In the 20-40s of the 18th century, the Russian government carried out a number of major measures to strengthen the southeastern border of the empire and increase the role of the Cossacks in its defense. Two circumstances made these measures vital.
First, significant progress was made in the development of the Volga region and the Urals by Russia. In the Urals, at the beginning of the 18th century, the largest metallurgical base at that time was created. The Volga region by this time becomes the granary of the country. But it was the Urals and the Volga region that were the regions of the empire most vulnerable to attacks by nomads.
Secondly, as a result of the Northern War, Russia solved the most urgent foreign policy tasks on its western borders and, therefore, was able to concentrate its main efforts in the east. And here the weakness of the military-political positions of the empire immediately became apparent. So, in the west, by that time, the Russians had conquered the shores of the Baltic Sea, and this opened up opportunities for trade with Europe. Strongly weakened Sweden and Poland could no longer threaten the Russian state. In the east, a completely different situation has developed. After the unsuccessful Prut campaign of Peter I, access to the Sea of Azov was again lost, and the strong Ottoman Empire, in alliance with a large number of semi-vassal and vassal states, not only closed access to the warm seas for Russia, but also posed a serious threat militarily. Central Asian caravan trade routes were controlled by the hostile khanates and emirates. The unsuccessful campaign to Khiva by the Bekovich-Cherkassky detachment, and then the major defeats of the Cossacks in repelling the attacks of the nomads on the Russian territories in 1723 and 1724, showed that in a purely military sense, Russia's capabilities here are limited. Moreover, they are so limited that it was not only difficult to pursue an active offensive policy, but even for the safety of the Russian settlements themselves, one could not be completely sure.
Rice. 1. East is a delicate matter
First of all, it was necessary to take care of strengthening the defensive structures in Bashkiria, directly adjacent to the South Ural factories. This was the central defense sector of the southeastern border of the Russian state, where mainly the Samara and Ufa Cossacks of the Zakamsk defensive line served. Here, in accordance with the Decree of the Senate of March 15, 1728, a system of signal beacons is being introduced everywhere. All Bashkiria from city to city, from fortress to fortress, in 20-30 years was covered with watchtowers (lighthouses) at a distance of visibility from one another. Lighthouses were placed on the tops of mountains or hills. Guard Cossacks were constantly on duty at the lighthouses. When danger approached, with the help of light and smoke signals, they let know from lighthouse to lighthouse that the enemy was approaching and what its number was. If necessary, the squad called for reinforcements or attacked the enemy itself.
Rice. 2. Combat alarm
In addition to lighthouses, patrols, posts and "secrets" were set up in hard-to-reach places for observation. And so for hundreds of miles from Bashkiria to the Volga region. But the weak point of the Zakamskaya line was its lack of connection with the territory of the Yaik Cossacks. The most dangerous was the section of the border between Bashkiria and the middle reaches of the Yaik, where the territories inhabited by the Yaik Cossacks began. This area, practically not defended by anyone, attracted the attention of Asian predators, it was here that they penetrated into Russian territory and moved unhindered to the Volga region. To cover this gap, by order of Empress Catherine I, by a decree of the Military Collegium in 1725, a town was founded at the confluence of the Sakmara River with the Yaik. Yaitsk ataman Merkuryev was instructed to provide the Cossacks who wished to settle in a new place, all the necessary assistance. At the same time, the Collegium clearly stipulated that the town should be populated exclusively by free Cossacks, and by no means by peasants who fled from Russia. However, in this part, the decree was unfulfilled. Some of the peasants had a desire to flee from the landowners to the Cossacks, where there was a difficult and dangerous life on the border, but the life of free people. And the Cossacks had a desire and material interest to accept, and sometimes lure, these fugitive people. The fugitives were hired as workers for wealthy Cossacks, and daring people were recruited from them to organize various kinds of military events. And the Cossacks, as far as possible, tried to shelter the fugitives. It is no coincidence that two years later, by a personal decree of the Supreme Privy Council, the Senate was ordered to expel fugitive people and peasants from the town of Sakmary to their former place of residence. True, this decree was also unfulfilled. However, this town was insufficient cover from the raids of the nomads. It is characteristic that the Bashkirs who lived in this area, themselves not very reliable subjects of the Russian crown at that time and often attacking Russian villages themselves, were forced to ask to build several fortresses here in order to block the way for the nomads. This was due to the fact that their attacks were systematic and the Kyrgyz-Kaisak nomads tended to make little sense of who should be robbed, Russians or Bashkirs. By the mid-30s of the 18th century, the issue of creating a system of fortifications in this area was acutely included in the agenda. The immediate reason for this was two events: the formal entry into Russian citizenship in December 1731 of the Kazakhs (then they were called Kyrgyz-Kaisaks) of the junior and middle zhuzes; Bashkir uprising of 1735-1741.
