Pugachevism riot or uprising. Who financed Pugachev's uprising. What is Pugachevism

Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev (1740 or 1742-1775) was born in the Zimoveyskaya village on the Don (it was also the birthplace of S. T. Razin), into a family of poor Cossacks. From the age of 17 in military service. Participant of the Seven Years and Russian-Turkish Wars. For the courage shown in battles, the junior officer received the rank of cornet. During military campaigns, Pugachev fell ill and tried to retire due to illness, but he was not released. Avoiding military service, from the end of 1771 Pugachev hid in the Kuban, Terek, Lower Volga and Southern Urals, where popular unrest was taking place at that time. In February 1772 he was arrested, but he soon escaped and hid among the Old Believers. Based on a denunciation, he was arrested again. In January 1773 he was taken to Kazan and sentenced to hard labor in Siberia. But in May 1773 he fled again. The famous portrait of Pugachev was painted over the image of Catherine II.

The instigators of the uprising were the Cossacks. And this is no coincidence. The position of the Cossacks changed in the 60-70s. XVIII century. Some ancient rights and liberties were taken away from the Cossacks, and the government increasingly interfered in Cossack self-government. At the beginning of 1772, a riot occurred among the Yaik Cossacks. Despite the fact that the protest was suppressed, the Cossacks did not resign themselves. They were ready to continue the uprising, but the leader was missing. It was at this moment that Emelyan Pugachev appeared in the circle of Yaik Cossacks, who declared himself Emperor Peter III, forcibly deprived of the throne by his “evil wife Catherine.”

In September 1773, on Tolkachev’s farm, Pugachev’s manifesto was read out to the Cossacks. According to this document, “Emperor Peter III” granted the Cossacks land along the Yaik River, grain wages and money. A detachment of 80 people gathered around Pugachev and moved towards Orenburg, the largest fortress in southeast Russia. Along the way, the rebels captured small towns, the military garrisons of which went over to the side of the Pugachevites. The number of rebels increased every day: so attractive was what Emelyan Pugachev promised in his manifestos. The detachment was joined by serfs and state peasants assigned to factories, artisans, as well as Bashkirs, Mari, Tatars, Udmurts and other peoples of the Volga region. As a result, a whole army of 2.5 thousand people, with 20 guns, approached Orenburg.

At the beginning of October 1773, Pugachev surrounded Orenburg. The siege lasted six months, but the rebels failed to take the fortress. At the same time, the popular movement grew. Pugachev's associate Salavat Yulaev raised the Bashkirs to revolt. The Kalmyk army came out on the side of the rebels. As a result, Samara, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, Krasnoufimsk were captured, Yekaterinburg, Ufa, and Kungur were blocked.

Separate groups of rebels continued to resist. In November 1774, Salavat Yulaev was defeated and captured; until May 1775, Pugachev’s Colonel Pyotr Roshchin fought in the Mordovian forests. Only brutal repressions and a terrible famine that gripped the southeast of the Russian Empire pacified the rebels.

Pugachev was sent to Moscow in a wooden cage. On January 10, 1775, he and his closest supporters were executed on Bolotnaya Square. The authorities also dealt cruelly with ordinary riot participants: they were hanged, and rafts with gallows were sent down the Volga and other rivers. This, according to the government, was supposed to scare the people and prevent new protests.

Catherine II generously rewarded the punishers of the Pugachev uprising: she granted Mikhelson 600 peasants, majors of punitive detachments - 300, captains - 200, lieutenants - 150, second lieutenants - 100, warrant officers - 80.

Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev

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

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

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

T. Nazarenko "Pugachev". Diptych

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

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

How it all began?

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

L. Pfanzelt "Portrait of Emperor Peter III"

Who is he?

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

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

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

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

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

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

What caused the uprising?

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

Yaik Cossacks were the main driving force of the uprising. Throughout the 18th century, they gradually lost privileges and liberties, but the times of complete independence from Moscow and Cossack democracy still remained in their memory. In the 1730s, there was an almost complete split of the army into senior and military sides. The situation was aggravated by the monopoly on salt introduced by the royal decree of 1754. The army's economy was entirely built on sales of fish and caviar, and salt was a strategic product. The ban on free salt mining and the emergence of salt tax farmers among the top troops led to a sharp stratification among the Cossacks. In 1763, the first major outburst of indignation occurred; the Cossacks wrote petitions to Orenburg and St. Petersburg, sent delegates from the army to complain about the atamans and local authorities. Sometimes they achieved their goal, and especially unacceptable atamans changed, but on the whole the situation remained the same. In 1771, the Yaik Cossacks refused to go in pursuit of the Kalmyks who had migrated outside Russia. General Traubenberg and a detachment of soldiers went to investigate the disobedience of the order. The result was the Yaik Cossack uprising of 1772, during which General Traubenberg and the military ataman Tambov were killed. Troops were sent to suppress the uprising. The rebels were defeated at the Embulatovka River in June 1772; As a result of the defeat, the Cossack circles were finally liquidated, a garrison of government troops was stationed in the Yaitsky town, and all power over the army passed into the hands of the commandant of the garrison, Lieutenant Colonel I. D. Simonov. The reprisal against the caught instigators was extremely cruel and made a depressing impression on the army: never before had Cossacks been branded or had their tongues cut out. A large number of participants in the performance took refuge in distant steppe farms, excitement reigned everywhere, the state of the Cossacks was like a compressed spring.

V. Perov "Pugachev's Court"

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

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

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

Insurrection

First stage

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

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

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

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

Battle map of the Peasants' War

Second phase

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

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

Thus ends the second stage of the war.

