§ 73. Second militia against the Poles and the liberation of Moscow
By the autumn of 1611, the situation of the Moscow state became desperate. The Poles occupied Moscow and took Smolensk after two years of heroic defense. Together with Smolensk, other cities along the southwestern border also came into the power of the king. The Swedes, who became open enemies of Moscow after the election of Vladislav as king, captured Novgorod and the Finnish coast. Thus, the entire western part of the state found itself in the hands of enemies. The zemstvo militia disintegrated. The Cossacks robbed and were arbitrary. There was no government, and the Russian people, who did not want to obey either the Poles in Moscow or the Cossacks near Moscow, were left to their own devices. The cities, which usually expected instructions from Moscow, now did not know what to do and where to expect advice and orders from. The despair of the Russian people was complete: mourning their lost kingdom, they asked God to save at least the remnant of the Russian people from the evils of unrest and from the violence of enemies. It seemed that everything was coming to an end.
In these terrible days, however, the voices of courageous representatives of the clergy were heard. Having withstood a heavy siege, the Trinity Sergius Monastery came under the leadership of the new Archimandrite Dionysius. Dionysius, whom our church honors as a saint, was a man of exceptional kindness and nobility. He unusually developed the charitable and patriotic activities of his glorious monastery. The brethren of the monastery looked after the sick and wounded, buried the dead, clothed and fed the poor, collecting them from wherever they could find them. In order to ensure safety in troubled times for itself and its loved ones, the monastery had to ask for protection and help from the Cossack boyars Trubetskoy and Zarutsky (with whom the famous cellarer of the monastery Avraamy Palitsyn was especially friendly). At the same time, the monastery authorities considered it their duty to act morally on the people, encouraging them to unite against the enemies of faith and state, against the king and the Poles.
Abraham Palitsyn at the Monument “1000th Anniversary of Russia” in Veliky Novgorod
In the monastery, letters were drawn up calling on cities to go to the aid of the Russian army besieging Moscow and to drive the Polish garrison out of the capital. The monastic brethren did not take into account that the Russian army near Moscow became Cossack, thieves and was at enmity with the zemshchina, dispersing the zemstvo people from near Moscow. The monks equally called upon all Russian people to perform feats for the faith and the fatherland in their well-written, eloquent letters. By sending these letters throughout the land, they thought of reconciling everyone and uniting them again in one patriotic movement.
But Patriarch Hermogenes, who lived in the besieged Kremlin under guard and oppressed by the Poles and traitors for their reluctance to serve Sigismund, did not think so. He saw that the militia he had convened had lost its cause and disintegrated from Cossack theft. He knew that the Cossacks, having Marina Mnishek in their camps, were planning to enthron her son Ivan, called “Vorenko”, in the Moscow state. Considering Cossack theft and imposture to be the main evil, the patriarch, by all means as best he could, taught the Russian people not to trust the Cossacks and to fight them as fierce enemies. When his admirers came to him for blessings and teachings, Hermogenes verbally conveyed to them his thought about the need to fight the Cossacks. Whenever possible, he wrote letters about the same to the cities. This letter of his, sent to the people of Nizhny Novgorod, has been preserved.
So, in days of general despondency and confusion, the clergy raised their voices and loudly called to fight for their homeland. The cities, separated from each other and deprived of any other leadership except the admonitions of their spiritual fathers, entered into relations with each other, sent each other different messages, sent ambassadors from city to city for general advice. They were waiting to see who would take the initiative to unite the zemstvo forces. The people of Nizhny Novgorod finally took the initiative. At the head of their city community, as elsewhere, were the zemstvo elders. One of them, Kozma Minin Sukhoruk, was distinguished by his enormous intelligence and iron energy. Under the influence of Hermogenes’ letter, he began the work of national unification by inviting his fellow citizens to collect the treasury and raise an army for it. The residents of Nizhny Novgorod agreed and passed a sentence according to which each homeowner was obliged to give “third money” to the military men, that is, one third of their annual income or goods; There were, in addition, voluntary donations. The same Kozma was elected by the whole world to collect money. When the matter was established, the tax people notified the Nizhny Novgorod governor, Prince of Zvenigorod, and the cathedral archpriest Savva Efimiev of their intention to organize a militia to cleanse Moscow. They gathered the entire city, spiritual, service and tax people, into the city cathedral, read the Trinity Charter, which then came to Nizhny Novgorod, and announced the verdict of the taxable Nizhny Novgorod peace. Archpriest Savva and Minin gave speeches about the need to liberate the state from external and internal enemies. They decided to gather a militia and chose as its leader Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky, who lived on his estate not far from Nizhny and was treated for wounds he received during the destruction of Moscow. Then they began sending letters from Nizhny to the nearest cities, announcing their militia and inviting them to join it. In these letters, the residents of Nizhny Novgorod directly said that they were going not only against the Poles, but also against the Cossacks, and would not allow them to commit any theft.
K. Makovsky. Minin's appeal on Nizhny Novgorod Square
This was the beginning of the Nizhny Novgorod militia. By November 1611, Pozharsky had already arrived in Nizhny and began organizing troops. At his request, Minin took over the management of the money and economy of the militia. In the winter of 1611-1612. Many cities were annexed to Nizhny (from Kazan to Kolomna), and Pozharsky gathered a large army with which he could go on a campaign. Since the Cossacks near Moscow were hostile to the zemstvo movement and considered it a rebellion against their government, they sent their troops to the north to counteract the Nizhny Novgorod residents. That is why in the spring of 1612 Pozharsky went not to Moscow, but to Yaroslavl, main city middle Volga region. He wanted to drive the Cossacks out of the northern regions and annex the northern cities to his militia. He succeeded. He spent the whole summer in Yaroslavl, organizing his affairs. While near Moscow his enemies, Poles and Cossacks, mutually guarded each other and weakened their forces in continuous struggle, Pozharsky finally organized his army and assembled a Zemsky Council in Yaroslavl, to which he entrusted the administration of the entire land and his entire army. This cathedral included the clergy with Metropolitan Kirill at its head. (Patriarch Hermogenes had already died at the beginning of 1612 in custody in Moscow, and Pozharsky considered the elderly and retired Kirill to be the patriarch’s deputy.) Those few boyars who escaped the Moscow siege and Polish captivity and came to Yaroslavl also took part in the council. . Elected people from the service and tax population were sent to Pozharsky from many cities at the cathedral. Thus, the composition of the cathedral was complete and correct. There was an idea, without rushing to Moscow, to elect a sovereign in Yaroslavl with all the land. But circumstances forced me to go near Moscow.
