THE RESIDENT'S WAR LEADERSHED BY I.I. BOLOTNIKOV (1606–1607) - the first mass movement of peasants and serfs in Russia in the 17th century.

It was caused by the strengthening of serfdom at the end of the 16th century. and the registration of serfdom (the growth of feudal land ownership, oprichnina, the associated ruin of the peasantry, the establishment of “reserved years”, when peasants were forbidden to leave the feudal lords even on St. George’s Day, a decree on a five-year period for searching for fugitives from November 24, 1597, the abolition of the right of indentured servants to repayment of debt until the death of their masters, etc.)

The war was preceded by protests by monastic peasants at the end of the 16th century, a mass exodus of peasants to the south of the country during the famine of 1601–1603, and a major uprising of serfs and peasants under the command of Cotton Kosolap in 1603. By mid-1606, individual protests in the south of Russia began to result in uprisings. The serfs and peasants were joined by archers and Cossacks, and less often by small townspeople.

The rebels were led I.I.Bolotnikov. He began sending out leaflets demanding the destruction of the power of the boyars and the replacement of the boyar Tsar V.I. Shuisky with the “good Tsar Dmitry.” The war began in June 1606 in the southwest of Russia in Novgorod-Seversk, Polish and Ukrainian cities, in the Kamaritsa volost. Putivl became its center, and at first the Putivl governor, Prince G.P. Shakhovskoy, took part in organizing the army.

In August 1606, the rebels defeated the troops of the tsarist governors - Yu.N. Trubetskoy near Kromy and M.I. Vorotynsky near Yelets. In two detachments they moved towards Moscow. I.I. Bolotnikov’s detachment was heading from Krom to Kaluga, I. Pashkov’s detachment was heading from Yelets to Tula. By the end of September 1606, a group of rebels, led by I.I. Bolotnikov, approached Aleksin, then Serpukhov. Here they were joined by Tula and Ryazan detachments. 50 versts from Moscow, near the village of Troitsky, Bolotnikov was met by troops loyal to the tsar under the command of Prince Mstislavsky, who, however, without engaging in battle, barely escaped the persecution of the Bolotnikovites. On October 22, 1606, Bolotnikov stopped in the village of Kolomenskoye, seven miles from Moscow. Here he built a prison and began sending letters around Moscow and various cities, calling on everyone to kiss the cross to the “legitimate sovereign Dimitri Ivanovich,” for whom he pretended to be. Bolotnikov stayed in Kolomenskoye for at least 2 months, but he failed to take the capital.

The uprising by that time had spread to more than 70 cities in the south and southwest of Russia. Unrest also began in Vyatka, Perm, Pskov, and Astrakhan. The government of V.I. Shuisky and the patriarch Hermogenes launched propaganda, trying to break away from the rebels the noble militia detachments that had joined them under the leadership of Istoma Pashkov, Zakhar and Prokopiy Lyapunov, and G. Sumbulov. The propaganda was a success, and soon the noble detachments left the “army” of I.I. Boltnikov.

On December 2, 1606, in a battle near the village of Nizhnie Kotly near Moscow, the peasant “army” was defeated. Bolotnikov retreated to Kaluga, strengthened it and successfully defended it throughout the winter of 1606–1607. A detachment of “Tsarevich Pyotr Fedorovich” was moving from the Volga and Don to help him (the Terek Cossack Ileiko Muromets pretended to be the never-existent son of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich). Before reaching Kaluga, it was defeated on the Vyra River at the end of February 1607.

Bolotnikov retreated from Kaluga to Tula, where he united with the remnants of I. Muromets’ detachment. Tula became the site of fierce battles.

The Shuisky government issued a special Code on March 9, 1607. It strengthened the enslavement of the peasants and granted a number of benefits to the landowners, strengthened the position of the tsarist government, whose troops (about 100 thousand people) continued the fierce siege of Tula. At the suggestion of the Murom boyar son Kravkov, the Upa dam flooded most of the besieged city; famine began in Tula. Bolotnikov was offered to begin negotiations on surrender. The Tsar promised him mercy, and on October 10, 1607, Bolotnikov allowed the Tsar’s troops into the besieged city. Shuisky broke his promise to save Bolotnikov’s life and ordered his execution.

The peasant movement continued sporadically in 1607–1608, which was taken advantage of by the second protege of the Polish interventionists, False Dmitry II, who managed to reach the Russian capital itself.

Bolotnikov's peasant war featured features common to peasant movements of the early modern period. It was characterized by spontaneity, the local nature of its actions, naive monarchism, and the absence of a political program. The first mass uprising of peasants, serfs and Cossacks in the history of Russia unfolded under the slogan “Beat the boyars, take their lands and property.” All the hopes of the peasants were focused on replacing the “bad” tsar with a “good” one.

The popular uprising of 1606-1607 led by I.I. Bolotnikova.

The performance was distinguished by its wide public coverage; representatives of both peasant and noble circles, as well as the Cossacks, took part in the uprising. The rebels managed to besiege Moscow in the fall of 1606, but after the noble part of the army went over to Shuisky's side, they were driven back from Moscow and, after a series of defeats, were finally defeated in October 1607 after a 4-month siege of Tula.

