Minin and Pozharsky story for children. About everyone and everything
Minin (Sukhoruk) Kuzma Zakharovich (third quarter of the 16th century - 1616)
Pozharsky Dmitry Mikhailovich (1578-1642)
Russian public figures
Despite the fact that K. Minin and D. Pozharsky acted together for only a few years, their names are inseparably linked. They came to the historical forefront in one of the most tragic periods of Russian history, when enemy invasions, civil strife, epidemics, and crop failures devastated the Russian land and turned it into easy prey for enemies. For two years Moscow was occupied by foreign conquerors. In Western Europe it was believed that Russia would never regain its former power. However, a popular movement that arose in the depths of the country saved Russian statehood. The “Time of Troubles” was overcome, and “Citizen Minin and Prince Pozharsky” raised the people to fight, as was written on the monument erected in their honor.
Neither Minin nor Pozharsky left behind any diaries or letters. Only their signatures on some documents are known. The first mention of Minin dates back only to the time when fundraising for the people's militia began. Nevertheless, historians have established that he came from an old trading family, whose representatives had long been engaged in salt making. They lived in Balakhna, a small town in the vicinity of Nizhny Novgorod. There, at a shallow depth underground, there were layers that contained a natural saline solution. It was raised through wells, evaporated, and the resulting salt was sold.
The trade turned out to be so profitable that Minin’s ancestor was able to buy himself a yard and a trading place in Nizhny Novgorod. Here he took up an equally profitable business - local trade.
It is curious that one of the salt wells was jointly owned by the ancestors of Minin and Pozharsky. This is how the two families became connected for several generations.
Kuzma Minin continued the work of his father. After dividing the property with his brothers, he opened a shop and started his own trade. Apparently, he was lucky, because within a few years he built himself a good house and planted an apple orchard around it. Soon after this, Minin married his neighbor's daughter, Tatyana Semenova. No one has been able to establish how many children they had. What is known for certain is that Minin’s heir was his eldest son, Nefed. Apparently, Minin enjoyed a reputation as a conscientious and decent person, since for many years he was the town mayor.
Dmitry Pozharsky was a scion of an ancient princely family. His ancestors were the owners of the Starodub appanage principality, whose lands were located on the Klyazma and Lukha rivers.
However, already at the beginning of the 16th century, the Pozharsky family gradually became poorer. Dmitry's grandfather Fyodor Ivanovich Nemoy served at the court of Ivan the Terrible, but during the oprichnina years he fell into disgrace and was exiled to the newly conquered Kazan region. All his lands were confiscated, and in order to feed his family, he received ownership of several peasant households in the Sviyazhskaya settlement. True, the disgrace was soon lifted, and he was returned to Moscow. But the confiscated lands were never returned.
Fyodor had to be content with the modest rank of noble head. To strengthen his shaky position, he resorted to a proven method: he married his eldest son profitably. Mikhail Pozharsky became the husband of the wealthy princess Maria Berseneva-Beklemisheva. They gave her a good dowry: vast lands and a large sum of money.
Immediately after the wedding, the young couple settled in the Pozharsky family village of Mugreevo. There, in November 1578, their first-born Dmitry was born. His maternal grandfather was a widely educated man. It is known that Ivan Bersenev was a close friend of the famous writer and humanist M. the Greek.
Dmitry's mother, Maria Pozharskaya, was not only literate, but also a fairly educated woman. Since her husband died when Dmitry was not yet nine children, she raised her son herself. Together with him, Maria went to Moscow and, after much hassle, ensured that the Local Order issued Dmitry a letter confirming his seniority in the clan. It gave the right to own vast ancestral lands. When Dmitry was fifteen years old, his mother married him to a twelve-year-old girl, Praskovya Varfolomeevna. Her last name is not reflected in the documents and remains unknown. It is known that Dmitry Pozharsky had several children.
In 1593 he entered the civil service. At first he performed the duties of a solicitor - one of those accompanying the king. Pozharsky “was in charge” - he had to serve or receive various items of the royal toilet, and at night - guard the royal bedroom.
The sons of noble boyars did not hold this rank for long. But Dmitry was unlucky. He was over twenty, and he was still a lawyer. Only after the coronation of Boris Godunov, Pozharsky’s position at court changed. He was appointed steward and thus fell into the circle of people who made up the top of the Moscow nobility.
Perhaps he owed his promotion to his mother, who for many years was the “mountain noblewoman,” that is, the teacher of the royal children. She supervised the education of Godunov's daughter Ksenia.
When Dmitry Pozharsky was awarded the rank of steward, the range of his responsibilities expanded. Stolnikov were appointed assistant governors, sent on diplomatic missions to different states, sent to regiments to present awards on behalf of the tsar or transmit the most important orders. They were also obliged to attend receptions of foreign ambassadors, where they held dishes of food in their hands and offered them to the most noble guests.
We do not know how Pozharsky served. What is known is that he apparently had certain military abilities. When the Pretender appeared in Lithuania, the prince received orders to go to the Lithuanian border.
Luck initially did not favor the Russian army. In the battles on the Lithuanian border and in subsequent battles, Pozharsky gradually became a seasoned warrior, but his military career was cut short because he was wounded and was forced to go to his Mugreevo estate for treatment.
While Pozharsky was recovering his strength, intervention troops entered Russian soil, defeated Russian troops and occupied Moscow. This was facilitated by the unexpected death of Boris Godunov, who was replaced by Tsar Vasily Shuisky, crowned by the boyars. But his crowning of the kingdom could not change anything. The Pretender's troops entered the Kremlin, and False Dmitry I ascended to the Russian throne.
