The
Polish–Muscovite War or the
Polish–Russian War (1605–1618), in
Poland known as the
Dimitriads, took place in the early 17th century as a sequence of military conflicts and eastward invasions carried out by the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, or the private armies and
mercenaries led by the
magnates (the Commonwealth aristocracy), when the
Russian Tsardom was torn by a series of civil wars, the time most commonly referred to in the
Russian history as the "
Time of Troubles", sparked by the Russian dynastic crisis and overall internal chaos. The sides and their goals changed several times during this conflict: the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was not formally at war with Russia until 1609, and various Russian factions fought amongst themselves, allied with the Commonwealth and other countries or fighting against them. Sweden also participated in the conflict during the course of the
Ingrian War (1610–1617), sometimes allying itself with Russia, and other times fighting against it. The aims of the various factions changed frequently as well as the scale of the parties' goals, which ranged from minor border adjustments to imposing the
Polish Kings or the Polish-backed impostors' claims to the Russian throne and even the creation of a new state by forming a union between the commonwealth and Russia.