Ural legends about Pugachev. Lesson summary on literary local history on the topic “V.G. Korolenko “Pugachev’s Legend in the Urals””

Lenin offers Artyom a job in the Urals. Lenin listened to Artyom and thought that it would be good to strengthen the Bolshevik party organizations of the most important proletarian regions with such people. There are such strong Bolshevik cadres in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Ivanovo and Kharkov. But on

Radishchev's notes about the Urals (164) After the provincial government announced to Alexander Radishchev a decree to replace the death penalty with exile to the Ilimsk prison, he was shackled and sent along a convoy to Siberia. From St. Petersburg to Ilimsk he had to travel 6,788 versts.

On September 12, 1987, the article “I know where the treasure is!” appeared in the Construction Newspaper. Its author, a former engineer-geologist V. Bondarev, claimed that he was ready to show the place where the untold riches hidden by Emelyan Pugachev were buried. The basis for the statement was the deciphering of drawings on malachite tiles that belonged to the Ural professor A. Malakhov.

The newspaper organized an expedition of enthusiasts from the city of Tashkent. The Ural Production Geological Association was instructed to provide the expedition with all possible assistance. The association sent qualified geologists and provided participants with cars, gear and equipment worth several thousand rubles, a huge amount at that time.

From June 26 to July 22, 1988, the expedition searched for the treasure declared by V. Bondarev. Let me emphasize that this was the eleventh expedition.

Talking tile

Professor A. A. Malakhov was a rather famous person in the Urals. He also worked at the Sverdlovsk Mining Institute named after. V. Vakhrushev, both at the Ural Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and at the Sverdlovsk Institute of National Economy, conducted research for the Ural Geological Department. A. Malakhov, a writer and publicist, has written about fifty books and many articles popularizing geological knowledge.

Since 1970, various media outlets have published an article by A. Malakhov about the mysteries of the mysterious malachite tiles - a phenomenal discovery, from his point of view.

Its essence was as follows. The old miner gave the scientist a malachite tile. The professor discovered on it a countless number of drawings executed in a specific “malachite painting”, which he called “Ural lithostyle”. His technique boiled down to applying subminiature images to the malachite surface with malachite paint, which can only be seen with a magnification of several tens of thousands of times. Several hundred photographs were taken from the tiles, from which they began to “decipher” what was supposedly drawn.

Of all the drawings, we will be interested only in those related to Pugachev’s uprising. In particular, Malakhov saw a drawing of the Utkinsk plant - the site of the battle between the rebels and government troops - now the city of Staroutkinsk.

One of the articles contains the following paragraph: “At the opposite edge of the tile there are landscapes of the Chusovaya River, that is, everything that is located in the west of the Middle Urals.

In the middle of the tile there is o. Tavatuy, Nevyansk and Seven Brothers, and from the south “messengers” were moving to this zone with a caravan of the most secret documents and the most valuable part of Pugachev’s treasury.”

It all started with him. Treasure hunters fell into the valley of the Chusovaya River. Let us calmly consider whether there could be Pugachev’s treasure here, where his possible burial is and what value it may represent.

Version called "Pugachev"

Since supporters of the “Pugachev treasure” specifically point to a geographical reference - this is the Chusovaya River, then let’s see if Pugachev’s paths crossed with the basin of this river.

E.I. Pugachev’s stay in the Urals is scheduled almost day by day.

On November 22, 1772, he arrived in the Yaitsky town and in the house of Denis Pyankov for the first time declared that he was Peter III.

At the end of November - beginning of December 1772, the “tsar” visited Mechetnaya and Malkova, where on November 19 he was arrested and taken to Kazan prison.

On May 29, 1773, he fled to the Southern Urals. It took four weeks to put together a rebel core in Talov Umet, in the house of the Cossack Obolyaev.

On September 15, near Tolmachevo Khutor, he draws up his first manifesto and, two days later, announces it.

On September 18, Pugachev begins moving along the border with the Small Kazakh Horde, capturing one outpost after another.

On October 5 he approaches Orenburg. Pugachev remained in this area without a break until March 22, 1774, when he was forced to lift the siege of Orenburg and move to the northeast.

From that moment on, he never stayed anywhere for long. He is defeated at the Trinity Fortress and turns to the north-west.

On June 11, it passes the Krasnoufimskaya fortress, and then moves to the Osinsky plant, entering the Lower Volga region.

On August 24, 1774, Pugachev lost his last battle - near the Smolensk Army. Abandoned by everyone, with a handful of seemingly devoted Cossacks, he flees to the Maly Uzen River, where on September 8, “like-minded people” bind their king and on September 15, they surrender to government troops.

So, Pugachev did not come closer to the line Kasli plant - Krasnoufimskaya fortress to the Chusovaya River basin, and this is no less than 120 km from the closest point of the basin.

Consequently, the version that Pugachev and his detachment personally buried the treasure on Chusovaya disappears. Let's consider other options.

The second version called "Beloborodov"

Ivan Beloborodov, Pugachev’s most prominent associate, is much more promising as the “owner of the treasure.”

His path in the Middle Urals is known in even more detail.

In his testimony to the investigative commission, Beloborodov said that he learned about Pugachev’s uprising on January 1, 1774.

On January 4, he, together with Kanzafar Usaev, entered the Nizhne-Irginsky plant, and on the 6th, on his own, captured the Achitsa fortress.

Then it moves east up the Biserti River. The Bisert Fortress (now the village of Afanasyevskoye), the Klenovskaya Fortress, the Bisertsky Demidov Plant, the Kirgishan Fortress, and in mid-January - the Grobovskaya (now the village of Pervomaiskoye) fell at the feet of the rebels. This fortress was already located in the basin of the Chusovaya River, and a necklace of state-owned and private factories, villages and marinas strung along the river opened before the rebels.

Beloborodov’s troops crossed Chusovaya on the ice, on January 18 they broke into the Bilimbaevsky plant, and on the 20th, without much difficulty, they captured the group of Vasilievsko-Shaitansky plants - currently the city of Pervouralsk. For more than a month, the factories became the seat of Beloborodov’s headquarters. From here the rebels extended their power from the Revdinsky plant in the upper part of the Chusovaya basin to the Ilimsk pier in its lower part.

However, in the second half of February 1774, government troops launched a general counteroffensive.

On February 19, Major Gagrin defeated the rebels near Krasnoufimsk, and then with a forced march approached the Utkinsky plant and broke into it on February 26. Only a small group of people, led by centurions Perkhachev and Zhurbinsky, went north.

On February 29, Beloborodov himself approached the plant with the main forces. He tried to capture the plant, but was completely defeated and scattered. Abandoning supplies and artillery, Beloborodov with three hundred men fled to the south and never appeared here again.

This means that we can assume that the owner of the valuables was Beloborodov, and geographically link the location of the treasure to the Utkinsky plant. Until this moment, there was no point in Beloborodov hiding anything.

There are no other options. Such major military leaders of Pugachev’s army as Kanzafar Usaev and Salavat Yulaev never descended into the Chusovaya valley. As for the smaller leaders of the uprising, only centurions Perkhachev and Zhurbinsky could have hidden something in the section from the Utkinsky plant to the Ilimsk pier.

Where to continue searching for treasure

Another quote from A. Malakhov: “Another drawing was identified with one of the rocks of the Chusovaya River. I will not tell you how difficult it was to make this identification. It took many years for this to happen. Details such as elements of layering and fracturing, and individual blocks of rock on the overgrown part of the slope coincided. This rock turned out to be the Boyar Stone along the Chusovaya River. The rock is located not far from the Staroutkinsky plant, where battles took place in Pugachev’s times.”

It would seem that everything fits into a sequential series of reasoning: a caravan with treasury and documents - the valley of the Chusovaya River - the Utkinsky plant - Boyarin Rock.

But who could bury the treasure? The rebel troops, defeated near the Utka plant, fled in panic down the river and surrendered on the same day. When Beloborodov’s main forces approached the plant, they were also defeated.

It is unlikely that they went into this difficult battle with a caravan of valuables and documents. There was no time or sense in this.

Only centurions Perkhachev and Zhurbinsky could bury the treasure in this area after the first defeat on February 26. They moved down the ice of the river and covered about 40 km in about 10-12 hours. It made sense for them to take away valuables and archives with them, if they existed.

It was on their way, about 10 km from Staroutkinsk, on the left bank of the Chusovaya, that they encountered the Boyarin Stone with a cave where they could hide valuables and, having blocked the entrance, move on. They had to walk another 30 km by the end of the day to the Ilimsk pier, where they were detained by the cordon of Captain Durnovo.

But there is another opinion. Starting from the same quote by A. Malakhov, but colored by subsequent interpretations, which are not in the professor’s published works, some came to the conclusion that the treasure is in the Klikunchik Stone cave, downstream on the right bank of the Chusovaya, about 240 km from Staroutkinsk.

Why is the treasure valuable?

Followers of A. Malakhov indicate precisely; This gold Crown, with a 90-carat diamond embedded in it, valuable items, money in barrels and secret documents.

V. Bondarev claimed that the “Treasury of the Russian Empire” was hidden on Chusovaya; he even calculated the cost of the treasure: neither more nor less - two billion rubles!

In the 18th century, the term “Treasury of the Russian Empire” meant a collection of valuables that belonged to the imperial house, as well as assets of state banks. These are not only cash reserves, but also precious metals, gold and silver coins in barrels, jewelry, coronation headdresses, dresses studded with gems and pearls, historical gems, piece weapons and armor.

