Militia formation
Note 1
In June 1611, after a year and a half of siege, Smolensk fell. After that Sigismund III declared his intention to take the Russian throne. At the same time as the Poles, the Swedes also began to act more actively - they occupied $16$ July Novgorod, the city authorities recognized the claims to the throne of the son of Charles IX Carla Philippa.
At the same time in First militia there was a final breakdown. In July he was killed in a Cossack camp Prokopiy Lyapunov. After this, many nobles left the camp. U Trubetskoy And Zarutsky There was not enough strength to fight the Poles.
Under these conditions, cities are beginning to organize themselves again. Head of Nizhny Novgorod Posad Kuzma Minin In the fall of $1611, he began collecting funds for the formation of a detachment. The prince became the commander of the detachment Pozharsky D.M., who took part in the Moscow uprising in the spring of $1611. Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky became leaders of the new Council of the whole earth.
Yaroslavl
From Nizhny Novgorod at the end of February 1612, the militia rose along the Volga. For $4 months it stood in Yaroslavl, dealing with organizational issues. The Second Militia took into account the mistakes of the First, so it was attentive to negotiations and establishing connections, although this was difficult with the Cossacks.
At the same time, Ivan Zarutsky left the camp near Moscow and went to Kaluga, where he sided with Marina Mnishek and her son from the second impostor, Ivan Dmitrievich, nicknamed “Vorenko”.
Relations between the First and Second Militia
The complex relationship between the First and Second Militia worsened in the summer of 1612. The Yaroslavl Council of the Whole Land sought to expand its territory, so they attacked the Cossack detachments Prosovetsky And Tolstoy.
The first militia swore allegiance to the “Pskov thief” - False Dmitry III, however, its leaders took different positions. Following Zarutsky, Trubetskoy began to act separately - he went to negotiations with Minin and Pozharsky.
Meanwhile, in Pskov, Zarutsky’s people neutralized the third impostor. He was hanged after the accession of Mikhail Romanov.
Negotiations with Minin and Pozharsky failed, since the Yaroslavl Council of the Whole Land put forward many conditions:
- The main thing is the recognition of Karl-Philipp
- Oath of alliance with the Second Militia
- Extradition of Marina Mnishek and the “vorenok”
Liberation of Moscow
However, the Second Militia at the end of July moved towards Moscow, as the hetman’s large army was approaching the capital Khodkevich. Approaching Moscow, the militia did not unite with Trubetskoy’s Cossacks, but they had to fight Khodkevich together. As a result, victory over the hetman at the end of August 1612 became possible only after the unification of forces.
The final merger of the militias took place in October 1612 after the issuance of letters to the cities of Trubetskoy and Pozharsky, in which they notified the cessation of friction. A coalition has formed Zemstvo government, which united members of both militias. The united militia continued to support Charles Philip as a contender for the throne. Probably, the leadership of the militia believed that only an outside ruler could stop the Troubles, while the Moscow boyars would certainly deepen the crisis.
After the unification of the militias, victory was close. The fact is that the Poles were counting on the help of the king, who made a loud statement about his desire to take the Russian throne. But Sigismund III did not come to the rescue because he was faced with his own difficulties: the gentry began to oppose the king, fearing his excessive strengthening at the expense of Moscow. On October 22, the detachments took Kitay-Gorod. On October 26, the Poles in the Kremlin surrendered. The militia entered Moscow on October 27.
In the fall of 1611, after the failure of the first militia, the Nizhny Novgorod elder, merchant Kuzma Minin, began to raise funds to create a second people's militia. More than once Kuzma Minin spoke to the residents of Nizhny Novgorod with a call to rise up to fight against foreign invaders, for the liberation of the Russian state, for the Orthodox faith, not to spare their lives, but to give all their gold and silver to support the military people. In Nizhny Novgorod they heard the calls of their elder, people hastily began to collect money to create a second militia. The tax for these purposes amounted to one fifth of the total property of each citizen. Kuzma Minin was engaged in organizational activities in the second militia, collecting money for its maintenance. The military affairs of the second militia were handled by an experienced governor, Prince Dmitry Pozharsky. By the time the liberation campaign of the second militia began, in February 1612, many Russian cities and lands declared support for the movement of Minin and Pozharsky. The people of Dorogobuzh, Vyazma, Kolomna, Aramzas, Kazan and other cities willingly entered under the leadership of Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky.
