Tsesarevich Dmitry killed. The trails of history. The death of Tsarevich Dmitry. Unsolved case of the XVI century. The death of Tsarevich Dmitry in Uglich - a morbid disease or attack

On May 15, 1591, in Uglich, during a poke game under unknown circumstances, Tsarevich Dmitry, the son of Maria Nagoy’s last wife, was killed. This event caused a rebellion, in particular, political opponents of Nagih and Uglich posadnik were killed. The government formed a commission of inquiry to ascertain the circumstances of the death. The investigation decided that the cause of the Tsarevich’s death was an accidental suicide, but rumor attributed the blame for this death to Boris Godunov.

Over the past centuries, the idea of \u200b\u200bGodunov’s unequivocal guilt in the death of the Tsarevich was entrenched in public consciousness. Particularly popular with this conviction was the play by A.S. Pushkin "Boris Godunov." In the work, Boris Godunov is shown as a wise and firm ruler, but throughout the whole story he is tormented by remorse for the death of a child:

... as a rebuke knocks in the ears with a hammer,
And everything feels sick and dizzy
And the boys are bloody in the eyes ...

Actuality

After the death of Ivan the Terrible, the throne was taken by his son Fyodor Ivanovich. It is believed that he was distinguished by poor health and poor mind. The real power was in the hands of his brother-in-law, Boris Godunov.

The youngest son of Ivan IV - Dmitry - together with his mother and relatives sent to the specific city of Uglich. The Tsarevich was brought up surrounded by the tsarina's relatives - Nagih.

Many historians, starting with N.M. Karamzin openly accused Boris Godunov of this atrocity. Historical sources, tales and legends illustrate the details of his murder, however, none of the authors of the works was an eyewitness of Uglich events. It would seem that many facts speak against Boris. After all, it was he who eventually gained power in 1598.

Some historians, including R.G. Skrynnikov interpreted these events radically differently. Dmitry was the son of Ivan IV from his eighth marriage, who did not receive the blessing of the church.

By the time of the death of the Tsarevich (1591), the possibility of the appearance of a legitimate heir with Tsar Fedor did not disappear, because the latter died only a long time after the events described in 1598. Could he have calculated the course of events for the next seven years ahead?

There is an opinion that Boris Godunov specially sent loyal people to Uglich, whose task was not to clarify the truth, but to extinguish the rumor about the Tsarevich's violent death. However, as R.G. notes. Skrynnikov, one should pay attention to the fact that the investigation was led by the political opponent of Godunov, the cunning and dodgy prince Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky. Researchers were confused by Shuisky's behavior, because later on, he changed his testimony several times. According to the findings of the Investigative Commission, Boris was not involved in the death of the prince. However, further V.I. Shuisky twice changed his point depending on the political situation. And in the end, becoming king, he recognized and made the official version of the murder of Dmitry. Should I trust such evidence?

It is interesting to note that immediately after the death of the prince, by the decree of Tsarina Maria Nagoy there was a bloody lynching, during which a version appeared about the planned murder of the prince. The nude prepared false evidence to confuse investigators, but the fraud was revealed. If the prince was really killed, why did it have to be done?

From the point of view of some researchers, the Commission of Inquiry was entrusted with investigating two points: the case of the death of the Tsarevich, and the case of the treason of Nagih.

As already noted above, the investigation recorded a version of the accidental, accidental death of the prince. This version was based on two statements. The first was that the prince suffered from a terrible disease - epilepsy, or as it was called in Russia "epilepsy", "black malady." The second fact - exactly at the time of the game of knives with the prince there was an attack of epilepsy. All eyewitnesses recorded a seizure of a child.

Some researchers believe that the testimony of the Uglich about the accidental death of the Tsarevich was obtained under pressure and threats. R.G. Skrynnikov, however, notes that the commission did not pursue its witnesses.

The investigation carefully and in detail examined the fact of Dmitry’s death and direct evidence indicating Boris Godunov’s involvement in it was not revealed. Another thing is that with the advent of the Time of Troubles, "the name of Dmitry" was adopted by the adventurer who captured the Moscow yard. And the "myth of the miraculously saved Dmitry Ioannovich" itself began to be used by different classes to satisfy its interests.

Of course, it is impossible to unequivocally declare the involvement or non-involvement of Boris Godunov in the death of the prince. This issue is still debatable, but direct evidence condemning Boris Godunov has not yet been found.

Sources and literature

Pushkin A.S.  Boris Godunov M., 1978.

The death of the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, the young Tsarevich Dmitry, still leaves few indifferent and causes controversy among historians. So to the end it is not clear: how exactly did the prince die, and whether he died in general on May 15, 1591. There is no single official version of the death of the prince. Each time, priority is given to the version that is convenient for the current government. Under the Romanovs, it was believed that the prince was killed on the orders of Godunov. Under Soviet rule, the Tsarevich’s suicide as a result of an epilepsy attack was held. And despite the fact that there are several deaths of the Tsarevich, today more and more new readings of this event appear.

Version of the death of Tsarevich Dmitry

At a clear noon on May 15, 1591, Tsarevich Dmitry was killed in Uglich. It was the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, the last of the Rurikovich. And for more than 400 years, disputes about the death of a child have not ceased, versions are being put forward and new puzzles arise.

The background of the death of the prince

Dmitry was born of Maria Nagoy, the fifth wife of Ivan the Terrible. According to church canons, he was considered illegitimate, since the Orthodox Church recognizes only three marriages as legal. In addition to the young Dmitry, only Fedor, who was weak in health and mind, remained alive from the children of Tsar John. Fedor not only could not manage the state, he even could not independently manage his own life. Therefore, even during his lifetime, Ivan the Terrible appointed brother-in-law Fyodor Boris Godunov as something like a regent under the weak-minded prince Fyodor. The tsar also took care of his youngest son, giving him the Uglich principality as his inheritance. There, to Uglich, the whole family of the former tsarina was sent along with the young prince Dmitry after the death of Ivan the Terrible. To keep an eye on the family was entrusted to the clerk Mikhail Bityagovsky and several other service people. The country was actually ruled by Boris Godunov. Fedor was a decorative figure.

Events of May 15, 1591 in Uglich

In May 1591, Tsarevich Dmitry was in his ninth year. The events of Saturday, May 15, developed as follows. Maria Nagaya went to church for mass. I took my son with me. When she returned, she went to the palace for dinner, and let her son go play with the yard boys in the courtyard. The tsarevich should have been looked after by the nurse Arina Tuchkova, the nanny Vasilisa Volokhova and the prisoner Maria Kolobova. The boys were playing knives. The prince had not a flat knife, but a pile - a type of stylet designed for piercing strikes. Suddenly, a commotion broke out among the boys. Arina Tuchkova ran up and saw the prince lying dead with a wound on his neck. In her arms the boy died. The oldest of the boys, Petrushka Kolobov, ran to the palace to notify the queen. Maria Nagaya, jumping out into the yard, began to frantically beat the nurse Volokhov in the head with logs and scream that the son of Osip Volokhov had killed the prince. After that, the queen ordered to sound the alarm. The townspeople fled to the palace. Together with others came the clerk Bityagovsky, as well as Osip Volokhov. Maria Nagaya screamed that Osip Volokhov had killed the prince. The crowd became agitated and tried to arrange a lynching. The clerk Bityagovsky and other people who tried to calm the excited crowd were killed. They also killed Osip Volokhov, who was hiding in the church, where the body of the prince had already been transferred. A total of 15 people were killed that day.

