Stepan Razin was a rich Cossack. The main rebel of Rus' in the 17th century. Last days of life

Biography and episodes of life Stepan Razin. When born and died Stepan Razin, memorable places and dates of important events in his life. Ataman Quotes, images and videos.

Years of life of Stepan Razin:

born 1630, died June 6, 1671

Epitaph

"Steppes, valleys,
Grass and flowers -
Spring hopes
Spilled by the ocean.
And he, who by deeds,
Shining like the sun,
He's in a cage too
I sat as an ataman.”
From the poem “Stepan Razin” by Vasily Kamensky

Biography

The biography of Stepan Razin is a loud and tragic life story of a man who decided that he could change the fate of his country. He never aspired to become a king or ruler, but wanted to achieve equality for his people. Alas, using cruel methods and enlisting the support of people who did not have such lofty goals as he did. It should be noted that even if Razin managed to win and take Moscow, he and his entourage would not be able to create the new democratic society that he dreamed of. If only because a system in which enrichment is made through the division of other people's property would still not be able to exist for a long time and successfully.

Stepan Razin was born around 1630, his father was a Cossack, and his godfather was a military ataman, so from childhood he grew up among the Don elders, knew the Tatar and Kalmyk languages, and while still a young Cossack led a detachment to make a campaign against the Crimean Tatars. He immediately gained fame on the Don - tall, sedate, with a direct and arrogant look. Contemporaries note that Razin always behaved modestly but strictly. The formation of Razin’s personality and his worldview was greatly influenced by the execution of his brother Ivan, which embittered Stenka, on the orders of the governor, Prince Dolgorukov.

Beginning in 1667, Razin began to make one military campaign after another. The campaigns ended in Razin’s victory, his authority grew, and soon not only Cossacks, but also fugitive peasants began to join him from all over the country. One by one, Razin took the cities - Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan, Samara, Saratov. A huge peasant uprising swept through most of the country. But in one of the decisive battles, these forces were not enough, and Razin was only able to leave the battlefield by a miracle - he was taken away wounded. Razin’s authority began to fall, and not only government troops, but also grassroots Cossacks began to oppose the Razins. Finally, the town of Kagalniytsky, where Razin settled, was captured and burned, and Razin and his brother were extradited to the Moscow authorities.

Razin's death became a public demonstration of reprisal against those who dared to rebel against the highest ranks. The cause of Razin's death was strangulation from hanging, but even if he had not been hanged, the ataman would have died from the brutal actions of the executioners, who cut off his arms and legs. There was no funeral for Razin, but his remains were buried at the Tatar cemetery in Moscow, where today there is a park of culture and recreation. The Muslim cemetery for Razin's grave was chosen because Razin was excommunicated from the Orthodox Church long before his death.

Life line

1630 Year of birth of Stepan Timofeevich Razin.
1652 The first mention of Razin in historical documents.
1661 Razin's negotiations with the Kalmyks about peace and joint actions against the Crimean Tatars and Nagais.
1663 Campaign against the Crimean Tatars along Perekop led by Stenka Razin.
1665 Execution of Stepan Razin's brother, Ivan.
May 15, 1667 The beginning of the anti-government campaign led by Stepan Razin.
spring 1669 Fighting in the “Trukhmensky Land”, the death of Stepan Razin’s friend, Sergei Krivoy, the battle at Pig Island.
spring 1670 Campaign-uprising on the Volga under the leadership of Razin.
October 4, 1670 Razin was seriously wounded during the suppression of the uprising.
April 13, 1671 The assault on the Kagalnitsky town, which led to a fierce battle.
April 14, 1671 Capture of Razin, handing him over to the royal commanders.
June 2, 1671 Arrival of Razin in Moscow as a prisoner.
June 6, 1671 Date of death of Razin (execution by hanging).

Memorable places

1. The village of Pugachevskaya (formerly the village of Zimoveyskaya), where Stepan Razin was born.
2. Monument to Razin in the village of Srednyaya Akhtuba, which, according to legend, was founded by Stenka Razin.
3. Sengi Mugan (Pig Island), near which in 1669 a battle took place between Razin’s army and the Persian flotilla, which ended in a major Russian naval victory.
4. Ulyanovsk (formerly the city of Simbirsk), where in 1670 a battle took place between Razin’s rebels and government troops, which ended in Razin’s defeat.
5. Bolotnaya Square, where Stenka Razin was publicly executed.
6. Central Park of Culture and Leisure named after. M. Gorky (former territory of the Tatar cemetery), where Razin was buried (his remains were buried).

