Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky came from Rurikovich. He was born around 1553, when Ivan IV the Terrible ruled, lived under Boris Godunov. Vasily Shuisky, whose reign as tsar brought a lot of worries and anxieties, rose to prominence during the Time of Troubles. But it all ended tragically.

Ascent to the throne

In 1604, when Godunov was still alive, an impostor appeared in the south, who called himself Tsarevich Dmitry (False Dmitry I) who survived in Uglich. Suddenly Tsar Boris died, and at the Tula headquarters Dmitry received guests, including boyars from Moscow, who invited him to the kingdom. As a result, feeling the support of the political elite and the people, on June 20, 1605, he solemnly entered the Kremlin.

At first he sentenced Shuisky to death, then sent him into exile, and then forgave and returned. But the reign of False Dmitry was not long - he lasted less than a year.

Intrigues of Shuisky and his supporters

The changeable people, seeing that the new tsar welcomes foreigners and married a Polish woman, at the signal of Shuisky and his accomplices, began to beat Poles throughout the capital, and Vasily Shuisky himself, claiming the throne, entered the Kremlin with the people. Dmitry tried to escape through the window, but fell out and crashed to death.

In the morning, Vasily Shuisky was shouted at the kingdom. His reign began with an unprecedented act. In the Assumption Cathedral, he swore on the cross that power would be exercised only together with the boyars. Obviously, in order to get a bit of power, he was ready to sacrifice everything. Vasily Shuisky, whose reign became contractual, gave access to power to the boyar elite.

Reign

Vasily Shuisky began his reign by sending letters throughout the country. They announced what crimes Dmitry had committed. The Free South was mistrustful of them. There was ferment in the minds, and the rebels gathered an army. It was headed by Ivan Bolotnikov and went to Moscow. He assured everyone that he had met with the escaped Dmitry. Near Kolomenskoye, and this is almost at the walls of Moscow, Bolotnikov's forces split.

The poor - the dregs of society - began to plunder everything. The nobles who took part in the campaign, prudently went over to the side of the king.

The position of the nobility during the reign of Vasily Shuisky is briefly characterized by one word - "discontent". It was not for nothing that they adjoined Bolotnikov's detachments. First, they did not like the "boyar tsar". Secondly, they began to defend their rights: the government began to pay all the ruined nobles daily "fodder money" and paid a salary to the warriors. Tsar Vasily Shuisky, whose reign is characterized by the expansion of turmoil, as it turned out, did not sit on the throne firmly.

New impostor

In 1606 a certain Ileyka of Muromets appeared on the Don. He began to call himself the son of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich and led an army to Moscow. His detachments moved to Tula, where Bolotnikov fortified himself. There they ended. Shuisky's army dammed the Upu River and flooded the Tula Kremlin. Surrendered Bolotnikov and all his accomplices were drowned.

Tushino thief

The period of the reign of Vasily Shuisky is very difficult, since he turned out to be a hostage of the turmoil that he himself sowed, going to power. A new impostor appeared - False Dmitry II, who, having gathered an army of gentry, marauders and all kinds of rabble, moved to Moscow and became a camp in Tushino. By the way, thanks to this he received the nickname - Tushinsky thief. The Romanovs, Trubetskoys, Saltykovs, who were thirsty for power, joined him.

Polish intervention

Shuisky, being locked up in Moscow, asked the Swedes for help. The young smart commander Skopin-Shuisky distinguished himself in the fight against Bolotnikov and the new contender for the throne. With a small detachment of several hundred Swedes, he successfully routed gangs of marauders.

But the king of Poland, Sigismund, declared war on Russia under the pretext of her alliance with the Swedes. His army stood at Smolensk. The Tushino camp quickly ran to him. The siege was lifted from Moscow. Skopin-Shuisky was greeted everywhere as a hero, there more that he freed the Trinity-Sergius Monastery from the siege.

The boyars of Moscow decided to open the city to Sigismundu. Skopin-Shuisky returned to fight him, but he had no time to do anything: he was poisoned.

The fall of Shuisky

Moscow boyars organized a conspiracy against the tsar and forcibly tonsured him into a monk.

Vasily Shuisky, whose years of reign fell on 1606-1610, was transferred to the Rzeczpospolita. Humiliated and broken, he died in prison in 1612.

Events of the reign of Vasily Shuisky

The main events during the reign of Tsar Vasily Shuisky can be briefly listed as follows:

• Shuisky's promise on the cross ("kissing record") to act only with the consent of the boyar Duma. That is, the country was ruled by the boyars, not the tsar.
• The uprising of Ivan Bolotnikov.
• Concessions to the nobles. Thus, the search term for fugitive peasants increased to 15 years.
• Continuous struggle with impostors, bands of bandits and other scum.

The time of Shuisky's reign was difficult due to the constant invasion of the invaders.

Vasily Shuisky (short biography)

Vasily Shuisky (years of life from 1552 to 1612) was a Russian tsar who belonged to the ancient family of Rurikovich (Suzdal line). This ruler was crowned to reign as a result of the conspiracy of False Dmitry the First. Also, historians often call Vasily "the boyar prince".

From the biography of Shuisky that has come down to us, it is known that Vasily was married twice. At the same time, there were no children from the first marriage, but two daughters were born from the second, who died in infancy. Due to the fact that Shuisky did not have an heir, Dmitry Shuisky, the elder brother of Vasily, was to take the royal throne.

Since about 1584, Shuisky was a boyar, and also acted as the head of the judicial chamber and took part in some military campaigns as a voivode in 1581, 1583 and 1598. Also during this period, Vasily was exiled (the reasons are not clear).

From 1587 to 1591, Vasily Shuisky was in Galich, after which he was pardoned by Boris Godunov and returned to Moscow with his family.

In 1591, Vasily admits an accident as the cause of the death of Tsarevich Dmitry, fearing Boris. At this time, he is also returning to the Boyar Duma.

Four years after the events described, Shuisky takes part in a military campaign against False Dmitry, and was soon again exiled with his family for attempting a coup. By the end of the year, False Dmitry returned Shuisky with his family to Moscow.

During the events of the seventeenth of May 1606 (a major popular uprising) False Dmitry is killed, and Shuisky's supporters “shout out” him as the king. Researchers of Russian history from here count the beginning of the Troubles. Already on the first of June Shuisky received a blessing for the reign of the Metropolitan.

At the same time, Vasily Shuisky himself gives a kissing record limiting his power. In the summer of this year, the board of Vasily Shuisky declared the murderer of Tsarevich Dmitry Boris Godunov.

During the reign of Shuisky, a new military charter appeared, and a major uprising of Bolotnikov (1607) was suppressed, which marked the second stage of the Troubles in Russia. Also, an agreement was concluded with Sweden, according to which the Speech was polished and set the course for the war. The same alliance turned out to be the beginning of the Swedish and Polish interventions for Russia.

