The expulsion of the Polish invaders in 1612. III. The last days of the Poles in the Kremlin. Prerequisites for open Polish intervention
Do we now slumber in peace,
Russian faithful sons?!
Let's go, let's close in military formation,
Let's go - and in the horrors of war Friends,
Fatherland, people
Find glory and freedom
Fedor Glinka
In Russian history, events that have already taken place in the Russian state are often repeated, and painfully similar, and, apparently, we were not taught the mind - the mind. The actions of anti-national adventurers-politicians more than once brought our Motherland to the brink of impoverishment, humiliation and despair, and it seemed that only a miracle could save our people. But there are no miracles in the world, but there were always and decisively amazing wonderful people, patriots of the Fatherland, who went to the people and together with them raised the state desecrated by adventurers and interventionists from its knees, returned to it its former honor and greatness.
After the reign of Ivan the Terrible, who annexed the Khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan to Muscovy, the lands in the Baltic states, distinguished by strategic courage and determination in strengthening the Russian state, troubled times began. The collapse of a dynasty in the history of monarchical Russia has always resulted in great national troubles, although similar phenomena in other countries of the world do without much upheaval and destruction. If a dynasty fades away, another will be chosen, and order quickly falls into place. We do have...
The origin of Russian unrest, as a rule, occurs at the top. Those who are at the helm of power, some by cunning, some by force, some by arrogance and treachery, try to get power for themselves or, by supporting others in this matter, snatch and maintain personal gain. Those who come to power each time promise that their rule will be the most just, based on the aspirations and thoughts of the people. It's easy to say. Implementation is difficult and sometimes impossible. If people come to leadership mediocre, gray.
On the threshold of the seventeenth century there was a desperate struggle for the throne of Moscow. After Ivan the Terrible, Boris Godunov, False Dmitry, Vasily Shuisky tried to govern Russia... law, and not at his discretion, "undertakes to judge without fail, not alone, but with his boyars..." false denunciation according to the investigation to punish, depending on the guilt erected on the slandered. Do not place your disgrace on anyone without guilt ... "
This did not satisfy the Boyar Duma. After all, before that, the motto of Tsar Ivan the Terrible was: "We are free to favor our serfs and we are free to execute them ..." Shaking off these royal prerogatives with an oath, Vasily Shuisky turned from the ruler of serfs into a legitimate king of subjects, ruling according to the law.
But the chronicler says that after kissing the cross, Tsar Vasily immediately went to the Assumption Cathedral and told the people there: “I kiss the cross to the whole earth for the fact that they didn’t do anything to me without a cathedral, no bad thing ...” Shuisky hoped to get rid of this oath from boyar guardianship, to become a zemstvo tsar, for the sake of form, limiting his power to the Cathedral - an institution whose essence at that time no one really understood or perceived.
The weakening of centralized power in Rus' has always led to confusion and vacillation in society, to extortion and theft, and arbitrariness. All this began after the death of Ivan the Terrible. Following the top, the lower classes began to seek their truth and benefit. No one wanted to obey anyone.
The world is already arranged in such a way that only the lazy will not try to profit at the expense of a weakened neighbor. In Western countries, at the sight of Muscovy mired in internecine strife, their eyes lit up with a greedy passion for profit. Following the failed henchmen of False Dmitry, the Polish king Sigismund III, with the help of military force and traitors of the boyars, reigned his son Vladislav on the Moscow throne. On the night of September 21, 1610, Polish troops entered Moscow and settled in its heart - the Kremlin and Kitay-Gorod. They behaved here like full-fledged masters, they did not reckon not only with serfs, but also with the boyar nobility. The Swedish king Charles IX, under the pretext of helping Russia, sent his troops to Novgorod, began the seizure of Russian lands in the Baltic states.
The newly appeared "helpers and patrons" did not bake about the integrity and prosperity of the Russian state. Poland sought to annex the original Russian lands right along with Smolensk. True, his governor, Mikhail Shein, gathered an army, but Smolensk did not give up to the Poles. The invaders behaved impudently on Russian soil, robbed, raped, imposed unbearable requisitions on the Russians.
The liberation movement, directed against the subordination of Russia to the Polish royal power, began at the end of 1610, when relations between Muscovites and Poles escalated. A state of siege was introduced in Moscow. Fear among the Polish gentry caused an influx of Russian people to Moscow, a secret delivery of weapons to the capital, which indicated the preparation of a popular uprising. Under the leadership of the nobleman Prokofy Lyapunov, the first militia began to form, which found support in the country. Nizhny Novgorod, Murom, Suzdal, Vladimir and other cities joined the general movement. The main force of the militia was the Ryazan and the Cossack detachments of Prince Trubetskoy and Zarutskoy. But they were unable to work out a unified plan to deal with the interventionists.
The Poles in Moscow felt like they were on a volcano. To protect themselves, they staged a massacre in Kitai-Gorod, where more than 7 thousand unarmed Muscovites died, and then set fire to Moscow in various places. Muscovites tried in vain to prevent arson. Moscow burned to the ground. In the place of a rich and populous city, only ashes remained. The news of the ruin of Moscow spread throughout the country.
As part of the 1st militia, internal disagreements began, which eventually led to its collapse. Almost simultaneously with this, the fall of Smolensk took place. The situation in the country worsened even more.
At the end of 1611, the Muscovite state presented a spectacle of complete visible destruction. The Poles took Smolensk. The Polish detachment burned Moscow and fortified behind the surviving walls of the Kremlin and Kitay-gorod. To replace the murdered second False Dmitry, a third settled in Pskov - some kind of Sidorka. The first noble militia was upset with the death of Lyapunov. The country was left without a government. The Boyar Duma, which became its head after Vasily Shuisky was tonsured a monk, was abolished by itself after the capture of the Kremlin by the Poles. True, some of the boyars, with their chairman, Prince Mstislavsky, joined the Poles.
The state, having lost its center, began to disintegrate into its constituent parts, almost every city acted on its own, only being sent with other cities. The state was transformed into some formless, restless federation.
By the end of 1611, when political forces were exhausted in confrontations, religious and national forces began to awaken, seeing the perishing Rus'.
From the Trinity Monastery, Archimandrite Dionysius and the cellarer Abraham began to send draft letters to the people through Orthodox churches with a request to rise to save the faith and the Fatherland. The experience of the first militia showed that in order to liberate the country from the interventionists, it is necessary to unite all patriotic forces, to consolidate them under a single banner.
