in June 1605, False Dmitry the First, having coordinated the details with the Duma, solemnly enters the Kremlin and meets with the mother of Dmitry, Maria (in monasticism of Martha) Naga. She recognizes in her new «anointed» son, believably, with sobbing, perhaps to leave the walls of the disgusted monastery. Henceforth, Dmitry calls the Duma the Senate, and himself – the emperor («Caesar»). In general, his reign goes to the country for good – many boyars return from exile, the serfdom of peasants is suspended, taxes are reduced, and the economy rises. The obstacles to movement within the state, and beyond, are removed. The Polish king does not receive the promised Russian lands. At the same time, the plans of the war with Turkey, the still ardent Crimean-Tatar Crimea (recently on the walls of the capital the next raid is reflected), the personal guard of the king, recruited entirely from the Germans, and also some frivolous European orders are not popular among the masses.
All this would be, again, not so bad, quite tolerably, but, in mid-May 1606, at the wedding of Dmitry and his long-time lover, the daughter of Polish voivode Marina Mnishek comes two thousand Poles. During the festival, drunken haiduk soldiers grab passers-by, break into houses, attack women. This is enjoyed by the boyar Vasily Shuisky, summoning the people allegedly to protect the tsar from them; but, on the move, however, the action flows into its opposite. Escaping from the crowd, the wounded Dmitry falls into the hands of the detachment of the streltsy of the external guard, they are some time in confusion, before they join the defeating side. They send again for Maria Naga, but something comes from the mouth of the incoming messenger; «Martha answered, her son was killed in Uglich.» False Dmitri First, he, or Dmitry, is not exactly known until now – dies. On the grave of the king ominous signs are noted, because the body is digging, burning, mixing the dust with gunpowder and firing in the direction of Poland.
The crowd of adherents «calls» Vasily Shuisky (Suzdal branch of Rurikovich) king, and that he becomes, on June 1 of the same year. The Patriarch is changing, from Ignatius to Hermogenes. A new, even less legitimate ruler is expected from the very beginning to be severely tested – in October 1606, Moscow was besieged by a 100,000-strong army of the authorized representative of the next False Dmitry (Second) – the former galler oarsman, «serf», now voevoda Ivan Bolotnikov. In the camp of the insurrection a split is brewing – the boyars and runaway peasants are not able to form a stable union. Muscovites are ready to surrender, they only need to show the figure only somehow similar to the real prince, but that at the «voivode Dmitry» I. Bolotnikov at the moment is not. Mikhail Molchanov, one of the killers of Prince Fyodor, once a confidant of False Dmitri, who, incidentally, retains the royal seal and, finally, an imposter, refuses to take part in a risky fight personally. The hastily taken, in October, Bolotnikov failed to storm the capital. The army of the peasant leader, suffering in the way of defeat, retreats to Tula. It is possible to accumulate new forces, up to 38 thousand people, regroup and carry out a second campaign against Moscow. A hundred kilometers south-east of the capital, near Kashira in June 1607, there was a battle with the army of the Tsar himself, Vasily the Fourth (Shuisky). Peasant rebels are well organized, they have effective artillery, they are one step away from victory; but, a certain Tula governor with a 4-thousand detachment changes Bolotnikov, strikes the rear of the militia and sows panic. The uprising is coming to naught, however, many militiamen are involved in the struggle of the parties, for or against, the impostors of Dmitry II and the Third.
…The backlog of Mikhail Molchanov with False Dmitry for Ivan Bolotnikov’s army was, in fact, true, but the search for a real person for this role was too long. Yes, for a while, in Poland and Ukraine (actually, the protectorate of Poland), the role of the prince was played by Molchanov himself. But, in Moscow he was well known. Only at the beginning of 1607, in Byelorussia, also then part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (the name of the Polish-Lithuanian state, the calka from Latin res publica – «Republic»), was found suitable for the figure, age, other basic parameters, man. In a halo of mystery, first as a relative of the tsar, Andrei Nagoy, False Dmitry II appeared before the Russian people only at the end of the spring of 1607.
