Throughout Russia and beyond its borders the name of the epic hero Ilya Muromets is known. IN ancient times By fighting the enemies of the fatherland and serving in the squad of the Grand Duke, he immortalized his name. They composed epics about him, sang songs in which fabulous feats were prescribed for him. The Russian Church elevated him to the ranks of saints. Ilya was undoubtedly a hero of his time and an example to follow for his contemporaries. Several centuries later, another Ilya Muromets appeared in the history of Russia, although they called him more likely Ileika Muromets. Let's get to know this man and try to evaluate his place in the history of Rus'.

In the early 80s of the 16th century in Murom, on a posad, the beautiful and stately Ulyana gave birth to a son. They named him Ilya. He ran around a quiet wooden town that stood on the banks of the Oka River. When he was 5 years old, Ivan Korovin, a huge blacksmith who smelled of smoke, came to their family. The whole city knew him. Ivan was not only a skilled bell maker, but also a top fist fighter. With the money he won in fist fights, he treated the pitukhs and tavern hawks, but to their surprise he drank little. The stepfather wanted to involve Ilya in his business. Seeing that he could not be a bell maker, he tried to introduce him to other crafts. But Ilya was more attracted to childish fun and carnivals, where he loved to rule. Often they ended in mischief. Either they throw a torch into a barrel of tar, or they slash the nets with a knife. He was not drawn to a tanner, a blacksmith, or a hamovnik.

My stepfather passed away when Ileika was 14 years old. The mother took monastic vows at the Resurrection Monastery and soon died after a serious illness. The Nizhny Novgorod merchant Taras Grizilnikov, who came to Murom to buy bells, upon learning of Ivan’s death, took pity on Ileika and took him with him to Nizhny. At the age of 16, he became a shop steward, “and he sat in a shop with apples and pots.”

Two years later he had to visit Moscow. Ileika sat there in the shop for a year and a half. Walking in free time According to the village, he heard speeches about Tsarevich Dmitry, who was allegedly not killed in Uglich. Upon returning to Nizhny, he hit the taverns, the parks, and then completely, leaving the merchant, joined the gang of walking people. With them he ended up in the “fodder Cossacks” for the bark of the Yaroslavl merchant Kozma Ognev.

From that day on, a wandering life began for Ilya. I was on the Volga, Kama, Vyatka, Kazan, Astrakhan... He cossacked, worked, hired himself out to merchants, feeding himself by “getting goods from all sorts of merchants, canvas and leather, selling them at the trade bazaar, and from that they gave him money for five or ten.”

Stopped in Astrakhan. But he was drawn to the Don and Terek. In 1603, Ileika accosted a Cossack army marching towards North Caucasus, fight the Persians and Turks. In battles, Muromets did not disgrace the Cossack army; his saber was one of the most ardent. After the campaign, having briefly spent time in the archers, serfs, Ileika again joined the Cossacks.

In the summer of 1604, as part of a detachment of Cossacks under the leadership of Afanasy Andreev, he was sent to the North Caucasus. Poor provision and untimely payment of salaries caused grumbling among the Cossacks and discontent with the Moscow boyars. The Cossacks decided to march on Moscow. At that time, with weak state power, in conditions of distrust of the Moscow Tsar, the southwestern and southern regions of Rus' were filled with detachments of Cossacks, runaway peasants and slaves. And since an impostor to the royal throne, False Dmitry, appeared in the southwest, the Terek Cossacks decided why not have a royal heir too.

The calculation was made on the fact that the Russian peasant considered the Tsar to be a “dear father”, a defender of his rights and was ready to lay down his life for the Tsar. Society was seething with rumors about a fake tsar sitting in Moscow, robbing the people, and was ready to defend the “real” tsar. Therefore, it was easier to gather people under the banner of the “real king” who had appeared. The Cossacks of Ataman Fyodor Bodyrin spread a rumor that in 1592, Tsarina Irina gave birth to a son, Peter, whom Boris Godunov replaced with a girl. The girl soon died and everyone forgot about her. And Peter was saved good people and hid in a distant monastery.

