The Peasant War under the leadership of E. I. Pugachev left behind not only a great deal of documentary material, but also a number of tangible historical monuments .1 We still have traces of the sphragistic creativity of the Pugachevites: wax and sealing wax impressions of seals preserved on the manifestos and decrees of Pugachev, who called himself Peter III, decrees of his Military Collegium, documents of the marching offices of his atamans. These are the first sphragistic monuments in the history of our country, which are the "products" of the rebellious people. Images and inscriptions on them carry a certain meaning and can contribute to a better understanding of the aspirations, plans and claims of the rebels. The study of their seals also allows us to make observations about the organization of office work among the rebels, which indirectly indicates some organization and purposefulness of their actions.

Pugachev paid a lot of attention to symbols of national significance. Among them, the banner of the rebels 2 occupies a special place . It played an important role in ceremonials: in the act of starting an uprising (the public reading of the manifesto and the order to unfurl five prepared banners), in the act of surrendering a city or government detachment to Pugachev (the city taken by the rebels had to hand over the banners to him, as a sign of the defeat of the government army, the banners must be bowed (the population was obliged to meet Pugachev's army with a banner in their hands).

The use of seals by the rebels as an official sign that binds the document took place before the Peasant War of 1773-1775. Thus, although the documents that came out of the rebel camp from the previous peasant wars were preserved in small numbers, they still allow us to state that the Bolotnikovites and Razintsy kept records 3 . When processing documents, both of them used seals.

What kind of seals were they? It's hard to say yet. A letter from one of the leaders of the movement in the Volga region during the uprising, I. I. Bolotnikov, mentions a letter sent from the rebel center to the Kasimov tsar. The letter, written on behalf of the sovereign, Tsar and Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich of All Russia, was "under the red seal" 4 . S. T. Razin used seals to seal the "charming" letters and memorials. At the end of these documents that have come down to us in copies, it is noted: "Ataman Stepan Timofeyevich attached his seal to this letter", "ataman Stepan Timofeyevich attached his seal to this memory"5 . Razin's atamans, apparently, each used their own seal6 . Thus, the Dutchman L. Fabricius reports that the Razin atamans in Astrakhan gave him "instead of a road certificate, the tip of a string with two buttons (pass. - N. S.), and where it was tied, a seal was applied" 7 . Apparently, the Razins used their captured personal seals or the seals of local state institutions, since there is no information about the production of their own seals by the rebels. Documents of the Astrakhan Uprising of 1705-1706 are sealed .8 When processing the main documents that came out of the rebel camp, as a rule, seals were used that were characteristic of government office work and borrowed from it. They also used personal noble seals that fell into the hands of the rebels. About the" official " documentation of the Pugachevites, the most complete picture is given by the corpus of documents that came out of the camp

1 "Monuments of the Pugachev Uprising kept in the State Historical Museum". "Proceedings" of the State Historical Museum, "Monuments of Culture", issue 32, 1961.

2 N. Druzhinin. Banner of the Pugachev detachment (scientific card). "Monuments of the Pugachev Uprising...", pp. 19-20. E. S. Karpova. The Pugachev banner. Voprosy Istorii, 1975, No. 1.

3 V. I. Koretsky. Formation of serfdom and the First Peasant War in Russia, Moscow, 1975, p. 18; I. V. Stepanov. The Peasant War in Russia in 1670-1671 Vol. I. l. 1966, pp. 9-10; vol. II, part 1. l. 1972, p. 95.

4 V. I. Koretsky. To the history of the uprising of I. I. Bolotnikov. "Historical Archive", 1956, N 2, p. 129.

5 "The Peasant War under the leadership of Stepan Razin". Collection of Documents, vol. II, part 1, Moscow, 1957, pp. 52, 91.

6 Ibid., part 2, Moscow, 1959, p. 75.

7 "Notes of foreigners on the uprising of Stepan Razin". L. 1968, pp. 59, 61.

8 N. B. Golikova. Astrakhan Uprising of 1705-1706, Moscow, 1975, p. 134.

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rebels 9 . Pugachevtsy, like Astrakhan residents, used both official seals of institutions and family noble seals. So, to the report of foreman Munasip Yusupov, which he sent to ataman V. I. Tornov in January 1774, a military seal is attached. Ataman S. Telegin in the Zlatoust village hut attached to the document "the ordinary seal of the local village" 10 . To the documents issued from the marching office of ataman Tumanov, the following seals are attached: Kurtamyshskaya sloboda (image of a deer, around the inscription "her imperial majesty Kurtamyshko, sloboda P.)" 11; Ust-Miass factory (in an oval shield under the crown monogram UM in a vignette and framed with palm branches, around the inscription " usmiyaskago: wine, kuren: factory: print")12 . Some documents bearing the signature of ataman I. Beloborodov also have a seal. On the seal you can read the inscription " pech. utnskoy. zavo. ntori " - print of Utkin factory office 13 . The Bashkir elders apparently used seals issued to them by the tsarist administration. Yul Aznalin, Salavat Yulaev's father, had a similar seal. When Salavat replaced his father as a volost foreman in 1772, he sealed a report sent to the Orenburg provincial chancellery .14 The message from the Satka village hut to Krasnoufimskaya is sealed with a personal seal with the image of the monogram under the crown and the partially preserved inscription "din barona sr". The noble seal was used by ataman I. F. Arapov 15 .

