Emelyan Pugachev: little-known facts of the most famous uprising

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

On November 15, 1774 (238 years ago), Emelyan Pugachev was brought to Moscow in an iron cage, whose name is associated with the peasant war in Russia and the last turning point in world history, which consolidated the power of the Romanov dynasty on the vast territory of the Russian Empire. Today, it is almost impossible to find out the truth about the Pugachev uprising, since in 1775 all mention of even the name of Pugachev was banned in Russia, but some facts have still survived to our time.

Information about Yemelyan Pugachev has been classified as "secret" for more than 140 years

The leader of one of the largest peasant wars, Emelyan Pugachev, was born around 1740, about 110 years after another famous rebel, Stepan Razin, and even in the same small village of Zimoveyskaya (today the Volgograd region, the village of Pugachevskaya). This enterprising, brave man has always tried to stand out from the Cossacks and this, thanks to leadership inclinations, he succeeded.

He participated in both the Seven Years War and the Russian-Turkish War, boasted to his comrades with a saber allegedly donated by Peter I, never led a sedentary lifestyle and, during his wanderings, pretended to be a merchant from Constantinople. This is, however, the official version. But it would be wrong to judge Yemelyan Pugachev and his uprising from widely available primary sources. Suffice it to note that all the materials on the Pugachev case for 144 years, until the end of the reign of the Romanov dynasty, were classified as “secret.” Even Pushkin, while working on his “History of Pugachev,” wrote that all materials on the case were sealed. The information published by the government lasted only 36 pages, and the great Russian poet understood that this work was far from complete and contained many contradictions. In his work, he even turns to historians of the future, expressing the hope that descendants will supplement and correct his work.

Bandit or general

Even today, Emelyan Pugachev's troops are often called "gangs". But gangs, as a rule, are associated with people of a certain occupation and their actions are antisocial. However, it is known for certain that when Pugachev took cities, he was joyfully greeted not only by ordinary people, but also by wealthy merchants, and even by the hierarchs of the church. Pushkin wrote that in Penza Pugachev was greeted with bread and salt, with icons and fell on his knees in front of him.

It is known for certain that the guns for Pugachev's troops were cast at the factories of the Urals. Tsarist historians argued that the workers joined Pugachev, staging a riot, but there is another opinion - the Ural factories belonged to Great Tartary, the command of the troops of which Pugachev took over.

Was Pugachev going to the Russian throne

According to Romanov historians, Emelyan Pugachev appropriated the name of Tsar Peter III, the wife of Empress Catherine II, who died in the summer of 1762, proclaimed himself Tsar and published Tsarist manifestos. However, Pushkin wrote that in Saransk, meeting Pugachev, the archimandrite went out to him with the Gospel and the cross, and while serving the moleben he called the empress not Catherine, but a certain Ustinia Petrovna. A number of historians believe that this fact is a direct refutation of the official version of Pugachev's claims to the Russian throne, but there are also opinions that are diametrically opposed.

Europe learned about the success of the caviar uprising

The Russian government carefully concealed information about the success of Yemelyan Pugachev's uprising from foreign diplomats. Nor was it reported that Pugachev's troops had already reached the Volga. But Count Solms, who at that time was the German ambassador, figured it out himself - there was no black game in the shops.

Patriot or foreign intelligence agent

It is possible that the surname "Pugachev" is not a surname at all, but a nickname invented by the authorities (from the word "scarecrow" or "scarecrow"). This is a traditional propaganda technique of that time - to evoke negative associations with the names of unwanted personalities. It was the same with Tsar Dmitry Ivanovich, who was awarded the nickname Otrepiev (from "rabble").

But there is another version, according to which the real Emelyan Pugachev, a violent man, intemperate in his tongue, who had a habit of wandering and was not distinguished by a great mind, died in a Kazan prison in 1773, and another escaped from prison under his name, who named himself Emperor Peter III. And his uprising was successful because it was followed by either a Turkish, or a Polish, or a French trail. However, each of these countries had its own interest in weakening Russia.

The defeated Pugachev was escorted to Moscow by Suvorov himself

Empress Catherine was well aware of the most serious geopolitical problems that the uprising could entail. Therefore, Suvorov himself was attracted to suppress him. Moreover, the great commander personally escorted Pugachev to Moscow, where executioner and cut off his head. This allows us to understand the importance of the person of Yemelyan Pugachev, and to realize the fact that it is impossible to regard the uprising he had raised as a “riot”. The Pugachev uprising is a civil war that determined the future of the Empire at that stage.

Treasures of Yemelyan Pugachev are still being sought today

According to rumors, the ataman's treasury contained countless treasures of the Tatar and Bashkir khans. But until now, neither a horse blanket, embroidered with thousands of rubies and sapphires, nor a huge diamond, which the chieftain allegedly had, have not been found. Nikita Khrushchev himself was interested in this treasure, which according to legend is kept in the Emelkina cave in the vicinity of the village of Nagaybakovo in the Urals, and even sent an expedition of treasure hunters there. But the expedition was not crowned with success, like other similar ones.

In 1775, the village of Zimoveyskaya became Potemkin, the Yaik River became the Ural River, the Yaitskoe Cossacks were called Ural, the Zaporozhye Sich was liquidated, and the Volga Cossack army was disbanded. All the events of this war, at the behest of Catherine II, were consigned to oblivion.