A bad harvest occurs in Russia due to a rainy summer, sparking a famine which is to last for two years.

While Boris’s policies ware rather moderate and well-intentioned, his rule is marred by the general perception of its questionable legitimacy and allegations of his involvement in the orchestrating of the assassination of Dimitry, whose death had ended the Rurikid line.

Nighttime temperatures in all summer months from 1601 to 1603 have often been below freezing, wrecking crops and resulting in extremely poor harvests.

The consequent Russian famine of 1601–1603 is Russia's worst, killing perhaps a third of Russians during what will become known in Russian history the Time of Troubles.

It is probably tied to the eruption of the Huaynaputina volcano in Peru, which has ejected from sixteen million to thirty-two million metric tons of particulates into the atmosphere, notably sulfur dioxide, forming sulfuric acid, thus preventing sunlight from reaching the Earth's surface, causing massive famine and bitterly cold winters.

One hundred and twenty-seven thousand bodies have been buried in mass graves in Moscow alone during this two and half year period.

Widespread hunger has led to mass starvation and the deaths of two million Russians; the government has distributed money and foodstuffs for poor people in Moscow, but that has only led to refugees flocking to the capital and increasing the economic disorganization.

The oligarchical faction, headed by the Romanovs, consider it a disgrace to obey a mere boyar; conspiracies are frequent; the rural districts are desolated by famine and plague; great bands of armed brigands roam the country committing all manner of atrocities; the Don Cossacks on the frontier are restless; and the government shows itself incapable of maintaining order.

Under the influence of the great nobles who had unsuccessfully opposed the election of Godunov, the general discontent takes the form of hostility to him as an usurper, and rumors are heard that the late tsar's younger brother Dmitry, supposed to be dead, is still alive and in hiding.

The actual Dmitry, the half-brother of the late Tsar Feodor I,had died under uncertain circumstances, most likely an assassination attempt in 1591, at the age of nine, at his widowed mother's appanage residence in Uglich.

A pretender claiming to be this Dmitry had appeared in Moscow circa 1600, when he made an impression on Patriarch Job with his learning and assurance.

Tsar Boris Godunov, however, had ordered him to be seized and examined, whereupon he had fled to Prince Constantine Ostrogsky at Ostroh, at this time in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and subsequently entered the service of another Ruthenian family, the Wisniowieckis.

Princes Adam and Michał Wisniowiecki find his story to be convincing, as to who he purports to be, and it gives them an opportunity to get involved in the political turmoil that is transpiring in Russia.

There are vague rumors that Dmitry is an illegitimate son of the Polish king, Stefan Batory, who had reigned from 1575 to 1586.

According to a later tale, Dmitry had blurted out his identity when his master had slapped him in anger.

Dmitry himself claims that his mother, the widow of Tsar Ivan, had anticipated Boris Godunov's assassination attempt and had given him into the care of a doctor who hid with him in Russian monasteries.

After the doctor died, he had fled to Poland where he worked as a teacher for a brief time before coming to the service of Wisniowiecki.

A number of people who had known Tsar Ivan will later claim that Dmitry did resemble the young tsarevitch.

Dmitry displays aristocratic skills like riding and literacy and spoke both Russian and Polish.

Regardless of whether they believe the tale of Dmitry, Adam Wisniowiecki, Roman Różyński, Jan Sapieha and several other Polish noblemen decide to support him against Tsar Boris Godunov.

The Russian Famine of 1601-1603 has meanwhile killed about half the Estonian population.