Yemelyan Pugachev

Pugachev, Emelian Ivanovich (c.1742-75), leader of the most dangerous peasant revolt in Russian history. A Don Cossack with charismatic gifts, Pugachev served in the Seven Years War and against the Turks. He deserted in 1771 and began wandering through southern Russia and the Urals. He was arrested in 1772 and 1773 but escaped both times. He then claimed to be the dead Tsar Peter III, who had freed the nobles from their state service obligations and, so his supporters assumed, would do the same for the peasantry. He attracted a following of peasants, Old Believers, Ural mineworkers, and non-Russians such as Bashkirs and Kalmyks. In August 1773 Pugachev formed a detachment of 300 cossacks from Yaitsk (later Ural'sk), which rapidly expanded to about 25, 000. Because the main Russian forces were fighting the Turks, Pugachev's insurgents were able to seize Kazan, Penza, and Saratov and besiege other towns. But he was defeated by Potemkin near Kazan in the summer of 1774 and fled to the Urals. His supporters then handed him over to the Russians, and he was executed in Moscow on 10 January 1775. The Pugachev rebellion was the setting for Pushkin's novel The Captain's Daughter.

— Christopher Bellamy

The Russian Cossack soldier Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev (1742-1775) led the peasant rebellion in Russia in 1773-1775.

Emelyan Pugachev, a Don Cossack, was born in the village of Zimoveiskaya. The main course of his life was influenced initially by the fact that, as a Don Cossack, he was subject, when of age, to duty in the Russian army. In 1770, during a Russo-Turkish conflict in which he was serving, he was given a temporary leave and, at its expiration, refused to return to his regiment. Arrested, he managed to escape, thus beginning his life as a strong-willed fugitive.

In the course of his subsequent wanderings Pugachev was struck by the bitter unrest he found among the lower classes in Russia. What he saw convinced him that the time was ripe for revolt, and being a rebel by nature and having a bent toward leadership, he took upon himself the task of directing a revolt. As a basis for appeal, he decided to assume the character of Czar Peter III, having observed that many credulous people distrusted the official report that Peter had died in 1762.

With about 80 Cossacks committed to his scheme, in September 1773 Pugachev proclaimed himself Peter III and called on the oppressed to follow him in an uprising against Catherine II (the Great). He began his campaign along the Yaik (now called the Ural) River, gathering followers among disgruntled Cossacks, fugitive serfs, released convicts, religious dissenters, Bashkirs, and Tatars. Although the force he assembled was neither well trained nor well disciplined, it was large enough to defeat local military units sent against it. To widen his campaign, Pugachev undertook the capture of Orenburg (Chkalov), the major center of government strength on the Yaik River, setting up headquarters and laying siege to the city. Meanwhile, news of the revolt prompted bloody uprisings against landlords and government officials along the Volga River and in the region east of it. Thousands left their homes to join the rebel army, and they increased its numbers to about 25, 000.

Late in 1773 Catherine II, judging the revolt dangerous enough to warrant her action, sent a large force to suppress it. Pugachev was compelled to end the siege of Orenburg, but he eluded capture by the government forces. Again he marshaled a sizable following and, in July 1774, was able to resume the offensive and capture the city of Kazan. At the same time, serf uprisings took place near Nizhni Novgorod (Gorki) only 275 miles east of Moscow.

Catherine, now deeply alarmed by the nearness of the revolt, sent new contingents against Pugachev. They succeeded in destroying most of his army, near Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd), but he once again evaded efforts to capture him. Still determined, Pugachev made his way to the Yaik Cossack region, hoping that Yaik and Don Cossacks would provide him with a new army. Instead of being given support, however, he was betrayed. A group of Cossacks opposed to his aims seized him and handed him over to the authorities.

Taken in chains to Moscow, Pugachev was tried and sentenced to death. On Jan. 10, 1775, he was beheaded and quartered before a large Moscow crowd.

Further Reading

The best account, in English, concerning Pugachev is in Philip Longworth, The Cossacks (1970). An excellent analysis by Marc Raeff of the causes of the Pugachev revolt is in Robert Forster and Jack P. Greene, eds., Preconditions of Revolution in Early Modern Europe (1971).