Episodes of life

Razin was often compared to Pugachev, but in fact there is a fundamental difference between these two historical figures. It lies in the fact that Razin did not kill outside of battle, unlike Pugachev, who was known for his bloodthirstiness. If Razin or his people considered someone guilty, they beat the person and threw him into the water, according to the Russian tradition as a “maybe” - they say, if God decides to protect the person, he will save him. Only once did Razin change this rule, throwing the governor of the city of Astrakhan, who was hiding in the church during the siege of the city, from the bell tower.

When Razin was sentenced, he did not resign himself at all and did not prepare for death. On the contrary, all his movements expressed hatred and anger. The execution was terrible, and Razin’s torment was even more terrible. First his arms were cut off, then his legs, but he did not show the pain even with a sigh, maintaining his usual facial expression and voice. When his brother, frightened by the same fate, shouted: “I know the word and deed of the sovereign!”, Razin looked at Frol and shouted at him: “Be silent, dog!”

Covenant

“I don’t want to be a king, I want to live with you as a brother.”

Documentary film about Stepan Razin from the series “Secrets of Rulers”

Condolences

“Stenka’s personality must certainly be somewhat idealized and must arouse sympathy, and not repel. It is necessary for some gigantic figure to rise and sweep among the oppressed people...”
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, composer

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 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.

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!”

Razin Stepan Timofeevich, also known as Stenka Razin (circa 1630–1671). Don Ataman. Leader of the Peasant War (Stepan Razin's Rebellion) 1667–1671.

He was born in the village of Zimoveyskaya in the family of a wealthy - “home-loving” - Cossack Timofey Razi, a participant in the capture of the Turkish fortress of Azov and the “Azov sitting”, the father of three sons - Ivan, Stepan and Frol. Stenka early gained combat experience in border battles that constantly took place in the Trans-Don and Kuban steppes. In his youth, the future Cossack chieftain was distinguished by his ardor, pride and personal courage.

1652 - according to the behest of his late father, he went on a pilgrimage to the Solovetsky Monastery, traveling through the entire Russian kingdom from south to north and back, and visited Moscow. The lack of rights and poverty seen among the peasant and townspeople had a strong influence on the worldview of the young Cossack.

At the military circle in 1658, he was elected to the stanitsa (embassy) from the free Don, led by ataman Naum Vasiliev to Moscow. From that time, the first written evidence of Stepan Timofeevich Razin has been preserved for history.

Stepan early became one of the Cossack leaders thanks to his diplomatic abilities and military talents. 1661 - together with ataman Fyodor Budan, he negotiated with the Kalmyk taishas (princes) about concluding peace and joint actions against the Crimean Tatars in the Trans-Don region. The negotiations were successful, and for two centuries the Kalmyk cavalry was part of the regular military force of the Russian state. And Razin, as part of the Don villages, had the opportunity to again visit the capital Moscow and Astrakhan. There he took part in new negotiations with the Kalmyks, without needing translators.

In 1662 and 1663 At the head of a detachment of Don Cossacks, Razin made successful campaigns within the Crimean Khanate. Together with the Cossacks of Sary Malzhik and the cavalry of the Kalmyk taishas, ​​the Razin Cossacks in the battles of Perekop and in the Molochnye Vody tract defeated the Krymchaks, in whose ranks there were many Turks. They captured rich booty, including horse herds of 2,000 heads.

Causes of the uprising

...The events of 1665 radically changed the fate of the Razin brothers. By royal order, a large detachment of Don Cossacks, led by Ivan Razin on the campaign, became part of the army of the governor, Prince Yu.A. Dolgoruky. There was a war with the Polish-Lithuanian state, but it was fought near Kiev extremely sluggishly.

When the winter cold began, Ataman Ivan Razin tried to take his Cossacks back to the Don without permission. By order of Prince Dolgorukov, he, as the instigator of the “rebellion,” was captured and executed in front of his younger brothers. Therefore, the motive of revenge for his brother Ivan largely determined the anti-boyar sentiments of Stepan Razin, his hostility towards the existing “Moscow government”.

At the end of 1666, by order of the Tsar, they began to look for fugitives in the Northern Don, where a lot of Cossacks had accumulated in particular. The situation there was becoming explosive for boyar Moscow. Stepan Razin, sensing the mood on the Don, decided to act.

Before the uprising

1667, spring - he, with a small detachment of Cossacks and fugitive peasant serfs, moved on river boats from the military village of the city of Cherkassk up the Don. Along the way, the farms of the rich, homely Cossacks were ruined. The Razins settled on the islands between the Don channels - Ilovlya and Tishina. They dug dugouts and erected huts. This is how the town of Panshin appeared near the portage from the Don to the Volga. Stepan Razin was proclaimed ataman.

