CHAPTER TWO. Godunov's activities. - Establishment of the Patriarchate in Russia. - The Shuisky and other boyars are acting in concert with Godunov. - Their fears regarding the accession of Dmitry Uglichsky. - Killing Dmitry. - Godunov's desire for the throne. - Fire in Moscow. - Invasion

The Shuisky princes are the second oldest line of the Rurik family after the Moscow princes. This noble family during the XVI century. was at the foot of the throne, and at the beginning of the XVII century, his representative reached the royal throne, but failed to stay on it. In the XVI century. The Shuiskys were the most influential and noble family of the Muscovite state, but the events of the Time of Troubles broke him.

The ancestor of the Shuiskys was the brother of Alexander Nevsky, Andrei Yaroslavich. He was among the first in Russia to oppose the rule of the Horde, but was defeated and was forced to accept the fact that the great reign passed to his famous brother, who adhered to the policy of non-resistance to the Horde.

The descendants of Andrei Yaroslavich reigned in Suzdal and Nizhny Novgorod. In the XIV century. The Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod princes, Konstantin Vasilyevich and his son Dmitry Konstantinovich, were dangerous rivals of the Moscow princes in the struggle for a great reign. In 1360, Dmitry Konstantinovich Nizhny Novgorod, taking advantage of the fact that the Moscow prince Dmitry Ivanovich (the future famous winner of Mamai on the Kulikovo field) was still a child, received a label in the Horde for a great reign and took the throne in Vladimir. However, a few years later, the Moscow boyars expelled the prince from the capital city and obtained a grand ducal label for Dmitry of Moscow. Dmitry Konstantinovich resigned himself to the loss, married his daughter to the Moscow prince and for many years became his ally in the fight against the Horde. The reciprocal military campaigns of the Horde ruined the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod principality, and Dmitry Konstantinovich abandoned the policy of confronting the Horde. In 1382, he openly betrayed the former alliance. The sons of Dmitry Konstantinovich, princes Vasily and Semyon, accompanied the army of Khan Tokhtamysh, advancing on Moscow, and persuaded the Muscovites to open the gates of the fortress (Dmitry Donskoy himself was not in the city then). The princes swore that Tokhtamysh would not harm the townspeople, and even kissed the cross as a sign of the sincerity of their oath. Muscovites believed the relatives of their princess and opened the gates. The Tatars broke into Moscow, subjected it to a terrible defeat and burned it.

The betrayal of Dmitry Nizhny Novgorod did not lead to a war between Nizhny Novgorod and Muscovites, apparently, Dmitry Donskoy did not have enough strength to fight against his father-in-law. However, Donskoy's successor, Vasily I, got even with Nizhny Novgorod for the ruin of Moscow. In 1391, in the Horde, he received a label for the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod principality and annexed it to his possessions. Sons and grandsons of Dmitry Konstantinovich up to the first quarter of the 15th century. tried to fight for the return of their destiny, while relying on the troops of the Horde, but were defeated.

At that time, a small Shuisky inheritance (the center in the city of Shuya, now - as part of the Ivanovo region) was still preserved. The ancestor of the appanage princes Shuisky was Yuri Vasilyevich, the grandson of Dmitry Konstantinovich. However, in the middle of the XV century. life in a tiny lot ceased to satisfy its rulers. Prince Vasily Vasilievich Shuisky, nicknamed Grebenka, served Veliky Novgorod. His relatives, princes Vasily and Fedor Yuryevich (sons of the first prince Shuisky), entered into an alliance with the worst enemy of Grand Duke Vasily II Vasilyevich - Dmitry Shemyaka and signed an agreement with him, according to which, if Shemyaka takes the Moscow throne, then Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod the principality will be restored and passed to the Shuisky brothers. However, this agreement remained only on paper. In 1450, Shemyaka suffered a crushing defeat from Vasily II and left Galich, Prince Vasily Yurievich soon died, and Prince Fedor brought his "guilt" to Vasily II. The opposition to Moscow by Prince Vasily Grebenka Shuisky was not successful either. In 1456, he led the Novgorod army in a battle with the Muscovites. The Novgorodians were defeated, and the wounded Prince Shuisky, barely alive, was taken out of the battlefield.

Under Ivan III, the Shuiskys transferred to the sovereign's service and occupied one of the first places. In the Russo-Lithuanian War early XVI in. Prince Vasily Vasilyevich Shuisky, nicknamed the Mute, became famous. He participated in many campaigns against Lithuania, and after the capture of Smolensk in 1514, he was left in it as a governor. Prince Vasily the Nemoy uncovered a conspiracy aimed at transferring Smolensk to Lithuania, and, having captured the conspirators, ordered them to be hanged in full view of the Lithuanian army approaching the city.

