- indignation, rebellion, rebellion, general disobedience, discord between the authorities and the people.
Time of Troubles– an era of socio-political dynastic crisis. It was accompanied by popular uprisings, the rule of impostors, the destruction of state power, the Polish-Swedish-Lithuanian intervention, and the ruin of the country.
Causes of the Troubles
Consequences of the ruin of the state during the oprichnina period.
Aggravation of the social situation as a consequence of the processes of state enslavement of the peasantry.
Dynasty crisis: suppression of the male branch of the ruling princely-royal Moscow house.
Crisis of power: intensifying struggle for supreme power between noble boyar families. The appearance of impostors.
Poland's claims to Russian lands and the throne.
Famine of 1601-1603. Death of people and surge in migration within the state.
Reign during the Time of Troubles
Boris Godunov (1598-1605)
Fyodor Godunov (1605)
False Dmitry I (1605-1606)
Vasily Shuisky (1606-1610)
Seven Boyars (1610-1613)
Time of Troubles (1598 – 1613) Chronicle of events
1598 – 1605 - The Board of Boris Godunov.
1603 – Cotton's Rebellion.
1604 – The appearance of the troops of False Dmitry I in the southwestern Russian lands.
1605 – Overthrow of the Godunov dynasty.
1605 – 1606 – Reign of False Dmitry I.
1606 – 1607 – Bolotnikov’s Rebellion.
1606 – 1610 – Reign of Vasily Shuisky.
1607 - Publication of a decree on a fifteen-year search for runaway peasants.
1607 – 1610 – Attempts by False Dmitry II to seize power in Russia.
1610 – 1613 – “Seven Boyars”.
March 1611 - Uprising in Moscow against the Poles.
1611, September - October - Formation of the second militia in Nizhny Novgorod under the leadership.
1612, October 26 – Liberation of Moscow from the invaders by the second militia.
1613 – Accession to the throne.
1) Portrait of Boris Godunov; 2) False Dmitry I; 3) Tsar Vasily IV Shuisky
The beginning of the Time of Troubles. Godunov
When Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich died and the Rurik dynasty ended, Boris Godunov ascended the throne on February 21, 1598. The formal act of limiting the power of the new sovereign, expected by the boyars, did not follow. The dull murmur of this class prompted secret police surveillance of the boyars on the part of the new tsar, in which the main weapon was the slaves who denounced their masters. Torture and execution followed. The general instability of the sovereign order could not be corrected by Godunov, despite all the energy he showed. The famine years that began in 1601 increased general discontent with the king. The struggle for the royal throne at the top of the boyars, gradually complemented by ferment from below, marked the beginning of the Time of Troubles - the Time of Troubles. In this connection, everything can be considered its first period.
False Dmitry I
Soon rumors spread about the rescue of the man who was previously considered killed in Uglich and about his finding in Poland. The first news about it began to reach the capital at the very beginning of 1604. It was created by the Moscow boyars with the help of the Poles. His imposture was no secret to the boyars, and Godunov directly said that it was they who framed the impostor.
1604, autumn - False Dmitry, with a detachment assembled in Poland and Ukraine, entered the boundaries of the Moscow state through Severshchina - the southwestern border region, which was quickly engulfed in popular unrest. 1605, April 13 - Boris Godunov died, and the impostor was freely able to approach the capital, where he entered on June 20.
During the 11-month reign of False Dmitry, boyar conspiracies against him did not stop. He did not suit either the boyars (because of his independence and independence of character) or the people (because he pursued a “Westernizing” policy that was unusual for Muscovites). 1606, May 17 - conspirators, led by princes V.I. Shuisky, V.V. Golitsyn and others overthrew the impostor and killed him.
Vasily Shuisky
Then he was elected tsar, but without the participation of the Zemsky Sobor, but only by the boyar party and a crowd of Muscovites devoted to him, who “shouted out” Shuisky after the death of False Dmitry. His reign was limited by the boyar oligarchy, which took an oath from the sovereign limiting his power. This reign covers four years and two months; During all this time, the Troubles continued and grew.
