Tsars and Imposters

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 prop