Salawat Yulayev (; ; 16 June 1756 – 8 October 1800) was a Bashkir national hero who participated in Pugachev's Rebellion, warrior, poet and singer. Biography Salawat Yulayev was born in the village of Tekeyevo, in Shaytan-Kudeevsky volost of Ufa province of Orenburg Governorate (now Salavatsky District) of Bashkortostan. Tekeyevo no longer exists, as it was burned in 1775. Salawat Yulayev was at the head of the Bashkortostan uprising from the very beginning of the country war of 1773–1775. He was seized by the Russian imperial authorities on November, 24th, 1774, and his father, Yulay Aznalin, was captured even earlier. Put into irons, they were sent to Moscow. Yulay Aznalin was a votchinnik (holder of patrimonial estate), a rich, intelligent and influential man. He was held in general respect among Bashkirs and was a Bauermeister (district foreman). The local authorities gave credence to him; his fidelity to Russian government could not be doubted. In 1768 the Orenburg governor prince Putyatin himself appointed Yulay as the foreman of the Bashkir command. But soon the merchant Tverdyshev, granted collegiate assessory rank, deprived Yulay Aznalin of his land to build Simsky plant and villages. The Bashkir land was falling to ruin, and so Yulay Aznalin and his nineteen-year-old son Salawat stood up under Yemelyan Pugachev’s banners. Ten months after Salawat's capture, in September 1775, he and his father were publicly lashed in those places where the largest battles with the Russian governmental armies took place. In that month they were both dragged by their nostrils, and their foreheads and faces were branded. On 2 October 1775, their hands and legs chained, Salawat and Yulay were sent on two carts under "protection" to the Baltic fortress Rogervik (nowadays the city of Paldiski in Estonia) for life. The transport with convicts passed Menzelinsk, Kazan, Nizhni Novgorod, Moscow, reaching Tver on 14 November and then continuing on through Novgorod, Pskov, and Revel and arriving finally in Rogervik on 29 November. The Baltic port Rogervik had been founded by Peter the Great. However, when participants of the Bashkir uprising arrived in Rogervik, the fortress was practically deserted. There was only a small garrison and a small number of prisoners. Here Salawat and Yulay met their brothers-in-arms in struggle: Pugachev Colonel I.S. Aristov, Colonel Kanzafar Usaev, and others. Salawat Yulayev and his father lived the rest of their lives in Rogervik. When Paul I ascended the throne, the