Simeon Bekbulatovich

Simeon Bekbulatovich 

(Sain-Bulat before conversion to Christianity). Died Jan. 5 (15), 1616. Kasimov khan; descendant of the khans of the Golden Horde.

Simeon Bekbulatovich first came to Russia in the late 1550’s when his father, Prince Bekbulat, entered the service of Ivan IV Vasil’evich. In the late 1560’s, Simeon became khan of the Kasimov Kingdom. He took part in the Livonian campaigns of the 1570’s. In July 1573 he was baptized, taking the name of Simeon.

In the autumn of 1575, Ivan IV declared Simeon “grand duke of all Rus’” and allotted himself a special appanage. In reality, Ivan retained power in his own hands. After 11 months, Ivan abolished his own appanage, removed Simeon from the “grand dukedom,” and granted him landholdings in Tver’ and Tor-zhok.

Simeon Bekbulatovich became known as “grand duke of Tver,” but lost this title and his lands during the reign of Boris Godunov. In 1606, during the reign of the First False Dmitrii, Simeon took monastic vows under the name of Stefan and entered the Kirill-Belozersk Monastery. He was buried at the Si-monov Monastery in Moscow.