At the end of the 17th century. in Russia, the largest Cossack-peasant uprising broke out. The reasons that people took up arms and stood up against the government were different for each stratum - the peasants, archers and Cossacks had their own reasons for this. The uprising led by Stepan Razin consisted of two stages - a campaign to the Caspian, which was of a predatory nature, and a campaign to the Volga, which was already taking place with the participation of peasants. S.T. Razin was a strong, intelligent and cunning man, which allowed him to subjugate the Cossacks and gather a large army for his campaigns. You will learn more about all this in this lesson.
Historians of the XX century. most often the uprising of Stepan Razin was assessed as the second peasant war in Russia. They believed that this movement was a response to the enslavement of the peasants in 1649.
As for the reasons for the uprising led by Stepan Razin, they were complex and complex enough. Behind each factor in the uprising was a certain social type of the people in revolt. First, they were the Cossacks (Fig. 2). When in 1642 the Cossacks abandoned the conquest of the Azov fortress, they could no longer go on predatory campaigns in the Black Sea region and in the Azov region: they were blocked by Azov, a Turkish fortress. Therefore, the size of the military booty of the Cossacks decreased significantly. Due to the difficult situation in Russia (the Russian-Polish war) and the enslavement of the peasants, the number of fugitive peasants to the south of the country increased. The population grew, and the sources of livelihood turned out to be less and less. Thus, tension arose on the Don, which explains the participation of the Cossacks in the uprising of Stepan Razin.
Rice. 2. Don Cossacks ()
Secondly, the archers took part in the uprising (Fig. 3), who made up the bulk of the garrisons in southern Russia. That is, the main military force of the country went over to the side of the rebels. Financial problems did not allow the full salary to be paid to servicemen, which the archers did not like. This was the reason for their joining the uprising.
Rice. 3. Sagittarius ()
Third, the peasant movement could not do without the peasants themselves (Fig. 4). The formal enslavement of the peasants in accordance with the Cathedral Code of 1649 did not yet mean the establishment of a complete serfdom, but it nevertheless greatly limited the rights of the peasants. This was the reason for their participation in the uprising of Stepan Razin.
Rice. 4. Peasants ()
Thus, each social type had its own reason for dissatisfaction with the Russian government.
The Cossacks were the driving force behind the uprising led by Stepan Razin.To the middleXviiv. among the Cossacks, the elite stood out - the homely Cossacks. If the bulk of the Cossacks were mostly poor people, former peasants and slaves, then the homely Cossacks were rich people with personal property. Thus, the Cossacks were heterogeneous, and this manifested itself during the uprising.
As for the personality of Stepan Timofeevich Razin (c. 1631-1670), he was an amazing person with great life experience. Several times the Cossacks elected him as their chieftain. Razin knew the Tatar and Turkish languages, since on the Don the Cossack leader needed to know the languages of his opponents. Twice Stepan Razin crossed the Moscow state - he traveled to the Solovki in the White Sea. S.T. Razin was an educated person with a broad outlook. He also had a strong-willed character, and he kept all the Cossacks in obedience.
On the eve of Stepan Razin's uprising, a social explosion occurred - a harbinger of a formidable uprising. Several hundred Cossacks, led by Vasily Us, moved to Moscow. They wanted to be recognized as servants and paid their salaries. However, near Tula they were stopped and forced to turn back.
In the spring of 1667 Stepan Razin decided to go along with the Cossacks on a predatory campaign to the Caspian Sea. Having sailed along the Volga, Razin's army approached Astrakhan. Here the tsarist voivode tried to detain the "thieves' army", but the Razins managed to slip through one of the branches in the Volga delta (Fig. 5) and entered the Caspian Sea. Then they moved up, then to the East along the river. Yaik. On this river was the royal fortress Yaitsky town with the Yaik Cossacks living there. Stepan Razin and his Cossacks used a trick: they changed into simple clothes and, having penetrated the city, killed the guards at night and let their army into the city. All the heads of the Yaitsk town were executed by Razin's Cossacks. Most of the service people in this fortress went over to the side of the rebels. Then the entire army of Stepan participated in duvan - the division of the looted property between the Cossacks equally. After joining the army of Razin and Duvan, the archers became full-fledged Cossacks.
