The origin of the historical figure Stepan Razin. Don Cossack Stepan Timofeevich Razin: biography, history, main dates and interesting facts. "A sedate man with an arrogant face"

Razin Stepan Timofeevich - (c. 1630-1671) - leader of the Peasant War of 1670-1671, leader of a large protest movement of peasants, serfs, Cossacks and urban lower classes of the 17th century.

Born approx. 1630 in the village of Zimoveyskaya on the Don (or in Cherkassk) in the family of a wealthy Cossack Timofey Razin, probably the middle son of three (Ivan, Stepan, Frol). The first document about him is his request for leave to travel to the Solovetsky Monastery in 1652.

Shut up, dog! (during the execution to brother Frol, who, seeing Stepan’s torment that awaited him, became confused and shouted: “I know the word and deed of the sovereign”!)

Razin Stepan Timofeevich

In 1658 he was among the Cherkasy Cossacks sent to Moscow to the Ambassadorial Prikaz. In 1661, together with Ataman F. Budan, he negotiated with the Kalmyks to conclude peace and joint actions against the Tatars. In 1662 he became an ataman; in 1662-1663 his Cossacks fought against the Turks and Crimeans and took part in the Battle of Molochny Vody on the Crimean Isthmus. He returned to the Don with rich trophies and prisoners.

In 1665, the governor and prince. Yu.A. Dolgorukov hanged Razin’s elder brother Ivan for leaving without permission with the Cossacks to the Don during the Russian-Polish War. Stepan decided not only to avenge his brother, but also to punish the boyars and nobles. Gathering a “gang” of 600 people, he set off in the spring of 1667 from the Zimoveysky town near Tsaritsyn up the Don, along the way robbing government plows with goods and the houses of rich Cossacks. The enterprise was called a “campaign for zipuns” and was a violation of the promise given by the Don Cossacks to the Moscow authorities to “stop theft.” “Vataga” quickly grew to 2 thousand people. on 30 plows. Having captured Yaik by cunning, Razin executed 170 people who saw in his army a “horde of thieves” and replenished the “band” with sympathizers from the local population.

Having established a camp between the rivers Tishini and Ilovnya, he reorganized the “army”, giving it the features of a regular one, divided into hundreds and dozens, led by centurions and tens. Anyone who met his “band” and did not want to go with her was ordered to be “burned with fire and beaten to death.” Despite the cruelty, he remained in people's memory as generous, friendly, and generous to the poor and hungry. He was considered a sorcerer, they believed in his strength and happiness, and called him “father.”

In 1667-1669 Razin committed Persian campaign, defeating the fleet of the Iranian Shah and gaining experience in the “Cossack war” (ambushes, raids, outflanking maneuvers). The Cossacks burned villages and hamlets of the Dagestan Tatars, killed residents, and destroyed property. Taking Baku, Derbent. Reshet, Farabat, Astrabat, Razin took prisoners, among them was the daughter of Meneda Khan. He made her a concubine, then dealt with her, proving the ataman’s prowess. This fact was included in the text of the folk song about Stenka Razin, but already at that time legends about the “bewitched by a bullet and a saber” destroyer of other people’s property, about his strength, dexterity and luck, were spreading everywhere.

In August-September 1669, having returned to the Don, he and his “comrades” built a fortress on the island - the town of Kagalnik. On it, Razin’s “gang” and he himself distributed the spoils of war, inviting him to join the Cossack army, enticing him with wealth and prowess. The Moscow government's attempt to punish the obstinate people by stopping the supply of grain to the Don only added to Razin's supporters.

In May 1670, at the “larger circle”, the ataman announced that he intended to “go from the Don to the Volga, and from the Volga to Rus'... in order... to remove the traitorous boyars and duma people from the Moscow state and the governors and officials in the cities ", give freedom to "black people".

Stepan Timofeevich Razin (1630 - 1671) - a famous Don Cossack and leader of the largest uprising in Russia.

Childhood

There is very little information about Stepan Timofeevich’s childhood. From the writings of the Dutch traveler Streis it is known that Razin was born around 1630, since at the time of the meeting with the navigator the man, according to Streis, was about forty years old.

The place of birth of the future rebel is also unknown for certain. Nevertheless, the dominant version is that he was born in the village of Zimoveyskaya (later called Pugachevskaya and located on the territory of the Volgograd region).

There are also versions in history that Cherkasy is their homeland. This was first stated by the scientist and historian Rigelman, arguing that Zimoveysk was first mentioned in the chronicles only a year after Stepan’s death. As for Cherkassk, the version about it was confirmed not only by Rigelman, but also by another Don historian Bykadorov.

