A Struggle For A Throne

While the armies of Catharine II. were threatening with destruction the

empire of Turkey, and her diplomats were deciding what part of

dismembered Poland should fall to her share, her throne itself was put

in danger of destruction by an aspirant who arose in the east and for

two years kept Russia from end to end in a state of dire alarm. The

summary manner in which Peter III. had been removed from the throne was

not re ished by the people. Numerous small revolts broke out, which were

successively put down. St. Petersburg accepted Catharine, but Moscow did

not, and on her visits to the latter city the political atmosphere

proved so frigid that she was glad to get back to the more genial

climate of the city on the Neva.



Years passed before Russia settled down to full acceptance of a reign

begun in violence and sustained by force, and in this interval there

were no fewer than six impostors to be dealt with, each of whom claimed

to be Peter III. Murdered emperors sleep badly in their graves. The

example of the false Dmitris, generations before, remained in men's

minds, and it seemed as if every Russian who bore a resemblance to the

vanished czar was ready to claim his vacated seat.



Of these false Peters, the sixth and most dangerous was a Cossack of

the Don, whose actual name was Pugatchef, but whose face seemed capable

of calling up an army wherever it appeared, and who, if his ability had

been equal to his fortune, might easily have seated himself on the

throne. The impostor proved to be his own worst foe, and defeated

himself by his innate barbarity.



Pugatchef began his career as a common soldier, afterwards becoming an

officer. Deserting the army after a period of service, he made his way

to Poland, where he dwelt with the monks of that country and pretended

to equal the best of them in piety. Here he was told that he bore a

striking resemblance to Peter III. The hint was enough. He returned to

Russia, where he professed sanctity, dressed like a patriarch of the

church, and scattered benedictions freely among the Cossacks of the Don.

He soon gained adherents among the old orthodox party, who were bitter

against the religious looseness of the court. Finally he gave himself

out as Peter III., declaring that the story of his death was false, that

he had escaped from the hands of the assassins, and that he desired to

win the throne, not for himself, but for his infant son Paul.



The first result of this announcement was that the impostor was seized

and taken to Kasan as a prisoner. But the carelessness of his guards

allowed him to escape from his prison cell, and he made his way to the

Volga, near its entrance into the Caspian Sea, where he began to collect

a body of followers among the Cossacks of that region. His first open

declaration was made on September 17, 1773, when he appeared with three

hundred Cossacks at the town of Yaitsk, and published an appeal to

orthodox believers, declaring that he was the czar Peter III. and

calling upon them for support.



His handful of Cossacks soon grew into an army, multitudes of the

tribesmen gathered around him, and in a brief time he found himself at

the head of a large body of the lowest of the people. The man was a

savage at heart, betraying his innate depravity by foolish and useless

cruelties, and in this way preventing the more educated class of the

community from joining his ranks.



Yet he contrived to gather about him an army of several thousand men,

and obtained a considerable number of cannon, with which he soon

afterwards laid siege to the city of Orenburg. Both Yaitsk and Orenburg

defied his efforts, but he had greater success in the field, defeating

two armies in succession. These victories gave him new assurance. He now

caused money to be coined in his name, as though he were the lawful

emperor, and marched northward at the head of a large force to meet the

armies of the state.



His army was destitute of order or discipline and he woefully deficient

in military skill, yet his proclamation of freedom to the people, and

the opportunities he gave them for plunder and outrage, strengthened his

hands, and recruits came in multitudes. The Tartars, Kirghis, and

Bashkirs, who had been brought against their will under the Russian

yoke, flocked to his standard, in the hope of regaining their freedom.

Many of the Poles who had been banished from their country also sought

his ranks, and the people of Moscow and its vicinity, who had from the

first been opposed to Catharine's reign, waited his approach that they

might break out in open rebellion.



The outbreak had thus become serious, and had Pugatchef been skilled as

a leader he might have won the throne. As it was, his followers showed a

fiery valor, and, undisciplined as they were, gave the armies of the

empire no small concern. Bibikof, who had been sent to subdue them,

failed through over-caution, and was slain in the field. His

lieutenants, Galitzin and Michelson, proved more active, and frequently

defeated the impostor, though only to find him rising again with new

armies as often as the old ones were crushed, like the fabulous giant

who sprang up in double form whenever cut in twain.



