At the beginning of the 17th century, events took place in Russia, called Troubles by contemporaries. This name was not given by chance. A real civil war broke out in the country at that time, complicated by the intervention of Polish and Swedish feudal lords. The Troubles began during the reign of Tsar Boris Godunov (1598 -1605), and began to end in 1613, when Mikhail Romanov was elected to the throne. Great troubles, whether in England, France, the Netherlands, China or other countries, are described and investigated in great detail. If we discard the temporal and national palette and specifics, then the same scenario remains, as if they were all created under a carbon copy.
1. a) - In the first act of this tragedy, a merciless struggle for power between various groups of aristocracy and oligarchy unfolds.
b) - In parallel, there is a great contusion of the minds of a significant part of the educated classes and great bedlam settles in their brains. This bedlam can be called in different ways. For example, Church Reformation, Enlightenment, Renaissance, Socialism, Struggle for independence, Democratization, Acceleration, Restructuring, Modernization or otherwise, it does not matter. Anyway, it's a shell shock. The great Russian analyst and ruthless analyst of Russian reality F. M. Dostoevsky called this phenomenon in his own way - "demonic".
c) - At the same time, “well-wishers” from neighboring geopolitical rivals begin to sponsor and support fugitive oligarchs and officials, as well as creators of new and subverters of old foundations and “master generators” of the most destructive, irrational and counterproductive ideas. There is a creation and accumulation of pernicious entropy in society. Many experts want to see exclusively foreign orders in the turmoil, and the facts largely indicate this. It is known that the turmoil in the Spanish Netherlands, the terrible European Reformation and the Great French Revolution are English projects, the struggle for the independence of the North American colonies is a French project, and Napoleon Bonaparte is rightly considered the godfather of all Latin American independence. If he had not crushed the Spanish and Portuguese metropolises, had not produced a massive emission of revolutionaries in their colonies, Latin America would have gained independence no earlier than Asia and Africa. But to make this factor absolute is to cast a shadow over the fence. There is no Time of Troubles without good internal reasons.
2. However, the first act of this tragedy may last for decades and not have any consequences. A good reason is needed to move on to the second act of the play. Anything can be the reason. Unsuccessful or prolonged war, famine, crop failure, economic crisis, epidemic, natural disaster, natural disaster, end of a dynasty, appearance of an impostor, attempted coup, murder of an authoritative leader, electoral fraud, tax increases, abolition of benefits, etc. The firewoods are already prepared, you just need to bring the paper and strike the matches. If the government is lumpy, and the opposition is quick, then it will certainly take advantage of the occasion and make a coup, which will later be called a revolution.
3. If the constructive part of the opposition in the course of the coup curbs the destructive part, then in the second act everything will end (as it happened in 1991). But often the opposite happens and a bloody civil war begins with monstrous sacrifices and consequences for the state and people. And very often all this is accompanied and aggravated by foreign military intervention. Great troubles differ from others in that they have all three acts, and sometimes more and drag on for decades. The Russian Troubles at the beginning of the 17th century is no exception. During 1598-1614, the country was shaken by numerous uprisings, riots, conspiracies, coups, riots, it was tormented by adventurers, interventionists, rogues and robbers. Cossack historian A. A. Gordeev counted four periods in this turmoil.
1. The dynastic struggle between the boyars and Godunov, 1598-1604.
2. The struggle between Godunov and Demetrius, which ended with the death of the Godunovs and Demetrius 1604-1606.
3. The struggle of the lower classes against the boyar rule of 1606-1609.
4. Struggle against external forces that have seized power in Muscovite Russia.
The historian Solovyov saw the cause of the Troubles in the "bad moral state of society and the overdeveloped Cossacks." Without arguing with the classic on the merits, it should be noted that the Cossacks in the first period did not take any part at all, but joined the Troubles together with Dimitri in 1604. Therefore, the long-term undercover struggle between the boyars and Godunov is not considered in this article as irrelevant to its topic. Many prominent historians see the reasons for the Troubles in the politics of the Commonwealth and the Catholic Roman Curia. Indeed, at the beginning of the 17th century. a certain man, posing as a miracle of the escaped Tsarevich Dmitry (the most well-established version is that it was a fugitive defrocked monk Grigory Otrepiev), showed up in Poland, having previously visited the Zaporozhye Cossacks and learned military science from them. In Poland, this False Dmitry for the first time and announced to Prince Adam Vishnevetsky about his claims to the Russian throne.
