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 frame.”

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 for himself 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!”

N.I. Kostomarov

In April, the Cossacks sailed from Cherkassk to the town of Kagalnitsky; On April 14, they burned it to the ground and, according to a military court, hanged every single accomplice of Stenka, excluding the ataman himself and his brother Frolka. Probably, among those killed were their families, who were then in Kagalnik. The details of the capture of Stenka are unknown. The sovereign's letters speak of him differently; in one - that Kagalnik was taken by storm; in another, that Stenka was bound with iron from the Don Cossacks, who turned from their evils. Modern foreigners and the Little Russian chronicle say that Stenka was taken by deception. Kornilo Yakovlev was his godfather, and Stenka had respect for him: this explains somewhat why Stenka spared this old man during his power, when, as it seems, he could overthrow him. Kornilo approached Kagalnik and entered into negotiations with him.

“You are in danger,” he said, “they will either kill you or hand you over.” Your case is lost. You are no longer able to resist the power of the king. Better confess and ask for mercy. I received a letter from the great sovereign saying that he forgives you and wishes to see you in Moscow. Let's go together; there you will tell what offenses tempted you to steal.

Stenka had little faith in such beliefs, but obeyed out of despair, because his cause was completely lost, and he did not value his life. Cornilo initially left him free, but then put him in shackles along with his brother. Stenka, says a contemporary, did not expect such an act from a person so close to him; but he who was treacherous against his lawful sovereign deserved nothing better.

Stenka and Frolka were brought to Cherkassk. Tradition says that the Cossacks were very afraid that Stenka would escape from captivity: that’s why he was a warlock, no prison would have held him, no iron would have stood against his witchcraft.

Therefore, he was chained with a blessed chain and kept in the church vestibule, hoping that only the power of the shrine would destroy his magic. (They say that in Cherkassk this consecrated chain is still preserved in the storeroom at the cathedral.) At the end of April, both daring brothers were taken to Moscow. Kormilo Yakovlev himself accompanied them with another important Cossack, Mikhail Samarenin, and an escort. Their convoy included three precious Persian argamaks, which were once transported on a bus that was robbed by Stenka during his return from the Persian campaign. Together with them, the Cossacks returned to the king three golden carpets, taken on the same bead and therefore belonging to the royal treasury.

Frolka was naturally of a quiet disposition and became melancholy.

“Now, brother, it’s you who are to blame for our troubles,” he said with chagrin.

Stenka answered:

- There is no trouble. We will be received with honor: the greatest gentlemen will come out to the meeting to look at us.

On June 4, news spread in Moscow that the Cossacks were taking Stenka. Crowds of people poured out of the city to look at the monster, whose name had not left the lips of the entire Russian people for so long. Several miles from the capital the train stopped. Stenka was still dressed in his rich dress; They took it off him and dressed him in rags. A large cart with a gallows was brought from Moscow. Then they put Stenka on a cart and tied him with a chain by the neck to the crossbar of the gallows, and attached his arms and legs with chains to the cart. Frolka had to run after the cart like a dog, tied with a chain by the neck to the edge of the cart.

In such a triumphal chariot, the ataman of the thieves' Cossacks rode into the capital of the Moscow sovereign, whose affairs he threatened to burn. He followed with a cool look, lowering his eyes, as if trying so that no one would read what was in his soul. Some looked at him with hatred, others with compassion. Without a doubt, there were still those who would have wished a different entry for this man, who had been the idol of the mob for so long.

They were brought straight to the Zemstvo Prikaz, and interrogation immediately began. Stenka was silent.

He was taken to torture. The first torture was a whip - a thick belt strip about a finger thick and five cubits long. The criminal's hands were tied back and lifted up, then his legs were tied with a belt; the executioner sat on the belt and stretched the body so that the arms came out of the joints and became level with the head, and the other executioner hit the back with a whip. The body swelled, burst, and ulcers opened, as if from a knife. Stenka had already received about a hundred such blows, and, of course, the executioner showed no compassion for such a defendant. But Stenka did not let out a groan. Everyone standing around him marveled.