The initiative in this noble cause of the liberation of the motherland from the Polish gentry belongs to the townspeople of Nizhny Novgorod. Under the leadership of their headman Kuzma Minin, the second Russian militia began to gather in the fall of 1611, when Kuzma Minin was elected zemstvo headman in Nizhny Novgorod. The creation of a new militia was officially proclaimed in a solemn atmosphere in the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior. Archpriest Savva made a speech, and then Kuzma Minin addressed the assembled people. Calling on his fellow citizens to rise up against the interventionists, Minin said: "After all, I know very well that if we start this business, many cities will help us. Do not spare yourself and your wives and children, and not just your property."
The courageous and noble call of Kuzma Minin was widely supported. According to a contemporary chronicler, "everyone loved his advice."
During the formation of the militia, the important question of military leadership arose. What was needed was a special commander and at the same time such a person who would put the interests of the motherland above his own. Minin also found the leader of the patriotic movement, Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky. The main goal of the second nascent militia was the liberation of Moscow from the invaders and the expulsion of the interventionists from the Russian land. Fundraising for the upkeep of the troops and their armaments began. Many people gave the last. For four months, the militia was formed, and then moved to Moscow, replenished along the way by crowds of volunteers, service people who asked to be accepted for zemstvo salaries.
Near Moscow, the militia, on the advice and negotiations of Minin, merged with the Cossack detachment of Prince Trubetskoy. This strengthened his fighting ability.
In July 1612, news reached the militia that Sigismund was preparing a 12,000-strong army under the command of Jan Karol Chodkiewicz for Moscow. The king gave him several infantry units that had previously participated in the battles for Smolensk. Khodkevich went on a campaign to help the Poles, who had settled in the Kremlin and Kitay-gorod.
Dmitry Pozharsky understood that the connection of Polish forces should not be allowed. Therefore, he sent a detachment of Prince V. Turgenev to Moscow, who was supposed to stand at the Chertolsky Gates of the capital. The main forces of the militia stood at the Arbat Gate. The way for Khodkevich's detachments to Kitay-gorod and the Kremlin was covered.
Khodkevich's forces and his huge convoy approached the Russian capital and began crossing the Moskva River, but were repulsed. The next morning, the Poles decided to break through again to the Moscow River from the Donskoy Monastery through Zamoskvorechye, but the Cossack detachments were waiting for them on Pyatnitskaya Street near the Church of St. Clement. In the ensuing battle, the Cossacks not only defeated the Polish invaders, but also recaptured more than four hundred carts with provisions and weapons from them. Excited by luck, the Cossacks wanted to pursue the surviving Polish forces retreating to the Sparrow Hills, but the governors held them back, saying: “Enough, Cossacks! There are no two joys in one day! Kuzma Minin himself distinguished himself in the fight against Khodkevich. He took four companies and successfully attacked Chodkiewicz's forces. After these failures, the hetman had to move away from Moscow.
After that, the militias surrounded Kitay-Gorod, dug a deep ditch, braided a wattle fence into two walls, poured earth between them, installed cannons and began shelling the Poles who had settled there.
On September 15, Dmitry Pozharsky sent a written offer to the Poles to surrender: "... You will soon disappear from hunger. Your king is not up to you now ... Do not waste your souls for the king's untruth. Surrender!"
But the dashing warrior Nikolai Struev, who commanded the besieged Poles, responded to the offer to surrender with obscene abuse.
And the prophecies of Pozharsky came true. The besieged hungry Poles not only ate their horses, but caught and ate all the dogs and cats.
On October 22, Russian militias attacked the besieged. The hungry Poles could not resist, retreated and locked themselves in the Kremlin, but not for long. Two days later they sent parliamentarians asking for surrender.
On October 25, Russian militias entered the Kremlin. A solemn prayer service for deliverance from the enemy of the reigning city was served in the Assumption Cathedral.
The Poles were still trying to hold on to Russian soil, but, inspired by their successes, the militia drove the invaders back everywhere.
The Russian people highly appreciated the patriotic and organizational initiative of Minin and Pozharsky to expel the Polish invaders from the Russian land and during their lifetime gave praise and honor to the patriots of the Fatherland.
In 1804, work began to perpetuate the memory of the victory of 1612. In February 1818, grateful descendants opened the first monumental monument in Moscow on Red Square - a monument to the liberators of the Fatherland Minin and Pozharsky. It is interesting that work on its creation did not stop even during the Patriotic War with Napoleon.
For the successful construction of the monument to its author, Ivan Petrovich Martos, he was awarded the rank of real state councilor with the appointment of a high personal pension, and the foundry master Yekimov was awarded the Order of Anna 2nd degree and was awarded 20,000 rubles.
And it was worth it! For each of us, even today, this monument evokes high patriotic feelings for the Russian people and our dear Fatherland.
Vladimir Ushakov
False Dmitry II. At the time when Vasily Shuisky was besieging I. I. Bolotnikov in Tula, a new impostor appeared in the Bryansk region (Starodub). In agreement with the Vatican, the Polish gentry, opponents of King Sigismund III (hetmans Lisovsky, Ruzhitsky, Sapieha), united with the Cossack ataman I.I. Externally, this man looked like False Dmitry I, which was noticed by the participants in the adventure of the first impostor. Until now, the identity of False Dmitry II causes a lot of controversy. Apparently, he came from a church milieu.
False Dmitry II, in response to the call of I. I. Bolotnikov, moved to Tula to join the rebels. The connection did not happen (Tula was taken by Shuisky's troops), and in January 1608 the impostor undertook a campaign against the capital. In the summer of 1608, False Dmitry approached Moscow, but attempts to take the capital ended in vain. He stopped 17 km from the Kremlin, in the town of Tushino, received the nickname "Tushino Thief". Soon Marina Mnishek also moved to Tushino. The impostor promised her 3,000 gold rubles and income from 14 Russian cities after his accession to Moscow, and she recognized him as her husband. A secret wedding was performed according to the Catholic rite. The impostor promised to promote the spread of Catholicism in Russia.
False Dmitry II was an obedient puppet in the hands of the Polish gentry, who managed to take control of the northwest and north of the Russian lands. The fortress of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery fought valiantly for 16 months, in the defense of which the surrounding population played a significant role. Actions against the Polish invaders took place in a number of large cities of the North: Novgorod, Vologda, Veliky Ustyug.
