Читать книгу Bible of the Time. …from the Big Bang to the present day… - Rem Word - Страница 20

Since the fifth century AD, most of Russia, except for Pomorie, has been designated on ancient maps as part of the Attila Hun’s empire. The Huns are nomads of the north of China, in search of adventure and prey, rushing to the West. After the battle with the combined Roman and German forces in the Catalaunian fields, their leader Attila slows down. A year later, for unknown reasons, he dies. His sons quarrel with each other and cannot (and do not want to) do anything sensible for their empire. By 530, this imposing state formation as a whole ceases to exist. In Germanic heroic legends, such as the «Song of the Nibelungs», the Hun Attila looks like an enlightened ruler, whose state of affairs practically does not differ from the European one.

Hunnic Empire (453 AD)

«Serpent’s Shafts». These impressive fortifications are located in echelons, in two or three lines over hundreds of kilometers, to repel the attacks of unknown aggressors from modern Hungary. The shaft closest to Kiev is 40 km away. south of the capital. The time of construction is presumably the second century BC. – seventh century A.D. e. In some areas, the embankment initially reaches a height of 14 m and is complemented by watchtowers.

Serpent’s Shafts today

…The Avar Kaganate, composed of the next mighty Asian wave of migration, spreads from the line from the Crimea to the north to the borders of modern France, capturing part of the Balkans. For some time now, the domination of the Avars finally annoys the head of the Holy Roman Empire Charlemagne. The king organizes an extensive military coalition, including and gaining strength Slavic tribes.

In 805, the kaganate suffers a catastrophic defeat. Obry, red-haired, strong, fierce and proud, as the chronicles testify, disappear throughout the territory of their former residence.

…One more, the Khazar Kaganate has a center in modern Dagestan. He controls fragments of Crimea, the Volga region and Kazakhstan. In 660, this kaganate defeats the troops of neighboring (and partially intersecting with the kaganate) Great Bulgaria. The losing tribes are settled all over the world. Some of them form the well-known Black Sea Bulgaria. Other groups leave for the Volga and Kama, form the Volga Bulgaria, become the ancestors of the Kazan Tatars and Chuvashes. As a rule, they convert to Islam, in the struggle against the kaganate, hoping for the help of their fellow believers from Persia. The third group remains in place and pays tribute to the Khazars.

…In 964 the Russian prince Svyatoslav defeats the Khazar army and places the Belaya Vezha fortress in a strategically important place on the Don (now the bottom of the Tsimlyansk reservoir), captures Tmutarakan, the present Taman peninsula. Finally, the Khazars are finished off by a new wave of nomads, the ubiquitous and indefatigable Polovtsians.

Much later, in the thirteenth century, the Polovtsians will become part of the Golden Horde, assimilate, and pass on their (Kipchak) language to the conquerors. The Khazars are scattered throughout the land, possibly making up a significant part of European Jewish communities. Some of their tribes settled in the Crimea and gave rise to the Karaites.

Since 576, the Türkic Kaganate, a kind of reflection of the Khazar Kaganate, shifted to the East to China, rejects a part of the Crimea and the North Caucasus from Byzantium.

…Information about all these state entities is very fragmentary. Often the kaganates are combined both territorially and on a chronological scale. It is only clear that they occupied a significant part of the future Rus, interacted with the Slavic tribes, fought or entered into alliances. The state religion of the Avar and Khazar kaganates is Judaism, fancifully mixed with pagan customs, the Turkic religion is shamanism and Buddhism.

The beginning of the official chronology

…Ninth century AD. Varyag (Viking, Norman), or the Prussian Rurik reigns at the invitation of the people’s veche in Veliky Novgorod, with the brothers Truvor and Sineus. A ruler with a good pedigree, outside of local strife is a worldwide practice to this day.

Some researchers trace the word «Rus» to the Old Icelandic «sailors, rowers». Other historians define it as the self-name of the ancient Baltic (Slavic) people of the Prussians. There is also a version that deduces «Rus» from the ancient Iranian ruksi – «white, light». The name of a single representative of the people initially sounds like «Rusyn».

…Prince Oleg is the regent of Rurik’s son, Igor, seizes the center of trade routes, prosperous Kiev. Then he went with the embassy to Byzantium, where he was first called the Grand Duke in synchronous Byzantine and European sources. Oleg the Prophet dies, as the epics say, from a snakebite.

Prince Igor is for the first time recorded by the Byzantine chronicles as a Russian commander who attacked Constantinople with significant forces – a thousand forty-seat rooks. The Byzantine squadron uses Greek fire. This ancient superweapon destroys most of the Russian fleet. Draw. Peace treaty with the emperor of Byzantium, Roman the First Lacapenus. Diversified trade, political and religious ties are being established.

Where was the base of the first Russian fleet located? Perhaps in Tmutarakan – on the present Taman Peninsula, or in the area of modern Kerch («Korchev»). Crimea at this time was ruled from Taman. Part of the peninsula under the control of the city of Chersonesos, or, in other words, Korsun (within the boundaries of present-day Sevastopol), is controlled by the great Byzantium.

…The prince dies from his greed, trying to re-collect tribute from the Drevlyan tribe. However, the circumstances of the death of the ancient supporter of double taxation are confusing.

Igor’s beloved wife, Olga, the first name of Prekras, is baptized personally by the emperor of Byzantium, Constantine the Seventh. She builds up the government of the country, atones for her sins, is engaged in the upbringing of her son Svyatoslav.

Ancient Russia and other state formations of the 11th century. Rus proper is highlighted in thick green

Svyatoslav is at war with Bulgaria. Then he turns his weapon towards the possessions of Byzantium in Thrace. In 970, the troops of Emperor John the First forced the prince to retreat. Returning, the prince is ambushed by the Pechenegs (a nomadic tribe known until the middle of the eleventh century) and dies.

The next ruler is Vladimir the First Svyatoslavovich, aka Vladimir the Saint, the fruit of Svyatoslav’s connection with a certain almsgiver Malusha. The bastard is brought up under the supervision of Princess Olga.

In 988 another war with Byzantium will take place. Vladimir captures Korsun (Tauric Chersonesos) and concludes a peace treaty. To enter into a dynastic marriage with the sister of the Byzantine emperor Basil II, Anna, here, in the city he captured, the prince is baptized.

The first Kiev metropolitan, attested by written sources – Theophylact. The priest takes under the authority of four bishops – Belgorod, Novgorod, Chernigov, and Polotsk. Theophylact leaves his high post in 1018.

Vladimir Krasnoe Solnyshko is known for his participation in the voluntary-compulsory change of the state religion. He is a character in many folk tales. Under Vladimir the Holy, the church charter was introduced, the minting of «silver coins» began; high quality classic coins that have replaced elongated silver grivnas. Around 980 Vladimir kills Rogvolod, prince of the Polotsk principality (the territory of modern central and northern Belarus). His daughter, Rogneda, he forcibly marries. Three sons from this marriage become an offshoot of the Rurik, Izyaslavich Polotsk or, in other words, Rogvolodovich.

Yaroslav Vladimirovich the Wise, son of Vladimir, prince of Novgorod, Kiev and Rostov. The heyday of the Russian kingdom. Introduction of a set of state laws. Princes and princesses from Yaroslav and his wife, daughter of the Swedish king, Indigerdy are welcomed in France, Hungary, Greece, Norway, Poland and Austria.

Yaroslav achieves the fact that, bypassing the rights of the Patriarch of Constantinople, the Metropolitanate, by a council of bishops, in 1051, is appointed priest Hilarion of Russian origin. However, under the successor of Yaroslav, from 1055 the order of things was restored.

Three centers of power crystallize – Kiev, Vladimir and Veliky Novgorod. Here we can add Polotsk, the capital of the future Belarus. Kiev is an outpost of Russian civilization. Further south, behind the system of the Serpent Shafts erected by someone unknown, are the possessions of the Polovtsy and Mongols, with an island of Russian possessions, Tmutarakan.

The next popular ruler (according to the «ladder» principle of seniority of the princely family, from brother to brother) is Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh, i.e. «Combatant» (1113—1125), grandson of the fifth son of Yaroslav the Wise and the Byzantine emperor Constantine Monomakh, Prince of Rostov, Chernigov, Pereyaslavl, Grand Duke of Kiev. He is known for pushing the Polovtsians away from the borders of Russia (1111, «Crusade» to the Great Steppe), autobiographical texts («Teaching to children», «Chronicle of life»), limiting the arbitrariness of usurers from ex-Khazars in Kiev, freeing debtors.

Less known is the war between the prince and Byzantium, for the interests of the husband of his daughter, the impostor «Leo Diogenes», and then his son (his grandson). There is an opinion that in a series of fierce and, in general, unnecessary battles, Vladimir is depleting the potential of his country, preparing it for a period of fragmentation and decline.

In the twelfth century, from the death of the last strong ruler, Mstislav the Great, the son of Vladimir Monomakh, from the clashes between princes Andrei Volynsky and Yuri Dolgoruky, the Civil War begins. Mstislav’s daughters marry prestigious European kings – Norway, Hungary, Denmark. Then the popularity of matchmaking in these parts of the royal blood falls.

The onslaught of the Mongols is so strong that the desire to resist them quickly disappears. So, the city of Ryazan, the capital of the flourishing Ryazan principality after the assault in 1237, is still a desolate flat hill. Central Europe is less centralized. Each feudal lord has his own stone castle. It is much more difficult for foreign conquerors to collect tribute in such territories.

Russia is divided into fifteen or eighteen principalities, with their own dynasties, or even without them. Veliky Novgorod, by decision of a mixed boyar and folk veche, invites the most worthy princes. His example is followed by three principalities, choosing to reign the younger sons of the main dynasty who have remained out of work. In Kiev, the thrones governing certain lands work side by side, reminding the Federation Council.

Since 1240, the Russian principalities have been seized by the Mongol conquerors, who had recently conquered the Jin empire. The northern fragments of Russia get rid of direct invasion, but pay heavy tribute with property, money and people. Prince Alexander Nevsky prefers to «be friends» with the Golden Horde, inevitably introducing Asian orders and customs in Russia, rather than to compete with her forces, hardly reaching forty thousand regular troops. In theory, this is possible. So the Volga Bulgars in 1223 defeated the powerful Mongol army. More than five thousand captured Mongols are mockingly exchanged by the winners for the same number of rams. But in 1236 the expeditionary corps of Ubedei increased to 120—150 thousand soldiers. The Volga Bulgars no longer have a reception against this.

