WEBVTT - Will the Real Tsar Dmitri Please Stand Up? (Part 1) 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:04.600 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:12.400 and Mild from Aaron Manky listener discretion advised, as legend 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:17.720 has it, Shortly after dawn on May seventeenth, sixteen o six, 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:22.479 Sar Dmitri crouched on a window ledge outside his palace 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:27.040 in Moscow. This was not part of the Russian Emperor's 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:31.800 typical morning routine and was definitely not an activity that 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:35.360 he and his new bride, who was hiding inside in 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:39.440 an adjacent room, would have had on their ideal post 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:46.240 wedding itinerary. But times were desperate. There were assassins closing in, 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:52.640 so Sar Dmitri gazed down from his window perch. The 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:57.840 drop was substantial, but over in the direction of Red Square. 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:03.320 Loyal citizens were street onto the Kremlin grounds. If Dmitri 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:08.520 could leap to the next building, his supportive subjects would 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:12.280 surely be able to arrive in time to protect him 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:17.200 from the horde of coordinated assassins who had surrounded his 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:21.360 bedchambers and were about to break in at any moment. 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:26.920 The next few seconds would prove vital for Czar Dmitri's 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:30.399 life and reign, as well as for the entire course 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:34.920 of early modern Russian history. He prepared to make his 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:41.000 daring leap, But unfortunately for Dmitri, like so many aspects 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:44.440 of the period of political turmoil that would become known 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:49.840 as the Time of Troubles, Dmitri's plan took an almost 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:55.600 comically dire turn. Dmitri slipped and plummeted to the ground, 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:59.480 breaking his leg in the process. He was soon at 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:03.200 the mercy of his enemies, and that's where things got 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:07.800 even more peculiar. In the heat of a violent coup, 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:12.320 plenty of rulers find themselves in the tense and awkward 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:16.560 position of needing to beg for their lives. But even 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:21.720 within that pantheon of impassioned please, the back and forth 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:26.160 that Czar Dmitri had with his particular group of would 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:31.000 be assassins stands out because a good portion of his 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:36.720 pleading supposedly focused on him trying to convince them that 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:41.080 he was in fact who he claimed to be. He 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:45.000 begged his captors to bring him to his people. They'd 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:49.920 embrace him as Czar Dmitri, their rightful leader, or they 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:53.520 could go ask his mother. She'd certainly vouch for him 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:56.680 that he was her son. And the heir of former 0:02:56.840 --> 0:03:01.560 Zar Ivan, why not even pray those of ardent faith 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:06.320 would receive confirmation from God that he Dmitri, had been 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:12.359 divinely chosen to rule. With the larger crowd fast approaching, however, 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:16.920 the assassins chose not to waste time praying and to 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:23.120 avoid any further delay by shooting, hacking, and bludgeoning their target, 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:26.800 who may or may not have been the rightful Czar Dmitri, 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:33.360 to death. But Dmitri's story was far from over. Whoever 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:38.440 he truly was, that young emperor who literally fell from 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:43.920 power kicked off quite a trend. Many more so called 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:49.640 false Dmitries would eventually come forward, all claiming to be 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:56.600 the one, the only, the original Czar Dmitri. I'm Danish 0:03:56.640 --> 0:04:04.960 forts and this is noble blood. Unlike other famous characters 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:10.720 who probably never existed, such as your King Arthur's or Odysseus's, 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:13.800 there is evidence that at least at the start of 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:18.520 this heightened tale, there was a real person named Dmitri 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:24.000 Ivanovitch who had a hereditary link to the Russian monarchy. 