The ruin of the Russian land. Heroic defense of the Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius
The defense of Moscow. Tushinsky camp
The defense of the capital was headed by Tsar Vasily himself. He's got a 30-35 thousand warriors. In order not to let the enemy to the city, they took positions on Khodynka and Presnya. But the general battle Shuisky did not dare. He entered into negotiations with hetman Rozhinsky (Ruzhinsky) and the Polish ambassadors Gonsevsky and Olesnitsky detained in Moscow. Vasily Shuisky offered serious concessions: he agreed to pay the mercenaries of Rozhinsky, agreed to release the Poles detained in Russia after the overthrow of False Dmitry I, and then sign a peace treaty with Poland. At the same time, the Polish king Sigismund had to withdraw his subjects from the camp of False Dmitry (although many of the Polish gentry acted at their own peril and risk and were considered to be insurgents and criminals in Poland). Polish ambassadors also agreed to everything, just to get freedom and get out of Russia.
The tsarist army relaxed in two weeks of negotiations, people were sure that they were about to sign peace. A hetman Rozhinsky took advantage of this and 25 June 1608, attacked the royal governor. Polish cavalry crushed the Shuisky regiments on Khodynka and drove, hoping to rush into the city on their shoulders. But at Vagankov the enemy cavalry was met with fire by Moscow archers, and was forced to turn back. The tsarist troops went to the counter. To break away from the light Tatar cavalry, the Polish patrons failed, and they were driven to the r. Khimki. Then the Poles again tried to attack, but without success. Both sides suffered heavy losses, and Rozhinsky refused from further attacks, began to strengthen the Tushinsky camp.
Instead of tsarist chambers in the Kremlin, the False Dmitry had to be content with the hastily felled log mansion in Tushino, located a few versts north-west of the capital at the confluence of the small river Skhodni into the Moscow River. Here “Boyar Duma” led by Mikhail Saltykov and Dmitry Trubetskoy began to sit, the “orders” worked, from here the troops of the Tushinoi left to fight and rob the disobedient “tsar” Russian cities and lands. In Tushino, the wife of the first False Dmitriy, Marina Mnishek, was brought back to the impostor and the tsarist detachment. She surprisingly quickly got along with the Tush "king" and publicly recognized him as her husband. And then she secretly married her in the Sapega squad (the wedding was performed by her Jesuit confessor). For this, Yuriy Mnishek Lzhedmitry II granted 14 cities, including Chernihiv, Bryansk and Smolensk, and promised 300 thousands of rubles in gold to take the throne. The marital union raised the authority of the impostor. However, he did not have real power: in the Tushino camp, the so-called “decimvirs” operating under the “Tsar” —the ten gentlemen — were representatives of the Polish army. The actual head of the Tushinsky camp, acting on behalf of the nominal "Tsar", was hetman Roman Rozhinsky. Ataman Cossacks Ivan Zarutsky stood out.
The largest Lithuanian magnate, Jan Sapega, who brought a powerful squadron to 7,5 thousand people, acquired enormous power. Jan Sapega was recognized as the second hetman of False Dmitry II along with Rozhinsky. Between them the division of spheres of influence was carried out. Getman Rozhinsky stayed in the Tushinsky camp and controlled the southern and western lands, and hetman Sapega, along with Pan Lisowski, became a camp near the Trinity-Sergius monastery and began to spread the power of “Tsar Dmitry” in Zamoskovye, Pomorie and Novgorod land.
Finally, in Tushino, there appeared his own patriarch called Philaret (Romanov), the father of the future Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich. Being a Rostov bishop, he was captured by the Tushins when taking Rostov 1608 in October and, in disgrace, tied to a lecherous woman, was brought to Tushino. However, the False Dmitriy showered him, as his imaginary relative, with mercies, appointing him the patriarch. As a patriarch, Filaret began to perform divine services and send out district diplomas to the regions. Seeing such an example, representatives of the clergy rushed in large numbers in Tushino.
The impostor’s army increased significantly, new Polish detachments, Cossacks, insurgent peasants and serfs approached. The number of Poles reached 20 thousand people, Cossacks - 30 thousand soldiers, there were about 18 thousand Tatars. Total army reached about 100 thousand people. However, the exact number was not known even by the commanders themselves - some went on expeditions and to plunder, others came.
25 July 1608, Tsar Vasily Shuisky concluded a truce agreement with the Polish king Sigismund III for 3 and 11 months. He pledged to release the Poles detained after the May 1606 coup in Moscow, including Marina Mnishek with his father. Poland pledged to withdraw from the Russian state the Poles who fought on the side of the impostor. Tsar Vasily hoped that thereby the Tushino thief would lose the support of strong Polish troops. But the Polish side did not fulfill the terms of the truce. Polish troops continued to fight on the side of the impostor.
The siege of Moscow by the Tushino continued for almost a year and a half. A strange relationship established between the capital and the Tushino camp. Both tsars, Vasily and Dimitri, did not prevent the boyars and servicemen from moving away to their opponents, in turn, trying to lure the boyars, nobles and clerks from the enemy camp with generous promises and gifts. In search of ranks, awards, estates and estates, many prominent nobles moved from Moscow to the “capital” Tushino and back, earning the apt nickname of “Tushino flights” among the people.
