1773, and immediately began the movement of troops to Samara, Orenburg, Ufa, Menzelinsk, Kungur, besieged by the Pugachevites. Having received information about this, Pugachev decided to withdraw the main forces from Orenburg, in fact lifting the siege.

4 Siege of the fortress of Michael the Archangel Cathedral

In December 1773, Pugachev sent Ataman Mikhail Tolkachev with his decrees to the rulers of the Kazakh Younger Zhuz Nurali Khan and Sultan Dusala with an appeal to join his army, but the Khan decided to wait for the development of events, only horsemen of the Sarym Datula clan joined Pugachev. On the way back, Tolkachev gathered Cossacks into his detachment in the fortresses and outposts on the lower Yaik and went with them to the Yaitsky town, collecting cannons, ammunition and provisions in the accompanying fortresses and outposts.

On December 30, Tolkachev approached the Yaitsky town and in the evening of the same day occupied the ancient district of the city - Kuren. Most of the Cossacks greeted their comrades and joined Tolkachev's detachment, but the Cossacks of the foremen's side, the soldiers of the garrison, led by Lieutenant Colonel Simonov and Captain Krylov, locked themselves in the "retrenchment" - the fortress of the Mikhailo-Arkhangelsk Cathedral. Gunpowder was stored in the basement of the bell tower, and cannons and arrows were installed on the upper tiers. It was not possible to take the fortress on the move.

In January 1774, Pugachev himself arrived in the Yaitsky town. He took over the leadership of the protracted siege of the city fortress of the Mikhailo-Arkhangelsk Cathedral, but after an unsuccessful assault on January 20, he returned to the main army near Orenburg.

In the second half of February and early March 1774, Pugachev again personally led attempts to capture the besieged fortress. On February 19, the bell tower of St. Michael's Cathedral was blown up and destroyed by a mine dig, but each time the garrison managed to repulse the attacks of the besiegers.

5 Assault on the Magnetic Fortress

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

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

6 Battle for Kazan

In early June, Pugachev headed for Kazan. On June 10, the Krasnoufimskaya fortress was taken, on June 11, a victory was won in the battle near Kungur against the garrison that had made a sortie. Without attempting to storm Kungur, Pugachev turned to the west. On June 14, the vanguard of his troops under the command of Ivan Beloborodov and Salavat Yulaev approached the Kama town of Ose and blocked the city fortress. Four days later, the main forces of Pugachev came here and started siege battles with the garrison settled in the fortress. On June 21, the defenders of the fortress, having exhausted the possibilities of further resistance, capitulated.

Having mastered Osa, Pugachev ferried the army across the Kama, took the Votkinsk and Izhevsk factories, Yelabuga, Sarapul, Menzelinsk, Agryz, Zainsk, Mamadysh and other cities and fortresses along the way, and in the first days of July approached Kazan. A detachment under the command of Colonel Tolstoy came out to meet Pugachev, and on July 10, 12 versts from the city, the Pugachevites won a complete victory in the battle. The next day, a detachment of rebels camped near the city.

On July 12, as a result of the assault, the suburbs and the main districts of the city were taken, the garrison remaining in the city locked itself in the Kazan Kremlin and prepared for the siege. A strong fire began in the city, in addition, Pugachev received news of the approach of Michelson's troops, who were following him on the heels of Ufa, so the Pugachev troops left the burning city.

As a result of a short battle, Mikhelson made his way to the garrison of Kazan, Pugachev retreated across the Kazanka River. Both sides were preparing for the decisive battle, which took place on 15 July. Pugachev's army numbered 25 thousand people, but most of them were lightly armed peasants who had just joined the uprising, Tatar and Bashkir cavalry armed with bows, and a small number of remaining Cossacks. The competent actions of Mikhelson, who first of all hit the Yaik core of the Pugachevites, led to the complete defeat of the rebels, at least 2 thousand people died, about 5 thousand were taken prisoner, among whom was Colonel Ivan Beloborodov.

7 Battle at the Solenikova gang

On July 20, Pugachev entered Kurmysh, on the 23rd he entered Alatyr without hindrance, after which he headed for Saransk. On July 28, a decree on freedom for the peasants was read out on the central square of Saransk, and stocks of salt and bread were distributed to the residents. On July 31, the same solemn meeting awaited Pugachev in Penza. The decrees caused numerous peasant uprisings in the Volga region.

