13. Time of Troubles in Russia. Reasons, essence, results.
Causes of the Troubles
Ivan the Terrible had 3 sons. He killed the eldest in a fit of anger, the youngest was only two years old, the middle one, Fedor, was 27. After the death of Ivan IV, it was Fedor who had to rule. But Fyodor had a very soft character, he was not suitable for the role of a king. Therefore, during his lifetime, Ivan the Terrible created a regency council under Fyodor, which included I. Shuisky, Boris Godunov and several other boyars.
In 1584, Ivan IV died. Officially, Fyodor Ivanovich began to rule, in fact, Godunov. In 1591, Tsarevich Dmitry, the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, died. There are many versions of this event: one says that the boy himself ran into a knife, the other says that it was on the orders of Godunov that the heir was killed. A few more years later, in 1598, Fyodor also died, leaving no children behind.
So, the first reason for the unrest is the dynastic crisis. The last member of the Rurik dynasty has died.
The second reason is class contradictions. The boyars sought power, the peasants were dissatisfied with their position (they were forbidden to move to other estates, they were tied to the land).
The third reason is economic devastation. The country's economy was not doing well. In addition, every now and then there were crop failures in Russia. The peasants blamed the ruler for everything and periodically staged uprisings and supported the False Dmitrievs.
All this prevented the reign of any one new dynasty and worsened the already terrible situation.
Events of the Troubles
After the death of Fyodor, Boris Godunov (1598-1605) was elected tsar at the Zemsky Sobor.
He pursued a fairly successful foreign policy: he continued the development of Siberia and southern lands, and strengthened his position in the Caucasus. In 1595, after a short war with Sweden, the Treaty of Tyavzin was signed, which stated that Russia would return the cities lost to Sweden in the Livonian War.
In 1589, the patriarchate was established in Russia. This was a great event, since thanks to this the authority of the Russian Church increased. Job became the first patriarch.
But, despite Godunov’s successful policy, the country was in a difficult situation. Then Boris Godunov worsened the situation of the peasants by giving the nobles some benefits in relation to them. The peasants had a bad opinion of Boris (not only is he not from the Rurik dynasty, but he also encroaches on their freedom, the peasants thought that it was under Godunov that they were enslaved).
The situation was aggravated by the fact that the country experienced crop failure for several years in a row. The peasants blamed Godunov for everything. The king tried to improve the situation by distributing bread from the royal barns, but this did not help matters. In 1603-1604, the uprising of Khlopok took place in Moscow (the leader of the uprising was Khlopok Kosolap). The uprising was suppressed, the instigator was executed.
Soon, Boris Godunov had a new problem - rumors spread that Tsarevich Dmitry had survived, that it was not the heir himself who was killed, but his copy. In fact, it was an impostor (monk Gregory, in life Yuri Otrepiev). But since no one knew this, people followed him.
A little about False Dmitry I. He, having enlisted the support of Poland (and its soldiers) and promised the Polish Tsar to convert Russia to Catholicism and give Poland some lands, moved towards Russia. His goal was Moscow, and along the way his ranks increased. In 1605, Godunov died unexpectedly, Boris’s wife and his son were imprisoned upon the arrival of False Dmitry in Moscow.
In 1605-1606, False Dmitry I ruled the country. He remembered his obligations to Poland, but was in no hurry to fulfill them. He married a Polish woman, Maria Mniszech, and increased taxes. All this caused discontent among the people. In 1606, they rebelled against False Dmitry (the leader of the uprising was Vasily Shuisky) and killed the impostor.
After this, Vasily Shuisky (1606-1610) became king. He promised the boyars not to touch their estates, and also hastened to protect himself from the new impostor: he showed the remains of Tsarevich Dmitry to the people in order to suppress rumors about the surviving prince.
The peasants revolted again. This time it was called the Bolotnikov uprising (1606-1607) after the leader. Bolotnikov was appointed royal governor on behalf of the new impostor False Dmitry II. Those dissatisfied with Shuisky joined the uprising.
At first, luck was on the side of the rebels - Bolotnikov and his army captured several cities (Tula, Kaluga, Serpukhov). But when the rebels approached Moscow, the nobles (who were also part of the uprising) betrayed Bolotnikov, which led to the defeat of the army. The rebels retreated first to Kaluga, then to Tula. The tsarist army besieged Tula, after a long siege the rebels were finally defeated, Bolotnikov was blinded and soon killed.
During the siege of Tula, False Dmitry II appeared. At first he was heading with a Polish detachment to Tula, but upon learning that the city had fallen, he went to Moscow. On the way to the capital, people joined False Dmitry II. But they could not take Moscow, just like Bolotnikov, but stopped 17 km from Moscow in the village of Tushino (for which False Dmitry II was called the Tushino thief).
Vasily Shuisky called on the Swedes for help in the fight against the Poles and False Dmitry II. Poland declared war on Russia, False Dmitry II became unnecessary for the Poles, as they switched to open intervention.
Sweden helped Russia a little in the fight against Poland, but since the Swedes themselves were interested in conquering Russian lands, at the first opportunity (the failure of the troops led by Dmitry Shuisky) they got out of Russian control.
