Captivity of Razin. What was Stepan Razin
Razin Stepan Timofeevich (circa 1630-1671), Cossack chieftain, leader of the peasant war of 1670-1671.
Don Cossack from a wealthy family. He knew Polish, Tatar and Kalmyk languages, three times he was elected by the Don people to the embassies in Moscow and once - to the Kalmyks. In 1663, as a mandated chieftain, he defeated the Krymchaks near Perekop.
“He was a tall and sedate man, of strong build, with an arrogant straight face. He behaved modestly, with great severity, ”a contemporary wrote about 33-year-old Razin.
In 1666, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich demanded to conduct a census on the Don and return the fugitive serfs. Angered by the response of the Cossacks “there is no issue from the Don!”, The tsar blocked their trade and food supply.
In the spring of 1667, a thousand "golutvens" - poor but well-armed Cossacks - followed Razin from the Don to the Volga. Taking on board a rich caravan of ships and recruiting new fighters, the ataman made his way to the Caspian by force and cunning and already with a one and a half thousand army wintered on the Yaik River (Ural).
In the spring of 1668, having carefully prepared the fleet, Razin with 3 thousand soldiers began a campaign. Having passed from Derbent to the southern shores of the Caspian, the Cossacks obtained a lot of valuable things from Iranian ships. Well organized by the spring of 1670, the army was rushing to the Volga. The ataman called: "To Russia, to the boyars to go."
Razin took Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd) and defeated the army of the archers, hurrying to the city. Under the city of Cherny Yar, the archers with a drumbeat and unfolded banners went over to his side. Near Astrakhan, the tsar's voivode fought, but the city rebelled and on June 22 let Razin in.
Ataman sent 2 thousand soldiers to the Don, and with the rest went up the Volga. Saratov and Samara opened the gates for Razin, in Samara a strong army of Ivan Miloslavsky and Prince Yuri Baryatinsky was locked in the Kremlin by differences. While besieging him, Razin lost a month and lost the initiative in the war.
The tsar sent against the Cossacks the 60-thousandth army of Prince Yu. A. Dolgorukov, gathered new armies in Kazan and Shatsk. But every day he brought news of the capture of cities and fortresses, of the terrible death of nobles, officials, service people and local nobility. Sviyazhsk, Korsun (now Korsun-Shevchenkovsky), Saransk, Penza and other cities fell before the rebels, Nizhny Novgorod and Kokshaisk were under siege.
In winter, the Razin people suffered a number of defeats from government forces.
In the spring of 1671, the homely Don Cossacks, having received help from the tsar with troops, weapons and supplies, took the Kagalnitsky town and seized Razin and his brother Frol.
The last stronghold of the rebels - Astrakhan fell.
There is no documentary evidence of when Stepan Razin was born. However, this date can be derived from secondary sources. For example, the Dutchman Jan Jansen Streis, who traveled to Russia, saw the famous rebel several times. In his notes, he recorded that in 1670 Razin was 40 years old, which suggests that he was born around 1630.
Biography details
It is only known for certain that the famous chieftain was born on the Don. The biography of Stepan Razin began in the present Volgograd region, where in the 17th century there were numerous Cossack farms and villages. His life was overgrown with numerous inventions and legends, which was traditional for that time. The biography of Stepan Razin became the subject of veneration among the Cossacks. His reputation was enjoyed by who during his revolt often mentioned his predecessor.
In 1652, the biography of Stepan Razin was replenished with an important event for the latter. He becomes the chieftain. Ten years later, Stenka took part in a campaign against the Crimean Khan. In addition to the Cossacks, there were Kalmyks and Cossacks in the army. Then Russia defended itself from a large layer of free soldiers stationed in the south of the country.
Razin had an older brother, Ivan. He was the ataman of the Don Army. His Cossacks were distinguished by their free and violent morals, which is why they constantly had conflicts with the tsarist envoys. During one such skirmish, the Moscow governor Yuri Dolgorukov ordered the execution of Ivan for disobedience. This turned Stepan against the royal power.
The situation in the Cossacks
The 17th century generally received the nickname "rebellious" because of the frequent peasant uprisings. The villagers began to fall into serf dependence on the landowners, after it was accepted in 1649. The peasants fled from slavery to the Don, from where the fugitives were not given. By the 70s, a huge number of newly converted Cossacks had accumulated in the south of the country. This stratum was most intransigent towards the tsarist administration, which many accused of unfair treatment of the rural population.
The peasants who became Cossacks were called "golutvennye". They made their living by robbing ships on the Volga. The old-timers turned a blind eye to the situation ...
Hike to Persia
In 1667, Stepan Razin became the leader of such a detachment. A short biography of the chieftain in the history textbook includes mentions of the campaign against Persia. Indeed, this was the first serious military experience of the gallant chieftain. In the lower reaches of the Volga, his Cossacks robbed merchants and even ships that belonged to Patriarch Joasaph. The detachment was massively joined by laborers, barge haulers and other people who hunted in the river fleet.
The robberies of merchants did not bother Moscow, which was very far away. But when the Cossacks defeated the archers and even captured the usual boundaries of the permissible, they were violated.
