Don Ataman, leader of the largest Cossack-peasant uprising. Stepan Timofeevich Razin was born in 1630 in the village of Zimoveyskaya-on-Don. Stepan's father is the noble Cossack Timofey Razin, and his godfather was the military ataman Kornila Yakovlev. Stepan had two brothers: the elder, Ivan, and the younger, Frol. Already in his youth, Stepan occupied a prominent place among the Don elders. In 1652 and 1661 he made two pilgrimages to the Solovetsky Monastery. As part of the winter villages - the Don embassies - he visited Moscow in 1652, 1658 and 1661. Knowing the Tatar and Kalmyk languages, he repeatedly successfully participated in negotiations with Kalmyk leaders. In 1663, leading a Cossack detachment, he, together with the Cossacks and Kalmyks, made a campaign near Perekop against the Crimean Tatars.
The idea of an uprising against the feudal-serf system in Russia arose from Razin in connection with the autocracy’s attack on the liberties of the Don Cossacks and, in particular, in connection with the brutal reprisal in 1665 of Prince Yuri Dolgorukov of Stepan’s older brother Ivan for attempting to leave without permission with a detachment of Cossacks theater of military operations against the Poles. Thanks to his luck and personal qualities, Stepan Razin became widely known in the Don. A verbal portrait of Razin was compiled by the Dutch sailing master Jan Streis, who saw him more than once: “He was a tall and sedate man of strong build with an arrogant, straight face. He behaved modestly, with great severity.”
The return of the Cossacks to the Don in August 1669 with rich booty strengthened Razin’s fame as a successful chieftain; not only Cossacks, but also crowds of fugitives from Russia began to flock to him from different directions.
Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan, Saratov, Samara were taken, and the entire Lower Volga region was in his hands. Beginning as a Cossack uprising, the movement led by Razin quickly grew into a huge peasant uprising that covered a significant part of the country. A riot flared up throughout the entire space between the Oka and Volga. The rebels put the landowners to death, overthrew the governors, and created their own authorities in the form of Cossack self-government.
The tsarist government took emergency measures to suppress the uprising. The main forces of the rebels were unable to take Simbirsk; government troops managed to defeat Razin in October 1670. The ataman himself, wounded in battle, barely had time to be rescued and taken to the Kagalnitsky town.
Having recovered from the wounds received near Simbirsk, Stepan Razin had no intention of laying down his arms. He hoped to gather a new army and continue the fight.
But in 1671, different sentiments already prevailed on the Don, and the authority and influence of Razin himself fell sharply. The confrontation between Razin and the lower-ranking Cossacks intensified. As the success of the government troops developed, the wealthy Don Cossacks were inclined to think about the need to capture Razin and transfer him to the royal court.
After an unsuccessful attempt by the leader of the rebels to take Cherkassk, military ataman Yakovlev struck back. In April 1671, the lower-ranking Cossacks captured and burned the town of Kagalnitsky, and the captured Razin was handed over to the Moscow authorities. After torture, Stepan Razin was publicly executed (quartered) on June 16 (June 6, Old Style) 1671 in Moscow near Lobnoye Mesto. Three days later, Razin’s remains “for everyone to see” were “lifted up into tall trees and placed across the Moscow River on (Bolotnaya) Square until they disappeared.” Later, the remains of Stepan Razin were buried at the Tatar cemetery in Zamoskvorechye (now the territory of the M. Gorky Park of Culture and Leisure). The burial in a Muslim cemetery is explained by the fact that the leader of the Peasant War was excommunicated from the church during his lifetime.
Razin's personality left a deep mark in people's memory. A whole cycle of songs is dedicated to him; a number of tracts along the Volga are named after him.
The material was prepared based on open sources
Who is Stepan Razin? A brief biography of this historical figure is discussed in the school curriculum. Let's analyze some interesting facts from his life.
Important
Why is the biography of Stepan Razin interesting? A brief summary of the main stages of this man’s life indicates a connection with the life of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.
At that time, feudal oppression was intensifying. Despite the king's quiet disposition and his ability to listen to his subordinates, uprisings and riots periodically arose in the country.
