From Yaitsk town to Yaitsk. Siege of the Yaik Fortress Let us briefly list the reasons for the uprising of the Yaik Cossacks

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If you come to Uralsk and walk along its streets, you will not encounter anything that would remind you of its centuries-old Cossack past. Of the monuments built by the atamans of the Ural Cossack Army, only the rotunda has survived, which adorned Stolypinsky Boulevard in the century before last, and is now modestly nestled behind the building of the Pedagogical University. The only monument to Uralsk from the pre-revolutionary era.

And the monuments on the streets of the city were erected in Soviet or post-Soviet times and reflect the realities of the USSR and sovereign Kazakhstan. Many streets were renamed by the Soviet authorities, and then again by the current authorities.

From memorial plaques on some buildings you can get information about the events of the civil war, Soviet and Kazakh celebrities. Not a single sign about atamans, Cossacks or other residents of pre-revolutionary Uralsk. It’s as if the history of Uralsk began only in the last century. But the houses of the preserved old part of the city were built during the times and thanks to the Ural Cossack army.
In the material of Gorynychi from Yaik, I talked about the origin of the Yaik Cossacks, the appearance of the Yaitsky town, the uprising of E.I. Pugachev and the renaming of the Yaitsky town to Uralsk. After the overthrow of the emperor in March 1917, an emergency congress of elected representatives from the Cossack villages decided to return the name Yaitsky to the Ural Cossack army, the city of Uralsk - Yaitsk, and the Ural River - Yaik. But it was not possible to turn back history and the old names did not stick.

The Ural Cossack Army from the suppression of Pugachev’s uprising to 1917 will be discussed in this material. But first I would like to remember two more famous people who visited the Yaitsky town before and during the suppression of Pugachev’s uprising: Gabriel Romanovich Derzhavin and Peter Simon Pallas.

When they write about the stay of G.R. Derzhavin in the Yaitsky town, they modestly avoid the question of when and why he was there. And he visited the Yaitsky town in 1775, when, as part of the famous Preobrazhensky regiment, he participated in the suppression of the Pugachev uprising from 1773 to 1775.

Peter Simon Pallas (1741 - 1811) - famous German and Russian scientist and traveler. During his many years of travel across Russia, he visited the Yaitsky town three times - in August and September 1769 on the way to Siberia and on the way back at the end of May 1773.

After the suppression of Pugachev's execution, new riots broke out from time to time: in 1804, 1825, 1837, 1874. Most of these riots arose due to the desire of the Cossacks to preserve old traditions. Wearing a unified uniform, creating registers and even personal documents was a tragedy for them.

In 1804, the “Kochkin Feast” arose when Cossacks who refused to wear uniform were flogged by a battalion sent from Orenburg under the command of Kochkin. Now Abay Square is the very center of the city, but then it was the outskirts. Then, next to this place in 1891, the Triumphal Arch was erected in honor of the three hundredth anniversary of the Army’s service to the Tsar and in honor of the arrival of the heir, Nikolai Alexandrovich. People called it the Red Gate. In 1927 they were broken, they became the first architectural monument demolished by the Soviet government in Uralsk. But alas, not the last. Look how lonely Abay Square looks without the Red Gate.

At the top is Abay Square with the building of the regional akimat. Below on the left is a model of the Red Gate, on the right is a photograph from the beginning of the last century. Initially, when the Arc de Triomphe was installed, the building of the Commercial and Industrial Bank, where the akimat is located, did not exist.

The square, now named after Abai, was called Turkestan Square before the revolution. The Yaik Cossacks stood as a human shield on the borders, protecting them from attacks by armed young men from the Khiva, Bukhara and Kokand khanates. When Russia began expansion into Central Asia, the Ural Cossacks were recruited as cavalry troops. Hundreds of Ural Cossacks died in Turkestan in these campaigns.

Ikanskaya Square has not survived. Many of us have heard about the 300 Spartans who fought against the Persian army of thousands. But who knows about the Ikan battle, which lasted three days from December 4 to December 6, 1864? A hundred Ural Cossacks, more precisely 118 people, under the command of Captain V.R. Serova fought near the village of Ikan with the twenty-thousand-strong army of the Kokand khan Mulla-Alimkul. 57 Cossacks remained forever near Ikan, but the Kokand people were not allowed into the ancient city of Turkestan. About 2000 Kokand residents died. Turkestan is only 20 miles from Ikan; it’s scary to even imagine what would happen to the old people, women and children of the city. When, after the approach of the Russian troops and the withdrawal of the raid participants, they began to collect the corpses of the Ural Cossacks from the battlefield, they were all beheaded and mutilated. But the Kokands did not attack South Kazakhstan again. We lose the memory of our ancestors, their heroic deeds, and become mankurts who do not remember kinship.

