The death of Ivan the Terrible in 1584 marked the beginning of intense rivalry among the boyars for the throne and power. The main reason for the struggle was Tsarevich Fyodor Ivanovich, the heir to the throne, who, according to his contemporaries, did not possess the necessary qualities for a ruler. It was this circumstance that forced Ivan the Terrible to form the so-called regency council for the further management of the country.
Among the five boyars who were part of it was a strong-willed personality who had previously been an oprichnik, Boris Godunov. Over time, having removed his rivals from power, and also skillfully using family ties, he virtually assumed leadership of the entire state. And in 1598, the vote of the Zemsky Sobor confirmed his right to reign.
Godunov managed to prove himself as a talented reformer and politician. His main focus was on ensuring internal order within the country. Being a supporter of tough methods of government, he was well aware of some of the “excesses” that Ivan the Terrible allowed him. However, he continued to enslave the peasants, which, according to Boris, was the only way bringing the state out of its deplorable state and ruin.
In 1597, Godunov adopted a decree by which “lesson summers” were introduced, which was a five-year period for searching for escaped peasants and then returning them to the landowner. In addition, according to the document, the peasants lost the right to purchase their own freedom, remaining at the disposal of the master until death. At the same time, people who served as volunteers after six months turned into slaves.
During the reign of Boris Godunov, the Russian Orthodox Church became completely independent of the Patriarch of Constantinople, while falling under the control of state power.
Under this ruler, cities such as Voronezh, Ufa, Tsaritsyn, Samara, and Saratov were built. People engaged in trade and fishing formed townsfolk communities, which were subject to a single tax.
As a result of frequent rains in 1601-1603, it was impossible to harvest crops in the country, which very soon led to famine in Rus'. and no matter how hard Godunov tried, regularly distributing bread and money to the peasants, popular uprisings began to break out every now and then.
It was during this difficult period that a man appeared on the horizon of Russian history, posing as Tsarevich Dmitry.
Video lecture: the reign of Boris Godunov and his short biography:
For eighteen years the fate of the Russian state and people was connected with the personality of Boris Godunov. This man’s family descended from the Tatar Murza Chet, who accepted in the 14th century. in the Horde he was baptized by Metropolitan Peter and settled in Rus' under the name of Zechariah. A monument to the piety of this newly baptized Tatar was the Ipatsky monastery he built near Kostroma, which became the family shrine of his descendants; they supplied this monastery with offerings and were buried in it. The grandson of Zachariah Ivan Godun was the progenitor of that line of the Murza Cheti family, which received the name Godunov from the nickname Godun. Godong's descendants have branched out significantly. The Godunovs owned estates, but did not play important role in Russian history until one of the great-grandsons of the first Godunov received the honor of becoming the father-in-law of Tsarevich Fyodor Ivanovich. Then at the court of Tsar Ivan, the brother of Fedor’s wife Boris, married to the daughter of the Tsar’s favorite Malyuta Skuratov, appeared as a close person. Tsar Ivan fell in love with him. The elevation of individuals and families through kinship with queens was a common phenomenon in Moscow history, but such elevation was often fragile. The relatives of the Ivanov spouses died along with other victims of his bloodthirstiness. Boris himself, due to his closeness to the Tsar, was in danger; they say that the king severely beat him with his staff when Boris stood up for Tsarevich Ivan, who was killed by his father. But Tsar Ivan himself mourned his son and then began to show Boris favor even more than before for his courage, which, however, cost the latter several months of illness. Towards the end of his life, however, Tsar Ivan, under the influence of other favorites, began to look askance at Godunov, and, perhaps, Boris would have had a bad time if Ivan had not died suddenly.
Kostomarov N.I. Russian history in the biographies of its main figures. - M., 1993; 2006. First section: Dominion of the house of St. Vladimir. Chapter 23. Boris Godunov http://www.gumer.info/bibliotek_Buks/History/kost/23.php
BORIS GODUNOV IN THE CASE OF TSAREVICH DIMITRY
[…] In 1592, Godunov sent his trusted people to Uglich to oversee zemstvo affairs and the household of Queen Martha: clerk Mikhail Bityagovsky with his son Daniil and nephew Kachalov. The naked people and the queen herself did not tolerate these people. The naked people quarreled with them incessantly. On May 15, 1591, at noon, the sexton of the Uglich cathedral church sounded the alarm. People ran from all sides to the queen's courtyard and saw the prince dead with his throat cut. The frantic mother accused the people sent by Boris of murder. The people killed Mikhail and Danil Bityagovsky and Nikita Kachalov, and dragged the son of the prince’s mother Volokhova into the church to the queen and killed her on her orders before her eyes. Several more people were killed on suspicion of agreement with the murderers.