Cathedral Code
After its approval, serfdom became the basis of Russian economics, and any revolts were brutally suppressed by the authorities. The search period for fugitive peasants was increased from 5 to 15 years, serfdom became a hereditary condition.
Stepan Razin, whose biography will be discussed below, led a rebellion that was called the peasant war.
Portrait of Stepan Razin
Russian historian V.I. Buganov, who has been collecting information about Stepan Razin for a long time, relied on some surviving documents that were published by the Romanovs, as well as on information preserved far from the Volga. Who is he - Stepan Razin? A short biography for schoolchildren, offered in a history textbook, is limited to only a minimum amount of information. It is difficult for the guys to draw up a true portrait of the leader of the rebellious movement based on these facts.
Family information
In 1630, Stepan Timofeevich Razin was born. His short biography contains information that his father was the noble and wealthy Cossack Timofey Razin. The village of Zimoveyskaya, the possible birthplace of Stepan, was first mentioned by the historian A.I. at the end of the 18th century. Rigelman. Domestic historian Popov suggested that Cherkassk is the birthplace of Stepan Razin, because this city was repeatedly mentioned in folk legends of the 17th century.
Characteristic
The biography of Stepan Razin contains information that the ataman of the Cossack army, Kornila Yakovlev, became his godfather. It was precisely thanks to his Cossack origin that from childhood Stepan occupied a special place among the Don elders and had certain privileges.
In 1661, he took an active part in negotiations with the Kalmyks as a translator, having an excellent command of the Tatar and Kalmyk languages.
The biography of Stepan Razin contains the fact that by 1662 he became the commander of the Cossack army, which went on a campaign against the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate. At that point in time, Stepan Razin had already managed to make two pilgrimages to the Solovetsky Monastery, and also become the Don Ambassador in Moscow three times. In 1663, he took part in a military campaign against the Crimean Tatars near Perekop.
The biography of Stepan Razin contains many interesting points. For example, historians note his genuine authority among the Don Cossacks and highlight his enormous energy and rebellious disposition. Many historical descriptions speak of Razin’s arrogant facial expression, his sedateness and stateliness. The Cossacks called him “father” and were ready to kneel before him during a conversation, thus demonstrating respect and honor.
The biography of Stepan Razin does not contain reliable information about whether he had a family. There is information that the ataman’s children lived in the town of Kagalnitsky.
Predatory campaigns
The younger brother Frol and the older brother Ivan also became Cossack leaders. It was after the execution of the elder Ivan, carried out on the orders of the governor Yuri Dolgorukov, that Stepan began to hatch a plan for cruel revenge on the tsar’s administration. Razin makes a decision about a free and prosperous life for his Cossacks, building a military-democratic system.
As a manifestation of disobedience to the tsarist government, Razin, together with the Cossack army, went on a predatory campaign to Persia and the lower Volga (1667-1669). His team robbed a trade caravan, blocking the movement of traders towards the Volga. As a result of the Cossack raid, they managed to free some of the exiles, avoiding a clash with a detachment of military men.
Razin at this time settled not far from the Don, in the town of Kagalnitsky. Whites and Cossacks began to come to him from all over the world, forming a powerful rebel army. Attempts by the tsarist government to disperse the unruly Cossacks were unsuccessful, and the personality of Stepan Razin himself became the stuff of legends.
The Razinites, who acted under the banner of war, naively thought about protecting Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich from the Moscow boyars. For example, in one of the letters, the ataman wrote that his army was coming from the Don to help the sovereign in order to protect him from traitors.
Expressing hatred of the authorities, the Razins were ready to give their lives for the Russian Tsar.
Conclusion
In 1670, an open uprising of the Cossack army began. Together with his associates, Razin sent “charming” letters, calling to join the ranks of his freedom-loving army.
The ataman never spoke about the overthrow of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, but he declared real war on the clerks, governors, and representatives of the Russian church. The Razins gradually introduced Cossack troops into the cities, destroyed government officials, and established their own order there. Merchants trying to cross the Volga were detained and robbed.
The Volga region was engulfed in mass uprisings. The leaders were not only the Razin Cossacks, but also fugitive peasants, Chuvash, Mari, and Mordovians. Among the cities captured by the rebels were Samara, Saratov, Tsaritsyn, and Astrakhan.
