Polish-Swedish intervention in Russian lands. Russia's struggle against the Polish-Swedish intervention. Getting rid of the Poles

The union of Russia and Sweden, which fell on the period of the Polish-Swedish war, gave rise to Polish king Sigismund III openly oppose Russia. The events of the Polish intervention are intertwined with the events of the subsequent Swedish intervention of 1611-1617.

Smolensk defense. In the autumn of 1609, a 12,000-strong Polish army, supported by 10,000 Ukrainian Cossacks (subjects of Poland), laid siege to Smolensk. At that time Smolensk was the most powerful Russian fortress. In 1586-1602. the fortress walls and towers of Smolensk were rebuilt by the famous architect Fyodor Kon. The total length of the fortress walls was 6.5 km, the height was 13-19 m, and the thickness was 5-6 m. 170 cannons were installed on them.
An attempt at a sudden night assault on September 24, 1609 ended in failure. At the beginning of 1610, the Poles tried to dig, but they were promptly discovered and blown up by Smolensk miners. In the spring of 1610, Russian troops with Swedish mercenaries marched to Smolensk against the army of King Sigismund, but were defeated at the village of Klushino (north of Gzhatsk - 06/24/1610). It seemed that nothing could prevent the capture of the fortress. However, the garrison and the inhabitants of Smolensk on July 19 and 24, August 11 successfully repulsed the attacks. In September 1610 and March 1611, King Sigismund negotiated to persuade the besieged to capitulate, but did not achieve the goal. However, the position of the fortress after almost two years of siege was critical. Of the 80 thousand citizens, only a tenth survived. On the night of June 3, 1611, the Poles from four sides went on the fifth, which turned out to be the last, attack. The city was taken.

First militia (1611). The defeat of the Russian troops at the village of Klushino (06/24/1610) hastened the overthrow of Vasily IV Shuisky (July 1610) and the establishment of the power of the boyar government ("Seven Boyars"). Meanwhile, two troops approached Moscow: Zholkevsky and False Dmitry II from Kaluga. The Poles proposed to erect the son of Sigismund, Vladislav, to the throne of Moscow. Fearing False Dmitry, the Moscow nobility decided to agree with the candidacy of Vladislav, because they were afraid of reprisals from the Tushins. In addition, at the request of the Moscow boyars, who were afraid of an attack by the detachments of False Dmitry II, the Polish garrison under the command of Alexander Gonsevsky (5-7 thousand people) entered Moscow in the fall of 1610.
It soon became clear that Sigismund was in no hurry to send his son to the Moscow throne, but wanted to manage Russia himself as a conquered country. Here is what, for example, the inhabitants of the Smolensk region wrote to their compatriots, who had already experienced the power of Sigismund, who, by the way, first promised them various liberties. “We did not resist - and everyone died, we went to eternal work towards Latinism. If you are not now in union, in common with the whole earth, then you will bitterly weep and sob with inconsolable eternal weeping: the Christian faith in Latinism will be changed, and the Divine churches will be ruined with with all the beauty, and your Christian race will be slain with a fierce death, they will enslave and defile and dilute into a full of your mothers, wives and children. The authors of the letter warned about the real intentions of the invaders: "Withdraw the best people, to devastate all the lands, to own all the land of Moscow.
In December 1610, False Dmitry II died in a quarrel with his servants. Thus, the opponents of Vladislav and the "Tushinsky thief" were left with one enemy - a foreign prince, against whom they opposed. The inspiration for the trip was Orthodox Church. At the end of 1610, Patriarch Hermogenes sent letters around the country with a call to go against the Gentiles. For this, the Poles arrested the patriarch. But the call was received, and militia detachments moved from everywhere to Moscow. By Easter 1611, some of them reached the capital, where the uprising of the townspeople began. On March 19, a detachment of Prince Dmitry Pozharsky arrived in time to help them. But the Poles took refuge behind the fortress walls of the center of Moscow. On the advice of the boyars who remained with them, they set fire to the rest of the city, displacing the attackers from there with fire.
With the approach of the main forces of the militia (up to 100 thousand people), in early April, the fighting resumed. The militias occupied the main part of the White City, pushing the Poles to Kitay-Gorod and the Kremlin. On the night of May 21-22, a decisive assault on Kitay-gorod followed, but the besieged managed to repel it. Despite the large number, the militia failed to achieve its goals. It did not have a single structure, discipline, general leadership. The social composition of the militias was also heterogeneous, among which were both nobles and their former serfs with Cossacks. The interests of both regarding the future social structure of Russia were directly opposite.
The nobility militia was headed by Prokopiy Lyapunov, the Cossacks and former Tushinians were led by Ataman Ivan Zarutsky and Prince Dmitry Trubetskoy. However, a sharp rivalry began among the main leaders of the movement. On July 22, 1611, Lyapunov was killed on a false charge of intent against the Cossacks. The Cossacks began to beat his supporters, forcing them to leave the camp and go home. Mostly only the detachments of Trubetskoy and Zarutskoy remained near Moscow.
Meanwhile, in August, a detachment of Hetman Sapieha managed to break through to Moscow, which delivered food to the besieged. At the end of September, the Polish detachment of Hetman Khodkevich (2 thousand people) also approached the capital. In the course of several skirmishes, he was repulsed and retreated. The last major attempt by the First Militia to liberate Moscow was made in December 1611. The Cossacks, led by ataman Prosovetsky, blew up the gates of Kitay-gorod and broke into the fortress. But the Poles repulsed the assault with fire from 30 guns. After this failure, the First Militia effectively collapsed.