They let Moscow know. Boris sent the boyar Prince Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky and the okolnichy Andrei Kleshnin for investigation. The latter was a man completely devoted and submissive to Boris. The first belonged to a family that was not favorable to Boris, but, given the combination of circumstances at that time, willy-nilly, he had to act in his guise. There were no witnesses to the murder. Criminals too. Shuisky, a cunning and evasive man, calculated that if he conducted the investigation in such a way that Boris was dissatisfied with him, he would still not do anything to Boris, because the same Boris would be the supreme judge, and would subsequently subject himself to his vengeance. Shuisky decided to conduct the investigation in such a way that Boris would be completely satisfied with it. The investigation was carried out in a dishonest manner. Everything was strained to the point that it looked as if the prince had stabbed himself to death. They did not examine the body: the people who killed Bityagovsky and his comrades were not interrogated. The queen was also not asked. Testimonies taken from various individuals, except for the testimony of one Mikhail Nagoy, said one thing: that the prince stabbed himself to death in a fit of epilepsy. Some obviously lied, showing that they themselves saw how the matter happened, others showed the same, without identifying themselves as eyewitnesses. The body of the prince was interred in the Uglitsky Church of St. Savior. Kostomarov N.I. Russian history in the biographies of its main figures. - M., 1993; 2006. First section: Dominion of the house of St. Vladimir. Chapter 23. Boris Godunov http://www.gumer.info/bibliotek_Buks/History/kost/23.php
BORIS'S ELECTION: PROS AND CONS
For Godunov there was a patriarch who owed everything to him, a patriarch who stood at the head of the administration; For Godunov, there was a long-term use of royal power under Theodore, which provided him with extensive funds: everywhere - in the Duma, in the orders, in the regional administration - there were people who owed everything to him, who could lose everything if the ruler did not become king; the use of royal power under Theodore brought Godunov and his relatives enormous wealth, and also a powerful means of acquiring well-wishers; For Godunov, it was that his sister, although imprisoned in a monastery, was recognized as the governing queen and everything was done according to her decree: who could take the scepter from her hands besides her own brother? Finally, for the majority, and a huge majority, Theodore’s reign was a happy time, a time of rest after the troubles of the previous reign, and everyone knew that Godunov ruled the state under Theodore.
ATTITUDE TO EDUCATION
In his zealous love for civic education, Boris surpassed all the most ancient Crown-bearers of Russia, having the intention of establishing schools and even Universities to teach young Russians European languages and Sciences. in 1600 he sent the German, John Kramer, to Germany, authorizing him to look there and bring professors and doctors to Moscow. This thought delighted many zealous friends of enlightenment in Europe: one of them, a teacher of rights, named Tovia Lontius, wrote to Boris (in Genvar 1601): “Your Royal Majesty, you want to be the true father of the fatherland and earn worldwide, immortal glory. You have been chosen by Heaven to accomplish a great thing, new for Russia: to enlighten the mind of your countless people and thereby elevate their soul along with state power, following the example of Egypt, Greece, Rome and the famous European Powers, flourishing in the arts “and noble sciences.” This important intention was not fulfilled. they write, from the strong objections of the Clergy, who presented to the Tsar that Russia prospers in the world through the unity of Law and language; that the difference of languages can also produce a difference in thoughts, which is dangerous for the Church; that in any case it is unwise to entrust the teaching of youth to Catholics and Lutherans. To establish Universities in Russia, the Tsar sent 18 young Boyar people to London, to Lubeck and to France, to study foreign languages in the same way as young Englishmen and Frenchmen then went to Moscow to study Russian. With his natural mind he understood the great truth that public education is a state power and, seeing the undoubted superiority of other Europeans in it, he called to him from England, Holland, and Germany not only doctors, artists, artisans, but also officials to serve. […] Generally favorable to people of educated minds, he was extremely fond of his foreign doctors, saw them every day, talked about government affairs, about the Faith; He often asked them to pray for him, and only to please them did he agree to the renewal of the Lutheran Church in the settlement of Yauzskaya. The pastor of this church, Martin Behr, to whom we owe the curious history of the times of Godunov and the following, writes: “Peacefully listening to the Christian teaching and solemnly glorifying the Almighty according to the rites of their Faith, the Moscow Germans cried with joy that they lived to see such happiness!”
Karamzin N.M. History of Russian Goverment. T. 11. Chapter I http://magister.msk.ru/library/history/karamzin/kar11_01.htm
ASSESSMENTS OF BORIS GODUNOV
If Boris is a murderer, then he is a villain, as Karamzin paints him; if not, then he is one of the nicest Moscow kings. Let's see to what extent we have reason to blame Boris for the death of the prince and to suspect the reliability of the official investigation. The official investigation is, of course, far from blaming Boris. In this case, foreigners accusing Boris should be in the background, as a secondary source, because they are only repeating Russian rumors about Dmitry’s case. There remains one type of sources - the legends and stories of the 17th century that we have considered. It is on them that historians hostile to Boris rely. Let's dwell on this material. Most chroniclers opposed to Boris, when speaking about him, either admit that they are writing by ear, or they praise Boris as a person. Condemning Boris as a murderer, they, firstly, do not know how to consistently convey the circumstances of Dmitry’s murder, as we saw, and, moreover, allow internal contradictions. Their stories were compiled long after the event, when Dmitry had already been canonized and when Tsar Vasily, having renounced his own investigation into Dmitry’s case, publicly blamed Boris for the murder of the prince and it became an officially recognized fact. It was then impossible to contradict this fact. Secondly, all legends about the Troubles in general come down to a very small number of independent editions, which were extensively reworked by later compilers. One of these independent editions (the so-called “Another Legend”), which greatly influenced various compilations, came entirely from the camp of Godunov’s enemies - the Shuiskys. If we do not take into account and do not take into account the compilations, then it turns out that not all independent authors of legends are against Boris; most of them speak very sympathetically about him, but they are often simply silent about Dmitry’s death. Further, the legends hostile to Boris are so biased towards him in their reviews that they clearly slander him, and their slander against Boris is not always accepted even by his opponents, scientists; for example, Boris is credited with: the arson of Moscow in 1591, the poisoning of Tsar Feodor and his daughter Feodosia.
These tales reflect the mood of the society that created them; their slander is everyday slander, which could arise directly from everyday relationships: Boris had to act under Fyodor among boyars hostile to him (the Shuiskys and others), who hated him and at the same time feared him as an unborn force. At first they tried to destroy Boris by open struggle, but they could not; It is quite natural that they began to undermine his moral credit for the same purpose, and they succeeded better in this.
