Tsar Vasily Shuisky, whose reign was on the most difficult pages of Russian history, came from the famous boyar family, descended from the Rurikovich. This dynasty was suppressed with the death of Fyodor Ivanovich. Shuisky became an elected king during the war with the Poles, which caused his rapid decline.
Boyar origin
The father of Vasily, born in 1552, was Prince Ivan Andreevich Shuisky. He died during the Livonian War (in the battle against the Swedes) near Lode Castle. Vasily also participated in numerous military campaigns of Grozny in the Baltic states, thereby gaining mercy. He was a royal witness at the wedding of Ivan IV with one of his last wives.
In the last years of the life of Grozny, Shuisky became one of the most influential boyars of the country. He entered the Duma and maintained his high position under the son of Ivan Fedor. In those same years, he mastered the art of political intrigue, since in Moscow the struggle of several boyar clans began for influence on the new sovereign.
The Case of False Dmitry
In 1591, Vasily Shuisky, whose reign was still ahead, investigated the mysterious death of Dmitry Ioannovich. The little prince lived in Uglich and was to become the heir to the childless older brother Fedor. However, he died under strange circumstances. Boris Godunov appointed Shuisky the head of a special commission. Vasily came to the conclusion that Dmitry died due to an accident. Researchers are still arguing about whether Boris Godunov was to blame for what happened. In this case, he could force Shuisky to falsify the case.
When Boris himself became king, rumors appeared on the western borders of Russia about the rescue of Tsarevich Dmitry. This legend was invented by the fugitive monk Grigory Otrepiev. The impostor was supported by the Polish king, who gave him money for his own army. False Dmitry invaded the country, and Shuisky was sent as governor of one of the regiments to meet him.
Together with Fyodor Mstislavsky, he led the 20-thousandth army at the Battle of Dobrynichy on January 21, 1605. In this battle, False Dmitry was defeated and fled back to Poland. However, Shuisky did not pursue him. Perhaps he did it on purpose, not wanting Godunov (his rival) to get away from trouble so easily. Very soon, in the same year, Boris suddenly died.
Power passed to his young son Fedor. Shuisky led a secret conspiracy against the young tsar, but this became known, and Vasily was expelled from Moscow along with his brothers. In the meantime, False Dmitry regained consciousness after the defeat at Dobrynichy and came to Moscow with a new army. The people were unhappy with the Godunovs, and Fedor was betrayed and killed. The reign of the impostor began.
At the head of the rebellion against False Dmitry
False Dmitry needed loyal boyars. Since the supporters of Godunov were in disgrace, the new tsar at the end of 1605 brought back their rivals, including Shuiskys, from exile. Vasily did not waste time in vain. He stood at the head of a popular rebellion against an impostor.
When he appeared in Moscow, False Dmitry was incredibly popular among ordinary residents of the capital. However, he made many fatal mistakes. The main thing was that he surrounded himself with faithful Poles and even wanted to convert to Catholicism. In addition, his enemies continued to spread rumors in Moscow that the real Tsarevich Dmitry had died many years ago in Uglich.
The uprising took place on May 17, 1606. False Dmitry was killed. He tried to escape from the palace, jumped out the window, broke his leg, and in such a helpless state was hacked.
There was a question about a successor. Since the Rurik family was stopped, and the last Godunov was killed, the boyars began to choose a new sovereign from other influential families. Shuisky was popular, he had many supporters. In addition, his distant ancestor was Vladimir Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich of the Rurikovich clan. Finally, on May 19, Vasily Shuisky was chosen as the king. The reign of the sovereign began on June 1, when his coronation took place.
The uprising of Bolotnikov
However, the triumph of the former boyar was short-lived. During the reign of Vasily Shuisky there were wars with numerous internal and external enemies. When False Dmitry appeared in the western regions of the Russian Empire, the local population ceased to submit to central authority. A few years before, the country experienced a terrible famine. Against this background, peasant riots broke out. The most famous of them is the uprising of Ivan Bolotnikov.