Second militia (1612). The state of the Russian state in 1611 only worsened. Sigismund's army finally captured Smolensk. There was a Polish garrison in Moscow. The Swedes took Novgorod. Foreign and local gangs freely roamed the country, robbing the population. The top leadership was captured or on the side of the invaders. The state was left without a real central authority. "A little more - and Russia would have become a province of some Western European state, as it was with India," wrote the German researcher Schulze-Gevernitz.
True, the Poles, weakened by a long and unsuccessful war with the Swedes and the siege of Smolensk, could not seriously begin to conquer Russian lands. Under the conditions of intervention, the collapse of the central government and the army, the last frontier of Russia's defense was popular resistance, illuminated by the idea of ​​social rallying in the name of defending the Motherland. Class contradictions, characteristic of the first stages of the Time of Troubles, give way to the national-religious movement for the territorial and spiritual integrity of the country. The Russian Orthodox Church acted as a force that rallied all social groups, standing up for the defense of national dignity. Imprisoned in the Kremlin, Patriarch Hermogenes continued to distribute appeals through his associates - letters, urging compatriots to fight against non-believers and troublemakers. The Trinity-Sergius Monastery also became the center of patriotic propaganda, where the proclamations were composed by Archimandrite Dionysius and cellarer Avraamiy Palitsyn.
One of the letters came to the Nizhny Novgorod Zemstvo headman, the meat merchant Kuzma Minin. In the autumn of 1611, he spoke to his fellow citizens in Nizhny Novgorod, urging them to give their strength and property to the defense of the Fatherland. He himself made the first contribution, allocating a third of his money (100 rubles) to create a militia. The majority of Nizhny Novgorod residents decided to do the same. Those who refused were forced to do so. Prince Dmitry Pozharsky was invited to lead the militia.
In January 1612 the militia moved to Yaroslavl, establishing its power in the northeastern regions. The second militia was more homogeneous than the first. It consisted mainly of service, zemstvo people of North-Eastern Russia. The militia did not immediately go to Moscow, but stopped in Yaroslavl in order to strengthen the rear and expand the base of their movement. But soon they became aware that a large detachment of Hetman Khodkiewicz was coming to the capital to help the Polish garrison. Then Pozharsky hurried to Moscow.
Approaching the capital, the Second Militia (about 10 thousand people) took up positions near the Novodevichy Convent, on the left bank of the Moscow River. On the right bank, in Zamoskvorechye, there were Cossack detachments of Prince Trubetskoy (2.5 thousand people), who had been standing near Moscow since the time of the First Militia. Soon a detachment of Khodkevich (up to 12 thousand people) approached the capital, with which the militias fought on August 22 near the Novodevichy Convent. Gradually, the Poles pushed the militias to the Chertolsky Gate (the area of ​​​​Prechistenka and Ostozhenka streets). At this critical moment of the battle, part of the Cossacks from the Trubetskoy camp crossed the river and attacked the Khodkevich detachment, which could not withstand the onslaught of fresh forces and retreated to the Novodevichy Convent.
However, on the night of August 23, a small part of Khodkevich's detachment (600 people) nevertheless managed to penetrate the Kremlin to the besieged (3 thousand people) and in the morning they made a successful sortie, seizing a bridgehead on the banks of the Moscow River. On August 23, Khodkevich's detachment crossed to Zamoskvorechye and occupied the Donskoy Monastery. The Poles decided to break through to the besieged through the positions of Trubetskoy, hoping for the instability of his troops and the disagreements of the Russian military leaders. In addition, Zamoskvorechye, burned down by fires, was poorly fortified. But Pozharsky, having learned about the hetman's plans, managed to send part of his forces there to help Trubetskoy.
On August 24, a decisive battle broke out. The most fierce battle ensued for the Klimentovsky jail (Pyatnitskaya street), which more than once passed from hand to hand. In this battle cellar Abraham Palitsyn distinguished himself, who at a critical moment persuaded the Cossacks not to retreat. Inspired by the priest's speech and the promised reward, they launched a counterattack and recaptured the prison in a fierce battle. By evening, he remained behind the Russians, but there was no decisive victory. Then a detachment headed by Minin (300 people) crossed to Zamoskvorechye from the left bank of the river. With an unexpected blow to the flank, he attacked the Poles, causing confusion in their ranks. At this time, the Russian infantry, who had settled in the ruins of Zamoskvorechye, also went on the attack. This double blow decided the outcome of the battle. Khodkevich, having lost half of his detachment in three-day battles, retreated from Moscow to the west.
"The Poles suffered such a significant loss," wrote the Polish historian of the 17th century, Koberzhitsky, that it could not be rewarded with anything. The wheel of fortune turned, and the hope of capturing the entire Muscovite state collapsed irrevocably. On October 26, 1612, the remnants of the Polish garrison in the Kremlin, driven to despair by hunger, capitulated. The liberation of the Russian capital from the invaders created the conditions for the restoration of state power in the country.