Rice. 1 False Dmitry reveals the "secret of his origin" to Prince Adam Vishnevetsky
Objectively, Poland was interested in the Troubles, and the Cossacks were dissatisfied with Godunov, but if the reasons lay only in these forces, then they were insignificant for the overthrow of the legitimate tsarist power. The king and Polish politicians sympathized with the emerging Troubles, but for the time being they refrained from open intervention. Poland's position was far from favorable, it was in a protracted war with Sweden and could not take the risk of a war with Russia. The real plan of the Troubles was in the hands of the Russian-Lithuanian part of the aristocracy of the Commonwealth, to which the Livonian aristocracy adjoined. In the composition of this aristocracy there were many nobles "who fled from the wrath of the Terrible." Three surnames of Western Russian oligarchs were the main instigators and organizers of this intrigue: the Belarusian Catholic and the governor of Minsk, Prince Mnishek, the Belarusian (then called Lithuanians) magnates Sapieha, who recently changed Orthodoxy, and the family of Ukrainian magnates of the Vishnevetsky princes, who embarked on the path of polonization. The center of the conspiracy was the Sambor castle of Prince Mnishek. The formation of voluntary squads took place there, magnificent balls were organized, to which the fugitive Moscow nobility was invited and the "legitimate" heir to the Moscow throne was recognized. The court aristocracy was formed around Demetrius. But in this environment, only one person believed in his real royal origin - he himself. The aristocracy needed him only to overthrow Godunov. But no matter what forces took part in the incipient turmoil, it would not have had such catastrophic and destructive consequences if Russian society and people did not have very deep roots of discontent caused by the politics and rule of Boris Godunov. Many contemporaries and descendants noted the intelligence and even wisdom of Tsar Boris. Prince Katyrev-Rostovsky, who did not love Godunov, wrote nevertheless: "The husband is extremely wonderful, in the reasoning of the mind he is content and sweet-tongued, the nobleman is trustful and poor-loving, and he is very constructive …" and so on. Similar opinions are sometimes heard today. But it is in no way possible to agree with this. The classic separation of the smart from the wise says: "A smart person gets out of all the unpleasant situations in which he finds himself with dignity, but the wise … simply does not get into these unpleasant situations." Godunov, on the other hand, was the author or co-author of many ambushes and traps, which he skillfully built for his opponents and which he later successfully fell into. So he does not pull on the wise. And smart too. He responded to many challenges of his time with measures that led to hatred of wide sections of society, both against him and against the tsarist government. The unprecedented discrediting of the tsarist power led to the catastrophic Troubles, the indelible blame for which lies with Tsar Boris. However, everything is in order.
1. Tsar Boris was very fond of external effects, window dressing and props. But the ideological void formed in the minds of the people around the non-royal origin of Godunov, who unjustly occupied the throne, could not be filled with any external forms, attributes and his personal qualities. The people were firmly rooted in the belief that the occupation of the throne was achieved through selfish means and that whatever he did, including for the good of the people, the people saw in this only a selfish desire to strengthen the throne of the Moscow tsars. The rumor that existed among the people was known to Boris. Denunciations began to be widely used to stop hostile rumors, many people slandered and blood was shed. But the popular rumor was not filled with blood, the more blood was shed, the more widespread rumors hostile to Boris spread. Rumors caused new denunciations. Denounced against each other and the enemy, priests against sextons, abbots against bishops, slaves against masters, wives against husbands, children against fathers and vice versa. Denunciations turned into a public infection, and the informers were generously encouraged by Godunov at the expense of the position, ranks and property of the repressed. This encouragement had a terrible effect. The moral decline affected all strata of society, representatives of the noble families, princes, descendants of Rurik denounced each other. It was in this "bad moral state of society …" that the historian Solovyov saw the cause of the Troubles.
2. In Muscovite Rus land tenure before Godunov was local, but not polar, and the peasants who worked on the land could leave the landowner every spring on St. George's Day. After conquering the Volga, the people moved to new spaces and left the old lands without working hands. To stop leaving, Godunov issued a decree forbidding the peasants to leave their former owners and attached the peasants to the land. Then the saying was born: "Here's your grandmother and St. George's Day." Moreover, on November 24, 1597, a decree was issued on "fixed years", according to which the peasants who fled from the masters "until the present … year for five years" were subject to search, trial and return "back to where who lived." With these decrees, Godunov aroused the fierce hatred of the entire peasant mass.
3. It seemed that nature itself rebelled against the power of Godunov. In 1601, there were long rains in the summer, and then early frosts struck and, in the words of a contemporary, "beat all the work of human affairs in the field against the hard work." The next year, the crop failure was repeated. A famine began in the country, which lasted for three years. The price of bread has increased 100 times. Boris forbade selling bread more than a certain limit, even resorting to persecution of those who hiked prices, but did not succeed. In 1601-1602 Godunov even went to the temporary restoration of St. George's Day. Mass hunger and dissatisfaction with the establishment of the "fixed years" caused a major uprising led by Khlopok in 1602-1603, a harbinger of the Troubles.
4. The Cossacks also had an openly hostile attitude towards Godunov. He rudely interfered with their inner life and constantly threatened them with destruction. The Cossacks did not see in these repressive measures of state expediency, but only the demands of a "bad tsar not of a tsarist root" and gradually embarked on the path of struggle against the "fake" tsar. The first information about Tsarevich Dimitri Godunov received from the Cossacks. In 1604, the Cossacks captured Semyon Godunov on the Volga, who was traveling on an assignment to Astrakhan, but having identified an important person, they released him, but with an order: "Announce to Boris that we will soon be with him with Tsarevich Dimitri." Knowing the hostile attitude of the southeastern Cossacks (Don, Volga, Yaik, Terek) to Godunov, the Pretender sent his messenger with a letter to send ambassadors to him. Having received the letter, the Don Cossacks sent ambassadors to him with atamans Ivan Korela and Mikhail Mezhakov. Returning to the Don, the envoys confirmed that Demetrius was indeed a prince. The Donets mounted their horses and moved to the aid of Demetrius, initially in the number of 2000 people. So the Cossack movement against Godunov began.
But not only hostile feelings were towards Boris - he found faithful support among a significant part of the employees and merchants. He was known as an admirer of everything foreign and there were many foreigners with him, and for the sake of the tsar "many old men of their brady sostrizah …". This impressed a certain part of the educated strata of society and planted in the souls of many of them a pernicious virus of servility, flattery and admiration for foreign lands, this indispensable and infectious companion of any turmoil. Godunov, like Grozny, strove for the education of a middle class, servicemen and merchants, and in it he wanted to have the support of the throne. But even now the role and significance of this class is greatly exaggerated, primarily due to the conceit of this class itself. And at that time this class was still in its infancy and could not resist the classes of the aristocracy and peasantry hostile to Godunov.
