Russia is under siege. Part Three
The "Time of Troubles" was perhaps the blackest period in Russian history. All these fifteen or twenty years, if we still consider that it lasted from 1598 to 1618, in fact, the question was whether Russia would remain as an independent state or become a colonial outskirts of Poland, Sweden, and even, do not be surprised, England.
Over the years, the royal throne has been handed over by half a dozen timeservers. The country has experienced several invasions - from the west, north and south, the worst starvation, rampant banditry. At the same time, almost all this time it was in a state of civil war because of impostors who jumped out like devils from a snuffbox. A whole bunch of "Lieutenant Schmidt's children" who appeared out of nowhere alternately tried to claim Monomakh’s Cap. There were four false Dmitriys who pretended to be Ivan the Terrible's first-born son, who died under mysterious circumstances as an infant.
That's how we Russian people are, naive and believe in fairy tales. Many people took quite seriously the talk that Dmitry Ioannovich was actually hidden from the evil boyars, but now he has grown up and should take his rightful place on the throne.
I am sure that most people remember what happened during the "Great Troubles” at least from school textbooks, but I still allow myself to recall the main outline of events of those times – how the "Great Troubles" began and ended.
The "dogfight under a carpet", as Winston Churchill called the backstage palace and other political intrigues, began during the lifetime of Ivan IV. The boyars did not like the Tsar's desire to limit their privileges, and thus the possibility of self-enrichment at the expense of the state treasury.
In one of the Chronicles of the 17th century, it is written in black and white that "the Tsar was poisoned by his neighbours", who, according to the records of a certain deacon Ivan Timofeyev, "prematurely ended the life of the Tsar”. Again, a 1963 study of the remains of the royal family confirmed the presence of high levels of mercury in the bones of Grozny.
Just like that. It is not for nothing that it is said: Lord, protect me from my friends; I can take care of my enemies.
The legitimate heir of Ivan the Terrible - the last surviving son of the Tsar - Fyodor I Ioannovich, called the Blessed One, sat on the throne for only four years. Most likely, the boyars allowed him to be crowned, because he was very weak in character and did not pose any serious threat to them. There is a record of him by Ivan the Terrible himself, according to whom Fyodor was "a silent man, born more for the cell than for the power of the sovereign”.
But in the end, like his brothers and father, he died under very mysterious circumstances. He burned out in just a month and died suddenly in January 1598.
From here, the countdown of the "Great Troubles" begins. Fyodor Ioannovich died without leaving any descendants, and with his death the royal dynasty of the Ruriks on the Moscow throne ended.
Boris Godunov finally bided his time and in 1598 he was placed on the throne. What he had fought for became his undoing, because there was nothing special to rejoice at - the regicide inherited a dilapidated country in complete chaos.
No state can exist without a strong supreme power, which its enemies immediately took advantage of. In Europe, there were immediately vultures who wanted to grab pieces of Russian land, and, if possible, get their hands on its entire territory. Well, and then everything is according to the textbook.
The first, not surprisingly, were the Poles, who dreamed of creating a great power of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, who first decided to organise what is now called a "proxy war". To do this, they dragged False Dmitry out into the light of day under the first ordinal number. With the support of the Polish King Sigismund III, in 1604, he put together a relatively small army of mercenaries numbering five thousand people and went to capture Moscow. Many cities on the path of the impostor supported him and surrendered without a fight, and the army of the Moscow voivode Fyodor Mstislavsky was defeated in the battle of Novgorod-Seversky.
When the detachment of False Dmitry was already near Moscow, Boris Godunov unexpectedly died. He was only 53 years old. (Boris Godunov's legal heir, 16-year-old Fyodor Borisovich, was killed earlier along with his mother.) As a result, on June 20, 1605, according to the old style, False Dmitry solemnly entered Moscow and on July 30 he was crowned. But he didn't last long there – he was also killed soon enough. And the royal sceptre was given to Vasily Shuisky.
Meanwhile, the Poles in alliance with the Lithuanians, not reconciling with the failure of the adventure "False Dmitry No. 1", two years later already openly went to Russia with a new war, which lasted nine years.
Polish-Lithuanian detachments behaved like notorious bandits in Russia. Looting, violence, mass murder of civilians - today it is called terrorism and genocide. For example, such a tragic episode is known - on March 17, 1611, the Polish garrison staged a massacre in Moscow, as a result of which 7,000 people died in Kitay-Gorod alone.
