Boris Godunov

One of the most significant works of Russian literature

“Boris Godunov”—an historical drama about the Time of Troubles—and the main Russian historical drama in general. Relying on Shakespeare and Karamzin, Pushkin blends languages and styles, uncovering a deep psychological problematic in Russian history.

Russia, the turn of the 16th–17th centuries. After six years of Boris Godunov’s rule, turmoil ripens in the country: a impostor appears—fugitive monk Grigory Otrepyev—who claims to be the son of Ivan the Terrible, Tsarevich Dmitry, killed on Boris’s orders. Supported by the Poles, the impostor marches on Moscow. Boris dies; the boyars, having killed the queen and the heir, proclaim the impostor as the new tsar. The meaning of Pushkin’s tragedy lies not only, and not so much, in transferring real historical events onto the stage, but in posing—using historical material—universal, “eternal” questions: political (is usurpation of power permissible?), moral (can one do good after committing evil once?), and psychological (what is the price of repentance for what has been done?).