the third son of Ivan IV the Terrible and Tsarina Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yurieva, the last representative of the Moscow branch of the Rurikovich dynasty

short biography

Fedor I Ioannovichalso known by name Theodore the Blessed, May 31, 1557, Moscow - January 7 (17), 1598, Moscow) - Tsar of All Russia and the Grand Duke of Moscow from March 18 (28), 1584, the third son of Ivan IV the Terrible and Tsarina Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yurieva, the last representative of the Moscow branch dynasties of the Rurikovich. He was canonized by the Orthodox Church as "the holy noble Theodore I Ivanovich, the Tsar of Moscow." Memory January 7 (20), Sunday before August 26 (September 8), that is, the first Sunday of September (Moscow Saints Cathedral).

When Fyodor was born, Ivan the Terrible ordered to build a church in the Feodorovsky monastery of the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky. This temple in honor of Theodore Stratilates became the main cathedral of the monastery and has survived to the present. According to legend, at the site of the birth of the prince, in the tract Sobilka, 4 km from the city in the direction of Moscow, a stone chapel-cross was erected, also preserved to our time.

On November 19, 1581, according to one of the unconfirmed versions inflicted by the father, the heir to the throne, Ivan, died from a wound. Since that time, Fedor became the heir to the royal throne.

According to Ivan the Terrible himself, Fyodor was “a fast and a silent person, more for a cell than for a sovereign born power”. From a marriage with Irina Fedorovna Godunova, had one daughter (1592), Theodosius, who lived only nine months and died in the same year (according to other sources, she died in 1594). At the end of 1597, Fedor became fatally ill and died on January 7 (17), 1598, at one in the morning. The Moscow line of the Rurikovich dynasty (offspring of Ivan I Kalita) was cut short on it.

Most historians believe that Fedor was incapable of state activity, according to some reports weak health and mind; He took little part in the government, being under the tutelage of the council of nobles, then his brother-in-law Boris Fedorovich Godunov, who since 1587 was actually the co-ruler of the state, and after the death of Fedor became his successor. The position of Boris Godunov at the royal court was so significant that overseas diplomats sought an audience with Boris Godunov, his will was the law. Fedor reigned, Boris ruled - everyone knew this both in Russia and abroad.

The historian Sergei Solovyov in "History of Russia from Ancient Times" describes the usual daily routine of the Tsar as follows:

“He usually gets up at about four in the morning. When he gets dressed and washed, the spiritual father comes to him with the Cross, to which the King is attached. Then the cross clerk brings into the room an icon of the Saint, celebrated that day, before which the King prays for about a quarter of an hour. The priest enters again with holy water, sprinkles with it the icon and the King. After this, the king sends the queen to ask if she had a good rest. And after some time he himself goes to greet her in the middle room, located between him and her chambers; from here they go together to the church for the matins, lasting about an hour. Returning from the church, the Tsar sits in a large room, where they are bowing to the boyars, who are in special mercy. About nine o’clock, the Tsar goes to the mass, which lasts two hours ... After lunch and sleep, he goes to Vespers ... Every week, the Tsar goes on a pilgrimage to one of the nearest monasteries ”.

The founder of the Romanov dynasty, Mikhail Fedorovich, was the cousin of Fyodor I (since Fyodor’s mother, Anastasia Romanovna, was the sister of Mikhail’s grandfather, Nikita Romanovich Zakharyin); the Romanov’s right to the throne was based on this kinship.

Death

Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich died on January 7 (17), 1598. According to the testimony of Patriarch Job, in his dying languor, the king talked with someone invisible to others, calling him the great Hierarch, and at the time of his death, according to legend, there was a fragrance in the Kremlin chambers. The Patriarch himself performed the sacrament of unholy and communed with the dying King of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Theodore Ioannovich died without leaving offspring, and with his death the Moscow dynasty of the Rurikovich on the royal throne in Moscow ceased. He was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.

Major events of the reign

• 1584 - was elected to the kingdom by the Moscow Zemsky Cathedral. Founded Arkhangelsk at the mouth of the Northern Dvina;
• 1586 - the Tsar Cannon is cast. Samara and Tyumen were founded along the route of the Old Kazan Road; Ufa has been upgraded to the status of a city. Voronezh was founded on the Don;
• 1587 - Tobolsk was founded near the capital of the Siberian Khanate Isker
• 1589 - The Moscow Patriarchate was established with the first Patriarch Job. Near the former capital of the Golden Horde, Sarai-Berke, Tsaritsyn was founded;
• 1590 - Saratov was founded;
• 1591 - the construction of the White City of Moscow was completed;
• 1594 - Tara and Surgut fortresses were founded on the western border of the Piego Orda;
• 1595 - the Russo-Swedish war of 1590-1595 ended, according to which the coast of the Baltic Sea was returned to Russia (the cities of Yam, Ivangorod, Koporye, Korela). Founded Obdorsk at the mouth of the Ob, began the construction of the Babinovskaya road to Siberia.

Written sources about Fedor Ioannovich

According to the recall of the English diplomat Gills Fletcher:

“The current tsar (by the name of Theodor Ivanovich) with respect to his appearance: he is small, squat and thick, physically weak and prone to water; his nose is hawkish, the gait is unsteady from some relaxation in the limbs; he is heavy and inactive, but always smiles, so he almost laughs. As for his other properties, he is simple and weak-witted, but very kind and good at handling, quiet, gracious, not inclined to war, little capable of political affairs, and extremely superstitious. Besides the fact that he prays at home, he usually goes every week on a pilgrimage to one of the nearby monasteries. ”

Dutch merchant and sales agent in Moscow Isaac Massa:

Very kind, pious, and very gentle ... He was so pious that he often wished to exchange his kingdom for a monastery, if only this were possible.

Swedish King Charles IX :.

“The Russians in their own language call it“ durak “”.

The clerk Ivan Timofeev gives Fedor such an assessment:

“By his prayers, my king kept the land unharmed from enemy intrigues. He was meek by nature, very merciful and blameless to everyone and, like Job, on all his paths guarded himself from every evil thing, most of all loving piety, church grandeur and, after the holy priests, the monastic rank and even the lesser brothers in Christ, blessed in the gospel by the Lord himself. Just say - he betrayed himself to Christ and all the time of his holy and reverend reign; not loving blood, like a monk, he spent in fasting, in prayers and prayers with a knee - day and night, exhausting himself with spiritual exploits all his life ... Monasticism, united with the kingdom, not dividing, mutually decorated each other; he reasoned that for the future (life), one thing matters no less than the other, [being] an uncontrollable chariot that leads to heaven. Both that and another was visible only to one faithful who were attached to it by love. From without, everyone could easily see the king in him, but inside the feats of monasticism he turned out to be a monk; he was a crown-bearer, and a monk by his strivings. ”

The evidence of an unofficial, in other words, private historical monument - the “Piskaryov Chronicler” is extremely important. So much good has been said about Tsar Fedor as none of the Russian rulers did. He's called “Pious”, “gracious”, “faithful”,   the pages of the chronicle provide a long list of his works for the good of the Church. His death is perceived as a real disaster, as a harbinger of Russia's worst misfortunes: “The sun is darker and more dying from its course, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars from the heavens are falling: for many sins of Christianity the last luminary has ceased, collector and benefactor of all Ruskii land Tsar and Grand Duke Fedor Ivanovich ...”   Turning to the previous reign, the chronicler broadcasts with unusual tenderness: “But the noble and Christ-loving king and Grand Duke Theodore Ivanovich reigned ... quietly and righteously, and mercifully, inconspicuously. And all people are at rest and in love, and in silence, and in the well-being of abiding that summer. In no summer, during which the tsar in the Russian land, except the Grand Duke Ivan Danilovich Kalita, such silence and blessings will not be quick that under him, the noble tsar and Grand Duke Theodore Ivanovich all Russia ".A contemporary and close to the court of the Sovereign, Prince I.M. Katyrev-Rostovsky said of the Sovereign as follows:

“Having blessed the speed of his mother’s womb and having care for nothing, it’s only about spiritual salvation.” According to his testimony, in Tsar Theodore, “a few swiftness with the kingdom are woven without bifurcation and one served as an ornament to the other”.

The famous historian V.O. Klyuchevsky wrote about St. Theodore:

“... blessed on the throne, one of those poor in spirit, who befits the Kingdom of Heaven, and not the earthly, whom the Church so loved to bring to her priests”.

In an article dedicated to the glorification of the holy patriarchs Job and Tikhon, Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) noted:

“Tsar Theodore Ioannovich was an amazing, bright man. It was truly a saint on the throne. He constantly stayed in divine thought and prayer, was kind to everyone, life was a church service for him, and the Lord did not overshadow the years of his reign with disorder and confusion. They began after his death. Rarely what kind of king did the Russian people so love and pity. He was revered for the blessed and holy fool, called the "sanctified king." Not without reason, shortly after his death, he was included in the priesthood of locally revered Moscow saints. The people saw in him wisdom that comes from a pure heart and which is so rich in "poor in spirit." That is what Tsar Fedor portrayed in his tragedy, Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy. But for someone else's view, this sovereign was different. Foreign travelers, spies and diplomats (such as Pearson, Fletcher or Swede Petreus de Erlesund), who left their notes on Russia, at best call him a “quiet idiot”. But the Pole Lev Sapega claimed that “they say in vain that this emperor has little reason, I am convinced that he is completely deprived of it” ”.

Memory

In the Orthodox Church

The veneration of the blessed Tsar began shortly after his death: St. Patriarch Job (1607) compiled the "Tale of the Honest Life of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich", iconic images of St. Theodore in the halo have been known since the beginning of the 17th century. In the “Verbal Book of Description about Russian Saints” (1st half of the 17th century), Tsar Theodore was placed in the guise of Moscow wonderworkers. In some manuscript clergy, among his Moscow saints his spouse, Tsarina Irina, in the monasticism of Alexander (1603) is also indicated. The memory of St. Theodore is performed on the day of his death on January 7 (20) and on the Week before August 26 (September 8) in the Cathedral of Moscow Saints.

Sculpture

On November 4, 2009, a monument to Tsar Fedor I Ioannovich was unveiled in Yoshkar-Ola, during the reign of which the city was founded (sculptor - People's Artist of the Russian Federation Andrei Kovalchuk).

Burial place

He was buried in the Archangel Cathedral with his father and brother Ivan, on the right side of the altar, behind the iconostasis of the cathedral.

Ivan the Terrible “even during his life prepared for himself a burial place in the deacon of the Archangel Cathedral, turning it into a chapel chapel church. Later the tsar himself and his two sons Ivan Ivanovich and Fedor Ivanovich found rest in it. The frescoes of the tomb are the little that has been preserved from the original painting of the 16th century. Here in the lower tier are the compositions “Farewell of the Prince and the Family”, “Allegory of Sudden Death”, “Funeral” and “Burial”, which make up a single cycle. He was called to remind the autocrat of an impersonal court, of the futility of worldly vanity, of the ceaseless remembrance of death, who does not understand "whether there is a beggar, or righteous, or master, or slave". "

  fromMarch 18, 1584 third sonIvan IV the Terrible   and the queensAnastasia Romanovna , the last representative of the Moscow branch of the dynastyRurikovich .

Ivan IV Vasilievich

Anastasia Romanovna

By birth, Ivan the Terrible ordered to build a church inTheodorov Monastery   citiesPereslavl-Zalessky . This temple is in honor ofTheodora Stratilates   became the main cathedral of the monastery and has survived to the present.

Theodorovsky (Fedorovsky) monastery

November 19, 1581 from the wound inflicted by the father, the heir to the throne diedIvan . Since that time, Fedor became the heir to the royal throne.

Ivan Ivanovich (John Ioannovich

Almost all researchers agree that the third son of Ivan the Terrible Fedor was weak in health, weak-willed and not far from his mind. Indifferent to the politics of intrigue and God-fearing, he received the nickname Ringer for his love of bells and for trying to play bells himself.

Tsar Fedor I Ivanovich

This reign is written reluctantly and sparingly, although the 14-year reign of Fedor I Ioannovich (read Boris Godunov) is described in the annals as one of the most prosperous and calm periods in Russian history.

Postcard "B. Glagolin as Tsar Fyodor in the play" Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich

Realizing the incapacity of his son, shortly before his death, Ivan IV Vasilyevich appointed a board of trustees, which was to govern Russia during the reign of Fedor I Ivanovich. It included (with some variations in different sources) the uncle of the tsar Nikita Romanovich Zakharyin-Yuriev, princes Ivan Fedorovich Mstislavsky, Ivan Petrovich Shuisky, boyars Bogdan Yakovlevich Belsky and Boris Fedorovich Godunov. As usual, between them the struggle for influence began. On the principle of "against whom we are friends." At first they were friends together against Bogdan Yakovlevich Belsky, who immediately after the death of Ivan the Terrible tried to restore the oprichnina order, but failed and was exiled to the governor of Nizhny Novgorod. Therefore, a struggle broke out between the younger Ivan Shuisky and Boris Godunov, because Zakharyin-Yuriev and Mstislavsky were people of advanced years and could hardly make real competition.

Boris Godunov

Tsar Fedor I Ivanovich

Among the people, the sovereign was loved for meekness, kindness, simplicity and generosity, and the boyars completely did not respect and were not afraid of him. Therefore, soon there was an attempted coup in favor of Tsarevich Dmitry, the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible. The boyars, led by Metropolitan Dionysius and Ivan Shuisky, came to the Kremlin with a petition in which they expressed concern for the fate of the country and a request to divorce the queen, childless Irina Godunova. This caused a terrible indignation of the king, he showed his temper and declared that he would not tolerate interference in the affairs of his family

Tsar Fedor Ioannovich and Tsarina Irina
Alexander BOMSTEIN

The Mystery of Tsar Theodore Ioannovich
Pavel RYZHENKO

Tsarevich Dmitry and his mother, Maria Nagoy, were sent to Uglich. All Shuyskys were deported, with Ivan Petrovich tonsured in the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery, Metropolitan Dionysius was deprived of his dignity and sent to exile in the Novgorod monastery. The imperial brother-in-law Boris Godunov came to the forefront, who became the main person under Fedor I Ivanovich. The activities of the government of Boris Godunov were aimed at restoring the prestige of the Russian state, establishing the authority of the Russian church.

Boris Godunov Tsar Theodore Ivanovich Tsar Fedor Ioannovich
makes the ruler of Russia Boris Godunov 1584
Ilya GLAZUNOV Engraving of the 19th century Ilya GLAZUNOV

Tsar Fedor Ivanovich puts on a gold chain on Boris Godunov
Alexey KIVSHENKO

During the reign of Fyodor Ioannovich, it was possible, not without profit, to end the Livonian War (by the way, the tsar himself participated in the campaign) and conquer everything that was lost; gain a foothold in Western Siberia and the Caucasus. Large-scale construction of cities (Samara, Saratov, Tsaritsyn, Ufa, Kursk, Belgorod, Yelets, etc.) and fortifications in Astrakhan and Smolensk began.

Campaign of the Muscovites. 16th century
Sergey Ivanov

Samara in the 17th century
Engraving from the book of the German traveler Adam Olearia

Tsaritsyn

Description of the journey to Muscovy and through Muscovy to Persia and vice versa

Astrakhan
Engraving from the book of Adam Olearia
Description of the journey to Muscovy and through Muscovy to Persia and vice versa

A water supply system was built in the Kremlin, the territory of the White City was protected by a powerful 9-kilometer fortress wall built by the famous Russian architect Fedor Savelyevich Kon on the site of wooden fortifications on an earthen rampart burned down in 1571 during the Davlet-Girey raid.

Wall and towers of the White City
View of the city center from the southwest, from the church of St. Elias the Ordinary

Wall and towers of the White City, fragment

Panorama of the walls of the White City from the north along the Neglinka River Valley
Reconstruction of Mikhail Kudryavtsev

January 23, 1589 Moscow received its Orthodox patriarch, it became the Moscow Metropolitan Job. T.O. the prestige of the Russian church has strengthened, its formal dependence on the Church of Constantinople has ceased, and the government of Boris Godunov has grown in popularity.

St. Job, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia
Title book 1672 engraving    Victor SHILOV

On May 15, 1591 an event happened, the true scale of which became clear with the passage of time. In Uglich, Tsarevich Dmitry, the younger half-brother of Tsar Fedor, was killed. It seemed that what had happened happened, the children of Ivan the Terrible did not differ in good health, the boy was painful, suffered from epileptic seizures, and besides, according to the descriptions, there were signs of cruelty and aggressiveness. In connection with the unrest, a special commission was sent to Uglich, which included Metropolitan Gelasiy, the boyar Prince Vasily Shuisky, the okolnichny and uncle of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich Andrey Kleshnin and the duma clerk Elizar Vyluzgin. The commission concluded that the Tsarevich’s death occurred as a result of an accident related to an epilepsy seizure that occurred while playing a “stick”, as a result of which he accidentally stabbed himself with a knife.

The palace where Dmitry lived with his mother Maria Nagoy

The murder and mourning of Dmitry. Fragment of the icon

Tsarevich Dmitry

Icon Tsarevich Dmitry

Tsarevich Dmitry Painting M.V. Nesterov, 1899.

Dmitry Ivanovich

The murder of Tsarevich Dmitry. Engraving. Early 1870s

Sergey Blinkov. Tsarevich Dmitry

Tsarevich Demetrius. Ilya Glazunov
1967 Plywood, oil, inlay. 80 × 120, Property of the author

The legend of Prince Demetrius. Ilya Glazunov
1967 Plywood, oil, inlay. 120 × 200, Property by author

Icon. Saint Tsarevich Dimitry in life in 21 stigma. XVIII century 137x101 cm. State Museum of the History of Religion, St. Petersburg

COVER OF CANCER TSAREVICH DIMITRI

Uglich Kremlin, Church of Dmitry on the Blood 1692

This story, unfortunately, was continued largely due to the unscrupulousness of the crafty Vasily Shuisky, who in 1605 easily disavowed the conclusion signed by his commission on the death of Tsarevich Dmitry as a result of an accident, saying that he miraculously escaped from the attempt, and a year later , during his own struggle for the throne, he suddenly remembered probably that the mischievous heretic Grishka Otrepyev was not Tsarevich Dmitry, but the boy was killed by order of Boris Godunov. I always knew what to say, the future Tsar Vasily Shuisky, but more on that later ..

Fedor Ioannovich
Portrait from the Family Tree Series of the Great Princes and Tsars of Russia
Bone, openwork and relief carving, engraving, coloring, XVIII century.

In foreign policy, Boris Godunov proved to be a talented diplomat and cautious politician; he preferred to wage negotiations rather than wars. Relations with Poland, the states of Central Asia improved, the raids of the Crimean Khan became less frequent. On May 18, 1595, a peace treaty was concluded in Tyavzin between Russia and Sweden, according to which Russia returned to itself Ivangorod, Koporye, Yam, and Korelu volost.

Fedor Ioannovich

Tsar Fedor Ioannovich surrounded by boyars

Decisive steps to enslave the peasants were taken during the reign of Fyodor Ioannovich. In 1592, the government conducted a census, and scribe books clearly indicated the ownership of peasants by this owner. And in 1597 a decree was issued on the “lesson years,” according to which the peasants who fled from the masters “until this ... year in 5 years” were subject to investigation, trial and return “back to where anyone lived”, thus the passage from one landowner to another was prohibited the week before St. George's Day and during the week after it.

St. George's Day
Sergey Ivanov

Here you are, grandmother, and St. George's Day
Valery LANSKIY

In his daily routine, Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich was simple and accessible to all who came to him, he loved to pray, he performed daily services. Tsarina Irina Fedorovna in the Russian historical tradition was a sovereign kind, intelligent, competent and pious. She was called the “great sovereign” and she was the co-ruler of Fedor, and not her brother. The king was sincerely attached to his queen and did not want to part with her at all. Almost all of her pregnancies ended in miscarriages. The only daughter of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich and Irina, Theodosius, lived less than two years. Fedor died on January 7, 1598.

Yuri Solomin in the role of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich
Roman LEVITSKY

B. Grigoriev. I.M.Moskvin in the role of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich.1923

Moscow Art Theater. Scene from the play “Tsar Fedor Ivanovich” by A. K. Tolstoy. 1898

The death of Fyodor Ivanovich did not become news to the people, he was ill for a long time. But with his death, the direct line of the Moscow dynasty of the Rurikovich was interrupted, which entailed a series of terrible upheavals for the country, referred to by historians as the Time of Troubles \\

ParsunaTsar Fedor Ioannovich

According to the will of the king, Queen Irina became the heiress to the throne. But on January 15, 1598, she announced to Patriarch Job of her decision to retire to the Novodevichy Convent under the name of Alexandra, agreeing to be considered the queen and sign decrees before the election of the new Tsar by the Zemsky Cathedral.

Irina Godunova
Konstantin ZUBRILIN

GREATER THEODOR STRATILAT AND THE Martyr IRINA

Theodore Stratilat and the Great Martyr Irina

1589 Gold, precious stones, pearls Black, chasing, casting Length with a heading: 11.8 cm. Width: 6.5 cm. Made by decree of Tsar Fedor Ioannovich for Tsarina Irina Fedorovna Godunova in 1589.

On one side of the golden ark, made in 1589 by order of Tsar Fedor Ivanovich for his wife, Tsarina Irina Fedorovna Godunova, there is a black image of her heavenly patroness - martyr Irina with a scroll and a cross in her hands. The solemn figure of the saint, frontally deployed to the viewer, in clothes that fall in heavy folds, despite her miniature size, amazes with her monumentality and significance, which makes one recall the monuments of ancient Russian fine art. In the dense shadow shading that imitates the engraving technique and is drawn along the outline of the figure, one can see the desire for volumetric modeling of the image. The Golden Ark is a relic for storing Christian shrines. It is possible that its creation was associated with the delivery in Moscow in 1589 of the first Russian patriarch Job, the Patriarch of Jeremiah of Constantinople, who, on the occasion of this momentous event, presented the Tsar and Tsarina with valuable relics.

Basement of St. Basil's Cathedral.Shroud from the crayfish of the saint, workshop of Irina Godunova

The veil of Russian Orthodox sewing, depictingSt. Martyr Irina   . Moscow. 1598 - 1604. Matt. Irina.Workshop of Irina Godunova.

Cover

1592 (?). Moscow, workshop of Irina Fedorovna Godunova Atlas, silk (?); Sewing with gold, silver and silk threads.196.5 x 107 Comes from the Solovetsky Monasteryin 1923 from the Solovetsky monasterythrough GMF Rest.in 1933 in the State Russian Museum A. N. Suvorova, repeatedly in 1963

Church of Ambrose of the Mediolan Novodevichy Convent with refectory and chambers of Irina Godunova

Irina Godunova, wife of Fedor Ioannovich, sister of Boris Godunov.Judicial face reconstruction.

Reconstruction of the appearance of Fedor Ioannovich. M. Gerasimov, 1963. When opening the coffin, it turned out that Fedor carefully watched himself: his nails, hair and beard were carefully trimmed. Judging by the remains, he was tough and strong, growth much shorter than his father (approx. 160 cm), he looked very much like his face, the same dinar anthropological type.

Monument to Fedor I Ioannovich in Yoshkar-Ola, the world's first monument to this king
Andrey KOVALCHUK

Fyodor I Ivanovich (or Fyodor Blessed) - (born May 31, 1557 - death January 7 (17), 1598) - Tsar of All Russia and the Grand Duke of Moscow (1584 - was elected king by the Moscow Zemsky Cathedral). From the kind of Moscow Grand Dukes, the son of Tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich the Terrible and Tsarina Anastasia Romanovna Yurieva-Zakharova. The last of the Rurik family. 1584 - 1598 years of reign of Fyodor Ivanovich. He was a candidate for the Polish throne in 1573, 1576 and 1577. He married in 1580 to Irina Fedorovna Godunova.

Early years. Characteristic

The future king was born in 1557 in the tract Sobilka, Pereslavl-Zalessky. At the age of three, he lost his mother, his childhood and adolescence fell on the darkest years. Soreness and degeneration traits were generally characteristic of posterity. Katyrev-Rostovsky wrote that Fedor was “well-pleased for speed from his mother’s womb”, and the bloody horrors and wild amusements of the Alexander Sloboda could undoubtedly disfigure the psyche of a healthy child.

None of the chroniclers and memoirists cites facts of obvious insanity and inappropriate behavior of the Tsarevich, although many of the foreigners reported his dementia as something well-known. The Swedish king Johan even said in a throne speech that the Russian tsar was half-witted and that "the Russians call him durak in their own language." The Roman envoy Posevino called the king “almost an idiot,” the English ambassador Fletcher “simple and moronic,” and the Polish ambassador Sapega reported to his monarch: “He has little intelligence, or as others say, and as I myself have said, he doesn’t. When he sat on the throne in all the royal ornaments during my performance, then, looking at the scepter and the power, he laughed. ”

Possible causes of dementia

Perhaps the prince suffered from some form of autism, but most likely, his personality simply did not develop - it could be a kind of psychic self-defense against his father's despotism and the nightmares of reality. Fyodor had an example of his elder brother before his eyes: an active and strong-willed Ivan Ivanovich had to take part in the bloody games of his parent, at times he dared to argue with him - and we know what this hardness of character brought to. It was safer to completely abandon the character.

Appearance description

Tsarevich was slow in movements and speeches, in his appearance and behavior there was nothing royal. “The current king, relative to his appearance, is small, squat and fat, physically weak and prone to water,” said Fletcher. - His nose is hawkish, the gait is unsteady from some relaxation in the limbs; he is heavy and inactive, but constantly smiles, so he almost laughs. "

The poor body could not stand the severity of the royal royal vestments; for a disproportionately small head, the Monomakh hat was great. During the coronation, Fyodor Ioannovich was forced, without waiting for the end of a long ceremony, to remove the crown and hand it over to the first boyar, Prince Mstislavsky, and put the golden power (the tsarist "apple") into Godunov, which, of course, was a shock to the superstitious public and was perceived by it as symbolic renunciation of real power.

Tsar Fedor Ivanovich puts on a gold chain on Boris Godunov

Religiosity

From an early age, Fyodor Ioannovich found solace and refuge only in religion. He was distinguished by deep and earnest piety, he could stand idle for church services for hours, prayed for a long time, liked to ring bells and showed interest only in spiritual conversations (proof that he was not an idiot). This excessive pilgrimage annoyed Ivan Vasilievich, who called the young man a "Ponomar son."

The reign of Fedor Ivanovich

Under the reign of Fyodor Ivanovich, Moscow was decorated with new buildings. Updated China Town. In 1586-1593, in the capital, a still powerful defensive line was erected from brick and white stone - the White City.

I still remember the reign of Fedor Ioannovich, the establishment of the Moscow Patriarchate. After the baptism of Rus, the metropolitan was the main representative of the church in the state. He was appointed by the Byzantine Empire, considered the center of Orthodoxy. But in 1453, Muslim Turks captured Constantinople and this state was destroyed. Since then, disputes over the need to create their own patriarchy have not stopped in Moscow.

In the end, Boris Godunov and the tsar discussed this issue among themselves. Briefly and vividly, the adviser described the sovereign the benefit of the emergence of his own patriarchy. He also proposed a candidacy for a new dignity. They became Metropolitan of Moscow Job, who was a faithful associate of Godunov for many years.

During the reign of Fyodor the Blessed, it was possible, not without profit, to end the Livonian War (by the way, the sovereign himself took part in the campaign) and recover all that was lost; to gain a foothold in Western Siberia and the Caucasus. Large-scale construction of cities (Samara, Saratov, Tsaritsyn, Ufa, Kursk, Belgorod, Yelets and others) and fortifications in Astrakhan and Smolensk was launched.

However, during his reign, the situation of peasants changed dramatically. Around 1592, peasants were deprived of the right to transfer from one lord to another (St. George's Day), and in 1597 a tsar’s decree was issued on a 5-year investigation of runaway serfs. A decree was also issued by which it was forbidden for enslaved people to bathe in freedom.

Reconstruction of the appearance of Fedor Ioannovich (M. Gerasimov)

Everyday life

Having become a sovereign and getting rid of his father’s oppression, Fedor I began to live as he liked.

The autocrat got up before dawn to pray to the saints who commemorated that day. Then he sent to the queen to ask if she was well rested. After some time, he himself appeared to her, and they went with her to stand in the morning. Then he talked with the courtiers, whom he particularly favored. By nine it was time for the mass, lasting at least two hours, and there it was already time for lunch, after which the king slept for a long time. After - if not a post - it was time for entertainment. Awakening far after noon, the sovereign leisurely soared in the bathhouse or was amused by the spectacle of fist fighting, which at that time was considered fierce joy. After the vain, it was necessary to pray, and the sovereign defended Vespers. Then he retired with the queen - until a leisurely dinner, during which he had fun with clownish performances and bear persecution.

Each week, the royal couple necessarily went on a tireless pilgrimage to nearby monasteries. But those who tried to approach state affairs along the way were sent by the “autocrat” to the boyars (subsequently to Godunov alone).

Character manifestation

But with all his lack of will, with all the gentleness and complaisance, the tzar at times showed intransigence, which led to serious state consequences. These attacks of obstinacy manifested themselves when someone tried to encroach on the private life of the sovereign, or rather, on his relationship with his wife, whom Fedor loved very much.

He believed that he could at his discretion arrange the matrimonial fate of children. He bred his eldest son twice on a whim, and he was forced to obey. But when Ivan IV decided to separate the seemingly weak-willed Fedor from Irina, who could not give any offspring, he faced stubborn resistance - and he had to back down. The monarch’s only harsh act during the reign is the opal, which he brought down on the boyars and the metropolitan, when they also tried to divorce the king and his wife.

Irina Fedorovna Godunova. Sculptural reconstruction of the skull (S. Nikitin)

Irina Fedorovna. Role of Godunovs

Irina Fedorovna Godunova, Boris’s sister, did not seek power - on the contrary, she tried to detach herself from her in every way - but at the same time she was able to play an important role in Russian history. She was 5 or 6 years younger than Boris and was the same age as Fedor. Like her brother, she grew up in court, under the care of Uncle Dmitry Ivanovich Godunov, who, at the time of his greatest favor, in 1580, attached his niece to the younger prince in his brides. The marriage, however, was of dubious benefit, because the painful Fedor had no meaning at all at court. Rather, this marriage promised great trouble in the future. Upon accession to the throne, the new tsar (and Ivan Ivanovich was supposed to become one), as a rule, ruthlessly cracked down on his closest relatives, and dementia would hardly have saved his brother - as he had not saved the equally harmless Vladimir Staritsky.

But fate decreed that Irina became the queen - and not the "tower", that is, doomed to sit locked up, but the real one. Because Fedor was not representative and behaved strangely at official ceremonies or even avoided them at all, Irina was forced to sit in the Boyar Duma and accept foreign ambassadors, and in 1589, during an unprecedented event, the visit of the Patriarch of Constantinople, she even turned to a distinguished guest with a welcoming speech - this has not happened in Moscow since time and will not be repeated for a whole century, right up to the ruler Sofia Alekseevna.

In the first, “non-royal” period of rule, he kept himself at the expense of friendship and kinship with the queen, who in all respects obeyed his advice. At that time, the boyar could hardly have thought of taking the throne himself, and linked his hopes for the future with the regency under the heir, whose birth had been waited long and in vain.

The fact is that Fyodor Ioannovich was weak, but, as they said then, he was not "merciless." Irina was often pregnant, but the children were born dead. (A study of the remains of the queen, which was carried out in Soviet times, revealed a pathology in the structure of the pelvis that made childbirth difficult.)

1592 - Irina was nevertheless able to give birth to a living baby - true, a girl. In those days, the power system did not provide for female autocracy, but there was hope for the salvation of the dynasty. For the little princess Theodosius, they immediately began to select a future bridegroom, about which negotiations were held with the most authoritative court in Europe - the imperial court. The Vienna ambassador was asked to send some little prince to Moscow in order to teach him Russian language and customs in advance. But the girl was born weak and died before she was one and a half years old.

St. Job, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia

Death of the king

At the end of 1597, Fedor the Blessed was seriously ill. He gradually lost his hearing and vision. Before his death, he wrote a spiritual letter, which stated that the state should pass into the hands of Irina. The chief advisors to the throne were two - the patriarch Job and the brother-in-law of the king Boris Godunov.

1598, January 7 - at one o'clock in the afternoon the sovereign died, imperceptibly, as if asleep. Some sources claim that the monarch was poisoned by Boris Godunov, who wanted to take the throne himself. When examining the king’s skeleton, arsenic was discovered in his bones.

The fatal illness of the last tsar from the Moscow Rurik dynasty caused a commotion at court. Everyone had no time for ceremonies - a fierce struggle for power began, because the king was dying almost alone. Before his death, he was not even tonsured into a schema. An autopsy of the sarcophagus showed that the tsar of all Russia was buried in some shabby caftan, with a simple, not at all tsar’s myrrh (vessel for myrrh) at the head of the bed. Fedor carefully watched himself: his nails, hair and beard were carefully trimmed. Judging by the remains, he was tough and strong, growing noticeably shorter than his father (about 160 cm), he looked very much like his face, the same dinar anthropological type.

With his death, the ruling dynasty of the Rurikovich ceased to exist. In the popular mind, he left a good memory as a gracious and god-loving monarch.

After the death of her husband, Irina Fedorovna refused the offer of the patriarch Job to take the throne and went to the monastery.

All rulers of Russia Vostryshev Mikhail Ivanovich

Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich (1557–1598)

Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich

The son of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible and Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yurieva. Fedor was born on May 31, 1557.

In 1580, he married the sister of the boyar Boris Godunov - Irina. On November 19, 1582, the eldest son of Ivan the Terrible, Ivan, was killed by his father, and from then on, Fedor is considered the heir to the royal throne.

At the death of his father on March 18, 1584, Fedor Ivanovich became the Russian Tsar. “Without inheriting the royal mind,” writes Nikolai Karamzin, “Fedor had neither the dignified appearance of his father, nor the courageous beauty of his grandfather and great-grandfather. He was small, flabby in body, pale in face, always smiling, but without liveliness. He moved slowly, walked with an uneven step from weakness in his legs. In a word, he expressed within himself a premature exhaustion of the forces of the natural and mental. ”

All government control passed into the hands of Tsar’s brother-in-law Boris Fedorovich Godunov, who was, in essence, the real ruler of the Moscow state. In 1585, he exposed the conspiracy of noble boyars who tried to lure him to a feast and kill him there. Mstislavsky tonsured monks, Vorotinsky, Golovinsky and Vorotynsky exiled.

In 1586, the watchtowers of Samara and Voronezh were laid, and in the same year the development of Siberia by the Russians began. On the site of the Tatar city of Chimgi-Tura, taken by Ermak in 1581, the prison of Tyumen was founded in 1586. The following year, a detachment of Cossacks Danila Chulkova founded the city of Tobolsk. In 1593, the cities of Obdorsk (Salekhard) and Belgorod were founded, in 1594 - Surgut on the Ob River and Tara on the Irtysh.

After the war with Sweden in 1590-1595, Russia's position in the Baltic strengthened, Ivangorod and other Russian cities were returned.

In the summer of 1591, the Horde army last appeared at the walls of Moscow for the last time. The raid of the Crimean Khan Kazy-Giray was unsuccessful; on July 4, in the Danilov Monastery area, the Tatars were put to flight.

Tsarevich Dmitry, exiled at the beginning of the reign of Fyodor Ivanovich to Uglich, died on May 15, 1591 under unclear circumstances. The boyar sent there to investigate, Vasily Shuisky, reported on June 2 to the Boyars Duma that a seizure had happened with the prince and he had stabbed himself.

Under Fedor Ivanovich, who especially loved church ceremonies, in 1589 the patriarchate was founded in Russia. Job became the first patriarch.

In 1585, under the guidance of architect Fedor Savelyevich Kon, construction of the walls of the White City began.

In 1592, St. George's Day was canceled - the day when peasants could voluntarily move from one landowner to another.

In 1593, the ambassador of the Persian Shah Abbas I arrived in Moscow, who said that the Shah was inferior to the Russian Tsar, the Georgian Principality of Iverius.

Tsar Fedor Ivanovich died on January 7, 1598, leaving no offspring. With his death, the direct branch of the Rurikovich dynasty on the Russian throne was suppressed.

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Fedor Ivanovich - Blessed, Tsar and Emperor of All Russia Years of Life 1557–1598 Years of reign 1584–1598 Father - Ivan Vasilievich Grozny, autocrat, tsar. Mother - Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yuryeva, sister of Nikita Romanovich Zakharyin and aunt of his son, Fedor Nikitit ,

Fyodor I Ivanovich, the third son of Ivan IV the Terrible and Queen Anastasia Romanovna; the last of the Rurik dynasty, was born in Moscow on May 11, 1557.

Having lost his mother, he was moved with his elder brother, Tsarevich Ivan, from the “Top”, the royal chorus, to the “special” court in 1560. In 1563, he met his father, victoriously returning from Livonia, on a driveway in the village of Krylatsky. He lived with his father and guardsmen in the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda (now Aleksandrov, the county town of Vladimir province).

If you believe the testimony of foreign contemporaries (Taube and Kruse), he was intended to be the heir to the oprichnina half of the Russian kingdom. He was with his father on a Livonian campaign in the fall of 1572. He was listed between candidates for the Polish throne in 1573, 1576 and 1577. He married in 1580 to Irina Fedorovna Godunova.

Most historians believe that Fedor was not capable of government activities. He was poor in health and took little part in government, being under the tutelage of the council of nobles, then his brother-in-law Boris Fedorovich Godunov. Called Blessed, in some opinions he was weak and wise.

So Godunov from 1587 was actually the sole ruler of the state, and after the death of Fedor became his successor. The position of Boris Godunov at the royal court was so significant that overseas diplomats sought an audience with Boris Godunov, his will was the law. Fedor reigned, Boris ruled - they knew this both in Russia and abroad.

But nevertheless, it was during the reign of Fyodor I Ivanovich that the construction of the city of Arkhangelsk was started in 1585, the oath of allegiance from the king of Iberian (Georgian) Alexander was taken, the White City was laid in Moscow in 1586. Fedor I granted the British the right of duty-free trade in Russian soil and named the newly built Tobolsk the capital of Siberia in 1587.

In his reign, a patriarchate was established in Russia; on January 26, 1589, the first patriarch Job, Metropolitan of Moscow, was consecrated.

Fedor finished the case of the assassination of Tsarevich Dmitry in Uglich by tonsure of the mother of Tsarevicheva and the exile of all her relatives. From his tower he looked indifferently at the battle of Boris Godunov, which was boiling near Moscow itself, with the Crimean Kei-Girey. In victory, he indicated that the present Donskoy Monastery should be built on the site of the battle in 1591.

It was Fedor who forbade the peasants from moving from one landowner to another (St. George's Day) in 1590. He established himself by friendship with Abbas, the Shah of Persia, in 1594; sent regiments to fight in Dagestan in 1595; laid the stone fortifications of Smolensk in 1596.