12. The Greatest Russian Peasant Revolt
The Pugachev Rebellion (1773 – 1775), also known as the Peasants’ War, was the third and greatest of Russia’s major peasant uprisings that erupted between 1670 to 1775. The revolt was led by Emilian Pugachev, a former Russian army lieutenant, and it posed an existential threat to Tsardom. As with the other rebellions, it took place against a backdrop of deep resentment by the peasantry of Russia’s exploitative government and aristocracy. The downtrodden serfs’ hardships were made even worse by a war against the Ottoman Turks.
In Russia’s decidedly not progressive taxation system, the costs of the war fell heaviest not upon the richest, but upon the poorest: the already downtrodden and exploited peasantry. Westernization efforts also played a role. In the reign of Tsarina Catherine the Great, Russia’s elites embraced western culture, arts, technologies, fashions, and foods. The new western luxuries and westernized standard of living were quite expensive, however. To pay for them, Russia’s landlords turned to their peasant serfs, increased their tax burdens, and squeezed them dry.