Stepan Timofeevich Razin was born in 1630, as we know from reading the works of Streis, a traveler from the Netherlands. They had several meetings. In 1670, the writer noted in his work that his interlocutor began to approach his fifth decade. We will learn a lot of interesting things about this further from the article.
Speculation regarding his birth
The Don coast became the first home that Stepan Timofeevich Razin had. A biographical certificate does not provide more accurate information. There is a version that is the most reliable and says that he was born in the Zimoveyskaya village. Now this land has been given the name Pugachevskaya.
Some researchers have refuted this version. There is still a lot of speculation surrounding the birthplace of Stepan Timofeevich Razin. His biography may vary from different authors. So, some claim that he was born in Cherkassk, which is now located in the Rostov region. So was Stepan Timofeevich Razin really from the family of Circassian sultans? Folk legends differ from each other.
A number of other settlements, such as Esaulovsky or Kagalnitsky, are also called his place of birth. However, Cherkasy is called its homeland.
Life
Stepan Timofeevich Razin attracted the attention of many people for a long time. Folklore and the beginnings of Russian cinema were formed around his personality. In the West, Stenka became the first Russian on whom a dissertation was defended just a few years after his death.
Razin Stepan Timofeevich died before reaching old age. Around 1630-1671 lived and accomplished his exploits. He and his family became the subject of folk works, in which new details were introduced, making him an almost fairy-tale character.
Before the uprising happened
Timofeevich is quite interesting. The main dates of his life begin in 1652. At that time, he was an ataman and, by virtue of his powers, represented the Don warriors. Razin Stepan Timofeevich is a Cossack who even then had rich experience in military affairs and enjoyed the respect of his brothers in arms. Even in his early years, he already had the makings of a leader.
Stepan Timofeevich Razin fought in the company of his older brother Ivan as part of the Don Army. The year 1661 is significant in that negotiations were conducted with the Kalmyks. The warrior's companion was Fyodor Budan, as well as Cossacks from the Don and Zaporozhye. The establishment of peace and general steps to expel the Tatars and Nogais from Crimea were discussed.
The year 1663 is recorded in the chronicles as the moment when Stepan Timofeevich Razin led the Don and Kalmyks against the warriors from the Crimea who were near Perekop.
In 1665, the chieftain's brother was executed by Dolgorukov. This happened when a conflict broke out, during which the soldiers wanted to go to the Don, despite the tsar's service. Stepan Timofeevich Razin was filled with the desire to take revenge on the prince, as well as on the entire circle of the king. He also wanted to get a free and quiet life for his brothers who followed him. Stepan Timofeevich Razin began to hatch great ideas. was supposed to become a model of military and democratic structure for the entire Russian state.
During the uprising
He picked up his movement. The reason for this can be attributed to the aggravated social situation that reigned in the lands of the Cossacks. The epicenter of these processes was the Don. More and more runaway peasants appeared in its vicinity. This influx can be explained by the year 1647. The people were in complete captivity, tied hand and foot by the nobility.
Why was this person included in the list of “Great People of Russia”? Razin Stepan Timofeevich gave people the opportunity to breathe more freely, to become Cossacks, free warriors. At that time, everyone wanted to stop feeling like a drag force. And this opportunity was given by Stepan Timofeevich Razin. The biography of the Don Cossack does not recall that he had much property or family connections that many other governors had. On the territory of the region he lived on equal terms with others. The term “golutvenny” Cossack was applied to him. He stood apart from the old-timers, felt affection for the common people, did not have significant property, and did not boast of titles.
Who is Stepan Timofeevich Razin? He is both a hero and a robber. He was a savior to his loved ones and a natural disaster to those he attacked. Together with the Golytba, he went to the Volga for the purpose of robbery. At that time he needed fame and material resources. The richer and more famous Cossacks sponsored these campaigns with the condition of subsequent division of the loot. All armies - Yaik, Don and Terek - were involved in these operations.
Razin Stepan Timofeevich from the family of Egyptian sultans became the center around which the poor gathered, thanks to which they could feel like important and necessary people, being an integral part of the Cossack army.
The popular mass grew rapidly and became increasingly visible thanks to fugitive serfs who wanted to join the uprising.
The year 1667 was the moment when Razin led the Cossacks. In the spring, about 700 soldiers gathered for the Volga-Don transport. New rebels were also added, so that there were already two thousand of them. They passed near the Volga and Yaik. The goal was to express disagreement with the policies of Moscow's rule and to blockade the trade route that passed through the river. The royal commanders responded to the call and a clash occurred.
Growing strength of the Cossacks
Stepan Timofeevich Razin devoted the years of his life to many campaigns, and this was one of the most important. It began in May 1667. His army went to the Volga. The fleet of Shorin, a guest of the country, as well as other merchant figures, was located near Tsaritsyn. Patriarch Joseph also stationed several of his ships here, which he later regretted. Stenka and the robbers attacked the ships, plundered them, and carried out bloody reprisals against the clerks and heads of the courts.
By and large, the Cossacks were often engaged in robbery. However, later simple theft grew into an uprising; they opposed the government, defeated the Streltsy and took the Yaitsky town. The winter was spent on the territory of Yaik. When 1668 began, the Caspian Sea became the new battlefield. More and more Don Cossacks, Cherkassy and residents from other districts of Russia arrived. A battle took place against the Shah's forces near Rashta, a city of the Persians.
It was a tough fight that ended in negotiations. During this process, Shah Suleiman was visited by the messenger of the Tsar of Russia and reported that the thieves' detachments were going to sea. The Persians were called upon to defeat the Razins. It was then that the negotiations broke down. The Cossacks were chained. One of them died from being bullied by dogs. The rebels had no choice but to take Farabat and stay there for the winter, fenced off from the enemy troops.
Legendary Events
The year 1669 came, several battles were held on the territory of the “Trukhmensky lands”. There the life of Razin’s friend, a Cossack nicknamed Crooked, was interrupted. When the army reached Skina Island, they were attacked by the Shah's sailors, commanded by Mamed Khan. They fought to the death.
The enemy linked his fleet with a chain and surrounded the Don army, but the strategy did not justify itself. The enemy's flagship ship sank. Then the Razins dealt with the rest of the fleet. They managed to capture the daughter and son of the commander of the Persian naval forces.
Peasants' War
A new decade has arrived. As always, hostilities began in the spring of 1670. A trip to the Volga was made again. Now it was not just robbery, but a real uprising, which was positioned under precisely this status. Everyone who wanted freedom and freedom was called up by Razin to serve.
The ataman’s goals were not to overthrow the tsar, but he wanted to overcome the then system, which made cattle out of peasants. It was planned to eliminate the highest ranks, personified by clerks, governors and clergymen who allegedly betrayed the royal power. A rumor was spread about the presence of Tsarevich Alexei among the Razinites, who in fact had been dead since January.
They also claimed to have power over life. In reality, he simply went into exile. The Razins occupied fortresses and cities, introduced their own system there, dealt with local rulers, and destroyed documents. If they came across a merchant on the Volga, they grabbed him and robbed him.
“Certificate from Stepan Timofeevich, from Razin” - that was the title at that time of the document that was sent to the mob. It was proposed to serve God and the state, as well as support the army and its leader, and hand over all traitors and people who drink the blood of the people. It was necessary to come to the council of the Cossacks.
