The Streltsy stationed in Moscow rise in revolt when the news of Khovansky's execution reaches them, and seize the Kremlin, but the regent soon quells the mutinous army and appoints as their new leader Fyodor Shaklovity, a staunch adherent of Sophia, who had promoted him from a regular scrivener to a member of the Boyar Duma and okolnichy.

Under the Romanovs, the eighteen most noble families of Muscovy had been given the privilege of starting their official career from the rank of okolnichy, skipping all the lower ranks, such as stolnik.

During this period, the positions of okolnichy have been differentiated and some (quarter okolnichy or close okolnichy) are of higher rank than that of non-close boyars.

The terms derive from a semi-formal ranking based on the closeness of the seat to tsar by the tsar's table; okolnichy is derived from the Russian word for "close," "near," meaning "sitting close to the Tsar.