Poland was also undergoing changes favorable to the Pretender. In this country, the royal power was constantly under the threat of the rebellion of regional magnates and always sought to channel the rebellious spirit of the regionals in directions opposite to Krakow and Warsaw. Chancellor Zamoyski still considered Mnishek's venture with Dimitri to be a dangerous adventure and did not support it. But King Sigismund, under the influence and at the request of the Vishnevetsky and Sapieha, after long delays, gave a private audience to Dimitri and Mnishek and blessed them to fight for the Moscow throne … as a private initiative. However, he promised money, which, however, did not give.
Rice. 2 False Dmitry at an audience with King Sigismund
After the presentation to the king, Dimitri and Mnishek returned to Sambir and in April 1604 began to prepare the campaign. The forces gathered in Sambir amounted to about one and a half thousand people and with them Demetrius moved towards Kiev. Near Kiev, 2000 Don Cossacks joined him and with these troops, in the fall he entered the Moscow domain. At the same time, from the Don side, 8000 Don, Volga and Terek Cossacks went to the north by the "Crimean" road. Having entered the Moscow lands, Demetrius in the first cities met with popular sympathy and the cities went over to his side without resistance. However, Novgorod-Seversky, occupied by Basmanov's archers, resisted and stopped the Pretender's movement to the north. In Moscow, troops began to gather, which were entrusted to Prince Mstislavsky. It collected rati 40 thousand people against 15 thousand from the Pretender. Demetrius was forced to retreat and in Moscow this was perceived as a strong defeat for the enemy. Indeed, the position of the rebels was taking a bad turn. Sapega wrote to Mnishek that in Warsaw they looked badly at his enterprise and advised him to return. Mniszek, at the request of the Seimas, began to gather in Poland, the troops began to demand money, but he did not have it. Many fled and Dimitri had no more than 1,500 people left, who, instead of Mnishek, elected Dvorzhitsky hetman. Dimitri left for Sevsk. But at the same time, the rapid and extremely successful movement of the Cossacks in the east to Moscow continued, the cities surrendered without resistance. Pali Putivl, Rylsk, Belgorod, Valuyki, Oskol, Voronezh. The streltsy regiments scattered around the cities did not resist the Cossacks, since in their essence they themselves continued to be Cossacks. The Troubles showed that in the course of the anarchy the rifle regiments turned into Cossack troops and, under their former name, participated in the onset of the civil war "all with all" from various sides. 12 thousand Zaporozhye Cossacks, who had not previously taken part in the movement, arrived in Sevsk to Demetrius. Having received support, Demetrius moved east to join the southeastern Cossacks. But in January 1605, the tsarist troops defeated the Pretender. The Cossacks fled to Ukraine, Demetrius to Putivl. He decided to give up the fight and return to Poland. But 4 thousand Don Cossacks came to him and convinced him to continue the struggle. At the same time, the Don people continued to take cities in the east. Kromy were occupied by a detachment of the Don Cossacks of 600 people, led by the ataman Korela. After the January victory, the governors of Godunov withdrew to Rylsk and were inactive, however, prompted by the tsar, they moved to the Kroms with a large army led by the boyars Shuisky, Miloslavsky, Golitsyn. The siege of Krom was the final act of Godunov's struggle with Demetrius and ended with a turning point in the psychology of the boyars and troops in favor of Demetrius. The siege of Krom by an 80,000 army with 600 Cossack defenders led by the ataman Korela lasted about 2 months. Contemporaries marveled at the feats of the Cossacks and "the deeds of the boyars like laughter." The besiegers showed such negligence that reinforcements from 4,000 Cossacks entered Kromy, to the besieged, in broad daylight with a baggage train. Diseases and mortality began in the army of the besieging, and on April 13, Tsar Boris himself suffered a blow and after 2 hours he died. After his death, Moscow calmly swore allegiance to Fedor Godunov, his mother and family. Their first step was a change of command in the army. Arriving at the front, the new commander, voivode Basmanov, saw that most of the boyars did not want the Godunovs, and if he resisted the general mood, then he would go to certain death. He joined the Golitsyn and Saltykovs and announced to the army that Dimitri was a real tsarevich. The regiments proclaimed him king without resistance. The army moved to Oryol, and the Pretender went there. He continuously sent messengers to Moscow to excite the people. Prince Shuisky announced to the crowd gathered near the Kremlin that the prince had been saved from the murderers, and another was buried in his place. The crowd burst into the Kremlin…. The Godunovs were finished. Dimitri was at that time in Tula, and after the coup, nobles from Moscow gathered there, in a hurry to declare their loyalty. The ataman of the Don Cossacks, Smaga Chesmensky, also arrived and was admitted to the reception with a clear preference for others. On June 20, 1605, Demetrius solemnly entered Moscow. Ahead of all were the Poles, then the archers, then the boyar squads, then the tsar, accompanied by the Cossacks. On June 30, 1605, a royal wedding was celebrated in the Assumption Cathedral. The new tsar generously rewarded the Cossacks and sent them home. Thus ended the struggle between Godunov and the Pretender. Godunov was defeated not because of a lack of troops or lost battles, all material opportunities were on Godunov's side, but solely because of the psychological state of the masses. Godunov took measures of moral influence on the people, but they were all extremely unsuccessful, no one believed him.
