Probably not all Russian citizens share Catherine’s conviction that she was elected empress «at the request of all …". It’s funny that both Stepan Razin and Emelyan Pugachev were born, with a break about 112 years, in the same Cossack village of Zimoveyska (Zimoveyka). Now this village rests on the bottom of the Tsimlyansk reservoir, in the Volgograd region.

      Pugachev participated in the Seven Years’ War with Prussia, the Russian-Turkish war of 1769—1774, becoming ill, asking for resignation, not getting it, and hiding from the authorities. He is arrested, but the Cossack flees to Novorossia (now the Lugansk region), from there, on the advice of the Old Believer, to Poland, where, declaring himself wishing to return to normal life as a schismatic, he gets a passport and a residence permit in the Mosque suburb (later – Saratov, near the Volga tributary). Here, in a conversation with a participant in the recently suppressed Cossack unrest, he, perhaps unexpectedly for himself, sees it in vain; «I’m not a merchant, but Tsar Pyotr Fedorovich, I was also in Tsaritsyn, that God saved me and kind people, and a guard of the guard was spotted instead of me, and an officer saved me in St. Petersburg.» According to the denunciation, Pugachev is arrested, he again runs to his long-time friend, a retired, therefore free soldier Stepan Obolyaev. Yemelyan is again called Peter the Third and asks Stepan to bring down the instigators of the past uprising. The people, displeased, in particular, by the addition of state (village) peasants to state and private factories. Catherine II forbids serfs to complain about the landlords. There is a rumor about the transfer of all the peasants «to the treasury,» where the living is indeed better, or even a decree of liberty drawn up by the repressed Peter III. In the fall of 1773 the first followers appeared. Together they are looking for a literate person to compose «royal decrees», but, in the Mosque Sloboda Pugacheva is identified. He manages to hide, although a friend, Obolyayev and taken into custody. At the agreed place, at the inn, the future driver of free people awaits new acquaintances, completely located to the beginning, or more precisely, the continuation of the egg revolt (the river Yaik later renamed the Urals) Cossacks. In their composition, with time, appear and ready to make decrees, literate people. Emelian Pugachev confesses suddenly that he is not at all Emperor Peter the Third, and receives the following answer: «… There is no need for me in this: you are a Don Cossack, only we recognized you already for the emperor, so, de and be. «The flywheel of rebellion begins to unwind. Pugachev himself can no longer lead the army «in manual mode,» the Cossack sergeants perfectly suit themselves. Often they completely exceed their authority, such as: they shoot the mistress of her leader, and her brother, the captive nobles, fearing that they will have some spiritual power over Pugachev. Over time, the Cossacks are looking for the «Tsar» bride from «their own» – Ustin Kuznetsov, and, in 1774, during the siege of Orenburg, after the wedding, she acquires the title of «Empress.» The insurgents seize convoys, break up separate detachments, seize military plants, but exhaust their forces in the siege of Ufa and Orenburg. Opens the period of defeat.

      Government troops are approaching. They oppress the rebels, but the death of the commander-in-chief of the prince forces from illness gives Pugachev’s troops a month to regroup. There is, in particular, a connection with the formations of the 19-year-old Salavat Yulaev, the improvising poet, the leader of the uprising in Bashkortostan. At the peak of the uprising, the army reaches 40,000 people, Pugachev creates a Military Collegium to manage it, with military courts, and all the rest.

      The peasant army captures most of Kazan (except the Kremlin). Here, in the prison of the Secret Commission, Pugachev discovers his first wife, Sophia, with three children. They carry them with them, separately, saying that it is a family of a Cossack «visited» for his name. He sometimes mentions his «son», Paul the First, carries the portrait of the heir with him, turns to him when he says the toasts.

      «Tsar Peter the Third» spreads manifestos about liberty for the peasants, distributes stocks of salt and bread to the inhabitants, his army, greeted by the people with enthusiasm, blessings of village fathers, is approaching the Moscow province. Further, on August 7, 1774, the rebels, with a bell ringing and bread and salt, the Saratov opens.

      Instead of an immediate attack on Moscow, Pugachev cautious and turns to Astrakhan – one version – to gain strength in the Don army, on the other – to finish this idea and dissolve in the boundless steppes. On the way, he is overtaken by a large government detachment. Because of the sudden raid of the cavalry, the insurgents immediately lose all 24 cannon. Artillery already in those days – the god of war, and the detachments of the advancing peasants are scattered by volleys of the tsar’s guns. Later, the Cossack colonels, wishing to earn their pardon, knit the peasant leader and give him out to General Suvorov, who came to the rescue of the uprising. The future generalissimo personally guards the cage with Emelian Pugachev. After the investigation, on January 10, 1775, on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow, the people’s tsar was executed by cutting off the head. Here, 104 years ago, Cossack and peasant leader Stepan Razin was quartered.

      The insurrection of the peasants led by Pugachev can be compared with the serf riot in England that occurred, under the nominal start of Wat Tyler, four centuries ago – in 1381. During the Hundred Years War, in order to feed the army, King Richard II raises the tax for the lower classes-now 12 pence from each toiler. The people are indignant, rises, reaches the capital, thoroughly shakes all the Foggy Albion. Six months later, thanks to the troops, the deceit and the promises of the monarch to rectify the situation, the excitement subsided. Wat Tyler dies, as well as most other leaders. However, the central authorities make very correct conclusions. They declare guilty insatiable officials on the ground, proclaim a general amnesty, stop attempts to introduce illegal taxes. Large landowners resolve conflicts with their employees (yes, participants in the insurrection) as a rule, through the courts. When discussing the rent for the land, the peasants are not averse to recalling their combat past aloud…

      By the fifteenth century, the institution of serfdom in England ceased to exist.

      …To strengthen the administrative apparatus, the government of Catherine II disaggregates the province – instead of the 23 centers of power they become 56 (governors, gubernias, the essence of synonyms). Accordingly, the bureaucracy, the power block, doubles, and the costs for them are increased four and a half times.

      As a result of the uprising, the situation of serf factory workers improves somewhat, but there are no conclusions about the allowances for the entire peasantry. And, this decision of the government, leads, in the first half of the twentieth century, to the collapse of the state and the physical destruction of the Russian nobility.

      Many prominent enlighteners, generals, statesmen are united by Masonic lodges. Catherine initially is loyal to them, but after the French Revolution, organized, in many ways, by this community, radically changes its position. The Empress expels from the country, removes from the people (publisher Novikov, etc.) people for mere involvement in Freemasonry.

      A year before the start of the Pugachev uprising, in 1772, the First Section of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth took place. The Polish Saeima abuses liberum veto, the principle of declaring a ban on the discussion of the resolution by at least one dissenting party. The Russian Ambassador Repnin worked well on creating the pro-Russian stratum. The King of Poland, Stanislav Ponyatovsky, in the past – the lover of Catherine, her protege on the throne treats Russia fairly friendly, but he and his followers can no longer manage anything. The country is divided into many small «sejmics», enters a civil war even before centralized states pay attention to it. So, according to mutual agreement, contingents of Prussia, Austria and Russia join Poland. The troops of AV Suvorov occupy the ancient capital of this country, covered with mysticism Krakow, as well as part of the current Baltic and Byelorussian (Polotsk,