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Which refers to the period of turmoil. The Time of Troubles and its consequences for Rus'

Time of Troubles or Troubles- period in history Russia from 1598 to 1613, marked by natural disasters, Polish-Swedish intervention, severe state-political and socio-economic crisis

The time of troubles was caused by a number of reasons and factors. Historians highlight the following:

P first reason turmoil - dynastic crisis. The last member of the Rurik dynasty has died.

The second reason- class contradictions. The boyars sought power, the peasants were dissatisfied with their position (they were forbidden to move to other estates, they were tied to the land).

Third reason- economic devastation. The country's economy was not doing well. In addition, every now and then there were crop failures in Russia. The peasants blamed the ruler for everything and periodically staged uprisings and supported the False Dmitrievs.

All this prevented the reign of any one new dynasty and worsened the already terrible situation.

The essence of the Troubles:

Stage 1 of the Time of Troubles began with a dynastic crisis caused by the murder of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible of his eldest son Ivan. The 2nd stage of the Time of Troubles is associated with the split of the country in 1609: in Muscovy there were formed two kings, two Boyar Dumas, two patriarchs (Hermogenes in Moscow and Filaret in Tushino), territories recognizing the power of False Dmitry II, and territories remaining loyal to Shuisky. Stage 3 of the Troubles is associated with the desire to overcome the conciliatory position of the Seven Boyars, who had no real power and were unable to force Vladislav (son of Sigismund) to fulfill the terms of the agreement and accept Orthodoxy. The combination of these events led to the appearance of adventurers and impostors on the Russian throne, claims to the throne from Cossacks, runaway peasants and slaves (which manifested itself in Bolotnikov’s peasant war). The consequence of the Time of Troubles was changes in the system of government of the country. The weakening of the boyars, the rise of the nobility who received estates and the possibility of legislatively assigning peasants to them resulted in the gradual evolution of Russia towards absolutism.

Results of the turmoil:

The Zemsky Sobor in February 1613 elected 16-year-old Mikhail Romanov (1613–1645) as tsar. In 1617, the Stolbovo Peace Treaty was concluded with Sweden. Russia returned the Novgorod lands, the Swedes retained the shores of the Gulf of Finland, the Neva lands, Ivangorod, Yam, Koporye, Oreshek, and Karela. In 1618, the Deulin truce with Poland was concluded, according to which the Smolensk, Chernigov, Novgorod Seversky lands, Sebezh went to Poland.

22. Muscovite Rus' of the 17th century: economics, politics, urban and rural uprisings

Economy. Agriculture continued to be the basis of the economy of Muscovite Rus'. Agricultural technology remained virtually unchanged for centuries, and labor remained unproductive. The increase in yields was achieved using extensive methods - mainly through the development of new lands. The economy remained predominantly natural: the bulk of the products were produced “for oneself.” Not only food, but also clothing, shoes, and household items were mostly produced on the peasant farm itself.

However, during this period the geography of agriculture changed noticeably. The cessation of the Crimean raids made it possible to fearlessly develop the territories of the modern Central Black Earth region, where the yield was twice as high as in the old arable areas.

The growth of territory and differences in natural conditions gave rise to economic specialization in different regions of the country. Thus, the Black Earth Center and the Middle Volga region produced commercial grain, while the North, Siberia and the Don consumed imported grain.

Much more widely than in agriculture, new phenomena spread in industry. Its main form remained craft. However, the nature of craft production in the 17th century. changed. Craftsmen increasingly worked not to order, but for the market. This type of craft is called small-scale production. Its spread was caused by the growth of economic specialization in various regions of the country. For example, Pomorie specialized in wood products, the Volga region - in leather processing, Pskov, Novgorod and Smolensk - in linen. Salt making (North) and iron production (Tula-Kashira region) were the first to acquire a small-scale commercial character, since these crafts depended on the availability of raw materials and could not develop everywhere.

In the 17th century Along with craft workshops, large enterprises began to appear. Some of them were built on the basis of division of labor and can be classified as manufactories.

The first Russian manufactories appeared in metallurgy. In 1636, A. Vinius, a native of Holland, founded an ironworks that produced cannons and cannonballs on government orders, and also produced household items for the market.

