Vasily Shuisky (May 19, 1606 - July 17, 1610)
The new king, realizing his right to the throne was very shaky, wanted to back it up with a reminder of his origin from Rurik. Boyars hostile to Shuisky were immediately disgraced by the new tsar. Prince Rubets-Masalsky was exiled by the voivode to Karela, Afanasyev Vlasyev to Ufa, Mikhail Glebovich Saltykov to Ivangorod, Bogdan Belsky to Kazan, other stolniks and nobles were also sent to different cities, some of them were deprived of estates and estates.
Everyone was dissatisfied with Shuisky: the regions because he was chosen as tsar without their consent, the people in Moscow - because the boyars received great power, the boyars - because some themselves wanted to be on the throne, people who helped Shuisky in overthrowing False Dmitry and his election as king, were dissatisfied with his stinginess. Everyone was waiting for a pretext for an uprising, for the start of which a new impostor was needed. Rebellions broke out everywhere against the boyar tsar. "Since the fall of 1606, a bloody turmoil opened in the state, in which all the estates of Moscow society took part, rebelling one against the other." The cities of the Seversk Ukraine rose under the command of the voivode Prince Shakhovsky (who was later called by his contemporaries "a breeder of all blood"), and then a new popular Ivan Bolotnikov appeared. He was a "fighting servant" of Prince Telyatevsky, fled to the Cossacks, was one of the atamans of the Volga Cossack freemen, was captured by the Tatars and was sold into slavery in Turkey, was a rower on a gallery, a participant in naval battles, and was liberated by the Italians. Then Venice, Germany, Poland, where he meets the impostor. The second impostor, Gavrilo Verevkin, appeared. However, Bolotnikov did not wait for help from him, and on October 10, 1607, he had to surrender to Tsar Vasily. Prince Shakhovsky was exiled to the desert on Lake Kubenskoye. Bolotnikov was drowned, despite the word given by the tsar himself. Shuisky triumphantly returned to Moscow, and meanwhile the second impostor entered into force.
Such was soon found in the person of the second False Dmitry, who appeared in Starodub. He was, of course, already a conscious and obvious deceiver, but few people were interested in checking his personality and his legal rights; he was only a banner under which all those who were dissatisfied with the Moscow government and their position, all who were striving to arrange their careers or to acquire "difficult wealth", were in a hurry to gather again. Under the banner of the impostor gathered not only the representatives of the oppressed lower classes, but also some of the service people, the Cossacks and, finally, large detachments of Polish and Lithuanian adventurers, striving at the expense of the unreasonable and rushing about in civil strife "Rusaks". In the spring of 1608, the second impostor entered the Moscow state, and on June 1 he became a camp in the village of Tushino, bringing under his thief's hand the very heart of the Moscow state, between the Oka-Volga rivers. Hence his nickname - "Tushinsky Thief". Here were their boyars and governors, their own orders and even their own patriarch, such was (as contemporaries say under compulsion) the Metropolitan of Rostov Filaret - the former boyar Fyodor Nikitovich Romanov. Many princes and boyars came to the Tushino camp from Moscow, although they knew, of course, that they were going to serve an obvious deceiver and impostor. He was served by the famous Polish soldiers Lisowski and Jan Sapega. Many cities began to fall away from the rightful king, swearing allegiance to the impostor. Thus, there were two kings in the state - Vasily Shuisky and Tushinsky Thief. Each had his own yard, his own servants. In October 1608, 22 cities swore allegiance to False Dmitry II. International relations further complicated the course of Moscow affairs. There was enmity between Sweden and Poland due to the fact that his uncle Charles IX took the hereditary throne from the elected king of Poland Sigismund III. Since the second impostor, although tacitly, but rather clearly supported the Polish government, Tsar Vasily turned to Charles IX for help against the Tushins. The negotiations led by the tsar's nephew Skopin-Shuisky ended with the dispatch of an auxiliary detachment under the command of General Delagardie, for which Tsar Vasily was forced to conclude an eternal alliance with Sweden against Poland and make other grave concessions. Sigismund responded with an open break with Moscow and laid siege to Smolensk in the fall of 1609. Meanwhile, the Tushino camp was destroyed by the Poles themselves. False Dmitry II went to Kaluga. The Russian Tushins went over to Sigismund.
