Battle of Simbirsk

The siege of Simbirsk was preceded by the capture of Tsaritsyn and Astrakhan . From there, Razin with the Cossacks on 200 strugues swam up the Volga , while along the coast they were accompanied by cavalry. Samara and Saratov were occupied, where, as usual, the governors, nobles and orderly people were killed, their property was plundered. From there, the razintsy in the amount of 5 thousand people moved to Simbirsk, where the head of the small garrison was the okolnichny prince Ivan Bogdanovich Miloslavsky . Prince Yury Baryatinsky , who managed to arrive at the city 4 days earlier than Razin, came to the rescue from Kazan to help him.

On September 4 (14), an army of Razin landed near Simbirsk and gathered to storm the city. But Baryatinsky blocked his way to the city. As a result of the battle, which lasted a whole day, neither side won. Over the next day, both sides refrained from military action, but thanks to the part of the local population supporting Razin, he managed to seize the fortified part of the Simbirsk tenements. A new attempt to take the Simbirsk attack was stopped by the actions of Baryatinsky, who, however, himself could not deliver a decisive blow to Razin and ease the situation of the city. He retreated from the city to gather a larger army. The garrison of Prince Ivan Miloslavsky of archer's heads and soldiers from the 1st Elective Regiment of Haggai Shepelev locked himself in a small town ^[2] .

Meanwhile, Razin strengthened the posad occupied by him, and his army rose to 20 thousand as a result of the flown volunteers. At the same time, separate detachments left the army and were sent to the capture of other cities, such as Saransk , Penza , Alatyr , Vasilsursk , Kozmodemyansk and others. The invitation came allegedly also from Nizhny Novgorod, who promised to surrender the city. Razin was forced to stand under Simbirsk, whose wooden fortress he could not take, despite four assaults. Attempts were made to set fire to the city, for which purpose they threw burning logs and straw, but the besieged had time to put out the fire each time.

Meanwhile, Prince Baryatinsky was collecting troops. During the march under Simbirsk, the prince hoped to take the 1st elected regiment of Haggai Shepelev, who was in Kazan in a large regiment of Prince Peter Urusov , but a conflict occurred between Colonel Shepelev and Prince Baryatinsky. Shepelev refused to go on a campaign, and only two squadrons of lieutenant colonel Ivan Zakharov and Major Fyodor Mamatov from the second thousand electoral regiment came out with the prince. On September 15 ( 25 ), 1670 , Prince Baryatinsky finally made a speech from Kazan to Simbirsk ^[3] .

On September 20 (30), government troops met the first detachment of Razinas across the Sviyaga river in the village of Kulangi, which they defeated. Prince Baryatinsky fought to Simbirsk. September 23 ( October 3 ) the battle took place at the river Carla; September 24 ( October 4 ), after crossing the river, the prince joined the battle near the Tatar village of Krysadaki, September 27 ( October 7 ) - under the Mordovian village Poklouš. On September 29 ( October 9 ), government troops reached the deserted city of Togaev, and from Tagaev they went to Mshansk. On October 1 (11), Prince Baryatinsky spoke on the Crimean side of the line to Simbirsk ^[4] .

Two versts from Simbirsk by the river Sviyaga , the prince’s troops met the army of Razin. Having built troops, the commander moved on the enemy. Coming together on 20 sazhen (43 meters), the prince's soldiers opened fire on razints and brought disorder into the disorderly ranks of the rebels with their first casualties.

Razin was able to stop the flight, and "gathered ... with all his strength, with horsemen and people on foot and with guns," he tried to counterattack the enemy. Baryatinsky sent forward cavalry, which, having attacked the rebels, turned into a feigned flight and brought Razin on the orders of infantry and artillery. Persistent battle, in which the opponents fired at each other almost point-blank, lasted all day. As Prince Baryatinsky recalled: "... people in the public interfered and shooting on both sides with small rifles and cannon-guns was in pritin ..., and they fought with that thief from morning till dusk . " The outcome of the battle was decided by the flank attack of the cavalry under the command of Prince Baryatinsky himself. As a result, the army of Razin was defeated, 4 cannons were lost, 14 flags, timpani and 120 prisoners ^[5] , which were immediately hanged.

Razin himself was wounded twice (with a musket bullet or a shotgun in his left leg and a saber blow to the head), after which he fell from his horse and was almost captured, but would be saved by the Don Cossacks. The traitor from Alatyr grabbed and knocked him down, trying to stab him with a dagger, but he himself was immediately killed by other rebels. Razin, unconscious in his arms, was transferred to a prison, where he came to his senses and on the night of October 4 (14) again tried to take the city by attack from the north and east. Again everything was done to light it, but Simbirsk survived.

Baryatinsky decided to resort to tricks, ordering Colonel Chubarov to come over at night with the regiment for Sviyaga and make shouts there, as if a new royal army had arrived. The trick was a success: Fear attacked Razin, he decided to flee in secret with some Don Cossacks alone. Then Baryatinsky went out with the cavalry into the field, and became near the city, and let the infantry onto a wagon train and jail. At the same time, Miloslavsky, on the other hand, attacked the burg, which flamed in different places. The rebels, struck on both sides and cramped in fire, rushed to the courts, but few of them managed to escape, most were killed or shallow.

The defeat at Simbirsk put an end to the constant success of Razin until then. Here he lost both his army and his power; he was soon captured on the Don and quartered on June 6 ( 16 ), 1671 in Moscow. The government understood the importance of the victory at Simbirsk and highly appreciated the feat of Miloslavsky and the "brave comrades" in the "Simbirsk seat." On December 10 ( 20 ), 1670 , the sovereign sent the steward of Chirikov to Simbirsk with a royal gracious word and with praise for their service.

• A. Malov. Moscow's elective regiments of soldiers in the initial period of its history 1656 - 1671 - M .: Ancient storage, 2006. - ISBN 5-93646-106-8 .
• V. Solovyov. M. Contemporaries and descendants on the uprising of S. T. Razin. M., 1991.