If we talk about folk legends and beliefs, then the birthplace of Stenka Razin in different time They called the village of Razdory, as well as villages called Esaulovskaya and Kagalnitskaya. However, no confirmed evidence has yet been found that Razin was born there. By the way, no information was found about who his parents were and what they did.

Youth

How Razin’s fate developed became known, according to manuscripts, only in 1652. At that time, Stepan and his older brother Ivan already commanded several detachments of Don Cossacks and had considerable authority in the territories they owned (they, by the way, were huge). In 1661, having secured the support of another prominent ataman, Fyodor Budan, Stepan, together with his older brother, began to oppose Crimean Tatars and Nogais. A two-day battle takes place between the warring clans, after which the authorized Ivan makes peace and withdraws the troops back to their native territory.

At the same time, Prince Dolgorukov sends his ambassador to the Razins to remind them of their mandatory military service on the Don River. The reminder from the tsarist administration only fuels the Cossacks’ desire for independence, as reported by the ambassador who returned to the prince. In response, Dolgorukov orders his detachment to arrest and execute one of the main Cossacks.

According to scientists, it should have been Stepan Razin himself, but during the discussion Ivan vigorously showed initiative, as a result of which the sent detachment decided to execute the wrong leader. The loss of his brother became a serious reason for Razin to continue to disobey royal power, and even more - to strive to make the Cossacks independent of any royal decrees and commands.

The uprising of Stepan Razin

In 1649, the so-called Council Code was adopted, according to which the peasants became even more dependent on their landowners. As a result, discontent began to grow, resulting in frequent escapes of forced laborers into Cossack territory. However, due to the fact that the fugitive peasants did not have their own property or housing on the territory of the Don Cossacks, they did not belong to the “old-timers”, but to the barefoot, which was replenished daily with dozens of newly arrived dissatisfied peasants. And, naturally, in search of food, the golytba increasingly carried out predatory attacks on villages and cities, robbing the same landowners.

The situation with flaring discontent on the part of the captives was only to the advantage of Razin and other Don Cossacks. They increasingly supplied the hungry and angry peasants with weapons, advised the most vulnerable places for attacks and waited until the “army” began to pose a serious threat to the tsarist administration. By 1667, the detachment of the Cossacks themselves numbered about two hundred people, not counting the army of many thousands from the Golytba, which revered Stenka Razin and was ready to tear the kings and princes to shreds in order to find themselves in the long-awaited freedom.

On May 15, 1667, the famous uprising of Stepan Razin began. An army under the command of the Cossacks went to the Volga and robbed several merchant ships, taking in all those peasants who were forced on board. According to bibliographers, until the winter of that year the uprising was only of a predatory nature and was no different from numerous Cossack raids in the past. But by winter, Stenka Razin successfully defeated Beklemishev’s detachment of archers, and then took the Yaitsky town in battle, which could only mean one thing - the uprising had acquired an anti-government character and threatened to overthrow the existing government.

In 1669, the Cossacks, despite holding multi-day battles, won several battles. While near Pig Island, they meet the troops of Mamed Khan of Astara, with whom they enter into a battle, later called the “Battle at Pig Island.” The Safavids, who considered themselves excellent strategists, linked their ships with chains in order to take control of the entire Cossack fleet as quickly as possible and without losses.

However, Stenka Razin, sensing that this was precisely the enemy’s mistake, ordered the sinking of Mamed Khan’s flagship, followed by the rest of the ships. As a trophy, Razin takes hostage the daughter and son of the Shah, whom he publicly throws from the ship after the sinking of the Safavid Armada.

Peasants' War

In 1670, Stepan Timofeevich ventured on another military campaign. Unlike the previous one, which until the last moment was kept under the strictest confidence, this one, on the contrary, immediately becomes public. Walking through villages and hamlets, Razin openly calls on the people to revolt and liberate themselves from serfdom, while declaring that his ultimate goal is not to overthrow the existing ruler Alexei Mikhailovich (nevertheless, he still declares himself an opponent of all power). The calls lead to unrest in many villages and villages, and followers of Razin (in particular, Alena Arzamasskaya) appear who want to quickly gain freedom and freedom.

