1.
Russian Orthodox Church
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The Russian Orthodox Church, alternatively legally known as the Moscow Patriarchate, is one of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches, in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox patriarchates. The Primate of the ROC is the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus and it also exercises ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the autonomous Church of Japan and the Orthodox Christians resident in the Peoples Republic of China. The ROC branches in Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Moldova and Ukraine since the 1990s enjoy various degrees of self-government, in Ukraine, ROC has tensions with schismatic groups supported by the current government, while it enjoys the position of numerically dominant religious organisation. The ROC should also not be confused with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, headquartered in New York, New York, the two Churches reconciled on May 17,2007, the ROCOR is now a self-governing part of the Russian Orthodox Church. According to one of the legends, Andrew reached the location of Kiev. The spot where he erected a cross is now marked by St. Andrews Cathedral. By the end of the first millennium AD, eastern Slavic lands started to come under the influence of the Eastern Roman Empire. There is evidence that the first Christian bishop was sent to Novgorod from Constantinople either by Patriarch Photius or Patriarch Ignatios, by the mid-10th century, there was already a Christian community among Kievan nobility, under the leadership of Byzantine Greek priests, although paganism remained the dominant religion. Princess Olga of Kiev was the first ruler of Kievan Rus′ to convert to Christianity and her grandson, Vladimir of Kiev, made Rus officially a Christian state. The Kievan church was a metropolitanate of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Ecumenical patriarch appointed the metropolitan, who usually was a Greek. The Metropolitans residence was located in Kiev itself, the capital of the medieval Rus state. Following the tribulations of the Mongol invasion, the Russian Church was pivotal in the survival, despite the politically motivated murders of Mikhail of Chernigov and Mikhail of Tver, the Mongols were generally tolerant and even granted tax exemption to the Church. Such holy figures as Sergius of Radonezh and Metropolitan Alexis helped the country to withstand years of Tatar oppression, the Trinity monastery founded by Sergius of Radonezh became the setting for the flourishing of spiritual art, exemplified by the work of Andrey Rublev, among others. The followers of Sergius founded four hundred monasteries, thus extending the geographical extent of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. However, the Moscow Prince Vasili II rejected the act of the Council of Florence brought to Moscow by Isidore in March 1441, Isidore was in the same year removed from his position as an apostate and expelled from Moscow. The Russian metropolitanate remained effectively vacant for the few years due largely to the dominance of Uniates in Constantinople then. In December 1448, Jonas, a Russian bishop, was installed by the Council of Russian bishops in Moscow as Metropolitan of Kiev and All Russia without the consent from Constantinople. Subsequently, there developed a theory in Moscow that saw Moscow as the Third Rome, the successor to Constantinople
2.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
3.
Dormition Cathedral, Moscow
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The Cathedral of the Dormition, also known as the Assumption Cathedral or Cathedral of the Assumption is a Russian Orthodox church dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos. It is located on the side of Cathedral Square of the Moscow Kremlin in Russia. Southwest is Ivan the Great Bell Tower, separately in the southwest, also separated by a narrow passage from the church, is the Palace of Facets. The Cathedral is regarded as the church of Muscovite Russia. In its present form it was constructed between 1475–79 at the behest of the Moscow Grand Duke Ivan III by the Italian architect Aristotele Fioravanti, from 1547 to 1896 it is where the Coronation of the Russian monarch was held. In addition, it is the place for most of the Moscow Metropolitans. This was replaced by a structure built around 1326, which is mentioned in historical records. In the 14th century, Metropolitan Peter persuaded Ivan I that he should build a cathedral to the Theotokos in Moscow like the Cathedral of the Dormition in the capital city Vladimir. Construction of the cathedral began on August 4,1326, at that time Moscow became the capital of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality. By the end of the 15th century the old cathedral had become dilapidated, two years later, in May 1474, the building was nearing completion when it suddenly collapsed as the drum of main cupola was being placed. The Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir was once taken as a model for the building. He designed a light and spacious masterpiece that combined the spirit of the Renaissance with Russian traditions, the foundation for the new cathedral was laid in 1475, and in 1479 the new cathedral was consecrated by Metropolitan Geronty. The interior was painted with frescoes and adorned with icons, including the Theotokos of Vladimir. The design of the new church, with its five domes proved immensely popular, in 1547 the coronation of the first Russian Tsar, Ivan the Terrible, took place in this cathedral. From 1721 it was the scene of the coronation of the Russian emperors, the ritual installation of metropolitans and patriarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church also took place in this cathedral, and their tombs are to be found here. During the French occupation of Russia, it was looted and used as a horse stable and it was thoroughly restored in 1894-1895 and from 1910-1918. On November 21,1917 the cathedral was the setting for the installation of Tikhon, however, following the 1917 Russian Revolution, the new Bolshevik government closed all churches in the Moscow Kremlin, and converted the cathedral into a museum. By special permission from Vladimir Lenin, the last Pascha was held in 1918, the final moments of this Paschal service was the subject of an unfinished painting by Pavel Korin entitled Farewell to Rus
4.
