Boris Godunov
Boris Fyodorovich Godunov (, c. 1551 – ) was a famous tsar (emperor) of Russia. He ruled as a regent from about 1585 to 1598 and then as tsar from 1598 to 1605. In many ways he was a good tsar, but he had not inherited the throne. He became more and more anxious that a pretender would come who would claim to be Dmitri, the son of the previous tsar, Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible) and try to get the throne. Dmitri had actually been murdered. The story of Boris Godunov is told in Pushkin’s play "Boris Godunov" and in Mussorgsky’s opera "Boris Godunov", but the story told by Pushkin and Mussorgsky is probably not exactly how it really happened. Both Pushkin and Mussorgsky had read a book on Russian history written by the court historian Karamzin, written in 1803. Karamzin describes Godunov as a powerful tsar who was also a weak human being, but he changed some historical facts to fit in with this theory.
Boris came from a boyar family (i.e. they belonged to the nobility). His parents were dead and he was brought up at the court of the Tsar in Moscow. The Tsar who ruled was Ivan IV, known as Ivan the Terrible who really was a very cruel ruler. He ruled for more than 50 years. Boris was very close to the royal family. One of the Tsar’s sons, Fyodor, who was not very intelligent. He married Irina, the sister of Boris. The Tsar killed his eldest son. When the Tsar died he had a son Dmitry who was only two years old. Dmitri was not allowed to become tsar, because he was the son of Ivan’s 7th marriage, and the rules of the Russian Orthodox Church were that no one should be allowed to marry more than three times (of course, no one had dared to try to stop Ivan from all those marriages). So Fyodor became Tsar Fyodor I. He was not bright enough to rule himself. We would probably say that he was mentally disabled, or that he had “learning difficulties”. Boris therefore became regent: he ruled for him. Some boyars were against Boris, but Boris somehow managed to silence them. In some ways Boris did a good job. He made Russia a safer place, fighting back the Tatars in the south and making strong contacts with Europe. He built towns and fortresses, made sure that Western Siberia was firmly under Moscow’s control, and made the head of the Muscovite Church a patriarch. In 1598 Fyodor died and Irina should have become Tsarina, but she refused and went to live in a convent. The boyars voted for Boris to become Tsar.
At first everything went well, but in 1601-1603 the harvest was bad and many poor people starved. The people became angry with the Tsar, because he had made very strict rules which took away the rights of the serfs (most of the poor people were serfs). There were still several royal families in Russia. They started to plot against Boris because they saw him as a threat to themselves. Boris got lots of spies to watch these families. He accused the families of treason and sent some of them to Siberia or to monasteries in the north or Russia. One of these families were the Romanovs who were later to produce a long line of tsars.
While this crisis was happening a young man called Grigory Otrepev arrived. He was a pretender. He said that he was Dmitry, Ivan’s youngest son who had been murdered in 1591. At the time people had said that it was an accident, caused by the boy’s epilepsy. But some people thought that Boris had murdered him (or ordered him to be murdered) so that he himself could become Tsar. The pretender said that he had actually escaped from the people who were trying to murder him. The pretender got lots of people on his side, including Poles and Cossacks. He marched towards Moscow. Boris’s armies tried to stop them, but then Boris died suddenly. Dmitri (as he called himself) was able to march into Moscow and (falsely) claim the throne.
A period of chaos followed in Russia with many deaths and changes of rulers. This lasted until Micael Romanov was chosen as Tsar in 1613.
It is now thought that the Romanov family made up evidence to make things looks as if Boris Godunov had been guilty of the murder of Ivan’s son. Karamzin, who later wrote a history of Russia, made it look as if it were true that Boris had murdered him. When Pushkin wrote his play "Boris Godunov" he followed Karamzin’s version of the story and this is also the story as told in Mussorgsky’s opera "Boris Godunov".
Iced tea
Iced tea (also known as ice tea) is cold tea (drink) usually served in a glass with ice.
Sometimes, sugar is added to iced tea. This is sometimes called "sweet tea". Sometimes, fruit flavors like lemon, peach, or raspberry are added to the tea.
Many kinds of iced tea can be bought in bottles or cans.
Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. He was an important American poet of the 19th century.
His most famous collection of poems is "Leaves of Grass", which was first published in 1855 with his own money. The work was an attempt at reaching out to the common person. Whitman kept adding to this book right up until he died of pneumonia, in 1892. It was controversial because readers thought it was obscene. It included some sexuality.
Whitman was either bisexual or homosexual. However, there is disagreement about whether Whitman had actual sexual experiences with men.
Whitman was deeply influenced by deism. He denied any one faith was more important than another, and embraced all religions equally.
Whitman first tried writing in many different popular genres. In 1850, he began writing "Leaves of Grass", a collection of poetry which he would continue working on until his death. Whitman wanted to write an epic that was clearly American, using free verse. At the end of June 1855, Whitman surprised his brothers with the first copies of "Leaves of Grass". His brother George "didn't think it worth reading".
Whitman paid for the publication of the first version of "Leaves of Grass" himself and had it printed at a local print shop. A total of 795 copies were printed. The first page was an image of Whitman, but he doesn't write his name until 500 lines into the body of the text. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a kind five-page letter to Whitman and praised the book to friends. The first edition of "Leaves of Grass" was very popular, but was some people didn't like the "obscene" or offensive parts of the poetry.
In the months after the first edition of "Leaves of Grass", people became more upset about the sexual themes. Because of this, the publisher almost did not release the second edition. In 1856, 20 new poems were added. Different versions of "Leaves of Grass" continued to be published throughout the rest of Whitman's life. Many famous writers like Amos Bronson Alcott and Henry David Thoreau liked the work enough to visit Whitman.
Boyar
A boyar was a member of the ruling nobility in medieval Russia and some other Slavic countries such as Bulgaria. The boyars held the most important jobs in the army. They met in a group called the duma and gave advice to the ruling prince or, in later times, the tsar. In the 13th and 14th centuries they were rich landowners who could advise the prince, but they were free to go and work for another prince if they wanted to.
In Moscow from the 15th to the 17th centuries they were a closely bonded aristocracy. There were about 200 boyar families. Their ancestors were former princes, or Moscow boyar families or foreign aristocrats. They were not nobility in the European sense. Many of them had bad manners and not many of them could read. They did not travel, and they were suspicious of anything foreign
In the 17th century they started to lose power. In the early 18th century Tsar Peter the Great abolished the title of boyar.
Pretender