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

Having lost his mother, he was moved with his older brother, Tsarevich Ivan, from the “Top”, the royal mansion, to a “special” courtyard in 1560. In 1563, he met his father, victoriously returning from Livonia, at the entrance camp in the village of Krylatskoye. He lived with his father and guardsmen in Alexandrova Sloboda (now Alexandrov, a district town in the 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 the Livonian campaign in the fall of 1572. He was listed among candidates for the Polish throne in 1573, 1576 and 1577. He married Irina Fedorovna Godunova in 1580.

Most historians believe that Fedor was incapable of government activities. He was in poor health and took little part in governing the state, being under the tutelage first of the council of nobles, then of his brother-in-law Boris Fedorovich Godunov. Nicknamed the Blessed, according to some opinions he was weak in mind.

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

But still, it was during the reign of Fyodor I Ioannovich that the construction of the city of Arkhangelsk began in 1585, the oath of citizenship was taken from the Tsar of Iveron (Georgian) Alexander, and the White City was founded in Moscow in 1586. Fedor I granted the British the right to duty-free trade in Russian soil and named the newly built Tobolsk the capital of Siberia in 1587.

During his reign, the patriarchate was established in Rus'; on January 26, 1589, Job, Metropolitan of Moscow, was dedicated as the first patriarch.

Fyodor ended the case of the murder of Tsarevich Dmitry in Uglich with the tonsure of the Tsarevich's mother and the exile of all her relatives. He looked indifferently from his mansion at the battle between Boris Godunov and Kaey-Girey of Crimea that was raging near Moscow. After winning the victory, he ordered the construction of the current Donskoy Monastery on the site of the battle in 1591.

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

Reign of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich (1584-1598)

At the beginning of the new reign, a regency council was created. Its most prominent participant was the brother-in-law of the helpless Moscow monarch, boyar Boris Godunov, who made a brilliant court career during the oprichnina years. Skillfully using the contradictions between the members of the council, Godunov soon managed to actually become the head of state. To strengthen the economic situation of the country, Godunov's government at the Church Council in 1584 achieved the abolition of tax benefits that existed for the church and monasteries. At the same time, a land census was carried out to record the entire land fund, and therefore peasant crossings on St. George’s Day were prohibited, and in 1597 a decree was issued on a five-year period for searching for fugitive peasants. This was an important stage in the establishment of serfdom in Russia. But it should be noted that the peasant was not yet attached to the personality of the landowner, but to the land. In addition, the attachment concerned only the owner of the yard, but not his children and nephews.

In an effort to limit the economic power of the church, Godunov's government was at the same time concerned about the growth of its authority, which was expressed in the establishment of the patriarchate in Russia in 1589. At the Church Council, Metropolitan Job, a supporter of Boris Godunov, was proclaimed the first Moscow Patriarch. The establishment of the patriarchate made the Russian Orthodox Church legally independent from the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

On May 15, 1591, in Uglich, during an attack of epileptic illness, Tsarevich Dmitry died under mysterious circumstances, and rumor declared Boris Godunov to be the culprit of his death. Sources (the investigation into the death of the prince and the uprising of the townspeople that broke out in Uglich was led by the future Russian “boyar” autocrat Prince Vasily Shuisky) do not give a clear answer to the question of the causes of Dmitry’s death, but it is quite obvious that his sudden tragic death cleared the path for Godunov to the throne .

In 1598, with the death of the childless Fyodor Ivanovich, the ruling Rurik dynasty ceased to exist. The next Zemsky Sobor, after lengthy persuasion, elected Boris Fedorovich Godunov (1598-1605) as the new Tsar.

