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POLISH-MUSCOVITE WAR
(1605-1618) Chester
Dunning, Norman Davies, Paweł Jasienica, Jerzy Malec
and Andrzej Nowak Maps: The New Cambridge Modern History Atlas,
1970 The Penguin Historical Atlas of
Russia, 1995 |
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The Polish–Muscovite War (1605–1618) took place in the
early 17th century as a sequence of military conflicts and eastward invasions
carried out by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, or the private armies and
mercenaries led by the magnates (the Commonwealth aristocracy), when the
Russian Tsardom was torn into a series of civil
wars, the time most commonly referred in the Russian history as the Time of
Troubles, sparked by the Russian dynastic crisis and overall internal chaos.
The sides and their goals changed several times during this conflict: the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was not formally at war with Russia until
1609, and various Russian factions fought among themselves, allied with the
Commonwealth and other countries or fighting against them. Sweden also
participated in the conflict during the course of the Ingrian
War (1610–1617), sometimes allying itself with Russia, and other times
fighting against it. The aims of the various factions changed frequently as
well as the scale of the parties' goals, which ranged from minor border
adjustment to imposing the Polish Kings or the Polish-backed impostors'
claims to the Russian throne and even the creation of a new state by forming
a union between the Commonwealth and Russia. The war can be divided into four stages. In the first
stage, certain Commonwealth szlachta (nobility)
encouraged by some Russian boyars (Russian aristocracy)—but without the
official consent of the Polish king Sigismund III Vasa—attempted
to exploit Russia's weakness and intervene in its civil war by supporting the
impostors for the Tsardom, False Dmitriy I and
later False Dmitriy II, against the crowned Tsars, Boris Godunov and Vasili Shuiski. The first wave
of the Polish intervention began in 1605 and ended in 1606 with the death of
False Dmitri I. The second wave started in 1607 and lasted until 1609, when
Tsar Vasili made a military alliance with Sweden.
In response to this alliance, the Polish King Sigismund III decided to
intervene officially and to declare war upon Russia, aiming to weaken
Sweden's ally and to gain territorial concessions. After early Commonwealth victories (Battle of Klushino), which culminated in Polish forces
entering Moscow in 1610, Sigismund's son, Prince Wladislaus,
was briefly elected Tsar. However, soon afterwards, Sigismund decided to
seize the Russian throne for himself. This alienated the pro-Polish
supporters among the boyars, who could accept the moderate Wladislaus, but not the pro-Catholic and anti-Orthodox
Sigismund. Subsequently, the pro-Polish Russian faction disappeared, and the
war resumed in 1611, with the Poles being ousted from Moscow in 1612 but
capturing the important city of Smolensk (see Siege of Smolensk (1609–1611)).
However, due to internal troubles in both the Commonwealth and Russia, little
military action occurred between 1612 and 1617, when Sigismund made one final
and failed attempt to conquer Russia. The war finally ended in 1618 with the
Truce of Deulino, which granted the Commonwealth
certain territorial concessions, but not control over Russia which thus
emerged from the war with its independence unscathed.
Click on the map for more details and campaigns Names
of the war The conflict is often referred to by
different names, most common of them is the Russo–Polish War, with the more modern
term Russia replacing the older term Muscovy. In Polish historiography, the
wars are usually referred to as the Dymitriads: the
First Dymitriad (1605–1606) and Second Dymitriad (1607–1609) and the Polish–Muscovite War
(1609–1618), which can subsequently be divided into two wars of 1609–1611 and
1617–1618, and may or may not include the 1617–1618 campaign, which is
sometimes referred to as Chodkiewicz [Muscovite]
campaign. According to Russian historiography, the chaotic events of the war
fall into the "Time of Troubles". The conflict with Poles is
commonly called the Polish invasion, Polish intervention, or more
specifically the Polish intervention of the early 17th century. Prelude
to the war In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Russia was
in a state of political and economic crisis. After the death of the Tsar Ivan
IV ("the Terrible") in 1584, and the death of his son Dimitri in 1591, several factions competed for the Tsar's
throne. In 1598, Boris Godunov was crowned to the Russian throne, marking the
end of the centuries long rule of the Rurikid dynasty. While his policies were rather moderate
and well-intentioned, his rule was marred by the general perception of its
questionable legitimacy and allegations of his involvement in the orchestrating
of the assassination of Dimitri whose death ended
the Rurikid line. While Godunov managed to put the
opposition to his rule under control, he did not manage to crush it
completely. To add to his troubles, the first years of the 17th century were
exceptionally cold. The drop in temperature was felt all over the world, and
was most likely caused by a severe eruption of a volcano in South America. In
Russia, it resulted in a great famine, that swept
through the country from 1601 to 1603. In late 1600, a Polish-Lithuanian diplomatic mission
led by Great Lithuanian Chancellor Lew Sapieha with
Eliasz Pielgrzymowski and
Stanisław Warszycki
arrived in Moscow and proposed an alliance between the Commonwealth and
Russia, which would include a future personal union. They proposed that after
one monarch's death without heirs, the other would become the ruler of both
countries. However, Tsar Godunov declined the union proposal and settled only
on extending the Treaty of Jam Zapolski, that ended the Lithuanian wars of the 16th century, by
22 years (to 1622).