After successful campaigning, Stenka takes Samara, Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan and Saratov by storm, intending to add the city of Simbirsk to them. However, the latter becomes an insurmountable fortress for him, so the autumn siege fails. At the same time, the tsar sends a 60,000-strong army to restore order, which, after a short battle, inflicts serious damage on the Cossacks and severely wounds Razin himself. He is taken to the city of Kagalnitsky, where the military leader plans to recover and attack the enemy again. But his fate is determined by another Cossack - Kornila Yakovlev, who, fearing the tsar’s anger at all his fellow tribesmen, decides to kidnap Razin and hand him over to the tsar’s court.

Last days of life

On June 2, 1671, Stepan Razin was taken to Moscow, where an hour later he was sentenced to death by quartering. At the same time, his younger brother Frol is also being condemned.

On June 6 of the same year, on Bolotnaya Square, in front of a huge crowd, Stepan Razin was first tortured and then his head was cut off. All this is carried out in front of Frol, who, unable to bear what he saw, repents of his deeds and asks for mercy. This prolongs his life by exactly five years: in 1676 he is executed there, on Bolotnaya Square.

Stepan Timofeevich Razin is the ataman of the Don Cossacks, who organized the largest popular uprising of the pre-Petrine period, which was called the Peasant War.

The future leader of the rebellious Cossacks was born in the village of Zimoveyskaya in 1630. Some sources point to another place of birth of Stepan - the city of Cherkassk. The father of the future ataman Timofey Razia was from Voronezh region, but moved from there for unclear reasons to the banks of the Don.

The young man settled down among the free settlers and soon became a homely Cossack. Timofey was distinguished by his courage and bravery in military campaigns. From one campaign, a Cossack brought a captive Turkish woman into his house and married her. The family had three sons - Ivan, Stepan and Frol. The godfather of the middle brother was the ataman of the army, Kornil Yakovlev.

Time of Troubles

In 1649, the “Conciliar Epistle”, signed by the Tsar, finally established serfdom. The document proclaimed the hereditary state of serfdom and allowed the search period for fugitives to be increased to 15 years. After the adoption of the law, uprisings and riots began to break out across the country, many peasants went on the run in search of free lands and settlements.

It's arrived Time of Troubles. Cossack settlements increasingly became a haven for “golytba”, poor or impoverished peasants who joined the wealthy Cossacks. By unspoken agreement with the “homely” Cossacks, detachments were created from the fugitives that were engaged in robbery and theft. The Turkic, Don, Yaik Cossacks increased at the expense of the “golutvenny” Cossacks, their military power grew.

Youth

In 1665, an event occurred that influenced future fate Stepan Razin. The elder brother Ivan, who took part in the Russian-Polish war, decided to voluntarily leave his positions and retire with the army to his homeland. According to custom, the free Cossacks were not obliged to obey the government. But the governor’s troops caught up with the Razins and, declaring them deserters, executed them on the spot. After the death of his brother, Stepan was inflamed with rage towards the Russian nobility and decided to go to war against Moscow in order to free Rus' from the boyars. The unstable position of the peasantry also became the reason for Razin's uprising.

From his youth, Stepan was distinguished by his daring and ingenuity. He never went ahead, but used diplomacy and cunning, so already at a young age he was part of important delegations from the Cossacks to Moscow and Astrakhan. With diplomatic tricks, Stepan could settle any failed case. Thus, the famous campaign “for zipuns,” which ended disastrously for the Razin detachment, could have led to the arrest and punishment of all its participants. But Stepan Timofeevich communicated so convincingly with the royal governor Lvov that he sent the entire army home, equipped with new weapons, and presented Stepan with an icon of the Virgin Mary.

Razin also showed himself as a peacemaker among the southern peoples. In Astrakhan, he mediated a dispute between the Nagaibak Tatars and Kalmyks and prevented bloodshed.

Insurrection

In March 1667, Stepan began to gather an army. With 2000 soldiers, the ataman set out on a campaign along the rivers flowing into the Volga to plunder the ships of merchants and boyars. Robbery was not perceived by the authorities as a rebellion, since theft was an integral part of the existence of the Cossacks. But Razin went beyond the usual robbery. In the village of Cherny Yar, the ataman carried out reprisals against the Streltsy troops, and then released all the exiles in custody. After which he went to Yaik. The rebel troops, by cunning, entered the fortress of the Ural Cossacks and subjugated the settlement.