Godunov, Boris Fedorovich (born 1552 - death April 13 (23), 1605) - Tsar from 1598 to 1605. Boyar, de facto ruler of the state during the reign of Fedor Ivanovich. From the family of Kostroma noble nobles Saburov-Godunov. He was promoted to the board after marrying the daughter of the Tsar's favorite.
Under Tsar Fyodor he became an equerry, and this brought him into the circle of rulers of the state. He was an intelligent, highly educated, ambitious and subtle politician. Godunov essentially headed the government of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, who was married to his sister Irina, for 10 years (1588–1597). Already at that time, Boris Godunov continued the policy of centralization pursued by Ivan the Terrible.
Ascension to the throne
1598, January - Tsar Fedor Ivanovich died, and Boris Fedorovich Godunov ascended the royal throne, winning the struggle for power. He was elected to the throne by the majority of the nobility. The high-ranking nobility did not want to recognize Boris as the Grand Duke, but Job, who was elevated to metropolitan by Boris Godunov under Tsar Fyodor, who was not popular but was devoted to him, forced Tsarina Irina and Boris Godunov and their children to kiss the cross. Many expressed dissatisfaction with the “Godunov gang.”
Before and after queens were not crowned, and they did not have royal power, and therefore Irina’s independent rule did not work out from the first days, and she soon went to a monastery under the name of Alexandra Feodorovna.
To win the Duma over to his side, Boris tried to arouse loyal feelings among the people. He wrapped a scarf around his neck, indicating that he would rather hang himself than agree to accept the crown. Such a gesture, according to eyewitness clerk Ivan Timofeev, made a great impression on the crowd. The Boyar Duma was forced to swear allegiance to Boris.
Governing body
The beginning was a continuation of his reign under Fyodor Ioannovich. For a whole year, no taxes were collected and no duties were collected from merchants for 2 years; servicemen were given double annual salaries; the exit of peasants from central Russia was finally prohibited, and within its borders it was allowed only between small owners; large owners were certainly excluded from competition with small ones (decrees of 1601 and 1602).
Godunov closed the royal taverns, eradicated bribery and robbery, oppressing even the Cossack freemen on the Don and Dnieper. He helped the poor, released prisoners, brought back the disgraced, and began to favor foreigners more than ever. The Tsar summoned various craftsmen from Germany, kept with him, like boyars, six foreign doctors and other scientists, gave benefits to guests and communicated with the Hansa, allowed even the Lutherans to build a kirk in Moscow, valued his Livonian guard more than the entire Russian army, started a courtyard customs and partly the atmosphere of the West; his associates began to shave their beards.
1) “Boris Godunov and the magicians representing his reign.” A. Kivshenko; 2) Boris Godunov chooses brides. (N. Nevrev)
Godunov also planned to found schools with a university and was the first to send several young men abroad to study science. He continued and expanded urban planning (the construction of the White City in Moscow; the founding of Samara, Tsaritsyn, Saratov, Ufa, Tyumen, Tobolsk, Verkhoturye, Tara, etc.).
Foreign policy has become even more peaceful. Striving for Livonia, like Ivan the Terrible, he acted only through diplomacy. Godunov summoned the exiled Swedish prince Gustav to the capital to marry him to his daughter, Ksenia, but exiled him to Uglich for frivolity. Afterwards, Boris wanted to marry Ksenia to the Danish prince John, but he soon died, and Boris was already thinking about marrying his daughter to a Schleswig duke, and wanted to marry his son, Fyodor, to a Georgian princess. However, the Persians and Turks prevailed in the Caucasus: the former overthrew the Kakhetian king Alexander for his friendship with Moscow, the latter ousted the Russians from Tarki.
Persecution. Repression
However, the people, despite all the external benefits, continued to show distrust of the king. Around 1600, a rumor spread that Tsarevich Dmitry was able to escape from the assassins and was now alive. The nobles also grumbled at their rival. Boris, as usual, did not spare his enemies and began to wage a decisive fight against everyone who could pose a danger to his power. The capital was filled with informers, who were paid money from the estates of the slandered. On the Lithuanian border, guards grabbed every passerby.
Limestones and opals rained down on the nobles. Bogdan Belsky was whipped and sent to Ukraine. The Romanovs suffered even more severely. They were accused, according to “arguments” (denunciations), of possessing “roots” (poison). By order of the tsar, they were even tortured, along with many relatives and slaves, and, as “traitors,” they were exiled to various parts of Russia. The eldest of the brothers, Fyodor Nikitich, was tonsured a monk under the name Philaret, and his wife became the nun Martha; their young son Mikhail was sent with his aunt to Beloozero (1601). Unfortunately for Boris, circumstances also turned the people against him, who had not yet gotten used to the new dynasty.
Famine under Boris Godunov
Hunger
Due to terrible harvest failures, famine raged in Russia for three years (1601-1603). The rich, even church leaders, took advantage of it to buy bread and organize a “knitting” (strike) in the market. To help the starving, the tsar began construction in Moscow, but they caused crowding and pestilence. People fled in droves (more than 20,000), especially to northern Ukraine: a lot of “servants” gathered here, which the Russian landowners dismissed, unable to feed them. Godunov also freed the peasants of the disgraced boyars.
