Shuisky and the impostor from the political field, and then the whole world choose a new tsar? In Moscow, the nobles really overthrow Basil the Fourth, forcibly shear the tsar into a monk and wait for retaliation from those close to False Dmitry. But they are in no hurry to fulfill this promise. After all, their positions are being remarkably strengthened. In order to fill the vacuum of power, the Seven Boyars elected the king of the Polish prince Vladislav Vaza, the eldest son of Sigismund III. Russian society is sharply polarized. The humiliated and insulted poor people, Cossacks and (Ukrainian) Cossacks, flock to False Dmitry, driven to Kaluga. The entourage of Vladislav Vaza, more precisely, his representatives in Russia, are replenished by nobles.
Outside the hierarchy, too homogeneous masses of the people come under the power of instincts. The concept of justice, as such, ceases to exist. The wheel of terror spins towards all suspicious persons. Moreover, False Dmitry expects to call on the Crimean and Nogai (Astrakhan) Tatars who are already moving to Central Russia to march on Moscow, in order to immediately improve all their affairs. But, his plans are not destined to come true. In revenge for one of the victims of the terror, the impostor is killed by his own bodyguard.
Vasily the Fourth (Shuisky), 1552—1612, the last representative of the Rurikids on the throne. According to the testimony of contemporaries, in life he is not so good-looking. The tsar dies in Polish captivity at the same time as his brother Dmitry, also a prisoner and heir.
So, Vasily Shuisky is forcibly tonsured into a monk. Together with two brothers, he is kept in a castle near Warsaw. The former monarch has no children of his own. The three-year-old son of Maria Mnishek, Ivan, can claim the throne. Still, the prince is still too young. Tsar Vladislav is not popular among the people. In addition, he does not risk personally leaving Poland for Moscow and seems to be cooling off to the idea of becoming the ruler of Russia. The soil for the emergence of the third False Dmitry is still fertile.
And the impostor is declared, in January 1611, in Ivangorod besieged by the Swedes (150 kilometers west of the place where St. Petersburg will be). False Dmitry III manages to gather a militia in Pskov and even drive off the conquerors. However, having come to power, the impostor hesitates to advance to Moscow. He embarks on a dissolute life, commits violence and imperceptibly loses popularity. The conspirators removed the Cossacks loyal to him from Pskov, ostensibly to fight the Swedes who besieged the suburbs. False Dmitry senses something is wrong and tries to escape. They catch him, put him in a cage and take him to Moscow. The impostor is killed on the way or executed in the capital.
Moscow, meanwhile, is occupied by the Poles. After all, nominally the king is fifteen-year-old Vladislav Vaza. He is elected but not crowned. Patriarch Hermogenes (number one), initially loyal to the foreign ruler, realizing the plans of the gentry, frees the people from the oath. Hermogenes’ letters resonate primarily in Ryazan, where the people’s militia is already being formed. The Poles send Cossacks of Little Russia to destroy the Ryazan cities. One part of the registry perishes, the other takes the side of the people. Meanwhile, Nizhny Novgorod is also rising to the fight. In mid-March 1611, two militias unite near Moscow. There are a hundred thousand of them in total. The occupation forces number 5,000 Poles and 2,000 Germans. They carry out repressions in the city, set fire to houses in order to cope with the indignant people even before the start of the assault. Fire and steel kill seven thousand townspeople. Boyars and slaves dependent on them are in alliance with the Poles.
The militia does not dare to storm the white-stone walls. It creates its own Zemsky Sobor and a system of state power. However, between the two forces – the nobility, seeking to restore serfdom and the Cossacks, who want to keep their liberties, discord arises. The Poles use this. Their forged letters indicate that the Ryazan leader of the Lyapunov militia is determined to destroy the Cossacks. The Cossacks summon Lyapunov «to the circle», where they kill without trial or trial. As a result, most of the nobles leave the camp. Dying in the dungeon of the Chudov Monastery, Patriarch Hermogenes calls on the people to no longer obey the governors of the Moscow region D. Trubetskoy and I. Zarutsky. However, the archimandrite of the influential Trinity-Sergius Monastery, Dionysius, advocates rallying under their leadership. A large Cossack detachment remains at the siege of Moscow until the middle of the summer of 1612. When the units of the Second Militia approach, it leaves for Astrakhan and does not participate in further hostilities with the interventionists. Zarutsky has an important trump card – Marina Mnishek with the son of False Dmitry II. The ataman wishes to use it for his own purposes. At the walls of the capital, Trubetskoy’s forces remain, who were not directly involved in the murder of Lyapunov.
…The Second Militia is gathering in Nizhny Novgorod. It is based on the alliance of the representative of the nobility – Prince Pozharsky and the peasantry – the head Minin. A public treasury is created from voluntary donations. She generously pays for the help of experienced service people. In September 1612, after the deposition of False Dmitry III, it was possible to recapture the supply train for the besieged. Part of Moscow and Kitai-Gorod were freed from the gentry. What remains is the Kremlin, within whose walls Poles and Russian boyar families are already practicing cannibalism everywhere. By placing a regiment at its walls, Pozharsky protects the boyars and one of the two Polish detachments from lynching the surrendering prisoners. The second formation of the Polish-Lithuanian garrison falls into the possession of Trubetskoy’s Cossacks and completely perishes. The troops of Minin and Pozharsky enter the Kremlin on November 6, 1612. A solemn prayer service is held at the Execution Ground. The new Polish army, halfway to Moscow, stops at Volokolamsk.
Mikhail Fedorovich, 1596—1645, the first monarch from the Romanov dynasty. He dies, as a contemporary testifies, from melancholy, «that is, torpor» and «a lot of sitting.» The four children he earned in marriage with his unloved, or at least not chosen by him Evdokia Streshneva, continue the dynasty.
In January 1613, an all-estate meeting, the Zemsky Sobor, was convened. The goal is to elect a new king. Among the applicants are Pozharsky, Trubetskoy, the Swedish prince Karl Philip, Vladislav Vaza and Ivan, the son of Maria Mnishek. The fate of this child is sad. In 1615, he was transported from Astrakhan to the capital, where he was executed along with the ataman Zarutsky.
The election is won by the son of Patriarch Filaret, Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov. Patriarchs are not supposed to have children, but Fyodor Romanov and his wife Xenia did not always have a monastic rank. They had to go to a monastery under Boris Godunov, but by that time they already had a son, Mikhail. In 1611, Filaret became the «named» patriarch in the Tushino camp, in parallel with Hermogenes staying in Moscow. Then the Poles take him to Poland, but there he also finds ways to communicate with the Zemsky Sobor.
So, to Mikhail Fedorovich and his mother, who are hiding from the persecution of the Poles in the Ipatiev Monastery (Kostroma), the embassy of the Zemsky Cathedral arrives and reports important news. The young man becomes the first king of the Romanov dynasty.
Three years later, Polish troops, together with the Cossacks of the gentry Pyotr Konashevich (Sagaidachny), are trying to restore Vladislav Vaza to the rights of king, storm Moscow, but unsuccessfully. Nevertheless, according to the Treaty of Deulina, concluded in 1618, Russia is losing 26 cities. Among them are Smolensk, Chernigov and Putivl, together with the population, except for the clergy and nobility, who are allowed to move to the Russian lands.
Alexei Mikhailovich (1629—1676), tsar, father of Peter the Great. A monarch of a good-natured disposition, peacefully combining Russian and Western orders, keen on astrology and European music, the founder of the «new order» regiments –
