1587 A company of Parisian merchants obtains trading privileges.
1590 War with Sweden.
1591 Dmitri, the younger brother of Feodor (Ivan’s son by his seventh wife), and the only obstacle to Godunov’s ambition, dies at Uglitch. The khan of Crimea makes one of his periodical raids against Moscow, but is repulsed with great slaughter.
1592 Godunov issues a ukase (edict) binding the peasant to the soil, thus reducing him to unmitigated serfdom. As a result, peasants emigrate in large numbers to the Cossacks in order to preserve their freedom.
1597 An edict is issued prescribing the most vigorous measures for the recovery of fugitive serfs.
1598 Death of Feodor, last of the Ruriks. Boris Godunov is elected to succeed him, first by the Council of Boyars (douma) and then by a General Assembly (Sobór).
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
1601 A terrible famine, accompanied by pestilence, devastates Russia. Boris causes immense quantities of provisions to be distributed in Moscow, whither multitudes flock from all the provinces. Five hundred thousand are said to have perished in Moscow alone, which had become a city of cannibals.
1604 Dmitri the Impostor invades Russia and is victorious on the Desna.
1605 Dmitri is defeated on the plain of Dobrinitchi, not far from Ord. Godunov dies. His son Feodor is proclaimed his successor. Basmanov, commander of the army, proclaims Dmitri. Feodor and his mother are strangled and Dmitri enters Moscow.