Under the rule of Tushino "king" were vast territories. In the north-west, Pskov and its suburbs, Velikiye Luki, Ivangorod, Koporye, Gdov, and Oreshek took the impostor. The main base of False Dmitry II was still Severshchina and south with Astrakhan. In the east, the power of the Tushino "thief" was recognized by Murom, Kasimov, Temnikov, Arzamas, Alatyr, Sviyazhsk, as well as many northeastern cities. In the central part of the impostor supported Suzdal, Uglich, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Vladimir and many other cities. Of the major centers, only Smolensk, Veliky Novgorod, Pereslavl-Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan remained loyal to Tsar Vasily Shuisky. In Kostroma, Polish detachments, forcing the False Dmitry to swear, first ravaged the Epiphany-Anastasiin monastery, and then occupied the Ipatiev monastery. True, some cities swore an impostor only in order to avoid raids of his gangs. And even the boyars, loyal to the king Shuisky, wrote in their ancestral lands, so that their elders would recognize the Falsite in order to avoid ruin. Thus, in fact, Russia at that time broke up into two warring state formations.
The situation in Moscow was difficult. In the fall of 1608, the flight from Moscow took a general character - especially after Sapieha defeated a detachment under Rakhmanov at the end of September, and besieged the Trinity-Sergius monastery. Dissatisfaction with Tsar Vasily matured already in Moscow itself - they say, he restored against himself “the whole earth”, brought the matter to a siege. The situation started famine worsened. This led to uprisings and several attempts to overthrow Shuya: February 25, April 2 and May 5 of the year 1610. But the residents of the capital knew that the former “Dmitry” was no longer alive, and saw that for the gangs and the “thieves” they came to them. Therefore, they were not going to give up. Tsar Vasily Shuisky, who was not popular with either the boyars or the nobles, kept in power because his opponents among the Moscow aristocracy, fearing a large-scale peasant war, did not decide on a coup d'état. It seemed to them easier to negotiate with the Poles or the Swedes.
Heroic defense of the Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius
The Tushyntsy, trying to completely block Moscow, decided to cut off all the roads to it and thereby stop the supply of food. For this they had enough strength. In early September, the army of Hetman Sapieha, numbering about 30 thousands of infantry and cavalry, set off to the north of the capital in order to cut the roads to Yaroslavl and Vladimir. Khmelevsky's troops from Kashira went south with the aim of capturing Kolomna. East of Moscow, they were supposed to connect. Having defeated the army of the royal brother Ivan Shuisky, Sapieha of September 23 approached the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. Tushyntsy anticipated plentiful booty, hoping to plunder the rich monastic treasury. However, they were mistaken. On the offer to surrender, the Russian warriors proudly replied that they would not open the gates, even if they had to sit under siege and endure hardship for ten years. The famous 16-month defense of the monastery began, which lasted until January 1610, when it was removed by the troops of Mikhail Vasilyevich Skopin-Shuisky and Jacob Delagardi.
The Trinity-Sergius Monastery (like many other monasteries) was a powerful fortress and it was impossible to take it straight off. The Poles first had 17 guns, but they were all field, almost useless for conducting a siege of a strong fortress. The monastery was surrounded by 12 towers, connected by a fortified wall of 1250 meters in length, from 8 to 14 meters in height. The walls and towers housed 110 guns, there were numerous throwing devices, boilers for boiling water and tar, devices for tipping them at the enemy. The government of Vasily Shuisky managed to send in advance to the monastery the Streltsy and Cossack detachments under the command of the voivode Prince Grigory Dolgorukov-Grove and the Moscow nobleman Alexey Golokhvastov. The fortress garrison numbered up to the beginning of the siege before 2300, man of warriors and peasants of nearby villages, pilgrims, monks, ministers and workers of the monastery around 1000.
The leaders of the Polish-Lithuanian troops did not expect a stubborn defense of the monastery and were not prepared for a long siege. First of all, the besiegers had to hastily construct their own fortified camps and prepare for a siege, while at the same time trying to persuade the garrison to surrender. However, Sapiegu expected failure. The archimandrite of the monastery of Joasaph refused to violate the oath to Tsar Vasily. From October 1608, the fighting began: the besieged made forays, tried to cut off and destroy the enemy’s small groups during construction work and forage harvesting; the Poles fought with the Russian scouts, drove under the walls of the fortress.
On the night of 1 (11) on November 1608, the first attempt was made to storm the monastery by a simultaneous attack from three sides. The impostor's forces lit one of the foremost Russian wooden fortifications and rushed to the attack. However, the strong fire of numerous Russian artillery, the enemy was stopped and put to flight. Then the Russian garrison made a strong raid and destroyed several troops of the Tushins, who took refuge in the moats. Thus, the first assault ended in complete failure with significant damage to the besiegers.