Soon, Stepan Razin’s detachment stationed there increased to 1,500 free people. Here the plan for a hike along the Volga “for zipuns” finally matured. They found out about this in Moscow: the Cossack freemen were declared “thieves’ Cossacks” in a letter to the Astrakhan governor. According to their leader’s plan, they were to move with plows to the Volga, descend along it into the Caspian Sea and take possession of the remote town of Yaitsky, which they wanted to make their robber base. Razin had already “arranged” his relationship with the Yaik Cossacks.

1668, May - Cossack plows appeared on the Volga north of Tsaritsyn and went down the river, reaching the Caspian Sea. The first merchant caravan they encountered was plundered. Having passed along the seashore, the ship's army entered Yaik, and the Razins fought in battle to take the Yaitsky town, in which there was a Streltsy garrison. A detachment of royal archers who arrived from Astrakhan was defeated under the walls of the town. Then the song sang:

From behind the island to the core,
Into the expanse of the river wave,
Razorbacks swim out
Stenka Razin's boats.

The differences captured the ancient fortress city of Derbent - “the iron gates of the Caucasus.” For some time it became a base for robber raids “for zipuns” for the Cossack ship’s army on the Persian coast.

The Razins spent the winter on the peninsula near Ferakhabad, and then moved to Svinoy Island south of Baku, which they “equipped” as a Cossack town. From here the Cossacks continued their sea raids, almost always returning to the island with rich booty. Among the devastated cities were the rich trading cities of Shamakhi and Rasht.

The Cossacks took rich booty from the settlements of the Gilan Bay and the Trukhmen (Turkmen) coast, in the vicinity of Baku. The Razins stole 7,000 sheep from the possessions of the Baku Khan. Persian military units were invariably defeated in battles. A considerable number of Russian captives who were here in slavery were freed.

The Persian Shah from the Abbasid dynasty, concerned about the current situation in his Caspian possessions, sent an army of 4,000 people against Razin. However, the Persians turned out to be not only bad sailors, but also unstable warriors. 1669, July - a real naval battle took place near Svinoy Island between the Cossack flotilla and the Shah's army. Of the 70 Persian ships, only three escaped: the rest were either boarded or sunk. However, the Cossacks also lost about 500 people in that naval battle.

The trip to the Caspian Sea “for zipuns” gave the Cossacks rich booty. The flotilla of Cossack plows burdened with it returned to their homeland. In August - September 1669, Stenka Razin passed through Astrakhan, where there was a stopover, and ended up in Tsaritsyn. He had the opportunity to give the Astrakhan governor, Prince Semyon Lvov, part of the taken loot and large-caliber cannons for the right of free passage to Tsaritsyn. From here the Cossacks crossed to the Don and settled in the town of Kagalnitsky.

Cossack troops began to flock to Kagalnik, and by the end of the year, under the leadership of Ataman Razin, up to 3,000 people gathered here. His younger brother Frol arrived to see him. Relations with the Cossack military sergeant major, who settled in Cherkassk, became strained and hostile.

And Razin’s plans kept expanding. Having decided to go to war with boyar Moscow, he tried to find allies for himself. In winter, he began negotiations with the Ukrainian hetman Petro Doroshenko and the Kosh chieftain of the Cossacks, Ivan Serko. However, they wisely refused to go to war with Moscow.

The uprising of Stepan Razin or the Peasant War

In the spring of 1770, Stenka Razin moved from the town of Kagalnitsky to the Volga. His army was divided into detachments and hundreds. As a matter of fact, this was the beginning of the Peasant War (the uprising of Stepan Razin), which in Russian historiography comes down to 1667–1671. Now the daring robber chieftain turned into the leader of the people's war: he called on the army that had stood under his banner to “go to Rus'.”

Tsaritsyn opened the city gates to the rebels. The local governor Timofey Turgenev was executed. A ship's caravan with a thousand archers, led by Ivan Lopatin, who approached from above along the Volga, smashed the razinits on the water near Money Island, and some of the tsar's servicemen went over to their side.

However, the Astrakhan governor, Prince Semyon Lvov, was already waiting for the Cossacks on the Volga with his archers. The meeting of the parties took place at Black Yar. But the battle did not happen here: the Astrakhan servicemen rebelled and went over to the opposing side.

