Fedor Ivanovich, Tsar: biography, years of reign. Tsar Fedor Ivanovich: biography, years of reign, death 1584 1598 reign of Fedor Ivanovich

The real personality of Tsar Fyodor I Ivanovich, despite the relatively short historical period of time (460 years) that separates us from him, is hidden. The whole question revolves around whether he was imbecile or not. We will try to answer this. There are few sources left that give him a true image. This sovereign is overshadowed by two powerful figures: Father Ivan the Terrible and co-ruler Boris Godunov. Our historians recreate, and writers interpret him as a man and a ruler.

End of the Rurik dynasty

In the 16th century, the first Russian tsar, Ivan Vasilyevich, ascended the throne. He ruled for a long time, more than 50 years, but extremely unevenly, shaking his lands and family with a fiercely brutal character.

Of the eight wives, only three bore him children. And even the elder, whom he was preparing for the kingdom, the king himself killed in a fit of uncontrollable anger, which he bitterly regretted. The heir was Fedor Ivanovich, son of Ivan IV the Terrible from his first marriage.

Family in childhood

The royal parents loved each other and had lived for ten years by the time Fedor was born, sharing both joys and sorrows. The prince had an older brother, Ivan. Their age difference was three years. Growing up, they will play together, and loving parents watch them. But in the year of the birth of the prince, baptized in the Chudov Monastery, in 1557, no one knows yet that peace and silence only so far stand over the country. This is the last serene year. In 1558, a long, for a quarter of a century, bloody Livonian war will begin. She will overshadow his entire childhood. And after the death of his mother, there is almost no information about the prince, who was then three years old. The father travels to the pilgrims and does not take his son with him. He leaves, leading an army, to the war, and a five-year-old boy, seeing him off, does not know if he will return back. And then a series of wives will go to the royal chambers, who see in Ivan and Fedor an obstacle to their children to the throne, and there is no need to talk about spiritual warmth here. The boys, of course, experienced a hidden enmity. But in the sources there is practically no information about how Ivan Vasilyevich raised the youngest. It is known that from the age of eight he took him with him on pilgrimages, and later ordered him to be present at state ceremonies. Even when the tsarevich was not yet seven years old, he participated in the erection to the rank of metropolitan of Moscow, and when the oprichnina was established, he, together with his family and court, left for 10 years old, his father took him with him to Vologda for inspection. So, little by little, Tsarevich Fedor looked closely at state affairs.

Marriage

The father himself chose a bride for his son from a strong, reliable clan of the Godunovs, but not too well-born, such that they depended on the royal family in everything and were grateful for such a high fate. And the prince, not thinking about political motives, simply became attached to his wife, the clever Irina.

Death of an heir

The Tsar of All Russia did not get around to fully educating his youngest son Fedor. Always in the foreground was Ivan Ivanovich. And when he died, in 1581, at the age of 24 he had to seriously accustom the heir Fedor to state affairs. And he had no interest in them. After all, before all attention was paid to Ivan, and you, Fedenka, advised him to go to the church of God, talk with the monks, listen to the singers, and the deacon's bass, otherwise go hunting.

The prince was surrounded by mothers, nannies and monks. They also taught him book knowledge and the law of God. So the prince grew up timid, meek, pious. And God gave him a royal crown.

Crowning the kingdom

The death of Ivan the Terrible in 1584 is surrounded by omissions and secrets. There are suggestions that he was poisoned or strangled, which, however, has not been reliably proven. But the boyars, rejoicing at the liberation from the powerful oppression of the tyrant who held them with an iron hand, raised an uprising, taking advantage of the rumors about the mysterious death of the tsar, and brought him to the walls of the Kremlin. Negotiations with the rebels ended with the fact that they retreated, and the instigators were exiled. Just in case, the young Dmitry and his mother were removed to Uglich. Who was behind these actions? Well, not Fedor Ivanovich. He was not interested in business, he was passive. Everything was run by the noble princes Shuisky, Mstislavsky, Yuryev.