Rice. 3 Triumph of the Pretender
The beginning of the reign of Demetrius was unusual. He freely walked the streets, talked with the people, accepted complaints, entered the workshops, examined the products and guns, tried their quality and shot accurately, went out to battle with the bear and struck him. The people liked this simplicity. But in foreign policy, Demetrius was strongly bound by his obligations. His movement was begun in Poland and the forces that helped him had their goals and sought to gain their own benefits. With Poland and Rome, he was strongly bound by the obligation to marry a Catholic Marina Mnishek, to give her Novgorod and Pskov lands as a dowry, to cede Novgorod-Seversky and Smolensk to Poland, to allow the Roman curia to build unlimited Catholic churches in Russia. In addition, many Poles appeared in Moscow. They walked noisily, insulted and bullied the people. The behavior of the Poles served as the main reason for stirring up popular discontent against Demetrius. On May 3, 1606, Marina Mnishek entered Moscow with great splendor, and a huge retinue settled in the Kremlin. On May 8, wedding fun began, Russians were not allowed to attend, with the exception of a small number of those invited. The enemies of Demetrius took advantage of this, the Golitsyns and Kurakins entered the conspiracy with the Shuiskys. Through their agents they spread rumors that Demetrius was "not a real tsar", that he did not observe Russian customs, that he rarely went to church, that he wouldn’t resonate with outrageous Poles, that he would marry a Catholic woman … and so on. Dissatisfaction with the policy of Demetrius began to manifest itself in Poland, as he retreated from fulfilling many earlier obligations and ruled out any hopes for the reunification of the churches. On the night of May 17, 1606, detachments of conspirators occupied the 12 gates of the Kremlin and sounded the alarm. Shuisky, having a sword in one hand and a cross in the other, said to those around him: "In the name of God, go to the evil heretic" and the crowd went to the palace … With the death of Demetrius, the third period of the Troubles began - a popular revolt arose.
Rice. 4 The Pretender's Last Minutes
The conspiracy and murder of Demetrius were the result of exclusively the activities of the boyar aristocracy and made a painful impression on the people. And already on May 19, people gathered on Red Square and began to demand: "who killed the king?" The boyars who were in the conspiracy went to the square and proved to the people that Demetrius was an impostor. The boyars and the crowd gathered on Red Square, Shuisky was elected tsar and on June 1 he was crowned tsar. Shuisky's goals were determined at the very beginning of his reign. The boyars who did not participate in the conspiracy were repressed, the rule of the boyars-conspirators was established in the country, but almost immediately a resistance movement began against the new government. The uprising against Shuisky, as well as against Godunov, began in the Seversk cities. The exiled princes Shakhovskoy and Telyatevsky were in Chernigov and Putivl. Shakhovskoy began to spread rumors that Dimitri was alive and had found a person similar to him. The new impostor (a certain Molchanov) left for Poland and settled in the Sambor castle with his stepmother Marina Mnishek. The massacre of Poles in Moscow and the taking of more than 500 hostages together with Marina and Jerzy Mniszek caused great irritation in Poland. But in the country there was another rebellion, "rokosh" and although it was soon suppressed, the king had no desire to get involved in a new Moscow rebellion. The appearance of the new Demetrius frightened Shuisky and he sent troops to the Seversk lands. However, the new False Dmitry was in no hurry to go to war and continued to live in Sambir. Ivan Bolotnikov, a former servant of Prince Telyatevsky, came to him. As a young man, he was taken prisoner by the Tatars and sold to Turkey. As a galley slave, he was freed by the Venetians and headed to Russia. Driving through Poland, he met the impostor, was fascinated by the new Dimitri and was sent by him by the governor to Putivl to Shakhovsky. The emergence of the sweet-spoken and energetic Bolotnikov in the camp of the rebels gave a new impetus to the movement. Shakhovskoy gave him a detachment of 12 thousand people and sent him to Kromy. Bolotnikov began to act in the name of Dimitri, skillfully glorified him. But at the same time, his movement began to take on a revolutionary character, he openly took the position of emancipating the peasants from the landlords. In the historical literature, this uprising is called the first peasant war. Shuisky sent the army of Prince Trubetskoy to the Kroms, but it fled. The path was opened and Bolotnikov set off for Moscow. He was joined by the detachments of the children of the boyars Istoma Pashkov, the Ryazan squads of the Lyapunov nobles and the Cossacks. There was a rumor among the people that Tsar Demetrius was going to turn everything around in Russia: the rich should become poorer, and the poor should get rich. The rebellion was growing like a snowball. In mid-October 1606, the rebels approached Moscow and began to prepare for an assault. But the revolutionary character of the peasant army of Bolotnikov pushed the nobles away from it and they went over to Shuisky, followed by the children of the boyars and archers. Muscovites sent a delegation to Bolotnikov's camp demanding to show Dimitri, but he was not there, which caused distrust among the people in his existence. The rebellious spirit began to subside. On November 26, Bolotnikov decided to storm, but was completely defeated and withdrew to Kaluga. After that, the Cossacks also went over to Shuisky and were forgiven. The siege of Kaluga continued throughout the winter, but to no avail. Bolotnikov demanded the arrival of Demetrius in the troops, but he, having secured himself financially, renounced his role and was blissful in Poland. Meanwhile, another impostor appeared in Putivl - Tsarevich Pyotr Fedorovich - the imaginary son of Tsar Fedor, who brought additional schism and confusion into the ranks of the rebels. Having withstood the siege in Kaluga, Bolotnikov moved to Tula, where he also successfully defended. But in the army of Shuisky, a sapper-cunning was found, who, having built rafts across the river, covered them with earth. When the rafts sank, the water in the river rose and went through the streets. The rebels surrendered to Shuisky's promise to pardon everyone. He broke his promise and all the prisoners were subjected to terrible reprisals, they were drowned. However, the Troubles did not end there, its terrible destructive potential was not yet exhausted, it took on new forms.