In 1610, the boyars overthrew Vasily Shuisky. A boyar government was formed - the Seven Boyars. Soon that same year, the Seven Boyars called the son of the Polish king, Vladislav, to the Russian throne. Moscow swore allegiance to the prince. This was a betrayal of national interests.
The people were outraged. In 1611, the first militia was convened, led by Lyapunov. However, it was not successful. In 1612, Minin and Pozharsky gathered a second militia and moved towards Moscow, where they united with the remnants of the first militia. The militia captured Moscow, the capital was liberated from the interventionists.
The end of the Time of Troubles. In 1613, a Zemsky Sobor was convened, at which a new tsar was to be chosen. The contenders for this place were the son of False Dmitry II, and Vladislav, and the son of the Swedish king, and finally, several representatives of the boyar families. But Mikhail Romanov was chosen as tsar.
Consequences of the Troubles:
Deterioration of the country's economic situation
Territorial losses (Smolensk, Chernigov lands, part of Corellia
Results of the Troubles
The results of the Time of Troubles were depressing: the country was in a terrible situation, the treasury was ruined, trade and crafts were in decline. The consequences of the Troubles for Russia were expressed in its backwardness compared to European countries. It took decades to restore the economy.
Start Time of Troubles in Russia brought about a dynastic crisis. In 1598, the Rurik dynasty was interrupted - the childless son of Ivan the Terrible, the feeble-minded Fyodor Ioannovich, died. Earlier, in 1591, under unclear circumstances, Grozny’s youngest son, Dmitry, died in Uglich. Boris Godunov became the de facto ruler of the state.
In 1601-1603, Russia suffered three consecutive lean years. The country's economy was affected by the consequences of the oprichnina, which led to the devastation of the lands. After a catastrophic defeat in the protracted Livonian War, the country found itself on the verge of collapse.
Boris Godunov, having come to power, was unable to overcome public unrest.
All of the above factors became the causes of the Time of Troubles in Russia at the beginning of the 17th century.
At this tense moment, impostors appear. False Dmitry I tried to pass himself off as the “resurrected” Tsarevich Dmitry. He relied on the support of the Poles, who dreamed of returning to their borders the Smolensk and Seversk lands, conquered from them by Ivan the Terrible.
In April 1605, Godunov died, and his 16-year-old son Fyodor Borisovich, who replaced him, was unable to retain power. The impostor Dmitry entered Moscow with his retinue and was crowned king in the Assumption Cathedral. False Dmitry agreed to give the western lands of Russia to the Poles. After marrying the Catholic Marina Mniszech, he proclaimed her queen. In May 1606, the new ruler was killed as a result of a conspiracy by the boyars led by Vasily Shuisky.
Vasily Shuisky took the royal throne, but he also could not cope with the seething country. Bloody unrest resulted in a people's war led by Ivan Bolotnikov in 1606-1607. A new impostor, False Dmitry II, has appeared. Marina Mnishek agreed to become his wife.
Polish-Lithuanian detachments set off with False Dmitry II on a campaign against Moscow. They stood up in the village of Tushino, after which the impostor received the nickname “Tushino Thief.” Using discontent against Shuisky, False Dmitry in the summer and autumn of 1608 established control over significant territories east, north and west of Moscow. Thus, a significant part of the country fell under the rule of the impostor and his Polish-Lithuanian allies. Dual power was established in the country. In fact, in Russia there were two kings, two Boyar Dumas, two systems of orders.
A Polish army of 20,000 under the command of Prince Sapieha laid siege to the walls of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery for a long 16 months. The Poles also entered Rostov Veliky, Vologda, and Yaroslavl. Tsar Vasily Shuisky called on the Swedes to help in the fight against the Poles. In July 1609, Prince Sapieha was defeated. The outcome of the battle was decided by joining the Russian-Swedish militia units. The “Tushino thief” False Dmitry II fled to Kaluga, where he was killed.
The treaty between Russia and Sweden gave the Polish king, who was at war with Sweden, a reason to declare war on Russia. A Polish army led by Hetman Zholkiewski approached Moscow and defeated Shuiski's troops. The king finally lost the trust of his subjects and was overthrown from the throne in July 1610.
Fearing the expansion of newly flared peasant unrest, the Moscow boyars invited the son of the Polish king Sigismund III, Vladislav, to the throne, and surrendered Moscow to Polish troops. It seemed that Russia had ceased to exist as a country.
However, the “great devastation” of the Russian land caused a widespread upsurge of the patriotic movement in the country. In the winter of 1611, the first people's militia was created in Ryazan, headed by the Duma nobleman Prokopiy Lyapunov. In March, the militia approached Moscow and began a siege of the capital. But the attempt to take Moscow ended in failure.
And yet a force was found that saved the country from foreign enslavement. The entire Russian people rose up in armed struggle against the Polish-Swedish intervention. This time, the center of the movement was Nizhny Novgorod, led by its zemstvo elder Kuzma Minin. Prince Dmitry Pozharsky was invited to become the head of the militia. Detachments were approaching Nizhny Novgorod from all sides, and the militia was quickly increasing its ranks. In March 1612 it moved from Nizhny Novgorod to. Along the way, new units joined the militia. In Yaroslavl they created the “Council of the Whole Earth” - a government made up of representatives of the clergy and the Boyar Duma, nobles and townspeople.