Consequence

Godunov assembled a commission of commission. She arrived in Uglich on May 19th. Given the speed of that time, we can say that this happened immediately. The commission was led by Vasily Shuisky, one of Godunov’s main opponents. The members of the commission were also Kleshnin - a deceased, duma clerk Vyluzgin, from the church - Metropolitan Gelvasia. The composition of the commission was selected very competently. All its members had different political preferences, and there could be no conspiracy between them. The investigation was carried out very carefully. Hundreds of witnesses were interviewed. Interrogations were conducted publicly in the courtyard of Uglich Kremen. At the meeting of the commission, everyone could attend. Falsifications or pressure on witnesses were absolutely excluded. The main witnesses were the boys, the tsarevich’s comrades in his last game, as well as the nurse Volokhov, the nurse Tuchkova and the prisoner Kolobova. On the basis of their testimony, the commission concluded that the death of Tsarevich Dmitry occurred as a result of an accident. All the main witnesses showed that during the game Dmitry began to have an attack of an epileptic illness, which he had suffered for a long time and which had been especially tormenting him lately. The Tsarevich fell to the ground and either during a fall, or already on the ground during convulsions, he ran into a knife.

In 1591, all of Russia adopted this version. The Nagih family was punished for inciting the crowd. Tsarina Maria Nagaya was tonsured a nun and sent to Beloozero. The Nagoy brothers, Mikhail, Andrei, and Gregory, are imprisoned. Many Uglichs were sent to a settlement in Siberia for reprisal against sovereign people. A bell was also sent there, which convened an uglitsa at a gathering. The tongue was previously pulled out from the bell.

The use of the death of Tsarevich Dmitry against Godunov

And life in Russia took its normal course. But here in 1598, Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich died. On it, the Rurik dynasty stopped. And Zemsky Sobor elected Boris Godunov Tsar. Immediately activated the party of opponents Godunov. As regent with the ailing sovereign, they could still tolerate him, but their election to the kingdom caused them a sharp rejection. Godunov was "artful", i.e. came from noble petty noblemen, and the boyars considered him an upstart. In addition, they did not like the generally correct from the point of view of the development of the state, but infringing on their personal interests, Godunov’s policy. Then rumors spread that Tsarevich Dmitry was killed on the instructions of Godunov. And here in Poland False Dmitry appeared. Thus, several versions of the death of Tsarevich Dmitry arose.

Version of the death of Tsarevich Dmitry

1. Tsarevich committed suicide.
2. Tsarevich was killed on the instructions of Godunov.
3. Tsarevich replaced and thereby saved from death.

Let's consider each version in more detail. Weigh the pros and cons.

1. Tsarevich's suicide as a result of an accident.

In favor of this version are the results of a rigorous and impartial investigation. But this has its own “buts” ... First, the statistics of deaths during epileptic seizures does not know cases when a patient would die as a result of injuries inflicted on himself by himself. Immediately after the onset of an attack of epilepsy, the patient is not able to hold something in his hands. In the case of Dmitry, the knife was supposed to slip out of his hands immediately. In order for the prince to run into a knife with his throat, the knife had to stick into the ground with a handle.

The lack of care of the queen and the nannies, which a child with epilepsy is allowed to play with knives, is also striking. After all, according to their own stories, during an attack, he had already cut his mother with this pile. It seems that they looked after the prince got the latest fools that were found in the Moscow state.

It makes us doubt that Vasily Shuisky, ascending the throne, announced that he himself made the wrong conclusion about the suicide of the prince, and that the prince was killed on the instructions of Godunov. The church even declared Tsarevich Dmitry a holy martyr. His relics were transferred to the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.

1. Godunov “ordered” the murder of the prince.

According to the law of the detective genre, you always need to watch "who benefits." Only the death of the heir to the throne is beneficial to Godunov. But here there are some nuances. Godunov was an intelligent man and understood that he was in power only thanks to Fedor Ioannovich. Therefore, he protected it like the apple of an eye. He also understood that his opponents would use the death of Dmitry against him. Godunov’s position was very precarious so that he allowed himself to encroach on the heir to the throne. Moreover, despite the fact that Godunov had once served as a guardian and was the son-in-law of Malyuta Skuratov, he did not differ in bloodthirstiness. For all the years that he was in power, there was not a single execution for political reasons. In the worst case, Godunov sent his opponents into exile or sheared monks. And the murder of a child somehow does not fit into his reputation as a sane ruler.

Nevertheless, Godunov was considered the usurper of power in Russia, and the version of the assassination of Tsarevich Dmitry by order of Godunov was very popular. Later, the Romanovs also supported this version. Officially, this version is also considered by the church. Karamzin in "History of the Russian State" also adheres to this version. Following Karamzin, Pushkin writes the tragedy Boris Godunov, where Godunov also stands guilty of the death of Tsarevich Dmitry. And then, based on the tragedy of Boris Godunov, Modest Mussorgsky wrote the opera Boris Godunov. And now in the minds of every Russian person Boris Godunov is associated with the death of Tsarevich Dmitry ..

1. The replacement of the prince and his miraculous salvation.

A separate article should be devoted to this.

To be continued...

In the fall of 1580, at the height of the Livonian War, the formidable Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich noisily celebrated his eighth wedding in the Alexander Sloboda settlement. This time, his wife was Maria, daughter of the boyar Fedor Fedorovich Nagoy. In the temple, where the wedding took place, there was neither a metropolitan nor bishops. The liturgy was served by priest Nikita, the sovereign favorite of the guardsmen, who was placed in the priests of the Transfiguration Cathedral at the request of Ivan Vasilievich; he also married the young.