Prerequisites

After the overthrow of False Dmitry I and the accession of Vasily Shuisky, part of the population refused to recognize him as the legitimate ruler. Rumors began to spread in the country that “Tsarevich Dmitry” managed to survive, and therefore he was the legitimate ruler. In addition, social contradictions persisted, aggravated during Godunov’s reign. The most significant discontent manifested itself in the southern regions. The Tula, Ryazan and Seversk nobility refused to swear allegiance to the new tsar; in addition, the Volga, Terek and Seversk Cossacks rebelled, and there was also restlessness among the peasantry. At the beginning, the protests were scattered, but later most of the rebels united under the command of Ivan Bolotnikov, the governor of False Dmitry in Putivl.

Progress of the uprising

In the summer, several disparate groups began an uprising against the king. In the summer of 1606, Bolotnikov was defeated by Voivode Nagim near Kromy. However, taking advantage of the inaction of the tsarist troops, Bolotnikov managed to reorganize the army and in September 1606 again moved to Kromy. He managed to defeat the army of Prince Yuri Trubetskoy, who fled to Kaluga. Here, with the help of troops sent by Shuisky, they managed to stop Bolotnikov, but the residents of the city went over to the side of the rebels, after which Trubetskoy and his army retreated to Moscow.

In October 1606, Bolotnikov, united with the noble detachments of Prokopiy Lyapunov and Istoma Pashkov, besieged Moscow. The siege lasted a month and a half, but soon discord began among the rebels and the detachments of Lyapunov and Pashkov went over to Shuisky’s side. In early December, the tsarist army defeated the rebels under the walls of Moscow, after which Bolotnikov retreated to Kaluga. Shuisky's troops unsuccessfully besieged the city for several months, when in the spring of 1607 reinforcements approached the rebels from the south and from Tula. The tsarist troops were defeated and retreated to Serpukhov, while Bolotnikov moved from Kaluga to Tula.

In June, Bolotnikov again moved to Moscow, but was defeated by the tsarist army in the battle on the Eight River. The remnants of the rebel troops retreated to Tula, which was soon besieged by Shuisky’s army. Famine began in the besieged city, but it lasted until October 1607. Then the tsarist troops blocked the Upa River with a dam, which is why the city was partially flooded. On October 10, the exhausted garrison of Tula surrendered to Shuisky, who promised to save the lives of the rebels. Tsar Shuisky, however, did not keep his promise. Bolotnikov was captured and sent to Kargopol, where in 1608 he was first blinded and then drowned.

Results

Despite the defeat of Bolotnikov's uprising, Shuisky's position on the throne was not greatly strengthened. In the fall of 1607, the troops of False Dmitry II invaded Russia. Many surviving “Bolotnikovites” sided with the new impostor.

In artistic culture:

Vladimirov V.N. Rebels. M., 1928.

Dobrzhinsky Gabriel. Serf Ivashka Bolotnikov. M., 1932.

Kamensky Vasily. Three poems: Stepan Razin. Emelyan Pugachev. Ivan Bolotnikov. M., 1935.

Savelyev A.G. Son of the Peasant. M., 1967.

Kulikov G.G. Secret messenger. M., 1971.

Zamyslov V.A. Bitter Bread. Yaroslavl, 1973.

Tikhomirov O.G. Ivan is a servile governor. M., 1985.

Romanov V.I. The path to freedom. Tula, 1988.

Zamyslov V.A. Ivan Bolotnikov. Yaroslavl, 1989.

The future leader of the rebellion (which historians also call the peasant war) Ivan Bolotnikov had a life rich in adventures behind him. At first he was a military slave for the boyar and the prince A. A. Telyatevsky. In this service he received a variety of knowledge in military affairs. However, the servile lot weighed heavily on his freedom-loving nature. Bolotnikov fled to the southern steppes and soon became an ataman of the Volga Cossacks. In one of the campaigns he was captured by the Crimean Tatars. They sold him into slavery to the Ottomans. So the free chieftain ended up as a slave oarsman on a Turkish battle galley.

During one of the naval battles, the galley on which Bolotnikov was located was captured by the Venetians. He managed to escape. Having received freedom, the ataman visited Venice, and from there through Germany he reached Poland. Here he heard that Tsar Dmitry, who had fled from Moscow, was living in Sambir, and decided to meet him. From Germany he made his way to Russia. The Sambir impostor received him in the castle of Yuri Mniszek. These two people found each other. Ivan Bolotnikov was a courageous man, experienced in military affairs. The fruits of the union of False Dmitry II and Ivan Bolotnikov were new disasters for Russia.

The reason for Bolotnikov's uprising was the desire of the impostor Mikhail Molchanov, posing as the rescued Tsar False Dmitry I, to overthrow Tsar Vasily Shuisky.

Thus, in the south of the Russian kingdom, the Cossacks became the main force of opponents of Tsar Vasily Shuisky. They refused to swear allegiance to the boyar king. They were supported by those who believed the impostor False Dmitry II. Among those who went over to his side were townspeople and service people, archers, serfs and peasants. The detachments of the dissatisfied grew, the unrest spread.