After Pugachev's triumphant entry into Saransk and Penza, everyone expected him to march on Moscow. But Pugachev turned south from Penza. On August 4, the impostor's army took Petrovsk, and on August 6 surrounded Saratov. On August 7 he was taken. On August 21, Pugachev tried to attack Tsaritsyn, but the assault failed. Having received news of the arriving Michelson's corps, Pugachev hastened to lift the siege from Tsaritsyn, the rebels moved to the Black Yar. On August 24, at the Solenikov fishing gang, Pugachev was overtaken by Mikhelson.

On August 25, the last major battle of the troops under the command of Pugachev with the tsarist troops took place. The battle began with a major setback - all 24 guns of the rebel army were repulsed by a cavalry charge. In a fierce battle, more than 2,000 rebels died, among them Ataman Ovchinnikov. Over 6,000 people were taken prisoner. Pugachev and the Cossacks, breaking up into small detachments, fled across the Volga. In pursuit of them, search detachments of Generals Mansurov and Golitsyn, the Yait foreman Borodin and the Don Colonel Tavinsky were sent. During August-September, most of the participants in the uprising were caught and sent for investigation to Yaitsky town, Simbirsk, Orenburg.

Pugachev fled with a detachment of Cossacks to Uzen, not knowing that since mid-August Chumakov, Tvorogov, Fedulev and some other colonels had been discussing the possibility of earning forgiveness by surrendering the impostor. Under the pretext of facilitating the escape from the chase, they divided the detachment in such a way as to separate the Cossacks loyal to Pugachev, along with Ataman Perfilyev. On September 8, near the Bolshoy Uzen River, they attacked and tied Pugachev, after which Chumakov and Curds went to the Yaitsky town, where on September 11 they announced the capture of the impostor. Having received promises of pardon, they notified the accomplices, and on September 15 they delivered Pugachev to the Yaitsky town.

In a special cage, under escort, Pugachev was taken to Moscow. On January 9, 1775, the court sentenced him to death. On January 10, on Bolotnaya Square, Pugachev ascended the scaffold, bowed on all four sides and laid his head on the chopping block.

