1606, May 17 - a man was killed in Moscow who called himself the son of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, recognized by his mother, boyars and people and became the Russian Tsar. Later, the same mother and the same boyars renounced him and began to call him no longer the tsar's son, but the stripped and heretic Grigory Otrepiev. When were they sincere? When did they begin to kiss the dusty boots of the "tsar's son" and crawl on their knees in front of him, seeking favors, or when, not having received the desired favors, kicked the disfigured corpse of the "uncut" and spat on him publicly?
Who was this man, who remained a mystery forever. The official historiography, confused by contradictions, considers him a fugitive monk from the Galician noblemen Grigory Otrepiev.
The investigation into the “murder of Tsarevich Dmitry” cannot be considered a reliable source, because the investigator, Prince Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky, who later became Tsar Vasily IV, twice retracted the conclusions made by the investigation under his leadership, and twice denounced himself in the wrong production of this effect.
The first time he recognized the impostor Grigory Otrepiev as the real Dmitry, thereby crossing out even the very fact of the death of the Tsarevich, for the second time, having already overthrown and killed the named Dmitry, he declared that the real Tsarevich Dmitry was killed at the behest of Boris Godunov, and did not kill himself in epileptic seizure, according to the findings of the investigation. There is no doubt that Shuisky knew the truth better than anyone else, but which of his three testimonies can be considered true, and which two are lies?
Three versions of Shuisky
So, the "three versions of Shuisky" formed the basis for further historical research about the personality of Tsar Dmitry Ivanovich, and all historians of subsequent times have already built their studies based on a version convenient for themselves, relying on their own views and preferences or frankly getting confused in all three versions.
“The question of the death of Tsarevich Dimitri and the guilt of Boris Godunov in this death was repeatedly submitted to the archives unresolved, and again hunters were taken out of there to solve it in favor of Boris. No one succeeded …”- wrote N. Kostomarov.
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… The son of Ivan the Terrible and Maria Feodorovna Nagoya (this was the 7th marriage of the tsar, which was concluded without church permission) was born in Moscow on October 19, 1583. His first name was Uar, in honor of the holy martyr Uar, whose memory is celebrated by the Orthodox Church 19 October. At the baptism, the baby was named Dmitry.
Six months later, Ivan the Terrible died. In his dying orders, he bequeathed the city of Uglich to Dmitry and his mother, and entrusted the upbringing of the prince to his favorite boyar Bogdan Yakovlevich Volsky.
The cunning Volsky was disliked in boyar circles and was seriously afraid that a clever intrigue in alliance with the relatives of the prince, the Nagi, would not want to start a confusion, declaring Dmitry to be the heir of Ivan the Terrible. Therefore, already on the very first night after the death of the tsar, the widow-queen with the young tsarevich, her father, brothers and close relatives, accompanied by numerous stewards, solicitors, servants and an honorary streltsy escort, was solemnly escorted to Uglich - in fact, into exile.
However, the tsarevich did not cease to remain a constant factor in Russian domestic politics, which was impossible to ignore. The reigning Tsar Fyodor did not have offspring, and the question of succession to the throne, not without reason, bothered the minds. In Moscow there were several very, very ambitious personalities who mentally were already trying on the coveted hat of Monomakh. And one of these personalities was the energetic close boyar of the tsar Boris Godunov.
Meanwhile, the last Rurikovich was growing up in Uglich. Apparently, we will never be able to find out about the true character traits of the young tsarevich, since Moscow, not seeing and not knowing Dmitry, could only judge him by rumors, sometimes deliberately disseminated by supporters of one or another boyar party. Some said that, already 6 or 7 years old, the boy was an exact copy of his fanatical father: he loves to torture and kill animals, he loves blood and sadistic fun.
