Review of E. V. Chistiakova, Urban Insurrections in Russia in the First Half of the Seventeenth Century (30s and 40s)

Abstract

The book by E. V. Chistiakova, who holds the degree of doctor of historical sciences and is professor at Lumumba University of the Friendship of the Peoples, is the first general study covering the very important insurrections during the first half of the seventeenth century in cities across the entire territory of Russia — in the center (Moscow), the southern part of the country (Voronezh, Kozlov, Kursk, Chelnavskii and Talitskii Ostrog, Elets, Livny, and a number of fortresses), in Pomor'e (Sol'Vychegodskaia, Ustiug Velikii, Viatka, and others), and in Siberia (Tomsk, Kuznetsk, Eniseiskii Ostrog, Narym, Verkhotur'e). The book examines the movement not only of the townspeople [posadskie liudi] but also of other urban population categories — craft service people [sluzhilye liudi po priboru], petty nobility, boyar sons, and also peasants, who either joined urban risings they supported or rose independently, in which case the townsfolk were their allies. For this reason Chistiakova concludes, following A. A. Novosel'skii and M. N. Tikhomirov, that the urban movements of the first half of the seventeenth century could more correctly be called popular movements. She draws this conclusion on the basis of broader factual data than her precursors. (1)