Time of Troubles causes, course, consequences briefly. What are the Time of Troubles: briefly about the causes and consequences of the Troubles

The Time of Troubles (Time of Troubles) is a deep spiritual, economic, social, and foreign policy crisis that befell Russia at the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th centuries. The Troubles coincided with a dynastic crisis and the struggle of boyar groups for power.

Causes of the Troubles:

1. A severe systemic crisis of the Moscow state, largely associated with the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Conflicting domestic and foreign policies led to the destruction of many economic structures. Weakened key institutions and led to loss of life.

2. Important western lands were lost (Yam, Ivan-gorod, Korela)

3. Social conflicts within the Moscow state sharply escalated, affecting all societies.

4. Intervention of foreign states (Poland, Sweden, England, etc. regarding land issues, territory, etc.)

Dynastic crisis:

1584 After the death of Ivan the Terrible, the throne was taken by his son Fedor. The de facto ruler of the state was the brother of his wife Irina, boyar Boris Fedorovich Godunov. In 1591, under mysterious circumstances, the youngest son of Grozny, Dmitry, died in Uglich. In 1598, Fedor dies, the dynasty of Ivan Kalita is suppressed.

Course of events:

1. 1598-1605 The key figure of this period is Boris Godunov. He was an energetic, ambitious, capable statesman. In difficult conditions - economic devastation, a difficult international situation - he continued the policies of Ivan the Terrible, but with less brutal measures. Godunov pursued a successful foreign policy. Under him, further advancement into Siberia took place, and the southern regions of the country were developed. Russian positions in the Caucasus strengthened. After a long war with Sweden, the Treaty of Tyavzin was concluded in 1595 (near Ivan-Gorod).

Russia regained its lost lands on the Baltic coast - Ivan-Gorod, Yam, Koporye, Korelu. An attack by the Crimean Tatars on Moscow was prevented. In 1598, Godunov, with a 40,000-strong noble militia, personally led a campaign against Khan Kazy-Girey, who did not dare to enter Russian lands. Construction of fortifications was carried out in Moscow (White City, Zemlyanoy Gorod), in border cities in the south and west of the country. With his active participation, the patriarchate was established in Moscow in 1598. The Russian Church became equal in rights in relation to other Orthodox churches.

To overcome economic devastation, B. Godunov provided some benefits to the nobility and townspeople, while at the same time taking further steps to strengthen the feudal exploitation of the broad masses of the peasantry. For this, in the late 1580s - early 1590s. The government of B. Godunov conducted a census of peasant households. After the census, the peasants finally lost the right to move from one landowner to another. Scribe books, in which all peasants were recorded, became the legal basis for their serfdom from the feudal lords. A bonded slave was obliged to serve his master throughout his entire life.

In 1597, a decree was issued to search for fugitive peasants. This law introduced “prescribed summers” - a five-year period for the search and return of fugitive peasants, along with their wives and children, to their masters, whom they were listed in the scribe books.

In February 1597, a decree on indentured servants was issued, according to which anyone who served as a free agent for more than six months became an indentured servant and could be freed only after the death of the master. These measures could not but aggravate class contradictions in the country. The popular masses were dissatisfied with the policies of the Godunov government.

In 1601-1603 There was a crop failure in the country, famine and food riots began. Every day in Russia hundreds of people died in the city and in the countryside. As a result of two lean years, bread prices rose 100 times. According to contemporaries, almost a third of the population died in Russia during these years.

Boris Godunov, in search of a way out of the current situation, allowed the distribution of bread from state bins, allowed slaves to leave their masters and look for opportunities to feed themselves. But all these measures were unsuccessful. Rumors spread among the population that punishment had been extended to people for violating the order of succession to the throne, for the sins of Godunov, who had seized power. Mass uprisings began. The peasants united together with the urban poor into armed detachments and attacked the boyars and landowners' farms.

In 1603, an uprising of serfs and peasants broke out in the center of the country, led by Cotton Kosolap. He managed to gather significant forces and moved with them to Moscow. The uprising was brutally suppressed, and Khlopko was executed in Moscow. Thus began the first peasant war. In the peasant war of the early 17th century. three large periods can be distinguished: the first (1603 - 1605), the most important event of which was the Cotton uprising; the second (1606 - 1607) - a peasant uprising under the leadership of I. Bolotnikov; third (1608-1615) - the decline of the peasant war, accompanied by a number of powerful uprisings of peasants, townspeople, and Cossacks

During this period, False Dmitry I appeared in Poland, who received the support of the Polish gentry and entered the territory of the Russian state in 1604. He was supported by many Russian boyars, as well as the masses, who hoped to ease their situation after the “legitimate tsar” came to power. After the unexpected death of B. Godunov (April 13, 1605), False Dmitry, at the head of the army that had come over to his side, solemnly entered Moscow on June 20, 1605 and was proclaimed tsar.