The peasants rebelled en masse and accompanied the ataman during his Volga campaign. The local areas were recently enslaved and ordinary people did not agree to put up with imprisonment. The battles were fought under the leadership of the Cossack commanders of these places. The fighting began with the Mari, Tatars, Chuvash and Mordovians.
Tsaritsyn was captured, as well as Samara, Astrakhan was taken, Saratov and other fortresses were subjugated. In the fall of 1670, the siege operation near Simbirsk ended in failure. The king sent an army of 60 thousand people to these places in order to suppress the popular upsurge. The Razins were defeated as a result of the battle near Simbirsk.
The governor then was Yuri Baryatinsky. Razin himself was seriously wounded, and trusted people took him to the Don. For some time his refuge was the town of Kagalitsky. It was from there that he set out on a campaign a year earlier. The chieftain still cherished plans to gather a new army. The situation was escalating, and the king’s anger was no longer an illusory threat. Military ataman Yakovlev Kornila and other Cossacks betrayed their leader, surrendering him on April 13, 1671 during the assault on Kagalitsky. Razin was given to Russian troops.
Captivity and death
The month of April 1671 was remembered for the fact that the ataman and Frolk’s brother, who was younger than him, found themselves in the hands of the tsar’s henchmen. They were captured. They were received by Grigory Kosogov, the steward, and Andrey Bogdanov, the clerk.
The rebels were brought to Moscow in the middle of June and were brutally tortured. That same month, Stepan was led to the scaffold and quartered. The whole square witnessed this. The sentence was long. The rebel listened calmly. His farewell gesture was to bow in front of the church. The executioner first cut off his right arm up to the elbow. Then the left leg was cut off at the knee, and finally the head. Before Stepan was beheaded, his brother Frol tried to beg for mercy, but he received only a short reprieve of death. He was executed there and in the same way.
The military operations in the Volga region did not end there. The leaders of the Cossacks were Vasily Us and Fyodor Sheludyaka. Astrakhan was taken from the Razins by government troops only in November 1671. It was a particularly brutal fight that ended the standoff.
Attention from abroad
European politicians closely watched Razin's actions. The most important trade routes were at stake in this battle. They connected Europe with Persia and Russia. At that time, rebel battles took place in parallel in Germany, England and the Netherlands. In these countries, articles and books were published about the adventures of the chieftain. Some had fantastic details along with important data.
Foreigners watched as the Cossack was brought to the capital as a prisoner and executed. It was especially beneficial for the king to show that power was completely in his hands, and no one could shake it. Moreover, some kind of bandit, coming from a poor background.
Although the victory was not yet final, the death of the Cossack leader still looked very impressive. One of the literary works on this topic is “Three Voyages”, which was written by Jan Streis. He witnessed the uprising and visited the territory controlled by Razin. To create this story, we used our own observations and materials that the writer gleaned from information presented by other authors.
Scientific and literary works
In 1674, within the walls of the Wittenberg Institute, historians defended a work that told about the exploits of the chieftain. The work was reprinted many times in the 17th and 18th centuries, Pushkin showed great interest in it.
Subsequently, many legends began to be made about the rebel hero. For example, we can read about him in the work “How Stepan Timofeevich Razin left the prison.”
Folk songs were composed about the ataman in Russia. In some, he was idealized as a hero winning epic battles. Sometimes the image was identified with Ermak Timofeevich, another famous Cossack who conquered Siberia. There are more accurate works that dryly present documentary facts, biography and historical events.
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin dedicated three of his works to Razin. D.M. also wrote about him. Sadovnikov. In 1908, the first Russian-made feature film appeared. They called him “Ponizovaya Volnitsa”. Gilyarovsky V.A. wrote the poem “Stenka Razin”.
Any revolutionary movement needs a strong leader who can put aside fear and lead large masses. Against the backdrop of general enslavement, people needed a person who could gather and organize them in order to achieve general freedom. Stepan Razin made the Cossacks a real family, a united force that fought for their rights. It is this way, fearless and purposeful, that he comes to us from the pages of history. Even on his deathbed, he did not show a single sign of fear and adhered to his views until his last breath. It was these traits and actions that made him a significant historical figure and hero of folklore.
STEPAN RAZIN
To all those who disobey the royal will, disgrace and an oath from the church, revenge and execution from the synclite and the state, an oath and execution to every rebel, inquisitive schismatic who dares to contradict the act of the conciliar and sway the minds of people with evil rumors, no matter who he is, whether he is a priest or a boyar , Duma or military, citizen or nobleman: may his memory perish forever!
From the Electoral Certificate of Boris Godunov
Painting pictures of all the Russian riots and everyone executed during them is a difficult and thankless task; there were too many of the first and second, and law and order were not always observed during the repressions. In a word, they hanged, one might say, right and left, without trial or investigation... However, in our history there are extraordinary personalities who cannot be ignored on the pages of our research.
The entire structure of Rus' in the 17th century - the ferocity of the laws, the lack of rights of the people, the consolidation of the bondage of the peasants - everything provided food for popular discontent. Towns and villages were subject to countless duties; moreover, any folk crafts and crafts were subject to many different duties. The greed of the governors and the arbitrariness of officials increased the difficult situation of the people.
In Russian legal proceedings everything depended on the arbitrariness of the authorities. People convicted or robbed by officials fled to the free Cossacks, they sympathized with them and saw hope in them.
In 1665, Prince Yuri Dolgoruky was on a campaign against the Poles. His army included detachments of Don Cossacks. Autumn was coming. The chieftain of one of the Cossack detachments, Razin, came to the prince, hit him with his forehead and asked to release the Don people to the free Don. The prince ordered him to remain in service. None of the military men dared to leave service without the permission of their superior, but the Cossacks, even in the service, considered themselves free people. The chieftain left without permission with his village, but they were caught up, and Dolgoruky condemned the chieftain to death. He had two brothers. Stepan, or Stenka, and Frol, or Frolka. They saw their elder brother hanged.
It is not known whether Stenka left immediately or served out his term, but the next year he decided not only to avenge his brother, but also to strike fear into all the boyars and noble people of the Moscow State, whom the Cossacks generally could not stand.
Stenka put his gang on 4 plows and in April sailed up the Don. Along the way, the gang robbed rich Cossacks and destroyed their houses.
Between the rivers Tishini and Ilovni, Stenka chose a high place and set up his camp there. “Stenka is standing on high hillocks, and all around him there is hollow water: there is no way to walk, or drive, or see how many of them there are, there is no way to catch a tongue, but it seems that there will be a thousand people, and maybe even more.” .
Soon a rumor spread throughout Tsaritsyn that Cossack thieves were gathering on the Don and wanted to cross to the Volga, attack Tsaritsyn, take ships there and sail down the Volga. This turned out to be not an idle rumor. Soon the “horde of thieves” left their camp and moved to the Volga. Stepan Razin's army was divided into hundreds and dozens; A centurion was in charge of a hundred, and a foreman was in charge of a ten. Razin himself was their chieftain.
In the spring, Razin's gang began to rob caravans. The ataman robbed with bizarre cruelty: he would kill some without reason, spare others without reason; in one place he will take everything, in another he will not touch anything. Having obtained the ship's guns and collected supplies, Razin headed across the water to Tsaritsyn. The city surrendered without firing a shot. In the last days of May, Stenka went to Yaik. He had 30 plows and up to 1,300 troops; by cunning he captured Yaik and executed 170 people. There he replenished the army from the local population; those who did not want to go with him, Stenka “burned with fire and beat to death.”
