What does the Seven Boyars mean and the years of its reign. The reign of the seven-boyars. Reasons for the emergence of the Seven Boyars

Seven Boyars Time of reign: from 1610 to 1613.

Seven Boyars- the name adopted by historians for the transitional government in Russia of 7 boyars in July-September 1610, which formally existed until the election to the throne Tsar Mikhail Romanov.

The Seven Boyars included members of the Boyar Duma:

Prince Fyodor Ivanovich Mstislavsky (? - 1622).

Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Vorotynsky (? - 1627).

Prince Andrei Vasilyevich Trubetskoy (? - 1612).

Boyarin Fedor Ivanovich Sheremetev (? - 1650).

Head Seven Boyars elected prince, boyar, governor, influential member of the Boyar Duma since 1586 Fyodor Ivanovich Mstislavsky. Previously, he three times refused nomination to the Russian throne (1598, 1606, 1610), and agreed to become the head of the united boyar government only in 1610, during the period of the so-called Time of Troubles.

After July 17, 1610, as a result of a conspiracy Tsar Vasily Shuisky was overthrown, the Boyar Duma, a group of 7 boyars, assumed supreme power. The power of the Seven Boyars did not actually extend beyond Moscow: in Khoroshevo, to the west of Moscow, the Poles, led by Zolkiewski, stood up, and in the southeast, in Kolomenskoye, False Dmitry II, who had returned from Kaluga, together with the Polish detachment of Sapieha. The boyars were especially afraid False Dmitry, since he had a large number of supporters in Moscow and was more popular than them.

Afraid to seek help and support within the country due to the blazing peasant war under the leadership of I.I. Bolotnikov, the boyars decided to turn to the Poles with a proposal. In the negotiations that began, members Seven Boyars made a promise, despite the protests of the Russian Patriarch Hermogenes, not to elect a representative of Russian clans to the royal throne.

As a result, it was decided to invite the Polish prince Vladislav to the throne on the condition of his conversion to Orthodoxy. On August 17 (27), 1610, an agreement was signed between 7 boyars and Hetman Zholkiewski, after which Moscow kissed the cross of Vladislav.

However, Sigismund III demanded that not his son Vladislav, but himself Semiboryaschina recognized as the Tsar of all Russia. By his order, S. Zholkiewski brought the captured Tsar Vasily Shuisky to Poland, and government of Semiboriashchyna at that time, on the night of September 21, 1610, he secretly allowed Polish troops into Moscow. In Russian history, this fact is considered by many researchers as an act of national treason.

After these events, from October 1610, real power actually passed to the commander of the Polish garrison, Alexander Gonsevsky, Vladislav's governor. Disregarding the Russian government of 7 boyars, he generously distributed lands to supporters of Poland, confiscating them from those who remained loyal to the country.

This changed the attitude of the representatives themselves Seven Boyars to the Poles they called. Patriarch Hermogenes, taking advantage of the growing discontent in the country, began sending letters to Russian cities, calling for resistance to the new government. By the beginning of 1611, the main Moscow ambassadors were arrested and imprisoned. And in March 1611, Patriarch Hermogenes was imprisoned in the Chudov Monastery.

The movement against the Poles was growing in the country. Detachments were organized in almost twenty cities of Russia, which began to move towards the capital from the end of winter. On March 19, 1611, an uprising of residents broke out in Moscow. After heavy fighting, the burning of houses and buildings in Kitai-Gorod, the Polish garrison managed to suppress the uprising of the townspeople. It was this event that was noted in historiography as “the final ruin of the Muscovite kingdom.”

Seven Boyars nominally functioned until the liberation of Moscow in August 1612 by the people's militia under the leadership of the townsman K. Minin and Prince D. Pozharsky. On October 22, 1612, exhausted by siege and hunger, the Polish garrison surrendered to the victors. Moscow was completely liberated from foreign invaders. The Boyar Duma, which had stained itself by collaboration with the Poles, was overthrown.