Robberies began: Ataman Khlopko Kosolap fought with the royal detachment near Moscow. Godunov was tormented by heavy forebodings, and even began to confer with sorcerers and sorcerers. At the beginning of 1604, he was informed that an impostor calling himself Tsarevich Dmitry had entered Rus' from Lithuania. The Moscow turmoil began to go beyond the framework of court and family tree intrigues: it became the property of the masses, a weapon in the struggle of public interests.
1) Portrait of Tsar Boris Godunov; 2) Agents of False Dmitry I kill the son of Boris Godunov. (K. Makovsky)
Death of the King
Boris Godunov's situation was complicated due to his state of health. Already in 1599, references to his illnesses began to appear, and Boris was often unwell in the 1600s. 1605, April 13 - the sovereign seemed cheerful and healthy, ate a lot and with appetite. Then he went to the tower, from which he often overlooked the capital. Soon he came down from there, saying that he felt faint. They called a doctor, but the sovereign became worse: blood began to flow from his ears and nose. The king fainted and soon died. He was 53 years old.
According to one version, Boris poisoned himself in a fit of despair. According to another, he was poisoned by political opponents; the version of natural death is more likely, since Godunov was often ill before. He was buried in the Kremlin Archangel Cathedral.
After death
Moscow initially swore allegiance to his 16 year old son, Fyodor Borisovich, however, under the influence of the successes of False Dmitry I, her mood changed. Fyodor Godunov and his mother (daughter of Malyuta Skuratov) were strangled; Ksenia was the only one left alive. The ashes of Boris Godunov and his family rest in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, where he was transported under. Despite such a sad outcome of Boris’s reign, the official chronicler admitted that Godunov was chosen for the kingdom for his “righteous and strong rule” and “great kindness to people.”
Foreign observers go even further in assessing Godunov's merits. Contemporaries unanimously recognized that the result of these state talents was “the flourishing beauty of his kingdom.” All disasters, in their opinion, stemmed from the main moral shortcoming of Boris, the “evil voluptuousness of power.” Even writers of the 17th century inclined to moralization, comparing state virtues with Godunov’s personal shortcomings, did not dare to draw a negative conclusion. “At the hour of his death,” notes, for example, contemporary Timofeev, “no one knows what side of the scale weighed on his deeds: good or evil.”
In 1598, with the death of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, the royal Rurik dynasty was interrupted, the hoop that pulled together all the warring groups of the nobility, all the dissatisfied sections of the population, disappeared. Immediately, deep contradictions in society were revealed - within the nobility itself, between the enslaved people and the authorities, between the former guardsmen and their victims, between the elite of society, princes and boyars, and the middle and petty nobility.
It was during this difficult transitional time that boyar Boris Godunov was elected to the Russian throne, who tried already at the turn of the 16th - 17th centuries. to found a new dynasty in Russia.
The young boyar began his struggle for power immediately after the death of Ivan the Terrible. At first, he was on the sidelines - he only watched as two clans fought among themselves - the Romanovs and the Miloslavskys. At the decisive moment, feeling the strength of the Romanov boyars, Godunov entered into an alliance with them and struck first at the Miloslavsky princes, achieving disgrace from the tsar for Ivan Fedorovich Miloslavsky, who was forcibly tonsured a monk and exiled to a distant northern monastery, and then at the Shuisky boyars.
Godunov did not resort to mass executions, but mercilessly eliminated his rivals, and then secretly organized their murders. A trail of terrible rumors began to follow him. Exiles, secret reprisals - all this was associated with the name of the hated Godunov. The rise in taxes, which increased in the 1580s, was identified with his name. 1.5 times.
In 1588, the decade of Boris's actual reign began. Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich granted him the title of ruler, unprecedented in Rus' until then. Boris received the right to independently communicate with foreign states, which he used to gain popularity in Europe. Under his patronage, English and other foreign merchants acquired great benefits in Russia.
In 1589, Godunov helped his protege, Metropolitan Job, acquire the title of Patriarch. Strengthened Russian Orthodox Church became his strong support.
But it was as if evil fate was pursuing the almighty boyar. Both the decree on fixed summers, which fettered the freedom of the peasants, and the laws of 1597, which aggravated the fate of slaves, the people, like previous troubles, increasingly associated the people with the name of the all-powerful favorite. In addition, popular rumor accused Boris Godunov of the murder of Tsarevich Dmitry, the only survivor besides the fading Fyodor, the son of Ivan the Terrible.
People noticed how Boris removed his enemies - first he expelled them from Moscow, and then destroyed them with the help of his henchmen.
With the death of Fyodor Ivanovich in January 1598, the contradictions between the top of the boyars and Godunov intensified.
Boris initially sought to transfer the throne to his sister, Tsarina Irina. This failed, and then Boris Godunov began an open struggle for the royal throne. Who were his opponents? The eldest of the Romanov brothers, Fyodor Nikitich, and a distant relative of Ivan III, Fyodor Ivanovich Mstislavsky, could have claimed the royal crown, but they did not put forward their candidacies.
A situation arose when the suppression of the Rurik dynasty opened up the opportunity to move from autocratic rule of the country to collective governance. The boyars decided that power in the country should be transferred to the Boyar Duma. For the sake of this, the Romanovs, Mstislavskys, Golitsyns and other glorious Russian boyar and princely families sacrificed their claims to the throne.
A meeting of boyars in the Kremlin demanded that the people swear allegiance to the Boyar Duma. Boris Godunov stood for old order. He dreamed of a royal crown, that his son Fedor would succeed him and continue the Godunov dynasty.
Therefore, simultaneously with the meeting of the Boyar Duma, Patriarch Job convened another meeting in his chambers - the Council, which proposed Godunov as king. This proposal was enthusiastically accepted.
