Vasili IV of Russia

Vasili IV was elected Tsar by a hastily assembled Zemsky Sobor after the overthrow and murder of False Dmitry I. His election ended the brief reign of the first pretender but failed to stabilize Russia, as the country descended into the Time of Troubles.

Vasili IV's forces, led by Prince Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky, defeated the rebel army of Ivan Bolotnikov near Moscow. The rebellion, which combined Cossacks, peasants, and nobles, threatened the capital but was crushed, though it weakened the tsar's authority.

Vasili IV signed the Treaty of Vyborg, ceding the fortress of Korela to Sweden in exchange for military aid against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and False Dmitry II. The treaty brought Swedish intervention into the Time of Troubles but failed to secure his throne.

Vasili IV was deposed by a coalition of boyars and forced to become a monk, ending his reign. He was later handed over to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and died in captivity in 1612, the last Rurikid tsar to rule Russia.