After four months in Yaroslavl, the militia of Minin and Pozharsky, which by that time had become a formidable force, set out to liberate the capital. In August 1612 it reached Moscow, and on November 4 the Polish garrison capitulated. Moscow was liberated. The troubles are over.
After the liberation of Moscow, letters were sent across the country convening a Zemsky Sobor to elect a new tsar. The cathedral opened at the beginning of 1613. It was the most representative cathedral in the history of medieval Russia, the first all-class cathedral in Russia. Even representatives of the townspeople and some peasants were present at the Zemsky Sobor.
The council elected 16-year-old Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov as tsar. Young Mikhail received the throne from the hands of representatives of almost all classes of Russia.
It was taken into account that he was a relative of Ivan the Terrible, which created the appearance of a continuation of the previous dynasty of Russian princes and tsars. The fact that Mikhail was the son of an influential political and church figure, Patriarch Filaret, was also taken into account.
From this time on, the reign of the Romanov dynasty began in Russia, which lasted a little over three hundred years - until February 1917.
Consequences of the Time of Troubles
The Time of Troubles led to deep economic decline. The events of this period led to the devastation and impoverishment of the country. 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.
The consequence of the turmoil was that Russia lost part of its lands.
Smolensk was lost for many decades; Western and significant parts of eastern Karelia were captured by the Swedes. Almost the entire Orthodox population, both Russians and Karelians, left these territories, unable to accept national and religious oppression. The Swedes left Novgorod only in 1617; only a few hundred residents remained in the completely devastated city. Rus' has lost access to the Gulf of Finland.
As a result of the events of the Time of Troubles, the greatly weakened Russian state found itself surrounded by strong enemies in the person of Poland and Sweden, and the Crimean Tatars became more active.
- The Time of Troubles began with a dynastic crisis. On January 6, 1598, Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich died, the last ruler from the family of Ivan Kalita who did not leave an heir. In the 10th – 14th centuries in Rus', such a dynastic crisis would have been resolved simply. The most noble prince Rurikovich, a vassal of the Moscow prince, would ascend the throne. Spain, France and other Western European countries would do the same. However, the princes Rurikovich and Gediminovich in the Moscow state for more than a hundred years ceased to be vassals and associates of the Grand Duke of Moscow, but became his slaves. Ivan III killed the famous Rurik princes in prisons without trial or investigation, even his loyal allies, to whom he owed not only the throne, but also his life. And his son, Prince Vasily, could already publicly allow himself to call the princes smerds and beat them with a whip. Ivan the Terrible staged a grandiose beating of the Russian aristocracy. The grandchildren and great-grandsons of the appanage princes, who were in favor under Vasily III and Ivan the Terrible, derogatorily distorted their names when signing letters. Fedor signed Fedka Dmitry - Dmitryashka or Mitka, Vasily - Vasko, etc. As a result, in 1598, these aristocrats in the eyes of all classes were serfs, albeit high-ranking and rich. This brought Boris Godunov, a completely illegitimate ruler, to power.
- False Dmitry I became in the past millennium the most successful and most famous impostor in the world and the first impostor in Russia.
- Medicine irrefutably proves that he was not the miraculously saved Tsarevich Dmitry. The prince suffered from epilepsy, and epilepsy never goes away on its own and cannot be treated even with modern means. But False Dmitry I never suffered from epileptic seizures, and he did not have the intelligence to imitate them. According to most historians, it was the fugitive monk Grigory Otrepiev.
- During his stay in Poland and the northern cities of Russia, False Dmitry never mentioned his mother Maria Nagaya, imprisoned in the Goritsky Resurrection Convent under the name of nun Martha. Having seized power in Moscow, he was forced, with the help of his “mother,” to prove that he was the miraculously saved Tsarevich Dmitry. Otrepiev knew about nun Marfa’s hatred of the Godunovs and therefore counted on her recognition. Suitably prepared, the queen rode out to meet her “son.” The meeting took place near the village of Taininskoye, 10 versts from Moscow. It was very well choreographed and took place on a field where several thousand people gathered. On the main road (Yaroslavskoye Highway), shedding tears, “mother” and “son” rushed into each other’s arms.
- The recognition and blessing of the impostor by Queen Mary (nun Martha) produced a huge propaganda effect. After the coronation, Otrepiev wanted to organize another such show - to solemnly destroy the grave of Tsarevich Dimitri in Uglich. The situation was comical - in Moscow, the son of Ivan the Terrible, Tsar Dimitri Ivanovich, reigns, and in Uglich, in the Transfiguration Cathedral, three hundred miles from Moscow, crowds of townspeople pray over the grave of the same Dimitri Ivanovich. It was quite logical to rebury the corpse of the boy lying in the Transfiguration Cathedral in some seedy cemetery corresponding to the status of the priest’s son, who was allegedly stabbed to death in Uglich. However, this idea was resolutely opposed by the same Martha, because we were talking about the grave of the real Dmitry, her only son.
- The militia of Minin and Pozharsky is unique in that it is the only example in Russian history when the fate of the country and state was decided by the people themselves, without the participation of the authorities as such. She then found herself completely bankrupt.
