The Solovetsky Monastery uprising (''Соловецкое восстание'' in
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
) was an uprising of
Old Believer
Old Believers or Old Ritualists, ''starovery'' or ''staroobryadtsy'' are Eastern Orthodox Christians who maintain the liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow be ...
monks, known as the
Raskol
The Schism of the Russian Church, also known as Raskol (russian: раскол, , meaning "split" or " schism"), was the splitting of the Russian Orthodox Church into an official church and the Old Believers movement in the mid-17th century. I ...
, of the northern
Solovetsky Monastery
The Solovetsky Monastery ( rus, Солове́цкий монасты́рь, p=səlɐˈvʲɛtskʲɪj mənɐˈstɨrʲ) is a fortified monastery located on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea in northern Russia. It was one of the largest Christ ...
against the policies of Tsar Aleksey I. The uprising involved the siege of the
Solovetsky Monastery
The Solovetsky Monastery ( rus, Солове́цкий монасты́рь, p=səlɐˈvʲɛtskʲɪj mənɐˈstɨrʲ) is a fortified monastery located on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea in northern Russia. It was one of the largest Christ ...
by the Tsar's forces over the years from 1668 to 1676.
The uprising started in the summer of 1668, when the high-ranking
clergy
Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the t ...
of the
monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whic ...
rose in opposition to
Patriarch Nikon
Nikon ( ru , Ни́кон, Old Russian: ''Нїконъ''), born Nikita Minin (''Никита Минин''; 7 May 1605 – 17 August 1681) was the seventh Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' of the Russian Orthodox Church, serving officially from ...
’s
ecclesiastic
{{Short pages monitorworkers (работные люди, or rabotniye lyudi), which would allow the monastery to withstand more than seven years of
siege
A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characterize ...
without experiencing any serious difficulties with food supplies and other necessities. Beside the regular food assistance from the outside, many visiting workers, runaway soldiers, and even Streltsy made their way onto the island and joined the rebels. In the early 1670s, a large number of
Stenka Razin
Stepan Timofeyevich Razin (russian: Степа́н Тимофе́евич Ра́зин, ; 1630 – ), known as Stenka Razin ( ), was a Cossack leader who led a major uprising against the nobility and tsarist bureaucracy in southern Russia in 1 ...
’s supporters joined the monastery uprising, which boosted it even more.
The besieged would often sally out of the monastery under the leadership of elected
sotnik
Sotnik or sotnyk (, uk, сотник, bg, стотник) was a military rank among the Cossack '' starshyna'' (military officers), Strelets Troops (17th century) in Muscovy and Imperial Cossack cavalry (since 1826), the Ukrainian Insurgent Arm ...
s, such as the runaway
boyar
A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Kievan Rus', Bulgaria, Russia, Wallachia and Moldavia, and later Romania, Lithuania and among Baltic Germans. Boyars were s ...
kholop
A kholop ( rus, холо́п, p=xɐˈlop) was a type of feudal serf in Kievan Rus', then in Russia between the 10th and early 18th centuries. Their legal status was close to that of slaves.
Etymology
The word ''kholop'' was first mentioned i ...
I.Voronin, monastery peasant S. Vasiliev. The runaway
Don Cossacks
Don Cossacks (russian: Донские казаки, Donskie kazaki) or Donians (russian: донцы, dontsy) are Cossacks who settled along the middle and lower Don. Historically, they lived within the former Don Cossack Host (russian: Д� ...
P. Zapruda and G. Krivonoga supervised the construction of new
fortification
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
s. By 1674, there had already been some 1000 Streltsy and a large number of guns outside the walls of the Solovetsky Monastery. The siege was now headed by voyevoda I. Mescherinov. The rebels had been successfully defending themselves until their betrayal by a monk named Feoktist, who showed the Streltsy an unprotected window of the monastery’s White Tower. This brought about the end of the uprising, which was suppressed with incredible brutality in January 1676. Only sixty rebels out of five hundred survived the seizure of the monastery. Large supplies of food were discovered stored in the monastery which would have been sufficient to withstand siege for several more years. Almost all of the remaining insurgents were later executed.