On some prints, the image and inscription are so illegible that it is difficult to determine which seal was used: for example, the sealing news of the ataman of the peasant rebels of the Botkin factory A. F. Noskov to the Osinsky zemsky hut; the zemsky hut of the village of Dubrovy to the Osinsky zemsky hut; the binding reports of B. Kankaev and G. Likhachev to the Military Collegium 16 . Some documents are sealed with inscriptions in Eastern languages. These are mainly those documents that are written in the same language as the inscription on the seal 17 . However, on the order of the marching chieftain of the Yaitsk rebels A. A. Ovchinnikov (in Russian), a trace of a sealing wax seal with oriental characters was preserved 18 . The matrix of such a seal was among the things that belonged to Pugachev. Most of the seal impressions were found on the envelopes or on the back of the document, that is, they protected the documents from being read by unauthorized persons. A similar form of use of seals was typical in the first months of the Peasant War and for Pugachev's headquarters. The envelopes in which Pugachev's decrees and letters were sent in December 1773 to government officials and officials were sealed with the noble ring seal .19 The seal is also attached to the envelope in which the decree of the Military College was sent to ataman I. F. Arapov on December 16, 1773: in the oval under the crown, two coat of arms shields are depicted, the emblems on which cannot be distinguished. On both sides you can see shield holders in the form of winged horses, under them the pediment, and even lower the head of the sphinx between the open eagle wings. One of the envelopes with Pugachev's message is sealed with a ring seal with a gem in the form of a male breast image, on the head - a laurel wreath 20 .

The first manifestos and decrees of Pugachev, as you know, were sealed only with a signature. Until January 1774, Pugachev did not use any seals, including state or family seals of the nobility, as an official sign confirming the signature of "Peter III". This is evidenced by the documents of the specified pe-

9 " Documents of the headquarters of E. I. Pugachev, rebel authorities and institutions. 1773-1774". Moscow, 1975 (hereinafter - "Documents").

10 Ibid., NN 189, 418.

11 Ibid., NN 405, 406; TSGADA, f. 6, d. 416, ch. 1, l. 10; R. V. Ovchinnikov. Review of seals on the documents of E. I. Pugachev, his Military Collegium and atamans. "Questions of socio-economic history and source studies of the feudal period in Russia", Moscow, 1961, p. 334.

12 TSGADA, f. 6, d. 416, part 1, ll. 9, 9 vol.; "Documents", N 408; R. V. Ovchinnikov. Op. ed., p. 335.

13 TSGADA, f. 6, d. 429, l. 21; d. 416, part II, ll. 176-177; "Documents", N 425; R. V. Ovchinnikov. Op. ed., p. 334.

14 TSGADA, f. 6, d. 416, part II, ll. 40, 41; N. F. Demidova. Seal of Salavat Yulaev. "Voprosy archivovedeniya", 1961, N 2. p. 109.

15 TSGADA, f. 6, d. 416, part II, l. 397; "Documents", N 340; R. V. Ovchinnikov. Op. ed., p. 335.

16 "Documents", NN 224, 229, 510, 514.

17 Ibid., N 150; TSGADA, f. 6, d. 416, part II, ll. 26, 166.

18 "Documents", N 118.

19 R. V. Ovchinnikov. Op. ed., p. 329.

20 "Documents", No. 47; R. V. Ovchinnikov. Op. ed., p. 329.

