FALSE DMITRY II (?-1610) Impostor. He pretended to be the allegedly saved Tsar Dmitry (False Dmitry I). In 1608-1609 occupied Tushino near Moscow (which is why he went down in history under the nickname “Tushino Thief”), unsuccessfully tried to capture the capital. After the start of the Polish intervention he fled to

Grigory Otrepiev (False Dmitry I) The distant ancestors of Grigory Otrepiev lived in Lithuania. Arriving in Rus', some of them settled in Galich, and others in Uglich, the residence of the deceased Tsarevich Dmitry, the son of Ivan the Terrible. In 1577, Smirnoy-Otrepiev and his younger brother Bogdan, to whom

Tsar Dmitry (False Dmitry I) around 1581-1606 According to one version, False Dmitry is a Galich nobleman Yuri Bogdanovich Otrepiev, the son of the Streltsy centurion Bogdan Otrepiev, a defrocked monk. In 1602 he fled from Russia to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. From there he crossed the Russian border with the army. Issued

Summer 1606. Before the ashes of the first impostor had time to scatter, the blood of thousands of Poles killed during the pogrom had not yet dried, rumors spread throughout Muscovy and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth about the second miraculous salvation of Tsar Dmitry.

And two years later he himself appeared. In a short time, he attracted to his side many people of various classes, including the highest nobility. He split the country into two camps, between which a stubborn civil war developed. False Dmitry was defeated in it and was killed by his own allies. But the turmoil he caused continued for many years.

His identity remains, perhaps, even more mysterious than that of the first impostor. The abundance of conflicting evidence is confusing. So who was False Dmitry II?

Civil War

The soil that gave rise to the appearance of the first False Dmitry was, it seems, only fertilized by his murder. Already in August 1606, a certain Ivan Bolotnikov, who called himself the commander of Tsar Dmitry, crossed the Russian-Polish border with a small detachment. Dissatisfied people flocked to him from everywhere. And although in the same year Bolotnikov’s army was defeated near Moscow, and in 1607 the rebel leader surrendered in besieged Tula, the name of the “legitimate tsar” again and again raised people against the government.

And in June 1607, in the border town of Starodub, the man appeared who declared himself Tsar Demetrius Ioannovich, who had twice miraculously escaped from the hands of assassins and was now going to win the throne. And again, those dissatisfied with the existing order found a center of gravity. Growing like a snowball, the army of the second impostor rolled towards Moscow. As in the case of the first False Dmitry, along the way the royal governors with their troops crossed over to his side, the cities opened their gates to him and swore allegiance to him as the rightful king. True, in a number of cases, the governors of Tsar Vasily Shuisky showed stubborn resistance to him, and this did not happen without bloody battles.

Finally, False Dmitry II in the summer of 1608 approached Moscow. Since the government of Vasily Shuisky retained control over the capital, the new impostor, unlike the first, was not able to solemnly enter it under the ringing of bells. He settled in a fortified camp in the village of Tushino, which for a time became the alternative capital of Russia. From here, the impostor’s troops spread to all corners of the country, taking cities and bringing the population to swear allegiance to the “legitimate king.” According to the chronicles, they committed all sorts of atrocities to the rebellious. Opponents nicknamed False Dmitry II “Tsarik” or “Tushino thief.”

Many cities remained loyal to Vasily Shuisky. The stubborn defense of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra from the troops of the impostor became widely famous. In Zaraysk, governor Mikhail Pozharsky bravely repelled all the attacks of his army. However, there were many who sought benefits from the “legitimate Tsar Dmitry.” Among them was the boyar Fyodor Romanov, repressed under Boris Godunov, the father of the future Tsar Mikhail, who was tonsured a monk under the name Philaret. False Dmitry II convened an alternative church council from his supporters in the highest clergy, which proclaimed Philaret Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'.

To give his power legitimacy, False Dmitry the Second ordered the wife of the first impostor, Marina Mnishek, the crowned Moscow queen, to be delivered to him. Out of ambition, Marina decided to pretend that this was her real husband. The impostor pursued a cunning policy. In order to create mass support for himself, he abolished serfdom and allowed the lands of those boyars who did not swear allegiance to him to be divided between serfs and peasants. False Dmitry II generously distributed favors and privileges to his supporters, which, according to his opponents, were worth a penny on market day (which is not at all the case, as we see in the example of Patriarch Philaret, who is completely legitimate).

For a long time the civil war was in a state of equilibrium, and decisive success did not lean in either direction. Finally, Tsar Vasily Shuisky, not trusting his subjects, resorted to the same means as the impostor - foreign intervention. Having recruited Swedish mercenaries, his nephew Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky defeated the Tushins in the winter of 1609/10 and lifted the siege of Moscow.

