The history of the uprising of Stepan Razin. Uprising led by Stepan Razin

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

The official version is this. The peasants, together with the Cossacks, rebelled against the landowners and the tsar. The rebellion lasted four long years, covering large territories of imperial Russia, but was nevertheless suppressed through the efforts of the authorities.

What do we know today about Stepan Timofeevich Razin?

Stepan Razin, like Emelyan Pugachev, was originally from the Zimoveyskaya village. The original documents of the Razinites who lost this war have hardly survived. Officials believe that only 6-7 of them survived. But historians themselves say that of these 6-7 documents, only one can be considered an original, although it is extremely doubtful and more like a draft. And no one doubts that this document was drawn up not by Razin himself, but by his associates who were located far from his main headquarters on the Volga.

Russian historian V.I. Buganov, in his work “Razin and the Razins,” referring to a multi-volume collection of academic documents about the Razin uprising, wrote that the vast majority of these documents came from the Romanov government camp. Hence the suppression of facts, bias in their coverage, and even outright lies.

What did the rebels demand from the rulers?

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

This year, in October 179, on the 15th day, by order of the great sovereign and according to his letter, the great sovereign, we, the great Don army, went out from the Don to him, the great sovereign, to serve him, so that we, these traitorous boyars, would not perish completely from them.

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

Who was Stepan Razin?

Let's assume that Stepan Razin was not just a Cossack ataman, but a governor of the sovereign, but not Alexei Romanov. How can this be? After the great turmoil and the Romanovs coming to power in Muscovy, the southern part of Russia with its capital in Astrakhan did not swear allegiance to the invaders. The governor of the Astrakhan king was Stepan Timofeevich. Presumably, the Astrakhan ruler was from the family of Cherkasy princes. It is impossible to name him today due to the total distortion of history on the orders of the Romanovs, but one can assume...

The Cherkasy people were from old Russian-Ardyn families and were descendants of Egyptian sultans. This is reflected on the coat of arms of the Cherkassy family. It is known that from 1380 to 1717 Circassian sultans ruled in Egypt. Today, historical Cherkassy is mistakenly placed in the North Caucasus, adding that at the end of the 16th century. this name disappears from the historical arena. But it is well known that in Russia until the 18th century. The word “Cherkassy” was used to describe the Cossacks. As for the presence of one of the Cherkassy princes in Razin’s troops, this can be confirmed. Even in Romanov’s processing, history brings to us information that in Razin’s army there was a certain Alexey Grigorievich Cherkashenin, one of the Cossack atamans, the sworn brother of Stepan Razin. Perhaps we are talking about Prince Grigory Suncheleevich of Cherkassy, ​​who served as a governor in Astrakhan before the start of the Razin War, but after the victory of the Romanovs he was killed in his estate in 1672.

A turning point in the war.

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

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

Historians present all these large-scale events only as the suppression of a peasant revolt. This version began to be actively implemented by the Romanovs immediately after their victory. Special certificates were prepared, the so-called. “sovereign exemplary”, which set out the official version of the Razin uprising. It was ordered to read the letter in the field at the command hut more than once. But if the four-year confrontation was just a rebellion of the mob, then most of the country was rebelling against the Romanovs.

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

The end of the war and the execution of Razin.

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

Yakov Reitenfels, an eyewitness to Razin's execution, reports:

In order to prevent unrest, which the tsar feared, the square where the criminal was punished was, by order of the tsar, surrounded by a triple row of the most devoted soldiers. And only foreigners were allowed into the middle of the fenced area. And at crossroads throughout the city there were detachments of troops.

The Romanovs made a lot of efforts to discover and destroy objectionable documents from the Razin side. This fact speaks volumes about how carefully they were searched for. During interrogation, Frol (Razin’s younger brother) testified that Razin buried a jug with documents on an island in the Don River, on a tract, in a hole under a willow tree. Romanov's troops shoveled the entire island, but found nothing. Frol was executed only a few years later, probably in an attempt to get more accurate information about the documents from him.

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

PS: The so-called regiments of the new system, introduced by Romanov Alexei the Quiet and were staffed by Western European officers. It was they who would subsequently place Peter I on the throne and suppress the “rebellion” of the Streltsy. And Pugachev’s uprising will be suspiciously reminiscent of Stepan Razin’s war...

The uprising led by Stepan Razin is a war in Russia between the troops of peasants and Cossacks with the tsarist troops. It ended in the defeat of the rebels.

Causes.

1) The final enslavement of the peasantry;

2) Increase in taxes and duties of the lower social classes;

3) The desire of the authorities to limit the Cossack freemen;

4) Accumulation of poor “golutvenny” Cossacks and fugitive peasantry on the Don.

Background. The uprising of Stepan Razin is often attributed to the so-called “Campaign for Zipuns” (1667-1669) - the campaign of the rebels “for booty”. Razin's detachment blocked the Volga and thereby blocked the most important economic artery of Russia. During this period, Razin's troops captured Russian and Persian merchant ships.

Preparation. Returning from the “Campaign for zipuns,” Razin was with his army in Astrakhan and Tsaritsyn. There he gained the love of the townspeople. After the campaign, the poor began to come to him in crowds and he gathered a considerable army.

Hostilities. In the spring of 1670, the second period of the uprising began, that is, the war itself. From this moment, and not from 1667, the beginning of the uprising is usually counted. The Razins captured Tsaritsyn and approached Astrakhan, which the townspeople surrendered to them. There they executed the governor and nobles and organized their own government led by Vasily Us and Fyodor Sheludyak.

Battle of Tsaritsyn. Stepan Razin gathered troops. Then he went to Tsaritsyn. He surrounded the city. Then he left Vasily Us in command of the army, and he himself with a small detachment went to the Tatar settlements, where they voluntarily gave him the cattle that Razin needed to feed the army. In Tsaritsyn, meanwhile, residents experienced a shortage of water, and Tsaritsyn’s livestock were cut off from the grass and could soon begin to starve. The Razins, meanwhile, sent their people to the walls and told the archers that Ivan Lopatin’s archers, who were supposed to come to the aid of Tsaritsyn, were going to slaughter the Tsaritsyns and Tsaritsyn archers, and then leave with the Tsaritsyn governor, Timofey Turgenev, near Saratov. They said they had intercepted their messenger. The archers believed and spread this news throughout the city in secret from the governor. Then the governor sent several townspeople to negotiate with the Razins. He hoped that the rebels would be allowed to go to the Volga and take water from there, but those who came to the negotiations told the Razins that they had prepared a riot and agreed on the time of its start. The rioters gathered into a crowd, rushed to the gate and knocked down the locks. The archers fired at them from the walls, but when the rioters opened the gates and the Razinites burst into the city, the archers surrendered. The city was captured. Timofey Turgenev with his nephew and devoted archers locked himself in the tower. Then Razin returned with the cattle. Under his leadership the tower was taken. The governor behaved rudely with Razin and was drowned in the Volga along with his nephew, loyal archers, and nobles.

The battle with the archers of Ivan Lopatin. Ivan Lopatin led a thousand archers to Tsaritsyn. His last stop was Money Island, which was located on the Volga, north of Tsaritsyn. Lopatin was sure that Razin did not know his location, and therefore did not post sentries. In the midst of the halt, the Razins attacked him. They approached from both banks of the river and began shooting at the Lopatin residents. They boarded the boats in disarray and began to row towards Tsaritsyn. All along the way they were fired upon by Razin’s ambush detachments. Having suffered heavy losses, they sailed to the walls of the city. The Razins started shooting from them. The Sagittarius surrendered. Razin drowned most of the commanders, and made the spared and ordinary archers rower-prisoners.

Battle for Kamyshin. Several dozen Razin Cossacks dressed as merchants and entered Kamyshin. At the appointed hour, the Razintsi approached the city. Meanwhile, those who entered killed the guards of one of the city gates, opened them, the main forces burst through them into the city and took it. Streltsy, nobles, and the governor were executed. Residents were told to pack everything they needed and leave the city. When the city was empty, the Razintsi plundered it and then burned it.

Trip to Astrakhan. A military council was held in Tsaritsyn. There they decided to go to Astrakhan. In Astrakhan, the archers were positive towards Razin, this mood was fueled by anger at the authorities, who paid their salaries late. The news that Razin was marching on the city frightened the city authorities. The Astrakhan fleet was sent against the rebels. However, when meeting with the rebels, the archers tied up the fleet commanders and went over to Razin’s side. Then the Cossacks decided the fate of their superiors. Prince Semyon Lvov was spared, and the rest were drowned. Then the Razins approached Astrakhan. At night the Razins attacked the city. At the same time, an uprising of the archers and the poor broke out there. The city fell. Then the rebels carried out their executions, introduced a Cossack regime in the city and went to the Middle Volga region with the goal of reaching Moscow.

March to Moscow.

After this, the population of the Middle Volga region (Saratov, Samara, Penza), as well as the Chuvash, Mari, Tatars, and Mordovians freely went over to Razin’s side. This success was facilitated by the fact that Razin declared everyone who came over to his side a free person. Near Samara, Razin announced that Patriarch Nikon and Tsarevich Alexei Alekseevich were coming with him. This further increased the influx of poor people into his ranks. All along the road, the Razintsi sent letters to various regions of Rus' calling for an uprising. They called such letters charming.

In September 1670, the Razins laid siege to Simbirsk, but were unable to take it. Government troops led by Prince Yu. A. Dolgorukov moved towards Razin. A month after the start of the siege, the tsarist troops defeated the rebels, and the seriously wounded Razin’s associates took him to the Don. Fearing reprisals, the Cossack elite, led by military ataman Kornil Yakovlev, handed Razin over to the authorities. In June 1671 he was quartered in Moscow; brother Frol was presumably executed on the same day.

Despite the execution of their leader, the Razins continued to defend themselves and were able to hold Astrakhan until November 1671.

Results. The scale of the reprisal against the rebels was enormous; in some cities more than 11 thousand people were executed. The Razins did not achieve their goal: the destruction of the nobles and serfdom. But the uprising of Stepan Razin showed that Russian society was split.

