He led the peasant uprising of 1670-1671. Chuvash Encyclopedia

In the second half of the 17th century, a difficult situation developed in Russia. The exhausting war with the Turks and Poles had a detrimental effect on the economic state of the state. The outbreak of epidemics and a shortage of bread in some areas of the country led to increased discontent among the population with representatives of the tsarist government. A particular scale of indignation occurred in the Don, where the Cossacks most acutely felt the infringement of their rights and the deterioration of life. It was there that a merciless riot broke out in 1667, which some historians called the peasant war, led by Stepan Razin.

At the time of the uprising, Razin was already a popular chieftain, enjoyed well-deserved authority among the Cossacks, and it was not difficult for him to become the head of the Cossack army. Moreover, he had personal reasons: to avenge the death of his older brother, executed by order of Prince Dolgoruky. The first campaign was made by a Cossack detachment to the lower reaches of the Don. The chieftain wanted to take the rich booty and distribute it to the poor people in need of help. Having captured several caravans with a rich catch, Razin returned. After this campaign, his popularity among peasants and Cossacks increased sharply. The influx of people into his troops increased, where they were immediately given freedom. The main demands of the rebels were the abolition of serfdom and exemption from taxes. This explained the reasons for the uprising under the leadership of Stepan Razin. Many serfs supported the demands and reached out to the chieftain. The number of his troops increased significantly. Having armed the people and replenished supplies, Razin decides to go to Moscow to punish the boyars and achieve the fulfillment of his demands. From the first steps of their campaign, the participants of the uprising achieved great success. The population everywhere greeted the rebels favorably and provided them with all possible support. Unrest swept across the Don, Volga and Mordovia territories. Many cities were captured, in particular Tsaritsyn, Samara, Saratov, Astrakhan. Executions of nobles and rifle chiefs are taking place everywhere.

In 1670, the main stage of Stepan Razin's uprising began. The tsarist government is drawing large forces to the rebellious territory, consisting of soldier regiments, noble detachments and Reiter cavalry. The main events take place near Simbirsk, which the rebels unsuccessfully tried to take. The main goals that the tsarist commanders set for themselves were to help the besieged Simbirsk repel the attack of the rebels and defeat their main forces. After a month of heavy fighting, they managed to defeat the main forces of the rebels and drive them away from the city. In these battles, the leader of the riot, Stepan Razin, was seriously wounded. He left command and went to the Don.

After his departure, a split began in the actions of the rebels, which explains the reasons for the defeat of the rebels. The fragmentation of actions and lack of coordination led to the defeat of many detachments and the liberation of cities previously occupied by the rebels. The tsarist troops, more organized and better trained, began pursuing the defeated troops and brutal reprisals against the rebels. In an effort to gain the tsar's favor, the Cossack elders decided to betray Razin. They captured him and brought him to Moscow, where after much torture he was quartered. After the execution of the rebel chieftain, the uprising was very quickly suppressed. Many participants were executed, the count was in the thousands. The defeat led to the consolidation of royal power, and serfdom spread to new territories. Landowners strengthened land ownership and increased ownership rights over serfs; these were the disappointing results of the uprising led by Stepan Razin.

The uprising of Stepan Razin of 1670-1671 in Russia was caused by the spread of serfdom in the southern and south-eastern regions of the country, covering the Don, Volga and Trans-Volga regions. The uprising was led by S.T. Razin, V.R. Us, F. Sheludyak, Cossacks, peasants, townspeople, non-Russian peoples of the Volga region (Chuvash, Mari, Mordovians, Tatars) took part in it. Razin and his supporters called for serving the tsar, “beating” the boyars, nobles, governors, merchants “for treason,” and giving the “black people” freedom.

During the war with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1654-1667) and Sweden (1656-1658), in response to increased taxes, there was a mass exodus of peasants and townspeople to the outskirts of the state. Under pressure from the nobility, the government, implementing the norms of the Council Code of 1649, began organizing a state investigation of fugitives from the late 1650s. Measures to return fugitive peasants caused mass protests in the southern regions, especially on the Don, where there has long been a tradition - “there is no extradition from the Don.” Heavy duties and the nature of land use brought the servicemen who guarded the southern borders closer to the peasants.