Manufacturing production, based on wage labor, is no longer a phenomenon of the feudal, but of the bourgeois order. The emergence of manufactories testified to the emergence of capitalist elements in the Russian economy.

The number of manufactories operating in Russia by the end of the 17th century was very small and did not exceed two dozen. Along with hired workers, forced laborers also worked in manufactories - convicts, palace artisans, and assigned peasants. Most of the manufactories were poorly connected to the market.

Based on the growing specialization of small-scale crafts (and partly agriculture), the formation of an all-Russian market began. If in the 16th century and earlier trade was carried out mainly within one district, now trade relations began to be established throughout the country. The most important trading center was Moscow. Extensive trade transactions were carried out at fairs. The largest of them were Makaryevskaya near Nizhny Novgorod and Irbitskaya in the Urals.

Urban and rural uprisings

The 17th century (especially the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich) went down in Russian history as a “rebellious time.” Indeed, the middle - second half of the century is the era of large and small uprisings of the peasantry, the urban lower classes, and service people, thus reacting to the policy of absolutization of power and enslavement.

History of urban uprisings opens the "salt riot" of 1648. in Moscow. Various segments of the capital’s population took part in it: townspeople, archers, nobles, dissatisfied with the pro-boyar policy of the government of B.I. Morozova. The reason for the speech was the dispersal by the archers of a delegation of Muscovites who were trying to submit a petition to the tsar at the arbitrariness of the administrative officials, who, in their opinion, were guilty of introducing a tax on salt. Pogroms of influential dignitaries began. The Duma clerk Nazariy Chistoy was killed, the head of the Zemsky Prikaz, Leonty Pleshcheev, was given over to the crowd, and the okolnichy P.T. was executed in front of the people. Trachaniotov. The Tsar managed to save only his “uncle” Morozov, urgently sending him into exile to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. The uprising was suppressed by the archers, to whom the government was forced to give increased salaries.

The uprising in Moscow received a wide response - a wave of movements in the summer of 1648 covered many cities: Kozlov, Sol Vychegodskaya, Kursk, Ustyug Velikiy, etc. In total, in 1648-1650. There were 21 uprisings. The most significant of them were in Pskov and Novgorod. They were caused by a sharp increase in bread prices as a result of the government's commitment to supply grain to Sweden. In both cities, power passed into the hands of zemstvo elders. The Novgorod uprising was suppressed by an army led by Prince Khovansky. Pskov put up successful armed resistance to government troops during a three-month siege of the city (June-August 1650). The zemstvo hut, headed by Gavriil Demidov, became the absolute owner of the city, distributing bread and property confiscated from the rich among the townspeople. At an emergency Zemsky Sobor, the composition of the delegation was approved to persuade the Pskovites. Resistance ended after all participants in the uprising were forgiven.

In 1662, the so-called copper riot, caused by the protracted Russian-Polish war and the financial crisis. Monetary reform (minting depreciated copper money) led to a sharp drop in the exchange rate of the ruble, which primarily affected the soldiers and archers who received cash salaries, as well as artisans and small traders. On July 25, “thieves’ letters” were scattered around the city with an appeal to the action. The excited crowd moved to seek justice in Kolomenskoye, where the tsar was. In Moscow itself, the rebels destroyed the courtyards of boyars and rich merchants. While the tsar was persuading the crowd, rifle regiments loyal to the government approached Kolomensky. As a result of the brutal massacre, several hundred people died, and 18 were publicly hanged. The "Copper Riot" forced the government to abandon the issue of copper coins. But back in the fall of 1662, the Streltsy tax on bread was doubled. This put the townsfolk population in a particularly difficult situation, since they practically did not engage in agriculture. Mass flights to the Don began - people fled from the suburbs, peasants fled.

The uprising of Stepan Razin:

In 1667, Stepan Razin stood at the head of the people, who recruited a detachment from poor Cossacks, runaway peasants, and offended archers. He came up with the idea because he wanted to distribute the spoils to the poor, give bread to the hungry, and clothes to the naked. People came to Razin from everywhere: both from the Volga and from the Don. The detachment grew to 2000 people.