Essentially, two authorities were formed in the country - the Boyar Duma and the Council. This led to a split in the country.
Political passions were heating up.
Then the Patriarch organized a popular procession with icons to the Novodevichy Convent, where Godunov had retired, who tearfully asked Godunov to take the throne. But Boris pretended to refuse.
A second procession followed, and Boris agreed. Here, in the cathedral of the Novodevichy Convent, the Patriarch named Godunov the Russian Tsar. In the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, the Patriarch declared Godunov tsar for the second time. But the boyars refused to swear allegiance to him. Only two months later the general oath to Godunov began, which lasted all summer. Godunov was solemnly proclaimed tsar for the third time.
Politics of Boris Godunov
In the very first days of his reign, Boris Godunov swore that he would rule fairly and mercifully: “God is my witness to this, no one will be poor or needy in my kingdom. More than once in conversations with people he touched the collar of his shirt and declared: “And I will share this last one with everyone.”
In an effort to win over the nobles, Boris Godunov arranged for them to receive salaries that had been withheld before. He promoted many people. To make things easier ordinary people the new tsar canceled all tax arrears and eased the tax burden. Godunov encouraged trade in every possible way, granted benefits to the merchants, and tax privileges to the Church.
Godunov sought to support the economy of the middle service class of nobles, elevated humble but capable people, contrasting them with the noble boyars.
This was the first Russian tsar who, attacking bribery, raised his hand against dishonest officials and corrupt judges. A clerk caught taking bribes was taken around the city and whipped, and a bag of bribes, be it money, furs, or some kind of goods, was hung on his chest. In the person of the clerk of the order, Godunov also found his worst opponents.
Boris Godunov was a passionate advocate of enlightenment and highly valued Western culture. Under him, a German settlement flourished in Moscow - Kokuy, where a Protestant church was built.
He promoted the development of book printing in the country, the construction of printing houses, dreamed of creating schools and even opening a university. Boris Godunov was the first of the Russian tsars to send noble children abroad for education.
The new king's special passion was construction. By his order, the first stone trading shops and a stone bridge across the Neglinka River were erected in Moscow. His name is associated with the construction of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, which still bears an inscription with the name of its creator, Boris Godunov. The king took care of the improvement of the capital. During his time, new pavements were laid. For the first time, water supply was installed in the Kremlin.
The country gradually began to revive, the mood of the people, especially its middle strata, changed in favor of the new king. This was also facilitated by his manner of dealing with people. He was always even-tempered, affable and friendly. But behind this gentleness hid a huge will, ambition and an unquenchable thirst for power. Good principles and thoughts constantly fought in his soul with dark passions. Feeling the enmity between the boyars and the dyacs, Godunov became extremely suspicious. Soon the Romanov boyars became victims of this suspicion.
Boris sought to remove these very rich and popular boyars from his path. Fyodor Nikitich was tonsured a monk under the name Filaret, his young children, Mikhail and Tatyana, were thrown into prison.
boyar, brother-in-law of Tsar Fyodor I Ioannovich, in 1587-1598 the de facto ruler of the state, from February 17, 1598 - Russian Tsar
Boris Godunov
short biography
Boris Fedorovich Godunov(1552 - April 23, 1605) - boyar, brother-in-law of Tsar Fyodor I Ioannovich, in 1587-1598 the de facto ruler of the state, from February 27, 1598 - Russian Tsar.
Origin
According to legend, the Godunovs were descended from the Tatar prince Chet, who came to Rus' during the time of Ivan Kalita. This legend is recorded in the chronicles early XVII century. According to the sovereign's genealogy of 1555, the Godunovs trace their origins to Dmitry Zern. Godunov's ancestors were boyars at the Moscow court. Boris Godunov was born in 1552. His father, Fyodor Ivanovich Godunov, nicknamed Krivoy, was a middle-class landowner in Vyazemsky district.
The English traveler describes his appearance this way:
As for the person of Tsar Boris, he was a tall and portly man, whose presence involuntarily reminded everyone of obedience to his authority; with black, although sparse hair, with regular facial features, he had a straight-on gaze and a strong physique.
Birth. early years
Boris Godunov was born in 1552, shortly before the conquest of Kazan, in the family of the middle-class Vyazma landowner Fyodor Ivanovich Godunov. Almost nothing is known about Father Fyodor, except for the nickname “Crooked,” which gives us an idea of the physical appearance of Father Boris. Boris's father Fedor and his brother Dmitry, in addition to family estates near Vyazma, from which they carried out local service to the sovereign, also owned a small estate in Kostroma.
After the death of the father of the Vyazma landowner Fyodor Krivoy (1569), Boris was taken into his family by his uncle Dmitry Godunov. During the years of the oprichnina, Vyazma, in which Dmitry Godunov’s possessions were located, passed to the oprichnina’s possessions. The ignorant Dmitry Godunov was enrolled in the oprichnina corps and soon received the high rank of head of the Bed Order at court.
Nomination
The promotion of Boris Godunov begins in the 1570s. In 1570 he became a guardsman, and in 1571 he was a groomsman at the wedding of Tsar Ivan the Terrible to Marfa Sobakina. In the same year, Boris himself married Maria Grigorievna Skuratova-Belskaya, daughter of Malyuta Skuratov. In 1578, Boris Godunov became a master. Two years after the marriage of his second son Fyodor to Godunov’s sister Irina, Ivan the Terrible granted Boris the title of boyar. The Godunovs slowly but surely climbed the hierarchical ladder: in the late 1570s - early 1580s. they won several local cases at once.
