Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
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The Cossack leader Pugachev is executed at Moscow
Jemeljan Pugachev was born - the son of a Don Cossack couple - in the village of Simowejskaja in 1742 and grew up in the Don region. His exact date of birth is unknown.
While his father had to do his military service somewhere, little Jemeljan toiled with a brother and two sisters on the parental farm - until he was old enough to do military service for the tsarist power himself. He had chosen an extremely bad time for it, because as a Cossack in Russian service he had to go to the Seven Years' War and, so to speak, "do all the shit from start to finish".
Cossack Pugachev seemed to be lucky at first: He caught the eye of the polkownik (colonel) of his unit, a certain Denisov, who gave him a nice pressure post as orderly. As such, Pugachev also had to watch out for Polkownik's horse, which one day he lost through carelessness, which Denisov punished with a cruel flogging. This is how the young Cossack had his first experience of the relentlessness of the authorities.
After the Seven Years' War, Pugachev had a few quiet years, then he had to try again, because the new Tsarina Katrharina II developed quite a greed for new countries, all of which were in the south.
This time it went against the Turks and Pugachev was awarded for special bravery in the conquest of the Turkish fortress Bender (in today's Moldova) ...
... promoted from sergeant (Starschij Uriadnik) to ensign (Praportschik), which was very rare back then!
But then he became seriously ill and had to provide a substitute (for the "fee" of two good horses, a saddle, a saber, a bale of blue cloth and two saddlebags full of groceries) - a Cossack named Birijukow.
In 1771 his unit pressed for his return, Pugachev was still ill and asked in the capital of the Don region, Cherkassk, to be released from military service. But this time, too, the authorities were relentless, he was not allowed to be released, at most they wanted to billet him in a hospital. Pugachev, who knew and feared the "quality" of Russian hospitals, hurriedly obtained a false passport and fled.
The authorities immediately arrested his mother to get Pugachev, but he went into hiding and made his way to the Terek Cossacks. Around this time it occurred to some contemporaries that the Cossack Pugachev gave the murdered Tsar Peter III. (the former consort of Catherine II) looked remotely similar. Friends advised him to capitalize on this resemblance.
Judge for yourself: if you ignore Pugachev's bangs and beard, there is actually a certain similarity.
Pugachev, meanwhile, continued his escape, came to the Cossacks on the Yaik River, presented himself as the ex-Tsar Peter III, who miraculously survived. and agitated violently. But first he was arrested in the village of Manynowka, severely tortured and sent to the Kazan prison.
He managed to escape and return to the Yaik area. This time the great mass of Cossacks followed the false tsar, he set off, the predominantly old-believing peasants joined him and Pugachev succeeded in taking his first town, Tatishchev, in September 1773 ...
... where he was greeted with flags and banners as "Tsar Peter III." Here he issued an "imperial manifesto", the original text of which has been preserved:
"From the sole ruling tsar, our great Pyotr Fyodorovich, lord of all Russian countries, etc., etc. This is my decree to the horsemen of the Yaik: Just as our forefathers served the earlier tsars to the last drop of blood, you too will, my friends, serve the fatherland and myself, your lord and tsar Pyotr Fyodorovich. Your fame as Cossacks will not die if you serve your country to the end and the same goes for your children. I, the great Tsar, will reward you - Cossacks, Kalmyks and Tartars. I, the Lord and Tsar Pyotr Fyodorovich, forgive those who have sinned against me. And I promise you the rivers from the mountains to the sea and the pastures, and wages, powder, lead, and food. I, the great Lord and Tsar, will reward you in this way. September 17, 1773 Pyotr Fyodorovich "
With a constantly growing crowd, whose "hard core" formed the Cossacks from Yaik and Orenburg, he succeeded in taking six more fortresses and several cities, where he had the representatives of the authorities killed, following the example of Stenka Razin.
The cities fell into his hands like Rasin: the Cossack garrisons or fortress soldiers mutinied, the common people supported him and usually the city gates were opened for him from the inside.
Pugachev "ruled" as "Tsar", with his own "court" and "entourage", "court", "ministers", "war committee" and its own administration.
Due to further military successes, including the capture of the cities of Saratov, Zaryzin, Penza, Stavropol, Yekaterinburg and Kamyshin, his following grew to tens of thousands of people, the factory workers in the Urals and the people of the Bashkirs joined in large parts.
The uprising area on both sides of the Ural Mountains was huge - some established Western European powers would have easily fit in ...:
The first signs of displeasure appeared among his followers when he married a Cossack woman named Ustinja Kusnetzowa in early 1774.
Why was the tsar able to get married when his lawfully wedded wife (Catherine II) was still alive, one wondered.
On the morning of July 15, 1774, Pugachev publicly announced that 25,000 men would march for the capture of Moscow.
Pugachev made it to Moscow just under 20 days' march, but the tsarina finally saw that she was not only dealing with a small peasant revolt, but the largest uprising in Russian history.
