With the appearance in 1607 of the second Russian impostor, who took the name of Tsar Dmitry Ivanovich, a full-scale Civil War, which engulfed the entire center of the country, brought Russia to the brink of death and led to a foreign invasion.

In the portraits of the 17th century, False Dmitry II was portrayed as False Dmitry I, which, of course, is by no means accidental, since the new, second impostor no longer pretended to be Tsarevich Dmitry, the son of Ivan the Terrible, who allegedly escaped once in Uglich, but for “Tsar Dmitry ”(Grigory Otrepyev), who was crowned king on July 30, 1605 and allegedly escaped death on May 17, 1606 by a miracle (many claimed that then his double was killed instead of the king).

Probably outwardly, False Dmitry II really looked like his predecessor. As for everything else, the second impostor was complete opposite Grigory Otrepiev. The Russian historian Sergei Platonov noted that False Dmitry I was in fact the leader of the movement he had raised. “The thief [False Dmitry II], - the researcher emphasized, - went out to his work from a drunken prison and declared himself king under pain of beatings and torture. He did not lead the crowds of his supporters and subjects, but, on the contrary, they dragged him along in a spontaneous ferment, the motive of which was not the interest of the applicant, but own interests his troops."

One of many

The first news about False Dmitry II dates back to the winter of 1607, when a contender for the name of the miraculously saved Tsar Dmitry was discovered in Lithuania. This impostor was then one of many who posed as royalty. Among the Terek Cossacks appeared "Prince Pyotr Fedorovich" (allegedly the son of Tsar Fedor, that is, the grandson of Ivan the Terrible) and "Tsarevich Ivan-August" (allegedly the son of Ivan the Terrible from his marriage to Anna Koltovskaya). The first shed blood in the south of Russia, and then connected with the governor of "Tsar Dmitry" Ivan Bolotnikov in Tula. The second operated in the Lower Volga region, where Astrakhan submitted to him. Following them, another "grandson" of the Terrible, the "son" of Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich - "Tsarevich Lavrenty" appeared. In the Cossack villages, impostors grew like mushrooms: the “children” of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich appeared - the “princes” Simeon, Savely, Vasily, Klementy, Eroshka, Gavrilka, Martynka.

In May 1607, False Dmitry II crossed the Russian-Polish border, showed up in Starodub and was recognized local residents. His army replenished so slowly that only in September he was able, at the head of detachments of Polish mercenaries, Cossacks and Russian thieves (thieves at that time were called various criminals, including political rebels), to move to the aid of False Peter and Bolotnikov. On October 8, the impostor defeated the tsar’s voivode, Prince Vasily Fedorovich Mosalsky, near Kozelsk, captured Belev on the 16th, but, having learned that Tsar Vasily Shuisky had taken Tula, seized by turmoil, and captured Bolotnikov and False Peter, he fled from Belev to Karachev.

However, instead of sending his army against the new thief, Tsar Vasily dismissed him, and the commanders of the rebellious army, meanwhile, forced False Dmitry II to turn to Bryansk. The city was besieged, but the governor Mosalsky, sent to Bryansk to the rescue, inspired his detachment: on December 15, 1607, the soldiers, having crossed the icy Desna by swimming, joined the garrison. By joint efforts, Bryansk managed to defend. The rebels did not disappear anywhere: they gathered at Orel and Krom - then, apparently, the proverb "Eagle and Krom - the first thieves" was born. The surviving defenders of Tula, and professional warriors - gentry and Cossacks, and new detachments from all "Ukraines" flocked to the impostor.

In the spring of 1608, the army of False Dmitry II moved to Moscow. At the head of the impostor's troops stood the Lithuanian hetman, Prince Roman Ruzhinsky. April 30 - May 1 (the battle lasted two days) near Belev, the regiments commanded by the tsar's brother, Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Shuisky, were defeated. Already in June, False Dmitry appeared near Moscow and encamped in the village of Tushino. By the name of his residence, he received the memorable name of the Tushinsky thief.

Second False Dmitry

Its origin is shrouded in legend. Among contemporaries there were several versions. The voivode of False Dmitry II, Prince Dmitry Mosalsky Humpbacked, “said with torture” that the impostor “from Moscow, from the Arbat from Zakonyushev, is the son of Mitka.” Another of his former supporters, the son of the boyar Afanasy Tsyplyatev, said during interrogation that "Tsarevich Dmitry is called Litvin, Ondrey Kurbsky is the son." The “Moscow chronicler” and the cellar of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery Avraamy (in the world Averky Palitsyn) considered him to come from the family of the Starodub children of the boyar Verevkins (the Verevkins were among the first who still in Starodub recognized the sovereign in the impostor and embarrassed the townspeople).

The Jesuits also conducted their own investigation into the personality of False Dmitry II. They believed that the baptized Jew Bogdanko took the name of the king killed in 1606. He was a teacher in Shklov, then moved to Mogilev, where he served the priest: “but he had a bad robe on him, a bad casing, a baryan [lamb's hat], in that summer he went.” For some misconduct, the Shklovsky teacher was threatened with prison. At that moment, a participant in the campaign of False Dmitry I to Moscow, the Pole M. Mekhovsky, noticed him. The latter, most likely, appeared in Belarus for a reason. On the instructions of the leaders of the rebellion against Vasily Shuisky - Bolotnikov, Prince Grigory Petrovich Shakhovsky and False Peter - he was looking for the right person for the role of the resurrected Tsar Dmitry. The ragged teacher, in his opinion, outwardly resembled False Dmitry I. But the tramp was frightened by the offer made to him and fled to Propoisk, where he was caught. Here, faced with a choice - to be punished or to declare himself the Tsar of Moscow, he agreed to the latter.

Polish army

After the defeat of the gentry rokosh (mutiny) by Hetman Stanislav Zholkievsky, the army of the Tushino thief was replenished a large number Polish mercenaries. One of the most successful governor of the new impostor was Colonel Alexander Lisovsky. Everyone was recruited into his fox squads, without distinction of rank and nationality, only the fighting qualities of the warriors were of interest.

False Dmitry II also had those who fought with the highest permission of King Sigismund III, seeking revenge on the Muscovites for the death and captivity of Polish knights during the uprising against False Dmitry I. Thus, Colonel Jan Piotr Sapieha came to the Thief with an 8,000-strong detachment. Among the immigrants from the Commonwealth there were many not only Poles and Lithuanians, but also residents of the Belarusian lands who professed Orthodoxy.

The Tushino camp was a collection of people of different nationalities (Russians, Poles, Lithuanians, Don, Zaporozhye and Volga Cossacks, Tatars), united under the banner of a new impostor by hatred for Shuisky and the desire for profit. The camp of False Dmitry II, which included wooden buildings and tents, was well fortified and protected from the western side by a moat and rampart, and from other sides by the Moscow and Skhodnya rivers.

