False Dmitry: False, or Heir to the Russian Throne?

So before we begin, we just want to note that Russian history is really thick here with wars and treason and conspiracy, and we're going to try to keep the spotlight on our subject, false Dmitri. But we will still have some war and treason and conspiracy because you're gonna need a little bit of that for context, and there will also be a coup de toass So really the full complement of historical bag exactly. It begins when Szar Ivan the fourth died in Fight four and yes, that

is Ivan the Terrible. So when Ivan the fourth died, he was succeeded by his son Theodore Theodor had an older brother named Ivan, after their father, who had been killed in one most likely by their father. The two men had gotten into a dispute, and while the actual fatal injury may have been an accident, it really doesn't make a whole lot of difference. It doesn't make anything better. In any case, the son who had been heir apparent was gone, meaning that Theodore, who had not been expected

to rule, was now the next in line. Throughout his life, Theodore had always been considered weak, but now in this position he was not expected to take a czar. He was considered pretty much incompetent. It was known that he really didn't care much for politics, and seeing this opportunity to control the weeks are, Boris, goodnob Russian statesman who also was Feodor's brother in law, became a de facto regent for Feodor, a decision that was put in place

prior to the Czar's death. How very convenient that act opened up the pass to the throne for Boris. To better secure his position, Boris sent Ivan, the fourth youngest son, Dmitri, and Dmitri's mother into exile. This is where Dmitri, who was an eight year old, mysteriously died. What was believed to be true but not proven, was that his death was an assassination attempt made to look like an accident.

There were also two far fetched explanations here. One that circulated reported that Dmitri stabbed himself in the throat during a seizure while he was playing with a knife, and the official statement was that Dmitri had died of suicide. But again it really doesn't matter by what method though, because Dmitri was dead and Boris was clear to take

the throne, so Feodor reigned. And we got to put that word in air quotes, because with Boris in the picture and Theodore essentially checked out of his duties, he really reigned in name only. Yes, Theodore had married, incidentally, Boris's sister, Arena, in Fight, and this is actually one of those rare instances where an arranged marriage between strangers as part of kind of a business agreement of state

actually works out pretty well. Theodor and Arena were by all accounts, very devoted to one another and quite happy. But their one child, a daughter who was very much beloved, died when she was still a toddler, so there was no heir from that union and the family line died

with Fyodor the first. That sad state of affairs was to just get another piece of good fortune for Boris, though, because there was now no heir to contest his claim, he was elected successor by the Great National Assembly, so from start to finish he ruled as de facto regent from five to and then and as sar Boris from

sixteen o five. Russian historim Nikolai Karamzine, who's said to be a little bit biased in his writings, condemned the quote criminal ambition of Boris and then called him a power loving man whose quote punishment of heaven awaited him. Interesting quotes about this man is all I'm gonna say. Clearly, not a fan, right, but I guess we can take

it with a grain of salt. But all this stage setting is actually to talk about Dmitri, Yes, the Dmitri who died in exile by possibly an assassination, possibly his own hand, or possibly by accident, and what happened after his death. Finally, we're gonna go to sixteen o five because in sixteen o five, the first of three impostors claiming to be Dmitri Ivanovitch emerged right, and these impostors

are known as false Dmitri. A false Dmitri is also called a pseudo Demetrius, and it isn't one single person who gets this name. The term refers to all of the individual impostors who, after I'man the fourth Death, pretended to be Dmitri. Because, as we learned from Anastasia Romano story, a royal child who disappears leaves a lot of room for people to claim their identity. So here are the players.

The first false Dmitri is the biggest of the stories that we're going to talk about today, and that's because he actually did become the Czar of Russia. His reign lasted from June tenth, sixteen o five, to May seventeen, sixteen o six. And then there was the second false Dmitri, who actively impersonated the real Dmitri Ivanovitch from sixteen o seven to sixteen ten, and then the third false Dmitri.