In 1610, Vasily Shuisky was forcibly shaved into a monk, and the so-called period of the Seven Boyars began throughout the territory of the Russian land.

An ordinary Russian off course national history in my head, as a rule, the impression remains that our country was ruled by two dynasties - the Rurikovichs and the Romanovs. Well, Boris Godunov also "wedged in" somewhere between them. However, we also had another king, although he belonged to one of the branches of Rurik's descendants, but who bore a separate and famous family name, which few people remember. Why is it that Vasily Shuisky is forgotten by the people?

On the streets of Warsaw on October 29, 1611, the former Russian Tsar Vasily Shuisky was carried in an open carriage to the meeting of the Seim of the Commonwealth. He was not a guest of honor: for the first and last time in the history of our country, its autocrat humiliatedly appeared before the elected king, senators and "zemstvo ambassadors" of a neighboring state as a prisoner. The sovereign bowed to his winner, holding a hat in his hands, and had to listen to a solemn speech in honor of Hetman Stanislav Zholkiewski, forever, as the Poles believed, who had broken the power of the Moscow state.

Sigismund III announced that Russia was defeated: “Now the capital is occupied, and there is no corner in the state where the Polish knighthood and the warrior of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania would not feed his horse and where would not stain his hands with the blood of a hereditary enemy”. Then the king “graciously forgave” the Shuisky, and the former crown bearer bowed low again, touching the ground with his right hand, and his brothers “beat their foreheads” nearby. The youngest of them, Ivan, could not stand the tension and burst into tears. After all this, the members of the defeated dynasty were given a new velvet dress and admitted to the royal hand - as contemporaries said, "it was a great, amazing and pitying sight." The captured "master of the Russian land" looked like an old man, was gray, short, chubby, with a long, slightly humped nose, a large mouth and a long beard. He looked sullenly and sternly. He had no one to hope for and nothing: the loyal troops were defeated, yesterday's servants themselves gave him into the hands of foreigners and swore allegiance to the son of the enemy - the prince Vladislav. Could he have imagined this in a nightmare a year ago? ..

From "shubnikov" to the sovereign's buddies

In the official genealogy of the Shuiskys, the third son of Alexander Nevsky, Andrei Alexandrovich, is named their ancestor, but later historians believed that the Nizhny Novgorod-Suzdal princes (this powerful clan belonged to them) did not come from the son, but from the brother of the winner in the Battle of the Ice, Andrei Yaroslavich. In the annals of the two Andreevs, they were often confused, and perhaps the confusion was deliberately admitted just in the 30s of the 16th century, when the Shuisky actually ruled the state under the young Ivan the Terrible. Be that as it may, these aristocrats considered themselves older than the Moscow dynasty, since it somehow went back to the youngest Alexander's son, Daniel.

However, the Danilovichs have been successfully collecting land around their capital for decades, while the Suzdal and Nizhny Novgorod residents split the holdings, so that by the middle of the 15th century the Suzdal principality had lost its independence altogether, and its former owners were forced to enter the service of their younger relatives. So at the Moscow court were the princes Humpbacked, Glazaty, Nogotkov. The elders of the clan, the Skopins and the Shuisky, were still invited to reign in Novgorod and Pskov until the end of the century, but after the loss of these cities of sovereignty, they also found themselves in a hopeless situation. From the vast family estates, the Shuiskys preserved only a few dozen villages in the eponymous district and the city of Shuyu itself (60 kilometers from Suzdal), from which their surname originated. They say that the local population was then successfully engaged in soap making and icon painting, and also made good sleighs, carts and furrier goods - hence, probably, the popular nickname of the future Tsar Vasily - "shubnik".

The service of some Rurikovichs to others was "honest" - the same Shuiskys were usually listed as boyars and governors. But ambition and the habit of independence still involved them in political intrigues. So, after the death of Elena Glinskaya, the mother of Ivan IV, the brothers Vasily and Ivan Vasilyevich Shuisky, and then their relatives Andrei and Ivan Mikhailovich, immediately advanced at the court. The imperious grandfather of the future Tsar Vasily, Andrei Mikhailovich, however, soon suffered a fiasco: in December 1543, the young Grand Duke and the rivals of the clan standing behind him ordered their hunters to kill him. Not long ago, the all-powerful minister "lay naked at the gate for two hours."

However, oddly enough, this disgrace did not affect the position of the entire family: in the subsequent years of Grozny's reign, he, unlike many noble families, did not particularly suffer. Vasily's father, Prince Ivan Andreevich, during the years of the oprichnina regularly served as a voivode in Velikiye Luki and Smolensk. In 1571, Ivan became a boyar and a voivode, at the same time the wedding of his son Dmitry with the daughter of the closest tsar's henchman Malyuta Skuratov ... and the eldest in the family was 20-year-old Vasily.

From that time, his long, changeable, risky, but marked by a persistent aspiration to the top of the court service began. In 1574, the young prince was invited to the wedding of the sovereign of All Russia with Anna Vasilchikova, and on the campaign from now on he performed the post of "bell with a large saadak" - that is, carries the royal bow and quiver. In 1575, he and his brother Andrey received rich Novgorod estates, taken from the relatives of the former Tsarina Anna Koltovskaya, tonsured as a nun. In addition, at the privileged service in the royal court, the Shuiskys should now "be in the camp of the emperor and the night watchman in their heads." At the wedding of the tsar with Maria Naga in September 1580, Vasily was the main boyfriend of the groom (Boris Godunov acted as the boyfriend of the bride). In places of honor at the banquet table were also his wife Elena Mikhailovna, nee Repnina, and other relatives.

"Revered for the Smart"

True, for a short time the influential prince nevertheless fell into disgrace, but he quickly received forgiveness and in 1583 officially headed the permanent regiment of the right hand, that is, he became the second person in the army after the commander-in-chief. However, unlike the legendary warrior Shuisky, Prince Ivan Petrovich, famous for the unparalleled defense of Pskov from the troops of Stephen Bathory, Vasily Ivanovich did not particularly show himself on the battlefield. But, we repeat, he was so firmly entrenched at the court that he already surpassed the famous commander in local terms.

The death of Grozny in March 1584 did not prevent this stable career growth. On the contrary: in the same year Vasily became the head of the Moscow Judicial Order; his brothers - Andrey, Alexander and Dmitry - received boyars. The elders, Vasily and Andrei, expelled the late Ivan's oprichnina nominees - Bogdan Belsky's comrades - from the government. And then the inevitable bickering began for power and influence on Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, who was almost defiantly unwilling to deal with the affairs of the state and divided the time between prayers, trips to monasteries and bear baiting.

