Popular uprisings in the 17th and 18th centuries. Popular uprisings of the 17th century. Need help with a topic

The 17th century was remembered in the history of Russia as a period of mass uprisings, born due to the difficult economic and political state of the country. At this time, famine, dispersion of power, civil strife for the royal throne raged.

In the second half of the 17th century, serfdom was in the decline of its existence. The peasants, uncontrollably on a large scale, organized flights to the periphery of the country.

The government instituted everywhere the search for fugitives and their return to the landowners. Contemporaries called their age "rebellious". At the beginning of the century, the state was agitated by the first Peasants' War. Bolotnikov was the leader of the peasants, the poor. The suppression of this movement was followed by an attack by the peasant Balash, followed by discontent in the Smolensk troops, about 20 uprisings that took place in different cities countries, the "Copper Riot", and of course, the war of Stepan Razin. The country was literally in a fever from widespread upheavals.

Salt Riot:

At the very beginning of the 17th century, there was a terrible famine in the country. For several years, due to weather conditions, there was a crop failure, the tsar made attempts to help: he distributed bread and money, reduced the price, organized work, but this was not enough. Subsequently, pestilence began from the disease, times passed, terrifying.

In 1648, Moscow replaced the single duty with a tax on salt. Naturally, this prompted its increase in price. The lower strata of the population (serfs, archers) were involved in this performance. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who was returning from worship, was surrounded by petitioners (messengers from the people) with a request to intercede for the people before the boyars who issued this decree. There was no positive action on the part of the king. The queen dispersed the people, many were arrested.

The next fact was the disobedience of the archers, who beat the boyars. The officials had complete freedom of action. On the third day, the participants of the salt riot destroyed many noble houses. The initiator of the introduction of the tax on salt "mob" chopped. To distract the people from the rebellion, a massive fire was set up in Moscow. The authorities compromised: the archers were given 8 rubles each, the debtors were saved from extorting money, and the judges were replaced. The rebellion subsided, but the instigators among the lackeys were taken and then executed.

Before and after the Salt Riot, unrest broke out in more than 30 cities.

"Copper" rebellion:

In 1662, a collapse of copper coins occurred in Moscow, due to their mass production. There was a depreciation of money, a rise in the price of products, speculation, a fake of copper coins. The government decided to collect extraordinary taxes from the people, which caused great discontent.



The rebellious townspeople and soldiers (about 5 thousand people) handed over to the tsar a petition, insisting on a reduction in the tax rate, the price of bread. There was a rout of merchants, royal palace surrounded with the demand for the extradition of government leaders. The rebels refused to disperse, after the suppression of the uprising, more than 1 thousand people were executed and up to 8 thousand were exiled. The king put forward a decree banning copper money. An attempt to improve the monetary reform ended in failure.

Stepan Razin's uprising:

In 1667, Stepan Razin stood at the head of the people, who recruited a detachment of poor Cossacks, runaway peasants, offended archers. He came up with the campaign because he wanted to distribute booty to the poor, give bread to the hungry, clothes to the undressed. Wherever people went to Razin: both from the Volga and from the Don. The detachment grew to 2000 people.

On the Volga, the rebels captured the caravan, the Cossacks replenished the supply of weapons and food. With renewed vigor, the leader moved on. There were clashes with government troops. In all battles he showed courage. Many people were added to the Cossacks. There were battles in various cities Persia, where they went to free Russian prisoners. Razintsy defeated the Persian Shah, but they had significant losses.

The southern governors reported on Razin's independence, about his intention of turmoil, which alarms the government. In 1670, a messenger from Tsar Evdokimov arrived at the leader, whom the Cossacks drowned. The rebel army grows to 7,000 and advances on Tsaritsyn, captures it, as well as Astrakhan, Samara and Saratov. Near Simbirsk, the seriously wounded Razin is defeated, and then he is executed in Moscow.

During the 17th century, there were many popular uprisings, the cause of which lay in the policies of the government. The authorities saw in the inhabitants only a source of income, which caused discontent among the lower masses.

Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below

Students, graduate students, young scientists who use the knowledge base in their studies and work will be very grateful to you.

Posted on http:// www. all best. en/

Popular riots and uprisings in the 17th century

The 17th century was very difficult for Russia. In connection with the difficult situation at the beginning of the 17th century, or rather in 1603, an uprising of serfs broke out, called the "Cotton Rebellion", since the leader was Khlopk Kosolap.

Cotton Rebellion

The main task of the tsar and his advisers was to overcome the economic ruin. Having given some benefits to the boyars and townspeople, the government continued to enslave the peasants. And of course, this caused discontent among the people.

The situation in the country was further aggravated due to crop failure. In 1601, the entire crop perished, as severe frosts set in in mid-August and even snow fell, all this led to higher prices and speculation in bread. In 1602, the trouble repeated itself and the harvest perished again. Prices have risen 100 times. Things in the country were truly catastrophic, people ate dogs, cats, tree bark, mass epidemics began. In Moscow, even cases of cannibalism were noted.

Boris Godunov takes measures and organizes state works, he attracted Muscovites and refugees to the construction, he also distributed bread from state stocks. Boris Godunov allowed the serfs to leave their masters and look for opportunities to feed themselves. But, unfortunately, all his measures were unsuccessful. Which, consequently, led to the uprising of Cotton Clubfoot. The uprising was brutally suppressed, and the serf himself was executed in Moscow in 1604.

By the summer of 1606, Vasily Shuisky managed to gain a foothold in Moscow, but the outskirts of the country continued to seethe. The people, finally losing faith in the improvement of their situation, again opposed the authorities. In 1606, an uprising broke out under the leadership of Ivan Isaevich Bolotnikov.

Uprising I.I. Bolotnikova

Ivan Bolotnikov was a combat servant of Prince Telyatevsky. Support I.I. Bolotnikova became the Komaritskaya volost. Here, in the area of ​​​​the city of Kromy, many Cossacks accumulated, supporting False Dmitry I, who freed this region from taxes for 10 years. Having become the head of the Cossack detachments, Bolotnikov from Krom moved to Moscow in the summer of 1606. Soon a small detachment turned into a powerful army, which included peasants, city dwellers, and even detachments of nobles and Cossacks.

Acting as governor of Dmitry Ivanovich, whose salvation was again expected during the reign of Vasily Shuisky, Bolotnikov defeated government troops near Yelets, captured Kaluga, Tula and Serpukhov.

In October 1606 Bolotnikov's army laid siege to Moscow, located near the village of Kolomenskoye. At that time, more than 70 cities were on the side of the rebels. The siege of Moscow lasted two months. At the decisive moment, the betrayal of the noble detachments, who went over to the side of Shuisky, led to the defeat of the army of Ivan Bolotnikov.

Ivan Bolotnikov was driven back to Kaluga and besieged by the tsarist troops. With the help of the insurgent army of the so-called "Tsarevich Peter" (serf Ilya Gorchakov - Ileika Muromets), Ivan Bolotnikov escaped from the siege and retreated to Tula. The three-month siege of Tula was led by Vasily Shuisky himself. After Shuisky promised to save the life of the rebels, they opened the gates of Tula for him. The tsar brutally dealt with the rebels, and Bolotnikov was blinded and then drowned in an ice-hole in the city of Kargopol. Ileyka Muromets was executed in Moscow.

People of different social strata took part in the Bolotnikov uprising - peasants, serfs, townspeople, nobles, Cossacks, who played important role at all stages. The peasants and the Cossacks saw the goal of the uprising in a return to the old communal order.

Mid-century urban uprisings

riot uprising razin

Uprisings broke out in 30 Russian cities, such as: Veliky Ustyug, Novgorod, Voronezh, Kursk, Vladimir, Pskov, and Siberian cities. One of the largest riots was the "Salt Riot" in Moscow in 1648.

