Романовы (Romanov dynasty / Triều Romanov / 羅曼諾夫皇朝)

Star Media

Babich Design

The quiet Kostroma cloister has never seen so many nobles.

Ambassadors of the National Assembly came from Moscow.

They kneeled before great nun Martha and begged her

with tears to bless her son to be the Tsar of the Moscow State.

He is the only one who hasn’t stained his good name

during the Time of Troubles. He is our only hope…

If Mikhail refuses, the Time of Troubles will return.

Our land won’t survive such a grief again.

The House of Romanov. Episode One

Year 1598. The son of Ivan the Terrible Tsar Feodor died.

He was the last of the Rurik House that ruled the country

for over 700 years. Feodor didn’t have children

and his younger brother Dmitri died under unclear circumstances.

People elected Boris Godunov to be their new Tsar.

Soon an imposter surfaced claiming to be Dmitri

who allegedly survived. The False Dmitri seized

the Russian throne and married a Polish

Marina Mniszech announcing her to be a Tsarina.

In a year the False Dmitri was murdered and Marina

was forced to leave Moscow.

When a new impostor came there she allegedly

recognized him as her husband and soon gave birth

to his son Ivan. She dreamt of turning him

into the Russian tsar.

The Moscow State remained without any ruler.

Using the anarchy Sweden and Polish invaded

its territory openly. The war started.

Russia lost Karelia, Novgorod and Smolensk.

Only 10% of the rest of the lands were ploughed.

There was nobody left to work on the land.

The population decreased several times.

Everybody realized that Russia needed a legitimate Tsar.

Otherwise the state will perish.

The awful winter of 1613 was coming to the end.

People were coming to Moscow from all over the ruined country.

They had to perform an unbelievable deed.

The National Assembly convened in Moscow to decide

on the Motherland’s fate.

The National Assembly is the Russian parliament

of the 16-th and 17th centuries.

It convened in extraordinary events to decide

on the most crucial political issues.

About 1000 people came to the Assembly in 1613.

They were of all classes including gentry, clergy, merchants,

bureaucrats and peasantry.

On March 3 the decisive voting was held.

After exhausting disputes and doubts 16 year old Mikhail Romanov

was elected the Tsar.

Mikhail’s father, Feodor Nikitich Romanov,

was a cousin of Tsar Feodor, the son of Ivan the Terrible.

Therefore he could legitimately lay claims to the throne.

But after Boris Godunov came to power

Feodor Nikitich was eliminated.

He was forced to become a monk under the name of Filaret

and his wife Xenia was made a nun under the name of Martha.

They were sent to different monasteries.

Later Filaret was taken prisoner by the Polish.

While carrying out a diplomatic mission he was arrested

together with other members of the Russian delegation

and practically taken hostage. The Polish didn’t inform Filaret

that his son was being elected a Tsar in Moscow.

The decision of the Assembly was announced

at the Red Square in presence of a huge crowd of people.

Mikhail Feodorovitch will be the Tsar and the ruler

of the Moscow State and all the Russia!

The scary Time of Trouble was the backdrop

of Mikhail’s childhood and youth years.

He was taken away from his parents when he was only 4

and sent to the village.

Later his mother came to take Mikhail back. They spent a few years

in the down-and-out Moscow.

Then they escaped to Kostroma,

to Ipatyevo cloister where they led a quiet life.

Hoarse and exhausted ambassadors

who brought the icon of Our Lady of Feodor with them

had been talking the Romanovs into taking the power for hours.

After many years of anarchy, Time of Troubles and destruction

a new Tsar ascended to the Russian throne.

He became the founder of the new Tsar house of Romanov –

by the God’s will the Great Tsar and the Great Duke,

the Ruler of the Entire Russia…

On Sunday of July 11, 1613 the festivities

dedicated to his crowning started.

Chapter One. Mikhail Feodorovitch

There was no going back now.

Mikhail Feodorovitch Romanov ascended the stairs

of the Assumption Cathedral as a son of a noble

and descended them as a Tsar. The state he was to rule

was on the verge of collapse.

So the young Tsar listened to his intuition and chose

the only possible mode of ruling – collective governance.

On his initiative the National Assembly that used to work

only once in a few years started meeting on a regular basis

turning into a highest consultative body of the Russian State.

Despite expectations of many people, Mikhail Feodorovitch

didn’t become a marionette in the hands

of the enemy noblemen clans. He ruled the country for real.

When one Dutchman hinted that strict measures were needed

the Tsar answered: “Don’t you know that our Russian bears

never hunt in the first year of life? They only start hunting

when they get older”.