(if you need brief presentation of the events of Razin’s uprising, read the article “Razin’s Movement” from the Textbook of Russian History by Academician S. F. Platonov)

Conditions that prepared the way for Razin's rebellion

In 1670–1671, Russia was shocked by the terrible rebellion of Stepan Razin. The long struggle with Poland for Little Russia weakened the forces of the Moscow state on its other outskirts and gave scope to freemen and bandits. They especially intensified on the Volga, where free Cossack gangs, which were replenished by hunters from the Don, had long been rampant. Burdensome taxes, duties and increasing serfdom with oppression of governors and officials caused the escape of tax-paying people. The most energetic fled to the Cossacks on the Don, which did not hand over the fugitives. These fugitives made up for the most part the poor part of the Cossacks on the Don, the so-called golutvennaya. It was from the Don that Stenka Razin’s uprising began. After the Treaty of Andrusovo, which left Trans-Dnieper Ukraine to the Poles, the resettlement of Little Russian Cossacks from there to the Moscow state intensified. Many of them went to the Don, and there these Cherkassy or “Khokhlachi” significantly increased the number of Golutvens. For the restless freemen, thirsty for prey, at that time the main exit to the Azov and Black Seas was difficult, where the road was blocked by Turkish fortifications, Tatars and homely Cossacks, acting on orders from Moscow, which did not want to bring the vengeance of the Turks and Tatars on its southern Ukraine. For the Don Golyt, whose ataman Razin later became, the Volga remained for the extraction of zipuns, from which it was possible to go to the Caspian Sea; and the populated Persian and Caucasian shores were less protected than the Turkish ones on the Black Sea.

Stepan Razin. English engraving from the 17th century

By the spring of 1667, a large movement occurred on the Don among the influx of fugitive slaves and peasants from the southwestern Ukraine; the latter arrived with their wives and children and thereby increased the already existing shortage of food here. As usually happens in such cases, the agitating elements were waiting only for a suitable leader to gather around him and go where he indicated. Such a leader appeared in the person of the Don Cossack Stenka Razin.

Personality of Stepan Razin

If you believe some foreign news, then Razin was driven by a feeling of revenge that arose as a result of the fact that his brother, who served in Ukraine in the army of Prince Yuri Dolgoruky, was sentenced by the governor to hang for his willful departure. But there is not a word about this case in Russian sources. Some of them report that Razin was once a messenger from the Don Army to the Kalmyks with an invitation to go together against the Crimeans, and that then he visited Moscow, from where he went on pilgrimage to Solovki. By all indications, this is a man no longer young, experienced, with an average height, distinguished by an athletic build and indestructible health. Possessing remarkable abilities, resourcefulness, audacity and energy, Razin had precisely those qualities that most captivate a rude, senseless crowd, and having become its leader, and to its greater pleasure, he was not slow in unbridling his instincts of a predatory beast, showing bloodthirsty ferocity and so captivate the imagination of ordinary people that it turned the daring Cossack robber into a national hero. Of course, the main reason for such fame was the fact that Razin managed to present himself as a friend of the common people and an enemy of the unloved boyar and noble class; the people saw in him a living protest against serfdom and all sorts of bureaucratic lies.

Razin's speech from the Don (1667)

So, in the spring of 1667, Stepan Razin gathered a gang of golutvens and first tried to sail on plows into the Sea of ​​Azov. The military chieftain at that time was Kornilo Yakovlev, also a remarkable man; The homely Cossacks of the Cherkasy town led by him, who did not want to incur the vengeance of the Azov Turks and Tatars, detained the gang in the lower reaches of the Don. Then the Razins turned back and rowed up. The military authorities sent pursuit of her; but the thieves' Cossacks managed to get to those places where the Don approaches the Volga; Having plundered the surrounding towns and the merchants they met, they set up a camp on high hillocks between Panshin and Kachalinsky towns, protected by high hollow water. In Panshin, Razin forced the local chieftain to supply them with weapons, gunpowder, lead and other supplies. Golutvens from different Don towns began to approach them here, so that Razin’s gang already numbered up to 1,000 people. The nearest city on the Volga was Tsaritsyn. Kornilo Yakovlev hastened to notify the Tsaritsyn governor Andrei Unkovsky about the campaign of the thieves' Cossacks up the Don and about Razin's obvious intention to cross to the Volga. Unkovsky first sent several archers to Panshin to check on these Cossacks, then he sent the cathedral priest and the monastery elder to them to convince them to stop stealing and return to their places; but those sent for big water did not reach the thieves’ camp, but only brought news from Panshin that Razin’s Cossacks were going to go to the Caspian Sea, settle in the Yaitsky town and from there raid the Tarkhov shamkhal Surkai. Meanwhile, from Tsaritsyn all these matters were reported to Moscow and Astrakhan with a request to send military men as reinforcements so that a search could be carried out against Razin’s thieves. From Moscow they sent royal letters to the Volga cities, mainly to Astrakhan, and also to the Terek, so that the governors would “live with great care from the thieving Cossacks,” so that they would “inquire about them by all means,” so that on the Volga and its tributaries they would not be allowed steal, don’t let them into the sea, and fix the fishery on them. About everything that concerned Razin, the governors must immediately write to the great sovereign and boyar Prince Yuri Alekseevich Dolgorukov at the order of the Kazan Palace (where the middle and lower Volga region was in charge) and communicate the news to each other. The Volga gangs and uchugs (fish factories) were also ordered to live with great care.

The Astrakhan governors, Prince Ivan Andreevich Khilkov, Buturlin and Bezobrazov, were replaced. Princes were appointed in their place: boyar Iv. Sem. Prozorovsky, steward Mikh. Sem. Prozorovsky and Sem. Iv. Lviv. In order to fight against Razin, reinforcements of four rifle orders and a number of soldiers with cannons and military shells were sent with them; the still-serving foot soldiers were ordered to go from Simbirsk and other cities of the Saransk-Simbirsk abatis line, from Samara and Saratov.

But while the letters were being written and military measures were slowly being carried out, the thieving Cossacks were already doing their job.

The first robberies of Razin on the Volga and Yaik (1667)

Razin moved with his gang to the Volga, and his first exploit was an attack on a large ship caravan that was sailing to Astrakhan with exiles and government grain; In addition to the state plows, there were plows of the patriarch, the famous Moscow guest Shorin and some other private individuals. The caravan was accompanied by a rifle detachment. But the archers did not offer any resistance to the more numerous Cossacks and betrayed their commander, whom Razin ordered to be killed. Shorinsky's clerk and other shipowners were hacked to death or hanged. The exiles were released. Razin announced that he was going against the boyars and the rich for the poor and ordinary people. Sagittarius and laborers or rednecks joined his gang. Having thus increased his strength and taken all the weapons and food supplies that were on the caravan, Razin sailed down the Volga. When the Cossacks caught up with Tsaritsyn, guns were pointed at them from the city, but for some reason not a single one fired; A legend immediately developed that Razin managed to speak the weapon, so that neither the saber nor the arquebus could take it. Frightened by this, Voivode Unkovsky did not have time to refuse when the ataman sent his captain to him demanding blacksmith supplies. Then Razin, without wasting time, sailed on his plows past Black Yar, entered Buzan, one of the branches of the Volga, and, bypassing Astrakhan, entered the Caspian Sea near Krasny Yar. Without touching this city, Razin disappeared into the labyrinth of coastal islands; then, heading to the northeast, he entered the mouth of the Yaik and captured the poorly guarded town of Yaik, where he already had like-minded people. The streltsy garrison, recruited from Astrakhan, did not resist here either; part of it stuck to the Cossack gang. Razin's men cut off the heads of the commanders; those archers who did not want to stay and were released to Astrakhan, then, overtaken by the Cossacks sent in pursuit, were subjected to a barbaric beating; however, some of them managed to hide in the reeds. In general, Razin and his comrades from the very beginning showed themselves to be wild, bloodthirsty monsters, for whom there were no human or Christian rules or laws.

Having settled in the Yaitsky town, the thieving Cossacks from there launched a predatory raid to the mouths of the Volga and Terek, destroyed the uluses of the Yedisan Tatars, plundered several ships at sea and, returning with loot, entered into bargaining with the neighboring Kalmyks, from whom they exchanged cattle and other food supplies.

In vain, the Astrakhan governors, the former Khilkov and the new Prozorovsky, sent letters to Razin’s gang admonishing them to stop stealing and confess, and also tried to act in military detachments and arm the Kalmyk horde against them. The Cossacks laughed at the admonitions, hanged and drowned the envoys; small military detachments returned beaten or pestered the Cossacks; and the Kalmyk horde, having stood for some time near the Yaitsky town, moved away from it.

Razin's robberies in Persia (1668–1669)

Razin spent the winter in this town; and in March of the following 1668, he and his troops sailed to the Persian shores. News of his successes attracted new gangs of golutvens from the Don. So Ataman Seryozhka Krivoy made his way along the Volga with several hundred comrades, on Buzan he beat the rifle detachment that blocked his path and went out to sea. Alyoshka the Convict with mounted Cossacks and the Cossack Boba with the Khokhlachs came from Kuma. With the arrival of these reinforcements, Razin's forces increased to several thousand people, and with great ferocity he destroyed the coastal Tatar cities and villages from Derbent and Baku to Rasht. Here Razin entered into negotiations, and even offered his services to the Shah if he was given land for settlement. During these negotiations, the cunning Persians took advantage of the carelessness and drunkenness of the Cossacks and inflicted considerable damage on them with an unexpected attack. Razin sailed from Rasht and, with the help of treachery, took out his anger on the gullible inhabitants of Farabant. They agreed to let the Cossacks in to carry out trade, and for several days this trade was carried out peacefully. Suddenly Razin gave the agreed sign, namely, he straightened his hat on his head. The Cossacks, like animals, rushed at the inhabitants and committed a terrible massacre; They captured a large town, plundered the city and burned the Shah's pleasure palaces. With huge booty and captives, Razin’s gang settled on one island, set up a fortified town there and wintered there. At their invitation, the Persians came here to exchange their relatives from captivity for Christian slaves. The Cossacks gave one Persian for three or four Christians. This shows what a large number of prisoners were sold to Persia by the Caucasian Tatars and Circassians, who plundered the Christian neighboring regions. This liberation of many Christians from captivity gave Stenka Razin and his Cossacks a reason to boast that they were fighting Muslims for faith and freedom.