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:28.640 In fifteen eighty two, Tsarevich, or son of the Tsar Dmitri, 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:33.960 was born to Tsar Ivan Vassilovitch, commonly known to the 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:39.279 modern world as Ivan the Terrible, and his sixth wife, Maria. 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:45.159 Relatively few details seem to be known about Dmitri's earliest years, 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:49.640 especially since many accounts of this period focused more on 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:54.040 the royal succession plan, of which the young Tsarevich was 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:59.320 not initially a featured contender. According to some, Dmitri was 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:04.360 not even a fully legitimate Tsarvich. His parentage was not 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:10.159 necessarily in doubt, but per Russian Orthodox law, the offspring 0:05:10.240 --> 0:05:15.640 of a man's fourth marriage was typically deemed to be illegitimate, 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:20.839 so the child of a sixth marriage pretty far down 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:27.919 the potential inheritance standings. After Ivan died, his oldest living 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:32.799 son became czar. The new power dynamic was complicated, however, 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:37.880 because Ivan's heir purportedly possessed what might be classified today 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:44.359 as significant neurodivergence or learning disabilities. Ivan had foreseen his 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:47.760 oldest son struggling to rule on his own, and he 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:52.200 appointed a council of regents to help run Russia behind 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:57.240 the scenes. What could go wrong right? An ambitious member 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:02.240 of that council named Boris Godunov soon relished his newfound 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:06.040 influence so much that he didn't see why he should 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:11.680 stop at being mere regent with a sidelined, ineffectual tsar 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:17.839 Boris envisioned taking the throne for himself. This path meant 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:23.760 weeding out all likely future challengers, so Boris pushed the 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:29.240 illegitimate Tsarevich narrative while also exiling Dmitri, along with his 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:33.400 mother and numerous members of their family, to the far 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:40.400 off principality of Uglik. Unfortunately, few memorable personal details about 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:45.640 Dmitri's upbringing appear to have survived. Sources recount that his 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:51.600 grandfather and several relatives, having not taken their banishment very amicably, 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:57.360 plotted to topple Boris. It is highly unlikely that young 0:06:57.480 --> 0:07:01.760 Dmitri meaningfully participated in any of that planning, given that 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:04.440 he would have been under the age of eight, but 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:09.880 it is probable that on some level, his family's desired 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:17.960 retribution triggered his tragic demise. In May of fifteen ninety one, 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:24.480 young Dmitri reportedly died in Uglik. His family members were incensed, 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:29.560 certain that the event was a covert murder orchestrated by 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:35.800 Boris as retaliation for their opposition to his governmental control, 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:40.120 and their argument may very well have been valid. As 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:46.280 the circumstances of young Dmitri's death were dubious. Boris sent 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:51.520 an official delegation led by a zealous