In the early childhood of Ivan IV, Prince Vasily Vasilyevich was the head of an active boyar party that fought for power. He managed to eliminate rivals and become the ruler of the state. To top it off, the prince married the cousin of Ivan IV - Anastasia - the daughter of the baptized Tatar "prince" Peter and the sister of Vasily III, Princess Evdokia Ivanovna. He received the title of Moscow governor and occupied the Kremlin court of Prince Andrei Staritsky, the late brother of Vasily III. But in 1538, death struck the aged Prince Vasily Vasilyevich.

Mute's brother, Prince Ivan Vasilievich, took his place, but in the struggle against the Belsky princes he could not resist and was sent from Moscow to the province of Vladimir. Meanwhile, in Moscow, supporters of the Shuiskys prepared a conspiracy against the Belskys. Prince Ivan Vasilyevich rode to Moscow at night (January 3, 1542) and took power into his own hands. The head of the government, Prince I.F. Belsky, ended up in prison, where he was killed, his supporters were also sent to prison. Metropolitan Joasaph, who supported the Belskys, was almost killed by the conspirators and exiled to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, and the Archbishop of Novgorod Macarius was put in his place. Novgorodians generally supported the Shuiskys, remembering that one of them was the last governor of free Novgorod.

Subsequently, Ivan the Terrible bitterly recalled the time of his orphanhood. The boyars, according to the recollections of the tsar, while showing him external honor and respect, in fact did not care about him and his brother. Ivan's younger brother, the deaf-mute Yuri, could not be a good friend to him. The boy felt abandoned.

Ivan Shuisky evoked particular hatred for Ivan the Terrible. In his first letter to Andrei Kurbsky, Ivan IV recalled a picture from his childhood: “We used to play, and Prince Ivan Vasilyevich Shuisky was sitting on a bench, leaning his elbow on our father’s bed and putting his foot on a chair, but he wouldn’t look at us - no way a parent, not as a guardian, not quite like a slave to the masters ... "The crowned children, Grozny recalled, were kept" like miserable servants. According to the king, the children of the Grand Duke even starved.

The triumph of Prince Ivan Shuisky was short-lived: in May 1542 he died, and the government was headed by his relatives, Princes Ivan and Andrei Mikhailovich Shuisky, and Prince Fyodor Ivanovich Skopin-Shuisky. Prince Andrei Mikhailovich, who bore the nickname Palisade, excelled among them. Earlier, he became famous for his cruelty and greed when he was governor in Pskov (1539-1540). The Pskov chronicler reports that “artisans did everything for him for nothing, and big people gave him gifts ...” Residents of the Pskov suburbs were afraid to travel to Pskov so as not to catch the eye of the governor, and the abbots from the monasteries “fled to Novgorod”. “There were governors in Pskov,” the chronicler concludes, “fierce, like lions, and their people, like beasts marvelous to the peasants.”

While the boyars were at enmity with each other and plundered the state treasury, young Ivan IV was growing up. The boy began to take out his resentment and anger on the dumb creatures. According to a former friend, and then an ideological opponent of Tsar Prince Andrei Kurbsky, young Ivan IV threw cats and dogs from the roofs of high towers. When he grew up, he began to throw off people. With a company of his peers, the young Grand Duke rode around the squares and markets on horseback and began to beat the townspeople he met along the way. The boyars approved of the cruel amusements of the little sovereign, saying: “Oh, this king will be brave and courageous!”

The palace struggle was accompanied by violence, which was also observed by the young Grand Duke. Ivan Vasilyevich was smart and quick-witted, violence was deeply absorbed into his mind from childhood. At the age of 13, he passed his first death sentence, ordering the assassination of the head of the Shuisky boyar party, Prince Andrei Mikhailovich Shuisky (1543). Since then, as the chronicle writes, "the boyars began to be afraid, from the sovereign to have fear and obedience."

Having killed Prince Andrei Shuisky at the beginning of his reign, Ivan the Terrible seemed to have exhausted his hatred for this family. Later, even during the years of the oprichnina, not a single member of the Shuisky family was executed. True, in February 1565, among the first victims of the oprichnina terror, the boyar Prince Alexander Borisovich Gorbaty-Suzdalsky, the famous governor who distinguished himself in the capture of Kazan, and his son Peter, relatives of the Shuisky princes, were beheaded. However, the Shuiskys themselves were in the confidence of the king.

The son of the ruler Prince Ivan Vasilyevich - Prince Peter Ivanovich - participated in the Kazan capture in 1552, conquered the Mari and Udmurt lands, took Dorpat, Marienburg and other cities in the Livonian War. In 1564, military happiness betrayed Prince Peter Ivanovich - in a battle with Hetman Radziwill, he was defeated, lost his horse and walked to a neighboring village. Lithuanian peasants, recognizing the Russian governor, robbed him and drowned him in a well. Shuisky's body was buried by Hetman Radziwill in the Vilna Church, next to the ashes of the Grand Duchess of Lithuania Elena Ivanovna, daughter of Ivan III.

