In the past, the appearance of false members of the dynasty (Russian: samozvanstvo) in the Moscow and Russian empires was mostly interpreted as a form of protest. In contrast, the study approaches from a cultural-historical perspective and asks: From which sources did the cultural knowledge that samozvancy and samozvanki needed to appear at all come from? What was known about previous cases and how was such information shared? What factors decided whether a putative member of the dynasty was accepted as genuine? It is shown that the performative behavior of false members of the dynasty was determined on the one hand by the need to be credible and on the other hand by an attempt to remain unnoticed by the authorities. Both make it difficult to attribute a political thrust to the phenomenon.