Atusparia, Pedro Pablo

In modern Peruvian sources, the date of birth of Atusparia is indicated, however, there are practically no details about his childhood, youth and youth. The historian Santiago Magigna indicates that Atusparia was the son of a poor woman, abandoned by her husband and working as a maid in a rich house; it is reliably known only that he was illiterate, like the vast majority of Peruvian peasants of the 19th century, and was engaged in agricultural labor; He married on October 9, 1869, had four children, and on Christmas Day 1884 he was chosen as an alcalde (village headman) of the village of Marjan .

At the beginning of 1885, Atusparia joined a delegation of 39 village Alcaldes who went to complain about Francisco Noriega, Prefect of Huaraz, known for his abuses and cruelties against Indian peasants, from whom he took away land and forced to pay high taxes and heavy labor duties. . The Alkald’s complaint (a “memorial” listing insults and harassment) was rejected by the city authorities, and Atusparius was arrested by order of Noriega himself and tortured in prison to find out who initiated the complaint.

Rebellion

In response to the request of the residents of Marjan and other alkalids to release Atusparia, subprefect Javier Kollasos announced that he would not release Atusparia before all the alkalids had their braids cut off, which since ancient times had been a symbol of their status for the Kechuan elders, after which he ordered them to be arrested and cut off them braids. Seeing this as a grave insult, a large number of Indians led by former miner Pedro Kochachin Ushsu broke into Uaras on March 1, 1885; armed with stones, shovels and improvised machetes, for two days they fought with the city guards and managed to occupy the prison building, freeing Atusparia and proclaiming it as their leader, as well as capturing army barracks; there is evidence that Atusparia unsuccessfully tried to keep them from robbing city shops. After the pogrom, the rebels left the city and camped in the neighboring hills.

Soon the uprising spread to the entire region of Calejon de Uyalas, hundreds of Indian peasants adjoined it. March 4, 1885 under the command of Atuspariya and Kochachin there were more than 8,000 people with three hundred rifles and gunpowder taken in captured barracks; one of the rebel groups that besieged and took the city of Yangai a month later managed to seize 40 boxes of dynamite at the mining company's warehouse next to it, after which they began to threaten to undermine communications in Uaras and Yangai. From Lima, troops were sent under the command of Colonel Jose Iraola, consisting of two infantry battalions, two artillery brigades and a cavalry regiment; the rebels managed to repel their attacks for more than two months, but then Iraola was able to regain Peruvian control, first over Yangai, then over Uaras.

The course and end of the uprising is poorly documented in Peruvian historiography. It is known that in the battle of May 4, lost by the rebels, Atusparia was injured in the leg and initially took refuge in the house of Hispanic peasants, but almost immediately surrendered in exchange for Iraola's guarantees to save his life, after which he was taken to prison in Limea.

In June 1886, Atusparia was pardoned by the new president of the country, Cáceres, and returned to Marjan. According to one version, he died during the typhoid epidemic that happened in Calejon de Uyalas two years later, according to another, spread in folklore and rejected by serious historians, he was poisoned by other alkalids who considered him a traitor and forced him to drink poison.

Most of the Indians after the capture of Atusparia from May 12 to 23 laid down their arms, but a number of rebels led by Ushsu, who accepted the Quechua Indians exclusively, continued their resistance, which ended only with the capture and execution of Ushsu in August 1885 ^{[1 ]} .

In modern Peru, Atusparius is revered as a national hero and a fighter for the rights of peasants, but among historians, the attitude towards him is ambiguous: some consider the 1885 uprising a major episode of not only the peasant, but also the Indian (and directed against the white power) movement in Latin America, while while others claim that this event did not have a major impact on the country's further history ^[2] .

• Atusparius // Great Soviet Encyclopedia : [in 30 vol.] / Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov . - 3rd ed. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978.
• Yanchuk I. I. "Peru at the turn of the century: 1884-1914." - M .: Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences, 2008.