Razin Stepan Timofeevich, also known as Stenka Razin (around 1630-1671). Don ataman. Leader of the Peasant War (Stepan Razin's Uprising) 1667-1671
Born in the village of Zimoveyskaya in the family of a well-to-do - "homely" - Cossack Timofey Razi, a participant in the capture of the Turkish fortress of Azov and the "Azov sitting", father of three sons - Ivan, Stepan and Frol. Stenka gained combat experience early in border battles, which constantly took place in the Zadonsk and Kuban steppes. In his youth, the future Cossack chieftain was distinguished by ardor, pride and personal courage.
1652 - on the behest of his late father made a pilgrimage trip to the Solovetsky Monastery, having traveled the entire Russian kingdom from south to north and back, visited Moscow. The lawlessness and poverty of the peasants and townspeople that were seen had a strong influence on the outlook of the young Cossack.
At a military circle in 1658 he was elected to the stanitsa (embassy) from the free Don, headed by ataman Naum Vasilyev, to Moscow. From that time, history has preserved the first written testimony about Stepan Timofeevich Razin.
Stepan was early promoted to the ranks of the Cossack leaders thanks to his diplomatic abilities and military talents. 1661 - together with the ataman Fyodor Budan, he negotiated with the Kalmyk tayshes (princes) on the conclusion of peace and joint actions against the Crimean Tatars in the Don region. The negotiations were crowned with success, and for two centuries the Kalmyk cavalry was part of the regular military force of the Russian state. And Razin, as part of the Don villages, had a chance to visit the first capital Moscow and Astrakhan again. There he took part in new negotiations with the Kalmyks, without the need for translators.
In 1662 and 1663. at the head of a detachment of Don Cossacks, Razin made successful campaigns within the limits of the Crimean Khanate. Together with the Cossacks of Sary Malzhik and the cavalry of the Kalmyk Taisha, the Razin Cossacks defeated the Krymchaks in the battles near Perekop and in the Molochnye Vody tract, in whose ranks there were many Turks. They seized rich booty, including horse herds of 2000 heads.
Reasons for the uprising
Promotional video:
… The events of 1665 abruptly changed the fate of the Razin brothers. By the tsar's order, a large detachment of Don Cossacks, which was headed by Ivan Razin on the campaign, became part of the army of the governor of Prince Yu. A. Dolgoruky. There was a war with the Polish-Lithuanian state, but it was waged near Kiev extremely sluggishly.
When the winter cold began, the chieftain Ivan Razin tried to arbitrarily take his Cossacks back to the Don. By order of Prince Dolgorukov, he, as the instigator of the "riot", was seized and executed in front of his younger brothers. Therefore, the motive for revenge for brother Ivan largely determined the antiboyar sentiments of Stepan Razin, his hostility to the existing “Moscow government”.
At the end of 1666, on the tsar's order, they began to search for the fugitives in the Northern Don, where in particular a lot of Cossack idleness had accumulated. The situation there became explosive for boyar Moscow. Stepan Razin, feeling the mood on the Don, decided to act.
N Before the uprising
1667, spring - he, with a small detachment of Cossack idle and fugitive peasant slaves, set off on river boats-plows from the military village of Cherkassk up the Don. Along the way, the farms of the wealthy homely Cossacks were ruined. The Razins settled on the islands between the Don channels - Ilovlya and Tishina. They dug dugouts and set up huts. This is how the town of Panshin appeared at the portage from the Don to the Volga. Stepan Razin was proclaimed ataman.
Soon, Stepan Razin's detachment stationed there increased to 1,500 free people. Here the plan of a campaign along the Volga "for zipuns" finally matured. They learned about this in Moscow: the Cossack freemen in the letter to the Astrakhan governor was declared "thief Cossacks". According to the plan of their leader, they had to move with the plows to the Volga, go down it into the Caspian Sea and take possession of the remote Yaitsky town, which they wanted to make their robbery base. Razin has already "arranged" relations with the Yaik Cossacks.
