LITMIR.BIZ

      …The Second Militia is gathering in Nizhny Novgorod. Formation of his forces was initially based on the union of the representative of the nobility – the profound prince Pozharsky and the peasantry – the economic zemstvo headman Minin. From voluntary donations, a treasury is created, which is well, without delay, paid for the help of experienced service people. Near the walls of Moscow, the strength of the army reaches ten thousand men – about ten times less than the First Militia; at the same time, it is incomparably better organized and internally coordinated. In early September 1612, after the deposition of False Dmitriy III, he managed to repel the convoy with food for the besieged, to liberate most of Moscow and, in October, to occupy the city of China. Remains the Kremlin, in the walls of which the Poles and Russian boyar families are already everywhere engaged in cannibalism. Having placed his regiment at its walls, Pozharsky defends the boyars and one of two large Polish detachments. The second formation of the Polish-Lithuanian garrison falls into the camp of the Cossacks of Trubetskoy, and is completely exterminated by those. The troops of Minin and Pozharsky enter the Kremlin on November 6, 1612, a solemn moleben is held at the Place of Execution in honor of their victory. The new Polish army, which is halfway to Moscow, after news of these events reaches Sigismund and Vladislav, stops at Volokolamsk.

      In January 1613, an all-meeting meeting was convened, including the peasants, the Zemsky Sobor, whose purpose was to elect a new tsar and dynasty. Among the contenders are Pozharsky, Trubetskoi, Swedish Karl Philip, Vladislav, and Ivan, the son of Maria Mnishek. The fate of this child is sad; in 1615 from Astrakhan he was sent to the capital, where he was executed together with the ataman Ivan Zarutskiy.

      The election is won by the sixteen-year-old son of Patriarch Filaret, Mikhail F. Romanov. Patriarchs are not supposed to have a family and, in general, to live a sexual life, but Fyodor Nikitich Romanov and his wife Xenia Ivanovna did not always have a monastic order. They had to go to the monastery under Boris Godunov, who saw them as candidates for the throne, but by that time they already had a son, Mikhail. In 1611, Filaret becomes a «betrothed» patriarch in the Tushino camp, parallel to Moscow’s Hermogen, then taken out by the Poles to Poland, but finds ways to communicate with the Zemsky Sobor.

      So, to Mikhail Fedorovich and his mother, Martha, who is hiding from the persecution of the Poles in the Ipatievsky Monastery (Kostroma), the embassy of the Zemsky Sobor from Moscow arrives from Moscow and informs the important news. A shy young man becomes the first king of the Romanov dynasty. He and his entourage are, in particular, to give an unpleasant instruction about the execution of a young son False Dmitry. This sacrifice seems to seal the entrance to new impostors, but remains a stain in the history of the Russian people – as long as, perhaps, historians prove that this never happened.

      Three years later the Polish troops, together with the Zaporozhye Cossacks of the Orthodox nobleman Peter Konashevich (Sagaidachny), are trying to restore the rights of King Vladislav Vazu, they are storming Moscow, but unsuccessfully. Nevertheless, according to the so-called. Deulin world, concluded in 1618, Russia loses 26 cities, including the key Smolensk, Chernigov and Putivl – together with the population, except for the clergy and nobility, who are allowed to move to Russian lands. Vladislav still claims the Russian throne.

      At the age of 20, Mikhail the First is going to marry, and, examining the bride’s structure, he chooses Maria Khlopova. But, the girl does not like his mother, according to her suggestion, doctors conclude that «Maria Khlopova to tsar’s joy is fragile.» Other healers come to a completely different conclusion, however, the final word is still for the nun Martha. After a while, with the assistance of his father, Patriarch Filaret, who had returned from the Polish captivity, Michael almost already marries Khlopova, but the mother’s influence again outweighs. In the end, the king enters into a marriage with Evdokia Streshneva, the confidante of one of the boyars who came to the bride’s eyes. Marriage is quite happy, except for the fact that, even under royal care, six out of ten children die before they reach adulthood (the usual statistics of that time).

      In 1636, Michael declared war on Poland, his troops besieged Smolensk. However, incompetent governors lose initiative, they return to Moscow from 8000 people with an initial number of 32000. The status quo is preserved, the only plus is the King of Poland (otherwise – the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the association of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and, indeed, Poland itself), Vladislav refuses, finally, claims to the Russian throne.

      In 1645, the son of Mikhail, Alexei Mikhailovich (Tishaishy) became the king. In his reign there are: the formal reunification of Ukraine and Russia, the Copper and Salt riots and, especially, the church schism. The fault of the patriarch Nikon is that he could not carry out the reform of church rituals gently, with all the necessary explanatory work. His discord with the king is not due to concern for the people, but, solely, his own pride. The Church Council of 1666 supports the reform of Nikon, betrays the curse (anathema) of the Old Believers (therefore, casts doubt on the religiosity of their ancestors) and, whatever, condemns the rebellious patriarch for imprisonment in the monastery. Open resistance to such a godlessly introduced religious statute lasts at least until the capture of the Solovetsky Monastery by troops in 1676; 14 monks from 500 remain alive. In 1654, in connection with the annexation of the Hetmanate, or, more precisely, the troops of Zaporozhye (Zemsky Sobor of 1653, Pereyaslav Rada), another Russian-Polish war begins. The combined forces of Buturlin and Khmelnytsky achieve considerable success, they are already fighting in the territory of ethnic Poland and Lithuania; but the entry into the war of Sweden, which threatens both states, snatched Warsaw and Krakow from under Russia’s nose, forces the parties to the conflict to sign the Vilna truce. And, in addition, there is an interesting prospect of electing Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (Tishaishim) to the throne of Poland.