Introduction. Dawn on the Moscow River.

Act I

Red Square in Moscow. Dawn. The boyar Shaklovity – a protégé of Tsarevna Sofia – is dictating an anonymous letter to Peter I in which he denounces the head of the streltsys (a privileged military core instituted by Ivan the Terrible) Ivan Khovansky for planning to place this son on the throne and re-establish the old order in Russia. At the same time, the streltsys scouts praise themselves for their recent victory over the loathsome boyars. In memory of these bloody events a column is erected on the square onto which the names of the executed are carved. Strangers just arriving halt at the column. They make the scrivener read out the words to them. In gloomy contemplation they are struck down by the thought of sedition and the streltsys’ despotism.