Khlopusha

(real name, Afanasii Timofeevich Sokolov). Born 1714 in the village of Moshkovichi, Tver’ District; died July 18, 1774, in Orenburg. One of E. I. Pugachev’s closest associates in the Peasant War of 1773–75.

A serf, Khlopusha was sentenced to hard labor for taking part in attacks on merchants and landowners. He escaped three times and was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Orenburg Hard Labor Prison. Early in October 1773 he was sent by the governor of Orenburg to join Pugachev’s detachments that were laying siege to Orenburg so that he might agitate against Pugachev and capture him. Khlopusha, however, went over to the rebel side. In mid-October he organized a large detachment at the Avziano-Petrovskii Factory and began production of ammunition. With the detachment, he took part in the rout of General V. A. Kar’s forces near the village of Iuzeeva on Nov. 6–9, 1773. He led the siege of the Verkhneozernaia Fortress, the seizure of the ll’inskaia Fortress in November 1773, and the capture of the Iletskaia Zashchita Fortress in February 1774. On Mar. 24, 1774, he was seized at Kargaly by local Tatar authorities. Khlopusha was brought to Orenburg and executed.