From the time of Ivan the Terrible until 1917, the treasury left its place only twice, in 1812 and 1915. The path of its movement is precisely known. During the period of Pugachev’s uprising, the “Treasury of the Russian Empire” was kept in storage and did not travel to the Urals. For the first time she comes to the Urals during the Civil War.

As for Pugachev’s crown, this statement is completely fantastic. There is no mention in any document that Pugachev appeared wearing a crown.

There are legends about Pugachev’s seizure of enormous valuables. However, all cases are accurately recorded in archival documents. The total amount of cash requisitions is about 200 thousand rubles.

Note that the most large sums were confiscated and the last weeks of the uprising in the lower reaches of the Volga and could not get to Chusovaya. Relatively few valuable things were captured, mainly in the Southern Urals. They fit into seven chests that were kept by Pugachev in Berdskaya Sloboda.

Their contents are described by V. Shishkov in his novel: “In the first chest there were pieces of cloth and 25 silver cups; in the second - men's beshmets and Cossack headdresses with braid; in the third - eight fur coats for men and women, in the fourth - fox and squirrel furs, in the remaining three chests - silver glasses, glasses, trays, candlesticks, kumachi, Chinese clothes, linen, household rubbish.”

All this was plundered or captured by the tsarist troops after Pugachev fled from near Orenburg.

You can also count how much money Beloborodov took from the Chusovaya River basin: Revdinsky and Bisertsky factories - 44 rubles; Verkhne- and Nizhne-Shaitansky - 172, Bilimbaevsky plant - 518, Nizhne-Irginsky - 1240, Utkinsky - 1500. Total 3474 rubles. The remaining 27,101 rubles, which are listed in Beloborodov’s requisitions, were confiscated by him from factories Southern Urals.

Another thing is also known: when Beloborodov was in the Ilimsk pier, Major Fisher from Yekaterinburg raided the rebel headquarters in the Shaitansky plant, burned it and seized 20,000 rubles in money, a valuable icon of the Mother of God and thoroughbred horses.

So Beloborodov practically had nothing to hide. At best, it could be copper money, which is of only numismatic interest.

The treasures of Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Tagil, Nevyansk, Sysert, Polevsky remained untouched, and it was in these cities that the residences of the first-ranking rich people of the Urals were located - the dynasties of the Demidovs, Turchaninovs, Ryazanovs, Yakovlevs and others.

Doubts

With the Whooper Stone, which V. Bondarev and his comrades so insist on, a whole heap of new doubts arises.

First doubt. A. Malakhov wrote: “The Cossacks gradually unloaded the caravan and loaded the treasures onto waiting boats and rafts.”

According to the weather service, ice drift on the Chusovaya River, based on a century and a half of observations in the area, fluctuates between April 20 and 25. The earliest recorded was March 30, 1961.

Even if we take him into account, at that time Beloborodov’s army was already in the steppes of the Southern Urals, and Pugachev was preparing for the battle of Sakmarsky Gorodok in the Orenburg region. According to the time, the caravan, if it unloaded on Chusovaya, had to transfer its valuables not into boats and rafts, but into sleighs and koshevos.

Second doubt. It is known that the lowest point along the Chusovaya River where the rebels appeared is the Ilimskaya pier. The detachments defeated at the Utkinsky plant arrived here late at night on February 26th.

Downstream, past Captain Durnovo’s detachment, a few, maybe small groups, could slip past, but certainly not a caravan with a large cargo, which passed unnoticed along the river for at least 170 km to the Whooper Stone. This is absolutely impossible in an area literally filled with government troops.

The third doubt. The presence of the ill-fated crown was established from photographs taken with high magnification, all from the same malachite tile. The photographs are so vague and unclear that the viewer is free to imagine what is depicted there. And the tile disappeared without a trace. And where does the 1774 gold crown with a large diamond come from?

There were no goldsmiths on the territory of the uprising. Nothing was lost from the royal collection of crowns in the 18th century. If the crown were privately owned, it would be known.

Fourth doubt. Supporters of the treasure write: “The Treasury of the Russian Empire is hidden there.” The papers of Ya. Grot, to which V. Bondarev loves to refer, actually mention Pugachev’s requisition of the state treasury in a number of cities on the lower Volga. But there is no word about the “Treasury of the Russian Empire.” And “state treasury of the city” and “Treasury of the Russian Empire” are two big differences.

conclusions

A. Malakhov “saw” a caravan on a malachite tile and decided that it should contain valuables and archives. Then, also arbitrarily, he came to the conclusion that this must be Pugachev’s treasure.

IN fancy pattern malachite he fancied the rocks of the river. Chusovoy. It is not at all clear why he decided that the treasure should be hidden in the Whooper Stone cave, and not in hundreds of others? A similar combination of random false parcels occurred.

We know the result: in the half-hundred years that they have been searching for the treasure, not a penny of those times has been found. And this is natural, because historical documents convincingly prove that the Pugachev treasure, as A. Malakhov’s supporters describe it, cannot exist along the Chusovaya River.

You can read an interesting article about Pugachev’s treasure “Expedition on the trail of Emelyan Pugachev” on the website “Mysterious Ural”