The Shuisky were not going to concede the primacy to Fedorov's brother-in-law Boris Godunov and decided to take advantage of the fact that Tsarina Irina, his sister, could not bring an heir to her husband. In this intrigue, Vasily participated, but not openly (he was then in the voivodeship in Smolensk), but lost first place to Andrei Ivanovich and Ivan Petrovich. And, as practice has shown, he acted very far-sightedly.

At first, the "conspirators" managed to win over to their side not only the merchants and townspeople of Moscow, but also Metropolitan Dionysius himself. In the fall of 1586, a letter was drawn up in which Fyodor Ioannovich was asked "that he, sovereign, accept childbirth for the sake of a second marriage, and release his first queen to the monastic rank." It was, of course, not only in the "childbirth" and the desire to remove the Godunovs, but also in determining the strategic path of the country's development. Lithuanian Chancellor Lev Sapega reported in messages from Moscow that some boyars did not hide their "inclination" for Stefan Bathory too much, and the translator of the Ambassadorial order Zaborovsky in 1585 informed the same king that this "party" was actually headed by the Shuiskys. We will note that in their own eyes it was not at all about treason, but simply about the union of two kindred Eastern European states under the rule of a single dynasty. The elective throne of the Rzecz Pospolita allowed such an opportunity, and the Moscow nobility was well aware of the political order of the Rzecz Pospolita, which limited sole power. Poland and Lithuania united under a single crown.

But (again, according to foreign reports) in the fall of 1586, Godunov announced in the Duma that Andrei Shuisky allegedly went hunting on the border and met with the Lithuanian masters there - it was criminal against the kissing of the cross to Tsar Fyodor. The proceedings right at the meeting almost ended in a fight between the two "ministers". Boris immediately surrounded himself with guards, began to go everywhere with her - and not in vain: soon, in a battle with the people who attacked his estate, the Shuisky people did not go without casualties.

Uglich epic

However, the organizers of the intrigue miscalculated. The rumor of treason compromised them in the eyes of many. And besides, the son of Grozny sincerely loved his wife, appreciated her cunning brother and did not tolerate interference in the family affairs of the dynasty. The people of Posad, who had “gone into their own business,” were executed; the Metropolitan was "brought down" from the throne, and Ivan and Andrey Shuisky were sent into exile. There they perished very suspiciously in the spring of 1589; most likely, watchmen - "bailiffs" were involved in their death - such "quiet" reprisals are considered to be the trademark style of Godunov, who is not inclined to public bloody performances in the spirit of Grozny. The eldest of the Shuisky, as we can see, was not let down by his political instinct. In general, he did not like open and risky actions, therefore he got off with a slight fright - he went into exile in Galich, but soon returned safely. It was important to wait for your chance to take off your career.

In May 1591, Dmitry, the last son of Ivan the Terrible, died in Uglich. The incomprehensible death of a 7-year-old child served as a pretext for an uprising of the townspeople, led by relatives of the Dowager Queen Maria Naga, who claimed that murderers had been sent to the prince. Fyodor Ioannovich (or rather, the official "ruler of the state" Boris Godunov - he received such a title with a living sovereign not long before that!) Ordered the creation of a commission to investigate the death of his brother - headed by the Krutitsa Metropolitan Gelasiy, as well as Vasily Shuisky, who had just returned to Moscow ... To help them, Godunov's people were appointed - okolnichy Andrei Kleshnin and clerk Elizar Vyluzgin.

Shuisky, four days after Dmitry's death, arrived in Uglich and began interrogations to establish "which image of the tsarevich died and what kind of illness he had." For several days "through his hands" 150 people passed, and he came to the conclusion: the version of the Nagikhs about the murder of the prince by people of the city clerk Mikhail Bityagovsky is false. The witnesses - the "mother" - the noblewoman Volokhova, the nurse, and the boys with whom the tsarevich played in the courtyard - showed the same thing (although they had previously shouted the opposite to the people): the boy himself stabbed himself with a knife in a fit of "epilepsy" - epilepsy. After collecting all the questioning speeches and burying Dmitry in the local cathedral as a suicide, without honors, the commission departed for Moscow, where the Duma, in the presence of the autocrat and Patriarch Job, heard the results of its work.

Prince Vasily Ivanovich coped with the responsible assignment - the Naked were accused of "negligence", because of which precious life was cut short, and of inciting the "Uglitsky peasants" to revolt. Queen Mary, of course, was tonsured, her brothers were sent to prisons. Uglichians - some were executed, others were exiled to Siberia, the city was almost deserted. The influential boyar authoritatively declared: there was no murder, there was an accident. And apparently, then he did not twist his soul - numerous researchers of the "Uglich case" did not find anything dubious in the documentation. True, in June 1605, Vasily already said that Dmitry was saved. And then he argued that the allegedly “escaped” prince was a “thief” and a heretic Grishka Otrepiev, and the real one did not die, but was stabbed to death by the order of the villain Godunov. These "confessions", of course, damaged the posthumous assessment of the affairs of Tsar Boris, hardly adding historical points to Tsar Vasily. But it seems like the first time he told the truth. Moreover, it seemed that Godunov did not need to eliminate the boy in 1591 - his sister Irina was expecting a child ... In any case, Shuisky again took an honorable place at the court - he was present at the royal exits, receptions and festive dinners, commanded the troops in Novgorod and in the south.

Tsar Boris Fedorovich Godun

After the death of Fyodor Ioannovich, the wise boyar with the ruler no longer argued; The main opponents of Godunov on the way to the throne were not the Shuiskys, but the Romanovs. But their time has not come yet. Boris brilliantly conducted an "election campaign": on behalf of his sister-queen, he announced an amnesty for "all wine people and tates and robbers in all cities from prisons" and demonstratively retired from worldly concerns to a monastery while other noblemen were arguing about the throne in the Duma. But as the cunning man counted on, he was actively supported by the younger boyars, the oprichnina "promoted", the chiefs of orders appointed by him, as well as the church headed by Patriarch Job.

In February 1598 Godunov was elected tsar. The first families of the state, who had lost power, resisted, but all doubts disappeared from the service people immediately after receiving a "campaign against the Tatars" (it never took place) a monetary salary for three years at once.

The new sovereign turned out to be very talented and did a lot for his country, sometimes outstripping the era: he cut taxes by half, tried to liquidate the "white" (non-paying taxes, private) settlements and courtyards in cities, founded the main port of pre-Petrine Russia - Arkhangelsk. Having concluded peace in the West with Sweden (1595) and the Commonwealth (1600), he turned to affairs in the East and strengthened the southern border. A new chain of outposts and forts, the most important of which was Tsaritsyn, advanced far into the "wild field." He was the first of the Russian tsars to marry his daughter for a Danish prince and 100 years before the "eternal worker on the throne" invited foreign specialists to Russia: doctors, miners, military men. Sent noble "boys" to Vienna and Oxford to study foreign languages and other sciences.

