False Dmitry 1 is an impostor or not. Time of Troubles in Russia. Events after the death of False Dmitry I

Makhnev Dmitry Grigorievich

Abstract on the topic: “Personality in history. False Dmitry 1” was completed by 7th grade student Dmitry Makhnev. In his work, he explored the personality of False Dmitry 1, his role in the history of the state, and the period of the Time of Troubles. He expressed his attitude towards the personality of False Dmitry 1.

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All-Russian competition of abstract works of students

Municipal educational institution

Shaiginskaya secondary school

Full address: 606940 Nizhny Novgorod region Tonshaevsky district, Shaigino village

Vokzalnaya str. 55 G t. 88315194117

Abstract work:

“The role of personality in history. False Dmitry 1."

7th grade

Supervisor : Rusinova Lyudmila Anatolyevna,

history teacher.

2012-2013 academic year

The role of personality in history. False Dmitry 1

Introduction________________________________________________ 1

The country after the death of Ivan the Terrible and the reign of Fyodor Ioannovich___________________________________________ 1

Who is False Dmitry 1_________________________________ 3

What Grigory Otrepyev said in Lithuania__________________ 4

The beginning of the campaign against Moscow________________________________5

The accession of the impostor__________________________________________6

Reign and death of Otrepiev__________________________________________8

Conclusion _____________________________________________________8

References_______________________________________________9

1.Introduction.

The Time of Troubles was the most difficult period in the history of Russia, heavy blows rained down on it from all sides: boyar feuds and intrigues, Polish intervention, unfavorable climatic conditions almost put an end to the history of the Russian state. I think everyone is free to decide for themselves how they feel about this or that character and his actions. In this essay, I tried to reflect the brief course of events and the attitude of historians to the appearance of the first impostor who took the name Dmitry (later called False Dmitry 1), especially since different historians portray him differently. For example, Ruslan Skrynnikov portrays him as a kind of monster who did not find himself in ordinary life and therefore decided on an adventure. It should be noted that the concept impostor belongs not only to Russian history. Back in the 6th century. BC, the Median priest Gaumata took the name of the Achaemenid king Bardiya and ruled for eight months until he was killed by the Persian conspirators. Since then, over thousands of years, different people, inhabitants different countries took the names of killed, deceased or missing rulers. The fates of the impostors were different, but most of them met a sad end - the penalty for deception was most often execution or imprisonment. We were told about this in history class. Already in the biography of the first Russian impostor False Dmitry I, elements of the religious legend about the Tsar-Deliverer, the Tsar-Redeemer appear. But it should be noted that the huge role that impostors play in national history XVII-XVIII centuries, this is the restoration of this phenomenon at the end of the 20th century.

The main course of events is described in the books by Ruslan Skrynnikov “Minin and Pozharsky” and “Boris Godunov”. After reading this book, I drew a picture of the course of events for myself. He is like that.

2. The country after the death of Ivan the Terrible and the reign of Fyodor Ioannovich.

The Moscow state at the turn of the 4th - 48th centuries was experiencing a severe political and socio-economic crisis, which was especially evident in the situation in the central regions of the state.

As a result of the opening for Russian colonization of the vast south-eastern lands of the middle and lower Volga region, a wide stream of peasant population rushed there from the central regions of the state, seeking to escape the sovereign and landowner "tax", and this outflow of labor led to a shortage of workers in central Russia . The more people left the center, the heavier the pressure of the state landlord tax on the remaining peasants. The growth of landownership brought an increasing number of peasants under the power of the landowners, and the lack of labor forces forced the landowners to increase peasant taxes and duties, and also to strive by all means to secure for themselves the existing peasant population of their estates. The position of “full” and “bonded” slaves was always quite difficult, and at the end of the 4th century the number of enslaved slaves was increased by a decree that ordered the conversion into enslaved slaves of all those previously free servants and workers who had served their masters for more than six months.

In the second half of the 4th century, special circumstances, external and internal, contributed to the intensification of the crisis and the growth of discontent. The difficult Livonian War, which lasted 25 years and ended in complete failure, required enormous sacrifices of people and material resources from the population. The Tatar invasion and the defeat of Moscow in 1571 significantly increased casualties and losses. The oprichnina of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, which shook and undermined the old way of life and familiar relationships, intensified the general discord and demoralization; During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, “a terrible habit was established of not respecting the life, honor, and property of one’s neighbor” (Soloviev).

While on the Moscow throne there were sovereigns of the old familiar dynasty, direct descendants of Rurik and Vladimir the Saint, the vast majority of the population meekly and unquestioningly obeyed their “natural sovereigns.” But when the dynasty ended, the state turned out to be “nobody’s”, the population was confused and fell into ferment. The upper layer of the Moscow population, the boyars, economically weakened and morally humiliated by the policies of Ivan the Terrible, began a troubled struggle for power in a country that had become “stateless.”

After the death of Ivan the Terrible in 1584, Fyodor Ioannovich, distinguished by his weak physique and reason, was named Tsar. He could not rule, so it was to be expected that others would do it for him - and so it was. New king was under the influence of his wife, the sister of a nearby boyar, Boris Fedorovich Godunov. The latter managed to remove all his rivals and, during the reign of Fyodor Ioannovich (1584-1598), in essence, it was he who ruled the state. It was during his reign that an event occurred that had a huge impact on the subsequent course of history. This is the death of Tsarevich Dimitri, the younger half-brother of Tsar Fyodor, adopted by the Terrible from his seventh wife Marya Naga. An illegal canonical marriage made the fruit of this marriage questionable in terms of legality. However, after the death of his father, little Prince Dimitri (he was called that way) was recognized as the “appanage prince” of Uglich and was sent to Uglich, to his “appanage,” along with his mother and uncles. At the same time, agents of the central government lived and acted next to the appanage palace, Moscow officials - permanent (clerk Mikhailo Bityagovsky) and temporary (“city clerk” Rusin Rakov). There was constant hostility between the Nagi and these representatives of state power, since the Nagi could not give up the dream of “appanage” autonomy and believed that the Moscow government and its agents were violating the rights of the “appanage prince.” State power, of course, was not inclined to recognize appanage claims and constantly gave the Nagi reasons for insults and slander. It was in such an atmosphere of constant anger, abuse and quarrels that little Dmitry died. On May 15, 1591, he died from a wound inflicted with a knife in the throat while he was playing matchmaking with the children in the courtyard of the Uglich Palace. Eyewitnesses to the official investigators (Prince Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky and Metropolitan Gelasius) showed that the prince stabbed himself with a knife in a sudden fit of epilepsy. But at the moment of the event, Dmitry’s mother, distraught with grief, began to shout that the prince had been stabbed to death. Her suspicion fell on the Moscow clerk Bityagovsky and his relatives. The crowd, called by the alarm, committed pogrom and violence against them. Bityagovsky’s house and office (“official hut”) were robbed and over ten people were killed. After the “investigation” of everything that happened, the Moscow authorities admitted that the prince died from an accidental suicide, that the Nagiye were guilty of incitement, and the Uglichites were guilty of murder and robbery. The culprits were exiled to various places, the “queen” Marya Nagaya was tonsured in a distant monastery, and the prince was buried in the Uglich Cathedral. His body was not brought to Moscow, where the persons of the Grand Duke and Duchess were usually buried. royal family- in “Archangel” with the “blessed royal parents”; and Tsar Fedor did not come to his brother’s funeral; and the prince’s grave did not become memorable and was so unnoticeable that it was not immediately found when they began to look for it in 1606. It seemed that in Moscow they did not mourn for the “prince”, but on the contrary, they tried to forget him. But it was all the more convenient for dark rumors to spread about this unusual matter. Rumors said that the prince was killed, that his death was necessary for Boris, who wanted to reign after Tsar Fedor, that Boris first sent poison to the prince, and then ordered him to be stabbed when the boy was saved from the poison.