1668, May - Cossack plows appeared on the Volga north of Tsaritsyn and went down the river, out into the Caspian Sea. The first oncoming merchant caravan was plundered. Having passed by the seashore, the ship's army entered Yaik, and the Razins took the Yaitsky town with a battle, in which there was a streltsy garrison. A detachment of the tsar's archers who came up from Astrakhan was defeated under the walls of the town. Then the song sang:
The differences were taken to the ancient fortress city of Derbent - "the iron gates of the Caucasus." For some time it became a base for robbery raids "behind zipuns" for the Cossack ship army to the Persian coast.
The Razin people overwintered on the peninsula near Ferahabad, and then moved to the Pig island south of Baku, which was "equipped" by them as a Cossack town. From here the Cossacks continued their sea raids, almost always returning to the island with rich booty. Among the devastated cities were the rich commercial Shemakha and Rasht.
The Cossacks took the rich booty in the settlements of the Gilan Bay and the Trukhmen (Turkmen) shores, in the vicinity of Baku. The Razin people took 7000 sheep from the possessions of the Baku khan. Persian military units in battles were invariably defeated. A considerable number of Russian prisoners who were here in slavery were freed.
The Persian Shah from the Abbasid dynasty, worried about the current situation in his Caspian possessions, sent an army of 4,000 people against Razin. However, the Persians turned out to be not only bad sailors, but also unstable warriors. 1669, July - a real naval battle took place near the Pig Island between the Cossack flotilla and the Shah's army. Of the 70 Persian ships, only three escaped by flight: the rest were either boarded or sunk. However, the Cossacks also lost about 500 people in that sea battle.
The trip to the Caspian Sea "for zipuns" gave the Cossacks a rich booty. The flotilla of Cossack plows, burdened with it, returned to their homeland. In August - September 1669 Stenka Razin passed Astrakhan, where the camp was, and ended up in Tsaritsyn. He had a chance to give the Astrakhan voivode Prince Semyon Lvov part of the booty taken and a large-caliber cannon for the right of free passage to Tsaritsyn. From here the Cossacks moved to the Don and settled in the Kagalnitsky town.
Cossacks began to flock to Kagalnik, and by the end of the year, under the leadership of Ataman Razin, up to 3,000 people had gathered here. His younger brother Frol arrived to him. Relations with the military Cossack foreman, who had settled in Cherkassk, became strained and hostile.
And Razin's plans continued to expand. Having conceived to rise to war with boyar Moscow, he tried to find allies in that. In the winter, he struck up negotiations with the Ukrainian hetman Petro Doroshenko and the koshev ataman of the Cossacks Ivan Serko. However, they prudently abandoned the war with Moscow.
The uprising of Stepan Razin or the Peasant War
In the spring of 1770 Stenka Razin moved from the Kagalnitsky town to the Volga. His army was divided into groups and hundreds. Strictly speaking, this was the beginning of the Peasant War (the uprising of Stepan Razin), which in Russian historiography is reduced to 1667-1671. Now the daring robber chieftain was turning into the leader of the people's war: he called upon the army that had risen under his banner "to go to Russia."
Tsaritsyn opened the city gates for the rebels. Local governor Timofey Turgenev was executed. A ship's caravan that approached from above along the Volga with a thousand archers headed by Ivan Lopatin, the head, broke the differences on the water near the Money Island, and some of the tsar's servicemen went over to their side.
However, on the Volga, the Astrakhan governor, Prince Semyon Lvov, was already waiting for the Cossacks with his archers. The meeting of the parties took place near Cherny Yar. But the battle did not happen here: the Astrakhan servicemen raised a riot and went over to the side of the opposite side.
From Cherny Yar the Cossack chieftain sent detachments up and down the Volga. They took Kamyshinka (now the city of Kamyshin). Relying on the full sympathy of the common people, Stepan Razin was able to capture the Volga cities of Saratov and Samara without much difficulty. Now the bulk of his army, which had grown to 20,000 poorly armed and organized insurgents, were landlord peasants.
Other initial people from the Cossacks, the commanders of independent detachments, appeared around Razin. Among them were Sergey Krivoy, Vasily Us, Fedor Sheludyak, Eremeev, Shumlivy, Ivan Lyakh and Razin's younger brother Frol.