In the new year 1668, after wintering on Yaik, Razin's army went to the Caspian Sea. Here it first encountered the forces. Circassians and other inhabitants of the North Caucasus joined Razin. With such forces in July, the Russians fought the Persians at the Pig Island. It was the largest Russian victory at sea in the 17th century. The battle unfolded near Baku. The Persians were defeated, and the Cossacks got their spoils. But since the situation was precarious, the latter retreated to Astrakhan, where they were received by the tsar's governors.
Popular uprising
The following year, the biography of Stepan Razin was marked by an open uprising against the tsar. He sent letters to the south of the country, in which he called everyone who wanted to get the will to join him. In addition, then there was a tradition of impostors, which Stepan Razin took advantage of. The brief biography of the ataman continued like this: he spread a rumor that he had an heir to the throne in his army, who had actually recently died. Then the tsar was in conflict with Patriarch Tikhon, whom he sent into exile. Taking advantage of this, Razin also said that the high priest also supported him. The peasants did not need proof, they willingly went under his banner.
Popular support helped Razin to capture Astrakhan, Saratov, Tsaritsyn and Samara. Moving upstream, the Cossacks ended up near Simbirsk. His siege began in 1670. The order was given by himself. The biography of the ataman says that the life of the gallant Cossack hung in the balance. He went so far that defeat would have left him no chance to survive.
Defeat and execution
Meanwhile, an army of 60 thousand soldiers was already moving from Moscow. The Razins were defeated and driven back from Simbirsk. Stepan fled, but he failed to enlist the support of the Cossacks, who did not want to be in disgrace. As a result, Razin was captured by his own associates, who handed him over to the king in April 1671. On June 6, the leader of the popular uprising was quartered.
It happened in Moscow on Bolotnaya Square for the edification of everyone around. Nevertheless, everyone still remembers who Stepan Timofeevich Razin is. A brief biography of the chieftain became the basis for numerous folk songs that are still popular today.
"Through the delusion of the Byzantine ligature
It's time to distinguish features and cuts,
So that Rus comes out - the liberated Razin -
And he unfolded, like a banner, the Sun-Ra. "
(Alexey Shiropaev)
"Two terrible serpents tyrannize me."
(Stepan Razin)
Today we will talk in detail about one of the greatest Russian warlocks - Stepan Razin. Having successfully combined military skill and necromancy, he united under his command the Russian lands, in size larger than any European state of that time. Vile Muscovites did not manage to kill him completely, but they managed to captivate him with charmed chains and, through the ritual of dismemberment, imprison him in the guise of a lich - still alive, but immovable.
The topic is important, the conversation will be long, there will be a lot of letters.
Let's start with a little-known article from an early "Lemons" (singled out in bold - I):
STEPAN RAZIN: LEGENDThe rare documents of the 17th century, containing facts of his biography, are more striking than the legend about him.
Cossack, a well-known personality in the Don Army even before the outbreak of the Great Riot, commander, military diplomat. According to a contemporary, the secretary of the Swedish embassy in Persia Kempfer, Razin knew eight languages. An amazing fact, but quite explainable by the fact that the Don Army had constant diplomatic and trade relations with Persia and Turkey, with its other not entirely peaceful neighbors. Having repeatedly headed various embassies, Razin was his own interpreter; in addition to Russian, he spoke Tatar, Kalmyk, Persian, Turkish, Ukrainian, possibly Polish and Lithuanian. In Ukraine, Razin must have visited in 1665 as part of a Cossack detachment, together with Russian troops who fought for the independence of Ukraine from the Polish-Lithuanian state. In this war for self-righteousness, the voivode Yuri Dolgoruky hanged Stepan Razin's older brother, Ivan. Persian and Turkish girls captured by the Cossacks in robbery campaigns were not uncommon on the Don, so the knowledge of these languages \u200b\u200bis not a mystery. Diplomats, military and current politicians, hey! Are you able to say at least hello in eight languages?
It is surprising that a person who was the personification of a bloody rebellion, anathematized for 300 years (a church like a harlot - whoever they say, she will curse), twice went on a pilgrimage, crossed all of Russia - from the Azov to the White Sea - almost two thousand kilometers - in the fall 1652, being a youth of 23 years old, after repeated participation in campaigns to the Turkish shores, and again in the fall - already in 1661, after representing the Don Army in negotiations with the Kalmyks. He held the negotiations successfully and, after waiting out the summer, Razin, having reached the age of Christ and Ilya of Muromets, goes to the other end of the world - to the Solovetsky Monastery. Razin by this time had a lot - position, authority, name, prosperity; it is worth mentioning that he was the godson of the ataman of the Don Host - Kornila Yakovlev, that is, the godson of the head of a huge and powerful republic.
Two years after the pilgrimage, with the knowledge of the Army Chief, Razin, at the head of the Cossack detachment, makes a military campaign against the Crimeans. In the battle at Molochny Vody, Razin's detachment wins, which was written off to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.
And in the spring of 1667, Razin was already arbitrarily leading a detachment of Cossacks for a campaign against Azov, then belonging to Turkey. The small number of the detachment forced Razin not to undertake an assault. If events were different, Azov would have been taken not by Peter I in 1695, but by Razin in 1667.
Soviet historians who date the beginning of the Peasant War in 1667 are not entirely right. The Peasant War was still far away. Firstly, at first everything that happened concerned mainly the Cossacks: Razin challenges the rich, snickering part of the Don people who sold themselves to Moscow, who had forgotten the covenants of the Cossack freemen. His detachment climbs the Don and, as reported in historical documents, "many Cossack towns are being ruined, passing merchants and Cossacks are robbed and beaten to death", "many owners and workers are beaten and hung up incessantly."