In the fall of 1670, Razin encountered serious resistance during a campaign against Simbirsk. The chieftain was wounded and was forced to retreat to the Don along with his army.
At the beginning of 1671, serious contradictions began to arise within the army. As a result, the ataman's authority decreased, and a new leader appeared in his place - Yakovlev.
In the spring of the same year, together with his brother Frol, Stepan was captured and handed over to government authorities. Despite his hopeless situation, Razin maintained his dignity. His execution was scheduled for June 2.
Since the tsar was afraid of serious unrest on the part of the Cossack army, the entire Bolotnaya Square, where the public execution took place, was cordoned off by several rows of people who were infinitely loyal to the tsar.
Detachments of government troops were also stationed at all intersections. Razin calmly listened to the entire verdict, then turned towards the church, bowed, and asked for forgiveness from the people who had gathered in the square.
The executioner first cut off his arm at the elbow, and then his leg at the knee, then Razin lost his head. Frol's execution, scheduled for the same time as Stepan's, was postponed. He received his life in exchange for telling the authorities about the places where Stepan Razin hid his treasures.
The authorities failed to find the treasure, so Flor was executed in 1676. In many Russian songs, Razin is presented as an ideal Cossack leader. Legends about Razin's treasures are passed down from generation to generation. For example, there is information that the ataman hid his treasures in a cave near the village of Dobrinka.
The execution of the Cossack ataman did not bring peace and tranquility to the royal family. In the Volga region and on the Volga, peasant and Cossack wars continued after Razin’s death. The rebels managed to hold Astrakhan until the fall of 1671. The Romanovs made great efforts to find and destroy the documents of the rebels.
We all know about this daring rebel, the leader of the rebellious Cossacks, not only from the school history course, but also from the famous song “Because of the Island to the Rod,” the text of which was written by the Samara folklorist and poet Dmitry Sadovnikov in 1872. And this is not the only link that connects our city with the legendary folk hero. It turns out that in 1670-1671, power in Samara for 10 months belonged not to the royal governors, but to elected atamans, associates of Stepan Timofeevich Razin (Fig. 1).
Revenge for brother
He was born around 1630 in the village of Zimoveyskaya on the Don. There is one historical coincidence here: it was here exactly one hundred years later that another legendary chieftain, Emelyan Pugachev, was born. Under the name Pugachevskaya, this village exists to this day, and it belongs to the Volgograd region. As for Stepan Razin, he subsequently attracted enormous attention from both his contemporaries and descendants, becoming a hero of folklore, a protagonist in artistic works and scientific works not only in Russia, but also abroad.
And the first mentions of this personality in historical documents date back to 1661, when the valor of the three Razin brothers - Ivan, Stepan and Frol - was repeatedly noted in the chronicles of the Cossack campaigns against the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire. In 1662, Stepan, the middle of them, was elected supreme ataman. His brothers at this time also became prominent people, although they occupied places below Stepan in the Cossack hierarchy.
During the battle with the Turks in 1662 at Molochnye Vody on the Crimean Isthmus, the Cossacks won a victory and returned to the Don with rich trophies. However, in 1665, a serious conflict occurred when the Tsar's governor, Prince Yuri Dolgorukov, hanged his elder brother Ivan for his unauthorized departure to the Don during the war with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This event, combined with intensifying attempts to deprive the Cossacks of their won liberties, could not but have a huge impact on the freedom-loving Stepan Razin.
It was this event that became a turning point in the entire future life of the ataman. In the closest circle, he declared that he would take revenge personally on Dolgorukov and the entire Moscow government as a whole, and was also going to achieve a free and prosperous life for all the Cossacks who were under his command (Fig. 2, 3).
From that time on, Razin's hostility towards the Moscow government turned into an open war against the tsarist regime. Thus, since 1667, the entire Volga route to Persia was blocked due to the actions of the rebellious Cossacks, which at that time most worried not the Russian authorities, but the European trade missions in Moscow, which were losing huge profits (Fig. 4).
In the same year, a Cossack army of many thousands, led by Razin, went on a campaign, first to the Lower Volga and Yaik, and then to the Persian cities on the Caspian coast. In Russian history, this voyage was called the “campaign for zipuns.” It was at this time, most likely, that the infamous episode with the Persian princess, which is described in the song “Because of the Island to the Core,” occurred.
