A very interesting historical figure is Emelyan Pugachev. A brief biography of him is presented in this article.
Life path. Start of activity
He was born in a Cossack family in 1740 or 1742 (opinions differ on this score) in the village of Zimoveyskaya. The biography of Pugachev Emelyan is very interesting to study, because he was the leader of the largest anti-serfdom uprising in the Russian Empire, called the Peasant War.
Pugachev took part in the Seven Years (1760-1762) and the Russian-Turkish (1768-1770) wars. In 1770 he was promoted to coronet. The biography of Pugachev Emelyan says that the next year he fled from service in the North Caucasus and joined the Terek army there. In 1772 he was arrested in Mozdok. However, Pugachev managed to escape. Emelyan spent the spring and summer of that year in wanderings in the Old Believer villages near Gomel and Chernigov, posing as a schismatic. In the fall, he settled at the Volga Old Believers, and then visited the Yayitsky town, where he persuaded the Cossacks to flee to the free territories of the Trans-Kuban.
Biography of Pugachev Emelyan tells that in 1773 he was arrested on a denunciation and brought to Kazan, where he was imprisoned. Pugachev was accused of high treason. This case was considered in the Secret expedition of the Senate in St. Petersburg. Pugachev was sentenced to life in hard labor in the Trans-Ural city of Pelym. Tsarina Catherine II approved the verdict. However, the sentencing document arrived in Kazan three days after Emelyan’s flight. The search did not bring success.
The biography of Pugachev Emelyan testifies that in May 1773 he appeared in the villages of the Yaitsky Cossacks, and in August he assembled a Cossack detachment, which included members of the suppressed riot (1772). It was decided to start a new uprising with the expectation that it would be supported by serfs. This speech was led by Pugachev Emelyan Ivanovich. His biography says that he called himself the murdered emperor Peter III and issued a manifesto in which he endowed the Kalmyks, Cossacks and Tatars who served in the army with all sorts of liberties and privileges.
However, the rebels did not have a well-thought-out program, and their views on the goals of the uprising were limited to the possibility of creating a Cossack-peasant state with a just king at the head. Military operations were opened by a campaign to Orenburg. In December 1773, Pugachev’s army already totaled 86 cannons and 25 thousand people. The army was controlled by the military college that he created. She served as the political center. The basis of the troops were Cossacks.
Fatal errors
Although the course of the uprising showed that Pugachev had organizational skills and military talent, he made serious miscalculations. Instead of going on a campaign to the Volga region, which was about to break out like gunpowder, he engaged in a siege of Orenburg and other fortresses. Because of this, Pugachev narrowed the area of performance and missed the time that was needed to consolidate the forces of the rebels. Although the uprising developed successfully, and a large part of the Orenburg region and the counties of the Tobolsk and Kazan provinces were captured, however, the government did not doze.
At the end of the Russian-Turkish war, hardened in heavy battles and disciplined regular units of the Russian army were freed. The defeat of the rebels was inevitable. Biography of Pugachev Emelyan says that after a series of losing battles he was given to the tsarist authorities by conspirators from his own circle. The Senate sentenced the leader of the uprising and four of his closest associates to death. Pugachev was executed on January 10, 1775 on
Bolotnaya Square (Moscow).