Who killed Razin and where. Don Cossack Stepan Timofeevich Razin: biography, history, key dates and interesting facts

Stepan Timofeevich Razin - Ataman of the Don Cossacks, who organized the largest popular uprising of the pre-Petrine period, which was called the Peasant War.

The future leader of the rebellious Cossacks was born in the village of Zimoveyskaya in 1630. Some sources point to another place of Stepan's birth - the city of Cherkassk. The father of the future ataman Timofey Razya was from the Voronezh region, but moved from there for unclear reasons to the banks of the Don.

The young man took root among the free settlers and soon became a homely Cossack. Timofey was distinguished in military campaigns by courage and courage. From one campaign, a Cossack brought a captured Turkish woman into the house and married her. The family had three sons - Ivan, Stepan and Frol. The godfather of the middle brother was the chieftain of the army Kornil Yakovlev himself.

Time of Troubles

In 1649, the "Cathedral Epistle", signed by the Tsar, was finally consolidated in Russia. serfdom... The document proclaimed the hereditary state of serfdom and made it possible to increase the search term for fugitives to 15 years. After the adoption of the law, uprisings and rebellions began to break out in the country, many peasants set off on the run in search of free lands and settlements.

The time of trouble has come. Cossack settlements more and more often became a haven for "dullness", poor or impoverished peasants who belonged to the well-to-do Cossacks. By an unspoken agreement with the "homely" Cossacks, detachments were created from the fugitives who were engaged in robbery and theft. The Terk, Don, and Yaik Cossacks increased at the expense of the "golutvenny" Cossacks, their military power grew.

Youth

In 1665, an event occurred that influenced the further fate of Stepan Razin. The elder brother Ivan, who took part in the Russian-Polish war, decided to voluntarily leave the position and retire with the army to his homeland. According to custom, the free Cossacks were not obliged to obey the government. But the troops of the governor caught up with the Razin people and, having declared them deserters, were executed on the spot. After the death of his brother, Stepan flared with rage towards the Russian nobility and decided to go to war against Moscow in order to free Russia from the boyars. The unstable position of the peasantry also caused Razin's uprising.

From his youth, Stepan was distinguished by his courage and ingenuity. He never went ahead, but used diplomacy and cunning, therefore, already at a young age, he is part of important delegations from the Cossacks to Moscow and Astrakhan. With diplomatic tricks, Stepan could settle any failed business. So the famous campaign "for zipuns", which ended in a deplorable way for the Razin detachment, could lead to the arrest and punishment of all its participants. But Stepan Timofeevich communicated so convincingly with the tsar's voivode Lvov that he sent the entire army home, equipped with new weapons, and presented Stepan with an icon of the Mother of God.

Razin also showed himself as a peacemaker among the southern peoples. In Astrakhan, he mediated in a dispute between the Nagaybak Tatars and Kalmyks and did not allow bloodshed.

Insurrection

In March 1667, Stepan began to gather an army. With 2000 soldiers, the chieftain went on a campaign along the rivers flowing into the Volga to rob the ships of merchants and boyars. The robberies were not perceived by the authorities as a riot, since theft was an integral part of the existence of the Cossacks. But Razin went beyond the usual robbery. In the village of Cherny Yar, the ataman massacred the streltsy troops, and then released all the exiles who were in custody. Then he went to Yaik. The rebel troops cunningly penetrated the fortress to the Ural Cossacks and subjugated the settlement.

Stepan Razin's uprising map

In 1669, the army, replenished by fugitive peasants, under the leadership of Stepan Razin went to the Caspian Sea, where it made a number of attacks on the Persians. In the battle with the flotilla of Mamed Khan, the Russian chieftain outwitted the eastern commander. Razin's plows imitated an escape from the Persian fleet, after which the Persian gave the order to unite 50 ships and surround the army of the Cossacks. But Razin unexpectedly turned around and subjected the enemy's main ship to powerful shelling, after which it began to sink and pulled the entire fleet with it. So, with small forces, Stepan Razin emerged victorious from the battle at the Pig Island. Realizing that after such a defeat the Sefivids would gather a larger army against the Razins, the Cossacks set off through Astrakhan to the Don.

Peasant war

The year 1670 began with the preparation of Stepan Razin's troops for a campaign against Moscow. The chieftain went up the Volga, capturing coastal villages and cities. To attract the local population to his side, Razin used "lovely letters" - special letters that he distributed among the urban people. The letters said that the oppression of the boyars can be thrown off if you join the army of the rebels.

Not only the oppressed layers went over to the side of the Cossacks, but also Old Believers, artisans, Mari, Chuvash, Tatars, Mordvins, as well as Russian soldiers of government troops. After widespread desertion, the tsarist troops were forced to start attracting mercenaries from Poland and the Baltic states. But with such soldiers, the Cossacks acted cruelly, subjecting all foreign prisoners of war to execution.

Stepan Razin spread the rumor that the missing Tsarevich Alexei Alekseevich, as well as an exile, was hiding in the Cossack camp. Thus, the ataman attracted more and more dissatisfied with the current government to his side. During the year, residents of Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan, Saratov, Samara, Alatyr, Saransk, Kozmodemyansk went over to the side of the Razins. But in the battle near Simbirsk, the Cossack flotilla was defeated by the troops of Prince Yu. N. Baryatinsky, and Stepan Razin himself, after being wounded, was forced to retreat to the Don.

For half a year, Stepan hid with those close to him in the Kagalnitsky town, but the local wealthy Cossacks secretly decided to surrender the ataman to the government. The elders feared the anger of the tsar, who could lie on all the Russian Cossacks. In April 1671, after a short assault on the fortress, Stepan Razin was captured and taken to Moscow along with his inner circle.