Then they tied his hands and feet, passed a log through them and laid him on burning coals. Stenka was silent.

Then they began running a hot iron over the beaten, burned body. Stenka was silent.

They gave him a break. We set to work on Frolka. Weaker, he began to let out screams and cries of pain.

- What a woman you are! - said Stenka. - Remember our previous life; We have lived with glory for a long time; commanded thousands of people: they must now cheerfully endure misfortune. What, does it really hurt? It’s like a woman injected me!

They began to torture Stenka with another type of torture. They shaved the top of his head and left his temples.

- That's how it is! - Stenka said to his brother: - We heard that they put learned people in the priests, but we, brother, are simpletons, and we were also tonsured.

They began to pour drops of cold water onto the top of his head. It was a torment that no one could resist; the strongest natures lost their presence of mind. Stenka endured this torment and did not utter a single groan.

His whole body was an ugly purple mass of blisters. Out of frustration that nothing bothered him, they began to hit Stenka in the legs as hard as they could. Stenka was silent.

Having endured all the suffering without uttering a single word, Stenka could not be blamed by his own consciousness (says a contemporary); Only the obvious and public crime did not make it difficult to sentence him to death.

Tradition says that, sitting in prison and waiting for his last mortal torment, Stenka composed a song, now known everywhere, where he, as if as a sign of his glory, bequeaths to bury himself at the crossroads of three roads of the Russian Land.

Bury me, brothers, between three roads:

Between Moscow, Astrakhan, glorious Kyiv;

Place a life-giving cross in my heads,

Place a sharp saber at my feet.

Whoever passes or drives by will stop,

Will he pray to my life-giving cross?

My saber, my sword is afraid:

What lies here, a daring, good fellow,

Stenka Razin, nicknamed Timofeev!

On June 6, he was taken to the execution site along with his brother. Many people flocked to the bloody spectacle. They read a long sentence, which outlined all the crimes of the accused. Stenka listened calmly, with a proud look. At the end of the reading, the executioner took him by the arms. Stenka turned to the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary (St. Basil’s), crossed himself, then bowed on all four sides and said: “I’m sorry!”

Execution of Stepan Razin. Painting by S. Kirillov, 1985–1988

It was placed between two boards. The executioner first cut off his right arm at the elbow, then his left leg at the knee. During this suffering, Stenka did not utter a single groan, did not show a sign that he was feeling pain. He (says a contemporary) seemed to want to show the people that he was taking revenge with proud silence for his torment, for which he was no longer able to avenge with weapons. The terrible spectacle of the torture of his brother finally deprived Frolka of his last courage, who saw what awaited him in a few minutes.

- I know the sovereign’s word! - he shouted.

- Shut up, dog! - Stenka told him.

Those were his last words. The executioner cut off his head. His torso was cut into pieces and stuck on stakes, as was his head, and his entrails were thrown to the dogs to be eaten.

For Frolka, the execution was delayed. He was interrogated again. He said:

“Due to great torture, I did not come to my senses and did not express everything, but now I have come to my senses and will say everything that is in my memory.” My brother had letters from thieves, sent from nowhere, and he buried all these papers in the ground so that since he had no one in the house, he collected them in a money jug, tarred them and buried them in the ground on the island, on the Don River, on the Prorva tract, under a willow tree, and this willow tree is crooked in the middle, and there are dense willow trees around it; and there will be two or three miles around the island. Moreover, two days before the arrival of Kornila Yakovlev, Stepan, my brother, sent me to Tsaritsyn to take his junk from the townsman Druzhinka Potapov; he said that he had a bone city, made as a model as if Constantinople... I don’t really know who he took it from: either Prince Semyon or Kizil-bash, only Stenka ordered to take this city and the chest with the dress.

Subsequently, in September of the same year, the Cossack chieftain and elected Cossacks went to look for these letters on the island, tested the ground with probes and found nothing. Modern foreigners say that Frol received life and was sentenced to eternal imprisonment.

As it happened to me, it’s clear to the falcon, but for a while:

I flew like a young falcon across the sky,

I beat and beat swan geese,

He also beat and beat the little bird.