In the spring of 1612, the second militia under the leadership of Dmitry Pozharsky moved to Yaroslavl. A provisional government of Russia was created in Yaroslavl - the “council of all the earth.” The militia stayed in Yaroslavl for four months.
In the summer of 1612, bloody events broke out in Moscow and on the outskirts of it. The Poles sent reinforcements to Moscow, in the form of an entire military corps under the command of Khodkiewicz. It’s good that Trubetskoy’s Cossacks, after the defeat of the first militia, remained not far from Moscow. Cossack hundreds more than once saved the situation for the army of Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky. During fierce battles, the militia managed to withdraw Khodkevich’s detachments from Moscow. The battle formations of the advancing Poles were overturned, and they fled, abandoning their artillery and entire supply of provisions. Chodkiewicz's flight largely determined the fate of the Polish garrison in the Kremlin. On October 26, 1612, the Poles capitulated. The army of Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin united with the detachments of Trubetskoy’s Cossacks in the Execution Ground area, and together they entered the Kremlin through the Spassky Gate. Muscovites celebrated the victory. The troubles are over.
In 1613, at a meeting of the Zemsky Sobor, Mikhail Romanov was elected king. This is where the glorious three-hundred-year history of the House of Romanov began. The accession of the Romanovs became one of the main events Russian history 17th century.
Consequences of the Troubles:
1) a new period of Russian history - the Romanovs came to power (new dynasty). The power was legitimate;
2) the role of the Boyar Duma and Zemsky Prikas is strengthened;
3) class boundaries were temporarily erased;
4) a blow was dealt to localism (the system of obtaining important government positions based on the principle of nobility. The principle of Nobility included 3 parameters: - the earlier the ancestors enter the service of the Moscow princes, the better; - the more merit, the better; - the more noble and ancient the family , the better);
5) economic devastation, deepest economic crisis;
6) Russia lost large territories in the North-West and West of the country:
In 1617, the Stolbovo Peace Treaty was signed between Russia and Sweden (the volost of Karelu, Yam-Koporye; Staraya Russa, Novgorod, Gdov, Ladoga were returned and the Swedish indemnity was paid - 20 thousand in silver);
In 1618, Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth signed the “Deulin Truce” for 14.5 years, according to which Russia lost Novgorod-Seversky, Chernigov and Smolensk lands. Vladislav retained his rights to the Russian throne. There was an exchange of prisoners of war;
7) the morality of society was at a low level;
– Tsarevo Zaimishche – Klushino – Mozhaisk – Moscow (1611) – Volokolamsk - Moscow (1612)- Moscow Battle
Second People's (Nizhny Novgorod) Militia, second zemstvo militia- a militia that arose in September 1611 in Nizhny Novgorod to fight the Polish invaders. It continued to be actively formed during the journey from Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow, mainly in Yaroslavl in April - July 1612. It consisted of detachments of townspeople, peasants from the central and northern regions of Russia, and non-Russian peoples of the Volga region. The leaders are Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky. In August 1612, with part of the forces remaining near Moscow from the First Militia, it defeated the Polish army near Moscow, and in October 1612, it completely liberated the capital.
Prerequisites for the creation of the second militia
The initiative to organize the Second People's Militia came from the crafts and trade people of Nizhny Novgorod, an important economic and administrative center in the Middle Volga. At that time, about 150 thousand males lived in the Nizhny Novgorod district, there were up to 30 thousand households in 600 villages. In Nizhny itself there were about 3.5 thousand male residents, of which about 2.0–2.5 thousand were townspeople.
