One of the most important milestones in the process of Russia's formation of a powerful empire is the tsarist period of Boris Godunov. So who is Boris Godunov and how did he become tsar? Here is his story:
The story, based on the truth, is as follows: When Ivan the Terrible, who laid the foundations of today's Russia, dies, Russia enters the "interregnum period", which is still known as a disaster.
Borís Fyodorovich Godunóv (1552 – 23 April [O.S. 13 April] 1605) ruled the Tsardom of Russia as de facto regent from c. 1585 to 1598 and then as the first non-Rurikid tsar from 1598 to 1605. After the end of his reign, Russia descended into the Time of Troubles.
In the turmoil, Ivan the Terrible's brother-in-law, Boris Godunov, ascends to the throne by executing his heir apparent. Since he ended the interregnum, he is first greeted as a "messiah", but the tsar's cruelty drives the people away and rumors begin:
"Boris Godunov killed the Tsarevich!"
Tsarevich's mother, Maria Fiodorovna, was immediately confined to the monastery, as she was considered the chief perpetrator of the gossip. Anyone who speaks this ominous rumor that casts a shadow on the authority and glory of tsarism is either deported to Siberia or executed.
Witnesses have their tongues and ears cut off. The city is cursed.
Even the cathedral bell, which rang Tsarevich's death knell - a harbinger of disaster - suffers from the madness on the grounds that it "incites the people to rebellion". They cut off the bell, its knocker - that is, its "tongue" - and send it to Siberia. The bell can only return to the city after 300 years.
It's not over.
Pushkin writes the story in 1825, two centuries after the tragedy. The work, which the author describes as "my masterpiece", was immediately censored, but was cut and put on stage in 1866.
The uncensored version of the representation was staged for the first time in 2007; not in Russia, but in the USA!
So what did Boris Godunov do, how did he become Tsar?
Boris Godunov was the most famous member of an ancient and now-extinct Russian family of Tatar origin who migrated from the Golden Horde to Kostroma in the early 14th century.
Coming from the noble Tatar family Saburov-Gadunovs who migrated to Moscow in the 14th century, Boris entered the state service in IV. It began in the palace of Ivan (The Terrible). In 1571 he married the daughter of one of the tsar's relatives and came under Ivan's protection; he married his sister Irina to Crown Prince Fyodor (1580). He was promoted to the rank of boyar in 1580. Ivan brought Godunov into the guardianship of the mentally flawed Fyodor in 1584; Fyodor ascended the throne shortly after. In the face of a conspiracy attempt by a group of boyars who believed that Godunov had come to this position unjustly, Godunov exiled his opponents and became the real ruler of Russia behind the scenes.
Godunov, who completely controlled the foreign affairs of the Grand Principality of Moscow, organized successful military campaigns; He increased foreign trade, built many fortresses for defense, and re-colonized Western Siberia, which had fallen out of Moscow's rule. He also promoted the rise of the Moscow Church from metropolitan to the patriarch (1589). He looked after the interests of the palace circle within the country.
When Fyodor died without an heir (1598), the zemski sobor (country council) dominated by clergy and palace officials, brought Boris Godunov to the throne (February 17, 1598). Tsar Boris, who soon proved to be a wise and skillful ruler, tidied up the legal system, sent students to Western Europe, allowed the establishment of Protestant churches in Russia, and negotiated the accession of Lithuania to Russia in order to gain power in the Baltic Sea. started. On the other hand, he exiled the members of the Romanov dynasty to break the power of the opposition boyars. He set up an extensive network of informants and began ruthlessly punishing anyone he suspected of treason. These measures led to increased hostility of the boyars towards Godunov. Popular discontent grew as efforts to alleviate the suffering of famine (1601-1603) and its accompanying epidemics proved ineffective. In 1591, the Crimean Khan Gazi Giray approached Moscow. Boris Godunov with an army of Cossacks stopped the Khan's advance towards Moscow. But upon the sudden death of Boris, resistance was broken and the country entered a period of Confusion. This period lasted until the election of Mikhail I Romanov, son of Fyodor Nikitich Romanov, as tsar in 1613.