…Polotsk avoids the Mongol invasion, but falls into the structure of the Lithuanian principality – Western Russia. Many princes who disagree with the doctrine of Nevsky leave for Livonia (modern Lithuania is the former province of this state), together with the squads. Here they experience the action of two centers of gravity – Muscovite Rus and Poland. Separated from the Horde by the Wild Field, as well as by the state that is already paying tribute, they are left to their own devices.

…Russian lands at the end of the fourteenth century. The Grand Duchy of Moscow is highlighted in green. To the left and below is the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a kind of reflection of Russia, a Slavic state, not like it

Due to their geographical location, the steppe southern principalities are exposed to the most powerful blows of the Mongols, lose their importance and are no longer able to recover on their own. Since the thirteenth century, Kiev has been ruled by the Baskaks of the Nogai ulus, local administrators who do not even need to appear at the khan’s headquarters to approve the label. The city ceases to be the residence of the metropolitan. In the middle of the fourteenth century Kiev captures and includes the Principality of Lithuania. To do this, he has to fight with the Horde troops weakened in civil strife.

Cash is again becoming a low-expressive two-hundred-gram elongated ingots. In the North, due to the custom of cutting such money into several parts, the name «ruble» appears.

The era of Dmitry Donskoy, opening from the second half of the fourteenth century, is controversial. The victory over the troops of Mamai, the father-in-law of the ruler of the Horde, Berdibek, in 1380, does not really change anything. The remnants of Mamai’s troops, gaining strength in the Crimea, are finished off by the heir of Genghis Khan, Khan Tokhtamysh. Mamai lives not far from Kafa, gets involved in a fight with the Genoese who sheltered him, and as a result loses his head. Jagiello (Yakov), Mamai’s ally, he is also Vladislav II Jagiello, Prince of Vitebsk, Grand Duke of Lithuania, later – King of Poland, does not take part in the battle. In 1384, on one of the facets of History, an important issue was resolved. Union with Poland, or an alliance with Russia? The first option drops out. Two years later, the Lithuanian principality was converted to the Catholic faith. The Grand Duke marries 13-year-old Polish princess Jadwiga. His descendants (from the second and fourth wives) form the Jagiellonian dynasty, which ruled the Commonwealth until 1572.

Vasily the First Dmitrievich, the eldest son of Dmitry Donskoy (1371—1425) – is held as a hostage in the Horde, flees to the Moldavian principality, successfully marries the daughter of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitold, Sophia. In 1389, he received a label at the headquarters of the khan, and became the Grand Duke of Moscow. Witold, meanwhile, decides to measure strength with herself, the Golden Horde, reeling in internecine strife. The prince refuses to extradite Tokhtamysh, who has been deprived of his post, to another applicant for the khan’s title, Edigei. The maximum task is to plant Tokhtamysh in the Horde, and to take the throne of Russia with the help of a powerful protégé. Forces of the parties. Vitovt, knights of the Teutonic Order, Tokhtamysh – 38 thousand fighters. Golden Horde – 90 thousand soldiers. The battle will take place on the Vorksla River. The interest of the Order is Pskov, promised by Vitovt, in case of victory. Heavily armed knights pursue a feigned retreating enemy. Their lightly armored horses then receive a shower of arrows from their bows and crossbows. On the shoulders of the now quite sincerely retreating Teutons, the Horde crashes into the infantry and completes the rout. The loss of the «Litvin» – 18 thousand, the Horde, according to the chronicle – «very few.»

Vitovt, together with his rival friend, the Polish king Jagiello, still dreams of being known as the unifier of the Eastern Russian lands. In 1408, the first standing on the Ugra River (somewhat north of modern Kaluga) takes place. For some reason (the attack of Edigei’s troops on the territory of Russia and Lithuania itself), in view of an even more formidable enemy, the battle does not take place. Then the Horde, dissatisfied with the delay in the payment of tribute, approaches Moscow, ruins the neighborhood and, having received solid ransom payments, returns to its steppes.

Obliged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania for his initial advancement, his wife, and who knows what else, Vasily the First easily yields to his western neighbors Vyazma, Smolensk, and other Russian lands.

Vasily the Second Vasilyevich (Dark), 1415—1462, son of Vasily the First and Sophia Vitoldovna. He spends a lot of time in a tough struggle for the throne. One of the competitors is the prince of Zvenigorod Yuri Dmirievich Shemyaka («Shemyaka», the one who can change his neck – a generic nickname), the son of Dmitry Donskoy. The rival is also his eldest son, Vasily Yuryevich (nickname – «Oblique»), the grandson of Donskoy, and the younger son – Dmitry Yuryevich Shemyaka. The Golden Horde court in this dispute issues a label to Vasily Vasilyevich. A series of battles with an uncertain outcome followed, repressions against supporters of opponents, giving rise to a «fifth column», and new coups. All princes designated here have occupied the Russian throne for some time. Vasily the Second is the one who manages to hold out on it longer than others.

The second most successful is Prince Dmitry Yurievich. Having lost the Moscow reign, he heads the prestigious Novgorod Republic. But, in the end, the people of Vasily the Dark bribe the prince's cook (nicknamed "Toadstool") and that "armor" potion (apparently, arsenic) into the chicken served to the ruler.

The right of inheritance becomes direct, not "ladder" as before, but from father to son, bypassing younger brothers.

An important event of the time – the Russian Church becomes autocephalous. In 1435, Isidore (Kievsky), a Greek by origin, was proclaimed Metropolitan of the Grand Duchy of Moscow (formally – Kiev and All Russia), at the suggestion of the Patriarch of Constantinople. In Moscow, he convinces Vasily II of the urgency of convening an Ecumenical Council, where the contradictions between Catholics and Orthodox will be erased. The prince gives the Metropolitan a hundred of his entourage, money and sends them to Italy, with the order: "So that nothing new happens with us." In March 1441, having driven around Europe, Isidore returned to Moscow. Here he gives Basil II a message from Pope Eugene the Fourth with a request for help in the reunification of the Catholic and Russian Churches. During his episcopal service in the Assumption Cathedral, Isidore mentions the Pope as one of the primates of the Church. Three days later, by order of Vasily II, the Metropolitan was transferred to the Miracle Monastery, used as a prison for noble persons. Later, probably with the secret permission of the prince, Isidore fled to Europe, Byzantium, then Rome, where he controls the revenues of the Holy College of Cardinals.

So, the first serious misunderstanding in Russia between the power of the church and the secular, ends in the victory of the earthly prince. Vasily the Second, through the council of Russian bishops controlled by him, in 1448, confirms the unquestioning Patriarch Jonah, who had long been conceived by him, on the spiritual throne. Russia is losing its spiritual connection with Europe, refuses to disputes altogether, and stops in development. This leads to the subsequent, two hundred years later, hasty and fierce reforms of Nikon, the schism of the Orthodox Church, which has not healed until now.

An important problem of Russia is the absence of vassalage as such. In Western Europe, to some extent on its own, the links of the social hierarchy conclude contracts of service. Knight, baron, count, duke, king swear oaths to each other. The oath obliges to endanger life for the faith, protect the clergy and churches, widows and orphans, avoid unworthy fellowship and dirty earnings, go to a duel to save the innocent, serve the emperor, live blamelessly before the Lord and people. In Russia, there are no people galloping through the kingdom in the hope of accomplishing a feat. The homage procedure was replaced by the natural concept of belonging of subjects, from a slave to a boyar, to a prince. No contracts are made with slaves. This state of affairs is deduced as a reflection of the order of the Horde in Russia. Among the eternal military there is obedience, iron discipline, but there is no honor as such.

Ivan the Third the Great ruled in the Principality of Moscow from the middle of the fifteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth centuries. He erects the Moscow Kremlin, strong, complex, impressive to this day. The final liberation is achieved from the Golden Horde, which devoured itself, battered by Tamerlane (the second standing on the Ugra River, 1480). The invasion of the Crimean Khan Mehmet Girey the First crumbles into bloody sparks on the outskirts of the capital. Further, with the powerful Khanate, Muscovite Russia establishes friendly diplomatic and trade relations. Wars flare up and go out with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, campaigns will take place against Smolensk (principality of Lithuania), Novgorod, Kazan and Pskov.

Basil the Third the Great, the first Russian tsar with legal grounds

The son of Ivan the Third, Basil the Third (also the Great), in a treaty with the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, under the patronage of his mother, Sophia from the Byzantine dynasty of the Palaeologus, was first named as a king. In a marriage with Elena Glinskaya, the daughter of a prince leading a family from the temnik Mamai, Yuri and Ivan, the future Grozny, are born.

A week after the death of Basil the Great, the boyars kill Yuri, the main contender for the throne. Five years later, perhaps from the poison of the Shuiskys, the mother who took the reins dies. Another eleven years of the board of trustees, and Ivan the Fourth (1530 -1584) was crowned king in the Assumption Cathedral. The era of princes, equal only to princes and dukes in the European table of ranks, is generally coming to an end. The title is recognized by England and the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, but rejected by the Vatican, who in the thirteenth century conferred the title «Rex Russiae» on the prince of the lands of South Russia, Daniel Galitsky.

Ivan Vasilievich the Fourth (1530—1584). Art painting

Further events are as follows:

…The capture of Kazan, the destruction of the capital of the Golden Horde, eighty kilometers from modern Astrakhan, Saray-Berke. The beginning of the king’s mental degradation. Oprichnina and terror, over forty years of which, eight thousand people part with their lives (relatively few for that era by European standards).

Second half of the sixteenth century. Again – the invasion of the troops of the Crimean Khan, now Devlet Giray. Prior to that, in alliance with the Turkish sultan, the Tatars conquered the mountainous principality of Theodoro on the western coast of the peninsula, inhabited by 200 thousand Christians, and are fully prepared for large-scale conquests.

The suburbs of the capital are burned, except for the Kremlin and Kitai-gorod. A year later, the second campaign and the battle of Molodya, one hundred and fifty kilometers south of Moscow, will take place. Crimean Tatars and Turks are carrying out a disastrous frontal attack on the Russian «Gulyai-Gorod», made up of fortified wagons. The extermination of the 120-thousandth Turkish-Tatar army leads to the fact that the Crimean Khanate loses most of its male population. However, in order to avoid small raids, the Russian state still has to pay a «commemoration», a tribute, that is, after all, a tribute, until the very epoch of Peter the Great.