Unlike the Moscow boyars, the Russian people stubbornly resisted the invaders. The resistance was also inspired by the church in the person of the elderly Patriarch Hermogenes. It was he who called the people to fight, and the first zemstvo militia was created. However, his attempts to liberate Moscow from the invaders were unsuccessful.
In the fall of 1611, the townsman from Nizhny Novgorod, Kuzma Minin, called for the convening of a new militia. Minin said that for several days Sergius of Radonezh appeared to him in a dream, urging him to make an appeal to his fellow citizens.
In September 1611, Minin was elected to the zemstvo eldership. Having gathered all the village elders in the zemstvo hut, he appealed to them to start collecting funds: a “fifth of money” - one fifth of the fortune - was collected from all the owners of the city.
Gradually, residents of the lands surrounding Nizhny Novgorod responded to Minin’s call. The military side of the movement began to be led by Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, who received the rank of governor. By the time the campaign began in February 1612, many Russian cities and lands had joined the militia: Arzamas, Vyazma, Dorogobuzh, Kazan, Kolomna. The militia included military men and convoys with weapons from many regions of the country.
In mid-February 1612, the militia headed to Yaroslavl. The governing bodies of the movement were formed there - the “Council of All the Earth” and temporary orders.
From Yaroslavl the zemstvo army moved to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, where the blessing of the patriarch was received, and then headed towards Moscow. At this time, Pozharsky learned that the Polish army of Hetman Khodkiewicz was moving towards the capital. Therefore, he called on the militia not to waste time and get to the capital as soon as possible.
They managed to get ahead of the Poles by only a few days. But this was enough to prevent them from connecting with the detachment entrenched in the Kremlin. After the battle near the Donskoy Monastery, Khodkevich decided that the forces of the militia were melting away, and rushed to pursue them. He did not suspect that he had fallen into a trap invented by Minin.
On the other side of the Moscow River, detachments of Don Cossacks, ready for battle, awaited the Poles. They immediately rushed into battle and overthrew the Poles' battle formations. During this time, Minin, together with the noble squad, crossed the river after the Poles and struck them in the rear. Panic began among the Poles. Khodkevich chose to abandon artillery, provisions, and convoys and began a hasty retreat from the Russian capital.
As soon as the Polish garrison sitting in the Kremlin learned about what had happened, it capitulated without entering the battle. The Russian army with unfurled banners marched along the Arbat and, surrounded by a crowd, entered Red Square. The troops entered the Kremlin through the Spassky Gate. Moscow and the entire Russian land celebrated the victory.
Almost immediately, the Zemsky Sobor began working in Moscow. At the beginning of 1613, at its meeting, the first representative of the new dynasty, Mikhail Romanov, was elected tsar. On the Cathedral Code, among many signatures, there is Pozharsky’s autograph. After the coronation, the Tsar granted him the rank of boyar, and Minin the rank of Duma nobleman.
But the war did not end there for Pozharsky. After a short respite, he was appointed commander of the Russian army that opposed the Polish hetman Lisovsky. Minin was appointed governor of Kazan. True, he did not serve long. In 1616, Minin died of an unknown illness.
Pozharsky continued to fight with the Poles, led the defense of Kaluga, then his squad made a campaign to Mozhaisk to rescue the Russian army besieged there. After the complete defeat of the Polish intervention, Pozharsky was present at the conclusion of the Deulin truce, and then was appointed governor of Nizhny Novgorod. There he served until the beginning of 1632, until the time when, together with the boyar M. Shein, he was sent to liberate Smolensk from the Poles.
Prince Dmitry could triumph: his services to the fatherland had finally received official recognition. But, as often happens, it happened too late. At the age of 53, Pozharsky was already a sick man, he was overcome by attacks of “black sickness.” Therefore, he rejected the Tsar’s offer to once again lead the Russian army. His successor was one of Pozharsky’s associates, the young governor Artemy Izmailov. And Pozharsky remained to serve in Moscow. The Tsar entrusted him first with the Yamskaya order, and then with the Robust Order. The prince's responsibility was to carry out trials and reprisals for the most serious crimes: murder, robbery, violence. Then Pozharsky became the head of the Moscow Court Order.
In Moscow he had a luxurious courtyard corresponding to his position. To leave a memory of himself, Pozharsky built several churches. Thus, in Kitai-Gorod, the Kazan Cathedral was built with his money.
At the age of 57, Pozharsky was widowed, and the patriarch himself performed the funeral service for the princess in the church on Lubyanka. At the end of the mourning, Dmitry married a second time to the boyar Feodora Andreevna Golitsyna, thus becoming related to one of the most noble Russian families. True, Pozharsky had no children in his second marriage. But from his first marriage there were three sons and two daughters left. It is known that the eldest daughter Ksenia, shortly before her father’s death, married Prince V. Kurakin, the ancestor of Peter’s associate.
Anticipating his death, according to custom, Pozharsky took monastic vows at the Spaso-Evfimyevsky Monastery, located in Suzdal. He was soon buried there.
But the memory of the feat of Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky remained in people’s hearts for a long time. At the beginning of the 19th century, a monument was erected to him on Red Square, created by the famous sculptor I. Martos using public donations.
ABOUT THE HEROES OF OLD TIMES. (DAY OF NATIONAL UNITY. POSTSCRIPT)Calendars indicate that November 4 - National Unity Day is a Russian national holiday celebrated since 2005. At the same time, for a long time, according to the Orthodox church calendar, the “Celebration of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God” is celebrated on this day (in memory of the deliverance of Moscow and Russia from the Poles in 1612).
Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin
On October 22 (November 1 according to the Gregorian calendar), 1612, militia fighters led by Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky took Kitay-gorod by storm, the garrison of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth retreated to the Kremlin. Prince Pozharsky entered China - the city with the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and vowed to build a temple in memory of this victory. On October 26 (November 5 according to the Gregorian calendar), the command of the interventionist garrison signed a capitulation, releasing the Moscow boyars and other nobles from the Kremlin at the same time. The next day (October 27) the garrison surrendered. At the end of February 1613, the Zemsky Sobor elected Mikhail Romanov, the first Russian Tsar from the Romanov dynasty, as the new Tsar. In 1649, by decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the day of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, October 22 (according to the Julian calendar), was declared a public holiday, which was celebrated for three centuries until 1917.
Ernst Lissner Expulsion of the Poles from the Kremlin.
According to scientists, due to the increase over the past centuries in the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars, this day has shifted to November 4. When deciding on the celebration, our politicians argued for a long time. On the one hand, the liberation of Moscow from Polish interventionists by the people's militia led by Minin and Pozharsky demonstrated the heroism and unity of the entire people, regardless of origin, religion and position in society. As one of the initiators of the introduction of the holiday, Patriarch Alexy, said, “this day reminds us how in 1612 Russians of different faiths and nationalities overcame division, overcame a formidable enemy and led the country to a stable civil peace.”
Mikhail Scotti Minin and Pozharsky. 1850
Yuri Pantyukhin For the Russian Land! Minin and Pozharsky (right side of the triptych).
Nella Genkina Minin and Pozharsky 2006
Lithograph by Datsiaro based on the original by F. Benoit Upper Trading Rows in the mid-1850s. 1850s..
By the way, not many people know that initially in 1818 the monument to Minin and Pozharsky, on the instructions of the sculptor Martos, was erected in the middle of Red Square, opposite the entrance to the Upper Trading Rows (now the GUM building), and only in 1931 the monument was considered an obstacle to demonstrations and parades military equipment and moved to St. Basil's Cathedral.
Ivan Martos Monument to Minin and Pozharsky 1818
Philip Moskvitin Citizen Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky. 1612. 2009
Rudolf Baranov Minin and Pozharsky 2007
On the other hand, it was pointed out that the holiday of November 4 has no historical connection with the events described above, that it is incorrect to date old holidays in the new style, and that it is even more incorrect to give the church holiday of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God state status. In addition, it was clear that the main goal of adopting a new holiday was the abolition of the Soviet holiday - the next anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution.
Mikhail Peskov Minin's appeal to the people of Nizhny Novgorod in 1611. 1861
Konstantin Makovsky Kozma Minin (sketch). Late 1850s
Ilya Repin Kuzma Minin (sketch). 1894
Nevertheless, the holiday was accepted and has been celebrated for six years now, but according to many political scientists, the new holiday has not taken root in Russia. Since 2005, the main forms of celebration have been (listed according to statistics): religious processions in different cities with the participation of heads of administrations, charity events, children's creativity festivals, rallies. In 2006, a grandiose show was planned in Nizhny Novgorod, in which more than 1,000 actors were supposed to take part, but it did not take place.
Konstantin Makovsky Appeal of Kuzma Minin to the people of Nizhny Novgorod in 1611.
Konstantin Makovsky Kozma Minin on the square of Nizhny Novgorod, calling on people for donations. 1890s
Boris Chorikov Minin's call to Pozharsky.
The “apotheosis” of the celebration was in 2007, when Vladimir Khotinenko shot the historical film “1612”, a demonstration battle of “militia” with “invaders” was staged in the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, and in St. Petersburg a thematic quest game “Minin and Pozharsky entered into a battle with enemy." But four years have passed since that moment, and the holiday has not been popularized.
Wilhelm Kotarbinsky Ill Prince Dmitry Pozharsky receives Moscow ambassadors. 1882
The history of the second militia during the Russian Troubles of the early 17th century seems to be a completely exceptional phenomenon in both Russian and world history. It is enough to remember the circumstances of his education to agree with this. The militia gathered in the eighth year of the Troubles in a country completely devastated and weakened by endless civil strife, at a time when it seemed impossible to find any unifying idea. And precisely when there is not a single authoritative person left among the national elite, when not only individuals, but entire layers of society have shown their inability to master the situation, a movement begins from below - cities and zemstvos are sent and negotiated among themselves; It is not boyars, nobles or Cossacks, but ordinary townspeople who take on the task of saving the Fatherland. "Black Bone", Nizhny Novgorod merchant Kuzma Minin suddenly finds himself in the center of events. It is he, following Patriarch Hermogenes, who expresses a simple and understandable idea for every Russian about the salvation of the faith and Orthodox shrines. And around this idea all patriotic forces begin to crystallize. In a devastated country, he finds money, weapons, provisions, and thus lays a solid economic foundation for the entire enterprise.
And when the militia is already formed and the need for a military leader arises, to whom do the zemstvo people turn their gaze? To Prince Pozharsky! - a representative of a seedy and poor family who never played a significant role in Russian history. Why this preference? Perhaps Pozharsky was noted for some personal merits? Yes, he was noted - however, only for one thing, but an important one - he was an honest servant, never betrayed his soul and was always faithful to duty. In all other respects, he is a completely ordinary person - not a tribune, does not shine with abilities, and even a rather mediocre commander. And yet, the zemstvo people were not mistaken in their choice - Pozharsky, like Minin, not disdaining everyday rough work, began to serve the zemstvo militia as faithfully and honestly as he had previously served Godunov, Dmitry or Shuisky. Despite the dictatorial power he received, there is no personal intrigue in his actions, no protrusion of his “I,” no desire to secure his exclusive position in one way or another. This modesty is perhaps the most striking feature in the leaders of the second militia. Minin and Pozharsky gathered military men, liberated the capital from the Poles, convened the Zemsky Sobor, which put an end to the Time of Troubles, allowed a new statehood to grow and, having done their job, stepped aside, giving power to others. Of course, they received awards, but not too big. They were given ranks and titles, but not very high ones. They modestly disappeared into the crowd of noble boyars and princes who appeared around the new king and surrounded him in a dense ring. (We note in parentheses that the class that nominated them behaved in exactly the same way - having played its role, it quietly left the stage). Contemporaries did not pay anything special to Minin and Pozharsky, and, probably, they could not pay. But even greater was their posthumous fame among subsequent generations, for whom their very names became a symbol of modest, discreet, selfless patriotism, the kind of patriotism that in Russia they have always been able to value and distinguish.