Rice. 5 Bolotnikov's army
In the south, meanwhile, a new False Dmitry appeared, all layers opposed to the boyars were drawn under his banner, and the Cossacks were again actively involved. Unlike the previous one, this impostor did not hide in Sambor, but immediately arrived at the front. The identity of the second False Dmitry is even less known than other impostors. He was first recognized as the Cossack ataman Zarutsky, then by the Polish governors and hetmans Makhovetsky, Wenceslas and Tyshkevich, then the governor of Khmelevsky and Prince Adam Vishnevetsky. At this stage, the Poles took an active part in the Troubles. After the suppression of internal unrest, or rokosh, in Poland there were many people under the threat of the king's revenge and they went to the Moscow lands. Pan Roman Rozhinsky led 4,000 troops to False Dmitry, a detachment of Pan Makhovetsky and 3,000 Cossacks joined him. Pan Rozhinsky was elected hetman.
Earlier, ataman Zarutsky went to the Volga and brought 5,000 Cossacks. Shuisky by that time was already hated by the whole country. After defeating Bolotnikov, he married a young princess, enjoyed family life and did not think about state affairs. A large tsarist army came out against the rebels, but it was brutally defeated at Bolokhov. The impostor moved to Moscow, the people everywhere greeted him with bread and salt and bell ringing. Rozhinsky's troops approached Moscow, but could not capture the city on the move. They set up camp in Tushino, having arranged a blockade on Moscow. Replenishment was constantly arriving to the Poles. Pan Sapega arrived from the west with a detachment. South of Moscow, Pan Lisovsky gathered the remnants of Bolotnikov's defeated army and occupied Kolomna, then Yaroslavl. Yaroslavl Metropolitan Filaret Romanov was taken to Tushino, the impostor received him with honor and made him patriarch. Many boyars fled from Moscow to False Dmitry II and formed an entire royal court under him, which was actually led by the new Patriarch Filaret. And Zarutsky also received the boyar rank and commanded all the Cossacks in the Pretender's army. But the Cossacks not only fought with the troops of Vasily Shuisky. Lacking adequate supplies, they plundered the population. Many robber bands joined the forces of the Pretender and declared themselves Cossacks. Although Sapega and the Cossacks stormed the Trinity-Sergius Lavra for a long time and unsuccessfully, he managed to spread his troops all the way to the Volga, and the Dnieper Cossacks rampaged in the Vladimir land. In total, up to 20 thousand Poles with the Dnieper, up to 30 thousand Russian rebels and up to 15 thousand Cossacks gathered under the Tushino command. To improve relations with official Poland, Shuisky released the hostages from Moscow to his homeland with guards, including Jerzy and Marina Mnishek, but on the way they were captured by the Tushin people. The agreements between Moscow and Warsaw were of no importance to the Tushin people. To raise the prestige of the second False Dmitry, his entourage decided to use the wife of the first False Dmitry, Marina Mnishek. After some altercations, delays and whims, she was persuaded to recognize the new Pretender as her husband, Dimitri, without marital duties.
Rice. 6 Tushino camp
The Swedish king, meanwhile, offered Shuisky assistance in the fight against the Poles and, according to the agreement, allocated a detachment of 5 thousand people under the command of De la Gardie. The detachment was replenished with Russian warriors and, under the general leadership of Prince Skopin-Shuisky, began to clean up the northern lands and began to drive the rebels into Tushino. According to the agreement between Moscow and Poland, Sigismund was also supposed to withdraw Polish troops from Tushino. But Rozhinsky and Sapega did not obey the king and demanded 1 million zlotys from the king for leaving. These events began the fourth, last period of the Troubles.
Sweden's intervention in Moscow affairs gave Poland a reason to enter the war with Russia and in the fall of 1609 Sigismund laid siege to Smolensk. Poland's action against Moscow produced a complete regrouping of the internal forces of the Russian people and changed the goals of the struggle; from that time on, the struggle began to take on a national liberation character. The beginning of the war also changed the position of the "Tushins". Sigismund, having entered the war with Russia, had the goal of its conquest and the occupation of the Moscow throne. He sent to Tushino an order for the Polish troops to march to Smolensk and put an end to the Pretender. But Rozhinsky, Sapega and others saw that the king was encroaching on the country they had conquered and refused to obey him and "eliminate" the Pretender. Seeing the danger, the Pretender with the Mnisheks and the Cossacks went to Kaluga, but his court, headed by Filaret Romanov, did not follow him. At that time, the virus of sycophancy and admiration for foreign lands had not yet been overcome, and they turned to Sigismund with a proposal that he release his son Vladislav to the Moscow throne, subject to his acceptance of Orthodoxy. Sigismund agreed and an embassy of 42 noble boyars was sent to him. This embassy included Filaret Romanov and Prince Golitsyn, one of the contenders for the Moscow throne. But near Smolensk, the embassy was captured by Shuisky's troops and sent to Moscow. Shuisky, however, forgave the Tushinsky, and they "as a sign of gratitude" among the boyars began to expand and multiply the idea of overthrowing Shuisky and recognizing Vladislav as tsar. Meanwhile, Skopin-Shuisky's troops were approaching Moscow, the Poles withdrew from Tushino and the siege of Moscow on March 12, 1610 ended. During the festivities in Moscow on this occasion, Skopin-Shuisky suddenly fell ill and died. Suspicion of the poisoning of a popular military leader in the country fell again on the king. To further fight the Poles, large Russian-Swedish forces led by the tsar's brother Dimitry Shuisky were sent to Smolensk, but on the march they were unexpectedly attacked by hetman Zolkiewsky and utterly defeated. The consequences were dire. The remnants of the troops fled and did not return to Moscow, the Swedes partly surrendered to the Poles, partly went to Novgorod. Moscow remained defenseless. Shuisky was dethroned and forcibly tonsured a monk.