Personal life

There is no information about the ataman's private life in historical documents, but it is only known that Razin's wife and his son Afanasy lived in the Kagalnitsky town. The boy followed in his father's footsteps and became a warrior. During a skirmish with the Azov Tatars, the young man was captured by the enemy, but soon returned to his homeland.

A Persian princess is mentioned in the legend about Stepan Razin. It is assumed that the girl was captured by the Cossacks after the famous battle on the Caspian Sea. She became Razin's second wife and even managed to give birth to children to the Cossack, but out of jealousy, the ataman drowned her in the depths of the Volga.

Death

At the beginning of the summer of 1671, Stepan and his brother Frol, guarded by the governors, steward Grigory Kosagov and clerk Andrei Bogdanov, were taken to Moscow for trial. During the investigation, the Razins were severely tortured, and 4 days later they were taken to the execution, which took place on Bolotnaya Square. After the announcement of the verdict, Stepan Razin was quartered, but his brother could not stand what he saw and asked for mercy in exchange for secret information. After 5 years, not finding the stolen treasures promised by Frol, it was decided to execute the chieftain's younger brother.

After the death of the leader of the liberation movement, the war continued for another six months. The Cossacks were headed by atamans Vasily Us and Fyodor Sheludyak. The new leaders lacked charisma and wisdom, so the uprising was suppressed. The popular struggle led to disappointing results: serfdom was tightened, the days of the transfer of peasants from the owners were canceled, and it was allowed to show an extreme degree of cruelty towards the defiant serfs.

Memory

The story of the uprising of Stepan Razin remained in the memory of the people for a long time. National hero 15 folk songs are dedicated, including "From behind the island to the rod", "There is a cliff on the Volga", "Oh, it's not evening." The biography of Stenka Razin aroused creative interest among many writers and historians, such as A. A. Sokolov, V. A. Gilyarovsky,.

The plot of the exploits of the hero of the Peasant War was used in the creation of the first Russian film in 1908. The film was called "The Lowest Freelancer". Streets of St. Petersburg, Tver, Saratov, Yekaterinburg, Ulyanovsk and other settlements are named in honor of Razin.

The events of the 17th century formed the basis for operas and symphonic poems by Russian composers N. Ya. Afanasyev, A. K. Glazunov,.

Biography and episodes of life Stepan Razin. When born and died Stepan Razin, memorable places and dates of important events in his life. Ataman's quotes, images and videos.

Years of life of Stepan Razin:

born in 1630, died June 6, 1671

Epitaph

"Steppes, valleys,
Grass and flowers -
Spring hopes
Spilled over into the ocean.
And he, who by deeds,
Like the sun shone
He is in a cage
He was sitting ataman. "
From the poem by Vasily Kamensky "Stepan Razin"

Biography

The biography of Stepan Razin is a loud and tragic story of the life of a man who decided that he could change the fate of his country. He never aspired to become a king or ruler, but wanted to achieve equality for his people. Alas, with cruel methods and with the support of people who did not have such lofty goals as he did. It should be noted that even if Razin were able to win and take Moscow, he, together with his entourage, would not be able to create the new democratic society he dreamed of. If only because a system in which enrichment is carried out at the expense of the division of someone else's property would still not be able to exist for a long time and successfully.

Stepan Razin was born in about 1630, his father was a Cossack, and his godfather was a military chieftain, so he grew up among the Don elders from childhood, knew the Tatar and Kalmyk languages, and, as a young Cossack, led a detachment to make a campaign against the Crimean Tatars. He immediately became famous on the Don - tall, sedate, with a direct and arrogant look. Contemporaries note that Razin always behaved modestly, but strictly. On the formation of Razin's personality and his worldview big influence rendered the execution of his brother Ivan, which had embittered Stenka, by order of the governor, Prince Dolgorukov.

Starting in 1667, Razin began to make one military campaign after another. The campaigns ended with Razin's victory, his authority grew, and soon not only Cossacks, but also fugitive peasants began to join him from all over the country. One by one he took Razin cities - Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan, Samara, Saratov. A huge peasant uprising engulfed most of the country. But in one of the decisive battles, these forces were not enough, and Razin only miraculously managed to leave the battlefield - he was taken away wounded. Razin's authority began to decline, besides, the Razin people began to resist not only government troops, but also grass-roots Cossacks. Finally, the town of Kagalnytsky, where Razin had settled, was captured and burned, and Razin, along with his brother, was handed over to the Moscow authorities.

The death of Razin became a public demonstrative reprisal against those who dared to rebel against the higher ranks. The cause of Razin's death was strangulation from hanging, but even if he had not been hanged, the chieftain would have died from the cruel actions of the executioners, who cut off his arms and legs. Razin was not buried, but his remains were buried at the Tatar cemetery in Moscow, where today the park of culture and recreation is located. The Muslim cemetery for the grave of Razin was chosen because Razin was excommunicated Orthodox Church long before death.

Life line

1630 g. Year of birth of Stepan Timofeevich Razin.
1652 g. The first mention of Razin in historical documents.
1661 g. Razin's negotiations with the Kalmyks on peace and joint actions against the Crimean Tatars and Nagays.
1663 g. Campaign against the Crimean Tatars across Perekop, led by Stenka Razin.
1665 g. The execution of Stepan Razin's brother, Ivan.
May 15, 1667 The beginning of the anti-government campaign led by Stepan Razin.
spring 1669 The battles in the "Trukhmenskaya Zemlya", the death of Stepan Razin's friend, Sergei Krivoy, the battle at the Pig Island.
spring 1670 Campaign-uprising to the Volga under the leadership of Razin.
October 4, 1670 Razin was seriously wounded during the suppression of the uprising.
April 13, 1671 The assault on the Kagalnitsky town, leading to a fierce battle.
April 14, 1671 The capture of Razin, his handover to the tsarist governors.
June 2, 1671 Arrival of Razin to Moscow as a prisoner.
June 6, 1671 Date of death of Razin (execution by hanging).