The tax burden has grown. The treasury of the country felt the need for money, both for the maintenance of the apparatus of power, and in connection with an active foreign policy. The government of Alexei Mikhailovich increased indirect taxes, raising the price of salt in 1646 by 4 times. However, the increase in the tax on salt did not lead to the replenishment of the treasury, as the solvency of the population was undermined. The salt tax was abolished as early as the next 1647. It was decided to collect arrears for three recent years. The entire amount of the tax fell on the population of the "black" settlements, which naturally caused discontent among the townspeople. In 1648 it culminated in an open uprising in Moscow.

In early June 1648, Alexei Mikhailovich received a petition from the Moscow population demanding that the most mercenary representatives of the tsarist administration be punished. However, the demands were not satisfied, and they began to smash the merchant and boyar houses. Several major dignitaries were killed. The tsar was forced to send the boyar B.I. Morozov, who headed the government, from Moscow. With the help of bribed archers, whose salaries were increased, the uprising was crushed. The uprising in Moscow was called the "Salt Riot".

Copper Riot of 1662

The exhausting wars waged in mid-seventeenth V. Russia, exhausted the treasury. The pestilence of 1654-1655, which claimed tens of thousands of lives, painfully hit the country's economy. In search of a way out of the difficult financial situation, the Russian government began to mint a copper coin instead of a silver coin at the same price (1654). For eight years, so much copper money (including counterfeit ones) was issued that they completely depreciated. The government collected taxes in silver, while the population had to sell and buy the product with copper money. Salaries were also paid in copper money. The high cost of bread and other products that arose under these conditions led to famine. Driven to despair, the people of Moscow rose up in revolt. In the summer of 1662, several thousand Muscovites moved to the country residence of the tsar - the village of Kolomenskoye. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich went out onto the porch of the Kolomna Palace and tried to calm the crowd, who demanded that the most hated boyars be handed over for execution. While negotiations were going on, the boyar I.N. Khovansky, sent by the tsar, secretly brought archery regiments loyal to the government to Kolomenskoye. Entering royal residence through the rear economic gates of Kolomenskoye, the archers brutally cracked down on the rebels. More than 7 thousand Muscovites died. However, the government was forced to take measures to calm the masses, the minting of copper money was stopped, which was again replaced by silver. The uprising in Moscow in 1662 was one of the harbingers of a new peasant war.

Rebellion 1670-1671

In the spring of 1670 S.T. Razin began a new campaign on the Volga. This campaign was openly anti-government in nature. It was attended by serfs, Cossacks, townspeople, small service people, barge haulers, working people. Along with Russians and Ukrainians, many representatives of the peoples of the Volga region participated in the campaign: Chuvash, Mari, Tatars, Mordovians, etc.

Letters from S.T. Razin, which set out the demands of the rebels: to exterminate the governor, boyars, nobles, and orderly people. As one foreigner, a contemporary of the events, wrote, S.T. Razin "promised the destruction of slavery everywhere, liberation from the yoke" ... boyars or nobles ... "Naive monarchism was strong among the rebels. The peasants believed in a good king. In the spring of 1670, S. T. Razin captured Tsaritsyn. To ensure his rear In the summer of the same year, the Razintsy occupied Astrakhan, the army of the rebels moved up the Volga, Saratov and Samara surrendered without a fight.

It should be noted that the Razintsy, in the spirit of that time, did not spare their opponents - torture, cruel executions, violence "accompanied" their actions during campaigns. During the protracted siege of Simbirsk, the movement peaked. The uprising covered a vast territory - from the lower reaches of the Volga to Nizhny Novgorod and from Sloboda Ukraine to the Volga region. In the autumn of 1670, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich held a review of the noble militia, the 30,000-strong army moved to suppress the uprising. In October 1670, the siege of Simbirsk was lifted, the 20,000-strong army of S.T. Razin was defeated, and the leader of the uprising, seriously wounded, was taken to the Kagalnitsky town. Wealthy Cossacks deceived S.T. Razin and handed him over to the government. In the summer of 1671, S.T. Razin was executed on Red Square in Moscow. Separate detachments of the rebels fought with the tsarist troops until the autumn of 1671. Having suppressed the uprising, the government forced the Don Cossacks to take an oath that they would not give shelter to the tsar's enemies; Uprising S.T. Razin forced the government to look for ways to strengthen the existing system. The power of the governors in the field was strengthened, the tax system was reformed, and the process of spreading serfdom to the southern outskirts of the country intensified.

Moscow uprising of 1682

According to tradition, Fyodor's brother Ivan was supposed to succeed him. However, the 15-year-old prince was sickly, frail, half-blind and ill-suited for the role of king. Patriarch Joachim and the boyars, who had gathered in the palace, decided that the son of the second wife, Alexei Mikhailovich N.K., should be proclaimed tsar. Naryshkina ten-year-old Peter, who, unlike Ivan, was a healthy, strong and intelligent boy. Relying on the archers, the Miloslavsky group, among which Ivan's sister Sophia acted most actively and decisively, decisively led the struggle for power. Streltsy not only carried military service, but also actively engaged economic activity. At the end of the XVII century. in connection with the creation of regiments of the new system, the role of archers fell, they lost many of their privileges. The obligation to pay taxes and duties from trades and shops, the frequent delay in salaries, the arbitrariness of the archery colonels, the growth of property inequality among the archers themselves caused their sharp discontent. A rumor was spread around Moscow that Ivan had been strangled. With drumming, the armed archers entered the Kremlin. Mother of Peter N.K. Naryshkina led both princes, Peter and Ivan, to the palace porch. However, this did not calm the archers. The uprising raged for three days, the power in Moscow was in the hands of the archers. In honor of their performance, the archers erected a pillar on Red Square. On cast-iron boards nailed to the pillar, the merits of the archers and the names of the boyars executed by them were listed. At the request of the archers, Ivan was proclaimed the first king, Peter the second, and until they came of age, a regent, Princess Sophia, was appointed. In the Armory of the Kremlin, a double throne for young tsars with a small window in the back was preserved, through which Sophia and those close to her told them how to behave and what to say during palace ceremonies.

Hosted on Allbest.ru

...

Similar Documents

    General features and characteristics of the period of the "rebellious age" in Russia, the origins and prerequisites for its social upheavals. The essence of the "salt" and "copper" riots in Moscow. Peasant war led by S. Razin. Stages and periods of movement of the schismatics.

    abstract, added 12/13/2009

    The reasons that led to the start of one of the largest popular uprisings in Chinese history. Causes of popular unrest. Hong Xiuquan is the leader of the Taiping rebellion. The beginning of a great uprising. The second stage of the struggle. Completion and meaning of the uprising.

    abstract, added 12/27/2008

    Popular uprisings in Asia Minor in the first half of the 16th century as a result of social contradictions. Beginning of the decline of the Ottoman Empire. Peasant uprisings in the late 16th - early 17th centuries. The publication of the "Decree of Justice" by the Sultan in October 1608.

    abstract, added 01/27/2010

    Causes of the "rebellious" century, socio-social and political prerequisites for unrest in this period. The uprising of Stepan Razin, in the Solovetsky Monastery. The development of the culture of the "rebellious age": painting, folk art, literature, applied art.

    test, added 03/20/2013

    Socio-economic and foreign policy aspects of the development of Kazakhstan, views on the problems of the history of the uprising of Khan Kenesary. Analysis of the materials of the ten-year war of the Kazakh people led by Kenesary Kasimuly, the causes and course of the uprising.

    control work, added 08/17/2011

    The main stages of the biography of Bolotnikov and his place in the history of Russia. Historical conditions formation of the leader of the popular movement under his leadership. character traits, social behavior, socio-political views of the leader of the uprising.

    term paper, added 05/18/2010

    Socio-economic conditions and reasons for the "gathering" (unification) of Russian lands. Association background. The rise of Moscow and the beginning of the unification. The second stage of consolidation. Dynastic war of the second quarter of the 15th century. Completion of the merger.

    control work, added 11/06/2008

    Political and socio-economic changes in Russia during the reign of Peter I and the wave of indignation and popular uprisings caused by them. Biographical information about the Balmut ataman Bulavin. The main causes, chronology of events and the defeat of the rebellion.

    test, added 08/07/2010

    Causes, composition of participants and the course of the uprisings led by Cotton Kosolap, I.I. Bolotnikov, Stepan Razin. Background of "salt" and "copper" riots, their results. Campaign of the Cossacks under the command of Vasily Us. Schism and reforms in the Russian Church.

    test, added 07/02/2013

    Socio-economic development of Italy in the XIII-XIV centuries, the reasons for the exacerbation of the class struggle. The heresy of the apostolic brethren and its social evolution. The course of the Dolcino uprising, social composition its members. Reasons for failure and historical meaning uprisings.


