Editing Feodor III of Russia (section)

==Life==
Born in [[Moscow]], Fyodor, as the eldest surviving son of [[Alexis I of Russia|Tsar Alexis]] and [[Maria Miloslavskaya]], succeeded his father on the throne in 1676 at the age of fifteen. He had a fine intellect and a noble disposition; he had received an excellent education at the hands of [[Simeon Polotsky]], the most learned Slavonic monk of the day. He knew [[Polish language|Polish]] and even possessed the unusual accomplishment of [[Latin]].{{cn|date=January 2019}} He had been disabled from birth, however, horribly disfigured and half paralysed by a mysterious disease, supposedly [[scurvy]].{{sfn|Bain|1911|p=765}} He spent most of his time with young nobles, {{ill|Ivan Maksimovich Yazykov|ru|Языков, Иван Максимович}} and {{ill|Aleksei Timofeievich Likhachov|ru|Лихачёв, Алексей Тимофеевич}}.

On 28 July 1680 he married a noblewoman, [[Agafiya Semyonovna Grushetskaya |Agaphia Simeonovna Grushevskaya]] (1663–1681), daughter of Simeon Feodorovich Grushevsky and of his wife Maria Ivanovna Zaborovskaya, and assumed the sceptre. His native energy, though crippled, was not crushed by his disabilities. He soon showed himself as a thorough and devoted reformer. The atmosphere of the court ceased to be oppressive, the light of a new [[liberalism]] shone, and the severity of the penal laws was considerably mitigated.{{cn|date=January 2019}} The Tsar founded [[Slavic Greek Latin Academy|the academy of sciences]] in the [[Zaikonospassky monastery]], where competent professors were to teach everything not expressly forbidden by the [[Russian Orthodox Church| Orthodox church]] – the syllabus included [[Church Slavonic language|Slavonic]], [[Greek language |Greek]], [[Latin]] and [[Polish language |Polish]].{{sfn|Bain|1911|p=765}}

The Feodorean and the later [[Government reform of Peter the Great|Petrine reforms]] differed in that while the former were primarily, though not exclusively, for the benefit of the church, the latter were primarily for the benefit of the state. A household census took place in 1678.<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Moon
 | first1 = David
 | author-link1 = David Moon (historian)
 | year = 1999
 | chapter = 1: Population
 | title = The Russian Peasantry 1600–1930: The World the Peasants Made
 | url =  https://books.google.com/books?id=eeQJBAAAQBAJ
 | edition = revised
 | location = London
 | publisher = Routledge
 | publication-date = 2014
 | page = 20
 | isbn = 9781317895190
 | access-date = 2019-01-27
 | quote = The main sources for the population of the Russian state in the two centuries or so before 1897 are the ten poll tax censuses or revisions (''revizii'') held between 1719-21 and 1857-58 and the household tax census of 1678.
}}
</ref> The most notable reform of Feodor III, made at the suggestion of [[Vasily Galitzine]], involved the abolition in 1682 of the system of ''mestnichestvo'', or [[mestnichestvo| "place priority"]], which had paralyzed the whole civil and military administration of [[Tsardom of Russia|Muscovy]] for generations. Henceforth all appointments to the civil and military services were to be determined by merit and by the will of the sovereign,{{sfn|Bain|1911|pp=765–766}} while pedigree (nobility) books were to be destroyed.