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discontent. By the late 1650s the beginning of a
long war with Poland over Ukraine (1654-67),
cholera epidemics (1654-57), bad harvests
(1656-58), and major military reverses (1659-61)
had resulted in increasing distress for Muscovy
while imposing a heavy financial drain on its
resources. The roots of the Copper Revolt lay in
the financially strapped government's decision to
increasingly substitute copper coinage of lesser
value for silver coins, while maintaining their pre-
vious parity. As the copper coins depreciated, an
inflationary spiral rapidly set in, accompanied by
food shortages. The spark that led to the one-day
revolt was the government's insistence on being
paid in silver, while paying its obligations in cop-
per. This smoldering discontent suddenly broke
into the open on July 25, 1662, when a crowd of
about 5,000 assembled in
RED SQUARE
to hear sol-
diers and traders attack rich speculators and prof-
iteers. Later, the crowd marched to Kolomenskoe,
the czar's summer residence, where Aleksei
Mikhailovich addressed the crowd in a concilia-
tory manner. Another crowd of about 5,000 in
Moscow was not as easily placated, with some
engaging in looting of merchant depots, and by
the afternoon almost 10,000 people were milling
about Moscow. The Czar's troops arrested about
2,000 at Kolomenskoe, while in Moscow over
200 of the supposed ringleaders were arrested.
The next morning 18 were summarily executed,
and the demonstration ended soon after.
Although the revolt was suppressed with ease by
the government, it undoubtedly contributed to
the decision to withdraw the debased copper
coinage from circulation in 1663 and to replace
it with a more stable silver system. But the roots
of deeper discontent remained, ready to be stirred
by a much more serious rebellion, soon to be led
by Stenka
RAZIN
.
which for many centuries asserted its autonomy
with regard to the states of Russia and Poland-
Lithuania. Originally situated in the territories of
modern Ukraine and southern European Russia,
Cossack communities later developed in south-
ern Siberia and the Far East. The irregular fron-
tier troops of the Crimean Khanate and the
principality of Ryazan during the 15th century
were known as Cossacks, and in the following
century large and vigorous Cossack communities
arose along the banks of the middle and lower
Dnieper and of the Don and its tributaries. Their
ranks were increased by people, mostly peas-
ants, fleeing Polish-Lithuanian religious oppres-
sion and Muscovite heavy taxation and political
tyranny. More important, they were fleeing the
growth of
SERFDOM
in both states. Some Don
Cossacks established themselves, also during the
16th century on the Rivers Ural and Terek, and
there formed autonomous communities. Life in
the Cossack territories had some resemblance to
that in the American Wild West. Apart from mil-
itary raids, the occupations of the Cossacks were
hunting, fishing, and from the 17th century,
agriculture. Principles of direct democracy gov-
erned their internal organization, with elected
atamans (hetmans). Relations between the Rus-
sian government and the Cossacks were for a
long time unstable, ranging from direct service,
as in the conquest of Siberia, to uneasy alliance
vis-à-vis
TURKEY
, and to several open rebellions.
The Cossacks were gradually brought under cen-
tral authority in the 18th and 19th centuries,
retaining local self-government, and they became
a prosperous, exclusive, hereditary estate of the
realm with a growing internal differentiation
between Cossacks and non-Cossack peasants. The
government created new Cossack communities
(
ASTRAKHAN
, Orenburg, Siberia, Transbaikalia,
Kuban, Amur, Semirechye, Ussuri); some non-
Russian peoples (Kalmyks, Bashkirs) were also
made Cossacks. All Cossacks were obliged to
serve in Cossack military units, which distin-
guished themselves in many wars, and by the
late 19th and early 20th centuries they had com-
pleted the evolution from rebels to feared elite
Cossacks
(Russian:
kazaki
; Ukrainian:
kozaky
)
Drawing their name from the word of Turkic ori-
gin that means “free warrior,” the Cossacks
developed as an important military community,
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