There have always been robbers in Russia. "From behind the island, dashing robbers floated out onto the rod, into the vastness of the river wave," from whose discordant ranks such famous historical figures as the conqueror of Siberia Ermak Timofeevich and the fighter for the people's cause Stepan Razin emerged.
The people composed songs and legends about robbers-pirates. Historians considered them to be either creepy villains, or Russian "robin-hooders", and the mysterious words "saryn to kichka" (rabble - to the stern) and "duvan duvanit" (to divide the prey) still excite the imagination. To this day, the Vatazhka Lake and the Bratki forest cordon keep pirate secrets, where robbers whiled away the winter so that the tsar's guards would not reach them on the ice, and archaeologists persistently search for the untold treasures they buried on the Volga mountain shores.
The first information about a water robbery organized by private individuals on the Volga and the Caspian Sea is associated with the appearance of ushers. Initially, their gangs gathered in Veliky Novgorod and made trading and robber expeditions along the Volga and Kama. The bulk of them were local idlers and vagabonds from Smolensk, Moscow and Tver, led by experienced Novgorod governors.
The ushkuyniks especially roamed in the second half of the XIV century, when the Golden Horde was in a crisis - the "great jam". They attacked the Tatar detachments and squads of the princes sold to the khan, robbing Russian villages with equal success, and rich caravans, regardless of national and religious affiliation, and small merchant ships, often defeating entire Horde and Russian armies. Dmitry Donskoy even threatened Novgorod with war for the tricks of the ushkuiniks. The wealthy Novgorod merchants secretly supplied them with weapons and money, receiving a generous share of the captured booty.
Earhooks. Novgorod freeman / S. M. Seidenberg
The first large pirate campaign took place in 1360, when dashing detachments fought along the Volga and Kama and, having taken the Tatar city of Djuketau by storm, set off to "drink zipuns" to Kostroma. The Tatars howled, and the frightened Russian princes gave them drunken ushkuiniks. Having sober up, they immediately took revenge on the traitors, burned Nizhny Novgorod, and began to rob Kostroma every time they passed by.
In 1366, pirates, led by the Novgorod voivode Alexander Abakumovich, walked along the Middle Volga, causing considerable damage to the Horde. And another Tatar complaint flew to the Moscow prince. The cunning Novgorod boyars immediately "otmazyutsya": "Young people went to the Volga without our word, but your merchants did not touch, only the bastard was beaten." In the same year, 150 ushkuiniks, led by the boyars Vasily, Efim and Alexander, again swept along the Volga, plundering merchant caravans, Tatars, Armenians, Arabs, and "all arrived to Novgorod in good health."
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Although the classic pirate is at war with the whole world, the ushkuiniks, robbing everyone, killed the Tatars, and the Russians were most often released in peace. The chronicle tells about the campaign of two thousand ushkuyniks on 70 boats led by the atamans Smolyanin and Prokopy, who defeated the five thousandth army of the Kostroma governor Pleshcheev. They once again ravaged the long-suffering Kostroma, simultaneously adding to it Nizhny Novgorod and "leading many Christians with their wives and children."
Then the ushkuiniks went along the Kama, gutting everyone in a row, pretty much nibbled Vyatka and the Volga Bulgars, Muslim subjects of the Golden Horde, and "full of Christian tramples to the Besermens (sold to the Basurmans)", headed down the Volga to the Caspian. But luck betrayed them (don't trade yours!) - Russian pirates were defeated by the army of the Astrakhan khan Salchei. After that, ushkuynichnosti gradually disappeared. The last was the raid of 250 pirates of the commander Anfala along the Volga and Kama.
From 1360 to 1375, eight large campaigns to the Middle Volga took place, not counting small raids. It was a devastating tornado for the Horde. The powerful rulers of the uluses asked for mercy and paid off, humiliating themselves and fearing pirates, like no other Russian prince, and besieging Moscow with requests, "Take the ushkuyniks away!" For two decades, the ushkuyniki destroyed more Tatars than on the Kulikovo field, hitting the trading power of the Golden Horde and blocking the most profitable channel for supplying the state with slaves and goods.
In Russia, not only local pirates were robbed. In 1374, the Genoese Luchino Tario and his comrades-in-arms, passing by boat from Kafa (Feodosia) through the Black and Azov Seas, ascended the Don to the Volga and entered the Caspian through Hadji-Tarkhan. But our guys are not bastard - on the way back he himself was robbed by the Volga "brothers". Similar expeditions were undertaken with caution by the Venetians.
