What document did Vasily Shuisky accept? Reign of Vasily Shuisky

Vasily Shuisky (1545–1612) is known as the last representative of the Rurik family on the Russian throne. He also went down in history as the only Russian Tsar to die in captivity abroad. Why is his biography so tragic?

Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky belonged to the Suzdal branch of the Rurikovichs. The named branch came from Prince Andrei Yaroslavich, brother of Alexander Nevsky. Vasily's father was Prince Ivan Shuisky, an authoritative statesman under Ivan IV, and mother Anna Fedorovna.

Vasily was married twice. First on Princess Elena Mikhailovna, and then on Princess Maria Petrovna. Shuisky's two daughters died in infancy. The youngest of them, Princess Anastasia Vasilievna, was born on the eve of the overthrow of Shuisky and died in exile.

Service at court

Vasily Shuisky began his service at court under Ivan IV. He rose to the rank of boyar already in 1584. The rise of Vasily was greatly facilitated by the marriage of his brother Dmitry Shuisky with the daughter of Malyuta Skuratov. Was Vasily's brother-in-law. This in no way weakened the confrontation between the future kings. As a result, Shuisky not only lost the fight for influence on Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, but also ended up in exile for 4 years.

The prince's return to court in 1591 coincided with the death of Tsarevich Dmitry Ioannovich. Shuisky headed the commission to investigate the incident. The conclusion presented by the commission to the Boyar Duma stated that the prince died as a result of an accident. The results of the investigation into the “Uglich case” helped Shuisky once again become part of the administrative elite. Nevertheless, fearing the emergence of competitors in the struggle for the throne, Godunov forbade the prince to marry.

Ascension to the throne

The rise to power of Vasily Shuisky is worthy of becoming the basis for one of the episodes of “Game of Thrones”. I didn’t trust him, not without reason. So, despite the fact that in one of the battles Vasily defeated False Dmitry I, a few months later he took the side of the impostor and “recognized” him as the deceased prince. The prince stated that his conclusions on the “Uglich case” were a forgery.

Despite this, having gained power, False Dmitry I sentenced Shuisky to death, which he later replaced with short imprisonment. Returning to the court, Shuisky and some of his supporters began to plot against the impostor, spreading rumors about the death of the real prince. In the end, it all ended with the murder of False Dmitry I.

Vasily Shuisky came to power after the death of the impostor. His election to the throne took place in May 1606 in front of the rebels who gathered on Red Square. With the accession of Vasily Time of Troubles entered into new phase. A boyar tsar appeared in the country again.

Reign of Vasily Shuisky (1606–1610)

The beginning of Shuisky's reign was marked by his desire to atone for past sins. And he often did this publicly. But it is worth saying that attempts to change the situation in society were not successful.

Domestic policy

One of the most significant activities of the new king was the creation of the so-called kissing cross record. This document contained clauses limiting royal power. In particular, the tsar swore not to execute anyone without a court decision made together with the boyars.

During his reign, Shuisky tried to streamline the legal relations of landowners with dependent people. Vasily increased the period of search for fugitive peasants. Coins of Vasily Shuisky are known. Although his reign was marked by a decrease in the weight of the penny.

The new king failed to stop the Troubles. On the contrary, the country was mired deeper and deeper in civil war. The uprising against Shuisky began immediately after his accession. Moreover, the rebels again used the rumor about the miraculously saved Tsarevich Dmitry. First, he came up with this slogan, and then.

The new impostor, nicknamed "", has achieved considerable success. Having settled in Tushino, he organized parallel governing bodies, some territories came under his authority, and a number of boyars and service people defected.

Foreign policy

The tsar's foreign policy activities were directly related to internal problems. To suppress the uprising of False Dmitry II, Shuisky turned to the ruler of Sweden, Charles IX, for help. Agreement on military assistance, which he concluded, assumed the cession of the city of Korela to Sweden.