By sea, the Cossacks headed to the shores of Dagestan. The Cossacks mercilessly mocked the Dagestan Tatars - they burned villages and hamlets, killed residents, and destroyed their property. So they reached Baku, here they managed to ravage the city, kill many residents, take prisoners and lose no more than seven people killed and two wounded. Meanwhile, a fleet was built in Persia to calm Stenka. A battle ensued. The Persian ships were sunk and captured, only three ships left with the khan, but the Cossacks captured his son and beautiful daughter. Stenka took a Persian princess as his wife. However, victory was not easy for the Cossacks - about 500 people were killed in the naval battle. It was necessary to return to the Don. The Cossacks were returning along the Volga back through Astrakhan. The Astrakhan authorities were preparing to meet the Cossacks much more mercifully than they deserved. The governors issued a letter in advance on behalf of the tsar, which granted forgiveness to the Cossacks if they confessed. It turned out that Stenka in some way repaid Persia for the insults inflicted on Russia, but Russia did not violate the agreement with Persia, and blamed the devastation of its shores on the willful Cossacks. Stenka and his faithful companions arrived in Astrakhan and, as a sign of obedience, placed his horsetail - a symbol of power - in the official hut. The Cossacks gave the authorities five copper and 16 iron cannons, gave up the khan's son, one Persian officer and three Persian nobles.
Legends say that Stenka, in a fit of his devotion to the great sovereign, said that the Cossacks were presenting to his royal majesty the islands that they had conquered with a saber from the Persian Shah.
Going to the Don, Razin chose a place between the Kagalnitskaya and Vedernikovskaya villages, on the island. There he built the town of Kagalnik and ordered it to be surrounded by an earthen rampart. The Cossacks built themselves earthen huts.
Word of his fame spread everywhere; nakedness ran towards him from everywhere; Cossacks from the supreme villages and people walking from the Volga ran to him; his fame reached Ukraine. A month later there were 2,700 people in his army. He was generous and friendly, giving to the poor and hungry. They called him father, considered him a sorcerer, they believed in his intelligence, strength and happiness.
He didn't rob anyone, and it was much worse. “And Stenka constantly orders his Cossacks to be ready, and what is his idea, the Cossacks know about it, but are silent.” Stenka said that the time had come to go against the boyars, and called the army with him to the Volga. The boyars were hated by many, but the name of the king was sacred. Stenka went the furthest - he became an enemy of the church.
“What are churches needed for? What do you need butts for? - said Stenka. “Does it really matter: stand in a couple near a tree and dance around it - and then you get married!”
In May, Stenka sailed up the Don to Tsaritsyn and took it by storm.
He told the townspeople: “We are fighting against the traitorous boyars, for the great sovereign!” Astrakhan governors began to gather troops against the rebel. This time Razin’s army already had from 8 to 10 thousand sabers.
As Stenka speaks to his comrades:
“This is really something, brothers,
I'm sick and tired
Today is my day
Is it sad?
I'll go to Astrakhan -
I'll burn you out, I'll cut you out,
Astrakhan voivode
I will take it to court."
Stenka was approaching Astrakhan, and nature threatened with ominous omens. Heavy rains and hail began; the cold set in, and three pillars played in the sky with a rainbow color - at the top of them there were circles, like crowns.
"The fat is in the fire! Be the wrath of God! - people said.
With the help of Astrakhan traitors, Stenka took the city of Astrakhan without losses. Razin ordered the execution of the 441st person, some were chopped with a sword, others with reeds, others were stabbed with spears. Human blood flowed like a river past the church all the way to the official hut.
Astrakhan was converted to the Cossacks, Razin forced the residents to take the oath ceremony “to the great sovereign and ataman Stepan Timofeevich, to serve the army and bring out the traitors.”
Razin's next prey was Saratov. Thus, in early September, Stenka reached Simbirsk.
Razin's agents scattered throughout the Moscow State, they reached the shores of the White Sea, and sneaked into the capital. In his appeals and speeches, Stenka announced that he was going to exterminate the boyars, nobles, officials, eradicate all power, establish the Cossacks throughout Rus' and make it so that everyone was equal to everyone.
Having trampled upon the church and the supreme power, Razin nevertheless realized that the Russian people still respected them, and decided to hide behind the guise of this respect. He made two vessels: one was covered with red, the other with black velvet. About the first, he spread a rumor that it contained the son of Alexei Mikhailovich, Tsarevich Alexei, who died that same year on January 17, allegedly having fled from the anger of the boyars. In another ship was the deposed Patriarch Nikon. Near Simbirsk, Stenka was defeated for the first time. This brought him down in the eyes of the people. As the winter continued, Razin's rebellion was strangled by the governors. The details of the ataman's arrest are unknown. The sovereign's letters say this in different ways: in one, that Stenka was tied with an iron chain by the Don Cossacks, who handed him over to the royal troops “out of their malice,” in the other, that Stenka was captured by deception.
Stenka and Frolka were brought to Cherkask. Tradition says that the Cossacks were very afraid that Stenka would escape from captivity: they assured that he was a warlock; no prison could hold him, no iron could withstand witchcraft. Therefore, he was chained with a blessed chain and kept in the church vestibule, hoping that only the power of the shrine would destroy his magic. At the end of April, both daring brothers were taken to Moscow.
On June 4, news spread throughout Moscow that the Cossacks were taking Stenka. Crowds of people poured out of the city to look at the monster, whose name had not left the lips of the entire Russian people for so long. Several miles from the capital the train stopped. Stenka was still dressed in his rich dress; there they stripped him of his rich clothes and dressed him in rags. A large cart with a gallows was brought from Moscow. Then they put Stenka on a cart and tied him with a chain by the neck to the crossbar of the gallows, and attached his arms and legs with chains to the cart. Frolka had to run after the cart like a dog, tied with a chain by the neck to the cart.
In such a triumphal chariot, the ataman of the thieves' Cossacks rode into the capital of the Moscow sovereign, which he threatened to burn to the ground. He followed with a cool look, lowering his eyes, as if trying to hide what was in his soul. Some looked at him with hatred, others with compassion. Without a doubt, there were those who would have wished a different entry for this man, who had been the idol of the mob for so long.
They were brought straight to the Zemsky Prikaz, and interrogation immediately began. Stenka was silent. He was taken to torture. The first torture was a whip - a thick belt strip as thick as a finger and five cubits long. The criminal's hands were tied back and lifted up, then his legs were tied with a belt; one executioner sat on a belt and stretched the body so that the arms came out of their joints and became level with the head, and the other executioner beat the victim on the back with a whip. The body swelled, burst, and ulcers opened, as if from a knife. Stenka received about a hundred such blows, and, of course, the executioner showed no compassion for such a defendant. But Stenka did not let out a groan. Everyone standing around him marveled at his endurance.
Then they tied his hands and feet, passed a log through them and laid him on burning coals. Stenka was silent.
Then they began running a hot iron over the beaten, burned body. Stenka was silent.
