The Succession Crisis That Almost Ruined the Russian State

The Time of Troubles in Russia was a tense period of 15 years when the near-800 year Rurikid dynasty came to end after the death of the childless Tsar Fyodor I, and political chaos on whom should succeed ensued. It sparked wars and invasions, assassinations and murders, uprisings, rebellions, and pretenders to the throne, all of which left the country quite literally in ruins.

But really, it could be argued that the Time of Troubles really began with Feodor I’s father, Ivan the Terrible.

His brutal and often cruel (but all in all quite successful) 51 year reign saw the formation of Russia itself, the establishment of the political system (the unquestionable autocracy answerable only to God), and the ruin of the country’s economy. Known for his anger, paranoia and random fits of rage (hence the moniker) Ivan began his family’s downfall by physically assaulting the pregnant wife of his son and heir (who was also called Ivan) causing her to miscarry, then in the subsequent disagreements he beat his son with a sceptre over the head, which killed him. He mourned the death of his beloved successor and eldest son, cursing himself for his bad temper, and when he died three years later in 1584 his sixth son of his first marriage, Fyodor I, was named successor.

But Fyodor was not cut out to rule, and is generally considered by historians today to have been a kind, generally good man (in contrast to his father), but was not interested in politics, and suffered from either an intellectual or learning disability that rendered him incapable of ruling in any capacity. He allowed his brother in law Boris Godunov (a powerful Boyar in court and favourite of Ivan the Terrible) to do most of the work as acting regent, remaining leader in title only.

Boris Godunov

When Fyodor died childless in 1598, this brought an end to his family’s eight century ruling line, and appointment needed to be made. Naturally, having ruled as de-facto regent for 14 years already, Boris Godunov was selected by a committee as the next Tsar. An ambitious man, he had already put the pieces in place during his regency to get ready for this moment.

And this is where things get really interesting (and a bit complicated).

Two years before he died, Ivan the Terrible did have another son, via his 7th wife (he was the Russian Henry VIII in many ways), called Dmitry. Recognising that Dmitry would be Fyodor I’s natural successor in the likely event that he produced no children of his own (which turned out to be the case), Godunov as acting regent had the boy and mother exiled to the town of Uglich.

Now, there are three possible explanations given as to what happened next:

1. Boris Godunov had Dmitry assassinated,

2. He attempted to have him assassinated but another boy they mistook to be Dmitry was killed instead, with the real Dmitry escaping and going in to hiding (more on that later),

3. The real Dmitry died by accident, suffering a seizure while playing with a knife and stabbing himself.

The official report at the time spuriously claimed it to be suicide. It is still much debated amongst historians, but despite how far fetched it sounds, the third theory is considered the most likely, with Godunov generally being absolved of the crime.

Either way, Dmitry was dead via a stab wound and the only possible obstacle to Boris Godunov’s path to the throne was out of the way (at least for now). He ruled as Tsar in his own right for 7 years, and while the country was already in chaos, and an appointed successor at this time was always likely to struggle, he proved extremely unpopular and made a lot of enemies at home and abroad. The first few years of his rule saw a third of the Russian population die to famine.

The False Dmitrys

Now we return to Ivan the Terrible’s exiled and potentially murdered son, Dmitry. After his death, rumours circulated almost immediately that he hadn’t actually died, but had escaped. No matter how it happened the rumours of his survival (along with Boris Godunov’s unpopularity) gave enough impetus for a string of pretenders in the following years to claim to be the returning Dmitry, and desperation amongst the population in wanting to believe it to be true gave it power.

It started one day in March 1605, when the first of the False Dmitrys marched on Moscow with the backing of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, looking to overthrow Tsar Boris Godunov. Over the following month or so they fought a few skirmishes, and then Godunov suddenly died after a stroke. This left his only son to rule as Feodor II, aged just 16.

Despite being extremely intelligent and well prepared to succeed as Tsar, and despite his cautious and wise father ensuring he was protected with powerful friends, treachery by the boyars led to him and his mother being arrested and strangled a mere two months later. The False Dmitry marched in to Moscow and his coronation was soon after, with the head of the powerful boyars, Vasili Shuisky, even confirming his identity as the real son of Ivan.