Godunov was smart and careful, trying for the time being to stay in the shadows. IN Last year Boris Godunov gained the life of the Tsar big influence at court. Together with B. Ya. Belsky, he became one of the close people of Ivan the Terrible.
The role of Godunov in the history of the tsar’s death is not entirely clear. On March 18 (28), 1584, Grozny, according to D. Horsey, was “strangled.” It is possible that a conspiracy was drawn up against the king. In any case, it was Godunov and Belsky who were next to the tsar in the last minutes of his life, and they announced to the people from the porch about the death of the sovereign.
Fyodor Ioannovich ascended the throne. The new tsar was not able to rule the country and needed a smart adviser, so a regency council of four people was created: Bogdan Belsky, Nikita Romanovich Yuryev (Romanov), princes Ivan Fedorovich Mstislavsky and Ivan Petrovich Shuisky.
On May 31 (June 10), 1584, on the day of the tsar’s coronation, Boris Godunov was showered with favors: he received the rank of equerry, the title of a close great boyar and governor of the Kazan and Astrakhan kingdoms. However, this did not mean that Godunov had sole power - at court there was a stubborn struggle between the boyar groups of the Godunovs, Romanovs, Shuiskys, Mstislavskys. In 1584, B. Belsky was accused of treason and exiled; the following year Nikita Yuryev died, and the elderly Prince Mstislavsky was forcibly tonsured a monk. Subsequently, the hero of the defense of Pskov, I.P. Shuisky, also fell into disgrace. In fact, since 1585, 13 out of 14 years of the reign of Fyodor Ioannovich - Boris Godunov ruled Russia.
Head of government under Tsar Fedor
The activities of Godunov's reign were aimed at comprehensively strengthening statehood. Thanks to his efforts, in 1589 the first Russian patriarch was elected, who became Metropolitan Job of Moscow. The establishment of the patriarchate testified to the increased prestige of Russia. In domestic policy Godunov's government prevailed common sense and prudence. An unprecedented construction of cities and fortifications began.
Boris Godunov patronized talented builders and architects. Church and city construction was carried out on a large scale. On the initiative of Godunov, the construction of fortresses began in the Wild Field - the steppe outskirts of Rus'. The Voronezh fortress was built in 1585, and Livny in 1586. To ensure the safety of the waterway from Kazan to Astrakhan, cities were built on the Volga - Samara (1586), Tsaritsyn (1589), Saratov (1590). In 1592, the city of Yelets was restored. The city of Belgorod was built on the Donets in 1596, and Tsarev-Borisov was built to the south in 1600. The settlement and development of the lands deserted during the yoke to the south of Ryazan (the territory of the present Lipetsk region) began. In Siberia in 1604 the city of Tomsk was founded.
In the period from 1596 to 1602, one of the most grandiose architectural structures of pre-Petrine Rus' was built - the Smolensk fortress wall, which later became known as the “stone necklace of the Russian Land.” The fortress was built on the initiative of Godunov to protect the western borders of Russia from Poland.
Under him, unheard-of innovations entered the life of Moscow, for example, a water supply system was built in the Kremlin, through which water was raised by powerful pumps from the Moskva River underground to the Konyushenny Yard. New fortifications were also built. In 1584-91, under the leadership of the architect Fyodor Savelyev, nicknamed the Horse, the walls of the White City were erected, 9 km long (they surrounded the area enclosed inside the modern Boulevard Ring). The walls and 29 towers of the White City were made of limestone, lined with brick and plastered. In 1592, on the site of the modern Garden Ring, another line of fortifications was built, wooden and earthen, nicknamed “Skorodom” for the speed of construction.
In the summer of 1591, the Crimean Khan Kazy-Girey with an army of one and a half thousand approached Moscow, however, finding himself at the walls of a new powerful fortress and under the guns of numerous guns, he did not dare to storm it. In minor skirmishes with the Russians, the khan's troops were constantly defeated; this forced him to retreat, abandoning his baggage train. On the way to the south, to the Crimean steppes, the khan's army suffered heavy losses from the Russian regiments pursuing him. For the victory over Kazy-Girey, Boris Godunov received the greatest reward of all the participants in this campaign (although the main governor was not he, but Prince Fyodor Mstislavsky): three cities in the Vazhsky land and the title of servant, which was considered more honorable than the boyar title.
Godunov sought to alleviate the situation of the townspeople. According to his decision, merchants and artisans who lived in “white” settlements (privately owned, paying taxes to large feudal lords) were counted among the population of “black” settlements (paying tax - “tax” - to the state). At the same time, the size of the “tax” levied on the settlement as a whole was left the same, and the share of the individual city dweller in it decreased.
The economic crisis of the 1570s - early 1580s forced them to establish serfdom. On November 24 (December 4), 1597, a decree was issued on “preparatory years”, according to which peasants who fled from their masters “before this... year for five years” were subject to investigation, trial and return “back to where someone lived.” Those who fled six years ago or earlier were not covered by the decree; they were not returned to their previous owners.
In foreign policy Godunov proved himself to be a talented diplomat. On May 18 (28), 1595, a peace treaty was concluded in Tyavzin (near Ivangorod), ending the Russian-Swedish war of 1590-1595. Godunov managed to take advantage of the difficult internal political situation in Sweden, and the Russian kingdom, according to the agreement, received Ivangorod, Yam, Koporye and Korela. Thus, Russia regained all the lands transferred to Sweden as a result of the unsuccessful Livonian War.