Third stage

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

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

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

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

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

Pugachev under escort. 18th century engraving

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

Continuation of the Peasant War

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

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

Investigation into the Pugachev case

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

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

Sentence and execution

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

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

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

Features of the Peasant War

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

Consequences of the Peasants' War

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

Decree of the Government Senate

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

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

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

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

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

The Cossacks write petitions to Orenburg and St. Petersburg, send so-called “winter villages” - delegates from the army with a complaint against the atamans and local authorities. Sometimes they achieved their goal, and especially unacceptable atamans changed, but on the whole the situation remained the same. In 1771, the Yaik Cossacks refused to go in pursuit of the Kalmyks who had migrated outside Russia. General Traubenberg and a detachment of soldiers went to investigate direct disobedience to the order. The result of the punishments he carried out was the Yaitsky Cossack uprising of 1772, during which General Traubenberg and the military ataman Tambov were killed. Troops under the command of General F. Yu. Freiman were sent to suppress the uprising. The rebels were defeated at the Embulatovka River in June 1772; As a result of the defeat, the Cossack circles were finally liquidated, a garrison of government troops was stationed in the Yaitsky town, and all power over the army passed into the hands of the commandant of the garrison, Lieutenant Colonel I. D. Simonov. The reprisal carried out against the caught instigators was extremely cruel and made a depressing impression on the army: never before had Cossacks been branded or had their tongues cut out. A large number of participants in the performance took refuge in distant steppe farms, excitement reigned everywhere, the state of the Cossacks was like a compressed spring.

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

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

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

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

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 unite the sheltered and hidden participants in the unrest of 1772. The rumor that the miraculously saved Emperor Peter Fedorovich (Emperor Peter III, who died during the coup after a six-month reign) appeared in the army, instantly spread throughout Yaik.

Few of the Cossack leaders believed in the resurrected tsar, but everyone looked closely to see if this man was able to lead, to gather under his banner an army capable of equaling the government. The man who called himself Peter III was Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev - a Don Cossack, a native of the Zimoveyskaya village (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 fall of 1772, he stopped in the Mechetnaya Sloboda and here from the abbot of the Old Believer skete Filaret learned about the unrest among the Yaik Cossacks. Where the idea of ​​calling himself a tsar came from in his head and what his initial plans were is not known for certain, but in November 1772 he arrived in the Yaitsky town and at meetings with the Cossacks called himself Peter III. Upon returning to 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 his 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 Yaitsk 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 “tsar”. From here a detachment of 80 Cossacks headed up the Yaik. Along the way, new supporters joined, so that by the time they arrived at the Yaitsky town on September 18, 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, among those sent by Commandant Simonov to defend the town, went over to the side of the impostor. A repeated rebel attack on September 19 was also repulsed 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 set up camp near the Iletsky town.

Here a circle was convened, at which the troops elected Andrei Ovchinnikov as the marching ataman, all the Cossacks swore allegiance to the great sovereign Emperor Peter Fedorovich, after which Pugachev sent Ovchinnikov to the Iletsky town with decrees to the Cossacks: “ And whatever you wish, all benefits and salaries will not be denied to you; and your glory will never expire; and both you and your descendants will be the first under me, the great sovereign, to obey". Despite the opposition of the Iletsk ataman Portnov, Ovchinnikov convinced the local Cossacks to join the uprising, and they greeted Pugachev with ringing bells and bread and salt.

All Iletsk Cossacks swore allegiance to Pugachev. The first execution took place: according to complaints from the residents - “he did great harm to them and ruined them” - Portnov was hanged. A separate regiment was formed from the Iletsk Cossacks, led by Ivan Tvorogov, and the army received all the artillery of the town. The Yaik Cossack Fyodor Chumakov was appointed head of the artillery.

Map of the initial stage of the uprising

After a two-day meeting on further actions, it was decided to send the main forces to Orenburg, the capital of a huge region under the control of the hated Reinsdorp. On the way to Orenburg there were small fortresses of the Nizhne-Yaitsky distance of the Orenburg military line. The garrison of the fortresses was, as a rule, mixed - Cossacks and soldiers, their life and service were 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 away. The Cossacks were sent to the ramparts and managed to convey Pugachev’s decree to the garrison troops with a call to lay down their arms and join the “sovereign.” In response, cannons from the city rampart began firing at 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. At the military council assembled on October 7, it was 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 soldiers and Cossacks going over to Pugachev’s side. The sortie carried out showed that the soldiers fought reluctantly, Major Naumov reported that he had discovered “there is timidity and fear in his subordinates”.

Together with Karanai Muratov, Kaskyn Samarov captured Sterlitamak and Tabynsk, from November 28, the Pugachevites under the command of Ataman Ivan Gubanov and Kaskyn Samarov besieged 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 of the garrison.

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

In December 1773, Pugachev sent ataman Mikhail Tolkachev with his decrees to the rulers of the Kazakh Junior Zhuz, Nurali Khan and Sultan Dusali, with a call to join his army, but the khan decided to wait for developments; only the riders 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 headed with them to the Yaitsky town, collecting guns, ammunition and provisions in the associated fortresses and outposts. On December 30, Tolkachev approached the Yaitsky 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 - Kureni. Most of the Cossacks greeted their comrades and joined Tolkachev’s detachment, the Cossacks of the senior side, the garrison soldiers led by Lieutenant Colonel Simonov and Captain Krylov locked themselves in the “retransference” - the fortress of the St. Michael the Archangel 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 Pugachev’s 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, the “Duma” clerk, and M. D. Gorshkov, the secretary.

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

In January 1774, Ataman Ovchinnikov led a campaign to the lower reaches of the Yaik, to the Guryev town, stormed its Kremlin, captured rich trophies and replenished the detachment with local Cossacks, bringing them to the Yaitsky town. At the same time, Pugachev himself arrived in Yaitsky town. He took over the leadership of the protracted siege of the city fortress of the Archangel Cathedral, but after a failed 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, at which N.A. Kargin was chosen as military chieftain, A.P. Perfilyev and I.A. Fofanov were chosen as chief officers. At the same time, the Cossacks, wanting to finally unite the tsar with the army, married him to a young Cossack woman, Ustinya Kuznetsova. In the second half of February and early March 1774, Pugachev again personally led attempts to take possession of the besieged fortress. On February 19, a mine explosion blew up and destroyed the bell tower of St. Michael's Cathedral, but the garrison each time managed to repel the attacks of the besiegers.

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

The situation in besieged Orenburg by this time was already critical; famine had begun in the city. Having learned about the departure of Pugachev and Ovchinnikov with part of the troops to the Yaitsky town, Governor Reinsdorp decided to make a foray to Berdskaya Sloboda on January 13 to lift the siege. But the unexpected attack did not happen; the Cossack patrols managed to raise the alarm. The atamans 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 line of defense. The Orenburg corps were forced to fight in unfavorable conditions and suffered a severe defeat. With heavy losses, abandoning cannons, weapons, ammunition and ammunition, the half-encircled Orenburg troops hastily retreated to Orenburg under the cover of the city walls, losing only 281 people killed, 13 cannons with all the shells for them, a lot of weapons, ammunition and ammunition.