At the gathering, the Cossacks suggested Ileika Muromets for the role of “prince”, since he had been to Moscow and knew Moscow customs. Ileyka agreed to the Cossacks' proposal.

This is how “Tsarevich Peter” appeared in Terki. Attempts by the local governor Pyotr Golovin to “shackle” the impostor were unsuccessful. The Cossacks refused to extradite him. Rumors about Pyotr Fedorovich spread throughout all the Cossack villages. The service people flocked to him.

The impostor promised servicemen and Cossacks local lands and financial support. Soon about 4,000 Cossacks gathered under his banner. Leaving the Terek, they sailed on plows to Astrakhan. The archers did not accept them there, and they went higher along the Volga, smashing merchant barns, attacking trade and embassy caravans, and ruining estates.

False Dmitry, through Ambassador Tretyak Yurlov, invited him to his place in Moscow. At this time, an impostor was killed in Moscow. Peter - Ileika abandons plans to march on Moscow and turns to the steppe. The south of Rus' did not accept Vasily Shuisky as tsar, believing that he was illegally crowned by the boyars. There were rumors that Tsar Dmitry was alive and would soon come to Rus'. The people wanted a “legitimate” king. Therefore, the cities surrendered to the impostor without a fight.

Peter brutally dealt with the governors loyal to Shuisky. Entering the city of Putivl, he tortured the governor and dishonored the daughter of the murdered Prince Bakhteyarov. Here a messenger arrived to him from Ivan Bolotnikov, who at that time was with large army, went to Kromy. Bolotnikov suggested that Peter unite and march to Moscow together. Both understood that it was impossible to take Moscow alone.

But Peter was in no hurry to team up with Bolotnikov, as he understood that in this duet he would be assigned a secondary role. He sought relations with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in order to enlist the support of King Sigismund and receive military assistance from him to capture Moscow. But the king was in no hurry to support another impostor. Bolotnikov at that time won one victory after another and marched on Moscow. In 1607, Ileika left Putivl and united with Bolotnikov in Tula. At this time, Shuisky was also preparing for the decisive battle. An army of one hundred thousand was assembled from servicemen, tax-paying people, archers and foreigners. Tula was surrounded by Tsarist Moscow troops. In October 1607, the combined army of Bolotnikov and the impostor Peter, after a difficult siege, was defeated. Bolotnikov and Ileika were captured by the conspirators and handed over to Shuisky. The impostor was “shackled in chains, put on a nag, taken without a hat to Moscow and hanged on the Serpukhov road near the Danilov Monastery.”

This is how the life of Ileika Muromets, as historians call him, ended. Who was he? People's hero fighting for the disadvantaged people or a highwayman whose head was turned by the ruler’s laurels. There is no clear answer to this question.

Some consider him a hero, others a robber. During that period of time called troubled times, the direct royal line of succession was cut short, power-hungry top boyars and other representatives climbed to the throne royal court. In their quest for power, they resorted to deception, reprisals against other boyars, in their irrepressible thirst for enrichment, they imposed exorbitant taxes, and sometimes outright robbed the people. This led to a decline in villages and hamlets, which directly affected the nobles and the children of the boyars, serving from local lands. The impoverishment of the estates affected their well-being and ability to enter the service.

The main force of the impostor troops were the Cossacks and peasants of the southwestern and southern regions of Rus', dissatisfied with the restriction of their rights to land and the taxes imposed. In such conditions, a “prince” appeared, like other impostors of that time - an adventurer and a lover of easy prey.