Social movements

The formation of the most important state and political institutions of the Moscow state took place in an atmosphere of strengthening social movements. A significant role in this was played by the formation of the local system - conditional land holdings provided to service people (to landowners). The famous publicist and theologian Maxim the Greek (Trivolis), noting the difficult situation of the peasants, wrote: “... they always remain in poverty and misery, I eat cleanly below rye bread, and many times without salt from the last poverty.” The personal and legal situation of the peasants gradually deteriorated. From the second half of the 15th century. the right of peasants to transfer from one landowner to another was consistently limited. In connection with the sharply increasing exploitation, the peasants’ struggle against patrimonial and local oppression took on more and more diverse forms. The most common of them were escapes, refusals to perform duties, and murders of their owners by peasants and slaves.

Trying to resist the seizure of communal lands by feudal lords, peasants went to court with complaints, but more often they made attempts to return the seized land without permission. Many conflicts were associated with the creation of new monasteries on communal lands and wastelands. Attempts by peasants on the property and lives of landowners were spontaneous, but the number of these actions in the first half of the 16th century. increased continuously.

Social movements also spread to the urban population. The action of the townspeople against the boyars and large merchants was used by Ivan III when Novgorod was included in the unified Russian state (1478). In 1483, an aggravation of social contradictions in Pskov was noted; the chronicle says: “The Pskovites mowed down the courtyards of the mayors.” Unrest in Pskov did not subside in the first half of the 16th century. Under 1537 and 1542 Chronicle sources also mention unrest in Moscow.

A sharp aggravation of social contradictions occurred in the middle of the 16th century. The reason for the protest of the townspeople in Moscow in June 1547 was a fire that almost completely destroyed the capital. Rumors spread among the townspeople that the culprit of the misfortune was the grandmother of the young tsar, Anna Glinskaya, as a result of whose witchcraft Moscow burned down. The townspeople demanded her search. The rumors were picked up by a boyar group hostile to Glinsky, who sought to direct the anger of the rebels against their political opponents. One of the Glinskys was killed, the others fled; their courtyards were plundered and their servants killed. The rebel "black people", armed with anything, went to the royal residence in Vorobyovo to demand from the king the extradition of the remaining Glinskys. Taken by surprise, the young sovereign Ivan IV, terribly frightened by the excitement of the mob, promised to carry out a real investigation and punish the perpetrators of the fire, and promised help to the fire victims in restoring their houses. Believing him, Muscovites returned to the city. Soon the Moscow uprising subsided. The urban lower strata, the main and most massive force of the uprising in Moscow in 1547, with their performance accelerated the fall of the government: the Glinskys were replaced by representatives of the old Moscow boyars, the Zakharyins-Koshkins. The indignation prompted Ivan IV to develop and implement a policy of reforms carried out by the government of the Elected Rada, and to formalize the autocracy as a political system.

The response to the Moscow uprising was unrest in the summer of 1547 in the Pskov suburb of Opochka, and in 1550 in Pskov itself. An army had to be sent to Opochka to pacify the townspeople. In the second half of the 16th century. The social movement intensified in the village. The peasants refused to fulfill their duties, plowed up the lands of the feudal lords, destroyed the meadows, and cut down forests.

The Livonian War and the oprichnina resulted in increased taxes and increased enslavement for the lower social classes. A particularly difficult situation developed in Moscow, which was divided into two parts - the zemstvo and the oprichnina. The immediate cause of the next social uprising of Muscovites was the mass terror in the summer of 1568, which was caused by the fight against the opposition of the Old Moscow boyars. In July 1568, the upper ranks of the settlement, under the influence of Metropolitan Philip, submitted a petition to the Tsar asking him to abolish the oprichnina. Then the uprising of the townspeople began. Ivan IV took refuge in Alexandrova Sloboda. Having gathered an oprichnina army there, he dictated his terms. In September, one of the most prominent figures of the boyar opposition, I.P. Fedorov, was executed, and Metropolitan Philip was defrocked and exiled to the Tver monastery, where in November he was strangled by Malyuta Skuratov. However, under the pressure of the Moscow Posad, the tsar was forced to stop mass terror in the capital. He chose Alexandrov Sloboda as his permanent residence, leaving only briefly for Moscow. The uprising of 1568 was accompanied by unrest in a number of northern suburbs and volosts, which were suppressed with the help of oprichnina troops.