Ivan Bolotnikov agreed to lead the army on behalf of the supposedly rescued Dmitry, whom no one had seen at that time. The impostor Mikhail Molchanov appointed Ataman Ivan Bolotnikov as his great governor and sent him with the appropriate letter to Putivl. The local governor is Prince G. P. Shakhovskoy was an old friend of Molchanov. He hated the Shuiskys and convinced the townspeople that Dmitry was hiding in Poland.

Soon Putivl became the center of an uprising against the power of Vasily Shuisky. The rebels lacked only energetic and courageous leaders. It was at this moment that his great commander, Ivan Bolotnikov, arrived in Putivl with broad powers from “Tsar Dmitry”. He was immediately recognized as the commander-in-chief of all rebel forces. At the same time as Bolotnikov, another leader of the rebels came forward - a young nobleman Istoma Pashkov, son of a small landowner from the town of Epifani.

Thus, in 1606, a large army gathered in Putivl, which, under the leadership of Ivan Bolotnikov, moved to Moscow.

As it moved towards Moscow, Bolotnikov’s army grew in number, becoming more and more heterogeneous. The noble detachments were led by Prokopiy Lyapunov and Istoma Pashkov. The governors were Prince Shakhovskoy and Prince Telyatevsky (for whom Bolotnikov served before). The interests of the different groups of dissatisfied people did not coincide too much. This was the weakness of the army.

Kromy and Yelets

The government of Vasily Shuisky sent a large army to suppress the rebellion in the southern regions of the country. In the summer of 1606, the tsarist commanders besieged two strongholds of the rebels - Kromy and Yelets. The rebels resisted steadfastly, and the siege dragged on until the fall. Meanwhile, the nobles were accustomed to not serving only in the summer. With the onset of autumn, they usually dispersed to their estates until the following spring. In addition, famine began in the royal army. As a result, the governors of Shuisky were forced to lift the siege and withdraw their greatly reduced regiments back to Moscow. The entire South was in the grip of the rebels. Following the retreating Moscow troops, they moved north to Moscow.

Advance towards Moscow

Supporters of False Dmitry II were divided into two independent troops. One of them was commanded by Ivan Bolotnikov, the other by Istoma Pashkov. Bolotnikov went from Putivl to Moscow through Kromy, Orel, Volkhov, Kaluga and Serpukhov. Pashkov made his way much further to the east. Starting his campaign from Yelts, he walked east of Tula and reached the Oka River near Kashira. From Kashira, Pashkov again turned east and captured Kolomna. On the way, Pashkov’s army was joined by detachments of Tula and Ryazan nobles led by G. F. Sumbulov And P. P. Lyapunov. On the way from Kolomna to Moscow, rebels near the village of Troitskoye defeated the tsar’s army sent against them.

At the end of October 1606, both troops of False Dmitry II united on the southern outskirts of Moscow. Their headquarters became the village of Kolomenskoye, the favorite country residence of the Moscow Grand Dukes and Tsars.

Siege of Moscow (1606)

The capture of Moscow was the main goal of the army of False Dmitry II. If successful, they, of course, would have committed an unprecedented pogrom in the capital. The absence of any legal authority predetermined the future: the country would plunge into bloody chaos for a long time. Realizing all this, Muscovites rallied around Vasily Shuisky. The head of the church, the patriarch, fiercely denounced the rebels Hermogenes(1606-1612). Detachments from cities located to the west and north of Moscow came to Shuisky’s aid.

The total number of rebel troops was about 20 thousand people. This was not enough to take Moscow by storm - a powerful fortress with several belts of defensive structures. A moment of precarious balance of power has arrived. The rebels sent their people to Moscow with letters in which they called on the city mob to rise up against the boyars. Shuisky's supporters demanded to see Tsar Dmitry, on whose behalf Bolotnikov and Pashkov spoke. Unspoken means of political struggle were also used - intrigue and bribery.

For five weeks the rebels besieged Moscow but were unable to take it. The long siege weakened Bolotnikov’s army: many nobles became convinced that their interests were incompatible with what the peasants, serfs and Cossacks expected from victory. This led to the fact that in mid-November 1606, Ryazan noble detachments under the leadership of P. Lyapunov went over to Shuisky’s side. Their example was soon followed by I. Pashkov. It is believed that the reason for his betrayal was enmity with Bolotnikov over primacy in the rebel camp.

The battle at the end of 1606 near the village of Kolomenskoye was lost by the rebels, although they fought bravely.

Anticipating an imminent defeat, Bolotnikov sent messengers to Putivl to Shakhovsky, begging him to speed up the return of “Tsar Dmitry” to Russia. However, False Dmitry II Mikhail Molchanov, who did not look like False Dmitry I (for whom he pretended to be), did not dare to start a too risky game. Instead, a new adventurer came to Putivl from the Don with a large detachment of Cossacks - a certain Tsarevich Peter. This was a bankrupt townsman from the city of Murom, Ileika Korovin (aka Ileika Muromets, Ilya Gorchakov). Several years before, he fled to the Terek Cossacks and was elected their ataman. Ileika Muromets went down in history as the False Peter.