Getman, Jan Piotr Sapieha
Troops Sapieha went to the siege. Russian garrison continued to make attacks. In December, 1608 - January 1609. Our warriors, with strong forays, captured part of the enemy’s food and forage stocks, defeated and set fire to several outposts and fortifications. However, the garrison suffered serious losses. There was contention in the garrison of the monastery between the archers and the monks. There were also defector to the enemy from among the garrison, including nobles and archers. In January, the Tushians nearly took a fortress on 1609. During one of the attacks, the Tushians attacked from an ambush and cut off our detachment from the fortress. At the same time, part of the enemy troops broke into the open gates of the monastery. The position was saved by the numerous artillery of the fortress, which with its fire disrupted the ranks of the enemy troops. Thanks to the support of artillery, the squad of archers that had come out to the raid was able to get back, losing several dozen fighters. And the horsemen who had broken into the Trinity-Sergius Monastery could not turn around on the narrow streets between the buildings, and were hit by ordinary people, who brought down on the enemy a hail of stones and logs. The enemy was defeated and dropped.
In the meantime, the situation of the Polish-Cossack army of Sapieha and Lisowski deteriorated. In winter, it became harder to get food, scurvy began. Began to dwindle a few stocks of gunpowder. Sapega's troops were not ready for the siege of a strong fortress, there were no corresponding supplies and equipment. The strife in the army of the besiegers intensified, between Poles, mercenaries and Cossacks. As a result, Hetman Sapieha decided on a second assault, planning to undermine the fortress gates with harvested powerful firecrackers.
In order to guarantee success, Sapega introduced into the monastery the defector Pole Mattisha with the task of gaining confidence in the Russian voivode, and at the decisive moment to disable part of the serf artillery. By participating in raids and firing cannons at the Tushians, Martyash really gained confidence in the governor Dolgoruky. But on the eve of the assault, scheduled for July 8, a defector arrived at the monastery, who reported a spy. Martyash was captured and, under torture, reported everything he knew about the upcoming assault. As a result, although by that time the forces of the Russian garrison had declined more than threefold since the beginning of the siege, the soldiers of Dolgorukov withstood the attack. They were placed in places where enemy attacks were expected; this allowed the second assault to be repulsed. Tushyntsy were rejected in the night battle.
However, the number of professional soldiers of the garrison of the fortress decreased to 200 people. Therefore, Sapieha began to prepare the third assault, mobilizing all his forces. This time the attack had to be carried out from all four sides in order to achieve complete fragmentation of the weak forces of the garrison. In one direction, the attackers had to break through the fortifications and simply crush the small garrison of the monastery. The assault was assigned to 7 August 1609 of the year.
Dolvorukiy, who saw the enemy commander in front of him, armed all the peasants and monks, ordered to put all the powder on the walls, but there was practically no chance of success in the battle. Only a miracle could save the besieged, and it happened. Tushyntsy entangled in the signals (gun shots), some troops rushed to the assault after the first shot, others - after the next, mixed. German mercenaries took the Russian Tushins for the garrison and grappled with them. In another place, the Polish cavalry took the Tushins for making a sortie garrison of the monastery and attacked them. The battle between the besiegers turned into a massacre of each other. The number of people killed by each other amounted to hundreds of people. The artillery of the fortress opened heavy fire on the sounds of battle. As a result, the assault columns mixed up, panicked and retreated. Thus, the inconsistency of the Tushino’s actions and the “friendly slaughter” disrupted a decisive assault.
The failure of the assault and the mutual slaughter, the total failure of the seizure of a rich monastery, which everyone hoped to plunder, finally split the Tushinsky camp, where mutual hostility smoldered for a long time. In the army of Sapega split. Many atamans of the Tushins took away their troops from the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, desertion in the remaining detachments became widespread. Following the Tushins, foreign mercenaries left the Sapieha camp. The besieged received hope of victory.
Meanwhile, Sapieha could not organize a new assault on the fortress. In the fall of 1609, Russian troops of Prince Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky inflicted a series of defeats on the Tushins and Poles, and launched an offensive towards Moscow. Russian regiments freed Pereslavl-Zalessky and Aleksandrovskaya settlement. Detachments from all over Russia flocked to Skopin-Shuisky. Sensing the threat Sapieha decided to deliver a preemptive blow to Skopin-Shuisky. Leaving part of his troops to besiege the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, he moved to Alexandrov Sloboda, but was defeated in a battle on the Karinsky field. After that, the detachments of archers governor Davyd Zherebtsova and Grigory Valuev were able to break into the monastery and restore the combat capability of his garrison. The garrison of the fortress again turned to active hostilities. Getman Sapega, taking into account the approach of the main forces of Prince Skopin-Shuisky, lifted the siege. 12 (22) January 1610, Polish-Lithuanian troops retreated from the monastery and fled to an impostor.
The ruin of the Russian land
Having failed to achieve a complete blockade of Moscow, the Tushians tried to seize as much of the state as possible. Pskov fell under their power, the Novgorod regions — Pyatyn, many “border”, Tver and Smolensk cities. Many of them were taken by surprise. Tushinskie gangs penetrated deep into the country. In the occupied territories, the Tushians behaved like conquerors. Detachments of the “driven people” —the foragers of Sapega, Lisowski, Rozhinsky, and other Polish magnates — scattered around cities and villages. All of them, in the name of "Tsar Dmitry," plundered the country.