The Tsar's nephew won several victories over the troops of False Dmitry II, but in 1609 it started. At the Battle of Klushino, the Russian army was defeated, which marked the beginning of the collapse of Shuisky's reign. The troops of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth approached the capital, where events that were of great importance for future fate last Rurikovich who ruled Russia.

Overthrow of Vasily Shuisky

The civil war, coupled with foreign intervention, became the main reasons for the overthrow of Vasily Shuisky. On July 17, 1610, a meeting was held with the participation of the Boyar Duma, the clergy, military people and residents of Moscow. This impromptu council decided to overthrow the king. The former ruler was forcibly tonsured a monk and imprisoned in a monastery. These were the results of the reign of the last Rurikovich.

In August 1610, the boyar government, nicknamed "", entered into an agreement to invite Vladislav, Prince of Poland, to the throne. The boyars allowed the Poles into Moscow, and Vasily Shuisky was handed over to Hetman Zholkiewski, who took the former Russian Tsar to Poland.

Later, Vasily participated in Zolkiewski's entry into Warsaw as a living trophy. After this he was placed in custody. The deposed king died in a castle in the city of Gostynin. The official date of death is September 12, 1612.

The Polish authorities intended to use the death of Vasily Shuisky for their own purposes. His remains were buried in a special tomb, the inscriptions of which narrated the events that led to the capture of the Russian ruler. But as a result of the peace treaty of 1634, Shuisky’s remains were transferred to Russia, where they were reburied in the royal tomb.

Vasily IV (Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky) (1552-1612), Russian Tsar (1606-1610).

Prince Vasily Ivanovich belonged to ancient family, in terms of its nobility equal to the Moscow house of Rurikovich. The Shuiskys had enormous land wealth and colossal influence.

In the 80s XVI century they started a fight with the brother-in-law and favorite of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich Boris Godunov, which ended in failure. The Shuiskys fell into disgrace. In 1586, Prince Vasily Ivanovich was recalled from Smolensk, where he was governor, and sent into exile.

In 1591, Godunov needed the help of disgraced aristocrats. At mysterious circumstances In the city of Uglich, Fyodor Ivanovich’s brother, Tsarevich Dmitry, died. The investigative commission was headed by Prince Vasily Ivanovich. He came to a clear conclusion - an accident.

When, ten years later, False Dmitry I invaded the Moscow state, Shuisky exclaimed: “Dmitry escaped the machinations of Boris Godunov, and instead of him the son of a priest was killed and buried in a princely manner.”

In 1605, the impostor was crowned king. The Poles gained great influence, “pushing” him to the throne. The position of the Russian aristocracy became precarious. Shuisky organized a conspiracy against False Dmitry, but the plans of the conspirators were disrupted by arrests. Shuisky himself went to the chopping block. However, at the last moment, False Dmitry pardoned him. This frivolous decision cost the impostor his power and his life. At the end of May 1606, Shuisky struck. The conspirators aroused popular discontent and broke into the royal chambers. The widespread beating of Polish soldiers began, False Dmitry and his entourage fell.

Arrived finest hour Shuisky. He was elected to the throne and soon crowned. Such haste harmed the matter: the Zemsky Sobor was not convened, which could have given Shuisky’s power more legitimacy. Soon several new “royal offspring” appeared in the country at once; one of them, False Dmitry II, received the support of the Polish gentry. IN southern lands The uprising of I. Bolotnikov (1606-1607) grew.

Under these conditions, Vasily Ivanovich decided to take a risky step: the relics of the “innocently murdered” Tsarevich Dmitry, who was canonized as a martyr, were found in Uglich. This should have convinced everyone: the prince was dead, and the new impostors were just troublemakers.

Bolotnikov's uprising was successfully suppressed. The fight against the troops of False Dmitry II dragged on. In 1609, the Polish king Sigismund III openly invaded Russian territory and besieged Smolensk. Shuisky turned to the Swedish king for help. The combined Swedish-Russian forces, led by the talented military leader M.V. Skopin-Shuisky, inflicted a number of defeats on the enemy.