During a campaign along the Persian coast of the Caspian Sea, the Cossacks plundered the town of Astrabad, where they massacred all the men, and took more than 800 young girls and women with them. From among them, Razin and his entourage selected about fifty of the most beautiful concubines, and the remaining unfortunates were all destroyed after a general three-week orgy. However, Razin did not spare even the girls he liked, which was reflected in the famous song (Fig. 5).
In 1668-1669, Razin’s Cossacks were mainly engaged only in robbing royal and foreign ships on the Lower Volga, but from the spring of 1670 their actions had already acquired the character of an open uprising. The chieftain sent out propaganda leaflets throughout the cities, which in those days were called “charming letters” (from the word “to seduce”). In them, the rebels on behalf of Razin called on ordinary townspeople not to pay any more extortionate taxes to the tsar’s treasury, to kill the city governors who were disgusted with them, and then go over to the service of the ataman. At the same time, Razin did not intend (at least in words) to overthrow Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, but declared himself an enemy of all official authorities - governors, clerks, representatives of the church, accusing them of “treason” to the Tsar (Fig. 6).
In all cities and fortresses occupied by the Razinites, representatives of the central government were killed or expelled, and in their place Cossack urban planning was introduced. Of course, the leaders here were not Razin himself and his Cossacks, but local rebels and informal leaders, which happened, in particular, in the Samara region.
Rebellious city of Samara
According to archival documents, Stepan Razin’s troops first appeared in the vicinity of Samara on May 31, 1670. At that time, on the site of our city there was still a fortress surrounded by a high palisade with watchtowers at the corners. Inside it was held by a small garrison led by governor Ivan Alfimov, who was subordinate to about 100 cavalry and 200 foot archers, as well as several gunners. Under the walls of the fortress there were townspeople and peasants' courtyards, trading shops and a bazaar (Fig. 7).
Having captured the settlement, the rebels began storming the fortress. Two watchtowers were burned, but the rebels were unable to break through, after which they were forced to retreat down the Volga. The reports to Moscow say this: “And how de thief Stenka came to Samara, and the village people did not let him into the city, and he de thief Stenka, having robbed wine from a tavern in the settlement, ran downstairs, and near Samara de I didn’t hesitate for an hour.”
Razin's new detachments began to approach Samara on August 26. By this time, the above-mentioned “charming letters” had done their job, and the mood in the city had sharply turned towards the rebels. Cossack troops arrived at the walls of Samara within three days, and therefore on August 28, when the Razins began a decisive assault, the inhabitants of the fortress rebelled, opened the gates and greeted the rebels as dear guests - with bread and salt and the ringing of bells (Fig. 8).
The Samara governor Alfimov, several nobles and clerks were captured and “put in the water,” that is, drowned. Both Streltsy centurions, Mikhail Khomutov and Alexey Torshilov, also went over to the side of the rebels along with their troops. Within a day, the fortress began to be controlled by the local townsman Ignat Govorukhin, and the military forces by the elected ataman Ivan Konstantinov, who declared freedom for everyone and freed the population from taxes.
After the successful capture of Samara, the Razins went to Simbirsk, intending to follow it by storming Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod. 50 foot and 40 horse archers from Samara voluntarily went on this voyage. However, thanks to spies, the authorities immediately became aware of the rebels’ march up the Volga. Regimental governor Yuri Baryatinsky, who arrived to defend Simbirsk, reported in his report to the tsar that he managed to get ahead of Razin, who “did not have time to come from Samara. And the leading people who walked in front of him above Samara turned back to Samara, hearing about me... and your great sovereign’s military men coming” (Fig. 9).
As you know, this campaign became fatal for Razin. The Cossacks suffered a complete defeat in the battle with the tsarist troops near Simbirsk on October 4, and the ataman himself was wounded, and with a few associates fled down the Volga to the Don, where he hoped to restore his army. In his report on this matter, the Simbirsk governor reported that the “thief Stenka” with a detachment of Cossacks sailed past Samara on October 22, then stopping below the city to rest and replenish supplies.
