Time of Troubles

1) The Time of Troubles was a period of Russian history comprising the years of interregnum between the death of the last of the Muscovy Tsar Feodor Ivanovich of the Rurik Dynasty in 1598 and the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty in 1613....... Feodor's death without issue, his brother-in-law and closest adviser, boyar Boris Godunov, was elected его приемником by a Great National Assembly (Zemsky Sobor).

2) Godunov's короткое правление (1598–1605) was not as successful as his administration under the weak Feodor. Extremely poor harvests were encountered in 1601-1603, with nighttime temperatures in all summer months often...... freezing, wrecking crops. Widespread hunger led to массовому голоду; the government distributed money and foodstuffs for poor people in Moscow, but that only lead to refugees flocking to the capital and increasing the economic disorganization. The oligarchic faction, headed by the Romanovs, considered it a disgrace подчиняться a mere boyar; conspiracies were frequent; the rural districts were desolated by голодом и чумой; great bands of armed brigands roamed the country committing all manner of atrocities; the Cossacks on the frontier were restless; and the government показало себя неспособным maintaining order.

3) Rumors were heard that the late tsar's younger brother Dmitri, supposed to be dead, was....... alive and in hiding. In 1603 a man calling himself Dmitri - first of the so-called False Dmitris - appeared in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was regarded as the законным наследником by a large section of the population and gathered support...... in Muscovy and....... its borders.

4) A few months...... he crossed the frontier with a small force of Poles, Lithuanians, Russian exiles, German mercenaries and Cossacks from the Dnieper and the Don....... the Commonwealth had not officially declared war on Muscovy, some powerful magnates decided to support False Dmitri with their own forces and money, expecting rich rewards afterwards. The reign of Dmitri was short....... a year had passed заговор was formed....... him by an ambitious Rurikid prince called Vasily Shuisky, and he was murdered together with many of his supporters who were жестоко расправились.

5) The chief conspirator, Shuisky, seized power and was elected tsar by an assembly composed of his faction, but....... the Muscovite boyars, nor the Commonwealth magnates, nor the pillaging Cossacks, nor the German mercenaries were satisfied with the change, and soon новый самозванец, likewise calling himself Dmitri, son and heir of Ivan the Terrible, came...... as the rightful heir. Like his предшественник, he enjoyed the protection and support of the Polish-Lithuanian magnates.

6) False Dmitrii II wasn't able to gain the throne, however,....... the Polish commander, hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski put forward a rival candidate in the person of Sigismund's son, Władysław. To this latter some people in Moscow swore allegiance

on condition of his maintaining Orthodoxy and granting certain privileges to them. The Polish king,......, opposed the compromise, deciding to take the throne for himself and обратить Russia to Roman Catholicism.

7) At the same time it was displeasing to the Swedes. Russia was now in a very critical condition. The throne was vacant; the great nobles (boyars) quarreled among themselves; Orthodox Patriarch Hermogenes was imprisoned; Catholic Poles occupied the Moscow Kremlin and Smolensk; the Protestant Swedes occupied Novgorod; and enormous bands of brigands swarmed everywhere.

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1) Who supported the first False-Dmitri?

2) Who murdered the first False-Dmitri?

3) What dynasties claimed for the Russian throne?

4) Who was the second False-Dmitri?

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