Lev Uskin: Martyr legitimacy

... It’s not a bum that for the sake of emitting the Sitsov the verb is high: “Se, the great patriarch Job, God is a witness to this: no one will be in my kingdom of poverty or poor!” And shaking the top of the srachitsa on myself, "and this last", speech, "I will divide with everyone!"

Abraham Palicine about the wedding of Boris Godunov in the kingdom

In early 1598, events took place in the Moscow state, unprecedented before. On the night of January 7 (Art.), The king quietly stopped - forty -year -old Fedor I, the son of Ivan the Terrible from his first wife, Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina. Actually, the kings in Moscow happened to die before, however, in this case, together with the praying and, as they say, a demented monarch, who did not even concern in all his fourteen -year reign of public administration, went into another more something more - the dynasty, founded by Daniel, the son of Alexander Nevsky and ruled Moscow for 300 years without a break.

There was no such thing in the historical memory of the Russian people - moreover, the creature situation required immediate action, and an action that did not rely on tradition. Not only was it impossible to find the dynastic heir to the deceased monarch, there were no traces of any intelligible will Fyodor Ioannovich to this account. In this situation, the country was doomed to make non -standard decisions.

And they were not slow to follow. In the presence of Patriarch Job, the boyars, the episcopate and other higher "authorities" swore allegiance to the widow of the deceased - Queen Irina. However, according to the official annals, Tsar Fedor made such a decision, handing his wife a scepter.

The role of, however, Fedor Ioannovich in the reign of his widow is not so important for us now. Significantly - precedence. Irina Fedorovna Godunova then became the first from the time of the semi -legendary Princess Olga a woman - the head of the Russian state. Quite legitimate and, if desired, had all the possibilities for independent rule. Strictly speaking, women met as active subjects of Russian political life before. But each time their influence on the course of affairs was, so to speak, a shadow, informal character. The first of the shadow was Elena Glinskaya - the second wife of Vasily III, who, after his death in 1533, became the official regent under the young Ivan, the future - formidable. Glinskaya regenics lasted until 1538. It is difficult to say how much she herself was engaged in state affairs, however, in addition to her relatives, a characteristic person- Favorite, Prince I.F. Ovchinsky-Telepnev became the key figure in the state apparatus. Which, of course, was Elena’s personal choice - her personal personnel decision.

And yet - Elena Glinskaya was only regent under the young Grand Duke. As, by the way, later Princess Sophia under the young people Peter I and Ivan V. That is, the ruler with limited - primarily in time - powers. A completely different thing is Queen Irina. The latter, theoretically, could have everything. To rule yourself up to death, to marry anyone, to bequeath the throne to anyone, etc.

In reality, however, nothing of the kind happened. The reign of Tsarina Irina lasted only a few days, before the burial of the deceased king. It was as if nothing significant had happened at the same time, but the precedent was created and it was, for sure, they recalled the "chicks of the Petrov nest" in 1725, erecting the widow of the first Russian emperor to the throne and opening the "century of the Baby kingdoms" in Russia, which continued with small breaks in 1796.

But back to Irina, the first and her short rule. During this period, on her behalf, as expected, decrees were sent out, prayers were sent in churches for Queen Irina. But then she showed adamance, deciding to leave the throne and get a haircut in the nun. Moreover, the Queen Irina also refused to participate in the resolving the issue of further succession.

Although she was inclined to this. Moreover, they were inclined in a rather definite way, offering his power to transfer the scepter to his own brother - Boris Fedorovich Godunov - who actually led the Moscow state for ten years.

However, she flatly refused. And Boris himself also refused - in their opinion, such a way of transferring power possessed too unstable legitimacy.

As a result, the temporary head of state, in the emergency, became Job - the Staritsky abbot, who, thanks to Godunov in 1586, became the first Russian patriarch and remained faithful to Boris until the end of the latter. It was Job at the end of the "Sorokovin" Fedor who called the Zemstvo Cathedral, and then held the choice of Godunov by the king of all Rus'. At that time, it was the transfer of power in the most legitimate way. However, the way is unprecedented: although the Zemstvo cathedrals were gathered before repeatedly, the Russian people have never chosen their monarch to them. Anyway - never chose. Although they knew that this is happening - in particular, in neighboring Poland. Subsequently, the monarch in Rus' happened to choose more than once: in 1606, 1613, 1682, 1725, 1730. And only Pavel was the first in 1797 a decree on the throne of the throne, formally regulating this process.

So - the Zemstvo Cathedral of 1598. You should still not overestimate this manifestation of democracy. This is what such a national representation looked like. About five hundred people gathered in Moscow, as if in fact represented all the geographical and social diversity of the then Muscovy. Although with seizures: it is clear that in those messages for a month and a half, someone could not arrive in Moscow. Foreigners, peasants, etc. were not represented by the Russian king, etc. But this is not even the point. More importantly, according to the then ideas, no one chose the participants of the cathedral anywhere - despite the fact that the Russians were already familiar with the procedure for choosing representatives at the lower level. The cathedrals of the 16th century, on the principle of formation, most of all resemble the current social ward - it included in the composition all members of the Boyar Duma (appointed by the king, more precisely, kings), the so -called "consecrated cathedral" in the full force, that is, the top of the church hierarchy, specified by the court and order bureaucracy, appointed representatives of Places, which were usually the military leaders of the county noble militias and representatives of the merchants appointed by city governors. These last were about 40 people. It seems that in Soviet times, such a composition was called a "party -assigned" ...