Zolkevsky moved to Moscow, the Cossacks of Zarutsky headed there with the Pretender from Kaluga. A government of seven boyars, headed by Mstislavsky, was urgently formed in Moscow. It entered into negotiations with Zholkevsky about the urgent dispatch of the prince Vladislav to Moscow. After reaching an agreement, Moscow swore allegiance to Vladislav, and Zholkevsky attacked Zarutsky's Cossacks and forced them to return to Kaluga. Soon the Pretender was killed by his own allies, the Tatars. Zholkevsky occupied Moscow, and the boyars were equipped with a new embassy headed by Filaret and Golitsyn for Sigismund. But Sigismund decided that Moscow had already been conquered by his troops and the time had come for him to become the Tsar of Moscow himself. Zolkiewski, seeing such a deception and substitution, resigned and left for Poland, taking the Shuisky brothers with him as a trophy. Pan Gonsevsky, who replaced him, crushed the seven-boyars and established a military dictatorship in Moscow. The Boyar embassy, having arrived in Smolensk, also saw Sigismund's deception and sent a secret message to Moscow. On its basis, Patriarch Hermogenes issued a letter, sent it around the country and called on the people to militia against the Poles. The candidacy of an orthodox and militant Catholic, persecutor of Orthodoxy, which was Sigismund, did not suit anyone. The Ryazanites, led by Prokop Lyapunov, were the first to respond; they were joined by the Don and Volga Cossacks of Trubetskoy who were stationed in Tula and the "new" Cossacks of Zarutsky who were stationed in Kaluga. At the head of the militia was the zemstvo government, or the Triumvirate, consisting of Lyapunov, Trubetskoy and Zarutsky. At the beginning of 1611, the militia approached Moscow. Pan Gonsevsky knew about the beginning of the movement and was preparing for the defense, under his command there were up to 30 thousand troops.
The Poles occupied the Kremlin and Kitai-Gorod, they could not defend all of Moscow and decided to burn it out. But this attempt led to an uprising of Muscovites, which increased the strength of the militia. And within the militia itself, friction began between the nobles and the Cossacks. The nobles, led by Lyapunov, tried to limit the Cossack liberties through the decrees of the zemstvo government. Drafts of repressive anti-Cossack decrees were stolen by Polish agents and delivered to the Cossacks. Lyapunov was summoned to the Circle for an explanation, tried to escape to Ryazan, but was captured and hacked to death with sabers on the Circle. After the murder of Lyapunov, most of the nobles left the militia, in Moscow and the country there was no Russian government power left, only the occupation power. In addition to political disagreements between the Cossacks and the Zemstvo, there was another obstacle. In the camp of the Cossacks under the ataman Zarutsky there was Marina Mnishek, who considered herself a legally crowned queen, she had a son, Ivan, whom many Cossacks considered the legal heir. In the eyes of the zemstvo it was "Cossack theft." The Cossacks continued the siege of Moscow and in September 1611 occupied Kitay-Gorod. Only the Kremlin remained in the hands of the Poles; famine began there. Meanwhile, Sigismund finally took Smolensk by storm, but having no money to continue the campaign, he returned to Poland. The Diet was convened, to which noble Russian captives were introduced, including the Shuisky brothers, Golitsyn, Romanov, Shein. The Diet decided to send help to Moscow headed by Hetman Khodkevich.
In October, Khodkevich approached Moscow with a huge baggage train and attacked the Cossacks, but he could not break through to the Kremlin and retreated to Volokolamsk. At this time, a new impostor appeared in Pskov and a split occurred among the Cossacks. Trubetskoy's Cossacks left Zarutsky's "Cossack dullness", recognized the new impostor and set up a separate camp, continuing the siege of the Kremlin. The Poles, taking advantage of the discord, again occupied Kitay-Gorod, and Khodkevich, with the help of Russian collaborators, ferried several carts to the besieged. The Nizhny Novgorod militia of Minin and Pozharsky was in no hurry to reach Moscow. It reached Yaroslavl and stopped in anticipation of the Kazan militia. Pozharsky resolutely avoided joining the Cossacks - his goal was to elect a tsar without the participation of the Cossacks. From Yaroslavl, the leaders of the militia sent out letters, calling on elected people from cities to elect a legitimate sovereign. At the same time, they corresponded with the Swedish king and the Austrian emperor, asking their crown princes for the Moscow throne. Elder Abraham went to Yaroslavl from the Lavra, complaining to them that if Khodkevich "… comes to Moscow before yours, then your work will be in vain and your meeting is worse." After that, Pozharsky and Minin, after thorough reconnaissance, moved to Moscow and set up a camp separate from the Cossacks. The arrival of the second militia produced a final split among the Cossacks.
In June 1612, Zarutsky with the "thieves' Cossacks" was forced to flee to Kolomna, only the Don and Volga Cossacks remained in Moscow under the command of Prince Trubetskoy. At the end of the summer, having received a new train and reinforcements from Poland, Pan Chodkiewicz moved to Moscow, in a detachment of which, in addition to the Poles and Litvin, there were up to 4 thousand Dnieper Cossacks, led by Hetman Shiryay. Behind him was a huge baggage train, which was supposed to break through to the Kremlin by all means and save the besieged garrison from starvation. Pozharsky's militia occupied positions near the Novodevichy Convent, the Cossacks occupied Zamoskvorechye and strongly fortified it. Chodkevich directed the main blow against the militia. The battle lasted all day, all attacks were repulsed, but the militia was pushed back and severely drained of blood. By the end of the battle, contrary to Trubetskoy's decision, Ataman Mezhakov with a part of the Cossacks attacked the Poles and prevented their breakthrough to the Kremlin. A day later, Hetman Chodkevich went ahead along with carts and a wagon train. The main blow this time fell on the Cossacks. The fight was "extremely great and terrible …". In the morning, the Zaporozhye infantry with a powerful attack knocked the Cossacks out of the front ditches, but after suffering huge losses, they could not advance further. At noon, with a skillful maneuver, the Cossacks cut off and captured most of the convoy. Chodkiewicz realized that everything was lost. The purpose for which he came has not been achieved. The Lithuanians with part of the convoy withdrew from Moscow, the Polish hussars who broke into the Kremlin without the convoy only aggravated the situation of the besieged. The victory over Chodkiewicz reconciled Pozharsky with Trubetskoy, but not for long. This happened because in the militia the nobles received a good salary, the Cossacks nothing. The old breeder of troubles, Prince Shakhovskoy, arrived in the Cossack camp, returning from exile, and began to resent the Cossacks against the militia. The Cossacks began to threaten to beat and rob the nobles.
