Stanislaw Zolkiewski, defeated Dmitrii Shuisky when the latter tried to relieve Smolensk, and marched on Moscow. In the area occupied by Polish troops, the population swore allegiance to Wladyslaw. At this turn of events, the Felon of Tushino too advanced again on Moscow, establishing himself once more near the capital. In July 1610 Basil Shuisky finally lost his throne: he was deposed by an assembly of Muscovite clergy, boyars, gentry, and common people, and forced to become a monk. The boyar duma in the persons of seven boyars, with Prince Theodore Mstislavsky as the senior member, took over the government, or what there was left of it. The interregnum was to last from 1610 to 1613.
The national phase of the Time of Troubles began after Sweden, and especially Poland, became involved in Russian affairs. Wladyslaw's candidacy to the Muscovite throne, supported by various groups in Russia, tended to deepen and complicate the national issue. The eventual great rally of the Russians found its main inspiration in their determination to save the country from the foreign and heretical Poles. The increasing prominence of the national and religious struggle also explains the important role of the Church during the last years of the Time of Troubles. Yet, needless to say, dynastic and social issues retained their significance during those years. In fact any neat classification of the elements which, together, produced the fantastically complicated Time of Troubles is of necessity arbitrary and artificial.
The condition of the country prevented the calling of a zemskii sobor. Yet some decision had to be taken, and urgently. At the gathering of Muscovite boyars, clergy, and ranking service gentry opinions differed. Those proposed for the throne included Prince Basil Golitsyn, and a boy, Michael Romanov, Metropolitan Philaret's son; however, the candidacy of the Polish prince Wladyslaw, which found backing especially among the boyars, prevailed. Probably Wladyslaw profited from a general lack of enthusiasm for another boyar tsar. But, more importantly, he was one of the only two strong and active candidates in the field, the other being the Felon of Tushino who was supported by the lower classes in Russia and probably in Moscow itself. In late August 1610, the Muscovites reached an agreement with the Polish commander Zolkiewski concerning the invitation to Wladyslaw to rule Russia; Russian conditions, which stressed that Wladyslaw was to become Orthodox, resembled in most respects those offered to the Polish prince earlier by the Tushino group, although they acquired a boyar, rather than gentry, coloring. Ten days later Moscow swore allegiance to Wladyslaw. An impressive embassy headed by Prince Basil Golitsyn, Metropolitan Philaret, and other dignitaries departed for Sigismund Ill's headquarters near Smolensk to confirm the new arrangement with the Polish king. The Felon of Tushino fled again to Kaluga, while Zolkiewski's troops entered Moscow.
At this point, when the Muscovite state appeared finally to be settling its affairs and obtaining a firm government, another reversal occurred: unexpectedly Sigismund III rejected the Russian offer. He objected especially to the conversion of Wladyslaw to Orthodoxy and to the lifting of the siege of Smolensk. But - beyond these and other specified issues - his real intention was to become the Russian ruler himself and without conditions. No agreement could be reached. Finally, contrary to international usage,
Sigismund III arrested the Russian representatives, except those few who endorsed his claims, and sent them to Poland where they were to remain for nine years. Then he proceeded openly to develop his campaign to win the Russian throne by arms, diplomacy, and propaganda.
The autumn of 1610 saw the Muscovite state in utterly desperate straits. The Poles were again enemies of the Russians, and they held Moscow as well as a large area in the western part of the country. The Swedes had declared war on the Russians after Moscow had sworn allegiance to Wladyslaw. They advanced in the north, threatened Novgorod, and before long claimed the Muscovite throne for their own candidate, Prince Philip. With the collapse of Wladyslaw's candidacy, the Felon of Tushino again increased his following, much of eastern Russia turning to him for leadership. In numerable bands of lawless men were roaming and devastating the land. Yet - as if to illustrate the Russian proverb 'there is no evil, but that it brings some good' - at least the issues gradually became clearer. Sigismund Ill's rejection of the arrangement to put Wladyslaw on the Russian throne eliminated one major alternative for the Russians. More important still, Swedish and especially Polish aggression led to a national rally. Moreover, the cause of Russian unity received an unexpected and mighty boost in December 1610 when the Felon of Tushino was killed by one of his men in a settlement of personal accounts.
