Modern historians could not determine the exact date when Emelyan Pugachev was born. The only information that has come down to us is the following: during interrogation on November 4, 1774, he said that he was thirty years old. The famous ataman of the peasant war of 1773-1775 was born in the Zimoveyskaya village (the region of the Don army). His father was a farmer, his mother came from a Cossack family. In the village, he married Sofya Nedyuzheva.
Immediately after the wedding, Pugachev Emelyan was sent to the front. He served in Prussia during the Seven Years' War. He received the post of marching ataman from Ilya Denisov. During the Turkish war of 1768-1770, he distinguished himself with amazing courage. After the valiant siege of Bender, Emelyan Pugachev received the title of cornet.
Probably due to injuries or illness, the future rebel asks for his resignation, but he is denied this. The brave man decides to run. Three times the deserter was caught, but again he hid. During the last flight in 1792, Pugachev ended up near Chernigov, where he met the Old Believers. From them he moves to Yaik. It is here, in the Cossack village, that Emelyan Pugachev raises his first uprising. It sufferedfailed, so he was taken into custody. For such a serious offense - high treason - he is sentenced to life hard labor. The verdict is personally signed by Empress Catherine II. But Pugachev runs away again.
The path of the good soldier again led to the Yaik steppes, to a meeting with his brothers - participants in the failed rebellion. During these meetings, the Cossacks awarded him the title of Emperor Peter III, who miraculously survived, and made him the head of a new uprising, which acquired unprecedented proportions. After that, the newly-minted monarch proclaims his own political program, according to which Russia will become a Cossack-peasant state. The “muzhik king” should rule the country.
A new war against the empire began on September 17, 1773. The army of the new king advanced eastward, constantly replenished with soldiers. Fugitive soldiers, peasants and Cossacks, numbering about ten thousand people, unquestioningly listened to their chieftain. The rebels besiege and take Orenburg. Emelyan Pugachev establishes his own headquarters, the Military Collegium and the Secret Duma. After the victory over General Kar, the uprising covers the neighboring regions: Kazan and Tobolsk provinces. Minions of the movement raise riots in Ufa, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Kungur and Chelyabinsk.
In January 1774, the imperial court sent General Bibikov to suppress the rebellion. In fierce battles on March 22, 1774, Golitsyn's corps managed to defeat the impostor in the Tatishchev fortress. Failure awaited Emelyan andin April near Samara. The chieftain runs with the surviving warriors to gather new forces. Emelyan Pugachev, whose biography is full of victories and defeats, again raises an uprising. But luck turned its back on him. Heavy defeats in the Trinity Fortress, near Kazan and Tsaritsyn forced him to retreat. Retreat in order to raise the people again.
It is not known how long this war would have continued if there were no traitors among the servants of the new king. Exhausted by defeats, they seized the ataman and handed him over to the authorities. He tried to run again, but to no avail. The delivery of a dangerous criminal to Moscow was personally handled by Suvorov. Pugachev was brought to the capital in an iron cage under the escort of incorruptible guards. On January 10, 1775, the daredevil was executed on Bolotnaya Square.
