Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky( - September 12 ) - Russian Tsar from 1610 ( Vasily IV Ioannovich). Representative of the princely family of the Shuiskys (Suzdal branch of the Rurikovichs). After his deposition, he lived in captivity among the Poles.
Before accession
Boyar and head of the Moscow Court Chamber since 1584. Rynda with a large saadak on campaigns, , and. Voivode of the Great Regiment on the campaign to Serpukhov in the summer of 1581. Voivode of the Great Regiment on the campaign to Novgorod in July 1582 under his brother Andrei. Voivode of the regiment right hand on a campaign to Serpukhov in April 1583. Voivode of Smolensk in -1587. For unknown reasons, he was briefly exiled in 1586
Few people were happy with Tsar Vasily. The main reasons for the discontent were V. Shuisky’s incorrect path to the throne and his dependence on the circle of boyars who elected him and played with him like a child, as a contemporary put it.
Russian History. Full course lectures, lecture 42
In addition, anti-Shui sentiments in Moscow were fueled by the unexpected death of the young commander Skopin-Shuisky.
Former king died in custody in Gostyninsky Castle, 130 versts from Warsaw, a few days later his brother Dmitry died there. The third brother, Ivan Ivanovich Shuisky, subsequently returned to Russia.
Marriages and children
Vasily Shuisky was married twice. His first marriage remained childless, after which he remained single for a long time. From the second, which took place after his accession to the throne, he had only two daughters. The author of the Belsky Chronicler wrote:
“Tsar Vasily Ivanovich of All Russia had only two daughters, and they died in infancy; This is what Nastasya and Anna are called.”
The second marriage, which Tsar Vasily Ivanovich really was not too keen on and agreed to only for reasons of dynastic expediency, took place after a long widowhood, and then a direct ban from Tsar Boris, who was afraid of seeing pretenders to the throne in the new generation of Shuisky princes, which could create a threat the reign of his son. Already Tsar Dmitry, according to Jacques Margeret, wanted to break this heavy and undeserved ban imposed on the senior prince Shuisky, but a coup took place and yesterday’s groom turned from a boyar into a king. Then the need to fight enemies, including personal participation in the campaign near Tula, on for a long time pushed aside questions about other state and dynastic interests,” writes Shuisky’s biographer V.N. Kozlyakov. His brother Dmitry was considered the tsar’s heir.
In art
Vasily Shuisky is one of the main characters tragedy by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin “Boris Godunov”.
In films based on it film adaptations The role of Shuisky was performed by:
- Nikandr Khanaev (Boris Godunov, film-opera, 1954)
- Anatoly Romashin (Boris Godunov, 1986, director Sergei Fedorovich Bondarchuk)
- Kenneth Riegel (Boris Godunov, film-opera, 1989)
- Leonid Gromov (Boris Godunov, 2011)
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Notes
Literature
- Librovich S. F. The Tsar in Captivity - the story of Vasily Shuisky’s stay in Poland. - 1904.
- Skrynnikov R. G. Vasily Shuisky. - M., 2002.
- Bakhrevsky V. A. Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky, autocrat of all Rus'. - M., 2002.
- Kozlyakov V. N. Vasily Shuisky / Vyacheslav Kozlyakov. - M.: Young Guard, 2007. - 304, p. - (Life of remarkable people. Series of biographies. Issue 1075). - 5,000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-235-03045-9.(in translation)
Links
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Excerpt characterizing Vasily IV Shuisky
- Yes, yes, do that.Pierre did not have that practical tenacity that would give him the opportunity to directly get down to business, and therefore he did not like him and only tried to pretend to the manager that he was busy with business. The manager tried to pretend to the count that he considered these activities very useful for the owner and shy for himself.
IN big city acquaintances were found; strangers hastened to get acquainted and cordially welcomed the newly arrived rich man, the largest owner of the province. The temptations regarding Pierre's main weakness, the one that he admitted during his reception to the lodge, were also so strong that Pierre could not refrain from them. Again, whole days, weeks, months of Pierre’s life passed just as anxiously and busyly between evenings, dinners, breakfasts, balls, not giving him time to come to his senses, as in St. Petersburg. Instead of the new life that Pierre hoped to lead, he lived the same old life, only in a different environment.
Of the three purposes of Freemasonry, Pierre was aware that he did not fulfill the one that prescribed every Freemason to be a model moral life, and of the seven virtues he completely lacked two in himself: good morals and love of death. He consoled himself with the fact that he was fulfilling another purpose - the correction of the human race and had other virtues, love for one's neighbor and especially generosity.
