rVas generally supposed to have suffered martyrdom on account of his devotion to the cause of the peasant refonns. Among the "Old Believers" and the other strange sects which flourished on the Russian borders, he vs^as, moreover, greatly revered because of the leniency he had shown to their brethren during his brief and disordered reign. The manner in which the Empress had succeeded her unworthy husband on the throne had always been left unexplained by Catherine in her proclamations announcing this event in distant parts of the empire. The belief appears to have existed that the rightful Emperor was only held in prison by the officials devoted to Catherine and her favourites. Thus the rumour that "Father Peter" was still alive had probably long been current among the Cossacks of the Asiatic frontier before Pougatchev
/Sought to turn the legend to his own advantage.
Pougatchev, for this device or impersonation, could not even claim originality. Only a century before the boy Tsarevitch Dmitri — murdered by his ambitious guardian, Boris Goudonov — had been successfully impersonated by a mysterious personage known in history" under the name of the "False Dmitri." This was probably one Gregory
^Ostrepiev, a young monk who, with the support of the Polish nobility (whose credulity, in view of the questions of policy it involved, it is unnecessary to fathom), actually succeeded in revenging upon the son of the Russian usurper the crime to which the father owed the throne. For a few months Gregory ruled the distracted Russian Empire as Tsar (1606).*
That the "fraud" of Ostrepiev did not result in establishing a new dynasty permanently upon the Russian throne seems rather due to the character of the new Tsar than to any doubts with respect to his legitimate rights. His advent as a force capable of restoring order in the midst of the "Troublous Times" had been hailed with delight by the whole Russian people. Had not Dmitri shown himself too Polish in his habits and taste to suit his new subjects, he would probably have reigned to the end of his days. But "because he ridiculed the monks and went bear hunting like the Polish king, the populace of Moscow struck him down, burning his body as that of a 'sorcerer' who had deceived the people."
The reign of the succeeding Tsar Shouiski (Httle more legitimate than the pretender who opposed him) was troubled by a whole series of "False Dmitris." One of these, a Donskoi Cossack,
* For a full discussion of the problem of the "Palse Dmitri" see an article in the Russian Review for November, 1913, by George Afanasyev. The writer quotes an interview between the English traveller Cox and the Russian historian Miller, which tends to prove that the latter believed the pretensions of Ostrepiev to be genuine. A study by Count Shermetev concerning this much-debated mystery is about to be published.
succeeded in backing up his pretensions with a Falstaffian army in whose ranks marched four or B^ve fellow-pretenders, each impersonating some member of the imperial family.*
It would seem highly probable that the traditions of these more or less successful impostors would have been preserved in the folk-songs and legends of the Don stanitza where Pougatchev was born. In turning their example to account by attempting to exploit the belated popularity of the ignoble husband of Catherine the Great, the bandit leader only followed a generally successful precedent well known in Cossack history. r From the beginning Pougatchev seems to have found little difficulty in inducing the majority of his companions to accept his pretensions to be Peter III, the rightful Tsar of Russia. While the Russian authorities treated with ridicule the bombast of the false "monarch" who, from his capital or encampment in the salt desert of Jaik, addressed ^ them in pompous manifestoes, new recruits flocked to his standard in alarming numbers. Soon the Raskolniki and the element of discontented peasants and landless Cossacks, to whom his eloquence was generally directed, began to believe in the infallibility of this fierce desert Messiah. A few easily won military successes also added stability to his throne. Skilfully choosing as the object of his attacks the almost defenceless German colon- * See Rarabaud, "Histoire de Russia," page 288.