In May 1610, Skopin-Shuisky died suddenly, at the same time rumors spread that he was poisoned and the tsar was accused of this. Now nothing connected the people with the sovereign. P. Lyapunov spoke out against V. Shuisky in Ryazan. The army of V. Shuisky was defeated by the Poles.
Hoping to take advantage of the victory of others, False Dmitry II moved to Moscow from Kaluga. The Moscow boyars were guided by the Tushinsky thief with the expectation that, by overthrowing V. Shuisky, they would sever ties with False Dmitry II. The city was in anxiety and confusion, Tsar Vasily lost all confidence and authority.
On July 17, 1610, the boyars and nobles, led by Zakhar Lyapunov, overthrew Vasily Shuisky from the throne. Tsar Vasily Shuisky was forcibly tonsured into a monk. After the overthrow of Shuisky, there was no one to become the head of the government, as soon as the Boyar Duma, and everyone swore to obey it until a new tsar was elected. She had to choose between two contenders for the throne, Vladislav, whose recognition was demanded by Zholkevsky, who was marching to Moscow, and an impostor, who also approached the capital counting on the favor of the Moscow common people.
The rulers of the seven-boyars, fearing to rely on the masses in the fight against the interventionists, conspired with the Polish interventionists, invited the Polish prince Vladislav to the Russian throne and let the Poles into Moscow.
In the fight against the Tushino thief, the regime of Tsar Vasily was exhausted. It was extremely important for him that the Polish crown army did not invade Russia. The Polish volunteers who fought in the army of the impostor were somehow dealt with. However, in September 1608, tragic news for Shuisky arrived: the Poles declared war on Russia and, led by the king, invaded the Russian borders, besieging Smolensk. The Diet agreed with the arguments of Sigismund II and decided to take advantage of the turmoil in Russia to return the Commonwealth of Smolensk and other eastern territories lost during the Russian-Polish wars. Among the Polish gentry, plans were also hatched for the complete subordination of Russia, turning it into a kind of colony. From under the walls of Smolensk, Sigismund II ordered the Poles-Tushins to come to his service.
Deprived of Polish help, False Dmitry II, together with Marina at the end of 1609, fled from the "thieves' capital" to Kaluga, but for the Tushino boyars, headed by Patriarch Filaret, the way back to Moscow was cut off. Therefore, thinking about their own salvation, in contrast to the hated Shuisky, they asked (through the mouth of Filaret) the Polish king to release his son Vladislav to the Moscow throne, subjecting his entry to the consent of "the whole earth" and Vladislav's conversion to Orthodoxy. So they, willingly or unwillingly, sowed the wind, which soon turned into a storm ...
The embassy from Tushino came to the king's camp near Smolensk for negotiations, which ended on February 4, 1610 with a preliminary agreement on the elevation of the king's son Vladislav to the Moscow throne. Since then, the Poles have had unlimited opportunities to intervene in Russian affairs, and the dream of subjugating Russia to the Commonwealth has flared up. In this situation, Shuisky decided to seek help from Sigismund's mortal enemy, the Swedish king Charles IX. For this, he sent MV Skopin-Shuisky to Novgorod, where he concluded an agreement with the Swedes on the provision of a 5-thousandth auxiliary detachment by the king for 140 thousand rubles. But the money was not enough, and on February 28, 1609, Skopin-Shuisky signed an agreement with the Swedes, according to which the Russian side still ceded the Korela fortress with the district to them and finally abandoned Livonia. In April, the Swedish corps, led by Jacob De la Gardie, entered Novgorod. Skopin - an intelligent, courageous, unusually handsome giant 22 years old - won the heart of De la Gardie from the first words, and they became friends forever. Soon the allies managed to liberate Tver, forced the hetman Sapieha to flee near the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, and lifted the siege of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. By this time, False Dmitry II fled to Kaluga.
