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Ivan IV the Terrible
(Library of Congress)
limited in intelligence and ability but well meaning and very religious, the new
czar relied entirely on his advisers. Fortunately, these advisers, especially Boris
Godunov, performed their task fairly well. In an important ecclesiastical and
diplomatic victory that raised the prestige of the Russian Orthodox Church, Boris
Godunov got permission from the Byzantine patriarch to elevate the status of
the leader of the Russian Church from metropolitan to patriarch. Boris's histor-
ical legacy would be tainted by his, apparently unfounded, association in the
murder of the nine-year-old prince Dmitrii of Uglich in 1591. Dmitrii, the only
other surviving male heir for Ivan IV, was found with his throat slit, and many
thought Boris Godunov was implicated, perhaps in an attempt to rid himself of
someone who could challenge his power. Some historians have discounted this
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