The Time of Troubles was a period of Russian history comprising the years of
interregnum between the death of the last Russian Tsar of the Rurik Dynasty,
Feodor Ivanovich, in 1598, and the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty in
1613. In 1601–03, Russia suffered a famine that killed one-third of the
population, about two million. At the time, Russia was occupied by the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Dimitriads, and suffered from civil
uprisings, usurpers and impostors. Causes
After Feodor's death, his brother-in-law and closest adviser, boyar Boris
Godunov, who had already acted as regent for the mentally-challenged Feodor, was
elected his successor by a Great National Assembly. Godunov's short reign
was not as successful as his administration under the weak Feodor.
Extremely poor harvests were encountered in 1601–03, with nighttime temperatures
in all summer months often below freezing, wrecking crops; see Russian
famine of 1601–03. The probable cause of climatic changes was the eruption of
Huaynaputina volcano in Peru in 1600. Widespread hunger led to mass
starvation; the government distributed money and food for poor people in
Moscow, but that only led to refugees' flocking to the capital and increasing
the economic disorganization. The oligarchical faction, headed by the
Romanovs, considered it a disgrace to obey a boyar; conspiracies were
frequent; the rural districts were desolated by famine and plague; large
bands of armed brigands roamed the country committing all manner of
atrocities; the Don Cossacks on the frontier were restless; and the
government demonstrated it could not keep order.
Under the influence of the great nobles who had unsuccessfully opposed the
election of Godunov, the general discontent was expressed as hostility to
him as a usurper. Rumours circulated that the late tsar's younger brother
Dmitri, thought to be dead, was still alive and in hiding.
False Dmitri In 1603 a man calling himself
Dmitri—first of the so-called False Dmitris—and professing to be the
rightful heir to the throne, appeared in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Dmitri had been stabbed to death before his brother Feodor's death, allegedly by
Godunov's order; but the mysterious individual who was impersonating him was
regarded as the rightful heir by many of the population. He attracted support
both in Russia and outside its borders, particularly in the Polish Commonwealth
and the Papal States. Factions in the Polish Commonwealth saw him as a tool to
extend their influence over Russia, or at least gain wealth in return for their
support; the Papacy saw it as an opportunity to increase the hold of
Roman Catholicism over the Eastern Orthodox Russians.
A few months later in 1603, Polish forces crossed the frontier with a small
force of 4,000 Poles, Lithuanians, Russian exiles, German mercenaries and
Cossacks from the Dnieper and the Don, in what marked the beginning of the
Polish Commonwealth's intervention in Russia, or the Dymitriad wars. Although
the Polish Commonwealth had not officially declared war on Russia, some
powerful magnates decided to support False Dmitri with their own forces and
money, in the expectation of rich rewards afterward. False Dmitri was
married per procura to Marina Mniszech, and immediately after Godunov's death in
1605, he made his triumphal entry into Moscow.
Shuisky's reign The reign of False Dimitri was short.
Before a year had passed, Vasily Shuisky, an ambitious Rurikid prince,
formed a conspiracy against him. His forces murdered False Dimitri soon after
his marriage in the Moscow Kremlin, together with many of his supporters,
who were brutally massacred. Shuisky and his men were estimated to have killed
2,000 Poles. The reaction to the massacre in Poland was strong, but the
government decided to postpone revenge against those responsible.
Shuisky seized power and was elected tsar by an assembly composed of his
faction, but the change did not satisfy the Russian boyars, Commonwealth
magnates, Cossacks, or the German mercenaries, and soon a new impostor,
likewise calling himself Dmitri, son and heir of Ivan the Terrible, came forward
as the rightful heir. Like his predecessor, he enjoyed the protection
and support of the Polish–Lithuanian magnates. After Shuisky signed an
alliance with Sweden, the king of the Commonwealth, Sigismund III, seeing the
Russian–Swedish alliance as a threat, resolved to intervene and began the
Polish–Muscovite War. Second occupation
Polish–Lithuanian troops crossed the Russian borders and laid siege to the
fortress of Smolensk. After the combined Russo–Swedish forces were destroyed at
the Battle of Klushino, Shuisky was forced to abdicate. Before False Dmitri
II could gain the throne, the Polish commander, voivode, and magnate
Stanisław Żółkiewski, put forward a rival candidate: Sigismund's son,
Władysław. Some people in Moscow swore allegiance to him on condition of his
maintaining Orthodoxy and granting certain privileges to them. On this
understanding, they allowed Polish troops to enter the city and occupy the
Kremlin. The Polish king opposed the compromise,
deciding to take the throne for himself and to convert Russia to Roman
Catholicism. The contending factions were opposed and his plan aroused the
anti-Catholic and anti-Polish feelings in Russia. The Swedes disapproved as
they were rivals of the Poles on the Baltic coast. They declared war on
Russia, supporting a false Dmitri of their choice in Ivangorod.
