Features of the Razin uprising. Peasant war led by S.

Stepan Razin is well known not only as a historical figure, but also as a character in works of art: a folk song about Stenka Razin, a historical novel by A.P. Chapygin "Razin Stepan", etc. What reasons prompted a simple Don Cossack Stepan Timofeevich to rebel against the royal power of Alexei Mikhailovich? One of the eyewitnesses of those events, the Dutchman Jan Streis, writes that the rebel himself explained this reason by revenge for his brother, who was executed by order of the commander Yuri Dolgoruky in 1665 during a campaign against the Poles. But still, apparently, this was not what prompted him to oppose the king, since he also opposed the Persian ruler, who personally did not harm him in any way.

Officially explains the reasons for the uprising by the general dissatisfaction of the peasants with life under serfdom. Having led the army of the Don Cossacks, which also included runaway peasants dissatisfied with the tsarist policy, Razin began to "walk" along the Volga, robbing Russian and foreign merchants (1667). Then (1668 - 1669), together with his gang of hoards, he went across the Caspian Sea to Persia - also with a predatory purpose. The legend of a Persian princess captured and drowned in the Volga for obstinacy is retold by the people in a song. This fact is not known for certain, but it is quite probable, given the unbridled nature of the Cossack robber. After the Persian campaign, the rebel troops returned to the Volga, then crossed the Don. Everywhere his army was replenished with “goofy” people, that is, a barren of Cossacks and runaway peasants. About the fugitives: having fled from the feudal lords of central Russia to the Volga or the Don, they could not settle in new places, living in peaceful labor, and then they joined the leader. This is no longer just a gang, but a whole army of robbers formed at the ataman.

In the spring of 1670, he led his people to the Volga, in the summer of the same year he took Astrakhan, where his people, like robbers, mercilessly cut all the boyars and even priests. Having plundered and ruined Astrakhan, he headed north along the Volga. A disorderly peasant revolt from that time develops into an uprising, and then into a full-fledged peasant war. Razin was joined by the zemstvo, foreigners - everyone who was against the tsarist laws and the arbitrariness of the boyars in the field. With catastrophic speed, the territory engulfed by the fire of war expanded. With his troops, he quickly moved north along the Volga, conquered cities and approached Simbirsk - a turning point in the war took place here. Near Simbirsk, Stepan was met by a well-trained tsarist army led by Prince Yu.N. Baryatinsky and defeated the peasant detachments of the rebel. The leader himself with his Cossacks under the cover of night, leaving the army of the Volga peasants, fled to the Don. In the morning, the rebels saw that they had been betrayed, and quickly rushed to the Volga, where their ships stood. But Baryatinsky, of course, foresaw this option and got ahead of the fugitives. All were either shot, hanged, or taken prisoner. As a warning to others, hundreds of gallows were built on the banks of the Volga, on which the bodies of the rebels dangled for a long time. After the defeat in this war, people gradually came to their senses. And the rumors about the gallows along the banks of the Volga sobered up desperate people who were ready for a riot.

And most importantly - the flight of Stepan Razin. It did not add any courage, or insolence, or courage to the discontented peasants. He disappointed them with his betrayal and flight, put an end to his fate. But he still tried to fight on the Don. Ataman Kornila Yakovlev gathered an army of Don Cossacks against him. The chieftain repelled these speeches, as always, brutally cracking down on opponents. But cruelty did not save him. Already Don began to reject him. Razin made another attempt to take Cherkassk. It was unsuccessful and he retreated to the city of Kagalnik. There he was found by the Cossack militia of Kornily Yakovlev. Having attacked Kagalnik, defeated the rebel detachments and captured him together with his brother Frolka, the Cossacks handed over Ataman Razin to the tsarist government. Yakovlev himself delivered the brothers to Moscow, where they were executed.

The most powerful popular uprising of the XVII century. There was a peasant war of 1670-1671. under the leadership of Stepan Razin. It was a direct result of the aggravation of class contradictions in Russia in the second half of the 17th century.

