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False Dmitry I

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False Dmitry I
Лжедмитрий I
Tsar of all Russia
Reign10 June 1605 – 17 May 1606
Coronation21 July 1605
PredecessorFeodor II
SuccessorVasili IV
Born19 October 1582 (claimed)
Died17 May 1606(1606-05-17)(aged 23)
Moscow,Russia
SpouseMarina Mniszech
Names
Dmitry Ivanovich (claimed)
DynastyRurik(claimed)
Signature

False Dmitry I(Russian:Лжедмитрий I,romanized:Lzhedmitriy I)[1](orPseudo-Demetrius I) reigned as theTsar of all Russiafrom 10 June 1605 until his death on 17 May 1606 under the name ofDmitriy Ivanovich(Russian:Дмитрий Иванович). According to historian Chester S.L. Dunning, Dmitry was "the only Tsar ever raised to the throne by means of a military campaign and popular uprisings".[2]

He was the first, and most successful, of three"pretenders"(Russian:самозванцы (sing.: самозванец),romanized:samozvanets) who claimed during theTime of Troublesto be the youngest son ofIvan the Terrible,tsarevichDmitry Ivanovich,who supposedly escaped a 1591 assassination attempt when he was eight years old. It is generally believed that the real Dmitry of Uglich died inUglichin 1591. False Dmitry claimed that his mother,Maria Nagaya,anticipated the assassination attempt ordered byBoris Godunovand helped him escape to a monastery in theTsardom of Russia,and the assassins killed somebody else instead. He said he fled to thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealthafter he came to the attention of Boris Godunov, who ordered him seized. Many Polish nobles did not believe his story, but nonetheless supported him.[citation needed]

With the support of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth,False Dmitry invaded theTsardom of Russiain 1605, but the war ended with the sudden death of Boris Godunov. Disaffected Russianboyarsstaged a coup against the new tsar,Feodor II.False Dmitry entered Moscow on 21 July 1605, and was crowned tsar. Maria Nagaya accepted him as her son and "confirmed" his story. False Dmitry's reign was marked by his openness toCatholicismand allowing foreigners into Russia. This made him unpopular with the boyars, who staged a successful coup and killed him eleven months after he took the throne. His wife of 10 days, Marina, would later "accept"False Dmitry IIas her fallen husband.

Background

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Dmitry entered history circa 1600, after making a positive impression onPatriarch Job of Moscowwith his learning and assurance. Tsar Boris Godunov ordered the young man seized and questioned. Dmitry fled to PrinceConstantine OstrogskiatOstroh,in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and subsequently entered the service of theWiśniowieckis,apolonizedRuthenianfamily.[3]The princesAdamandMichał Wiśniowieckiin particular showed interest in the stories Dmitry told, and who he purported to be, as they gave the Poles an opportunity to capitalize on thepolitical rancorinMoscow.

Rumors said that Dmitry was anillegitimateson of the Polish king,Stefan Batory,who reigned from 1575 to 1586. According to a later tale, Dmitry blurted out that identity once, when a violent master slapped him. Dmitry's own story was that his mother, Tsar Ivan's widow, anticipated Boris Godunov's assassination attempt, and put him into the care of a doctor, who hid him in various monasteries through the years. After the doctor died, Dmitry fled to Poland, and worked briefly there as a teacher before he entered the service of the Wiśniowieckis. Some who had known Ivan IV later claimed that Dmitry did indeed resemble the young tsarevich. The young man also possessed such aristocratic skills ashorsemanshipandliteracy,and was fluent in Russian, Polish, and French.

Whether or not Dmitry's tale was accurate, the Wiśniowiecki brothers,Samuel Tyszkiewicz,Jan Sapieha,Roman Różyński,and several other Polish noblemen agreed to back him, and his claim, against Boris Godunov.

In March 1604, Dmitry visited the court ofSigismund III VasainKraków.The king provisionally supported him, but did not promise any military help. To attract the powerfulJesuitsto his cause, Dmitry publicly converted toRoman Catholicismon 17 April 1604, and convinced papalnuncioClaudio Rangonito also back his claim.

While at court, Dmitry metMarina Mniszech,daughter of Polish noblemanJerzy Mniszech.Dmitry and Marina fell in love. When he asked her father for her hand, he was promised it in return for granting the Mniszechs full rights to the Russian towns ofPskov,Novgorod,Smolensk,andNovhorod-Siverskyiupon his ascension.[citation needed]

Russian throne

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Boris Godunov received word of Dmitry's Polish support, and spread claims than the younger man was simply a runaway monk called Grigory Otrepyev (born Yuri Otrepyev; Grigory was the name given to him at the monastery). On what information this claim was based is uncertain. But the tsar's public support began to wane, especially as Dmitry's loyalists spread counter-rumors. Several Russian boyars also pledged themselves to Dmitry, thereby giving themselves a "legitimate" reason to not pay taxes to Tsar Boris.

