Dmitry Pozharsky - Struggle For Independence

Struggle For Independence

By that time, the popular indignation against abuses of the Polish aggressors had gained momentum. After Prokopy Lyapunov rallied the first Volunteer Army in Ryazan, Pozharsky promptly joined the cause of rebels. He took a prominent part in the first Moscow Uprising but was wounded on 19 March 1611 while defending his house at Lubyanka Square and was transported by his adherents to the Trinity for convalescence.

In autumn 1611, when Pozharsky was recuperating at his Puretsky patrimony near Suzdal, he was approached by a delegation of burghers who offered him command of the second Volunteer Army then gathered in Nizhny Novgorod. The prince agreed on condition that he would be assisted by Kuzma Minin, a representative of the Nizhegorod merchants.

Although the volunteer corps aimed at clearing the Polish and Lithuanian invaders out of Moscow, Pozharsky and his contingent marched towards Yaroslavl first. There they resided for half a year, vacillating until the opportunity for rapid action was gone. A man of devout disposition, Pozharsky fervently prayed before Our Lady of Kazan, one of the holiest Russian icons, prior to advancing towards Moscow. Yet even then he proceeded so slowly and timorously, performing religious ceremonies in Rostov and paying homage to ancestral graves in Suzdal, that it took him several months to reach the Trinity, whose authorities ineffectually sought to accelerate the progress of his forces.