There is no Ikanskaya Square and Ikansky Boulevard in Uralsk. Only the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the Golden Church, erected on Ikanskaya Square, has survived to this day.

In 1918, on the Ikansky field, behind the Golden Church, Cossacks who died in battles with the Red Guards began to be buried. This is how a cemetery called Bratsky appeared. But if we usually imagine a mass grave as one large one, then after the funeral of the Cossacks, small mounds and simple wooden crosses remained in the cemetery. Afterwards, the dead Red Army soldiers who died of hunger and typhus, who died in hospitals during the Great Patriotic War, were buried here. And then they made a stadium instead of a cemetery. Stadium at the cemetery The dead have no shame...

And so the Ural Cossacks participated in many wars waged by the Russian Empire: in the Italian and Swiss campaigns of A.V. Suvorov, in the Patriotic War of 1812, the Russian-Turkish wars of 1828-1829 and 1877-1878, the Crimean War, the Russian-Japanese war, the First World War, when 5,378 Ural Cossacks and officers were awarded St. George's crosses and medals for valor and bravery.

Before the revolution, Dostyk-Druzhby Avenue was called Bolshaya Mikhailovskaya Street, which actually became the backbone of the developing city. If in the 17th century the city ended at the site of the current Pugachevskaya Square, then the earthen rampart was moved several times in connection with the expansion of the city until it was finally torn down.

But before that, the city of Uralsk almost ceased to exist. On June 11, 1807, a terrible fire occurred in the city, destroying almost two-thirds of it. Of the 3,584 houses, 2,120 burned down, and two churches, Petropavlovskaya and Kazanskaya, also burned down. After all, the city was almost entirely made of wood. A cunning plan arose in the head of the Orenburg Governor-General G.S. Volkonsky. Uralsk is full of firebrands, people are in shock, and Volkonsky sends a document to St. Petersburg entitled “On the transformation of the Ural Army.” In it, he proposed to destroy the city of Uralsk and resettle the people. They say it will be cheaper than to restore the city, and the violent temper of the Ural Cossacks is tired of being calmed down. July 16, 1807, in theory, should be celebrated as the day of the new birth of Uralsk; on this day, a meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the Russian Empire took place, at which the project to liquidate the city was rejected.

The fire played an oddly positive role: a master plan for the city was drawn up, and the streets were straightened. In 1821 there was another terrible fire, after which in 1821 the position of chief city architect appeared, to which the Italian architect Michele Delmedino was invited from St. Petersburg. The organization of development from Pugachev Square to Abay Square is largely his merit, although he stayed in Uralsk for only 10 years (1821-1831).

He was one of the first to build a house for Dmitry Mizinov, the commander of one of the regiments of Suvorov's miracle heroes.

At the same time, the Ataman House was rebuilt,

Then other houses were built for the Ural Cossack Army: a military office, Vissarion Galaktionovich Korolenko worked here in the archives of the Ural Cossack Army from June to September 1900

the first museum and library, military hospital The first hospital of the Ural Cossack Army.

But not only the military played a big role in life; merchants began to build stone dwellings. Among them: Once the largest house in Uralsk, the House of Merchants near the Old Bazaar,

Highlight in the house of the elder of the commercial assembly, Shop and house of a fashionable merchant, Building of an Old Believer merchant, Unknown house of Karev. In 1846, Uralsk was classified as a large city, becoming a major trading center.

Before the revolution, there were at least three hotels, the buildings of which have survived to this day: the merchant Korotin, "Kazan"

and "Russia".

In 1915, the Ural Cossack Army had 517 educational institutions, not counting private schools run by the so-called masters and craftswomen. All secondary educational institutions, as well as the theological school, the Russian-Kyrgyz (before the revolution, the Kazakhs were called Kyrgyz in government documents) vocational school and the music school of Uralsk are described in the materials: Second Women's Gymnasium, The forge of priests and revolutionaries turned into a hotel, And the former owner of the house killed for looking too intelligent, Gymnasium closed by the revolution, From high school students to university students, Museum of the History of Uralsk,. The most attractive building among the schools in appearance is the former Russian-Kyrgyz school.

It was located behind the Red Gate.

If the first two pharmacies belonged to foreigners, a Swiss gift to the city, the King of potions and tablets, the namesake of the author of the Viennese Waltzes, then the third pharmacist store was opened by a local native Kompaneets and was located on the first floor of the southern wing of the Commercial Bank.

And his nephew Zinovy Kompaneets, who served at his beck and call, became a famous Soviet songwriter who wrote the song “Cossack Cavalry”.