Shortly before the uprising, there was a wedding to the kingdom, this happened on Fedor's birthday. He was exactly 27 years old. The ceremony went like this. Fedor Ivanovich walked in front - the king, dressed in the richest attire. Behind him - the higher clergy and then all know by rank. A crown was placed on his head. The clergy from Mount Athos and Mount Sinai were invited to the celebration, which meant the importance of the event for the entire Orthodox world. The celebration lasted a week.

Thus, Fedor Ivanovich received the right and opportunity to dispose of everything. The king became the absolute ruler. In his hands was all the power - legislative, executive, judicial and military.

king: historical portrait

Foreigners, British, French, Swedes, Poles are trying to convince us that Fyodor Ivanovich was too simple, sensitive and overly pious and superstitious, even stupid. He spent too much time in monasteries. But, getting up at 4 o'clock in the morning, according to the same foreigners, having prayed, conveyed greetings to his wife, who occupied separate chambers, he received boyars, military leaders, members of the Duma. This suggests that Fedor Ivanovich is a tsar: he listens to the nobles and gives instructions.

True, he does not allocate too much time for these affairs, since they do not occupy him very much, but, like a true sovereign, he nevertheless fulfills the deeds. Yes, he prefers prayer to politics, but there are no signs of dementia in this. He is simply by nature not a statesman, but an ordinary person who likes to talk with his wife, look at bear-baiting or hand-to-hand combat, and laugh at jesters. Intrigues, political moves, thought out, like chess, for a long time to come, are not his element. Fedor I Ioannovich is a kind, calm, pious person. Other foreigners, the Austrians, for example, to whom the tsar gave a kind welcome and promised assistance in the fight against the Turks, nowhere indicate that the tsar was weak-minded. Maybe the whole point is in the biased assessments of the same Swedes, since political affairs were resolved by force of arms in an unfavorable direction for them?

The perception of the tsar by the Russian people

All of them note that Fedor I Ioannovich is extremely pious and exhausts himself with spiritual exploits. And during the wedding to the kingdom, he delivered speeches in which he did not mark a sign of stupidity. A poor-minded person would not have survived the whole ceremony and could not deliver a speech. And the king behaved with due dignity. Russian chroniclers call him merciful, and his death was perceived as a great grief that could bring great disasters. Which, by the way, came true.

Patriarch Job, who saw the king every day and knew him well, expressed his lively admiration for the sovereign. The tsar appears before us as a true ascetic of faith, and a well-fed, calm life under him was perceived as the grace of God, descended by his prayers on Russian soil. Everyone emphasizes his incredible piety. Therefore, the nickname of Tsar Fedor Ivanovich was - Blessed. And one of the princes close to him, I.A. Khvorostinin noted the king's love of reading. His father Ivan the Terrible himself, drawing up a will when the eldest son Ivan was still alive, warned the 15-year-old Fyodor against rebellion against his brother. But the complete fool, as other foreigners try to present him, could hardly go to war against his brother. So, Ivan Vasilyevich imagined his son not at all a simpleton. Further showed that the king was an excellent commander, leading a campaign against the Swedes. He got into the Russian army, being mentally healthy, and not a holy fool. The defeat of the Swedes in the Livonian War is a great deed of Fyodor Ivanovich.

co-rulers

Godunov stood behind the throne, but besides him, the emaciated one, there were aristocrats with whom Fyodor Ivanovich had to reckon. And who could keep the Shuiskys, Mstislavskys, Odoevskys, Vorotynskys, Zakharyins-Yuryevs-Romanovs in check? Only the king, who was above all. Yes, he could allow himself in the meeting of the Duma boyars, having descended from the throne, stroking a cat, but his gaze is clear and full of wisdom.

Theodore the Blessed, listening to high-ranking men, could also think of his own thoughts that every creation of God is worthy of love and affection, like his own people, who flourished under him. And let the nobles rejoice that he does not cut the head from their shoulders, like his father. Godunov, listening to the opinion of the tsar, became co-ruler by the tsar's will. He represented the best possible. Together they made a well-coordinated couple when Tsar Fedor Ivanovich ruled (1584 - 1598).

Rejection of divorce

The king honored the sacrament of marriage. And although God gave him one child who died in infancy, despite the demands of the boyars to divorce his wife and remarry and have legitimate heirs, the sovereign resolutely refused. In this position, it was necessary to show courage, will and stamina, so great was the pressure of the aristocrats. The fact that the king did not have children partly explains the long hours spent in prayer, and the frequent trips to the pilgrimage, which the couple made on foot, of course, accompanied by guards and retinue. They were led by faith and hope.