(c. 1742 - 1775), Russian cossack rebel and imperial impostor, leader of the Pugachevshchina.

Emelian Pugachev headed the mass uprising of 1773 - 1774 known as Pugachevshchina (loosely translated as "Pugachev's Dark Deeds"). The bloodiest rebellion against central state authority and serfdom between 1618 and the Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, it disrupted an immense territory and momentarily threatened the Muscovite heartland. Thousands of individuals from disparate social groups and ethnicities challenged Catherine II's legitimacy and aggravated international tension from prolonged Russo-Turkish hostilities. Many suspected upper-class, religious, or foreign inspiration behind the upheaval, widely reported by the European press. Particularly provocative was Pugachev's impersonation of Peter III (1728 - 1762), which recalled Catherine's usurpation of power.

The revolt originated among the Yaik (Ural) cossacks, a frontier "warrior democracy" that resisted pressure from state expansion. Disputes over the elected leadership led to government suppression of a cossack mutiny in January 1772, which left the community divided and resentful. Pugachev, a Don cossack fugitive, visited the area in late 1772. A typical primitive rebel, Pugachev was illiterate and his biography obscure. His imposture was not original; he was one of some seven pretenders since 1764. Shrewd, energetic, and experienced in military affairs, he was also charismatic. It is unclear whether he initiated renewed revolt or was persuaded to lead it by the cossacks.

About sixty rebels issued a first manifesto in late September 1773, presumably dictated by Pugachev or cossack scribes, calling on cossacks, Kalmyks, and Tatars to serve Peter III in pursuit of glory, land, and material reward. The rebels focused on frontier freedom or autonomy, but Peter III's name lent national stature to the burgeoning movement. Within weeks their forces exceeded two thousand besieging the fortress of Orenburg and spreading the revolt into the Ural Mountains with specific appeals to diverse social and ethnic groups. Turkic Bashkirs joined in force as the regional rebellion evolved into three chronological-territorial phases.

The Orenburg-Yaitsk phase lasted from October 1773 until April 1774, when the rebel sieges of Orenburg, Yaitsk, and Ufa were broken, Pugachev barely escaping. Shielded by spring roadlessness, the rebels replenished ranks while fleeing northward through the Urals. This second phase culminated in the plunder of Kazan on July 23 before the horde was defeated and scattered. With rebel whereabouts unknown, panic seized Moscow, but news of peace with the Turks soon allayed fears.

Pugachev fled southward down the Volga, exterminating the nobility and government officials - the third and final phase. This rampage sparked many local outbreaks sometimes called "Pugachevshchina without Pugachev." The main rebel force was decisively defeated south of Tsaritsyn on September 5. To save themselves, some cossacks turned Pugachev over to tsarist authorities at Yaitsk on September 26, 1774. After lengthy interrogation he was beheaded and then quartered in Moscow on January 21, 1775. To erase reminders of the revolt, Yaitsk, the river, the cossacks, and Pugachev's birthplace were all renamed, his wife and children exiled. Late in life Alexander Pushkin (1799 - 1837) popularized Pugachev in history and fiction. "The Captain's Daughter" became an instant classic, famously declaiming "God save us from seeing a Russian revolt, senseless and merciless." But agrarian anarchist dissidents found inspiration in Pugachev for grassroots rebellion. After 1917 the Soviet regime endorsed Pugachev's fame, recasting the revolt as a peasant war against feudal society and autocratic government.

Bibliography

Alexander, John T. (1969). Autocratic Politics in a National Crisis: The Imperial Russian Government and Pugachev's Revolt, 1773 - 1775. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Alexander, John T. (1973). Emperor of the Cossacks: Pugachev and the Frontier Jacquerie of 1773 - 1775. Lawrence, KS: Coronado Press.

Pushkin, Alexander. (1983). "The Captain's Daughter" and "A History of Pugachev." In Alexander Pushkin: Complete Prose Fiction, ed. Paul Debreczeny. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Raeff, Marc. (1970). "Pugachev's Rebellion." In Preconditions for Revolution in Early Modern Europe, eds. Robert Forster and Jack P. Greene. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

—JOHN T. ALEXANDER

"Pugachev" redirects here. For the town in Saratov Oblast, see Pugachyov.