In pre-revolutionary Uralsk there were two banks

Cossacks of the senior side

Siege of the Yaitskaya fortress- episode, military operation of rebels led against. The government garrison under the command of Lieutenant Colonel I. D. Simonov, located in the Yaitsky town, at the very beginning of the uprising managed to repel the attempt to take the city by the Pugachevites, and then built an internal city fortress in the city - “retransference”. The atamans of the Yaitsky Cossacks, who formed the backbone of Pugachev’s army at the initial stage of the uprising, could not come to terms with the presence of a government garrison in the Yaitsky town and insisted on the need to destroy it. The garrison of the fortress successfully defended itself from December 30, 1773 () to April 16 () and waited until the siege was lifted by the general's corps.

Yaitsky town before and at the beginning of the uprising

Punishments and fines not only did not bring down, but on the contrary, they significantly increased rebel sentiments on Yaik. As one of the Cossacks later testified during interrogation: “The elder’s patience and the imposed howl... it became so unbearable for them to correct themselves, and they were not able to pay, and therefore when the impostor appeared near the Yaitsky town, they did not decide to test his authenticity, but how soon he called himself a sovereign, then they believed in his desire to take advantage of mercy and take pleasure in their offense.” Despite the fact that since August 1773 in the Yaitsky town it was almost openly discussed that “” was hiding in the army, the measures taken by Simonov to find the impostor did not bring success, the Cossacks managed to change Pugachev’s hiding places. The Cossacks hoped to wait until the main part of the army went out to the autumn floodplain - fishing for sturgeon, and then present the “king” to the Cossacks, but on 15 it became known that Simonov had sent a new search party from the city and it was decided to start the action immediately. On September 17 () of the year, a detachment of Cossacks with Pugachev moved from the Yaitsky town. In all Cossack villages, the written “royal decree” was read out to the army with the payment of ancient liberties; when approaching the town, the rebel detachment numbered more than 300 people.

Having learned about the approach of the rebel detachment, Simonov sent a combined team from the town headed by the commander of the 6th light field team, Prime Major Naumov, with five guns; he himself, with the remaining soldiers of the regular army, remained in the town to maintain order. Simonov announced to the Yaik Cossacks: “If they crawl to let this villain into the city and begin to pester him, then at that very hour he will order the city to be set on fire in different places, and will order his team to deal with them, and also with their wives and children, like with villains." Naumov, in order to distinguish his Cossacks from the rebels, ordered everyone’s left hand to be bandaged, but the elders reported that the Cossacks for the most part refused to do this: “we know this sign to make an attack on the opposite side, but we don’t want there is no need to shed blood." More and more batches of their comrades arrived from the city to the Yaik Cossacks of Naumov’s detachment. Naumov ordered Captain Krylov with 66 dragoons and 30 Orenburg Cossacks to take command of the Yaik Cossacks, but surrounded by more than 500 Cossacks, he was unable to pacify their murmur. From the side of the rebels, messengers arrived with a list of Pugachev’s decree to the Yaik army. Sergeant Major Akutin refused to read the decree and handed it to Krylov, who ran through it with his eyes and with the words: “You are lost, the Yaitsk army!”, put it in his pocket. Krylov’s action caused such a noise that he considered it best to move away from the crowd to the side, and between the two opposing detachments a movement of Cossacks began to exchange news, and later a mass transition to the side of the rebels. As Krylov later reported: “Having in front of him a hundred to three rebels, and a significantly increased crowd of renegades, as well as on his side there were hundreds to four or more Yaik rebels, and all the enemies were almost a thousand people, he could not do anything other than... little by little retreat back."

However, among the Yaik Cossacks, who remembered Simonov’s threats, there was no unanimity and the Cossacks, who joined the rebels, then returned back. Seeing this, the Pugachevites crossed the Chagan and surrounded the detachment under the command of the foreman, prompting them to join them. 11 of them were later hanged. On the morning of September 19, having grown in number to more than 500 people, the detachment attempted to enter the Yaitsky town, but was met with cannon fire. The Pugachevites did not have their own cannons, and after waiting “in that place for an hour and seeing that it was impossible to approach the town under the cannons,” the detachment went up the Yaik. Simonov did not dare to pursue the rebels, since “he was forced... to restrain the hesitating Cossacks.”

Construction of the “retransmission”

After the rebels left for Orenburg, realizing that if Pugachev’s detachment returned, he could only count on soldiers of regular commands and a small number of Cossacks from the senior side, Simonov immediately took measures for possible defense. A fortified line with a rampart and a ditch was erected around the military chancellery and the stone one, resting on both sides against the steep banks of the oxbow - the old riverbed of the Yaik. Two cannons were raised to the bell tower of the cathedral, and positions were set up there for selected marksmen. All the reserves of gunpowder, lead, as well as provisions and firewood in the city were transferred inside this fortification - the “retrenchment”. The soldiers were also transferred to permanent accommodation inside this city fortress, for which dugouts were dug for them. The government garrison was significantly weakened after, by order of the governor, Simonov was forced to send a combined detachment to Orenburg under the command of Naumov from two companies of the 6th team and half a company of the 7th team with 4 guns and loyal Cossacks under command - a total of 626 people.

