"The Time of Troubles in Russian Culture" has been considered at the Presidential Library’s video lecture

The Presidential Library hosted a video lecture “Knowledge of Russia” regarding “The Time of the Time of Troubles in Russian Culture”. The event was timed to coincide with two events - the National Unity Day and the 200th anniversary of the construction of the famous monument to Minin and Pozharsky on Red Square in Moscow. 

The participants of the video lecture are well-known scientists, historians, philologists and writers - examined in detail and from different points the features of the Time of Troubles, the significance of this era for our country. The heroes of the discussion were real historical figures - impostors, Marina Mnishek, Minin and Pozharsky and many others.

The Presidential Library’s specialist Dmitry Kosenko presented two basic collections: “Overcoming the Troubles in Rus’” and “The Romanov Dynasty. Zemsky Sobor of 1613".

In the framework of the new electronic collection “K. Minin and D. Pozharsky” Presidential Library’s portal provides access to such books as “Native of Nizhny Novgorod Kuzma Minin Sukhoruk and Natives of Nizhny Novgorod in 1611” of 1911 edition “Eulogy to Prince Pozharsky” in 1811. They contain biographical information about the origin of Minin and the genealogy of the princes Pozharsky. The publications Pozharsky and Minin,Saviors of the Fatherland (1810), the historical novel by S. Izvolsky, Citizen Minin and Prince Pozharsky, Liberators of Moscow and Fatherland in 1612 (1867), and other materials about the campaign of the Nizhny Novgorod militiamen to Moscow give an idea of ​​the great the wave of popular anger and the desire to unite the Russian people in the face of danger.

A separate collection is devoted to the memory of the savior of the Fatherland, which contains descriptions of monuments on Red Square in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod.

Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Russian History of the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia Natalia Eilbart, author of the book “The Family of Mnisheks: The Frustrated Rulers of Russia”, has shattered illusions of a number of stereotypes that have been occurred around the role of Maria Mniszech in forcing Distemper in the Russian state. For example, Marina Mniszech and False Dmitry I were considered ardent Catholics and consistent agents of the policy of the papal throne. But it was during the period of the struggle for the Russian throne and the short stay on it of an ambitious Polish woman that the process of preparing the Russian-Polish Union, the convergence of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches was launched. At this time, the Polish pamphletist put the question of citizens on the table, why it is worth “to sew a Polish sleeve to a Russian fur coat”. According to the lecturer, the unification of the two states under the scepter of the Russian monarch was a dream for many Russian and Polish aristocrats.

When the audience asked if there were examples of a similar appearance of impostors in world history, Natalia Vladimirovna replied that especially many impostors became apparent in Europe in the 16th century. They were, as a rule, lower-class adventurers, which gave rise to Henry VII, king of England and sovereign of Ireland, to exclaim in their hearts: “Oh, poor English people! Soon they will begin to crown the monkeys”.

Further, doctors of historical sciences from St. Petersburg State University and St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences Andrei Pavlov and Pavel Sedov joined the conversation with the audience. The first spoke about a fairly tough confrontation between the two approaches to the Time of Troubles of historians Sergey Platonov and Nikolai Pokrovsky, the latter, applying Marxist ideology, considered the Time of Troubles exclusively from the angle of class contradictions that caused the de-Peasant war. In the national historiography Platonov’s point of view won, which introduces his dissertation research “Essays on the History of the Time of Troubles in the Moscow State of the 16th – 17th centuries” (1910), it is available on the Presidential Library’s portal and it gives a comprehensive view of the origin of this complex social phenomenon.

The heroes and antiheroes of the Time of Troubles, as they appear from the pages of the chronicles of the 20s of the XVII century “The new chronicler, composed in the reign of Mikhail Feodorovich” (the rarity is available in the electronic reading room of the Presidential Library), were described in her video lecture by Doctor of Historical Sciences, leading researcher at the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences Varvara Vovina. The main negative heroes of the Time of Troubles are, of course, impostors, the “absolute hero” - Dmitry Pozharsky, whose name is mentioned in several sources. “For the Old Russian bookishness”, - the invited guest told, - not only the process and the outcome of the battle, but the concept of “suffered” (innocently or for faith) was significant - it was equated with a feat”.  

Remotely, from the Russian House in Berlin, the prose writer, playwright, essayist, laureate of the Leo Tolstoy Award Valery Kuklin, author of the book "The Great Smoot" greeted the audience.

The video lecture was broadcasted live on the Presidential Library's portal in the “Live Broadcasts” section.