There is an opinion that as part of the investigative commission, Godunov sent loyal people to Uglich who were not concerned about finding out the truth, but about drowning out the rumors about the violent death of the Uglich prince. However, Skrynnikov refutes this opinion, believing that a number of important circumstances are not taken into account. The investigation in Uglich was led by Vasily Shuisky, perhaps the most intelligent and resourceful of Boris’s opponents. One of his brothers was executed by order of Godunov, the other died in the monastery. And Vasily himself spent several years in exile, from which he returned shortly before the events in Uglich. Agree, it would be strange if he bore false witness in favor of Boris. Over Russia loomed the threat of invasion by Swedish troops and Tatars, possible popular unrest, in which the death of Dmitry was undesirable and extremely dangerous for Boris.

3. Who is False Dmitry 1.

At the end of 1603 and the beginning of 1604, a man arose in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth who declared himself “The miraculously saved Tsarevich Dmitry.” At the end of 1604, he and a small (about 500 people) detachment of Poles invaded the Russian state.

In Moscow it was announced that under the guise of a self-proclaimed prince was hiding a young Galich nobleman, Yuri Bogdanovich Otrepiev, who after taking the tonsure took the name Grigory. Before escaping to Lithuania, the monk Gregory lived in the Chudov Monastery in the Kremlin.

Under Tsar Vasily Shuisky, the Ambassadorial Prikaz compiled a new biography of Otrepyev. It said that Yushka Otrepiev “was a slave to the boyars of the Mikitins, the children of Romanovich and Prince Boris of Cherkassy and, having stolen his hair, took monastic vows.” Otrepiev was forced to go to a monastery.

Only early ambassadorial orders portrayed young Otrepyev as a dissolute scoundrel. Under Shuisky, such reviews were forgotten, and in the time of the Romanovs, writers were surprised at the young man’s extraordinary abilities, but at the same time expressed pious suspicion that he had entered into an alliance with evil spirits. Learning came to him with amazing ease, and in a short time he became “very good at reading and writing.” However, poverty and artistry did not allow him to count on a brilliant career at the royal court, and he entered the retinue of Mikhail Romanov, who had known his family for a long time. Therefore, the disgrace into which the Romanov family fell under Boris Godunov. In November 1600, they were accused of an attempt on the life of the Tsar, their elder brother Fyodor was imprisoned in a monastery, and their four younger brothers were exiled to Pomerania and Siberia.

The Chudovsky archimandrite Paphnutius took George, condescending to his “poverty and orphanhood.” From that moment his rapid rise began. Having suffered a disaster in the service of the Romanovs, Otrepyev amazingly quickly adapted to new living conditions.

Over the course of months, he learned what others spent their lives on. He finds himself a new patron in the person of the patriarch Job. However, Gregory was not satisfied with his service. In the winter of 1602, he fled to Lithuania, accompanied by two monks - Varlaam and Misail. In the Dermansky monastery, located in the possessions of Ostrozhsky, he left his companions. According to Varlaam, he fled to Goshcha, and then to Brachin, the estate of Adam Vishnetsky, who took the future False Dmitry under his wing.

Among some historians, there is an opinion about the impostor as a Moscow man, prepared for his role among the Moscow boyars hostile to Godunov and allowed into Poland by them. As proof, they cite his letter to the pope, supposedly indicating that it was written not by a Pole (although it was composed in excellent Polish), but by a Muscovite who poorly understood the manuscript, which he had to rewrite completely from a Polish draft. I am attracted by the traditional version of False Dmitry 1, as a very talented adventurer who was looking for the best place in the sun. who chose the right time and place for this.

4.What Grigory Otrepyev said in Lithuania.

Sigismund 111 became interested in the fugitive and asked Vishnevetsky to write down his story. This recording is preserved in the royal archives. The impostor claimed that he was the legitimate heir to the Russian throne, the son of Ivan 4 the Terrible, Tsarevich Dmitry. He claimed that his prince was saved by a certain kind teacher, but he did not reveal his name, having learned about Boris’s villainous plan. On the fateful night, this teacher put another boy of the same age into the bed of the Uglich prince. The baby was stabbed to death, and his face became lead-gray, which is why the queen mother, when she appeared in the bedroom, did not notice the substitution and believed that her son had been killed.

After the death of the teacher, the deceiver said, he was sheltered by a certain noble family, and then, on the advice of a nameless friend, for the sake of safety, he began to lead a monastic life and, as a monk, walked around Muscovy. All this information completely coincided with the biography of Grigory Otrepyev. This can be explained by the fact that in Lithuania he was visible and, in order not to be branded a liar, was forced to adhere to the facts in his story. For example, he admitted that he came to Lithuania in a monastic robe, and accurately described his entire journey from the Moscow border to Brachin. The Lithuanian statement was not the first. For the first time he revealed his “Royal name” to the monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery. They kicked him out the door. While in Ostrog, Grishka and his companions gained the favor of the owner of this town, Prince Konstantin, who gave him a book with a dedicatory inscription: “The year from the creation of the world 7110 of the month of August on the 14th day was given to us by Gregory's brothers with Varlaam and Misail, Konstantin Konstantinovich, by the grace of God, the most illustrious Prince Ostrozhsky, voivode of Kiev.” Under the word “Gregory” an unknown hand signed the explanation: “to the prince of Moscow.” However, the prince also kicked out Otrepiev as soon as he hinted at his royal origin.

5. The beginning of the campaign against Moscow.

King Sigismund III has long wanted to expand his territory at the expense of Russian lands. In such a situation, Otrepyev’s statement was appropriate. Sigismund concluded a secret agreement with him. According to this agreement, for military assistance provided, Otrepiev had to give him the fertile Chernigov-Seversk land. He promised to transfer Novgorod and Pskov to the Mnishek family, his immediate patrons.

After crossing the border, Grigory went to the Zaporozhye Cossacks several times and asked them to help him in the fight against the “usurper” Boris. The Sich became agitated. The violent freemen had long sharpened their sabers against the Moscow Tsar. Soon messengers arrived to the prince, declaring that the Don army would take part in the war with Godunov.

