Muscovy is in chaos for more than a decade, but the institution of the autocracy remains intact.

Despite the tsar's persecution of the boyars, the townspeople's dissatisfaction, and the gradual enserfment of the peasantry, efforts at restricting the power of the tsar are only halfhearted.

Finding no institutional alternative to the autocracy, discontented Russians rally behind various pretenders to the throne.

During that period, the goal of political activity is to gain influence over the sitting autocrat or to place one's own candidate on the throne.

The boyars fight among themselves, the lower classes revolt blindly, and foreign armies occupy the Kremlin in Moscow, prompting many to accept tsarist absolutism as a necessary means to restoring order and unity in Muscovy.