Further, the Razins stood between the rivers Tishina and Ilovlya (tributaries of the Volga with poetic names), robbed a caravan descending along the Volga to Astrakhan, freed the exiles, who were a whole plow, hacked the initial people, kissers, some of them before this, roasted alive, from the patriarchal plow three were "hung on the shoglu by the legs, and others by the head." (By what principle, I wonder, did you choose the method of hanging?)
It makes no sense now to talk about the cruelty of the Cossacks, the time itself was cruel, foreigners wrote that people in Muscovy are killed more often than dogs - in the streets, in quarrels and fights; the state legalized torture, for which there were professional executioners in every city, executions and punishments were carried out in public, and what to say about those unfortunates mutilated by the Cossacks, if women in those days were buried alive for treason. Should we judge those times with our morality ...
Then Razin went down the Volga, stopped at Tsaritsyn. The governor of the city ordered to shoot at the thieves' plows, but no cannon fired - gunpowder came out fuse. Following this, the captain Razin appeared to the crazed commander, muttering something about evil spirits, and demanded an anvil, furs and blacksmith's tackle. Which was immediately provided. Near the Black Yar, Razin frolicked again and whipped the voivode of this city who met on the way, dropping him without pants on the shore after the execution. This, too, was not the Peasant War, everything that was happening was pure robbery, only from the previous robbers Razin's actions differed in a certain reckless scale and completely unthinkable arrogance.
The Razins approached the Yaitsky town by sea. Leaving the plows and changing clothes, forty people, led by the chieftain himself, knocked at the gates of the town, asking them to let them into the church to pray. The gates were opened, and the "pilgrims" cut the guards. The Razin people entered the town.
The streltsy garrison standing in Yaitsky town did not have time to resist or did not dare. However, Yatsyn, the streltsy head, and his comrades conceived something against Razin. The ataman, who found out about this, punished them. The garrison was assembled in the square, and one of the archers (his name was Chikmaz) began to chop off the heads of his yesterday's comrades. The picture, I think, was incomparable: having chopped off 170 heads in two hours, Chikmaz must have become heavily smeared, blood covered his whole body and face with a crust - it was summer, heat; the agonizing corpses were thrown into the pit. Some of the condemned archers fainted from horror, and dragged them to the chopping block, who fell into unconsciousness. Stepan sat here, watched and, apparently tired, announced to the surviving archers that, they say, I forgive, you can stay with me, or you can go. The archers thought a day and foolishly went somewhere. The Cossacks, led by the ataman, overtook them outside the city and hacked them.
The sincere guy Chikmaz earned the trust of the ataman and stayed with him for a long time.
The Cossacks settled in Yaitsky town; it was necessary to eat something, and in the fall Razin defeated the Tatars at the mouth of the Volga, who did not want to share their good. A little later, he defeated a detachment of the sovereign military men sent by the Astrakhan governor to capture the troublemakers. "There is nothing to catch - we are not hiding." Razin conceived a campaign to Persia - for rich booty, and it is simply stupid to attribute this period to the Peasant War - what kind of Peasant War is it outside Russia, and besides, without peasants - Razin's detachment consisted almost entirely of Cossacks. Razin wintered almost peacefully in Yaitsky town, and the thought of dealing with the boyars had not yet possessed him. True, ambassadors came to the town three times with exhortations to stop the robbery. The first time they were released, the second time one of the ambassadors was killed by Razin himself, for the third time the ambassadors were hanged. Probably tired of it.
In 1667, according to the "Catalog of earthquakes of the Russian Empire", there were earthquakes of great strength in the city of Shemakha. In recent years, historical works have appeared, where this fact has been given fundamental importance, and the entire Caspian campaign of Razin, surprising in its scope and in the prowess of the Cossack, has been reduced to shameful looting. If we take into account the above fact about the earthquake, then the notorious looting is generally nonsense. Because the Cossacks appeared in those places a year later - in 1668, when the consequences of the earthquake were reduced to nothing, and because the Razins did not leave far from the coast, fearing to be cut off from the plows, and Shemakha is located a hundred kilometers from the coast. The tendency to humiliate the Russian national hero leads to falsification of facts and outright absurdity. However, I can even help new interpreters of the history of the rebellion - in addition to the "Catalog" there is a letter from a foreigner T. Brain, who lived in Persia in those years, which also mentions earthquakes - historians missed this letter, otherwise they would dance with delight, - but it does not affect the essence of the matter - Persia was and remains the most powerful and fabulously rich state, and there is a lot of evidence that the cities in Persia flourished and did not lie in ruins, the richest markets worked, there was active trade with neighboring countries, and the Shah Abbas II paid for the work of the mercenary army. And T. Brain himself, who wrote about earthquakes, was not going to leave Persia, which means that it was not so scary.
So, Razin left the Yaitsky town in the Caspian Sea. The coast from Derbent to Baku was devastated. Surprisingly, foreigners, mostly Persians, joined the Cossack army. Razin communicated with them in their native language.