Grigory very successfully captured the moment of his speech. In the years 1601-1603, events occurred that created new reasons for popular murmur and excitement. The main one was an extreme hunger strike due to three years of crop failures that befell the country. The horrors of the famine years were extreme and the scale of the disaster was amazing. The suffering of the people, who had reached the point of cannibalism, became even more severe from the shameless speculation in grain, which was carried out not only by market buyers, but also by very respectable people, even abbots of monasteries and rich landowners. A political circumstance also added to the general conditions of the time of famine. The affair of the Romanovs and Volsky began Boris' disgrace with the boyars. They led, according to Moscow custom, to the confiscation of the boyar estates and to the release of the boyar servants with the “commandment” not to accept anyone of those servants.

In addition, Tsar Boris was getting sick more and more often, his death was not far off. Therefore, the population welcomed False Dmitry and joined him. Otrepiev crossed the border with a detachment of about two hundred people, but their number soon increased to several thousand.

So, on October 13, 1604, the impostor crossed the Russian border and approached the Chernigov town of Moravsk. The residents surrendered to him without a fight. Encouraged by their success, the Cossacks rushed to Chernigov. The Chernigov governor refused to surrender and used cannons against the impostor, but as a result of the uprising that broke out in the city, the governor was captured, and the city fell into the hands of Gregory. Here we can note the fact that the mercenaries refused to go further until they were paid. Fortunately for Gregory, there was a fair amount of money in the voivodeship treasury, otherwise he could have been left without an army.

On November 10, False Dmitry 1 reached Novgorod-Seversky, where the Moscow governor Pyotr Basmanov settled with a detachment of archers numbering 350 people. The attempt to take the city ended in failure, but at this time the population of the nearby lands, excited by rumors of an uprising in Chernigov and the return of Tsarevich Dmitry, began to go over to the side of the impostor. Riots flared up in Putivl, Rylsk, Seversk, and Komaritsa volost. By the beginning of December, the power of False Dmitry 1 was recognized by Kursk, then Kromy.

Meanwhile, the Russian army was concentrated in Bryansk, since Godunov was awaiting the speech of Sigismund 111. Having made sure that he was not going to speak, the army under the command of boyar Mstislavsky headed to Novgorod-Seversky, where Otrepyev’s headquarters was located. On December 19, 1604, the armies met, but the impostor decided to negotiate, especially since Mstislavsky had a huge superiority in power.

At the same time, a rebellion was brewing in Otrepiev’s army, because the mercenaries again demanded to pay them, and since Grigory had no money, they abandoned him. Otrepiev was forced to head to the Komaritsa volost, where he managed to add several thousand Komarians to his considerably thinned army. Despite this, Mstislavsky’s army, which overtook him on January 21, 1605, defeated them and forced False Dmitry to flee. Subsequently he settled in Putivl.

6. The accession of the impostor.

Meanwhile, on April 13, 1605, Boris Godunov died in Moscow. There is an opinion that he was poisoned, and the signs of his death are indeed similar to the signs of arsenic poisoning. For the country, his death meant severe consequences. Fyodor Godunov, who came to power, did not have the strength to keep it in his hands.

Unrest continued in the country, reaching Moscow. The people, excited by the proclamations of False Dmitry, demanded clarification from the government. The speech of Shuisky, who confirmed that he himself put the body of Prince Dmitry in a coffin and buried him in Uglich, made an impression: the unrest in the capital subsided for a while. However, the uprisings on the southern outskirts grew. Once Boris Godunov founded the Tsarev-Borisov fortress there, designed to control the Don Cossacks. Selected rifle units from Moscow were stationed there. However, the archers were not attracted to such service on the steppe outskirts, far from their wives and children. Otrepiev's performance gave them a chance to return to Moscow quickly.

The uprising of the Cossacks and Streltsy in Tsarev-Borisov led to the collapse of the entire southern border defense system. The power of the impostor was recognized by Oskol, Valuiki, Voronezh, Belgorod, and later Yelets and Livny.

Moral decay also affected the army that besieged Crom. The camp, set up in a swampy area, was flooded with spring waters. Following them came an epidemic of dysentery. As soon as the news of Boris's death reached the camp, many nobles left without hesitation under the pretext of the royal burial. According to contemporaries, after the death of Boris near Kromy there remained “few boyars and with them only the military men of the Severn cities, archers, Cossacks and military men.” The more warriors in homespun coats filled the camp, the more successful the campaigning was in favor of the newly minted Dmitry.

Meanwhile, a conspiracy had matured at the top, led by the Ryazan nobleman Procopius, according to other sources Prokofy Lyapunov.

The Godunov dynasty was doomed to political loneliness. The friendly ties that held together the palace nobility under Tsar Fyodor were broken by the quarrel between the Romanovs and Godunovs in 1598 during the struggle for the royal throne. This quarrel gave rise to the possibility of an impostor conspiracy, turning the name of Tsarevich Dimitri into a weapon of struggle. Not without connection with this intrigue, the Romanovs were defeated and their union of “testamentary friendship” with Boris disintegrated. When the impostor appeared, the princely nobility, submitting to the personal authority and talent of Boris, served him. But when Boris died, she did not want to support his dynasty and serve his family. In this nobility, all its claims immediately came to life, all grievances began to speak, a sense of revenge and a thirst for power developed. The princes understood very well that only the dynasty founded by Boris did not have a representative sufficiently capable and fit for business, nor any influential party of supporters and admirers. She was weak, easy to destroy, and she really was destroyed.

The young Tsar Fyodor Borisovich recalled princes Mstislavsky and Shuisky from the army to Moscow and sent other princes Basmanov and Katyrev to replace them. However, subsequently, boyar Andrei Telyakovsky was appointed to replace Basmanov. Changes in the composition of the governors were made, probably out of caution, but they served to the detriment of the Godunovs. Basmanov was mortally offended by the sovereign. Thus, the king himself pushed his overthrow. The troops stationed near Kromy came under the influence of the princes Golitsyn, the noblest and most prominent of all the governors, and P.F. Basmanov, who enjoyed popularity and military happiness. Moscow should have naturally followed V.I. Shuisky, whom it considered an eyewitness to the Uglitsky events of 1591 and a witness, if not to the death, then to the salvation of little Dmitry. The prince-boyars became masters of the situation both in the army and in the capital and immediately declared themselves against the Godunovs and for “Tsar Dimitri Ivanovich.” The Golitsyns and Basmanov attracted the troops to the side of the impostor. Prince Shuisky in Moscow not only did not oppose the overthrow of the Godunovs and the triumph of the impostor, but, according to some news, he himself testified at hand when they turned to him that the true prince was saved from murder; then he, along with other boyars, went from Moscow to Tula to meet the new Tsar Dimitri. This is how the representatives of the princely nobility behaved at the decisive moment of the Moscow drama. Their behavior dealt a mortal blow to the Godunovs, and V.V. Golitsyn, as they said, did not even have the pleasure of being present at the last minutes of Boris’s wife and Tsar Fyodor Borisovich.

So, as a result of a conspiracy led by Lyapunov, with the participation of princes Basmanov, Shuisky, Golitsyn and others, on May 7, 1605 royal army went over to the side of the impostor.

Now the way to Moscow was open for Otrepyev. And he did not fail to use it, especially since all the cities on his way surrendered without a fight. Moscow also surrendered to him without a fight. Moreover, at the beginning of June, the people themselves destroyed the Kremlin and locked up the Godunov family.