The Shuiskys were prosperous in those years - especially since one of them, Dmitry, was married to the queen's sister. They, apparently, resigned themselves to the justice of the new situation in the country - indeed, after all, the staid boyar Prince Vasily did not become famous as a commander, his political talents were clearly inferior to Godunov, and he was even less suitable for reformers. His real place was "in the council" - in the Duma, in the retinue when receiving ambassadors, in long and difficult negotiations. It was no coincidence that the tsar constantly entrusted him with the consideration of complex regional disputes among the Moscow nobility.

Godunov's grief

Even if only a dozen calm years would have grown stronger, the new dynasty would have grown stronger, and Boris's young son, Fedor, calmly continued his father's work. But the "legacy" of Ivan the Terrible - the course of serf enslavement - alas, laid the foundation for future upheavals: by decrees of 1592 and 1593 St. George's Day was canceled everywhere (the day when peasants, without fear of persecution, could leave their landowners for others), in 1597 -m introduced a five-year period for the search for the "missing" men. On the newly developed, previously "no-man's" outskirts of the state, Moscow governors appeared - and the fugitive "Cossacks" again fell into bondage.

This combustible mass was waiting in the wings. And it came when the streak of success was interrupted by the famine of 1601-1603. A catastrophic pestilence forced the tsar to restore St. George's Day, but naturally only a new conflict arose. The common people passionately rushed away from the owners, who, in turn, wanted to keep the labor force at any cost. Fugitive slaves gathered in large detachments, against which in 1603 troops had to be sent. In general, the consequences of the famine and fluctuations of the government's course ruined the dynasty that never took place. In the eyes of the nobility, Boris was a "rootless upstart" before, but now he turned out to be "bad" for both servicemen and plowmen.

Natural disasters and social hardships were experienced by people of that time as punishment for serving the "untrue" king. And in such an atmosphere the "true", "natural" simply had to appear. The "advancement from the lower ranks" of impostors began - long before Otrepiev. Well, in the fall of 1604, this last, former nobleman in the service of the Romanov boyars, under the name of Tsarevich Dmitry, crossed the Polish-Russian border.

To the credit of Vasily Shuisky - he did not betray his former rival and even did him the last service: at first he publicly declared on Red Square that the son of Grozny who had appeared was an impostor, but he buried the real one with his own hands in Uglich; and then went to the army to help the wounded commander, Prince Mstislavsky. In January 1605, a large Moscow army defeated Otrepiev near Dobrynichy. But it was not possible to end the war victoriously - the "Ukrainian" cities began to go over to the side of False Dmitry. The army got bogged down in the sieges of Rylsk and Krom, and meanwhile Boris suddenly died.

The heir Fyodor Borisovich and his relatives recalled both governors to Moscow. Here Prince Vasily had to decide what to do. He was ready to serve Godunov, but not his too young son and mediocre relatives.

Meanwhile, the commanders Vasily Golitsyn and Pyotr Basmanov sent to the troops to replace him, without thinking twice, went over to the side of the "tsarevich"; part of the army followed them, the rest fled.

In May, the capital received news of these events.

On June 1, ambassadors from "Demetrius" Naum Pleshcheev and Gavrila Pushkin arrived and from Execution Ground read a letter about his miraculous salvation from the murderers sent by Godunov, about his rights to the throne and the need to overthrow the usurpers.

Here, as they say, the boyar Vasily Shuisky finally "broke down" - he said that the prince had escaped, and some priest was buried in his place. Of course, it was not these words that decided the fate of the unfortunate orphaned Godunovs: everything was going against them anyway. And yet - after all, the prince knew better than anyone that the applicant approaching Moscow had nothing to do with the Rurikovichs. However, he did not find the strength not only to tell the truth, but at least to be silent ... From such steps the reputation of the future tsar was formed - the lie and betrayal later turned against him.

The last step up

Of course, the Godunovs did not retain power: a crowd of Muscovites rushed to smash their property. That is how the holiday turned out: "Many people sawed off in the courtyards and wine cellars and died ..." Meanwhile, the Duma sent an embassy to "Dmitry Ivanovich", but did not include any of the three Shuisky brothers in it - they came only with the second "boyar commission." In Tula, False Dmitry graciously accepted them; but he again did not invite one of his closest advisers - the places under his person were taken by the same Basmanov and Golitsyn, Prince Vladimir Koltsov-Mosalsky, the "relatives" of the Nagy and the Poles, the Buchinsky brothers.

Had the Shuiskys been properly treated, perhaps they would have served the impostor faithfully and there would not have been an uprising in a year, which cost him his throne and his life. But it was still unthinkable for the aristocrat Vasily Shuisky to remain in second or third roles with the liar and his artistic favorites, he did not even manage to hide his attitude to such a situation. Already on June 23, three days after False Dmitry entered the Kremlin, the prince was seized. It was as if he had announced to the merchants that the sovereign was "not a prince, but a Rosstriga and a traitor."

The whole family was judged by a cathedral court - representatives of all estates, including the clergy. The False Dmitry himself, in his accusatory speech, recalled the Shuiskys' past treason, including the sins of their grandfather Andrei Mikhailovich, who was executed by the Terrible. The boyar was right about the imposture; it can be assumed that other members of the cathedral also suspected the "tsarevich", but, according to the "New Chronicler" (compiled already under the Romanovs), "at the same cathedral neither the authorities, nor the boyars, nor ordinary people nikhto them (the defendants - Ed.) are aiding, I shout at them all. " The outbreak of Troubles was already spinning the heads of contemporaries. The brothers were found guilty of conspiracy. The eldest, our hero, was sentenced to death - they took him out to the square, put his head on the block, and the executioner had already raised the ax. But only the accomplices' heads flew. The tsar pardoned the Shuiskys. It would be shortsighted to begin the reign with the execution of the "good and strong".

All three were sent into exile, but again they were quickly forgiven: less than a few months later, they ended up at court. The position of the new sovereign was greatly shaken. Having promised everyone a "prosperous life", he could not fulfill the promise. For example, abolish serfdom. Or to transfer Novgorod and Pskov to the future father-in-law, Polish Senator Yuri Mnishek - the people would not forgive such a thing. As a result, relations with the Commonwealth became complicated, and only the peasants of the Komaritsa volost and the Putivl townspeople who were the first to recognize "Dmitry" received benefits. Landowners again received permission to return the fugitives starting in 1600.