They gave him a rest and began to take care of Frolka. Weaker, he began to scream in pain. “What a woman you are! - said Stenka. - Remember our previous life; We have lived for a long time in glory, we have commanded thousands of people: now we must cheerfully endure misfortune. What, does it really hurt? It’s like a woman injected me!”
They began to torture Stenka with another torture. They shaved the top of his head and left his temples. “That's it! - Stenka said to his brother. “We have heard that learned people put crowns on their heads, but we, brother, you and I are simpletons, but they give us such honor!” They began to pour drops of cold water onto the top of his head. It was a torment that no one could resist; the strongest natures lost their presence of mind. Stenka endured this torment and did not make a single sound.
His whole body was an ugly, purple mass of blisters. Out of frustration that nothing bothered him, they began to hit Stenka in the legs as hard as they could. Stenka was silent.
Tradition says that, sitting in prison and awaiting his last mortal torment, Stenka composed a song, now known everywhere, in which he, as if as a sign of his glory, bequeathed to be buried at the crossroads of three roads of the Russian land:
“Bury me, brothers, between three roads:
Between Moscow, Astrakhan, glorious Kyiv;
Place a life-giving cross in my heads,
Place a sharp saber at my feet.
Whoever passes or drives by will stop,
Will he pray to my life-giving cross?
My saber, my sword is afraid:
What lies here, a daring, good fellow,
Stenka Razin Timofeev by nickname!
On June 6, 1671, he was taken to the execution site along with his brother. Many people flocked to the bloody spectacle. They read a long sentence, which outlined all the crimes of the accused. Stenka listened calmly, with a proud look. At the end of the reading, the executioner took him by the arms. Stenka turned to the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary (St. Basil), crossed himself, then bowed on all four sides and said: “Forgive me!”
It was placed between two boards. The executioner first cut off his right arm at the elbow, then his left leg at the knee. During this suffering, Stenka did not utter a single groan, did not show a sign that he was feeling pain. He, according to a contemporary, seemed to want to show the people that he was taking revenge with proud silence for his torments, for which he was no longer able to avenge himself with weapons. The terrible torture of his brother finally deprived Frolka of courage, who saw what awaited him in a few minutes. “I know the sovereign’s word!” - he shouted.
“Be quiet, dog!” - Stenka told him.
Those were his last words. The executioner cut off his head. His body was cut into pieces and impaled on stakes, as was his head, and his entrails were thrown to the dogs to be eaten.
The years of Stepan Razin’s life coincided with the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, when feudal oppression intensified significantly. The king's quiet disposition, his Christian humility and ability to listen carefully to those close to him were combined with actions that gave rise to riots and uprisings.
In the “rebellious age,” the Council Code was approved and serfdom became the basis of the Russian economy, and the rebellions that flared up everywhere were harshly suppressed by the authorities.
After the Council Code, the serfdom of the peasants worsened: the period for searching for runaway peasants was increased from 5 to 15 years, serfdom became a hereditary condition, and the process of legislative registration of serfdom was completed. The reaction to the tsarist reforms was rebellion. One of these revolts, later called the peasant war, was led by Stepan Razin.
Stepan Razin short biography
Biography of Stenka Razin, according to the prominent Russian historian V.I. Buganov, is based on several surviving documents that came out of the Romanov government camp, or were compiled by associates far from Razin’s main headquarters on the Volga. That is why many facts are deliberately not covered, there is a certain bias and unconcealed lies.
Stepan Timofeevich Razin's brief biography, origin and information about the family are also derived from the memoirs of the Dutch sailing master and traveler Streis Ya.Ya. Based on Astrakhan meetings and conversations with Razin, he wrote in his writings that by 1670 Razin was about 40 years old.
Stepan Razin was born in 1630 in the family of a wealthy and noble Cossack Timofey Razi. It is believed that Stepan was born in the homeland of another famous rebel Pugachev - in the village of Zimoveyskaya, Volgograd region, which has a different name - Pugachevskaya. But this is only one of the many versions of the real homeland, for Stepan Timofeevich Razin’s biography and other information are shrouded in secrets and legends.
The historian A.I. first spoke about the village of Zimoveyskaya as a place of birth. Rigelman in 1778. This version was later picked up by encyclopedic publications. But what Rigelman’s assumption is based on is not known, especially since the town of Zimoveysky itself was first mentioned only after Razin’s death, namely in 1672. Another version about Razin’s birthplace was expressed by the historian Popov in 1814. Popov named the city of Cherkassk as Stepan’s homeland, and in folk legends of the 17th century this city is mentioned.
Stepan's godfather was Kornila Yakovlev, who was a military chieftain. Cossack origins gave significant privileges to young Stepan, and from a young age he took a prominent place among the Don elders. In 1661, Razin already participated in negotiations with the Kalmyks as a translator, since he knew both the Kalmyk and Tatar languages well. By 1662, Stepan became the commander of the Cossack army, which went on a campaign against the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate. By this time, Razin had managed to make two pilgrimages to the Solovetsky Monastery and three Don embassies to Moscow. In 1663 he took part in the campaign near Perekop against the Crimean Tatars.
Characteristics of Stepan Razin
By 1661, Stepan had extensive military experience and well-deserved authority among the Don Cossacks. He had ebullient energy and a rebellious disposition. The same Jakub Streis from Holland described him as a tall and sedate man, endowed with a naturally arrogant expression. Razin was so easy to communicate with that he could be distinguished from the rest only by the honor shown to him: when talking with him, they usually knelt down and lowered their heads low to the ground. Among the Cossacks Stepan was called “father”. It is unknown whether Razin had a wife and children. But there is information about a family living in the town of Kagalnitsky.
Stepan's brothers, the elder Ivan and the younger Frol, were also Cossack leaders. Execution of elder brother Ivan by order of voivode Yu.A. Dolgorukov. influenced Stepan so much that he began to hatch a plan of revenge against Dolgorukov and the entire tsarist administration. For the Cossacks under his command, Stepan wished for freedom and a prosperous life. Razin decides to extend the Cossack military-democratic system to the entire state.
Predatory Campaign
The Cossack golytba under the command of Razin made a predatory campaign to the lower Volga and to Persia (1667-1669). The “zipun trek” and the robbery of a trade caravan were characterized as a sign of disobedience to the government. His other task was to completely block the way for traders to the Volga. As a result, some of the exiles were released, and the chiefs of the Streltsy service were killed. But such a free spirit had to be quickly pacified by a detachment of military personnel. The Cossacks successfully avoided a collision and captured the town near the Yaik River without fighting.
Razin then settled in the town of Kagalnitsky near the Don. Cossacks and fugitives began to arrive here in large numbers. Stepan's personality is surrounded by legends. The tsarist government sought to disperse the unruly Cossacks, but this only added to Stepan’s supporters. The ranks of the rebels were rapidly growing.
Stepan Razin in brief: Cossack demands or a naive dream of equality
Speaking under the banner of the great war, the Razinites naively thought about protecting Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich from the Moscow boyars surrounding him. One of Razin’s letters says that the Don Cossack army came out from the Don to serve the Tsar, so that he would not die from the traitor boyars. At the same time, the Razinites did not recognize the accession of Alexei Mikhailovich as legal, speaking disparagingly towards the authorities. But they were ready to fight for the king.