The Zavolzhsky shaft is located slightly east of Kazan and is an earthen embankment 8—9 meters high, with a moat 3 meters wide and deep, 2400 km long. Every 12 km. fortresses are located. It is not known exactly who built this gigantic structure. New settlers build their fortifications on top of the first. The first written records of such a construction appear in 1521.

Destruction of the oprichnina, which did not justify itself in the struggle against external enemies (1565 – 1572). The capture of Isker, the capital of the Siberian Khanate, in alliance with the free Cossack Ermak. The incorporation of the remains of the Jochi ulus into Russia. The capture of Polotsk in 1653 poses a threat to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (despite the fact that life in the regions captured by the tsar is not getting better), and determines many not entirely pleasant consequences for Russia. This is a practical, and not just a written, creation of a union state – the Uniate and Catholic Polish-Lithuanian «Rzeczpospolita». King of Poland, Prince of Lithuania, formally a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, Stefan Batory conquers Polotsk, moves into the depths of Muscovite Rus. Here he gets bogged down in the siege of Pskov (1581—1582). About 16,000 defenders of the fortress oppose 50,000 besiegers. Huge traveling tours, large-caliber artillery, mines and mine galleries are in use. In the end, the Polish-Lithuanian-Swedish army loses 20—24,000 people and lifts the siege (the Yam-Zapolsky peace treaty is signed).

Jagiellonian Europe at the end of the 15th century. Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania will soon become a single Rzeczpospolita. Ukraine – «Terra Nulius» for settlement

…For the last six years of his life, the tsar was unable to walk on his own due to a shameful illness and moved on a stretcher. Ivan the Fourth is treated for syphilis with the usual for the Middle Ages and the beginning of our days, mercury ointments.

Mercury is mixed with animal fat, sulfur and rubbed into the legs. Alternatively, general mercurization is carried out by placing the patient in a closed room with a bowl of heated mercury. If the person does not die, a positive result appears. Mercury is an antiseptic, and the causative agent of the disease, treptonema, is very sensitive to it.

Ivan the Terrible dies. On the throne, according to the decision of the Zemsky Sobor, the middle son Fyodor ascends, «a fasting man and a silent man, a saint on the throne.» He reigns for 14 years, establishes peace in the Russian land with endless prayers. In fact, his guardian, the well-born boyar Boris Godunov, rules. At forty years old (1598), the tsar dies, leaving no heirs and no written will. Seven years earlier, as a result of an accident, the youngest son of Grozny died from his seventh marriage, an illegitimate and not entitled to the throne, Tsarevich Dmitry. The dynasty of the main, Moscow branch of the Rurikovich is interrupted. Fyodor’s wife, Irina – Godunov’s sister, a week after her husband’s death, announces her desire to get a haircut in a monastery. Indeed, she leaves for the Novodevichy Convent, clearing the way for her brother to the throne. The beginning of Godunov’s reign is successful. However, the prayers of his predecessor are apparently lacking. In 1601—1603, after endless rains and early frosts that ruined the harvest, a severe famine began. The cost of grain rises a hundred times. Household gentlemen and abbots of monasteries keep it in barns, waiting for prices to rise. The tsar does not dare to order to put the bread on sale. Half a million people die.

Boris Godunov (1551—1605)

In 1604, with a detachment of Cossacks and Poles (14,000 soldiers), False Dmitry the First began a campaign from Poland to Moscow. The government army under the leadership of Vasily Shuisky, three hundred cannons with competent artillerymen, archers trained in alternate shooting, defeat the impostor. Everything would be fine, but next year, after a plentiful meal, having examined Moscow from the tower, Godunov feels «faint» and «having lost his tongue» dies. His sixteen-year-old son Fyodor (the Second) became the king, with the regency of his mother, Maria Godunova (Skuratova), daughter of Ivan the Terrible’s attorney Malyuta Skuratov. The king does not have time to marry the kingdom. A considerable part of the army takes the oath to False Dmitry.

«The Chosen Tsar», that is, Godunov, and his successors, in the opinion of the people, is not equal to the tsar «hereditary, the ruler of God by the will, and not by human will.» For this reason, as well as the fact that the tsarist troops unleashed on the ground brutal repressions against the supporters of the impostor, Muscovites are opposed to a new, albeit a good ruler. Does not improve the image of Godunov junior, his grandfather’s ancestry from the executioner Malyuta Skuratov. After reigning for a month and a half, Fyodor and Maria Godunova perish at the hands of traitors («the people are silent»). Patriarch Job, an ally of a failed dynasty, is defrocked. His place is taken by Archbishop Ignatius of Ryazan. Ksenia Godunova, the sister of the unlucky monarch, is exiled to the monastery by the winners.

False Dmitry the First and Marina Mnishek. Art painting

So, in June 1605, False Dmitry the First, having coordinated the details with the Duma, solemnly enters the Kremlin and meets with Dmitry’s mother, Maria Naga. She recognizes the new anointed as a son, believably, with sobs, perhaps in order to leave the walls of the monastery. Henceforth, Dmitry calls the Duma the Senate, and himself – the emperor («Caesar»). In general, his rule is good for the country. Many boyars are returning from exile. The enslavement of the peasants is suspended. Taxes are going down, the economy is picking up. Obstacles to movement within the state and outside it are removed. The Polish king does not receive the promised Russian lands. At the same time, plans for a war with Turkey, the still ardent Crimean Tatar Crimea, a personal guard recruited from the Germans, as well as frivolous European orders are not popular among the masses.

All this would be quite bearable, but in the middle of May 1606 two thousand Poles came to the wedding of Dmitry and his beloved, the daughter of the Polish governor Marina Mniszek. During the festival, drunken hussars bully passers-by, break into houses, and attack women. This is used by the ambitious boyar Vasily Shuisky. He summons the people, ostensibly to protect the king. In the course of events, however, the action spills over into its opposite. Fleeing from the crowd, the wounded Dmitry Pervy falls into the hands of a detachment of archers of the external guard. They are confused for a while, then join the winning side. The guards send for Maria Naga. From the mouth of the arriving messenger comes something like; «Martha answered, her son was killed in Uglich.» False Dmitry The first is he, or Dmitry, we do not know this – he is dying. The body of the recently so revered monarch, with a pipe inserted in his mouth, is carried for three days tied to a cart around the city. This is not good. Many grieve openly. At the tomb of the king, people mark ominous signs. In the end, the confidants of the new ruler dig up the body of the unlucky king, burn it, mix the ashes with gunpowder and shoot towards Poland.

The death of Dmitry the First (1582—1606)

A crowd of adherents «cries out» Vasily Shuisky (the Suzdal branch of the Rurikovichs) king, and he becomes them. The Patriarch is replaced, from Ignatius to Hermogenes. An even less legitimate ruler will face severe trials from the very beginning. In October 1606, Moscow was besieged by the 100-thousandth army of the authorized representative of the next False Dmitry, galley rower, now the great voivode, Ivan Bolotnikov. A split is brewing in the camp of the rebels. Boyars and fugitive peasants are unable to form an alliance. Muscovites are ready to surrender. They only demand to show a figure only somewhat similar to a real tsarevich. But «voivode Dmitry» Ivan Bolotnikov does not have one at the moment. Mikhail Molchanov, one of the murders of Tsarevich Fyodor, a once confidant of False Dmitry the First, and, finally, an impostor, refuses to take part in the risky struggle personally. The storming of the capital, undertaken hastily in October, Bolotnikov fails. The army of the peasant leader, suffering defeat, retreats to Tula. Manages to recruit new forces, 40 thousand fighters, and carry out a second campaign against Moscow. A hundred kilometers southeast of the capital, near Kashira, in June 1607, a battle with the army of Tsar Basil the Fourth (Shuisky) takes place. The peasant rebels are well organized. They have effective artillery, they are one step away from victory. But, one of the commanders with a 4,000-strong detachment is cheating on Bolotnikov, striking the rear of the militia, sowing panic. The rebels scatter. However, many of the surviving militias are involved in the struggle of the parties, for or against the impostors of Dmitry II and III.

…The idea of Mikhail Molchanov with False Dmitry was correct for the army of Ivan Bolotnikov, but the search for a real person for this role dragged on. For some time, in Poland and Ukraine (the protectorate of Poland), the role of the prince was played by Molchanov himself. But, in Moscow they knew him too well. Only at the beginning of 1607, in Belarus, which was then part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (the name of the Polish-Lithuanian state, tracing from Latin res publica – «Republic»), there is a person suitable for figure, age. In a halo of mystery, first as a relative of the tsar, Andrei Nagoy, False Dmitry II appears before the people at the end of the spring of 1607.

This False Dmitry does not have time for either the first or the second campaign of Bolotnikov against Moscow. He is late in Tula, where, on October 10, Shuisky’s troops, changing the direction of the river, forced the remnants of the peasant army to surrender. But, now 27 thousand people gather under his name. Poles, Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks, archers, nobles and fighting slaves wish to try their luck. False Dmitry wins several battles. Moscow, surrounded by stone walls (along the present Boulevard Ring), cannot be taken. Having camped in Tushino, False Dmitry blocks the capital. He manages to intercept Marina Mnishek, and, after some persuasion, marry her. Also, the «deputy tsar» manages to win over Metropolitan Filaret to his side. This priest becomes an understudy of the Moscow Patriarch. Dual power sets in. Shuisky and False Dmitry II (more precisely, Polish bodyguards who control their master) rule the country in parallel. Vasily the Fourth achieves some success with the help of the governor Skopin-Shuisky and the participation of Protestant Sweden, dissatisfied with the strengthening of Catholic Poland. Polish mercenaries openly show disdain for the Russian «tsarik». In the end, having climbed into the cart under the matting, False Dmitry goes to Kaluga.The spirit of the Bolotnikov uprising is still strong in this city. Only here the impostor begins to play an independent role, as if he is gaining a second wind. Remaining without a royal name, the Tushino camp loses its significance as the second Russian capital and is burned down. The Polish army is dispersed.

False Dmitry besieges Moscow with a new militia. An idea is ripening among the boyars-«shape-shifters». What if we remove both Vasily Shuisky and the impostor from the political field, and then the whole world choose a new tsar? In Moscow, the nobles really overthrow Basil the Fourth, forcibly shear the tsar into a monk and wait for retaliation from those close to False Dmitry. But they are in no hurry to fulfill this promise. After all, their positions are being remarkably strengthened. In order to fill the vacuum of power, the Seven Boyars elected the king of the Polish prince Vladislav Vaza, the eldest son of Sigismund III. Russian society is sharply polarized. The humiliated and insulted poor people, Cossacks and (Ukrainian) Cossacks, flock to False Dmitry, driven to Kaluga. The entourage of Vladislav Vaza, more precisely, his representatives in Russia, are replenished by nobles.

