The painting The Sack of Uglich by Sergei Simakov tells the story of one of the battles in the 1609-1618 Russian-Polish war, a key event during the Time of Troubles. By 1610, the Polish-Lithuanian troops arrived at Uglich and besieged the monastery of St. Michael In-the-Woods. A few days before Easter, on 4 April by the Julian Calendar, the invaders overwhelmed the resistance and burned the monastery down. 

The plot for the canvas was prompted to Sergei Simakov by the stone church of St. Michael In-the-Wood, built in 1787 in the place of the destroyed monastery. There is a cross not far from the old church commemorating the defeat, with the inscription: Under this cross are buried the bodies of the killed and burnt hermits, monks of the holy retreat of St. Michael — Abbot Michael and 40 brethren, with them also 300 lay people who died a martyr’s death at the sack of this monastery by the Poles in 1610. The painter lived next to the church where he bought an old house for his summertime studio. Together with his wife, he visited the church and helped conduct liturgies. With the death of his spouse, Simakov became the abbot of the church as Father Rafael.