The offensive nickname "Tushinsky thief" went to the self-styled Russian Tsar False Dmitry II due to the location of his residence in Tushino near Moscow. There he was from mid-1608 to early 1610. And it was there that he most actively showed himself during his short "reign".
Instructions
Step 1
Many in Russia welcomed the death of False Dmitry I. But there were also many people who refused to believe it. Moreover, the latter belonged to different strata of society. What united them was not at all love for the fallen false monarch, but hatred for the boyars who brought their protege Vasily Shuisky to power. So, the appearance on the Russian political scene at the beginning of the 11th century immediately after the death of the first impostor of the new False Dmitry was predetermined by the people themselves.
Step 2
Immediately after the death of False Dmitry I, rumors spread throughout Moscow that the "sovereign" had managed to escape, and he was forced to hide from the "dashing boyars". On the city streets they began to find "anonymous letters", allegedly written by "Tsar Dmitry" himself. In this situation, it only remained to find a suitable adventurer who would dare to call himself the escaped sovereign.
Step 3
And one was found very quickly. Mikhail Molchanov, one of the killers of False Dmitry I, quickly got his bearings in the situation. In the spring of 1607, under his real name, he moved to Poland, rightly counting on the help of the Polish princes. There he proclaimed himself the Russian Tsar Dmitry Ivanovich. Despite the fact that the Polish nobles among themselves pejoratively called the impostor "tsar", he received full recognition and began to form an army for a campaign against Moscow.
Step 4
In September 1607, the rebel army of False Dmitry II, formed from detachments of rebellious Poles, South Russian nobles, Cossacks and the remnants of Ivan Bolotnikov's defeated army, moved to Russia.
Step 5
Without encountering any serious resistance on its way, the rebel army occupied Russian cities, the inhabitants of which swore allegiance to the impostor. The growth of False Dmitry's popularity among the people was greatly facilitated by his decree on the transfer of boyar lands to slaves and allowing them to forcibly marry boyar daughters with the granting of nobility to them. By this decree, he attracted the serfs to his side.
Step 6
In addition, the army of False Dmitry for the six months of its passage through the Russian lands was significantly replenished at the expense of the Zaporozhye and Don Cossacks, and the detachments of the Polish princes Alexander Lisovsky, Adam Vishnetsky and Roman Rozhinsky.
Step 7
In the spring of 1608, the army of False Dmitry came close to Moscow, but did not dare to storm the city. In Tushino near Moscow, False Dmitry founds his residence. In it, he holds meetings of his government, his boyar duma, and here he even mint his own coin. It was during this period that his opponents came up with the insulting nickname "Tushino thief" for him. And by the way, he did not succeed in taking Moscow.
Step 8
The fate of this impostor was sad but predictable. After numerous historical vicissitudes of those years, False Dmitry II was killed by the head of his own guard in the fall of 1610. The place of his burial has not been established.
