The figure of Ivan I. V. is one of the most significant and complex in our history. Historians of each era gave their assessment of the reign of this king, but always ambiguous. The result of the fifty-four-year reign was the strengthening and centralization of power, an increase in the country's territory, and major reforms, but the methods for achieving these results have been causing a lot of controversy for several centuries.
And now historians, politicians and writers have resumed the discussion about the personality, biography and stages of the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Reports for children on this topic are often given in schools.
Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible was born on August 25, 1530 in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow. His parents were Vasily III and Elena Glinskaya. The future Grand Duke of Moscow and All Rus', and then the first Tsar of All Rus', became the last representative of the Rurik dynasty on the Russian throne.
At the age of three, Ivan Vasilyevich was orphaned, Grand Duke Vasily III became seriously ill and died in 1533, on December 3. Anticipating his imminent death and trying to prevent great strife, the prince created a guardianship council for his young son. In his compound included:
The measures taken, however, did not help; a year later the guardianship council was destroyed, and a struggle for power began under the minor ruler. In 1583, his mother, Elena Glinskaya, died, leaving Ivan an orphan. According to some evidence, she could have been poisoned by the boyars. Supporters of centralized power from management were eliminated by cruel, bloody methods characteristic of the Middle Ages. The education of the future king and the governance of the country on his behalf was in the hands of his enemies. According to contemporaries, Ivan experienced deprivation of the most necessary things, and sometimes simply went hungry.
It is quite difficult to briefly talk about this era, because Grozny ruled for more than half a century. In 1545, Ivan turned 15 years old; according to the laws of that time, he became an adult ruler of his country. This important event in his life was accompanied by impressions of the fire in Moscow, which destroyed more than 25,000 houses, and the uprising of 1547, when the rioting crowd was barely calmed.
At the end of 1546, Metropolitan Macarius invited Ivan Vasilyevich to marry into the kingdom, and sixteen-year-old Ivan expressed a desire to marry. The idea of crowning the kingdom came as an unpleasant surprise to the boyars, but was actively supported by the church, since the strengthening of centralized power in those historical conditions also meant the strengthening of Orthodoxy.
The wedding took place in the Assumption Cathedral in 1547 on January 16. Especially for this occasion, Metropolitan Macarius drew up a solemn rite, signs of royal power were conferred on Ivan Vasilyevich, anointing and blessing for the kingdom took place. The title of king strengthened his position within his country and in relations with other countries.
In 1549, the young tsar began reforms together with representatives of the “Chosen Rada”, which included leading people of that time and the tsar’s associates: Metropolitan Macarius, Archpriest Sylvester, A.F. Adashev, A.M. Kurbsky and others. The reforms were aimed at strengthening centralized power and creating public institutions:
Under Ivan I. V., a command system was created. An interesting fact is that one of the functions of the Ambassadorial Prikaz was the release of captured Russian people through ransom, for which a special “polonian” tax was introduced. At that time, history did not know such examples of caring for the lives of captive compatriots in other countries.
For many years, Rus' suffered from the raids of the Kazan and Crimean khans. The Kazan khans carried out more than forty campaigns that devastated and ravaged the Russian lands.
The first campaign against the Kazan Khan took place in 1545 and was of a demonstration nature. Three campaigns took place under the leadership of Ivan I. V.:
During the conquest of the Khanate, the Russian army did not show cruelty; only the khan was captured, and the elected archbishop converted local residents to Christianity only at their own request. This policy of the tsar and his governor contributed to the natural entry of the conquered regions into Rus', and also to the fact that in 1555 the ambassadors of the Siberian Khan asked to join Moscow.
The Astrakhan Khanate was allied with the Crimean Khanate and controlled the lower reaches of the Volga. To subdue him, two military campaigns were organized:
With the annexation of the Astrakhan Khanate, the influence of Rus' spread to the Caucasus, and the Crimean Khanate lost its ally.
The Crimean khans were vassals of the Ottoman Empire, which at that time sought to conquer and subjugate the countries of southern Europe. The Crimean cavalry, numbering several thousand, regularly raided the southern borders of Rus', sometimes breaking through to the outskirts of Tula. Ivan I.V. offered the Polish king Sigismund I.I. an alliance against the Crimea, but he preferred an alliance with the Crimean Khan. It was necessary to secure the southern regions of the country. For this purpose, military operations were organized:
More from 1547
years, Livonia, Sweden and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania sought to counteract the strengthening of Rus'. At the beginning of 1558, Grozny began a war for access to the trade routes of the Baltic Sea. The Russian army carried out a successful offensive, and in the spring of 1559 the troops of the Livonian Order were defeated. The order practically ceased to exist, its lands were transferred to Poland, Denmark, Sweden and Lithuania. These countries opposed Rus''s access to the sea by all possible means.
Early 1560 year, the king again ordered his troops to go on the offensive. As a result, the Marienburg fortress was taken, and in August of the same year, the Fellin castle, but the Russian troops failed when attacking Revel.
A member of the “Chosen Rada” and the governor of a large regiment, Alexey Adashev was appointed to Fellin Castle, but because of his artistry, he was persecuted by governors from the boyar class and died under unclear circumstances. Following this, Archpriest Sylvester took monastic vows and left the king’s court. The “Chosen Rada” ceased to exist.
The fighting at this stage ended in 1561 with the conclusion of the Union of Vilna, according to which the duchies of Semigallia and Courland were formed. Other Livonian lands were transferred to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
At the beginning of 1563, Polotsk was taken by the troops of Ivan I. V. A year later, the Polotsk army was defeated by the troops of N. Radziwill.
After the actual defeat in the Livonian War, Ivan I. V. decides to tighten domestic policy and strengthen power. In 1565, the tsar announced the introduction of the Oprichnina, the country was divided into the “Oprichnina of the Sovereign” and Zemshchina. The center of the oprichnina lands became the Alexandrovskaya Sloboda, where Ivan I. V. moved with his inner circle.
was presented on January 3 letter of abdication of the king from the throne. This message immediately caused unrest among the townspeople, who did not want the advance of the boyars' power. In turn, the boyars, frightened by the uprising of the people, fled from Moscow and the central lands.
The tsar confiscated the lands of the fleeing boyars and distributed them to the oprichniki nobles. In 1566, noble persons of the Zemshchina filed a petition, where they asked to abolish the Oprichnina. In March 1568, Metropolitan Philip demanded the abolition of the Oprichnina, refusing to bless Ivan the Terrible, for which he was exiled to the Tverskoy Otroch Monastery. Having appointed himself oprichnina abbot, the tsar himself performed the duties of a clergyman.
At the end of 1569, suspecting the Novgorod nobility of conspiring with the Polish king, Ivan Vasilyevich marched at the head of the oprichnina army to Novgorod. Historians say that the campaign against Novgorod was cruel and bloody. Metropolitan Philip, who refused to bless the Tsar and his army in the Tver Youth Monastery, was strangled by the guardsman Malyuta Skuratov, and his family was persecuted. From Novgorod, the oprichnina army and Ivan the Terrible headed to Pskov, and, limiting themselves to a few executions, returned to Moscow, setting up a search for Novgorod treason.
Focusing on resolving issues of domestic policy, Ivan the Terrible almost lost his southern borders. In the second half of the 16th century, military activity of the Crimean Khanate:
The Battle of Molodi ends the history of the Khan's raids on Rus'. The task of protecting the southern borders of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible was solved. At the same time, the outdated oprichnina was abolished.
The security of the country required solving the problem of the Baltic territories. The country did not have access to the sea. Several unsuccessful attempts were made over the years:
The result of military actions between Russia, on the one hand, and Poland and Sweden on the other, was the signing of a truce, humiliating and disadvantageous for our country. The struggle for access to the sea in the Baltic was continued by Peter I.
In 1583, without the knowledge of the tsar, the Cossacks led by Ermak Timofeevich conquered the capital of the Siberian Khanate - Isker, and the troops of Khan Kuchum were defeated. Ermak’s detachment included priests and a hieromonk, who initiated the conversion of the local population to Orthodoxy.
In 1584, on March 28, Ivan I. V., a stern tsar and parent, died. The methods and methods of his rule were fully consistent with the spirit of the times. During the reign of Ivan the Terrible:
Ivan the Terrible is the first Tsar of All Rus', known for his barbaric and incredibly harsh methods of rule. Despite this, his reign is considered significant for the state, which, thanks to the foreign and domestic policies of Grozny, became twice as large in its territory. The first Russian ruler was a powerful and very evil monarch, but managed to achieve a lot in the international political arena, maintaining a total one-man dictatorship in his state, full of executions, disgrace and terror for any disobedience to power.
Ivan the Terrible (Ivan IV Vasilyevich) was born on August 25, 1530 in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow in the family of Grand Duke Vasily III Rurikovich and the Lithuanian princess Elena Glinskaya. He was the eldest son of his parents, so he became the first heir to the throne of his father, whom he was supposed to succeed upon reaching adulthood. But he had to become the nominal Tsar of All Rus' at the age of 3, since Vasily III became seriously ill and died suddenly. After 5 years, the future king’s mother also died, as a result of which at the age of 8 he was left a complete orphan.
The childhood of the young monarch passed in an atmosphere of palace coups, a serious struggle for power, intrigue and violence, which formed a tough character in Ivan the Terrible. Then, considering the heir to the throne to be an incomprehensible child, the trustees did not pay any attention to him, mercilessly killed his friends and kept the future king in poverty, even depriving him of food and clothing. This instilled in him aggression and cruelty, which already in his youth manifested itself in the desire to torture animals, and in the future the entire Russian people.
At that time, the country was ruled by the princes Belsky and Shuisky, nobleman Mikhail Vorontsov and the maternal relatives of the future ruler Glinsky. Their reign was marked for all of Rus' by the careless disposal of state property, which Ivan the Terrible understood very clearly.
In 1543, he first showed his temper to his guardians by ordering the death of Andrei Shuisky. Then the boyars began to fear the tsar, power over the country was completely concentrated in the hands of the Glinskys, who began to please the heir to the throne with all their might, cultivating animal instincts in him.
At the same time, the future tsar devoted a lot of time to self-education and read many books, which made him the most well-read ruler of those times. Then, being a powerless hostage of the temporary rulers, he hated the whole world, and his main idea was to gain complete and unlimited power over people, which he put above any moral laws.
In 1545, when Ivan the Terrible came of age, he became a full-fledged king. His first political decision was the desire to marry into the kingdom, which gave him the right to autocracy and inherit the traditions of the Orthodox faith. At the same time, this royal title also became useful for the country’s foreign policy, as it allowed it to take a different position in diplomatic relations with Western Europe and Russia to claim first place among European states.
From the first days of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, a number of key changes and reforms took place in the state, which he developed with the Elected Rada, and a period of autocracy began in Russia, during which all power fell into the hands of one monarch.
The Tsar of All Rus' devoted the next 10 years to global reform - Ivan the Terrible carried out a zemstvo reform, which formed an estate-representative monarchy in the country, adopted a new code of law that tightened the rights of all peasants and serfs, and introduced a labial reform that redistributed the powers of volosts and governors in favor of the nobility.
In 1550, the ruler distributed estates within 70 km from the Russian capital to the “selected” thousand Moscow nobles and formed a streltsy army, which he armed with firearms. The same period was marked by the enslavement of peasants and the ban on Jewish merchants entering Russia.
The foreign policy of Ivan the Terrible at the first stage of his reign was full of numerous wars, which were very successful. He personally took part in the campaigns and already in 1552 took control of Kazan and Astrakhan, and then annexed part of the Siberian lands to Russia. In 1553, the monarch began to organize trade relations with England, and 5 years later entered into a war with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in which he suffered a resounding defeat and lost part of the Russian lands.
After losing the war, Ivan the Terrible began to look for those responsible for the defeat, broke off legislative relations with the Elected Rada and embarked on the path of autocracy, filled with repression, disgrace and executions of everyone who did not support his policies.
