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Time of Troubles in Russia (1600s)

Type Event Region Europe Time 1601–1610

The 1600s were the core phase of Russia's Time of Troubles: after the Rurik dynasty died out in 1598, famine, succession disputes, and foreign interv…

Timeline

  1. 1601–1603Central Russia · RussiaThe severe famine of 1601–1603 caused massive loss of life, collapsed rural order, and spread vagrants and bandits; the people blamed the tsar's misrule for the disaster, creating the social psychology for the later appearance of the 'virtuous' False Dmitri.
  2. 1604–1606Moscow · MoscowFalse Dmitri I rose in revolt, was crowned, and was overthrown; Vasily IV ascended the throne — three tsars in three years, dealing a heavy blow to the sacred authority of the monarchy, as regional powers no longer recognized Moscow's absolute authority.
  3. 1606–1610All of Russia · RussiaLarge-scale peasant-Cossack movements such as the Bolotnikov rebellion swept the south; False Dmitri II rose again with Polish support; in 1609 Polish King Sigismund III formally invaded, as the Time of Troubles evolved from an internal crisis into a foreign invasion threatening national extinction.

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