From Black Yar, the Cossack ataman sent detachments up and down the Volga. They took Kamyshinka (now the city of Kamyshin). Relying on the complete sympathy of the common people, Stepan Razin was able to capture the Volga cities of Saratov and Samara without much difficulty. Now the bulk of his army, which had grown to 20,000 poorly armed and organized rebels, were landowner peasants.

Other initial people from the Cossacks, commanders of independent detachments, appeared around Razin. Among them, Sergei Krivoy, Vasily Us, Fyodor Sheludyak, Eremeev, Shumlivy, Ivan Lyakh and Razin’s younger brother Frol stood out.

The first blow was struck at Astrakhan with its stone Kremlin. The flotilla of the rebels now consisted of 300 different river ships, on which there were more than 50 cannons. The Cossack cavalry moved along the river bank. In total, the ataman led about 7,000 people.

Voivode Prince Ivan Prozorovsky was unable to defend the fortified city of Astrakhan. The Razins, supported by an uprising of the urban poor, took it by storm on June 24. The governor was executed: he was thrown from the tower to the ground. From Astrakhan, the rebels moved up the Volga: in the city, Stepan Razin left Usa and Sheludyak as governors, ordering them to tightly protect the city. He himself took about 12,000 people with him. It is believed that somewhere around 8,000 of them were armed with "fire combat".

After Samara was taken, the entire Middle Volga found itself in the fire of a popular uprising. Everywhere, Razin gave the serfs “freedom”, and the “bellies” (property) of the governor, nobles and officials (officials) for plunder. The leader of the rebels was greeted in cities and villages with bread and salt. On his behalf, “lovely letters”-appeals were sent in large numbers in all directions.

In Moscow, they realized the seriousness of the current situation: by order of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the Boyar Duma began to gather military detachments in the region of Stepan Razin’s uprising: rifle regiments and hundreds, local (noble) cavalry, and foreign servicemen. First of all, the tsarist governors were ordered to protect the then large cities of Simbirsk and Kazan.

Meanwhile, the peasant war was growing. Rebel detachments began to appear in places not so distant from Moscow. Due to their spontaneity and disorganization as a military force, the rebels, who destroyed the landowners' estates and boyar estates, were extremely rarely able to provide serious resistance to the military detachments that were sent out by the authorities. On behalf of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Stenka Razin was declared the “thieves’ chieftain.”

Simbirsk governor Ivan Miloslavsky was able to organize the defense of the city. The Razins were unable to take it: part of the garrison (about 4,000 people) took refuge in the local Kremlin. In the battles that took place near Simbirsk from October 1 to October 4, 1670, they were defeated by the tsarist troops, under the command of the experienced governor Prince Yu.A. Dolgorukov.

Stepan Timofeevich Razin himself fought in the front ranks in those battles and was seriously wounded. He was taken from near Simbirsk to the town of Kagalnitsky. Ataman hoped to gather his strength again in his native Don. Meanwhile, the territory covered by the uprising narrowed sharply: the tsarist troops took Penza and “pacified” the Tambov region and Sloboda Ukraine by force of arms. It is believed that up to 100,000 rebels died during the uprising of Stepan Razin.

Suppression of the uprising. Execution

...Having recovered a little from his wounds, Razin decided to take possession of the military capital - Cherkassy. But he did not calculate his strengths and capabilities: by that time, the Cossack elders and the house-loving Cossacks, impressed by the victories of the tsarist commanders, were openly hostile towards him and the rebels and took up arms themselves.

The Razins approached Cherkassk in February 1671, but were unable to take it and retreated to Kagalnik. On February 14, a detachment of Cossack elders led by military ataman Yakovlev captured the Kagalnitsky town. According to other sources, almost the entire Don army, about 5,000 people, set out on the campaign.

In the town of Kagalnitsky, a beating of the rebel golytba took place. Razin himself was captured and, together with his younger brother Frol, was sent under strong guard to Moscow. It should be noted that Ataman Kornilo (Korniliy) Yakovlev was “in Azov affairs” a comrade-in-arms of Stepan’s father and his godfather.

“The Thief Ataman” Stenka Razin was executed in Moscow on Red Square on June 6, 1671. The executioner first cut off his right arm at the elbow, then his left leg at the knee, and then cut off his head. This is how the most legendary Cossack robber in the history of Russia, about whom many popular songs and legends were composed among the people, ended his violent life.

