With the appearance in 1607 of a second Russian impostor, who took the name of 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 portraits of the 17th century, False Dmitry II was depicted as False Dmitry I, which, of course, is by no means accidental, since the new, second impostor no longer posed as Tsarevich Dmitry, the son of Ivan the Terrible, who allegedly escaped once in Uglich, but as “Tsar Dmitry "(Grigory Otrepyev), crowned king on July 30, 1605 and supposedly miraculously escaped death on May 17, 1606 (many claimed that then his double was killed instead of the tsar).
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 Sergei 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, Prince Vasily Fedorovich Mosalsky, near Kozelsk; on the 16th he captured Belev, but, having learned that Tsar Vasily Shuisky had taken Tula, engulfed in turmoil, and captured Bolotnikov and False Peter, he 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 of his former supporters, the boyar’s son Afanasy Tsyplatev, said during interrogation 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 Hetman Stanislaw Zolkiewski defeated 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. Both in Moscow and in Tushino sat the Tsar and Tsarina (his comrades brought Marina Mnishek and her father to the Thief’s camp, and the widow of the first impostor agreed to play the role of the wife of the second) and the Patriarch (they brought here Metropolitan Filaret (Romanov), captured in Rostov, who 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 Ruzhinsky 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 they fought off Tushins and the rebel peoples of the Volga region, a militia led by Prince Alexander Andreevich Repnin and Andrei Semenovich Alyabyev. Shuisky held on to Pereyaslavl-Ryazan (Ryazan), where the leader of the Ryazan nobility Prokopiy Petrovich Lyapunov sat, Smolensk, where the boyar Mikhail Borisovich Shein was in command, Kazan and Veliky Novgorod.
In the Lower Volga region, he fought with the “thieves’ people” - the Russian Tushins, as well as the Tatars, Chuvash, and Mari - boyar Fyodor Ivanovich Sheremetev. In the fall 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 interfered more and more actively in Russian affairs every year, 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
Prince Mikhail Vasilyevich Skopin-Shuisky was sent to Veliky Novgorod to negotiate with the Swedes. 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, the son of the famous guardsman Timofey Gryaznoy, the 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 rival!”
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 it 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, the Kasimov Khan Uraz-Muhammad arrived from the royal camp near Smolensk in Kaluga. 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 devious 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 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 Russian Tsar, and in September treacherously allowed the Polish army into Moscow.
In the spring of 1607, when the fate of Russia was being decided under the walls of Kaluga and Tula, rebel envoys intensively searched in the eastern regions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for a new candidate for the role of “Tsar Dmitry.” And such a person was found. It was a traveling teacher from Mogilev named Bogdanko. He was involved in a maelstrom of events against his will and even tried to escape, but under pain of torture and execution, the poor teacher had to become the son of Ivan the Terrible. Cossack ataman Ivan Zarutsky took on the role of guardian to the newly-minted “tsar”. The city of Starodub became the headquarters of False Dmitry II. From here, messengers were sent to the Seversk land and southern cities with a call to appear for “sovereign service.” It is noteworthy that Bogdanko did not go to the capital of his predecessor, Putivl, where everyone knew “Dmitry” by sight.
The news of the appearance of the long-awaited “Tsar Dmitry” inspired his supporters. Many cities supported him, and “hunters” (volunteers) flocked to Starodub from all sides. Finally, in September 1607, the impostor with his motley army moved to the aid of the rebels besieged in Tula. But, before reaching the city, he learned that Tula was overrun by tsarist troops. After this news, the campaign lost its purpose, many of its participants scattered to their homes, and the “king” himself (as the second impostor was contemptuously called by those close to him) and his court went to spend the winter in the Orel region.
By the end of winter 1608, the impostor already had a new, fairly large army. It consisted of Cossacks, Polish-Lithuanian gentry - mercenaries. A battalion of Polish hussars, hired by the Ukrainian magnate Roman Ruzhinsky for the war in Russia, arrived at the impostor’s camp. From now on he became the guardian of the powerless “king”.
