Mozyr uprising

On January 28, 1577, the king of the Commonwealth and the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Russian and Zhmudsky Stefan Batory bestowed Magdeburg Law on the town of Mozyr , which provided for the principles of city self-government. With the development of city self-government, the power of the elders, who were the governors of the king (grand duke) in povet, was naturally limited. At the same time, under the influence of the rapid development of urban crafts (and in the first half of the seventeenth century in large cities of Belarus there were on average 50-80 crafts) the consolidation of the urban population and artisans, united to protect their interests in the shop - a kind of professional corporations. Preserved information about the presence in the middle of the XVII century 112 workshops in 11 cities of Belarus ^[1] . Naturally, all this, together with other progressive reforms (Volochnaya Agrarian Reform of 1557, Introduction of the Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania of 1588) led to an economic rise, which marked the end of the XVI - beginning of the XVII centuries. on the territory of Belarus.

Although Mozyr was not a large trading city and still mainly focused on agriculture (which caused the tenant yoke), nevertheless, the development of handicrafts and economic growth fully applied to it. However, the fact that Rzeczpospolita embarked on a costly eastern adventure in order to put several Falsadiers at once on the liberated Moscow throne, as well as a protracted war with Sweden 1600–1629 , led to a weakening of the country's economy, as well as to increased arbitrariness of local government officials (they were obliged to supply the center with impressive sums for military needs). So the Mozyr headman, Balzer Stravinsky, in 1615 decided to subordinate part of the citizens (the most well-to-do) to his authority, depriving them of their Magdeburg rights .

Stravinsky’s decision caused a sharp rejection of the citizens and representatives of the electoral administration of the self-governing part of the city. On 3 October 1615, the burmistra (administrative position in a city with Magdeburg law ; among other things, the city treasury was under the jurisdiction of the burmistr) Zhdan Musha and Jan Kritsky with the townspeople Doroshka-Kravtsy, Ivan Volchkom and Ostap Lavrynovich raised a rebellion against the arbitrariness of the elders. It was immediately supported by the urban lower classes, which immediately gave it a sharp social character. A detachment of several hundred was created. The fact that the uprising was initially supported by the representatives of the merchants , as well as by the officers Musha and Kritsky, allowed them to quickly arm this squad with muskets (which appeared massively on the territory of Belarus literally 10 years before the events described). An attack was made on the castle, where the headman Stravinsky, the castle administration, and some of the nobility associated with Stravinsky were located. During the clashes, several members of the castle administration were killed. The rebels refused to pay taxes to the treasury. In addition, they confiscated the property of those representatives of the prosperous philistinism who did not support the uprising. The gentry who lived near Mozyr , under the penalty of the death penalty, were forbidden to appear in the city. For some time, the rebels completely seized power in Mozyr, independently elected Voit , tried to revise the principles of taxation.

Historical sources do not report what the uprising ended with. However, from the protocol of the proceedings on the Mozyr uprising in the Grand-Ducal court it can be understood that the process lasted several months. The court was forced to make concessions to the rebels. In 1622, the Magdeburg Law was returned to them and transferred to the townspeople under the jurisdiction of the local government; fees for handicrafts and trade were transferred to the city treasury. This suggests that the rebels were not defeated by government units (already too busy on two fronts), but came to an agreement with representatives of the king.

In addition, there is information that in 1616 (that is, a year after the uprising), the elder Balzer Stravinsky founded a church, called Farny. This means that by that time Stravinsky had the same authority.

• Kopysky Z. Yu. From the history of the social and political life of the cities of Belarus in the XVI — XVII centuries. // Tr. Institute of History, Academy of Sciences of the BSSR, Minsk, 1958, Issue 3.
• Nikitin A.S., Zaltsman E.E. Mozyr: Historical and Economic Essay. Mn, 1973.
• Mazyr: gistoryya i saschasnasts. Gomel, 2005.
• The History of Belarus (in the case of Tamah). Tom trasі, Mn, “Modern School”, “Ecoperspectiva”, 2007.
• Entsyklapedyya "Vyalіkae prince Litoўskae." Volume 2, Mn., “Belaruskaya Entsyklapedya”, 2006.