The Miloslavskii Ascendancy: Medicine and Mail

Abstract

Russia entered a comparatively tranquil spell after the Razin rebellion, which engulfed the middle and lower Volga region in 1670, but abated in the course of 1671. Even so, Poland, formally a Muscovite ally, was attacked by the Turks in 1672. The Polish surrender of the fortress of Kamianets-Podilskiy in that year imperiled Poland’s heartland. Poland-Lithuania ultimately held the line, reinvigorated with a defiant spirit that was epitomized by her newly elected king Jan Sobieski (r. 1673–96). Tsar Aleksei made an effort to strike a Christian .oalition against the Turks, but, as we saw, was unwilling to challenge the Turks with only the Poles as his ally. Merely in the middle of his forties, he may have been under the impression that he could afford to wait. Unexpectedly, however, in the winter of 1676 the tsar fell ill and died within days. His demise caused an abrupt ending to the peaceful time at the court. His heir, Fyodor, was a mere 14 and in poor health. For the time being, a group of boyars took the helm in his name, among whom Ivan Mikhailovich Miloslavskii (1635–85) became the leader. Already in the early summer of 1676, Aleksei’s last favorite Matveev was banished from Moscow.