In 1605, Ileika declared himself Peter - allegedly the son of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich. Having identified himself by this name, he sent a letter to False Dmitry I, who was then sitting on the royal throne, demanding that he be given money and a salary for the Cossacks as a “relative”. The amusing correspondence between the two impostors soon broke off. However, Ileika liked to play the role of the prince. Now he decided to try his luck again on the side of “Tsar Dmitry.”

From Putivl, Ileika and his Cossacks set off towards Moscow, stopping in Tula.

Bolotnikov’s still quite strong army retreated to Kaluga, which was quickly strengthened. The tsarist troops tried to take Kaluga by storm, but were repulsed and began a siege. Material from the site

Having settled in Tula, False Peter sent troops to help Bolotnikov, who was besieged in Kaluga. On May 3, 1607, the governor of False Peter, Prince A. Telyatevsky, defeated the royal army near Kaluga. This defeat completely demoralized Shuisky’s regiments, which had been besieging Kaluga for five months without success. At the first foray of the besieged, the Moscow commanders left their camp and retreated to the capital. However, Bolotnikov’s forces were also exhausted by the long siege.

Soon Bolotnikov left Kaluga and took his troops to Tula for rest and replenishment. False Peter was already waiting for him there.

At the call of Patriarch Hermogenes, nobles from all over the country flocked to Shuisky’s army. Those who came under the banner of the tsar were promised to “find out” their peasants and slaves who had fled over the past 15 years, they were given lands and rewards. Those who evaded military service to the tsar, according to the patriarch, faced terrible punishment and the curse of the church.

At the head of the 100,000-strong army is the young talented governor Mikhail

  • Date of: 1606 - 1607
  • Place: territory of the Russian kingdom.
  • Cause: strengthening of serfdom, famine, political instability.
  • Opponents: rebel detachments, as well as the mercenary army of Landsknechts - the Russian Tsardom.
  • Commanders: Ivan Bolotnikov, Grigory Shakhovskoy
    Prokopiy Lyapunov, Istoma Pashkov, Ileika Muromets, Sigismund III - Vasily Shuisky, Yu. N. Trubetskoy, M. I. Vorotynsky.
  • Result: defeat of the rebel army.

Uprising (movement) led by Ivan Bolotnikova originated in southwest Russia. This area had all the prerequisites for the start of a new uprising: here were participants in the Khlopka uprising, peasants of the Komaritsa volost, who at one time opposed Boris Godunov in support, as well as the dissatisfied townspeople.

After the birth of the center of the uprising, other peoples of the Middle Volga region began to join the Russian peasants - the Tatars, Mordovians, Chuvash and Mari.

Contemporaries, based on surviving data, portray the leader of the uprising, Ivan Bolotnikov, as a courageous man, a talented commander, and also note his ability to self-sacrifice. Before these events, Ivan Bolotnikov was in the service of Prince Telyatevsky as a military serf, where he acquired military skills. However, his service did not last long and he fled to the steppe to the Cossacks. In the Wild Field he was captured by the Tatars and sold into slavery on a galley in Turkey. During the defeat of the Turks, he was released and brought to Venice. After that, he went to his homeland and in 1606 appeared in Seversk Ukraine, leading an uprising.

The uprising of Ivan Bolotnikov spread quite quickly and covered more and more territory. In July 1606, Bolotnikov decided to begin a campaign against Moscow. The first clash with government troops took place in August near Kromy, where the rebels won a major victory, which opened the way for the rebels to Oryol. Another starting point for the rebellious masses was the city of Yelets, which joined the uprising. The tsarist troops tried to take Yelets, but their attempts ended in failure.

One of the main victories during the entire uprising was the victory of Ivan Bolotnikov near Kaluga (September 23, 1606), where the main troops of Vasily Shuisky were located. This victory caused new unrest and opened the way to Moscow.

In the fall, Ivan Bolotnikov’s troops were replenished by landowners. Landowners from the Ryazan region were led by Grigory Sumbulov and Prokopiy Lyapunov, and landowners from the Tula region were led by Istoma Pashkov. One can immediately highlight the negative side of this event: the nobles wanted, first of all, the overthrow of the tsar, and the interests of the masses did not bother them.

The main goal of the rebels was the destruction of serfdom and feudal dependence. With these calls, Ivan Bolotnikov addressed the masses, although he did not position himself as a future tsar. In his opinion, he was the “great commander” of the new “Tsar Dmitry.” Tsar Dmitry was different in definition from False Dmitry I, had nothing in common with him and was, most likely, a peasant utopia.

During the campaign against Moscow, the territory of unrest expanded significantly: by the time the rebels approached Moscow, unrest had already captured more than 70 cities.

It is worth noting the struggle of individual regions: Vyatka-Perm, Pskov and Astrakhan. The main cause of discontent and protests was class inequality. In the Vyatka-Perm region, the population dealt with representatives of the administration, as well as with the elders, who were elected from the top of the nobility.