The cities that remained on the side of Tsar Vasily were brought in obedience by the detachments sent from Tushino. So, Lisovsky attacked Rostov, cutting out 2 thousand people. The situation was critical. The war went on almost the entire territory of European Russia. Only separate districts and cities were kept. Ryazan, where supervised Lyapunov. Kolomna, where the governor Prozorovsky defeated the regiments of Khmelevsky, Mlotsky and Bobovsky sent against him. Novgorod fought off a detachment of Kernozitsky and threw him to Staraya Russa. Kazan held Sheremetev, Nizhny Novgorod - Alyabyev and Repnin. With a garrison of several hundred archers and city militia, they beat the enemy detachments four times, and Vyazemsky, who led the “changed governor” Vyazemsky, who was in charge of the Tushians, was caught and hanged. In a difficult situation, Voivode Mikhail Shein found himself in Smolensk. Gangs invaded his county because of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, plundered the villages, killed, drove into full people, and the governor received a categorical order of the king not to take action against them so as not to disturb peace with Poland. Shein found a way out in that he began to arm the peasants themselves and form of them self-defense units for “illegal” resistance to the bandits.
The Polish gentry turned the "tsarik", as they wanted, themselves appointed fantastic salaries for themselves. Obviously, there was no money from the False Dmitry, and the gentry did not want to wait for the seizure of the wealth of Moscow. In 1 Tushino itself, 1609 in February even broke out a riot, as the Poles demanded a payday. Since, with all the desire, the impostor could not find the necessary amount of money, the Poles divided the country between the troops for feeding - “bailiffs”, and began to rob them. From the "royal" name issued decrees on the collection of salaries in various cities. All this resulted in frank robbery, pogroms and violence. For example, in the voluntarily conquered Yaroslavl "plundered the merchants' shops, beat the people and bought everything they wanted without money." Women and girls were raped, and those who tried to protect them or their property were killed. It happened that the settlements were robbed several times, arriving with the same decrees from Rozhinsky or from Sapieha.
In addition to the "collection of salaries" for the troops, a campaign began in preparation for the winter and the collection of food and fodder. For the construction of the Tushino camp, workers were driven out of the neighboring villages, taken away and taken away the huts, throwing the hosts into the cold. Deposits of peasants were depleted, dooming them to starvation. And they not only took, betrayed everything they met to senseless destruction: destroyed and burned houses, buildings, cut cattle, scattered seed, destroyed food that they could not take with them, etc. They kidnapped beautiful women and girls, forcing their husbands and relatives to bring a ransom. Stolen returned not always.
Some gentlemen created thieves' “nests” in their villages and estates, terrorized the peasants, forced them to feed and water themselves, created harems from girls. Many, taking into account the moral principles of the time, then hung or drowned in shame. The decrees of the “queen” were not put into a penny. And numerous petitional nobles Lzhedmitry survived, that in the estates bestowed on them Poles nestled, rampant over the peasants, and even over the relatives of the landowners. The clergy’s complaints have reached us that “patrimonial lands, villages and villages have been ravaged and robbed by warriors and many have been burned.” Tushino gangs seized monasteries, tortured monks, searched for treasure, mocked the nuns, forced them to serve themselves, dance and sing "shameful songs", for killing refusal.
It is clear that this eventually led to the mass resistance of the Russian people. The same cities that swore to False Dmitry began at the end of 1608. In response, followed by punitive expeditions. Lisovsky was especially rampant. The Poles burned down the Danilovsky Monastery and killed all the inhabitants. Lisovsky cruelly pacified Yaroslavl, cut out Kineshma, and, as Petrei wrote, reaching "the cities of Galich and Kostroma, he burned them and retreated with huge and rich booty." Atrocities became widespread and commonplace: people were hanged, drowned, put on pins, crucified, taken away clothes and driven out naked in the cold, mothers and daughters were raped in front of children and fathers. But this only intensified bitterness against the Tushins. As soon as the punishers left, the uprisings were resumed, and the “Lithuania”, which had been appointed by the False Dmitry the governor and the officials, was slaughtered without pity.
The areas that remained under the authority of the impostor were no better. Various gang formations — Polish-Lithuanian detachments, pansky servants, “thieves' Cossacks”, free suburbs, just robbers, also wanted to “walk”. So, someone Nalyvayko distinguished himself in the Vladimir region by imprisoning men and raping all women, so that he “beat to death with his own hands the nobles and children of the boyars and all sorts of people, men and women of 93,”. In the end, his actions triggered a response from the impostor. He was captured by the Vladimir voivode Velyaminov and was hanged by them on the orders of the Falsite Dmitry.
Thus, the Russian land was subjected to unprecedented ruin. Eyewitnesses wrote that "then human dwellings and dwellings of wild animals changed." In the villages, wolves and crows fed on the corpses, while the surviving people fled through the forests, hiding in the thicket. In Russia, it is what contemporaries called “hard times”.