Outside the hierarchy, too homogeneous masses of the people come under the power of instincts. The concept of justice, as such, ceases to exist. The wheel of terror spins towards all suspicious persons. Moreover, False Dmitry expects to call on the Crimean and Nogai (Astrakhan) Tatars who are already moving to Central Russia to march on Moscow, in order to immediately improve all their affairs. But, his plans are not destined to come true. In revenge for one of the victims of the terror, the impostor is killed by his own bodyguard.

Vasily the Fourth (Shuisky), 1552—1612, the last representative of the Rurikids on the throne. According to the testimony of contemporaries, in life he is not so good-looking. The tsar dies in Polish captivity at the same time as his brother Dmitry, also a prisoner and heir.

So, Vasily Shuisky is forcibly tonsured into a monk. Together with two brothers, he is kept in a castle near Warsaw. The former monarch has no children of his own. The three-year-old son of Maria Mnishek, Ivan, can claim the throne. Still, the prince is still too young. Tsar Vladislav is not popular among the people. In addition, he does not risk personally leaving Poland for Moscow and seems to be cooling off to the idea of becoming the ruler of Russia. The soil for the emergence of the third False Dmitry is still fertile.

And the impostor is declared, in January 1611, in Ivangorod besieged by the Swedes (150 kilometers west of the place where St. Petersburg will be). False Dmitry III manages to gather a militia in Pskov and even drive off the conquerors. However, having come to power, the impostor hesitates to advance to Moscow. He embarks on a dissolute life, commits violence and imperceptibly loses popularity. The conspirators removed the Cossacks loyal to him from Pskov, ostensibly to fight the Swedes who besieged the suburbs. False Dmitry senses something is wrong and tries to escape. They catch him, put him in a cage and take him to Moscow. The impostor is killed on the way or executed in the capital.

Moscow, meanwhile, is occupied by the Poles. After all, nominally the king is fifteen-year-old Vladislav Vaza. He is elected but not crowned. Patriarch Hermogenes (number one), initially loyal to the foreign ruler, realizing the plans of the gentry, frees the people from the oath. Hermogenes’ letters resonate primarily in Ryazan, where the people’s militia is already being formed. The Poles send Cossacks of Little Russia to destroy the Ryazan cities. One part of the registry perishes, the other takes the side of the people. Meanwhile, Nizhny Novgorod is also rising to the fight. In mid-March 1611, two militias unite near Moscow. There are a hundred thousand of them in total. The occupation forces number 5,000 Poles and 2,000 Germans. They carry out repressions in the city, set fire to houses in order to cope with the indignant people even before the start of the assault. Fire and steel kill seven thousand townspeople. Boyars and slaves dependent on them are in alliance with the Poles.

The militia does not dare to storm the white-stone walls. It creates its own Zemsky Sobor and a system of state power. However, between the two forces – the nobility, seeking to restore serfdom and the Cossacks, who want to keep their liberties, discord arises. The Poles use this. Their forged letters indicate that the Ryazan leader of the Lyapunov militia is determined to destroy the Cossacks. The Cossacks summon Lyapunov «to the circle», where they kill without trial or trial. As a result, most of the nobles leave the camp. Dying in the dungeon of the Chudov Monastery, Patriarch Hermogenes calls on the people to no longer obey the governors of the Moscow region D. Trubetskoy and I. Zarutsky. However, the archimandrite of the influential Trinity-Sergius Monastery, Dionysius, advocates rallying under their leadership. A large Cossack detachment remains at the siege of Moscow until the middle of the summer of 1612. When the units of the Second Militia approach, it leaves for Astrakhan and does not participate in further hostilities with the interventionists. Zarutsky has an important trump card – Marina Mnishek with the son of False Dmitry II. The ataman wishes to use it for his own purposes. At the walls of the capital, Trubetskoy’s forces remain, who were not directly involved in the murder of Lyapunov.

…The Second Militia is gathering in Nizhny Novgorod. It is based on the alliance of the representative of the nobility – Prince Pozharsky and the peasantry – the head Minin. A public treasury is created from voluntary donations. She generously pays for the help of experienced service people. In September 1612, after the deposition of False Dmitry III, it was possible to recapture the supply train for the besieged. Part of Moscow and Kitai-Gorod were freed from the gentry. What remains is the Kremlin, within whose walls Poles and Russian boyar families are already practicing cannibalism everywhere. By placing a regiment at its walls, Pozharsky protects the boyars and one of the two Polish detachments from lynching the surrendering prisoners. The second formation of the Polish-Lithuanian garrison falls into the possession of Trubetskoy’s Cossacks and completely perishes. The troops of Minin and Pozharsky enter the Kremlin on November 6, 1612. A solemn prayer service is held at the Execution Ground. The new Polish army, halfway to Moscow, stops at Volokolamsk.

Mikhail Fedorovich, 1596—1645, the first monarch from the Romanov dynasty. He dies, as a contemporary testifies, from melancholy, «that is, torpor» and «a lot of sitting.» The four children he earned in marriage with his unloved, or at least not chosen by him Evdokia Streshneva, continue the dynasty.

In January 1613, an all-estate meeting, the Zemsky Sobor, was convened. The goal is to elect a new king. Among the applicants are Pozharsky, Trubetskoy, the Swedish prince Karl Philip, Vladislav Vaza and Ivan, the son of Maria Mnishek. The fate of this child is sad. In 1615, he was transported from Astrakhan to the capital, where he was executed along with the ataman Zarutsky.

The election is won by the son of Patriarch Filaret, Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov. Patriarchs are not supposed to have children, but Fyodor Romanov and his wife Xenia did not always have a monastic rank. They had to go to a monastery under Boris Godunov, but by that time they already had a son, Mikhail. In 1611, Filaret became the «named» patriarch in the Tushino camp, in parallel with Hermogenes staying in Moscow. Then the Poles take him to Poland, but there he also finds ways to communicate with the Zemsky Sobor.

So, to Mikhail Fedorovich and his mother, who are hiding from the persecution of the Poles in the Ipatiev Monastery (Kostroma), the embassy of the Zemsky Cathedral arrives and reports important news. The young man becomes the first king of the Romanov dynasty.

Three years later, Polish troops, together with the Cossacks of the gentry Pyotr Konashevich (Sagaidachny), are trying to restore Vladislav Vaza to the rights of king, storm Moscow, but unsuccessfully. Nevertheless, according to the Treaty of Deulina, concluded in 1618, Russia is losing 26 cities. Among them are Smolensk, Chernigov and Putivl, together with the population, except for the clergy and nobility, who are allowed to move to the Russian lands.

Alexei Mikhailovich (1629—1676), tsar, father of Peter the Great. A monarch of a good-natured disposition, peacefully combining Russian and Western orders, keen on astrology and European music, the founder of the «new order» regiments – Reitars, soldiers, dragoons and hussars.

Vladislav Vaza still claims the Russian throne.

Mikhail the First is going to get married and, examining the line of brides, chooses Maria Khlopova. The girl does not like the queen mother. At her instigation, doctors conclude that «Maria Khlopova is fragile to the royal joy.» Other doctors come to a different conclusion, however, the last word is for the nun. Some time later, with the assistance of his father, who returned from Polish captivity, Mikhail almost marries Khlopova, but his mother’s influence outweighs. In the end, the tsar enters into an alliance with Evdokia Streshneva, the confidante of one of the boyars who came to the bride. The marriage is happy, except for the fact that, even with royal care, six out of ten children die before reaching adulthood (the usual statistics of that time).

In 1636 Michael declares war on Poland. Russian troops besiege Smolensk. The governors return to Moscow with 8 thousand soldiers, the initial number being 32 thousand. The state of affairs remains. The only plus is that the King of Poland, Vladislav, renounces his claims to the Russian throne.

In 1645, Mikhail’s son, Alexei Mikhailovich (Quietest), became tsar. During his reign, the reunification of Ukraine and Russia, the Copper and Salt riots and the church schism took place. The church council of 1666 supports the reform of the high priest Nikon, anathematizes the Old Believers and, regardless of all that, condemns the patriarch to imprisonment in a monastery. Open resistance to the new religious charter lasted until the capture of the Solovetsky monastery by the troops in 1676. In 1654, in connection with the annexation of Ukraine, a new Russian-Polish war began. The combined troops of Buturlin and Khmelnitsky are making progress. They are already fighting on the territory of ethnic Poland and Lithuania. The entry into the war of a strong player, Sweden, which snatched Warsaw and Krakow from the hands of Russia, forces the parties to the conflict to sign the Vilna truce. Nevertheless, there is an interesting prospect for the election of Alexei Mikhailovich to the Polish throne.

Ukraine then, both in colloquial speech and in all official documents, is called Little Russia, or the Hetmanate. The agreement between the Russian tsar and the Cossacks is drawn up in the «Belarusian language». Muscovite Rus at that time was called «White». Later, the toponym shifts to the West and denotes present-day Belarus.

Hetman Bohdan Khmelnitsky (1595—1657)

In 1658 the war continues, but without the deceased Bohdan Khmelnitsky.

The former secretary, Ivan Vyhovsky, who himself became the «hetman of the Grand Duchy of Russia», carries out mass repressions among the Cossacks and concludes a separate agreement with the Commonwealth. According to its clauses, the Hetmanate becomes a federal unit of Poland. In the same year, Vyhovsky cracked down on the Cossack foreman, who was trying to find out where the tsarist money allocated for the maintenance of the Zaporozhye army went.

In 1659, Vygovsky succeeded in attracting the Crimean Khan Mehmed Giray the Fourth with a 30,000-strong army as an allies. Together they defeat the Russian detachment of A. Trubetskoy, which is besieging Konotop. Loss of seven for seven thousand. In Ukraine, more and more uprisings break out against Vyhovsky. The next hetman is the 18-year-old son of Bohdan Khmelnitsky. Yuri is not the successor of his father’s work, speaking, in general, against the unification of the lands. The offspring of Khmelnytsky is a henchman of the Poles, Ottomans, and does not pursue an independent policy. Realizing that the hetmanship is not for him, he becomes a monk, gets to the Tatars, Turks, who in the end deprive him of his head.