The harbinger of the uprising was the movement of the Cossack detachments of Vasily Us to Tula (1666). During the campaign, the Cossacks, who demanded wages for their service, were joined by peasants and serfs from the southern Moscow region. In the spring of 1667, a gang of golutvenny Cossacks and fugitives led by Stepan Razin gathered on the Don, who led them to the Volga and then to the Caspian Sea. To the extent that the tsarist governors had orders to detain the Cossacks, the actions of the Razins often took on a rebellious character. The Cossacks captured the Yaitsky town (modern Uralsk). After spending the winter here, Razin sailed to the Persian shores along the western coast of the Caspian Sea. The Cossacks returned from the campaign in August 1669 with rich booty. The Astrakhan governors could not restrain them and let them pass to the Don. Cossacks and fugitive peasants began to flock to the Kagalnitsky town, where Razin settled.

Upon Razin’s return to the Don, a confrontation between the Razins and the Don Cossack foreman emerged. The Tsar's ambassador (G.A. Evdokimov) was sent to the Don with instructions to inquire about Razin's plans. On April 11, 1760, Razin arrived with his supporters in Cherkassk and achieved the execution of Evdokimov as a spy. From that time on, Razin actually became the head of the Don Cossacks and organized a new campaign on the Volga, which took on an openly anti-government character. The rebels killed the governors, landowners and their clerks, and created new authorities in the form of Cossack self-government. City and peasant elders, atamans, esauls, and centurions were elected everywhere. Razin called on the rebels to serve the tsar and “give black people freedom” - to free them from state taxes. The rebels announced that in their army there was allegedly Tsarevich Alexei Alekseevich (the son of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who died in 1670), who was going to Moscow by order of his father to “beat” the boyars, nobles, governors and merchants “for treason.” The initiators and leaders of the uprising were the Don Cossacks, and the active participants were military service people, the peoples of the Volga region, and residents of Sloboda Ukraine.

In May 1670, the Cossacks captured Tsaritsyn. At this time, Moscow archers (1 thousand) sailed to the city under the command of I.T. Lopatin, which were defeated by the rebels. The army of the governor, Prince S.I., was moving from Astrakhan to Tsaritsyn. Lvov; On June 6, at Black Yar, the Astrakhan archers went over to the side of the rebels without a fight. The rebels moved towards Astrakhan and launched an assault on the night of June 22. Ordinary archers and townspeople offered no resistance. Having taken the city, the rebels executed the governor I.S. Prozorovsky and Streltsy chiefs.
Leaving in Astrakhan part of the Cossacks led by V. Us and F. Sheludyak, Razin with the main forces of the rebels (about 6 thousand) sailed on plows to Tsaritsyn. The cavalry (about 2 thousand) was walking along the shore. On July 29, the army arrived in Tsaritsyn. Here the Cossack circle decided to go to Moscow and launch an auxiliary strike from the upper reaches of the Don. On August 7, Razin with a ten-thousandth army moved towards Saratov. On August 15, Saratov residents greeted the rebels with bread and salt. Samara also surrendered without a fight. The leaders of the uprising intended to enter the districts populated by serfs after the completion of field agricultural work, counting on a mass peasant uprising. On August 28, when Razin was 70 versts from Simbirsk, Prince Yu.I. Baryatinsky with troops from Saransk hurried to the aid of the Simbirsk governor. On September 6, the townspeople allowed the rebels into the Simbirsk prison. Baryatinsky's attempt to knock Razin out of prison ended in failure and he retreated to Kazan. Voevoda I.B. Miloslavsky holed up in the Kremlin with five thousand soldiers, Moscow archers and local nobles. The siege of the Simbirsk Kremlin pinned down the main forces of Razin. In September, the rebels launched four unsuccessful attacks.