- The people donated their last pennies to armament and went to liberate the land and restore order in the capital. They didn’t go to fight for the Tsar - he was not there. The Ruriks are over, the Romanovs have not yet begun. All classes then united, all nationalities, villages, cities and metropolises.
- In September 2004, the Interregional Council of Russia took the initiative to celebrate November 4 at the state level as the day of the end of the Time of Troubles. The new “red day of the calendar” was not immediately and unambiguously accepted by Russian society.
The Time of Troubles occupies a serious place in the history of Russia. This is a time of historical alternatives. There are many nuances in this topic that are generally important for understanding and rapid assimilation. In this article we will look at some of them. Where to get the rest - see at the end of the article.
Causes of the Time of Troubles
The first reason (and the main one) is the suppression of the dynasty of the descendants of Ivan Kalita, the ruling branch of the Rurikovichs. The last king of this dynasty - Fyodor Ioannovich, son - died in 1598, and from that same time the period of the Time of Troubles in the history of Russia began.
The second reason - more the reason for the intervention during this period - is that at the end of the Livonian War, the Moscow state did not conclude peace treaties, but only truces: Yam-Zapolskoye with Poland and Plyusskoye with Sweden. The difference between a truce and a peace treaty is that the former is only a break in the war, and not its end.
Course of events
As you can see, we are analyzing this event according to the scheme recommended by me and other colleagues, about which you can.
The Time of Troubles began directly with the death of Fyodor Ioannovich. Because this is a period of “kinglessness,” of kinglessness, when impostors and generally random people ruled. However, in 1598, the Zemsky Sobor was convened and Boris Godunov, a man who had long and persistently walked to power, came to power.
The reign of Boris Godunov lasted from 1598 to 1605. At this time the following events occurred:
- The terrible famine of 1601 - 1603, the consequence of which was the rebellion of Cotton Crookshanks, and the mass exodus of the population to the south. And also dissatisfaction with the authorities.
- Speech of False Dmitry the First: from the autumn of 1604 to June 1605.
The reign of False Dmitry the First lasted one year: from June 1605 to May 1606. During his reign The following processes continued:
False Dmitry the First (aka Grishka Otrepiev)
The boyars grew dissatisfied with his rule, since False Dmitry did not respect Russian customs, married a Catholic, and began to distribute Russian lands as fiefs to the Polish nobility. In May 1606, the impostor was overthrown by the boyars led by Vasily Shuisky.
The reign of Vasily Shuisky lasted from 1606 to 1610. Shuisky was not even elected at the Zemsky Sobor. His name was simply “shouted”, so he “enlisted” the support of the people. In addition, he gave the so-called cross-kissing oath that he would consult with the boyar duma in everything. During his reign the following events occurred:
- The peasant war led by Ivan Isaevich Bolotnikov: from the spring of 1606 to the end of 1607. Ivan Bolotnikov acted as the governor of “Tsarevich Dmitry,” the Second False Dmitry.
- The campaign of False Dmitry II from the autumn of 1607 to 1609. During the campaign, the impostor was unable to take Moscow, so he sat down in Tushino. Dual power appeared in Russia. Neither side had the means to defeat the other side. Therefore, Vasily Shusky hired Swedish mercenaries.
- The defeat of the “Tushinsky Thief” by the troops of Swedish mercenaries led by Mikhail Vasilyevich Skopin-Shuisky.
- Intervention of Poland and Sweden in 1610. Poland and Sweden were at war at this time. Since Swedish troops, albeit mercenaries, were in Moscow, Poland had the opportunity to begin an open intervention, considering Muscovy an ally of Sweden.
- The overthrow of Vasily Shuisky by the boyars, as a result of which the so-called “seven boyars” appeared. The boyars de facto recognized the power of the Polish king Sigismund in Moscow.
Results of the Time of Troubles for the history of Russia
The first result The Troubles began with the election of a new reigning Romanov dynasty, which ruled from 1613 to 1917, which began with Mikhail and ended with Mikhail.
The second result the boyars began to die out. Throughout the 17th century, it lost its influence, and with it the old tribal principle.
Third result— devastation, economic, economic, social. Its consequences were overcome only by the beginning of the reign of Peter the Great.
Fourth result— instead of the boyars, the authorities relied on the nobility.
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Causes of the Troubles
Ivan the Terrible had 3 sons. He killed the eldest in a fit of anger, the youngest was only two years old, the middle one, Fedor, was 27. After the death of Ivan IV, it was Fedor who had to rule. But Fyodor had a very soft character, he was not suitable for the role of a king. Therefore, during his lifetime, Ivan the Terrible created a regency council under Fyodor, which included I. Shuisky, Boris Godunov and several other boyars.
In 1584, Ivan IV died. Officially, Fyodor Ivanovich began to rule, in fact, Godunov. In 1591, Tsarevich Dmitry, the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, died. There are many versions of this event: one says that the boy himself ran into a knife, the other says that it was on the orders of Godunov that the heir was killed. A few more years later, in 1598, Fyodor also died, leaving no children behind.
So, the first reason for the unrest is the dynastic crisis. The last member of the Rurik dynasty has died.