Prince Galitzin defeated him twice, the last time after a furious battle

six hours in length. Pugatchef, abandoned by his followers, now fled to

the Urals, but soon appeared again with a fresh body of troops. Between

the beginning of March and the end of May, 1774, the rebel chief was

defeated six or seven times by Michelson, in the end being driven as a

fugitive to the Ural Mountains. But he had only to raise his standard

again for fresh armies to spring up as if from the ground, and early

June found him once more in the field. Defeated on June 4, he fled once

more to the hills, but in the beginning of July was facing his foes

again at the head of twenty-two thousand men.



Only the cruelty shown by himself and his followers, and his

ruthlessness in permitting the plunder and burning of churches and

convents, kept back the much greater hosts who would otherwise have

flocked to his ranks. And at this critical moment in his career he

committed the signal error of failing to march on Moscow, the principal

seat of the old Russian faith which he proposed to restore, and where he

would have found an army of partisans. He marched upon Kasan instead,

took the city, but failed to capture the citadel. Here he was making

havoc with fire and sword, when Michelson came up and defeated him in a

long and obstinate fight.






He now fled to the Volga, wasting the land as he went, burning the crops

and villages, and leaving desolation in his track. Men came in numbers

to replace those he had lost, and an army of twenty thousand was soon

again under his command. With these he surprised and routed a Russian

force and took several forts on the Volga, while the German colonies of

Moravians which had been established upon that stream, and were among

the most industrious inhabitants of the empire, suffered severely at his

hands. In the town of Saratof he murdered all whom he met.



As an example of the character of this monster in human form, it is

related that hearing that an astronomer from the Imperial Academy of

Sciences of St. Petersburg was near by, engaged in laying out the route

of a canal from the Volga to the Don, he ordered him to be brought

before him. When the peaceful astronomer appeared, the brutal ruffian

bade his men to lift him on their pikes "so that he might be nearer the

stars." Then he ordered him to be cut to pieces.



The end of this carnival of murder came at the siege of Zaritzin. Here

Michelson came up on the 22d of August and forced him to raise the

siege. On the 24th the insurgents were attacked when in the intricate

passes of the mountains and encumbered with baggage-wagons, women, and

camp-followers. Though thus taken at a disadvantage, they defended

themselves vigorously, the mass of them falling in the mountain passes

or being driven over the cliffs and precipices. Pugatchef continued to

fight till his army was destroyed, then made his escape, as so often

before, swimming the Volga and vanishing in the desert. Only about sixty

of his most faithful partisans accompanied him in his flight.



Michelson, failing to reach him in his retreat, took care that he should

not emerge into the cultivated districts. But in the end the Russians

were able to capture him only by treachery. They won over some of their

Cossack prisoners, among them Antizof, the nearest friend of the

fugitive. These were then set free, and sought the desert retreat of

their late leader, where they awaited an opportunity to take him by

surprise.



This they were not able to do until November. Pugatchef was gnawing the

bone of a horse for food when his false friends ran up to him, saying,

"Come, you have long enough been emperor."



Perceiving that treachery was intended, he drew his pistol and fired at

his foes, shattering the arm of the foremost. The others seized and

bound him and conveyed him to Goroduk in the Ural, the locality of

Antizof's tribe. Michelson was still seeking him in the desert when word

came to him that the fugitive had been delivered into Russian hands at

Simbirsk, and was being conveyed to Moscow in an iron cage, like the

beast of prey which he resembled in character.



On the way he sought to starve himself, but was forced to eat by the

soldiers. On reaching Moscow he counterfeited madness. His trial was

conducted without the torture which had formerly been so common a

feature of Russian tribunals. The sentence of the court was that he

should be exhibited to the people with his hands and feet cut off, and

then quartered alive. With unyielding resolution Pugatchef awaited this

cruel death, but the sentence, for some reason, was not executed, he

being first beheaded and then quartered. Four of his principal followers

suffered the same fate, and thus ended one of the most determined

efforts on the part of an impostor to seize the Russian throne that had

ever been known. The undoubted courage of the man was enough to prove

that he was not Peter III. Had he combined military capacity with his

daring he could readily have won the throne.