By the second half of the 17th century, serfdom had reached its zenith. Following the publication of the Code of 1649, the tendency towards self-liberation of the peasants intensified - their spontaneous and sometimes threatening flight to the outskirts: to the Volga region, Siberia, to the south, to the places of Cossack settlements that arose back in the 16th century and have now become centers of concentration of the most active layers of the unfree population.

The state, which stood guard over the interests of the ruling class of feudal lords, organized mass searches for the fugitives and returned them to their former owners. In the 50s-60s of the 17th century, the unsuccessful experiments of the treasury, the war between Russia and the Commonwealth for the reunification of Ukraine with Russia, exacerbated the brewing discontent. Even shrewd contemporaries clearly saw the essential features of the new. "The rebellious age" - such an assessment they gave to their time.

At the very beginning of this century, the country was shaken by the first Peasant War, which reached its peak in 1606-1607, when Ivan Isaevich Bolotnikov stood at the head of the rebels - peasants, serfs, urban poor. With great difficulty and considerable effort, the feudal lords suppressed this mass popular movement. However, it was followed by: a speech led by the monastery peasant Balash; unrest in the troops near Smolensk; more than 20 urban uprisings that swept across the country in the middle of the century, starting from Moscow (1648); uprisings in Novgorod and Pskov (1650); "copper riot" (1662), the scene of which again becomes the capital, and, finally, the Peasant War of Stepan Razin.

1 . The origins of the social upheavals of the "rebellious age"

A difficult situation at the end of the 16th century developed in the central districts of the state and to such an extent that the population fled to the outskirts, abandoning their lands. For example, in 1584, only 16% of the land was plowed up in the Moscow district, and about 8% in the neighboring Pskov district.

The more people left, the harder the government of Boris Godunov put pressure on those who remained. By 1592, the compilation of scribe books was completed, where the names of peasants and townspeople, owners of yards were entered. The authorities, having conducted a census, could organize the search and return of the fugitives. In 1592–1593, a royal decree was issued to abolish the peasant exit even on St. George's Day. This measure extended not only to the owner's peasants, but also to the state, as well as to the townspeople. In 1597, two more decrees appeared, according to the first, any free person who worked for six months for a landowner turned into a bonded serf and did not have the right to redeem himself for freedom. According to the second, a five-year period was set for the search and return of the runaway peasant to the owner. And in 1607, a fifteen-year investigation of the fugitives was approved.

The nobles were given "obedient letters", according to which the peasants had to pay dues not as before, according to the established rules and sizes, but as the owner wants.

The new “township structure” provided for the return of fugitive “taxers” to the cities, the assignment to the townships of the owner’s peasants who were engaged in crafts and trade in the cities, but did not pay taxes, the elimination of courtyards and settlements inside the cities, which also did not pay taxes.

Thus, it can be argued that at the end of the 16th century, a state system of serfdom, the most complete dependence under feudalism, actually took shape in Russia.

Such a policy caused great dissatisfaction among the peasantry, which at that time formed the overwhelming majority in Russia. Periodically, unrest broke out in the villages. An impetus was needed in order for discontent to turn into "distemper".

The impoverishment and ruin of Russia under Ivan the Terrible meanwhile did not pass in vain. Masses of peasants left for new lands from fortresses and state burdens. The exploitation of the rest intensified. The farmers were entangled in debts and duties. The transition from one landowner to another became more and more difficult. Under Boris Godunov, several more decrees were issued that strengthened serfdom. In 1597 - about a five-year term for the search for fugitives, in 1601-02 - about limiting the transfer of peasants by some landowners from others. The desires of the nobility were fulfilled. But social tension from this did not weaken, but only grew.

The main reason for the aggravation of contradictions in the late XVI - early XVII centuries. there was an increase in serf burden and state duties of peasants and townspeople (posad people). There were great contradictions between the Moscow privileged and the outlying, especially the southern, nobility. Made up of fugitive peasants and other free people, the Cossacks were a combustible material in society: firstly, many had blood grievances against the state, boyars-nobles, and secondly, they were people whose main occupation was war and robbery. There were strong intrigues between various groups of boyars.

In 1601–1603 an unprecedented famine broke out in the country. First there were heavy rains for 10 weeks, then, at the end of summer, frost damaged the bread. Another crop failure next year. Although the king did a lot to alleviate the situation of the hungry: he distributed money and bread, brought down the price of it, arranged public Works etc., but the consequences were severe. About 130,000 people died in Moscow alone from the diseases that followed the famine. Many, from hunger, gave themselves up as slaves, and, finally, often the masters, unable to feed the servants, expelled the servants. Robbery and unrest of runaway and walking people began (the leader of Khlopko Kosolap), who operated near Moscow itself and even killed governor Basmanov in a battle with the tsarist troops. The rebellion was crushed, and its participants fled to the south, where they joined the troops of the impostor, Bolotnikov and others.

2. "Salt" and "copper" riots in Moscow. Urban uprisings

The "salt" riot, which began in Moscow on June 1, 1648, was one of the most powerful actions of Muscovites in defense of their rights.

The "salt" rebellion involved archers, lackeys - in a word, those people who had reasons to be dissatisfied with the government's policy.

The rebellion began, it would seem, with a trifle. Returning from a pilgrimage from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the young Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was surrounded by petitioners who asked the Tsar to remove L.S. Pleshcheev, motivating this desire with the injustice of Leonty Stepanovich: by the fact that he took bribes, he created an unfair court, but there was no response from the sovereign. Then the complainants decided to turn to the queen, but this also did not work: the guard dispersed the people. Some were arrested. The next day, the tsar staged a religious procession, but even here complainants appeared demanding the release of the arrested first number of petitioners and still resolving the issue of cases of bribery. The tsar asked his “uncle” and relative, the boyar Boris Ivanovich Morozov, for clarification on this matter. After listening to the explanations, the king promised the petitioners to resolve this issue. Hiding in the palace, the tsar sent four ambassadors for negotiations: Prince Volkonsky, deacon Volosheinov, Prince Temkin-Rostov, and roundabout Pushkin.

But this measure did not turn out to be a solution to the problem, since the ambassadors behaved extremely arrogantly, which greatly angered the petitioners. The next unpleasant fact was the exit from the subordination of the archers. Due to the arrogance of the ambassadors, the archers beat the boyars sent for negotiations.

On the next day of the rebellion, forced people joined the tsar's disobedient. They demanded the extradition of the bribe-taking boyars: B. Morozov, L. Pleshcheev, P. Trakhanionov, N. Chisty.