Our southern neighbours did not doze off either. In the same year, 1607, the Crimean Tatars crossed the Oka River for the first time in a long time. They did not intend to seize power in Muscovy, but they ravaged the central Russian regions very thoroughly and managed to reach all the way to Ryazan.
So the tsarist troops had to fight on several fronts at once. Vasily Shuisky was even forced to conclude an agreement with the long-standing Russian enemy Sweden, according to which, in exchange for military assistance, the strategically important fortress "Kukushkin Island" (Korela) on the Karelian Isthmus, along with the entire county, was transferred to it.
In accordance with the treaty, the Swedish King Charles IX sent a 15,000-strong mercenary detachment to Russia, which, by the way, included German infantrymen. However, they behaved extremely despicably. During one of the decisive battles – the "Battle of Klushino" on July 4, 1610, German mercenaries went over to the side of the Poles, ensuring their victory. Thus, their troops opened the way to Moscow.
Considerable confusion in the country was caused by the appearance in 1607 of False Dmitry under the second ordinal number. And again the same story was repeated – many believed in him and some Russian cities swore allegiance to him.
Meanwhile, another coup is taking place in the Kremlin, as a result of which Vasily Shuisky was overthrown. A council of seven boyars came to power, and therefore this period is called the "Seven Boyars". The new government decided that the Poles were a lesser evil than another impostor, and agreed with them that the Polish tsarevich Vladislav would be invited to the Moscow throne. And for this purpose, on the night of September 20-21, 1610, Polish-Lithuanian troops were allowed into the capital.
"The people are silent" - this classic Pushkin phrase from the tragedy "Boris Godunov" is only partially true. Russian people are indeed very patient, but sooner or later they also run out of patience, and then what the same Aleksandr Sergeyevich called the Russian revolt begins - "senseless and merciless”.
Riots really broke out all over the country, which soon began to develop into uprisings. The most powerful of them in the south was headed by Ivan Bolotnikov, the former "chief voivode" in the army of the first False Dmitry. The rebels even managed to reach the capital at first, the siege of which lasted as much as five weeks. But in the decisive battle of Kolomenskoye in December 1606, Bolotnikov's army was still defeated.
A significant part of Russia did not want to recognise the catholic king's son as Tsar. Rebel groups appeared in the country, which are usually called, as we remember from textbooks, the home guard.
The First home guard was led by the Ryazan nobleman Prokopy Lyapunov, who was joined by former supporters of False Dmitry II. In the spring of 1611, his detachment managed to get close to the Kremlin and liberate Bely Gorod, Zemlyanoy Gorod, and even part of Kitay Gorod. The army was led by a certain "provisional government", which was called the "Council of the Whole Land". But there was no agreement among the comrades, and during a dispute at one of the military councils Lyapunov was killed.
I'm sure everyone knows what happened next, because on November 4, we celebrate National Unity Day in honour of the liberation of Moscow from the Poles by the Second home guard led by Minin and Pozharsky in 1612. The exodus of the invaders was preceded by a long siege of the capital, which lasted for several months. In the annals of those times, this description is preserved: "The sitting was so cruel in Moscow that not only dogs and cats were eaten, but also Russian people were killed. And not only did they kill and eat Russian people, but they also killed and ate each other." Believe it or not.
In the narrative of those years, the word “siege" is very often found. Some of them lasted for many months. In this regard, I can not help but notice: haste is necessary, as is said, only when catching fleas, but in military affairs it is unacceptable. And, as history shows, blitzkriegs rarely end in victory. As a few centuries later, for example, Hitler's Barbarossa plan failed, according to which the USSR was supposed to be conquered in four months. I am writing this for those who complain that the current "military special military operation" in Ukraine is going too slowly.
Human lives are more precious than quick success, no matter how much one wants it. And I also hope that the nazi rats entrenched in the “Azovstal” dungeons did not descend to cannibalism, although everything can be expected from these inhumans who offered to exchange women and children for food.
After the capture of Moscow in early November 1612, the first thing that arose was the question of electing a new sovereign, for which a Zemsky Sobor was convened, to which 7 representatives from all Russian cities were invited. It was held in January 1613. As a result, the choice was made on the son of Patriarch Filaret Mikhail Fyodorovich, who became the first Romanov on the Russian throne. I may be wrong, but I don't remember that anywhere else in the world the head of state was elected like this in those days "by the whole world" or, as they would say now, democratically.
However, even after the election of the Tsar, Russia did not become calmer. By this time, a significant part of the Russian land was still the scene of military operations.
The Crimean Tatars, without encountering resistance, ruled in the south and in the central parts of the Russian land.