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rioda, the final formula of which does not contain any mention of the seal. At the beginning of 1774, special seals were made in Yaitsky Gorodok by order of the rebels. This was reported in his testimony on May 16, 1774 by the silversmith of Rybnaya Sloboda P. Tarkov. He said that 17 weeks ago Pugachev came to Yaik, six weeks later he reappeared, " soon Pugachev came again and, after living for a week, left again, and never visited Yaik again, and when he arrived, while they were digging, I heard that here on Yaik two seals were made for him on his previous visit. Tarkov does not know what they are, but he has heard that those seals were made by their own palace worker in Rybnaya Sloboda, the silversmith Ivan Tokranov, and his apprentices were Artemy Ivanov, Ivan Ryzhy, Pyotr Volodimirov, an Armenian who also lived on Yaik for work, and one Yaitsky Cossack."21 The latter was S. Solodovnikov, who during the interrogation rejected the accusation of making seals for the rebels attributed to him, but named the same people as Tarkov, specifying that the Armenian's name was Grigory, and the direct performers were I. Takran and A. Ivanov. As is clear from the first statement, the seals were made to Pugachev on his first visit to Yaik (the excavation was made on the first and second visits; Tarkov, who participated in the excavation, emphasized that the seals were made on a previous visit). Solodovnikov, under interrogation, stated that he had been captured by the Pugachevites and brought to Yaitsky Gorodok in December 1773, and Pugachev, after returning from Orenburg, "called me to him and ordered me to make various silver crafts for myself." 22
Thus, the time of appearance of the Pugachev seals is January 1774. What are these seals? The testimony of Pugachev himself and his closest associates indicate that he was given a seal with the state coat of arms and a seal with his "parsuna"on Yaik23 . We are talking about a seal with the image of a two-headed eagle under three crowns and with outstretched wings, holding a scepter and a power; around this image is the inscription: G. D. R. B. voeno: kolegipchat 1774-24, which R. V. Ovchinnikov deciphers as "The seal of the State Military College". The second seal has a chest portrait of a man in a mantle and a laurel wreath. The circular inscription, according to the researchers, consists of letters and abbreviated words: "B. G. P. P. T. imp. autocrat. Vseros. 1774", which reads as follows: "The Great State Seal of Peter the Third, Emperor and Holder of the All-Russian Empire, 1774 "For the first time, a seal with such a legend is reproduced on an engraving placed in the appendix to A. S. Pushkin's" History of the Pugachev Revolt " 25. There is also a decoding, which was later perceived by historians as an axiom. Along with these seals, some researchers recognize the presence of another similar seal in Pugachev's possession with an inscription beginning with the letters V. G. Ts. P. T. 26. A comparison of the preserved readable impressions 27 and drawings 28 suggests that the legend of this Pugachev seal can be read as " V. G. P. P. T. imp. ісамодерж. Vseros. 1774", that is, "The Great Sovereign seal of Peter the Third Emperor and autocrat of All Russia, 1774". The formulas "Peter the Third Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia" and" Great Sovereign " appear in most of Pugachev's decrees and manifestos of that period.

Both seals are executed in the same manner - primitively carved, with the simplest plot in composition. The inscription on the seal of the Military College indicates that the stamp was made by an illiterate person (for example, the word "seal" is cut out without the letter "H", the soft sign is given in a mirror). The image of a male figure in a laurel wreath is clearly copied, and the original could serve as a ring seal, which had-

21 TSGADA, f. 6, d. 467, ch. XIII, ll. 144-147. This document was kindly pointed out to us by R. V. Ovchinnikov.

22 Ibid., f. 349, d. 7270, ll. 7, 7ob.

23 R. V. Ovchinnikov. Op. ed., p. 330.

24 "Documents", N 24.

25 A. S. Pushkin. History of the Pugachev revolt. Part 2. St. Petersburg, 1834.

26 "Pugachevschina". T. I. M. 1926, p. 234; "The Peasant War in Russia in 1773-1775. The Pugachev Uprising". Vol. II. L. 1966, p. 452; S. A. Popov. Decree of Emelyan Pugachev. "Soviet Archives", 1966, No. 3, pp. 75-77; at the second publication of the press (article "granted a colonel" in the book "Under the banners of Pugachev". Chelyabinsk. 1973) S. A. Popov for some reason refused the previous reading of the legend, although the impression reproduced by him on page 68 clearly reads the first letter of the legend B.

27 "Documents", N 35-Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the USSR Academy of Sciences, op. 244, op. 3, d. 130; N 71-TSGADA, f. 6, d. 420, l. 17; S. A. Popov. Edict op.

28 State Historical Museum, OPI. f. I, 100, l. 2; A. S. Pushkin. Edict op.

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Pugachev, and the legend, or rather part of it - " imp. ісамодерж. Vseros", borrowed from the rublevik of Peter III 29 . Perhaps the seals were immediately activated. Unfortunately, the January and February decrees have not yet been found, and the documents of the Military Collegium that have come down to us from this time have no seals. However, the sheet in which the decree of the Military College to ataman Raznolishnikov was wrapped was preserved, with traces of its seal (two heads of an eagle, between them a crown and the letters legi. if.) 30 . This sheet is located between the decrees to ataman Raznolishnikov dated February 15-19 and March 9, 1774.

