False Dmitry 2 - (when he was born unknown - death on December 11 (21), 1610) an impostor of unknown origin. He was called the Kaluga or Tushinsky thief. From 1607 he pretended to be the son of Ivan IV the Terrible, Tsarevich Dmitry supposedly escaped (False Dmitry I). In 1608-1609 he created the Tushino camp near the capital, from where he tried to seize Moscow in vain. With the beginning of the open Polish intervention, he fled to Kaluga, where he was killed.
The appearance of False Dmitry 2
Having declared himself in Starodub in the middle of 1607, False Dmitry 2 was a person who was not at all suitable for the throne. "A rude man, nasty customs, foul language in conversation," - this is how the Polish captain Samuel Maskevich described him. The origin of this husband is really "dark and modest" - either a school teacher from the Belarusian town of Shklova, or a Russian native, or a priest, or a baptized Jew, or even an unbaptized Jew (which is completely incredible). Some of the historians explain its appearance by the desire of the Polish gentry to sow confusion in the Moscow state.
It was said that the impostor, who left the Lithuanian possessions for the Moscow state, at the instigation of the agent of Mnishek's wife, Mekhovitsky, did not dare to immediately declare himself king. At first he was called the Moscow boyar Nagim and spread rumors in Starodub that Dmitry had managed to escape. When the Starodubtsy tortured him with his accomplice, the clerk Alexei Rukin, the latter said that he who called himself Nagim was the real Dmitry. He assumed an imperious air, waved his stick threateningly and shouted: "Oh, you little children, I am the sovereign."
First victories
Starodubtsy and Putivl residents threw themselves at his feet, lamenting: “We are to blame, sir, they did not recognize you; have mercy on us. We are glad to serve you and lay down our belly for you. He was released and surrounded by honors. He was joined by Zarutsky, Mekhovitsky, with a Polish Russian detachment, and several thousand Seversky. With this army, False Dmitry 2 was able to take Karachev, Bryansk and Kozelsk. In Orel, he received reinforcements from Poland, Lithuania and Zaporozhye.
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1608, May - the troops of False Dmitry defeated Shuisky near Volkhov. In this battle, the army of the impostor was commanded by the Ukrainian prince Roman Ruzhinsky, who led thousands of volunteers recruited by him in the Commonwealth under the banner of the new "tsar". Soon the impostor approached the capital and settled in Tushino, 12 versts from Moscow (the corner formed by the Moscow River and its tributary Skhodnya), which is why he received the nickname "Tushino thief".
Tushino camp
The Tushino period of the Russian turmoil lasted for almost a year and a half. In the camp of the Tushinsky thief were not only Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian adventurers, but also representatives of the nobility - Shuisky's opponents. Among them, mention should be made of the Rostov Metropolitan Filaret Nikitich Romanov, who was named patriarch (it seems, even against his will). The impostor called on the people to his side, giving him the lands of the "traitors" of the boyars and even allowing him to marry boyar daughters by force. The camp soon turned into a fortified city with 7,000 Polish soldiers, 10,000 Cossacks and tens of thousands of armed rabble.
Tushino camp
The main strength of the "Tushinsky thief" consisted of the Cossacks, which sought to establish Cossack freedom. “Our tsar,” wrote one of the Poles who served him, “everything is done as according to the Gospel, everyone is equal in his service.” But when high-born people appeared in Tushino, disputes about seniority immediately began to arise, envy and rivalry with each other appeared.
1608, August - part of the Poles released at the request of Sigismund fell into the disposition of the Tushins. Marina Mnishek, who was there, after the persuasion of Rozhinsky and Sapieha, recognized False Dmitry 2 as her husband and was secretly married to him. Sapega and Lisovsky joined the impostor. The Cossacks continued to flock to him, so that he had up to 100,000 troops.
In Moscow and surrounding cities, the influence of False Dmitry 2 grew steadily. Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Vologda, Murom, Kashin and many other cities obeyed him.
