How liberated Moscow from Polish cannibals
Interestingly, when the Minin and Pozharsky people's militia liberated Moscow from foreign invaders, it turned out that Polish and other invaders, blocked in the Kremlin and deprived of food supplies, began not only to eat each other, but also salt some “corned beef” in large vats and barrels . These "supplies" were found after the liberation of the Kremlin. Degenerative scum, encroaching on Russian wealth, put an end to them as befits.
Capitulation of the poles
The defeat of Chodkiewicz (As the Polish army of hetman Khodkevich suffered a defeat near Moscow) did not rallied the militia, on the contrary, quarrels continued. Boyar Trubetskoy saw himself as the leader of the militia and demanded obedience from Minin and Pozharsky. In his opinion, they should have come to him in the camp for orders. After all, Pozharsky was not a Tushino "migratory" boyar, and so he remained a steward. However, Minin and Pozharsky were not going to obey the rogue.
There was no unity among the militia. Cossacks shouted that they were hungry, stripped and undressed, that it was time to leave Moscow and go to “walk” around the northern Russian cities, rewarding themselves for siege deprivation. And near Moscow, let the rich nobles remain. Minin and Pozharsky would not mind if the Cossacks had gone home, but could not allow them to continue to "walk" around Russia. Taking advantage of the conflict between Trubetskoy and Pozharsky, certain commanders acted autonomously and did not obey anyone.
With the mediation of Trinity archimandrite Dionysius, the conflict was managed to be extinguished. The Cossacks promised the monks to endure everything, but not to leave Moscow. In the area of the Cannon Yard, in the Egoryevsky Monastery and near the Church of All Saints on Kulishki, siege batteries were erected, which opened round-the-clock fire with hot-hot cores and mortars on the Kremlin and China – the city. From the hot cores began a strong fire, burning courtyard of Prince Mstislavsky. Poles with great difficulty managed to extinguish the fire. Pozharsky and Trubetskoy agreed to partition the Zamoskvoretsky Peninsula with a deep moat and palisade from one side of the Moscow River to the other, in order to exclude the possibility of bringing food to the enemy garrison. Both governors, replacing each other, followed the work.
September 15 Pozharsky sent a letter to the Kremlin, offering honorable surrender: “Prince Dmitry Pozharsky beats the colonels and all the knights, Germans, Cherkas and haidus who sit in the Kremlin. It is known to us that you, being in a city under siege, endure immeasurable hunger and suffer great need, waiting from day to day for your death, and Nikolai Strus, and the Muscovite state strengthens you and traitors. Fedka Andronov and his comrades who are sitting with you for their abdomen (this word means life in Russia is the Author) ... Don't expect the getman another time: the Cherkasy who were with him left him and went to Lithuania. The hetman himself went to Smolensk, where there are no people who have arrived, the Sapezhinsky army is all in Poland ... Send us without delay, save your heads and your stomachs intact, and I will take for your soul and ask all the war men We will let go of our land without any clue, and those who want to serve the Moscow State will be honored ... And what they tell you is that Strus and Moscow traitors do that we have disagreement with the Cossacks and many leave us, it’s natural for them to sing such a song and teach the languages to say it, and you are ashamed the bottom you sat with them. You yourself are well aware that a lot of people are coming to us and even more of them promise to arrive soon ... And even if we were at odds with the Cossacks, then we have strength against them and they are enough to stand against them. ” .
