Fedor III Alekseevich

Fedor Alekseevich, declared heir to the heir after the death of his older brother Alexei , was very weak and painful, like all the sons of Alexei Mikhailovich from Maria Miloslavskaya. Researchers claim that Fedor suffered scurvy . A symptom of this disease was the swelling of the legs that the king suffered ^{[1] [2]} . He entered the royal throne in 15 years.

One of his teachers was an educated monk from the Commonwealth Simeon of Polotsk , who inculcated in him a penchant for everything Polish. The king spoke fluent Polish . Some researchers suggest that he knew Latin . Fedor Alekseevich was interested in European politics. At meetings of the Boyar Duma, he and the boyars were read in the Western press reviews (chimes) compiled in the Ambassadorial Order ^[4] . He was fond of music and singing. By the wedding of Tsar Fedor Alekseevich and Agafya Grushetskaya, Simeon of Polotsk and the new courtier and disciple of Simeon, the monk Sylvester Medvedev , were singing the broadcast odes to this “great and joyful for the whole land of Russian triumph”.

In the first months of his reign, Fyodor Alekseevich was seriously ill, and the actual rulers of the state were A. S. Matveyev , Patriarch Joakim, and I. M. Miloslavsky . However, by the middle of 1676, the king took power into his own hands, after which Matveyev was sent into exile.

The short reign of Fyodor Alekseevich was marked by some important actions and reforms. In 1678, a general census of the population was carried out, and in 1679 household taxation was introduced with direct taxes , which increased taxation oppression. In military affairs, in 1682, paralyzing paralysis in the army was abolished, and in this connection bit books were burned. This put an end to the dangerous custom of the boyars and noblemen to reckon with the merits of their ancestors when they occupied the position; personal skills and length of service were the main criteria for promotion. To preserve the memory of ancestors, genealogical books were introduced. In order to centralize state administration, some related orders were consolidated under the direction of one person. Received a new development of the shelf foreign system ^[5] .

In the years 1676-1681, a war was waged against the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate allied with it, caused by the aggressive policy of Porta in Ukraine . In the world of Bakhchisaray, Turkey recognized the Left-Bank Ukraine and Kiev behind Russia.

Under the influence of the young tsar's favorites — the bedding of Ivan Yazykov and the steward of Alexei Likhachev — the court life changed significantly: young boyars began to shave their beards, at the court it was forbidden to appear in traditional okhabnyakh and odnoryadykh ^[6] . For the reasons outlined above, the West took the form of polonophilia: the court masters mastered Polish customs, began to wear kuntushi, cut hair in Polish and learn Polish. ^[7]

Being a well-educated man, in March 1681, Tsar Fedor Alekseevich became one of the founders of the Printing School at the Zaikonospassky Monastery , the forerunner of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy .

Repressions against the Old Believers continued, in particular, it was burned with the closest associates, Protopope Avvakum , according to legend, who predicted the imminent death of the king.

On the advice of his favorites, Yazykov and Likhachev, the king took as his wife on July 18, 1680 the daughter of a Smolensk nobleman , Agafya Grushetskaya . The only son of the king, heir to the throne, Ilya Fedorovich , was born on July 11, 1681 and died on the tenth day of his life. Queen Agatha died on the third day after giving birth, July 14, 1681.

The second marriage was concluded on February 15, 1682 with Marfa Matveyevna Apraksina , the sister of the future associate of Peter I, Admiral Fyodor Matveyevich Apraksin . Children from this marriage, which lasted a little more than two months, the king was not.

Fyodor Alekseevich died on April 27, 1682 at the age of 20 years, without making an order concerning the succession to the throne. Probably the cause of death was scurvy ^[8] . He was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin . The question of succession caused unrest resolved by the decision to marry two kings at the same time to the kingdom — the young brothers of Fyodor Ivan and Peter under the regency of their elder sister Sofia Alekseevna .

• Feodor Alekseevich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 t. (82 t. And 4 add.). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Bogdanov A.P. In the shadow of the Great Peter. - M., 1998.
• Bogdanov A.P. Fedor Alekseevich // Romanovs. Historical portraits: Book one. Mikhail Fedorovich - Peter III / Comp. A.N. Sakharov. —M .: ARMADA, 1997.
• Bogdanov A.P. Tsar-reformer Fedor Alekseevich Romanov (1676-1662). Peter's older brother. - M., 2005. - 696 p.
• Zamyslovsky E.E. The reign of Fedor Alekseevich. Part 1. Introduction. Browse sources. - M., 1871.
• Zamyslovsky E.E. Relations of Russia with Poland in the reign of Fyodor Alekseevich. - M., 1888.
• Korsakova V. Theodore Alekseevich // Russian biographical dictionary : in 25 volumes. - SPb. - M. , 1896-1918.
• Sedov P.V. Sunset of the Moscow kingdom, the royal court of the end of the XVII century. - SPb .: Petersburg Institute of History, publishing house "Dmitry Bulanin", 2006. - 604 p.
• Solov'ev S.M. History of Russia since ancient times. Volume 13, Chapter 2

• Yegor Luchishkin (child), Ivan Solovyov (adult) - “ Split ”, (2011)
• Konstantin Shelyagin - “The Romanovs . The film is the second "( 2013 ).

•   Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fedor Alekseevich
• Tsar Fedor Alekseevich. Verse "It is worthy to eat" (the only musical work of the king that has survived to our time) .