Boris Godunov (play) opera, "Boris Godunov" (1874), is based on this play. Having finished the play, Pushkin famously wrote to his friend Pyotr Vyazemsky: "What a Pushkin, what a son of a bitch!" . Pushkin wrote of the play: "The study of Shakespeare, Karamzin, and our old chronicles gave me the idea of clothing in dramatic forms one of the most dramatic epochs of our history. Not disturbed by any other influence, I imitated Shakespeare in his broad and free depictions of characters, in the simple and careless combination of plots; I followed Karamzin in the clear development of events; I tried to
Boris Godunov and any offspring thereof, Dmitri (and his mother's family) had no claim to the throne. Still, taking no chances, shortly after Ivan's death the Council had both Dmitri and his mother Maria Nagaya moved to Uglich, some 120 miles north of Moscow. Dmitri died there in 1591 at the age of ten in suspicious circumstances . As Dmitri's death was announced by the church bell, the people of Uglich rose up in protest against what they suspected was an assassination commissioned by Boris Godunov. Troops were sent and the rebellion was swiftly quelled. Then Boris Godunov ordered the Uglich bell