In the spring of 1807, Pierre decided to go back to St. Petersburg. On the way back, he intended to go around all his estates and personally verify what was done from what was prescribed to them and in what situation the people were now, which God had entrusted to him, and which he sought to benefit.
The chief manager, who considered all the ideas of the young count almost madness, a disadvantage for himself, for him, for the peasants, made concessions. Continuing to make the task of liberation seem impossible, he ordered the construction of large school buildings, hospitals and shelters on all estates; For the master's arrival, he prepared meetings everywhere, not pompously solemn ones, which, he knew, Pierre would not like, but just the kind of religious thanksgiving, with images and bread and salt, just the kind that, as he understood the master, should have an effect on the count and deceive him .
The southern spring, the calm, quick journey in the Viennese carriage and the solitude of the road had a joyful effect on Pierre. There were estates that he had not yet visited - one more picturesque than the other; The people everywhere seemed prosperous and touchingly grateful for the benefits done to them. Everywhere there were meetings that, although they embarrassed Pierre, deep down in his soul evoked a joyful feeling. In one place, the peasants offered him bread and salt and an image of Peter and Paul, and asked permission in honor of his angel Peter and Paul, as a sign of love and gratitude for the good deeds he had done, to erect a new chapel in the church at their own expense. In another place he was met by women with infants, thanking him for getting rid of heavy work. At the third estate he was met by a priest with a cross, surrounded by children, whom, by the grace of the count, he taught literacy and religion. In all the estates, Pierre saw with his own eyes, according to the same plan, the stone buildings of hospitals, schools, and almshouses that were to be opened soon. Everywhere Pierre saw reports from managers about corvée work, reduced compared to the previous one, and heard touching thanks for this from deputations of peasants in blue caftans.
Pierre just didn’t know that where they brought him bread and salt and built the chapel of Peter and Paul, there was a trading village and a fair on Peter’s Day, that the chapel had already been built a long time ago by the rich peasants of the village, those who came to him, and that nine-tenths The peasants of this village were in the greatest ruin. He did not know that due to the fact that, on his orders, they stopped sending children of women with babies to corvee labor, these same children the hardest job carried in their half. He did not know that the priest who met him with the cross was burdening the peasants with his extortions, and that the disciples gathered to him with tears were given to him, and were bought off by their parents for a lot of money. He did not know that the stone buildings, according to the plan, were erected by their own workers and increased the corvee of the peasants, reduced only on paper. He did not know that where the manager indicated to him in the book that the quitrent was reduced by one third at his will, the corvée duty was added by half. And therefore Pierre was delighted with his journey through the estates, and completely returned to the philanthropic mood in which he left St. Petersburg, and wrote enthusiastic letters to his mentor brother, as he called the great master.
“How easy, how little effort is needed to do so much good, thought Pierre, and how little we care about it!”
He was happy with the gratitude shown to him, but was ashamed to accept it. This gratitude reminded him how much more he could have done for these simple, kind people.
The chief manager, a very stupid and cunning man, completely understanding the smart and naive count, and playing with him like a toy, seeing the effect produced on Pierre by the prepared techniques, more decisively turned to him with arguments about the impossibility and, most importantly, the unnecessaryness of the liberation of the peasants, who, even without They were completely happy.
Pierre secretly agreed with the manager that it was difficult to imagine happier people, and that God knows what awaited them in the wild; but Pierre, although reluctantly, insisted on what he considered fair. The manager promised to use all his strength to carry out the will of the count, clearly understanding that the count would never be able to trust him not only as to whether all measures had been taken to sell forests and estates, to redeem from the Council, but would also probably never ask or learns how the built buildings stand empty and the peasants continue to give with work and money everything that they give from others, that is, everything that they can give.
In the happiest state of mind, returning from his southern trip, Pierre fulfilled his long-standing intention to call on his friend Bolkonsky, whom he had not seen for two years.
Bogucharovo lay in an ugly, flat area, covered with fields and felled and uncut fir and birch forests. The manor's yard was located at the end of a straight line, along high road located in a village, behind a newly dug, full-filled pond, with the banks still not overgrown with grass, in the middle of a young forest, between which stood several large pines.