After this incident, the tsar was forced to turn to the clergy and opposition to the Morozov court clique. A new deputation of the boyars was sent, headed by Nikita Ivanovich Romanov, a relative of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The inhabitants of the city expressed their desire that Nikita Ivanovich began to rule with Alexei Mikhailovich (it must be said that Nikita Ivanovich Romanov enjoyed confidence among Muscovites). As a result, there was an agreement on the extradition of Pleshcheev and Trakhanionov, whom the tsar, at the very beginning of the rebellion, appointed governor in one of the provincial towns. Things were different with Pleshcheev: he was executed the same day on Red Square and his head was handed over to the crowd. After that, a fire broke out in Moscow, as a result of which half of Moscow burned out. It was said that Morozov's people set the fire in order to distract the people from the rebellion. Demands for the extradition of Trakhanionov continued; the authorities decided to sacrifice him just to stop the rebellion. Streltsy were sent to the city where Trakhanionov himself commanded. On June 4, 1648, the boyar was also executed. Now the look of the rebels was riveted by the boyar Morozov. But the tsar decided not to sacrifice such a “valuable” person and Morozov was exiled to the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery in order to return him as soon as the rebellion subsided, but the boyar would be so frightened by the rebellion that he would never take an active part in state affairs.

In an atmosphere of rebellion, the top tenants, the lower strata of the nobility sent a petition to the tsar, in which they demanded the streamlining of the judiciary, the development of new laws.

As a result of the petitioned authorities, they made concessions: the archers were given eight rubles each, the debtors were freed from beating money, the stealing judges were replaced. Subsequently, the rebellion began to subside, but not everything got away with the rebels: the instigators of the rebellion among the serfs were executed.

On July 16, the Zemsky Sobor was convened, which decided to adopt a number of new laws. In January 1649, the Council Code was approved.

Here is the result of the "salt" rebellion: the truth triumphed, the people's offenders were punished, and to top it all off, the Council Code was adopted, which was designed to alleviate the people's lot and rid the administrative apparatus of corruption.

Before and after the Salt Riot, uprisings broke out in more than 30 cities of the country: in the same 1648 in Ustyug, Kursk, Voronezh, in 1650 - "bread riots" in Novgorod and Pskov.

The Moscow uprising of 1662 (“Copper Riot”) was caused by a financial catastrophe in the state and the difficult economic situation of the working masses of the city and countryside as a result of a sharp increase in tax oppression during the wars of Russia with Poland and Sweden. The mass issue by the government of copper money (since 1654), equated to the value of silver money, and their significant depreciation to silver (6–8 times in 1662) led to a sharp rise in food prices, huge speculation, abuse and mass counterfeiting of copper coins ( in which individual representatives of the central administration were involved). In many cities (especially in Moscow), famine broke out among the bulk of the townspeople (despite good harvests in previous years). Great dissatisfaction was also caused by the decision of the government on a new, extremely difficult, extraordinary tax collection (pyatina). Active participants in the "copper" rebellion were representatives of the urban lower classes of the capital, and peasants from villages near Moscow. The uprising broke out in the early morning of July 25, when leaflets appeared in many districts of Moscow, in which the most prominent government leaders (I.D. Miloslavsky; I.M. Miloslavsky; I.A. Miloslavsky; B.M. Khitrovo; F.M. Rtishchev ) were declared traitors. Crowds of rebels went to Red Square, and from there to the village. Kolomenskoye, where Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was. The rebels (4-5 thousand people, mostly townspeople and soldiers) surrounded the royal residence, handed over their petition to the tsar, insisting on the extradition of the persons indicated in the leaflets, as well as on a sharp reduction in taxes, food prices, etc. Taken by surprise, the king, who had about 1,000 armed courtiers and archers, did not dare to go for reprisals, promising the rebels to investigate and punish the perpetrators. The rebels turned to Moscow, where, after the departure of the first group of rebels, a second group formed and the destruction of the courtyards of large merchants began. On the same day, both groups united, arrived in the village. Kolomenskoye, again surrounded the royal palace and resolutely demanded the extradition of government leaders, threatening to execute them even without the tsar's sanction. At this time in Moscow, after the departure of the second group of rebels in the village. With the help of archers, the Kolomenskoye authorities, by order of the tsar, switched to active punitive actions, and 3 archery and 2 soldier regiments (up to 8 thousand people) were already pulled into Kolomenskoye. After the rebels refused to disperse, the beating of mostly unarmed people began. During the massacre and subsequent executions, about 1 thousand people were killed, sunk, hanged and executed, up to 1.5-2 thousand rebels were exiled (with families up to 8 thousand people).

June 11, 1663 was followed by a royal decree on the closure of the yards of the "money copper business" and the return to the minting of silver coins. Copper money was redeemed from the population in short term- within a month. For one silver kopeck they took a ruble in copper money. Trying to benefit from copper kopecks, the population began to cover them with a layer of mercury or silver, passing them off as silver money. This trick was soon noticed, and a royal decree appeared on the prohibition of tinning copper money.

So, the attempt to improve the Russian monetary system ended in complete failure and led to a breakdown in monetary circulation, riots and general impoverishment. Neither the introduction of a system of large and small denominations, nor an attempt to replace expensive raw materials for minting money with cheaper ones failed.

Russian monetary circulation returned to the traditional silver coin. And the time of Alexei Mikhailovich was called "rebellious" by his contemporaries

3. Peasant war led by S. Razin

In 1667, after the end of the war with the Commonwealth, a large number of fugitives poured into the Don. Famine reigned in the Don.

Back in March 1667, Moscow became aware that many residents of the Don "selected to steal to the Volga." The Cossack Stepan Timofeevich Razin stood at the head of the mass of unorganized, but brave, determined and armed people. He showed self-will by recruiting his detachment from the Cossack gola and alien people - fugitive peasants, townsmen tax-payers, archers, who were not part of the Donskoy army and were not subordinate to the Cossack foreman.

He conceived a campaign in order to distribute the captured booty to the needy, feed the hungry, clothe and shoe the undressed and undressed. Razin, at the head of a detachment of Cossacks of 500 people, did not go to the Volga, but down the Don. It's hard to tell what his intentions were at that moment. It seems that this campaign was aimed at lulling the vigilance of the Volga governors and attracting supporters. People came to Razin from different places. Lead your troops to him.

In mid-May 1667, the Cossacks and the fugitive peasantry crossed over the crossing to the Volga. Razin's detachment grew to 2000 people. First, the Razints met a large trade caravan on the Volga, which included ships with exiles. The Cossacks seized goods and property, replenished stocks of weapons and provisions, took possession of the plows. Streltsy commanders and merchant clerks were killed, and exiles, most of the archers and rivermen who worked on merchant ships voluntarily joined the Razintsy.

Cossacks clashed with government troops. As the events of the Caspian campaign developed, the rebellious nature of the movement became more and more manifest.

Avoiding a clash with government troops, he in a short time and with small losses spent his flotilla at sea, then moved to the Yaik River and easily captured the Yaitsky town. In all battles, Razin showed great courage. The Cossacks were joined by more and more people from the huts and plows.

Having entered the Caspian Sea, the Razintsy headed to its southern shores. Some time later, their ships stopped in the area of ​​the Persian city of Rasht. The Cossacks sacked the cities of Rasht, Farabat, Astrabad and wintered near the "amusing palace of the Shah", setting up an earthen town in his forest reserve on the Miyan-Kale peninsula. Having exchanged the captives for the Russians in the ratio of "one to four", in this way they replenished with people.

The release of Russian captives languishing in Persia and the replenishment of the Razin detachment with the Persian poor goes beyond the scope of military predatory actions.

IN naval battle near the island of Pig, the Razintsy won a complete victory over the troops of the Persian Shah. However, the trip to the Caspian Sea was marked not only by victories and successes. Razintsy had heavy losses and defeats. The fight with large Persian forces near Rasht ended unfavorably for them.

The reports of the governors of the southern cities about the independent behavior of Razin, that he “became strong” and was again plotting “distemper”, alerted the government. In January 1670, a certain Gerasim Evdokimov was sent to Cherkassk. Razin demanded that Evdokim be brought in and interrogated him, from whom did he come: from the great sovereign or the boyars? The messenger confirmed that from the king, but Razin declared him a boyar scout. The Cossacks drowned the royal envoy. In the town of Panshin, Razin gathered the participants of the upcoming trip to big circle. The ataman announced that he intended to "go from the Don to the Volga, and from the Volga to go to Rus' ... so that ... from the Muscovite state bring the boyars and duma people as traitors and in the cities the voivodes and clerks people" and give freedom to "black people".

