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Quite a number o f famous people were exiled to Kiriilov. In 1499 Vasili
Kosoy-Fatrikeyev, a boyar close to Ivan III, fell in to disfavour and was sent
to Kirillov to become a monk under the name of Vassian. He was later
destined to take one of the leading positions in the camp o f «N iestiazhatieli».
During the boyar rule under the very young prince Ivan Vasilievich (the
Terrible) M itropo litan Ioasaf Scripicin was overthrown and exiled to K iril
lo-Belozerski monastery by the Shuiski group. During the stormy reign o f
Ivan the Terrible Lake Beloye area became not only a place o f exile, but a
refuge for noblemen in disfavour who tried sometimes in vain, to hide under
a monk's cassock from the tzar's executioners. In 1560 after a group o f
influen tial tzar's counsellors known as the «chosen rada» was dism issed, one
o f the most p rom inen t state activists o f that period a priest at the Moscow
A nnunc ia tion cathedral Silvester voluntarily jo ined Kirillov monastery. His
example was later followed by boyar Ivan Vasilievich Sheremetev the Big
and many o thers. A special place in the history of Lake Beloye exile is
occup ied by the family o f princes Vorotinski, one o f the last families o f
p rinces, descending from Ruric. Already in 1534 a famous general Ivan
M ikhailovich Vorotinski called the «victorious voivode» was imprisoned here
in 1534, and here it was that he died. His sons were also ou tstand ing m ili
tary commanders. Vladimir Ivanovich, who took part in the Kazan cam
paign, died and was buried in Kirillov in 1553. His more famous b ro the r
M ikhail Ivanovich, who distinguished h imself during the taking o f Kazan
and who repulsed the army o f the Crimean khan in 1572, was twice exiled to
Lake Beloye. He was called back from his first exile o f 1561 after spending
four years there. He was seized for the second time by the order o f Ivan the
Terrible in 1577; he died after being tortu red on the way to the place o f
exile. Later, under Tzar Feodor Ioanovich, one o f the most in fluen tial bo
yars Prince Ivan Petrovich Shuiski who had become famous defending the
city o f Pskov from the army o f Stefan Batori, was imprisoned at Lake Be
loye. It is believed th a t he died an unnatural death in the monastery in 1587.
In 1606 at the end o f his life full o f suffering Casimov Tzarevich Simeon
Bekbulatovich was forcefully made to jo in the monastery. In 1574 by the
whim o f Ivan the Terrible he was declared Moscow Tzar, but a year la te r he
was overthrown and exiled to Tver. After that he was blinded by the o rder of
Godunov , but restored for a short time in his rights under Lzhedm itri. The
new Tzar Vasili Shuiski unsure o f his dynastic rights was anxious to remove
th is seemingly dangerous rival to the remote Lake Beloye monastery. Among
those who were in exile in Kirillov in the XVII century Patriarch N ikon was
undoub ted ly the largest political figure. In 1676 after the death o f Tzar
Aleksei M ikhailovich he was transferred here from the nearby Ferapon tov
monastery , where he had been kept earlier. Only five years later, already
fatally ill he was allowed to retu rn to the Voskresenski Novoierusalimski
m onastery near Moscow, which he had founded. He died on the way to it.
Kirillov was used as a place o f exile up to mid XIX cen tu ry , but there were
no more famous people among its prisoners.
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