Thus, the remaining garrison of the retrenchment consisted of 738 soldiers and officers of the 6th and 7th light field commands and 94 Orenburg and 72 Iset Cossacks. The artillery of the fortress consisted of 18 guns. Meanwhile, during the autumn, the Yaik Cossacks continued to secretly leave the city, joining Pugachev near Orenburg. In the city they openly talked about the expectation of the imminent arrival of the Pugachevites: “Our people are in great favor with the Tsar and wear clothes like the local elders... And when they come here, they will get to the local obedients and elders and beat them... But Krylov will inevitably to be killed because he exhausts our Cossacks at work...” In a report to the Senate, Simonov reported that the Cossacks run away even from guard posts, “no matter how much they are observed,” and he was completely unable to guard the Nizhne-Yaitsky border distance.

Siege of the city fortress

While Pugachev’s main army was fighting, the Yaitsky Cossack atamans were haunted by the fact that in their native Yaitsky town all power was still in the hands of the commandant of the government garrison. In mid-December 1773, as Pugachev later showed during interrogations, other Yaik colonels also came to him. They proposed sending the ataman with a detachment to the Kazakh Sultan Dusali and to the Cossack outposts in the lower reaches of the Yaik - “so that he would take all the Cossacks everywhere all the way to the (Yaik) town.” The visit to Dusali did not achieve the desired goals, the Sultan took a wait-and-see attitude and diplomatically refused to immediately send Kazakh troops to Orenburg.

The first assault on the fortress by the rebels did not lead to the result they desired; During the attack, Tolkachev's troops actively used the Cossack houses located around the fortifications as shelter, hiding in them and causing great damage to the besieged by shooting. Over the next few days, the fortress’s artillery tried to destroy all nearby buildings with hot cannonballs, creating a fire zone around the fortifications. Convinced of the low effectiveness of the shooting, the soldiers set fire to the broken huts; as a result of the fire, all the houses around the fortress burned out by 25-100 fathoms. In response, the Cossacks “fenced the burnt area, and especially the streets, with rubble, eight logs thick, and one and a half people high, to prevent forays, they made loopholes, and strengthened the guards on the pickets.” Having created a fortified line around the “retrenchment,” the rebels began a continuous daily bombardment of the fortress, which continued throughout the siege.

Having received news of Tolkachev’s occupation of the city, at the beginning of January a marching ataman with small reinforcements arrived in the Yaitsky town from near Orenburg, and on January 7 () of the year Pugachev himself arrived at the fortress. Having examined the besieged fortress the next day, Pugachev agreed with the Yaik atamans that the available forces and artillery were not enough for an assault and proposed to place one of the batteries of the fortress under the rampart. To construct such a tunnel, a team of 150 workers and 11 carpenters was recruited under the leadership of the newly baptized Mordvin Yakov Kubar. Pugachev personally supervised the work, going down with the workers several times a day into the underground gallery under construction and personally indicating the place to install the mine. On the morning of January 20, a mine filled with 10 pounds of gunpowder was detonated, but the explosion did not produce the expected destruction. Part of the rampart collapsed and settled into the ditch, but the artillery battery remained unharmed. However, the Cossacks launched an attack, 200 people managed to go down into the ditch and were immediately cut off, as the besieged opened fire with grapeshot from cannons and forced the rest to retreat behind the rubble of logs. The Cossacks in the ditch tried to cut down the supporting pillars of the rampart in order to increase its collapse; boiling water and hot ash were poured on their heads. The assault lasted more than 9 hours. After volunteer grenadiers descended into the ditch from the fortress and rushed into a bayonet attack, the Cossacks were forced to retreat from the ditch, immediately coming under fire from rifles and cannons. The losses of the attackers were significant - up to 400 killed, the besieged lost 15 people killed and 22 were wounded.

On January 21, a military circle was convened in the town. The military ataman was chosen, and the foremen were chosen. After a meeting on further actions, it was decided to prepare a new mine tunnel, this time under the bell tower of the St. Michael the Archangel Cathedral, in the basement of which, according to the Cossacks, the “powder treasury” of the fortress was kept. Andrei Ovchinnikov received an order from Pugachev to go to the city to finally swear in the Cossacks on the lower Yaik and bring artillery and gunpowder from there to the Yaitsky town. The remaining Cossacks had to keep the fortress garrison under fire; Pugachev himself hurried to return to Orenburg, as he received news of the raid of the Orenburg garrison on January 13.