KUZMA MININ AND DMITRY POZHARSKY
Dmitry Pozharsky was born in November 1578 in the family of Prince Mikhail Fedorovich Pozharsky. The ancestors of the Pozharskys were the appanage princes of Starodub (the younger branch of the Vladimir-Suzdal princes), but they received little from their former greatness. Over time, the small Starodubskaya volost turned out to be divided into many small estates between numerous representatives of isolated and impoverished families, so that, despite their origins from Rurik and Yuri Dolgoruky, the Pozharskys were listed among the seedy families and were not even included in the Rank Books. Dmitry's father died when he was only nine years old. Mother - Maria Fedorovna, nee Berseneva-Beklemisheva - moved soon after this to Moscow, where the Pozharskys had their own house on Sretenka. In 1593, Prince Dmitry began serving at the sovereign court of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich. At first, he was a “clothes solicitor,” whose duties included, under the supervision of a bed attendant, serving toiletries when the king was dressing, or accepting clothes and other things when the king undressed. In those same years, while still very young, he got married. At the beginning of the reign of Boris Godunov, Prince Pozharsky was transferred to stolnik. He received an estate near Moscow and was then sent from the capital to the army on the Lithuanian border.
After the death of Godunov, Pozharsky swore allegiance to Tsarevich Dmitry. Throughout his short reign he remained in the shadows. Only under the next tsar, Vasily Shuisky, was Pozharsky appointed governor, and he received a cavalry detachment under command. His loyalty in battles with the Tushins was soon noticed. For his good service, the tsar granted him the village of Nizhny Landeh with twenty villages in the Suzdal district. The letter of grant stated, among other things: “Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich, being in Moscow under siege, stood strong and courageously against the enemies, and showed much service and valor to Tsar Vasily and the Moscow state; time, but he did not encroach on any kind of thieves’ charms and troubles, he stood in the firmness of his mind firmly and unshakably without any vacillation.” In 1610, the tsar appointed Pozharsky as governor of Zaraysk. Arriving at this fortress, he learned about the deposition of Shuisky by the conspirators led by Zakhary Lyapunov and involuntarily, together with the whole city, kissed the cross of the Polish prince Vladislav.
But soon a rumor spread that the Moscow boyars had completely surrendered to the Poles and were doing everything according to their orders, that King Sigismund was not sending his son to Russia, but wanted to reign over Russia himself, moved to the Russian borders with his army and besieged Smolensk. Then excitement and indignation began to rise throughout all Russian cities. Everywhere they said that it was time to stand up for the Fatherland and the Orthodox faith. The general sentiments were expressed by the Ryazan nobleman Prokopiy Lyapunov, who wrote in his proclamations: “Let us stand strong, accept the weapon of God and the shield of faith, let us move the whole earth to the reigning city of Moscow, and with all the Orthodox Christians of the Moscow state we will hold a council: who should be sovereign in the Moscow state. If if the king keeps his word and gives his son to the Moscow state, baptizing him according to Greek law, brings the Lithuanian people out of the land and retreats from Smolensk himself, then we kiss the cross to his sovereign, Vladislav Zhigimontovich, and we will be his slaves, and if he doesn’t want to, then we all "We stand and fight for the Orthodox faith and for all the countries of the Russian land. We have one thought: either purify our Orthodox faith or let every one of us die."
Soon a strong connection was established between Pozharsky and Prokopiy Lyapunov. In 1611, Pozharsky from Zaraysk even went to rescue Lyapunov, who was besieged in Pronsk by the Moscow army and Zaporozhye Cossacks. Then he repulsed the Moscow governor Sunbulov, who at night tried to capture Zaraisk and had already captured the settlements. After the victory, leaving the fortress to his assistants, Pozharsky secretly went to Moscow, captured by the Poles, where he began to prepare a popular uprising. It began spontaneously on March 19, 1611. Knowing that large forces headed to the capital, having heard about the advance of Lyapunov from Ryazan, Prince Vasily Mosalsky from Murom, Andrei Prosovetsky from Suzdal, Ivan Zarutsky and Dmitry Trubetskoy from Tula and Kaluga, militias from Galich, Yaroslavl and Nizhny Novgorod, Muscovites did not wait for the liberators, but took up the gun themselves. The fight broke out in the shopping arcades of Kitai-Gorod and quickly spread throughout Moscow. Rubble grew on the streets, bloody battles began to boil on Nikitinskaya Street, on Arbat and Kulishki, on Tverskaya, on Znamenka and in Chertolye. To stop the rebellion, the Poles were forced to set fire to several streets. Fanned by a strong wind, by evening the flames had already engulfed the entire city. In the Kremlin, where the Polish garrison had locked itself, it was as bright as day at night. In such conditions, amid fire and smoke, Pozharsky had to fight the Poles, having under his command only a handful of people loyal to him. Next to his house on Sretenka, in his own yard, he ordered the construction of an ostrogets, hoping to hold out in Moscow until Lyapunov arrived. On the first day of the uprising, uniting with gunners from the nearby Cannon Yard, Pozharsky, after a fierce battle, forced the Landsknecht mercenaries to retreat to Kitai-Gorod. On the second day, the Poles suppressed the uprising throughout the city. By noon, only Sretenka was holding out. Having failed to take Ostrozhets by storm, the Poles set fire to the surrounding houses. In the final battle that ensued, Pozharsky was seriously wounded in the head and leg and lost consciousness. He was taken out of Moscow and transported to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery for treatment.
