False Dmitry II against Vasily Shuisky: the height of the Troubles

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False Dmitry II against Vasily Shuisky: the height of the Troubles

Immediately after the assassination of False Dmitry I and the seizure of power by Vasily Shuisky, extremely unfavorable rumors for the new tsar that Dmitry Ivanovich managed to escape began to spread around Moscow. There really was a reason for such rumors. The fact is that the corpse of the king was brutally mutilated. A certain nobleman, looking at the body, shouted that it was not Dmitry in front of him. Ordinary Muscovites said that the mask covered the face of the murdered tsar, and the hair and nails of the corpse were too long.

The majority of the country's population indignantly accepted the news of the assassination of the king, many sincerely believed in his salvation. The new Tsar Vasily Shuisky was extremely unpopular among the people, many simply hated him. Small, overweight, with small reddish eyes, Shuisky was also a man of not the most attractive moral qualities.



Everyone remembered well how in 1591 he announced the suicide of Tsarevich Dmitry, and then in 1605 swore that he personally saved the Tsarevich in Uglich. Now, having seized power, Shuisky assured that the real Tsarevich Dmitry was killed on the orders of Godunov. It is clear that such a tsar, who was hated and who was dependent on the boyar elite, could not have a long and happy reign.


A probable lifetime portrait of Vasily Shuisky. Around 1606

Rebellion of Ivan Bolotnikov


In the summer of 1606, an uprising broke out in the south of the country against Shuisky. It was organized by the voivode Grigory Shakhovsky and the former combat serf Ivan Bolotnikov, who called himself "the voivode of the surviving Tsar Dmitry."

Crowds of people immediately began to flock to the rebels - everyone who was dissatisfied with Shuisky. Some sincerely believed in the salvation of Tsar Dmitry, others, only hiding behind the name of the late tsar, sought by this to betray a legal and fair character to their struggle.
In Soviet historiography, the Bolotnikov uprising was called a peasant uprising and was put on a par with the peasant wars led by Razin and Pugachev. But Bolotnikov's uprising was not the work of the peasants alone. The nobles and the Cossacks played a significant role in it.

One of the organizers of the uprising was Prince Shakhovsky, supported the rebels by the governor of Chernigov Andrey Telyatevsky. Representatives of the Ryazan, Tula and Seversk nobility also participated in it. Terek, Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks acted as a separate force during the uprising.

Having gathered an army, Bolotnikov moved from Putivl to Moscow. The leader of the uprising put forward the slogan that Tsar Dmitry was alive, was about to appear and personally lead the rebels, which means that they were fighting for the legitimate tsar, who was unjustly overthrown by the usurper Shuisky. That is why it cannot be said that this uprising was anti-monarchist, no, the rebels fought for their own, for the legitimate, as it seemed to them, king.

Having learned about the beginning of the uprising, Shuisky moved the troops of Trubetskoy and Vorotynsky against the rebels, none of which shone with military talents. Meeting with the troops of Bolotnikov, Trubetskoy was defeated. The same fate awaited Vorotynsky near Yelets. On September 23, 1606, Shuisky's troops were defeated near Kaluga.


E. E. Lissner. The beginning of the battle between the troops of Ivan Bolotnikov and the tsarist troops near the village of Nizhnie Kotly near Moscow

After such impressive victories, the rebels approached Kolomna in October 1606. The garrison of Kolomna, remaining loyal to Shuisky, offered stubborn resistance. Leaving part of his troops near the besieged city, Bolotnikov moved to Moscow with the main forces. Near Moscow, the rebels inflicted another defeat on Shuisky and on October 7 laid siege to the capital.

Shuisky's government was on the verge of disaster; more and more cities were going over to Bolotnikov's side. It was a stunning success: in just three months, Bolotnikov inflicted a number of defeats on Shuisky's troops and now controlled half the country. A little more time and only Moscow could remain on the side of Shuisky. The king began to think about voluntary renunciation, and only a miracle could save him. And, oddly enough, a “miracle” happened.