The arbitrariness of the guardsmen and the incitement of the boyar opposition intensified social unrest. In Russia in the 1570-1580s. An economic crisis broke out: the country was devastated, villages, towns and cities were deserted, famine and epidemics raged. In this foyer, the most common forms of social protest were mass escapes, murders of landowners, especially oprichniki, non-payment of taxes, failure to fulfill duties, arson and looting of master's yards.

After the death of Ivan the Terrible in March 1584 in Moscow, under the influence of the struggle of the boyar clans, the townspeople again rebelled. The townspeople, joined by Ryazan servicemen who were in the capital, smashed arsenals on Red Square and prepared to storm the Kremlin. This time the anger of the rebels was directed against the favorite of the late monarch, boyar B. Ya. Belsky, a devout guardsman. Dissatisfied with the fact that he was not included in the number of regents under Tsar Feodor, he brought his armed slaves to the Kremlin. Muscovites dismissed these actions as an intention to revive the oprichnina order. This Moscow uprising played a role in the boyars' struggle for power and influence. At the helm of power stood Tsar Fyodor's uncle N.R. Zakharyin and Tsar's brother-in-law B.F. Godunov, who satisfied part of the demands of the rebels and at the same time settled scores with the oprichnina promoters.

In April-May 1586, the socio-political situation in Moscow deteriorated again: uprisings of citizens broke out, and there was a struggle between boyar groups for power. The reason for the unrest was the lack of heirs for Tsar Fedor. In May 1586, the government had to hide from the “thieving merchant men” behind the Kremlin walls, and the Tsar and Tsarina had to leave Moscow. The Moscow guests demanded that the Tsar divorce his wife. But B.F. Godunov managed to split the ranks of his opponents. Seven instigators of the uprising from among the townspeople were executed. The Shuisky princes and church hierarchs were sent into exile for attempting to remove Godunov from power.

The Moscow uprising of 1586 resonated in Sol-Vychegodsk with the murder of the owner of the salt pans, S. A. Stroganov, who belonged to a famous family of merchants. In 1588, there was a “confusion of the Graz people” in Livny, and in May 1591, an uprising broke out in Uglich in connection with the tragic death of Tsarevich Dmitry.

The gradual establishment of serfdom on a national scale increased the intensity of social conflicts. The movements of the peasantry and townspeople gained strength. So, in 1594-1595. In the estates of one of the largest monasteries in Russia, the Joseph-Volokolamsk monastery, peasants protested against the transfer from quitrent to corvee and forced loan enslavement. At the end of the 16th century. movements of the lower social classes spread widely in the southern regions, which were an area of ​​influx of peasants from the main regions of Russia. However, even there, representatives of the tsarist authorities imposed on the fugitives the status of “servicemen according to the instrument” and bearing the “sovereign tithe of arable land.” As a result, mass unrest broke out and the peasants fled to the free Don. In the 1590s. government repressions led to serious protests on the southern borders of Russia.

Heresies were a special form of social unrest. In conditions when, due to the growth of social contradictions, the authority of the official Russian Orthodox Church was significantly undermined, the religious consciousness, so inherent in the people of the Middle Ages, found ways to resolve social problems in heretical views. The largest Russian cities became hotbeds of freethinking. End of the 15th century was marked by a new rise in the heretical movement and was associated with the activities of the Jew Scarius, which is where the name “heresy of the Judaizers” came from. This heresy became widespread among the minor clergy and townspeople. The “heresy of the Judaizers” did not recognize the dogma of the Trinity of God, believing that this contradicts the recognition of monotheism. Heretics denied the sacredness of icons. In their opinion, objects made using ordinary materials (paint, boards, brushes), even if they are works of art, cannot be revered as sacred. But the main thing was the action of the “Judaizers” against the church organization and the basic dogmas of Orthodoxy, the non-recognition of monasticism, and thereby monastic land ownership. Heretics proclaimed man himself to be the “temple of God.” Having moved to Moscow, Novgorod priests began to spread heresy in the capital, but the dominant church immediately rebelled against dissent.