Having reached Reshat, Razin offered service to the Shah, which, by the way, is not customary in Soviet historical studies to spread about. Neither the leader of the Peasant War, nor the new Yermak - razin did not want to be the conqueror of lands for Muscovy then... He asked for lands from the Shah, promising to serve with faith and truth; Agamir Osenov, a visiting Persian, mentioned Razin's personal meeting with the Shah. The Shah was playing for time - he clearly did not need such restless and arrogant neighbors, but it seemed impossible to destroy them. While the Razin Esauls were negotiating with the Shah in Isfahan, Razin set a condition for the ruler of Reshat to pay the Cossacks 150 rubles a day and, in addition, feed them daily. That is, Razin practically imposed a tribute on one of the Persian cities. And this is with two thousand people! And if there were ten thousand? The Cossacks, of course, did not allow them to count, therefore, they ate and received money each for three. In addition, they had fun in the city as best they could. In the end, the residents of Reshat, tired of Cossack drunkenness and lawlessness, caught them, impudent and drunk, by surprise and killed about four hundred people.
If history had stumbled here, the shah would have had a hired Cossack army. Fortunately, she didn't stumble.
Revenge was not long in coming. Leaving the ill-fated Rasht and arriving at Farabat, Razin asked to let the Cossacks into the city for trade. The ruler of Farabat believed the exhortations of the Cossacks of good intentions. For five days they traded, fortunately, they had plundered a lot on the coast - they exchanged Persian goods for Persian, on the sixth day Razin gave a sign - touched his hat, and the holiday began: the whole city was cut out. The cruelty knew no limit. They carried innumerable riches to the plows, while the plows were upholstered with velvet and hung with silk sails. After Farabat, the Razins took Astrabat and, having plundered it, completely insolent, stood on the Miyan-Kale peninsula between Farabat and Astrabat - in the shah's forest reserve, where the shahs have amusing courtyards. Two Persian cities were in a worse condition than after the earthquake, I think, and Razin was not going to sail away - he strengthened the Cossack settlement and established trade - one Orthodox was exchanged for three captured Busurman. The Shah was hastily preparing for war.
In the spring, Razin's detachment spread to the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea - to Trukhmenskaya land. (By the way, there were no earthquakes here at all.) All the Turkmen nomad camps that met on the coast were plundered, the Turkmen army was scattered. From there Razin returned to the western coast again, apparently, the insult for the massacre in Rasht did not let the chieftain sleep. The Cossacks set up on the Pig Island near Baku, plundered several villages near this city, but failed to calm down on their deed. In June 1669, the Shah's fleet approached the Pig Island, led by the first commander of Persia, the Menega Khan. Persians, who had excellent weapons and fourfold superiority, went to the Pig Island, as if for a holiday. With music. The khan even took with him his young son (and according to legend, his daughter) so that the children could enjoy the victory of the Persian army.
At first, everything turned out as planned by Menede Khan: the Cossacks, at the sight of the approaching enemy, fled in shameful flight. The Persians rejoiced. The pursuit was accompanied by thunder of drums and trumpets. The Cossacks, as it turned out, did not even know how to control the plows - they could hardly move, helplessly poking at each other. The Persians connected their ships with chains so that not a single Cossack plow would hide, and began to surround the Razins. Here the holiday began: unexpectedly the Cossacks learned to manage, and moreover, with an unusually clear and harmonious manner, with their plows they turned towards the Persians. A cannon shot rang out from the central Razin plow. Busa Meneda Khan, marked by the flag raised by him, caught fire - the core fell into the powder supply, the Khan himself had to hastily switch to another ship. But his ignited bead began to sink and pulled with it all the other Persian ships, bound by chains.
The Persians could not maneuver and therefore served as an excellent target. After a short and precise shelling, the Cossacks began direct extermination of the Persian army, which had fallen into terrible confusion. The entire army was destroyed in a short time. Khan, having lost his son Shebalda in the confusion of the battle, left on three sandals. The Cossacks lost only a few dozen people killed. The news of the terrible defeat of the troops of Abbas II came to all the neighboring eastern countries, to the European powers.
The news reached Moscow. And although Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich sent an apology to Abbas II for the actions of the robbers, Muscovy clearly felt pride in its unreasonable subjects. The sovereign released the blame on the Cossacks. "I forgive, they say, just do not play the fool anymore. They robbed and sit quietly." Quietly did not work. It was impossible to stop.
Razin returned to the Don. From all over Russia, all the same oppressed and disadvantaged, but also: thieves, murderers, rapists, reached out to him. Throughout the winter of 1669, Razin sent messengers to the hetman of Right-Bank Ukraine Petro Doroshenko and the ataman of the Zaporizhzhya Army Ivan Serko - he was looking for comrades for his plan. A little later, Stepan sent messengers to the disgraced Patriarch Nikon. All of them support him - oh, Russia would have dispersed at the seams, Moscow would have fallen ...
In May 1670, the Great March began. Peasant War. Razin went to the Volga. Having surrounded Tsaritsyn and leaving a part of the army near him, Razin took up his usual business, in which he had not known defeat for a long time - he defeated the nomadic camps of the Nogai Tatars. Returning after a hard battle to the walls of Tsaritsyn, Razin learned that the inhabitants of the city had opened the gates to their liberator, Father Stepan Timofeevich. The voivode with a few people locked himself in the tower, from where the Razins, led by the ataman, who entered the city, smoked him out and the next day, at the request of the inhabitants of Tsaritsyn, drowned him.
