Editing Boris Godunov (section)

==Reign==
[[File:Tsar Boris Fyodorovich Godunov - miniature.jpg|thumb|Tsar Boris in a 1630 miniature]]
{{Citation needed span|text=Upon the death of the childless Feodor on 7 January 1598, as well as the rumored assassination of Feodor's much younger brother [[Dmitry of Uglich|Dimitry]], supposedly ordered by Boris himself in order to guarantee his seat on the throne, self-preservation as much as ambition led to Boris's rise to power. Had he not done so, the mildest treatment he could have hoped for would have been lifelong seclusion in a monastery. His election was proposed by [[Patriarch Job of Moscow]], who believed that Boris was the only man who was able to cope with the difficulties of the situation. Boris, however, would only accept the throne from the [[Zemsky Sobor]] (national assembly), which met on 17 February and unanimously elected him on 21 February. On 1 September, he was solemnly crowned [[tsar]].|date=December 2024}}

[[File:Усыпальница_Годуновыхъ.jpeg|thumb|Godunov Mausoleum in front of the Cathedral of the Assumption at the [[Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius]]]]

During the first years of his reign, he was both popular and prosperous, and ruled well. He recognized the need for Russia to catch up with the intellectual progress of the West and he did his best to bring about educational and social reforms. He was the first tsar to import foreign teachers on a large scale, the first tsar to send young Russians to be educated abroad, and the first tsar to allow [[Lutheran]] churches to be built in Russia. After the [[Russo–Swedish War (1590–1595)]], he attempted to gain access to the [[Baltic Sea]] and he also attempted to obtain [[Livonia]] by diplomatic means. He cultivated friendly relations with the Scandinavians and hoped to take a bride from a foreign royal house, thereby increasing the dignity of his own dynasty.<ref name=EB1911/> However he declined the [[personal union]] proposed to him in 1600 by the [[diplomatic mission]] led by [[Lew Sapieha]] from the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]].{{citation needed|date=September 2018}}
[[File:Portrait of Boris Godunov.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Boris Godunov, 17th century]]

Boris died after a lengthy illness and a stroke on 13/23 April 1605.{{sfn|Bain|1911}}<!--not verified; coipied here due to paragraph split--> Shortly before the death  he was initiated into monasticism and accepted the [[monastic name]] [[Bogolep]].<ref>Анна Феликсовна Литвина, Федор Борисович Успенский , [https://publications.hse.ru/mirror/pubs/share/direct/415192237.pdf  Подлинные и мнимые имена Бориса Годунова ] (The True and Fake Names of Boris Godunov), {{doi|10.31168/2305-6754.2020.9.1.7}}</ref>

He left one son, [[Feodor II of Russia|Feodor II]], who succeeded him but only ruled Russia for less than a month, until he and Boris's widow were murdered by the enemies of the Godunovs in Moscow on 10/20 June 1605.{{sfn|Bain|1911}} Boris's first son, Ivan, was born in 1587 and died in 1588. His daughter, [[Tsarevna Xenia Borisovna of Russia|Xenia]], was born in 1582. She was engaged to [[John, Prince of Schleswig-Holstein|Johann of Schleswig-Holstein]], but he died shortly before their planned wedding in October 1602. Xenia was given the name "Olga" upon being forced to take monastic vows at the [[Goritsky Monastery (Goritsy)|Voskresensky Monastery]] in [[Beloozero]] and her name is inscribed as "the Nun Olga Borisovna" at the crypt of the Godunovs at the [[Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra|Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius]] where she lived from 1606, when she sojourned there to attend the reburial of her father, until her death in 1622.<ref name="Xenia">{{cite book | last=Pushkareva | first=Natalia | title = Women in Russian History: From the Tenth to the Twentieth Century (New Russian History) | publisher=M. E. Sharpe, Inc. | year = 1997 | page = 319 | isbn = 1563247984}}</ref> Boris, his wife, and their children are buried together in a mausoleum near the entrance of the Assumption Cathedral at Trinity–St. Sergius Lavra.