New troubles ensued, however, and the war soon recommenced, but the Russians were unsuccessful at every point, and having no longer money to pay the army resorted to a debased currency, which led to financial troubles and commercial distress. Riots broke out in Moscow against the Czar's chief adviser, who was a kinsman of the Czarina, and troubles galore surrounded the sovereign. Troops were obliged to fire upon the rebels to put down the uprising, and several thousand of them were killed before quiet was restored.
There was a general reaction against Polish influence, and the alliance which the Russians had made with Poland, by which Smolensk and Kief and Little Russia on the left bank of the Dnieper had been secured, failed to cement a friendship between the two countries, although the series of petty wars, which marked the reign, finally resulted through the treaty of Lublin, in 1569, by which Russia obtained a large slice of the disputed territory. Those interested in the disturbances of this time will find it necessary, for complete information, to turn to a history of Poland and Sweden under Gustavus Adolphus, but the limits of this work will not permit us to cover all this ground.
Accepting the opportunity afforded by the hostilities between Russia and Poland, the Cossacks rose in rebellion, but, after devastating a large section in the valley of the Volga during a period of three years, Alexis defeated their chief and pardoned him, upon his taking the oath of allegiance. Another rebellion, however, broke out headed by the same refractory Cossack chief who raised an army of 200,000 men. Having violated his oath, he again proclaimed himself an enemy of the nobles and restorer of liberty to the people. Astrakhan surrendered to him and he ruled from Nijini-Novgorod to Kazan. He was, however, simply a vulgar robber, and his atrocities disgusted the more respectable of his adherents who gradually dispersed, and in 1671 he was captured, taken to Moscow and executed.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