The two" self-made " seals are joined by the seal of I. N. Zarubin-Chiki, who pretended to be Count Chernyshev, who is close to them in the manner of execution. Extant documents from his office, dating from December 1773, do not contain any mention of the seal. Starting from January 1774, the documents already had the formula: "With the seal attached" or"my seal attached". The January and February documents of Zarubin-Chiki also contain impressions of his seal .31 Since Zarubin-Chika pretended to be a count, his seal resembled a noble one: under the crown in an oval there is some kind of monogram framed by stylized palm branches. The legend "Seal of Count Ivan Chernyshev" surrounding the image, however, contains spelling errors.

Apparently, Pugachev intended to regulate the use of seals: the Military Collegium had its own official sign of authority; personal decrees and manifestos were sealed with a special seal confirming the identity of the person who signed the document; it was often placed at the top, before the text. However, the April and May decrees of the Military Collegium that have come down to us are sealed with Pugachev's personal seal, probably due to the loss of the Military Collegium's own seal. Since June, the Military College again regularly used its" own "seal, but also used the ring seal of the nobility with the monogram of the Latin letters "H" and" S " in the figured shield under the crown. Under the monogram is a dog barking at a bird, the bird is outside the shield, below the shield are the letters P N V 32 . With the introduction of this press to the office work of the Military College, the formula appears: "For the application of the press" or "for the application of the Military College of the Press". It seems to us that this press, for some reason, still did not satisfy the Military College. Perhaps there was an intention to replace it. In any case, on July 28, 1774, the secretary of the Military Collegium, A. I. Dubrovsky, demanded that the Saransk Voivodeship Chancellery send state seals to the collegium "from the chancellery and the magistrate." 33
In the documents of Pugachev's headquarters in April 1774, his second personal seal is mentioned, which in decrees and manifestos is designated as "his imperial majesty's crown"," our imperial crown"," our crown","crown". In Pugachev's June and August manifestos, the mention of this seal - the "crown" - was common. The impression of the "crown" was preserved on two personal decrees of the leader of the rebels 34 . The impressions of this seal are distinguished by the high professional level of the carver who made the stamp, which clearly distinguishes this seal from the previous ones. The breast image of Peter III in profile in military equipment and with the order ribbon over his shoulder is identical to the image on silver coins, in particular on ruble coins. The legend also resembles a coin legend in its form (abbreviations of B. M., divisions in the form of colons between letters and words), but its content is quite definite, different from the coin inscription -: Peter: III: b: m: emperor: karun: ("Peter III by the divine grace of the Emperor Corona")35 . The word "crown" was then used in the sense of "kingdom", "treasury"," government","state". The inscription of such a pretentious nature was supposed to show that Pugachev is Peter III and that he has real state power. In the portrait of Peter III on the seal, Pugachev's desire to prove his resemblance to the emperor is also seen. Since when was it particularly necessary for him to do this? Apparently, when numerous checks began

29 I. G. Spassky. Russian Monetary System, L. 1970, p. 174, N 7.

30 TSGADA, f. 6, d. 420, l. 14.

31 "Documents", NN 157 - 160, 163, 165- 168, 171 - 173.

32 Ibid., NN 69 - 71, 73 - 77, 82.

33 Ibid., N 83

34 Ibid., NN 70, 44-45.

35 The spelling of the word "crown" as "karuna" is not a mistake of the carver. I. I. Sreznevsky recognizes this spelling as common (I. I. Sreznevsky. "Materials for the dictionary of the Old Russian language on written monuments", Vol. I. SPB. 1893, p. 1292).

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his identity is 36 . By placing a new seal on the document, the impression of which was as close as possible to the most well-known image of the original Peter III, Pugachev thereby tried to prove that he was the true emperor. Thus, the press served as an effective propaganda tool.

So, the use of seals by Pugachev's men went through several phases (we are talking about Pugachev's headquarters and his immediate entourage): first, the sealing of envelopes and the binding of paper from the outside were carried out with seals, the image and inscription on which did not play a special role for the Pugachevites; then - the creation of "homemade" seals and the regulation of their use; then - the production of a "portrait" seal, as close as possible to the famous image of Peter III. In all this, one can not only feel the attitude towards the seal as an official sign certifying the authenticity of the document, but also a conscious perception of the seal as an external attribute of power. With the help of seals, the rebels tried to prove that they were exactly who they claimed to be. This explains their creation of seals that resemble existing ones, but do not copy them at all. The intention to regulate the use of seals, their gradation, as well as a clear and concise legend indicate that Pugachev treated the seal not only as an element of office work, but also as a mandatory "state" detail.

36 N. Dubrovin. Pugachev and his accomplices. T. III. St. Petersburg, 1884, pp. 35, 64-65, 69.

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