Ershov Victor

Ileika Muromets (d. 1607 or early 1608) - one of the leaders of the peasant war of 1606-1607; comes from the townspeople of Murom. He worked for several years as a hired servant for merchants, then became a Terek Cossack. In 1605, the Cossacks elected Ileika as ataman and declared him Tsarevich Peter, the mythical son Fedor Ivanovich. In the winter of 1606, Ileika and a detachment of Cossacks went to the Volga and, after receiving a letter from False Dmitry I decided to go to Moscow. The news of the murder of the impostor forced Ileika to return to the lower reaches of the Volga; then his detachment arrived in Putivl. From here he went to connect with I. I. Bolotnikov, located in Kaluga. From a purely Cossack movement, his performance turned into an integral part of the anti-feudal Bolotnikov uprising. Ileika chose the city as the base for his actions Tulu. May 3, 1607 on the Pchelna River under Kaluga Ileika's detachment struck the troops V. I. Shuisky and provided a way out of the siege for Bolotnikov. From that time on, Ileika, together with Bolotnikov, led the fight of the rebels near Tula. On October 10, 1607, Tula fell, Ileika was captured by Shuisky and soon hanged.

Soviet historical encyclopedia. In 16 volumes. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1973-1982. Volume 5. DVINSK - INDONESIA. 1964.

Literature:

Smirnov I.I., Bolotnikov’s Rebellion 1606-1607, 2nd ed., M., 1951 (see Name decree);

Bolotnikov's uprising. Documents and materials, M., 1959.

For a year, between voyages, he lived in Astrakhan with a local archer named Khariton. Later he sailed on a merchant ship to Nizhny Novgorod, and on a Streltsy ship to the Terek. There he hired himself into the Streltsy order and took part in the campaign against Tarki, which took place in the same 1604, and upon his return he sold himself as a slave to the boyar’s son Grigory Elagin.

Cossacks

The future impostor was not constancy. Trying to provide himself with a satisfying and comfortable existence, he constantly changed owners. After living for a year in Elagin’s farmstead, Ileiko fled again and, in his own words,

Starting a career as an impostor

In the future, it was planned either to return to the Terek with booty, or to finally remain in Persia.

However, from this moment difficulties began. Boyar Fyodor Sheremetev set off from Kazan in pursuit of the rebel Cossacks. The governor had enough troops to defeat the detachment, but the Cossacks were rescued by the arrival from Moscow of Dmitry of an impostor messenger named Tretyak Yurlov-Pleshcheev with a letter ordering the Cossacks to “go to Moscow in haste.” But near Sviyazhsk, the Cossacks were overtaken by the news of the death of the impostor. The army essentially found itself in a trap - between Moscow, which had sworn allegiance to Vasily Shuisky, and Sheremetev, who was advancing from the South. But the Cossacks were once again rescued by the eloquent Pleshcheev, who managed to convince the Kazan governor that the Cossacks were ready to submit, hand over the impostor and swear allegiance to the new king. In fact, the detachment managed to sneak past the Kazan piers at night and go to Samara. Having descended further to Kamyshinka, a tributary of the Volga, the Cossacks took advantage of Perevoloka and finally found themselves on the Don, where the impostor spent the next few months in one of the villages.

At this time in civil war a lull sets in, the new tsar, trying to pacify the Donets, on July 16, sends to them the son of the boyar Molvyaninov, and with him - 1000 rubles in salary, 1000 pounds of gunpowder and 1000 pounds of lead.

Subsequently, the impostor, together with the Cossack detachment accompanying him, lived for some time in the Monastyrevsky town near Azov, and then sailed to the Seversky Donets on plows.

The story of the “miraculous salvation”

The legend of " royal origin", composed for plausibility by Ileika, was simple, naive and completely betrayed its origins from folk tales and parables If you believe him, Queen Irina actually gave birth to a son, Peter, but fearing her brother’s machinations, she replaced him with a girl named Theodosia, who soon died. The real heir was given to be raised by a certain widow. It should be noted that the impostor took advantage of the rumor about the substitution that was circulating at that time.

Ileiko never mentioned how he learned about his “royal origin”; his further story continued from the moment when the matured prince went to Astrakhan to “become a Cossack”, and, as follows from Sapieha’s note, lived there for several months from some unnamed benefactor. The impostor had a reason to hide the name of the Cossack Khariton from the Poles - the Bolotnikovites were not welcomed in Poland, and they had nothing to count on for help.