The difficult situation of the peasants led to increased escapes to the outskirts. The peasants went to remote places on the Don and in the Volga region, where they hoped to hide from the yoke of landlord exploitation. The Don Cossacks were not socially homogeneous. The "domovity" Cossacks mostly lived in free places along the lower reaches of the Don with its rich fishing grounds. It reluctantly accepted into its composition new aliens, poor (“goofy”) Cossacks. "Golytba" accumulated mainly on the lands along the upper reaches of the Don and its tributaries, but even here the situation of runaway peasants and serfs was usually difficult, since the homely Cossacks forbade them to plow the land, and there were no new fishing places for the newcomers. Golutvenye Cossacks especially suffered from a lack of bread on the Don.

A large number of runaway peasants also settled in the regions of Tambov, Penza, and Simbirsk. Here the peasants founded new villages and villages, plowed up empty lands. But the landowners immediately followed them. They received letters of grant from the tsar for supposedly empty lands; the peasants who settled on these lands again fell into serfdom from the landowners. Walking people concentrated in the cities, who earned their living by odd jobs.

The peoples of the Volga region - Mordovians, Chuvashs, Maris, Tatars - experienced heavy colonial oppression. Russian landowners seized their lands, fishing and hunting grounds. At the same time, state taxes and duties increased.

A large number of people hostile to the feudal state accumulated on the Don and in the Volga region. Among them were many settlers who were exiled to distant Volga cities for participating in uprisings and various kinds of protests against the government and governors. Razin's slogans found a warm response among the Russian peasants and the oppressed peoples of the Volga region.

The beginning of the peasant war was laid on the Don. Golutvenny Cossacks undertook a campaign to the shores of the Crimea and Turkey. But the thrifty Cossacks prevented them from breaking through to the sea, fearing a military clash with the Turks. The Cossacks, led by Ataman Stepan Timofeevich Razin, moved to the Volga and, near Tsaritsyn, captured a caravan of ships heading to Astrakhan. Having sailed freely past Tsaritsyn and Astrakhan, the Cossacks entered the Caspian Sea and headed to the mouth of the Yaik (Ural) River. Razin occupied the Yaitsky town (1667), many Yaitsky Cossacks joined his army. The following year, a detachment of Razin on 24 ships headed for the shores of Iran. Having ravaged the Caspian coast from Derbent to Baku, the Cossacks reached Rasht. During the negotiations, the Persians suddenly attacked them and killed 400 people. In response, the Cossacks defeated the city of Ferahabad. On the way back at Pig Island, near the mouth of the Kura, the Iranian fleet attacked the Cossack ships, but suffered a complete defeat. The Cossacks returned to Astrakhan and sold the captured booty here.

A successful sea trip to Yaik and to the shores of Iran sharply increased Razin's authority among the population of the Don and the Volga region. Fugitive peasants and serfs, promenading people, the oppressed peoples of the Volga region were only waiting for a signal in order to raise an open uprising against their oppressors. In the spring of 1670, Razin reappeared on the Volga with a 5,000-strong Cossack army. Astrakhan opened the gates for him; Streltsy and townspeople everywhere went over to the side of the Cossacks. At this stage, Razin's movement outgrew the framework of the campaign of 1667-1669. and resulted in a powerful peasant war.

Razin with the main forces went up the Volga. Saratov and Samara met the rebels with bells, bread and salt. But under the fortified Simbirsk, the army lingered for a long time. To the north and west of this city, a peasant warrior was already raging. A large detachment of rebels under the command of Mikhail Kharitonov took Korsun, Saransk, and captured Penza. Having united with the detachment of Vasily Fedorov, he went to Shatsk. Russian peasants, Mordovians, Chuvashs, Tatars went to war almost without exception, without even waiting for the arrival of Razin's detachments. The peasant war was getting closer and closer to Moscow. Cossack atamans captured Alatyr, Temnikov, Kurmysh. Kozmodemyansk and the fishing village of Lyskovo on the Volga joined the uprising. Cossacks and Lyskovites occupied the fortified Makariev Monastery in the immediate vicinity of Nizhny Novgorod.

On the upper reaches of the Don, the rebels were led by Stepan Razin's brother Frol. The uprising spread to the lands south of Belgorod, inhabited by Ukrainians and bearing the name Sloboda Ukraine. Everywhere the “muzhiks,” as the tsarist documents called the peasants, rose up with weapons in their hands and, together with the oppressed peoples of the Volga region, fought fiercely against the feudal lords. The city of Tsivilsk in Chuvashia was besieged by "Russian people and Chuvash".