During three days of fighting, most of Moscow burned down. Only the walls of the White City with towers, many smoke-blackened churches, stoves of destroyed houses and stone basements stuck out. The Poles fortified themselves in the Kremlin and Kitai-Gorod. After the suppression of the uprising, belated armies of the first militia began to approach Moscow. They besieged the Kremlin and Kitai-Gorod and began fierce battles with the Poles. But from the very first day, discord arose between the leaders of the militia. The Cossacks, dissatisfied with Lyapunov's strictness, killed him on July 25. After this, the leaders of the militia became Prince Dmitry Trubetskoy and the Cossack ataman Ivan Zarutsky, who proclaimed the heir to the throne of the “vorenko” - the son of Marina Mnishek and False Dmitry II.
Kuzma Minin was ten or fifteen years older than Prince Pozharsky. He spent his childhood twenty miles from Nizhny Novgorod, in the town of Balakhna on the Volga. Kuzma grew up in the large family of Balakhna salt miner Mina Ankudinov. His father was considered a wealthy man - he had three villages beyond the Volga with 14 acres of arable land and 7 acres of timber. In addition, salt mining gave him a good income. No reliable information about Minin’s childhood and youth has reached us. In his mature years, he owned a shop at the Nizhny Novgorod market, an “animal slaughterhouse” under the walls of the Kremlin, and was known as a rich and respected citizen. In 1611, at the height of the Time of Troubles, the residents of Nizhny Novgorod elected him zemstvo elder. It is reported that shortly before the elections, the wonderworker Sergius of Radonezh appeared in a dream to Minin and ordered him to collect treasury for the army to go to cleanse the Moscow state. Having become the headman, Minin immediately began to talk with the townspeople about the need to unite, accumulate funds and strength for the liberation of the Fatherland. By nature he had the gift of eloquence, and he found many supporters among his fellow citizens. Having gathered Nizhny Novgorod residents in the Transfiguration Cathedral, Minin passionately convinced them not to remain aloof from the hardships of Russia. “If we want to help the Moscow state,” he said, “otherwise we will not spare our bellies; and not just our bellies, otherwise we will not regret selling our yards, and mortgaging our wives and children; and beat with our foreheads who would stand up for the true Orthodox faith and would be our boss." The residents of Nizhny Novgorod, touched by his words, immediately publicly decided to start collecting funds for the militia. Minin was the first to contribute his share, according to the chronicler, “leaving little for himself in his house.” Others followed his example. Minin was assigned to be in charge of collecting voluntary donations - not only from the townspeople, but also from the entire district, from monasteries and monastic estates. When it turned out that many were in no hurry to part with their property, the residents of Nizhny Novgorod gave their headman the authority to impose any taxes on residents, up to and including confiscation of property. Minin ordered to take a fifth of all property. Rich merchants and entrepreneurs provided him with great help. The Stroganovs alone sent about 5,000 rubles for the needs of the militia - a huge amount for those times. With the collected money, Nizhny Novgorod residents began to hire willing service people, promising them “food and treasury to help them.” They also thought about the governor. After going through many names, the townspeople chose the hero of the Moscow uprising, Prince Pozharsky.
At first the prince refused. However, the people of Nizhny Novgorod did not want to retreat and sent Archimandrite Theodosius of the Pechersk Monastery to Pozharsky. Pozharsky, whom, in his words, “the whole earth was greatly oppressed,” had to give consent. Since then, the militia has had two leaders, and in the popular perception the names of Minin and Pozharsky have merged into one indissoluble whole. Thanks to their decisive actions and complete agreement among themselves, Nizhny soon became the center of patriotic forces throughout Russia. Not only the Volga region and the old cities of Muscovite Rus', but also the Urals, Siberia and remote Ukrainian lands responded to his calls. The city turned into a military camp. Serving nobles flocked here from all sides. The first to arrive were the Smolensk residents, then the Kolomna and Ryazan residents arrived, and the Cossacks and Streltsy, who had previously defended Moscow from the Tushinsky thief, hurried from the outlying cities. After examination, all of them were given a salary. Pozharsky and Minin sought to turn the militia into a well-armed and strong army. Particular attention was paid to cavalry. However, they did not forget about the infantry: the new arrivals were provided with arquebuses and trained in coordinated aimed shooting. In the forges, fire burned in the forges day and night - armor workers forged damask steel, chain mail rings, armor plates, mirrors, spearheads and spearheads, and guns were cast in pits. Kuzma Minin spent a lot of time purchasing charcoal, iron, copper and tin for the forges. Blacksmiths from Yaroslavl, Kostroma and Kazan came to help the Nizhny Novgorod blacksmiths. A lively correspondence began between Nizhny and other Russian cities that did not recognize the Polish prince. The residents of Nizhny Novgorod called on everyone to “be in the same council with them” in order to get rid of the previous “internecine discord”, cleanse the state of conquerors, put an end to robberies and devastation in their native land, elect a king only with universal consent and, while maintaining internal peace, ensure order. In February 1612, the “Council of All the Earth” was formed.