The reign of Ivan the Terrible in the second stage became even tougher and bloodier. In 1565, he introduced a special form of government, as a result of which Russia was divided into two parts - the oprichnina and the zemshchina. The oprichniki, who swore an oath of allegiance to the tsar, fell under his complete autocracy and could not communicate with the zemstvos, who paid the lion's share of their income to the monarch.
In this way, a large army gathered on the estates of the oprichnina, which Ivan the Terrible freed from responsibility. They were allowed to carry out robberies and pogroms of the boyars in a violent manner, and in case of resistance they were allowed to mercilessly execute and kill all those who disagreed with the sovereign.
In 1571, when the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey invaded Rus', the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible demonstrated their complete inability to defend the state - the oprichnina, spoiled by the ruler, simply did not go to war, and out of the entire large army, the tsar managed to assemble only one regiment, which could not resist the army of the Crimean khan. As a result, Ivan the Terrible abolished the oprichnina, stopped killing people, and even ordered the compilation of memorial lists of executed people so that their souls could be buried in monasteries.
The results of the reign of Ivan the Terrible were the collapse of the country's economy and a resounding defeat in the Livonian War, which, according to historians, was his life's work. The monarch realized that while ruling the country, he made many mistakes not only in domestic but also in foreign policy, which by the end of his reign forced Ivan the Terrible to repent.
During this period, he committed another bloody crime and, in moments of rage, accidentally killed his own son and the only possible heir to the throne, Ivan Ivanovich. After this, the king completely despaired and even wanted to go to a monastery.
The personal life of Ivan the Terrible is as eventful as his reign. According to historians, the first Tsar of All Rus' was married seven times. The monarch's first wife was Anastasia Zakharyina-Yuryeva, whom he married in 1547. Over more than 10 years of marriage, the queen gave birth to six children, of whom only Ivan and Fyodor survived.
After Anastasia died in 1560, Ivan the Terrible married the daughter of the Kabardian prince, Maria Cherkasskaya. In the first year of marriage to the monarch, the second wife gave birth to a son, who died at the age of a month. After this, Ivan the Terrible’s interest in his wife disappeared, and 8 years later Maria herself died.
The third wife of Ivan the Terrible, Maria Sobakina, was the daughter of a Kolomna nobleman. Their wedding took place in 1571. The king's third marriage lasted only 15 days - Maria died for unknown reasons. After 6 months, the king remarried Anna Koltovskaya. This marriage was also childless, and after a year of family life, the king imprisoned his fourth wife in a monastery, where she died in 1626.
The ruler's fifth wife was Maria Dolgorukaya, whom he drowned in a pond after their wedding night, because he learned that his new wife was not a virgin. In 1975, he married again Anna Vasilchikova, who did not remain queen for long - she, like her predecessors, suffered the fate of being forcibly exiled to a monastery, allegedly for treason against the king.
The last, seventh wife of Ivan the Terrible was Maria Nagaya, who married him in 1580. Two years later, the queen gave birth to Tsarevich Dmitry, who died at the age of 9. After the death of her husband, Maria was exiled to Uglich by the new king, and then forcibly tonsured a nun. She became a significant figure in Russian history as a mother, whose short reign occurred during the Time of Troubles.
The death of the first Tsar of All Rus', Ivan the Terrible, occurred on March 28, 1584 in Moscow. The ruler died while playing chess from the growth of osteophytes, which in recent years had made him practically immobile. Nervous shocks, an unhealthy lifestyle and this serious illness made Ivan the Terrible, at the age of 53, a “decrepit” old man, which led to such an early death.
Ivan the Terrible was buried next to his son Ivan, who was killed by him, in the Archangel Cathedral, located in the Moscow Kremlin. After the burial of the monarch, persistent rumors began to appear that the king died a violent and not a natural death. Chroniclers claim that Ivan the Terrible was poisoned by poison, who after him became the ruler of Rus'.
The version of the poisoning of the first monarch was checked in 1963 during the opening of the royal tombs - researchers did not find high levels of arsenic in the remains, so the murder of Ivan the Terrible was not confirmed. At this point, the Rurik dynasty was completely stopped, and the Time of Troubles began in the country.
Ivan IV Vasilyevich (1533-1584) ascended the throne at the age of 3 after the death of his father Vasily III. In fact, the state was ruled by his mother Elena Glinskaya, but she also died, presumably from poisoning, when Ivan was 8 years old. After her death, a real struggle for power unfolded between the boyar groups of the Belskys, Shuiskys and Glinskys. This struggle was waged in front of the young ruler, instilling in him cruelty, fear, and suspicion. From 1538 to 1547 5 boyar groups came to power. Boyar rule was accompanied by the removal of 2 metropolitans, theft of the treasury, executions, torture, and exile. Boyar rule led to the weakening of central power and caused a wave of discontent and open protests. The international position of the state has also become more complicated.
In 1547, at the age of 17, Ivan IV was crowned king, becoming the first Tsar in Russian history. In 1549, a circle of close people formed around young Ivan, which was called "The Chosen One" It included Metropolitan Macarius, the Tsar’s confessor Sylvester, Prince A.M. Kurbsky, nobleman A.F. Adashev. The Rada existed until 1560 and carried out a number of reforms.
Reforms of central and local government. In 1549, a new government body arose - the Zemsky Sobor. An order management system was established and the most important orders appeared. During the reign of Ivan IV, the composition of the Boyar Duma was expanded almost three times in order to weaken the role of the old boyar aristocracy in it. Elected zemstvo authorities were established locally in the person of “zemstvo elders,” who were chosen from wealthy townspeople and peasants. General supervision of local government passed into the hands of governors and city clerks. In 1556 the feeding system was abolished. Territory managers began to receive salaries from the treasury.
The territory was divided into the following territorial units: lip(the district) was headed by a provincial elder (from the nobility); parish headed by the zemstvo elder (from the black-sown population); city was headed by a “favorite head” (from local service people).
Thus, as a result of the management reform in Russia, an estate-representative monarchy emerged.
Military reform. In the middle of the sixteenth century. from the Volga to the Baltic, Russia was surrounded by a ring of hostile states. In this situation, the presence of combat-ready troops was extremely important for Russia. Due to a lack of money in the treasury, the government paid for its services with land. For every 150 dessiatines of land (1 dessiatine - 1.09 hectares), a boyar or nobleman had to supply one warrior with a horse and weapons. With regard to military service, votchinas were equivalent to estates. Now a patrimonial owner or landowner could begin service at the age of 15 and pass it on by inheritance. Service people were divided into two main groups: those who served “by fatherland” (i.e. by inheritance - boyars and nobles) and by “device” (i.e. by recruitment - gunners, archers, etc.).
In 1556, the “Code of Service” was first drawn up, which regulated military service. Cossacks were recruited for the border service. Foreigners became another component of the Russian army, but their number was insignificant. During military campaigns, localism was limited.
As a result of the military reform, Russia during the time of Ivan IV began to have an army that it had not had before. The creation of a combat-ready army allowed Russia to solve some long-standing strategic foreign policy problems.
Currency reform. A single monetary unit was introduced throughout the country - the Moscow ruble. The right to collect trade duties passed into the hands of the state. From now on, the entire population of the country had to bear tax- a complex of natural and monetary duties. A single tax collection unit was established for the entire state - big plow. Depending on the fertility of the soil and the social status of the owner, a large plow ranged from 400 to 600 hectares of land.
Judicial reform. In 1550, a new Code of Law was adopted. He introduced changes to the Code of Law of 1497, reflecting the strengthening of central power. It confirmed the right of peasants to move on St. George’s Day (November 26), and the payment for the “elderly” was increased, which further enslaved the peasants. Punishment for bribery was introduced for the first time.
Church reform. In 1551 the Council of the Hundred Heads took place. It was so named because its decisions were formulated in one hundred chapters. For a long time, Stoglav became the code of Russian church law. An all-Russian list of saints was compiled, and unified(brought to uniformity) rituals throughout the country. Church art was subject to regulation: models were approved that were to be followed. The work of Andrei Rublev was proclaimed as a model in painting, and the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin in architecture.
The reforms of the Elected Rada contributed to the strengthening of the Russian centralized state. They strengthened the power of the king, led to the reorganization of local and central government, and strengthened the military power of the country.
Oprichnina. Towards the end of the activities of the Chosen Rada, tension grew between the king and his entourage. The course towards centralization infringed on the interests of many princes and boyars. Dissatisfaction with the protracted Livonian War grew. In 1560, Ivan IV's wife Anastasia Zakharyina-Romanova, whom he loved very much, died. The Tsar suspected the boyars to be responsible for her death. In the early 1560s. betrayals became more frequent, the loudest of which was the flight of A. Kurbsky.
In 1565, Ivan IV introduced the oprichnina (1565-1572). The territory of Russia was divided into two parts: the oprichnina and the zemshchina. The oprichnina included the most important lands. Here the king had the right to be an unlimited ruler. Ivan IV settled an oprichnina army on these lands; the population of the zemshchina had to support it. Feudal lords who were not included in the oprichnina army, but whose land was located in the oprichnina, were evicted to the zemshchina. Fighting the remnants of the appanage orders and trying to destroy the slightest opposition sentiments, Ivan IV carried out a cruel reign of terror. It was directed against the boyars and nobles, whom the tsar suspected of treason, but the common population also suffered from them. According to various estimates, 3-4 thousand people died from oprichnina terror. The oprichnina led to the ruin of the country, the desolation of many lands, worsened the situation of the peasants and largely contributed to their further enslavement. For the character shown during the oprichnina years, Ivan IV began to be called “The Terrible.”
Foreign policy Russia under Ivan IV was divided into three directions. On western direction, the main goal was access to the Baltic Sea. Trying to reach him, Ivan IV waged a grueling 25-year Livonian War (1558-1583). At first, the war went well. In 1560, the Livonian Order was defeated, but its lands came under the rule of Poland, Denmark and Sweden. Instead of one weak enemy, Russia received three strong ones. The war was aggravated by the betrayal of A. Kurbsky and the oprichnina. The Livonian War ended with the defeat of Russia. It was not possible to obtain access to the Baltic Sea. Foreign trade continued to be carried out through the White Sea. In the middle of the 16th century. Maritime connections were established with England. From Western Europe through Arkhangelsk, Russia imported weapons, cloth, jewelry, and wine in exchange for furs, flax, hemp, honey, and wax.
On eastern direction, the main goal was the fight against the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates and the annexation of Siberia. The Kazan and Astrakhan khanates, formed as a result of the collapse of the Golden Horde, constantly threatened Russian lands. Here were the fertile soils that the Russian nobility dreamed of. In 1552 the Kazan Khanate was annexed, in 1556 the Astrakhan Khanate was annexed. The Nogai Horde (the lands from the Volga to the Irtysh) recognized its dependence on Russia. Russia included Tatars, Bashkirs, Udmurts, Mordovians, and Maris. Relations with the peoples of the North Caucasus and Central Asia have expanded. New fertile lands and the entire trade route along the Volga came under Russian control. The Volga trade route connected Russia with the countries of the East, from where silk, fabrics, porcelain, paints, spices, etc. were brought.
The annexation of Kazan and Astrakhan opened up the possibility of advancing into Siberia. The wealthy merchants Stroganovs received charters from Ivan IV to own lands along the Tobol River. Using their own funds, they formed a detachment of free Cossacks led by Ermak. In 1581, Ermak and his army entered the territory of the Siberian Khanate, and a year later defeated the troops of Khan Kuchum and took his capital, Kashlyk. The population of Siberia had to pay yasak– natural fur rent.
