The Secret of John's Son

Dying, Ivan the Terrible left the kingdom to his son Fyodor. Realizing the sickly son would not be able to hold the royal crown, he appointed powerful advisors at his side: Boris Godunov, Ivan Shuisky, Nikita Romanovich Yuryev, and Ivan Mstislavsky. To his other son, the two-year-old Dmitry, he assigned the rich city of Uglich and entrusted his favorite, Bogdan Belsky, with protecting the boy’s life. But the very night after Ioann’s death, minds began to waver—who to swear allegiance to? They talked about the frailties of the poor Fyodor and proposed kissing the cross to the minor Dmitry. This is how one of the hardest periods in the history of Rus began, leading to the end of the ruling dynasty of the Romanovs and the Time of Troubles.