At the end of the 1560s. Shuisky's remains became the subject of diplomatic correspondence between the government of Ivan the Terrible and the Polish-Lithuanian "lords". At the beginning of 1569, Princes Ivan and Nikita Petrovich Shuisky “bashed the tsar” with the idea that the tsar would allow the body of their father to be exchanged for the body of the wife of the Lithuanian governor Stanislav Dovoyna, who died in Russian captivity and was buried in Moscow. An agreement on this was almost reached, but the Vilna governor, the enemy of the pre-war, opposed, and the ashes of Prince Shuisky remained in a foreign land.

The son of Prince P. I. Shuisky, Prince Nikita, died in 1571. During the Devlet-Girey raid on Moscow, the Tatars set fire to the city. A terrible fire broke out in Moscow. The population was seized with panic and rushed from the Kremlin and Kitay-gorod along the Living (floating bridge) across the Moscow River. In this crush, Prince Nikita tried to break through, but one of Prince Tatev's lackeys stabbed him with a knife, and the prince died from his wound.

The elder brother of Prince N.P. Shuisky, Prince Ivan Petrovich, became famous for the heroic defense of Pskov from the troops of the Polish King Stefan Batory. Together with his relative, Prince Vasily Fedorovich Skopin-Shuisky, Prince Ivan Petrovich was sent to Pskov, which in August 1580 was approached by the army of the Polish king. The heroic defense of Pskov lasted five months. The defenders of the city withstood the fierce fire of enemy artillery and themselves actively shelled the royal camp with cannons, repelled attacks and destroyed tunnels. The besiegers captured one of the towers of the city - Pig - but the Pskov gunners hit it from the famous huge cannon, which bore the name Bars, and blew it up. The bodies of the Poles and Lithuanians, mixed with the remains of the tower and walls, filled to the top of the moat of the Pskov fortress. Having lost five thousand people killed, the king was forced to abandon the capture of Pskov. On December 1, he left the camp, instructing Hetman Jan Zamoyski to continue the siege, but fighting behaved sluggishly. The failure near Pskov had a heavy impact on the military and material resources of the Commonwealth, and peace was soon concluded.

At the beginning of the reign of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, Prince Ivan Petrovich Shuisky entered the regency council under the sovereign. He became the head of the party of opponents of Boris Godunov. The Shuiskys were going to strike at the main pillar of Godunov’s influence: in 1586, the Shuiskys, with the support of Metropolitan Dionysius and Bishop Varlaam of Krutitsa, turned to the tsar so that he, “for the sake of childbearing”, tonsured his wife Irina Godunova as a nun, and he himself entered to a second marriage. Prominent Moscow merchants also came out on the side of the Shuiskys. But Boris managed to defeat his opponents. Soon, Metropolitan Dionysius was removed from the throne, Prince Ivan Petrovich Shuisky and his relatives - the brothers Princes Andrei, Vasily, Alexander, Dmitry and Ivan Ivanovich Shuisky - were exiled, and the Moscow merchants Nagai and Golub "and comrades" were executed. In exile, I.P. Shuisky and A.I. Shuisky were killed by their bailiffs, the first in 1588, and the second in 1589.

After the death of Prince Ivan Petrovich, Prince Vasily Ivanovich, the grandson of the executed Andrei Chastokol, became the head of the family. For the first time he was mentioned in sources in 1574, when he was among the heads in the sovereign's regiment in the campaign of Ivan the Terrible against the Crimeans. In 1580, Prince Vasily was the tsar's boyfriend at his wedding to Maria Naga. According to some reports, Vasily Shuisky, even under Ivan the Terrible, revealed ambitious aspirations for the throne. However, this news may well be inspired by subsequent events. In 1584, the prince received the nobility, then, together with the other Shuiskys, he fell into disgrace, having been defeated in a court fight with Godunov.

Boris Godunov was afraid of Shuisky, he and the head of the Boyar Duma, Prince F.I. Mstislavsky, were forbidden to marry so that their family would be cut short. But in 1591, Prince Vasily was appointed head of an investigative commission sent to Uglich to investigate the death of Tsarevich Dmitry, and he returned with a decision favorable to Godunov: the Tsarevich "self-slaughtered" because of Nagih's negligence. The marriage of Prince Dmitry Shuisky, brother of Vasily and Ekaterina Grigorievna Skuratova-Belskaya, sister-in-law of Tsar Boris and daughter of Malyuta Skuratov, strengthened Godunov's alliance with Shuisky.

When the first rumors appeared about the impostor, who took the name of "Tsarevich Dmitry Uglichsky", Prince Vasily Shuisky had to go to the Execution Ground to calm the Muscovites and solemnly assure and swear that the tsarevich had died as a result of an accident. This did not prevent him later, together with other boyars, from recognizing the royal origin of False Dmitry I. Soon after that, he became the soul of a conspiracy against the impostor and said that the new tsar was an impostor, and Tsarevich Dmitry was killed on the orders of Godunov. Thus, Prince Vasily had to, in accordance with the circumstances, change his point of view on the fate and death of Tsarevich Dmitry three times. It is unlikely that he should be blamed for this, Vasily Shuisky acted in the same way as other boyars, who did not at all strive for exploits in the name of truth.