Patriarchate

After Byzantium fell, the Russian state turned out to be the largest of all Orthodox. But the head of the church bore only the rank of metropolitan, which was clearly not enough. But could the tsar, incapable of long negotiations and intrigues, play such a complex and subtle political game? He always avoided worries of this kind, as he was quiet and had the mentality of a monk-monk, who is away from worldly affairs. The chroniclers write that the sovereign, after consulting with the boyars, brought to the council of the boyars the idea of ​​establishing the patriarchate. They needed to comply with the sovereign's decision. And no matter whose original idea this idea was, the king voiced it, and the matter slowly, but began to develop.

It took several years of negotiations and intrigues of the Greeks for everything to be completed, as required by the autocrat in the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Job became. The king, carried away by this idea, himself developed a new, more magnificent ceremony than the Greeks had.

Book printing in Moscow

At the direct request of Fyodor Ivanovich, sources say, a printing house was restored in Moscow. It was intended for the reproduction of liturgical books, but the beginning of book printing was laid. Further it will develop, bringing enlightenment, first ecclesiastical, and then secular. Could a stupid, mentally retarded person put forward such an idea? The answer suggests itself. Of course not. And the country needed books. Under Fyodor Ivanovich, cities, temples, monasteries were built, and everything required the acquisition of learning and, consequently, books.

Death of Tsar Fedor Ivanovich

The king, who stayed on the throne for 13 years and seven months, was ill for a long time, but died quickly. He did not have time to become a monk before his death, as he wished. There were three great deeds in his life: the establishment of the patriarchate, the liberation of Russian lands from Swedish occupation, and the construction of the Donskoy Monastery. In them he took active action. It remains unclear to this day to whom he handed over the throne. Perhaps no one, deciding that "God will judge." He accepted a devastated country, and left it strengthened, pushing its limits. Under him, the "Tsar Cannon" was cast. Quiet, deeply believing in God's providence, the king saw that the Lord ruled his country and preserved his kingdom. Such was the last Rurikovich, Fedor Ivanovich - the king, whose biography and deeds left a good mark in the history of the country.

Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich. Reconstruction based on Gerasimov's skullShakko Photos

Fedor Ivanovich was born on May 11, 1557 and was the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible from Anastasia Romanovna. Shortly before the death of Ivan the Terrible, on November 19, 1582, Fyodor's elder brother, John, was killed by his father, and from that time on, Fyodor began to be considered the heir to the royal throne. Upon the death of Grozny (March 18, 1581), Fedor Ioannovich became king, after a turmoil started by adherents of the youngest son of Grozny (from Maria Nagoy), Dimitri. This turmoil was tamed thanks to the energy of Boris Godunov, whose sister, Irina Fedorovna, Fyodor married in 1580, at the behest of his father. Fyodor Ioannovich was an inactive and weak-minded man, he loved church services and various entertainments more than public affairs. All administration of the state passed into the hands of the tsar's brother-in-law, Boris Fyodorovich Godunov, who was, in essence, the real Russian tsar. All events of the reign of Fyodor Ioannovich are directly connected with the name of Boris Godunov. Fedor died on January 7, 1598, leaving no offspring. With his death, the Rurik dynasty on the royal throne in Moscow ended.

Encyclopedia Brockhaus-Efron

Konstantin Ryzhov - Fedor I Ivanovich (1584-1598)

From the kind of Moscow led. book. Son of Tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich the Terrible and Anastasia Romanovna Yurieva-Zakharova. Genus. May 11, 1557 Tsar of All Russia in 1584 - 1598 Wife: since 1580 Irina Fedorovna Godunova (d. Sept. 26, 1603). Died 7 Jan. 1598

Of all the crimes of Grozny, the murder of Ivan's son and the subsequent suppression of the family of the Grand Dukes of Moscow, perhaps, had the most difficult impact on Russian history. The second son, Fyodor, was distinguished from birth by pronounced dementia, but by an unfortunate coincidence, it was he who was supposed to inherit Grozny after his death. Fyodor's younger brother Dmitry also had supporters among the Moscow boyars. Fedor established himself on the throne not without troubles. Prince Bogdan Belsky intrigued a lot in favor of Dmitry, but the boyars hostile to him and the people laid siege to Belsky in the Kremlin, forced him to surrender and exiled him to Nizhny Novgorod.