Seversk Ukraine was the first to rebel, led by the Putivl governor, Prince Shakhovsky, under the name of the supposedly escaped False Dmitry I. The leader of the uprising was the fugitive slave Bolotnikov (), who appeared as if an agent sent by an impostor from Poland. The initial successes of the rebels forced many to join the rebellion. The Ryazan land was outraged by the Sunbulovs and the Lyapunov brothers, Tula and the surrounding cities were raised by Istoma Pashkov.
The Troubles were able to penetrate into other places: Nizhny Novgorod was besieged by a crowd of slaves and foreigners, led by two Mordvins; in Perm and Vyatka, instability and confusion were noticed. Astrakhan was outraged by the governor himself, Prince Khvorostinin; A gang was rampant along the Volga, which put up its impostor, a certain Murom resident Ileika, who was called Peter - the unprecedented son of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich.
Minin's appeal on Nizhny Novgorod Square
1606, October 12 - Bolotnikov approached Moscow and was able to defeat the Moscow army near the village of Troitsky, Kolomensky district, but was soon defeated by M.V. Skopin-Shuisky near Kolomenskoye and left for Kaluga, which the king’s brother, Dmitry, was trying to besiege. An impostor Peter appeared in the Seversk land, who in Tula united with Bolotnikov, who had left the Moscow troops from Kaluga. Tsar Vasily himself advanced to Tula, which he besieged from June 30 to October 1, 1607. During the siege of the city, a new formidable impostor False Dmitry II appeared in Starodub.
False Dmitry II
The death of Bolotnikov, who surrendered in Tula, could not end the Time of Troubles. , with the support of the Poles and Cossacks, approached Moscow and settled in the so-called Tushino camp. A significant part of the cities (up to 22) in the northeast submitted to the impostor. Only the Trinity-Sergius Lavra was able to withstand a long siege by his troops from September 1608 to January 1610.
In difficult circumstances, Shuisky turned to the Swedes for help. Then Poland in September 1609 declared war on Moscow under the pretext that Moscow had concluded an agreement with Sweden, hostile to the Poles. Thus, the internal Troubles were supplemented by the intervention of foreigners. King of Poland Sigismund III headed towards Smolensk. Sent to negotiate with the Swedes in Novgorod in the spring of 1609, Skopin-Shuisky, together with the Swedish auxiliary detachment of Delagardie, moved towards the capital. Moscow was liberated from the Tushino thief, who fled to Kaluga in February 1610. The Tushino camp dispersed. The Poles in it went to their king near Smolensk.
Russian supporters of False Dmitry II from the boyars and nobles, led by Mikhail Saltykov, being left alone, also decided to send commissioners to the Polish camp near Smolensk and recognize Sigismund’s son Vladislav as king. But they recognized him on certain conditions, which were set out in an agreement with the king dated February 4, 1610. However, while negotiations were underway with Sigismund, two important events occurred that had a strong influence on the course of the Time of Troubles: in April 1610, the Tsar’s nephew, the popular liberator of Moscow M.V., died. Skopin-Shuisky, and in June Hetman Zholkiewsky inflicted a heavy defeat on the Moscow troops near Klushyn. These events decided the fate of Tsar Vasily: Muscovites under the leadership of Zakhar Lyapunov overthrew Shuisky on July 17, 1610 and forced him to cut his hair.
The last period of the Troubles
The last period of the Time of Troubles has arrived. Near Moscow, the Polish hetman Zholkiewski stationed himself with an army, demanding the election of Vladislav, and False Dmitry II, who came there again, to whom the Moscow mob was disposed. The board was headed by the Boyar Duma, headed by F.I. Mstislavsky, V.V. Golitsyn and others (the so-called Seven Boyars). She began to negotiate with Zholkiewski about recognition of Vladislav as the Russian Tsar. On September 19, Zholkiewski brought Polish troops into Moscow and drove False Dmitry II away from the capital. At the same time, an embassy was sent from the capital, which had sworn allegiance to Prince Vladislav, to Sigismund III, which consisted of the noblest Moscow boyars, but the king detained them and announced that he himself personally intended to be king in Moscow.
The year 1611 was marked by a rapid rise in the midst of the Troubles of Russian national feeling. At first the patriotic movement against the Poles was led by Patriarch Hermogenes and Prokopiy Lyapunov. Sigismund's claims to unite Russia with Poland as a subordinate state and the murder of the leader of the mob False Dmitry II, whose danger forced many to involuntarily rely on Vladislav, favored the growth of the movement.