In Polish history the assessment Seven Boyars different from Russian. It is considered the elected government, which legally invited foreigners to rule Muscovy (treaty of August 17, 1610).

Prince Fyodor Ivanovich Mstislavsky.
Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Vorotynsky.
Prince Andrei Vasilyevich Trubetskoy.
Prince Andrei Vasilyevich Golitsyn.
Prince Boris Mikhailovich Lykov-Obolensky.
Boyarin Ivan Nikitich Romanov.
Boyarin Fedor Ivanovich Sheremetev. Material from the site

The main task of the Seven Boyars was to convene the Zemsky Sobor to elect a new king. However, in conditions when the Poles of Hetman Zolkiewski were advancing on Moscow from the west, and False Dmitry II with his Cossacks was approaching from the south, the boyars decided not to wait for the decision of the Zemsky Sobor and act independently. They informed King Sigismund that they would recognize his son Vladislav as the Tsar of Moscow. The boyars believed that after this the king would immediately stop the intervention and help the Moscow government put an end to the “Tushinsky thief”. Indeed, Zholkiewski, together with the Moscow governors, soon threw the impostor away from Moscow. False Dmitry II returned to Kaluga, where he was killed by his entourage in December 1610.

However, King Sigismund did not even think of withdrawing his troops from Russia. He continued the siege of Smolensk, firmly deciding to annex this city to his possessions. At the same time, he was in no hurry to let his 15-year-old son go to Moscow. The boyars, Muscovites and some of the nobles took an oath to the prince with the condition that he would convert to Orthodoxy. However, Vladislav refused this. The king did not agree that Vladislav should be baptized according to the Orthodox rite, as the boyars demanded. Essentially, he himself wanted to become the Russian Tsar.

Hermogenes

Accustomed during the years of the Troubles to actively respond to all events in political life, the Moscow townspeople openly expressed dissatisfaction with the plans of the Seven Boyars. The idea that a non-religious person would be on the Russian throne outraged the clergy. The spokesman for these sentiments was the unbending zealot for Orthodoxy, Patriarch Hermogenes. Fearing an uprising of the urban mob, the boyars committed outright betrayal in the fall of 1610 and stationed Polish detachments in the Kremlin and other areas of the capital.

Then Patriarch Hermogenes freed Russian subjects from their oath to Vladislav. He did not sign the letter transferring the Russian throne to a Catholic Pole. It was a courageous act. The Patriarch thereby called on the people to defend the Orthodox faith against Catholic Poles. Hermogenes died in prison (according to rumors, the boyars starved him to death).

The reign of the Seven Boyars fell during the most dangerous period of the Time of Troubles. It is impossible to make the right choice from two wrong ones: either the Russian throne will be occupied by the Poles in the person of Prince Vladislav, or the impostor False Dmitry II. Relying on some factors, the boyars allowed the Poles into the country. At this point, in fact, the reign of the Seven Boyars was interrupted; the boyars found themselves hostages of the Polish interventionists.

But due to the imminent death of False Dmitry II, circumstances changed. To restore the country's independence, all that remained was to expel the enemy from Moscow. The first step towards the liberation struggle was taken by Patriarch Hermogenes. It was followed by the First People's Militia of 1611, and the decisive liberation second

Seven Boyars (briefly)

A Brief History of the Seven Boyars

Historians call the Seven Boyars the period when Russia was ruled by boyars during the so-called Time of Troubles.

The beginning of the seventeenth century was quite difficult for Russia. It was marked by a series of bloody events. It all started with the war with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, from which the Russian army was continually defeated.

Russian territory was engulfed by the revolt of Ivan Bolotnikov, and then by the uprising of False Dmitry II. In addition, some territories were periodically subject to raids by the Crimean Tatars.

The authority of Tsar V. Shuisky was shaken. Society was tired of his endless failures, the state was plundered and oppressed. In 1610, the king was dethroned and tonsured as a monk. Then power passes into the hands of the conspirators themselves - seven boyars, among whom were:

· boyar Sheremetev;

· boyar Romanov;

· Prince Lykov-Obolensky;

· Prince Golitsyn;

· Prince Trubetskoy;

· Prince Vorotynsky;

· Prince Mstislavsky.