In 1771, unrest swept the lands of the Yaik Cossacks. Unlike the local social uprisings that preceded them, this uprising of the Cossacks in the Urals was already a direct prologue to the biggest social upheaval of the 18th century, and indeed of all history. Imperial Russia- an uprising led by E. I. Pugachev, which resulted in the Peasant War of 1773-1775.
Objectively, the reason for this powerful social explosion was the monstrous increase in serfdom, which was a hallmark of Catherine's "golden age" Russian nobility. The legislation of Catherine II on the peasant question expanded the willfulness and arbitrariness of the landlords to the extreme limits. Thus, the decree of 1765 on the right of a landowner to exile his serfs to hard labor was supplemented two years later by a ban on serfs to file complaints against their landowners.
At the same time, the government of Catherine II waged a consistent attack on the traditional privileges of the Cossacks: a state monopoly was introduced on fishing and salt mining on Yaik, the autonomy of Cossack self-government was infringed, the appointment of army chieftains and the involvement of Cossacks in the service in the North Caucasus was put into practice, etc.
It should be noted that it was the Cossacks who were the instigators and the main actors the Pugachev uprising, as well as during the Time of Troubles at the beginning of the 17th century, as well as the uprisings of S. Razin and K. Bulavin. But along with the Cossacks and peasants, other groups of the population also took part in the uprising, each of which pursued its own goals. So, for representatives of the non-Russian peoples of the Volga region, participation in the uprising had the character of a national liberation struggle; the goals of the factory workers of the Urals who joined the Pugachevites, in fact, did not differ from those of the peasants; Poles exiled to the Urals fought for their liberation in the ranks of the rebels.
A special group of rebels were Russian schismatics, who during the persecution of them at the end of the 17th and the first half of the 18th centuries. found refuge in the Volga region. They fought with government troops, but it was in the schismatic sketes that the idea of ​​Pugachev taking the name of Peter III matured, and the schismatics supplied him with money.
All of these groups were united by "common indignation", as General A. I. Bibikov, sent to suppress the Pugachev region, put it, but with such different goals and positions, it would be correct to assume that if the rebels won, a conflict and a split in their camp would be inevitable.
The immediate cause for the uprising of the Yaik Cossacks was the activity of the next commission of inquiry, sent at the end of 1771 to investigate complaints. The real task of the commission was to bring the Cossack masses to obedience. She conducted interrogations and arrests. In response, the disobedient Cossacks in January 1772 went to the Yaitsky town with a procession to submit a petition to Major General Traubenberg, who had arrived from the capital, to remove the ataman and foremen. The peaceful procession was shot from cannons, which provoked a Cossack uprising. The Cossacks defeated a detachment of soldiers, killed Traubenberg, the military chieftain and several representatives of the Cossack officers.
Only after a new punitive detachment was sent against the Cossacks in June 1772, the unrest was suppressed: 85 of the most active rebels were exiled to Siberia, many others were fined. The Cossack military circle was liquidated, the military office was closed, and a commandant was appointed to the Yaitsky town. For some time the Cossacks were quiet, but;
it was social material ready for insurrection, which needed only to be ignited.
In the summer of 1773, the Don Cossack Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev, who had already fled from the Kazan prison, reappeared among the Yaik Cossacks, who by this time had already formed a small detachment of his associates.
The uprising began on September 17, 1773, when Pugachev, who had already declared himself the miraculously saved Emperor Peter III, published a manifesto in which he granted the Cossacks "a river, herbs, lead, gunpowder, provisions and salaries." After that, his detachment, whose number grew rapidly and reached 200 people, approached the Yaitsky town. The team sent against the rebels went over to their side. Refusing to storm the Yaitsky town, the garrison of which significantly outnumbered the forces of the Pugachevites, the rebels moved along the Yaitskaya fortified line to Orenburg, encountering almost no resistance.
More and more forces poured into the detachment: the "triumphal" procession of "Emperor Pyotr Fedorovich" began. On October 5, 1773, the rebels began the siege of the fortress of Orenburg, which had a garrison of 3,000.
In November 1773, in the Berlin Sloboda near Orenburg, which for a long time became Pugachev's headquarters, a "State Military Collegium" was established. This body was created by analogy with the imperial institution and was called upon to form and supply the rebel army. His tasks included stopping the robberies of the local population and organizing the division of property seized from the landowners.
Then, in November 1773, the Pugachevites managed to defeat two detachments of government troops - General V.A. Kara and Colonel P.M. Chernyshev. These victories strengthened the faith of the rebels in their forces. They continued to Pugachev's camp. landlord and factory peasants, working people of the Ural factories, Bashkirs, Kalmyks and representatives of other peoples of the Volga and Ural regions flock.
By the end of 1773, the number of Pugachev's troops reached 30 thousand people, and his artillery numbered up to
80 guns.
From his headquarters in Berd, the impostor sent through his assistants and chieftains manifestos, which were sealed with the signature of "Peter III" and special seals, abounded with references to "our grandfather, Peter the Great", which gave these documents in the eyes of peasants and working people the appearance of legal documents. At the same time, in order to raise the “royal” authority, a kind of court etiquette was established in Berd: Pugachev acquired his own guard, began to assign titles and titles to his associates from his inner circle, and even established his own order.
In the winter of 1773/74, rebel detachments captured Buzuluk and Samara, Sarapul and Krasnoufimsk, laid siege to Kungur, fought near Chelyabinsk. In the Urals, the Pugachevites took control of up to 3/4 of the entire metallurgical industry.
