Ivan Andreyevich Khovansky
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Ivan Andreyevich Khovansky (Иван Андреевич Хованский) (ca. 1600 – 1682) was a Russian prince and boyar.
Active in civil and military affairs, he had the nickname Taratui (Таратуй) – chatterbox (пустомеля). His origin was from an old princely clan of Narimut-Gleb (Наримут-Глеб, 1277-1348), the second son of Lithuanian prince Gediminas (Гедимин); his ancestors moved from Lithuania to Moscow in 1408.
He started his employment under Mikhail I (Mikhail Fedorovitch Romanov) as a joiner. In 1650 he was elected ambassador to Tula to counter the raids of Crimean Tatars. In 1651–1654 he was ambassador in Vyazma (Вязьма), and in 1656 he was ambassador in Mogilev (Могилев).
During the Russian-Polish-Swedish war he worked as regiment ambassador. In 1657 he blitzed Swedes under Gdov. March 27 1659 he got boyar rank. In January of 1660 he attacked Brest and set it on fire. During Medni Bunt (Медный Бунт) in Moscow (July 25 1662) he negotiated with insurgents and after rebellion mortification he headed detective committee in Kolomenskoe. In 1663 he was proclaimed a judge of the Yamskoi Order (Ямской Приказ). In 1669–1678 he was ambassador in Pskov, Smolensk, and Novgorod. He was a dour and masterful manager who didn’t look kindly on local licentiousness and manners.
In April, 1682 after the death of Feodor III and announcement of Peter the Great as Tsar (younger of Aleksey I), Khovansky helped to dismiss from power Ivan Mikhailovich Miloslavsky’s (Милославский) group. He was one of the initiators of the Streltsy uprising (Стрелецкий Бунт) May 15 to May 17, 1682, after that he was appointed the leader of the Streletsky Order by the government of Sophia Alekseyevna instead of the dead Mikhail Yuryevich Dolgoruky (М.Ю.Долгорукий); and thanks to Khovansky the government announced thanks and total forgiveness of the insurgents.
Through the support of the Streltsy (renamed the Nadvornaya Pehota [Надворная Пехота]) he achieved establishment of a dual-reign regime, (joint rule by Ivan V and Peter I) under the regency of Sophia Alekseyevna.
As he supported the Old Believers he organized in 1682 a schismatic demonstration and forced Patriarch Ioakim (Иоаким) to agree to a public debate with one of the Old Believer leaders, Nikita Pustosvyat (Никита Пустосвят). Ioakim refuted Pustosvyat's arguments and the next day Peter had Pustosvyat executed.
Relying on the Streltsy, Khovansky got huge political influence; he often interfered in political business. In June, 1682 he was the leader of the Judicial Order (Судный Приказ). Anyway by his love of power and arrogance he alienated Sophia and Miloslavsky and raised hate of aristocracy. In August he was in conflict with the Boyarskaya Duma (Боярская Дума) rejecting his offer about setting tax from Palace in advantage of Streltsy.
Rumors about Khovansky’s intention to exterminate the Tsar’s family and take power himself prompted Sophia to evacuate Ivan V and Peter I from Moscow to Kolomenskoe and then to the monastery of Savva Storozhevsky (Савва Сторожевский). In September Khovansky was declared a mutineer and patron of heretics by tsar’s decree. In that month the Boyarskaya Duma sentenced him to death. In the same day he was captured in Pushkino and taken to Vozdvizhenskoe (Воздвиженское) where he was beheaded with his son.
When the Streltsy found out about this they mutinied in Moscow and seized the Kremlin, but without their leader they soon obeyed the regent.
The tragic life of I.A. Khovansky is portrayed in Mussorgsky's opera “Khovanshchina” (Хованщина).