In the article "The Persian campaign of Stepan Razin" we talked about the high-profile military campaign of 1667-1669: the campaign of this chieftain's gang down the Volga and on the Yaik, which ended with the capture of the Yaitsky town, and the pirate expedition to the Caspian Sea, culminating in the defeat of the Persian fleet near Pig Island.
Having given a big bribe to the greedy Astrakhan governor I. S. Prozorovsky, Razin got the opportunity to enter the city and sell the booty there for 6 weeks, after which he went to the Don and stopped about two days' journey from Cherkassk. Through Colonel Videros, Razin conveyed to the Astrakhan voivode I. S.
“How dare you bring me such dishonest demands? Should I betray my friends and those who followed me out of love and devotion? Tell your boss Prozorovsky that I do not reckon either with him or with the tsar, and soon I will appear so that this cowardly and cowardly man does not dare to talk and command me like his serf when I was born free."
(Jan Jansen Struis, Three Voyages.)
This ataman did not throw words to the wind, and therefore already in the spring of the next, 1670, he appeared on the Volga - "to pay and teach."
The country at this time was ruled by Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov, who went down in history under the amazing nickname Quiet.
During his reign, there were great riots: salt (1648), grain (1650) and copper (1662), as well as a great schism that ended in a scandalous trial of the disgraced Patriarch Nikon and his removal from dignity in 1666. There were brutal persecutions of the Old Believers, wars with Poland, the betrayal of hetman Vyhovsky, the Bashkir uprising of 1662-1664. And now a real and full-fledged peasant war has begun at all.
These are the paradoxes of Russian history: the century was "rebellious", and the tsar, whose short-sighted policy led to these upheavals, was the Quietest.
Vasily Usa's hike
The flight of peasants from the landlords in those days was massive. It is known that in the Ryazan district alone for the years 1663-1667. the authorities were able to "find" and return to their former places of residence about 8 thousand people. It is impossible to count the number of those who were not caught and managed to get to the Volga, Don, Ural, Slobozhanshchina, but it is clearly not hundreds, but thousands and tens of thousands of people. A special place in the dreams and thoughts of these fugitives was occupied by the Don, from which "there was no extradition." However, the rivers of milk did not flow there, and the banks were not at all jelly: all the vacant lands had long been occupied by the "old homely Cossacks", who, moreover, also received the royal salary, as well as lead and gunpowder.
By the way, when you read “the old Cossack Ilya Muromets” in the Russian epic, keep in mind - this is not an indication of age, but of social status: the narrator tells us that Ilya is a sedate and respected person, not a wobbly without family and tribe.
If the Icelandic skald undertook to retell this epic, in his saga we would read something like the following:
"At that time, the mighty bond Ilias headed to Nidaros, where, gathering for Ting, he feasted with the chosen people of his hird king Olav, son of Tryggvi."
But back to the Don.
To enter the Tsar's Cossack service was the ultimate dream of the poor Cossacks, and in May 1666, Ataman Vasily Rodionovich Us, having assembled a "gang", which numbered from 700 to 800 people, led her straight to Moscow, to the tsar - personally ask him to enroll them to the service and give a salary. On the way, neighboring peasants (Voronezh, Tula, Serpukhov, Kashira, Venev, Skopinsky and others) began to adjoin them, who were also not averse to "Cossack" at the expense of the state. Vasily Us promised everyone who joined his detachment, 10 rubles, weapons and a horse - not from himself, of course, but from the "royal bounty". The peasants who interfered with the way with Us to the tsar were beaten and robbed by the peasants, and the Cossacks willingly supported them in robbing landlord estates - and you need to eat something during the campaign, and "swag" is never superfluous. As a result, at the end of July, the ataman had at his disposal a whole army of 8 thousand people - desperate and ready for anything. With such forces and with the tsar, it was already possible to talk in a friendly way. And the tsar entered into negotiations, but put forward a condition: the Cossacks who came from the Don receive a salary, and the peasants who joined them return to their villages. Vasily Us even visited Moscow at the head of the Cossack delegation, but he could not accept the conditions of the authorities, leaving the people who believed him to the mercy of fate. And the rebellious peasants would hardly have obeyed him and would have returned to reprisal their landowners. As a result, Us left in Serpukhov from the boyar son Yaryshkin, who was supposed to conduct him for negotiations with the commander of the tsarist troops, Yu. Baryatniskiy, and returned to his camp, built on the banks of the Upa, about 8 km from Tula. What happened then?