The uprising quickly spread to Nizhny Novgorod, Yaroslavl, Suzdal, Kostroma, Vologda, Ustyug, Novgorod and other cities. Militia gathered everywhere and converged on the capital. Lyapunov's servicemen were joined by Cossacks under the command of the Don Ataman Zarutsky and Prince Trubetskoy. At the beginning of March 1611, the militia approached Moscow, where, at the news of this, an uprising arose against the Poles. The Poles burned the entire Moscow settlement (March 19), but with the approach of the troops of Lyapunov and other leaders, they were forced, together with their Muscovite supporters, to lock themselves in the Kremlin and Kitay-Gorod.
The case of the first patriotic militia of the Time of Troubles ended in failure due to the complete disunity of interests of the individual groups that were part of it. On July 25, the Cossacks killed Lyapunov. Even earlier, on June 3, King Sigismund finally captured Smolensk, and on July 8, 1611, Delagardie took Novgorod by storm and forced the Swedish prince Philip to be recognized as king there. A new leader of the tramps, False Dmitry III, appeared in Pskov.
Expulsion of Poles from the Kremlin
Minin and Pozharsky
Then Archimandrite Dionysius of the Trinity Monastery and his cellarer Abraham Palitsyn preached national self-defense. Their messages found a response in Nizhny Novgorod and the northern Volga region. 1611, October - the Nizhny Novgorod butcher Kuzma Minin Sukhoruky took the initiative to raise militia and funds, and already at the beginning of February 1612, organized detachments under the command of Prince Dmitry Pozharsky moved up the Volga. At that time (February 17), Patriarch Hermogenes, who stubbornly blessed the militias, died, whom the Poles imprisoned in the Kremlin.
At the beginning of April, the second patriotic militia of the Time of Troubles arrived in Yaroslavl and, slowly advancing, gradually strengthening its troops, on August 20, Zarutsky and his gangs went to the south-eastern regions, and Trubetskoy joined Pozharsky. On August 24-28, Pozharsky’s soldiers and Trubetskoy’s Cossacks repulsed Hetman Khodkevich from Moscow, who arrived with a convoy of supplies to help the Poles besieged in the Kremlin. On October 22, they occupied Kitay-Gorod, and on October 26, they cleared the Kremlin of Poles. Sigismund III's attempt to move towards Moscow was unsuccessful: the king turned back from near Volokolamsk.
Results of the Time of Troubles
In December, letters were sent everywhere to send the best and most intelligent people to the capital to elect a king. They got together early next year. 1613, February 21 - The Zemsky Sobor elected him a Russian Tsar, who was married in Moscow on July 11 of the same year and founded a new, 300-year dynasty. The main events of the Time of Troubles ended with this, but it took a long time to establish firm order.
In 1604, a man posing as the miraculously saved son of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, Tsarevich Dmitry, who is usually called False Dmitry I, enlisted the support of the Polish magnates Prince Vishnevetsky, the Sandomierz governor Yuri Mniszek, with a detachment of Ukrainian and Don Cossacks, Polish gentry and Russians who fled to Poland , invaded Seversk land.
In 1604, a man posing as the miraculously saved son of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, Tsarevich Dmitry, who is usually called False Dmitry I (apparently, it was the fugitive monk Grigory Otrepiev), enlisted the support of the Polish magnates Prince Vishnevetsky, the Sandomierz governor Yuri Mnishek, with a detachment of Ukrainian and the Don Cossacks, Polish gentry and Russians, who fled to Poland, invaded the Seversk land. According to various sources, at the beginning of the campaign, False Dmitry had from 2 to 8 thousand people. On October 21, he occupied the first city on Russian territory - Moravsk (Moroviysk). Soon the gates of Chernigov were opened to the impostor. The people, devastated by several decades of wars and famine that plagued the country for several years in a row, wanted to see in the “miraculously saved Dmitry” a “good king” capable of leading them to prosperity. Tsar Boris at first underestimated the danger posed by False Dmitry and limited himself to announcing his imposture.