However, the new provisional government did not have the strength to independently cope with both internal and external threats. It was urgent to choose a king. At the same time, in their opinion, there were no candidates for the throne among the Russian people. It was then that it was decided to invite Vladislav, the son of the Polish king Sigismund the Third, to reign in Russia.

The only condition for Vladislav was the adoption of the Orthodox faith. The powers of all boyars had to be preserved. At that time, the uprising of the impostor False Dmitry II was rampant, gaining strength every day. Quite a large part of the people supported False Dmitry in every possible way and saw him as the ruler of the Russian land.

The Seven Boyars were afraid of an attack by the army of False Dmitry and invited Polish troops to Moscow, which, in the opinion of the boyars, would be afraid of the impostor. Very soon False Dmitry was killed by traitors and the enemy was defeated. But the Polish troops, settled in the city, did not even think of leaving it.

At this moment, Sigismund forbids his son to convert to the Orthodox faith and offers the boyars his candidacy to rule Russia.

The people and the authorities continually opposed the Catholic Tsar. A people's militia began to form, but it was defeated by the Poles. The second militia was more successful; it was led by the elder Minin and Prince Pozharsky.

After the liberation of Moscow from the Poles, Mikhail Romanov was elected as the new Tsar.

years of reign: from 1610 to 1613

The concept of the Seven Boyars- the name adopted by historians for the transitional government in Russia of 7 boyars in July-September 1610, which formally existed until the election to the throne

Briefly about the Seven Boyars

The Seven Boyars included members of the Boyar Duma:

Prince Fyodor Ivanovich Mstislavsky (? - 1622).
Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Vorotynsky (? - 1627).
Prince Andrei Vasilyevich Trubetskoy (? - 1612).
Prince Andrei Vasilyevich Golitsyn (? - March 19(31), 1611).
Prince Boris Mikhailovich Lykov-Obolensky (1576 - June 2, 1646).
Boyar Ivan Nikitich Romanov (? - October 23, 1640).
Boyarin Fedor Ivanovich Sheremetev (? - 1650).

The head of the Seven Boyars was elected the prince, boyar, governor, influential member of the Boyar Duma since 1586, Fyodor Ivanovich Mstislavsky. Previously, he three times refused nomination to the Russian throne (1598, 1606, 1610), and agreed to become the head of the united boyar government only in 1610, during the period of the so-called Time of Troubles.

After he was overthrown as a result of a conspiracy on July 17, 1610, the Boyar Duma, a group of 7 boyars, assumed supreme power. The power of the Seven Boyars did not actually extend beyond Moscow: in Khoroshevo, to the west of Moscow, the Poles, led by Zolkiewski, stood up, and in the southeast, in Kolomenskoye, False Dmitry II, who had returned from Kaluga, stood together with the Polish detachment of Sapieha. The boyars were especially afraid of False Dmitry, since he had a large number of supporters in Moscow and was more popular than them.

Afraid to seek help and support within the country due to the blazing peasant war under the leadership of I.I. Bolotnikov, the boyars decided to turn to the Poles with a proposal. In the negotiations that began, the members of the Seven Boyars promised, despite the protests of the Russian Patriarch Hermogenes, not to elect a representative of Russian clans to the royal throne.

Board of the Seven Boyars

However, Sigismund III demanded that not his son Vladislav, but himself be recognized as the king of all Russia. By his order, S. Zholkiewski brought the captured Tsar Vasily Shuisky to Poland, and the government of the Seven Boyars at that time, on the night of September 21, 1610, secretly allowed Polish troops into Moscow. In Russian history, this fact is considered by many researchers as an act of national treason.