At the end of winter, the militia moved from Nizhny to Yaroslavl. Defenders of the Fatherland rushed here from all over the state. Even many Cossacks who were in Zarutsky and Trubetskoy’s camp near Moscow left their camps and went to Yaroslavl. The camp near Moscow was weakening, and Pozharsky’s army was strengthening. Serving nobles, clerks, deputations from cities, messengers from marching governors constantly flocked to him, and volost elders, kissers, treasurers, staff and craftsmen came to Minin. His position was very difficult. To win, it was necessary to raise funds to continue the war. This task turned out to be difficult and thankless. The army needed a lot: weapons and ammunition, horses and food - this had to be supplied continuously and in ever-increasing quantities. Only a very enterprising, efficient and strong-willed person with organizational talent and eloquence could establish such a supply. However, where exhortations did not help, Minin did not stop at tough measures. So, for example, when the rich Yaroslavl merchants Nikitnikov, Lytkin and Sveteshnikov refused to contribute the amount of money set for them, Minin ordered them to be taken into custody and all their property to be confiscated in favor of the militia. Seeing such severity and fearing even worse, the merchants hastened to deposit the prescribed money. Thanks to Minin’s efforts, service people in the people’s militia not only did not lack anything, but also received a high salary for those times - on average about 25 rubles per person. To resolve the current affairs of the militia, Rank, Local, Monastic and other orders arose one after another. Minin even managed to organize the work of the Money Yard, where coins were minted from silver and used to pay military men.
In the summer of 1612, the time came for decisive action. The Polish garrison settled in the Kremlin was in dire need of food supplies. A large convoy and reinforcements came from Poland to help him under the command of Hetman Khodkiewicz. There were twelve thousand people in the hetman's army, and these were selected soldiers - first-class mercenaries and the flower of the Polish gentry. If they managed to connect with the besieged, it would be very difficult to defeat the Poles. Pozharsky decided to meet Khodkevich and give him battle on the Moscow streets. The advanced detachments of the second militia began to approach Moscow at the end of July. The first to arrive were four hundred horsemen under the command of Dmitriev and Levashov. Then a large detachment of Prince Lopata-Pozharsky appeared and immediately began to build forts at the Tverskaya Gate. Zarutsky's Cossacks tried to stop him, but were defeated and fled. Without waiting for the main forces to arrive, Zarutsky with two thousand Cossacks left the camp near Moscow and retreated to Kolomna. From the first militia, only two thousand Cossacks remained under the walls of the capital under the command of Prince Trubetskoy. Pozharsky had about ten thousand military men under his command. Therefore, his success largely depended on interaction with Trubetskoy’s Cossacks. However, there was no agreement between the two leaders - neither of them wanted to obey the other, and at a personal meeting it was decided not to mix the Yaroslavl army with the Moscow region, to keep separate camps, but to fight together by agreement.
Pozharsky himself settled down at the Arbat Gate. He ordered the urgent construction of fortifications here and the digging of a ditch. The front line of the militia stretched along the White City from the northern Petrovsky Gate to the Nikitsky Gate, where the vanguard detachments of Dmitriev and Lopata-Pozharsky were stationed. From the Nikitsky Gate through the Arbatsky Gate to the Chertolsky Gate, from where a frontal attack by the hetman’s army was expected, the main forces of the zemstvo army were concentrated. The dangerous location, as if between two fires, could have cost Pozharsky dearly. Ahead of him was the hetman approaching Poklonnaya Hill, and behind him, from the Kremlin walls, the guns of the besieged enemy garrison were aimed at the backs of the militia. If the militia had not withstood Khodkevich’s blow, it would have been pushed back under the guns of Kitai-Gorod and destroyed. All that remained was to win or die.
At dawn on August 22, the Poles began to cross the Moscow River to the Novodevichy Convent and gather near it. As soon as the hetman’s army moved towards the militia, cannons fired from the Kremlin walls, signaling to Khodkevich that the garrison was ready for a sortie. The battle began with the Russian noble cavalry, supported by the Cossacks, rushing towards the enemy. Polish horsemen at that time had the reputation of the best cavalrymen in Europe. More than once in previous battles, their bold, coordinated attack brought victory. But now the Russian warriors held out with unprecedented tenacity. To achieve an advantage, Khodkiewicz had to throw infantry into battle. The Russian cavalry retreated to their fortifications, from where the archers fired at the advancing enemy.
At this time, the Polish garrison launched a sortie from the Kremlin and attacked from the rear the archers, who were covering the militia at the Alekseevskaya Tower and the Chertolsky Gate. However, the archers did not flinch. Here, too, a fierce battle ensued. Having lost many of their own, the besieged were forced to return to the protection of the fortifications. Khodkiewicz was also unsuccessful. All his attacks on Russian regiments were repulsed. Dejected by the failure, he retreated to Poklonnaya Hill in the evening. The next day, August 23, there was no battle. The militia buried the dead, and the Poles regrouped their forces. On August 24, Khodkevich decided to make his way to the Kremlin through Zamoskvorechye and moved his regiments to the Donskoy Monastery. This time the attack of the Poles was so powerful that the Russian warriors wavered. Around noon they were pushed back to the Crimean Ford and crossed in disarray to the other side. The Poles could easily make their way to the Kremlin, and Khodkevich ordered four hundred heavily loaded carts to be moved to Bolshaya Ordynka.
The situation became critical. Lacking his own forces to stop the advance of the enemy, Pozharsky sent Troitsk cellarer Avraamy Palitsyn to Trubetskoy’s Cossacks in order to urge them to joint action. The embassy was a success. With a hot speech, Palitsyn aroused patriotic feelings among the Cossacks. They hastened to Ordynka and, together with Pozharsky’s warriors, attacked the convoy. The Poles fought him off with difficulty and retreated. This battle completely deprived both armies of their strength. The fighting began to subside. Evening was approaching. It seemed that hostilities were over for that day. However, just at this moment, Minin with a small detachment, which barely numbered four hundred people, secretly crossed the Moscow River opposite the Crimean Court and struck the Poles in the flank. This attack was completely unexpected for them. The Hetman's companies stationed here did not have time to prepare to fight back. The sudden appearance of the Russians filled them with fear. The panic began. Meanwhile, having seen the success of the brave men, other regiments began to hastily cross over to help Minin. The Russian onslaught increased every minute. The Poles retreated in disorder behind the Serpukhov Gate. The entire supply train ended up in the hands of the Cossacks. Khodkiewicz's failure was complete. Having gathered his army at the Donskoy Monastery, the next day, August 25, he retreated from Moscow. For the Polish garrison locked in the Kremlin, this was a real disaster.