The second reason is class contradictions. The boyars sought power, the peasants were dissatisfied with their position (they were forbidden to move to other estates, they were tied to the land).
The third reason is economic devastation. The country's economy was not doing well. In addition, every now and then there were crop failures in Russia. The peasants blamed the ruler for everything and periodically staged uprisings and supported the False Dmitrievs.
All this prevented the reign of any one new dynasty and worsened the already terrible situation.
Events of the Troubles
After the death of Fyodor, Boris Godunov (1598-1605) was elected tsar at the Zemsky Sobor.
He pursued a fairly successful foreign policy: he continued the development of Siberia and southern lands, and strengthened his position in the Caucasus. In 1595, after a short war with Sweden, the Treaty of Tyavzin was signed, which stated that Russia would return the cities lost to Sweden in the Livonian War.
In 1589, the patriarchate was established in Russia. This was a great event, since thanks to this the authority of the Russian Church increased. Job became the first patriarch.
But, despite Godunov’s successful policy, the country was in a difficult situation. Then Boris Godunov worsened the situation of the peasants by giving the nobles some benefits in relation to them. The peasants had a bad opinion of Boris (not only is he not from the Rurik dynasty, but he also encroaches on their freedom, the peasants thought that it was under Godunov that they were enslaved).
The situation was aggravated by the fact that the country experienced crop failure for several years in a row. The peasants blamed Godunov for everything. The king tried to improve the situation by distributing bread from the royal barns, but this did not help matters. In 1603-1604, the uprising of Khlopok took place in Moscow (the leader of the uprising was Khlopok Kosolap). The uprising was suppressed, the instigator was executed.
Soon, Boris Godunov had a new problem - rumors spread that Tsarevich Dmitry had survived, that it was not the heir himself who was killed, but his copy. In fact, it was an impostor (monk Gregory, in life Yuri Otrepiev). But since no one knew this, people followed him.
A little about False Dmitry I. He, having enlisted the support of Poland (and its soldiers) and promised the Polish Tsar to convert Russia to Catholicism and give Poland some lands, moved towards Russia. His goal was Moscow, and along the way his ranks increased. In 1605, Godunov died unexpectedly, Boris’s wife and his son were imprisoned upon the arrival of False Dmitry in Moscow.
In 1605-1606, False Dmitry I ruled the country. He remembered his obligations to Poland, but was in no hurry to fulfill them. He married a Polish woman, Maria Mniszech, and increased taxes. All this caused discontent among the people. In 1606, they rebelled against False Dmitry (the leader of the uprising was Vasily Shuisky) and killed the impostor.
After this, Vasily Shuisky (1606-1610) became king. He promised the boyars not to touch their estates, and also hastened to protect himself from the new impostor: he showed the remains of Tsarevich Dmitry to the people in order to suppress rumors about the surviving prince.
The peasants revolted again. This time it was called the Bolotnikov uprising (1606-1607) after the leader. Bolotnikov was appointed royal governor on behalf of the new impostor False Dmitry II. Those dissatisfied with Shuisky joined the uprising.
At first, luck was on the side of the rebels - Bolotnikov and his army captured several cities (Tula, Kaluga, Serpukhov). But when the rebels approached Moscow, the nobles (who were also part of the uprising) betrayed Bolotnikov, which led to the defeat of the army. The rebels retreated first to Kaluga, then to Tula. The tsarist army besieged Tula, after a long siege the rebels were finally defeated, Bolotnikov was blinded and soon killed.
During the siege of Tula, False Dmitry II appeared. At first he was heading with a Polish detachment to Tula, but upon learning that the city had fallen, he went to Moscow. On the way to the capital, people joined False Dmitry II. But they could not take Moscow, just like Bolotnikov, but stopped 17 km from Moscow in the village of Tushino (for which False Dmitry II was called the Tushino thief).
Vasily Shuisky called on the Swedes for help in the fight against the Poles and False Dmitry II. Poland declared war on Russia, False Dmitry II became unnecessary for the Poles, as they switched to open intervention.
Sweden helped Russia a little in the fight against Poland, but since the Swedes themselves were interested in conquering Russian lands, at the first opportunity (the failure of the troops led by Dmitry Shuisky) they got out of Russian control.
In 1610, the boyars overthrew Vasily Shuisky. A boyar government was formed - the Seven Boyars. Soon that same year, the Seven Boyars called the son of the Polish king, Vladislav, to the Russian throne. Moscow swore allegiance to the prince. This was a betrayal of national interests.
The people were outraged. In 1611, the first militia was convened, led by Lyapunov. However, it was not successful. In 1612, Minin and Pozharsky gathered a second militia and moved towards Moscow, where they united with the remnants of the first militia. The militia captured Moscow, the capital was liberated from the interventionists.
The end of the Time of Troubles
In 1613, a Zemsky Sobor was convened, at which a new tsar was to be chosen. The contenders for this place were the son of False Dmitry II, and Vladislav, and the son of the Swedish king, and finally, several representatives of the boyar families. But Mikhail Romanov was chosen as tsar.
Consequences of the Troubles:
- Deterioration of the country's economic situation
- Territorial losses (Smolensk, Chernigov lands, part of Corellia
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
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.
