With the defeat of the latter's rebellious troops in 1607, the Time of Troubles entered a new, even more acute phase. The enemies of the Russian lands, during the reign of False Dmitry I, looked at the Muscovite kingdom as if from the inside. They became convinced that the Russian land, torn apart by contradictions, had lost its power and greatness. This inspired the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for a new military expansion.
Polish magnates were by no means distinguished by rich imagination and sophistication of mind. They followed the established pattern. A rumor was spread that False Dmitry I was not killed at all. He escaped from the boyars' wrath, fled from Moscow and safely reached Polish lands.
And indeed, already in 1607, many Poles saw the legitimate Russian Tsar “rise from the dead.” False Dmitry II or Tushinsky thief - this is how this impostor is usually called.
Who is he, where did he come from? Here the opinions of researchers differ. Many consider him the priest’s son Matvey Verevkin. The impostor himself first identified himself as Andrei Nagim, a relative of the murdered Tsarevich Dmitry.
Apparently a certain circle of people thought that he should not be a relative, but Dmitry himself - the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible. According to the official version, the Tsarevich died in 1591 in Uglich. At the time of his death he was only eight years old. The child, while playing, ran into a knife, which went straight into the unfortunate man’s throat.
Such an unusual death initially gave rise to rumors that the boy was killed on the orders of Boris Godunov, and subsequently a strong opinion emerged claiming that Dmitry did not die at all: he managed to escape and be buried for many years in Polish lands. False Dmitry I successfully used this legend, and after his execution, the Tushino thief took the initiative.
By the spring of 1608, adventurers of various stripes and shades had gathered around the newly-minted contender for the throne. All this motley crowd, naturally, would not have been able to capture Moscow and elevate the Tushinsky thief to the throne. But, as in the case of False Dmitry I, antipathy towards the new Tsar Vasily Shuisky played a decisive role.
False Dmitry II, at the head of a very small military unit, invades the territory of the Moscow state. Here, without encountering any serious resistance, he quickly marches towards Moscow.
The first battle with the tsarist troops takes place near the ancient Russian city of Kozelsk. The Tushino thief wins it. He also wins the next battle near the city of Bolkhov. But to take the capital, more serious military forces are needed.
This is understood both by the impostor himself and by those around him. At the beginning of summer, the rebels approach the capital city of Moscow, but do not dare to storm. This entire army is camped in Tushino. This is where the name Tushinsky thief came from.
Many Russian cities are gradually beginning to recognize the impostor. His authority is growing, but in order for everyone to believe in the amazing resurrection of the murdered False Dmitry I, it is necessary that the latter’s legal wife recognize the Tushinsky thief as her husband.
She was (1588-1614) the daughter of the Polish governor Jerzy Mniszek. In May 1606, she was solemnly crowned king. After the fall of False Dmitry I, the newly-crowned queen of the Russian land was exiled to Yaroslavl for two years.
It is quite possible to meet Maria Mniszek, since her short exile in Yaroslavl is over, and she, together with her father Jerzy Mniszek, is heading home under heavy security.
A large detachment of Kasimov Tatars gallops after those leaving. They take the Mnisheks prisoner and take them to Tushino. Here an agreement is concluded between the Tuszyn thief and Jerzy Mniszek. The impostor undertakes, after ascending the throne, to pay the father of his “legitimate wife” a huge sum of money and give over a dozen Russian cities to his undivided use.
The agreement is signed, the paper disappears in the Pole’s pocket, and Maria Mniszech “with a cry of joy” throws herself on the neck of her “resurrected” husband. This scene is repeated in front of many present. Popular rumor spreads the details to many cities and villages.
Following the rumor are the Polish, Tatar and Cossack detachments of the Tushino thief. They rob, kill, rape, that is, they behave like ordinary occupiers. The surge in popularity ends with its fall. Cities “go on the defensive,” and armed groups begin to form to counter the invaders.
The most serious resistance to the Tushino troops was provided by the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. Behind its powerful stone walls lay enormous ecclesiastical wealth. These were icons decorated with gold, crosses studded with diamonds, and other valuable utensils that cost a lot of money.
Sally of the defenders of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery
The monks of the monastery and the militia stood up to protect the Orthodox relics. They courageously repelled the furious attacks of the invaders thirsting for material wealth for eight long months. The superior enemy forces could not break the fortitude of the true sons of the Russian land. “Having broken his teeth on the monastery walls,” the enemy was forced to retreat in shame.
And during this time, in the northern regions of the country, the Tsar’s nephew Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky managed to assemble strong armed units. He led them against the Tushins and completely defeated the latter.
The marauding army fled in disgrace, leaving the newly-crowned autocrat to the mercy of fate. The Tushino thief was left with a small group of Cossacks and Kasimov Tatars. Kaluga gave them shelter. Here False Dmitry II found his last days.
