Russian Time of Troubles Approaches

1584

The death of Ivan the Terrible left Russia under his pious and simple-minded son Fyodor, with the boyar Boris Godunov emerging as de facto regent. Within two decades the Rurikid dynasty would die out, and Russia would sink into the famines, pretenders, and invasions of the Time of Troubles. The mysterious death of Tsarevich Dmitry spawned pretenders claiming to be the dead prince, plunging Russia into civil war.