In the article "Whom Kondraty" was enough for, it was told about the ataman Bulavin and the beginning of a new Peasant War. From this article, we remember that the area of the Don Cossack at that moment was surrounded on all sides by the lands of the Russian state, from where government troops were ready to move on the insurgent from three sides.
In an effort to prevent the tsarist armies from entering the Don lands, the leader of the rebels made a mistake: he divided his forces into three parts.
The atamans Semyon Drany, Nikita Goliy and Bespaly went along the Seversky Donets to meet the army of Prince Vasily Dolgoruky.
The detachments of Ignat Nekrasov, Ivan Pavlov and Lukyan Khokhlach headed east to cover the Don from the corps of Peter Khovansky the Menshy and his Kalmyk allies.
Kondraty Bulavin himself hoped to capture Azov.
In addition, Bulavin's envoys revolted Borisoglebsky, Kozlovsky and Tambov districts, there were unrest of peasants near Voronezh, Kharkov, Orel, Kursk, Saratov. So, on September 8, 1708, after the death of Bulavin himself, in the Tambov district on the Small Alabug river, local peasants, 1300 "thieves' Cossacks" and 1200 "Cossacks from the pier" entered the battle with the tsarist troops as punishers.
There were even performances in Nizhny Novgorod, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Tver, Vladimir, Moscow and Kaluga districts, far from the Don, but it is difficult to say how far the peasant riots here were connected precisely with the propaganda of the Bulavinites.
The beginning of hostilities
The Seversk "front" was headed by Semyon Drany, in whose army there were about five and a half thousand Donetsk Cossacks and a thousand Cossacks. With these forces, on June 8, 1708, near the Urazovaya River (not far from the city of Valuyka), he completely defeated the Sumy Cossack Regiment of the Sloboda (his commander A. Kondratyev also died in the battle). A regimental wagon train, 4 cannons, hundreds of horses and rifles were captured. After that, Semyon Drany besieged the city of Thor, but did not manage to take it before the main forces of Prince Dolgorukov approached. Near the Krivaya Luka tract, the army of this chieftain was defeated in a fierce, all-day battle with superior government forces. Semyon Drany fought in the most dangerous areas and personally led the Cossacks into cavalry attacks, but he was killed not with a saber, but with a cannonball. For the rebels, his death was an irreplaceable loss: the military authority of this chieftain was undeniable, and after his death in Cherkassk they said that "all hope was in Dranoy." Having lost about one and a half thousand people, the rebels, which were now headed by Nikita Goliy, retreated. The Bakhmut town, whose chieftain was Bulavin, was destroyed on the orders of Dolgorukov so that "there was no stone left over."
The character of another well-known leader of the rebels, Ignat Nekrasov, eloquently speaks of the folk tradition, as if he had 4 rows of teeth: do not put a finger in his mouth - he will bite off his hand!
This predatory "nibbler" chose a different tactic: instead of field battles, he delivered sudden blows with large forces of cavalry - and, if necessary, quickly retreated, preventing the tsarist troops from starting a "correct battle." Joining new detachments of Cossacks, Nekrasov reached the Pristansky town on Khopr, from where he turned to the Volga. On May 13, 1708, he, together with Ivan Pavlov, captured Dmitrievsk (Kamyshin), and tried to capture Saratov. Unable to take this city, he broke through to Tsaritsyn. Upon learning that Berner's regiment was going up the Volga from Astrakhan, Nekrasov defeated it, attacking from two sides: the cavalry struck from the front, the foot "scouts" - from the rear. On June 7, after a few days of the siege, Tsaritsyn was also captured (during the fire, the archive of this city was then burnt down). Voevoda A. Turchaninov and the clerk who was with him were taken prisoner and beheaded.
After that, Nekrasov decided to return to the Don and led his troops to the village of Golubinskaya. The detachment of Ataman Pavlov, who remained in Tsaritsyn, was defeated by the government troops that approached the city on July 20, 1708. Many of his captured Cossacks were hanged along the Don road. The survivors joined up with Nekrasov's detachment.
Bulavin himself, together with Colonels Khokhlach and Gaykin, at the head of a detachment of 2 thousand people, approached Azov.