A prominent church figure, the abbot of the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery, Joseph Volotsky (in the world - John Sanin), became a persistent persecutor of heretics; his supporters were called Josephites. In 1490, at a church council, heretics were condemned and damned. But among the Orthodox clergy there was no unity of views regarding heresy. The opponents of the Josephites were the so-called non-acquisitive led by the elder of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery Nil Sorsky. They believed that heretics should be debated rather than dealt with, and they saw the true service of the church in an ascetic lifestyle. For a long time, the great Moscow sovereign himself was tolerant of heretics. After the Council of 1490, a circle of heretics arose at the court, which included those close to Ivan III, headed by clerk Fyodor Kuritsyn. They advocated strengthening the grand ducal power and limiting church land ownership, and insisted that a person did not need the mediation of the church to communicate with God.

However, the interests of strengthening secular power required its alliance with the militant Josephites, especially since heresy, shaking the inviolability of church dogmas, also threatened the authority of secular rulers. And although the denial of church land ownership by the heretics was in the interests of the Grand Duke, he chose to change his position. A church council in 1504 sentenced heretics to death.

Already in the second half of the 16th century. It became obvious that after the introduction of oprichnina terror, the absorption of black-plowed lands by local landownership, and the replacement of local self-government by the noble administration, the further development of class-representative institutions in the Moscow state was paralyzed. An era of grandiose socio-political cataclysms was approaching, which brought the Russian state itself to the brink of collapse. The “rebellious” 17th century was coming.

  FEDOR IVANOVYCH(05/31/1557-01/06/1598) - Tsar since March 1584, the last Russian sovereign from the Rurik dynasty.

Son of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible and Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yuryeva. Since 1573, he was repeatedly nominated as a candidate for the Polish throne. After the death of his eldest son Ivan at the hands of Ivan IV (1582), Fyodor became the de facto heir to the throne, although his father considered him incapable of governing the state. Before his death, Ivan IV established a regency council to help Fedor from among the most influential boyars and two Duma clerks - the Shchelkalov brothers.

The first years of Fyodor Ivanovich's reign were marked by a fierce struggle between palace factions. According to contemporaries, Fyodor Ivanovich paid little attention to state affairs. He devoted most of his time to palace management, decorating the Kremlin chambers, and made generous contributions to monasteries. The king's favorite pastime was bear fights.

Since 1587, power in the country was actually concentrated in the hands of boyar B.F. Godunov, whose sister, Irina, was married to Fyodor Ivanovich. The years of Fyodor Ivanovich's stay on the throne were characterized by a gradual improvement in economic life, which was in a state of crisis after the Livonian War of 1558-1583. The Godunov government took a number of measures to further enslave the peasants (introduction of fixed-term years, etc.) and increase the tax burden of the draft population - the main source of replenishment of the treasury.

The foreign policy of this period was characterized by certain successes. As a result of the war with Sweden 1590-1593. Russia returned a number of cities of the Novgorod land, seized during the Livonian War, and trade relations with England and France developed. The annexation of Western Siberia was completed, the defense system of the southern borders, etc. was strengthened, and Russia’s influence in the Caucasus noticeably increased. Dozens of new cities and forts arose in Siberia and on the southern outskirts of Russia.

An important event that testified to the consolidation of a single Russian state and the strengthening of its position in the international arena was the establishment of the patriarchate in 1589.