In the spring of 1610, the situation began to improve; Shuisky’s energetic policy seemed to bear fruit. However, at this moment Skopin-Shuisky unexpectedly died. On June 24, Russian troops suffered a crushing defeat from the Poles near the village of Klushina (between Vyazma and Mozhaisk).

In July 1610, representatives of other aristocratic families rebelled and overthrew Shuisky. The king was forcibly tonsured a monk. The aristocratic government handed him over to the Poles. Vasily Ivanovich died in captivity.

The four years of rule - from 1606 to 1610 - of Vasily IV Ioannovich fell on one of the most difficult periods for Russia. An experienced politician, but an insufficiently talented commander, Vasily Shuisky ascended to the kingdom during a period of economic ruin and political malaise. All his attempts to restore peace and power in Russia were nullified not only due to the fact that he was considered a “boyar” and not a people’s king. Poland's foreign policy activities also did not contribute to stabilizing the internal situation.

Boyar origin

Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky is the leader of the great princely family. His father, Ivan Andreevich Shuisky, died in the battle against the Swedes near Lode Castle during the period Livonian War. Ivan Andreevich himself took part in many military campaigns, and at the age of 32 he became the head of the Moscow Court Chamber. By the end of Ivan the Terrible's reign, Shuisky occupied a high position and was one of the most influential boyars. However, at the insistence of Boris Godunov, in 1586, for reasons unknown to historians, the boyar went into exile in Galich.

By 1991, Shuisky returned to the capital. In the same year, he heads the investigation into the death of Tsarevich Dmitry, which occurred under very strange circumstances. Perhaps under pressure from Godunov, or perhaps by conspiracy, Vasily Shuisky makes a conclusion that the cause of death is an accident. Having shown such loyalty, he again takes a place in the boyar Duma.

Already during the reign of Godunov, monk Grigory Otrepiev spread rumors that Tsarevich Dmitry survived, escaped and fled to Poland. The Polish ruler supported False Dmitry I and allocated funds for the army in his favor. Shuisky went from Moscow to meet the false heir. In the battle on January 21, 5 of the seventeenth century, near Dobrynichi, the Russian army under the command of V. Shuisky and F. Mstislavsky defeated the enemy army, putting False Dmitry to flight. The boyar did not pursue the enemy on Polish territory.

In the same year, Boris Godunov suddenly dies. The throne is occupied by his son, Fedor. Claiming the throne, Shuisky attempts state change, which ends in failure and the expulsion of the boyar and his family from Moscow. At the same time, False Dmitry gathers a new army and marches on Russia. The people rebel against Godunov's power, as a result of which Fedor dies. The period of reign of the impostor begins. He needs the support of the boyars and at the end of 1605 he returns Shuisky to the city.

The reign of False Dmitry was short. Although he enjoyed the support of the common people, the ruler allowed the Poles to come to power and was going to convert to Catholicism, which caused popular unrest. Shuisky took advantage of the turmoil and announced that the existing Tsarevich Dmitry was nevertheless killed in Uglich on the orders of Boris Godunov, which means that an impostor is in power.

As a result of an armed coup carried out by the boyars on May 17, 2006, False Dmitry was killed. The question of a new sovereign arose sharply. On May 19, the boyars bribed by Shuisky staged a Zemsky Sobor, at which the boyar’s supporters gathered on Red Square “shouted” him to the kingdom. One of the conditions that was put forward to the new ruler by dissatisfied boyars and those who considered their family more worthy was the adoption of a “kissing record” - a promise not to make important government decisions without the consent of the Boyar Duma. On June 1 of the same year, Vasily Shuisky became Russian Tsar.

Reign period

The state of the Russian kingdom in those years was extremely unfavorable:

The population of the western lands after the appearance of False Dmitry did not submit to the authority of Moscow;

The treasury was empty;

A few years earlier a famine had been experienced;

Against the backdrop of general devastation and the strengthening of serfdom, peasant uprisings broke out more and more often.