Once in Moscow, False Dmitry was in no hurry to fulfill the obligations given to the Polish magnates, since this could hasten his overthrow. Having ascended the throne, he confirmed the legislative acts adopted before him that enslaved the peasants. By making a concession to the nobles, he displeased the boyar nobility. Faith in the “good king” also disappeared among the masses. Discontent intensified in May 1606, when two thousand Poles arrived in Moscow for the wedding of the impostor with the daughter of the Polish governor Marina Mniszech. In the Russian capital, they behaved as if they were in a conquered city: they drank, rioted, raped, and robbed.

On May 17, 1606, the boyars, led by Prince Vasily Shuisky, hatched a conspiracy, raising the population of the capital to revolt. False Dmitry I was killed.

2. 1606-1610 This stage is associated with the reign of Vasily Shuisky, the first “boyar tsar”. He ascended the throne immediately after the death of False Dmitry I by decision of Red Square, giving a kiss of the cross record of his good attitude towards the boyars. On the throne, Vasily Shuisky faced many problems (Bolotnikov's uprising, False Dmitry I, Polish troops, famine).

Meanwhile, seeing that the idea with impostors had failed, and using the conclusion of an alliance between Russia and Sweden as a pretext, Poland, which was at war with Sweden, declared war on Russia. In September 1609, King Sigismund III besieged Smolensk, then, having defeated the Russian troops, moved to Moscow. Instead of helping, Swedish troops captured Novgorod lands. This is how the Swedish intervention began in northwestern Russia.

Under these conditions, a revolution took place in Moscow. Power passed into the hands of a government of seven boyars (“Seven Boyars”). When the Polish troops of Hetman Zholkiewski approached Moscow in August 1610, the boyar rulers, fearing a popular uprising in the capital itself, in an effort to preserve their power and privileges, committed treason to their homeland. They invited 15-year-old Vladislav, the son of the Polish king, to the Russian throne. A month later, the boyars secretly allowed Polish troops into Moscow at night. This was a direct betrayal of national interests. The threat of foreign enslavement loomed over Russia.

3. 1611-1613 Patriarch Hermogenes in 1611 initiated the creation of a zemstvo militia near Ryazan. In March it besieged Moscow, but failed due to internal divisions. The second militia was created in the fall, in Novgorod. It was headed by K. Minin and D. Pozharsky. Letters were sent to cities calling for support for the militia, whose task was to liberate Moscow from the invaders and create a new government. The militia called themselves free people, headed by the zemstvo council and temporary orders. On October 26, 1612, the militia managed to take the Moscow Kremlin. By decision of the boyar duma, it was dissolved.

Results of the Troubles:

1. The total number of deaths is equal to one third of the country's population.

2. Economic catastrophe, the financial system and transport communications were destroyed, vast territories were taken out of agricultural use.

3. Territorial losses (Chernigov land, Smolensk land, Novgorod-Seversk land, Baltic territories).

4. Weakening the position of domestic merchants and entrepreneurs and strengthening foreign merchants.

5. The emergence of a new royal dynasty On February 7, 1613, the Zemsky Sobor elected 16-year-old Mikhail Romanov. He had to solve three main problems - restoring the unity of the territories, restoring the state mechanism and economy.

As a result of peace negotiations in Stolbov in 1617, Sweden returned the Novgorod land to Russia, but retained the Izhora land with the banks of the Neva and the Gulf of Finland. Russia has lost its only access to the Baltic Sea.

In 1617 - 1618 Poland's next attempt to seize Moscow and elevate Prince Vladislav to the Russian throne failed. In 1618, in the village of Deulino, a truce with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was signed for 14.5 years. Vladislav did not renounce his claims to the Russian throne, citing the treaty of 1610. The Smolensk and Seversky lands remained behind the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Despite the difficult conditions of peace with Sweden and the truce with Poland, a long-awaited respite came for Russia. The Russian people defended the independence of their Motherland.

While the rulers of the old dynasty, direct descendants of Rurik, were on the Moscow throne, the population for the most part obeyed their rulers. But when the dynasties ceased and the state turned out to be a nobody's, there was fermentation in the population, both in the lower classes and in the upper ones.

The upper stratum of the Moscow population, the boyars, economically weakened and morally humiliated by the policies of Ivan the Terrible, began a struggle for power.

There are three periods in the Time of Troubles. The first is dynastic, the second is social and the third is national.

