Istorii͡a︡ Pugachevskogo bunta

the long version

"When Russia's greatest poet published The History of Pugachev in 1833 it was greeted with suspicion and hostility by Nicholas I who insisted on censoring the book and demanded that it be retitled 'The History of the Pugachev Rebellion' on the basis that a rebel could not have a history." "Pugachev was an illiterate Don Cossack who, after being arrested for desertion from the army but later escaping, learned of the Yaik Cossack Rebellion of 1772 and of its cruel suppression. In June 1773, claiming to be Emperor Peter III (who had been assassinated in 1762) Pugachev gathered a substantial following of Yaik Cossacks, peasants, clergymen and the Bashkirs, decreed the abolition of serfdom and laid siege to Orenburg. Ultimately he planned to depose Catherine the Great. As the landowners fled to Moscow, Catherine recognized the seriousness of the rebellion and sent an army against Pugachev." "Defeated several times but rising again to besiege and burn several cities Pugachev was finally betrayed and sent to Moscow where he was paraded through the streets before being executed." --Book Jacket.