Pugachev's Peasant Revolt

Conditions for Russian peasants worsened steadily during the 18th century. Landlords increased their efforts to exploit peasant labor, particularly to take advantage of opportunities to export grain to Western Europe. Government decrees stepped up landlord rights to discipline and punish their serfs, even to kill them or exile them to Siberia.

Peasant discontent increased in this context. In 1773, a major revolt broke out under the leadership of Emel’ian Pugachev, a Don Cossack and former Russian soldier. (Cossacks were a minority group of ex-peasants who began to form military bands on Russia’s frontiers in the 15th century. The government used many of them for fighting, but also attempted to bring them under greater control). The Pugachev rising was one of the great episodes in Russian history, rousing support from many groups before being crushed by Catherine the Great’s forces. Pugachev was arrested and beheaded, and his head publicly displayed to demonstrate the folly of revolt.

The following documents that I would like you to read (that you can read by clicking here) come first from the “decrees” of Pugachev himself, in 1773-1774. Pugachev adopted an old protest tradition by saying that he was the legitimate tsar, Peter III. His decrees appealed not just to peasants but to a variety of aggrieved groups. It is important to sort out the various grievances he was trying to capture, to get a picture of the strains that had opened up in early modern Russian society. A second set of documents involves reports by Pugachev’s officials.

A third document comes from a serf who was being interrogated by government officials about the uprising. The serf, Vasilii Chernov, renounced his belief in Pugachev as tsar only under extreme torture.

A fourth set of documents emanates from government officials commenting on the uprising. And finally, a fifth document is a decree by Catherine after the rising had been suppressed.

Peasant protest dropped after this great rising, but it would increase once more in the 19th century, as the peasant problem became one of the fundamental issues in Russian society. This set of documents that I would like you to read allows analysis of peasant and other grievances, and also raises the question of what kind of sources to believe in a protest situation—the sources from protest leaders, from the government, or from other quarters (this is very timely considering the various opinions and points of view regarding the current conflict between Israel and Hamas). What, in your opinion, did ordinary protesters believe and want?

After you have read these documents, I would like you to reflect on and discuss the following: What were the main grievances Pugachev tried to represent and exploit? What was the relationship of this protest to Peter the Great’s reforms? Why did many protesters accept Pugachev’s claims that he was the legitimate tsar? What was the purpose of these claims, and what do they suggest about peasant political attitudes? Who were the main targets in this revolt? How did the government portray the revolt? Was the government picture persuasive? How do you think ordinary peasants would react to the revolt and its suppression? As a historian, given this kind of evidence, how would you interpret the Pugachev rising? Why did peasant unrest increase in early modern Russia? What other parts of the world had peasant conditions broadly similar to those in Russia in this period? Your thoughts…