The Cossack Revolt of 1670 | Stenka Razin

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When the first information about Stenka Razin was jotted down in our historical sources, he was part of a Don Cossack diplomatic mission in the Northern Caucasus. The next thing we know is that he was a pirate, pillaging and massacring cities around the Volga river, well into Persia. Eventually, however, he entered the history books as the leader of one of the first popular revolts against the Tsarist Regime, that actually had some considerable success and gained notoriety for their bloody massacres, although the reprisals from the Tsar's side were just as brutal. So… who is Stenka Razin and what did he do?

We have to understand what Russia was going through at that time. The seventeenth century was ushered in with chaos and turmoil, the so-called Time of Troubles. The last Tsar of the Rurik dynasty Feodor Ivanovich passed away in 1598, and it would not be until 1613 for the Romanov dynasty to be established. The first two Tsars of the Romanov dynasty, Mikhail and Alexis embarked on a policy of centralization of power - which in turn meant the Russian nobility was slowly but surely forced to hand in influence. So in short: there was a “cleavage” between the Tsars and the Russian nobility. Not only that, but the peasantry and nobility lived in worlds apart, and that is an understatement. In sixteen-forty-nine the соборное уложение was declared. This legal code created a new serf class, in which free peasants and slaves were placed, and codified the hereditary and unchangeable status of this class, so I don’t think I have to explain exactly why there was friction between the Russian serfs and nobility. Furthermore, from 1654 to 1667 Russia waged war with Poland, and in 1656 the two-year war with Sweden took its toll on the Russian population in terms of taxes, conscription and the general misery the lowest class of people lived in.

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Time Codes:

0:51 Background (Russia in the 17th Century)
2:22 Stenka Razin

Sources:

Photos, paintings and imagery: Public Domain, Wikicommons
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