Sigismund and the Commonwealth magnates knew full well
that they were not capable of any serious invasion of Russia; the
Commonwealth army was too small, its treasury always empty, and the war
lacked popular support. However, as the situation in Russia deteriorated,
Sigismund and many Commonwealth magnates, especially those with estates and
forces near the Russian border, began to look for a way to profit from the
chaos and weakness of their eastern neighbour. This proved easy, as in the
meantime many Russian boyars, disgruntled by the ongoing civil war, tried to
entice various neighbors, including the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, into intervening.[citation
needed] Some of them looked to their own profits, trying to organize support
for their own ascension to the Russian throne. Others looked to their western
neighbor, the Commonwealth, and its attractive
Golden Freedoms, and together with some Polish politicians planned for some
kind of union between those two states. Yet others tried to tie their fates
with that of Sweden in what became known as the De la Gardie
Campaign and the Ingrian War. The advocates of a union of Polish-Lithuania with Russia
proposed a union, similar to the original Polish–Lithuanian Union of Lublin
involving a common foreign policy and military; the right for on nobility to
chose the place where they would live and to buy landed estates; the removal
of barriers for trade and transit; the introduction of a single currency;
increased religious tolerance in Russia (especially the right to build
churches of non-Orthodox faiths); and the sending of boyar children for an
education in more developed Polish academies (like the Jagiellonian
University). However, this project never gained much support; many boyars
feared that the union with the predominantly Catholic Poland–Lithuania would
endanger Russia's Orthodox traditions and opposed anything that threatened
the Russian culture, especially the policies aimed at curtailing the
influence of the Orthodox Church, intermarriage and education in Polish
schools that has already led to Polonization of the
Ruthenian lands under the Polish control. The
Polish invasion (1605–1606) For most of the 17th century, Sigismund III was
occupied with internal problems of his own, like the civil war in the
Commonwealth and the wars with Sweden and in Moldavia. However, when the
impostor False Dmitriy I appeared in Poland in 1603, he soon found enough
support among powerful magnates such as Michał
Wiśniowiecki, Lew and Jan Piotr
Sapieha, who provided him with funds for a campaign
against Godunov. Commonwealth magnates looked forward to material gains from
the campaign and control over Russia through False Dmitriy. In addition, both
Polish magnates and Russian boyars advanced plans for a union between the
Commonwealth and Russia, similar to the one Lew Sapieha
had discussed in 1600 (when the idea had been dismissed by Godunov). Finally,
the proponents of Catholicism saw in Dmitriy a tool to spread the influence
of their Church eastwards, and after promises of a united Catholic dominated
Russo-Polish entity waging a war on the Ottoman Empire, Jesuits also provided
him with funds and education. Although Sigismund declined to support Dmitriy
officially with the full might of the Commonwealth, the Polish king was
always happy to support pro-Catholic initiatives and provided him with the
sum of 4,000 zlotys–enough for a few hundred soldiers. Nonetheless, some of Dmitriy's supporters, especially among those involved in
the rebellion, actively worked to have Dmitriy replace Sigismund. In
exchange, in June 1604 Dmitriy promised the Commonwealth 'half of Smolensk
territory'. However, many people were skeptical
about the future of this endeavor. Jan Zamoyski, opposed to most of Sigismund's policies, later
referred to the entire False Dmitriy I affair as a
comedy worth of Plautus or Terentius.
False Dmitriy and king Sigismund
III Vasa by Nikolai Nevrev (1874) When Boris Godunov heard about the pretender, he
claimed that the man was just a runaway monk called Grigory
Otrepyev, although on what information he based
this claim is unclear. The Godunov's support among the Russians began to
wane, especially when he tried to spread counter-rumors.
Some of the Russian boyars also claimed to accept Dmitriy as such support
gave them legitimate reasons not to pay taxes to Godunov. Dmitriy attracted a number of followers, formed a small
army, and, supported by approximately 3500 soldiers of the Commonwealth
magnates' private armies and the mercenaries bought by Dmitriy's
own cash, rode to Russia in June 1604. Some of Godunov's other enemies,
including approximately 2,000 southern Cossacks, joined Dimitry's
forces on his way to Moscow. Dmitriy's forces
fought two engagements with reluctant Russian soldiers; Dimitry's
army won the first at Novhorod–Seversky soon
capturing Chernigov, Putivl, Sevsk,
and Kursk, but badly lost the second battle at Dobrynichi
and nearly disintegrated. Dmitriy's cause was only
saved by the news of the death of Tsar Boris Godunov. The sudden death of the Tsar on 13 April 1605 removed
the main barrier to Dimitriy's further advances.