In the absence of a tsar and because of the impotence of the boyar duma and other branches of government in Polish-occupied Moscow, the Church headed the rally. Patriarch Hermogen in Moscow declared the Russians released from allegiance to Wladyslaw; and through trusted emissaries he sent manifestoes to other towns, urging them to organize an army and liberate the capital. The patriarch's appeals had a strongly religious as well as national character, for the Poles were Catholic, and Hermogen feared especially the extension of the Uniate jurisdiction to Muscovite territories - a subject to be discussed later when we deal with the Ukraine. Other clerics and laymen joined the patriarch in trying to arouse the people. The first response came from Riazan, where Procopius Liapunov formed an army of gentry, peasants, certain remnants of Skopin-Shuisky's troops and other elements. As Liapunov's army marched on Moscow in early 1611, it was joined by other forces, including even former troops of the Felon of Tushino who came from Kaluga, notably a mixed group commanded by Prince Dmitrii Trubetskoy, and the cossacks led by Ivan Zarutsky. It should be noted that this so-called first national army, headed by Procopius Liapunov, Trubetskoy, and Zarutsky, acted also as the government of the Muscovite state. In particular, it contained a council of representatives who concerned themselves with state legislation and policy as well as with the more immediate demands of the campaign.
The Poles, who had but a small garrison in Moscow, retreated under pressure, burned most of the city, and entrenched themselves principally in the Kremlin. The large Russian army appeared to be in control of the situation. But once more social antagonisms asserted themselves. The cos-sacks, furious because certain legislative measures in the interest of the gentry were passed, especially on the subject of land, fugitive serfs, and cossack brigandage, and also possibly believing a false document manufactured by the Poles, killed Procopius Liapunov in July 1611. Deprived of its leader and unwilling to co-operate with the cossacks, the gentry army disbanded. The men of Trubetskoy and Zarutsky, on the other hand, stayed around Moscow to continue the siege and seized the government machinery of the defunct first national army. In June 1611 the main Polish army finally captured Smolensk, the population of the town having been reduced from 80,000 to 8,000 in the course of the siege. In July the Swedes took Novgorod by a stratagem. And in Pskov, a new pretender appeared, sometimes called the third False Dmitrii. In Kaluga Marina Mniszech and her son by the Felon of Tushino, known as the Little Felon, constituted another center of attraction for dissatisfied elements.
Yet the Russians did not collapse under all these blows; instead they staged another rally. They profited from a certain lack of energy and initiative on the part of their enemies: instead of advancing with a large army, Sigismund III sent merely a cavalry detachment to the relief of the Poles in Moscow, and that detachment was blocked by the cossacks; the Swedes, after the capture of Novgorod, appeared to rest on their laurels. Still, the magnitude of the Russian recovery should not be underestimated. Stimulated again by the appeals of Patriarch Hermogen, of Abbot Dionysus of the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery, and of others, the new liberation movement began in the town of Nizhnii Novgorod, on the Volga. It found a remarkable leader in Kuzma Minin, a butcher by trade, who combined exalted patriotism and the ability to inspire others with level-headedness and organizational and other practical talents. The people of Nizhnii Novgorod donated a third of their possessions to the cause and, together with other northeastern towns, soon organized a large army that was entrusted to a veteran warrior, Prince Dmitrii Pozharsky. Minin became its quartermaster and treasurer. The entire movement marked a religious, as well as a national, revival, accompanied by fasting and prayer. The second national army, just like its predecessor, acted as the government of the Muscovite state as well as its military force. It too apparently contained an assembly of representatives from different localities, something in the nature of a traveling zemskii sobor.
In early September 1612, the second national army reached Moscow and besieged the Poles. The cossacks blockading the city remained passive;
eventually one part of them joined Minin and Pozharsky, while another, with Zarutsky, went to the borderlands to continue their rebellion. In early November the Russians stormed Moscow and, after bitter fighting, captured Polish positions in the heart of the city, in particular in the Kremlin. Moscow was free at last of the enemy.
