Chronology
- 1605 - 1606 Board of False Dmitry I.
- 1606 - 1607 The uprising led by I.I. Bolotnikov.
- 1606 - 1610 The reign of Vasily Shuisky.
- 1610 "Seven Boyars".
- 1612 Liberation of Moscow from interventionists.
- 1613 Election by the Zemsky Sobor of Mikhail Romanov to the kingdom.
Time of Troubles in Russia
The unrest in Russia at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century was a shock that shook the very foundations of the state system. Three periods in the development of the Troubles can be distinguished. First period - dynastic. This is the time of the struggle for the Moscow throne between various applicants, which lasted up to and including Tsar Vasily Shuisky. The second period is the social. It is characterized by the internecine struggle of social classes and the intervention of foreign governments in this struggle. The third period is national. It covers the time of the struggle of the Russian people with foreign invaders until the election of Mikhail Romanov as tsar.
After death in 1584. was succeeded by his son Fedor incapable of affairs of government. “The dynasty was dying out in his face,” remarked the British ambassador Fletcher. “What a king I am, it’s easy to confuse me in any business, and it’s not difficult to deceive,” is a sacramental phrase put into the mouth of Fyodor Ioannovich A.K. Tolstoy. The brother-in-law of the tsar, the boyar Boris Godunov, became the actual ruler of the state, who withstood a fierce struggle with the largest boyars for influence on state affairs. After death in 1598. Fedor, the Zemsky Sobor elected Godunov tsar.
Boris Godunov was an energetic and intelligent statesman. In conditions of economic ruin and a difficult international situation, he solemnly promised on the day of his wedding to the kingdom, "that there will be no poor person in his state, and he is ready to share his last shirt with everyone." But the elected king did not have the authority and advantage of a hereditary monarch, and this could call into question the legitimacy of his being on the throne.
Godunov's government reduced taxes, freed merchants for two years from paying duties, and landowners for a year from paying taxes. The king started a great construction, cared about the enlightenment of the country. A patriarchate was established, which increased the rank and prestige of the Russian Church. He also led a successful foreign policy - there was a further advance to Siberia, the southern regions of the country were being mastered, and Russian positions in the Caucasus were being strengthened.
At the same time, the internal situation of the country under Boris Godunov remained very difficult. In the conditions of an unprecedented scale of crop failure and famine of 1601-1603. there was a collapse of the economy, people who died of starvation were considered hundreds of thousands, the price of bread rose 100 times. The government took the path of further enslavement of the peasantry. this caused a protest of the broad masses of the people, who directly linked the deterioration of their situation with the name of Boris Godunov.
The aggravation of the internal political situation led, in turn, to a sharp drop in Godunov's prestige not only among the masses, but also among the boyars.
The biggest threat to the power of B. Godunov was the appearance in Poland of an impostor who declared himself the son of Ivan the Terrible. The fact is that in 1591, under unclear circumstances, he died in Uglich, allegedly having run into a knife in a fit of epilepsy, the last of the direct heirs to the throne Tsarevich Dmitry. Political opponents of Godunov attributed to him the organization of the assassination of the prince in order to seize power, popular rumor picked up these accusations. However, historians do not have convincing documents that would prove Godunov's guilt.
It was under such conditions that he appeared in Russia False Dmitry. This young man named Grigory Otrepiev called himself Dmitry, using the rumors that Tsarevich Dmitry was alive, “miraculously saved” in Uglich. The agents of the impostor intensively spread in Russia the version of his miraculous salvation from the hands of the murderers sent by Godunov, and proved the legitimacy of his right to the throne. The Polish magnates provided some assistance in organizing the adventure. As a result, by the autumn of 1604, a powerful army was formed to march on Moscow.
The beginning of the turmoil
Taking advantage of the current situation in Russia, its disunity and instability, False Dmitry with a small detachment crossed the Dnieper near Chernigov.
He managed to win over to his side a huge mass of the Russian population, who believed that he was the son of Ivan the Terrible. The forces of False Dmitry grew rapidly, cities opened their gates to him, peasants and townspeople joined his troops. False Dmitry moved in the wake of the outbreak of the peasant war. After the death of Boris Godunov in 1605. the governors also began to go over to the side of False Dmitry, in early June Moscow also took his side.
According to V.O. Klyuchevsky, the impostor "was baked in a Polish oven, but hatched in a boyar environment." Without the support of the boyars, he had no chance for the Russian throne. On June 1, the letters of the impostor were read out on Red Square, in which he called Godunov a traitor, and promised "honor and promotion" to the boyars, "mercy" to the nobles and clerks, benefits to merchants, "silence" to the people. The critical moment came when people asked the boyar Vasily Shuisky whether the tsarevich was buried in Uglich (it was Shuisky who headed the state commission in 1591 to investigate the death of tsarevich Dmitry and then confirmed the death from epilepsy). Now Shuisky claimed that the prince had escaped. After these words, the crowd broke into the Kremlin, destroyed the houses of the Godunovs and their relatives. On June 20, False Dmitry solemnly entered Moscow.
It turned out to be easier to sit on the throne than to stay on it. To strengthen his position, False Dmitry confirmed the serf legislation, which caused the discontent of the peasants.
But, above all, the tsar did not live up to the expectations of the boyars, because he acted too independently. May 17, 1606. The boyars led the people to the Kremlin, shouting “Poles are beating the boyars and the sovereign,” and as a result, False Dmitry was killed. Vasily Ivanovich ascended the throne Shuisky. The condition for his accession to the Russian throne was the restriction of power. He swore "not to do anything without the Council", and this was the first experience of building a state order on the basis of a formal sovereignty restrictions. But the normalization of the situation in the country did not happen.
The second stage of confusion
Begins second stage of confusion- social, when the nobility, capital and provincial, clerks, clerks, Cossacks enter the struggle. However, first of all, this period is characterized by a wide wave of peasant uprisings.
