"Long live
Pugachev, the leader of the peasant revolution! "
"Long live Pugachev, the leader of the
peasant revolutionaries!"
"Long live Pugachev,
long live Pugachev!"
This was the cry of the thirty thousand peasants rebelling against the policy of Empress Catherine II as they brandished their guns behind Pugachev, a military deserter who claimed to be the legitimate emperor assassinated by the Empress and who proclaimed to the peasants the end of feudalism and the emancipation of the serfs and peasants throughout the country.
Pugachev, from atop his horse, was leading the march towards the country's most populous cities, confident in his strength, the loyalty of his followers, and the blessing of the monks who bowed to him all along the way, before he found himself compelled to jump off his horse and flee in terror among the valleys and rocks, chased by his peasant followers, who had just learned that their Empress Catherine II would grant a fabulous sum of prize money to whomever would deliver her Pugachev, dead or alive.