The nobles of the Shatsk district complained that they could not get to the royal governors "because of the unsteadiness of the traitorous peasants." In the area of ​​Kadoma, the same "traitor-muzhiks" set up a notch in order to detain the tsarist troops.

Peasant War 1670-1671 covered a large area. The slogans of Razin and his associates raised the oppressed sections of society to fight, the “charming” letters drawn up by the differences called on all “enslaved and disgraced” to put an end to worldly bloodsuckers, to join Razin’s army. According to an eyewitness to the uprising, Razin told the peasants and townspeople in Astrakhan: “For the cause, brothers. Now take revenge on the tyrants who have hitherto kept you in captivity worse than the Turks or the pagans. I have come to give you freedom and deliverance."

The Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks, peasants and serfs, young townspeople, service people, Mordovians, Chuvashs, Maris, Tatars joined the ranks of the rebels. All of them were united by a common goal - the struggle against feudal oppression. In the cities that went over to the side of Razin, the voivodship power was destroyed and the management of the city passed into the hands of the elected. However, fighting against feudal oppression, the rebels remained tsarists. They stood for the “good king” and spread the rumor that Tsarevich Alexei was with them, who at that time in reality was no longer alive.

The peasant war forced the tsarist government to mobilize all its forces to suppress it. Near Moscow, for 8 days, a review of the 60,000th noble army was carried out. In Moscow itself, a strict police regime was established, as they were afraid of unrest among the city's lower classes.

A decisive clash between the rebels and the tsarist troops took place near Simbirsk. Large reinforcements from the Tatars, Chuvashs and Mordovians flocked to the detachments to Razin, but the siege of the city dragged on for a whole month, and this allowed the tsarist governors to gather large forces. Near Simbirsk, Razin's troops were defeated by regiments of a foreign system (October 1670). Expecting to recruit a new army, Razin went to the Don, but there he was treacherously captured by thrifty Cossacks and taken to Moscow, where he was subjected in June 1671 to a painful execution - quartering. But the uprising continued even after his death. Astrakhan held out the longest. She surrendered to the tsarist troops only at the end of 1671.

Razin Stepan Timofeevich, also known as Stenka Razin (circa 1630-1671). Don Ataman. Leader of the Peasants' War (Stepan Razin's Uprising) 1667–1671

Born in the village of Zimoveyskaya in the family of a prosperous - "home-loving" - Cossack Timofey Razi, a participant in the capture of the Turkish fortress of Azov and the "Azov seat", the father of three sons - Ivan, Stepan and Frol. Stenka early gained combat experience in frontier battles that constantly took place in the Zadonsk and Kuban steppes. In his youth, the future Cossack chieftain was distinguished by ardor, pride and personal courage.

1652 - according to the behest of his late father, he made a trip on a pilgrimage to the Solovetsky Monastery, having traveled the entire Russian kingdom from south to north and back, he visited Moscow. The seen lack of rights and poverty of the peasant and townspeople had a strong influence on the worldview of the young Cossack.

In the military circle in 1658 he was elected to the village (embassy) from the free Don, headed by Ataman Naum Vasiliev to Moscow. From that time, the first written evidence of Stepan Timofeevich Razin has been preserved for history.

Stepan rose early to the ranks of the Cossack leaders thanks to his diplomatic abilities and military talents. 1661 - together with Ataman Fedor Budan, he negotiated with the Kalmyk taishas (princes) on the conclusion of peace and joint actions against the Crimean Tatars in Zadonye. The negotiations were crowned with success, and for two centuries the Kalmyk cavalry was part of the regular military force of the Russian state. And Razin, as part of the Don villages, had a chance to visit the capital city of Moscow and Astrakhan again. There he took part in new negotiations with the Kalmyks, without the need for translators.

In 1662 and 1663 at the head of a detachment of Don Cossacks, Razin made successful campaigns within the limits of the Crimean Khanate. Together with the Cossacks of Sary Malzhik and the cavalry of the Kalmyk taishas, ​​the Razin Cossacks in the battles near Perekop and in the Molochny Vody tract defeated the Krymchaks, in whose ranks there were many Turks. They captured rich booty, including horse herds of 2000 heads.