Second period
The second period (1606-1610) is characterized by the internecine struggle of social classes and the intervention of foreign governments in this struggle. In 1606-1607 There is an uprising led by Ivan Bolotnikov.
Meanwhile, in Starodub (in the Bryansk region) in the summer of 1607, a new impostor appeared, declaring himself the escaped “Tsar Dmitry.” His personality is even more mysterious than his predecessor. Some consider False Dmitry II to be Russian by origin, coming from a church environment, others - a baptized Jew, a teacher from Shklov.
According to many historians, False Dmitry II was a protege of the Polish king Sigismund III, although not everyone supports this version. The bulk of the armed forces of False Dmitry II were Polish nobles and Cossacks - the remnants of P. Bolotnikov's army.
In January 1608 he moved to Moscow. Having defeated Shuisky's troops in several battles, by the beginning of June False Dmitry II reached the village of Tushina near Moscow, where he settled in camp. In essence, dual power arose in the country: Vasily Shuisky sent out his decrees from Moscow, and False Dmitry sent his decrees from Tushin. As for the boyars and nobles, many of them served both sovereigns: they either went to Tushino for ranks and lands, or returned to Moscow, expecting awards from Shuisky.
The growing popularity of “The Tushino Thief” was facilitated by the recognition of his husband by the wife of False Dmitry I, Marina Mnishek, who, obviously, not without the influence of the Poles, took part in the adventure and arrived in Tushino.
In the camp of False Dmitry, as already noted, Poles-mercenaries initially played a very large role. The impostor asked the Polish king for open help, but in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth there were then internal turmoil, and the king was afraid to start an outright big war with Russia. Sigismund III continued his hidden interference in Russian affairs. In general, in the summer and autumn of 1608, the successes of the Tushino residents rapidly increased. Almost half of the country - from Vologda to Astrakhan, from Vladimir, Suzdal, Yaroslavl to Pskov - supported “Tsar Dmitry”. But the excesses of the Poles and the collection of “taxes” (it was necessary to support the army and in general the entire Tushino “yard”), which were more like robberies, led to the population’s insight and the beginning of a spontaneous struggle with the Tushino thief. At the end of 1608 - beginning of 1609. Actions against the impostor began, initially in the northern lands, and then in almost all cities in the middle Volga. Shuisky, however, was afraid to rely on this patriotic movement. He sought help abroad. The second period of the Troubles is associated with the split of the country in 1609: two kings, two Boyar Dumas, two patriarchs, territories recognizing the power of False Dmitry II, and territories remaining loyal to Shuisky were formed in Muscovy.
In February 1609, the Shuisky government entered into an agreement with Sweden, counting on assistance in the war with the “Tushino thief” and his Polish troops. Under this agreement, Russia gave Sweden the Karelian volost in the North, which was a serious political mistake. Swedish-Russian troops under the command of the Tsar’s nephew, Prince M.V. Skopin-Shuisky, inflicted a number of defeats on the Tushino people.
This gave Sigismund III a reason to switch to open intervention. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth began military operations against Russia. Taking advantage of the fact that there was virtually no central government in Russia and no army, in September 1609 Polish troops besieged Smolensk. By order of the king, the Poles who fought under the banner of “Tsar Dmitry Ivanovich” were to arrive at the Smolensk camp, which accelerated the collapse of the Tushino camp. False Dmitry II fled to Kaluga, where in December 1610 he was killed by his bodyguard.
Sigismund III, continuing the siege of Smolensk, moved part of his troops under the leadership of Hetman Zholkiewski to Moscow. Near Mozhaisk near the village. Klushino in June 1610, the Poles inflicted a crushing defeat on the tsarist troops, which completely undermined the prestige of Shuisky and led to his overthrow.
Meanwhile, the peasant war continued in the country, which was now waged by numerous Cossack detachments. The Moscow boyars decided to turn to the Polish king Sigismund for help. An agreement was concluded on the calling of Prince Vladislav to the Russian throne. At the same time, the conditions of V. Shuisky’s “cross-kissing record” were confirmed and the preservation of Russian orders was guaranteed. Only the question of Vladislav’s adoption of Orthodoxy remained unresolved. In September 1610, Polish troops led by the “vicar of Tsar Vladislav” Gonsevsky entered Moscow.
Sweden also launched aggressive actions. Swedish troops occupied a large part of northern Russia and were preparing to capture Novgorod. In mid-July 1611, Swedish troops captured Novgorod, then besieged Pskov, where the power of their emissaries was established.
During the second period, the struggle for power continued, and external forces were included in it (Poland, Sweden). In fact, the Russian state was divided into two camps, ruled by Vasily Shuisky and False Dmitry II. This period was marked by fairly large-scale military actions, as well as the loss of a large amount of land. All this took place against the backdrop of internal peasant wars, which further weakened the country and intensified the crisis.
