In its thousand-year history, Russia has seen many revolts and a couple of revolutions. There was the peasant war led by Stepan Razin, which lasted from 1667 to 1671. The rebellion was quashed by government troops and Razin was eventually captured and executed at the place of execution on Red Square in Moscow, called “lobnoe mesto”, which still stands. During the his execution, the rebel kept his composure to the end and showed no sign of pain. The executioner first chopped off his limbs, one by one, then his head, then chopped his body into pieces and put them up on pikes, while his entrails were fed to the dogs. Then there was the peasant war led by Yemelyan Pugachev, lasting from 1773 to 1775. It ended with an actual court trial, which, after interrogating Pugachev, rendered an official verdict, which read: “Yemel’ka Pugachev should be quartered, his head stuck on a stake, his body parts carried to the four gates of Moscow and placed on wheels, and then burned.” The sentence was carried out on January 21, 1775 at Bolotnaya Square.
Those two were proper rebellions, doomed from the start, to be sure, but not exactly stupid. There were some other rebellions too, but until last weekend the title holder of the stupidest Russian revolt ever went to the Decembrists.
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