...The name of Stepan Timofeevich Razin has always been remembered in Russian history. Before the revolution, songs were sung and legends were made about him; after the revolution, during the Civil War, the 1st Orenburg Cossack Socialist Regiment, which distinguished itself in battles against the White Army of Admiral Kolchak in the Urals, bore his name. A monument was erected to the Ataman of the rebellious Cossacks in the city of Rostov-on-Don. Streets and squares in different cities of modern Russia are named after him.

1670–1671, leader of a major protest movement of peasants, serfs, Cossacks and urban lower classes in the 17th century.

Born approx. 1630 in the village of Zimoveyskaya on the Don (or in Cherkassk) in the family of a wealthy Cossack Timofey Razin, probably the middle son of three (Ivan, Stepan, Frol). The first document about him is his request for leave to travel to the Solovetsky Monastery in 1652.

In 1658 he was among the Cherkasy Cossacks sent to Moscow to the Ambassadorial Prikaz. In 1661, together with Ataman F. Budan, he negotiated with the Kalmyks to conclude peace and joint actions against the Tatars. In 1662 he became an ataman; in 1662–1663 his Cossacks fought against the Turks and Crimeans and took part in the Battle of Molochny Vody on the Crimean Isthmus. He returned to the Don with rich trophies and prisoners.

In 1665, the governor and prince. Yu.A. Dolgorukov hanged Razin’s elder brother Ivan for leaving without permission with the Cossacks to the Don during the Russian-Polish War. Stepan decided not only to avenge his brother, but also to punish the boyars and nobles. Gathering a “gang” of 600 people, he set off in the spring of 1667 from the Zimoveysky town near Tsaritsyn up the Don, along the way robbing government plows with goods and the houses of rich Cossacks. The enterprise was called a “campaign for zipuns” and was a violation of the promise given by the Don Cossacks to the Moscow authorities to “stop theft.” “Vataga” quickly grew to 2 thousand people. on 30 plows. Having captured Yaik by cunning, Razin executed 170 people who saw in his army a “horde of thieves” and replenished the “band” with sympathizers from the local population.

Having established a camp between the rivers Tishini and Ilovnya, he reorganized the “army”, giving it the features of a regular one, divided into hundreds and dozens, led by centurions and tens. Anyone who met his “band” and did not want to go with her was ordered to be “burned with fire and beaten to death.” Despite the cruelty, he remained in people's memory as generous, friendly, and generous to the poor and hungry. He was considered a sorcerer, they believed in his strength and happiness, and called him “father.”

In 1667–1669, Razin made a Persian campaign, defeating the fleet of the Iranian Shah and gaining experience in the “Cossack war” (ambushes, raids, outflanking maneuvers). The Cossacks burned villages and hamlets of the Dagestan Tatars, killed residents, and destroyed property. Taking Baku, Derbent. Reshet, Farabat, Astrabat, Razin took prisoners, among them was the daughter of Meneda Khan. He made her a concubine, then dealt with her, proving the ataman’s prowess. This fact was included in the text of the folk song about Stenka Razin, but already at that time legends about the “bewitched by a bullet and a saber” destroyer of other people’s property, about his strength, dexterity and luck, were spreading everywhere.

In August-September 1669, having returned to the Don, he and his “comrades” built a fortress on the island - the town of Kagalnik. On it, Razin’s “gang” and he himself distributed the spoils of war, inviting him to join the Cossack army, enticing him with wealth and prowess. The Moscow government's attempt to punish the obstinate people by stopping the supply of grain to the Don only added to Razin's supporters.

In May 1670, at the “larger circle”, the ataman announced that he intended to “go from the Don to the Volga, and from the Volga to Rus'... in order... to remove the traitorous boyars and duma people from the Moscow state and the governors and officials in the cities ", give freedom to "black people".

In the summer of 1670 the campaign turned into a powerful peasant war. The rumor about Tsarevich Alexei (actually deceased) and Patriarch Nikon walking with Razin turned the campaign into an event that received the blessing of the church and the authorities. Near Simbirsk in October 1670, Stepan Razin was wounded and went to the Don. There, together with his brother Frol, on April 9, 1671, the “homely Cossacks” led by Kornil Yakovlev were handed over to the authorities. Brought to Moscow, Stepan was interrogated, tortured and quartered on June 6, 1671.

The image of Razin inspired V.I. Surikov to paint the canvas Stepan Razin(1907, Russian Museum). Razin was imprinted in the people's memory in the name of the cliff and tracts on the Volga. His personality is reflected in the novels of S. Zlobin ( Stepan Razin), V. Shukshina ( I came to give you freedom...).

