Poland – Muscovite War (1609 – 1619)

1. Poland – Muscovite War(1609 – 1619) By Greg Hopper

2. The Beginning • It was one consequences of the Time of Troubles (1604-1613). • In 1598, Feodor I, the son of Ivan IV, had died. He was the last member of the Rurik that had ruled in parts of Russia since the ninth century. • Fedor was followed by Tsar as Boris Godunov. • In 1604 his rule was challenged by the first False Dmitry, one of a series of men who claimed to be Fedor’s son Dmitry, who had actually died in 1591. • Godunov died (1605) before he could defeat the False Dmitry, who briefly held the Russian throne, before being killed in 1606. • Vasilii Shuiskii was declared Tsar, but he was unpopular in Russia.

3. Poland Intervenes • A number of Dmitry’s supporters had been Polish, and their massacre in 1606 triggered a period of Polish intervention in the civil war. • Finally, in 1609 Sigismund III made the war official claiming the Russian throne himself. • The Polish intervention in Russia triggered an alliance between Sweden and Moscow. • Poland soon sieges Smolensk. • A combined army, under the Tsar’s brother Dmitri Shuiskii, was sent to relief the siege of Smolensk, but it was heavily defeated at the battle of Klushino.

4. Poland Revolt in Russia • The same year saw the beginning of an anti-Polish uprising in Russia. • The Poles were forced to withdraw from most of Russia in 1612, while the garrison in the Kremlin was forced to surrender and then massacred. • In 1613, Michael Romanov, the son of the Patriarch Filaret, was elected Tsar. • After he was Tsar, some stability returned.

5. Another Attempt • The Swedish-Russian alliance now collapsed and was replaced by a renewed Swedish-Russian War (1613-1617). • In 1617, Wladyslaw took advantage of this war to make another attempt to gain what he now saw as “his” throne. • In 1617- 1618, he made a determined attempt to capture Russia, but Michael made peace with the Swedes, and held off the renewed Polish attack.

6. The End of the War • Both sides were now ready for a truce. In January 1619 the Truce of Deulino suspended hostilities for fourteen and a half years. • The truce would be broken early by the Russians in the Smolensk War of 1632-34. • The Russians were forced to recognize the Polish occupation of Smolensk, Seversk, Chernihiv and the surrounding areas. • In return Russian prisoners, held in Warsaw, were freed.

7. Works Cited • http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_polish_muscovite_1609-19.html