But the fight is not over. False Dmitry II (like Bolotnikov earlier) settled in Kaluga, which this time became the center of the movement not only against Shuisky, but also against the Poles. In the summer of 1610, the boyars in Moscow overthrew Shuisky and called the Polish prince Vladislav to the throne. Thus, they wanted to make peace with the Poles and suppress the movement of False Dmitry II, which was increasingly taking on an anti-serfdom character. The Poles, who had previously served the impostor, began to leave him en masse. The Cossacks and Tatars remained with False Dmitry, becoming irreconcilable enemies of the Poles. But the impostor had a conflict with a noble Tatar, who in December 1610 killed False Dmitry out of personal revenge.

Could there be a prince who escaped?

All Russian sources were abandoned by opponents of False Dmitry II, who endowed him with the most unattractive features. But the most mysterious thing remains its origin.

Evidence that the second impostor was a baptized Jew should apparently be left, since their bias is obvious. Belonging to the “tribe that crucified Christ” was, in the eyes of his contemporaries, the most terrible characteristic.

Of the sources that did not intend to denigrate the impostor in advance, the “Lithuanian” ones, that is, Western Russian ones of that time, apparently deserve the greatest trust. One of them describes in detail the biography and appearance of False Dmitry II. He was a literate man from Starodub near the Russian-Lithuanian border. From there he moved to Belaya Rus' and was a home teacher in the family of a priest. His teaching is confirmed by other sources, so it can be considered completely reliable. But was he a simple tradesman from Starodub itself?

It is known that the second impostor could speak, read and write fluently not only in Russian and Polish, but, according to some news, also in Hebrew. He knew well the entire church circle of the yearly service. True, he did not know either Latin or ancient Greek, which clearly indicates his origin not from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but from Muscovy.

At that time, it was almost impossible for a person without a family without a tribe to take on the authoritative leadership of a movement in which noble nobles would be under his command. And the actions of the second impostor reveal in him a skillful, cynical and cruel politician. Modern historian D. Levchik substantiates the version that False Dmitry II was... the real Tsarevich Dmitry (he, not the first impostor)! Obviously, only a genetic analysis of the relics of Tsarevich Dmitry can refute the rumor of a “miraculous salvation” that is emerging even now, in the fifth century after the events.

False Dmitry II is the second impostor who pretended to be the son of Ivan IV. He was also an adventurer and impostor who allegedly escaped during the 1606 rebellion. Molchanov, who participated in the murder of Fyodor Godunov, fled to the western borders, began to spread the rumor that Tsarevich Dmitry managed to survive.

The question of the origin of the impostor causes much controversy. His appearance was beneficial to certain circles. He appears for the first time in Belarus (in Propoisk), was caught as a spy and called himself Andrei Nagim, said that he was a relative of the murdered Tsar Dmitry and was forced to hide from Shuisky. The detainee asked to be sent to Starodub. Arriving there, he begins to spread rumors that Tsar Dmitry is alive in the city. When searching for Dmitry, they pointed to Nagogo. At first he refused, but the townspeople began to threaten the alien with torture; the alien called himself Dmitry.

Tushino thief

Supporters of the king began to gather in this small town. In 1607, campaigns were carried out against Bryansk and Tula.

They reached the capital, but failed to capture the Kremlin. The invaders settled in the town of Tushino near Moscow, so the adventurer was nicknamed the Tushino thief.

His army was composed of Poles who left Moscow after the execution of False Dmitry I. It was led by princes Vishnevetsky and Ruzhinsky. They were joined by detachments of Cossacks, led by Zarutsky, and small groups of Bolotnikov, who survived the defeat. About 3,000 soldiers gathered.

In Tushino, the impostor formed a government, which included some Russian feudal lords and clerk businessmen (Filaret Romanov, the Trubetskoy princes and others). The actual leadership was in the hands of Polish commanders led by Hetman Ruzhinsky.

False Dmitry II managed to carry out a secret wedding with Marina Mniszech in August 1608; the Pole “recognized” him as her husband. Some of the Moscow boyars (Tushino flights), dissatisfied with Tsar Vasily Shuisky, supported the impostor.

In April 1609, False Dmitry II appeared before the people. On his head was a cap decorated with precious stones, they shone in the sunlight. This is how the saying arose that a thief’s cap is on fire.

False Dmitry II managed to take advantage of the people's struggle against the power of Shuisky and take control of territories in the eastern, northern and northwestern directions of Moscow. In order to attract landowners, the Pretender began distributing land to the peasants.

The territory that came under the control of the ruler was subject to monetary and in-kind requisitions for the maintenance of the Polish army. This policy sparked a national liberation struggle.