The silent connivance of the church in such a flagrant violation of its statutes has long been commonplace. When, after the sudden death of the third wife of Martha Vasilyevna Sobakina, the tsar decided to impose lawlessness unprecedented in Russia by taking his fourth wife, Anna Alekseevna Koltovskaya, he was still anxious to receive the blessing of this marriage. At the church cathedral, Ivan Vasilievich complained to the clergy that evil people by sorcerity harassed his first wife Anastasia, poisoned the second, Cherkasy princess Maria Temryukovna, killed the third; that in despair, in sorrow, he wanted to devote himself to a monastic life, but seeing the miserable youth of his sons and the state in distress, he dared to have a fourth marriage, since it is tempting to live in a world without a wife, and now, falling in affection, he asks the saints for permission and blessing . The cathedral, led by Novgorod Archbishop Leonid, went on a frank deal with the king. For the sake of the warm, touching repentance of the sovereign, they decided to affirm the marriage by imposing penances on the king, and so that the king’s lawlessness would not be a temptation for the people, they threatened with anathema to anyone who, like the sovereign, dares to take his fourth wife. A year later, Ivan Vasilievich exiled his bored wife to the monastery; His main accomplice in this marriage, Archbishop Leonid, soon ordered to be sewn up in a bear's coat and hunted by dogs, after which, without consulting the clergy, he allowed himself several more marriages. The fifth wife, Maria Dolgorukova, did not preserve her virginity for the tsar and was drowned; the sixth and seventh - Anna Vasilchikova and Vasilisa Melentyeva - disappeared in the middle of nowhere.

Everything at this wedding was the same as it was at the king’s previous weddings - squeals squealed, nasally bleated horns, dumb bells jingled on tambourines, guests ate outlandish dishes - fried swans, sugar creams, meat of all kinds, deer baked from dough , ducks, unicorns, drank themselves with expensive wines, cheekily joked, screamed drunken songs. Unusually, there was only a distribution of wedding ranks. They sat down at the same table with Ivan Vasilievich and Maria Fedorovna: the imprisoned father of the tsar, his youngest son Fedor, the royal friend of the prince Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky, the planted mother of the bride, Irina Fedorovna, the wife of prince Fedor, and the tsaritsyn friend - the deceased boyar and kravchiy Boris Fedorovich God .

On that day, none of those present at the wedding could have imagined that those who were destined in the future, contrary to their origin and position, to inherit the Moscow throne were sitting next to the royal couple. Fate already imperceptibly connected their fates, and from this inconspicuous little node began the countdown of the Time of Troubles.

The wedding only briefly distracted the king from the black thoughts. Ivan Vasilievich was in a daze, caused by the military successes of the Poles and Swedes. The Livonian war was nearing its inglorious end. The Swedish general Delagardi took Narva, having cut out several thousand inhabitants in it, took possession of Koreloi, the banks of Izhora, the cities of Yam and Koporye. The troops of Stefan Batory took in Livonia and in Russia itself city after city; Radziwill, son of the Vilnius governor, raided the banks of the Volga and reached Rzhev. The successes of the voivode Ivan Petrovich Shuisky, who defended Pskov and troubled the army of Batory with bold attacks, could not return the formidable tsar to his former courage and faith in the invincibility of his weapon. “You have quite felt our strength; God willing, you will feel again! ” - Bathory proudly wrote to him and taunted: “The chicken protects its chicks from the eagle and hawk, and you, the two-headed eagle, are hiding from us ... Do you regret Christian blood? Set time and place; appear on a horse and fight with me face to face, may God crown the right with victory! ” Kurbsky echoed to him: “So you lost Polotsk with the bishop, clergy, army, people, and you, having gathered with the military forces, are hiding behind the forest, you’re a runner and a runner! Nobody is chasing you yet, and you tremble and disappear. It’s evident that your conscience is crying inside you, convicting you for heinous deeds and countless bloodsheds! ” So it was. Ivan Vasilievich was afraid of treason and was afraid to send an army to meet enemies; I was sure that the governors would seize him and give him to Batory.

Shortly after the wedding, the orgies resumed in Alexandrovskaya Sloboda, with buffoons, girls and executions. Ivan Vasilievich poured heavily wine, trying to drown out the fear and shame in himself for his humiliation. He completely lost interest in his new wife. The beauty of Mary could not for a long time seduce the satiated king, who boasted that he had corrupted a thousand virgins in his life. There is news that he married her only in order to reassure Tsarevich Ivan and his fellow boyars, annoyed by his intention to seek the hand of the English Queen Elizabeth. Aging, Ivan Vasilievich began to be afraid of his eldest son and sometimes hated him, perhaps because he saw himself in him. The participant - at first involuntary - of all his father's orgies and executions, Tsarevich Ivan paid the tsar the same, more often drowning out the fear of the parent by his willfulness and insolence.

In November 1581, the confrontation between father and son was resolved by the death of the prince, who died under unclear circumstances. The king sat still at the body of his son for three days while preparations for the burial were going on ... Relatives, clergy, deceased, who approached him with exhortations and comforts, could not get a word from him. In the Archangel Cathedral, where the coffin with the tsar’s body was brought from the Alexander’s settlement in his arms, the tsar, in one black robe, clinging to the coffin, sobbed all the service and the funeral service, and then, after the burial, he fought for a long time with the dreary animal howl on the ground ...

Returning to the Alexander settlement, Ivan Vasilyevich for some time secluded himself from everyone. But once he appeared in the boyar’s Duma - melting, yellow, squinting his sore eyes. In dead silence, he solemnly announced that Monomakh was laying off his crown and cutting his hair as a monk to end the days in repentance and prayer, in the hope of the mercy of the Lord alone; the boyars must choose among themselves a worthy sovereign, to whom he will immediately hand over the power and surrender the kingdom.

There were those who were ready to believe in the sincerity of the king. However, most of the boyars, prudently fearing that if they agreed with the tsar, the attraction to the schema might suddenly disappear, began to beg him not to go to the monastery, at least until the end of the war. With apparent displeasure, Ivan Vasilyevich agreed to extend the care of the state and the people handed to him by God. But as a sign of his grief, he sent a crown, a scepter and magnificent royal vestments to the Kremlin treasury. The court, together with the king, dressed in mourning and grew hair in a sign of repentance. Ivan Vasilievich daily served as a requiem. Repented. He sent rich gifts to the East, to the patriarchs - to Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem - to pray for the repose of the soul of his son. He vigorously recalled all the people executed and tortured by him, and inscribed their names in synodics. He simply wrote about those whom he could not remember: "They are to you, Lord, know!"

Probably, under the influence of a repentant mood, he reconciled with Mary. In February 1582, in the second year of her marriage, she felt pregnant.

S.M. Prokudin-Gorsky. Veil sewn by Maria Nagoy. Photo of 1910.

But soon Maria was completely disgusted with him. Ivan Vasilievich resumed marriage union projects with the English royal house. In August 1582, he sent to London the nobleman Fyodor Pisemsky to discuss the conditions of his marriage with Mary Hastings, niece of Queen Elizabeth. About Maria Pisemsky it was ordered to say that although the king has a wife, she is not some kind of queen, but a simple subject, not pleasing to him and for the sake of the queen's niece you can drive her away.

