The copper riot is a significant event in the history of Russia, the uprising of the urban poor and the lower classes, which took place in Moscow during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich. The very concept of "copper riot" has become a household word. It is used whenever you need to comment on the depreciation of money and the bankruptcy of the state.
Copper riot: causes and historical situation
The Moscow state waged a long war for Ukraine against the Commonwealth, for which a huge amount of money was spent. There was a shortage of money. At that time, Russia did not yet have its own deposits of precious metals from which money was minted, so they were imported from abroad. The Mint used foreign money to make Russians out of them - pennies, half cents and money.
The situation came to the conclusion that boyar Ordin-Nashchokin proposed a very controversial way: to mint copper money at the face value of silver. In this case, taxes were still collected in silver, but the salary was already issued with new copper coins. Since 1654, copper money was officially put into circulation instead of silver.
At first, everything went as the government intended: new money was accepted at the price of the old silver money. But soon an incredible amount began to produce them, because there were no problems with copper. The minted yards in Moscow, Pskov, Novgorod worked at full capacity. The flow of unsecured money supply swept Russia, so very soon the demand for silver began to grow rapidly, and the purchasing power of copper money fell.
At first, slow and then collapse inflation began. The government refused to accept copper money as taxes, so the old silver coins jumped sharply in price: for one old silver ruble they gave from 15 to 20 new copper ones. Merchants went to the market and brought copper money literally in carts, while copper depreciated every day. The townspeople panicked: nothing could be bought for copper coins , and silver was nowhere to take.
But the government did not want to acknowledge the fallacy of its actions and out of habit began to look for the guilty on the side. Counterfeiters were named the cause of the collapse in inflation. Demonstration courts began to be arranged throughout the country. For the production of "left" coins, then there was only one sentence: cruel execution. According to the Code, the guilty poured hot metal into the throat.
The problem was that almost anyone who knew how to handle metal at least a little could make coins from copper. “Kotelniki and Tin” at that time became enormously wealthy, were able to build stone houses for themselves, and bought expensive goods. After all, everyone had their own small mint. There were more than half a million counterfeit copper coins in Moscow alone.
Copper Riot: Events
On the morning of June 25, 1662, according to the old style, a revealing letter was pasted at a post on the Lubyanka in Moscow, where Rtishchev, Miloslavsky and their guest, Vasily Shorin, were called traitors. In fact, he was charged with communication with the Commonwealth, with which the war was still going on. This accusation was completely groundless, but the people already needed any reason to start the unrest.
A crowd of several thousand people, after reading this message, went to the village of Kolomenskoye - the summer residence of the king. The guards were crushed, and the people broke into the royal court without hindrance. Alexei Mikhailovich ordered Rtischev and Miloslavsky to hide in the chambers of the tsarina, and he went out to the people. And then there was a scene that violated all the foundations and canons of society. The common people surrounded Alexei Mikhailovich, and literally holding on to the buttons of the tsar’s attire, they asked: “Where is the truth?” The conversation was quite peaceful, and the sovereign promised the people to restore order. One of the rebels even "beat hands with the king." After that, the crowd calmed down and began to disperse. The incident seemed to be over. But this day was destined to end differently.
Another crowd at that moment smashed Shorin's house, and forced his young son to write a confession that his father had allegedly sold himself to the Poles and had specially arranged an undertaking with copper money to help the hated enemy. With this “recognition” in their hands, the rebels rushed to Kolomenskoye, taking back those who were already returning from there. At this time, the tsar was about to go to Moscow to investigate the matter. However, the new threats of the rebels led him crazy. From that time, archers and soldiers had pulled themselves from Moscow. And Alexei Mikhailovich gave the order to Artamon Matveev to chop down the rebels.
The real massacre has begun. The crowd was unarmed. People were crushed, drowned in the river, pricked and chopped. More than a thousand people died that day. Over the next days, they intensely searched for participants in the campaign to Kolomenskoye, arrested them, hung them, chopped off their arms and legs, stigmatized them, sent them from Moscow to an eternal settlement. Many of those arrested were forced to write dictated to compare handwriting with that ill-fated leaflet. However, the true instigators were never found.
The copper riot of 1662 was a performance of the real urban lower classes - artisans, peasants, butchers, the local poor. Of the merchants and people of a higher class, no one took part in it. Moreover, they also contributed to the subsequent arrests of the rebels.
As a result of the riot, about three thousand people suffered, and most of them were just a curious crowd.
Copper riot: consequences
The king kept his promise and dealt with the problem of copper money. In 1663, the minted factories in Novgorod and Pskov were closed, and copper money was completely withdrawn from circulation. The chasing of silver money has resumed. And from copper coins it was ordered to melt the boilers or turn them over to the treasury. Copper cash was exchanged for new silver coins at the previous inflation rate of twenty to one, that is, the state officially recognized that the old copper rubles were not provided with anything. They soon began to pay their salaries again in silver.