September 21 Poles responded in an offensive tone. In fact, the proud nobles strongly starved and have already crossed the line separating a person from a reasonable animal. They ate not only carrion and corpses, but they killed and ate prisoners, townspeople, and even each other. As one of the Polish commanders, Colonel Osip Budila, wrote: “... there is no news in any stories that anyone under siege suffers such hunger that there is such a hunger anywhere, because when this hunger came and when it became grass, roots, mice, dogs, cats, fell, then the besieged ate prisoners, ate dead bodies, pulling them out of the ground: the infantry ate and ate others, catching people. The infantry lieutenant Truskovsky ate his two sons; one haiduk ate his son too, another ate his mother; one comrade ate his servant; in a word, the father of a son, the son of a father, did not spare; the lord was not sure of the servant, the servant of the lord; whoever could, who was healthier than the other, he ate. A deceased relative or comrade, if someone else ate such, was tried as an inheritance, and argued that the nearest relative should have eaten it, and not to anyone else. Such a court case happened in the platoon of the city of Lenitsky, from whom the haidus ate the dead haiduk of their platoon. A relative of the deceased — a haiduk from another ten — complained about this before the captain’s head and argued that he had more right to eat him as a relative; but they objected that they had the right to do so, because he was with them in the same row, ranks and in the top ten. The captain did not know what the sentence should be made of and, fearing that the disgruntled party would not eat the judge himself, he fled from the court. ”
The Polish king was unable to assist the besieged garrison. The long “seat” near Smolensk was a strategic mistake of the Polish leadership. Almost all the forces and means of the Commonwealth were spent on a long siege and storming of the Russian fortress. In the fall of 1612, the Polish king tried to help the Kremlin garrison, but again he had no money. Polish gentry did not pay for the summer months and they went home without thinking about their comrades in Moscow. As a result, Sigismund had to go on a campaign only with a detachment of foreign mercenaries and hussars from his guard. The king moved from Smolensk to Moscow through the so-called. King's Gate. However, in front of the king, the gate broke off its hinges and blocked the road to the detachment. The Poles had to get out of the city in another way. Dear Sigismund was joined by Adam Zolkiewski, the hetman's nephew, with his personal squad of 1200 fighters. The Poles arrived in Vyazma at the very end of October 1612. But by this moment the dragged out drama in Moscow had already come to an end.
By order of Prince Pozharsky, a large siege battery was arranged at the Cannon Yard, which since September 24 opened heavy fire on the Kremlin. October 3 opened fire siege battery, built by the First Militia at the Nikolsky Gate. On October 21, the Poles offered the Russians to begin negotiations and sent Colonel Budil to Pozharsky. Negotiations dragged on. Polish knighthood demanded honorable surrender, passes from the Kremlin with weapons, stolen good, and so on. But Pozharsky now wanted unconditional surrender.
The Cossacks learned about the negotiations and decided that they want to deprive them of legitimate loot. October 22 without the permission of the chief commanders of the Cossacks attacked the walls of China-town. The Poles did not expect an attack, moreover, they were exhausted by hunger. The Cossacks broke into China Town and knocked the Poles out of it. Among the dead were notable gentlemen Seradsky, Bykovsky, Tvarzhinsky and others. Such a quick loss of China-town somewhat discouraged a proud enemy. They again requested negotiations. Now negotiations were conducted near the Kremlin wall. The Polish garrison was represented by Colonel Strus, and the Moscow battle, which was seated in the Kremlin, was represented by Prince Mstislavsky, the militia was represented by the princes Pozharsky and Trubetskoy. At the beginning of the negotiations, the former head of the Boyar Duma, Mstislavsky, repented and was the brow of the “whole earth,” Pozharsky and Trubetskoy. At the beginning, the Poles asked permission for all Russian women to leave the Kremlin. Russian voivode agreed.
After three days of talks, the leaders of the militia and the boyars government concluded an agreement and sealed him with an oath. The boyars received a guarantee that their ancestral ancestral lands would not be touched. Having made a concession to the Moscow boyars, the leaders of the militia achieved a political concession on the part of the boyar government (the seven-boyars). The Boyar Duma (the highest legislative body) agreed to liquidate the oath to Vladislav and break off all relations with the Polish monarch. As a result, the Zemstvo leaders, by default, accepted the lie that “Lithuania” kept the boyars in captivity during the siege of Moscow.