Accepting Russian citizenship, the Kazakhs hoped first of all that the Russian Empire would help them in the fight against the advancing Dzungars. The Russian military presence in the steppe seemed necessary to them. They themselves asked Empress Anna Ioannovna to build a fortress in the foothills of the Southern Urals. On June 7, 1734, by the order of the Empress, the city was founded and it was commanded "to call this city Orenburg and in any case call and write this name". The city was originally founded at the mouth of the Ori river. Later, in 1740, Orenburg was moved to the Krasnaya Gora tract, while the old fortress began to be called Orsk. By decree of October 18, 1742, the city was moved to the third place at the mouth of the Sakmara River, where it is now, and the former fortress was called Krasnogorskaya. The construction of Orenburg was started, it seemed, under the most favorable circumstances. Everyone wanted its construction: Russians, Kazakhs, Bashkirs. But they wanted to achieve different, in essence, even opposite, goals. The city under construction could be fully used not only to protect the Kazakhs from the Dzungars, the Bashkirs from the Kazakhs, but also against both. They figured it out pretty quickly. In the summer of 1735, an attack on Russian troops under the leadership of the State Secretary of the Senate and the founder of Orenburg I. K. Kirillov, the Bashkir uprising began. After 2-3 months, the rebellion engulfed all of Bashkiria. It was a partisan war on an unprecedented scale in the southeast of the Russian Empire, in which both belligerents were not shy about choosing their means. The villages of the Meshcheryaks, Teptyars, Mishars and Nagaybaks were subjected to especially frequent and brutal attacks by the rebels, along with Russian villages. The insurgents also developed very difficult relations with the local Tatars. It is no coincidence that during the uprising, most of these peoples did not hesitate to support the government troops. To suppress the uprising, significant military forces were sent to Bashkiria in 1736, including, in addition to the regular troops, up to three thousand Volga Kalmyks, three thousand Ufa Meshcheryaks, about a thousand Don Cossacks, two thousand Yaik Cossacks. Lieutenant General A. I. Rumyantsev. He won two major victories over the rebels on the Duma River and in the mountains between Yaik and Sakmara. But the rebellion did not abate. The final pacification of the region was associated with the activities of Prince V. A. Urusov, to whom the government entrusted the command of the troops. He cruelly dealt with the rioters in an Asiatic manner, while the Bashkir elders who did not support the rebels, presented weapons, cloth, money, and ranks on behalf of the empress. Peace was established in Bashkiria. But the government and local administration understood that peace here could not be strong and durable without the creation of a reliable defense system. Already during the Bashkir uprising of 1735-1741, the leaders of the Russian administration I. K. Kirillov, A. I. Rumyantsev, V. A. Urusov, V. N. Tatishchev are taking emergency measures to complete the construction of the Orenburg defensive line. Outposts, redoubts, fortresses were created to which the Samara, Alekseev, Don, Little Russian, Yaik and Ufa Cossacks were resettled. The government pays special attention to strengthening the defense on the Iset and in the areas adjacent to it. Here, in the 30s of the 18th century, Chelyabinsk, Chebarkul, Miass, Etkul fortresses were built, which, on the one hand, protect the factories of the Southern Urals from nomads, and on the other, they separate the Bashkir and Kyrgyz-Kaisak (Kazakh) tribes.