An open uprising began with a campaign on the Volga in 1670. Razin and his associates began sending out “charming” letters calling on everyone who was seeking freedom to join the ranks. Razin did not talk about the overthrow of the tsar, but declared war on the governors, clerks, and representatives of the church, considering them traitors to the tsar. Soon there was a rumor that among the rebels were: Tsarevich Alexei Alekseevich, who actually died in Moscow in 1670, and Patriarch Nikon, who was serving exile. The Razins occupied cities one after another, introduced the Cossack system, and killed official representatives of the authorities. Merchants who tried to cross the Volga were detained and plundered.
Mass uprisings swept the Volga region. The leaders were not Razin’s Cossacks, but local peasants: fugitives, representatives of the Volga peoples - Mari, Chuvash, Mordovians. The fugitive nun Alena Arzamasskaya also became a member of the gang. Astrakhan, Tsaritsyn, Saratov and Samara were captured. But by the beginning of September 1670, Razin was unable to complete the siege of Simbirsk after four assaults: having encountered serious resistance from government troops and being wounded, Razin went to the Don. 8-10 thousand rebels are peasants, Tatars, Chuvashs and Mordovians.
Reasons for the unsuccessful siege of Simbirsk:
- Simbirsk was defended by a garrison of five thousand well-trained and armed soldiers;
- Yu. N. Baryatinsky’s detachment was sent to help government troops;
- On October 4, Baryatinsky depicted the “approach” of the next reinforcements, which in fact did not exist;
- Razin abandoned his subordinates and disappeared;
- The rebels left without an ataman were easily defeated, and the Simbirsk garrison was liberated by Baryatinsky’s troops.
- Defeat or betrayal
The chieftain was transported to the Kagalnitsky town. In January 1671, different sentiments spread to the Don: contradictions arose among the lower Cossacks and Razinites, and the influence of the chief ataman fell greatly. Such actions led to the appearance of its own ataman in Cherkassk - Yakovlev. Razin decided to take Cherkassk, but failed. At the same time, in Moscow, Patriarch Joseph Razin was anathematized, which finally freed the hands of the rebel Cossacks: now they acted against their chieftain.
Captivity and execution of Stepan Razin
Cossack elders burned the town of Kagalnitsky in April 1671, and Stepan Razin and his brother Frol were captured and handed over to the Moscow authorities. In Moscow on June 2, Stepan was tortured, but he remained courageous. The public execution of the ataman and Frol was scheduled for June 6. Eyewitness Yakov Reitenfels recalled how Stepan Razin was executed. He said that the tsar feared the outbreak of new unrest, because Bolotnaya Square, where the execution took place, was cordoned off by three rows of soldiers loyal to the tsar. The intersections were also filled with government troops.
Razin listened to the verdict on quartering calmly. Turning towards the church, he bowed four times, and then asked the people gathered in the square for forgiveness. Razin's arm was cut off first at the elbow, then his leg at the knee. Brother Frol, looking at Stepan’s torment, managed to shout: “Word and deed!”, which meant a state secret. Stepan immediately responded: “Be quiet, dog!” and the executioner cut off his head.
Frol promised to tell where Razin’s treasures and treasures were buried. But after unsuccessful attempts to find them on the Don, Frol was executed in 1676.
Legends and traditions about Stepan Razin
Russian folk songs glorify Razin as an ideal Cossack leader, but sometimes his image takes on the features of another heroic figure - the Cossack Ermak Timofeevich, who conquered Siberia. Legends about Stepan Razin and legends about Razin’s treasures are still alive. What are the “addresses” of the treasures?
1. The Razin treasure is kept deep in a cave near the village of Dobrinki.
2. Treasures are hidden in the Durman gorge outside the city of Kamyshin.
3. Razin kept one of the many treasures in Nastina Mountain (on the Don or on the Volga), where his mistress was buried.
4. Treasure hidden near the Siberian province, near the village of Shatromany.
5. Treasure in Tsarev Kurgan near one of the tributaries of the Volga.
The death of Stepan Razin did not bring peace to the royal family. Cossack and peasant wars continued on the Volga and in the Volga region, and the rebels held Astrakhan until November 1671. The Romanovs made a lot of efforts to find and destroy the documents of the rebels. That’s why they delayed Frol’s execution for five years, trying to get information from him about where the Razins hid the documents. Documents about the Razin war disappeared from the archives of Astrakhan and Kazan.
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
In June 1671, the newspaper “Northern Mercury” was published in Hamburg, which began to be quickly bought up by the townspeople. It contained correspondence from the English merchant Thomas Hebdon, who was located in distant Russia, in Moscow. As an eyewitness, he described in detail the execution of Stepan Razin, and did so very quickly, sending correspondence to Europe two hours after the executioner finished his work.
Stenka Razin (from the collection of engravings by P. Ya. Dashkov)
Having thus informed merchants and diplomats that trade with Russia was being resumed, Thomas Hebdon wrote: “The news has undoubtedly already spread throughout the world that a rebel named Stepan Razin, a year ago, became the leader of many Cossacks and Tatars, how he captured the city of Astrakhan and the entire Astrakhan kingdom and committed various other tyrannies, and how, finally, he tried in every possible way to win over the Don Cossacks to his side in order to deliver a strong blow to Moscow.
You should know that the mentioned Don Cossacks pretended that they agreed with him. However, they did this to him out of cunning in order to catch the fox in a trap. Having learned that Razin and his brother were staying in a shelter where he was not afraid of anything, the Cossacks attacked him and captured him and his brother. Last Friday, a thousand archer musketeers brought him here, and today, two hours before As I write this, he was punished as he deserved. He was placed on a seven-foot-tall cart specially put together for the occasion: there Razin stood so that all the people - and there were more than a hundred thousand of them - could see him.
A gallows was built on the cart, under which he stood while he was taken to the place of execution. He was tightly chained with chains: one, very large, went around his hips and down to his legs, the other was chained to his neck. In the middle of the gallows was nailed a board that supported his head; his arms were stretched out to the sides and nailed to the sides of the cart, and blood was flowing from them.
His brother also had shackles on his hands and feet, and his hands were chained to the cart, which he had to follow. He seemed very timid, so the leader of the rebels often encouraged him, once telling him: “You know, we started something that, even with even greater successes, we could not expect a better end.”
This Razin all the time retained his angry appearance of a tyrant and, as was evident, was not at all afraid of death. His Royal Majesty showed mercy to us, the Germans and other foreigners, as well as the Persian ambassador, and we were taken closer, under the guard of many soldiers, so that we could see this execution better than others, and would tell our compatriots about it. Some of us were even splashed with blood. First they cut off his arms, then his legs and finally his head. These five body parts were impaled on five stakes. The body was thrown out to the dogs in the evening. After Razin, another rebel was executed, and tomorrow his brother should also be executed.
I am writing this in a hurry. What else will happen will be announced later. Moscow, two hours after the execution, June 6 (old style) 1671.”
Execution of Stepan Razin. English engraving
Thomas Hebdon must be given credit for the accuracy of his description. A week later, he sent another correspondence to Northern Mercury:
“Another of the main rebels, nicknamed Chertous, died, and his people were defeated near Simbirsk and were forced to retreat... A decree was announced to grant life and mercy to those who themselves surrendered.
It is reliably known that the recently executed rebel was indeed their main rebel, Stepan Razin. His brother’s wounds from torture were healed, and soon he was to be sent to Astrakhan to find the treasures buried there by Stepan.”
