Pretenders and Popular Monarchism in Early Modern Russia - The False Tsars of the Time of Troubles
by: Perrie, Maureen

Hardcover. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1st UK, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 269 pages. Clean, bright copy. This is the first scholarly account by a Western historian of the Time of Troubles, the period of civil war and foreign invasion in early-seventeenth-century Russia. The author focuses on the various pretenders or royal imposters who appeared at this time; she traces their careers and offers explanations for their success. Her analysis of the phenomenon of pretense illuminates popular perceptions of the monarchy in early modern Russia, and demonstrates how social protest could take the form of support for imposters claiming to be the "true tsar".