Rice. 3. Monument to the first builders of the Chelyabinsk fortress
As a result, in the 30-40s of the 18th century in the Urals and in the Urals, a system of border fortifications of a huge scale and length was created. It includes six defensive lines:
- Samara - from Samara to Orenburg (fortresses Krasnosamarskaya, Bordskaya, Buzulukskaya, Totskaya, Sorochinskaya, Novosergeevskaya, Elshanskaya)
- Sakmarskaya from Orenburg up the Sakmare river 136 versts (fortresses Prechistinskaya and Vozdvizhenskaya, Nikitsky and Yellow redoubts);
- Nizhneyaitskaya - from Orenburg down the Yaik by 125 versts to the Iletsk town (fortresses Chernorechinskaya, Berdskaya, Tatishchevskaya, Rasypnaya, Nizhneozernaya and 19 Cossack outposts);
- Verkhnyayaitskaya - from Orenburg up the Yaik by 560 versts to the Verkhnyayaitskaya fortress (fortresses Orskaya, Karagayskaya, Guberlinskaya, Ilyinskaya, Ozernaya, Kamennoozyornaya, Krasnogorskaya, Tanalykskaya, Urtazymskaya, Magnitnaya, Kizilskaya, Verkhneyaitskaya, thirteen red outposts and thirteen outposts);
- Isetskaya - along the Miass River until it flows into the Iset (fortresses Miasskaya, Chelyabinskaya, Etkulskaya and Chebarkulskaya, ostrozhki Ust-Miasky and Isetsky);
- Uysko-Tobolskaya - from Verkhneyitskaya to Zverinogolovskaya fortresses, including, in addition to it, the fortresses Karagayskaya, Uiskaya, Petropavlovskaya, Stepnaya, Koelskaya, Sanarskaya, Kichiginskaya, Troitskaya, Ust-Uiskaya.
This entire system with a length of 1780 miles was called the Orenburg defensive line. It began from the Guryev town on the shores of the Caspian Sea and ended at the Alabugsky detachment located on the border of the Tobolsk province. For its defense, along with the Yaitsk army, a whole series of government decrees was created by the Orenburg Cossack army based on the merger of free Cossacks and people assigned to the Cossack estate by government decrees. The core of the army was the communities of the Ufa, Alekseevsk, Samara and Yaik Cossacks resettled to the Orenburg line. The Iset Cossacks (descendants of the Yermakites) were included in the army with wide autonomy. In 1741, the first group of Ukrainian Cossacks, consisting of 209 families (a total of 849 service Cossacks), arrived on the line from Little Russia. The Cossack class was attributed to the archers who had been resettled under Peter I, who were not involved in the rifle riots. But all this was not enough. For all its dislike for the fugitive peasants, the government was forced to turn a blind eye to the fact that, with the connivance of the local authorities in the Urals and Siberia, they were enrolled in the Cossacks. Moreover, with the beginning of the Bashkir uprising, by the personal decree of Empress Anna Ioannovna, all the fugitives in the Urals were forgiven their guilt in exchange for agreeing to enroll in the Cossacks in the newly built towns. In the same period, for the defense of the border line, all the exiles and even some convicts were enrolled in the Cossacks. Be that as it may, but the number of the Cossacks on the Orenburg defensive line grew rapidly. In 1748, the Military Collegium of the Senate issued a decree on the organization of the Orenburg irregular army and on the introduction of the institution of the military chieftain. The Samara Cossack Vasily Ivanovich Mogutov was appointed the first ataman. The troops included: Samara, Ufa, Alekseevsk, Isetsk Cossacks, Stavropol baptized Kalmyks, separate teams of resettled Yaik, Don and Little Russian Cossacks and all serving noblemen, boyar and former prisoners of war (foreigners), retired soldiers and officers, fugitives enrolled in the Cossacks., newcomers (descendants) who settled in the fortresses of the Orenburg line. This decree actually completed a series of government decrees related to the creation of the Orenburg Cossack army, which soon became the third largest among the Cossack troops in Russia. The seniority of the army was borrowed from the oldest Ufa Cossacks. After the conquest of Kazan in 1574, the Ufa fortification was built by the governor Nagim, inhabited by city service Cossacks. This date became the year of the seniority of the Orenburg army. Therefore, we can conclude that the Orenburg Cossack army, unlike the Donskoy, Volzhsky and Yaitsky, did not develop and grow stronger spontaneously, but was created by decrees from above, organized and consolidated into a single whole by administrative command. From the very beginning, it did not know the veche of freemen and Cossack self-government (with the exception of the Iset Cossacks), and staff and army officers and officials were in charge of all affairs in the army. And nevertheless, in the southeast of the great empire, a powerful, well-organized and disciplined Orenburg Cossack army was born, strengthened and began to honestly serve the Fatherland. From the very beginning, it did not know rest and temporary respite from very active actions, aggressively brutal attacks of neighboring Kyrgyz-Kaysak, Bashkir, Kalmyk or Karakalpak warlike tribes, which, despite their oath promises to honestly serve Russia and maintain peace on the border, continued to engage in robbery - thieves' trade. Therefore, the Orenburg Cossacks, serving on the border, always kept their gunpowder dry and were always ready to give a worthy rebuff to lovers of easy money.