Tsardom of Russia
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From 1551 to 1700, Russia grew 35,000 km2 per year. After a military victory over Sweden and Poland, he implemented substantial reforms and proclaimed the Russian Empire in 1721. While the oldest endonyms of the Grand Duchy of Moscow used in its documents were Rus and the Russian land, in the 1480s Russian state scribes Ivan Cherny and Mikhail Medovartsev mention Russia under the name Росиа, Medovartsev also mentions the sceptre of Russian lordship. In England of the 16th century, it was both as Russia and Muscovy. In Northern Europe and at the court of the Holy Roman Empire, however, muscovites refute this, saying that their country was originally called Russia. When they are asked what nation they are, they respond Russac, which means Russians, and when they are asked what place they are from, by the 16th century, the Russian ruler had emerged as a powerful, autocratic figure, a Tsar. By assuming that title, the sovereign of Moscow tried to emphasize that he was a ruler or emperor on par with the Byzantine emperor or the Mongol khan. At first, the Byzantine term autokrator expressed only the meaning of an independent ruler. Ivan IV was crowned Tsar and thus was recognized, at least by the Russian Orthodox Church and that concept was to resonate in the self-image of Russians in future centuries. The development of the Tsars autocratic powers reached a peak during the reign of Ivan IV, Ivan strengthened the position of the Tsar to an exceptional degree, demonstrating the risks of unrestrained power in the hands of a mentally unstable individual. Although apparently intelligent and energetic, Ivan suffered from breakdowns of paranoia and depression, Ivan IV became Grand Prince of Moscow in 1533 at the age of three. The Shuysky and Belsky factions of the boyars competed for control of the regency until Ivan assumed the throne in 1547, reflecting Moscows new imperial claims, Ivans coronation as Tsar was a ritual modeled after those of the Byzantine emperors. With the continuing assistance of a group of boyars, Ivan began his reign with a series of useful reforms, in the 1550s, he declared a new law code, revamped the military, and reorganized local government. These reforms undoubtedly were intended to strengthen the state in the face of continuous warfare, the key documents prepared by the so-called Select Council of advisors and promulgated during this period are as follows. Muscovy remained a fairly unknown society in Western Europe until Baron Sigismund von Herberstein published his Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii in 1549 and this provided a broad view of what had been a rarely visited and poorly reported state. In the 1630s, the Russian Tsardom was visited by Adam Olearius, whose lively, further information about Russia was circulated by English and Dutch merchants. One of them, Richard Chancellor, sailed to the White Sea in 1553, upon his return to England, the Muscovy Company was formed by himself, Sebastian Cabot, Sir Hugh Willoughby, and several London merchants. Ivan the Terrible used these merchants to exchange letters with Elizabeth I, despite the domestic turmoil of the 1530s and 1540s, Russia continued to wage wars and to expand
5.