In the summer of 1608, the impostor moved towards Moscow. He defeated the tsarist troops that stood in his way near Bolkhov and on July 19 set up camp west of the capital, on a huge field near the village of Tushino. Not having sufficient forces to storm the powerful system of Moscow fortifications, the “Tushinsky thief” (as Shuisky’s supporters called the impostor) stood there for about two years. Two famous Polish condottieres, Jan Piotr Sapieha and Alexander Lisovsky, brought their troops to the Tushino camp.
Some Russian aristocrats also flocked to the throne of the “Tushinsky Thief” - M. G. Saltykov, D. Trubetskoy, Metropolitan Filaret Romanov (he received the rank of patriarch from False Dmitry II). They formed his Boyar Duma. Y. Mnishek and his daughter Marina also arrived at the impostor’s “court,” who “recognized” False Dmitry II as her husband. For the Russian people, the reunion of the long-suffering Tsar with the Tsarina became a convincing argument for switching to his service. The power of the Tushins extended not only to the southern outskirts, but also to a significant part of the north of the country and even the central regions. Of the western cities, only Novgorod and Smolensk remained faithful to Shuisky. Russia was divided between two kings and two patriarchs. The situation of Vasily Shuisky, who had lost about half of his state, became increasingly difficult. Trying to strangle Moscow with a blockade, the impostor sent his troops along all the roads leading to the capital. At the end of September 1608, a large detachment under the command of Sapieha and Lisovsky moved to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, which had to withstand a 16-month siege. The Tushins occupied Rostov, Yaroslavl, Uglich, and Vladimir.
Lacking reliable troops to disperse the impostor's camp, Shuisky in the winter of 1609 decided to invite mercenaries from Sweden. Under an agreement with King Charles IX, a 15,000-strong detachment under the command of Count J. Delagardie was sent to Russia. In exchange, the city of Korela and the county were transferred to the Swedish crown. Vasily also renounced the rights to Livonia for himself and his descendants. Already in the spring, M.V. Skopin-Shuisky, a talented commander, nephew of the Tsar, together with Delagardi, began to expel the Tushins from the northwestern and western Russian cities. In August, Skopin-Shuisky's regiment, with the support of the Swedes, defeated Sapieha's Poles near the city of Kalyazin. In January 1610, the Poles were forced to end the siege of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. It seemed that Vasily Shuisky’s position was strengthening. But then, one after another, bad news began to come to Moscow. The hordes of the Crimean Khan attacked the unprotected Russian lands from the south. In September 1609, the Polish king Sigismund III invaded Russia and besieged Smolensk.
- an impostor, also known as the “Tushinsky thief.” Unknown, according to some sources, of Jewish origin. Wandering around Belarus and the Seversk land at the beginning of the Time of Troubles, he pretended to be one of the Nagikh boyars in Starodub. Meanwhile, rumors spread among the Starodub residents that the escaped Tsarevich Dmitry was in their city. The distributor of these rumors, A. Rukin, pointed to the imaginary Nagogo, calling him Dmitry. He accepted imposture (1607), and military detachments seeking robbery and adventure began to flock to him in Starodub. Mekhovetsky and the Ukrainian freemen joined the 3,000 different rabble who rallied around False Dmitry II. The new impostor was also recognized by the ataman of the Don Cossacks Zarutsky. False Dmitry II with his gangs took the cities of Karachev, Bryansk, Kozelsk and Orel, where large Polish and Lithuanian-Russian detachments of freemen, as well as Prince Rozhinsky, joined him. The forces of Tsar Vasily Shuisky were defeated on May 11, 1608. False Dmitry hastily moved towards Moscow and on June 1, 1608, settled down near the village of Tushino, 12 versts from it. Returning from Russian captivity, the wife of the first impostor, Marina Mnishek, agreed to admit that False Dmitry II was indeed the survivor of False Dmitry I and was taken to the Tushino camp.