Disastrous situation in the Nizhny Novgorod region
Nizhny Novgorod, due to its strategic location, economic and political significance, was one of the key points in the eastern and southeastern regions of Russia. In conditions of weakening of the central government and the rule of the interventionists, this city became the initiator of a nationwide patriotic movement that swept the Upper and Middle Volga regions and neighboring regions of the country. It should be noted that Nizhny Novgorod residents joined the liberation struggle several years before the formation of the second militia.
They used Greek manuscripts for cooking, having found a large and priceless collection of them in the Kremlin archives. By boiling the parchment, they extracted from it vegetable glue, which deceived their painful hunger.
When these sources dried up, they dug up the corpses, then began to kill their captives, and with the intensification of feverish delirium they came to the point that they began to devour each other; this is a fact that is not subject to the slightest doubt: eyewitness Budzilo reports incredibly terrible details about the last days of the siege that he could not have invented... Budzilo names individuals, notes numbers: the lieutenant and haiduk each ate two of their sons; another officer ate his mother! The strong took advantage of the weak, and the healthy took advantage of the sick. They quarreled over the dead, and the most amazing ideas about justice were mixed with the discord generated by cruel madness. One soldier complained that people from another company ate his relative, when in fairness he and his comrades should have eaten it. The accused referred to the regiment's rights to the corpse of a fellow soldier, and the colonel did not dare to end this feud, fearing that the losing party might eat the judge out of revenge for the verdict.
Pozharsky offered the besieged a free exit with banners and weapons, but without looted treasures. They preferred to feed on prisoners and each other, but did not want to part with money. Pozharsky and his regiment stood on the Stone Bridge at the Trinity Gate of the Kremlin to meet the boyar families and protect them from the Cossacks. On October 26, the Poles surrendered and left the Kremlin. Budilo and his regiment fell into Pozharsky’s camp, and everyone remained alive. Later they were sent to Nizhny Novgorod. Coward and his regiment fell to Trubetskoy, and the Cossacks exterminated all the Poles. On October 27, the ceremonial entry into the Kremlin of the troops of princes Pozharsky and Trubetskoy was scheduled. When the troops gathered at Lobnoye Mesto, Archimandrite Dionysius of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery performed a solemn prayer service in honor of the victory of the militia. After which, to the ringing of bells, the winners, accompanied by the people, entered the Kremlin with banners and banners.
: In 25 hours / under supervision
Second People's Militia
Second folk or second zemstvo militia- arose in September 1611 in Nizhny Novgorod to fight the Polish invaders. It continued to be actively formed during the journey from Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow, mainly in Yaroslavl in April - July 1612. Consisted of detachments of townspeople and peasants from the central and northern regions of Russia. The leaders are Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky. In August 1612, with part of the forces remaining near Moscow from the First Militia, it defeated the Polish army near Moscow, and in October 1612, it completely liberated the capital from occupation by the interventionists.
The initiative to organize the Second People's Militia came from the crafts and trade people of Nizhny Novgorod, an important economic and administrative center in the Middle Volga. At that time, about 150 thousand males lived in the Nizhny Novgorod district (in Nizhny itself there were about 3.5 thousand male residents, of which about 2-2.5 thousand were townspeople), there were up to 30 thousand households in 600 villages.
Disastrous situation in the Nizhny Novgorod region
Nizhny Novgorod, due to its strategic location, economic and political significance, was one of the key points in the eastern and southeastern regions of Russia. In conditions of weakening of the central government and the rule of the interventionists, this city became the initiator of a nationwide patriotic movement that swept the Upper and Middle Volga regions and neighboring regions of the country. Nizhny Novgorod residents joined the liberation struggle several years before the formation of the second militia.