The manor's courtyard consisted of a threshing floor, outbuildings, stables, a bathhouse, an outbuilding and a large stone house with a semicircular pediment, which was still under construction. A young garden was planted around the house. The fences and gates were strong and new; under the canopy stood two fire pipes and a barrel painted green; the roads were straight, the bridges were strong with railings. Everything bore the imprint of neatness and thrift. The servants who met, when asked where the prince lived, pointed to a small, new outbuilding standing at the very edge of the pond. Prince Andrei's old uncle, Anton, dropped Pierre out of the carriage, said that the prince was at home, and led him into a clean, small hallway.
Pierre was struck by the modesty of the small, although clean, house after those brilliant conditions in which last time he saw his friend in St. Petersburg. He hurriedly entered the still pine-smelling, unplastered, small hall and wanted to move on, but Anton tiptoed forward and knocked on the door.
- Well, what's there? – a sharp, unpleasant voice was heard.
“Guest,” answered Anton.
“Ask me to wait,” and I heard a chair being pushed back. Pierre walked quickly to the door and came face to face with Prince Andrei, who was coming out to him, frowning and aged. Pierre hugged him and, raising his glasses, kissed him on the cheeks and looked at him closely.
“I didn’t expect it, I’m very glad,” said Prince Andrei. Pierre said nothing; He looked at his friend in surprise, without taking his eyes off. He was struck by the change that had taken place in Prince Andrei. The words were affectionate, a smile was on Prince Andrei’s lips and face, but his gaze was dull, dead, to which, despite his apparent desire, Prince Andrei could not give a joyful and cheerful shine. It’s not that his friend has lost weight, turned pale, and matured; but this look and the wrinkle on his forehead, expressing long concentration on one thing, amazed and alienated Pierre until he got used to them.
When meeting after a long separation, as always happens, the conversation could not stop for a long time; they asked and answered briefly about things that they themselves knew should have been discussed at length. Finally, the conversation began to dwell little by little on what had been said fragmentarily before, on questions about past life, about plans for the future, about Pierre's travels, about his activities, about the war, etc. That concentration and depression that Pierre noticed in the look of Prince Andrei was now expressed even more strongly in the smile with which he listened to Pierre, especially then when Pierre spoke with animated joy about the past or the future. It was as if Prince Andrei wanted, but could not, take part in what he said. Pierre began to feel that enthusiasm, dreams, hopes for happiness and goodness in front of Prince Andrei were not proper. He was ashamed to express all his new, Masonic thoughts, especially those renewed and excited in him by his last journey. He restrained himself, was afraid to be naive; at the same time, he irresistibly wanted to quickly show his friend that he was now a completely different, better Pierre than the one who was in St. Petersburg.
“I can’t tell you how much I experienced during this time.” I wouldn't recognize myself.
“Yes, we have changed a lot, a lot since then,” said Prince Andrei.
- Well, what about you? - asked Pierre, - what are your plans?
- Plans? – Prince Andrey repeated ironically. - My plans? - he repeated, as if surprised at the meaning of such a word. - Yes, you see, I’m building, I want to move completely by next year...
Pierre silently peered intently into the aged face of (Prince) Andrei.
“No, I’m asking,” said Pierre, “but Prince Andrei interrupted him:
- What can I say about me... Tell me, tell me about your journey, about everything you did there on your estates?
Pierre began to talk about what he had done on his estates, trying as much as possible to hide his participation in the improvements made by him. Prince Andrei several times prompted Pierre ahead of what he was telling, as if everything that Pierre had done had happened a long time ago famous story, and listened not only not with interest, but even as if ashamed of what Pierre was telling.
Pierre felt awkward and even difficult in the company of his friend. He fell silent.
“But here’s what, my soul,” said Prince Andrei, who was obviously also having a hard time and shyness with his guest, “I’m here in bivouacs, and I came just to have a look.” I'm going back to my sister now. I'll introduce you to them. “Yes, you seem to know each other,” he said, obviously entertaining the guest with whom he now felt nothing in common. - We'll go after lunch. Now do you want to see my estate? - They went out and walked until lunch, talking about political news and mutual acquaintances, as people who are not very close to each other. With some animation and interest, Prince Andrei spoke only about the new estate and building he was organizing, but even here, in the middle of the conversation, on the stage, when Prince Andrei was describing to Pierre the future location of the house, he suddenly stopped. “However, there’s nothing interesting here, let’s go have lunch and leave.” “At dinner the conversation turned to Pierre’s marriage.
“I was very surprised when I heard about this,” said Prince Andrei.
Pierre blushed the same way he always blushed at this, and hastily said:
“I’ll tell you someday how it all happened.” But you know that it's all over and forever.
- Forever? - said Prince Andrei. – Nothing happens forever.