Russian troops began to defect to Dmitriy's side,
and on 1 June boyars in Moscow imprisoned the newly-crowned tsar, Boris's son
Feodor II, and the boy's mother, later brutally murdering them. On 20 June
the impostor made his triumphal entry into Moscow, and on the 21st of July he
was crowned Tsar by a new Patriarch of his own choosing, the Greek Cypriot
Patriarch Ignatius, who as bishop of Ryazan had been the first church leader
to recognize Dmitriy as Tsar. The alliance with Poland was furthered by Dimitriy's marriage (per procura
in Kraków) with the daughter of Jerzy
Mniszech, Marina Mniszech,
a Polish noblewoman with whom Dmitriy had fallen in love while in Poland. The
new Tsarina outraged many Russians by refusing to convert from Catholicism to
the Russian Orthodox faith. Commonwealth king Sigismund was a prominent guest
at this wedding. Marina soon left to join her husband in Moscow, where she
was crowned a Tsarina in May. While Dmitriy's rule itself
was nondescript and devoid of significant blunders, his position was weak.
Many boyars felt they could gain more influence, even the throne, for
themselves, and many were still wary of Polish cultural influence, especially
in view of Dmitriy's court being increasingly dominated
by the aliens he brought with himself from Poland. The Golden Freedoms,
declaring all nobility equal, that were supported by lesser nobility,
threatened the most powerful of the boyars. Thus the boyars, headed by Prince
Vasily Shuisky, began to
plot against Dmitriy and his pro-Polish faction, accusing him of
homosexuality, spreading Roman Catholicism and Polish customs, and selling
Russia to Jesuits and the Pope. They gained popular support, especially as
Dmitriy was visibly supported by few hundred irregular Commonwealth forces,
which still garrisoned Moscow, and often engaged in various criminal
acts[vague], angering the local population. On the morning of 17 May 1606, about two weeks after
the marriage, conspirators stormed the Kremlin. Dmitriy tried to flee through
a window but broke his leg in the fall. One of the plotters shot him dead on
the spot. At first the body was put on display, but it was later cremated;
the ashes reportedly shot from a cannon towards
Poland. Dmitriy's reign had lasted a mere ten
months. Vasili Shuisky
took his place as Tsar. About five hundred of Dmitriy's
Commonwealth supporters were killed, imprisoned or forced to leave Russia.
Last minutes of False
Dmitriy I by Karl Wenig, painted in 1879 The
Second Polish invasion (1607–1609) Tsar Vasili Shuiski was unpopular and weak in Russia and his reign
was far from stable. He was perceived as anti-Polish; he had led the coup
against the first False Dmitriy, killing over 500 Polish soldiers in Moscow
and imprisoning a Polish envoy. The civil war raged on, as in 1607 the False
Dmitriy II appeared, again supported by some Polish magnates and 'recognized'
by Marina Mniszech as her first husband. This
brought him the support of the magnates of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
who had supported False Dmitriy I before. Adam Wiśniowiecki,
Roman Różyński, Jan Piotr
Sapieha decided to support the second pretender as
well, supplying him with some early funds and about 7500 soldiers. The
pillaging of his army, especially of the Lisowczycy
mercenaries led by Aleksander Lisowski,
contributed to the placard in Sergiyev Posad: "three plagues: typhus, Tatars, Poles".
In 1608 together with Aleksander Kleczkowski, Lisowczycy,
leading a few hundred Don Cossacks, ragtag szlachta
and mercenaries defeated the army of tsar Vasili Shuisky led by Zakhary Lyapunov and Ivan Khovansky
near Zaraysk and captured Mikhailov
and Kolomna. Then Lisowczycy
advanced towards Moscow, but was defeated by Vasiliy
Buturlin at Medvezhiy Brod, losing most of its plunder. When Jan Piotr Sapieha failed to win the
siege of Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra,
Lisowczycy retreated to the vicinity of Rakhmantsevo. Soon, however, came
successes (pillages) at Kostroma, Soligalich and
some other cities.