Time of Troubles
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In 1601–03, Russia suffered a famine that killed one-third of the population, about two million. At the time, during the Polish–Muscovite War, Russia was occupied by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Godunovs short reign was not as successful as his administration under the weak Feodor. Extremely poor harvests were encountered in 1601–03, with night temperatures in all summer months often below freezing, wrecking crops. The probable cause of changes was the eruption of Huaynaputina volcano in Peru in 1600. Under the influence of the nobles who had unsuccessfully opposed the election of Godunov. Rumours circulated that the tsars younger brother Dmitri, thought to be dead, was still alive. In 1603 a man calling himself Dmitri—first of the so-called False Dmitris—and professing to be the heir to the throne. He attracted support both in Russia and outside its borders, particularly in the Polish Commonwealth and the Papal States, False Dmitri was married per procura to Marina Mniszech, and immediately after Godunovs death in 1605, he made his triumphal entry into Moscow. The reign of False Dimitri was short, before a year had passed, Vasily Shuisky, an ambitious Rurikid prince, formed a conspiracy against him. His forces murdered False Dimitri soon after his marriage in the Moscow Kremlin, together with many of his supporters, Shuisky and his men were estimated to have killed 2,000 Poles. The reaction to the massacre in Poland was strong, but the government decided to postpone revenge against those responsible, like his predecessor, he enjoyed the protection and support of the Polish–Lithuanian magnates. After Shuisky signed an alliance with Sweden, the king of the Commonwealth, Sigismund III, seeing the Russian–Swedish alliance as a threat, resolved to intervene, Polish–Lithuanian troops crossed the Russian borders and laid siege to the fortress of Smolensk. After the combined Russo–Swedish forces were destroyed at the Battle of Klushino, before False Dmitri II could gain the throne, the Polish commander, voivode, and magnate Stanisław Żółkiewski, put forward a rival candidate, Sigismunds son, Władysław. Some people in Moscow swore allegiance to him on condition of his maintaining Orthodoxy, on this understanding, they allowed Polish troops to enter the city and occupy the Kremlin. The Polish king opposed the compromise, deciding to take the throne for himself, the contending factions were opposed and his plan aroused the anti-Catholic and anti-Polish feelings in Russia. The Swedes disapproved as they were rivals of the Poles on the Baltic coast and they declared war on Russia, supporting a false Dmitri of their choice in Ivangorod. Russia was in a critical condition, tens of thousands died in battles and riots, on 17–19 March 1611, the Poles and German mercenaries suppressed riots in Moscow, they massacred 7,000 Muscovites and set the city on fire. Many other cities were devastated or weakened
6.
Pavel Chistyakov
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Pavel Petrovich Chistyakov (Russian, Павел Петрович Чистяков, was a Russian painter and art teacher, known for historical and genre scenes as well as portraits. His father was a serf who had worked as an estate manager. Despite the financial burdens, he saw to it that his son had an education, first at a parish school in Krasny Kholm. In 1849, he entered the Imperial Academy of Arts, where he studied with Pyotr Basin, from 1854 to 1858, he received two silver medals and one gold, for his depiction of Hermogenes in prison. In 1861, he graduated with the title of Artist, another gold medal, before leaving, he taught for a short time at a preparatory school in Saint Petersburg. In 1862, he headed for Germany, followed by visits to Paris. Upon returning in 1870, he was awarded the title of Academician for several works he had sent home and his few works were mostly of an historical nature, which he attempted to infuse with a psychological depth, rather than merely representing the events. He became an Associate Professor at the Academy in 1872 and, following the reorganization of 1892, from 1890 to 1912, he served as head of the Department of Mosaics and oversaw several mosaic projects, notably at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and Saint Isaacs Cathedral. His wife Vera, daughter of the painter Yegor Meyer, was also an artist of some note, the street where he lived was named in his honor and, in 1987, his home became a museum. Чистяков и его педагогическая система, Искусство,1940 Olga Lyaskovskaya, Чистяков, Tretyakov Gallery,1950 Чистяков П. Чистяков — теоретик и пед, 590pgs, Искусство,1953 Ely Bielutin and Nina Moleva, Павел Петрович Чистяков. теоретик и педагог, Академии художесть,1954, yelena Churilova, Я ещё могу съездить к Чистякову, Прана,2004 ISBN 5-86761-054-3 Biography and appreciation @ the Bezhetsk website
7.
Metropolitan bishop
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Before the establishment of patriarchs, metropolitan was the highest episcopal rank in the Eastern rites of the Church. They presided over synods of bishops, and were granted privileges by canon law. The Early Church structure generally followed the Roman imperial practice, with one bishop ruling each city, the bishop of the provincial capital, the metropolitan, enjoyed certain rights over other bishops in the province, later called suffragans. The other bishops are known as suffragan bishops, the metropolitan is obliged to request the pallium, a symbol of the power that, in communion with the Church of Rome, he possesses over his ecclesiastical province. This holds even if he had the pallium in another metropolitan see and it is the responsibility of the metropolitan, with the consent of the majority of the suffragan bishops to call a provincial council, decide where to convene it, and determine the agenda. It is his prerogative to preside over the provincial council, no provincial council can be called if the metropolitan see is vacant. As of April 2006,508 archdioceses were headed by metropolitan archbishops,27 archbishops lead an extant archdiocese, but were not metropolitans, see also Catholic Church hierarchy for the distinctions. In those Eastern Catholic Churches that are headed by a patriarch, similarly, a metropolitan has the right to ordain and enthrone the bishops of his province. The metropolitan is to be commemorated in the liturgies celebrated within his province, a major archbishop is defined as the metropolitan of a certain see who heads an autonomous Eastern Church not of patriarchal rank. The canon law of such a Church differs only slightly from that regarding a patriarchal Church, there are also autonomous Eastern Catholic Churches consisting of a single province and headed by a metropolitan. In his autonomous Church it is for him to ordain and enthrone bishops, in the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the title of metropolitan is used variously, in terms of rank and jurisdiction. In terms of rank, in some Eastern Orthodox Churches metropolitans are ranked above archbishops in precedence, primates of autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Churches below patriarchal rank are generally designated as archbishops. In the Greek Orthodox Churches, archbishops are ranked above metropolitans in precedence, some Eastern Orthodox Churches have functioning metropolitans on the middle level of church administration. In Romanian Orthodox Church there are six regional metropolitans who are the chairmen of their respective synods of bishops, for example, Metropolitan of Oltenia has regional jurisdiction over four dioceses. On the other hand, in some Eastern Orthodox Churches title of metropolitan is only honorary, in Serbian Orthodox Church, honorary title of metropolitan is given to diocesan bishops of some important historical sees. For example, diocesan bishop of the Eparchy of Montenegro and the Littoral is given the title of metropolitan. Diocesan bishop of the Eparchy of Dabar-Bosnia is also given the title of metropolitan. Non-canonical Eastern Orthodox Churches generally use metropolitan title according to traditions of usage in Churches from which they were split
8.