Two days after the assassination of the impostor, the boyars, participants in the coup, proclaimed Prince Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky tsar. Undoubtedly, Vasily Shuisky had much more rights to the throne than Boris Godunov, and even more so the rootless impostor Grishka Otrepiev. If we consider the dynastic situation of the late XVI century. in terms of traditional princely law Ancient Russia, then after the suppression of the family of Moscow princes, the throne already in 1598 was to pass to the next in seniority line of princes Shuisky. However, in Time of Troubles other factors were at work.

Contemporaries note that the election of a new king was not the work of the whole people, but the result of a conspiracy of a narrow group of people. The Trinity cellar Avraamiy Palitsyn writes that after the proclamation of Vasily Shuisky as king, all of Russia “settled ... in doublethink; some loved him, others hated him."

Vasily Shuisky began his reign with the promulgation of a unique document - the Kissing Record, which guaranteed the tsar's subjects the observance of their rights - a fair trial and the prevention of unfair exiles and executions. “Vasily Shuisky turned from a sovereign of serfs into a legitimate king of subjects, ruling according to the laws” - this is how the great Russian historian V. O. Klyuchevsky assessed the significance of this document. The cross-kissing record could change the entire political image of the state, but these promises were only a declaration. Vasily Shuisky created an atmosphere of suspicion and denunciation at his court, often violated the Kissing Cross record, exiling him, sending him to prison and subjecting him to executions without a fair trial and investigation. The glory of a man dishonorable and prone to intrigue and deceit was firmly established behind the king.

Reveals the atmosphere of denunciation and wrongful trial that flourished under Shuisky, a denunciation of the supporters of Vasily Shuisky, filed with Prince Vladislav. According to the denunciation, the Duma nobleman V. B. Sukin “was sitting in the petition hut and secretly put people in water (that is, drowned) according to Shuisky’s command and plotted himself”; the steward V. I. Buturlin - “and brought him to his own father”; steward princes G. F. Khvorostinin, A. P. Lvov, I. M. Odoevsky and others are called "whisperers". This document also confirms the news of Shuisky's addiction to sorcerers: the sleeping bag of I. V. Izmailov, the person closest to the tsar, “was with Shuisky at the sorcerers and rooters”, that is, he looked after sorcerers and connoisseurs of magical and poisonous herbs and roots.

It seemed to contemporaries that it was precisely in Shuisky's violation of his oath that the cause of the disasters that befell Russian state with this sovereign. Others thought that the reason for the ensuing unrest was the hasty elevation of Shuisky to the throne by a narrow circle of supporters, without the participation of "the whole earth", that is, the entire population of the country. Be that as it may, in the first months after the death of False Dmitry I, his ghost gained strength and significance, again became a banner for the discontented and the rebels. Tsar Vasily Shuisky took all measures to prevent the development of an impostor adventure: the disfigured corpse of False Dmitry, who had lain on the square for three days, was thrown into a skudelnitsa, and then burned and the ashes were hammered into a cannon and fired from it towards Poland. At the same time, Tsarevich Dmitry was recognized as a holy martyr, killed on the orders of the villain - Boris Godunov. But it did not help.

On the outskirts of the state, uprisings began against the king. The name of "Tsar Dmitry", miraculously resurrected from the dead, became a banner that united all those dissatisfied with the accession of the boyar sovereign. Soon the leader also appeared - the former combat serf Ivan Bolotnikov, who took the name of the governor "Tsar Dmitry".

Bolotnikov's successes are impressive. A few months later, he was already under the walls of Moscow and threatened the tsarist army, exhausted by desertion and poor command. But happiness turned out to be on the side of Shuisky. A split occurred in the rebellious army, and the leaders of the Ryazan noble militia, which constituted a significant part of the rebels, Istoma Pashkov and Prokofy Lyapunov, went over to the side of the tsar during the decisive battles near Moscow. Bolotnikov was defeated and retreated to Kaluga, from where he moved to Tula. Tsar Vasily showed wisdom and a desire for reconciliation - Bolotnikov's Cossacks who laid down their arms were accepted into the sovereign's service and received a salary. But the "thieves" taken prisoner in battle were drowned. The siege of Bolotnikov in Tula was led by the tsar himself. The rebels defended desperately, causing significant damage to the enemy army, but after a few months of the siege, the city began to experience a lack of food supplies, and then famine set in. “The inhabitants ate dogs, cats, carrion on the streets, bull and cow skins,” writes K. Bussov, a member of the Tula defense. On the advice of the Murom nobleman Foma Kravkov, the besiegers blocked the flow of the Upa River, and Tula began to flood.

The position of the Bolotnikovites became desperate, the water flooded the remnants of food supplies, desertion and indignation began against the leaders of the defense - Bolotnikov and his allies. The defenders of the fortress forced Bolotnikov to enter into negotiations with Shuisky and capitulate. The king promised the leaders of the rebels immunity, but did not keep his word - they were all executed.

