During the long reign of Ivan the Terrible, there was one interesting case associated with the Russian throne. This case still raises questions from historians, what can we say then about the contemporaries of Ivan IV, who were sometimes, frankly, dumbfounded by the decisions of the Terrible Tsar. As you guessed, we will talk about Simeon Bekbulatovich - a foreigner who for some time headed the Russian kingdom. Today we will try to figure out how and why he turned out to be the head of state and what was Ivan the Terrible guided by when making such a strange decision.
Descendant of Chinsgis Khan
If we know enough about Ivan IV, then Simeon Bekbulatovich remains a rather unknown figure for many. Who was he, what kind of tribe?
The real name of our hero is Khan Sain-Bulat, he owned the Kasimov Khanate - a small state formation on the territory of the present Ryazan region. He really could call himself Chingizid, that is, a descendant of Genghis Khan himself. He was also related to Khan Akhmat - the very one who stood against Ivan III on the Ugra River.
Tsar Ivan the Terrible.
Like many Tatar princes, nobles and other nobles at that time, in the late 50s of the 16th century, Khan Sain-Bulat swore allegiance to the Russian Tsar. And later he was baptized and converted to Christianity under the name of Simeon Bekbulatovich. Curiously, this deprived him of the status of the Kasimov Khan, since he could only be a Muslim. In Orthodoxy, Simeon was married to a relative of Ivan the Terrible, Anastasia Cherkasskaya, and had six children from her.
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Why did he become the Russian Tsar?
Now it is impossible to establish this with certainty, but on the other hand, we have a lot of facts about the reign of the new "tsar" Simeon Bekbulatovich, which allow us to draw an unambiguous conclusion - for Ivan the Terrible it was, as they would say now, a process of increasing his rating among the people.
Ivan the Terrible handed over the kingdom to Simeon in 1575. Ivan fictitiously abdicated the throne and retired to live on Petrovka as an ordinary boyar.
Complaints of Ivan the Terrible to Simeon Bekbulatovich.
At the same time, the "former tsar" addressed the new "tsar" with humiliation:
Sometimes Ivan called himself Ivan of Moscow, sometimes Ivants Vasiliev.
How did Simeon rule?
Of course, the new "tsar" was not an independent figure and acted on the orders of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. Simeon's decisions were very curious. He executed many boyars and nobles who were disliked by Ivan the Terrible, seized land from churches and monasteries, tearing off their letters.
It is interesting that Simeon, who immediately became undesirable for the nobility, for the church and for commoners, eleven months after his "accession", was replaced by the triumphantly returned "good tsar" Ivan the Terrible. He had mercy, returned the land to the church. True, not all of them, after all, he was pretty much enriched on the allotments of the former church land taken away and not returned. An interesting PR move, isn't it? Having saved his people from the "stupid and evil" Simeon, Ivan returned the lost people's love.
Boris Godunov.
But he did not leave Simeon in offense, making him the Grand Duke of Tver, and wrote off the land plots. There he ruled until the accession of Boris Godunov, who exiled him. And the famous impostor False Dmitry even ordered to forcefully tonsure Simeon as a monk under the name of Stephen. Simeon-Stephen died in 1616, having even survived the Troubles, but never regaining his once "royal" title.
Author: Nikita Buranov