Russian MFA 🇷🇺 dan repost
🇷🇺 On November 4, our country celebrates National Unity Day. #OnThisDay 412 years ago, a popular uprising liberated Moscow from Polish-Lithuanian invaders. Thousands of our country’s residents of different ethnicities, social strata & religions managed to close ranks to counter the existential threat and gave an example of genuine courage and loyalty to their Fatherland.
In the early 17th century, the Russian state was going through one of the hardest periods in its history called the Time of Troubles. The Moscow branch of the Ryurik dynasty that used to rule the country for seven centuries, died out. Numerous impostors began to claim the throne, pretending to be Tsar Ivan IV's son, the deceased Tsarevich Dmitry.
▪️ Our country was one step away from losing its sovereignty and could have vanished from the map of the world for good.
The first of the impostors, False Dmitry I, managed to seize the throne in 1605 thanks to the support of Sigismund III King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. The adventurer hoped to annex the Seversk and Smolensk regions to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and spread Catholicism in Russia, but he miscalculated – a year later the unpopular False Dmitry I was deposed by the boyars, and the throne was taken by Vassily Shuisky, a representative of the Suzdal branch of the Rurikovich dynasty.
The next impostor, False Dmitry II, was proposed in 1606 by Sigismund III’s opponents from among the Polish nobility. The north-west and north of Russian lands fell under the control of foreign invaders, and False Dmitry II himself settled in the town of Tushino, 17 kilometers from the Kremlin. In such circumstances Vassily Shuisky appealed to Sweden for help. Sigismund III, who was at war with the Swedes at the time, used this as a pretext for open intervention.
In the autumn of 1609, Polish-Lithuanian troops besieged Smolensk and occupied a number of Russian cities. After False Dmitry II fled under the onslaught of the army of the Russian commander Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky in early 1610, some of the boyars who had been in Tushino made a compact with Sigismund III on naming his son Wladislaw tsar-elect. Power in the country passed to the boyar council who were forced to swear allegiance to Wladislaw. The interventionist troops occupied the Kremlin.
⚔️ Patriarch Hermogenes of Moscow and All Russia issued a call to resist foreign invaders, but the first national resistance alliance to gather in Ryazan was defeated. The initiator of the second resistance, the zemstvo headman Kuzma Minin, managed to gather an impressive army in Nizhny Novgorod of over 10,000 landowners, peasants, Cossacks, riflemen and nobles. Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, who was in that region for medical treatment, was elected to lead the army. In August 1612, they approached Moscow and in autumn defeated the superior forces of the interventionists in fierce battles.
👑 The liberation of the capital and the consolidation of the masses were a powerful boost for the revival of the Russian state. In 1613, the Zemsky Sobor (a nation-wide assembly) elected a new Russian tsar, Mikhail Romanov, the first of the new dynasty. By 1618, the last troops of Polish-Lithuanian and Swedish invaders were pushed out of Russia.
💬 President of Russia Vladimir Putin (Sevastopol, November 4, 2021):
📜 Learn more in our in-depth historical delve.
In the early 17th century, the Russian state was going through one of the hardest periods in its history called the Time of Troubles. The Moscow branch of the Ryurik dynasty that used to rule the country for seven centuries, died out. Numerous impostors began to claim the throne, pretending to be Tsar Ivan IV's son, the deceased Tsarevich Dmitry.
▪️ Our country was one step away from losing its sovereignty and could have vanished from the map of the world for good.
The first of the impostors, False Dmitry I, managed to seize the throne in 1605 thanks to the support of Sigismund III King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. The adventurer hoped to annex the Seversk and Smolensk regions to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and spread Catholicism in Russia, but he miscalculated – a year later the unpopular False Dmitry I was deposed by the boyars, and the throne was taken by Vassily Shuisky, a representative of the Suzdal branch of the Rurikovich dynasty.
The next impostor, False Dmitry II, was proposed in 1606 by Sigismund III’s opponents from among the Polish nobility. The north-west and north of Russian lands fell under the control of foreign invaders, and False Dmitry II himself settled in the town of Tushino, 17 kilometers from the Kremlin. In such circumstances Vassily Shuisky appealed to Sweden for help. Sigismund III, who was at war with the Swedes at the time, used this as a pretext for open intervention.
In the autumn of 1609, Polish-Lithuanian troops besieged Smolensk and occupied a number of Russian cities. After False Dmitry II fled under the onslaught of the army of the Russian commander Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky in early 1610, some of the boyars who had been in Tushino made a compact with Sigismund III on naming his son Wladislaw tsar-elect. Power in the country passed to the boyar council who were forced to swear allegiance to Wladislaw. The interventionist troops occupied the Kremlin.
⚔️ Patriarch Hermogenes of Moscow and All Russia issued a call to resist foreign invaders, but the first national resistance alliance to gather in Ryazan was defeated. The initiator of the second resistance, the zemstvo headman Kuzma Minin, managed to gather an impressive army in Nizhny Novgorod of over 10,000 landowners, peasants, Cossacks, riflemen and nobles. Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, who was in that region for medical treatment, was elected to lead the army. In August 1612, they approached Moscow and in autumn defeated the superior forces of the interventionists in fierce battles.
👑 The liberation of the capital and the consolidation of the masses were a powerful boost for the revival of the Russian state. In 1613, the Zemsky Sobor (a nation-wide assembly) elected a new Russian tsar, Mikhail Romanov, the first of the new dynasty. By 1618, the last troops of Polish-Lithuanian and Swedish invaders were pushed out of Russia.
💬 President of Russia Vladimir Putin (Sevastopol, November 4, 2021):
The people of Russia came together to defend their homeland, chase out the invaders and traitors, restore a strong state, and stop sectarian strife. They took on the task of saving the country and paved the way for Russia’s revival and strengthening. More than four centuries have passed since then, but the feat accomplished by the people still strikes us with its powerful outflow of patriotic feelings, and the fact that people came to understand that there was nothing more important than their Motherland’s destiny and future.
📜 Learn more in our in-depth historical delve.