Rice. 5. Ferrying ships by drag ()
In the spring of 1668, the Razin Cossack army descended down the river. Yaik and went to the western coast of the Caspian - the Persian shores. The Cossacks subjected the coast to a devastating defeat. They captured and plundered the large city of Derbent, as well as a number of other cities. An episode took place in the town of Farabat, which showed the truly predatory intentions of the Razin army. Having agreed with the inhabitants of the city that the army of Stepan Razin would not plunder their city, but would only trade, after all the bargaining, it attacked the inhabitants and plundered the city.
In 1669 the Razin Cossacks plundered the eastern Turkmen coast of the Caspian Sea. Finally, the Persian Shah sent his fleet against the Cossacks. Then Razin began to trick. Using again the trick, the Razin fleet feigned flight, and then, gradually turning their ships, smashed the Persian ships one by one.
Weighed down with prey, the Razins moved home in 1669. This time, Razin's army could not slip past Astrakhan imperceptibly, so Stepan Razin brought a confession to the Astrakhan prince Prozorovsky. In Astrakhan (Fig. 6) the Razins stopped for a while. Stepan Razin's Cossacks went on a campaign "for zipuns" by ordinary people, discreetly dressed and not rich, and returned with money, in expensive clothes with magnificent weapons, appearing so in front of the Astrakhan people, including the service people. Then a doubt crept into the minds of the servants of the tsar's people: is it worth serving the tsar further or going into the army to Razin.
Rice. 6. Astrakhan in the 17th century. ()
Finally, the Razins sailed from Astrakhan. Before leaving, Stepan presented his dear lip to Prozorovsky. When the Cossacks sailed from Astrakhan, Stepan Razin threw, according to one version, the Persian princess, according to the other, the daughter of an influential Kabardian prince overboard his ship, since his legal wife was waiting for him at home. This plot was used as the basis for the folk song "From Beyond the Island to the Rod". This episode shows the essence of Stepan Razin's predatory campaign to the Caspian Sea. Having passed the portage between the Volga and the Don, the Razins returned home. But Razin did not disband his army.
In the spring of 1670, a royal messenger arrived at the Don in Cherkassk. Stepan Razin arrived here with his army. A general Cossack circle took place (Fig. 7). Razin proved to his Cossacks that the messenger came not from the tsar, but from the traitorous boyars, and he was drowned in the river. Thus, the bridges were burned, and Stepan decided to go with his Cossack army to the Volga.
Rice. 7. Cossack circle led by Stepan Razin in Cherkassk ()
On the eve of the campaign to the Volga, Stepan Razin sent people lovely letters (Fig. 8) - agitation for his army. In these letters, Razin urged "worldly bloodsuckers to withdraw", that is, to destroy all the privileged estates in Russia, which, in his opinion, prevent ordinary people from living. That is, S.T. Razin spoke not against the tsar, but against the shortcomings of the then existing system.
Rice. 8. Lovely letters by Stepan Razin ()
Stepan Razin did not want to leave the strong Astrakhan fortress in his rear, and his army first moved down the Volga. Voivode Prozorovsky sent a large rifle detachment to meet the Razins, but he went over to the side of the rebels. When Razin's army approached Astrakhan, the first assault on the fortress was unsuccessful. But then most of the archers went over to the side of the rebels, and the Razins took the fortress. Voivode Prozorovsky and the authorities of Astrakhan were executed.
