Letters were sent to cities with an invitation to send authorities and elected officials to Moscow for a great cause; they wrote that Moscow had been cleared of Polish and Lithuanian people, the churches of God had returned to their former glory and God’s name was still glorified in them; but without a sovereign the Moscow state cannot stand, there is no one to take care of it and there is no one to provide for the people of God, without a sovereign there is enough Moscow State they will ruin everyone: without the sovereign the state is not built by anything and thieves' factories are divided into many parts and theft multiplies a lot, and therefore the boyars and governors invited all the spiritual authorities to come to them in Moscow, and from the nobles, the children of the boyars, guests, merchants, townspeople and district people, having chosen the best, strong and reasonable people, according to how many people are suitable for the zemstvo council and state election, all the cities would be sent to Moscow, and so that these authorities and elected best people They agreed firmly in their cities and took full agreements from all people about the election of the state. When quite a lot of authorities and elected officials had gathered, a three-day fast was appointed, after which the councils began. First of all, they began to discuss whether to choose from foreign royal houses or their natural Russian, and decided “not to elect the Lithuanian and Swedish king and their children and other German faiths and any foreign-language states not of the Christian faith of the Greek law to the Vladimir and Moscow states, and Marinka and her son are not wanted for the state, because the Polish and German kings saw themselves as untruths and crimes on the cross and a violation of peace: the Lithuanian king ruined the Moscow state, and the Swedish king took Veliky Novgorod by deception.” They began to choose their own: then intrigues, unrest and unrest began; everyone wanted to do according to their own thoughts, everyone wanted their own, some even wanted the throne themselves, they bribed and sent; sides formed, but none of them gained the upper hand. Once, the chronograph says, some nobleman from Galich brought a written opinion to the council, which said that Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov was the closest in relationship to the previous tsars, and he should be elected tsar. The voices of dissatisfied people were heard: “Who brought such a letter, who, where from?” At that time, the Don Ataman comes out and also submits a written opinion: “What did you submit, Ataman?” - Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky asked him. “About the natural Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich,” answered the ataman. The same opinion submitted by the nobleman and the Don ataman decided the matter: Mikhail Fedorovich was proclaimed tsar. But not all the elected officials were in Moscow yet; there were no noble boyars; Prince Mstislavsky and his comrades immediately after their liberation left Moscow: it was awkward for them to remain in it near the liberating commanders; Now they sent to call them to Moscow for a common cause, they also sent reliable people to cities and districts to find out the people’s thoughts about the new chosen one, and the final decision was postponed for two weeks, from February 8 to February 21, 1613.

COMPOSITION OF THE CATHEDRAL

Elected people gathered in Moscow in January 1613. From Moscow they asked the cities to send “the best, strongest and most reasonable” people for the royal election. The cities, by the way, had to think not only about electing a king, but also about how to “build” the state and how to conduct business before the election, and about this to give the elected “agreements”, i.e. instructions that they had to be guided. For a more complete coverage and understanding of the council of 1613, one should turn to an analysis of its composition, which can only be determined by the signatures on the electoral charter of Mikhail Fedorovich, written in the summer of 1613. On it we see only 277 signatures, but obviously there were participants in the council more, since not all conciliar people signed the conciliar charter. Proof of this is, for example, the following: 4 people signed the charter for Nizhny Novgorod (Archpriest Savva, 1 townsman, 2 archers), and it is reliably known that there were 19 people elected from Nizhny Novgorod (3 priests, 13 townspeople, a deacon and 2 archers). If each city were content with ten elected people, as the book determined their number. Dm. Mich. Pozharsky, then up to 500 elected people would have gathered in Moscow, since representatives of 50 cities (northern, eastern and southern) participated in the cathedral; and together with the Moscow people and clergy, the number of participants in the cathedral would have reached 700 people. The cathedral was really crowded. He often gathered in the Assumption Cathedral, perhaps precisely because none of the other Moscow buildings could accommodate him. Now the question is what classes of society were represented at the council and whether the council was complete in its class composition. Of the 277 signatures mentioned, 57 belong to the clergy (partly “elected” from the cities), 136 - to the highest service ranks (boyars - 17), 84 - to the city electors. It has already been said above that these digital data cannot be trusted. According to them, there were few provincial electors at the cathedral, but in fact these electors undoubtedly made up the majority, and although it is impossible to determine with accuracy either their number, or how many of them were tax workers and how many were service people, nevertheless it can be said that the service there were, it seems, more than the townspeople, but there was also a very large percentage of the townspeople, which rarely happened at councils. And, in addition, there are traces of the participation of “district” people (12 signatures). These were, firstly, peasants not from proprietary lands, but from black sovereign lands, representatives of free northern peasant communities, and secondly, small service people from the southern districts. Thus, representation at the council of 1613 was extremely complete.

