Common to the trilogy was a somewhat morbid look at the history of the Russian monarchy of the previous three centuries, where, as the author saw it, all the efficient rulers happened to be evil, and all the 'good' ones proved to be inefficient. The three stories of three different historical figures had similarly didactic finales: "God help you, Tsar Ivan, and God forgive us all! That's the fate autocracy deserved! Here's the result of our disintegration!" (Zakharyin's words over Ivan the Terrible's dead body), "I am to blame for all of this... Oh God, why did you make me Tsar?!" (Tsar Fyodor), "What Evil spawns is only more evil and nothing else." (Boris Godunov). All three parts of the trilogy, which, according to Nestor Kotlyarevsky, were "united by the idea of tragedy being intrinsic to Tsarist power in Russia," had serious problems with the censorship. The trilogy continued to divide opinion in Russia up until 1917. Not long before the Revolution, in Alexandrinsky Theatre the public reacted to "Tsar Boris" in an overtly political fashion. Monarchists applauded Boris Godunov's words, the left "supported" boyarin Sitsky, seeing in him a fighter of despotism.