– But do you know how it all ended? Have you heard about the duel?
- Yes, you went through that too.
“The one thing I thank God for is that I didn’t kill this man,” said Pierre.
- From what? - said Prince Andrei. – Kill angry dog very well.
- No, killing a person is not good, it’s unfair...
- Why is it unfair? - repeated Prince Andrei; what is just and unjust is not given to people to judge. People have always been mistaken and will continue to be mistaken, and in nothing more than in what they consider just and unjust.
The traditional characterization of Vasily Shuisky as a “cunning boyar” is gradually becoming a thing of the past. The years of his reign coincided with one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of Russia - the Time of Troubles. The shocks of the state were reflected in the personal tragedy of the last of the Rurikovichs.
Portrait
In the eyes of historians and playwrights, Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky often appears as a figure devoid of attractiveness. “More cunning than smart, utterly deceitful and intrigued,” is how the historian Vasily Klyuchevsky sees the tsar.
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, although he pays tribute to Shuisky’s courage and strength of character, admits that his best qualities the courtier preserves not during his life, but during his fall. Nikolai Karamzin echoes the poet: “he fell with greatness in the ruins of the State.”
Contemporaries also did not favor Vasily Shuisky good epithets, calling the boyar either Shubnik or Shubin, hinting at the support he provided to the merchants and townspeople when they came into power.
Prince Ivan Katyrev-Rostovsky finds attractive features in Shuisky, noting that he “is pleased with book teaching and is very knowledgeable in the reasoning of the mind.” In the characterization of young Shuisky English ambassador Giles Fletcher called him the most intelligent among other members of the family.
Shuisky’s resourcefulness and irrepressible thirst for power is rather a cliche that has become established in the historiography of the “Romanov era”. It was the caricature portrait of the last Tsar Rurikovich that best contrasted with the beginning of a new dynastic era. The image of the real Shuisky is much more complex and at the same time tragic - in tune with the turbulent times in which the king ruled.
Genus
According to the nobility, the Shuisky family, whose patrimony were Suzdal lands, was always inferior to the ancestors of Ivan Kalita, who established themselves in the Moscow reign. Nevertheless, in Austria and Poland it was the Shuiskys who were called “princes of the blood.” And for good reason. After all, the Shuiskys had the primary right to the Moscow table: their family, according to one version, originated from the third son of Alexander Nevsky, Andrei, while the Moscow princes descended from the fourth son, Daniel.
According to another version, the Shuisky family tree goes back to younger brother Alexander Nevsky - Andrei Yaroslavich, which also gave them the formal right to supremacy among the Rurikovichs. In 1249, it was Andrei, and not Alexander, who received the label for the great reign of Vladimir.
The immediate founder of the Shuisky family was Yuri Vasilyevich, who inherited part of Principality of Suzdal– the town of Shuya with its surroundings. Since then, two branches of the Rurikovichs - the Shuiskys and the Danilovichs - have been waging a hidden war for leadership. The Shuiskys, of course, received the richest feedings and awards, but this was not enough for them.
During the time of the young Ivan IV, boyar Andrei Shuisky, the grandfather of Vasily Shuisky, managed to actually find himself at the pinnacle of power for a while, the temptations of which he could not withstand. For which he paid, becoming the first victim of Grozny.
Between disgrace and mercy
Vasily Shuisky also had to go through the costs of inter-clan rivalry. Not only with the Danilovichs, but also with other boyar families - the Belskys, Mstislavskys, Godunovs and Romanovs. Under Fyodor Ioanovich, Shuisky headed the Moscow Court Order, which added to his influence among the serving nobility. The Godunovs and Romanovs did everything to ensure that Shuisky lost such an important post. In the spring of 1585, the unwanted boyar was sent to the voivodeship in Smolensk.
The Smolensk exile turned out to be only a preamble to the Shuisky-Godunov confrontation. In 1586, the Shuiskys, accused of having relations with Lithuania, were persecuted. Vasily is exiled to Galich, and his older brother Andrei, one of the most prominent representatives dynasty, dies under mysterious circumstances. This could not have happened without Boris Godunov, historians are sure.
However, the still influential Vasily Shuisky turned out to be beneficial to Godunov: the exile was suddenly canceled and the disgraced boyar returned to Moscow to investigate the death of Tsarevich Dimitri. But there was probably another reason - the confrontation between the Godunovs and the Romanovs, who were gaining political weight. Vasily Shuisky was seen by the Tsar's brother-in-law as an advantageous ally.
