Who killed Razin and where. "I was seduced by the hope that he would speak with the great sovereign himself"

N.I. Kostomarov

In April, the Cossacks sailed from Cherkassk to the Kagalnitsky town; On April 14, they burned it to the ground and, according to a military court, hanged every one of Stenka's accomplices, excluding the ataman himself and his brother Frolka. Probably, among the dead were their families, who were then in Kagalnik. The details of the capture of Stenka are unknown. The sovereign's charters speak of him differently; in one, that Kagalnik was taken by storm; in another, that Stenka was bound with an iron snake from the Don Cossacks, who turned from their malice. Modern foreigners and the Little Russian chronicle say that Stenka was taken by deceit. Kornilo Yakovlev was his godfather, and Stenka had respect for him: this somewhat explains why Stenka spared this old man during his power, when, as it seems, he could overthrow him. Kornilo approached Kagalnik and entered into negotiations with him.

“You are in danger,” he said, “you will either be killed or extradited. Your business is gone. You are no longer able to resist the power of the king. Bring a better confession and ask for mercy. I received a letter from the great sovereign stating that he forgives you and wishes to see you in Moscow. Let's go together; there you will tell what grievances tempted you to steal.

Stenka had little faith in such convictions, but he obeyed out of desperation, because his cause was finally lost, and he did not value life. Kornilo at first left him free, but then put him in shackles along with his brother. Stenka, says a contemporary, did not expect such an act from a person so close to him; but he who was treacherous against his lawful sovereign deserved nothing better.

Stenka and Frolka were brought to Cherkassk. Tradition says that the Cossacks were very afraid that Stenka would not leave captivity: for that he was a warlock, no prison would have kept him, no iron would have resisted his witchcraft.

Therefore, he was bound with a consecrated chain and kept in the church porch, hoping that only the power of the shrine would destroy his magic. (They say that in Cherkassk this consecrated chain is still preserved in the pantry at the cathedral.) At the end of April, both daring brothers were taken to Moscow. Kormilo Yakovlev himself saw them off with another significant Cossack, Mikhail Samarenin, and with an escort. In their convoy they sent three precious Persian argamaks, who were once carried on a bus robbed by Stenka during his return from the Persian campaign. Together with them, the Cossacks returned to the king three golden carpets, taken on the same bead and belonging, therefore, to the royal treasury.

Frolka was by nature of a quiet disposition and became homesick.

“Here, brother, it is you who are to blame for our troubles,” he said with chagrin.

Stenka replied:

- There is no trouble. We will be received honorably: the greatest gentlemen will come out to a meeting to look at us.

On June 4, the news spread in Moscow that the Cossacks were taking Stenka. Crowds of people poured out of the city to look at the monster, whose name has 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; they took him off and dressed him in rags. A large cart with a gallows was brought from Moscow. Then Stenka was put on a cart and tied with a chain by the neck to the crossbar of the gallows, and his arms and legs were attached with chains to the cart. Frolka had to run after the cart like a dog, tied by a chain by the neck to the outskirts of the cart.

In such a triumphant chariot, the ataman of the thieves' Cossacks rode into the capital of the Moscow sovereign, whose affairs he threatened to burn. He followed with a cool air, lowering his eyes, as if trying to prevent anyone from reading what was in his soul. Some looked at him with hatred, others with compassion. No doubt there were still those who would have desired a different entry for this man, who had been the idol of the mob for so long.

They were brought directly to the Zemstvo Prikaz, and the interrogation immediately began. Stanka was silent.

He was taken to torture. The first torture was a whip - a thick belt strip as thick as a finger and five cubits long. The offender's hands were tied back and lifted up, then they tied his legs with a belt; the executioner sat on the belt and stretched the body so that the hands came out of the joints and became level with the head, and the other executioner beat on the back with a whip. The body swelled, burst, ulcers opened, as if from a knife. Already Stenka received about a hundred such blows, and, of course, the executioner showed no compassion for such a defendant. But Stenka did not let out a groan. Everyone around him marveled.

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

Then, over the beaten, burned body, they began to drive with a red-hot iron. Stanka was silent.

He was given rest. They took over Frolka. Weaker, he began to let out cries and screams of pain.