In the summer of 1606, the masses had a leader - Ivan Isaevich Bolotnikov. The forces gathered under the banner of Bolotnikov were a complex conglomerate, consisting of different layers. There were Cossacks, and peasants, and serfs, and townspeople, a lot of service people, small and medium feudal lords. In July 1606, Bolotnikov's troops went on a campaign against Moscow. In the battle near Moscow, Bolotnikov's troops were defeated and were forced to retreat to Tula. On July 30, the siege of the city began, and after three months the Bolotnikovites capitulated, and he himself was soon executed. The suppression of this uprising did not mean the end of the peasant war, but it began to decline.
The government of Vasily Shuisky sought to stabilize the situation in the country. But both the service people and the peasants were still dissatisfied with the government. The reasons for this were different. The nobles felt Shuisky's inability to end the peasant war, while the peasants did not accept the feudal policy. In the meantime, a new impostor appeared in Starodub (in the Bryansk region), declaring himself to have escaped “Tsar Dmitry”. According to many historians, False Dmitry II was a protege of the Polish king Sigismund III, although many do not support this version. The bulk of the armed forces of False Dmitry II were Polish gentry and Cossacks.
In January 1608. he moved to Moscow.
Having defeated Shuisky's troops in several battles, by the beginning of June, False Dmitry II reached the village of Tushino near Moscow, where he settled in a camp. Pskov, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Vologda, Astrakhan swore allegiance to the impostor. Tushino occupied Rostov, Vladimir, Suzdal, Murom. In Russia, in fact, two capitals were formed. Boyars, merchants, officials swore allegiance either to False Dmitry or Shuisky, sometimes receiving salaries from both.
In February 1609, the Shuisky government concluded an agreement with Sweden, counting on help in the war against the “Tushinsky thief” and his Polish troops. According to this agreement, Russia gave Sweden the Karelian volost in the North, which was a serious political mistake. This gave Sigismund III an excuse to move to open intervention. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth began hostilities against Russia in order to conquer its territory. Polish detachments left Tushino. False Dmitry II, who was there, fled to Kaluga and, ultimately, ingloriously ended his voyage.
Sigismund sent letters to Smolensk and Moscow, where he claimed that, as a relative of the Russian tsars and at the request of the Russian people, he was going to save the perishing Moscow state and its Orthodox faith.
The Moscow boyars decided to accept help. An agreement was concluded on the recognition of the prince Vladislav Russian tsar, and before his arrival to obey Sigismund. On February 4, 1610, an agreement was concluded that included a plan for the state structure under Vladislav: the inviolability of the Orthodox faith, the restriction of freedom from the arbitrariness of the authorities. The sovereign had to share his power with the Zemsky Sobor and the Boyar Duma.
August 17, 1610 Moscow swore allegiance to Vladislav. And a month before that, Vasily Shuisky was forcibly tonsured by the nobles as monks and taken to the Chudov Monastery. To govern the country, the Boyar Duma created a commission of seven boyars, called " Seven Boyars". On September 20, the Poles entered Moscow.
Sweden also launched aggressive actions. Swedish troops occupied a significant part of the north of Russia and were preparing to capture Novgorod. Russia faced a direct threat of loss of independence. The aggressive plans of the aggressors aroused general indignation. In December 1610. False Dmitry II was killed, but the struggle for the Russian throne did not end there.
The third stage of turmoil
The death of the impostor immediately changed the situation in the country. The pretext for the presence of Polish troops on Russian territory disappeared: Sigismund explained his actions by the need to “fight the Tushino thief.” The Polish army turned into an occupational army, the Seven Boyars into a government of traitors. The Russian people united to resist the intervention. The war took on a national character.
The third period of turmoil begins. From the northern cities, at the call of the patriarch, detachments of Cossacks led by I. Zarutsky and Prince Dm begin to converge towards Moscow. Trubetskoy. Thus was formed the first militia. In April - May 1611, Russian detachments stormed the capital, but did not achieve success, as internal contradictions and rivalry between the leaders affected. In the autumn of 1611, the desire for liberation from foreign oppression was vividly expressed by one of the leaders of the Nizhny Novgorod Posad Kuzma Minin, who called for the creation of a militia to liberate Moscow. Prince was elected leader of the militia Dmitry Pozharsky.
In August 1612, the militia of Minin and Pozharsky reached Moscow, and on October 26 the Polish garrison capitulated. Moscow was liberated. The Time of Troubles or the “great devastation”, which lasted about ten years, is over.
Under these conditions, the country needed a government of a kind of social reconciliation, a government that would be able to ensure not only the cooperation of people from different political camps, but also a class compromise. The candidacy of a representative of the Romanov family suited different strata and classes of society.
After the liberation of Moscow, letters of convocation of the Zemsky Sobor for the election of a new tsar were scattered around the country. The council, held in January 1613, was the most representative in the history of medieval Russia, reflecting at the same time the balance of forces that had developed during the war of liberation. A struggle broke out around the future tsar, and in the end they agreed on the candidacy of 16-year-old Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, a relative of Ivan the Terrible's first wife. This circumstance created the appearance of a continuation of the former dynasty of Russian princes. February 21 1613 Zemsky Sobor elected Mikhail Romanov Tsar of Russia.
Since that time, the rule of the Romanov dynasty in Russia began, which lasted a little more than three hundred years - until February 1917.
So, concluding this section related to the history of the “Time of Troubles”, it should be noted that acute internal crises and long wars were largely generated by the incompleteness of the process of state centralization, the lack of necessary conditions for the normal development of the country. At the same time, it was an important stage in the struggle for the establishment of the Russian centralized state.
Time of Troubles or Troubles- period in history Russia from 1598 to 1613, marked by natural disasters, the Polish-Swedish intervention, the most severe state-political and socio-economic crisis
The Time of Troubles was caused by a number of reasons and factors. Historians identify the following of them:
P first reason turmoil - a dynastic crisis. The last member of the Rurik dynasty died.
The second reason- class contradictions. The boyars aspired to power, the peasants were dissatisfied with their position (they were forbidden to move to other estates, they were tied to the land).