Approaching Moscow, the impostor tried to take it on the move, but ran into stubborn resistance from the tsarist army. The fighting went westward from the capital, on the Khodynka River not far from Tushin. Then the governors of False Dmitry II decided to blockade the city, blocking all the roads along which it was supplied and communicated with the outskirts. From that moment on, the Tushino people undertook regular campaigns to the north and northeast, to the cities outside Moscow, trying to cut off Vasily Shuisky from Pomorie, the Middle Volga region, Perm and Siberia, who traditionally supported him.

"Migratory birds"

With the advent of False Dmitry II, a long period of cruel civil strife began near the walls of the capital. The country was split into two hostile camps. Both in Moscow and in Tushino, the tsar and the tsarina were sitting (his associates brought Marina Mnishek and her father to the Thief’s camp, and the widow of the first impostor agreed to play the role of the wife of the second) and the patriarch (they brought here Metropolitan Filaret (Romanov), captured in Rostov, whom they named Patriarch of Moscow). Both tsars had a Boyar Duma, orders, troops, both granted estates to their supporters and mobilized military men.

The "thieves" Boyar Duma was quite representative and consisted of various kinds of oppositionists. Its head was the "boyar" (he received this dignity from False Dmitry II), Prince Dmitry Timofeevich Trubetskoy. At the Moscow court, he was just a steward and one of the first to defect to the impostor, right during the battle (“from the case”). A significant force in this Duma was represented by the relatives of the "Patriarch" Filaret - the boyar Mikhail Glebovich Saltykov, the princes Roman Fedorovich Troekurov, Alexei Yuryevich Sitsky, Dmitry Mamtryukovich Cherkassky; served False Dmitry II and the favorites of his predecessor - Prince Vasily Mikhailovich Rubets Mosalsky and other Mosalskys, Prince Grigory Petrovich Shakhovskoy, nobleman Mikhail Andreevich Molchanov, as well as clerks Ivan Tarasevich Gramotin and Pyotr Alekseevich Tretyakov.

Many ran from the impostor to Vasily Shuisky and back, receiving more and more awards for new betrayals. Avraamy (Palitsyn), the author of an essay about the Time of Troubles, aptly referred to them as "flights". According to him, it also happened that during the day the nobles feasted in the “royal city”, and “for fun” some went to the royal chambers, while others “jumped to the Tushino camps”. The level of moral decline of his contemporaries, who "the king of the game is like a brainchild", committing numerous perjury, horrified Palitsyn.

At the same time, it was not he himself and not the Boyar Duma who used the greatest power in the camp of the impostor, but the commander-in-chief Roman Ruzhinsky and other commanders from the Commonwealth. From the spring of 1608, Poles and Lithuanians were appointed voivodes to the subjects of False Dmitry II; usually there were two governors - a Russian and a foreigner.

A turning point in relations between the Tushino regime and the regions of Zamoskovie and Pomorye controlled by it occurred with the appearance in the thieves' camp of the Lithuanian magnate Jan Peter Sapieha with the mercenaries of the Finnish army (these soldiers fought for King Sigismund III in the Baltic states, but, dissatisfied with the delays in paying salaries, they set off to look for happiness in the east). After heated disputes between Ruzhinsky and Sapega, a division was made. Ruzhinsky remained in Tushino and controlled the southern and western lands, while Sapega camped near the Trinity-Sergius Monastery and undertook to spread the power of the impostor in Zamoskovie, Pomorye and Novgorod land.

In the north of Russia, the Tushinos acted even more brazenly than in the west and south: they shamelessly robbed the population; Polish and Lithuanian regiments and companies, dividing the palace volosts and villages into "bailiffs", under the guise of collecting taxes and fodder, were engaged in robberies. AT regular time pickers from each plow (a unit of taxation) received 20 rubles; Tushinians, on the other hand, beat out 80 rubles from a plow. Numerous petitions addressed to False Dmitry II and Jan Sapega of peasants, townspeople and landowners have been preserved with complaints about the excesses of the troops. “Lithuanian military people, and Tatars, and Russian people come to us, beat us and torture us and rob our stomachs. Perhaps we, your orphans, were ordered to give us bailiffs! the peasants cried out desperately.

Of particular interest to the robbers were the ancient Russian cities, the centers of the dioceses, in which the episcopal treasury and treasury were located. So, in October 1608, the Sapezhins plundered Rostov, capturing, as already mentioned, Metropolitan Filaret. The inhabitants were “slaughtered”, the city was burned, and the metropolitan, after bullying and scolding, was brought to Tushino. Suzdal, Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, Yaroslavl, Yuryev-Polskoy, Uglich, Vladimir, Vologda, Kostroma, Galich, Murom, Kasimov, Shatsk, Alatyr, Arzamas, Ryazan, Pskov were captured or voluntarily “kissed the cross to the Thief” ... In Nizhny Novgorod, they fought back from Tushintsev and rebellious peoples of the Volga region led by Prince Alexander Andreevich Repnin and Andrei Semenovich Alyabyev. Shuisky Pereyaslavl-Ryazan (Ryazan), where the leader of the Ryazan nobility Prokopy Petrovich Lyapunov, sat, Smolensk, in which the boyar Mikhail Borisovich Shein ruled, Kazan and Veliky Novgorod.

In the Lower Volga region, he fought with "thieves' people" - Russian Tushins, as well as Tatars, Chuvashs, Mari - boyar Fedor Ivanovich Sheremetev. In the autumn of 1608, he moved up the Volga, gathering forces loyal to Tsar Vasily along the way, including attracting to his side the descendants of the Livonian Germans exiled by Ivan the Terrible.

Swedish help

Tsar Vasily Shuisky sent separate detachments from Moscow against the Tushino people. Their most important task was to ensure the supply of food to the capital. When rebels appeared near Kolomna, one of the few cities that remained loyal to Shuisky, the tsar sent Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky, a steward, against them. He defeated them in the village of Vysotsky, which is 30 miles from Kolomna, and "captured many languages, and took away many of their treasury and supplies."

However, such successes were infrequent. And Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky, realizing that he was unable to cope with the impostor alone, decided to resort to foreign military aid- to Sweden. The choice of King Charles IX as an ally was not accidental. Charles IX was the uncle and enemy of the King of Poland Sigismund III - at one time he even took the Swedish throne from his nephew. In conditions when Sigismund III intervened more and more actively in Russian affairs every year, tacitly supporting both False Dmitrys and the Polish-Lithuanian detachments roaming Russia, the inevitability of a war with the Commonwealth became obvious. Vasily Shuisky sought, ahead of events, to enlist the help of his northern neighbor.

