sentences:  Despite the Tsar's persecution of the boyars, the townspeople's dissatisfaction, and the gradual enserfment of the peasantry, efforts at restricting the power of the Tsar were only halfhearted.Finding no institutional alternative to the autocracy, discontented Russians rallied behind various pretenders to the throne.During that period, the goal of political activity was to gain influence over the sitting autocrat or to place one's own candidate on the throne.