It is worth noting that in the years of the Troubles, the Boyar Duma completely compromised itself, the Moscow boyars were smeared with mud and blood. Boyar "elite" actually itself arranged the Troubles, in the course of their intrigues and squabble for power, plunging Russia into chaos. Boyars consistently destroyed the genus of the Godunovs (before this they destroyed the heirs of Ivan the Terrible); they called and killed the "legitimate king" of the False Dmitry; put on the throne of Shuisky, then rushed between him and the second impostor (Tushinsky thief); part of the boyars recognized the rights to the throne of the Polish prince Vladislav, Vasily Shuisky overthrew and forcibly identified as monks. Seven Boyars already went to direct betrayal, letting the Poles to Moscow, and proclaiming the Polish prince Vladislav the Russian tsar. And this was done against the will of Patriarch Hermogenes. Yes, and in the martyrdom of Hermogenes, the Russian boyars are more to blame than the Polish gentry. In addition, by the year 1612, there were practically no boyars left in Russia, who were awarded the rank of Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible. Boris Godunov gave the boyars to someone, Lzhedmitry to someone, Vasily Shuisky to someone, Tushinsky thief to others.
In fact, Minin and Pozharsky made a strategic mistake. It was necessary to put the "whole land" on the throne of Pozharsky already in Yaroslavl, as they wanted. Then the “politics” began, in which the boyars, who started the Troubles, drowning the Russian land in blood and nearly destroying it, were masters and outplayed the militia leaders. Not only were they not punished, although for their sins they needed to be hung up or impaled (and repeatedly), but they retained the position of the masters of Russia, the land, they chose a weak king, Romanov, and from the clan who was also guilty of the Troubles, therefore could not punish the same criminals. Not surprisingly, under Mikhail Romanov, a very mediocre man, his mother and her relatives ruled, then the father — Patriarch Filaret (the Great Sovereign) and all living representatives of the treacherous boyar government — the Seven Boyars — held leading posts in the State.
Pozharsky and Minin, recognizing the boyars as "captives of the Poles" made a fatal mistake. Behind them was the Truth, the support of the people, the leading force - the Zemstvo army of the majority of Russian lands. The boyars sitting in Moscow no longer had squads. The Poles suffered a decisive defeat and could not immediately resume the war on the same scale. Pozharsky and Trubetskoy themselves rescued and rehabilitated the boyars, returned their estates, left behind them all the wealth, that is, they did not even make them pay a ransom for the crimes. Apparently, the point would be that Minin and Pozharsky did not want to "stir up the water", to continue the struggle and shed blood. The civil war had to stop.
Then it was already a "matter of technology". Within a few months, having regained power in the ancestral lands, having restored the personal detachments, the boyars became the leading force in Moscow, pushing through the acceptable candidates. But Pozharsky did not want to conflict, moreover, he let the majority of the noble detachments go home. Thus, the boyars clans and the Romanovs, a clan that was one of the leading organizers of the Troubles, which almost destroyed the Russian state and claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, began to rule the country. That turned out to be very dark story. Especially if the fate and connections of the boyars with the West. Later, the historians of the Romanovs will try to whiten it, trying to show mostly heroic pages - such as the defense of Smolensk, the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, the partisan movement, and keeping silent about other impartial pages or even distorting them.
Prince Pozharsky could bring the boyars to trial, deprive the boyars and patrimonies, could execute, power and the Truth was behind him. Their lands and other property could be distributed to noblemen, Cossacks and local people. So Pozharsky could become the leader of the Cossacks. And anyone who would have regretted the boyars-traitors and would have resisted the confiscation of their property could be subjected to repression. The Cossacks gladly "walked" at the expense of traitors. The first militia (in fact, the Cossacks) would have passed under the arm of Pozharsky. It is clear who would be elected king in this case. Pozharsky could simply close his eyes to how the Cossacks compensate for the damage at the expense of the boyars and punish traitors. The consequences would be the same. However, he did not do this, so the boyars would soon quickly take first places in the big Moscow game and push aside the honest and brave warrior, not to mention the common man Minin, to the side.
On October 26 (November 3), the Trinity Gates of the Kremlin opened, and boyars and other Muscovites, who were under siege with the Poles, came to the Stone Bridge. Ahead of the procession went Fyodor Ivanovich Mstislavsky, behind him Ivan Vorotynsky, Ivan Romanov with his nephew Mikhail and his mother Marfa. The Cossacks attempted to attack the traitors, at least for the purpose of robbery, but Pozharsky and the noblemen by force of arms protected the boyars and forced the Cossacks to go to their camp. But a few strokes of the Cossack sabers could radically change the history of Russia.