On southern direction, the main goal was to protect the country from attacks by the Crimean Tatars, since in the 16th century. The development of the territory of the Wild Field (fertile lands south of Tula) began. The Tula and Belgorod serif lines were built. The fight was carried out with varying degrees of success. In 1571, the Crimean Khan and his army reached Moscow and burned its settlement. The oprichnina army was unable to resist this, probably prompting the tsar to abolish the oprichnina. In 1572, at the Battle of Molodi, the Crimean troops were defeated by the united Russian army.
Thus, under Ivan IV, the most successful direction of foreign policy turned out to be the eastern one, and the most unsuccessful - the western one.
Historians assess the significance of the personality and activities of Ivan the Terrible contradictory. Some scientists believe that the policies of Ivan the Terrible undermined the power of the country and predetermined the further Troubles. Other researchers consider Ivan the Terrible a great creator.
The activities of the first Russian Tsar should be assessed taking into account the time: he was forced to apply repression against the boyars, since at that time the top of the boyars had become an anti-state force. According to the most recent estimates by scientists, during the 37 years of his reign, on the orders of Ivan the Terrible, from 3 to 4 thousand people were killed. For comparison, his contemporary, the French king Charles IX, in 1572 alone, with the blessing of the Pope, destroyed 30 thousand Huguenots - Catholic Protestants. Ivan the Terrible was undoubtedly a despot. But the tsar’s despotism was caused by the internal and external circumstances in which Russia found itself in the middle of the 16th century.
Ivan the Terrible (Ivan IV, Ivan Vasilyevich) ruled Russia from 1547 to 1584. He had the goal of strengthening and exalting his state and his own power in it. He continued the policy of his grandfather and father, the Grand Dukes of Moscow Ivan the Third the Great and Vasily the Third Ivanovich, establishing centralization orders in Muscovy and expanding its territory in every possible way.“The Tsar did or planned a lot of good, smart, even great things, and along with this he did even more actions that made him an object of horror and disgust for his contemporaries and subsequent generations” (V. Klyuchevsky “Course of Russian History”)
The reign of Ivan the Terrible over the Russian state 1547 - 1584
Ivan Vasilyevich (Grozny) was the eldest son of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III and Elena Glinskaya (daughter of Prince Vasily Lvovich from the Lithuanian Glinsky family and his wife Anna, originally from Serbia)
“By nature, Ivan received a lively and flexible mind, thoughtful and a little mocking. But the circumstances among which Ivan’s childhood passed spoiled this mind early and gave it an unnatural, painful development. Since childhood, he saw himself among strangers. A feeling of orphanhood, abandonment, and loneliness was etched into his soul early and deeply and remained throughout his life, about which he repeated at every opportunity: “My relatives did not care about me.” Hence his timidity, which became the main feature of his character. Like all people who grew up among strangers, without a father's gaze or a mother's greeting, Ivan early acquired the habit of walking around looking around and listening. This developed suspicion in him, which over the years turned into a deep distrust of people. As a child, he often experienced indifference or neglect from others. He himself later recalled in a letter to Prince Kurbsky how he and his younger brother Yuri were constrained in everything in childhood, kept like wretched people, poorly fed and clothed, not given any will in anything, forced to do everything by force and beyond their age. On solemn, ceremonial occasions - when leaving or receiving ambassadors - they surrounded him with royal pomp, stood around him with servile humility, and on weekdays the same people did not stand on ceremony with him, sometimes pampered him, sometimes teased him. They used to play with their brother Yuri in the bedroom of their late father, and the leading boyar, Prince I.V. Shuisky, would lounge in front of them on a bench, lean his elbow on the bed of the late sovereign, their father, and put his foot on it, not paying any attention to the children , neither paternal, nor even sovereign"
Elena Glinskaya ruled Muscovy for five years. It was a time of numerous boyar intrigues against her, arrests and deaths of the conspirators. Under Helena in 1537, a peace beneficial for Russia was concluded with the Polish king Sigismund I, which ended the Russian-Lithuanian war of 1534-1537, Sweden pledged not to help the Livonian Order and Lithuania, a monetary reform was carried out (a single currency was introduced - silver money weighing 0. 34 gr.), the Kitai-Gorod wall was built
Crowning - the coronation ceremony of Russian monarchs, which had a pronounced sacred connotation and included the sacrament of anointing
The “Chosen Rada” included princes D. Kurlyatev, M. Vorotynsky, A. Kurbsky, okolnichy A. Adashev, Moscow Metropolitan Macarius, priest of the home church of the Moscow kings Sylvester, clerk of the Ambassadorial Prikaz I. Viskovaty
Eternally anxious and suspicious, Ivan early got used to thinking that he was surrounded only by enemies, and cultivated in himself a sad inclination to look out for how an endless network of intrigues was being woven around him, with which, it seemed to him, they were trying to entangle him from all sides. This made him constantly on guard; the thought that an enemy was about to rush at him from around the corner became his habitual, every-minute expectation. With a suspicious and painfully excited sense of power, he considered good direct advice an encroachment on his sovereign rights, disagreement with his plans - a sign of sedition, conspiracy and treason. Having removed good advisers from himself, he surrendered to the one-sided direction of his suspicious political thought, which everywhere suspected intrigues and sedition, and inadvertently raised the old question about the attitude of the sovereign to the boyars - a question that he was not able to resolve and which therefore should not have been raised. This question was insoluble for the Moscow people of the 16th century. Therefore, it was necessary to hush it up for the time being, smoothing out the contradiction that caused it through the means of prudent policy, but Ivan wanted to cut the issue down at once, exacerbating the contradiction itself
As a result, the whole country was divided into two parts - zemshchina and oprichnina, that is, into state and personal lands of the kings. The oprichnina included the northern and northwestern regions, rich in fertile lands, some central destinies, the Kama region, and even individual streets of Moscow. The capital of the oprichnina became Alexandrovskaya Sloboda, the capital of the state still remained Moscow. The oprichnina lands were ruled personally by the tsar, and the zemstvo lands by the Boyar Duma; the oprichnina also had a separate treasury, its own. However, the Grand Parish, that is, the analogue of the modern Tax Administration, which was responsible for the receipt and distribution of taxes, was uniform for the entire state; The Ambassadorial Order also remained common. This seemed to symbolize that, despite the division of the lands into two parts, the state is still united and indestructible
The theme of the Novgorod veche is illustrated by a painting by a proletarian artist, where a group of fashionable boyars argue almost to the point of a fight with ragged workers. Meanwhile, the greatest expert on Ancient Novgorod, Anatoly Kirpichnikov, assures that there were no crowds at the meeting, but sat on benches. Kirpichnikov lined the entire Sofia Square with benches, and it turned out that no more than 300 people could attend the meeting. This means that Novgorod democracy was representative, parliamentary. In Novgorod during the so-called “Mongol-Tatar yoke,” the literacy of the population was universal, children were taught in schools. Instead of bast shoes, they wore morocco here, since there was little dirt on the streets: city services lined the sidewalks with wood. The scribe books mention about 30 trades that the Novgorodians were engaged in in addition to their agricultural work. By the 15th century in Vodskaya Pyatina alone (northwest Novgorod possessions) there were 215 blast furnaces, each smelting 1.5 tons of iron. Even then, firearms were produced in the city. Along with London, Bruges, Cologne, Bergen, Hamburg, our northern city was a member of the Hanseatic League - the then prototype of the WTO. If in the 15th century. Novgorod defeated Moscow, we probably would have had a completely different story. But it turned out the other way around. Later, under Ivan the Terrible, the guardsmen carried out genocide in Novgorod on such a scale that 150 years later, Peter I was thinking about how to teach at least noble children to write their names and where to get guns for the war with the Swede (“Arguments of the Week,” No. 34 (576) from 08/31/2017)
The internal policy of Ivan the Terrible was subordinated to the goal of strengthening and centralizing government, strengthening royal power, weakening the influence of feudal boyars on affairs in the country, and establishing the supremacy of the state over the church.
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Convening of the Zemsky Sobor (1549, February 27)
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Organization of the royal service. Around Moscow, 1070 nobles received land, which formed a new Streltsy army for Rus' (1549, October)
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The adoption of the new “Tsar’s Code of Law”, which introduced a common unit for collecting taxes, confirmed the right of peasants to move on St. George’s Day, and punishment for bribery was introduced for the first time (1550, June)
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The Stoglavy Sobor (Church and Zemsky Sobor) limited the further growth of church properties in cities and the financial privileges of the clergy; the unification of the all-Russian pantheon of saints took place, the regulation of services and rituals, the establishment of schools for the population (1551, early January)
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Zemstvo reform: “the abolition of feeding, replacing governors and volostels with elected public authorities, entrusting not only the criminal police to the zemstvo worlds themselves, but also the entire local zemstvo administration together with the civil court” (1552)
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Reorganization of public administration - formation of a system of orders (future ministries): Petition, Ambassadorial, Local, Streletsky, Pushkarsky, Bronny, Robbery, Printed, Sokolnichiy, Zemsky orders
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Abolition of some boyar privileges, in particular the right to a portion of tax revenues (1555)
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The “Code of Service” (on the military service of nobles) was adopted (1556)
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Change in entry into inheritance rights: in the absence of immediate heirs, the estates are transferred to the state (1562)
Ivan groznyj- the nickname of John IV Vasilyevich, Grand Duke of Moscow and All Rus' (since 1533), the first Russian Tsar, who ruled from 1547 for 50 years 105 days - among everyone who has ever headed the Russian state, this is a record. Ivan the Terrible was the son of the Grand Duke of Moscow and All Rus' Vasily III, a descendant of the Rurik dynasty. His mother, Princess Elena Glinskaya, belonged to the most ancient family, originating from Mamai.
Ivan Vasilyevich was born near Moscow, in the village. Kolomenskoye on August 25, 1530. He became a ruler, however, so far only a nominal one, at the age of three and was under the supervision of a special guardian boyar commission created by his father, who foresaw his imminent death. However, the state was under the power of this council for less than a year, after which numerous upheavals occurred.
In 1545, fifteen-year-old Ivan, who had become an adult by the standards of that time, became a full-fledged ruler. The solemn ceremony of his coronation took place on January 16, 1547 in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. The 16-year-old sovereign himself initiated this ritual, but many historians believe that he made this decision not without the influence of others. In 1560, the tsar abolished the Chosen Rada and began to rule exclusively independently.
The long years of Ivan the Terrible's reign were marked by a large number of various reforms and changes in the life of the state. For example, under him, zemstvo councils began to be created, a system of orders was formed, and the oprichnina was formed. The king fought his enemies, sometimes imaginary, with the most severe and merciless methods. He imposed a temporary ban on the traditional transfer of serfs to new owners on St. George’s Day.
In the field of foreign policy, the reign of Ivan the Terrible was marked by a large number of wars that went on almost without interruption. If at first the sovereign was lucky (in 1552 the Kazan Khanate was conquered, in 1556 - the Astrakhan Khanate), then the 25th Livonian War ended with huge losses for Russia. At the same time, Ivan the Terrible did a lot to develop trade and political relations with other states, in particular with England, Holland, the Bukhara Khanate, etc.
Ivan the Terrible has remained for centuries not only as a ruler, but also as a unique, controversial personality. From the position of that time, the king was an educated man. The well-known letters to Kurbsky speak of his outstanding literary abilities. It is possible that some literary monuments of that time, in particular, chronicle collections, “Sovereign Discharge”, etc., were compiled not without the influence of the tsar. It is known that he did a lot for book printing, contributed to the development of architecture, initiating the construction of a number of buildings, in particular, St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.
The energy, determination, and foresight of the sovereign coexisted in his nature with doubts and spontaneous actions. The king had sadistic tendencies and a mania for persecution; his tough temper and fits of anger went down in history; one of these outbursts ended in 1582 with the murder of his own son. Shortly before his death, he accepted monasticism.