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Emel'ian Ivanovich Pugachev (e. 1742 - January 21 [O.S. January 10] 1775)(Russian: Емелья́н Ива́нович Пугачёв), was a pretender to the Russian throne who led a great Cossack insurrection during the reign of Catherine II. Alexander Pushkin wrote a remarkable history of the rebellion, The History of Pugachev, and he recounted some of the events in his novel The Captain's Daughter (1836).

Contents 1 Early Life 2 Life as a Fugitive 3 Insurrection 1773–1774 4 Legacy of Pugachev 5 See also 6 Bibliography 7 References 8 External links

Early Life

Emelyan Pugachov

Pugachev, the son of a small Don Cossack landowner, was the youngest son of four children. Born in the stanitsa Zimoveiskaia, he signed on to military service at the age of 17. One year later, he married a Cossack girl, Sofia Nedyuzheva, with whom he had a total of five children, two of whom died in infancy.^[1] Shortly after his marriage, he joined the Russian Second Army in Prussia during the Seven Years' War under the command of Count Zakhar Chernyshev. He returned home in 1762, and for the next seven years would divide his time between his home village and several service assignments.^[2] During this period, he was recognized for his military skill and achieved the Cossack rank of khorunzhii, which would be roughly equivalent to the post of company commander. It was also during this period, in 1770 at the siege of Bender that he first displays a flair for impersonation,boasting to his fellow comrades that his sword was given to him by his 'godfather', Peter I.^[3]

Life as a Fugitive

In 1770, Pugachev requested leave to return home to recover from a severe illness, later seeking permanent discharge. Despite urging from military commanders, Pugachev refused to be treated in a military infirmary or return to the front. Convinced by his brother-in-law, Simon Pavlov, he joined a dissatisfied Cossack group who were fleeing eastward for an independent Cossack community on the Terek River.^[4] After they were safely across the Don river, he returned home to Zimoveiskaia. The fleeing Cossacks were caught soon after by the authorities, and Pavlov implicated Pugachev in the desertion, causing his arrest. He was held for 48 hours before he managed to escape, beginning his fugitive career.^[5] Fleeing for the Cossack community on the Terek River, he arrived in early January of 1772. During his six weeks in the area, he joined a protest group and was elected their official representative. On his way to St. Petersburg to make an official complaint, his fugitive status was discovered in Mozdok and he was again arrested. He would escape on February 13 and return home, only to be arrested once again. ^[6] Dispatched to Cherkassk for investigation, he would meet Luk'ian Ivanovich Khudiakov, who he would trick into releasing him. After which he fled to Vetka, a Polish border settlement, with the help of many raskol'niki.^[7] He returned to Russia in the autumn of 1772 by pretending to be an Old Believer wishing to return home. He received a visa to settle in the Malykovka district (present day Vol'sk), where he most likey first heard of the Yaik Cossacks rebellion.^[8]

Insurrection 1773–1774

See Main Article: Pugachev's Rebellion

The idea of impersonating the late Emperor Peter III occurred to Pugachev early on, even before he reached the Yaik Cossacks. It is of no surprise, given another recent peasant impersonator, Fedot Bogmolov, and Russia's history of impersonators.^[9] Pugachev, posing as a wealthy merchant, reportedly tested the feelings of the Cossacks at the Yaitsk by suggesting that he lead a mass exodus into Turkey. When the majority seemed to agree to his plan, he deemed it the right time to begin his rebellion^[10] Though he was arrested shortly after once again, and this time held for five months at Kazan, he would escape once more and return to the Yaitsk to start his revolt. ^[11] By promising to return several privileges to the Cossacks, and to restore the Old Belief, he was able to gain the support he needed to promote his identity as Peter III.^[12] The story of Pugachev's strong resemblance to the tsar Peter III, who in 1762 was overthrown and murdered by his wife, the future empress Catherine II, comes from a later legend. Pugachev told the story that he and his principal adherents had escaped from the clutches of Catherine.