As it used to be, there is no flight for a small bird.

But now I, the falcon, have no time.

I am sitting, a young and clear falcon, caught,

Am I wearing the gold checkered one?

In a cage on a tin on a pole.

The falcon's legs are tangled,

There are silk straps on the legs,

The curtains on the eyes are pearly!

As it happened to me, a good fellow, and for a while:

I walked, walked, good fellow, across the blue sea,

I have already beaten and smashed ships,

I am Tatar, Persian, Armenian.

He also beat and smashed light boats:

As it used to be, there is no passage for light boats;

But now, good fellow, I don’t have time!

I’m sitting, good fellow, in a trap,

Am I in that villainous earthen prison?

The good fellow has shackled legs,

There are German fetters on the legs,

The young man has prison locks on his little hands,

And on the young man’s neck there are iron slingshots.

Kornilo Yakovlev and Mikhailo Samarenin returned to the Don, together with the steward Kosagov, who brought the Cossacks a gracious letter, grain and cannon supplies and a cash salary. The Cossacks were very happy with their grain reserves, because they had a bad harvest at that time, and the recent unrest was not at all conducive to the success of agriculture. The Cossacks met the ambassadors five miles from Cherkassk. Login Semenov was then the chieftain of the army. When, according to custom, the circle was assembled, Kosagov reported that atamans Kornilo Yakovlev and Mikhailo Samarenin in Moscow made a promise for all the Cossacks to take an oath of allegiance to the sovereign. Only the homely and distinguished Cossacks agreed without excuses; young and humble people, mostly former supporters of Stenka, accepted such a demand reluctantly.

“We (they said) are glad to serve the great sovereign without kissing the cross, but there is no point in kissing the cross.”

The good fellows still considered themselves not subjects, but free people, serving the king not out of obligation, but out of pleasure. But the party of the elders prevailed. Three circles gathered one after another. On the third circle the elders said:

- We give the great sovereign a promise to perform before the Holy Gospel, a whole army, and whoever of us does not agree to the promise will be executed by death according to our military law, and his bellies will be plundered; and until all the promises are made, we will place a strong order in all smoking areas not to sell either wine or other drink, and whoever goes to the promise drunk, we will inflict severe punishment on such a person, as well as on the wine seller.

On August 29, the black priest Bogolep swore in the atamans and other Cossacks according to the official book, in front of the steward and clerk.

“Now,” the steward said after that, “atamans and Cossacks!” render faithful service to the great sovereign: go with your entire army to Astrakhan against Stenka’s like-minded people who remained there.

“With joyful hearts, let us go to Astrakhan and serve the great sovereign!” - answered the Cossacks.

Meanwhile, the remnants of the followers of the executed Stenka, their brothers who escaped from the massacre in Kagalnik, under the banner of Alyoshka the Convict, fled in despair to Astrakhan, sadly singing:

The glorious, quiet Don has become clouded

From Cherkassk to the Black Sea!

The whole Cossack circle has gone crazy!

We no longer have Ataman,

There is no Stepan Timofeevich,

Nicknamed Stenka Razin!

They caught a good fellow,

The white ones tied their hands,

They took me to stone Moscow,

And on the glorious Red Square

They cut off the riot's head!

http://rushist.com/index.php/kostomarov-razin/1212-kazn-razina

Execution of Stepan Razin

Execution of Stepan Razin

Painting pictures of all the Russian riots and everyone executed during them is a difficult and thankless task; there were too many of the first and second, and law and order were not always observed during the repressions. In a word, they hanged, one might say, right and left, without trial or investigation... However, in our history there are extraordinary personalities who cannot be ignored on the pages of our research.

The entire structure of Rus' in the 17th century - the ferocity of the laws, the lack of rights of the people, the consolidation of the bondage of the peasants - everything provided food for popular discontent. Towns and villages were subject to countless duties; moreover, any folk crafts and crafts were subject to many different duties. The greed of the governors and the arbitrariness of officials increased the difficult situation of the people.