In 1468, robbers attacked the caravan of Shah Shirvan's ambassadors to the court of Ivan III and the merchant ships of Russian merchants at the mouth of the Volga. For some reason, the Inozemtsev were not touched, and two ships and all property were taken from their own. Among the merchants was the Novgorodian Afanasy Nikitin, who, being ruined, went “across the three seas” out of grief and immortalized his name. It turns out that it is the Russian pirates that the trailblazer should thank for advancing to distant India.
Ushkuyniks possessed first-class weapons: chain mail or bayrans (bodans), composite shells (bekhters), where steel plates were woven into the chain mail, spears, swords, bows and crossbows with steel arrows - bolts.
Their ships - flat-bottomed sailing-oar boats were called ears (from the word "oshkui" - bear, because the bows of the boats were carved in the shape of a bear's muzzle). They were subdivided into sea ("baits") and river, with a carrying capacity of 4-4.5 tons. Due to the shallow draft - only 0.5 meters, the ratio of length to width - 5: 1, they could develop a relatively high speed - about 12 knots.
Pirate traditions continued in the deeds of Russian and Ukrainian Cossacks. The very word "Cossack" is Turkic and means "free, fugitive, exile", in a word, an adventurer. Cossacks appeared on the southern steppe outskirts of Russia and Ukraine, adjacent to the basins of the Volga, Dnieper, Don, Ural, Caspian, Azov and Black seas. Building their settlements on the large islands, the Cossacks continued the traditions of the ushkuiniks, and Cossack plows were elusive on the water.
The Volga and the Caspian Sea became the main theater of robbery, because the Russian state in the second half of the 16th century had just seized the Volga region, and the power in the region was very fragile. The Cossacks robbed both the royal ships, and the ambassadors, and the merchants, robbed the Russians, Nogai, Persians, Bukharians, Khivans. In May 1572, even "British subjects" fell under their hot hand. 150 Cossacks attacked an English ship returning from Iran, near the mouth of the Volga. The British killed and wounded one third of the attackers, but were taken on board, robbed and released on all four sides.
The robber Cossacks made their plows like this: they chose a tree standing near the water, most often a linden, felled it, hewed it, gouged out the trunk and nailed long boards on the sides, installing from 6 to 20 oars and one steering. With a width of 2-3 and a length of 10-20 meters, the draft did not exceed 1 meter, but at the same time 20 people were accommodated on the plow with full weapons, ammunition and food.
Much in the history of Cossack piracy is associated with the name of Ermak. The Solvychegodsk Chronicle reports: “The Cossacks defeated the royal ships on the Volga and robbed the ambassadors of the Kizilbash (Persian)”, after which the king sent the governor and “many Cossacks were hanged, and the rest like wolves scattered, 500 ran up the Volga, together with Ataman Ermak and smashed treasury to the sovereign, weapons and gunpowder."
Ermak Timofeevich
Folk songs about the exploits of Yermak Timofeevich in the pirate field are supplemented with colorful notes from foreigners: the Dutchman Witsen writes about how “Ermak went with a gang to rob and defeated the tsarist plows”, and the Englishman Perry, as the future conqueror of Siberia, “took possession of the plows on the Volga, plundered Kame and launched into the Caspian Sea. " Just like Morgan, Drake and Reilly, Ermak Timofeevich was treated kindly by the tsars, received the title of "Prince of Siberia" from Ivan the Terrible and symbolically ended his life by drowning in the waters of the Irtysh.
Ermak Timofeevich / V. Kopeiko
Even more contradictory is the figure of the strong-willed, intelligent, courageous and extremely treacherous Cossack Stepan Razin. After spending three years as a slave rower on Ottoman combat galleys, he fled, and in 1667, at the head of a band of Don Cossacks, went “for a walk on the blue sea” in order to “get the treasury as needed.”
Stenka Razin / V. I. Surikov, 1910
Not far from Tsaritsyn, he plundered a rich caravan of Russian merchants, and the guards and those who resisted were "chopped up and hanged." Having replenished the army at the expense of the freed exiles and captured archers, Razin "went for a walk along the Yaik and the Volga." He defeated several detachments of government troops and set off on the famous Caspian campaign, attacking Dagestan and Persian settlements from the sea.
Stenka Razin on the Volga / E. Lisner, 1930s
Having met with a large army of the Shah, the rather shabby Razin freeman began to ask for the khan as a slave. While the Persians were pondering, the broken-hearted Razin children went on a spree, got drunk, misbehaved and thus strongly "got" the residents of the city of Rasht, who took 400 wild little heads off their shoulders.