Memorable places

1. The village of Pugachevskaya (the former village of Zimoveyskaya), where Stepan Razin was born.
2. Monument to Razin in the village of Srednyaya Akhtuba, which, according to legend, was founded by Stenka Razin.
3. Sengi Mugan (Pig Island), near which in 1669 there was a battle between Razin's army and the Persian flotilla, which ended in a major Russian naval victory.
4. Ulyanovsk (the former city of Simbirsk), where in 1670 a battle took place between Razin's rebels and government troops, which ended in Razin's defeat.
5. Swamp square, where Stenka Razin was publicly executed.
6. Central Park of Culture and Leisure. M. Gorky (the former territory of the Tatar cemetery), where Razin was buried (his remains were buried).

Episodes of life

Razin has often been compared to Pugachev, but in fact there is a fundamental difference between these two historical figures. It consists in the fact that Razin did not kill outside of battle, unlike Pugachev, who was known for his bloodthirstiness. If Razin or his people considered someone guilty, they beat the person and threw him into the water, according to the Russian tradition, at random - they say, if God decides to protect a person, he will save him. Only once Razin changed this rule, throwing from the bell tower the governor of the city of Astrakhan, who was hiding in the church during the siege of the city.

When Razin was sentenced, he did not put up with it and did not prepare for death. On the contrary, all his movements expressed hatred and anger. The execution was terrible, and Razin's torment was even more terrible. They cut off his arms first, then his legs, but he did not give out pain even with a sigh, retaining his usual expression on his face and voice. When his brother, frightened of the same fate, shouted: "I know the word and deed of the sovereign!" Razin looked at Frol and shouted at him: "Be quiet, dog!"

Covenant

"I do not want to be a king, I want to live with you as a brother."

A documentary film about Stepan Razin from the series "Secrets of the rulers"

Condolences

“Stenka’s personality must certainly be somewhat idealized and must arouse sympathy, not repulse. It is necessary for some gigantic figure to rise up and sweep through among the oppressed people ... "
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, composer

Stenka Razin is the hero of the song, a violent robber who, in a fit of jealousy, drowned the Persian princess. Here's everything most people know about him. And all this is not true, a myth.

The real Stepan Timofeevich Razin - an outstanding commander, politician, "father of the native" of all the humiliated and insulted, was executed either on Red Square or on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow on June 16, 1671. They quartered him, cut his body into pieces and put him on high poles by the Moskva River. It hung there for at least five years.

"A staid man with an arrogant face"

Either from hunger, or from oppression and lawlessness, Timofey Razya fled from near Voronezh to the free Don. Being a strong, energetic, courageous man, he soon became one of the "homely", that is, wealthy Cossacks. He married a Turkish woman captured by him, who gave birth to three sons: Ivan, Stepan and Frol.

The appearance of the middle of the brothers was described by the Dutchman Jan Streis: "He was a tall and sedate man, strong build, with an arrogant straight face. He behaved modestly, with great severity." Many features of his appearance and character are contradictory: for example, there is evidence from the Swedish ambassador that Stepan Razin knew eight languages. On the other hand, according to the legend, when he and Frol were tortured, Stepan joked: "I heard that only learned people are shaved into priests, you and I are both unlearned, and yet we have received such an honor."

Shuttle diplomat

By the age of 28, Stepan Razin became one of the most prominent Cossacks on the Don. Not only because he was the son of a homely Cossack and godson of the military chieftain Kornila Yakovlev himself: before the qualities of a commander, diplomatic qualities are manifested in Stepan.

By 1658, he went to Moscow as part of the Don embassy. The task he has received is exemplary, in the Ambassadorial order he is even noted as an intelligent and energetic person. Soon he reconciles Kalmyks and Nagai Tatars in Astrakhan.

Later, in campaigns, Stepan Timofeevich will repeatedly resort to cunning and diplomatic tricks. For example, at the end of a long and ruinous campaign for the country "for zipuns" Razin will not only not be arrested as a criminal, but will be released with the army and part of the weapon to the Don: this is the result of negotiations between the Cossack chieftain and the tsarist governor Lvov. Moreover, Lvov "accepted Stenka as the named sons and, according to Russian custom, presented him with the image of the Virgin Mary in a beautiful gold frame."

Fighter against bureaucracy and tyranny

Stepan Razin was waiting for a brilliant career, if not for an event that radically changed his attitude to life. During the war with the Commonwealth, in 1665, Stepan's elder brother Ivan Razin decided to take his detachment home from the front, to the Don. After all, a Cossack is a free person, he can leave when he wants. The sovereign governors were of a different opinion: they caught up with Ivan's detachment, the freedom-loving Cossack was arrested and executed as a deserter. The extrajudicial execution of his brother shocked Stepan.

Hatred of the aristocracy and sympathy for the poor, disenfranchised people finally took root in him, and two years later he begins to prepare a large campaign "for zipuns", that is, for prey, in order to feed the Cossack idleness, for twenty years, since the introduction serfdom, flocking to the free Don.

The fight against the boyars and other oppressors will become the main slogan of Razin in his campaigns. AND the main reason the fact that at the height of the Peasant War under his banner there will be up to two hundred thousand people.

Sly commander

The leader of the dwarf turned out to be an inventive commander. Posing as merchants, the Razins took the Persian city of Farabat. For five days, they traded in previously plundered goods, scouting where the houses of the richest townspeople are. And, having explored, they robbed the rich.

Another time, by cunning Razin defeated the Ural Cossacks. This time the Razins pretended to be pilgrims. Entering the city, a detachment of forty men captured the gate and allowed the entire army to enter. The local chieftain was killed, and the Yaik Cossacks did not show resistance to the Don Cossacks.