These victories made Skopin-Shuisky a popular favorite, and therefore an undesirable rival to the unfortunate Tsar Vasily. When a flattering invitation came from the tsar to come to Moscow, the mother of Skopin-Shuisky, who was in the camp, begged him not to go to Tsar Vasily, and Delagardie told him the same. But the commander could not disobey the tsar's decree and on March 12, 1610 solemnly entered Moscow. The people kneeled before him, which unpleasantly struck Tsar Basil. And then Skopin was invited to be the godfather of the son of Prince I.M. Vorotynsky. The godmother was the wife of the tsar's brother, Dmitry Shuisky, the daughter of Malyuta Skuratov. She, as a kuma, presented Skopin-Shuisky with a cup of wine. After drinking it, Skopin immediately felt unwell, he began to bleed from his nose and throat. The doctors sent by De la Gardie were unable to save the young, strong man. He died on April 24, 1610. De la Gardie wept at his friend's coffin.
After Skopin's death, Shuisky's affairs did not improve. Power did not bring him joy. The Moscow chronicler even pitied him: “And the life of the tsar was always on the tsar's throne with troubles, and with torments, and with worldly excitement; often the whole world came to him and demanded to leave the kingdom, and they grabbed the staff and dishonored him many times. And he endured and shed tears incessantly, "although, we add from ourselves, he clung to power with all his might.
By the summer of 1610, his position had become menacing. On June 27, in a battle near Mozhaisk (near the village of Klushino), Hetman Zholkevsky defeated the Russian army headed by Dmitry Shuisky, which was moving to help the garrison of Smolensk. De la Gardie could not help the Russians - some of his soldiers, who had not been paid by the Moscow authorities for months, went to the Poles. The southern cities began to swear allegiance to Tsar Vladislav. In addition, False Dmitry II from Kaluga again approached Moscow. His thieves' capital in Tushino had already been burned down in March 1610, but the impostor still had a lot of strength.
It was then that a conspiracy arose against Vasily Shuisky, led by the nobles - the brothers Procopius and Zakhar Lyapunov. Behind them stood the noblemen and townspeople dissatisfied with the policy of Shuisky. They said that Shuisky had “neither happiness nor good luck in his reign,” that his army was always defeated. On July 17, 1610, the conspirators broke into the palace, "brought" the king from the throne. But even after the overthrow, Shuisky posed a danger and, being under arrest, got in touch with his supporters. Then the rebels decided to forcibly tonsure the former king into a monk. Vasily struggled out of the hands of Zakhary Lyapunov and resolutely refused to pronounce the words of the vow. Then one of the conspirators, Prince Touraine, made a vow for him. Only Patriarch Hermogenes protested against this violence. He continued to pray in the cathedral for the health of Tsar Basil, and recognized Touraine as a monk. Hermogenes saw in violence and desecration of the legitimate, recognized tsar the beginning of the great misfortune of Russia.
Contemporaries also considered the actions of the Lyapunovs shameful. Ivan Timofeev wrote: “But more hasty and twice as dishonorable was the overthrow of this“ self-righteous ”from the height of the throne ... In this for those with intelligence - weeping, not laughter, for the unreasonable and for the untamed enemies of the Russian land it was a reason for great laughter." ... According to legend, on the eve of the overthrow of Shuisky, sighs and laments were heard in the Kremlin's Archangel Cathedral, the royal tomb, as if the Russian monarchs were grieving in their graves about the impending terrible era of fratricide and anarchy, which was called SMUTA.
WELL AND DAY
The Russian tsar, if you remember, was such, Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky, on July 17, 1610, he was overthrown and forcibly tonsured a monk. Another Russian tsar, Nicholas II, who had already abdicated the throne, was killed on this very day, or rather at night ... Let me remind you once again that together with the former - whatever he may be - tsar, 90 years ago, his wife and children were killed : four young girls and a fourteen year old boy; and also Dr. Evgeny Botkin, footman Aloisy Trup, cook Ivan Kharitonov and maid Anna Demidova.