On the Volga, the rebels captured a caravan, the Cossacks replenished their supply of weapons and food. With new strength, the leader moved on. There were clashes with government troops. In all battles he showed courage. Many people were added to the Cossacks. Battles took place in various cities of Persia, where they went to free Russian prisoners. The Razins defeated the Persian Shah, but they had significant losses.

The southern governors reported Razin’s independence and his plans for trouble, which alarmed the government. In 1670, a messenger from Tsar Evdokimov came to the leader, whom the Cossacks drowned. The rebel army grows to 7,000 and advances to Tsaritsyn, capturing it, as well as Astrakhan, Samara and Saratov. Near Simbirsk, the seriously wounded Razin is defeated and then executed in Moscow.

During the 17th century, there were many popular uprisings, the cause of which lay in government policies. The authorities saw the residents only as a source of income, which caused discontent among the lower masses

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TROUBLES (TIME OF TROUBLES)- a deep spiritual, economic, social, and foreign policy crisis that befell Russia in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. It coincided with the dynastic crisis and the struggle of boyar groups for power, which brought the country to the brink of disaster. The main signs of unrest are considered to be anarchy (anarchy), imposture, civil war and intervention. According to a number of historians, the Time of Troubles can be considered the first civil war in Russian history.

Contemporaries spoke of the Troubles as a time of “shakyness,” “disorder,” and “confusion of minds,” which caused bloody clashes and conflicts. The term “troubles” was used in everyday speech of the 17th century, in the paperwork of Moscow orders, and was included in the title of the work of Grigory Kotoshikhin ( Time of Troubles). In the 19th and early 20th centuries. got into research about Boris Godunov, Vasily Shuisky. In Soviet science, phenomena and events of the early 17th century. were classified as a period of socio-political crisis, the first peasant war (I.I. Bolotnikov) and the foreign intervention that coincided with it, but the term “turmoil” was not used. In Polish historical science, this time is called the “Dimitriad”, since at the center of historical events stood False Dmitry I, False Dmitry II, False Dmitry III - Poles or impostors who sympathized with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, posing as the escaped Tsarevich Dmitry.

The preconditions for the Troubles were the consequences of the oprichnina and the Livonian War of 1558–1583: the ruin of the economy, the growth of social tension.

The causes of the Time of Troubles as an era of anarchy, according to the historiography of the 19th and early 20th centuries, are rooted in the suppression of the Rurik dynasty and the intervention of neighboring states (especially united Lithuania and Poland, which is why the period was sometimes called the “Lithuanian or Moscow ruin”) in the affairs of the Muscovite kingdom. The combination of these events led to the appearance of adventurers and impostors on the Russian throne, claims to the throne from Cossacks, runaway peasants and slaves (which manifested itself in Bolotnikov’s peasant war). Church historiography of the 19th–early 20th centuries. considered the Troubles a period of spiritual crisis in society, seeing the reasons in the distortion of moral and moral values.

The chronological framework of the Time of Troubles is determined, on the one hand, by the death in Uglich in 1591 of Tsarevich Dmitry, the last representative of the Rurik dynasty, on the other hand, by the election of the first king from the Romanov dynasty, Mikhail Fedorovich, to the kingdom in 1613, and the subsequent years of struggle against the Polish and Swedish invaders (1616–1618 ), the return to Moscow of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Filaret (1619).

First stage

The Time of Troubles began with a dynastic crisis caused by the assassination of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible their eldest son Ivan, the rise to power of his brother Fyodor Ivanovich and the death of their younger half-brother Dmitry (according to many, stabbed to death by the minions of the de facto ruler of the country, Boris Godunov). The throne lost the last heir from the Rurik dynasty.

The death of the childless Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich (1598) allowed Boris Godunov (1598–1605) to come to power, who ruled energetically and wisely, but was unable to stop the intrigues of disgruntled boyars. The crop failure of 1601–1602 and the subsequent famine initially caused the first social explosion (1603, the Cotton uprising). External reasons were added to the internal ones: Poland and Lithuania, united in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, rushed to take advantage of Russia’s weakness. The appearance in Poland of the young Galich nobleman Grigory Otrepyev, who declared himself Tsarevich Dmitry to be “miraculously saved”, became a gift to King Sigismund III, who supported the impostor.