Sergei Yesenin wrote about this Cossack leader this way:
Under a steep mountain that is under the tyn, The mother parted with her faithful son.
Do not stand, do not cry on the road, Light a candle, pray to god.
I will collect the Don, I will whirl up the whirlwind, I will fill the king, take off dashingly …
On a steep mountain, near Kaluga, Us was married to a blue blizzard.
He lies in the snow under a spruce, With fun, revelry, with a hangover.
Before him know everything and the boyars, In the hands of a golden enchantment.
Do not disdain you, Us, do not be angry, Rise up, even take a sip, try it!
We have strained the red-nose wines
From your breasts from your high.
How drunk is your wife, White-haired girl-blizzard!"
No, Vasily Us did not die near Kaluga, and even did not enter the battle with the regular units of the tsarist army: dividing his army into three detachments, he took him to the Don. After that, he himself preferred to “disappear” for a while, to step aside, and some of his vatazhniki joined the detachment of Stepan Razin, who in 1667 set off on his famous campaign to the Volga, Yaik and Persia. In 1668, Vasily Us, at the head of 300 Cossacks, was in the detachment of the Belgorod governor G. Romodanovsky, but in the spring of 1670 he left him to join Razin. Stepan exercised general command and headed the land army, and Us became the commander of the "ship's army", and the rebels, according to Jan Streis, already had 80 plows, and each of them had two cannons.
And the commander of the Razin cavalry was Fyodor Sheludyak, a baptized Kalmyk who became a Don Cossack, who was destined to survive both Razin and Usa, and to lead the last center of resistance in Astrakhan.
Let's part for a while with Vasily Us and Fyodor Sheludyak to talk about the beginning of the Great Peasant War.
First successes
The previous campaign became a reconnaissance battle for Razin: he was convinced that the situation on the Volga was extremely favorable for the start of a large-scale uprising. For the outbreak of popular anger, only the leader was lacking, but now, after the triumphant return of the daring chieftain from the fantastically successful campaign to the Caspian, which glorified him both on the Don and on the Volga, such a generally recognized super-passionate leader has appeared.
Razin, moreover, was also a “magician” “spellbound” from any danger, commanded devils and was not afraid of the Lord God himself (this was described in the article “The Persian campaign of Stepan Razin”). Yes, with such an ataman, you can drag the king by the beard! The peasant war became almost inevitable.
The beginning of the Peasant War
In the spring of 1670, Stepan Razin again came to the Volga, where ordinary people greeted him as "a father of his own" (which he declared himself for all the oppressed):
"Take revenge on the tyrants, who until now held you in captivity worse than the Turks or the pagans. I came to give everyone freedom and deliverance, you will be my brothers and children."
After these words, everyone was ready to go to death for him, and everyone shouted with one voice: "Many years for our father (Batske). May he defeat all the boyars, princes and all forced countries!"
(Jan Jansen Struis.)
The same author wrote this about the rebellious chieftain:
“He was a tall and sedate man with an arrogant straight face. He behaved modestly, with great severity. In appearance he was forty years old, and it would be completely impossible to distinguish him from the rest if he did not stand out for the honor that was shown to him when, during a conversation, they knelt and bowed their heads to the ground, calling him nothing else but daddy."
Cossacks, peasants, "working people" fled to Razin from all sides. And people are "walking", of course - and where without them in such a dashing business?
Ahead of the troops of the rebels flew "lovely letters", which sometimes turned out to be stronger than cannons and sabers:
“Stepan Timofeevich writes to you of all the mob. Who wants to serve God and the sovereign, and the great army, and Stepan Timofeevich, and I sent the Cossacks, and at the same time you would bring out the traitors and the worldly Krivapivtsi.”
And here is the letter itself, written in 1669:
Vasily Us agreed with the inhabitants of Tsaritsyn to knock down the locks of the city gates and let the rebels in. Voivode Timofey Turgenev locked himself in the tower, which was taken by storm. Taken prisoner, Turgenev spoke rudely to Razin and for this he was drowned in the Volga.
The combined detachment of Moscow archers, commanded by Ivan Lopatin, going to the aid of Tsaritsyn, was taken by surprise during a halt on the Money Island (now it is located opposite the Traktorozavodsky district of modern Volgograd, but in the 17th century it was located north of the city).
