RUSSIA. 
much convinced of this, that she never after held any com¬ 
munication with her brother, but retired to a convent, and 
assumed the name of Alexandra. 
With Feodor ended the last branch of the family of Ruric, 
a dynasty which had enjoyed the supreme power in Russia 
ever since the establishment of the principality by the 
Varagian chief, during a period of above 700 years. On the 
death of Feodor, as there was no hereditary successor to the 
vacant throne, the nobles assembled to elect a new tzar; and 
the artful Boris having, through the interest of the patriarch, 
a man elevated by his means, and devoted to his views, 
procured a majority in his favour, he was declared the object 
of their choice. Boris pretended unwillingness to accept the 
crown, declaring that he had resolved to live and die in a 
monastery; but when the patriarch, at the head of the 
principal nobles, and attended by a great concourse of 
people, bearing before them the cross, and the effigies of 
•several saints, repaired to the convent, where the artful 
usurper had taken up his residence, he was at length 
prevailed on to accompany them to the palace of the tzars, 
and suffer himself to be crowned. 
Boris affords another example, in addition to the numerous 
instances recorded in history, of a sovereign who became 
beneficial to his subjects, though he had procured the so¬ 
vereignty by unjustifiable means. If we give implicit credit 
to the historians of those times, Boris was a murderer and a 
usurper, though he had the voice of the people in his favour; 
but by whatever means he attained the imperial power,-he 
seems to have employed it in advancing the interests of the 
nation, and in improving the circumstances ofhis people. 
He was extremely active in his endeavours to extend the 
commerce, and improve the arts and manufactures of the 
Russian empire ; and for this purpose he invited many 
foreigners into his dominions. While he exerted himself in 
securing the tranquillity of the country, and defending its 
frontiers by forts and ramparts, against the incursions of his 
neighbours, he made himself respected abroad, received 
ambassadors from almost all the powers of Europe ; and 
•after several attempts to enlarge his territories at the expense 
of Sweden, he concluded with that kingdom an honourable 
and advantageous alliance. 
• Soon after the commencement of his reign, the city of 
Moscow was desolated by one of the most dreadful famines 
recorded in history. Thousands of people lay dead in the 
streets and roads; and in many houses the fattest of their 
inmates was killed, to serve as food for the rest. This 
dreadful calamity lasted three years; and notwithstanding 
all the exertions of Boris to provide for the necessities of the 
inhabitants of Moscow, we are assured that not fewer than 
500,000 perished by the famine. 
During these distresses of the capital, the power of Boris 
was threatened with annihilation by an adventurer who 
suddenly started up, and pretended to be the young prince 
Dimitri, whom all believed to have been assassinated, or, as 
Boris had given out, to have died of a malignant fever. This 
adventurer was a monk, named Otrepief, who learning that 
he greatly resembled the late Dimitri, conceived the project 
of passing for that prince, and endeavouring, in that character, 
to ascend the Russian throne. He retired from Russia into 
Poland, where he had the dexterity to ingratiate himself with 
some of the principal nobles, and persuade them that he was 
really Prince Dimitri, the lawful heir to the crown of Russia. 
The better to insure to himself the support of the Poles, he 
learned their language, and professed a great regard for the 
Catholic religion. By this last artifice he both gained the 
attachment of the Catholic Poles, and acquired the friendship 
of the Roman pontiff, whose blessing and patronage in his 
great undertaking he farther secured, by promising that, as 
soon as he should have established himself on the throne, he 
would make every exertion to bring the Russians within the 
pale of the Catholic church. The Kozaks of the Don, who 
were oppressed by Boris, hoped to gain at least a temporary 
advantage by the disturbance excited in favour of the 
adventurer, and eagerly embraced the opportunity of declaring 
in'his favour. The news of Prince Dimitri being still alive, 
Vol. XXII. No. 1515. 