During the reign of Boris Godunov, Shuisky remained in the shadow of the monarch, was forced to moderate his ambitions and bide his time. He didn't wait long enough for him the right time, when many Russian cities were gripped by famine and a series of popular unrest. But the main shock for the state was the arrival of False Dmitry I.
When False Dmitry took the Moscow throne, he did not forget about Shuisky, who convinced the people of the falsehood of the “legal heir.” It was Shuisky who at one time led the investigation into the death of Tsarevich Dmitry in Uglich, and he did not know that the last son of John IV died. The boyar was sentenced to death, which was commuted to exile. Again, months of uncertainty, forgiveness and a sudden return to court. But now Shuisky knew that he could act: the position of the “natural king” had by that time noticeably weakened.
Reign
As historian Vyacheslav Kozlyakov notes, Shuisky knew how to say in time what was expected of him. Say and do. The boyar could only push the masses to overthrow the impostor. But he did not let the process take its course and showed prudence: he protected Marina Mniszech and the ambassadors of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the angry crowd in order to avoid conflict with a dangerous neighbor.
Then the main conspirator makes another important step- makes a proposal for the canonization of Tsarevich Dmitry and the transfer of his remains from Uglich to Moscow. By doing this, he solves three problems: he compromises the already deceased Godunov, he tries to put an end to rumors about the allegedly saved prince, but most importantly, he prepares the ground for his accession to the throne. Metropolitan Filaret first had to participate in the reburial of the remains of the prince, and then, after his elevation to the rank of patriarch, crown Shuisky as king.
Already at the very beginning of his reign, Shuisky took an oath that was not typical for previous monarchs. The “cross-kissing record” of the newly-crowned king clearly establishes the protection of a representative of any class from arbitrariness, and guarantees the legal trial. The Tsar also promised to put an end to denunciations: for perjury the death penalty now she was threatening the informers themselves.
The “Decree on Voluntary Slaves,” which appeared on March 7, 1607, was dictated by the hungry and troubled times. Thus, slaves who for some reason fell into bondage were given the right to leave their master, getting rid of the townsman or peasant tax.
But the “Code”, which was published two days later, already forever assigned the peasants to their owners. The author of “Essays on the History of the Time of Troubles in the Moscow State,” S. F. Platonov noted that “Tsar Vasily wanted to strengthen in place and subject to registration and supervision the social stratum that was causing trouble and seeking change.”
The Tsar did not leave the Church unattended either. Many monasteries were given back their possessions and benefits that had been lost during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. But here, of course, one can see Shuisky’s desire to thank the “sacred rank” for supporting the current government.
End of the dynasty
Vasily Shuisky returned the Rurikids to the throne at one of the most crisis periods Russian society. If Godunov accepted a generally stable and prosperous state, in which the beginnings of the great unrest were only ripening, then Shuisky inherited an inheritance that called into question the very concept of the “Russian state.” Famine, internal and external strife, and finally, the epidemic of imposture that swept Rus' at the dawn of the seventeenth century - in such conditions, few could maintain their common sense and political will.
Shuisky did everything he could. He tried to codify the law and consolidate the position of slaves and peasants. But his concessions in a difficult situation were akin to weakness.
The king looked into the past. His efforts to subjugate the Boyar Duma were doomed: everything had changed, and in the new conditions, not only it decided who to rule and who to overthrow. Attempts to reform the moribund system backfired popular uprisings and the Polish-Lithuanian intervention.
Shuisky failed to cope with the historical challenge. His death far from his homeland symbolized the collapse of old Rus' - the state of the Rurikovichs. But, what is noteworthy, the revival of the Russian state came from the lands that served as the stronghold of Shuisky’s power - Ryazan and Nizhny Novgorod. It was here that the zemstvo movement began, which ultimately led to the liberation of Moscow from Sigismund III, who usurped the Russian throne.
The Romanovs who ascended the throne did not forget about the deposed tsar. In 1635, on the initiative of Mikhail Fedorovich, the remains of Vasily Shuisky were transported from Poland and reburied in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.
