The Astrakhan' tsareviches

From the summer of 1606 there developed on the Volga a rebellion in favour of Tsar Dimitry which was largely independent of the revolt in the Seversk lands. The first major Volga city to reject Shuiskii was Astrakhan', the great commercial port at the mouth of the river, on the Caspian Sea. Immediately after the overthrow of the First False Dimitry, Astrakhan' had sworn loyalty to Shuiskii. The citizens' acceptance of the new tsar, however, was half-hearted from the outset, and within a few days an incident occurred which led to their rejection of Vasilii. On 17 June 1606, soon after Shuiskii's official proclamation announcing his accession had been received in Astrakhan', the mounted strelets Vas'ka Eremeev arrived from Kazan' with a document in Dimitry's name. Although this was dated earlier than Shuiskii's proclamation, the people of Astrakhan' chose to take it as evidence that Dimitry was still alive, and used it as a pretext for renouncing their allegiance to Shuiskii. An uprising took place, in which the d'yak Afanasii Karpov and the nobleman Tret'yak Kashkarov were killed for their continued support of Shuiskii. Many other people were put to death by means of the raskat – that is, they were hurled from the top of a high watchtower in the Astrakhan' kremlin. The city governor, Prince I. D. Khvorostinin, transferred his loyalty to Dimitry.

Shortly before his overthrow, the First False Dimitry had sent F. I. Sheremetev to replace Prince Khvorostinin as governor of Astrakhan'.