In the center of the capital, on the main square of our country, a monument is well-known to all, created in 1818 by the sculptor I.P. Martos. It depicts the most worthy sons of Russia - Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, who in the difficult hour of their homeland managed to organize and lead thousands of people's militias to fight the invaders. The events of those ancient years have become one of the glorious pages of our history.
Young and enterprising Nizhny Novgorod
When Kuzma Minin was born, it is not known for sure. It is believed that this happened around 1570 in the Volga city of Balakhna. The history and names of his parents - Mikhail and Domniki - have been preserved. It is also known that they were wealthy people, and when their son was eleven years old, they moved to Nizhny Novgorod - one of the largest Volga cities. In those days, it was customary that sons from an early age, as far as possible, help their fathers obtain bread. So Kuzma acquired a habit of work in his youth.
When he matured, he opened his own business. Not far from the walls of the Kremlin, a cattle slaughterhouse and a meat shop belonged to Minin. Things went perfectly, which made it possible to build their own house in the settlement of the Blagoveshchensk Sloboda, where wealthy people settled at that time. Soon, a good bride was found - Tatyana Semyonovna, who, having become a wife, gave birth to two sons - Nefed and Leonty.
The call of the Zemsky warden
Among other things, Posad people Kuzma stood out with his mind, energy and obvious inclinations of a leader. Thanks to these qualities, the inhabitants of the settlement, in which he enjoyed authority, chose Kuzma as their headman. But the truly inherent abilities in it were revealed in 1611, when the letter of Patriarch Germogen was delivered to Nizhny Novgorod, urging all classes of the Russian people to rise to fight against the Polish invaders.
To discuss this message on the same day, a city council gathered, consisting of representatives of the city tops and clergy. Kuzma Minin was also present at it. Immediately after the letter was read to the residents of Nizhny Novgorod, he turned to them with a fiery speech, urging them to stand up for faith and the Fatherland and for this holy cause not to regret either life or property.
Tough demands of war
Residents of the city readily responded to his call, but for such a large-scale business, they needed an energetic and business executive who could afford to provide troops and an experienced combat commander who could take command. They were Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, who repeatedly proved himself to be an excellent governor. Now, on all issues related to human resources and necessary funds, they turned directly to Minin.
Using the powers given to him and relying on the support of Pozharsky’s troops, he decided that each resident of the city is obliged to contribute to the general fund an amount equal to one third of all his property. In exceptional cases, this amount was reduced to a fifth of the assessment of all that the citizen owned. Unwilling to contribute the required share, they lost all civil rights and became slaves, and all their goods were completely subject to confiscation in favor of the militia. These are the harsh laws of wartime, and Kuzma Minin was not entitled to show weakness.
Formation of the militia and the beginning of hostilities
Letters such as the one received in Nizhny Novgorod were also sent to many other cities in Russia. Very soon, numerous detachments from other areas joined Nizhny Novgorod, where residents responded with equal enthusiasm to the call of the Patriarch. As a result, at the end of March 1612, a militia of many thousands was assembled, led by Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky.
The base for the final formation of the troops was the populous trading city of Yaroslavl. Hence, in July 1612, militiamen, in the amount of more than thirty thousand people, marched on to intercept the forces of Hetman Jan Khodkevich, who was hurrying to help the Polish garrison blocked in Moscow. The decisive battle followed on August 24 under the walls of the capital. The numerical superiority was on the side of the interventionists, but the fighting spirit of the militias deprived them of this advantage. Prince Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin led the battle and instilled courage in fighters with their personal examples.
Siege of the Kremlin
The victory was complete. Enemies fled, leaving rich trophies in the hands of the militia: tents, banners, timpani and four hundred carts with food. In addition, many prisoners were captured. The hetman was driven back from Moscow, but behind the Kremlin walls there remained detachments of the Polish colonels Strus and Budila, which were still to be knocked out of there. In addition, certain accomplices were represented by their accomplices - the boyars, who crossed over to the side of the invaders. Each of them had their own squads, which also had to fight.
The Poles besieged in the Kremlin had long run out of food, and they suffered a terrible hunger. Knowing this, Kuzma Minin and Pozharsky, in order to avoid unnecessary casualties, offered them to surrender, guaranteeing life, but were refused. On October 22 (November 1), the militia attacked and captured Kitai Gorod, but the resistance of the besieged continued. From hunger in their ranks cannibalism began.
