Bezdna unrest

The Bezdna peasant revolt, also known as the Bezdna unrest (Russian: Бездненские волнения) was an uprising organized by Russian former serfs in the aftermath of the Emancipation reform of 1861 in Russia. In April 1861, serfs rose up in rebellion in the Spassky Uyezd of Kazan Governorate specifically a village of Bezdna (Russian: Бездна, Biznä Tatar Cyrillic: Бизнә).

Bezdna unrest
Date April 1861 Location Bezdna, Kazan Governorate, Russian Empire Result Imperial Army victory
Belligerents
Peasants	Russian Imperial Army
Commanders and leaders
Anton Petrov
Strength
5,000 unarmed protesters
Casualties and losses
57 or 91 killed, 350 wounded

Russia After Serfdom

With the Emancipation Reform of 1861 in Russia, Tsar Alexander II and the Russian autocracy put several new alterations into place to help advance Russia past its old traditions of bonded labor and into a more enlightened age similar to the other European nations. But for many noblemen and landlords, the end of serfdom would lead to the destruction of the Russian economy; if landowners and state officials had to start paying for their labor, their profit would significantly diminish. Nonetheless, Alexander knew that it was time to lift the burden of serfdom off of Russia; he was quoted as saying in 1856:

There are rumors that I want to announce the emancipation of the peasants. I will not say to you that I am completely against this. We live in such an age that this has to happen in time. I think that you agree with me. Therefore, it is much better that this business be carried out from above, rather than from below.”[1]

Government Communication

The governor of Kazan had a telegram message sent to the ministry of internal affairs. it stated "Bezdna is surrounded by peasants on horseback, who don't allow anyone in; yesterday there were already more than 2,000 people in Bezdna. [2]

Anton Petrov and the Unrest

The leader of the unrest was a literate peasant Anton Petrov. Petrov inspired the local peasants within the Kazan Governorate in what some historian consider the “most significant incident of peasant unrest in the wake of the emancipation.”[3] According to historical accounts, the peasants shouted back while remaining stationary: “We will not yield, it is the tsar’s blood that is flowing, you are shooting at the tsar.”[4]

Aftermath

According to his writings in the London Russian language magazine, The Bell, Alexander Herzen criticizes the Russian government for their complete disregard for human life and the fact that the government did not publicly acknowledge the unrest until a month after it had occurred.[5]

References

1. Zakharova, Larisa (2008). The Reign of Alexander: a Watershed?. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 596.
2. McDonald, T. (2001-09-01). "A Peasant Rebellion in Stalin's Russia: The Pitelinskii Uprising, Riazan 1930". Journal of Social History. 35 (1): 125–146. doi:10.1353/jsh.2001.0092. ISSN 0022-4529.
3. Weeks, Theodore (2011). Across the Revolutionary Divide: Russia and the USSR, 1861-1945. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell Publications. p. 13.
4. Field, Daniel (1976). Rebels in the Name of the Tsar. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 47–49.
5. Herzen, Alexander (2012). A Herzen Reader. Evanston: Northwestern University Press. pp. 139–140.

• "Biznä krästiännäre quzğalışı/Бизнә крәстияннәре кузгалышы". Tatar Encyclopaedia (in Tatar). Kazan: The Republic of Tatarstan Academy of Sciences. Institution of the Tatar Encyclopaedia. 2002.