The first includes the time of struggle for the Moscow throne between various contenders up to and including Tsar Vasily Shuisky.

First period

The first period of the Time of Troubles (1598-1605) began with a dynastic crisis caused by the murder of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible of his eldest son Ivan, the rise to power of his brother Fyodor Ivanovich and the death of their younger half-brother Dmitry (according to many, he was stabbed to death by the minions of the de facto ruler of the country, Boris Godunov). After the death of Ivan the Terrible and his sons, the struggle for power intensified even more. As a result, Boris Godunov, the brother of Tsar Fedor’s wife, became the de facto ruler of the state. In 1598, the childless Tsar Fedor also died, and with his death the dynasty of the Rurik princes, which ruled Russia for 700 years, ended.

A new king had to be elected to rule the country, with whose arrival a new reigning house would be erected on the throne. This is the Romanov dynasty. However, before the Romanov dynasty gained power, it had to go through difficult trials, these were the years of the Time of Troubles. After the death of Tsar Fedor, the Zemsky Sobor elected Boris Godunov (1598-1605) as Tsar. In Rus', for the first time, a king appeared who received the throne not by inheritance.

Boris Godunov was a talented politician; he strove to unite the entire ruling class and did a lot to stabilize the situation in the country, but he was unable to stop the intrigues of the disgruntled boyars. Boris Godunov did not resort to mass terror, but dealt only with his real enemies. Under Godunov, the new cities of Samara, Saratov, Tsaritsyn, Ufa, and Voronezh arose.

The famine of 1601-1603, caused by prolonged crop failures, caused enormous damage to the country's economy. This undermined the Russian economy, people died of hunger, and cannibalism began in Moscow. Boris Godunov is trying to suppress a social explosion. He began distributing bread for free from state reserves and established fixed prices for bread. But these measures were not successful, because bread distributors began to speculate on it; moreover, the reserves could not be enough for all the hungry, and the restriction on the price of bread led to the fact that they simply stopped selling it. In Moscow, about 127 thousand people died during the famine; not everyone had time to bury them, and the bodies of the dead remained on the streets for a long time.

The people decide that hunger is the curse of God, and Boris is Satan. Gradually, rumors spread that Boris Godunov ordered the murder of Tsarevich Dmitry, then they remembered that the Tsar was a Tatar.

The famine also led to an outflow of the population from the central regions to the outskirts, where self-governing communities of the so-called free Cossacks began to emerge. Famine led to uprisings. In 1603, a major uprising of slaves began (the Cotton uprising), which covered a large territory and became the prologue to the peasant war.

External reasons were added to the internal ones: Poland and Lithuania, united in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, rushed to take advantage of Russia’s weakness. The aggravation of the internal political situation led, in turn, to a sharp decline in Godunov’s prestige not only among the masses, but also among the feudal lords.

In these difficult conditions, a young Galich nobleman, Grigory Otrepyev, appeared in Rus', declaring himself for Tsarevich Dmitry, who had long been considered dead in Uglich. He showed up in Poland, and this became a gift to King Sigismund III, who supported the impostor. The impostor's agents vigorously disseminated in Rus' the version of his miraculous salvation from the hands of assassins sent by Godunov, and proved the legality of his right to his father's throne. This news led to confusion and confusion in all layers of society, in each of which there were many dissatisfied with the rule of Tsar Boris. The Polish magnates who stood under the banner of False Dmitry provided some assistance in organizing the adventure. As a result, by the autumn of 1604, a sufficiently powerful army had been formed to march on Moscow. At the end of 1604, having converted to Catholicism, False Dmitry I entered Russia with his army. Many cities in southern Russia, Cossacks, and dissatisfied peasants went over to his side.

False Dmitry's forces grew rapidly, cities opened their gates to him, peasants and townspeople joined his troops. False Dmitry moved on the wave of the outbreak of the peasant war. After the death of Boris Godunov, the governors began to go over to the side of False Dmitry, and Moscow also went over, where he solemnly entered on June 20, 1605 and was crowned king on June 30, 1605.

It turned out to be easier to achieve access to the throne than to stay on it. The support of the people, it seemed, was supposed to strengthen his position on the throne. However, the situation in the country turned out to be so difficult that, with all his abilities and good intentions, the new king was unable to resolve the tangle of contradictions.

By refusing to fulfill his promises to the Polish king and the Catholic Church, he lost the support of external forces. The clergy and boyars were alarmed by his simplicity and elements of “Westernism” in his views and behavior. As a result, the impostor never found support in the political elite of Russian society.

