Polish-Muscovite War (1605–1618)

Polish–Russian War of 1605–1618
Map of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and western border of the Russian Tsardom. Positions of military regiments during the war and important battles are marked with crossed swords.
Date 1605–1618 Location Russia Result Polish victory Russia retained independence Truce of Deulino
Belligerents
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth	Tsardom of Russia Kingdom of Sweden (1609–1610)
Commanders and leaders
King Sigismund III Prince Władysław	Boris Godunov Mikhail Skopin-Shuysky Jakob De la Gardie Dmitry Pozharsky

The Polish–Muscovite War or the Polish–Russian War (1605–1618), also known as the Dimitriads, took place in the early 17th century as a sequence of military conflicts and eastward invasions carried out by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, or the private armies and mercenaries led by the magnates (the Commonwealth aristocracy), when the Russian Tsardom was torn by a series of civil wars, the time most commonly referred to in the Russian history as the "Time of Troubles", sparked by the Russian dynastic crisis and overall internal chaos. The sides and their goals changed several times during this conflict: the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was not formally at war with Russia until 1609, and various Russian factions fought amongst themselves, allied with the Commonwealth and other countries or fighting against them. Sweden also participated in the conflict during the course of the Ingrian War (1610–1617), sometimes allying itself with Russia, and other times fighting against it. The aims of the various factions changed frequently as well as the scale of the parties' goals, which ranged from minor border adjustments to imposing the Polish Kings or the Polish-backed impostors' claims to the Russian throne and even the creation of a new state by forming a union between the Commonwealth and Russia.

The war can be divided into four stages. In the first stage, certain Commonwealth szlachta (nobility), encouraged by some Russian boyars (Russian aristocracy), but without the official consent of the Polish king Sigismund III Vasa, attempted to exploit Russia's weakness and intervene in its civil war by supporting the impostors for the tsardom, False Dmitriy I and later False Dmitriy II, against the crowned tsars, Boris Godunov and Vasili Shuiski. The first wave of the Polish invasion began in 1605 and ended in 1606 with the death of False Dmitri I. The second wave started in 1607 and lasted until 1609, when Tsar Vasili made a military alliance with Sweden. In response to this alliance, the Polish king Sigismund III decided to intervene officially and to declare war upon Russia, aiming to weaken Sweden's ally and to gain territorial concessions.

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