Another Shuisky

Prince Mikhail Vasilievich Skopin-Shuisky was sent to Veliky Novgorod to negotiate with the Swedes. The young (he was only 22 years old) relative of the tsar by that time had already managed to become famous for his victories over Bolotnikov's detachments. Unlike most aristocrats of that time, Skopin-Shuisky really deserved his boyar rank, showing himself as a talented and courageous military leader. In a situation where the tsarist governors suffered one defeat after another and retreated helplessly, the prince's victories were of great moral importance.

He had successful negotiations. He managed to attract a mercenary army of 12 thousand Swedes, Germans, Scots and other people from Western Europe, and gather in the northern regions of the Russian militia of 3 thousand people. The foreign part of the army of Skopin-Shuisky was commanded by the Swedish Count Jacob Pontus Delagardie. On May 10, 1609, Prince Mikhail Vasilyevich moved from Novgorod "to cleanse the Muscovite state."

In the spring of that year, the north of Russia was engulfed in an uprising against the Tushino thief. Zemstvo detachments attacked the Tushins, killed and expelled them. The governors of Skopin-Shuisky also acted together with them, but the liberation of the northern lands was delayed for several months. But the army of the prince was replenished with detachments of the local militia. In the atmosphere of chaos and devastation that reigned under Vasily Shuisky, local communities (“zemstvo worlds”) themselves began to organize defense and defend themselves from predatory robbers who plundered Russian lands under the banner of Tsar Dmitry. Gradually, these detachments merged into large formations, until, finally, the northern militia joined the army of Skopin-Shuisky.

In the summer, the prince defeated the main forces of False Dmitry II in several battles, but further advance towards Moscow was delayed due to friction with the Swedish mercenaries, who demanded the fulfillment of the terms of the concluded agreement, and in particular the transfer of the Russian fortress of Korela to Sweden. Only in October 1609, after new victories over the Tushino Yan Sapega and Alexander Zborovsky, Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky settled in Alexandrova Sloboda, where a kind of headquarters of the liberation movement arose. In November, the boyar Sheremetev joined the prince, moving from near Astrakhan with an army from the “lower cities” (that is, the cities of the Lower and Middle Volga) and along the way defeated the uprising of the peoples of the Volga region and took the desperately resisting city of Kasimov by storm (in early August 1609) . It was then that Sapega, fearing the advancing Russian army of Skopin-Shuisky, lifted the siege from the Trinity-Sergius Monastery.

While Prince Mikhail Vasilyevich was restoring order in the north of the country and fighting with the Tushins in the Upper Volga region, Moscow was restless. Treachery and rebellion had already penetrated into the reigning city itself, faith in the government, loyalty to the king had weakened. The incessant bloodshed of many prompted the idea of ​​replacing the unfortunate Vasily IV.

In February 1609, Prince Roman Gagarin, the son of the famous guardsman Timofei Gryaznoy, the Ryazan nobleman Grigory Sunbulov "and many others" opposed the sovereign and began to persuade the boyars to depose Vasily Shuisky. However, only Prince Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn supported their appeals. "Noise" rose at the Execution Ground, where the rebels brought the patriarch, but Hermogenes firmly held the side of Shuisky. The king himself was not afraid to appear before the rebels, and they retreated. Participants in the unsuccessful coup attempt and sympathizers - 300 people - fled to Tushino.

Soon opened and new conspiracy. One of the boyars closest to Vasily IV - Ivan Fedorovich Kryuk Kolychev - received a denunciation that he was plotting to kill the tsar on Palm Sunday on April 9. Enraged, Vasily Shuisky ordered Kolychev and his accomplices to be tortured and then executed on Pozhar (Red Square). But even after that, indignation was more than once raised against the sovereign.

"Here comes my rival!"

March 12, 1610 Skopin-Shuisky at the head of the army entered Moscow and was greeted by the jubilant people. But among the triumphant crowd there was one man whose heart was filled with malice and hatred. “Prince Dmitry Shuisky, standing on the rampart and seeing Skopin from a distance, exclaimed: “Here comes my rival!”, narrates a contemporary of these events, the Dutchman Elias Gerkman. The brother of Tsar Dmitry Ivanovich Shuisky had reason to be afraid of the young governor: in the event of the death of a childless sovereign, he was supposed to take the throne, but the huge popularity of Skopin-Shuisky inspired him with fear that the people would proclaim the heir, and then the tsar, Prince Mikhail Vasilyevich. Some sources testify that Vasily IV himself was afraid of Skopin-Shuisky, who was rapidly gaining fame and political weight.

The “Scripture on the Repose and Burial of Prince Skopin-Shuisky”, according to which, at the christening of Prince Alexei Vorotynsky, the godmother - the “villainous” Princess Ekaterina Shuiskaya (wife of Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Shuisky and daughter of guardsman Malyuta Skuratov) - presented to her godfather Mikhail Vasilievich Skopin-Shuisky a bowl of poison. The young commander fell ill for several days and died on April 23, 1610. With weeping and screaming, crowds of people escorted the body of the prince to burial in the royal tomb - the Archangel Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin. With the death of Skopin-Shuisky, they began to hate the king, who had not previously enjoyed special love, as the culprit of his death.

Meanwhile, False Dmitry II, like Vasily IV in Moscow, had long felt uncomfortable in his "capital" - Tushino. Back in September 1609, Sigismund III declared war on Russia and laid siege to Smolensk. Among the Poles surrounding the impostor, a plan arose to transfer the Tushinsky thief into the hands of the king, and themselves to take his side and get him or his son Vladislav the Moscow crown. The Poles and some Russian Tushians began negotiations with Sigismund III, which resulted in an agreement between the Tushino boyars and the king (February 4, 1610) on calling Prince Vladislav to the throne of Moscow.

Kaluga yard

In December 1609, the impostor was placed under house arrest, but managed to escape from Tushin to Kaluga, where he again attracted many supporters (Cossacks, Russians and part of the Poles) and from where he waged war with two sovereigns: Moscow Tsar Vasily Shuisky and the Polish king Sigismund. The Tushino camp was empty: the supporters of the king - the boyar Saltykov, Prince Rubets Mosalsky, Prince Yuri Dmitrievich Khvorostinin, the nobleman Molchanov, the clerk Gramotin and others - went to him near Smolensk, and the supporters of the impostor - to Kaluga.

During the Kaluga period of his adventure, False Dmitry II was the most independent in the actions taken. Convinced of the treachery of the Polish mercenaries, he already appealed to the Russian people, frightening them with the desire of Sigismund III to seize Russia and establish Catholicism here. This call resonated with many. Kaluga residents gladly accepted the impostor. A little later, Marina Mnishek also made her way to Kaluga, finding herself after the flight of the Thief from Tushin in Dmitrov at the hetman Jan Sapieha.