On June 3, 1605, Ivan Vorotynsky took to Tula, where False Dmitry’s headquarters was now located, a “letter of confession” in which “the legitimate Tsar of All Rus' was invited to take the Russian throne.” Gregory naturally accepted this invitation. On June 16, he reached the village of Kolomenskoye and announced that he would not enter Moscow while Fyodor Godunov was alive. As a result, Fedor and his mother were strangled. On June 20, 1605, Grigory Otrepiev, who later became False Dmitry 1, entered Moscow.

7. The reign and death of Otrepyev.

But False Dmitry did not last long on the throne. But everything that False Dmitry began to do destroyed the people’s hopes for a “good and just king.” The boyars who initiated the appearance of the impostor no longer needed him. Broad layers of Russian feudal lords were dissatisfied with the privileged position of the Polish and Lithuanian gentry, who surrounded the throne and received huge rewards (money for this was taken by the impostor even from the monastery treasury). The Orthodox Church followed with concern attempts to spread Catholicism in Russia. False Dmitry wanted to go to war against the Tatars and Turks. Service people greeted with disapproval the preparations that had begun for a war with Turkey, which Russia did not need.

They were also dissatisfied with “Tsar Dmitry” in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He did not dare, as he had promised earlier, to transfer Western Russian cities to Poland and Lithuania. Sigismund III's persistent requests to speed up entry into the war with Turkey had no result.

In addition, Gregory established connections with Sigismund, more and more persistently reminded him of the promise to give up part of the Russian lands to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the overthrow of Sigismund was beneficial for the impostor.

As a result, arose new conspiracy, in which people who enjoyed the full confidence of False Dmitry participated: Vasily Golitsyn, Maria Nagaya, Mikhail Tatishchev and other Duma people. The conspirators established contact with Sigismund 3. Through reliable people, they spread a deadly rumor for the impostor, and organized a whole series of assassination attempts on him. Otrepyev felt that his position, which was already precarious. He was forced to again seek support in Poland, and remembered his former “commander-in-chief” Yuri Mniszech and his fiancee Marina. In addition, there is a version that Grigory really loved Marina and they had an agreement on this matter.

On May 2, 1606, the royal bride and her retinue arrived in Moscow. With her came Polish troops under the command of Yuri Mniszek. On May 8 the wedding took place. Although Marina was a Catholic, she was crowned with the royal crown of the Orthodox state. In addition to this, the violence and robberies of the riotous nobles who had gathered for the wedding worried the population. Moscow began to seethe. On the night of May 16-17, the conspirators sounded the alarm and announced to the people who had come running that the Poles were beating the Tsar. Having directed the crowds towards the Poles, the conspirators themselves broke into the Kremlin. The people gathered on Red Square demanded a tsar. Basmanov tried to save the situation and bring the people to reason, but was stabbed to death by Mikhail Tatishchev. The murder of Basmanov served as a signal for the storming of the palace. Otrepyev tried to escape, but when trying to jump from the second floor, he broke both legs. There, under the window of the Stone Chambers, he was overtaken and killed.

From May 18 to May 25 it was cold in Moscow. These quirks of nature were attributed to the impostor. His body was burned and, after mixing ashes with gunpowder, they fired from a cannon in the direction from which the impostor came to Moscow. Thus ended the reign of False Dmitry I, the first Russian impostor, who was also the only one who managed to reach the throne.

8. Conclusion.

False Dmitry served his purpose in the history that his creators wrote for him. From the moment of his triumph, the boyars no longer needed him. He became a tool that had served its purpose and was no longer needed by anyone, an extra burden that would need to be eliminated, and if eliminated, the path to the throne would be free for the most worthy in the kingdom. And the boyars have been trying to eliminate this obstacle from the very first days of his reign. False Dmitry 1 was alone, he lost the support of all his former allies, and given the uncertainty of the situation in which he was, this was tantamount to political and physical death. The death of False Dmitry shocked me, just like that time in the history of our state.

List of used literature:

1. R. Skrynnikov. Minin and Pozharsky. Moscow 1981.
2. History of Russia late 16th-18th centuries. M., Education. 2009
3. Alekseev False Tsarevich. Moscow 1995.
4. V. Artyomov, Yu. Lubchenkov. History of the Fatherland. Moscow 1999
5. Shokarev Impostors. 2001.

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False Dmitry 1 (first, I) - biography, reign, politics

Biography of False Dmitry 1

The date of birth of False Dmitry has not yet been precisely established. He was about the same age as the Tsar's son Dmitry. Many claim that False Dmitry was none other than Grigory Otrepiev. But not many completely agree with this, just as no one can say for sure that Grigory Otrepiev could not have been False Dmitry. Certainly biography of False Dmitry the First interests many. The mystery of the historical figure raises a lot of questions today.

Yuri Bogdanovich Otrepiev was born at the turn of the 70-80s. His relatives once arrived to serve in Moscow from Lithuania. His father died early and Yuri’s entire upbringing fell on his mother’s shoulders. The boy studied very well and was sent to Moscow to serve under Mikhail Nikitich Romanov. But at a time when the Romanovs were in danger, Ragged cut his hair as a monk and entered a monastery. Having found himself, after some time, in the Chudov Monastery, he begins to establish communication with the patriarch, who assigned him to book affairs. Afterwards he changed monasteries many times and finally entered the service of Vishnetsky. There he announced his royal origin for the first time. Many believe that he was just a pawn in the wrong hands. In April he converts to Catholicism. He tries to get closer to the king, promises to surrender Smolensk and other lands to Poland.

In Sambor, False Dmitry proposes to Marina Mnishek. Father future wife gathered a small army for False Dmitry. And in the year one thousand six hundred and four he begins his campaign against Moscow. Many cities simply surrendered without a fight. Someone believed that he was a real king and went over to his side.

Immediately after the death of Boris Godunov, False Dmitry arrived in Moscow, Tsar Fedor had already been killed by Otrepiev’s people. Almost immediately, rumors spread that he was not a real king. The marriage of False Dmitry and Maria took place in Moscow. On the night from the sixteenth to the seventeenth of May, the conspirators entered the Kremlin with the decision to kill Otrepiev. But he was able to escape to the archers. They, in turn, handed him over to the boyars, under pain of death. False Dmitry was shot . Biography of False Dmitry still causes controversy among historians.

Reign of False Dmitry I

Reign of False Dmitry was very short. The peasants immediately sensed something was wrong, and faith in a good and kind reign was lost. Many did not like the free position of the Polish and Lithuanian gentry. False Dmitry took money for this from the treasury, as well as from churches. The promise to give some cities and lands to Poland did not move beyond a simple promise. This of course complicated the relationship.

Reign of False Dmitry I played a cruel joke on him. Of course, his main goal was to get to the throne, but nothing good came of it. Many conspiracies and a dozen assassination attempts were being prepared against him.