This pretender ruled for almost a year, but his downfall came when he angered the Church by not having his Polish wife convert to Russian Orthodoxy, as was tradition. Vasili Shuisky, whom had favoured him and helped him seize the throne in the first place, now did a U-turn. Funnily enough, it had been Vasili himself who had reported from Ulgich all those years ago that the boy Dmitry (the real one) had died by suicide, then after confirming the imposter’s identity, in a final twist, he suddenly reminded everyone that the real Dmitry was actually dead, and publicly called out the Tsar as an imposter. Just ten days after the False Dmitry’s marriage, he was captured and killed after briefly fleeing, his body was cremated, and his ashes dramatically fired from a canon in the direction of Poland.

Via some first rate politicking, the head of the boyars was crowned Tsar Vasili IV, but Russia at this point was fractured internally, at war with an invading Poland, and rebellions were emerging throughout the country. Vasili’s reign was so ineffective that it wasn’t formally recognised until long after his death. Indeed, the boyars themselves continued to command the real power, and Vasili remained Tsar simply because there was no one else who could replace him. During his rule, two further False Dmitrys would stir up unrest, claiming once again to be the real Dmitry who had miraculously escaped the previous murder, gaining support from various factions in the country in the process (the first False Dmitry’s Polish wife, in a desperate attempt to regain the throne, even claimed the second to be her husband, despite them looking nothing at all alike). But these pretenders proved far less successful, competing with invading and far more powerful Polish forces, and both in turn were captured and killed to put the matter to rest for good.

Four years later, the conquering Polish had stormed in to Moscow (after years of them trying to take advantage of the unrest caused by the Troubles), Vasili IV was deposed, and the Polish King’s son Vladislav IV Vasa was elected Tsar by the boyars (with Vasili being shipped off to Poland where he would die shortly afterwards in prison).

History may well have turned out far different were it not for Vladislav’s meddling father, who refused to allow his son to move to Moscow and convert to Russian Orthodoxy, as per the request of the boyars. The Polish Prince was technically Tsar, but like many during this time, held no power or legitimacy, was never coronated and never sat on the throne. Not long after this, renewed Russian forces pushed out the Polish armies occupying the country and regained independence. Vladislav would technically remain the Russian Tsar, but once again by title only.

The rise of the Romanovs

Eager to end the chaos of the past 15 years, a parliament called the Zemsky Sobor met in 1613 with a difficult decision to make. To fully appreciate the mess the country was in, the participants in this meeting (between 700 and 1500 of them) arrived in Moscow and the only building standing that could hold them all was a cathedral, with much of the capital completely destroyed. Needing a legitimate ruler who could not be contested or challenged, and needing to start a new line of succession to quell the uprisings, imposters and intrigue in court, they assembled a list of possible candidates. On this list was Vladislav (technically still the Tsar at this point) who they considered legitimising, and the Swedish King’s son, who they considered borrowing, but neither of these foreigners were appealing after years of war and occupation.

They then ran through the noble families in Russia, and eventually unanimously decided the Romanovs would take the throne, namely Michael, whose great-aunt was the beloved first wife of Ivan the Terrible, and uncle and father had been powerful and respected boyars.

Having decided on Michael, however, the matter still wasn’t settled. They had two problems: firstly, the Romanovs were exiled in 1600 by Tsar Boris Godunov, so they had no idea where Michael was, and secondly, when they finally found him at the Ipatiev Monastery months later, he and his protective mother were resistant to the poisoned chalice that had become the Russian crown. The Zemsky Sobor had to literally get down on their knees and beg, until he eventually relented, and aged 16 became Tsar Michael I.

Despite these initial hurdles, the chaos of the country, and his own listless and indifferent attitude to the throne, Michael’s reign proved to be incredibly successful. It stabilised the country, ending the succession crisis and formally bringing an end to the Time of Troubles, and established a new dynastic line that was rule Russia for the next 304 years.

* * *

Simon Sebag Montefiore’s excellent The Romanovs: 1613–1918, while focusing on the dynasty itself, does a brilliant job of concisely setting the scene during the crisis, as was used as my main source for this piece.