The Tushino camp broke up, but by 1610 a new abscess had formed in Kaluga. Now the impostor was agitating against the king and the Poles, but his patriotism was dictated primarily by selfish considerations. In fact, he was not confident in his abilities and sought help from Sapieha, was afraid of assassination attempts and therefore surrounded himself with guards from Germans and Tatars. An atmosphere of suspicion and cruelty reigned in the Kaluga camp. On a false denunciation, False Dmitry II ordered the execution of Albert Skotnitsky, who had previously been the captain of the guards of False Dmitry I and Kaluga governor Bolotnikov, and unleashed his anger on all Germans. In the end, boundless cruelty and ruined him.

In the autumn of 1610, Kasimov Khan Uraz-Mukhammed arrived in Kaluga from the royal camp near Smolensk. Kasimov was a faithful support initially of Bolotnikov, and then of False Dmitry II, so the impostor accepted him with honor. However, having received a denunciation of the evil intentions of the khan, the Tushinsky thief lured him on a hunt, where he was killed. According to the epitaph of Uraz-Mohammed, this happened on November 22.

But the impostor did not long survive the Kasimov Khan. The head of the guard of False Dmitry II, the Nogai prince Peter Urusov, decided to take revenge on him for the death of the khan. Urusov also had another reason for revenge: earlier, the Tushinsky thief ordered the execution of the roundabout Ivan Ivanovich Godunov, who was a relative of the prince. On December 11, 1610, the impostor went for a ride in a sleigh. A verst from Kaluga, Pyotr Urusov approached the sledge and fired at him with a gun, and then cut off his head with a saber. Having committed the murder, the Tatars, who were guarding False Dmitry II, rode off to the Crimea. The news of the death of the impostor was brought to the camp by the jester Peter Koshelev, who accompanied him on the trip. Kaluga residents buried "Tsar Dmitry" in the Trinity Church. A few days later, Marina Mnishek gave birth to a son, who was baptized according to Orthodox rite and named Ivan in honor of his imaginary grandfather. The remnants of the army of False Dmitry II took the oath to the newborn "prince".

The death of False Dmitry II was of great importance, predetermining further development events. The movement directed against the Poles and Russian traitors was able to free itself from the adventurist element associated with the personality of the self-proclaimed pretender to the throne. Now the main slogans of the opponents of Polish rule were the expulsion of foreigners and the convening of the Zemsky Sobor to elect a new legitimate tsar (by that time Vasily Shuisky had been deposed - on July 17, 1610). Persons who previously supported the Poles out of fear of an impostor began to go over to the side of their opponents. At the same time, the anarchist elements lost their main support: having lost the idea of ​​serving the "lawful king", they turned into ordinary robbers. The son of Marina Mnishek and False Dmitry II, Ivan, nicknamed Vorenok in Moscow, was too small to become the leader of the movement. According to the New Chronicler, the impostor's supporters in Kaluga refused to swear allegiance to Prince Vladislav and announced that they would take the oath to the tsar who "would be in the Muscovite state."

The story of the life and death of False Dmitry 2

False Dmitry 2 - (when born unknown - death December 11 (21), 1610) impostor of unknown origin. He was called the Kaluga or Tushinsky thief. From 1607, he pretended to be his son, Tsarevich Dmitry, who allegedly escaped (False Dmitry I). In 1608-1609, he created the Tushinsky camp near the capital, from where he unsuccessfully tried to capture Moscow. With the beginning of the open Polish intervention, he fled to Kaluga, where he was killed.

The appearance of False Dmitry 2

Having appeared in Starodub in the middle of 1607, False Dmitry 2 was a person who was not at all suitable for the throne. “A rude man, with nasty customs, foul-mouthed in conversation,” was how the Polish captain Samuel Maskevich described him. The origin of this husband is really "dark and modest" - either a school teacher from the Belarusian town of Shklova, or a Russian native, or a popovich, or a baptized Jew, or even an unbaptized Jew (which is completely unbelievable). His appearance, some of the historians explain the desire of the Polish lords to sow confusion in the Muscovite state.

It was said that the impostor, who left the Lithuanian possessions in Moscow state, at the instigation of the agent of Mnishek's wife, Mechovitsky, did not dare to immediately declare himself king. At first, he was called the Moscow boyar Nagim and spread rumors in Starodub that Dmitry managed to escape. When he and his accomplice, clerk Alexei Rukin, were tortured by the Starodubtsy, the latter said that the one who calls himself Nagim is the real Dmitry. He took on an imperious air, threateningly waved his stick and shouted: "Oh, you all sorts of children, I am the sovereign."

First victories

Starodubtsy and putivltsy rushed to his feet, lamenting: “Guilty, sir, they did not recognize you; have mercy on us. We are glad to serve you and lay down our lives for you.” He was released and surrounded with honors. He was joined by Zarutsky, Mekhovitsky, with a Polish Russian detachment, and several thousand Seversky. With this army, False Dmitry 2 was able to take Karachev, Bryansk and Kozelsk. In Orel, he received reinforcements from Poland, Lithuania and Zaporozhye.

1608, May - the troops of False Dmitry defeated Shuisky near Volkhov. In this battle, the army of the impostor was commanded by the Ukrainian prince Roman Ruzhinsky, who brought under the banner of the new "tsar" thousands of volunteers recruited by him in the Commonwealth. Soon, the impostor approached the capital and settled down in Tushino, 12 versts from Moscow (the angle formed by the Moscow River and its tributary Skhodnya), which is why he received the nickname "Tushino thief."

Tushino camp

Tushino camp

The Tushino period of Russian unrest lasted for almost a year and a half. In the camp of the Tushinsky thief were not only Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian adventurers, but also representatives of the nobility - opponents of Shuisky. Among them, one should mention the Rostov Metropolitan Filaret Nikitich Romanov, who was named patriarch (it seems even against his will). The impostor called on the people to his side, giving them the lands of the “traitors” of the boyars and even allowing them to forcefully marry boyar daughters. The camp soon turned into a fortified city, in which there were 7,000 Polish soldiers, 10,000 Cossacks and several tens of thousands of armed rabble.

The main strength of the "Tushinsky thief" was the Cossacks, who sought to establish Cossack liberty. “Our tsar,” wrote one of the Poles who served him, “everything is done as according to the Gospel, everyone is equal in his service.” But when well-born people appeared in Tushino, disputes about seniority immediately began to arise, envy and rivalry with each other appeared.

1608, August - part of the Poles liberated at the request of Sigismund fell into the location of the Tushins. Marina Mnishek, who was there, after the persuasion of Rozhinsky and Sapieha, recognized False Dmitry 2 as her husband and was secretly married to him. Sapega and Lisovsky joined the impostor. The Cossacks continued to flock to him, so that he had up to 100,000 troops.

In Moscow and the surrounding cities, the influence of False Dmitry 2 was steadily growing. Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Vologda, Murom, Kashin and many other cities obeyed him.