If False Dmitry I spent 11 months in the Kremlin, then False Dmitry II unsuccessfully besieged Moscow for 21 months. In Tushino, under False Dmitry II, from among the boyars dissatisfied with Vasily Shuisky (the people aptly called them "Tushino flights"), their own Boyar Duma and orders were formed. Captured in Rostov, Metropolitan Filaret was named Patriarch in Tushino.
The government of Vasily Shuisky, realizing that they were not able to cope with False Dmitry II, in Vyborg (1609) concluded an agreement with Sweden. Russia abandoned its claims to the Baltic coast, and the Swedes gave troops to fight against False Dmitry II. Under the command of the talented 28-year-old commander M.V. Skopin-Shuisky, the tsar's nephew, successful operations began against the Polish invaders.
In response, the Commonwealth, which was at war with Sweden, declared war on Russia. The troops of King Sigismund III in the fall of 1609 laid siege to the city of Smolensk, which was defended for more than 20 months. The king ordered the gentry to leave Tushino and go to Smolensk. The Tushino camp crumbled, the impostor was no longer needed by the Polish gentry, who had switched to open intervention. False Dmitry II fled to Kaluga, where he was soon killed. The embassy of the Tushino boyars went to Smolensk at the beginning of 1610 and invited the king's son, Vladislav, to the Moscow throne.
In April 1610, M. V. Skopin-Shuisky died under mysterious circumstances. Rumor has it that he was poisoned. In the summer of 1610, leaving behind the fighting Smolensk, the Polish army moved to Moscow. In June 1610, the Russian troops under the command of the brother, the tsar, the cowardly and mediocre Dmitry Shuisky, were defeated by the Polish troops. The way to Moscow was open. The Swedes thought more about capturing Novgorod and other Russian lands than about defending them: they left Shuisky's army and began to plunder the northwestern Russian cities.
In the summer of 1610, a revolution took place in Moscow. The nobles, led by P. Lyapunov, overthrew Vasily Shuisky from the throne and forcibly tonsured him a monk. (Shuisky died in 1612 in Polish captivity, where he was sent as a hostage along with his brothers). Power was seized by a group of boyars led by F. I. Mstislavsky. This government, which consisted of seven boyars, was called "seven boyars".
In August 1610, the Seven Boyars, despite the protests of Patriarch Hermogenes, concluded an agreement on calling Vladislav, the son of King Sigismund, to the Russian throne, and let the interventionist troops into the Kremlin. August 27, 1610 Moscow swore allegiance to Vladislav. This was a direct betrayal of national interests. The country faced the threat of loss of independence.
First militia. Only relying on the people, it was possible to win back and preserve the independence of the Russian state. In 1610, Patriarch Hermogenes called for a fight against the invaders, for which he was arrested. At the beginning of 1611, the first militia was created in the Ryazan land, which was headed by the nobleman P. Lyapunov. The militia moved to Moscow, where in the spring of 1611 an uprising broke out. The interventionists, on the advice of the traitors of the boyars, set fire to the city. The troops fought on the outskirts of the Kremlin. Here, in the Sretenka area, Prince D. M. Pozharsky, who led the forward detachments, was seriously wounded.
However, the Russian troops could not build on the success. The leaders of the militia called for the return of the fugitive peasants to their owners. Cossacks did not have the right to hold public office. Opponents of P. Lyapunov, who sought to establish a military organization of the militia, began to sow rumors that he allegedly wants to exterminate the Cossacks. * They called him into the Cossack "circle" in July 1611 and killed him.
The first militia broke up. By this time, the Swedes captured Novgorod, and the Poles, after a months-long siege, captured Smolensk. The Polish king Sigismund III announced that he himself would become the Russian tsar, and Russia would enter the Commonwealth.
Second militia. Minin and Pozharsky. In the autumn of 1611, the mayor of Nizhny Novgorod, Kozma Minin, appealed to the Russian people to create a second militia. With the help of the population of other Russian cities, the material base of the liberation struggle was created: the people raised significant funds for waging war against the interventionists. The militia was headed by K. Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky.
In the spring of 1612, the militia moved to Yaroslavl. Here the provisional government of Russia "Council of All the Earth" was created. In the summer of 1612, from the side of the Arbat Gates, the troops of K. Minin and D. M. Pozharsky approached Moscow and joined with the remnants of the first militia.
Almost simultaneously, along the Mozhaisk road, Hetman Khodkevich approached the capital, who was moving to help the Poles who had settled in the Kremlin. In the battle near the walls of Moscow, Khodkevich's army was driven back.
On October 22, 1612, on the day of finding the icon of Our Lady of Kazan, who accompanied the militia, Kitay-gorod was taken. Four days later, the Polish garrison in the Kremlin surrendered. In memory of the liberation of Moscow from the invaders on Red Square, a temple was erected in honor of the icon of Our Lady of Kazan at the expense of D. M. Pozharsky. The victory was won as a result of the heroic efforts of the Russian people. The heroism of the Kostroma peasant Ivan Susanin, who sacrificed his own life in the fight against the Polish invaders, forever serves as a symbol of loyalty to the Motherland. Grateful Russia erected the first sculptural monument in Moscow to Kozma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky (on Red Square, sculptor I.P. Martos, 1818). The memory of the defense of Smolensk and the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, the struggle of the inhabitants of the city of Korela against the Swedish invaders has been preserved forever.
In 1613, the Zemsky Sobor was held in Moscow, at which the question of choosing a new Russian tsar was raised. As candidates for the Russian throne, the Polish prince Vladislav, the son of the Swedish king Karl-Philip, the son of False Dmitry II and Marina Mnishek Ivan, nicknamed "Vorenok", as well as representatives of the largest boyar families were proposed. On February 21, the cathedral chose Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, the 16-year-old great-nephew of Ivan the Terrible's first wife, Anastasia Romanova. An embassy was sent to the Ignatievsky Monastery near Kostroma, where Mikhail and his mother were at that time. On May 2, 1613, Mikhail arrived in Moscow, and on July 11 he was married to the kingdom. Soon the leading place in the government of the country was taken by his father, Patriarch Filaret, who "mastered all the royal and military affairs." Power was restored in the form of an autocratic monarchy. The leaders of the fight against the interventionists received modest appointments. D. M. Pozharsky was sent as governor to Mozhaisk, and K. Minin became the Duma governor.
