False Dimitrii

Around June 1604 a military camp was set up in the vicinity of Lviv, to which Jerzy Mniszech invited anyone who was willing to participate in False Dimitrii’s campaign against Moscow. The impostor’s army was a motley crew comprised of nearly 1,000 petty Polish nobles, some 1,500 Ukrainian registered Cossacks, and a group of 200 Muscovites who opposed Boris Godunov. After the army reached Left-Bank Ukraine, the number of Ukrainian Cossacks increased by another 3,000 men. This means that early in the campaign Ukrainians made up over half of Dimitrii’s army.

This was a unique army because it was composed of soldiers who, under other historical conditions, would have fought against each other to the last drop of blood. Moreover, subsequent events demonstrated that Mniszech and Dimitrii’s troops were not only diverse but also unpredictable. Even before the campaign began, the volunteers demanded their pay from Mniszech, and when the “eternal debtor” turned them down again, they started helping themselves by looting the Lviv population. A wave of violence and murders spread throughout the ancient city. The situation was becoming scandalous, which made Mniszech and Dimitrii issue hurried marching orders.

In August 1604 Dimitrii’s army headed eastwards. They traveled slowly, covering only two kilometers a day and making fairly frequent and lengthy stops at the estates of Mniszech, Wisniowiecki, Rusinski, and other Polish noblemen who were sympathetic to Dimitrii.

Along with the party of war in the Rzecz Pospolita there was also a party of peace, whose representatives resolutely denounced Dimitrii’s “military adventure.” They had every reason to fear that Poland would end up being embroiled in a large-scale war and that the campaign could provoke a new and powerful popular movement in Ukraine, such as the uprisings headed by Krzysztof Kosinski (Kryshtof Kosynsky) and Severyn Nalyvaiko. Dimitrii’s opponents in Poland even intended using their troops to block the roads to Dimitrii’s army, which would have nipped the imposter’s campaign in the bud. However, they eventually abandoned their plans, as most of them were aware that King Sigismund secretly supported Dimitrii and, naturally, they did not want to spoil their relations with the king.

In October 1604 Dimitrii’s army finally reached Kyiv. Mniszech wanted to cross the Dnipro River as soon as possible, but no vessels could be found (voivode Vasyl Ostrozky and his son Janusz, Dimitrii’s adamant opponents, had a hand in this). However, ordinary Kyivites, who openly sympathized with “Tsarevich Dimitrii,” soon came to their rescue. They provided the impostor’s army with the necessary number of boats and rafts, and soon Dimitrii and his soldiers had crossed the Dnipro, which became Dimitrii’s Rubicon. Deeply moved by the support shown by the residents of Kyiv, Dimitrii solemnly promised to free them from all taxes, evidently forgetting that such matters were not for him to decide.

THE RISE OF THE RED SUN

Boris Godunov had many secret agents in Poland or, to be more exact, on the Ukrainian part of its territory. They reported to him literally every step that Dimitrii made. But Godunov’s court underestimated Dimitrii as an enemy. At first glance, this attitude of the tsar and his aides was reasonable: could Otrepev’s army, which numbered barely several thousand soldiers, pose a serious threat to the Russian throne, which was protected by a vast array of mighty fortresses and tens of thousands of experienced soldiers with all the necessary ammunition, including artillery? This may sound like a rhetorical question, but only at first glance.

It should be remembered that in the early 17th century the residents of many villages and cities in Left-Bank Ukraine, which had been incorporated into Russia, did not support Godunov. During his reign the material well-being of both the lower strata and the military nobility suffered a serious decline. Godunov’s attempts to put an end to the severe crisis were fruitless, and with time an increasing number of people began pinning their hopes on a new ruler. Thus, the pretender Tsarevich Dimitrii happened to be in the right place at the right time. The imposter dispatched his agitators to various cities in northern Ukraine, and they were unsparing in their praises of him, emphasizing that the new tsar would turn the tide. This straightforward agitation found its target. Within a relatively short period of time the impostor’s detachments, which were actively supported by the local population, captured Moravsk, Chernihiv, Putyvl, and a few other cities, defeated the king’s men commanded by Prince Mstislavsky, and laid siege to Novhorod-Siversky. The ordinary people, now freed from Godunov’s rule by the smutiany (rebels) often said: “Our Red Sun is rising. Our Dimitrii Ivanovich is coming back to us!”

