Pugachev's Rebellion
Pugachev's Rebellion (Peasants' War 1773-75, Cossack Rebellion) of 1773-75 was the principal revolt in a series of popular rebellions that took place in the Russian Empire after Catherine II seized power in 1762. It began as an organized insurrection of Yaik Cossacks headed by Yemelyan Pugachev, a disaffected ex-lieutenant of the Imperial Russian Army, against a background of profound peasant unrest and war with the Ottoman Empire. After initial success, Pugachev assumed leadership of an alternative government in the name of the assassinated Tsar Peter III and proclaimed an end to serfdom. This organized leadership presented a challenge to the imperial administration of Catherine II.
Pugachev's Oak
Legend says that after the defeat in the battle of Kazan and retreat to the Mari forests, the rest of Pugachev's troops stayed under the oak, and Pugachev personally watched the burning of Kazan from this oak. However, there are doubts that the particular oak is the tree Pugachev's rebels stayed under, and some researchers consider that tree is estimated to date to about 1650 and at the time of Pugachev revolt it was an ordinary tree. Another major oak tree, estimated to date to about 1400 existed in the nearby fields until the 1940s, when it died and was sawed in the 1950s. It was possibly the original Pugachev's Oak.