Ataman Stenka Razin and the Persian princess
Having sober up, the vengeful robbers burned several Persian cities, and in 1669 they defeated the Persian fleet, and of the Shah's 50 ships, only three survived, and the commander's son and daughter were captured. Further, as in the song: "and throws her (the daughter of the Persian naval commander) overboard into the oncoming wave."
Stepan Razin throws the Persian princess into the Volga / ru.wikipedia.org
The booty was so rich that even the sails on the Cossack plows were made of silk. Satisfied pirates "beat their foreheads" to the tsar and brought him banners, cannons, some of the prisoners and even a symbol of power - a bunchuk. And as a reward they received a "gracious letter" - an amnesty, which immediately went sideways to the sovereign. In 1670, the violent Stenka on 80 plows, with artillery and mounted rebels went along the Volga to Moscow. Then, however, his motley army was defeated near Simbirsk, and on the Don he was handed over to the authorities. The robber, as expected by law, was executed.
Execution of Stepan Razin / V. N. Pchelin, 1928
All the Russian tsars fought with the Volga vatazhniks, however, without much success. Pirates were hung by an iron hook hammered into their ribs, and dead bodies were floated down the river for edification. The great novelist Alexander Dumas, traveling across Russia, visited the Kazan Anatomical Theater, where he was shown the skeletons of the executed Volga robbers.
A raft with executed robbers on the Volga
The most famous among the romantics from the big river road was Galanya, whose real name is Galaktion Grigoriev, a native of Nizhny Novgorod from the village of Sablukov. Growing up, the guy formed a gang and went to "the landowners' estates to sing psalms", and on the high road "he collected duties from merchants." A cunning robber took the rich monastery, disguising his accomplices in a woman's dress. It was not without torture: the monks were “burned on a broom”, finding out where the treasury was hidden.
Under Peter I, Lieutenant Mavrinsky arrested the ataman, but Galan fled from hard labor, despite his torn nostrils and the stigma of a thief. He turned out to be a good strategist, having built a robber's nest on a 90-meter mountain between two deep ravines, built a rampart from the rear, and received an excellent view from the cape, and it was impossible to take it either from the rear, or from the river, or from the flanks. And daring robberies began near Balakhna, Gorodets and Khmelevskaya, until the ataman died of an elementary cold. They buried him in a royal way, filling the boat with gold to the top and burying it in a secret place.
Peter I tried to fight pirates, realizing that no army would be enough to cope with the tats, who at any moment pretend to be peaceful fishermen. In a decree of July 18, 1722, he ordered the "barge haulers to keep the property of the master," rightly suspecting the latter of aiding the robbers. Elizabeth went further - she sent troops. One of the reports reads: "A battle took place, 27 people were killed and drowned, while the robbers lost the esaul and five with him, they could not take it alive, because they have guns."
Paul I created military patrols on special light military ships - gardcoats, scattering them from Tsaritsyn to Astrakhan, then to Kazan and up the Volga. But the "king's guards" themselves quickly turned into robbers.
Under Alexander I on the banks of the Volga there were 200 thousand "vagrants" who could engage in robbery. The tsar distributed weapons to merchants, took into account all boats of the coastal population, which were marked with color and signs according to their "place of registration", and also established a monetary reward for the guardboard companies "for each pirate boat caught."
But this did not stop the Russian pirates, who continued to successfully plunder on the waters, then burying the treasures they had obtained in the ground “for a rainy day”. Already today, in the village of Syava, they found a cauldron with the gold of Ataman Senya, and in the Grandfather Swamp - the same cauldron of Ataman Vasily Roshchin. At the bottom of Lake Krugloye, they say, barrels of gold of the atamans Makhon and Kotyur still rest, and somewhere in the swamps - the precious booty of atamans Kurnosov, Ruzavin, Foka and Barma.
Treasure map of the Volga robbers
On the Lyalin Hills near Varnavin, treasures stolen by the robber Lyali (an associate of Stepan Razin) may have been buried. A barrel of gold was lowered into one of the nearest lakes.
Below Balakhna, where two rivers flow into the Volga, there was once a camp of robbers Ulyashka and Parashka. Legends say that along these rivers there are many treasures with looted goods buried.
Below Rabotok, on the Tatinsky Island, the treasure of Ataman Zarya may be buried.