After the capture of Astrakhan, Stepan Razin's army moved up the Volga. One after another, the cities were captured by Razin's troops, the rifle garrisons went over to the side of the rebels. Finally, the best Moscow infantry, the capital archers, was sent against the Razin army (Fig. 9). The Razins captured the Volga city of Saratov, and the Moscow archers did not know about it yet. Then S.T. Razin once again launched a trick. Part of the Razin troops imitated the storming of the fortress, and part - settled in the city. As soon as the Moscow archers landed near Saratov, all the Razins attacked them, and then the tsarist troops laid down their arms. Most of the Moscow archers joined the Razin army, but the Razins did not trust them very much and put them on the oars.
Rice. 9. Capital archers ()
Then the Razin army reached the city of Simbirsk (Fig. 10). The fortress withstood, and the government army approached it. However, Razin got the upper hand and forced the government troops to retreat. Near Simbirsk, the peasant character of the uprising manifested itself to a greater extent. In this area, peasants massively joined the insurgents. But they operated within their area, where they lived: they killed landowners, took fortresses and monasteries by storm, and then returned to their farms.
Rice. 10. Troops of Stepan Razin storm Simbirsk ()
In September 1670, newly formed and trained government regiments approached Simbirsk, which this time defeated Stepan Razin's army. He was wounded and with several Cossacks fled down the Volga and to the Don. On the Don, homely Cossacks turned over Razin to the authorities, as they were saving their lives.
Stepan Timofeevich Razin and his brother Frol were taken to Moscow. Razin endured all the torture and in the summer of 1671 was executed by quartering. Razin's brother, Frol, was executed several years later, since at first he said that he knew where the treasures of the Razin people were hidden, but this turned out to be not the case.
After the execution of Stepan Razin, the core of the rebel army, the Cossacks, was defeated, but the uprising did not stop immediately. In some places, the peasants still came out with weapons. But the peasant movement was soon suppressed as well. Boyarin Yuri Dolgoruky hanged 11,000 peasants during punitive campaigns.
Theoretically, in the event of the victory of Razin's troops, the structure of the Moscow state would not have changed, since it could not be arranged in the image of the Cossack circle, its structure was more complex. If the Razins won, they would want to take the estates with the peasants and settle down. Thus, the political system would not have been changed - the movement was hopeless.
Bibliography
- Baranov P.A., Vovina V.G. and other history of Russia. 7th grade. - M .: "Ventana-Graf", 2013.
- Buganov V.I. Razin and Razin. - M., 1995.
- Danilov A.A., Kosulina L.G. Russian history. 7th grade. End of the 16th - 18th century. - M .: "Education", 2012.
- Peasant War led by Stepan Razin: in 2 volumes. - M., 1957.
- Chistyakova E.V., Soloviev V.M. Stepan Razin and his associates / Reviewer: Dr. East. Sciences, prof. IN AND. Buganov; Design by the artist A.A. Brantman. - M .: Thought, 1988.
- Protown.ru ().
- Hiztory.ru ().
- Doc.history.rf ().
Homework
- Tell us about the reasons for the uprising led by Stepan Razin.
- Describe the personality of S.T. Razin.
- What type can be attributed to the first stage of the uprising - a predatory Cossack or a peasant?
- What contributed to the continuation of the uprising of Stepan Razin after the first stage? What are the reasons for the defeat of the Razins. Please comment on the consequences of this uprising.
In the history of Russia, there are not many uprisings that lasted for a long time. But the uprising of Stepan Razin is an exception from this list.
It was one of the most powerful and destructive.
This article provides a short account of this event, specifying the causes, prerequisites, and results. This topic is studied at school, in the 6th - 7th grade, the questions are included in the exam tests.
Peasant war led by Stepan Razin
Stepan Razin became a Cossack leader in 1667. He was able to gather under his command several thousand Cossacks.
In the 60s, separate detachments of fugitive peasants and townspeople repeatedly committed robberies in different places. There were many reports of such units.
But the gangs of thieves needed an intelligent and energetic leader, with whom small detachments could gather and form a single force that demolished everything in its path. Stepan Razin became such a leader.
Who is Stepan Razin
The leader and leader of the uprising, Stepan Razin, was a Don Cossack. Almost nothing is known about his childhood and youth. There is also no exact information about the place and date of birth of the Cossack. There are several different versions, but they are all unconfirmed.