- What a woman you are! - said Stenka. - Remember our former life; long have we lived with glory; commanded thousands of people: now it is necessary to endure misfortune cheerfully. What, does it hurt? Like a grandmother pricked!

They began to torture Stenka with yet another kind of torment. They shaved the top of his head and left his whiskey.

– That's how! - said Stenka to his brother: - we heard that they put learned people in priests, and we, brother, are simpletons with you, and we were tonsured.

They started pouring drops of cold water on the top of his head. It was a torment that no one could resist; the hardest natures lost their presence of mind. Stenka endured this torment, and did not utter a single groan.

His whole body was an ugly crimson mass of blisters. Out of annoyance that nothing bothered him, they began to beat Stenka with all their might on the legs. Stenka was silent.

Having endured all the suffering, without uttering a single word, Stenka could not be blamed by his own consciousness (says a contemporary); only an obvious and public crime did not make it difficult to sentence him to death.

Tradition says that, sitting in prison and waiting for the last mortal torment, Stenka composed a song and is now known everywhere, where he, as if as a sign of his glory, bequeaths to bury himself at the crossroads of the three roads of the Russian Land.

Bury me, brothers, between three roads:

Between Moscow, Astrakhan, glorious Kyiv;

Put a life-giving cross in my heads,

Place a sharp saber at my feet.

Whoever passes or passes will stop,

Will he pray to my life-giving cross,

My saber, my vostroy is frightened:

What lies here is a thief, a daring good fellow,

Stenka Razin, nicknamed Timofeev!

On June 6, he was taken to the place of execution along with his brother. Many people flocked to the bloody spectacle. They read a long verdict, which outlined all the crimes of the accused. Stenka listened calmly, with a proud air. At the end of the reading, the executioner took him by the arms. Stenka turned to the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos (Basil the Blessed), crossed himself, then bowed to all four sides and said: "I'm sorry!"

The execution of Stepan Razin. Painting by S. Kirillov, 1985–1988

It was placed between two boards. The executioner cut off his right arm first at the elbow, then his left leg at the knee. During these sufferings, Stenka did not utter a single groan, did not show a sign that he felt pain. He (says a contemporary) seemed to want to show the people that he takes revenge with proud silence for his torments, for which he is no longer able to avenge with weapons. The terrible spectacle of tortures over his brother finally deprived Frolka of his last courage, who saw what awaited him in a few minutes.

- I know the word sovereign! he shouted.

- Shut up, dog! - Stenka told him.

Those were his last words. The executioner cut off his head. His body was cut into pieces and stuck on stakes, like his head, and the insides were thrown to the dogs to be eaten.

For Frolka, the execution was delayed. He was interrogated again. He said:

- From the great torture, I did not come to my memory and did not say everything, but now I have come to my senses and will say everything that is in my memory. My brother had thieves' letters sent from nowhere, and he buried all these papers in the ground so that, as if there was no one in his house, he collected them in a money jug, pitched them and buried them in the ground on the island, on the Don River, in the Prorva tract, under a willow, and this willow is crooked in the middle, and there are thick willows around it; and there will be two or three versts near the island. Moreover, two days before the arrival of Kornila Yakovlev, Stepan, brother, sent me to Tsaritsyn to take his junk from the townsman Druzhinka Potapov; he said that he had a city of bones, the model was made as if Tsaregrad ... I really don’t know from whom he took it: from Prince Semyon, or from Kizil-bash, only Stenka ordered to take this city, and a chest with a dress.

Subsequently, in September of the same year, the Cossack chieftain with elected Cossacks went to look for these letters on the island, tried the ground with probes and found nothing. Modern foreigners say that Frol received life and was sentenced to eternal imprisonment.

As it happened to me, I’m clear to the falcon, but it’s time:

I flew young-clear falcon in the sky,

I beat-beat geese-swans,

He also beat and beat a small bird.

As it used to be, there is no flight for a small bird.

But nonecha to me, I’m clear to the falcon, there is no time.

I am sitting, young and clear falcon, in the poimana,

Am I in that golden cage,

In a box on a tin on a six.

The falcon's legs are tangled,

On the legs are silk bundles,

Pearl curtains on the eyes!