Soon 7000 Razin's army moved to Tsaritsyn. Having captured it, the Razintsy remained in the town for about 2 weeks. The battles in the lower reaches of the Volga in the spring and summer of 1670 showed that Razin was a talented commander. On June 22, Astrakhan was captured by the Razintsy. Without a single shot, Samara and Saratov passed to the Razintsy.

After that, the Razintsy began the siege of Simbirsk. At the end of August 1670, the government sent an army to suppress the Razin uprising. A month's stay near Simbirsk was Razin's tactical miscalculation. It made it possible to bring government troops here. In the battle near Simbirsk, Razin was seriously wounded, and later executed in Moscow.

Apparently, one of the main reasons for the failure of the Simbirsk was the lack of a permanent staff in the rebel army. Only the core of the Cossacks and archers remained stable in the Razin army, while numerous peasant detachments, which made up the bulk of the rebels, kept coming and going. They did not have military experience, and during the period that they were not in the ranks of the Razintsy, they did not have time to accumulate it.

4. Movement of schismatics

An important fact of Russian history of the XVII century. there was a church schism, which was the result of the church reform of Patriarch Nikon.

The most significant of the innovations adopted by Patriarch Nikon and the church council of 1654 was the replacement of baptism with two fingers with three fingers, the pronunciation of the praise to God "alelujah" not twice, but three times, the movement around the lectern in the church not in the direction of the Sun, but against it. All of them dealt with the purely ritual side, and not with the essence of Orthodoxy.

Split Orthodox Church occurred at the council of 1666–1667, and from 1667 the schismatics were put on trial by the “city authorities”, who burned them for “blasphemy against the Lord God.” In 1682, Archpriest Avvakum, the main opponent of Patriarch Nikon, died at the stake.

Archpriest Avvakum became one of the brightest personalities in Russian history. Many considered him a saint and a miracle worker. He participated together with Nikon in correcting liturgical books, but was soon dismissed due to ignorance of the Greek language.

On January 6, 1681, the king set off with big amount people for water blessing. At this time, the Old Believers committed a pogrom in the Assumption and Archangel Cathedrals of the Kremlin. They smeared royal vestments and tombs with tar, and also placed tallow candles, which were considered unclean in church use. At this time, the crowd returned, and an associate of the rebels, Gerasim Shapochnik, began to throw “thieves' letters” into the crowd, which depicted caricatures of the tsar and the patriarchs.

The schism brought together a variety of social forces that advocated the preservation of the traditional character of Russian culture intact. There were princes and boyars, such as the noblewoman F.P. Morozova and Princess E.P. Urusov, monks and white clergy who refused to perform new rites. But there were especially many ordinary people - townspeople, archers, peasants - who saw in the preservation of the old rites a way of fighting for the ancient folk ideals of "truth" and "freedom". The most radical step taken by the Old Believers was the decision taken in 1674 to stop praying for the tsar's health. This meant a complete break of the Old Believers with the existing society, the beginning of the struggle to preserve the ideal of "truth" within their communities.

The main idea of ​​the Old Believers was "falling away" from the world of evil, unwillingness to live in it. Hence the preference for self-immolation over compromise with the authorities. Only in 1675-1695. 37 fires were registered, during which at least 20 thousand people died. Another form of protest of the Old Believers was the flight from the power of the tsar, the search for the "secret city of Kitezh" or the utopian country Belovodie, under the protection of God himself.


Conclusion

The 17th century is called by contemporaries the "rebellious age". This is the time of major social movements: two powerful peasant uprisings, a number of urban uprisings, as well as church performances that grew into a social movement. The reasons for the speeches were different. The "salt riot" was caused by dissatisfaction with the policy of the government of B.I. Morozov; urban uprisings in Pskov and Novgorod occurred as a result of a sharp increase in the price of bread; "copper rebellion" caused a financial crisis, and the Solovetsky uprising - the reform of Patriarch Nikon. The culmination of the popular uprisings was an uprising led by S.T. Razin.

None of the performances ended in victory. In the course of the struggle for the final centralization of the state against local sovereignty and local liberties, the government brutally suppressed any manifestation of freethinking - whether it manifested itself in the economic, social or religious sphere. But despite the defeat, the "copper" rebellion led to the abolition of copper money and other government concessions.

The reasons for the defeat of the speeches were their spontaneous nature, the lack of a clear program of action in some cases, the contradictions between social groups in the camp of the rebels, as was the case during the uprising of Stepan Razin. Some performances were suppressed after the betrayal of some of their participants.

During the century, there was more than one urban uprising, the cause of which was the illiterate policy of the government. Indeed, in the middle of the seventeenth century, the situation in the cities became tense: the authorities looked at the inhabitants of the cities as an inexhaustible source of income. This was manifested in the following: from year to year, the state sought to increase the taxes of the settlement and, at the same time, reduce the salaries of service people.

Bibliography

1. History of Russia from antiquity to the present day. / Edited by M.N. Zuev. – M.: graduate School, 1998. - 543 p.

2. Kargalov V.V. History of Russia from ancient times to 1917. / Yu.S. Saveliev, V.A. Fedorov. – M.: Russian word, 1998. - 500 p.

4. Skrynnikov R.G. Hard times. Moscow in the XVI-XVII centuries. / R.G. Skrynnikov. - M.: Moskovsky worker, 1988. - 430 p.

5. Chistyakova E.V. "Stepan Razin and his associates" / E.V. Chistyakova, V. M. Solovyov, M .: Book, 1989, - 380 p.

The 17th century was remembered in the history of Russia as a period of mass uprisings, born due to the difficult economic and political state of the country. At this time, famine, dispersion of power, civil strife for the royal throne raged.

In the second half of the 17th century, serfdom was in the decline of its existence. The peasants, uncontrollably on a large scale, organized flights to the periphery of the country.

The government instituted everywhere the search for fugitives and their return to the landowners. Contemporaries called their age "rebellious". At the beginning of the century, the state was agitated by the first Peasant War. Bolotnikov was the leader of the peasants, the poor. The suppression of this movement was followed by an attack by the peasant Balash, followed by discontent in the Smolensk troops, about 20 uprisings that took place in different cities of the country, the Copper Riot, and, of course, the war of Stepan Razin. The country was literally in a fever from widespread upheavals.

Salt Riot:

At the very beginning of the 17th century, there was a terrible famine in the country. For several years, due to weather conditions, there was a crop failure, the tsar made attempts to help: he distributed bread and money, reduced the price, organized work, but this was not enough. Subsequently, pestilence began from the disease, times passed, terrifying.

In 1648, Moscow replaced the single duty with a tax on salt. Naturally, this prompted its increase in price. The lower strata of the population (serfs, archers) were involved in this performance. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who was returning from worship, was surrounded by petitioners (messengers from the people) with a request to intercede for the people before the boyars who issued this decree. There was no positive action on the part of the king. The queen dispersed the people, many were arrested.

The next fact was the disobedience of the archers, who beat the boyars. The officials had complete freedom of action. On the third day, the participants of the salt riot destroyed many noble houses. The initiator of the introduction of the tax on salt "mob" chopped. To distract the people from the rebellion, a massive fire was set up in Moscow. The authorities compromised: the archers were given 8 rubles each, the debtors were saved from extorting money, and the judges were replaced. The rebellion subsided, but the instigators among the lackeys were taken and then executed.

Before and after the Salt Riot, unrest broke out in more than 30 cities.

"Copper" rebellion:

In 1662, a collapse of copper coins occurred in Moscow, due to their mass production. There was a depreciation of money, a rise in the price of products, speculation, a fake of copper coins. The government decided to collect extraordinary taxes from the people, which caused great discontent.