End of intervention. The government of Mikhail Fedorovich faced the most difficult task - the elimination of the consequences of the intervention. A great danger to him was represented by detachments of Cossacks, who roamed the country and did not recognize the new king. Among them, the most formidable was Ivan Zarutsky, to whom Marina Mnishek moved with her son. The Yaik Cossacks handed over I. Zarutsky in 1614 to the Moscow government. I. Zarutsky and "Vorenok" were hanged, and Marina Mnishek was imprisoned in Kolomna, where she probably died soon after.
The Swedes posed another danger. After several military clashes, and then negotiations, in 1617 the Stolbovsky peace was concluded (in the village of Stolbovo, not far from Tikhvin). Sweden returned Novgorod land to Russia, but retained the Baltic coast and received monetary compensation. King Gustav-Adolf after the Peace of Stolbov said that now "Russia is not a dangerous neighbor ... it is separated from Sweden by swamps, fortresses, and it will be difficult for Russians to cross this" stream "" (Neva River).
The Polish prince Vladislav, who sought to obtain the Russian throne, organized in 1617-1618. march on Moscow, He reached the Arbat Gates of Moscow, but was repulsed. In the village of Deulino near the Trinity-Sergius Monastery in 1618, the Deulino truce was concluded with the Commonwealth, which left the Smolensk and Chernihiv lands. There was an exchange of prisoners. Vladislav did not renounce his claims to the Russian throne.
Thus, in the main, the territorial unity of Russia was restored, although part of the Russian lands remained with the Commonwealth and Sweden. These are the consequences of the events of the Time of Troubles in Russia's foreign policy. In the internal political life of the state, the role of the nobility and the top tenants has grown significantly.
During the Time of Troubles, in which all strata and classes of Russian society took part, the question of the very existence of the Russian state, the choice of the path of development of the country, was decided. It was necessary to find ways for the survival of the people. Trouble settled primarily in the minds and souls of people. In the specific conditions of the beginning of the XVII century. the way out of the Time of Troubles was found in the awareness by the regions and the center of the need for a strong statehood. In the minds of people, the idea won out to give everything for the common good, and not to seek personal gain.
After the Time of Troubles, the choice was made in favor of preserving the largest power in Eastern Europe. In the specific geopolitical conditions of that time, the path for the further development of Russia was chosen: autocracy as a form of political government, serfdom as the basis of the economy, Orthodoxy as an ideology, estate system as a social structure.
Russia emerged from the Troubles extremely exhausted, with huge territorial and human losses. According to some reports, up to a third of the population died. Overcoming the economic ruin will be possible only by strengthening serfdom.
The international position of the country has sharply worsened. Russia found itself in political isolation, its military potential weakened, and for a long time its southern borders remained practically defenseless.
Anti-Western sentiments intensified in the country, which aggravated its cultural and, as a result, civilizational isolation.
The people managed to defend their independence, but as a result of their victory, autocracy and serfdom were revived in Russia. However, most likely, there was no other way to save and preserve Russian civilization in those extreme conditions.
As a result of the battle, the Polish-Lithuanian troops were defeated by the Second People's Militia, which led to the subsequent final defeat of the Poles. “The Poles suffered such a significant loss that it could no longer be rewarded with anything. The wheel of fortune has turned - the hope of capturing the whole Muscovite state has collapsed irrevocably,” wrote Stanisław Koberzhitsky, a Polish historian of the 17th century.
Within the walls of the Kremlin and Kitay-gorod there was a blocked Polish-Lithuanian garrison numbering about three thousand people, to whose aid an army led by Jan Karl Chodkiewicz, the great Lithuanian hetman, sought to come. According to the estimates of the historian G.N. Bibikov, the number of his troops reached 12 thousand people, while the total number of Russian soldiers was no more than 8 - 10 thousand.
In terms of the quality of weapons, the interventionist army also surpassed the Russian troops. “All the riders are chained with harnesses, like water oscillating and helmets on their heads ... like a beautiful dawn shining, the brilliance of their sabers is like lightning, and sometimes the mines of their ascension, like a great oak forest, together ... and look scary, ”- as if with a breath the author of the Filaret manuscript described the Polish army. The Cossacks, who acted on the side of the militias, were destined for a less flattering description: "in uniform srachits and without trousers, only one squeaker and a powder flask in their possessions." With the same Pan Budilo tried to hook Dmitry Pozharsky, the chief governor of the Nizhny Novgorod militia, to whom he wrote: “Better you, Pozharsky, let your people go to the plows.”
The bright figures of the command staff were Dmitry Pozharsky, Kuzma Minin Ivan Khovansky and Dmitry Lopata-Pozharsky from the Russian side; Khodkevich himself, Alexander Zborovsky, Nikolai Strus and Joseph Budilo - from the Polish-Lithuanian. However, not all military leaders were distinguished by special talents and sufficient experience - this applies to both one and the other side.
Source: wikipedia.orgIf we talk about the strength of the fighting spirit of the soldiers, then in this matter, obviously, the advantage should have been on the side of the militias. According to the already mentioned G. N. Bibikov, they were guided by the desire to stop the encroachments of the interventionists on Moscow. Numerous mercenaries, who acted on the side of the opponents, were driven by the desire to get hold of a variety of values, which, however, in the already plundered Moscow could not be too much.
On August 21 (31), 1612, Khodkevich's troops approached Moscow - the militias were there the day before. According to the hetman's plan, it was necessary to break through the defenses in the western part of the city. After that, a convoy with supplies needed by their besieged comrades-in-arms could have passed a short way to the walls of the Kremlin.
The offensive was decided to begin the next morning. Khodkevich's troops crossed the Moscow River and took up positions at the Novodevichy Convent. Hetman's plan was good for everyone - except that Pozharsky knew about it very well. The prince preferred to attack first, rather than somewhat disorienting the enemy. Fights were fought throughout the day, and it is interesting that Prince Dmitry Trubetskoy, formally supporting the militias, actually remained on the sidelines. “The rich came from Yaroslavl and alone can fight off the hetman,” this was the position taken by the prince and his troops.
Moscow
The Time of Troubles, which began with the appearance in the spring of 1605 in Russia of the impostor False Dmitry I (he was actually a runaway monk of the Kremlin Chudov Monastery Grigory Otrepyev, who pretended to be the miraculously saved son of Ivan IV the Terrible, Tsarevich Dmitry) and the death of Tsar Boris Godunov, lasted about eight years (according to other estimates, much longer).
These years were filled with many tragic, heroic and utterly confusing events.
The state as a whole ceased to exist. It was robbed and torn to pieces by all sorts of impostors, traitors, invaders and marauders. Power passed from hand to hand.