It was alleged that once in winter, playing with children, Dmitry ordered to sculpt 20 human figures out of snow, named each one after one of the first boyars and enthusiastically chopped these figures with a saber, while "Boris Godunov" he cut off the head, others - hands and legs, while saying: "This is how you all will be in my reign!" This, of course, is obvious nonsense, and it is rather strange that it is sometimes taken seriously to this day. I hardly believe in the possibility of a 6-year-old child showing such speculative hatred for people he never knew or saw, and it is unlikely that young Dmitry, living in Uglich, could know the names of the Moscow boyars.
Opposite rumors showed Dmitry as a "sovereign youth." They said that the young prince showed intelligence and qualities worthy of a king. Be that as it may, one thing undoubtedly seems important: in Moscow, no one, absolutely no one knew Tsarevich Dmitry and could not say anything reliable about him.
Boris Godunov, eaten up by his thirst for power, did not stop thinking about how to get rid of the growing heir to the throne. According to Karamzin, "this greedy power-hungry man saw between himself and the throne one unarmed infant, as a greedy lion sees a lamb!" And now the "greedy power-hungry" has planned a terrible, bloody matter: he has planned the murder of the prince …
Boris revealed his plans to his fellow accomplices: all of them, except for the butler, Grigory Godunov, decided that Dmitry's death was necessary from the point of view of the state good. First, the poison was chosen, which the bribed mother of the prince, Vasilisa Volokhova, secretly poured into his "food and drink". However, the deadly potion for some reason did not harm the prince.
Then they decided to kill Dmitry. The first two nobles chosen for this delicate matter, Vladimir Zagryazhsky and Nikifor Chepchugov, flatly refused such an offer and "from now on were persecuted." They found another, clerk Mikhail Bityagovsky, judging by the description - downright Herod, "marked on his face with the imprint of atrocities, so that his wild look vouched for loyalty in evil." If you, the reader, were offered such a character to look after your household, would you be at least a little alarmed? But it was this Herod who was sent to Uglich to rule the household of the dowager queen, to oversee the servants and at the table …
Together with Bityagovsky, his son Danila and nephew Nikita Kachalov arrived in Uglich. There they were already awaited by the bribed Volokhova, the mother of the tsarevich, and her son Osip, also initiated into the circumstances of the impending assassination attempt.
1591, May 15 - on Saturday, at six o'clock in the afternoon, the queen and her son returned from church and were preparing to dine. The servants were already carrying food, when suddenly, it is not clear why, Volokhova's mother called Dmitry for a walk in the yard. The queen was supposedly going to go with them, but hesitated. The nurse did not let the Tsarevich go, but Volokhova, by force (!), Took Dmitry together with the nurse out of the upper room into the hallway and to the lower porch. Here Osip Volokhov, Danila Bityagovsky and Nikita Kachalov appeared before them. Volokhov, taking
Dmitry's hand, said ominously:
“Sovereign! You have a new necklace!"
"No, the old …", - the prince answered with a trusting smile.
Volokhov, drawing a knife, tried to hit Dmitry in the neck, but the knife fell out of his hands. Screaming in fright, the nurse hugged her pet, but Danila Bityagovsky and Nikita Kachalov snatched the child from the woman's hands and cold-bloodedly stabbed him to death. Throwing away the agonizing prince, they rushed to run. Just at that time the queen came out onto the porch …
A few minutes later, the silence of the city was broken by the echoing sounds of the alarm: the sexton of the Transfiguration Cathedral, who was in the bell tower and became an unwitting eyewitness to the tragedy, summoned the people. The townspeople fled to the palace and saw the lifeless body of Dmitry and the queen and the nurse fighting in hysterics. Somewhere nearby were the killers who tried to hide in the discharge hut. They were captured and killed.
Mikhail Bityagovsky appeared on the porch, shouting that Dmitry had stabbed himself in a fit of epilepsy; they threw stones at him, overtook him and killed him along with a certain "slave" of him, Danila Tretyakov. They killed both the servants of Mikhail, and some bourgeois who turned up by the arm, and the "foolish little wife" who lived with the Bityagovskys, only the mother Volokhova was left alive to "testify" …
For what reason "popular anger" exterminated the main conspirators, sparing Volokhova - what kind of "testimony" could she give? How long did the townspeople take to find and kill the murderers? Why didn't the killers have time to hide? Perhaps because they didn't try? Didn't they try because they weren't killers and didn't feel any guilt behind themselves?