Death of Tsarevich Dmitry
The heir to the throne during the life of Tsar Fedor was his younger brother Dmitry, the son of the seventh wife of Ivan the Terrible. On May 15 (25), 1591, the prince died under unclear circumstances in the appanage city of Uglich. The official investigation was conducted by boyar Vasily Shuisky. Trying to please Godunov, he reduced the reasons for the incident to the “negligence” of the Nagikh boyars, as a result of which Dmitry accidentally stabbed himself with a knife while playing with his peers. The prince was rumored to be ill with epilepsy.
The chronicle of the Romanov times accuses Godunov of the murder of Boris, because Dmitry was the direct heir to the throne and prevented Boris from advancing to him. Isaac Massa gives the same version. However, Godunov’s participation in the conspiracy to kill the prince has not been proven. In 1829, historian M.P. Pogodin was the first to risk speaking out in defense of Boris’s innocence. The original criminal case of the Shuisky commission, discovered in the archives, became the decisive argument in the dispute. He convinced many historians of the 20th century (S. F. Platonov, R. G. Skrynnikov) that the true cause of the death of Ivan the Terrible’s son was an accident. However, this issue remained debatable, opinions were expressed both about the meaninglessness of the death of the prince for Godunov (in particular, pointing out the illegitimacy of the son from his seventh marriage in the eyes of the church, and therefore the doubtfulness of his rights to the throne), and about Boris’s direct interest in his death (for example , because of Dmitry’s hypothetical revenge, in the event of his accession to the throne, for his deportation to reign in Uglich).
Godunov on the throne
On January 7 (17), 1598, Fyodor Ivanovich died, and the male line of the Moscow branch of the Rurik dynasty was cut short. Isaac Massa writes: " I am firmly convinced that Boris hastened his death with the assistance and request of his wife, who wanted to become a queen as soon as possible, and many Muscovites shared my opinion" The only close heir to the throne was the second cousin of the deceased, tonsured a nun, Maria Staritskaya (1560-1611).
After attempts to appoint the widow of the deceased Tsar Irina, Boris’s sister, as the reigning queen, on February 17 (27), 1598, the Zemsky Sobor (taking into account, among other things, Irina’s “recommendation”) elected Fyodor’s brother-in-law, Boris Godunov, as Tsar, and took the oath of allegiance to him. On September 1 (11), 1598, Boris was crowned king. The close relationship, which was typical for that time, outweighed the distant relationship of possible contenders for the throne. No less important was the fact that Godunov had actually ruled the country on behalf of Fedor for a long time and had no intention of letting go of power after his death.
Boris's reign was marked by the beginning of Russia's rapprochement with the West. There was never before in Rus' a sovereign who was so favorable to foreigners as Godunov. He began to invite foreigners to serve. In 1604, he sent the okolnik M.I. Tatishchev to Georgia to marry his daughter to a local prince.
Contacts between the Moscow state and Europe, which began to actively develop during the time of Ivan III, practically ceased under Ivan the Terrible. During the reign of Boris, relations with foreign countries revived again. Merchants, doctors, industrialists, military men, learned people. They received positions, good salaries, land with peasants. Tsar Boris had the intention of opening a university in Moscow, but this was prevented by the conservative clergy, who were afraid that along with knowledge all sorts of heresies would come to Rus'. European culture penetrated into Russian everyday life. This applied to clothing, housing, social ceremonies, and even such things as shaving beards. Boris sent Russian people to study abroad, but they, as a rule, did not want to return to their homeland; however, Peter the Great also had problems with this. One can also note other common aspects in the policy of these two rulers of Russia, who are separated by more than 100 years: rapprochement with Europe, the transfer of Western culture to Russian soil.
Repression
The first tsar not from the Rurikovichs (except for such a figurehead as Simeon Bekbulatovich), Godunov could not help but feel the precariousness of his position. In terms of his suspicion, he was not much inferior to Grozny. Having ascended the throne, he began to settle personal scores with the boyars. According to a contemporary, “ He blossomed like a date with the leaves of virtue, and if the thorns of envious malice had not darkened the color of his virtue, he could have become like the ancient kings. In a rage, he vainly accepted slander against the innocent from slanderers and therefore brought upon himself the indignation of the officials of the entire Russian land: from here many evil evils arose against him and the prosperous kingdom of his beauty was suddenly overthrown».
This suspicion was already evident at first in the oath record, but later it came to disgrace and denunciations. Princes Mstislavsky and V.I. Shuisky, who, due to the nobility of their family, could have claims to the throne, Boris did not allow them to marry. From 1600, the king's suspicion increased noticeably. Perhaps Margeret’s news is not without probability that even at that time dark rumors were spreading that Demetrius was alive. The first victim of Boris's suspicion was Bogdan Belsky, whom the tsar instructed to build Tsarev-Borisov. According to the denunciation of Belsky's generosity to to military people and careless words: “ Boris is the Tsar in Moscow, and I am in Borisov"- Belsky was summoned to Moscow, subjected to various insults and exiled to one of the remote cities.
Prince Shestunov's servant denounced his master. The denunciation turned out to be unworthy of attention. Nevertheless, the informer was told the king's favor in the square and announced that the king, for his service and zeal, would grant him an estate and order him to serve as a child of the boyars. In 1601, the Romanov boyars and their relatives suffered due to a false denunciation. The eldest of the Romanov brothers, Feodor Nikitich, was exiled to the Siysky monastery and tonsured under the name of Philaret; His wife, having tonsured her hair under the name of Martha, was exiled to the Tolvuisky Zaonezhsky churchyard, and their young son Mikhail (the future king) to Beloozero. Persecution by Godunov aroused popular sympathy for his victims. Thus, the peasants of the Tolvui churchyard secretly helped the nun Marfa and “find out” news about Filaret for her.