In July 1612, Pozharsky received news that King Sigismund was sending Hetman Khodkevich with an army and provisions to help his Moscow garrison. It was impossible to let Chodkiewicz into Moscow, because he would have strengthened Polish power in the capital for a long time. The Yaroslavl militia hurried towards Moscow. The Cossacks, who were in camps near Moscow, were so hostile towards Pozharsky that they even sent assassins to him, who only accidentally did not kill him. Therefore, the zemstvo militia, approaching Moscow, was very wary of the Cossacks and became separate from the Cossack camp. The Cossacks, thinking that Pozharsky had come to attack them, were afraid. Most of them, with Zarutsky and Marina Mnishek, fled from Moscow and went to Astrakhan, where Zarutsky planned to establish a special Cossack state under the patronage of the Persian Shah. The other half of the Cossacks, with Prince Trubetskoy at their head, tried to enter into negotiations with Pozharsky. These negotiations had not yet led to peace and harmony when Khodkevich came and attacked Pozharsky’s army. A fierce battle was going on, the Cossacks generally acted sluggishly and at the decisive moment did not think of helping Pozharsky. Only when Abraham Palitsyn rebuked them did they come to their senses, and the Russians recaptured the hetman. Khodkevich went back without having time to provide any assistance to the Polish garrison in the Kremlin. The Russian armies made peace and began a siege together. Trubetskoy and Pozharsky united their “orders” and their clerks into one government and began to “do all sorts of things at the same time,” managing the army and the state together. Two months later, precisely on October 22, 1612, the Russians took Kitay-Gorod by storm. Exhausted by hunger and fighting, the Poles could no longer resist: during the siege they even reached the point of cannibalism. Soon after the loss of Kitai-Gorod, the Polish commander Strus surrendered the Kremlin to Pozharsky.
Second People's (Nizhny Novgorod) Militia, second zemstvo militia- a militia that arose in September 1611 in Nizhny Novgorod to fight the Polish invaders. It continued to actively form during the journey from Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow, mainly in Yaroslavl in April - July 1612. It consisted of detachments of townspeople, peasants of the central and northern regions of Russia, and non-Russian peoples of the Volga region. Leaders - Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky. In August 1612, with part of the forces remaining near Moscow from the First Militia, it defeated the Polish army near Moscow, and in October 1612, it completely liberated the capital.
Prerequisites for the creation of the second militia
Initiative to organize the Second people's militia came from the craft and trading people of Nizhny Novgorod, an important economic and administrative center in the Middle Volga. At that time, about 150 thousand males lived in the Nizhny Novgorod district, there were up to 30 thousand households in 600 villages. In Nizhny itself there were about 3.5 thousand male residents, of which about 2.0–2.5 thousand were townspeople.
Disastrous situation in the Nizhny Novgorod region
Nizhny Novgorod in its strategic position, economic and political significance was one of the key points in the eastern and southeastern regions of Russia. In conditions of weakening central government, under the rule of the interventionists, this city became the initiator of a nationwide patriotic movement that swept the Upper and Middle Volga region and neighboring regions of the country. It should be noted that Nizhny Novgorod residents joined the liberation struggle several years before the formation of the second militia.
After the murder of False Dmitry I in May 1606 and the accession of Vasily Shuisky, new rumors began to circulate throughout Russia about the imminent coming of a second impostor, allegedly having escaped False Dmitry I. At the end of 1606, large gangs appeared in the Nizhny Novgorod district and adjacent districts that were engaged in robberies and outrages : they burned villages, villages, robbed residents and forcibly drove them into their camps. This so-called “freedom” occupied Alatyr in the winter of 1607, drowning the Alatyr governor Saburov in the Sura River, and Arzamas, setting up its base there.
Having learned about the disastrous situation in the Nizhny Novgorod region, Tsar Vasily Shuisky sent his governors with troops to liberate Arzamas and other cities occupied by the rebels. One of them, Prince I.M. Vorotynsky, defeated rebel detachments near Arzamas, took the city and cleared the areas adjacent to Arzamas from crowds of freemen.
With the arrival of False Dmitry II on Russian soil, the subsided freemen became more active again, especially since some of the boyars of the Moscow and district nobility and the children of the boyars went over to the side of the new impostor. The Mordovians, Chuvashs and Cheremis rebelled. Many cities also went over to the side of the impostor and tried to persuade Nizhny Novgorod to do so. But Nizhny stood firmly on the side of Tsar Shuisky and did not change his oath to him. Moreover, when at the end of 1608 the inhabitants of the city of Balakhna, betraying their oath to Tsar Shuisky, attacked Nizhny Novgorod (December 2), governor A.S. Alyabyev, by the verdict of the Nizhny Novgorod residents, struck the Balakhonians, drove them away from the city and on December 3, after a fierce battle, occupied Balakhnu. The rebel leaders Timofey Taskaev, Kukhtin, Surovtsev, Redrikov, Luka Siny, Semyon Dolgiy, Ivan Gridenkov and the traitor, the Balakhna governor Golenishchev, were captured and hanged. Alyabyev, having barely managed to return to Nizhny, again entered into the fight with a new detachment of rebels who attacked the city on December 5. Having defeated this detachment, he then captured the rebel nest of Vorsma, burned it (see Battle of Vorsma) and again defeated the rebels at the Pavlovsk fort, capturing many prisoners.
At the beginning of January 1609, Nizhny was attacked by the troops of False Dmitry II under the command of the governor Prince S. Yu. Vyazemsky and Timofey Lazarev. Vyazemsky sent a letter to the people of Nizhny Novgorod, in which he wrote that if the city does not surrender, then all the townspeople will be exterminated and the city will be burned to the ground. The Nizhny Novgorod residents did not give an answer, but decided to make a sortie, despite the fact that Vyazemsky had more troops. Thanks to the surprise of the attack, the troops of Vyazemsky and Lazarev were defeated, and they themselves were captured and sentenced to hang. Then Alyabyev liberated Murom from the rebels, where he remained as a royal governor, and Vladimir. Alyabyev’s successes had important consequences, as they instilled in people faith in a successful fight against the Pretender and foreign invaders. A number of cities, counties and volosts renounced the Pretender and began to unite in the struggle for the liberation of Russia.
Collapse of the First Militia
The rise of the national liberation movement in 1611 resulted in the creation of the first people's militia, its actions and the March uprising of Muscovites, led by the Zaraisk governor, Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky. The failure of the first militia did not weaken this rise, but, on the contrary, strengthened it. Many of the first militias already had experience fighting the invaders. Residents of cities, counties and volosts who did not submit to impostors and invaders also had this experience. And it is no coincidence, in connection with the above, that Nizhny Novgorod becomes the stronghold of the further national liberation struggle of the Russian people for their independence and the outpost for the creation of a second people's militia.
In the summer of 1611, confusion reigned in the country. In Moscow, all affairs were managed by the Poles, and the boyars, the rulers from the “Seven Boyars,” sent letters to cities, counties and volosts calling for an oath to the Polish prince Vladislav. Patriarch Hermogenes, while imprisoned, advocated the unification of the country's liberation forces, punishing not to obey the orders of the military leaders of the Cossack regiments near Moscow, Prince D. T. Trubetskoy and Ataman I. M. Zarutsky. Archimandrite Dionysius of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, on the contrary, called on everyone to unite around Trubetskoy and Zarutsky. It was at this time that a new upsurge of the patriotic movement arose in Nizhny Novgorod, which already had its own tradition and again found support among the townspeople and service people and the local peasantry. With a powerful impulse This popular movement was served by the letter of Patriarch Hermogenes, received by the people of Nizhny Novgorod on August 25, 1611. The intrepid elder from the dungeon of the Chudov Monastery called on the people of Nizhny Novgorod to stand up for the holy cause of liberating Rus' from foreign invaders.