We don’t know anything exact about what happened at this council, because in the acts and literary works of that time only fragments of legends, hints and legends remain, so the historian here is, as it were, among the incoherent ruins of an ancient building, the appearance of which he has to restore has no strength. Official documents say nothing about the proceedings of the meetings. True, the electoral charter has been preserved, but it can help us little, since it was not written independently and, moreover, does not contain information about the very process of the election. As for unofficial documents, they are either legends or meager, dark and rhetorical stories from which nothing definite can be extracted.

THE ROMANOVS UNDER BORIS GODUNOV

This family was the closest to the previous dynasty; they were cousins ​​of the late Tsar Fedor. The Romanovs were not disposed towards Boris. Boris could suspect the Romanovs when he had to look for secret enemies. According to the news of the chronicles, Boris found fault with the Romanovs about the denunciation of one of their slaves, as if they wanted to use the roots to destroy the king and gain the kingdom by “witchcraft” (witchcraft). Four Romanov brothers - Alexander, Vasily, Ivan and Mikhail - were sent to remote places in difficult imprisonment, and the fifth, Fedor, who, it seems, was smarter than all of them, was forcibly tonsured under the name of Philaret in the monastery of Anthony of Siy. Then their relatives and friends were exiled - Cherkassky, Sitsky, Repnins, Karpovs, Shestunovs, Pushkins and others.