On November 15, the noble regiments of Prokopy Lyapunov went over to the side of the already desperate Shuisky. In the battle on December 2 near the village of Kotly, the rebels of Bolotnikov and the Cossacks suffered a heavy defeat from government troops. The defeated troops fled to Kaluga.

After that, the bloody war dragged on, but the Bolotnikovites no longer had a chance to win. After the capture of Kaluga by Shuisky, Bolotnikov's troops retreated to Tula, the siege and assaults of which continued until October 1607.


"In the Time of Troubles". S. Ivanov

Appearance of False Dmitry II


An impostor who pretended to be the miraculously saved False Dmitry I and entered history under the name of False Dmitry II, is one of the most mysterious personalities in Russian history. His real name, origin and even nationality are still unknown. According to one version, he was a priest's son, and his name was Matvey Veryovkin, according to another, the son of a Jew from the Belarusian city of Shklov, according to the third, the son of an archer from Starodub.


False Dmitry II

But in any case, if this person had not declared himself Tsar Dmitry, then someone else would have performed this role for him. Too broad social forces were interested in the impostor; without him, Bolotnikov's uprising was doomed to failure.

At the beginning of 1607, in Shklov, Bolotnikov's people found a suitable person for the role of an impostor - the future False Dmitry II. He was chosen only because he already had experience of imposture: under False Dmitry I, he pretended to be the uncle of the tsar, the boyar Nagogoy, who never really existed.

In fact, Bolotnikov's people forced this man to call himself tsar. But he got scared and fled, was found only a few months later in Propoisk. With the choice put before him: death or the role of the king, of course, he chose the latter. He was to become a puppet under Bolotnikov; the role of a puppet was assigned to him by the Polish government, which was interested in the appearance of an impostor in order to prolong the Time of Troubles and, hiding behind the name of the "legitimate tsar", capture all of Russia.

The previous attempt by the Poles to seize the country, or at least part of it, using False Dmitry I, clearly failed, because he began to behave independently and refused to cede the promised Smolensk and Chernihiv regions to the Polish king. Now the Poles tried not to step on the same rake twice, choosing an uneducated, rude and morally unattractive person for the role of the king.

In May 1607, False Dmitry II crossed the Russian border and appeared in Starodub. There, in front of a large gathering of people, he declared himself king, and the city swore allegiance to him. Following this, neighboring cities swore allegiance to the pretender to the throne, volunteers began to flock to Starodub, and the formation of an army began. Polish magnates with their personal detachments also began to arrive at the impostor. At the same time, the Boyar Duma was formed.

It is clear that the magnates who came to False Dmitry knew who they really came to. They considered him a puppet and did not even think that he would ever rule the country on his own. The role of a puppet was assigned to him by the Moscow boyars, opponents of Shuisky.

But why did Russian peasants begin to come to False Dmitry II? Did they really want such a king?

Some came to his army because they hated Shuisky, others because they had previously fought for Bolotnikov, and still others came to him because they remembered the prosperous reign of False Dmitry I and believed that he had really escaped.

Hike to Moscow


Having gathered several thousand people, on September 10, 1607, False Dmitry II set out on a campaign. Naturally, the magnates and boyars could not entrust the command of the army to the impostor, besides, he did not have the appropriate knowledge and experience. Therefore, one of them, Pan Mekhovetsky, led the troops. The goal of the campaign was Tula, which was still besieged by Shuisky.

Having learned about the approach of the impostor with the army, the king undertook one after another assault on the city. But they failed to take Tula.

Then Shuisky sent troops against the applicant, but soon received news of their defeat. And then one of the close ones gave the king advice: to block the river with a dam and flood the city. Shuisky did just that, as a result, on October 10, Tula capitulated.