Poles and Russian thieves, who were sent around the cities, soon set the Russian people against themselves. At first, the impostor promised tarkhan letters, which freed the Russians from all taxes, but the inhabitants soon saw that they would have to give as much as they wanted to take from them. Tax collectors were expelled from Tushin, and after some time Sapega sent his tax collectors there from under the Trinity.

Poles and Russian thieves gathered in gangs that attacked the villages, robbed them, mocked people. This embittered the Russian people, and they no longer believed that the real Dmitry was in Tushino.

After the failure of Sapieha before the Trinity Lavra, the position of the "king" of the impostor was shaken; outlying cities began to renounce him. Another attempt to capture Moscow was not successful; Skopin was advancing from the north with the Swedes, in Pskov and Tver the Tushians were defeated and fled. Moscow was freed from the siege.

Kaluga camp

Siege of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra

The campaign of Sigismund III near Smolensk worsened the position of the "king" even more - the Poles began to pass under the banner of their king. False Dmitry, disguised as a peasant, fled from the camp. In fortified Kaluga, he was received with honors. Marina Mnishek also arrived in Kaluga, under the protection provided by Sapieha, the impostor lived in high esteem. Without the supervision of the Polish pans, I felt freer. Kolomna and Kashira swore allegiance to him again.

And at that time, the army of Sigismund III continued to unsuccessfully besiege Smolensk, and the young commander Skopin-Shuisky was able to lift the siege from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. And suddenly Skopin-Shuisky died, according to rumors, poisoned by the wife of one of the royal brothers, Prince Dmitry. The latter was appointed commander of the army sent to the aid of Smolensk.

Trip to Moscow

Near Klushino, 150 km from the capital, on June 24, 1610, Shuisky's army was defeated by the Poles under the command of crown hetman Stanislav Zhulkevsky. The way to Moscow was open. Zhulkevsky approached her from the west, Tushinsky thief - from the south. The impostor took Serpukhov, Borovsk, Pafnutiev Monastery and reached Moscow itself. Marina stayed at the Nikolo-Ugreshsky Monastery, and False Dmitry - in the palace village of Kolomenskoye. Again, as in Tushino times, the Kremlin was within easy reach and the royal throne was empty (on July 17, he was “reduced” from the throne, and then forcibly tonsured a monk).

But this time, too, history assigned the Kaluga "king" only an unenviable role. His appearance forced the Moscow boyars to choose the lesser of two evils. On August 17, Zhulkevsky concluded an agreement with them, according to which the son of Sigismund III, Prince Vladislav, was to take the Moscow throne. The capital, and later many other Russian cities, swore allegiance to Tsar Vladislav Zhigmontovich. From now on, the Polish garrison introduced into Moscow became an insurmountable obstacle for False Dmitry.

Zhulkevsky, however, tried to settle the matter amicably. On behalf of the king, he promised the impostor, in case of support for the royal cause, to give the city of Sambir or Grodno. But, the hetman indignantly wrote in his memoirs, “he did not think to be content with that, and even more so his wife, who, being an ambitious woman, rather rudely muttered: “Let His Majesty the King yield to His Majesty the King of Krakow, and the Tsar His Majesty yield to His King Majesty Warsaw.

Then Zhulkevsky decided to simply arrest them, but Marina and the impostor fled to Kaluga on August 27, accompanied by 500 Cossacks of Ataman Ivan Martynovich Zarutsky, who first came out on their side.

Death of False Dmitry 2

He died as a result of the revenge of the baptized Tatar Urusov, whom he subjected to corporal punishment. 1610, December 11 - when the half-drunk impostor, under the escort of a crowd of Tatars, went hunting, Urusov cut his shoulder with a saber, and Urusov's younger brother cut off his head. His death caused a terrible uproar in Kaluga; all the remaining Tatars in the city were killed. The son of False Dmitry was proclaimed king by the Kaluga people.

Molchanov could not play the role of Tsar Dmitry as confidently and openly as Otrepiev did. After all, Otrepiev's appearance was well known to many, and there was not the slightest resemblance between him and Molchanov. Therefore, Molchanov limited himself to sending out letters and meetings only with those who did not know the first impostor. One of these people was Ivan Isaevich Bolotnikov, who led an uprising against Tsar Vasily Shuisky.

Bolotnikov managed to reach Moscow, having won a number of victories over the tsarist troops along the way, and settled down in the village of Kolomenskoye. After an unsuccessful siege of the capital, in early December 1606, government troops drove the rebels out of their camp in Kolomenskoye. The army of False Dmitry II, led by Bolotnikov, retreated to Kaluga. In the spring, Bolotnikov's troops, having received reinforcements from False Peter, defeated the tsarist troops near the walls of the city.

In May 1607, Bolotnikov retreated to Tula, where the False Peter settled.

The rebels, retreating under the onslaught of Shuisky's troops, were impatiently waiting for the appearance of their idol - "the good Tsar Dmitry Ivanovich" who had miraculously escaped in Moscow. Unlike ordinary soldiers, the leaders of the movement did not believe in miracles too much. Therefore, at the beginning of 1607, Bolotnikov decided to hasten his fate and sent the Cossack ataman to Poland in search of the king I. S. Zarutsky. The envoy of the rebels contacted the local gentry, who participated in the adventure of the first impostor. As a result right person was found. It was a poor teacher from the Belarusian town of Shklov. He attracted the attention of the conspirators to some resemblance with the first "Tsarevich Dmitry". With threats and promises, they forced the poor fellow to enter into a game, the stakes of which he never even dreamed of.

To help Bolotnikov besieged in Tula, rebel detachments moved from the south-west of the country, led by the “renewed” False Dmitry II. But they did not have time: the tsarist army of Vasily Shuisky successfully laid siege to Tula. Bolotnikov and False Peter were killed.

In May 1607, the new False Dmitry II crossed the border of Russia and settled in the city of Starodub, located about halfway between Chernigov and Bryansk. Polish mercenaries and militias from the cities of Seversk Ukraine began to gather here for him. Detachments of Zaporizhzhya Cossacks also pulled up. The remnants of Bolotnikov's army also joined the rebel detachments and strengthened them. This army gathered the population of the southern and southwestern lands of the country, dissatisfied with the rule of Vasily Shuisky. Russian-Lithuanian and Polish nobles also gathered there. But the gathering of forces was slow. Only on September 10, 1607, False Dmitry II began his campaign against Moscow. He took Bryansk, Karachev, Kozelsk and on October 16 entered Belev. From here it was only a hundred miles to Tula. However, by this time, Bolotnikov in Tula had already surrendered to the tsarist governors.

