As in many provincial cities of Russia, in the city of Penza there is a Moskovskaya street - how can it be without it? This pedestrian street leads up the mountain in the center of the city, where a huge cathedral is now being completed, much more than that that was once blown up by the Bolsheviks. The street is, in general, like a street, but there is something on it that you will not see anywhere else. This is a mosaic panel, which the Penza residents themselves call "a man with a flag." But what it is about, and who is this man with a red flag in his hands, we will tell you today.
2016 marked the 155th anniversary of the abolition of serfdom in Russia, and 155th anniversary of the events of the largest peasant uprising in Russia in the Penza province, caused by the difficult conditions of the personal liberation of peasants from serfdom. We do not undertake to judge whether radical shifts have taken place in the mass consciousness or whether the masses are still dying "for God and the Tsar" in the era of "developed capitalism", largely determined the further history of Russia.
In memory of the Kandievsky uprising in Penza in Soviet times, this mosaic was installed.
The conditions for the liberation of the peasantry from serfdom, formulated in the "Provisions of February 19", consisting of 19 separate legislative acts ("Provisions" and "Additional Rules"), were even recognized by the government of Alexander II as a potential catalyst for popular unrest. Recall that by 1860, according to the census, there were almost 2.5 million serfs in Russia, which they continued to trade, their owners mortgaged, like estates. According to V. O. Klyuchevsky (one of the most famous historians of the 19th century, also, by the way, a native of the Penza province), two-thirds of the serf souls were in the mortgage at the beginning of the reform.
"The regulation on the redemption of peasants who have emerged from serfdom, their settling in estates, and on the government's assistance in acquiring the peasants themselves of field lands" regulated the procedure for the redemption of their allotments by the peasants. Schematically, the most controversial conditions of release look like this:
- the peasants were recognized personally free and received personal property (houses, buildings, all movable property);
- instead of serfs, they became "temporarily liable", - the peasants did not receive the land as property, only for use;
- land for use was transferred not to peasants personally, but to rural communities;
- for the use of land it is necessary to serve a corvee or pay a quitrent, which the peasants had no right to refuse for 49 years;
- the legal capacity of peasants is limited by class rights and obligations.
That, in fact, became a stumbling block: the conditional "will", of course, without land, which for the peasantry is tantamount to starvation. Complete freedom and rights, the manifesto said, "the serfs will receive in due time." In what - it was prudently not reported (apparently, after the notorious 49 years), especially to the future "full-fledged rural inhabitants".
Despite the fact that the manifesto proclaimed that “by God's providence and the sacred law of succession to the throne” the tsar relies “on the common sense of our people”, the government long before the announcement of the manifesto took a number of measures to prevent possible peasant unrest. Note that the preparation was very serious and thoughtful, despite the fact that today mass public opinion, knowing little about these historical events, is often inclined to view peasant uprisings as insignificant and random episodes against the background of general prosperity and prosperity in the Russian Empire.
Let us refer to a note drawn up by the General-Quartermaster of the Ministry of War, Adjutant General Baron Lieven in December 1860, "On the provision of measures by the troops to suppress peasant riots." It analyzed the existing deployment of troops from the point of view of the possibility of a prompt reaction when it was necessary to pacify peasant unrest. The results of the analysis satisfied the baron, since they made it possible to conclude that the existing disposition of troops as a whole is capable of providing the possibility of suppressing disturbances that might arise. Subsequently, it was more clearly defined which troops would be involved in suppressing possible unrest. A partial redeployment of troops through the Council of Ministers was proposed in order to "ensure order in some provinces where there is not enough infantry and cavalry, by pre-assigning troops from neighboring provinces … to suppress any disturbances."
Moskovskaya street. View from the roof of the shopping center. "The guy with the flag" is visible in the distance behind the trees.
Closer to the date of the announcement of the manifesto, secret instructions were sent to the representatives of the command, in which there was a statement in the annexes, according to which it was necessary to send military units to suppress peasant unrest in certain provinces in order to maintain order during the upcoming change in peasant life.
He has some interesting unshaven …
The ideological front was not ignored either. In special secret circulars, clergymen were recommended in church teachings and in conversations to explain to the peasants the necessity of conscientiously fulfilling their duties in relation to the landowners. And in case of misunderstandings with the landowners, they (the peasants) should have sought "… protection and relief … in a legal way, without spreading anxiety in society, and with patience wait from the authorities for proper orders and actions of justice." For the priests, special "teachings" were drawn up, designed to prepare the peasants for the correct perception of the reform and to ensure peace of mind.