“Be quiet, dog!”
And here, after the execution of Stepan Razin on Red Square, an interesting and mysterious action for historians begins. After the executioner dealt with Razin and his henchmen dragged his brother, Frol Timofeevich, to the scaffold, he suddenly shouted in a voice breaking from effort: “The sovereign’s word and deed!” And he said that he knew the secret of Razin’s letters (?) and treasures. Frol's execution was postponed.
According to foreign eyewitness Konrad Sturtzfleisch, Stepan Razin, already transformed into a bloody stump, suddenly came to life and hissed: “Be quiet, dog!” These were Razin’s last words, and Sturtzfleisch wrote them down in Latin letters.
As can be seen from the documents, Frol Razin was brutally tortured two days later in the Konstantin-Eleninsky tower of the Kremlin, and his testimony was reported to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich: “... and he said about the letters that his brother’s thieves’ letters were sent to him from where and all sorts of things that he had, his brother, Stenka, buried them all in the ground... put them in a jug and buried them with tar in the ground on an island along the Don River, on a tract, on a breakthrough, under a willow tree. And the willow is crooked in the middle, and there are dense willows around it.”
Frol Razin’s testimony was immediately reported to the tsar, who showed great interest in Stepan’s treasures, because, according to the governor’s “responses,” “the robber robbed a lot of all sorts of goods” from the boyars and rich people. In the torture chamber, on the rack, screaming from unbearable pain in his dislocated joints, Frol testified that after the defeat of the uprising, the ataman who fled to Kagalnik had a “chest of junk” and jewelry.
Frol's testimony was published by the famous historian N.I. Kostomarov; they are very curious, and a certain psychological detail is visible in them: Constantinople (Constantinopolitan), made by an unnamed master from ivory, apparently really liked Stepan, and he did not want to part with it even in a moment of mortal danger, sending his brother for this treasure.
The news that during the execution on Red Square, Stepan Razin’s brother shouted: “The sovereign’s word and deed,” and that the tsar wanted to find out the location of his treasures, quickly spread among the Moscow people, and then throughout Russia. Legends soon arose about Stenka Razin’s treasures and creepy stories about his enchanted treasures buried in different places on the banks of the Volga.
Historians do not deny the existence of the “treasures of the robber Razin,” but no one has seriously studied this topic. Of course, the rebels took several cities by storm, and at the same time expropriated significant material assets that belonged to the propertied strata, and the question is quite appropriate: where did all the wealth that fell into the hands of Razin go?
How he became a robber
It is known that Stepan’s father, the old Cossack Timofey Razya, a participant in many wars and campaigns against the Turks and “Krymchaks,” died in 1650, when the future ataman was only 19 years old. At the same time, his character, as the old people said, was sharp, cool and unusually courageous, which greatly distinguished him. However, he was also smart, prudent, quick-witted and proactive in military skirmishes. In his native village of Naumovskaya, these qualities were valued.
In the fall of 1652, Stepan submitted a petition to the military chieftain, so that he would release him from the Don Army on a pilgrimage to the Solovetsky Monastery, to the holy saints Savvaty and Zosima. Along the way, he visited Moscow twice and learned Moscow customs. Six years later, in 1658, he was included in the Cossack embassy and he again visited Moscow. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich discussed with the Cossacks important issues related to the defense of the southern borders of the Russian state.
The very fact that Stepan was included in the embassy when he was 28 years old indicates that he was honored and that his authority was great. From surviving documents it is known that Stepan Razin was elected Cossack ataman around 1662 and commanded the Cossacks well in the Battle of Molochnye Vody. In peacetime, he negotiated with Kalmyks, Turks, Tatars and, as people say, he spoke these languages well.
For many years, on trips along the Volga and Kama, I collected legends and tales about Stepan Razin, I have accumulated a lot of them.
In them, the topic of Stepan Razin’s treasures begins with the time of his Persian campaign “for zipuns,” as the Cossacks jokingly called the campaign undertaken in 1667-1669. Then, on plows, with his gang, Stepan moved from Krasny Yar to Guryev, then to Derbent - Baku and further to Persia, to Oresht - Gilan - Farabad; along the eastern coast of the Khvalyn Sea (Caspian) returned to the islands of Duvannoye and Svinnoye near Baku. After a short rest, I proceeded past Astrakhan to the Black Yar on the Don to the Kagalyshtsky town.
As Stepan's plows followed, people's rumors spread ahead of them. There was especially much talk that Stepan Razin left Persia with very great booty.
“Stenka came from the Persian land and began to beat the Astrakhan governor with his forehead: “Write to the Russian Tsar that, they say, I robbed, and now I ask him for mercy.” Stenka had a lot of goods brought from overseas, and the governor’s eyes widened! Whatever the governor sees, he wants everything - this, and that, and the third. He liked Stenka’s fur coat. “Sell,” he says, “the fur coat, give it away, why do you feel sorry for it?”
And the fur coat was treasured, but Stenka won’t give it to him. The governor threatens: “I’ll complain to the king!” Stenka gave him his fur coat with the words: “You are wearing a fur coat, so that it doesn’t cause any noise!”
Capture of Astrakhan by Stepan Razin
And so it happened. Stenka subsequently ruined the whole of Astrakhan (as Astrakhan was called in the 17th century - L, V.), and skinned the governor Prozorovsky like a fur coat, pulling it down to his very heels.”
Stenka took a beauty from the Persian land - the sister of the Iranian Shah. He has mercy on her, and his comrades start laughing: “Apparently,” they say, “she has become more dear to us - you keep fiddling with her!”
So what about Stenka? He took the princess in his arms and into the Volga and threw him, he did not regret it. “Nah,” he says, “I didn’t give you anything!”
Stepan Razin drowns the Persian princess.(Engraving from the book "Three Journeys"
Jan Streis - an eyewitness to the peasant war of Stepan Razin. Amsterdam. 1682)
About Razin's witchcraft
It is interesting that the legend that Stepan is a “charmed man” and invulnerable arose during Razin’s lifetime. The Tsaritsyn voivode wrote to the tsar in 1670: “That ataman and captain Razin’s arquebus and saber take nothing.”
The people said this:
“Stenka had another strength besides human strength - from an early age he sold himself to the evil spirit - he was not afraid of either a bullet or iron; did not burn in fire and did not drown in water. It happened that he would sit in a felt (a felt is a small merchant ship without a deck. - L.V.), sail along the Volga and suddenly rise into the air on it, because he was a warlock.
He was sent to prison more than once, behind bars and locked up. And he will take coal, write a boat on the wall, ask for water to drink, splash this water on the wall - it will become a river! He gets into the boat, calls his comrades - look, Stenka is already on the Volga!
For historians and folklorists, these flights of Razin through the air are quite mysterious. In this regard, it seems very interesting to me the statement of the old beaconman on the Kama, near Perm, which he heard from his grandfathers on the Volga, that the differences gave signals to each other (from bank to bank and to robber plows) with the help of large kites called “ pigeons,” which was perceived by the uninitiated common people as witchcraft.