To be continued ...
The defense of the capital was headed by Tsar Vasily himself. He's got a 30-35 thousand warriors. In order not to let the enemy to the city, they took positions on Khodynka and Presnya. But the general battle Shuisky did not dare. He entered into negotiations with hetman Rozhinsky (Ruzhinsky) and the Polish ambassadors Gonsevsky and Olesnitsky detained in Moscow. Vasily Shuisky offered serious concessions: he agreed to pay the mercenaries of Rozhinsky, agreed to release the Poles detained in Russia after the overthrow of False Dmitry I, and then sign a peace treaty with Poland. At the same time, the Polish king Sigismund had to withdraw his subjects from the camp of False Dmitry (although many of the Polish gentry acted at their own peril and risk and were considered to be insurgents and criminals in Poland). Polish ambassadors also agreed to everything, just to get freedom and get out of Russia.
The tsarist army relaxed in two weeks of negotiations, people were sure that they were about to sign peace. A hetman Rozhinsky took advantage of this and 25 June 1608, attacked the royal governor. Polish cavalry crushed the Shuisky regiments on Khodynka and drove, hoping to rush into the city on their shoulders. But at Vagankov the enemy cavalry was met with fire by Moscow archers, and was forced to turn back. The tsarist troops went to the counter. To break away from the light Tatar cavalry, the Polish patrons failed, and they were driven to the r. Khimki. Then the Poles again tried to attack, but without success. Both sides suffered heavy losses, and Rozhinsky refused from further attacks, began to strengthen the Tushinsky camp.
Instead of tsarist chambers in the Kremlin, the False Dmitry had to be content with the hastily felled log mansion in Tushino, located a few versts north-west of the capital at the confluence of the small river Skhodni into the Moscow River. Here “Boyar Duma” led by Mikhail Saltykov and Dmitry Trubetskoy began to sit, the “orders” worked, from here the troops of the Tushinoi left to fight and rob the disobedient “tsar” Russian cities and lands. In Tushino, the wife of the first False Dmitriy, Marina Mnishek, was brought back to the impostor and the tsarist detachment. She surprisingly quickly got along with the Tush "king" and publicly recognized him as her husband. And then she secretly married her in the Sapega squad (the wedding was performed by her Jesuit confessor). For this, Yuriy Mnishek Lzhedmitry II granted 14 cities, including Chernihiv, Bryansk and Smolensk, and promised 300 thousands of rubles in gold to take the throne. The marital union raised the authority of the impostor. However, he did not have real power: in the Tushino camp, the so-called “decimvirs” operating under the “Tsar” —the ten gentlemen — were representatives of the Polish army. The actual head of the Tushinsky camp, acting on behalf of the nominal "Tsar", was hetman Roman Rozhinsky. Ataman Cossacks Ivan Zarutsky stood out.
The largest Lithuanian magnate, Jan Sapega, who brought a powerful squadron to 7,5 thousand people, acquired enormous power. Jan Sapega was recognized as the second hetman of False Dmitry II along with Rozhinsky. Between them the division of spheres of influence was carried out. Getman Rozhinsky stayed in the Tushinsky camp and controlled the southern and western lands, and hetman Sapega, along with Pan Lisowski, became a camp near the Trinity-Sergius monastery and began to spread the power of “Tsar Dmitry” in Zamoskovye, Pomorie and Novgorod land.
Finally, in Tushino, there appeared his own patriarch called Philaret (Romanov), the father of the future Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich. Being a Rostov bishop, he was captured by the Tushins when taking Rostov 1608 in October and, in disgrace, tied to a lecherous woman, was brought to Tushino. However, the False Dmitriy showered him, as his imaginary relative, with mercies, appointing him the patriarch. As a patriarch, Filaret began to perform divine services and send out district diplomas to the regions. Seeing such an example, representatives of the clergy rushed in large numbers in Tushino.
The impostor’s army increased significantly, new Polish detachments, Cossacks, insurgent peasants and serfs approached. The number of Poles reached 20 thousand people, Cossacks - 30 thousand soldiers, there were about 18 thousand Tatars. Total army reached about 100 thousand people. However, the exact number was not known even by the commanders themselves - some went on expeditions and to plunder, others came.
25 July 1608, Tsar Vasily Shuisky concluded a truce agreement with the Polish king Sigismund III for 3 and 11 months. He pledged to release the Poles detained after the May 1606 coup in Moscow, including Marina Mnishek with his father. Poland pledged to withdraw from the Russian state the Poles who fought on the side of the impostor. Tsar Vasily hoped that thereby the Tushino thief would lose the support of strong Polish troops. But the Polish side did not fulfill the terms of the truce. Polish troops continued to fight on the side of the impostor.
The siege of Moscow by the Tushino continued for almost a year and a half. A strange relationship established between the capital and the Tushino camp. Both tsars, Vasily and Dimitri, did not prevent the boyars and servicemen from moving away to their opponents, in turn, trying to lure the boyars, nobles and clerks from the enemy camp with generous promises and gifts. In search of ranks, awards, estates and estates, many prominent nobles moved from Moscow to the “capital” Tushino and back, earning the apt nickname of “Tushino flights” among the people.