The assault attempt was extremely unsuccessful, at the cost of heavy losses it was possible to take only the outskirts, 423 Cossacks died in battle. The retreat was difficult and unsuccessful: pursued by the tsarist troops, about 500 Cossacks drowned in the Don and in the Kalancha River. 60 people were taken prisoner - their fate was terrible: at first their nostrils and tongues were torn out, and then they were hanged by their feet on the fortress walls.
Death of Kondraty Bulavin
The news of the death of Ataman Drany and the defeat of Bulavin at Azov undermined the morale of the rebels. On July 7 (18), 1708, the Cossacks of the "pro-Moscow party" seized the cannons in Cherkassk and closed the gates in front of the detachments retreating from Azov. Bulavin himself (who had arrived in Cherkassk earlier) and the three Cossacks who remained loyal to him were surrounded in the ataman kuren. The Azov governor I. A. Tolstoy later reported to Moscow about the death of the rebel leader:
"And they fired at that kuren with cannons and rifles, and with all sorts of other measures they got the thief."
Having barricaded themselves, Bulavin and his associates killed six people during their last battle.
In the end, one of the cannonballs broke through the wall of the building, the besiegers rushed in, and the captain Sergei Ananyin killed the ataman of the rebels with a pistol shot. According to another version, Ananyin was among the defenders of the kuren and killed the chieftain, hoping to get forgiveness.
The circumstances of Bulavin's murder are mysterious: the fact is that the shell-shocked chieftain was killed by a shot at point-blank range - in the temple. Why didn't the conspirators want to take him alive? For the Moscow authorities, the living leader of the rebels was a much more valuable "gift" than his corpse: one could question him "with partiality" and cruelly execute him on the place of execution - to intimidate his subjects, so that others could not rebel. Apparently, Bulavin had something to say about them in Moscow - during the investigation. And, perhaps, in Cherkassk even then there were many supporters of this chieftain, and the conspirators were afraid that they would free Bulavin, and they themselves would be hanged or "put in the water."
The corpse of the rebellious chieftain was taken to Azov, where the garrison doctor cut off and instilled his head in alcohol to send to Peter I, while the body was hung by one leg on the city wall. Then the corpse was cut into 5 parts, which were planted on poles and transported around the city. Bulavin's head was stored in an alcohol solution for 9 months. Finally, Peter I personally brought her to Cherkassk and ordered to impale her.
Almost immediately, a legend appeared that the chieftain shot himself to avoid falling into the hands of enemies, and his wife stabbed herself with a dagger.
Others said that together with Bulavin, they shot back to the end and killed not the wife, but the eldest daughter of the ataman, Galina.
This legend became the subject of G. Kurochkin's painting "The Death of Kondraty Bulavin" (1950):
The name of the person who became the author of the version of Bulavin's suicide is known - foreman Ilya Zershchikov, who sent a report about the storming of kuren to the Azov governor Tolstoy.
Some believe that in this way they tried to compromise the leader of the rebels - since Christianity recognizes suicide as a sin. But it is unlikely that Zershchikov then thought about such lofty matters. Most likely, he wanted to absolve himself and his accomplices of the blame for the murder of the ataman - this crime was punishable by death under Cossack laws. Ignat Nekrasov, having learned about the murder of Bulavin, sent a letter to Cherkassk, in which, referring to this law, he threatened to "conduct a search" and kill all those responsible for his death:
“If you don’t deign to notify for what guilt he was killed, and you don’t free his old men (parents), and if the Cossacks (loyal to Bulavin) are not released, then we will go to you in Cherkassk with all the rivers and the assembled army for the sake of a complete search” …
The report of Zershchikov also misled the British ambassador, Charles Whitworth, who already on July 21 (August 1), 1708 (commendable efficiency!) Reported from Moscow:
“Prince Dolgoruky defeated a detachment of rebels in Ukraine. The Azov governor, Tolstoy, acted even more successfully: he defeated another detachment, which was under the command of Bulavin himself, who, seeing that his affairs were in a desperate situation and that the Cossacks themselves were ready to seize and extradite him after so many failures, decided to forestall the execution that awaited him, and killed himself with a pistol shot. Following this, the rebels dispersed to their homes. Bulavin's head was cut off and she will be brought here, but his body was sent to Azov, where all his relatives are kept in chains."