After the victory, the forces of the two militias united. From now on, all letters were written on behalf of three leaders: Prince Trubetskoy, Prince Pozharsky and the “elected Man” Kuzma Minin. On October 22, the besiegers captured Kitai-Gorod, and three days later, the Kremlin garrison, exhausted by hunger, surrendered.
The next important thing was the organization of the central government. In the very first days after the cleansing of Moscow, the Zemsky Council, which united participants of the First and Second Militia, began talking about convening a Zemsky Sobor and electing a tsar at it. It was decided “for an agreement on God’s and the great zemstvo business” to convene elected officials from all over Russia and “from all ranks of people,” ten people from each city, to Moscow. Representatives of the white and black clergy, nobles and boyar children, service people - gunners, archers, Cossacks, townspeople and district residents, peasants were invited to the Council. This historical council met at the beginning of 1613 and, after long discussions, on February 21, 1613, elected sixteen-year-old Mikhail Romanov to the throne. With his arrival in Moscow, the history of the Zemsky militia ended. The actions of Minin and Pozharsky were not forgotten by the tsar. Pozharsky received the rank of boyar, and Minin became a Duma nobleman; the sovereign granted him possession of a large estate - the village of Bogorodskoye in Nizhny Novgorod district with surrounding villages. Until his death, Minin enjoyed great confidence from Mikhail. In 1615, leaving for a pilgrimage, the tsar left five governors for himself in Moscow, including Minin. In 1615, on behalf of Mikhail, Minin went to Kazan for investigation. Returning back in 1616, he unexpectedly fell ill and died on the way. His body was buried in his native Nizhny Novgorod; Prince Pozharsky far outlived his comrade-in-arms, being in service almost until the very end of Mikhailov’s reign. He participated in many more battles, but never had the same importance as in the days of the Second Militia. In 1615, Pozharsky defeated the famous Polish adventurer Lisovsky near Orel, in 1616 he was in charge of “government money” in Moscow, in 1617 he defended Kaluga from Lithuanian raiders, in 1618 he went to Mozhaisk to the rescue of the Russian army besieged by the prince Vladislav and then was among the governors who defended Moscow from the army of Hetman Khodkevich, who tried to take possession of the Russian capital for the second time. As before, he “fought in battles and attacks, not sparing his head.” At the end of the Time of Troubles, Pozharsky was in charge of the Yamsky Prikaz for some time, sat in Razboinoye, was a governor in Novgorod, then was again transferred to Moscow to the Local Prikaz. Already in his declining years, he supervised the construction of new fortifications around Moscow, and then headed the Judgment Order. In 1636, after the death of his first wife, he married for the second time the nee Princess Golitsyna. Pozharsky died in April 1642.
In the spring of 1695, Peter I arrived in the Volga city of Nizhny Novgorod to build a fleet. The 20-year-old Tsar asked where Kuzma Minin was buried. When the grave of the national hero was hardly discovered, Peter ordered to transfer Minin’s ashes to the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin and bury him in the tomb of the Transfiguration Cathedral. When this was done, he knelt down in front of the tomb, saying: “Here lies the savior of Russia...”
Sovereign Pyotr Alekseevich did not waste words and knew well what he was saying. There were three moments in the history of Russia when the fate of the state hung in the balance: in 1812, during the Napoleonic invasion, in 1941, when a fascist stood at the walls of the mother-throne of the Russian capital, and in 1612, during the time of unrest, when Rus' was subjected to Polish Swedish invasion.
Troubled times in Russia. They began with the death in 1584 of Tsar Ivan IV, nicknamed the Terrible for his tough temper. The name of this tsar is associated with the strengthening of autocratic power in the Russian state, accompanied by a decisive struggle against the boyars. There is no need to whitewash the image of a tsar who killed his own son and created his own personal guard to fight the boyars - detachments of guardsmen (which some today call the ancestors of the Soviet Cheka). But Ivan IV understood well that only a united country could count on asserting its independence, economic and cultural growth, and he steadily followed his chosen course. It is clear that such a policy provoked fierce resistance from the Crimean khans, supported by the Turkish Sultan, Swedish feudal lords, magnates of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (the united Polish-Lithuanian state), and German knights.
After the death of Ivan the Terrible, turmoil began, which historically spanned almost three decades - until 1613, when Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov reigned on the Russian throne. These were difficult, dramatic years in the history of Rus'. It is no coincidence that the genius of Russian poetry, Alexander Pushkin, turned to precisely this period of time, embodying the complex, contradictory image of Tsar Boris Godunov in a poetic work. Consider the tragedy of the death of the last son of the Terrible, Tsarevich Dmitry, who was found with a knife in his throat on May 15, 1591 in the city of Uglich. Rumors spread that the heir to the throne died at the hands of assassins sent by Godunov.
One way or another, the death of the nine-year-old heir resonated later and became the forerunner of the appearance in Rus' of two impostors of the False Dmitrievs, very odious figures in Russian history. It was precisely through their hands, but also with the active help of the traitor boyars, that the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth sought to assert its power over Moscow and succeeded in this. Suffice it to recall the “royal train” of the fugitive monk Grigory Otrepyev to Moscow, the appearance in the summer of 1607 of the second False Dmitry, who went down in history under the nickname “Tushino thief”...