The biography of Ivan the Terrible came to an end on March 18, 1584. The Moscow Archangel Cathedral became his burial place. After the death of the sovereign, there was a lot of talk about the fact that she was violent. At the same time, it is known that in his mature years he was not in excellent health and looked much older than his years. 6 years before the death of the king, his spine was in such poor condition that the sovereign was moved on a stretcher. It is not possible to reliably confirm or refute rumors of a murder; the death of Ivan the Terrible remains shrouded in mystery.
Ivan IV Vasilievich, nicknamed the Terrible, also had the names Titus and Smaragd, tonsured - Jonah (August 25, 1530, the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow - March 18 (28), 1584, Moscow) - sovereign, Grand Duke of Moscow and All Rus' since 1533, the first king of all Rus' (since 1547; except 1575-1576, when Simeon Bekbulatovich was nominally the “Grand Duke of All Rus'”).
The eldest son of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III and Elena Glinskaya. Nominally, Ivan became ruler at the age of 3. After the uprising in Moscow in 1547, he ruled with the participation of a circle of close associates - the “Chosen Rada”. Under him, the convening of Zemsky Sobors began, and the Code of Laws of 1550 was compiled. Reforms of the military service, judicial system and public administration were carried out, including the introduction of elements of self-government at the local level (provincial, zemstvo and other reforms). The Kazan and Astrakhan khanates were conquered, Western Siberia, the Don Army Region, Bashkiria, and the lands of the Nogai Horde were annexed. Thus, under Ivan IV, the increase in the territory of the Russian state was almost 100%, from 2.8 million km² to 5.4 million km²; by the end of his reign, Russia had become larger than the rest of Europe.
In 1560, the Elected Rada was abolished, its main figures fell into disgrace, and the Tsar’s completely independent reign in Russia began. The second half of the reign of Ivan the Terrible was marked by a streak of failures in the Livonian War and the establishment of the oprichnina, during which the country was devastated and the old clan aristocracy was dealt a blow and the positions of the local nobility were strengthened. Formally, Ivan IV ruled longer than any ruler who has ever headed the Russian state - 50 years and 105 days.
On his father's side, Ivan came from the Moscow branch of the Rurik dynasty, on his mother's side - from Mamai, who was considered the ancestor of the Lithuanian princes Glinsky. Paternal grandmother, Sophia Palaeologus, is from the family of Byzantine emperors. Maternal grandmother Anna Jaksic is the daughter of the Serbian governor Stefan Jaksic. Ivan became the first son of Grand Duke Vasily III from his second wife, after many years of childlessness. Born on August 25, he received the name Ivan in honor of St. John the Baptist, the day of the Beheading of whose head falls on August 29. He was baptized in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery by Abbot Joasaph (Skripitsyn); Two elders of the Joseph-Volotsk monastery were elected as successors - monk Cassian Bosoy and abbot Daniel.
Tradition says that in honor of the birth of John, the Church of the Ascension was founded in Kolomenskoye. According to the right of succession to the throne established in Rus', the grand-ducal throne passed to the eldest son of the monarch, but Ivan (“direct name” by birthday - Titus) was only three years old when his father, Grand Duke Vasily III, became seriously ill. The closest contenders to the throne, except for the young Ivan , were Vasily’s younger brothers. Of the six sons of Ivan III, two remained - Prince Staritsky Andrei and Prince Dmitrovsky Yuri.
Anticipating his imminent death, Vasily III formed a “seven-strong” boyar commission to govern the state (it was to the guardian council under the young Grand Duke that the name “Seven Boyars” was first applied, more often in modern times associated exclusively with the oligarchic boyar government of the Time of Troubles in the period after the overthrow of Tsar Vasily Shuisky). The guardians were supposed to take care of Ivan until he reached the age of 15. The guardianship council included his uncle, Prince Andrei Staritsky (younger brother of his father - Vasily III), M. L. Glinsky (uncle of his mother - Grand Duchess Elena) and advisers: the Shuisky brothers (Vasily and Ivan), Mikhail Zakharyin, Mikhail Tuchkov, Mikhail Vorontsov. According to the Grand Duke’s plan, this should have preserved the order of government of the country by trusted people and reduced discord in the aristocratic Boyar Duma. The existence of the regency council is not recognized by all historians: thus, according to the historian A. A. Zimin, Vasily III transferred the management of state affairs to the Boyar Duma, and appointed M. L. Glinsky and D. F. Belsky as guardians of the heir. A.F. Chelyadnina was appointed mother for Ivan.
Vasily III died on December 3, 1533, and after 8 days the boyars got rid of the main contender for the throne - Prince Yuri of Dmitrov.
The Guardian Council ruled the country for less than a year, after which its power began to crumble. In August 1534, a number of changes took place in the ruling circles. On August 3, Prince Semyon Belsky and the experienced military commander Ivan Vasilyevich Lyatsky left Serpukhov and went to serve the Lithuanian prince. On August 5, one of the guardians of young Ivan, Mikhail Glinsky, was arrested and died in prison at the same time. Semyon Belsky's brother Ivan and Prince Ivan Vorotynsky and their children were captured for complicity with the defectors. In the same month, another member of the guardianship council, Mikhail Vorontsov, was also arrested. Analyzing the events of August 1534, the historian S. M. Solovyov concludes that “all this was a consequence of the general indignation of the nobles against Elena and her favorite Ivan Obolensky.”
Andrei Staritsky's attempt to seize power in 1537 ended in failure: locked in Novgorod from the front and rear, he was forced to surrender and ended his life in prison.
In April 1538, 30-year-old Elena Glinskaya died (according to one version, she was poisoned by the boyars), and six days later the boyars (princes Ivan and Vasily Vasily Shuisky with advisers) got rid of Obolensky. Metropolitan Daniil and clerk Fyodor Mischurin, staunch supporters of a centralized state and active figures in the government of Vasily III and Elena Glinskaya, were immediately removed from government. Metropolitan Daniel was sent to the Joseph-Volotsk Monastery, and Mishchurina " the boyars executed... not loving the fact that he stood for the Grand Duke's cause».
According to the recollections of Ivan himself, “ Prince Vasily and Ivan Shuisky arbitrarily imposed themselves […] as guardians and thus reigned", the future Tsar with his brother Yuri " began to educate them as foreigners or the last poor people,” up to “deprivation of clothing and food».
In 1545, Ivan came of age at the age of 15, thus becoming a full-fledged ruler. One of the strongest impressions of the tsar in his youth was the “great fire” in Moscow, which destroyed over 25 thousand houses, and the Moscow uprising of 1547. After the murder of one of the Glinskys, a relative of the Tsar, the rebels came to the village of Vorobyovo, where the Grand Duke had taken refuge, and demanded the extradition of the remaining Glinskys. With great difficulty, they managed to persuade the crowd to disperse, convincing them that there were no Glinskys in Vorobyov.
Great sovereign title of Tsar John IV Vasilyevich at the end of his reign
Bzhgїey mlⷭ҇tїyu, great gdⷭ҇r tsr҃y and і great k҃z і҆ѡа́н васи́лїевичь зѧ̀рꙋсїи, Vladimirsk, Moscow, vogo Rodsk, Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan, Pskov, Great Kazan, Smolensk, Tver, Yugorsk, Perm, in Turkish, Bulgarian and Inynykh, where ⷭ҇r and the Great Kazakh New Town Nizovsk land, Chernigov, Rizan, Polotsk, Rostov, ꙗ҆roslavsk, Beloyezersk, ᲂU҆dorsk, ѻ҆bdorsk, cond And the ruler of all Siberian lands and northern countries, and where is the land of Bethlehem and other countries.
On December 13, 1546, Ivan Vasilyevich for the first time expressed to Metropolitan Macarius his intention to marry, and before that Macarius invited Ivan the Terrible to marry into the kingdom.
A number of historians (N.I. Kostomarov, R.G. Skrynnikov, V.B. Kobrin) believe that the initiative to accept the royal title could not have come from a 16-year-old boy. Most likely, Metropolitan Macarius played an important role in this. The consolidation of the king's power was also beneficial to his maternal relatives. V. O. Klyuchevsky adhered to the opposite point of view, emphasizing the sovereign’s early desire for power. In his opinion, “the tsar’s political thoughts were developed in secret from those around him,” and the idea of a wedding came as a complete surprise to the boyars.
Casket-ark for storing the letter of confirmation of Ivan IV's reign. Artist F. G. Solntsev. Russia, F. Chopin's factory. 1853-48 Bronze, casting, gilding, silvering, embossing. State Historical Museum
The ancient “Greek kingdom” with its divinely crowned rulers has always been a model for Orthodox countries, but it fell under the blows of the infidels. Moscow, in the eyes of Orthodox Russian people, was to become the heir of Tsaryagrad-Constantinople. The triumph of autocracy also personified for Metropolitan Macarius the triumph of the Orthodox faith, so the interests of the royal and spiritual authorities were intertwined (Philofey). At the beginning of the 16th century, the idea of the divine origin of the sovereign's power became increasingly recognized. Joseph Volotsky was one of the first to talk about this. Archpriest Sylvester’s different interpretation of supreme power later led to the latter’s exile. The idea that the autocrat is obliged to obey God and his regulations in everything runs through the entire “Message to the Tsar.”
On January 16, 1547, a solemn wedding ceremony took place in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, the order of which was drawn up by the Metropolitan. The Metropolitan placed on Ivan the signs of royal dignity: the cross of the Life-Giving Tree, the barma and the cap of Monomakh; Ivan Vasilyevich was anointed with myrrh, and then the Metropolitan blessed the Tsar.
After the wedding, Ivan’s relatives strengthened their position, achieving significant benefits, but after the Moscow Uprising of 1547, the Glinsky family lost all their influence, and the young ruler became convinced of the striking discrepancy between his ideas about power and the real state of affairs.
Later, in 1558, Patriarch Joasaph II of Constantinople informed Ivan the Terrible that “ his royal name is commemorated in the Cathedral Church on all Sundays, like the names of former Greek Kings; this is ordered to be done in all dioceses where there are metropolitans and bishops», « and about your blessed wedding to the kingdom from St. Metropolitan of All Rus', our brother and colleague, was accepted by us for the good and worthy of your kingdom». « Show us, - wrote Joachim, Patriarch of Alexandria, - in these times, a new nourisher and provider for us, a good champion, chosen and instructed by God as the Ktitor of this holy monastery, as was once the divinely crowned and equal-to-the-apostles Constantine... Your memory will remain with us unceasingly, not only in the church rule, but also at meals with the ancient, former formerly Kings».
The new title made it possible to take a significantly different position in diplomatic relations with Western Europe. The title of grand duke was translated as “great duke,” while the title “tsar” in the hierarchy stood on a par with the title emperor.
Unconditionally, the title of Ivan was recognized by England already in 1555, followed a little later by Spain, Denmark and the Florentine Republic. In 1576, Emperor Maximilian II, wanting to attract Ivan the Terrible to an alliance against Turkey, offered him the throne and the title of “emerging [Eastern] Caesar” in the future. John IV was completely indifferent to the “Greek kingdom”, but demanded immediate recognition of himself as the king of “all Rus'”, and the emperor conceded on this fundamentally important issue, especially since Maximilian I still titled Vasily III “ By the grace of God, Tsar and Possessor of the All-Russian and Grand Duke" The papal throne turned out to be much more stubborn, defending the exclusive right of popes to grant royal and other titles, and on the other hand, did not allow the principle of a “single empire” to be violated. In this irreconcilable position, the papal throne found support from the Polish king, who perfectly understood the significance of Moscow’s claims. Sigismund II Augustus presented a note to the papal throne in which he warned that the papacy’s recognition of Ivan IV’s title of “Tsar of All Rus'” would lead to the separation from Poland and Lithuania of lands inhabited by “Rusyns” related to the Muscovites, and would attract Moldovans and Wallachians to his side. For his part, John IV attached particular importance to the recognition of his royal title by the Polish-Lithuanian state, but Poland throughout the 16th century never agreed to his demand. Thus, one of the successors of Ivan IV, his imaginary son False Dmitry I, used the title of “Tsar,” but Sigismund III, who helped him take the Moscow throne, officially called him simply a prince, not even “great.”