In Russian legal proceedings everything depended on the arbitrariness of the authorities. People convicted or robbed by officials fled to the free Cossacks, they sympathized with them and saw hope in them.

In 1665, Prince Yuri Dolgoruky was on a campaign against the Poles. His army included detachments of Don Cossacks. Autumn was coming. The chieftain of one of the Cossack detachments, Razin, came to the prince, hit him with his forehead and asked to release the Don people to the free Don. The prince ordered him to remain in service. None of the military men dared to leave service without the permission of their superior, but the Cossacks, even in the service, considered themselves free people. The chieftain left without permission with his village, but they were caught up, and Dolgoruky condemned the chieftain to death. He had two brothers. Stepan, or Stenka, and Frol, or Frolka. They saw their elder brother hanged.

It is not known whether Stenka left immediately or served out his term, but the following year he decided not only to avenge his brother, but also to strike fear into all the boyars and noble people of the Moscow State, whom the Cossacks generally could not stand.

Stenka put his gang on 4 plows and in April sailed up the Don. Along the way, the gang robbed rich Cossacks and destroyed their houses.

Between the rivers Tishini and Ilovni, Stenka chose a high place and set up his camp there. “Stenka is standing on high hillocks, and all around him there is hollow water: there is no way to walk, or drive, or see how many of them there are, there is no way to catch a tongue, but it seems that there will be a thousand people, and maybe even more.” .

Soon a rumor spread throughout Tsaritsyn that Cossack thieves were gathering on the Don and wanted to cross to the Volga, attack Tsaritsyn, take ships there and sail down the Volga. This turned out to be not an idle rumor. Soon the “horde of thieves” left their camp and moved to the Volga. Stepan Razin's army was divided into hundreds and dozens; A centurion was in charge of a hundred, and a foreman was in charge of a ten. Razin himself was their chieftain.

In the spring, Razin's gang began to rob caravans. The ataman robbed with bizarre cruelty: he would kill some without reason, spare others without reason; in one place he will take everything, in another he will not touch anything. Having obtained the ship's guns and collected supplies, Razin headed across the water to Tsaritsyn. The city surrendered without firing a shot. In the last days of May, Stenka went to Yaik. He had 30 plows and up to 1,300 troops; by cunning he captured Yaik and executed 170 people. There he replenished the army from the local population; those who did not want to go with him, Stenka “burned with fire and beat to death.”

The Cossacks headed by sea to the shores of Dagestan. The Cossacks mercilessly mocked the Dagestan Tatars - they burned villages and hamlets, killed residents, and destroyed their property. So they reached Baku, here they managed to ravage the city, kill many residents, take prisoners and lose no more than seven people killed and two wounded. Meanwhile, a fleet was built in Persia to calm Stenka. A battle ensued. The Persian ships were sunk and captured, only three ships left with the khan, but the Cossacks captured his son and beautiful daughter. Stenka took a Persian princess as his wife. However, victory was not easy for the Cossacks - about 500 people were killed in the naval battle. It was necessary to return to the Don. The Cossacks were returning along the Volga back through Astrakhan. The Astrakhan authorities were preparing to meet the Cossacks much more mercifully than they deserved. The governors issued a letter in advance on behalf of the tsar, which granted forgiveness to the Cossacks if they confessed. It turned out that Stenka in some way repaid Persia for the insults inflicted on Russia, but Russia did not violate the agreement with Persia, and blamed the devastation of its shores on the willful Cossacks. Stenka and his faithful companions arrived in Astrakhan and, as a sign of obedience, placed his horsetail - a symbol of power - in the official hut. The Cossacks gave the authorities five copper and 16 iron cannons, gave up the khan's son, one Persian officer and three Persian nobles.

Legends say that Stenka, in a fit of his devotion to the great sovereign, said that the Cossacks were presenting to his royal majesty the islands that they had conquered with a saber from the Persian Shah.

Going to the Don, Razin chose a place between the Kagalnitskaya and Vedernikovskaya villages, on the island. There he built the town of Kagalnik and ordered it to be surrounded by an earthen rampart. The Cossacks built themselves earthen huts.