The government of Catherine II, finally realizing the danger and scale of the movement, began to take active steps. At the end of 1773; general commander AI Bibikov, an experienced military engineer and artilleryman, was appointed commander-in-chief of the punitive troops. In Kazan, a secret commission was created to combat the uprising.
Having accumulated strength, Bibikov in mid-January 1774 launched a general offensive against the Pugachevites. The decisive battle took place on March 22 near the Tatishchev fortress. Despite the fact that Pugachev had a numerical superiority, government troops under the command of General P. M. Golitsyn inflicted a heavy defeat on him. The rebels lost more than a thousand people killed, many of the Pugachevites were captured.
Soon, a detachment of I.N. Chika-Zarubin, an ally of the impostor, was defeated near Ufa, and on April 1, Golitsyn again defeated Pugachev's troops near the Samara town. With a detachment of 500 people, Pugachev went to the Urals.
Thus ended the first stage of Pugachevism. The highest rise of the Pugachev uprising was yet to come.
The second stage covers the period from May to July 1774.
In the mining districts of the Urals, Pugachev again gathered an army of several thousand people and moved in the direction of Kazan. After a number of victories and defeats, on July 12, at the head of a 20,000-strong rebel army, Pugachev "approached Kazan, captured the city and laid siege to the Kremlin, where the remnants of the garrison were locked up. The lower classes of the city supported the impostor. On the same day, a detachment of Lieutenant Colonel I. I. approached Kazan. Michelson, who followed on the heels of the rebels, and forced them to retreat from Kazan.
In the decisive battle on July 15, 1774, the rebels were defeated, losing many killed and captured. Most of the Bashkirs who joined the movement returned to their lands.
The remnants of the army of the rebels crossed to the right bank of the Volga and set foot on the territory covered at that time by mass peasant unrest.
The third and final stage of the Pugachevshchina began. During this period, the movement reached its greatest extent.
Going down the Volga, Pugachev's detachment acted as a kind of catalyst for the local anti-serfdom movement, which in this period engulfed the Penza, Tambov, Simbirsk and Nizhny Novgorod provinces.
In July 1774, the impostor published a manifesto containing exactly what the peasants expected from the good tsar: it proclaimed the abolition of serfdom, recruitment, all taxes and fees, the transfer of land to the peasants, as well as a call to "catch, execute and hang ... villainous nobles".
The fire of the peasant uprising was about to spread to the central regions of the country, its breath was felt even in Moscow. At the same time, common shortcomings, due to fragmentation, social heterogeneity, and insufficient "organization of the Pugachev uprising, began to be more noticeable. The rebels were increasingly defeated by regular government" troops.
Clearly realizing the danger threatening the state, the government mobilized all forces to fight Pugachev. The troops released after the conclusion of the Kyuchuk-Kainarji peace with Turkey were transferred to the Volga region, to the Don and to the center of the country. From the Danube army, the famous commander A.V. Suvorov was sent to help Panin.
On August 21, 1774, Pugachev's troops besieged Tsaritsyn. But they could not take the city and, seeing the threat of the approach of government troops, retreated.
Soon, the last major battle of the Pugachevites took place near the Salnikov Plant, in which they suffered a crushing defeat. Pugachev fled across the Volga with a small detachment. He was still ready to continue the fight, but his own supporters betrayed the impostor to the government. On September 12, 1774, a group of Pugachev's associates, wealthy Yaik Cossacks, led by Tvorogov and Chumakov, seized him on the river. Uzeni. The impostor, chained in stocks, was brought to the Yaitsky town and handed over to the authorities. Then Pugachev was transferred to Simbirsk, and from there in a wooden cage to Moscow.
On January 10, 1775, on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow, Pugachev and several of his faithful associates were executed.
Many Pugachevites after the suppression of the uprising were beaten with a whip, driven through the ranks, exiled to hard labor. In total, at least 10 thousand people died in battles with regular troops during the uprising, about four times more people were injured and maimed. On the other hand, the victims of the rebels were thousands of nobles, officials, priests, townspeople, ordinary soldiers and even peasants who did not want to obey the impostor.
The Pugachev uprising had important consequences for determining the further domestic policy of Catherine II. It clearly demonstrated the deep crisis of the whole society and the impossibility of postponing the overdue transformations, which should have been carried out slowly and gradually, relying on the nobility.
The direct result of Pugachevism in the field of domestic policy of the government of Catherine II was the further strengthening of the reaction of the nobility. At the same time, in 1775, one of the most important legislative acts of the Catherine's era, "Institution for the Administration of the Provinces of the All-Russian Empire", was issued, in accordance with which an extensive regional reform was carried out and the system of local government was reorganized, as well as a structure of elected court-estate institutions was created.
However, the significance of the largest social confrontation in Russian pre-revolutionary history, which, in terms of its scale and dynamics of the armed struggle, quite fits into the category civil wars cannot be reduced only to the immediate results reflected in the policy of the autocracy.
Historians have not yet given an unambiguous assessment of this event. Pugachev's uprising cannot be called a "senseless and merciless" popular revolt. Main Feature The Pugachev uprising was an attempt to overcome the spontaneity of mass demonstrations by methods borrowed from the dominant political system. The command and control of the rebel troops and the training of these troops were organized, attempts were made to organize a regular supply of armed detachments. The radicalism of the rebels was expressed in the physical destruction of the nobility and officials without trial or investigation.
The movement caused enormous economic damage to the country. The rebels destroyed about 90 iron-working and copper-smelting plants in the Urals and Siberia, many landowners' farms were burned and plundered in the European part of Russia. relations.