In Pskov, the struggle went on without reasons of class inequality: the nobility wanted to give Pskov to the Swedes, and the “lesser people” opposed them in 1606. The confrontation between the two sides ended after the suppression of the rebellion.

In October, Ivan Bolotnikov’s troops approached Moscow. At this time, Moscow was engulfed in class strife, and the government locked itself in the Kremlin, fearing reprisals. Bolotnikov decided to engage in propaganda politics and began sending people to raise an uprising in the city.

By that time, Bolotnikov’s army already numbered more than 100 thousand people. However, it should be noted that the class composition and goals of some units were strikingly different. The original participants in the movement remained with Ivan Bolotnikov to the end, and the troops of the landowners subsequently betrayed Bolotnikov and went over to the side of the government.

Vasily Shuisky took many measures to disintegrate the rebel army: he managed to win over the Ryazan people (Lyapunov and Sumbulov), and a little later, Istoma Pashkov.

The troops of Vasily Shuisky defeated Ivan Bolotnikov on November 27, and on December 2, a decisive battle took place near the village of Kotly, in which government troops inflicted a serious defeat on Bolotnikov’s troops. The defeat occurred even after the arrival of reinforcements to Bolotnikov’s troops, although there were events that significantly weakened them: at this time Istoma Pashkov betrayed Bolotnikov and went over to the side of Vasily Shuisky. After the defeat on December 2, a new period began in the uprising.

The struggle of the population after the defeat not only did not stop, but also intensified. Now Kaluga and Tula become the main bases of the rebels. The area where the unrest spread has increased: now the unrest has also spread to the Volga region.

In the Volga region, many peoples opposed government troops: Mordovians, Tatars, Mari, etc. The situation was especially acute in Ryazan, the Novgorod-Pskov region, Astrakhan and some other cities. During the development of the scale of the uprising, a new movement appeared on the Terek, where the imaginary son of Fyodor Ivanovich “Tsarevich” Peter became the leader. This movement soon gained enormous momentum and merged with the uprising of Ivan Bolotnikov.

Vasily Shuisky tried to suppress all the centers of the uprising at once and sent troops to besiege Kaluga, where Bolotnikov was at that time. The siege began in December 1606 and ended unsuccessfully in May 1607. The second center of the uprising with “Tsarevich” Peter was located in Tula.

The unsuccessful siege showed the strength of the rebels. Vasily Shuisky began to continue the fight near Kaluga, and in May 1607, in the Battle of the Pchelna River, government troops were severely defeated. The siege of Kaluga was lifted.

After this, Bolotnikov decided to unite with “Tsarevich” Peter, and Shuisky managed to gather new detachments by regulating relations between the boyars and nobles.

Shuisky managed to come to an agreement with the ruling classes by resolving the peasant issue. The main problem during the reign of Boris Godunov and False Dmitry I was the lack of regulation of the search for runaway peasants and therefore there was often a sharp struggle between landowners for them. The Code of March 9, 1607 established a 15-year period for searching for fugitive peasants. Thanks to the adopted law (the main purpose of which was to unite landowners), landowners were united and opposed the troops of Ivan Bolotnikov.

On May 21, 1607, the tsar organized a new campaign against Bolotnikov. This time he himself led the troops. The first battle took place on the Eight River and ended in the defeat of the rebels. Bolotnikov was also defeated on the Voronya River.

Ivan Isaevich Bolotnikov confesses to Tsar Vasily Shuisky. Author unknown.

Ivan Bolotnikov with the remnants of the army took refuge in Tula. The siege of Tula lasted 4 months. Although Vasily Shuisky's troops had a numerical advantage, they failed to take the city on the move. Despite depleted food supplies, the defenders fought to the end. Shuisky’s position was also difficult: a new movement arose led by another impostor “Dmitry”, who later received the name False Dmitry II.

In the context of a new uprising, Shuisky offered the defenders of Tula to surrender in exchange for saving their lives. The exhausted garrison decided to surrender and, believing the king’s false promise, laid down its arms on October 10, 1607.

The leaders of the besieged were put in chains and taken to Moscow. Peter was hanged immediately, and Ivan Bolotnikov was killed only six months later (first he was blinded, then drowned).

Results of the uprising of Ivan Bolotnikov

The uprising of Ivan Bolotnikov was massive and spontaneous. The unrest covered a vast area.

The main prerequisites for the uprising were inter-class contradictions, increased serfdom exploitation of peasants and the creation of legal formalization of serfdom.

The rebellious peasants had no ideological basis. They were counting on a “new tsar”, not on changing the constitutional and social system of Russia as a whole.

Thanks to the peasant uprising of 1606-1607. the government realized that the peasant class also needed to be taken into account. This was the first peasant war in Russian history.

The main result of the “dynastic” stage of the “turmoil” is a catastrophic decline in the authority of power, the collapse of all restraining ties, and the beginning of a “war of all against all.”

The beginning of the uprising

In the summer of 1606, one of the largest peasant uprisings of feudal Rus' began in Seversk Ukraine. The main force of the uprising were enslaved peasants and slaves. Together with them, the Cossacks, townspeople and archers of the border (Ukrainian) cities rose up against the feudal khnyot.