At the same time, the armies of the southern lands, which came to Moscow along with False Dmitry, did not want to swear allegiance to the new tsar. They went to Ryazan. The impostor's father-in-law, Yuri Mnishek, began spreading rumors that as a result of the coup, it was not the real Tsarevich Dmitry who died, but his double. Thus, it turned out that the true ruler was alive. This time his role went to Mikhail Molchanov, whom historians call False Dmitry II.

Bolotnikov's uprising

The Poles made another attempt to capture Moscow, this time under the leadership of False Dmitry II. Ivan Bolotnikov, ataman of the Volga Cossacks, joined him. The general army of Poles and disgruntled Cossacks moved towards Moscow. Already in the fall of 1606, the army approached the city. However, weakened by numerous losses and divided in half, Bolotnikov’s army could not withstand the siege of Moscow, after which a retreat followed to Kaluga.

Shuisky's army failed to take Kaluga. However, the assault on the city caused irreparable physical, material and moral damage to the enemy. Bolotnikov's rebels had to retreat to Tula to join reinforcements from False Dmitry II. During this period, another impostor appears - the son of Tsarevich Dmitry, Peter. His role was played by an ordinary slave Ileika Muromets.

After the defeat near Kaluga, Shuisky convened a new army and advanced to Tula. A rebel army was sent to meet them, but it was defeated. The siege of Tula lasted for several months. The fortress was reliably guarded by the rebels, so a decision was made to dam the Upa River and flood the city. The rebels, weakened by hunger and disease, had to surrender. On October 10, 1607, the fortress fell. The instigators of the uprising were captured and executed. Bolotnikov's uprising was suppressed.

Dual power period

At the same time, False Dmitry II gathered a new army and went to Moscow. Dissatisfied peasants joined the impostor's army; the invaders were not given proper resistance. Thus, by August 07, False Dmitry II conquered many cities central Russia and set up camp in the village of Tushino, not far from Moscow.

Dissatisfaction with Shuisky's rule grew. The impostor's army did not allow food convoys into the city. Famine began in the capital. Several attempts were made to overthrow the king, but Shuisokm managed to avoid death.

Diplomatic negotiations on the withdrawal of the impostor's army from the walls of Moscow did not lead to a clear result. Therefore, in 1609, Shuisky had to turn to the Swedish king Charles IX for help to provide additional troops that would be supported by the Russian tsar. In return, Sweden demanded control over the territories of Pskov and Novgorod.

The united Russian-Swedish army, under the command of Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky, who was the Tsar’s nephew, knocked out the Polish invaders from Kalyazin on August 28, 1609, liberating Moscow. The people fully supported and praised Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky. Therefore, when he died as a result of poisoning at a feast, according to rumors, the king was blamed for this too.

The Polish king Sigismund the Third saw secret intent in the treaty with Sweden, with which Poland was at war at that time. On Russian territory a huge Polish army. The siege of Smolensk lasted about a year, as a result of which national liberation movements began to arise among the population.

Lead Russian army was entrusted to the tsar's brother, Dmitry Shuisky. However, cowardice and lack of military skills played against the young commander. Not far from the village of Klushino, located between Vyazma and Mozhaisk, Shuisky’s army was completely defeated. The defeat at Klushino and the general unstable situation in the state led to the overthrow of the tsar.

Results of the board

On July 17, 1610, as a result of a coup, Vasily Shuisky was overthrown and tonsured a monk. At the same time, pronounce the words of vows yourself former ruler refused. Already in September 1610, Shuisky and his brothers were handed over to the Polish ruler, to whom he was forced to swear allegiance.

The former ruler died in 1612 in Gostyn Castle. His brother Dmitry survived him by only a few days. The third brother, Ivan, was subsequently given the opportunity to return to Russia.

The results of the reign of Vasily IV Ioannovich were destroyed cities and fortresses, complete economic and political ruin, loss significant territories. After the overthrow of the tsar, the Boyar Duma began to rule the country until the election of a new ruler. Zemsky Sobor. Mikhail Romanov was elected as the new tsar, who saved the state from the interventionists.

