The history of our country keeps the memory of many bloody uprisings. But the Moscow plague riot of 1771 differed from others in at least two circumstances. Firstly, it lasted only three days, and secondly, one of the largest popular indignations of the 18th century was the reaction of an angry crowd to the ill-conceived actions of the authorities - that is, in this case, it was not the oppressed masses who protested, but people of different classes who fell into a desperate as it seemed to them, the situation.
The rulers left, but the rats remained
By the middle of the 18th century, the situation in Moscow favored the development of large-scale epidemics. Sewage and garbage were not taken out of the city and were dumped right in the yards or thrown into streams and rivers. The food waste from the meat and fish rows gave birth to a huge number of rats. In addition, there were no suburban cemeteries in Moscow - the dead were buried near parish churches, and any contagious disease could give rise to an epidemic.
Medicine in the country was at a very low level, prayers, miraculous icons and conspiracies of healers were considered the main remedy for diseases. At the beginning of the 17th century, during the reign of Boris Godunov, an epidemic of plague swept 35 Russian cities, and up to 480 thousand people died in Moscow.
Charles Michel Geoffroy. "Assassination of Archbishop Ambrose" 1845
Another outbreak of the same disease struck the capital in 1654-1656. People died in thousands, some places of mass graves were surrounded by high, tightly boarded up fences - but these measures did not stop the rats. The patriarch and the royal family left the city, and the boyars and high officials followed their example. Moscow was left virtually without representatives of the authorities, looting in the courtyards, whose inhabitants died, led to the spread of the epidemic. The exact death toll is unknown, according to historians, the plague took away about 80% of the entire urban population.
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Since the time of Peter I, a quarantine service has been established in Russia, everyone entering the state from territories where they could have contracted the plague were forced to spend up to one and a half months at a quarantine outpost. But this measure did not always help.
Echo of the Russo-Turkish War
In 1768-1774, the war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire took place, which ended with the fact that our state received access to the Black Sea. But a plague that had arisen in Turkey penetrated the war zone - including the hospitals where the wounded were. Some of them were taken to Moscow to a military hospital located in Lefortovo and founded in 1706 by order of Peter I.
In November 1770, an officer died there from the plague, and just a few days later - the doctor who treated him. Then several dozen more died who communicated with the doctor.
An epidemic began in the city - the number of deaths reached up to a thousand people a day. The burial offices did not have time to make coffins.
Catherine II forbade the burial of the dead within the city, and the Moscow authorities decided to establish a separate cemetery for this purpose near the village of Novoye Vagankovo. The dead were buried in mass graves. The funeral was accompanied by a continuous bell ringing, which, according to legends, was supposed to scare off the disease.
The responsibility for removing dead bodies from homes and streets was assigned to the police. But almost all of her employees did not want to do this for fear of infection, and the decaying corpses remained at the place of death for many days. They tried to involve prisoners in cleaning the city - they were released from prisons so that they could collect bodies. Plague convoys left Moscow, after which the corpses were burned, and the prisoners set off on the run whenever possible.
The peasants, who learned about the epidemic, refused to bring food to Moscow. Famine began in the city. The situation was aggravated by the fact that many representatives of the authorities, headed by the mayor, Count Pyotr Saltykov, hastily dispersed to their estates. Everyone who had the opportunity to leave Moscow followed their example. The city was essentially left to die out.
According to official data, from April to December 1771, 56,672 people died from the plague in Moscow, but in reality this number could be much higher - Catherine II in a private letter calls the figure of 100,000.
The people tried to save themselves by prayers and appeals to miraculous shrines. The most revered of them was the Bogolyubskaya icon of the Mother of God, which was located in the church at the Barbarian gate of Kitai-gorod. There was a rumor in Moscow that if you kiss her, the disease will pass, and all the remaining citizens tried to kiss the relic with their lips.
