Alexey Mikhailovich “Silent” was fruitful - he had 16 children from two marriages. An interesting fact is that none of the nine daughters got married, and the boys born in their first marriage with Miloslavskaya were very painful. The only one of them, Ivan V, being struck by all diseases (from scurvy to paralysis), he reached 27 years. He became the father of five girls, one of whom - Anna - ruled Russia for 10 years.
Who to whom
Ivan's elder brother, Fedor Alekseevich, lived to be a full 20 years old, of which he was king for 6 years - from 1676 to 1682. In his first marriage, a son, Ilya, was born, who died with his mother immediately after childbirth. There were no heirs left, so the throne was inherited by younger brothers - Ivan and sibling Peter, whose mother was Naryshkina. He became the great ruler of Russia.
Young but determined king
Fedor Alekseevich himself received the throne passing to his eldest son after two of his older brothers died - Dmitry (in infancy) and Alex (at the age of 16).
The king-father declared him heir in 1675, and a year later he became king. Fedor Alekseevich had a very long title, because Russia was not yet a single state, and all the principalities and khanates under its jurisdiction were listed.
The king was young. Naturally, there was no end to those who wanted to get into mentors. True, many ended up "voluntary" and not very exiled. The stepmother of Naryshkin was exiled to Preobrazhenskoye together with Peter. Maybe fortunately? After all, the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment hails from those events. By the middle of 1676, AS Matveev, his father-in-law, the first Russian “Westerner,” who had until then almost unlimited power in the country, was sent into exile.
Natural talent and a wonderful teacher
Fedor Alekseevich was a creative person - he composed verses, owned musical instruments and sang pretty well, knew about painting. According to contemporaries, in his dying delirium he read from the memory of Ovid. Not all monarchs, dying, remember the classics. The person was clearly extraordinary.
Fedor was lucky with the teacher. Simeon Polotsky, a Belarusian by birth, writer and theologian, a major public figure in Russia, was engaged in his training. As a mentor to the tsar’s children, he did not leave public and literary activities — he founded a printing house in Moscow, opened a school, wrote poems and plays, treatises and poems. Fedor Alekseevich, under his guidance, translated and rhymed some psalms from the Psalter. Fedor Alekseevich Romanov was well educated, knew Polish, Greek and Latin. Specially for him, the secretaries, under the leadership of Simeon of Polotsk, prepared a peculiar review of international events.
Historical injustice
Due to the fact that his rule was short-lived (not enough months before the 6-year term) and pale between the bright significant periods (the reign of his father, Alexei Mikhailovich “Silent”, and brother of Peter the Great), Fedor Alekseevich Romanov himself remained a little-known sovereign . And representatives of the dynasty do not really brag about them. Although he possessed both intelligence, and will, and talents. He could be a great reformer and converter, the author of the first Russian perestroika. And he became a forgotten king.
At the beginning of his reign, all power was concentrated in the hands of the Miloslavsky and their entourage. Fedor III had the will, and yet he was a teenager in order to move them into the shadows, as well as to bring people who were not very noble, but smart, active, enterprising - I. M. Yazykov and V. V. Golitsyn.
Reformer King
The reign of Fedor Alekseevich is marked by significant transformations.
Born in 1661, already in 1678, he orders the beginning of the census and introduces a court tax, as a result of which the treasury begins to replenish. The strengthening of the state through the tightening of serfdom was facilitated by the abolition of the father’s decree on the non-issuance of runaway peasants, provided they were enlisted. These were only the first steps. The board of Fedor Alekseevich laid the foundation for some reforms adopted by Peter I. So, in 1681, a number of events were held that formed the basis and allowed Peter to carry out the Provincial Reform, and in the last year of his life, Fedor III prepared a project, based on which the Peter's “Rank Tables” were created.