Meanwhile, the army of False Dmitry approached Novgorod-Seversky, which was defended by a garrison of 600 archers led by the okolnichy Basmanov. It was not possible to take the city; the besieged fought off all attacks. But Putivl recognized the power of the impostor without a fight. Godunov’s troops remained passive, while Rylsk and Sevsk, Belgorod and Kursk, Kromy, Livny, Yelets, Voronezh and a number of other cities took the side of False Dmitry. Seeing that the position of the Moscow government was deteriorating, and fearing that Rus' would be under Polish political influence, the Swedish king Charles IX, whose rights to the throne was disputed by the Polish king Sigismund, offered military assistance to Boris Godunov, but the Russian Tsar refused it.
Boris sent a message to Sigismund, accusing him of violating the terms of the truce. The Polish king denied the violation, stating that the Poles, Lithuanians and Ukrainian Cossacks who were in the troops of False Dmitry acted as private individuals, without the official approval of the royal authorities. In fact, the Polish government was interested in weakening Rus' and did not prevent the impostor from recruiting subjects of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth into his troops. And the weakness of royal power in Poland did not allow it to interfere with the willful actions of the magnates.
Boris ordered Prince Mstislavsky to form an army in Kaluga. Six weeks later, he marched with an army to Bryansk, where he united with the army of governor Dmitry Shuisky. Together they went to the rescue of Basmanov. Under the command of the Russian governors there were up to 25 thousand people. At the Uzruy River they were met by a 15,000-strong army of the impostor. Some of Miloslavsky’s soldiers ran over to False Dmitry before the battle, but the governor Godunov still had an almost twofold numerical superiority. However, their army was not eager to engage in battle with someone who was suspected of being the rightful heir to the throne.
The battle took place on December 21. The Russian army repulsed the first attack of the impostor's army, but could not withstand the repeated attack of the Polish cavalry against the regiment of the right hand. This regiment mixed with a larger regiment, and both of them retreated in disorder. The resilience of the left wing of the Russian army could not save the situation. Miloslavsky was wounded and barely escaped capture. The impostor did not dare to pursue the superior enemy forces. Miloslavsky's army took refuge in the forest, surrounding the camp with an earthen rampart.
The next day, 4 thousand foot Zaporozhye Cossacks arrived at False Dmitry and another 8 thousand-strong detachment with 14 guns was on the way. However, it was not possible to take Novgorod-Seversky, and the impostor retreated to Sevsk. Part of the Polish-Lithuanian troops left him and returned to Poland. Miloslavsky at this time went to Starodub. There he was joined by the army of Prince Vasily Shuisky, whom the tsar ordered to take decisive action and crush the impostor.
On January 21, 1605, a new battle took place near the village of Dobrynichi. Miloslavsky and Shuisky had about 30 thousand people, the impostor - 15 thousand, including 7 Polish horse banners and 3 thousand Don Cossacks. The artillery of the sides was approximately equal: 14 guns for the Russian troops, 13 for False Dmitry. The impostor learned that the entire enemy army had gathered for the night in one small village, and decided to suddenly attack, having previously set Dobrynichi on fire. However, Russian patrols caught the arsonists, and the tsarist troops managed to prepare for battle.
The guard regiment was attacked by the main forces of the impostor and thrown back to Dobrynichi. False Dmitry delivered the main blow to the enemy’s right wing, hoping to throw him back across the Sev River. His cavalry attacked in two lines. In the first line there were Polish banners, in the second - Russian cavalry, which, to distinguish them from government troops, wore white shirts over their armor. Mstislavsky ordered his right wing to also go on the offensive to stop and overthrow the enemy. In the first line of Russian troops there were detachments of German and Dutch mercenaries. The impostor's cavalry pushed back the mercenary infantry, and then threw back the Russian cavalry standing behind it. After this, False Dmitry’s strike force attacked the center of Mstislavsky’s army - the archers who had settled in Dobrynichi behind carts of hay. They met the cavalrymen with fire from arquebuses and cannons and put the enemy to flight. The example of the cavalry was followed by the foot Cossacks on the right flank of False Dmitry, who decided that the battle was lost.
The Russian cavalry, seeing that the enemy was running, launched a counterattack and completed the rout. False Dmitry's reserve, consisting of a foot detachment of Don Cossacks and artillery, was surrounded and almost completely destroyed. The impostor's army was pursued for 8 km. He and the remnants of the army managed to escape to Rylsk. In the battle of Dobrynichi, False Dmitry lost 5-6 thousand killed and no less number captured, as well as all 13 of his guns. Miloslavsky's army lost 525 people killed.
