Ivan Susanin
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Ivan Susanin (15?? - 1613) was a Russian folk hero and martyr of the early 17th century's Time of Troubles.
Between 1610 and 1612, Muscovy, the predecessor state of Russia, was ruled by Polish kings. After a Russian army led by Dmitri Pozharski defeated the Polish occupation force and liberated Moscow, the Russian leaders decided to gather a Zemsky Sobor to elect a new tsar. The Sobor delibrated for months, but on 21 February, 1613, 16-year-old Michael Romanov, the son of Patriarch Filaret, of the Russian Orthodox Church, was elected. A party with news was sent to Ipatiev Monastery, near Kostroma, where Michael then lived with his mother.
The forces of Polish king Ladislaus IV, who refused to accept defeat and still laid claim to the Russian throne, discovered the news and sent troops to Kostroma to find and kill the young tsar. It is said that they did not know the road to the monastery very well, so they started to ask the locals for directions. Ivan Susanin, then a logger who lived in a village close to Kostroma, promised to take them via a "shortcut" through a forest directly to the monastery, so that they could beat the Russian Sobor's party there. The Poles force followed him and was never heard from again. It is presumed that Susanin led them so deep into the forest that they could not find a way out, and they perished in the bitter cold February night.
Susanin's grandson, who Susanin secretly sent ahead via a different route, warned Michael Romanov, and the monastery hid him from further Polish raids. He was crowned tsar and ruled Russia for 32 years, founding the Romanov dynasty.
The thankful tsar ordered a monument built to Susanin in Kostroma. Russian composer Glinka wrote an opera, A Life for the Tsar ("Zhizn za tsarya") in his honor.ru:Сусанин, Иван Осипович