Third reason- economic ruin. The country's economy was not in order. In addition, every now and then in Russia there was a crop failure. The peasants blamed the ruler for everything and periodically staged uprisings, supported the False Dmitrys.
All this prevented the establishment of any one new dynasty and worsened an already terrible situation.
Essence of Trouble:
Stage 1 of the Time of Troubles began with a dynastic crisis caused by the murder of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible of his eldest son Ivan. The 2nd stage of the Time of Troubles is associated with the split of the country in 1609: two tsars, two Boyar Dumas, two patriarchs (Germogenes in Moscow and Filaret in Tushino), territories that recognize the power of False Dmitry II, and territories that remain loyal to Shuisky were formed in Muscovy. Stage 3 of the Time of Troubles is associated with the desire to overcome the conciliatory position of the Seven Boyars, which did not have real power and failed to force Vladislav (son of Sigismund) to fulfill the terms of the agreement, to accept Orthodoxy. The combination of these events led to the appearance of adventurers and impostors on the Russian throne, claims to the throne from the Cossacks, runaway peasants and serfs (which manifested itself in Bolotnikov's peasant war). The Time of Troubles resulted in changes in the system of government. The weakening of the boyars, the rise of the nobility, who received estates and the possibility of legislatively assigning peasants to them, resulted in the gradual evolution of Russia towards absolutism.
Outcomes of confusion:
The Zemsky Sobor in February 1613 elected 16-year-old Mikhail Romanov (1613–1645) as tsar. In 1617, the Stolbovsky Peace was concluded with Sweden. Russia returned the Novgorod lands, the coast of the Gulf of Finland, the Neva lands, Ivangorod, Yam, Koporye, Oreshek, Karela were left behind the Swedes. In 1618, the Deulino truce was concluded with Poland, according to which Smolensk, Chernigov, Novgorod, Seversky lands, Sebezh ..
22. Moscow Russia of the 17th century: economy, politics, urban and rural uprisings
Economy. The basis of the economy of Muscovite Russia was still agriculture. Agrotechnics remained virtually unchanged for centuries, labor remained unproductive. The growth of yields was achieved by extensive methods - mainly due to the development of new lands. The economy remained predominantly natural: the bulk of the products were produced "for themselves." Not only food, but also clothes, shoes, household items were mostly produced in the peasant economy itself.
However, during this period, the geography of agriculture noticeably changed. The cessation of the Crimean raids made it possible to fearlessly develop the territories of the modern Central Black Earth region, where the yield was twice as high as in the old arable regions.
The growth of the territory and the differences in natural conditions brought to life the economic specialization of different regions of the country. Thus, the Black Earth Center and the Middle Volga region produced commercial grain, while the North, Siberia and the Don consumed imported grain.
Much more widely than in agriculture, new phenomena have spread in industry. Craft remained its main form. However, the nature of handicraft production in the XVII century. has changed. Craftsmen increasingly worked not to order, but to the market. Such a craft is called small-scale production. Its spread was caused by the growth of economic specialization in various regions of the country. For example, Pomorye specialized in wood products, the Volga region - in leather processing, Pskov, Novgorod and Smolensk - in linen. Salt-making (North) and iron-making production (Tulsko-Kashirsky region) first acquired a small-scale commercial character, since these crafts depended on the availability of raw materials and could not develop everywhere.
In the 17th century along with handicraft workshops, large enterprises began to appear. Some of them were built on the basis of the division of labor and can be attributed to manufactories.
The first Russian manufactories appeared in metallurgy. In 1636, A. Vinius, a native of Holland, founded an ironworks that produced guns and cannonballs for state orders, and also produced household items for the market.
Manufacturing production based on wage labor is no longer a feudal, but a bourgeois phenomenon. The emergence of manufactories testified to the emergence of capitalist elements in the Russian economy.
The number of manufactories operating in Russia by the end of the 17th century was very small and did not exceed two dozen. In the manufactories, along with hired workers, forced laborers also worked - convicts, palace artisans, ascribed peasants. Most manufactories had little connection with the market.
Based on the growing specialization of small-scale crafts (and partly agriculture), the formation of an all-Russian market began. If in the 16th century and earlier trade was carried out mainly within one district, now trade relations began to be established throughout the country. Moscow was the most important trading center. Extensive trade operations were carried out at fairs. The largest of them were Makaryevskaya near Nizhny Novgorod and Irbitskaya in the Urals.
Urban and rural uprisings
The 17th century (especially the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich) entered the history of Russia as a "rebellious time". Indeed, the middle - the second half of the century - this is the era of large and small uprisings of the peasantry, the urban lower classes, service people, reacting in this way to the policy of absolute power and enslavement.
History of urban uprisings opens the "salt riot" of 1648. in Moscow. Various segments of the population of the capital took part in it: townspeople, archers, nobles, dissatisfied with the pro-boyar policy of the government of B.I. Morozov. The reason for the speech was the dispersal of the delegation of Muscovites by the archers, who were trying to submit a petition to the tsar at the mercy of the clerks, who, in their opinion, were guilty of imposing a tax on salt. Massacres of influential dignitaries began. The Duma clerk Nazariy Chistoy was killed, the head of the Zemsky order, Leonty Pleshcheev, was given to the crowd to be torn to pieces, and the roundabout P.T. was executed in front of the people. Trakhaniotov. The tsar managed to save only his "uncle" Morozov, urgently sending him into exile in the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery. The uprising was suppressed by the archers, who were forced by the government to give increased salaries.
The uprising in Moscow received a wide response - a wave of movements in the summer of 1648 swept many cities: Kozlov, Sol Vychegodskaya, Kursk, Ustyug the Great, etc. In total, in 1648-1650. there were 21 uprisings. The most significant of them were in Pskov and Novgorod. They were caused by a sharp increase in the price of bread as a result of the government's commitment to deliver grain to Sweden. In both cities, power passed into the hands of zemstvo elders. The Novgorod uprising was suppressed by an army led by Prince Khovansky. Pskov, on the other hand, offered successful armed resistance to government troops during a three-month siege of the city (June-August 1650). The zemstvo hut, headed by Gavriil Demidov, became the absolute owner of the city, distributing bread and property confiscated from the rich among the townspeople. At the emergency Zemsky Sobor, the composition of the delegation was approved to persuade the Pskovites. The resistance ended after all the participants in the uprising were forgiven.