Since 1609, the lands controlled by False Dmitry have been rapidly shrinking. In the summer, the Poles began intervention against the Russian state, which led to the collapse of the headquarters in Tushino. Poles and some Russian feudal lords go over to the side of Sigismund III. At the end of 1609, the impostor fled to Kaluga.

End of reign

Following her husband, Marina Mnishek comes to the city. On December 11, the Tushino thief was killed by the baptized Tatar Pyotr Urusov. He cuts the shoulder with a saber blow, Urusov's brother cut off the impostor's head. This was revenge for the fact that False Dmitry executed Uraz-Magomet (King of Kasimov).

Soon after the death of the Self-Proclaimed Tsar, Mniszech had a boy. They named him Ivan, popularly called “the little crow.” The Polish lady did not long for her husband for long; her next husband was the Cossack ataman Zarutsky.

Polish troops managed to capture Smolensk, since the country was completely devastated.

Rumors about the miraculous salvation of Tsarevich Dmitry became popular in the country. A man who appeared in Poland in 1601, later known as False Dmitry the First, took advantage of the opportunity.

According to the official version, False Dmitry 1st comes from the family of Bogdan Otrepyev, and was a fugitive deacon of the Chudov Monastery. Having posed as a miraculously saved prince, he was supported by the Polish aristocracy, as well as representatives of the Catholic clergy. In subsequent years (1603-1604), preparations began in Poland for his “return” to the Russian throne. During this period, False Dmitry 1st secretly accepted the Catholic faith, promised to introduce Catholicism in Rus', to assist Sigismund 3rd in the conflict with Sweden, and to give Poland the Smolensk and Seversk lands.

With a Polish-Lithuanian detachment in the fall of 1604, False Dmitry crossed the borders of Russia in the Chernigov region. The success of the adventure was greatly facilitated by the peasant uprisings that flared up in the southern lands. False Dmitry 1st eventually managed to strengthen his position in Putivl. After the death of Boris Godunov and the transition of his army to the side of the impostor during the uprising that began on June 1, 1605 in Moscow, Tsar Feodor 2nd Borisovich was overthrown. False Dmitry 1st entered Moscow on June 30 (new style) 1605. The next day he was crowned king in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.

The reign of False Dmitry I began with attempts to pursue an independent policy. In an effort to enlist the support of noble families, the impostor established land and cash salaries for them. Funds for this were taken through the revision of rights to the lands of monasteries. Some concessions were also made to the peasants. Thus, the southern regions of the country were exempted from taxes for 10 years. However, the impostor failed to win over the remaining aristocracy and peasants to his side. A general increase in taxes and the sending of promised money to Poland led already in 1606 to a peasant-Cossack uprising. Force was not used to suppress it, but False Dmitry 1st made certain concessions and included articles on the peasant exit in the Consolidated Code of Law.

The impostor who had gained power was in no hurry to fulfill his promises to Sigismund III, which resulted in a deterioration in the country’s foreign policy. A crisis situation has also developed in domestic politics. All this created the conditions for a boyar conspiracy, headed by Shuisky. False Dmitry I was killed during a revolt of the townspeople against those who had gathered to celebrate the wedding of the impostor and Maria Mnishek. The body, initially buried behind the Serpukhov Gate, was later burned, and the ashes were fired from a cannon towards Poland.

Already in the next 1607, False Dmitry 2nd appeared, nicknamed the Tushino thief. Supported by the Poles and declaring himself miraculously saved by False Dmitry 1st, he marched on Moscow. Very little is known about the biography of False Dmitry 2nd. The only reliable fact is that he really looked like the first impostor. False Dmitry II, who entered Russian soil, supported, but his troops and the army of the rebels failed to unite near Tula.

In 1608, the army that moved towards Moscow, having defeated Shuisky’s regiments, fortified itself in Tushino. In the autumn of the same year, having besieged Moscow, the Tushino people began pogroms and robberies. This situation continued for two years. Unable to repel the impostor, Shuisky entered into an agreement with the ruler of Sweden (1609), according to which he promised to give up the Karelians in exchange for military assistance. The Tsar's nephew, Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky, who turned out to be a gifted commander, becomes the commander of the Swedish troops. This gave Poland a reason to intervene and openly enter Russian lands. Smolensk, besieged by their troops, defended itself for 20 months.

The appearance of the Swedish army provoked the flight of False Dmitry 2nd to Kaluga, and his former associates crowned the kingdom of the son of Sigismund 3rd - Vladislav. The camp in Tushino was empty by the spring of 1610. Great hopes were placed on Skopin-Shuisky, but the commander died that same year under rather strange circumstances. His place was taken by V. Shuisky, the army was defeated in June 1610. False Dmitry 2nd again had hope of taking the throne, and he moved towards Moscow. However, already in August 1610, the reign of False Dmitry 2nd ended. He fled again to Kaluga, where he was killed.