Atamans Y. Gavrilov and F. Minaev went from the Volga to the Don with detachments of 1.5-2 thousand people. Soon the rebels moved up the Don. On September 9, the vanguard of the Cossacks captured Ostrogozhsk. Ukrainian Cossacks, led by Colonel I. Dzinkovsky, joined the rebels. But on the night of September 11, wealthy townspeople, whose property was confiscated by the rebels along with the voivodeship's goods, unexpectedly attacked the Razinites and captured many of them. Only on September 27, three thousand rebels under the command of Frol Razin and Gavrilov approached the city of Korotoyak. After the battle with the advanced detachment of Prince G.G. Romodanovsky Cossacks were forced to retreat. At the end of September, a detachment of Cossacks under the command of Lesko Cherkashenin began to advance up the Seversky Donets. On October 1, the rebels occupied Moyatsk, Tsarev-Borisov, Chuguev; However, a detachment of Romodanovsky's troops soon approached, and Lesko Cherkashenin retreated. On November 6, a battle took place near Moyack, in which the rebels were defeated.

To prevent the tsarist troops from coming to the aid of Miloslavsky, who was besieged in Simbirsk, Razin sent small detachments from near Simbirsk to raise peasants and townspeople on the right bank of the Volga to fight. Moving along the Simbirsk abatis line, a detachment of atamans M. Kharitonov and V. Serebriak approached Saransk. On September 16, Russians, Mordovians, Chuvash and Mari occupied Alatyr in battle. On September 19, the rebel Russian peasants, Tatars and Mordovians, together with the Razin detachment, captured Saransk. The detachments of Kharitonov and V. Fedorov occupied Penza without a fight. The entire Simbirsk region ended up in the hands of the Razins. M. Osipov's detachment, with the support of peasants, archers and Cossacks, occupied Kurmysh. The uprising swept the peasants of the Tambov and Nizhny Novgorod districts. At the beginning of October, a detachment of Razinites captured Kozmodemyansk without a fight. From here, a detachment of Ataman I.I. headed up the Vetluga River. Ponomarev, who raised an uprising in the Galician district. In September-October, rebel detachments appeared in Tula, Efremov, and Novosilsky districts. The peasants were also worried in the districts into which the Razinites were unable to penetrate (Kolomensky, Yuryev-Polsky, Yaroslavsky, Kashirsky, Borovsky).

The tsarist government assembled a large punitive army. Voivode Prince Yu.A. was appointed commander. Dolgorukov. The army consisted of nobles from Moscow and Ukrainian (southern border) cities, 5 Reitar (noble cavalry) regiments and 6 orders of Moscow archers: later it included the Smolensk gentry, dragoon and soldier regiments. By January 1671, the number of punitive troops exceeded 32 thousand people. On September 21, 1670, Dolgorukov set out from Murom, hoping to reach Alatyr, but the uprising had already spread to the area, and he was forced to stop in Arzamas on September 26. The rebels attacked Arzamas from several sides, but the atamans were unable to organize a simultaneous offensive, which allowed the tsarist commanders to repel the onslaught and defeat the enemy piece by piece. Later, about 15 thousand rebels with artillery again launched an attack on Arzamas; On October 22, a battle took place near the village of Murashkino, in which they were defeated. After this, the governors, suppressing the uprising, marched to Nizhny Novgorod. Voevoda Yu.N. In mid-September Baryatinsky came to the aid of the garrison of Simbirsk for the second time. Along the way, the punitive forces withstood four battles with the combined forces of Russian peasants, Tatars, Mordovians, Chuvash and Mari. On October 1, the tsarist troops approached Simbirsk. Here the rebels attacked Baryatinsky twice, but were defeated, and Razin himself was seriously wounded and taken to the Don. On October 3, Baryatinsky united with Miloslavsky and unblocked the Simbirsk Kremlin.

