Pugachev's Rebellion

September 1773

Yemelyan Pugachev, an illiterate Cossack, announced he was the real Peter III and raised the Urals against Catherine. Serfs, Bashkirs, Old Believers, and factory slaves rallied. He besieged Orenburg and advanced on Kazan before being betrayed, caged in iron, and quartered alive in Moscow's Bolotnaya Square. The rebellion terrified the Russian nobility and prompted Catherine to tighten serfdom rather than loosen it.