Boris Fedorovich Godunov (1552 - 1605)

In January 1598, the childless Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich died. A dynastic crisis broke out. Tsarina Irina refused to marry the kingdom and was tonsured a nun. In February of the same year, the Zemsky Sobor elected her brother Boris Godunov to the kingdom. The beginning of the reign of Boris Godunov was marked by the rapprochement between Russia and the West. The sovereign invited foreigners to the Russian service, exempting them from taxes. Mass starvation caused popular unrest and riots, the largest of which was the uprising led by the ataman Khlopok, which broke out in 1603. The Tsar's troops were able to defeat the rebels, but failed to calm the country. there were rumors that Tsarevich Dmitry was still alive. On April 13 (23), 1605, Boris Fedorovich Godunov died under unclear circumstances in his Kremlin palace. According to the official version, the king died of a stroke. He was buried in the Kremlin's Archangel Cathedral.

The new tsar was the son of Boris Godunov - Fyodor. But in June 1605, a rebellion of False Dmitry's supporters broke out in Moscow. Fyodor Godunov and his mother were killed, leaving only Boris's daughter Ksenia alive. Soon, the coffin with the body of Boris Godunov was taken out of the Archangel Cathedral and reburied in the Varsonofievsky monastery near the Lubyanka.