The Strelets' Rising of 1898
Peter's reforms required enormous efforts on the side of practically every estate of Russia and were accompanied by increasing of the yoke of the serfdom. It brought to the outcry of all the levels of Russian society. The reign of Peter The Great was accompanied by numerous riots. Often those riots were led by that part of boyars, clergy, merchants, men in service, whose interests were in the contrast with Tsar's reforms. In the first years of Peter's reign conservative powers grouped around Tsarevna Sophia and the Miloslavskys and used Strelets' discontent for their own purpose. In the period of transition to the regular Army Strelets as men of service were not required by absolutism. Being deprived of their original rights and means of subsistence, they accused Peter and his reforms of it, and thus rose up in revolt many times.
The riot, raised in 1698 in Peter's absence, was the most dangerous. Four Strelets' regiments had moved from Polish boundaries to Moscow, but were met at New Jerusalem by two Guards and Butyrsky regiments led by boyar A. Shein and General P. Gordon. The onslaught of devoted to Peter forces made the strelets surrender. After the investigation, 130 Strelets were hanged, 140 were lashed with a whip and the others were exiled. Peter, who urgently returned from abroad, demanded re-investigation of the Strelets' case. According to his order, more than a thousand of strelets were returned from exile and were executed at public. Tsarevna Sophia, who had supported the riot, was made a nun and imprisoned in a convent. In fact, Strelets' host was liquidated.
'The Case of Tsarevich Aleksey'.
After Sophia was removed, the opposition concentrated around Tsarevich Aleksey, son of first Peter's wife Evdokia Lopukhina, who was by force made a nun. Being afraid of his father, in 1716 Aleksey ran away from Russia and moved to Austria. Austrian emperor Carl concealed Tsarevich, first, in the Tyrol, then in Naples. But with the help of Peter's diplomat Count P.A. Tolstoy and Guard officer A. Rumyantsev, he was returned home. In 1718 the investigation began. Having been tortured in Petropavlovskaya fortress Aleksey pleaded his guilty in treason and gave away his accomplices, who were executed soon. On June 24, 1718 the special trial sentenced Tsarevich Aleksey to death, but he died in a casemate under obscure circumstances. The case of Tsarevich Aleksey became the reason for issuing of the Decree 'Truth of the Monarch Will', which grounded the right of a monarch to assign a successor using his own discretion. In 1722 Peter signed the Decree about succession, but he died before he assigned his own successor. |
History 