prince named Vasily 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:55.640 Schiski who will become integral later on, so remember that name, 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:59.920 to investigate the death. But given the conflicts of an 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:03.640 interests involved, it seemed like less an act of proper 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:08.120 due diligence and more like let's say, an oil company 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:11.000 sending a team to check if they were at fault 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:15.480 for an oil spill. Sure enough, the commission ruled that 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:20.800 Dmitri's death was accidental, reporting he had suffered a seizure 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:23.840 at the exact time that he had been playing with 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:27.880 a knife, which had led him to inadvertently cut his 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:37.359 own throat. A possible explanation, sure plausible, you be the judge. Nevertheless, 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:41.280 despite being sad and a little suspicious, more than a 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:47.280 little suspicious, the death of a debatably legitimate tsarvich did 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:50.880 not initially seem to cause that much of a stir 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:56.479 in larger Russian society. After all, in those days, individuals 0:08:56.559 --> 0:09:01.640 in line for the throne frequently died in odd accidental 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:07.120 ways years before. Zar Ivan himself had even been said 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:11.880 to have accidentally killed his own eldest son at the time, 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:16.719 which we actually covered in the fittingly titled Ivan the 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:21.920 Terrible and his Oldest Son episode. In general, to many 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:27.319 Russians outside of Moscow, news of Dmitri's passing was likely 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:33.400 met with fairly mild reactions, ranging from who to well 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:39.440 these things happen. Flash forward to sixteen o two. Boris 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:45.240 had successfully become Tzar by out maneuvering and dispatching all 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:49.880 of Ivan the Terrible's remaining descendants, or at least he 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:54.760 thought he was rid of the lineage. Rumblings began that 0:09:55.040 --> 0:10:01.320 young Dmitri Ivanovitch had miraculously survived the attempt to kill 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:05.199 him as a boy. After a few months, a man 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:09.040 finally came forth in Poland Lithuania in sixteen o three 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:14.400 and declared that he was, in fact Dmitri, the rightful 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:18.200 claimant to the throne. It was quite the assertion then 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:23.360 and even now. Historians continue to debate the origins of 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:29.280 this mysterious figure. The most widespread theory at the time 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:35.160 was that this Dmitri impostor was originally a monk named 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:40.880 Gregory Otrepev, who had been defrocked for dabbling in dark sorcery. 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:46.480 Sar Boris tried to push that idea to undermine his challenger, 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:52.240 and for centuries that presumption prevailed, largely due to how 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:58.840 the political climate under subsequent regimes dissuaded historians from questioning 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:04.360 that theory. However, modern scholars, less fearful of Russian Tsars 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:09.400 threatening their lives and freedoms, have pretty persuasively shown that 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:15.160 this adult Tsarevich Dmitri impostor could not have been Otripev. 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:20.079 Another key theory is that the pretender was someone raised 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:27.079 to believe he truly was Dmitri. Contemporary witnesses marveled at 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:31.359 how convincing he was, believing that not even a talented 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:37.240 actor could so seamlessly inhabit the role. The proposed timeline 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:42.320 is critical here, since producing a Dmitri who so wholeheartedly 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:46.560 bought into his backstory would have meant in doctrinating him 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:51.600 at a very young age. Considering the contentious rift between 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:57.560 Dmitri's family and Boris Godunov, it's not unthinkable that after 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:03.040 the murder of actual Dmitri as a child, his calculating 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:08.800 relatives had the foresight to immediately start training a replacement 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:12.760 Dmitri to have ready to go when the opportunity arose. 