The Last Tsar – Crowned in Glory, Lost to Revolution

The text below is the excerpt of the book The Last Tsar (ISBN: 9781644617953), written by Larissa Yermilova, published by Parkstone International.

A new form of government was established at the beginning of Tsar Mikhail’s reign. This was effected by the Zemsky Sobor, which was convened by elected representatives from all over Russia. During the reign of Tsar Mikhail, this assembly worked in close collaboration with the royal power and did alot to foster patriotic feelings in the country.

Patriarch Philaret was largely responsible for the successes scored by Russia in internal and external policies under Tsar Mikhail. The chronicle reports: “A peace was concluded with the Poles, and also with Sweden who agreed to return Novgorod and Ladoga; an earth rampart was built to defend the borders of Russia from raids launched from the Crimean Steppe, and towns were built along it. In 1637, the Don Cossacks captured Azov, a delegation was sent for the first time to China, peace was established with the Turks and the Persians, and embassies exchanged… The devas-tated Moscow was restored and improved.” Tsar Mikhail ruled for 32 years, and died on July 13, 1645, at the age of fortynine. He was interred in the Archangel Cathedral in Moscow.

Immediately after his demise, on the morning of July 13, 1645, Moscow pledged allegiance to his son Alexei Mikhailovich (he was to rule until 1676). The young man accepted tsardom with his father’s blessing. The coronation was celebrated with great splendor.

Alexei Mikhailovich, the “meek tsar”, was a well-educated man who had a good knowledge of the Church and lay literature of his time. He also possessed a literary gift. His letters and decrees were written in a lively and imaginative language. His extensive reading of ecclesiastical writings caused him to develop a profound piousness. The tsar prayed alot, observed fasts and knew all the church statutes by heart. Yet it was his reign that witnessed a schism in the Orthodox Church and a conflict between the tsar and the patriarch. These developments in the religious life of the country marked an important change in the relationship between Church and State.

A view began to spread in Russian ecclesiastical circles and in the royal palace itself that amendments needed to be introduced into the Russian liturgical books and rituals to correct errors which had crept into them in the early years of Christianity in Russia, and to make them conform to the Greek practices.

Patriarch Nikon undertook the work of correcting the liturgy and introducing other necessary reforms with the approval of the tsar. But his reforms met with violent opposition on the part of the lower clergy and the common people, who regarded these changes as the loss of national traditions and heretical concessions to the Catholics and Lutherans. Many were adamant in resisting the innovations and remained true to the Old Russian religious practices. The most fanatical of the upholders of the Old Faith was archpriest Avvakum, who suffered sorely for his convictions. Questions of faith became burning issues in the life of Russia.

Persecution of the opponents of reform was launched. The most intractable of them, such as Boyarina Morozova and Princess Urusova, were tortured and confined to prison; the monk Avraamy was executed in Moscow; the uprising in the Solovetsky Monastery was ruthlessly put down. Archpriest Avvakum was burnt alive. The Old Believers retaliated to these reprisals by mass self-immolation.

Patriarch Nikon insisted that the spiritual power was superior to the temporal one and that the Patriarch was subject to no earthly authority. He also denied the divine right of kings. The tsar’s patience exhausted, he broke with Nikon and the Church Assembly held in 1666 – 1667, and deposed the Patriarch who had become notorious as the persecutor of ancient piety. Nikon was exiled to a monastery. The authority of the Patriarch was thus undermined, and the ground was prepared for the abolition of the patriarchate in Russia, which was brought about by Alexei Mikhailovich’s son Peter the Great. The Old Believers opposed this annexation of the power of church administration by the tsar, they formed communities in which they lived according to the old religious precepts.

Under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Russia laid claim to Western and Southern Russian territories. In the mid l7th century, Muscovy advocated the unification of all Slav lands under the Russian crown. In 1649, the Ukrainian Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky started negotiations for the “acceptance of Little Russia under Moscow’s protection”, the Ukrainians having blood and religious kinship with the Russian people. In 1653, the Zemsky Sobor in Moscow took the relevant decision. But to implement it, Russia had to wage a war against Poland for possession of Ukraine. At the same time, it had to fight Sweden over the Baltic lands. Of course, Russia could not hope to win two wars at once and, in the end, had to cede Lithuania and Byelorussia to Poland and relinquish its claims to the Baltic seaboard. The lands of Novgorod and Pskov also remained under Swedish authority. A compromise was reached as regards to the Ukraine. The right bank of the Dnieper (Western Ukraine) remained subject to Poland, while Eastern Ukraine, on the left bank of the Dnieper, with the capital city of Kiev, was reunited with Russia.

Here is what a chronicler wrote about the tempestuous internal and external events that befell Russia during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich: “During his reign, the Don Cossack Stenka Razin went on a rampage on the Volga and in the Caspian Sea. He seized Astrakhan and other cities and laid them waste. He burnt down the sea-going ships, which had been built in Astrakhan, including the largest of them named ‘Orel’. In the end he was captured and incarcerated in Moscow. Twice the Crimean Khan raided Russia, but if he won victory during the first campaign, in the second, the Crimeans were completely routed.”

(To be continue)

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Furthermore, you can watch the documentary “The Last Czars” on Netflix. This is a six-part English-language docudrama that premiered on Netflix on July 3, 2019. The series follows the reign of Nicholas II, the last emperor of Russia’s Romanov Dynasty, from his accession to the throne in 1894 to his execution along with the Romanov family in 1918.