The murder investigation commission concluded that Dmitry "stabbed himself," stabbing himself with a knife in a seizure of epilepsy. Of the interrogated relatives of the tsarina, Mikhail Nagoy claimed that the tsarevich had been stabbed to death; Grigory Nagoy testified that the child had wounded himself while playing with a knife at the "poke"; Andrei Nagoy said that he had not seen any murderers and did not know who could have done it. Tsarevich's nanny Vasilisa Volokhova described how, in a fit of epilepsy, Dmitry "was thrown on the ground, and then the prince stabbed himself in the throat with a knife."
And 14 years later, when the Moscow throne was already occupied by the imaginary Dmitry, Vasily Shuisky, who in 1591 headed the commission of inquiry and, like no one who knew the true circumstances of the case, threw in his hearts: “Damn, this is not a real prince; you yourself know that the real tsarevich Boris Godunov ordered to be killed."
So suicide or murder?
… Having considered the results of the investigation, the Boyar Duma decided that "the fate of the tsarevich was in God's hands, and His will was for everything." The protocols of the investigation, however, remained a secret for most of his contemporaries, and the people knew only about the death of the prince - unexpected and inexplicable.
There is also an episode in the Uglich tragedy that remained difficult for most historians to explain. At midnight after the fatal date in Yaroslavl, the brother of the Dowager Queen Athanasius Nagoy, who lived in exile in Yaroslavl, appeared at the gates of the Englishman Horsey's house. Nagoy, who came out to knock, informed Gorsey that at about six o'clock in the afternoon the "clerks" had their throats cut, and Boris Godunov had taught them to do this atrocity. The naked added that Queen Mary was poisoned or spoiled, and asked to quickly give him some remedy. Horsey gave him some kind of balm. And in the morning all of Yaroslavl knew about Dmitry's death and that Boris Godunov was behind the killers.
Afanasy Nagoy was not in Uglich on the day of the murder, and the detective commission did not even involve him in the interrogation as a witness. How did he know all the details of what had happened six hours later? Probably from someone who came urgently from Uglich. Wasn't there with this mysterious messenger … the wounded or exhausted dear Tsarevich Dmitry, for the sake of whose salvation Athanasius Nagoy asked for a healing balm from Horsey in the middle of the night?
Despite the conclusion of the commission of inquiry, the version of Nagikh that the tsarevich was killed on the orders of Godunov prevailed in public opinion. All over Moscow they secretly whispered that Godunov had arranged everything. They talked about Godunov's "betrayal" and his intention to seize the throne. To silence these whisperers, the government carried out mass executions of the inhabitants of Uglich (about 200 people died). The naked were sent to prison, and Queen Mary was tonsured into a nun …
The rumor that the tsarevich was alive began immediately after the death of tsar Fyodor Ioannovich. It was rumored that in Smolensk they saw some letters from Dmitry. The Frenchman Yakov Margeret wrote in 1600 that “some consider Dmitry Ivanovich alive”.
A wave of new rumors about the rescue of the Tsarevich was caused by the "case of the Romanov boyars." Historians associate this wave with the activities of the Romanovs, who, wishing to overthrow Godunov, prepared for him to replace an "impostor." Meanwhile, it was among the servants of the Romanovs that a certain Yuri Otrepiev was noticed …
A certain Grigory Otrepiev
… 1604, October 16 - a small detachment of a mercenary army entered the Moscow state, led by a man called the legal heir to the Russian throne, Tsarevich Dmitry Ivanovich, who had escaped death. The frightened authorities published at once two (!) Strikingly different versions of the fact that the imaginary Dmitry is a certain Grigory Otrepiev, a fugitive defrocked monk.
