“Boris Godunov” - notes by the outstanding Russian historian Sergei Fedorovich Platonov (1860–1933). The history of Boris Godunov’s ascension to the throne has always been replete with speculation, but the author of this study believes that Godunov was perhaps the only ruler who became the head of the Russian state not by right of inheritance, but due to personal talents, which could not but affect the public life of Russia. Platonov also believes that one cannot speak about Godunov’s personality in a purely negative way, since the latter seems to the historian to be an excellent diplomat and politician.