The Time of Troubles in Russia, 1598 to 1613

Causes of the Time of Troubles

Several problems came together:

• The dynasty ended. When Tsar Fyodor died in 1598 there was no heir of the Rurik line. Boris Godunov was elected, but rivals said he had no birth right.
• Famine. In 1601 to 1603 cold weather and failed harvests caused a great famine. Many peasants left their villages, and bands of armed runaways roamed. The government's relief was not enough.
• Social anger. Peasants were tied to the land, boyars and nobles competed, and Cossacks, townspeople and others were unhappy. The 1603 rising of the band led by Khlopok showed how deep the trouble was.

Impostors and changing rulers

In 1591 young Prince Dmitry, the last son of Ivan IV, had died. Now a man appeared claiming to be Dmitry alive. History calls him False Dmitry I. With help from nobles in Poland-Lithuania and Cossacks, he marched to Moscow. Boris Godunov died in April 1605, and in June 1605 the man entered Moscow and was crowned. In May 1606 he was killed in a boyar plot.

Vasily Shuisky, a boyar, became Tsar (1606 to 1610). Soon came the large rising led by Ivan Bolotnikov (1606 to 1607), which gathered peasants, townspeople and others. Then another impostor, False Dmitry II, set up a camp near Moscow at Tushino (1608 to 1610) and ruled parts of the land beside the Tsar. Two governments, two capitals, and constant fighting.

Foreign intervention

Neighbours used the weakness. In 1609 King Sigismund III of Poland-Lithuania began a siege of Smolensk (it fell in 1611). Shuisky, to fight the second impostor, made a treaty with Sweden in 1609 and took a Swedish force into service; in return Sweden later took lands in the north-west and held Novgorod from 1611. In 1610 the Polish army won at Klushino and Shuisky was removed. A council of seven boyars, the Seven Boyars, ruled and let a Polish garrison into Moscow. Many Russians saw this as a danger to their state and their faith.

People's militias and the Zemsky Sobor of 1613

Patriarch Hermogenes called people to resist. In 1611 a first militia led by Prokopy Lyapunov tried to free Moscow but broke up because of quarrels. In autumn 1611 a town elder of Nizhny Novgorod, Kuzma Minin, asked townspeople to give money and join, and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky became the military leader. The second militia gathered men from many towns, marched in 1612 and freed Moscow in late October (4 November by our calendar).

In early 1613 a Zemsky Sobor met in Moscow: church leaders, nobles, townspeople, Cossacks and others. After long talks it chose Mikhail Romanov, aged 16, who belonged to a family related to the old dynasty. He was crowned in July 1613. The Romanov dynasty ruled Russia until 1917. Peace came slowly: treaties with Sweden (1617) and Poland (1618) ended the wars.

Key formulas and definitions

• Troubles = no dynasty + famine (1601 to 1603) + unrest + foreign pressure
• 1605 False Dmitry I; 1606 to 1610 Shuisky; 1610 Seven Boyars
• 1609 Smolensk siege; 1610 Poles in Moscow; 1611 Swedes hold Novgorod
• 1611 first militia fails; 1612 second militia (Minin and Pozharsky) frees Moscow
• 1613 Zemsky Sobor elects Mikhail Romanov (16 years old)

Worked examples

Common mistakes

• Saying the Time of Troubles was one war. It was many events: famine, impostors, risings, foreign intervention.
• Mixing False Dmitry I (1605 to 1606) with False Dmitry II (camp at Tushino, 1608 to 1610).
• Saying Mikhail Romanov was chosen by one man. He was elected by a Zemsky Sobor of many groups.
• Thinking the first militia freed Moscow. It failed in 1611; the second succeeded in 1612.