Defense of Volokolamsk (1612). After the liberation of Moscow by the forces of the Second Home Guard, the Polish king Sigismund began to gather forces in order to recapture the Russian capital. But the Polish nobility was tired of the war and for the most part did not want to participate in a dangerous winter campaign. As a result, the king managed to recruit only 5 thousand people for such a serious operation. Despite the obvious lack of strength, Sigismund still did not retreat from his plan and in December 1612 set out on a campaign against Moscow. On the way, his army besieged Volokolamsk, where there was a garrison under the command of the governor Karamyshev and Chemesov. The defenders of the city rejected the offer of surrender and valiantly fought off three attacks, inflicting serious damage on Sigismund's army. The Cossack chieftains Markov and Yepanchin especially distinguished themselves in battles, who, according to the chronicle, actually led the defense of the city.
While Sigismund was besieging Volokolamsk, one of his detachments under the command of Zholkovsky set off for reconnaissance to Moscow, but was defeated in a battle near the city. This defeat, as well as the failure of the main forces near Volokolamsk, did not allow Sigismund to continue the offensive against the Russian capital. The king lifted the siege and retreated to Poland. This made it possible to freely hold the Zemsky Sobor in Moscow, which chose a new tsar, Mikhail Romanov.

Raid of Lisovsky (1614). In the summer of 1614, the Polish-Lithuanian cavalry detachment under the command of Colonel Lisovsky (3 thousand people) made a deep raid on Russian lands. The raid began from the Bryansk region. Then Lisovsky approached Orel, where he fought with the army of Prince Pozharsky. The Poles overthrew the Russian vanguard of the voivode Isleniev, but the stamina of the soldiers who remained with Pozharsky (600 people) did not allow Lisovsky to develop success. By evening, the fleeing units of Isleniev returned to the battlefield, and Lisovsky's detachment retreated to Kromy. Then he moved to Vyazma and Mozhaisk. Soon Pozharsky fell ill and went to Kaluga for treatment. After that, his detachment broke up due to the departure of military men to their homes, and Lisovsky was able to continue his campaign without hindrance.
His path ran through the Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Murom and Kaluga regions. Lisovsky bypassed big cities, devastating their surroundings. Several governors were sent in pursuit of the elusive detachment, but nowhere did they succeed in blocking his path. Near Aleksin, Lisovsky had a skirmish with the army of Prince Kurakin, and then left the Russian borders. The successes of the "foxes" testified not only to the talents of their leader, but also to the difficult state of Russia, which was not yet able to effectively protect itself from raids. Lisovsky's raid did not have a special impact on the course of the Russian-Polish war, but left a long memory in the Muscovite state.

Astrakhan campaign (1614). If Lisovsky managed to avoid retribution, then another major "hero" of the Time of Troubles was nevertheless captured that year. We are talking about Ivan Zarutsky. Back in 1612, he tried to destroy Pozharsky with the help of assassins, and then left Moscow to the south with a radical part of the Cossacks. On the way, the ataman captured the wife of two False Dmitrys, Marina Mnishek, who lived with her son in Kaluga after the murder of False Dmitry II. In 1613, with a detachment of Cossacks (2-3 thousand people), Zarutsky tried to once again raise the southern regions of Russia against Moscow. But the population, convinced over the past terrible years of the destructiveness of civil strife, did not support the ataman. In May 1613, in the battle near Voronezh, Zarutsky was defeated by the troops of the governor Odoevsky and retreated even further south. Ataman captured Astrakhan and decided to create an independent state there under the auspices of the Iranian Shah.
But the Cossacks, tired of the turmoil and attracted by the promises of the new Moscow authorities to take them into service, did not support the ataman. Residents of Astrakhan treated Zarutsky with open hostility. The Shah of Iran, who did not want to quarrel with Moscow, also refused to help. Having no serious support, Zarutsky and Marina Mnishek fled from Astrakhan at the news of the government troops approaching the city. Terrible in the past, the ataman was soon defeated by a small detachment (700 people) of the tsarist governor Vasily Khokhlov. Zarutsky tried to hide on the Yaik River, but local Cossacks betrayed him to the authorities. Ataman and the son of Marina Mnishek were executed, and Marina herself was imprisoned, where she died. With the liberation of Astrakhan, the most dangerous center of internal unrest was eliminated.