Word of his fame spread everywhere; nakedness ran towards him from everywhere; Cossacks from the supreme villages and people walking from the Volga ran to him; his fame reached Ukraine. A month later there were 2,700 people in his army. He was generous and friendly, giving to the poor and hungry. They called him father, considered him a sorcerer, they believed in his intelligence, strength and happiness.

He didn't rob anyone, and it was much worse. “And Stenka constantly orders his Cossacks to be ready, and what is his idea, the Cossacks know about it, but are silent.” Stenka said that the time had come to go against the boyars, and called the army with him to the Volga. The boyars were hated by many, but the name of the king was sacred. Stenka went the furthest - he became an enemy of the church.

“What are churches needed for? What do you need butts for? - said Stenka. “Does it really matter: stand in a couple near a tree and dance around it - and then you get married!”

In May, Stenka sailed up the Don to Tsaritsyn and took it by storm.

He told the townspeople: “We are fighting against the traitorous boyars, for the great sovereign!” Astrakhan governors began to gather troops against the rebel. This time Razin’s army already had from 8 to 10 thousand sabers.

As Stenka speaks to his comrades:
“This is really something, brothers,
I'm sick and tired
Today is my day
Is it sad?
I'll go to Astrakhan -
I'll burn you out, I'll cut you out,
Astrakhan voivode
I will take you to court."

Stenka was approaching Astrakhan, and nature threatened with ominous omens. Heavy rains and hail began; the cold set in, and three pillars played in the sky with a rainbow color - at the top of them there were circles, like crowns.

"The fat is in the fire! Be the wrath of God! - people said.

With the help of the Astrakhan traitors, Stenka took the city of Astrakhan without losses. Razin ordered the execution of the 441st person, some were chopped with a sword, others with reeds, others were stabbed with spears. Human blood flowed like a river past the church all the way to the official hut.

Astrakhan was converted to the Cossacks, Razin forced the residents to take the oath ceremony “to the great sovereign and ataman Stepan Timofeevich, to serve the army and bring out the traitors.”

Razin's next prey was Saratov. Thus, in early September, Stenka reached Simbirsk.

Razin's agents scattered throughout the Moscow State, they reached the shores of the White Sea, and sneaked into the capital. In his appeals and speeches, Stenka announced that he was going to exterminate the boyars, nobles, officials, eradicate all power, establish the Cossacks throughout Rus' and make it so that everyone was equal to everyone.

Having trampled upon the church and the supreme power, Razin nevertheless realized that the Russian people still respected them, and decided to hide behind the guise of this respect. He made two vessels: one was covered with red, the other with black velvet. About the first, he spread a rumor that it contained the son of Alexei Mikhailovich, Tsarevich Alexei, who died that same year on January 17, allegedly having fled from the anger of the boyars. In another ship was the deposed Patriarch Nikon. Near Simbirsk, Stenka was defeated for the first time. This brought him down in the eyes of the people. As the winter continued, Razin's rebellion was strangled by the governors. The details of the ataman's arrest are unknown. The sovereign's letters say this in different ways: in one, that Stenka was tied with an iron chain by the Don Cossacks, who handed him over to the royal troops “out of their malice,” in the other, that Stenka was captured by deception.

Stenka and Frolka were brought to Cherkask. Tradition says that the Cossacks were very afraid that Stenka would escape from captivity: they assured that he was a warlock; no prison could hold him, no iron could withstand witchcraft. Therefore, he was chained with a blessed chain and kept in the church vestibule, hoping that only the power of the shrine would destroy his magic. At the end of April, both daring brothers were taken to Moscow.

On June 4, news spread throughout Moscow that the Cossacks were taking Stenka. Crowds of people poured out of the city to look at the monster, whose name had not left the lips of the entire Russian people for so long. Several miles from the capital the train stopped. Stenka was still dressed in his rich dress; there they stripped him of his rich clothes and dressed him in rags. A large cart with a gallows was brought from Moscow. Then they put Stenka on a cart and tied him with a chain by the neck to the crossbar of the gallows, and attached his arms and legs with chains to the cart. Frolka had to run after the cart like a dog, tied with a chain by the neck to the cart.