However, both measures in the field of domestic policy and foreign policy actions fueled the growing contradictions within the country and in relations with neighboring countries - the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sweden, the Crimean Khanate, the Ottoman Empire, latently preparing a systemic crisis (turmoil) at the beginning. XVII century

Fyodor Ivanovich died without leaving any heirs: his only daughter died in infancy. After the death of her husband, Tsarina Irina Feodorovna, despite the fact that all the highest boyars formally swore allegiance to her, retired to the Novodevichy Convent. The question of a new Russian Tsar was to be decided by the Zemsky Sobor. However, the decision was almost predetermined: the brother of the widowed queen, the all-powerful Boris Godunov, was elected tsar.

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

Fyodor 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 Fyodor began to be considered the heir to the royal throne. After the death of Ivan the Terrible (March 18, 1581), Fyodor Ioannovich became king, after the turmoil started by adherents of the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible (from Maria Nagaya), Dimitri. This unrest was tamed thanks to the energy of Boris Godunov, whose sister, Irina Fedorovna, Fedor 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 engaging in government affairs. All management of the state passed into the hands of the Tsar's brother-in-law Boris Fedorovich 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 - Fyodor I Ivanovich (1584-1598)

From the Moscow family he led. book The son of Tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich the Terrible and Anastasia Romanovna Yuryeva-Zakharova. Genus. May 11, 1557 Tsar of All Rus' in 1584 - 1598 Wife: since 1580 Irina Fedorovna Godunova (d. September 26, 1603). Died January 7 1598

Of all the crimes of Ivan the Terrible, the murder of Ivan’s son and the subsequent suppression of the line of the Grand Dukes of Moscow, perhaps, had the heaviest impact on Russian history. The second son Fedor was distinguished from birth by pronounced dementia, but by an unfortunate coincidence it was he who was to inherit Grozny after his death. Fedor's younger brother Dmitry also had supporters among the Moscow boyars. Fyodor established himself on the throne, not without troubles. Prince Bogdan Belsky intrigued a lot in favor of Dmitry, but the boyars and people hostile to him besieged 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 the cities came to Moscow and prayed with tears to Tsarevich Fyodor so that he would become king of the Moscow state and be crowned with a royal crown. On May 31, Fyodor was crowned king. It was no secret to anyone that he was not capable of ruling. After the death of Ivan the Terrible, there was a stubborn struggle among the boyars for influence on the Tsar. In the end, everyone was overpowered by the Tsar's brother-in-law, boyar Boris Fedorovich Godunov, who was the true arbiter of the destinies of the state throughout Fedorov's reign.

Fyodor was short, squat, puffy, had an unsteady gait, and was heavy and inactive in character. A blissful smile never left his face, and in general, although he was distinguished by extreme simplicity and dementia, he was very affectionate, quiet, merciful and pious. He spent most of the day in church, and for entertainment he liked to watch fist fights, fun of jesters and fun with bears. If anyone had anything to do with the Tsar, he sent him to Godunov. Fyodor'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 o'clock 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 Fyodor Ivanovich

An instructive phenomenon in the history of the old Moscow dynasty is represented by its last Tsar Feodor. The Kalitino tribe, which built the Moscow state, was always distinguished by its amazing ability to handle its everyday affairs, suffered from a family excess of concern for earthly things, and this very tribe, fading away, flashed a complete renunciation of everything earthly, died out under Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, who, according to contemporaries, spent his entire life I avoided worldly vanity and boredom, thinking only about heavenly things. The Polish ambassador Sapega describes Fyodor this way: the tsar is small in stature, rather thin, with a quiet, even obsequious voice, with a simple-minded face, has a meager mind or, as I heard from others and noticed myself, has none, for, sitting on the throne during the ambassadorial reception, he did not stop smiling, admiring first his scepter, then the orb.