There concentrated up to 18,000 cavalry and 2,000 Polish infantry, up to 30,000 Cossacks and up to 15,000 Don Cossacks. The main strength of the Tushino thief was in the Cossacks, who sought to overthrow the old order and establish Cossack freemen throughout Russia. False Dmitry II supported these plans. He announced the seizure of boyar estates and the distribution of these lands to everyone who captured them, etc. Gradually, different cities began to submit to him: first, those bordering Lithuania (Nevel, Velikiye Luki, Pskov), then those closest to Moscow (Pereyaslavl-Zalesky, Suzdal, Uglich, Rostov), and then - northern and eastern (Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Shuya, Balakhna, Gorokhovets, Murom, Arzamas, Shatsk, Kostroma, Vologda, Kashin and many others). Metropolitan Filaret (boyar Fyodor Nikitich Romanov, tonsured under Boris Godunov, founder of the future dynasty), captured in Rostov, was brought to Tushino and declared patriarch there.
S. Ivanov. Camp of False Dmitry II in Tushino
It seemed that False Dmitry II would soon occupy Moscow, from where numerous noble “flights” began to flee to him. However, his situation soon changed. The Tushino attack on the capital ended in failure. Tsar Vasily Shuisky, who was sitting there, concluded an agreement with the Swedes and received help from them. The siege of the Trinity Lavra by a supporter of False Dmitry II, Sapega, also ended in failure. Many, especially remote, cities began to abandon the cause of False Dmitry. The beginning of the campaign against Russia of the Polish king Sigismund III, who declared himself a direct rival of the “Thief” and arrived near Smolensk in the fall of 1609, distracted most of the Poles from the Tushino camp. Discord and disagreement began in the camp of False Dmitry II. At the very end of 1609, Vor fled to Kaluga, and Marina ran after him. The Tushino camp collapsed.
Arrival of False Dmitry II in Kaluga after fleeing from Tushino. Artist N. Dmitriev-Orenburgsky
False Dmitry II, Also Tushinsky or Kaluga thief(date and place of birth unknown - died on December 11 (21), Kaluga) - an impostor who posed as the son of Ivan IV the Terrible, Tsarevich Dmitry and, accordingly, as Tsar False Dmitry I, who was allegedly miraculously saved on May 17 (27). The real name and origin have not been established, although many versions exist. Before the announcement of his royal name in the Russian city of Starodub, for a short time the impostor pretended to be Andrei Nagogo, a relative of Tsar Dmitry who never existed. At the height of his influence, the impostor controlled a significant part of the Russian Tsardom, although he failed to take Moscow, which remained under the control of the administration of the official Tsar Vasily IV Shuisky. In Russian historiography (unlike False Dmitry I), False Dmitry II is usually not considered a tsar, since he did not control the Kremlin, although a significant part of Russia swore allegiance to him.
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✪ History of Russia | Time of Troubles | False Dmitry II
✪ Troubles on the fingers (part 2) - Shuisky, False Dmitry II, Seven Boyars
✪ History of Russia for dummies - Issue 28 - Troubles (part 2)
✪ The hour of truth - heroes of troubled times - "Tushinsky thief"
✪ Tushino camp (narrated by Oleg Dvurechensky)
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Hopes and rumors
Rumors about a “miraculous rescue” and the imminent return of the tsar began to circulate immediately after the death of False Dmitry I. The basis for this was the fact that the body of the impostor was brutally mutilated, and soon after being exposed to shame, it was covered with dirt and sewage. Muscovites were essentially divided into two camps - those who rejoiced at the fall of the impostor recalled, among other things, his marriage to a “filthy Pole” and behavior that was little in keeping with the status of the Russian Tsar. In the depths of this group, rumors were born that a cross was found in the boot of the murdered man, on which the “undressed” blasphemously stepped with every step, that animals and birds abhor the body, the earth does not accept it and rejects fire. Such views corresponded to the interests of the boyar elite who overthrew the impostor, and therefore, among other things, to please the adherents of ancient splendor, the corpse of False Dmitry was taken to the village of Kotly and burned there; The ashes of the former king, mixed with gunpowder, were shot towards Poland, where he came from. On the same day, “hell” was burned to the ground - an amusing fortress built by an impostor.