As soon as the center of unrest that blazed in Tula was extinguished with great difficulty, the flames of rebellion flared up on the outskirts of the state. The Terek Cossacks, who created the False Peter, nominated a new impostor - "Tsarevich Ivan-August", the "son" of Ivan the Terrible from his marriage to Anna Koltovskaya. Astrakhan and the entire Lower Volga region submitted to this impostor. Following him appeared the "grandson" of the Terrible, the "son" of Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich "Tsarevich Lavrenty." In the Cossack villages, impostors grew like mushrooms: the “children” of Tsar Fedor appeared - the “princes” Simeon, Savely, Vasily, Klementy, Eroshka, Gavrilka, Martinka. But the main danger was represented by the new “Tsar Demetrius”, who appeared in Lithuania in the winter of 1607, who went down in history as False Dmitry II, or the Tushinsky Thief.

The impostor went on a campaign in September 1607 and moved to the aid of the besieged Tula. On the day of her capitulation, he was already in Kozelsk, but managed to help the besieged and, in fear of the tsarist army, fled to Severshchina. In the spring of 1608 the impostor set out on a campaign against Moscow. The Lithuanian magnate Prince Roman Rozhinsky became the commander-in-chief of the army of Cossacks, Poles and the surviving Bolotnikovites. Colonel Alexander Lisovsky and Ataman Ivan Zarutsky commanded the Cossacks. Having defeated the army near Bolkhov, commanded by the tsar's brother, the boyar Dmitry Shuisky, the impostor approached Moscow and camped in Tushino, from which he received the nickname Tushinsky Thief from his contemporaries.

A long confrontation began between False Dmitry II and Vasily Shuisky. Moscow found itself in a ring of siege, though not closed. Fierce battles took place between the warring camps, but not all Muscovites showed a desire to die for Tsar Vasily. From Moscow to Tushino, princes, stolniks, service people, clerks began to run across.

Tsar Vasily tried to stop the betrayal. He suggested that the service people either stay in Moscow and kiss the cross as a sign of their loyalty, or honestly leave the besieged city and go to Tushino, but not flee by deceit. Many expressed a desire to die for the tsar, but the very next day some of those who had sworn to be loyal to Shuisky left for Tushino. An attempt to rally the service class was unsuccessful. At the same time, Patriarch Hermogenes actively supported Shuisky, sending letters to the cities with calls to serve the true king and not shy away from enemy charms. While Tushinsky Vor stood near Moscow, his troops plundered the country, making long trips to the northeast. The cities of Pereslavl, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Vologda, Vladimir, Suzdal, Murom, Kasimov, Arzamas and others went over to the side of the impostor or were taken.

Vasily Shuisky turned to the Swedish king Charles IX for help. A relative of the tsar, the young prince Mikhail Vasilyevich Skopin-Shuisky (the son of Prince Vasily Fedorovich, who led the Pskov defense along with Prince I.P. Shuisky), was sent to Novgorod to negotiate with the Swedes, who by that time had managed to prove himself as a talented governor. He managed to attract a mercenary army of 15 thousand Swedes, Germans, Scots and other immigrants from Western Europe to the Russian service and gather a Russian militia of 3 thousand people in the northern regions.

On May 10, 1609, he moved from Novgorod "to cleanse the Muscovite state." But before that, the governors sent by Skopin-Shuisky managed to recapture Vologda, Yaroslavl and some other northern cities from the Tushins. In several battles, Skopin-Shuisky defeated the main forces of the Tushinsky Thief. On the way Skopin-Shuisky to Moscow, his army was replenished with detachments from the liberated cities. Tushino hetman Jan Petr Sapieha, fearing the advancing Russian army, lifted the siege of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, which lasted almost four months in fierce battles and assaults.

On March 12, 1610, Prince M. V. Skopin-Shuisky entered Moscow and was greeted by a jubilant people. But among the triumphant crowd, the heart of one person was filled with malice and hatred. It was Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Shuisky, the brother of the tsar and a mediocre governor who lost many battles. He was justifiably afraid of the young governor - in the event of the death of the childless Tsar Vasily, Prince Dmitry was to take the throne, but the huge popularity of Skopin-Shuisky instilled fear in the royal brother that the people would proclaim him heir, and then king. Some sources testify that Tsar Vasily himself was afraid of Skopin-Shuisky.

Details the further tragic events of the "Scripture on the Repose and Burial of Prince Skopin-Shuisky", according to which, at the christening of Prince Alexei Vorotynsky, the godmother - the "villainous" Princess Ekaterina Shuiskaya (as mentioned above, she was the daughter of Malyuta Skuratov) - offered to her godfather - to Prince M.V. Skopin-Shuisky - a bowl of poison. The young commander fell ill for several days and died on April 23, 1610. With cries and cries of the crowd of people, the body of the prince was escorted to burial in the royal tomb - the Archangel Cathedral. With the death of Skopin-Shuisky, they began to hate the king, who had not previously enjoyed special love, as the culprit of his death.