Russia was in a critical condition. The throne was vacant; the great nobles
quarrelled among themselves; Orthodox Patriarch Hermogenes was imprisoned;
Catholic Poles occupied the Moscow Kremlin and Smolensk; the Protestant
Swedes occupied Novgorod; continuing Tatar raids left the south borderlands
of Russia completely depopulated and devastated; and enormous bands of
brigands swarmed everywhere. Tens of thousands died in battles and riots; on
17–19 March 1611, the Poles and German mercenaries suppressed riots in Moscow;
they massacred 7,000 Muscovites and set the city on fire. Many other cities were
also devastated or weakened. For example, on 22 September 1612, the Poles
and Lithuanians exterminated the population and clergy of Vologda.
Struggle for independence The nation rose together under the
leadership of Kuzma Minin, a Nizhny Novgorod merchant, and Prince Pozharsky.
After the battle for Moscow on 22 October 1612 Old Style, the invaders
retreated to the Kremlin, and on 24–27 October O.S. the nearby Polish army was
forced to retreat. The garrison in the Kremlin surrendered to the triumphant
Pozharsky. The festival of National Unity Day commemorating this event on
November 4 was held annually until the rise of communism, when it was replaced
by celebrations for the October Revolution. National Unity Day was
reinstated by President Putin in 2005, though few Russians now understand its
significance or even know the name of the holiday.
A Grand National Assembly elected as tsar Michael Romanov, the young son of
the metropolitan Philaret. He was connected by marriage with the late
dynasty and, according to the legend, had been saved from the enemies by a
heroic peasant, Ivan Susanin. After taking power, the new Tsar ordered the
3-year-old son of the False Dmitri II to be hanged, and had Dmitri's wife Maryna
strangled. The Ingrian Wars against Sweden lasted
until the Treaty of Stolbovo in 1617. Russia's Dymitriad wars against the
Commonwealth would last until the Peace of Deulino in 1619. While gaining peace
through the treaties, both nations forced Russia to make some territorial
concessions, though they lost the majority of them over the coming
centuries. Most importantly, the crisis was instrumental in unifying all classes
of the Russian society around the Romanov tsars and established
foundations for the powerful Russian Empire.
Cultural allusions This period of the "Time of Troubles"
has inspired many artists and playwrights in Russia and beyond. The
three most popular topics are the Pozharsky/Minin liberation of Moscow,
the struggle between Boris Godunov and False Dmitry, and the story of Ivan
Susanin, a peasant who was said to sacrifice himself to lead Poles away
from Mikhail Romanov. Ivan Susanin, an opera by Mikhail
Glinka. Boris Godunov, a play by Alexander
Pushkin. Boris Godunov, an opera based on
Pushkin's play, composed by Modest Mussorgsky.
Dimitrij, an opera by Antonín Dvořák, on one of the false Dmitris, based on a
fragmentary play by Friedrich Schiller. Monument to Minin and Pozharsky, on the
Moscow Red Square. Minin and Pozharsky, a film by Vsevolod
Pudovkin. 1612, a 2007 historical fantasy film.
Russian and Polish artists have painted numerous works based on these events.
Numerous histories have been written, as well. In 2001, Chester Dunning, a
specialist in Russian history at Texas A&M University published the nearly
700-page Russia's First Civil War: The Time of Troubles and the Founding of the
Romanov Dynasty. Twelve years in the research and writing, his work was a
History Book Club selection published by the Pennsylvania State University Press.
Dunning's thesis is that modern Russia begins in 1613 with the founding of the
Romanov dynasty. He covers the Time of Troubles and their contribution to the
founding. See also
Polish-Muscovite War Bolotnikov rebellion of 1606–07
Crimean-Nogai raids into East Slavic lands
Notes References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:
Chisholm, Hugh, ed.. Encyclopædia Britannica. Cambridge University Press.
Further reading Dunning, Chester S.L. Russia's First
Civil War: The Time of Troubles and the Founding of the Romanov Dynasty, Penn
State Press, 2001 ISBN 0-271-02074-1