In the fall of 1663, the Polish army, plus the Crimean Tatars and detachments of the Principality of Lithuania, led by King Jan Kazimierz, made the last major operation. With heavy fighting, it occupies a dozen cities. The initiative is waking up in the Russian commanders. Competently leading the troops, they perform deceptive maneuvers, block the enemy garrisons, and raid the rear. The Polish-Lithuanian army retreats, losing three quarters of its strength. In 1666, the right-bank hetman Petro Doroshenko, who declared himself a vassal of the Turkish sultan, revolted against Poland. Thirty thousand Crimean Tatars come to the aid of his fifteen thousand Cossacks. The turmoil lasts for five years. Poland is restoring the state of affairs, but it is completely exhausting its strength. In the end, on January 30, 1667, the Andrusov armistice was signed between Russia and Poland. Rzeczpospolita recognizes the annexation of the Left-Bank Ukraine, Smolensk, the Chernigov Voivodeship, a number of small towns, preserves the Right-Bank Ukraine and Belarus. Russia is not yet in a position to retain some of its large territorial acquisitions.

Hetman Petro Doroshenko (1627—1698)

…In the summer of 1672 Poland was attacked by the Ottoman Empire. By this time, the Turks and their vassal Doroshenko already owned the entire Right-Bank Little Russia. There is Islamization, the alteration of churches in the mosque, the recruitment of boys to janissaries, girls, again boys to harems, and the like. Fearing the invasion of the warriors of the Port on the Left Bank Ukraine, and not wanting to humiliate the Christian world, Russia enters the war with Turkey. Relations with Poland immediately warmed up. Cossacks and Cossacks (usually, Zaporozhye Cossacks are called through the vowel «O») are invited to attack the Crimean Tatar and Turkish possessions from the sea. Russia is trying to form a European coalition and even become its head. She does not succeed in this, but at least this attempt itself is evaluated favorably by the Western community. The fighting is covered in detail by the European press.

Poland is losing the war and officially gives the Right-Bank Ukraine to the Ottomans. Alexei Mikhailovich considers this a reason for extending the power of the crown to the whole of Little Russia, in the event of a victory over the mighty Port, of course. Events are not developing quite the way the Russians want them to. They are fighting the Turks and Crimean Tatars. Those intensify the repression against the population. The population falls away from the Ottomans and is immediately given over to the well-functioning Polish administration. A significant part of the inhabitants flees to the Russian Left-Bank Ukraine. The city of Chigirin occupies a special place in Ukraine at that time. It is the unofficial capital of the Hetmanate, a large Cossack camp and covers the strategic crossing of the Dnieper. The Russian-Ukrainian army captures the city, forces Doroshenko to swear allegiance to the Russian Tsar and withstands, intermittently, two Turkish sieges. The second of them (1678) shows the lack of experienced gunners, while the Ottoman guns shoot almost without a miss. Four Turkish guns are «super heavy». It takes 32 buffaloes to transport each. The ratio of forces in people is 1:10. The Turks are losing 30 thousand fighters from the 120-thousand army. The Russian-Ukrainian coalition is losing 15 thousand of the original 65 thousand. In the end, Romodanovsky’s troops, having formed in a huge square, retreat to the Dnieper and are evacuated to the Left-Bank Ukraine.

The war is reaching a dead end. Right-bank Ukraine, in any case, is arranged according to the Polish model. It is difficult to win back and keep it without an alliance with Poland. The Poles themselves, as a condition of the alliance, require huge sums to support their troops. In the end, according to the Bakhchisarai Peace Treaty (1680), the Port recognizes the entry of the Left-Bank Ukraine and Kiev into Russia. Right-bank Little Russia is now ruled by a Turkish vassal, the Moldovan ruler Gheorghe Duca. The Zaporizhzhya Sich becomes independent from Moscow. As before, Russia pays a semblance of tribute to the Crimean Khan.

In 1676, having declared the fifteen-year-old Fedor (mother – Maria Miloslavskaya) heir, the tsar died of a heart attack. Fyodor the Third reigns happily, but not for long, five years, leaving no heirs. It is not he, and not his brother Ivan the Fifth, who becomes the great emperor, but Peter the First, born in marriage with his second wife Natalia Naryshkina.

The Naryshkin clan declares that, dying, Tsar Fyodor personally handed over the scepter to Peter. The Miloslavskys angered the archers with rumors that the Naryshkins strangled Tsarevich Ivan. The military, despite the fact that they are introduced to the princes with their own eyes, kill several boyars. They do not dare to deal with Peter.

As a result, representatives of the Miloslavsky and Naryshkin families were married to the kingdom in 1682 at the same time. For the princes, they even arrange a throne with two seats. In fact, an active daughter from the first marriage of Alexei Tishaishy, the second regent of the royal brothers, Princess Sophia, rules.

In 1686 the tsarina signed the «Eternal Peace» with Poland. Kiev is assigned to the Russian kingdom (146 thousand rubles of compensation are paid), Zaporozhye, Smolensk, Chernigov. A number of devastated lands are included in the buffer territories. In addition, Russia joins the countries leading the war with the Ottoman Empire, the Holy League. In fulfillment of allied obligations, the First and Second Crimean campaigns are being undertaken. Both end the same way. Almost 100-thousand army, suffering deprivation of supplies and fresh water, returns back. In the first case (1687), the army gets to the Konka River, located 150 kilometers south of Dnepropetrovsk. In the second (1689) – it reaches Perekop. The idea of building fortresses to accumulate supplies is not being implemented. The troops of the more proactive Grigory Kosagov capture the strategically important Ochakov (Kara-Kermen, Black Fortress), located on the Black Sea coast near the mouth of the Dnieper. Only then, finally, the Russian kingdom ceases to pay tribute to the Crimean Khan.

Princess Sophia Alekseevna (1657—1704)

The first, the Nerchinsk agreement with China is concluded. In general, Sophia’s reign was not marked by special events. Russia is accumulating strength to withstand the era of Peter the Great. Peter turns 17 in May 1689, and at the insistence of his mother he marries Evdokia Lopukhina. Love lasts a year. The Tsar finds solace in the arms of the daughter of a goldsmith from the German Suburb, Anna Mons. Despite the beginning of adulthood, almost no one around Peter takes his orders seriously. Rumors of an impending assassination attempt reach the king. Together with his closest relatives and confidants, Peter takes refuge in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. From here he sends instructions to the regimental commanders to appear with a dozen people in person. Arriving archers are waiting for the sovereign’s mercy, vodka and feasts, but Peter himself leads the exemplary life of the Moscow Tsar. Sophia loses her supporters. She has to retire to the Novodevichy Convent, although she does not become a real nun until the suppression of the Strelets uprising. Ivan the Fifth meets Peter in the Assumption Cathedral and in fact gives up all power.

Peter likes to fight. In 1695 he carried out the First Azov campaign. More than 30,000 troops travel along the Don to the Azov (the top of the Sea of Azov), on transport ships and by land. Here it is revealed that it is impossible to take the city without warships. Only two fortresses overlapping the river are captured.

In the village of Preobrazhenskoye, on the banks of the Yauza, not far from Moscow, new transport and military ships are being built in a wild haste. They are disassembled and transported to Voronezh, to the Don, where they are assembled again. The number of troops reaches 70 thousand. In May 1696, Azov again fell into a siege. In July, after massive shelling, the garrison surrenders. According to the agreement, the Ottomans leave the city with their families and movable property. Voivode Shein becomes the first Russian generalissimo. Under the Constantinople Peace Treaty of 1700, Russia is officially exempted from paying tribute to the Crimean Khan. She receives Azov and a number of adjacent territories. But, the main goal – access to the Black Sea, even though through the Kerch Strait, is still not achieved.

Peter the Great (1672—1725)

In 1697, Peter the Great, who a year ago became the autocratic tsar, presented as a «sergeant of the Preobrazhensky regiment», set off on a journey across Europe. The goal of the «Great Embassy» (60 people) is to gain allies in the fight against Turkey, purchase weapons and hire craftsmen. There are many inconsistencies during this period of government. Meetings with the English king William III in Utrecht, the ruler of Austria Leopold the First, with Newton, Leibniz, Levenguk, Halley (the same astronomer), are still classified as «secret». Some historians believe that Peter the Great does not participate in the Embassy at all.

.. It is impossible to reach an agreement with Austria and Holland on an alliance against the Ottomans. Vienna refuses even to recognize the transfer of Kerch and the corresponding strait to Russia, if they were captured by it. The young tsar has personal friendship only with the king of the Commonwealth Augustus II. For the election of his candidacy at the Polish Sejm, Peter the Great at one time made certain efforts and resources. Among other things, colleagues of the same age manage to agree on a joint war against Sweden.

Herbariums, tools and 15,000 small arms are being purchased.

In the summer of 1698, having received news of the uprising of the archers, the tsar returned to Moscow. The rebellion had already been suppressed by that time. The instigators have been punished. The troops of Generalissimo Shein, practically with one artillery, defeated a three-thousandth detachment of archers. Princess Sophia, the main reason for the revolt, becomes a full-fledged nun and goes to the Novodevichy Convent. He is in charge of the reprisals, according to the definition of Prince B. Kurakin, «… by his appearance as a monster, by his temper an evil tyrant, a great unwilling person to do good to anyone, drunk all the days», the ruler of Russia in the absence of Peter, Prince Caesar Fyodor Romodanovsky. The Emperor, however, needs more sacrifices. For the first time, Muscovites see the Russian Tsar in the guise of a fierce executioner. He not only personally cuts off the heads of the archers, but makes the eminent boyars do the same. Some rebels are deprived of their lives in a progressive «overseas» way – wheeling. Two thousand people die on the scaffolds. Several hundred underage «sons of the regiment» receive a shameful stigma and are sent to an eternal settlement in Siberia. Sixteen rifle regiments that did not participate in the uprising are disbanded.

…Then that significant number of Russian good people decide that Peter the First (or the one who became him) is «the beast that came out of the abyss» Antichrist and Miroed. Confirmation of this judgment is the «All-Sure Councils» regularly convened on the island in the middle of the Yauza, where Orthodox rituals are parodied. The naming of church ranks and rituals are being altered using profanity. The «pontiff» chosen by the cathedral floats in a ladle in the middle of a vat of alcohol, while naked men and women of the highest boyar families drink wine and sing obscene songs.