The Tushino camp with the death of Skopin-Shuisky took courage. But False Dmitry II, like Vasily Shuisky, felt uncomfortable in his "capital". In September 1609, King Sigismund III declared war on Russia, which entered into an alliance with his worst enemy and nephew, the Swedish king Charles IX, who deprived Sigismund of the Swedish throne. On October 1, the king appeared under the walls of Smolensk, and the heroic defense of this city began, led by the boyar Mikhail Borisovich Shein.

Gradually, among the Poles surrounding the impostor, a plan arose: to transfer him into the hands of the king, and themselves to take the side of Sigismund III and get him or his son Vladislav the Moscow crown. The Poles and some Russian Tushians entered into negotiations with the king. The impostor was subjected to house arrest, but managed to escape from Tushin to Kaluga, where he again attracted many supporters - Cossacks, Russians and part of the Poles - and waged war with two sovereigns: Tsar Vasily and King Sigismund. The Tushino camp was empty, the supporters of the king went to him near Smolensk, and the supporters of the impostor - to Kaluga.

Vasily Shuisky sent Prince D. I. Shuisky and foreign mercenaries led by the Swedish commander Count J. Delagardie against the Poles. On June 24, Dmitry Shuisky was defeated in a battle with the Polish hetman S. Zholkevsky near the village of Klushina near Mozhaisk. The reason for the defeat was the betrayal of foreign mercenaries, to whom Dmitry Shuisky did not want to pay a salary, excused by the lack of money. The Klushinsky defeat decided the fate of Vasily Shuisky. On July 17 unrest broke out in Moscow. According to the chronicle, the Moscow "thieves" agreed with the supporters of the Kaluga impostor that they would abandon False Dmitry II: "and we will all fall behind the Moscow Tsar Vasily," and together we will choose the king. A crowd of conspirators led by Zakhary Lyapunov came to the palace, and Lyapunov began to reprimand the tsar: “How long will Christian blood be shed for you? The earth is empty, nothing good is being done in your reign, take pity on our death, put down the king's staff, and we will somehow think about ourselves.

Shuisky is not the first time experienced this. In February 1609, Prince R. Gagarin, T. V. Gryaznoy, M. A. Molchanov and others also tried to “unseat” him from the throne, the tsar courageously came out to meet them, and the rebels fled. But this time it was different. The tsar responded to Lyapunov with abuse and grabbed his knife. Zakhary, a tall and strong man, shouted back: “Don’t touch me, otherwise I’ll take it in my hands and crush everything!” The conspirators fell out of the palace, but not to retreat. Across the Moskva River, at the Serpukhov Gates, crowds of people gathered, and here it was decided to beat the tsar with his forehead in order to leave the throne, because Christian blood is shed because of him. Shuisky's brother-in-law, Prince I.M. Vorotynsky, was sent as a truce and got Shuisky's consent to leave the throne, and be content with an inheritance consisting of Nizhny Novgorod.

Delighted Muscovites rushed to the Tushino people to demand that they overthrow False Dmitry II. But they only laughed at them: “Why don’t you remember the sovereign’s kiss on the cross, they removed their king from the kingdom, and we are ready to die for ours.” Patriarch Hermogenes tried to take advantage of this and demanded that the throne be returned to Tsar Basil, but the instigators of the rebellion could not come to terms with this. On the morning of July 19, they came to the court of Tsar Vasily and forcibly tonsured the former tsar and his wife, Tsarina Maria Petrovna, into monks. Shuisky did not want to get a haircut and did not say the words of renunciation of the world, as it should be according to the rite. The conspirators were not embarrassed, instead of the king, Prince Vasily Tyufyakin uttered the words of renunciation. Patriarch Hermogenes did not recognize this tonsure, but argued that Tyufyakin should be a monk, but no one took into account the opinion of the lord. In Moscow, the Seven Boyars were established - boyar rule. The “seven boyars”, fearing the onset of False Dmitry II, hastened to conclude an agreement with S. Zholkevsky on calling the Polish prince Vladislav to the Russian throne. Zholkievsky's army entered Moscow, and former king Vasily, his wife and brothers, Dmitry and Ivan, were taken to Poland.

Polish sources describe in detail the royal audience given to Shuisky in Warsaw on October 29, 1611. After Zolkiewski's speech, praising the king's happiness and courage, Shuisky bowed low and kissed the royal hand, while his brothers beat him to the ground with their foreheads.

However, Russian chronicles describe the matter in a completely different way. According to one of them, Tsar Vasily answered the demand to bow to the king: “It is not proper for the Moscow Tsar to bow to the king; then by the Divine will I was brought into captivity; He was not taken by your hands, but by Moscow traitors, by his slaves he was given.

Even in distant Siberia, they remembered the captivity of Tsar Vasily and attributed to him unusual courage and a feat that did not exist. Tsar Vasily, according to the Siberian Chronicle, answered the king: "... You yourself, the king, bow to me, the Tsar of Moscow, since I am your head." The king was furious, sent him to Poland and there he died a martyr's death.