Rice. 4. Orenburg horse and foot Cossacks
Rice. 5. Orenburg horse-Cossack artillery
At the same time, significant changes are taking place in the economy and life of the Cossacks. Cossack fortresses, towns, outposts, settlements, forts are increasingly losing the features of temporary settlements. The Cossacks are really settling in the areas inhabited by them. The economy of the Cossacks is becoming more stable and versatile. The well-being of the Cossacks depended on the size of the government salary, as well as the amount of rights and privileges. It should be said that the salary and clothing allowance was very small, at that time it did not exceed one and a half rubles a year for one Cossack. Although that mattered. For comparison: the annual quitrent (payment to the landlord or the state) of an average peasant at that time was about two rubles. Therefore, the most important privilege of the Cossacks was their exemption from all taxes (quitrent) and duties, except for military service. The Cossacks were much better than even the Ural and Siberian peasants, allotted land and holdings. Their allotments were 4-8 times larger than the allotments of neighboring peasants. True, in the Urals it was not of significant importance at that time, there was enough land for everyone. Much more important was the quality of allotments and the size of the rights to use pastures, hunting and fishing grounds of fields, forests, rivers and lakes. Therefore, in reality the Cossacks lived more prosperous and had better living conditions than the neighboring peasantry. However, the life of the Cossacks, especially the rank and file, cannot be painted in pink tones and colors. It was not easy and not easy, because the main duty of the Cossack was very difficult, troublesome and dangerous - military service and defense of the Fatherland. What real Ural Cossack could have had income, except for salary? There were several of them:
1. Booty obtained in military campaigns. If successful, it could be very significant, especially if the Cossacks managed to capture thoroughbred horses, which were highly valued. Therefore, the capture of the Bashkir, Nogai, Kyrgyz-Kaisak, Karakalpak herds was one of the most common types of military craft among the Cossacks. However, the nomads were in no way inferior to the villagers in this. Reading the documents about these incidents, we can say that for both of them it was not only an everyday fishing, but also a kind of almost a sport.
2. Agriculture was an important source of income. True, agriculture was, albeit important, but secondary in nature. Its development was hampered by military service, because of which the Cossacks were forced to leave home for a long time. The development of agriculture was restrained by the constant war threat from the nomads, who especially eagerly attacked those working in the field far from outposts. But animal husbandry, especially horse breeding, was well developed. Gardening also developed, but mainly to meet family needs. In the southern regions, large quantities of watermelons and melons were grown for sale.
3. One of the main articles of income of the Cossacks was hunting and fishing, the benefit of fish and game was in abundance. For the Cossacks who lived along the rivers, fishing was often more profitable than trips "for zipuns". The Cossacks most jealously guarded their privilege - the right of crimson. Only service Cossacks were allowed to crimp (retired or not serving this right did not have this right). "And it so happens that one Cossack, who is lucky enough to catch from forty to fifty or more sturgeons during the grunting, and so on for twenty or thirty rubles …" Commercial fishing was developed not only on Yaik, but also on Miass, Tobol, Iset and other rivers and lakes, of which there are many in these parts.