In the fall, the courtyard moved to Moscow. Here, on October 19, on the day of remembrance of the holy martyr Ouar, Mary gave birth to a boy named at the baptism of Dmitry. (Perhaps the name for her son was chosen in honor of one of her ancestors. The nagas came from Denmark. Their ancestor, Olgerd Prega, in baptism Dmitry, left Denmark in 1294 to visit Grand Duke Mikhail Yaroslavovich of Tver, and was in his boyars. ) Prince Ivan Fyodorovich Mstislavsky, a descendant of the ancient Lithuanian princes, related with the reigning house, was chosen as the prince’s receiver.

In the winter of 1584, it became clear that the king’s ninth marriage would not take place. Pisemsky wrote from London that the Queen's niece is sick with smallpox and, moreover, does not want to change her faith. Mary, every minute expecting separation from her son and tonsuring a monastery, was relieved from her heart. But her future was still unclear.

In January, Ivan Vasilievich fell ill: his genitals were swollen, his viscera were rotting, the tsar's body emitted a disgusting stench. Two months of a terrible disease, which the doctors found it difficult to determine, although they saw its cause in the former depraved life and the unbridled passions of the king, turned him into a decrepit old man. However, he had never wanted to live so badly. Desperate in the art of foreign doctors, he distributed generous alms to monasteries, sought salvation in the witchcraft of healers and healers, who, by his order, were brought to Moscow from the far north ...

Near the dying king, Godunov and Belsky grappled. At their instigation, Ivan Vasilievich made and changed his wills every day. Belsky set him up to hand over government to the hands of the Austrian Archduke Ernest, whom the tsar had once wanted to make the Polish king. Kravchiy turned out to be more agile: he succeeded in transferring the throne to Fedor and appointing a guardian council with him, which included himself, Belsky, boyar Nikita Romanovich Zakharyin and princes Ivan Fedorovich Mstislavsky and Ivan Petrovich Shuisky. The tsar appointed Uglich as his inheritance to Dmitry and his mother; Tsarevich’s education was entrusted to Belsky.

This last will was signed on March 15th. Until the death of the king was only three days. During this time, Belsky, having forgotten about the Austrian Archduke, knocked out Nagih - the queen's father, brothers and uncles - to jointly seek the throne for Dmitry. The fact that the one and a half year old prince according to the canons of the church was considered illegitimate did not bother them - after all, he was a natural sovereign, flesh from the flesh of the formidable king. It is not known whether Mary approved the plans of the conspirators; most likely she was not asked for consent. It is possible that Belsky had more distant views of the future. It is possible that, using the name of Dmitry, he hoped to remove the Monomakhs crown from the head of Fedor, then to entrust it to himself, marrying Mary.

On March 18, Ivan Vasilievich felt better. Cheered up, resumed classes in public affairs. About three hours I went to the bathhouse, washed with pleasure, amused myself with my favorite songs. Refreshed, he threw on a wide robe and ordered to serve chess. They brought a board and two caskets with figures. Ivan Vasilyevich lowered his hand into his casket, took out the first figure that came across. But there were suddenly too many cells on the board, they floated, blinked, changed colors ... Unbearable chest pain and an instant attack of suffocation plunged everything into darkness ..

Even servants ran around the palace headlong, some who sent for vodka, some for pink water, still doctors rubbed the tsar’s lifeless body with their potions, and Metropolitan Dionysius hastily performed a mowing ceremony on him — and Belsky had already ordered the loyal archers to close the Kremlin’s gates and set about convince the guardians to transfer the scepter and the power to Dmitry.

Departure of the family of Ivan the Terrible.
   Thumbnail from the 16th Century Front Arch .

Meanwhile, they hit the bell for the outcome of the soul. Muscovites rushed to the Kremlin. Finding the gate closed, they became agitated. There were screams that Belsky had plagued the great sovereign and now wants to kill Tsarevich Fedor. Here and here, berdysh, muskets, and treacherous swayed over people's heads. The whole world demanded from the Kremlin the people's favorite Nikita Romanovich and guarded him home. Then guns appeared from somewhere. They were put in front of the Frolovsky (Spassky) gates and began to shoot.

Belsky went to the world. After some time, the archers from the walls shouted to cease fire. The gates opened, Godunov, Mstislavsky, Shuisky and the clerks Shchelkalov went out to the people. They assured the townspeople that the prince and the boyars were safe, and Belsky had obeyed the betrayal and would be exiled to the governor of Nizhny Novgorod. The excitement gradually subsided.

That same night, Mary and her son, her father, brothers and uncles were sent to Uglich. For decency, they gave the servant, stewards, solicitors, children of the boyars and an honorary convoy - two hundred archers. Riders, carts, carts, carriages set off into the dark. Whips clicked, neighing horses; torches cast a crimson reflection on the loose snow falling apart under the runners. It is reported that Fedor approached the carriage in which Maria and Dmitry sat.

Go, my brother with God, ”he whispered, bending over the baby. - Here you grow up, then I will sacrifice to you my father’s throne, and I myself will remain quiet ...

Uglich Tsarevich

Uglich stands on the Volga, on both banks. In the XVI century, the places here were deserted, wild. Around - impassable wilds, swamps, backwaters in alder and reeds, centennial pines and spruce, boulders, ingrown into moss. An invisible vile sings in a thin voice, moose and boar barely crawl through the clews of spruce branches. There is no better place to rob. To save the soul too. Previously, until Kazan was pacified, there was no life from the Tatars. The Cossacks, who climbed the Volga in boats, also did not miss their own, even though they were Orthodox. After the annexation of Kazan, the river became calm, the laity were rich in trade, quiet cloisters multiplied outside the city.

The Uglichs themselves were not averse to competing with antiquity with Rostov the Great: their own Uglich chronicle preserved the tradition of a certain Jan living here, Princess Olga being either a brother or a more distant relative. In his name, the city was called Yanovo Field for a long time, and then it became known as Uglich Field - supposedly from the angle that the Volga forms here, turning abruptly from north to west.

Uglich is an independent city. Everything here is its own - its own chronicle, its saint, its princes. The last specific city in the Moscow state. Uglichs are accustomed to being owned by great princes, brothers of Moscow sovereigns. For their master stood tight, not sparing the stomach. Not so long ago they attempted to rescue from captivity Ivan and Dmitry Andreevich, nephews of Ivan III Vasilyevich, whom he imprisoned in the monastery. Then the sovereign in anger scattered many Uglich to other cities. Since then, Uglich has lived peacefully. The last Uglich prince was Yuri Vasilievich, brother of the terrible king, so the oprichnina rout and opals the city happily passed.

Uglich accepted the new prince with joy. Already from afar, Mary saw an elegant crowd of townspeople, clergy, crosses, gonfalons leaving the city to meet the train. The priests made welcome speeches. The people rejoiced and prostrated before the royal carriage.