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:18.160 There's a third main theory as to who the pretender 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:24.640 or false Dmitri was the real Dmitri. This notion was 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:28.080 laughed off by many historians over the years, but there 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:33.920 is actually a bit of evidence to possibly bolster that argument. Specifically, 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:38.160 there were many suspicious details involved in the aftermath of 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:43.640 Dmitri's young death. For example, there was a highly irregular 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:49.239 four day delay in bearing his body. The investigative commission 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:54.360 apparently could not confirm that the body was Dmitri, and 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:57.720 a few sources at the time declared outright that the 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:02.440 real Dmitri had been swapped for a different boy before 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:07.280 the alleged murder took place. Dmitri's godfather, at one point 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:11.680 even apparently swore on a cross that the man claiming 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:15.800 to be Dmitri was his true godson, who he'd been 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:21.640 hiding from Boris since the assassination ordeal. But again in 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:27.200 terms of conflicts of interest, Dmitri's close relative insisting that 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:30.840 he had outwitted the man he'd been trying to overthrow 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:34.440 for a quarter of a century is not exactly the 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:41.240 most reliable testimony. Whatever his true identity, this adult Tsarevich 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:46.079 Dmitri was soon making waves, and he amassed an impressive 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:51.160 army to take the throne as Russia's reputedly rightful and 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:56.360 if overlooking the Church's debatable fine print on sons of 0:13:56.480 --> 0:14:03.920 sixth marriages, wholly knew ruler naturally, at this point you 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:07.280 might be wondering how this adult Dmitri was able to 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:12.079 sow effectively hoodwink people, or if he was the real deal, 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:17.520 how he managed to convince everyone of that. Looks mattered little, 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:21.320 since few knew or remembered what Dmitri looked like as 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:25.480 a boy. This adult version was apparently not the most 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:29.640 striking or handsome. He was of middling height and had 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:33.720 a distinctive wart by his nose, but he won people 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:38.440 over with his demeanor. As a supposedly twenty two year 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:42.440 old man, this Dmitri was a skilled horse rider, a 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:49.840 brave warrior, smart, and very eloquent. In short, he was popular. Still, 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:54.480 launching a full scale rebellion was not as simple as 0:14:54.720 --> 0:15:00.120 trotting around on horseback and making charismatic speeches. Many elements 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:03.960 were involved in winning support from both the Russian people 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:09.680 and the nobility. One massive tragic factor that greatly aided 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:14.400 this Dimitri's case among the people was starvation. One of 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:19.080 the worst famines in Russian history arrived in sixteen o two, 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:24.880 and it was so devastating that contemporary reports estimate that 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:29.479 it ultimately killed roughly one third of the total population. 