At the end of January, Pugachev returned to the Yaitsky town for several days, again personally inspecting the production of a mine. The underground gallery was the height of a man; for ventilation, “there were often vents at the top.” Fearing a counter-undermining, they dug the passage in zigzags “now in one direction, now in the other.” By mid-February, workers had reached the foundation stonework of the cathedral's bell tower. At the same time, Ataman Ovchinnikov returned to the Yaitsky town with 60 pounds of gunpowder and cannons from the Nizhny Yaitsky fortresses. On February 17, Pugachev, who returned from near Orenburg, held a military council, scheduling a mine explosion the next morning. But the plans of the Cossacks became known in the fortress; the young Cossack Neulybin (it is unknown - on his own initiative or someone’s instigation) informed Simonov, who did not immediately believe him, about Pugachev’s plans. And although the mine explosion was postponed until midnight, the besieged managed to move the supply of gunpowder from the basement of the bell tower. The explosion collapsed the bell tower, killing about 40 people; Simonov himself was shell-shocked, but the artillery batteries were not damaged. A fierce mutual firefight began; the attackers did not dare to attack under these conditions. By the morning the firefight had subsided, vanity began in the rebel camp - Pugachev with a detachment of 500 Cossacks was leaving the Yaitsky town, having received news of the approach of the corps and.

Meanwhile, the situation of the besieged became critical - the fortress was running out of food supplies, as well as firewood, which was critical in winter conditions: “... there was almost no forest at all, so the soldiers often had nothing to cook porridge with.” The soldiers' ration was half a pound of oats and 2 pounds of horse meat, but they had to find a way to cook them. The Cossacks, under the command of Ataman Kargin, continued daily shelling and even began three new tunnels under the batteries and under the officer barracks. On March 9, Simonov decided to make a sortie, for which 250 volunteers were selected from among the grenadiers of the regular detachments. The attack was unsuccessful, the soldiers were unable to overcome the rubble of logs and, under continuous fire from the Cossacks, were forced to flee to the fortress. One of the garrison officers wrote later: “A most pitiful disgrace, everyone ran as long as they could and the officers could not put them in order... Our people have never returned from a sortie with such damage.” The garrison's losses were 32 killed and 72 wounded, of whom 20 died soon after. Knowing about the difficult situation of the besieged, the Cossacks sent a proposal to surrender to Simonov by means of a kite; in addition, Afanasy Perfilyev went several times to negotiate with Captain Krylov. The besiegers hoped that hunger would soon force Simonov to accept the terms of surrender. Simonov, who received information about the approach of government troops, in turn, hoped that help was close. On March 13, the soldiers received the remaining supplies with the requirement to stretch them out as long as possible. One day at the end of March or beginning of April, when the hunger became completely unbearable, women and children, as well as some of the wounded, decided to go beyond the ramparts of the “retrenchment” and surrender to the mercy of the besieging Cossacks, but they did not let them through their protective fences, forcing return to the fortress.

Battle of the Bykovka River. Lifting the siege

of the year(January 13 - June 6) - a spontaneous uprising of the Cossacks of the Yaitsky army, the immediate reason for which was the punishments and arrests carried out by the investigative commission of General Traubenberg.

The dissatisfaction of the Yaik Cossacks with the government's policy of eliminating the ancient liberties of the army accumulated throughout the 18th century. With the subordination of the Yaitsky army to the Military Collegium and the abolition of the election of atamans and foremen, a split occurred in the army into the elder and military sides. The split deepened after the introduction of a state salt monopoly in 1754 and the beginning of abuses by salt tax farmers from among the military elite.

In 1769-1770, the Yaik Cossacks resisted the order to send several hundred people to form the Terek border line in Kizlyar. Direct disobedience to the military order, as well as a large number of petitions sent with complaints from both the senior and military sides, forced the Orenburg Governor-General Reinsdorp in the same 1770 to send an investigative commission to the Yaitsky town, headed by Major General Davydov I.I. (also the commission included generals Potapov, Cherepov, Brachfeld), in December 1771 replaced by General Traubenberg, accompanied by a detachment of government troops under the command of Guard Captain Durnovo (Durnov, Durov) S.D.. During the period the commission was in Yaitsky town in 1771, during the escape of the Kalmyks outside Russia, ordinary Cossacks refused to obey the new order of the Orenburg governor-general to go in pursuit.