As it happened to me, good fellow, but a little time:

I walked, walked, good fellow, along the blue sea,

Already I beat-smashed ships-ships,

I am Tatar, Persian, Armenian.

He also beat and broke light boats:

As it used to be, there is no passage for light boats;

But nonecha to me, good fellow, there is no time!

I am sitting, good fellow, in the poimane,

I'm in that villain's earthen prison.

The good fellow's legs are forged,

On the legs of the German fringe,

On the hands of the young man there are prison locks,

And on the neck of the young man there are iron slingshots.

Kornilo Yakovlev and Mikhailo Samarenin returned to the Don, together with the stolnik Kosagov, who brought the Cossacks a gracious letter, grain and cannon stocks and a cash salary. The Cossacks were very happy with the grain reserves, because then they had a crop failure, and the recent troubles did not at all favor the success of agriculture. The Cossacks met the ambassadors five miles from Cherkassk. The army ataman was then Login Semenov. When, according to custom, a circle was assembled, Kosagov reported that the chieftains Kornilo Yakovlev and Mikhailo Samarenin in Moscow had given a promise for all the Cossacks to take an oath of allegiance to the sovereign. Only thrifty and significant Cossacks agreed without excuses; young and humble people, for the most part former adherents of Stenka, accepted this demand reluctantly.

- We (they said) are glad to serve the great sovereign even without kissing the cross, and there is nothing to kiss the cross.

Well done, they still considered themselves not subjects, but free people, serving the king not out of duty, but out of desire. But the party of the elders prevailed. Three circles gathered one after another. On the third round, the elders said:

- We give the great sovereign a promise to make before the holy gospel, a whole army, and whoever of us does not go to the promise, that he will be executed by death according to our military law, and plunder his stomachs; but until all the promises are brought, let us place a strong order in all kurens not to sell either wine or other drink, and whoever goes drunk to the promise, we will inflict a cruel punishment on such a person, like the seller of wine.

On August 29, the black priest Bogolep took the oath of chieftains and other Cossacks according to the official book, before the stolnik and deacon.

“Now,” the steward said after that, “atamans and Cossacks!” serve the great sovereign faithfully: go with the whole army near Astrakhan against the adherents of Stenka who remained there.

- With joyful hearts, let's go near Astrakhan and serve the great sovereign! - answered the Cossacks.

Meanwhile, the remnants of the adherents of the executed Stenka, their brothers in Kagalnik, who had escaped from the massacre, under the banner of Alyosha the convict, fled in despair to Astrakhan, singing sadly:

Glorious-quiet Don got confused

From Cherkassk to the Black Sea!

The whole Cossack circle went crazy!

We no longer have an ataman,

No Stepan Timofeevich,

Nicknamed Stenka Razin!

They caught a good young man,

White hands tied

They took me to stone Moscow,

And on the glorious Red Square

Chopped off a wild head!

http://rushist.com/index.php/kostomarov-razin/1212-kazn-razina

Towns and villages were burdened with countless duties, moreover, any folk crafts and crafts were subject to a variety of duties. The greed of the governors and the arbitrariness of officials increased the plight 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, they were sympathized with and saw hope in them.

Between the rivers Silence and Ilovnya, Stenka Razin chose a high place and laid his camp there. “Stenka is standing on high hillocks, and all around him is hollow water: you can’t go through, drive through, or see how many of them there are, you can’t catch your tongue, but, it seems, there will be a thousand people, and maybe more” .

Soon a rumor spread around Tsaritsyn that Cossack thieves were gathering on the Don and wanted to cross to the Volga, attack Tsaritsyn, take ships there and sail down the Volga. Soon the "horde of thieves" withdrew from their camp and crossed to the Volga. The army of Stepan Razin was divided into hundreds and tens. Razin himself was chieftain over them.

Having obtained ship's guns and having collected supplies, Razin headed across the water to Tsaritsyn. The city surrendered without firing a shot. 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, 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. Meanwhile, a fleet was built in Persia to calm Stenka. A battle ensued. The Persian vessels were sunk and taken prisoner, with only three vessels escaping. However, the victory was not easy for the Cossacks - about 500 people were killed in the naval battle. 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 on behalf of the king a letter that gave forgiveness to the Cossacks if they brought guilt. It turned out that Stenka somehow 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 masterful Cossacks.

