Казаки и иноземные солдаты под знаменами самозванцев в смутное время начала XVII столетия = The Cossacks and Foreign Soldiers under the Banners of Impostors in the Time of Troubles of the Early 17th Century

Tyumentsev, Igor (2024) Казаки и иноземные солдаты под знаменами самозванцев в смутное время начала XVII столетия = The Cossacks and Foreign Soldiers under the Banners of Impostors in the Time of Troubles of the Early 17th Century. RUSSIANSTUDIES.HU, 6 (1). pp. 69-80. ISSN 26770660

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Abstract

The article is devoted to clarifying the relationship between the Cossacks and foreign soldiers in the military campaigns of False Dmitry I and False Dmitry II during the Time of Troubles in Russia in the early 17th century. Foreign mercenaries made up the bulk of False Dmitry I`s army at the beginning of the invasion of Russia. The Ukrainian Cossacks were hired by Jerzy Mniszech; they supposedly played a supporting role. Jerzy Mniszech and the impostor’s mercenaries departed from Russia after an unsuccessful siege of Novgorod-Seversky fortress; later their army was reinforced by twelve thousand military personnel mainly consisting of the Zaporozhian and other rebellious serving Cossacks. The Don army swore allegiance to the impostor after the mutiny near Kromy during the triumphal march on Moscow. At that time, foreign soldiers acted as the impostor's guard; however, they did not play a major role in the Uprising of Bolotnikov. The main driving force was the part of the service class that showed up. Free Cossack troops – the Don, Zaporozhye, Yaitsky and most of the Tersk – did not take part in the Uprising of Bolotnikov. The foreign army appeared under the banners of the “miraculously saved Tsar Dmitry” immediately after False Dimitri II was proclaimed Tsar. In the spring of 1608, Prince Roman Rozhinsky`s foreign soldiers seized the leadership of the rebel movement and used the Bolotnikov Cossacks to suppress popular uprisings in the Zamoskovye and Pomeranian cities. After the invasion of King Sigismund III Vasa`s troops and the subsequent collapse of the Tushino camp, tensions between the mercenaries and the Cossacks escalated into open clashes. The small foreign army formed in the imposter’s Kaluga camp clearly played a subordinate role, and after the death of False Dmitry II they finally left the scene. By the summer of 1611, the foreign soldiers who had returned to the service of the king and the Russian Cossacks who had been actively involved in the Zemstvo militia had finally become irreconcilable enemies

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