Dmitry, having gained the full support of the Polish Commonwealth, formed a small army of approximately 3,500 soldiers from various private Polish and Lithuanian forces.[3]With his men he advanced on Russia in March 1605. Boris's many enemies, including the southernCossacks,joined Dmitry's army on the long march to Moscow. These combined forces fought two engagements with reluctant Russian soldiers. Winning the first, they capturedChernigov(modern Chernihiv),Putivl(Putyvl),Sevsk,andKursk,but they badly lost the second battle. Their cause was only saved by the news of the sudden death of Boris Godunov on 13 April 1605.

The death of the unpopular tsar swept away the last impediment to Dmitry; the victorious Russian troops defected to his side, and others swelled the Polish ranks as they marched in. On 1 June, the disaffected boyars of Moscow staged a palace coup and imprisoned the newly crowned tsarFeodor IIand his motherMaria Skuratova-Belskaya,widow of Boris Godunov.

On 20 June, Dmitry made his triumphal entry into Moscow with 8,000 cossacks and Poles according toIsaac Massa,and on 21 July was crowned tsar by a new MuscovitePatriarchof his own choosing, the GreekIgnatius of Moscow.

Reign

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False Dmitry takes an oath of allegiance to kingSigismund III VasabyNikolai Nevrev(1874)
Last minutes of False DmitrybyCarl Wenig(1879).

The new tsar moved to consolidate his power by visiting thetomb of Tsar Ivan,and the convent of his widowMaria Nagaya,who accepted him as her son and "confirmed" his story. TheGodunovswere killed, including Tsar Feodor and his mother, with the exception of TsarevnaXenia,whom Dmitry raped and kept as a concubine for five months.[citation needed]Many of the noble families Tsar Boris had exiled – such as theShuiskys,GolitsinsandRomanovs– were pardoned and allowed to return to Moscow.Feodor Romanov,sire of the future imperial dynasty, was soon appointed asmetropolitanofRostov;the old patriarch Job, who did not recognize the new tsar, was sent into exile.

Dmitry planned to introduce a series of political and economic reforms. He restoredYuri's Day,the day whenserfswere allowed to change their allegiance to another lord, easing the conditions ofpeasantry.His favorite at the Russian court, 18-year-old PrinceIvan Khvorostinin,is considered by historians to be one of Russia's first Westernizers.[4]

In foreign policy, Dmitry sought an alliance with his sponsor, the Polish Commonwealth, and with thePapal States.He planned for war against theOttoman Empire,ordering mass production offirearmsto prepare for the conflict. In his correspondence, he referred to himself as "Emperor of Russia"a century before TsarPeter Iused the title, although this was not recognized at the time. Dmitry's royal depictions featured him clean-shaven, with slicked-back dark hair, an unusual look for the era.

On8 May1606, Dmitry married Marina Mniszech in Moscow; she was Catholic. When a Russian Tsar married a woman of another faith, the usual practice was that she would convert toEastern Orthodox Christianity.Rumors circulated that Dmitry had obtained the support of Polish King Sigismund andPope Paul Vby promising to reunite theRussian Orthodox Churchand theHoly See;so, claimed the rumors, Tsarina Marina did not convert to the Orthodox faith. This angered theRussian Orthodox Church,the boyars, and the population alike.

The resentful PrinceVasily Shuisky,head of the boyars, began to plot against the tsar, accusing him of spreadingRoman Catholicism,Lutheranism,andsodomy.This gained traction and popular support, especially since Dmitry surrounded himself with foreigners who flouted Russian customs — something conservative Russian society of the time could not accept. According to Russian chroniclerAvraamy Palitsyn,Dmitry further enraged many Muscovites by permitting his Catholic and Protestant soldiers, whom the Russian Church regarded asheretics,to pray in Orthodox churches.[5]

Shuisky's adherents had spread word that Tsar Dmitry was about to order his Polish retainers to lock the city gates and massacre the people of Moscow. Whether such orders existed or not, Palitsyn's chronicle reported them as undeniable fact.[6]

Death

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On the morning of 17 May 1606, ten days after Dmitry's marriage to Marina, huge numbers of boyars and commoners stormed theKremlin.Dmitry tried to flee by jumping out a window, but fractured his leg in the fall. He fled to abathhouseand tried to disappear within. But he was recognized and dragged out by the boyars, who killed him lest he successfully appeal to the crowd.[7]His body was hacked to pieces, burned, and then the ashes fired from a cannon towards Poland.[8]According to Palitsyn, Dmitry's death set off a massacre of his supporters. He boasted in his chronicle that "a great amount of heretical blood was spilled on the streets of Moscow."[9]

Dmitry's reign had lasted only eleven months before Prince Shuisky took his place. Two further impostors later appeared,False Dmitry IIandFalse Dmitry III,the first of whom was publicly "accepted" by Tsarina Marina as her fallen husband.

