The Presidential Library hosted a video lecture entitled "Two leaders of the Time of Troubles: False Dmitry I and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky"

April 11, 2018 the Presidential Library in the framework of the cycle "Video lecture – to school" hosted a lecture of the head of the department of ancient Russian history of the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences Pavel Sedov on "Two leaders of the Time Troubles: False Dmitry I and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky". The listeners were pupils of the Russian Gymnasium at the State Russian Museum, the 54th School of the Krasnoselsky District of St. Petersburg, as well as their peers from the International Children's Center "Artek" (Yalta, Republic of Crimea) - they joined the event through the video conferencing mode. After the technical processing, the video lecture recording will be posted on the portal of the Presidential Library.

The Time of Troubles, according to the lecturer, is first of all, "stateless" time, a period when the country was left without a tsar. On an empty throne quickly found bidder: False Dmitry I (Gregory Otrepyev), next False Dmitry... Modern science assesses the Time of Troubles in the light of the participation in the destructive processes of service people - boyars, guardsmen and Cossacks. Their indignation spoke above all about the economic state of the state: there was a palpable lack of money for the army and other important expenditure items.

The schoolchildren were told that materials from the collection of the Presidential Library "Overcoming the Troubles in Russia" foster to sort out the intricacies of the Time of Troubles.

At the turn of the XVI-XVII centuries, Russia had a complicated internal and external political situation. The dynastic crisis caused by the death of the last representative of the Rurikovich family, the famine resulting from a series of lean years, peasant uprisings, Polish-Swedish intervention - all this led to a civil war that called into question the very existence of the Russian state. "Smoot completely ravaged the country, knocked out of the rut of all, stop all business", - describes these difficult times E. Volkova in the historical essay "Kozma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky: a historical sketch of the times hard times 1611-1613" (1913).  

The collection is opened with the sources on the history of the Time of Troubles, including "The acts of the reign of Tsar Vasily Shumsky", "Time interregnum Acts", "Acts of suburban militias and the Zemsky Sobor", and others. It also includes a variety of documents and materials, reflecting the state of Muscovy before and during the Time of Troubles, the struggle of various political forces for the Moscow throne and the popular movement against the conquerors. Particular attention is paid to political, social and church figures of the Time of Troubles, including such odious characters as Grishka Otrepiev (you can read about it in the book "False Dmitry" by P. Bunin). There is also a research paper "On the historical significance of the reign of Boris Godunov" by P. Pavlov (1863), other works.

After the interventionists seized a large part of the country and the First Militia disintegrated, the center of patriotic forces moved to Nizhny Novgorod. It was here in September 1611 that zemstvo elder Kozma Minin turned to the people of Posad, urging them to raise funds and create a new militia for the liberation of the Motherland. "From the voluntary donations to military people, the Nizhny Novgorod people went on to establish special taxes on military needs. The taxes were very large, but the valiant Nizhny Novgorod citizens did not stop before that", - says Zhukovich's book “The Time of Troubles and the Accession of the Romanovs” (1913).

The election of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, the founder of a new dynasty, which ruled Russia for over 300 years, is depicted in a whole section, where you can get familiar with a number of unique books: "The reign of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich and look at interregnum" W. Berchem in two parts (1832) "Boyars Romanovs and the accession of Mikhail Feodorovich" P. Vasenko (1913), "The Accession of the House of the Romanovs. Election to the reign of Mikhail Romanovich Romanov in 1613”. A. Hartwig (1913).

Huge significance in the period of overcoming the Time of Troubles had the firmness of the Orthodox Church, its saints. The feat of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’ Hermogenes, who became a prisoner of the Poles, was tortured by hunger in prison in 1612, as described in E. Volkova's book “Patriarch Hermogenes” (1913). The feat of a simple peasant Ivan Susanin, who consciously went to death, is also widely known, saving the life of the newly elected Tsar Mikhail Romanov. He led the Poles deep into the impenetrable forest, where he subsequently suffered severe torture and was killed.

Only the unification of the broad people's forces-the urban population, servicemen, free peasants, led by strong leaders, helped to preserve the country's independence, restore the administrative and military systems and overcome the Time of Troubles.