Peter I received the news of Bulavin's death in Mogilev, and the tsar, in joy, ordered to "shoot" from cannons and rifles.
On July 27, 1708, Dolgoruky's army entered Cherkassk, 40 Cossacks were hanged, suspected of sympathizing with Bulavin, Cossack foremen from the entire Don Army took an oath of allegiance to the Russian state, but this did not save anyone from repression.
Ignat Nekrasov: the way to the Kuban
Having learned about the death of Bulavin, Nekrasov led his troops to Cherkassk. He did not have the strength to liberate the Don capital on his own. He hoped to meet with the remnants of the army of Semyon Drany, which was now headed by Ataman Nikita Goliy. But they failed to join forces. Nekrasov was late for the city of Esaulov, which, according to Dolgoruky, was “extremely strong, there was great water all around; there is a dry path only on one side, and that is very narrow. " The besieged rebels fought only a day, surrendering on the second, and taking an oath of allegiance to the king on the third. If they hoped to appease Dolgorukov in this way, they miscalculated. The prince then reported to Peter I that he ordered the quarters of the local chieftain and two "elders-schismatics", another 200 Cossacks were hanged and rafts with gallows were launched down the Don.
The army of PI Khovanskiy, coming from the Volga, attacked a large detachment of insurgents (4 thousand people “except wives and children) near Panshin. The prince wrote about this battle to Peter I:
"There was a great battle with them, and I never remember that the Cossacks stood so firmly, and moreover, I understand that the fugitive dragoons and soldiers from the regiments stood firmly."
Despite fierce resistance, the rebels were "stabbed and some were sunk", taking six banners, two badges, eight cannons on the battlefield, and the Kalmyks "took their wives and children by themselves, a considerable number of belongings."
After that, Khovansky took and burned eight Don townships, thirty-nine others surrendered to him without a fight.
Now Khovansky was approaching the Cossacks of Nekrasov (about two thousand people with wives and children) from the north, Dolgorukov from the south. Having learned about the fall of Esaulov and the defeat of the rebels at Panshin, the ataman ordered to abandon the baggage train and, having crossed the Don at Nizhny Chir, led his detachment to the Kuban. Atamans Pavlov and Bespaly went with him. Later, the ataman Senka Selivanov, nicknamed the Raven, brought the Cossacks of the Nizhnechirskaya, Esaulovskaya and Kobylyanskaya villages along with their families to him.
The last battles of Nikita Gologo
Nikita Goliy, with whom there were about two and a half thousand people, was with Aydar. Pursued by government troops and the Cherkassk "ship and horse" army, sent by the local foremen to Dolgorukov at the request of the prince, he went to the Donetsk town, whose Cossacks, after some hesitation, nevertheless joined him. The regiments of von Deldin and Tevyashov, pursuing him, retreated, not daring to join the battle. Then the rebels attacked and defeated the caravan of Colonel Biels (1,500 soldiers and 1,200 workers), which was carrying bread and 8 thousand rubles to Azov from the Proviantsky Prikaz. It happened on September 27, 1708.
Meanwhile, Dolgorukov, having learned from the prisoners that Goliy, at the head of a 4,000-strong detachment, had gone down the Don to the Ust-Khopyorsky town, attacked the rebels remaining in the Donetsk town (of which there were about a thousand people):
“And by the grace of God he broke them, thieves; and many rushed to the Don and drowned; and the dragoons beat them, the thieves, took about a hundred and fifty people on the water and alive, they all hanged. And the Donetsk chieftain Vikulka Kolychov, the brother of his native Mikitka, and the chief chieftain Timoshka Shcherbak, were quartered and put on stakes. And Donetsk, sir, they burned it all out , - reported the prince to the king.