Legends about Pugachev. Along with documents preserved in the archives of Chelny, Sverdlovsk region. and the Republic of Bashkortostan, the events of the Peasant War of 1773-74 were reflected in numerous. adv. legends and tales that developed everywhere in the Urals during and after the uprising under the leadership of E.I. Pugachev and were recorded by archivists, local historians, historians and writers, especially. in the 2nd half. 19th century Elderly workers were invited to factory offices, where memories handed down orally from their grandfathers and great-grandfathers were recorded in their words. Legends and traditions dedicated to. the events themselves Cross. war, the life and work of Pugachev and the fugitive “free” people, treasures and treasures, left. Pugachevites. Reflect the period directly. stay of Pugachev and his associates in Zlatoust. and Satka factories at the end of May - beginning of June 1774. According to legend, Pugachev, while on Taganay, received news that I. N. Beloborodov was beyond the river. Ai gathered an army of thousands; Having arrived at Beloborodov’s camp and deciding to move with him to the Satka plant, Pugachev allegedly ordered a road to be cut through the forest (they did not have time to do this). The Pugachevites were heading to the Satka plant through the city of Chulkova, Suleinsky ridge. and went to the river. Berdyaush; a stop was made at the town of Krasnokalovka (Krasnookolovka, Krasnosokolovka; according to popular etymology, the mountain was named after the fox malakhai or hat with a red band that Beloborodov wore); in the end 19th century A large cauldron was found on the mountain, “from which the Pugachevites ate.” When the Pugachevites attacked the Satkinsky plant, many. live They fled, the plant stopped, the charcoal burners abandoned the lit heaps, which, unattended, burned into ashes. One of the legends about Pugachev’s stay in Satka was recorded by local historian G. M. Nesterov from the words of a native of Satka M. K. Zavyalov: Pugachevites, armed. with pikes, entered the Satkinsky plant from Vetluga; live they opened the windows in the houses and went out into the streets; The rebels carried out their justice in the west. parts of the square (where there was a hill with a rock, and at the foot there was a lake): some convicts were hanged (3 gallows were installed), others were thrown from a cliff into the lake. In the evening, celebrating the victory, the Pugachevites set fire to the office, the fire spread to the church and houses - the plant burned down. In con. 19th century V.K. Gorbunov wrote down the legends, according to the Crimea, on May 31, 1774, in the afternoon, the “Tsar-Father,” accompanied by his retinue, rode on a white horse into the factory square, was greeted by a procession with “bread and salt” and ringing bells; Many people turned to Pugachev. “walkers” with complaints about oppressors. Tradition has preserved the name of the Satka beauty - 15-year-old Dunyasha, whom Pugachev took with him when he left for the village. Medvedevo with a small detachment. Ch. He entrusted “the management of the plant” to Beloborodov, postponing the “retribution” (trial in the square) until another day. According to this legend, Pugachev held court, sitting in a chair, in a new caftan embroidered with braid, surrounded by Beloborodov, I.A. Tvorogov, Chumakov and other “colonels”; at Dunyasha's prompting, he ordered to suspect. people washed their hands and determined by hand who to hang, who to “convert into Cossacks.” Satkinskaya Dunyasha remained under Pugachev until the end of the uprising; for several days before his capture, he gave her his belt, “full of chervonets” (with this money, she returned to the factory and healed “as if nothing had happened”). According to legends, one can trace the path of retreat of the Pugachevites under the pressure of the governments. troops from the river Ay, from the Eagle's Nest, where Pugachev gathered new forces to fight the troops of I. I. Mikhelson before leaving for the Kama. Local historian M.A. Korostelev wrote down “The Legend of the Pugachev Dam”: a dam made of clay and crushed stone on the river. Istruti (between the towns of Vishneva and Yagodnaya), which existed to regulate the water level during rafting from the Aiskaya pier, was blown up by the Pugachevites to hold back Mikhelson’s troops (in the same places, in the Khutorka area, on the right side of Istrut, 3-4 miles from its confluence with the Ai River, there is a Pugachev Kurgan - supposedly mass grave Pugachevites); Mikhelson left in the direction of the Simsky plant, Ufa, and the Pugachevites returned to the Satkinsky plant. Satka legends about the Pugachev uprising were recorded by archivist P. E. Paduchev and local historian A. S. Burmakin. The legends of the serf mining population talk about the expectation of the rebels coming to the factories, about sending delegations to them, about the joint struggle against the oppressors, especially against the factory administration. Pugachev retains his real name or is called Pugach; people appear an intercessor, an avenger, who deals with the rich, destroys factories hated by the serfs: “...where Emelyushka visited, he greeted everyone kindly, endowed them with a kind word, gave the master’s land to the hungry. I met the people of Yemelyushka with bread and salt, with the ringing of bells, with great joy.” In songs, stories and legends, the idea of ​​​​the continuity of the affairs of Art. Razin and Pugachev - “Razin’s son”. In Nar. consciousness Pugachev appears as a man of images, of complex origin, knowledgeable in foreign languages. language When asked by the writer V.G. Korolenko how the leader signed decrees, being an illiterate person, the Cossack Khokhlachev replied that Pugachev “not only knew Russian, German literacy... because he was born in German soil.” Craftsmen and working people highly valued Pugachev's intelligence (“rarely does the mother of cheese give birth to such people. An intelligent person!”). Having visited Magnitnaya, Pugachev ordered to “take stones” (iron ore), “burn iron out of them, cast cannons and cannonballs, make pikes and sabers.” To the Urals. Kaz. villages rumor repeated the myths about Tsar Peter III, who fled from the executions of the nobility, from the “jealousy” of the empress to the Urals. “For you he is Pugachev, but for me he was great sovereign Pyotr Fedorovich,” said the Urals. Cossack D. Pyanov A. S. Pushkin. Mn. The Cossacks claimed that “there was no Pugachev - the St. Petersburg generals and senators invented this,” there was “in fact” Pyotr Fedorovich - “he... was a warrior, he scared them, that’s what they called him: Pugach and Pugach.” Korolenko, traveling around the Orenburg region in 1900, heard stories about Peter III, who sought to give the people freedom; Knowing that they wanted to kill him, he came to Yaik and from here went to St. Petersburg at the head of the Kaz. troops. According to K.V. Chistov, either general motives appear as the reason for the overthrow of Pyotr Fedorovich from the throne [“he fled from the tax and did not love the kingdom”, “it became unbearable for him to live in St. Petersburg”, “his opponents were also these Chernyshevs, Orlovs, The Panovs (Panins) and other generals who served at the palace in St. Petersburg. He sees that he alone cannot cope with everyone, so he took it and disappeared secretly from the palace, like Saint Alexei the man of God from the chambers of his father the Tsar”], or of a family-domestic nature (marital disagreement between Peter III and Catherine: “ he was jealous, so jealous, and she... was so rebellious against him"; the culprit turns out to be a homewrecker - a "foreign princess" or "Vorontsov's maiden"). The nun Anisya Nevzorova, who saw “Peter Fedorovich” during his marriage to a simple Cossack woman Ustinya Kuznetsova (a description of this event is given by Korolenko in the book “At the Cossacks”), spoke with conviction about the royal title. In Nar. In Pugachev's consciousness, nobility is combined with courage. Thus, in Pushkin’s “Orenburg Records” there is a case when Pugachev, when approaching a fortress. Ozernoy responded to the warning words of the accompanying Cossack that “cannons don’t rain on kings.” The actions of Peter III are spoken of in legends in an upbeat style; his abilities as a military leader are exaggerated (“... and he was, his parent said, he was a real warrior, a rare one: brave, and agile, and strong - just a hero! He overtook a horse up the mountain! And once near Orenburg he himself one controlled the battery, there were all twelve guns, and he managed to refuel, aim, and fire, and at the same time give orders to his colonels and generals”). It is no coincidence that Pugachev was followed by “a lot of people and he went to smash the authorities in the factories”, “men from all sides went to the ataman”, “the entire population... left with him.” The Ufa legend says that together with Pugachev, all the Ufa residents left across the Ruined Bridge. According to folk. traditions in L. and P. nature is involved in the affairs of the people. intercessor: during Pugachev’s retreat from the Avzyano-Petrovsky factories, “the whole earth rose - and the Kukhtur river went underground. It still flows in one place underground. This is since then, they say, when Pugachev left: all of nature did not want to let him go, and the river went underground so that those who pursued Pugachev could not drink from it. That's what the old people said." Pugachev is endowed with extraordinary powers. height, heroic strength, magical properties that made it possible to make “white and black gunpowder”, to escape from bullets and sabers. The motives of sorcery (“devilishness”) occupy great place in L. about P. The reason for the defeat of the troops of Peter III and the failure of his entire campaign is put forward by his prematureness. marriage “from a living wife” (Catherine II): defeat is depicted as an event provoked. treacherous Catherine or “crafty people”. According to legends, instead of Peter III in January. In 1775, a convict who looked similar to him was executed (prison guard, fake, “false Pugach”), and Peter was taken to the palace and “lived out his life in secrecy.” Sometimes the king’s salvation is attributed to his strength and sorcery, sometimes to Catherine’s condescension (which reflected the monarchical sentiments of part of the Kazakh people). Pushkin wrote down many legends and tales about Pugachev during the preparation of materials for the book. "The History of Pugachev." In the beginning. 19th century the manuscript “Hero the Robber” (a poem-legend from the time of Pugachev) was widely known, dedicated to. Chika (I.N. Zarubin, Pugachev’s closest associate); a romantic is created in it. the image of a hero, a patriot, a “very well-read” man with a variety of knowledge, who, having lost faith in Pugachev, takes revenge on all humanity for his disappointment in the role of a cruel robber. The image of Putachev the intercessor was also created in songs that were widespread among the peasants: “A flame flares from Uralechko”, “Emelyan you are ours, dear father”, “They frightened us with Pugach” (“The sovereign hit us from the shoulder - / Pugach gave us roll. / Take a knife, take a sword / and let’s go flog the enemy! / Then a gang gathered, / And the Kirghiz and Tatars - / and the whole army went together: / With Emelyan in chariots / they rushed to destroy the capitals.” Hope for a happy life was associated in the people. consciousness with a dream of discovering a treasure; For the people of the Urals, the treasure represented nature. riches of the earth (deposits of gold, precious stones ) or jewelry, hidden. Pugachev and the Pugachevites (options: Ermak, Razin) in the mountains, at the bottom of rivers, lakes, under grave crosses, in mounds, caves, etc. Legends and traditions indicate people who knew the burial places of treasures; signs that you can use to find a treasured place. She lived in the Satka plant in the 1st half. 19th century Grandma Akulina, who called herself “the mistress of the Pugachev chieftain,” told how the Pugachevites, retreating through the Satkinsky plant, buried them in the ground on the bank of the river. Ay, under 2 oak trees, large chest, full. gold and silver, “they covered it with earth and stones,” noticing that 3 more oak trees were growing on the opposite bank. There are also more specific indications of the burial place of the treasure: “at the foot of Mount Delezhnaya, not far from the village of Medvedskaya... in the forest under a huge spruce tree”; according to the Upper Ufaley legend - “in the cave of the Big Stone.” It is not easy to get the treasure: the oak trees have disappeared over the centuries, the cave has been blown up, etc. According to legends, physical. strength is not enough to extract the treasure, hard work does not bring happiness (Kyshtym resident Varlaam Fadeev was unable to take possession of the golden treasure near Golaya Sopka; Bashkir Sadyk, one of Pugachev’s associates, and his grandson Bakal tried to get the treasure from the bottom of Lake Inyshka by breaking a ditch and letting it down water to Turgoyak, but they “met an impassable obstacle: a wall of solid stone. There was not a single bag so that they could bait a crowbar or wedge”). According to the Ufaley legend, a story. M. G. Antonov, “when the news spread about the imminent arrival of Pugachev’s troops... several “cunning” artisans, taking with them gold, jewelry, expensive things, loaded them onto a horse and rushed to flee along the Ufaleyskaya road. At the fork to Kladovka, the convoy was caught up by armed Bashkirs from a detachment of Pugachevites, and the artisans, splitting into two parts (one remained to fight off the armed people), drove through Ufaley to the Pol-Dnevsky plant. However, even here they were unable to hide: the tsarist troops were already marching along the Yekaterinburg road to Ufaley. They were able to escape along the dam blocking the river. Su-khovyaz, a place that was later called the Ruined Bridge, and now is called the Pugachevsky Ditch. The artisans left with a cart of goods along the shore of the pond to the hill that now rises near the station. One of the Ufaley craftsmen knew a hole in a cave there, which had access to the Big Stone, and showed it to the Nyazepetrovites. The hole was low, narrow, and the craftsmen, crawling piece by piece, dragged all the goods through the passage to the Big Stone, but suddenly the vault collapsed, burying both the Pugachev treasure and its “owners.” And the same mining worker who pointed out the underground passage told the Ufaleyans about this.” In another version of the legend actors The Bashkirs spoke: “Pugachev’s detachment was retreating from the advancing tsarist troops. They fought for a long time on the banks of the Sukhovyaz River, blocked by a dam. Tired after the brutal battle, like Prince Gagrin’s detachment, they fell asleep. And soon, having rested, they decided to break through. And when the deep sleep overcame the prince’s murderers, on a dark night they quietly crossed that dam and punched holes in it. Water poured through them, ruined the dam, giving the slaves time to escape into the forest. The Tsar’s servants were gone, but there was no trace of the Pugachevites.” In the 20th century live In this area, when digging up vegetable gardens, guns and spikes from the 18th century were found. (certain finds are stored in the Verkhneufaleysky city historical and local history museum); at the site of the battle between the Pugachevites and the tsarist troops back in the 1950s. there was a tree. cross. According to another legend, Pugachev, who fled during the advance of the tsarist troops with a detachment and his wife - a beauty from the Ufaleysky factory - across the Ruined Bridge, hid his treasury in one of the caves of the Big Stone, and blew up the entrance to it (in the 1930s, local children brought from the cave royal gold coins of the 18th century). To the South There are many places in the Urals that are historically or mythologically connected. with Pugachev: Pugachevsky grotto, Pugachevskaya cave, village. Pugachevsky, Ko-pan tract, lake. Bannoye (where the rebels rested and swam), the town of Gallows (where the Pugachevites hanged their opponents), the Salavatskaya cave, Salavatov Klyuch (near where Pugachev and Salavat Yulaev met in early June 1774), the town of Pyanaya, etc. (see. Pugachev's places).