The story begins to clear up only by the 50s. By that time, Stepan and his brother Ivan had already become commanders of large Cossack detachments. There is no information about how this happened, but it is known that the detachments were large, and the brothers had great respect among the Cossacks.
In 1661, they made a campaign against the Crimean Tatars. The government didn't like it. A report was sent to the Cossacks with a reminder that they are obliged to serve on the Don River.
Discontent and disobedience to the authorities in the Cossack detachments began to grow. As a result, Stepan's brother Ivan was executed. This was the reason that pushed Razin to the uprising.
Reasons for the uprising
The main reason for the events of 1667-1671. in Russia, it was that the population gathered on the Don, dissatisfied with the government. These were peasants and slaves who fled from feudal oppression and the strengthening of serfdom.
Too many disaffected people have gathered in one place. In addition, Cossacks lived on the same territory, whose goal was to gain independence.
The participants were united by one thing - hatred of order and power. Therefore, their alliance under the leadership of Razin was not surprising.
The driving forces behind the uprising of Stepan Razin
Various groups of the population took part in the uprising.
List of participants:
- peasants;
- Cossacks;
- archers;
- townspeople;
- slaves;
- peoples of the Volga region (mostly non-Russians).
Razin wrote letters in which he urged the disaffected to make campaigns against the nobles, boyars and merchants.
The territory covered by the Cossack-peasant uprising
In the first months, the rebels captured the Lower Volga region. Then most of the state was in their hands. The uprising map covers huge areas.
Cities captured by the rebels include:
- Astrakhan;
- Tsaritsyn;
- Saratov;
- Samara;
- Penza.
It is worth noting: most cities surrendered and went over to Razin's side voluntarily. This was facilitated by the fact that the leader declared free all people who passed to him.
Demands of the rebels
The rebels presented several demands to the Zemsky Sobor:
- Abolish serfdom and completely free the peasants.
- To form an army of Cossacks, which would be part of the tsarist army.
- Decentralize power.
- Reduce peasant taxes and duties.
The authorities, naturally, could not agree to such demands.
Main events and stages of the uprising
The peasant war lasted 4 years. The rebels were very active. The entire course of the war can be divided into 3 periods.
The first campaign 1667-1669
In 1667, the Cossacks captured the Yaitsky town and stayed there for the winter. This was the beginning of their actions. After that, the rebel troops decided to go “for zipuns,” that is, for prey.
In the spring of 1668 they were already in the Caspian Sea. Having ruined the coast, the Cossacks went home through Astrakhan.
There is a version that upon returning home, the chief governor of Astrakhan agreed to let the rebels pass through the city on the condition that they give him part of the booty. The Cossacks agreed, but afterwards they did not keep their word and shied away from fulfilling their promises.
Revolt of Stepan Razin 1670-1671
In the early 70s, the Cossacks under the leadership of Razin undertook a new campaign that had the character of an open uprising. The rebels moved along the Volga, seizing and destroying cities and settlements on their way.
Suppression of the uprising and execution
Stepan Razin's uprising dragged on for too long. Finally, the authorities decided to take more decisive action. At the time when the Razins were besieging Simbirsk, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich sent a punitive expedition to them in the form of an army of 60,000 to suppress the uprising.
Razin's troops numbered 20 thousand. The siege of the city was lifted, and the rebels were defeated. The comrades carried the wounded leader of the uprising from the battlefield.
Stepan Razin was captured only six months later. As a result, he was taken to Moscow and executed in Red Square by quartering.
Reasons for the defeat of Stepan Razin
The uprising of Stepan Razin is one of the most powerful in history. So why were the Razins defeated?
The main reason is the lack of organization. The uprising itself had a spontaneous struggle. Basically it consisted of robberies.
There was no administrative structure within the army; there was fragmentation in the actions of the peasants.
Results of the uprising
However, it cannot be said that the actions of the rebels were absolutely useless for the disaffected sections of the population.