General Davydov ordered the arrest of 43 Cossacks, whom he recognized as the instigators. After corporal punishment, they were ordered to shave their beards (for the Yaik Old Believers - the worst punishment) and be sent to the infantry regiments of the army on the front of the Russian-Turkish War of 1768-1774. . When escorting those arrested to Orenburg, the Cossacks of the military side attacked the convoy and repulsed 23 of their comrades. It was decided to send a delegation of Cossacks to St. Petersburg led by centurion Kirpichnikov. The delegation stayed in the capital for more than six months, petitions were submitted to Counts Zakhar Chernyshev and Grigory Orlov, as well as the Empress herself, but the result was only an order to arrest the complainants, 6 out of 20 people were arrested, the rest, led by Kirpichnikov, hastily fled from the capital to the Yaitsky town.

The proceedings and punishments carried out by General Traubenberg, as well as the order to arrest the petitioners who returned from St. Petersburg, led by the centurion I. Kirpichnikov, caused an outburst of indignation among the Cossacks. After Traubenberg on January 13 ordered a volley of cannons to be fired at the crowd gathered near the military chancellery, an armed clash occurred with a government detachment, during which Traubenberg, military ataman P. Tambovtsev and soldiers of the Durnovo detachment were killed, the latter was seriously wounded. Participants in the uprising at the assembled military circle elected new elders in the circle. Cossack delegations were sent to Catherine II, Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich, Governor-General I. A. Reinsdorp, and Kazan Metropolitan Veniamin, who tried to explain the performance by significant abuses by the elders and the injustice of the investigative commission. Requests were sent to return the election of atamans and foremen in order to be able to remove unwanted and stolen people from their positions, to issue delayed salaries, and to transfer troops from the subordination of the Military Collegium to the authority of individual tsar’s confidants (for example, the Orlovs).

Upon arrival in St. Petersburg in February 1772, a delegation of Yaik Cossacks, led by Pugachev’s future associate Maxim Shigaev, was arrested and placed in the Peter and Paul Fortress. On February 16, the State Council decided to send a punitive expedition to the Yaitsky town under the command of Major General F. Yu. Freiman.

At this time, in the Yaitsky town, attempts were made to quickly strengthen the army militarily. By the time of the uprising, all the artillery of the Yaitsky Cossacks was dispersed among the fortresses and outposts of the border line along the Ural River; the Military Chancellery issued an order to send half of the entire Cossack garrisons, as well as all the guns, to the Yaitsky city. In addition, most of the serfs who were in the Army and resettled were registered as Cossacks. Along the entire border line, the former atamans of the fortresses were removed from their posts, and new ones were appointed from among the rebels. For military needs, the money of the arrested representatives of the senior side was confiscated, and monetary fines were imposed on those remaining at large. Horses were also confiscated. Nevertheless, there were not enough weapons; many Cossacks had only pikes, bows and edged weapons with them.

At the same time, most of the preparations took place in a chaotic and inconsistent manner; some of the Cossacks advocated the need to continue attempts at negotiations with the authorities, while others advocated more decisive actions, the execution of the arrested elders. The composition of the Military Chancellery was constantly changing, as a result of which some orders were canceled and then issued again.

On May 15, 1772, the Orenburg Corps under the command of Major General Freiman advanced to the Yaitsky town, it included 2519 dragoons and rangers, 1112 mounted Orenburg Cossacks and Stavropol Kalmyks, about 20 guns. The Yaitsky Cossacks, most of whom had gone to the spring floodplain to catch stellate sturgeon, were urgently recalled to the Yaitsky town; in the Yaitsky circle, the army for several days could not come to a consensus - whether to greet Freiman respectfully or move forward to fight back. It was decided to meet Freiman at the Genvartsev (Yanvartsovsky) outpost on the army’s border and convince him not to advance further. First, an advance detachment of 400 Cossacks under the command of marching atamans I. Ponomarev and I. Ulyanov, and then the main detachment of 2000 Cossacks under the command of V. Trifonov moved up the Yaik.

On June 1, the Yaik Cossacks sent centurion A. Perfilyev, another of Pugachev’s future closest associates, to Freiman for negotiations, but the negotiations did not lead to anything. Thanks to the advantage in artillery and better military training of government troops, on June 3-4, the rebels under the command of I. Ponomarev, I. Ulyanov, I. Zarubin-Chiki were defeated by government troops on the Embulatovka River (near the present village of Rubezhka) 60 versts from Yaitsky town.

Having suffered defeat, the returning Cossacks called for leaving the Yaitsky town and moving south towards the Persian border. Convoys with most of the population crossed Chagan, but on June 6, tsarist troops entered the Yaitsky town and with decisive actions prevented the destruction of the crossing. After negotiations and calls to return without fear, most residents of the Yaitsky town returned to their homes.

As a result of the defeat of the uprising, gatherings of military circles were prohibited, the military office was liquidated, a garrison of government troops was stationed in the Yaitsky town, and all power passed into the hands of its commandant I. D. Simonov. Some of the captured instigators were executed, many were branded, some of the condemned had their tongues torn out, 85 people were sentenced to eternal hard labor. Most of the Cossacks, after the defeat of the uprising, managed to take refuge in distant farmsteads between the Volga and Yaik rivers, on Uzeni; almost all of them a year later became active participants in Pugachev’s army.