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

In early January, the Chelyabinsk Cossacks rebelled and tried to seize power in the city in the hope of help from the troops of Ataman Gryaznov, but were defeated by the city garrison. On January 10, Gryaznov unsuccessfully attempted to take Chelyaba by storm, and on January 13, General I. A. Dekolong’s 2,000-strong corps, which arrived from Siberia, entered Chelyaba. Throughout January, fighting unfolded on the outskirts of the city, and on February 8, Delong decided it was 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 convicts, Cossacks and soldiers fit for military service.

Military defeats and expansion of the Peasant War area

When news reached St. 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 garrisons and military units located in the uprising zone, and remnants of Kara's corps. Bibikov arrived in Kazan on December 25, 1773, and the movement of regiments and brigades immediately began under the command of P. M. Golitsyn and P. D. Mansurov to Samara, Orenburg, Ufa, Menzelinsk, and Kungur, besieged by Pugachev’s troops. Already on December 29, the 24th light field command, led by Major K.I. Mufel, reinforced by two squadrons of Bakhmut hussars and other units, recaptured Samara. Arapov, with several dozen Pugachevites who remained with him, retreated to Alekseevsk, but the brigade led by Mansurov defeated his troops in battles near Alekseevsk and at the Buzuluk fortress, after which in Sorochinskaya they united 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 collected. Soon a government detachment consisting of 6,500 people and 25 cannons approached the fortress. The battle took place on March 22 and was extremely fierce. Prince Golitsyn in his report to A. Bibikov wrote: “The matter was so important that I did not expect such insolence and control in such unenlightened people in the military profession as these defeated rebels are.”. When the situation became hopeless, Pugachev decided to return to Berdy. His retreat was covered by 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 prisoners, all the artillery and convoys. Among the dead was Ataman Ilya Arapov.

Map of the second stage of the Peasant War

At the same time, the St. Petersburg Carabineer Regiment under the command of I. Mikhelson, previously stationed in Poland and aimed at suppressing the uprising, arrived on March 2, 1774 in Kazan 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 Chika-Zarubin, and two days later captured Zarubin himself and his entourage. Having won victories in 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 guerrilla tactics.

Leaving Mansurov's brigade in the Tatishchevoy 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 Yaitsky town, but having met government troops near the Perevolotsk fortress, he was forced to turn to the Sakmarsky town, where he decided to give battle to Golitsyn. In the battle on April 1, the rebels were again defeated, over 2,800 people were captured, including Maxim Shigaev, Andrei 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.

At the beginning of April, the brigade of P. D. Mansurov, reinforced by the Izyum Hussar Regiment and the Cossack detachment of the Yaitsky foreman M. M. Borodin, headed from the Tatishchevoy fortress to the Yaitsky town. The Nizhneozernaya and Rassypnaya fortresses and the Iletsky town were taken from the Pugachevites; on April 12, the Cossack rebels were defeated at the Irtetsk outpost. In an effort to stop the advance of the punitive forces towards their native Yaitsky town, the Cossacks, led by A. A. Ovchinnikov, A. P. Perfilyev and K. I. Dekhtyarev, decided to move towards Mansurov. The meeting took place on April 15, 50 versts east of the Yaitsky town, near the Bykovka River. Having gotten involved in the battle, the Cossacks were unable to resist the regular troops; a retreat began, which gradually turned into a stampede. Pursued by the hussars, the Cossacks retreated to the Rubezhny outpost, losing hundreds of people killed, among whom was Dekhtyarev. Having gathered people, Ataman Ovchinnikov led a detachment through the remote steppes to the Southern Urals, to connect with Pugachev’s troops, who had gone beyond the Belaya River.

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

At the beginning of April 1774, the corps of Second Major Gagrin, which approached from Yekaterinburg, defeated Tumanov’s detachment located in Chelyab. And on May 1, the team of Lieutenant Colonel D. Kandaurov, who arrived from Astrakhan, recaptured the town of Guryev from the rebels.

On April 9, 1774, the commander of military operations against Pugachev, A.I. Bibikov, died. After him, Catherine II entrusted the command of the troops to Lieutenant General F. F. Shcherbatov, as the senior in rank. Offended that he was not appointed to the post of commander of the troops, having sent small teams to nearby fortresses and villages to carry out investigations and punishments, General Golitsyn with the main forces of his corps stayed in Orenburg for three months. 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 Demidov serf artist V. P. Khudoyarov

On the morning of May 5, Pugachev’s detachment of five thousand approached the Magnetic Fortress. By this time, Pugachev’s detachment consisted mainly of weakly armed factory peasants and a small number of personal egg guards under the command of Myasnikov; the detachment did not have a single cannon. The start of the assault on Magnitnaya was unsuccessful, about 500 people died in the battle, Pugachev himself was wounded in his right hand. Having withdrawn the troops from the fortress and discussed the situation, the rebels, under the cover of the darkness of the night, made a new attempt and were able to break into the fortress and capture it. 10 cannons, rifles, and ammunition were taken as trophies. On May 7, detachments of atamans A. Ovchinnikov, A. Perfilyev, I. Beloborodov and S. Maksimov arrived at Magnitnaya from different directions.

Heading up the Yaik, the rebels captured the fortresses of Karagai, Peter and Paul and Stepnaya and on May 20 approached the largest Trinity. By this time, the detachment numbered 10 thousand people. During the assault that began, the garrison tried to repel the attack with artillery fire, but overcoming desperate resistance, the rebels broke into Troitskaya. Pugachev received artillery with shells and reserves of gunpowder, supplies of provisions and fodder. On the morning of May 21, Delong's corps attacked the rebels resting after the battle. 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 resistance to Mikhelson’s detachment in Bashkiria at that time, east of Ufa, covering Pugachev’s army from his stubborn pursuit. In the battles that took place on May 6, 8, 17, and 31, Salavat, although he was not successful in them, did not allow his troops to inflict significant losses. On June 3, he united 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 Mikhelson. Neither side received the desired success. Retreating north, Pugachev regrouped his forces while Mikhelson retreated to Ufa to drive away the Bashkir detachments operating near the city and replenish supplies of ammunition and provisions.

