It was evident that the end of the world was at hand! Such was the beginning of the _Raskolniks_, who now number 10,000,000 souls--a conservative Slavonic element which has been a difficult one to deal with.
Upon the death of Alexis, in 1676, his eldest son Feodor succeeded him.
It is only necessary to mention one significant act in his short reign--the destruction of the Books of Pedigrees.

The question of precedence among the great families was the source of endless disputes, and no man would accept a position inferior to any held by his ancestors, nor would serve under a man with an ancestry inferior to his own.

Feodor asked that the Books of Pedigrees be sent to him for examination, and then had them every one thrown into the fire and burned.

This must have been his last act, for his death and this holocaust of ancestral claims both occurred in the year 1682..