A detachment of archers with the head of Ivan Lopatin, sailing to the aid of Tsaritsyn, was defeated with boldness, brilliance and cruelty characteristic of Razin: seven miles from the city, Razin's plows unexpectedly floated out from behind a scythe towards the archers. The archers was rushing to the shore, but there the cavalry, sitting in ambush, was waiting for them. Crazed, they rushed to Tsaritsyn, believing that the city had not yet been taken. Their horror was inconceivably great when guns hit them from the walls of the city in which they hoped to hide. The Razins lost several people killed and wounded in all that massacre. Those who managed to surrender in time were left from the rifle squad.
When I watched "Braveheart" with Mel Gibson, I felt sorry that we had not made such a film about Razin. And the beauty would be that there is no need to invent anything about Razin - his whole life, all his military victories and human deeds and antics are delightfully interesting ...
Another detachment of archers under the leadership of Prince Lvov, sent by the Astrakhan governor, in which the Razin "adorable" worked, as skillfully surrounded by Razin's troops as the previous detachment, surrendered to Razin without a fight.
The inhabitants of Cherny Yar themselves let the ataman in, Kamyshin was taken by deception. Razin went down the Volga so as not to leave Astrakhan in the rear.
The Astrakhan fortress was one of the best in Europe. Foreign masters said that it would withstand any army. Stone Kremlin: ten towers, behind them is the White City with stone walls up to ten yards in height, behind it is an earthen rampart with a wooden wall on it. There is a deep moat at the shaft. There were five hundred cannons on the three walls!
With the governor of Astrakhan - Prozorovsky - Razin personally climbed a high fortress tower with a flat top - a roll. They were talking about something. The conversation boiled down to the fact that Razin quietly nudged Prozorovsky, who was standing at the edge of the rumble. Going downstairs, Razin ordered to hang his two sons by the legs.
In total, 66 people were executed in Astrakhan by the decision of the townspeople and the Cossack circle. Think a lot?
Once on TV there was a program where a bearded historian in a heartfelt voice told about the unthinkable cruelty of the Razin people and cited the following story as an example: when the Razin rabble entered Astrakhan, the governor, clerks, many archers locked themselves in the church. After fruitless persuasion to let them in, the Razins started shooting at the carved gates - inside the church, and with an accidental shot they killed a one and a half year old child in the arms of the mother. A negligent mother, worth noting. There was nothing to climb into the church, the Cossacks did not eat babies, and there is not a single case when Razin ordered the execution of women or children. By the way, they also fired from inside the church, and there was no time for the Razins to aim.
Moreover, I dare to assert that Razin's atrocities, his implacable cruelty in dealing with boyars, princes and clerks are fiction and bluff. Representatives of the "white bone" Razin pardoned as often as he executed them. Only obvious enemies were destroyed: in 1667 they robbed a caravan on the Volga - the patriarchal son of the boyar Lazunka Zhidovin was not touched and even accepted into the detachment along with 160 yaryzhki; they took Yaitsky town - the governor is safe and sound; in 1670, Razin stood up in a war on Boyar Rus - it seems that all the seed should be destroyed by the boyar, but no - they were not zealous in executions; they took Tsaritsyn - and the children of the boyars and the nephew of the voivode, captured, were spared, and, as the historical document says, "in the initial people in Tsaritsyn - on his Stepanov's order - the boyar's son Ivashka Kuzmin ... and the cathedral priest Andrey"; defeated Lopatin's rifle detachment - over Lopatin himself, who had been taken prisoner alive, Razin "ordered to abuse in every possible way, and stabbed, and put in the water," but the half-head was spared at the request of the riflemen who surrendered. But he took part in the battle against the Razins. The greatness of a warrior is in mercy to the vanquished, isn't it? We follow further: in the Black Yar, the governor was spared; In the detachment of Prince Lvov, which surrendered to Razin near Cherny Yar, there were 80 officers and nobles who tried to escape, and this is how a participant in the events described it - the Dutch officer Fabricius, who was then under Prince Lvov: "... and then there will be a massacre, yes Stenka Razin immediately gave the order not to kill any more officer, for there are probably still good people among them, such should be spared.On the contrary, the one who mistreated his soldiers will suffer deserved punishment by the verdict of the chieftain and the circle he convened . " On the circle, Razin beats his forehead in front of the Cossacks to spare Prince Lvov. By decision of the circle, the prince and most of the officers were spared. In Astrakhan, Razin forbade touching church riches and ordered the protection of Metropolitan Joseph and other spiritual pastors. Before that, however, one of the priests, by order of Razin, cut off an arm and a leg, and the other was put in the water. (They stuffed stones into a sack and, having put a man in a sack, threw them into the river.) But these priests behaved inappropriately - began to denounce Razin that he was engaged in godless deeds... It was necessary to show the priests the lack of interest in such sermons, so that they would not confuse the people. Inhabitants of Astrakhan Razin "led to the cross" - that is, the Astrakhanians swore allegiance to him to "stand for the great sovereign" and "serve" Razin. And so that no one doubts Stepan Razin's loyalty to the sovereign and the church, Razin put the pseudo-prince Alexei Alekseevich and the pseudo-patriarch Nikon on his planes, their names inscribed in the letters of predestination ... From Astrakhan, Razin, at the head of his every day increasing army, began to rise up the Volga, Samara and Saratov were taken, where, as in many other cities taken by the Razins, only a few were executed, according to the verdict of the townspeople. There was no mass bloodletting, those who could not be killed were killed.
