Bulavin Kondraty Afanasievich

(ca. 1660-1708)

Swedish King Karl XII had led his army in Belarus, and Peter, I had to think not only about the war with a dangerous opponent, but also about the internal affairs of the country. Here and there uprisings lower classes, of desperate extortion, conscription, starvation, forced labor at construction sites (construction of St. Petersburg, fortresses, etc.). The struggle raised the inhabitants of Astrakhan (1705-1706), Bashkortostan (1705-1711), Kamchatka (1707-1711), workmen people of Karelia, the peasants of the Volga region, Urals. But most of all worried about the king, and Russia's most powerful nobles of the movements of the on-ry - a civil war that gripped the Don region and its neighboring areas of Russia (up to 60 counties in the midst of an uprising). And because Peter is overjoyed and his entourage, when we received the news of the coup on buntashnom Don and killed the leader of the rebels - Bulavina. The king even ordered on this occasion, to arrange a salute and celebrate the prayer. Then announced that Bulavin committed suicide - cast a shadow on him as a coward, a decent curses and contempt. And all in order to discredit the uprising, confuse and deceive its members, all the people of Russia. In fact, everything happened very differently.

Born Kondraty Afanasievich Bulavin in a Russian family in his childhood lived in towns Slobodskoi Ukra-HN - Saltov, Chuguyev. The family then moved to the Earth, the Don. Participating in campaigns for Crimeans (consisting of the army VV. Golitsyn) and Kuban, Kondraty Bulavin proved himself a brave and skillful warrior. It is selected by a march in the village chieftain Trehizbyanskoy.

Himself from the bottom, just a man, a dedicated 'association', Don customs, living side by side with the feeble, golutvennymi Cossacks, he did not become wealthy supporter of the Cossacks. In 1704, a Cossack chieftain Bahmut Bulavin headed the struggle of local salt-works, visitors of the Cossacks and workmen with Izum Colonel FV Shidlovsky and his henchmen for the possession of salterns, sennymi and forest lands. The rebels managed to repulse the onslaught izyumtsev and Moscow authorities. Three years later, Peter I sent a punitive expedition to slaughter Prince Yu Dolgoruky. Violence and execution led a revolt in the Don. His head was Bulavin. Dolgoruky with a detachment stopped in Shulgin, a town in Aidar, left tributary of the Northern Donets. Not far away, in gully Orekhovy, Bulavin called disaffected from different villages 'for the City Council'. At Kru-re 'general council' had determined to avenge the blood and suffering of fathers, mothers, all victims. On the night of October 9, 1707 Bulavin and his associates killed Dolgorukiy and more than fifteen members of his squad. Others fled. From the hands of insurgents were killed then and some Cossack leaders. But Zakotenskogo (Zakotnogo) town Bulavin defeated by the Cossack hetman Luchian Maximov, who came from Cherkasy - the capital of the Don. Wealthy Cossacks executed many Bulavintsev.

. Bulavin with like-minded for some time hiding in the forests of Khoper, left tributary of the Middle Don, Bear and other rivers and then moved to the Zaporizhzhya Sich and tried to attract the local Cossack
. He called them to fight against the governor, landlords, randarey (tenants). In the spring of 1708, along with some Bulavin Zaporozhian returned to the Don and settled in the town on Pristanskaya Khoper. He sought to raise the common people to a new struggle. Soon there gathered an army, which opposed the government and the landowners in the southern Russian border with Don counties - Voronezh, Kozlov, Tambov, and others, as well as near Saratov. Distribution everywhere 'lovely letters', called for an uprising.

However Cherkasskaya sergeant also prepared to fight. In addition to the grassroots (from the lower reaches of the Don) and upland (with its headwaters) of the Cossacks to the army Maksimova joined a cavalry detachment, Colonel Vasilyev of Azov and Kalmyk.

. Bulavin led his Cossacks to Cherkassk, . saying, . that its purpose - the protection of the true Christian faith, . rights and liberties of the Don, . performance against their oppressors - the boyars, . strangers, . profiteers, . massacre of all 'bad' heads, . masters, . Don sergeant led Maximov, . seizure Cherkasy,
. But that's not all. Ahead - march to Moscow.

Opponents met on the river Liskovatke. Maksimov led eight thousandth army. Bulavin secretly placed his are probably somewhat less in the gully and, when called Maximov in their circle, suddenly attacked them. Quick and decisive blow crushed the enemy. He was routed. Most of the troops Maksimova, horse-riding Cossacks, crossed to Bulavin. Ataman himself fled in Cherkassy, Vasiliev - in the Azov. The victors carts, cannons, treasury, miscellaneous supplies.

On May Bulavin with a 15-strong army with the help of local Cossacks took Cherkassk. The verdict of the terms of the troop executed Maksimova and other elders, and church property treasury divided between the rebels. May 9 Bulavina elected army ataman. By this time the movement spread throughout the area, the Don, the chiefs Bulavina acted in Russian Pridon (Kozlovsky, Borisoglebsky, Tambov district), Sloboda Ukraine, on the Volga River near Saratov. The struggle went serfs and state peasants, the townsmen and servile poor. Bulavin defeated his army into separate units, which sent the North bottom and on the Volga, on the Seversky Donets and Slobodskaya Ukraine. Its chieftains won several victories, for example, over the Sumy Cossack regiment AG Kondratyev, seizing several towns, including Bobrov, Borisoglebsk, Kamyshin, Tsaritsyn. But it soon appeared on the Don, I sent Peter punitive army - more than 30 thousand people! In early July, defeated troops Bulavin atamans the Seversky Donets and near Azov. This benefited the rich Cossacks of Cherkasy elders, who Bulavin never touched in early May. The conspirators broke into the house, where the closed Bulavin with supporters, and one of the traitors, Stepan Anan'in, shot him dead with a pistol. Killed and several other rebels, the rest were captured and handed over to the Moscow authorities.

Nevertheless, the civil war that gripped many dozens of counties in Russia, continued, in fact, before 1710.



Old Cossack song 'On the Donets River'

At the Donets River, in the Cossack village,
Oh yes here it is, in a Cossack village,
Appeared, announced Bulavin - he Kondrat,
Oh yes here, Bulavin - he Kondrat.
Kondrat - the guy is not a simpleton, but he withdrew Cossack
Oh yes, behold, he withdrew Cossack.
Coat embroidered with silver, sword sharp look at him
Oh yes here it is, saber eyes peeled for it.
Saber sharpening with him, and his eyes burn with fire,
Oh yes here it is, but his eyes burn with fire.
Hat is cocked to one side, will not touch, do not Touch the,
Oh yes here it is, will not touch, do not Touch the.
It will be held on the street - voivod hats not oppression,
Oh yes here it is, voivod cap is not oppression,
Voevoda cap is not oppression, only to lead the eye,
Oh yes here it is, only the eye lead.