- the introduction of benefits for the peasant population;
- free Cossacks;
- reduction of taxes on priority goods.
Another consequence was the beginning of the emancipation of the peasants.
As there was a rule “there is no extradition from Don”.
The Cossacks who lived here earlier were called "homely". They received a salary from the king, ran their own household, and could engage in trade. The mass exodus of peasants from the central regions of Russia led to the creation of a new stratum - the "young, golutven" Cossacks, that is, starvation.
In the 60s. XVII century famine began on the Don. The ego displeased the gluttony. At the head of the Golutven Cossacks was the ataman Vasily Us. In 1666 his detachments went to Moscow. On the way, they smashed the estates, the homes of the rich. The royal army was sent against them. Without waiting for the arrival of the army, the troops of Vasily Us returned to the Don.
In 1667, from the Don to the Volga, new detachments of idleness moved. Ataman Stepan Razin led the campaign. He also had many of those Cossacks who used to go with Vasily Us. Razin's detachments robbed the merchants who sailed along the Volga. From the Volga, the detachments went to the Yaik River, where they overwintered. In the years 1668-1669. Razin's ships sailed across the Caspian to Persia, where they defeated the Persian fleet and took a lot of booty. Then they moved through Astrakhan to the Don. The Astrakhan voivode, not wanting to get involved with Razin, let the armed detachments pass, demanding only to surrender the heavy cannons. An armed, united, strengthened military force returned to the Don. Ra-zin's authority as a leader grew.
In 1670 Razin went to the Volga again. He sent out "lovely" letters in which he called ("seduced") to an uprising against the oppressors of the people. Peasants, Cossacks, working people from the Volga fisheries, archers flocked to his army.
Battle of Tsaritsyn
Razin's army approached Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd) and took him without a fight.
Hike to Astrakhan
Atamans Stepan Razin and Vasily Us jointly moved to Astrakhan. It was a well-fortified, strategically important point on the Volga, and Razin did not want to leave it unconquered in his rear. The city prepared for the defense. The rebels took him by storm. They were helped by the archers and townspeople, who went over to Razin's side. Having dealt with the voivods, boyars, and orderly people, Razin left ataman Usa in Astrakhan, and he himself moved up the Volga. The cities of Saratov and Samara were well fortified, but surrendered without a fight.
The people were on the side of the rebels. Material from the site
Hike to Moscow
In the fall of 1670, Razin's troops approached Simbirsk. His siege lasted for a month. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, frightened by the scale of the uprising, moved a large army to Simbirsk. There was a battle. Razin showed himself to be a brave warrior, but he was wounded, and the rebels were forced to retreat to Tsaritsyn, and from there to the Don. There the "homely" Cossacks betrayed him to the tsarist army-scam. In 1671 Razin was executed in Moscow.
In the hands of the rebels was even the Lower Volga region. When the tsarist troops took Astrakhan, the surviving rebels fled to the North, to the Solovetsky monastery. The hotbeds of the uprising did not die out for many years.
The state tax was increased. Moreover, an epidemic of pestilence began, an echo of the earlier plague epidemic, and mass famine. Many serfs fled to the Don, where the principle “ No issue from Don": The peasants became Cossacks there. They, unlike the sedentary "homely" Cossacks, did not have any property on the Don and were the poorest stratum on the Don. Such Cossacks were called "golutvennye (golotba)". In their circle there was always a warm response to calls for "thieves" campaigns.
Thus, the main reasons for the uprising were:
- The final enslavement of the peasantry;
- The growth of taxes and duties of the social lower classes;
- The desire of the authorities to limit the Cossack freedom;
- The accumulation of poor "golutvenny" Cossacks and fugitive peasants on the Don.
The composition of the troops
The uprising, which grew into an anti-government movement of 1670-1671, was attended by Cossacks, small servicemen, barge haulers, peasants, townspeople, as well as many representatives of the peoples of the Volga region: Chuvash, Mari, Mordovians, Tatars, Bashkirs.