False Dmitriy II Dmitriy speedily captured Karachev,
Bryansk and other towns. He was reinforced by the Poles, and in the spring of
1608 advanced upon Moscow, routing the army of Tsar Vasily
Shuisky at Bolkhov. Dmitriy's promises of the wholesale confiscation of the
estates of the boyars drew many common people to his side. The village of Tushino, about twelve kilometers
from the capital, was converted into an armed camp, where Dmitriy gathered
his army. His forces initially included 7000 Polish soldiers, 10,000 Cossacks
and 10,000 other soldiers, including former members of the failed rokosz of Zebrzydowski but his
force grew gradually in power, and soon exceeded 100,000 men. He raised
another illustrious captive, Feodor Romanov, to the rank of Patriarch,
enthroning him as Patriarch Filaret, and won the
allegiance of the cities of Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Vologda, Kashin
and several others. However, his fortunes were soon to reverse, as the
Commonwealth decided to take a more active stance in the Russian civil wars. Polish–Russian
War (1609–1618) Polish
victories (1609–1610) In 1609 the Zebrzydowski
Rebellion ended when Tsar Vasili signed a military
alliance with Charles IX of Sweden that year (on 28 February 1609). The
Commonwealth king Sigismund III, whose primary goal was to regain the Swedish
throne, got permission from the Sejm to declare war
on Russia. He viewed it as an excellent opportunity to expand the
Commonwealth's territory and sphere of influence, with hopes that the
eventual outcome of the war would Catholicize Orthodox Russia (in this he was
strongly supported by the Pope) and enable him to defeat Sweden. This plan
also allowed him to give a purpose to the numerous restless former supporters
of Zebrzydowski, luring them with promises of
wealth and fame awaiting members of the campaign beyond the Commonwealth's
eastern border. A book published that year by Paweł
Palczwski, Kolęda moskiewska, compared Russia to the Indian empires of the
New World, full of golden cities and easy to conquer. Further, some Russian
boyars assured him of their support by offering the throne to Prince Wladislaus, son of Sigismund III. Previously, Sigismund
III had been unwilling to commit the majority of Polish forces or his time to
the internal conflict in Russia, but in 1609 those factors made him
re-evaluate and drastically change his policy.
King Sigismund III Vasa at Smolensk by Tommaso Dolabella.
The defence of the Troitse–Sergiyeva
Lavra by Russian
soldiers and Orthodox . Painting by Sergey
Miloradovich. Although many Polish nobles and soldiers
were fighting for the second False Dmitriy at the time, Sigismund III and the
troops under his command did not act in support of Dimitriy's
to the throne – Sigismund III wanted Russia himself. The entry of King
Sigismund III into Russia caused the majority of False Dmitriy II's Polish
supporters to desert him and contributed to his defeat. A series of
subsequent disasters induced False Dmitriy II to flee his camp disguised as a
peasant and to go to Kostroma together with Marina. Dmitriy made another
unsuccessful attack on Moscow, and, supported by the Don Cossacks, recovered
a hold over all south-eastern Russia. However, he was killed, while half drunk,
on 11 December 1610 by a Qasim Tatar princeling Pyotr Urusov, whom Dimitriy had
flogged on a previous occasion. A Commonwealth army under the command of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski,
who was generally opposed to this conflict, but could not disobey king's
orders, crossed the border, and on 29 September 1609 laid siege to Smolensk,
an important city that Russia had captured from Lithuania in 1514. Smolensk
was manned by fewer than 1,000 Russian men commanded by the voivod Mikhail Shein, while Żółkiewski commanded 12,000 troops. However,
Smolensk had one major advantage: the previous Tsar, Boris Godunov, had
sponsored the fortification of the city with a massive fortress completed in
1602. The Poles found it impenetrable; they settled into a long siege, firing
artillery into the city, attempting to tunnel under the moat, and building
earthen ramparts, remnants of which can still be seen today. The siege lasted
20 months before the Poles advised by the runaway traitor succeeded in taking
the fortress.
Hetman Stanislaw Zolkiewski Not all of the Commonwealth attacks were successful. An
early attack, led by Hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz with
2,000 men, ended in defeat when the unpaid Commonwealth army mutinied and
compelled their leader to retreat through the heart of Russia and back to
Smolensk. Not until the crown prince, Władysław,
arrived with tardy reinforcements did the war assume a different character.
In the meantime, Lisowczycy took and plundered
Pskov in 1610 and clashed with the Swedes operating in Russia during the Ingrian War. All the time, several different visions of
the campaign and political goals clashed in the Polish camp. Some of the
former members of the Zebrzydowski Rebellion,
opponents of Sigismund, actually advanced proposals to have Sigismund
dethroned and Dmitriy, or even Shuisky, elected
king. Żółkiewski, who from the beginning
opposed the invasion of Russia, came into conflict with King Sigismund III
over the scope, methods and goal of the campaign. Żółkiewski
represented the traditional views of Polish nobility, the szlachta,
which did not support waging aggressive and dangerous wars against a strong
enemy like Russia. Thus Żółkiewski favored the plans for peaceful and voluntary union, much
like that with Lithuania. Żółkiewski
offered Russian boyars rights and religious freedom, envisioning an
association resulting in the creation of the Polish–Lithuanian–Muscovite
Commonwealth. To that end, he felt that Moscow's cooperation should be gained
via diplomacy, not force. Sigismund III, however, did not want to engage in
political deals and compromises, especially when these had to include
concessions to the Orthodox Church. Sigismund was a vocal, almost fanatical
supporter of the Catholic Church and counter-reformation, and believed that
he could win everything and take Moscow by force, and then establish his own
rule along with the rule of the Roman Catholicism. Poles
in Moscow (1610) On 31 January 1610 Sigismund received a delegation of
boyars opposed to Shuisky, who asked Władysław to become the tsar. On 24 February
Sigismund sent them a letter in which he agreed to do so, but only when
Moscow was at peace. Hetman Żółkiewski,
whose only other choice was mutiny, decided to follow the king's orders and
left Smolensk in 1610, leaving only a smaller force necessary to continue the
siege. With Cossack reinforcements, he marched on Moscow. However, as he
feared and predicted, as the Polish–Lithuanian forces pressed eastwards,
ravaging Russian lands, and as Sigismund's lack of willingness to compromise
became more and more apparent, many supporters of the Poles and of the second
False Dmitriy left the pro-Polish camp and turned to Shuiski's
anti-Polish faction. Russian forces under Grigory Voluyev[1]
were coming to relieve Smolensk and fortified the fort at Tsaryovo–Zaimishche
(Carowo, Cariewo, Tsarovo–Zajmiszcze) to bar the Poles' advance on Moscow.