1. Report of the Life Guards Semenovsky Regiment of Captain S. Durnovo

2. Petition of the Yaik Cossacks to the imp. Catherine II in connection with the uprising

Yaik Cossack uprising of 1772(January 13 - June 6) - a spontaneous uprising of the Cossacks of the Yaitsky army, the immediate reason for which was the punishments and arrests carried out by the investigative commission of General Traubenberg.

Report of the Life Guards Semenovsky Regiment of Captain S. Durnovo

Petition of the Yaik Cossacks to the imp. Catherine II in connection with the uprising

Uprising of the Yaik Cossacks of 1772 (January 24 - June 17)- unrest among the Cossacks living near the Yaik River (Ural), caused by oppression by the state, as well as the cruelty of the empress’s punitive detachments sent for disobedience of the Cossacks to the order to persecute the Kalmyks (who decided to migrate from the Russian Empire to China).

The discontent of the Yaik Cossacks grew throughout the 18th century - accustomed to freedom during their existence on the distant borders of the state, the Cossacks did not want to cede to the state the right to manage their own lives, Cossack culture and established military traditions.

Yaitsky Cossack

Let us briefly list the reasons for the uprising of the Yaik Cossacks:

State intervention in the economy - the introduction of monopolies on fishing and the sale of salt (were one of the main Cossack incomes).
Interference in Cossack administration - a ban on the election of atamans and elders (the appearance of “military” elders, the privileged position of their relatives, the stratification of property between the Cossacks).
Increased workload in the form of service in remote fortresses and on royal campaigns.
Orders for Old Believers Cossacks to serve in the Moscow Legion (for which they had to shave their beards, which was an insult to the Old Believers).
Refusal of the Military Collegium to supply the Cossacks with gunpowder and lead (the ready-made cartridges offered instead were not suitable for the different caliber Cossack weapons).

Attempts by the Cossacks to resolve the matter peacefully

At the last moment, the Military Collegium allowed the Cossacks not to shave their beards, and the elders tried to forcibly send those accidentally snatched from the Cossack ranks to the Moscow Legion, which only fueled protest sentiments. Direct disobedience to the military order, as well as a large number of petitions sent with complaints from both, senior and military, sides forced the Orenburg Governor-General Reinsdorp in 1770 to send an investigative commission to the Yaitsky town, headed by Major General I. I. Davydov, in December 1771, replaced by General Traubenberg, accompanied by a detachment of government troops.

Reinsdorp I. A. - Lieutenant General, Governor of Orenburg

During the commission's stay in the Yaitsky town in 1771, during the escape of the Kalmyks outside Russia, ordinary Cossacks refused to obey the new order of the Orenburg governor-general to go in pursuit. As a result, the investigative commission of General Davydov decided to find more than 2 thousand Cossacks guilty of “disobedience” at once, of which the main troublemakers were 43 people who were sentenced to death by caning. The verdict shocked the Cossacks; of those sentenced, only 20 people managed to be detained, 23 Cossacks managed to escape.

Torgut escape - Kalmyks decided to migrate from the banks of the Yaik to Dzungaria

The rest decided to send a deputation of twenty Cossacks to St. Petersburg, led by centurion Ivan Kirpichnikov. The petition handed to Kirpichnikov listed all the grievances and injustices of recent years. On June 28, 1771, the Cossacks managed to submit a complaint to Catherine II. The wait for a response dragged on for months.

The Cossacks re-filed the complaint Count Grigory Orlov, then received an appointment from the President of the Military Collegium, Count Z. Chernyshev. As the Cossacks later said, the last became furious in response to complaints and hit Kirpichnikov so hard that he “took his life”, the rest drove him away, ordering first to flog him. Only at the beginning of December 1771, Catherine, in an order to the Chief Prosecutor of the Senate, Prince A. Vyazemsky, wrote that the Cossacks’ complaint “filled with many lies and slander”, that they also slander Count Chernyshev, that the petitioners “those same rogues who, for their own gain, stir up internecine unrest on Yaik”. Nevertheless, the draft sentence for the Cossacks was slightly softened- according to him, 43 Cossacks, among whom the name Kirpichnikov was included, were to “cut off their beards and be sent for service in the regiments of the Second Army”; for the rest, three extraordinary assignments to distant commands remained.