Stenka with his faithful companions arrived in Astrakhan and in the command hut laid down his bunchuk, a symbol of power, as a sign of obedience. The Cossacks gave the authorities five copper and 16 iron cannons.

Legends say that Stenka, in a fit of his devotion to the great sovereign, said that the Cossacks present to his royal majesty the islands that they conquered with a saber from the Persian Shah.

Having gone to the Don, Razin chose a place between Kagalnitskaya and Vedernikovskaya villages, on an island. There he arranged the town of Kagalnik and ordered to surround it with an earthen rampart. The Cossacks built earthen huts for themselves.

Everywhere there was a rumor about his glory; a squalor ran towards him from everywhere; the Cossacks of the upper villages and people walking from the Volga ran to him; his fame reached Ukraine. A month later, there were 2,700 people in his army. He was generous and affable, clothed the poor and the hungry. They called him a father, considered him a sorcerer, believed in his mind, strength and happiness.

“And Stenka orders his Cossacks incessantly so that they are ready, and what is his thought, the Cossacks know about it, but are silent.” Stenka said that the time had come to go against the boyars, and called the army with him to the Volga. Boyars were hated by many.

In May, Stenka sailed up the Don to Tsaritsyn and took it 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.

With the help of the Astrakhan traitors, Stenka took the city of Astrakhan without loss.

Razin ordered 441 people to be executed, some were cut with a sword, others with reeds, others were stabbed with spears.

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

Razin's next prey was Saratov. Thus, in early September, Stenka reached Simbirsk.

Razin's messengers scattered throughout the Muscovite state, they reached the shores of the White Sea, sneaked into the capital. In his appeals 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 do so that everyone was equal to everyone.

Near Simbirsk, Stenka was defeated for the first time. This brought him down 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 ataman are unknown. The sovereign's charters speak of this in different ways: in one, that Stenka was bound by an iron chain by the Don Cossacks, who betrayed him to the royal troops "out of their malice", in the other, that Stenka was captured by deceit.

Stenka and his brother Frol were brought to Cherkassk. 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 have kept him, no iron would have resisted witchcraft. Therefore, he was bound with a consecrated chain and kept in the church porch, hoping that only the power of the shrine would destroy his magic. At the end of April, both remote brothers were taken to Moscow.

On June 4, the news spread throughout Moscow that the Cossacks were taking Stenka. Crowds of people poured out of the city to look at the monster, whose name has not left the lips of all Russian people for so long. A few miles from the capital, the train stopped. A large cart with a gallows was brought from Moscow. Stenka was placed on a cart and tied with a chain by the neck to the crossbar of the gallows, and his arms and legs were attached with chains to the cart. Frol was supposed to run behind the cart, tied by a chain around the neck to the cart.

In such a triumphant chariot, the ataman of the thieves' Cossacks rode into the capital of the Moscow sovereign, which he threatened to burn to the ground. He followed with a cool air, lowering his eyes, As if trying to hide what he had in his soul. Some looked at him with hatred, others with compassion.

They were brought directly to the Zemsky Prikaz and immediately began interrogation. Stanka was silent. He remained silent even under torture.

Tradition says that, sitting in prison and waiting for his execution, Stenka composed a song, and now known everywhere, in which, as if as a sign of his glory, he bequeathed to bury him at the crossroads of three roads of the Russian land.

On June 6, 1671, he was taken to execution at the place of execution along with his brother. Many people flocked to the bloody spectacle. They read a long verdict, which outlined all the crimes of the accused. Stenka listened calmly, with a proud air. At the end of the reading, the executioner took him by the arms. Stenka turned to the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos (Basil the Blessed), crossed himself, then bowed to all four sides and said: “Forgive me!”

It was placed between two boards. The executioner cut off his right arm first at the elbow, then his left leg at the knee. During these sufferings, Stenka did not utter a single groan, did not show a sign that he felt 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 was no longer able to avenge with weapons. The terrible tortures of his brother finally deprived Frol of courage, who saw what awaited him in a few minutes.

"I know the word sovereign!" he shouted.