In addition, in the spring of 1606, he announced a call for service and began to prepare for a campaign against the Crimea, which caused discontent among many service people. The position of the lower classes of society did not improve: serfdom and heavy taxes remained. Soon everyone was dissatisfied with the rule of False Dmitry: peasants, feudal lords and the Orthodox clergy.

The boyar conspiracy and the uprising of Muscovites on May 17, 1606, dissatisfied with the direction of his policy, swept him from the throne. False Dmitry and some of his associates were killed. Two days later, the tsar “shouted out” the boyar Vasily Shuisky, who gave the cross-kissing record to rule with the Boyar Duma, not to impose disgrace and not to execute without trial. Shuisky's accession to the throne served as a signal of general unrest.

Thus, during the Time of Troubles, 3 main periods are distinguished:

Dynastic;

Social;

National.

In this paragraph, we examined the first stage of the turmoil, which is characterized, first of all, by the “death” of the old dynasty of kings and the impossibility of choosing a new ruler based on the principle of patrimonial inheritance of the throne. In this regard, dissatisfaction with the ruler begins to grow among all segments of the population, supported by crises in many sectors of the state. Which leads to the change of one king to another, but this does not solve the main problems and then the turmoil continues to flare up with even greater force.

The Time of Troubles is a period in the history of Russia from 1598 to 1613, when kings often changed on the throne, there were wars and uprisings one after another, the state was in anxiety, despondency, economic and organizational crisis.

The time of troubles began with the death of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. His heirs Fedor I Ioanovich and Dmitry did not have the ability to rule. The first is due to character, the second is due to childhood. Boyar families entered the historical stage and began the struggle for primacy and the throne. In 1598, Boris Godunov was declared tsar...

Chronicles of Troubled Times

1591 - Tsarevich Dmitry died in Uglich for an unknown reason
1597 - peasants are finally attached to the land, enslaved
1598 - Tsar Fyodor Ioanovich died, Godunov took his place
1601-1603 - lean years, epidemics. Entire villages and cities were empty.
Popular riots, rampant banditry. People blamed the new tsar for the troubles; he was blamed for the death of Dmitry
1601 - a man appeared in Poland who proclaimed himself the same killed Dmitry, the so-called False Dmitry I in history (real name Grigory Bogdanovich Otrepiev)
1604, August 15 - False Dmitry at the head of the Polish army moved to Moscow
1605, April 13 - Boris Godunov died
1605, June 20 - Poles entered Moscow
1606, May 17 - False Dmitry was killed by rebel Muscovites, the riot was organized by the minions of Vasily Shuisky.
1606, June 1 - Boyar V. Shuisky was elevated to the throne
1606, September - powerful uprising of the Cossacks under the leadership of I. Bolotnikov
End of 1606 - beginning of 1607 - Bolotnikov’s uprising was suppressed by the troops of the governor M. Skopin-Shuisky
1607 - appearance of False Dmitry II (“Tushinsky Thief”)
1608 - under the rule of False Dmitry II Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Uglich, Kostroma, Galich, Vologda
1607-1608 - the neighbors of Rus', the Polish-Lithuanian state, the Nogai Horde and the Crimean Khanate, ravaged and captured the border Russian lands
1609-1610 - Russian-Polish wars, in which troops and False Dmitry II participated
1610, summer - Vasily Shuisky was removed from power. She was taken by a council of seven boyars, and the so-called Seven Boyars began. The boyars recognized the Polish prince Vladislav as king. On September 20-21, Polish troops entered Moscow.
1610, autumn - detachments of False Dmitry II liberated Kozelsk and nearby towns from the Poles.
1610, December 11 - False Dmitry II died
1611 - The Poles captured Smolensk, the Swedes ruled in the north of Rus', the Crimean Tatars ravaged Ryazan.
1611, spring - formation of the first Militia of P. P. Lyapunov
1611, September - formation of the second militia of K. Minin and D. Pozharsky in Nizhny Novgorod
1612, November 4 - the militia of Minin and Pozharsky liberated Moscow from the Poles
1613 - The Zemsky Sobor chose Mikhail Romanov as Tsar - the first in the new dynasty
Until 1618, Rus' was periodically attacked by the Swedes, the Zaporozhye Cossacks, and the Poles

Consequences of troubled times

- Russia has lost access to the Baltic Sea
- The entire Baltic region ended up in the hands of Sweden
- Novgorod was ravaged
- Economic life was in decline: the size of cultivated land decreased, the number of peasants decreased
- The population of Russia has decreased significantly

Was a baby. With the death of Dmitry (1591) and Fedor (1598), the ruling dynasty came to an end, and boyar families came onto the scene - the Zakharyins - (Romanovs), Godunovs. In 1598, Boris Godunov was elevated to the throne.

