I. Read the text to get the general understanding of it.

The Time of Troubles was a period of Russian history comprising the years of interregnum between the death of the last Russian Tsar Feodor Ivanovich of the Rurik Dynasty in 1598 and the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty in 1613.

After Feodor I, the last tsar of the Rurik dynasty, died and his brother-in-law Boris Godunov succeeded him, the first False Dmitry appeared and challenged Godunov’s right to the throne. The first pretender is considered by many historians to have been Grigory (Yury) Bogdanovich Otrepyev, a member of the gentry who had frequented the house of the Romanovs before becoming the monk Grigory and who apparently sincerely believed he was the legitimate heir to the throne. He claimed to be Prince Dmitry while living in Moscow (1601–02); but, when he was threatened with banishment, he escaped to Lithuania, where in 1603 he began to beg support for a campaign to acquire the Muscovite throne.

With the help of individual Lithuanian and Polish nobles, as well as by the Jesuits, the False Dmitry gathered an army of Cossacks and adventurers and invaded Russia in the fall of 1604. His forces were defeated militarily, but he attracted followers throughout southern Russia. When Tsar Boris suddenly died in April 1605, the government army shifted its support to the pretender; Muscovite boyars murdered Boris’ infant son and heir, and the False Dmitry triumphantly entered Moscow in June 1605 and was proclaimed tsar.

Dmitry, however, alienated his supporters by failing to observe the traditions and customs of the Muscovite court, by favouring the Poles who had accompanied him and Marina Mniszek (a Polish nobleman’s daughter who became Dmitry’s wife) to Moscow, and by attempting to engage Muscovy in an elaborate Christian alliance to drive the Turks out of Europe. In May 1606 Vasily Shuysky, one of the boyars who had turned against him, led a coup d’état, murdered the first False Dmitry, and succeeded him as tsar.

Rumours spread that Dmitry had survived the coup d’état, and in August 1607 another pretender appeared at Starodub claiming to be the recently dethroned tsar. Although the second False Dmitry bore no physical resemblance to the first, he gathered a large following among Cossacks, Poles, Lithuanians, and rebels who had already risen against Shuysky. He gained control of southern Russia, marched toward Moscow, and established his headquarters (including a full court and government administration) at the village of Tushino in spring, 1608.

Known thereafter as the Thief of Tushino, the second False Dmitry sent his bands to ruin northern Russia, and, after Marina Mniszek formally claimed him as her husband, he wielded authority that rivaled Shuysky’s. In the spring of 1610, however, Shuysky, aided by Swedish troops, ejected the Thief of Tushino from northern Russia and forced him to escape to Kaluga. The second False Dmitry continued to fight for the Muscovite throne until one of his own followers fatally wounded him in December 1610.

In March 1611 a third False Dmitry, who has been identified as a deacon called Sidorka, appeared at Ivangorod. He gained the fidelity of the Cossacks (March 1612), who were ravaging the outskirts of Moscow, and of the inhabitants of Pskov, thus acquiring the nickname Thief of Pskov. In May 1612 he was betrayed and later executed in Moscow.

[http://www.answers.com/topic/time-of-troubles]

 

II. Match the following words with the words in bold from the text and use them in the sentences of your own:

1) законный наследник

2) благоволить, быть благосклонным

3) выгонять, прогонять

4) авантюрист, искатель приключений

5) соперничать; конкурировать

6) провозглашать; объявлять

7) претендент

8) свергнутый с престола

9) помогать, оказывать помощь, поддержку

10) часто посещать, бывать

11) отвращать; отдалять

12) смертельно ранить

III. Find the words in the text which describe or mean the following:

1) an interval between two reigns, governments; a period of absence of some control, authority, etc (par. 1) –

2) the expulsion of a person from his native land by official decree (par. 2) –

3) a person who accepts the teachings of another; adherent (par. 3) –

4) a formal agreement or pact, esp. a military one, between two or more countries to achieve a particular aim (par. 4) –

5) a sudden violent or illegal seizure of government (par. 5) –

6) a person who resists or rises up against a government or other authority, esp. by force of arms (par. 5) –

7) to cause extensive damage to (par. 7) –

IV. Find the nouns that are used in the text with the following verbs (there can be more than one variant):

1) to challenge

2) to acquire

3) to observe

4) to lead

5) to bear

6) to gain

7) to wield

8) to acquire

V. Mark the following statements as True or False:

1. Prince Dmitry, Ivan the Terrible’s son, was the last tsar of the Rurik dynasty.

2. Lithuanian and Polish nobles helped False Dmitry to become the tsar of Moscow.

3. After Tsar Boris’s death the government army supported Dmitry.

4. Russians together with European Christians drove the Turks out of Europe.

5. Vasily Shuysky murdered the first False Dmitry, and succeeded him as tsar.

6. Dmitry survived the coup d’état in 1606.

7. Second False Dmitry gathered a large army and gained control of southern Russia.

8. The third False Dmitry, nicknamed Thief of Pskov, was proclaimed tsar in May 1612.

Text 2

Romanov – Rise to power