The news of the fall of Tula brought confusion to the ranks of the supporters of the new impostor False Dmitry II. His army began to rapidly melt. He spent the winter of 1607-1608 in Orel. In the spring, a large detachment of Polish mercenaries, led by R. Ruzhinsky, arrived at his camp. Following him, another Polish magnate, Jan Sapieha, appeared with a mercenary army. The arrivals pushed back the former plebeian entourage of False Dmitry II and took the "king" under their control. From now on, it was the Poles who became the main support of the impostor.

In the summer of 1608, False Dmitry II inflicted several defeats on the tsarist troops and approached Moscow. Not having the strength to storm the city, his large army stopped near Moscow and camped near the village of Tushino.

The months-long siege of Moscow began. False Dmitry II besieged the capital for almost two years: from June 1608 to March 1610, Shuisky's supporters began to call the second False Dmitry "Tushinsky Thief". However, among the people, the story of the newly resurrected "good Tsar Dmitry Ivanovich" at first evoked a sincere response. Not only the southern ones, but also many other Russian cities - Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Vologda, Pskov - went over to his side.

At this time, a dual power was formed in the country. One power was in Moscow, headed by Tsar Vasily Shuisky. Hermogenes was the patriarch, there was a Boyar Duma and orders. Another power was in Tushino: with its Tsar False Dmitry II, the Boyar Duma and orders. There was also a patriarch. It was Metropolitan Filaret, who was taken prisoner by the Tushino people. Servicemen either joined Shuisky or ran from Moscow to the side of False Dmitry II in Tushino.

Hatred for Vasily Shuisky and a thirst for high ranks brought some prominent representatives of the Moscow nobility to the Tushino camp - Romanovs, Saltykov, Trubetskoy. Yuri Mnishek, released from Yaroslavl exile, also arrived here with his daughter Marina, whom Vasily Shuisky was forced to release from captivity at the insistence of the Polish king. And, as in the case of False Dmitry I, the scene of "recognition" was played out. The widow of the first impostor, Marina Mnishek, did not hesitate to recognize the "Tushinsky Thief" as her husband, "the true Tsar Dmitry."

The dual power continued until 1610. This further split the society, undermined the economy and weakened the country. The Tushinos plundered the lands, ravaged the villages, desecrated the holy places for the Orthodox. Often in the same counties, detachments of punitive Vasily Shuisky committed atrocities. They killed and robbed those who voluntarily or under duress swore an oath to the "Tushinsky Thief".

Siege of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery

The Orthodox Russian-Lithuanian commander Sapega, from the Tushino camp, laid siege to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery - a national shrine. The siege lasted for almost a year and a half. It began in the autumn of 1608. The fortress walls of the monastery were impregnable. In the monastery were the royal troops, headed by the governor. The monks and residents of nearby areas fought courageously along with the military, repulsing the attacks of the attackers. The besieged experienced a great shortage of firewood and drinking water but don't give up. Scurvy began in the monastery. The forces of the defenders were fading.

Sapieha knew about plight in the monastery and began a decisive assault. All those who survived in the monastery defended it: they shot, stabbed, threw stones, poured molten pitch on the besiegers, threw down ladders, along which the attackers climbed onto the wall of the monastery. The attacks went on all night until the morning. The Poles had to retreat.

The beginning of the Russian-Polish war

In 1609, troops under the leadership of voivode Mikhail Vasilyevich Skopin-Shuisky, with the help of Swedish mercenaries, liberated the entire northeastern part of the country and moved towards Moscow. The Treaty of Vyborg between Russia and Sweden gave Rzeczpospolita a pretext to declare war on Russia.

In September 1609, the Polish-Lithuanian troops besieged Smolensk. The city resisted for 20 months. The talented governor Mikhail Borisovich Shein led the defense.

From January 1610, the Russian army under the command of Prince Mikhail Vasilyevich Skopin-Shuisky cleared the land from Novgorod to Moscow from the Tushino people. Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, Alexander-Drovskaya Sloboda was liberated, the siege of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery was lifted. material from the site

The approach of the army of Sigismund III caused confusion in the Tushino camp. Polish mercenaries began to leave False Dmitry II and return to their king. On any given day, the impostor could be arrested or killed by his own henchmen. Saving his life, "Tushinsky Thief" secretly fled from Tushino to Kaluga.

The boyars who served False Dmitry II renounced him and turned to Sigismund with a proposal to elevate his son Vladislav to the Russian throne. The corresponding agreement was concluded near Smolensk in February 1610. However, the implementation of this agreement depended primarily on the further course of hostilities.

In March 1610, Moscow was liberated from the siege. It seemed that the Troubles were coming to an end. But Tsar Vasily Shuisky did nothing. For this, he paid with his throne: in July 1610, the boyars and nobles overthrew Shuisky from the throne.

Already in August 1610, taking advantage of the overthrow of Vasily Shuisky, False Dmitry II made the Second Moscow campaign. He stopped in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow and began the assault on the capital. The boyars were afraid that False Dmitry II would capture the capital.

Back in February of this year, the Boyar Duma concluded an agreement with the Polish king on calling his son, Prince Vladislav, to the Russian throne. She wanted the royal troops to protect her power from False Dmitry II and stop the intervention. And in August 1610, the provisional government of the Russian kingdom - the Seven Boyars - secretly let the Polish-Lithuanian detachments into Moscow, which forced False Dmitry II to interrupt the siege of the capital and return to Kaluga.

However, the boyar government miscalculated: the Polish troops did not want to leave Moscow alone, and the people did not support the fact that a Polish prince was placed on the Russian throne. This caused negative unrest in the capital. Part of the population of the country and Moscow itself, in conditions when Polish-Lithuanian and Russian-Lithuanian detachments were outrageous in the capital, again supported the impostor. More and more more people and cities sided with False Dmitry II, hoping that he would drive the Poles out of Moscow.

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Part Three

Moscow ruin

Chapter first

The death of the Kaluga "thief"

Among the supporters of the "thief" [False Dmitry II] was the Kasimov tsar. He stuck to him even during his parking near Tushin. When the "thief" had to flee from near Moscow, the Kasimov tsar drove away from him, came to Zholkevsky and, together with the hetman, went to Smolensk. His son with his mother and grandmother stayed with the "thief" and went with him to Kaluga. Having lived for several weeks near Smolensk, the tsar yearned for his family and went to Kaluga, with the intention of distracting his son from the "thief". He himself liked the reception from the Poles. Arriving in Kaluga, the father pretended to be in front of the "thief" and showed the appearance that he was still devoted to him; but the son made friends with the "thief" sincerely and told him that his father was deceiving him and that in fact he had come solely to take his family, and then go again to the Poles. The "thief" invited the old man to go hunting with him, appointed a day. The "thief" rode forward across the Oka River and sent to ask the Kasimov tsar to go to him. The tsar left with two Tatars. The "thief" treated him kindly, then left his hounds away, took with him two friends, Mikhail Buturlin and Ignatius Mikhnev, and rode along the banks of the Oka. The king of Kasimov rode beside him; suddenly all three attack him, and the "thief" kills him with his own hand. The body was thrown into the Oka. Then the “thief” jumps in alarm to his other people and shouts: “Kasimov's king Urmamet wanted to kill me; I left him a little. He has now fled to Moscow. Run after him and catch him." People set off in pursuit, and, of course, they could not catch up with anyone. Since then, the “thief” has given the case the appearance that Urmamet had disappeared somewhere and it is not known where he is: but did those who together with him send the old man to the Oka let slip, or did people begin to guess by themselves - only Urmamet’s friend, baptized Tatar Pyotr Urusov reproached the "thief" in the face with the murder of the Kasimov tsar. The "thief" put him in jail and kept him there for six weeks. In early December, it happened that his Tatars had a skirmish with a detachment under the command of Chaplitsky, defeated and brought prisoners to Kaluga. This delighted the "thief". The Tatars were very fond of Urusov. It was necessary to do something for them in gratitude. Marina and the boyars begged to release Urusov. This man had been useful to him before. The "thief" made peace with him and caressed him.