WELL AND DAY (with a sigh)
Probably, in the summer it is more convenient to give general battles and arrange beautiful weddings in the fresh air. Let's see what was marked on July 17: in 1328, the wedding and the war merged together: because according to the Anglo-Scottish peace treaty, the young heir to the Scottish throne, four-year-old David, it was decided to marry the sister of the English king Joanna Plantagenet. The grown-up cousins David II and Edward III fought and negotiated for a very long time. The King of France Charles the Sixth also married on this day - in 1385, seventeen years old. Officially, Charles was called "Beloved", but the real "Mad" - madness rolled over the monarch in periods, like the Hundred Years War. And, by the way, it also ended on July 17 - in 1453 the last battle was fought at Castiglion. The British lost. But the Russians won that day - though not on land, and at completely different times. On July 17, a victory was won at Gogland during the Russian-Swedish war:
Sergey Buntman
The Swedes' plan was simple and swift: to sink the Russian squadron, blockade Kronstadt and land troops in Oranienbaum. But at the very first point, it collapsed: the ships of Admiral Greig met the Swedish squadron according to all the rules, aimed fire and clever maneuver. As a result, with almost equal losses, the Swedes retreated to Sveaborg, where they were blocked. The victory at Gogland was the last major success of Samuel Greig: the great Scotsman in the Russian service died in November of the same year, 1788.
WELL AND DENEK (discreet)
In France, on July 17, 1793, another execution took place - Charlotte Corday was executed for the murder of the "friend of the people" Marat. It is still not entirely clear how a twenty-five-year-old girl was able to stab with such a crushing force. To the judge's question: Who inspired so much hatred in you? Charlotte replied: I didn't need someone else's hatred. It was enough for me to be mine. Let us briefly recall other events of this day: in 1919, Karl Mannerheim signed the decision of the Sejm on the proclamation of Finland as a republic, in 1936 in Spain a rebellion of right-wing generals in the government began, in 1942 the defensive stage of the Battle of Stalingrad began, and in 1944 Soviet troops on a wide front cross the border of Poland and enter its territory. In 1945, on July 17, the Potsdam Conference opens, and two years later in the Soviet Union, according to the official version, Raoul Wallenberg died of a heart attack. In 1962, the Soviet nuclear submarine Leninsky Komsomol surfaced for the first time in the North Pole region.
WELL AND DAY
Born on July 17, 1797, the French artist Paul Delaroche was very fond of historical events: here is the death of Elizabeth of England, and Cromwell at the tomb of Charles the First, and the Murder of the Duke of Guise - a solid "Well, a day" in pictures. Other persons of this day influenced the world around them in their own way: German philosopher Alexander Baumgarten reflected on feelings, publisher Peter Yurgenson printed notes, traveler Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay, as you know, traveled to distant countries and proved the species unity and kinship of different races. Our today's hero of the day, basically, earned. But I stayed in my memory. On July 17, 1763, America's first millionaire, Johann Jacob Astor, was born.
The first American millionaire was an emigrant whose ancestors lived in the German town of Walldorf. Astor received the name of his father, Johann Jacob Astor, the owner of a small butcher's shop. When his mother died and his father married a second time, Johann Jacob moved to London, where, together with his older brother, he made musical instruments in his uncle's factory. The young man was keenly interested in the life of the American colonies and was eager to see the New World. Impressed by America, Johann asked everyone to call him in the American manner - John. By the end of the American Revolutionary War, Astor had amassed enough money to pay for the trip. True, it was only enough for a ticket: the future millionaire boarded the ship with only $ 25 in his pocket. During the trip, he managed to make friends with a German émigré who traded fur on the American continent. Astor learned that buying furs from hunters and Indians and reselling them to large traders was extremely profitable. John was firmly convinced that the fur trade was his life's work. This is how he earned his millionth capital. Incidentally, Astor was as knowledgeable about real estate as he was about furs. And one more curious fact: in 1999 in the ranking of the richest people in the entire history of America, John Astor took the fourth place - only John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and Cornelius Vanderbilt surpassed him.