Since the end of October, the offensive impulse of the rebels dried up, they fought mainly defensive battles. November 6 Yu.N. Baryatinsky made his way to Alatyr. At the end of November, the main forces under the command of Dolgorukov set out from Arzamas and entered Penza on December 20. On December 16, Baryatinsky captured Saransk. After the defeat of Razin near Simbirsk, the troops of governor D.A. Baryatinsky, who were in Kazan, headed up the Volga. They lifted the siege of Tsivilsk and took Kozmodemyansk on November 3. However, D.A. Baryatinsky was unable to connect with the detachment of governor F.I. Leontyev, who set out from Arzamas, since the inhabitants of the Tsivilsky district (Russians, Chuvash, Tatars) again rebelled and besieged Tsivilsk. The battles with the rebels of Tsivilsky, Cheboksary, Kurmysh and Yadrinsky districts, led by atamans S. Vasilyev and S. Chenekeev, continued until the beginning of January 1671. Ponomarev’s detachment moved through the territory of the Galician district towards the Pomeranian districts. His advance was delayed by local landowner detachments. When the rebels occupied Unzha (December 3), they were overtaken by the tsarist troops and defeated.

Stubborn battles took place for Shatsk and Tambov. Detachments of atamans V. Fedorov and Kharitonov approached Shatsk. On October 17, a battle took place near the city with the troops of the governor Ya. Khitrovo. Despite the defeat, the uprising in this area continued until mid-November, until the troops of Khitrovo and Dolgorukov united. The uprising in the Tambov region was the longest and most persistent. Around October 21, the peasants of the Tambov district rose up. Before the punitive forces had time to suppress their performance, the military servicemen, led by Ataman T. Meshcheryakov, rebelled and besieged Tambov. The siege was lifted with a detachment of tsarist troops from Kozlov. When the punitive forces returned to Kozlov, the Tambovites rebelled again and from November 11 to December 3 repeatedly stormed the city. December 3, voivode I.V. Buturlin from Shatsk approached Tambov and lifted the siege. The rebels retreated to the forests, and here help came to them from Khopr. On December 4, the rebels defeated Buturlin's vanguard and drove him to Tambov. Only with the arrival of the troops of Prince K.O. Shcherbaty from Krasnaya Sloboda, the uprising began to wane.

As the tsarist troops succeeded, Razin’s opponents on the Don became more active. Around April 9, 1671, they attacked Kagalnik and captured Razin and his brother Frol; On April 25 they were sent to Moscow, where they were executed on June 6, 1671. The uprising lasted the longest in the Lower Volga region. On May 29, Ataman I. Konstantinov sailed to Simbirsk from Astrakhan. On June 9, the rebels launched an unsuccessful assault on the city. By this time, V. Us had died, and the Astrakhan people elected F. Sheludyak as ataman. In September 1671, the troops of I.B. Miloslavsky began the siege of Astrakhan, and on November 27 it fell.

Like other peasant uprisings, the uprising of Stepan Razin was characterized by spontaneity, disorganization of the forces and actions of the rebels, and the local nature of the uprisings. The tsarist government managed to defeat the peasant detachments, since the landowners united in defending their privileges and the government was able to mobilize forces that were superior to the rebels in organization and weapons. The defeat of the peasants made it possible for the landowners to strengthen ownership of the land, to extend serfdom to the southern outskirts of the country, and to expand ownership rights to the peasants.

The most powerful popular uprising of the 17th century. there was a peasant war of 1670-1671. led by 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 escape to the outskirts. The peasants went to remote places on the Don and the Volga region, where they hoped to hide from the oppression of landowner exploitation. The Don Cossacks were not socially homogeneous. The “homely” Cossacks mostly lived in free places along the lower reaches of the Don with its rich fishing grounds. It was reluctant to accept new newcomers, poor (“golutvennye”) Cossacks, into its ranks. “Golytba” accumulated mainly on the lands along the upper reaches of the Don and its tributaries, but even here the situation of fugitive peasants and slaves was usually difficult, since the homely Cossacks forbade them to plow the land, and there were no new fishing grounds left for the newcomers. The Golutvenny Cossacks especially suffered from the lack of bread on the Don.

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

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

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

The beginning of the peasant war was laid on the Don. The Golutvennye Cossacks undertook a campaign to the shores of the Crimea and Turkey. But the homely 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 Yaika River (Ural). Razin occupied the Yaitsky town (1667), many Yaitsky Cossacks joined his army. The following year, Razin’s detachment on 24 ships headed to the shores of Iran. Having ravaged the Caspian coast from Derbent to Baku, the Cossacks reached Rasht. During negotiations, the Persians suddenly attacked them and killed 400 people. In response, the Cossacks destroyed the city of Ferahabad. On the way back, near Pig Island, near the mouth of the Kura River, the Cossack ships were attacked by the Iranian fleet, but suffered complete defeat. The Cossacks returned to Astrakhan and sold the captured booty here.

