Tsar Vasili IV formed a military alliance with Sweden in 1609, providing a 5,000-strong auxiliary corps commanded by Jacob De la Gardie and Evert Horn to support Russian forces under Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky.

The De la Gardie campaign was successful against False Dmitry II, dispersing his court in Tushino – a former village and town to the north of Moscow, but failed against the Polish–Lithuanians and was defeated at the Battle of Klushino on 4 June 1610.

In 1605, in the prelude to the Polish–Russian War, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth unofficially invaded Russia in support of False Dmitry I against the unpopular crowned tsar Boris Godunov, seeking to exploit the country's weakness for their own gain.

Godunov died in June 1605 and was replaced by False Dmitry I, whose popularity among the Russian populace declined rapidly during his reign, and the Polish withdrew when he was eventually murdered during an uprising in Moscow in May 1606.

[2] After the battle, with only 400 loyal men remaining, De la Gardie negotiated a truce with Żółkiewski, securing safe passage to Viborg, Finland (then part of Sweden),[9] in exchange for a promise not to interfere in Russian affairs in favor of Tsar Vasili.