False Dmitry was brave, young, energetic. But he did not fit into the image of the "natural" Moscow tsar. He hurt the national and religious feelings of his subjects: he surrounded himself with foreigners, did not sleep after dinner, did not go to the bathhouse, was going to marry a Catholic woman on the eve of fast Friday. Under such conditions, the boyars, led by Shuisky, organized a new conspiracy, and this time a successful one. As early as May 7, 1606, the crafty boyar at the royal wedding led the new Empress Marina Yurievna by the arm and delivered a welcoming speech on behalf of the Moscow nobility - and a few days later Otrepiev was killed. Eyewitnesses said that while the townspeople were beating the Poles who had come in large numbers for the wedding (the conspirators raised the people with shouts: “the masters are slaughtering the Duma boyars!”), Prince Shuisky, at the head of a detachment of loyal people, burst into the Kremlin and ordered the nobles to seize the monarch's chambers by storm. In a lengthy speech, he urged them to finish what they started as soon as possible, otherwise, if they do not kill this "thief Grishka", he will order them to take off their heads.

This time the old fox took the initiative, acted boldly and prudently - having destroyed the impostor, he took care of saving the lives of noble guests from the Commonwealth.

And - came out of the intrigue as a winner. On May 19, 1606, the boyar of Prince Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky was "shouted out" by a crowd of Muscovites on Cathedral Square as tsar.

"Constitutional" monarch

Ascending the throne, Shuisky gave a "kissing record" - the first in Russian history the sovereign's legal obligation to his subjects. But the country remained split - dozens of cities and districts did not recognize the "boyar tsar": for them, "Dmitry" remained the "true" sovereign. They pinned so many hopes on the name of the young sovereign, Ivanov's son. To turn the tide, the new ruler had to prove himself, to captivate the crowd or to amaze it with truly royal grandeur. The late Grozny staged large-scale demonstrative executions - but he knew how to pardon and elevate loyal servants. Boris attracted servicemen by promising to give back his last shirt during the coronation. Vasily, alas, was deprived of charisma. And what is it like for a member who personified the "old days" ancient kind to act in the role of a marketplace agitator or to give up the right to “lay down disgrace”?

In quieter times, Shuisky, perhaps, would have sat on the throne, and even - who knows? - would have earned praise from historians, but in an era of severe crisis, it was not only resourcefulness and resilience that were required. In the struggle for power that began immediately, he could not even fulfill his own promises - he had to immediately, without any ecclesiastical court, remove Patriarch Ignatius, installed by False Dmitry, from the pulpit ...

Has come new stage Troubles - civil war. The elderly owner of the Monomakh hat did everything he could: he replaced the unreliable governors, sent out letters exposing the "led thief and the Rosstriga." It seems that the old boyar really did not understand what was happening: how can people continue to believe in an impostor if there is irrefutable evidence of his origin and collusion with the Poles? If he is torn to pieces in Moscow before everyone's eyes? And the relics of the prince who died in Uglich were declared a miraculous shrine ...

Shuisky managed to gather troops and find money - the church authorities interested in maintaining order gave him considerable monastic funds. On the advice of Patriarch Hermogenes, general repentance and mass prayers were arranged, which were supposed to rally the nation around the church and the sovereign of All Russia Vasily Ivanovich. The latter approved a new law on peasants of March 9, 1607: the period for detecting fugitives was increased by 10 years. Thus, he wanted to split the fragile alliance of men and nobles. Shuisky's people even lured the detachments of Lyapunov and Pashkov to his side ...

But the successes were ephemeral. Already in the summer of 1607, the second False Dmitry appeared - a mysterious person to this day. A very motley company gathered in his camp: local rebels expelled from Poland, hetmans Ruzhinsky and Sapega, who recognized the "resurrected" husband Marina Mnishek, Bolotnikov atamans Bezzubtsev and Zarutsky, boyars Saltykovs, Cherkasskys, Rostov Metropolitan Philaret Tsar Romanov (father of the future) Zaporozhye Cossacks and Tatars. Pskov and Rostov, Yaroslavl and Kostroma, Vologda and Galich, Vladimir went over to their side, the siege of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery began ...

Vasily just at this time decided to marry in order to quickly continue the family and leave an heir. In January 1608, his wedding took place with the young princess Maria Buinosova-Rostovskaya - the Pskov chronicler claims that the old tsar was passionately in love with his young wife and for her sake began to neglect affairs at such an inopportune moment. Already in May, government troops suffered a heavy defeat at Bolkhov, and Moscow was again under siege. Two full-fledged capitals were formed in the country - Moscow and the headquarters of False Dmitry II, the village of Tushino, - two governments and two patriarchs - Moscow Germogen and Tushinsky Filaret.

The siege of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery by the Poles lasted from September 1609 to January 1611. (Painting by Vasily Vereshchagin "Defenders of the Trinity

In the ocean of turmoil

It is worth noting that in addition to the two False Dmitrys mentioned in the textbooks in those years, at least 15 impostors appeared in different parts of the country: False Dmitry III and IV, other "children" and "grandchildren" of Grozny - the "princes" Osinovik, Ivan-August, Lavrenty ... Such an abundance of "relatives" gave rise to competition: the "Tushino thief" alone hanged seven of his "nephews", "sons" of Tsar Fyodor - Clementius, Savely, Simeon, Vasily, Eroshka, Gavrilka and Martynka.

Famine began in Moscow. The people gathered in a crowd and “noisily” approached the Kremlin palace. The tsar patiently and humbly persuaded: be patient, do not surrender the city yet. But patience was running out. The next deserters who appeared in Tushino in September 1608 said: "Shuisky has a deadline before the Intercession, so that he can come to an agreement with" Lithuania "or leave the state for them." By the way, as can be seen from these testimonies, the Moscow boyars did not grow up in Vasily as an autocrat, but "the first among equals" and did not hesitate to set conditions for him. The same man sincerely tried to fulfill them - to negotiate with Poland as soon as possible and to remove foreigners from the camp of False Dmitry II. He let the Polish ambassadors captured in Moscow go home and asked them to sign a peace treaty, according to which Sigismund III was to withdraw his subjects from the territory of Russia. But, of course, no one was going to fulfill the agreement - neither the king, nor the supporters of the impostor. Direct negotiations with the "Tushins" ended fruitlessly as well.

The subjects had betrayed Tsar Vasily before; now they began to organize open riots. On February 17, 1609, the rebels led by Grigory Sunbulov, Prince Roman Gagarin and Timofey Gryazny demanded that the boyars overthrow Shuisky and dragged Patriarch Hermogenes to the square by force. Accusations rained down against Vasily: that he was elected illegally by his "indulgers" without the consent of the "land", that Christian blood is shed for a person unworthy and useless, stupid, wicked, a drunkard and a fornicator. Nobility, as usual, fled to their homes, but the patriarch, against expectations, did not lose his presence of mind and stood up for the king. Then the monarch himself went out to the crowd to ask menacingly: “Why did you perjurers rush to me with such impudence? If you want to kill me, then I am ready, but you cannot bring me down from the throne without the boyars and the whole land ”. The conspirators, who shuddered, acted simply - they went to Tushino.