With the accession to the throne in 1740 of the infant Emperor Ivan Antonovich, a digital indication was introduced in relation to the Russian tsars bearing the name Ivan (John). Ioann Antonovich began to be called Ioann III Antonovich. This is evidenced by rare coins that have come down to us with the inscription “ John III, by the grace of God, Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia».
« The great-grandfather of John III Antonovich received the specified title of Tsar John II Alekseevich of All Rus', and Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible received the specified title Tsar Ivan I Vasilyevich of All Rus'" Thus, initially Ivan the Terrible was called Ivan the First.
The digital part of the title - IV - was first assigned to Ivan the Terrible by Karamzin in the “History of the Russian State”, since he began counting from Ivan Kalita.
V. M. Vasnetsov Tsar Ivan the Terrible, 1897
Since 1549, together with the “Chosen Rada” (A.F. Adashev, Metropolitan Macarius, A.M. Kurbsky, Archpriest Sylvester, etc.), Ivan IV carried out a number of reforms aimed at centralizing the state and building public institutions.
In 1549, the first Zemsky Sobor was convened with representatives from all classes, except the peasantry. A class-representative monarchy took shape in Russia.
In 1550, a new code of law was adopted, which introduced a single unit for collecting taxes - a large plow, which amounted to 400-600 acres of land, depending on the fertility of the soil and the social status of the owner, and limited the rights of slaves and peasants (the rules for the transfer of peasants were tightened).
In the early 1550s, zemstvo and provincial reforms were carried out (started by the government of Elena Glinskaya) that redistributed part of the powers of governors and volostels, including judicial ones, in favor of elected representatives of the black-growing peasantry and nobility.
In 1550, the “chosen thousand” of Moscow nobles received estates within 60-70 km from Moscow and a semi-regular infantry army armed with firearms was formed. In 1555-1556, Ivan IV abolished feeding and adopted the Code of Service. The patrimonial owners became obliged to equip and bring in soldiers depending on the size of their land holdings, on an equal basis with the landowners.
Under Ivan the Terrible, a system of orders was formed: Petition, Posolsky, Local, Streletsky, Pushkarsky, Bronny, Robbery, Pechatny, Sokolnichiy, Zemsky orders, as well as quarters: Galitskaya, Ustyug, Novaya, Kazan order. Since 1551, the functions of the Ambassadorial Order (Chapter 72 of Stoglav “On the Redemption of Prisoners”) were added by the tsar to carry out the ransom of captive subjects from the Horde (for this purpose, a special land tax was collected - “polonian money”).
In the early 1560s, Ivan Vasilyevich carried out a landmark reform of state sphragistics. From this moment on, a stable type of state press appeared in Russia. For the first time, a rider appears on the chest of the ancient double-headed eagle - the coat of arms of the princes of Rurik's house, which was previously depicted separately, and always on the front side of the state seal, while the image of the eagle was placed on the back. The new seal sealed the treaty with the Kingdom of Denmark dated April 7, 1562.
The Council of the Hundred Heads in 1551, at which the tsar, relying on non-covetous people, hoped to carry out the secularization of church lands, met from January-February to May. The Church was forced to answer 37 questions from the young king (some of which exposed unrest in the priesthood and monastic administration, as well as in monastic life) and accept a compromise collection of Stoglav decisions, which regulated church issues.
Under Ivan the Terrible, Jewish merchants were prohibited from entering Russia. When in 1550 the Polish king Sigismund Augustus demanded that they be allowed free entry into Russia, John refused the following words: “ There is no way for the Jew to go to his states, we don’t want to see any dashing in our states, but we want God willing that in my states my people will be in silence without any embarrassment. And you, our brother, would not write to us about Zhidekh in advance"because they are Russian people" They took away from Christianity, and they brought poisonous potions to our lands and many dirty tricks were done to our people».
In the first half of the 16th century, mainly during the reign of khans from the Crimean Girey family, the Kazan Khanate waged constant wars with Muscovite Russia. In total, the Kazan khans made about forty campaigns against Russian lands, mainly in the regions of Nizhny Novgorod, Vyatka, Vladimir, Kostroma, Galich, Murom, Vologda. “From the Crimea and from Kazan to half the earth it was empty,” the tsar wrote, describing the consequences of the invasions.
The history of the Kazan campaigns is often counted from the campaign that took place in 1545, which “had the character of a military demonstration and strengthened the positions of the “Moscow party” and other opponents of Khan Safa-Girey.” Moscow supported the Kasimov ruler Shah Ali, loyal to Rus', who, having become the Kazan Khan, approved the project of a union with Moscow. But in 1546, Shah Ali was expelled by the Kazan nobility, who elevated Khan Safa-Girey from a dynasty hostile to Rus' to the throne. After this, it was decided to take active action and eliminate the threat posed by Kazan. " From now on, - the historian points out, - Moscow has put forward a plan for the final destruction of the Kazan Khanate».
In total, Ivan IV led three campaigns against Kazan. During the first (winter of 1547/1548), due to an early thaw, siege artillery went under the ice on the Volga 15 versts from Nizhny Novgorod, and the troops that reached Kazan stood under it for only 7 days. The second campaign (autumn 1549 - spring 1550) followed the news of the death of Safa-Girey, also did not lead to the capture of Kazan, but the Sviyazhsk fortress was built, which served as a stronghold for the Russian army during the next campaign.
The third campaign (June-October 1552) ended with the capture of Kazan. A Russian army of 150,000 took part in the campaign; the armament included 150 cannons. The Kazan Kremlin was taken by storm. Khan Ediger-Magmet was captured by Russian commanders. The chronicler recorded: “ The sovereign did not order to invest a single copper worker on himself.(that is, not a single penny) , no captivity, just the one king Ediger-Magmet and the royal banners and city cannons" I. I. Smirnov believes that “ The Kazan campaign of 1552 and the brilliant victory of Ivan IV over Kazan not only meant a major foreign policy success for the Russian state, but also contributed to the strengthening of the tsar’s power" Almost simultaneously with the start of the campaign in June 1552, the Crimean Khan Devlet I Giray made a campaign to Tula.
In defeated Kazan, the tsar appointed Prince Alexander Gorbaty-Shuisky as Kazan governor, and Prince Vasily Serebryany as his assistant.
After the establishment of the episcopal see in Kazan, the tsar and the church council by lot elected Abbot Gury to it in the rank of archbishop. Gury received instructions from the tsar to convert Kazan residents to Orthodoxy solely at the own request of each person, but “unfortunately, such prudent measures were not followed everywhere: the intolerance of the century took its toll...”
From the first steps towards the conquest and development of the Volga region, the tsar began to invite to his service all the Kazan nobility who agreed to swear allegiance to him, sending “ in all uluses, black people received dangerous tribute letters, so that they would go to the sovereign without fear of anything; and whoever did it recklessly, God took revenge on him; and their sovereign would grant them, and they would pay tribute, just like the former Kazan king" This nature of the policy not only did not require the preservation of the main military forces of the Russian state in Kazan, but, on the contrary, made Ivan’s solemn return to the capital natural and expedient. During the Livonian War, the Muslim regions of the Volga region began to supply the Russian army with “many three hundred thousand battles,” well prepared for the offensive.
Immediately after the capture of Kazan, in January 1555, the ambassadors of the Siberian Khan Ediger asked the king to “ He took the entire Siberian land under his own name and stood up (defended) from all sides and laid his tribute on them and sent his man to whom to collect the tribute».
In the early 1550s, the Astrakhan Khanate was an ally of the Crimean Khan, controlling the lower reaches of the Volga. Before the final subjugation of the Astrakhan Khanate under Ivan IV, two campaigns were carried out.
The campaign of 1554 was carried out under the command of the governor Prince Yuri Pronsky-Shemyakin. In the battle of the Black Island, the Russian army defeated the lead Astrakhan detachment, and Astrakhan was taken without a fight. As a result, Khan Dervish-Ali was brought to power, promising support to Moscow.
The campaign of 1556 was due to the fact that Khan Dervish-Ali went over to the side of the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire. The campaign was led by governor Ivan Cheremisinov. First, the Don Cossacks of Ataman Lyapun Filimonov’s detachment defeated the Khan’s army near Astrakhan, after which in July Astrakhan was retaken without a fight. As a result of this campaign, the Astrakhan Khanate was subordinated to the Russian kingdom.
In 1556, the capital of the Golden Horde, Sarai-Batu, was destroyed.
After the conquest of Astrakhan, Russian influence began to extend to the Caucasus. In 1559, the princes of Pyatigorsk and Cherkassy asked Ivan IV to send them a detachment to protect against the raids of the Crimean Tatars and priests to maintain the faith; the tsar sent them two governors and priests, who renovated the fallen ancient churches, and in Kabarda they showed extensive missionary activity, baptizing many into Orthodoxy.
During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, trade relations between Russia and England were established through the White Sea and the Arctic Ocean, which greatly affected the economic interests of Sweden, which received considerable income from transit Russian-European trade. In 1553, the expedition of the English navigator Richard Chancellor rounded the Kola Peninsula, entered the White Sea and dropped anchor west of the Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery opposite the village of Nenoksa. Having received news of the appearance of the British within his country, Ivan IV wished to meet with Chancellor, who, having covered about 1000 km, arrived in Moscow with honors. Soon after this expedition, the Moscow Company was founded in London, which subsequently received monopoly trading rights from Tsar Ivan.
The Swedish king Gustav I Vasa, after an unsuccessful attempt to create an anti-Russian union, which would have included the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Livonia and Denmark, decided to act independently.
The first motive for declaring war on Sweden was the capture of Russian merchants in Stockholm. On September 10, 1555, the Swedish admiral Jacob Bagge with a 10,000-strong army besieged Oreshek; the Swedes' attempts to develop an attack on Novgorod were thwarted by a guard regiment under the command of Sheremetev. On January 20, 1556, a Russian army of 20–25 thousand defeated the Swedes at Kivinebb and besieged Vyborg, but failed to take it.
In July 1556, Gustav I made a proposal for peace, which was accepted by Ivan IV. On March 25, 1557, the Second Truce of Novgorod was concluded for forty years, which restored the border defined by the Orekhov Peace Treaty of 1323 and established the custom of diplomatic relations through the Novgorod governor.
In 1547, the king ordered the Saxon Schlitte to bring artisans, artists, doctors, pharmacists, typographers, people skilled in ancient and modern languages, even theologians. However, after protests from Livonia, the Senate of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck arrested Schlitte and his men.
In 1554, Ivan IV demanded that the Livonian Confederation return arrears under the “Yuriev tribute” established by the 1503 treaty, renounce military alliances with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Sweden, and continue the truce. The first payment of the debt for Dorpat was supposed to take place in 1557, but the Livonian Confederation did not fulfill its obligation.
In the spring of 1557, on the shores of Narva, by order of Ivan, a port was established: “The same year, July, a city was established from the German Ust-Narova River Rozsene by the sea for a shelter for sea ships,” “The same year, April, the Tsar and the Grand Duke sent the okolnichy prince Dmitry Semenovich Shastunov and Pyotr Petrovich Golovin and Ivan Vyrodkov to Ivangorod, and ordered a city to be built on Narova below Ivangorod at the mouth of the sea for a ship shelter...” However, the Hanseatic League and Livonia did not allow European merchants to enter the new Russian port, and they continued to go , as before, to Revel, Narva and Riga.
The Posvolsky Treaty, concluded on September 15, 1557 between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Order, created a threat to the establishment of Lithuanian power in Livonia. The agreed position of the Hansa and Livonia to prevent Moscow from engaging in independent maritime trade led Tsar Ivan to the decision to begin the struggle for wide access to the Baltic.
