In the Volga region and on the Don, it is difficult to find a town where legends about the untold treasures buried by the Cossacks during the uprising of Stepan Razin would not go. But so far no one has found the "thieves' treasury".
The word and deed of the sovereign
June 6, 1671 Stepan Razin ascended the scaffold installed on Red Square. He silently listened to the verdict, crossed himself and said: "Excuse me." Then the executioner chopped off the hand, then the leg of the condemned to quartering …
And then Razin's younger brother Frol, who was waiting for his turn, shouted: "The word and deed of the sovereign!"
This phrase meant that the criminal possessed an important secret or was ready to report high treason. Which led to a postponement of the execution of the sentence, and in the future, possibly, to a change of fate.
“Be quiet, dog,” croaked Stepan Razin, after which the executioner immediately cut off his head. Frol was immediately taken away. Rumors spread among the people that the brother of the chieftain was going to point out where the "thieves' treasury" was hidden.
For five years Frol dragged the sovereign's people along the Zhigulevsky mountains and the Volga estuaries. Apparently, he did not tell anything interesting and was executed in 1676. However, popular rumor asserts: while Frol pointed out one "false place" after another, the trusted people hid the treasures.
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For example, near the village of Shatrushany, the Razin people allegedly buried 40 barrels of gold. In the village of Peskovatovka, they say that in one of the surrounding mounds there is a whole boat full of jewels hidden.
There are only a few finds. At the end of the 18th century, engineer Pyotr Myatlev, guided by an old map, dug up a cache of weapons from the Razin era on the Don. He was looking, however, a cellar with thirty barrels of gold.
About 100 years ago, near one of the churches of Tsaritsyn, the earth suddenly collapsed. The cellar opened, containing coffins filled with Persian gold.
In 1942, near Stalingrad (formerly Tsaritsyn), after a German raid, it ripped apart the coastal slope. Six ancient cannons were found there, in the muzzles of which 17th century coins were sealed.
"Beat them mercilessly
True, any robber could bury the Persian gold, not necessarily Razin. And nobody saw the Stalingrad find.
But the Razins robbed the Persian merchants! Even the "princess" was captured.
Indeed, in 1667, the Cossacks led by Razin began a campaign to the lower Volga and the Caspian. Such raids were common. But this time the chieftain went too far: he defeated a detachment of archers. Now they began to hunt for Razin in earnest.
In the spring of 1668 he was forced out into the Caspian Sea. It was possible to really get rich on Persian merchants, but already near the city of Rasht, the Razinites attacked the Shah's fleet. The forces were unequal, and the Cossacks entered into negotiations. They were thwarted by the emissaries of the tsar, who handed the Persians a letter, in which it was reported that "Cossacks who had stolen from Stenka Razin were at hand." It was suggested "to beat them mercilessly."
The Shah threw huge forces against the Cossacks, because of the continuous battles, the differences were not up to plunder. Razin's squadron was locked in a bay near the Pig Island, and only at the cost of huge losses it escaped. By the way, that same "princess" was the daughter of the commander of the Persian fleet, and the chieftain drowned her because she was not given a ransom.
At the end of the summer of 1669, Razin tried to go back to the Volga. The Astrakhan voivode Ivan Prozorovsky demanded to surrender the guns and pay a huge indemnity for this, but the Cossacks did not have money - just a trifle.
The following spring, the chieftain with his gang was embroiled in an anti-government uprising that engulfed the Don and the Volga region. Of course, he had some kind of treasury, but it fell into the hands of the tsarist governor Yuri Baryatinsky, who defeated Razin.
Moreover, he defeated him at the very peak of his power, when the chieftain least of all thought about defeat. So there was no point in hiding the treasures, even if they were. After fleeing from Simbirsk, the seriously wounded Razin, all the more, could not leave any treasures.
Most likely, there were no treasures. And Frol Razin, shouting: "The word and deed of the sovereign!", Just wanted to play for time. You look, and you could have escaped.
Boris SHAROV