BORIS GODUNOV

In Russia, “Boris Godunov” to this day remains the most important historical drama. It talks about a dark and mysterious period of the late 16th century and early 17th century. For some time, this period was called The Big Confusion. Tyrant Ivan the Terrible, known for his exceptional cruelty and territory conquering raids, leaves his heirs a significantly emptied exchequer. His son Feodor finds it hard to manage the situation; moreover, it doesnʼt get any easier to do with highborn Rurikovich and newly advanced boyarin Godunov and Romanov clans fighting for influence. Finally, Boris Godunov is announced to be the new tsar. At this same time, Russia is befallen by a natural calamity: for three years in a row, the temperatures are incredibly low, even in summer it dropped below zero, so the country suffers a terrible famine that took about half a million lives. Crowds of hungry people would flow to Moscow where, by the order of tsar Boris, they were given bread and money.
Moreover, haters of the tsar are fast to use the story about the mysterious death of Ivan the Terrible’s son Dimitry for their own benefit – they spread the rumour that Dimitry was killed by Boris Godunov’s order as the latter aimed to get rid of the little rival on the way to the throne. An ex-monk, Grigory Otrepyev, runs away to Lithuania and announces himself to be the survived tsarevitch, Dimitry. He gets support from the Polish and Lithuanian royals; his army, rallied by Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth, is flooded by volunteers from the lands of Russia who want to take vengeance on Moscow for all the wrongdoings. A great war threatens, and inside the country, lots of smaller revolts that can turn into civil war are taking place. All this has to be handled by Boris Godunov – a lowborn boyarin who became the tsar of Moscow solely by his slyness.
Who was Boris Godunov? Was he an upstart seeking power by all means, guile, and massacres, or was he a brave reformer who received hate from the elite and common people for his reforms?