V. G. Korolenko

Pugachev's legend in the Urals

V. G. Korolenko. Collected works. T. 4 Library "Ogonyok" M., "Pravda", 1953 One extract from the investigation of the Orenburg secret commission about Emelyan Pugachev begins like this: “The place where this monster was born into the world is the Cossack Little Russian Zimoveyskaya village; born and raised, apparently his crime, so to speak, was the milk of hell from the Cossack of that village, Ivan Mikhailov Pugachev, wife Anna Mikhailova.” All modern official characteristics of Pugachev were compiled in the same clerical and damning style and are not depicted before us. real person, but some incredible monster, raised precisely by the “milk of hell” and almost literally smoldering with flames. This tone was established for a long time in official correspondence. It is known how they treated all kinds of titles at that time, in which even scratching up a typo was considered a crime. Pugachev also had his own official title: “The famous state thief, monster, villain and impostor Emelka Pugachev.” Eloquent people, possessed of the gift of speech and good command of the pen, managed to decorate this title with various, even more expressive superstructures and additions. But to say less than this [was] indecent, and perhaps even unreliable and dangerous. Literature did not lag behind the official tone. The “educated” society of that time, consisting of nobles and officials, felt, of course, that the entire force of the popular movement was directed precisely against it, and it is clear in what form the person who personified the terrible danger was presented to them. “You are a vile, impudent man,” Sumarokov exclaimed in zealous zeal at the news of Pugachev’s capture, “Suddenly, nature brought him down for a blissful age to the misfortune of many people: Forgetting both the truth and himself, And loving only Satan, He thought about God without fear... “This barbarian,” says the same poet in another poem: ... did not spare either age or gender, A mad dog, whatever he meets, he gnaws, Like this in a meadow from the blue valley The dragon is crawling hissing. For this, of course, “there is no execution worthy of him in the world,” “that is not enough to burn him,” etc. The feelings of contemporaries, of course, are easily explainable. Unfortunately for subsequent history, the initial investigation about Pugachev fell into the hands of an insignificant and completely mediocre man, Pavel Potemkin, who, apparently, made every effort to ensure that the original appearance of the monster, raised by the “milk of hell,” was not somehow distorted by real features. to him Great Catherine dungeons and torture, it is clear that all the investigative material developed in this biased direction: the popular, monochromatic image was reinforced by forced testimony, and the actual appearance of a living person was buried under the Suzdal daub of dungeon protocols. The mediocrity of this “second cousin” of the all-powerful temporary worker was so great that even purely factual details the most important episodes Pugachev’s previous life (for example, his trip to the Terek, where, apparently, he also tried to stir up trouble) became known from later random finds in provincial archives (One of his contemporaries, in a letter to Pavel Potemkin himself, indicated that even after escaping from the Kazan prison before appearance of Pugachev on Yaik, a significant part of the impostor’s adventures remains untraced.). Pavel Potemkin tried only to thicken the “hellish milk” as much as possible and preserve the “satanic appearance.” It must be said that the task was completed with great success. Immediately after the rebellion was pacified, the military dictator Panin, invested with unlimited power, ordered that one gallows, one wheel and one verb be placed along the roads near populated areas for hanging “by the edge” (!) not only the rebels, but also everyone “who would recognize and pronounce this villain, the impostor Emelka Pugachev, as the real one, as he was called (i.e. Peter III)". And who does not "delay and will present to the authorities such speakers, those villages, all without exception (!) aged men... will be met with the most painful deaths by the teams sent, and their wives and children will be sent to the hardest labor." It is completely clear what kind of thunderstorm hung after this over any stories about Pugachev , when gallows, wheels and verbs with hooks stood along the roads, teams walked through the villages, and informers were snooping among the people.Everything that was not marked by an officially accepted tone, even all just neutral stories, became dangerous. Oral tradition about the events associated with the name of Pugachev, was divided: part went into the depths of people's memory, away from the authorities and masters, gradually becoming enveloped in the haze of superstition and ignorance, the other, recognized and, so to speak, official, took shape in a gloomy, clumsy and also monotonous legend. The real look mysterious man, the original springs of the movement and many of its purely factual details disappeared, perhaps forever, in the fog of the past. “The beginning of this invention,” Catherine wrote to Panin, “remains closed.” It remains unclear to this day. The actual history of the riot from the outside is developed in detail and in detail, but its main character remains a mystery. The initial fear of “society” left its mark on subsequent views and on history... As a truly brilliant artist, Pushkin managed to renounce the template of his time so much that in his novel Pugachev, although passing in the background, is completely alive person. Sending his story of the Pugachev rebellion to Denis Davydov, the poet wrote, among other things: Here is my Pugach. At first glance, He is visible: a rogue, a straight Cossack. In your advanced detachment, Uryadnik would be dashing. There is a huge distance between this image and not only Sumarokov’s monster who loved Satan, but even Pugachev’s later images (for example, in Danilevsky’s “Black Year”). Pushkin's roguish and clever Cossack, a bit of a robber in a song style (remember his conversation with Grinev about the eagle and the raven) - not without movements of gratitude and even generosity - is a real living person, full of life and artistic truth. However, a great difficulty arises whenever this “dashing police officer” has to be brought to the forefront of a huge historical movement. Already Pogodin at one time turned to Pushkin with a number of questions that, in his opinion, were not resolved by the “History of the Pugachev Rebellion.” Many of these questions, despite the very valuable subsequent works of historians, still await their solution today. And the main one is the mysterious person who stood at the center of the movement and gave it his name. Historians are hampered by a pile of consciously and unconsciously falsified investigative material. After Pushkin, our fiction even took a step back in understanding this major and, in any case, interesting historical figure. From the “dashing constable” and the rogue Cossack we moved in the direction of the “hellish milk” and the popular popular villain. And we can say without exaggeration that in our written and printed history, in the very center of a period not very distant from us and extremely interesting, there stands some kind of sphinx, a man without a face. The same cannot be said about Pugachev of folk legends, which have almost died out in the rest of Russia, but were extremely vividly preserved in the Urals, at least in the older Cossack generation. Here, neither strict decrees, nor Panin’s verbs and hooks managed to erase from the people’s memory the image of the “raiding” king, which remained in her inviolable, including itself, it's true, quite fantastic, the form in which this “king” appeared for the first time from the mysterious steppe distance among the defeated, oppressed, insulted and deeply humiliated by the elders of the ordinary Cossacks. To try to collect ancient legends that have not yet completely died out, to bring them together into one whole and, perhaps, to find among this fantastic heap the living features that stirred up the first wave of a major popular movement in Yaik - was one of the goals of my trip to the Urals in 1900. I was warned that given the isolation of the Cossacks and their distrust of any “non-resident”, especially those visiting from Russia is the task this is difficult to implement. And, indeed, one day I had to stumble upon a rather comical failure. From one of the residents of the Krugloozernaya village (Svistun), an old and respected Cossack Phil. Sidorovich Kovalev, I learned that in Uralsk, in the kurens, near the church, lives the grandson of Nikifor Petrovich Kuznetsov (Ustinya Petrovna’s own nephew), Natoriy (Enatoriy) Felisatovich Kuznetsov, a literate and inquisitive man, who supposedly made some notes from the words of his grandfather, lover and keeper of the legends of the Kuznetsov family. The stories of this grandfather, Nikifor Kuznetsov, were already used by the famous Ural writer Yosaf Ign. Zheleznov, but I was still curious to see his grandson, the living successor of this legend. I actually found him behind the cathedral, in the kurens, in an old, recently burnt house. However, when I explained to him the purpose of my coming and even referred to the instructions of F.S. Kovalev, Natoriy Kuznetsov only frowned. - I can’t tell you anything. My adoptive grandfather was right in what he said... Well, I just can’t. - Why? - These are political speeches... I was sincerely surprised. - Excuse me, Natoriy Felisatovich. But your grandfather told Zheleznov, and Zheleznov published it. However, no harm came of this for your grandfather. - Zheleznov wrote. Right. Well, only my grandfather told him maybe a tenth... To break this mistrust, I opened Zheleznov’s book that I had deliberately taken with me and began to read Nikifor Kuznetsov’s story recorded by the author. Natorius listened and nodded his head approvingly, interjecting his comments. I was already beginning to hope that the ice would be broken, but at that time Kuznetsov’s wife, a dark-skinned Cossack woman with black, decisive eyes, stood up from the threshold of the hut (our conversation took place in the yard). “Be quiet, Natorius,” she said ominously. “If only you had one head... otherwise you have a family.” A baby began to cry in her arms, and Natorius immediately stopped short. “No, it’s impossible,” he said, “political speeches... Whenever they wouldn’t shake me anymore...” “That is, how did they “shake”?.. And for what? - But for this very thing, - for Pugachev... - What are you saying! Who needs it now? - It’s clear that it’s necessary... You see how it happened. “Be quiet, Natoriy,” the Cossack woman said again. - No, well, it’s possible, nothing. See. So, I'm going somehow railway to Peremetnaya. There were also different peoples, like merchants. They began to talk like this among themselves: one, for example, says: “the tsar was real, that is, as he expressed himself, it was the real truth”... Well, the other opposite him: “here,” he says, Zheleznov wrote: It is recognized that he is a Don Cossack." And he mentioned Movo’s grandfather. I, as I was right there, said: “That means my grandfather told Zheleznov, but not