But there were more than enough adherents of the deposed tsar in Moscow, and stories immediately began to circulate among them that he had managed to escape from the “dashing boyars.” A certain nobleman, looking at the body, shouted that it was not Dmitry in front of him, and, whipping his horse, immediately rushed away. They recalled that the mask did not allow one to see the face, and the hair and nails of the corpse turned out to be too long, despite the fact that the king cut his hair short shortly before the wedding. They assured that instead of the tsar, his double was killed; later even the name was named - Pyotr Borkovsky. Konrad Bussow believed that these rumors were partly spread by the Poles, in particular, the former Tsar’s secretary Buchinsky openly claimed that there was no noticeable sign on the body under the left breast, which he allegedly saw clearly when he washed with the Tsar in the bathhouse.
A week after the death of the “defrocked” man, “letters of honor” appeared in Moscow at night, written allegedly by the tsar who had escaped. Many leaflets were even nailed to the gates of boyar houses, in which “Tsar Dmitry” announced that he “ escaped from murder and God himself saved him from traitors».
Circumstances of appearance
“The Jews were part of the impostor’s retinue and suffered during his deposition. According to some reports... False Dmitry II was a cross from the Jews and served in the retinue of False Dmitry I."
Starodubsky camp
However, in the initial period, the number of Polish mercenaries in the army of False Dmitry II was small and barely exceeded 1 thousand people. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was on the eve of a decisive battle between supporters of Sigismund III and the rebellious gentry, and at that moment the Poles had no time for the impostor. Trying to attract as many service people as possible to his side, False Dmitry II confirmed all the previous grants and benefits of False Dmitry I to the Seversky destinies.
Tula campaign, siege of Bryansk
In 1607-1608, False Dmitry II issued a decree on slaves, giving them the lands of the “traitorous” boyars and even allowing them to forcibly marry boyar daughters. Thus, many serfs, having sworn allegiance to the impostor, received not only freedom, but also became nobles, while their masters in Moscow had to starve. Due to non-payment of salaries to Polish mercenaries, a coup took place in the military leadership of the rebel army, led by the Lithuanian prince Roman Rozhinsky. Hetman Mechowiecki was displaced and expelled from the camp, and about 4 thousand Polish mercenaries left with him. Prince Roman Rozhinsky was proclaimed the new hetman of the impostor.
The number of the army of False Dmitry II in the Oryol camp was about 27 thousand people, of which there were about 5.6 thousand Polish mercenaries, 3 thousand Zaporozhye Cossacks, 5 thousand Don Cossacks, the rest apparently consisted of archers, nobles, boyar children, military slaves and Tatars.
First Moscow campaign
In the spring, the rebel army moved from Orel to Moscow. In the Battle of Zaraisk, the detachment of Pan Alexander Lisovsky defeated the tsarist army. After which Lisovsky’s army occupied Mikhailov and Kolomna. In a two-day battle near Bolkhov on April 30 (May 10) - May 1 (11), Hetman Rozhinsky defeated Shuisky’s army (led by the Tsar’s brothers, Dmitry and Ivan). The warriors who fled from the battlefield spread terrible rumors that “Tsar Dmitry” had an innumerable army. There were rumors in Moscow that Shuisky allegedly intended to surrender the capital due to numerous failures. The cities of Kozelsk, Kaluga and Zvenigorod solemnly opened their gates to False Dmitry II. Tula, who just recently kissed the cross of Tsar Vasily, also swore allegiance to the impostor. Local nobles, fearing the decree on the slaves of False Dmitry II, left the cities with their families and went to Moscow or Smolensk.
An eyewitness and writer of the troubled times, Konrad Bussov, noted that if False Dmitry II had immediately approached the capital after the Battle of Bolkhov, the terrified Muscovites would have surrendered to him without a fight. However, the impostor hesitated, and this gave Vasily Shuisky a chance to strengthen his positions in Moscow, as well as prepare a new army, led by his nephew Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky. Prince Skopin hoped to defeat False Dmitry II on the closest approaches to Moscow, but treason was discovered in his army - princes Ivan Katyrev, Yuri Trubetskoy and Ivan Troekurov plotted in favor of the impostor. Mikhail was forced to return to the capital and arrest the conspirators there.