However, Mstislavsky did not use his great success and did not organize a persistent pursuit of the defeated troops of the impostor. As a result, he escaped capture and again managed to gain a considerable number of supporters. From a military point of view, the battle of Dobrynichi is significant in that in it the Russian army (Mstislavsky) first used a linear battle formation.
The tsarist army approached Rylsk only a few days later, when False Dmitry had already managed to flee to Putivl. The Poles were about to leave him, but the Russian supporters of the “named Dmitry,” who had nothing to lose except their own heads in case of defeat, insisted on continuing the fight. The impostor turned to Sigismund for help, but he refused to fight with Moscow. Then False Dmitry sent letters to the peasants and townspeople, promising them exemption from duties. In the southern steppes, many fugitive peasants accumulated, joining the army of the impostor. A 4,000-strong detachment of Don Cossacks returned to him, and the garrisons of Oskol, Valuyek, Belgorod, Tsarev-Borisov and some other cities went over to the side of False Dmitry.
Meanwhile, the tsarist commanders failed to take Rylsk, the garrison of which the impostor reinforced with 2 thousand of his Russian supporters and 500 Poles. Supply difficulties forced Miloslavsky to lift the siege after 15 days. Due to difficulties with the supply of food, he generally wanted to disband the army, but the king categorically forbade him to do this.
Mstislavsky's army was ordered to go to Kromy, where the garrison, which had sided with the impostor, was besieged by the army of governor Sheremetev. False Dmitry also sent 4 thousand Don Cossacks under the command of Ataman Korela to help the Kroms. The Cossacks forestalled Mstislavsky and at the end of February broke through to Kromy with a large supply of food. They moved on a sleigh through frozen swamps.
At the beginning of March, Mstislavsky approached Kromy. Government troops burned the wooden fortifications with artillery fire and captured the rampart, but then retreated for an unknown reason. The Cossacks took advantage of this, poured a new earthen rampart and surrounded the city with a moat. On the reverse slope of the rampart they dug dugouts where they hid from enemy cannonballs. Among the besiegers there were many supporters of False Dmitry, who secretly supplied Kromy with gunpowder and food.
The situation in the country changed dramatically after Tsar Boris suddenly died on April 13, 1605. He was succeeded by his 16-year-old son Fedor, but many boyars were afraid that he, lacking his father’s experience and intelligence, would not be able to cope with the turmoil. They were increasingly inclined to support the impostor, hoping that, having become king, he would be able to curb the Cossack and peasant freemen. The tsarist governor Basmanov arrived near Kromy with reinforcements. He formed a conspiracy in the army in favor of the impostor. When on May 7 the vanguard of False Dmitry, consisting of 3 Polish banners and 3 thousand Russian militias, approached Kromy, the entire tsarist army went over to his side. The path to Moscow was open. On June 10, False Dmitry entered the capital and was proclaimed king. Before this, the boyars strangled Tsar Fedor.
Together with False Dmitry came several thousand Poles, Lithuanians and Cossacks, who took up robbery, which the new tsar was in no hurry to stop. He lasted eleven months on the throne.
On May 2, 1606, the fiancée of False Dmitry Marina Mnishek arrived in Moscow, and with her a 2,000-strong Polish detachment. By that time, the people had already become disillusioned with the “good king,” who did not take any measures to alleviate the situation of the peasants, but only granted new lands to his most prominent supporters. The boyars were also burdened by the “thin king.” They plotted against False Dmitry. The arrival of a new detachment of Poles was used by the conspirators to stir up anti-Polish sentiments among Muscovites. People suspected False Dmitry of accepting Catholicism. On the night of May 17, an uprising broke out in the capital, during which many Poles, Lithuanians and other foreigners were killed. The Kremlin was captured by a crowd of people. The conspirators took advantage of the turmoil and killed False Dmitry, proclaiming Prince Vasily Shuisky king. The surviving Poles were released to their homeland, but all the captured booty was taken away from them.