The role of Kuzma Minin in organizing the second militia
An outstanding role in organizing this movement was played by the Nizhny Novgorod zemstvo elder Kuzma Minin, who was elected to this position in early September 1611. According to historians, Minin first began his famous calls for the liberation struggle among the townspeople, who warmly supported him. Then he was supported by the Nizhny Novgorod city council, governors, clergy and service people. By decision of the city council, a general meeting of Nizhny Novgorod residents was appointed. Residents of the city bell ringing gathered in the Kremlin, in the Transfiguration Cathedral. First, a service took place, after which Archpriest Savva gave a sermon, and then Minin addressed the people with an appeal to stand up for the liberation of the Russian state from foreign enemies. Not limiting themselves to voluntary contributions, the residents of Nizhny Novgorod accepted the “sentence” of the entire city that all residents of the city and county “for the formation of military people” must give part of their property. Minin was entrusted with managing the collection of funds and their distribution among the warriors of the future militia.
Military leader of the second militia, Prince Pozharsky
“Elected person” Kuzma Minin in his appeal raised the question of choosing a military leader for the future militia. At the next gathering, Nizhny Novgorod residents decided to ask Prince Pozharsky to head the people's militia, whose family estate was located in the Nizhny Novgorod district, 60 km from Nizhny Novgorod to the west, where he was recovering from his wounds after being seriously wounded on March 20, 1611 in Moscow. The prince, in all his qualities, was suitable for the role of militia commander. He was of a noble family - Rurikovich in the twentieth generation. In 1608, as a regimental commander, he defeated the gatherings of the Tushino impostor near Kolomna; in 1609 he defeated the gangs of Ataman Salkov; in 1610, during the dissatisfaction of the Ryazan governor Prokopiy Lyapunov with Tsar Shuisky, he kept the city of Zaraysk in allegiance to the tsar; in March 1611 he valiantly fought the enemies of the Fatherland in Moscow and was seriously wounded. The residents of Nizhny Novgorod were also impressed by such traits of the prince as honesty, selflessness, fairness in making decisions, decisiveness, balance and thoughtfulness in his actions. Nizhny Novgorod residents went to him “many times so that I could go to Nizhny for the Zemstvo Council,” as the prince himself said. According to the etiquette of that time, Pozharsky refused the offer of the Nizhny Novgorod residents for a long time. And only when a delegation from Nizhny Novgorod, headed by Archimandrite Theodosius of the Ascension-Pechersk Monastery, came to him, did Pozharsky agree to lead the militia, but with one condition: that all economic affairs in the militia be managed by Minin, who, by the “sentence” of the Nizhny Novgorod residents, was awarded the title “ elected person by the whole earth."
Beginning of the organization of the second militia
Pozharsky arrived in Nizhny Novgorod on October 28, 1611 and immediately, together with Minin, began organizing a militia. In the Nizhny Novgorod garrison there were about 750 soldiers. Then they invited from Arzamas service people from Smolensk, who were expelled from Smolensk after it was occupied by the Poles. The Vyazmich and Dorogobuzh residents found themselves in a similar situation, and they also joined the militia. The militia immediately grew to three thousand people. All militiamen received good pay: servicemen of the first article were assigned a salary of 50 rubles per year, the second article - 45 rubles, the third - 40 rubles, but there was no salary less than 30 rubles per year. The presence of a constant monetary allowance among the militia attracted new servicemen from all surrounding regions to the militia. People from Kolomna, Ryazan, Cossacks and Streltsy came from Ukrainian cities, etc.
Good organization, especially the collection and distribution of funds, establishment own office, establishing connections with many cities and regions, involving them in the affairs of the militia - all this led to the fact that, unlike the First Militia, the unity of goals and actions was established in the Second from the very beginning. Pozharsky and Minin continued to collect the treasury and warriors, turn to different cities for help, sent them letters with appeals: “... let us all, Orthodox Christians, be in love and in unity and not begin the previous civil strife, and Moscow state from our enemies... cleanse relentlessly until your death, and do not at all inflict robberies and taxes on Orthodox Christianity, and do not plunder the entire land of the Muscovite state with your arbitrariness without the advice of the sovereign" (letter from Nizhny Novgorod to Vologda and Sol Vychegda in early December 1611) . The authorities of the Second Militia actually began to carry out the functions of a government that opposed the Moscow “Seven Boyars” and the Moscow region “camps” independent of the authorities, led by D. T. Trubetskoy and I. I. Zarutsky. The militia government initially formed during the winter of 1611-1612. as "Council of all the earth." It included the leaders of the militia, members of the Nizhny Novgorod city council, and representatives of other cities. It finally took shape when the second militia was in Yaroslavl and after the “cleansing” of Moscow from the Poles.
The government of the Second Militia had to act in a difficult situation. Not only the interventionists and their henchmen looked at him with fear, but also the Moscow “Seven Boyars” and the leaders of the Cossack freemen, Zarutsky and Trubetskoy. All of them created various obstacles for Pozharsky and Minin. But they, in spite of everything, strengthened their position with their organized work. Relying on all layers of society, especially on the district nobility and townspeople, they restored order in the cities and districts of the north and northeast, receiving in return new militias and the treasury. The detachments of princes D.P. Lopata-Pozharsky and R.P. Pozharsky, sent by him in a timely manner, occupied Yaroslavl and Suzdal, preventing the detachments of the Prosovetsky brothers from entering there.
March of the second militia
The second militia set out for Moscow from Nizhny Novgorod at the end of February - beginning of March 1612 through Balakhna, Timonkino, Sitskoye, Yuryevets, Reshma, Kineshma, Kostroma, Yaroslavl. In Balakhna and Yuryevets, the militias were greeted with great honor. They received replenishment and a large cash treasury. In Reshma, Pozharsky learned about the oath of Pskov and the Cossack leaders Trubetskoy and Zarutsky to the new impostor, the fugitive monk Isidore. Kostroma governor I.P. Sheremetev did not want to let the militia into the city. Having removed Sheremetev and appointed a new governor in Kostroma, the militia entered Yaroslavl in early April 1612. Here the militia stood for four months, until the end of July 1612. In Yaroslavl, the composition of the government - the “Council of the Whole Earth” - was finally determined. It also included representatives of noble princely families - the Dolgorukys, Kurakins, Buturlins, Sheremetevs and others. The Council was headed by Pozharsky and Minin. Since Minin was illiterate, Pozharsky signed the letters instead: “Prince Dmitry Pozharsky put his hand in Minin’s place as an elected person with all the land in Kozmino.” The certificates were signed by all members of the “Council of the Whole Earth”. And since at that time “localism” was strictly observed, Pozharsky’s signature was in tenth place, and Minin’s in fifteenth.