everything. If, I say, he told everything, then Zheleznov would have written something else.” We say this and that, and then the conductor comes. Was an acquaintance. He pulled me by the sleeve, took me aside and said: “You, he says, Natoriy Felisatov, cannot express these words.” - “What, they say?” - “Yes, don’t express these speeches. The speeches, listen, are political.” Well, I obeyed. Only suddenly at one station there were gendarmes. They locked the carriage so that no one could get out, and they said: “Who made political speeches here?” That's the point... We agreed... - Well, they probably didn't do anything to anyone. - That's it: they are merchants, they say: “We are following a book. Mr. Zheleznov wrote, officer. Please take a look.” Well, then, thanks to the conductor, I’ll step aside. I just escaped with fear. If only I could express everything... “Now be silent,” the wife snapped. - And then I’m silent. I visited him twice. Both times he very willingly talked about his grandfather, about the former residence of the Kuznetsovs, about their relationship, and at the same time indirectly told me a lot of interesting things both in everyday life and in historically . But as soon as the conversation touched directly on the forbidden topic, the Cossack woman again pierced him with her black eyes, and he bit his tongue. “I can’t, political speeches,” he repeated stubbornly. - If only they hadn’t shook... However, we parted with this representative of the “queen’s family” on friendly terms, and I even think that he could hardly have told me anything more characteristic than this small episode from our living modernity. In other places, especially during my trip to the villages, I was happier. The elderly Cossacks were more courageous than the youth, and were more willing to share their information and their deep convictions on this subject. Having collected what I was able to write down from personal reviews and what was written down by others, and looking through this material in a row, I was struck by the remarkable integrity of the image that grew from these fragments, as well as by the deep faith of the storytellers in its reality. The belief that the stranger who raised the fatal storm in 1773 was the real Pyotr Fedorovich persists in the Urals not only among ordinary ordinary Cossacks. I got to know quite closely the historical Sheludyakov family, whose ancestors took an active part in the fatal drama. Pugachev loved one of the Sheludyakovs very much and for some reason called him godfather. Subsequently, he was captured near Orenburg and was tortured in a dungeon. Thus, in this family, as in many others in the Urals, family tradition is mixed with historical interest. Already the parents of the present Sheludyakovs were quite intelligent people, and, however, when their father was dying (in the early seventies), he expressed regret that he would not live to see 1875, when, according to the general conviction, the seal of secrecy from the Pugachev case should be lifted at that time it should have been discovered that Yaik in general and the Sheludyakov family in particular served a just cause. They say that Pushkin, on his arrival and short stay in Uralsk, showed to contemporaries of the rebellion a portrait of the real Pyotr Fedorovich, whose Holstein physiognomy, as we know, did not at all resemble the Cossack appearance of Pugachev. However, now I have heard from several lips that the Cossacks recognized in this portrait the very same man who was with them on Yaik. In general, when pointing out history’s decisive denial of any possibility of this identity, even among intelligent Cossacks you will encounter an expression of hesitation and skepticism. It must be admitted, however, that, as stated above; written history suffers from great omissions, incompleteness, and sometimes even outright contradictions. And most importantly, it leaves the central human figure “without a face.” The popular imagination cannot, of course, come to terms with this. Historical criticism, of course, is alien to him, but the semi-fantastic image depicted by folk legend is distinguished by its remarkable completeness and brightness. This is a living person with all the advantages and disadvantages real personality and if a mystical and mysterious element is sometimes mixed with these real features, then this applies only to his royal title. Peter Fedorovich of Cossack legends - real man, with flesh and blood, seething with desires and passions; Tsar Peter III is surrounded by a halo of mystery and fatal, not entirely natural influences. The reasons for his overthrow from the throne are depicted with particular realism. Cossack legend portrays Peter III as broad-minded, a reveler, and an unfaithful husband. His behavior is one of those that has to be justified by the well-known saying: the story of a good man is not a reproach. Catherine, on the contrary, at this time is portrayed, although rather obstinate, but still a faithful wife, trying to appease her husband. On this basis, a catastrophe is unfolding. One day a foreign ship came, and Pyotr Fedorovich went on board it, and went on a spree with the noble maiden Vorontsova. The indication of this name, which coincides with historical reality, shows how widely, in essence, various court “comerages” spread in those days. “After all, from us,” Cossack Bakirev told Zheleznov, “from time immemorial, Cossacks traveled to Moscow and St. Petersburg every year with the royal bite... So how could you not know. You can’t hide an awl in a bag...” The spies reported to the queen that that the tsar is having sex with Vorontsova. To her, as a wife, this seemed offensive, she could not stand it and ran there herself. She came and said: “Isn’t it time to go home?” But her husband, who had gone on a spree, rudely drove her away: “I went home on my own while I was safe.” Then the offended Catherine invited her followers, raised the icon and declared herself queen. When the tsar, who had been on a spree, with a hangover in his head of victory, finally decided, on the third or fourth night, to return home, he found the gates locked, and the sentry announced that there was no tsar, but only a queen. He tried to go to Kronstadt (again a historical feature), but they didn’t let him in there either. Then, fearing the hostile boyars, Pyotr Fedorovich decided to hide... At this point, the personality of Pyotr Fedorovich disappears into the fog, and the mystical power of a higher power, some mysterious predestination, is established over the king. It turns out that somewhere it was laid down from time immemorial that the royal grandson of Peter the Great would have to know a lot of grief and suffer, like a simple exile, persecuted and persecuted in for fifteen (according to other options twelve) years. He should have shown up no earlier than this time. But the royal wanderer, who knew first-hand all the suffering of the people and all the lies of the authorities, and, in addition, ended up on Yaik, at that time really “suffering a great outlaw,” groaning under the pressure of blatant untruths and terrible repressions, after the Traubenberg affair, could not stand it and, Submitting again, albeit in a different direction, to his stormy nature, he violated the dictates of fate and showed up earlier. This violation of the orders of the highest will, caused by compassion and unbearable pity for the tormented people, is in the legends the tragic engine that determined the fate of the movement. Everything was in favor of Pugachev, but he could not win his case precisely because he did not start on time. And he knew it. It is extremely interesting that family legend Kuznetsov connects the very marriage of the invading king with this tragic consciousness. In the stories recorded by Zheleznov, this marriage is motivated by various considerations: firstly, the law is not written for kings; secondly, the law allows you to get married after seven years of separation; thirdly, Catherine was his persecutor; fourthly, and finally, at that time there were (true, but belated) rumors circulating on Yaik about Catherine’s intention to marry Orlov. But the above-mentioned Enatoriy Kuznetsov, in the midst of his restrained conversation, told me that both Pugachev and even Ustinya were well aware of the fatal significance of this wedding. When Pugachev began to clearly express his intentions regarding matchmaking, Ustinya, a cheerful, broken-hearted and good songwriter, supposedly composed a song in which she very boldly spoke about a husband wooing his living wife. Pugachev took her aside and said: “It would be better if my head alone perishes, rather than the whole of Russia perishing. Now troops and generals are coming to me from St. Petersburg; if they pester me, then all of Russia will be steamed, smoke will become a pillar all over.” the world. And when I marry a Cossack woman, the troops will not pester me, my fate will end and Russia will calm down." I heard this same tragic motif repeated in other places in the Urals. Thus, the wandering tsar, who unwittingly violated the dictates of fate, obediently walked towards her, and Ustya walked towards his will... The public execution of Pugachev in Moscow (January 10, 1775) in the presence of hundreds of thousands of people did not at all shake this faith. On the contrary, it must be said that some of the circumstances of this execution were accompanied by precisely those ambiguities of motives and oddities that I spoke about above and which greatly benefit the harmonious folk legend. According to the maxim approved by Catherine, Pugachev was subject to quartering. First they had to cut off his arms and legs and then his head. However, it is known that this was not carried out. After reading the verdict and completing the formalities, the executioner grabbed Pugachev from behind, threw him down and, first of all, cut off his head. After this, amid the ensuing silence, the voice of the executor was heard, reproaching the executioner and threatening him with execution for violating the sentence (Un d "entre-eux [i.e., one of the closest spectators], que je crois avoir êtê un des juges censura à haute voix le bourreau de sa mêprise (“One of them, I suppose - one of the judges, scolded the executioner in a loud voice for his mistake,” - correspondence of an eyewitness in the Utrecht Gazette, March 3, 1775. Read in the Isle of East. and etc.) Bolotov calls this official an executor. ). This indisputable fact, established by both Russian and foreign evidence, was the subject of surprised speculation. Mrs. Bielke, an enthusiastic admirer and correspondent of Catherine, having read about this in foreign newspapers, suggested in her next letter that this was done “according to the humane will of the Empress, and not by the executioner’s mistake.” Catherine willingly acquiesced to this interpretation of her European fan. “To tell you the truth,” she wrote, “you guessed correctly regarding the executioner’s mistake during the execution of Pugachev: I think that the prosecutor general and the police chief helped this mistake happen, because when the first one was leaving St. Petersburg, I told him jokingly: "Never come into my sight if you admit the slightest opinion that you forced whoever it is endure torment, and I see that he took this into account" (Collection of