Natalia Pushkareva

APPENDIX. “BEAUTIFUL LITERATURES” BY STEPAN RAZIN

1. Certificate from Stepan Timofeevich from Razin. Stepan Timofeevich writes to you of all the mob. Who wants to serve God and the sovereign, and the great army, and Stepan Timofeevich, and I sent out the Cossacks, and you would like to get out the traitors and get out the worldly crapists.

AND<...>my Cossacks will begin to repair the fishery, and you<...>go to their council, and the enslaved and imprisoned would go to the regiment with my Cossacks.

2. From the Don and Yaitsk atamans of Molottsy, from Stefan Timofeevich and from the entire great army of the Don and Yaitsky, designate for the Tsyvilsky district pink villages and villages of the black Russian people and Tatars and Chuvash and Mordovians. You would stand more, Russian people and Tatars and Chuvyashas, ​​for the house of the Most Holy Theotokos and for all the saints, and for the Great Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich<...>(t), and for the faithful princes, and for the faith of Orthodox Christians. And if not from Tsyvilsk to you, to the black people, the Russian people and Tatars and Chuvasha and Mordovians, the deportees in the Tsyvilskaya district in the village and villages will and will begin to drive into a siege to stand in Tsyvilsk, and you, the black people, should not go to the siege in Tsyvilsk , because he will perpetrate deceit on you, he will cut you all down during the siege. And you should catch those civilian extortionists and bring them to the army in Sinbirsk. And those noblemen and children of the boyars and the Murzas and the Tatars, who at the same time also wanted to stand for the house of the Most Holy Theotokos and for all the saints and for the great sovereign and for the faithful princes, and for the faith of the Orthodox Christians, and you, the mob, those nobles and the children of the boyars and the Murzas and Tatars cannot be touched by anything and their houses cannot be destroyed. And from the military memory, you, the mob, should copy and give lists of villages to the church clerk and sexton, word for word. And after writing them off, give them to the different volosts and villages and villages of Sotsk and village elders and tens, so that they, the district people, would know everything about this high school. Ataman Stepan Timofeevich attached a high seal to this memory. And with this high memory, our High Cossack Akhperdya Murza Kiddibyakov was sent, and you, rabble, should listen to him in everything and not argue. And if you listen to him in nothing, you won’t have to blame yourself.

3. The Great Army of Dansky and Eitsky and Zaporozhye from the atamans from Mikhail Kharitonovich, and from Maxim Dmitrevich, and from Mikhail Kitaevich, and from Semyon Nefediev, and from Artemy Chirskov, and from Vasily Shilov, and from Kirila Lavrentiev, and from Timofey Trofimovich in Chelnavskaya ataman hammer and the entire great army.

We sent the Cossacks of Lysogorsk to you, Sidar Ledenev and Gavrilo Boldyrev, for assembly and council of the great army. And now we are in Tanbov November on the 9th day in osprey, we have a military force of 42,000, and we have 20 guns, and we have half a hundred and more pounds of potions.

And what time will all your memory come to you, and you would welcome the atamans and hammers, having gathered, to come to us to help with guns and potions without any rushing around day and night in a hurry. And the Don Ataman wrote to us from Orzamasu that our Cossacks, Prince Yurya Dolgarukovo, with his entire army, and he had 120 guns and 1500 potions.

Yes, you would be welcome to give birth to the Most Holy Theotokos for the house and for the great sovereign, and for the priest for Stepan Timofeevich, and for the entire Orthodox Christian faith. Then you, hammer atamans, ataman Timofey Trofimov hits you with his forehead.

And if you do not come to us in an assembly for council, you will be executed from the great army, and your wives and children will be cut down, and your houses will be desecrated, and your bellies and livestock will be taken for the armies.

Leader of the Cossacks Stepan Timofeevich Razin, also known as Stenka Razin, is one of the cult figures of Russian history, about whom we have heard a lot even abroad.

The image of Razin became legendary during his lifetime, and historians still cannot figure out what is truth and what is fiction.

In Soviet historiography, Razin appeared as the leader of the peasant war, a fighter for social justice against the oppression of those in power. At that time, Razin’s name was widely used in naming streets and squares, and monuments to the rebel were erected along with other heroes of the revolutionary struggle.

At the same time, historians of the Soviet era tried not to focus attention on the robberies, violence and murders committed by the ataman, since this did not fit into the noble image of the people's hero.

Little is known about the early years of Stepan Razin. He was the son of a fugitive Voronezh peasant Timofey Razi, who found refuge on the Don.

People like Timofey, newly accepted Cossacks who did not have their own property, were considered “bad people.” The only reliable source of income were trips to the Volga, where bands of Cossacks robbed merchant caravans. This kind of, openly criminal, fishing was encouraged by the wealthier Cossacks, who supplied the “golytba” with everything they needed, and in return received their share of the spoils.

