On 17 February 1598 an unusual event happened in Russian history: instead of inheritance, the zar was elected by the national assembly. As Boris Godunov, the newly elected zar, did not have any relationship with the royal family, the Russian noblemen and the people were reluctant to accept him on the throne. We still do not know how he could manage to get into power; it is common belief that he committed terrible crimes in order to achieve his aim, among which the main one is the suspected murder of the prevoius zar's son, Dimitry.
Everyone was astonished when, in the fifth year of Boris's reign, a young monk turned up saying that he was Dimitry, alive, and wanted to acceed to the throne. The most chaotic times of Russian history started with his appearance. Civil wars, bloody political battles for the throne were going on in Russia. After Boris's death seven false Dimitries announced their desire to acceed to the throne, and the people had to put up with four zars during these wars.
No wonder that the people were more and more stoic and disillusioned when they saw the new zars getting into power.

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Alexander Pushkin only partly realized his plan of writing a tragedy, entitled Boris Godunov, about some memorable events of the Russian national history. He did write Boris Godunov, but instead of being a great, national tragedy, it became a witty, exciting and surprisingly modern play: its irony does not let us cry for any of the characters. Its focus, on the one hand, is the techniques of the games for power, an on the other hand the relationship between the lords, full of lust for power, and the people, tired of always having to be pliant.