Hike up the Volga
The second militia set out for Moscow from Nizhny Novgorod at the end of February - beginning of March 1612 through Balakhna, Timonkino, Sitskoye, Yuryevets, Reshma, Kineshma, Kostroma, Yaroslavl. In Balakhna and Yuryevets, the militias were greeted with great honor. They received replenishment and a large cash treasury. In Reshma, Pozharsky learned about the oath of Pskov and the Cossack leaders Trubetskoy and Zarutsky to the new impostor, the fugitive monk Isidore. Kostroma governor Ivan Sheremetev did not want to let the militia into the city. Having removed Sheremetev and appointed a new governor in Kostroma, the militia entered Yaroslavl in early April 1612.
Capital in Yaroslavl
The militia remained in Yaroslavl for four months, until the end of July 1612. Here the composition of the government - the “Council of the Whole Earth” - was finally determined. It also included representatives of noble princely families - the Dolgorukys, Kurakins, Buturlins, Sheremetevs and others. The Council was headed by Pozharsky and Minin. Since Minin was illiterate, Pozharsky signed the letters instead: “Prince Dmitry Pozharsky put his hand in Minin’s place as an elected person with all the land in Kozmino.” The certificates were signed by all members of the “Council of the Whole Earth”. And since at that time localism was strictly observed, Pozharsky’s signature was in tenth place, and Minin’s in fifteenth.
In Yaroslavl, the militia government continued to pacify cities and districts, liberating them from Polish-Lithuanian detachments, from Zarutsky’s Cossacks, depriving the latter of material and military assistance from the eastern, northeastern and northern regions. At the same time, it took diplomatic steps to neutralize Sweden, which had seized the Novgorod lands, through negotiations on the candidacy for the Russian throne of Charles Philip, brother of the Swedish king Gustav Adolf. At the same time, Prince Pozharsky held diplomatic negotiations with Joseph Gregory, the ambassador of the German emperor, about the emperor’s assistance to the militia in liberating the country. In return, he offered Pozharsky the emperor’s cousin, Maximilian, as Russian tsar. These two claimants to the Russian throne were subsequently rejected.
The “stand” in Yaroslavl and the measures taken by the “Council of the Whole Earth”, Minin and Pozharsky themselves, yielded results. Joined the Second Militia large number lower and Moscow region cities with counties, Pomorie and Siberia. Government institutions functioned: under the “Council of the Whole Land” there were orders Local, Discharge, and Ambassadorial. Order was gradually established over an increasingly large territory of the state. Gradually, with the help of militia detachments, it was cleared of gangs of thieves. The militia army already numbered up to ten thousand warriors, well armed and trained. The militia authorities were also involved in everyday administrative and judicial work (appointing governors, maintaining discharge books, analyzing complaints, petitions, etc.). All this gradually stabilized the situation in the country and led to a revival of economic activity.
At the beginning of the month, the militia received news of the advance of the twelve thousandth detachment of the Great Hetman of Lithuania Chodkevich with a large convoy towards Moscow. Pozharsky and Minin immediately sent detachments of Mikhail Dmitriev and Prince Lopata-Pozharsky to the capital, which approached Moscow on July 24 and August 2, respectively. Having learned about the arrival of the militia, Zarutsky and his Cossack detachment fled to Kolomna, and then to Astrakhan, since before that he had sent assassins to Prince Pozharsky, but the assassination attempt failed, and Zarutsky’s plans were revealed.
Fight of militias with the troops of Hetman Khodkevich
After a respite on August 23, the militia of Prince Pozharsky again entered into battle with the troops of Hetman Khodkevich, and again Prince Trubetskoy did not help Pozharsky, as a result of which the Poles occupied the Klimentovsky fort and captured the Cossacks who were there. Seeing this state of affairs, the cellarer of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery Abraham Palitsyn, who came with the militia to Moscow, went to the Cossacks’ camp, promised to pay them a salary from the monastery treasury, and only after that the Cossacks came to the aid of the militia.