Map of the uprising of Stepan Razin

In 1669, the army, replenished with runaway peasants, led by Stepan Razin, went to the Caspian Sea, where it launched a series of attacks on the Persians. In a battle with the flotilla of Mamed Khan, the Russian ataman outwitted the eastern commander. Razin's ships imitated an escape from the Persian fleet, after which the Persian gave the order to unite 50 ships and surround the Cossack army. But Razin unexpectedly turned around and subjected the enemy’s main ship to heavy fire, after which it began to sink and pulled the entire fleet with it. So, with small forces, Stepan Razin emerged victorious from the battle at Pig Island. Realizing that after such a defeat the Safivids would gather a larger army against the Razins, the Cossacks set off through Astrakhan to the Don.

Peasants' War

The year 1670 began with the preparation of Stepan Razin’s army for a campaign against Moscow. The chieftain went up the Volga, capturing coastal villages and cities. To attract the local population to his side, Razin used “charming letters” - special letters that he distributed among the city people. The letters said that the oppression of the boyars could be thrown off if you joined the rebel army.

Not only the oppressed strata went over to the side of the Cossacks, but also Old Believers, artisans, Mari, Chuvash, Tatars, Mordvins, as well as Russian soldiers of government troops. After widespread desertion, the tsarist troops were forced to begin recruiting mercenaries from Poland and the Baltic states. But the Cossacks treated such warriors cruelly, subjecting all foreign prisoners of war to execution.

Stepan Razin spread a rumor that the missing Tsarevich Alexei Alekseevich, as well as an exile, was hiding in the Cossack camp. Thus, the ataman attracted more and more dissatisfied with the current government to his side. Over the course of a year, residents of Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan, Saratov, Samara, Alatyr, Saransk, and Kozmodemyansk went over to the side of the Razins. But in the battle near Simbirsk, the Cossack flotilla was defeated by the troops of Prince Yu. N. Baryatinsky, and Stepan Razin himself, after being wounded, was forced to retreat to the Don.

For six months, Stepan took refuge with his entourage in the town of Kagalnitsky, but the local wealthy Cossacks secretly decided to surrender the ataman to the government. The elders feared the wrath of the tsar, who could fall on the entire Russian Cossacks. In April 1671, after a short assault on the fortress, Stepan Razin was captured and taken to Moscow along with his close entourage.

Personal life

ABOUT privacy ataman, no information has been preserved in historical documents, but all that is known is that Razin’s wife and his son Afanasy lived in the Kagalnitsky town. The boy followed in his father's footsteps and became a warrior. During a skirmish with the Azov Tatars, the young man was captured by the enemy, but soon returned to his homeland.

The legend about Stepan Razin mentions a Persian princess. It is assumed that the girl was captured by the Cossacks after the famous battle on the Caspian Sea. She became Razin’s second wife and even managed to give birth to children for the Cossack, but out of jealousy the ataman drowned her in the abyss of the Volga.

Death

At the beginning of the summer of 1671, guarded by the governors, the steward Grigory Kosagov and the clerk Andrei Bogdanov, Stepan and his brother Frol were taken to Moscow for trial. During the investigation, the Razins were subjected to severe torture, and 4 days later they were taken to execution, which took place on Bolotnaya Square. After the verdict was announced, Stepan Razin was quartered, but his brother could not stand what he saw and asked for mercy in exchange for secret information. After 5 years, having not found the stolen treasures promised by Frol, it was decided to execute the ataman’s younger brother.

After the leader's death liberation movement the war continued for another six months. The Cossacks were led by atamans Vasily Us and Fyodor Sheludyak. The new leaders lacked charisma and wisdom, so the uprising was suppressed. The people's struggle led to disappointing results: serfdom was tightened, the days of transition of peasants from their owners were abolished, and it was allowed to show extreme cruelty towards disobedient serfs.

Memory

The story of the uprising of Stepan Razin remained in the memory of the people for a long time. 15 folk songs are dedicated to the national hero, including “Because of the island on the river”, “There is a cliff on the Volga”, “Oh, it’s not evening”. The biography of Stenka Razin aroused creative interest among many writers and historians, such as A. A. Sokolov, V. A. Gilyarovsky,.

The plot about the exploits of the hero of the Peasant War was used to create the first Russian film in 1908. The film was called "Ponizovaya Volnitsa". The streets of St. Petersburg, Tver, Saratov, Yekaterinburg, Ulyanovsk and other settlements are named in honor of Razin.

The events of the 17th century formed the basis for operas and symphonic poems by Russian composers N. Ya. Afanasyev, A. K. Glazunov,.

Biography

Razin's personality attracted enormous attention from his contemporaries and descendants; he became a hero of folklore, and then the first Russian film. Apparently, he was the first Russian about whom a dissertation was defended in the West (and only a few years after his death).

