Boris Godunov

The death of Ivan IV had left his remaining legitimate son, Fyodor, as the heir to the throne. Fyodor was weak both physically and mentally, and much of the ruling of Russia fell to Fyodor's brother-in-law, Boris Godunov. Godunov was an intelligent man, part of the new nobility, and he therefore avoided many of the traps which plagued the other royal advisors. For most of Fyodor's reign, Godunov was actually in control, and when Fyodor died in 1598, Godunov was chosen as the new tsar.

Fyodor's only other male sibling, Dmitrii, had died in 1591 under somewhat mysterious circumstances. Dmitrii was the last son of Ivan IV, but due to the fact that his mother was Ivan's seventh wife, Dmitrii was not considered legitimate. After Ivan's death, Dmitrii and his mother were moved to a palace compound in Uglich, outside of Moscow, where they lived until Dmitrii's death in 1591. Dmitrii's death has never fully been explained; according to the tale told in the capital after Godunov came to the throne, Dmitrii had been playing with throwing knives, and he had been stabbed with one of them. In the first few years after his death, there was little controversy; it was simply believed that he had fallen or accidentally stabbed himself. After Godunov came to the throne, however, many of his enemies, especially among the old elite, began to suggest that Godunov had had the boy killed to remove any obstacles from his path. This theory, in retrospect, does not make any sense: Dmitrii was not legitimate, and therefore would not have been accepted by the church, and in 1591, it was still possible that Fyodor would father an heir. At the time, however, rumors began to swirl that Godunov had planned Dmitrii's death. (We may never know what really happened, but some historians have suggested that Dmitrii may have been an epileptic, which would account for his falling on the knife; epilepsy was seen as a sign of weakness at the time, and it is unlikely that anyone would have made mention of Dmitrii suffering from the so called "falling sickness".)

Godunov in Power

Godunov's years in power were not popular ones. Russia was going through a period of famine and drought, which contributed to Godunov's lack of popularity. In addition, he named his own son to be his heir, which rankled the old boyars, who felt that the boyar duma (noble council) should choose the heir.
In the middle of this chaos and uncertainty, a man claiming to be Dmitrii appeared in Poland. This first "False Dmitrii" was in reality a Polish monk, but he convinced many people, including Dmitrii's own mother, that he truly was the son of Ivan IV, and that he had escaped Godunov's murderous plans with the assistance of his faithful retainers. He began to march into Russia at the head of the Polish army in 1604. Godunov died suddenly, probably of heart failure, and his son, Fyodor, was declared tsar. When the false Dmitrii arrived in Moscow in June 1605, however, he was declared tsar, and Godunov's son, daughter, and wife were all executed. This new tsar did not last long: he had married a Polish woman, and spoke virtually no Russian, and in the spring of 1606 he was killed, along with several thousand Polish and Russian supporters. One of the leading boyars, Vasilii Shuiskii, became tsar, so that in a period of approximately 14 months four different men were declared tsar of all the Russias. Shuiskii's reign was no more successful: he was not a popular leader, and his reign was, as Riasanovsky puts it, "merely the victory of a boyar clique." Shuiskii was opposed by a wide range of Russians, including those who believed that the false Dmitrii had not been killed, and who rallied to his banner (the first False Dmitrii's wife claimed that he was her husband and bore him a child, and Dmitrii's mother recognized the pretender as her son). Another pretender, False Peter, claimed to be the son of Fyodor, and therefore the grandson of Ivan IV; since there was no evidence that Fyodor had ever fathered a son, this was a tenuous claim at best, and he was hanged shortly after making an appearance in the battle for succession.

All of the chaos, deaths, and uncertainly was compounded by the invasion of Russia by Poland in 1610. Vasilii Shuiskii was deposed and forced to take vows as a monk, and an interregnum period began, which lasted until 1613.

The Election of Mikhail Romanov

By 1613, the chaos of the previous 10 years left Russia shaken, and the victory of the national army against the Poles who had seized Moscow seemed to signify the beginning of change. The zemskii sobor was specially called to elect a new tsar and thereby create a stable government. The zemskii sobor included members from all areas of society, including peasants and townspeople, although probably not serfs, and immediately chose to exclude foreigners as possible candidates for the Russian throne.

Ultimately, the zemskii sobor chose Mikhail Romanov, a sixteen year old, to be the new tsar. Their decision was ratified by the local populations, and Mikhail and his descendants would rule Russia for the next 304 years.

The reasons Romanov was chosen were varied. First, he had ties to the old Riurikovich line due to his blood tie with Anastasia Romanova, Ivan IV's first wife. Anastasia had been popular and well thought of, and that helped as well, and the Romanov family was generally well liked. Mikhail was also young, which meant that he had not chosen sides during the Godunov episode or the False Dmitrii chaos. His youth also was a benefit because the boyars believed that they could manipulate him to obey them, a belief that would be quickly put to rest. His father, Filaret, had been forced to take holy vows and was in a Polish prison, so he would not be able to interfere with his son's reign (or so the boyars believed). Finally, the patriarch of Moscow supported him, although the patriarch died as a prisoner of the Poles before the election took place.

All told, Mikhail was a popular choice, and on July 21, 1613, the new tsar was crowned in Moscow. The Romanov dynasty had begun.