Let's add to our list the famous Soviet statesman Maxim Litvinov, Swedish actor and director Moritz Stiller, Israeli writer Shmuel Agnon, and our writer and playwright Boris Lavrenev. The author of beautiful melodies for his favorite musical films and performances - Alexei Rybnikov was also born on July 17th. WELL AND DAY
Over the thousand-year history of Russia, anything has happened: some of its events evoke a feeling of great pride, others - no less bitterness. But if we talk about truly shameful events, then one of these was the entry of Polish troops into the Moscow Kremlin on the night of September 21, 1610.
This entry was not the result of a military defeat - that was the decision of the people who declared themselves the Russian government. This decision led to the actual loss of Russia's state sovereignty.
The Time of Troubles, which began in Russia with the suppression of the Rurik dynasty, reached its climax by 1610.
During the Time of Troubles, each of the members of the Semboyarshchyna managed to be noted in not the most plausible deeds and actions. The prospect of Russia's loss of state sovereignty frightened the government less than the possibility of losing property and the threat of uprisings by the “rabble”.
Mstislavsky and company knew very well that their own authority among the people was no higher than that of the deposed tsar. The people openly hated the elite, because of whose internal strife the country had come to such a disastrous state. Even False Dmitry II had more chances to enlist popular support than representatives of the Seven Boyars.
Russian throne for the Polish prince
The boyar government decided, in order to avoid internal strife, to abandon the search for a candidate for a new tsar among the Russians and invite a foreigner to the throne. The first candidate was eldest son of the Polish king Sigismund III Vladislav... At that time, the Polish prince was only 15 years old.
In August 1610, the Russian delegation entered into negotiations with the Poles. Sigismund III did not object to such an agreement and even agreed to the transfer of his son to Orthodoxy, since the boyars insisted on preserving the Orthodox faith in Russia.
The Polish king was ready to make any promises, rightly believing that in the current situation his promises to the Russians are worthless.
On August 17, 1610, an agreement on inviting Vladislav to the kingdom was concluded, and the Russian ambassadors confirmed their loyalty to the new ruler by kissing the cross. Then Muscovites and residents of other cities of the country were sworn in to the new tsar.
The very fact of Vladislav's possible accession to the throne did not provoke rejection from the Russians at first. It was assumed that it would be about an equal union of Poland and Russia, without an attempt to introduce Catholicism.
Under cover of the night
Sigismund had other plans. Delaying Vladislav's move to Russia, the Polish king hoped to obtain an oath from the Russians to himself, without burdening himself with any obligations, including those related to religion.
Representatives of the Semboyarshchyna were ready to accept any conditions that would allow them to receive military protection from False Dmitry II and the "rabble", dissatisfied with themselves.
Polish troops by this time were in the immediate vicinity of Moscow, in the Khoroshevsky meadows and in the Khodynskaya floodplain. Hero of the Battle of Klushin, hetman Stanislav Zholkevsky was ready to ensure Vladislav's accession to Moscow.
Surprisingly, hetman Zolkiewski, who became a hero of the war with Russia, was extremely skeptical about its prospects. The Hetman was against the introduction of a Polish garrison in Moscow, believing that such a decision would do more harm than good.
Nevertheless, an experienced military man was accustomed to following orders and therefore, having received an appropriate order from the king, on the night of September 21, 1610, entered the open gates of the Moscow Kremlin with a detachment.
From that moment on, a Polish-Lithuanian military garrison was located in the heart of Russia for two whole years. The importance of the government of the Russian boyars was minimized.
Polish triumph, Russian humiliation
Alexander Korvin Gonsevsky. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Zolkevsky himself did not stay in Moscow for long. Having placed a Polish-Lithuanian garrison in the city of several thousand people, he went to King Sigismund III, entrusting the command Alexander Gonsevsky.
Together with him, Zholkevsky took away "live trophies" - the deposed Tsar Vasily Shuisky and his brother Dmitry. The extradition of the Shuisky was one of the conditions of the agreement concluded by the Seven Boyars with Sigismund.
Zholkevsky left Moscow with relief. He believed that the intentions of Sigismund III to independently take the Russian throne, which became known to the hetman, were a real gamble, which would not end well for the Commonwealth.
Left in Moscow, Gonsevsky did not particularly care about the loyalty of the local population. As a result, the Polish-Lithuanian garrison began to trade in violence and plunder, which aroused the hatred of Muscovites towards the invaders. The Polish commandant suppressed the discontent by force, which further exacerbated the situation.