Moscow campaign of Vladislav (1618). The last major event of the Russo-Polish war was the campaign against Moscow of troops led by Prince Vladislav (10 thousand Poles, 20 thousand Ukrainian Cossacks) in the autumn of 1618. The Polish prince tried to seize Moscow in the hope of restoring his rights to the Russian throne. On September 20, the Polish army approached the Russian capital and camped in the famous Tushino. At that time, detachments of Ukrainian Cossacks (subjects of Poland) headed by Hetman Sahaidachny approached the Donskoy Monastery from the south. Muscovites tried to prevent his connection with Vladislav, but, according to the chronicle, they were so afraid that they let the hetman's army into Tushino without a fight. The horror of the townspeople was increased by a comet that in those days stood over the city.
Nevertheless, when the Poles attacked Moscow on the night of October 1, they met a worthy rebuff. The most heated battle broke out at the Arbat Gates, where a detachment of archers led by the stolnik Nikita Godunov (487 people) distinguished himself. After a fierce battle, he managed to repel the breakthrough of the Polish units under the command of the gentleman Novodvorsky. Having lost 130 people in this case, the Poles retreated. Their attack on the Tver Gate also did not bring success.

Truce of Deulino (1618). After an unsuccessful assault, negotiations began, and soon the opponents, weary of the struggle (the Poles were then at war with Turkey and were already starting a new clash with Sweden), concluded the Deulino truce for fourteen and a half years. According to its terms, Poland left behind a number of Russian territories captured by it: Smolensk, Novgorod-Seversky and Chernigov lands.

After the death of Ivan IV in 1584 and his son Fyodor in 1589, the Rurik dynasty was interrupted. This was taken advantage of by the boyars, who fought among themselves for power. In 1604, Polish troops invaded Russia. The Polish intervention in Russia - the military expansion of Poland - was carried out with the aim of land acquisitions and the liquidation of Russian statehood. During the "Time of Troubles" in Russia, the Polish army in the autumn of 1609 began a campaign against Smolensk. At the same time, the detachment of S. Zholknevsky moved around Smolensk to Moscow, in 1610 he defeated the Russian-Swedish army of Vasily Shuisky, then the Russian-Polish army of False Dmitry II. The boyar government elected the son of the Polish king Sigismund III Vladislav as the Russian tsar. Only in the summer of 1611, having taken Smolensk, Sigismund's army moved to Vyazma. But by this time, the people's militia of Kozma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky had driven the Poles out of Moscow. Upon learning of this, Sigismund stopped the movement of his army.

With the expulsion of the interventionists from Russia, the restoration of its statehood began. Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov was elected to the throne in 1613. But the struggle with the Poles was fought for more than one year.

In 1617, the Poles recaptured Russian army, besieging Smolensk, and launched an offensive against Moscow. Before the threat of a siege of Moscow, Tsar Mikhail Romanov agreed to an extremely unfavorable peace. On December 1, 1618, a truce was signed between Russia and Poland. The borders of Poland moved closer to Vyazma.

Liberation of Moscow from the Polish invaders October 25 (November 7), 1612 - Day military glory(victory day) Russia

On September 21, 1610, the Polish invaders, taking advantage of the betrayal of the boyars, captured Moscow. Residents of the capital and other cities of Russia rose to fight them. In the autumn of 1611, on the initiative of the mayor Nizhny Novgorod Kozma Minin, a militia was created (20 thousand people). It was headed by Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and Kozma Minin. At the end of August 1612, the militia blocked the 3,000-strong Polish garrison in Kitai-Gorod and the Kremlin, thwarted all attempts by the Polish army (12,000 people) of Hetman Jan Khodkiewicz to release the besieged, and then defeated him. After careful preparation, on October 22, the Russian militia stormed Kitay-gorod. On October 25, the Poles, who had settled in the Kremlin, released all the hostages, and the next day they capitulated.

Early 17th century was marked by a general political crisis, social contradictions escalated. The board of Boris Godunov was dissatisfied with all sectors of society. Taking advantage of the weakening of statehood, the Commonwealth and Sweden attempted to seize Russian lands and include it in the sphere of influence of the Catholic Church.