Before the surrender, Shuisky promised not to shed a single drop of blood from the surrendered rebels. And formally, he kept his promise: all those who surrendered on the orders of Shuisky were drowned. Bolotnikov - exiled to Kargopol, and then also drowned.

Upon learning of the fall of Tula, False Dmitry retreated to Oryol, where he received significant reinforcements. The tycoon Roman Rozhinsky arrived with four thousand Poles. As a large landowner, Rozhinsky led a wasteful life and therefore now needed money. In the war with Russia, he dreamed of making a huge fortune, but since the impostor soon appointed him the new commander-in-chief of his entire army, Rozhinsky began to dream of power over the whole country under the puppet tsar.

After Rozhinsky, with the permission of the Polish king, who still continued to call himself a friend of Shuisky, other magnates arrived with their detachments - Jan Piotr Sapieha and Alexander Lisovsky. Like Rozhinsky, they also viewed this war as a profitable enterprise.


Jan Petr Sapieha

After the Poles, the Cossacks also arrived - 3 Zaporozhye and 000 Don.

Ataman Ivan Zarutsky, a native of Ternopil, was at the head of the Don Cossacks. Being at the beginning a subject of the Polish king, Zarutsky was captured by the Crimean Tatars, then he fled, but not to his native land, but to the Don, where he soon became chieftain. He decided to join False Dmitry II, hoping that he would make him a major military leader and generously reward him.

With such a motley and diverse army, which already numbered 27 people, in the spring of 000, False Dmitry II and Rozhinsky moved to Moscow. In the Battle of Zaraisk, Lisovsky's detachment defeated the tsarist army. Shuisky's troops suffered the next major defeat near Bolkhov. After this battle, the cities of Kozelsk, Kaluga, Mozhaisk and Zvenigorod surrendered to the impostor without a fight.

In early June, the troops of False Dmitry II appeared near Moscow and once again defeated Shuisky. On June 25, while trying to repel the impostor's troops from the capital, Shuisky suffered another defeat.

The long siege of Moscow began.

To be continued ...
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9 comments
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  1. -2
    9 February 2023 05: 36
    In the History section, on the next branch, an article was published by the author Samsonov, you would go to him and look at his publications. The fact is that this topic has already been considered, as well as subsequent ones. Compare the contents of your "portfolio" with the publications of this author and not repeat. Discuss the same topics, it’s somehow appropriate. If you want to surprise, write something new. For example, offhand, about the campaigns of Vladimir Monomakh against the Polovtsy. Italy. Also go through the publications of the other authors of VO.
    1. -1
      9 February 2023 08: 30
      Actually, for this today on the "history" forum one could bow out, if not for the unexpected material from "Aviator".
      1. 0
        9 February 2023 19: 31
        Where is he? In what section?
        Not in "History"
  2. +3
    9 February 2023 06: 08
    Zarutsky, EMNIP, was eventually impaled. And rightly so.
  3. +1
    9 February 2023 15: 38
    Good day everyone. Doesn't it seem to you that the author is retelling a student of history? And retelling is not interesting
  4. 0
    9 February 2023 21: 40
    Author Thanks for posting!
    But the style and references to historical dates are too simplified. It seems like History, but some kind of ... "Lubochnaya", or something ...
    Personal opinion. I can't write so much myself. But I didn't like what I wrote.
  5. 0
    9 February 2023 22: 12
    What kind of successful rule of False Dmitriy-1 are we talking about? One year has passed. Moreover, the main benefits were received by the boyars, who were returned the lands selected by the previous rulers.
    1. 0
      15 March 2023 23: 00
      Less than a year old, but started well, was popular. He returned the Romanovs from exile. Without him, we would not have this dynasty.
  6. +1
    26 March 2023 15: 28
    Thanks to the author for the article! But Tushinsky Thief was not lucky, unlike Grishka Otrepyev: he managed, albeit not for long, to sit on the throne. But False Dmitry II did not sit on the throne: he could not defeat Shuisky.

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