That's right, the hits just keep on coming. Uh pretended that he was heir to the throne between sixteen eleven and sixteen twelve. And all three of these stories are quite different, but all three of these men met violent in each of these pretenders to the Russian throne claimed to have miraculously escaped the assassination attempt that was supposed

to have claimed the real Dmitri's life. Additionally, in the case of the second and third false Dmitri, they both also claimed to have escaped the assassinations that had targeted the previous false Dmitri. I know that sounds really confusing, but basically everyone here seems to claim that they have escaped all assassination attempts, And just to further complicate matters, there is one more thing that we need to talk

about regarding these impostors. There are also very minor hints and rumors that there may be sort of may have even been a fourth false Dmitri. And these lines are pretty blurry because this all happened more than four years ago. There isn't much of a debate though, to modern experts, because most of them think that he is not to be considered as his own individual person. He is generally considered to actually have been the third false Dmitri just

kind of mixed up in the historical record. So in one example of fourth false Dmitri was rumored to have been active between sixteen eleven and sixteen twelve. But those are the same years you just heard us mention in relation to the third false Dmitri. And it's one of those cases where historical information may be inaccurate or lost over the centuries, or that it just got conflated with other information through word of mouth. So we wanted to

mention that rumor. But because there just isn't nearly enough evidence to prove that he was a real person, we're gonna follow the experts who know a bit more about this than we do and just assume that any information about him is really about the third false Dmitri. So that is all you're gonna hear about the fourth false Dmitri. We've jumped ahead, but we're clearing him off the record. Yes, we're gonna take a break for a word from our sponsor.

When we're back, we'll finally talk about the first false Dmitri. Welcome back to Criminalia. So, as promised, we will start with the first false Dmitri and the time that he was maybe shot out of a cannon. Maybe the first false Dmitri was the Tsar of Russia from sixteen o five to sixteen o six. His real name, though, was not Dmitri No. Prior to claiming that he had a right to the Russian throne, his name was GRIGORYO Trepiev and he came from an aristocratic family. He was often

seen mingling among the elite class, including the romanofs. The Romanov family, if you are not familiar with the timeline of Russian history, came immediately after what we're talking about in this episode. They became the reigning Imperial House of Russia between sixteen thirteen, and then that went on until nineteen and then Grigory, who had been this aristocrat, became a monk, and it was as a monk who he was probably defraged, and it was believed he was on

the run from something or someone. When he appeared in the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth in six three, claiming he was Dmitri Ivanovitch, the son of Czar five and the fourth, he explained that he had escaped an assassination attempt during his childhood. He had been hiding for years under a false identity, but now he was coming forward as the rightful heir to the throne. As the first false Dmitri,

he was successful in ascending to the Russian throne. And it sounds like fiction, right a pretends are wearing the crown. But he did it, and he actually did it with a lot of support and backing. He was supported by both Polish Lithuanian nobles and King Zigmundwaza the third Waza was King of Poland, but not only king of Poland. He had inherited the Swedish throne and he was also

the Grand Duke of Lithuania. For him to recognize Grigory as Dmitri Ivanovitch was both notable and extremely influential in Gregory's successful impersonation. This support there wasn't because he was charismatic or they were feeling particularly benevolent that day. The Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth had an interest in this because they wanted to control Moscow and the emergence of this false

Dmitri was seen as an opportunity to regain influence in Russia. Well, it would be interesting to take a dive into the relationship between Russia and the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth. We're going to keep it on False Dmitri and how a lot of Russians seized the opportunity for change and got behind him.

So you'll remember Czar Boris from earlier. He ruled after Fiodor the first, and Boris died in April of sixteen o five, and his one son, Theodore the second, did succeed him, but he only ruled for a few months. Theodore the second and his mother were assassinated in June of sixteen o five. That was believed to have been a powerful political move by the first False Dmitri to

ensure that the crown would be his. The first false Dmitri actually did have the support and acceptance as who he claimed to be, and with the help from political allies and the support of the Russian people, he seized Moscow. So historian Chester L. Dunning noted, though, that the first False Dmitri was and this is a quote, the only Tsar ever raised to the throne by means of a military campaign and popular uprisings. He was crowned in July of six five, and later that year married Marina Manusi,

