The man who held it in his hands the fate of Pugachevshchina (Talovoy hostelry, august 1773)

Abstract. The purpose of the article is to consider the eve of Pugachev’s revolt not as a precursor to a riot, but as an independent scientific object. The study of this problem is placed in the context of the categories “chance”, “regularity”, “possibility” and “probability” of the historical process. The place of action, which incorporates key events and
characters, is Talovoy hostelry (hostelry), not far from Yaik town. It happened in August 1773, that is, a few weeks before the revolt that began on September 17 of the same
year. Based primarily on the forensic investigation materials, the behavior of a number of specific people has been carefully traced. It depended on them whether Pugachev’s revolt would arise, or whether history would take a different path. Most of the documents have not been published, they are in the archive and are protocols of interrogations of the actors. The main attention is paid to the personality of S.M. Obolyaev, the owner of the hostelry. His example shows the role of a “small” person as an actor in the events of a big story. The historical alternatives that existed on Yaik at that time have been identified and analyzed. The article examines the individual and collective life strategies of previously unnoticed characters in a crisis, when not only their actions shaped the future, but they themselves became hostages of what they had started. Thus, the intrinsic value of the transition time between today and the not yet arrived tomorrow is shown.

Keywords: Pugachev’s revolt, eve, Yaik Cossacks, Talovoy hostelry, S.M. Obolyaev, historical accident, alternative history.