The authorities turned a blind eye to such things, as an inevitable evil, sending troops on punitive expeditions only in those cases when the Cossacks completely lost their measure.

Timofey Razia succeeded in such campaigns - he acquired not only property, but also a wife - a captured Turkish woman. The Eastern woman was no stranger to violence, and she accepted her fate, giving birth to her husband three sons: Ivan, Stepan and Frol. However, perhaps the Turkish mother is also just a legend.

Lacquer miniature “Stepan Razin” on the lid of a Palekh box, the work of the artist D. Turin, 1934. Photo: RIA Novosti

Brother for brother

What is known for sure is that Stepan Timofeevich Razin, who was born around 1630, took part in military campaigns from a young age and by the age of 25 had become an influential figure among the Cossacks, just like his older brother Ivan.

In 1661, Stepan Razin, together with Fedor Budan and several Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks negotiated with representatives of the Kalmyks about peace and joint actions against the Nogais and Crimean Tatars.

In 1663, he, at the head of a detachment of Don Cossacks, together with the Cossacks and Kalmyks, went on a campaign against the Crimean Tatars near Perekop.

Stepan and Ivan Razin were in good standing with the Moscow authorities until the events that took place in 1665 during the war with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Painting “Stenka Razin”, 1926. Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev (1878-1927). Photo: RIA Novosti

Cossacks are free people, and at the height of the armed conflict, Ataman Ivan Razin, who did not find a common language with the Moscow governor, decided to take the Cossacks to the Don.

Voivode Yuri Alekseevich Dolgorukov, not distinguished by great diplomatic abilities, he became angry and ordered to catch up with those who had left. When the Cossacks were overtaken by Dolgorukov, he ordered the immediate execution of Ivan Razin.

Stepan was shocked by the death of his brother. As a man accustomed to going on campaigns, he had a philosophical attitude towards death, but death in battle is one thing, and extrajudicial execution at the behest of a tyrant nobleman is quite another.

The thought of revenge was firmly lodged in Razin’s head, but he did not immediately move on to putting it into practice.

Forward “for the zipuns”!

Two years later, Stepan Razin became the leader of a large “campaign for zipuns” to the lower Volga, organized by himself. Under his command, he managed to gather an entire army of 2000 people.

After the death of his brother, the chieftain was not going to be shy. They robbed everyone, effectively paralyzing the most important trade routes for Moscow. The Cossacks dealt with the leading people and clerks and took in the ship's zealous people.

This behavior was daring, but still not out of the ordinary. But when the Razins defeated a detachment of archers, and then captured the Yaitsky town, it already began to look like an outright rebellion. After spending the winter on Yaik, Razin led his people into the Caspian Sea. The chieftain was interested in rich booty, and he headed to the possessions of the Persian Shah.

The Shah quickly realized that such “guests” promised ruin, and sent troops to meet them. The battle near the Persian city of Rasht ended in a draw, and the parties began negotiations. The Shah's representative, fearing that the Cossacks were acting at the behest of the Russian Tsar, was ready to release them on all four sides with booty, if only they would get out of Persian territory as soon as possible.

But in the midst of the negotiations, the Russian ambassador suddenly appeared with the tsar’s letter, which stated that the Cossacks were thieves and troublemakers, and proposed that they should be “put to death without mercy.”

Representatives of the Cossacks were immediately put in chains, and one was hunted down by dogs. Ataman Razin, convinced that the Persian authorities were no better than the Russians in terms of extrajudicial reprisals, attacked and captured the city of Farabat. Having fortified themselves in its environs, the Razins spent the winter there.

How Ataman Razin arranged the “Persian Tsushima”

In the spring of 1669, Razin’s detachment terrified merchants and wealthy people on the Caspian coast of what is now Turkmenistan, and by the summer the Cossack robbers settled on Pig Island, not far from modern Baku.

In June 1669, a Persian army approached Pig Island on 50-70 ships with a total number of 4 to 7 thousand people, led by commander Mamed Khan. The Persians intended to put an end to the robbers.

Razin's detachment was inferior both in numbers and in the number and equipment of ships. Nevertheless, out of pride, the Cossacks decided not to flee, but to fight, and on the water.

"Stepan Razin" 1918 Artist Kuzma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin. Photo: Public Domain

This idea seemed desperate and hopeless, and Mamed Khan, anticipating triumph, gave the order to connect his ships with iron chains, taking the Razins in a tight ring so that no one could hide.

