Pozharsky formed the Second Volunteer Army with Kuzma Minin in Nizhny Novgorod against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth's occupation of Russia during the Time of Troubles, resulting in Polish withdrawal after Russian victory at the Battle of Moscow in 1612.

Pozharsky was descended from a branch of Rurik dynasty, sovereign princes which ruled the town of Starodub-on-the-Klyazma, near Suzdal 190 kilometers (120 mi) northeast of Moscow.

At one point in the 15th century the family estate burned to the ground, and in consequence assumed the name of Pozharsky, derived from the Russian word pozhar meaning conflagration.

After Prokopy Lyapunov rallied the First Volunteer Army in Ryazan, Pozharsky promptly joined the cause and took a prominent part in the uprising in Moscow.

In autumn 1611, when Pozharsky was recuperating at his Puretsky patrimony near Suzdal, he was approached by a delegation who offered him command of the Second Volunteer Army then gathered in Nizhny Novgorod to oust the Polish occupiers.

A man of devout disposition, Pozharsky fervently prayed before Our Lady of Kazan, one of the holiest Russian icons, prior to advancing towards Moscow.

Yet even then he proceeded so slowly and timorously, performing religious ceremonies in Rostov and paying homage to ancestral graves in Suzdal, that it took him several months to reach the Trinity, whose authorities ineffectually sought to accelerate the progress of his forces.

The outcome was in no small part due to decisive actions of Pozharsky's ally, Prince Dmitry Trubetskoy, who captured the provisions intended for the Poles quartered in the Kremlin.

In 1615, Pozharsky operated against the Lisowczycy and three years later he fell upon the forces of Vladislaus IV, yet the conservative system of mestnichestvo precluded him from taking supreme command in any of these engagements.

In recognition of his services, he was granted extensive estates around Moscow, where he commissioned several churches, interpreted in retrospect as monuments to his own victory against the Lithuanians and Poles during a dire crisis in the history of Russian statehood.

[4] Dmitry Pozharsky is a strong unifying figure for those professional historians who oppose Romanovs' version of Russian history for being extremely one-sided.