Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin at the Battle of Moscow 1612, by Mikhail Scotti c.1850. After the reign of Ivan the terrible, who killed his own heir in a fit of rage, Russia was plagued by a period of famine and war known as the Time of Troubles. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth seized the opportunity to occupy Moscow until Prince Pozharsky rallied his people to resist and established a new Tsardom under the Romanov Dynasty.