Government of the Land

the administration that emerged from the first volunteer corps (opolchenie) that was formed at the approaches to Moscow in the summer of 1611 to drive the Polish interventionists out of Russia.

The leadership of the Government of the Land included Prince D. T. Trubetskoi, the boyar I. M. Zarutskii, and the dumnyi dyorianin (member of the service gentry with the right of sitting in the Boyar Duma) P. P. Liapunov. The government was elected by the Council of the Whole Land, a body resembling a zemskii sobor (national assembly), and generally represented the interests of the service gentry. Its support of serfdom caused dissatisfaction among the cossacks and peasantry. In June, Liapunov was killed, and most of the gentry left the vicinity of Moscow. In 1612 another Government of the Land arose from the second people’s volunteer corps, headed by Prince D. M. Pozharskii and K. M. Minin and again elected by a Council of the Whole Land. With the support of the gentry and the populace of northern Russia and the Moscow region, it organized the expulsion of the foreign interventionists from Moscow.