Politics of False Dmitry the First

Politics of False Dmitry 1 It was simple and so cunning that in the end something happened. With his pyitika he changed the state order. He was not afraid and violated the customs of sacred antiquity. For example: I didn’t go to rest after lunch, I didn’t go to the bathhouse. He reduced his appeal and attitude to a simple, not a royal matter, so to speak. He himself actively took part in all royal affairs. Every day I conducted negotiations and business. Of course, some of the people loved and respected him. But most did not understand his actions. During the reign of Ivan the Terrible and Boris Godunov, the treasury was replenished every day. All False Dmitry did was take money from there. Of course, many noticed this and the rumor that he was not a real king only grew. Under his rule there were no big changes, there were no innovations that would change the way of life.

Politics of False Dmitry did not prosper, but rather gained enemy strength and opponents. He wanted to use someone else's forces, cunning and the trust of the peasants to conquer everything that came his way. To his great regret, this did not happen. His supporters quickly switched sides. Of course, there were people who, even after his death, believed that he was the only and legitimate king who was taken out of the country as a child. And that the hour has come when justice must come. He was a tool that had to play its role and disappear. To clear the way for another, to cause confusion. Of course, this worked out to some extent. But the inability to be a real ruler told everyone that the king was not real, that royal blood did not flow in his veins. And he is simply no longer needed either by the one who started all this, or by the common people who have lost faith and patience. But there are other legends that say that this is not Otrepiev. That in fact it was the son of one of the kings who wanted to take over the country. But this legend is not supported by any reliable facts. Therefore, the main role of False Dmitry is given to Yuri Bogdanovich.

Dmitry's strength lay not so much in his army as in the authority of his name. People in the areas he entered were confused: some believed that he was a real prince, others joined him to oppose Boris. However, it was not the confusion in the border regions, but the unfriendly or openly hostile attitude towards Boris on the part of so many boyars and governors that undermined the tsar's cause.

Some of these boyars and governors, no doubt, participated in the conspiracy that gave birth to this impostor. Voivode Mikhail Glebovich Saltykov said that it would be difficult to fight a born tsar (meaning Dmitry). P.N. Sheremetev expressed the same opinion. The governor of Putivl, Prince Vasily Mikhailovich Rubets-Mosalsky, surrendered his fortress to Dmitry as soon as he approached it.

On December 21, near Novgorod-Seversky, Dmitry defeated the Moscow army, commanded by Prince Fyodor Ivanovich Mstislavsky. Soon after this, Dmitry's army was replenished with new Cossacks. For some time he placed his command post in Sevsk, Komaritsa volost. The population of this volost provided him with strong support.

Tsar Boris, however, managed to mobilize another army and installed Prince Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky over it. On January 21, 1605, Dmitry entered into battle with the Muscovites at Dobrynichi, but suffered a crushing defeat. With the remnants of the army, he retreated to Putivl, where four thousand Cossacks came to his aid. Another detachment of them occupied Kromy (southwest of Orel) in the northern part of Komaritsa volost.

Shuisky and his commanders did not make the slightest effort to take advantage of their victory and put an end to Dmitry. Instead, they began to punish the residents of the Komaritsa volost for their support for Samozzanets. Then, urged on by Boris, the governors besieged Kromy, but at the decisive moment, when everything was ready for the assault, governor M.G. Saltykov, in charge of the artillery, moved the guns from their positions back to the rear.

On April 13, Tsar Boris died after two hours of seizures and severe bleeding from the mouth, ears and nose. There were rumors that he was poisoned, or that he himself took the poison. The latest version cannot be trusted. Most likely, Boris was poisoned.

The rise to power of False Dmitry 1

Muscovites, without any worries, swore allegiance to Boris’s young son Fedor. Fedor was a gifted and intelligent young man, but he would hardly have been able to cope with this difficult situation, since the death of Tsar Boris made his opponents among the boyars much bolder and more self-confident. Fedor depended on the only military leader whom his father trusted, Pyotr Fedorovich Basmanov. Fedor, however, could not appoint Basmanov as commander-in-chief of the army due to the tradition of localism. Therefore, Basmanov became deputy commander (second governor). Arriving at the army's location, he realized that most of the senior commanders had already been persuaded to recognize the applicant.

Following the advice of M.G. Saltykov and two Golitsyn brothers (Vasily Vasilyevich and Ivan Vasilyevich), Basmanov went over to the winning side. On May 7, the entire field army recognized Dmitry as tsar. Very few officers and soldiers refused and fled to Moscow along with the commander-in-chief, Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Katyrev-Rostovsky, and boyar Andrei Andreevich Telyatevsky. For Tsar Fedor, everything was lost.

On June 3, the Moscow mob captured him and his entire family. A week later, princes V.V. Golitsyn and V.M. Masalsky, sent by Dmitry to Moscow, with the help of the nobleman Mikhail Molchanov, an official named Shelefedinov and three archers, strangled Queen Maria (Fyodor's mother). Fedor tried to resist, but was brutally killed. His sister Ksenia was spared by special order of the Pretender, who planned to make her his mistress.

Patriarch Job was captured during a service in the cathedral and sent to a remote monastery. Members of the Godunov family and two other families close to them, the Saburovs and the Velyaminovs, were also arrested and exiled to different places. Semyon Nikitich Godunov (the head of Boris's secret police) was strangled in exile.

On June 20, the applicant entered Moscow with general jubilation. Church bells were ringing. The streets were filled with people who praised the true king and knelt before him.

On July 18, the former Queen Maria (Nagaya), now nun Martha, officially recognized the impostor as her son Dmitry. She knew, of course, that he was not her son, but, as she herself explained later, she was afraid that she would be killed if she refused to recognize him.

Three days later, Dmitry was solemnly crowned king.

Dmitry occupied the Moscow throne less than a year. He was gifted, intelligent and energetic, but frivolous, amorous and voluptuous. Being fascinated by Marina, he could not resist the temptation to take possession of Ksenia Godunova. For some time he even became interested in her. Rumors about this reached Marina, and she wrote an angry letter to Dmitry. Ksenia was tonsured a nun under the name Olga. Dmitry's passion for Marina flared up again and ultimately destroyed him. Of course, his position was precarious from the very beginning of his reign and for other, more serious reasons.

Dmitry fell into the trap of the incompatible interests of the political, religious and social forces - national and international - that supported his enterprise. He had made generous promises to all those who helped him seize the throne, and now that he had it, he was expected to fulfill many conflicting obligations. However, he did not want to become anyone's tool. Instead, he tried to establish his own political course, for which he had to maneuver between conflicting parties with all the skill available to him. But this could not last forever.

In domestic politics, Dmitry continued the political line of Boris, whose power was based on the support of the middle classes of Russian society, the nobility and townspeople. He was forced to reckon with the boyars and rule with the help of the Boyar Duma (which he renamed the Senate in the Polish manner), but he began his reign with the purge of the boyar class and the deportation of the Godunovs and their associated families. On the other hand, he summoned from exile all the boyars who opposed Tsar Boris, including his own imaginary relatives Nagikh, the Romanovs and Bogdan Volsky.

Bogdan Belsky and Pyotr Basmanov became Dmitry's main Russian advisers. His two Polish secretaries, brothers Jan and Stanislaw Buchinski, had no less influence. It was important for Dmitry to have a well-wisher on the patriarchal throne (Job was removed even before Dmitry arrived in Moscow). They found a sufficiently accommodating person in the person of Archbishop Ignatius of Ryazan, a Greek from Cyprus. He was hastily elevated to the rank of patriarch. Monk Philaret (Fedor Nikitich Romanov) was then appointed Metropolitan of Ryazan.

