The Collapse of the Tushino Camp: The Conflict between the Cossacks and Mercenaries

This article examines the process of the collapse of the Tushino Camp in late 1609 – early 1610. It turned out that only a small number of Tushino boyars and nobles had transferred to the service of Sigismund III Vasa or returned to Moscow to Tsar V. Shuisky. In Kaluga, not only some “Cossacks” joined the false Dmitry II, but almost the entire Russian army of the impostor. That is why the representative Boyar Duma and the court of the tsar were quickly restored in Kaluga, and the military and local authorities resumed their work in the areas that had been supporting the insurgents during the whole period of the uprising. The rebel movement had by no means exhausted its potential for development. The veteran Cossacks of the insurrectionary movement did a lot to save False Dmitry II and to continue the insurrectionary movement. At the same time, the Cossacks were completely invisible as an independent force in Kaluga. According to the indirect data from the reports of K. Bussov and N. Markhotsky, the Cossack regiments disintegrated into separate villages, which were disobedient to the Cossack Prikaz and its head I. M. Zarutsky. The activity of the Cossack Circle, which replaced the Cossack Prikaz only during the movement of the First Zemstvo Militia, was not noticeable there either.