Tsaricide

It had been those wishing to unleash a revolution “sooner,” so said the count, who had come to advocate tsaricide.

It would be manifestly unjust, I think, to extradite a Tsaricide upon the ground that he is not a political offender, and then allow his own government to try him by court-martial and hang him solely upon the ground that he is a political offender.

Thus, Boris Godunov suffered from a “miraculous” conflation of two incompitable myths: that he was a tsaricide, and that the real Dmitry still lived.

[U]pon execution of his crime, the tsaricide was to poison himself, leaving behind only an explanatory proclamation.

In fact, Katkov had begun singing this conspiracy theory tune immediately following Karakozov’s attempt, when it was rumored that the would-be tsaricide was a “foreigner” […]