Rebellion of Pugatchef

Pugatchef committed also a great imprudence, which, by giving rise to scandal in his army, was stiQ more dangerous than the loss of a battle, in espousing publicly a common woman from laitskoy, though he was actually married to Sophia, the daughter of a Cossack, and had three lawful children. In the midst of the pomp and rejoicings on that occasion, during which he lavished his favours and squandered immense sums, he was apprised that a regular army, of 45,000 Russian veterans, well provided, was actually marching against him, under the command of General Prince Bibikof, and with a formidable artillery. There was also no longer any doubt that the Empress Catherine had pubKshed a manifesto against him in the principal towns of the empire. For a long time, this formidable rebellion was considered, at Petersburg, as a mere rising of a band of robbers, so common among the wandering tribes of disaiFected Cossacks and Tatars in those regions; and Pugatchef as their audacious chief. Catherine's policy was interested in considering his efforts as unworthy for an instant of any serious alarm respecting the stability of her throne, just at the time when all the great military talents of Romantzof could scarcely prosecute the bloody war against the Turks, who fought with undisputed bravery, and displayed in it more than ordinary spirit. Some enemies also of the ancient and powerful family of Orloff, ventured more than once to hint that Gregory Orloff secretly fostered the rebellion, and had actually sheltered Pugatchef in his house. There was also a rumour that Baron de Tott, a skilful French officer in the Turkish service, and who, on more than one occasion, had beaten the Russians, and had displayed his sound policy in protecting, at the Sultan's court, the views of the Polish confederates of Bar, (whose sole aim was to fight their common enemy), had some communication with Pugatchef, and directed his mihtary movements. Catherine, who seems to have scorned these rumours, laughed at them openly; and gave to Pugatchef the title of marquis, in derision. Soon, however, her sagacious mind did not fail to perceive the whole extent of the danger to which she was undoubtedly exposed; and for a long time she directed her whole energy and activity to the means of avoiding it. Her masculine mind forgot the weakness of the female body, and was completely-absorbed in this pressing and important business. Not satisfied with sending a powerful army, under General Bibikof, to crush the rebels, she in her manifesto, hinted, indirectly, at the well-known death of her murdered husband, and at the daring imposition of Pugatchef in assuming the name of Peter III. She also put in circulation some ukases or ordinances to her subjects. By one of them she warned her people not to obey any order which was not signed with her own hand, or that did not emanate from her private chancery at Petersburg; by another, she invited all the deluded Cossacks of the Don and the laik, who were in the rebel army, to return speedily to their homes; accompanying this advice with a liberal promise of forgetfulness of the past: by a third, far more dangerous for the personal safety of Pugatchef, and in full accordance with the rapacious propensities of the Cossacks, she promised a reward of one hundred thousand silver rubles to any one who should deliver him, dead or alive, to the Russian authorities; with a free pardon if the individual, so delivering him up, was in the rebel army. Pugatchef, however, who could neither read nor write, having some men of ability at his court, was not idle on his part; and replied by other proclamations and manifestos, which he always issued in the name of the sovereign, whose name he unblushingly usurped; he ordered also small busts of himself to be cast; and issued gold, silver, and copper coins, stamped with his image, with the inscription, Peter III., Emperor of all the Russians. Conforming also to the advice of the Polish major, Suchodolski, his chief of the staff, who joined him from the Confederates' ranks, he, widely circulated, in all parts of Russia, a well-couched and solemn order, printed in several dialects, in large letters, by which he abolished servitude, liberated unconditionally all the peasants from the grasp of their oppressors, and made them proprietors of the soil on which they toiled and worked; giving proper instructions to all the governors of the Russian empire, for the rigorous fulfilment of this order, under the penalty of death. This measure would have completely disorganised the Russian empire; would have put down the influence of the nobility for ever; might, if strictly executed, and opportunely enforced, have worked a great social revolution; and had not the adventurous, daring Cossack chief, shaken the confidence of his bands by all kinds of debauchery, and scorn for every kind of religious creed. After his arrival at Kazan, General Bibikof found all the citizens and nobles eager to take arms against a man who visibly attempted their complete annihilation; and they immediately formed some regiments. The Empress Catherine, apprised of their conduct, and strongly urged by the necessity of self-preservation, assured them publicly of her gratitude, and ordered her imperial name to be inscribed in letters of gold among J the nobles and citizens of the town of Kazan — a miserable farce, gratifying only to vanity.