The Siege of Tsaryovo began on 24 June. However,
the Russians were not prepared for a long siege and had little food and water
inside the fort. Voluyev sent word for Dmitriy Shuisky (Tsar Shuiski's
brother) to come to their aid and lift the siege. Shuiski's
troops marched for Tsaryovo, not by the direct
route, but round-about through Klushino, hoping to
come to Tsaryovo by the back route. Shuyski received aid from Swedish forces under the
command of Jacob Pontusson De la Gardie.
Żółkiewski learned of Shuiski's
relief force and divided his forces to meet Russian forces before they came
to Tsaryovo and lifted the siege. He left at night
so that Voluyev would not notice his absence. The
combined Russian and Swedish forces were defeated in on 4 July 1610 at the
battle of Klushino (Kłuszyn),
where 5,000 Polish elite cavalry, the hussars under hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski,
defeated the numerically superior Russian army of about 35,000–40,000
soldiers. This giant and surprising defeat of the Russian forces shocked
everyone and opened a new phase in the current conflict. After the news of Klushino
spread, support for tsar Shuiski almost completely
disappeared. Żółkiewski soon convinced
the Russian forces at Tsaryovo, which were much
stronger than the ones at Kłuszyn, to
capitulate and to swear an oath of loyalty to Władysław.
Then he incorporated them into his forces and moved towards Moscow. In August
1610 many Russian boyars accepted that Sigismund III was victorious and that Władysław could become the next tsar if he
converted to Eastern Orthodoxy. The Russian Duma
voted for Tsar Shuiski to be removed from the
throne. Shuiski's family, including the tsars, were
captured, and Shuiski was reportedly taken to a
monastery, forcibly shaved as a monk, and compelled to remain at the
monastery under guard. He was later sent to Warsaw, as a kind of war trophy,
and eventually died in Gostynin. Shortly after Shuiski was removed,
both Żółkiewski and the second False
Dmitri arrived at Moscow with their separate armies. It was a tense moment,
filled with the confusion of the conflict. Various pro- and anti-Polish,
Swedish and domestic boyar factions vied for the temporary control of the
situation. The Russian army and the people themselves were unsure if this was
an invasion and that they should close and defend the city, or if it was a
liberating force that they should allow in and welcome as allies[citation
needed]. After a few skirmishes, the pro-Polish faction gained dominance, and
the Poles were allowed into Moscow. The boyars opened Moscow's gates to the
Polish troops and asked Żółkiewski to
protect them from anarchy. The Moscow Kremlin was then garrisoned by Polish
troops commanded by Aleksander Gosiewski.
On 27 July a treaty was signed between the boyars and Żółkiewski
promising the Russian boyars the same vast privileges the Polish szlachta had, in exchange for them recognising Władysław, son of Sigismund III, as the new
tsar. However, Żółkiewski did not know
that Sigismund, who remained at Smolensk, already had other plans. In the meantime, Żółkiewski
and the second False Dmitriy, formerly reluctant allies, began to part ways.