On December 10, the "thief" went for a walk across the Oka River with a small squad of Russians and Tatars. Urusov was with him. The "thief" often took such walks: they were noisy and cheerful. Once sober, he now changed his way of life: he loved feasts and parties, he drank wine in large rasruhany. Noise, songs, cries of drunkards were often heard. The "thief" rode on a sleigh, stopped more than once, shouted for wine to be served to him, drank to the health of the Tatars. His escorts rode on horseback. Suddenly, Urusov, who was also riding behind the "thief", presses on his sleigh with his horse, and then hits him with a saber: on the other side of the sleigh, Urusov's younger brother immediately cut off the head of the "thief". The boyars raised the alarm; the Tatars drew their sabers on them. There were fewer boyars; they were frightened and shouted: have mercy, have mercy! According to some reports, the Tatars beat some of the Russians who were seeing off their tsar; according to others, on the contrary, Urusov did not order them to be touched. The Tatars undressed the body of the "thief" and left him in the snow, while they themselves fled with Urusov. Returning to Kaluga, the boyars informed the townspeople about the incident. Then it was already evening.

The whole city was outraged. “Beat all the Tatars,” the Kaluga residents shouted. Marina, who walked last days pregnancy, jumped out of the city, sat down with the boyars on a sleigh, raised the decapitated body of her husband in the field, and brought it to the city. At night, grabbing a torch, Marina ran bare-chested in the middle of the crowd, screaming, tearing her clothes and hair, and, noticing that the people of Kaluga did not take her grief too sensitively, she turned to the Don Cossacks, begging them for revenge. They were led by Zarutsky, who was not indifferent to Marina. He inspired his Cossacks; they attacked the Tatars whom they met in Kaluga, and killed up to two hundred people.

A few days later, Marina gave birth to a son, who was named Ivan. She demanded an oath to him as the rightful heir. Then Yan Sapega, having learned that the one who bore the name of Dmitry was killed, approached Kaluga on the first day of Christmas and demanded surrender in the name of the king. Negotiations went on for three days, and on the fourth day, when Sapega once again sent his people for negotiations, the Kaluga residents made a sortie. The battle with Sapieha lasted until the evening. Sapega stood near Kaluga until December 31st. The Kaluga residents did not want to give up for anything.

Marina had a bad time. Only the Don people with Zarutsky were for her. Kaluga residents hated her, “she began to feel in captivity. She wrote a letter to Sapieha with the following content:

“For God's sake, deliver me; I won't be able to live in the world for two weeks. You are strong; deliver me, deliver me, deliver me: God will pay you!"

The answer of the Kaluga residents to Sapega was such that he already had nothing left to do near Kaluga: the Kaluga residents promised to kiss the cross to the one who would be king in Moscow, and Vladislav was recognized in Moscow. And Sapega retired from Kaluga to Przemysl. Re-thinking surrendered to him. After him, Odoev surrendered, and the elected representatives sent from there kissed Vladislav's cross in front of Sapieha.

The death of the "thief" made a turning point in a troubled era and was an event unfavorable for Sigismund, instead of being useful to him. The growing discontent against the king up to that time was twofold: some held on to his ready opponent, whoever he was; others, not wanting to obey the deceiver, thought to find or create another point of support against Polish claims. If the one whom many still called Dmitry was alive, then two camps would have stood against the Poles for a long time, hostile at the same time to one another. Now this rival was gone from Sigismund, and all those dissatisfied with Sigismund could unite together in harmony and amicably, inspired by one thought - to liberate the Russian land from foreigners.

The news of the death of the aforementioned Dmitry did not so soon spread to the distant countries of Russia: in Kazan, as early as January 1611, they were armed in his name against the Poles. Vyatka followed Kazan. And they did not want to obey the Poles. And there the name of Dmitry still served as a pretext, while other cities were already rising under a different banner. But as soon as they learned in Kazan and Vyatka that Dmitry was not in the world, then they became one with other cities there. In Moscow, the news of the death of the "thief" produced joy. The opponents of the Poles ceased to be afraid of Kaluga, from which they expected obstacles to the success of the efforts against the Poles; Dmitry's supporters lost hope in Kaluga and saw the need to look for it in Moscow. The people suddenly began to grow, felt their strength; neither the Poles, who rode victoriously through the streets of Moscow, nor the traitorous boyars, who peeped and eavesdropped on where the enmity towards the king lay, seemed fearless. They began to gather in houses, it was said that the king was deceiving the Muscovites - it remained for the whole Moscow land to stand together against the Polish and Lithuanian people and strengthen themselves so that the Polish and Lithuanian people would all leave the Moscow land.

