About the author

Daniel H. Shubin

Daniel H. Shubin has translated and authored several books dealing with Russian biography, history, philosophy and religion, including a 4-volume History of Russian Christianity (published with Algora). Shubin has traveled extensively throughout Russia, studying the various sectarian movements.In writing these histories and biographies, the author has relied on primary Russian-language works, especially, where appropriate, the medieval chronicles and the classic works of Russian historians.

Tsars and Imposters: Russia’s Time of Troubles

Name: Tsars and Imposters: Russia's Time of Troubles
Price: 22.95 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Daniel H. Shubin
ISBN: 9780875866871

Price range: $22.95 through $32.95

Boris Godunov governed from the shadows during the 13-year reign of the borderline-retarded Tsar Feodor Ivanovich, heir to Tsar Ivan IV, and then for almost seven years in his own name.

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Categories: Biography, History: InternationalAuthor: Daniel H. Shubin SKU: tsars-and-imposters-russia-s-time-of-troubles Categories: Biography, History: International Tags: 17th century Russian politics, Boris Godunov history, Eastern European history, False Dmitri pretender, Ivan the Terrible aftermath, medieval Russian history, Mikhail Romanov coronation, Moscow occupation history, Polish invasion of Russia, power struggles in tsarist Russia, pretenders to the throne, Romanov dynasty beginnings, Rurik dynasty collapse, Russia political chaos, Russian civil war 1600s, Russian famine history, Russian history books, Russian history in English, Russian patriarchate origins, Russian tsars and imposters, siege of Smolensk, Time of Troubles Russia, tsar feodor ivanovich, Tsarevich Dmitri murder, Vasili Shuisky Author: Daniel H. Shubin

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Incomparable villains and heroes surge through the history of medieval Russia. Ivan IV may have been dubbed the Terrible, but when he died, the Rurik dynasty that had ruled Russia for centuries came to an end. And what followed was far worse. This volume is the history of Russia's struggle through a period of weak rulers, false pretendants to the throne, foreign invasions and civil strife. Even the weather was disastrous, and famine was inevitable. War, butchery and betrayals ensued until the Romanov Dynasty took control. This is an original translation from classic Russian sources.

About the Book

Boris Godunov governed from the shadows during the 13-year reign of the borderline-retarded Tsar Feodor Ivanovich, heir to Tsar Ivan IV, and then for almost seven years in his own name. But by then the brutal death of the 9-year-old Tsarevich Dmitri Ivanovich by Godunov's henchmen, and the effects of his Oprichniki "security forces" on Russian society, had taken their toll. In the absence of a clear line of succession, false princes were put forward by rivals, including the Poles, and proponents of these "False Dmitris" and other contenders only fanned the flames. This was an era when "Get thee to the nunnery!" was a light sentence; enemies who were not forced to retire from the worldly life were brutally tortured and removed from the world altogether.Add to that the political machinations entailed in the creation of the Russian Patriarchate and Job, Russia's first patriarch, entirely indebted to the Crown. This 'Time of Troubles' wound to a close only after a new and lasting dynasty was established under Mikhail Romanov.This is an original translation from classic Russian sources, principally Karamzin, Kostomarov, Skrynnikov, Solovyov, Tatishchev.

About the Book

Russia's "Time of Troubles" — the chaotic thirty years between the death of Ivan the Terrible in 1584 and the crowning of Mikhail Romanov in 1613 — was arguably the most catastrophic period in Russian history, and Daniel H. Shubin's account makes a compelling case for why it still matters. When Ivan IV died, the ancient Rurik dynasty effectively died with him, leaving a power vacuum that ambitious men rushed to fill, with devastating results for ordinary Russians.

At the center of the story is Boris Godunov, who spent years pulling strings behind the throne of the weak Tsar Feodor Ivanovich before seizing power in his own right. Godunov was ruthless — his agents are widely believed to have murdered the nine-year-old Tsarevich Dmitri Ivanovich, the last legitimate heir — but he could not hold Russia together. A catastrophic famine, a reign of terror, and a succession crisis opened the door to a parade of impostors known as the False Dmitris, figures backed by Polish forces and rival Russian factions who plunged the country into civil war. At one point, a Polish army occupied Moscow itself.

Shubin draws on major Russian-language histories by Karamzin and Kostomarov, making this scholarship genuinely accessible to English-speaking readers. The book covers everything from the political maneuvering behind the creation of the Russian Patriarchate to the sieges of Smolensk and Troitse-Sergieva. It is a story full of betrayal, torture, foreign invasion, and unlikely survival — medieval Russian history at its most gripping.

Additional information

Weight	N/A
Book Type	Ebook, ePub, Hard cover, Soft cover
Pages	234
Release Year	2009
LC Classification	DK111.S513
Dewey code	947'.045–dc22
BISAC I	HIS032000 HISTORY / Europe / Russia & the Former Soviet Union
BISAC II	HIS037010 HISTORY / Medieval