Causes of the uprising

... The events of 1665 abruptly changed the fate of the Razin brothers. By royal order, a large detachment of Don Cossacks, which was led by Ivan Razin on the campaign, became part of the troops of the voivode of Prince Yu.A. Dolgoruky. There was a war with the Polish-Lithuanian state, but it was fought extremely sluggishly near Kyiv.

When the winter cold began, ataman Ivan Razin tried to arbitrarily take his Cossacks back to the Don. By order of Prince Dolgorukov, he, as the instigator of the "rebellion", was seized and executed in front of his younger brothers. Therefore, the motive of revenge for brother Ivan largely determined the anti-boyar sentiments of Stepan Razin, his hostility to the existing "Moscow authorities."

At the end of 1666, by order of the tsar, they began to search for the fugitives in the Northern Don, where a lot of Cossacks had accumulated in particular. The situation there became explosive for boyar Moscow. Stepan Razin, feeling the mood on the Don, decided to act.

Before the uprising

1667, spring - he, with a small detachment of Cossack hoards and runaway peasant serfs, moved on river boats-plows from the military village of the city of Cherkassk up the Don. Along the way, the farms of wealthy, well-to-do Cossacks were ruined. Razintsy settled on the islands between the channels of the Don - Ilovlya and Silence. They dug dugouts and put up huts. This is how the Panshin town appeared at the portage from the Don to the Volga. Stepan Razin was proclaimed chieftain.

Soon, the detachment of Stepan Razin standing there increased to 1,500 free people. Here the plan for a campaign along the Volga “for zipuns” finally matured. They learned about this in Moscow: the Cossack freemen in the letter to the Astrakhan governor were declared "thieves' Cossacks." According to the plan of their leader, they had to move with plows to the Volga, go down it to the Caspian Sea and take possession of the remote Yaitsky town, which they wanted to make their robbery base. Razin has already “arranged” relations with the Yaik Cossacks.

1668, May - Cossack boats appeared on the Volga north of Tsaritsyn and went down the river, leaving the Caspian Sea. The first merchant caravan they met was plundered. Passing along the seashore, the ship's army entered Yaik, and the Razintsy took the Yaitsky town in which the streltsy garrison was stationed. A detachment of tsarist archers, approaching from Astrakhan, was defeated under the walls of the town. Then the song went:

From behind the island to the rod,
To the expanse of the river wave,
The sharp-breasted ones come up
Stenki Razin Chelny.

Differences were taken to the ancient city-fortress Derbent - "the iron gates of the Caucasus." For some time, it became a base for robbery raids "for zipuns" for the Cossack ship's rati on the Persian coast.

The Razintsy overwintered on the peninsula near Ferahabad, and then moved to the Pig Island south of Baku, which was “equipped” by them under the Cossack town. From here, the Cossacks continued their naval raids, almost always returning to the island with rich booty. Among the devastated cities were the rich trading Shemakha and Rasht.

The Cossacks took rich booty in the settlements of the Gilyansky Gulf and the Trukhmen (Turkmen) coast, in the vicinity of Baku. From the possessions of the Baku Khan, the Razintsy took away 7,000 sheep. Persian military detachments in battles were invariably defeated. They freed a considerable number of Russian captives who are here in slavery.

The Persian shah from the Abbasid dynasty, concerned about the current situation in his Caspian possessions, sent an army of 4,000 people against Razin. However, the Persians were not only bad sailors, but also unstable warriors. 1669, July - near the island of Pig, a real naval battle took place between the Cossack flotilla and the Shah's army. Of the 70 Persian ships, only three fled: the rest were either boarded or sunk. However, the Cossacks in that naval battle lost about 500 people.

The campaign to the Caspian "for zipuns" gave the Cossacks rich booty. The flotilla of Cossack plows, burdened by it, returned to their homeland. In August - September 1669, Stenka Razin passed Astrakhan, where there was a parking lot, and ended up in Tsaritsyn. He happened to give the Astrakhan governor Prince Semyon Lvov part of the booty taken and large-caliber cannons for the right of free passage to Tsaritsyn. From here, the Cossacks crossed to the Don and settled in the Kagalnitsky town.