ROMANOVS

Thus, the conciliar election of Michael was prepared and supported at the council and among the people by a number of aids: election campaigning with the participation of numerous relatives of the Romanovs, pressure from the Cossack force, secret inquiry among the people, shouting from the capital’s crowd on Red Square. But all these selective methods were successful because they found support in society’s attitude towards the surname. Mikhail was carried away not by personal or propaganda, but by family popularity. He belonged to a boyar family, perhaps the most beloved one in Moscow society at that time. The Romanovs are a recently separated branch of the ancient boyar family of the Koshkins. It’s been a long time since I brought it. book Ivan Danilovich Kalita, left for Moscow from the “Prussian lands”, as the genealogy says, a noble man, who in Moscow was nicknamed Andrei Ivanovich Kobyla. He became a prominent boyar at the Moscow court. From his fifth son, Fyodor Koshka, came the “Cat Family,” as it is called in our chronicles. The Koshkins shone at the Moscow court in the 14th and 15th centuries. This was the only untitled boyar family that did not drown in the stream of new titled servants who poured into the Moscow court from the middle of the 15th century. Among the princes Shuisky, Vorotynsky, Mstislavsky, the Koshkins knew how to stay in the first rank of the boyars. IN early XVI V. A prominent place at the court was occupied by the boyar Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin, who descended from Koshkin’s grandson Zakhary. He became the founder of a new branch of this family - the Romanovs. Roman's son Nikita, the brother of Tsarina Anastasia, is the only Moscow boyar of the 16th century who left a good memory among the people: his name was remembered by folk epics, portraying him in their songs about Grozny as a complacent mediator between the people and the angry tsar. Of Nikita's six sons, the eldest, Fyodor, was especially outstanding. He was a very kind and affectionate boyar, a dandy and a very inquisitive person. The Englishman Horsey, who then lived in Moscow, says in his notes that this boyar certainly wanted to learn Latin, and at his request, Horsey compiled a Latin grammar for him, writing in it latin words Russian letters. The popularity of the Romanovs, acquired by their personal qualities, undoubtedly increased from the persecution to which the Nikitichs were subjected under the suspicious Godunov; A. Palitsyn even puts this persecution among those sins for which God punished the Russian land with the Troubles. Enmity with Tsar Vasily and connections with Tushin brought the Romanovs the patronage of the second False Dmitry and popularity in the Cossack camps. Thus, the ambiguous behavior of the family name in the troubled years prepared for Mikhail bilateral support, both in the zemstvo and in the Cossacks. But what helped Mikhail the most in the cathedral elections was the family connection of the Romanovs with the former dynasty. During the Time of Troubles, the Russian people unsuccessfully elected new tsars so many times, and now only that election seemed to them secure, which fell on their face, although somehow connected with the former royal house. Tsar Mikhail was seen not as a council elect, but as the nephew of Tsar Feodor, a natural, hereditary tsar. A modern chronograph directly says that Michael was asked to take over the kingdom “of his kindred for the sake of the union of royal sparks.” It is not for nothing that Abraham Palitsyn calls Mikhail “chosen by God before his birth,” and clerk I. Timofeev in the unbroken chain of hereditary kings placed Mikhail right after Fyodor Ivanovich, ignoring Godunov, Shuisky, and all the impostors. And Tsar Mikhail himself in his letters usually called Grozny his grandfather. It is difficult to say how much the rumor that circulated at that time helped the election of Mikhail that Tsar Fedor, when dying, verbally bequeathed the throne to his cousin Fedor, Mikhail's father. But the boyars who led the elections should have been swayed in favor of Mikhail by another convenience, to which they could not be indifferent. There is news that F.I. Sheremetev wrote to Poland as a book. Golitsyn: “Misha de Romanov is young, his mind has not yet reached him and he will be familiar to us.” Sheremetev, of course, knew that the throne would not deprive Mikhail of the ability to mature and his youth would not be permanent. But they promised to show other qualities. That the nephew will be a second uncle, resembling him in mental and physical frailty, he will emerge as a kind, meek king, under whom the trials experienced by the boyars during the reign of the Terrible and Boris will not be repeated. They wanted to choose not the most capable, but the most convenient. Thus appeared the founder of a new dynasty, putting an end to the Troubles.

The end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries became a period of socio-political, economic and dynastic crisis in Russian history, which was called the Time of Troubles. The Time of Troubles began with the catastrophic famine of 1601-1603. A sharp deterioration in the situation of all segments of the population led to mass unrest under the slogan of overthrowing Tsar Boris Godunov and transferring the throne to the “legitimate” sovereign, as well as to the emergence of impostors False Dmitry I and False Dmitry II as a result of the dynastic crisis.

"Seven Boyars" - the government formed in Moscow after the overthrow of Tsar Vasily Shuisky in July 1610, concluded an agreement on the election of the Polish prince Vladislav to the Russian throne and in September 1610 allowed the Polish army into the capital.

Since 1611, patriotic sentiments began to grow in Russia. The First Militia, formed against the Poles, never managed to drive the foreigners out of Moscow. And a new impostor, False Dmitry III, appeared in Pskov. In the fall of 1611, on the initiative of Kuzma Minin, the formation of the Second Militia began in Nizhny Novgorod, led by Prince Dmitry Pozharsky. In August 1612, it approached Moscow and liberated it in the fall. The leadership of the Zemsky militia began preparing for the electoral Zemsky Sobor.

At the beginning of 1613, elected officials from “the whole earth” began to gather in Moscow. This was the first indisputably all-class Zemsky Sobor with the participation of townspeople and even rural representatives. The number of “council people” gathered in Moscow exceeded 800 people, representing at least 58 cities.

The Zemsky Sobor began its work on January 16 (January 6, old style) 1613. Representatives of “the whole earth” annulled the decision of the previous council on the election of Prince Vladislav to the Russian throne and decided: “Foreign princes and Tatar princes should not be invited to the Russian throne.”