4. Cossacks of the Orenburg region had the right to engage in trades. These included: carriage, maintenance of fords and transports, breaking stones, timber rafting, beekeeping. The production of wonderful shawls from goat down and Armenian from camel wool belonged to special trades.
5. Orenburg Cossacks were also engaged in trade. The main items of trade were: bread, livestock, leather, oil, lard, fish, salt, manufactured goods and products.
In general, taking into account these and other incomes, the Cossacks in the Urals have always been quite prosperous, especially in comparison with the peasantry of the central provinces of Russia. But this higher standard of living was achieved at the cost of constant, very hard work of the civilian and military.
Separately, I would like to dwell on the ethnic origins of the new Cossack army. The centuries-old polyethnic history and the process of subsequent Russification of the indigenous and natural Russian Cossack troops (Don, Volga, Yaik) are described in detail by Cossack historians and writers and were also touched upon in many articles of the series on the history of the Cossacks (https://topwar.ru/22250-davnie- kazachi-predki.html;
But despite this, and also contrary to the facts and even their own eyes, the majority of Russian citizens stubbornly believe that the Cossacks are an exclusively Russian phenomenon, mainly because they so want to consider these citizens themselves. In this regard, it is interesting to draw attention to the multiethnic nature of the army, which was no longer formed spontaneously, but by government administrative measures. There is no doubt that the main supplier of fighters to the newly formed army was the Russian ethnos, but the participation of other ethnic groups with their subsequent Russification and pollination should not be underestimated. As you know, folk proverbs and sayings are a concentrated clot of philosophy of the past. So, the proverb "The eye is narrow, the nose is plush, according to the passport, Russian - our main people beyond the Volga" characterizes the ethnographic situation in the Trans-Volga region, the Urals and Siberia in the best possible way. And the Orenburg Cossacks are no exception in this matter.
What are the main ethnic groups that took part in the creation of the Orenburg Cossacks?
Almost simultaneously with the Orenburg Cossack army and in the immediate vicinity of it, the Stavropol Kalmyk Cossack army was formed. The Kalmyk horde took Russian citizenship back in 1655 and since then has served the tsars in military service. The Russian government did not interfere in the internal affairs of the Kalmyk uluses, but the Orthodox Church was quite active among them in missionary activity. As a result, in 1724, up to one and a half thousand Kalmyk families (wagons) adopted the Orthodox faith. At first, they continued to live in their old places between Tsaritsyn and Astrakhan, but living together with the unbaptized did not get along, "and being baptized with unbaptized Kalmyks in the vicinity they always have quarrels between themselves and cannot live without it." Kalmyk Khan Donduk Ombo "boredly asked" the Russian authorities to resettle the baptized Kalmyks from the unbaptized ones. On May 21, 1737, by the decree of Empress Anna Ioannovna, they were resettled to the Zakamsky defensive line and the city of Stavropol (Volzhsky) was founded. The command of the army was arranged according to the Cossack model. Later, the Stavropol Kalmyk army was included in the Orenburg Cossack army and resettled to new lines. In the course of centuries of cohabitation and service with the Orenburg Cossacks, today the baptized Kalmyks have practically become Russified.
Rice. 6. Group photo of the Orenburg Cossacks of the late 19th century. It is impossible not to pay attention to the variety of faces
Despite the rather frequent uprisings of the Bashkirs and their active participation in the Pugachev rebellion, the government, the further, the more the Bashkirs are attracted to military service and guarding the border line. The first step in this direction was taken by Ivan the Terrible, who attracted Bashkir troops to participate in the Livonian War. Peter I, although he feared the Bashkir rebels, made extensive use of their units in the Northern War. After the suppression of the Bashkir uprising of 1735-1741, the Bashkirs were increasingly attracted to the border service, but their detachments were mixed with more reliable detachments of Meshcheryaks, service Tatars, Nagaybaks and Cossacks. As this happened, the Bashkirs, in terms of their estate-legal status, are increasingly beginning to draw closer to the Cossacks. In 1754, the obligation to pay yasak was removed from the Bashkirs. The tsar's decree directly stated that the Bashkirs "without paying yasak, the only servicemen will be the same as the Cossacks." On April 10, 1798, a decree was issued on the introduction of a cantonal system of government in Bashkiria, in fact, finally turning the Bashkirs and Meshcheryaks into a military estate modeled on the Cossack. Bashkir and Meshcheryak Cossacks, as well as Teptyars, were actively involved in wars and foreign campaigns. In 1812-1814, after the Don, the Cossack troops from the Urals were the second largest troops sent to the front. They sent 43 regiments to fight Napoleon, including 28 Bashkir regiments. After World War II, several thousand French prisoners of war were also enlisted in the Orenburg Cossacks. However, the main task of the Urals was to protect the border line from Tobol to Guryev. In the 20-30s of the XIX century, up to 70% of the Cossacks on the border line were Bashkirs and Meshcheryaks. In general, the Bashkir-Meshcheryak army became by the beginning of the 19th century the largest Cossack army in terms of numbers in the Urals.
