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of Warsaw, as well as the port of Danzig (Gdansk),
which became a free city. The Prussian army was
reduced in size, while the French continued to
hold the Prussian forts and provinces they had
seized until a war indemnity of 120 million
francs was paid. Finally, Prussia agreed to close its
ports to British vessels and join the Continental
System that was blockading Britain.
Russia fared much better at Tilsit. Together
with Prussia it recognized the sovereignty of
Napoleon's three brothers as kings of Naples,
Holland, and Westphalia. It agreed to withdraw
its troops from the Danubian Principalities. In
return France recognized in perpetuity Russia's
Polish territories. France and Russia agreed to a
treaty of alliance that essentially divided political
control of Europe between them, an arrange-
ment that lasted until 1812. A meeting in Erfurt
in 1808 confirmed the alliance, and France rec-
ognized Russia's rights to Finland. Tensions and
crises soon began to tear at the alliance. The
French considered the Russians an unreliable
ally that barely participated in Napoleon's 1809
war against Austria and that, after 1810, had
essentially stopped participating in the anti-
British blockade. The Russians were not only
reluctant to enforce the blockade but also
resented France's growing involvement in the
Near East and were wary of Napoleon's rear-
rangement of the central European political
map, especially the enlargement of the Duchy of
Warsaw. By 1812, Napoleon had made the fate-
ful decision that the invasion of Russia was the
best course to further his goals.
in-law and chief adviser, BORIS GODUNOV , engi-
neered his own election as czar. Boris Godunov's
reign (1598-1605) was marked by increasing
harassment of nobles who opposed him, famine,
and peasant upheavals. In 1604, an army of Poles,
COSSACKS , and discontented Russians invaded
Muscovy and put forth a pretender, known as
FALSE DMITRII . False Dmitrii claimed to be Dmitrii
of Uglich, Feodor's younger brother who had died
in 1591 at the age of 10 under mysterious cir-
cumstances, for which many blamed Boris God-
unov. When Boris Godunov, in poor health for
many years, died in April 1605, his 16-year-old
son Feodor succeeded him as czar. Ruling as
FEODOR II, he was unable to gain the full alle-
giance of the boyar aristocracy who had once
supported his father. In June 1605, as the armies
of the False Dmitrii were advancing on Moscow,
a group of boyars seized Feodor and murdered
him and his mother on the orders of the pre-
tender. The False Dmitrii ruled for only one year
(1605-6) with the support of influential boyars,
who had been ousted by Boris Godunov, and
Polish troops. Soon, however, popular feeling
turned against him and what was perceived as
growing Polish Catholic influence at the court. In
June 1606, the boyar Vasilii Shuiskii (r. 1606-10)
led the overthrow of the False Dmitrii, whose
death was followed by mob violence against his
supporters on the streets of Moscow. Shuiskii
seized the throne and ruled for the next four
years but was violently opposed by Cossacks and
some leading boyars. A second “False Dmitrii”
appeared in 1608 and camped outside Moscow at
Tushino, earning the nickname “the Thief of
Tushino,” and ruled over a large part of southern
Muscovy. In 1610, Shuiskii was ousted by a
group of boyars, the second false Dmitrii was
killed, and the Russian throne was contested for
the next three years. A third and fourth false
Dmitrii claimed the throne, but the former was
slain in 1611 and the latter was executed in 1613.
The boyars offered the crown to the Polish king's
son, Wladyslaw, and allowed Polish troops to
march into Moscow, while lesser landowners
offered it to the Swedish king's brother. With Pol-
Time of Troubles (1598-1613)
(Smutnoe vremia)
A period of dynastic and social instability in Rus-
sia between the end of the house of the Rurikids
and the establishment of the ROMANOV DYNASTY ,
the Time of Troubles witnessed widespread social
unrest and famine, invasions by Sweden and
Poland, and five czars in MOSCOW in the span of
15 years. After the son of IVAN IV , Czar FEODOR I
(r. 1584-98), died without children, his brother-
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