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# The small stature of Marina Mnishek and Tsar Dmitry and the story of the 1606 conspiracy
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/u-alekseia-tolstogo-est-stroki-o-tom-kak-samozvanets-lzhedmitrii-vzobralsia-na-tron-s-nevestoi-marinoi-mnishek-i-zaboltal-vmeste-s-nei-nogami-2/
- Published: 2023-12-14T10:23:24.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:47:43.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Books, Monarchies, People

Aleksey Tolstoy has lines about how the pretender (False Dmitry) climbed onto the throne with his bride (Marina Mniszech) and dangled his legs with her.

Marina Mniszech, the first crowned Russian tsaritsa, and her husband were indeed of very small stature. And if Tsar Dmitry was simply described as "below average", that is, under 160 cm, Mniszech was never described otherwise than with stress on her spare ribs, her fragility and her smallness.

There is even a story of how, thanks to her height, she easily hid beneath the skirt of the Mistress of the Household, Yaroslavtseva-Kazanovskaya, and so escaped during the May conspiracy of 1606\. To fit under the skirt of even a tall woman, one would surely have to be very short indeed, probably little more than 100 cm.

Given such data, it is hard to believe in the myth of the proud, slender beauty on the Russian throne.