maureen perrie
forces besieging Moscow were very heterogeneous in their composition, and
were plagued by disputes and disagreements.Theycould not even agree on the
choice of a single leader, creating instead a triumvirate of Liapunov, Trubetskoi
and Zarutskii. On 30 June an agreement was signed by the triumvirs and by
representatives of the troops, which was designed to resolve conflicts over the
remuneration of servicemen and cossacks.
38
New disputes soon broke out,
however, over their preferred candidate for the throne. Liapunov favoured one
of the sons of Karl IX, in the hope that this would guarantee military assistance
from Sweden against the Poles. Zarutskii, by contrast, promoted the cause of
Marina Mniszech’s infant son, ‘Tsarevich’ Ivan Dmitrievich. The two leaders’
support for rival candidates for the throne contributed to a conflict which
resulted in Liapunov’s murder by the cossacks on 22 July 1611. After Liapunov’s
death, many of the noble servicemen deserted the besiegers’ camp. Zarutskii
and Trubetskoi continued to blockade the capital with their predominantly
cossack forces, but their attempts to capture the city in the autumn were
unsuccessful. By the end of the year many cossacks too had drifted away from
Moscow.
39
In the course of 1611 the foreign intervention forces made considerable
advances. Smolensk finally fell to King Sigismund on 3 June, but a subsequent
offensive by the Lithuanian hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz failed to dislodge
Zarutskii and Trubetskoi from their camp outside Moscow. In July 1611 the
SwedishcommanderdelaGardieoccupied Novgorod, butinsteadofcomingto
the assistance of the liberation forcesbesieging the capital, the Swedespursued
their own interests, and annexed many Russian towns in the Novgorod region.
A Third False Dmitrii was active in the north-west in 1611–12.Thereal
identity of this pretender is unknown: the official chronicler describes him
as Sidorka or Matiushka, a deacon from Moscow.
40
He first appeared in
Novgorod at the beginning of 1611, before moving to Ivangorod, where he
made an unsuccessful attempt to gain support from the Swedes. He was soon
recognised by the neighbouring towns of Iam, Kopor’e and Gdov. Pskov at
first resisted him, but after Novgorod had surrendered to de la Gardie the
Pskovans invited the new Tsar Dmitrii to their town, in the hope that he
would defend them against the Swedes. The pretender arrived in Pskov on
4 December 1611, and establishedhisheadquarters there. By this time, however,
the name of Tsar Dmitrii had lost its broad social appeal, and only a handful
of towns recognised his new incarnation. The cossacks remained susceptible
38 Stanislavskii, Grazhdanskaia voina,pp.36–9; Dunning, Russia’s First Civil War,pp.425–6.
39 Stanislavskii, Grazhdanskaia voina,pp.40–2; Dunning, Russia’s First Civil War,pp.429–30.
40 PSRL, vol. xiv,p.115,para.279.
426
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