Conrad Bussow was born in the township of Ilten (part of present-day Sehnde near Hanover), in a family of a Lutheran pastor; his writing as a mature man suggests that he received a decent education at home, especially in Latin language and literature.
Details of his early service are unknown, but he eventually appeared in the troops of Stephen Báthory of Poland, engaged in the Livonian War.
When Russia was forced out of this conflict, the Polish-Swedish coalition fell apart; Bussow changed sides and joined the Swedish service.
His exact position in Swedish forces remains unclear; Bussow names himself Inspector and Intendant of the lands conquered in Livonia by Duke Karl of Södermanland.
His subsequent service to Godunov, False Dmitriy I and Vasily Shuysky was unremarkable; Bussow stayed away from the political conflicts.
In 1611 Bussow realized that the Poles ultimately lost their war in Muscovy; he retired to Polish-occupied Riga and settled on writing a book of memoirs on the Time of Troubles.
Peter Petreius, the man who made Bussow's desertion a common knowledge among European courts, obtained a copy of the manuscript and reused or plagiarized its content in his own book issued in Swedish in 1615 and in German in 1620.
[3] At the same time, "it is amazing that someone could live for ten years in a country without acquiring the slightest insight into, or empathy to, the local culture.