A struggle began between the boyars for the vacant throne. The winner was the leader of the conspiracy - a 54-year-old Vasily Ivanovich Shui-sky from a family of Nizhny Novgorod princes who considered themselves descendants of Alexander Nevsky. These days he acted quickly, decisively and accurately. Not expecting to get support Boyar Duma and not wanting to wait for the convening of the Zemsky Sobor, the conspirators led by the prince staged a Zemsky Sobor: gathered a crowd of their supporters on Red Square. It was they who proclaimed him king. Not daring to openly oppose Shuisky, who enjoyed the support of the Moscow townspeople, the boyars limited themselves to taking a “cross-kissing record” from him - an oath promise not to decide important issues and not subject noble persons to severe punishments without the consent of the Boyar Duma. The new king swore an oath that he would rule with justice. The authoritative Metropolitan Hermogenes was elected Patriarch. But this did not bring peace to the country.
Thus, “Moscow alone,” without consulting with representatives of other lands of Russia, elected Prince Vasily Shuisky from an old boyar family as tsar.
Some boyars considered their family more worthy of the throne; Some of the nobles were dissatisfied with the rule of the “boyar tsar.” Rumors about " miraculous salvation» Tsar Dmitry, who allegedly managed to escape. All those dissatisfied with Shuisky’s rule supported these rumors.
The reign of Vasily Shuisky (1606-1610) became a difficult time in the history of Russia. But it was not so much the king himself who was to blame for this, but the circumstances in which he had to act. Shuisky is often portrayed as a complete nonentity, an unprincipled intriguer and a power-hungry. Indeed, during his long life he had to lie, cheat and dodge a lot. However, it is not difficult to notice that in terms of his moral qualities he was no worse than the previous tsars - the bloody Ivan the Terrible, the merciless Boris Godunov, the adventurer Grigory Otrepyev. It is difficult to blame him for cowardice: for the fight with Godunov, and then with Otrepiev, he twice fell into grave disgrace, and the second time he received forgiveness only a minute before his execution. But even after this, he took a desperate risk, leading a new conspiracy against the impostor.
Shuisky's domestic policy
The new Tsar Vasily Shuisky was an experienced man in government affairs. He sincerely wanted to calm Russia down, restore peace and order. Here his personal interests coincided with public ones. However, Shuisky, like Godunov, lacked the talent of a commander. And most importantly, he received a very difficult inheritance from his predecessors on the throne: an empty treasury, a troubled society and a daring aristocracy. Finally, Vasily Shuisky was tied hand and foot by his obligations to the Moscow nobility.
Paying tribute to the boyars, Shuisky did not forget about the lower layer ruling class- nobility. It formed the backbone of the army. The fate of the ruler largely depended on the support of the nobles. A good gift The nobles received a law on a 15-year period for searching for fugitive peasants, adopted in May 1607. At the same time, the so-called “combat serfs” - armed servants who accompanied the nobles on campaigns - received benefits. (Life showed that they were the first to go over to the side of the rebels.) From now on, the nobles were forbidden to turn free people who hired themselves out to them as armed servants, as powerless slaves.
False Dmitry II
The first problem that Shuisky had to face was the disobedience of a significant part of the noble militia. These were mainly detachments from southern and southwestern cities, summoned to Moscow by False Dmitry I shortly before the coup. Treated favorably by the impostor, the southerners did not want to swear allegiance to the boyar tsar. They left the capital and headed towards Ryazan. They were inspired by rumors that on May 17, a double of Tsar Dmitry was killed in Moscow, and that he himself hid in Poland for the time being. One of the main distributors of these rumors was the father-in-law of False Dmitry I, Yuri Mnishek. The new authorities sent him and his daughter Marina into exile in Yaroslavl. However, from there he was able to send letters and messengers.
Yuri Mnishek helped a certain nobleman Mikhail Molchanov settle in Sambir, who decided to take on the burden of the fled Tsar Dmitry. This is how False Dmitry II appeared in the history of the Russian kingdom.
Bolotnikov's uprising
Soon, False Dmitry II was joined by Ivan Bolotnikov, the ataman of the Volga Cossacks who escaped from captivity. Molchanov appointed him leader of the uprising against Tsar Vasily Shuisky, which in history received the name “Bolotnikov’s uprising.”
Bolotnikov's army, with huge losses, divided into two parts, in the fall of 1606 reached the capital of the Russian kingdom - Moscow. However, after a long unsuccessful siege, the rebels were forced to retreat to Kaluga. Shuisky's troops, besieging Kaluga, failed, but inflicted considerable moral and physical damage on the rebels. Later, Bolotnikov’s troops had to move to Tula, where they united with reinforcements from False Dmitry II. At the head of this reinforcement was another adventurer, who introduced himself as the son of Tsar Dmitry - Tsarevich Peter, who in history was nicknamed False Peter. In fact, the impostor was the slave Ileika Muromets.
