Смутное время

At the turn of the 16th – 17th centuries in Russia there was a difficult internal and foreign political situation. Dynastic crisis caused by the death of the last of Rurikids; famine brought on by a succession of lean years, peasant uprisings; the Polish-Swedish intervention - all this has led to a civil war, questioning the very existence of the Russian state. Only the union of large popular forces – urban population, military men, free peasantry - helped preserve the independence of the country, restore the administrative and military systems and overcome the Troubles.