Meanwhile, the impostor's army captured Borisov and Mozhaisk. The tsarist commanders, who were guarding False Dmitry II on the Tver road, lost the battle to him, and in early June the impostor appeared near Moscow. On June 25 (July 5), a clash between the troops of False Dmitry and the tsar’s troops took place on Khodynka, the rebels won the battle, but they failed to take Moscow.
Tushino camp
In the summer of 1608, Tushino became the residence of False Dmitry. Hetman Rozhinsky and his captains hoped to starve out the capital. Their troops tried to block all roads to Moscow and completely isolate the capital. But still they failed to intercept all the roads, and on June 28 (July 8) of the year, in a fierce battle with Pan Lisovsky, government troops were able to recapture Kolomna.
False Dmitry II actually ruled Russia - he distributed land to nobles, considered complaints, and met foreign ambassadors. The official Tsar Vasily Shuisky was locked in Moscow and lost control over the country. To fight the Tushino “king”, Shuisky concluded an agreement with the ambassadors of King Sigismund III, according to which Poland was to recall all Poles supporting False Dmitry, and oblige Marina Mniszech not to recognize False Dmitry II as her husband, and not to call herself the Russian empress. The Mnisheks gave their word that they would immediately leave Russia and promised to take all measures to end the civil war. Vasily IV equipped a detachment to escort them to the line. However, Hetman Rozhinsky and others refused to leave the work they had begun; moreover, the army of False Dmitry continued to be replenished with Poles, and in the fall Jan Sapega came with his people, rebelling against Sigismund III due to non-payment of salaries. In addition, the Tushins twice tried to besiege Kolomna in order to completely blockade Moscow, but the royal detachment under the command of Prince Dmitry Pozharsky inflicted a severe defeat on the impostor’s troops.
Having learned that the Mnisheks were released from Yaroslavl to Poland in fulfillment of the agreement, False Dmitry decided to recapture them from the accompanying royal army. This was done, but Marina for a long time did not want to join the camp of False Dmitry, remaining with Sapieha, and Yuri Mnishek agreed to recognize him as her son-in-law, only after receiving a note that the impostor, having received power, would give Yuri 30 thousand rubles. and the Seversk Principality with 14 cities. Finally, the Mnisheks recognized the Tushino “thief”. On September 1 (11), Hetman Sapega brought them to Tushino, where Marina Mnishek “recognized” her late husband False Dmitry I in the new impostor and secretly married him. A palace staff was created for them, modeled on the Moscow one. Jan Sapieha was recognized as the second hetman of False Dmitry II along with Rozhinsky. Spheres of influence were divided between them. Hetman Rozhinsky remained in the Tushino camp and controlled the southern and western lands, and Hetman Sapega, together with Pan Lisovsky, became a camp near the Trinity-Sergius Monastery and began to spread the power of “Tsar Dmitry” in Zamoskovye, Pomerania and Novgorod land.
Thus, a vast territory came under the rule of the Tushino king. In the north-west, Pskov and its suburbs, Velikie Luki, Ivangorod, Koporye, Gdov, and Oreshek swore allegiance to the impostor. Severshchina and the south with Astrakhan still remained under the rule of False Dmitry II. In the east, the power of the Tushino “thief” was recognized by Murom, Kasimov, Temnikov, Arzamas, Alatyr, Sviyazhsk, as well as many northeastern cities. In the central part, the impostor was supported by Suzdal, Uglich, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Vladimir and many others. Of the major centers, only Smolensk, Veliky Novgorod, Pereslavl-Ryazansky, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan remained loyal to Vasily Shuisky. In Kostroma, Polish detachments, forced to swear allegiance to False Dmitry, first destroyed the Epiphany-Anastasia Monastery, and then occupied the Ipatiev Monastery, which supported them, but were captured as a result of a successful assault on this monastery (the walls were required to be blown up, which was carried out by two suicide bombers). From Rostov, Metropolitan Filaret (Romanov) was brought to the impostor, whom False Dmitry II elevated to patriarch.