He quarreled with the Tatar khan Uraz-Muhammad. The conflict went so far that the Tushino thief ordered the Tatar to be killed. The order was carried out exactly, which once again amused the pride of the contender for the throne.
But the impostor was not the right person for those around him to endure his arbitrariness without complaint. In December 1610, False Dmitry II was stabbed to death by the Tatar prince Urusov, a friend of the murdered khan.
With the death of the Tushino thief, another stage of the Time of Troubles ended. It should be noted right away that the man posing as Tsarevich Dmitry was a rather murky and dark personality. He appeared out of nowhere and went into nowhere, leaving the most unpleasant memories of himself.
Nowadays, the phrase “Tushinsky thief” has become a household word. This is the name given to people who occupy a high position and are devoid of any principles. For the sake of personal immediate gain, they sacrifice both the interests of the majority of citizens and the interests of the state. As a rule, these are puppets who carry out the will of others, and their actions are always aimed at harming society.
In the summer of 1607, a man appeared in Starodub who declared himself Tsarevich Dmitry, who miraculously escaped in the Kremlin in May 1606. This was False Dmitry 2. The Troubles did not end in this way, but only entered the most dashing part of its second phase. It is noteworthy that when Bolotnikov was surrounded in Tula, he sent letters throughout Russia and demanded that at least some Dmitry be announced. He was announced, but by that time Bolotnikov had already been drowned, and the unrest developed along a completely different line.
Personality of False Dmitry 2
If there is debate about the identity of the first impostor and it is really interesting who this person was, then absolutely no one is interested in who the second False Dmitry was. No one even made an attempt to find out his real identity. Apparently he was a baptized Jew, a cross-Jew. His comrades understood perfectly well that it was just a banner and nothing more. This is what his contemporaries write.
False Dmitry 2 was a mediocre, ignorant man, dirty and foul-mouthed, whom the Poles taught in vain good manners.
Historical reference
And apparently Marina Mnishek needed to have fantastic vanity in order to share a bed with such a person.
The army of the impostor and the march to Moscow
Who made up the striking force of the army of False Dmitry 2? These are the Russian lower classes, Polish and Lithuanian adventurers and mercenaries, Cossacks and, of course, the Zaporozhye Cossacks, led by their leader Ivan Zarutsky, Marina Mnishek’s favorite, with whom she gave birth to a child.
Having gathered a large army, False Dmitry 2 moved it to Moscow and here he defeated the royal army and approached the capital. But he could not take the capital and settled in the village of Tushino, in the Tushino camp. Hence his nickname - Tushinsky thief. It was in Tushino that the reign of False Dmitry 2 and his “gang” began.
Tushino camp
Tushino is 12 versts northwest of Moscow. Here their own Orders were created, boyars and conclusions appeared. And even their own patriarch appeared - Filaret Romanov, who would later say that he supposedly came to reconnoiter and was forcibly detained. Nothing like this. He could have left completely calmly. It’s just that the Romanovs were connected with both False Dmitrys. This was apparently part of their conspiracy. Therefore, you should not believe Filaret here.
The years 1608-1610 were marked by the so-called Tushino flights. This again, by the way, is dual power - Tushinsky the thief and Vasily Shuisky. How did this happen? Boyars and nobles passed from Vasily Shuisky to Tsar Dmitry several times. For example, they come from Vasily Shuisky to Dmitry - they receive an estate, a salary, and after 3 months they return to Shuisky and tearfully ask for forgiveness. They receive salary and estates from him, and after 3 months they move back. What is typical is that this very quickly ceased to surprise contemporaries, because the level of morality, including political morality, fell very low. People were just making money.
The end of the reign of False Dmitry 2
In the spring of 1609, Shuisky resorted to the help of the Swedish king and with a united army began a campaign against the Tushino camp. As soon as the Zaporozhye Cossack and Polish bandits learned that Sigismund 3 was coming, the Tushino camp disintegrated. He ceased to exist. False Dmitry 2 disguised himself as a peasant, buried himself in a cart with manure, and in this form he was taken to Kaluga. He sat there until 1610, when the Poles began to approach Moscow. False Dmitry 2 also went with them to Moscow.
In 1610, Polish troops entered Moscow. Having learned about this, a group of conspirators among the entourage of the Tushinsky thief killed False Dmitry 2 (December 11), because he now turned out to be unnecessary to anyone. This marked the end of the reign of False Dmitry 2, or rather of his bandit entourage.
In 1606-1610, Tsar Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky was on the Russian throne. The Shuiskys were the most distinguished Russian family and traced their origins to Alexander Nevsky.
Tsar Vasily came to power after a boyar conspiracy, during which the impostor False Dmitry, posing as the son of Ivan the Terrible, was killed. To get rid of rumors, Vasily ordered the relics of the real Dmitry to be solemnly transferred to Moscow from Uglich. The Church canonized this prince as a saint.
But even such measures did not help. Rumors arose among the people again that the priest’s son was killed then, and the real Dmitry was alive and well and hiding somewhere in order to, having accumulated strength, take revenge on Tsar Vasily.
