Kuzma Minin
In the meantime, the Commonwealth forces after a long siege stormed and took Smolensk in 1611. At the Kremlin the situation of the Poles had been worsening despite occasional reinforcements, and the massive national and religious uprising was spreading all over Russia. Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin effectively led the Russians, a new rescue operation attempted by Hetman Chodkiewicz had failed and a capitulation of the Polish and Lithuanian forces at the Kremlin terminated in 1612 their involvement there. Mikhail Romanov, son of the imprisoned in Poland (since his rejection of Sigismund III's demand for the Russian throne) Patriarch Filaret, became the new tsar in 1613.