Stepan Timofeevich Razin, however, was an experienced commander and immediately took advantage of enemy mistakes. The Cossacks concentrated all their fire on the Persian flagship, which caught fire and sank to the bottom. Connected by chains to neighboring ships, he began to drag them along with him. Panic began among the Persians, and the Razins began to destroy enemy ships one after another.

The matter ended in complete disaster. Only three Persian ships managed to escape; most of the army died. Was captured by Razin son of Mamed Khan, Persian prince Shabalda. According to legend, his sister was captured along with him, becoming the chieftain’s concubine, and then thrown into the “rushing wave.”

In fact, everything is not easy with the princess. Although its existence was mentioned by some foreign diplomats who described Razin’s adventures, there is no reliable evidence. But the prince was there and wrote tearful petitions asking to be allowed to go home. But with all the freedom of morals in the Cossack freemen, it is unlikely that Ataman Razin made the Persian prince, and not the princess, his concubine.

Despite the crushing victory, it was clear that the Razins would not have enough strength to continue resisting the Persians. They moved towards Astrakhan, but government troops were already waiting for them there.

Execution of Stepan Razin. Hood. S. Kirillov. Photo: Public Domain

War with the regime

After negotiations, the local governor, Prince Prozorovsky, received the ataman with honor and allowed him to go to the Don. The authorities were ready to turn a blind eye to Razin’s previous sins, if only he would calm down.

Stepan Timofeevich Razin, however, was not going to calm down. On the contrary, he felt strength, confidence, support from the poor, who considered him a hero, and believed that the time had come for real revenge.

In the spring of 1670, he again went to the Volga, now with the explicit goal of hanging governors and clerks, robbing and burning the rich. Razin sent out “charming” (seductive) letters, urging people to join his campaign. The ataman had a political platform - he stated that he was not an opponent Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, but opposes, as they would say now, “the party of swindlers and thieves.”

It was also reported that the rebels allegedly joined Patriarch Nikon(who was actually in exile) and Tsarevich Alexey Alekseevich(by then deceased).

Within a few months, Razin's campaign turned into a full-scale war. His army took Astrakhan, Tsaritsyn, Saratov, Samara, and a number of smaller cities and towns.

In all cities and fortresses occupied by the Razins, the Cossack system was introduced, representatives of the central government were killed, and office papers were destroyed.

All this, naturally, was accompanied by widespread robberies and extrajudicial reprisals, which were no better than what Prince Dolgorukov committed against Razin’s brother.

Features of Cossack solidarity

In Moscow, they felt that things were smelling of something fried, of new turmoil. The whole of Europe was already talking about Stepan Razin, foreign diplomats reported that the Russian Tsar did not control his territory. One could expect a foreign invasion at any moment.

By order of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, a 60,000-strong army under the command of Voivode Yuri Baryatinsky. On October 3, 1670, in the battle of Simbirsk, Stepan Razin’s army was defeated, and he himself was wounded. Faithful people helped the ataman return to the Don.

And here something happened that has been repeated many times in history and which speaks very well of the so-called “Cossack solidarity.” The homely Cossacks, who until then had helped Razin and had their share of the spoils, fearing punitive measures from the tsar, on April 13, 1671, seized the ataman’s last refuge and handed him over to the authorities.

Ataman Razin and his brother Frol taken to Moscow, where they were subjected to severe torture. The execution of the rebel was given great national significance - it was supposed to demonstrate that the Russian Tsar knew how to restore order in his possessions.

The archers took revenge for Razin

The uprising itself was finally suppressed at the end of 1671.

The authorities, of course, would like there to be no reminder of Stenka Razin, but the events with his participation turned out to be too large-scale. The chieftain disappeared into folk legend, where he was blamed for outrages, promiscuous relationships with women, robberies and other criminal acts, leaving only the image of the people's avenger, the enemy of the villains in power, the defender of the poor and oppressed.

In the end, the ruling tsarist regime also reconciled. It got to the point that the first domestic feature film “Ponizovaya Volnitsa” was dedicated specifically to Stenka Razin. True, not his hunt for caravans and not the murders of the royal servants, but the same epochal throw of the princess into the river.

And what about the governor Yuri Alekseevich Dolgorukov, whose reckless order began the transformation of Stepan Razin into an “enemy of the regime”?

The prince happily survived the storm created by Stenka, but, apparently, it was not written in his family to die a natural death. In May 1682, an elderly nobleman, who turned 80 years old, and his son were killed by mutinous archers in Moscow.