a Polish noble woman. Surprisingly, Maria Nagaya, who was the mother of the real Dmitri, accepted this first false Dmitri as her son, and as a consequence that confirmed the whole thing for many that he was, in fact Dmitri Ivanovitch. The first false Dmitri was. It turned out more than just well educated, he was a capable ruler, and he was able to keep his scam going for much longer than the other impostors. And he ruled for about eleven months before he was assassinated. Yeah, I have to give

him props. I mean, we've talked about a lot of impostors on the show, and the usually get found out way earlier than eleven months into running a country. Plus all the campaign that he did before it like this is amazing. Here's what led up to that moment. At the very beginning of the first False Dmitri's rule, Vasili Ivanovitch Shuizy was convicted of treason. Prince Vasili Shuiski was a descendant of one of the oldest and most illustrious

families of Russia. He was given a light sentence, though it was only briefly exiled, But once he returned to Moscow, Vasili began plotting to overthrow the Tsar. Vasili was angered, but not by his exile. He believed the Czar was guilty of spreading Catholicism throughout Russia. He circulated rumors that the False Dmitri was a power hungry, bloodthirsty impostor who was only there to convert the people of Russia to Catholicism,

and the Prince's ideas kind of gained popular support. Okay, let's take two examples of the first False Dmitri's rule that really enraged people. So first, he permitted Catholic and Protestant soldiers to pray in Orthodox churches. That is huge because at the time the Russian Church regarded Catholics and Protestants as heretics. And then the other problem was the

czar's inner circle. His friends, entrusted confidence weren't helping his reputation because they openly disregarded Russian customs and because they were mostly foreigners. Foreigners were generally looked upon with some suspicion since Poland thundered into Moscow with this first False Dmitri. When Vassili executed his plan, it worked. The first False Dmitri was killed during a kudata to install the prince as czar. The False Dmitri tried to flee, but he

was dragged out of the palace. He was executed and cremated, and in the more embellished stories, which they're actually quite a bit of the more embellished stories, he was executed, cut into pieces, cremated, and then and his ashes were put into a can and shot out of a cannon into the general direction of Poland, where Russians believed he'd

come from. I always sort of bowled over by the levels of thoroughness that people will sometimes go to in history to ensure that their fallen enemy is really and truly fallen and insulted after the fact, and maybe in Poland again as ashes like take him, he's yours. The prince turned czar did seize power with this assassination, and he became Zarvasili the fourth. The first False Dmitri's Polish Lithuanian allies, who had helped him rise to the throne,

were then driven out of Russia. His wife Marina was spared, but she was imprisoned and she did not return to Poland until July of six eight. Not everyone, though, was quick to accept Vassily as their news are. They also weren't willing to accept that the First False Dmitri was dead either. Despite the cannon I guess. The body was so damaged during his execution it was actually pretty easy to wonder if the whole thing had been faked, or

that maybe he'd escaped. Many believed it was possible Dmitri Ivanovitch could still be alive. Almost like their theatricality went just a little too far right, it could happen. We're going to take a break here for a word from our sponsor, and then the second and third false Dmitri will be up next. Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk now about how the next false Dmitri aren't actually very successful. So it took no time at all, just a few

months for another false Dmitri to pop up. This time it's six seven, and this Dmitri is in Star a dupe. The second false Dmitri, whose real name we actually don't know, was an educated man, and he was fluent in both Russian and Polish. He was considered by the locals to be somewhat of an expert in religious rich rules. Historical records suggest he may have been the son of a priest or. Possibly perhaps he had converted to Judaism. Nobody

really assured on this. His first time as an impostor, at least that we know of, was when he pretended, in fact just to be a Russian aristocrat. He was exposed and under torture he confessed. We're using air quotes again because his confession was that he was the legitimate heir of Czar Ivan the fourth, and that is when he became the second false Dmitri. I always wondered if he did that first impersonation so that he could do the confession as like, there's no proof of that, but

of course that's the game. The false Dmitri never claimed that the previous false Dmitri was pretending. In fact, he legitimized him when he explained that he'd escaped execution, which for clarity, would have been an escape from having his remains shot out of a cannon. So he was at that point in person both a legitimate air Dmitri and a fellow impostor the first false Dmitri in what's really quite a spectacular impersonation stacking maneuver. Of course, I'm both

of those, but he's not claiming them as different. He's claiming them to all be one, exactly. We're all one. So amazingly, when the widow of the first false Dmitri, and we're going to use their quoes here was reunited with She acknowledged him. She claimed that she recognized this man as her husband, and she supported the new false Dmitri, despite the fact that the only thing similar between those two men was that they were both posing as Dmitri