Great Famine
Boris's reign began successfully, but a series of disgraces gave rise to despondency, and soon a real catastrophe broke out. In 1601 there were long rains, and then early frosts struck and, according to a contemporary, “ beat the strong scum with all the labor of human deeds in the fields" The following year, the harvest failed again. A famine began in the country and lasted three years. The price of bread has increased 100 times. Feeling that faith in him as a sovereign was disappearing, Boris forbade the sale of grain above a certain limit, even resorting to persecution of those who inflated prices, but did not achieve success. In an effort to help the hungry, he spared no expense, widely distributing money to the poor. But bread became more expensive, and money lost value. Boris ordered the royal barns to be opened for the hungry. However, even their reserves were not enough for all the hungry, especially since, having learned about the distribution, people from all over the country flocked to Moscow, abandoning the meager supplies that they still had at home. People began to think that this was God's punishment, that the reign of Boris Godunov was illegal and not blessed by God.
In 1601-1602 Godunov even agreed to temporarily restore St. George’s Day. True, he did not allow an exit, but only the export of peasants. The nobles thus saved their estates from final desolation and ruin. The permission given by Godunov concerned only small service people; it did not extend to the lands of members of the Boyar Duma and the clergy. But this step did not greatly strengthen the position of the king. Popular riots swept across the country.
Mass hunger and dissatisfaction with the establishment of “lesson years” became the cause of a major uprising led by Khlopok (1602-1603), in which peasants, serfs and Cossacks participated. The insurgency spread to about 20 districts of central Russia and the south of the country. The rebels united into large detachments that advanced towards Moscow. Boris Godunov sent an army against them under the command of I.F. Basmanov. In September 1603, in a fierce battle near Moscow, the rebel army of Khlopok was defeated. Basmanov died in battle, and Khlopok himself was seriously wounded, captured and executed.
At the same time, Isaac Massa reports that “ ...the reserves of bread in the country were greater than all the inhabitants could eat in four years... noble gentlemen, as well as all monasteries and many rich people had barns full of bread, some of it had already rotted from lying for many years, and they did not want sell it; and by the will of God the king was so blinded, despite the fact that he could order everything he wanted, he did not command in the strictest way that everyone sell their grain».
The appearance of an impostor
Rumors began to circulate throughout the country that the “born sovereign,” Tsarevich Dmitry, was alive. Godunov was frightened by the threat hanging over him. Detractors spoke unflatteringly about Godunov - “a worker.” At the beginning of 1604, a letter from a foreigner from Narva was intercepted, in which it was announced that the Cossacks had Dmitry, who had miraculously escaped, and that great misfortunes would soon befall the Moscow land.
October 16 (26), 1604 False Dmitry I with a handful of Poles and Cossacks moved towards Moscow. Even the curses of the Moscow Patriarch did not cool the people’s enthusiasm on the path of “Tsarevich Dmitry.” However, in January 1605, government troops sent by Godunov defeated the impostor at the Battle of Dobrynichi, who, with the few remnants of his army, was forced to leave for Putivl.
Death and posterity
The situation for Godunov was complicated by his state of health. Already in 1599, references to his illnesses appeared; the king was often unwell in the 1600s. April 13, 1605 Boris Godunov seemed cheerful and healthy, he ate a lot and with appetite. Then he climbed the tower, from which he often overlooked Moscow. He soon left there, saying that he felt faint. They called a doctor, but the king became worse: blood began to flow from his ears and nose. The king fainted and soon died at the age of 53.
The death of Tsar Boris happened completely suddenly and, moreover, under very strange circumstances. Some two hours after dinner, when, as usual, the doctors present had already left, leaving the Tsar, in their opinion, in good health, which was evidenced by his good appetite at dinner, the Tsar generally loved to eat well and heartily, although now it is permissible to think that in this he even reached the point of excess - he suddenly not only felt ill, but also felt pain in his stomach, so that, going to his bedchamber, he went to bed and ordered to call the doctors (who had already left ). But before they came to the call, the king died, having lost his tongue before his death. Shortly before his death, he, at his own request, with the greatest haste, was tonsured into the monastic rank, with a new name given to him.
There were rumors that Godunov poisoned himself in a fit of despair. According to another version, he was poisoned by his political opponents; the version of natural death is more likely, since Godunov was often ill before. He was buried in the Kremlin Archangel Cathedral.
Boris's son, Fyodor, an educated and extremely intelligent young man, became king. Soon there was a rebellion in Moscow, provoked by False Dmitry. Tsar Fedor and his mother were killed, leaving only Boris's daughter, Ksenia, alive. A bleak fate awaited her as the impostor's concubine. It was officially announced that Tsar Fedor and his mother were poisoned. Their bodies were put on display. Then Boris’s coffin was taken out of the Archangel Cathedral and reburied in the Varsonofevsky Monastery near Lubyanka. His family was also buried there: without a funeral service, like suicides.
Under Tsar Vasily Shuisky, the remains of Boris, his wife and son were transferred to the Trinity Monastery and buried in a sitting position at the northwestern corner of the Assumption Cathedral. On July 30 (August 9), 1622, Ksenia (in monasticism Olga) was buried in the same place. In 1782, a tomb was built over the tombs.
In 1945, the tomb of the Godunovs was opened by anthropologist M. M. Gerasimov, but the burial was previously disturbed by robbers - the bones and contents of the coffins were mixed, the skulls were not preserved, and the faces of the representatives of the Godunov dynasty were impossible to restore using the method of anthropological reconstruction.