triarchate,
which placed it on an equality with the other Eastern churches and
emancipated it from the influence of the metropolitan of Kiev. Boris'
most important domestic reform was the _ukaz_ (1587) forbidding the
peasantry to transfer themselves from one landowner to another, thus
binding them to the soil. The object of this ordinance was to secure
revenue, but it led to the institution of serfdom in its most grinding
form. The sudden death of the tsarevich Demetrius at Uglich (May 15,
1591) has commonly been attributed to Boris, because it cleared his way
to the throne; but this is no clear proof that he was personally
concerned in that tragedy. The same may be said of the many, often
absurd, accusations subsequently brought against him by jealous rivals
or ignorant contemporaries who hated Godunov's reforms as novelties.

On the death of the childless tsar Theodore (January 7, 1598),
self-preservation quite as much as ambition constrained Boris to seize
the throne. Had he not done so, lifelong seclusion in a monastery would
have been his lightest fate. His election was proposed by the patriarch
Job, who acted on the conviction that Boris was the one man capable of
coping with the extraordinary difficulties of an unexampled situation.
Boris, however, would only accept the throne from a _Zemsky Sobor_, or
national assembly, which met on the 17th of February, and unanimously
elected him on the 21st. On the 1st of September he was solemnly crowned
tsar. During the first years of his reign he was both popular and
prosperous, and ruled the people excellently well. Enlightened as he
was, he fully recognized the intellectual inferiority of Russia as
compared with the West, and did his utmost to bring about a better state
of things. He was the first tsar to import foreign teachers on a great
scale, the first to send young Russians abroad to be educated, the first
to allow Lutheran churches to be built in Russia. He also felt the
necessity of a Baltic seaboard, and attempted to obtain Livonia by
diplomatic means. He cultivated friendly relations with the
Scandinavians, in order to intermarry if possible with foreign royal
houses, so as to increase the dignity of his own dynasty. That Boris was
one of the greatest of the Muscovite tsars there can be no doubt. But
his great qualities were overbalanced by an incurable suspiciousness,
which made it impossible for him to act cordially with those about him.
His fear of possible p