Freedom fighters. Emelyan Pugachev

Modern historians could not determine the exact date when Emelyan Pugachev was born. The only data that have come down to us are as follows: during interrogation on November 4, 1774, he said that he was thirty years old. The well-known ataman of the peasant war of 1773-1775 was born in the Zimovayskaya village (the region of the Don army). His father was a farmer, his mother came from a Cossack family. In the village he married Sophia Neduzheva.

Immediately after the wedding Pugachev Emelyan was sent to the front. He served in Prussia during the Seven Years' War. The post of the ataman was received from Ilya Denisov. During the Turkish war of 1768-1770, he distinguished himself by amazing bravery. After the valiant siege of Bendery, Emelyan Pugachev received the rank of cornet.

Probably, because of injuries or illness, the future rebel asks for resignation, but he is denied this. A brave man decides to flee. Three times a deserter was caught, but he again hid himself. During the last flight in 1792, Pugachev was near Chernigov, where he met with the Old Believers. From them, he moves to Yaik. It was here, in the Cossack village, Emelian Pugachev, raising his first insurrection. It failed, so he was taken into custody. For such a serious misconduct - state treason - he is sentenced to life imprisonment for hard labor. The verdict is personally signed by Empress Catherine II. But Pugachev again runs away.

The path of the gallant soldier again led to the Yaitsky steppes, to meet with his twin brothers-participants in the failed riot. During these meetings, the Cossacks appropriated to him the title of Emperor Peter III, who miraculously survived, and made the head of a new uprising, which acquired unprecedented proportions. After that, the newly-born monarch proclaims his own political program, according to which Russia will become a Cossack-peasant state. The country must be ruled by a "peasant king".

The new war against the empire began on September 17, 1773. The army of the new king moved eastward, all the time replenishing with soldiers. Fugitive soldiers, peasants and Cossacks, numbering about ten thousand people, unquestioningly listened to their ataman. The rebels sediment and take Orenburg. Emelian Pugachev founded his own headquarters, the Military Collegium and the Secret Duma. After the victory over General Kar, the uprising covers the neighboring areas: the Kazan and Tobolsk provinces. The minions of the movement raise riots in Ufa, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Kungur and Chelyabinsk.

In January 1774, the imperial court sent to suppress the mutiny of General Bibikov. In cruel battles on March 22, 1774, Golitsyn's corps managed to defeat the pretender in the Tatishchev fortress. Failure was waiting for Yemelyan and in April near Samara. Ataman flees with surviving soldiers to assemble new forces. Emelian Pugachev, whose biography is full of victories and defeats, again raises the uprising. But luck turned to him with his back. Heavy defeats in the Troitskaya fortress, near Kazan and Tsaritsyn forced him to retreat. Retreat in order to raise the people again.

It is not known how long this war would have lasted, if traitors had not been found among the servants of the newly-born Tsar. Exhausted by defeats, they seized the ataman and handed him over to the authorities. He tried again to run, but without success. Suvorov personally dealt with delivering a dangerous criminal to Moscow. Pugachev was brought to the capital in an iron cage under an escort of incorruptible guards. On January 10, 1775, the daredevil was executed on Bolotnaya Square.