Bulavin Rebellion

TheBulavin RebellionorAstrakhanRevolt(Russian:Булавинское восстание,romanized:Bulavinskoye vosstaniye;Восстание Булавина,Vosstaniye Bulavina) was a war which took place in the years 1707 and 1708 between theDon Cossacksand theTsardom of Russia.Kondraty Bulavin,a democratically electedAtamanof the Don Cossacks, led the Cossack rebels. The conflict was triggered by a number of underlying tensions between the Moscow government underPeter I of Russia,theCossacks,and Russian peasants fleeing fromserfdomin Russia to gain freedom in the autonomousDonarea. It started with the 1707 assassination of PrinceYury Vladimirovich Dolgorukov,the leader of Imperial army'spunitive expeditionto the Don area, by Don Cossacks under Bulavin's command. The end of the rebellion came with Bulavin's death in 1708.

Don Cossack Rebellion of 1707–1708
Date 8 October 1707 – 7 July 1708 Location Don Cossack Host,Russia Result Russian victory Death ofKondraty Bulavin Rebellion crushed
Belligerents
Russia	Don Cossackrebels
Commanders and leaders
Peter the Great	Kondraty Bulavin†

Underlying causes

A number of social grievances were prevalent in thepeasantpopulation ofRussiain the years leading up to the Bulavin Rebellion.Peter the Great's radical reforms designed to "Westernize" oldMuscovyin the 18th century were met with widespread discontent. The pious, deeplyconservativemasses saw his reforms as an affront to their traditional way of life and to theirEastern Orthodoxfaith. Peter was even equated to theAnti-Christand assumed to be an impostor posing as the trueTsar.On top of this, Peter's newly formedpolice statewas expanding territorially, and by this expansion was encroaching upon salt resource sites coveted by the Cossacks for preservation of their foods. This dispute over land was in one sense an economic issue, but theCossacksalso regarded this as an intrusion upon their semi-autonomous political state. In general, the entire rural Russian atmosphere was in an agitated state, waiting for a catalyst of some kind.

Immediate catalyst

In response to the constraints and fears of living in Peter'spolice state,large numbers ofserfsabsconded, abandoning the majorurbanareas, especiallyMoscowand the new capital atSt. Petersburg.While some groups emigrated toPolandorAustria,many chose to avoid the border patrols and instead fled to the rural periphery and the river regions already inhabited by the Cossacks. It was Peter's policy to hunt down and arrest absconders and return them to their lords where they could be counted for taxes, a policy which, by this time, had no statute of limitations. In accordance with this policy, Peter deployed a group ofbounty huntersunder Yuri Dolgorukovto scout the Cossack regions for fugitive peasants. Despite the fact that the Cossacks harbored some resentment towards the peasants (for overpopulating their region and generally competing for local resources), more deplorable to them was the idea of Petrine agents roaming freely through their territory. They not only refused to give up the fugitive peasants, but on 8 October 1707 a small band of localatamansheaded by Kondraty Bulavin ambushed and murdered Dolgorukov and his men in the village of Shulgin on theAidar River,opening the door to violence and beginning the Bulavin Rebellion.

Bulavin

Kondraty Bulavin house,Starocherkassk

Little is known about Bulavin personally, but he was born into a Cossack family and would have been old enough to rememberStenka Razinand the revolt of the late 17th century. He developed some combat experience fighting theKubanandCrimean Tatarsin his youth. However, he was never a particularly great military commander, and throughout the rebellion that bears his name, he would forever fall short of becoming an undisputed leader. By 1704, he had risen to the status ofatamanofBakhmut,a position he held until 1706. It was during this stint that he orchestrated and participated in the destruction of the salt works on theSeverski Donets,an act of retaliation for having been evicted by the government assquatters.This conflict was never entirely resolved and was ultimately absorbed into the greater rebellion as it gained momentum. Bulavin was most likely illiterate, but like his contemporary revolutionaries, he possessed a talent for appealing to the people and inciting them to action.

General details

Bulavin's rally cries were simple: the goal was to move against Moscow and destroy the evil influences on theTsar.It is important to note that the rebellion was not against the institution of Tsardom but against the figures in power at the time. It was generally believed that Peter was either not who he claimed (i.e. theAntichristsitting in place of the true Tsar who was hidden away), or that he was indeed the rightful Tsar but was under the control of evil advisers whose destruction would liberate him, and that if given the freedom to act, he would repudiate all of his wicked reforms.

The rebellion suffered from a number of weaknesses. For one, despite all of his rallying, Bulavin never offered apretenderto the throne or suggested ajust tsarto replace Peter. This blunder would condemn the rebellion's end goals to ambiguity and would let slip an immeasurable amount of support he might have mustered. Second, Bulavin did not coordinate his efforts with any other pre-existing Muscovite enemies, sodespite being heavily engaged in warwithSweden,the military apparatus under Peter was not as divided as it could have been and found the rebellion to be more of a nuisance than a major conflict. By means of its vastly superior size and efficiency, the regular army was ultimately capable of stamping out the rebellion at all levels. In the end, angered by devastating reversals and Bulavin's tiring claims, factions of his own Cossack followers turned against him. He was found dead on 7 July 1708, having been shot in the head. It is not known whether the wound was self-inflicted or an act of treachery. Following Bulavin's death, the rebellion petered out, with pockets of resistance persisting through 1709, but for all intents and purposes, the conflict was over.

Political and social aftermath

As mentioned, the Bulavin Rebellion bore striking similarities toRazin's Revolt a generation earlier. Both were Cossack rebellions in part, aimed against an imposing governmental institution and driven by animosity for the miserable state of peasant life. They effectively set the stage for thePugachev UprisingunderCatherine the Great.

In response to the uprising, Peter tightened his grip on the Cossack states, causing some 2000 underIgnat Nekrasovto flee to the protection of theCrimean Khanate.Descendants of theseNekrasoviteswould relocate toAnatoliaduring thePugachev Uprisingand settle nearConstantinople,where their traditionalculturewould continue to the present day.

References

Sources

• Evgenii V. Anisimov,The Reforms of Peter the Great: Progress Through Coercion in Russia,Tr. John T. Alexander (Armonk, NY: Me. Sharpe, 1993)
• Paul Avrich,Russian Rebels, 1600–1800,(New York, 1972)
• James Cracraft, ed.,Major Problems in the History of Imperial Russia,(Le xing ton, MA:D.C. Heath and Company,1994)
• Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, Mark D. Steinberg,A History of Russia, 7th ed.,(New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2005)

External links

• Biography of Bulavin