Under the rule of Tushino "king" were vast territories. In the north-west, Pskov and its suburbs, Velikiye Luki, Ivangorod, Koporye, Gdov, and Oreshek took the impostor. The main base of False Dmitry II was still Severshchina and south with Astrakhan. In the east, the power of the Tushino "thief" was recognized by Murom, Kasimov, Temnikov, Arzamas, Alatyr, Sviyazhsk, as well as many northeastern cities. In the central part of the impostor supported Suzdal, Uglich, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Vladimir and many other cities. Of the major centers, only Smolensk, Veliky Novgorod, Pereslavl-Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan remained loyal to Tsar Vasily Shuisky. In Kostroma, Polish detachments, forcing the False Dmitry to swear, first ravaged the Epiphany-Anastasiin monastery, and then occupied the Ipatiev monastery. True, some cities swore an impostor only in order to avoid raids of his gangs. And even the boyars, loyal to the king Shuisky, wrote in their ancestral lands, so that their elders would recognize the Falsite in order to avoid ruin. Thus, in fact, Russia at that time broke up into two warring state formations.
The situation in Moscow was difficult. In the fall of 1608, the flight from Moscow took a general character - especially after Sapieha defeated a detachment under Rakhmanov at the end of September, and besieged the Trinity-Sergius monastery. Dissatisfaction with Tsar Vasily matured already in Moscow itself - they say, he restored against himself “the whole earth”, brought the matter to a siege. The situation started famine worsened. This led to uprisings and several attempts to overthrow Shuya: February 25, April 2 and May 5 of the year 1610. But the residents of the capital knew that the former “Dmitry” was no longer alive, and saw that for the gangs and the “thieves” they came to them. Therefore, they were not going to give up. Tsar Vasily Shuisky, who was not popular with either the boyars or the nobles, kept in power because his opponents among the Moscow aristocracy, fearing a large-scale peasant war, did not decide on a coup d'état. It seemed to them easier to negotiate with the Poles or the Swedes.
Heroic defense of the Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius
The Tushyntsy, trying to completely block Moscow, decided to cut off all the roads to it and thereby stop the supply of food. For this they had enough strength. In early September, the army of Hetman Sapieha, numbering about 30 thousands of infantry and cavalry, set off to the north of the capital in order to cut the roads to Yaroslavl and Vladimir. Khmelevsky's troops from Kashira went south with the aim of capturing Kolomna. East of Moscow, they were supposed to connect. Having defeated the army of the royal brother Ivan Shuisky, Sapieha of September 23 approached the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. Tushyntsy anticipated plentiful booty, hoping to plunder the rich monastic treasury. However, they were mistaken. On the offer to surrender, the Russian warriors proudly replied that they would not open the gates, even if they had to sit under siege and endure hardship for ten years. The famous 16-month defense of the monastery began, which lasted until January 1610, when it was removed by the troops of Mikhail Vasilyevich Skopin-Shuisky and Jacob Delagardi.
The Trinity-Sergius Monastery (like many other monasteries) was a powerful fortress and it was impossible to take it straight off. The Poles first had 17 guns, but they were all field, almost useless for conducting a siege of a strong fortress. The monastery was surrounded by 12 towers, connected by a fortified wall of 1250 meters in length, from 8 to 14 meters in height. The walls and towers housed 110 guns, there were numerous throwing devices, boilers for boiling water and tar, devices for tipping them at the enemy. The government of Vasily Shuisky managed to send in advance to the monastery the Streltsy and Cossack detachments under the command of the voivode Prince Grigory Dolgorukov-Grove and the Moscow nobleman Alexey Golokhvastov. The fortress garrison numbered up to the beginning of the siege before 2300, man of warriors and peasants of nearby villages, pilgrims, monks, ministers and workers of the monastery around 1000.
The leaders of the Polish-Lithuanian troops did not expect a stubborn defense of the monastery and were not prepared for a long siege. First of all, the besiegers had to hastily construct their own fortified camps and prepare for a siege, while at the same time trying to persuade the garrison to surrender. However, Sapiegu expected failure. The archimandrite of the monastery of Joasaph refused to violate the oath to Tsar Vasily. From October 1608, the fighting began: the besieged made forays, tried to cut off and destroy the enemy’s small groups during construction work and forage harvesting; the Poles fought with the Russian scouts, drove under the walls of the fortress.
On the night of 1 (11) on November 1608, the first attempt was made to storm the monastery by a simultaneous attack from three sides. The impostor's forces lit one of the foremost Russian wooden fortifications and rushed to the attack. However, the strong fire of numerous Russian artillery, the enemy was stopped and put to flight. Then the Russian garrison made a strong raid and destroyed several troops of the Tushins, who took refuge in the moats. Thus, the first assault ended in complete failure with significant damage to the besiegers.
