In March 1611, citizens of Moscow rebelled against the Poles, and the Polish garrison was besieged in the Kremlin by the First People's Militia, led by Prokopy Lyapunov, a Ryazan-born noble.

[3] Amidst anarchy and breakdown of the central government, citizens of Nizhny Novgorod led by Kuzma Minin assembled the Second People's Militia, under the command of Prince Dmitry Pozharsky.

[2] On September 1, 1612, Polish–Lithuanian forces unsuccessfully tried to break the siege of the Moscow Kremlin, and rescue the Commonwealth garrison under Mikołaj Struś which was present there.

At the same time, however, the right wing of the Commonwealth forces was exposed, which was immediately noticed by the Don Cossacks (allied with the Russians) of Dmitry Troubetskoy, who awaited the outcome of the battle on the other bank of the Moscow River.

Chodkiewicz's August advance was met with failure, as was King Sigismund's invasion, when he was stopped in November, less than 90 kilometres (56 mi) from Moscow.