Russian Civilization
The period from 1598 (the death of Fyodor Ivanovich) to 1613 (the accession of Mikhail Romanov) is usually called the Troubles in historical literature. This crisis of Russian statehood had many of the same reasons as the oprichnina. They were based on the conflict between the desire of the autocracy to establish unlimited power and the desire of the leading social forces to participate in government. The main difference between the Time of Troubles and the oprichnina is that not only the top of society became active, but also other social groups.
In 1584, the middle son of Ivan the Terrible, Fyodor Ivanovich (1584-1598), ascended the throne. The Englishman Giles Fletcher characterized him as follows: “small in stature, squat and plump, weak in build and prone to dropsy; he has a hawk-like nose, his gait is unsteady due to some relaxation in his limbs; he is heavy and inactive, but always smiles, so much so that he almost laughs... He is simple and weak-minded, but very kind and good in manners, quiet, merciful, has no inclination towards war, has little ability for political affairs and is extremely superstitious.” In fact, the ruler was the boyar Boris Godunov, whose sister Fyodor was married to (a former guardsman, the boyars were dissatisfied with his elevation).
In 1591, under unclear circumstances, Tsarevich Dmitry, the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, died in Uglich, allegedly running into a knife during a fit of epilepsy. The prince's mother, her relatives and townspeople accused the administrators sent from Moscow of murdering the boy, who were killed. Subsequently, Godunov was accused of organizing the murder. Conflicting sources do not allow us to prefer any one version of the Uglich drama, but it is clear that the death of the prince was beneficial to Godunov.
With the death of the childless Fyodor Ivanovich in 1598, the old dynasty ended. A new tsar was approved at the Zemsky Sobor. The predominance of the nobility at the Council predetermined the victory of Boris Godunov (1598-1605). This event is considered the beginning of the Troubles.
The Troubles truly became a war of all against all, dividing Russian society into layers hostile to one another.
1. The boyars, intimidated and ruined by the oprichnina, were dissatisfied with the fact that after the suppression of the Rurik dynasty, the throne went to the noble Boris Godunov, who, moreover, tried to rule autocratically.
2. The crisis of the feudal class as a whole grew, as the number of service people increased, but there was not enough land.
3. Crisis within the feudal class: large feudal lords lured peasants away from smaller ones; the latter, sitting on deserted estates, found themselves in a very difficult situation.
4. The discontent of the tax-paying population, who had suffered from wars and crop failures, grew distrustful of the new Tsar B. Godunov, elected to the kingdom by the Zemsky Sobor.
5. The Cossacks, which by the beginning of the century had become a significant social force, resisted the government’s attempts to subjugate the Cossack lands.
The main directions of Boris Godunov's policy
. Successful foreign policy:
. further advance to Siberia;
. development of the southern regions of the country, improvement of the defense of the southern borders (in 1591, 1598 the attack of the Crimean Tatars was repulsed);
. strengthening Russian positions in the Caucasus;
. 1590-1593 - war with Sweden, according to the Tyavzin Peace Treaty (1595), Ivan-Gorod, Yam, Koporye and Korela captured in the Livonian War were returned to Russia.
. Establishment of the patriarchate (1589 - Job).
. Overcoming economic devastation. Construction of new cities, especially in the Volga region (Samara, Saratov, Tsaritsyn).
. Further enslavement of the peasants (1597 - decree on fixed summers - introduction of a 5-year search for fugitives).
Boris Godunov was a talented politician, but circumstances were unfavorable for him. Economic recovery of the 90s. interrupted by crop failure. In 1601, long rains prevented the grain from being harvested. The crop failure repeated the following year. A famine began in the country and lasted for 3 years. The feudal lords speculated on bread, the price of it increased 100 times. People died of hunger right on the streets, ate hay and grass, and there were cases of cannibalism. Rumors spread throughout the country that the famine was a punishment for violating the order of succession to the throne, for the sins of B. Godunov.
In a crisis situation, adventurers appear, posing as the heir to the Russian throne - Tsarevich Dmitry, who miraculously escaped in Uglich. Such a person was Grigory Otrepiev, who appeared in Poland in 1601. Coming from a noble family, he was the slave of Fyodor Nikitich Romanov. When in 1600 Godunov accused the Romanovs of conspiracy and sent them into exile, Fyodor Nikitich was tonsured a monk with the name Philaret, Otrepyev was tonsured a monk at the Kremlin Chudov Monastery. In 1603, he declared himself to be the miraculously saved Tsarevich Dmitry. False Dmitry I secretly converted to Catholicism and promised the Pope to spread Catholicism in Russia. He also promised to transfer the Seversky (Chernigov region) and Smolensk lands, Novgorod and Pskov to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and his bride Marina Mnishek.