The delegation of Yaik Cossacks was summoned to the Military Collegium, where they were presented with confirmation of the verdict of General Davydov. Having found out that their complaint had been ignored, the Cossacks hastened to leave the building of the Military Collegium, leaving a package with the approved verdict “on their way out in the Collegiate Hall.” Having learned about this, Chernyshev ordered to catch up with the petitioners and arrest them, but only six of them managed to be captured. The rest, led by Kirpichnikov, dressed in “Yamsk dress”, hastened to secretly leave St. Petersburg and headed to Yaik, arriving in the Yaitsky town in early January 1772.

The beginning of the uprising

January 12 A Circle was convened at the house of the Cossack M. Tolkachev. Sotniki Ivan Kirpichnikov and Afanasy Perfilyev proposed once again turning to General Traubenberg with a request to remove the elders and the next morning to go to Traubenberg in a peaceful procession, with priests, icons, and families, in order to convince the general of the absence of a desire to fight and ask him to trust the Army. At the Circle, opinions were divided, but nevertheless the majority decided to go.

In the morning January 24 a mass of Cossacks with their families gathered near Tolkachev’s house (eyewitnesses put the number between 3 and 5 thousand people). From here the Cossacks went to the Peter and Paul Church, where a prayer service was served. Then, with images and the singing of prayers, the procession slowly moved along the main street of the city to the south, to the Archangel Michael (Old) Cathedral and the Military Chancellery.

Cannons were placed in front of the Old Cathedral Square. Behind the cannons, a company of dragoons and about 200 armed supporters of Ataman Tambovtsev P.V. lined up with guns at the ready.

When the procession, singing prayers, carrying ahead a large and revered icon of the Mother of God, slowly moved forward again, Traubenberg ordered the soldiers detachment led by Guard Captain S. Durnovo open fire on the crowd with grapeshot from cannons at point blank range. Then the dragoons fired a volley of muskets. More than 100 people - men, women, children - immediately died. The Cossacks began to shoot back. General Traubenberg and his officers and Ataman Tambovtsev and his supporters were killed, most of the state troops and Cossacks loyal to them were captured.

On the Circle on the evening of January 24, a new leadership of the Yaitsky Troops was formed. It was decided not to choose the Troop Ataman. Instead, a board of three Military Attorneys was elected. Cossack delegations were sent to Catherine II, Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich, Governor General I. A. Reinsdorp, and Kazan Metropolitan Veniamin, who tried to explain the performance by significant abuses by the elders and the injustice of the investigative commission. Requests were sent to return the election of atamans and foremen in order to be able to remove unwanted and stolen people from their positions, to issue delayed salaries, and to transfer troops from the subordination of the Military Collegium to the authority of individual tsar’s associates (for example, the Orlovs).

Arriving in St. Petersburg in February 1772, a delegation of Yaik Cossacks led by Pugachev’s future associate Maxim Shigaev was arrested and placed in the Peter and Paul Fortress. On February 16, the State Council decided to send a punitive expedition to the Yaitsky town under the command of Major General F. Yu. Freiman.

March 26, 1772. The Rescript of Empress Catherine II was published to the Orenburg governor I. Reinsdorp in connection with the uprising of the Yaik Cossacks.

Suppression of the uprising

May 15, 1772 The Orenburg Corps, under the command of Major General Freiman, advanced to the Yaitsky town, it included 2519 dragoons and rangers, 1112 mounted Orenburg Cossacks and Stavropol Kalmyks, about 20 guns. The Yaitsky Cossacks, most of whom had gone to the spring floodplain - fishing for stellate sturgeon, were urgently recalled to the Yaitsky town; in the Yaitsky circle, the army for several days could not come to a consensus - whether to greet Freiman respectfully or move forward to fight back. It was decided to meet Freiman at the Genvartsev (Yanvartsovsky) outpost on the army’s border and convince him not to advance further. First, an advance detachment of 400 Cossacks under the command of marching atamans I. Ponomarev and I. Ulyanov, and then the main detachment of 2000 Cossacks under the command of V. Trifonov moved up the Yaik.

June 1st The Yaik Cossacks sent centurion A. Perfilyev, another of Pugachev’s future closest associates, to Freiman for negotiations, but the negotiations did not lead to anything. Thanks to the advantage in artillery and better military training of government troops, on June 3-4, the rebels under the command of I. Ponomarev, I. Ulyanov, I. Zarubin-Chiki were defeated by government troops on the Embulatovka River (near the present village of Rubezhka) 60 versts from Yaitsky town.

Results of the uprising of the Yaik Cossacks

Gatherings of military circles are prohibited, the military office is liquidated.
A garrison of government troops was stationed in the Yaitsky town and all power passed into the hands of its commandant I. D. Simonov.
Some of the captured instigators were executed, many were branded, some of the condemned had their tongues torn out, 85 people were sentenced to eternal hard labor.
Most of the Cossacks managed to hide after the defeat of the uprising; almost all of them became active participants a year later

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