空位时期  (1552年9月22日～1612年9月12日)

开端 终结 在位 1606年 1610年 

　　瓦西里四世是俄国历史上所谓的空位时期的一位沙皇，下诺夫哥罗德的贵族，1606年至1610年成为沙皇。当鲍里斯·戈东诺夫为沙皇时，他奉命前往乌格里奇调查伊凡雷帝幼子德米特里·伊万诺维奇皇子的死因。他报告德米特里·伊万诺维奇皇子是自杀的，但是传言是鲍里斯·戈东诺夫所策划的谋杀。后来伪德米特里一世在外国势力支持下公开自称皇子德米特里·伊万诺维奇，带领其支持者谋反。当沙皇鲍里斯·戈东诺夫死后，鲍里斯儿子费多尔二世即位。即位不久被起义者杀死。自1605年6月1日起伪德米特里一世担任俄罗斯沙皇，但是在1606年5月17日，瓦西里四世策划推翻和谋杀了伪德米特里一世。自此他自己成为沙皇。1610年波兰军队攻入莫斯科，瓦西里被推翻及俘虏后，被带回波兰囚禁。1612年，他死于波兰。

　　Vasili IV of Russia (Russian: Василий IV Иванович Шуйский, other transliterations: Vasily, Vasiliy, Vasilii) (22 September 1552 – 12 September 1612) was Tsar of Russia between 1606 and 1610 after the murder of False Dmitriy I. His reign fell during the Time of Troubles.
　　
　　Born Prince Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky and descended from sovereign princes of Nizhny Novgorod, he was one of the leading boyars of Tsardom of Russia during the reigns of Feodor I and Boris Godunov. In all the court intrigues of the Time of Troubles, Vasily and his younger brother Dmitry Shuisky usually acted together and fought as one.
　　
　　It was he who, in obedience to the secret orders of Tsar Boris, went to Uglich to inquire into the cause of the death of the Tsarevich Dmitry Ivanovich, the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, who had perished there in mysterious circumstances. Shuisky reported that it was a case of suicide, though rumors abounded that the Tsarevich had been assassinated on the orders of the regent Boris Godunov. Some suspected that Dmitry escaped the assassination and that another boy was killed in his place, providing impetus for the repeated appearance of impostors (See False Dmitry I, False Dmitry II, and False Dmitry III). On the death of Boris, who had become tsar, and the accession of his son Feodor II, Shuisky went back upon his own words in order to gain favour with the pretender False Dmitriy I, who was attempting to gain the throne by impersonating the dead Tsarevich. Shuisky recognized the pretender as the "real" Dmitry despite having earlier determined the boy had committed suicide, thus bringing about the assassination of the young Feodor.
　　
　　Shuisky then plotted against the false Dmitriy and procured his death (May 1606), in addition to confessing publicly that the real Dmitriy had been indeed slain and that the reigning tsar was an impostor. Shuisky's adherents thereupon proclaimed him tsar on 19 May 1606. He reigned till 19 July 1610, but he was never generally recognized. Even in Moscow itself he had little or no authority, and he only avoided deposition by the dominant boyars because they had no-one to put in his place.
　　
　　Only the popularity of his heroic cousin, Prince Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky, who led his armies, and soldiers from Sweden, whose assistance he purchased by the cession of Russian territory, kept him for a time on his unstable throne. In 1610 he was deposed by his former adherents Princes Vorotynsky and Mstislavsky, made a monk, and finally transported to Warsaw by the Polish hetman Stanislaus Zolkiewski . He died as a prisoner in the castle of Gostynin, near Warsaw, in 1612.