Stepan Razin is a claimant to the throne of the Muscovite Tsardom. Although Stepan has no real claim to the throne, he says he wants it because Mikhailovich did not reward him well when he was in his service. He is based on a real person who lead a sizable rebellion in southern Russia around 1670, capturing Cherkassk, Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd), and even Astrakhan, Moscow's "window on the East".