It was no coincidence that the uprising began in the southwest of the Russian state. Fugitive peasants and serfs gathered here in large numbers, and the surviving participants of the Cotton uprising sought refuge. The population of this area, in particular the population of the vast and populous Komaritsa volost, located not far from the border, had already opposed Godunov and supported False Dmitry I. Boris Godunov responded to this with the complete ruin of the volost. In such a situation, a new uprising could easily arise. An outstanding role in the Bolotnikov uprising was played by the peasants of the Komaritsa volost, which became one of the main centers of the movement. The townspeople also actively participated in it.

Together with the Russian peasantry, the working masses of the multinational population of the Middle Volga region - the Mari, Mordovians, Chuvash, and Tatars - also opposed the feudal order.

Ivan Isaevich Bolotnikov was the military slave of Prince Telyatevsky, which helped him acquire professional skills and knowledge of military affairs. In his youth, Bolotnikov fled from Telyatevsky to the steppe to the Cossacks. He was captured in the Wild Field by the Tatars, who sold him into slavery in Turkey, where Bolotnikov became a slave on a galley. He was freed from slavery during the defeat of the Turks in a naval battle and brought to Venice. From here, through Germany and Poland, he returned to his homeland. In the summer of 1606, he appeared on the “Moscow border” at a time when the popular movement of which he became the leader was rapidly growing in Seversk Ukraine. The surviving testimony of contemporaries portrays Bolotnikov as a courageous, energetic leader, a man capable of sacrificing his life for the people’s cause, and a talented commander.

March on Moscow

The uprising, which began in the summer of 1606, quickly spread to new areas. The population of cities and villages on the southern outskirts of the Russian state joined the rebels.

In July 1606, Bolotnikov began a campaign against Moscow from Putivl through the Komaritsa volost. In August, near Kromy, the rebels won a major victory over Shuisky’s troops; she opened the road to Oryol. Another center of the unfolding military operations was Yelets, which had important strategic importance, which joined the rebels. The attempt of the tsarist troops besieging Yelets to take the city ended in failure. The victory of the rebels at Yelets and Kromy ends the first stage of the campaign against Moscow.


On September 23, 1606, Bolotnikov won a victory near Kaluga, where the main forces of Shuisky’s army were concentrated. This event was of great importance for the further course of the struggle. It opened the way to Moscow for the rebels, caused the uprising to spread to new large areas, and drew new layers of the population into the uprising.

In the autumn, service landowners joined Bolotnikov’s troops advancing towards the capital. The Ryazan noble landowners came led by Grigory Sumbulov and Prokopiy Lyapunov, and the Tula and Venev nobles came under the leadership of the centurion Istoma Pashkov. The increase in Bolotnikov's army at the expense of the noble squads played a negative role. The nobles joined Bolotnikov only out of a desire to use the peasant movement as a means to fight the government of Tsar Vasily Shuisky. The social interests of the nobility were opposed to the interests of the bulk of the rebels.

Goals of the rebels

The main goal of the uprising was the destruction of serfdom, the elimination of feudal exploitation and oppression. This was the meaning of the appeals that Bolotnikov made in his “sheets” (proclamations) to the “boyar slaves” and the poor of Moscow and other cities. Bolotnikov’s calls boiled down to ensuring that the rebel townspeople “beat the boyars... guests and all merchants,” and the peasants would deal with the feudal lords in the countryside, seize their lands and eliminate serfdom. The political slogan of the Bolotnikov uprising was the proclamation of “Tsar Dmitry” as tsar. Faith in him was inherent not only to ordinary participants in the uprising, but also to Bolotnikov himself, who called himself only the “great commander” of “Tsar Dmitry.” This ideal “Tsar Dmitry” had nothing in common with the Polish protege False Dmitry I. The slogan of the “good” Tsar was a kind of peasant utopia.

Expansion of the territory of the uprising

During the campaign against Moscow, new cities and regions joined the rebels. First, Seversky, Polish and Ukrainian cities (located on the southwestern border of the Russian state), and then Ryazan and coastal cities (covering Moscow from the south) joined the rebels; Later, the uprising covered the cities lying near the Lithuanian border - Dorogobuzh, Vyazma, Roslavl, the Tver suburbs, the Zaoksk cities - Kaluga, etc., the lower cities - Murom, Arzamas, etc. By the time Bolotnikov’s army arrived in Moscow, the uprising had covered over 70 cities.

Simultaneously with the Bolotnikov uprising, a struggle was unfolding in the northeast in the cities of the Vyatka-Perm region, in the northwest - in Pskov and in the southeast - in Astrakhan. A common feature of events in the cities of all three districts was the struggle between the higher and lower strata of the town, which was the result of class contradictions within the urban population. In the cities of the Vyatka-Perm region in 1606, the population of the cities dealt with representatives of the tsarist administration, sent here to collect “dacha” people and cash taxes. At the same time, there were protests by townspeople against the top of the settlement, in particular the village elders, who were elected from among the “best people.”