This changed the attitude of the representatives of the Seven Boyars themselves towards the Poles they called. Patriarch Hermogenes, taking advantage of the growing discontent in the country, began sending letters to Russian cities, calling for resistance to the new government. By the beginning of 1611, the main Moscow ambassadors were arrested and imprisoned. And in March 1611, Patriarch Hermogenes was imprisoned in the Chudov Monastery.

Period of the Seven Boyars

The Seven Boyars nominally functioned until the liberation of Moscow in August 1612 by the people's militia under the leadership of the townsman K. Minin and Prince D. Pozharsky. On October 22, 1612, exhausted by siege and starvation, the Polish garrison surrendered to the victors. Moscow was completely liberated from foreign invaders. The Boyar Duma, which had stained itself by collaboration with the Poles, was overthrown.

In Polish history, the assessment of the Seven Boyars differs from the Russian one. It is considered the elected government, which legally invited foreigners to rule Muscovy (treaty of August 17, 1610).

The Seven Boyars is...
“Seven Boyars” - “seven-numbered boyars”, the Russian government formed after the overthrow of Tsar Vasily Shuisky in July 1610 and formally existed until the election of Tsar Mikhail Romanov to the throne. Boyar rule did not give the country either peace or stability. Moreover, it transferred power to the Polish interventionists and allowed them into Moscow. Liquidated by the militia of Minin and Pozharsky.
Interregnum
After Vasily Shuisky was overthrown and tonsured a monk, an interregnum began in Russia. False Dmitry 2 was not recognized in the capital, and people were afraid to choose a new king from among themselves. No one wanted to listen to Patriarch Hermogenes, who said that it was necessary to immediately elect either Prince Vasily Golitsyn or Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov as king (this is the first mention of Philaret’s son regarding the election to the kingdom!). However, in Moscow it was decided to rule together - by a council of seven boyars. A meeting of all the “ranks” of the state - representatives of the nobility and nobility - was held at the Arbat Gate. After approving the overthrow of Shuisky, they asked the members of the Boyar Duma “to grant us permission to accept the Muscovite state, as long as God gives us a sovereign for the Muscovite kingdom.”
The Seven Boyars included
— Prince Fyodor Ivanovich Mstislavsky
— Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Vorotynsky
— Prince Andrei Vasilievich Trubetskoy
— Prince Andrei Vasilievich Golitsyn
— Prince Boris Mikhailovich Lykov-Obolensky
— Boyarin Ivan Nikitich Romanov
— Boyarin Fedor Ivanovich Sheremetev
Prince Mstislavsky became the head of the “Seven Boyars”.

Treaty with the Poles
But everything was clear that such a form of government in Russia was short-lived, and Tushin’s idea of inviting Prince Vladislav began to win more and more adherents. The Seven Boyars, meeting public opinion halfway, concluded on August 17, 1610 with the commander of the Polish king Sigismund II, Hetman Zolkiewski, an agreement on calling the king’s son, 15-year-old prince Vladislav, to the Russian throne. The boyars wanted Vladislav to convert to Orthodoxy, marry a Russian and lift the siege of Smolensk.
Zholkiewski did not promise all this, but he undertook to send a representative Russian embassy to the king for negotiations. For seven weeks, Muscovites swore allegiance to Tsar Vladislav in the Kremlin. The oath became a genuine expression of the people's will: 8-12 thousand Muscovites a day entered the Assumption Cathedral, swore an oath of allegiance to Tsar Vladislav, kissed the cross and the Gospel. And so 300 thousand people passed through the Kremlin! Meanwhile, the Kremlin itself and other important Moscow centers began to be occupied by regular Polish troops. Soon Moscow found itself essentially occupied by the Polish army. This happened on September 20-21, 1610.
Hetman Zholkiewski began to demand that the former Tsar Shuisky and his brothers be given to him, which the Seven Boyars did without regret. Even the monk Shuisky, with his influence, money and connections, did not cease to be dangerous for the boyars who seized power. 1610, September - crowds of Muscovites poured into the streets of the capital to see the last exit of Tsar Vasily. Few people then experienced a feeling of national humiliation, seeing how the captive Russian Tsar, dressed in a shabby monastic robe, was being carried in a wretched chariot, followed by Polish horsemen in sparkling armor. On the contrary, the people even thanked Hetman Zholkiewski, who pranced among the Russian boyars, who “saved” them from the evil Shuiski.

