Kuzma Minin: biography, historical events, militia. Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky

In the center of the capital, on the main square of our country, is a well-known monument to everyone, created in 1818 by sculptor IP Martos. It depicts the most worthy sons of Russia - Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, in the hour hard for the Motherland who managed to organize and lead the thousands of people's militia to fight the invaders. The events of those old years have become one of the glorious pages of our history.

Young and enterprising Nizhny Novgorod

When Kuzma Minin was born, it is not exactly known. It is commonly believed that this happened around 1570 in the Privolzhsky town of Balakhna. The history and names of his parents - Michael and Domniki - have preserved. It is also known that they were wealthy people, and when the son turned eleven years old, moved to Nizhny Novgorod - one of the largest Volga cities. In those days it was accepted that the sons from early age, as far as possible, helped their fathers to get bread. So Kuzma became a habit of labor in his youth.

When he grew up, he opened his own business. Not far from the walls of the Kremlin appeared Minin's massacre for cattle and a shop with meat products. Things went perfectly, which allowed us to build our own house in the village of Blagoveshchenskaya Sloboda, where people of prosperity settled at that time. Soon there was a good bride - Tatyana Semyonovna, who, having become a wife, gave birth to him two sons - Nefed and Leonti.

Summon Zemsky elders

Among other people of the town, Kuzma stood out with his mind, energy and the obvious inclinations of the leader. Thanks to these qualities, the residents of the settlement, from whom he enjoyed authority, elected Kuzma his elder. But the truly inherent abilities were revealed in 1611, when the Patriarch of Moscow sent him to Nizhny Novgorod, calling on all the classes of the Russian people to rise up against the Polish invaders.

For discussion of this message on the same day the city council consisting of representatives of city tops and clergy has gathered. Kuzma Minin also attended it. Immediately after the reading was read to the inhabitants of Nizhny Novgorod, he addressed them with a fiery speech, urging them to stand up for the faith and Fatherland, and for this sacred cause, not to regret life or property.

Rigid demands of war

Residents of the city readily responded to his appeal, but for such a large-scale business, an energetic and business executive was needed, who could provide the army with material resources, and an experienced commander capable of taking command. They were Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, who more than once proved himself to be an excellent voivode. Now on all issues related to human resources and the necessary cash, they addressed directly to Minin.

Using the powers given to him and relying on the support of Pozharsky's troops, he decided that every resident of the city is obliged to contribute to the general fund an amount equal to one-third of all his property. In exceptional cases, this amount was reduced to a fifth of the total valuation of the city dweller. Unwilling to contribute, they were deprived of all civil rights and passed into the category of serfs, and all their goods were completely subject to confiscation in favor of the militia. Such are the harsh laws of wartime, and Kuzma Minin did not have the right to show weakness.

Formation of the militia and the outbreak of hostilities

Certificates like those received in Nizhny Novgorod were sent to many other cities of Russia. Very soon, numerous detachments from other regions joined the citizens of Nizhny Novgorod, where the residents responded with the same enthusiasm to the call of the Patriarch. As a result, at the end of March, 1612, a thousand-strong militia was assembled on the Volga, led by Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky.

The base for the final formation of the troops was a populous trading city of Yaroslavl. Hence, in July 1612, the militia, in the number of more than thirty thousand people, took the interception of the forces of Hetman Ian Hodkiewicz, who hastened to the aid of the Polish garrison blocked in Moscow. The decisive battle followed on August 24 under the walls of the capital. The numerical superiority was on the side of the interventionists, but the morale of the militia deprived them of this advantage. Prince Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin directed the course of the battle and instilled courage into their fighters by their personal examples.

Siege of the Kremlin

The victory was complete. Enemies fled, leaving rich trophies in their hands: tents, banners, timpani and four hundred wagons with food. In addition, many prisoners were captured. The hetman was thrown back from Moscow, but behind the Kremlin walls were detachments of Polish colonels Struce and Budila, who were yet to be knocked out. In addition, a certain force was represented by their accomplices - the boyars, who had fled to the side of the invaders. Each of them had their own squads, with whom they also had to fight.