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

Those were his last words. The executioner cut off his head. His body was cut into pieces and impaled on stakes, like his head, and the insides were thrown to the dogs to be eaten.

The plague riot, the Pugachev uprising, the Khovanshchina and other bloody events of Russian history, told by Russian and (especially) Soviet artists

1. Salt riot took place in Moscow on June 1 (11), 1648. The reason is dissatisfaction with the policy of the boyar Boris Morozov, who, together with Ilya Miloslavsky, was regent under Alexei Romanov and actually led the state. In particular, the government introduced an indirect tax on salt, which rose in price from five kopecks to two silver rubles per pood.

Salt Riot. Painting by Ernest Lissner. 1938 Wikimedia Commons

2. Copper Riot took place in Moscow on July 25 (August 4), 1662. Reasons: the increase in taxes during the years of the Russian-Polish war (1654-1667), as well as the depreciation of copper coins compared to silver: for one silver ruble they began to give 17 copper rubles.

Copper Riot. Painting by Ernest Lissner. 1938 Wikimedia Commons

3. The uprising led by Stepan Razin, which began in April 1670, turned into a war (1670-1671) of peasants and Cossacks with the tsarist troops. Reasons: the final enslavement of the peasantry, the growth of taxes, as well as the restriction of the Cossack freemen. The war ended in the defeat of the rebels, who were brutally massacred: in three months, the executioners executed 11 thousand people.

Stepan Razin. Painting by Vasily Surikov. 1903-1907 Wikimedia Commons

Stepan Razin on the Volga. Painting by Gavriil Gorelov. 1924 Wikimedia Commons

Stepan Razin in Saratov. Painting by Sergei Buzulukov. 1952 Wikimedia Commons

4. Streltsy rebellion (Khovanshchina) took place in Moscow on May 5 (15), 1682. Reasons: harassment of the streltsy troops by senior commanders, lowering the status of streltsy to the city police, as well as irregular salary payments. The reason for the uprising was the rumor that Ivan Naryshkin strangled Tsarevich Ivan Alekseevich (the future Ivan V).

Shooter riot. Painting by Nikolai Dmitriev-Orenburgsky. 1862 Wikimedia Commons

Streltsy rebellion in 1682. Painting by Alexei Korzukhin. 1882 Wikimedia Commons

5. Streltsy rebellion took place in Moscow on May 27 (June 6), 1698. Reasons: the exhausting Azov campaigns (1695-1696) and the hardships of service in the border towns. About two thousand archers took part in the uprising, who demanded to enthrone Princess Sofya Alekseevna.

Morning of the archery execution. Painting by Vasily Surikov. 1881 Wikimedia Commons

6. Plague Riot took place in Moscow on September 15 (26), 1771. The reason is an epidemic of plague introduced during the Russian-Turkish war. The epidemic, which began in November 1770, gradually expanded, and in August 1771 the death rate reached a thousand people a day.

Plague riot. Painting by Ernest Lissner. 1930s Wikimedia Commons

7. Pugachev rebellion began on September 17 (28), 1773 and soon turned into a peasant uprising led by Emelyan Pugachev. Reasons: the loss of liberties by the Cossacks, the introduction of the royal monopoly on salt and the most severe religious policy. The uprising ended in the defeat of the troublemakers, and Pugachev, like Stenka Razin, was executed and anathematized.

Pugachev's court. Painting by Vasily Perov. 1875 Wikimedia Commons

Pugachev on Sokolova Gora. Painting by Vasily Fomichev. 1949 Wikimedia Commons

The execution of Pugachev. Painting by Viktor Matorin. year 2000 Wikimedia Commons

8. Decembrist uprising happened in St. Petersburg on December 14 (26), 1825. The reason is disappointment in the hopes associated with the limitation of monarchical power and the abolition of serfdom. The Decembrists were going to prevent the troops and the Senate from taking the oath to the new Tsar Nikolai Pavlovich.

Uprising on December 14, 1825 on the Senate Square. Drawing by Karl Kolman. 1830s Wikimedia Commons

Decembrist revolt. Painting by Vasily Timm. 1853 Wikimedia Commons

Decembrists. Painting by Semyon Levenkov. Around 1950 Wikimedia Commons

9. Uprising on the battleship "Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky" happened on June 14 (27), 1905. The reason is the aggravated situation within the Russian Empire associated with the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), as well as the dispersal of the workers' procession near the Winter Palace (January 9, 1905). The reason for the spontaneous performance of the sailors was stale meat, from which they were supposed to cook borscht.