Russia is a member of the Northern Union, created on the initiative of the rulers of Saxony and Poland. The general direction is the war with Sweden, the king of which, Charles the Twelfth, seems to other monarchs to be insufficiently experienced in military affairs. Peter’s aspirations are Karelia and Ingria (aka Ingermanlandia, the future Leningrad region). In addition, he is driven by personal resentment – a cold welcome in the then Swedish Riga during the Great Embassy.

In 1700, Russian troops, 35 thousand fighters, mostly recruits, with light and varied artillery, with insufficient supplies, besieged Narva. Once this city intended to include in its possessions the prince (or tsar) Ivan the Third. To reduce human losses, he built the Ivangorod fortress opposite him. Then the Russian monarch was successful. However, 80 years later, the Swedes recaptured Narva and, connecting the defenses of the two cities with a fortified bridge, created a powerful citadel.

Charles the Twelfth, having forced the allies of Russia to withdraw from the war, rushes to the aid of the besieged. Sheremetyev’s detachment enters into clashes with the advanced units. The prisoners, in accordance with the agreement with the king for this case, announce the size of the Swedish army at 50 thousand fighters. Believing this information, Peter leaves the army. Maybe he wants to quickly call other regiments to the place of battle, meet with an ally, the Polish king, or, in the end, he is simply afraid of perishing. A certain Dutch duke remains in command of the army.

The actual number of Karl’s troops is 8—9 thousand fighters. The king is building soldiers in columns and so attacks the Russian army. The latter is a six-kilometer line, five to six rows of soldiers within their camp. Columns of Swedes break through it like a crowbar. In the ranks of the regiments the cry «The Germans are traitors!» Is heard. Fearing beating by soldiers, foreign officers surrender. Preobrazhensky, Semenovsky and Lefortovo regiments, fenced off with carts, are resisting. Later they will be allowed to leave. Some units leave the battlefield with banners and weapons, but without the convoy and artillery, others without all of the above. The losses of the Swedes are 700 soldiers, the Russians – 9,000, as well as all, except for 5 cannons out of 184, artillery. Charles the Twelfth is a good general, but a weak strategist. Instead of an immediate attack on Moscow, he turns his gaze to Poland and Saxony. Meanwhile, the troops of Boris Sheremetyev, who was not young at that time, but experienced, began to learn the art of war in practice. One by one, they break up detachments from the fifteen thousandth Swedish garrison left in Ingermanland and Livonia (present-day Lithuania). The whole of Narva is in the hands of the Russians. At its mouth, on the territory of Fomin Island, two and a half by four kilometers, with a village of thirty households and forty inhabitants, on May 27, 1703, Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg.

Peter’s Polish friend, Augustus II, loses the Fraustadt battle to Karl, in which the auxiliary Russian corps also participates. 4500 Russian soldiers are killed (all 500 prisoners of war by the Swedes were executed), 700 allied Saxons. Karl has at his disposal «an immense number of prisoners» of the Germans. The losses of the Swedes – 450 people. August with a 12-thousandth army stands 25 kilometers from the battlefield and does not take part in the battle. In February 1706, a 20,000-strong Swedish army besieges a 40,000-strong Russian and Saxon army near Grodno. Peter instructs Commander Menshikov «not to accept in an open battlefield.» During the siege, retreat and crossing the Neman, the Russian army loses 17 thousand people. Because of the drift of ice, Karl’s troops miss her. The Polish king, who left Grodno in advance, concludes the Altranschnedt peace, breaks the alliance with Russia and abdicates the throne. The Great Lithuanian army is at the disposal of the Swedish protege in Poland, Stanislav Leszczynski. In June 1708, the Swedish monarch embarked on a long-planned large-scale campaign to the East. Its purpose, according to a group of historians, is the complete destruction of the statehood of Russia, its division into specific principalities, the rejection of Pskov, Novgorod, the annexation of Ukraine and other Western Russian territories. Another well-known version is that Karl plans to establish a buffer Pskov-Novgorod Republic in the north, return all the Swedish territories captured by Peter, and establish a direct protectorate over Eastern Ukraine.

By the beginning of the Russian campaign, Charles’s army reached 120 thousand people. Of these, 38 thousand are the invading army. The number of regular forces of Peter – 200 thousand, plus 100 thousand in the irregular troops of the Cossacks and Asian peoples. Defense spending reaches 80% of the budget. The country is being militarized. Grain is brought to the cities, which are declared fortresses. The Moscow Kremlin is once again becoming a full-fledged citadel. Bastions are attached to it. The ditches near the walls, dried up since the seventeenth century, are filled with water from the Neglinka River.

The trek of the Swedish king starts from the outskirts of Minsk. Both armies are swiftly eating away supplies from the local population. Menshikov orders to burn cities – Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev…

Nine months before the Battle of Poltava, in October 1708, a battle will take place near the village of Lesnaya (east of modern Belarus) with a 12.5 thousand Swedish-Finnish detachment accompanying 7 thousand convoy wagons with provisions, artillery and ammunition. The so-called «corvolant» – «flying detachment» of Peter the Great has the same number of soldiers and officers. But these are the guards, the noble cavalry thirsting for victories, the Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments. The majority of the Swedes are not fully motivated Finns, Karelians, residents of the territories of the modern Baltic. However, the battle is fierce. The detachment of General Levengaupt loses 4,000 killed, 800 prisoners, 1,500 deserters. Charles the Twelfth receives only 6,000 new soldiers – without artillery, ammunition and food. The Russian army loses 3,000 people.

Due to the lack of food, the Swedes turn south, to the Seversky Territory (North-Eastern Ukraine). Hetman Mazepa, who laid the symbols of hetman power under the feet of the Swedish king; banner, mace and military seal, now openly promises support to Charles the Twelfth. In the city of Baturin, he collects supplies of food, ammunition and three hundred so necessary for the Swedish army cannons. A very irritated Peter gives orders to Menshikov to set the city on fire. Alexander Danilovich is following the order. Defenders perish – 5—7 thousand Cossacks, 4—5 thousand inhabitants, and 4 thousand besiegers. In March 1709, the Cossacks of the Zaporozhye Sich went over to the side of the Swedes.

Charles’s army, already somewhat discouraged, circles around Little Russia, then, obeying the king’s whim, begins the siege of Poltava. They are opposed by 5 thousand military and, which is not confirmed, 2.5 thousand local residents. Three assaults, preceded by explosions of underground mines, fight back with great damage for the attackers. Above all, the lack of artillery and gunpowder affects. Charles’s army loses 6 thousand soldiers and officers, suffers hardships when Sheremetev arrives at Poltava with the main army, and a week later Peter the Great.

…During reconnaissance, on his birthday, Karl is wounded in the foot of his left leg. Perhaps this circumstance affects the clarity of his thinking during the battle. The plan of the Swedish monarch is to attack in the early morning, more precisely at night, when the advantage of the Russians in artillery comes to naught. At 2 o’clock in the morning, July 8, 1709, having lingered somewhat during the formation, the Swedish army moved to the battlefield.

Sheremetev’s idea is a novelty in military affairs of that time. The main point is to create a chain of six fortifications located at a distance of a shot between the forests. Two more redoubts are being built behind this line. The attackers would have to either storm them, or go to the main army, exposing the flanks to fire. An innovative, albeit dubious, idea, when applied with the irritation of a wounded king, is quite successful.

At about 3 a.m. the cavalry of Charles the Twelfth slipped between the redoubts almost without loss. She gets involved in a battle with the Russian cavalry, which exposes the enemy to the weapons and artillery fire of the fortifications. Trying to help the Swedish infantry get bogged down in the attack of the redoubts and come under fire from the camp. Peter gives the order to withdraw the cavalry. She, turning in the sight of the enemy, gallops three kilometers to break away from the pursuit. This maneuver creates the impression of the defeat of the Russians in the Swedes’ camp.

Charles the Twelfth (1682—1718), opponent of Peter the Great

Both sides take time out to regroup and continue the battle. At nine o’clock the Swedes attack again. This time, captured or blocked redoubts do not divide the armies. The forces of the opponents are. Russians – 25,400 infantry, 9—12,000 noble cavalry, with 72 guns, Swedes – 8,300 infantry, 9,000 cavalry, 4 cannons used for signaling. This is followed by a frontal three-hour battle. The career infantry of Charles the Twelfth sees a higher purpose in battle. Accustomed to adversity, Puritans march into battle, singing religious hymns. At one time, Protestant Swedes were the best fighters in Continental Europe. An important role in the battle is played by the Russian core, breaking the Swedish king’s stretcher. The rumor about the death of the commander discourages the army. The Swedes retreat to the wagon train, where 7,000 cavalrymen and several thousand Cossacks are in reserve, then to the crossing over the Dnieper. Ahead of the retreating Karl with only a few dozen retinues. He manages to escape to the Ottoman allies, now Ukrainian Bendery. Here the king, without getting out of bed, will appeal to the Swedish government to send new troops for a year. The remaining army, including 12,575 soldiers and 3,000 non-combatants, surrenders.

Losses of the parties in the battle. Swedes – 9,300 killed, 15,000 prisoners. Russian army – 1400 dead. Captured Swedes are marching defeated through the streets of Moscow. They will return home, due to the ongoing war, only after many years.

In 1710, without waiting for the end of the armistice, wishing to return Azov as soon as possible, and in response to Peter’s too zealous demands to expel Karl from Bendery, Turkey declares war on Russia.

It occurs to Peter that the peoples of Wallachia and Moldavia will be happy, having got rid of the Ottomans, to accept his protectorate, or even complete absorption. In March 1711, taking in addition to the 80-thousandth army, a friend of his heart, Ekaterina Alekseevna, deep in position, he set off on the Prut campaign. Already in mid-July, from the raids of the Tatars, disease, lack of food and water, the army is reduced to 56 thousand. Even before the start of major battles, it becomes clear that it is time to retreat. An almost 170,000-strong Turkish army and a 20,000-strong detachment of the Crimean Tatars press the Russian army against the Prut River. The military camp is under continuous fire from 160 cannons. The Grand Vizier is quite complacent. For a bribe, he agrees to the terms of peace proposed by Peter. Manages to bargain for more than the king expects, already quite willing to lose all northern conquests. This is the return of Azov to the Turks, the destruction of Taganrog and other Russian settlements near the Sea of Azov. The best ships of the southern fleet are sold to the Sublime Port. The rest have to be set on fire.

…In 1712 Peter will be married to his mistress Martha Skavronskaya, the widow of a Swedish dragoon, now Catherine.