Biography before accession

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Marriages and children

In art

Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky(upon accession to the throne) (1552 - September 12, 1612) - Russian Tsar from 1606 to 1610. Son of Prince Ivan Andreevich Shuisky.

Biography before accession

Boyar and head of the Moscow Court Chamber since 1584. Rynda with a large saadak in the campaigns of 1574, 1576, 1577 and 1579. Voivode of the Great Regiment on a campaign to Serpukhov in the summer of 1581. Voivode of the Great Regiment on the campaign to Novgorod in July 1582 under his brother Andrei. Voivode of the regiment right hand on a campaign to Serpukhov in April 1583. Voivode of Smolensk in 1585-87. For unknown reasons, he was briefly exiled in 1586.

During the persecution of the Shuiskys by Godunov, he was in exile in Galich from 1587. In 1591, Godunov, no longer seeing danger in the Shuiskys, returned them to Moscow. Since then, the Shuiskys have generally behaved loyally.

In 1591 he led the investigation into the case of Tsarevich Dmitry. Being under the strict supervision of Godunov, Shuisky recognized the cause of the prince’s death as suicide, an accident. From the same year he was reintroduced to the Boyar Duma. After that he was the governor of Novgorod. The first governor of the regiment of the right hand in the army of Mstislavsky in the Crimean campaign to Serpukhov 1598

In January 1605 he was appointed commander of the right-hand regiment in the campaign against False Dmitry and won a victory in the battle of Dobrynichi. However, not really wanting Godunov to win, he allowed the impostor to gain strength through inaction.

After the fall of Godunov, he tried to carry out a coup, but was arrested and exiled along with his brothers. But False Dmitry needed boyar support, and at the end of 1605 the Shuiskys returned to Moscow.

During the popular uprising on May 17, 1606, False Dmitry I was killed, and on May 19, a group of Vasily Ivanovich’s adherents “called” Shuisky king. Was crowned on June 1 Metropolitan of Novgorod Isidore.

Vasily Ivanovich gave a sign of the cross, which limited his power. In early June, the Shuisky government declared Boris Godunov the murderer of Tsarevich Dmitry.

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Shuisky's coming to power intensified the struggle among the boyars and between the southern and capital nobility, which led to an uprising under the leadership of I. Bolotnikov. In the fight against him, Shuisky put forward a program for the consolidation of all layers of the feudal class, taking into account their interests in politics on peasant (Code of March 9, 1607), serf (decrees 1607-1608), land and financial issues.

Individual concessions in the legislation on slaves were aimed at splitting the rebel camp. The unification of the feudal class by the spring of 1607 and the support of the largest cities of the Volga region and the north allowed Shuisky to defeat the uprising in October 1607. But already in August 1607 it began new stage Polish intervention in Russia (False Dmitry II). After the defeat at Volkhov (May 1, 1608), Shuisky's government was besieged in Moscow. By the end of 1608, many regions of the country came under the rule of False Dmitry II. In February 1609, the Shuisky government concluded an agreement with Sweden, according to which, for hiring Swedish troops ceded part of Russian territory.

By the end of 1608, Shuisky did not control many regions of the country. The Vyborg Treaty of early 1609 promised territorial concessions to the Swedish crown in exchange for armed assistance to the tsarist government (see Delagardie's campaign). Prince M.V. Skopin-Shuisky took over command of the Russian-Swedish army. Many saw the young and energetic commander as the successor to the elderly and childless sovereign.

The defeat of Dmitry Shuisky's troops near Klushino from the army of Sigismund III on June 24, 1610 and the uprising in Moscow led to the fall of Shuisky. On July 17 (27), 1610, part of the boyars, the capital and provincial nobility, Vasily IV Ioannovich was overthrown from the throne and forcibly tonsured a monk, and he himself refused to pronounce monastic vows. In September 1610 he was handed over (not as a monk, but in lay clothes) to the Polish hetman Zolkiewski, who took him and his brothers Dmitry and Ivan in October to Smolensk, and later to Poland. In Warsaw, the Tsar and his brothers were presented as prisoners to King Sigismund.

