Grigory Otrepiev (in the world - Yuri Bogdanovich) - comes from a noble Lithuanian family Nelidov. According to numerous sources, it was he who was the first person who successfully posed as the murdered prince Dmitry Ivanovich - the son of Ivan the Terrible. He went down in history as False Dmitry the First.
Biography
Yuri was born in Galicia. His father died early, so he and his brother were raised by a widow mother. The child turned out to be very capable and quickly learned to read and write, so he was sent to Moscow to serve with Mikhail Romanov.
Here he rose to a high position, which almost ruined the ambitious young man during the repressions associated with the "Romanov circle". To save himself from execution, he was forced to get a haircut as a monk and received the name Gregory. Moving from one monastery to another, he eventually returned to the capital.
The appearance of False Dmitry
Here, according to the official version, he began to prepare for his future role, asking for details of the murder of the prince, studying the rules and etiquette of court life. After some time, the future False Dmitry made an unforgivable mistake - he mentioned that someday he would sit on the royal throne. This came to the king, and Gregory was forced to flee to Galich, Murom, and then to the Commonwealth. It was there that he first gave himself out for the miracle of the surviving Tsarevich Dmitry.
Becoming
In 1604, Grigory Otrepyev crossed the Russian border and began a military campaign against Boris Godunov, who took the throne after the death of Ivan the Terrible. Tsar Boris publicly declared that he was not the rightful heir to the throne, but a runaway monk. Gregory was declared anathema.
Then he started showing people another person, saying that it was Otrepyev, and the one who said that he was Dmitry was really him. Because of this, many people began to think that the prince is real. Soon after this, False Dmitry still officially sat on the throne and was recognized as the son of Ivan the Terrible.
A lot of contemporaries considered Otrepiev and Tsarevich Dmitry to be one person, but still there were those who noticed that the behavior of the tsar was more reminiscent of the Polish nobleman than the Russian nobleman.
In 1605, Tsar Boris died, the throne was freed. Grigory Otrepiev, taking advantage of the situation, gave the order to crack down on Fedor Godunov. In addition, the mother of Tsarevich Dmitry, Maria, staged admitted her son in Otrepyev. And then in July 19605, False Dmitry was crowned king.
The domestic policy of False Dmitry 1
The first actions of the new tsar were the return from exile of numerous princes and boyars, who were exiled by Boris and Fedor Godunov. Salaries were raised to civil servants , and land plots were increased to landowners. This was done through the confiscation of land and money from monasteries.
In the south, taxes were abolished, and in the rest of the country, increased. The composition of the Duma was changed: now representatives of the higher clergy were present in it as mandatory members, and the organ itself was henceforth called the Senate. Still new posts were taken, taken from Poland: swordsman, subordinates, podskarby.
Foreign policy
False Dmitry made entry and exit from the country unobstructed, internal movements were free. Visiting foreigners noted that there was no such freedom in any European state. Most historians agree that Grigory Otrepiev tried to carry out the Europeanization of the country.
He tried to gain the support of neighboring countries and recognition of himself as emperor through the conclusion of alliances with Poland, Italy, Germany and France, but everywhere he received a negative result due to the refusal to cede some lands and because of the negative attitude towards the Catholic faith.
Death
Gradually, discontent with the new tsar was growing in the people, because he began to build Catholic churches in Moscow, introduced "foreign buffoonery," and canceled the afternoon nap. In addition, he arranged a wedding with Marina Mnishek according to the Catholic rite. The Poles, who arrived in the capital for a long ceremony, began to break into a drunken state into the homes of wealthy citizens and rob them. This pushed the people to revolt, which was led by Vasily Shuisky. An event occurred on May 17, 1606.
First, Shuisky called on the people to save the tsar from the Poles, and then directed the crowd to the "evil heretic", who was trampling Russian customs. Taking advantage of the general turmoil, the conspirators stormed the palace in which False Dmitry was located and killed him. After his death, he was put in the middle of the market, where sand was strewed on his body and smeared with tar.
They buried the king in a "wretched house" intended for those who were frozen or drunk. But after a few days, his body itself was in another place. False Dmitry was considered a sorcerer, so several times they buried his corpse deeper and deeper, but the earth did not accept the impostor. Then the body was burned, the ash was mixed with gunpowder and shot from a rush in the direction of Poland.
Shuisky and the conspirators did not hide the fact that False Dmitry was seated on the throne with only one purpose - to remove Godunov from the throne. And then they got rid of the new king with the same ease with which they gave him short-lived power.