Cossacks began to flock to Kagalnik, and by the end of the year, under the leadership of Ataman Razin, up to 3,000 people had gathered here. The younger brother Frol came to him. Relations with the military Cossack foreman, who settled in Cherkassk, became strained, hostile.

And Razin's plans were expanding. Thinking of going to war with boyar Moscow, he tried to find allies in that. In winter, he started negotiations with the Ukrainian hetman Petro Doroshenko and the ataman of the Cossacks Ivan Serko. However, those from the war with Moscow prudently refused.

The uprising of Stepan Razin or the Peasant War

In the spring of 1770, Stenka Razin moved from the Kagalnitsky town to the Volga. His army was divided into detachments and hundreds. Strictly speaking, this was the beginning of the Peasant War (the uprising of Stepan Razin), which in Russian historiography comes down to 1667-1671. Now the daring robber ataman was turning into the leader of a people's war: he called on the army that had risen under his banner to "go to Russia."

Tsaritsyn opened the city gates to the rebels. The local governor Timofey Turgenev was executed. A ship caravan with a thousand archers, headed by Ivan Lopatin, who approached from above along the Volga, was smashed on the water near Money Island, and part of the royal service people went over to their side.

However, on the Volga, the Astrakhan governor, Prince Semyon Lvov, was already waiting for the Cossacks with his archers. The meeting of the parties took place at the Black Yar. But the battle did not happen here: the Astrakhan service people rebelled and went over to the side of the opposite side.

From Cherny Yar, the Cossack chieftain sent detachments up and down the Volga. They took Kamyshinka (now the city of Kamyshin). Relying on the full sympathy of the common people, Stepan Razin was able to capture the Volga cities of Saratov and Samara without much difficulty. Now the main part of his army, which had grown to 20,000 poorly armed and organized rebels, was made up of landlord peasants.

Around Razin appeared other initial people from the Cossacks, commanders of independent detachments. Among them stood out Sergey Krivoy, Vasily Us, Fedor Sheludyak, Yeremeev, Noisy, Ivan Lyakh and Razin's younger brother Frol.

The first blow was struck at Astrakhan with its stone Kremlin. The flotilla of the rebels now consisted of 300 different river boats, on which there were more than 50 guns. The Cossack cavalry moved along the river bank. In total, the ataman led about 7,000 people.

Voivode Prince Ivan Prozorovsky could not defend the fortress city of Astrakhan. The Razintsy, supported by the uprising of the urban poor, took it by storm on June 24. The governor was executed: he was thrown from the tower to the ground. From Astrakhan, the rebels moved up the Volga: in the city, Stepan Razin left Us and Sheludyak as governors, instructing them to take good care of the city. He himself led about 12,000 people with him. It is believed that somewhere around 8,000 of them were armed with "fire battle".

After Samara was taken, the entire Middle Volga was in the fire of a popular uprising. Everywhere, Razin gave the serfs “freedom”, and the “bellies” (property) of the governor, nobles and clerks (officials) - for plunder. The leader of the rebels was met in towns and villages with bread and salt. On his behalf, "charming letters"-appeals were sent in large numbers in all directions.

In Moscow, they realized the seriousness of the situation: by decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the Boyar Duma began to gather military detachments into the area of ​​​​the uprising of Stepan Razin: archery regiments and hundreds, local (noble) cavalry, serving foreigners. First of all, the tsarist governors were ordered to protect the then large cities of Simbirsk and Kazan.

Meanwhile, the peasant war was growing. Rebel detachments began to appear in places not so far from Moscow. Due to their spontaneity and disorganization as a military force, the rebels, who smashed the landowners' estates and boyars' estates, could very rarely offer serious resistance to the military detachments that were sent out by the authorities. On behalf of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Stenka, Razin was declared a "thieves chieftain".

Simbirsk governor Ivan Miloslavsky was able to organize the defense of the city. Razintsy could not take it: part of the garrison (about 4,000 people) took refuge in the local Kremlin. In the battles that took place near Simbirsk from October 1 to October 4, 1670, they were defeated by the tsarist troops, under the command of an experienced governor, Prince Yu.A. Dolgorukov.

