Robert Nisbet Bain

“ The emissaries of Razin, armed with inflammatory proclamations, had stirred up the inhabitants of the modern governments of Nizhniy-Novgorod, Tambov and Penza, and penetrated even so far as Moscow and Great Novgorod. It was not difficult to revolt the oppressed population by the promise of deliverance from their yoke. Razin proclaimed that his object was to root out the boyars and all officials, to level all ranks and dignities, and establish Cossackdom, with its corollary of absolute equality, throughout Muscovy. ”

“ In August 1669 he reappeared at Astrakhan, and accepted a fresh offer of pardon from the tsar there; the common people were fascinated by his adventures. The semi-Asiatic kingdom of Astrakhan, where the whole atmosphere was predatory and nine-tenths of the population were nomadic, was the natural milieu for such a rebellion as Stenka Razin's. In 1670 Razin, while ostensibly on his way to report himself at the Cossack headquarters on the Don, openly rebelled against the government, captured Cherkask, Tsaritsyn and other places, and on the 24th of June burst into Astrakhan itself. ”

“ Sailing into the Caspian, he ravaged the Persian coasts from Derbend to Baku, massacred the inhabitants of the great emporium of Resht, and in the spring of 1669 established himself on the isle of Suina, off which, in July, he annihilated a Persian fleet sent against him. ”