The power of Vasily Shuisky was very shaky. He was elected to the throne by a few people and was essentially a boyar king. The stingy, cunning and treacherous old man did not enjoy any popularity among the people. In addition, the country was restless; gangs of troublemakers and robbers roamed the roads. The people were waiting for a new “deliverer”.
In the summer of 1606, an uprising broke out in southern Russia under the leadership of the former serf Ivan Bolotnikov. It burned for a whole year and covered a vast area. With great difficulty, the tsarist troops managed to suppress the unrest. Bolotnikov was executed.
Before Tsar Vasily had time to recover from the Bolotnikov turmoil, a new blow awaited him: the new “Tsar Dmitry” finally appeared. Having set out from Starodub-Seversky, an impostor unknown to anyone in July 1607 undertook a campaign against Bryansk and Tula. In May of the following year, the troops of False Dmitry II defeated the troops of Vasily Shuisky near Volkhov and came close to Moscow. The impostor set up camp in the village of Tushino near Moscow, for which he received the nickname “Tushino thief.” At that time, the word “thief” meant nothing more than a state criminal.
A dual power arose in the country: Tsar Vasily was unable to cope with the Tushins, and False Dmitry could not take Moscow. Military clashes did not produce results for either side.
In Tushino, False Dmitry II formed his government, which consisted of some Russian feudal lords and clerks. Even some boyars who were dissatisfied with Shuisky entered his service. Many Poles also arrived, including Marina Mnishek, the widow of the murdered False Dmitry I. She “recognized” the new impostor as her husband, but secretly married him according to the Catholic rite.
False Dmitry II did not possess the abilities of his predecessor and soon found himself a toy in the hands of Polish mercenaries. In fact, the Polish hetman Rozhinsky was at the head of the Tushino camp. By the fall of 1608, the Tushins had established control over a fairly extensive territory.
Meanwhile, the Polish king Sigismund III himself began military operations against Russia. He did not want to help the frivolous and riotous False Dmitry II, and hoped to place his son Vladislav on the Russian throne. In September 1609, Polish troops besieged Smolensk. The impostor was no longer needed by the interventionists. By order of the king, Polish troops left Tushino. Many Russian feudal lords who served False Dmitry also went to Sigismund III.
In December 1609, the impostor fled from Tushin to Kaluga. But six months later, when the Poles defeated the troops of Vasily Shuisky near Klushino, False Dmitry II again approached Moscow. An important event took place there: on July 17, 1610, Tsar Vasily was dethroned. Power passed to the boyar government - the “seven boyars”. It concluded an agreement with Sigismund III, recognized his son Vladislav as the Russian Tsar, and in September treacherously allowed the Polish army into Moscow.
With the advent of the second in 1607 Russian impostor who took the name Tsar Dmitry Ivanovich, a full-scale civil war began, engulfing the entire center of the country, putting Russia on the brink of destruction and leading to a foreign invasion.
In 17th century portraits False Dmitry II was portrayed as False Dmitry I, which, of course, is by no means accidental, since the new, second impostor was no longer posing as Tsarevich Dmitry, the son Ivan the Terrible, allegedly once saved in Uglich, but for “Tsar Dmitry” ( Grigory Otrepyev), on July 30, 1605, crowned king and supposedly miraculously escaped death on May 17, 1606 (many claimed that then his double was killed instead of the king).
Probably, in appearance, False Dmitry II really looked like his predecessor. As for everything else, the second impostor was the complete opposite of Grigory Otrepiev. Russian historian Sergey Platonov noted that False Dmitry I was in fact the leader of the movement he raised. “The thief [False Dmitry II], - the researcher emphasized, - came out of a drunken prison to do his job and declared himself king under pain of beatings and torture. It was not he who led the crowds of his supporters and subjects, but, on the contrary, they pulled him along in a spontaneous ferment, the motive of which was not the interest of the applicant, but the own interests of his troops.”
One of many
The first news of False Dmitry II dates back to the winter of 1607, when a pretender to the name of the miraculously saved Tsar Dmitry was discovered in Lithuania. This impostor was then one of many who pretended to be a royal person. Among the Terek Cossacks appeared " Tsarevich Peter Fedorovich"(allegedly the son of Tsar Fyodor, that is, the grandson of Ivan the Terrible) and "Tsarevich Ivan-August" (allegedly the son of Ivan the Terrible from his marriage to Anna Koltovskaya). The first shed blood in the south of Russia, and then united with the governor of “Tsar Dmitry” Ivan Bolotnikov in Tula. The second operated in the Lower Volga region, where Astrakhan submitted to him. Following them, another “grandson” of Grozny appeared, the “son” of Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich - “Tsarevich Lavrenty”. In the Cossack villages, impostors grew like mushrooms: the “children” of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich appeared - the “princes” Simeon, Savely, Vasily, Clementy, Eroshka, Gavrilka, Martynka.