The archers, fired from both sides (from the banks), swam to the walls of Tsaritsyn and, seeing Razin's Cossacks on them, surrendered.
The Razins entered Kamyshin under the guise of merchants. At the appointed hour, they killed the sentries and opened the gates. In approximately the same way, the Cossacks took the city of Farakhabad during the Persian campaign of Razin.
Astrakhan seemed impregnable: 400 cannons defended the stone walls of the fortress, but the “black people” shouted from them: “Climb, brothers. We have been waiting for you for a long time."
Sagittarius, according to Jan Streis, said:
“Why should we serve without pay and go to death? Money and supplies are spent. We don't get paid for the year, we are sold and committed."
They shouted about a lot more, and the authorities did not dare to restrain them from this except with a kind word and great promises."
The same author (J. Struis) writes about the state of affairs near Astrakhan as follows:
“His (Razin's) strength grew day by day, and in five days his army increased from 16 thousand to 27 thousand people who approached the peasants and serfs, as well as Tatars and Cossacks, who flocked from all sides in large crowds and detachments to this merciful and generous commander, and also for the sake of free robbery."
And here is how Ludwig Fabricius already describes the surrender of the detachment in which he was located:
“The archers and the soldiers consulted and decided that this was the luck they had been waiting for for so long, and they ran across with all their banners and drums to the enemy. They began to kiss and hug, and vowed their lives to be at one with them, to destroy the treacherous boyars, throw off the yoke of slavery and become free people."
The commander of this detachment, S. I. Lvov, and the officers rushed to the boats, but some of the archers of Black Yar who were in the fortress opened fire on them from its walls, others cut off the path to the boats.
And Astrakhan fell, its city ataman (and in fact Razin's governor in the territories under his control) became Vasily Us, his assistant - Fedor Sheludyak (he "was in charge" of the posad).
Vasily Us held the power tightly, did not give anyone "pampering", and when the ataman A. Convict, who came from the Don, began to play pranks, after the first complaints of the townspeople who did not "understand the concepts" the Don was immediately "taken on guard." Vasily Us even began to register the marriages of the townspeople, sealing the acts with the city seal (Razin himself did not have time to think of this: he “crowned” lovers near a willow or birch tree).
In Astrakhan, the rebels also captured the recently built ship of the Western European type "Eagle".
The crew of this ship consisted of 22 Dutch sailors, headed by Captain David Butler (among these Dutchmen was the sailing master Jan Streis, whom we quoted) and 35 archers, armed with 22 squeaks, 40 muskets, four dozen pistols and hand grenades. Usually this ship is called a frigate, but it was a three-masted Dutch sailing-rowing pinnacle. For Razin's Cossacks, the "Eagle" turned out to be too difficult to control, so it was brought into the Kutum channel, where it rotted after a few years.
After that, Razin's army went up the Volga, and the number of plows in it already reached 200. Cavalry was walking along the coast - about 2 thousand people. Saratov and Samara surrendered without a fight.
Shortly before that, in May 1669, the first wife of Alexei Mikhailovich, Maria Miloslavskaya, died. A few months later, two of her sons also died: 16-year-old Aleksey and 4-year-old Simeon. And rumors spread among the people that they had been poisoned by traitorous boyars.
However, many doubted the death of Tsarevich Alexei - they said that he managed to escape from the villains, and he was hiding somewhere - either on the Don, or in Lithuania or Poland.
In August 1670, near Samara, a man appeared in Razin's camp who called himself the escaped Tsarevich Alexei. At first, the chieftain did not believe him:
"Stenka beat that sovereign and tore by the hair."
But then, on reflection, he nevertheless announced that the "Great Tsarevich Tsarevich" Alexei Alekseevich had fled from the "boyar lies" to him, the ataman of the Don, and on behalf of his father instructed him to start a war with the "traitorous boyars" and give all ordinary people freedom … The Razintsy called False Alexei Nechay - because the heir to the throne unexpectedly and unexpectedly showed up in their army. The name Nechai became their battle cry. In the cities that had gone over to the side of Razin or in the captured cities, people began to take an oath of allegiance to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and Tsarevich Alexei Alexeevich.
It was also announced that the disgraced Patriarch Nikon was going with Razin's army to Moscow.