The conciliar meetings took place in an atmosphere of fierce rivalry between various political groups that took shape in Russian society during the Time of Troubles and sought to strengthen their position by electing their contender to the royal throne. The council participants nominated more than ten candidates for the throne. IN different sources among the candidates are Fyodor Mstislavsky, Ivan Vorotynsky, Fyodor Sheremetev, Dmitry Trubetskoy, Dmitry Mamstrukovich and Ivan Borisovich Cherkassky, Ivan Golitsyn, Ivan Nikitich and Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, Pyotr Pronsky and Dmitry Pozharsky.

Data from the “Report on Patrimonies and Estates of 1613,” which records land grants made immediately after the election of the Tsar, make it possible to identify the most active members of the “Romanov” circle. The candidacy of Mikhail Fedorovich in 1613 was supported not by the influential clan of Romanov boyars, but by a circle that spontaneously formed during the work of the Zemsky Sobor, composed of minor figures from the previously defeated boyar groups.

According to a number of historians, the decisive role in the election of Mikhail Romanov to the kingdom was played by the Cossacks, who during this period became an influential social force. A movement arose among service people and Cossacks, the center of which was the Moscow courtyard of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, and its active inspirer was the cellarer of this monastery, Avraamy Palitsyn, a very influential person among both the militias and Muscovites. At meetings with the participation of cellarer Abraham, it was decided to proclaim 16-year-old Mikhail Fedorovich, the son of Rostov Metropolitan Filaret captured by the Poles, as tsar.

The main argument of Mikhail Romanov’s supporters was that, unlike elected tsars, he was elected not by people, but by God, since he comes from a noble royal root. Not kinship with Rurik, but closeness and kinship with the dynasty of Ivan IV gave the right to occupy his throne.

Many boyars joined the Romanov party, and he was also supported by the highest Orthodox clergy - the Consecrated Cathedral.

The election took place on February 17 (February 7, old style) 1613, but the official announcement was postponed until March 3 (February 21, old style), so that during this time it would become clear how the people would accept the new king.

Letters were sent to the cities and districts of the country with the news of the election of a king and the oath of allegiance to the new dynasty.

On March 23 (13, according to other sources, March 14, old style), 1613, the ambassadors of the Council arrived in Kostroma. At the Ipatiev Monastery, where Mikhail was with his mother, he was informed of his election to the throne.

By January 1613, representatives of fifty cities gathered in Moscow, who, together with Moscow people, formed a zemsky (electoral) council. They immediately began to discuss the issue of foreign candidates for kingship. Thus Philip and Vladislav were rejected. Finally, a decision was made “not to elect a tsar from the list of foreigners,” but to elect the ruler of the Russian state from the great Moscow families. As soon as the discussion began about which of their own could be elevated to the throne, opinions were divided. Everyone voted for a candidate they liked, and for quite a long time opinions could not converge.

However, at the same time, it turned out that not only at the cathedral, but also in Moscow itself, among the Cossacks and zemstvo people, the son of Metropolitan Philaret, young Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, enjoyed special authority. His name was already mentioned during the election of Vladislav and now both oral and written statements from Cossacks and townspeople began to arrive in his favor. On February 7, 1613, the cathedral decided to choose Mikhail Romanov, however, out of caution, they decided to postpone the matter for a couple of weeks in order to find out during this time in the nearest cities how they treated Mikhail. So by the twenty-first of February, the boyars arrived from their estates with good news, after which Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov was proclaimed tsar and all members of the council, as well as all of Moscow, swore allegiance to him.

However, the new tsar was not in Moscow. In 1612, he sat with his mother (nun Marfa Ivanovna) in the siege (Kremlin), and then, freed, he left for Kostroma through Yaroslavl to his villages. There he was in danger from a wandering Cossack or Polish detachment, of which there were many walking around the Russian land after the fall of Tushin. Mikhail Romanov is saved in the village of Domnino by his peasant Ivan Susanin. Having notified Mikhail of the danger, he deceives his enemies into the forest, where he accepts death, instead of showing them the boyar’s hut.