But the main of Razin's "smart" victories is in the Battle of Pig Lake, in the Caspian Sea not far from Baku. The Persians sailed on fifty ships to the island where the Cossack camp was set up. Seeing the enemy, whose forces were several times superior to their own, the Razins rushed to the plows and, ineptly controlling them, tried to swim away. The Persian naval commander Mamed Khan took the cunning maneuver for an escape and ordered the Persian ships to be linked together in order to catch the entire army of Razin, as if in a net. Taking advantage of this, the Cossacks began to shoot from all their guns at the flagship, blew it up, and when it pulled the neighboring ones to the bottom and panic arose among the Persians, they began to sink other ships one after another. As a result, only three ships remained from the Persian fleet.

Stenka Razin and the Persian princess

In the battle at Pig Lake, the Cossacks captured the son of Mamed Khan, the Persian prince Shabalda. According to legend, his sister was also captured, with whom Razin was passionately in love, who allegedly even gave birth to a son to the Don chieftain and whom Razin sacrificed to the Volga mother. However, there is no documentary evidence of the existence of the Persian princess in reality. In particular, the petition with which Shabalda addressed, asking to let him go, is known, but the prince did not say a word about his sister.

Lovely letters

In 1670 Stepan Razin began the main work of his life and one of the main events in the life of all of Europe: the Peasant War. They never tired of writing about it in foreign newspapers, their progress was followed even in those countries with which Russia did not have close political and trade ties.

This war was no longer a campaign for prey: Razin called for a struggle against the existing system, planned to go to Moscow with the aim of overthrowing, but not the tsar, but the boyar power. At the same time, he hoped for the support of the Zaporozhye and Right-Bank Cossacks, sent embassies to them, but did not achieve the result: the Ukrainians were busy with their own political game.

Nevertheless, the war became nationwide. The poor saw in Stepan Razin a defender, a fighter for their rights, they called him a father. The cities surrendered without a fight. This was facilitated by an active propaganda campaign conducted by the Don chieftain. Using the love for the king and piety inherent in the common people,

Razin spread the rumor that the heir to the tsar, Alexei Alekseevich (actually deceased) and the disgraced Patriarch Nikon were following with his army.

The first two ships sailing along the Volga were covered with red and black cloth: the first was allegedly the prince, the second was Nikon.

Razin's "lovely letters" spread throughout Russia. "For the cause, brothers! Now take revenge on the tyrants who until now held you in captivity worse than the Turks or the pagans. I came to give you all freedom and deliverance, you will be my brothers and children, and you will be as good as I am. , be only courageous and remain faithful, "Razin wrote. His campaigning policy was so successful that the tsar even interrogated Nikon about his connection with the rioters.

Execution

On the eve of the Peasant War, Razin seized de facto power on the Don, making himself an enemy in the person of his own godfather, Ataman Yakovlev. After the siege of Simbirsk, where Razin was defeated and seriously wounded, the homely Cossacks led by Yakovlev were able to arrest him, and then his younger brother Frol. In June, a detachment of 76 Cossacks delivered the Razins to Moscow. On the way to the capital, they were joined by a convoy of one hundred archers. The brothers were dressed in rags.

Stepan was tied to a pillory mounted on a cart, Frol was tied so that he ran alongside. It was a dry year. In the midst of the heat, the prisoners were solemnly taken through the streets of the city. Then they brutally tortured and quartered.

After the death of Razin, legends began to be formed about him. Either he throws twenty-good stones from a plow, then he defends Russia together with Ilya Muromets, or he voluntarily goes to prison to release the prisoners. "He'll lie down so little, rest, get up ... Give, he'll say, coal, write a boat with that coal on the wall, put convicts into that boat, splash water: the river will flow from the island to the Volga; Stenka and the fellows will sing songs - yes to the Volga ! .. Well, remember what your name was! "

Razin Stepan Timofeevich, also known as Stenka Razin (circa 1630-1671). Don chieftain. Leader of the Peasant War (Stepan Razin Uprising) 1667-1671

Born in the village of Zimoveyskaya in the family of a well-to-do - "homely" - Cossack Timofey Razi, a participant in the capture of the Turkish fortress of Azov and the "Azov seat", father of three sons - Ivan, Stepan and Frol. Stenka gained combat experience early in border battles, which constantly took place in the Zadonsk and Kuban steppes. In his youth, the future Cossack chieftain was distinguished by ardor, pride and personal courage.

1652 - at the behest of his late father made a pilgrimage trip to the Solovetsky Monastery, having passed all Russian kingdom from south to north and back, visited Moscow. The lawlessness and poverty of the peasant and townspeople that were seen had a strong influence on the world outlook of the young Cossack.

At a military circle in 1658, he was elected to the stanitsa (embassy) from the free Don, headed by ataman Naum Vasilyev, to Moscow. From that time, history has preserved the first written testimony about Stepan Timofeevich Razin.

Stepan was early promoted to the ranks of the Cossack leaders thanks to his diplomatic abilities and military talents. 1661 - together with the ataman Fyodor Budan, he negotiated with the Kalmyk tayshes (princes) on the conclusion of peace and joint actions against the Crimean Tatars in the Don region. The negotiations were crowned with success, and for two centuries the Kalmyk cavalry was part of the regular military force of the Russian state. And Razin, as part of the Don villages, had a chance to visit the first capital of Moscow and Astrakhan again. There he took part in new negotiations with the Kalmyks, without the need for translators.

In 1662 and 1663. at the head of a detachment of Don Cossacks, Razin made successful trips to the Crimean Khanate... Together with the Cossacks of Sary Malzhik and the cavalry of the Kalmyk Taisha, the Razin Cossacks in the battles near Perekop and in the Molochnye Vody tract defeated the Krymchaks, in whose ranks there were many Turks. They seized rich booty, including horse herds of 2000 heads.