Taking advantage of the respite, Pugachev headed towards Kazan. On June 10, the Krasnoufimskaya fortress was taken, and 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 army under the command of Ivan Beloborodov and Salavat Yulaev approached the Kama town of Ose and blocked the city fortress. Four days later, Pugachev’s main forces arrived here and began 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”) came to Pugachev, posing as an envoy of Tsarevich Pavel 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 captured Osa, Pugachev transported 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 early 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 versts 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 the 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 main areas of the city were taken, the garrison remaining in the city locked itself in the Kazan Kremlin and prepared for a siege. A strong fire began in the city, in addition, Pugachev received news of the approach of Mikhelson’s troops, who were following on his heels from 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 July 15. Pugachev's army numbered 25 thousand people, but most of them were weakly 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 struck first of all at 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 publicly

We congratulate you with this named decree with our royal and fatherly
the mercy of all who were formerly in the peasantry and
subject to the landowners, to be loyal slaves
our own crown; and rewarded with an ancient cross
and prayer, heads and beards, liberty and freedom
and forever Cossacks, without requiring recruitment, capitation
and other monetary taxes, ownership of lands, forests,
hayfields and fishing grounds, and salt lakes
without purchase and without rent; and free everyone from what was previously done
from the villains of the nobles and the bribery-takers of the city-judges to the peasants and everything
taxes and burdens imposed on the people. And we wish you the salvation of souls
and calm in the light of life for which we have tasted and endured
from the registered villains-nobles, wandering and considerable disaster.

And what is our name now by the power of the Most High Right Hand in Russia?
flourishes, for this reason we command with this personal decree:
which formerly were nobles in their estates and vodchinas, - of which
opponents of our power and troublemakers of the empire and despoilers
peasants, to catch, execute and hang, and to do the same,
what they did to you, peasants, without Christianity in them.
After the destruction of which opponents and villainous nobles, anyone can
to feel the silence and calm life that will continue until the century.

Given July 31st day 1774.

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

Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia and so on,

And on and on and on.

Even before the start of the battle on July 15, Pugachev announced in the camp that he would head from Kazan to Moscow. Rumors of this instantly spread throughout all the nearby villages, estates and towns. Despite the major defeat of Pugachev's army, the flames of the uprising engulfed the entire western bank of the Volga. Having crossed the Volga at Kokshaysk, below the village of Sundyr, Pugachev replenished his army with thousands of peasants. By this time, Salavat Yulaev and his troops continued fighting near Ufa; the Bashkir troops in the Pugachev detachment were led by Kinzya Arslanov. On July 20, Pugachev entered Kurmysh, on the 23rd he freely entered Alatyr, after which he headed towards Saransk. On July 28, in the central square of Saransk, a decree on freedom for peasants was read out, supplies of salt and bread, and the city treasury were distributed to residents “driving around the city fortress and along the streets... they abandoned the mob that had come from different districts”. On July 31, the same solemn meeting awaited Pugachev in Penza. The decrees caused numerous peasant revolts 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, and really threatened Moscow.

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

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. Panin to appoint his brother, the disgraced general-in-chief Pyotr Ivanovich Panin, commander of a military expedition against rebels. General F. F. Shcherbatov was expelled from this post on July 22, and by decree of July 29, Catherine II gave Panin emergency powers “in suppressing 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 received the Order of St. for the capture of Bender in 1770. George I class, Don cornet Emelyan Pugachev also distinguished himself in that battle.

To speed up the conclusion of peace, the terms of the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Peace Treaty were softened, and the troops released on the Turkish borders - a total of 20 cavalry and infantry regiments - were recalled from the armies to act against Pugachev. As Ekaterina noted, against Pugachev “So many troops were equipped that such an army was almost terrible for its neighbors”. It is noteworthy that in August 1774, Lieutenant General Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov, at that time already one of the most successful Russian generals, was recalled from the 1st Army, which was located in the Danube principalities. Panin entrusted Suvorov with command of the troops that were supposed to defeat the main Pugachev army in the Volga region.

Suppression of the uprising

After Pugachev’s triumphant entry into Saransk and Penza, everyone expected his march to Moscow. Seven regiments under the personal command of P.I. Panin were gathered in Moscow, where memories of the Plague Riot of 1771 were still fresh. Moscow Governor-General Prince M.N. Volkonsky ordered artillery to be placed near his house. The police strengthened surveillance and sent informants to crowded places in order to capture all those who sympathized with Pugachev. Mikhelson, who was promoted to colonel in July and was pursuing the rebels from Kazan, turned towards Arzamas to block the road to the old capital. General Mansurov set out from the Yaitsky town to Syzran, General Golitsyn - to Saransk. The punitive teams of Mufel and Mellin reported that Pugachev was leaving rebellious villages behind him everywhere and they did not have time to pacify them all. “Not only peasants, but priests, monks, even archimandrites outrage 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 were keeping the landowner Dubensky under arrest in order to extradite him to Pugachev. I wanted to free him, but the village rebelled and the team was dispersed. From there I went to the villages of Mr. Vysheslavtsev and Prince Maksyutin, but I also found them under arrest among the peasants, and I freed them and took them to Verkhny Lomov; from the village of Prince I saw Maksyutin as a mountain. Kerensk was burning and, returning to Verkhny Lomov, he learned that all the inhabitants there, except the clerks, had rebelled when they learned about the burning of Kerensk. Starters: one-palace Yak. Gubanov, Matv. Bochkov, and the Streltsy settlement of the tenth Bezborod. I wanted to grab them and bring them to Voronezh, but the residents not only did not allow me to do so, but also almost put me under their guard, but I left them and 2 miles from the city I heard the cry of the rioters. I don’t know how it all ended, but I heard that Kerensk, with the help of captured Turks, fought off the villain. During my travels, I noticed everywhere among the people a spirit of rebellion and a tendency towards the Pretender. Especially in Tanbovsky district, the departments of Prince. Vyazemsky, in economic peasants, who, for Pugachev’s arrival, repaired bridges everywhere and repaired roads. Moreover, the village headman of Lipnego and his guards, considering me an accomplice of the villain, came to me and fell to their knees.”