Stepan Timofeevich Razin himself fought in the forefront in those battles, and was seriously wounded. He was brought from near Simbirsk to the Kagalnitsky town. Ataman hoped to gather his strength again in his native Don. Meanwhile, the territory covered by the uprising narrowed sharply: the tsarist troops took Penza, "pacified" the Tambov region and Sloboda Ukraine by force of arms. Up to 100,000 rebels are believed to have died during Stepan Razin's uprising.

Suppression of the uprising. execution

... Having recovered a little from his wounds, Razin decided to take possession of the military capital - Cherkasy. But he did not calculate his strengths and capabilities: by that time, the Cossack foreman and thrifty Cossacks, impressed by the victories of the tsar's governors, were disposed towards him and the rebellious homeless with open hostility and took up arms themselves.

Razintsy approached Cherkassk in February 1671, but they could not take it and retreated to Kagalnik. On February 14, a detachment of Cossack foremen, led by the military ataman Yakovlev, captured the Kagalnitsky town. According to other sources, almost the entire Don army, about 5,000 people, set out on a campaign.

In the town of Kagalnitsky there was a beating of a rebellious homeless. Razin himself was captured and, together with his younger brother Frol, was sent under strong guard to Moscow. It should be noted that Ataman Kornilo (Korniliy) Yakovlev was “on Azov affairs” an ally of Father Stepan and his godfather.

The "thief ataman" Stenka Razin was executed in Moscow on Red Square on June 6, 1671. The executioner first cut off his right arm to the elbow, then his left leg to the knee, and then cut off his head. Thus ended his violent life the most legendary Cossack robber in the history of Russia, about whom many popular songs and legends were composed among the people.

... The name of Stepan Timofeevich Razin has always been remembered in Russian history. Before the revolution, songs were sung about him and legends were composed, after the revolution, during the Civil War, the 1st Orenburg Cossack Socialist Regiment bore his name, which distinguished itself in battles against the White Army of Admiral Kolchak in the Urals. Ataman of the rebellious Cossacks erected a monument in the city of Rostov-on-Don. Streets and squares in various cities of modern Russia are named after him.

At the end of the XVII century. in Russia, the largest Cossack-peasant uprising broke out. The reasons that people took up arms and stood up against the authorities were different for each layer - the peasants, archers and Cossacks had their own reasons for this. The uprising led by Stepan Razin consisted of two stages - a campaign against the Caspian, which was of a predatory nature, and a campaign against the Volga, which already took 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 20th century most often assessed the uprising of Stepan Razin 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 quite complex. Behind each factor of the uprising was a certain social type of the rebellious people. First, they were Cossacks (Fig. 2). When in 1642 the Cossacks refused to conquer the fortress of Azov, they could no longer go on predatory campaigns in the Black Sea region and in the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov: Azov, the Turkish fortress, blocked their path. Therefore, the size of the military booty of the Cossacks decreased significantly. Due to the difficult situation in Russia (Russian-Polish war) and the enslavement of 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, archers took part in the uprising (Fig. 3), which 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 paying full salaries to servicemen, which the archers did not like. This was the reason for their joining the uprising.

Rice. 3. Archers ()

Thirdly, the peasant movement could not do without the peasants themselves (Fig. 4). The formal enslavement of the peasants according to the Council Code of 1649 did not yet mean the establishment of a complete serfdom regime, but still severely 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.towards the middleXVIIin. among the Cossacks, the top stood out - the homely Cossacks. If the main part of the Cossacks were mostly poor people, former peasants and serfs, then the wealthy 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 leader of the Cossacks needed to know the languages ​​of his opponents. Twice Stepan Razin crossed the Moscow state - he went to 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 subjection.

On the eve of Stepan Razin's uprising, there was a social explosion - a harbinger of a formidable performance. Several hundred Cossacks, led by Vasily Us, moved towards Moscow. They wanted to be recognized as service people and paid them a salary. 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 against the Caspian Sea. Sailing along the Volga, Razin's army approached Astrakhan. Here the tsarist governor tried to detain the "thieves' army", but the Razintsy 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 entered the city, killed the guards at night and let their army into the city. All the authorities of the Yaitsky 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 whole army of Stepan participated in the duvan - the division of the looted property between the Cossacks equally. After Razin and Duvan entered the army, the archers became full-fledged Cossacks.