Later, the impostor claimed, he learned about the accession of his “uncle” Dmitry, and decided to get to him in Moscow. To begin with, he sent his “uncle” a letter, revealing in it his “true name and origin” and received in response an invitation to come to the Kremlin and prove his words there. Next, the impostor allegedly managed to persuade a certain merchant nicknamed Goat to take him with him, and in order to finally convince the doubter, “reveal to him your royal name.”

According to his own assurances, he arrived in Moscow the day after the death of False Dmitry (May 18, 1606) and then lived for four months “with the butcher Ivan on Pokrovskaya Street.” His further biography was not subject to amendments; it can be clearly traced from the surviving documents.

At the head of the rebellion

It is worth recalling that in the medieval popular consciousness, the state is impossible without a king; the only question was that for this king to be righteous and sufficiently concerned about his subjects, he had to replace on the throne the “evil” king, an impostor placed on the throne by traitorous boyars. Thus, it was possible to raise the people against Shuisky only by opposing him with a new False Dmitry, and in his temporary absence, “Prince Peter.”

The Putivl governor Grigory Shakhovskoy remembered the impostor again when, trying to raise the city to fight against Tsar Vasily, he repeatedly asserted that “the miraculously saved Tsar Dimitri with a large army” would soon arrive in Putivl. Ultimately, as one might expect, they stopped believing his words, and Shakhovsky had no choice but to apply for a letter “from Prince Grigory Shakhovsky and from the Putivl people from everyone” to the self-proclaimed Peter Fedorovich, in the hope that he could raise the Terek and Volga Cossacks, whose help was needed by the party of Vasily’s opponents in order to withstand the powerful coalition of local nobles who remained loyal to him.

Together with "thieves' prince" As the documents of that time call it, an army of several thousand Terek and Volga Cossacks entered Putivl at the beginning of November, and later they were joined by the Cossacks. The Cossacks, taking advantage of the fact that there was a real military force behind them, practically seized power in the city, and the previous leadership had to come to terms with this.

Despite the peaceful entry into Putivl, the false Tsarevich Peter soon encountered active resistance from the clergy and nobility. Unlike False Dmitry I, a man raised and educated among the nobility, False Peter betrayed his common origin with all his appearance, speech and manners, as a result of which it was extremely difficult for him to keep the nobility in obedience, especially since many of their “service people” “they recognized their former slaves in the courtiers of the new impostor, among them was the Cossack Vasily, the former slave of Prince Trubetskoy; and the “prince” himself once served under the command of Vasily Cherkassky, who was in the Putivl prison at that time. As a result of all of the above, after entering the city, the impostor unleashed cruel terror against the nobility. According to the evidence of the Rank books of that time:

This information is also confirmed by the chronicle:

Among other things, the false prince revived the “bear sport” beloved by Ivan the Terrible, when captured nobles were poisoned in a fence with bears, or sewn into bear skins and dogs were unleashed on them.

Among the dead in discharge books are the names of the boyar Vasily Cherkassky, the royal envoy of the nursery Andrei Voeikov, the governor - the princes of Andrei Rostovsky and Yuri Primkov -Rostovsky, Gavrila Korkodinov, Buturlin, Nikita Izmailov, Alexei Pleshcheev, Mikhail Pushkin, Ivan Lovchikov, Peter Yushkov, Fedor Fedor, Fedor Bartenev, Yazykov and others.

The rebellious clergy suffered no less from him. Thus, abbot Dionysius, coming out to the people with a miraculous icon, tried to convince the townspeople that Ileiko was a “thief and impostor,” but as a result he paid with his life. The surviving monks wrote in a petition addressed to the king:

Imposter politics

It is worth recalling that at this time, in the popular consciousness, tsarist power was perceived as the only legitimate and possible one in the state, and the only question was to replace the “evil” tsar with a genuine, “righteous” one who cared about his subjects. In the minds of the masses, it was also natural that the tsar was surrounded by nobility, and the Boyar Duma helped him in decisions, and also that the tsar not only punished for treason, but also rewarded for loyalty.

