The Uprising of Bulavin

The Cossack revolt of 1707, or Bulavin revolt, the main driving force of which were runaway peasants and Cossacks, was held under the motto of destroying all those who "do untruths" - boyars, voivods, etc.

Peter's desire to quickly change Russia in a short time, turning it into a powerful military power, was very costly for the common people. Many peasants, to avoid the army, abandoned their farms and served the Don in the Cossacks. The situation was tense. Popular uprisings broke out everywhere.

In 1705 the Astrakhan Cossacks uprooted the revolt and executed the voevoda. They were joined by Guryev and the Black Yar. However, the mutiny was suppressed. And on October 9, 1707, an even more powerful riot broke out on the Don, known in history as Bulavin's rebellion.

Ataman Kondraty Bulavin, under whose leadership the detachment of Dolgorukov was destroyed, hid from the "royal" Cossacks in Zaporozhye. However, in early 1708, with the support of the upper Cossack strata, he was able to capture the capital of the Don army - Cherkessk.

The uprising of the Bulavin became extremely dangerous for the tsarist army, retreating throughout the territory. The rebels were supported also by the Cossacks, who began to threaten Azov. Peter sent punitive troops to the Don, who were ordered to exterminate the rebels in any way, since shipyards and, consequently, his pride-the Azov Navy-could remain without labor .

On May 9, a circle was organized in the captured Circassian, in which Bulavin was elected as the Don Ataman. At the same time, a letter was sent from the Cherkessk to the Ambassadorial Order with a proposal to maintain peaceful relations with the tsarist troops. However, the message remains without attention.

Slowly, disagreements begin among the insurgents: the Cherkasski elders, who want to lead the rebellion of Bulavin and direct him to the right direction, are trying to turn the Don ataman into their protege, but after being refused, they decide to eliminate it. But the latter was supported by numerous Cossacks, whose spokesman, in fact, he was.

In the meantime, Bulavin is making an attempt to capture Azov, which ends in failure. Many of his supporters die under the walls of this fortress, and the survivors scatter.

The consequences of this defeat were catastrophic: the Bulavino uprising in Russia no longer represented itself as an organized force that was originally.

The rout of the troops under the walls of Azov completely crossed out all the calculations and intentions of Bulavin. Now there could be no talk of a planned march to Moscow, especially after Hohlach, the right-hand man and the sergeant-major of the Bulavino army, was arrested, with the help of conspiracy sergeants, without whom the Cossacks did not pose a threat to the traitors.

It was at this time that the foreman, convinced of the small number of loyal Cossacks to the Bulavin, treacherously attacked the ataman. They acted quickly and quickly, isolating him and the small companions in his own house. To help from the side did not have to count.

On the number of participants in the conspiracy there is not even an approximate information, but traitors and traitors obviously had a tangible numerical advantage.

Bulavin and his supporters took up defensive positions in the house of the former ataman Maximov. It was here that on July 7, 1708, the life of the leader of one of the popular uprisings of Kondraty Bulavin ended.

Characteristic is the fact that a group of Yatsk rich Cossacks also acted in a similar way, exactly sixty years later, issued Emelian Pugachev to the authorities, whom he supported for a long time.

The rebellion of Bulavin had one important feature: it, unlike the Pugachev and Razinsky rebellions, did not bear a tsarist, monarchical character and did not oppose the "good king" of "unkind boyars". This was a peasant-Cossack anti-feudal movement, whose aim was to fight feudal exploitation.