A successful sea voyage to Yaik and to the shores of Iran sharply increased Razin’s authority among the population of the Don and Volga region. Fugitive peasants and slaves, walking people, the oppressed peoples of the Volga region were just waiting for a signal to raise an open rebellion against their oppressors. In the spring of 1670, Razin reappeared on the Volga with a 5,000-strong Cossack army. Astrakhan opened its gates for him; Streltsy and townspeople everywhere went over to the side of the Cossacks. At this stage, Razin’s movement outgrew the scope 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 greeted the rebels with ringing 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 war 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 headed towards Shatsk. Russian peasants, Mordovians, Chuvash, Tatars rose to war almost without exception, without even waiting for the arrival of Razin’s troops. 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 Makaryev Monastery in the immediate vicinity of Nizhny Novgorod.

On the upper reaches of the Don, the military actions of the rebels were led by Stepan Razin’s brother Frol. The uprising spread to the lands south of Belgorod, inhabited by Ukrainians and called Sloboda Ukraine. Everywhere “men,” as the tsar’s documents called the peasants, rose up in arms and, together with the oppressed peoples of the Volga region, fought fiercely against the serf owners. 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 tsarist governors “due to the instability of the traitorous peasants.” In the Kadoma region, the same “traitorous men” set up an ambush in order to detain the tsarist troops.

Peasants' 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 the worldly bloodsuckers and join Razin’s army. According to an eyewitness to the uprising, Razin said to 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 ranks of the rebels included Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks, peasants and serfs, young townspeople, servicemen, Mordovians, Chuvash, Mari, and Tatars. All of them were united by a common goal - the fight against serfdom. In cities that went over to Razin’s side, the voivode’s power was destroyed and city management passed into the hands of elected officials. However, while fighting against feudal oppression, the rebels remained tsarists. They stood for the “good king” and spread the rumor that Tsarevich Alexei, who at that time was actually no longer alive, was coming with them.

The peasant war forced the tsarist government to mobilize all its forces to suppress it. Near Moscow, a review of the 60,000-strong noble army was carried out for 8 days. 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, Chuvash and Mordovians flocked to Razin’s detachments, but the siege of the city dragged on for a whole month, and this allowed the tsarist commanders to gather large forces. Near Simbirsk, Razin's troops were defeated by foreign regiments (October 1670). Hoping to recruit a new army, Razin went to the Don, but there he was treacherously captured by homely Cossacks and taken to Moscow, where in June 1671 he was subjected to a painful execution - quartering. But the uprising continued after his death. Astrakhan held out the longest. It surrendered to the tsarist troops only at the end of 1671.

At the end of the 17th century. The largest Cossack-peasant uprising broke out in Russia. The reasons that people took up arms and stood up against the authorities were different for each layer - 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 Sea, which was of a predatory nature, and a campaign against the Volga, which 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 about all this in more detail from this lesson.

Historians of the 20th 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 quite complex. Behind each factor of the uprising there was a certain social type of the rebel people. Firstly, they were 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: their path was blocked by Azov, the Turkish fortress. Therefore, the size of the Cossacks’ military booty 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 there were fewer and fewer sources of livelihood. 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 servicemen to be paid their salaries in full, which the archers did not like. This was the reason for their joining the uprising.

Rice. 3. Sagittarius ()

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 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.Towards the middleXVIIV. Among the Cossacks, a top group stood out - the homely Cossacks. If the main part of the Cossacks were mostly poor people, former peasants and serfs, then the homely Cossacks were rich people with personal property. Thus, the Cossacks were heterogeneous, and this became evident 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 it was necessary for the leader of the Cossacks to know the languages ​​of his opponents. Stepan Razin crossed the Moscow state twice - he went to Solovki in the White Sea. S.T. Razin was an educated man 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 towards Moscow. They wanted to be recognized as servicemen and paid. However, near Tula they were stopped and forced to turn back.