Promises of False Dmitry 1

Land plots and cash benefits to the middle and lower nobility (nobles and boyar children) for military service doubled. Commoners, including runaway peasants and slaves ( large number who joined Dmitry’s army at the end of 1604–1605), were removed from military posts.

On January 7, 1606, Dmitry confirmed the decree of Tsar Boris of 1597, which gave masters greater powers in relation to their indentured servants (indentured servants).

On February 1, 1606, another decree was issued concerning fugitive peasants who left the estates to which they were attached due to the fact that they did not receive help from their owners during the famine years. According to this decree, the owner lost the right to demand the fugitives back if more than five years had passed. This meant that the peasants who had left before 1601, in most cases, to the southern border regions and settled there on boyar and noble estates, had to remain with their new masters.

Dmitry rewarded his main military supporters in the campaign against Tsar Boris - the Don Cossacks, but later refused their services and took only a small Cossack detachment with him to the capital. The Cossack leaders expected a different attitude from Dmitry - they wanted to play an active role in the government.

Therefore, the Terek Cossacks, who did not take part in the campaign of 1604, nominated their own contender for the throne, who was also joined by the Don Cossacks. He called himself Tsarevich Peter, supposedly the son of Tsar Fyodor (this never existed).

Even after studying at a good school for a week (in Goshcha) and communicating with Western Russian, Lithuanian and Polish nobility, Dmitry understood the importance of education and planned to send young Russians abroad to study at foreign universities (in this he again followed the policy of Tsar Boris).

Dmitry's personality and actions made a favorable impression on some of his subjects. He was accessible to the people and often walked along the Moscow streets without security or any fanfare. Many Russians, however, especially from the upper classes, criticized his such manners, which contradicted the established Moscow tradition. In addition, both the clergy and the laity were dissatisfied with Dmitry's neglect Orthodox Church and its rules. Although he kept his conversion to Catholicism a secret and presented himself as Orthodox, he rarely attended church services and did not fast. His disposition towards foreigners, especially the Poles, and the favors he showed them irritated many Russians, who felt insulted.

Dmitry's enemies, especially the boyars, skillfully used popular discontent in propaganda against him. Conspiring against Boris and preparing the appearance of an impostor, they saw in Dmitry a means to overthrow Boris and wanted to make him a puppet king, on whose behalf they would rule Muscovy. They were immediately disappointed, since Dmitry seriously intended to become a ruler and had enough abilities and vitality to achieve his goal.

Then the boyars decided that they needed to get rid of Dmitry before it was too late. The very next day after Dmitry entered Moscow, Prince Vasily Shuisky, through his people, began secretly informing Muscovites that the real Dmitry died in Uglich in 1591, and the throne was occupied by an unscrupulous impostor.

On June 23, Shuisky’s plan was revealed, he was arrested and tried by a council of clergy, boyars and townspeople. He was sentenced to death, but Dmitry replaced the death sentence with exile. Even before Shuisky reached his place of exile, he was forgiven and allowed to return to Moscow. If Dmitry hoped to win Shuisky’s favor with his generosity, he miscalculated. This experience made Shuisky more cautious for a while, but neither he nor the other boyars abandoned their plans.

Now they entered into secret negotiations with King Sigismund, using for this purpose one of the couriers maintaining Dmitry's connections with Poland, Ivan Bezobrazov. Bezobrazov's official mission was to demand that the Poles recognize Dmitry's claims to the title of emperor, but in secret negotiations the courier informed Sapieha that the Shuiskys, Golitsyns and other boyars could no longer tolerate the pressure of the impostor, intended to overthrow him and asked the king to give Muscovy king his son Vladislav.

Sigismund, through Sapieha, replied that he was sorry to hear that the pretender, whom he considered the real Dmitry, turned out to be a despotic impostor, and he would not object to the plans of the boyars. As for Vladislav, the king did not make any definite promises on this matter.

Dmitry was not sufficiently informed either about the potential threat from the Cossacks and disgruntled peasants, or about the immediate danger of the boyar conspiracy. He was busy with his relations with the Poles and the Jesuits, trying not to become completely dependent on them, without losing Marina. He disappointed the Jesuits by failing to convert Rus' to Catholicism. However, he allowed the Jesuits to hold Catholic services in Moscow, and they had access to the palace. He announced his desire to begin a crusade against the Turks with the blessing of the pope, but demanded that the pope grant him the title of emperor, and that King Sigismund recognize him. Sigismund, who considered Dmitry something of a vassal, was outraged.

Despite all these tensions, the Jesuits insisted on the speedy wedding of Marina and Dmitry in the hope that Marina would be able to convince her husband not to delay the introduction of Catholicism in Rus'. In April 1606, the Mnisheks left for Moscow. Marina's father arrived on April 24, and Marina herself, accompanied by a magnificent motorcade, arrived on May 2. On May 8, in the Intercession Cathedral of the Kremlin, Marina was solemnly crowned queen and married to Dmitry.

Moscow seemed to turn into a Polish city for a while. Mniszek and other Polish magnates who came to Marina's wedding were accompanied by huge retinues. The Kremlin and the city were swarming with crowds of Polish nobility and accompanying persons. It is characteristic that Marina’s coronation ceremony and her wedding in the cathedral were attended mostly by Poles; Only a select few nobles were invited from the Russians. Ordinary Russians were not even allowed into the Kremlin.

Only a few Polish and Lithuanian guests could be accommodated in government buildings. And since there were no suitable hotels in Moscow, the bulk of the Poles settled in private houses in the central part of the city (Kitai-Gorod). They behaved as if they were in a conquered country. Their arrogance offended Muscovites and aroused hatred of the newcomers.

The boyars, led by Prince Ivan Ivanovich Shuisky, felt that the right moment to strike had arrived. Even before Dmitry’s wedding, Shuisky managed to attract to his side a unit of Novgorod and Pskov troops stationed near Moscow. (The Shuiskys traditionally maintained close contacts with Novgorod and had many supporters there.)

On the night of May 17, the Novgorodians occupied all the Kremlin gates, not allowing anyone to enter or exit. At 4 o'clock in the church in the Novgorod courtyard the alarm was rung, which was answered by the bells of all Moscow churches. Muscovites rushed to Red Square, where they found it. Shuisky and other boyars on horseback and in full armor. The boyars shouted to the crowd that the Poles had conspired against the Tsar. The mob, already opposed to the Poles, rushed into the houses where they stood, and massacres and looting began.

At this time, the boyars hurried to the Kremlin and entered the royal palace without much difficulty. (Dmitry left only a few German guards at night). In the palace, Dmitry was defended by Basmanov, who entered into battle with the intruders, but was immediately killed. Dmitry, seeing that he had no chance, decided to seek help from the archers outside the Kremlin gates. He jumped out of the palace window, but was unsuccessful, fell to the ground, injured his chest and leg, and lay in complete helplessness until the conspirators found and killed him. Marina and her retinue were taken into custody at the palace.

