The history of the Russian Empire is full of various interesting facts that every self-respecting citizen of the federation must know. The Astrakhan uprising (causes and its consequences), the abolition of serfdom, the Battle of Poltava with the Swedes - all this is an integral part of history, and, as they say, one cannot erase words from it. Despite the fact that for a very long time, thanks to the Soviet authorities, in particular, Lenin and Stalin, the whole history was distorted, a huge number of facts have survived to this day, which are the basis of the modern interpretation of the events that have passed in the years.
Uprising in Astrakhan
This uprising began in 1705 and was raised thanks to the shooters, soldiers and workers of the city called Astrakhan, where the uprising itself took place. It left a bloody mark on the modern history of the Russian Federation. More than 300 people fell victim to this bloody mess, which did not bring any dividends to people who tried to change something in this way. Violence never brought anything good, but did these people have any other choice in the fight against the tsarist government of the Russian Empire.
General information about Astrakhan at that time
Back in 1705, Astrakhan was a major trading center not only for the imperial part, but for the whole of Europe. The difference between the strata of society was very noticeable, because various merchants were at the head and, one might say, ran everything in this city. The huge number of jobs provided by the trading port city of Astrakhan attracted a considerable amount of cheap labor. In addition, due to its geographical position, Astrakhan was a city-center of trade with the East, therefore, in addition to Russians, there were always many Armenian, Persian and other Asian merchants here. The city was equipped with strong defensive structures, but the tsarist government was far from afraid of raids, sending a garrison of 3650 archers there. They were called upon to fight back any uprising that befell this large shopping center, because it brought a lot of money to the treasury.
Astrakhan uprising of 1705. Reasons
Historians have not come to the exact thesis of the reasons for the uprising, but the main version is the tightening of the rules and norms that prevailed at that time in Astrakhan. As it was noted in the letters of the inhabitants of that time: "The administration simply went berserk." The introduction of new taxes for residents also had a detrimental effect on the general situation and inflamed it to the limit, in principle, even then it was clear that it would not do without violence. The cruelty of the Astrakhan governor Timofey Rzhevsky was exactly that drop of gasoline on a smoldering fire. All trade in the city, frompetty to large, was taxed, and often the amount of these taxes exceeded the value of the goods. Ships arriving in the city were regularly levied considerable tolls and dumps, and the townspeople were taxed on absolutely everything: stoves, beer, houses, baths, etc. prices for this product.
Astrakhan uprising 1705-1706. Home
Given the living conditions in Astrakhan at that time, thoughts about a possible uprising against the governor and the tsar often began to slip in the soldier-shooter society. And if they understood that it was useless to go against the tsar, then overthrowing Timofey Rzhevsky was a completely feasible task.. The uprising tried to do everything very quickly and therefore, after a fairly short period of time, a new administrative and managerial body was already created in the city, and the first people's meetings were held, which were called the "Cossack circle". Voivode Timofey Rzhevsky himself, who for a long time wandered through chicken coops and sheds, was granted to one of these meetings, trying not to fall into the hands of the rebels. At the same meeting, it was decided to execute him.
In addition, the meetings actively discussed the issue of a campaign against Moscow in order to overthrow the tsar from his throne. But things did not go further than Tsaritsyn - there the rebels were defeated and returned toAstrakhan, where they were already met by enemy troops.
What did the rebellion bring?
Fearing that the Astrakhan uprising would go further to the west of the country, Tsar Peter I ordered his field marshal to suppress it as soon as possible and assigned an army of 3,000 people for this. On March 11, Sheremetyev approached the walls of the impregnable city and bombarded it, after which all the rebels surrendered, leaving the city to tsarist power. At the gates of the Kremlin, the field marshal received the keys to the city and, in general, he was greeted with great gratitude. 365 instigators were arrested, all were transferred to Moscow, where most of them were executed, and the rest were subjected to colossally heavy and debilitating torture, after which, according to official figures, they also died. As a conclusion, everything remained in its place, only some people were gone.
