Ivan Isayevich Bolotnikov

Battle of Bolotnikov's peasant army against the tsar's army at Nizhny Kotly near Moscow , painting by Ernst Lissner .

Ivan Issajewitsch Bolotnikow ( Russian Иван Исаевич Болотников ; † 1608 ) was a serf and leader of the great Russian uprising from 1606 to 1607 .

Life

Ivan Bolotnikov was a Cossack who had fled serfdom and was captured in battle with the Crimean Tatars . The Tatars sold him to Turkey as a galley slave . In the Mediterranean he managed to escape from a Turkish galley to Venice , where he learned of the alleged return of Tsarevich Dmitri . In reality, Dmitri, who was longed for and revered by the people as the savior from the "time of turmoil" , was an impostor who promised social reforms and who went down in history as pseudodimitri I. Ivan Bolotnikov returned to Russia via Germany and Poland to fight for Tsar Dmitri. In the city Putyvl in Severia (Ukrainian today Sumy ) collected Bolotnikov in 1606 in cooperation with the Prince Schahovskoj his first Cossacks - Regiment to support and liberation of the alleged Tsarevich. His army grew very quickly and was mainly recruited from escaped serfs, peasants and Cossacks. Some boyars and princes also joined his revolt. Because of this heterogeneity of the insurgent army, the uprising cannot be classified as a “peasant uprising”. One of Ivan Bolotnikov's most important demands was the abolition of serfdom.

At the height of his power, Ivan Bolotnikov had military control over 70 cities in the south-west and south of Russia and Ukraine. From October to December 1606 his troops besieged Moscow , but had to retreat to Kaluga in winter . In 1607 his army was defeated. Ivan Bolotnikov was captured near the city of Tula and blinded and drowned in 1608 .

Web links

Wikisource: ru: ЭСБЕ / Болотников Иван Исаевич - sources and full texts

personal data
SURNAME	Bolotnikov, Ivan Issajewitsch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Болотников, Иван Исаевич (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Russian serf and leader of the great Russian peasant uprising of (1606-1607)
DATE OF BIRTH	16th Century
DATE OF DEATH	1608