[1] It is the second part of a trilogy that begins with The Death of Ivan the Terrible and concludes with Tsar Boris.

[3] Tsar Fyodor is written in blank verse and was influenced by the work of William Shakespeare, Casimir Delavigne, and Edward Bulwer-Lytton.

[4] It dramatises the story of Feodor I of Russia, whom the play portrays as a good man who is a weak, ineffectual ruler.

[6] It received its first professional production at Suvorin's theatre in Saint Petersburg on 12 October 1898, directed by P. P.

[7] Two days later on 14 October, the play was performed as the inaugural production of the world-famous Moscow Art Theatre, directed by Constantin Stanislavski, with Ivan Moskvin in the lead role and Vsevolod Meyerhold as Prince Vasiliy Shuisky.