At the end of 1604, having converted to Catholicism, False Dmitry I entered Russia with a small army. Many cities in southern Russia, Cossacks, and dissatisfied peasants went over to his side. In April 1605, after the unexpected death of Boris Godunov and the non-recognition of his son Fyodor as tsar, the Moscow boyars also went over to the side of False Dmitry I. In June 1605, the impostor became Tsar Dmitry I for almost a year. However, a boyar conspiracy and an uprising of Muscovites on May 17, 1606, dissatisfied with the direction of his policy, swept him from the throne. Two days later, the tsar “shouted out” the boyar Vasily Shuisky, who gave the cross-kissing record to rule with the Boyar Duma, not to impose disgrace and not to execute without trial.

By the summer of 1606, rumors spread throughout the country about a new miraculous salvation of Tsarevich Dmitry: an uprising broke out in Putivl under the leadership of the fugitive slave Ivan Bolotnikov, peasants, archers, and nobles joined him. The rebels reached Moscow, besieged it, but were defeated. Bolotnikov was captured in the summer of 1607, exiled to Kargopol and killed there.

The new contender for the Russian throne was False Dmitry II (origin unknown), who united around himself the surviving participants in the Bolotnikov uprising, the Cossacks led by Ivan Zarutsky, and Polish troops. Having settled in June 1608 in the village of Tushino near Moscow (hence his nickname “Tushino Thief”), he besieged Moscow.

Second phase

The Time of Troubles is associated with the split of the country in 1609: in Muscovy there were formed two kings, two Boyar Dumas, two patriarchs (Hermogenes in Moscow and Filaret in Tushino), territories recognizing the power of False Dmitry II, and territories remaining loyal to Shuisky. The successes of the Tushins forced Shuisky to conclude an agreement with Sweden, hostile to Poland, in February 1609. Having given the Russian fortress of Korela to the Swedes, he received military assistance, and the Russian-Swedish army liberated a number of cities in the north of the country. This gave the Polish king Sigismund III a reason for intervention: in the fall of 1609, Polish troops besieged Smolensk and reached the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. False Dmitry II fled from Tushin, the Tushino people who left him concluded an agreement with Sigismund at the beginning of 1610 on the election of his son, Prince Vladislav, to the Russian throne.

In July 1610, Shuisky was overthrown by the boyars and forcibly tonsured a monk. Power temporarily passed to the “Seven Boyars,” a government that signed an agreement with Sigismund III in August 1610 on the election of Vladislav as king on the condition that he convert to Orthodoxy. Polish troops entered Moscow.

Third stage

The Time of Troubles is associated with the desire to overcome the conciliatory position of the Seven Boyars, which had no real power and was unable to force Vladislav to fulfill the terms of the agreement and accept Orthodoxy. With the rise of patriotic sentiment since 1611, calls for an end to discord and restoration of unity intensified. The center of attraction of patriotic forces became the Moscow Patriarch Hermogenes, Prince. D.T. Trubetskoy. The formed First Militia included the noble detachments of P. Lyapunov, the Cossacks of I. Zarutsky, and former Tushino residents. K. Minin gathered an army in Nizhny Novgorod and Yaroslavl, a new government was formed, the “Council of All the Earth.” The first militia failed to liberate Moscow; in the summer of 1611 the militia disintegrated. At this time, the Poles managed to capture Smolensk after a two-year siege, the Swedes managed to take Novgorod, a new impostor appeared in Pskov - False Dmitry III, who was “proclaimed” by the tsar there on December 4, 1611.

In the fall of 1611, on the initiative of K. Minin and D. Pozharsky, who was invited by him, the Second Militia was formed in Nizhny Novgorod. In August 1612 it approached Moscow and liberated it on October 26, 1612. In 1613, the Zemsky Sobor elected 16-year-old Mikhail Romanov as tsar; his father, Patriarch Filaret, returned to Russia from captivity, with whose name the people pinned hopes for the eradication of robbery and robbery. In 1617, the Peace of Stolbovo was signed with Sweden, which received the Korelu fortress and the coast of the Gulf of Finland. In 1618, the Deulin Truce was concluded with Poland: Russia ceded Smolensk, Chernigov and a number of other cities to it. Only Tsar Peter I was able to compensate and restore Russia’s territorial losses almost a hundred years later.

