Chichi

Regarding the period of occurrence of shisha there is no single opinion Doctor of Historical Sciences Sergey Perevezentsev writes that the zemstvo liberation movement in the Moscow State began to take shape everywhere in the second half of 1610 , initially "in the northeast Russian cities (the Shisha group), in which large Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian garrisons stood, and by the beginning of 1611 the center of national resistance shifted to the Ryazan lands " ^[2] .

The historian of the 19th – early 20th century, Dmitry Ilovaisky, writes that in the winter of 1611–1612, the Russian population began a kind of partisan or popular war: “A rampant and embittered peasantry, which could not defend itself in its open villages, began to gather in gangs armed than horrible, and chose their leaders. " These partisans received the common name Shisha ^[3] .

The historian and writer Alexei Shishov cited information that during the siege of Smolensk in 1609-1611 , numerous partisan groups, consisting of Smolensk peasants, operated in the city’s forests. In the Polish camp, participants in this partisan movement from among the previously “thundered”, that is, muzhiki robbed by them were called “shishami”, which translated from Polish meant “house-spirits” or “loafers” ^[4] .

Doctor of Historical Sciences Vladimir Volkov wrote: “The factor of the presence of foreign troops in a large part of the Russian territory had a decisive importance on the nature and extent of the struggle in these places with intervention, forcing local people to make wider use of the methods of partisan war (ambush and attack tactics), rallying in groups like called "shisha." The historian noted that the notes of the 19th century Russian historian Nikolai Ustryalov to the “Diary” of Samuel Maskevich, said about “shishahs” that they were “freemen who did not recognize anybody’s superiors but their atamans ”. Volkov calls this opinion erroneous, and points out that the peasants of Russian villages and villages ravaged by the Poles became “shishas”, “experiencing an understandable hatred of any foreigner,” and the organization of rebel forces of the Cossack type was a distinctive feature of all popular movements of the 17th century ^[5] .

According to the historian Dmitry Ilovaisky , countless gangster elements who flooded the territory of the Moscow kingdom at that time were called shishami. Probably any armed people who are not part of the regular government forces could be called shishami (not Swedes, not Muscovites, not Poles, but newly appeared “ armed forces ” like stray mercenaries in the “army” of Minin) ^[3] .

The historian Alexei Shishov cites data that one of the Shishov partisan detachments under the command of Smolensk Treska numbered almost 3,000 people ^[4] .

The historian of the Time of Troubles, Ruslan Skrynnikov, writes that the most numerous partisan detachments operated on the Smolensk road and in the wintering grounds of Hetman Chodkiewicz's troops ^[6] .

Shishi destroyed the Polish fodder teams, attacked small detachments of interventionists engaged in the plunder of villages ^[5] . Ruslan Skrynnikov writes that in February 1612 a squad of Colonel Strusius was defeated by a shishi, marching from Smolensk to Moscow to help the troops of Hetman Jan Hodkevich ^[6] .

Chichy was motivated, carried out unexpected attacks on enemy units, depriving them of their material base and inflicting damage in manpower. Largely due to the actions of the Shisha detachments in August 1612, the Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian hetman Jan Chodkiewicz was unable to get through to the Polish garrison besieged in the Kremlin , which led to its surrender.

The historian Illovaysky writes that the shishi hid in the woods and wilds, from where they looked out and tracked down the enemies, then suddenly attacked them, took their own, and in other cases, their property. Sometimes groups attacked by shisha were completely exterminated. Winter favored the actions of shisha. In winter, Polish cavalry experienced difficulties due to deep snow, but they used skis for quick attacks, and in case of failure, for rapid retreat and flight ^[3] .

During the Russian-Polish war of 1654–1667, in the official Russian documents of the mid-17th century, guerrillas were called shishami who operated in the territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania occupied by Russian troops. The term first appeared during the Pskov Uprising of 1650 . The most widespread during the subsequent war between the Russian kingdom and the Commonwealth . Shishami were mainly local peasants. The number of their units was 300-500 people, sometimes it could be higher. Among the leaders of the shisha, there were noblemen (for example, Mozyr's judge Samuil Oskerko and Orshansky Cornery Samuil Kmitich ), and people from the common people (for example, Denis Murashka ). Shisha troops represented a great danger to the Russian garrisons and the "jury" gentry and supported the troops of the Commonwealth during the counteroffensive in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1660-1661 ^{[1] [7]} .

Historians identify two reasons for the spread of the partisan movement:

• Some historians point to the active mobilization of the local population by Polish and Lithuanian panes or their appointees. Peasants were forcibly forced into the ranks of gentry troops. Shishi acted together with the gentry army, at the head of their detachments were, as a rule, gentry or representatives of the local village administration closely associated with the gentry. Among other things, shishi collected taxes for gentry and magnates from local peasants or engaged in robbery. The most zealous of them complained of gentry titles and land holdings. Nevertheless, A. N. Maltsev, who expressed this version, notes that “ in some cases, shisha’s performances could acquire an anti-serf orientation ” ^[1] , and shisha troops themselves arose “ as a kind of self-defense detachments that prevented Russian nobles and boyar children from seizing and to take the population into captivity, rob and plunder settlements ” ^[8] .
• Other historians point to the worsening condition of the peasants in the territories seized by the Russian kingdom. The reasons include the plundering of the local population by Russian troops, forced relocation, famine, plague epidemic ^{[9] [10] [7]} . In response to the policy of the Russian authorities, the peasants took an active part in the partisan movement. A supporter of this version, K. Bobyatinsky, wrote that the shisha detachments were peasant self-defense detachments that defended their villages from Russian troops ^[9] . A. P. Pyankov, a supporter of this version, wrote that shisha’s performances were anti-feudal in nature ^[11] .

• Time of Troubles
• Russo-Polish War of 1605–1618
• First Militia
• Second Militia
• National Unity Day
• Russian-Polish War (1654–1667)

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• Saganovitch, G.N. Shyshy / Gengadz Saganovitch // Vyalikae of the Litoўskie Principality: Entsyklapedyya: In 2 t. V. 2: Cadets Corps - Yackevich / Redkal: G. P. Pashko (Gal. Red.) Інш .; Master Z. E. Gerasimovich. - 2nd issued. - Minsk: BelEn, 2007. - 792 pp .: il. - p. 765. - ISBN 978-985-11-0394-8 .
• Saganovitch, G. N. The Unspecified Vaina: 1654–1667 —Mn .: Navuka and Technical, 1995. — 144 p. - ISBN 5-343-01637-5 .
• Maltsev, A. N. "Shishi" in the Smolensk region and in Belarus in the middle of the XVII century. // New about the past of our country. - M., 1967.
• Maltsev, A.N. Russia and Belarus in the middle of the 17th century - Moscow: MGU Publishing House, 1974. - 258 p.