When the first major outburst of indignation occurred, and until the uprising of 1772, the Cossacks write petitions to Orenburg and St. Petersburg, send the so-called "winter villages" - delegates from the army with a complaint against the atamans and local authorities. Sometimes they reached their goal, and especially unacceptable atamans changed, but on the whole the situation remained the same. In 1771, the Yaik Cossacks refused to go in pursuit of the Kalmyks who had migrated outside of Russia. General Traubenberg went with a detachment of soldiers to investigate direct disobedience to the order. The result of the punishments carried out by him was the Yaik Cossack uprising of 1772, during which General Traubenberg and the military ataman of Tambov were killed. Troops under the command of General F. Yu. Freiman were sent to suppress the uprising. The rebels were defeated near the Embulatovka River in June 1772; as a result of the defeat, the Cossack circles were finally liquidated, a garrison of government troops was stationed in the Yaik town, and all power over the army passed into the hands of the commandant of the garrison, Lieutenant Colonel I. D. Simonov. The perpetrated massacre of the captured instigators was extremely cruel and made a depressing impression on the army: the Cossacks had never been stigmatized before, their tongues had not been cut out. A large number of participants in the speech took refuge in distant steppe farms, excitement reigned everywhere, the state of the Cossacks was like a compressed spring.

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

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

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

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

The beginning of the uprising

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Map initial stage uprisings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Military defeats and expansion of the Peasants' War area

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

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

Map of the second stage of the Peasants' War

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

View of the Kazan Kremlin

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

Announced to the public

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

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

Given on July 31st, 1774.

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

emperor and autocrat of the All-Russian and other,

And passing, and passing.

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

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

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

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

Suppression of the uprising

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

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

Map final stage uprisings

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

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

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

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

On August 21, Pugachev tried to attack Tsaritsyn, but the assault failed. Having received news of the arriving Michelson corps, Pugachev hastened to lift the siege from Tsaritsyn, the rebels moved to the Black Yar. Panic broke out in Astrakhan. On August 24, at the Solenikova fishing gang, Pugachev was overtaken by Mikhelson. Realizing that the battle could not be avoided, the Pugachevites lined up battle formations. On August 25, the last major battle of the troops under the command of Pugachev with the tsarist troops took place. The battle began with a major setback - all 24 guns of the rebel army were repulsed by a cavalry charge. In a fierce battle, more than 2,000 rebels died, among them ataman Ovchinnikov. Over 6,000 people were taken prisoner. Pugachev with the Cossacks, breaking up into small detachments, fled across the Volga. In pursuit of them, search detachments of Generals Mansurov and Golitsyn, the Yait foreman Borodin and the Don Colonel Tavinsky were sent. Not having time for the battle, Lieutenant General Suvorov also wished to participate in the capture. During August-September, most of the participants in the uprising were caught and sent for investigation to Yaitsky town, Simbirsk, Orenburg.

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

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

Pugachev under escort. Engraving from the 1770s

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

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

To bring down the wave of rebellions, punitive detachments began mass executions. In every village, in every town that received Pugachev, on the gallows and "verbs", from which they barely had time to remove the officers, landowners, and judges hanged by the impostor, they began to hang the leaders of the riots and the city heads and chieftains of local detachments appointed by the Pugachevites. To enhance the frightening effect, the gallows were mounted on rafts and launched along the main rivers of the uprising. In May, Khlopushi was executed in Orenburg: his head was placed on a pole in the center of the city. During the investigation, the entire medieval set of tested means was used. In terms of cruelty and the number of victims, Pugachev and the government did not yield to each other.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Studies and collections of archival documents

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

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

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

Art

Pugachev uprising in fiction

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

Cinema

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

Links

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

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