Despite the failure at Kaluga, Vasily Shuisky quickly gathered a new army and personally led it to Tula. The rebels set out to meet the enemy, but were defeated near Kashira. The powerful stone Tula fortress became theirs last hope. The tsarist troops unsuccessfully besieged it for several months. Finally, one of Shuisky’s warriors proposed damming the Upa River, which flowed through Tula, and flooding the city. The rising waters aggravated the misfortunes of the besieged, who were already suffering from hunger and disease. They began negotiations with the royal commanders.
On October 10, 1607, the rebels surrendered to the mercy of the victors. Vasily Shuisky promised to save their lives. However, the leaders of the rebels had to pay for everything they had done with their lives. Iley-ka Muromets was soon hanged on the outskirts of Moscow. Bolotnikov was exiled far to the north, to Kargopol. There he was blinded and then drowned in the Onega River.
Tushino camp
After the victory over the Bolotnikov uprising, False Dmitry II arrived in the country. It was no longer Mikhail Molchanov, but another impostor, more similar in appearance to False Dmitry I, who was found in Belarus and forced to take part in the adventure. Having gathered a huge army, he settled near Moscow in the village of Tushino. It was from the moment of the formation of the Tushino camp in the Russian kingdom that the real dual power of Tsar Vasily Shuisky and False Dmitry II began. It lasted until 1610. Material from the site
Vasily Shuisky managed to retain power with great difficulty. False Dmitry II did not allow food convoys into the capital. Muscovites suffered from hunger and cursed their helpless ruler. Several times the conspirators tried to prepare a coup, and only chance saved the king from death. Vasily Shuisky's only support was his relative - a young boyar Mikhail Vasilievich Skopin-Shuisky.
In April 1610, Skopin-Shuisky died. There were rumors that the young governor was poisoned at a feast by his envious relatives. Instead, the Tsar’s brother, a mediocre and cowardly prince, took command of all Moscow forces. Dmitry Shuisky. In June 1610, he set out to meet Sigismund’s army and suffered a crushing defeat in a battle near the village of Klushina.
Tsar Vasily Shuisky
On the southern outskirts of Russia, the coup carried out in Moscow by Vasily Shuisky caused strong discontent. Democratic principles in these places were more developed than in the center of the country. The population on the southern borders was half made up of Cossacks. Continuing to believe that False Dmitry was the “people's king,” the Cossacks, townspeople and minor nobility saw Shuisky as a protege of the hostile boyar class. Exiled by Shuisky to Putivl for his loyalty to the impostor, Prince Grigory Shakhovskoy began to spread rumors there that False Dmitry I was not killed in Moscow, but again miraculously escaped. Putivl rebelled against Shuisky. The governor of neighboring Chernigov, Telyatevsky, also joined the outbreak of the rebellion. Fermentations against Shuisky began in Moscow as well. They were gradually fanned by some boyars who dreamed of seizing the throne from Vasily.
In the south, the rebels gathered an entire army. With the consent of Telyatevsky and Shakhovsky, Ivan Bolotnikov became its head. A daring man who has seen a lot, Bolotnikov spent many years in Tatar-Turkish captivity, was in Western Europe and now he assured that he had met Dmitry, who had survived, abroad. With 1,300 Cossacks, Bolotnikov defeated Shuisky’s 5,000-strong army near Kromy, and the entire southern half of Russia quickly joined the uprising: the cities of Venev, Tula, Kashira, Kaluga, Orel, Astrakhan. The Lyapunov nobles raised the entire Ryazan region against Vasily Shuisky.
In the fall of 1606, Bolotnikov’s army marched on Moscow “to return the throne to Tsarevich Dmitry.” The Ryazan detachments of the Lyapunovs also moved to the capital. On December 2, Bolotnikov entered the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow, but here the forces of the rebels split. In Bolotnikov’s army, the poor, the robber class and other social scum took first place. These people were terribly outrageous, robbed everyone, establishing bloody anarchy everywhere. The noble militia of the Lyapunovs, horrified by the actions of their original allies, decided to break with them and, in the name of restoring order, unite with Vasily Shuisky. The noble detachments left Bolotnikov and moved to Moscow to Shuisky, although their leaders continued to dislike the boyar tsar. Bolotnikov, driven away from the capital by Shuisky’s young nephew, Mikhail Skopin, retreated to Kaluga, where he was besieged by Prince Mstislavsky.
