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Pugachev, the son of a small Don Cossack landowner, married a Cossack girl, Sofia Nedyuzheva, in 1758, and in the same year participated in Seven Years' War as part of the Cossack expedition to Prussia under the command of Count Zakhar Chernyshev. In the first Russo-Turkish War ( 1768 - 1774Events January 21 Mustafa III, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire dies and is succeeded by his brother Abd-ul-Hamid I. May 10 Louis XVI becomes King of France. June 2 Intolerable Acts: The Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to let British soldiers int), Pugachev, now a Cossack khorunzhiy (corresponding to the regular army rank of podporuchik, or junior lieutenant), served under Count Peter Panin and participated in the siege of BenderTighina or Tigina is a city in Moldova. It was formerly known as Bendery ( Turkish: Bender . A settlement has existed at the confluence of the Dniester and Bac rivers since the 2nd century, subsequently growing and coming under the successive rules of Kie.
Invalided home, Pugachev led for the next few years a wandering life. More than once the authorities arrested and imprisoned him as a deserter. In 1773Events January 12 The first American museum open to the public is opened in ( Charleston, South Carolina). January 17 Captain James Cook becomes the first European explorer to cross the Antarctic Circle April 27 or May 10 The British Parliament passes the, after frequenting the monasteries of the Old BelieversThe Old Believers or are a schismatic group of the Russian Orthodox Church. The schism itself is known as staroobryadchestvo . In 1652, Patriarch Nikon of the Russian Orthodox Church introduced a number of reforms aimed at centralizing his power and bring, who exercised considerable influence over him, he suddenly proclaimed himself tsarTsar ( Bulgarian Russian often spelt Czar or Tzar in English), was the title used for the rulers of the First and Second Bulgarian Empires from 913 and in Russia from 1547 to 1917. It is derived from the Latin title Caesar. History of usage The title tsar Peter IIIPeter III ( February 21, 1728 July 17, 1762) ( Russian III (Pyotr III Fyodorovitch)) was Emperor of Russia for six months in 1762. He was mentally weak and very pro- Prussian, which made him an unpopular leader. He was assassinated as a result of a conspi and organised the insurrection of the Yaik Cossacks which ignited the flames of all-out peasant war in the lower Volga region.
The story of Pugachev's strong resemblance to the murdered tsar Peter III, who in 1762 had been overthrown by his wife, the future empress Catherine II, comes from a later legend. Pugachev dubbed himself Peter III the better to attract to his standard all those numerous dissidents who attributed their misery to the government of Catherine, for the populace generally remembered Peter as Catherine's determined opponent. The destitute thousands who joined the new Peter had one aim: to sweep away utterly the intolerably oppressive upper-classes.
Pugachev told the story that he and his principal adherents had escaped from the clutches of Catherine, and had now resolved to redress the grievances of the people, give absolute liberty to the Cossacks, and put Catherine herself away in a monastery. He held a sort of mimic court at which one Cossack impersonated Nikita Panin, another Zakhar Chernyshev, and so on.
The Russian government at first made light of the rising. At the beginning of October 1773 it simply regarded Pugachev as a nuisance, and offerred a mere 500 roubles as a reward for the head of the troublesome Cossack. At the end of November it promised 28,000 roubles to whomsoever should bring him in, alive or dead. Even then, however, Catherine, in her correspondence with Voltaire, affected to treat l'affaire du Marquis de Pugachev as a mere joke, but by the beginning of 1774 the joke had developed into a very serious danger. All the forts on the Volga and Ural had now come into the hands of the rebels; the Bashkirs, led by Salavat Yulayev , had joined them; and the governor of Moscow reported great restlessness among the population of central Russia. Shortly afterwards Pugachev captured Kazan, reduced most of its churches and monasteries to ashes, and massacred all who refused to join him.