When the first information about Stenka Razin was jotted down in our historical sources,
he was part of a Don Cossack diplomatic mission in the Northern Caucasus. The next thing we know is
that he became a pirate, pillaging and massacring cities around the Volga river, well into Persia.
He thrived in the lawless and rough southern regions. Eventually, however, he entered the
history books as the leader of one of the first popular revolts against the Tsarist Regime,
which actually had some considerable success and gained notoriety for their bloody massacres,
although the reprisals from the Tsar's side were just as brutal.
Background
Before we get to Razin, the theatre in which he appeared ought to be sketched - that is to say:
we have to understand what Russia was going through at that time.
The seventeenth century was ushered in with chaos and turmoil, the so-called Time of Troubles. The
last Tsar of the Rurik Dynasty, Feodor Ivanovich, passed away in 1598, and it would not be until
1613 for the Romanov dynasty to be established. The first two Tsars of the Romanov dynasty,
Mikhail and Alexis, embarked on a policy of centralisation of power,
which meant the Russian nobility was slowly but surely forced to hand in influence.
A division between the Tsars and the Russian nobility emerged. Not only that, but the peasantry
and nobility lived worlds apart, and that is an understatement. In 1649 the Sobornoye Ulozheniye
was declared. This legal code created a new serf class, in which free peasants and slaves were
placed. The legal code registered this class's hereditary and unchangeable status, so I don't
think I have to explain exactly why there was friction between the Russian serfs and nobility.
Furthermore, from 1654 to 1657, Russia waged war with Poland. In 1656 the two-year war with
Sweden took its toll on the Russian population in terms of taxes, conscription and the general
misery of the lowest class of people living. Right, so against the backdrop of all these
events, Stenka Razin emerged. The first trace of him appeared in 1661 during diplomatic exchanges
between the Don Cossacks and the Tatar Kalmyks in Russia's North Caucasus territory.
Razin participated as an envoy of the Don Cossack delegation. He supposedly was born
into an influential Don Cossack family. In the early 17th century, many serfs fled from the
lands they worked on, oftentimes to the more raw and loosely organised Cossack communities.
As such, the Don Cossacks enjoyed a steady stream of refugees, if you will, from Imperial Russian
territories spanning from current-day Poland to refugees from the Caucasus and further east.
The same year of Razin served as a diplomatic envoy, he retreated to the Solovetsky
monastery near the White Sea, after which he disappeared from our sources for six years.
The next time he appeared was in 1667. By now, he served as the Cossack chief,
known as a hetman, of a community of thieves and bandits living along the river Volga. This
band of bandits made their living from blackmail and robberies. Most of them were refugee serfs,
refugees from the Russo-Swedish and Russo-Polish wars, adventurers and fellow Cossacks.
Razin's first noteworthy act was the hijacking and seizing of a large navy convoy sailing on
the River Yaik (now Ural), transporting great wealth belonging to, among others,
wealthy Muscovite merchants and the Bishop of Moscow. The bandits decided to put the flotilla
to use. Due to the ever-increasing size of his gang and seizure of the flotilla, Razin managed to
comfortably pillage along the rivers of Southern Russia, Dagestan, and present-day Azerbaijan.
They lay siege to settlements such as Derbent and Baku, before crossing the Caspian Sea with
a fleet of approximately thirty-five ships. On the Persian coast of the Caspian sea, they plundered
the city of Rasht. Any military commander sent to halt them was swiftly dealt with and defeated.
In total, his gang roamed around the Persian coast for eighteen months, pillaging whatever
coastal settlements they could find. Razin was basically a pirate, sailing down the waterways,
massacring the cities he encountered.
Persia did try to kick him out, but Razin destroyed a fleet sent by Mamed-khan.
His gang became infamous to the degree that cities military commanders didn't bother resisting. They
opened their gates to Razin out of fear, handing over riches in the hopes he would spare them
destruction. News spread all the way to Moscow and the Tsar's Palace. In 1669 Tsar Alexis I offered
him a pardon for his actions. The trade-off would be that Razin would cease his campaign.