Rice. 5. Ferrying ships by dragging ()

In the spring of 1668, the Cossack Razin 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 rout. They captured and plundered the large city of Derbent, as well as a number of other cities. In the town of Farabat, an episode occurred that 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 Shah of Persia sent his fleet against the Cossacks. Then Razin embarked on a trick. Using cunning again, the Razin fleet pretended to flee, and then, gradually turning its ships, smashed the Persian ships one at a time.

Burdened with prey, the Razintsy moved home in 1669. This time, Razin's army could not slip past Astrakhan unnoticed, so Stepan Razin brought guilt to the Astrakhan prince Prozorovsky. In Astrakhan (Fig. 6), the Razintsy stopped for a while. The Cossacks of Stepan Razin went on a campaign “for zipuns” as ordinary people, discreetly dressed and not rich, and returned with money, in expensive clothes with magnificent weapons, thus appearing before the people of Astrakhan, including before service people. Then a doubt crept into the minds of the serving tsar's people: is it worth serving the tsar further or going to Razin's army.

Rice. 6. Astrakhan in the 17th century ()

Finally, the Razintsy set sail 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 another, the daughter of an influential Kabardian prince overboard his ship, since his legal wife was waiting for him at home. This story was the basis of the folk song "From the island to the rod." This episode shows the essence of the predatory campaign of Stepan Razin to the Caspian Sea. Having dragged between the Volga and the Don, the Razintsy returned home. But Razin did not disband his army.

In the spring of 1670, a royal messenger arrived on 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 did not come from the tsar, but from traitors to the 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 on the Volga, Stepan Razin sent lovely letters to people (Fig. 8) - agitation to his army. In these letters, Razin urged "to bring out the worldly bloodsuckers," that is, to destroy all the privileged classes in Russia, which, in his opinion, interfere with the lives of ordinary people. That is, S.T. Razin spoke not against the tsar, but against the shortcomings of the then existing system.

Rice. 8. Charming letters of 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 detachment of archers to meet the Razints, 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 Razintsy took the fortress. Voivode Prozorovsky and the authorities of Astrakhan were executed.

After the capture of Astrakhan, the army of Stepan Razin moved up the Volga. One by one, the cities were captured by Razin's troops, the archery garrisons went over to the side of the rebels. Finally, the best Moscow infantry, the capital's archers, was sent against the Razin army (Fig. 9). The Razintsy captured the Volga city of Saratov, and the Moscow archers did not yet know about it. Then S.T. Razin once again embarked on a trick. Part of the Razin troops imitated the assault on the fortress, and part settled in the city. As soon as the Moscow archers landed near Saratov, all the Razintsy attacked them, and then the tsarist troops laid down their arms. Most of the Moscow archers joined the Razin army, but the Razintsy did not really trust them and put them on the oars.

Rice. 9. Capital archers ()

Further, the Razin army reached the city of Simbirsk (Fig. 10). The fortress resisted, and the government army approached it. However, Razin took over and forced the government troops to retreat. Near Simbirsk, the peasant character of the uprising manifested itself to a greater extent. In this area, the peasants en masse joined the rebels. But they acted within their area where they lived: they killed landlords, stormed fortresses and monasteries, and then returned to their farms.

Rice. 10. Stepan Razin's troops storm Simbirsk ()

In September 1670, newly formed and trained government regiments approached Simbirsk, which this time defeated the army of Stepan Razin. He was wounded and with several Cossacks fled down the Volga and to the Don. On the Don, the homely Cossacks handed 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 tortures and in the summer of 1671 was executed by quartering. Razin's brother, Frol, was executed a few years later, since at first he said that he knew where the treasures of the Razin people were hidden, but this turned out not to be the case.

After the execution of Stepan Razin, the core of the rebel army, the Cossacks, was defeated, but the uprising did not immediately stop. In some places, the peasants still came out with weapons. But the peasant movement was soon also suppressed. Boyar Yuri Dolgoruky hanged 11,000 peasants during punitive campaigns.

Theoretically, in the event of the victory of Razin's troops, the structure of the Muscovite 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 Razintsy 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 unpromising.

