The The The The Oh, well, it's not. Welcome to Russian History Retold.

Episode 124, The Balotnikov Rebellion 1606 to 07.

You've just listened to the Nutcracker Suite Act 1, number 4, the Russian Dance by Peter

Iliage Tchaikovsky.

Russian rebellions between 1600 and 1800 shook the country.

While never a true threat to the government,

except for maybe the first one.

They scared the rulers enough to brutally suppress them.

There were four major rebellions.

The first one we will be discussing today is the Bolotnikov Rebellion of 1606 to 07.

Then next time the one led by Stenka Raisin of 1670 to 01, followed by Bulovans in 1707 to 08, and finally Pugachovs of 1773 to 74.

Alexander Pushkin described the 4 uprisings as, quote,

Russian revolts, senseless and merciless.

Interestingly, they were all led by Don Cossacks and spread incredibly quickly and ended equally as fast.

As my Russian history professor, Dr Paul Averich said in his book Russian rebels 1600 to 1800 about the

rebellions.

Quote, each occurred during or soon after a major war when the burden of taxes and recruitment was heaviest, and social

dislocation most severe.

Each was marked by savage violence and immense human suffering.

In each moreover, religious and social myths played a key part in inciting the rebellion.

The lower classes were hungry for a Messiah.

In today's podcast, we'll go over the first of the four insurrections, one of the smallest ones, but one that gravely threatened Moscow and the government of the time, the one

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