Reasons for the uprising

… The events of 1665 abruptly changed the fate of the Razin brothers. By the tsar's order, a large detachment of Don Cossacks, which was headed by Ivan Razin on the campaign, became part of the army of the governor of Prince Yu.A. Dolgoruky. There was a war with the Polish-Lithuanian state, but it was waged near Kiev extremely sluggishly.

When the winter cold began, the ataman Ivan Razin tried to arbitrarily take his Cossacks back to the Don. By order of Prince Dolgorukov, he, as the instigator of the "riot", was seized and executed in front of his younger brothers. Therefore, the motive for revenge for brother Ivan largely determined the antiboyar sentiments of Stepan Razin, his hostility to the existing "Moscow government".

At the end of 1666, on the tsar's order, they began to search for the fugitives in the Northern Don, where, in particular, a lot of Cossack idleness had accumulated. The situation there became explosive for boyar Moscow. Stepan Razin, feeling the mood on the Don, decided to act.

Before the uprising

1667, spring - he, with a small detachment of Cossack gulls and fugitive peasant slaves, set off on river boats-plows from the military village of the city of Cherkassk up the Don. Along the way, the farms of the wealthy homely Cossacks were ruined. The Razins settled on the islands between the Don channels - Ilovlya and Silence. They dug dugouts and set up huts. This is how the Panshin town appeared at the portage from the Don to the Volga. Stepan Razin was proclaimed ataman.

Soon, Stepan Razin's detachment stationed there increased to 1,500 free people. Here the plan of a campaign along the Volga "for zipuns" finally matured. They learned about this in Moscow: the Cossack freemen in the letter to the Astrakhan governor was declared "thieves' Cossacks." According to the plan of their leader, they had to move with the plows to the Volga, go down it to the Caspian Sea and take possession of the remote Yaitsky town, which they wanted to make their robbery base. Razin has already "arranged" relations with the Yaik Cossacks.

1668, May - Cossack plows appeared on the Volga north of Tsaritsyn and went down the river, out into the Caspian Sea. The first oncoming merchant caravan was plundered. Having passed by the seashore, the ship's army entered Yaik, and the Razins took the Yaitsky town with a battle, in which the streltsy garrison was stationed. A detachment of the tsar's archers who had approached from Astrakhan was defeated under the walls of the town. Then the song sang:

From the island to the rod,
To the vastness of the river wave
Ostroads float out
Razin's walls are canoes.

The differences were taken to the ancient fortress city of Derbent - " iron gate Caucasus ". For some time it became a base for robbery raids "behind zipuns" for the Cossack ship army to the Persian coast.

The Razin people overwintered on the peninsula near Ferahabad, and then moved to the Pig island south of Baku, which was "equipped" by them as a Cossack town. From here the Cossacks continued their sea raids, almost always returning to the island with rich booty. Among the devastated cities were the rich commercial Shemakha and Rasht.

The Cossacks took rich booty in the settlements of the Gilan Bay and the Trukhmen (Turkmen) shores, in the vicinity of Baku. The Razin people took 7000 sheep from the possessions of the Baku khan. Persian military units in battles were invariably defeated. A considerable number of Russian prisoners who were here in slavery were freed.

The Persian Shah from the Abbasid dynasty, worried about the current situation in his Caspian possessions, sent an army of 4,000 people against Razin. However, the Persians turned out to be not only poor sailors, but also unstable warriors. 1669, July - a real naval battle took place near the Pig Island between the Cossack flotilla and the Shah's army. Of the 70 Persian ships, only three escaped by flight: the rest were either boarded or sunk. However, the Cossacks are sea ​​battle lost about 500 people.

The trip to the Caspian Sea "for zipuns" gave the Cossacks rich booty. The flotilla of Cossack plows, burdened with it, returned to their homeland. In August - September 1669 Stenka Razin passed Astrakhan, where the camp was, and ended up in Tsaritsyn. He had a chance to give the Astrakhan governor Prince Semyon Lvov part of the booty taken and a large-caliber cannon for the right of free passage to Tsaritsyn. From here the Cossacks moved to the Don and settled in the Kagalnitsky town.

Cossack people began to flock to Kagalnik, and by the end of the year, under the leadership of Ataman Razin, up to 3,000 people had gathered here. His younger brother Frol arrived to him. Relations with the military Cossack foreman, who settled in Cherkassk, became strained and hostile.

And Razin's plans continued to expand. Having conceived to rise to war with boyar Moscow, he tried to find allies in that. In winter, he struck up negotiations with the Ukrainian hetman Petro Doroshenko and the koshev ataman of the Cossacks Ivan Serko. However, they prudently refused the war with Moscow.

The uprising of Stepan Razin or the Peasant War

In the spring of 1770 Stenka Razin moved from the Kagalnitsky town to the Volga. His army was divided into detachments and hundreds. Strictly speaking, this was the beginning of the Peasant War (the uprising of Stepan Razin), which in Russian historiography is reduced to 1667-1671. Now the brave robber chieftain was turning into the leader of the people's war: he called upon the army that had risen under his banner “to go to Russia”.

Tsaritsyn opened the city gates for the rebels. Local governor Timofey Turgenev was executed. A ship's caravan that approached from above along the Volga with a thousand archers led by the head Ivan Lopatin broke the differences on the water near the Money Island, and some of the tsarist servicemen went over to their side.

However, on the Volga, the Cossacks were already waiting with his archers, the Astrakhan governor, Prince Semyon Lvov. The meeting of the parties took place near Cherny Yar. But the battle did not happen here: the Astrakhan service people revolted and went over to the side of the opposite side.