Although Razin didn't feel much for giving up his way of life, it appeared to have been a lucrative
deal. He refused, although most likely not in writing. He simply continued marauding the lawless
periphery of the Russian Empire. As much as a pirate with a marauding gang of bandits speaks
to the imagination, he wouldn't have entered history books due to his actions until this point.
Rebellion
His most notorious escapade began in 1670. Having to face constant military envoys dispatched from
Moscow, Razin publicly declared a rebellion against Russia's government, but not the Tsar.
As paradoxical as that may seem, after all, the Tsar was more-or-less Russia's government.
With around 7000 bandits, he captured several Russian cities;
first Tsaritsyn and then Astrakhan. Along the way, he captured several other military fortresses,
killing two princes and anyone that took up arms against him.
Gradually Astrakhan, one of the cities captured, plundered and massacred,
transformed into a Cossack stronghold and what somewhat resembled a Cossack republic. Razin was
proclaimed Gosudar, which translates to as much as the sovereign. The cities' original inhabitants
and the areas surrounding the stronghold were massacred and subject to the extreme abuses.
Razin, however, wasn't satisfied yet. Having conquered these cities, dominating the
region, provided him with a taste of what he could achieve. Together with his band of marauders,
he began planning a campaign up north, all the way to Moscow. Slowly trekking north,
he managed to rouse the rural peasantry and serfs to take up arms against Russia's bureaucracy
and nobility. By the time he captured the city of Saratov, his army numbered over 20.000. He then
went on to besiege Simbirsk, with the revolution spreading from the Volga region all the way to
the Don region and even more in-land. Shocked by the rapid advance, the Tsar
dispatched Yuri Baryatinsky, a Russian military leader and nobleman, to curb the Razin revolt.
Yuri's first objective was to prevent the capture of the city of Simbirsk. Some five thousand
soldiers interrupted the Cossack besiegement of the city. Though, numerically superior,
the Cossacks were no match for the better equipped and more disciplined Tsarist army.
They were defeated in October 1670, after which Razin fled,
leaving the majority of his supporters behind. It has to be said that the repression by the
Tsarist troops was entirely in line with the rebel's behaviour thus far. Rebels were captured,
mutilated, and their bodies displayed in public places to deter the population from joining Razin.
It worked, and after the defeat at Simbirsk, Razin found it more challenging to gather troops.
The local population became reluctant as word of the severe Tsarist punishments travelled fast.
Razin wasn't about to give up, though. He returned to his native Don region,
to recuperate and gather new troops. His messengers, however, really made the difference.
These had penetrated the Russian lands. Whether it was in cities or peasant villages,
these men stirred the population against the Russian government, convincing them
to join the popular Cossack uprising. Obviously, considering the peasants'
living conditions, some thought it better to revolt against the government, considering
they barely had anything to lose. Razin himself stated that he wanted to exterminate the Russian
nobility and bureaucrats and create a Cossack republic that… resembled a somewhat primitive
form of an early classless communist society? Anyhow, the revolt of Razin continued with
momentum, but the bloody repression by Tsarist troops had dented its prestige.
When the Bishop of Moscow publicly spoke out against him, in combination with troops sent
by the Tsar to root out the rebels, the end of Razin suddenly rapidly came closer.
Ironically, the Don Cossacks, those from the diplomatic mission years before,
turned on Razin. They captured him and handed both him and his brother over to Tsarist loyalists.
These, obviously, decided to make an example of them. On the Bolotnaya Square in Moscow,
Stenka Razin was quartered on the scaffold. Some sources, probably romanticising his last moments,
describe how after his leg and arm were cut off, his brother stated he wanted to
inform on anyone disloyal to the Tsar. Razin supposedly shouted at him to "shut up, dog".
Perhaps these really were his last words; we will never know. Stenka Razin's story however,
is fascinating. A marauding pirate that became a symbol of the peasantry,
rising up against the oppressive Tsarist regime. He certainly wouldn't be the last Cossack or
peasant to rise up against the Russian Tsars, but that's a story for another time. Thank you
for watching this video and what is an event or a person that sparked a revolt or rebellion that you
would like to know more about, and perhaps see a video of? Let me know your thoughts in
the comments. If you enjoyed the video, consider subscribing to this channel. See you next time!