In Samara itself, supporters of free life continued to rule. To strengthen the defense of the fortress, a detachment of Yaik Cossacks under the command of Ataman Maxim Besheny soon came here. This is how, in the summer of 1670, many Volga cities, due to the revelry of the freemen of Stepan Razin, actually fell out of the control of Moscow, refused to pay taxes to the central treasury, and no longer sent their goods to the capital. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was extremely dissatisfied with this, and by his decree ordered to gather an army in order to “catch the thief Stenka, and hang the thieving slaves in Samara, Saratov, Tsaritsyn and Astrakhan.”
To establish the number of rebels in the coastal cities and find out what resources they had, during the coming winter, scouts were sent here for reconnaissance. In particular, a message came from our city from spies that “in Samara they recognized us, kept us chained and wanted to execute us, but people loyal to the sovereign helped us escape. And in total in the fortress there are 90 Yaik, 10 Don and about 300 newly arrived (newly arrived - V.E.) Cossacks... And in total in Samara there are 700 people, five cannons, but no gunpowder, and few grain reserves.”
Treasures of the Cossack freemen
In the middle of winter, the head of the rebellious Samara, Ignat Govorukhin, was greatly concerned that for several months there had been no news about the fate of Stepan Razin, whom the city recognized in August as the supreme ataman of the entire Volga freemen. And after some time, the Simbirsk administrative hut received information from the tsar’s spies located in the fortress that ataman Maxim Besheny was sent from Samara down the Volga with a detachment of Cossacks to search for Stepan Razin. Next, other groups of Samarans were sent to Saratov, Tsaritsyn and Penza to contact the leader, but they all returned with nothing. Only with the onset of spring 1671 did information begin to arrive in the city that Razin had been captured by government troops.
It is now known that the capture of the legendary chieftain occurred as a result of betrayal on the part of his inner circle, which considered him guilty of exorbitant aspirations and overestimation of his strength. As a result, on April 14, 1671, in the Don city of Kagalnik, Stepan Razin, together with his brother Frol, was captured by his former comrade-in-arms, Ataman Konstantin Yakovlev, and handed over to the tsarist authorities (Fig. 10). 
After interrogations and torture, the leader of the rebels was quartered on June 6 in Moscow at Lobnoye Mesto (Fig. 11). 
The government then began brutal reprisals locally and against the rest of the rebels. Over the course of a year, about 100 thousand of them were executed, many were impaled. Throughout the summer of 1671, rafts with gallows floated along the Volga as a warning to the rebels (Fig. 12).
Despite this, Razin’s closest associates refused to believe in the death of their ataman, and continued to fight with the supreme power. After the captivity of the leader of the freemen, a large detachment arrived from Astrakhan in Samara under the command of Ataman Fyodor Sheludyak, who united with the Cossacks of Ivan Konstantinov stationed here and moved to capture Simbirsk. About a hundred Samara residents also went with them. But in this battle near Simbirsk, the rebels were also defeated, and both chieftains with the remnants of their troops fled back to Samara. But they did not know that on June 27, government troops entered the city without a fight, and here they captured Govorukhin and several other people close to him. Ivan Konstantinov, who returned to the city, was ambushed, but Fyodor Sheludyak with several Cossacks on the plow managed to escape the pursuit. Only in 1672 was he captured in Astrakhan and subsequently executed. Subsequently, one of the peaks in the Zhiguli Mountains was named after him (Fig. 13).
As for the fortress of Samara, its population, after the defeat of the uprising, was forced to confess to the sovereign and for several years pay a huge fee to the royal treasury. The Samara voivode at the same time appointed steward Vavil Everlakov, about whom the decree on his appointment said this: “Printing duties were not taken from him, because he was sent to the voivodeship against his will.” That same summer, Konstantinov, Govorukhin and some other leaders of the rebellious Samara were executed, and more than a hundred more townspeople were exiled to Kholmogory for eternal settlement.