Stepan Razin. Painting by B. Kustodiev, 1918

In the spring of 1669, Razin's Cossacks launched a raid on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea and plundered Turkmen villages. In this raid they lost one of the most daring atamans, Seryozhka Krivoy. After that, the Razins strengthened themselves on Pig Island and from here launched raids on the neighboring shores to get food supplies. Meanwhile, even in winter, the Persians began to gather an army and prepare ships against the Cossacks. In the summer, this army attacked Razin in the amount of almost 4,000 people, under the command of Meneda Khan. But it met desperate resistance and was completely defeated; the khan escaped with several ships; and his son and daughter were captured. It is not entirely clear why this daughter needed to take part in the campaign. Hasn't it been captured before? It is only known that Razin took the beauty as his concubine. In this desperate battle, the Cossacks lost many comrades; further stay on the island became unsafe: the Persians could return in greater numbers; Moreover, due to the lack of fresh water, illness and mortality began in Razin’s gang. The Cossacks duvan (divided) the stolen goods among themselves so many times that they were burdened with booty; and the neighboring banks were so devastated that they no longer provided bait for robbery.

I had to think about returning to my native Don.

Razin's Cossacks in Astrakhan after the Persian campaign (1669)

For this return there were two routes: open, but shallow, along the Kuma and wide, but not free, along the Volga. Leaving the first in case of need, Razin tried to go second and swam to the Volga mouth. But even here the Cossacks did not change their habits. Firstly, Razin’s gang plundered the Uchug Basargu, which belonged to the Astrakhan Metropolitan, and took fish, caviar, seines, hooks and other fishing gear there; and then attacked two Persian merchant beads, going to Astrakhan with goods under the protection of Terek archers; on one of them were expensive horses (argamaks), sent by the Shah as a gift to the Moscow Tsar. Razin took the entire cargo; the merchant owner fled with the archers to Astrakhan; and his son Sekhambet was captured. Fugitives from the metropolitan uchug and from the Persian beads brought the Astrakhan governors the news of the approach of the thieving Cossacks. This was at the beginning of August.

Prince Prozorovsky immediately sent his comrade Prince Sem against them. Iv. Lvov with four thousand archers on thirty-six plows. Razin's Cossacks, camped on the island of Four Hills, seeing a strong flotilla sailing from the Volga, did not dare to resist and ran into the open sea. The governor chased them until his rowers became tired. Then he sent the Cossacks a royal letter of admonition. Razin stopped and entered into negotiations. The two elected Cossacks he sent beat with their foreheads from the entire army so that the great sovereign would forgive the guilty, and for that they would serve him where he indicated and lay their heads for him. The elected officials agreed and swore an oath that Razin’s Cossacks would hand over the cannons they captured on the Volga ships, in the Yaitsky town and in Muslim cities, they would release the servicemen and their captives who were with them, and they would hand over the plows to Tsaritsyn, from where they would drag them to the Don with their spoils. good. After that, Prince Lvov sailed to Astrakhan, and the Cossack plows sailed after him. The latter were let past the city and placed at the Boldinsky mouth. On August 25, Razin with several atamans and Cossacks came to the Prikaznaya hut, where the governor, Prince Prozorovsky, was meeting; He laid his leader's bully in front of him, beat his forehead on the sovereign's name for leave to the Don and asked permission to send six elected Cossacks to Moscow. The villain Razin, if necessary, knew how to pretend and pass himself off as a devoted servant of the sovereign. And he treated the covetous governors with generous gifts. Razin's Cossacks were far from fulfilling the conditions concluded with Prince Lvov. They gave out only one half of the guns, and kept the other half, under the pretext of defending the road in the steppes from Tatar attacks. They handed over very few captured Persians, and forced the rest to ransom; they also did not give up the merchant goods looted with Persian beads. Against the insistence of the governor, Razin said that the prisoners and goods were taken by the saber and had already been blown (divided), they could not be given back in any way. In the same way, Razin did not allow clerks and clerks to register the Cossack army, saying that it was “not customary” to do this either on the Don or on the Yaik . In vain did the relatives and fellow countrymen of the captured Persians approach the governors, naturally believing that since Razin’s Cossacks were in the hands of the tsarist government, they should release the captives and return the looted property. The governors refused to use force, citing the merciful royal letter, and only allowed the prisoners to be ransomed duty-free. In general, the princes Prozorovsky and Lvov showed a different kind of indulgence to the Cossacks and treated Razin too kindly, as if experiencing the charm of his loud fame and outstanding personality; which further confirmed the rumors spreading among the people about the magical properties of the ataman of the Cossack golytba.

The ten-day stay of the thieves' Cossacks near Astrakhan was some kind of celebration for them and for the inhabitants. Razin's Cossacks traded in looted goods, and local merchants bought silk fabrics, gold and silver items, pearls and precious stones from them for next to nothing. Cossacks walked around in velvet caftans and hats, richly decorated with pearls and semi-precious stones. The atamans generously paid for everything with gold and silver money. Famous citizens, the governors themselves, who profited a lot from the Cossack booty, treated Razin or accepted treats from him. Crowds of curious people went to see the Cossack plows, filled with all sorts of goodness. Razin behaved proudly and commandingly; Cossacks and ordinary people called him father or father and bowed to him to the ground. Legends and songs began to take shape about him then. They said, for example, that on Razin’s ship, which was called “Falcon,” the ropes were made of silk and the sails were made of expensive materials.

Razin drowns a Persian princess in the Volga

If you believe foreign news, the following incident occurred at this exact time. One day Razin was enjoying himself and riding along the river with his comrades. Suddenly the drunken ataman turned to Mother Volga, saying that she had carried the young man nicely, but he had not yet thanked her in any way; then the monster grabbed the Persian beauty sitting next to him, the above-mentioned khan’s daughter, luxuriously dressed, and threw her into the water. The Astrakhan archers and common people, of course, not without envy looked at Razin’s Cossacks, ringing in gold, richly dressed and walking widely, and they were imbued with special respect and fear for their ataman. These feelings played an important role in subsequent events. It was in vain that the Astrakhan governors, short-sighted and greedy for gifts, wrote to Moscow that they did not take strict measures against the Cossacks for fear that bloodshed would not occur and that many other people would not resort to theft. With their indulgence and weakness, they contributed precisely to what they feared.

Stenka Razin throws the Persian princess into the Volga. Western European engraving 1681

Razintsy in Tsaritsyn

On September 4, the Cossacks sailed from Astrakhan to Tsaritsyn, equipped with river plows and escorted by the resident Plokhovo; from Tsaritsyn to Panshin they were to be escorted by a small streltsy detachment. It goes without saying that, finding themselves in complete freedom, they were not slow to return to their willful and predatory habits. In Tsaritsyn, Razin played the role of a strict judge and, following a complaint from the Don Cossacks who bought salt here for voivodeship extortion, forced Unkovsky to pay them for the losses. The same governor, by order from Astrakhan, ordered to sell wine at twice the price in order to keep the Cossacks from drunkenness. But the Cossacks almost killed him, and he saved himself by hiding somewhere. Razin ordered the convicts to be released from prison and a merchant's plow sailing along the Volga to be robbed. Several servicemen and fugitives joined his gang. Plokhovo demanded their extradition in vain. Prozorovsky sent a special person from Astrakhan with the same demand. Razin answered with the usual “it was not customary” for the Cossacks to extradite anyone; and he shouted with rage at the convictions and threats of the envoy Prozorovsky, how dare he come with such speeches. “Tell your commander that he is a fool and a coward! I am stronger than him and will show that I am not afraid not only of him, but also of the one who is taller! I will settle accounts with them and teach them how to talk to me!” With these and other words, he released the messenger, who no longer expected to emerge alive from the hands of the frantic chieftain. And at this time, Razin’s elected Cossacks, whom he sent to Moscow, finished off their guilt, received royal forgiveness and were sent to Astrakhan for service. But on the way they attacked the guides, seized their horses and rode off across the steppe to the Don.

Razin's return to the Don

Having reached the Don, Razin did not even think of disbanding his gang. He settled on an island between the towns of Kagalnik and Vedernikov, surrounded his camp with an earthen rampart and stayed here for the winter. He also summoned his wife and brother Frolka from Cherkassk. Razin sent many of his Cossacks home to meet with relatives and to pay debts; for, going to get the zipuns, the golutvennye took weapons, clothes and all sorts of supplies from the homely Cossacks under the condition of sharing the booty with them. Now these debtors paid off their creditors with a broad hand and thus clearly reinforced the rumor that had spread throughout the Don towns about the successful enterprises and impunity of Stenka Razin and about the upcoming new business that he was planning. And this rumor aroused a new movement among the Golutven Cossacks along the Don with its tributaries and in Zaporozhye. The Kagalnitsky town was filled with newcomers hungry for booty. The homely Cossacks saw with regret the preparations for a new campaign on the Volga, but did not know how to stop it.

Razin's new campaign from the Don to the Volga (1670)

The spring of 1670 arrived.

Resident Evdokimov arrived in Cherkassk with a gracious royal letter to the Don Army and, of course, with an order to find out the state of affairs. The Cossacks thanked for the royal mercy, especially for the promised delivery of cloth, food and military supplies. Kornilo Yakovlev gathered a circle to choose a Cossack village, which, according to custom, was supposed to escort the royal envoy to Moscow. Suddenly Razin appears with a crowd of his little ones, asks where the village is being chosen, and, having received the answer that they are sending it to the great sovereign, orders Evdokimov to be brought. He cursed the latter as a spy, beat him and ordered him to throw him into the river. In vain Yakovlev and some old Cossacks tried to save the Moscow envoy and persuaded Stenka Razin. The latter threatened to do the same to them. “Rule your army, and I will rule mine!” - he shouted to Yakovlev. Then he began to loudly announce that it was time to go against the Moscow boyars. Together with the boyars, he condemned priests and monks to extermination; Church rituals, according to his concepts, were completely unnecessary. Drunk, unbridled Razin lost all faith and blasphemed on occasion. By the way, when one of his young Cossacks wanted to get married, he ordered the couples to dance around a tree instead of a wedding ceremony. Here, of course, the influence of folk songs with their wedding “circle of broom bush” was felt.

