Gryaznov, Ivan Nikiforovich

Before the rebellion

Originally from a merchant family, according to some sources - from Simbirsk , according to others - from the Yekaterinburg Mining Department. By the beginning of the Pugachev uprising, Gryaznov had gone bankrupt as a merchant and had no business of his own; in recent years he served as a clerk at a number of Ural metallurgical plants. Judging by the preserved letters and appeals of Gryaznov to the authorities and residents of Chelyabinsk during the siege of the city, he was well educated, had his own view of the existing order in the state. He was “strong in body, dark-skinned face, had a black beard and hair, but was bald” ^{[1] [2]} .

Participation in the Pugachev Uprising

In September 1773, an uprising of the Yaitsky Cossacks broke out in the Orenburg province , the reason for which was the announcement of "the miracle of the rescued Emperor Peter Fedorovich" - the Don Cossack Emelyan Pugachev . With the arrival of the Pugachevites near Orenburg in early October, active joining of the rebel Tatars, Bashkirs, dissatisfied with the loss of their forest and land due to the industrial development of the Urals, began. The Bashkir detachments that joined the army of Peter III sought primarily to destroy factories and factory settlements on their lands. Under these conditions, factory peasants and working people, who had their own reasons for dissatisfaction with the existing order ^[3] , actively swore allegiance to “Emperor Pyotr Fedorovich”, including with the aim of obtaining protection from the Pugachevites from Bashkir raids and ruin ^[4] .

Ivan Gryaznov joined the Pugachevites as part of a detachment of assigned factory peasants at the very beginning of the uprising in October 1773 and participated in the capture of the Sterlitamak pier on the Belaya and Tabyn towns , while V.V. Mavrodin and Yu.A. Limonov called him the leader of the united Bashkir detachments, factory peasants and Iset Cossacks , who took the towns ^[5] , while the historian M.I. Mineev believed that the general leadership was behind the ataman Khlopusha ^[6] , according to the Bashkir historian S. U. Taymasov led the detachments Bashkirsk First Sergeant Kaskyn Samarov ^[7] .

At the end of November 1773, part of the detachment of rebels from near the Sterlitamak fortress arrived at the Epiphany smelter breeders Tverdyshev and Myasnikov. According to Mavrodin, “the factory peasants cordially welcomed the Pugachevites detachment who arrived here ... There is reason to believe that the Simbir merchant Ivan Nikiforovich Gryaznov headed this party ...” ^[8] Following the Gryaznov detachment, the peasants of the Voskresensk copper-smelting factory led by the future chief comrade led by Gryaznov voluntarily joined Grigory Tumanov ^[9] . According to the information provided by Taimasov, the Epiphany plant was taken by a detachment of Bashkirs of 500 people under the command of foreman Kanbulat Yuldashev, and the Resurrection Plant by Chiki-Zarubin detachments ^[7] .

The capture of the Epiphany and Voskresensky plants dates back to the end of November 1773, while, according to Yu. A. Limonov, Ivan Gryaznov had already arrived at the headquarters of Pugachev in Berdskaya Sloboda at the beginning of November and suggested organizing the casting of cannons and cores in the nearby factories for the needs troops of the rebels. From among the working people and factory peasants gathered in Berdy, Gryaznov could select those who could help with the casting of guns, among which were Vasily Makshontsev, “skilled in mechanical science,” Vasily Alimpeev, “skilled in casting iron castings”, Vasily Loginov, draftsman and draftsman . Sent to the Voskresensky plant, the craftsmen managed to cast 11 guns for the Pugachev’s army, as well as nuclei and bombs ^[10] .

In Iset province. The siege of Chelyabinsk

Pugachev appreciated the energy and business experience of Gryaznov, sending him with the rank of “chief colonel” at the head of a detachment of Cossacks, Bashkirs and factory peasants to Iset district - an extremely important area for the rebels due to the large number of factories, mines and relatively densely populated. Bashkir detachments were already operating in the region, and from mid-December, on the orders of Chiki-Zarubin, the Tabyn Cossack Ivan Kuznetsov arrived in Iset province with the authority of the ataman over the Bashkir, Cossack and factory detachments, as a result of which the workers and ascribed peasants of Satatsky Z , joined the rebels, and Katav-Ivanovo plant. Kuznetsov successfully increased his squads due to the influx of local Iset Cossacks and factory peasants when information was received about the appointment of Gryaznov to the Iset province. Zarubin sent Kuznetsov to coordinate the actions of the rebel groups in the area of Krasnoufimsk and Kungur ^[11] .

Having formed his detachment of 700 people at the Satka and Zlatoust factories, on January 3 ( 14 ), 1774 , Gryaznov arrived in the village of Kundravinsky 70 miles from Chelyabinsk, where the inhabitants had previously formed a detachment to protect themselves from Bashkir raids and considered it best to swear allegiance to “Emperor Peter Fedorovich ". In the same way, the Kyshtym and Kaslinsky factories, Verkhneuvelskaya Sloboda , Koelskaya and Chebarkulskaya fortresses, as well as many other neighboring villages joined the rebels. In a short time, Gryaznov’s detachments grew into a real army of about 6 thousand people ^[12] .