The rebellious townspeople and soldiers (about 5 thousand people) handed over to the tsar a petition, insisting on a reduction in the tax rate, the price of bread. There was a defeat of the merchants, the royal palace was surrounded with a demand for the extradition of government leaders. The rebels refused to disperse, after the suppression of the uprising, more than 1 thousand people were executed and up to 8 thousand were exiled. The king put forward a decree banning copper money. An attempt to improve the monetary reform ended in failure.

Stepan Razin's uprising:

In 1667, Stepan Razin stood at the head of the people, who recruited a detachment of poor Cossacks, runaway peasants, offended archers. He came up with the campaign because he wanted to distribute booty to the poor, give bread to the hungry, clothes to the undressed. Wherever people went to Razin: both from the Volga and from the Don. The detachment grew to 2000 people.

On the Volga, the rebels captured the caravan, the Cossacks replenished the supply of weapons and food. With renewed vigor, the leader moved on. There were clashes with government troops. In all battles he showed courage. Many people were added to the Cossacks. There were battles in various cities of Persia, where they went to free Russian prisoners. Razintsy defeated the Persian Shah, but they had significant losses.
The southern governors reported on Razin's independence, about his intention of turmoil, which alarms the government. In 1670, a messenger from Tsar Evdokimov arrived at the leader, whom the Cossacks drowned. The rebel army grows to 7,000 and advances on Tsaritsyn, captures it, as well as Astrakhan, Samara and Saratov. Near Simbirsk, the seriously wounded Razin is defeated, and then he is executed in Moscow.
During the 17th century, there were many popular uprisings, the cause of which lay in the policies of the government. The authorities saw in the inhabitants only a source of income, which caused discontent among the lower masses.


By the second half of the 17th century, serfdom had reached its zenith. Following the publication of the Code of 1649, the tendency towards self-liberation of the peasants intensified - their spontaneous and sometimes threatening flight to the outskirts: to the Volga region, Siberia, to the south, to the places of Cossack settlements that arose back in the 16th century and have now become centers of concentration of the most active layers of the unfree population.

The state, which stood guard over the interests of the ruling class of feudal lords, organized mass searches for the fugitives and returned them to their former owners. In the 50s-60s of the 17th century, the unsuccessful experiments of the treasury, the war between Russia and the Commonwealth for the reunification of Ukraine with Russia, exacerbated the brewing discontent. Even shrewd contemporaries clearly saw the essential features of the new. "The rebellious age" - such an assessment they gave to their time.

At the very beginning of this century, the country was shaken by the first Peasant War, which reached its peak in 1606-1607, when Ivan Isaevich Bolotnikov stood at the head of the rebels - peasants, serfs, urban poor. With great difficulty and considerable effort, the feudal lords suppressed this mass popular movement. However, it was followed by: a speech led by the monastery peasant Balash; unrest in the troops near Smolensk; more than 20 urban uprisings that swept across the country in the middle of the century, starting from Moscow (1648); uprisings in Novgorod and Pskov (1650); "copper riot" (1662), the scene of which again becomes the capital, and, finally, the Peasant War of Stepan Razin.



1 . The origins of the social upheavals of the "rebellious age"


A difficult situation at the end of the 16th century developed in the central districts of the state and to such an extent that the population fled to the outskirts, abandoning their lands. For example, in 1584, only 16% of the land was plowed up in the Moscow district, and about 8% in the neighboring Pskov district.

The more people left, the harder the government of Boris Godunov put pressure on those who remained. By 1592, the compilation of scribe books was completed, where the names of peasants and townspeople, owners of yards were entered. The authorities, having conducted a census, could organize the search and return of the fugitives. In 1592–1593, a royal decree was issued to abolish the peasant exit even on St. George's Day. This measure extended not only to the owner's peasants, but also to the state, as well as to the townspeople. In 1597, two more decrees appeared, according to the first, any free person who worked for six months for a landowner turned into a bonded serf and did not have the right to redeem himself for freedom. According to the second, a five-year period was set for the search and return of the runaway peasant to the owner. And in 1607, a fifteen-year investigation of the fugitives was approved.

The nobles were given "obedient letters", according to which the peasants had to pay dues not as before, according to the established rules and sizes, but as the owner wants.

The new “township structure” provided for the return of fugitive “taxers” to the cities, the assignment to the townships of the owner’s peasants who were engaged in crafts and trade in the cities, but did not pay taxes, the elimination of courtyards and settlements inside the cities, which also did not pay taxes.

Thus, it can be argued that at the end of the 16th century, a state system of serfdom, the most complete dependence under feudalism, actually took shape in Russia.

Such a policy caused great dissatisfaction among the peasantry, which at that time formed the overwhelming majority in Russia. Periodically, unrest broke out in the villages. An impetus was needed in order for discontent to turn into "distemper".

The impoverishment and ruin of Russia under Ivan the Terrible meanwhile did not pass in vain. Masses of peasants left for new lands from fortresses and state burdens. The exploitation of the rest intensified. The farmers were entangled in debts and duties. The transition from one landowner to another became more and more difficult. Under Boris Godunov, several more decrees were issued that strengthened serfdom. In 1597 - about a five-year term for the search for fugitives, in 1601-02 - about limiting the transfer of peasants by some landowners from others. The desires of the nobility were fulfilled. But social tension from this did not weaken, but only grew.

The main reason for the aggravation of contradictions in the late XVI - early XVII centuries. there was an increase in serf burden and state duties of peasants and townspeople (posad people). There were great contradictions between the Moscow privileged and the outlying, especially the southern, nobility. Made up of fugitive peasants and other free people, the Cossacks were a combustible material in society: firstly, many had blood grievances against the state, boyars-nobles, and secondly, they were people whose main occupation was war and robbery. There were strong intrigues between various groups of boyars.

In 1601–1603 an unprecedented famine broke out in the country. First there were heavy rains for 10 weeks, then, at the end of summer, frost damaged the bread. Another crop failure next year. Although the king did a lot to alleviate the situation of the hungry: he distributed money and bread, brought down the price of it, arranged public works, etc., but the consequences were severe. About 130,000 people died in Moscow alone from the diseases that followed the famine. Many, from hunger, gave themselves up as slaves, and, finally, often the masters, unable to feed the servants, expelled the servants. Robbery and unrest of runaway and walking people began (the leader of Khlopko Kosolap), who operated near Moscow itself and even killed governor Basmanov in a battle with the tsarist troops. The rebellion was crushed, and its participants fled to the south, where they joined the troops of the impostor, Bolotnikov and others.


2. "Salt" and "copper" riots in Moscow. Urban uprisings


The "salt" riot, which began in Moscow on June 1, 1648, was one of the most powerful actions of Muscovites in defense of their rights.

The "salt" rebellion involved archers, lackeys - in a word, those people who had reasons to be dissatisfied with the government's policy.

The rebellion began, it would seem, with a trifle. Returning from a pilgrimage from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the young Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was surrounded by petitioners who asked the Tsar to remove L.S. Pleshcheev, motivating this desire with the injustice of Leonty Stepanovich: by the fact that he took bribes, he created an unfair court, but there was no response from the sovereign. Then the complainants decided to turn to the queen, but this also did not work: the guard dispersed the people. Some were arrested. The next day, the tsar staged a religious procession, but even here complainants appeared demanding the release of the arrested first number of petitioners and still resolving the issue of cases of bribery. The tsar asked his “uncle” and relative, the boyar Boris Ivanovich Morozov, for clarification on this matter. After listening to the explanations, the king promised the petitioners to resolve this issue. Hiding in the palace, the tsar sent four ambassadors for negotiations: Prince Volkonsky, deacon Volosheinov, Prince Temkin-Rostov, and roundabout Pushkin.