From Cherny Yar, the Cossack chieftain sent detachments up and down the Volga. They took Kamyshinka (now the city of Kamyshin). Relying on the complete sympathy of the common people, Stepan Razin was able to capture the Volga cities of Saratov and Samara without much difficulty. Now the bulk of his army, which had grown to 20,000 poorly armed and organized insurgents, were landlord peasants.

Other initial people from the Cossacks, commanders of independent detachments, appeared around Razin. Among them were Sergey Krivoy, Vasily Us, Fedor Sheludyak, Eremeev, Shumlivy, Ivan Lyakh and Razin's younger brother Frol.

The first blow was struck at Astrakhan with its stone Kremlin. The rebel flotilla now consisted of 300 different river ships, on which there were more than 50 cannons. Cossack cavalry moved along the river bank. In total, the chieftain led about 7,000 people.

Voivode Prince Ivan Prozorovsky could not defend the fortress city of Astrakhan. The Razin people, supported by the uprising of the urban poor, took him by storm on June 24. The governor was executed: he was thrown from the tower to the ground. From Astrakhan, the rebels moved up the Volga: in the city, Stepan Razin left Us and Sheludyak as governors, ordering them to take good care of the city. He himself took about 12,000 people with him. It is believed that somewhere around 8000 of them were armed with "fire combat".

After Samara was taken in the fire of the popular uprising, all Middle Volga... Everywhere Razin gave the serfs "freedom", and the "bellies" (property) of the governors, nobles and orderly people (officials) - to plunder. The leader of the rebels was met in cities and villages with bread and salt. On his behalf in all directions in a large number"lovely letters" - appeals were sent out.

Moscow realized the seriousness of the current situation: by decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the Boyar Duma began to draw military detachments into the area of ​​Stepan Razin's uprising: rifle regiments and hundreds, local (noble) cavalry, service foreigners. First of all, the tsarist governors were ordered to protect the then large cities of Simbirsk and Kazan.

Meanwhile, the peasant war was growing. Rebel detachments began to appear in places not so far from Moscow. Due to their spontaneity and disorganization as a military force, the rebels, who destroyed the landlord estates and boyar estates, could very rarely offer serious resistance to the military detachments that were sent out by the authorities. On behalf of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Stenka Razin was declared a "thieves' chieftain".

Simbirsk voivode Ivan Miloslavsky was able to organize the defense of the city. The Razins could not take it: part of the garrison (about 4,000 people) took refuge in the local Kremlin. In the battles that took place near Simbirsk from October 1 to October 4, 1670, they were defeated by the tsarist troops, under the command of an experienced governor, Prince Yu.A. Dolgorukov.

Stepan Timofeevich Razin himself fought in the front ranks in those battles, and was seriously wounded. He was taken from Simbirsk to the Kagalnitsky town. The ataman hoped to gather strength again in his native Don. Meanwhile, the territory covered by the uprising narrowed sharply: the tsarist troops took Penza, "pacified" the Tambov region and Sloboda Ukraine by force of arms. It is believed that during the uprising of Stepan Razin, up to 100,000 rebels were killed.

Suppression of the uprising. Execution

... Having recovered a little from his wounds, Razin decided to take possession of the military capital - Cherkassk. But he did not calculate his strengths and capabilities: by that time, the Cossack foreman and the homely Cossacks, under the impression of the victories of the tsarist governors, were disposed towards him and the rebellious nakedness with outright hostility and took up arms themselves.

The Razins approached Cherkassk in February 1671, but they could not take it and retreated to Kagalnik. On February 14, a detachment of Cossack foremen, led by the military ataman Yakovlev, captured the Kagalnitsky town. According to other sources, almost the entire Don army, about 5,000 people, took part in the campaign.

In the Kagalnitsky town there was a beating of the rebellious nakedness. Razin himself was captured and, together with his younger brother Frol, sent under strong guard to Moscow. It should be noted that the ataman Kornilo (Korniliy) Yakovlev was "on Azov affairs" a colleague of Stepan's father and his godfather.

The "thief ataman" Stenka Razin was executed in Moscow on Red Square on June 6, 1671. The executioner first cut him off right hand up to the elbow, then the left leg up to the knee, and then cut off the head. This is how the most legendary Cossack-robber in the history of Russia ended his wild life, about whom many popular songs and legends were composed among the people.

... The name of Stepan Timofeevich Razin has always been remembered in Russian history. Before the revolution, they sang songs about him and composed legends, after the revolution, in the years Civil war, his name was borne by the 1st Orenburg Cossack Socialist Regiment, which distinguished itself in battles against the White Army of Admiral Kolchak in the Urals. A monument was erected to the Ataman of the rebellious Cossacks in the city of Rostov-on-Don. Streets and squares in different cities of modern Russia are named after him.

It is a difficult and ungrateful task to paint all Russian riots and all during their executions, there were too many first and second, and not always law and order were observed during the repressions. In a word, they were hanged, one might say, right and left, without trial or investigation ... However, there are outstanding personalities in our history, which cannot be ignored on the pages of our research.

The entire way of life in Russia in the 17th century - the ferocity of the laws, the lack of rights of the people, the consolidation of the bondage of the peasants - all provided food for popular discontent. Towns and villages were surrounded by countless duties, moreover, any folk crafts and crafts were imposed with many different duties. The greed of the governor and the arbitrariness of officials increased the dire situation of the people.

In Russian legal proceedings, everything depended on the arbitrariness of the authorities. People convicted or robbed by officials fled to the free Cossacks, sympathized with them and saw hope in them.