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 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 autumn of 1608, he moved up the Volga, gathering forces loyal to Tsar Vasily along the way, including attracting to his side the descendants of the Livonian Germans exiled by Ivan the Terrible.

Swedish help

Tsar Vasily Shuisky sent separate detachments from Moscow against the Tushins. Their most important task was to ensure the supply of food to the capital. When rebels appeared near Kolomna - one of the few cities that remained loyal to Shuisky, the tsar sent the steward of Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky against them. He defeated them in the village of Vysotskoye, which is 30 versts from Kolomna, and “captured many tongues, and took away much of their treasury and supplies.”

However, such successes were infrequent. And Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky, realizing that he was unable to cope with the impostor alone, decided to resort to foreign military assistance - to Sweden. The choice of King Charles IX as an ally was not accidental. Charles IX was the uncle and enemy of the Polish king Sigismund III - at one time he even took the Swedish throne from his nephew. In conditions when Sigismund III 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 opponent!”

On March 12, 1610, Skopin-Shuisky at the head of the army entered Moscow and was greeted by jubilant people. But among the triumphant crowd there was one man whose heart was filled with anger and hatred. “Prince Dmitry Shuisky, standing on the rampart and seeing Skopin from a distance, exclaimed: “Here comes my rival!”,” says Dutchman Elias Gerkman, a contemporary of these events. The Tsar's brother Dmitry Ivanovich Shuisky had reason to fear the young governor: in the event of the death of the childless sovereign, he was supposed to take the throne, but the enormous popularity of Skopin-Shuisky instilled in him the fear that the people would proclaim Prince Mikhail Vasilyevich as heir and then as tsar. Some sources indicate that Vasily IV himself was afraid of Skopin-Shuisky, who was rapidly gaining fame and political weight.

The most detailed description of further tragic events is the “Scripture on the death and burial of Prince Skopin-Shuisky”, according to which at the christening of Prince Alexei Vorotynsky, the godmother - the “villainous” Princess Ekaterina Shuyskaya (the wife of Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Shuisky and the daughter of the guardsman Malyuta Skuratov) - offered to her godfather To Mikhail Vasilyevich Skopin-Shuisky a cup of poison. The young commander was ill for several days and died on April 23, 1610. With cries and screams, crowds of people carried the prince's body for burial in the royal tomb - the Archangel Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin. The Tsar, who had not previously enjoyed much love, with the death of Skopin-Shuisky began to be hated as the culprit of his death.

Meanwhile, False Dmitry II, like Vasily IV in Moscow, had long felt uncomfortable in his “capital” - Tushino. Back in September 1609, Sigismund III declared war on Russia and besieged Smolensk. Among the Poles surrounding the impostor, a plan arose to hand over the Tushino thief into the hands of the king, and themselves to act on his side and get him or his son Vladislav the Moscow crown. The Poles and some Russian Tushino residents began negotiations with Sigismund III, which resulted in an agreement between the Tushino boyars and the king (February 4, 1610) on the calling of Prince Vladislav to the Moscow throne.

Kaluga courtyard

In December 1609, the impostor was put under house arrest, but managed to escape from Tushin to Kaluga, where he again attracted many supporters (Cossacks, Russians and some Poles) and from where he waged war with two sovereigns: the Moscow Tsar Vasily Shuisky and the Polish king Sigismund. The Tushinsky camp was empty: the king’s supporters - boyar Saltykov, Prince Rubets Mosalsky, Prince Yuri Dmitrievich Khvorostinin, nobleman Molchanov, clerk Gramotin and others - went to him near Smolensk, and the supporters of the impostor went to Kaluga.

During the Kaluga period of his adventure, False Dmitry II was the most independent in the actions he took. Convinced of the treachery of the Polish mercenaries, he appealed to the Russian people, frightening them with the desire of Sigismund III to seize Russia and establish Catholicism here. This call resonated with many. Kaluga residents happily accepted the impostor. A little later, Marina Mnishek also made her way to Kaluga, and after Vor’s escape from Tushin, she ended up in Dmitrov with Hetman Jan Sapieha.

The Tushino camp collapsed, but by 1610 a new abscess had formed in Kaluga. Now the impostor was campaigning against the king and the Poles, but his patriotism was dictated primarily by selfish considerations. In fact, he was not confident in his abilities and sought help from Sapieha, he was afraid of assassination attempts and therefore surrounded himself with guards from Germans and Tatars. An atmosphere of suspicion and cruelty reigned in the Kaluga camp. Based on a false denunciation, False Dmitry II ordered the execution of Albert Skotnitsky, who had previously been the captain of the guard of False Dmitry I and the Kaluga governor of Bolotnikov, and brought down his anger on all Germans. In the end, immeasurable cruelty destroyed him.

In the fall of 1610, 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.”