It got to the point that in 1608-1609 the country was established ... dual power.
One tsar (Vasily Shuisky) was sitting in the Kremlin, and the other (False Dmitry II) was nearby, in Tushino near Moscow.
Moreover, each had its own court and its own patriarch. Shuisky's patriarch was Hermogenes, and False Dmitry II's was Filaret Romanov.
Then, for more than three hundred years, the Romanovs tried to hide the fact that the father of the founder of the dynasty was a patriarch at the court of False Dmitry II (who in reality was a certain Bogdanka Shklovsky).
However, the worst of it was the common people.
Since the situation when "whites come - rob, reds come - rob" was also typical for the Time of Troubles.
Shuisky decided to defeat the Tushinsky thief with the help of the Swedes.
In February 1609, he concluded an agreement with them, according to which Russia gave the Korelsky volost to Sweden.
It soon became clear that by doing this, Shuisky made an unforgivable political mistake.
Swedish assistance was of little use, but the introduction of Swedish troops into Russian territory gave them the opportunity to capture Novgorod.
In addition, the treaty gave the enemy of Sweden, the Polish king Sigismund III, a welcome pretext for moving to open intervention.
In September 1609, the troops of Sigismund III laid siege to Smolensk. False Dmitry II was no longer needed by the king.
In December 1609, Sigismund III ordered the Polish troops to leave the Tushino camp for Smolensk.
The hetman promised the boyars to defeat False Dmitry II on the condition that the Polish prince Vladislav be elevated to the Moscow throne.
By agreeing to this and holding an oath ceremony to Vladislav at the walls of the Novodevichy Convent, the Seven Boyars committed an act of national betrayal.
In fact, part of the then political elite turned into traitors and accomplices of the Polish-Lithuanian occupiers.
After all, the prince refused to accept Orthodoxy, and it was about Russia's loss of independence. Patriarch Hermogenes did not oppose what was happening then.
On the night of September 20-21, 1610, the Seven Boyars let the Poles into Moscow.
From that moment on, real power in the capital was in the hands of the Polish garrison, which was first commanded by Zholkiewski, and then by Alexander Gonsevsky.
In the autumn of 1611, a patriotic movement began in Nizhny Novgorod, which gradually consolidated most of the estates in an effort to liberate the country from the invaders.
Under the influence of the letters of Hermogenes, the patriots agreed that the first priority was the liberation of the capital and the convening of the Zemsky Sobor to elect a new king.
At the same time, it was decided not to invite any of the foreign applicants to the Russian throne and not to elect Ivan Dmitrievich (son of Marina Mnishek and False Dmitry II) as Tsar.
At the call of the Nizhny Novgorod headman, the meat merchant Kuzma Minin, a second militia began to form.
It was headed by Minin himself and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky.
The fees collected on the initiative of Minin from the townspeople and villagers provided the first cash receipts for the needs of the militia.
Someone grumbled, but many understood that the money was needed for a holy cause: it was about whether or not to be Russia.
The leaders of the second militia began to send letters to other cities, urging the people to join the militia.
But in the end, they suffered heavy losses and were forced to withdraw home. During the battle, patriots from the first and second militias showed mass heroism, and their leaders showed high military skills and personal courage.
This victory sealed the fate of the Polish-Lithuanian enemy garrison in the Kremlin and Kitai-Gorod.
After suffering for another two months, the Poles and traitor boyars capitulated. Moscow was liberated.
It seemed that the end had come to the Russian state. There was no supreme power, no strong army, no common treasury - there was nothing! Government in its true sense no longer existed. But there were still people. This people, noble and black people, rich and poor, reasonable people and simpletons - everyone understood that a terrible, dashing thing was going on in Rus'; that the Orthodox faith and that shrine, which was worshiped by fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers, is humiliated and desecrated, and everything that has been built up over centuries and the labor of many generations is in danger of final death.
The excitement of the people was strong... Lively gatherings roared through all the most important cities, as if the old veche had been resurrected. Both townspeople and neighboring peasants came together for the zemstvo council, so that the whole world could think of how to help the misfortune. At the same time, the old regional strife and the hostility of the common people to the highest and wealthy persons, to the Moscow boyars, sometimes also showed up; but all this was petty and insignificant compared with the enmity that everyone had for the hated enemy, and with the desire to liberate Moscow and the Russian land from the Poles and put an end to the disastrous turmoil. This common feeling was to finally prevail over all petty passions and desires and unite the Russian forces ...
Cities began to send letters among themselves, encouraging each other to stand together against common enemies.
“Near Moscow,” Kazanians wrote to Perm, “the industrialist and champion of the Christian faith, who stood for the Orthodox Christian faith, for the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos and for the Muscovite state against the Polish and Lithuanian people and Russian thieves, Procopius Petrovich Lyapunov, the Cossacks killed, transgressing but we all with Nizhny Novgorod and with all the cities of the Volga ... agreed to be in council and union, to do nothing bad against each other, to stand firmly on that until God gives the sovereign to the Muscovite state; and we would choose the sovereign all the land of the Russian state; if the Cossacks begin to choose the sovereign according to their will alone, not agreeing with the whole land, then we do not want such a sovereign.
Similar appeals were sent with messengers to other cities. All letters expressed a strong general desire "to cleanse the Russian land of the enemy, the desecrator of the shrine, and to choose their own king with all the land."
The letters that were compiled in the Trinity Monastery by Dionysius and Avraamiy Palitsyn and were copied in many lists by "greyhound scribes" also spread throughout the Russian land.
The enthusiasm of the people grew. The moral and religious excitement grew stronger and stronger... Rumors about miraculous visions and signs began to circulate everywhere. It was said that in Nizhny Novgorod, one pious man, Grigory, was granted a terrible vision at midnight: he saw that the roof had been removed from his house, a great light shone on his peace, and two men appeared with an appeal for repentance and purification of the entire state ... In Vladimir, too they said there was a vision...
The pious people expected salvation only from God's help, they considered it necessary a special way to cleanse themselves of sins and appease God with repentance and fasting. In all cities they were sentenced to fast three days a week: on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nothing to eat, not to drink, and on Thursday and Friday - dry food ... This is how the people prepared for the great deed ...
The mood of the people was such that they were ready to rise to the struggle with all their might. All that was needed was a beginning, but a real Russian leader was needed.