In May 1607, False Dmitry II crossed the Russian-Polish border, showed up in Starodub and was recognized by local residents. His army was replenished so slowly that only in September he was able, at the head of detachments of Polish mercenaries, Cossacks and Russian thieves (at that time, various criminals, including political rebels, were called thieves) to move to the aid of False Peter and Bolotnikov. On October 8, the impostor defeated the Tsar's governor near Kozelsk Prince Vasily Fedorovich Mosalsky, on the 16th Belev captured, but upon learning that Tsar Vasily Shuisky took Tula, engulfed in turmoil, captured Bolotnikov and False Peter, and fled from near Belev to Karachev.
However, instead of sending his army against the new thief, Tsar Vasily disbanded him, and the commanders of the rebel army, meanwhile, forced False Dmitry II to turn to Bryansk. The city was besieged, but Voivode Mosalsky, sent to the rescue of Bryansk, inspired his detachment: on December 15, 1607, the soldiers crossed the icy Desna River by swimming and united with the garrison. Through joint efforts, Bryansk was defended. The rebels did not disappear anywhere: they gathered at Orel and Krom - then, apparently, the proverb “Eagle and Krom are the first thieves” was born. The surviving defenders of Tula, professional warriors - nobles and Cossacks, and new troops from all over the “Ukraines” flocked to the impostor.
In the spring of 1608, the army of False Dmitry II moved towards Moscow. The Lithuanian hetman, Prince Roman Ruzhinsky, stood at the head of the impostor’s troops. On April 30 - May 1 (the battle lasted two days), the regiments commanded by the Tsar's brother, Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Shuisky, were defeated near Belev. Already in June, False Dmitry appeared near Moscow and encamped in the village of Tushino. Based on the name of his residence, he received the memorable name of the Tushino thief.
Second False Dmitry
Its origin is shrouded in legend. There were several versions among contemporaries. The governor of False Dmitry II, Prince Dmitry Mosalsky Gorbaty, “said from torture” that the impostor “is from Moscow from the Arbatu from Zakonyushev priests’ son Mitka.” Another former supporter of his - boyar son Afanasy Tsyplatev- during interrogation he said that “Tsarevich Dmitry is called Litvin, Ondrei Kurbsky’s son.” The “Moscow chronicler” and the cellarer of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery Abraham (in the world Averky Palitsyn) considered him to come from a family of Starodub children of the boyar Verevkins (the Verevkins were one of the first who, back in Starodub, recognized the impostor as the sovereign and confused the townspeople).
The Jesuits also conducted their investigation into the personality of False Dmitry II. They believed that the name of the king killed in 1606 was adopted by the baptized Jew Bogdanko. He was a teacher in Shklov, then moved to Mogilev, where he served the priest: “but he had on him a bad robe, a bad casing, a barman’s shlyk [lamb’s cap], and he wore it in the summer.” For certain offenses, the Shklov teacher was threatened with prison. At that moment, he was noticed by a participant in the campaign of False Dmitry I against Moscow, Pole M. Mekhovsky. The latter most likely appeared in Belarus not by chance. On the instructions of the leaders of the rebellion against Vasily Shuisky - Bolotnikov, Prince Grigory Petrovich Shakhovsky and False Peter - he was looking for a suitable person to play the role of the resurrected Tsar Dmitry. The ragged teacher, in his opinion, looked like False Dmitry I. But the tramp was frightened by the offer made to him and fled to Propoisk, where he was caught. Here, faced with a choice - to suffer punishment or declare himself the Tsar of Moscow, he agreed to the latter.
Polish army
After the defeat Hetman Stanislav Zolkiewski During the noble rokosh (rebellion) of Zebrzydowski, the army of the Tushino thief was replenished with a large number of Polish mercenaries. One of the most successful governors of the new impostor was Colonel Alexander Lisovsky. Everyone was recruited into his Lisovchik detachments, without distinction of rank or nationality; only the fighting qualities of the warriors were of interest.
False Dmitry II also had those who fought with the highest permission of King Sigismund III, seeking revenge on the Muscovites for the death and captivity of Polish knights during the uprising against False Dmitry I. Thus, Colonel Jan Peter Sapieha came to Vor with an 8,000-strong detachment. Among the immigrants from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth there were many not only Poles and Lithuanians, but also residents of the Belarusian lands who professed Orthodoxy.
The Tushino camp was a collection of people of different nationalities (Russians, Poles, Lithuanians, Don, Zaporozhye and Volga Cossacks, Tatars), united under the banner of the new impostor by hatred of Shuisky and the desire for profit. The camp of False Dmitry II, which included wooden buildings and tents, was well fortified and protected on the western side by a ditch and rampart, and on the other sides by the Moscow and Skhodnya rivers.