On August 24, a decisive bloody battle between the militia and the Poles took place. The battle lasted about fourteen hours. Kuzma Minin also showed valor, who, with a small detachment of mounted militia, suddenly attacked the advanced detachments of the Poles and sowed panic in their ranks. Under the onslaught of the main forces of the militia and Trubetskoy’s Cossacks who came to their aid, Khodkevich’s army wavered and fled. After standing all night near the Donskoy Monastery, the remnants of Khodkevich’s army left Moscow on the morning of August 25.
Liberation of Moscow
However, not all of Moscow was liberated from the invaders. There were still Polish detachments of Colonels Strus and Budila, entrenched in Kitay-Gorod and the Kremlin. The traitorous boyars and their families also took refuge in the Kremlin. The future Russian sovereign Mikhail Romanov, who was still little known at that time, was in the Kremlin with his mother Marfa Ivanovna. Knowing that the besieged Poles were suffering terrible hunger, Pozharsky at the end of September 1612 sent them a letter in which he invited the Polish knighthood to surrender. “Your heads and lives will be spared,” he wrote, “I will take this upon my soul and ask all military men to agree to this.” To which an arrogant and boastful response followed from the Polish colonels with a refusal to Pozharsky’s proposal.
Expulsion of Poles from the Kremlin. E. Lissner
Pozharsky offered the besieged a free exit with banners and weapons, but without looted treasures. They preferred to feed on prisoners and each other, but did not want to part with money. Pozharsky and his regiment stood on the Stone Bridge at the Trinity Gate of the Kremlin to meet the boyar families and protect them from the Cossacks. On October 26 (November 5) the Poles surrendered and left the Kremlin. Budilo and his regiment ended up in Pozharsky’s camp, and everyone remained alive. Later they were sent to Nizhny Novgorod. Coward and his regiment fell to Trubetskoy, and the Cossacks exterminated all the Poles. October 27 (November 6) was scheduled for the ceremonial entry into the Kremlin of the troops of princes Pozharsky and Trubetskoy. When the troops gathered at
IN In 1611 the country was left without a government. The Poles captured the Kremlin, and the Boyar Duma was abolished by itself. The state, having lost its center, disintegrated into its component parts. By this time, the Swedes had captured Novgorod, and the Poles, after a months-long siege, had captured Smolensk. The Polish king Sigismund III announced that he himself would become the Russian Tsar, and Russia would become part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
In the fall of 1611, the townsman of Nizhny Novgorod, Kozma Minin, addressed the Russian people and called on them to create a Second Militia. The owner of a decent capital for that time, the owner of two yards, a meat merchant and a fish merchant, he always enjoyed the reputation of a man of impeccable honesty. His words are known: " Orthodox people! If we want to help the state, we will not spare our bellies, and not just our bellies... we will sell our yards, we will pawn our wives and children... This is a great thing!.. I know: as soon as we rise to this, many cities will come to us, and we will get rid of foreigners !"
Minin allocated a third of his property to organize the militia. In addition to voluntary donations, Minin proposed establishing a mandatory tax, and Nizhny Novgorod residents gave Minin the right to “impose fear on the lazy,” that is, to sell the yards of sheltering payers. The organization of the militia immediately stood on solid material foundations. All that remained was to find a worthy military leader.
At that time, Prince D. M. Pozharsky, who had barely recovered from his wounds, lived on his estate 120 versts from Nizhny. People said about him: “An honest man, who has a military cause for the custom, who is skilled in such matters and who has not shown himself in treason.” It was to him that envoys from Nizhny Novgorod arrived with a request to lead the militia.
The military core of the Second Militia was a well-organized and armed petty nobility. The townspeople also played a big role in it. Over time, Cossacks and then peasants began to join the militia. The soldiers of the Second People's Militia went into battle under a banner on which the motto was the words: “Get up, go, fight and win.”
