Time of Troubles: The Causes of Disagreements in Russia

The history of Russia is full of events that significantly influenced the development of the country. Much for today's historians is still a mystery. For example, the so-called Troubled Time, the reasons for which were covered, above all, in the difficult economic situation of Russia after the Livonian War. It led to the fact that there were big obstacles to the process of centralization of the country. Long Troubles in Russia lasted 10 years. At the same time, the country practically did not have the opportunity to develop.

According to VI Kluchevsky, Troubled time is an indicator that our country did not have the features of a genuine state. The historian believes that the power itself represented two beginnings: the tsar and the patrimony, which Russia positioned not as a single state, but as property, the inheritance of the sovereign. Thanks to the Time of Troubles, these vestiges were destroyed, and the country embarked on the path of genuine development.

The troubled time, the reasons of which were studied by historians, had quite profound consequences. After the death of Ivan the Terrible, his sons, Fyodor and young Dmitry, who died shortly on the throne, remained on the throne. Fedor could not hold the throne for a long time and died seven years later, which led to the end of the reign of the Rurik dynasty.

After this event, Boris Godunov came to power , whose rule was relatively short-lived and led to an even greater division of Moscow society into hostile communities. Godunov himself had special views on the government of the country: he believed that the problems were mainly connected with enslaving the peasants and planned to abolish serfdom, which strongly set up against him the bulk of the boyars.

But to take any measures the new ruler prevented the economic crisis that arose because of a crop failure and, as a consequence, famine in Russia in the 90s of the 16th century. The solution to this problem could be found by depriving the nobility of a number of rights, which was absolutely impossible at that time. The famine provoked a number of uprisings, the largest of which occurred in 1603 on the outskirts of the country among free Cossacks.

In 1605, Tsar Boris Godunov died. At this time on the territory of the country, False Dmitry begins to emerge, each of which speaks of itself as the surviving Tsarevich Dmitri. Historians believe that these were attempts by the Poles to seize Rus. After all, the Time of Troubles, the causes of which lie in the discord of state power, was an extremely successful period for intervention.

The attempt of foreigners to capture Moscow was crowned with success. Under cover of the agreement with the government of Basil Shuisky, Sweden also begins military operations against Russia, and Polish troops enter Moscow, left in a panic by boyars. And only thanks to the rebellion of Minin and Pozharsky the country was able to liberate its territories from the interventionists. The troubled time in Russia led to great losses.

Most likely, it served as a sign for the nobility, and as a result of the decision of the Zemsky Sobor in 1613, the sixteen-year-old Mikhail Romanov ascended the throne , who founded the Romanov dynasty that ruled Russia for more than three hundred years.

History is a lantern that shines from the past into the future. The troubled time, the causes of which historians are studying to the present, is a bitter example of what the state's disparity leads to.