In such a triumphal chariot, the ataman of the thieves' Cossacks rode into the capital of the Moscow sovereign, which he threatened to burn to the ground. He followed with a cool look, lowering his eyes, as if trying to hide what was in his soul. Some looked at him with hatred, others with compassion. Without a doubt, there were those who would have wished a different entry for this man, who had been the idol of the mob for so long.

They were brought straight to the Zemsky Prikaz, and interrogation immediately began. Stenka was silent. He was taken to torture. The first torture was a whip - a thick belt strip as thick as a finger and five cubits long. The criminal's hands were tied back and lifted up, then his legs were tied with a belt; one executioner sat on a belt and stretched the body so that the arms came out of their joints and became level with the head, and the other executioner beat the victim on the back with a whip. The body swelled, burst, and ulcers opened, as if from a knife. Stenka received about a hundred such blows, and, of course, the executioner showed no compassion for such a defendant. But Stenka did not let out a groan. Everyone standing around him marveled at his endurance.

Then they tied his hands and feet, passed a log through them and laid him on burning coals. Stenka was silent.

Then they began running a hot iron over the beaten, burned body. Stenka was silent.

They gave him a rest and began to take care of Frolka. Weaker, he began to scream in pain. “What a woman you are! - said Stenka. - Remember our previous life; We have lived for a long time in glory, we have commanded thousands of people: now we must cheerfully endure misfortune. What, does it really hurt? It’s like a woman injected me!”

They began to torture Stenka with another torture. They shaved the top of his head and left his temples. “That's it! - Stenka said to his brother. “We have heard that learned people put crowns on their heads, but we, brother, you and I are simpletons, but they give us such honor!” They began to pour drops of cold water onto the top of his head. It was a torment that no one could resist; the strongest natures lost their presence of mind. Stenka endured this torment and did not make a single sound.

His whole body was an ugly, purple mass of blisters. Out of frustration that nothing bothered him, they began to hit Stenka in the legs as hard as they could. Stenka was silent.

Tradition says that, sitting in prison and waiting for his last mortal torment, Stenka composed a song, now known everywhere, in which he, as if as a sign of his glory, bequeathed to be buried at the crossroads of three roads of the Russian land:
“Bury me, brothers, between three roads:
Between Moscow, Astrakhan, glorious Kyiv;
Place a life-giving cross in my heads,
Place a sharp saber at my feet.
Whoever passes or drives by will stop,
Will he pray to my life-giving cross?
My saber, my sword is afraid:
What lies here, a daring, good fellow,
Stenka Razin Timofeev by nickname!

On June 6, 1671, he was taken to the execution site along with his brother. Many people flocked to the bloody spectacle. They read a long sentence, which outlined all the crimes of the accused. Stenka listened calmly, with a proud look. At the end of the reading, the executioner took him by the arms. Stenka turned to the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary (St. Basil), crossed himself, then bowed on all four sides and said: “Forgive me!”

It was placed between two boards. The executioner first cut off his right arm at the elbow, then his left leg at the knee. During this suffering, Stenka did not utter a single groan, did not show a sign that he was feeling pain. He, according to a contemporary, seemed to want to show the people that he was taking revenge with proud silence for his torments, for which he was no longer able to avenge himself with weapons. The terrible torture of his brother finally deprived Frolka of courage, who saw what awaited him in a few minutes. “I know the sovereign’s word!” - he shouted.

“Be quiet, dog!” - Stenka told him.

Those were his last words. The executioner cut off his head. His body was cut into pieces and impaled on stakes, as was his head, and his entrails were thrown to the dogs to be eaten.

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.

"A sedate man with an arrogant face"

Shuttle diplomat

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 frame.”

Fighter against bureaucracy and tyranny

Hatred for 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 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.

Cunning commander

Stenka Razin and the Persian princess

Lovely letters

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 “charming letters” were distributed throughout Rus'. “Get to work, brothers! Now take revenge on the tyrants who have hitherto kept you in captivity worse than the Turks or the pagans. I came 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

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, 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 sing songs - yes to the Volga!.. Well, remember what their name was!”