Camp of False Dmitry II in Tushino. (Painting by Sergei Ivanov "In the Time of Troubles

Agony

Shuisky, on the other hand, made new concessions and tricks. As a reward for the "siege seat", he allowed the servants to transfer one-fifth of their estates to the patrimony, that is, to hereditary property. He skillfully waged a propaganda war - his letters accused the impostor and his "Lithuanian" army in the struggle against Orthodoxy: transform. " He pledged to forgive those who "hastily", "involuntarily" or out of ignorance, kissed the cross to the one who called himself the name of Dmitry. He promised everyone who would support his struggle "for the entire Orthodox peasant faith" and "give help to thieves" a "great salary."

Other cities, having experienced the atrocities of the false Dmitry's fellows, followed the call, but this only exacerbated the split of the local noble communities and pitted the townspeople against each other. Even well-meaning people in these "submitted" points did not forget to remember the unlucky sovereign: he took over the throne with the help of his supporters, and for this he suffers disaster. “Without the consent of the whole earth, he made himself king, and all people were embarrassed by this quick anointing of him ...” - the clerk Ivan Timofeev wrote later in his reflections on the Troubles ...

But now, in desperate attempts to save itself, the government in February 1609 concluded the Vyborg Treaty with Sweden: for the concession of the city of Korela with the suburbs, the Swedish king provided Moscow with a 10,000-strong detachment under the command of Colonel De la Gardie. With the help of these troops and the last loyal Russian forces, the tsar's nephew, the young voivode Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky, successfully began to liberate the northern districts from the "Tushins". This, however, was the reason for direct intervention by the Polish Sigismund: in the fall of the same year, his army invaded Russian borders and laid siege to the most important fortress on the western border - Smolensk. But still, on March 12, 1610, Skopin-Shuisky's army solemnly entered Moscow. The impostor had to retreat from Tushin to the south. Residents greeted their liberator with joy. The Shuisky family had a historical chance ... But in April, at the feast of Prince Vorotynsky, the hero, 23-year-old Mikhail, felt unwell and died a few days later. On the suspicion of contemporaries and historians, he was poisoned by the wife of his other uncle Dmitry Ivanovich, who saw in him an obstacle on the way to the throne in the event of the death of the childless sovereign.

Of course, Skopin's death was a real blow to Vasily. On the eve of the decisive battles, he was left without a brave and successful commander. And it was not difficult to understand that it was impossible to put the incompetent and cowardly Dmitry at the head of the army, but ... in fact, on whom else could the tsar rely? After all, only the closest relatives were vitally interested in preserving the dynasty. So Shuisky made a fatal decision: the army under the command of his brother moved to Smolensk.

The commander fled, the foreign mercenaries easily went into the service of the king. The winners got the whole wagon train, artillery and the treasury collected for the payment of salaries. A few months later, the last allies left the camp of Vasily - the Crimean Tatars of Khan Bogadyr-Girey, whom he sent to the south against the impostor.

There were no forces left for resistance at all. Popular support has also dried up. In Moscow, at the Arbat Gate, a meeting of boyars, servicemen and townspeople took place, which finally resolved "to the former sovereign ... Vasily Ivanovich of all Russia to refuse and not to be in the sovereign's court and not to sit on the state." A crowd of noblemen and duma officials headed for the Kremlin. Prince Vorotynsky announced to Shuisky the decision: “The whole earth hits you with its forehead; leave your state for the sake of internecine strife, because they do not like you and do not want to serve you. "

Posthumous wanderings

Boris Godunov died king. False Dmitry I, oddly enough, too. Vasily Shuisky was not even overthrown, but "put down" from the throne and sent first under house arrest in his own courtyard, and then - on July 19 - he was forcibly tonsured a monk in the Chudov Monastery. A letter from the Boyar Duma sent out to the cities announced that he voluntarily agreed to leave the throne - like a retiring, fined official who received guarantees of immunity: ".

And then - the scope of the Troubles and the threat of the collapse of the state made people know to look for a way out. In February and August 1610, treaties were concluded with Sigismund III, according to which the prince Vladislav was invited to the Russian throne, subject to the following conditions: not to build Catholic churches, not to appoint Poles to positions, to maintain the existing order (including serfdom) and only change laws with the approval of the Zemsky Sobor. In order to prevent False Dmitry from entering the capital, the boyars let in the Polish garrison in September. The prince himself was in no hurry to go to Russia (no agreement was reached on his conversion to Orthodoxy), but his father finally took Smolensk and, on behalf of "Tsar Vladislav Zhigimontovich", began to distribute estates and provinces.

In the new political combination, the living, albeit former Tsar Vasily turned out to be an unnecessary figure. The involuntary monk was first sent to a more remote monastery, Joseph-Volokolamsk, and in October, when the Moscow embassy left to negotiate with the king, hetman Zolkevsky took him with him to the royal camp near Smolensk. From there he was transported "like a trophy" to Warsaw ...

Well, after the humiliating performance at the Diet, the prisoner and his brothers were imprisoned in the Gostyn castle above the Vistula. There, on September 12, 1612, the former Tsar and Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich died. Dmitry died two months later. The surviving youngest of the Shuisky, Ivan, began to serve Vladislav until he was released to Moscow. Several years later, he said that “instead of death, the most brilliant king gave him life,” which can be understood as an acknowledgment of the violent death of his elder brothers.

The former tsar was first buried in his prison, but then Sigismund ordered to transfer the remains of the Shuiskys to a specially built mausoleum in the Krakow suburb, and on a marble slab at the entrance they carved the name of ... the Polish king and a list of his victories over Russia: “how the Moscow army was defeated at Klushino, how the capital of Moscow was taken and Smolensk was returned ... how Vasily Shuisky, the Grand Duke of Moscow, and his brother, the chief voivode Demetrius, were taken prisoner by virtue of military law. But the Romanovs remembered their predecessor and wanted to reburial him at home. It succeeded after the Smolensk war of 1632-1634. Vladislav finally officially renounced the title of Moscow Tsar and allowed to transfer the ashes of the one who once bore this title to his homeland. In 1635, in all cities on the route of the funeral procession, honors were paid to the remains of the former sovereign, and then they found rest - finally eternal - in the royal tomb of the Kremlin's Archangel Cathedral.

Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky (1552-1612) - Russian tsar, belonging to (along the Suzdal line). He was crowned to reign as a result of a conspiracy against False Dmitry 1. Vasily Shuisky is also called the "boyar prince".

A family

It is known from the biography of Vasily Shuisky that he was married twice. He had no children from his first marriage. From the second marriage, two daughters were born (both died in infancy). Since the tsar had no heir, his brother, Dmitry Shuisky, was to become the next contender for the throne.