The capitulation of the Poles and the entry of militias into the Kremlin
Prince Pozharsky softened his demands and invited the invaders to leave the Kremlin with weapons and banners, leaving only the looted values, but the Poles did not agree to this either. Only traitors came out - boyars with their families, whom Kuzma Minin, standing on the Stone Bridge at the gate, was forced to protect from the Cossacks, who were burning with a desire to immediately get rid of the traitors.
Realizing their doom, on October 26 (November 5), the besieged surrendered and left the Kremlin. Their further fate has developed in different ways. The regiment commanded by Budila was lucky: he was at the disposal of Pozharsky's militia, and he kept his word and kept his life, later sending him to Nizhny Novgorod. But the regiment of Strus came to the governor Trubetskoy and was completely destroyed by his Cossacks.
The great day in the history of Russia was October 27 (November 6), 1612. After the prayer service performed by the archimandrite of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery Dionysius, the militia of Kuzma Minin and Pozharsky solemnly entered the Kremlin to the sound of bells. Unfortunately, Patriarch Germogen did not live to see this day , who raised the Russian people to fight the invaders with his appeal. For refusing to obey their will, the Poles starved him to death in the basement of the Chudov Monastery.
Royal mercy
In July 1613, a significant event took place that laid the foundation for the three hundred year rule of the Romanov dynasty: their first representative ascended the Russian throne - Emperor Mikhail Fedorovich. This happened on July 12, and the very next day the founder of the monarchical dynasty - in gratitude for his patriotic deeds - granted Kuzma Minin the rank of the Duma nobleman. It was a worthy reward, since in those days this rank was the third in honor, second only to the boyars and devious ones. Now the creator of the militia had the right to sit in the Boyar Duma, head orders or be governor.
Since then, Minin enjoyed the unlimited trust of the sovereign. When in 1615 Mikhail Fedorovich and his closest associates went on a pilgrimage to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, he was entrusted with the protection of the capital because he knew that by freeing Moscow from its former enemies, this man would be able to save her from future ones as well. And in the future, the emperor often trusted Minin with responsible assignments.
Death and the riddle associated with the remains of the hero
Kuzma Mikhailovich Minin died on May 21, 1616 and was buried at the churchyard of the Pohvalinsky church. In 1672, the first Nizhny Novgorod Metropolitan Filaret ordered to transfer his ashes to the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Kremlin in Nizhny Novgorod. In the thirties of the XIX century, the temple, which had been pretty dilapidated by that time, was demolished, and in 1838 a new one was built on the side of it.
The remains of Minin and several other princes were transferred to his dungeon. A hundred years later, pursuing a policy of militant atheism, the Bolsheviks razed the temple to the ground, and the remains of the Nizhny Novgorod militia fell into the local museum, and then were transferred to the Mikhailo-Arkhangelsk Cathedral of Nizhny Novgorod. It is customary to officially consider it the burial place of Kuzma Minin.
However, researchers have some doubts about this. There is an assumption that the remains of a completely different person are stored in the Mikhailo-Arkhangelsk Cathedral, and the remains of the celebrated hero still remain in the ground at the place where the destroyed temple was. Now the building of the Nizhny Novgorod Administration and the City Duma has been built there, so it is already impossible to carry out excavations and confirm or refute this hypothesis.
Gratitude of posterity
After the death of Minin, his son Nefed remained, who served in Moscow as a solicitor - a small official in one of the sovereign orders. Remembering the merits of his father, Mikhail Fedorovich, with a special diploma, secured him the right of patrimonial ownership of the village of Bogorodsky in the Nizhny Novgorod district. He also owned a plot on the territory of the Kremlin in Nizhny Novgorod.
Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky defended Russia, and grateful descendants in 1818 erected a monument in Moscow to these true patriots of their homeland. Its author was an outstanding sculptor I.P. Martos, and it was created on the voluntary donations of citizens. It was originally planned to erect a monument in Nizhny Novgorod - the cradle of the people's militia, but later decided to move it to the capital, since the feat of these people in their scale goes far beyond the boundaries of one city.