Third period
The third period of the Time of Troubles (1610-1613) was primarily the time of the struggle of the Moscow people against foreign domination until the creation of a national government headed by M. F. Romanov. On July 17, 1610, Vasily Shuisky was overthrown from the throne, and on July 19, he was forcibly tonsured a monk. Before the election of the new Tsar, a government of “Prince F.I. Mstislavsky and his comrades” of 7 boyars (the so-called “Seven Boyars”) was established in Moscow. The boyars, led by Fyodor Mstislavsky, began to rule Russia, but they did not have the people's trust and could not decide which of them would rule. As a result, the Polish prince Vladislav, son of Sigismund III, was called to the throne. Vladislav needed to convert to Orthodoxy, but he was a Catholic and had no intention of changing his faith. The boyars begged him to come “to have a look,” but he was accompanied by a Polish army that captured Moscow. It was possible to preserve the independence of the Russian state only by relying on the people. In the fall of 1611, the first people's militia was formed in Ryazan, led by Prokopiy Lyapunov. But he failed to come to an agreement with the Cossacks and was killed in the Cossack circle. Tushino Cossacks again besieged Moscow. Anarchy scared all the boyars. On August 17, 1610, the Russian boyars entered into an agreement to call Prince Vladislav to the Russian throne. A great embassy was sent to King Sigismund III near Smolensk, headed by Metropolitan Philaret and Prince Vasily Golitsyn. During the period of the so-called interregnum (1610-1613), the position of the Moscow state seemed completely hopeless.
Since October 1610, Moscow was under martial law. The Russian embassy near Smolensk was taken into custody. On November 30, 1610, Patriarch Hermogenes called for a fight against the invaders. The idea of convening a national militia to liberate Moscow and Russia is maturing in the country.
Russia faced a direct threat of losing its independence. The catastrophic situation that developed at the end of 1610 stirred up patriotic sentiments and religious feelings, forced many Russian people to rise above social contradictions, political differences and personal ambitions. The weariness of all layers of society from the civil war and the thirst for order, which they perceived as the restoration of traditional foundations, also affected them. As a result, this predetermined the revival of tsarist power in its autocratic and Orthodox form, the rejection of all innovations aimed at its transformation, and the victory of conservative traditionalist forces. But only on this basis was it possible to unite society, overcome the crisis and achieve the expulsion of the occupiers.
In these tragic days, the church played a huge role, calling for the defense of Orthodoxy and the restoration of a sovereign state. The national liberation idea consolidated the healthy forces of society - the population of cities, service people and led to the formation of a national militia.
At the beginning of 1611, northern cities began to rise again to fight, Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod, and Trans-Volga cities joined them. The movement was led by the Ryazan nobleman Prokopiy Lyapunov. He moved his troops to Moscow, and Cossacks from the Kaluga camp that disintegrated after the death of False Dmitry II were brought there by Ivan Zarutsky and Prince Dmitry Trubetskoy. An anti-Polish uprising broke out in the capital itself.
The interventionists, on the advice of the traitorous boyars, set fire to the city. The main militia forces entered the city after the fire, and fighting began on the approaches to the Kremlin. However, the Russian army failed to achieve success. Internal contradictions began in the militia camp. The leaders of the Cossack detachments, Zarutsky and Trubetskoy, opposed Lyapunov’s attempts to establish a military organization for the militia. The so-called Zemsky verdict, which formulated the political program of the militia, provided for the strengthening of noble land ownership, the return of fugitive peasants to the nobles, among whom there were many who joined the ranks of the Cossacks.
The indignation of the Cossacks was skillfully fueled by the Poles. Lyapunov was killed. Many nobles and other people left the militia. Only detachments of Cossacks remained near Moscow, whose leaders took a wait-and-see attitude.
With the collapse of the first militia and the fall of Smolensk, the country came to the edge of the abyss. The Swedes, taking advantage of the country's weakness, captured Novgorod, besieged Pskov and began to vigorously impose the candidacy of the Swedish prince Karl Philip on the Russian throne. Sigismund III announced that he himself would become the Russian Tsar, and Russia would join the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. There was virtually no central government. Different cities independently decided who they would recognize as ruler. A new impostor has appeared in the northwestern lands - False Dmitry III. The people of Pskov recognized him as a true prince and allowed him into the city (only in 1612 was he exposed and arrested). Detachments of Polish nobles wandered around the country and besieged cities and monasteries, mainly engaged in robbery. The Troubles reached the climax of its development. A real danger of enslavement loomed over the country.
Nizhny Novgorod became the center of consolidation of patriotic forces. The initiators of the formation of the new militia were the townspeople, led by the townsman, trader Kuzma Minin. The city council decided to raise funds “for the construction of military people.” Fundraising began with voluntary donations.
Sources say that Minin himself donated a significant part of his property to the treasury. An emergency military tax was introduced on all townsmen, depending on the condition of each. All this made it possible to arm the townspeople and stock up on necessary food.
Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, who was being treated for wounds received in a battle as part of Lyapunov’s militia, in the Suzdal estate, was invited as the chief governor. In addition to the Nizhny Novgorod townspeople, the new militia included nobles and townspeople from other cities of the Middle Volga region, Smolensk nobles who fled to the Nizhny Novgorod lands after the capture of Smolensk by the Poles.
Kolomna and Ryazan landowners, archers and Cossacks from outlying fortresses began to come to Pozharsky’s army. The put forward program: the liberation of the capital and the refusal to recognize a sovereign of foreign origin on the Russian throne, managed to rally representatives of all classes who abandoned narrow group claims for the sake of saving the Fatherland.
