Throughout part of his life on the throne, Boris Godunov tried to cope with growing discontent. He also had supporters, but, apparently, there were more ill-wishers, which led to numerous problems. Most historians agree that Boris Godunov really tried to steer the country in the right direction, but he had to rule in difficult times.
Of all the Russian tsars, he was the only one who came from a boyar family, and not from a princely or royal one. Also, it was Boris Godunov who became the first tsar to be elected. The rest received the throne by inheritance. For the first time in Russia, his patriarch appeared precisely thanks to him. The metropolitan of the Moscow diocese was appointed the first patriarch. One of the most famous tragedies of A. S. Pushkin is called “Boris Godunov.” Later, on the basis of it, the composer Mussorgsky created the opera of the same name. At the time of coming to power, Boris Godunov was quite popular, but then over the years he began to slowly and steadily lose his popularity. In the biography of Boris Godunov, it is easy to draw attention to the fact that he was an extremely religious person. He attended worship services regularly. The era of his reign was marked by a number of major riots, the largest of which was the rebellion of False Dmitry I.
Apparently, Boris Godunov was a rather kind-hearted person. He did not execute his personal enemies and enemies of the state, but usually exiled to distant monasteries, punishing him to spend his life in the service of God, atoning for his sins. Boris Godunov has issued a number of laws controlling deforestation and hunting for valuable fur animals. All his life he was not distinguished by good health, and often was ill. It was during the reign of Boris Godunov that serfdom was actually fixed in the form in which it then lasted for many years. When the famine began in Russia, which lasted about 3 years, Boris Godunov, with the support of the state treasury, kept the price of bread, not allowing them to fly up to heaven. The king did not drink alcohol, struggled with the spread of drinking establishments and punished his associates for drunkenness. Later, Peter I was also punished for drunkenness. Boris Godunov actively encouraged the development of printing.
Feeling insecure on the throne, he oppressed the Romanov noble family, whose representatives later occupied the throne and founded a new dynasty. Boris Godunov also contributed to the development of various branches of science and industry, inviting to Russia a host of foreign specialists in various fields. Some facts of Godunov’s biography suggest that he could have been involved in the death of Tsarevich Dmitry, the son of Ivan the Terrible, but there is no evidence for this. Acting as the head of government of Tsar Fedor, another son of Ivan the Terrible, Boris Godunov contributed to the appearance in Moscow of the first water supply system in Russia.
Soon after coming to power, he began to actively strengthen Moscow defenses. As the next invasion of the Tatar-Mongol horde showed, he did it not in vain – Moscow survived. It was Boris Godunov, along with Bogdan Belsky, after the death of Ivan the Terrible who spoke to the people with a message about the death of the tsar. It is not known for certain where the Godunov clan originated from. Many historians believe that they came from the Tatar princes who settled in Russia in the era of Ivan Kalita. At the wedding of Ivan the Terrible, Boris Godunov was his “friend”. In the modern world, he would be called the best man. And being the best man of the king is a huge part, of course. Shortly before his death, Godunov resigned from his royal authority and became a monk.