Historical Islands, XXVII, 32. Italics in the quotation.). It is permissible, however, to think that this explanation is not entirely accurate. That before Vyazemsky’s departure the queen had conversations with him, this, of course, is natural; they were hardly conducted in jest. That the fact of a sharp violation of the sentence could not also be explained by a simple mistake of the executioner - it is hardly possible to doubt this. However, if it was not meant allow unnecessary suffering whoever it is- then, firstly, Catherine had a direct means for this - in mitigating all executions, and then humanity would have affected more than just Pugachev. Meanwhile, on the same day and in the same place, other Pugachev accomplices were executed, and no one mentions the mitigation of the execution, for example, Perfilyev. It is hardly logical to assume that Catherine’s humanity touched only the main culprit and bypassed the secondary ones. And then, of course, the executor could not have known about this, his shout at the executioner only emphasizing the deviation from the sentence, which otherwise could have passed less notice. Be that as it may, this strange episode not only appeared mysterious to the hundreds of thousands of spectators who gathered on the day of the execution in the Swamp, but remains not fully explained to history. To this it should only be added that among the crowd of thousands of troops and people there was also the Zimovaya Yaitskaya village, consisting of the “faithful”, that is, the senior side of the Cossacks, who, even fighting with Pugachev, for the most part still considered him a real king, fighting against the queen... And, returning to Yaik, the Cossacks told about a strange episode of execution. The legend took advantage of this riddle perfectly. She knows no misunderstandings or contradictions. It is solid, harmonious, often very fantastic, sometimes absurd, but completely consistent and logical. The Ural army did not believe in Pugachev’s execution. The king cannot be executed. The man whom Bolotov describes on the scaffold was “completely inappropriate for the acts that this monster carried out,” but rather looked like “some kind of scavenger or a shabby tavern,” - in the opinion of the Cossacks, he was not at all the one whom the army saw on horseback and who by his very appearance upset the ranks of his opponents. It was, according to legend, a figurehead, some kind of ordinary criminal. And when he supposedly wanted to say that he was dying instead of a real king, they hastened to cut off his head... joined this new fact, historically accurate and struck the imagination of the people, namely the sudden death of Martemyan Borodin... Martemyan Borodin is the most prominent figure of the Cossack opponents of Pugachev, who played a huge, almost decisive role in the pre-Pugachev ferment in the Urals, and the direct antithesis of Pugachev in the eyes of the “army”. A rich man who captured immeasurable spaces of the “common” steppe, the owner of serfs on free Cossack lands, a rapist, a robber, a man with an iron will, a stormy temperament and at the same time a cunning diplomat who knew how to ingratiate and appease the St. Petersburg authorities - he was a hated soul of the Cossacks the senior party, which before Pugachev’s appearance even bore the name “Borodin’s”. Even Catherine’s personal decrees were directed against him and his actions, but he knew how to turn them into nothing, skillfully causing unrest, after which his opponents were found guilty. It can be assumed with a high degree of probability that if Martemyan Borodin had not been on Yaik, there would not have been the murder of Traubenberg, which preceded the Pugachevism, and perhaps there would not have been Pugachev... But, as often happens, Martemyan, the true culprit, who caused general discontent and just anger in the army, which led to an outbreak - then, by fighting the movement he caused, he not only “earned” his thefts and grave guilt, but also appeared in the eyes of the government in an aura of devotion and self-sacrifice. In the fight with Pugachev, for Martemyan it was a question of his own head, over which the accusations and curses of the entire army weighed heavily, but Martemyan very cleverly presented this hostility towards him from the troops as his merits before the throne. At the very appearance of Pugachev, Martemyan realized the danger, first of all, for himself personally - and rushed across the Kyrgyz steppe to Orenburg... Subsequently, when Pugachev was already put in an iron cage, Catherine’s generals knew that Martemyan would be his best guard. And, indeed, Martemyan was instructed to accompany the prisoner to Moscow... () 1 “According to the legends of the Cossacks,” says Zheleznov (III, 203), “Borodin was among Pugachev’s escorts, but according to some information that has reached me, I conclude that he did not escort Pugachev, but arrived in St. Petersburg already in November or even December 1774." This is not true. Among the extracts I made from the military archives, there is an extract from the Decree of Ch. Kriegs-Commissariat from the office to Mr. Prime-Major Borodin dated December 22. 1774, which provides a calculation of the money following “for the arrival with you from Yaitsky’s army with fish, as well as for transporting the villain Pugachev to Moscow, located in the command of your light village” (total complaints, travel, as well as for ladles and sabers 633 RUR). Thus, obviously, in this regard, the Cossack legend is not mistaken, and Pugachev was accompanied to Moscow by Martemyan Borodin. Cossack legends provide many details of this path. First of all, behind the city rampart and tower along the Kazan highway, Borodin’s relatives came out, as usual, to see him off on the road. They started drinking vodka and liqueur. Pugach looked out of the cage and said: “Martemyan Mikhailovich! Bring it to me too.” But Martemyan rudely refused. Pugachev turned pale from the insult and said: “Okay! You want to see my death. It won’t work. I’ll see yours sooner.” A little later, one of the elders, Mikhailov, came up to him and brought him from his glass. Pugachev drank and said: “Thank you, my friend. I won’t forget you. Remember what I say,” Pugach said to everyone who was here: “from now on, the Mikhailov family will rise, and the Borodin family will fall” (Zheleznov, vol. III, p. 205. The prediction was not entirely justified. Martemyan's son Borodin was a military ataman. However, he died childless, and now there are no direct descendants of Martemyan.). Dear Pugach also warned Borodin and told him with a grin: “Martemyan Mikhailovich, think about it, where are you going, why? , with deep conviction, confirming to me everything recorded by Zheleznov from different people, he added to this several more episodes, heard, according to him, from the participants themselves or from their closest relatives. By the way, traveling with Martemyan Borodin as an orderly was his favorite, the young Cossack Mikhailo Tuzhilkin. One day, somewhere at a rest stop, while resting, a stern chieftain forced Tuzhilkin to search in his head. Finding this moment suitable for an intimate conversation, Tuzhilkin asked: “Tell me, Martemyan Mikhailovich, who are we taking with us: the Tsar or the impostor?” “The Tsar, Mishenka,” Martemyan allegedly answered. Tuzhilkin was horrified. - Why are we doing this! - he exclaimed. “But what could we do... Anyway, neither him nor our forces would have taken it,” answered Borodin. In the Sakmara fortress, where a train with Pugachev in a cage allegedly arrived, they were met by a courier from St. Petersburg (It is interesting that, according to Cossack legends, Pugachev was apparently transported through Orenburg. Otherwise, the train could not have gotten to Sakmara.). Approaching the cage and seeing Pugachev there, the courier trembled and clasped his hands (Ananiy Ivanovich very dramatically and picturesquely depicted the horror of the courier and his gestures). - Oh my God, what did they do? - he shouted, - unlock, now unlock! for a long time he tried to persuade him to disband the Cossacks and “just” go with Pugachev to St. Petersburg, to the tsarina. This naive sentence reflects the above-mentioned feature of the Yaik legends about the “raiding king.” His fate as a king had already been decided, his cause was lost, he violated the dictates of fate, and the kingdom remained with Catherine. But his person was sacred, and moreover, he remained the husband of the queen and the father of the prince, the heir... Borodin did not listen, and for this he was actually executed, as Pugach predicted. Fate punished Pyotr Fedorovich, who violated her orders, but the same fate could not bypass the man who encroached on the dignity of the “tsar” and carried him in a cage like an animal. There are different stories about the death of Martemyan Borodin, but most of the legends attribute it to Pavel Petrovich (All the way, Martemyan quarreled with Pugach and reproached each other. Martemyan threatened him with the queen, and Pugach threatened him with the heir. “Give time,” said Martemyan, “to get there.” to the queen: she will give you a bath, you won’t forget about the new brooms.” And Pugach to him: “Give time to get to Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich. He will give you such heat that the sky will seem like a sheepskin.” (Zheleznov.)). When Martemyan came to the palace to the heir, - Ananiy Ivanovich Khokhlachev told me, - he said to him: “What were you, ataman sir, not to accept my dad?” If you had accepted, then my father, me, and you would now be in Russia. Well, now, Ataman, sir, don’t punish me. And they struck the big bell. The winter Yaitskaya village stands on the square near the palace, waiting for its marching ataman, but he is still not there. And suddenly they hear a big bell ringing, as if for a wake. .. The adjutant came out onto the porch and said to the Cossacks: “Your chieftain is gone. The chieftain died overnight. Go with God.” The very type of death is also depicted differently. The stories of stay-at-home Cossacks who have never been to the capitals say that Pavel Petrovich, angry, grabbed the door “lock” (a wooden bolt with which the gate is closed) and hit Borodin on the head with it. According to other options, the execution was even crueler, even to the point of flaying the skin from a living person. Here, obviously, the deep hatred of the then army towards Martemyan already played a creative role. Finally, some legends attribute the death of Borodin to Catherine herself, who could not forgive the rude treatment of her husband. “Martemyan Mikhailovich got ready to leave St. Petersburg (according to one legend recorded by Zheleznov) and went to say goodbye to the empress, and ordered the orderly to gradually pack up. Suddenly he ran into the apartment, frightened, pale, as if someone was chasing him. “Run quickly for the carts, we’re going.” Dear Martemyan kept shouting to the coachman: drive! We passed a few stations, Martemyan said to the coachman in Kyrgyz: “What a miracle, brother, I saw... I’m standing in the bedchamber of Mother Tsarina, telling her how we fought against the villain Amelka.” And he, Pugach, suddenly jumps out from behind the screen, like a fierce beast, and rushes at me with his fists, I froze... Now, brother, I