Dmitry Mikhaylovich Pozharsky (Russian: Дмитрий Михайлович Пожарский, IPA: [ˈdmʲitrʲɪj mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ pɐˈʐarskʲɪj]; 17 October 1577 – 30 April 1642) was a Russian prince known for his military leadership during the Polish–Russian War from 1611 to 1612. 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 received the unprecedented title of Saviour of the Fatherland from Mikhail I of Russia, becoming a folk hero in Russian culture and honored in the Monument to Minin and Pozharsky in Moscow's Red Square.
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Early career
Dmitry Mikhaylovich Pozharsky is considered to have been born on 1 November 1578 in Klin County, in the north of Moscow Governorate of the Tsardom of Russia. In keeping with the custom of many Russian noble families between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, he bore two Christian names: a baptismal name (Kuz'ma, after Saints Cosmas and Damian, on whose feast day he was born), used exclusively in religious contexts, and a public name (Dmitry), by which he was generally known. 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. Pozharsky's mother, Maria Feodorovna Pozharskaya, came from the Beklemishev family.