Having amassed an army through propaganda, recruitment and promise of reform, Pugachev and his generals were able to overrun much of the region stretching between the Volga River and the Urals. Pugachev's greatest victory of the insurgency was the taking of Kazan. As well as amassing large numbers of Cossacks and peasants, Pugachev also acquired artillery and arms and was able to supply his force better than the Russian army would have predicted.^[13]

Pugachev Administering Justice to the Population. Painting by Vasily Perov

In response, General Peter Panin thereupon set out against the rebels with a large army, but difficulty of transport, lack of discipline, and the gross insubordination of his ill-paid soldiers paralyzed all his efforts for months, while the innumerable and ubiquitous bands of Pugachev gained victories in nearly every engagement. Not until August 1774 did General Michelsohn inflict a crushing defeat upon the rebels near Tsaritsyn, when they lost ten thousand killed or taken prisoner. Panin's savage reprisals, after the capture of Penza, completed their discomfiture. On September 14, 1774 Pugachev's own Cossacks delivered him to Yaitsk. Alexander Suvorov had him placed in a metal cage and sent first to Simbirsk and then to Moscow for a public execution which took place on 21 January [O.S. 10 January] 1775.^[14] In the public square, he was decapitated, then drawn and quartered.

Legacy of Pugachev

The Pugachev rebellion had a long lasting effect on Russia for years to come. While Catherine II tried to reform the provincial administration, the horrors of the revolt caused her to drop other reforms, particularly attempts to emancipate the peasant serfs of Russia. Her regime became increasingly reactionary. The Russian writer Alexander Radishchev, in Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow, attacked the Russian government and, in particular the institution of serfdom. In the book, he refers to Pugachev and the rebellion as a warning.^[15]

The term "Pugachevs of the University" was frequently used to describe the generation of the Russian Nihilist movement.

The town in which Pugachev was born was later named in his honor by the Soviet government.

Today, the central square in the Kazakh town of Uralsk is named Pugachev Square.^[16]

See also

• Pugachov's Oak

Bibliography

• N. Dubrovin, Pugachiev and his Associates (Rus.; Petersburg, 1884)
• Catherine II., Political Correspondence (Rus. Fr. Ger.; Petersburg, 1885, &c.)
• S. I. Gnyedich, Emilian Pugachev (Rus.; Petersburg, 1902).
• "Dokumenty stavki EI Pugacheva, povstancheskikh vlastei i uchrezhdenii, 1773-1774 gg."
• AN SSSR, In-t istorii SSSR, TSentr. gos. arkhiv drev. aktov (Rus. Moscow, 1975.)
• Pugachevshchina. Moscow: Gosizdat, 1926-1931.
• Longworth, Philip. "The Pretender Phenomenon in Eighteenth-Century Russia", Past and Present, No. 66. (Feb., 1975), pp. 61–83.
• Alexander, John T. Emperor of the Cossacks. Kansas: Coronado Press, 1973.
• Summner, B.H. "New Material on the Pugachev Revolt" The Slavonic and East European Review 7 (June 1928): 133-127
• Alexander, John T. Autocratic Politics in a National Crisis: The Imperial Russian Government and Pugachev's Revolt. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1969.
• Pushkin, Alexander and Earl Sampson, trans. The History of Pugachev. Michigan: Ardis, 1983.

References

1. ^ Alexander, John T., Emperor of the Cossacks(Kansas: Coronado Press, 1973), 43-45
2. ^ Ibid., 45
3. ^ Ibid., 45
4. ^ Ibid., 46
5. ^ Ibid., 46-7
6. ^ Ibid., 46
7. ^ Ibid., 48
8. ^ Ibid., 49
9. ^ Alexander, John T., Autocratic Politics in a National Crisis: The Imperial Russian Government and Pugachev's Revolt (Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1969)142
10. ^ Alexander, Emperor of the Cossacks, 53-55
11. ^ Ibid., 55
12. ^ Alexander, Autocratic Politics in a National Crisis
13. ^ Ibid., 144-5 & 175
14. ^ 7. B.H. Summner, "New Material on the Revolt of Pugachev," The Salvonic and East European Review 19, (June 1928): 121-22
15. ^ http://countrystudies.us/russia/4.htm
16. ^ http://www.skiptonps.vic.edu.au/history/kazakhis.htm

External links

• Pushkin on Pugachov: God save us from the Russian riot, absurd and cruel
• Encyclopædia Britannica on Pugachyov
• (Russian) Puchachyov's biography

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