see that I made a mistake: I shouldn’t have come here at all. God be with them... Khosh was published that he is Amelka Pugachev, but it turns out that this is what Pugach is... Before he had time to finish speaking, a courier catches up with them from behind and demands Martemyan again to the tsarina.” Another option depicts the same episode with even more realistic details. The scarecrow lies in the bedchamber behind white muslin curtains - “it looks like he has just left the bathhouse: his hair is wet and his face is red. At his feet, on a chair, sits the prince, and the queen at the window. And everyone is crying, wiping away tears with handkerchiefs. And Martemyan Mikhailovich stands at the lintel, like an orderly soldier, standing and trembling as if in the cold.” (Zheleznov.) Ananiy Ivanovich Khokhlachev adds to this that Borodin’s widow received a handwritten letter from Catherine and two velvet dresses: one green, the other black. “And in the letter it was written that in your grief, they say, I am to blame, I am a sinner...” And Anania Ivanovich’s sister-in-law, who lived there, herself saw both the letter and the dresses... It should be noted that neither the exact date nor even the year of death of Martemyan Borodin is unknown, and this event is also shrouded in some kind of uncertainty. Zheleznov doubts that Borodin accompanied Pugachev, as Cossack legends claim. He dates Borodin's death to April 1775 on the grounds that in May a new military sergeant major, Akutin, was appointed. But in in this case Zheleznov is wrong, but legend is right. Firstly, Borodin was not a military man, but only a marching ataman, but he undoubtedly accompanied Pugachev, and there is a high probability that he died during this trip. In the files of the Ural military archive, I found an indication that the thousand rubles assigned as a reward to Borodin were received in Orenburg, by proxy of Borodin’s widow, by the fifty-year-old Grigory Telnov (which was followed by a decree of the Orenburg provincial chancellery dated November 28, 1774). Then I didn’t come across any mention of Martemyan Borodin in the files until August 1775, when one of the petitions quite accidentally mentioned the deceased Major Borodin. This blank and indefinite interval makes a strange impression after previously the name of the active foreman came across at every step... There is no doubt that M. Borodin’s “guilts” before the government were enormous. Catherine wrote decrees and sent generals to stop the abuses, but the senior party, the soul of which was Borodin, rewarded the generals and turned the queen’s orders into nothing, until this caused a rebellion and bloody pacification, which prepared the ground for Pugachevism. The army explained these abuses and impotence of power by the fact that there was not a real king on the throne, but a woman... And when the king appeared, the army greeted him with delight. In general, the Pugachev movement seems to me, in its psychological basis, to be one of the most loyal movements of the Russian people. Of course, in its very embryo lurked (and then quite imperceptibly) a conscious deception. When the mysterious merchant, dressed in a bad shirt and simple ports, had to be recognized as a tsar and announced this to the army, the Cossack Myasnikov, shrugging his shoulders, said: “Okay. We’ll make a prince out of dirt.” But not everyone thought this, even among the first participants. When Pugachev, dressed in royal clothes (the caftan was presented by the Kirghiz khan), on an excellent horse, with two banners and a detachment, rode out to the outposts, then sincere faith and sincere feeling rushed towards him, which accompanied him all the time to the chopping block. It is remarkable that the image of Catherine (as we know, still hated by the people in peasant Russia) is also surrounded by Ural legend with some kind of respect and gentleness. She was a woman, and this was her disadvantage on the throne. “We do not slander the empress,” the Bashkirs said at the meeting. “She is just, but justice did not leave her and did not come to us.” The same could, of course, be said by the Cossacks, whose deputies more than once returned from St. Petersburg, in vain encouraged by Catherine herself. But this applied to the queen and to the affairs of government. Personally, the legend treats Catherine rather mildly. Insulted as a woman and wife, she feels understandable indignation and decides to carry out a coup. But at the same time, she cannot forgive her rude treatment of her husband, and when, after so many adventures, he returns, she puts him to bed and cries for his suffering. Her relationship with Ustinya Kuznetsova (in reality, unsympathetic and cruel: poor Ustya was imprisoned for life in a fortress) in the legend of the Cossacks is also marked by generosity and feminine kindness. Catherine summons Ustya to St. Petersburg and treats her very kindly. This theme - the meeting of two wives of supposedly the same unfortunate husband - is developed in detail and willingly in many stories recorded by Zheleznov. I also heard it from the lips of Anania Ivanovich and partly Natoriy Kuznetsov. All the stories mention one feature: when Ustya, along with her sister, was brought to the palace, Catherine ordered different people to be brought out to her and kept asking: is this your betrothed. Ustya always answered negatively. Finally, they took Pugach out, and she threw herself on his neck. “Well,” said Catherine, “say goodbye to him, you will never see each other again.” They took Pugach away, and Catherine gave Usta a palace on Vasilyevsky Island, where she lived for a long time. and where she often visited the Urals who came to the capital. I also have to note one cycle of these legends, which shows what passionate love Yaik had for the image of his “raiding king,” who cost him so many tears, grief and blood. It is known that passionate love does not put up with the fact of the death of a loved one. And Pugachev, caught and even executed, still flashed on Yaik and appeared to his followers either in the steppes or in the city itself. These legends about the wandering and again persecuted Pugachev are already completely fantastic, but they cannot be denied their unique poetry, full of melancholy and sadness. One of these stories (recorded from the words of the old Iletsk Cossack S.V. Krylov, now, in 1900, living in Uralsk) finds Pugachev wandering around General Syrt (after fleeing from Berda). Pugachev with a small detachment rides across the steppe and runs over a large stone. Having ordered the Cossacks to hobble their horses and wait for him, Pugachev approaches the stone and falls on it with bitter tears. The stone rises, and Pugachev goes underground. After a while he comes out and calls the Cossacks to follow him. In the dungeon they are met by a majestic woman who welcomes the Cossacks and invites them to reinforce their strength. To do this, she only has a small edge of bread, but when she starts cutting it, the bread does not decrease. Pugachev calls her aunt, and in a conversation she reproaches him for not waiting for the appointed time for the test and, having shown up earlier, in addition got married. A strange woman, transported by unknown means to the Yaitsky steppes and, in addition, underground, was Elizaveta Petrovna. Having said goodbye to his aunt, Pugach again galloped with his companions into the steppe towards a mysterious fate... On the evening of the very day when Pugach was taken away from the Yaitsky town, says another legend recorded by Zheleznov, the Kuznetsovs - his relatives - were sitting during the dinner. Suddenly: the doors opened and a merchant entered (it is known that for the first time Pugachev appeared on Yaik in the form of a merchant). - “Bread and salt,” he said, entering, and all the Kuznetsovs shuddered and their spoons fell out hands (“that means it was him, they recognized him by his voice”). “Don’t be afraid, it’s me,” says the merchant. “I’ve come to reassure you... By the grace of God I will not be lost. Farewell, live well.” I'll say hello." He said it and was like that. The Kuznetsovs ran out into the street, and there was no trace of him, only the bell rang... That same evening, two hours earlier, the same merchant was even at the ataman’s. And again, at first they did not recognize him, and when another merchant who came to the ataman recognized him, then again everyone was so dumbfounded that the mysterious visitor managed to hide... Only again the bell rang on the way to the Chuvash Umet... This faith at one time was so It is strong that in the papers of the military archive I came across cases that arose precisely on this basis. Thus, the elder's wife Praskovya Ivanaeva, who was a cook for the "Tsarina Ustinya" and cooked in the "palace" for Pugachev, was twice beaten with whips because she did not believe in the final defeat of the "tsar" and, in case of any quarrel with the triumphant "elder's party “(and the old woman, apparently, was of an obstinate disposition), “speaked obscene and ungodly things about the impostor for society,” and even threatened his new arrival, “which was supposedly famous at that time.” Finally, it is known that, soon after the pacification, the authorities were alarmed by the appearance of Pugachev allegedly again, under the name of Broom or Zametail. But it turned out to be a simple robber, a pitiful parody, in which there was nothing that could really stir up the tired popular feeling. These are these legends, still alive, but already beginning to fade in the people's memory in the Urals. I found them interesting. All of them are marked by deep faith in the truth of the royal dignity of Pugachev, and the personality they depict is very far from the real and undoubted personality of the insignificant Peter III. Cossack Pyotr Feodorovich does not look at all like a German (although some stories mention that he was German). Stormy, frivolous, unrestrained, he insults Catherine, his legal wife, for which he is forced to wander and suffer punishment. Purified by this redemptive period, he remains just as unrestrained in his passionate pity for the people and violates the dictates of fate (or the “old scriptures”) by appearing earlier than the appointed time. Then he again gives free rein to his passionate nature and marries Ustinya. Because of this, his business is ruined. And, however, the fight against him and especially the insult to his personality is an insult to the mystically superstitious popular idea of ​​​​the true king, and the main culprit of this crime bears due punishment... For Yaik, this was only a fatal clash between two representatives of power, tragically divided, but equally possessed great grounds for herself... The queen won thanks to the fact that the ardent king violated the dictates of fate... Yes, this image was only the shadow of the persecuted king. But this shadow shook Russia... The haze of the steppes, the ghost - and a whole series of conquered fortresses and won battles... For this, someone’s hellish treachery and sedition were not enough. This required deep suffering and faith... And it was, however, completely imbued with ignorance and political superstition, which, unfortunately, lived for a long time in the dark masses, just as these fantastic legends still live in the Urals. 1901

