Latest / The Romanov Dynasty: Rise, Power, and Bloody End — Fexingo History / The Election of Mikhail Romanov: A Dynasty Born from Chaos
Transcript
- Lucas: So we have talked a lot about the later Romanovs—Nicholas, the revolutions, the wars. But the dynasty did not start with Peter or Catherine. It started in the middle of a national catastrophe. After the death of Ivan the Terrible's son Fyodor, the Rurikid dynasty died out, and Russia plunged into what they call the Time of Troubles—Smutnoye Vremya. For fifteen years, the country was torn apart by famine, civil war, foreign invasion, and pretenders claiming the throne. Luna: That is the period with the False Dmitrys, right? Lucas: Exactly. There were three False Dmitrys—men who claimed to be the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, who had actually died in a mysterious accident. The first False Dmitry actually managed to become tsar for a few months in 1605, but he was killed. Then came a Polish-backed second False Dmitry, and then a third. Meanwhile, the Polish king Sigismund III decided to invade directly. By 1610, Moscow was occupied by Polish troops, and there was no legitimate tsar. Luna: So who finally put an end to it? Lucas: The salvation came from an unlikely source—a butcher from Nizhny Novgorod named Kuzma Minin and a prince named Dmitry Pozharsky. Minin raised a volunteer army, the Second Volunteer Army, and Pozharsky led it. In October 1612, after a long siege, they expelled the Polish garrison from the Kremlin. That set the stage for the election of a new tsar. Luna: And they chose a sixteen-year-old boy living in exile. Lucas: Exactly. That boy was Mikhail Romanov. He was the great-nephew of Ivan the Terrible's first wife, Anastasia Romanovna. His father, Fyodor Romanov—later known as Patriarch Filaret—had been a powerful boyar, but the Godunovs had forced him into a monastery. Mikhail and his mother Martha were living in the Ipatiev Monastery near Kostroma when the Zemsky Sobor, the assembly of the land, elected him tsar in February 1613. Luna: So the dynasty began in a monastery. That is a powerful image. Lucas: It is a pretty remarkable start. And it is conversations like these that keep history alive. We are able to do this ad-free thanks to listeners who support us on buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Even a small contribution helps us keep the research deep and the storytelling unbroken. Luna: Yeah, it is a small way to give back to a show that gives so much. Lucas: Now, the envoys from the Zemsky Sobor had a hard time convincing Mikhail to accept. His mother Martha was terrified—she had already lost her husband to the Godunovs, and she knew the dangers of being tsar. She reportedly said, 'The throne is surrounded by troubles and dangers.' But the envoys insisted, and finally Mikhail agreed. Luna: What were his first steps as tsar? Lucas: His first task was to restore order. The country was devastated—cities burned, the economy in ruins, and the treasury empty. He faced threats from Sweden in the north and Poland in the west. In 1617, he signed the Treaty of Stolbovo with Sweden, giving up access to the Baltic but securing peace. Then in 1618, the Truce of Deulino with Poland gave Russia a respite, though it meant losing Smolensk for a time. Luna: And his father Filaret eventually returned from Polish captivity, right? Lucas: Yes. Filaret was released in 1619, and he was made Patriarch of Moscow. He essentially co-ruled with his son, handling foreign policy and church affairs. Filaret was a strong figure, and under his guidance, the government stabilized. They reorganized the army, rebuilt the economy, and slowly restored the authority of the tsar. Luna: So the dynasty really got its footing under Filaret's regency. Lucas: Exactly. Michael's reign was not glamorous—it was a time of recovery. But it laid the foundation for the autocracy that later Romanovs would expand. When Michael died in 1645, he left a country that was stable, if still impoverished. His son Alexis, the next tsar, would go on to consolidate power even further. Luna: It is strange to think that this fragile beginning led to three hundred years of rule. Lucas: It is. The Romanovs began in a monastery, barely wanting the throne, and ended in a basement in Ekaterinburg. That arc—from reluctant acceptance to brutal murder—is what makes their story so compelling. For a sixteen-year-old boy in 1613, the future was anything but certain. Yet that moment of decision changed the course of Russian history.