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PUGACHEV
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PUGACHEV , EMEL'YAN IVANOVICH (? 1741-1775), See also:Russian pretender, the date of whose See also:birth is uncertain, was the son of a small Cossack landowner. He married a Cossack girl See also:Sofia Nedyuzheva, in 1758, and the same See also:year was sent with his See also:fellow See also:Cossacks to See also:Prussia, under the See also:lead of See also:Count Zachary Chernuishev. In the first See also:Turkish See also:War (1769—74) of See also:Catherine II. Pugachev, now a Cossack See also:ensign, served under Count See also:Peter See also:Panin and was See also:present at the See also:siege of See also:Bender. Invalided See also:home, he led for the next few years a wandering See also:life; was more than once arrested and imprisoned as a deserter; and finally, after frequenting the monasteries of the " Old Believers," who exercised considerable See also:influence over him, suddenly proclaimed himself (1773) to be Peter III. The See also:story of Pugachev's strong resemblance to the murdered See also:emperor is a later See also:legend. Pugachev dubbed himself Peter III. the better to attract to his See also:standard all those (and they were many) who attributed their misery to 2 See Zoologist for 1878, pp. 233–240. the See also:government of Catherine II., for Peter III. was generally remembered as the determined opponent of Catherine. As a See also:matter of fact Pugachev and his followers were hostile to every See also:form of settled government. The one thought of the destitute thousands who joined the new Peter was to sweep away utterly the intolerably oppressive upper-classes. Pugachev's story was that he and his See also:principal adherents had escaped from the clutches of Catherine, and were resolved to redress the grievances of the See also:people, give See also:absolute See also:liberty to the Cossacks, and put Catherine herself away in a monastery. He held a sort of mimic See also:court at which one Cossack impersonated Nikita Panin, another Zachary Chemuishev, and so on. The Russian government at first made See also:light of the rising. At the beginning of See also:October 1793 it was simply regarded as a See also:nuisance, and 500 roubles was considered a sufficient See also:reward for the See also:head of the troublesome Cossack. At the end of See also:November 28,000 roubles were promised to whomsoever should bring him in alive or dead. Even then, however, Catherine, in her See also:correspondence with See also:Voltaire, affected to treat " l'affaire du See also:Marquis de Pugachev "-.as a See also:mere joke, but by the beginning of 1774 the joke had See also:developed into a very serious danger. All the forts on the See also:Volga and Ural were now in the hands of the rebels; the See also:Bashkirs had joined them; and the See also:governor of See also:Moscow reported See also:great restlessness among the See also:population of central See also:Russia. Shortly afterwards Pugachev captured Kazan, reduced most of the churches and monasteries there to ashes, and massacred all who refused to join him. See also:General Peter Panin, the conqueror of Bender, was thereupon sent against the rebels with a large See also:army, but difficulty of trans-See also:port, lack of discipline, and the See also:gross insubordination of his See also:ill-paid soldiers paralysed all his efforts for months, while the in-numerable and ubiquitous bands of Pugachev were victorious in nearly every engagement. Not till See also:August 1774 did General Mikhelson inflict a crushing defeat upon the rebels near See also:Tsaritsyn, when they lost ten thousand in killed and prisoners. Panin's See also:savage See also:reprisals, after the See also:capture of See also:Penza, completed their discomfiture. Pugachev was delivered up by his own Cossacks on attempting to See also:fly to the Urals (See also:Sept. 14), and was executed at Moscow on the 11th of See also:January 1775. See N. Dubrovin, Pugachev and his Associates (Rus.; See also:Petersburg, 1884); Catherine II., See also:Political Correspondence (Rus. Fr. Ger.; Petersburg, 1885, &c.); S. I. Gnyedich, Emilian Pugachev (Rus.; Petersburg, 1902). (R. N. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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