Rebel targets
It is difficult to talk about the goals and, moreover, about the political program of Stepan Razin. Given the weak discipline of the troops, the rebels did not have a clear plan. Among the various participants in the uprising, "lovely letters" were circulated, in which they called to "beat" the boyars, nobles, and clerks.
Razin himself said in the spring of 1670 that he was not going to fight against Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, but to “beat” the traitor boyars who had a negative influence on 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, the first wife of Alexei Mikhailovich, Maria Miloslavskaya, died. Together with her, her two sons died - 16-year-old Tsarevich Alexei and 4-year-old Tsarevich Simeon. There were rumors among the people that they were poisoned by traitors to the boyars, who were trying to seize power into their own hands. And also that the heir to the throne, Alexei Alekseevich, miraculously escaped by fleeing to the Volga.
Thus, at the Cossack circle, Stepan Razin declared himself an avenger for the Tsarevich and protector of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich against "dashing boyars who badly influence the sovereign's father." In addition, the leader of the uprising promised to give the "black people" freedom from the dominance of boyars or nobles.
Background
The so-called "Campaign for Zipuns" (1667-1669) - a campaign of rebels "for prey" is often referred to the uprising of Stepan Razin. 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 seizing the Yaitsky town, Razin moved to the Kagalnitsky town in the summer of 1669, where he began to gather his troops. When enough people had gathered, Razin announced a campaign against Moscow.
Training
Returning from the "campaign for zipuns", Razin visited Astrakhan and Tsaritsyn with his army, where he won the sympathy of the townspeople. After the campaign, the poor began to march towards him in droves, and he gathered a considerable army. He also wrote letters to various Cossack chieftains 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 governor and nobles and organized their own government headed by Vasily Us and Fyodor Sheludyak.
Battle of Tsaritsyn
Gathering troops, Stepan Razin went to Tsaritsyn (now the city of Volgograd) and surrounded it. Leaving the command of the army of Vasily Usa, Razin with a small detachment went to the Tatar settlements. There he was voluntarily given the cattle that Razin needed in order to feed the army.
In Tsaritsyn, meanwhile, the inhabitants experienced a shortage of water, the cattle of the Tsaritsynians were 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, hoping for the city walls and a thousand archers led by Ivan Lopatin, who went to the aid of the besieged. Knowing this, the leaders of the rebels 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 says that the Lopatins were going to Tsaritsyn to kill the townspeople and the Tsaritsyn archers, and then leave with the governor of Tsaritsyno Timofei Turgenev near Saratov. The archers believed and carried this news around the city in secret from the governor.
Soon the governor Timofey Turgenev 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 informed the Razin chieftains that they had prepared a riot and agreed with them about the time of its beginning.
At the appointed hour, a riot broke out in the city. The rioters 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 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 voivode behaved rudely with Razin, for this 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 halt was the 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 put sentries. In the midst of the halt, the Razins attacked him. They approached from both banks of the river and began to shoot at the Lopatins. Those in disorder boarded boats and began to row towards Tsaritsyn. Along the way, they were fired upon by Razin's ambush detachments. Suffering heavy losses, they sailed to the walls of the city, from which the Razins again fired at them. The archers have surrendered. Razin drowned most of the commanders, and made spared and ordinary archers into rowers-prisoners.
The battle for Kamyshin
Several dozen Razin Cossacks disguised themselves 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 rushed into the city and took it. Streltsov, nobles, the governor were executed. Residents were ordered to collect all the essentials and leave the city. When the city was deserted, the Razin people plundered it and then burned it down.