The Polish-Lithuanian troops were also in no hurry to leave.
And the Swedes, who were already tired, apparently, of the role of "good Samaritans", ravaged the northern Russian cities and captured Veliky Novgorod.
The war with its northern neighbour ended only in 1617 with the signing of the so-called Stolbovo Peace Treaty, which was extremely unprofitable for Russia, under the terms of which the country lost access to the Baltic Sea, but, however, it regained Veliky Novgorod and several other cities.
And the severity of the Polish issue was only temporarily muted in 1618, when Russia had to sign the equally disgusting "Truce of Deulino", which recognised all the conquests of Poland during the Troubles, but at the same time peace was established between the countries for 14.5 years. (And don't ask why it's 14.5 instead of 15, say. Haggling like at a market!)
The signing of this truce, as it is believed, finally put an end to the "Great Trouble”. But in fact, it could have been much worse. The fact is that this term "troubled times" also refers to what happened in those years in Europe, which was swept by a wave of uprisings and riots. And in the two leading countries, there were changes of dynasties. In France, the Bourbons were crowned; in England, the Stuarts rose to power. Old states collapsed, new ones were formed. So they were simply too busy for Rus.
But not completely. In those years, the British, who had settled in Russian cities since the time of Ivan the Terrible, were quite active in Russia. Their merchants arbitrarily created trading posts in the provinces, mercenaries (English, Scots, Irish) fought in the troops of False Dmitry and Shuisky. So they were well aware of the rich potential of the Russian land. And in London, several projects appeared at once, offering the English monarch James I to become... the Russian Tsar.
One of them, the English captain Thomas Chamberlain (oh, these Chamberlains, how many nasty things this name has done to Russia), served as a mercenary in the troops of Vasily Shuisky. After returning to England, in 1612, he wrote a draft of intervention in the Russian North and presented it to the King.
"If His Majesty received an offer of sovereignty over that part of Muscovy, which is located between Arkhangelsk and the Volga, and over the waterway along this river to the Caspian or Persian Sea, or at least a protectorate over it and complete freedom for English trade, it would be would be the happiest offer ever made for our state, since Columbus offered Henry VII the discovery of the West Indies for him,” Chamberlain wrote floridly, claiming that these ideas of his received the support of part of the Moscow nobility. To implement his plan, he proposed to send an army and fleet to Russia.
Similar proposals were made by the project of the French Captain Margeret, also a former mercenary in the tsarist army, and part-time spy of the English envoy to Russia, John Merrick. He did not like the Poles, and therefore sent a letter to the English king, in which he called for the implementation of a "holy and profitable enterprise" - to destroy the plans of the Polish king, and for this to send three thousand troops to Russia.
"If Your Majesty does not wish to conquer the territory completely, then you can conclude an agreement that suits you, even choose a ruler of Russia who pleases you and on your terms," the Frenchman said. There were other similar proposals that were discovered in the British Museum at the beginning of the 20th century.
These "projects" vividly interested James I, who in the spring of 1613, contrary to the opinion of the Privy Council, sent his envoys to Muscovy in order to reconnoiter the situation and offer the boyars and nobles an English protectorate. But already on the arrival of the ship in Arkhangelsk in June 1613, the envoys learned that Mikhail Romanov had been crowned in Moscow. They had no choice but to make a good face at a bad game and send their king's congratulations to the new king.
Summing up this "black period" in Russian history, we have to admit that it led to huge territorial losses for Russia. Under the infidels/aliens control over Smolensk went away for many decades. The Swedes seized a significant part of Karelia.
The Time of Troubles led to a deep economic decline. In many counties of the historical centre of the state, the size of arable land decreased by 20-fold, and the number of peasants quadrupled. The population also declined, which in some areas, even by 1640, was still below the level of the 16th century.
But at the same time, the Russians continued to develop Siberia and founded Arkhangelsk, Tobolsk, Tsaritsyn, Tyumen, Saratov, Stary Oskol, and Voronezh. The Moscow Patriarchate was established under the leadership of the first Patriarch Job. And the Tsar Cannon was cast, which still stands in the Kremlin today as a symbol of the skill of Russian foundry workers. It was never fired, by the way.
And most importantly, Russia managed to preserve its statehood and even strengthen it, thanks to the election of Mikhail Romanov.
Apparently, our gene contains some kind of Phoenix-like ability to regenerate and purify itself. A little later, Russia repaid the Poles, Swedes, and Crimean Tatars in full for the insults of those years, and, thanks to the Romanov dynasty, the "golden age" of Russia began. But more on that in the next comment.