Kornilo Yakovlev and the home-loving Cossacks saw that they could not overcome the violent crowd of golutvens who were under the charm of Stenka Razin, and did nothing, waiting for a more convenient time. The Moscow government, for its part, did not remain too lenient in the actions of the Astrakhan governors towards the thieving Cossacks. The royal letter reprimanded them for so carelessly releasing Stenka and his comrades from their hands and not taking any measures to prevent their further theft. The governors made excuses and referred, among other things, to the advice of the Astrakhan Metropolitan. But subsequent events decisively condemned them. Among other Cossack atamans, the then famous Vaska Us came to Stenka Razin with his gang. Now seven thousand or more Cossack bastards had gathered, and Razin again led them to the Volga.

Capture of Tsaritsyn by Razin

He approached Tsaritsyn, where Unkovsky’s place was already taken by governor Turgenev. The Cossacks launched the ships they had brought and surrounded the city from the river and land. Leaving Vaska Usa here, Razin himself went to the Kalmyks and Tatars wandering in the neighborhood, crushed them, captured cattle and prisoners. Meanwhile, in the besieged city there were people who sympathized with the Cossacks, who entered into relations with them, and then opened the city gates to them. Turgenev with a handful of faithful servants and archers locked himself in the tower. Razin arrived, was greeted with honor by the residents and clergy and was diligently treated. While drunk, he personally led the Cossacks on an attack and took the tower. Its defenders fell, and Turgenev himself, captured while still alive, was humiliated and thrown into the water. At this time, a thousand-strong detachment of Moscow archers with their head Lopatin sailed from above to the aid of Turgenev and other lower-ranking commanders. Razin suddenly attacked him, but met with courageous defense. Despite the great superiority in the number of opponents, the archers made their way to Tsaritsyn, counting on his support and not knowing about his fate. But then they were met with cannon fire. Half of the squad was killed; the rest were taken prisoner. Lopatin and other rifle chiefs were subjected to barbaric torture and drowned. Razin placed up to 300 archers as rowers on the ships he inherited. He introduced the Cossack system in Tsaritsyn and made it his stronghold fortified point. Then Razin announced that he was going up the Volga to Moscow, but not against the sovereign, but in order to exterminate boyars and governors everywhere and give freedom to the common people. With the same speeches, he sent his spies in different directions to outrage the people. Circumstances forced Razin to turn first down, rather than up, the Volga.

The capture of Astrakhan and its plunder by the Cossacks

Stenka had already managed to take the city of Kamyshin with the same treason as Tsaritsyn, and in the same way to drown the governor with the initial people, when news came to him about the approach of the ship’s army sent against him from Astrakhan. Having learned about Razin's new indignation, Prince Prozorovsky hastened to make amends for his previous reckless indecision. He assembled and armed up to forty ships with cannons, put more than 3,000 archers and free people on them and sent them to Razin again under the command of his comrade Prince Lvov. But this belated decision also turned out to be reckless. Razin left one person out of every ten in Tsaritsyn, and sent about 700 cavalry men along the shore; and with the rest of the force, up to 8,000 in number, sailed towards Prince Lvov. But his main strength lay in the instability and betrayal of service or military people. His minions were already mixed up among the archers, who whispered to them about the freedom and booty that awaited them under the banners of Stenka Razin. And the archers already had sympathy for him since his stay near Astrakhan. The ground was so well prepared that when the flotillas met near Cherny Yar, the Astrakhan archers noisily and joyfully greeted Stenka Razin as their father, then bandaged and handed over their heads, centurions and other commanders. They were all beaten; only Prince Lvov has been left alive for now. The city of Cherny Yar also passed into the hands of the Cossacks through treason, and the governor and loyal servicemen were subjected to torture and death.

Razin was wondering where to go now: whether to go up the Volga to Saratov, Samara, etc. or down to Astrakhan? The Astrakhan archers who handed over to him swayed Razin’s decision in favor of Astrakhan, assuring him that they were waiting for him there and that the city would be handed over to him.

They say that the Astrakhan residents were already disturbed in advance by various ominous signs, such as an earthquake, the ringing of bells at night, an unknown noise in churches, etc. The news of the betrayal of the sent archers and the approach of Razin’s Cossacks caused final despondency among the city authorities; and the seditious people began to act almost openly. Excited by them, the archers boldly demanded that the governor pay his salary. Prince Prozorovsky answered them that the treasury had not yet been sent from the great sovereign, that he would give them as much as possible from himself and from the Metropolitan, if only they served faithfully and did not give in to the speech of the traitor and apostate Stenka Razin. The Metropolitan gave 600 rubles from his cell money, and took 2,000 rubles from the Trinity Monastery. The Streltsy, apparently, were satisfied and even promised to stand against Razin's thieves. But the governor did not rely on these promises and did what he could to defend the city. He strengthened the guards, inspected and strengthened the walls and ramparts, placed cannons on them, etc. His main assistants in these preparations were the German Butler, captain of the royal ship "Eagle" stationed near the city, and the Englishman Colonel Thomas Boyle. The governor caressed them and counted especially on Butler’s German team; He even trusted the Persians, Circassians and Kalmyks more than the Streltsy.

Meanwhile, the ominous signs resumed. On June 13, the guard archers reported to the Metropolitan that at night sparks were falling from the sky onto the city, as if from a fiery blazing furnace. Joseph shed tears and said that it was the vial of God’s wrath that had been poured out. A native of Astrakhan, he was a boy during the time of Zarutsky and Marina and remembered the fury of the Cossacks of that time. A few days later, the guard archers announce a new sign: they saw three rainbow pillars with three crowns on top. And this is not good! And then there are torrential rains and hail, and instead of the usual hot weather, it is so cold that you need to wear a warm dress.

Around the 20th of June, numerous plows of Razin’s thieves’ Cossacks approached and began to surround the city, surrounded by Volga branches and channels. In order not to give shelter to the Cossacks, the authorities burned down the suburban Tatar settlement. The city gates were blocked with bricks. The Metropolitan and the clergy walked around the walls in a religious procession. Several Stenka spies who entered the city were captured and executed. The Streltsy elders and the best townspeople were gathered at the metropolitan court and, after archpastoral persuasion, they promised to fight Razin’s thieves, not sparing their bellies. The townspeople were armed and assigned to defend the city along with the archers. Seeing the preparations of Razin’s gang for a night attack, Prince Prozorovsky took the Metropolitan’s blessing, put on military harness and set out from his courtyard on a war horse in the evening, observing the usual ceremonial in war. He was accompanied by his brother Mikhail Semenovich, the boyars' children, his courtyard servants and clerks; Horses covered with blankets were led forward, trumpets were blown and tulunbass were beaten. He stood at the Voznesensky Gate, which Razin’s Cossacks apparently wanted to attack with their main forces. But that was a deception: in reality, they had outlined other places for the attack. After a quiet night at dawn, the Razins suddenly set up ladders and climbed the fortifications. Cannon shots were heard from the latter. But these were mostly harmless shots. The prepared stones and boiling water did not fall down or pour on Razin’s people. On the contrary, the imaginary defenders shook hands with them and helped them climb the walls.

With a boom and scream, Razin's Cossacks burst into the city and, together with the Astrakhan mob, began to beat the nobles, children of boyars, officials and governor's servants. The governor's brother fell, struck by a self-propelled gun; Prince Prozorovsky himself received a mortal wound with a spear in the stomach, and was carried on a carpet by his slaves to the cathedral church. Metropolitan Joseph hurried here and personally communed St. Tain to the governor, with whom he was in great friendship. The temple was filled with clerks, archers, officers, merchants, boyar children, women, girls and children who had fled from the thieves. The iron lattice doors of the temple were locked, and the Streltsy Pentecostal Frol Dura stood with a knife in his hands. Razin's Cossacks shot through the doors and killed the child in his mother's arms; then they broke the grate. Frol Dura desperately defended himself with a knife and was hacked to pieces. Prince Prozorovsky and many others were dragged out of the temple and placed under the peals. Razin came and pronounced his judgment. The governor was hoisted into a roll and thrown down from there; the rest were immediately chopped down with swords, flogged with reeds, and beaten with clubs. Then Razin’s people took their corpses to the Trinity Monastery and dumped them in a common grave; The elder monk standing next to her counted 441 corpses. Only a handful of Circassians (Kaspulat Mutsalovich’s people), holed up in one tower along with several Russians, fired back until it ran out of gunpowder; then they tried to flee out of the city, but were overtaken by Razin’s Cossacks and cut down. The Germans also tried to defend themselves, but then fled. A frantic robbery took place in the city. They robbed the executive chamber, church property, the yards of merchants and foreign guests, such as Bukhara, Gilyan, and Indian. All this was then brought to one place and divided (blown). In addition to his bloodthirstiness, Razin was also distinguished by his special hatred of official writing: he ordered to collect all the papers from government places and solemnly burn them. At the same time, he boasted that he would also burn all the affairs in Moscow in Verkh, that is, from the sovereign Alexei Mikhailovich himself.

Astrakhan came under fire. Razin divided the population into thousands, hundreds and tens. From now on it was to be controlled by the Cossack circle and elected atamans, esauls, centurions and foremen. One morning a solemn oath was held outside the city, where the population swore an oath to faithfully serve the great sovereign and Stepan Timofeevich, and to bring out the traitors. Razin, obviously, did not dare to openly encroach on the tsarist power, which was so deeply rooted in the minds of the Russian people: he constantly insisted that he had armed himself for the great sovereign against his traitors, the Moscow boyars and officials; and it is known that these two classes were unloved by the people, who attributed to them all the lies, all their hardships, and especially the establishment of serfdom. Naturally, therefore, what a friendly response was found in the lower classes by Razin’s deceptive call for freedom and Cossack equality, not only among the serfs and peasants, but also among the townspeople and ordinary service people, such as gunners, collar workers, zatinshchiki and, finally, the archers themselves. The latter constituted the main support of the voivodeship power in the Volga cities; but they were not satisfied with their sometimes difficult, meagerly rewarded service and looked with envy at the free Cossack, who had the opportunity to show his prowess, walk in the open air and enrich himself with booty. Hence it is clear why the archers in those places so easily went over to the side of Razin’s thieves’ Cossacks. The local clergy in these troubled circumstances had to play an unenviable suffering role. When all the civil authorities were exterminated, Metropolitan Joseph shut himself up in his courtyard and, apparently, only mourned the events, realizing his helplessness. Among the priests there were several people who selflessly tried to denounce Stenka Razin and his comrades; but they were martyred; others unwillingly carried out the chieftain’s orders; for example, noble wives and daughters, whom Razin forcibly married off to his Cossacks, were married without bishop's permission. Moreover, the thieves' Cossacks were the least religiosity. Razin did not observe fasts and disrespected church rituals; Not only the old Cossacks followed his example, but also the new ones, i.e. Astrakhan residents; and those who thought to contradict were beaten mercilessly.