In January 1558, Ivan IV began the Livonian War for the capture of the Baltic Sea coast. Initially, military operations developed successfully. The Russian army carried out active offensive operations in the Baltic states, took Narva, Dorpat, Neuschloss, Neuhaus, and defeated the order troops at Tiersen near Riga. In the spring and summer of 1558, the Russians captured the entire eastern part of Estonia, and by the spring of 1559, the army of the Livonian Order was completely defeated, and the Order itself virtually ceased to exist. At the direction of Alexei Adashev, the Russian governors accepted the truce proposal coming from Denmark, which lasted from March to November 1559, and began separate negotiations with Livonian urban circles on the pacification of Livonia in exchange for some concessions in trade from the German cities. At this time, the lands of the Order came under the protection of Poland, Lithuania, Sweden and Denmark.
In 1560, at the Congress of Imperial Deputies of Germany, Albert of Mecklenburg reported: “ The Moscow tyrant begins to build a fleet on the Baltic Sea: in Narva he turns merchant ships belonging to the city of Lübeck into warships and transfers control of them to Spanish, English and German commanders" The congress decided to address Moscow with a solemn embassy, to which to attract Spain, Denmark and England, to offer eternal peace to the eastern power and stop its conquests.
Grozny's performance in the struggle for the Baltic Sea... amazed central Europe. In Germany, the “Muscovites” seemed to be a terrible enemy; the danger of their invasion was outlined not only in the official communications of the authorities, but also in the extensive flying literature of leaflets and brochures. Measures were taken to prevent Muscovites from accessing the sea and Europeans from entering Moscow and, by separating Moscow from the centers of European culture, to prevent its political strengthening. In this agitation against Moscow and Grozny, many false things were invented about Moscow morals and the despotism of Grozny...
Platonov S. F. Lectures on Russian history...
Since the end of the 15th century, the Crimean khans of the Girey dynasty were vassals of the Ottoman Empire, which was actively expanding in Europe. Part of the Moscow aristocracy and the Pope persistently demanded that Ivan the Terrible enter into a fight with the Turkish Sultan Suleiman the First.
Simultaneously with the beginning of the Russian offensive in Livonia, the Crimean cavalry raided the Russian kingdom, several thousand Crimeans broke through to the outskirts of Tula and Pronsk, and R. G. Skrynnikov emphasizes that the Russian government, represented by Adashev and Viskovaty, “had to conclude a truce on the western borders” , as preparations were made for a “decisive showdown on the southern border.” The Tsar gave in to the demands of the opposition aristocracy to march on the Crimea: “ brave and courageous men advised and advised, so that Ivan himself, with his head, with great troops, would move against the Perekop Khan».
In 1558, the army of Prince Dmitry Vishnevetsky defeated the Crimean army near Azov, and in 1559 the army under the command of Daniil Adashev made a campaign against the Crimea, destroying the large Crimean port of Gezlev (now Yevpatoria) and freeing many Russian captives. Ivan the Terrible proposed an alliance with the Polish king Sigismund II against the Crimea, but he, on the contrary, leaned toward an alliance with the Khanate.
On August 31, 1559, the Master of the Livonian Order Gotthard Ketler and the King of Poland and Lithuania Sigismund II Augustus concluded the Treaty of Vilna on the entry of Livonia under the protectorate of Lithuania, which was supplemented on September 15 by an agreement on military assistance to Livonia by Poland and Lithuania. This diplomatic action served as an important milestone in the course and development of the Livonian War: the war between Russia and Livonia turned into a struggle between the states of Eastern Europe for the Livonian inheritance.
In January 1560, Grozny ordered the troops to go on the offensive again. The army under the command of princes Shuisky, Serebryany and Mstislavsky took the fortress of Marienburg (Aluksne). On August 30, the Russian army under the command of Kurbsky took the master's residence - Fellin Castle. An eyewitness wrote: “ An oppressed Estonian would rather submit to a Russian than to a German" Throughout Estonia, peasants rebelled against the German barons. The possibility of a quick end to the war arose. However, the king's commanders did not go to capture Revel and failed in the siege of Weissenstein. Aleksey Adashev (voivode of a large regiment) was appointed to Fellin, but he, being an honorable man, became mired in parochial disputes with the voivodes above him, fell into disgrace, was soon taken into custody in Dorpat and died there of fever (there were rumors that he poisoned himself, Ivan the Terrible even sent one of his nearby nobles to Dorpat to investigate the circumstances of Adashev’s death). In connection with this, Sylvester left the court and took monastic vows at the monastery, and with that their smaller associates also fell - the end of the Chosen Rada came.
In the autumn of 1561, the Union of Vilna was concluded on the formation of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia on the territory of Livonia and the transfer of other lands to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
In January-February 1563, Polotsk was captured. Here, on the orders of Ivan the Terrible, Thomas, a preacher of reformation ideas and an associate of Theodosius Kosy, was drowned in an ice hole. Skrynnikov believes that the massacre of Polotsk Jews was supported by the abbot of the Joseph-Volokolamsk monastery, Leonid, who accompanied the tsar. Also, by order of the tsar, the Tatars who took part in the hostilities killed the Bernardine monks who were in Polotsk. The religious element in the conquest of Polotsk by Ivan the Terrible is also noted by Khoroshkevich.
On January 28, 1564, the Polotsk army of P.I. Shuisky, moving towards Minsk and Novogrudok, was unexpectedly ambushed and was completely defeated by the troops of N. Radziwill. Grozny immediately accused the governors M. Repnin and Yu. Kashin (heroes of the capture of Polotsk) of treason and ordered them to be killed. In this regard, Kurbsky reproached the tsar for shedding the victorious, holy blood of the governor “in the churches of God.” A few months later, in response to Kurbsky’s accusations, Grozny directly wrote about the crime committed by the boyars.
Allegory of the tyrannical rule of Ivan the Terrible (Germany. First half of the 18th century). Picture from the German weekly David Fassmann “Conversations in the Kingdom of the Dead” (German: Gespräche in dem Reiche derer Todten; 1718-1739).
According to Soviet historians A. A. Zimin and A. L. Khoroshkevich, the reason for Ivan the Terrible’s break with the “Chosen Rada” was that the latter’s program was exhausted. In particular, an “imprudent respite” was given to Livonia, as a result of which several European states were drawn into the war. In addition, the tsar did not agree with the ideas of the leaders of the “Chosen Rada” (especially Adashev) about the priority of the conquest of Crimea in comparison with military operations in the West. Finally, “Adashev showed excessive independence in foreign policy relations with Lithuanian representatives in 1559” and was eventually dismissed. It should be noted that such opinions about the reasons for Ivan’s break with the “Chosen Rada” are not shared by all historians. Thus, Nikolai Kostomarov sees the true background of the conflict in the negative characteristics of the character of Ivan the Terrible, and, on the contrary, evaluates the activities of the “Chosen Rada” very highly. V. B. Kobrin also believed that the personality of the tsar played a decisive role here, but at the same time he links Ivan’s behavior with his commitment to the program of accelerated centralization of the country, opposed to the ideology of gradual changes of the “Chosen Rada”. Historians believe that the choice of the first path was due to the personal character of Ivan the Terrible, who did not want to listen to people who did not agree with his policies. Thus, after 1560, Ivan embarked on a path of tightening power, which led him to repressive measures.
According to R. G. Skrynnikov, the nobility would easily forgive Grozny for the resignation of his advisers Adashev and Sylvester, but she did not want to put up with the attack on the prerogatives of the boyar Duma. The ideologist of the boyars, Kurbsky, protested most strongly against the infringement of the privileges of the nobility and the transfer of management functions into the hands of clerks (deacons): “ The Great Prince has great faith in Russian clerks, and he chooses them neither from the gentry nor from the nobles, but especially from the priests or from the common people, otherwise he makes his nobles hateful».
New discontent of the princes, Skrynnikov believes, was caused by the royal decree of January 15, 1562, limiting their patrimonial rights, even more than before, equating them with the local nobility.
At the beginning of December 1564, according to Shokarev’s research, an armed rebellion was attempted against the king, in which Western forces took part: “ Many noble nobles gathered a considerable party in Lithuania and Poland and wanted to go against their king with arms».
In 1565, Grozny announced the introduction of the Oprichnina in the country. The country was divided into two parts: “To the Sovereign's Grace Oprichnin” and the Zemshchina. The Oprichnina included mainly the northeastern Russian lands, where there were few patrimonial boyars. The center of Oprichnina became the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda - the new residence of Ivan the Terrible, from where on January 3, 1565, messenger Konstantin Polivanov delivered a letter to the clergy, the Boyar Duma and the people about the Tsar’s abdication of the throne. Although Veselovsky believes that Grozny did not declare his renunciation of power, the prospect of the sovereign leaving and the onset of a “sovereign time”, when nobles could again force city merchants and artisans to do everything for them for nothing, could not help but excite Moscow townspeople.
The first victims of the oprichnina were the most prominent boyars: the first governor in the Kazan campaign A. B. Gorbaty-Shuisky with his son Peter, his brother-in-law Pyotr Khovrin, the okolnichy P. Golovin (whose family traditionally occupied the positions of Moscow treasurers), P. I. Gorensky-Obolensky ( his younger brother, Yuri, managed to escape in Lithuania), Prince Dmitry Shevyrev, S. Loban-Rostovsky and others. With the help of the oprichniki, who were exempt from judicial responsibility, Ivan IV forcibly confiscated the boyar and princely estates, transferring them to the oprichniki nobles. The boyars and princes themselves were granted estates in other regions of the country, for example, in the Volga region.
The decree on the introduction of the Oprichnina was approved by the highest bodies of spiritual and secular power - the Consecrated Cathedral and the Boyar Duma. There is also an opinion that this decree was confirmed by the decision of the Zemsky Sobor. But a significant part of the zemshchina protested against the oprichnina, so in 1556 about 300 noble persons of the zemshchina filed a petition for the abolition of the oprichnina; Of the petitioners, 50 were subjected to trade execution, several had their tongues cut out, and three were beheaded.
“Moscow dungeon. The end of the 16th century (Konstantin-Eleninsky gates of the Moscow dungeon at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries)", 1912.
For the ordination of Metropolitan Philip, which took place on July 25, 1566, a letter was prepared and signed, according to which Philip promised “not to interfere in the oprichnina and royal life and, upon appointment, because of the oprichnina ... not to leave the metropolis.” According to R. G. Skrynnikov, thanks to Philip’s intervention, many petitioners of the 1566 Council were released from prison. On March 22, 1568, in the Assumption Cathedral, Philip refused to bless the Tsar and demanded the abolition of the oprichnina. In response, the guardsmen beat the metropolitan's servants to death with iron sticks, then a trial was initiated against the metropolitan in a church court. Philip was defrocked and exiled to the Tver Otroch Monastery.
As the oprichnina “abbot,” the tsar performed a number of monastic duties. So, at midnight everyone got up for the midnight office, at four in the morning for matins, and at eight the mass began. The Tsar set an example of piety: he himself rang for matins, sang in the choir, prayed fervently, and during the common meal read the Holy Scriptures aloud. In general, worship took about 9 hours a day. At the same time, there is evidence that orders for executions and torture were often given in the church. Historian G.P. Fedotov believes that “ Without denying the repentant sentiments of the tsar, one cannot help but see that he knew how to combine atrocity with church piety in established everyday forms, desecrating the very idea of the Orthodox kingdom».
In 1569, the tsar's cousin, Prince Vladimir Andreevich Staritsky, died (presumably, according to rumors, on the order of the tsar, they brought him a cup of poisoned wine and ordered that Vladimir Andreevich himself, his wife and their eldest daughter drink the wine). Somewhat later, Vladimir Andreevich’s mother, Efrosinya Staritskaya, who repeatedly stood at the head of boyar conspiracies against John IV and was repeatedly pardoned by him, was also killed.