Approaching Moscow, the impostor tried to take it on the move, but ran into stubborn resistance from the tsarist army. The fighting took place in a western direction from the capital, on the Khodynka River near Tushin. Then the governors of False Dmitry II decided to blockade the city, blocking all the roads along which it was supplied and communicated with the outskirts. From that moment on, the Tushins undertook regular campaigns to the north and northeast, to the cities outside Moscow, trying to cut off Vasily Shuisky from Pomerania, the Middle Volga region, Perm and Siberia, which traditionally supported him.
"Migratory birds"
With the appearance of False Dmitry II at the walls of the capital, a long period of brutal civil strife began. The country found itself split into two hostile camps. The Tsar and Tsarina sat in both Moscow and Tushino (his comrades brought him to the Thief’s camp Marina Mnishek both her father and the widow of the first impostor agreed to play the role of the wife of the second) and the patriarch (Metropolitan Filaret (Romanov), captured in Rostov, was brought here, who was named Patriarch of Moscow). Both kings had a Boyar Duma, orders, troops, both granted estates to their supporters and mobilized military men.
The “thieves’” Boyar Duma was quite representative and consisted of various kinds of oppositionists. Its head was the “boyar” (he received this rank from False Dmitry II) Prince Dmitry Timofeevich Trubetskoy. At the Moscow court, he was just a steward and was one of the first to run over to the impostor, right during the battle (“out of business”). A significant force in this Duma was represented by the relatives of “patriarch” Filaret - boyar Mikhail Glebovich Saltykov, princes Roman Fedorovich Troekurov, Alexey Yuryevich Sitsky, Dmitry Mamstrukovich Cherkassky; served False Dmitry II and the favorites of his predecessor - Prince Vasily Mikhailovich Rubets Mosalsky and other Mosalskys, Prince Grigory Petrovich Shakhovskoy, nobleman Mikhail Andreevich Molchanov, as well as clerks Ivan Tarasevich Gramotin and Pyotr Alekseevich Tretyakov.
Many ran from the impostor to Vasily Shuisky and back, receiving more and more awards for new betrayals. The author of an essay on the Time of Troubles, Abrahamy (Palitsyn), aptly called them “flights.” According to him, it also happened that during the day the nobles feasted in the “reigning city,” and “out of joy,” some went to the royal chambers, while others “hopped to the Tushino camps.” The level of moral decline of his contemporaries, who “played the king’s game like a child,” committing numerous perjuries, horrified Palitsyn.
At the same time, the greatest power in the impostor’s camp was not enjoyed by himself or the Boyar Duma, but by the commander-in-chief Roman Ruzhinski y and other commanders from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Since the spring of 1608, Poles and Lithuanians were appointed governors under the control of False Dmitry II; Usually there were two governors - a Russian and a foreigner.
The turning point in relations between the Tushino regime and the regions of Zamoskovye and Pomerania under its control occurred with the appearance in the thieves' camp of the Lithuanian magnate Jan Peter Sapieha with the mercenaries of the Infland army (these soldiers fought for King Sigismund III in the Baltic states, but, dissatisfied with the delays in paying salaries, they went looking for happiness in the east). After heated disputes between Ruzhinsky and Sapieha, a division was carried out. Ruzhinsky remained in Tushino and controlled the southern and western lands, and Sapieha set up camp near the Trinity-Sergius Monastery and undertook to spread the power of the impostor in Zamoskovye, Pomorie and Novgorod land.
In the north of Russia, the Tushins acted even more brazenly than in the west and south: they shamelessly robbed the population; Polish and Lithuanian regiments and companies, dividing the palace volosts and villages into “bailiffs”, under the guise of collecting taxes and feed, were engaged in robbery. In normal times, collectors received 20 rubles from each plow (a unit of taxation); Tushino residents extorted 80 rubles from a plow. Numerous petitions addressed to False Dmitry II and Jan Sapieha from peasants, townspeople and landowners with complaints about the atrocities of the troops have been preserved. “Lithuanian military men, and Tatars, and Russian people come to us, beat us and torture us and rob our bellies. Please tell us, your orphans, to give us bailiffs!” - the peasants cried desperately.
Of particular interest to the robbers were ancient Russian cities and diocesan centers where the bishop's treasury and treasury were located. So, in October 1608, the Sapezhinites plundered Rostov, capturing there, as already mentioned, Metropolitan Philaret. The inhabitants were “cut down,” the city was burned out, and the metropolitan, after being mocked and desecrated, was brought to Tushino. Suzdal, Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, Yaroslavl, Yuryev-Polskoy, Uglich, Vladimir, Vologda, Kostroma, Galich, Murom, Kasimov, Shatsk, Alatyr, Arzamas, Ryazan, Pskov were captured or voluntarily “kissed the cross to the Thief”... In Nizhny Novgorod The militia led by Prince Alexander Andreevich Repnin and Andrei Semenovich Alyabyev fought off the Tushins and the rebel peoples of the Volga region. They stuck to Shuisky Pereyaslavl-Ryazan (Ryazan), where the leader of the Ryazan nobility Prokopiy Petrovich Lyapunov sat, Smolensk, where the boyar ruled Mikhail Borisovich Shein, Kazan and Veliky Novgorod.