In the spring of 1667, Stepan Razin decided to go with the Cossacks on a predatory campaign to the Caspian Sea. Having sailed along the Volga, Razin’s army approached Astrakhan. Here the royal governor tried to detain the “thieves’ army,” but the Razins managed to slip along 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 there was a royal fortress called Yaitsky town with the Yaitsky Cossacks living there. Stepan Razin and his Cossacks used a trick: they dressed in simple clothes and, having entered the city, killed the guards at night and allowed their army into the city. The entire leadership of the Yaitsky town was executed by Razin’s Cossacks. Most of the service people in this fortress went over to the side of the rebels. Then Stepan’s entire army took part in the duvan - dividing the looted property equally between the Cossacks. After Razin and Duvan joined the army, the archers became full-fledged Cossacks.

Rice. 5. Crossing ships by portage ()

In the spring of 1668, the Cossack Razin army descended down the river. Yaik and went to the western coast of the Caspian Sea - 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 occurred in the town of Farabat that showed the truly predatory intentions of Razin’s army. Having agreed with the residents of the city that Stepan Razin’s army would not plunder their city, but would only trade, after all the trading, it attacked the residents 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 resorted to a trick. Again using cunning, the Razin fleet pretended to flee, and then, gradually turning their ships, defeated the Persian ships one by one.

Burdened with booty, the Razins moved home in 1669. This time, Razin’s army could not slip past Astrakhan unnoticed, so Stepan Razin confessed to the Astrakhan prince Prozorovsky. In Astrakhan (Fig. 6) the Razinites stopped for some time. Stepan Razin’s Cossacks went on a campaign “for zipuns” as ordinary people, modestly dressed and not rich, and returned with money, in expensive clothes with magnificent weapons, thus appearing before the people of Astrakhan, including servicemen. Then a doubt crept into the minds of the Tsar’s serving people: whether it was worth serving the Tsar further or joining Razin’s army.

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

Finally, the Razins sailed from Astrakhan. Before leaving, Stepan gave his expensive 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 based on folk song“Because of the island on the rod.” This episode shows the essence of Stepan Razin’s predatory campaign to the Caspian Sea. Having walked between the Volga and Don, the Razinites 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 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 march with his Cossack army to the Volga.

Rice. 7. Cossack circle led by Stepan Razin in Cherkassk ()

On the eve of the campaign against the Volga, Stepan Razin sent out lovely letters to people (Fig. 8) - propaganda for his army. In these letters, Razin called on “to remove 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. Lovely letters from 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 Razinites, 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 Streltsy 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, and the Streltsy garrisons went over to the side of the rebels. Finally, the best Moscow infantry - the capital's archers - was sent against Razin's army (Fig. 9). The Razins captured the Volga region city of Saratov, but the Moscow archers did not yet know about it. Then S.T. Razin once again resorted to cunning. Some of Razin’s troops imitated an assault on the fortress, and some 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 really trust them and put them on the oars.

Rice. 9. Capital archers ()

Next, Razin’s army reached the city of Simbirsk (Fig. 10). The fortress stood, and the government army approached it. However, Razin gained the upper hand and forced government troops to retreat. Near Simbirsk, the peasant nature of the uprising became more evident. In this area, peasants joined the rebels en masse. But they acted within the boundaries of their region where they lived: they killed landowners, 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 Stepan Razin’s army. He was wounded and with several Cossacks fled down the Volga and to the Don. On the Don, the homely Cossacks handed Razin over to the authorities because 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 a few years later, because at first he said that he knew where the treasures of the Razins 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 stop immediately. In some places, peasants also came out with weapons. But the peasant movement was also soon suppressed. Boyar Yuri Dolgoruky hanged 11,000 peasants during punitive campaigns.

Theoretically, if Razin’s army had won, the structure of the Moscow state would not have changed, since it could not be structured in the image of the Cossack circle; its structure was more complex. If the Razins had won, they would have wanted to take the estates with the peasants and settle down. Thus, political system would not have been changed - the movement was hopeless.