465 
soon penetrated into Russia ; and though Boris did all in his 
power to destroy the illusion, by prohibiting all intercourse 
between his subjects and the Poles, and by appealing to the 
evidence of the murdered prince’s mother in proof of his 
death, the cause of the pretender continued to gain ground. 
Many circumstances concurred to interest the Russian people 
in favour of Otrepief. He had prepared a manifesto, which 
he caused to be dispersed through the empire, and in which he 
affirmed himself to be the son of Ivan, and asserted his right 
to the throne then usurped by Boris. The courtiers of the 
usurper, who had long been jealous of his elevation, 
pretended to believe these assertions ; while those who were 
persuaded that the young prince had been murdered by order 
of the present tzar, regarded this event as a judgment from 
heaven. Indeed the greater part of the nation appear to have 
been persuaded, that the pretender was the real Dimitri; 
before he set foot in Russia, a numerous party was formed in 
his behalf. He soon made his appearance on the frontiers 
with a regiment of Polish troops, and a body of Kozaks. 
Boris sent an army to oppose him ; but though the number 
of these troops greatly exceeded the small force of Dimitri, 
these latter were so animated by the eloquence of their leader, 
and the intrepidity and personal bravery which he displayed 
in the field of battle, that, after a bloody conflict, the army of 
Boris was defeated, and the pretended Dimitri remained master 
of the field. 
This victory, over a superior army, served still further to 
strengthen the belief, that Dimitri was favoured by heaven, 
and consequently could not be an impostor. To confirm the 
good opinion which he had evidently acquired, the victor 
treated his prisoners with great kindness ; caused the dead 
to be decently interred, and-gave strict injunctions to his 
troops to behave with humanity in the towns through which 
he passed. This gentle behaviour, when contrasted with 
the horrible excesses committed by the soldiers of Boris, 
wherever the people appeared to shew any inclination towards 
the cause of the invader, gained Dimitri more adherents than 
even the persuasion that he was the lawful sovereign of the 
country. Boris, unable to resist the torrent of public opinion 
in favour of his rival, is said to have taken poison, and thus 
hastened that fate which he foresaw awaited him, if he should 
fall into the hands of his enemies. 
The death of Boris took place in the year 1605; and 
though the principal nobility at Moscow placed his son Feo¬ 
dor on the throne, the party of Dimitri was now so strong, 
that Feodor was dethroned and sent to prison with his mother 
and sister, within six weeks after his accession. 
The successful monk had now attained the summit of his 
ambitious hopes, and made his entry into Moscow with the 
utmost magnificence, attended by his Russian adherents, and 
his Polish friends. Not deeming himself secure, however, 
while the son of Boris remained alive, he is said to have caused 
him to be strangled, together with one of his sisters. The 
new tzar, though he evidently possessed great abilities, seems 
to have been deficient in point of prudence. Instead of con¬ 
ciliating the favour of his subjects, by attention to their in¬ 
terests, and by conferring on the chief men among them the 
titles and honours that were at his disposal, he openly dis¬ 
played his predilection for the Poles, on whom he conferred 
high posts and dignities, and even connived at the extrava¬ 
gance and enormities which they committed. This impo¬ 
litic conduct together with his partiality for the Catholic 
religion ; his marked indifference towards the public wor¬ 
ship of the national church, and his want of reverence for 
the Greek clergy; his marrying a Polish lady; his affecta¬ 
tion of Polish manners; his inordinate voluptuousness, and 
the contempt with which he treated the principal nobility ; 
so irritated and exasperated the Russians, that discontents 
and insurrections arose in every quarter of the empire; and 
the joy with which he had been at first received, was con¬ 
verted into indifference, contempt, and detestation. The 
Russians soon discovered, from a curious circumstance, that 
their new sovereign could not be sprung from the blood of 
their ancient tzars. These had been always lifted on their 
horses and rode along with a slow and solemn pace, whereas 
6 C Dimitri 