In Yaroslavl, the militia government continued to pacify cities and counties, liberating them from Polish-Lithuanian detachments and from Zarutsky’s Cossacks, depriving the latter of material and military assistance from the eastern, northeastern and northern regions. At the same time, it took diplomatic steps to neutralize Sweden, which had captured Novgorod lands, through negotiations on the candidacy for the Russian throne of Karl Philip, brother of the Swedish king Gustav Adolf. At the same time, Prince Pozharsky held diplomatic negotiations with Joseph Gregory, the ambassador of the German emperor, about the emperor’s assistance to the militia in liberating the country. In return, he offered Pozharsky to become Russian king cousin Emperor, Maximilian. Subsequently, these two applicants for Russian throne was refused. The “stand” in Yaroslavl and the measures taken by the “Council of the Whole Earth”, Minin and Pozharsky themselves, yielded results. Joined the Second Militia big number lower and Moscow region cities with counties, Pomorie and Siberia. Government institutions functioned: under the “Council of the Whole Land” there were the Local, Razryadny, and Ambassadorial orders. Order was gradually established over an increasingly large territory of the state. Gradually, with the help of militia detachments, it was cleared of gangs of thieves. The militia army already numbered up to ten thousand warriors, well armed and trained. The militia authorities were also involved in everyday administrative and judicial work (appointing governors, maintaining discharge books, analyzing complaints, petitions, etc.). All this gradually stabilized the situation in the country and led to a revival of economic activity.
At the beginning of the month, the militia received news of the advance of Hetman Khodkevich’s twelve thousand-strong detachment with a large convoy towards Moscow. Pozharsky and Minin immediately sent detachments of M.S. Dmitriev and Lopata-Pozharsky to the capital, which approached Moscow on July 24 and August 2, respectively. Having learned about the arrival of the militia, Zarutsky and his Cossack detachment fled to Kolomna, and then to Astrakhan, since before that he had sent assassins to Prince Pozharsky, but the assassination attempt failed, and Zarutsky’s plans were revealed.
Speech from Yaroslavl
The second people's militia set out from Yaroslavl to Moscow on July 28, 1612. The first stop was six or seven miles from the city. The second, July 29, 26 versts from Yaroslavl on Sheputsky-Yam, from where the militia army went further to Rostov the Great with Prince I. A. Khovansky and Kozma Minin, and Pozharsky himself with small detachment went to the Suzdal Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery, “to pray and bow to my parents’ coffins.” Having caught up with the army in Rostov, Pozharsky stopped for several days to gather warriors who had arrived in the militia from different cities. On August 14, the militia arrived at the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, where they were joyfully greeted by the clergy. On August 18, after listening to a prayer service, the militia moved from the Trinity-Sergius Monastery to Moscow, less than five miles away, and spent the night on the Yauza River. The next day, August 19, Prince D.T. Trubetskoy with a Cossack regiment met Prince Pozharsky at the walls of Moscow and began to call him to camp with him at the Yauz Gate. Pozharsky did not accept his invitation, as he feared hostility from the Cossacks towards the militia, and stood with his militia at the Arbat Gate, from where they expected an attack from Hetman Khodkevich. On August 20, Khodkevich was already at Poklonnaya Hill. Along with him came detachments of Hungarians and Little Russian Cossacks.
Liberation of Moscow
However, not all of Moscow was liberated from the invaders. There were still Polish detachments of Colonels Strus and Budily, entrenched in Kitai-Gorod and the Kremlin. The traitorous boyars and their families also took refuge in the Kremlin. The future Russian sovereign Mikhail Romanov, who was still little known at that time, was in the Kremlin with his mother, nun Marfa Ivanovna. Knowing that the besieged Poles were suffering terrible hunger, Pozharsky at the end of September 1612 sent them a letter in which he invited the Polish knighthood to surrender. “Your heads and lives will be spared,” he wrote, “I will take this on my soul and ask all military men to agree to this.” To which an arrogant and boastful response followed from the Polish colonels with a refusal to Pozharsky’s proposal.
On October 22, 1612, Kitay-Gorod was taken by attack by Russian troops, but there were still Poles who had settled in the Kremlin. The hunger there intensified to such an extent that the boyar families and all civilian inhabitants began to be escorted out of the Kremlin, and the Poles themselves went so far as to start eating human flesh.
Historian Kazimir Waliszewski wrote about the Poles and Lithuanians besieged by Pozharsky’s soldiers:
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They used Greek manuscripts for cooking, having found a large and priceless collection of them in the Kremlin archives. By boiling the parchment, they extracted from it vegetable glue, which deceived their painful hunger. When these sources dried up, they dug up the corpses, then began to kill their captives, and with the intensification of feverish delirium they came to the point that they began to devour each other; this is a fact beyond the slightest doubt: eyewitness Budzilo reports last days the siege, incredibly terrible details that he could not have invented... Budzilo names individuals, notes numbers: the lieutenant and haiduk each ate two of their sons; another officer ate his mother! The strong took advantage of the weak, and the healthy took advantage of the sick. They quarreled over the dead, and the most amazing ideas about justice were mixed with the discord generated by cruel madness. One soldier complained that people from another company ate his relative, when in fairness he and his comrades should have eaten it. The accused referred to the regiment's rights to the corpse of a fellow soldier, and the colonel did not dare to stop this feud, fearing that the losing party might eat the judge out of revenge for the verdict. |
Pozharsky offered the besieged a free exit with banners and weapons, but without looted treasures. They preferred to feed on prisoners and each other, but did not want to part with their money. Pozharsky and his regiment stood on the Stone Bridge at the Trinity Gate of the Kremlin to meet the boyar families and protect them from the Cossacks. On October 26, the Poles surrendered and left the Kremlin. Budilo and his regiment fell into Pozharsky’s camp, and everyone remained alive. Later they were sent to Nizhny Novgorod. Coward and his regiment fell to Trubetskoy, and the Cossacks exterminated all the Poles. On October 27, the ceremonial entry into the Kremlin of the troops of princes Pozharsky and Trubetskoy was scheduled. When the troops gathered at Lobnoye Mesto, Archimandrite Dionysius of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery performed a solemn prayer service in honor of the victory of the militia. After which, to the ringing of bells, the winners, accompanied by the people, entered the Kremlin with banners and banners.
Thus the cleansing of Moscow and the Moscow state from foreign invaders was completed.
Historiography
The Nizhny Novgorod militia is traditionally an important element of Russian historiography. One of the most thorough studies is the work of P. G. Lyubomirov. The only work that describes in detail initial period the struggle of the Nizhny Novgorod residents (1608-1609), is the fundamental work of S. F. Platonov on the history of the Time of Troubles.
In fiction
The events of 1611-1612 are described in popular historical novel M. N. Zagoskina Yuri Miloslavsky, or Russians in 1612.
Memory
- On February 20, 1818, a monument to the leaders of the second people’s militia, Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, was unveiled in Moscow.
- December 27, 2004 at Russian Federation A national holiday was established - National Unity Day. IN explanatory note To the draft law on the establishment of the holiday it was noted:
- On November 4, 2005, a monument to Minin and Pozharsky by Zurab Tsereteli was unveiled in Nizhny Novgorod - a reduced (5 cm) copy of the Moscow monument. It is installed under the walls of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, near the Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist. According to the conclusion of historians and experts, in 1611 Kuzma Minin, from the porch of this church, called on Nizhny Novgorod residents to gather and equip the people’s militia to defend Moscow from the Poles. On the Nizhny Novgorod monument the inscription was preserved, but without indicating the year.