Bibliography

1. Baranov P.A., Vovina V.G. and others. History of Russia. 7th grade. - M.: “Ventana-Graf”, 2013.
2. Buganov V.I. Razin and the Razins. - M., 1995.
3. Danilov A.A., Kosulina L.G. Russian history. 7th grade. The end of the 16th - 18th centuries. - M.: “Enlightenment”, 2012.
4. The Peasant War under the leadership of 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.: Mysl, 1988.

1. Protown.ru ().
2. Hiztory.ru ().
3. Doc.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. To what type can the first stage of the uprising be classified - the predatory Cossack or the peasant?
4. What contributed to the continuation of Stepan Razin's uprising after the first stage? Name the reasons for the defeat of the Razins. Comment on the consequences of this uprising.

Enslavement of peasants according to the Council Code of 1649;

There is an excess of runaway peasants on the Don;

Dissatisfaction of the peoples of the Volga region with state oppression.

driving forces uprisings: Cossacks, peasants, serfs, townspeople, archers, peoples of the Volga region.

The Crimean Khanate blocked the river. The Don is in chains, the Don Cossacks have lost access to the Sea of ​​Azov, and “hikes for zipuns” in this direction have stopped. In 1666, the Cossack chieftain Vasily Us with a detachment he headed to Moscow, plundering estates and estates. Us reached Tula, but retreated to the Don in front of the tsarist army.

Cossack ataman, native of the village of Zimoveyskaya Stepan Razin(c. 1630–1671) in 1667–1669 made a daring campaign “for zipuns” in Persia, devastated the coast of the Caspian Sea, defeated the Persian army and navy. Then Razin captured the Yaitsky town, plundered the caravan of ships of the Tsar, the Patriarch and the merchant V. Shorin. in spring 1670 Mr. Razin attacked Russian lands. Vasily Us joined him. Razin sent out " lovely letters"(propaganda messages) calling for a campaign against the boyars and nobles. To attract the people, Razin spread a false rumor that in his army were Tsarevich “Alexey Alekseevich” (the Tsar’s son, who had already died in 1670) and the disgraced Patriarch Nikon. The main goal of the campaign was Moscow, the route was the Volga. The rebels took Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan, Saratov, Samara, and besieged Simbirsk. Destroying the boyars and nobles, they introduced Cossack self-government. In Astrakhan, all noble and rich people, the elderly governor I. Prozorovsky thrown “from the rampart” (the fortress wall), his 12-year-old son was hung upside down on the wall. The movement spread to Solovki and Ukraine, where Stepan’s younger brother was active. Frol Razin.

To suppress the uprising, the king sent a 60,000-strong army of governors Yu. Dolgoruky And Yu. Baryatinsky. They severely punished the rebels; there were gallows with hanged people everywhere. In October 1670, near Simbirsk, the Razins were defeated. The wounded chieftain fled to the Don, to the town of Kagalnitsky. However, the homely Cossacks, led by the ataman Kornila Yakovlev, fearing the royal wrath, they handed over Razin. After severe torture in the summer of 1671, he was quartered in Moscow. Frol Razin, seeing his brother’s torment, shouted in horror, “The sovereign’s word and deed!” He was taken away from under the executioner's ax, tortured to find out where the looted treasures were hidden, and executed five years later in 1676.

Reasons for the defeat of Stepan Razin :

Tsarist character of the uprising. The peasants believed in the possibility of a better life under the new “good king” ( naive monarchism);

Spontaneity, fragmentation and locality of movement;

Weak weapons and poor organization of the rebels.

Thus, the popular movements of the 17th century, on the one hand, played the role of limiting the exploitation of feudal lords. But, on the other hand, the suppression of these uprisings led to the strengthening of the state apparatus and the tightening of legislation. Now there is a rethinking of the meaning of peasant wars, their Cossack, free-rebellious content is noted. The negative impact of peasant wars, and, in essence, Cossack-peasant revolts, on the fate of Russia is emphasized. Even if the Razins had managed to capture Moscow (in China, for example, the rebels managed to take power several times), 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 Stepan Razin would inevitably lead to great casualties and would cause significant damage to Russian culture and the development of the state.