Therefore, one should not be surprised that Ileiko, while dealing with the rebellious nobility, still tries to surround himself with aristocrats, and also forms his own Boyar Duma, which includes, among others, princes Andrei Telyatevsky, Grigory Shakhovskoy, Mosalsky and others. Representatives of the nobility stood at the head of the rebel detachments troops, another thing is that their role was often nominal, while the real power was retained in their hands by the Cossack atamans. Moreover, as a sovereign prince, Ileiko enjoys the right to receive land and rewards, which also keeps the nobility close to him. This point was reflected in particular in the petition addressed to the tsar from the Mtsensk children of the boyar Sukhotins, who complained that “The thief Petrushka killed our father, and the estate, your royal salary, was given to the thief from Petrushka...”

At the same time, the impostor is trying to establish relations with Poland, apparently remembering the help that the Poles provided to the first impostor. Ambassadors were sent to Poland, but they only managed to reach Kyiv. King Sigismund was in no hurry to get involved in an adventure with a more than unclear outcome.

To raise military spirit during the downward spiral of the uprising, it was vital to “present” the resurrected Tsar Demetrius to the ordinary participants. Bolotnikov himself repeatedly wrote to Poland about this, promising, according to Konrad Bussow, to “transfer to his majesty the cities won in the name of Demetrius,” and finally, according to his own testimony, despairing of receiving a positive answer, he directly advised the Poles to prepare a new impostor.

“Tsarevich Peter” undertakes to find and bring “uncle” with him, and at the same time recruit a mercenary army for the Bolotnikovites. In December 1606 he went to Belarus. A report to the king has been preserved about his visit, signed by the Orsha elder Andrei Sapega, who reported that the impostor arrived on December 6, 1606 and until December 20 stayed in Kopys, in the Maksimovichi volost, not far from the city of Vitebsk. Local authorities gave “Tsarevich Peter” permission to move freely across Polish territory and enter into negotiations with the king’s subjects. It is assumed that it was at this time that an active search began in Belarus for a new impostor for the role of “Tsar Demetrius,” who was ultimately “Matyushka Verevkin” - False Dmitry II. It is worth noting that Ileika was accompanied on the trip by the nobles Zenovich and Senkevich; in the near future, it would be Pan Zenovich who would accompany False Dmitry II to the Moscow border. But one way or another, the candidacy of the new impostor had not yet been found, and Ileiko could not wait, because... News of the crushing defeat of the Bolotnikovites reached Poland. At the end of December 1606, the impostor hastily returned to Putivl.

Military leader of Ivan Bolotnikov

From Putivl, the troops of the false prince went to Seversk Ukraine, to raise the people in support of “Tsar Dmitry Ivanovich” and “Tsarevich Peter Fedorovich,” everywhere supported by the tax-paying population, with fierce resistance from the nobility and clergy.

The first on the path of Ileika Muromets was the city of Tsarev-Borisov, in which the governor was the boyar Mikhail Saburov, fiercely hated by the Cossacks. The city was well fortified, equipped with one of the strongest garrisons on the southern border and armed with last word technology of that time. But Saburov failed to keep the city archers and Cossacks in obedience. The intervention of the clergy did not save the situation, the city was taken, governor Saburov and Prince Priimkov-Rostotsky were executed.

According to the memoirs of monk Job

This time marks the peak of the influence and victories of the false prince. Subsequently, he went to Tula to join the troops of Ivan Bolotnikov in order to launch a new attack on Moscow with him. In February 1607, he sent one of his military leaders, Prince Mosalsky, to the rescue of the garrison of Kaluga, which was besieged by tsarist troops. But the “thieves” were completely defeated in the battle.

However, in May of the same year, Ileiko repeated the attempt, and this time Andrei Telyatevsky completely defeated the detachment of Boris Tatev, who was trying to block his way, which helped a lot final liberation Kaluga from the siege ring.

In order to prevent the approach of rebel troops in Moscow, Tsar Vasily Shuisky on May 21, 1607, at the head of selected detachments, himself set out to cross the united troops of Bolotnikov and Muromets. Cossack hundreds of "Tsarevich Peter" attacked the advance detachment under the command of Ivan Golitsyn at the Vosma River near Kashira. The battle took place on June 5, 1607.