In 1662, the so-called copper riot, caused by the protracted Russian-Polish war and the financial crisis. The monetary reform (the minting of depreciated copper money) led to a sharp fall in the exchange rate of the ruble, which primarily affected the soldiers and archers who received monetary salaries, as well as artisans and small merchants. On July 25, "thieves' letters" with an appeal to action were scattered around the city. The excited crowd moved to seek justice in Kolomenskoye, where the tsar was. In Moscow itself, the rebels smashed the courts of the boyars and wealthy merchants. While the tsar was persuading the crowd, archery regiments loyal to the government approached Kolomenskoye. As a result of the brutal massacre, several hundred people died, and 18 were publicly hanged. The "Copper Riot" forced the government to stop issuing copper coins. But even in the autumn of 1662, the archery tax on bread was doubled. This put the townspeople in a particularly difficult situation, since they practically did not engage in agriculture. Mass runs to the Don began - people fled from the settlements, peasants fled.
Stepan Razin's uprising:
In 1667, Stepan Razin stood at the head of the people, who recruited a detachment of poor Cossacks, runaway peasants, offended archers. He came up with the campaign because he wanted to distribute booty to the poor, give bread to the hungry, clothes to the undressed. Wherever people went to Razin: both from the Volga and from the Don. The detachment grew to 2000 people.
On the Volga, the rebels captured the caravan, the Cossacks replenished the supply of weapons and food. With renewed vigor, the leader moved on. There were clashes with government troops. In all battles he showed courage. Many people were added to the Cossacks. There were battles in various cities of Persia, where they went to free Russian prisoners. Razintsy defeated the Persian Shah, but they had significant losses.
The southern governors reported on Razin's independence, about his intention of turmoil, which alarms the government. In 1670, a messenger from Tsar Evdokimov arrived at the leader, whom the Cossacks drowned. The rebel army grows to 7,000 and advances on Tsaritsyn, captures it, as well as Astrakhan, Samara and Saratov. Near Simbirsk, the seriously wounded Razin is defeated, and then he is executed in Moscow.
During the 17th century, there were many popular uprisings, the cause of which lay in the policies of the government. The authorities saw in the inhabitants only a source of income, which caused discontent among the lower masses.
While the sovereigns of the old dynasty, direct descendants of Rurik, were on the Moscow throne, the majority of the population obeyed their rulers. But when the dynasties ceased and the state turned out to be a no-man's land, there was a ferment in the population, both in the lower classes and in the upper ones.
The upper layer of the Moscow population, the boyars, economically weakened and morally belittled by the policies of Grozny, began a struggle for power.
There are three periods in the Time of Troubles. The first is dynastic, the second is social and the third is national.
The first includes the time of the struggle for the Moscow throne between various pretenders up to and including Tsar Vasily Shuisky.
First period
The first period of the Time of Troubles (1598-1605) began with a dynastic crisis caused by the murder of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible of his eldest son Ivan, the coming to power of his brother Fyodor Ivanovich and the death of their younger half-brother Dmitry (according to many, stabbed to death by henchmen of the de facto ruler of the country Boris Godunov). After the death of Ivan the Terrible and his sons, the struggle for power intensified even more. As a result, Boris Godunov, the brother of Tsar Fyodor's wife, became the de facto ruler of the state. In 1598, the childless Tsar Fedor also died, with his death the dynasty of the princes of Rurik, which ruled Russia for 700 years, ended.
It was necessary to elect a new king to rule the country, with the advent of which a new reigning house would be erected on the throne. This is the Romanov dynasty. However, before the Romanov dynasty gained power, they had to go through difficult trials, these were the years of the Time of Troubles. After the death of Tsar Fyodor, the Zemsky Sobor elected Boris Godunov (1598-1605) as Tsar. In Russia, for the first time, a tsar appeared who received the throne not by inheritance.
Boris Godunov was a talented political figure, he strove to unite the entire ruling class and did a lot to stabilize the situation in the country, but he was unable to stop the intrigues of disgruntled boyars. Boris Godunov did not resort to mass terror, but dealt with only his real enemies. Under Godunov, new cities of Samara, Saratov, Tsaritsyn, Ufa, Voronezh arose.
The famine of 1601-1603, caused by protracted crop failures, caused enormous damage to the country's economy. This undermined the Russian economy, people were dying of hunger, and cannibalism began in Moscow. Boris Godunov is trying to suppress the social explosion. He began distributing bread for free from state stocks and set fixed prices for bread. But these measures were not successful, because. bread distributors began to speculate on it, moreover, the stocks could not be enough for all the hungry, and the restriction of the price of bread led to the fact that they simply stopped selling it. In Moscow, during the famine, about 127 thousand people died, not everyone had time to bury them, and the bodies of the dead remained on the streets for a long time.
The people decide that hunger is the curse of the Lord, and Boris is Satan. Gradually, rumors spread that Boris Godunov ordered the assassination of Tsarevich Dmitry, then they remembered that the Tsar was a Tatar.
The famine also led to an outflow of the population from the central regions to the outskirts, where self-governing communities of the so-called free Cossacks began to emerge. Famine led to revolts. In 1603, a major uprising of serfs (the uprising of Khlopok) began, which covered a large territory and became the prologue to the peasant war.
External reasons were added to internal ones: Poland and Lithuania, united in the Commonwealth, were in a hurry to take advantage of Russia's weakness. The aggravation of the internal political situation led, in turn, to a sharp drop in Godunov's prestige not only among the masses, but also among the feudal lords.