The Second Militia of 1612 was led by the Nizhny Novgorod zemstvo elder Kuzma Minin, who invited Prince Pozharsky to lead military operations. An important thing that Pozharsky and Minin were able to accomplish was the organization and unity of all patriotic forces. In February 1612, the militia moved to Yaroslavl to occupy this important point, where many roads crossed. Yaroslavl was busy; The militia stood here for four months, because it was necessary to “build” not only the army, but also the “land.” Pozharsky wanted to gather a “general zemstvo council” to discuss plans to combat the Polish-Lithuanian intervention and “how can we not be stateless in this evil time and choose a sovereign for us with the whole earth.” The candidacy of the Swedish prince Karl Philip, who “wants to be baptized into our Orthodox faith of Greek law,” was also proposed for discussion. However, the zemstvo council did not take place.
Meanwhile, the first militia completely disintegrated. Ivan Zarutsky and his supporters went to Kolomna, and from there to Astrakhan. Following them, several hundred more Cossacks left, but the bulk of them, led by Prince Trubetskoy, remained to hold the siege of Moscow.
In August 1612, the militia of Minin and Pozharsky entered Moscow and united with the remnants of the first militia. On August 22, Hetman Khodkevich tried to break through to the aid of his besieged compatriots, but after three days of fighting he was forced to retreat with heavy losses.
On September 22, 1612, one of the bloodiest events of the Time of Troubles took place - the city of Vologda was taken by the Poles and Cherkasy (Cossacks), who destroyed almost its entire population, including the monks of the Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery.
On October 22, 1612, the militia led by Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky took Kitay-Gorod by storm; The garrison of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth retreated to the Kremlin. Prince Pozharsky entered Kitai-Gorod with Kazan icon Mother of God and vowed to build a temple in memory of this victory.
The Poles held out in the Kremlin for another month; in order to get rid of extra mouths, they ordered the boyars and all Russian people to send their wives out of the Kremlin. The boyars were very upset and sent Minin to Pozharsky and all the military men with a request to please accept their wives without shame. Pozharsky ordered them to tell them to let their wives out without fear, and he himself went to receive them, received everyone honestly and took each one to his friend, ordering them all to be content.
Driven to extremes by hunger, the Poles finally entered into negotiations with the militia, demanding only one thing, that their lives be saved, which was promised. First, the boyars were released - Fyodor Ivanovich Mstislavsky, Ivan Mikhailovich Vorotynsky, Ivan Nikitich Romanov with his nephew Mikhail Fedorovich and the latter’s mother Marfa Ivanovna and all other Russian people. When the Cossacks saw that the boyars had gathered on the Stone Bridge, which led from the Kremlin through Neglinnaya, they wanted to rush at them, but were restrained by Pozharsky’s militia and forced to return to the camps, after which the boyars were received with great honor. The next day the Poles also surrendered: Coward and his regiment fell to Trubetskoy’s Cossacks, who robbed and beat many prisoners; Budzilo and his regiment were taken to Pozharsky’s warriors, who did not touch a single Pole. Coward was interrogated, Andronov was tortured, how many royal treasures were lost, how many remained? They also found ancient royal hats, which were given as pawn to the Sapezhin residents who remained in the Kremlin. On November 27, Trubetskoy’s militia converged on the Church of the Kazan Mother of God outside the Intercession Gate, Pozharsky’s militia converged on the Church of St. John the Merciful on Arbat and, taking crosses and icons, moved to Kitay-Gorod from two different sides, accompanied by all Moscow residents; The militias converged at Lobnoye Mesto, where the Trinity Archimandrite Dionysius began to serve a prayer service, and then another appeared from the Frolovsky (Spassky) Gate, from the Kremlin procession: Galasun (Arkhangelsk) Archbishop Arseny walked with the Kremlin clergy and carried Vladimir: screams and sobs rang out among the people, who had already lost hope of ever seeing this image dear to Muscovites and all Russians. After the prayer service, the army and people moved to the Kremlin, and here joy gave way to sadness when they saw the state in which the embittered infidels left the churches: uncleanness everywhere, images were cut, eyes were turned out, thrones were torn; terrible food is prepared in the vats - human corpses! The mass and prayer service in the Assumption Cathedral ended the great national celebration the like of which our fathers saw exactly two centuries later.”
The program of large-scale industrialization was beyond the capabilities of the state budget of the USSR (budget revenues amounted to no more than 5 billion rubles per year). Obtaining foreign loans was impossible due to refusal Soviet government pay the royal debts. Therefore, we could only talk about not yet used...
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The topic of this work is “Iran in the Middle Ages.” The work consists of an introduction, three chapters with subsections, as well as a conclusion and a list of references. The main place in the work is occupied by the history of Iran in the Middle Ages, where the specifics of political and socio-economic development are considered...
Reasons for the defeat of the invaders
The defeat of the intervention troops was due to a number of reasons: 1. The participants in the intervention had unclear goals, and each of the allies pursued personal interests. 2. The intervention armies were not motivated to fight. 3. In fact, throughout the entire period of intervention, society did not support the actions and...
a people's militia under the leadership of K. Minin and D. Pozharsky, created in Russia in 1611, during the Time of Troubles to fight the Polish intervention. (See diagram "People's Militia".)
The militia arose in a difficult situation, after the interventionists captured a significant part of the country, including Moscow and Smolensk, and the collapse due to acute contradictions of the first Zemsky militia in 1611. In September 1611, in Nizhny Novgorod, the zemstvo elder Kuzma Minin appealed to the townspeople to raise funds and create a militia to liberate the country. The population of the city was subject to a special tax for organizing the militia. Its military leader was invited by Prince. D.M. Pozharsky. Letters were sent from Nizhny Novgorod to other cities calling for the collection of the militia. In addition to the townspeople and peasants, small and medium-sized nobles also gathered in it. The main forces of the militia were formed in the cities and counties of the Volga region. The program of the people's militia consisted of liberating Moscow from interventionists, refusing to recognize sovereigns of foreign origin on the Russian throne (which was the goal of the boyar nobility, who invited the Polish prince Vladislav to the kingdom), and the creation of a new government. The actions of the militia were supported by Patriarch Hermogenes, who refused to comply with the demands of the Moscow traitor boyars to condemn the militia and called for a fight against the interventionists. (See historical map " Time of Troubles in Russia at the beginning of the 15th century."
In February 1612, the militia set out from Nizhny Novgorod and headed towards Yaroslavl. A temporary “Council of the Whole Earth” was created here - a government body in which main role The townspeople and representatives of the minor service nobility played. At the same time, the Volga region was cleared of detachments of Polish-Lithuanian interventionists. (See the article in the anthology “The struggle of the population of our region against the Polish intervention at the beginning of the 12th century.”)
In connection with the approach of large reinforcements for the Polish-Lithuanian garrison to Moscow, the people's militia set out from Yaroslavl and at the end of July - beginning of August 1612 approached Moscow, taking up positions along the western walls White City. In the battle of August 22 - 24, when Cossack detachments under the leadership of D.T. also came to the aid of the militia. Trubetskoy, the Polish-Lithuanian troops under the command of Hetman Khodkevich, who tried to break through into the Kremlin from outside, were defeated. This sealed the fate of the enemy garrisons in the Kremlin and Kitai-Gorod, which finally capitulated on October 22-26, 1612.
The liberation of Moscow by the people's militia created the conditions for restoration state power in the country and served as a powerful impetus for the development of a mass liberation movement against the interventionists throughout the country. In November 1612, the leaders of the militia sent letters to the cities calling for the convening of the Zemsky Sobor to elect a new king. At the beginning of 1613 there took place Zemsky Sobor, in which Mikhail Romanov was elected to the Russian throne.