At the beginning, it seemed that the advantage was in the hands of the Cossacks; having crossed the river without hindrance, they managed to gain a foothold in a ravine on the other bank, from where they showered the Tsar’s troops with a hail of bullets. The Ryazan noble regiment that attacked them was forced to retreat, but the outcome of the battle was decided by the betrayal of the nobleman Prokofy Lyapunov, who defected with his heavy cavalry detachment to the side of the tsarist troops. The Cossacks could not withstand the blow to the rear and fled. In this battle, the flower of the army of “Peter Fedorovich” died - the Don, Terek and Volga Cossack hundreds, as well as Cossacks from Putivl and Rylsk. Thus, the end of “Tsarevich Peter” was a foregone conclusion.

"Tsarevich Peter" during the "Tula sitting"

On the right, swampy bank, a dam the size of “half a mile” was built, which was supposed to prevent the river from overflowing into the lowlands during the autumn flood, but to cause a sharp rise in the water level.

Indeed, the autumn flood completely cut off the city from the outside world, turning it into a swampy island in the middle of a plain completely flooded with water. Disease and hunger began in the city; the only hope of the besieged was the army of False Dmitry II, who, however, was in no hurry to come to the rescue. In order to put pressure on the false tsar, Prince Grigory Shakhovskoy, who had been in contact with him from the very beginning, was imprisoned in Tula prison until the “approach of Tsar Dimitri.” Ivan Bolotnikov was increasingly demanded to tell the truth about the “tsar”, whose return he had repeatedly promised. Bolotnikov’s answer sounded like this:

Such a response could not but cause disappointment; the influence of those who were ready to open the gates to the tsarist troops increased in order to betray the instigators of the rebellion and bargain for the preservation of their lives and property.

It must be said that Ivan Bolotnikov and “Tsarevich Peter” themselves began negotiations with Vasily Shuisky, offering him to open the gates in exchange for saving his life, otherwise threatening that the siege would drag on as long as at least one person from the fortress garrison was alive. The king made a similar promise.

For their part, the “siege people” sent an embassy to Tsar Boris, “ beat him with his forehead and bring his guilt, so that he will reward them, give them the guilt, and they will hand over the thief Petrushka, Ivashka Bolotnikov and their traitor thieves».

Indeed, having entered the city

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Ileyka Muromets

Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998

Ileyka Muromets

ILEIKA MUROMETS (? - approx. 1608) one of the leaders of the uprising of I. I. Bolotnikov, ataman of the Terek Cossacks. From the townspeople of Murom. In 1605 he was declared “Tsarevich Peter” by the Cossacks, the son of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich. In the winter of 1606 he went with a detachment to the Volga, then to Putivl. In 1607 he defeated the tsar's troops near Kaluga. He united with Bolotnikov, with whom he led the defense of Tula. Executed.

Ileyka Muromets

Ileyka Muromets (d. 1607 or early 1608), one of the leaders of the Peasant Uprising led by I. I. Bolotnikov (1606≈07), came from the townspeople of Murom. He worked for several years as a hired servant for merchants, then became a Cossack on the Terek. In 1605, the Cossacks elected I. ataman and declared him Tsarevich Peter, the son of Fyodor Ivanovich. In the winter of 1606, I. went to the Volga with a detachment of Cossacks and, after receiving a letter from False Dmitry I, decided to go to Moscow, then his detachment arrived in Putivl. From here I. went to join up with Bolotnikov’s detachment, which was located in Kaluga. The stronghold of the I. detachment’s actions was Tula. May 3, 1607 on the river. In Pchelna near Kaluga, I.’s detachment struck the troops of V.I. Shuisky and ensured a way out of the siege for Bolotnikov. From that time on, I., together with Bolotnikov, led the fight of the rebels near Tula. October 10, 1607 Tula fell. I. was captured by Shuisky’s troops and hanged.

Lit.: Smirnov I.I., Bolotnikov’s Rebellion 1606≈1607, 2nd ed., M., 1951 (see index); Makovsky D. P., First peasant war in Russia, Smolensk, 1967.