Boris Godunov
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Boris Godunov Борис Годунов | |||||
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Xenia Godunova | |||||
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Dynasty | Godunov | ||||
Religion | Russian Orthodox |
Boris Feodorovich Godunov (
Early years
Boris Godunov was the most noted member of an ancient, now extinct, Russian family of
Godunov's career began at the
In 1580, the Tsar chose Boris Godunov's sister
Regency
Three years later, on his deathbed, Ivan IV appointed a council whose members consisted of Godunov,
At the time of his death, Ivan also had a three-year-old son,
When Dmitri's death was announced by the ringing of the church bell, the population of Uglich rose up in order to protest against the suspected assassination, which it believed was commissioned by Boris Godunov. Troops swiftly quelled the rebellion. Godunov ordered the removal of the Uglich bell's clapper (the bell's "tongue"). He had the offending bell ringer flogged in public and exiled to Siberia along with the townspeople who had not been executed.[12]
An official commission which was headed by
At the
A group of other boyars and
His policy was generally pacific and always prudent. In 1595, he recovered from Sweden some towns lost during the former reign. Five years previously he had defeated a Tatar raid upon Moscow, for which he received the title of
Godunov encouraged
During his rule, the Russian Orthodox Church received its patriarchate, placing it on an equal footing with the ancient Eastern churches and freeing it from the influence of the Patriarch of Constantinople. This pleased the Tsar, as Feodor took a great interest in church affairs.
In Godunov's most important domestic reform, a 1597 decree forbade peasants from transferring land from one landowner to another (which they had been freely able to do each year around Saint George's Day in November), thus binding them to the soil. This ordinance aimed to secure revenue, but it led to the institution of serfdom in its most oppressive form.[5] (See also Serfdom in Russia.)
Reign
Upon the death of the childless Feodor on 7 January 1598, as well as the rumored assassination of Feodor's much younger brother Dimitry, supposedly ordered by Boris himself in order to guarantee his seat on the throne, self-preservation as much as ambition led to Boris' rise to power. Had he not done so, the mildest treatment he could have hoped for would have been lifelong seclusion in a monastery. His election was proposed by Patriarch Job of Moscow, who believed that Boris was the only man who was able to cope with the difficulties of the situation. Boris, however, would only accept the throne from the Zemsky Sobor (national assembly), which met on 17 February and unanimously elected him on 21 February. On 1 September, he was solemnly crowned tsar.
During the first years of his reign, he was both popular and prosperous, and ruled well. He recognized the need for Russia to catch up with the intellectual progress of the West and he did his best to bring about educational and social reforms. He was the first tsar to import foreign teachers on a large scale, the first tsar to send young Russians to be educated abroad, and the first tsar to allow
Boris died after a lengthy illness and a stroke on 13/23 April 1605. He left one son,
Arts and popular media
Boris' life was
Boris was portrayed on BBC Radio 4 by Shaun Dooley in the radio plays Ivan the Terrible: Absolute Power[17] and Boris Godunov: Ghosts[18] written by Mike Walker and which were the first two plays in the first series of Tsar. The plays were broadcast on 11 and 18 September 2016.
The 2018 Russian television miniseries Godunov (TV series) is a historical drama based on the lives of the Godunovs with a focus on Boris Godunov (played by Sergey Bezrukov) and lasted for two seasons.
The character
Gallery
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Godunov's armour (detail), Kremlin Armoury
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Boris Godunov Overseeing the Studies of his Son, painting by N. Nekrasov (19th century)
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Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple and the Virgin of the Burning Bush, Walters Art Museum
See also
References
- ^ "Godunov". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
- ^ Uspenskij, F. B., & Litvina, A. F. (2021). The Birthday of Boris Godunov. Studi Slavistici, 18(1), 9–18. https://doi.org/10.36253/Studi_Slavis-10605
- ISBN 978-5902327561.
- ^ Pugachev, Alexey Nikolaevich (25 September 2002). "Vyazma – Homeland of Boris Godunov?". Vyazemsky Bulletin (in Russian). 11 (121).
- ^ a b c d public domain: Bain, Robert (1911). "Boris Fedorovich Godunov". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 254. This cites:
- Platon Vasilievich Pavlov, On the Historical Significance of the Reign of Boris Godunov (Rus.) (Moscow, 1850)
- Sergyei Mikhailivich Solovev, History of Russia (Rus.) (2nd ed., vols. vii–viii., St Petersburg, 1897).
- )
- ^ Natalia Pushkareva, Women in Russian History: From the Tenth to the Twentieth Century
- ISBN 2080644734.
- ^ a b Durant, Will (1961), The Story of Civilization, volume VII – "The Age of Reason Begins", Simon & Schuster, p. 513
- ^ "Dmitry Ivanovich | heir to Russian throne | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
- OCLC 1289513805.)
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ISBN 978-1904955689, p. 80.
- OCLC 1289513805.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ ISSN 0395-2649.
- ^ Bain 1911.
- ISBN 1563247984.
- ^ "Ivan the Terrible: Absolute Power, Tsar, Drama". BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
- ^ "Boris Godunov: Ghosts, Tsar, Drama". BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
External links
- Boris Godunov: a drama in verse at Project Gutenberg
- online opera guide to Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov
- Godunov to Nicholas II by Saul Zaklad
- The throne of Tsar Boris Godunov at the Wayback Machine (archived 19 January 2015)
- Ancestors of Boris Feodorovich Godunov, tsar of Russia (in Russian)
- Boris Godunov in English