After Stenka Razin’s adventures along the Volga, people created numerous legends about him. The most common of them talk about treasures that either the ataman himself or his Cossacks allegedly buried somewhere in the Zhiguli Mountains. To this day, on Samara Luka there are at least five caves bearing the name of Stepan Razin: near the villages of Malaya Ryazan and Shelekhmet, at the foot of the Molodetsky and Usinsky mounds, as well as on Mount Pechora, which stands on the banks of the Usa River. Over hundreds of years, dozens of treasure hunters, including the owners of the Samara Luka, the Orlov-Davydovs, tried to find Razin’s treasures in these places, but luck has not smiled on anyone to this day.
It should also be noted that for several years the popular uprising of Stepan Razin attracted the attention of all of Europe, since the fate of the most important trade routes along the Volga, connecting Western states with Persia, depended on its outcome.
Articles and even books about the Cossack rebellion and its leader even before the end of the rebellion appeared in England, the Netherlands, Germany and other countries, which were often fantastic in their details, especially regarding “Russian savagery.” Then many foreigners witnessed the arrival of the captive Razin in Moscow and his execution, since the government of Alexei Mikhailovich was very interested in this and in every possible way sought to assure Europe of the final victory over the rebels.
Interestingly, Stepan Razin apparently became the first Russian person about whom a dissertation for the title of Master of History was defended in the West. This event took place on June 29, 1674 at the University of Wittenberg (Germany). The author of a scientific work about the Cossack ataman was Johann, whose work was repeatedly republished in different countries in the 17th-18th centuries (Fig. 14).
Valery EROFEEV.
Bibliography
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Peasant war led by Stepan Razin. In 2 volumes. - M., 1957.
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Works of art
Voloshin M. Stenkin court. Poem. 1917.
Gilyarovsky V.A. Stenka Razin. Poem.
Yevtushenko E. Execution of Stenka Razin. Chapter from the poem “Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station”. 1964.
Zlobin S. Stepan Razin. Novel. 1951.
Kamensky V. Stepan Razin. Poem.
Loginov S. Well. Novel. 1997.
Mordovtsev D.L. For whose sins? Historical novel. 1891.
Nazhivin I. Stepan Razin (Cossacks). Historical novel. 1928.
Songs about Stenka Razin, stylized as folk songs / A.S. Pushkin.
Sadovnikov D. From behind the island to the core. Poem, lyrics.
Tolstoy A. Court. Poem.
Usov V. Fiery pre-winter: The Tale of Stepan Razin. Tale. 1987.
Khlebnikov V. Razin. Poem. 1920.
Tsvetaeva M.I. Stenka Razin. Poem 1917.
Chapygin A. Razin Stepan. Historical novel. 1924-1927.
Shukshin V. I came to give you freedom. Novel. 1971. Screenplay of the same name.
Stenka Razin is the hero of the song, a violent robber who, in a fit of jealousy, drowned the Persian princess. That's all most people know about him. And all this is not true, a myth.
The real Stepan Timofeevich Razin, an outstanding commander, political figure, the “dear father” of all the humiliated and insulted, was executed either on Red Square or on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow on June 16, 1671. He was quartered, his body was cut into pieces and displayed on high poles near the Moscow River. It hung there for at least five years.
"A sedate man with an arrogant face"
Either from hunger, or from oppression and lack of rights, Timofey Razia fled from near Voronezh to the free Don. Being a strong, energetic, courageous man, he soon became one of the “household”, that is, rich Cossacks. He married a Turkish woman he himself captured, who gave birth to three sons: Ivan, Stepan and Frol.
The appearance of the middle of the brothers was described by the Dutchman Jan Streis: “He was a tall and sedate man, strongly built, with an arrogant, straight face. He behaved modestly, with great severity.” Many features of his appearance and character are contradictory: for example, there is evidence from the Swedish ambassador that Stepan Razin knew eight languages. On the other hand, according to legend, when he and Frol were tortured, Stepan joked: “I heard that only learned people are made priests, you and I are both unlearned, but we still waited for such an honor.”
Shuttle diplomat
By the age of 28, Stepan Razin became one of the most prominent Cossacks on the Don. Not only because he was the son of a homely Cossack and the godson of the military ataman himself, Kornila Yakovlev: before the qualities of a commander, diplomatic qualities manifest themselves in Stepan.
By 1658, he went to Moscow as part of the Don embassy. He fulfills the assigned task in an exemplary manner; in the Ambassadorial Order he is even noted as an intelligent and energetic person. Soon he reconciles the Kalmyks and Nagai Tatars in Astrakhan.