Yes, Grigory Otrepiev was in fact surrounded by the newly-minted tsarevich. 1605, February 26 - Jesuits who were with Dmitry in Putivl wrote: "Grigory Otrepiev, a sorcerer and libertine known throughout Muscovy, was brought here … And it became clear to the Russian people that Dmitry Ivanovich was not at all like Grishka Otrepiev."
Otrepiev was shown in Putivl "in front of everyone, clearly exposing the lie to Borisov." Otrepiev was seen in Moscow, after which Dmitry removed him to Yaroslavl, where his tracks were lost. Later, the prevailing point of view was that it was "False Trep", but in fact - a fugitive monk Leonid. There are a lot of fugitive monks in this whole story with the same biographies and all kinds of "False" …
The unexpected death of Boris Godunov opened the way for Dmitry to the capital. Moscow greeted him with enthusiasm for the acquisition of the true sovereign. Anointed to the throne by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Job under the name of Tsar Dmitry Ivanovich, this Tsar caused surprise and fear among his contemporaries and continues to arouse the genuine curiosity of historians.
No impostor in world history has enjoyed such support. The people sincerely loved Dmitry and were ready to punish his enemies more strictly than any supreme power. If someone dared to call the tsar "fake", then, in the words of a contemporary, "he disappeared: be he a monk or a layman, they will now be killed or drowned."
The breadth of Dmitry's views, his inner freedom and religious tolerance could not but cause fear among the zealots of fatherly antiquity. “We have only one ritual, and their meaning is hidden,” he said to the Moscow Orthodox clergy. - You deliver piety only by keeping your posts, worshiping relics, honoring icons, but you have no idea about the essence of faith. You call yourself the new Israel, you consider yourself the most righteous people in the world, but you do not live like a Christian at all: you love each other a little, you are little disposed to do good."
The "non-royal" behavior of the new tsar, his strange quirks for "splendid" Moscow, was also surprising and frightening. In front of his palace, Dmitry put a statue of a copper Cerberus with three heads - a "hellish guard", whose three jaws could open and close, while making a clattering sound. This, in fact, a funny quirk greatly frightened the God-fearing Muscovites: scary! In winter, by order of the tsar, an ice fortress was erected on the ice of the Moskva River for military fun, depicting Azov. On its walls were painted with images of monsters, symbolizing the Tatar power. The people of Moscow were frightened of these monsters too: they painfully resembled devils!
And it is not surprising that the program of "popular protest" against the "rotten" tsar organized by the boyar elite aroused some sympathy among the people. The boyars emphasized in every possible way that “Dmitry is a rotten tsar: he does not honor holy icons, does not like piety, eats vile dishes, goes to church unclean, straight from the" bad bed ", has never washed in a bath with his" filthy queen. " Without a doubt, he is "not of the royal blood."
For medieval thinking (and it has remained intact to this day) there is nothing more unbearable than an encounter with a phenomenon that does not fit into the framework of its own ideas. Then supernatural forces are invariably invoked to explain this phenomenon. In the 17th century, it was about heresy and witchcraft, in our time - about zombies and magic (that is, about the same witchcraft). Therefore, it is not surprising that the boyar opposition began to accuse the tsar of being a warlock, a sorcerer and a heretic who had entered into an alliance with evil spirits.
This rumor caused a lot of rumors among the people. Some believed that False Dmitry was an extraordinary person, others called him an accomplice of the devil. The numerous talents of False Dmitry, recognized even by his enemies, tried to explain by the fact that as a teenager the young Grigory Otrepiev entered into an alliance with Satan: “This young man is still more skilled in the Black Book …
Rumors that the supposed Tsarevich Dmitry was a heretic and a warlock began to spread back in 1604, when the defrocked had just begun its campaign against Moscow. It was said that, having fled to Poland, the monk Grishka Otrepiev turned there into a black book and "an angelic image more overpowering and swearing, and, by the action of the enemy, deviated from God." In fact, there is evidence that, while in the Ukraine, in Goscha, Grigory Otrepiev accepted the Arian heresy and studied with one of the preachers of Arianism Matthew Tverdokhleb. By the way, the activities of the Arians in Ukraine aroused the anger of the Polish Catholic Church.
