About the work
Alexander Pushkin wrote „Boris Godunov“ in 1825 in the style of William Shakespeare's history plays, drawing also on Nikolai Karamzin's history and old Russian chronicles. The drama was published in 1831, but tsarist censorship only cleared it for the stage in 1866; it premiered on 17 September 1870 at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, 45 years after it was written.
Plot
The statesman Boris Godunov has the young heir Dmitri murdered and, pressed by the people, ascends the tsar's throne himself. Ruling ever more harshly, he comes under growing pressure as the monk Grigory Otrepyev claims to be the supposedly dead Dmitri and leads an uprising with foreign support. After Boris's death, the enraged crowd turns against his son Feodor.
Cultural significance
With its loosely linked scenes, mostly in blank verse, Pushkin established a new, more everyday form of Russian history drama. The play inspired, among other works, Modest Mussorgsky's opera of the same name (1868–1874) and remains one of the most significant works of Russian drama.