Later, during his campaigns, Stepan Timofeevich will repeatedly resort to cunning and diplomatic tricks. For example, at the end of a long and ruinous campaign for the country “for zipuns,” Razin will not only not be arrested as a criminal, but will be released with an army and part of the weapons to the Don: this is the result of negotiations between the Cossack ataman and the tsarist governor Lvov. Moreover, Lvov “accepted Stenka as his named son and, according to Russian custom, presented him with an image of the Virgin Mary in a beautiful gold setting.”
Fighter against bureaucracy and tyranny
A brilliant career awaited Stepan Razin if an event had not happened that radically changed his attitude towards life. During the war with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in 1665, Stepan’s elder brother Ivan Razin decided to take his detachment home from the front, to the Don. After all, a Cossack is a free man, he can leave whenever he wants. The sovereign's commanders had a different opinion: they caught up with Ivan's detachment, arrested the freedom-loving Cossack and executed him as a deserter. The extrajudicial execution of his brother shocked Stepan.
Hatred of the aristocracy and sympathy for the poor, powerless people have finally taken root in him, and two years later he begins to prepare a large campaign “for the zipuns,” that is, for booty, in order to feed the Cossack bastard, already within twenty years, since the introduction serfdom, flocking to the free Don.
The fight against the boyars and other oppressors would become Razin’s main slogan in his campaigns. And the main reason is that at the height of the Peasant War there will be up to two hundred thousand people under his banner.
Cunning commander
The leader of the Golytba turned out to be an inventive commander. Posing as merchants, the Razins took the Persian city of Farabat. For five days they traded previously looted goods, scouting out where the houses of the richest townspeople were located. And, having scouted, they robbed the rich.
Another time, by cunning, Razin defeated the Ural Cossacks. This time the Razinites pretended to be pilgrims. Entering the city, a detachment of forty people captured the gate and allowed the entire army to enter. The local chieftain was killed, and the Yaik Cossacks did not offer resistance to the Don Cossacks.
But the main one of Razin’s “smart” victories was in the battle of Pig Lake, in the Caspian Sea near Baku. The Persians sailed on fifty ships to the island where the Cossacks camp was set up. Seeing an enemy whose forces were several times greater than their own, the Razinites rushed to the plows and, ineptly controlling them, tried to sail away. The Persian naval commander Mamed Khan mistook the cunning maneuver for an escape and ordered the Persian ships to be linked together in order to catch Razin’s entire army, like in a net. Taking advantage of this, the Cossacks began to fire at the flagship ship with all their guns, blew it up, and when it pulled the neighboring ones to the bottom and panic arose among the Persians, they began to sink other ships one after another. As a result, only three ships remained from the Persian fleet.
Stenka Razin and the Persian princess
In the battle at Pig Lake, the Cossacks captured the son of Mamed Khan, the Persian prince Shabalda. According to legend, his sister was also captured, with whom Razin was passionately in love, who allegedly even gave birth to a son to the Don ataman, and whom Razin sacrificed to Mother Volga. However, there is no documentary evidence of the existence of the Persian princess in reality. In particular, the petition that Shabalda addressed, asking to be released, is known, but the prince did not say a word about his sister.
Lovely letters
In 1670, Stepan Razin began the main work of his life and one of the main events in the life of all of Europe: the Peasant War. Foreign newspapers never tired of writing about it; its progress was followed even in those countries with which Russia did not have close political and trade ties.
This war was no longer a campaign for booty: Razin called for a fight against the existing system, planned to go to Moscow with the goal of overthrowing, not the tsar, but the boyar power. At the same time, he hoped for the support of the Zaporozhye and Right Bank Cossacks, sent embassies to them, but did not achieve results: the Ukrainians were busy with their own political game.
Nevertheless, the war became nationwide. The poor saw in Stepan Razin an intercessor, a fighter for their rights, and called them their own father. The cities surrendered without a fight. This was facilitated by an active propaganda campaign conducted by the Don Ataman. Using the love for the king and piety inherent in the common people,
Razin spread a rumor that the Tsar’s heir, Alexei Alekseevich (in fact, deceased), and the disgraced Patriarch Nikon were following with his army.