Getman, Jan Piotr Sapieha
Troops Sapieha went to the siege. Russian garrison continued to make attacks. In December, 1608 - January 1609. Our warriors, with strong forays, captured part of the enemy’s food and forage stocks, defeated and set fire to several outposts and fortifications. However, the garrison suffered serious losses. There was contention in the garrison of the monastery between the archers and the monks. There were also defector to the enemy from among the garrison, including nobles and archers. In January, the Tushians nearly took a fortress on 1609. During one of the attacks, the Tushians attacked from an ambush and cut off our detachment from the fortress. At the same time, part of the enemy troops broke into the open gates of the monastery. The position was saved by the numerous artillery of the fortress, which with its fire disrupted the ranks of the enemy troops. Thanks to the support of artillery, the squad of archers that had come out to the raid was able to get back, losing several dozen fighters. And the horsemen who had broken into the Trinity-Sergius Monastery could not turn around on the narrow streets between the buildings, and were hit by ordinary people, who brought down on the enemy a hail of stones and logs. The enemy was defeated and dropped.
In the meantime, the situation of the Polish-Cossack army of Sapieha and Lisowski deteriorated. In winter, it became harder to get food, scurvy began. Began to dwindle a few stocks of gunpowder. Sapega's troops were not ready for the siege of a strong fortress, there were no corresponding supplies and equipment. The strife in the army of the besiegers intensified, between Poles, mercenaries and Cossacks. As a result, Hetman Sapieha decided on a second assault, planning to undermine the fortress gates with harvested powerful firecrackers.
In order to guarantee success, Sapega introduced into the monastery the defector Pole Mattisha with the task of gaining confidence in the Russian voivode, and at the decisive moment to disable part of the serf artillery. By participating in raids and firing cannons at the Tushians, Martyash really gained confidence in the governor Dolgoruky. But on the eve of the assault, scheduled for July 8, a defector arrived at the monastery, who reported a spy. Martyash was captured and, under torture, reported everything he knew about the upcoming assault. As a result, although by that time the forces of the Russian garrison had declined more than threefold since the beginning of the siege, the soldiers of Dolgorukov withstood the attack. They were placed in places where enemy attacks were expected; this allowed the second assault to be repulsed. Tushyntsy were rejected in the night battle.
However, the number of professional soldiers of the garrison of the fortress decreased to 200 people. Therefore, Sapieha began to prepare the third assault, mobilizing all his forces. This time the attack had to be carried out from all four sides in order to achieve complete fragmentation of the weak forces of the garrison. In one direction, the attackers had to break through the fortifications and simply crush the small garrison of the monastery. The assault was assigned to 7 August 1609 of the year.
Dolvorukiy, who saw the enemy commander in front of him, armed all the peasants and monks, ordered to put all the powder on the walls, but there was practically no chance of success in the battle. Only a miracle could save the besieged, and it happened. Tushyntsy entangled in the signals (gun shots), some troops rushed to the assault after the first shot, others - after the next, mixed. German mercenaries took the Russian Tushins for the garrison and grappled with them. In another place, the Polish cavalry took the Tushins for making a sortie garrison of the monastery and attacked them. The battle between the besiegers turned into a massacre of each other. The number of people killed by each other amounted to hundreds of people. The artillery of the fortress opened heavy fire on the sounds of battle. As a result, the assault columns mixed up, panicked and retreated. Thus, the inconsistency of the Tushino’s actions and the “friendly slaughter” disrupted a decisive assault.
The failure of the assault and the mutual slaughter, the total failure of the seizure of a rich monastery, which everyone hoped to plunder, finally split the Tushinsky camp, where mutual hostility smoldered for a long time. In the army of Sapega split. Many atamans of the Tushins took away their troops from the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, desertion in the remaining detachments became widespread. Following the Tushins, foreign mercenaries left the Sapieha camp. The besieged received hope of victory.
Meanwhile, Sapieha could not organize a new assault on the fortress. In the fall of 1609, Russian troops of Prince Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky inflicted a series of defeats on the Tushins and Poles, and launched an offensive towards Moscow. Russian regiments freed Pereslavl-Zalessky and Aleksandrovskaya settlement. Detachments from all over Russia flocked to Skopin-Shuisky. Sensing the threat Sapieha decided to deliver a preemptive blow to Skopin-Shuisky. Leaving part of his troops to besiege the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, he moved to Alexandrov Sloboda, but was defeated in a battle on the Karinsky field. After that, the detachments of archers governor Davyd Zherebtsova and Grigory Valuev were able to break into the monastery and restore the combat capability of his garrison. The garrison of the fortress again turned to active hostilities. Getman Sapega, taking into account the approach of the main forces of Prince Skopin-Shuisky, lifted the siege. 12 (22) January 1610, Polish-Lithuanian troops retreated from the monastery and fled to an impostor.
The ruin of the Russian land
Having failed to achieve a complete blockade of Moscow, the Tushians tried to seize as much of the state as possible. Pskov fell under their power, the Novgorod regions — Pyatyn, many “border”, Tver and Smolensk cities. Many of them were taken by surprise. Tushinskie gangs penetrated deep into the country. In the occupied territories, the Tushians behaved like conquerors. Detachments of the “driven people” —the foragers of Sapega, Lisowski, Rozhinsky, and other Polish magnates — scattered around cities and villages. All of them, in the name of "Tsar Dmitry," plundered the country.
