Fyodor
Basmanov (c.1550-c.1571) was the younger son of Boyar Alexei Basmanov who was one of
Ivan the Terrible’s most trusted generals. Fyodor was initially Ivan’s bodyguard and, later, held the rank of cupbearer while commanding troops in the south of Russia. He fought Tatars alongside his father and had an award for bravery. Both Basmanovs were members of the Oprichnina.
Prince Andrei Kurbsky and several foreigners who lived in Russia claimed that Fyodor was Ivan’s homosexual lover.
Fyodor is usually considered by historians to be one of the closest Ivan’s minions tasked with the most brutal missions. And he is consistently portrayed as gay (or unmanly) in Russian art. Fyodor was married to Princess Varvara Sitskaya, the niece of Tsarina Anastasia (Romanova). As a result, he was related to both Romanovs and Rurikids by marriage. He had at least two male kids, both were later courtiers of Tsar Boris Godunov. In 1670, both Alexei and Fyodor Basmanov were accused of being involved in a massive plot to tear the northern cities of Novgorod and Pskov away from Russia and making them part of Poland (and/or Lithuania). Those accusations (probably, but not necessarily entirely unfounded) led to the extremely brutal suppression of Novgorod that can be classified as regional genocide. Thousands upon thousands of commoners and nobles were exterminated, and Novgorod had never been the same after that. It looks like Alexei was executed, while Fyodor was exiled and/or imprisoned until his death. Fyodor’s wife remarried, and his children were raised by their stepfather.
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