In 1604, False Dmitry, with the help of Polish magnates, launched a campaign against Moscow. He was supported by many boyars who were dissatisfied with Godunov. The people also supported False Dmitry. After the unexpected death of B. Godunov in 1605, False Dmitry I, led by the army that had come over to his side, triumphantly entered Moscow and was proclaimed tsar (1605-1606). Once in Moscow, False Dmitry was in no hurry to fulfill the obligations given to the Polish magnates. At the same time, False Dmitry I confirmed the legislative acts adopted before him that enslaved the peasants.
The continuation of the serfdom policy, new extortions in order to obtain the funds promised to the Polish magnates, and the discontent of the feudal nobility, which especially intensified after the marriage of False Dmitry to Marina Mniszech, led to the organization of a boyar conspiracy against him. In May 1606 there was an uprising against False Dmitry. The Shuisky boyars were at the head of the conspiracy. More than a thousand Poles were killed. M. Mnishek was saved by the boyars. False Dmitry I himself was also killed; he was inflicted more than 20 wounds. His corpse was burned, his ashes were placed in a cannon, from which they were fired in the direction from which the impostor came.
After the death of False Dmitry, the boyar Tsar Vasily Shuisky (1606-1610) ascended the throne. He gave an obligation, formalized in the form of a “kissing record,” to preserve the privileges of the boyars, not to take away their estates and not to judge the boyars without the participation of the Boyar Duma.
The situation of the people during the reign of Shuisky continued to deteriorate, which was the cause of popular uprisings, the largest of which was the uprising led by I. Bolotnikov.
The beginning of the 17th century in the Muscovite kingdom is characterized by historians as the Time of Troubles. The tough policies of Boris Godunov caused great discontent among both peasants and nobles. The situation was aggravated by drought. It lasted three long years and brought the people to a pauper state.
It was on the wave of popular rejection of the existing policy that the ruling elite of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth decided to play. But sending troops into a foreign country means declaring oneself an invader. This will cause general discontent and patriotic upsurge. It will be a different matter if a legitimate heir to the royal throne appears. In this case, the struggle for power will have a completely different character. She will be justified according to all laws and will find understanding in every soul.
In 1601, in the Polish lands, a boyar's son, Grigory Otrepiev, appeared. He announced to everyone that he was none other than Tsarevich Dmitry Ioannovich, who allegedly died in 1591 in Uglich. At the time of death, the heir to the throne was 8 years old. The death itself looked very strange. The child was playing with his peers and accidentally fell on a knife. It pierced his throat and the boy died.
There were persistent rumors that the death had nothing to do with an accident. Dmitry was killed on the orders of Boris Godunov. Thus, he eliminated a competitor to the throne, which he successfully took after the death of Tsar Fedor.
The impostor's statement about his alleged royal origin fell on fertile ground of doubts and assumptions. Researchers have always called this historical figure False Dmitry I. Whether he was in fact the boyar’s son Otrepiev - opinions differ here. Some considered him a Pole, some a Romanian, some a Lithuanian, but there were always many people who claimed that the impostor was Yuri from the Nelidov family - a boyar family that received the nickname “Otrepyevs”. In his youth he took monastic vows and began to be called Gregory.
The impostor initially did not find recognition either from the local nobility or from the Catholic Church. But being an active and resourceful person, he managed to interest the powers that be. In exchange for support, he promised the Pope that he would convert the Russian lands to Catholicism. This found a response in the soul of the holy father, and he gave his papal blessing to the good deed to restore justice and legitimate power in the Moscow state.
Other “piously-minded” individuals also followed the Pope. These were the richest Polish landowners. They provided the impostor with financial support, without which he would not have been able to begin the fight for the throne.
A motley crowd began to gather near False Dmitry. Polish and Lithuanian adventurers, Moscow emigrants who fled the regime of Boris Godunov; the Don Cossacks, dissatisfied with the harsh policies of the reigning person - they all gathered under the banner of the impostor. They had only one goal: to significantly improve their financial situation.