In 1718, the son of Peter the Great, Alexei, takes refuge in one of the castles of Naples. The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire allows the emissary of the Russian monarch to speak with the Tsarevich. The diplomat presents false evidence that the extradition of Alexei by the Austrian government has already been decided. The prince agrees, not knowing that his request for help to Charles the Twelfth has received the king’s approval. The entire Swedish army could be given to the rightful heir. At home, Alexei is immediately arrested. He dies in prison from torture, stroke, exacerbation of tuberculosis, it is not known exactly. Three priests, with whom he conferred, are killed. The Tsarevich abdicates the throne in favor of the son of Peter the Great from his marriage to Catherine, as well as Peter, who later dies at the age of four. His only son, born in a marriage with the German princess Charlotte, again Peter, would later become the Russian emperor.

.In the same year, the first full-fledged census («revision») of the population starts. Some lists include peasants and disenfranchised courtyard slaves. The idea is to raise the latter to the level of the former. But it turns out differently. The landlord must pay tax on each servant. It’s clear. But the peasants, who have their own means of production, and the skills that make it possible to earn money, wherever, now have to pay through the landlord. A person is freed from the need to personally lay out one and a half rubles for himself and his sons every year, but falls into real slavery to the nobleman, the head of the accounting department.

…Peter the First roughly understands what happened. It even seems that he does not like this turn of events. But to stop what is happening, in view of the monolithic opposition of the nobles, the powerful sovereign is no longer able to.

In 1721, the Nystadt Peace Treaty was signed between Russia and Sweden. Russia returns the conquered Finland, pays compensation for the rest of the northern territorial acquisitions. At the same time, Peter takes the title of emperor.

In 1722 Peter the Great carried out the Persian campaign. The reason was attacks on merchants and a Russian reconnaissance detachment. The global goal is to restore trade routes to Central Asia and India by conquering the Caspian Sea and adjacent territories. India itself is also a mouthwatering bite. The forces of the Russian army – 30 thousand people, 200 guns, 270 transport ships. Derbent, Baku, the territories of modern Dagestan and Azerbaijan have been under the rule of Peter the Great for only ten years. In 1732—1735, in order to avoid a new major war with the Ottoman Empire, these areas were returned to Persia

Catherine the First. She is Marta Samuilovna Skavronskaya, after the adoption of Orthodoxy – Ekaterina Alekseevna Mikhailova (1684 – 1727). For female wisdom (one might say – not for a model appearance), she is acclaimed by Field Marshal Sheremetev, and then by Alexei Menshikov. In 1703, during a visit to a friend, Peter the Great notices Martha and takes her to his place.

Peter begins to think about a successor. He and his brother Ivan the Fifth have no more sons. The new decree, allowing the monarch to appoint any person, including a woman, as heir to the throne himself, causes some ferment in society. In the same 1724, the tsar’s kidney stone disease was aggravated. Catherine is suspected of adultery. Her candidacy for a high post is being questioned.

In February 1725 Peter the Great dies.

For two years Catherine the First (Skavronskaya), the king’s widow, has ruled. She exhausts her strength at balls and feasts, and in 1727 she leaves the sublunary world.

The last representative of the Romanovs in a straight line, eleven-year-old Pyotr Alekseevich, the son of Tsarevich Alexei who died in prison, ascends the throne. Almost immediately A. Menshikov, the «semi-sovereign ruler,» betrothed him to his 16-year-old daughter Maria.

The new rulers, not lovers of hasty changes, are moving the capital back to Moscow. The military fleet is in decline. The boyars and the Supreme Privy Council rule, and not an heir, prone to wine since childhood. Locally and centrally, the nobles do whatever comes to their mind.

Peter II (1715 – 1730), son of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich and German princess Sophia-Charlotte. He ascends to the throne at the age of eleven, studies hardly an hour a day, does not show interest in state affairs, kills thousands of rabbits while hunting, dies at fourteen.

In 1730, Peter II died of hypothermia and fever, which complicated the disease with smallpox. This actually ends the Romanov dynasty.

At the Privy Council, the Dolgoruky presents a forged testament to the emperor; to give the rights to the throne to the bride of Peter II, Ekaterina Dolgoruka. The powerful Golitsyns make their competitors laugh. Anna Ioannovna, daughter of Peter the Great’s brother, Ivan the Fifth, widow of the Duke of Courland, becomes Empress.

In 1735, another war starts with Turkey and the Crimean Khanate. The Russian army captures Azov and Ochakov. With an interval of a year or two, three trips to the Crimea are carried out. The army even reaches Bakhchisarai, the capital of the khanate, but returns due to lack of food and water. The cholera epidemic that broke out in 1736 reduces a significant part of the army, as well as the entire population of the peninsula. The European allies are withdrawing from the war. According to the Belgrade Peace Treaty of 1737, Russia loses all conquests, except for Azov, subject to the tearing down of its fortifications. Exit to the Black Sea and trade are allowed exclusively on Turkish ships.

Laughing at the Dolgoruky, trying to make the monarchy manageable, the Golitsyn brothers fall into disgrace on charges of high treason.

Anna Ioannovna (1693 – 1740), Russian empress, fourth daughter of Ivan the Fifth and Tsarina Praskovya Fyodorovna.

In 1740 Anna Ioannovna dies from an attack of urolithiasis. According to the will, the son of the empress’s sister, two-month-old Ioann Antonovich, becomes the emperor. With the regency of the mother and the supervision of Biron, the baby rules the year. Further, to the throne, with the help of the Guards of the Preobrazhensky regiment, who do not want to fight in cold Finland against the Swedes, Elizaveta Petrovna, the daughter of Peter the Great, who was born before the tsar married Catherine Skavronskaya, rises to the throne. All portraits, church books, passports, coins with the image of the juvenile king are confiscated. Ivan the Sixth together with his parents goes to the Shlisselburg Fortress. Here he, playing with spiders and rats, is kept in solitary confinement, out of communication with people.

In 1741, Sweden, not yet realizing that it had entered the category of militarily second-rate European powers, wishing to return the Northern Territories, declared war on Russia. The main actions take place all in the same Finland. A year after her accession to the throne, Elizabeth inclines the people of these lands to the side of Russia. The main carrot is the possibility of creating your own state. The forces of the parties are approximately equal. The losses are also about the same. The Russian army 10,500 people, the Swedish – 12,000. In the end, the Swedish army capitulates, goes home, leaving the Russian artillery.

In 1757, as part of a broad coalition, Russia launched military operations against Prussia. The reason is the illegal annexation of Saxony. Together with the Austrian troops, during the Battle of Kunersdorf, she manages to defeat the army of Frederick II. Of the 48 thousand soldiers, according to the German monarch himself, only 3 thousand remain alive. But the allies get entangled in orders and, instead of an immediate march on Berlin, disperse. Presumably, this «miracle» is associated with Catherine-Friderica, the future empress and her entourage – the commander-in-chief Apraksin and Chancellor Bestuzhev, who are playing their secret game at the court of Elizabeth. The second «miracle of the Brandenburg House», which Adolf Hitler hoped for a third time later, will take place in January 1762. Peter III, who ascended the throne, an ethnic German, a fanatical admirer of Frederick II, will break the treaty with Austria without explanation and conclude a separate peace.

Elizaveta Petrovna (1709 – 1761), the youngest daughter of Peter the Great and Catherine. The Empress gives rise to Gallomania. Since childhood, dreaming of becoming related to the Bourbons, she diligently studies French. Elizabeth is in a secret church marriage with Alexei Razumovsky. For a child born in this marriage, Princess Tarakanova (self-name – Elizaveta Vladimirskaya) posed herself or appeared to be one.

In 1761, the childless and unmarried Elizabeth dies of an undiagnosed illness after a sudden throat bleeding. She is inherited by the grandson of Peter the Great, the son of his daughter Anna from his second marriage and the Duke of Holstein, the Holstein-Gottorp (German) ducal dynasty. Actually, according to the dynastic rules of inheritance, Anna joins this clan. Her children can no longer be «Romanovs» at all. But, in the conditions of a political crisis, this trifle is not paid attention. The main thing now is at least a bit of «royal» blood.

So, Karl Peter Ulrich, aka Peter the Third Fedorovich, occupies the Russian throne. The health and upbringing of the boy is affected by the fact that at one time the prince was flogged with rods, put his knees on peas, and subjected to more sophisticated tortures. The young man seems to be inclined to military affairs. However, he attaches importance not to the maneuvers and material support of the army, but to drill and parades. At the age of 17, already at the Russian court, Peter was married to Sophia Frederick Augusta, a native of the German city of Stettin, the future Catherine II. The dignitaries even assign mentors to the couple of monarchs – an exemplary married couple. But, it doesn’t help much. Instead of fulfilling the duties assigned to her husband, according to contemporaries, in the evenings the prince plays with the tin soldiers. Peter is unpleasantly surprised when, in 1754, Catherine still gives birth to his son Paul (the future emperor). However, the emotional attachment between the spouses remains.

Under Peter III, some sensible laws begin to work, but these are, rather, the homework of influential nobles. The monarch’s own initiative is the return of East Prussia, which has been part of the Russian Empire for four years, to its former owner, beloved Emperor Frederick II. Not quite fulfilled idea – reduction of church property, abolition of monastic land tenure, ban on icons. The third remarkable idea of the native of Holstein is a dynastic war with Denmark, a long-time ally of Russia, for the Schleswig (territory in the south of Denmark) taken from the German ancestors of Peter III.

Peter is also thinking about marrying his favorite, Elizaveta Vorontsova. Relations with his legal wife, Catherine, naturally deteriorate somewhat. In particular, the emperor considers it possible to call her a «fool» in the presence of the court and foreign princes, for refusing to listen to the toast while standing.

Interested persons are preparing a palace coup. These things usually require high-quality cash. Catherine turns to the French and British for help. The French try not to understand subtle hints. But the British ambassador easily gives the requested amount: 100 thousand gold rubles.

Peter the Third hesitates to march to Denmark, wishing to properly celebrate his name day (June 28, 1762) in Peterhof. However, upon arriving at the palace, he does not find the official organizer of the holiday – his other half, Catherine. She is already in St.Petersburg, taking the oath of office from St. Synod, Senate, guards regiments and part of the population. Again hesitating disastrously, the monarch rushes on a yacht to Kronstadt. However, the garrison of the island-fortress has already managed to swear allegiance to Mrs. Catherine. The last way to save the throne and yourself is the army in East Prussia. But the emperor gets tired of such throwing. Peter returns to the residence and signs the decree of abdication.