The government of Fyodor Mstislavsky did not interfere in these matters. The Seven Boyars hoped to wait for the appearance of the legitimate Tsar Vladislav in the capital, with whom the situation was supposed to begin to change for the better.
On October 29, 1611, the captive Vasily Shuisky was taken through the streets of Warsaw in an open cart, after which he was taken to the royal castle. There, the deposed Russian tsar publicly bowed to Sigismund III, declared himself defeated by the Commonwealth, kissed the king's hand and swore an oath of loyalty to him.
It was the moment of Poland's greatest triumph over Russia, and the moment of Russia's lowest decline in relations with Poland.
But the Polish triumph did not last long. The Russians, enraged by the actions of their own boyars and occupants from the Commonwealth, united in a militia, intending to throw the invaders and traitors out of the Kremlin. There was not long to wait ...
Its signing was preceded by the following events. On March 12, 1610, Russian troops solemnly entered Moscow under the leadership of a 24-year-old talented commander and diplomat M.V. Skopin-Shuisky, the tsar's nephew. There was a chance for a complete defeat of the supporters of the impostor, and then the liberation of the country's territory from the troops of Sigismund III. However, on the eve of the Russian troops' march, M.V. Skopin-Shuisky was poisoned on April 23, 1610 at a feast at Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Vorotynsky's and died two weeks later110. Instead, the talentless brother of the tsar Dmitry Shuisky was appointed to command the troops. Rumor attributes to his wife, Princess Catherine, daughter of Malyuta Skuratov, the poisoning of M.V. Skopin-Shuisky. On June 24, 1610, the Russians were utterly defeated by Polish detachments under the command of Hetman S. Zholkevsky near the village of Klushino near Mozhaisk. Thus, at the beginning of July 1610, the troops of Hetman S. Zholkevsky approached Moscow from the west, and the troops of False Dmitry II again approached from the south. In this situation, on July 17, 1610, through the efforts of Zakhary Lyapunov (brother of the rebellious Ryazan nobleman P. Lyapunov) and his supporters, Vasily Shuisky was dethroned and on July 19 forcibly tonsured a monk (in order to prevent him from becoming king in the future). Patriarch Hermogenes did not recognize this tonsure.
Power passed to the Boyar Duma, headed by the boyar F. Mstislavsky. The new provisional government was called "seven-boyars" (or "seven-numbered" boyars). The alignment of forces in the capital in July - August 1610 was as follows. Patriarch Hermogenes and his supporters opposed both the impostor and any foreigner on the Russian throne. Potential candidates for these forces were Prince V.V. Golitsyn or 14-year-old Mikhail Romanov, the son of Metropolitan Filaret (the former patriarch of Tushino). So, for the first time the name of M. Romanov sounded. Most of the boyars, headed by F. Mstislavsky, noblemen and merchants supported the invitation of the prince Vladislav. They, firstly, did not want to have any of the boyars as tsar, remembering the unsuccessful experience of the reign of Boris Godunov and Vasily Shuisky, secondly, they hoped to receive additional privileges and benefits from Vladislav, and thirdly, they feared ruin when the impostor took over. The urban lower classes sought to plant False Dmitry II on the throne. Considering that Moscow was actually under siege and there was neither the time nor the opportunity to convene the Zemsky Sobor, one had to choose from two real contenders who tried to seize the capital by force. For the boyars and nobles, Vladislav was the lesser "evil", so they agreed to recognize him as their king.
On August 17, 1610, the Moscow government signed a treaty with Hetman S. Zholkiewski on the terms of inviting the Polish prince Vladislav to the Russian throne. It was based on the text of the Treaty of February 4, 1610 with some additions and exceptions111. The most important thing in this document was that the powers of the Russian Tsar were limited to the Zemsky Sobor and the Boyar Duma. It is known that this project also failed to be realized. Sigismund III, under the pretext of anxiety in Russia, did not let his son go to Moscow. Hetman Gonsevsky ruled on his behalf in the capital.