Collapse of the First zemstvo militia did not lead to the end of Russian resistance. By September 1611, a militia was formed in Nizhny Novgorod. It was headed by the Nizhny Novgorod zemstvo elder Kuzma Minin, who invited Prince Dmitry Pozharsky to command military operations. In February 1612, the Second Militia set out on a campaign to the capital.
Nizhny Novgorod
At the beginning of the 17th century, Nizhny Novgorod was one of the largest cities of the Russian kingdom. Having emerged as a border fortress of Vladimir-Suzdal Rus' on its eastern border, it gradually lost its military significance, but acquired serious trade and craft significance. As a result, Nizhny Novgorod became an important administrative and economic center in the Middle Volga. In addition, in Nizhny there was a rather large and quite heavily armed “stone city”; its upper and lower settlements were protected by wooden forts with towers and a moat. The garrison of Nizhny Novgorod was relatively small. It consisted of approximately 750 archers, fodder foreigners (mercenaries) and serf servants - gunners, collars, zatinshchiki and state blacksmiths. However, this fortress could become the core of a more serious army.
Important geographical position(it was located at the confluence of two largest rivers internal Russia- Oka and Volga) made Nizhny Novgorod large shopping center. In terms of its trade and economic significance, Nizhny Novgorod stood on a par with Smolensk, Pskov and Novgorod. In terms of its economic importance, it occupied sixth place among Russian cities at that time. So, if Moscow gave the royal treasury 12 thousand rubles in customs duties at the end of the 16th century, then Nizhny - 7 thousand rubles. The city of Rod was connected with the entire Volga river system and was part of the ancient Volga trade route. Fish from the Caspian Sea, furs from Siberia, fabrics and spices from distant Persia, and bread from the Oka River were brought to Nizhny Novgorod. Therefore, the main importance in the city was the trading area, in which there were up to two thousand households. There were also many artisans in the city, and in the river port there were workers (loaders and barge haulers). Nizhny Novgorod Posad, united into a zemstvo world headed by two elders, was the largest and most influential force in the city.
Thus, Nizhny Novgorod, in terms of its military-strategic position, economic and political significance, was one of the key points in the eastern and southeastern regions of the Russian state. It was not for nothing that the 16th century publicist Ivan Peresvetov advised Tsar Ivan the Terrible to move the capital to Nizhny Novgorod. It is not surprising that the city became the center of the people's liberation movement, which swept the Upper and Middle Volga regions and neighboring regions of Russia, and Nizhny Novgorod residents actively participated in the struggle for the liberation of the Russian state.
Nizhny Novgorod and Time of Troubles
During the Time of Troubles, Nizhny Novgorod was repeatedly threatened with ruin by the Poles and Tushins. At the end of 1606, large gangs appeared in the Nizhny Novgorod district and adjacent districts, which were engaged in robberies and outrages: they burned villages, robbed residents and drove them away into captivity. This “freedom” captured Alatyr and Arzamas in the winter of 1608, establishing its base there. Tsar Vasily Shuisky sent his commanders with troops to liberate Arzamas and other cities occupied by “thieves”. One of them, Prince Ivan Vorotynsky, defeated rebel detachments near Arzamas, took the city and cleared the areas adjacent to Arzamas.
With the arrival of False Dmitry II, various gangs became more active again, especially since part of the boyars, Moscow and district nobility and the boyars' children went over to the side of the new impostor. The Mordovians, Chuvashs and Cheremis also rebelled. Many cities also went over to the side of the impostor and tried to persuade Nizhny Novgorod to do so. But Nizhny Novgorod stood firmly on the side of Tsar Shuisky and did not change his oath to him. Nizhny Novgorod residents never allowed enemies into the city. Moreover, Nizhny not only successfully defended itself, but also sent its army to help other cities and supported Skopin-Shuisky’s campaign.
So, when at the end of 1608 the residents of the city of Balakhna, betraying their oath to Tsar Shuisky, attacked Nizhny Novgorod, governor Andrei Alyabyev, following the verdict of the Nizhny Novgorod residents, struck the enemy, and on December 3, after a fierce battle, he occupied Balakhna. The rebel leaders were captured and hanged. Alyabyev, barely having time to return to Nizhny, again entered the fight with a new enemy detachment that attacked the city on December 5. Having defeated this detachment, the Nizhny Novgorod residents took Vorsma.
At the beginning of January 1609, Nizhny was attacked by the troops of False Dmitry II under the command of the governor Prince Semyon Vyazemsky and Timofey Lazarev. Vyazemsky sent a letter to the people of Nizhny Novgorod, in which he wrote that if the city did not surrender, then all the townspeople would be exterminated and the city would be burned to the ground. The Nizhny Novgorod residents did not give an answer, but decided to make a sortie themselves, despite the fact that the enemy had more troops. Thanks to the surprise of the attack, the troops of Vyazemsky and Lazarev were defeated, and they themselves were captured and sentenced to hang. Then Alyabyev liberated Murom from the rebels, where he remained as a royal governor, and Vladimir.
The people of Nizhny Novgorod waged an even more active struggle against the Polish troops of King Sigismund III. Simultaneously with Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod called on all Russians to liberate Moscow. It is interesting that letters with such appeals were sent out not only on behalf of the governors, but also on behalf of the townspeople. The importance of urban settlements in the fight against enemy intervention and internal unrest has increased significantly. On February 17, 1611, earlier than others, the Nizhny Novgorod squads marched to Moscow and bravely fought under its walls as part of the First Zemstvo Militia.
The failure of the first militia did not break the will of the Nizhny Novgorod residents to resist; on the contrary, they became even more convinced of the need for unity for complete victory. Nizhny Novgorod residents maintained constant contact with Moscow through their spies - the boyar son Roman Pakhomov and the townsman Rodion Moseev. They penetrated the capital and obtained the necessary information. Nizhny Novgorod spies even managed to establish contact with Patriarch Hermogenes, who was languishing in the Kremlin in an underground cell of the Chudov Monastery. Gonsevsky, embittered by the fact that the patriarch denounced the interventionists and their henchmen, called on the Russian people to fight and, not daring to openly deal with Hermogenes, sentenced him to death by starvation. Once a week, only a sheaf of unthreshed oats and a bucket of water were given to the imprisoned for food. However, this did not humble the Russian patriot. From the underground dungeon, Hermogenes continued to send out his letters calling for the fight against the invaders. These letters also reached Nizhny Novgorod.
Minin
From Nizhny, in turn, letters were distributed throughout the country with a call to unite to fight a common enemy. In this strong city, the determination of the people to take the fate of the dying country into their own hands was maturing. It was necessary to inspire the people, to instill in people confidence in victory, and a willingness to make any sacrifices. People were needed who had high personal qualities and such an understanding of what was happening to lead the popular movement. Such a leader folk hero Kuzma Minin became a simple Russian man from Nizhny Novgorod.