Minin and Pozharsky
In October 1611, a letter was received from the Trinity Monastery in Nizhny Novgorod. It was decided to read it in the cathedral. The great cathedral bell rang, and the day was not a holiday. The people realized that it was not without reason that they were ringing with a big ring, and soon the church of St. The Savior was filled with people. After mass, Archpriest Savva addressed the people with a speech:
– Orthodox Christians, Lord brothers, woe to us! The days of our final destruction have come. Our Muscovite state is perishing; the Orthodox faith is also dying. Woe to us, great grief, fierce situation! The Lithuanian and Polish people, in their impious council, plotted to destroy the Muscovite state and turn the true faith of Christ into a Latin, many-charmed heresy. Who will not mourn, who will not emit sources of tears?! For the sake of our sins, the Lord allowed our enemies to ascend. Woe to our wives and children! The heretics ravaged the God-protected city of Moscow to the ground and betrayed her children to the omnivorous sword. What are we to do? Shall we not be affirmed in unity and stand up for the pure and undefiled faith of Christ and for St. Cathedral Church of the Mother of God and for the multi-healing relics of Moscow wonderworkers. And here is a letter from the authorities of the Life-Giving Trinity of the Sergius Monastery.
A letter was read calling on all the people to save Moscow and the Orthodox faith. The people were relieved. Many cried.
“Woe to us,” they said in the crowd, “the Muscovite state is perishing!”
When the people were still crowding around the church, one of the zemstvo elders, Kuzma Minin Sukhoruky, was speaking to him. (Earlier, he said that St. Sergius appeared to him in a dream and ordered "to awaken the sleeping ones".)
– Orthodox people! he spoke to the people in a loud voice. - If we want to help the Muscovite state, we will not spare our property ... we will sell our yards, we will lay down our wives and children and begin to beat with our foreheads, look for someone who would stand up for the true Orthodox faith and become our boss! .. We will accomplish a great deed if God will help. What praise we will have from all the earth... I know: as soon as we rise to this cause, other cities will stick to us, and we will get rid of our enemies.
Minin's hot speech pleased everyone. It said something that had long been on the soul of everyone. Many had tears in their eyes.
Minin's Appeal in Nizhny Novgorod. Painting by K. Makovsky, 1896
Frequent gatherings began. Kuzma Minin, whom everyone in the city knew and respected, wielded everything, convinced everyone that it was necessary to take up arms, call on service people, and collect a third of the money from everyone (i.e., a third of the property) into the treasury for the maintenance of military people. The desire to serve the great cause of the liberation of Moscow and the Russian land was so strong that immediately many began to donate much more. Demolished from all sides and money, and precious things. One widow, the chronicle says, brought ten thousand to the collectors and said:
- I remained childless after my husband. I had twelve thousand; I give ten, and I keep two!
But before calling the military people, it was necessary to find a military leader. Such a "holy cause", which was started, had to be given into clean hands. They began to think about which of the boyars to choose as leader. We settled on Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky. At that time he lived on his estate, in the Suzdal district, where he was recovering from wounds received during the Moscow pogrom. He was a pure man, not stained by any bad deed: in the troubled years he did not visit the thieves' camps and did not ask for favors from the Polish king. He knew military affairs well, he showed great courage in defending Zaraysk from an impostor and then in the Moscow massacre.
They sent Pozharsky to beat him with his forehead. He replied:
- I am glad for the Orthodox faith to suffer to death, and you choose from the townspeople such a person who would be with me in a great cause, who would be in charge of the treasury for the salaries of military people.
The Nizhny Novgorod ambassadors began to think about who to choose, but Pozharsky did not let them think for a long time.
- You have in the city, - he said, - Kuzma Minin. He is a seasoned man: he cares about such a custom!
When the envoys returned to Nizhny and spoke about Pozharsky's desire, the Nizhny Novgorod residents began to beat Minin with their foreheads so that he would work for the common cause of liberation, would stand at the worldly treasury. Minin refused until the people of Nizhny Novgorod wrote a verdict that they would spare nothing for the great cause.
The news that the Nizhny Novgorod people had risen quickly spread, military forces began to gather towards them from everywhere. Pozharsky and the people of Nizhny Novgorod sent letters to the cities, which said, among other things, the following:
“Now we, all sorts of people from Nizhny Novgorod, are going to the aid of the Muscovite state. Nobles have come to us from many cities, and we have sentenced our estate and houses to be divided with them and give them a salary. And you should also quickly go to the Lithuanian people. be afraid: if we are all assembled, then we will make a council with the whole earth and we will not allow the thieves to do anything bad ... You must definitely be with us in one council and go against the Poles together, so that as before the Cossacks would not disperse our rati.
This letter was read everywhere at worldly gatherings, sentences were passed, money was collected. The city was in contact with the city. Again, as if at the call of Lyapunov, the Russian land rose; but this time the leaders were more careful - they understood that not only the Poles, but also the Cossacks were the enemies of Moscow; that one should not get close to "flights" and "rods".
Campaign of the militia of Minin and Pozharsky to Moscow
The year 1612 has come. The news of a new Russian militia with the aim of liberating Moscow alarmed not only the besieged Poles, but also the besieging Cossacks. The Poles and Russian traitors again demanded from Patriarch Hermogenes that he write an exhortation to the Nizhny Novgorod residents to remain loyal to Vladislav.
“May God’s mercy be upon them and blessings from our humility,” the elder answered with the same firmness, “and may God’s wrath be poured out on traitors, and from our humility may they be cursed in this age and in the future!”
Soon after this, the indestructible elder and "champion for the Orthodox faith" died (February 17); he died, they say, of starvation. They buried him in the Miracle Monastery.
Zarutsky realized that he and his masterful horde were in danger from the new Zemstvo military force. The Cossacks near Moscow with their boss at that time recognized the third (Pskov) impostor. Zarutsky tried to capture Yaroslavl in order to prevent the movement of the northern militia to Moscow, but Pozharsky warned and brought his army here in early April.
It was not easy at that time to equip the army properly. In addition to the former weapons: spears, axes of various kinds, clubs (maces, six-pointers), Turkish sabers and firearms - guns and cannons - came into use more and more.
With firearms, the importance of protective weapons should have fallen, but all the same, all sorts of helmets and armor were still in use - especially among mounted warriors and governors.