A huge (more than 1 thousand people) embassy went to the king’s camp near Smolensk, expecting to soon return to the capital with the new sovereign. But nothing good came of this idea. Negotiations in Sigismund's camp reached a dead end. As it turned out, the king views the state of things completely differently than Zolkiewski, that Sigismund is against his son converting to Orthodoxy and does not want to let him go to Moscow. Moreover, Sigismund himself decided to become the Russian Tsar (Zhigimont Ivanovich), to unite Poland, Lithuania and Russia under his rule.
Why were the boyars in such a hurry to swear allegiance to Vladislav, why did they bind hundreds of thousands of people with sacred oaths, obliging them to obey an unknown sovereign? They, as often happens in history, took care of themselves first. During the Time of Troubles of the interregnum, the boyars most feared the capricious Moscow mob and False Dmitry 2, who, inspired by the defeat of the Russian army at Klushino, made a rush to the capital. At any time, he could break into Moscow and “sit on the kingdom” - the impostor would have found many supporters in the capital. In a word, the Seven Boyars could not hesitate. The Polish forces seemed to the boyars a reliable shield against the robbers of the Tushino thief and the unfaithful Moscow mob. After the Poles agreed in principle to the election of Vladislav, all other problems seemed not so important for the boyars and could be easily resolved in a personal meeting with Sigismund II.
Now the Russian ambassadors found themselves in a terrible position: they could not agree to the proclamation of Sigismund II as Russian Tsar, but they could not shamefully leave with nothing. The negotiations began in a raised voice, and then it turned out that the ambassadors, like the former Tsar Vasily, were prisoners of the Poles...

Civil uprising. Liberation of Moscow
The new government allowed the Polish army into Moscow, hoping that False Dmitry would not come here. From that time on, the whole essence of the Seven Boyars came down to playing the role of puppets in the hands of the King of Poland, who began to pursue policies that suited him through his protege, the commandant of Moscow, Alexander Gonsevsky. The boyars were deprived of real power and became, in fact, hostages. It is in such a pitiful role that it is customary to see the answer to the question: “What is the Seven Boyars?”
After all real power passed from the hands of the boyars to the Polish governor, he, having received the rank of boyar, began to run the state uncontrollably. Out of his own will, he began to take away lands and estates from those Russians who remained faithful to their patriotic duty, and transferred them to the Poles who were part of his inner circle. This caused a wave of indignation in the state. It is believed that at this time the Seven Boyars changed their attitude towards the Poles.
Soon False Dmitry 2 was killed by traitors. The enemy was defeated, but this did not save the boyar government from the problem. The Polish army settled in Moscow settled tightly and had no intention of leaving.
The authorities and people were against the Catholic Tsar. The people's militia began to gather, but as a result it all ended in complete failure - the militia was defeated by the Poles. The Second Militia became more successful. Under the leadership of Prince Pozharsky and the zemstvo elder Minin. They correctly decided that in addition to the will to defeat the Polish army, the militia needed material support.
The people were ordered to give up a third of their property under penalty of complete confiscation. Thus, the militias received good funding, and more and more volunteers joined their ranks. Soon the number of people's militia exceeded 10,000. They approached Moscow and began a siege of the Polish occupiers.
The Polish garrison was doomed, but was not going to surrender until the last. After several months of siege, the militia were able to win - Kitay-Gorod and the Kremlin were captured by storm, the Poles were captured and killed. Moscow was liberated. 1613, February 21 - the boyars elected a new ruler - Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov. This was the end of the period that went down in Russian history as the Seven Boyars. The years of the reign of the seven boyars are rightly considered one of the most difficult during the entire period of the Time of Troubles. Upon their completion, the country entered a new historical era.