In 1601, a man appeared who pretended to be the miraculously saved Tsarevich Dmitry. It turned out to be a fugitive monk, a deacon of the Chudov Monastery Grigory Otrepiev. Appearance of False Dmitry I in 1601-1602 in Polish possessions in Ukraine, where he announced his claims to royal throne in Russia, served as a pretext for the start of intervention. In Poland, False Dmitry turned to the Polish gentry and King Sigismund III for help. In order to get closer to the Polish elite, False Dmitry converted to Catholicism and promised, if successful, to make this religion the state religion in Russia, and also to give Poland the western Russian lands.

In October 1604, False Dmitry 1st invaded Russia. The army, which was joined by runaway peasants, Cossacks, service people, quickly advanced towards Moscow. In April 1605, Boris Godunov died, his warriors went over to the side of the applicant. Fyodor, Godunov's 16-year-old son, was unable to hold on to power. Moscow went over to the side of False Dmitry 1st. The young king and his mother were killed, and on June 20 a new "autocrat" entered the capital.

In 1617, Stolbovsky Peace was concluded between Russia and Sweden. Russia returned Novgorod, but lost the coast of the Gulf of Finland. In 1618, the Deulino truce was concluded with Poland, which received the Smolensk, Chernigov and Novgorod-Seversk lands. Despite the grave consequences of the Swedish-Polish intervention, Russia retained the most important thing - its statehood.

In the spring of 1607, False Dmitry II appeared in Russia. His identity has not been established. According to one version, he is the son of a priest, according to another - a home teacher, according to the third - the son of A. M. Kurbsky, according to the fourth - the son of a Starodub nobleman, according to the fifth - a Jew. On June 12, 1607, the inhabitants of Starodub swore allegiance to him. The army of the impostor was commanded by the Polish commander Mekhovetsky. She occupied Kozelsk, Karachev, Orel and laid siege to Bryansk. When government troops delivered food to Bryansk, False Dmitry II lifted the siege.

In April 1608, 4,000 Poles under the command of Rozhinsky came to the camp of the impostor. They removed Mekhovetsky and elected Rozhinsky as hetman. In June 1608, the army of False Dmitry II approached Moscow and stopped in Tushino, so they began to call him the "Tushino thief." On July 25, 1608, Russia and Poland signed a truce for three years. On September 23, 1608, the army of the impostor under the command of J. Sapega laid siege to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. See Solovyov S. M. History of Russia since ancient times. T. 8. Skrynnikov R. G. Minin and Pozharsky. pp. 94 - 119.

In 1609, Vasily Shuisky turned to the Swedish king Charles IX with a request for help in the fight against False Dmitry II. The Swedes captured all the Russian fortresses on the Baltic coast, except for Nut. Attracting Swedish mercenaries to the Russian army to fight against False Dmitry II Polish king Sigismund III used as a pretext for declaring war on Russia. The reasons for the war were the aggressive policy of Poland towards Russia and the desire of Russia to unite all the East Slavic lands. The aggressiveness of Poland was explained by the fact that the support of the government was the petty nobility. It sought to maintain its possessions in Ukraine and Belarus and hoped to get new lands in Russia. On September 19, 1609, the Poles besieged Smolensk. The defense of the city was led by the boyar M. B. Shein. In the spring and summer of 1609, M. V. Skopin-Shuisky liberated the north of Russia from the Tushino people.

On January 12, 1610, Ya. Sapega was forced to lift the siege of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. The beginning of an open war led to the collapse of the Tushino camp. Most of the Poles went over to the side of their government. Only Rozhinsky remained with the impostor. He treated False Dmitry II like a prisoner, so in December 1609 the impostor fled to Kaluga and on December 11, 1610 was killed. The nobles who were in the Tushino camp nominated the Polish prince Vladislav as a candidate for the throne. On February 4, 1610, they concluded an agreement with Sigismund III on the election of Vladislav as the Russian Tsar.

According to the agreement, Vladislav was obliged to accept Orthodoxy and did not have the right to issue new laws without the consent of Boyar Duma and Zemsky Sobor. The treaty forbade the transfer of peasants from one landowner to another. D. I. Shuisky tried to free Smolensk from the siege, but on June 24, 1610 he was defeated near Klushino. The defeat of the Russian army near Klushino opened the way for the Poles to Moscow. On July 17, 1610, the conspirators led by P.P. Lyapunov overthrew Vasily Shuisky. Power passed to the boyar government, which went down in history under the name of the Seven Boyars.