October 27 (November 4) from the Spassky Gate of the Kremlin came the procession of the clergy, who was under siege with the Poles. Ahead went the "black cardinal" of the Time of Troubles - the tough metropolitan Paphnutius. Behind him, the Archangel Archbishop Arseny and the Kremlin clergy. The churchmen, apparently waiting for the massacre of the boyars, went separately. On the same day, the Polish garrison surrendered. Kuzma Minin accepted the surrender. Part of the prisoners led by Colonel Strussem were given to Trubetskoy, and the rest with Colonel Budila to the second militia. The Cossacks killed most of the Poles they got. The Poles who survived Pozharsky and Trubetskoy were sent around the cities: to Nizhny Novgorod, Balakhna, Galich, Yaroslavl and others. The Poles committed so many atrocities and unholy cases on the Russian land that the authorities in Russian cities did not always manage to protect captured enemies from the mob of the citizens. Thus, in Galicia, a mob interrupted prisoners from the Budila company. The same thing happened with the Stravinsky company in Unzha. Polish officers led by Budila were taken to Nizhny Novgorod in December. The local authorities wanted to drown all enemies in the Volga, but they were saved by the intercession of Pozharsky's mother.
Having entered the Kremlin, the warriors of Pozharsky and the Cossacks Trubetskoy were horrified. All churches were looted and polluted, almost all wooden buildings were broken down into wood and burned. In large vats and barrels they found cut and salted human bodies. Poles and other foreigners have prepared a "stock" for the winter. Nevertheless, in the Assumption Cathedral served the mass and prayer. Immediately began cleaning and restoring the Kremlin and the entire capital. Trubetskoy settled in the Kremlin in the Palace of Godunov, Pozharsky - on Arbat in the Vozdvizhensky monastery. Moscow boyars for some time dispersed in their fiefdoms. Mikhail Romanov and his mother went to their patrimony - the village of Domnino, Kostroma district.
The Polish king Sigismund in Vyazma learned about the surrender of the garrison in Moscow. There the royal squad joined the warriors of Hetman Chodkiewicz and together went to the town of Pogorely Gorodishche. The local governor, Prince Yuri Shakhovsky, responded to the king with the demand for surrender: “Go to Moscow. Moscow will be yours and we are yours. ” The king led the troops on. The main forces of the Poles laid siege to Volokolamsk, and the Zolkiewski detachment moved to Moscow. Zolkiewski reached the village of Vagankovo, where Russians attacked him. The Poles were defeated and fled. In battle, the soldiers of Zolkiewski seized the Smolensk nobleman Ivan Filosofov. The Poles asked him if Muscovites King Vladislav were still in the kingdom, whether Moscow was full of people and whether there were a lot of supplies there. Ivan replied that Moscow was “full of people and bread,” and everyone was ready to die for the Orthodox faith, and they would not take the kingdom to the kingdom. The same was said by the brave nobleman and the Polish king.
Having lost hope of seizing Moscow, Sigismund decided at least to take Volokolamsk, which was defended by the governors Ivan Karamyshev and Chemesov. The Poles went to storm the fortress three times, but they were repelled. After the third assault, the Cossacks from the garrison went on a sortie under the command of atamans Nelyub Markov and Ivan Yepanchin. The Cossacks managed to inflict great damage to the enemy and repel several guns. Sigismund gave the order to return to Poland. On the way, many died of hunger and cold.
The struggle for the Russian throne continued. No one denies the leadership talent of Dmitry Pozharsky, his brilliant abilities as a statesman. But after the liberation of the capital from the Poles, its influence gradually fell. Apparently, the Russian commander made two major mistakes. First, as previously noted, gave the traitor boyars not only to get away from the water, but also to preserve wealth and influence. Their betrayal by default was forgotten. Secondly, I could not retain a military advantage, the noble squads from the Second Militia. And then the time was such that for whom the biggest battalion is right. As a result, the Tushino Cossacks, who were bribed and easily deceived, under the pressure of brute force, succeeded in dragging Mikhail Romanov to the throne.