The most intense and vivid struggle was in Pskov. Here it unfolded between “big” and “smaller” people. The struggle of the Pskov “lesser” people had a pronounced patriotic character. The “lesser” people very resolutely opposed the plans of the traitors - the “big” people who intended to give Pskov to the Swedes. The open struggle between “greater” and “lesser” people began in the second half of 1606, but it ended much later than the suppression of Bolotnikov’s uprising.

One of the largest centers of struggle during the Bolotnikov uprising was Astrakhan. The Astrakhan events went far beyond the chronological framework of the Bolotnikov uprising. The government managed to suppress this movement only in 1614, but the beginning of open struggle in Astrakhan dates back to the last year of Godunov’s reign. Astrakhan was one of the most persistent centers of the struggle. The uprising in the city was directed not only against the nobles, but also against merchants. The driving force behind the Astrakhan uprising was the poorest part of the city population (slaves, ryzhki, working people), in addition, archers and Cossacks played an active role in the uprising. The “princes” nominated by the Astrakhan lower classes (one a serf, the other a tilled peasant) were radically different from such impostors as False Dmitry I and subsequently False Dmitry II, who were proteges of foreign interventionists.

The lack of communication between the rebel populations of individual cities once again emphasizes the spontaneous nature of Bolotnikov’s uprising.

Siege of Moscow

Advancing from Kaluga, the rebels defeated the troops of Vasily Shuisky near the village of Troitsky (near Kolomna) and in October approached Moscow. The siege of Moscow was the culmination of the uprising. The situation in the besieged capital was extremely tense due to the aggravation of class contradictions among the population of Moscow. Even before Bolotnikov’s arrival, the government, fearing the masses, locked itself in the Kremlin. The siege further aggravated the situation. In Moscow, proclamations (“sheets”) of Ivan Bolotnikov appeared, in which he called on the population to surrender the city. Bolotnikov sent his faithful people to Moscow, to whom he set the task of rousing the masses to fight. However, already during this period the weak elements of the uprising had an impact, which then led to its decline and suppression.

Bolotnikov’s detachments were neither homogeneous in their class composition, nor unified in their organization. Their main core consisted of peasants, serfs and Cossacks, who remained loyal to Bolotnikov and fought to the end. The nobles who joined Bolotnikov as he advanced towards Moscow changed at a certain stage of the uprising and went over to the side of the government of Vasily Shuiskaya.

Bolotnikov’s army, which besieged Moscow, numbered about 100 thousand people in its ranks. It broke up into semi-independent detachments, headed by their governors (Sumbulov, Lyapunov, Pashkov, Bezzubtsev). Ivan Bolotnikov was the “great voivode” who exercised supreme command.

Shuisky's government took a number of measures to disintegrate Bolotnikov's army. As a result of this, Bolotnikov was betrayed by random fellow travelers and noble-landowner elements - the Ryazan people led by Lyapunov and Sumbulov. Later Istoma Pashkov cheated on Bolotnikov. This was a major success for Vasily Shuisky in the fight against Bolotnikov.

Bolotnikov's defeat near Moscow

On November 27, Vasily Shuisky managed to defeat Bolotnikov, and on December 2, he won the decisive battle near the village of Kotly. Bolotnikov's defeat near Moscow occurred as a result of a change in the balance of forces of the fighting parties. At the end of November, Shuisky received large reinforcements: Smolensk, Rzhev and other regiments came to his aid. Changes also occurred in Bolotnikov’s army that weakened it: the betrayal of Istoma Pashkov, who went over to Shuisky’s side along with his detachment on November 27, dates back to this time. Bolotnikov's defeat on December 2 radically changed the situation in the country: it meant the lifting of the siege of Moscow and the transfer of the initiative into the hands of governor Shuisky. The Tsar brutally dealt with the captured participants in the uprising. However, the struggle of the rebel peasants and slaves did not stop.

Kaluga period of the uprising

After the defeat near Moscow, Kaluga and Tula became the main bases of the uprising. The area covered by the uprising not only did not shrink, but, on the contrary, expanded, including the cities of the Volga region. In the Volga region, the Tatars, Mordovians, Mari and other peoples opposed the serfs. Thus, the struggle took place over a large area. The situation was especially acute in the Ryazan-Bryansk region and in the Middle Volga region, and the struggle did not subside in the Novgorod-Pskov region, in the North and in Astrakhan. In addition, the movement that arose on the Terek, led by the impostor “Tsarevich” Peter, the imaginary son of Fyodor Ivanovich (this name was adopted by Ilya Gorchakov, who came from the townspeople of the city of Murom), by the beginning of 1607 had outgrown the framework of a purely Cossack speech and merged with the Bolotnikov uprising. Shuisky's government sought to suppress all centers and hotbeds of the uprising. Bolotnikov was besieged in Kaluga by Shuisky's troops. The unsuccessful siege of Kaluga lasted from December 1606 to early May 1607. “Tsarevich” Peter was in the second most important center of the uprising - Tula.