But this measure did not turn out to be a solution to the problem, since the ambassadors behaved extremely arrogantly, which greatly angered the petitioners. The next unpleasant fact was the exit from the subordination of the archers. Due to the arrogance of the ambassadors, the archers beat the boyars sent for negotiations.

On the next day of the rebellion, forced people joined the tsar's disobedient. They demanded the extradition of the bribe-taking boyars: B. Morozov, L. Pleshcheev, P. Trakhanionov, N. Chisty.

These officials relying on the power of I.D., who was especially close to the tsar. Miloslavsky, oppressed Muscovites. They "created an unfair trial", took bribes. Having taken the main places in the administrative apparatus, they had complete freedom actions. Raising in vain to ordinary people they ruined them. On the third day of the “salt” riot, the “mob” defeated about seventy courtyards of especially hated nobles. One of the boyars (Nazarius Pure) - the initiator of the introduction of a huge tax on salt, was beaten and chopped to pieces by the "mob".

After this incident, the tsar was forced to turn to the clergy and opposition to the Morozov court clique. A new deputation of the boyars was sent, headed by Nikita Ivanovich Romanov, a relative of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The inhabitants of the city expressed their desire that Nikita Ivanovich began to rule with Alexei Mikhailovich (it must be said that Nikita Ivanovich Romanov enjoyed confidence among Muscovites). As a result, there was an agreement on the extradition of Pleshcheev and Trakhanionov, whom the tsar, at the very beginning of the rebellion, appointed governor in one of the provincial towns. Things were different with Pleshcheev: he was executed the same day on Red Square and his head was handed over to the crowd. After that, a fire broke out in Moscow, as a result of which half of Moscow burned out. It was said that Morozov's people set the fire in order to distract the people from the rebellion. Demands for the extradition of Trakhanionov continued; the authorities decided to sacrifice him just to stop the rebellion. Streltsy were sent to the city where Trakhanionov himself commanded. On June 4, 1648, the boyar was also executed. Now the look of the rebels was riveted by the boyar Morozov. But the tsar decided not to sacrifice such a “valuable” person and Morozov was exiled to the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery in order to return him as soon as the rebellion subsided, but the boyar would be so frightened by the rebellion that he would never take an active part in state affairs.

In an atmosphere of rebellion, the top tenants, the lower strata of the nobility sent a petition to the tsar, in which they demanded the streamlining of the judiciary, the development of new laws.

As a result of the petitioned authorities, they made concessions: the archers were given eight rubles each, the debtors were freed from beating money, the stealing judges were replaced. Subsequently, the rebellion began to subside, but not everything got away with the rebels: the instigators of the rebellion among the serfs were executed.

On July 16, the Zemsky Sobor was convened, which decided to adopt a number of new laws. In January 1649, the Council Code was approved.

Here is the result of the "salt" rebellion: the truth triumphed, the people's offenders were punished, and to top it all off, the Council Code was adopted, which was designed to alleviate the people's lot and rid the administrative apparatus of corruption.

Before and after the Salt Riot, uprisings broke out in more than 30 cities of the country: in the same 1648 in Ustyug, Kursk, Voronezh, in 1650 - "bread riots" in Novgorod and Pskov.

The Moscow uprising of 1662 (“Copper Riot”) was caused by a financial catastrophe in the state and the difficult economic situation of the working masses of the city and countryside as a result of a sharp increase in tax oppression during the wars of Russia with Poland and Sweden. The mass issue by the government of copper money (since 1654), equated to the value of silver money, and their significant depreciation to silver (6–8 times in 1662) led to a sharp rise in food prices, huge speculation, abuse and mass counterfeiting of copper coins ( in which individual representatives of the central administration were involved). In many cities (especially in Moscow), famine broke out among the bulk of the townspeople (despite good harvests in previous years). Great dissatisfaction was also caused by the decision of the government on a new, extremely difficult, extraordinary tax collection (pyatina). Active participants in the "copper" rebellion were representatives of the urban lower classes of the capital, and peasants from villages near Moscow. The uprising broke out in the early morning of July 25, when leaflets appeared in many districts of Moscow, in which the most prominent government leaders (I.D. Miloslavsky; I.M. Miloslavsky; I.A. Miloslavsky; B.M. Khitrovo; F.M. Rtishchev ) were declared traitors. Crowds of rebels went to Red Square, and from there to the village. Kolomenskoye, where Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was. The rebels (4-5 thousand people, mostly townspeople and soldiers) surrounded the royal residence, handed over their petition to the tsar, insisting on the extradition of the persons indicated in the leaflets, as well as on a sharp reduction in taxes, food prices, etc. Taken by surprise, the king, who had about 1,000 armed courtiers and archers, did not dare to go for reprisals, promising the rebels to investigate and punish the perpetrators. The rebels turned to Moscow, where, after the departure of the first group of rebels, a second group formed and the destruction of the courtyards of large merchants began. On the same day, both groups united, arrived in the village. Kolomenskoye, again surrounded the royal palace and resolutely demanded the extradition of government leaders, threatening to execute them even without the tsar's sanction. At this time in Moscow, after the departure of the second group of rebels in the village. With the help of archers, the Kolomenskoye authorities, by order of the tsar, switched to active punitive actions, and 3 archery and 2 soldier regiments (up to 8 thousand people) were already pulled into Kolomenskoye. After the rebels refused to disperse, the beating of mostly unarmed people began. During the massacre and subsequent executions, about 1 thousand people were killed, sunk, hanged and executed, up to 1.5-2 thousand rebels were exiled (with families up to 8 thousand people).

June 11, 1663 was followed by a royal decree on the closure of the yards of the "money copper business" and the return to the minting of silver coins. Copper money was redeemed from the population in a short time - within a month. For one silver kopeck they took a ruble in copper money. Trying to benefit from copper kopecks, the population began to cover them with a layer of mercury or silver, passing them off as silver money. This trick was soon noticed, and a royal decree appeared on the prohibition of tinning copper money.

So, the attempt to improve the Russian monetary system ended in complete failure and led to a breakdown in monetary circulation, riots and general impoverishment. Neither the introduction of a system of large and small denominations, nor an attempt to replace expensive raw materials for minting money with cheaper ones failed.

Russian monetary circulation returned to the traditional silver coin. And the time of Alexei Mikhailovich was called "rebellious" by his contemporaries


3. Peasant war led by S. Razin


In 1667, after the end of the war with the Commonwealth, a large number of fugitives poured into the Don. Famine reigned in the Don.

Back in March 1667, Moscow became aware that many residents of the Don "selected to steal to the Volga." The Cossack Stepan Timofeevich Razin stood at the head of the mass of unorganized, but brave, determined and armed people. He showed self-will by recruiting his detachment from the Cossack gola and alien people - fugitive peasants, townsmen tax-payers, archers, who were not part of the Donskoy army and were not subordinate to the Cossack foreman.

He conceived a campaign in order to distribute the captured booty to the needy, feed the hungry, clothe and shoe the undressed and undressed. Razin, at the head of a detachment of Cossacks of 500 people, did not go to the Volga, but down the Don. It's hard to tell what his intentions were at that moment. It seems that this campaign was aimed at lulling the vigilance of the Volga governors and attracting supporters. People came to Razin from different places. Lead your troops to him.

In mid-May 1667, the Cossacks and the fugitive peasantry crossed over the crossing to the Volga. Razin's detachment grew to 2000 people. First, the Razints met a large trade caravan on the Volga, which included ships with exiles. The Cossacks seized goods and property, replenished stocks of weapons and provisions, took possession of the plows. Streltsy commanders and merchant clerks were killed, and exiles, most of the archers and rivermen who worked on merchant ships voluntarily joined the Razintsy.

Cossacks clashed with government troops. As the events of the Caspian campaign developed, the rebellious nature of the movement became more and more manifest.

Avoiding a clash with government troops, he in a short time and with small losses spent his flotilla at sea, then moved to the Yaik River and easily captured the Yaitsky town. In all battles, Razin showed great courage. The Cossacks were joined by more and more people from the huts and plows.