It must be admitted that the signaling of the Razins with the help of kites largely explains their awareness, and the rapid surprise of the attacks, and the capture of merchant plows on the Volga. Without good communications, it would be difficult to do this: gather an armed gang, organize an ambush, and rush into a boarding battle at the right moment. It is known that the merchants were determined people, well armed, had canisters, and with friendly, well-aimed volleys from their guns they more than once drove away bandits and escaped from their pursuers.
Since ancient times, many peoples have used lit bonfires as a good way of giving signals, say, a warning about military danger. The kite raised into the air had an undoubted advantage. A symbol in the form of a square, triangle, ball, etc. could be sent into the air to a launched kite. Such a coded sign could give brief information about the number of ships (how many, where, from where), tell the time of passage of the “robbery spot”, ambush and much more. However, let's turn to the legends; they contain a lot of interesting things.
“He fought in Persia for two years, gained a lot of wealth, so that it was impossible to count or sweep away. He tossed and turned past Astrakhan, the governors did not want to let him pass and ordered to fire at him from rifles and cannons; Only Stenka was a warlock, so it was impossible to pester him with anything: he knew such a word that cannonballs and bullets bounced off him.
The next year he came to Astrakhan with an army and besieged the city all around. Stenka ordered to fire blank charges and sent word to open the gates for him. Then Metropolitan Joseph was in Astrakhan. He began to reproach Stenka and tell him: “Look, what a hat you have - a royal gift, now for your deeds the Tsar needs to send a gift to your feet - shackles!”
And the Metropolitan began to persuade him to repent and bring his guilt to God and the sovereign. Stenka was angry with him for this and pretended that he had really come to his senses and wanted to repent:
“Okay,” he says, “I’ll repent. Come with me to the cathedral bell tower, I will stand before all the people and bring repentance.”
As they climbed the bell tower, Stenka grabbed the Metropolitan from across and threw him down. “Here,” he says, “is my repentance for you!”
For this, Stepan Razin was cursed with seven cathedrals!”
Historian N.I. Kostomarov recorded an interesting story of Russian sailors returning from “Turkmen captivity from foreign infidel sides” and claiming that they met Stepan Razin in 1858!
“As we escaped from captivity, we passed through the Persian land, along the shores of the Caspian Sea. There are high, terrible mountains above the banks... There was a thunderstorm. We sat down the hill, talking to each other in Russian, when suddenly someone behind us responded: “Hello, Russian people!” We looked back: out of the crack, out of the mountain, an old gray-haired old man, old, ancient, was crawling out - covered in moss.
“Why,” he asks, “do you walk on Russian soil: don’t they light tallow candles there instead of wax candles?”
We tell him: “It’s been a long time, grandfather, we were in Rus', we spent six years in captivity.” “Well, have you been to God’s church for mass on the first Sunday of Lent?” - “We heard.” - “So know, I am Stenka Razin. The land didn’t accept me.”
Ataman's treasures
According to popular belief, it is difficult for a person to get rich from a treasure, since most of them are charmed and without sentences, spells are not given into the hands of a mere mortal.
Stepan Razin's treasures are special, they are hidden in the ground on a human head or several heads. To get them, the treasure hunter must kill a certain, “charmed” number of people, and then the treasure will be obtained without much difficulty.
Sometimes a treasure is buried “for the lucky one,” but this happened rarely. Then the “sign of the treasure” appears in the form of a black cat or dog. In this case, a person must follow such a cat, and when she stops and meows, he must not make a mistake - hit her with all his might and say: “Scatter!” And then you need to dig in this place.
They also say that the conditions of the conspiracy in Stepan Razin’s treasures are too difficult. Here are two such legends.
“Once a ship was sailing along the Volga, and on it there was one sick barge hauler. The owner sees that the barge hauler is unable to work, so he gave him a boat and let him off.
“Go,” he says, “you’ll go out somewhere, but I don’t want to feed you for nothing. Who knows whether you will recover or not.”
And the barge hauler walked along the path into the forest, barely dragging himself. The night has passed, nothing can be seen. Suddenly there seems to be a light flashing ahead. The barge hauler attacked him and went out to the dugout. And in the dugout sits an old man, all hairy and gray-haired.
The barge hauler asked to spend the night - at first he didn’t let him in, but then he said: “Perhaps, spend the night if you’re not afraid.” Burlak thought: “What is there to be afraid of? The robbers have nothing to take from me.” I lay down and fell asleep.
And in the morning the old man says: “Do you know who I spent the night with and who I am?” “I don’t know,” he says. “I am Stenka Razin, a great sinner - I do not know death for myself and here I endure torment for my sins.”
The barge hauler's illness suddenly disappeared - he stood and listened to the old man. And he continues: “Far from here, in the ground with a treasure, a gun is buried, loaded with jumping grass - there is my death. Here’s a certificate for you (plan - L.V.).” And the old man gave a record of a rich treasure - it was buried in the Simbirsk province...” (The mention of the province indicates the time of the appearance of the legend - no earlier than the time of Peter the Great, i.e. the 18th century).
“A treasure was buried in the village of Shatrashany, and there was so much treasury in it that, according to the barge hauler’s tale, it was possible to burn out the Simbirsk province forty times and rebuild it forty times better than before. Everything was spelled out in that document - how much, what and how to take.
First of all, distribute part of the money to churches and among the poor brethren, and then take it and shoot it from a gun and say three times: “Eternal memory to Stepan Razin!” - then Stenka would die at that very moment and his torment would end.
Yes, this did not happen. The treasure was not given to the barge hauler. He was a dark man, did not know how to read and write, and gave the record into other hands - a treasure in the ground and left.”
Here's another legend:
“Stenka had a lot of good things. There was nowhere to put the money. Stenka's plows are decorated, the oarlocks are gilded, the young men are wearing velvet with gold, their expensive hats are askew - they are traveling along the Volga, they are singing daring songs, they are wasting the treasury. Stenka buried gold along the hills and mounds.
In the Tsaritsyn district, not far from Peskovatovka, there is a small mound, only about two fathoms high. In it, people say, Stenkin’s enchanted treasure is placed. The whole ship is full of silver and gold. Stenka led him to this place in full water. When the water subsided, the ship was dry, and he made a mound over it. And as a sign, I planted a willow at the top. The willow began to grow and grew into a large tree. They say that everyone knew for certain that there was a treasure in the mound, but it was scary to dig: the treasure was not an easy one. Every time someone jumped out from behind the mound, very scary. Apparently, the evil ones were guarding Stenka’s property.”
Many places associated with the name of Ataman Stepan Razin have been preserved in people's memory to this day, especially on the right bank of the Volga, and guides often show Stenka's mounds to tourists. Standing on the deck of the ship, you can hear: “Stenka was encamped here.” Here, according to legend, he left his hat. That's what this place is called - Stenka's hat. Stenka was standing on that hill, they say there’s a treasure there.”
For example, near the village of Bannovki, between the village of Zolotoy and the mouth of Bolshoy Eruslan (Saratov region), the cliff to the Volga is called Stenki Razin’s Bug. Local residents claim that back at the beginning of the century, at sunset, when the shadows were long, on the hillock one could discern the outline of a hole where Razin supposedly had his “office.”
They found a lot of human bones in it, they add. According to local legend, Razin lived for a long time on this hillock in a luxurious tent with a gang. His housing was rich - everything was upholstered in expensive velvet and silk. And on the “shihan” itself there was a chair with an ivory notch. From there, Razin would look out for merchants on the Volga and carry out reprisals. A large treasure, they say, is buried here.