Along the Kazanskoe highway, immediately behind the village of Afonino, there is a mountain called Romanikha. They say that in ancient times the robber Roman lived on this mountain. It is possible that there are hidden treasures there.
Near the village of Panzelk, there is a huge granite boulder in the forest. Legend says that Stepan Razin himself buried innumerable riches under it. The stone does not allow digging. Attempts to retrieve the treasure have so far failed.
The Solovetskoye Lake is located near the village of Verkhovskoye. Once upon a time robbers lived on its banks, robbing merchant carts returning from behind Vetluga. A large amount of plundered goods was buried along the shores of the lake.
Beyond the Sura River, in the Kurmysh region, there is the Relskoe Lake. The Razin people drowned the captured gold in it.
Not far from the village of Syava, behind the village of Spinning, there is a place called Senina's ramen. Ataman Senya once lived there. In Lake Round he hid the stolen treasures.
Near the village of Verkhnyaya Vereya on the Grandfather's bog, the treasures of Ataman Vasily Roshchin are hidden. It is said that one lucky man managed to dig a cauldron of gold coins.
Ataman Makhon buried his treasures in the Chasovenny ravine between the villages of Altunin and Dyakov of the Vach district.
Near the village of Davydkovo, Sosnovsky district, the chieftain Kotyur lowered six barrels of gold into the lake.
Not far from Vyksa, in the direction of the Oka, is the village of Tamboles. There, a gang of robber Vasily Roshchin lived on the shores of Lake Kolodivoe. In deep places of the lake Roshchin hid gold. The ataman's treasures are still there.
Near the village of Troitskoye on the Vetluga River there is a cliff called Babya Gora. In ancient times, the chieftain Stepanida was engaged in robbery there. It is possible that there are buried treasures in those places.
In the village of Fokino on the Volga, there has long been talk about the treasures of Ataman Foki. But no one knows the exact place where they are hidden.
Near the village of Khakhaly there are many lakes with the names Vataga, Padka, Krivoe Lake, Vatazhka, Omut Bolshoi, Omut Maliy. There was a cordon called Bratki. They say that treasures are hidden in all those places.
Between the rivers Doroguchaya and Persha there are two stones, one like a horse, the other, smaller, like a foal. Between those stones there were once Cossack winter roads. The treasures are buried there. There are many buried treasures along the shores of lakes Nestiary, Kultai, Peksheyar.
Near Vasilsursk in the forest of the Khmelevskaya Slobodka, the innumerable treasures of the robber Galani - Galaktion Grigoriev - are hidden. He died there and was buried in a boat covered to the brim with gold.
The treasures of the robber Barma can be buried in the ravines and coastal forests of the village of Barmino on the Volga.
The robber Ilya Ruzavin used the riverside valleys of the Piana and the upper reaches of the Alatyr for secret places.
Behind the Alatyr River, near the villages of Mikhailovka and Pechi, the untold treasures of Stepan Razin are buried. The search for them went on for many years. Once they almost ended in success, but the treasure was not given. The search for treasures was conducted by a local landowner Vasily Vasilyevich Yasherov. According to the "storeroom records" there are more than 40 treasures buried by the Razin robbers in the Arzamas and Lukoyanovsk districts.
Robbers lived on Lake Tekun. Tradition says that they buried the looted wealth there.
Not far from the city of Vetluga, the robber Savva hid treasures. There is no exact toponymic link, except that the village of Chenebechikha has Savvin bor and Savvina's mane. Perhaps a treasure is buried there.
Not far from the village of Yaz there is a Kurnosovo swamp. It is called after the ataman Kurnosov, who robbed in those places. Somewhere in the swamp, he hid the stolen treasures.
Not far from Navashin, by rail, there is the village of Natalyino, named after the robber who lived in those places. There are treasures buried on the Golden Hill.
On the Vaya river, in the Shakhunsky district, there is the village of Bolshaya Pristan, where the army of Ivan the Terrible was ferried during the Kazan campaign. During the crossing, a barrel of gold fell from one of the rafts. They could not get it.
In the Vyksa district, near the village of Chupaleyka, the people of Stenka Razin buried a treasure. The treasure is conspired to be non-removable until the end of the 20th century. But already XXI-th.
And there will be enough Razin treasures for everyone - you just have to roll back a huge granite boulder near the village of Penzelek, or dive for gold drowned in the Relskoye Lake, or dig until blue in the Russian land in search of 40 treasures buried by Stenka in Arzamassky and Lukoyanovsky districts and near the village of Chupaleyka …
Used materials from the article by Elena Sergeeva