An additional measure of stabilization of social unrest was even the time of publication of the "Regulations of February 19" - the time of Great Lent was chosen, when the alleged public indignation was to be partially compensated for by preparation for absolution, when believers must especially carefully observe the norms of Christian behavior, including Christian patience …
Despite the fact that all the procedures were carried out in secret, rumors of an imminent "gift of will" among the population spread like an avalanche. In St. Petersburg, newspapers even published a special message that "on February 19, no government orders on the peasant case will be made public," which, however, did not convince anyone.
Subsequent events confirm the validity of the government's fears and the effectiveness of the measures taken by it - a whole wave of peasant indignations arose, turning into real uprisings. They were caused by the obvious weaknesses of the reform and the dubious "free will".
Already in February, unrest engulfed 7 provinces, by May their number had increased to 32. The number of troops involved in suppressing the uprisings is also striking. We will use the data of the historian P. A. Zayonchkovsky: “for two months, units of 64 infantry, 16 cavalry regiments and 7 separate battalions took part in the suppression of the peasant movement. On the basis of these data, 422 infantry companies, 38 1/2 cavalry squadrons and 3 hundred Cossacks directly participated in the suppression of the peasant movement. This list is apparently incomplete, since some of the documents might not have survived.
The most large-scale uprisings took place in the Kazan (in the village of Bezdna) and Penza (in the Chembarsky and Kerensky districts) provinces. After the "Bezdnenskie unrest", the Kandiev uprising became the largest in terms of the number of participants. It covered 10 thousand people in 26 villages of the Penza province: Chernogai, Kandievka, Vysokoe, Pokrovskoe, Chembar. The reason for the protests was the widespread conviction of the peasants that the real conditions of "freedom" were concealed from them, and they should no longer work for the landlords. It was the corvee that was the most ruinous for the peasants: working on the owner's land took up the time necessary to cultivate his own plot.
In the Penza province, this condition was especially difficult. Even General A. M. Drenyakin, who headed the suppression of the uprising in the Penza region, agreed that "the Penza province, in its vast land, ease of corvee and underwater duty in favor of the landowner, cannot boast." The same opinion is expressed by his adjutant, second lieutenant Khudekov. The general also expresses his opinion on the reasons for the strong peasant uprisings in the Penza province (25 years after the events in the magazine "Russian Starina"): the absence of landowners in the localities, their not always good governance, burdening the peasants with additional burdens, the bad influence of the priest Fyodor Pomerantsev, the clerk Luke Koronatova, Leonty Yegortseva, who sowed confusion and talked about the existence of a "golden letter for free will."
Also corvee as a form of exploitation was widespread in church and monastery lands. Recall that the protest covered not only the peasantry (including the well-to-do), both soldiers and clergy took part in the uprising.
In the villages of the Chembarsky district (Studenki, Pokrovskoe), the peasants gathered for gatherings and in their own way, in their own favor, interpreted the terms of the manifesto. The leaders of the rebellious peasants - a resident of the village of Kandievka Leonty Yegortsev, retired grenadier Andrei Elizarov, priest Fyodor Pomerantsev, soldier Vasily Goryachev, Gavrila Streltsov, Anton Tikhonov - traveled through the villages with a red flag and called the people to Kandievka to resist the terms of the manifesto.
Little information has been preserved about the leaders of the rebels, and even those are rather contradictory. One of the leaders of the uprising, Leonty Yegortsev, was a Molokan, that is, an admirer of a variety of Christian teachings recognized by the church as heretical, whose followers recognize the worship of God only in the “spirit of truth”, do not recognize icons and the cross, which connects this trend with Protestantism. The Kandiev uprising by his suppressor, General Drenyakin, was called a revolt "with a touch and methods of Pugachevism." This is probably due to the fact that Leonty called himself Grand Duke Konstantin Mikhailovich, who died thirty years before the events described.
In the uprising, which is significant, five clergymen also participated, but only the name of Fyodor Pomerantsev has survived. There is information about Vasily Goryachev, a 26-year-old peasant from the village of Troitskoye. He was a temporary-leave of the Life Guards of the Jäger Regiment, had a bronze medal on the Andreevskaya ribbon in memory of the war of 1853-1854. In Kandievka he said that "we must stand for the peasants", that "there is nothing to persuade the people, he will not work for the landlords."
Starting on April 2, 1861, the protest initially proceeded in active forms: peasants plundered estates, took cattle, attacked troops, captured soldiers who were threatened to be executed, but they themselves suffered losses.
Since April 9, in the center of peasant unrest, in which three thousand peasants have gathered, was the village of Chernogai of the same Chembarsky district. There, the peasants attacked the company of the Tarutino Infantry Regiment, called in to pacify them. The company retreated, and one non-commissioned officer and a private were captured. But the rebels did not stay in Chernogai, since two infantry companies were sent there, and moved to Kandievka, which was the culmination of the uprising: 10 thousand people from four districts of the Penza and Tambov provinces gathered there.