Cossack lawlessness and drunkenness is also a moot point. Without a doubt, it was difficult to reason with several thousand people, among whom there are many convicts, but: after the capture of the next city and the holiday that followed this event, from the next day Razin prohibited drunkenness. For theft, a Cossack who got caught was killed on the spot. According to the testimony of foreigners who were during the uprising in Astrakhan, fornication was the most serious crime among the Razins, for violence was severely punished. In the same Astrakhan, Razin forbade the use of obscene words in the streets, what kind of drunkenness is there. Even Razin's hater Kostomarov, noting that his army "was made up of fugitive thieves," says that the slightest disobedience was punished with death, that is, discipline reigned in Razin's army, comparable only to the discipline of the Tatar-Mongol army.
In early September, Razin approached Simbirsk. The tsarist militia under the command of Prince Yuri Borotyansky, which was going to help the city, was overturned. The Simbirsk prison was taken, the Razins laid siege to the small Simbirsk town, where the voivode sat down to death with many people. During September, Razin carried out several brutal assaults, the chieftain himself repeatedly went with the Cossacks to the walls of Simbirsk, appearing in the most dangerous places.
In a short time, the entire Simbirsk district was subordinated to Razin.
In the power of Razin was the entire lower Volga - the largest cities: Astrakhan, Cherny Yar, Tsaritsyn, Saratov, Samara, Simbirsk should be taken from day to day; Half the way to Moscow was passed, Kazan remained, Nizhny Novgorod, where Razin intended to winter, Murom and Ryazan.
Lovely letters and messengers from Razin went in all directions of Russia. Razin sent letters near Kazan and Sviyazhsk, written in Russian and Tatar. The Razin envoys appeared twice in Moscow, walked among the people, exhorting the commoners to honor the patron Stepan Timofeevich - to meet them with bread and salt.
Trouble spread throughout Russia. Charming letters appeared even in the Karelian and Izhora lands, near the Sveisk border. The Razin mailers reached the Little Russian lands, to Poltava.
Even from Tsaritsyn, Razin began to send out his atamans, so that they would go their own ways across Russia - to Moscow.
By the middle of autumn 1670, when there were over 60 thousand people under Razin's command, the rebellion took on unheard-of proportions.
Only atamans moved by the outskirts of the city: Stepan Razin's brother Frol went to Korotoyak; Sepan's named brother - Lesko Cherkashenin ascended along the Northern Donets, Tsarev-Borisov, Mayatsk, Zmiev, Chuguev were taken. Another Razin chieftain, Frol Minaev, ascended the Don with the assistance of Colonel Dzinkovsky, who took the side of the rebels, took Ostrogozhsk and went to Voronezh.
Alatyr, Kurmysh, Yadrin, Saransk, Kerensk, Penza and many other cities were seized by other chieftains sent from Saratov and Simbirsk. The rebels approached Nizhny Novgorod and laid siege to Tambov. The rebels appeared near Tula and Suzdal, Kolomna and Yaroslavl. To the northeast of Moscow, Unzha was taken, the rebels moved to Kostroma.
By October 1670 Razin's possessions exceeded the size of any European power... Under the name of Razin there were huge territories: the entire Volga, the entire Trans-Volga region, about 20 cities in Mesopotamia, part of the Sloboda Ukraine, tens of kilometers north of Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod, behind the uprising lay the safe Urals ...
It was no longer a riot. It was the Invasion. European newspapers wrote about the horrors in Muscovy: "The Moscow general Dolgoruky, sent against the rebels, demands a hundred thousandth army, otherwise he does not dare to appear in the eyes of the enemy."
Moscow was shaking. An all-Russian noble militia was hastily created. The church gave Stepan Razin anathema.
And what happened that trembled Moscow prayed for: in early October, Razin's army, standing near Simbirsk, was scattered. The peasant turned out to be unfit for war and wavered at the first hard onslaught. The main strength and hope of Razin - the Cossack backbone, professional warriors who followed Razin from Persia - were destroyed. Razin himself, under whom a horse was killed in battle, was wounded by a shot in the leg and with a cut saber head, with a few people, hastily returned to the Don: while the riot was blooming in Russia, urgently assemble a new Cossack militia - with two thousand Persia was shaken, really several thousand who want to shake boyar Rus by the beard!
Not found. It was agony: for six months Razin rushed about the Don, the Cossacks did not follow him. The year 1671 has come. Razin was waiting for spring, so that with several hundred people again climb the Volga, where they still stood under him, Razin, named Astrakhan and Tsaritsyn, where in the interfluve of the Oka and the Volga the Razin atamans held the conquered lands in torment, where the People were still raging.
And there was no mercy to the People from the governors. The cities torn from the uprising were marked with great blood. NEVER, anathematized for godly deeds and cruelty, Razin did not arrange such horror that the tsarist governors blessed by the church did... A foreigner, an eyewitness to the suppression of Stepan Razin's uprising, wrote: “It was scary to look at Arzamas, its suburbs seemed to be a perfect hell, there were gallows everywhere ... scattered heads lay scattered and smoked with fresh blood, stakes were sticking out here, on which criminals were tormented and were often alive three days of indescribable suffering. " Only in Arzamas, by order of the governor Yuri Dolgoruky, 11 thousand people were executed! And remember that in each city captured by Razin, only the voivode and several of his henchmen were executed - very few! Think of the rifle regiments and the officers in command of them, whom Razin spared from time to time.