Razin's Cossacks celebrated their good luck noisily and cheerfully in Astrakhan. There was partying and drinking every day. Razin was constantly drunk and in this state decided the fate of people who were guilty of something and brought before him for trial: he ordered one to be drowned, another to be beheaded, a third to be mutilated, and the fourth, on some whim, to be set free. On the name day of Tsarevich Feodor Alekseevich, he suddenly came with the initial Cossacks to visit the Metropolitan, and he treated them to lunch. And then Razin ordered to take in turn both sons of the murdered Prince Prozorovsky, who, together with their mother, were hiding in the metropolitan chambers. The older 16-year-old Razin asked where the customs money collected from trading people was. “Let’s go to pay the service people,” answered the prince and referred to the clerk Alekseev. “Where are your bellies?” He continued to interrogate and received the answer: “robbed.” Razin ordered both boys to be hanged by their feet on the city wall, and the clerk - on a hook by his rib. The next day the clerk was taken down dead, the elder Prozorovsky was thrown from the wall, and the younger one was flogged alive and given to his mother.

A whole month of drunken and idle stay in Astrakhan passed.

Razin's hike up the Volga

Razin finally came to his senses and realized that Moscow, although not soon, had nevertheless received news of his exploits and was gathering forces against him. He ordered to prepare for the campaign. At this time, a crowd of Astrakhan residents comes to Razin and says that some nobles and officials managed to escape. She asked the ataman to order them to be found, otherwise, if the sovereign’s troops were sent, they would be their first enemies. “When I leave Astrakhan, then do whatever you want,” Razin answered them. In Astrakhan, he handed over the ataman power to Vasily Us, and appointed the atamans Fedka Sheludyak and Ivan Tersky as his comrades; left half of the shown Astrakhan and Streltsy and two from each dozen Donets. And with the rest, Razin sailed up the Volga on two hundred plows; 2,000 mounted Cossacks walked along the shore. Having reached Tsaritsyn, Razin sent part of the goods looted from Astrakhan to the Don under the cover of a special detachment. The next most significant cities, Saratov and Samara, were easily captured thanks to the treason of the military men. Governors, nobles and officials were beaten; their estate was plundered; and the residents received a Cossack system, and some of them reinforced the hordes of thieves,

At the beginning of September 1970, Razin was already near Simbirsk.

The spies he sent out managed to disperse in the lower regions, and some penetrated all the way to Moscow. Everywhere they confused the people with tempting promises to exterminate the boyars and officials, to introduce equality, and consequently the division of property. To further deceive the common people, the cunning Razin even resorted to such deception: his agents assured that in the Cossack army were Patriarch Nikon, unjustly overthrown by the Tsar, and (who died earlier this year) the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Alexei Alekseevich, under the name Nechaya; the latter allegedly did not die, but ran away from the boyars’ anger and parental lies. Thus arousing the Orthodox Russian population, Stenka Razin’s agents made other speeches among schismatics and foreigners; The first promised freedom of the old faith, the second liberation from Russian rule. Thus, the Cheremis, Chuvash, Mordovians, and Tatars were outraged, and many of them rushed to unite with Razin’s hordes. He even called on external enemies to help him against the Moscow state: for this he sent for the Crimean Horde and offered his citizenship to the Persian Shah. But both were unsuccessful. The Shah, burning with vengeance for the predatory raid and abhorring relations with the robber, ordered the execution of Stenka’s envoys.

Siege of Simbirsk and defeat of Razin by Baryatinsky

The city of Simbirsk was very important due to its position: it was part of a fortified line or line that ran west to Insar, east to Menzelinsk. The difficult task lay ahead of not allowing Stenka Razin and his hordes to enter this line. Simbirsk had a strong city, i.e. the Kremlin, and also a fortified settlement or stockade. The Kremlin was sufficiently equipped with cannons and had a garrison of archers, soldiers, as well as local nobles and boyar children, who gathered here from the district and sat under siege. The governor here was the okolnichy Ivan Bogdanovich Miloslavsky. In view of the imminent invasion of Razin, he repeatedly asked for help from the main Kazan governor, Prince Urusov. He hesitated and finally sent him a detachment under the command of the devious Prince Yuri Nikitich Baryatinsky. The latter approached Simbirsk almost simultaneously with Razin’s horde; he had soldiers and reiters, i.e. people trained in the European system, but in insufficient numbers. He withstood a stubborn battle, but could not get to the city, and especially since many of his reiters from the Tatars gave up the rear, and the Simbirsk betrayed and let the Cossacks into the prison. Miloslavsky locked himself in the Kremlin. Baryatinsky retreated to Tetyushi and requested reinforcements. For about a month, Miloslavsky defended himself against Razin in his city and repelled all Cossack attacks. Finally, Baryatinsky, having received reinforcements, again approached Simbirsk. Here, at the beginning of October, on the banks of Sviyaga, Razin attacked him with all his forces; but was defeated, he himself received two wounds and retreated to the prison. Baryatinsky united with Miloslavsky. All the next night Razin thought about setting the city on fire. But suddenly he heard screams in the distance from the other side. It was part of the army detached by Baryatinsky with the aim of deceiving the enemy. Indeed, it seemed to Stenka that a new royal army was coming, and he decided to flee. To the discordant crowds of abandoned townspeople and foreigners, Razin announced that he wanted to hit the governors in the rear with his Don people. Instead, he threw himself onto the boats and sailed down the Volga. The governors lit the fort and unanimously attacked the crowds of rebels from both sides; Seeing themselves deceived and abandoned, the latter also hurried to the boats; but they were overtaken and subjected to a terrible beating. Several hundred captured Razins were executed without trial or mercy.

Popular uprisings in the Volga region and the struggle of the tsarist governors with them

Stenka Razin's idle stay in Astrakhan and his delay near Simbirsk gave the Moscow government time to gather forces and generally take measures to combat the rebellion. But Baryatinsky’s first unsuccessful clash with the thieves’ Cossacks and the retreat to Tetyushi, in turn, helped Razin’s minions spread the rebellion to the north and west of Simbirsk, i.e., inside the abatis line. The rebellion was already blazing here over a large area, when the defeated Razin fled south with his Dons. One can imagine what size this fire could have taken if Razin had moved victorious from Simbirsk to the north. Now the royal commanders had to deal with fragmented rebellious crowds, deprived of unity and a common leader. And yet, they still had to fight this multi-headed hydra for a long time. So great was the movement of the townspeople and peasants, excited by Razin against the estates of the clerk and landowner.

The rebellion covered the entire space between the lower Oka and the middle Volga and mainly boiled in the region of the Sura River. It mostly began in villages; the peasants beat the landowners and plundered their yards, then, under the leadership of Razin’s Donets, they formed Cossack gangs and marched on the cities. Here the townspeople opened the gates for them, helped them beat the governors and officials, introduced the Cossack system and installed their own atamans. It also happened the other way around: the city mob rebelled, formed a militia, or molested some Cossack gang and went to the district to outrage the peasants and exterminate the landowners. These rebellious militias were usually headed by atamans sent by Razin, for example, Maxim Osipov, Mishka Kharitonov, Vaska Fedorov, Shilov, etc. Some rebellious crowds moved along the Saransk abatis line, took Korsun, Atemar, Insar, Saransk; then they took possession of Penza, Nizhny and Verkhny Lomov, Kerensky and entered Kadomsky district. Other crowds went to Alatyr, which they took and burned along with the governor Buturlin, his family and nobles who locked themselves in the cathedral church. Then they took Temnikov, Kurmysh, Yadrin, Vasilsursk, Kozmodemyansk. Together with the Russian peasants, Razin’s atamans raised and took into their gangs the Volga foreigners, i.e. Mordovians, Tatars, Cheremis and Chuvash. The peasants of the rich village of Lyskova themselves called to themselves Razin’s comrade-in-arms, Ataman Osipov from Kurmysh, and together with him they went to the opposite bank of the Volga to besiege the Makaryev Zheltovodsk Monastery, in which the property of many wealthy people from the neighboring region was stored for storage. Thieves shouting “Never mind! Don't worry! They attacked the monastery and tried to set it on fire. But the monks and servants, with the help of their peasants and pilgrims, repelled the attack and put out the fire. The thieves went to the village of Murashkino; and then they soon returned and managed to capture the monastery with an unexpected attack; the goods stored there, of course, were plundered. In the village of Murashkino, Ataman Osipov began to gather large forces to march on Nizhny Novgorod, where the city mob had already called for Razin’s Cossacks. But at this time the news came about Razin’s defeat near Simbirsk and his flight to the bottom. The tsarist commanders could now turn their regiments to pacify the townsman-peasant rebellion.

However, the fight against the large and widespread rebellious crowds was not easy. Prince Yuri Alekseevich Dolgoruky was placed at the head of the royal governor for this struggle. He made Arzamas his stronghold, from where he directed the actions of his subordinate governors in different directions. His main difficulty was the lack of troops; The stewards, solicitors, nobles and boyar children appointed under his command were mostly considered to be in the dark, for all the roads were infested with gangs of thieves who did not allow the military men going to their regiments to pass through. However, the detachments sent by the prince. Dolgoruky, began to beat up the rebellious crowds excited by Razin, and little by little cleared the neighboring region of them. The main forces of the rebels were concentrated in the village of Murashkino. Dolgoruky sent the governor Prince Shcherbatov and Leontiev against them. On October 22, these commanders withstood a stubborn battle with a more numerous enemy, who had a considerable number of cannons, and defeated him. The Lyskovites surrendered without a fight, and the governors triumphantly entered Nizhny. Then the clearing of the Nizhny Novgorod district continued gradually, despite the desperate resistance of gangs of thieves, sometimes containing several thousand people and defending themselves in slums, fortified with ramparts and abatis. It goes without saying that victories over them and, in general, the pacification of Razin’s rebellion were accompanied by their brutal executions, the burning of entire villages.

