How Muscovites raised the "Plague Riot" in 1771 and for what they killed Archbishop Ambrose

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Not only wars and natural disasters - earthquakes, floods, hurricanes - have left a destructive mark in the history of mankind. Pandemics and plague epidemics were "marked" by huge devastations. The disease, called black death, black pestilence, pestilence, and evil fever, has repeatedly made destructive raids on our planet. And each time the number of her victims was estimated at millions of people.

How the plague spread to Russia in 1770

According to sources that have come down to us, the first pandemic of the "black death", which covered many countries, arose in the 6th century in Egypt ("Justinian's plague"). Outbreaks of this terrible general disease have recurred periodically on different continents. The plague also did not pass by the Russian lands, visiting them several times during the XIII-XIV centuries. Then Novgorod, Pskov, Kiev, Smolensk, Chernigov suffered. But the pestilence gathered the largest "harvest" in Moscow in 1770-1771, during the reign of Catherine II.

We can say that the plague entered the First See on soldiers' bayonets. During the war with Turkey, Russian units ended up on the territory of Moldova, where plague was raging at that time. In a camping life, there is no time for personal hygiene; bivouacs are usually crowded and unsanitary. So soldiers and officers became "transport" for fleas carrying the plague stick. Trophies and foreign goods also became carriers of infection. The plague quickly spread throughout Ukraine, captured the Bryansk region and the Tver region, and in December 1770 the first signs of it were found among the wounded in a Moscow hospital on the Vvedensky mountains.

What measures did the government take to localize the spread of the plague

Moscow Governor Pyotr Saltykov ordered to carry out all disinfection measures known at that time: to fumigate premises with juniper smoke, to burn the belongings of the dead, to process money and household items with vinegar. However, this did not bring effective results, and in March 1771, by order of the Empress, all powers to fight the plague were transferred to Lieutenant-General Pyotr Yeropkin.

But the most significant contribution to the elimination of the epidemic was made by the disgraced favorite of Catherine II, Count Grigory Orlov, who received unlimited powers from the Empress.

In addition to the implementation of traditional disinfecting measures, on his initiative, sanitary detachments began to operate in the capital, ensuring the evacuation of patients and the burial of the dead in specially designated places. Orlov's guards stopped looting and trade in the belongings of the dead, did not allow significant crowds of people. The streets were cleared of dead people, their property and houses were burned. Orphaned children were sent to a special shelter.

Special quarantine hospitals were established on the outskirts and outside the city. Doctors were given double salaries. Those who volunteered for help were given substantial cash and clothing allowances upon discharge. Citizens who hid the sick were threatened with eternal hard labor, but those who reported on such were financially encouraged. All factories were closed, seating yards and shopping arcades were regularly fumigated with juniper. Particular attention was paid to the state of the almshouses and their inhabitants. In total, 400 thousand rubles were allocated from the treasury for measures to localize the plague.

Why Muscovites rebelled and killed Archbishop Ambrose

Despite the titanic efforts of the authorities, the fatal disease was losing ground rather slowly. In despair, people were ready for any madness. The hysteria that gripped Moscow resulted in a series of tragic bloody events called the "Plague Riot".

In September, spontaneous prayers began to be held in front of the icon of the Bogolyubskaya Mother of God, which was installed on the wall at the Barbarian Gate of Kitai-Gorod. This happened after someone spread a rumor about a supposedly prophetic dream, in which the Mother of God complained that candles were not lit near her image and prayers were not served. For this, the Lord decided to punish the apostates by pouring a stone rain on them, but through the prayers of the Intercessor he mitigated the punishment by sending a plague.

The ruling bishop Ambrose (Zertis-Kamensky) categorically opposed this. He called the service of prayers in a place not intended for this by ordinary laymen, that is, people not dressed in the priestly dignity, a godly disgrace. In addition, Vladyka Ambrose feared that crowds of people coming to the icon could contribute to the further spread of the epidemic. Therefore, he decided to transfer the holy image to the nearby Church of Cyrus and John, and seal the boxes for donations and transfer them to the orphanage.

Upon learning of this, Yeropkin ordered to change the purpose of the money, directing it to the fight against the plague. A military guard that appeared at the boxes with money provoked the people to revolt. In the crowd exclamations sounded that the Mother of God was being robbed. Armed with stonework and stones, the people attacked the military. They shouted that Ambrose was to blame for everything. Wanting to vent anger and despair on him, the people rushed to the archbishop's dwelling in the Chudov Monastery. The warned Ambrose fled to the Donskoy Monastery, but he failed to escape: the enraged rebels dragged him out of the church altar, where the archbishop tried to hide, and beaten to death with stakes.

How did you manage to suppress the uprising, and who was punished for the "disgusting disgrace"

The rebels did not confine themselves to the pogrom of the monastery and the murder of the archbishop. The riot rolled through Moscow, splashed into the streets. Against several thousand distraught townspeople, the authorities could put up only 130 guardsmen. Therefore, after it was not possible to agree peacefully with the rioters, guns were used. Several hundred people were killed, 250 people were arrested, the rest fled. The investigation into the case of the mutiny and the assassination of Archbishop Ambrose could not identify the specific instigators of the riots. However, in order to exacerbate the rebels, the court “appointed” the perpetrators. Four were sentenced to be hanged, sixty of the defendants were subjected to cutting their nostrils, public whipping, and link to hard labor. About one and a half hundred people were released.

The trial of the rebels became a turning point in the judicial practice of the Russian state. Prior to this event, there was an unspoken moratorium on the death penalty introduced during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna. But the "Plague Riot" was such a flagrant crime directed against the priesthood, and therefore against God, that Catherine II decided to return the capital punishment.

By the way, many people still cannot say unequivocally who was the red marshal Kotovsky - a revolutionary or a banal criminal?