• On August 17, the inhabitants of Moscow took the oath to Vladislav. The nobles saw in him a lesser evil compared to False Dmitry II. On September 20, the government let a Polish detachment into Moscow under the command of S. Zolkiewski. On his initiative, the Moscow boyars and nobles sent an embassy to the Polish king, headed by V.V. Golitsyn and F.N. Romanov. Sigismund III refused to let his son go to Moscow, because he wanted to take the Russian throne himself and completely subordinate Russia to Poland. Thus, there was a threat to the independence of Russia. In January 1611, P.P. Lyapunov organized a people's militia. Its basis was made up of nobles and Cossacks. The closest associates of P.P. Lyapunov were Prince D.T. Trubetskoy and Cossack ataman I. M. Zarutsky. Prince D. M. Pozharsky was elected commander-in-chief. In March 1611, the militia approached Moscow.
• On March 19, an uprising broke out in the city. The reason for it was the insult by the Poles of Patriarch Hermogenes. The vanguard of the militia under the command of D. M. Pozharsky entered Moscow. The Poles set fire to the city, the rebels were poorly armed, so they were defeated. D. M. Pozharsky was seriously wounded. The militia retreated to the outskirts of Moscow. According to N. I. Kostomarov, the Poles killed about 8 thousand civilians. See Kostomarov N. I. The Tale of the Liberation of Moscow from the Poles in 1612 and the Election of Tsar Mikhail. // Kostomarov N. I. Historical monographs and research. M., 1989. S. 75. On July 22, 1611, the Cossacks accused P. P. Lyapunov of intending to destroy the Cossacks and return the runaway peasants and serfs to their former owners and killed him. According to N. M. Karamzin, P. P. Lyapunov was slandered by I. M. Zarutsky. According to R. G. Skrynnikov, a fake letter on behalf of P. P. Lyapunov with a call for the destruction of the Cossacks was written by the Polish colonel A. Gonsevsky. See Skrynnikov R. G. Minin and Pozharsky. S. 197.

After the death of P.P. Lyapunov, the nobles left the militia and led guerrilla war against the Poles in the vicinity of Moscow. On June 3, 1611, the Poles stormed Smolensk. The surviving defenders of the city, led by M. B. Shein, were captured. In the same year, the Swedes occupied Novgorod. Novgorod governor I. N. Odoevsky concluded a peace treaty with the commander of the Swedish army, J. Delagardie, confirming the terms of the Tyavzinsky peace. I. N. Odoevsky recognized the son of Charles IX as the Russian Tsar, and J. Delagardie - his governor and pledged to obey him in everything. See Kostomarov N. I. The Tale of the Liberation of Moscow from the Poles in 1612 and the Election of Tsar Mikhail. P. 75. Karamzin N. M. History of the Russian state. T. 12 // Moscow. 1989. No. 12. S. 142 - 144.

Only the turmoil that reigned in our country at that time saved the Novgorod governor from responsibility for treason - a crime that at all times and among all peoples was considered one of the most serious. In September 1611, K. M. Minin appealed to the people of Nizhny Novgorod to create a new militia. K. M. Minin was born in Balakhna in the family of a small salt industrialist, in his youth he came to Nizhny Novgorod and engaged in trade. In 1611 he was a zemstvo headman. Letters from K. M. Minin, Patriarch Hermogenes and the monks of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery were distributed throughout the country. In Nizhny Novgorod, the formation of the second militia. D. M. Pozharsky was again elected commander-in-chief. In March 1612, the militia left Nizhny Novgorod and arrived in Yaroslavl. There he continued his formation and training. K. M. Minin and D. M. Pozharsky created the Council of the whole earth - a provisional government.

At the same time, the second Council of the whole land operated under the leadership of D.T. Trubetskoy and I.M. Zarutsky. A conflict arose between the leaders of the two militias, since I. M. Zarutsky and D. T. Trubetskoy recognized the Pskov impostor. In July 1612, K. M. Minin and D. M. Pozharsky learned that a strong and numerous Polish army under the command of Hetman Ya. Khodkevich was heading towards Moscow. D. M. Pozharsky was ahead of Ya. Khodkevich and, thus, seized the strategic initiative. This largely ensured the victory of the Russian army.

• On August 22-24, 1612, a decisive battle took place between the Russian and Polish armies. The militia of K. M. Minin and D. M. Pozharsky numbered 10 thousand people, the army of J. Khodkevich - 12 thousand, the Polish garrison in the Kremlin - 3 thousand. Consequently, the Polish army outnumbered the Russian one by 1.5 times. D. M. Pozharsky deployed his army on the western outskirts of Moscow, and not on the eastern outskirts, as suggested by D. T. Trubetskoy. D. M. Pozharsky gave D. T. Trubetskoy five horse hundreds.
• On August 22, J. Khodkevich launched an offensive. The Russian army recaptured it and went on the counterattack several times. J. Khodkevich brought infantry into battle. The noble cavalry could not withstand the onslaught and retreated. Then D. M. Pozharsky ordered the nobles to dismount and fight on foot. In the afternoon, J. Khodkevich threw all his forces into battle in order to break through the defenses of the Russian militia on the Arbat and in the area of ​​the Tver Gates. The archers opened deadly fire on the enemy and forced him to stop attacking. At the same time, the Polish garrison made a sortie from the Kremlin. She was repulsed. A hand-to-hand fight ensued. The troops placed at the disposal of D.T. Trubetskoy and the Cossacks from the first militia counterattacked the enemy and forced him to retreat. On August 24, the Poles launched an offensive from Zamoskvorechye. D. M. Pozharsky sent cavalry against them. D.T. Trubetskoy launched an offensive from the Kolomenskaya Sloboda. However, he acted indecisively, which allowed J. Khodkevich to throw his main forces against D. M. Pozharsky. D. M. Pozharsky brought all his regiments into battle and, thus, stopped the enemy. Then the Poles intensified their offensive against the army of D. M. Trubetskoy and captured the Cossack prison.