The last battle Nikita Goliy gave at the Reshetovskaya stanitsa near the Donetsk town. At this time, some of the working people of the Bils caravan joined him, the Cossacks from Aydar approached, the atamans Prokofy Ostafiev from the Kachalinskaya stanitsa and Zot Zubov from the Fedoseyevskaya stanitsa led their detachments. In total, about seven and a half thousand people turned out to be under the command of Naked. According to Dolgorukov's report, the rebels lost over 3,000 people in that battle, many drowned while crossing the Don, and Goliy himself fled with only three Cossacks. Dolgorukov's trophies were 16 rebel bunchuk and two cannons. In addition, 300 officers and soldiers from the Biels regiment were freed and four banners were repulsed. In November 1708 Nikita Naked was taken prisoner and executed.
The tragedy of the Cossack Don
Dolgorukov's further actions on the Don can be safely called genocide. The prince himself reported to Peter:
“There were 3,000 people in Esaulovo, and they were taken by storm and all were hanged, only out of the mentioned 50 people were released because of their childhood. In Donetsk there were 2,000 people, they were also taken by storm and many were beaten, and the rest were all hung up. 200 Cossacks were taken from Voronezh, and in Voronezh all those mentioned were hanged. In Cherkasskoye, about 200 people were hanged near the Donskoy circle and against the stanish huts. Likewise, many parties from different townships and many in those parties were visited."
This titled punisher does not even consider the destroyed Cossack towns and villages:
“Along Khopru, up from the Pristannaya along Buzuluk - everything. Along the Donets, from above along the Luhansk - everything. Along the Medveditsa - along the Ust-Medveditskaya stanitsa, which is on the Don. In Buzuluk - everything. According to Aydar - everything. According to Derkula - everything. Along the Kalitva and other flooded rivers - everything. According to Ilovla, according to Ilovlinskaya - everything."
A. Shirokorad described the pogrom of the cities and villages of the Don Army in the following way:
“The soldiers killed women and children (most often they drowned in the Don) and burned buildings. Only Dolgoruky's detachment destroyed 23, 5 thousand male Cossacks - women and children were not counted. Moreover, the Orthodox Tsar did not hesitate to set hordes of Kalmyks against the Cossacks. The Kalmyks slaughtered everyone in a row, but, unlike Prince Dolgoruky, they did not keep records of their victims. And they didn’t kill women yet, but took them away with them”.
Peter I highly appreciated Dolgorukov's zeal, granting him the Starkovskaya volost in Mozhaisky district, which brings about one and a half thousand rubles of annual income.
The fate of the Cossacks Ignat Nekrasov
At the beginning of 1709, the atamans Nekrasov, Pavlov and Bespaly led several thousand Cossacks (including women and children) to the right bank of the Laba (a tributary of the Kuban), which at that time was controlled by the Crimean khans. Here they met with Old Believers who fled persecution for their faith in the 1690s. As Major General A. I. Rigelman, the fugitives "multiplied themselves as Cossacks, the same thieves (rioters) as they were themselves."
Formerly completely loyal to the Moscow authorities, but thrown out of Russia by the force of bureaucratic cruelty, greed and stupidity, these groups of Cossacks, united, formed a new army, subordinate to the Crimean Khan, and received the name "Nekrasovtsy" ("Ignat-Cossacks"). Crimean khans often used them to suppress internal unrest among the Tatars themselves.
Quite quickly, they moved from the Kuban to the Taman Peninsula, where they founded the towns of Bludilovsky, Golubinsky and Chiriansky.
While Ignat Nekrasov was alive, the attitude of these people both to Russia and to the Cossacks who remained on the Don was very hostile, later, with the advent of new generations, the degree of hatred decreased significantly, and subsequently pro-Russian sentiments began to spread among them. But in the first half of the 18th century, this was still far away.
In May 1710, Nekrasov came to the Berda River with an army of three thousand from the Cossacks, Kalmyks and Kuban Tatars. From there he sent 50 Cossacks "to the Little Russian cities for indignation and seduction among the people, so that they would go to him, Nekrasov."
In 1711, during the Russian-Turkish war, the Nekrasovites went on a campaign with the Tatars.
In 1713, they took part in the raid of Khan Batyr-Giray to the Kharkov province, in 1717 - to the Volga, Khoper and Medveditsa.