Of course, people convened according to such principles did not resemble parliament closely. However, in certain situations, they were able to express opinions, even quite polar.

But not when choosing a king, of course. It was a debate in which the loser lost almost everything, and therefore the main task of the participant was to understand who should become the king even before the beginning of the official meeting, which, as we know, in Rus' was not a place for discussions. That is, all the polemic went hidden and backstage. We can say that it was on the sidelines of the Cathedral of 1598 that Boris Godunov became the king.

It is important to keep in mind that Godunov, despite the advantage of his position of many years of "acting" The king was still not the only candidate for this role. Among the others, Fedor Nikitich Romanov was listed-the future Patriarch Filaret and the father of the First Tsar-Romanov Mikhail, representatives of the Shuisky, Mstislav and even Kasimovsky prince Simeon Bekbulatovich: all these people were noticeably more than Godunov, and in addition had quite powerful support groups. Then, already becoming the king, Boris will wage a struggle with them, although it uses repressions as a means, but far from bringing them to the sophisticated times of the Terrible. So, Semeyon was sent to live uncontrollably in his Tver estates. They treated the Romanov significantly tougher - condemning them on a fabricated charges of witchcraft, sent to distant links. At the same time, Fedor Nikitich and his wife were tonsured by the monks by force - which, as you know, made subsequent accession impossible. Yes, some of them died in exile-but under Tsar Ivan, they would not have been released from Moscow, killing them in any kind of savage. Moreover, already in 1602, that is, in less than two years, most of the surviving convicts (except Filaret) was pardoned and began to slowly return to Moscow.

For comparison, let's say that the Romanovs who reigned later, according to a similar scheme, behaved much more total, not even stopping before the public execution of the four -year -old “Bright” - the son of False Dmitry II and Marina Mnishek.

And here is Godunov - a legitimate king. But still, not as legitimate as his predecessors were. The popular election in the eyes of the then people was noticeably inferior in this part of the blood belonging to the royal dynasty. It was inferior so much that already much later Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov will call himself the “great -grandson” of Ivan the Terrible, easily tracing the truth, according to which there is no blood kinship between them. Actually, the fact of the appearance during Godunov’s lifetime of the impostor-Ltimitriy is an indicator of the insufficient legitimacy of the first. In fact, an impostor, he was really a miraculous surviving younger son of Ivan IV, after all, he was also not so a contender for the throne: the seventh marriage of Grozny with Maria Naga did not comply with church standards that his fruits would rather be considered illegitimate than the princes. Nevertheless, during the life of Godunov, the impostor saw rezons in a campaign in Moscow, and after the death of the tsar, the Russians in the mass order preferred False Dmitry Godunovsky, Fedor, to whom they had already managed to take the oath. The close people with the support of the Moscow Luda, who were sent by the impostor, overthrew Fedor from the throne with all the laid symbolism: first, together with his mother and sister-Coxenia, they “brought it to the Godunovsky court”, that is, forcibly returned to the previous, boyar status, then everyone was brutally killed, preserved only Xenia. This young girl, the did not take place of the Danish prince, was spared only in order to become an concubine of False Dmitry. The latter "used" her until the arrival of Marina Mnishek from Poland to Moscow - however, the Lord also punished him.

It is also worth saying a few words about another aspect of the traditional legitimacy of the head of the Russian state. Maybe not so much even legitimacy as the charisma of the ruler - although go sort it out, where one goes into another. It will be about the fact that the Russian king in the eyes of his subjects is the king of war. The main protection of the Russian land. This, I repeat, is its most important function, and the success of its execution is the most reliable test of the “correctness” of the king. It is no accident that after all, that the reigning False Dmitry immediately began to prepare for the war with Turkey. Peter the Great began with the Azov campaign and the independent real rule, and before that the group of Princess Sophia, Vasily Golitsyn, who opposed him, was in the success of Crimean campaigns, saw the last chance to consolidate power in the country. What does Godunov look like in this regard? Alas, not too happy. Serious military luck was with him - a successful war with Sweden, which ended in 1593 by the Tuvzinsky peace treaty and returned to Russia the lands lost by Ivan the Terrible: the Ivangorod fortresses, Yam, Koporye, Korel, that is, access to the Baltic. From this war, Godunov, of course, could not help but receive certain political dividends - but then he only “performed the duties” of the king. He became a real king at the time, as a sin, peaceful - peaceful so that he even had to imitate a military campaign on the Crimea - that essentially resulted in a major military gathering under Serpukhov and the solemn reception of the Crimean embassy.

But the share of this rather energetic, capable, erudite and invisible administrator fell three in a row of hungry years: 1601-1603. Which, of course, did not add stability to its regime.

See also:

• Uskin. Alternative dynasty

• Uskin. To the death of False Dmitry I

• Uskin. Fierce death of Malyuta

• Uskin. Private-state project for the Urals

• Uskin. How the boyars ate a revolution