The Cossacks resisted the enemy, but when the militia of K. M. Minin and D. M. Pozharsky did not immediately come to their aid, they left the battle. The Polish garrison in the Kremlin made a second sortie. She was repulsed. The cellar of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery A. S. Palitsyn convinced the Cossacks to return to duty. The outcome of the battle was again decided by the swift attack of the Cossacks. They were supported by the cavalry under the command of K. M. Minin, then the infantry under the command of D. M. Pozharsky went on the offensive. The Poles took to flight. See Kostomarov N. I. The Tale of the Liberation of Moscow from the Poles in 1612 and the Election of Tsar Mikhail. P. 81 - 82. Skrynnikov R. G. Minin and Pozharsky. pp. 256 - 263.

The assault on the Kremlin was unsuccessful, so the Russian army laid siege to it. On October 22, Kitai-Gorod was liberated. On October 26, the Polish garrison in the Kremlin capitulated. The liberation of Moscow was a radical turning point in the course of the war. On February 21, 1613, the Zemsky Sobor elected 16-year-old Mikhail Romanov as Tsar. Patriarch Hermogenes back in 1610 put forward his candidacy for the throne. The boyars were attracted by Mikhail's youth and inexperience, his unpreparedness to govern the state, and therefore the ability to govern on his behalf. Since the father of the new tsar, Fyodor Nikitich Romanov, was the patriarch in Tushino and, together with Prince V.V. Golitsyn, headed the embassy to the Polish king, the boyars who collaborated with the Poles, that is, committed high treason, saw in Mikhail a guarantor of their impunity. He was the cousin-nephew of Fyodor Ivanovich, the last tsar of the Rurik dynasty, which created the appearance of continuity of power.

At first, Mikhail refused the throne and explained this by the disorder in administration and the lack of money in the treasury, then he agreed to come to Moscow and take the throne. The Poles tried to kill the young tsar, but the Kostroma peasant Ivan Susanin led them into an impenetrable forest. On July 11, 1613, Mikhail was married to the kingdom. See Solovyov S. M. History of Russia since ancient times. T. 9. M., 1990. S. 7 - 28.

He was elected on the same terms as Vasily Shuisky. The real power belonged to the king's relatives. They removed D. M. Pozharsky from command, since, in their opinion, he was not notable enough, and replaced him with Prince D. M. Cherkassky.

In 1613, the Russian army fought with the Poles near Kaluga and Vyazma. An attempt to liberate Smolensk was unsuccessful due to the indiscipline of the nobles. The new government increased taxes and decided to return the runaway peasants to their former owners. This caused an uprising led by Mikhail Balovnya. driving forces uprisings were Cossacks and peasants. In 1615 it was suppressed. In the same year, the Polish army under the command of A. Lisovsky invaded Russia. The tsar again appointed D. M. Pozharsky commander in chief.

On June 29, 1615, the Russian army left Moscow. On August 30, the Battle of Orel took place. I. Pushkin's detachment attacked the Polish camp, followed by three attacks by the main forces. The regiment of S. Isleniev and the Tatars left the battlefield. 600 people remained with D. M. Pozharsky. The confrontation continued for three days. The mercenaries who were in the Polish army transferred to the Russian army. This decided the outcome of the battle. A. Lisovsky fled. In July 1616, the Russian government sent an army to Smolensk under the command of M.K. Tinbaev and N. Likharev. At the same time, the Lithuanians attacked Starodub, devastated the neighborhood of Karachev and Krom, burned Oskol and approached Belgorod. On October 22, 1616, the governors who were stationed near Smolensk reported on the impending campaign against Moscow of the Polish army under the command of A. Gonsevsky. Russian command sent an army under the command of N. Boryatinsky to Dorogobuzh.

In March 1617, the Russian army defeated the Poles near Dorogobuzh, but the Dorogobuzh governor surrendered the city to the Poles. In the same year, Vladislav undertook a campaign against Moscow in order to take the Russian throne. On October 18, the Russian army under the command of D. M. Pozharsky approached Kaluga. The Poles besieged the city and on December 23 tried to take it by storm, but were met with fire and fled. In October 1618, the Poles approached Moscow and tried to take it, but their attack on the White City was repulsed.

