I. Read the text to get the general understanding of it. Fyodor was born in Moscow the second son of the prominent boyar Nikita Romanovich and was the first to bear the Romanov surname

Fyodor was born in Moscow the second son of the prominent boyar Nikita Romanovich and was the first to bear the Romanov surname. During the reign of his first cousin Feodor I (1584–1598), young Feodor Romanov distinguished himself both as a soldier and a diplomatist, fighting against the forces of John III of Sweden in 1590, and conducting negotiations with the ambassadors of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor from 1593 to 1594. He was made a Boyar in 1583.

On the death of the childless tsar, he was the popular candidate for the vacant throne; but he acquiesced in the election of Boris Godunov, and shared the disgrace of his too-powerful family three years later, when Boris compelled both him and his wife, Xenia Shestova, to take monastic vows under the names of Filaret and Martha respectively.

Filaret was kept in the strictest confinement in the Antoniev Monastery of the Russian North, where he was exposed to every conceivable indignity; but when the False Dmitriy I overthrew the Godunovs, he released Filaret and made him metropolitan of Rostov (1605).

 In 1609 Filaret fell into the hands of False Dmitriy II, who named him Patriarch of all Russia, though his jurisdiction only extended over the very limited area which acknowledged the impostor. From 1610 to 1618 he was a prisoner in the hands of the Polish king, Sigismund III Vasa, whom he refused to acknowledge as tsar of Muscovy on being sent on an embassy to the Polish camp in 1610. He was released on the conclusion of the truce of Deulino (February 13, 1619), and on 2^nd of June of the same year was canonically enthroned Patriarch of Moscow and all of Russia.

Thenceforth, until his death, the established government of Muscovy was a diarchy. From 1619 to 1633 there were two actual sovereigns, Tsar Michael and his father, the most holy Patriarch Filaret. Theoretically they were co-regents, but Filaret frequently transacted affairs of state without consulting the tsar. He replenished the treasury by a more equable and rational system of assessing and collecting the taxes. His most important domestic measure was the chaining of the peasantry to the soil, a measure directed against the ever increasing migration of the down-trodden serfs to the steppes, where they became freebooters instead of taxpayers. The taxation of the tsar’s military tenants was a first step towards the proportional taxation of the hitherto privileged classes.

Filaret’s zeal for the purity of orthodoxy sometimes led him into excesses but he encouraged the publication of theological works, formed the nucleus of the subsequently famous Patriarchal Library, and commanded that every archbishop should establish a seminary for the clergy, himself setting the example. Another great service rendered by Filaret to his country was the reorganization of the Muscovite army with the help of foreign officers. His death in October 1633 put an end to the Russo-Polish War (1632–33), withdrawing the strongest prop from a tsar feeble enough even when supported by all the weight of his authority.

[http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarch_Filaret_%28Feodor_Romanov%29]

I. Match the following words with the words in bold from the text and use them in the sentences of your own:

1) заставлять, вынуждать

2) уступать, молча соглашаться

3) возводить на престол

4) признавать

5) пополнять

6) рвение, старание, усердие

7) самозванец

8) заключение

9) подавленный, угнетённый

10) мера, мероприятие

11) двоевластие

12) налогообложение

13) грабитель

14) перемирие

15) отличиться

16) посол

17) постоянный; ровный

18) духовенство

II. Find the nouns that are used in the text with the following verbs:

1) to bear

2) to conduct

3) to share

4) to take

5) to be exposed to

6) to transact

7) to lead into

8) to render

III. Answer the following questions:

1. How did Feodor Romanov manage to distinguish himself as a soldier and a diplomatist?

2. What happened to Feodor Romanov and his wife when Boris Godunov gained the throne?

3. Who released Filaret from the Antoniev Monastery?

4. Why and where was Filaret kept prisoner from 1610 to 1618? What event led to his release in 1619?

5. Why can the period from 1619 to 1633 in Russia be called a diarchy?

6. What domestic measures were taken by Filaret to strengthen the state?

7. What was done by Filaret in theological sphere?

 

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