In the Transfiguration Cathedral, she prayed for a long time at the sepulcher with the relics of Holy Prince Roman Uglich. Then I went to the palace. I wandered around the cold, empty stone chambers, looking for which room to stay in. Finally she chose the farthest chambers and retired to them with Dmitry.

S.M. Prokudin-Gorsky. Palace in Uglich

How to forget the Kremlin chambers, honor, power, their involvement in state affairs and in those who run them? Perhaps the Nagas would have come to terms with life in Uglich if they had not been daily reminded in the most humiliating manner that they are in exile. True, the deportees remained in excellent relations with Fedor himself: the Naked sent him pies on holidays, the king gifted them with furs. But the clerk Mikhail Bityagovsky, assigned by the guardians to look after the rebellious family, sovereignly controlled the palace economy and all incomes. He did not allow the Nagims to spend a single extra penny in excess of their defined content. Maria’s brothers Michael and Grigory were enraged, they had terrible quarrels with a grumpy clerk, but they only spoiled their blood in vain.

Of course, memories of Moscow, regrets about the lost throne, and slander about Godunov were the main part of the conversations in the palace. Dmitry sensitively listened to these conversations, absorbing the mood of adults. In Moscow it was said that once playing on ice with other children, he ordered a dozen figures to be molded out of the snow and, giving them the names of the noblest boyars, he began to chop them with his saber; to the snowman portraying Boris Godunov, he allegedly cut off his head, saying: “So it will be to you when I reign!”

They also assured that the prince loves flour and blood and eagerly watches the bulls and rams being slaughtered, and sometimes he makes his way to the kitchen in order to turn the chickens' heads with their own hands. The real son of Grozny! However, many called these tales the slanderous dissolution of Boris himself, and, on the contrary, claimed that the young prince possessed the mind and soul of a true Christian sovereign, pious and just.

According to the unanimous testimony of foreign and Russian writers, someone tried to poison Dmitry two or three times. It is impossible to say why these attempts failed. Chroniclers know one explanation: "God did not allow." Perhaps the reason for these rumors was the attacks of vomiting of the Tsarevich - due to poor quality food or for some other reason. One thing is certain: Queen Mary was in constant fear for the life of her son. And could she remain careless if, by 1590, Mstislavsky and Shuisky died in monasteries, under suspicious circumstances, Evdokia, daughter of Maria Vladimirovna, died, and the former Livonian queen was tonsured a nun? Rumor attributed these deaths to the power of Boris, and the Uglich palace certainly shared this opinion. The very course of events, if so far not made by Dmitry himself, then his name was that banner around which all the secret (obvious no longer) opponents of Godunov could rally. The alignment of forces seemed obvious to everyone. And not only Naked, but also many other people in Russia asked themselves: will Boris decide on the last, terrible step?

In Russia, only the worst expectations come true. On May 17, 1591, news spread throughout Moscow: Tsarevich Dmitry was gone! They conveyed different things: the baby was the victim of either an accident, or the villain-clerks whom the Uglich had torn to pieces at the crime scene; the name of the royal brother-in-law did not descend from languages.

Godunov felt the earth go from under his feet. Adverse rumors had to be dispelled at all costs and as soon as possible.

The next day, the investigative commission left for Uglich. Godunov tried as best he could to give her, at least outwardly, a look of complete impartiality. Of its four members, three, it would seem, had no reason to please Boris: Prince Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky belonged to a disgraced surname; clerk Elizar Vyluzgin performed his direct duties; Metropolitan Gelasius of Krutitsky represented the special moral authority of the church. Only one investigator, the okolnichi Andrei Kleshnin, was directly connected with Boris - his wife, Princess Volkhonskaya, was an inseparable friend of Tsarina Irina, and Kleshnin himself enjoyed the exclusive confidence of Fedor and was devoted to Godunov with all his heart.

One can only guess if the investigators received any instructions from Godunov. In any case, their actions show that they had a good idea in which direction the investigation should move in such a sensitive case for Boris.

In the evening of May 19, the commission of inquiry arrived in Uglich and immediately began interrogations. The investigation lasted almost two weeks. After burying the tsarevich’s body in the Uglich Spassky Church, on June 2, investigators returned to Moscow. The clerk Vasily Shchelkalov read out the case materials before the sovereign and the cathedral, headed by Patriarch Job. From the testimony of the respondents a fairly clear picture of what happened was formed.

Tsarevich Dmitry suffered from epilepsy. The seizures occurred violently: during one of them he bit the hands of the daughter of Andrei Alexandrovich Nagoy, uncle of Tsarina Maria, and another time he wounded him with a pile - a long, finger-thick nail that the Tsarevich loved to play in a poke - the queen herself. To heal the child, he was taken to the Cyril elders to receive communion with the Virgin’s bread; they also turned to the healers, but instead of treating them, they brought damage to the prince. Three days before the accident, Dmitry again had a seizure. On Saturday, May 15, he felt better, and the tsarina led him to the mass, and upon returning to the palace, he allowed him to play in the backyard, entrusting him with the care of mother Vasilisa Volokhova, nurse Arina Zhdanova (after Tuchkova’s husband) and prisoner Maria Kolobova (after Samoilova’s husband) ) Four more “tenants” joined the prince — courtyard peers: Petrushka Kolobov, Bazhenka Tuchkov, Ivashka Krasensky and Grishka Kozlovsky. We played again in a tyke, hitting a knife in an iron ring laid on the ground. Suddenly, a new seizure happened to the prince and, falling, he wounded himself deeply with a knife in the neck.

“... A black disease came to the prince again and threw him on the ground, and then the prince threw himself into the throat and beat him for a long time, but then he was gone” (testimony of Vasilisa Volokhova).

   “... he himself fell upon a knife in a paddle and was still alive” (testimony of Grigory Fedorovich Nagoy).

Arina Tuchkova picked up Dmitry in her arms. To cry from the palace, the queen ran out. In anger, she began pounding her mother with logs, which did not save the Tsarevich, saying that her son Osip Volokhov, along with his son Bityagovsky Danila and his nephew Nikita Kachalov had slaughtered Dmitry; and Volokhova began to beat her with a brow, so that the tsarina would order a search for the righteous, because her son Osip was not in the yard either.

Maxim Kuznetsov, who accidentally was at that time at the belfry of the Church of the Holy Fathers, located next to the palace, noticed something was amiss and struck the alarm. The clerk of the Cathedral Church, the widow priest Fedot Afanasyev, nicknamed Cucumber, heard a ringing, ran from the yard to the city; towards him he came across the palace solicitor of the Fodder yard, Saturday, Protopopov, who, referring to the order of the tsarina, ordered the bell to ring, "let him hit him in the neck."

The city decided that a fire had begun in the palace. The people tumbled down to the palace courtyard. The first tsarina brothers came running, Mikhail and Gregory. Maria, tired of beating Volokhov, but not yet quenching her anger, handed over the log to Gregory, who continued to harass the negligent mother on the sides. Then came the uncle of Tsarina Andrei Alexandrovich Nagoy. When a crowd began to gather in the yard, he took the body of the prince, took him to the Church of the Savior, and was with him “relentlessly”, “so that no one would steal the prince’s body”. At this time, Maria and Mikhail began to excite the runaway people, shouting that the Bityagovskys, father and son, Osip Volokhov, Nikita Kachalov and clerk Danila Tretyakov had slaughtered the prince. Another uncle of the tsarina, Grigory Aleksandrovich Nagoy, who was one of the last to arrive at the palace, had already heard that “the prince, they say, was stabbed to death, but he didn’t see who stabbed”.

The clerk Mikhail Bityagovsky at that time was having lunch at his home with priest Bogdan, the spiritual father of Grigory Fedorovich Nagoy. When the bells rang, the clerk sent people to see if there was a fire. They returned, saying that the prospector Kirill Mokhovikov, calling himself an eyewitness to the accident, “gave the news” that the prince had been stabbed to death.

Bityagovsky rushed to the palace. The gates were closed, but Cyril Mokhovikov unlocked them to him, confirming that the prince was gone. Posad people rushing around the yard with hornets, axes, sabers. Bityagovsky ran into the tsarina’s chambers - “he dreamed that the prince was upstairs,” but, finding no one, he went downstairs. Here he was noticed by yard and posad people and surrounded. He asked them: why are they with axes and bastards? Instead of an answer, they began to chase after him and Danila Tretyakov, who also appeared in the yard. The fugitives thought of escape by shutting themselves in the Brusyanaya hut, but the crowd “cut the doors”, dragged the clerks out of the hut and killed both. They also killed a man who showed sympathy for Volokhova.

Avdotya Bityagovskaya testified that the tsarina’s brothers, Mikhail and Grigory, who were annoyed by constant quarrels with him, ordered her husband to kill her: Bityagovskiy scolded Mikhail Nagim for “constantly getting witches and witches for Tsarevich Dmitry” and that he and her brother sheltered the sage Andryushka Mochalov, who wonders how long the sovereign and sovereign are.

After the assassination of Mikhail Bityagovsky and Danila Tretyakov, they defeated Danila Bityagovsky and Nikita Kachalov, who took refuge in the clerical hut: they were also “dragged out” and “beaten to death”. Then they began to plunder the courtyards of those killed.

“... And all the people went to Mikhailov’s yard of Bityagovsky’s world, and Mikhailov’s yard was looted, and they drank drink from the cellar in barrels and barrels were stabbed” (testimony of Danilko Grigoriev, palace groom).

Bityagovsky’s widow was severely beaten, and the compound was ransacked “without a trace”. In the clerk’s hut, “boxes” were broken and 20 rubles of state money were stolen. At the same time, three more people were killed by Mikhail Bityagovsky and two - Nikita Kachalov; and Posadsky Savva, a carpenter with six comrades, Mikhail Nagoy ordered that his life be taken for interpreting as if the clerks were killed "for laughter" (that is, in vain). The clerk Tretyatko Tenth, Vasyuk Mikhailov, Tereshka Larivonov, scribes Marko Babkin and Ivashka Yezhov, who reproached the people of the village for having killed the clerks in vain, heard the answer: “You will be the same from us!” - they got scared and ran out of town into the forest, waiting for the arrival of the sovereign people. Many townspeople who feared for their lives reached there.

Osip Volokhov was killed one of the last. The abbot of the Alekseevsky monastery, who came to the city by alarm, still found him alive at about six in the evening. The crowd brought Osip to the Church of the Savior, where Savvaty went to see the queen. Mary stood at the tomb of her son; Osip was hiding behind one of the pillars of the temple. Mary pointed to him Savvatia, as an accomplice in the murder of the prince. When the abbot came out, the crowd attacked Osip; his yard man, Vaska, rushed at the body of the master, covering him with himself — that was how they killed him.

The last victim of the furious crowd was the “holy fool”, who lived in the yard of Mikhail Bityagovsky and often went to the palace “for the fun of the prince”. The tsarina ordered her to be killed two days later because “that wife of the tsarevich was spoiling”.

For three days Uglich was in the hands of Nagih. Around the city, their yard people rode in carts, and horsemen were sent out along the roads leading to Moscow so that no one could tell the tsar about their atrocities. Before the investigators arrived, the Nagas decided to hide the traces of their betrayal and direct the investigation along the wrong path. Rusin Rakov, the city clerk, voluntarily admitted that he was involved in this conspiracy by Mikhail Nagim, who summoned him six times in the evening of May 18 and, having a crowd of janitors behind his back, made him kiss the cross: “if you are ours” - and asked “to stand with us at the same time. " Rakov willingly agreed. Michael ordered him to "collect the knives" and "put on those battered people" - as evidence of their evil intentions. Rakov took several knives in the trade row and from the townspeople, from the yard of Bityagovsky - an iron club, and Grigory Nagoy gave him his saber. The weapons were smeared in chicken blood and laid by the bodies of Mikhail Bityagovsky, his son, Nikita Kachalov, Osip Volokhov and Danila Tretyakov. Beside one killed man Bityagovsky even put a self-propelled gun. Despite this exposure, Mikhail Nagoy persistently insisted that the prince was killed by Bityagovsky and his comrades, and that he himself was not guilty of anything.

Thus, the Nagih betrayal was obvious. The murders of the sovereign people occurred on their orders, with the help of their mongrel, who ruled the townspeople. Metropolitan Gelasius added to what he read that Tsarina Mary, before leaving the commission to Moscow, called him to her and said with a “great petition” that the matter was sinful, guilty, and prayed that the sovereign showed mercy to their brothers in their guilt.

The council unanimously passed a decision: before the sovereign, Tsar Fyodor Mikhail and Gregory Nagih and Uglich posadsky people, the betrayal was obvious, and the death of the prince happened in God's judgment; however, this is a matter of the Zemsky, in the royal hand and execution, and disgrace, and mercy, but the Cathedral should pray to the Lord God, the Most Holy Theotokos, the great Russian miracle workers and all the saints for the king and queen, for their state long-term health and silence from internecine warfare.

S.M. Prokudin-Gorsky. Uglich bell

The king ordered the boyars to dismantle the case and execute the perpetrators. Godunov these days was not visible either at the council or in the Duma - he wanted to exclude any suspicion about any pressure on their decisions on his part. The naghs were brought to Moscow, tortured hard, and then exiled to remote cities. Queen Mary was forcibly tonsured as a nun under the name of Martha and sent to the monastery of St. Nicholas on Vyksa, near Cherepovets. 200 Uglich were executed; tongues were cut off for others, many were imprisoned, and 60 families were sent to Siberia and inhabited the city of Pelym. The Uglich alarm bell was also not spared: according to the tsar’s order, they deprived him of the sign of the cross, cut off his ear, pulled out his tongue, beat him with lashes and took him to Tobolsk. (The Tobolsk governor, Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky, ordered the bell to be handed over without ears to the hut, where he was recorded as “the first inanimate from Uglich.”) The bodies of Bityagovsky and the other victims, thrown into a common pit, were dug, buried and interred with honor . The widows and mother of Volokhova were granted estates.

This ends the story of Dmitry, Prince Uglichsky.

After the death of Ivan the Terrible, only two representatives of the main branch of the Rurikovich remained - the poor Fedor and the infant Dmitry, who was also born in a marriage, which was considered illegal according to church canons.

On the mother of Tsarevich Dmitry - Maria Fyodorovna Nagoy - Ivan IV married four years before his death. Dmitry was born in 1582, and by the time his father died, he was only a year and a half. A young prince was brought up by his mother, numerous relatives and an extensive court staff.

Dmitry could be considered illegitimate and excluded from the list of candidates for the throne. However, out of fear that Dmitry might become the center around which all those dissatisfied with the reign of Fedor Ivanovich would gather, he and his mother were sent to Uglich. Formally, Dmitry received this city as an inheritance, but he really could only manage the income received from it and actually ended up in exile. The real power in the city was in the hands of the Moscow "service people", and, first of all, the clerk Mikhail Bityagovsky.

According to the official version, on May 15, 1591, the prince with yard children played a “poke” with a “pile” - with a penknife or a pointed tetrahedral nail. During the game, he had an attack of epilepsy, he accidentally hit himself with a "pile" in the throat and died in the arms of the nurse. However, Tsarevich’s mother and her brother Mikhail Nagoy began to spread rumors that Dmitry had been killed by “service people” by direct order from Moscow. An uprising broke out in Uglich. “Service people” Osip Volokhov, Nikita Kachalov and Danila Bityagovsky, accused of murder, were torn to pieces by the crowd.

Four days later, a commission of inquiry was sent from Moscow, consisting of Metropolitan Gelarsiy of Sarskiy and Podonskiy, boyar Prince Vasily Shuisky, okolnichin Andrey Kleshnin and clerk Yelizariy Vyluzgin.

From the investigation, the following picture emerges of what happened in Uglich in the May days of 1591. Tsarevich Dmitry suffered from epilepsy for a long time. May 12, shortly before the tragic event, the seizure repeated. On May 14, Dmitry felt better and his mother took him to church with him, and, returning, ordered him to take a walk in the yard. On Saturday, May 15, the queen again went to the Mass with her son, and then let go for a walk in the courtyard of the palace. With the prince were mother Vasilisa Volokhova, nurse Arina Tuchkova, bedmate Mary Kolobova and four peers Dmitry, sons of the nurse and bedmaker Petrusha Kolobov, Ivan Krasensky and Grisha Kozlovsky. Children played in pokes. During the game, the prince began another seizure of epilepsy.

Many Uglich testified about the ensuing tragedy. Judging by the interrogation records, the entire investigation was conducted publicly.

After the witnesses questioned, the commission came to an unambiguous conclusion - death came from an accident. But rumors of Dmitry's violent death did not subside. The direct heir of Ivan the Terrible, albeit illegitimate, was a competitor to the usurper Boris Godunov. Indeed, after the death of Fyodor Ivanovich, he de jure took power into his own hands. The Time of Troubles began in Russia, during which the name of Tsarevich Dmitry became a cover for many impostors.

In 1606, Vasily Shuisky, who was investigating the murder of Tsarevich Dmitry, took the throne after the murder of the first impostor - False Dmitry I. He changed his mind about the Uglitsky tragedy, directly stating that Dmitry was killed by order of Boris Godunov. This version remained official during the Romanov dynasty. A coffin with the body of a prince was removed from the crypt in Uglich. His relics were uncorrupted and placed in the Archangel Cathedral in a special crab near the grave of Ivan the Terrible. The crayfish immediately began to experience numerous miraculous healings of the sick, and in the same year Dmitry was canonized. The veneration of Dmitry as a saint is preserved to this day.

A prominent historian in genealogy and writing history Sergey Sheremetev, professor at St. Petersburg University Konstantin Bestuzhev-Ryumin, and prominent historian Ivan Belyaev believed in Dmitry’s salvation (or at least allowed this opportunity). The book, specially dedicated to the justification of this version, was published by the famous journalist Alexey Suvorin.

The authors, who believed that in the years 1605-1606 a genuine Dmitry sat on the Russian throne, drew attention to the fact that the young tsar was amazingly confident for an impostor adventurer. He seemed to believe in his regal origin.

Supporters of the imposture of False Dmitry emphasize that, according to the investigation, Tsarevich Dmitry suffered from epilepsy. In False Dmitry, for a long time (from the appearance in Poland in 1601 to death in 1606), no symptoms of this disease were observed. Epilepsy cannot be cured by modern medicine either. However, even without any treatment in patients with epilepsy, temporary improvements may occur, lasting sometimes for years and not accompanied by seizures. Thus, the absence of epileptic seizures does not contradict the possibility of the identity of False Dmitry and Dmitry.

Supporters of the version that it was not the prince but an outside boy who was killed in Uglich, pay attention to the ease with which the prince’s mother, nun Martha, recognized her son in False Dmitry. By the way, even before the impostor arrived in Moscow, caused by Godunov, she was rumored to have said that loyal people had informed her about the salvation of her son. It is also known that False Dmitry, announcing to Prince Adam Vishnevetsky about his royal origin, presented as evidence a precious cross studded with diamonds. On the same cross, the mother allegedly recognized him as her son.

The letters of the impostor in which he declared to the Russian people about his salvation have also reached us. In the most clear form, these explanations were preserved in the diary of the impostor's wife, Marina Mnishek. “There was a doctor under the prince,” writes Marina, “an Italian by birth. Finding out about malicious intent, he ... found a boy who looked like Dmitry, and ordered him to be without a break under the prince, even to sleep on the same bed. When the boy fell asleep, the cautious doctor transferred Dmitry to another bed. As a result, another boy was killed, not Dmitry, but the doctor took Dmitry out of Uglich and fled with him to the Arctic Ocean. ” However, Russian sources do not know about any foreign doctor living in Uglich.

Important considerations in favor of the imposture of False Dmitry are led by the German Landsknecht Konrad Bussov. Not far from Uglich, the Busses and the German merchant Bernd Hoper talked with the former watchman of the Uglich palace. The watchman said of False Dmitriy: “He was a reasonable sovereign, but he was not the son of Grozny, because he was really killed 17 years ago and has long been decayed. I saw him lying dead in a place for games. "

All these circumstances completely destroy the legend of the identity of False Dmitry and Tsarevich Dmitry. Two versions remain: he was stabbed to death and killed at the instigation of Boris Godunov. Both versions now have supporters in historical science.

Material prepared on the basis of open sources

» XVII century

Death of Tsarevich Dmitry, 1591

The Killing of Tsarevich Demetrius.A picture from the picture of P.F.Pleshanova.1890

One of the most mysterious episodes of Russian history is associated with the name of Tsarevich Dmitry. Tsarevich Dmitry the youngest son of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible - after the death of his father and accession to the throne, Fyodor Ivanovich was sent along with his mother, Grand Duchess Maria Nagoy, to his city of Uglich. Tsarevich at that time was only 7 years old. And then one day at noon on May 15, 1591, Tsarevich Dmitry died in the courtyard of the prince’s house, playing “knives” with his comrades.

the murder of Tsarevich Dmitry in Uglich

An investigation commission was immediately appointed, headed by Prince Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky (future Tsar of Russia), who went to Uglich to investigate this mysterious case. But why is it considered now and was then considered mysterious? The fact is that there were different versions about the death of Tsarevich Dmitry. Some said that the prince died by accident, because he suffered from epilepsy (epileptic, as the disease was then called), during the game he had a seizure, and he fell right on the knife with which he played. Others claimed that Tsarevich Dmitry was killed and stabbed to death by order of the tsar and his chief adviser, Boris Godunov. This version was shared by all relatives of Tsarevich Dmitry.

Tsarevich Dimitri Uglichsky. Life. Iconographic note: Left: 1. The Tsarevich is being taken out of the palace 2. The Tsarina’s murder, the nurse is trying to save Dimitri 3. The Bityagovskys on horseback are trying to escape from Uglich. Right: 1. The sexton rings the bell. The Bityagovskys are trying to knock the door in the bell tower 2. Residents of Uglich stoned the murderers of Demetrius with stones 3. Grad Uglich

Dimitry Uglich Church Frescoe shows the murder of Tsarevich Dimitri

"A collection of lives and liturgical followings of Uglich saints" of the XVIII century. The manuscript collection of lives and liturgical followings of the Uglich saints includes the personal Life of the holy martyr Dimitry Uglich with 12 miniatures of remarkable beauty. The manuscript was created in Uglich or in the Uglich region no earlier than 1784-1786.

If this is true, then what did Tsarevich Dmitry interfere with Boris Godunov? The fact is that after the death of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, it was Tsarevich Dmitry, the next rightful heir to Ivan the Terrible, who should have occupied the Russian throne.

Tsarevich Dmitry

Until now, the mystery of the death of Tsarevich Dmitry remains unsolvable. And everyone adheres to the version that seems more convincing to them, as A.S. Pushkin. In his drama Boris Godunov, he made Tsar Boris suffer from repentance for a crime. And now 13 years in a row the king
he dreams of a child killed by his order, and the holy fool casts terrible words in his face: "... They ordered them to be killed, as you stabbed the little prince ..."

Icon. Saint Tsarevich Demetrius in life in 21 stigma. XVIII century ..

COVER OF CANCER TSAREVICH DIMITRI

Masters Pavel Alekseev, Dmitry Alekseev, Vasily Korovnikov, Timofey Ivanov, Vasily Malosolets under the direction of Gavrila Ovdokimov

Who was hiding under the name False Dmitry?

False Dmitry I, portrait of the beginning of the XVII century.

This was the first, but not the last impostor in Russia, who, under the name of Tsarevich Dmitry, decided to occupy the royal throne. Rumors that Tsarevich Dmitry was alive appeared immediately after the death of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich. During the reign of Boris Godunov, these rumors intensified, and by the end of his reign in 1604, everyone was talking about the supposedly living prince. They told each other that the wrong child was allegedly killed in Uglich, and the real Tsarevich Dmitry is now coming from Lithuania to take the royal throne due to him by right.

Boris Godunov

In Russia, it was announced that under the name of Dmitri is a fugitive of the Chudov monastery Grishka Otrepiev. Maybe the Moscow authorities called the first name that came across? But this is not so. At first, this impostor was really considered an unknown thief and balamut.

Miracles Monastery

But then his name was established. This was indeed a rather wealthy and noble Galician nobleman Yuri Bogdanovich Otrepyev, who tonsured monks in one of the Russian monasteries and took the name Gregory as a monk.
It was known that before accepting monasticism, he visited Moscow and served as a servant to the Romanov boyars and to Prince Cherkassky, he knew letters, was able to write well and fluently. And already being a monk, he once served as a bookwriter with Patriarch Job, was with him in the royal chambers, and he liked it so much that after that he often began to talk: “Do you know that I will be king in Moscow?” People perceived the monk's revelations differently. Some listened seriously, while others laughed and spat in the face of this newly appeared king.

Patriarch Job

But Grigory Otrepyev all the same kept his word. He visited many monasteries, did not stay long anywhere, and then, together with other fugitive monks Varlaam and Misail, fled to Lithuania. Here he, as it were, incidentally, hinted that he was a royal family, and sometimes directly called himself Tsarevich Dmitry, the son of Ivan the Terrible. These rumors reached the local
nobles. An army was provided to Grigory Otrepiev, and he returned to Russia already as Tsarevich Dmitry. Many dissatisfied with Tsar Boris, and then his heir, the new Tsar Fedor Borisovich, supported the impostor, and he really became the king. Everyone who saw him was surprised: such a tsar had not yet been on the Russian throne. Young man is below average, ugly, reddish, awkward, with a sad, pensive expression on his face. "The chest is wide, the hair is reddish, the eyes are blue without shine, the face is round, white and completely ugly, the eyes are dull, the nose is wide, under the right eye and on the forehead of the wart, and one arm is shorter than the other." Here is a portrait painted by those who managed to see it. But an unpretentious appearance, he was by no means a stupid person, had a lively mind, was able to speak well and in the Boyar Duma easily resolved the most difficult questions. But for a long time he did not have to reign over Grigory Otrepiev. Not even a year after he took the royal throne, as conspirators, headed by Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky, the same one who investigated the case of the death of the real Tsarevich DMITRY, deprived him of power and killed.

Another preserved portrait of False Dmitry I

Patriarch Job refuses to recognize the son of Ivan IV in False Dmitry I

A rare portrait of False Dmitry I, where he is depicted with a mustache and is unlike all his other portraits.

False Dmitry is depicted in a fur coat draped over a brocade caftan with a large complex fur collar. On the head there is a fur hat with a crease, decorated in front with a diamond feather. In his left hand is his scepter, with his right he grasped the hilt of his sword. The beard is shaved, the mustache is long, curled up from the ends.

Borrowed letter of False Dmitry to Yuri Mnishka for 3 thousand zlotys

Ge Nikolay. Tsar Boris and Tsarina Martha.A sketch of an unrealized picture.1 874

Queen Martha condemns False Dmitry. Colorized lithography based on a sketch by V. Babushkin. Mid XIX century State Historical Museum