Before the uprising

Born in the Cherkasy village of Zimoveyskaya, (Emelyan Pugachev was later born there), after the suppression of the Pugachev uprising, it was renamed the Little Russian village of Potemkinskaya, currently the village of Pugachevskaya, Kotelnikovsky district, Volgograd region.

Razin appears on the pages of history in 1652. By this time he was already an ataman and acted as one of the two authorized representatives of the Don Cossacks; Apparently, his military experience and authority among the Donets was already great by this time. Razin's older brother Ivan was also a prominent Cossack leader. In -1663, Stepan commanded Cossack troops in campaigns against the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire. In 1665, the tsarist governor, Prince Yu. A. Dolgorukov, during one of the conflicts with the Don Cossacks, who wanted to go to the Don while serving as tsar, ordered the execution of Ivan Razin, Stepan’s older brother. This event influenced Razin’s further activities: the desire to take revenge on Dolgorukov and the tsarist administration was combined with the desire for a free and prosperous life for the Cossacks under his command. Soon, apparently, Razin decided that the Cossack military-democratic system should be extended to the entire Russian state.

Hike for zipuns

Modern estimates

The main reasons for the defeat of Razin's uprising were:

its spontaneity and low organization,
the fragmentation of the actions of the peasants, as a rule, limited to the destruction of the estate of their own master,
the rebels lack clearly understood goals.

Even if the Razins had managed to win and capture Moscow, they would not have been able to create a new, just society. After all, the only example of such a fair society in their minds was the Cossack circle. But the entire country cannot exist by seizing and dividing other people's property. Any state needs a management system, an army, and taxes.

Therefore, the victory of the rebels would inevitably be followed by new social differentiation. The victory of the unorganized peasant and Cossack masses would inevitably lead to great casualties and would cause significant damage to Russian culture and the development of the Russian state.
Thus, after the liberation of Moscow from the seven-boyars and the interventionists, the power of the proteges of the Cossacks - the House of Romanov - was established, but the enforcement of the Cossacks seemed to the peasants a more severe form of exploitation than patrimonial and landownership. The Romanovs returned the Cossacks to the traditional Cossack lands, and after the Seat of Azov (1641-1642), supposedly only to prevent the Cossacks from collecting volunteers for wars with the Ottoman port throughout Russia, the Council Code of 1649 restored what had been abolished during the Time of Troubles and the peasant war led by Ivan Bolotnikov, serfdom, the abolition of which the Razinites fought unsuccessfully.

In historical science there is no unity on the question of whether to consider Razin’s uprising a peasant-Cossack uprising or a peasant war. IN Soviet time the name “peasant war” was used; in the pre-revolutionary period it was about an uprising. IN last years again the predominant definition is “rebellion.”

Stepan Razin in art

Literature

songs about Stenka Razin, stylized as folk songs / A. S. Pushkin
“For whose sins?” / Mordovtsev, Daniil Lukich - historical novel (1891).
“Stenka Razin” / M. Tsvetaeva - poem (1917)
“Razin” / V. Khlebnikov - poem, (1920)
“Stenka Razin” / V. A. Gilyarovsky - poem
“Stepan Razin” / V. Kamensky - poem
“Razin Stepan” / A. Chapygin - historical novel (1924-1927)
“Stepan Razin (Cossacks)” / Ivan Nazhivin - historical novel (1928)
“Stepan Razin” / S. Zlobin - novel (1951)
“I came to give you freedom” / V. Shukshin - novel (1971)
“Stenkin’s Court” / Maximilian Voloshin - poem (1917).
“The Execution of Stenka Razin” / Evgeny Yevtushenko - poem (1964).
“The Well” / Svyatoslav Loginov - novel (1997).

Movies

Musical works

“Stenka Razin” - opera by composer N. Ya. Afanasyev
“Stenka Razin” - symphonic poem by composer A. K. Glazunov
"Anathema" - rock opera by composer Vladimir Kalle
“There is a cliff on the Volga” - Folk song
“Because of the island to the core” - folk song to the words of D. M. Sadovnikov
“Oh, it’s not evening” - folk song
“The Execution of Stepan Razin” - symphonic poem for bass, choir and symphony orchestra by D. D. Shostakovich
“The Dream of Stepan Razin” - epic for bass and symphony orchestra by G. I. Ustvolskaya
“Court” - a song by composer Konstantin Kinchev based on verses by Alexei Tolstoy)
“Ataman will be born” - song by Nikolai Emelin.