The boyars, devoted to Sigismund, knowing the patriarch's dislike for the Polish cause, although they released him from guards, they advised Gonsevsky to look after him and warned that it was not calm in Moscow. Winter Christmas time has come, a noisy time in Moscow. Then people flocked to Moscow, as once to Jerusalem from Palestine, from the Russian lands for the holiday. Many residents of the cities had relatives in the capital, and they went to visit her in holidays; others came to the end of the holidays to look at the rite of the Epiphany water blessing. It was a day when Russian residents of other towns had the opportunity to look at the tsar, at the patriarch, to see the whole court in its festive splendor. So it became a custom to come to the capital these days from everywhere, but this time there was neither the king nor the royal court, and, out of habit, a lot of people began to flock. The Poles began to be afraid of such crowds: they imagined that they would suddenly sound the alarm, as it was during the death of the “defrocked”, and Moscow people, both old and young, both big and small, would rush to beat them. On the walls and on the towers, guards constantly stood; in the cold of winter it was not fun to perform these duties, especially on such days when from childhood they were used to walking and feasting. But the matter is no longer about the belt, the Poles said, but about the whole skin. As soon as some kind of gathering gathers, or fresh people begin to pour into the city, the Poles will immediately get alarmed, sound the alarm, crowds run first in one direction or the other. Russian people came to the patriarch from different parts of the world. The patriarch blessed everyone to stand for the faith and for the Russian land, he told everyone: “You swore allegiance to the prince only to be baptized into the Russian faith, and if he is not baptized and the Lithuanian people do not leave the Muscovite state, then the prince is not our sovereign.” He wrote the same speeches in his letters and sent them out. One such letter, says a contemporary, was intercepted by some Pole Vashchinsky, sent with seven hundred horsemen to see what was happening in Russia. After that, the Poles gave the order that none of the inhabitants of Moscow should keep weapons, and those who had them were to take them to the tsar's treasury. Cab drivers were caught carrying grain bread, but long guns were found under the grain; probably, some of the inhabitants of Moscow, instead of delivering the weapons that they had preserved to the Poles, decided it was better to take them to another place where they could serve for the Russians against the Poles. Gonsevsky ordered to put these cab drivers under the ice. Then the patriarch was again hampered, the clerks and clerks were taken away from him, the paper was taken away to prevent him from writing letters, they also took the courtyard people so that there was no one to send with letters, but they did not look after him; he could not write, but he could still speak with Russian people. The inhabitants of Nizhny Novgorod came to him under the blessing, the son of the boyar Roman Pakhomov and townsman Rodion Mokeev. He told them in words: “I can’t write: the Poles took everything, and they robbed my yard; and you, remembering God and the Most Pure Theotokos and the miracle workers of Moscow, stand together against our enemies.” When this news was brought by messengers to Nizhny Novgorod, a council was formed there; they invited the robes, and together with them the Nizhny Novgorod people swore on the cross to stand for Moscow and go as a militia against the Poles and Lithuanian people. This decision was sent to Lyapunov.

Surely, many have remembered the phrase "Tushinsky Thief" since their school years. The fact that this nickname meant False Dmitry 2, most learned from the lessons of national history.

Biography of the impostor

Until now, neither the real name nor the origin of this mysterious person is known. There are only extremely cautious and practically unfounded assumptions about who False Dmitry 2 was in reality. The biography of the impostor is " White spot". According to one version, he was the son of a priest. Another source tells us that False Dmitry 2 had Jewish roots leaving for a run-down province, but there is no reliable information. Speaking briefly about such a person as False Dmitry 2, we can say with confidence: the adventurism that is inherent in any Russian person, as well as susceptibility to foreign influence, played a detrimental role in his fate.

An impostor appeared in the summer of 1607 in Starodub. All of it short life took place in local skirmishes and wars. The strategy of False Dmitry 2 was based on the version that his predecessor survived after the uprising in Moscow. Despite his cunning, he was less fortunate. The reign of False Dmitry 2 did not take place, since he did not manage to get to the capital to be crowned. His main hope was on the troops of Ivan Bolotnikov. The impostor believed that they would help capture Moscow, but Bolotnikov could not provide significant assistance.

Politics

In the piggy bank of victories of False Dmitry 2, there were only local short-term triumphs. It is surprising that he was generally able to place even insignificant forces under his banners. He began his journey up the stairs to the goal with a trip to the Belarusian cities of Propoisk and Starodub. Having shown courage, the impostor introduced himself as Dimitri Ioannovich. In a short period of time, he managed to gain trust a large number people and gather soldiers from the treasury, as well as the rebels of Ivan Bolotnikov, into their entourage. Under the leadership of this dubious subject, the resulting group advanced towards Bryansk, and then to Tula. The first triumphs inspired the army. During the siege of the capital, half of the local nobility went over to False Dmitry 2, who claimed the Russian throne. Having defeated Vasily Shuisky, the impostor was defeated near Khimki on Presnya. Nevertheless, he managed to organize a camp in Tushino near Moscow. Here, a local community began to operate its own routines and orders. False Dmitry 2 controlled the territories north of Moscow, such large cities as Vladimir, Suzdal, and Rostov submitted to him. After the capture of the latter, the detachments brought the captive Metropolitan Filaret Romanov to Tushino, where they proclaimed him patriarch. Significant support was provided by popular unrest, reinforced by dissatisfaction with the power of the boyars and Vasily Shuisky.

Strengthening the position

Meanwhile, in pursuit of power and easy money, in July 1608, Marina Mnishek arrived in Tushino, who was the official widow of False Dmitry 1. Under the terms of the armistice agreement with the Poles, she was released into the wild.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, the woman recognized her husband in the “Tushinsky thief”, who allegedly escaped by a miracle. Of course given fact once again confirmed the false status of the impostor in the eyes of others. Subsequently, the couple secretly married, and they had a son.

The power of the Polish interventionists

Anarchy was finally established in the country. The Poles divided and ruled in the Tushino court. It was in their hands that control was, they corrected the actions of their puppet: the policy of False Dmitry 2 was completely controlled by the Poles. Taking advantage of this, the Poles willingly robbed and ruined ordinary peasants. Endless robbery raids began to run into armed responses from the townspeople and peasants.

In the period from September 1608 to January 1610, detachments of Poland and Lithuania kept the Trinity-Sergius Monastery under siege. Despite the difficult situation, the defenders of the monastery managed to repel all enemy attacks and defend the shrine.

Polish invaders in 1609 made an attempt to capture Smolensk, but it was unsuccessful. It also failed to put its prince, Vladislav, on the Russian throne.

inglorious end

Thanks to the efforts of a remarkable military leader and an excellent strategist - Skopin-Shuisky M.V. plans of False Dmitry 2 were upset. In 1609, the Tushino camp finally disintegrated. The assembled rabble did not want to obey anyone, everyone just wanted easy money. False Dmitry 2 did not find another way out, how to flee to Kaluga. But even there he did not find salvation: death found the impostor in Kaluga region, where he was shot dead by his own serviceman - Urusov P.

Meanwhile, the fate of Ivan Bolotnikov, who supported False Dmitry 2, was no less sad. He was first blinded and then killed by a blow to the head with a club. The lifeless body of Bolotnikov was thrown into the hole.

Chronology

Thus, if we analyze the path that False Dmitry 2 went through, briefly, we can distinguish several main stages:

1607 - the appearance of an impostor who introduced himself as the surviving False Dmitry 1;

1608 - the formation of its own army from the remnants of troops of various stripes;

May 11, 1608 - the defeat of government troops under the leadership of Shuisky, the formation of the Tushino camp, the seizure of new lands;

1609 - the appearance in the camp of discord, the weakening of the position of False Dmitry 2;

1610 - the dissolution of the Tushino camp, the flight of False Dmitry 2 to Kaluga;

The location of the remains of False Dmitry 2 is not known, but there is an opinion that they are located in one of the Kaluga churches.