False Dmitry I

The beginning of the Time of Troubles refers to the intensification of rumors that the legitimate Tsarevich Dmitry was alive, from which it followed that the reign of Boris Godunov was illegal and not pleasing to God. The impostor False Dmitry, who announced his royal origin to the Lithuanian prince Adam Vishnevetsky, entered into close relations with the Polish magnate, governor of Sandomierz Jerzy Mniszek and the papal nuncio Rangoni. At the beginning of 1604, the impostor received an audience with the Polish king and soon converted to Catholicism. King Sigismund recognized the rights of False Dmitry to the Russian throne and allowed everyone to help the “prince.” For this, False Dmitry promised to transfer Smolensk and the Seversky lands to Poland. For the consent of the governor Mnishek to the marriage of his daughter with False Dmitry, he also promised to transfer Novgorod and Pskov to his bride. Mniszech equipped the impostor with an army consisting of Zaporozhye Cossacks and Polish mercenaries (“adventurers”). In 1604, the impostor’s army crossed the Russian border, many cities (Moravsk, Chernigov, Putivl) surrendered to False Dmitry, the army of the Moscow governor Fyodor Mstislavsky was defeated in the battle of Novgorod-Seversky. However, another army sent by Godunov against the impostor won a convincing victory in the battle of Dobrynichi on January 21, 1605. The most noble boyar, Vasily Shuisky, commanded the Moscow army. The Tsar summoned Shuisky to generously reward him. A new governor was placed at the head of the army - Pyotr Basmanov. This was Godunov’s mistake, since it soon turned out that the impostor was alive, and Basmanov was an unreliable servant. At the height of the war, Boris Godunov died (April 13, 1605); Godunov's army, besieging Kromy, almost immediately betrayed his successor, 16-year-old Fyodor Borisovich, who was overthrown on June 1 and killed along with his mother on June 10.

On June 20, 1605, amid general jubilation, the impostor solemnly entered Moscow. The Moscow boyars, led by Bogdan Belsky, publicly recognized him as the legal heir and Prince of Moscow. On June 24, Ryazan Archbishop Ignatius, who confirmed Dmitry’s rights to the kingdom back in Tula, was elevated to patriarch. The legitimate Patriarch Job was removed from the patriarchal see and imprisoned in a monastery. On July 18, Queen Martha, who recognized the impostor as her son, was brought to the capital, and soon, on July 30, False Dmitry I was crowned king.

The reign of False Dmitry was marked by an orientation toward Poland and some attempts at reform. Not all of the Moscow boyars recognized False Dmitry as the legitimate ruler. Almost immediately upon his arrival in Moscow, Prince Vasily Shuisky, through intermediaries, began to spread rumors about imposture. Voivode Pyotr Basmanov uncovered the plot, and on June 23, 1605, Shuisky was captured and sentenced to death, pardoned only directly at the chopping block.

Shuisky attracted princes V.V. Golitsyn and I.S. Kurakin to his side. Having secured the support of the Novgorod-Pskov detachment stationed near Moscow, which was preparing for a campaign against the Crimea, Shuisky organized a coup.

On the night of May 16-17, 1606, the boyar opposition, taking advantage of the embitterment of Muscovites against the Polish adventurers who came to Moscow for the wedding of False Dmitry, raised an uprising, during which the impostor was brutally killed. The coming to power of the representative of the Suzdal branch of the Rurikovich boyar Vasily Shuisky did not bring peace. In the south, the uprising of Ivan Bolotnikov (1606-1607) broke out, giving rise to the beginning of the “thieves” movement.