Shuisky, meanwhile, hastened to stop the Muscovites’ attacks on the Poles, sending detachments of archers to do this. Mniszek and other Polish and Lithuanian magnates were arrested. The boyars wasted no time in forming a new government. There was no more talk about inviting Vladislav to the throne. In the early morning of May 19, 1606, on Red Square, a hastily convened meeting of the nobility and townspeople declared the head of the boyar conspiracy, Prince Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky, Tsar of Russia.

Time of Troubles in Russia. Events after the death of False Dmitry I

The impostor's body was so disfigured that it was difficult to recognize him. According to eyewitness Konrad Bussov, “on the very first day of the revolt, the Poles spread a rumor that the murdered man was not Tsar Dmitry.”

The Poles' agitation had little chance of success. The population did not forgive the Poles who came to the royal wedding for their arrogance and outrages. During the unrest in Moscow, Mniszek’s secretary wrote in his Diary, the people demanded that the Poles who talked about saving “Dmitry” be handed over for execution.

Gradually, the authorities managed to cope with the crisis. As Marzharet noted, before his departure from the capital in July, rebels from Ryazan, Putivl, Chernigov “sent to Moscow to ask for forgiveness, which they received, excusing themselves by the fact that they were informed that Emperor Dmitry was alive.”

The impostor used the “middle seal” for foreign relations, which was at the disposal of the head of the Ambassadorial Prikaz, Afanasy Vlasyev. There was also a small seal. Letters of various kinds were sealed with it, and carried “on the collar” - in a bag around the neck. This seal, obviously, was in charge of the printer Sutupov. The seal replaced the royal signature.

When messengers began to deliver letters from the resurrected “Dmitry” to the cities, the governors did not have the slightest reason to doubt their authenticity. This circumstance contributed to the success of the conspiracy. The owner of Sambir hoped for support from the Polish authorities. The massacre of the Poles in Moscow served as a pretext for an immediate war with Russia. According to the royal instructions to the sejmiks, the authorities intended to open military operations against Russia at the end of 1606. The Tsar's ambassador Volkonsky, sent by Tsar Vasily to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, was detained on the way. The Mnisheks hoped to use the war to free themselves from captivity and regain lost wealth.

At the beginning of August 1606, the Lithuanian bailiff announced to Volkonsky that he had previously known from rumors, and now he had learned for certain from Efstafy Volovich, that “your sovereign Dmitry, whom you say was killed, is alive and now in Sendomir near the voivode (Mnishek. - R. S.) wife: she gave him both clothes and people.” The information came from the “good gentlemen”, relatives and friends of the Mnisheks.

They started talking about the Sambir “king” in Russia. The rebellious northern cities sent envoys to Kyiv to invite the “tsar” to Putivl. The ambassadors were sure that “Dmitry” was in one of the Polish castles.

The Mnishek possessions were located in Western Ukraine. An Italian merchant who visited these places reported in August 1606 that the Moscow “tsar” fled from Russia with two companions and now lives healthy and unharmed in the Bernardine monastery in Sambir; even former enemies admit that Dmitry escaped death.

In the first days of August, Lithuanian bailiffs told the tsar’s ambassadors that his longtime comrades began to come to Sambir to the sovereign: “and those many people who were with him in Moscow recognized him that he was the direct Tsar Dmitry, and many Russian people pestered him and Polish and Lithuanian people make their way to him; Yes, Prince Vasily Mosalskaya, who was with him in Moscow as a neighbor boyar and butler, came to him.”

The bailiffs clearly wanted to impress the Russian ambassadors. Their information about the appearance of the butler Vasily Rubets-Mosalsky in Sambir did not correspond to the truth. The scar was in exile. The words that many people recognized the king were an exaggeration. The escaped “tsar” occasionally appeared in the state rooms of the Sambir castle in magnificent attire. But only carefully selected people who had never seen Otrepiev in person were allowed to attend such receptions.

At the beginning of September, the Russian ambassador learned from the words of the bailiff that Molchanov began to appear to people no longer in royal robes, but in “senile dress.” He followed in the footsteps of the first impostor who came to Lithuania in monastic attire.

In October 1606, Chancellor Lev Sapieha sent his servant Gridich to Sambir to “examine” the well-known “Dmitry”, “is he really the one or not?” Gridich went to Sambir, but did not see the “thief”, and he was told that “Dmitry” “lives in a monastery, he doesn’t seem to be with anyone.” In October, the former confessor of False Dmitry I visited Sambir. He also returned empty-handed. Then the Catholic Bernardine Order sent one of its representatives to the Mnisheks. Throughout Poland it was interpreted that “Dmitry” was “in Sambir in the monastery in a black dress for the sins of the Kaets.” In this regard, an emissary of the order inspected the monastery. During the inspection, he received assurances from the Sambir Bernardines that “Dmitry” was not in their monastery and that they had not seen the tsar since his departure to Russia. The Catholic Church remained aloof from the dubious adventure.

The impostor intrigue was dying before our eyes. The reason for the failure was that King Sigismund III abandoned plans for war with Russia. A rebellion was brewing in Poland. Having gathered for the congress, the Rokoshans expected that “Dmitry,” who had shown up in Sambir, would appear at the congress any day now and that he would be able to quickly form an army.

The leader of Rokoš Zebrzydowski was a relative of the Mniszeks. Among the Rokoshans, not all were adherents of the Moscow Tsar. The veterans were indignant at the sovereign for not giving them the promised wealth. Others lost relatives during the massacre of Poles in Moscow. The dissatisfied would not remain silent when they saw a new deceiver in front of them.

If the owner of Sambor had managed to borrow money and gather a mercenary army, Molchanov might have risked appearing among the Rokoshans. But after the May events in Moscow, few people wanted to give money for a new adventure. In the end, a small handful of armed men gathered in the Mniszek castle. The imaginary mother-in-law of the “king” “received about 200 people to him.” The most notable of the new impostor’s servants was a certain Moscow nobleman Zabolotsky, whose name cannot be found out.

The rebel gentry decided to postpone the start of hostilities against Sigismund III until next year. The threat of the Rokoshans did not disappear, and the king radically changed his foreign policy course. To deal with the opposition, he needed peace on his eastern borders. The Polish authorities already in mid-July allowed the Tsar's ambassador Volkonsky to enter Poland. The commandants of the border fortresses were forbidden to allow Polish mercenary soldiers into Russia.

The Sambir “thief” appointed Zabolotsky as his chief governor and sent him with military men to Seversk Ukraine. Chancellor Lev Sapega detained the detachment and prevented Zabolotsky from invading Russia.

Yuri Mnishek's wife did not dare show the new impostor either to the Catholic clergy who patronized Otrepiev, or to the king, or to the Rokoshans. The appearance of a “king” among the Rokoshans would have been a direct challenge to Sigismund III, which the Mnisheks could not do. Marina Mniszek and her father were in captivity, and only the intervention of the official authorities of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth could free them.

The king's officials resorted to a simple diplomatic game. They refused to negotiate with Ambassador Volkonsky about the impostor under the pretext that they knew nothing about him: “What, you told us about the one who calls Dmitry, that he lives in Sambir and Sendomir with the voivode’s wife, and we haven’t heard of that.”

