Kondraty Bulavin

Kondraty Afanisievich Bulavin (Кондратий Афанасьевич Булавин) (cca.1660-1708) was a Don Cossack, the leader of a Cossack-serf rebellion more commonly known as the Bulavin rebellion (1707-1709). The rebellion is noted for its stark similarities with the earlier Razin's Revolt (1670-1671) and the later Pugachev Rebellion (1773-1774) during the reign of Catherine the Great. The rebellion encompassed Don River basin, Left-Bank Ukraine, Slobodskaya Ukraine, and middle Volga basin.

Little is known about Bulavin personally, but he was born into a Cossack family and would have been old enough to remember Stenka Razin and the revolt of the late 17th century. He developed some combat experience fighting the Kuban and Crimean Tatars in his youth. However, he was never a particularly great military commander, and throughout the rebellion that bears his name, he would forever fall short of becoming an undisputed leader. By 1704, he had risen to the status of ataman of Bakhmut, a position he held until 1706. It was during this stint that he orchestrated and participated in the destruction of the salt works on the Northern Dones, an act of retaliation for having been evicted by the government as squatters. This conflict was never entirely resolved and was ultimately absorbed into the greater rebellion as it gained momentum. Bulavin was most likely illiterate, but like his contemporary revolutionaries, he possessed a talent for appealing to the pathos of the people and inciting them to action.