Gryaznov managed to establish contact with the chieftain of Iset Cossacks in the administrative center of the Chelyabinsk province Maxim Urzhumtsev, persuading the Cossacks to join Peter III. In peacetime, the Cossacks accounted for most of the inhabitants of Chelyabinsk, but with the start of the uprising, about 2 thousand state peasants were called up to the “discharge Cossacks”, as well as a company of the Tobolsk city ​​battalion with field guns. Counting on Gryaznov’s help, on January 5, the Chelyabinsk Cossacks rebelled, but the decisive actions of the Tobol commander, Lieutenant Pushkarev led to the fact that the rebellion was crushed, and most Cossacks had to flee the city ^[13] .

Gryaznov arrived in Chelyabinsk on the night of January 8 at the head of a detachment of 4 thousand people, sending two calls to the city - to a fellow governor with an appeal to stop resistance ^[14] and to the inhabitants of Chelyabinsk with an appeal to submit to the “legitimate sovereign”. The last document anticipated the Pugachev manifestos on the freedom of the peasants, in a rather poetic style, stating that the nobles did not have ownership rights to the peasants:

... our Lord Jesus Christ wants to produce and deigns with his holy providence Russia from the yoke of work, which, I tell you. The whole world knows how much Russia has been exhausted, from whom, well, you yourself are not unknown. The nobility possesses peasants, but, although it is written in the law of God that they also contain peasants, as well as children, they are not only for the worker, but worse respected their glades, with whom they chased the hares. Companionsmen started a premiere of factories and so deprived the peasants by work that they never happened in exile, and no. But on the contrary, with tears, with wives and children, were there any tears to the Lord! And then, hearing, like the Israelites from the yoke of work saves. The nobility of the very generous father of the fatherland, the great sovereign Pyotr Feodorovich, for deigning when he entered the throne for the peasants, to indicate that the nobles did not have them, but that they no longer use the nobility, but even more so now expelled by all unrighteous guidance. And so, through that compelled eleven years, our father found himself wandering, and we, poor people, remained orphans ...

- Appeal of Colonel I. N. Gryaznov to the residents of Chelyabinsk ^[15]

On January 9, Gryaznov opened fire on the walls of the Chelyabinsk fortress, but a powerful retaliatory strike of 18 guns forced the Pugachevites to move away from the city walls. On January 10, reinforcements from factory peasants and discharge Cossacks of the Kyshtym factory with guns arrived at Gryaznov and Gryaznov ordered the assault on the fortress. The battle lasted more than 5 hours, but the garrison of Chelyabinsk managed to repel all attacks. In addition, Gryaznov received information about the approach of General Decolong's corps from Western Siberia, and he decided to withdraw his forces to the Chebarkul fortress. Continuing from there agitation among the factory population, the Bashkirs, Mishars and significantly replenishing their troops, in the twenties of January Gryaznov again approached Chelyabinsk. Without attempting to storm, the Pugachevites actually besieged the city. On February 1, Decolong made the decision to attack and attacked the Gryaznov camp, but after a 4-hour battle he returned to the city. Fearing a complete blockade, on February 8 (19), government troops, along with local officials and part of the townsfolk, left Chelyabinsk ^[16] .

With the capture of Chelyabinsk, references to Gryaznov in historical documents disappear. It is known that he left Grigory Tumanov, the head of the rebel office, at the head of the main forces in Chelyabinsk, and he went west with a small detachment ^[17] . Taymasov writes that Gryaznov from Chelyabinsk arrived at the camp of the main army of Pugachev in Berdy and then traveled with her all the way from the Beloretsky plant to Kazan, in which Gryaznov died in battles with the Michelson detachment ^[2] .

• Limonov Yu.A. Ivan Gryaznov and Grigory Tumanov // Pugachev and his associates. - M. - L .: Nauka , 1965 .-- 138 p.
• Dubrovin N.F. Pugachev and his accomplices. An episode from the history of the reign of Empress Catherine II. - SPb. : type of. N.I. Skorokhodova, 1884 .-- T. II. - 424 p.
• Peasant war in Russia 1773-1775. Rise of Pugachev / otv. ed. V.V. Mavrodin . - L .: Leningrad University Press , 1966. - T. II. - 512 s. - 2000 copies.
• Andrushchenko A. I. The Peasant War of 1773-1775 on Yaik, in the Urals, in the Urals and in Siberia. - M: Publishing house "Science" , 1969. - 360 p. - 3000 copies.
• Limonov Yu.A. , Mavrodin V.V. , Paneyev V.M. Ivan Gryaznov and Grigory Tumanov // Pugachev and Pugachevtsy. - L .: Nauka , 1974. - 187 p.
• Documents of the rate of E. I. Pugachev, rebel authorities and institutions of 1773-1774 . - M .: Publishing house "Science" , 1975.
• Mineev M.I. Sterlitamak. Pages of history. - Ufa: Kitap, 1993 .-- 111 p. - ISBN 5-295-00889-4 .
• Samigulov G. Kh. Chelyabinsk during the Pugachev riot // Gorokhov readings: materials of the second regional museum conference: Collection of materials. - Chelyabinsk, 2011. - S. 8-17 .
• Taymasov S.U. Uprising of 1773-1774 in Bashkortostan. - Ufa: Kitap, 2000 .-- 376 p. - ISBN 5-295-02163-7 .