Battle of Bolotnikov's troops with tsarist army. Painting by E. Lissner
Time of Troubles V Russian state reached its apogee during the reign Vasily Shuisky. Great king And Prince of All Rus' Vasily Shuisky came to power in 1606 after his death False Dmitry I. It is believed that it was he who organized the overthrow of the latter from the royal throne. Vasily Shuisky belonged to Rurik dynasty- Suzdal branch Rurikovich, which originated from Vsevolod's Big Nest, famous for his fertility.
It would seem that the arrival of Rurikovich to the throne was supposed to calm the popular unrest and restore order to the Rus'. But the revolutionary engine had already been started, and people had already stopped remembering the successive kings.
In 1606, an uprising broke out in the south of the Russian kingdom. Ivan Bolotnikova, under whose banners the lower boyars, ordinary people, peasants, some Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks, as well as Polish mercenaries (the king Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Sigismund III did everything to destabilize the situation in Rus').
In 1606, clashes began with the fact that the army of governor Trubetskoy was defeated in the battle of Kromy, at the same time, governor Vorotynsky lost the battle of Yelets, and the main army of Vasily Shuisky was defeated by the rebels of Ivan Bolotnikov near Kaluga.
At the beginning of October, the rebels also took Kolomna and besieged Moscow. This success of the uprising was partly facilitated by the addition of Ileika Muromets’ detachment to Bolotnikov’s army.
After this, luck turned away from the rebels, and they retreated from Moscow. At the end of 1606 - beginning of 1607, the rebels were besieged in Kaluga, and a little later they retreated and locked themselves in Tula.
The Tula Kremlin was taken only on October 10, 1607. Bolotnikov was drowned, and Ileiko Muromets was hanged.
Even before the suppression of Bolotnikov’s uprising, in August 1607, Vasily Shuisky formed a new headache. Rumors began to circulate among the people that False Dmitry (for many is still the son Ivan the Terrible) was not killed, but in fact the ashes of someone else were shot from the Tsar Cannon. On this basis, a new pseudo-heir appeared False Dmitry II.
False Dmitry II, also known as Tushino thief, planned to connect with Ivan Bolotnikov near Tula, but did not have time. In 1608, the second impostor defeated the army of Tsar Shuisky near Moscow, in Tushino, weakened by a long confrontation with the rebel Bolotnikov. He failed to take Moscow, but Shuisky also failed to defeat and drive away the army of the next Tsarevich Dmitry, located in the same Tushino, almost at the walls of Moscow.
Tsar Vasily in such a situation, he concluded an agreement with the Swedish king - assistance in the fight against False Dmitry in exchange for the Karelian lands.
From 1608 to 1610, the combined troops of Shuisky and the Swedes threw back the army of False Dmitry II to Kaluga, but they failed to completely suppress the resistance. It must be said that this pseudo-rule of False Dmitry lasted almost two years. All this time, the impostor continued to rule a significant part of Russian lands as the supreme ruler.
By the end of 1609 - beginning of 1610, after he managed to drive False Dmitry away from Moscow, Vasily Shuisky finally began to control most Rus'. However, fate was merciless to him.
In September 1609, Sigismund III, king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, dissatisfied with the protracted uprising of False Dmitry II, whom he continued to patronize, invaded the Russian kingdom.
On June 24, 1610, Shuisky’s army was defeated by the Poles in the Smolensk principality near Klushin, despite its numerical superiority. This defeat was the last straw in the barrel of dissatisfaction with the tsar, and on July 17, 1610, another uprising began against Vasily Shuisky. This time - in Moscow itself - the boyars rebelled. Vasily IV was dethroned from the throne and forcibly tonsured as a monk, and later (as a prisoner) handed over to the Poles. In Polish captivity, on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, he died on September 12, 1612.
If after death Fyodor Ioannovich Since the Rurik dynasty was interrupted, it finally ended with Vasily Shuisky. Apart from a short reign Boris Godunov, his son, as well as False Dmitry I, the Rurikovichs ruled Russia for almost 750 years, which is two-thirds of the entire existence of Russia (as the Old Russian State, the Russian Kingdom, the Russian Empire, the USSR and the Russian Federation combined).
Of course, the Rurikovichs were not completely exterminated. Their dynasty gave rise to many famous families (family): Zamyatin, Zamyatnin, Tatishchev, Pozharsky, Vatutin, Galitsky, Mozhaisky, Bulgakov, Mussorgsky, Odoevsky, Obolensky, Dolgorukov, Zlobin, Shchetinin, Vnukov, Mamonov, Chernigovsky, Beznosov, etc. . - only about two hundred.