Little is known about Minin's origins. However, it is known for sure that the version about the non-Russian origin of K. Minin (“baptized Tatar”) is a myth. On September 1, 1611, Minin was elected to the zemstvo eldership. “The husband is not famous by birth,” notes the chronicler, “but he is wise, intelligent and pagan in meaning.” The people of Nizhny Novgorod were able to appreciate Minin’s high human qualities when they nominated Sukhoruk to such an important post. The position of zemstvo elder was very honorable and responsible. He was in charge of collecting taxes and administered court in the settlement, and had great power. The townspeople had to obey the zemstvo elder “in all worldly matters,” and he had the right to force those who did not obey. Minin was a “favorite” person in Nizhny for his honesty and justice. Great organizational talent, love for the Motherland and ardent hatred of the invaders promoted him to the “fathers” of the Second Zemstvo Militia. He became the soul of the new militia.
Minin began his exhortations to “help the Moscow state” both in the “zemstvo hut”, and at the market where his shop stood, and near his house in ordinary meetings of neighbors, and at gatherings where letters that came to Nizhny Novgorod were read to the townspeople, etc. .d. In October 1611, Minin appealed to Nizhny Novgorod residents to create a people's militia to fight foreigners. At the sound of the alarm, people came to the Transfiguration Cathedral for a gathering. Here Kuzma Minin made his famous speech, in which he convinced the people of Nizhny Novgorod not to spare anything for the defense of their native country: “Orthodox people, we want to help the Moscow state, we will not spare our bellies, and not just our bellies - we will sell our yards, we will pawn our wives and children and we will beat brow, so that someone becomes our boss. And what praise will all of us receive from the Russian land that such a great thing will happen from such a small city as ours. I know that as soon as we move towards this, many cities will come to us, and we will get rid of the foreigners.”
Kuzma Minin's ardent appeal received the warmest response from Nizhny Novgorod residents. On his advice, the townspeople gave “third money,” that is, a third of their property, for the militia. Donations were made voluntarily. One rich widow, out of 12 thousand rubles she had, donated 10 thousand - a huge amount at that time, striking the imagination of Nizhny Novgorod residents. Minin himself donated not only “his entire treasury” to the needs of the militia, but also silver and gold frames from icons and his wife’s jewelry. “You all should do the same,” he told the Posad. However, voluntary contributions alone were not enough. Therefore, a forced collection of “fifth money” was announced from all Nizhny Novgorod residents: each of them had to contribute a fifth of their income from fishing and trading activities. The money collected was to be used to distribute salaries to serving people.
Peasants, townspeople and nobles volunteered to join the Nizhny Novgorod militia. Minin introduced new order in the organization of the militia: the militia were given a salary that was not equal. Depending on their military training and military merits, the militias were divided into four salaries. Those on the first salary received 50 rubles a year, on the second - 45, on the third - 40, on the fourth - 35 rubles. A cash salary for all militia members, regardless of whether they were a townsman noble or a peasant, made everyone formally equal. It was not nobility of origin, but skill, military abilities, and devotion to the Russian land that were the qualities by which Minin assessed a person.
Kuzma Minin not only himself was attentive and sensitive to every soldier who joined the militia, but also demanded the same from all commanders. He invited a detachment of serving Smolensk nobles into the militia, who, after the fall of Smolensk, not wanting to serve the Polish king, abandoned their estates and went to the Arzamas district. The residents of Nizhny Novgorod greeted the arriving Smolensk soldiers very warmly and provided them with everything they needed.
With the full consent of all residents and city authorities of Nizhny Novgorod, on the initiative of Minin, the “Council of the Whole Earth” was created, which became by its nature the provisional government of the Russian state. It included the best people Volga region cities and some representatives of local authorities. With the help of the “Council”, Minin recruited warriors into the militia and resolved other issues. The residents of Nizhny Novgorod unanimously bestowed on him the title “elected person by the whole earth.”
Minin's appeal to the people of Nizhny Novgorod in 1611. M. I. Peskov
Commander of the Second Militia
An extremely important question was: how to find a governor who would lead the zemstvo militia? Nizhny Novgorod residents did not want to deal with local governors. Okolnichy Prince Vasily Zvenigorodsky was not distinguished by military talents, and was related to Mikhail Saltykov, hetman Gonsevsky’s henchman. He received the rank of okolnik by charter from Sigismund III, and was appointed to the Nizhny Novgorod voivodeship by Trubetskoy and Zarutsky. There was no trust in such a person.
The second governor, Andrei Alyabyev, fought skillfully and served faithfully, but was known only in his own, Nizhny Novgorod, district. The townspeople wanted a skilled governor, not marked by “flights”, and known among the people. Finding such a governor in these troubled times, when the transitions of governors and nobles from one camp to another became commonplace, was not easy. Then Kuzma Minin proposed to elect Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky as governor.
Nizhny Novgorod residents and militias approved his candidacy. A lot spoke in favor of the prince: he was far from the corrupt ruling elite, did not have a Duma rank, and was a simple steward. He failed to make a court career, but he distinguished himself more than once on the battlefield. In 1608, being a regimental commander, he defeated the Tushin troops near Kolomna; in 1609 he defeated the gangs of Ataman Salkov; in 1610, during the dissatisfaction of the Ryazan governor Prokopiy Lyapunov with Tsar Shuisky, he kept the city of Zaraysk in allegiance to the tsar. Then he defeated the Polish detachment sent against Lyapunov and the “thieves’” Cossacks, who tried to take Zaraisk. He was faithful to his oath and did not bow to foreigners. The fame of the prince's heroic deeds during the Moscow uprising in the spring of 1611 reached Nizhny Novgorod. The residents of Nizhny Novgorod also liked such traits of the prince as honesty, selflessness, fairness in making decisions, decisiveness and balance in his actions. In addition, he was nearby, he lived on his estate just 120 versts from Nizhny. Dmitry Mikhailovich was undergoing treatment after severe wounds received in battles with enemies. The wound on his leg was especially difficult to heal - the lameness remained for life. As a result, Pozharsky received the nickname Lame.
To invite Prince Dmitry Pozharsky to the voivodeship, Nizhny Novgorod residents sent an honorary embassy to the village of Mugreevo, Suzdal district. There is information that before and after this Minin visited him several times, together they discussed issues of organizing the Second Zemstvo Militia. Nizhny Novgorod residents went to him “many times so that I could go to Nizhny for the zemstvo council,” the prince himself noted. As was customary then, Pozharsky refused the offer from Nizhny Novgorod for a long time. The prince understood perfectly well that before deciding on such an honorable and responsible task, it was necessary to think carefully about this issue. In addition, Pozharsky wanted from the very beginning to receive the powers of a great governor, to be commander-in-chief.
In the end, Dmitry Pozharsky, who had not yet fully recovered from his wounds, gave his consent. But he also set the condition that the residents of Nizhny Novgorod themselves choose from among the townspeople a person who would join him at the head of the militia and deal with the “rear.” And he proposed Kuzma Minin for this position. That's what they decided on. Thus, in the zemstvo militia, Prince Pozharsky took on the military function, and the “elected person by the whole earth” Kuzma Minin-Sukhoruk began to manage the army’s economy and the militia treasury. At the head of the second zemstvo militia were two people elected by the people and invested with their trust - Minin and Pozharsky.
"Minin and Pozharsky." Painter M. I. Scotti
Militia organization
At the end of October 1611, Prince Pozharsky with a small retinue arrived in Nizhny Novgorod and, together with Minin, began organizing the people's militia. They developed vigorous activity to create an army that was supposed to liberate Moscow from the invaders and begin the expulsion of the interventionists from Russian soil. Minin and Pozharsky understood that they could solve such a great task facing them only by relying on the “nationwide multitude.”
