Everything about Stepan Razin totally explained
Stepan (Sten'ka) Timofeyevich Razin (
Russian:
Степан (Стенька) Тимофеевич Разин, ;
1630 – ) was a
Cossack leader who led a major uprising against the nobility and Tsar's bureaucracy in South Russia.
Early life
He is first noted by history in
1661, as part of a
diplomatic mission from the
Don Cossacks to the
Kalmyks. That same year Razin went on a long-distance pilgrimage to the great
Solovetsky Monastery on the
White Sea for the benefit of his soul. After that, all trace of him is lost for six years, when he reappears as the leader of a
robber community established at Panshinskoye, among the marshes between the rivers
Tishina and
Ilovlya, from whence he levied
blackmail on all vessels passing up and down the
Volga.
A long war with
Poland in
1654-
1667 and
Sweden in
1656-
1658 put heavy demands upon the people of Russia.
Taxes increased as did
conscription. Many
peasants hoping to escape these burdens fled south and joined bands of Razin's marauding Cossacks. They were also joined by many other disaffected with the Russian government, including people of the lower classes as well as representatives of non-Russian ethnic groups, such as
Kalmyks, that were being oppressed.
Razin's first considerable exploit was to destroy the great naval
convoy consisting of the
treasury barges and the barges of the
patriarch and the wealthy merchants of
Moscow. Razin then sailed down the Volga with a
fleet of thirty-five
galleys, capturing the more important
forts on his way and devastating the country. At the beginning of
1668 he defeated the
voivode Yakov Bezobrazov, sent against him from
Astrakhan, and in the spring embarked on a predatory expedition into
Daghestan and
Persia which lasted for eighteen months.
Persian expedition
Sailing into the
Caspian Sea, he ravaged the Persian coasts from
Derbend to
Baku, massacred the inhabitants of the great
emporium of
Rasht, and in the spring of
1669 established himself on the isle of Suina, off which, in July, he annihilated a Persian fleet sent against him. Stenka Razin, as he was generally called, had now become a potentate with whom
princes didn't disdain to treat.
In August 1669 he reappeared at Astrakhan, and accepted a fresh offer of
pardon from
tsar Aleksey Mikhailovich there; the common people were fascinated by his adventures. The lawless Russian border region of Astrakhan, where the whole atmosphere was predatory and many people were still
nomadic, was the natural milieu for such a rebellion as Razin's.
Open rebellion
In
1670 Razin, while ostensibly on his way to report himself at the
Cossack headquarters on the
Don, openly rebelled against the government, captured
Cherkassk,
Tsaritsyn and other places, and on
June 24 burst into Astrakhan itself. After massacring all who opposed him (including two Princes
Prozorovsky) and giving the rich
bazaars of the city over to pillage, he converted Astrakhan into a Cossack
republic, dividing the population into thousands, hundreds and tens, with their proper officers, all of whom were appointed by a
veche or
general assembly, whose first act was to proclaim Stepan Timofeyevich their
gosudar (
sovereign).
After a three weeks carnival of blood and debauchery Razin quitted Astrakhan with two hundred barges full of troops to establish the Cossack republic along the whole length of the Volga, as a preliminary step towards advancing against Moscow.
Saratov and
Samara were captured, but
Simbirsk defied all efforts, and after two bloody encounters close at hand on the banks of the
Sviyaga River (October 1st and 4th), Razin was ultimately routed and fled down the Volga, leaving the bulk of his followers to be extirpated by the victors.
But the rebellion was by no means over. The emissaries of Razin, armed with inflammatory proclamations, had stirred up the inhabitants of the modern governments of
Nizhny Novgorod,
Tambov and
Penza, and penetrated even so far as Moscow and
Novgorod. It wasn't difficult to stir the oppressed population to revolt by promising deliverance from their yoke. Razin proclaimed that his object was to root out the
boyars and all officials, to level all ranks and dignities, and establish Cossackdom, with its corollary of absolute equality, throughout
Muscovy.
Even at the beginning of
1671 the issue of the struggle was doubtful. Eight battles had been fought before the insurrection showed signs of weakening, and it continued for six months after Razin had received his quietus. At Simbirsk his prestige had been shattered. Even his own settlements at Saratov and Samara refused to open their gates to him, and the Don Cossacks, hearing that the
patriarch of Moscow had
anathematized Stenka, also declared against him.
In 1671 he and his brother
Frol Razin were captured at
Kaganlyk, his last
fortress, and carried to Moscow, where, after tortures, Stepan was
quartered alive in the
Red Square at the
Lobnoye Mesto.
Razin is the subject of a
symphonic poem by
Alexander Glazunov and a
cantata by
Shostakovich.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Stepan Razin'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://stenka_razin.totallyexplained.com">Stenka Razin Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