Before accession

Since 1584 Vasily Shuisky was a boyar and head of the Moscow Court of Justice, took part as a voivode in campaigns to the city of Serpukhov (1581, 1583, 1598). In 1586 Vasily Shuisky was sent into exile for a short time for unknown reasons.

In 1591 Shuisky, fearing Godunov, recognized suicide as the cause of death. At the same time, he was returned to.

In 1905, Vasily Shuisky took part in the campaign against, but not very actively, since he did not want Godunov's victory. Due to an attempt to carry out a coup, Vasily Shuisky was expelled with his family, but already at the end of 1605 he was returned back by False Dmitry.

During (May 17, 1606) False Dmitry 1 died, the supporters of Vasily Shuisky named him tsar. This was the beginning. On June 1, Shuisky receives the blessing of the Metropolitan for his reign.

Vasily Shuisky gave a kissing record that limited his power. In the summer of the same year, the reign of Shuisky recognized Godunov as the murderer of Tsarevich Dmitry.

Governing body

The main events of the domestic and foreign policy of the reign of Vasily Shuisky:

• a new military manual appeared;
• suppressed in October 1607, which was the second stage of the Time of Troubles;
• a treaty was signed with Sweden, on the basis of which the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth launched military operations. False Dmitry 1st fled.

Union with Sweden turned into a beginning for Russia

Boyarin, prince. Russian Tsar. He was on the throne from May 19 (29), 1606 to July 17 (27), 1610. The only Russian tsar died in captivity in a foreign land.

Pedigree

Belonged to the ancient princely family, which was a Suzdal branch, which, in the opinion of most historians, ascended to Andrei Yaroslavich, the Grand Duke of Vladimir and his younger brother. Vasily Shuisky himself considered Alexander Nevsky and his third son, Prince Andrei Alexandrovich Gorodetsky, who also occupied the Vladimir grand-ducal table, to be his direct ancestors.

Father - boyar Prince Ivan Andreevich Shuisky, a prominent statesman and voivode in the reign. Mother - Anna Fedorovna (exact origin is unknown). The brothers - Andrei, Dmitry, Ivan Pugovka - were boyars, held responsible administrative and military positions. He was married twice, the choice of brides Elena Mikhailovna, Princess Repnina-Obolenskaya and Maria Petrovna, Princess Buinosova-Rostovskaya, most likely, was determined by dynastic considerations. He did not leave offspring, two daughters from their second marriage died in infancy.

Court service

The service of the young prince at the court, which began in the 1570s, went on successfully, despite the wary attitude of the formidable and suspicious tsar towards the nobility. In 1582/83, Prince Vasily was even arrested for a reason that remained unknown, but was soon released on bail to the brothers. Nevertheless, in 1584 he already had the rank of boyar and was leading important court cases. Vasily Shuisky's career was facilitated by the marriage of his younger brother Dmitry with Catherine, the daughter of the Duma nobleman Grigory Lukyanovich Malyuta Skuratov from the Belsky clan. Another daughter of this most influential oprichnik was married to. Family ties did not in any way weaken the constant struggle between the two influential boyars and the future tsars. Their confrontation, perhaps, remained the most remarkable feature of Vasily Shuisky in the Russian historical consciousness and was consolidated by A.S. Pushkin in the beginning of the tragedy "Boris Godunov", which begins with the prince's hard-hitting words about Boris shamelessly and criminally striving for tsarist power. The struggle for influence on the young and incapable of ruling Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich (1584-1598) was completely lost to Godunov by the Shuisky and Prince Vasily, being then a governor in Smolensk, fell, like his relatives, into exile. In 1587 he was accused of treason, of secret trips under the guise of hunting abroad. Gradually, Godunov's anger subsided, and in April 1591, Prince Vasily was returned to Moscow. Almost immediately, events that were fateful for the country and for himself took place. On May 15, 1591, he died in Uglich, Shuisky was appointed head of the commission to investigate the case. Apparently, Godunov believed that the conclusions presented by the nobleman, who had recently been in disgrace, and, moreover, by an experienced judicial official, would be accepted as fair and unbiased. Already on May 30, the commission completed its work in Uglich, and on June 2 it reported to the Boyar Duma its conclusions about the accident with the sick royal child and the insidious relatives of the Tsarevich Nagikh, who had revolted against the royal servants. The official results of the "Uglich case" allowed Shuisky to return to the judicial and administrative elite, for example, as head of the Ryazan Judicial Order or as a voivode in Veliky Novgorod, but they hardly returned Godunov's full confidence. He even forbade the childless prince to marry a second time, so as not to produce competitors for the throne.

Troubles

Mistrust in Shuisky did not disappear even after the victory over the impostor False World I at Dobrynichy on January 21, 1605 by the tsarist army, where Prince Vasily was the second governor after Prince F.I. Mstislavsky. In his suspicions, Godunov turned out to be right, although he himself did not find out about this because of his death, which occurred on April 13, 1605. Recalled to Moscow to help the heir to Fyodor Borisovich, Shuisky not only went over to the side of the impostor in June 1605, but "recognized" him as the true tsarevich. He stated that the conclusions of the 1591 investigation were a forgery to please Godunov, but in fact he survived and now rightfully returned his father's throne. However, as a very informed and authoritative witness, he was dangerous and was sentenced to death, which was abolished at the last moment and commuted to imprisonment. A few months later, Prince Vasily was returned to the court and even approached the impostor, whom he avenged even more cruelly than Godunov, spreading information about the death of the real tsarevich among Muscovites and the noble militia gathering for the war with Crimea, inciting them to revolt and together with others representatives of the nobility preparing a conspiracy. The rebellion and palace conspiracy ended with the murder of the impostor on May 17, 1606.

Governing body

On May 19, 1606, Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky was proclaimed tsar before the rebellious people at the Execution Ground on Red Square. On June 1, he was crowned king in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. In his new capacity, Shuisky tried, whenever possible, to forgive his sins, intrigues, perjury, first of all, before the church. This was often done publicly. To finally close the question of the Uglich tragedy, Shuisky for the third time radically changes the version of those events. The prince really died, according to him, in 1591, but not as a result of an accident, but was stabbed to death. Finally assure everyone of the violent and martyrdom Dmitry Ivanovich's canonization and the acquisition of the holy relics, which were solemnly transferred by the procession from Uglich to Moscow to the Archangel Cathedral in the Grand Duke and Tsar's tomb, were to have been. Ceremonies and rituals within the framework of these celebrations were conducted by Filaret, Metropolitan of Rostov and Yaroslavl, who was boyar Fyodor Nikitich Romanov before his tonsure, and Metropolitan of Kazan, later glorified as a holy martyr. It was Hermogenes, with the support of the new tsar, who became on July 3, 1606, the first hierarch of the Russian Church instead of patriarchal throne Ignatius, henchman. In addition, Shuisky returned to Moscow the former first Russian patriarch, who had been deposed under the impostor, in order to apologize for violating the oath of kisses on the cross to Tsar Feodor Borisovich Godunov. As a sign of reconciliation with his unfortunate family, Shuisky, although he blamed his former rival for the murder of Tsarevich Dmitry, ordered the reburial of the former Tsar, his son and wife in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery with honors.