Map of the final stage of the uprising

But from Penza Pugachev turned south. Most historians point to the reason for this as Pugachev’s plans to attract the Volga and, especially, Don Cossacks into his ranks. It is possible that another reason was the desire of the Yaik Cossacks, tired of fighting and having already lost their main atamans, 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 that it was during these days that the 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, it surrounded Saratov. The governor with 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 a call to join his army. But by this time, punitive detachments under the overall 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, we went down the Volga to Kamyshin, which, like many cities before it, greeted Pugachev with the ringing of bells and bread and salt. Near Kamyshin in the German colonies, Pugachev’s troops encountered the Astrakhan astronomical expedition of the Academy of Sciences, many members of which, along with the leader, Academician Georg Lowitz, were hanged along with local officials who failed to escape. Lowitz's son, Tobias, later also an academician, managed to survive. Having joined a 3,000-strong detachment of Kalmyks, the rebels entered the villages of the Volga army Antipovskaya and Karavainskaya, where they received widespread support and from where messengers were sent to the Don with decrees on the Don people joining the uprising. A detachment of government troops that arrived 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 Army. 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 thousand-strong detachment of Don Cossacks arrived under the command of the marching ataman Perfilov.

“A true portrayal 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 Mikhelson's arriving corps, Pugachev hastened to lift the siege of Tsaritsyn, and the rebels moved to Black Yar. Panic began in Astrakhan. On August 24, at the Solenikovo fishing gang, Pugachev was overtaken by Mikhelson. Realizing that a battle could not be avoided, the Pugachevites formed battle formations. On August 25, the last major battle between the troops under the command of Pugachev and the tsarist troops took place. The battle began with a major setback - all 24 cannons of the rebel army were repulsed by a cavalry attack. More than 2,000 rebels died in a fierce battle, among them Ataman Ovchinnikov. More than 6,000 people were captured. Pugachev and the Cossacks, breaking up into small detachments, fled across the Volga. Search detachments of generals Mansurov and Golitsyn, Yaik foreman Borodin and Don Colonel Tavinsky were sent in pursuit of them. Not having time for the battle, Lieutenant General Suvorov also wanted to participate in the capture. During August-September, most of the participants in the uprising were caught and sent for investigation to the Yaitsky town, Simbirsk, and Orenburg.

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

Perfilyev and his detachment were captured on September 12 after a battle with punitive forces near the Derkul River.

Pugachev under escort. Engraving from the 1770s

At this time, in addition to scattered centers of uprising, military operations in Bashkiria were of an organized nature. Salavat Yulaev, together with his father Yulay Aznalin, led the insurgent movement on the Siberian Road, Karanay Muratov, Kachkyn Samarov, Selyausin Kinzin - on Nogai, Bazargul Yunaev, Yulaman Kushaev and Mukhamet Safarov - in the Bashkir Trans-Urals. They pinned down a significant contingent of government troops. At the beginning of August, a new assault on Ufa was even launched, but as a result of poor organization of interaction between various detachments, it was unsuccessful. Kazakh detachments harassed with raids along the entire border line. Governor Reinsdorp reported: “The Bashkirs and Kyrgyzs are not pacified, the latter constantly cross the Yaik, and grab people from near Orenburg. The troops here are either pursuing Pugachev or blocking his path, and I can’t go against the Kyrgyz people, I admonish the Khan and the Saltans. They replied that they could not hold back the Kyrgyz people, of whom the entire horde was rebelling.”. With the capture of Pugachev and the dispatch of liberated government troops to Bashkiria, the transition of Bashkir elders 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 decline. Mine last Stand Salavat Yulaev fought on November 20 under the Katav-Ivanovsky plant, which he besieged, and after the defeat he was captured on November 25. But individual rebel groups in Bashkiria continued to resist until the summer of 1775.

Until the summer of 1775, unrest continued in the Voronezh province, in the Tambov district and along the Khopru and Vorone rivers. Although the operating detachments were small and there was no coordination of joint actions, according to eyewitness Major Sverchkov, “many landowners, leaving their homes and savings, move to remote places, and those who remain in their houses save their lives from threatened death by spending the night in the forests”. The frightened landowners declared that “If the Voronezh provincial chancellery does not speed up the extermination of those villainous gangs, then the same bloodshed will inevitably follow as happened in the last rebellion.”

To stem the wave of riots, 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 atamans of local detachments appointed by the Pugachevites. To enhance the terrifying effect, the gallows were installed on rafts and floated along the main rivers of the uprising. In May, Khlopushi was executed in Orenburg: his head was placed on a pole in the city center. During the investigation, the entire medieval set of proven means was used. In terms of cruelty and number of victims, Pugachev and the government were not inferior to each other.

In November, all the main participants in the uprising were transported to Moscow for a general investigation. They were placed in the building of the Mint at the Iversky Gate of China Town. 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 his participation in the Don Cossack Army in the Seven Years and Turkish Wars, about his wanderings around Russia and Poland, about his plans and intentions, about the course of the uprising. Investigators tried to find out whether the initiators of the uprising were agents foreign countries, or schismatics, or anyone from the nobility. Catherine II showed big interest to the progress of the investigation. In the materials of the Moscow investigation, several notes from Catherine II to M.N. Volkonsky were preserved with wishes about the plan in which the investigation 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 determination to terminate the investigation, since Pugachev and other defendants could not add anything new to their testimony during interrogations and could not in any way alleviate or aggravate their guilt. In their report to Catherine they were forced to admit that they “...with this investigation being carried out, we tried to find the beginning of the evil undertaken by this monster and his accomplices or... to that evil enterprise by the mentors. But despite all this, nothing else was revealed, such as that in all his villainy, the first beginning took its beginning in the Yaitsky army..