After this, Mikhail Fedorovich took refuge in the Ipatiev strong monastery near Kostroma, where he lived until the moment when an embassy appeared to him offering the throne. At the same time, Mikhail Romanov refused the throne for quite a long time, and his mother also did not want to bless her son for the throne, fearing that people would sooner or later destroy their son because of their cowardice, as had happened before with previous kings.

Only after much persuasion did the ambassadors receive his consent, and on March 14, 1613, Michael himself accepted the kingdom and went to Moscow.

At the end of 1612, the Zemsky Sobor met in Moscow. The issue of choosing a new king was discussed for about two months. The Council rejected all foreign candidates for the throne. As a result, we settled on a candidate Mikhail Romanov.

As a result, the Romanov dynasty was established in Russia, which ruled the country for 300 years (until 1917).

• Firstly, Mikhail Romanov was not involved in the events of the Time of Troubles.
• Secondly, he had family ties with the former Rurik dynasty, and was a relative of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich (on the maternal side). The first wife of Ivan the Terrible, Anastasia, was the mother of Tsar Fedor. She came from the Romanov family.
• Thirdly, Mikhail was the son of Filaret Romanov, who suffered from Godunov (he was forcibly tonsured a monk) and, in addition, was captured by the “Tushinsky thief”, and, therefore, suffered from him.
• Fourthly, Mikhail was young, he was 16 years old, and he had a “quiet disposition.” There is a legend that one of the boyars said: “Let’s choose Mishka Romanov, he is young and not yet sophisticated, he will be obedient to us in everything.”

The Russian historian V. O. Klyuchevsky put forward the following reasons for the election of Mikhail: “Mikhail suffered ... family popularity. But what helped Mikhail the most in the cathedral elections was the family connection of the Romanovs with the former dynasty. Tsar Mikhail was seen not as a council elect, but as the nephew of Tsar Fedor, a natural, hereditary tsar. Thus appeared the founder of a new dynasty, putting an end to the Troubles.”

Having elected the tsar, the people's representatives did not leave him alone with the boyars' lust for power and the enormous problems of restoring the country. The Zemsky Sobor constantly supported the tsar. Its participants were elected for a three-year term. They worked almost without breaks for nine years (three convocations).

Ivan Susanin

Having barely found a new king, Russia almost lost him. According to a number of sources, a Polish detachment was sent to Kostroma to capture the new Moscow Tsar and kill him. However, the local peasant Ivan Susanin, having volunteered to lead the Poles to the Romanov patrimony, led them into deep forests. In the meantime, Mikhail, warned by well-wishers, managed to move to Kostroma, under the protection of the high walls of the Ipatiev Monastery. Susanin paid with his life for saving the king.

Historians have long debated the authenticity of this event. But in the memory of the people, the image of the Kostroma peasant Ivan Susanin became a symbol of heroic self-sacrifice in the name of the Fatherland.

Minin and Pozharsky under Romanov

Minin Kuzma Zakharyev (nicknamed Sukhoruk), townsman, zemstvo elder from Nizhny Novgorod under Mikhail Romanov, became a Duma nobleman. Died 1616

Under Tsar Boris Godunov, Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky had the court rank of steward, and under Vasily Shuisky he was a governor in the city of Zaraysk. He fought bravely against False Dmitry I, took part in the first militia in the battles against the Poles in Moscow. Under Tsar Mikhail Romanov, he received the rank of boyar, headed important orders, and was a governor in Novgorod. He died in 1642 and was buried in Suzdal, on the territory of the Spas-Efimiev Monastery.

1. Election of Michael

Immediately after the liberation of Moscow in October 1612, letters were sent to the cities to send elected people to Moscow, 10 representatives from each city, for the “Sovereign's fleece.” By January 1613, electors from 50 cities gathered in Moscow and, together with the highest clergy, surviving boyars and representatives of Moscow, formed the Zemsky Sobor.