The cleansing of the Nizhny Novgorod district was followed by the same pacification of Kadomsky, Temnikovsky, Shatsky, etc., accompanied by desperate battles. When the forces of Razin’s rebellion were gradually broken, and numerous executions and defeats frightened the minds, the reverse movement began. Rebellious cities and villages began to greet the victorious governors with clergy, icons and crosses and beat their foreheads for forgiveness, citing the fact that they joined the rebellion raised by Razin involuntarily under threats of death and ruin from thieves; and sometimes they themselves betrayed the instigators and leaders. The governors executed these leaders and swore in the petitioners. A curious incident occurred in Temnikov. The residents who obeyed, by the way, handed over the prince. Dolgorukov as the leaders of the rebellion, priest Savva and the old witch Alena. The latter, a peasant by birth, who took monastic vows, not only led a gang of thieves, but admitted (under torture, of course) that she had been practicing witchcraft and corrupting people. The rebellious priest was hanged, and the old woman, the imaginary witch, was burned.

When Dolgoruky, in his gradual movement from west to east, reached Sura, that is, approached Kazan, the governor, Prince P. S. Urusov, was recalled from here for his slowness. Prince Dolgoruky, appointed in his place, received under his command the governors who fought with Razin. Of these, Prince Yuri Baryatinsky took the most active part in the further fight against Razin’s rebellion. He had several stubborn battles with gangs of thieves, who were under the command of the atamans Romashka and Murza Kalka. Particularly remarkable was his victory over them on November 12, 1670 near Ust-Urenskaya Sloboda, on the banks of the Kondratka River, which flows into the Sura; so many rebels fell here that, in his own words, blood flowed in large streams, as if after a heavy rain. A large crowd of residents from Alatyr and its district came to meet the winner with images; She tearfully begged for forgiveness and protection from Razin’s gangs of thieves. Baryatinsky occupied Alatyr and fortified himself here, awaiting an attack. Indeed, soon the united forces of the atamans Kalka, Savelyev, Nikitinsky, Ivashka Malenky and others headed here. Baryatinsky united with the commander Vasily Panin, who was sent to his aid, defeated the hordes of thieves and over an area of ​​15 versts drove away the fleeing, covering the road with corpses. The victors moved towards Saransk, executing the captured leaders and bringing the Russian peasants to the oath, and the Tatars and Mordovians to the sherti (oath) according to their faith. At the same time, other governors sent by Prince Dolgorukov, who after Temnikov settled in Krasnaya Sloboda, also acted against Razin’s rebellion. Prince Const. Shcherbaty cleared the Penza region, Upper and Lower Lomov from thieves of Razin; Yakov Khitrovo moved towards Kerensk and in the village of Achadovo defeated a gathering of thieves; Moreover, the Smolensk slagta with its colonel Shvyikovsky especially distinguished itself. The Kerenchians opened the gates to the winners. Taking advantage of the movement of the governors to the south, in their rear in the Alatyr and Arzamas districts, the gangs of thieves from Russians and Mordovians who stood for Razin again gathered and began to strengthen themselves in abatis, armed with cannons. Voivode Leontyev was sent against them, he defeated the thieves, took their abatis and burned their villages. Along the mountainous bank of the Volga, Prince Danila Baryatinsky (Yuri’s brother) pacified the rebellious Chuvash and Cheremis. He occupied Tsivilsk, Cheboksary, Vasilsursk, took Kozmodemyansk by storm and defeated a crowd of thousands of thieves who had come here from Yadrin; after which the Yadrintsi and Kurmyshans finished off with their brows. The pacification of Razin's rebellion was accompanied by the usual executions of thieves' leaders. It is curious that priests are sometimes found among them; The cathedral priest Fedorov appeared as such in Kozmodemyansk.

Thus, by the beginning of 1671, the Volga-Oka region was pacified by fire and sword, i.e. Streams of blood and the glow of fires suppressed the movement of peasants and townspeople, excited by Razin, against serfdom, against the Moscow boyars and clerks. But in the south-eastern Ukraine, the Cossack slaughter was still rampant; and Razin was still walking free.

Razin's flight to the Don

However, this too soon came to an end.

In vain did Razin spread the rumor about his sorcery, that neither a bullet nor a saber could kill him and that supernatural forces helped him. The disappointment came all the more quickly and completely when his supporters, carried away by his success and promises, suddenly saw Razin beaten, wounded and fleeing. Samara and Saratov residents locked their gates in front of him. Only in Tsaritsyn did he find shelter and rest with the remnants of his gangs. Although Razin still had the rebellious Astrakhan forces at his disposal; but he did not want to appear there now and as a fugitive; but moved to his town of Kagalnitsky and from here he first tried to raise the entire Don.

While the rebels were successful, the Don Army behaved indecisively and waited for events. Its chief ataman, Kornilo Yakovlev, being an opponent of the rebellion, however, acted cautiously and so deftly that he survived Razin’s ardent, merciless minions and at the same time maintained secret relations with the Moscow government. When in September 1670 a new royal letter came to the Don with an admonition of fidelity and was read in the Cossack circle, Yakovlev tried to persuade the Cossack brothers to put aside their stupidity, leave Razin behind, repent and, following the example of their fathers, serve the great sovereign with faith and with the truth. The housewives supported the ataman and wanted to choose a village in order to send it to Moscow to confess. But Razin’s supporters still formed a strong party, which opposed this choice. Two more months passed. The news of the defeat and flight of Stenka Razin immediately changed the situation on the Don. Kornilo Yakovlev clearly and decisively began to act against the rebels and found friendly support among the homely ones. In vain did Razin send out his minions; no one came to his aid. In his impotent anger, he (according to the modern act) burned several captured opponents in the oven instead of firewood. It was in vain that Razin appeared with his gang and wanted to personally act in Cherkassk; he was not allowed into the city and was forced to leave with nothing.

The defeat of the Kagalnitsky town

This incident, however, prompted military ataman Yakovlev to send the village to Moscow with a request to send troops to help against the rebels. In Moscow, by order of the patriarch, on the week of Orthodoxy, along with other apostates, a loud anathema was proclaimed to Stenka Razin. The Donets responded with an order to repair the fishery over Stenka and deliver him to Moscow; and the Belgorod governor, Prince Romodanovsky, was ordered to send steward Kosogov to the Don with a thousand selected reiters and dragoons. But before Kosogov arrived, Kornilo Yakovlev with the Don army approached the Kagalnitsky town. Razin's thieves' Cossacks, seeing that their cause on the Don was completely lost, for the most part abandoned their chieftain and fled to Astrakhan. On April 14, 1671, the town was captured and burned. Razin's accomplices who were captured were hanged; Only he and his brother Frolka were taken alive to Moscow under strong escort.

Execution of Razin in Moscow

Dressed in rags, on a cart with a gallows mounted on it, chained to it, the famous robber chieftain Razin entered the capital; his brother ran after the cart, also tied to it with a chain. The crowds looked with curiosity at the man about whom there were so many disturbing rumors and all sorts of rumors. The villain was brought to the Zemsky Dvor, where the Duma people subjected him to the usual search. Foreign news says that during this search, Razin once again showed the iron strength of his body and his character: he endured all the most cruel methods of torture and did not answer the questions addressed to him. But this news is not entirely true: Razin answered something and, among other things, said that Nikon had sent a monk to him. On June 6, on Red Square, Razin met his cruel execution with an appearance of insensibility: he was quartered, and his body parts were pulled apart on stakes in the so-called Swamp in Zamoskvoretsk. His brother Frolka Razin, who shouted that he had the sovereign's word and deed, received a reprieve and was executed several years later.

Stepan Razin. Painting by S. Kirillov, 1985–1988

The Moscow government did not fail to take advantage of the suppression of Razin’s rebellion in order to constrain Don freedom and secure the army with stronger ties to the state. Stolnik Kosogov brought to the Don a gracious royal letter, cash and grain salaries, as well as military supplies. But, at the same time, he also brought the requirement of an oath of faithful service to the great sovereign. Young and less important Cossacks, who had previously wandered towards Razin, tried to contradict in Cossack circles, but the old ones prevailed, and on August 29 the Don people, with the military ataman Semyon Loginov at their head, were sworn in by a priest according to the established rank, in the presence of a steward and clerk .

Stepan Razin in fiction

Maximilian Voloshin. Stenkin's court (poem)

Marina Tsvetaeva. Stenka Razin (cycle of three poems)

Velimir Khlebnikov. Razin (poem)

V. A. Gilyarovsky. Stenka Razin (poem)

Vasily Kamensky. "Stepan Razin" (poem)

A. Chapygin. Razin Stepan (novel)

Vasily Shukshin. I came to give you freedom (novel)

Evgeny Yevtushenko. Execution of Stenka Razin (poem)

Stepan Razin in historical literature and sources

Investigation into the rebellion of Razin and his accomplices

Report of clerk Kolesnikov about the capture of Astrakhan by Razin

Popov A. The history of Stenka Razin's indignation. Magazine "Russian Conversation", 1857

Materials for the history of Stenka Razin's indignation. M., 1857

N. I. Kostomarov. Stenka Razin's riot

S. M. Soloviev. History of Russia (vol. XI)

S. F. Platonov. § 84 in the Textbook of Russian History (“Razin’s Movement”)

Questions for interrogation of Razin, compiled by Tsar Alexei

Letter from T. Hebdon to R. Daniel about the execution of Razin

I. Yu. Martius. Dissertation on the uprising of S. Razin (1674)

A fantastic story in detail by an unknown English author about the victory of the tsarist troops over Razin

Peasant war led by Stepan Razin. M., 1957

Chistyakova E. V., Solovyov V. M. Stepan Razin and his associates. M., 1988

A. L. Stanislavsky. Civil war in Russia in the 17th century: Cossacks at the turning point of history. M., 1990

Stepan, like his father Timofey, who probably came from the Voronezh settlement, belonged to the homely Cossacks. Stepan was born around 1630. He visited Moscow three times (in 1652, 1658 and 1661), and on the first of these visits he visited the Solovetsky Monastery. The Don authorities included him in the “stanitsa”, who negotiated with the Moscow boyars and Kalmyks. In 1663, Stepan led a detachment of Donets who marched together with the Cossacks and Kalmyks near Perekop against the Crimean Tatars. At Molochnye Vody they defeated a detachment of Crimeans.

