1861 Bezdna Unrest or Bezdna Peasant Revolt was an unrest of former serf

Russian serfdom

The origins of serfdom in Russia are traced to Kievan Rus in the 11th century. Legal documents of the epoch, such as Russkaya Pravda, distinguished several degrees of feudal dependency of peasants, the term for an unfree peasant in the Russian Empire, krepostnoi krestyanin , is translated as serf.-...

s after the Emancipation reform of 1861 in Russia in April, 1861. The events took place in the Spassky Uyezd

Uyezd

Uyezd or uezd was an administrative subdivision of Rus', Muscovy, Russian Empire, and the early Russian SFSR which was in use from the 13th century. Uyezds for most of the history in Russia were a secondary-level of administrative division...

 of Kazan Governorate

Kazan Governorate

The Kazan Governorate or Government of Kazan was a governorate of Imperial Russia from 1708–1920, with the city of Kazan as its capital.-History:...

 and the center of unrest was a village of Biznä (Tatar Cyrillic

Tatar alphabet

Two scripts are currently used for the Tatar language: Cyrillic and Latin.-Introduction:While a Tatar version of the Latin alphabet called Jaŋalif had been in use during the 1930s, there is controversy in the matter of Latin-based Tatar alphabet for İdel-Ural Tatar. One dimension of the...

: Бизнә, Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

: Бездна).

The leader of the unrest was a literate peasant Anton Petrov

Anton Petrov

Anton Petrov is a Bulgarian footballer, who currently plays for Kaliakra Kavarna as a defender.- External links :...

. The insurgents decided that the reform was interpreted incorrectly and after the private freedom reforms should declare every desyatina in possession of peasants. The insurgents also declared that they refused to continue payments to their landlords and suspend all works at their lots.

About 5000 peasants from 130 villages in the area joined the unrest. Military forces were sent to subdue the riot under general-mayor Anton Apraksin. Soldiers opened gunfire, and 57 peasants were killed (by other sources 91), more than 350 were injured.

After the massacre the Kazan

Kazan

Kazan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. With a population of 1,143,546 , it is the eighth most populous city in Russia. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in European Russia. In April 2009, the Russian Patent Office granted Kazan the...

 intelligentsia

Intelligentsia

The intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...

 held a commemoration service in the Kurtina Church, where university lecturer Afanasy Shchapov

Afanasy Shchapov

Afanasiy Prokopievich Shchapov was a Russian historian accused of "Siberian nationalism" and persecuted by tsarist authorities.- Life :...

 delivered a revolutionary speech. Later, Shchapov was sentenced to exile in Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

.