The first blow was struck at Astrakhan with its stone Kremlin. The rebel flotilla now consisted of 300 different river ships, on which there were more than 50 cannons. The Cossack cavalry moved along the river bank. In total, the ataman led about 7000 people.
Voivode Prince Ivan Prozorovsky could not defend the fortress city of Astrakhan. The Razins, supported by the uprising of the urban poor, took him by storm on June 24. The governor was executed: he was thrown from the tower to the ground. From Astrakhan, the rebels moved up the Volga: in the city Stepan Razin left Usa and Sheludyak as governors, ordering them to take good care of the city. He himself took about 12,000 people with him. It is believed that somewhere around 8000 of them were armed with "fire combat".
After Samara was taken, the entire Middle Volga was in the fire of the popular uprising. Everywhere Razin gave the serfs "freedom", and the "bellies" (property) of the governors, nobles and clerks (officials) to plunder. The leader of the rebels was greeted in towns and villages with bread and salt. On his behalf, "lovely letters" - appeals were sent in all directions in large numbers.
Moscow realized the seriousness of the situation: by the decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the Boyar Duma began to draw military detachments into the area of Stepan Razin's uprising: streltsy regiments and hundreds, local (noble) cavalry, service foreigners. First of all, the tsarist governors were ordered to protect the then large cities of Simbirsk and Kazan.
Meanwhile, the peasant war was growing. Rebel detachments began to appear in places not so far from Moscow. Due to their spontaneity and disorganization as a military force, the insurgents, who were smashing landlord estates and boyar estates, could very rarely offer serious resistance to the military detachments that were sent out by the authorities. On behalf of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Stenka Razin was declared a "thief ataman".
Simbirsk voivode Ivan Miloslavsky was able to organize the defense of the city. The Razins could not take it: part of the garrison (about 4,000 people) took refuge in the local Kremlin. In the battles that took place near Simbirsk from October 1 to October 4, 1670, they were defeated by the tsarist troops, under the command of an experienced governor, Prince Yu. A. Dolgorukov.
Stepan Timofeevich Razin himself fought in the front ranks in those battles, and was seriously wounded. He was taken from Simbirsk to the Kagalnitsky town. The ataman hoped to gather strength again in his native Don. Meanwhile, the territory covered by the uprising narrowed sharply: the tsarist troops took Penza, “pacified” the Tambov region and Sloboda Ukraine by force of arms. It is believed that during the uprising of Stepan Razin, up to 100,000 rebels were killed.
Suppression of the uprising. Execution
… Having recovered a little from his wounds, Razin decided to seize the military capital - Cherkassk. But he did not calculate his strength and capabilities: by that time, the Cossack foreman and the homely Cossacks, under the impression of the victories of the tsarist governors, were disposed towards him and the rebellious nakedness with outright hostility and took up arms themselves.
The Razins approached Cherkassk in February 1671, but they could not take it and retreated to Kagalnik. On February 14, a detachment of Cossack foremen, led by the military ataman Yakovlev, captured the Kagalnitsky town. According to other sources, almost the entire Don army, about 5,000 people, went on a campaign.
In the Kagalnitsky town there was a beating of the rebellious nakedness. Razin himself was captured and, together with his younger brother Frol, sent under strong guard to Moscow. It should be noted that the ataman Kornilo (Korniliy) Yakovlev was "on Azov affairs" a colleague of Stepan's father and his godfather.
"Thief Ataman" Stenka Razin was executed in Moscow on Red Square on June 6, 1671. The executioner first cut off his right arm at the elbow, then his left leg at the knee, and then cut off his head. This is how the most legendary Cossack-robber in the history of Russia, about whom many popular songs and legends were composed, ended his violent life.
… The name of Stepan Timofeevich Razin has always been remembered in Russian history. Before the revolution, they sang songs about him and composed legends, after the revolution, during the Civil War, the 1st Orenburg Cossack Socialist Regiment, which distinguished itself in battles against the White Army of Admiral Kolchak in the Urals, bore his name. A monument was erected to the Ataman of the rebellious Cossacks in the city of Rostov-on-Don. Streets and squares in different cities of modern Russia are named after him.
A. Shishov