Blazhenny F.I.

Fyodor Ivanovich Blazhenny - the last Russian tzar of Ryurikid dynasty (1584-1598).

Tzar Fyodor ascended the throne according to the tradition of succession and to Ivan IV's will, but did not suit the role of the ruler of the country neither by personal qualities, nor by the abilities.

According to dying order of Ivan the Terrible, a kind of regent council was formed by incapacitated king Fyodor, which consisted of five boyars: the uncle of the tzar Nikita Romanovich Zaharyin-Yuryev, prince Ivan Fyodorovich Mstislavsky, prince Ivan Petrovich Shuysky, Bogdan Yakovlevich Belsky and tzar's brother-in-law Boris Fyodorovich Godunov.

Collision between members of the council, divided into two opposing groups, was inevitable. Firstly Zaharyin-Yuryev, relying on the Moscow nobility and posad, tried to reconcile princes Shuisky and Mstislavsky and promoted workers of Ivan IV (Belsky and Godunov). But Belsky was immediately engaged in dangerous political intrigues. Then April 2, 1584 disorders of Moscow posad were inspired against him and he was banished to Nizhny Novgorod by the voevode.

At the end of the same year Yuryev fell ill and withdrew from business, which sharply aggravated antagonism between Boris Godunov and Shuisky. The mandative bureaucracy led by dumnye clerks Andrey and Vasily Shelkalovy, supporters of the strong centralized state, supported Godunov. It allowed Godunov to get rid of another rival - I.F.Miloslavsky, who in 1585 was sent to Kirillo-Belozersky monastery and forced to become a monk there.

In 1586 heads of boyar's clan of Shuisky under pretence of barreness of the empress Irina strove for her divorce with Fyodor Ivanovich and discharge of B.Godunov from the authority. Thus they relied on Moscow posad people. Boris managed to suppress distempers arisen in the capital in May, 1586, and soon I.P.Shuisky and his brothers were at first banished to the ancestral lands, then transported to Beloozero and Kargopol, where were secretly killed.

After that it was broke off with the boyar's opposition, and Boris Godunov could now publicly become the regent of the state. He took the title of " the governor, the servant and the equerry boyar and the domestic voevode", the Boyars Duma granted him the right of external relations.

For strengthening of the economic situation of the state at the church Cathedral in 1584 the government of Godunov obtained cancellation of the tax privileges of church and monasteries. At the same time the census of the lands for registering of the ground fundwas carried out, in this connection country transitions at Yuriev day were forbidden, and in 1597 the decree about a five year term of investigation of fugitive peasants was issued. It was the important stage in the establishment of serfdom in Russia, thus consolidating the economic situation of the serving nobility. But a peasant was not yet attached to a landowner, but to the ground. Besides the attachment concerned only the owner of a court yard, but not his children and nephews.

Striving to limit economic power of the church, Godunov 's government at the same time took care of consolidation of its authority, which found expression in establishment in 1589 of patriarchate in Russia.

May 5, 1591 in Uglich during the fit of " falling sickness " prince Dmitry (the son of Ivan the Terrible and his last wife Maria Nagaya) perished, and the rumour blamed Boris Godunov in his death. Sources do not give the unequivocal answer to the question of the reasons of death of the prince, but obviously the tragedy cleared Godunov the way to the throne.

During Fyodor's reign Moscow was decorated with new constructions. All China - city was reconstructed, as the old constructions were destroyed with fire in 1595, when mercenary attempts to set Moscow on fire were undertaken. Prince Vasily Shepin-Rostovsky and others, having kindled few houses, wanted to plunder the treasury stored in the Pokrovsky cathedral. Thieves were caught and executed at the Place of execution. Having gone through all terrible governors in Russia, there still lived the grand duke Simeon Bårkulatovichin Tver, known by the fact that in the times of oprichnina he was assigned the "grand duke" by Ivan the Terrible. Under Godunov's direction Simeon was blinded, as it seemed to Boris, that the poisoned wine was sent to him from Tver.

Fyodor Ivannovich himself, since the blossoming youth having no other idea, than that of the salvation, at the end of life was even less concerned for mundane life and his empire. King Fyodor travelled from a monastery to another, praying and inviting the Greek supreme clergy to Moscow. At the end of 1597 Fyodor fell hardly ill. Obvious signs of close death showed on January 6, 1598. The tzar gradually lost his sight and hearing; he constantly set the dying away look on Godunov. Boyars kept silence. People loved Fyodor as the last king of blood of the Ruriks and Vladimir Monomakh. Before death Fyodor wrote the testament, by which Irina ascended the power. The main advisers of the throne patriarch Iov and the brother-in-law of king Boris Godunov were appointed. Before death Fyodor had a private talk with Irina, the contents of which remained unknown. January 7, 1598 at one o'clock Feodor died, without convulsions and trembling, imperceptibly, as though fell asleep silently and sweet.

In 1598 with the death of childless Fyodor Ivanovich the ruling dynasty of the Ruriks stopped existence.