Editing Cossacks (section)

====Pugachev's Rebellion====
[[File:Don-kosack.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|Don Cossack in the early 1800s]]

For the Cossack [[elite]], noble status within the empire came at the price of their old liberties in the 18th century. Advancing agricultural settlement began to force the Cossacks to give up their traditional [[nomadic]] ways and adopt new forms of government. The government steadily changed the entire culture of the Cossacks. [[Peter the Great]] increased Cossack service obligations, and mobilized their forces to fight in far-off wars. Peter began establishing non-Cossack troops in fortresses along the [[Ural River|Yaik River]]. In 1734, construction of a government fortress at [[Orenburg]] gave Cossacks a subordinate role in border defense.<ref name=ORourke_2008/>{{rp|115}} When the Yaik Cossacks sent a delegation to Peter with their grievances, Peter stripped the Cossacks of their autonomous status, and subordinated them to the [[College of War|War College]] rather than the College of Foreign Affairs. This consolidated the Cossacks' transition from border patrol to military servicemen. Over the next fifty years, the central government responded to Cossack grievances with arrests, [[flogging]]s, and exiles.<ref name=ORourke_2008/>{{rp|116–117}}

Under [[Catherine the Great]], beginning in 1762, the Russian peasants and Cossacks again faced increased taxation, heavy military conscription, and grain shortages, as before Razin's rebellion. [[Peter III of Russia|Peter III]] had extended freedom to former church serfs, freeing them from obligations and payments to church authorities, and had freed other peasants from serfdom, but Catherine did not follow through on these reforms.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-first=Jack P.|editor1-last=Greene |editor2-first= Robert|editor2-last= Forster|chapter =Pugachev's Rebellion|title = Preconditions of Revolution in Early Modern Europe|first1= Marc|last1= Raeff|publisher =The Johns Hopkins Press |date= 1975|page= 170}}</ref> In 1767, the Empress refused to accept grievances directly from the peasantry.<ref>Raeff, ''Pugachev's Rebellion'', p. 172.</ref> Peasants fled once again to the lands of the Cossacks, in particular the Yaik Host, whose people were committed to the old Cossack traditions. The changing government also burdened the Cossacks, extending its reach to reform Cossack traditions. Among ordinary Cossacks, hatred of the elite and central government rose. In 1772, a six–month open rebellion ensued between the Yaik Cossacks and the central government.<ref name=ORourke_2008/>{{rp|116–117}}

[[File:Pugachev.jpg|left|thumb|[[Yemelyan Pugachev]] in prison]]

[[Yemelyan Pugachev]], a low-status [[Don Cossack]], arrived in the Yaik Host in late 1772.<ref name=ORourke_2008/>{{rp|117}} There, he claimed to be Peter&nbsp;III, playing on the Cossack belief that Peter would have been an effective ruler but for his assassination in a plot by his wife, Catherine&nbsp;II.<ref name=ORourke_2008/>{{rp|120}} Many Yaik Cossacks believed Pugachev's claim, although those closest to him knew the truth. Others, who may have known of it, did not support Catherine&nbsp;II due to her disposal of Peter&nbsp;III, and also spread Pugachev's claim to be the late emperor.

The first of three phases of Pugachev's Rebellion began in September 1773.<ref name=ORourke_2008/>{{rp|124}} Most of the rebels' first prisoners were Cossacks who supported the elite. After a five-month siege of [[Orenburg]], a military college became Pugachev's headquarters.<ref name=ORourke_2008/>{{rp|126}} Pugachev envisioned a Cossack [[tsardom]], similar to Razin's vision of a united Cossack republic. The peasantry across Russia stirred with rumors and listened to the [[manifesto]]s Pugachev issued. But the rebellion soon came to be seen as an inevitable failure. The Don Cossacks refused to help the final phase of the revolt, knowing that military troops were closely following Pugachev after lifting the siege of Orenburg, and following his flight from defeated [[Kazan]].<ref name=ORourke_2008/>{{rp|127–128}} In September 1774, Pugachev's own Cossack lieutenants turned him over to the government troops.<ref name=ORourke_2008/>{{rp|128}}

Opposition to centralization of political authority led the Cossacks to participate in Pugachev's Rebellion.<ref name=ORourke_2008/>{{rp|129–130}} After their defeat, the Cossack elite accepted government reforms, hoping to secure status within the nobility. The ordinary Cossacks had to follow and give up their traditions and liberties.