The failure of Vasily Shuisky’s attempt to complete the defeat of Bolotnikov’s uprising with one blow showed that, despite the defeat near Moscow, the forces of the rebels were far from broken. Therefore, while continuing the fight against Bolotnikov’s main forces near Kaluga, Shuisky’s government is simultaneously taking measures to suppress the uprising in other areas.

The fight near Kaluga ended in May 1607 with the Battle of the Pchelnya River, where Shuisky’s troops were completely defeated and fled. The defeat of Shuisky's troops and the lifting of the siege of Kaluga meant the enormous success of Bolotnikov's uprising. This led to an acute conflict between the tsar and the boyars, who demanded the abdication of Vasily Shuisky.

After the defeat of Shuisky’s troops at Pchelnya and the lifting of the siege from Kaluga, Bolotnikov moved to Tula and united there with “Tsarevich” Peter.

During this time, Shuisky managed to gather new forces and reach a temporary agreement between the main groups of the ruling class - the boyars and nobles.

Shuisky received the support of the nobility through a number of events. One of the most important among them was legislation on the peasant question. The matter of tracking down fugitive peasants as a result of the contradictory legislation of Boris Godunov and False Dmitry I was in a very confused state. There was a sharp struggle between landowners over the runaway peasants. The Code of March 9, 1607, which was the main legislative act of the Shuisky government on the issue of peasants, was intended to suppress peasant transitions from one landowner to another. The Code established a 15-year period for searching for fugitive peasants. The publication of this law met the demands of landowners and, first of all, landowners. It should have entailed the cessation of the bitter struggle over runaway peasants between separate groups of landowners, and therefore united them to fight Bolotnikov. Shuisky's legislation, while strengthening serfdom, worsened the situation of the peasants. Shuisky's policy towards peasants and slaves was subordinated to the goals of suppressing Bolotnikov's uprising.

On May 21, 1607, Vasily Shuisky began a new campaign against Bolotnikov and “Tsarevich” Peter, who were entrenched in Tula. Troops intended for the siege of Tula were concentrated in Serpukhov, headed by the tsar himself. The first meeting of the tsarist troops with Bolotnikov’s troops took place on the Eight River and ended in the defeat of the rebels. The battle on the Voronya River (7 km from Tula) was also unsuccessful for Bolotnikov. Shuisky began the siege of Tula, the four-month defense of which was the final stage in the history of Bolotnikov’s uprising.

Despite the numerical superiority of Shuisky's troops, the besieged courageously defended Tula, repelling all enemy assaults. In the fall, the besiegers built a dam on the Upa River, which caused a flood. Water flooded the ammunition cellar in Tula and ruined grain and salt reserves. But the position of Vasily Shuisky near Tula was difficult. There was an ongoing struggle between peasants and slaves in the country. A new impostor appeared, declaring himself “Tsar Dmitry” in the city of Starodub-Seversky. This adventurer, put forward by Polish feudal lords hostile to the Russian state, made extensive use of social demagoguery, promising peasants and serfs “liberty.” The name of “Tsar Dmitry” initially attracted the broad masses to the impostor. In September 1607, False Dmitry II began a campaign from Starodub to Bryansk.

Under these conditions, Shuisky negotiated with the defenders of Tula about surrender, promising to preserve the lives of the besieged. The exhausted garrison of Tula surrendered on October 10, 1607, believing the tsar’s false promises. The fall of Tula was the end of Bolotnikov's uprising. Bolotnikov and “Tsarevich” Peter, clad in iron, were taken to Moscow.

Immediately upon Vasily Shuisky’s return to Moscow, “Tsarevich” Peter was hanged. Shuisky decided to deal with the real leader of the uprising, Ivan Bolotnikov, only six months after the capture of Tula. Ivan Bolotnikov was sent to Kargopol and there in 1608 he was first blinded and then drowned.

Historical significance of the uprising of Ivan Bolotnikov

The Bolotnikov uprising, which covered a vast territory, is the first peasant war in Russia. Serfs constituted the main driving force of the uprising. The reasons that caused it were rooted in the relations that existed between the peasantry and the feudal landowners. Bolotnikov's uprising dates back to the time of a sharp increase in the serf exploitation of the peasantry and the legal formalization of serfdom. The implementation of the goals of the peasants and lower classes who rebelled under the leadership of Bolotnikov could lead to significant social changes in the life of the country, to the elimination of the serfdom system.

Peasant uprisings of the era of feudalism (including Bolotnikov's uprising) were spontaneous in nature. This was expressed, in particular, in the fact that the rebels did not have a program for the reconstruction of society. They sought to destroy the existing serfdom, but did not know how to build a new one. Instead, they put forward the slogan of replacing one king with another. The lack of a clear program limited the movement's task to the struggle against specific carriers of oppression in a particular area without establishing any strong connections between the various centers of the uprising, causing organizational weakness of the movement. The absence of a class capable of leading this movement, overcoming its spontaneous nature, developing a movement program and giving it organizational strength determined the very outcome of the uprising. Neither the courage of the participants in the uprising, nor the talents of the leaders could eliminate its weaknesses, due to the very nature of the uprising.

The great merit of the rebels in 1606 was that they launched the first peasant war in Russia against feudal oppression.