In these difficult conditions, a young Galich nobleman Grigory Otrepyev appeared in Russia, who declared himself to be Tsarevich Dmitry, who had long been considered dead in Uglich. He showed up in Poland, and this was a gift to King Sigismund III, who supported the impostor. The agents of the impostor intensively disseminated in Russia the version of his miraculous salvation from the hands of the murderers sent by Godunov, and proved the legitimacy of his right to his father's throne. This news led to confusion and confusion in all sectors of society, in each of which there were many dissatisfied with the reign of Tsar Boris. Some help in organizing the adventure was provided by the Polish magnates who had risen under the banner of False Dmitry. As a result, by the autumn of 1604, a sufficiently powerful army was formed to march on Moscow. At the end of 1604, having converted to Catholicism, False Dmitry I entered Russia with an army. Many cities of southern Russia, Cossacks, disgruntled peasants, went over to his side.
The forces of False Dmitry grew rapidly, cities opened their gates to him, peasants and townspeople joined his troops. False Dmitry moved in the wake of the outbreak of the peasant war. After the death of Boris Godunov, the governors also began to go over to the side of False Dmitry, Moscow also went over, where he solemnly entered on June 20, 1605 and on June 30, 1605 was married to the kingdom.
It turned out to be easier to achieve placement on the throne than to stay on it. The support of the people, it seemed, should have strengthened his position on the throne. However, the situation in the country turned out to be so complicated that, with all his abilities and good intentions, the new king could not resolve the tangle of contradictions.
By refusing to fulfill the promises made to the Polish king and the Catholic Church, he lost the support of outside forces. The clergy and boyars were alarmed by his simplicity and elements of "Westernism" in his views and behavior. As a result, the impostor did not find support in the political elite of Russian society.
In addition, in the spring of 1606, he announced a call for service and began to prepare for a campaign in the Crimea, which caused discontent among many servicemen. The position of the lower classes of society did not improve: serfdom and heavy taxes remained. Soon everyone was dissatisfied with the rule of False Dmitry: peasants, feudal lords and the Orthodox clergy.
The Boyar conspiracy and the uprising of Muscovites on May 17, 1606, dissatisfied with the direction of his policy, swept him from the throne. False Dmitry and some of his associates were killed. Two days later, the boyar Vasily Shuisky was “shouted out” by the tsar, who gave a sign of the cross to rule with the Boyar Duma, not to impose disgrace and not to execute without trial. Shuisky's accession to the throne was a signal of general unrest.
Thus, during the Time of Troubles, 3 main periods are distinguished:
Dynastic;
Social;
National.
In this paragraph, we examined the first stage of the turmoil, which is characterized, first of all, by the “death” of the old dynasty of kings and the impossibility of choosing a new ruler according to the principle of ancestral succession to the throne. In this regard, dissatisfaction with the ruler begins to grow among all segments of the population, reinforced by crises in many sectors of the state. Which leads to the change of one king to another, but this does not solve the main problems, and then the turmoil continues to flare up with even greater force.
The Time of Troubles in Russia covers the period from 1598 to 1613 until the accession to the throne of the Romanov dynasty. After the death of the last Rurikovich, the country fell into a difficult period. The Rurik dynasty ended, as there were no direct heirs left, and therefore many boyars sought to take a vacant seat on the throne.
Tsars occupying the throne during the Time of Troubles in dates
Boris Godunov (1598 - 1605)
The first monarch who is not Rurikovich became. He was elected at the Zemsky Assembly. Godunov himself was an energetic and capable figure. His policy was a continuation of the activities of Ivan the Terrible, but by less radical methods. No matter how hard the new king tried to lead the country out of a terrible crisis, he could not hold out on the throne for a long time. And in the 54th year, the life of Boris Godunov ends.
Fyodor Godunov (April - June 1605)
Two days after Godunov's death, an oath ceremony was held to the new sovereign, Fyodor Godunov. But his reign lasted only two months from April to June 1605.
False Dmitry I (1605 - 1606)
Pretending to be the "surviving" son of Ivan the Terrible, with the support of the people and the Polish magnates, he took the throne, and Fyodor Godunov, along with his mother, was arrested and secretly killed. False Dmitry was in no hurry to fulfill the multiple promises given to both the Poles and the people. And after a short reign - 1605-1606. - was killed by the rebels, led by the Shuisky boyars.
Vasily Shuisky (1606 - 1610)
The next king to ascend the throne was. During his reign, the conflict between the boyar groups for the throne and the crown spilled over into a social one. The people began to understand that nothing would change in their situation, since Shuisky's policy was aimed at supporting the boyars, not the peasants. Therefore, an uprising broke out again, led by Ivan Bolotnikov.
While the tsar was besieging Bolotnikov's detachments, an impostor appeared again in the country - False Dmitry II, fighting on the money of Polish magnates. Although the latter failed to take the place of the king, Shuisky also did not remain on the throne. A group of boyars led by Lyapunov overthrew and forcibly tonsured Shuisky. Subsequently, these boyars will enter the body that became the provisional government and called the Seven Boyars.
Vladislav IV Vasa and the Seven Boyars (1610 - 1613)
After the deposition of Shuisky from the throne, the Seven Boyars resorted to open intervention, inviting the son of the Polish tsar, Vladislav IV, to the throne of Moscow. After that, a group of boyars was taken prisoner, and Sigismund III, the Polish king, had his eye on Russia as a country that should enter the Commonwealth. However, this was prevented by the Russian people, who gathered two militias under the leadership of Minin and Pozharsky, which allowed the interventionists to be expelled from Russian soil.
Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov (1613 - 1645)
In 1613, in Moscow, he was elected new at the Zemsky Sobor, during which the Time of Troubles sank into oblivion.
Results of the Time of Troubles
- Poland ceded Seversk and Smolensk lands
- The army was in decline.
- Broken and devastated country
- economic ruin
- Large loss of populationand impoverished people
- Financial difficulties.
With all this negativity, Russia retained its independence. A new dynasty came to power - the Romanovs. The country gradually began to emerge from hunger and devastation.
End of intervention
The role of the nobility increased significantly in the internal political life of the country.