In an effort to weaken the accusations of illegitimate coming to power without election, Shuisky gave a "kissing record". In it, he promised not to execute anyone without a court decision adopted by the tsar and the boyars; not to confiscate property from the relatives of the convicted, if they were not accomplices in the crimes; do not accept false denunciations and punish such informers; do not expose anyone to the royal disgrace without fault. This gave a basis for a number of historians to talk about one of the first attempts to legislatively limit the royal power. He also tried to streamline in the interests of the treasury, landowners and service people, their legal relations with dependent people and slaves. Among the laws adopted was the Code of March 9, 1607, which recognized the peasants as serfs of those owners for whom they were recorded in the scribes of the early 1590s, and established the period for detecting fugitive peasants at 15 years.

Shuisky's attempts to reverse the political, moral and psychological situation in society in his favor were unsuccessful. In 1605-1606, two bloody coups followed one after the other, which were accompanied by the assassinations of the holders of the supreme power and thereby encouraged violent methods of achieving goals, untied the hands of supporters of the most radical actions, freed them from previous oaths and oaths, shattered the state apparatus and the armed forces of the state. Russia was more and more involved in the Troubles - a civil war. Shuisky's opponents again and again used the rumor about another miraculous salvation, under the slogan of returning to power all those who were dissatisfied or simply striving for quick profit gathered. In 1606, the largest anti-government uprising was the uprising led by Ivan Bolotnikov, during which the rebels laid siege to Moscow. Tsar Vasily had to personally lead loyal troops into battle. After a successful battle on December 2, 1606, he managed to push the rebels away from the capital and force them to leave first to Kaluga, and then to Tula. On May 21, 1607, the king again personally set out on a campaign, which ended on October 10 with the surrender of Tula, the main stronghold of the rebellion. Shuisky promised to save the lives of the leaders of the uprising - Bolotnikov and Ileika Muromets, but, as it happened before, he did not consider it necessary to restrain him. The massacre of the leaders of one uprising did not lead to the pacification of the country, another impostor stood at the head of the new rebellion . Military detachments from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth joined the fugitive slaves and peasants, the mutinous Cossacks and servicemen of the south of Russia. In the battle of Bolkhov on April 30 and May 1, 1608, the army under the command of the tsar's brother, Prince Dmitry Shuisky, was defeated, the troops approached Moscow and camped in the village of Tushino, where parallel authorities were created. From the power of Shuisky to the "Tushino thief" numerous cities, vast territories left, a considerable number of boyars and service people fled. Moscow was again under siege. The tsar sent his nephew boyar prince to Novgorod to ask for help from Swedish king Charles IX in exchange for the concession to Sweden of the town of Korela and the county. In 1609, the violence and plunder of the Polish-Lithuanian and Cossack detachments serving the impostor caused the inhabitants of the Zamoskovye cities and the Russian North to oppose him. At the same time, the army of Prince Skopin-Shuisky began a campaign to Moscow, which in a number of battles defeated the troops of the impostor and entered Moscow on March 12, 1610, lifting the siege from the capital. A significant part of the cities and counties of the country recognized the power of Tsar Vasily. However, Prince Skopin-Shuisky died unexpectedly after a feast on April 23, 1610. There were rumors that he was poisoned by the tsar's sister-in-law, Ekaterina Grigorievna, at the instigation of her son-in-law and spouse, who feared the claims of the famous commander to the throne, whose heir was officially considered her husband Dmitry Shuisky as the brother of childless Vasily. This event caused swipe on the prestige of the tsar and the fighting efficiency of the army at the moment when the Polish-Lithuanian intervention began.

Back in September 1609, the king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Sigismund III crossed the Russian border and laid siege to Smolensk, summoning the Polish-Lithuanian gentry, who until that time had served False Dmitry II. In the battle of Klushino on June 24, 1610, the Russian army under the command of Prince Dmitry Shuisky was defeated. Polish-Lithuanian troops approached Moscow, but so far they were in no hurry to occupy the city, where another coup d'état took place. In the capital on July 17, 1610, a kind of open-air meeting was assembled, reminiscent of either an ancient veche, or an impromptu cathedral. It was held with the participation of the clergy, the Boyar Duma, the commanders of the noble detachments and military people who were in the city, the residents of the Moscow posad. On it, a decision was made to depose the king, who was taken from the royal residence to his old boyar court and taken into custody. On July 19, Vasily Shuisky was forcibly tonsured into a monk and imprisoned in the Moscow Chudov Monastery. His wife was also tonsured and sent to Suzdal in the Intercession Monastery. Shuisky's opponents, united against him, could not share power among themselves and decided to give it to foreigners. The new government, formed from representatives of the boyars and nicknamed "Seven Boyars", in August 1610 signed an agreement on the election to the Russian throne of the Polish prince Vladislav (future king Vladislav IV Vaza). In September 1610, the boyars handed over Vasily Shuisky, along with brothers Dmitry and Ivan, to the commander of the Polish-Lithuanian army, hetman Stanislav Zholkevsky, to take them out of Moscow and place them in one of the monasteries. He, in violation of a preliminary agreement with the Duma, took the prisoners with him to King Sigismund III near Smolensk. For his political and military mistakes, Vasily Shuisky had to pay with shame, which humiliated all of Russia and flattered the pride of its western neighbors. Together with his brothers and voivode Mikhail Borisovich Shein, the head of the heroic defense of Smolensk in 1609-1611, which ended only when the defenders stopped receiving any help from the rest of the country, they were forced to participate as living trophies in the ceremony of Zholkevsky's triumphal entry on October 29, 1611. to Warsaw. Then in royal palace in the presence of all the Polish nobility during the meeting of the Diet and in the presence of foreign ambassadors, he was forced to bow to Sigismund III and kiss his hand. Then the Shuiskys were placed in custody in the castle in the town of Gostynin in Mazovia, where Vasily died on September 12 (22), 1612, after him five days later, on September 17 (27), Prince Dmitry died. Only their brother Ivan was able to return home in 1620. The very death of Vasily Shuisky was also used by the Polish authorities for propaganda purposes. The remains of him and his brother Dmitry were buried in Warsaw in a specially built tomb called the "Moscow chapel" ("Russian chapel"), with inscriptions announcing the Polish victories that led to the capture of the Moscow tsar. The tsar's government took such a funeral as a humiliation for Russia. After the conclusion of a peace treaty between Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1634), the remains of Vasily Shuisky were transferred to the Russian side and solemnly reburied in 1635 in the grand ducal and royal tomb - the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.