The news has also been preserved that eminent people from all cities came to Moscow and prayed with tears to Tsarevich Fedor that he would be king in the Muscovite state and be crowned with a royal crown. On May 31, Fedor was married to the kingdom. It was no secret to anyone that he was incapable of ruling. After the death of Ivan the Terrible, there was a stubborn struggle among the boyars for influence over the tsar. In the end, the tsar's brother-in-law boyar Boris Fedorovich Godunov overpowered everyone, who was the true arbiter of the fate of the state during the entire time of Fedorov's reign.

Fyodor was small, squat, puffy, had an unsteady gait, was heavy and inactive in character. A blissful smile never left his face, and in general, although he was distinguished by extreme simplicity and imbecility, he was very affectionate, quiet, merciful and pious. He spent most of the day in church, and as entertainment he liked to watch fistfights, jesters' fun and fun with bears. If anyone addressed the tsar with his brow, he sent him to Godunov. Fedor's son was never born, and his daughter died in infancy. At the end of 1597, he himself fell ill with a fatal illness and died on January 7, 1598 at one in the morning. With his death, the princely dynasty of the Rurikovichs, which had continuously ruled Russia since 862, came to an end.

Konstantin Ryzhov. All the monarchs of the world. Russia

V. O. Klyuchevsky - Tsar Fedor Ivanovich

An instructive phenomenon in the history of the old Muscovite dynasty is presented by its last Tsar Fyodor. The Kalitino tribe, which built the Muscovite state, has always been distinguished by its amazing ability to handle its everyday affairs, suffered from a family excess of concern for earthly things, and this very tribe, dying out, flashed with a complete renunciation of everything earthly, died out by Tsar Fedor Ivanovich, who, according to contemporaries, all his life he avoided worldly vanity and dokuki, thinking only about heavenly things. The Polish ambassador Sapega describes Fyodor in this way: the tsar is small in stature, rather thin, with a quiet even obsequious voice, with an ingenuous face, his mind is meager or, as I heard from others and noticed myself, he has none, for, sitting on the throne during the embassy reception, he did not stop smiling, admiring now at his scepter, now at the orb.

Fyodor Ivanovich miniature from the Tsar's titular book

Another contemporary, the Swede Petreus, in his description of the Moscow state (1608 - 1611) also notes that Tsar Fedor was by nature almost devoid of reason, found pleasure only in spiritual subjects, often ran around churches ringing bells and listening to mass. His father bitterly reproached him for this, saying that he looked more like a sexton than a king's son. In these reviews, of course, there is some exaggeration, a share of caricature is felt. The pious and respectful thought of Russian contemporaries tried to make of Tsar Fedor an image of a special kind of asceticism, familiar to her and beloved by her. We know what significance and what honor the foolishness for Christ's sake enjoyed in ancient Russia. The holy fool, blessed, renounced all the blessings of life, not only from bodily, but also from spiritual comforts and lures, from honors, glory, respect and affection from neighbors. Moreover, he made a military challenge to these benefits and lures: beggar and homeless, walking the streets barefoot, in tatters, acting unnaturally, ugly, speaking inappropriate speeches, despising generally accepted decency, he tried to become a laughingstock for the unreasonable and how would scoff at the goods that people love and appreciate, and at the people themselves who love and appreciate them. In such humility to the point of self-abasement, ancient Russia saw the practical development of a lofty commandment about the blessedness of the poor in spirit, to whom the kingdom of God belongs.