In the Lower Volga region he fought with “thieves’ people” - Russian Tushins, as well as Tatars, Chuvashs, Mari - b Oyarin Fedor Ivanovich Sheremetev. In the autumn of 1608, he moved up the Volga, gathering forces loyal to Tsar Vasily along the way, including attracting to his side the descendants of the Livonian Germans exiled by Ivan the Terrible.
Swedish help
Tsar Vasily Shuisky sent separate detachments from Moscow against the Tushins. Their most important task was to ensure the supply of food to the capital. When rebels appeared near Kolomna - one of the few cities that remained loyal to Shuisky, the tsar sent the steward of Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky against them. He defeated them in the village of Vysotskoye, which is 30 versts from Kolomna, and “captured many tongues, and took away much of their treasury and supplies.”
However, such successes were infrequent. And Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky, realizing that he was unable to cope with the impostor alone, decided to resort to foreign military assistance - to Sweden. The choice of King Charles IX as an ally was not accidental. Charles IX was the uncle and enemy of the Polish king Sigismund III - at one time he even took the Swedish throne from his nephew. In conditions when Sigismund III every year more and more actively intervened in Russian affairs, secretly supporting both False Dmitrievs and the Polish-Lithuanian detachments roaming around Russia, the inevitability of war with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth became obvious. Vasily Shuisky sought, ahead of events, to enlist the help of his northern neighbor.
Another Shuisky
The prince was sent to Veliky Novgorod to negotiate with the Swedes Mikhail Vasilievich Skopin-Shuisky. The young (he was only 22 years old) relative of the tsar had by that time already become famous for his victories over Bolotnikov’s troops. Unlike most aristocrats of that time, Skopin-Shuisky truly earned his boyar rank, having proven himself to be a talented and courageous military leader. In a situation where the royal commanders suffered one defeat after another and retreated helplessly, the prince's victories had enormous moral significance.
He conducted successful negotiations. He managed to attract a mercenary army of 12 thousand Swedes, Germans, Scots and other immigrants from Western Europe to the service of the tsar, and assemble a Russian militia of 3 thousand people in the northern regions. The foreign part of Skopin-Shuisky's army was commanded by the Swedish Count Jacob Pontus Delagardie. On May 10, 1609, Prince Mikhail Vasilyevich moved from Novgorod “to cleanse the Moscow state.”
In the spring of that year, the north of Russia was engulfed in an uprising against the Tushino thief. Zemstvo detachments attacked the Tushins, killed and expelled them. The governors of Skopin-Shuisky also acted together with them, but the liberation of the northern lands dragged on for several months. But the prince’s army was replenished with local militia units. In the atmosphere of chaos and devastation that reigned under Vasily Shuisky, local communities (“zemsky worlds”) themselves began to organize defense and defend themselves from the predatory robbers who were plundering Russian lands under the banners of Tsar Dmitry. Gradually, these detachments merged into large formations, until, finally, the northern militia joined the army of Skopin-Shuisky.
In the summer, the prince defeated the main forces of False Dmitry II in several battles, but further advance towards Moscow was delayed due to friction with the Swedish mercenaries, who demanded fulfillment of the terms of the concluded agreement, and in particular the transfer of the Russian fortress of Korela to Sweden. Only in October 1609, after new victories over the Tushins Jan Sapieha and Alexander Zborovsky, Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky settled in Alexandrova Sloboda, where a kind of headquarters of the liberation movement arose. In November, the boyar Sheremetev joined the prince, moving from near Astrakhan with an army from the “lower cities” (that is, the cities of the Lower and Middle Volga) and along the way he defeated the uprising of the peoples of the Volga region and took by storm the desperately resisting city of Kasimov (in early August 1609) . It was then that Sapega, fearing the advancing Russian army of Skopin-Shuisky, lifted the siege from the Trinity-Sergius Monastery.
While Prince Mikhail Vasilyevich was establishing order in the north of the country and fighting the Tushins in the Upper Volga region, Moscow was restless. Betrayal and rebellion had already penetrated into the reigning city itself; faith in the government and loyalty to the king weakened. The incessant bloodshed prompted many to think about replacing the unfortunate Vasily IV.
In February 1609 Prince Roman Gagarin, son of the famous guardsman Timofey Gryaznoy, Ryazan nobleman Grigory Sunbulov“and many others” opposed the sovereign and began to convince the boyars to depose Vasily Shuisky. However, their calls were supported only by Prince Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn. “Noise” arose at Lobnoye Place, where the rebels brought the patriarch, but Hermogenes firmly stood on Shuisky’s side. The king himself was not afraid to appear before the rebels, and they retreated. Participants in the unsuccessful coup attempt and those who sympathized with them - 300 people - fled to Tushino.