Even on the way from Nizhny to Yaroslavl, militias from various Volga cities joined Pozharsky's army. Yaroslavl was the main gathering place. Here Pozharsky stopped for a long time: he apparently wanted to act prudently, to collect as much military force and treasury as possible in order to solve the matter of liberating Moscow from the Poles for sure. The task was now clear: to expel the enemies from the Russian land and choose the real Russian Tsar with all the land. In order to accomplish this task, it was not enough to defeat the enemy; it was also necessary to stifle any turmoil, dishonesty and unsteadiness among the Russian people; unanimity was to be established throughout the earth. To this end, letters were sent to different cities, and elected to a general council were convened.
"Would you," these letters said, "welcome, remembering God and your Orthodox Christian faith, to advise with all sorts of people with general advice, how would we not be stateless in the current final ruin, so that we, on the advice of the whole earth, choose together the sovereign whom the merciful God will give, so that the Muscovite state would not be completely ruined. You yourself, gentlemen, know how we can stand without a sovereign against common enemies, Polish and Lithuanian and German people and Russian thieves ... to refer to neighboring states?! And on the basis of the world advice, you would be welcome to send two people from all ranks of people to us in Yaroslavl and write your advice with them.
It can be seen from this letter that the leaders intended not only to liberate Moscow from the Poles, but also to bring into it the supreme power and government based on the will of the whole earth.
While the Russian military force grew and grew every day in Yaroslavl and was preparing to put an end to the turmoil, the people were already waging a fierce struggle against the enemies. After the death of Lyapunov, the zemstvo warriors, dissatisfied with the Cossack administration, left Zarutsky in droves. They formed separate gangs, hid in forests, ravines, attacked the Poles, scouring the outskirts of the capital, looking for supplies. Such folk fighters were called in mockery - shish; but this nickname soon became even honorable in the eyes of the people, because the shisha acted honestly, did not touch their own, did not rob, attacked only the Poles, and showed a lot of valiant prowess and dexterity. People of all ranks went to these gangs: nobles, children of boyars, townspeople and peasants. Soon there was no life for the Poles from shisha; they especially harmed the enemy by taking away his carts and preventing them from gathering food in the villages. “There would be no paper,” complains one Pole in his diary, “if we started describing the disasters that we then underwent. , so they will shower us ... Shishi took away our supplies and quickly disappeared. And it turned out that, having plundered a lot, the Poles brought very little to the capital!
Battle with the Poles of Khodkevich under the walls of Moscow
Pozharsky spent three and a half months in Yaroslavl. From the Trinity-Sergius Monastery they already hurried him, even reproached him for being slow; but Pozharsky waited for more rati to gather and strife and disputes between the initial people about seniority to subside. To calm them down, Pozharsky even had to resort to the help of a clergyman, the former Rzhev Metropolitan Kirill...
With a heavy feeling, of course, the Russian militia was approaching Moscow; here I had to meet with the Cossacks, who killed Lyapunov. An attempt was made in Yaroslavl on the life of Pozharsky, also by a Cossack. Fortunately, the number of Cossacks near Moscow was already small: Zarutsky took part of the horde with him; he, together with Marina and her son Ivan, went to the southeast, to the steppes, he thought there to recruit new forces for himself and try to put this Ivan in the kingdom.
The number of Poles in the Kremlin has also greatly decreased. Many of them left on their own. Gonsevsky handed over his superiors to Colonel Strus and also left. At the same time that Pozharsky was approaching Moscow, the Polish hetman Khodkevich hurried there to reinforce the besieged and deliver supplies to them. Pozharsky managed to warn him and on August 18 approached Moscow. Trubetskoy and the Cossacks wanted this militia to join them, but the Russian soldiers, recalling the fate of Lyapunov, declared:
- By no means should we stand together with the Cossacks!
By the evening of August 21, Khodkevich's Poles also appeared near Moscow. They had a huge convoy of supplies with them; they intended to smuggle them to the Kremlin. Khodkevich crossed the Moskva River and moved towards the Kremlin from the side where Pozharsky's army stood (at the Arbat Gates), so that he was the first to withstand the pressure of the enemies. Trubetskoy with his regiments stood aside; he showed his intention to hit the Poles from the side; for this he even sent to ask Pozharsky to help himself with cavalry; he sent him five hundred selected soldiers. On August 22, the Poles attacked the Russian militia. Khodkevich had dashing Hungarian riders and Ukrainian Cossacks. It was difficult for the Russian militia, which had many recruits, to withstand their onslaught. The battle in order not to miss reinforcements to the Poles in Moscow began from the first hour and was in full swing until the eighth. "The battle was very strong," says a contemporary, "they grabbed hands with enemies and whipped each other with swords without mercy." Trubetskoy's Cossacks did not move, as if they did not care who would prevail. Some of them, they say, even mocked the Nizhny Novgorod residents, saying:
- The rich came from Yaroslavl and alone can fight off the hetman!
It seemed as if Trubetskoy wanted the Poles to crush the Russian militia: he did not even let those hundreds of horsemen that Pozharsky sent him into action; but they were eager to fight: they could not bear to see how the Poles were pushing the Russians, and without Trubetskoy's order, they rushed at the enemies and, by their example, carried away some of the Cossacks. Hetman was repulsed and retreated.
A day later, on August 24, at dawn, Khodkevich again attacked the Russians, this time from the side where Trubetskoy stood. The Polish leader decided to break through to Moscow at all costs and smuggle supplies to the Kremlin. The attack was so swift that Trubetskoy's Cossacks were crushed and forced to retreat. The Poles were already standing not far from the Kremlin and occupied one prison (a small fortification).
The people of Nizhny Novgorod were despondent. It was necessary to immediately drive the Poles out of their place: otherwise they could easily break through with the help of the besieged to the Kremlin. The governors of the zemstvo militia were sent to the Cossack camps to Trubetskoy to ask for help in order to hit the Poles with a common force; but the Cossacks did not want to help. Then Pozharsky sent Avraamy Palitsyn to Trubetskoy's camp. Abraham in every possible way convinced the Cossacks not to spare their lives in the name of the liberation of Moscow, begged them, even promised them to distribute the entire monastery treasury if they helped Pozharsky. Finally, he managed to convince the Cossacks - they helped the Nizhny Novgorod people; then the Russians attacked the Poles from two sides, recaptured the prison from them and pushed them back. Foot soldiers sat down in pits, ditches; wherever possible, they hid so as not to let the carts with supplies into the city. The battle was in full swing ... Minin asked Pozharsky for several hundred soldiers, crossed the river and swiftly attacked the Poles standing behind the river; they could not stand it, trembled and ran. The warriors, who sat down in the ditches and pits, seeing that the Russians were chasing the Poles, jumped out of the ambush and rushed at the enemies. A fierce slash caught fire. Encouraged by luck, they rushed to the Poles and other Russian cavalry regiments. The Polish army was completely defeated. Khodkevich had only to flee from Moscow with the remnants of his regiments. Several hundred wagons with different supplies went to the winners. The Cossacks were the first to rush to the prey and plundered everything clean.