But in Astrakhan, Razin executed as many as 66 people, you say. Do you know what happened in Astrakhan when she was recaptured from the rebels? The Dutchman Ludwig Fabricius, who was then in the city, recalls that the new voivode Odoevsky "ordered to arrest all Astrakhan residents ... he raged to horror: many were ordered by the voivode to be quartered alive, who should be burned alive, who should cut out the tongue from the throat, who should be buried alive in land. And so was done with both the guilty and the innocent. In the end, when there were few people left, he ordered the entire city to be razed. "
Where is that bearded historian who whined about Razin's cruelty? If only I could learn to read books, if there is no conscience.
Where are those clergymen who for 300 years betrayed the Russian national hero Stepan Razin and his chieftains to anathema, have you forgotten the governor, eh? And to this day, you share one well-fed table with those voivods, but send anathema wherever you get ... And these are our spiritual shepherds ... m ... ringing.
Razin was captured on April 13, 1671 - in the town of Kagalnik built by Razin, the Cossacks themselves, led by Stepan's godfather, Kornila Yakovlev, were captured.
On June 4, 1671, Stepan Razin and his brother Frol were brought to Moscow. After a terrible two days of torture, endured by Razin with inhuman resilience, his quartered on Red Square... When Razin's arm and leg had already been chopped off, his brother Frol became faint-hearted and shouted to avoid execution, which would reveal to the sovereign secret... Razin, tortured for two days, with a severed arm and leg, shouted to his brother:
Shut up, dog!
Razin's revolt, which spread across Russia with wild flowers and burning brands, was trampled by the governors for a long time.
The last stronghold of the fleeing Razins - the Solovetsky Monastery - fell only in 1676. The same monastery where young Razin went on a pilgrimage ...
Like this. But this is only the outer layer of events. We will analyze the racial (and, partially, occult) background in the second part of the article.
The biography of Stepan Timofeevich Razin, the Don Cossack and leader of the Peasant War of 1670-1671, is well known to historians, and our contemporaries are more familiar with this name from the works of folklore.
He was born as a hereditary Cossack in about 1630 in the village of Zimoveyskaya on the Don. His father was the noble Cossack Timofey Razin, and his godfather was the military chieftain Kornila Yakovlev. Already in his youth, he stood out noticeably among the Don elders.
Like all hereditary Cossacks, he was a true believer and made two pilgrimages to the Solovetsky Monastery. Several times he was a member of the winter villages, that is, the embassies from the Don Cossacks, and visited Moscow.
He knew the Kalmyk and Tatar languages \u200b\u200band several times took part in negotiations with the Taishs, the Kalmyk leaders. In 1663, he headed a detachment of Cossacks, which included the Cossacks and Kalmyks, and made campaigns to Perekop against the Krymchaks.
For his personal qualities he was well known in the Don. A verbal description of Stepan Razin's appearance has survived in a short biography of foreign historical chronicles, which was left by the Dutch master Jan Streis. He describes Razin as a tall and sedate man. Strong build, with an arrogant face and behaved modestly, but with dignity.
In 1665, his older brother was executed by order of the governor Yuri Dolgorukov, when the Cossacks tried to leave the Russian soldiers who fought with the Poles. This execution made a great impression on Stepan Razin.
In 1667, he became a marching chieftain of a large detachment of Cossacks, which included many newcomers from Russia and set off on his famous campaign “for zipuns” along the Volga to the Caspian Sea and to Persia. Returning with a rich booty, he stopped in the Kagalnitsky town. Believing in his luck and hearing how he robbing destroyers and bloodsuckers, fugitives from all over the Moscow state began to flock to him.
He captured all the cities on the lower Volga - Astrakhan, Tsaritsyn, Saratov, after Samara.
From a Cossack uprising, the movement grew into a large-scale peasant uprising, which covered a significant territory of the state.
The rebels received their first defeat near Simbirsk, where the chieftain himself was seriously wounded. He was taken to the Kagalnitsky town. By this time, the mood on the Don had changed, the desire to settle and housekeeping began to prevail. After an unsuccessful attempt to take the Cossack capital of Cherkassk, the grassroots Cossacks united and defeated the rebels, and their leader Stepan Razin, together with his brother Frol, was handed over to Moscow. After severe torture, they were executed at the Execution Ground.
Stepan Timofeevich Razin (1630 - 1671) - a famous Don Cossack and leader of the largest uprising in Russia.
Childhood
There is very little data about Stepan Timofeevich's childhood. From the writings of the Dutch traveler Strais, it is known that Razin was born approximately in 1630, since at the time of the meeting with the navigator, the man, according to Streis, was about forty years old.
The birthplace of the future rebel is also not known for certain. Nevertheless, the dominant version is that he was born in the village of Zimoveyskaya (later called Pugachevskaya and was located in the Volgograd region).
Present in the history and version that the homeland is Cherkassk. This was first stated by the scientist and historian Rigelman, claiming that Zimoveysk was first mentioned in the annals only a year after Stepan's death. As for Cherkassk, the version about it was confirmed not only by Rigelman, but also by another Don historian Bykadorov.