The Poles and Russian thieves, who were sent to the cities, soon turned the Russian people against themselves. At first, the impostor promised tarkhan letters that freed the Russians from all taxes, but the residents soon saw that they would have to give as much as they wanted to take from them. Tax collectors were expelled from Tushino, and after a while Sapega sent his collectors there from under the Trinity.
Poles and Russian thieves gathered in gangs that attacked villages, robbed them, and mocked people. This embittered the Russian people, and they no longer believed that the real Dmitry was in Tushino.
After Sapieha's failure before the Trinity Lavra, the position of the "king" of the impostor was shaken; distant cities began to renounce him. Another attempt to seize Moscow was unsuccessful; Skopin with the Swedes was advancing from the north, in Pskov and Tver the Tushins were defeated and fled. Moscow was liberated from the siege.
Kaluga camp
The campaign of Sigismund III near Smolensk further worsened the position of the "king" - the Poles began to pass under the banner of their king. False Dmitry, disguised as a peasant, fled from the camp. In the fortified Kaluga, he was received with honors. Marina Mnishek also arrived in Kaluga, under the protection allocated by Sapieha, the impostor lived in high esteem. Without the supervision of the Polish gentry, he felt freer. Kolomna and Kashira swore allegiance to him again.
Siege of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra
And at that time, the army of Sigismund III continued unsuccessfully to besiege Smolensk, and the young commander Skopin-Shuisky was able to lift the siege from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. And suddenly Skopin-Shuisky died, according to rumors, poisoned by the wife of one of the royal brothers, Prince Dmitry. The latter was appointed commander of the army sent to the aid of Smolensk.
Hike to Moscow
At Klushin, 150 km from the capital, on June 24, 1610, Shuisky's army defeated the Poles under the command of the crown hetman Stanislav Zhulkevsky. The way to Moscow was open. Zhulkevsky approached her from the west, Tushinsky thief - from the south. The pretender took Serpukhov, Borovsk, Pafnutiev monastery and reached Moscow itself. Marina stayed at the Nikolo-Ugreshsky Monastery, and False Dmitry - in the palace village of Kolomenskoye. Again, as in Tushino times, the Kremlin was just a stone's throw away and the royal throne was empty (Vasily Shuisky was “dethroned” on July 17, and then forcibly tonsured a monk).
But this time too, history has assigned only an unenviable role to the Kaluga "king". His appearance made the Moscow boyars choose the lesser of two evils. On August 17, Zhulkevsky concluded an agreement with them, according to which the son of Sigismund III, the prince Vladislav, was to enter the Moscow throne. The capital, and later many other Russian cities, swore allegiance to Tsar Vladislav Zhigmontovich. From now on, the Polish garrison introduced to Moscow became an insurmountable obstacle for False Dmitry.
Zhulkevsky, however, tried to settle the matter peacefully. On behalf of the king, he promised the impostor, in case of supporting the royal cause, to give the city of Sambir or Grodno. But, indignantly wrote the hetman in his memoirs, “he did not think to be content with this, much less his wife, who, being an ambitious woman, muttered rather rudely:“May His Majesty the King yield to His Majesty the King of Krakow, and His Majesty the King will yield to His King Majesty Warsaw.
Then Zhulkevsky decided to simply arrest them, but Marina and the impostor fled to Kaluga on August 27, accompanied by 500 Cossacks ataman Ivan Martynovich Zarutsky, who first spoke on their side.
Death of False Dmitry 2
He died as a result of the revenge of the baptized Tatar Urusov, whom he subjected to corporal punishment. 1610, December 11 - when an impostor, half drunk, under the escort of a crowd of Tatars went hunting, Urusov cut his shoulder with a saber, and Urusov's younger brother chopped off his head. His death caused a terrible commotion in Kaluga; all the Tatars remaining in the city were killed. The son of False Dmitry was proclaimed king by the people of Kaluga.
I. Muromov