Portrayals in literature

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  • False Dmitry is one of the primary characters inAlexander Pushkin'sblank versedramaBoris Godunov.Pushkin's character is a youngnovicemonk who impersonates the Tsarevich after he learns he is the age the child would have been had he lived. Pushkin's decision to humanise the False Dmitry earned him the disapproval of EmperorNicholas I of Russia,who prevented the play from being published or staged. In an unpublished foreword, Pushkin wrote, "There is much ofHenri IVin Dmitri. Like him he is brave, generous and boastful, like him indifferent to religion -- both abjure their faith for a political cause, both love pleasures and war, both devote themselves to chimerical projects, both are victims of conspiracies... But Henri IV didn't have a Ksenya [Xenia] on his conscience -- it is true that this horrible accusation hasn't been proved and, as for me, I make a point of not believing it. "[10]Pushkin intended to write further plays about the reigns of Dmitry and Vasili, as well as the subsequentTime of Troubles.Pushkin was prevented from fulfilling these plans by his death in aduelat the age of 37.
  • Although based on Pushkin's play,Modest Mussorgsky'sopera of the same namedemonizes False Dmitry, thePolish people,and theRoman Catholic Church.False Dmitry's engagement toMarina Mniszechis portrayed as instigated by aJesuit.Marina balks at seducing thepretender,and the Jesuit threatens her with hellfire until she grovels at his feet. In contrast, Pushkin believed that Marina was motivated by pathological ambition. At the opera'sdenouement,the pretender's ascent to the throne is lamented by theholy foolNikolai, who appears in Pushkin's play only to rebuke Tsar Boris for murdering the real Dmitry. In Mussorgsky's opera, the holy fool proclaims, "Weep, weep Orthodox soul", and predicts that "the enemy will come" leading to "darkness blacker than night."
  • False Dmitry's story was also told bySchiller(inDemetrius),Sumarokov,Khomyakov,byVictorin Joncièresin his operaDimitri,and byAntonín Dvořákin his operaDimitrij.
  • Rainer Maria Rilkerecounts the overthrow of False Dimitry inThe Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge,Rilke's only longer prose work.
  • Harold Lambfictionalizes the demise of False Dimitry in "The Wolf Master", in which the claimant survives his assassination through trickery, and flees east, pursued by a Cossack he had betrayed.
  • Features in the second story of The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Back to Earth (Volume 2.1), a boxset of Doctor Who audio dramas from Big Finish Productions.

See also

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References

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  1. ^Otherromanizationsinclude the commonDmitriandDmitry,as well as Dmitrii, Dimitri, Dimitrii, Dimitriy, and Dimitry.
  2. ^Russia's First Civil War: The Time of Troubles and the Founding of the Romanov Dynasty.Pennsylvania State University Press.2001. p. preface, p. xi.ISBN0-271-02074-1.RetrievedOctober 16,2010.
  3. ^abBain 1911.
  4. ^Treadgold, Donald W.The West in Russia and China, Religious and Secular Thought in Modern Times, Vol1: Russia, 1472-1917,Cambridge University Press, 1973, p49
  5. ^Serge Zenkovsky,Medieval Russia's Epics, Chronicles, and Tales,Revised and Enlarged Edition, Meridian Books, 1974. Pages 383-385.
  6. ^Zenkovsky (1974), page 385.
  7. ^"Massa's Account of Events Surrounding the Death of the False Dmitrii in 1606."Medieval Russia: A Source Book, 850-1700.Ed. Basil Dmytryshyn. 3rd ed. Harcourt College, 9. 550. Print. Page 361-362
  8. ^Avrich, Paul (1972).Russian Rebels; 1600-1800.New York: Schocken Books. pp. 16–17.
  9. ^Zenkovsky (1974), page 386.
  10. ^The Critical Prose of Alexander Pushkin,edited and translated by Carl R. Proffer. University of Indiana Press, 1969. Pages 97-98.
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1605–1606 		Succeeded by
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