In December 1569, suspecting the Novgorod nobility of complicity in the “conspiracy” of Prince Vladimir Andreevich Staritsky, who had recently been killed on his orders, and at the same time of the intention to surrender to the Polish king, Ivan, accompanied by a large army of guardsmen, set out on a campaign against Novgorod. Moving towards Novgorod in the fall of 1569, the guardsmen carried out massacres and robberies in Tver, Klin, Torzhok and other cities they encountered.
In the Tver Otrochy Monastery in December 1569, Malyuta Skuratov personally strangled Metropolitan Philip, who refused to bless the campaign against Novgorod. The Kolychev family, to which Philip belonged, was persecuted; some of its members were executed on Ivan's orders.
On January 2, 1570, military detachments surrounded the city, hundreds of priests were put under arrest, and the monasteries were taken under full control. Four days later the king himself arrived here. He defended the service in the St. Sophia Cathedral and then ordered repressions to begin. The guardsmen began to loot throughout the city and its environs. According to chronicles, the punishers spared no one; adults and children were tortured, beaten, and then thrown directly into the Volkhov River. If anyone survived, they were pushed under the ice with sticks. According to various sources, from 2 thousand to 10 thousand people died.
Having dealt with Novgorod, the tsar set out for Pskov. The tsar limited himself only to the execution of several Pskov residents and the robbery of their property. At that time, as legend says, Grozny was visiting a Pskov holy fool (a certain Nikola Salos). When it was time for lunch, Nikola handed Ivan a piece of raw meat with the words: “Here, eat it, you eat human flesh,” and then threatened Ivan with many troubles if he did not spare the inhabitants. Grozny, having disobeyed, ordered the bells to be removed from one Pskov monastery. At the same hour, his best horse fell under the king, which impressed Ivan. The Tsar hastily left Pskov and returned to Moscow, where a “search” for Novgorod treason began, which was carried out throughout 1570, and many prominent guardsmen were also involved in the case.
In 1563 and 1569, together with Turkish troops, Devlet I Giray made two unsuccessful campaigns against Astrakhan. The Turkish fleet also took part in the second campaign; the Turks also planned to build a canal between the Volga and Don to strengthen their influence in the Caspian Sea, but the campaign ended in an unsuccessful 10-day siege of Astrakhan. Devlet I Giray, dissatisfied with the strengthening of Turkey in this region, also secretly interfered with the campaign.
Beginning in 1567, the activity of the Crimean Khanate began to increase, campaigns were carried out every year. In 1570, the Crimeans, having received almost no resistance, subjected the Ryazan region to terrible devastation.
In 1571, Devlet Giray launched a campaign against Moscow. Having deceived Russian intelligence, the khan crossed the Oka near Kromy, and not at Serpukhov, where the tsarist army was waiting for him, and rushed to Moscow. Ivan left for Rostov, and the Crimeans set fire to the outskirts of the capital, not protected by the Kremlin and Kitai-Gorod. In the subsequent correspondence, the tsar agreed to cede Astrakhan to the khan, but he was not satisfied with this, demanding Kazan and 2000 rubles, and then announced his plans to seize the entire Russian state.
Devlet Giray wrote to Ivan:
I burn and waste everything because of Kazan and Astrakhan, and I apply the wealth of the whole world to dust, hoping for the majesty of God. I came against you, I burned your city, I wanted your crown and head; but you didn’t come and didn’t stand against us, and you still boast that I’m the sovereign of Moscow! If you had shame and dignity, you would come and stand against us.
Stunned by the defeat, Ivan the Terrible replied in a reply message that he agreed to transfer Astrakhan under Crimean control, but refused to return Kazan to the Gireys:
You write about the war in your letter, and if I start writing about the same, then we will not achieve a good deed. If you are angry for the refusal to Kazan and Astrakhan, then we want to give up Astrakhan to you, only now this matter cannot be done soon: for it we must have your ambassadors, but it is impossible to make such a great cause as messengers; Until then you would have granted it, given the terms and not fought our land
Ivan went out to the Tatar ambassadors in a homespun, telling them: “You see me, what am I wearing? This is how the king (khan) made me! Still, he captured my kingdom and burned the treasury, and I have nothing to do with the king.”
In 1572, the khan began a new campaign against Moscow, which ended with the destruction of the Crimean-Turkish army in the Battle of Molodi. The death of a selected Turkish army near Astrakhan in 1569 and the defeat of the Crimean horde near Moscow in 1572 put a limit to Turkish-Tatar expansion in Eastern Europe.
There is a version based on the “History” of Prince Andrei Kurbsky, according to which the winner of Molodi, Vorotynsky, the very next year, by denunciation of a slave, was accused of intending to bewitch the tsar and died from torture, and during the torture the tsar himself raked the coals with his staff.
Grand Duke John IV Vasilievich
(miniature from the Tsar's titular book of 1672)
Sources report different versions of the king's flight. Most of them agree that the tsar was heading towards Yaroslavl, but only reached Rostov. In the news of Devlet-Girey's raid, which occurred in April - May 1571, Horsey's notes quite accurately, judging by other sources, convey the outline of events, starting with the burning of Moscow.
John Vasilyevich the Great, Emperor of Russia, Prince of Muscovy. From Ortelius' map of 1574
In 1571, the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey invaded Rus'. According to V.B. Kobrin, the decayed oprichnina demonstrated complete incapacity for combat: the oprichnina, accustomed to robbing civilians, simply did not show up for the war, so there were only one regiment of them (against five zemstvo regiments). Moscow was burned. As a result, during the new invasion in 1572, the oprichnina army was already united with the zemstvo army; in the same year, the tsar completely abolished the oprichnina and banned its very name, although in fact, under the name of the “sovereign court,” the oprichnina existed until his death.
Unsuccessful actions against Devlet-Girey in 1571 led to the final destruction of the oprichnina elite of the first composition: the head of the oprichnina Duma, the tsar's brother-in-law M. Cherkassky (Saltankul Murza) “for deliberately bringing the tsar under the Tatar attack” was impaled; nurseryman P. Zaitsev was hanged on the gate of his own house; The oprichnina boyars I. Chebotov, I. Vorontsov, the butler L. Saltykov, the master F. Saltykov and many others were also executed. Moreover, the reprisals did not subside even after the Battle of Molodi - celebrating the victory in Novgorod, the tsar drowned the “children of the boyars” in Volkhov, after which a ban was introduced on the very name of the oprichnina. At the same time, Ivan the Terrible brought down repression on those who had previously helped him deal with Metropolitan Philip: the Solovetsky abbot Paisiy was imprisoned on Valaam, the Ryazan bishop Philotheus was deprived of his rank, and the bailiff Stefan Kobylin, who supervised the metropolitan in the Otroche Monastery, was exiled to the distant monastery of Kamenny islands.
In 1569, through her ambassador Thomas Randolph, Elizabeth I made it clear to the Tsar that she was not going to intervene in the Baltic conflict. In response, the tsar wrote to her that her trade representatives “do not think about our sovereign heads and about the honor and profit of the land, but are looking only for their own trade profits,” and canceled all the privileges previously granted to the Moscow Trading Company created by the British.
In 1569, Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania united into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth confederation. In May 1570, the king signed a truce with King Sigismund for a period of three years, despite the huge number of mutual claims. The proclamation of the Livonian kingdom by the king delighted the Livonian nobility, who received freedom of religion and a number of other privileges, and the Livonian merchants, who received the right to free duty-free trade in Russia, and in return allowed foreign merchants, artists and technicians into Moscow. After the death of Sigismund II and the suppression of the Jagiellon dynasty in Poland and Lithuania, Ivan the Terrible was considered one of the candidates for the Polish throne. The main condition for consent to his election as the Polish king was the concession of Poland to Livonia in favor of Russia, and as compensation he offered to return “Polotsk and its suburbs” to the Poles. But on November 20, 1572, Maximilian II concluded an agreement with Grozny, according to which all ethnic Polish lands (Greater Poland, Mazovia, Kuyavia, Silesia) were to go to the empire, and Livonia and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with all its possessions were to go to Moscow - that is Belarus, Podlasie, Ukraine, so the noble nobility hastened to elect a king and elected Henry of Valois.
In March 1570, Ivan the Terrible issued a “royal letter” (letter of marque) to the Dane Carsten Rohde. In May of the same year, having bought and equipped ships with royal money, Rode went to sea and until September 1570 hunted in the Baltic Sea against Swedish and Polish merchants.
In 1575, at the request of Ivan the Terrible, the baptized Tatar and Khan of Kasimov, Simeon Bekbulatovich, was crowned king as “Grand Duke of All Rus',” and Ivan the Terrible himself called himself Ivan of Moscow, left the Kremlin and began to live on Petrovka.
According to the English historian and traveler Giles Fletcher, by the end of the year the new sovereign took away all the charters granted to bishops and monasteries, which the latter had been using for several centuries. All of them were destroyed. After that (as if dissatisfied with such an act and the bad rule of the new sovereign), Ivan the Terrible took the scepter again and, as if to please the church and clergy, allowed the renewal of the charters that he had already distributed on his own behalf, retaining and adding to the treasury as much land as he himself had whatever.
In this way, Ivan the Terrible took from bishops and monasteries (except for the lands annexed by him to the treasury) a countless amount of money: some 40, others 50, others 100 thousand rubles, which he did in order not only to increase his treasury, but also to remove a bad opinion of his cruel rule, setting an example of even worse in the hands of another king.
This was preceded by a new surge of executions, when the circle of associates that had been established in 1572, after the destruction of the oprichnina elite, was destroyed. Having abdicated the throne, Ivan Vasilyevich took his “destiny” and formed his own “appanage” Duma, which was now ruled by the Nagys, Godunovs and Belskys.
On February 23, 1577, a 50,000-strong Russian army again besieged Revel, but failed to take the fortress. In February 1578, Nuncio Vincent Laureo reported with alarm to Rome: “The Muscovite divided his army into two parts: one is expected near Riga, the other near Vitebsk.” By this time, all of Livonia along the Dvina, with the exception of only two cities - Revel and Riga, was in Russian hands.
In 1579, the royal messenger Wenceslaus Lopatinsky brought the king a letter from Batory declaring war. Already in August, the Polish army took Polotsk, then moved to Velikiye Luki and took them.
At the same time, direct peace negotiations were underway with Poland. Ivan the Terrible proposed giving Poland all of Livonia, with the exception of four cities. Batory did not agree to this and demanded all Livonian cities, in addition Sebezh, and payment of 400,000 Hungarian gold for military costs. This infuriated Grozny, and he responded with a sharp letter.
After this, in the summer of 1581, Stefan Batory invaded deep into Russia and besieged Pskov, which, however, he was never able to take. At the same time, the Swedes took Narva, where 7,000 Russians fell, then Ivangorod and Koporye. Ivan was forced to negotiate with Poland, hoping to then conclude an alliance with her against Sweden. In the end, the tsar was forced to agree to the conditions under which “the Livonian cities that belong to the sovereign should be ceded to the king, and Luke the Great and other cities that the king took, let him cede to the sovereign” - that is, the war that lasted almost a quarter of a century ended in restoration status quo ante bellum, thus becoming sterile. A 10-year truce on these terms was signed on January 15, 1582 in Yam Zapolsky. After the intensification of hostilities between Russia and Sweden in 1582 (Russian victory at Lyalitsy, the unsuccessful siege of Oreshk by the Swedes), peace negotiations began, which resulted in the Truce of Plyus. Yam, Koporye and Ivangorod passed to Sweden along with the adjacent territory of the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. The Russian state found itself cut off from the sea. The country was devastated, and the northwestern regions were depopulated. It should also be noted that the course of the war and its results were influenced by the Crimean raids: only for 3 years out of 25 years of the war there were no significant raids.