Hike to Astrakhan
In September 1670, the Razins took part of Simbirsk and laid siege to the Simbirsk Kremlin. The besieged garrison under the command of Prince Ivan Miloslavsky, with the support of the governor Yuri Baryatinsky sent from Moscow, repulsed four assault attempts. 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 the peasants and townspeople to fight. Razin's detachments, with the support of the local population who 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 Kozmodemyanskiy in early October, twice besieged ( in late October - early November and from November 11 (21) to December 3 (13)) and several times stormed the Tambov Kremlin. In the fall of 1670, rebel detachments provoked unrest in Galitsky, Efremovsky, Novosilsky, Tula and other districts, also under the influence of rumors about the success of the uprising, peasant unrest broke out in a number of districts where the Razin emissaries did not get - in Borovsky, Kashirsky, Kolomensky, Yury Yaroslavl.
To suppress the uprising, the government sent significant forces: on September 21 (October 1), an army headed by Prince Yu. A. Dolgorukov advanced from Murom, and an army under the command of Prince DA Baryatinsky set out from Kazan. Dolgoruky's army on October 22 (November 1) defeated Razin's detachments near the village of Murashkino north of Arzamas (now the village of Bolshoye Murashkino), liberated Saransk on December 16 (26), and took Penza on December 20 (30). Baryatinsky, who reached the besieged Simbirsk with battles, defeated Razin in the vicinity of the city on October 1 (11); three days later, after another unsuccessful assault on the Kremlin by the Razins, the siege was lifted. Then, on October 23 (November 2), Baryatinsky unblocked Tsivilsk and liberated Kozmodemyansk on November 3 (13). Building on their success, Baryatinsky's army on November 13 (23) defeated the Razins in a battle on the Uren River, and on November 23 (December 3) occupied Alatyr.
The largest battle between the rebels and the tsarist troops took place on December 7 and 8, 1670 near the villages of Baevo and Turgenevo (Mordovia). The rebels (20 thousand men with 20 cannons), commanded by the Mordovian Murza Akai Bolyaev (in the documents of Murzakayk, Murza Kaiko), the tsarist troops - by the governors, Prince Yu. [ ] .
Capture and execution of Razin. The defeat of the uprising
In the battle near 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 injury, Razin began to gather an army for a new campaign. However, the top of the Don Cossacks and the homely (prosperous) 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, having assembled a detachment led by the ataman of the Don army Kornil Yakovlev, April 14 (24), 1671 attacked Razin's headquarters in the Kagalnitsky town. 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 in 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 Eldress, 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 the Cossack foremen, the 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. In late spring - early summer, F. Sheludyak's detachment, with the support of I. Konstantinov, undertook a campaign from Tsaritsyn to Simbirsk, besieged it, but three assault attempts 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.
Outcomes
The executions of the rebels were massive and amazed the imagination of their contemporaries in their scale. So, an anonymous English sailor from the ship "Queen Esther", who watched the massacre of Prince Yuri Dolgorukov over the rebels on the Volga, in his brochure, published in Paris in 1671, reports:
In the end, the Razins did not achieve their goals - the destruction of the nobility and serfdom. It was not possible to massively win over to its side the agitated 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 reforms.
Reflection in art
Fiction
- Vasily Shukshin... “I Have Come to Give You Free”, 1971.
- Svyatoslav Loginov... "Well"
The culmination of popular performances in the 17th century. was the uprising of the Cossacks and peasants led by S.T. Razin. This movement originated in the villages of the Don Cossacks. The Don freemen has always attracted fugitives from the southern and central regions of the Russian state. Here they were protected by the action of the unwritten law - "there is no extradition from the Don." The government, in need of the services of the Cossacks for the defense of the southern borders, paid them a salary and put up with the self-government that existed there.
The norms of the Cathedral Code of 1649 sharply worsened the situation of the peasants. The growth of the monetary quitrent led to their impoverishment, especially where the land was infertile. Accordingly, the flow of fugitive peasants who went to the Don and its tributaries increased, since the Cossacks lived there and did not have to pay taxes. An especially large number of fugitive peasants was noted in the fertile regions of the Volga region, which were located next to the Trans-Volga steppes. All these circumstances predetermined the development of the peasant war here.