NOTES

The essay was written in the fall of 1900 and was included by the writer as a separate chapter in the essays “At the Cossacks”, submitted for publication to the magazine “Russian Wealth”. When the essays were already typed, the author took “The Pugachev Legend” back, intending, perhaps, to use it in the story “The Invading Tsar”, from the era of the Pugachev movement, on which he was then working. However, Korolenko did not write this story, and “The Pugachev Legend” was never published during the writer’s lifetime. It was first published after his death, in 1922, in the tenth book of the magazine “Voice of the Past.” Regarding the “Pugachev Legend”, Korolenko wrote to N.F. Annensky on October 26, 1900 that it “constitutes the best and most interesting chapter of what has been written so far (we are talking about the essays “At the Cossacks.”-- Ed.). The material for it was partly the printed works of the Cossack Zheleznov, partly the legends I collected from old Cossacks and partly the military archive. Interestingly, while "printed" historical Pugachev still remains a man “without a face”, Pugachev of legend - a living face, with unusually bright and downright real features, a complete image, endowed with both the shortcomings of a person and the semi-mythical greatness of the “tsar”. I was amazed by this when I put all these stories together..."

Soon, on the thirteenth of September, the Balakhon staff command, Lieutenant Ishtiryakov reported to the mayor that the well-woman, the bourgeois widow Natalya Chuvakova, who was being held in prison under the guard of the Balakhona magistrate, was in grave illness, which is why it was impossible to send her away.

Lukerya Petrova Sorokina, a compassionate bourgeois woman from Balakhon, took the ill-fated widow with a receipt from the magistrate to her house for treatment - after which - again a prison and a workhouse...

On October thirteenth, Chuvakova was returned from the order of public charity (in Nizhny Novgorod), with the message that she had worked out the twenty-five kopecks with legal interest.

This is what the ring cost the forty-year-old dandy widow.

What about the ring itself? Nothing is mentioned about him in the case, but from what we know from many other cases, it is easy to guess that the peasant woman Antonova hardly got it. One must think that it adorned the finger of some “pishchik”, a clerk, a police officer, or one of their lovers. Moreover, now the ring had already been “cleansed” by the tears and suffering of the widow, and in addition, the peeps and clerks were not afraid of its mysterious power, just as doctors are not afraid of infection.

“Each generation regards its predecessors with pity or ridicule.” We find this whole mess funny and pathetic, surrounding a worthless ring with tears and shame of an obviously innocent person. But... other generations will come and read our deeds - and how much more unnecessary formalism, how much more unnecessary grief and tears they will discover under the forms of our own lives!

Pugachev's legend in the Urals*

One extract from the investigation of the Orenburg secret commission about Emelyan Pugachev begins like this: “The place where this monster was born into the world is the Cossack Little Russian Zimoveyskaya village; born and raised, apparently by his atrocity, so to speak, as the milk of hell from the Cossack of that village, Ivan Mikhailov Pugachev, wife Anna Mikhailova.”

All modern official characteristics of Pugachev were compiled in the same clerical and damning style and paint before us not a real person, but some incredible monster, brought up precisely by the “milk of hell” and almost literally smelling flames.

This tone was established for a long time in official correspondence.

It is known how they treated all kinds of titles at that time, in which even scratching up a typo was considered a crime. Pugachev also had his own official title: “The famous state thief, monster, villain and impostor Emelka Pugachev.” Eloquent people, possessed of the gift of speech and good command of the pen, managed to decorate this title with various, even more expressive superstructures and additions. But to say less than this [was] indecent, and perhaps even unreliable and dangerous.

Literature did not lag behind the official tone. The “educated” society of that time, consisting of nobles and officials, felt, of course, that the entire force of the popular movement was directed precisely against it, and it is understandable in what form a person who personified a terrible danger appeared to them. “You are a vile, impudent person,” Sumarokov exclaimed in zealous zeal at the news of Pugachev’s capture, “

Suddenly whose nature

Destroyed to a blessed age

To the misfortune of many people:

Forgetting both the truth and yourself,

And loving only Satan,

I thought about God without fear..."

“This barbarian,” says the same poet in another poem:

...spared neither age nor gender,

The dog is so mad that he gnaws what he meets,

Like this to the meadow from the blasted valley

The dragon crawls hissing."

For this, of course, “there is no execution worthy of him in the world,” “it’s not enough to burn him,” etc. The feelings of his contemporaries, of course, are easily explainable. Unfortunately for subsequent history, the initial investigation into Pugachev fell into the hands of an insignificant and completely mediocre man, Pavel Potemkin, who, apparently, made every effort to ensure that the original appearance of the monster, raised by the “milk of hell,” was not somehow distorted real features. And since he had at his disposal the dungeons and torture mercifully provided to him by the great Catherine, it is clear that all the material of the investigation developed in this biased direction: the popular, monochromatic image was reinforced by forced testimony, and the actual appearance of a living person was buried under the Suzdal daub of dungeon protocols. The mediocrity of this “second cousin” of the all-powerful temporary worker was so great that even purely factual details of the most important episodes of Pugachev’s previous life (for example, his trip to the Terek, where, apparently, he also tried to stir up trouble) became known from later random finds in provincial archives. Pavel Potemkin tried only to thicken the “hellish milk” as much as possible and preserve the “satanic appearance.”

It must be said that the task was completed with great success. Immediately after the rebellion was pacified, the military dictator Panin, invested with unlimited power, ordered to place along the roads near populated areas one gallows, one wheel and one verb for hanging “by the edge” (!) not only the rebels, but also everyone “who would recognize and pronounce this villain impostor Emelka Pugachev as real, as he was called (i.e. Peter III).” And whoever does not “detain and present such speakers to the authorities, all of those villages, without exception (!) aged men... will be executed by the sent teams with the most painful deaths, and their wives and children will be sent to the hardest labor.”

It is completely understandable what a storm hung after this over any stories about Pugachev, when gallows, wheels and verbs with hooks stood along the roads, teams walked through the villages, and informers were snooping among the people. Anything not marked by an officially accepted tone, even just neutral stories, became dangerous. The oral tradition about the events associated with the name of Pugachev was divided: part went deep into the people's memory, away from the authorities and masters, gradually becoming enveloped in the haze of superstition and ignorance, the other, recognized and, so to speak, official, took shape in a gloomy, clumsy and also monotonous legend . The real appearance of the mysterious man, the original springs of the movement and many of its purely factual details disappeared, perhaps forever, in the fog of the past. “The beginning of this invention,” Catherine wrote to Panin, “remains closed.” It remains unclear to this day. The actual history of the riot from the outside is developed in detail and in detail, but its main character remains a mystery. The initial fear of “society” left its mark on subsequent views and on history...

As a truly brilliant artist, Pushkin managed to renounce the template of his time so much that in his novel Pugachev, although passing in the background, is a completely living person. Sending his story of the Pugachev rebellion to Denis Davydov, the poet wrote, among other things:

Here is my Pugach. At first glance

He is visible: a rogue, a straight Cossack.

In your vanguard

He would be a dashing officer.

There is a huge distance between this image and not only Sumarokov’s monster who loved Satan, but even Pugachev’s later images (for example, in Danilevsky’s “Black Year”). Pushkin's roguish and clever Cossack, a bit of a robber in a song style (remember his conversation with Grinev about the eagle and the raven) - not without movements of gratitude and even generosity - is a real living person, full of life and artistic truth. However, a great difficulty arises whenever it is necessary to bring this “dashing police officer” to the forefront of a huge historical movement. Already Pogodin at one time turned to Pushkin with a number of questions that, in his opinion, were not resolved by the “History of the Pugachev Rebellion.” Many of these questions, despite the very valuable subsequent works of historians, still await their solution today. And the main one is the mysterious person who stood at the center of the movement and gave it his name. Historians are hampered by a pile of consciously and unconsciously falsified investigative material. After Pushkin, our fiction even took a step back in understanding this major and, in any case, interesting historical figure. From the “dashing constable” and the roguish Cossack we moved in the direction of the “hellish milk” and the popular popular villain. And we can say without exaggeration that in our written and printed history, in the very center of a period not very distant from us and a highly interesting one, there stands some kind of sphinx, a man without a face.