Conrad Bussow (1552-1617), a soldier of fortune from Lower Saxony, spent most of his career in foreign service. He arrived in Russia in 1600 and spent the next eleven years serving under a variety of rulers and rebel leaders. He witnessed many of the sensational events of that period: the triumph of the first False Dmitry and his subsequent overthrow, the Bolotnikov rebellion (his description is the most detailed provided by any contemporary observer), the civil strife and foreign intervention which bedeviled the reign of Tsar Vasily Shuisky; the Polish occupation of the Kremlin, and the beginning of the Russian struggle for national liberation. Bussow had all the instincts of an investigative reporter - most of the events he recounts are from first-hand experience - and he interviewed many of the key players. Although at one time a fairly prosperous landowner, Bussow was eventually reduced to living on the charity of his wife's relatives. He tried to recoup his fortunes by becoming an author, but died before his ambition could be realized. His authorship of this work remained largely unknown until the mid-1800s. This is the first English translation of the unabridged text of Bussow's chronicle. It is based on careful examination not only of various printed versions in early modern High German but also of several of the original manuscripts in the Herzog August Library, Wolfenbuttel. Complemented by an illuminating commentary by Edward Orchard, it will be of particular interest to those concerned with Russian and European history and the evolution of the Russian "spirit."

Table of Contents:
The disturbed state of the Russian Realm Prince Fedor Ivanovitch; concerning Tsar Boris Fedorovich, and how he came to rule; Fedor Borisovich, son of Boris Fedorovich; the first Dmitry and his reign; what befell the Governor of Sandomir and the Poles after the Tsar's murder; how the Muscovites dealt with the Tsaritsa and her father; what happened to the murdered Dmitry and his champion Lord Peter Fedorovich Basmanov, and also to the 2,135 Poles, who willed that the second Dmitry should rescue them in a miraculous fashion, and the miracles which occurred when they brought Dmitry's corpse; true evidence that this Dmitry was not the son of the tyrant Ivan Vasilievich, but an alien; concerning Prince Vasily Shuisky and the second Dmitry, who sought to overthrow Shuisky, and claimed to be the escaped Dmitry; also concerning Sigismund III, King of Poland, how he intervened, and how his son, His Royal Highness Prince Wladyslaw, was offered the Muscovite land and throne; how Prince Grigory Shakhovskoy by theft and falsehood brought great harm to Tsar Shuisky; concerning Ivan Isaevich Bolomikov, who came to Poland from Venice, and how in Poland a certain person, who allowed himself to be addressed as Dmitry Tsar of Russia, sent him into Russia to wage war; concerning a certain cossack sent to Poland to urge Dmitry to make haste, or to commit everything to the King in Poland, and how a certain man from Shklov claimed to be Dmitry and came into Russia; how Russia in the year 1609 was beset on all sides by war and tribulation; concerning the return of Skopin and the arrival of Jakob de la Gardie with three thousand foreigners; concerning Aleksandr Jozef Lisowski, the second Dmitry's commander over several thousand cossacks, and how he proceeded with them too deep into the country, and how the enemy cut off his retreat to the encampment, and how for this reason he was compelled to retreat to Suzdal, and how, finally, having effected a wide diversion, he withdrew towards Pskov; concerning the embassy of His Majesty the King of Poland to the Poles in Dmitry's emcampment; concerning Shuisky's deposition: also the destruction of the second Dmitry and the election of Lord Wladyshaw, son of King Sigismund of Poland; what occurred in the year 1611 in Russia, especially in the capital city of Moscow, and why the Polish king did not allow his son Wladyslaw, who had been chosen Russian Tsar, to proceed thither, and what great misfortune and irreparatble harm resulted therefrom. PART CONTENTS.