13. A Popular Revolt That Devolved Into Chaos
The goal of the serfs and peasants in the Bulavin Rebellion was not to fight the Tsar. Instead, they wanted to free him from the evil counselors whom many peasants mistakenly believed had kept him ignorant of their plight. Others, of a more religious bent, believed that the real Tsar was hidden away. As they saw it, the person who claimed to be Tsar Peter and who sought to implement the radical westernizing reforms that offended their Orthodox faith was actually the antichrist. That old-timey version of Q-Anon-type logic was one of the many reasons why the rebels lost. Although their revolt gained widespread popularity, poor leadership and vision condemned it to failure.
Among other things, Bulavin failed to offer an alternative Tsar around whom the discontented could rally and unite. As a result, much of the armed resistance was frittered away in various eruptions, which the authorities could deal with piecemeal. Additionally, although Tsar Peter was engaged in a major war against Sweden at the time, the rebels failed to coordinate their actions with the Swedes. So the Tsar had enough time to amass a 32,000 man army to deal with the serfs. That force steadily stamped out the revolt, and eventually. As the rebellion collapsed beneath the hammer blows of bloody defeat after bloody defeat, a faction of Bulavin’s followers turned against the rebel leader and assassinated him on July 7th, 1708. That finally brought the revolt to a quick end.