If we talk about folk legends and beliefs, then the homeland of Stenka Razin at different times was called the village of Razdory, as well as villages called Esaulovskaya and Kagalnitskaya. However, confirmed data that Razin was born there has not yet been found. By the way, information about who his parents were and what they did was also not found.
Youth
How the fate of Razin developed, it becomes known, according to the manuscripts, only by 1652. At that time, Stepan and his older brother Ivan already command several detachments of the Don Cossacks and have considerable authority in their territories (they, by the way, were huge). In 1661, having enlisted the support of another prominent ataman - Fyodor Budan, Stepan, together with his older brother, began an act against the Crimean Tatars and Nogais. A two-day battle takes place between the warring clans, after which the authorized Ivan makes peace and takes the troops back to their home territory.
At the same time, Prince Dolgorukov sent his ambassador to the Razins in order to remind them of the compulsory military service on the Don River. The reminder of the tsarist administration only fuels the desire of the Cossacks for independence, which is reported by the ambassador who returned to the prince. In response, Dolgorukov orders his detachment to arrest and execute one of the main Cossacks.
According to scientists, Stepan Razin himself should have turned out to be him, but Ivan fiercely showed the initiative in the discussion during negotiations, as a result of which the sent detachment decided to execute the wrong leader. The loss of his brother became a serious reason for Razin to continue to disobey the tsarist power, and even more - to strive to make the Cossacks independent of any tsarist decrees and orders.
The uprising of Stepan Razin
In 1649, the so-called Cathedral Code was adopted, according to which the peasants became even more dependent on their landlords. As a result, discontent began to grow, resulting in frequent escapes of forced laborers to Cossack territory. However, due to the fact that the fugitive peasants did not possess either their own property or housing on the territory of the Don Cossacks, they did not belong to the "old-timers", but to the dullness, which was replenished every day by dozens of newly arrived disgruntled peasants. And, naturally, in search of food, the rabble more and more often made robbery attacks on villages and cities, robbing the same landowners.
The situation with the flaring up discontent on the part of the forced laborers only played into the hands of Razin and other Don Cossacks. They increasingly supplied the hungry and angry peasants with weapons, advised the most vulnerable spots for attacks and waited for the "army" to pose a serious threat to the tsarist administration. By 1667, the detachment of the Cossacks themselves numbered about two hundred people, not counting the many thousands of army from the nakedness, which venerated Stenka Razin and was ready to tear the kings and princes to shreds in order to find themselves on the long-awaited freedom.
On May 15, 1667, the famous uprising of Stepan Razin began. The army under the command of the Cossacks went to the Volga and robbed several merchant ships, taking in all those peasants who were on board as servants. According to the bibliographers, until the winter of that year, the uprising was only of a predatory nature and did not differ at all from the numerous Cossack raids in the past. But by winter, Stenka Razin successfully defeated a detachment of Beklemishev's archers, and then took Yaitsky town with a fight, which could only mean one thing - the uprising acquired an anti-government character and threatened to overthrow the existing government.
In 1669, the Cossacks won several battles, despite many days of battles. Being near the Pig Island, they meet with the troops of Mamed Khan of Astara, with whom they engage in a battle, later called the "Battle of the Pig Island". The Safavids, who imagined themselves to be excellent strategists, linked their ships in chains in order to take control of the entire Cossack fleet as quickly and without loss as possible.
However, Stenka Razin, sensing that this was precisely the enemy's mistake, ordered the sinking of Mamed Khan's flagship, followed by the rest of the ships. As a trophy, Razin takes hostage the daughter and son of the shah, who are publicly thrown from the ship after the sinking of the Safavid armada.
Peasant war
In 1670 Stepan Timofeevich ventured on another military campaign. Unlike the previous one, which until the last moment was kept under the strictest confidence, this one, on the contrary, immediately takes on a public character. Walking through the villages and villages, Razin openly calls on the people to revolt and liberate themselves from serfdom, while declaring that his ultimate goal is not to overthrow the existing ruler Alexei Mikhailovich (nevertheless, he nevertheless declares himself an enemy of all power). Calls lead to the fact that in many villages and stanitsas troubles begin, followers of Razin appear (in particular, Alyona Arzamasskaya), who want to quickly find freedom and will.
After successful campaigning, Stenka took Samara, Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan and Saratov by storm, intending to add the city of Simbirsk to them. However, the latter becomes an insurmountable fortress for him, so the autumn siege fails. At the same time, the tsar sent an army of 60,000 to restore order, which, after a short battle, inflicted serious damage on the Cossacks and severely wounded Razin himself. Togo is taken to the Kagalnitsky city, where the commander plans to recover and re-attack the enemy. But his fate is determined by another Cossack - Kornila Yakovlev, who, fearing anger from the tsar against all his fellow tribesmen, decides to kidnap Razin and hand him over to the tsar's court.
The last days of life
On June 2, 1671, Stepan Razin was taken to Moscow, where an hour later he was sentenced to death by quartering. In parallel with him, his younger brother Frol is condemned.
On June 6 of the same year, on Bolotnaya Square, in front of a huge crowd, Stepan Razin was first tortured and then beheaded. All this is carried out in front of Frol, who, unable to bear what he saw, repents of his deeds and asks for pardon. This prolongs his life by exactly five years: in 1676 he was executed in the same place, on Bolotnaya Square.