Places named in memory of S. Razin

Lake Razelm in Dobruja

The name of the largest lake in Romania (actually a group of lakes, lagoons and estuaries) in honor of Stepan Razin and the Razins is explained by oral tradition, reflected at the end of the 19th century in the Great Romanian Geographical Dictionary (Marele Dictionar Geografic Roman). The dictionary reports the temporary residence of Stepan Razin in the Yenisala fortress (several kilometers south of Sariköy), as well as the stay of Vanka Kain on the island of Popino (northeast of Sariköy) and Trishki-Rasstrizhka on the island of Biserikutsa (Tserkovka).

Settlements

The village of Razin is located in the Zemetchinsky district of the Penza region, in the place where the uprising took place.
Workers' village named after Stepan Razin - locality in the Lukoyanovsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region of Russia
The village of Stepan Razin in the Volgograd region (Leninsky district).
the village of Stepano-Razinskaya in the Volgograd region (Bykovsky district).
Stepan Razin, an urban-type settlement in Azerbaijan, subordinate to the Leninsky District Council (now Sabunchu District) of Baku. Located on the Absheron Peninsula. 39.8 thousand inhabitants (as of 1975).

Avenues and streets

Stepan Razin Avenue is located in the city of Tolyatti
Streets are named after Stepan Razin in Rostov-on-Don, Perm, Arzamas, Armavir, Voronezh, Yekaterinburg, Izhevsk, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Samara, Sarapul, Saratov, Orenburg, Chelyabinsk, Orel, Temirtau, Petrozavodsk, Michurinsk, Dmitrov .
Stepan Razin's descent onto the Imperial (old) bridge over the Volga River in Ulyanovsk.
Stepan Razin embankment in Tver.
In Tuapse there is also Stepan Razin Street.

Enterprises

Named after Stepan Razin

Razin Stepan Timofeevich (about 1630-1671), Cossack ataman, leader of the peasant war of 1670-1671.

Don Cossack from a wealthy family. He knew Polish, Tatar and Kalmyk languages, was elected by the Don people three times to the embassy in Moscow and once to the Kalmyks. In 1663, as a punishable ataman, he defeated the Krymchaks near Perekop.

“He was a tall and sedate man, of strong build, with an arrogant, straight face. He behaved modestly, with great severity,” a contemporary wrote about 33-year-old Razin.

In 1666, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich demanded a census on the Don and the return of fugitive serfs. Angered by the Cossacks’ answer “there is no extradition from the Don!”, the tsar blocked their trade and the supply of food.

In the spring of 1667, a thousand “golutvenny” - poor but well-armed Cossacks - followed Razin from the Don to the Volga. Having boarded a rich caravan of ships and recruiting new fighters, the ataman made his way to the Caspian Sea by force and cunning and, with an army of one and a half thousand, wintered on the Yaik River (Ural).

In the spring of 1668, having carefully prepared the fleet, Razin began a campaign with 3 thousand soldiers. Having passed from Derbent to the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, the Cossacks obtained a lot of valuables from Iranian ships. By the spring of 1670, the army, well organized, was rushing to the Volga. The chieftain called: “To go to Rus', to the boyars.”

Razin took Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd) and defeated a thousand-strong army of archers rushing towards the city. Near the city of Black Yar, archers with drums beating and banners unfurled went over to his side. Near Astrakhan, the royal governor gave battle, but the city rebelled and on June 22 allowed Razin in.

The chieftain sent 2 thousand soldiers to the Don, and with the rest he went up the Volga. Saratov and Samara opened the gates for Razin; in Samara, the strong army of Ivan Miloslavsky and Prince Yuri Baryatinsky was locked in the Kremlin by differences. By besieging him, Razin lost a month and lost the initiative in the war.

The Tsar sent the 60,000-strong army of Prince Yu. A. Dolgorukov against the Cossacks and assembled new armies in Kazan and Shatsk. But every day brought news of the capture of cities and fortresses, of the terrible death of nobles, officials, service people and local nobility. Sviyazhsk, Korsun (now Korsun-Shevchenkovsky), Saransk, Penza and other cities fell to the rebels; Nizhny Novgorod and Kokshaysk were under siege.

In winter, the Razins suffered a number of defeats from government troops.

In the spring of 1671, the homely Don Cossacks, having received help from the tsar with troops, weapons and supplies, took the town of Kagalnitsky and captured Razin and his brother Frol.

The last stronghold of the rebels - Astrakhan fell.