The Nekrasovites carried on active propaganda, "luring" the Don Cossacks from the Don. Old Believers from various Russian provinces, persecuted by the authorities, also fled to them. As a result, since 1720, the agents of the Nekrasovites and those who harbor them were “ordered” to be “executed without mercy”.
In 1727, according to the testimony of a fugitive soldier Serago, many Cossacks of the Upper Towns and Cossacks were going to run to the Nekrasovites, dissatisfied with the census and the introduction of passports.
In 1736, the Don Cossacks and Kalmyks burned three Nekrasovian villages. Those, in turn, in 1737, together with the Tatars and Circassians, ravaged and burned the Kumshatsky town on the Don. Donets and Kalmyks responded by burning the city of Khan-Tyube and stealing cattle belonging to the Nekrasovites.
Ignat Nekrasov died in 1737, and in the songs and legends of his followers, he soon turned into the main leader of the rebels - Bulavin and Drany began to be perceived as his assistants.
Nekrasov left about 170 "Testaments" (or "Commandments") to his followers.
Of these, 47 have been reliably preserved, and the first was the following:
“The king does not obey. Under the tsars not to return to Russia”.
Therefore, the Nekrasovites rejected Anna Ioannovna's invitation and refused to return to the lands controlled by the Russian government. The offended queen ordered the army chieftain Frolov to destroy their villages, which he did for two years.
In 1762 they ignored the invitation of Catherine II, in 1769 they did not respond to a letter from General de Medem, who suggested that they move to the Terek.
But then they themselves began to turn to St. Petersburg with requests for permission to return to the Don - in 1772 and 1775. They rejected a reciprocal offer from the authorities to provide land on the Volga. In 1778, A. V. Suvorov tried to become an intermediary between them and St. Petersburg, but did not achieve success.
The first small groups of Nekrasovites began to move to the territory of the Ottoman Empire (to Dobrudja, at the mouth of the Danube and to the Razelm Island) back in the 40s and 60s of the 18th century. The rest, after Taman was occupied by Russian troops, withdrew to the left bank of the Kuban. In 1780, they finally accepted Turkish citizenship and were resettled to the territory of the Ottoman Empire, eventually forming two independent colonies - the Danube and Minos (near Lake Minos), which the Turks called Biv-Evle ("Settlement of a Thousand Houses"). The Cossacks later moved to the Minos colony, which the Turks originally settled near the city of Enos (the coast of the Aegean Sea). It was the Minos people who preserved almost all the "Commandments" of Ignat Nekrasov and the former way of life, the Danube Nekrasovites gradually assimilated with other immigrants from Russia, having largely lost their identity.
But in the Minos community, over time, there was a division into more prosperous farmers and fishermen. The first began to dedicate their priests in Belaya Krinitsa (the territory of Austria-Hungary), the second - in Moscow.
A large group of Turkish Nekrasovites lived until 1962 in the village of Eski Kazaklar (Old Cossacks), which they themselves called Minos, after the Turkish name of the lake on which it was located (Melkoe). Now this village is called Kodja-Gol, and the lake is called "Kush" ("Bird"), this is the territory of the National Park "Kush jenneti" ("Bird paradise").
In the Turkish army "Ignat-Cossacks" often served as scouts. They were also usually entrusted with the protection of the Sultan's banner and his treasury.
Following the "Testaments" of Ignat Nekrasov, the descendants of the Cossacks of the Maino community preserved their faith, language, customs, traditions and clothing. Among these "Covenants" were the following:
“Don't connect with the Turks, don't communicate with the non-believers. Communicating with the Turks only when needed (trade, war, taxes). Quarrels with the Turks are prohibited”(2 Testament).
“Ataman is elected for a year. If he is guilty, he is displaced ahead of schedule”(5) and“Atamanism can last only three terms - power spoils a person”(43).
“To hand over all earnings to the military treasury. From it everyone receives 2/3 of the money earned, 1/3 goes to the kosh”(7).
“For robbery, robbery, murder - by decision of the circle, death” (12).
“Do not keep shinks, taverns in the village” (14).