For more than a month, various candidates were proposed and discussions continued. But on February 7, the Cossack ataman and two elected noblemen proposed to the Council the name of the son of Metropolitan Philaret, 16-year-old Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov. On February 21, 1613, Mikhail Romanov was proclaimed Tsar of the Moscow State and the Council swore an oath to him. Then ambassadors were sent from the Cathedral to Mikhail, who lived with his mother in the Ipatiev Monastery near Kostroma.

As soon as it became known that Mikhail Fedorovich was elected to the throne, one detachment of Poles headed to Kostroma to find and kill Mikhail. When the Poles approached Kostroma, they began to ask people where Mikhail was. When Ivan Susanin, who was asked this question, asked the Poles why they needed to know this, they answered that they wanted to congratulate

a new king with his election to the throne. But Susanin did not believe them and sent his grandson to warn Mikhail about the danger. He himself told the Poles this way: “There is no road here, let me lead you through the forest, along a nearby path.” The Poles were glad that now they could easily find Mikhail and followed Susanin.

The night passed, and Susanin kept leading and leading the Poles through the forest, and the forest became more and more dense. The Poles rushed to Susanin, suspecting him of deception. Then Susanin, in full confidence that the Poles would not be able to find their way out of the forest, told them: Now you can do with me what you want; but know that the king is saved and you will not reach him! The Poles killed Susanin, but they themselves died.

The family of Ivan Susanin was generously rewarded by the Tsar. In memory of this self-sacrifice, the famous composer Glinka wrote the opera “A Life for the Tsar,” and a monument was erected to him in Kostroma, Susanin’s homeland.

The ambassadors of the Council for a long time begged Michael and his mother (Mikhail’s father, Metropolitan Philaret, was in Polish captivity) to become king. Mikhail's mother said that the Russian people were exhausted and would destroy Mikhail, like the previous kings. The ambassadors replied that the Russian people now well understand that without a tsar the state perishes. In the end, the ambassadors declared that if Mikhail and his mother did not agree, then Rus' would perish through their fault. 4.Mikhail's reign

IN difficult time The young Tsar Michael had to rule. The entire western part of the state was devastated, the border areas were captured by enemies - the Poles and Swedes. Gangs, and sometimes large detachments, of Poles, thieves, and robbers roamed and robbed the entire state.

Therefore, the young and inexperienced Tsar Mikhail did not dissolve the Zemsky Sobor for 13 years and ruled together with it. It became easier for Mikhail Fedorovich when in 1619 his father returned from captivity and became “the great sovereign, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'.” Until his death in 1633, Patriarch Filaret, in accordance with Russian traditions, helped Tsar Michael rule.

Since unrest continued in the Moscow state for a long time, Tsar Mikhail always used the help of the Zemsky Sobor in governing the country. It should be said that the Zemsky Sobors played a purely advisory role. In other words, the tsar consulted with the Zemsky Sobor on various issues, but final decisions made it himself, agreeing or disagreeing with the opinion of the Council.

Russian Zemsky Councils consisted of three parts:

1. "Consecrated Cathedral", i.e. senior clergy.

2. "Boyar Duma", i.e. know.

3. "Earth", i.e. elected from the “servants” (nobility) and “taxable” free people - townspeople and peasants.

The Zemsky Councils of these times developed a tradition: the requests and wishes of the “land” were almost always fulfilled by the tsar, even when they were unfavorable to the boyars. Zemsky Sobors forever destroyed the dream of the “princes” about the “boyar tsar”. The king's sole power increased, but he always relied on the "ground", i.e. people, and the “land” always supported the king.

2. Return to order

Tsar Michael's first task was to restore order in the state. Astrakhan, occupied by the Cossacks of Zarutsky, who was trying to found a Cossack state, was cleared of rebels. Marina Mnishek died in prison, and her son was executed along with Zarutsky.

The huge robber army of Ataman Balovnya reached Moscow and only here was it defeated and most of his people were overcaptured. Prince Pozharsky hunted for a long time for the Polish robber Lisovsky, but it was not possible to disperse his gang until Lisovsky himself died.

It was very difficult to restore obedience and honesty among the governors and officials who were accustomed to the anarchy of the Time of Troubles and tried to govern as they pleased.