Tsar Vasily spent the last years of his life in Polish captivity and died in 1612. Over his grave, the Poles erected a magnificent tomb, decorated with inscriptions praising the triumph of the Commonwealth over Muscovy. The body of Vasily Shuisky was handed over to the Russian ambassador, Prince A.M. Lvov, at the urgent request of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich in 1635. The royal order prescribed to ransom the body of Tsar Vasily in a huge amount - up to 10,000 rubles, but the ambassadors managed only to limit themselves to rich offerings Polish nobles, and the matter was settled. On June 10, the coffin with the body of Shuisky, his brother Dmitry and his wife Ekaterina was solemnly greeted at the entrance to Moscow, in Dorogomilovo. The sovereign met the body at the Assumption Cathedral, and the next day the burial took place.

Only the youngest of the Shuiskys, the boyar Prince Ivan Ivanovich, returned alive from Polish captivity (1620). At the Electoral Council, his name was named among the possible candidates for tsars, but the candidacy of Prince Ivan Shuisky was not seriously considered by the participants in the council. After the reign of Tsar Vasily Shuisky, which was accompanied by numerous disasters, the king had no supporters from this family. True, already under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, impostors appeared in Poland, calling themselves "princes" and the children of Vasily Shuisky - Semyon and Ivan. Both were demanded by the Moscow government - the first was caught in Moldova, the second, after long wanderings, ended up in Germany - and executed. The man who took the name of Ivan Shuisky, the fugitive clerk Timofey Ankudinov, was unusually talented and educated for his time. During his travels abroad, he learned several languages, knew astrology and astronomy, and wrote poetry. However, this did not save him from a painful execution in December 1653.

Prince Ivan Ivanovich Shuisky did not live to see the appearance of his imaginary nephews. Under Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, he

led the Vladimir Judgment Order and died in 1638, leaving no offspring. But the Shuisky family did not stop. According to Polish genealogical directories, in Poland there was a family of princes Shuisky, Catholics, descended from Prince Ivan Dmitrievich, who fled from Russia to Lithuania in 1566. It is possible that this lineage continues today.

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In Russia, the clan died out, but the existing and currently Polish Shuisky family, which did not use the princely title, derived its origin from it.

Origin of the genus

Junior branches

The Shuiskys were also called the descendants of Simeon, the younger brother of Vasily Kirdyapa:

• Semyon Dmitrievich
  • Vasily Semyonovich Shuisky
    • Alexander Shuisky Eyed -> Eyed-Shuiskys, Barbashins
    • Ivan Shuisky Humpbacked -> Humpback-Shuisky
    • Roman Shuisky
    • Andrey Shuisky Lugvitsa
    • Boris Shuisky

The younger branch of the Shuiskys was less actively involved in the history of the country, and its representatives are less known.

Polish branch

One of the representatives of the senior branch, Ivan Dmitrievich Gubka, fled to Lithuania around 1536. The Polish Shuisky family was brought to him, whose representatives did not use the princely title. To this clan belonged, in particular, Jozef Shuisky (1835-1883) - a Polish politician, scientist and writer, rector of the Jagiellonian University, general secretary Polish Academy of Knowledge.

The last representative of this branch in the male line is Piotr Shuisky (Polish. Piotr Szuyski) was born in 1943.

Some representatives

• Prince Andrei Mikhailovich Shuisky Chestokol (died 1543) - Russian statesman.
• Vasily Shuisky (died 1612) - Russian Tsar from 1606 to 1610.
• Prince Vasily Vasilyevich Shuisky Pale (second half of the 15th century) - Russian military and statesman.
• Prince Vasily Fedorovich Shuisky - son of Prince Fyodor Yuryevich Shuisky.
• Prince Vasily Yuryevich Shuisky (died in 1448) - son of the first appanage prince of Shuisky Yuri Vasilyevich
• Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Shuisky (died in 1612) - Russian military leader of the Time of Troubles. Son of Ivan Andreevich Shuisky.
• Prince Ivan Andreevich Shuisky (1533-1573) - Russian statesman and military figure.
• Prince Ivan Vasilyevich Shuisky (died in 1542) - Russian military and statesman.
• Prince Ivan Vasilievich Bolshoi Shuisky Osprey - son of Prince Vasily Vasilyevich Shuisky Pale.
• Prince Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Shuisky Pleten (died 1559) - Russian military leader.
• Prince Ivan Petrovich Shuisky (died in 1587) - Russian military and statesman, son of the hero of the Livonian War, Peter Ivanovich Shuisky.
• Prince Mikhail Vasilievich Shuisky - Russian statesman and military figure. Son of Prince Vasily Yurievich Shuisky.
• Prince Pyotr Ivanovich Shuisky (died in 1564) - Russian military and statesman, son of Ivan Vasilyevich Shuisky.
• Prince Fyodor Yuryevich Shuisky (died in 1476) - the son of the first specific prince of Shuisky, Yuri Vasilyevich.