Later, they came up with the myth that supposedly the prince-servant (the savior of Russia, the people, and even Prince Rurikovich!), In the simplicity of his soul he took and refused the throne!
Capitulation of the poles
The defeat of Chodkiewicz (As the Polish army of hetman Khodkevich suffered a defeat near Moscow) did not rallied the militia, on the contrary, quarrels continued. Boyar Trubetskoy saw himself as the leader of the militia and demanded obedience from Minin and Pozharsky. In his opinion, they should have come to him in the camp for orders. After all, Pozharsky was not a Tushino "migratory" boyar, and so he remained a steward. However, Minin and Pozharsky were not going to obey the rogue.
There was no unity among the militia. Cossacks shouted that they were hungry, stripped and undressed, that it was time to leave Moscow and go to “walk” around the northern Russian cities, rewarding themselves for siege deprivation. And near Moscow, let the rich nobles remain. Minin and Pozharsky would not mind if the Cossacks had gone home, but could not allow them to continue to "walk" around Russia. Taking advantage of the conflict between Trubetskoy and Pozharsky, certain commanders acted autonomously and did not obey anyone.
With the mediation of Trinity archimandrite Dionysius, the conflict was managed to be extinguished. The Cossacks promised the monks to endure everything, but not to leave Moscow. In the area of the Cannon Yard, in the Egoryevsky Monastery and near the Church of All Saints on Kulishki, siege batteries were erected, which opened round-the-clock fire with hot-hot cores and mortars on the Kremlin and China – the city. From the hot cores began a strong fire, burning courtyard of Prince Mstislavsky. Poles with great difficulty managed to extinguish the fire. Pozharsky and Trubetskoy agreed to partition the Zamoskvoretsky Peninsula with a deep moat and palisade from one side of the Moscow River to the other, in order to exclude the possibility of bringing food to the enemy garrison. Both governors, replacing each other, followed the work.
September 15 Pozharsky sent a letter to the Kremlin, offering honorable surrender: “Prince Dmitry Pozharsky beats the colonels and all the knights, Germans, Cherkas and haidus who sit in the Kremlin. It is known to us that you, being in a city under siege, endure immeasurable hunger and suffer great need, waiting from day to day for your death, and Nikolai Strus, and the Muscovite state strengthens you and traitors. Fedka Andronov and his comrades who are sitting with you for their abdomen (this word means life in Russia is the Author) ... Don't expect the getman another time: the Cherkasy who were with him left him and went to Lithuania. The hetman himself went to Smolensk, where there are no people who have arrived, the Sapezhinsky army is all in Poland ... Send us without delay, save your heads and your stomachs intact, and I will take for your soul and ask all the war men We will let go of our land without any clue, and those who want to serve the Moscow State will be honored ... And what they tell you is that Strus and Moscow traitors do that we have disagreement with the Cossacks and many leave us, it’s natural for them to sing such a song and teach the languages to say it, and you are ashamed the bottom you sat with them. You yourself are well aware that a lot of people are coming to us and even more of them promise to arrive soon ... And even if we were at odds with the Cossacks, then we have strength against them and they are enough to stand against them. ” .
