Life As A Fugitive
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In 1770, Pugachov requested leave to return home to recover from a severe illness, later seeking permanent discharge. Despite urging from military commanders, Pugachov refused to be treated in a military infirmary or return to the front. Convinced by his brother-in-law, Simon Pavlov, he joined a dissatisfied Cossack group who were fleeing eastward for an independent Cossack community on the Terek River. After they were safely across the Don River, he returned home to Zimoveyskaya. The fleeing Cossacks were caught soon after by the authorities, and Pavlov implicated Pugachov in the desertion, causing his arrest. He was held for 48 hours before he managed to escape, beginning his fugitive career. Fleeing for the Cossack community on the Terek River, he arrived in early January 1772. During his six weeks in the area, he joined a protest group and was elected their official representative. On his way to St. Petersburg to make an official complaint, his fugitive status was discovered in Mozdok, and he was again arrested. He escaped on 13 February and returned home, only to be arrested once again. Dispatched to Cherkassk for investigation, he met Lukyan Ivanovich Khudiakov, whom he tricked into releasing him, after which he fled to Vetka, a Polish border settlement, with the help of many raskol'niki. He returned to Russia in the autumn of 1772 by pretending to be an Old Believer wishing to return home. He received a visa to settle in the Malykovka district (present day Vol'sk), where he most likely first heard of the Yaik Cossacks rebellion.
Read more about this topic: Yemelyan Pugachev
Famous quotes containing the words life and/or fugitive:
“There are three times in a man’s life when he has the right to yell at the moon—when he marries; when his children come; and when he finishes a job he had to be crazy to start.”
—Borden Chase [Frank Fowler] (1900–1971)
“Perfect Scepticisme ... is a disease incurable, and a thing rather to be pitied or laughed at, then seriously opposed. For when a man is so fugitive and unsettled that he will not stand to the verdict of his own Faculties, one can no more fasten any thing upon him, than he can write in the water, or tye knots in the wind.”
—Henry More (1614–1687)