Minin showed great firmness and determination in raising funds. Minin demanded that the militia tax collectors not make concessions to the rich, and not unfairly oppress the poor. Despite the general taxation of Nizhny Novgorod residents, there was still not enough money to provide the militias with everything they needed. We had to resort to forced loans from residents of other cities. The taxation was imposed on the clerks of the richest merchants, the Stroganovs, merchants from Moscow, Yaroslavl and other cities connected by trade with Nizhny Novgorod. By creating a militia, its leaders began to show their strength and power far beyond Nizhny Novgorod district. Letters were sent to Yaroslavl, Vologda, Kazan and other cities. A letter sent out on behalf of the Nizhny Novgorod militia to residents of other cities said: “From all the cities of the Moscow state, nobles and boyar children were near Moscow, Polish and Lithuanian people were besieged by a strong siege, but a stream of nobles and boyar children from near Moscow dispersed for a temporary sweets, for robbery and kidnapping. But now we, all kinds of people of Nizhny Novgorod, having exiled ourselves to Kazan and all the cities of the lower and Volga regions, having gathered with many military people, seeing the final ruin of the Moscow state, asking God for mercy, we are all going with our heads to help the Moscow state. Yes, people from Smolensk, Dorogobuzhan and Vetchan came to us in Nizhny from Arzamas... and we, all sorts of people of Nizhny Novgorod, having consulted among ourselves, decided: to share our bellies and houses with them, to give a salary and help, and to send them to help the Moscow to the state."
The Volga region cities responded to the call of Nizhny Novgorod in different ways. Small towns such as Balakhna and Gorokhovets immediately got involved. Kazan reacted to this call rather coolly at first. Her " sovereign's people“They believed that “royal Kazan, the main city of the Ponizov region,” should take precedence.” As a result, the core of the militia, along with Nizhny Novgorod residents, became the service people of the border regions who arrived in the vicinity of Arzamas after the fall of Smolensk - Smolyan, Belyan, Dorogobuzhan, Vyazmichi, Brenchan, Roslavtsy and others. About 2 thousand of them gathered, and all of them were experienced fighters who had participated in battles more than once. Subsequently, nobles from Ryazan and Kolomna, as well as service people, Cossacks and archers from the “Ukrainian cities” who sat in Moscow under Tsar Vasily Shuisky, came to Nizhny.
Having learned about the formation of the Second Militia in Nizhny Novgorod and not being able to counteract it, the concerned Poles turned to Patriarch Hermogenes demanding that he condemn the “traitors.” The Patriarch refused to do this. He cursed the Moscow boyars who turned to him on Gonsevsky’s instructions as “damned traitors.” As a result, he was starved to death. On February 17, 1612, Hermogenes died.
The leaders of the second militia needed to resolve the issue of the remnant of the First militia. The leaders of the Cossack freemen, Zarutsky and Trubetskoy, still had significant strength. As a result, since December 1611, two provisional governments operated in Russia: the “Council of All the Land” of the Moscow Cossacks, led by Ataman Ivan Zarutsky, and the “Council of the Whole Land” in Nizhny Novgorod. Between these two centers of power there was a struggle not only for influence on local governors and for income, but also over the question of what to do next. Zarutsky and Trubetskoy, with the support of the rich and influential Trinity-Sergius Monastery, proposed to lead the militia to Moscow as quickly as possible. They feared the rapid growth of power and influence of the Nizhny Novgorod army. And they planned to take a dominant position near Moscow. However, the “Council of All the Earth” of Nizhny Novgorod considered it necessary to wait in order to properly prepare for the campaign. This was the line of Minin and Pozharsky.
The relationship between the two centers of power became openly hostile after Trubetskoy and Zarutsky began negotiations with the Pskov impostor Sidorka (False Dmitry III), to whom they eventually swore allegiance. True, they soon had to abandon their “kissing of the godfather,” since such an act did not find support among ordinary Cossacks and was sharply condemned by Minin and Pozharsky.
Start of the hike
After hard work, by the beginning of February 1612, the Nizhny Novgorod militia was already an impressive force and reached 5 thousand soldiers. Despite the fact that the work on the military structure of the Second Militia had not yet been completely completed, Pozharsky and Minin realized that they could no longer wait and decided to start the campaign. Initially, the shortest route was chosen - from Nizhny Novgorod through Gorokhovets, Suzdal to Moscow.
The moment for the attack was convenient. The Polish garrison located in Moscow experienced great difficulties, especially an acute shortage of food. Hunger forced most of the Polish garrison to leave the devastated city to the surrounding counties in search of food. Out of 12 thousand There were approximately 4,000 enemy troops left in the Kremlin and Kitai-Gorod. garrison weakened by hunger. The most selected detachments of Polish thugs under the command of Hetman Chodkiewicz were located in the village of Rogachevo near the city of Dmitrov; Sapieha's detachment was in the city of Rostov. There was no help from Sigismund III for the besieged garrison. Is the “Seven Boyars” any real? military force I didn’t imagine myself. Thus, this was the most convenient time for the liberation of Moscow.
Voivode Dmitry Pozharsky drew up a plan for the liberation campaign. The idea was to take advantage of the fragmentation of the interventionist forces and break them up piecemeal. At first it was planned to cut off the detachments of Khodkiewicz and Sapieha from Moscow, and then defeat the besieged Polish garrison of Gonsevsky and liberate the capital. Pozharsky hoped for help from the Cossack “camps” near Moscow (remnants of the First Militia).
However, Ataman Zarutsky began open hostile actions. He decided to take over major cities North-Eastern Rus' and thereby not allow Nizhny Novgorod residents there and maintain their sphere of influence. Taking advantage of the withdrawal of the Great Detachment of Sapieha from Rostov, Zarutsky in February ordered his Cossacks to capture Yaroslavl, a strategically important Volga city. The Cossack detachment of Ataman Prosovetsky was supposed to head there from Vladimir.
As soon as Zarutsky’s actions became known, Minin and Pozharsky were forced to change the original plan for the liberation campaign. They decided to move up the Volga, occupy Yaroslavl, bypassing the devastated areas where the Cossack detachments of Zarutsky and Trubetskoy, located near Moscow, were operating, and unite the forces that rose up against the interventionists. Zarutsky's Cossacks were the first to break into Yaroslavl. The townspeople asked Pozharsky for help. The prince sent detachments of his relatives, princes Dmitry Lopata Pozharsky and Roman Pozharsky. They quickly occupied Yaroslavl and Suzdal, taking the Cossacks by surprise and did not allow Prosovetsky’s troops there. Prosovetsky’s detachment, which was on the way to Yaroslavl, had no choice but to turn back to the camps near Moscow. He did not accept the fight.
Having received news from Lopata-Pozharsky that Yaroslavl was in the hands of Nizhny Novgorod, Minin and Pozharsky at the beginning of March 1612 gave the order to the militia to set out from Nizhny Novgorod on a campaign to liberate the capital of the Russian state. The militia entered Yaroslavl in early April 1612. Here the militia stood for four months, until the end of July 1612.
