FYODOR III

born May 30 [June 9, New Style], 1661, Moscow, Russia died April 27 , 1682, Moscow in full Fyodor Alekseyevich tsar of Russia (reigned 167682) who fostered the development of Western culture in Russia, thereby making it easier for his successor, Peter I the Great (reigned 16821725), to enact widespread reforms based on Western models. The eldest son of Alexis (reigned 164576), Fyodor not only was educated in the traditional subjects of Russian and Church Slavonic but also was tutored in Polish and Latin by Simeon Polotsky, a noted theologian who had studied in Kiev and Poland. When Alexis died, Fyodor ascended the throne (Jan. 19 , 1676), but his youth and poor health prevented him from actively participating in the conduct of government affairs. His uncle Ivan B. Miloslavsky assumed the dominant position in Fyodor's government at first, but he was soon displaced by two courtiers, I.M. Yazykov and A.T. Likhachev, who shared Fyodor's educational background and who, in spite of objections from the Russian Orthodox clergy, promoted the spread of Polish customs, Roman Catholic religious doctrines, and Latin books among the Russian aristocracy. After 1681 Vasily V. Golitsyn became the most significant figure in Fyodor's administration; under his influence vast military reforms were undertaken, and the system of mestnichestvo, by which a noble was appointed to a service position on the basis of his family's rank in the hierarchy of boyars, was abolished (1682). When Fyodor died childless, he was succeeded, after some dispute, by both his brother, Ivan V (coruled 168296), and his half-brother, Peter I (coruled 168296; reigned alone 16961725); his sister Sophia Alekseyevna served as regent for the two young tsars (168289).