Avon a bit. There was no real resemblance there. But Marina, it's suggested in some records, is actually who convinced him to use a revolution to seize power. So she may have just been like, I will play along if it makes my life better. Exactly. I always thought the same thing. She's like, all right, let's do this. So the second false Tomitri was taken at his word by many of those who had supported the first false Dmitri. So he said he was Dmitri Vanovitch, and so he was Dmitri.

Marina's recognition brought him the support of the elite class in the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was the same class who had supported the first false Dmitri. The Polish Lithuanian involvement was their desire to again occupy Moscow, and the second false Dmitri, in their eyes, would be a great puppet ruler. Some supplied him with funding, another sent him soldiers. He managed to put together an army of according to many rumors at the time, upwards of a hundred thousand men.

That number is of course debatable due to a lack of surviving documentation, but he most certainly did sign up a lot of support, and in the spring of sixteen o eight he headed toward Moscow to claim his throne. But the second False Dmitri did not claim the throne. In December of sixteen ten he was killed. And he was not killed on the attlefield like you might have guessed. He was killed will He's writing in his sleigh and was a little drunk, and he was killed by Prince

Peter Russov. It said that the second False Dmitri had previously beaten Russo as a punishment for something. We don't know what that was. It appears to be lost to history. But russof was angry, and so with several of his friends he followed the sleigh, and when he had the opportunity, the Prince shot the second False Dmitri with a pistol with his saber. He then beheaded him and cut off his hand. Perhaps both hands depending on what account you read.

But after you're beheaded, does it really matter how many hands you have. After the second false Dmitri died, a third false Dmitri entered the picture in sixteen eleven. So this third false Dmitri was actually the last of the impostors who claimed to be the youngest son of Ivan the fourth, which made him false heir to the throne. Right, we've been talking about that, so we know he existed, but as you're about to he is a huge, big,

enormous mystery to us, many question marks. So it is thought that this third impostor was a deacon known as Sidorka. His recorded story is that he appeared from behind the river Narwa in the town of Ivan Garrod and proclaimed himself Dmitri Ivanovitch, son of Czar Ivan the Fourth. Like the false Dmitri before him, this false Dmitri does not dispute the existence of the first or second false Dmitri. He recognizes and legitimizes them. After all, these men didn't coexist,

they weren't competing with one another. So each successive Dmitri wove the story of his predecessor into his own, and that's why the entire lot is kind of referred to in the singular as false Dmitri sometimes, but unlike the first and second of his very unique group, no one actually ever believed Sedorca was Dmitri. Not long after, sometime in early sixteen twelve, we know this impostor was killed, but we don't know for sure where or how. And this is the end of the story for the false Dmitri.

And with an awkward transition to Holly, let's talk about the false cocktail naturally. This one was a little bit of a puzzler. I was trying to think of the best way to approach it, and in thinking about mocktail sometimes like we did, we did one that's kind of like a lemon drop, and so I was trying to think of, like possibly replicating some other cocktail. But then I got myself into a little its own confusion. So I'm calling this the fourth false Dmitri. I hope you would.

I love it, but it's not a real impersonation of a thing. It's a bad impersonation of a thing that one would only accept as an impersonation of another cocktail if it benefited you in some way. I don't know, but anyway, So I was thinking about a couple of things. Obviously, the thing that came to mind first was a white Russian, which is a delicious and heavy drink, and who doesn't love the big Lebowski. And the thing is about a white Russian right has khalua in it, which is a

liqueur that's meant to taste somewhat like coffee. So that also got me thinking about last year's big trendy viral coffee sensation, Delgona coffee or that whipped coffee that was going around everywhere. And so for everyone who tried that and now has a canister of like instant coffee crystals in your pantry, I'm giving you another thing to do with it, because I have them and I'm not using them. So it starts very similarly to that famous whipped coffee.