Considerable numbers of troops were now deployed against Pugachev!
However, Pugachev never thought to give up and continued his marches through the insurrectionary area, always with the Russian troops on the heels - he won minor skirmishes with the soldiers of General Michaelson who was pursuing him.
When Pugatschow happened to meet the then famous German astronomer Georg Moritz Lowitz on his march on August 22, 1774 ...
... who had been to astronomical observations on the Caspian Sea and was now on his way home, Pugachev had him hung up immediately so that the scholar "would be closer to the stars", as he said ....
Two days later the Russians caught up with him on the Don River, Pugachev had to stand for battle and drove his dense warriors towards the Russian lines. An artillery volley first brought the warriors to a standstill, then another to wild flight, leaving 2,000 dead and their entire entourage behind.
With fewer than 200 followers, Pugachev was able to escape across the Don and considered making his way to Orenburg or the Caspian Sea, but the end came quickly!
One by one now left him. His last five companions, the Cossacks Trofim, Tvorogow and Chumakov, as well as two others whose names are no longer known, overwhelmed him and brought Pugachev to Yaizk as a prisoner.
This happened on September 15, 1774. On October 1, he was interrogated by Generals Panin and Potjomkin (exactly, THE Potjomkin or Potemkin, as we say!) ...:
Pugachev admitted a certain complicity during the interrogation, but claimed to have been driven himself, who only did everything at the request and threats of the Cossacks to save his own skin.
Pugachev was brought to Moscow and on December 30, 1774 at 9 a.m. in the Kremlin's throne room, 29 judges were judging him. The verdict could not be questionable and had already been determined in advance by Tsarina Katharina: death by quartering and beheading.
On January 21, 1775, Pugachev was driven to the place of execution in a cart.
... then excommunicated ...
... and finally killed.
In a ukase (imperial order) it was stipulated that Pugachev's name and deeds should be subject to "eternal forgetting and profound silence about it"
Pugachev's place of birth, Simowejskaja on the Don, was torn down to the ground and rebuilt on the opposite bank of the river. The village was also renamed "Potjomskaja" after Katharina's beloved (and secret husband!) Prince Potjomkin, whom we met above.
Eventually the river Yaik was renamed "Urals", since this is where the uprising began. The Yaik Cossacks were now called Ural Cossacks and the capital of their district, the city of Yaizk, had to be renamed “Uralsk”.
This was of no use, because we still know Pugachev and his deeds today.
Jemeljan Pugachev was born - the son of a Don Cossack couple - in the village of Simowejskaja in 1742 and grew up in the Don region. His exact date of birth is unknown.
While his father had to do his military service somewhere, little Jemeljan toiled with a brother and two sisters on the parental farm - until he was old enough to do military service for the tsarist power himself. He had chosen an extremely bad time for it, because as a Cossack in Russian service he had to go to the Seven Years' War and, so to speak, "do all the shit from start to finish".
Cossack Pugachev seemed to be lucky at first: He caught the eye of the polkownik (colonel) of his unit, a certain Denisov, who gave him a nice pressure post as orderly. As such, Pugachev also had to watch out for Polkownik's horse, which one day he lost through carelessness, which Denisov punished with a cruel flogging. This is how the young Cossack had his first experience of the relentlessness of the authorities.
After the Seven Years' War, Pugachev had a few quiet years, then he had to try again, because the new Tsarina Katrharina II developed quite a greed for new countries, all of which were in the south.
This time it went against the Turks and Pugachev was awarded for special bravery in the conquest of the Turkish fortress Bender (in today's Moldova) ...
... promoted from sergeant (Starschij Uriadnik) to ensign (Praportschik), which was very rare back then!
But then he became seriously ill and had to provide a substitute (for the "fee" of two good horses, a saddle, a saber, a bale of blue cloth and two saddlebags full of groceries) - a Cossack named Birijukow.
In 1771 his unit pressed for his return, Pugachev was still ill and asked in the capital of the Don region, Cherkassk, to be released from military service. But this time, too, the authorities were relentless, he was not allowed to be released, at most they wanted to billet him in a hospital. Pugachev, who knew and feared the "quality" of Russian hospitals, hurriedly obtained a false passport and fled.
The authorities immediately arrested his mother to get Pugachev, but he went into hiding and made his way to the Terek Cossacks. Around this time it occurred to some contemporaries that the Cossack Pugachev gave the murdered Tsar Peter III. (the former consort of Catherine II) looked remotely similar. Friends advised him to capitalize on this resemblance.
Judge for yourself: if you ignore Pugachev's bangs and beard, there is actually a certain similarity.
Pugachev, meanwhile, continued his escape, came to the Cossacks on the Yaik River, presented himself as the ex-Tsar Peter III, who miraculously survived. and agitated violently. But first he was arrested in the village of Manynowka, severely tortured and sent to the Kazan prison.
