Modern historians could not determine the exact date when Emelyan Pugachev was born. The only data that has come down to us is the following: during interrogation on November 4, 1774, he said that he was thirty years old. The famous ataman of the peasant war of 1773-1775 was born in the village of Zimovei (region of the Don army). His father was a farmer, his mother came from a Cossack family. In the village, he married Sofya Nedyuzhova.
Immediately after the wedding, Pugachev Emelian was sent to the front. He served in Prussia during the Seven Years War. He received the position of camp ataman from Ilya Denisov. During the Turkish War of 1768-1770, he distinguished himself with amazing courage. After a valiant siege, Bender Emelyan Pugachev received the title of cornet.
Probably due to injuries or illness, the future rebel asks for resignation, but he is denied this. The brave man decides to run. Three times the deserter was caught, but again he was hiding. During the last flight in 1792, Pugachev was near Chernigov, where he met with the Old Believers. From them he moves to Yaik. It is here, in the Cossack village, Emelyan Pugachev raises his first rebellion. It failed, so he was taken into custody. For such a serious misconduct - high treason - he is sentenced to life in hard labor. The sentence is personally signed by Empress Catherine II. But Pugachev runs away again.
The path of a brave soldier again led to the Yaitsky steppes, to a meeting with their twin cities - participants in a failed riot. During these meetings, the Cossacks appropriated him the title of Emperor Peter III, who miraculously survived, and made him the head of a new uprising, which took on unprecedented proportions. After this, the newly-arrived monarch proclaims his own political program, according to which Russia will become a Cossack-peasant state. The country should be ruled by a “peasant king”.
A new war against the empire began on September 17, 1773. The army of the new king was moving eastward, constantly replenished with soldiers. Fugitive soldiers, peasants and Cossacks, numbering about ten thousand people, unquestioningly listened to their chieftain. The rebels besiege and take Orenburg. Emelyan Pugachev establishes his own headquarters, the Military College and the Secret Duma. After the victory over General Kar, the uprising covers neighboring areas: Kazan and Tobolsk provinces. Minions of the movement raise riots in Ufa, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Kungur and Chelyabinsk.
In January 1774, the imperial court sent to suppress the rebellion of General Bibikov. In fierce battles on March 22, 1774, the Golitsyn corps managed to defeat the impostor in the Tatishchev fortress. Failure awaited Emelyan in April near Samara. Ataman flees with the surviving warriors to gather new forces. Emelyan Pugachev, whose biography is full of victories and defeats, is again raising insurrection. But luck turned his back on him. Severe defeats in the Trinity Fortress, near Kazan and Tsaritsyn forced him to retreat. Retreat in order to once again raise the people.
It is not known how long this war would go on if there were no traitors among the servants of the newly appeared king. Exhausted by defeats, they seized the chieftain and handed him over to the authorities. He again tried to escape, but to no avail. Suvorov was personally involved in the delivery of the dangerous criminal to Moscow. Pugachev was brought to the capital in an iron cage under the escort of an incorruptible guard. On January 10, 1775, the daredevil was executed on Bolotnaya Square.