September 21 Poles responded in an offensive tone. In fact, the proud nobles strongly starved and have already crossed the line separating a person from a reasonable animal. They ate not only carrion and corpses, but they killed and ate prisoners, townspeople, and even each other. As one of the Polish commanders, Colonel Osip Budila, wrote: “... there is no news in any stories that anyone under siege suffers such hunger that there is such a hunger anywhere, because when this hunger came and when it became grass, roots, mice, dogs, cats, fell, then the besieged ate prisoners, ate dead bodies, pulling them out of the ground: the infantry ate and ate others, catching people. The infantry lieutenant Truskovsky ate his two sons; one haiduk ate his son too, another ate his mother; one comrade ate his servant; in a word, the father of a son, the son of a father, did not spare; the lord was not sure of the servant, the servant of the lord; whoever could, who was healthier than the other, he ate. A deceased relative or comrade, if someone else ate such, was tried as an inheritance, and argued that the nearest relative should have eaten it, and not to anyone else. Such a court case happened in the platoon of the city of Lenitsky, from whom the haidus ate the dead haiduk of their platoon. A relative of the deceased — a haiduk from another ten — complained about this before the captain’s head and argued that he had more right to eat him as a relative; but they objected that they had the right to do so, because he was with them in the same row, ranks and in the top ten. The captain did not know what the sentence should be made of and, fearing that the disgruntled party would not eat the judge himself, he fled from the court. ”
The Polish king was unable to assist the besieged garrison. The long “seat” near Smolensk was a strategic mistake of the Polish leadership. Almost all the forces and means of the Commonwealth were spent on a long siege and storming of the Russian fortress. In the fall of 1612, the Polish king tried to help the Kremlin garrison, but again he had no money. Polish gentry did not pay for the summer months and they went home without thinking about their comrades in Moscow. As a result, Sigismund had to go on a campaign only with a detachment of foreign mercenaries and hussars from his guard. The king moved from Smolensk to Moscow through the so-called. King's Gate. However, in front of the king, the gate broke off its hinges and blocked the road to the detachment. The Poles had to get out of the city in another way. Dear Sigismund was joined by Adam Zolkiewski, the hetman's nephew, with his personal squad of 1200 fighters. The Poles arrived in Vyazma at the very end of October 1612. But by this moment the dragged out drama in Moscow had already come to an end.
By order of Prince Pozharsky, a large siege battery was arranged at the Cannon Yard, which since September 24 opened heavy fire on the Kremlin. October 3 opened fire siege battery, built by the First Militia at the Nikolsky Gate. On October 21, the Poles offered the Russians to begin negotiations and sent Colonel Budil to Pozharsky. Negotiations dragged on. Polish knighthood demanded honorable surrender, passes from the Kremlin with weapons, stolen good, and so on. But Pozharsky now wanted unconditional surrender.
The Cossacks learned about the negotiations and decided that they want to deprive them of legitimate loot. October 22 without the permission of the chief commanders of the Cossacks attacked the walls of China-town. The Poles did not expect an attack, moreover, they were exhausted by hunger. The Cossacks broke into China Town and knocked the Poles out of it. Among the dead were notable gentlemen Seradsky, Bykovsky, Tvarzhinsky and others. Such a quick loss of China-town somewhat discouraged a proud enemy. They again requested negotiations. Now negotiations were conducted near the Kremlin wall. The Polish garrison was represented by Colonel Strus, and the Moscow battle, which was seated in the Kremlin, was represented by Prince Mstislavsky, the militia was represented by the princes Pozharsky and Trubetskoy. At the beginning of the negotiations, the former head of the Boyar Duma, Mstislavsky, repented and was the brow of the “whole earth,” Pozharsky and Trubetskoy. At the beginning, the Poles asked permission for all Russian women to leave the Kremlin. Russian voivode agreed.
After three days of talks, the leaders of the militia and the boyars government concluded an agreement and sealed him with an oath. The boyars received a guarantee that their ancestral ancestral lands would not be touched. Having made a concession to the Moscow boyars, the leaders of the militia achieved a political concession on the part of the boyar government (the seven-boyars). The Boyar Duma (the highest legislative body) agreed to liquidate the oath to Vladislav and break off all relations with the Polish monarch. As a result, the Zemstvo leaders, by default, accepted the lie that “Lithuania” kept the boyars in captivity during the siege of Moscow.
It is worth noting that in the years of the Troubles, the Boyar Duma completely compromised itself, the Moscow boyars were smeared with mud and blood. Boyar "elite" actually itself arranged the Troubles, in the course of their intrigues and squabble for power, plunging Russia into chaos. Boyars consistently destroyed the genus of the Godunovs (before this they destroyed the heirs of Ivan the Terrible); they called and killed the "legitimate king" of the False Dmitry; put on the throne of Shuisky, then rushed between him and the second impostor (Tushinsky thief); part of the boyars recognized the rights to the throne of the Polish prince Vladislav, Vasily Shuisky overthrew and forcibly identified as monks. Seven Boyars already went to direct betrayal, letting the Poles to Moscow, and proclaiming the Polish prince Vladislav the Russian tsar. And this was done against the will of Patriarch Hermogenes. Yes, and in the martyrdom of Hermogenes, the Russian boyars are more to blame than the Polish gentry. In addition, by the year 1612, there were practically no boyars left in Russia, who were awarded the rank of Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible. Boris Godunov gave the boyars to someone, Lzhedmitry to someone, Vasily Shuisky to someone, Tushinsky thief to others.