However, the long and difficult crisis was resolved, although the economic consequences of the Troubles - the devastation and desolation of a vast territory, especially in the west and southwest, the death of almost a third of the country's population continued to affect another decade and a half.

The consequence of the Time of Troubles was changes in the system of government of the country. The weakening of the boyars, the rise of the nobility who received estates and the possibility of legislatively assigning peasants to them resulted in the gradual evolution of Russia towards absolutism. The revaluation of the ideals of the previous era, the negative consequences of boyar participation in governing the country, which became obvious, and the severe polarization of society led to the growth of ideocratic tendencies. They were expressed, among other things, in the desire to substantiate the inviolability of the Orthodox faith and the inadmissibility of deviations from the values ​​of national religion and ideology (especially in opposition to “Latinism” and the Protestantism of the West). This strengthened anti-Western sentiments, which aggravated the cultural and, ultimately, civilizational isolation of Russia for many centuries.

Natalia Pushkareva

The protracted dynastic crisis that began in Russia after the death of Fyodor Ioannovich was called the Time of Troubles. The immediate reason was the suppression of the royal dynasty. The causes of the Time of Troubles in Russia had been brewing for a long time.

Prerequisites for the Time of Troubles

Many historians consider the accession of Fyodor Ioannovich to the throne to be the beginning of the Time of Troubles. In the will of Ivan the Terrible, he is named as the direct heir.

Fyodor Ioannovich was openly called “feeble-minded” by his contemporaries. Real power, in fact, was concentrated in the hands of the Godunov family.

The Shuiskys tried to oppose, but were disgraced. Subsequently, the Shuiskys' hidden resentment played a big role.

Fyodor Ioannovich had no heirs. Numerous children of Irina Feodorovna died at birth.

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Drama in Uglich

Another prerequisite for the Troubles was the tragedy in Uglich. On May 15, 1591, Tsarevich Dmitry died. An official investigation concluded that the boy accidentally damaged his carotid artery during an epileptic seizure.

During the investigation into the death of Tsarevich Dmitry, about 140 witnesses were questioned.

Immediately after the tragedy, versions of a contract killing appeared. The culprit was called Boris Godunov.

Rice. 1. Murder of Tsarevich Dmitry. Engraving by B. Chorikov. XIX century

The consequences of this event were the appearance of several False Dmitrys, declaring themselves miraculously saved princes.

Boris Godunov

The crowning of Godunov in 1598 took place in compliance with all customs and laws. However, he did not belong to the royal dynasty. Many considered him an “illegitimate” ruler. Accumulating discontent became one of the causes of the Time of Troubles.

In 1600, the Romanov family fell into disgrace:

  • Fyodor Nikitich and his wife were forcibly tonsured as monks;
  • the future Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, along with his sister and two aunts, were sent to Belozersk prison;
  • Alexander, Mikhail and Vasily Nikitichi died in custody.

The brutal reprisal against the Romanovs made a negative impression on Russian high society. Boris Godunov was increasingly losing popularity.

Rice. 2. Portrait of Boris Godunov.

By 1604, more than half of the Boyar Duma was hostile towards Godunov.

Socio-economic reasons for the Time of Troubles

At the beginning of the 17th century, the northern and central regions of Russia suffered a terrible crop failure, which led to famine. A stream of refugees poured into the southern outskirts.

In the minds of the peasantry, famine became God's punishment for the rule of the “illegal” king. The people again began to talk about the murder of Tsarevich Dmitry.

Popular discontent led to major peasant uprisings:

  • Cotton's rebellion (1603-1604);
  • uprising of I. Bolotnikov (1606-1607).

Rice. 3. During the Time of Troubles. S. Ivanov. 1908.

External factor

The events in Rus' were closely monitored by the king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sigismund III. He dreamed of using the weakening of the country and the fall in the authority of Boris Godunov for his own purposes.

