Boris Godunov (Russian: Борис Годунов; variant title: Драматическая повесть, Комедия o настоящей беде Московскому государству, o царе Борисе и о Гришке Отрепьеве, A Dramatic Tale, The Comedy of the Distress of the Muscovite State, of Tsar Boris, and of Grishka Otrepyev) is a play by Alexander Pushkin.

In 1603, Grishka Otrepyev at Chudov Monastery learns from his elder Pimen the details of the murder of Tsarevich Dmitry of Uglich (Tsar Feodor's younger brother).

In the Polish city of Kraków, in the house of Vishnevetsky, False Dmitry (Otrepyev) begins to gather his retinue.

Gavrila Pushkin pushes Basmanov, one of Godunov's main commanders who is favored by the tsar but has no family, to commit treason.

Then, on Lobnoye Mesto, Gavrila Pushkin proclaims the rule of False Dmitry and provokes a rebellion against Godunov's children.

Not disturbed by any other influence, I imitated Shakespeare in his broad and free depictions of characters, in the simple and careless combination of plots; I followed Karamzin in the clear development of events; I tried to guess the way of thinking and the language of the time from the chronicles.

The play also called for many changes of scenery, which, though not impossible to achieve by the means of the time, made it technically more difficult to stage.

The cast included Nikolay Vilde (Boris), Aleksandr Lensky (the False Dmitriy), Ivan Samarin (Pimen), Maria Yermolova (Marina), Osip Pravdin (Shuisky), and Mikhail Lentovsky (Basmanov) [citation needed].

The original, uncensored play did not receive a première until April 12, 2007, at Princeton University in the United States, and then only in an English translation.

[7] The Royal Shakespeare Company staged the British premiere of the original 1825 edition at Stratford on Avon in the autumn of 2012.

[8] The following gallery depicts the scene designs created by Matvey Shishkov for the first performance of the drama in 1870 at the Mariinsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Pushkin, who had already written Boris Godunov at this point and published only three excerpts in journals, accused Bulgarin of plagiarizing the play.

In March 1830, Bulgarin read a harsh review of his novel in the journal Literaturnaya Gazeta, which he wrongly assumed to be the work of Pushkin.

In 2011, another film adaptation, directed by Vladimir Mirzoyev and starring Maksim Sukhanov in the lead role, was released.