The areas inhabited by the Cossacks were part of the Russian state in an autonomous state. Using the Cossacks to guard the borders from the raids of the Crimean Tatars, the Russian government lowered their taxes and determined their salaries in money, bread and weapons. This circumstance sharply exacerbated the inequality between the "homely" Cossacks and the "nakedness", which constituted the bulk of the population of the towns located on the Don, Volga and their tributaries. It was these Cossacks who began to organize robbery campaigns to the lower reaches of the Volga and to the shores of the Caspian Sea.
Stepan Timofeevich Razin came from "homely" Cossacks and repeatedly participated in the embassies of the Don Army to the Kalmyks and to Moscow. He became the leader of the insurgent peasants and Cossacks.
Razin's movement began with a robbery campaign of the Cossacks in Persia in 1667. At first, the thousand-strong Razin army captured the Yaitsky town, and then, in the spring of 1668, headed for the shores of Persia. Having united with a detachment of Cossacks who arrived from the Don, they devastated the coast from Derbent to Baku, and also defeated the Persian Shah's flotilla directed against them, capturing rich booty, as well as the Shah's son Mendykhan.
On the way back, Razin's forces approached Astrakhan. The Astrakhan governors preferred to peacefully admit them into the city because they were given part of the weapons and booty.
In September 1669, Razin's troops sailed up the Volga and occupied Tsaritsyn. Having freed the prisoners who were in the prison, the Razins left for the Don. Thus ended the first period of Razin's movement, which marked the beginning of the peasant war. In the first campaign, elements of robbery were still present, although the direction of the movement against exploitation was already clearly visible.
In the spring of 1670, Razin began a second campaign, which was directed against the boyars, nobles, merchants, "for all digging and disgraced." In April 1670, having significantly replenished the ranks of his army, which now began to number 7000 people, Razin again captured Tsaritsyn. At the same time, the archers' detachments sent from Moscow and Astrakhan were defeated. The Cossack movement took on an openly anti-feudal character. The main purpose of the campaign was the capture of Moscow. For the campaign against Moscow, Razin wanted to provide the rear by capturing two large government fortresses - Tsaritsyn and Astrakhan.
Astrakhan was taken after a short assault, after which Razin's detachment began to climb up the Volga. Saratov and Samara surrendered to him without a fight. In early September, Razin's detachments approached Simbirsk (present-day Ulyanovsk). Behind the strong walls of his fortress, the voivode Miloslavsky sat out with large forces. Even from Tsaritsyn Razin sent everywhere "lovely letters" in which he called to join the uprising and harass the "traitors", that is, boyars, nobles, governors, clerks. The peoples of the Volga region - Tatars, Mordvinians - joined the Razin army. The uprising covered a huge territory in which numerous detachments were operating, led by atamans M. Osipov, M. Kharitonov, V. Fedorov, nun Alena and others. The movement also spread to Ukraine, where a detachment of Frol Razin, the brother of the chieftain, was sent. The rebels laid siege to monasteries and destroyed estates.
In September 1670, Razin's army approached Simbirsk and stubbornly besieged it for a month. The frightened government announced mobilization - in August 1670, the 60,000-strong tsarist army went to the Middle Volga region. In early October, a government detachment under the command of Y. Baryatinsky defeated the main forces of Razin and joined the Simbirsk garrison under the command of the governor, Prince I. Miloslavsky. Razin with a small detachment went to the Don, where he hoped to recruit a new army, but was betrayed by the top of the Cossacks and surrendered to the government. On June 4, 1671, he was taken to Moscow and two days later executed on Red Square. In November 1671, Astrakhan fell - the last stronghold of the rebels. The participants in the uprising were subjected to severe repression. In Arzamas alone, over 11 thousand people were executed.
The uprising led by Stepan Razin had features characteristic of medieval peasant wars - spontaneous actions, local character, and the absence of a mature political program. No less characteristic is the main slogan of the rebels - to put a "good tsar" in prison. But at the same time, the uprising left an indelible mark on the people's memory, reflected in historical and lyrical songs, legends and folk stories. Stepan Razin became one of the legendary heroes, a symbol of freedom.