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:35.040 To czar Boris's credit, he desperately tried to help his 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:40.520 subjects by distributing food and money, but the situation was 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:46.160 so extreme and corruption so rampant that the crisis snowballed, 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:52.240 and with unceasing hunger, disease, and death being overwhelming obstacles 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:59.040 to nuanced reflections on macroeconomics, many surviving citizens predominantly blamed 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:03.480 their leader for the horrific state of things. Thus, when 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:09.800 this new Tsarevich Dmitri emerged, many disgruntled Cossacks, soldiers, merchants, 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:16.520 and townsfolks quickly backed him. Religion was another crucial factor 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:22.600 that helped Dmitri. Throughout the sixteenth century, the major players 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:26.400 at the Kremlin had strived to fortify their standing by 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:31.360 sacrilizing the monarchy. Essentially, the goal was to assure the 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:35.680 Russian Orthodox masses that it was not worth bothering to 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:40.600 question Azar's right to rule, since God handed down that right. 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:45.240 This effectively laid the groundwork for Dmitri in the sense 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:49.440 that his apparent evasion of the assassination attempt against him 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:52.440 when he was a child fit with a story that 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:56.680 he was divinely selected. It was easy enough to even 0:16:56.880 --> 0:17:02.520 promote parallels between his grand reas appearance and Christ himself 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:09.040 rising from the grave. Plenty of Lord's influential families and 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:14.600 exiled boyars, members of the highest ranking nobility, also harbored 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:19.879 ample animosity toward tsar Boris, and so they joined the 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:25.120 Tsarevich Dmitri's cause, hoping to sway the political scene back 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:29.680 in their favor. Dmitri's own mother, Maria, had been stripped 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:33.280 of her privileges and forced to go live in cramped 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:38.200 confinement as a nun. So when the plucky supposed Tsavich 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:42.439 arrived with his growing army and promised to bring his 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:46.520 mother back to Moscow and restore her to status if 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:50.000 she confirmed that he was in fact her son, it 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:53.199 likely didn't take her long to declare something along the 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:58.399 lines of yep, definitely this guy is my son everyone. Meanwhile, 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:03.400 in Moscow, Tsar Boris grew increasingly paranoid about the man 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:08.600 leading a military campaign through the country against him. Thus, 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:13.600 in citing the first civil war in early modern Russian history, 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:19.040 harsh punishments awaited anyone deemed to be a supporter of 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:24.919 the impostor Dmitri. Boris tried to counter his rival's popularity 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:29.200 by continuing to espouse the idea that this impostor was 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:33.679 the disgraced monk Otrapev, who was disgraced since he was 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:37.919 clearly debauched and evil. However, it should be noted that 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:42.680 accusing a political foe of being a wicked heretic was 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:46.119 pretty standard practice in those days, and in this case 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:51.240 it does not appear to have significantly helped zar Boris's cause. 