The cities that remained on the side of Tsar Vasily were brought in obedience by the detachments sent from Tushino. So, Lisovsky attacked Rostov, cutting out 2 thousand people. The situation was critical. The war went on almost the entire territory of European Russia. Only separate districts and cities were kept. Ryazan, where supervised Lyapunov. Kolomna, where the governor Prozorovsky defeated the regiments of Khmelevsky, Mlotsky and Bobovsky sent against him. Novgorod fought off a detachment of Kernozitsky and threw him to Staraya Russa. Kazan held Sheremetev, Nizhny Novgorod - Alyabyev and Repnin. With a garrison of several hundred archers and city militia, they beat the enemy detachments four times, and Vyazemsky, who led the “changed governor” Vyazemsky, who was in charge of the Tushians, was caught and hanged. In a difficult situation, Voivode Mikhail Shein found himself in Smolensk. Gangs invaded his county because of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, plundered the villages, killed, drove into full people, and the governor received a categorical order of the king not to take action against them so as not to disturb peace with Poland. Shein found a way out in that he began to arm the peasants themselves and form of them self-defense units for “illegal” resistance to the bandits.
The Polish gentry turned the "tsarik", as they wanted, themselves appointed fantastic salaries for themselves. Obviously, there was no money from the False Dmitry, and the gentry did not want to wait for the seizure of the wealth of Moscow. In 1 Tushino itself, 1609 in February even broke out a riot, as the Poles demanded a payday. Since, with all the desire, the impostor could not find the necessary amount of money, the Poles divided the country between the troops for feeding - “bailiffs”, and began to rob them. From the "royal" name issued decrees on the collection of salaries in various cities. All this resulted in frank robbery, pogroms and violence. For example, in the voluntarily conquered Yaroslavl "plundered the merchants' shops, beat the people and bought everything they wanted without money." Women and girls were raped, and those who tried to protect them or their property were killed. It happened that the settlements were robbed several times, arriving with the same decrees from Rozhinsky or from Sapieha.
In addition to the "collection of salaries" for the troops, a campaign began in preparation for the winter and the collection of food and fodder. For the construction of the Tushino camp, workers were driven out of the neighboring villages, taken away and taken away the huts, throwing the hosts into the cold. Deposits of peasants were depleted, dooming them to starvation. And they not only took, betrayed everything they met to senseless destruction: destroyed and burned houses, buildings, cut cattle, scattered seed, destroyed food that they could not take with them, etc. They kidnapped beautiful women and girls, forcing their husbands and relatives to bring a ransom. Stolen returned not always.
Some gentlemen created thieves' “nests” in their villages and estates, terrorized the peasants, forced them to feed and water themselves, created harems from girls. Many, taking into account the moral principles of the time, then hung or drowned in shame. The decrees of the “queen” were not put into a penny. And numerous petitional nobles Lzhedmitry survived, that in the estates bestowed on them Poles nestled, rampant over the peasants, and even over the relatives of the landowners. The clergy’s complaints have reached us that “patrimonial lands, villages and villages have been ravaged and robbed by warriors and many have been burned.” Tushino gangs seized monasteries, tortured monks, searched for treasure, mocked the nuns, forced them to serve themselves, dance and sing "shameful songs", for killing refusal.
It is clear that this eventually led to the mass resistance of the Russian people. The same cities that swore to False Dmitry began at the end of 1608. In response, followed by punitive expeditions. Lisovsky was especially rampant. The Poles burned down the Danilovsky Monastery and killed all the inhabitants. Lisovsky cruelly pacified Yaroslavl, cut out Kineshma, and, as Petrei wrote, reaching "the cities of Galich and Kostroma, he burned them and retreated with huge and rich booty." Atrocities became widespread and commonplace: people were hanged, drowned, put on pins, crucified, taken away clothes and driven out naked in the cold, mothers and daughters were raped in front of children and fathers. But this only intensified bitterness against the Tushins. As soon as the punishers left, the uprisings were resumed, and the “Lithuania”, which had been appointed by the False Dmitry the governor and the officials, was slaughtered without pity.
The areas that remained under the authority of the impostor were no better. Various gang formations — Polish-Lithuanian detachments, pansky servants, “thieves' Cossacks”, free suburbs, just robbers, also wanted to “walk”. So, someone Nalyvayko distinguished himself in the Vladimir region by imprisoning men and raping all women, so that he “beat to death with his own hands the nobles and children of the boyars and all sorts of people, men and women of 93,”. In the end, his actions triggered a response from the impostor. He was captured by the Vladimir voivode Velyaminov and was hanged by them on the orders of the Falsite Dmitry.
Thus, the Russian land was subjected to unprecedented ruin. Eyewitnesses wrote that "then human dwellings and dwellings of wild animals changed." In the villages, wolves and crows fed on the corpses, while the surviving people fled through the forests, hiding in the thicket. In Russia, it is what contemporaries called “hard times”.
To be continued ...
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