A man, supposed to have been a deacon called Sidorka, had appeared suddenly, from behind the river Narova, in the Ingrian town of Ivangorod, proclaiming himself the tsarevich Dmitry Ivanovich, on March 28, 1611.

False Dmitry III is the last and most enigmatic of three pretenders to the Russian throne, who claims to be the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible.

The Cossacks, who are ravaging the environs of Moscow, had acknowledged him as tsar on March 2, 1612, and under threat of vengeance in case of noncompliance, the gentry of Pskov also "kissed the cross" (i.e., swore allegiance) to “the thief of Pskov,” as he is usually nicknamed.

Fleeing from Pskov on May 18, 1612, False Dmitry III is seized and ...

...delivered up to the authorities at Moscow, where he is secretly executed.

Troops of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth have occupied Moscow from 1610 as part of the attempt of its ruler Sigismund III to take the Russian throne.

The city had suffered a great fire in 1611.

The people of Nizhny Novgorod and other Russian cities, led by prince Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin, had in January 1612 risen against the Polish occupying force and besieged the Kremlin; they expel the Poles in November.