The uprising of Ivan Bolotnikov

No sooner had the impostor’s corpse been removed from Red Square than rumors spread throughout Moscow that it was not Dmitry who was killed in the palace, but someone else. These rumors immediately made Vasily Shuisky’s position very precarious. There were many dissatisfied with the boyar tsar, and they seized on the name of Dmitry. Some - because they sincerely believed in his salvation; others - because only this name could give the fight against Shuisky a “legitimate” character. Soon the movement was led by Ivan Bolotnikov. In his youth he was a military servant of Prince Telyatevsky. During the campaign he was captured by the Crimean Tatars. Then he was sold into slavery in Turkey. During the naval battle, Bolotnikov managed to free himself. He fled to Venice. On his way from Italy to his homeland, Bolotnikov visited the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Here, from the hands of his colleague False Dmitry I, he received a letter appointing him chief commander in the “royal” army. Believing in the “true tsar,” Bolotnikov moved from Putivl to Moscow. In the fall of 1606, having defeated several royal detachments, the rebels approached Moscow and settled in the village of Kolomenskoye. Crowds of people flocked to Bolotnikov’s camp, dissatisfied with Tsar Vasily Shuisky. The siege of Moscow lasted five weeks. Unsuccessful attempts to take the city ended with several noble detachments, including a large detachment of Prokopiy Lyapunov, going over to the side of Vasily Shuisky. Muscovites and persistent supporters of Bolotnikov about the “second miraculous salvation of Dmitry” were alienated. In the decisive battle of Kolomenskoye in December 1606, Bolotnikov’s weakened troops were defeated and retreated to Kaluga and Tula. In Kaluga, Bolotnikov quickly put the city fortifications in order. The approaching army led by the governor Vasily Shuisky not only failed to take the city, but also suffered a severe defeat. Tula became another center. A detachment from the Volga region, led by another impostor - “Tsarevich Peter,” allegedly the son of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, arrived to help Bolotnikov. Vasily Shuisky managed to gather a large army. He was able to do this thanks to serious concessions to the nobility. In the battle of Kashira in May 1607, Bolotnikov’s troops were defeated. Their remnants took refuge behind the fortress walls of Tula. The siege of the city lasted about four months. Having made sure that Tula could not be taken with weapons, Vasily Shuisky ordered the construction of a dam on the Upa River. The rising waters flooded part of the city. Famine began in Tula. On October 10, 1607, Ivan Bolotnikov laid down his arms, believing the tsar’s promise to save his life. But Vasily Shuisky brutally dealt with the leaders of the movement. Bolotnikov was exiled to a monastery, where he was soon blinded and drowned. "Tsarevich Peter" was hanged. However, most of the rebels were released.

False Dmitry II

Rumors about the miraculous salvation of Tsarevich Dmitry did not subside. In the summer of 1607, a new impostor appeared in Starodub, who went down in history as False Dmitry II or the “Tushino Thief” (after the name of the village of Tushino, where the impostor camped when he approached Moscow) (1607-1610). By the end of 1608, the power of False Dmitry II extended to Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Uglich, Kostroma, Galich, Vologda. Of the large centers, Kolomna, Pereyaslavl-Ryazansky, Smolensk, Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan remained loyal to Moscow. As a result of the degradation of the border service, the 100,000-strong Nogai Horde ravaged the “Ukraines” and the Seversky lands in 1607-1608.

The government of Vasily Shuisky concludes the Vyborg Treaty with Sweden, according to which Korelsky district was transferred to the Swedish crown in exchange for military assistance. The Russian government also had to pay for the mercenaries who made up the majority of the Swedish army. Fulfilling his obligations, Charles IX provided a 5,000-strong detachment of mercenaries, as well as a 10,000-strong detachment of “all sorts of mixed-tribal rabble” under the command of J. Delagardi. In the spring, Prince Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky gathered a 5,000-strong Russian army in Novgorod. On May 10, Russian-Swedish forces occupied Staraya Russa, and on May 11 they defeated Polish-Lithuanian detachments approaching the city. On May 15, Russian-Swedish forces under Chulkov and Horn defeated the Polish cavalry under Kernozitsky at Toropets.

By the end of spring, most of the northwestern Russian cities had abandoned the impostor. By the summer, the number of Russian troops reached 20 thousand people. On June 17, in a difficult battle near Torzhok, Russian-Swedish forces forced the Polish-Lithuanian army of Zborovsky to retreat. On July 11-13, Russian-Swedish forces, under the command of Skopin-Shuisky and Delagardie, defeated the Poles near Tver. Swedish troops (with the exception of Christier Somme’s detachment of 1 thousand people) did not take part in Skopin-Shuisky’s further actions. On July 24, Russian troops crossed to the right bank of the Volga and entered the Makaryevsky Monastery, located in the city of Kalyazin. In the Battle of Kalyazin on August 19, the Poles under the command of Jan Sapieha were defeated by Skopin-Shuisky. On September 10, the Russians, together with Somme’s detachment, occupied Pereyaslavl, and on October 9, Voivode Golovin occupied Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda. On October 16, a Russian detachment broke into the Trinity-Sergius Monastery besieged by the Poles. On October 28, Skopin-Shuisky defeated Hetman Sapega in the battle on the Karinsky Field near Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda.

At the same time, using the Russian-Swedish treaty, the Polish king Sigismund III declared war on Russia and besieged Smolensk. Most of the Tushins left False Dmitry II and went to serve the king. Under these conditions, the impostor decided to escape and fled from Tushino to Kaluga, where he again strengthened himself and by the spring of 1610 he recaptured several cities from Shuisky.