The first two ships sailing along the Volga were covered with red and black cloth: the first was supposedly carrying the prince, and Nikon was on the second.
Razin's "lovely letters" were distributed throughout Rus'. “For the cause, brothers! Now take revenge on the tyrants who have hitherto kept you in captivity worse than the Turks or pagans. I have come to give you all freedom and deliverance, you will be my brothers and children, and it will be as good for you as it is for me.” “, just be courageous and remain faithful,” Razin wrote. His propaganda policy was so successful that the tsar even interrogated Nikon about his connection with the rebels.
Execution
On the eve of the Peasant War, Razin seized actual power on the Don, making an enemy in the person of his own godfather, Ataman Yakovlev. After the siege of Simbirsk, where Razin was defeated and seriously wounded, the homely Cossacks, led by Yakovlev, were able to arrest him, and then his younger brother Frol. In June, a detachment of 76 Cossacks brought the Razins to Moscow. On the approach to the capital, they were joined by a convoy of one hundred archers. The brothers were dressed in rags.
Stepan was tied to a pillory mounted on a cart, Frol was chained so that he would run next to him. The year turned out to be dry. At the height of the heat, the prisoners were solemnly paraded through the streets of the city. Then they were brutally tortured and quartered.
After Razin's death, legends began to form about him. Either he throws twenty-pound stones from a plow, then he defends Rus' together with Ilya Muromets, or else he voluntarily goes to prison to release the prisoners. “He’ll lie down for a little while, rest, get up... Give me some coal, he’ll say, he’ll write a boat on the wall with that coal, put convicts in that boat, splash it with water: the river will overflow from the island all the way to the Volga; Stenka and the fellows will break out songs - and on the Volga !.. Well, remember what their name was!”
The biography of Stepan Timofeevich Razin, the Don Cossack and leader of the Peasant War of 1670-1671, is well known to historians, but our contemporaries are more familiar with this name from works of folklore.
He was born a hereditary Cossack around 1630 in the village of Zimoveyskaya on the Don. His father was the noble Cossack Timofey Razin, and his godfather was the military ataman Kornila Yakovlev. Already in his youth he stood out noticeably among the Don elders.
Like all hereditary Cossacks, he was a true believer and made two pilgrimages to the Solovetsky Monastery. Several times he was part of the winter villages, that is, embassies from the Don Cossacks, and visited Moscow.
He knew the Kalmyk and Tatar languages and several times took part in negotiations with the Taishi - Kalmyk leaders. In 1663, he led a detachment of Cossacks, which included Cossacks and Kalmyks, and made campaigns against the Crimeans to Perekop.
For his personal qualities he was well known in the Don. A verbal description of Stepan Razin’s appearance has been preserved in a short biography of foreign historical chronicles, which was left by the Dutch master Jan Streis. He describes Razin as a tall and sedate man. He had a strong build, an arrogant face and behaved modestly but with dignity.
In 1665, his older brother was executed by order of the governor Yuri Dolgorukov, when the Cossacks tried to leave Russian soldiers fighting the Poles. This execution made a great impression on Stepan Razin.
In 1667, he became the marching chieftain of a large detachment of Cossacks, which included many newcomers from Russia, and set off on his famous campaign “for zipuns” along the Volga to the Caspian Sea and to Persia. Having returned with rich booty, he stopped in the town of Kagalnitsky. Believing in his luck and hearing how he was robbing destroyers and bloodsuckers, fugitives from all corners of the Moscow state began to flock to him.
He captured all the cities on the lower Volga - Astrakhan, Tsaritsyn, Saratov, after Samara.
From a Cossack uprising, the movement grew into a large-scale peasant uprising, which covered a significant territory of the state.
The rebels received their first defeat near Simbirsk, where the ataman himself was seriously wounded. He was taken to the town of Kagalnitsky. By this time, the mood on the Don had changed, and the desire for settled life and housekeeping began to prevail. After an unsuccessful attempt to take the Cossack capital of Cherkassk, the lower Cossacks united and defeated the rebels, and their leader Stepan Razin, along with his brother Frol, was extradited to Moscow. After severe torture they were executed at Lobnoye Mesto.