Discussion

Revenge for a brother, what comes first? The reasoning of such “historians” lacks specifics. The Ulyanov-Razin parallel is far-fetched.

Stepan Timofeevich Razin is the ataman of the Don Cossacks, who organized the largest popular uprising of the pre-Petrine period, which was called the Peasant War.

The future leader of the rebellious Cossacks was born in the village of Zimoveyskaya in 1630. Some sources point to another place of birth of Stepan - the city of Cherkassk. The father of the future ataman Timofey Razia was from the Voronezh region, but moved from there for unclear reasons to the banks of the Don.

The young man settled down among the free settlers and soon became a homely Cossack. Timofey was distinguished by his courage and bravery in military campaigns. From one campaign, a Cossack brought a captive Turkish woman into his house and married her. The family had three sons - Ivan, Stepan and Frol. The godfather of the middle brother was the ataman of the army, Kornil Yakovlev.

Time of Troubles

In 1649, with the “Conciliar Epistle” signed by the Tsar, serfdom was finally consolidated in Rus'. The document proclaimed the hereditary state of serfdom and allowed the search period for fugitives to be increased to 15 years. After the adoption of the law, uprisings and riots began to break out across the country, many peasants went on the run in search of free lands and settlements.

A time of troubles has arrived. Cossack settlements increasingly became a haven for “golytba”, poor or impoverished peasants who joined the wealthy Cossacks. By unspoken agreement with the “homely” Cossacks, detachments were created from the fugitives that were engaged in robbery and theft. The Turkic, Don, Yaik Cossacks increased at the expense of the “golutvenny” Cossacks, their military power grew.

Youth

In 1665, an event occurred that influenced the future fate of Stepan Razin. The elder brother Ivan, who took part in the Russian-Polish war, decided to voluntarily leave his positions and retire with the army to his homeland. According to custom, the free Cossacks were not obliged to obey the government. But the governor’s troops caught up with the Razins and, declaring them deserters, executed them on the spot. After the death of his brother, Stepan was inflamed with rage towards the Russian nobility and decided to go to war against Moscow in order to free Rus' from the boyars. The unstable position of the peasantry also became the reason for Razin's uprising.

From his youth, Stepan was distinguished by his daring and ingenuity. He never went ahead, but used diplomacy and cunning, so already at a young age he was part of important delegations from the Cossacks to Moscow and Astrakhan. With diplomatic tricks, Stepan could settle any failed case. Thus, the famous campaign “for zipuns,” which ended disastrously for the Razin detachment, could have led to the arrest and punishment of all its participants. But Stepan Timofeevich communicated so convincingly with the royal governor Lvov that he sent the entire army home, equipped with new weapons, and presented Stepan with an icon of the Mother of God.

Razin also showed himself as a peacemaker among the southern peoples. In Astrakhan, he mediated a dispute between the Nagaibak Tatars and Kalmyks and prevented bloodshed.

Insurrection

In March 1667, Stepan began to gather an army. With 2000 soldiers, the ataman set out on a campaign along the rivers flowing into the Volga to plunder the ships of merchants and boyars. Robbery was not perceived by the authorities as a rebellion, since theft was an integral part of the existence of the Cossacks. But Razin went beyond the usual robbery. In the village of Cherny Yar, the ataman carried out reprisals against the Streltsy troops, and then released all the exiles in custody. After which he went to Yaik. The rebel troops, by cunning, entered the fortress of the Ural Cossacks and subjugated the settlement.

Map of the uprising of Stepan Razin

In 1669, the army, replenished with runaway peasants, led by Stepan Razin, went to the Caspian Sea, where it launched a series of attacks on the Persians. In a battle with the flotilla of Mamed Khan, the Russian ataman outwitted the eastern commander. Razin's ships imitated an escape from the Persian fleet, after which the Persian gave the order to unite 50 ships and surround the Cossack army. But Razin unexpectedly turned around and subjected the enemy’s main ship to heavy fire, after which it began to sink and pulled the entire fleet with it. So, with small forces, Stepan Razin emerged victorious from the battle at Pig Island. Realizing that after such a defeat the Safivids would gather a larger army against the Razins, the Cossacks set off through Astrakhan to the Don.