In fact, Minin and Pozharsky made a strategic mistake. It was necessary to put the "whole land" on the throne of Pozharsky already in Yaroslavl, as they wanted. Then the “politics” began, in which the boyars, who started the Troubles, drowning the Russian land in blood and nearly destroying it, were masters and outplayed the militia leaders. Not only were they not punished, although for their sins they needed to be hung up or impaled (and repeatedly), but they retained the position of the masters of Russia, the land, they chose a weak king, Romanov, and from the clan who was also guilty of the Troubles, therefore could not punish the same criminals. Not surprisingly, under Mikhail Romanov, a very mediocre man, his mother and her relatives ruled, then the father — Patriarch Filaret (the Great Sovereign) and all living representatives of the treacherous boyar government — the Seven Boyars — held leading posts in the State.
Pozharsky and Minin, recognizing the boyars as "captives of the Poles" made a fatal mistake. Behind them was the Truth, the support of the people, the leading force - the Zemstvo army of the majority of Russian lands. The boyars sitting in Moscow no longer had squads. The Poles suffered a decisive defeat and could not immediately resume the war on the same scale. Pozharsky and Trubetskoy themselves rescued and rehabilitated the boyars, returned their estates, left behind them all the wealth, that is, they did not even make them pay a ransom for the crimes. Apparently, the point would be that Minin and Pozharsky did not want to "stir up the water", to continue the struggle and shed blood. The civil war had to stop.
Then it was already a "matter of technology". Within a few months, having regained power in the ancestral lands, having restored the personal detachments, the boyars became the leading force in Moscow, pushing through the acceptable candidates. But Pozharsky did not want to conflict, moreover, he let the majority of the noble detachments go home. Thus, the boyars clans and the Romanovs, a clan that was one of the leading organizers of the Troubles, which almost destroyed the Russian state and claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, began to rule the country. That turned out to be very dark story. Especially if the fate and connections of the boyars with the West. Later, the historians of the Romanovs will try to whiten it, trying to show mostly heroic pages - such as the defense of Smolensk, the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, the partisan movement, and keeping silent about other impartial pages or even distorting them.
Prince Pozharsky could bring the boyars to trial, deprive the boyars and patrimonies, could execute, power and the Truth was behind him. Their lands and other property could be distributed to noblemen, Cossacks and local people. So Pozharsky could become the leader of the Cossacks. And anyone who would have regretted the boyars-traitors and would have resisted the confiscation of their property could be subjected to repression. The Cossacks gladly "walked" at the expense of traitors. The first militia (in fact, the Cossacks) would have passed under the arm of Pozharsky. It is clear who would be elected king in this case. Pozharsky could simply close his eyes to how the Cossacks compensate for the damage at the expense of the boyars and punish traitors. The consequences would be the same. However, he did not do this, so the boyars would soon quickly take first places in the big Moscow game and push aside the honest and brave warrior, not to mention the common man Minin, to the side.
On October 26 (November 3), the Trinity Gates of the Kremlin opened, and boyars and other Muscovites, who were under siege with the Poles, came to the Stone Bridge. Ahead of the procession went Fyodor Ivanovich Mstislavsky, behind him Ivan Vorotynsky, Ivan Romanov with his nephew Mikhail and his mother Marfa. The Cossacks attempted to attack the traitors, at least for the purpose of robbery, but Pozharsky and the noblemen by force of arms protected the boyars and forced the Cossacks to go to their camp. But a few strokes of the Cossack sabers could radically change the history of Russia.