The ground under Mikhail’s feet was still unstable.

There were three claimants to the Russian throne:

Swedish king Carl Philipp on the north, Polish Prince Wladislaw

on the west and the so called “little thief” –

the 3-year old boy Ivan, son of Marina Mniszech

and impostor False Dmitri II on the south.

An army of Cossacks 3,000 strong headed by adventurer

Ivan Zarutskiy was on the boy’s side.

But the Tsar’s troops defeated the Cossacks.

The impostors were arrested, brought to Moscow and executed.

The execution took place at the square in presence

of a huge crown of people by the Serpukhov Gates.

The Dutch traveler Elias Herkman remembered it

for the rest of his life.

“Zarutskiy was impaled. Then Dmitri’s son was publicly executed.

The snowstorm was blowing. The snow was slapping the boy

on the face. He asked a few times in a crying voice:

“Where are you taking me?” The people carrying the child

were calming him down until they brought him,

as a lamb to the slaughter, to the gallows.

The poor boy was hung as a thief.

The adventurers could have used the boy

to start a new Time of Troubles. To avoid that Mikhail,

the first Tsar of the new dynasty, had to agree to the execution

and mar his soul with a sin.

The new Time of Troubles was avoided.

But the war did start.

The Swedish troops sieged Pskov.

Mikhail ordered his diplomats to do anything to negotiate peace.

In February of 1617 the Stolbov Peace Treaty was concluded.

According to it, Russia got back Novgorod with adjacent lands.

Soon the Polish army went to Moscow.

Prince Wladislaw who still had claims to the Russian throne headed it personally.

The Polish managed to approach the Kremlin

– the wall of the White City, the modern Avenue Circle.

The Russians got to know from the spies that the Polish

were digging under it to mine the Arbat Gates.

Despite all persuasion, the Tsar refused to leave Moscow.

He ordered to gather a large detachment and wait.

Apart from the state interests, he had a personal one.

The Polish still held his father Metropolitan Filaret hostage.

Mikhail knew: if he left Moscow, he would lose the throne.

If he lost the throne, he would never see his father.

He fought the Polish despite bearing substantial loses.

On December 1, 1618 the Truce of Deulino was signed

for 14.5 years. Russian got its lands from Vyazma to

Chernigov back. Nevertheless, many issues remained unresolved.

Smolensk and other lands were still under Poland.

Plus Wladislaw didn’t renounce his claims

for the Russian throne. However the ravaged country

couldn’t wage war anymore. It needed peace to take a breath,

to rebuild – at least a dozen of years.

However it was the first personal major victory

of Mikhail Feodorovitch. The main outcome of the truce

for Russia was coming back of all the prisoners

taken during the Time of Troubles.

His father returned from Poland. All nine years

Mikhail felt their inseparable tie.

From an early age, he wanted to be like his father.

Mikhail was looking forward to meeting his father,

the legendary person – Metropolitan Filaret.

After coming back from captivity and nine-year separation

the father look a real Tsar of all the Russia before him –

a God-chosen ruler. In ten days the Tsar issued an order

to appoint Filaret the patriarch of Moscow and all the Russia.

In future they’d rule together – a father and a son.

The influence of his mother, the all-powerful and authoritative

great nun Martha started to diminish.

She was dismissed from the state affairs and was seeing her son

less and less often. The Tsar was in his twenties now.

The people were informed accordingly…

At God’s will the Great Ruler Tsar Mikhail Feodorovitch

is an adult man now. It is time for the Tsar to wed himself…

Mother Martha found a fianc?e for him.

However, Mikhail made a decision without her.

Long ago, during his exile he fell in love with Masha Khlopova,

a daughter of one of his overseers.

He promised to marry only her.

Maria Khlopova was officially announced the Tsar’s fiancee

and settled in the higher chambers of the palace.

The Saltykov brothers who were the Tsar mother’s relatives

were appointed her bodyguards. However right before the wedding

the fiancee fell ill. The Tsar was terribly worried.

The palace was brewing. The Saltykovs called a council

of foreign doctors and announced solemnly:

“The doctors examined her and said that a great disease

is eating her alive. It’s impossible to cure her”.

People were whispering: “The Tsar mother must be

doing something. She doesn’t want him to marry Khlopova”.

No matter how it was, poor Masha Khlopova and her relatives

were exiled to Siberia. Later an inquest with cross-examination

showed that the Saltykovs were to blame.

They were exiled to their family estates for that.

However, the wedding was already disrupted. For a long time

Mikhail didn’t even want to listen about marrying.

Only when he turned 28 his relatives started to worry.

Without an heir, the existence of the new dynasty was dubious.