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 Hall of the Kremlin Palace. They heard Catherine II's manifesto on the appointment of a trial, and then the indictment in the case of Pugachev and his associates was announced. Prince A. A. Vyazemsky offered to bring Pugachev to the next court hearing. 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 brought into the meeting room and forced to kneel. After a formal questioning, he was taken out of the courtroom, the court made a decision: “Emelka Pugachev will be quartered, his head will be stuck on a stake, body parts will be carried to four parts of the city and placed on wheels, and then burned in those places.” The remaining defendants were divided according to the degree of their guilt into several groups for each appropriate type of execution or punishment. On Saturday, January 10, an execution was carried out on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow in front of a huge crowd of people. Pugachev behaved with dignity, ascended to the place of execution, crossed himself at the Kremlin cathedrals, bowed to four sides with the words “Forgive me, Orthodox people.” The executioner first cut off the heads of E. I. Pugachev and A. P. Perfilyev, who were sentenced to quartering; 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.

Sheet metal shop. Painting by Demidov serf artist P. F. Khudoyarov

Pugachev's uprising caused enormous damage to the metallurgy of the Urals. 64 of the 129 factories that existed in the Urals fully joined the uprising; the number of peasants assigned to them was 40 thousand people. 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 concessions to be made towards factory workers. The chief investigator in the Urals, Captain S.I. Mavrin, reported that the assigned peasants, whom he considered the leading force of the uprising, supplied the impostor with weapons and joined his troops, because the factory owners oppressed their assigned peasants, forcing the peasants to travel long distances to the factories and did not allow them engaged in arable farming and sold them food at inflated prices. Mavrin believed that drastic measures must be taken to prevent similar unrest in the future. Catherine wrote to G.A. Potemkin that Mavrin “what he says about the factory peasants is all very thorough, and I think that there is nothing else to do with them but to buy factories and, when they are state-owned, then provide the peasants with benefits.”. On May 19, 1779, a manifesto was published on the general rules for the use of assigned peasants in state-owned and private enterprises, which somewhat limited factory owners in the use of peasants assigned to factories, limited the working day and increased wages.

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

Research and collections of archival documents

• Pushkin A. S. “The History of Pugachev” (censored title - “The History of the Pugachev Rebellion”)
• Grot Y. K. Materials for the history of the Pugachev rebellion (Papers of Kara and Bibikov). St. Petersburg, 1862
• Dubrovin N.F. Pugachev and his accomplices. An episode from the reign of Empress Catherine II. 1773-1774 Based on unpublished sources. T. 1-3. St. Petersburg, type. N. I. Skorokhodova, 1884
• Pugachevism. 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 Pugachev archive. 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. Peasantry of Western Siberia in the Peasant War of 1773-75. // Questions of history. 1952. No. 11.
• Muratov Kh. I. Peasant War 1773-1775. in Russia. M., Voenizdat, 1954

Art

Pugachev's 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 duology: “Slaves of Freedom” and “Will Washed in 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 Revolt () - a historical film based on the works of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin “The Captain's Daughter” and “The Story of Pugachev”
• Salavat Yulaev () - feature film. Director Yakov Protazanov

Links

• Bolshakov L. N. Orenburg Pushkin Encyclopedia
• Vaganov M. Report of Major Mirzabek Vaganov on his mission to Nurali Khan. March-June 1774 / Report. V. Snezhnevsky // Russian antiquity, 1890. - T. 66. - No. 4. - P. 108-119. - Under the title: On the history of the Pugachev rebellion. In the steppe among the Kirghiz-Kaisaks March - 1774 - June.
• Military campaign journal of the commander of the punitive corps, Lieutenant Colonel I. Mikhelson, about 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. - P. 194-223.
• Gvozdikova I. Salavat Yulaev: historical portrait (“Belskie Prostori”, 2004)
• Diary of a member of the noble militia of the Kazan province “About Pugachev. His villainous actions"// Peasant War 1773-1775. in Russia. Documents from the collection of the State Historical Museum. - M.: Nauka, 1973. - P. 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) / Communication. V. I. Lamansky // Russian Archive, 1866. - Issue. 3. - Stb. 388-398.
• Peasant war led by Pugachev on the website History of the Orenburg region
• Peasant War led by Pugachev (TSB)
• Kulaginsky P. N. Pugachevites and Pugachev in Tresvyatsky-Elabuga in 1773-1775. / Message P. M. Makarov // Russian antiquity, 1882. - T. 33. - No. 2. - P. 291-312.
• Lopatina. Letter from Arzamas dated September 19, 1774 / Communication. A. I. Yazykov // Russian antiquity, 1874. - T. 10. - No. 7. - P. 617-618. - Under the title: Pugachevism.
• Mertvago D. B. Notes of Dmitry Borisovich Mertvago. 1790-1824. - M.: type. Gracheva and K, 1867. - XIV, 340 stb. - Adj. to the “Russian Archive” for 1867 (Issue 8-9).
• Definition of the Kazan nobility on the assembly of a cavalry corps of troops from their people against Pugachev// Readings at the Imperial Society of Russian History and Antiquities at Moscow University, 1864. - Book. 3/4. Dept. 5. - pp. 105-107.
• Oreus I.I. Ivan Ivanovich Mikhelson, winner of Pugachev. 1740-1807 // Russian antiquity, 1876. - T. 15. - No. 1. - P. 192-209.
• Pugachev sheets in Moscow. 1774 Materials// Russian antiquity, 1875. - T. 13. - No. 6. - P. 272-276. , No. 7. - P. 440-442.
• Pugachevshchina. New materials for the history of the Pugachev region// Russian antiquity, 1875. - T. 12. - No. 2. - P. 390-394; No. 3. - pp. 540-544.

• Collection of documents on the history of the Pugachev uprising on the website Vostlit.info
• Cards: Map of the lands of the Yaitsky army, the Orenburg region and the Southern Urals, Map of the Saratov province (maps of the early 20th century)

Notes

1. Petition of the Yaik army of the imp. Catherine II regarding the oppression of ordinary Cossacks
2. Petition of the Yaik Cossacks to the imp. Catherine II, 1772 January 15, 1772, text on the “Oriental Literature” website

The Pugachev uprising (Peasant War of 1773−1775) was a Cossack uprising that escalated into a full-scale peasant war led by Emelyan Pugachev. The main driving force behind the uprising were the Yaik Cossacks. Throughout the 18th century, they lost privileges and liberties. In 1772, an uprising broke out among the Yaik Cossacks; it was quickly suppressed, but protest sentiments did not fade away. The Cossacks were pushed to further struggle by Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev, a Don Cossack, a native of the Zimoveyskaya village. Finding himself in the Trans-Volga steppes in the fall of 1772, he stopped in the 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. Soon after this, 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 Yaitsky army was announced. From here a detachment of 80 Cossacks headed up the Yaik. Along the way, new supporters joined, 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, among those sent by Commandant Simonov to defend the town, went over to the side of the impostor. A repeated rebel attack on September 19 was also repulsed 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 set up camp near the Iletsk town. Here a circle was convened, at which the troops elected Andrei Ovchinnikov as the 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-Yaitsky distance of the Orenburg military line.

