Biography of Ivan Susanin and the historiography of the topic

The name of the man known today each domestic student. Biography of Ivan Susanin associated primarily with its famous feat which had saved the life of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich. Yes, we are talking about the same event with the Polish invaders, and which each of us once heard in life. It is the biography of Ivan Susanin will be the main topic of this article. As well as the difficulties associated with its recovery.

Ivan Susanin. Biography: a brief summary

This farmer was born in the village of the Village. About his age, the researchers have not come to a consensus. Some argue that he was 30-35 years old, others that he was in advanced age.

According to unconfirmed legend, in 1612, when a large part of the then Moscow tsardom was occupied by Commonwealth troops, the peasant Ivan Susanin was employed in the service of a detachment of the Polish-Lithuanian troops. He was to be their guide to the village of Domnino, which was then still the young Russian Tsar Mikhail Romanov. But the farmer deceived the invaders, putting them the wrong way. He led the poles in the opposite direction, towards the village Isupova and Domnino sent his own son-in-law with the news of the impending danger (the mention of the son-in-law gave historians the idea of adulthood of the hero).

When the deception was discovered, Ivan Susanin was subjected to cruel torture, but the hero was not given the whereabouts of the young king. For that he was cut up into small pieces, never left the woods. Here, in General, and all the information available to the biography of Ivan Susanin.

Put Forward the version that he was a serf of the landowner Shestov. Other scholars believed that this man was no ordinary peasant, and village chief.

Biography of Ivan Susanin and problems of historiography of the issue

And here it turns out that it is not so simple. Usually for historians is not particularly difficult recovery biographies more or less famous figures of the modern era. More difficult situation, clarifying the details of the events earlier epochs, since neither the documents nor material evidence sufficient, as a rule, not preserved. And Ivan Susanin was not an important person.

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Today we can reconstruct the events from the life of medieval kings and generals, comparing with the reform efforts, military campaigns and other acts that left their mark in history. But who in the end of XVI century were interested in individual farmers? Quite a long time the only document which mentioned the name, was the Charter of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich. It was mentioned Ivan Susanin, a brief biography of this man, as well as an outline of his achievement. Paper 1619. Then it was handed over to the relatives of the hero. there were other, more recent letters, but they only repeated the text of the first, not bringing anything new.

Interestingly, the glorification of the image of the farmer began only at the dawn of the nineteenth century. Composer Sergei Glinka, historian and writer Dmitry Bantysh-Kamensky, famous poets of the time described it in his works as the real Saviour of the Russian Tsar and a national hero.

However, a number of researchers have been questioned even the reality of the person Susanin. One of these skeptics, for example, was a Russian historian, Nikolai Karamzin.

The fact that this “flat-screen” the story of the famous and during the war, which was attended by Bohdan Khmelnytsky. Then the Ukrainian Cossack Mykyta Galagan brought the Polish gentry in the impenetrable jungle, thus ensuring the victory of his army in the battle of Korsun in 1648. It is believed that the legend of Ivan Susanin is inspired by this episode.

However, in the XIX century began an uncontrollable creation of the image, which is known to us today. Susanin began to dedicate poems, plays, novels and drama. He got pride of place in the work of the famous figures of culture: Ryleeva, Field, Glinka.

In 1838 at the behest of Emperor Nicholas I  was put Russia's first monument to Susanin. Thus, staying in oblivion for two centuries after his probable feat the farmer was already at the beginning of the XX century, a real national hero.