Volga Tatars
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The Volga Tatars are a Turkic ethnic group, native to the Volga-Ural region, Russia. They are in turn subdivided into various subgroups and they compose 53% of the population of Tatarstan. Volga Tatars are Russias second-largest ethnicity, Tatars inhabiting the Republic of Tatarstan, a federal subject of Russia, constitute one third of all Tatars, while the other two thirds reside outside Tatarstan. The formation of some of the communities residing outside Tatarstan took place before the Russian Revolution of 1917 due to Tatars being specialized in trading, the emergence of ethnonym Tatar is disputed, with two theses trying to explain its origins. Mongol thesis, according to which etymology can be traced back to the Chinese Ta-Tan or Da-Dan, is widely accepted than Turkic one. Ethnonym Tatar first emerged in the fifth century CE/AD, the 14th century saw the spread of Sunni Islam among the Tatars. Tatars became subjects of Russia after the Siege of Kazan in 1552, since Russians linked Tatars with the Mongol Golden Horde, they began to negatively stereotype the Tatar people. Up to the end of the 19th century, Volga Tatars mainly identified themselves as Muslims until the rehabilitation of the ethnonym Tatar occurred, Russian officials used literary Tatar language to interact with the Turkic peoples of the Russian Empire before the end of the 19th century. Volga Tatar role in the Muslim national and cultural movements of the Russian Empire before the 1917 Revolution is significant, Tatar authorities attempted in the 1990s to reverse the Russification of Tatarstan that took place during the Soviet period. Bulgarism is a term for the position that the Volga Tatars are significantly descended from the Volga Bulgars. A more accepted position, however, is that the Volga Tatar ethnogenesis was completed upon the arrival of the Kipchaks, Cumans, the majority of Volga Tatars are Kazan Tatars. They form the bulk of the Tatar population of Tatarstan, traditionally, they inhabit the left bank of Volga river. Khazar invasions forced Bulgars, Turkic people, to migrate from the Azov steppes to the Middle Volga, in the period of 10th–13th centuries, Turkic peoples, including Kipchaks, migrated from southern Siberia to Europe. They played a significant role in the Mongol invasion of Rus in the 13th century, Tatar ethnogenesis took place after Turkic peoples, who were mixed with the Bulgars and other local inhabitants of the Volga River area, kept Kipchak dialect and became Muslims. Several new Tatar states had emerged by the 1500s after the Golden Horde fell and these states were Khanate of Kazan, Astrakhan Khanate, Khanate of Sibir and Crimean Khanate. Controversy surrounds the origin of the Tatar people, whether they are descended either from Bulgars or Golden Horde, mishars are an ethnographic group of Volga Tatars speaking Mishar dialect of the Tatar language. They comprise approximately one third of the Volga Tatar population and they are descendants of Cuman-Kipchak tribes who mixed with the Burtas in the Middle Oka River area and Meschiora. Nowadays, they live in Chelyabinsk, Ulyanovsk, Penza, Ryazan, Nizhegorodskaya oblasts of Russia and in Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, the Qasím Tatars have their capital in the town of Qasím in Ryazan Oblast
9.