The victory over the Poles brought Pozharsky closer to Trubetskoy. Previously, they did not want to connect, but now they have converged. Established one common management, began to do everything together. Pozharsky was much more compliant and accommodating than Lyapunov, and therefore could get along with Trubetskoy. Everyone rejoiced at the rapprochement of the leaders. It was announced everywhere that only those letters and orders have legal force, which are written on behalf of both leaders. But the Cossacks still could not get along with the zemstvo people.
Liberation of Moscow from the Poles
The situation of the besieged in the Kremlin was terrible. During the battle, one detachment of three hundred people managed to break through there, but not to the delight of the besieged: new people only increased the need and hunger ...
Pozharsky, wanting to liberate Moscow without further losses, offered the Poles to surrender; but they proudly refused: they still harbored the hope that the king himself would come to their rescue or Hetman Khodkevich, having gained new strength, would again come to Moscow and not let them die of starvation. From day to day the position of the Poles became more terrible; a week later the famine reached terrible proportions. “There is no such example in history,” says a modern diary, “it’s hard to write what was done: the besieged ate horses, dogs, cats, mice, gnawed boiled leather from shoes ... Finally, this was not enough - then they ate the earth, gnawed in a rage, their hands dug up corpses from the ground ... Mortality from such food increased terribly.
The Poles were soon forced out of Kitai-Gorod, but they held out in the Kremlin for another month - everyone was waiting for help to come. Finally, there was no longer any strength to hold on; first they began to let boyars and boyars out of the Moscow Kremlin. The Cossacks wanted to rob them, but Pozharsky did not allow it: he treated them humanely - arranged them in safe places. The Poles soon surrendered. During the negotiations, they asked only that they not be destroyed and not given into the hands of the Cossacks ... It was difficult for Pozharsky to restrain the Cossacks, who considered robbery their right. The captured Poles were sent to different cities: not a single one of them was killed or robbed.
Expulsion of the Poles from the Moscow Kremlin in 1612. Painting by E. Lissner
On October 25, all the Kremlin gates opened, and the Russians solemnly entered the Kremlin. The clergy, headed by the valiant Dionysius, walked ahead with crosses and icons in their hands. A solemn thanksgiving service was served in the Assumption Cathedral.
At a time when the Kremlin inmates, half dead from hunger, were surrendering, the Polish king Sigismund finally set out on a campaign against Moscow with Vladislav. At first, the news of this greatly alarmed the Russians, but the alarm turned out to be in vain: the Polish king could not muster a large army and moved with insignificant forces, thinking that Russian cities would easily submit to him, and made a mistake in calculation. He sent an embassy to Moscow - to persuade the Moscow army to recognize Vladislav; but this embassy was not even allowed into Moscow. No one came to bow to Sigismund or Vladislav. A hike through a deserted and devastated country did not present anything attractive: shisha, hated by the Poles, wandered along all the paths, grabbed and killed Polish soldiers when they went in search of food. The king tried to take Volok-Lamsky, but he could not ... November was already ending, and a fierce winter cold set in. Sigismund had to return.
The election of Mikhail Romanov to the kingdom
Moscow was liberated from the Poles and began to build up rather quickly. Now it was necessary to complete the second half of the task for which the Russian force had risen with Minin and Pozharsky - to choose their Russian tsar and put an end to all the intrigues of the Poles and Swedes. When Delagardie sent to say that Prince Philip was already on his way to Novgorod, in response to this in Moscow they said to the ambassador:
“We don’t even have it in our minds for us to take a foreigner to the Muscovite state!”
Letters were sent out so that elected people, strong and reasonable, clerics, nobles, boyar children, merchants, townspeople and county people were immediately sent to Moscow liberated from the Poles.
When the elect came together, a three-day strict fast was appointed. Prayers were served in the churches so that God would enlighten the elect.
First of all, they decided not to choose either a foreigner or Marina's son. When the elections began, there was a lot of turmoil and unrest. Although the name of the young Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov was most often heard, there were ambitious people among the boyars who strongly sought to receive the royal crown, sent their people to the elected, tried to bribe votes. There were supporters of Prince Vasily Golitsyn, who at that time, together with Metropolitan Filaret, was in the hands of the Poles. There were people who said that the crown should be returned to Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky. They also spoke in favor of the election of the old prince Vorotynsky to the throne. It seemed that troubles would again arise in Moscow to the delight of the enemies; but, fortunately for the Russian land, squabbles and unrest were only among eminent people, boyars and dignitaries; nobles, service people, the people and the Cossacks stood for Mikhail Fedorovich. A crowd of nobles, boyar children and Cossack foremen turned to Avraamy Palitsyn, who then lived in Moscow, at the Trinity Compound, presented him with a petition with many signatures and asked him to present it to the entire cathedral, the boyars and all the Zemstvo people. The petition said that everyone was asking to elect Mikhail Fedorovich. Abraham handed over this charter to the cathedral. At the same time, an ambassador from Kaluga arrived with a petition from all Kaluga residents and residents of Seversk cities - they all wanted Michael to reign.
The Romanovs were especially loved by the people. Anastasia and Nikita Romanovich lived in the people's memory, they even entered the folk songs; moreover, the Romanov family was not stained in the eyes of the people by any bad deed, endured a lot of grief and futile persecution under Boris Godunov, and the main representative of this family in the Time of Troubles, at a time of general unsteadiness and cowardice, showed extraordinary firmness of spirit, unwaveringly defended the benefits of his fatherland, like Hermogenes. No wonder that as soon as the choice of the king was discussed, most of the elect settled on the young son of Filaret. Of course, he himself would not have passed the throne if he had not been a clergyman.
On February 21, all elected representatives were gathered on the Red Square in Moscow. A solid motley crowd filled it. Eminent people ascended the Execution Ground. But they didn't even get to speak to the people. Before they even had time to utter a question, a loud cry was heard from all the people gathered in the square:
- Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov will be the tsar-sovereign of the Muscovite state and the entire Russian state!
Monument to Minin and Pozharsky on Red Square in Moscow. Sculptor Ivan Martos