In 1665, Prince Yuri Dolgoruky was on a campaign against the Poles. In his army there were detachments of the Don Cossacks. Autumn was coming. Ataman of one of the Cossack detachments, Razin, came to the prince, hit his forehead and asked to let the Don people go to the free Don. The prince ordered him to remain in the service. None of the military men dared to leave the service without the permission of the chief, but the Cossacks, even in the service, considered themselves free people. The chieftain voluntarily left with his stanitsa, but they were caught up, and Dolgoruky condemned the chieftain to death. He had two brothers. Stepan, or Stenka, and Frol, or Frolka. They saw how they hanged their older brother.

It is not known whether Stenka left immediately or served due date but in next year he decided not only to avenge his brother, but also to put fear into all the boyars and noble people of the Moscow State, whom the Cossacks generally could not stand.

Stenka put his gang on 4 plows and in April sailed up the Don. On the way, the mob robbed rich Cossacks and ravaged their homes.

Between the rivers Tishini and Ilovni, Stenka chose high place and there he laid his camp. “Stenka is standing on high hills, and all around him is hollow water: you cannot walk, drive, visit, how many there are, you can’t catch your tongue, but it seems that there will be a thousand people, and maybe more” ...

Soon, a rumor spread throughout Tsaritsyn that Cossack thieves were going to the Don and wanted to go to the Volga, attack Tsaritsyn, take ships there and sail down the Volga. This turned out to be not an empty rumor. Soon the "thieves' horde" withdrew from their camp and crossed over to the Volga. Stepan Razin's army was divided into hundreds and tens; a centurion was in command over a hundred, a foreman over a ten. Razin himself was the chieftain over them.

In the spring, Razin's gang began to plunder caravans. The ataman plundered with bizarre cruelty: he will kill another for no reason, spare the other for no reason; in one place it will take everything, in another it will not touch anything. Having procured the ship's guns and gathered supplies, Razin headed across the water to Tsaritsyn. The city surrendered without firing a shot. In the last days of May, Stenka went to Yaik. He had 30 plows and up to 1300 troops - by cunning he captured Yaik and executed 170 people. There he replenished the army from the local population, but those who did not want to go with him, Stenka "burned with fire and beaten to death."

By sea, the Cossacks went to the shores of Dagestan. Cossacks mercilessly mocked the Dagestani Tatars - they burned villages and villages, killed residents, and ruined their property. So they reached Baku, here they managed to ruin the city, kill many residents, take prisoners and lose no more than seven people killed and two wounded. Meanwhile, a fleet was built in Persia to pacify Stenka. A battle ensued. Persian ships were sunk and taken prisoner, only three ships left with the khan, but the Cossacks captured his son and beautiful daughter. Stenka took a Persian princess as his wife. However, the victory did not come easily to the Cossacks - in the naval battle, about 500 people were killed. It was necessary to return to the Don. The Cossacks returned along the Volga back through Astrakhan. The Astrakhan authorities were preparing to meet the Cossacks much more mercifully than they deserved. The governors corrected in advance the letter on behalf of the tsar, which gave forgiveness to the Cossacks if they were to confess. It turned out that Stenka in some way repaid Persia for the insults inflicted on Russia, while Russia did not violate the agreement with Persia, and blamed the ruin of its shores on the willful Cossacks. Stenka with his faithful companions arrived in Astrakhan and put his bunchuk, a symbol of power, in the command hut, as a sign of obedience. The Cossacks gave the authorities five copper and 16 iron cannons, gave the khan's son, one Persian officer and three Persian nobles.

Legends say that Stenka, in an outburst of his devotion to the great sovereign, said that the Cossacks presented his tsarist majesty with the islands, which had conquered the Persian shah with a saber.

Going to the Don, Razin chose a place between the Kagalnitskaya and Vedernikovskaya stanitsa, on the island. There he set up the town of Kagalnik and ordered to surround it with an earthen rampart. The Cossacks built themselves earthen huts.

Word of his fame spread everywhere; hungry ran to him from everywhere; the Cossacks of the supreme villages and walking people from the Volga ran to him; his glory reached Ukraine. A month later, his army numbered 2,700. He was generous and welcoming, giving good to the poor and the hungry. They called him a priest, considered him a sorcerer, believed in his mind, strength and happiness.

He did not rob anyone, and it was much worse. "And Stenka orders his Cossacks incessantly to be ready, and what his thought is, the Cossacks know about it, but they are silent." Stenka said that the time had come to go against the boyars, and called the army with him to the Volga. The boyars were hated by many, but the name of the king was sacred. Stenka went the farthest - he became an enemy of the church.

“What are churches for? Why do you need priests? - Stenka said. - Yes, does it matter: stand in a pair next to a tree and dance around it - that’s what you got married! ”

In May, Stenka sailed up the Don to Tsaritsyn and took him by storm.

He said to the townspeople: "We are fighting against the traitorous boyars, for the great sovereign!" The Astrakhan governors began to gather an army against the rebel. This time, Razin's army already had from 8 to 10 thousand sabers.

As Stenka will speak to his comrades:
“Oh, and what is it, brothers,
I'm sick, sick
Today is my day
Yes, sad?
I'll go to Astrakhan -
I'll burn it out, cut it out,
Astrakhan governor
I'll take it on trial. "

Stenka was approaching Astrakhan, and nature threatened with ominous omens. Heavy rains with hail came; the cold set in, and in the sky three pillars played in a rainbow color - above them there were circles, like crowns.

"The fat is in the fire! Be the wrath of God! " - people said.

With the help of the Astrakhan traitors, Stenka took the city of Astrakhan without loss. The 441st man was ordered to be executed by Razin, some were chopped with a sword, others with berdysh, others were stabbed with spears. Human blood flowed like a river past the church to the very ordering hut.

Astrakhan was converted to the Cossacks, and Razin forced the inhabitants to take the oath of allegiance to "the great sovereign and ataman Stepan Timofeevich, to serve the army and bring out the traitors."