Former king died in custody in Gostyninsky Castle, 130 versts from Warsaw, a few days later his brother Dmitry died there. The third brother, Ivan Ivanovich Shuisky, subsequently returned to Russia.

Marriages and children

• Princess Elena Mikhailovna Repnina (+1592); She is usually considered the daughter of the boyar Prince Mikhail Petrovich Repnin, but according to genealogical records he only had a son, Alexander.
• (from 1608) Princess Maria Petrovna Buinosova-Rostov (+1626), daughter of Prince Peter Ivanovich Buinosov-Rostov
• Princess Anna Vasilievna (1609 - died in infancy)
• Tsarevna Anastasia Vasilievna (1610 - died in infancy)

In art

Vasily Shuisky is one of the main characters in Alexander Pushkin’s tragedy “Boris Godunov”. In the film of the same name based on it (directed by Sergei Fedorovich Bondarchuk), the role of Shuisky was played by Anatoly Romashin.

The Troubles in Russia were gaining strength. A new king was imposed on the country - Vasily Shuisky, who passionately dreamed of the throne ever since the end of the Rurik dynasty. His unattractive appearance is visible especially in the story of Tsarevich Dmitry: in 1591, he certified that the prince stabbed himself to death; during the capture of Moscow by an impostor, he stated that Dmitry escaped; now he claimed that the boy was killed at the instigation of Godunov.

Three days after the murder of the impostor, the Moscow people gathered on Red Square to decide the fate of governing the country. Some advocated for the transfer of power to the Patriarch, others - to the Boyar Duma, but Shuisky’s people also actively worked in the crowd. It was they who shouted his name as the future king. And immediately Shuisky’s supporters took up this cry. Thus the fate of the royal crown was decided.

In 1606, Vasily Shuisky, like Godunov, became an elected Russian Tsar. Shuisky identified the Kazan Metropolitan Hermogenes, a passionate zealot of Orthodoxy, a hater of the impostor and Catholics, as the Patriarch of Rus'.

The Moscow boyars dreamed of a transition to an election system supreme power aristocracy. This was confirmed by Vasily Shuisky’s kissing cross entry: I kiss the cross on the fact that I should not do anything bad to anyone without permission.

Thus, a powerful and contradictory movement of all layers of society determined Russia’s attempt to transition from autocracy and despotism to boyar collective rule.

Civil war

The rise to power of the boyar tsar further intensified the Troubles. False Dmitry's comrades did not want to give up what they had conquered. There was a rumor that the king had escaped and was taking refuge in a safe place.

The center of anti-boyar sentiments was the city of Putivl, where the governor was a friend of False Dmitry, Prince Shakhovskoy. Ryazan, Yelets and other cities came out in support of Putivl. And in Poland the nobleman Molchanov, one of the murderers of Fyodor Godunov and close friend an impostor who began to pose as the escaped “Tsar Dmitry.”

In the summer of 1606, a powerful uprising swept all of Southern and Southwestern Russia. Essentially it started civil war, in which the lower and middle layers of society (posad people and the nobility) opposed the upper classes. Putivl opposed Moscow.

Many counties in Russia have their own government bodies. State system control began to fall apart. The Mari, Mordovians, Chuvash, and Tatars joined the rebel Russians, who did not accept pressure from the Orthodox clergy, the seizure of their ancestral lands by Russian patrimonial landowners, landowners and monasteries.

The rebels' march on Moscow. Ivan Bolotnikov.

By the autumn of 1606, a rebel army had formed near the city of Yelets. It was led by the nobles Istoma Pashkov, Prokopiy Lyapunov and Grigory Sunbulov.