The second False Dmitriy had lost much of his influence over the Polish
court, and Żółkiewski would eventually
try to drive Dmitriy from the capital. Żółkiewski
soon began manoeuvring for a tsar of Polish origin, particularly the 15-year
old Prince Władysław. Previously during
the Time of Troubles, the boyars had offered the throne to Władysław at least twice, in the hopes of
having the liberal Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth end the despotic rule of
their current tsars. Through Żółkiewski's
work, the pro-Polish factions among the boyars (composed of knyazes Fyodor Mstislavsky, Vasily Galitzine, Fyodor Sheremetev, Daniil Mezetsky and diaks Vasily Telepnyov and Tomiło Łagowski
gained dominance and once again a majority of the boyars said that they would
support Władysław for the throne, if he
converted to Orthodoxy and if Poland–Lithuania returned the fortresses that
they had captured in the war. However, Sigismund, supported by some of the more
devout szlachta, was completely opposed to the
conversion of the prince. From that point the planned Polish-Lithuanian-Muscovite
union began to fall apart. Offended and angered by Sigismund, the boyars
dragged their feet on supporting Władysław–they
were divided between electing Vasily Galitzine, Michael Romanov (also 15 years old), or the
second False Dmitriy. Żółkiewski acted
quickly, making promises without the consent of the still-absent king, and
the boyars elected Władysław as the new
tsar. Żółkiewski had the most prominent
of the opponents, Fyodor Romanov, Michael's father and the patriarch of
Moscow, exiled from Russia in order to secure Polish support. After the
election of Władysław as tsar, the second
False Dmitriy fled from Tushino, a city near
Moscow, to his base at Kaluga. However, his position was precarious even
there, and he was killed on 20 December by one of his own men. Marina Mniszech, though, was pregnant with the new
"heir" to the Russian throne, Ivan Dmitriyevich,
and she would still be a factor in Russian politics until her eventual death
in 1614. However, Władysław
faced further opposition from a seemingly unlikely party: his father. When Żółkiewski returned to meet Sigismund at
Smolensk in November of that year, Sigismund III changed his mind and decided
that he could gain the Russian throne for himself. A majority of the Russians
opposed the move, especially as Sigismund didn't hide his intent to
Catholicize Russia. Żółkiewski found himself in an awkward position–he had promised the boyars
Prince Władysław to keep the Russian
throne for Poland, and he knew that they would not accept King Sigismund III,
who was unpopular throughout Russia. However, he also had to explain this to
his king, who was convinced, from his conquests in the west, of his
popularity in Russia. Eventually, Żółkiewski,
disappointed with Sigismund, returned to Poland. King Sigismund III
eventually compromised; he decided that he would allow his son to take the
throne and that he would rule as regent until Władysław
came of age. Thus, he required that the boyars who submitted and swore
allegiance to Prince Władysław would also
have to swear an oath to him. The boyars were more resistant to this request,
and support for the Poles eroded fast. Władysław
was never able to take real power, and the war soon resumed. Sigismund and Władysław left the city for safer ground as tensions
grew, and the small Polish garrison at the Kremlin soon became isolated and
subject to increased hostility, as more and more of the formerly pro-Polish
boyars began to change factions. The Polish forces outside Moscow under the
command of Jan Piotr Sapieha
clashed with the growing anti-Polish Russian forces of the so called First
Volunteer Army, led by Prokopy Lyapunov. In the meantime, the siege of Smolensk continued, even
as Władysław was named tsar of Russia and
cities and forts throughout the area swore allegiance to the Poles. However,
Sigismund III required that Smolensk not only swear allegiance, but open its
gates to the Poles, which the Russians refused to
do. Żółkiewski fortified Moscow with his
army, and returned to King Sigismund III, who had remained at Smolensk while Żółkiewski negotiated in Moscow. The largest tunneling project at Smolensk came in December 1610;
however, the Poles only managed to destroy more of the outer wall–the inner
wall remained intact. The siege continued. At one point, the Polish guns
breached the outer wall and the voivode of Braclaw (Bracław) ordered
his soldiers to rush in; however, the Russians had predicted where the breach
would occur and had fortified that part of the wall with additional men. Both
troops were slaughtered, and the Poles were eventually beaten back. The
war resumes (1611) A 1611 uprising in Moscow against the
Polish garrison marked the end of Russian tolerance for the Commonwealth
intervention. The citizens of Moscow had voluntarily participated in the coup
in 1606, killing 500 Polish soldiers. Now, ruled by the Poles, they once
again revolted. The Moscow burghers took over the munition
store but Polish troops defeated the first wave of attackers, and the
fighting resulted in a large fire that consumed part of Moscow. From July
onward the situation of the Commonwealth forces became grave, as the uprising
turned into a siege of the Polish-held Kremlin. Reportedly, the Poles had
imprisoned the leader of the Orthodox Church, Patriarch Hermogenes.
When the Russians attacked Moscow, the Poles ordered him, as the man with the
most authority with the Russians at the time, to sign a statement to call off
the attack. Hermogenes refused, and was starved to
death.[1] The Polish Kremlin garrison then found
itself besieged. In the meantime, in late 1611, prince
Dmitry Pozharsky was asked to lead the public
opposition against the Poles, organized by the merchants' guild of Nizhny
Novgorod, with the respected town butcher (literally, a meat-trader) Kuzma Minin overseeing the
handling of the funds donated by the merchants to form create the Second
Volunteer Army (Russian: Второе
народное
ополчение).
When part of the Polish army mutinied in January 1612 due to unpaid wages. and retreated from Russia towards the Commonwealth, the
forces of the Second Volunteer Army strengthened the other anti-Polish
Russian forces in Moscow. The 9,000-strong Polish army under hetman Jan Karol
Chodkiewicz attempted to lift the siege and clashed
with Russian forces, attempting to break through to Polish forces in the
Kremlin on 1 September. The Polish forces used cavalry attacks in the open
field, exercising tactics that were new to them: escorting a mobile tabor
fortress through the city. After early Polish successes, the Russian Cossack
reinforcements had forced Chodkiewicz's forces to
retreat from Moscow.
