This book, published in Moscow in 1906, contains a copy of the certified charter confirming the election of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov (1596−1645) as ruler of the Tsardom of Muscovy in 1613. The reproduction of the charter appears after page 96, following a lengthy introduction by Sergei A. Belokurov. Copies of the charter were made at Moscow University in 1904 by the Imperial Society of History and Antiquities of Russia to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the society. Belokurov, a historian of the Russian Orthodox Church and an active member of the society, supervised the work. In his introduction, Belokurov summarizes the events that preceded the election of the first Romanov tsar. After the Polish occupiers were driven out of Muscovy in October 1612, the Zemsky Sovet (Land Council) sent official documents to different cities in Muscovite territory, arguing that without a tsar the nation was vulnerable to foreign invasion and imperiled by corruption. The charters stressed the need to protect the country from enemies and the Orthodox Church from heretics (meaning both Catholics and Lutherans). Notables from different parts of the country were asked to come to Moscow to elect a tsar. In January 1612, they formed the Zemsky Sobor (Assembly of the Land). On February 7 of the following year they decided on 16-year-old Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, the nephew of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich. At the Sobor, they adopted the charter shown here. The charter provides brief information about Russian tsars, beginning with the Rurik dynasty in the ninth century. The charter has the text of the speech for the delegation sent by the Sobor to Kostroma, northeast of Moscow, where Mikhail Fedorovich and his mother resided, informing him of the election results. It also contains prepared speeches for Mikhail Fedorovich and his mother, in case he should refuse the crown. The book also includes details about key figures and events in later Russian history. It is preserved in the State Public Historical Library of Russia.