Ivan Cherkassky

Who was Ivan Cherkassky?

Prince Ivan Borisovich Cherkassky was a Russian statesman, for 20 years head of government under Tsar Mikhail, his cousin.

Ivan Cherkassky was the only son of Boris Kambulatovich Cherkassky and Marfa Nikitichna Romanova, a sister of Patriarch Filaret. In his youth he was a friend of Grigory Otrepyev. In 1599 he was arrested together with other prominent members of Romanovs' party, in 1601 exiled, but soon, in 1602 returned to Moscow.

After Mikhail Romanov's election in 1613 Ivan Cherkassky was made a boyar. After Filaret's administrative reform in 1619 he was put in charge of key ministries: Treasury, Streletsky Prikaz and Aptekarsky Prikaz. That made him in essence a de facto head of government. He was also the richest man in Moscow.

Isaac Massa, in a 1624 report for the Swedish government, reported that Prince Ivan Borisovich Cherkassky was the head of the “military council”: “In general they think that he shall receive the whole direction of the government.”

A contemporary in 1634 wrote that Ivan Cherkassky managed affairs well and didn't allow red tape whatever a petitioner may have been.

Cherkassky was married to Evdokia Vasilievna Morozova, a cousin of Boris Morozov. Adam Olearius mentioned her outstanding beauty and that though she didn't want to be bleached and rouged, public opinion made her do so.