He managed to escape and return to the Yaik area. This time the great mass of Cossacks followed the false tsar, he set off, the predominantly old-believing peasants joined him and Pugachev succeeded in taking his first town, Tatishchev, in September 1773 ...
... where he was greeted with flags and banners as "Tsar Peter III." Here he issued an "imperial manifesto", the original text of which has been preserved:
"From the sole ruling tsar, our great Pyotr Fyodorovich, lord of all Russian countries, etc., etc. This is my decree to the horsemen of the Yaik: Just as our forefathers served the earlier tsars to the last drop of blood, you too will, my friends, serve the fatherland and myself, your lord and tsar Pyotr Fyodorovich. Your fame as Cossacks will not die if you serve your country to the end and the same goes for your children. I, the great Tsar, will reward you - Cossacks, Kalmyks and Tartars. I, the Lord and Tsar Pyotr Fyodorovich, forgive those who have sinned against me. And I promise you the rivers from the mountains to the sea and the pastures, and wages, powder, lead, and food. I, the great Lord and Tsar, will reward you in this way. September 17, 1773 Pyotr Fyodorovich "
With a constantly growing crowd, whose "hard core" formed the Cossacks from Yaik and Orenburg, he succeeded in taking six more fortresses and several cities, where he had the representatives of the authorities killed, following the example of Stenka Razin.
The cities fell into his hands like Rasin: the Cossack garrisons or fortress soldiers mutinied, the common people supported him and usually the city gates were opened for him from the inside.
Pugachev "ruled" as "Tsar", with his own "court" and "entourage", "court", "ministers", "war committee" and its own administration.
Due to further military successes, including the capture of the cities of Saratov, Zaryzin, Penza, Stavropol, Yekaterinburg and Kamyshin, his following grew to tens of thousands of people, the factory workers in the Urals and the people of the Bashkirs joined in large parts.
The uprising area on both sides of the Ural Mountains was huge - some established Western European powers would have easily fit in ...:
The first signs of displeasure appeared among his followers when he married a Cossack woman named Ustinja Kusnetzowa in early 1774.
Why was the tsar able to get married when his lawfully wedded wife (Catherine II) was still alive, one wondered.
On the morning of July 15, 1774, Pugachev publicly announced that 25,000 men would march for the capture of Moscow.
Pugachev made it to Moscow just under 20 days' march, but the tsarina finally saw that she was not only dealing with a small peasant revolt, but the largest uprising in Russian history.
Considerable numbers of troops were now deployed against Pugachev!
However, Pugachev never thought to give up and continued his marches through the insurrectionary area, always with the Russian troops on the heels - he won minor skirmishes with the soldiers of General Michaelson who was pursuing him.
When Pugatschow happened to meet the then famous German astronomer Georg Moritz Lowitz on his march on August 22, 1774 ...
... who had been to astronomical observations on the Caspian Sea and was now on his way home, Pugachev had him hung up immediately so that the scholar "would be closer to the stars", as he said ....
Two days later the Russians caught up with him on the Don River, Pugachev had to stand for battle and drove his dense warriors towards the Russian lines. An artillery volley first brought the warriors to a standstill, then another to wild flight, leaving 2,000 dead and their entire entourage behind.
With fewer than 200 followers, Pugachev was able to escape across the Don and considered making his way to Orenburg or the Caspian Sea, but the end came quickly!
One by one now left him. His last five companions, the Cossacks Trofim, Tvorogow and Chumakov, as well as two others whose names are no longer known, overwhelmed him and brought Pugachev to Yaizk as a prisoner.
This happened on September 15, 1774. On October 1, he was interrogated by Generals Panin and Potjomkin (exactly, THE Potjomkin or Potemkin, as we say!) ...:
Pugachev admitted a certain complicity during the interrogation, but claimed to have been driven himself, who only did everything at the request and threats of the Cossacks to save his own skin.
Pugachev was brought to Moscow and on December 30, 1774 at 9 a.m. in the Kremlin's throne room, 29 judges were judging him. The verdict could not be questionable and had already been determined in advance by Tsarina Katharina: death by quartering and beheading.
On January 21, 1775, Pugachev was driven to the place of execution in a cart.
... then excommunicated ...
... and finally killed.
In a ukase (imperial order) it was stipulated that Pugachev's name and deeds should be subject to "eternal forgetting and profound silence about it"
Pugachev's place of birth, Simowejskaja on the Don, was torn down to the ground and rebuilt on the opposite bank of the river. The village was also renamed "Potjomskaja" after Katharina's beloved (and secret husband!) Prince Potjomkin, whom we met above.
Eventually the river Yaik was renamed "Urals", since this is where the uprising began. The Yaik Cossacks were now called Ural Cossacks and the capital of their district, the city of Yaizk, had to be renamed “Uralsk”.
This was of no use, because we still know Pugachev and his deeds today.
Good stuff my friend! Excellent pictures too.