2 Capture of Tatishchevoy fortress

On September 27, the Cossacks appeared in front of the Tatishchevo fortress and began to convince the local garrison to surrender and join the army of “sovereign” Peter. The fortress garrison consisted of at least a thousand soldiers, and the commandant, Colonel Elagin, hoped to fight back with the help of artillery. The firefight continued throughout the day. A detachment of Orenburg Cossacks sent on a sortie under the command of 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 began 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 the replenishment of people, Pugachev’s detachment of two thousand began to pose a real threat to Orenburg.

3 Siege of Orenburg

The road to Orenburg was open, but Pugachev decided to head to Seitov Sloboda 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 greeted 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, Pugachev was joined by workers from the neighboring copper mines of the miners Tverdyshev and Myasnikov. On October 4, the rebel army headed to the Berdskaya settlement near Orenburg, whose residents also swore allegiance to the “resurrected” tsar. By this time, the impostor’s army numbered about 2,500 people, of which about 1,500 Yaik, Iletsk and Orenburg Cossacks, 300 soldiers, 500 Kargaly Tatars. The artillery of the rebels numbered several dozen guns.

Orenburg was a fairly powerful fortification. An earthen rampart was erected around the city, fortified with 10 bastions and 2 half-bastions. The height of the shaft reached 4 meters and above, and the width - 13 meters. On the outside of the rampart there was a ditch about 4 meters deep and 10 meters wide. The garrison of Orenburg consisted of about 3,000 people and about a hundred guns. On October 4, a detachment of 626 Yaitsky Cossacks, who remained loyal to the government, with 4 cannons, led by 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 away. Cossacks were sent to the ramparts and managed to convey Pugachev’s decree to the garrison troops with a call to lay down their arms and join the “sovereign.” In response, cannons from the city rampart began firing at 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. At the military council assembled on October 7, it was 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 soldiers and Cossacks going over to Pugachev’s side. The sortie carried out showed that the soldiers fought reluctantly; Major Naumov reported that he discovered “timidity and fear in his subordinates.”

The siege of Orenburg that began shackled the main forces of the rebels for six months, without bringing military success to either side. On October 12, a second sortie was made by Naumov’s detachment, but successful artillery operations under the command of Chumakov helped repulse the attack. Due to the onset of frost, Pugachev’s army moved the camp to Berdskaya Sloboda. On October 22 the assault was launched; The 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, fortresses along the Samara River passed into the hands of the rebels - Perevolotskaya, Novosergievskaya, Totskaya, Sorochinskaya, and at the beginning of November - the Buzulukskaya fortress.

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 militia, headed towards Orenburg. On November 7, near the village of Yuzeeva, 98 versts from Orenburg, detachments of Pugachev atamans Ovchinnikov and Zarubin-Chika attacked the vanguard of the Kara corps and, after a three-day battle, forced it to retreat back to Kazan. On November 13, a detachment of Colonel Chernyshev was captured near Orenburg, numbering up to 1,100 Cossacks, 600-700 soldiers, 500 Kalmyks, 15 guns and a huge convoy. Realizing that instead of a prestigious victory over the rebels, he could receive 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 victory had a great impression on the peasantry and Cossacks, increasing their influx into the ranks of the rebels.

The situation in besieged Orenburg became critical by January 1774, and 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 foray to the Berdskaya settlement on January 13 to lift the siege. But the unexpected attack did not happen; the Cossack patrols managed to raise the alarm. The atamans who remained in the camp led their troops to the ravine that surrounded the Berdskaya settlement and served as a natural line of defense. The Orenburg corps were forced to fight in unfavorable conditions and suffered a severe defeat. With heavy losses, abandoning cannons, weapons, ammunition and ammunition, the half-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 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 in addition to them - all garrisons and military units located in the uprising zone, and remnants of Kara's corps. Bibikov arrived in Kazan on December 25, 1773, and troops immediately began moving toward Samara, Orenburg, Ufa, Menzelinsk, and Kungur, besieged by the Pugachevites. Having received information about this, Pugachev decided to withdraw the main forces from Orenburg, effectively lifting the siege.

4 Siege of the fortress of St. Michael the Archangel Cathedral

In December 1773, Pugachev sent ataman Mikhail Tolkachev with his decrees to the rulers of the Kazakh Junior Zhuz, Nurali Khan and Sultan Dusali, with a call to join his army, but the khan decided to wait for developments; only the riders 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 headed with them to the Yaitsky town, collecting guns, ammunition and provisions in the associated 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 - Kureni. Most of the Cossacks greeted their comrades and joined Tolkachev’s detachment, but the Cossacks of the senior side, the soldiers of the garrison led by Lieutenant Colonel Simonov and Captain Krylov, locked themselves in the “retransference” - the fortress of the St. Michael the Archangel 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 Yaitsky town. He took over the leadership of the protracted siege of the city fortress of the Archangel Cathedral, but after a failed 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 take possession of the besieged fortress. On February 19, a mine explosion blew up and destroyed the bell tower of St. Michael's Cathedral, but the garrison each time managed to repel the attacks of the besiegers.

5 Assault on the Magnetic Fortress

On April 9, 1774, the commander of military operations against Pugachev, Bibikov, died. After him, Catherine II entrusted the command of the troops to Lieutenant General F. F. Shcherbatov. Offended that he was not appointed to the post of commander of the troops, having sent small teams to nearby fortresses and villages to carry out investigations and punishments, General Golitsyn with the main forces of his corps stayed in Orenburg for three months. 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 detachment of five thousand approached the Magnetic Fortress. By this time, the rebel detachment consisted mainly of weakly armed factory peasants and a small number of personal egg guards under the command of Myasnikov; the detachment did not have a single cannon. The start of the assault on Magnitnaya was unsuccessful, about 500 people died in the battle, Pugachev himself was wounded in his right hand. Having withdrawn the troops from the fortress and discussed the situation, the rebels, under the cover of the darkness of the night, made a new attempt and were able to break into the fortress and capture it. 10 cannons, rifles, and ammunition were taken as trophies.