Bibliography

1. Baranov P.A., Vovina V.G. etc. History of Russia. 7th grade. - M.: "Ventana-Count", 2013.
2. Buganov V.I. Razin and Razintsy. - M., 1995.
3. Danilov A.A., Kosulina L.G. Russian history. 7th grade. Late 16th - 18th century. - M.: "Enlightenment", 2012.
4. Peasant war led by Stepan Razin: in 2 volumes. - M., 1957.
5. Chistyakova E.V., Solovyov V.M. Stepan Razin and his associates / Reviewer: Dr. ist. sciences, prof. IN AND. Buganov; Design by artist A.A. Brantman. - M.: Thought, 1988.

1. Protown.ru ().
2. Hiztory.ru ().
3. Document.history.rf ().

Homework

1. Tell us about the reasons for the uprising led by Stepan Razin.
2. Describe the personality of S.T. Razin.
3. What type can be attributed to the first stage of the uprising - to the predatory Cossack or to the peasant?
4. What contributed to the continuation of the uprising of Stepan Razin after the first stage? Name the reasons for the defeat of the Razintsy. Comment on the consequences of this uprising.

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.

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

What do we know about Stepan Timofeevich Razin today?

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

Russian historian V.I. Buganov, in his work Razin and Razintsy, 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 hushing up of facts, and bias in their coverage, and even outright lies.

What did the rebels demand from the rulers?

It is known that the Razintsy acted under the banner of the great war for the Russian sovereign against the traitors - the Moscow boyars. Historians explain this, at first glance, a strange slogan, by the fact that the Razintsy 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 decree of the great sovereign and according to his letter, the great sovereign, we, the great army of the Don from the Don, went to serve him, the great sovereign, so that we, these betrayers of the boyars, would not die completely.

Note that the name of Alexei Mikhailovich is not mentioned in the letter. Historians consider this detail insignificant. In their other letters, the Razintsy express a clearly dismissive 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 Russia, but go to fight for him.

Who was Stepan Razin?

Suppose that Stepan Razin was not just a Cossack chieftain, but a governor of the sovereign, but not Alexei Romanov. How can this be? Following the new chronology, after the great turmoil and the coming to power of the Romanovs in Muscovy, the southern part of Russia, with its capital in Astrakhan, did not swear allegiance to the invaders. The governor of the Astrakhan tsar was Stepan Timofeevich. Presumably, the ruler of Astrakhan was from the family of the Cherkassky princes. It is impossible to name him today due to the total distortion of history by order of the Romanovs, but one can assume ...

Cherkasy were from the old Russian-Ardyn families and were descendants of the Egyptian sultans. This is reflected on the coat of arms of the Cherkasy family. It is known that from 1380 to 1717 Circassian sultans ruled in Egypt. Today, historical Cherkasy is mistakenly placed in the North Caucasus, while 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 XVIII century. The word "Cherkasy" was used to refer to the Dnieper Cossacks. As for the presence of one of the Cherkasy princes in the Razin troops, this can be confirmed. Even in the Romanov version, history brings us information that in Razin's army there was a certain Cherkashenin Alexei Grigorievich, one of the Cossack chieftains, the named brother of Stepan Razin. Perhaps we are talking about Prince Grigory Suncheleevich Cherkassky, who served as 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.

The victory in this war was not easy for the Romanovs. As is known from the conciliar regulation of 1649, Tsar Alexei Romanov established the indefinite attachment of peasants to the land, i.e. approved 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: the Chuvash, the Mari, and others. But in addition to the common population, the Romanov troops also crossed over to the side of Razin! German newspapers of that time wrote: “So many strong troops got to Razin that Alexei Mikhailovich was so frightened that he no longer wanted to send his troops against him.”

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

All these large-scale events are presented by historians only as the suppression of a peasant revolt. This version began to be actively introduced by the Romanovs immediately after their victory. Special letters were made, the so-called. "sovereign exemplary", which outlined 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 an uprising of the mob, it means that most of the country rebelled against the Romanovs.

According to the reconstruction of the Fomenko-Nosovsky so-called. Razin's rebellion was a major war between the southern kingdom of Astrakhan and the Romanov-controlled parts of White Russia, the northern Volga, and Veliky Novgorod. This hypothesis is 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 the 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 Astrakhans 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 the execution of Razin, reports:

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

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

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