The Lavra settled the conflict out of her own means. On September 15, 1612, Pozharsky presented an ultimatum to the Poles, which they arrogantly rejected. On October 22, the Cossacks launched an attack, recaptured Kitay-Gorod and drove the Poles into the Kremlin. The famine in the Kremlin intensified and on October 24 the Poles, tk. they did not want to surrender to the Cossacks, they sent ambassadors to the militia with a request that not a single prisoner be killed by the sword. They were given a promise and on the same day the boyars and other besieged Russian collaborators were released from the Kremlin. The Cossacks wanted to punish them, but they were not allowed. The next day, the Poles opened the gates, laid down their arms and awaited their fate. The prisoners were divided between the militia and the Cossacks. The part that got to Pozharsky survived and then went to exchange the Great Embassy in Poland. The Cossacks could not stand it and killed almost all of their prisoners. The property of the prisoners went to the treasury and, by order of Minin, was sent to pay for the Cossacks. For this, a census was carried out for the Cossacks, there were 11 thousand of them, the militia consisted of 3500 people. After the occupation of Moscow and the departure of Khodkevich, the central part of Russia was cleared of the Poles. But in the southern and western regions their gangs and the Cossacks roamed. The Dnieper Cossacks, who left Khodkevich, headed north, occupied and plundered the Vologda and Dvina lands. In the Ryazan land, Zarutsky stood with his freeman and gathered wandering people into his detachments. In Moscow, the power of the "Marching Duma" was established - the Cossacks and the boyars, who were faced with the most important task - the election of a legitimate tsar. But for this most important matter, the Moscow camp represented the greatest "trouble".
Noble boyars and governors quarreled among themselves, while the Cossacks and the Zemsky continued to quarrel. Poland again intervened in the question of succession to the throne. Sigismund, realizing the failure of his claims, sent a letter in which he apologized and said that Vladislav was not healthy and this prevented him from arriving in Moscow at the proper time. Sigismund arrived in Vyazma with his son and army, but none of the Moscow people came to bow to them and with the onset of cold weather and the fall of the Kremlin, these candidates left for Poland. The pernicious foreign virus was slowly leaving the Russian body. By December 1612, the first congress of the Council was convened in Moscow, but after long disputes and disagreements, it parted, without coming to any agreement. The second congress in February also disagreed. The question of the election of the sovereign was discussed not only by the Council, but even more so between the armed units of the militia and the Cossacks. The Cossacks, in spite of Pozharsky, did not want to have a foreigner on the Moscow throne. Of the Russians, princes and boyars could be contenders: Golitsyn, Trubetskoy, Vorotynsky, Pozharsky, Shuisky and Mikhail Romanov. Each applicant had many supporters and implacable opponents, and the Cossacks insisted on the election of the young Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov. After many quarrels and fights, the majority agreed on the compromise figure of Mikhail Romanov, who was not tainted by any ties with the invaders. The significant role of the Cossacks in the liberation of Moscow predetermined their active participation and decisive role in the Zemsky Sobor in 1613, at which the Tsar was elected. According to legend, the Cossack chieftain at the Council submitted a letter of election as tsar of Mikhail Romanov, and on top of it he put his naked saber. When the Poles learned about the Tsar's choice of Mikhail Romanov, the hetman Sapega, in whose house Filaret Romanov lived “in captivity,” announced to him: “… your son was put on the throne by the Cossacks.” De la Gardie, who ruled in Novgorod occupied by the Swedes, wrote to his king: "Tsar Michael was seated on the throne with Cossack sabers." In March, an embassy of 49 people arrived at the Ipatiev Monastery, where the nun Martha and her son were staying, incl. 3 atamans, 4 esauls and 20 Cossacks. After some hesitation, preliminary conditions and persuasion, on July 11, 1613, Michael was crowned king. With the election of the tsar, the Troubles did not end, but only began to end.