On December 1, 1618, Russia and Poland signed the Deulino truce, according to which Smolensk was ceded to Poland. The treaty also provided for the exchange of prisoners. According to the Stolbovsky peace treaty, concluded on February 27, 1617, Sweden returned Novgorod to Russia, but Russia completely lost access to the Baltic Sea. See Tarle E.V. North War and the Swedish invasion of Russia. // Tarle E. V. Selected works. T. 3. Rostov-on-Don, 1994. Since that time, the main foreign policy tasks of Russia have been the return of their original possessions in the Baltic, the return of Smolensk and the reunification of Ukraine and Belarus with Russia.

In 1609, the turmoil in Russia was complicated by the direct military intervention of neighboring powers. Being unable to cope on his own with the "Tushinsky thief", who was supported by many Russian cities and lands, Shuisky in February 1609 concluded an agreement with Sweden. He gave the Karelian volost to the Swedes, receiving military assistance in return. However, the Swedish military detachment, led by the experienced commander Delagardie, could not change the situation in favor of Shuisky. At the same time, the king of the Commonwealth, Sigismund III, who was constantly at odds with the Swedes, regarded this treaty as a welcome pretext for covert intervention. In September 1609, Sigismund laid siege to Smolensk. In 1610, the Polish hetman Khodkevich defeated Shuisky's army near the village of Klushino (west of Mozhaisk).

On July 17, 1610, the boyars and nobles, forgetting for a while their disagreements, by common efforts overthrew Shuisky, who had lost all authority - he was forcibly tonsured a monk. Before the election of a new tsar, power in Moscow passed into the hands of a government of 7 boyars - " Seven Boyars". This government sent its ambassadors to Sigismund, offering the Polish king to elect his son Vladislav to the Russian throne. At the same time, conditions were set: Vladislav had to promise to preserve the Moscow order and accept Orthodoxy. Although Sigismund did not agree to the last condition, the agreement was still In 1610, a Polish army led by Gonsevsky, who was supposed to rule the country as the governor of Vladislav, entered Moscow.Sweden, which perceived the overthrow of Shuisky as a release from all obligations, occupied a significant part of the north of Russia.

Under these conditions, the so-called. first militia, the purpose of which was to liberate the country from the invaders and elevate the Russian Tsar to the throne. Its emergence was largely facilitated by the fate of the Tushino camp. Back in 1609, Sigismund appealed to all Tushino Poles to go near Smolensk to join his army. Fermentation began in the camp, ending in the murder of False Dmitry II in 1610 and the disintegration of the heterogeneous mass that made up the Tushino army. A significant part of the Tushino nobles and Cossacks, as well as a few boyars who supported the impostor, joined the arose in the beginning. 1611 to the militia. Ryazan governor Prokopy Lyapunov became its leader. The militia besieged Moscow and after the battle on March 19, 1611 captured most of the city; however, the Kremlin remained with the Poles. Meanwhile, the entire militia as a whole, and its governing body - did not satisfy the Cossacks. Constant clashes ended in the summer of 1611 with the murder of Lyapunov, after which most of the nobles left the militia.

In June 1611, Smolensk fell - the road for the entire Polish army to Moscow turned out to be open. A month later, the Swedes captured Novgorod. In conditions when the independent existence of the Russian people was under threat, in the east of the country, in Nizhny Novgorod, in the autumn of 1611, a second militia. The main organizer of it was the mayor Kuzma Minin, and the skillful commander, a member of the first militia, Prince Pozharsky, was elected its leader. Having gathered large forces, the militia entered Moscow in May 1612, merging with the remnants of the first militia, and completely blocked the Kremlin. In August, a Polish detachment under the command of Khodkevich tried to break through the blockade, but was thrown back from Moscow. On October 26, 1612, the Polish garrison in the Kremlin capitulated.

In January 1613, the Zemsky Sobor met in Moscow, at which 16-year-old Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov was elected the new Tsar of Russia. The old boyar family of the Romanovs was popular not only among the boyars, but also among other social strata. In addition, the colorless personality of the young tsar, as it seemed to many, was the key to the rejection of adventures and cruelties that had so tormented the Russian people over the past half century. After the restoration of tsarist power, all the forces of the state were thrown into restoring order within the country and fighting the interventionists. It took several years to exterminate the band of robbers that roamed the country. In 1617, the Stolbovsky peace was concluded with the Swedes: Russia returned Novgorod, but lost the entire coast of the Gulf of Finland. In 1618, after fierce clashes near Moscow in the village of Deulino, a truce was concluded with the Commonwealth: Russia ceded Smolensk and a number of cities and lands located along the western border.