Time of Troubles in Russia in the 16th and 17th Century
by Russia had experienced only a relatively short period of effective and unified rule before the onset of the Time of Troubles, which would prove to be a period that witnessed foreign powers such as Poland-Lithuania and Sweden weaken the Russian state. Given the impact that a revitalised Russia had upon such countries it was certainly a sound strategy upon their part. Russia as will be examined emerged stronger than ever after the Time of Troubles came to an end during the course of the seventeenth century. Some have argued that it did not finally end until Peter the Great secured his highly autocratic grip upon power in the late 1690s.
The Swedish imposed tsar did not even last as long as his rival previously appointed by the Polish-Lithuanian armies. For in 1612 a national militia rid the city of Moscow of the rival Polish-Lithuanian and Swedish approved
candidates for the Russian crown. The following year in 1613 an urgently convened national assembly offered the throne to Prince Mikhail Romanov who deceptively brought a return to political and dynastic stability (Woodruff, 2005 p. 71). Mikhail Romanov provided a link to the previous royal dynasty as he was in fact the grand-nephew of Ivan IV. The Romanovs for a time stabilized the government of Russia
and fought off the Polish-Lithuanian and also the Swedish invaders. The Romanovs would remain the Russian royal dynasty until 1917 when the Russian Revolution brought about a republic.
Bibliography
Marsh & Carrick, (2007)
For instance, between the thirteenth and the fifteenth centuries, the Russians had fought long and eventually successfully against the Tatar invaders. For a time it had seemed that the Russians would not succeed in regaining their independence. The Mongol yoke was an unmitigated disaster: a calamity of such great proportions that Russians have never forgotten it (Woodruff, 2005 p. 69).
A separate sense of a Russian identity was maintained by passively accepting total control by the Tatar invaders of their country, whilst looking forward to regaining independence. Until the Attars were expelled from Russia it would not develop properly as a country (Roberts, 1995 p. 188).
Indeed such was the weakness of Russia that “only by submissively paying tribute and fighting for the Mongol Golden Horde were they tolerated” (Woodruff, 2005 p. 68). The emergence of Russia as a major power had to begin with removing the Tatars from its own territories (Roberts, 1995 p. 188). An impressive Russian victory over a Mongol army at Kulikovo on the Don during the year 1380 was highly significant, as it was the first time that the Russians had defeated the Tatars. It remains to the modern era a hallowed day in Russian history (Woodruff, 2005 p. 68).
The Russian victory at Kulikovo thus marked the eventual waning of Mongol power and the waxing of the emerging Russian state centered upon Moscow and its Duke (who eventually became the tsar). Ivan III, known to Russians as the Great (1462-1505) was responsible for Russia breaking the vice-like grip of Mongol rule at the end of the fifteenth century. By that time the Mongols had killed at least one-tenth of the Russian population, and had deported many thousands into slavery. Another enduring legacy of Mongol rule was that it was believed that Russia always has to be ruled by a strong and highly autocratic leader. Arguably that believe was strong before, during, and after the Time of Troubles. Indeed it was a period known as the Time of Troubles as Russia lacked a very strong autocratic leader that held undisputed and long-term power between the death of Ivan the Terrible and the emergence of Peter the Great. Brutality would also be a feature of native Russian regimes from the late fifteenth century through to the end of the Russian Empire itself in 1917. The Soviet Union and the Russian Federation in the present day also demonstrated a propensity towards autocracy (Woodruff, 2005 p. 68).
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