False Dmitry did not have time for either the first or the second campaign of Bolotnikov to Moscow. He also goes to Tula, where, on October 10, Shuisky’s troops, having changed the direction of the river to the city, forced the rest of the peasant army to surrender. But, in any case, now under his name is collected 27 thousand people – Poles, Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks, archers, nobles and fighting serfs. False Dmitriy wins several battles, but Moscow, surrounded by stone white walls (by the current Boulevard Ring) can not be taken. Having settled in Tushino, False Dmitry II tries to completely block the capital. He manages to intercept Marina Mniszek, and, after some persuasion, marry her. At the same time, the «deputy king» succeeds in attracting Metropolitan Philaret to his side – becoming from now on the understudy of the Moscow patriarch. There comes a dual power – Shuisky and False Dmitriy II (more precisely, his Polish bodyguards who believe that they control the owner) rule the country in parallel. Vasily the Fourth achieves some successes, with the help of the governor Skopina-Shuisky (whom he later, according to most historians, will poison) and some participation, dissatisfied with the strengthening of Catholic Poland, Protestant Sweden. Polish mercenaries openly show disdain for their Russian «tsarik,» and, after all, climbing into the cart under the matting, False Dmitry runs away from them to Kaluga.
In this city the spirit of the Bolotnikov uprising is still very strong. Only here the impostor begins to play an independent role, enjoys the respect of the people, finds a second wind. The Tushino camp, which remained without the tsar’s name, loses the original meaning of the second capital, is set on fire by former masters; The arrogant Polish army is dispersed.
False Dmitry is besieging Moscow already with a new army. In the milieu of boyars, the «overturners» are ripening the idea: simultaneously remove from the political field both Vasily Shuisky and the impostor, and then by the whole world choose a new king. In Moscow, the nobles of the Zemsky Sobor, indeed, overthrow Basil the Fourth, forcibly shear the king into monks and await response from the near False Dmitry II. But, they do not hurry to fulfill this promise, because now their positions are remarkably strengthened. To fill the vacuum of power, the interim government, Semiboyarschina, chooses the king of the Polish prince Vladislav Vaz, the eldest son of the Polish king Sigismund the Third. Gradually Russian society is polarized: to the False Dmitrii, pushed back to Kaluga, the poor and humiliated poor people, Cossacks and Cossacks, flock to Vladislav, or rather, his representatives in Russia – the nobles.
Without a sufficient number of representatives of the nobility, outside the hierarchy, too homogeneous masses of people enter the power of their dark instincts. The notion of justice, as such, ceases to exist. The wheel of senseless terror is developing to all the more suspicious and «wrong» people. Moreover, False Dmitry II expects to call for Crimean and Nogai (Astrakhan) Tatars, who are already moving to Central Russia, as well as Turks, in order to Moscow, so that they can quickly correct all their affairs. But, his plans are not destined to come true; in retaliation for one of the victims of terror, an impostor kills his own bodyguard.
So, Vasily Shuisky tonsured monks, along with two brothers he is kept in a castle, 100 kilometers from Warsaw. His own children do not have a former king. The three-year-old son of Mary Mniszek, Ivan, can claim the throne, but, nevertheless, he is still too small. Tsar Vladislav is unpopular among the people, in addition, he does not risk personally leaving Poland for Moscow, and himself, it seems, is cooling to the idea of becoming the ruler of Russia. The soil for the appearance of the third False Dmitri is still fertile.
And it is announced, (January 1611) – in the besieged Swedes of Ivangorod (150 kilometers west of present-day Petersburg). False Dmitry III manages to gather the militia in Pskov, and even drive away the conquerors. However, having come to power, the impostor is slow to move to Moscow, embarks on a dissolute life, commits violence against the townspeople and, imperceptibly, loses popularity. The conspirators who were betrayed to him by the Cossacks were removed from Pskov, allegedly to fight the Swedes that besieged the suburbs. False Dmitriy feels something is wrong, tries to escape;