From the old guidebook, 1900, I made an extract:
“Above Kamyshin, about forty versts, they also show Stenka Razin’s Hill.” And about eight versts above the settlement of Danilovka lies the gorge “Stenkina Prison”, otherwise called “Datura”.
In the old days it was surrounded by dense forest, in which it was easy to get lost. Here, nearby, there are many caves and Urakova the Robber Mountain (near the Dobrinka colony). This is a high hillock, 70 fathoms, where, according to legend, Razin hacked Urakov to death, after which for seven years he shouted in a loud voice to the ships passing along the Volga: “Turn!” - leaving people in awe.”
Where to look?
Now it is appropriate to ask the question: is there reliable information about the treasures of Stepan Razin found by anyone? In the “Donskaya Gazeta” for 1875 (No. 88) there was a note entitled “Ancient Treasure Finders.” It reported an attempt to obtain the treasure of Stepan Razin:
“The denunciation of the punished ataman Kuteynikov against the former ataman Ilovaisky, who was accused of using Cossacks for work in his own opinion and for digging treasure under the supervision of the Novocherkassk police chief Khreschatitsky.
From the inquiry it was discovered that, indeed, the digging of the treasure was carried out in 1824 from June to October. The reason for this was the complaint of two persons to Ilovaisky about one Cossack who did not allow him to dig for treasure.
The Cossack was summoned to the ataman. It turned out, according to the stories of old-timers, that in ancient times various treasures were hidden in underground cellars by Stenka Razin’s robbers.
It turned out that there is a legend about this treasure. Even before the capture of Astrakhan, 9 parties of Razin hunters lived in the place where the Cossack Maslennikov’s garden is now. They hid the treasures they obtained in thirteen (!?) cellars dug at a depth of 16-17 fathoms. Among them, there was a church built underground, in which hung an Ataman damask saber with 24 precious stones in it, which illuminated the church and cellars.
This legend captivated Ilovaisky himself. He ordered corridors to be dug in the ground, believing that the treasures thus discovered would be a very good service to the Emperor.
The digging of the treasure was stopped by Kuteynikov.”
Since the end of the last century, I. Ya. Stelletsky was interested in the treasures of Stepan Razin, who made interesting notes:
“Razin buried one landowner’s property near his cliff worth 10 million rubles. In 1914, in Tsaritsyn, near the Trinity Church, a mountain collapsed 4 m deep. At the bottom of the hole were coffins and skeletons (apparently, Razin’s treasures “conspiracyd” under several human heads have some basis? - L.V.). It was discovered that this gap was over the hiding place of Stepan Razin, going from the named church to the very pier on the Volga, where the “painted Stenka Razin boats” loaded with precious booty sailed.
He buried his booty in that very hiding place. Rumors spread widely about Razin's treasure near his famous cliff, but not through Stepan's fault, and on the rack and under pincers he did not admit where he buried the treasures. One retired officer, Ya-v, in 1904 was rummaging through the old papers of his late grandmother. And I found a wonderful document in them - Stepan Razin’s original treasure trove of treasures hidden near the cliff. I carried out excavations in the indicated place and actually discovered a whole network of underground galleries with powerful oak struts. Further searches and excavations were to come, but the Russo-Japanese War put an end to it... I was taken to the war, from which I did not return.
In 1910, a new contender appeared, this time an old Cossack, 62 years old, captain from the region of the Don Army Sh-koi. Apparently, a treasure trove of records of Ya-va, who was killed in Manchuria, fell into his hands. Sh-koy came to St. Petersburg and presented extremely convincing documents. In the “spheres” they created a sensation. The news of the treasure spread across nine newspapers in 1910.”
It should be said that in the materials of the archive of I. Ya. Stelletsky, now located in TsGALI, there are other records of attempts to excavate Razin’s treasures.
“There is also a mound of Stenka Razin, huge, 100 m high, there are underground passages in the mound. The Stenkin Cave in the Stenkin Ravine on the Uvekovka River is known in the Saratov province. In the 60s, it was examined by the historian V. Krestovsky, it was built with Tatar bricks, coins and things of Tatar use were found...
In 1893, a certain Yascherov was looking for the treasure of Stepan Razin in the Lukoyanovsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod province, in four of his twelve camps along the Alatyr River. In 1893, he obtained a treasure record, verified on the spot, and in 1894 he began efforts in St. Petersburg to allow him to search for treasures. The imperial archaeological expedition allowed him to search, first for two days, then for ten days. But winter came and the search was postponed until summer.
Meanwhile, through the police and village elders of the villages of Pechi and Mikhailovka, information was collected about a vast dungeon at a depth of 22 fathoms (44 m), with oak doors locked with iron bolts and locks. The exit from it should be in a ravine located outside the village of Pechi. The dungeon apparently had a ventilation pipe. A horse fell into this pipe while plowing with its hind legs. A hole the size of an ordinary wheel was formed. Two daredevils descended into the hole. The first, being pulled out, lost his tongue out of fear and died that same night. Another, a local psalm-reader, stayed at the same depth for several minutes; According to him, he felt so terrified in the unknown and gloomy dungeon that he could barely signal to be pulled out. It was he who reported the doors he saw there.”
Finally, we can talk about one more episode. A participant in the Great Patriotic War, Captain 1st Rank G.I. Bessonov said that during hot battles in the Stalingrad area, after a raid by Goering bombers, the Volga bank crumbled. By chance, one of the soldiers noticed that at the top of the cliff several ancient cast-iron cannons, stacked tightly in a row, were exposed.
The muzzle of one of the cannons, which was heavily rusted, chipped, and gold bracelets, earrings, pearls, rings, silver and gold objects spilled out of it along the slope, which quickly went from hand to hand. There was a rumor that this was the treasure of the “Volga robbers”, and perhaps of Stenka Razin himself. Some tried to remove the cannons from the frozen ground, but this proved difficult. In addition, the area was under fire from the enemy. And soon after the next bombing, the coast crumbled and snow began to fall heavily. The fighting was heavy. Soon the attack on Paulus's group began, and the treasure was quickly forgotten.
It should be said that the front-line soldier’s story contains an important historical detail: it is reliably known that the ataman hid part of the extracted jewelry in old, “damaged” cannons, stuffed the barrel with a gag, and buried it on the banks of the Volga; a memorial sign or landmark was placed, and the place itself and its description were entered into a “chart” so that, if necessary, this place could be found.
Now let's return to the events that unfolded after Kornilo Yakovlev (who, by the way, was related to the Razin family) betrayed him...
In April, Stepan Razin was taken from Cherkassk to Moscow, where he arrived on June 4 and was immediately subjected to terrible torture. But, apparently, he had long prepared himself for such an end and therefore endured them with the greatest presence of mind, without a groan and without a single word of pity, while his brother Frolka screamed in pain.
As for his brother, he was taken to the Don, where no treasures were found. Apparently, there Frol hoped to escape from custody with the help of familiar Cossacks. But he failed. He told the archers accompanying him that he had forgotten the location of the treasure, that he could not find either the large stone that had been placed, or the cave, or the tree. This peculiar game lasted for quite a long time - almost five years - until, by royal decree, he was taken in a cart, shackled across the Moscow River, to Bolotnaya Square, where he was beheaded by the executioner.