The besieged Poles in the Kremlin had long been out of food, and they were suffering a terrible famine. Knowing this, Kuzma Minin and Pozharsky, in order to avoid unnecessary sacrifices, offered them to surrender, guaranteeing life, but were refused. On October 22 (November 1) militiamen went on an attack and seized the city of China, but the resistance of the besieged continued. From cannibalism, cannibalism began in their ranks.

The surrender of Poles and the entry of militias into the Kremlin

Prince Pozharsky softened the demands and invited the invaders to leave the Kremlin with weapons and banners, leaving only the stolen valuables, but the Poles disagreed. Only traitors left - the boyars with their families, whom Kuzma Minin, standing on the stone bridge at the gate, had to protect from the Cossacks, who were grieving with the desire to immediately deal with the traitors.

Realizing their doom, October 26 (November 5), the besieged surrendered and withdrew from the Kremlin. Their future fate has developed in different ways. The regiment commanded by Budil was lucky: he was in the position of Pozharsky's militia, and he, having kept his word, kept them alive, sending later to Nizhny Novgorod. But the Strusya regiment came to the governor Trubetskoi and was completely destroyed by his Cossacks.

The great day in the history of Russia was October 27 (November 6) in 1612. After the moleben performed by the archimandrite of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, Dionysius, the militia of Kuzma Minin and Pozharsky, under the bells of the bells, solemnly entered the Kremlin. Unfortunately, until this day the Patriarch Hermogenes did not live , having raised his Russian people's call to fight the invaders. For refusing to submit to their will, the Poles starved him in the basement of Chudov Monastery.

Royal mercy

In July 1613, a significant event occurred that marked the beginning of the three-hundred-year rule of the House of Romanovs: the first representative of theirs, the Emperor Mikhail Fedorovich, ascended to the Russian throne. This happened on July 12, and the very next day the founder of the monarchical dynasty - as a token of gratitude for his patriotic deeds - granted Kuzma Minin the rank of a nobleman in the Duma. This was a worthy reward, since in those days this rank was the third in "honor", second only to the boyar and okolnichhemu. Now the creator of the militia had the right to sit in the Boyar Duma, head orders or be a voivode.

Since then, Minin enjoyed the boundless trust of the sovereign. When in 1615 Mikhail Fyodorovich with his closest entourage went on pilgrimage to the Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra, he entrusted protection to the capital precisely to him, because he knew that, having freed Moscow from former enemies, this man will be able to protect it from future ones. And later the sovereign often trusted Minin with responsible assignments.

Death and the mystery associated with the remains of the hero

Kuzma Mikhailovich Minin died on May 21, 1616, and was buried at the churchyard of the Pokhvalin Church. In 1672 the first Nizhny Novgorod Metropolitan Filaret ordered to transfer his ashes to the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Kremlin in Nizhny Novgorod. In the thirties of the XIX century, the dilapidated church was demolished by that time, and in 1838 a new one was built aside from it.

In his dungeon, the ashes of Minin and several other princes were transferred. A hundred years later, pursuing a policy of militant atheism, the Bolsheviks razed this temple to the ground, and the remains of the Nizhny Novgorod militia got to the local museum, and then were transferred to the St. Michael the Archangel Cathedral of Nizhny Novgorod. It was officially accepted as the burial place of Kuzma Minin.

However, the researchers have some doubts about this. There is a suggestion that the remains of a completely different person are kept in the Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel, and the remains of the glorified hero are still in the ground at the place where the destroyed church was. There is now built a building of the Nizhny Novgorod administration and the City Duma, so that it is already impossible to carry out excavations and confirm or deny this hypothesis.

Gratitude

After Minin's death, his son Nefyod remained, who served in Moscow as a solicitor-a petty official in one of the tsar's orders. Remembering the merits of his father, Mikhail Fedorovich with special diploma secured for him the right of patrimonial possession of the village of Bogorodsky in the Nizhny Novgorod district. He also owned a site in the Kremlin in Nizhny Novgorod.

Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky defended Russia, and grateful descendants in 1818 established in Moscow a monument to these true patriots of their homeland. Its author was the outstanding sculptor IP Martos, and he was created for voluntary donations of citizens. Originally planned to establish a monument in Nizhny Novgorod - the cradle of the people's militia, but later decided to transfer it to the capital, as the feat of these people in its scope goes far beyond the boundaries of one city.