The Polish king embodied his plans in the support of False Dmitry I. The fugitive monk Grigory Otrepiev in Poland proclaimed himself Tsarevich Dmitry and began a campaign against Moscow. A new stage of the Troubles began. General dissatisfaction with Boris Godunov made it easier for False Dmitry I to come to power.

According to the strict rules of the Russian Church, Tsarevich Dmitry had no rights to the throne, since he was illegitimate (from the sixth wife of Ivan the Terrible).

A brief summary of the causes of the Time of Troubles is presented in a table illustrating the course of events:

Table “Main events of the Time of Troubles and their causes”

Event

date

Causes

The accession of Boris Godunov

Fyodor Ioannovich has no heirs

Cotton Rebellion

Hunger and dissatisfaction of the peasants with the “illegal” king

The campaign of False Dmitry I and his enthronement

The emergence of the idea of ​​​​saving Tsarevich Dmitry, support for the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Murder of False Dmitry I

Pro-Western policy of the impostor

The uprising of I. Bolotnikov

Unpopularity of V. Shuisky

The overthrow of Vasily Shuisky, the “Seven Boyars”, the beginning of foreign intervention

Deep crisis in Russian society

What have we learned?

From an article on the history of Russia (7th grade), we learned that the period of the Time of Troubles was expressed in a continuous change of rulers, acute social conflicts, bloody civil strife and foreign intervention. All levels of society were involved in these events. The universal nature of the Troubles is explained by the fact that it arose as a result of the confluence of many political, economic and social reasons, expressed in a deep crisis of the entire society.

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The period in the history of Russia from 1598 to 1612 is usually called the Time of Troubles. These were hard years, years of natural disasters: famine, crisis of the state and economic system, interventions of foreigners.

The year of the beginning of the “Troubles” is 1598, when the Rurik dynasty ended and there was no legitimate king in Rus'. During the struggle and intrigue, power was taken into his own hands, and he sat on the throne until 1605.

The most turbulent years during the reign of Boris Godunov were 1601-1603. People in need of food began to hunt for robbery and robbery. This course of events led the country into an increasingly systemic crisis.

People in need began to flock together. The number of such detachments ranged from several people to several hundred. It became the apogee of famine. Adding fuel to the fire were rumors that Tsarevich Dmitry, most likely killed by Boris Godunov, was alive.

He declared his royal origin, achieved the support of the Poles, promising the gentry mountains of gold, Russian lands and other benefits. At the height of the war with the impostor, Boris Godunov dies from illness. His son Fyodor and his family are killed by conspirators who believed False Dmitry I.

The impostor did not sit on the Russian throne for long. The people were dissatisfied with his rule, and opposition-minded boyars took advantage of the current situation and killed him. He was anointed to the kingdom.


Vasily Shuisky had to ascend the throne at a difficult time for the country. Before Shuisky had time to get comfortable, a fire broke out and a new impostor appeared. Shuisky concludes a military treaty with Sweden. The treaty turned into another problem for Rus'. The Poles went into open intervention, and the Swedes betrayed Shuisky.

In 1610, Shuisky was removed from the throne as part of a conspiracy. The conspirators will still rule in Moscow for a long time, the time of their reign will be called. Moscow swore allegiance to the Polish prince Vladislav. Soon Polish troops entered the capital. Every day the situation became worse. The Poles traded in robbery and violence, and also propagated the Catholic faith.

It gathered under the leadership of Lyapunov. Due to internal squabbles, Lyapunov was killed, and the campaign of the first militia failed miserably. At that time, Russia had every opportunity to cease to exist on the map of Europe. But, as they say, Time of Troubles gives birth to heroes. There were people on Russian soil who were able to unite the people around themselves, who were able to motivate them to self-sacrifice for the good of the Russian land and the Orthodox faith.

Novgorodians Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky, once and for all, inscribed their names in golden letters in the history of Russia. It was thanks to the activities of these two people and the heroism of the Russian people that our ancestors managed to save the country. On November 1, 1612, they took the city of Kitay in battle, and a little later the Poles signed a capitulation. After the expulsion of the Poles from Moscow, a Zemsky Council was held, as a result of which he was anointed as king.