Soon a new conspiracy was discovered. One of the boyars closest to Vasily IV, Ivan Fedorovich Kryuk Kolychev, received a denunciation that he was plotting to kill the Tsar on Palm Sunday, April 9. The enraged Vasily Shuisky ordered Kolychev and his accomplices to be tortured and then executed on Pozhar (Red Square). But even after this, indignation arose more than once against the sovereign.
“Here comes my opponent!”
On March 12, 1610, Skopin-Shuisky at the head of the army entered Moscow and was greeted by jubilant people. But among the triumphant crowd there was one man whose heart was filled with anger and hatred. “Prince Dmitry Shuisky, standing on the rampart and seeing Skopin from a distance, exclaimed: “Here comes my rival!”,” says Dutchman Elias Gerkman, a contemporary of these events. The Tsar's brother Dmitry Ivanovich Shuisky had reason to fear the young governor: in the event of the death of the childless sovereign, he was supposed to take the throne, but the enormous popularity of Skopin-Shuisky instilled in him the fear that the people would proclaim Prince Mikhail Vasilyevich as heir and then as tsar. Some sources indicate that Vasily IV himself was afraid of Skopin-Shuisky, who was rapidly gaining fame and political weight.
The most detailed description of further tragic events is the “Scripture on the death and burial of Prince Skopin-Shuisky”, according to which at the christening of Prince Alexei Vorotynsky, the godmother - the “villainous” Princess Ekaterina Shuyskaya (the wife of Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Shuisky and the daughter of the guardsman Malyuta Skuratov) - offered to her godfather To Mikhail Vasilyevich Skopin-Shuisky a cup of poison. The young commander was ill for several days and died on April 23, 1610. With cries and screams, crowds of people carried the prince's body for burial in the royal tomb - the Archangel Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin. The Tsar, who had not previously enjoyed much love, with the death of Skopin-Shuisky began to be hated as the culprit of his death.
Meanwhile, False Dmitry II, like Vasily IV in Moscow, had long felt uncomfortable in his “capital” - Tushino. Back in September 1609, Sigismund III declared war on Russia and besieged Smolensk. Among the Poles surrounding the impostor, a plan arose to hand over the Tushino thief into the hands of the king, and themselves to act on his side and get him or his son Vladislav the Moscow crown. The Poles and some Russian Tushino residents began negotiations with Sigismund III, which resulted in an agreement between the Tushino boyars and the king (February 4, 1610) on the calling of Prince Vladislav to the Moscow throne.
Kaluga courtyard
In December 1609, the impostor was put under house arrest, but managed to escape from Tushin to Kaluga, where he again attracted many supporters (Cossacks, Russians and some Poles) and from where he waged war with two sovereigns: the Moscow Tsar Vasily Shuisky and the Polish king Sigismund. The Tushinsky camp was empty: the king’s supporters - boyar Saltykov, Prince Rubets Mosalsky, Prince Yuri Dmitrievich Khvorostinin, nobleman Molchanov, clerk Gramotin and others - went to him near Smolensk, and the supporters of the impostor went to Kaluga.
During the Kaluga period of his adventure, False Dmitry II was the most independent in the actions he took. Convinced of the treachery of the Polish mercenaries, he appealed to the Russian people, frightening them with the desire of Sigismund III to seize Russia and establish Catholicism here. This call resonated with many. Kaluga residents happily accepted the impostor. A little later, Marina Mnishek also made her way to Kaluga, and after Vor’s escape from Tushin, she ended up in Dmitrov with Hetman Jan Sapieha.
The Tushino camp collapsed, but by 1610 a new abscess had formed in Kaluga. Now the impostor was campaigning against the king and the Poles, but his patriotism was dictated primarily by selfish considerations. In fact, he was not confident in his abilities and sought help from Sapieha, he was afraid of assassination attempts and therefore surrounded himself with guards from Germans and Tatars. An atmosphere of suspicion and cruelty reigned in the Kaluga camp. Based on a false denunciation, False Dmitry II ordered the execution of Albert Skotnitsky, who had previously been the captain of the guard of False Dmitry I and the Kaluga governor of Bolotnikov, and brought down his anger on all Germans. In the end, immeasurable cruelty destroyed him.
In the fall of 1610, he arrived from the royal camp near Smolensk to Kaluga. Kasimov Khan Uraz-Muhammad. Kasimov was a loyal supporter initially of Bolotnikov, and then of False Dmitry II, so the impostor received him with honor. However, having received a denunciation of the khan’s evil intentions, the Tushinsky thief lured him to a hunt, where he was killed. According to the epitaph of Uraz-Muhammad, this happened on November 22.
