Pugachev’s Rebellion
Lily Talley, Period 2 In Section 3 of Chapter 6, titled The Enlightenment Spreads, the subject of a serf uprising in Russia was briefly mentioned but not elaborated. The name of this rebellion, taking place between 1773 and 1775, was known as Pugachev’s Rebellion or the Cossack Rebellion. According to some sources, the uprising began when rumors started spreading that the grandson of Peter the Great, Peter III, was hiding with the Cossacks along a river between modern-day Russia and Kazakhstan, then called the Yaik River. This “Peter III” was in reality Emilian Pugachev, who had once been a low-ranking army officer before he deserted to wander the country. He rounded up an army mostly consisting of peasants and serfs, who were resentful of Catherine the Great for limiting their religious freedom and for their economic suffering. The announced an end to serfdom and launched the revolt.…show more content… However, the strength of the rebel force was underestimated, and Pugachev’s army only gained power after defeating the Russian one. More troops sent by the government forcibly removed all members of the insurgency out of Orenburg, but that did nothing to slow down the increasing popularity of the uprising. In July of 1774, Pugachev’s forces took over the town of Kazan, but were quickly pushed out, and they fled. The Russian army had a solid victory over the rebels in August, and Pugachev was executed in January 1775. The revolt failed. Catherine tried to wipe it from memory, even going so far as to change the name of Pugachev’s birthplace and the river along which the fight started to the Ural River. Serfdom in Russia was only abolished in 1861 under Tsar Alexander