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Kirghiz
Raids and Pugachev's Rebellion - Ravish the Volga
colonies.
Kirghiz
Raids
The Russian
military conquest of the steppe began with the
military action of Ivan VI (1533-1582). It was Ivan
VI who began Russia's south and eastward expansion
into non-Slav territory with his annexation of the
entire length of the Volga and much of
Siberia.
Peter I
continued these efforts in the eighteenth century
by building forts at Omsk, Orenburg, Petropavlovsk,
and others. Cossack settlements were established
across the steppe from the 1730s to the
1760s.
The native
peoples of this area were the Tartars, Azerbaijani
Turks, and the Kirghiz. These nomadic groups
sometimes included robber bands that raided Cossack
and German settlements. Later, the term "Kirghiz"
would be replaced with "Kazakh."
Pugachev's
Rebellion
Emelian
Ivanovich Pugachev led the 1773-74 Russian peasant
uprising. A Don Cossack, he claimed to be Peter
III, announced the end of serfdom, and gathered an
army of Cossacks, serfs, and Tartars. After seizing
towns in the Volga and Ural regions, he was caught
and executed in 1775. The revolt led Catherine II
to strengthen serfdom.
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