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Archbishop's fatal mistake
Realizing that any gathering of people would lead to new outbreaks of an epidemic, Archbishop Ambrose of Moscow ordered to hide the Bogolyubskaya icon of the Mother of God and forbade to hold prayers in churches. It was this measure that gave rise to a bloody riot in Moscow.
Mass riots began on September 15, 1771. Under the alarm bell, the crowd, armed with stakes and axes, came to the walls of the Kremlin - to demand that Ambrose give the life-giving relic. The archbishop managed to take refuge in the Donskoy monastery. The rebels began to smash and plunder everything, including the plague barracks, killing doctors who were considered to be the culprits of the disease.
The next day, September 16, the crowd broke into the Donskoy Monastery. Archbishop Ambrose was taken out to the people for public interrogation. The priest behaved with dignity, he almost managed to calm the rioters. But, according to eyewitnesses, the courtyard Vasily Andreev came running from the tavern and hit the archbishop with a stake. After that, the brutal crowd tore to pieces Ambrose.
Bogolyubskaya icon of the Mother of God
The head of the salt office, at the same time supervising the work of medical institutions, the senior in rank of those who did not leave Moscow, Lieutenant General Pyotr Yeropkin, with the remnants of the troops, urgently set about restoring order. He managed to collect about 10 thousand soldiers and officers - and with buckshot, as well as bayonet attacks, disperse the rebels.
In the unpublished book "Eyewitness Notes on the Plague Riot in Moscow in 1771" (the manuscript is kept at the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House)), its author, architect Fyodor Karzhavin, who was an eyewitness to the events, gives evidence of the actions of the rebels. They included people of different classes: factory workers, clerks, merchants, soldiers, and even officers. They tried to free the convicts, threw themselves at guns and cannons with clubs.
The very next day the riot was suppressed. Eropkin sent the empress a victory report, at the same time asking to dismiss him from service. Catherine II sent him an unsigned order of dismissal - for Peter Dmitrievich to decide for himself. The Empress also awarded him the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called and handed over 20 thousand rubles "for his diligence and courageous suppression of the rebellion." In addition, the empress wanted to give the general four thousand souls of peasants, but Yeropkin refused such a generous gift.
Orlov saved Moscow from trouble
On September 26, Count Grigory Orlov arrived in Moscow with a detachment of four Life Guards regiments - the Empress appointed him the Moscow commander-in-chief and gave him special powers.
The riot was suppressed, but the epidemic continued. It was possible to cope with it only thanks to the extraordinary measures taken by Orlov. The count banned the constant alarm bell, which caused fear among the population. Several new infectious diseases hospitals were urgently created. Gathered the best doctors in the country. Orlov organized normal meals for the patients and obligatory disinfection of their homes. Plague cemeteries were set up far from the city. A quarantine was established at the entrance and exit to the city. The looters were executed at the crime scene. The streets were cleared not only of corpses, but also of garbage and sewage, and stray animals were destroyed. Special ditches were dug in the shopping arcades between the places for sellers and buyers, while money was not transferred directly, but through bowls of vinegar.
After a month and a half, the plague epidemic came to naught. The Empress highly appreciated the actions of Count Orlov. In Tsarskoe Selo, a triumphal arch (Orlovskie gates) was erected in his honor with the inscription "Orlov saved Moscow from trouble" (a line from a poem by Vasily Maikov).
Also, in honor of Grigory Grigorievich, a medal "For the deliverance of Moscow from an ulcer" was knocked out.
More than 300 participants in the riot were put on trial, 173 of them were sentenced to whipping and hard labor. Four who were directly involved in the assassination of Archbishop Ambrose (merchant I. Dmitriev, courtyards V. Andreev, F. Deyanov and A. Leontiev) were hanged.
Several important government decisions were the consequences of the plague riot. On November 17, 1771, by order of the Senate, burials at churches were prohibited. From now on, for these purposes it was necessary to create cemeteries outside the city limits. A few years later, on June 28, 1779, the Empress, remembering that the epidemic was spread by poor water supply in the city, issued a decree on the construction of a Moscow water pipeline.
Source: "Secrets of the XX century"