Fyodor Ivanovich miniature from the Tsar's titular book

Another contemporary, the Swede Petrey, in his description of the Moscow state (1608 - 1611), also notes that Tsar Fedor was almost devoid of reason by nature, found pleasure only in spiritual objects, and often ran around churches to ring bells and listen to mass. His father bitterly reproached him for this, saying that he was more like a sexton than a king’s son. There is undoubtedly some exaggeration in these reviews, and there is a sense of caricature. The pious and respectful thought of Russian contemporaries tried to make Tsar Fyodor into a familiar and beloved image of a special kind of asceticism. We know what significance and honor the foolishness for Christ's sake enjoyed in ancient Rus'. The holy fool, the blessed one, renounced all the blessings of life, not only physical, but also spiritual comforts and attractions, honors, glory, respect and affection from his neighbors. Moreover, he made a combative challenge to these benefits and lures: beggar and homeless, walking the streets barefoot, in rags, acting unhumanly, like a freak, speaking inappropriate speeches, despising generally accepted decency, he tried to become a laughing stock for the unreasonable and how would mock the goods that people love and value, and the people themselves who love and value them. In such humility to the point of self-abasement, ancient Rus' saw the practical development of the high commandment about the bliss 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” denunciation of human passions and vices in a living image, and enjoyed great rights in society, complete freedom of speech: the powerful of this world, nobles and kings, the Terrible himself, patiently listened to the brave, mocking or the scolding speeches of a blessed street vagabond, not daring to touch him with a finger. And Tsar Fyodor was given by his Russian contemporaries this familiar and beloved appearance: in their eyes he was the blessed one on the throne, one of those poor in spirit, to whom the kingdom of heaven, and not earthly, belongs, whom the church so loved to include in its calendar, as a reproach to dirty thoughts. and the sinful inclinations of the Russian people. “He was a noble fool from his mother’s womb and cared for nothing except spiritual salvation,” this is how Prince I.M. Katyrev-Rostovsky, a contemporary close to the court, speaks of Fyodor. As another contemporary put it, in Tsar Fyodor the kingdom was intertwined with the kingdom without division, and one served as an adornment to the other. He was called the “sanctified king,” destined from above to holiness, to the heavenly crown. In a word, in a cell or cave, to use Karamzin’s expression, Tsar Fedor would have been more in place than on the throne.

And in our time, Tsar Fedor became the subject of poetic treatment: for example, the second tragedy of Count Al’s dramatic trilogy is dedicated to him. Tolstoy. And here the image of Tsar Fyodor is very close to his ancient Russian image; the poet, obviously, painted a portrait of the blessed king from his ancient Russian chronicle icon. A thin line is drawn across this portrait and the inclination towards a complacent joke, with which the ancient Russian blessed one softened his harsh denunciations. But through the outward piety with which contemporaries were touched by Tsar Fyodor, Al. Tolstoy's moral sensitivity clearly shows through: he is a prophetic simpleton who, with an unconscious, mysteriously illuminated instinct, was able to understand things that the greatest clever men could never understand. He is sad to hear about party discord, about the enmity of supporters of Boris Godunov and Prince Shuisky; he wants to live until everyone is supporters of only one Rus', he wants to reconcile all enemies, and Godunov’s doubts about the possibility of such a nation-wide global world heatedly 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 you need to know the heart of a person.

In another place he says to the same Godunov:

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

One should not lose sight of the historical background of didactic or poetic depictions of a historical figure by contemporaries or later writers. Tsarevich Fyodor grew up in the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, among the ugliness and horrors of the oprichnina. Early in the morning, his father, the abbot of the Shutovo Sloboda Monastery, sent him to the bell tower to ring for matins. Born weakly from his mother Anastasia Romanovna, who began to fall ill, he grew up as a motherless orphan in a disgusting oprichnina environment and grew up as a short and pale-faced runt, prone to dropsy, with an uneven, senilely slow gait from premature weakness in the legs. This is how he describes the king when he was 32 years old, who saw him in 1588 - 1589. English Ambassador Fletcher. In the person of Tsar Fedor, the dynasty was dying out in person. He always smiled, but with a lifeless smile. With this sad smile, as if begging for pity and mercy, the prince defended himself from his father’s capricious anger. Over time, the calculated pitiful expression on his face, especially after the terrible death of his elder brother, by force of habit turned into an involuntary automatic grimace, with which Fyodor ascended the throne. Under the yoke of his father, he lost his will, but retained forever the learned expression of downtrodden submission. 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 mad father.