By this time the social base of Dimitrii’s movement had expanded considerably. In addition to Polish noblemen and Ukrainian Cossacks, Dimitrii was joined by Don Cossacks headed by the dynamic otaman Korela, rebels from Slobidska Ukraine, units composed of Russian peasantry, and Belarusian noblemen. It was a notable event when a 12,000-strong Zaporozhian Cossack army joined his colors.

Dimitrii had long-standing and complex relations with the Zaporozhian Sich. When his campaign was still being organized, the impostor hoped that a large number of Zaporozhian Cossacks, who were highly-skilled warriors, would join him. In February 1604 the tsar’s agents reported that Dimitrii’s emissaries were actively negotiating terms of cooperation with the Zaporozhian Cossacks. However, the Cossacks did not support Dimitrii’s cause right away. At first, rather than siding with an impostor who had a vague political future, they considered it more prudent to deal with the “stable” Tsar Boris, who was transferring large sums of money to the Sich every year in order to win the Cossacks’ favor. However, Dimitrii’s military successes and the support of a large part of the masses convinced the Zaporozhians that the impostor was someone on whom they could-and should — place their bets.

In addition, Dimitrii’s victories led Godunov to treat him as a serious enemy. He sent his best regiments against the rebels with orders to give them a good licking. Soon Dimitrii’s army suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the tsar’s army, which had superior fire power. The defeat could have put an end to Otrepev’s forces if the Cossacks had not covered their retreat at a huge cost, losing nearly 7,000 of their men.

It is quite likely that if Godunov had lived for at least another 10 years, the war with Dimitrii would have lasted much longer. But in April 1605 Godunov’s final hour came and, as it often happens, all his secret enemies came out of the woodwork. The tsar’s army was split by a political division and a large part of it joined Dimitrii. His campaign against Moscow turned into a triumphal march. In May 1605 a popular uprising broke out in Moscow, which led to the dethronement of Fedor, Godunov’s underage son. The impostor-tsar ascended to the throne.

THE MISTAKE OF THE UKRAINIAN GUARDS

However, Dimitrii was not destined to live a long and happy life. One year later, in May, he was deposed and killed.

Why did this happen? Who had the nerve to lift his hand against the “Red Sun,” a tsar who was so popular with the masses? Of course, it would be an exaggeration to portray the impostor-tsar as a revolutionary whose rule brought about cardinal changes in the state. Historical evidence tells us that the tsar preserved the feudal system and hence all the riches and privileges of the large feudal lords. However, unlike Godunov, Dimitrii also managed to do something significant for the people. He tripled the wages of the petty military nobility and freed the population of Putyvl, which at one point had lent him much-needed support, from all taxes for 10 years. It is known that the new ruler intended to reinstate St. George’s Day (the right of peasants to switch from one landlord to another). In addition, on a certain day of the week the tsar appeared at the Lobnoe Mesto, and any individual, including the poorest, had the right to tell him about various kinds of oppression that were afflicting him, including those imposed by the rich.

It is no wonder that the ruling circles did not have the feeling that Dimitrii was “their” tsar. On the contrary, they sensed that he could become the source of many unpleasant surprises — now and in the immediate future. Soon a powerful conspiracy against the tsar, headed by the famous boyar Vassily Shuisky, emerged in the Russian court. In a speech directed against the False Dimitrii, Shuisky made a very talented, if not brilliant, move. Seeking to involve ordinary Muscovites in the rebellion that he was orchestrating, he announced that everyone should rush to the tsar’s palace because Polish soldiers were going to kill the tsar. Easily overpowering the guards, the huge crowd, led by Shuisky and the other conspirators, burst into the tsar’s residence. Instantly the impostor-tsar became a miserable fugitive, who thought of nothing else but to save his own skin. False Dimitrii escaped his pursuers and jumped out of the window, but he broke his leg when he landed on the ground.

However, even in this difficult situation Dimitrii found defenders. The guards — former rebels from Slobidska Ukraine — rushed to his rescue. Lifting the tsar from the ground, the guards carried him to one of the rooms in the palace. This was, by all appearances, a mistake: in order to keep the de-facto dethroned tsar alive, they would have had to take him as far from the palace as possible.

For some time the tsar’s pursuers lost track of the imposter. But after a thorough search of the entire palace they finally found Dimitrii. One should give the Ukrainian guards their due — they defended their tsar to the end, killing two of Shuisky’s supporters. But the overwhelmingly large numbers of the attackers forced our countrymen to surrender. Dimitrii ended up in the hands of his enemies, was accused of seizing power as an imposter, and shot by one of the conspirators at close range.