Another army was formed in Putivl. This army was led by the experienced warrior Ivan Bolotnikov. Once he was a military servant of Prince Telyatevsky, then he fled south to the Cossacks, fought with Crimean Tatars, was captured, from where he was sold to Turkey. For some time, Bolotnikov was a forced rower on galleys. During a naval battle he was freed by the Italians, and he ended up in Europe. He lived in Venice and headed home through Germany and Poland. In Poland, he learned about events in Russia and sided with the “true Tsar Dmitry,” although by that time the impostor was already dead. Molchanov, posing as the tsar who had escaped, gave him a letter to Putivl, and Prince Shakhovskoy appointed Bolotnikov commander of the rebel detachment. Bolotnikov called himself the governor of Tsar Dmitry Ivanovich.

Bolotnikov's army moved towards Moscow, winning a number of brilliant victories over the tsarist troops along the way.

In October 1606, Bolotnikov united with noble detachments from near Yelets. The united army settled in the village of Kolomenskoye. There was no agreement between the people's leader Ivan Bolotnikov and the leaders of the noble detachments. The boyars and princes sought to regain the estates and privileges received from the impostor. The nobles craved new estates and increased salaries. Peasants and serfs dreamed of freedom. The townspeople expected relief from duties and taxes.

During the journey to Moscow, the Cossack-peasant-servant army destroyed the boyars and nobles loyal to Shuisky, seized their property, and freed people from serfdom and servile bondage. The noble leaders, as a rule, pardoned the captured royal governors and warily watched the reprisals that Bolotnikov’s people inflicted on the feudal lords. Pashkov and Lyapunov did not want to obey the “servant” Bolotnikov and kept their units apart.

The common people of the capital were ready to support Bolotnikov, and the rich townspeople, fearing reprisals, demanded to show them the “tsar”. He was not in the rebel camp, which weakened their position.

The outcome of the case was decided by the betrayal of the nobles, who entered into secret negotiations with Shuisky. During the Battle of Moscow, Ryazan nobles led by Lyapunov and Pashkov’s troops went over to Shuisky’s side. The tsarist troops pushed back the rebels. Bolotnikov was under siege for three days, then retreated to Kaluga. Part of his army fled to Tula.

Defeat of the popular uprising

New forces approached the rebels from all sides. In Tula, with a detachment of several thousand Cossacks, serfs and peasants, another impostor appeared, calling himself the son of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich Peter.

False Peter joined forces with Bolotnikov, and together they won a number of victories near Tula and Kaluga. In May 1607, the rebel army inflicted another defeat on Shuisky's army near Tula. The rebels were commanded by Prince Telyatevsky, an associate of False Dmitry and former owner Bolotnikova. The prince did not want to join forces with his former servant. The winners returned separately to Tula. There the rebels were surrounded by Shuisky’s huge army. The king himself led the siege. He issued a number of decrees. He granted freedom to the slaves who left the rebel camp, and also forbade turning free people into slaves without their consent. The period for searching for fugitive peasants was extended from 5 to 15 years, which was to the benefit of the nobles.

The rebels defended the stone Kremlin of Tula for four months. The royal governors blocked the Upa River with a dam, its waters flooded the city's food supplies and gunpowder. Famine began in Tula. The rebels began to grumble, their leaders went to negotiate with Shuisky. For the surrender of the city, the tsar promised life to the leaders and freedom to the ordinary soldiers. The city gates opened. Bolotnikov, as befitted a governor, laid his saber at the king’s feet.

Bolotnikov and False Peter were captured. The impostor was hanged, and Bolotnikov was exiled to the north. Six months later he was blinded and then drowned in an ice hole. Thus, Shuisky broke his promise.

The rebels' struggle with the government continued. And yet, after the defeat of Bolotnikov, it became obvious that at this stage in the history of Russia, the nobility, together with the nobility, won. The boyar government remained in power, which during the Time of Troubles freed itself from autocratic despotism, but at the same time suppressed the uprising of the lower classes.

This victory came at a high price for Russia. The country was falling apart, and neighbors began to interfere in its affairs. The nobility, which supported Shuisky in the fight against Bolotnikov, dreamed of crushing the power of the princely-boyar aristocracy.