The Election of Mikhail Romanov: A Dynasty Born from Chaos

In 1613, after fifteen years of civil war, famine, and foreign occupation known as the Time of Troubles, the Zemsky Sobor elected a sixteen-year-old boy named Mikhail Romanov as tsar. This episode explores the events leading to that election: the death of the Rurikid dynasty, the rise of the False Dmitrys, the Polish occupation of Moscow, and the popular uprising led by Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky. We follow the difficult journey of envoys to the Ipatiev Monastery near Kostroma, where Mikhail and his mother Martha lived in exile, to persuade him to accept the throne. We discuss the early challenges of his reign, the influence of his father Patriarch Filaret, and the treaties that secured Russia's borders. The Romanov dynasty, which began in such uncertainty, would rule for over three centuries—a story of improbable survival and tragic end. #TimeOfTroubles #MikhailRomanov #ZemskySobor #KuzmaMinin #DmitryPozharsky #IpatievMonastery #PatriarchFilaret #FalseDmitry #PolishInvasion #TreatyOfStolbovo #TruceOfDeulino #RomanovDynasty #RussianHistory #SmutnoyeVremya #Kostroma #1613 #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo