BORIS FODOROVICH GODUNOV, bo res' gO-doo-nor, Tsar of Russia: b. about 1551; ascended the throne 1 Sept. 1598; d. 15 April 1605. He was a descendant of a Tartar noble man Chet, and began his military service under Ivan the Terrible. When in 1581 the Tsar, in a fit of anger, murdered his elder brother Ivan, and the right to the throne was left to his younger brother Feodor, Boris was appointed a guardian of the young ruler. Through intrigue and clever diplomacy Boris gradually assumed great authority and in 1587 obtained officially the right of communicating personally with the sovereigns of other countries. Not having any experience in nor any liking for wars, Boris directed the foreign affairs of Russia in a peace ful and most astute manner and avoided armed conflicts with Sweden, the Tartars and the Turks. With Great Britain he established favorable commercial relations and in the country many flourishing colonies and townships were founded. In 1589 Boris instituted a patriarchate and assumed the throne of the first patriarch, thus placing himself above the metro politan of Kiev. Other important reforms in ecclesiastical affairs were also made during his rule as regent. When, in 1591, the second heir to the throne, Tsarevich Demetrius, died under mysterious circumstances, which largely incrim inated Boris, this omnipotent and ambitious regent not only denied a participation in the deed, but, in order to distract the public atten tion, set Moscow on fire and won the hearts of the people by great deeds of charity to the suf fering which he knew how to show in a most theatrical manner. After the death of Tsarevich Feodor in 1598, Boris displayed all his astuteness and all the might of his unusual mind in a series of cleverly, though not honor able, arranged coups; inclining, or forcing, the Queen mother Irene and her brother to retire to a monastery and causing the clergy and Zemski Sabor (Parliament) to request him unan imously to ascend the imperial throne, which he finally agreed to do with a cleverly simulated reluctance. In order to gain the confidence
and love of his subjects completely, Tsar Boris inaugurated at once a rule of good will; grant ing privileges and concessions, and suppressing crimes, thefts and other vices. His rule was in reality one of prosperity and progress in many respects. He established high schools in Mos cow for which he supplied good teachers from Germany, Austria, England and France. His foreign affairs were even more peaceful and flourishing than during the regency and his rela tions with the Swedish and Danish courts were especially cordial on account of the prospective marriages of Boris' children into those royal families. From 1601, for three years, a famine raged in Russia; the half-insane population rushed in hordes to Moscow and men and women were dying in the streets; their corpses soon accumulated and spread pestilential germs and other evils, while wholesale murders, robberies and depositions grew apace. Boris fought the misfortune with an iron hand; dis tributing food and money in great, but insuf ficient, quantities. Toward the end of the famine (1604) the audacious ataman, Khlopka Kosoplap, appeared with huge hordes before Moscow but was routed by Boris's armies. At that time a certain Polish adventurer proclaimed himself Tsarevich Demetrius (known as uSamozvanetz)) or ((Self-styled))) and, claiming the right of that prince, gathered a mighty army and attacked Moscow but was defeated by the imperial armies. Boris died soon afterward leaving his shaken throne to his son Feodor. Consult Pavlov, (Ob istoricheskom znachenii tzarstvovania Borisa Godunova' (2d ed., Saint Petersburg 1863) • Byelov, (0 Smerti Tzare vicha Dirnitria) (Saint Petersburg 1873).