"The leader of the rebels made the following show: on one ship, which had an elevation at the stern, tucked in red, he put the one he passed off as the son of the sovereign, and on the other ship, whose silk decoration was black, there was a likeness of a patriarch."
(Johann Justus Marcius.)
About the uprising that engulfed Russia at that time, they wrote abroad.
So, in the "European Saturday newspaper" on August 27, 1670 one could read:
"In Muscovy, according to rumors, a great rebellion broke out, and although the Tsar sent the rebels a letter urging them to obey, they tore it up and burned it, and those who delivered it were hanged."
The Hamburg newspaper "Northern Mercury" on September 1, 1670 reported:
“Astrakhan continues to be taken away from Moscow by rebels - Cossacks and various Tatars. They say the same about Kazan. If it is also taken away, then all of Siberia is lost. In this case, the Muscovite is in the same condition as he was in 1554, and will have to pay tribute to the Astrakhan people. The number of rebels has reached 150,000, and they are led by an old secret enemy of Moscow named Stepan Timofeevich Razin."
But the situation soon changed.
Defeat at Simbirsk
On September 4, 1670, Razin's troops, the number of which reached 20 thousand people, laid siege to Simbirsk.
The battle with the troops of Prince Baryatinsky lasted a whole day, and ended in a "draw", however, thanks to the help of the local population, the Razins managed to occupy the posad, and the garrison of Simbirsk, commanded by Prince Ivan Miloslavsky, was forced to take refuge in the "small town". Hoping to get reinforcements, Baryatinsky retreated from Simbirsk to Kazan, while Razin sent several detachments to Penza, Saransk, Kozmodemyansk and some other cities. Probably, we can talk about the tactical success of Stepan Razin, but at the same time he made a mistake, too scattered his forces.
However, the situation for the tsarist government was very serious. Johann Justus Marcius from Mühlhausen wrote about the mood in Moscow:
“The property, life, fate of wives and children, and most importantly, the honor of the nobility and the dignity of the king - everything was under threat. The hour of the last trials came, bearing the tsar evidence of the fragility of his fate, and Razin - evidence of his take-off … The premonition of disaster was aggravated when it became known that the supporters of the rioters with torches were already in the city and, enjoying their revenge, had already committed several arson in their unbridled anger. I myself could see how close everyone was from destruction, especially the tsar's dignitaries, - after all, it was them that Razin blamed for all the troubles and demanded that many of them be extradited, so that certain death awaited them.
Meanwhile, Alexei Mikhailovich gathered a huge army of the capital and provincial nobles and the children of the boyars who rode horses - their number reached 60 thousand people. Streltsy and regiments of the new order also went on a campaign against the rebels. They were headed by the governor Yuri Dolgoruky, whose "comrades" were K. Shcherbatov and Y. Baryatinsky. Dolgoruky led his troops from Murom, Baryatinsky on September 15 (25) again went to Simbirsk - from Kazan.
Having defeated the rebel detachments near the village of Kulangi, the Karla River, the villages of Krysadaki and Pokloush, Baryatinsky again approached Simbirsk.
On October 1, 1670, a decisive battle took place: the government troops won a victory thanks to a cavalry attack from the flank, which was led by Baryatinsky himself. Razin fought in the most dangerous places, received a saber blow to the head and a musket bullet in the leg, and was transferred to prison in an unconscious state. Having come to his senses, on the night of October 4, he organized a new desperate attempt to storm Simbirsk, but he did not succeed in taking the city. Everything was decided by the joint attack of the troops of Baryatinsky and Miloslavsky: crowded from both sides, the Razins fled to the plows and sailed from the city down the Volga.
Razin with the Cossacks went to Tsaritsyn, and from there - to the Don to gather a new army. Vasily Us sent 50 two-horse Cossacks to meet him, who were supposed to "protect the old man."
Folk legend says that, while retreating, Razin hid his saber in the crevice of one of the Zhiguli shikhans (coastal hills). He allegedly said to the Cossacks accompanying him:
“On the Don I feel death, another chieftain will continue my work. For him I will hide my saber on the mound."
And the chieftain Emelyan Pugachev found the battle Razin saber on the mountain and went to bring out the boyar evil spirits in Russia."
Near Simbirsk, False Alexei was also captured, whose death will be described in the next article. In it we will also talk about some of the "field commanders" of this Peasant War, the final defeat of the rebels, the execution of Stepan and the death of his comrades-in-arms.