Peter the Third Fedorovich (1728 – 1762), Duke of Holstein, Russian emperor. The monarch’s father is Karl Friedrich Holstein, nephew of the Swedish king. Mother – Anna Petrovna, the second daughter of Peter the Great and Catherine the First.

The only desire now is for the wife to allow her husband to leave for his native Holstein. This is theoretically possible. Hardly ever. The situation requires complete certainty.

Peter the Third is kept in the palace of the town of Ropsha (near St. Petersburg), under the supervision of the eminent Orlov brothers. The officers do not dare to finish off the emperor with their own hands. They find a way out. Senator Grigory Teplov and Fyodor Volkov are involved in the operation, an actor, founder of the Russian Theater, once not recognized by Peter III as a stage genius. The latter, as follows from the research of historians, is the most likely murderer of the emperor.

Catherine II ascends to the Russian throne. The Catherine Age, the Golden Age of the nobility opens. Yes, the German Empress, a representative of the Gottorp sovereign house of the Oldenburg dynasty, who took the throne through a palace coup. But, it is the very precariousness of the situation that compels Catherine to respect the interests of the parties, to find balance, to carefully study the processes taking place in society. She is not a regent under her son Paul, but, contrary to the rules, «at the will of all Our loyal subjects, explicit and unfeigned», a full-fledged empress.

One of the innovations is the secularization of monastic lands. Previously, the collection of taxes, the management of the villages belonging to the church was carried out by the clergy themselves. Farmers worked out corvée, performed a lot of natural obligations introduced «out of friendship», and fell into debt bondage. Now the peasants, numbering a million, and this is only males, are being freed from church feudal lords. They acquire many liberties, legal rights, are called «economic» and pay one and a half rubles a year to the state personally. Their villages are under the supervision of retired officers. Monasteries, the number of which is reduced by three times, are paid amounts for their maintenance from the state treasury.

The influence of Russia in Poland is growing. Polish and Lithuanian magnates openly oppose the monarch Stanislav Poniatowski, who was elected in 1764. The side of the ex-lover of Catherine II is taken by a powerful eastern neighbor. At the invitation of the king, the empire introduces a military contingent into the territory of the Commonwealth. Suffering defeat after defeat from the troops of Suvorov, the Confederates find nothing better than to turn to Turkey (the reward for the help of the Ottomans is Volhynia and Podolia).

…In May 1764, the Empress, after consulting with the scientist M. Lomonosov, dispatches an expedition to the North Pole. The commander of six ships equipped with perfect equipment of that time was Captain V. Chichagov. The expedition stops northwest of Spitsbergen (Grumant Island), reaching a latitude of 80 degrees and five minutes, in front of insurmountable ice. The second campaign wins over the North by only one geographic minute. Thus, Lomonosov’s hope that «the ice will disperse» and the Russian ships will reach the shores of North America is not justified.

…Using some pretext, the Turkish authorities imprison the Russian ambassador Obreskov in the Seven-Tower Castle. This, according to Ottoman custom, means the beginning of a full-scale war. In response, on November 29, 1768, Catherine also declared war. The Russian fleet is sent to the Mediterranean Sea under the control of the favorites, the Orlov brothers. Its main goal is to incite anti-Turkish uprisings among the Christian peoples conquered by the Ottomans. Crimean Tatars cross the Russian border and attack Novorossiya. The wheel of war is turning. The Russian detachment occupies Azov and Taganrog. The clatter of axes and the grinding of saws marks the revival of the Azov flotilla. On the other side of the theater of military operations, Prince Golitsyn provokes the Turks, departs, and waits for two months for the booty to come to him by itself. Indeed, the Turks come, but because of the corruption that reigns now in Ottoman society, they are worn out, hungry and demoralized. In 1770 a series of fierce battles will take place. We should especially note the battle near the Cahul River, in the south of modern Moldova. The forces of the sides: the Russian army – 32 thousand, 118 guns, the Turkish army – 150 thousand with 140 guns. A detachment of Tatars, 80 thousand soldiers is preparing to attack Rumyantsev’s carts. The commander withdraws part of the troops to protect them. Only 17 thousand people remain for the general battle. On the night of August 1, soldiers line up in squares of 800 soldiers and move at an accelerated pace towards the Ottoman army. It is difficult for the Turkish cavalry, like cavalry in general, to attack the cadre infantry prepared for battle. Russian guns are effective. Confusion is caused by ten thousand janissaries who have appeared on the flank. After the intervention of officers, the square continues the offensive. A detachment of Kurds as part of the Ottoman army, instead of helping the Turks, is taken to plunder them. The next day, a Russian detachment attacks the Danube crossing. Here, on 300 ships, the remnants of the Turkish army are trying to evacuate. Losses of the parties. The Turkish army has 8 thousand soldiers, 140 cannons, 4 thousand prisoners «on a moderate basis». Russian army – 364 people.

Further, almost without resistance, Russian troops for the first time capture the strategically important fortress of Izmail. Problems with the delivery of provisions, the establishment of comprehensive relations with allies are a thing of the past. Catherine’s army remains to spend the winter in Moldavia and Wallachia.

The Russian fleet moves from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, losing 40% of the materiel due to leaks and other incidents. For the occupation of Turkish fortified points, together with the Greek rebels, amphibious assault forces are landed. At first, things are successful, but after the Greeks brutally dealt with the prisoners of war – no longer. In addition, there are two admirals at the head of the fleet, which cannot but cause some friction. Favorite of Catherine II, Alexei Orlov acts as a powerful arbiter. After a warm-up clash in the Chios Strait, where the losses of the parties are approximately equal, the Battle of Chesme takes place. It develops simply. After a serious artillery barrage, the Russian ships release four fire-ships against the Turkish fleet huddled in the bay. With two such oared torpedoes, the crew is evacuated in boats too early. The third ship runs aground near the coastal battery, preventing it from conducting aimed fire. The fourth «torpedo» interlocks with the battleship, ignites it and, a few minutes after the team leaves the fire-ship, explodes.

Debris falls on other Turkish ships, causing a firestorm. 14 Turkish battleships, 6 frigates and an uncountable number of small ships are burning, sinking. Out of 15 thousand Turkish sailors, 4 thousand are saved. The Russian fleet controls the entire Aegean Sea. The blockade of the Dardanelles begins – a number of straits between the islands off the western coast of Turkey. The main goal, in the future, is the capture of Constantinople. Russian citizenship is accepted by 27 islands of the Aegean Archipelago. The fleet numbers up to 50 pennants. In August 1773, a Russian squadron begins the siege of Beirut (then Syrian). Two months later, the city capitulates. It is passed on to the allies who have accepted the patronage of Russia. At the same time, 200,000 piastres of indemnity, according to the Naval Regulations (not the usual correct war for the Russians), are distributed among the ship’s crews.

In July 1774, the parties to the conflict signed the Kuchuk-Kainardzhiyskiy (place in modern Bulgaria) peace treaty. In comparison with the successes of the Russian army and the funds spent, he is modest. Russia acquires Kerch and a part of the northern coast of Crimea, with the right of navigation in the Black and Mediterranean Seas (unhindered passage through the Straits), also 4.5 million rubles in indemnity. The Crimean Khanate becomes independent from Turkey. A number of territories, including Ochakov, remain in the possession of the Port. The population of the Dardanelles who have taken Russian citizenship has to be transported by ships to Kerch and St. Petersburg. In 1778, Alexander Suvorov organized the resettlement of 30 thousand Christians persecuted from the Crimea to the Azov region.

The funds allocated for the military expedition are truly enormous. Catherine II, for the first time in the history of the Russian state, turns to foreign loans. The external debt, which exceeds the annual budget at times, is swelling. Inflating territories, which is not a bad thing in itself, and increasing international prestige, does not improve the life of the population of Central Russia. The cost of bread increases 4—6 times. Farmers often starve and slowly but surely turn into slaves.

In 1769, the first Russian paper money came into circulation. This is an obligation-receipt for receiving a coin (if copper nickels, 20 kilograms for 20 rubles). Very popular banknotes are in circulation until 1843. A cow and a horse cost a ruble and a half, the same tithe of land (a little more than a hectare). Sermyaga (simple clothes) – 20—40 kopecks, an ax 7 kopecks, a pood of rye – 5 kopecks. The most popular among the people are dimes. Gold coins are used for international payments. A foreman at a state plant receives 120 rubles a year (33 kopecks a day), while a freelance worker gets 20 rubles.

Under Catherine II, the market for people was finally formed. At the prices of 1782, the standard inventory of the estate: «… In the courtyard of courtyard people: Leonty Nikitin is 40 years old, according to an estimate of 30 rubles. His wife Marina Stepanova is 25 years old, estimated at 10 rubles. Efim Osipov 23 years old, according to the estimate of 40 rubles. His wife Marina Dementieva is 30 years old, estimated at 8 rubles. They have children – a son Guryan 4 years old, 5 rubles, the daughter of a girl Vasilisa 9 years old, according to the estimate of 3 r., Matryona is one year old, according to an estimate of 50 k. «A good village «girl» can be bought by a landowner for 200 rubles. Pedigree puppies are more expensive – up to 10,000 rubles.

…On the Don, there is a stratification of the Cossacks into «old», serving the state, and fugitives. The latter have serious financial problems. In addition, in conditions of peace, they desire to gain fame. Siberia and the Urals are a huge cauldron of war. The uprising of the peasants under Catherine II has a historical basis.

…In 1667, the Cossack Stepan Razin became the leader of free warriors: Cossacks, Tatars, Bashkirs, Kalmyks, Nogays. Thieves’ campaigns are made to the lower Volga and across the Caspian Sea to Persia. The fleet of Stepan Timofeevich launches the ship of Admiral Mamed Khan to the bottom, seizes other vessels that have lost their speed, which, according to the inexplicable plan of the naval commander, are connected by chains. Among the trophies were the khan’s son and daughter – a Persian princess, the heroine of a famous song. According to legend, the Cossack sacrifices the maiden weighed down with rich decoration to the river.

In the spring of 1670, Razin entered into open confrontation with the tsarist administration. The entire Volga and part of the Volga region is under his control. The main idea is to extend the Cossack military-democratic system to the Russian state. The governors are trying to settle the matter peacefully. They send ambassadors to Stepan, but only death awaits them in the camp of the rebels. The Cossacks claim that among them is the son of Alexei Mikhailovich, Alexei Alexeevich and the exiled Patriarch Tikhon.