Tarski revolt, 1722
The Tara revolt is one of the widespread protest movements of the representatives of the old faith, which was the most ambitious response to Peter's legislation on the Old Believers and the introduction of poll tax and recruitment. By decrees of 1716-21, the transfer of the old faith to others, even to their children, was strictly punishable, up to the death penalty, and the Old Believer family was outlawed.
Old Believers were obliged to pay double the per capita salary. At the same time, as an exception to the general rule, even women had to pay (albeit in a single amount). Attempts to collect double salaries met with widespread resistance in Siberia, the organizing centers of which were sketes, inhabited by tens and hundreds of fugitives. Self-immolation protests flared up. There were rumors that the king was a substitute and ruled by the Antichrist, about the imminent end of the world. Near Tara, the authorities held negotiations with the leaders of the sketes, in which adherents of both directions of the Old Believers lived - bespopov (Ivan Smirnov) and priest (Fr. Sergius). And when they reported that they were preparing for self-immolation, the poll census was suspended.
But in the spring of 1722 in Tara and the surrounding sketes, they learned that the oath to the heir to the throne was to be taken in accordance with the decree of 5 February. 1722. The decree proclaimed the right of the sovereign to appoint any heir to himself, but did not give his name. The Siberian Old Believers considered that the decree was about the oath to the Antichrist, whose name cannot be named.
In the sketes about. Sergia and I. Smirnova actively discussed the situation and decided to urge the entire population not to take the oath. From May 18 in the house of the Cossack regiment. Ivan Nemchinov began an extensive discussion of the document substantiating this refusal - a "rebuff letter" drawn up in the skete of Fr. Sergius, who himself participated in these discussions together with the Cossacks P. Baigachev, V. Isetsky, I. Podusha. We read and interpreted church books ("The Book of Faith", "Cyril's Book", Apocalypse, Words of Ephraim the Syrian, etc.) with their testimonies of the signs of the end of the world, finding all these signs in Peter's Russia. In May, many Cossacks and residents of Tara - 228 people - signed the letter at such gatherings. led by Nemchinov and Fr. Sergius. On May 27, the commandant of Tara Glebovsky appointed a general gathering at the Cathedral Square to be sworn in, but only a few people agreed to take the oath.the rest filed a "rebuff letter," read out right there on the square. G. F. Miller, on the basis of some sources that have not come down to us, believed that in total about 700 people took part in the public act of renouncing the oath at the cathedral.
Units of the Moscow and St. Petersburg infantry were sent from Tobolsk to suppress this revolt. regiments with attached artillery and cavalry - more than 600 people in total. The rebels offered little resistance. Nemchinov with 20 Cossacks locked himself in his yard and blew himself up with gunpowder, another group of Cossacks sat under siege in the yard of Ivan Podushi and fired back from the troops of the "tsar-antichrist" for another 4 months. Self-immolations took place in the surrounding hermitages.
The "Tarsk search" covered vast territories of Western Siberia; it was carried out with extreme cruelty, accompanied by torture, mass executions and self-immolations (see Self-immolation of Old Believers in Siberia). According to G. F. Miller, after the investigation, half of all those who gathered at the cathedral were put to death to submit a "letter of rebuff", the rest were sent into exile. Gallows with the executed stood along the roads leading to Tara. Fr. Sergius was quartered. The search for "Tara opponents" throughout Siberia continued for several years, the last executions in this case were carried out in 1735. The total number of those executed, punished with a whip and exiled was in the thousands.
At the same time, the authorities backed down on the important issue of double salary registration, which was the real reason for many protests of that time. This recording was for a long time, in fact, until the 2nd floor. In the 1730s, suspended, so that throughout Siberia in 1726 there was only one (!) "Noteworthy schismatic", in 1732 - five.
Promotional video:
From the book "A Journey for Rare Books." Pokrovsky
