Polish-Russian 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 Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Tsardom of Russia Result 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, was 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). The Russian Tsardom was torn at the time by a series of civil wars sparked by dynastic crisis and overall internal chaos, a period of Russian history referred to as the "Time of Troubles".

The participants in the war and their goals changed several times: the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was not formally at war with Russia until 1609, and various Russian factions fought amongst themselves, and allied with the Commonwealth and other countries, or fought against them. Sweden also participated in the conflict during the course of the Ingrian War (1610–1617), sometimes allying with Russia, and other times fighting against it. The aims of the various factions changed frequently as did the scale of their goals, which ranged from minor border adjustments to imposing Polish Kings or Polish-backed impostors' claims to the Russian throne, even to 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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