The rebellious Potemkinites carry the body of the deceased Grigory Vakulenchuk ashore. Painting by Leonid Muchnik. 1949 Wikimedia Commons

Armed uprising on the battleship "Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky". Painting by Pyotr Fomin. 1952 Wikimedia Commons

Uprising on the battleship Potemkin. Painting by Peter Strakhov. 1957 Wikimedia Commons

After the Simbirsk defeat, Stepan Timofeevich lost in the eyes of the Cossacks the former attractiveness of the ataman-"sorcerer", from bullets and cannonballs "spellbound". Kornila Yakovlev with the "domovity" Cossacks managed to grab him and handed him over to the government.

Stepan was brought to Moscow in shackles on a special wagon with a gallows, to the crossbar of which he was chained. Behind the cart, in an iron collar, also chained, was Stepan's brother Frol. The Razins were mercilessly tortured in the Zemsky Prikaz, where there were excellent masters of their craft: they raised the brothers on the rack, beat them with a whip, threw them on hot coals, burned them with iron, poured cold water drop by drop on a shaved crown ... Stepan held firm, even encouraged, he was , Frola. The ataman was subjected to a cruel and painful execution: the executioner cut off his right arm first at the elbow, then his left leg at the knee. Frightened by what he saw, Frol, who was waiting for the same fate, said "word and deed", promising to give Stenka's treasures. The last words of the formidable chieftain were a shout addressed to his brother: “Be quiet, dog!”. And after that his violent head rolled onto the platform. The body was cut into pieces and strung on stakes, the entrails were thrown to the dogs. It was impossible to bury Razin, who was anathematized by the church, according to Christian custom, and therefore his mortal remains were buried in the Tatar cemetery, no one knows where and when ...

Conclusion

The rebellious oppressed classes of the Russian state were defeated in the second peasant war. However, the revolutionary war had a positive historical significance. It was an expression of popular protest against serfdom, against the arbitrariness of governors and clerks who oppressed and robbed the population in cities and villages. The open armed struggle, although proceeding under tsarist slogans, undermined the foundations of the autocratic system and contributed to the preservation among the people of the spirit of protest against serfdom and the imposed slavish obedience. Despite the mass executions and atrocities, the governors failed to uproot the roots of the revolutionary sentiments of the peasants.

The absence of clear political aims of the struggle, of organizing forces, the spontaneity of the uprising and the unconsciousness of the masses, the strategic mistakes of the leadership—these are the main reasons for the defeat of the insurgents.

With regard to the peasant army, it should be noted that the selflessness and generally high moral qualities of the combatants could not compensate for poor weapons, the lack of a clear organization, military discipline and experienced military leaders.

The tsarist government had large armed forces. City and even Moscow archers revealed political “shakyness” and weak combat capability. The new regiments (dragoon, reytar, soldier) turned out to be more stable in comparison with the hundred units, i.e. old, service.

The external political situation allowed the government to throw large forces against the rebels, and there was enough time for their collection and organization. Razin's strategic mistake as the leader of the uprising was that he did not try to take the enemy by surprise, but acted methodically, consistently capturing strongholds up the Volga. The loss of time near Simbirsk was one of the reasons that determined the turning point in the course of the war.

Stepan Timofeevich Razin politically and militarily was one of the talented "... representatives of the rebellious peasantry" (16). He skillfully called on the masses of the people to revolt against the oppressors, on the Don and Volga he created the basis for the wide deployment of military operations, outlined the main milestones of the war plan and ensured the achievement of a number of major tactical successes, which, however, did not lead to a positive strategic result. In pursuit of continuous tactical achievements, the leader of the uprising lost time and missed a favorable moment to solve the main problem.

STEPAN RAZIN

To all disobedient to the royal will, unblessing and oath from the church, revenge and execution from the synclite and the state, oath and execution to any rebel, schismatic lover who dares to contradict the deed of the conciliar and shake the minds of people with evil rumors, no matter who he is, whether he is a priest or a boyar , Duma or military, citizen or nobleman: may his memory perish forever!