Having entered the Caspian Sea, the Razintsy headed to its southern shores. Some time later, their ships stopped in the area of ​​the Persian city of Rasht. The Cossacks sacked the cities of Rasht, Farabat, Astrabad and wintered near the "amusing palace of the Shah", setting up an earthen town in his forest reserve on the Miyan-Kale peninsula. Having exchanged the captives for the Russians in the ratio of "one to four", in this way they replenished with people.

The release of Russian captives languishing in Persia and the replenishment of the Razin detachment with the Persian poor goes beyond the scope of military predatory actions.

In a naval battle near Pig Island, the Razintsy won a complete victory over the troops of the Persian Shah. However, the trip to the Caspian Sea was marked not only by victories and successes. Razintsy had heavy losses and defeats. The fight with large Persian forces near Rasht ended unfavorably for them.

At the end of the Caspian campaign, Razin gave the governors a bunchuk, a sign of his power, and returned some of the weapons. Then the Razintsy, having received the forgiveness of Moscow, returned to the Don. After the Caspian campaign, Razin did not disband his detachment. On September 17, 1669, 20 versts from the Black Yar, Razin demanded that the archers' heads come to him, and renamed the archers and feeders into his "Cossacks".

The reports of the governors of the southern cities about the independent behavior of Razin, that he “became strong” and was again plotting “distemper”, alerted the government. In January 1670, a certain Gerasim Evdokimov was sent to Cherkassk. Razin demanded that Evdokim be brought in and interrogated him, from whom did he come: from the great sovereign or the boyars? The messenger confirmed that from the king, but Razin declared him a boyar scout. The Cossacks drowned the royal envoy. In the town of Panshin, Razin gathered the participants of the upcoming campaign in a large circle. The ataman announced that he intended to "go from the Don to the Volga, and from the Volga to go to Rus' ... so that ... from the Muscovite state bring the boyars and duma people as traitors and in the cities the voivodes and clerks people" and give freedom to "black people".

Soon 7000 Razin's army moved to Tsaritsyn. Having captured it, the Razintsy remained in the town for about 2 weeks. The battles in the lower reaches of the Volga in the spring and summer of 1670 showed that Razin was a talented commander. On June 22, Astrakhan was captured by the Razintsy. Without a single shot, Samara and Saratov passed to the Razintsy.

After that, the Razintsy began the siege of Simbirsk. At the end of August 1670, the government sent an army to suppress the Razin uprising. A month's stay near Simbirsk was Razin's tactical miscalculation. It made it possible to bring government troops here. In the battle near Simbirsk, Razin was seriously wounded, and later executed in Moscow.

Apparently, one of the main reasons for the failure of the Simbirsk was the lack of a permanent staff in the rebel army. Only the core of the Cossacks and archers remained stable in the Razin army, while numerous peasant detachments, which made up the bulk of the rebels, kept coming and going. They did not have military experience, and during the period that they were not in the ranks of the Razintsy, they did not have time to accumulate it.


4. Movement of schismatics


An important fact of Russian history of the XVII century. there was a church schism, which was the result of the church reform of Patriarch Nikon.

The most significant of the innovations adopted by Patriarch Nikon and the church council of 1654 was the replacement of baptism with two fingers with three fingers, the pronunciation of the praise to God "alelujah" not twice, but three times, the movement around the lectern in the church not in the direction of the Sun, but against it. All of them dealt with the purely ritual side, and not with the essence of Orthodoxy.

The schism of the Orthodox Church took place at the council of 1666-1667, and from 1667 the schismatics were put on trial by the "city authorities", who burned them for "blasphemy against the Lord God." In 1682, Archpriest Avvakum, the main opponent of Patriarch Nikon, died at the stake.

Archpriest Avvakum became one of the brightest personalities in Russian history. Many considered him a saint and a miracle worker. He participated together with Nikon in correcting liturgical books, but was soon dismissed due to ignorance of the Greek language.

On January 6, 1681, the tsar went with a large number of people to consecrate the water. At this time, the Old Believers committed a pogrom in the Assumption and Archangel Cathedrals of the Kremlin. They smeared royal vestments and tombs with tar, and also placed tallow candles, which were considered unclean in church use. At this time, the crowd returned, and an associate of the rebels, Gerasim Shapochnik, began to throw “thieves' letters” into the crowd, which depicted caricatures of the tsar and the patriarchs.

The schism brought together a variety of social forces that advocated the preservation of the traditional character of Russian culture intact. There were princes and boyars, such as the noblewoman F.P. Morozova and Princess E.P. Urusov, monks and white clergy who refused to perform new rites. But there were especially many ordinary people - townspeople, archers, peasants - who saw in the preservation of the old rites a way of fighting for the ancient folk ideals of "truth" and "freedom". The most radical step taken by the Old Believers was the decision taken in 1674 to stop praying for the tsar's health. This meant a complete break of the Old Believers with the existing society, the beginning of the struggle to preserve the ideal of "truth" within their communities.

The main idea of ​​the Old Believers was "falling away" from the world of evil, unwillingness to live in it. Hence the preference for self-immolation over compromise with the authorities. Only in 1675-1695. 37 fires were registered, during which at least 20 thousand people died. Another form of protest of the Old Believers was the flight from the power of the tsar, the search for the "secret city of Kitezh" or the utopian country Belovodie, under the protection of God himself.



Conclusion


The 17th century is called by contemporaries the "rebellious age". This is the time of major social movements: two powerful peasant uprisings, a number of urban uprisings, as well as a church uprising that grew into a social movement. The reasons for the speeches were different. The "salt riot" was caused by dissatisfaction with the policy of the government of B.I. Morozov; urban uprisings in Pskov and Novgorod occurred as a result of a sharp increase in the price of bread; "copper rebellion" caused a financial crisis, and the Solovetsky uprising - the reform of Patriarch Nikon. The culmination of the popular uprisings was an uprising led by S.T. Razin.

None of the performances ended in victory. In the course of the struggle for the final centralization of the state against local sovereignty and local liberties, the government brutally suppressed any manifestation of freethinking - whether it manifested itself in the economic, social or religious sphere. But despite the defeat, the "copper" rebellion led to the abolition of copper money and other government concessions.

The reasons for the defeat of the performances were their spontaneous nature, the lack of a clear program of action in some cases, the contradictions between social groups in the camp of the rebels, as was the case during the uprising of Stepan Razin. Some performances were suppressed after the betrayal of some of their participants.

During the century, there was more than one urban uprising, the cause of which was the illiterate policy of the government. Indeed, in the middle of the seventeenth century, the situation in the cities became tense: the authorities looked at the inhabitants of the cities as an inexhaustible source of income. This was manifested in the following: from year to year, the state sought to increase the taxes of the settlement and, at the same time, reduce the salaries of service people.


Bibliography

1. History of Russia from antiquity to the present day. / Edited by M.N. Zuev. - M.: Higher school, 1998. - 543 p.

2. Kargalov V.V. History of Russia from ancient times to 1917. / Yu.S. Saveliev, V.A. Fedorov. - M.: Russian Word, 1998. - 500 p.

3. Handbook on the history of the Fatherland for applicants to universities. / Edited by A.S. Orlova, A.Yu. Polunova and Yu.A. Shchetinov. – M.: Prostor, 1994. – 389 p.

4. Skrynnikov R.G. Hard times. Moscow in the XVI-XVII centuries. / R.G. Skrynnikov. - M.: Moskovsky worker, 1988. - 430 p.

5. Chistyakova E.V. "Stepan Razin and his associates" / E.V. Chistyakova, V. M. Solovyov, M .: Book, 1989, - 380 p.


Tutoring

Need help learning a topic?

Our experts will advise or provide tutoring services on topics of interest to you.
Submit an application indicating the topic right now to find out about the possibility of obtaining a consultation.