Leningradskoye Highway, 3, Priozersk, Leningrad Region, Russia, 188760
The Pugachev Rebellion frightened Catherine II so much that after the victory over the rebels, the arrest and execution of Pugachev, his family was imprisoned for life in the Keksgolm Fortress and spent about 50 years within its walls. The family of five was kept in the basements of the Round Tower, which became known as the Pugachev Tower, from January 1775, immediately after Emelyan’s execution.
The lawful wife of Emelyan Pugachev, Sofya Dmitrievna (34 years old), was brought to the fortress with three children: Khristina (only 1 year old), Agrafena (6 years old), and Trofim (9 years old). The wife and children had no connection to the rebellion and had lived separately from Pugachev for a long time; moreover, he had abandoned the family before the known events began. In addition to the first wife, the “second wife,” Ustinya Petrovna Kuznetsova, aged 16, was also brought to the fortress. Catherine II had special grievances against Ustinya Petrovna because Emelyan Pugachev, posing as Peter III, proclaimed his second wife as tsarina (the “Ural Tsarina”).
The Pugachev family lived in the Round Tower (commonly called the “Pugachev Tower”) of the Old Fortress, while Trofim was placed in a separate room. The prisoners were fed modestly and forced to do hard labor, being allowed free movement within the fortress territory. Essentially, the prisoners saw the outside world only through the small windows of the tower. When Trofim grew older, the conditions of his imprisonment were tightened, fearing that the young man might follow in his father’s footsteps. The state treasury allocated 15 kopecks per day per person for their upkeep. For this, the Pugachev family served in the fortress household: washing, cleaning, cooking.
According to records from the Secret Expedition’s files, the Pugachev family members were kept in inhumane conditions in prison. In particular, the Secret Expedition official Makarov, who inspected the Keksgolm Fortress by order of Paul I in December 1796, provided information about the Pugachev family and their living conditions, showing that they were held under strict prison regime in a separate cell, and Pugachev’s son was in solitary confinement. At the same time, all of them were used for various heavy works in the fortress.
“Sofya and Ustinya, the wives of the former impostor Emelyan Pugachev, two daughters, girls Agrafena and Khristina from the first wife, and son Trofim have been kept in the castle since 1775, in special quarters, and the boy in the guardhouse, in a special room... All were sent together from the Governing Senate. They have freedom to walk around the fortress for work, but they cannot read or write,” reports the Secret Expedition official. It is also noted that “some members of the Pugachev family were subjected to vile abuses by the tsarist prison guards.”
Even after Catherine II’s death in 1796, supervision over the special prisoners in Keksgolm Fortress did not weaken. Russian travelers and public figures had the opportunity to personally see these unusual detainees. For example, in 1811, traveler and memoirist Philipp Filippovich Vigel visited the fortress and found three children of Sofya Dmitrievna alive, while both of Pugachev’s wives had already died by then. Here is what he wrote about it in his book: “I went to see the abolished fortress, and they showed me the Pugachev family, I do not know why they were still kept under guard, although not very strictly. It consisted of an elderly son and two daughters: simple peasants who seemed meek and timid to me.”
Trofim spent his entire life in the fortress, never once experiencing freedom again, while Khristina and Agrafena were transferred in old age to live in the city under police supervision. Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, gathering material for his historical novel “The Captain’s Daughter,” was unaware that the children of Pugachev were imprisoned relatively close to St. Petersburg, which undoubtedly would have enriched his already substantial work. Alexander Sergeyevich learned with regret from Nicholas I himself that the last member of the Pugachev family, Khristina, died in Keksgolm. The emperor shared this information with the poet, knowing his interest in the peasant uprising. But it was already too late. Such was the sad fate of Emelyan Pugachev’s family.
Sources:
https://pantv.livejournal.com/1905189.html
https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Файл:Круглая_(Пугачевская)_башня.jpg
L. B. SVETLOV: Questions of History, No. 12, December 1968, pp. 204-205, THE FATE OF THE FAMILY OF E. I. PUGACHEV
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