Table of contents:
- Where was the future hero born and who was involved in raising him
- How Dmitry Pozharsky made a brilliant military career
- How Moscow was liberated thanks to the Pozharsky-Minin tandem
- Why to know refused to elect Pozharsky to the kingdom
- How was the fate of Dmitry Pozharsky during the reign of Mikhail Romanov
Video: The noble liberator of Moscow, or why Dmitry Pozharsky was too good for the royal throne
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
In the midst of the atrocities of foreign interventionists, the strongest confusion and vacillation of the Time of Troubles, an idea was born that united the Russian people and helped them rally: to liberate Moscow and convene the Zemsky Sobor to elect a legitimate tsar. This idea belonged to Kuzma Minin, the elected zemstvo headman of Nizhny Novgorod. A man known for his bravery, crystal honesty, and great military experience - Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky - was called to the post of supreme commander of the Second Militia. Having shown himself as a talented statesman and, moreover, descended from the royal branch of the Rurikovichs, he could have become a wonderful tsar. But those in power did not want to allow this.
Where was the future hero born and who was involved in raising him
Dmitry Pozharsky's father, Mikhail Fedorovich, is a descendant of the Starodub princes who descended in their origins to the Grand Duke of Vladimir Vsevolod Yuryevich (he was the son of Yuri Dolgoruky, who founded Moscow). There were no prominent political and military characters among the closest ancestors of Dmitry Mikhailovich. Is that his grandfather, Fyodor Pozharsky under Ivan the Terrible, served as a regimental governor.
Dmitry Mikhailovich's mother, Maria (Euphrosyne in baptism) Fedorovna Beklemisheva came from an old noble family and was a well-educated and outstanding person. After the death of her husband, she took care of the upbringing and education of children. The family moved to Moscow to their estate on Sretenka. As it should be for princely and noble children, at the age of 15 Dmitry Pozharsky entered the palace service.
How Dmitry Pozharsky made a brilliant military career
For some time, the position of the Pozharskys under the terribly suspicious Tsar Boris Godunov was unstable. But at the end of his reign, Dmitry Pozharsky's mother became the supreme noblewoman under Queen Maria Grigorievna, and he himself received the rank of steward.
Under False Dmitry I, recognized as the legitimate king, Pozharsky remained at the court. In 1608, during the reign of Vasily Shuisky, Pozharsky was appointed a regimental commander and defeated the detachment of the "Tushinsky thief" near Kolomna. No matter how the situation in the country and at court changed, Pozharsky remained faithful to his principles and oath. During the period of the Seven Boyars, Dmitry Mikhailovich was the governor of Zaraysk. He and his soldiers joined the leader of the First Militia, the Ryazan governor, Prokopy Lyapunov. In battles, Dmitry Mikhailovich was seriously wounded, and was sent for treatment to his family estate near Suzdal.
How Moscow was liberated thanks to the Pozharsky-Minin tandem
At the end of 1611 Smolensk was taken by the Poles. One of the Polish detachments burned down Moscow. This detachment settled in the Kremlin and Kitay-gorod. The Poles proposed the prince Vladislav as a candidate for the Russian throne. The Swedes occupied Novgorod and offered their prince to the Moscow throne. The country, which found itself without a government after the abolition of the seven-boyars, fell apart into its constituent parts - hardly every city acted separately. Patriarch Hermogenes put forward a prerequisite for the accession of Prince Vladislav to Russia - baptism into the Orthodox faith, after which all Polish and Lithuanian people will need to be taken out of the country. If this does not happen, then the patriarch blessed the entire people to rise up against the Polish invaders and drive them out of the Russian land.
There was no tsar in Moscow, the patriarch, the guardian of the faith, took his place, and he called for an uprising. The Patriarchal charter was the first to be supported by the residents of Smolny, who suffered terrible atrocities from the Poles who came to their land. According to their conviction, based on bitter experience, one should not rely on the fact that when the prince Vladislav ascends to the Russian throne, then everything will be settled. The Polish Sejm defined something completely different: "Lead out the best people, devastate all the lands, own all the Moscow land." After the inhabitants of the Smolensk volosts, the Yaroslavl residents pick up the banner of the popular uprising. For Yaroslavl residents of Nizhny Novgorod: Kuzma Minin - a meat merchant and a zemstvo headman, called on the people to forget private interests, to unite efforts and start collecting funds necessary to organize the liberation movement.
Following the citizens of Nizhny Novgorod, people from other cities joined the collection of the treasury for the militia. Prince Dmitry Pozharsky was unanimously elected as the chief commander of the rebels. Four months later, the militia was formed. For another six months it moved to Moscow, replenishing on the way with crowds of service people. A Cossack detachment of Prince Trubetskoy stood near Moscow, blocking the exit from the Kremlin and Kitay-Gorod to the Poles. But the 15-thousandth detachment of the famous Polish hetman Khotkevich went to the aid of the besieged Smolensk road. Contrary to the hetman's calculations of a discord between the Cossacks and the noble militia, during the decisive battle, their spontaneous unification took place. Khotkevich's army retreated and went to Lithuania along the same Smolensk road.
Why to know refused to elect Pozharsky to the kingdom
The people's militia, led by Pozharsky, brilliantly coped with its main task - the interventionists were expelled from the borders of the Russian state. At the beginning of 1613, to determine who should be the Russian tsar, a meeting of representatives of all segments of the population (except for serfs) was appointed to discuss this important political issue. The name of the chief commander of the militia could also be on the list of candidates for the throne. He did not stain himself with meanness, theft, or treason, he was loved by the people for justice, honesty and military valor. But it was precisely these characteristics of him that did not suit the ruling elite, which was pretty dirty in various crimes during the Time of Troubles.
Nobility refused the candidacy of Pozharsky, citing the fact that he was too distant relative of the Rurikovichs.
How was the fate of Dmitry Pozharsky during the reign of Mikhail Romanov
Mikhail Romanov became the new Russian tsar. The seventeen-year-old monarch ruled carefully, carefully weighing his every decision. He needed experienced assistants, faithful to the oath. One of them was Prince Dmitry Pozharsky. With everything that the sovereign entrusted him, he coped brilliantly: he repulsed new attacks of the Poles, led orders (Yamskiy, Robber, Moscow Ship), was a Novgorod governor, a Suzdal governor.
In 1642, Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky died and was buried in the Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery of Suzdal. Opposite the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed on Moscow's Red Square, grateful descendants have erected a monument to Minin and Pozharsky, and on November 4, Russia celebrates a holiday - National Unity Day.
But in the most difficult periods of Russian history even women had to stand up to defend their native land.
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