Time of Troubles- designation of the period of Russian history from 1598 to 1613, marked by natural disasters, the Polish-Swedish intervention, the most severe political, economic, state and social crisis.
Start
After the death of Ivan the Terrible (1584), his heir, Fyodor Ioannovich, was incapable of governing, and the youngest son, Tsarevich Dmitry, was in infancy. With the death of Dmitry (1591) and Fedor (1598), the ruling dynasty came to an end, secondary boyar families - the Yurievs and Godunovs - came to the fore.
Three years, from 1601 to 1603, were lean, even in the summer months frosts did not stop, and in September snow fell. According to some assumptions, the reason for this was the eruption of the Huaynaputina volcano in Peru on February 19, 1600 and the volcanic winter that followed. A terrible famine broke out, the victims of which were up to half a million people. Masses of people flocked to Moscow, where the government distributed money and bread to the needy. However, these measures only increased the economic disorganization. The landowners could not feed their serfs and servants and drove them out of the estates. Left without a livelihood, people turned to robbery and robbery, intensifying the general chaos. Individual gangs grew to several hundred people. Ataman Khlopko's detachment numbered up to 500 people.
The beginning of the Time of Troubles refers to the intensification of rumors that the legitimate Tsarevich Dmitry is alive, from which it followed that the reign of Boris Godunov was illegal. The impostor False Dmitry, who announced to the Polish prince A. A. Vishnevetsky about his royal origin, entered into close relations with the Polish magnate, governor of Sandomierz Jerzy Mniszek and papal nuncio Rangoni. At the beginning of 1604, the impostor received an audience with the Polish king, and on April 17 he converted to Catholicism. King Sigismund recognized the rights of False Dmitry to the Russian throne and allowed everyone to help the "tsarevich". For this, False Dmitry promised to transfer Smolensk and Seversky lands to Poland. For the consent of the governor Mnishek to the marriage of his daughter with False Dmitry, he also promised to transfer Novgorod and Pskov to his bride. Mnishek equipped the impostor with an army consisting of Zaporozhye Cossacks and Polish mercenaries (“adventurers”). In 1604, the army of the impostor crossed the border of Russia, many cities (Moravsk, Chernigov, Putivl) surrendered to False Dmitry, the army of the Moscow governor F. I. Mstislavsky was defeated near Novgorod-Seversky. At the height of the war, Boris Godunov died (April 13, 1605); Godunov's army almost immediately betrayed his successor, 16-year-old Fyodor Borisovich, who was overthrown on June 1 and killed along with his mother on June 10.
Accession of False Dmitry I
On June 20, 1605, under general rejoicing, the impostor solemnly entered Moscow. The Moscow boyars, headed by Bogdan Belsky, publicly recognized him as the rightful heir. On June 24, Archbishop Ignatius of Ryazan, who back in Tula confirmed Dmitry's rights to the kingdom, was elevated to patriarch. Thus, the impostor received the official support of the clergy. On July 18, Queen Martha, who recognized her son as an impostor, was brought to the capital, and soon, on July 30, Dmitry was crowned king.
The reign of False Dmitry was marked by an orientation towards Poland and some attempts at reform.
Shuisky's conspiracy
Not all of the Moscow boyars recognized False Dmitry as the legitimate ruler. Immediately upon his arrival in Moscow, Prince Vasily Shuisky, through intermediaries, began to spread rumors of imposture. Governor Pyotr Basmanov uncovered the plot, and on June 23, 1605, Shuisky was captured and condemned to death, pardoned only directly at the block.
Shuisky attracted princes V.V. Golitsyn and I.S. Kurakin to his side. Enlisting the support of the Novgorod-Pskov detachment standing near Moscow, which was preparing for a campaign in the Crimea, Shuisky organized a coup.
On the night of May 16-17, 1606, the boyar opposition, taking advantage of the anger of Muscovites against the Polish adventurers who came to Moscow for the wedding of False Dmitry, raised an uprising, during which the impostor was killed.
Hostilities
The coming to power of the representative of the Suzdal branch of the Rurikovich boyar Vasily Shuisky did not bring peace. In the south, the uprising of Ivan Bolotnikov (1606-1607) broke out, which gave rise to the beginning of the movement of "thieves". Rumors about the miraculous deliverance of Tsarevich Dmitry did not subside. A new impostor appeared, who went down in history as the Tushinsky Thief (1607-1610). By the end of 1608, the power of the Tushinsky Thief extended to Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Uglich, Kostroma, Galich, Vologda. Kolomna, Pereyaslavl-Ryazansky, Smolensk, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, the Ural and Siberian cities remained loyal to Moscow. As a result of the degradation of the border service, the 100,000-strong Nogai horde devastates the "ukraine" and Seversky lands in 1607-1608.
In 1608, the Crimean Tatars for the first time in a long time crossed the Oka and ravaged the central Russian regions. Shuya and Kineshma were defeated by the Polish-Lithuanian troops, Tver was taken, the troops of the Lithuanian hetman Jan Sapieha besieged the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, the troops of Pan Lisovsky captured Suzdal. Even cities that voluntarily recognized the power of the impostor were mercilessly plundered by detachments of interventionists. The Poles levied taxes on land and trade, received "feeding" in Russian cities. All this caused by the end of 1608 a broad national liberation movement. In December 1608, Kineshma, Kostroma, Galich, Totma, Vologda, Beloozero, Ustyuzhna Zheleznopolskaya "departed" from the impostor, Veliky Ustyug, Vyatka, Perm came out in support of the rebels. In January 1609, Prince Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky, who commanded Russian warriors from Tikhvin and the Onega churchyards, repelled the 4,000-strong Polish detachment of Kernozitsky advancing on Novgorod. At the beginning of 1609, the militia of the city of Ustyuzhna drove out the Poles and "Cherkasy" (Cossacks) from the surrounding villages, and in February repulsed all the attacks of the Polish cavalry and hired German infantry. On February 17, the Russian militias lost the battle of Suzdal to the Poles. At the end of February, "Vologda and Pomeranian peasants" liberated Kostroma from the interventionists. On March 3, the militia of the northern and north Russian cities took Romanov, from there moved to Yaroslavl and took it in early April. Nizhny Novgorod governor Alyabyev took Murom on March 15, and Vladimir was released on March 27.