“Keep, keep the word. Cossacks and children should grumble in the old way”(16).
“A Cossack does not hire a Cossack. He does not receive money from his brother's hands”(17).
“There should be no beggars in the village” (22).
"All Cossacks adhere to the true Orthodox old faith" (23).
“They beat him with 100 lashes for betraying her husband” (30).
“For betrayal of a wife - to bury her up to her neck in the ground” (31).
“If a son or daughter raised their hand against their parents - death. For an insult to an elder - lashes”(36).
“He who does not fulfill the commandments of Ignat will perish” (40).
Confusion is caused by the 37th "Testament", which reads:
“You can't shoot at the Russians in war. Don't go against blood."
It is not entirely clear how it agrees with the data on the participation of the Nekrasovites in the campaigns of the Krymchaks and Turks directed against Russia. Probably, this "Testament" is only attributed to Nekrasov and appeared much later than the others, when the Nekrasovites began to think about returning their ancestors to their homeland.
Nekrasovtsy and Transdanubian Sich
In June 1775, by order of Catherine II, the last (eighth) Pidpilnyanskaya Sich was liquidated. As you know, the Cossacks were then divided into two parts. Most of the Cossacks in 1787 became part of the new Cossack army - the Black Sea. In 1792, they were granted lands from the right bank of the Kuban to the Yeisk town. On this occasion, the military judge of the Black Sea Cossack army, Anton Andreevich Golovaty, wrote a famous song, the text of which can be read on the pedestal of the monument in Taman:
Lyrics of A. Golovaty:
Oy year we are scolding, It's time to come by the way.
Waited from the queen
Pay for the service.
Gave hlib, sil and letters
For the renewal of service, From now, my dear brother, Let's forget all our needs.
To live in Taman, to serve, Keep the border
Catch the riba, drink a bottle, We will also be great.
Yes, you need to get married, I hliba robiti, Who will come to us from the neurons
That, yak enemy, beat.
Thank God and the queen, First rest for the hetman!
They made us evil in our hearts
Great wound.
Thanks to the Empress, Praying to God
She showed us
To the Taman road.
But some of the Cossacks, of those who were organically incapable of peaceful labor, left for the territory of the Ottoman Empire, founding the Transdanubian Sich. The Nekrasovites, who until then had no problems getting along with both Muslims and people of other nationalities, met with extremely unfriendly co-religionists who were close to them in language and blood, and they responded with “reciprocity. Probably, on the part of the Nekrasovites, this was a manifestation of the age-old hostile distrust of strong owners to unlucky “walking people”: “To make good money is only through work. A real Cossack loves his work,”says the 11th“testament”of Ignat Nekrasov. And on the part of the Cossacks there was no less traditional contempt of the “thieves” for the “muzhiks”.
The Nekrasovites and the Cossacks grappled tightly, almost to death: in regular clashes, both of them sometimes crucified their opponents and did not spare even women and children. As a result, some "Danube Nekrasovites" were forced to move to the Asia Minor colony near Lake Minos. But the Nekrasovites also pushed the Cossacks very strongly. This confrontation lasted until 1828, when during the next Russian-Turkish war, most of the Cossacks returned to Russia, the rest were resettled in Edirne.
Return to Russia
Nekrasovites began to return to Russia only at the beginning of the 20th century. The first of them left to avoid serving in the Turkish army in 1911. They were settled in Georgia, but the persecution they suffered from the Menshevik government of this country in 1918 forced them to move to the Kuban - to the village of Pronookopskaya.
In 1962, 215 families of Nekrasovites (about a thousand people) returned from here to the USSR from the village of Koca-Gol (Minos). They were settled in the Levokumsky district of the Stavropol Territory.
224 Nekrasovites emigrated to the USA in 1963.
Slightly more than 100 descendants of the Nekrasovites remained on the territory of Turkey, their children no longer know the Russian language, and only a few items that they inherited from their grandfathers and great-grandfathers remind that their ancestors once lived in Russia.
And the descendants of the Nekrasovites who ended up on the territory of Romania are now part of the Lipovan community - the Old Believers who moved there after the start of the persecutions against them under Patriarch Nikon.
