Pugachev, Yemelyan Ivanovich c.1744-1775
Russian Cossack soldier and pretender

He fought in the Seven Years War (1756-63) and in the war against Turkey (1769-74) before retiring to a lawless life in the south of Russia. In 1773 he proclaimed himself to be Peter III, the assassinated husband of Catherine the Great, and began a reign of organized rebellion in the south. By 1774 his power had spread alarmingly. Catherine finally sent a proper army against him, and in a battle near Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd) he was defeated, captured and conveyed in an iron cage to Moscow, where he was executed.