But the impostor did not survive Kasimov Khan for long. The head of the guard of False Dmitry II, the Nogai prince Peter Urusov, decided to take revenge on him for the death of the khan. Urusov also had another reason for revenge: earlier the Tushinsky thief ordered the execution of the okolnichy Ivan Ivanovich Godunov, who was related to the prince. On December 11, 1610, the impostor went for a walk in a sleigh. A mile from Kaluga, Pyotr Urusov approached the sleigh and shot him with a gun, and then cut off his head with a saber. Having committed the murder, the Tatars who formed the guard of False Dmitry II rode off to the Crimea. The news of the impostor's death was brought to the camp by the jester Pyotr Koshelev, who accompanied him on the trip. Kaluga residents buried “Tsar Dmitry” in the Trinity Church. A few days later, Marina Mnishek gave birth to a son, who was baptized according to the Orthodox rite and named Ivan in honor of his imaginary grandfather. The remnants of the army of False Dmitry II took the oath to the newborn “prince”.
The death of False Dmitry II was of great importance, predetermining the further development of events. The movement, directed against the Poles and Russian traitors, was able to free itself from the adventuristic element associated with the personality of the self-proclaimed pretender to the throne. Now the main slogans of opponents of Polish rule were the expulsion of foreigners and the convening of the Zemsky Sobor to elect a new legitimate king (by that time Vasily Shuisky had been deposed - on July 17, 1610). People who had previously supported the Poles out of fear of the impostor began to go over to the side of their opponents. At the same time, the anarchist elements lost their main support: having lost the idea of serving the “legitimate king,” they turned into ordinary robbers. The son of Marina Mnishek and False Dmitry II, Ivan, who received the nickname Vorenok in Moscow, was too young to become the leader of the movement. According to the New Chronicler, supporters of the impostor in Kaluga refused to swear allegiance to Prince Vladislav and announced that they would take the oath to the king who “will be in the Muscovite state.”
In 1606-1610, Tsar Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky was on the Russian throne. The Shuiskys were the most distinguished Russian family and traced their origins to Alexander Nevsky. Tsar Vasily came to power after a boyar conspiracy, during which the impostor of False Dmitry, posing as the son of Ivan the Terrible, was killed. To get rid of rumors, Vasily ordered the relics of the real Dmitry to be solemnly transferred to Moscow from Uglich. The Church canonized this prince as a saint. But even such measures did not help. Rumors arose among the people again that the priest’s son was killed then, and the real Dmitry was alive and well and hiding somewhere in order to, having accumulated strength, take revenge on Tsar Vasily.
The power of Vasily Shuisky was very shaky. He was elected to the throne by a few people and was essentially a boyar king. The stingy, cunning and treacherous old man did not enjoy any popularity among the people. In addition, the country was restless; gangs of troublemakers and robbers roamed the roads. The people were waiting for a new “deliverer”.
In the summer of 1606, an uprising broke out in southern Russia under the leadership of the former serf Ivan Bolotnikov. It burned for a whole year and covered a vast area. With great difficulty, the tsarist troops managed to suppress the unrest. Bolotnikov was executed. Before Tsar Vasily had time to recover from the Bolotnikov turmoil, a new blow awaited him: the new “Tsar Dmitry” finally appeared. Having set out from Starodub-Seversky, an impostor unknown to anyone in July 1607 undertook a campaign against Bryansk and Tula. In May next year the troops False Dmitry II defeated the troops of Vasily Shuisky near Volkhov and came close to Moscow. The impostor set up camp in the village of Tushino near Moscow, for which he received the nickname "Tushinsky thief". At that time, the word “thief” meant nothing more than a state criminal. A dual power arose in the country: Tsar Vasily was unable to cope with the Tushins, and False Dmitry could not take Moscow. Military clashes did not produce results for either side.
In Tushino, False Dmitry II formed his government, which consisted of some Russian feudal lords and clerks. Even some boyars who were dissatisfied with Shuisky entered his service. Many Poles also arrived, including Marina Mnishek, the widow of the murdered False Dmitry I. She “recognized” the new impostor as her husband, but secretly married him according to the Catholic rite.
False Dmitry II did not possess the abilities of his predecessor and soon found himself a toy in the hands of Polish mercenaries. In fact, the Polish hetman Rozhinsky was at the head of the Tushino camp. By the fall of 1608, the Tushins had established control over a fairly extensive territory. Meanwhile, the Polish king Sigismund III himself began military operations against Russia. He did not want to help the frivolous and riotous False Dmitry II, and hoped to place his son Vladislav on the Russian throne. In September 1609, Polish troops besieged Smolensk. The impostor was no longer needed by the interventionists. By order of the king, Polish troops left Tushino. Many Russian feudal lords who served False Dmitry also went to Sigismund III.
In December 1609, the impostor fled from Tushin to Kaluga. But six months later, when the Poles defeated the troops of Vasily Shuisky near Klushino, False Dmitry II again approached Moscow. An important event took place there: on July 17, 1610, Tsar Vasily was dethroned. Power passed to the boyar government - the “seven boyars”. It concluded an agreement with Sigismund III, recognized his son Vladislav as the Russian Tsar, and in September treacherously allowed the Polish army into Moscow. False Dmitry II again fled to Kaluga, where on December 11, 1610 he was killed by one of his close associates.