Russian reinforcements under prince Pozharsky eventually starved the Commonwealth garrison
(there were reports of cannibalism) and forced its surrender on the 1 November
(though some sources give 6 November or 7 November) after the 19 month siege.
A historian (Parker) writes vividly of the Polish soldiers: "First they
ate grass and offal, then they ate each other, and the survivors finally
surrendered. The Moscow Kremlin fell on 6 November 1612." On 7 November,
the Polish soldiers withdrew from Moscow. Although the Commonwealth
negotiated a safe passage, the Russian forces massacred half of the former
Kremlin garrison forces as they left the fortress. Thus, the Russian army
recaptured Moscow. On 2 June 1611 Smolensk had finally fallen
to the Poles. After enduring 20 months of siege, two harsh winters and
dwindling food supplies, the Russians in Smolensk finally reached their limit
as the Polish-Lithuanian troops broke through the city gates. The Polish
army, advised by the runaway traitor Andrei Dedishin,
discovered a weakness in the fortress defenses and
on 13 June 1611 Cavalier of Malta Bartłomiej Nowodworski inserted a mine into sewer canal. The
explosion created a large breach in the fortress walls. The fortress fell on
the same day. The remaining Russian soldiers took refuge in a cathedral and
blew themselves up with stores of gunpowder to avoid death at the hands of
the invaders[citation needed]. Although it was a
blow to lose Smolensk, the defeat freed up Russian troops to fight the
Commonwealth in Moscow, and the Russian commander at Smolensk, Mikhail Borisovich Shein, was
considered a hero for holding out as long as he had. He was captured at
Smolensk and remained a prisoner of Poland-Lithuania for the next 9 years.
The Poles surrender
the Moscow Kremlin
to Prince Pozharsky in
1612. Painting by Ernest
Lissner. A
new respite (1612–1617) After the fall of Smolensk, the Russo-Polish border remained
relatively quiet for the next few years. However, no official treaty was yet
signed. Sigismund, criticized by the Sejm (the
Polish parliament made up of the szlachta, who were
always reluctant to levy taxes upon themselves to pay for any military force)
for his failure to keep Moscow, received little funding for the army. This
led to a mutiny of the Polish regular army (wojsko kwarciane), or rather to the specific semi-legal form of
mutiny practiced in the Commonwealth: a konfederacja
(confederatio). The resulting konfederacja
rohaczewska was considered the largest and most
vicious of the soldiers' konfederacja's in the
history of the Commonwealth, and it pillaged Commonwealth territories from
1612 until the most rebellious of the konfederate's
were defeated on 17 May 1614 at the Battle of Rohatyn,
whereupon the rest received their wages. The leader of the konfederacja, Jan Karwacki, was
captured and sent in chains by the future hetman Stanisław
Koniecpolski to his mentor, hetman Żółkiewski, and later executed in Lwów. The Ottoman Empire further criticized Sigismund
because the Cossacks in the Ukraine once again had begun to make unsanctioned
raids into Turkish territory. Thus, Poland-Lithuania got no support from the
Ottoman Empire in its war. In the meantime, the Russian Time of Troubles was far
from over, and Russia had no strength to take advantage of the Commonwealth's
weakness. On 21 February 1613 the Zemsky Sobor ("assembly of the land") named Michael
Romanov, now the 17-year old son of Fyodor Romanov, the new tsar. Fyodor, now
installed as Patriarch Filaret, was a popular boyar
and patriarch of Moscow, one of several boyars who vied to gain control of
the Russian throne during the Time of Troubles. The Romanovs were a powerful
boyar family; Michael's great-aunt (the sister of his grandfather) was
Anastasia Romanovna, the wife of Ivan the Terrible.
However, the new tsar had many opponents. Marina Mniszech
tried until her death in 1614 to install her child as Tsar of Russia; various
boyar factions still vied for power, trying to unseat the young Tsar Michael;
and Sweden intervened in force, trying to gain the throne for Duke Carl
Philip, even succeeding for a few months. However, Philip received even less
support then Władysław, and the Swedes
were soon forced to retreat from Russia. While both countries were shaken by
internal strife, many smaller factions thrived. Polish Lisowczycy
mercenaries, who were essential in the defense of
Smolensk in 1612, when most of regulars (wojsko kwarciane) mutinied and joined the konfederacja
rohatynska, were content to guard the Polish border
against the Russian incursions for the next three years. However, in 1615 Aleksander Józef Lisowski gathered many outlaws and invaded Russia with 6 chorągiew of cavalry. He besieged Bryansk and
defeated the relief force of few thousand soldiers under Prince Yuri Shakhovskoy near Karachev. Then
Lisowski defeated the front guard of a force
several times larger than his own, under the command of knyaz
Dmitry Pozharsky, who decided to defend instead of
attack and fortified his forces in a camp. Lisowczycy
broke contact with his forces, burned Belyov and Likhvin, took Peremyshl, turned
north, defeated the Russian army at Rzhev,
proceeded north towards Kashin, burned Torzhok, and, heavy with loot returned to Poland without