Even then, he was distinguished by courage and dexterity, the ability to lead people in military enterprises, and negotiate important matters. In 1665, his older brother Ivan was executed. He led a regiment of Don Cossacks that took part in the war with Poland. In the fall, the Donets asked to go home, but they were not allowed to go. Then they left without permission, and the commander-in-chief, boyar Prince Yu. A. Dolgoruky, ordered the execution of the commander.

The situation on the Don was heating up. In 1667, with the end of the war with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, new parties of fugitives poured into the Don and other places. Famine reigned on the Don. In search of a way out of a difficult situation in order to get their daily bread, poor Cossacks in the late winter - early spring of 1667 united in small bands, moved to the Volga and Caspian Sea, robbed merchant ships. They are broken up by government troops. But the gangs gather again and again. They are headed by .

To the Volga and Caspian Sea. To Razin and his associates early. In the spring, masses of poor Cossacks, including Usovites, rush to go on a campaign to the Volga and the Caspian Sea. In mid-May 1667, the detachment moved from the Don to the Volga, then to the Yaik.

In February 1668, the Razins, who wintered in the Yaitsky town, defeated a 3,000-strong detachment that came from Astrakhan. In March, throwing heavy cannons into the river and taking light ones with them, they went out into the Caspian Sea. On the western coast, the detachments of Sergei Krivoy, Boba and other atamans united with Razin.

The differences float along the western shore of the sea to the south. They plunder merchant ships, the possessions of Shamkhal Tarkov and the Shah of Persia, and free many Russian captives who came to these lands in different ways and at different times. Daredevils attack “sharpalniks” to Derbent, the outskirts of Baku, and other villages. Along the Kura they get to “Georgian district”. They return to the sea and sail to the Persian shores; Cities and villages are being destroyed here. Many die in battle, from disease and hunger. In the summer of 1669, a fierce naval battle took place; the thinned Razin detachment completely defeated the fleet of Mamed Khan. After this brilliant victory, Razin and his Cossacks, enriched with fabulous booty, but extremely exhausted and hungry, head north.

In August they appear in Astrakhan, and the local governors, having made them promise to faithfully serve the Tsar, hand over all ships and guns, and release the servicemen, let them go up the Volga to the Don.

New campaign. In early October, Stepan Razin returned to the Don. His daring Cossacks, who acquired not only wealth, but also military experience, settled on an island near the town of Kagalnitsky.

Dual power was established on the Don. Affairs in the Don Army were managed by a Cossack foreman, led by an ataman, who was stationed in Cherkassk. She was supported by homely, wealthy Cossacks. But Razin, who was with Kagalnik, did not take into account the military ataman Yakovlev, his godfather, and all his assistants.

The number of Razin rebel troops forming on the Don is growing rapidly. The leader does everything energetically and secretly. But soon he no longer hides his plans and goals. Razin openly declares that he will soon begin a new big campaign, and not only and not so much for “sharpanya” by trade caravans: “Go to the Volga for the boyars of the witness!”

At the beginning of May 1670, Razin left the camp and arrived in Panshin town. V. Us also appears here with the Don Cossacks and Ukrainians. Razin convenes a circle, discusses the plan for the campaign, asks everyone: “Would you all like to go from the Don to the Volga, and from the Volga to go to Rus' against the sovereign’s enemies and traitors, so that they can bring out the traitorous boyars and Duma people from the Moscow state and the governors and officials in the cities?” He calls on his people: “And we should all stand and take the traitors out of the Moscow state and give the black people freedom.”.

On May 15, Razin’s army reached the Volga above Tsaritsyn and besieged the city. The residents opened the gates. After reprisals against the governor, clerks, military leaders and rich merchants, the rebels staged a duvan - the division of confiscated property. The people of Tsaritsyn elected representatives of the authorities. The Razinites, whose ranks had grown to 10 thousand people, replenished supplies and built new ships.

Leaving a thousand people in Tsaritsyn, Razin went to Black Yar. Beneath its walls “ordinary warriors” from the government army of Prince S.I. Lvov, with drums beating and banners unfurled, they went over to the rebels.

The garrison of Black Yar also rebelled and moved to Razin. This victory opened the way to Astrakhan. As they said then, Volga “became theirs, Cossack”. The rebel army approached the city. Razin divided his forces into eight detachments and placed them in their places. On the night of June 21-22, the assault on the White City and the Kremlin, where the army of Prince Prozorovsky was located, began. An uprising of residents, archers and garrison soldiers broke out in Astrakhan. The city was taken. According to the verdict of the circle, the governor, officers, nobles and others, up to 500 people in total, were executed. Their property was divided.

The highest authority in Astrakhan became circles - general meetings of all residents who rebelled. Atamans were elected, the main one being Usa. By decision of the circle, everyone was released from prison, destroyed “many bondages and fortresses”. They wanted to do the same throughout Russia. In July, Razin left Astrakhan. He goes up the Volga, and soon, in mid-August, Saratov and Samara surrender to Razin without a fight. The Razins enter areas with extensive feudal estates and a large peasant population. Concerned authorities are gathering here many noble, streltsy, and soldier regiments.

Razin hurries to Simbirsk - the center of a heavily fortified line of cities and fortresses. The city has a garrison of 3-4 thousand warriors. It is headed by the Tsar's relative by wife, I. B. Miloslavsky. Prince Yu. N. Boryatinsky arrives to his aid with two Reitar regiments and several hundreds of nobles.

The rebels arrived on September 4th. The next day, a hot battle broke out and continued on September 6. Razin stormed the fort on the slopes "crown"- Simbirsk mountain. An uprising of local residents - archers, townspeople, and serfs - began, as in other cities. intensified the onslaught and burst into the prison literally on the shoulders of Boryatinsky’s defeated regiments. Miloslavsky withdrew his forces to the Kremlin. Both sides suffered considerable losses. Razin began a month-long siege of the Kremlin.

Illustration. Stepan Razin's troops storm Simbirsk.

Expansion of the movement and its end. The flames of the uprising cover a vast territory: the Volga region, Trans-Volga region, many southern, southeastern, and central counties. Slobodskaya Ukraine, Don. The main driving force is the masses of serfs. Actively participating in the movement are the lower classes of the city, working people, barge haulers, small serving men (city archers, soldiers, Cossacks), representatives of the lower clergy, all sorts of “walking”, “homeless” People. The movement includes Chuvash and Mari, Mordovians and Tatars.

A huge territory, many cities and villages, came under the control of the rebels. Their inhabitants dealt with feudal lords, the rich, and replaced the governor with elected authorities - atamans and their assistants, who were elected at general meetings, similar to Cossack circles. They stopped collecting taxes and payments in favor of the feudal lords and the treasury, and corvee work.

The lovely letters sent out by Razin and other leaders stirred up new layers of the population to revolt. According to a foreign contemporary, up to 200 thousand people took part in the movement at this time. Many nobles fell victim to them, their estates burned down.

Razin and all the rebels wanted “ go to Moscow and beat the boyars and all sorts of leading people in Moscow" A charming letter - the only one that has survived, written on behalf of Razin - calls on everyone to “ bonded and apostal” join his Cossacks; “ and at the same time you should take out the traitors and take out the worldly crooks" The rebels use the names of Tsarevich Alexei Alekseevich and former Patriarch Nikon, who are supposedly in their ranks, sailing in plows along the Volga.

The main rebel army besieged the Simbirsk Kremlin in September and early October. In many districts, local rebel groups fought against the troops and nobles. They captured many cities - Alatyr and Kurmysh, Penza and Saransk, Upper and Lower Lomov, villages and hamlets. A number of cities in the upper reaches of the Don and in Sloboda Ukraine also went over to the side of the Razins (Ostrogozhsk, Chuguev, Zmiev, Tsarev-Borisov, Olshansk).

Frightened by the scale of the uprising, which was called war in documents of the time, the authorities mobilized new regiments. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich himself arranges a review of the troops. He appoints the boyar Prince Yu. A. Dolgoruky as commander-in-chief of all forces, an experienced commander who distinguished himself in the war with Poland, a stern and merciless man. He makes Arzamas his bet. The royal regiments are coming here, repelling attacks from rebel troops along the way, giving them battles.

Both sides suffer significant losses. However, slowly and steadily the resistance of the armed rebels is being overcome. Government troops are also gathering in Kazan and Shatsk.

At the beginning of October, Yu. N. Boryatinsky returned to Simbirsk with an army, eager to get revenge for the defeat he suffered a month ago. A fierce battle, during which the Razins fought like lions, ended in their defeat. Razin was wounded in the thick of the battle, and his comrades carried him, unconscious and bleeding, from the battlefield, loaded him into a boat and sailed down the Volga. At the beginning of 1671, the main centers of the movement were suppressed. But Astrakhan continued to fight almost the entire year. On November 27, this last stronghold of the rebels also fell.

Stepan Razin was captured on April 14, 1671 in Kagalnik by homely Cossacks led by K. Yakovlev. Soon he was brought to Moscow and, after torture, executed on Red Square, the fearless leader in his last, mortal hour.” not a single breath revealed weakness of spirit" The uprising he led became the most powerful movement "rebellious age".

"Stepan Razin" Sergey Kirillov, 1985-1988

State taxes increased. Moreover, a pestilence epidemic began, an echo of the earlier plague epidemic, and mass famine. Many serfs fled to the Don, where the principle “ There is no issue from Don": the peasants became Cossacks there. They, unlike the sedentary “home-made” Cossacks, did not have any property on the Don and represented the poorest stratum on the Don. Such Cossacks were called “golutvennye (golytba).” In their circle there was always an ardent response to calls for “thieves’ campaigns.”

Thus, the main reasons for the uprising were:

1. The final enslavement of the peasantry;
2. Increase in taxes and duties of the lower social classes;
3. The desire of the authorities to limit the Cossack freemen;
4. An accumulation of poor “golutvenny” Cossacks and fugitive peasantry on the Don.

Troop composition

The uprising, which developed into an anti-government movement of 1670-1671, was attended by Cossacks, small service people, barge haulers, peasants, townspeople, as well as many representatives of the peoples of the Volga region: Chuvash, Mari, Mordovians, Tatars, Bashkirs.

Rebel goals

It is difficult to talk about the goals and, even more so, about the political program of Stepan Razin. Given the weak discipline of the troops, the rebels did not have a clear plan. “Lovely letters” were distributed among various participants in the uprising, calling on them to “beat” the boyars, nobles, and officials.

