"Mild and meek". The first tsar from the House of Romanov illustrated in the Presidential Library’s materials

March 3, 1613 the history of the House of Romanov, which tragically ended in a difficult for Russia time (a revolutionary one), began during the Time of Troubles difficult for Rus’.

After hunger, devastation, anarchy, popular unrest and foreign invasions and conquests “on Sunday of the first week of Lent in the Grand Kremlin Palace the last meeting of the electoral council, which elected Mikhail Romanov the Tsar of Moscow", was held. A crowd of Muscovites and a crowd of people from other cities who screamed the same name was announced about this election on Red Square". This is reflected in P. G. Vasenko’s book The Beginning of the House of Romanov, available on the Presidential Library’s portal.

The newly elected monarch was only 16 years old, and it is not surprising that, in anticipation of a possible rejection, the Zemsky Sobor sent an embassy to him, which, according to P. G. Vasenko, was supposed to "act on the young sovereign and his mother". The difficult situation of the state, the doubt in their abilities prevented Mikhail from immediately making a decision, but nevertheless, after the continuous requests of the envoys, he and his mother, Ksenia (in the monasticism of Martha) Ivanovna, agreed.

Here is what happened in Russia at the beginning of the XVII century: “... other regions were almost empty, and in others - residents, ravaged by terrible requisitions against both the sovereign and the commanding people, hid in the forests, abandoned their crafts and indulged in robbery... In addition, the terrible joined famine, from which over the first three years of the 17th century, according to contemporaries, up to 400 tons of people died. And at the same time, the denunciations, this terrible ulcer of society, reached such proportions that relatives and friends were afraid to talk to each other, and no one could be sure that he went to bed at home in the evening, he calmly slept until morning and that at midnight they will not be seized from bed and God will not take the news to where”. Such a terrible situation was described by I. D. Belyaev in The Position of Russian Society during the Reign of Mikhail Feodorovich, a book available on the Presidential Library’s portal.

The external position of Russia was also difficult. An unprofitable Treaty of Stolbovo was concluded with Sweden in 1617, the Commonwealth remained a strong adversary, whose tsar did not recognize the accession of Mikhaill. It was also necessary to reflect the raids of the Crimean Khan.

It is impossible to unequivocally evaluate the results of the reign of Mikhail Feodorovich. "Mild and meek", according to contemporaries, Mikhail admitted that in the early years, power belonged to his mother and her relatives, and from 1619 to 1633 his father, Patriarch Filaret, a tough and resolute politician, who actually returned from Polish captivity, ruled the country.

However, even in these times, and even more so later, the tsar did much to strengthen and prosper the country. Voivodship was introduced to centralize power, and a state monopoly on many goods was introduced to boost the economy. The creation of a regular army began, and not only from Russian volunteers. According to historians, almost all classes supported the sovereign's endeavors, and he was loved by the people.

Mikhail was married twice. The first wife chosen by his mother, Princess Dolgorukaya, died shortly after the wedding. The second was Evdokia Lukyanovna Streshneva. She gave birth to seven daughters and three sons, but only three daughters and one son survived - the future Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.

Mikhail Feodorovich always had poor health, and the deaths of children finally undermined him. Mikhail Romanov died in 1645, having lived 49 years and ruled for 32 years.

In 1818, S. N. Glinka in his work Russian History. Part 6. From the election of Mikhail Feodorovich Romanov to the monarchy of Peter the First, that is, from 1613 to 1689, available on the Presidential Library’s portal, described Mikhail Feodorovich’s reign: "Upon accession to the throne, Mikhail vigilantly tried to restore the devastated Russia. Although he could not conclude a profitable peace with either Sweden or Poland, he firmly abided by the treaties and gave his subjects possible reassurance because of the circumstances”.