From the electoral letter of Boris Godunov

Depicting all the Russian riots and all those executed during them is a difficult and thankless task, there were too many first and second ones, and law and order were not always observed during the repressions. In a word, they hung, one might say, right and left, without trial or investigation ... However, in our history there are outstanding personalities who cannot be ignored on the pages of our study.

The whole way of Russia of the 17th century - the ferocity of laws, the lack of rights of the people, the consolidation of the bondage of the peasants - everything provided food for popular discontent. Towns and villages were surrounded by countless duties, moreover, any folk crafts and crafts were subject to a variety of duties. The greed of the governors and the arbitrariness of officials increased the plight of the people.

In 1665, Prince Yuri Dolgoruky was on a campaign against the Poles. In his army there were detachments of Don Cossacks. Autumn came. The ataman of one of the Cossack detachments, Razin, appeared to the prince, struck with 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 people dared to leave the service without the permission of the chief, but the Cossacks, even in the service, considered themselves free people. The ataman voluntarily left with his village, but they were caught up, and Dolgoruky condemned the ataman to death. He had two brothers. Stepan, or Stenka, and Frol, or Frolka. They saw how the older brother was hanged.

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

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

Between the rivers of Silence and Ilovnia, Stenka chose a high place and laid his camp there. “Stenka is standing on high hillocks, and all around him is hollow water: you can’t go through, drive through, or see how many of them there are, you can’t catch your tongue, but, it seems, there will be a thousand people, and maybe more” .

Soon a rumor spread around Tsaritsyn that Cossack thieves were gathering on the Don and wanted to cross to the Volga, attack Tsaritsyn, take ships there and sail down the Volga. This turned out to be no empty rumor. Soon the "horde of thieves" withdrew from their camp and crossed to the Volga. The army of Stepan Razin was divided into hundreds and tens; a centurion was in charge of a hundred, a foreman was in charge of a ten. Razin himself was chieftain over them.

In the spring, Razin's gang began to rob caravans. The ataman robbed with bizarre cruelty: he would kill another without a reason, spare another without a reason; in one place he will take everything, in another he will not touch anything. Having obtained ship's guns and having collected 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, 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. The Cossacks mercilessly mocked the Dagestan Tatars - they burned villages and villages, killed the inhabitants, ruined their property. So they reached Baku, here they managed to destroy the city, kill many inhabitants, take prisoners and lose no more than seven people killed and two wounded. Meanwhile, a fleet was built in Persia to calm 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 was not easy for the Cossacks - about 500 people were killed in the naval battle. 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 on behalf of the king a letter that gave forgiveness to the Cossacks if they brought guilt. It turned out that Stenka somehow 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 masterful Cossacks. Stenka with his faithful companions arrived in Astrakhan and in the command hut laid, as a sign of obedience, his bunchuk - a symbol of power. The Cossacks handed over five copper and 16 iron cannons to the authorities, handed over the khan's son, one Persian officer and three Persian nobles.

Legends say that Stenka, in a fit of his devotion to the great sovereign, said that the Cossacks present to his royal majesty the islands that they conquered with a saber from the Persian Shah.

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

“What are the churches for? Why do you need priests? - said Stenka. “But it doesn’t matter: stand in a pair near a tree and dance around it - that’s what got married!”

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

As Stenka will say to his comrades:

“It’s something, brothers,

I'm sick, sick

Today is my day

Is it sad?

I'll go to Astrakhan -

I will burn, I will cut

Astrakhan governor

I'll take it to court."

Stenka was approaching Astrakhan, and nature threatened with ominous omens. There were torrential rains with hail; the cold set in, and three pillars played in the sky with a rainbow color - at the top of them 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. Razin ordered the execution of 441 people, some were cut with a sword, others with reeds, others were stabbed with spears. Human blood flowed like a river past the church to the very command hut.

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

Razin's next prey was Saratov. Thus, in early September, Stenka reached Simbirsk.

Razin's agents scattered throughout the Moscow State, they reached the shores of the White Sea, sneaked into the capital. In his appeals 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 do so that everyone was equal to everyone.