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

Theodore I Ioannovich(nicknamed Blessed; May 11, 1557, Moscow - January 7, 1598, Moscow) - Tsar of All Rus' and Grand Duke of Moscow from March 18, 1584, the third son of Ivan IV the Terrible and Tsarina Anastasia Romanovna, the last representative of the Moscow branch of the Rurik dynasty.

Upon the birth of his son, Ivan the Terrible ordered the construction of a church in the Feodorovsky Monastery in the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky. This temple in honor of Theodore Stratelates became the main cathedral of the monastery and has survived to this day.

Shortly before the death of Ivan the Terrible, on November 19, 1581, his son, the heir to the throne, Ivan, tragically died. From that time on, Fedor became the heir to the royal throne.

On the royal throne, where the formidable king had recently sat, sat a twenty-seven-year-old monarch, who, in the words of Ivan the Terrible himself, was “a faster and a silent person, born more for the cell than for the power of the sovereign.” From his marriage to Irina Fedorovna Godunova, he had one daughter, Feodosia, who lived only nine months and died in 1594. Fedor’s son was never born. At the end of 1597 he fell ill with a fatal illness and on January 7, 1598. died at one o'clock in the morning. It ended the Moscow line of the Rurik dynasty (descendants of Ivan I Kalita).

Most historians believe that Fedor was incapable of government activities, and according to some sources, he was weak in health and mind; took little part in governing the state, being under the tutelage first of the council of nobles, then of his brother-in-law Boris Fedorovich Godunov, who from 1587 was actually the sole ruler of the state, and after the death of Fedor became his successor. Boris Godunov's position at the royal court was so significant that overseas diplomats sought an audience with Boris Godunov; his will was law. Fedor reigned, Boris ruled - everyone knew this both in Rus' and abroad.

From “Russian history in the biographies of its main figures” by N. I. Kostomarov:

Main events during the reign of Fyodor Ioannovich

The Moscow Zemsky Sobor in 1584 elected the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, Fyodor Ioannovich (the only living son of the tsar), as tsar.

In 1584, the Don Cossacks swore an oath of allegiance to Tsar Fyodor Ioanovich.

In 1585-1591, the Russian architect Fyodor Savelyevich Kon erected the walls and towers of the White City. The length of the walls is 10 kilometers. Thickness - up to 4.5 meters.

In 1586, the Russian cannon foundry Andrei Chokhov cast the famous Tsar Cannon.

1589 - the establishment of the patriarchate in Russia, Job, an ally of Boris Godunov, became the first patriarch. Fyodor Ivanovich, although he was not canonized, was nevertheless recognized as such by Patriarch Job, who compiled his life.

1590-1593 - Russian-Swedish war. Return of the cities to Russia: Yama, Ivangorod, Koporye, Korela.

The founder of the Romanov dynasty, Mikhail Fedorovich, was a cousin of Fedor I (since Fedor’s mother, Anastasia Romanovna, was the sister of Mikhail’s grandfather, Nikita Romanovich Zakharyin); The Romanovs' rights to the throne were based on this relationship.

Contemporaries about Fyodor Ioannovich

According to the opinion of the English diplomat Giles Fletcher, the new king was

Dutch merchant and trading agent in Moscow Isaac Massa:

Clerk Ivan Timofeev gives Fedor the following assessment:

They also wrote about him that he discussed state affairs with the boyars in the Front Chamber, and he discussed particularly sensitive issues with his associates in his office.