On February 23, 1612, the second militia set out from Nizhny Novgorod to Balakhna, and then moved along the route Yuryevets - Kostroma - Yaroslavl. All cities and counties along the way joined the militia. Several months of stay in Yaroslavl finally formed the second militia. The “Council of the Whole Land” was created (something like the Zemsky Sobor), which included representatives of all classes, although representatives of the townspeople and the nobility still played the leading role.
The Council was headed by the leaders of the militia, Pozharsky, who was in charge of military issues, and Minin, who was in charge of finances and supplies. In Yaroslavl, the main orders were restored: experienced clerks, who knew how to put the matter of administration on a sound basis, flocked here from near Moscow, from the provinces. The military activities of the militias also expanded. The entire Volga region north of the country was cleared of invaders.
Finally, the long-awaited campaign against Moscow began. On July 24, 1612, Pozharsky’s advanced detachments entered the capital, and in August the main forces arrived, joining with the remnants of the troops of the first militia led by D. Trubetskoy. Under the walls of the Novodevichy Convent, a battle took place with the troops of Hetman Khotkevich, who was coming to the aid of the Poles besieged in Kitai-Gorod. The hetman's army suffered heavy losses and retreated, and on October 22, Kitay-Gorod was captured.
The Poles signed a surrender agreement. By the end of 1612, Moscow and its surroundings were completely cleared of occupiers. Sigismund's attempts to change the situation led nowhere. His troops were defeated near Volokolamsk.
For some time, the “Council of the Whole Earth” continued to rule, and then at the beginning of 1613 a Zemsky Council was held, at which the question of choosing a new Russian Tsar was raised. The Polish prince Vladislav, the son of the Swedish king Karl Philip, the son of False Dmitry II and Marina Mnishek Ivan, as well as representatives of some of the largest boyar families were proposed as candidates for the Russian throne. On February 21, the cathedral chose Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, the 16-year-old great-nephew of Ivan the Terrible’s first wife, Anastasia Romanova. Why did you choose him? Researchers argue that, apparently, three circumstances played a decisive role in Mikhail’s choice. He was not involved in any of the adventures of the Time of Troubles, his reputation was clean. Therefore, his candidacy suited everyone. Moreover, Mikhail was young, inexperienced, quiet and modest. Many of the boyars and nobles close to the court hoped that the tsar would be obedient to their will. Finally, the family ties of the Romanovs with the Rurikovichs were also taken into account: Mikhail was the cousin of the last tsar from the Rurikovich dynasty, Fyodor Ivanovich. In the eyes of contemporaries, these family ties meant a lot. They emphasized the “godliness of the sovereign” and the legality of his accession to the throne. This, although indirectly, preserved the principle of the transfer of the Russian throne by inheritance. Thus, the election of the Romanovs to the kingdom promised universal consent and peace; this happened on February 21, 1613.
The Polish detachments remaining on Russian soil, having learned about the election of Mikhail Romanov to the kingdom, tried to seize him in his ancestral Kostroma possessions in order to free up the Russian throne for their king.
Making their way to Kostroma, the Poles asked the peasant of the village of Domnino, Ivan Susanin, to show the way. According to the official version, he refused and was tortured by them, and according to popular legend, Susanin agreed, but sent a warning to the king about the impending danger. And he himself led the Poles into a swamp, from which they were unable to get out.
Susanin's feat seemed to crown the general patriotic impulse of the people. The act of electing a tsar and then crowning him king, first in Kostroma and then in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, meant the end of the Time of Troubles. This is how the Romanov dynasty established itself in Russia, ruling the country for more than 300 years. When electing Michael to the throne, the council did not accompany its act with any agreement. Power acquired an autocratic-legitimate character. The Troubles are over. The difficult, slow reconstruction of the Russian state began, shaken by a deep dynastic crisis, severe social discord, complete economic collapse, famine, political disintegration of the country, and external aggression.
Thus, the third period of the Time of Troubles was marked as the final, turning point of the crisis. It was during this period of time that the accumulated fatigue of the people from the anarchic order in the country, as well as the threat from foreign conquerors, reached its apogee, which forced all classes to unite in the fight for their homeland. The Russian state was on the verge of destruction; in connection with the plans of the Polish king Sigismund III, it was supposed to become part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. However, the Swedes also had plans for the Russian throne. All this led to the creation of people's militias, and thus began the war of liberation from foreign occupiers, which ultimately ended with the expulsion of foreigners from Russian lands. Russia could no longer remain without a head of state, as a result it was necessary to make a decision on the choice of a tsar; ultimately, M. F. Romanov, who is a distant relative of the last Russian tsar from the Rurik dynasty, Fyodor Ivanovich, ascended the throne. Thereby preserving the principle of inheritance of the Russian throne. The Troubles were over, but all the years that it lasted brought the country to a very difficult state of affairs in all spheres of the state. In this chapter, we examined the main periods identified by scientists during the Time of Troubles, from its beginning to the accession of the Romanov dynasty to the Russian throne. In the next paragraph, we will analyze the consequences of the turmoil for the further development of the Russian state.