The consequences of the troubled times are very sad. Rus' lost many primordially Russian territories, the economy was in terrible decline, and the country's population decreased. The Time of Troubles was a severe test for Russia and the Russian people. More than one such test will befall the Russian people, but they will survive, thanks to their fortitude and behests to their ancestors. Whoever comes to us with a sword will die by the sword; the Russian Land has stood and will stand on that. Words spoken many centuries ago remain relevant today!

Time of Troubles in Russia. Reasons, essence, stages, results.

Causes:

1 ) The establishment of a 5-year period for the search and return of fugitive peasants is another step on the path to serfdom.

2 ) Three lean years in a row (1601-1603), which led to famine, aggravating the internal situation in the country to the limit.

3 ) Dissatisfaction of everyone - from peasants to boyars and nobles - with the rule of Boris Godunov.

4 ) The mass of peasants and townspeople of the central and northwestern regions, devastated by war, the plague epidemic and the oprichnina.

5 ) The departure of peasants from villages and cities; economic decline.

6 ) Intensification of the class struggle.

7 ) Development of contradictions within the ruling class.

8 ) Deterioration of the international position of the state.

9 ) Crisis situation in the economic and political life of the country.

First stage (1598-1605)

At this stage there were the first signs of destabilization of the system, but controllability remained. This situation created the conditions for a controlled process of change through reform. The absence of a contender with firm rights to the throne after the death of Fyodor Ioannovich was extremely dangerous under autocratic, unlimited power. It was important to ensure continuity of power. In 1598. The Zemsky Sobor took place, its composition was wide: boyars, nobles, clerks, guests (merchants) and representatives of all “peasants”.

The Council spoke in favor of crowning Boris Godunov, who actually ruled the country. The Boyar Duma met separately from the Zemsky Sobor and called for allegiance to the Duma as the highest authority. Thus, an alternative arose: either elect a tsar and live as before, or swear allegiance to the Duma, which meant the possibility of changes in public life. The outcome of the struggle was decided by the street, speaking out for Boris Godunov, who agreed to the kingdom.

The situation of the majority of the people was disastrous. At the beginning of the 17th century, agriculture fell into decline, and natural disasters added to this. In 1601, a terrible famine broke out, which lasted three years (only in Moscow were they buried in mass graves). more than 120 thousand people). In difficult conditions, the authorities made some concessions: it was restored St. George's day, the distribution of bread to the hungry was organized. But these measures did not ease the tension. In 1603, the uprisings became widespread.

Second stage (1605-1610)

At this stage the country was plunged into the abyss of civil war, the state collapsed. Moscow has lost its significance as a political center. In addition to the old capital, new, “thieves’” ones appeared: Putivl, Starodub, Tushino. The intervention of Western countries began, attracted by the weakness of the Russian state. Sweden and Poland were rapidly moving inland. State power found itself in paralysis. In Moscow, False Dmitry I, Vasily Shuisky, and the Boyar Duma took turns, whose reign went down in history as the “Seven Boyars.” However, their power was ephemeral. False Dmitry II, who was in Tushino, controlled almost half the country.


At this stage the opportunity The Europeanization of Russia is associated with the name of False Dmitry I. In 1603, a man appeared within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, calling himself the name of the son of Ivan IV Dmitry, who had been considered killed for twelve years. In Russia it was announced that the fugitive monk of the Chudov Monastery, Grigory Otrepiev, was hiding under this name.

Election as king Mikhail Romanov testified that the majority in society supported the restoration of the Muscovite kingdom with all its features. The Troubles brought an important lesson: the majority was committed to the traditions of community, collectivism, strong centralized power and did not want to give them up. Russia began to slowly emerge from social catastrophe, restoring the social system destroyed during the Time of Troubles.

Consequences of the Troubles:

1 ) Temporary strengthening of the influence of the Boyar Duma and the Zemsky Sobor.

2 ) The positions of the nobility were strengthened

3 ) The coast of the Baltic Sea and the lands of Smolensk were lost.

4 ) Economic devastation, poverty of the people.

5 ) Russia's independence preserved

6 ) The Romanov dynasty began to rule.