This army did not represent a large combat unit, but adventurism in this environment was decisive. In 1604, False Dmitry I with small forces crossed the Dnieper and went deeper into Russian lands.
To everyone's surprise, the fortress began to surrender to him without a fight. The people, tired of the Kremlin’s tough policies, removed the royal governors and recognized the impostor as the heir to the throne, Dmitry Ioannovich.
Those arrested and bound were taken to the newly-minted king, who showed mercy and forgave the captives. Rumors about the generosity of the rightful heir spread ahead of his army. Soon the governors themselves began to express a desire to surrender to the mercy of the advancing troops, which, as they moved deeper into the lands, were replenished with many willing ones.
It all ended with a meeting with regular royal troops. They were significantly superior to the troops of False Dmitry in numbers, discipline and organization. The completely defeated military units of the impostor fled shamefully, while the pretender to the throne himself took refuge in Putivl.
The only thing that saved him from captivity and inevitable execution was that the inhabitants of the surrounding areas rebelled. They settled in the city and declared that they would fight to the end for the “real king.” The assault did not break the resolve of the defenders, and soon Polish troops approached and diverted the main forces of the regular tsarist army to themselves.
All this contributed to the fact that False Dmitry again found himself at the head of military detachments. They were very quickly replenished with volunteers, but the main thing was that the impostor’s popularity among the Russian lands grew even faster. Tsar Boris Godunov was also rapidly losing support from all segments of the population.
It all ended with the fact that the next royal army, moved against the pretender to the throne, partially fled, and partially went over to the side of False Dmitry. The armed mass of people, no longer encountering any resistance, concentrated on the main goal. All detachments gathered into a single fist and turned towards Moscow.
The attempt to organize the defense of the capital failed. Nobody wanted to defend the existing regime anymore. Boris Godunov dies suddenly. A month and a half later, his teenage son Fyodor, a very smart and educated boy, and his mother Maria Belskaya are killed.
False Dmitry I solemnly enters Moscow on June 20, 1605. The people rejoice, many have tears of joy in their eyes. The new king is associated with the end of the hated regime. They expect from him the freedoms for which the Moscow state was famous before the accession of Ivan the Terrible.
The newly-crowned autocrat orders Boris Godunov's daughter Ksenia to be tonsured as a nun and Maria Naguya, the mother of Tsarevich Dmitry, to be brought to Moscow. She is brought in, and she publicly recognizes False Dmitry as her son.
Already on July 30, the coronation of False Dmitry I to the kingdom took place. It took place with a huge crowd of people and general joy, which, as subsequent events showed, was premature.
It all boiled down to the fact that the newly made tsar was an ordinary puppet of the Catholic Church and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Soon Poles began to flock to Moscow in large numbers. They all expected various benefits from the autocrat, since they helped him seize power.
False Dmitry I fully met the expectations of his allies. Money flowed like a river from the royal treasury for various awards. Valuable gifts and presents began to be made. All this initially caused bewilderment among the Russian people, and then indignation.
The cup of patience was filled with the ceremonial entry into Moscow of the wife of the new tsar in early May 1606. She was (1588-1614) the daughter of the Polish governor Jerzy Mniszek. Five days later she was solemnly crowned king. Thus, she became the full-fledged queen of the Russian land.
But it must be said right away that Marina Mnishek did not fit into the environment in which she needed to stay for the rest of her life. The girl was a Catholic, and she was surrounded by Orthodox people. She did not know the elementary customs and mentality of those whom she, by the will of fate, was destined to command.
This is how Catholics bow to icons, while Orthodox Christians venerate them. Marina decided to show others that she respects their customs. She venerated the icon of the Mother of God. But she kissed the Mother of God not on the hand, as expected, but on the lips. This caused a shock among those present: where has it been seen to kiss the Mother of God on the lips?
Soon, however, all this disgrace and blasphemy came to an end. A conspiracy arose. It was headed by Prince Vasily Shuisky (1552-1612). False Dmitry I was captured by the conspirators and killed. His corpse was burned, the Tsar Cannon was loaded with ashes and fired towards Polish lands. This turned out to be the natural end of the impostor who set his sights on the Russian throne. Marina Mnishek was sent to Yaroslavl, where she spent two years. This ended the next stage of the Time of Troubles.