Tsar Vasily Shuisky, who took the Moscow throne after the death of False Dmitry I, was overthrown by the boyars and tonsured a monk. Power in Moscow passed into the hands of the Boyar Duma, which committed a national betrayal unprecedented in the history of Rus' - on the night of November 21, 1610, the boyars allowed the 8,000-strong Polish army of Hetman Stanislav Zholkiewski into Moscow. For the Russian state, one of the most difficult periods of its centuries-old history began, considering that in the north-west the Swedish invaders took advantage of the situation.
It seemed that Russia would not survive the “great ruin.” But mortal danger forced citizens to rise to defend the Fatherland. Overcoming the turmoil highlighted the best features of the Russian people - perseverance, courage, selfless devotion to their native land, readiness to sacrifice their lives for it.
A powerful patriotic wave, born in Nizhny Novgorod, put a simple citizen Kuzma Minin at the head of the popular movement, who proposed electing Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky as governor. Nizhny Novgorod residents and militias approved his candidacy immediately. A lot spoke in favor of the prince: he was not noble, far from the corrupt ruling elite, but he distinguished himself more than once on the battlefield, was faithful to the oath and did not bow to foreigners, the fame of the heroic deeds of the prince during the days of the Moscow uprising in the spring of 1611 reached Nizhny Novgorod .
By the way, the house of Prince Pozharsky was located in Moscow in the area of Bolshaya Lubyanka Street, and it was near his house, near the parish church that Prince Pozharsky fought with the invaders in 1611. In those days, Pozharsky received serious wounds and was taken by his comrades to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. It was then that the interventionists burned Moscow...
Prince Pozharsky returned to Moscow as a victor on August 20, 1612, together with Kuzma Minin at the head of the people's militia, but the fighting in the capital continued for a long time - until October 25, when Hetman Khodukevich with his noticeably thinned army fled through Vorobyovy Gory to Mozhaisk and further through Vyazma to borders of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. And on October 27, the surrender of the besieged garrison of Polish troops in the Kremlin began. Well, on November 1, 1612, on Red Square, near Lobnoye Mesto, the Muscovites celebrated the victory over the enemy, which surrounded the heroes of the Battle of Moscow with a halo of glory - Minin and Pozharsky, chosen by the whole land.
It is to them, the heroes of Russia, that a wonderful bronze monument by the sculptor Ivan Martos was erected on Moscow’s Red Square. This monument is the best creation of the sculptor, which took him 14 years to create! Despite the figurative generalization and idealization in the spirit of antiquity, the monument is permeated with truly folk pathos. And the point is not only and not so much in the correct depiction of the ancient Russian armor of the prince and the common people's attire of Minin. The defining quality is the simplicity and clarity of the artistic form, the openness and accessibility of the image, which carries within itself the active heroic principle characteristic of the Russian national character.
Everything is verified, everything is harmonious in this sculptural composition: the sword in Pozharsky’s hands, the proud carriage of his head, his courageous look, Minin’s broad and powerful gesture. And the inscription: “Grateful Russia.”
And the current generation of Russians remembers that feat. In honor of him, November 7 is celebrated as the day of military glory of Russia.
This was in 1611. The Russian land was going through difficult times at that time. Detachments of enemies scoured cities and villages in search of prey, robbed and killed. In Moscow, as at home, the invaders, the Polish lords, ruled. Many boyars were preparing to go over to the side of the Polish prince Vladislav. And the Swedes, who were called to help against the Poles by the boyar Tsar Vasily Shuisky, quietly captured a large piece of the country in the north. It seemed that Russia had already lost its freedom, and foreign oppression threatened the Russian people.
The boyars and nobles easily came to terms with this, but ordinary Russian people, honest patriots, could not come to terms with this. Partisan detachments constantly annoyed the invaders. But the enemies easily suppressed scattered actions. It was necessary to unite into one army everyone who hates the enemy and wants to fight him. And such organizers were found.
In the fall of 1611, in the large and rich city of Nizhny Novgorod (now the city of Gorky), the butcher Kuzma Minin, the head of the townspeople, spoke on the market square with an appeal not to spare anything to save the homeland. Minin's plan was simple: to create a people's militia, all Russian people to unite to drive the enemies out of Moscow. And in order to equip the army, buy weapons, armor, horses, and feed the warriors, everyone had to give a third of their property. Minin, a poor man, was the first to set an example. True, there were rich merchants who spared money for the people's cause. But such people were forcibly forced to untie their wallets.
Neither Minin himself nor the other townspeople (as the townspeople were called then) had combat experience. The skilled governor, Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky, was asked to lead the militia. When back in March 1611 Muscovites rose up in arms against the invaders, Pozharsky was one of the main leaders of the uprising. Wounded, he was taken from the battlefield, and then it took him a long time to gain strength. At Minin’s call, Pozharsky arrived in Nizhny, and the militia set out on a campaign. More and more warriors joined the ranks of the militia. In August 1612, a militia army approached Moscow. The siege of the Polish garrison began. The battle went on for three days. Its outcome was decided by Minin: with several hundred horsemen, he unexpectedly went to the rear of the arriving Poles’ reinforcements and defeated them. A simple butcher turned out to be a talented military leader. The Poles surrendered, the militia of Minin and Pozharsky entered the Kremlin. The fight against the invaders ended in victory.
If you happen to be on Red Square, where 350 years ago Minin and Pozharsky celebrated their victory, pay attention to the monument created by the sculptor I. Martos and erected here in 1818. On its pedestal there is an inscription: “To Citizen Minin and Prince Pozharsky, Grateful Russia.” .
