The era from the XIV to the XIX century is called the Little Ice Age by climatologists. For Russia, which is separated from the rest of Europe by the colder January isotherm, these centuries have become a time of real strength tests.
Cold snap in Europe
The Little Ice Age was preceded by the Medieval climatic optimum of the X-XIII centuries - at this time the heyday of Kievan Rus fell. Presumably, the cooling in Europe began due to the slowing down of the warm current of the Gulf Stream. Since that time, periods with harsh winters have become frequent, which ruined the harvest and contributed to the occurrence of hunger.
In Russia, which had just recovered from the Batu invasion, in the XIV century, chroniclers record a series of "rainy" and "frosty" years.
“The frost beat every grain, and there was a fierce high cost, 5 hryvnias for a grain (grain measure), this high cost remained for a long time,” says the Pskov Chronicle entry for 1314 (at the same time crop failures struck, for example, France).
In the 15th century, the terrible famine in Russia associated with climatic changes was repeated in 1435-1438. At this time, in Smolensk, for example, mothers ate their children, and the dead lay right in the streets, where they were gnawed by predatory animals.
Time of Troubles
The coldest years of the MLP in Europe fell on the late 16th - early 17th centuries. Catastrophic events in Russia began in the fourth year of Boris Godunov's reign. From 1601 to 1603, it snowed and rained in summer in Moscow, and frosts began early in the fall. The country was struck by a series of crop failures that went down in history as the "great famine."
The cooling of 1601, in addition to general climatic reasons, is also explained by the eruption of the Huaynaputin volcano on February 19 in South America, which became the strongest in history on this continent. It is possible that the eruption of the volcano Billy Mitchell on the island of New Guinea happened at the same time. A cloud of ash and sulfurous gases thrown into the atmosphere reduced the amount of sunlight falling on the earth. In general, the temperature on the planet in 1601 decreased by 1-2 degrees.
“In the spring of 1601, the sky was darkened by thick darkness, and the rains were pouring incessantly for ten weeks, so that the villagers were horrified,” the historian Nikolai Karamzin describes the beginning of these events.
There was something to be afraid of. The loss of the harvest provoked a disaster that the Russian land had not seen for a long time. According to eyewitnesses, people on the streets of Moscow, lying on the ground, nibbled the grass like cattle. Hay was found in the mouths of the dead, falling right in the squares. Looting, murder and cannibalism became commonplace. According to the testimony of the "New Chronicler", the men left their families and died on the side. They ate "dog and carrion", tree bark, "water roots" and even human excrement.
The guests began to be afraid to stay in hotels so that they would not be strangled and allowed to eat meat for pies. In winter, impoverished people began to freeze in droves on the roads.
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The active efforts of Tsar Boris to save the starving population could not completely correct the situation - despite the distribution of bread from the sovereign's granaries, a minority received food. Cash distributions from the treasury did not help either. By 1603, the price of bread on the market had increased tenfold. However, there is nothing to blame Godunov for - he really did everything he could, seizing grain reserves from the rich and sending carts with grain to the farthest corners of the country. He also made sure that all the victims were buried.
“Every day, on the orders of the tsar, hundreds of dead people were picked up everywhere on the streets and taken away in so many carts that it was scary and creepy to look at it,” wrote the German author Konrad Bussov in the Moscow Chronicle, based on personal recollections.
In the capital alone, the death toll ranged from 120 to 500 thousand people, but how many peasants and townspeople died in the provinces is unknown.
For natural reasons, the hunger still stopped, but its effects were felt for a long time. Mistrust in the power of Boris Godunov grew among the people, which provoked the subsequent era of impostors and foreign intervention. In the future, the influence of the Little Ice Age on the climate in Russia continued, but without such catastrophic consequences.
Timur Sagdiev