6 Battle for Kazan

At the beginning of 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 west. On June 14, the vanguard of his army under the command of Ivan Beloborodov and Salavat Yulaev approached the Kama town of Ose and blocked the city fortress. Four days later, Pugachev’s main forces arrived here and began 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 captured Osa, Pugachev transported the army across the Kama, took the Votkinsk and Izhevsk factories, Elabuga, Sarapul, Menzelinsk, Agryz, Zainsk, Mamadysh and other cities and fortresses along the way, and in early 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 main areas of the city were taken, the garrison remaining in the city locked itself in the Kazan Kremlin and prepared for a siege. A strong fire began in the city, in addition, Pugachev received news of the approach of Mikhelson’s troops, who were following on his heels from 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 July 15. Pugachev's army numbered 25 thousand people, but most of them were weakly 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 struck first of all at 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 of the Solenikova gang

On July 20, Pugachev entered Kurmysh, on the 23rd he freely entered Alatyr, after which he headed towards Saransk. On July 28, a decree on freedom for peasants was read out in the central square of Saransk, and supplies of salt and bread were distributed to residents. On July 31, the same solemn meeting awaited Pugachev in Penza. The decrees caused numerous peasant revolts in the Volga region.

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

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

Pugachev with a detachment of Cossacks fled to Uzeni, 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 making it easier to escape the pursuit, they divided the detachment so as to separate the Cossacks loyal to Pugachev along with Ataman Perfilyev. On September 8, near the Bolshoy Uzen River, they pounced and tied up Pugachev, after which Chumakov and Tvorogov went to Yaitsky town, where on September 11 they announced the capture of the impostor. Having received promises of pardon, they notified their accomplices, and on September 15 they brought Pugachev to the Yaitsky town.

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

In the fall of 1773, Pugachev's uprising broke out. To this day, the events of those years have not revealed all their secrets. What was it: a Cossack revolt, a peasant uprising or Civil War?

Peter III

History is written by the winners. The history of the Pugachev uprising is still considered a controversial moment in Russian history. According to the official version, Pugachev and Peter III - different people, they had neither physiognomic similarity nor similarity of character, their upbringing was also different. However, some historians are still trying to prove the version that Pugachev and Emperor Peter are the same person. The story of Emelka, a fugitive Cossack, was written by order 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 head of the army was the emperor himself, no more and no less. According to sources, the decision to call himself Peter III did not come to Pugachev by chance. In principle, he loved to mystify. Even in the army, for example, boasting about his saber, he claimed that Peter I had given it to him. It is not known for certain whose idea was to assign the name, but the fact that it was strategically advantageous is obvious. The people would not have followed the runaway Cossack, but they would have followed 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 increasing oppression from the state and lost privileges. In 1754, by decree of Elizabeth, a monopoly on salt was introduced. This step 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 staged uprisings, which over and over again became more massive and coordinated.

Pugachev's initiative fell on fertile ground. The peasants did take an active part in the campaigns of Pugachev’s army, but they defended their interests and solved their problems: they slaughtered landowners, burned estates, but, as a rule, they did not go further than their plots. The connection of the peasantry to their land is a very strong thing. After Pugachev read out a manifesto on freedom in Saransk, many peasants joined him, they turned Pugachev’s campaign across the Volga region into a triumphal procession, with bells ringing, the blessing of the village priest and bread and salt in every new village, village, town. But weakly armed, tied to their land, they could not ensure long-term triumph for the Pugachev uprising. In addition, it should be noted that Pugachev did not control 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 issue

The Pugachev uprising became the most massive uprising in the entire history of Russia (not counting the 1917 revolution). Carrying out such a rebellion could not take place in a vacuum. Raising thousands and thousands of people into a long-term armed rebellion is not holding a rally; this requires resources, and considerable resources. The question is: 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 was at war at that time. Secondly, help to France; During that historical period, she acted as the main opponent of the growing Russian Empire. From the correspondence of the French residencies in Vienna and Constantinople, the figure of an experienced officer of the Navarre Regiment emerges, 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 posed a danger. There was a war with Turkey - forces were transferred from the fronts to fight Pugachev. As a result, Russia had to end the war on unfavorable terms. This 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 were afraid. Seven regiments were assembled in the old capital, Governor-General Volkonsky ordered cannons to be placed near his house, “cleansing operations” were carried out among the residents of Moscow, and all sympathizers of the rebellious Cossack were seized.

Finally, in August 1774, Lieutenant General Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov, at that time already one of the most successful Russian generals, was recalled from the 1st Army, which was located in the Danube principalities. Panin entrusted Suvorov with command of the troops that were supposed to defeat the main Pugachev army in the Volga region. Moscow “gave its breath”, 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, Don Cossacks into his ranks. The Yaik Cossacks, who had lost many of their atamans in battle, were tired and began to grumble. Pugachev’s “surrender” was brewing.

Salavat Yulaev

The memory of the Pugachev uprising is stored not only in the archives, but also in toponyms and in the memory of the people. To this day, Salavat Yulaev is considered the hero of Bashkiria. One of the strongest hockey teams in Russia bears the name of this extraordinary man. His story is amazing. Salavat became " right hand“Pugachev, when he was not 20 years old, took part in all the major battles of the uprising, Pugachev awarded his young assistant the rank of brigadier general. Salavat ended up in Pugachev’s army with his father. Together with his father, he was captured, sent to Moscow, and then into eternal exile in the Baltic city of Rogervik. Salavat lived here until his death in 1800. He was not only an extraordinary warrior, but also a good poet who left a solid literary legacy.

Suvorov

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

A mystery shrouded in darkness

After suppressing the rebellion and executing the main participants in the uprising, Catherine ordered the destruction of all facts about the peasant war. The village in which Pugachev was born was moved and renamed, Yaik was 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” while still in Butyrka prison. The authorities were afraid of provocations. Whether this is true or not can no longer be proven. Half a century after those events, Pushkin could not “find the ends”; we can only wait for new research.