“In Poland he sold his soul to demons and wrote them a handwriting in blood,” they said in Moscow. "The demons promised to make him king, and he promised them to give up on God."
“But isn't he himself a demon? Others asked. "He appeared in human form in order to embarrass Christians and make a toy for himself with those who fall away from the Christian faith." Still others assured that Grigory Otrepiev was a dead man who rose from the grave, who once lived, and then died and revived by demonic power on the mountain of Christianity (in modern terms - zombies).
Many later, from the historical memory of the people, songs were composed about Grishka the blasphemer, who swears at Orthodox shrines:
And lay local icons for themselves, And he puts chudny crosses under his heels.
In another song, the sorcerer Grishka makes magic wings for himself, on which he tries to fly away from the crowd that burst into the royal palace:
And I will do the devil's porch, I will fly away with the devil!
“There was Grishka-haircut, nicknamed Otrepkin,” many years later told the people. - He went at midnight on the ice under the Moskvoretsky bridge and wanted to drown himself in the wormwood. And then the crafty one approached him and said: “Don't drown yourself, Grishka, you'd better surrender to me! You will have fun in the world. I can give you a lot of gold and silver and make you a great man! " Grishka and says to him: "Make me king in Moscow!" “Please! Only you give me your soul and write the contract in blood! " In this way, according to legend, Grigory Otrepiev obtained the Moscow throne for himself.
1606, May 17 - the imaginary Dmitry Otrepiev was killed by conspirators. The boyars and their supporters who burst into the palace found a buffoonish mask in the tsar's chambers, which immediately grew in the eyes of the murderers to the size of a state crime: "This very hara, this idol, was worshiped by the sorcerer and heretic Grishka Otrepiev, and not the true God!" They threw the mask on the ripped stomach of False Dmitry 1. They mocked his body for a long time and, in the end, buried him “in a wretched house” (in a cemetery for the poor and homeless) outside the Serpukhov Gate, near the main road.
On the day when the body of the former tsar, tied to a horse, was dragged to the Serpukhov Gate, a terrible storm swept through Moscow, the roof of the tower was ripped off in Kulish and the wooden wall at the Kaluga Gate collapsed. They immediately recalled that the same storm had occurred during the solemn entry of False Dmitry 1 into Moscow …
In the "wretched house" the body of the deceased was transported by invisible force from place to place, and many saw two doves sitting on it. Someone saw blue lights rising from the ground over the grave of the defrocked Grigory Otrepiev. Then the body was allegedly ordered to be buried deeper into the ground, but suddenly the body of the murdered king was a quarter of a mile from the "wretched house."
In addition, rumors spread throughout Moscow that at night the dead man would rise from the grave and walk. They immediately recalled that the Lapps, residents of northern Lapland, who bowed to Tsar Dmitry with an annual tribute, had recently come to Moscow. From time immemorial, the Laplanders were rumored as wizards who even knew how to resurrect the dead: “they tell you to kill yourself, and then come to life”. Only Grishka Otrepiev learned this hellish art from Lapland sorcerers-Hyperboreans!
The authorities and clergy were alarmed by these rumors and, in order to put an end to the dead “sorcerer and sorcerer,” the body of False Dmitry 1 was dug up and taken to the village of Nizhnie Kotly, where the dead man was burned. It was said that the body of the sorcerer did not immediately succumb to the fire. They threw him into the fire - only his arms and legs were burned, and the body itself did not burn. Then the dead man was chopped into pieces and thrown into the fire again - then he burned down. The ashes of the impostor Tsar Grigory Otrepiev were collected, mixed with gunpowder, loaded into a cannon and shot in the direction from which this mysterious man came to Moscow …
N. Nepomniachtchi