Rebellions did not subside in the country and new ones arose. Poles, Lithuanians and Lithuanians rampaged in the west, the Dnieper Cossacks led by Sagaidachny in the south. The Cossacks joined Zarutsky and wreaked havoc no less severe than the Crimeans. On the eve of the summer of 1613, the wife of two False Dmitrys, Marina Mnishek, appears on the Volga, with her son ("varenok," as the Russian chronicle calls him). And with her - ataman Ivan Zarutsky with the Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks, driven out by the troops of the Moscow government from Ryazan. They managed to capture Astrakhan and kill the governor Khvorostinin. Gathering up to 30,000 military men - the Volga freemen, Tatars and Nogai, Zarutsky went up the Volga to Moscow. The fight against Zarutsky and Mnishek was led by Prince Dmitry Lopata-Pozharsky. Relying on Kazan and Samara, he sent Ataman Onisimov to the Volga Free Cossacks, urging them to recognize Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov. As a result of the negotiations, most of the Volga Cossacks left Zarutsky, significantly undermining his strength. In the spring of 1614, Zarutsky and Mnishek hoped to go on the offensive. But the arrival of a large army of Prince Oboevsky and the offensive of Lopata-Pozharsky forced them themselves to leave Astrakhan and flee to Yaik on Bear Island. From there they expected to strike at Samara. But the Yaik Cossacks, seeing all the hopelessness of their situation, having conspired, in June 1614 extradited Zarutsky and Mnishek with a "varenok" to the Moscow authorities. Ivan Zarutsky was impaled, the "little thief" was hanged, and Marina Mnishek soon died in prison. The defeat in 1614 of the "guly" ataman Treneus and a number of other small gangs showed the Cossacks the only way for him - serving the Russian state, although after that relapses of "freemen" still happened …
Rus came out of the Troubles, having lost a population of 7 million out of 14 who were under Godunov. Then the saying was born: "Moscow burned out from a penny candle." Indeed, the conflagration of the Time of Troubles began from a spark taken from the hearth of an extinct legitimate dynasty, brought to the borders of Russia by a person still unknown to history. The troubles that raged for a decade and took away half of the population, ended with the restoration of the interrupted monarchy. All strata of the population, from princes to slaves, inclusive, were involved in the struggle of "all against all". Everyone wanted and sought to derive their own benefits from the Troubles, but in its fire all strata were defeated and suffered huge losses and sacrifices, because they set themselves exclusively personal and private goals, and not national goals. Foreigners did not win in this struggle either, all foreign accomplices and sponsors of the Troubles were subsequently severely punished by Russia and reduced to the level of secondary states of Europe or destroyed. It was after the analysis of the Troubles and its consequences, the Ambassador of Prussia in St. Petersburg Otto von Bismarck uttered: “Do not hope that once taking advantage of the weakness of Russia, you will receive dividends forever. Russians always come for their money. And when they come - do not rely on the Jesuit agreements you signed, supposedly justifying you. They are not worth the paper they are written on. Therefore, it is worth playing with the Russians either honestly, or not playing at all."
After the Time of Troubles, the state organism and the social life of the Moscow state completely changed. The appanage princes, the sovereign nobility and their squads finally switched to the role of the serving state class. Muscovite Rus turned into an integral organism, the power in which belonged to the tsar and the duma boyars, their rule was determined by the formula: "the tsar ordered, the duma decided." Russia embarked on the state path that the peoples of many European countries had already followed. But the price paid for this was completely inadequate.
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At the beginning of the 17th century. the type of the Cossack was finally formed - a universal warrior, equally capable of participating in sea and river raids, fighting on land both on horseback and on foot, who perfectly knows fortification, siege, mine and subversive affairs. But the main type of hostilities then were sea and river raids. The Cossacks became predominantly horsemen later under Peter I, after the ban on going to sea in 1696. In essence, the Cossacks are a caste of warriors, Kshatriyas (in India - a caste of warriors and kings), who defended the Orthodox Faith and the Russian Land for many centuries. Through the exploits of the Cossacks, Russia became a powerful empire. Ermak presented Ivan the Terrible with the Siberian Khanate. Siberian and Far Eastern lands along the Ob, Yenisei, Lena, Amur rivers, also Chukotka, Kamchatka, Central Asia, the Caucasus were annexed largely thanks to the military valor of the Cossacks. Ukraine was reunited with Russia by the Cossack ataman (hetman) Bohdan Khmelnitsky. But the Cossacks often opposed the central government (their role in the Russian Troubles, in the uprisings of Razin, Bulavin and Pugachev is remarkable). Many and stubbornly Dnieper Cossacks rebelled in the Commonwealth.
To a large extent, this was due to the fact that the ancestors of the Cossacks were ideologically brought up in the Horde on the laws of the Yasa of Genghis Khan, according to which only Chingizid could be a real king, i.e. descendant of Genghis Khan. All other rulers, including Rurikovich, Gediminovich, Piast, Jagiellon, Romanov and others, were not legitimate enough in their eyes, were “not real kings” and the Cossacks were morally and physically allowed to participate in their overthrow, accession, riots and other anti-government activities. And after the Great Hush in the Horde, when, in the course of strife and the struggle for power, hundreds of Chingizids were destroyed, including Cossack sabers, and Chingizids lost their Cossack piety. One should not discount the simple desire to show, take advantage of the weakness of power and take a legitimate and rich trophy during the troubles. The papal ambassador to Sich, Father Pearling, who worked hard and successfully to direct the warlike fervor of the Cossacks to the lands of the heretics Muscovites and Ottomans, wrote about this in his memoirs: “The Cossacks wrote their history with a saber, and not on the pages of ancient books, but on the battlefields this feather left its bloody trail. It was customary for the Cossacks to deliver thrones to all sorts of applicants. In Moldova and Wallachia, they periodically resorted to their help. For the formidable freemen of the Dnieper and Don, it was completely indifferent whether the real or imaginary rights belonged to the hero of the minute.
For them, one thing was important - that they had good prey. Was it possible to compare the pitiful Danubian principalities with the boundless plains of the Russian land, full of fabulous riches? " However, from the end of the 18th century until the October Revolution, the Cossacks unconditionally and diligently performed the role of defenders of the Russian statehood and the support of the tsarist power, having even received the nickname "tsarist satraps" from the revolutionaries. By some miracle, the German queen and her outstanding nobles, through a combination of reasonable reforms and punitive actions, managed to drive into the violent Cossack head the persistent idea that Catherine II and her descendants were "real" tsars. This metamorphosis in the consciousness of the Cossacks, which took place at the end of the 18th century, has in fact been little studied and studied by Cossack historians and writers. But there is an indisputable fact, from the end of the 18th century to the October Revolution, the Cossack riots disappeared as if by hand.