The first man of this name in the Romanov family was Fedor Koshka, one of the direct ancestors of the dynasty. The second was Patriarch Filaret (Fedor Nikitich Romanov). The third was Tsar Fedor Alekseevich Romanov - an unusual, strong and unjustly forgotten person. In addition to the most serious hereditary diseases, he suffered from an injury - at the age of 13 he was moved during the winter holidays by sleds, on which sisters rode. There were times like this: during childbirth, mothers died with their newborns, scurvy was impossible to heal (it took the form of a plague), there were no fastening belts in the royal sleigh. It turns out that the person was doomed to early death and the inability to complete the transformation begun. As a result, they forgot about him, and fame went to others.
All in the name of the country
The domestic policy of Fedor Alekseevich was aimed at the good of the state, and he sought to improve the existing situation without cruelty and despotism.
He transformed the Duma, increasing the number of its representatives to 99 people (instead of 66). The king entrusted them with the primary responsibility in making government decisions. And it was he, and not Peter I, who began to give way to people who were obscure, but educated and active, able to serve the good of the country. He destroyed the system of providing public posts, directly dependent on the nobility of origin. The system of localism ceased to exist in 1682 right at the meeting of the Zemsky Sobor. To prevent this law from remaining only on paper, Fedor III ordered the destruction of all discharge books in which the receipt of posts by gender was legalized. This was the last year of his life, the king was only 20 years old.
Broad reorganization of the state
The policy of Fedor Alekseevich was aimed at mitigating, if not eliminating, the cruelty of criminal prosecution and punishment. He abolished the chopping off of hands for theft.
Is it not a surprise to pass a law against luxury? Before his death, he decided to establish the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. At the same time, a spiritual school was to open. What is most surprising, Fedor Alekseevich is the first to invite teachers from abroad. Even beards began to shave and shorten hair under Tsar Fedor.
The tax system and the army were being transformed. Taxes became reasonable, and the population began to pay them more or less regularly, replenishing the treasury. And, most surprisingly, he curtailed the rights of the church, significantly limited its interference in secular and state affairs, and began the process of eliminating the patriarchate. You read and marvel at it, because all this was attributed to Peter! Obviously, in spite of all the intrigues of the royal court, he loved his elder brother, was able to appreciate the reforms and transformations he had begun and to complete them with dignity.
Building reform
The policy of Fyodor Alekseevich Romanov encompassed all national economic sectors. Active construction of churches and public institutions was carried out, new estates appeared, borders were strengthened, gardens were broken. Hands reached the sewer system of the Kremlin.
Special words deserve homes designed by his order, many of which exist now. Fedor Alekseevich managed to almost completely rebuild wooden Moscow into stone. He provided Muscovites with
interest-free loans for the construction of model chambers. Moscow was transformed before our eyes. Thousands of houses were erected, thus solving the housing problem of the capital. For some it was irritating, the king was accused of squandering the treasury. Nevertheless, Russia under Fedor turned into a major power, and her heart, Red Square, became the face of the country. His environment was no less surprising - enterprising, well-educated natives of noble families worked alongside him for the glory of Russia. And here Peter went in his footsteps.
Foreign policy successes
The internal reorganization of the state was supplemented by the foreign policy of Fyodor Alekseevich. He already tried to return our country access to the Baltic Sea. The Bakhchisaray peace treaty in 1681 annexed Left-Bank Ukraine to Russia. In exchange for three cities, Kiev became part of Russia as early as 1678. A new southern post appeared near the city of Raisins, so most of the fertile land was annexed to Russia - about 30 thousand square kilometers, and new estates granted to the nobles who served in the army formed on it. And it paid off completely - Russia won over the Turkish army superior in number and equipment.
Under Fedor Alekseevich, and not under Peter, the foundations of a regular army were laid, which was being formed according to a completely new principle. The Lefortovsky and Butyrsky regiments were created, which later did not betray Peter at the Battle of Narva.
Glaring injustice
Inexplicably the silence of the merits of this king, because with him, literacy in Russia has tripled. In the capital - at five. Documents indicate that it was under Fyodor Alekseevich Romanov that poetry flourished, under him, and not under Lomonosov, the first odes began to be composed. It is impossible to count what this young king managed to do. Now many are talking about the triumph of historical justice. It would be good, when restored, to pay tribute to this king, not at the level of essays, but to perpetuate his name on the pages of history textbooks so that everyone from childhood would know what a wonderful ruler it was.