October 27 (November 4) from the Spassky Gate of the Kremlin came the procession of the clergy, who was under siege with the Poles. Ahead went the "black cardinal" of the Time of Troubles - the tough metropolitan Paphnutius. Behind him, the Archangel Archbishop Arseny and the Kremlin clergy. The churchmen, apparently waiting for the massacre of the boyars, went separately. On the same day, the Polish garrison surrendered. Kuzma Minin accepted the surrender. Part of the prisoners led by Colonel Strussem were given to Trubetskoy, and the rest with Colonel Budila to the second militia. The Cossacks killed most of the Poles they got. The Poles who survived Pozharsky and Trubetskoy were sent around the cities: to Nizhny Novgorod, Balakhna, Galich, Yaroslavl and others. The Poles committed so many atrocities and unholy cases on the Russian land that the authorities in Russian cities did not always manage to protect captured enemies from the mob of the citizens. Thus, in Galicia, a mob interrupted prisoners from the Budila company. The same thing happened with the Stravinsky company in Unzha. Polish officers led by Budila were taken to Nizhny Novgorod in December. The local authorities wanted to drown all enemies in the Volga, but they were saved by the intercession of Pozharsky's mother.
Having entered the Kremlin, the warriors of Pozharsky and the Cossacks Trubetskoy were horrified. All churches were looted and polluted, almost all wooden buildings were broken down into wood and burned. In large vats and barrels they found cut and salted human bodies. Poles and other foreigners have prepared a "stock" for the winter. Nevertheless, in the Assumption Cathedral served the mass and prayer. Immediately began cleaning and restoring the Kremlin and the entire capital. Trubetskoy settled in the Kremlin in the Palace of Godunov, Pozharsky - on Arbat in the Vozdvizhensky monastery. Moscow boyars for some time dispersed in their fiefdoms. Mikhail Romanov and his mother went to their patrimony - the village of Domnino, Kostroma district.
The Polish king Sigismund in Vyazma learned about the surrender of the garrison in Moscow. There the royal squad joined the warriors of Hetman Chodkiewicz and together went to the town of Pogorely Gorodishche. The local governor, Prince Yuri Shakhovsky, responded to the king with the demand for surrender: “Go to Moscow. Moscow will be yours and we are yours. ” The king led the troops on. The main forces of the Poles laid siege to Volokolamsk, and the Zolkiewski detachment moved to Moscow. Zolkiewski reached the village of Vagankovo, where Russians attacked him. The Poles were defeated and fled. In battle, the soldiers of Zolkiewski seized the Smolensk nobleman Ivan Filosofov. The Poles asked him if Muscovites King Vladislav were still in the kingdom, whether Moscow was full of people and whether there were a lot of supplies there. Ivan replied that Moscow was “full of people and bread,” and everyone was ready to die for the Orthodox faith, and they would not take the kingdom to the kingdom. The same was said by the brave nobleman and the Polish king.
Having lost hope of seizing Moscow, Sigismund decided at least to take Volokolamsk, which was defended by the governors Ivan Karamyshev and Chemesov. The Poles went to storm the fortress three times, but they were repelled. After the third assault, the Cossacks from the garrison went on a sortie under the command of atamans Nelyub Markov and Ivan Yepanchin. The Cossacks managed to inflict great damage to the enemy and repel several guns. Sigismund gave the order to return to Poland. On the way, many died of hunger and cold.
The struggle for the Russian throne continued. No one denies the leadership talent of Dmitry Pozharsky, his brilliant abilities as a statesman. But after the liberation of the capital from the Poles, its influence gradually fell. Apparently, the Russian commander made two major mistakes. First, as previously noted, gave the traitor boyars not only to get away from the water, but also to preserve wealth and influence. Their betrayal by default was forgotten. Secondly, I could not retain a military advantage, the noble squads from the Second Militia. And then the time was such that for whom the biggest battalion is right. As a result, the Tushino Cossacks, who were bribed and easily deceived, under the pressure of brute force, succeeded in dragging Mikhail Romanov to the throne.
Later, they came up with the myth that supposedly the prince-servant (the savior of Russia, the people, and even Prince Rurikovich!), In the simplicity of his soul he took and refused the throne!
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