With nine companies of infantry, General Drenyakin encircled Kandievka and began negotiations with the rebels, sending a priest to them to admonish them. The general was amazed at the stubbornness of the peasants, even when threatened by force. He writes that even after the shots were fired, they got up and continued to hold on. He finds the explanation in the false belief of the peasants that they should not "serve the corvee", as stated in the conditions of liberation, but "beat off the corvee", as Leonty Yegortsev and Fyodor Pomerantsev explained to them. And the fact is that if they "do not beat off the corvee" before Easter, then they will forever remain in serfdom.
But there was no unity among the peasantry - while some stood to death, others supplied assistance to General Drenyakin: on whose open order, transmitted through the headman, the rebellious Kandievka sent carts and people to deliver companies from the village of Poim to reinforce the detachment of punitive troops. The carts were prepared by the morning, but they were not needed - the tragic denouement had already taken place. On April 18, after a three-time salvo, the regular troops launched a surprise attack; as a result, 410 people were captured. After that, the peasants retreated to the village, some of them fled into the field, they were not pursued. At night, a significant part of the rebels dispersed to their villages.
As a result of the clash on April 18, 9 rebels were killed on the spot, 11 died later from their wounds; there were no losses in the troops. In total, three volleys were fired at the rebels, 41 bullets were fired. Despite the fact that the soldiers of the regular troops were shooting, such a low accuracy most likely indicates a reluctance to fight against their people.
In the case of peasant unrest in the Penza province, 174 participants in the speech were convicted, 114 of them were exiled to hard labor and settlement in Siberia after public punishment. 28 people were punished with gauntlets, driven through the ranks of 100 people from 4 to 7 times and then sent to hard labor for a period of 4 to 15 years; 80 people were driven through the ranks from 2 to 4 times and exiled to a settlement in Siberia, 3 people were punished with rods and sent to serve in line battalions, 3 people were imprisoned for 1 to 2 years, 58 people were punished with rods with subsequent release. In addition, 7 retired and vacation soldiers who participated in the uprising were also sentenced to various punishments, including 72-year-old Elizarov, who was exiled to Siberia. In the report of General Drenyakin, it was stated: “With my opinion, the priest Fyodor Pomerantsev, a widower, I set out to send as an example to others forever in the Solovetsky Monastery. In addition, I mean 4 more priests who behaved disapprovingly on the occasion of the announcement of the Manifesto."
Vasily Goryachev, the peasant who was the first to raise the red banner, was stripped of his military rank, punished with 700 punches of spitz-rods and exiled to remote Siberian mines for 15 years.
Leonty Yegortsev fled to the Tambov province (of which he was a native). A reward was announced for his head, but if volunteers had been found, they would not have had time: the next month he died suddenly. According to the testimony of General Drenyakin, his body was dug out of the grave to make sure that this self-styled prince was dead.
Despite the awarding of General A. M. Drenyakin with the Order of St. Stanislav of the 1st degree with the wording "in retaliation for prudent orders to restore order between the agitated peasants of the Penza province", public opinion, especially in democratic circles, condemned the general. Thus, the newspaper "Kolokol", published in London by A. I. Herzen, published a whole series of articles about the massacre of the peasants of the Penza province, who refused to perform corvee after the "liberation" from serfdom ("Russian blood is pouring!", "April 12, 1861", "A hero of our time and their Petersburg …", "Gurko not Apraksin! "," Count Apraksin received for beating … "). Particular indignation was caused by the fact of awarding the punishers with honorary royal awards. The last article was published “The Brave Drenyakin”: “The brave Drenyakin presented for the reward the“brave fellows”who killed the peasants, our brothers Russian peasants. How to reward them? Austrian or Prussian crosses need to be written out - it's not Russian to reward for Russian blood!"
For the first time in the history of the country, during the Kandiev peasant uprising, the Red Banner was raised as a symbol of the struggle. Adjutant Drenyakina describes the moment in the following way: “A large red kerchief was hung on a high pole representing the banner, and in this form this symbol of peasant turmoil was transported to the villages. This original train was followed by masses of peasants, women and children. " Drenyakin himself also described this event: "Vasily Goryachev, on a temporary vacation of the Life Guards of the Jaeger Regiment … carried the banner of will he had composed of red red calico on a pole through the villages and villages."
The uprisings in the Abyss and Kandievka began the struggle of the peasants for their own understanding of justice and "real will", for the abolition of redemption payments, which lasted 44 years. True, when the dream became a reality, and a manifesto was issued on the abolition of redemption payments in 1905, the amounts paid by the peasants for their will already exceeded the value of the land itself in 1861 many times over.