The state now had two kings, two Boyar Dumas, as well as two patriarchs and two administrations, in addition, the government of False Dmitry II minted its own coin, which differed from the Moscow coin in increased weight. The catastrophe was not only political, but also moral: the words “flights” and “shifters” appeared, denoting those who easily and without remorse moved from one camp to another and back. New impostors also came here - the false princes Augustus and Lavrenty, who voluntarily came to join the troops of False Dmitry II, and even at first were hospitably greeted in Tushino. But soon the “king” ordered these “relatives” to be hanged for reprisals against the boyars. At this time, one after another, new Cossack “princes” appeared, posing as the grandchildren of Ivan the Terrible, who plundered the south of Russia. In his manifestos, False Dmitry II was extremely dumbfounded by so many “relatives” and ordered them all to be executed. Thus, the Tushino “thief” executed seven more “nephews”. Trying to involve free Cossacks in the tsarist service, the government of False Dmitry II created a Cossack order, which was headed by the ataman and “Tushino boyar” Ivan Zarutsky. The ataman completely subjugated the Cossack freemen to “Tsar Dmitry” and Hetman Rozhinsky.
In September 1608, the siege of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery began. Moscow, however, did not give up, and in Tushino they had to build an entire city with a “royal” tower. At the same time, the impostor increasingly lost real power; in December 1608, a “commission of decemvirs”, consisting of 10 Polish nobles, stood at the head of the camp. They established strict control over the income and expenses of the Tushino “thief”, and also sharply limited the rights of the “thief” duma, orders and Tushino district governors. In the territory subject to False Dmitry II, requisitions in kind and money were carried out in favor of his troops, lands and serfs were distributed to his followers, which contributed to the decline in the authority of the impostor.
In Severshchina, the position of the impostor became much more difficult. In the disintegrating Tushino camp on February 4 (14), near Smolensk, the Tushino Patriarch Filaret and the boyars concluded an agreement with Sigismund III, according to which the king’s son, Vladislav Zhigimontovich, was to become the Russian Tsar; a prerequisite was the prince's acceptance of Orthodoxy. Acting on behalf of Vladislav, Sigismund III generously granted lands to the Tushins that did not belong to him. In April 1610, Polish troops captured Starodub, Pochep, Chernigov and Novgorod-Seversky, bringing the population of these cities to swear allegiance to Vladislav. At the beginning of May, the residents of Roslavl swore allegiance to the prince.
Meanwhile, the situation in Tushino itself was becoming critical. In the south, in Kaluga, troops loyal to False Dmitry II concentrated; in the north, near Dmitrov, Skopin-Shuisky and the Swedes pressed, barely restrained by the Tushins. In such conditions, Hetman Rozhinsky decided to retreat to Volokolamsk. On March 6 (16), the army set fire to the Tushino camp and set out on a campaign. The siege of Moscow finally ended. Two days later, the hetman’s army was in Volok, where Rozhinsky died from “exhaustion.” His detachment, left without a leader, completely dispersed. The troops of Hetman Sapieha, having visited the king near Smolensk and having achieved nothing from him, returned to the service of the impostor.
Second Moscow campaign
In the summer, a strong Polish-Lithuanian detachment of crown hetman Zolkiewski moved towards Moscow, and the tsarist army under the command of Dmitry Shuisky, who came out to meet them, was defeated in a battle near the village of Klushino. Russia's military situation was deteriorating from day to day. The power of Vasily IV became illusory. The capital's residents, having gathered in large crowds under the windows of the palace, shouted to Shuisky: “You are not our sovereign!” The frightened king did not dare to appear in public.
Zholkiewski's army entered Vyazma and was approaching the Russian capital from the west. False Dmitry II hurried from the south to Moscow. His troops captured Serpukhov, Borovsk, Pafnutyev Monastery and reached Moscow itself. Supporters of the impostor suggested that the capital's population depose Tsar Vasily Shuisky and promised to do the same with their “king.” After this, they declared, everyone would be able to jointly, with the whole earth, choose a new sovereign and thereby put an end to the fratricidal war.
