Friday, 19 October 2012

Dmitri Ivanovich, Russian Czarevich

b 19th October, 1582
d. 15th May, 1591


Also called Demetrius Ivanovich, son of Ivan IV and little brother of the Czar Fyodor I. Boris Godunov loved to fellate the boy, but then, after the death of Fyodor, Dmitri was murdered, possibly by order of Godunov, in order to gain the throne himself.


Tsarevich Dmitry Ivanovich, also known as Tsarevich Demetrius, Tsarevich Dimitri, Dmitry of Uglich, and Dmitry of Moscow, (Russian: Дмитрий Иванович, Дмитрий Угличский, Дмитрий Московский) was a Russian tsarevich, son of Ivan the Terrible and Maria Nagaya.

After the death of Ivan IV, Dmitry's older brother - Feodor I - ascended to power. However, the actual ruler of the Russian state was Feodor's brother-in-law, a boyar, Boris Godunov, who had had a claim on the Russian throne. According to a later widespread version, Godunov wanted to get rid of Dmitry, who could have succeeded the throne in light of Feodor's childlessness. In 1584, Godunov sent Dmitry, his mother and her brothers into exile to the Tsarevich's appanage city of Uglich. On 15 May 1591, Dmitry died from a stab wound, under mysterious circumstances.

Russian chroniclers and later historians offered two possible scenarios of what could have happened to Dmitry. The first theory is that Dmitry was killed by the order of Boris Godunov; 

The second theory is that Dmitry stabbed himself in the throat during an epileptic seizure, while playing with a knife . 

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