Peasants' War

The year 1670 began with the preparation of Stepan Razin’s army for a campaign against Moscow. The chieftain went up the Volga, capturing coastal villages and cities. To attract the local population to his side, Razin used “charming letters” - special letters that he distributed among the city people. The letters said that the oppression of the boyars could be thrown off if you joined the rebel army.

Not only the oppressed strata went over to the side of the Cossacks, but also Old Believers, artisans, Mari, Chuvash, Tatars, Mordvins, as well as Russian soldiers of government troops. After widespread desertion, the tsarist troops were forced to begin recruiting mercenaries from Poland and the Baltic states. But the Cossacks treated such warriors cruelly, subjecting all foreign prisoners of war to execution.

Stepan Razin spread a rumor that the missing Tsarevich Alexei Alekseevich, as well as an exile, was hiding in the Cossack camp. Thus, the ataman attracted more and more dissatisfied with the current government to his side. Over the course of a year, residents of Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan, Saratov, Samara, Alatyr, Saransk, and Kozmodemyansk went over to the side of the Razins. But in the battle near Simbirsk, the Cossack flotilla was defeated by the troops of Prince Yu. N. Baryatinsky, and Stepan Razin himself, after being wounded, was forced to retreat to the Don.

For six months, Stepan took refuge with his entourage in the town of Kagalnitsky, but the local wealthy Cossacks secretly decided to surrender the ataman to the government. The elders feared the wrath of the tsar, who could fall on the entire Russian Cossacks. In April 1671, after a short assault on the fortress, Stepan Razin was captured and taken to Moscow along with his close entourage.

Personal life

There is no information preserved in historical documents about the ataman’s private life, but all that is known is that Razin’s wife and his son Afanasy lived in the Kagalnitsky town. The boy followed in his father's footsteps and became a warrior. During a skirmish with the Azov Tatars, the young man was captured by the enemy, but soon returned to his homeland.

The legend about Stepan Razin mentions a Persian princess. It is assumed that the girl was captured by the Cossacks after the famous battle on the Caspian Sea. She became Razin’s second wife and even managed to give birth to children for the Cossack, but out of jealousy the ataman drowned her in the abyss of the Volga.

Death

At the beginning of the summer of 1671, guarded by the governors, the steward Grigory Kosagov and the clerk Andrei Bogdanov, Stepan and his brother Frol were taken to Moscow for trial. During the investigation, the Razins were subjected to severe torture, and 4 days later they were taken to execution, which took place on Bolotnaya Square. After the verdict was announced, Stepan Razin was quartered, but his brother could not stand what he saw and asked for mercy in exchange for secret information. After 5 years, having not found the stolen treasures promised by Frol, it was decided to execute the ataman’s younger brother.

After the death of the leader of the liberation movement, the war continued for another six months. The Cossacks were led by atamans Vasily Us and Fyodor Sheludyak. The new leaders lacked charisma and wisdom, so the uprising was suppressed. The people's struggle led to disappointing results: serfdom was tightened, the days of transition of peasants from their owners were abolished, and it was allowed to show extreme cruelty towards disobedient serfs.

Memory

The story of the uprising of Stepan Razin remained in the memory of the people for a long time. 15 folk songs are dedicated to the national hero, including “Because of the island on the river”, “There is a cliff on the Volga”, “Oh, it’s not evening”. The biography of Stenka Razin aroused creative interest among many writers and historians, such as A. A. Sokolov, V. A. Gilyarovsky,.

The plot about the exploits of the hero of the Peasant War was used to create the first Russian film in 1908. The film was called "Ponizovaya Volnitsa". The streets of St. Petersburg, Tver, Saratov, Yekaterinburg, Ulyanovsk and other settlements are named in honor of Razin.

The events of the 17th century formed the basis for operas and symphonic poems by Russian composers N. Ya. Afanasyev, A. K. Glazunov,.