any further opposition from Russian forces. Lisowski
and his forces remained at the Russo–Polish border until autumn 1616, at
which point Lisowski suddenly fell ill and died on
11 October The formation was then known as Lisowczycy.
Despite the death of Lisowski, his forces remained
a significant threat: in 1616 they captured Kursk and defeated Russian forces
at Bolkhov. The
final stage (1617–1618) Eventually the Commonwealth Sejm voted to raise the funds necessary to resume large
scale military operations. Sigismund's and Władysław's
final attempt to gain the throne was a new campaign launched on 6 April 1617.
Władysław was the nominal commander, but
it was hetman Chodkiewicz who had actual control
over the army. In October, the towns of Dorogobuzh
(Дорогобуж,
Drohobuż, Drohobycz)
and Vyazma (Вязьма,
Wiaźma) surrendered quickly, recognizing Władysław as the tsar. However, the
Commonwealth forces suffered defeats between Vyazma
and Mozhaisk, and Chodkiewicz's
plans for a counterattack and an advance to Moscow failed. Władysław did not have enough forces to advance
to Moscow again, especially because the Russian support for the Poles was all
but gone by that time. In response to Władysław's
invasion, the burghers of Smolensk revolted against Polish rule, and the
Polish troops had to fight their way back as they retreated from the city.
However, in 1617 Polish forces, besieged in Smolensk by Russian forces, were
relieved by Lisowczycy, when Russian forces retreated
to Biała soon after receiving news that Lisowczycy, then commanded by Stanisław
Czapiński, had appeared in the area. In 1618
Petro Sahaidachny's campaign against the Muscovy
resulted in sacking numerous forts such as Putivl,
Kursk, Yelets, and others. Together with Chodkiewicz
he laid the siege to Moscow in September of 1618. Due to the unclear reasons
both Hetmans failed to take the city. Negotiations began and a peace treaty
was signed in 1618. Aftermath In the end, Sigismund did not succeed in becoming tsar
or in securing the throne for Władysław,
but he was able to expand the Commonwealth's territory. On 11 December 1618
the Truce of Deulino, which concluded the Dymitriad's war, gave the Commonwealth control over some
of the conquered territories, including the territories of Chernigov and Severia (Siewiersk) and the
city of Smolensk, and proclaimed a 15-year truce. Władysław
refused to relinquish his claim to the Russian throne, even though Sigismund
had already done so. While the Commonwealth gained some territories, in terms
of money and lives it was a very costly victory. In 1632 the Truce of Deulino
expired, and hostilities immediately resumed in the course of a conflict
known as the Smolensk War. This time the war was started by the Russians, who
tried to exploit the Commonwealth's suspected weakness after Sigismund III's
death. However, they failed to regain Smolensk, and accepted the Treaty of Polyanovka in 1634. The Russians had to pay 20,000 rubles to the Commonwealth, but Władysław
relinquished his claim to the Russian throne and recognized Michael as the
legitimate tsar of Russia, returning the Russian royal insignia as well.
Modern
legacy The story of Dymitriads and
False Dimitris proved useful to the future
generations of rulers and politicians in Poland and Russia, and a distorted
version of the real events gained much fame in Russia, as well as in Poland.
In Poland the Dmitriads campaign is remembered as
the height of the Polish Golden Age, the time Poles captured Moscow,
something that even four million troops from Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany and
other Axis Powers could not manage. In Russia it was useful to the new
dynasty of tsars, the Romanovs, who understood that history is a powerful
political tool, written by the victors. They tried to erase all references
and theories to their role in creating the False Dmitris,
self-interested cooperation with Polish and Swedish interventions, or their
opposition to the liberal unia troista;
instead they supported a portrayal of Dmitriads as
the heroic defense of Russian nation against the
barbaric invasion of Polish-Jesuit alliance, who attempted to destroy the
Russian Orthodox culture. This was the history line shown by the famous
Russian historian, Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin, beautifully described by Aleksandr
Pushkin in his "Boris Godunov" and by Modest Mussorgsky in his
opera "Boris Godunov". The communist regime of Soviet Union also
found this war a useful propaganda tool, especially during the times of the
Polish–Soviet War. The Dymitriads were also useful
for the Polish propaganda of the authoritarian regime of Józef
Piłsudski between the World Wars. In post-Soviet Russia the only autumn holiday, the National
Unity Day, first celebrated on 4 November 2005, commemorates the popular
uprising which ejected the alien occupying force from Moscow in November
1612, and more generally the end of the Time of Troubles and foreign
interventions in Russia. Its name alludes to the idea that all the classes of
the Russian society willingly united to preserve the Russian statehood when
its demise seemed inevitable, even though there was neither Tsar nor
Patriarch to guide them. Recently this episode was made into a Russian movie
1612. Sources
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