Beginning of the Russian-Polish War

However, the population of many cities and villages did not recognize the Catholic prince as king and swore allegiance to False Dmitry II, including those who had previously stubbornly fought him: Kolomna, Kashira, Suzdal, Galich and Vladimir.

The real threat from the impostor forced the Seven Boyars to allow Polish-Lithuanian troops into the capital on the night of September 20-21 to repel the “thief.” But the impostor, warned by well-wishers, left the Kolomna camp and returned to Kaluga.

The robberies and violence committed by Polish-Lithuanian troops in Russian cities, as well as inter-religious contradictions between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, caused rejection of Polish rule - in the north-west and in the east a number of Russian cities “came under siege” and refused to recognize Vladislav as the Russian Tsar, swearing oath to loyalty to False Dmitry II. In September 1610, the impostor's troops liberated Kozelsk, Meshchovsk, Pochep and Starodub from Polish rule. At the beginning of December, False Dmitry II defeated the troops of Hetman Sapieha. But on December 11, as a result of a quarrel, the impostor was killed by Tatar guards.

A national liberation movement began in the country, which contributed to the formation of the First and Second Militia.

Militia

The first militia was headed by the Ryazan nobleman Prokopiy Lyapunov, who was joined by supporters of False Dmitry II: princes Dmitry Trubetskoy, Grigory Shakhovskoy, Masalsky, Cherkassky and others. The Cossack freemen, led by Ataman Ivan Zarutsky, also went over to the side of the militia.

The elections were very stormy. A legend has been preserved that Patriarch Filaret demanded restrictive conditions for the new king and pointed to his son as the most suitable candidate. It was indeed Mikhail Fedorovich who was chosen, and undoubtedly, he was offered those restrictive conditions that Filaret wrote about: “Give full justice to justice according to the old laws of the country; not to judge or condemn anyone by the highest authority; without a council, do not introduce any new laws, do not burden your subjects with new taxes, and do not make the slightest decisions in military and zemstvo affairs.”

The election took place on February 7, but the official announcement was postponed until the 21st, in order to find out during this time how the people would accept the new king. With the election of the king, the turmoil ended, since now there was power that everyone recognized and could rely on.

The Last Outbreaks of the Troubles

After the election of the Tsar, Rus' did not become calmer. On May 25, 1613, an uprising begins against the Swedish garrison in Tikhvin. The rebellious townspeople recaptured the fortifications of the Tikhvin Monastery from the Swedes and maintained a siege there until mid-September, forcing Delagardie's troops to retreat. With the successful Tikhvin uprising, the struggle for the liberation of North-Western Rus' and Veliky Novgorod from the Swedes begins.

In 1615, a large detachment of Pan Lisovsky invaded the very heart of Russia, which in the Orel region almost defeated Prince Pozharsky himself, the hero of the 2nd militia, taking advantage of the fact that part of his forces had not yet approached the city. Then the Lisovchiki (2 thousand people) made a deep raid, describing a giant loop around Moscow (via Torzhok, Uglich, Kostroma, Murom) and returning to Poland. The last unsuccessful blow to Moscow in 1618 was delivered by the Poles together with the Cossacks of Hetman Sagaidachny (20 thousand people).

The war with Sweden ended with the signing of the Stolbovo Peace Treaty in 1617, under the terms of which Russia lost access to the Baltic Sea, but the cities of Novgorod, Porkhov, Staraya Russa, Ladoga and Gdov were returned to it.

Consequences of the Time of Troubles

The Time of Troubles led to deep economic decline. In many districts of the historical center of the state, the size of arable land decreased by 20 times, and the number of peasants by 4 times. In the western districts (Rzhevsky, Mozhaisk, etc.) cultivated land ranged from 0.05 to 4.8%. The lands in the possessions of the Joseph-Volokolamsk monastery were “all completely ruined and the peasant women with their wives and children were flogged, and the rich ones were completely driven out... and about five or six dozen peasant women were left behind after the Lithuanian ruin, and they still don’t know how to start a loaf of bread for themselves after the ruin.” In a number of areas, even by the 20-40s of the 17th century, the population was still below the level of the 16th century. And in the middle of the 17th century, “living arable land” in the Zamoskovny region accounted for no more than half of all lands recorded in scribe books.

Periodization

The views of historians on the years of the beginning and end of the Troubles are different.

Start. The date of the beginning of the Troubles is determined in different ways:

1584 - year of death of Ivan the Terrible;
1591 - death of Tsarevich Dmitry in Uglich;
1598 - death of Fyodor Ioannovich or the beginning of the reign of Boris Godunov;
1604 - speech of the impostor.

