On 7 January 1598 Tsar Fedor died. After the expiry of the forty-day period of mourning, an Assembly of the Land was convened in Moscow, and on 21 February it elected Boris Godunov as tsar. The traditional view among historians was that the assembly was stacked with Godunov's supporters and that his election was a 'farce' played out to a pre-written script.[27] V O. Kliuchevskii, however, studied the signatures on the main document produced by the assembly - the confirmatory charter - and concluded that the elective assembly of 1598 was entirely conventional in its composition. If there had been some kind of campaigning in favour of Boris, Kliuchevskii commented, it had not altered the composition of the Assembly of the Land.[28] In the more recent historiography there are various views about the authenticity and completeness of the signatures on the surviving copies of the confirmatory charter, and about the actual membership of the assembly.[29] We have no reason to doubt, however, that an electoral Assembly of the Land did in fact convene in February 1598 and legitimately elect Boris Godunov as tsar.[30] What was considered illegitimate by contemporaries of the Time of Troubles was not the 'juridical' but the 'moral' aspect of Boris Godunov's election - a 'saint-killer' (the person responsible for the death of Tsarevich Dmitrii) could not be a 'true' tsar. As far as the assembly of 1598 itself is concerned, the writers of the Time of Troubles did not doubt its 'correctness' and they even contrasted the legitimate election of Godunov by 'all the towns' to the 'sudden' accession of Vasilii Shuiskii without any consultation of the 'land'.
Tsar Boris
On i September Boris was solemnly crowned as tsar. His coronation was accompanied by a number of lavish ceremonies and formalities. The new tsar made all kinds of efforts to acquire popularity among his ordinary subjects, and solemnly promised to care even for the poorest beggars. On his accession to the throne he granted numerous privileges and favours to various groups of the population. There is even evidence that Tsar Boris intended to regulate the obligations ofthe seigniorial peasants.[31] But although he courtedthe estates of the realm, Boris had no desire to become dependent on them. His aim of becoming the 'great and gracious lord' of his people was an expression of the credo of an autocratic monarch rather than a ruler dependent on his 'electorate'. While granting various favours to his subjects, Boris at the same time demanded their loyalty, and encouraged them to denounce 'villains' and 'traitors'.[32]
But the power of the Russian autocrats in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was not absolute. As he consolidated his position on the throne, Boris was obliged to conduct a cautious and flexible policy in relation to the boyar elite. If the new-made tsar had acted too decisively and rashly, all the results of his previous policy of consolidating the magnates around the throne would have been negated and he would have encountered serious opposition. As an experienced politician, Boris Godunov understood the danger of a radical break with tradition in his relations with the rulingboyar group, and of exerting direct pressure on the aristocracy. To mark the occasion of his coronation in September i598 Boris Godunov made generous allocations of duma ranks to the top tier of the aristocracy. Towards the end of Godunov's reign the size of the boyar duma was reduced, and the relative weight of the princely aristocracy within it was increased. Of the twenty duma boyars in 1605, twelve belonged to the premier princely clans or were eminent foreigners.[33] It is generally thought that Boris unduly promoted his relatives and supporters and ruled the state with their help. But the actual picture was more complex. In the first year of
Boris's reign four new members of the Godunov clan entered the duma, but they were all awarded not the highest duma rank of boyar, but the rank of okol'nichii. In Boris's reign only two new Godunovs became boyars (via the rank of okol'nichii), but at the same time two older Godunov boyars left the stage. None of the Godunovs who was newly promoted into the duma possessed any great qualities of statesmanship. As in the years of his regency, Boris when he was tsar tried to find support in various boyar groupings, including the premier princely aristocracy. And in this he succeeded. The tsar made clever use of precedence conflicts among the princely-boyar aristocracy in order to further his own interests. S. F. Platonov's view that Tsar Boris was politically isolated in the boyar milieu cannot be accepted as correct. The circle of boyars who came to court and enjoyed the tsar's favour was fairly wide, but - and in this respect Platonov is right - they did not comprise a single cohesive party, and there were few among them who possessed any political talent.[34] This gave rise to the internal weakness in the Godunovs' government which manifested itself after Boris's death.
Weakened by the repressions of the 1580s and lacking support from the boyars, the Church and the townspeople, the Shuiskiis and other eminent 'princelings' were unable to act openly against Godunov. The main threat to Godunov was posed by the boyar clan of the Romanovs, who had not reconciled themselves to their defeat in the electoral struggle. In November 1600 the Romanovs were subjected to harsh forms of disgrace. The eldest ofthe brothers - Fedor Nikitich Romanov - was tonsured as a monk and exiled under the name of Filaret to the northerly Antoniev-Siiskii monastery. His brothers and followers were dispersed to various towns and places of imprisonment, and many of them died in exile. R. G. Skrynnikov has persuasively suggested that the persecution of the Romanovs was linked with Boris's illness.[35] Concerned about the fate of his heir, he decided to strike a blow against them, taking advantage of a denunciation which a slave of the Romanovs made against his masters. The Romanovs' case was the most important political trial in Boris's reign, but it directly affected only a few boyars and noblemen. At the beginning of the I600s Godunov's old opponent B. Ia. Bel'skii was also subjected to repression and disgrace, as was the secretary V Ia. Shchelkalov.
There is a widespread view in the historical literature that the idea ofsetting up a pretender was developed by the boyar opposition with the aim of overthrowing the Godunovs. But we do not have any sources which provide direct and reliable evidence of this. S. F. Platonov's speculation that the Romanovs were party to the pretender intrigue is somewhat dubious.37 The fact that the pretender (Grigorii Otrep'ev) lived in the court of the Romanovs and their followers the Cherkasskiis does not in itself provide a basis for such a view. If we accept this proposition, it is difficult to explain why the custody regime imposed on the disgraced Romanovs should have been relaxed at the end of Godunov's reign, or why many of their supporters were allowed to return from exile. We know that in 1604-5 Tsar Boris appointed the boyars and eminent princes F. I. Mstislavskii, V. I. and D. I. Shuiskii and V. V. Golitsyn to head his regiments against the False Dmitrii, and these commanders inflicted a crushing defeat on the pretender at Dobrynichi. The army openly defected from the Godunovs only after Boris's death. And even then by no means all the boyars and commanders betrayed them, and some of the commanders (the princes M. P. Katyrev-Rostovskii, A. A. Teliatevskii and others) returned to Moscow with the loyal regiments. The decisive role in the transfer of the troops to the side of the False Dmitrii was played by the servicemen of the southern towns. Russian and foreign sources unanimously testify that the initiative for surrendering the towns of the Seversk 'frontier district' came not from their governors but from the lower classes ofthe population. In contrast to the opinion of V. O. Kliuchevskii and S. F. Platonov, who considered that the Time of Troubles began 'from above' (in the boyar milieu), the unrest on the eve of the Troubles occurred not at the top of the social ladder but at the lower levels of the social pyramid.
27
See e.g. V N. Latkin,
28
V O. Kliuchevskii, 'Sostav predstavitel'stva na zemskikh soborakh drevnei Rusi', in his
29
S. P. Mordovina, 'Kharakter dvorianskogo predstavitel'stva na zemskom sobore 1598 g.',
30
A. P. Pavlov 'SobornaiautverzhdennaiagramotaobizbraniiBorisaGodunovanaprestol',
32