Another important reason for such a speech was the formation and consolidation of serfdom in Russia at the end of the XVI century. Back in the days of Boris Godunov, disgruntled peasants took up arms under the command of the chieftain Cotton. In addition, in 1606, peasants from the provinces were affected by the news of events in Moscow. Many did not believe that Tsar Dmitry was killed. Dissatisfied believed that this time the legitimate ruler was saved. Thus, the rebels wanted to overthrow the elected boyar king.
The center of the rebels was in the border Putivl. Vasily Shuisky, whose reign was just beginning, at first did not pay attention to the discontent of the peasants. And when they moved straight to Moscow, under their banners were already about 30 thousand people. The rebels defeated the royal squads. In the fall of 1606, peasants, led by Bolotnikov, besieged Kolomna. It was not possible to take it, and together this army went to Moscow.
Victory over the peasants
The siege of the capital lasted two months. This was a critical moment of the uprising. Part of the army of Bolotnikov consisted of units assembled by the boyars. They went over to the side of the king, thereby weakening the besiegers. Bolotnikov retreated to Kaluga, where he was blocked for several months.
In the spring of 1607, he retreated to Tula. In June, tsarist troops besieged the city. Vasily Shuisky himself led the army. The last stronghold of the rebels was the Tula Kremlin, which was captured on October 10. Bolotnikov was exiled to the North, where he was blinded and drowned in an ice hole.
The emergence of a new impostor
Even during the Tula siege, the king was informed that a new impostor had appeared in Starodub. In historiography, he is known as False Dmitry II. The reign of Vasily Shuisky did not know a single peaceful day.
The impostor managed to capture many cities in central Russia. Due to the fact that the tsarist troops lost control of most of the country, the Crimean Tatars invaded Oka for the first time in many years.
Foreign intervention
Other Shuisky enemies did not sit idly by. The main enemy was the Polish king Sigismund. He besieged Smolensk. For more than a year, Lithuanian troops stood under the walls of the famous Trinity-Sergius Lavra. The intervention of foreigners led to the emergence of a national liberation movement. In the province, spontaneous units were formed. They acted in isolation from the royal troops.
The reign of Tsar Vasily Shuisky was troubled. He tried to get support abroad. The sovereign sent an embassy to the Swedish king Karl, who agreed to give him an army and mercenaries in exchange for small territorial concessions. An agreement with him was signed in Vyborg.
The combined Russian-Swedish army led by Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky and Jacob Delagardi drove the Poles out of several northern cities. However, this alliance was short-lived. The reign of Vasily Shuisky was unfortunate. The Swedes, under the pretext that the Russians do not fulfill the terms of the contract, occupied Novgorod.
Meanwhile, the popularity of Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky was growing in the army. He spoke to Moscow to liberate the central Russian cities from the Poles and Lithuanians. There were several battles that the interventionists lost (near Torzhok and Toropets).
Victories of Skopin-Shuisky
Poles and Lithuanians supported False Dmitry II, with whom they united. The reign of Vasily Shuisky, in short, continued only in the capital. The combined forces of the interventionists and the impostor were defeated at Kalyazin on August 28, 1609. The Russian army in the battle was led by Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky, the tsar’s nephew. He managed to unlock the besieged Moscow.
The hero-liberator was received in the capital with all honors. Mikhail was invited to a feast where he felt ill after taking a sip from the goblet. Two weeks later, the national hero died. Rumors spread among the people that Vasily Shuisky was behind the poisoning. These conversations did not add to the king of popularity.
Meanwhile, the Polish king Sigismund himself invaded Russia. He defeated the king’s brother near Klushin, after which an uprising began in Moscow. The boyars overthrew Vasily and forced him to go to the monastery. The new rulers of the capital swore allegiance to the son of the Polish king Vladislav. The reign of Vasily Shuisky ended with an inglorious coup.
Death and the outcome of the reign
When the invaders entered Moscow, Shuisky was extradited to the invaders. The former king was transported to Poland, where he was imprisoned in the castle of Gostynin. This happened on September 12, 1612, when Russia was in the midst of a war of liberation against the interventionists. Soon the whole country was cleared of foreign invaders, and Mikhail Romanov became king.
The results of the reign of Vasily Shuisky are disappointing. Under him, the country finally plunged into chaos and was divided between the interventionists.