Ending. The end dates of the Troubles also vary. Some historians believe that the Time of Troubles ended in 1613 with the Zemsky Sobor and the election of Mikhail Romanov. Others believe that the Troubles ended with the Deulin truce with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1618.

There are different views on the periodization of the Time of Troubles. Various periodizations follow from the principle underlying them.

By rulers:

1598‒1605 (Boris Godunov)
1605‒1606 Impostor (False Dmitry I)
1606‒1610 Dual power (False Dmitry II and Boyar Tsar Vasily Shuisky)
1610‒1613 Seven Boyars
1613‒1645 Romanov (Mikhail Romanov)

By the nature of external intervention

1598(1604)‒1609 Hidden stage
1609‒1618 Direct invasion

By the nature of power

1598‒1610 Boyar kings and impostors
1610‒1613 Seven Boyars and occupation
1613‒1618 "The People's King"

Films about the Troubles

Minin and Pozharsky ()
Boris Godunov ()
Boris Godunov ()
Troubles (2014)

Notes

Shmurlo E.F. History of Russia IX-XX centuries. - Moscow: Veche, 2005. - P. 154. - ISBN 5-9533-0230-4.

The deep crisis that gripped all areas of Russian society at the beginning of the 17th century spilled over into bloody conflicts and the struggle for independence.

Causes:

1. The most severe crisis in the country, which is connected with the reign of Ivan the Terrible.
2. Lost Western lands (Ivan - city, pit, Karelian).
3. Other states, Sweden, Poland, and England, actively intervene on land issues.
4. Social disagreements among different strata of society are intensifying (between the tsarist government and the boyars, boyars and nobles, feudal lords and peasants, feudal lords and the church).
5. Crisis in the dynasty.
6. Fyodor, the son of Ivan the Terrible, takes over the throne after the death of his father.
7. In Uglich, in 1591, Dmitry, the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, dies under unknown circumstances.
8. In 1598, Fedor dies, the dynasty of the house of Kalita is ended.

The main stages of the turmoil:

1598 – 1605. The decisive figure of that time was Boris Godunov. He was famous as a cruel politician. At the beginning of the 17th century, three years of famine killed hundreds of thousands of people. Historians claim that about one third of the Russian population died at this time. For the first time, the state came to the aid of those in need. Boris Godunov gave orders to issue bread and cash benefits and to limit bread prices. These measures did not produce any results. There were massive uprisings across the country.

A man appears, a fugitive monk Grigory Otrepiev, who introduces himself as the rescued Tsarevich Dmitry. Received in history the name False Dmitry 1. He organized a detachment in Poland, and in 1604 crossed the border with Russia. The common people saw in him a liberator from serfdom. In 1605, Boris Godunov dies. In 1606, False Dmitry was killed.

The second stage 1606 - 1610. Tsar Vasily Shuisky, nominated by the boyars, comes to power. Ivan Bolotnikov rebelled against him. Excitement united various social groups (Cossacks, peasants, serfs, nobles), winning victories in Tula, Kaluga, Yelets, Kashira. When moving towards Moscow they were defeated and retreated to Tula. In October 1607, the rebellion was suppressed. Shuisky brutally dealt with the leader and together with him executed 6 thousand rebels.

In July 1607, another adventurer False Dmitry 2 appears. He gathers a detachment that approaches the village of Tushino. The confrontation between the “Tushinsky thief” and Vasily Shuisky lasted for two years. With the help of the Swedish king, the king managed to cope with the impostor. False Dmitry 2 was killed in Kaluga by his own accomplice.

In the summer of 1610, the Swedes attacked Moscow and defeated the tsar’s army. The people openly expressed dissatisfaction with the authorities and overthrew Shuisky from the throne. The seven-boyar system was established. Moscow was occupied by the Poles. The country was threatened with loss of independence.

Third stage. 1611-1613. Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Hermogenes issued an appeal to the people, urging them to liberate Moscow. The first movement, led by Prokopiy Lyapunov, fell apart and the leader was killed. The second was headed by the zemstvo elder Minin and Prince Pozharsky, who in August 1612 approached captured Moscow. The Polish invaders found themselves without food. In October, Russia was liberated.

Results:

The country suffered great losses. More than one-third of the population died during the Troubles.
- Russia was in a position of economic catastrophe.
- Large losses of territory (Chernigov land, Smolensk, Novgorod-Seversk, Baltic states).
- A new Romanov dynasty has come to power.

Romanov Dynasty:

In January 1613, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov was elected by the Zemsky Sobor. He was 16 years old then. He and his famous descendants had the honor of solving 3 important problems for Russia:
- restoration of territories.
- restoration of state power.
- economic recovery.