They decided to go to Moscow through Yaroslavl. The people of Yaroslavl met Pozharsky with icons and offered all the property they had for the common cause. Here the militia stood for several months, replenished with newly arrived forces. A provisional government of Russia, the “Council of All the Land,” was created in Yaroslavl, a state body similar to the Zemsky Sobor. The clergy and boyars played a rather insignificant role in it. The vast majority in the “Council” belonged to the petty nobility and the townspeople.
Prince Pozharsky was afraid to go to Moscow while the Cossacks remained there. As it turned out, not without reason: the leader of the Cossacks, I. Zarutsky, tried to organize an assassination attempt on Pozharsky by sending hired killers. The assassination attempt failed, and Zarutsky fled from Moscow in July 1612. A little later he joined forces with Marina Mnishek’s detachment. He tried to nominate her son to the throne, then led the peasant-Cossack movement in the Don and Volga region in 1613-1614. However, the Cossacks handed him over to the government, he was captured in Astrakhan and executed. Marina Mnishek was also extradited along with Zarutsky (she died in captivity). And her son and False Dmitry II were executed in Moscow, at the Serpukhov Gate.
Meanwhile, the Polish hetman Chodkiewicz was approaching Moscow with reinforced troops and provisions for the Poles holed up in the Kremlin. Moving towards Moscow slowly and carefully, on August 20, the militia of Minin and Pozharsky approached the city. On the approaches to the capital, he was joined by units of the First Militia led by Prince D. Trubetskoy. Russian army became along the wall of the White City to the Alekseevskaya Tower on the Moscow River. The main forces concentrated at the Arbat Gate. Khodkevich tried to cross the Moscow River at the Devichye Pole, but the Moscow archers repelled the attack, and the hetman stopped at the Donskoy Monastery.
The main battle took place a few days later in Zamoskvorechye. Khodkevich managed to reach Pyatnitskaya Street, and here a fierce battle with the Cossacks ensued. Minin at this time struck the two Lithuanian companies left in the rear, which decided the outcome of the battle. Khodkevich realized that the purpose with which he arrived in Moscow had not been achieved: he could not deliver food to the garrison. He ordered the rest of the carts to be saved and went to the Sparrow Hills. On the morning of August 25, 1612, the hetman fled from Moscow “for shame, straight to Lithuania.” The fate of the Polish garrison in the Moscow Kremlin, abandoned to the mercy of fate, was predetermined.
On September 15, Pozharsky sent a letter to the Poles besieged in the Kremlin and Kitai-gorod, in which he urged them to surrender and promised to release the entire garrison unharmed. The Poles responded to this generous letter with an arrogant refusal, confident that the hetman would return. Meanwhile, weeks passed - there was no hetman, famine began. In October it reached terrifying proportions. All the horses, cats, dogs were eaten, people gnawed on their belts, and it reached the point of cannibalism. On October 22, Trubetskoy’s Cossacks attacked Kitay-Gorod. The hungry Poles were not able to defend themselves and went to the Kremlin. This day is considered the day of the liberation of Moscow from the invaders.
The icon of the Kazan Mother of God was solemnly brought into Kitai-gorod and they vowed to build a church, which was erected opposite the Nikolsky Gate of the Kremlin. In memory of the events of October 22, the feast of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God was established. (This national holiday, established in memory of the end of one of the most tragic pages of Russian history, will henceforth be celebrated on November 4 according to the new style.)
On October 25, all the Kremlin gates stood wide open - Russian troops, preceded by a religious procession, entered the Kremlin.
After the liberation of Moscow, the leaders of the militia remained in power in the capital, and throughout Russia: Prince Trubetskoy - the head of the Cossack army, Prince Pozharsky and Minin. The militia government considered its most important task to be the restoration state power and state unity. And in December, letters were sent to all cities of the country, notifying that the best and most intelligent people should be sent from everywhere to Moscow to elect the sovereign of all Rus'.