see also

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Notes

Literature

• Dolgorukov P.V. Russian genealogical book. - St. Petersburg. : Type. Carl Wingeber, 1854. - T. 1. - S. 231.
• History of the genera of the Russian nobility: In 2 books. / aut.-stat. P. N. Petrov. - M.: Sovremennik; Lexis, 1991. - T. 1. - S. 229-232. - 50,000 copies. - ISBN 5-270-01513-7.
• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
• Abramovich G.V. Princes Shuisky and the Russian throne / G. V. Abramovich (†); Reviewers: Cand. ist. Sciences V. M. Vorobyov, Dr. ist. Sciences V. M. Paneyakh, Doctor of History. Sciences R. G. Skrynnikov; Leningrad State University. - L.: Publishing House of Leningrad State University, 1991. - 192 p. - 50,000 copies. - ISBN 5-288-00605-9.(reg.)

An excerpt characterizing the Shuiskys

The next day after her explanation with her mother, Natasha waited all day for Bolkonsky, but he did not arrive. The next day, the third day, it was the same. Pierre also did not come, and Natasha, not knowing that Prince Andrei had gone to her father, could not explain his absence to herself.
So three weeks passed. Natasha did not want to go anywhere, and like a shadow, idle and despondent, she walked around the rooms, in the evening she secretly cried from everyone and did not appear in the evenings to her mother. She was constantly blushing and irritated. It seemed to her that everyone knew about her disappointment, laughed and regretted her. With all the strength of inner grief, this vainglorious grief increased her misfortune.
One day she came to the countess, wanted to say something to her, and suddenly burst into tears. Her tears were the tears of an offended child who himself does not know why he is being punished.
The Countess began to reassure Natasha. Natasha, who at first listened to her mother's words, suddenly interrupted her:
- Stop it, mom, I don’t think, and I don’t want to think! So, I traveled and stopped, and stopped ...
Her voice trembled, she almost burst into tears, but she recovered herself and calmly continued: “And I don’t want to get married at all. And I'm afraid of him; I am now completely, completely, calmed down ...
The next day after this conversation, Natasha put on that old dress, which she was especially aware of for the cheerfulness it delivered in the morning, and in the morning she began her former way of life, from which she lagged behind after the ball. After drinking tea, she went to the hall, which she especially loved for its strong resonance, and began to sing her solfeji (singing exercises). Having finished the first lesson, she stopped in the middle of the hall and repeated one musical phrase that she especially liked. She listened joyfully to that (as if unexpected for her) charm with which these sounds, shimmering, filled the entire emptiness of the hall and slowly died away, and she suddenly became cheerful. “Why think about it so much and so well,” she said to herself, and began to walk up and down the hall, stepping not with simple steps on the resonant parquet, but at every step stepping from heel (she was wearing new, favorite shoes) to toe, and just as joyfully as to the sounds of his voice, listening to this measured clatter of heels and the creaking of socks. Passing by a mirror, she looked into it. - "Here I am!" as if the expression on her face at the sight of herself spoke. “Well, that's good. And I don't need anyone."
The footman wanted to come in to clean up something in the hall, but she did not let him in, again shutting the door behind him, and continued her walk. She returned that morning again to her beloved state of self-love and admiration for herself. - “What a charm this Natasha is!” she said again to herself in the words of some third, collective, masculine face. - "Good, voice, young, and she does not interfere with anyone, just leave her alone." But no matter how much they left her alone, she could no longer be at peace, and immediately felt it.
In the front door the entrance door opened, someone asked: are you at home? and someone's footsteps were heard. Natasha looked in the mirror, but she did not see herself. She listened to the sounds in the hallway. When she saw herself, her face was pale. It was he. She knew this for sure, although she barely heard the sound of his voice from the closed doors.
Natasha, pale and frightened, ran into the living room.
- Mom, Bolkonsky has arrived! - she said. - Mom, this is terrible, this is unbearable! “I don’t want to… suffer!” What should I do?…
The countess had not yet had time to answer her, when Prince Andrei entered the drawing room with an anxious and serious face. As soon as he saw Natasha, his face lit up. He kissed the hand of the countess and Natasha and sat down beside the sofa.
“For a long time we have not had pleasure ...” the countess began, but Prince Andrei interrupted her, answering her question and obviously in a hurry to say what he needed.
- I have not been with you all this time, because I was with my father: I needed to talk to him about a very important matter. I just got back last night,” he said, looking at Natasha. “I need to talk to you, Countess,” he added after a moment's silence.
The Countess sighed heavily and lowered her eyes.
“I am at your service,” she said.
Natasha knew that she had to leave, but she could not do it: something was squeezing her throat, and she looked impolitely, directly, with open eyes at Prince Andrei.
"Now? This minute!… No, it can't be!” she thought.
He looked at her again, and this look convinced her that she had not been mistaken. - Yes, now, this very minute her fate was being decided.