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:55.879 Far less helpful to his cause was an illness that 0:18:56.119 --> 0:19:01.840 killed him before Tsarevich Dmitri even reached Moscow. So faced 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:06.520 with a magnetic young warrior prince leading a sizeable army 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:10.400 toward them, the noble classes at the Kremlin were suddenly 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:15.440 also offered a relatively easy choice over whether to acknowledge 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:20.440 this Dmitri's legitimacy or call him out as a sacrilegious poser, 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:26.280 to loosely paraphrase their general response, Hi, the long lost Dmitri, 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:29.840 welcome back. We are your loyal supporters and we always 0:19:29.880 --> 0:19:36.439 thought so. Dmitri air Quotes was crowned on July twenty first, 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:41.400 sixteen oh five. Historians would later refer to him by 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:45.880 names such as false Dmitri, the first, the pretender Dmitri, 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:50.399 and the quote first false Dmitri. But for now, since 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:54.600 he did undeniably attain the title of Czar, I think 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:59.160 we can simply call him Czar Dmitri. But after riding 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:03.040 Russia's f first Civil War to the highest seat of power, 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:09.160 did he actually have a plan for ruling. It's tricky 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:13.439 to get a complete sense of Czar Dmitri's short reign, 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:19.520 since his successor ordered numerous court documents be destroyed, and 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:24.600 he vigorously tried to discredit his predecessor through an intense 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:30.399 propaganda campaign. Nonetheless, in spite of being frequently labeled a 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:36.760 conniving impostor or evil runaway monk, perhaps the biggest shock 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:41.640 of all is that, gasp, this Dmitri may have been 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:47.480 a deserving and effective monarch. Many of his contemporaries, including 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:53.280 some avowed enemies agreed that he possessed many outstanding qualities. 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:58.560 He was apparently well educated, adept at state craft, and 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:04.440 highly resourced and wise. Czar Dmitri was also an ambitious 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:10.400 military leader who sought to greatly improve Russia's army. Unlike 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:15.040 countless other rulers who eschewed the nitty gritty of battle 0:21:15.040 --> 0:21:19.360 preparation in favor of lounging around and bragging about the 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:25.000 size of their conquered territories, Dmitri enjoyed immense popularity with 0:21:25.080 --> 0:21:29.359 his soldiers because he actually trained with them. Fun fact, 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:32.679 he was also the first Russian czar to use the 0:21:32.680 --> 0:21:37.200 title of emperor, so yeah, he was feeling himself a little. 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:41.600 But still, many biographers point out how, rather than fully 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:47.040 descending into egomania once he gained power, Zar Dmitri actually 0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:52.080 apparently tried to use his platform to improve Russia's government. 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:58.240 For example, he ushered in more progressive laws, promoted plans 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:02.840 to further education and scientific research, and even tried to 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:07.400 cut down on bribery of public officials. That last one 0:22:07.560 --> 0:22:10.800 may sound basic to the point of obvious, but it 0:22:10.880 --> 0:22:16.280 was a decidedly rare stance for seventeenth century Russia. Former 0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:21.080 czars were extremely reliant on their private police forces to 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:25.920 terrorize enemies and extort peasants, so the idea of even 0:22:25.960 --> 0:22:30.200 proclaiming that someone would want to limit corruption, much less 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:35.080 taking any relevant action, would have been likely laughable to them. 0:22:35.280 --> 0:22:39.320 Dmitri was no old school czar, and he went a 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:44.679 step further to try to ensure timely justice for average citizens. 0:22:45.080 --> 0:22:48.760 He allowed them to come and petition him in person 0:22:48.960 --> 0:22:52.600 twice a week. Imposter or not, you have to give 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:58.399 the guy credit for his dedication. Dmitri's different ruling style 0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:02.560 started to rub a few at court the wrong way. However. 