Razin himself said in the spring of 1670 that he was going to fight not against Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, but to “beat” the traitor boyars who negatively influenced the sovereign. Even before the uprising, which took the form of an anti-government movement, there were rumors of a boyar conspiracy against the tsar. So, by 1670, Alexei Mikhailovich’s first wife, Maria Miloslavskaya, died. Her two sons died with her - 16-year-old Tsarevich Alexei and 4-year-old Tsarevich Simeon. There were rumors among the people that they were poisoned by traitorous boyars who were trying to seize power into their own hands. And also that the heir to the throne, Alexey Alekseevich, miraculously escaped by fleeing to the Volga.

Thus, in the Cossack circle, Stepan Razin declared himself an avenger of the Tsarevich and a defender of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich against “dashing boyars who have a bad influence on the sovereign’s father.” In addition, the leader of the uprising promised to give the “black people” freedom from the dominance of the boyars or nobles.

Background

The uprising of Stepan Razin is often attributed to the so-called “Campaign for Zipuns” (1667-1669) - the campaign of the rebels “for booty”. Razin's detachment blocked the Volga, thereby blocking the most important economic artery of Russia. During this period, Razin's troops captured Russian and Persian merchant ships. Having received the booty and captured the Yaitsky town, Razin in the summer of 1669 moved to the Kagalnitsky town, where he began to gather his troops. When enough people had gathered, Razin announced a campaign against Moscow.

Preparation

Returning from the “campaign for zipuns,” Razin visited Astrakhan and Tsaritsyn with his army, where he gained the sympathy of the townspeople. After the campaign, the poor began to come to him in crowds, and he gathered a considerable army. He also wrote letters to various Cossack atamans calling for an uprising, but only Vasily Us came to him with a detachment.

Hostilities

In the spring of 1670, the second period of the uprising began, that is, in fact, the war. From this moment, and not from 1667, the beginning of the uprising is usually counted. The Razins captured Tsaritsyn and approached Astrakhan, which the townspeople surrendered to them. There they executed the voivode and nobles and organized their own government led by Vasily Us and Fyodor Sheludyak.

Battle of Tsaritsyn

Having gathered troops, Stepan Razin went to Tsaritsyn (now the city of Volgograd) and surrounded it. Leaving Vasily Us in command of the army, Razin and a small detachment went to the Tatar settlements. There they voluntarily gave him the cattle that Razin needed to feed the army.

In Tsaritsyn, meanwhile, residents experienced a shortage of water; Tsaritsyn’s livestock found themselves cut off from the grass and could soon begin to starve. However, the Tsaritsyn governor Timofey Turgenev was not going to surrender the city to the rebels, relying on the city walls and a thousand archers led by Ivan Lopatin, who went to the aid of the besieged. Knowing this, the rebel leaders sent their people to the walls and told the archers that they had intercepted a messenger who was carrying a letter from Ivan Lopatin to the Tsaritsyn governor, which allegedly said that the Lopatins were going to Tsaritsyn to kill the townspeople and the Tsaritsyn archers, and then leave with the Tsaritsyn governor Timofey Turgenev near Saratov. The archers believed and spread this news throughout the city in secret from the governor.

Soon, voivode Timofey Turgenev sent several townspeople to negotiate with the Razinites. He hoped that the rebels would be allowed to go to the Volga and take water from there, but those who came to the negotiations told the Razin atamans that they had prepared a riot and agreed with them on the time of its start.

At the appointed hour, a riot broke out in the city. The rioters rushed to the gate and knocked down the locks. The archers shot at them from the walls, but when the rioters opened the gates and the Razins burst into the city, they surrendered. The city was captured. Timofey Turgenev with his nephew and devoted archers locked himself in the tower. Then Razin returned with the cattle. Under his leadership, the tower was taken. The governor behaved rudely with Razin, for which he was drowned in the Volga along with his nephew, archers and nobles.

The battle with the archers of Ivan Lopatin

Ivan Lopatin led a thousand archers to Tsaritsyn. His last stop was Money Island, which was located on the Volga, north of Tsaritsyn. Lopatin was sure that Razin did not know his location, and therefore did not post sentries. In the midst of the halt, the Razins attacked him. They approached from both banks of the river and began shooting at the Lopatin residents. They boarded the boats in disarray and began to row towards Tsaritsyn. All along the way they were fired upon by Razin’s ambush detachments. Having suffered heavy losses, they sailed to the walls of the city, from which the Razins again fired at them. The Sagittarius surrendered. Razin drowned most of the commanders, and made the spared and ordinary archers rower-prisoners.

Battle for Kamyshin

Several dozen Razin Cossacks dressed as merchants and entered Kamyshin. At the appointed hour, the Razins approached the city. The “merchants” killed the guards of the city gates, opened them, and the main forces broke into the city and took it. Streltsy, nobles, and the governor were executed. Residents were told to pack everything they needed and leave the city. When the city was empty, the Razins plundered it and then burned it.

Hike to Astrakhan

In September 1670, the Razins took part of Simbirsk and besieged the Simbirsk Kremlin. The besieged garrison under the command of Prince Ivan Miloslavsky, with the support of governor Yuri Baryatinsky sent from Moscow, repelled four assault attempts. In order to prevent government troops from coming to the rescue of the Simbirsk garrison, Razin sent small detachments to the cities of the right bank of the Volga in order to rouse peasants and townspeople to fight. Razina's troops, with the support of the local population who had joined, besieged Tsivilsk on September 9 (19), captured Alatyr on September 16 (26) and Saransk on September 19 (29), captured Penza on September 25 (October 5) without a fight and Kozmodemyansk in early October, besieged twice ( at the end of October - beginning of November and from November 11 (21) to December 3 (13) and stormed the Tambov Kremlin several times. In the autumn of 1670, rebel detachments provoked unrest in Galitsky, Efremovsky, Novosilsky, Tula and other districts; also, under the influence of rumors about the successes of the uprising, peasant unrest broke out in a number of districts where Razin’s emissaries did not reach - in Borovsky, Kashirskoye, Kolomensky, Yuryev-Polsky, Yaroslavl.

To suppress the uprising, the government sent significant forces: on September 21 (October 1), an army led by Prince Yu. A. Dolgorukov set out from Murom, and an army under the command of Prince D. A. Baryatinsky set out from Kazan. On October 22 (November 1), Dolgoruky’s army defeated Razin’s troops near the village of Murashkino north of Arzamas (now the village of Bolshoye Murashkino), on December 16 (26) liberated Saransk, and on December 20 (30) they took Penza. Baryatinsky, who fought his way to besieged Simbirsk, defeated Razin in the vicinity of the city on October 1 (11); Three days later, after another unsuccessful assault by the Razins on the Kremlin, the siege was lifted. Then, on October 23 (November 2), Baryatinsky unblocked Tsivilsk and on November 3 (13) liberated Kozmodemyansk. Developing their success, Baryatinsky’s army defeated the Razins in the battle on the Uren River on November 13 (23), and occupied Alatyr on November 23 (December 3).

The largest battle of the rebels with the tsarist troops took place on December 7 and 8, 1670 near the villages of Baevo and Turgenevo (Mordovia). The rebels (20 thousand people with 20 guns) were commanded by the Mordovian Murza Akai Bolyaev (in the documents Murzakaika, Murza Kayko), the tsarist troops were the governors, Prince Yu. Baryatinsky and V. Panin, sent to help him by the commander-in-chief Yu. A. Dolgorukov [ ] .

Capture and execution of Razin. The defeat of the uprising

In the battle of Simbirsk on October 1 (11), 1670, Stepan Razin was seriously wounded and three days later, after another unsuccessful assault on the Simbirsk Kremlin, together with a group of Cossacks loyal to him, he returned to the Don. Having recovered from his wound, Razin began to gather an army for a new campaign. However, the top of the Don Cossacks and the homely (wealthy) Cossacks, who feared, on the one hand, the increased influence of Razin, and on the other, the consequences for the Don Cossacks as a result of the defeat of the uprising, gathered a detachment led by the ataman of the Don Army, Kornil Yakovlev, on April 14 (24), 1671 attacked Razin's headquarters in the town of Kagalnitsky. The settlement was destroyed, Stepan Razin, along with his brother Frol, was captured and handed over to the tsarist authorities. On June 2 (12) of the same year, Stepan and Frol Razin were taken to Moscow. After four days of interrogation, during which torture was used, on June 6 (16), Stepan Razin was quartered on Bolotnaya Square; after him, False Alexey was executed.

Other leaders and iconic figures of Razin's uprising were also executed or killed. The wounded Akai Bolyaev was captured and quartered by Dolgorukov in December 1670 in Krasnaya Sloboda (Mordovia). Another heroine of the rebel movement, Alena the Elder, was burned alive on December 5, 1670 in Temnikov (Mordovia). On December 12, 1670, Ataman Ilya Ponomarev was hanged in Totma. In December 1670, as a result of a confrontation with Cossack elders, atamans Lesko Cherkashenin and Yakov Gavrilov were killed.

Despite the defeat of the main forces of the rebels, the capture and execution of the leaders, severe repressions against the rebels, unrest continued in 1671. At the end of spring - beginning of summer, F. Sheludyak's detachment, with the support of I. Konstantinov, undertook a campaign from Tsaritsyn to Simbirsk, besieged it, but three attempts to storm were unsuccessful and the siege was lifted. Until August 1671, M. Osipov’s Cossack detachment operated in the Middle Volga region. The last stronghold of the rebels was Astrakhan, which surrendered on November 27 (December 7), 1671.

Results

The executions of the rebels were massive and amazed the imagination of contemporaries with their scale. Thus, an anonymous English sailor from the ship “Queen Esther”, who observed the reprisal of Prince Yuri Dolgorukov against the rebels on the Volga, in his brochure published in Paris in 1671, reports:

The Razins ultimately did not achieve their goals - the destruction of the nobility and serfdom. It was not possible to massively win over the worried peoples of the Volga region, the schismatics, the Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks. But the uprising of Stepan Razin showed that Russian society was split, and the country was in dire need of transformation.

Reflection in art

Fiction

• Vasily Shukshin. “I have come to give you freedom”, 1971.
• Svyatoslav Loginov. "Well"