Having trampled down the church and the supreme power, Razin nevertheless realized that the Russian people retained respect for them, and decided to hide behind the guise of this respect. He made two ships: one was 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 in the same year on January 17, allegedly having fled from the anger of the boyars. In another ship was the deposed Patriarch Nikon. Near Simbirsk, Stenka was defeated for the first time. This brought him down 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 ataman are unknown. The sovereign's charters speak of this in different ways: in one, that Stenka was bound by an iron chain by the Don Cossacks, who betrayed him to the royal troops "out of their malice", in the other, that Stenka was captured by deceit.

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, he was bound with a consecrated chain and kept in the church porch, hoping that only the power of the shrine would destroy his magic. At the end of April, both remote brothers were taken to Moscow.

On June 4, the news spread throughout Moscow that the Cossacks were taking Stenka. Crowds of people poured out of the city to look at the monster, whose name has 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 dressed him in rags. A large cart with a gallows was brought from Moscow. Then Stenka was put on a cart and tied with a chain by the neck to the crossbar of the gallows, and his arms and legs were attached with chains to the cart. Frolka had to run after the cart like a dog, tied by a chain around the neck to the cart.

In such a triumphant chariot, the ataman of the thieves' Cossacks rode into the capital of the Moscow sovereign, which he threatened to burn to the ground. He followed with a cool air, lowering his eyes, as if trying to hide what was in his soul. Some looked at him with hatred, others with compassion. No doubt there were those who would have wished a different entry for this man, who had been the idol of the mob for so long.

They were brought directly to the Zemsky Prikaz, and the interrogation immediately began. Stanka was silent. He was taken to be tortured. The first torture was a whip - a thick belt strip as thick as a finger and five cubits long. The offender's hands were tied back and lifted up, then they tied his legs with a belt; one executioner sat on a belt and stretched the body so that the hands came out of the joints and became level with the head, and 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 showed no compassion for such a defendant. But Stenka did not let out a groan. Everyone around him marveled at his endurance.

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

Then, over the beaten, burned body, they began to drive with a red-hot iron. Stanka was silent.

They gave him a break and set to work on Frolka. Weaker, he started screaming in pain. “What a woman you are! - said Stenka. - Remember our former life; for a long time we lived with glory, commanded thousands of people: now we must also cheerfully endure misfortune. 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 his whiskey. “That's how! - said Stenka to his brother. “We heard that they put crowns on the heads of learned people, and we, brother, are simpletons with you, but they give us such an honor!” They started pouring drops of cold water on the top of his head. It was a torment that no one could resist; the hardest natures lost their presence of mind. Stenka endured this torment and did not utter a single sound.

His whole body was an ugly, crimson mass of blisters. Out of annoyance that nothing bothered him, they began to beat Stenka with all their might on the legs. Stanka 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, as if as a sign of his glory, he bequeathed to bury him at the crossroads of three roads of the Russian land:

“Bury me, brothers, between three roads:

Between Moscow, Astrakhan, glorious Kyiv;

Put a life-giving cross in my heads,

Place a sharp saber at my feet.

Who will pass, or pass - will stop,

Will he pray to my life-giving cross,

My saber, my vostroy is frightened:

What lies here is a thief, a daring good fellow,

Stenka Razin Timofeev, nicknamed!

On June 6, 1671, he was taken to the place of execution along with his brother. Many people flocked to the bloody spectacle. They read a long verdict, which outlined all the crimes of the accused. Stenka listened calmly, with a proud air. At the end of the reading, the executioner took him by the arms. Stenka turned to the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos (Basil the Blessed), crossed himself, then bowed to all four sides and said: “Forgive me!”

It was placed between two boards. The executioner cut off his right arm first at the elbow, then his left leg at the knee. During these sufferings, Stenka did not utter a single groan, did not show a sign that he felt 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 was no longer able to avenge with weapons. The terrible tortures of his brother finally deprived Frolka of courage, who saw what awaited him in a few minutes. "I know the word sovereign!" he shouted.

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

Those were his last words. The executioner cut off his head. His body was cut into pieces and impaled on stakes, like his head, and the insides were thrown to the dogs to be eaten.

Portal for the student. Self-training

Conclusion

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