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:08.840 He reportedly cut back on traditional ceremonies and dressed in informal, 0:23:09.040 --> 0:23:15.280 quote Western ways. He supposedly scorned certain entitled or uneducated, 0:23:15.400 --> 0:23:20.480 high born lords. Dmitri also flummixed many of his nobles 0:23:20.520 --> 0:23:25.560 by essentially being a bit too chummy. Many nobles were 0:23:25.680 --> 0:23:29.600 used to living in fear of provoking vitriol and retribution, 0:23:30.200 --> 0:23:34.639 and they were apparently confused as to why Dmitri sometimes 0:23:34.760 --> 0:23:39.240 seemed to want to hear them talk without first threatening 0:23:39.280 --> 0:23:44.640 them or commanding them to do so. Perhaps far more consequentially, 0:23:45.200 --> 0:23:51.400 Dmitri was unusually welcoming of foreign intellectuals, and he did 0:23:51.400 --> 0:23:57.160 not follow many of the same religious rights as former czars. Supposedly, 0:23:57.240 --> 0:24:01.400 he was reluctant to spend hours in every day he 0:24:01.600 --> 0:24:05.879 ate food seen as unclean by the Russian Orthodox Church, 0:24:06.240 --> 0:24:11.000 and he was relatively tolerant of Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. 0:24:12.000 --> 0:24:16.199 The friction between Czar Dmitri and some members of the 0:24:16.240 --> 0:24:20.639 aristocracy all came to a head with his planned marriage 0:24:21.240 --> 0:24:26.199 Marina Mnishek, was a Polish Catholic princess, daughter of the 0:24:26.240 --> 0:24:32.399 commander who had led Dmitri's forces during his rebellious military campaign. 0:24:32.920 --> 0:24:37.040 Many higher ups in the Russian Church eventually signed off 0:24:37.119 --> 0:24:41.280 on the marriage agreement, but there were fanatical holdouts who 0:24:41.320 --> 0:24:45.320 saw this as proof of a plan to secretly convert 0:24:45.560 --> 0:24:51.400 Russia to Catholicism. While there is essentially no convincing evidence 0:24:51.440 --> 0:24:55.959 that a religious overhaul was ever Zar Dmitri's goal, his 0:24:56.280 --> 0:25:01.639 plan to marry Marina gave his usurper the ammunition and 0:25:01.840 --> 0:25:08.439 opportunity they needed. His primary usurper would be Vasily Shuisky, who, 0:25:08.480 --> 0:25:12.880 if you'll recall, was the power hungry prince who happened 0:25:12.880 --> 0:25:17.160 to be the man who once oversaw the dodgy investigation 0:25:17.760 --> 0:25:21.800 into the death of Dmitri the child back when he 0:25:21.880 --> 0:25:25.639 was eight years old. In an ironic turn of fate, 0:25:26.119 --> 0:25:30.760 all these years later, Vasily's ascension to the throne hinged 0:25:30.840 --> 0:25:36.000 on him covertly gaining enough allies to oversee a deadly 0:25:36.200 --> 0:25:43.399 coup of Dmitri the grown man. Despite some of the 0:25:43.520 --> 0:25:49.080 initial wariness regarding Czar Dmitri marrying a Polish Catholic woman, 0:25:49.560 --> 0:25:53.639 Russians living in the capitol were still clearly suckers for 0:25:53.760 --> 0:25:59.040 a big, glamorous royal wedding. Marina was reportedly given a 0:25:59.160 --> 0:26:04.040 warm public welcome in Moscow on May second, sixteen o six, 0:26:04.560 --> 0:26:08.320 and over the course of two celebratory weeks there there 0:26:08.320 --> 0:26:13.320 were grand processions, Lavish festivities, and on the wedding day itself, 0:26:13.840 --> 0:26:19.480 huge crowds who gave the bride enthusiastic ovations. However, cross 0:26:19.640 --> 0:26:26.320 cultural tensions also ratcheted up between certain resident Russian factions 0:26:26.359 --> 0:26:32.200 and incoming Polish wedding guests. Behind the scenes, Vasily sought 0:26:32.359 --> 0:26:36.800 to maximize this chaos by fanning the flames of xenophobia. 0:26:37.400 --> 0:26:41.120 While it is again difficult to separate the truth from 0:26:41.240 --> 0:26:47.400 rumors that he perpetuated. There were multiple reports of thefts, vandalism, 0:26:47.760 --> 0:26:50.920 and even the alleged murder of a Russian by a 0:26:50.960 --> 0:26:56.119 Polish visitor. But rather than put his assassination plan into 0:26:56.160 --> 0:27:00.560 action as fights spilled onto the streets when Ri and 0:27:00.640 --> 0:27:07.639 his security forces were on highest alert, Prince Vasily waited. Finally, cunningly, 0:27:08.200 --> 0:27:12.480 Vasly struck at a time when Dmitri was most vulnerable, 0:27:12.800 --> 0:27:17.680 the direct aftermath of all the wedding celebrations. By then, 0:27:17.920 --> 0:27:21.600 Dmitri was feeling confident that most of the discord and 0:27:21.680 --> 0:27:26.040 danger had passed, so seemingly, ever, striving to be a 0:27:26.119 --> 0:27:30.720 thoughtful boss, he told half his guard to stand down 0:27:30.960 --> 0:27:36.280 to rest. In the wee hours of May seventeenth, sixteen six, 0:27:36.800 --> 0:27:43.240 Vasily snuck his amassed group of over two hundred armed horsemen, merchants, clerics, 0:27:43.240 --> 0:27:47.560 and relatives into the Kremlin. At the same time, he 0:27:47.720 --> 0:27:51.840 played up the idea around Moscow that the Polish were attacking, 0:27:52.200 --> 0:27:56.840 so that angered crowds would storm the gates and inadvertently 0:27:57.040 --> 0:28:03.000 block reinforcements from coming to Czar Dmitri's aid. Dmitri still 0:28:03.080 --> 0:28:06.719 had enough time to retreat through his chambers and try 0:28:06.760 --> 0:28:10.639 to leap out the window to safety. But we now 0:28:10.680 --> 0:28:15.080 know how that turned out. Even for an athletic guy 0:28:15.160 --> 0:28:20.840 who loved military training exercises, he likely never practiced specific 0:28:21.000 --> 0:28:26.840 window escapes. After he fell and unsuccessfully tried to reason 0:28:26.960 --> 0:28:30.439 with his attackers, who clearly did not buy into his 0:28:30.560 --> 0:28:36.679 identity and overall hype, he was murdered. Thus ended the 0:28:36.720 --> 0:28:40.480 life of an enigmatic figure who had ruled for a 0:28:40.480 --> 0:28:44.200 little under a year, been married for a little over 0:28:44.320 --> 0:28:48.680 a week, had played a starring role in Russia's first 0:28:48.840 --> 0:28:54.160 Civil War, and ostensibly became the only czar to take 0:28:54.200 --> 0:29:00.040 over the throne thanks to popular uprisings and a military campaign. 