Saratov became the next prey of Razin. Thus, in early September, Stenka reached Simbirsk.

Razin's agents scattered across the Moscow State, they reached the shores of the White Sea, sneaked into the capital. In his proclamations and speeches, Stenka announced that he was going to exterminate the boyars, nobles, clerks, to eradicate all power, to establish the Cossacks in all of Russia and to make everyone equal.

Having trampled the church and the supreme power, Razin nevertheless realized that the Russian people retained respect for them, and decided to hide behind the mask of this respect. He made two ships, one covered with red, the other with black velvet. About the first, he spread a rumor that it contained the son of Alexei Mikhailovich, Tsarevich Alexei, who died the same year on January 17, allegedly fleeing the boyars' malice. The deposed Patriarch Nikon was in another ship. Near Simbirsk Stenka was defeated for the first time. This dropped him in the eyes of the people. As the winter continued, Razin's rebellion was strangled by the governors. The details of the arrest of the chieftain are unknown. The sovereign's letters say about this in different ways: in one - that Stenka was tied with an iron chain by the Don Cossacks, who gave him to the tsarist troops "out of their own malice", in the other - that Stenka was captured by deception.

Stenka and Frolka were brought to Cherkask. Tradition says that the Cossacks were very afraid that Stenka would not leave captivity: they assured him that he was a warlock; no prison would hold him back, no iron would stand against witchcraft. Therefore, they bound him with a blessed chain and kept him in the church narthex, hoping that only the power of the shrine would destroy his magic. At the end of April, both daring brothers were taken to Moscow.

On June 4, the news spread throughout Moscow that the Cossacks were taking Stenka. Crowds of people strewed outside the city to look at the monster, whose name had not left the lips of all Russian people for so long. A few miles from the capital, the train stopped. Stenka was still dressed in his rich dress; there they took off his rich clothes and put him in rags. A large cart with a gallows was brought from Moscow. Then they put Stenka on a cart and tied him with a chain by the neck to the crossbar of the gallows, and attached his arms and legs to the cart with chains. Frolka, tied to the cart with a chain around the neck, had to run after the cart like a dog.

In such a triumphal chariot, the chieftain of the thieves' Cossacks drove into the capital of the Moscow sovereign, which he threatened to burn to the ground. He followed with a cool air, his eyes downcast, as if trying to hide what was in his heart. Some looked at him with hatred, others with compassion. Without a doubt, there were those who would have wished a different entry to this man, who had been the idol of the rabble for so long.

They were brought directly to the Zemsky Prikaz, and immediately began interrogation. Stenka was silent. He was taken to torture. The first torture was a whip - a thick belt strip, a finger thick and five cubits long. The hands of the offender were tied back and raised up, then the legs were tied with a belt; One executioner sat on a belt and stretched the body so that the hands came out of the joints and became flush with the head, while the other executioner beat the victim on the back with a whip. The body swelled, burst, ulcers opened, as if from a knife. Stenka received about a hundred such blows, and, of course, the executioner did not show compassion to such a defendant. But Stenka did not utter a groan. Everyone around him marveled at his self-control.

Then they tied his hands and feet, passed a log through them and laid them on burning coals. Stenka was silent.

Then they began to drive a red-hot iron over the beaten, burnt body. Stenka was silent.

They gave him a break and set to work on Frolka. Weaker, he began to scream in pain. “What a woman you are! - said Stenka. - Remember our former life; for a long time we lived with glory, ruled over thousands of people: now we must cheerfully endure misfortune too. What, does it hurt? Like a woman pricked! "

They began to torture Stenka with another torture. They shaved the top of his head and left the whiskey. “Here's how! - Stenka said to his brother. - We have heard that they put crowns on their heads for learned people, and we, brother, are simpletons with you, but they give us such honor! ” They started pouring a drop of cold water on the top of his head. It was a torment that no one could resist; the hardest of natures lost their presence of mind. Stenka endured this torment and did not make a single sound.

His whole body was an ugly, purple mass of blisters. Out of annoyance that nothing was bothering him, they began to pound Stenka at full swing on the legs. Stenka was silent.

Tradition says that, sitting in prison and waiting for the last mortal torment, Stenka composed a song and is now known everywhere, in which he, as if as a sign of his glory, bequeathed to bury him at the crossroads of the three roads of the Russian land:
“Bury me, brothers, between three roads:
Between Moscow, Astrakhan, glorious Kiev;
Put a life-giving cross in my heads,
Put a sword at my feet.
Who will pass, or will pass - will stop,
Will he pray to my life-giving cross,
My saber, my sharpness is frightened:
That the thief lies here, a daring good fellow,
Nicknamed Stenka Razin Timofeev! "

On June 6, 1671, he was taken to the place of execution together with his brother. A multitude of people flocked to the bloody spectacle. We read a long verdict, which outlined all the crimes of the accused. Stenka listened calmly, with a proud look. At the end of the reading, the executioner took him by the arms. Stenka turned to the Church of the Intercession Holy Mother of God(Basil the Blessed), crossed himself, then bowed on all four sides and said: "Excuse me!"

They put him between two boards. The executioner first chopped off his right arm to the elbow, then his left leg to the knee. During these sufferings, Stenka did not utter a single groan, did not show a sign that he was feeling pain. He, according to a contemporary, seemed to want to show the people that he was taking revenge with proud silence for his torments, for which he could no longer take revenge with a weapon. The terrible tortures of his brother finally deprived Frolka of courage, who saw what awaited him in a few minutes. "I know the word of the sovereign!" he shouted.

"Shut up, dog!" - Stenka told him.

Those were his last words. The executioner cut off his head. His torso was cut into pieces and planted on stakes, like his head, and the entrails were thrown to the dogs to be devoured.