It is two table spoons of instant coffee. But here's where it changes. You're gonna do one tablespoon of sugar and then two tablespoons of or jaw or just regular almond syrup. Or jah is an almond syrup that just has some kind of unique flavor profiles to it. But if you just have plain almond syrup, that's fine, and then two tablespoons of cold water and you're gonna put

this in a mixer. It's not enough, at least in my blender to like rise to the level where it's activated by the blades, so a hand mixer works great. Or if you have an immersion blender, this is the time I love looking for things from my immersion blender. I mean, I imagine it would vary depending on the profile of the bottom of your immersion blender and where the blades sit, but for mine, it works fine. Mix mix, mix,

mix mix. It's not going to get like the same kind of stiff, frothy that the whipped coffee trend would have, but it gets, you know, a little a little bubbly and fuzzy, and you really want it to get well incorporated. You want all of those coffee crystals to dissolve, and it's gonna smell really good because of that almond syrup. And then once that's nice and frothy, you're gonna start adding a little bit of milk. And you can go

with any kind of dairy item here. If you want to do something like a heavy cream, great, If you want to go all the way down to something as kind of thin as a rice milk. That's also fine. It's going to change it, obviously, but you have options, and then you're gonna just kind of keep adding it a little bit at a time until it gets to

a paleness and a taste that you like. You can also at this point give a couple of shakes of like an angust or a bitter and then just pour that over ice and it's kind of like a very bad approximation of a white Russian. But really it's into thing. I like to think of it in the way that that second false Dmitri people are like, yeah, that's the same guy. It doesn't look at all like him, totally the same guy. That's kind of what we're doing here.

So then if you wanted to additionally make it alcoholic for the grownups or just people that like to drink, the world is your oyster at this point. Obviously, I would say choose a vodka. But you can further alter this with whatever vodka flavor you pick. So you can go with, you know, just your standard vodka. You can do like an espresso vodka and it does something very nice. You can do a vanilla vodka or a whip like anything in that space. You can also whether it's in

the mock tail version of the alcoholic version. I played around with one where I added in some cocoa powder and nutmeg and that got very yummy, So you have some options. Think of this as a base to make your own version of false Dmitri because it's all fake anyway, so you know the details and the rules are a little fuzzy. As long as you endorse it, it's fine.

I like that the mock tail season is kind of like a choose your own adventure sometimes when it comes to adding the alcohol, it makes it, it makes a little more fun. Yeah. Well, I mean I'm a big fan of choosing your own adventure anyway in mixing drinks and cooking and baking. Right, as long as you have the basics down, you can start playing and do your own thing and make it the way you like it. Like I found, I added a little more sweetener to mine than it initially had because I'd like it a

little sweeter. But I know I tend to when it comes to coffee drinks, I like things almost at a level that would be cloying to normal. So I'm not going to give you a measure because she'll be like, how much sweetener did you put in there to taste? Are you? Are you broken in your brain? What is going on? Is that table spoons or tea spoonies, right cups?

So yeah, you could sweeten it to taste and over ice it makes like a nice It's a little different from an iced coffee because of that almond flavor in the bitters. Um, it feels a little more grown up than just having a niced coffee or a frappuccino. No shade to those, they're delicious, but um, it's a little just a little bit different. And then like I said, adding other stuff, I want to do one with you know, pumpkin pie spice in the fall and see how yummy

that is. Maybe as a dessert drink. I'll do that both with and without alcohol, and will do taste testers and see how it goes. But hopefully that is a yummy, yummy thing for you to enjoy. If you're in one of the places in the US or anywhere in the world is getting hit by crazy temperatures right now and it's very hot, this might be a good way to get your your caffeine fix and cool awful little it's the same time again. Thank you for spending this time

with us and our false Dmitris today. We will have more false people next week, and we hope you join us then and we'll also have other libations, so we'll see you right back here. Criminalia is a production of Shonda land Audio in partnership with I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from Shonda land Audio, please visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.