0:29:00.160 --> 0:29:04.280 It's worth taking a moment here to recognize just how 0:29:04.400 --> 0:29:10.080 influential this young man's unprecedented reign potentially was, even though 0:29:10.080 --> 0:29:14.000 it was so brief. From Zar Dmitri's legal reforms to 0:29:14.080 --> 0:29:20.080 his incentives that improved many citizens' livelihoods, to his military innovations, 0:29:20.560 --> 0:29:25.680 Zar Dmitri demonstrably backed up his purported goal of governing 0:29:25.760 --> 0:29:29.720 as a fair minded emperor rather than a ruthless tyrant. 0:29:30.480 --> 0:29:34.160 Historian Richard Helley went so far as to call Zar 0:29:34.240 --> 0:29:39.280 Dmitri quote one of the few really enlightened rulers Russia 0:29:39.360 --> 0:29:43.680 has ever had. Several scholars have even argued that Czar 0:29:43.760 --> 0:29:49.040 Dmitri's short but productive rule made him a clear forerunner 0:29:49.280 --> 0:29:53.320 to Peter the Great. The flip side of his legacy 0:29:53.520 --> 0:29:56.880 is that while he was a potential role model for 0:29:56.960 --> 0:30:01.640 future czars, Dmitri also served as a an excellent proof 0:30:01.720 --> 0:30:08.680 of concept for subsequent royal pretenders. Following Czar Dmitri's assassination, 0:30:09.280 --> 0:30:14.479 Vasily immediately began fretting over his victim's legendary popularity and 0:30:14.840 --> 0:30:20.600 hold on Russia's collective imagination. He ordered that Dmitri's body 0:30:20.960 --> 0:30:24.880 be dragged through the street in a horrific manner to 0:30:25.000 --> 0:30:29.560 show everyone that he was not some divinely selected monarch 0:30:29.960 --> 0:30:33.800 and that he was very clearly dead. But if there 0:30:33.880 --> 0:30:37.600 was one thing that Vasily had not prepared for in 0:30:37.720 --> 0:30:40.880 all of his scheming, it was having to deal with 0:30:40.960 --> 0:30:45.920 a czar who would not remain dead, a czar whose 0:30:46.040 --> 0:30:50.320 ghost would insist on haunting him throughout the rest of 0:30:50.360 --> 0:30:55.840 his life. Really, this oversight was silly, a Vasily, having 0:30:56.120 --> 0:31:00.840 led the investigation of Dmitri's murder back when Dmitri was 0:31:00.880 --> 0:31:04.800 a child, Vasily knew as well as anyone that this 0:31:05.000 --> 0:31:09.000 wasn't the first time that Dmitri had quote unquote died 0:31:09.320 --> 0:31:13.880 and returned from beyond the grave. The last time Dmitri 0:31:14.040 --> 0:31:18.760 had been murdered, Ham had accidentally slit his own throat 0:31:19.160 --> 0:31:24.400 as an unsupervised knife wielding caeizure prone child. It took 0:31:24.520 --> 0:31:28.760 over a decade for rumors to start spreading that Dmitri 0:31:28.920 --> 0:31:34.960 had miraculously survived this time, though whispers that Dmitri Ivanovitch 0:31:35.240 --> 0:31:40.320 had somehow, yet again cheated death would begin circulating within 0:31:40.360 --> 0:31:46.680 a matter of days. That's the first part of the 0:31:46.920 --> 0:31:51.960 wild and duplicitous story of the false Dmitris. But stick 0:31:52.040 --> 0:31:55.960 around after a brief sponsor break to hear about another 0:31:56.200 --> 0:32:00.320 key slip up that helped to seal Csar Dmitri's fate. 0:32:06.360 --> 0:32:10.600 The intriguing duality of Zar Dmitri was such that some 0:32:10.680 --> 0:32:14.160 of the same traits that won him favor, like his 0:32:14.320 --> 0:32:19.280 thoughtful approach to doling out justice, also directly contributed to 0:32:19.360 --> 0:32:23.360 his own downfall. Specifically, this was the case with an 0:32:23.400 --> 0:32:28.000 early assassination attempt on the Czar's life. The assassination attempt 0:32:28.120 --> 0:32:31.400 was easily sniffed out right after Zar Dmitri took over 0:32:31.480 --> 0:32:36.840 in Moscow, and guess who was behind it? One Vasily Schwisky. 0:32:37.720 --> 0:32:41.160 That's right, good old Vasily tried to pull off a 0:32:41.240 --> 0:32:45.400 murderous plan with his two brothers, but this time early on, 0:32:45.800 --> 0:32:49.360 he was caught and put on trial in what basically 0:32:49.440 --> 0:32:52.680 played out like a riveting Time of Troubles era episode 0:32:52.680 --> 0:32:57.400 of Law and Order. Zar Dmitri himself acted as prosecutor. 0:32:57.920 --> 0:33:02.200 He reportedly wowed the crowd with his eloquent argument against 0:33:02.280 --> 0:33:07.360 Vasily's family history of traitorous behavior, and Vasily was sentenced 0:33:07.520 --> 0:33:12.280 to death several days later in Red Square. However, Dmitri 0:33:12.480 --> 0:33:17.840 allegedly halted Vasily's execution at the last second, in a 0:33:17.960 --> 0:33:24.920 dramatic reversal likely intended to foster unity. Dmitri mercifully exiled 0:33:25.080 --> 0:33:29.240 Vasily to a far off town where we know now. 0:33:29.360 --> 0:33:33.720