The government of Vasily Shuisky concludes the Vyborg Treaty with Sweden, according to which the Korelsky district was transferred to the Swedish crown in exchange for military assistance. The Russian government also had to pay for the mercenaries, who make up the bulk of the Swedish army. Fulfilling his obligations, Charles IX provided a 5,000-strong detachment of mercenaries, as well as a 10,000-strong detachment of "all sorts of mixed rabble" under the command of J. Delagardie. In the spring, Prince Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky gathered a 5,000-strong Russian army in Novgorod. On May 10, Russian-Swedish forces occupied Staraya Rusa, and on May 11 they defeated the Polish-Lithuanian detachments approaching the city. On May 15, Russian-Swedish forces under the command of Chulkov and Gorn defeated the Polish cavalry under the command of Kernozitsky near Toropets.
By the end of spring, most of the northwestern Russian cities had abandoned the impostor. By the summer, the number of Russian troops reached 20 thousand people. On June 17, in a heavy battle near Torzhok, the Russian-Swedish forces forced the Polish-Lithuanian army of Zborovsky to retreat. On July 11-13, Russian-Swedish forces, under the command of Skopin-Shuisky and Delagardie, defeated the Poles near Tver. In the further actions of Skopin-Shuisky, the Swedish troops (with the exception of the detachment of Christier Somme, numbering 1 thousand people) did not take part. On July 24, Russian detachments crossed to the right bank of the Volga and entered the Makariev Kalyazin Monastery. On August 19, the Poles under the command of Jan Sapieha were defeated by Skopin-Shuisky at Kalyazin. On September 10, the Russians, together with the Zomme detachment, occupied Pereyaslavl, and on October 9, voivode Golovin occupied Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda. On October 16, a Russian detachment broke through into the Trinity-Sergius Monastery besieged by the Poles. On October 28, Skopin-Shuisky defeated Hetman Sapega near Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda.
On January 12, 1610, the Poles retreated from the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, and on February 27, they left Dmitrov under the blows of the Russian troops. On March 12, 1610, the regiments of Skopin-Shuisky entered the capital, and on April 29 he died after a short illness. The Russian army at that time was preparing to go to the aid of Smolensk, which since September 1609 was besieged by the troops of the Polish king Sigismund III. The Poles and Cossacks also took possession of the cities of the Seversk land; the population of Starodub and Pochep completely perished during the enemy assault, Chernigov and Novgorod-Seversky surrendered.
On July 4, 1610, the Battle of Klushino took place, as a result of which the Polish army (Zholkevsky) defeated the Russian-Swedish army under the command of Dmitry Shuisky and Jacob Delagardi; during the battle, German mercenaries who served with the Russians went over to the side of the Poles. The Poles opened the way to Moscow.
Seven Boyars
The defeat of the troops of Vasily Shuisky from the Poles near Klushin (June 24 / July 4, 1610) finally undermined the shaky authority of the "boyar tsar", and a coup took place in Moscow when the news of this event was announced. As a result of the boyar conspiracy, Vasily Shuisky was removed, Moscow swore allegiance to the Polish prince Vladislav, and on September 20-21, Polish troops entered the capital. However, the robberies and violence committed by the Polish-Lithuanian detachments in Russian cities, as well as interreligious contradictions between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, caused rejection of Polish rule - in the northwest and east, a number of Russian cities "besieged" and refused to swear allegiance to Vladislav.
1610-1613 - Seven Boyars (Mstislavsky, Trubetskoy, Golitsyn, Obolensky, Romanov, Lykov, Sheremetev).
On March 17, 1611, the Poles, who took a dispute in the market for the beginning of an uprising, massacre in Moscow, 7 thousand Muscovites die in Kitai-Gorod alone.
In 1611, the 1st Lyapunov Militia approached the walls of Moscow. However, as a result of a feud at the military council of the rebels, Lyapunov was killed, and the militia dispersed. In the same year, the Crimean Tatars, without meeting resistance, ravaged the Ryazan Territory. Smolensk, after a long siege, was captured by the Poles, and the Swedes, leaving the role of "allies", ravaged the northern Russian cities.
The Second Militia of 1612 was headed by the Nizhny Novgorod zemstvo elder Kuzma Minin, who invited Prince Pozharsky to lead the military operations. In February 1612, the militia moved to Yaroslavl to take this important point, where many roads crossed. Yaroslavl was busy; the militia stood here for four months, because it was necessary to "build" not only the army, but also the "land". Pozharsky wanted to convene a “general zemstvo council” to discuss plans to combat the Polish-Lithuanian intervention and “how we should not be stateless in these evil times and choose a sovereign for us with all the earth.” The candidacy of the Swedish prince Karl-Philip was also proposed for discussion, who "wants to be baptized into our Orthodox faith of the Greek law." However, the Zemstvo Council did not take place.
On September 22, 1612, one of the bloodiest events of the Time of Troubles takes place - the city of Vologda was taken by the Poles and Cherkasy (Cossacks), who destroyed almost all of its population, including the monks of the Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery.
The overthrow of the government of Prince Vladislav
Around August 20 (30), 1612, the militia moved from Yaroslavl to Moscow. In September, the second militia defeated the troops of Hetman Khodkevich, who was trying to connect with the Polish garrison that controlled the Moscow Kremlin.
On October 22 (November 1), 1612, the militia led by Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky stormed Kitay-gorod; The garrison of the Commonwealth retreated to the Kremlin. Prince Pozharsky entered Kitai-Gorod with the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and vowed to build a temple in memory of this victory. On October 26, the command of the Polish garrison signed a surrender, releasing the Moscow boyars and other nobles from the Kremlin at the same time; the next day the garrison surrendered.
S. M. Solovyov, "History of Russia since ancient times":
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“As early as mid-September, Pozharsky sent a letter to the Kremlin: “Prince Dmitry Pozharsky beats the colonels and all the chivalry, Germans, Cherkasy and haiduks who are sitting in the Kremlin. We know that you, being in a city under siege, endure immeasurable hunger and great need, waiting from day to day for your death .... and you wouldn’t have to destroy your souls in that injustice, there’s nothing to endure such need and hunger for an injustice, send to us without delay, save your heads and your stomachs intact, and I’ll take it on my soul and I’ll ask all military people: which of If they want you in their land, we will let them go without any clue, and those who want to serve the Moscow sovereign, we will welcome them at their true worth. The answer was a proud and rude refusal, despite the fact that the famine was terrible: the fathers ate their children, one haiduk ate his son, another his mother, one comrade ate his servant; the captain, who was put to judge the guilty, ran away from the court, fearing that the accused would not eat the judge. Finally, on October 22, the Cossacks went on the attack and took Kitai-Gorod. The Poles held out in the Kremlin for another month; to get rid of extra mouths, they ordered the boyars and all Russian people to send their wives out of the Kremlin. The boyars strongly entered and sent to Pozharsky Minin and all military people with a request to come, accept their wives without shame. Pozharsky ordered them to be told to let their wives out without fear, and he himself went to receive them, received everyone honestly and took each one to his friend, ordering everyone to please them. The Cossacks got excited, and again the usual threats were heard among them: to kill Prince Dmitry, why didn’t he let the boyars rob? Driven to extremes by starvation, the Poles finally entered into negotiations with the militia, demanding only one thing, that their lives be saved, which was promised. First, the boyars were released - Fedor Ivanovich Mstislavsky, Ivan Mikhailovich Vorotynsky, Ivan Nikitich Romanov with his nephew Mikhail Fedorovich and the mother of the latter Martha Ivanovna and all other Russian people. When the Cossacks saw that the boyars had gathered on the Stone Bridge leading from the Kremlin through Neglinnaya, they wanted to rush at them, but were held back by Pozharsky's militia and forced to return to the camps, after which the boyars were received with great honor. The next day, the Poles also surrendered: Strus with his regiment went to the Cossacks of Trubetskoy, who robbed and beat many prisoners; Budzilo with his regiment was taken to the warriors of Pozharsky, who did not touch a single Pole. Strus was interrogated, Andronov was tortured, how much royal treasure was lost, how much was left? They also found ancient royal hats, which were given as a pawn to the Sapezhins who remained in the Kremlin. On November 27, Trubetskoy's militia converged on the Church of the Kazan Mother of God behind the Intercession Gates, Pozharsky's militia - on the Church of John the Merciful on the Arbat and, taking crosses and images, moved to Kitai-Gorod from two different directions, accompanied by all Moscow residents; the militias converged at the Execution Ground, where the Trinity Archimandrite Dionysius began to serve a prayer service, and from the Frolovsky (Spassky) Gates, from the Kremlin, another religious procession appeared: the Galasunsky (Arkhangelsk) Archbishop Arseny was walking with the Kremlin clergy and carried Vladimirskaya: a cry and sobs were heard in the people who had already lost the hope of ever seeing this image dear to Muscovites and all Russians. After the prayer service, the army and the people moved to the Kremlin, and here joy changed to sadness when they saw the state in which the embittered Gentiles left the churches: everywhere uncleanness, images were cut, eyes were twisted, thrones were stripped; terrible food is cooked in the vats - human corpses! Mass and a prayer service in the Assumption Cathedral ended a great national celebration similar to which our fathers saw exactly two centuries later. |
The election of the king
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Upon the capture of Moscow, by a letter of November 15, Pozharsky convened representatives from the cities, 10 people each, to select a king. Sigismund took it into his head to go to Moscow, but he did not have the strength to take Volok, and he went back. In January 1613, elected representatives from all classes, including peasants, gathered. The cathedral (that is, the all-class assembly) was one of the most populous and most complete: there were representatives of even black volosts, which had not happened before. Four candidates were nominated: V. I. Shuisky, Vorotynsky, Trubetskoy and Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov. Contemporaries accused Pozharsky of agitating strongly in his favor, but this can hardly be allowed. In any case, the elections were very stormy. There is a legend that Filaret demanded restrictive conditions for the new tsar and pointed to M.F. Romanov as the most suitable candidate. Mikhail Fedorovich was indeed chosen, and undoubtedly, he was offered those restrictive conditions that Filaret wrote about: “Give full play to justice according to the old laws of the country; do not judge or condemn anyone by the highest authority; without a council, do not introduce any new laws, do not burden the subjects with new taxes, and do not make the slightest decisions in military and zemstvo affairs. The election took place on February 7, but the official announcement was postponed until the 21st, in order to find out in the meantime how the people would accept the new king. With the election of the king, the troubles ended, since now there was a power that everyone recognized and on which one could rely. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron |
Consequences of the Time of Troubles
The Time of Troubles ended with great territorial losses for Russia. Smolensk was lost for many decades; western and a significant part of eastern Karelia captured by the Swedes. Not reconciled to national and religious oppression, almost the entire Orthodox population, both Russians and Karelians, will leave these territories. Russia lost access to the Gulf of Finland. The Swedes left Novgorod only in 1617, only a few hundred inhabitants remained in the completely devastated city.
The time of troubles led to a deep economic decline. In many districts of the historical center of the state, the size of arable land has decreased by 20 times, and the number of peasants by 4 times. In the western counties (Rzhevsky, Mozhaysky, etc.), cultivated land ranged from 0.05 to 4.8%. The lands in the possessions of the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery were “everything ruined to the ground and the peasant woman with their wives and children was cut down, and the worthy ones were brought to full capacity ... and five or six dozen peasant women after the Lithuanian devastation were shed, and they still do not know how to make bread from ruin and bread.” In a number of areas, and by the 20-40s of the 17th century, the population was still below the level of the 16th century. And in the middle of the 17th century, the "living arable land" in the Zamoskovskiy Territory accounted for no more than half of all lands recorded in cadastral books.