This spiritual poverty in the person of the holy fool was a walking worldly conscience, a "facial" in a living image of exposure of human passions and vices, and enjoyed great rights in society, complete freedom of speech: the powers that be, the nobles and kings, Ivan the Terrible himself, patiently listened to the brave, mocking or the quarreling speeches of a blissful street vagabond, not daring to lay a finger on him. And Tsar Fyodor was given this habitual and beloved appearance by Russian contemporaries: in their eyes he was blessed on the throne, one of those poor in spirit, to whom the kingdom of heaven, and not earthly, befits, whom the church so loved to include in its calendar, in reproach to dirty thoughts and sinful inclinations of the Russian people. "He was noble from his mother's womb and had no care, except for spiritual salvation," - this is how a contemporary, Prince I. M. Katyrev-Rostovsky, close to the court, speaks of Fedor. According to another contemporary, in Tsar Theodore the kingdom was intertwined with the kingdom without division, and one served as an adornment to the other. He was called the "sanctified king", ordained from above to holiness, to the crown of heaven. In a word, in a cell or cave, to use the expression of Karamzin, Tsar Fedor would be more in place than on the throne.

And in our time, Tsar Fedor became the subject of poetic processing: for example, the second tragedy of the dramatic trilogy of Count Al is dedicated to him. Tolstoy. And here the image of Tsar Fedor is very close to his ancient Russian image; the poet, obviously, painted a portrait of the blessed tsar from an old Russian annalistic icon of him. A subtle line is drawn along this portrait and a penchant for a benevolent joke, with which the old Russian blessed softened his harsh denunciations. But through the outward piety, which was touched by contemporaries in Tsar Fedor, Al. Tolstoy's moral sensibility is clearly visible: this is a prophetic simpleton who, with an unconscious, mysteriously illumined instinct, was able to understand things that the greatest wise men can never understand. He is sad to hear about party strife, about the enmity between the supporters of Boris Godunov and Prince Shuisky; he wants to live to the point where everyone will be supporters of only one Russia, he wants to reconcile all enemies, and Godunov’s doubts about the possibility of such a nationwide world world ardently objects:

No no!
You don't understand this, Boris!
You know there, as you know, the state,
You are good at that, but here I understand more,
Here it is necessary to know the heart of man.

Elsewhere he says to the same Godunov:

What kind of king am I? me in all matters
And it's not difficult to confuse, and it's not difficult to deceive,
There is only one thing I am not deceived by:
When between what is white or black,
I must choose - I will not be deceived.

One should not lose sight of the historical lining of edifying or poetic depictions of a historical person by contemporaries or later writers. Tsarevich Fedor grew up in the Alexander Sloboda, among the ugliness and horrors of the oprichnina. Early in the morning, his father, hegumen of the Shutov Sloboda monastery, sent him to the bell tower to ring for matins. Born weak from his mother, Anastasia Romanovna, who began to become ill, he grew up a motherless orphan in a disgusting oprichnina environment and grew up as a small and pale-faced minor, disposed to dropsy, with an uneven, senilely slow gait from premature weakness in his legs. This is how he describes the king when he was in his 32nd year, who saw him in 1588-1589. British Ambassador Fletcher. In the person of Tsar Fedor, the dynasty was dying out with its own eyes. He always smiled, but a lifeless smile. With this sad smile, as if begging for pity and mercy, the prince defended himself from the capricious father's anger. The calculated pitiful facial expression over time, especially after the terrible death of his older brother, by force of habit turned into an involuntary automatic grimace, with which Fedor ascended the throne. Under the yoke of his father, he lost his will, but forever retained the learned expression of downtrodden obedience. On the throne, he was looking for a person who would become the master of his will: the smart brother-in-law Godunov carefully took the place of his rabid father.

V. O. Klyuchevsky. Russian history. Full course of lectures. Lecture 41

Fyodor Ioannovich (1584–1598)

The second son of John IV, Fedor, was distinguished by morbidity and weak mental abilities, which is why the government of the state soon passed into the hands of the tsar's brother-in-law, the intelligent and far-sighted boyar Boris Godunov. Having removed all his opponents by disgrace and exile, Godunov surrounded himself with devoted people and became the sovereign ruler of the state. He maintains relations with Western states, builds cities and fortifications on the borders of Russia, and arranged the Arkhangelsk harbor on the White Sea. According to his idea, an independent all-Russian patriarchate was approved and the peasants were finally attached to the land. In 1591, Tsarevich Dmitry, the brother of the childless Tsar Fedor and his heir, was killed, and Fedor himself died six years later.