The tone of the statements changed when officials started talking about the immediate release of Senator Mniszek and other Poles detained in Russia. Their statements sounded a direct threat: “Only your sovereign will not soon let all the people go, otherwise Dmitry will be, and Peter will be straight, and ours will stand together with them for their own.” Diplomats threatened that the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth would provide military assistance to any impostors opposing Tsar Vasily Shuisky.

The first impostor, according to V.O. Klyuchevsky, was baked in a Polish oven, but fermented in Moscow. The new “thief” also did not escape the Polish stove, but his fate was different. It was not finished cooking and was not taken out of the oven. When Otrepyev became convinced that his patron Adam Vishnevetsky was not going to fight with Moscow because of him, he fled from his castle. Molchanov was cut from a different cloth, and the bloody corpse of the first “thief” loomed before his eyes.

The impostor hid in the dark corners of the Sambir palace for a year, not daring to show his face not only to the Poles, but also to the Russian people, who had risen to restore the “legitimate sovereign” to the throne. Twenty-four-year-old Otrepyev did not have to worry about whether he looked like the eight-year-old prince, forgotten even by the few people who saw him in Uglich. For the new impostor, the difficulty was that he was not a double of the murdered man, whose characteristic appearance had not been forgotten in a few months. The role of the resurrected tsar was beyond Molchanov's capabilities. The result was a new and very peculiar historical phenomenon - “impostor without an impostor.”

At the end of 1606, there was a rumor in Moscow that Molchanov was preparing to march with a large army to help the Russian rebels. This time the adventurer had to take on the role of the governor of “Tsar Dmitry”, and not “Dmitry” himself. However, he did not even get to play this role.

The Sambir conspirators did not abandon their attempts to subjugate the Severian cities. Initially, they intended to send one of the nobles to Putivl, and then opted for the Cossack ataman Ivan Bolotnikov.

There are many examples in world history when power in a particular country was seized by impostors who posed as real rulers. There were such cases in Rus'. The first of them occurred in 1605, when False Dmitry 1 was on the Moscow throne. The biography of this historical figure contains many contradictory facts. Some historians attribute to him royal origin, but most scientists are inclined to believe that the man who declared himself the miraculously saved youngest son of Ivan IV the Terrible, Dmitry, was an adventurer with cunning and an enviable mind.

Origin and early life of the impostor

Who was False Dmitry 1 really? Brief biography this man does not contain much information about his life before accession to the throne. IN official history It is generally accepted that False Dmitry 1 was born around 1581 in Galich (Kostroma volost). At birth, the impostor was named Yuri (Yushka), and his father was a nobleman from the impoverished Lithuanian Nelidov family, Bogdan Otrepiev. Arriving in Moscow in his youth, the young man entered service in one of the orders. After working for some time, Yuri Otrepiev became a monk under the name Grigory. This happened when Yushka went to the monastery not out of great faith, but in order to avoid reprisals, because in his worldly life he stole, drank drunk and did not listen to his father.

A year after being tonsured as a monk, Gregory managed to settle in the Chudov Monastery in Moscow. Being literate and possessing calligraphic handwriting, the young man received a position as a book copyist. It is here that Otrepyev’s idea arises to impersonate the prematurely deceased heir to the Moscow throne, Tsarevich Dmitry. Gregory was approximately the same age as the youngest son of John IV, and even bore a resemblance to him.

Description of Otrepyev’s appearance

The characteristics of False Dmitry 1, left by his contemporaries, indicate that he was below average height, unusually wide, with a short neck and arms of different lengths. This man cannot be called handsome: he was “adorned” by large warts and a large, shoe-like nose. He was gloomy and brooding, but had remarkable physical strength and could easily bend a horseshoe with his bare hands.

Life in Poland

How did it turn out? further fate a man who went down in history as False Dmitry 1? His brief biography shows that in 1602 he was accused of theft and ran away from the monastery. The fraudster stayed in Kyiv for some time, and then moved to Poland and secretly converted to the Catholic faith. There he proclaimed himself the legitimate heir to the Russian throne and enlisted the support of the king. In gratitude for helping him seize the Moscow throne, False Dmitry 1 promised to give the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth part of the Western Russian lands. The impostor also secured the support of the governor Jerzy Mniszek, swearing to him to marry his daughter Marina, donate the cities of Pskov and Novgorod and pay 1 million zlotys.

Attack on Russian cities and seizure of power

False Dmitry 1, together with a three-thousand-strong Polish army, began his campaign against Russian lands in the fall of 1604. Due to the dissatisfaction of the local population with the internal policies of Boris Godunov, who was the de facto ruler of the state under the frail son of Ivan the Terrible, Otrepiev quickly managed to subjugate a number of Russian cities and settle in Putivl. It was here that False Dmitry 1 settled with his government. The short biography of the impostor contains facts confirming that the people supported the new ruler, believing that before him was really the miraculously saved son of John IV, and he would restore order to their lands.

In April 1605, Boris Godunov suddenly died and his son Fedor was proclaimed heir to the throne. However, he did not manage to hold on to power for long: a few weeks later he was overthrown by supporters of False Dmitry. Having officially ascended the throne on June 20, 1605, the impostor ordered the murder of Fedor and his mother, and he made his sister Ksenia his concubine, and then sent her to a monastery.

In order for the people to finally believe that this was the real heir to the throne, a meeting was arranged between the adventurer and Marya Naga, Dmitry’s mother. The woman recognized the man standing in front of her as her son. Later, after Otrepyev’s death, she renounced her words, admitting that she was forced to tell a lie by his supporters.

Characteristics of the internal policy of False Dmitry 1

Once in power, the newly-minted ruler officially banned bribery, ordered the return of people who had suffered under Godunov from exile, reorganized the army and increased the salaries of everyone who was in the service. The impostor made things easier by freeing the south of Russia from taxes and taking away land plots from the monasteries.

The internal policy of False Dmitry 1 was aimed at strengthening Polish influence in all spheres of state life. He started the construction of churches, distributed among ordinary people foreign amusements and organized the Secret Chancellery, which included Poles. Under the impostor, the Boyar Duma was renamed the Senate, and construction of a wooden palace with secret passages began near the Kremlin. In foreign policy, False Dmitry 1 was preparing for a war with the Turks, in which Sigismund III was interested.

Otrepiev's wedding with Marina Mnishek and his murder

Very soon False Dmitry 1 lost the support of the people. His biography indicates that he had a lot of fun, loved hunting and beautiful women. The dissatisfaction of Orthodox people was caused by the marriage of the ruler with Marina Mnishek, carried out according to the Catholic rite. During the celebration, many Poles came to Moscow, who, having become fairly tipsy, robbed passers-by and broke into the houses of the local population.

On May 17, 1606, in the midst of the wedding celebration, Prince Vasily Shuisky, seeking to seize the throne, raised an uprising in Moscow, as a result of which False Dmitry 1 and his supporters were killed. People, angry at the tyranny of the impostor, mocked his body for a long time, and then burned it and, loading a cannon with ashes, fired from it in the direction of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This is how False Dmitry 1 ended his days ingloriously. This brief biography is an instructive story that tells about what happens to impostors.