To stop the spread of Raskobiik doctrine all kinds of limitations had been placed upon the activities of their missionaries. In many places they were forbidden to own property, or when permitted to do so were forced to pay double taxes. In some towns it was enacted that, like Jews, the Raskolniki must wear clothing of a distinguishing colour and fashion. These measures had the usual effect of religious persecution: increasing both their zeal and numbers.
In the older provinces of the Ukraine the strong arm of the Orthodox Church, strengthened by the determination of Peter the Great to rule over a uniform and religiously "united" empire, reduced even the most fanatical opponent of his policy to silence or obedience. To the Puritan-minded Raskolniki existence in "Holy Russia" became intolerable.
In the remote provinces of "New Russia," along the Asiatic frontier, especially among the Cossacks of the Jaik whose free traditions were opposed to any infringement of personal liberty, many Raskolniki who had fled for refuge found that their teaching met with particular success.*
* "Jaik" was the name by which the present River Ural was formerly known and the title of the Cossacks long settled on its shores. The name of Ural was imposed by imperial edict as a punishment after the revolt
It was probably in the company of one of these bands that Pougatchev emigrated to this congenial frontier atmosphere. Here he was assured of a welcome both as a Raskoiniki and as a Cossack who had already suffered in the cause of liberty by resisting the harsh discipline of the slovodi of the Don.
Even allowing for a certain degree of religious sincerity in Pougatchev's beliefs, the course of conduct he now adopted tends to show that considerations of morality entered very Httle into his plans. Soon after his arrival among the Jaikskoi, Pougatchev became the cliief of a mixed band of Cossacks and frontiersmen who, on the pretence of levying toll or passage money from the merchants travelling in the no-man's land near the River Kontai, in reality carried on depredations worthy only of a crew of bandits. For some time these strange Puritans continued to "spoil the Egyptians" with considerable success. In the end it was as a common highwayman, rather than on account of any dangerous "revolutionary" acti\^ties, that he earned led by Pougatchev had finally been stamped out. As an example of Cossack conservatism, my friend Prof. Borodin (a delegate of the Uralsk Cossacks to the recent Congress held in Petrograd) informs me that among the first projects entertained by the local gathering of the Cossacks in the town of Uralsk after the March revolution was a proposal to change the official title of the community by resuming the ancient name of "Cossacks of the Jaik."
the distinction of being arrested by the authorities and taken to Kazan for judgment. Soon after, through the carelessness of the Russian officials in charge of his prison and the aid of f ellow-Raskolniki, he managed to escape.
Now began the career which has given to Pougatchev such strange and terrible notoriety. His plan was to return, with as little delay as possible, to the distant Cossack bands of the Jaik, where, among the malcontents of the frontier, he could resume his interrupted leadership. Disguised as a boatman he followed the great highway of the Volga and its tributaries until these carried him to a point where the settlements near the town of Jaikskoi could be reached.*
His return came at an opportune moment. The Russian government had again attempted to introduce among the unruly inhabitants of this thinly populated province the same military reforms that had been imposed on the Cossacks of the Dnieper and Don. Besides the settlements of the ancient Jaikskoi, whose origin is traced from the remnants of Scythian tribes, Cossacks of the lower Jaik included large numbers of runaway Russian serfs and religious refugees. Above all else they were a liberty-loving race.
* So identified had the Cossaclcs become with the river traffic on these great streams that in Hakluyt's "Voyages" we find the English Merchants Adventurers of the Muscovy company referring to their boatmen under the name of "Casaks or barkmcn."
Like all true frontiersmen the Jaik Cossacks held agriculture in small esteem. Cattle-herding, hunting and the rich fisheries of the river Ural furnished the means of a far easier existence. To these pleasant pursuits they added a profitable exploitation of the great natural salt fields found in the marshes of the river.