Rice. 7. Bashkir Cossack of the early 19th century
In the 30-50s of the XIX century, the gradual disbandment of the Bashkir-Meshcheryak army began. Some of the Bashkirs and Meshcheryaks of the inner cantons are transferred to the Orenburg and Ural army, others to the tax-paying population. After the end of the Crimean War and the conquest of the Caucasus, internal reforms began in Russia. In the military field, they were conducted by the Minister of War Milyutin, some of them related to the Cossacks. He had the idea of dissolving the Cossacks in the general mass of the Russian people. He prepared and on January 1, 1863 sent a note to the troops, which suggested:
- to replace the general service of the Cossacks with a set of eager people who love this business;
- to establish free access and exit of people from the Cossack state;
- introduce personal land ownership of land;
- to differentiate in the Cossack regions the military from the civil, the judicial from the administrative and to introduce the imperial law into the legal proceedings and the judicial system.
On the part of the Cossacks, this reform met with sharp opposition, because in fact it meant the elimination of the Cossacks. The Cossacks indicated to the Minister of War three unshakable beginnings of Cossack life:
- public land property;
- caste isolation of the army;
- the custom of elective principle and self-government.
Decisive opponents of the reforming of the Cossacks were many nobles and, above all, Prince Baryatinsky, who pacified the Caucasus mainly with Cossack sabers. Emperor Alexander II himself did not dare to reform the Cossacks. After all, on October 2, 1827 (9 years old), he, then the heir and the Grand Duke, was appointed ataman of all Cossack troops. The military chieftains became his governors in the Cossack regions. All his childhood, youth and youth were spent surrounded by Cossacks: uncles, orderlies, orderlies, instructors, coaches and educators. Ultimately, after many disputes, a charter was announced confirming the rights and privileges of the Cossacks. But the Bashkir-Meshcheryak army could not be defended. The army was abolished according to the highest approved opinion of the State Council "On the transfer of control of the Bashkirs from the military to the civilian department" dated July 2, 1865. But a significant part of the Bashkir, Misharsk, Nagaybak and Teptyar soldiers by this time was already in the Orenburg army. Most of the descendants of these fighters have by now completely become Russified and know about their origin only from family legends.
Rice. 8. Group photo of the early XX century Cossacks-Nagaybaks from the village of Paris
At the same time, in places of compact residence in the Chebarkul and Nagaybak districts of the Chelyabinsk region, the descendants of the Nagaybak Cossacks (baptized Tatars) have preserved bilingualism (they speak Russian and Tatar) and many elements of the national culture to this day. But urbanization and industrialization are taking their toll. The descendants of the Nagaybak Cossacks go to cities for permanent residence, and those living in the diaspora are now practically Russified.
Rice. 9. Sabantuy (plow holiday) in the Nagaybak village of Paris, Chelyabinsk region in our time
It was in such conditions that the formation and formation of the Orenburg Cossack army took place, which became the third largest among the eleven Cossack troops, eleven pearls in the brilliant military crown of the Russian Empire. Until the liquidation of the Cossacks by the Soviet regime, the Orenburg Cossacks performed a lot of noble deeds, but this is a completely different story.
Rice. 10. Orenburg Cossack foragers in the Turkestan campaign
