Boris Godunov

Boris Godunov , c.1551-1605, czar of Russia (1598-1605). A favorite of Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible), he helped organize Ivan's social and administrative system. After Ivan's death (1584), Boris became virtual ruler of Russia, ostensibly as regent for Ivan's young son Feodor I, who was married to Boris's sister. Boris was popularly believed to have ordered the murder (1591) of Feodor's younger brother and heir, Dmitri , in order to secure the succession for himself. Upon Feodor's death (1598), an assembly of the ruling class chose Boris as czar. Under his rule the Russian church was recognized (1589) as an independent patriarchate, equal to other Eastern churches; peace was obtained with Poland and Sweden, and colonization of the southern steppes and W Siberia was spurred. Most important, Boris continued Ivan's policy of strengthening the power of state officials and townspeople at the expense of the boyars . Yet famine (1602-4) and popular distrust undermined his support, and when a pretender to the throne appeared claiming to be Feodor's brother Dmitri, many rallied to his support and he easily invaded Russia in 1604. Boris died, and his son, Feodor II , was unable to defend the throne against the false Dmitri. Boris's life is the subject of a drama by Pushkin that was the basis for Moussorgsky's famous opera.

Boris Godunov (c.1551–1605) Tsar of Russia (1598–1605). He began his career of court service under IVAN IV (THE TERRIBLE), became virtual ruler of Muscovy during the reign of his imbecile son Fyodor (1584–98) and engineered his own elevation to the Tsardom. He conducted a successful war against Sweden (1590–95), promoted foreign trade, and dealt ruthlessly with those BOYAR families which opposed him. In 1604 boyar animosity combined with popular dissatisfaction ushered in the ‘Time of Troubles’ - a confused eight-year dynastic and political crisis, Boris having died suddenly in 1605.

Boris Godunov. Opera in 4 acts, with prol., by Mussorgsky to his own lib. based on Pushkin's poetic drama, The Comedy of the Distress of the Muscovite State, of Tsar Boris, and of Grishka Otrepyev (1826) and Karamzin's History of the Russian Empire (1829). Orig. version comp. 1868–9, rev. 1871–2, rev. 1873, 3 scenes prod. St Petersburg 1873 and complete opera 1874, but withdrawn after 25 perfs. Cut, re-orchestrated, and rev. by Rimsky- Korsakov after Mussorgsky's death and thus prod. St Petersburg 1896. This version rev., with some cuts restored, 1906, prod. NY and London 1913. Orig. versions of 1869 and 1872 pubd. Leningrad 1928 in edn. prepared by Prof. Pavel Lamm of Moscow and perf. Leningrad 1928, London (SW) and Paris 1935. The 1869 version had 7 scenes which were altered and re-arranged and an extra (Kromy Forest) scene added. Musicological controversy rages on the ‘correct’ version to use, but there is a growing tendency to prefer the Mussorgsky orchestration. In 1975 David Lloyd-Jones pubd. an edn., for which he had the use of MS sources unknown to Lamm, which also corrects errors of detail and transcr. in Lamm. Vol. I of Lloyd-Jones contains Mussorgsky's 1872 version of prol. and 4 acts and Vol. II the 1869 version of Act 2, the discarded ‘St Basil’ scene, with variants and other scenes. A re-orch. version by Shostakovich exists (1939–40, prod. Leningrad 1959). Title-role inseparably assoc. with Chaliapin and Christoff.