Eastern Orthodox Church
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The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission to the apostles. It practices what it understands to be the original Christian faith, the Eastern Orthodox Church is a communion of autocephalous churches, each typically governed by a Holy Synod. It teaches that all bishops are equal by virtue of their ordination, prior to the Council of Chalcedon in AD451, the Eastern Orthodox had also shared communion with the Oriental Orthodox churches, separating primarily over differences in Christology. Eastern Orthodoxy spread throughout the Roman and later Eastern Roman Empires and beyond, playing a prominent role in European, Near Eastern, Slavic, and some African cultures. As a result, the term Greek Orthodox has sometimes used to describe all of Eastern Orthodoxy in general. However, the appellation Greek was never in use and was gradually abandoned by the non-Greek-speaking Eastern Orthodox churches. Its most prominent episcopal see is Constantinople, there are also many in other parts of the world, formed through immigration, conversion and missionary activity. The official name of the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Orthodox Catholic Church and it is the name by which the church refers to itself in its liturgical or canonical texts, in official publications, and in official contexts or administrative documents. Orthodox teachers refer to the Church as Catholic and this name and longer variants containing Catholic are also recognized and referenced in other books and publications by secular or non-Orthodox writers. The common name of the Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, is a shortened practicality that helps to avoid confusions in casual use, for this reason, the eastern churches were sometimes identified as Greek, even before the great schism. After 1054, Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholic marked a church as being in communion with Constantinople and this identification with Greek, however, became increasingly confusing with time. Missionaries brought Orthodoxy to many regions without ethnic Greeks, where the Greek language was not spoken. Today, many of those same Roman churches remain, while a large number of Orthodox are not of Greek national origin. Eastern, then, indicates the element in the Churchs origin and development, while Orthodox indicates the faith. While the Church continues officially to call itself Catholic, for reasons of universality, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in a letter written about 110 AD from one Greek church to another. Quote of St Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, thus, almost from the very beginning, Christians referred to the Church as the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Orthodox Church claims that it is today the continuation and preservation of that same Church, a number of other Christian churches also make a similar claim, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church, not directly from the Orthodox Church, the depth of this meaning in the Orthodox Church is registered first in its use of the word Orthodox itself, a union of Greek orthos and doxa
10.
False Dmitry I
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Dmitry I was the Tsar of Russia from 10 June 1605 until his death on 17 May 1606 under the name of Dimitriy Ivanovich. He is sometimes referred to as False Dmitry I, according to historian Chester L. Dunning, Dmitry was the only Tsar ever raised to the throne by means of a military campaign and popular uprisings. It is generally believed that the real Dmitry died in Uglich, Dmitry I entered history circa 1600, after making a positive impression on Patriarch Job of Moscow with his learning and assurance. After the doctors death, Dmitry had then fled to Poland, working there as a teacher for a brief time, in March 1604, Dmitry visited the royal court of Sigismund III Vasa in Kraków. The king provisionally supported him, but gave no promise of aid to help ease the young mans path to the throne. During his time at court, Dmitry met Marina Mniszech, daughter of the Polish nobleman Jerzy Mniszech, regardless, the tsars public support soon began to wane, especially as Dmitrys loyalists spread counter-rumors. Several Russian boyars also pledged themselves to Dmitry, thus giving them a reason not to pay taxes to Tsar Boris. Dmitry, having now gained the support of the Polish Commonwealth. With these men, he advanced on Russia in March 1605, Godunovs many enemies, including the southern Cossacks, joined Dmitrys army on the long march to Moscow. The young mans cause was only saved when news of the death of Boris Godunov on 13 April 1605 reached his troops in the aftermath. Finally, on 1 June, the boyars of Moscow staged a palace coup, imprisoning newly crowned tsar Feodor II and his mother. On 20 June, Dmitry made his entry into Moscow, and on 21 July, he was crowned tsar by a new Muscovite Patriarch of his own choosing. The new tsar moved to consolidate his power by visiting the tomb of Tsar Ivan, and the convent of his widow Maria Nagaya, who accepted him as her son and confirmed his story. The Godunovs, including Tsar Feodor and his mother, were executed, with the exception of Tsarevna Xenia, whom Dmitry took as his royal concubine for five months. Feodor Romanov, sire of the imperial dynasty, was soon appointed as metropolitan of Rostov, old patriarch Job. Dmitry planned to introduce a series of political and economical reforms and he restored Yuris Day, the day when serfs were allowed to move to another lord, to ease the conditions of peasantry. His favorite at the Russian court, the 18-year-old Prince Ivan Khvorostinin, is considered by historians to be one of Russias first Westernizers, in foreign policy, Dmitry sought an alliance with his sponsor, the Polish Commonwealth, and the Papal States. He planned for war against the Ottoman Empire, ordering the production of firearms to serve in the conflict
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian). 1906.