With the direct support of the Nogai Murzas of Prince Ulus, unrest broke out among the Volga Cheremis: cavalry numbering up to 25,000 people, attacking from Astrakhan, devastated the Belyov, Kolomna and Alatyr lands. In conditions of insufficient numbers of three tsarist regiments to suppress the rebellion, a breakthrough of the Crimean Horde could lead to very dangerous consequences for Russia. Obviously, wanting to avoid such a danger, the Russian government decided to transfer troops, temporarily abandoning the attack on Sweden.
On January 15, 1580, a church council was convened in Moscow. Addressing the highest hierarchs, the tsar directly said how difficult his situation was: “countless enemies have risen up against the Russian state,” which is why he asks for help from the Church. The tsar finally managed to completely take away from the church the method of increasing church estates with the estates of service people and boyars - as they became poorer, they often gave their estates as a mortgage to the church and for the commemoration of their souls, which harmed the defense capability of the state. The council decided: bishops and monasteries should not buy estates from service people, nor take souls as mortgages or in remembrance. Estates purchased or taken as collateral from service people should be taken to the royal treasury.
In 1580, the tsar defeated the German settlement. Frenchman Jacques Margeret, who lived in Russia for many years, writes: “ The Livonians, who were captured and taken to Moscow, professing the Lutheran faith, having received two churches inside the city of Moscow, held public services there; but in the end, because of their pride and vanity, the said temples... were destroyed and all their houses were destroyed. And, although in winter they were expelled naked and in what their mother gave birth to, they could not blame anyone for this but themselves, for ... they behaved so arrogantly, their manners were so arrogant, and their clothes were so luxurious that they could all be was to be mistaken for princes and princesses... Their main profit was the right to sell vodka, honey and other drinks, from which they make not 10%, but a hundred, which may seem incredible, but it’s true».
In 1581, the Jesuit A. Possevin went to Russia, acting as a mediator between Ivan and Poland, and, at the same time, hoping to persuade the Russian Church into a union with the Catholic Church. His failure was predicted by the Polish Hetman Zamoyski: “ He is ready to swear that the Grand Duke is disposed towards him and will accept the Latin faith to please him, and I am sure that these negotiations will end with the prince hitting him with a crutch and driving him away" M.V. Tolstoy writes in “History of the Russian Church”: “ But the pope’s hopes and Possevin’s efforts were not crowned with success. John showed all the natural flexibility of his mind, dexterity and prudence, which the Jesuit himself had to give justice to, rejected the requests for permission to build Latin churches in Rus', rejected disputes about faith and the union of Churches on the basis of the rules of the Florence Council and was not carried away by the dreamy promise of acquiring all the Byzantine Empire, lost by the Greeks allegedly for retreating from Rome" The ambassador himself notes that “the Russian Sovereign stubbornly avoided and avoided discussing this topic.” Thus, the papal throne did not receive any privileges; the possibility of Moscow joining the Catholic Church remained as vague as before, and meanwhile the papal ambassador had to begin his mediating role.
The conquest of Western Siberia by Ermak Timofeevich and his Cossacks in 1583 and his capture of the capital of the Siberian Khanate - Isker - marked the beginning of the conversion of the local population to Orthodoxy: Ermak's troops were accompanied by four priests and a hieromonk. However, this expedition was carried out against the will of the king, who in November 1582, he scolded the Stroganovs for calling into their patrimony the Cossacks-“thieves” - the Volga atamans, who “before that they quarreled us with the Nogai Horde, beat the Nogai ambassadors on the Volga on transport, and robbed and beat the Ordo-Bazarians, and our many robberies and losses were caused to people". Tsar Ivan IV ordered the Stroganovs, under fear of “great disgrace,” to return Ermak from his campaign in Siberia and use his forces to “protect the Perm places.” But while the tsar was writing his letter, Ermak had already inflicted a crushing defeat on Kuchum and occupied his capital.
A study of the remains of Ivan the Terrible showed that in the last six years of his life he developed osteophytes, to such an extent that he could no longer walk on his own and was carried on a stretcher. M. M. Gerasimov, who examined the remains, noted that he had not seen such thick deposits in very old people. Forced immobility, combined with a general unhealthy lifestyle and nervous shocks, led to the fact that at the age of 50 the king looked like a decrepit old man.
In August 1582, A. Possevin, in a report to the Venetian Signoria, stated that “the Moscow sovereign will not live long.” In February and early March 1584, the king was still engaged in state affairs. The first mention of the disease dates back to March 10, when the Lithuanian ambassador was stopped on his way to Moscow due to the sovereign’s illness. On March 16, things got worse, the king fell into unconsciousness, but on March 17 and 18 he felt relief from hot baths. On the afternoon of March 18, the king died. The sovereign’s body was swollen and smelled bad “due to the decomposition of the blood.” Jerome Horsey stated that the king died while playing chess.
Vivliofika preserved the dying commission of the Tsar to Boris Godunov: “When the Great Sovereign was vouchsafed the last farewell, the most pure body and blood of the Lord, then, as a testimony, presenting his confessor Archimandrite Theodosius, filling his eyes with tears, saying to Boris Feodorovich: I command you my soul and my son Theodore Ivanovich and his daughter Irina..." Also, before his death, according to the chronicles, the tsar bequeathed Uglich with all the counties to his youngest son Dmitry.
It is difficult to reliably determine whether the king's death was caused by natural causes or was violent due to the hostile turmoil at court.
There were persistent rumors about the violent death of Ivan the Terrible. A 17th-century chronicler reported that “the king was given poison by his neighbors.” According to the testimony of clerk Ivan Timofeev, Boris Godunov and Bogdan Belsky “ended the tsar’s life prematurely.” Crown Hetman Zholkiewski also accused Godunov: “He took the life of Tsar Ivan by bribing the doctor who treated Ivan, because the matter was such that if he had not warned him (had not forestalled him), he himself would have been executed along with many other noble nobles.” . The Dutchman Isaac Massa wrote that Belsky put poison in the royal medicine. Horsey also wrote about the secret plans of the Godunovs against the tsar and put forward a version of the strangulation of the tsar, with which V.I. Koretsky agrees: “Apparently, the tsar was given poison first, and then, for good measure, in the turmoil that arose after he suddenly fell , and also strangled.” The historian Valishevsky wrote: “Bogdan Belsky with his advisers harassed Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, and now he wants to beat the boyars and wants to find the kingdom of Moscow under Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich for his adviser (Godunov).”
The version of the poisoning of Grozny was verified during the opening of the royal tombs in 1963. Studies have shown normal levels of arsenic in the remains and elevated levels of mercury, which, however, was present in many medicinal preparations of the 16th century and was used to treat syphilis, which the king supposedly suffered from. The murder version remained a hypothesis.
At the same time, the Kremlin’s chief archaeologist Tatyana Panova, together with researcher Elena Aleksandrovskaya, considered the conclusions of the 1963 commission incorrect. In their opinion, the permissible limit for arsenic in Ivan the Terrible was exceeded by more than 2 times. In their opinion, the king was poisoned by a “cocktail” of arsenic and mercury, which was given to him over a period of time.
The number of wives of Ivan the Terrible is not precisely established; historians mention the names of six or seven women who were considered the wives of Ivan IV. Of these, only the first 4 are “married,” that is, legal from the point of view of church law (for the fourth marriage, prohibited by the canons, Ivan received a conciliar decision on its admissibility).
The first, the longest of them, was concluded as follows: on December 13, 1546, 16-year-old Ivan consulted with Metropolitan Macarius about his desire to get married. Immediately after the crowning of the kingdom in January, noble dignitaries, okolnichy and clerks began to travel around the country, looking for a bride for the king. A brideshow was held. The king's choice fell on Anastasia, the daughter of the widow Zakharyina. At the same time, Karamzin says that the tsar was guided not by the nobility of the family, but by the personal merits of Anastasia. The wedding took place on February 3, 1547 in the Church of Our Lady. The Tsar's marriage lasted 13 years, until Anastasia's sudden death in the summer of 1560. The death of his wife greatly influenced the 30-year-old king; after this event, historians note a turning point in the nature of his reign. A year after the death of his wife, the tsar entered into a second marriage, marrying Maria Temryukovna, who came from a family of Kabardian princes. After her death, Marfa Sobakina and Anna Koltovskaya alternately became wives. The third and fourth wives of the king were also chosen based on the results of the bride review, and the same one, since Martha died 2 weeks after the wedding.
This ended the number of legal marriages of the king, and further information becomes more confusing. These were 2 similarities of marriage (Anna Vasilchikova and Maria Nagaya), illuminated in reliable written sources. Probably, information about the later “wives” (Vasilisa Melentyeva and Maria Dolgorukaya) are legends or pure falsification
In 1567, through the plenipotentiary English ambassador Anthony Jenkinson, Ivan the Terrible negotiated a marriage with the English Queen Elizabeth I, and in 1583, through the nobleman Fyodor Pisemsky, he wooed a relative of the Queen, Mary Hastings, not embarrassed by the fact that he himself was once again married at that time .
A possible explanation for the large number of marriages, which was not typical for that time, is the assumption of K. Walishevsky that Ivan was a great lover of women, but at the same time he was also a great pedant in observing religious rituals and sought to possess a woman only as a legal husband. On the other hand, according to the Englishman Jerome Horsey, who knew the king personally, “he himself boasted that he had corrupted a thousand virgins and that thousands of his children had been deprived of their lives.” According to V.B. Kobrin, this statement, although it contains a clear exaggeration, clearly characterizes the tsar’s depravity. Grozny himself, in his spiritual writings, recognized both “fornication” simply and “supernatural fornication” in particular.
Ivan IV was one of the most educated people of his time, he had a phenomenal memory and theological erudition.
According to the historian S. M. Solovyov,
Not a single sovereign of our ancient history was distinguished by such a desire and such ability to talk, argue, orally or in writing, in a people's square, at a church council, with a departed boyar or with foreign ambassadors, which is why he received the nickname of rhetorician in the verbal wisdom.
He is the author of numerous letters (including to Kurbsky, Elizabeth I, Stefan Batory, Johan III, Vasily Gryazny, Jan Chodkiewicz, Jan Rokite, Prince Polubensky, to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery), stichera on the Presentation of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, on the repose of Peter Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus', Canon Angel the Terrible Voivode (under the pseudonym Parthenius the Ugly). In 1551, by order of the Tsar, the Moscow Council obliged clergy to organize schools in all cities for children for “learning to read and write, and for the teaching of book writing and church singing psalter." The same cathedral approved the widespread use of polyphonic singing. On the initiative of Ivan the Terrible, something like a conservatory was created in Alexandrova Sloboda, where the best musical masters worked, such as Fyodor Krestyanin (Christian), Ivan Yuryev-Nos, the Potapov brothers, Tretyak Zverintsev , Savluk Mikhailov, Ivan Kalomnitin, crusade clerk Andreev. Ivan IV was a good speaker.
By order of the tsar, a unique literary monument was created - the Facial Chronicle.
In order to set up a printing house in Moscow, the tsar turned to Christian II with a request to send book printers, and he sent to Moscow in 1552 through Hans Missingheim the Bible in Luther's translation and two Lutheran catechisms, but at the insistence of the Russian hierarchs the king's plan was to distribute the translations in several thousand copies was rejected.
Having founded the Printing House, the tsar contributed to the organization of book printing in Moscow and the construction of St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square. According to contemporaries, Ivan IV was “ a man of wonderful reasoning, in the science of book teaching he is content and very talkative" He loved to travel to monasteries and was interested in describing the lives of the great kings of the past. It is assumed that Ivan inherited from his grandmother Sophia Paleologus the most valuable library of the Morean despotates, which included ancient Greek manuscripts; what he did with it is unknown: according to some versions, the library of Ivan the Terrible died in one of the Moscow fires, according to others, it was hidden by the tsar. In the 20th century, the search undertaken by individual enthusiasts for the allegedly hidden library of Ivan the Terrible in the dungeons of Moscow became a story that constantly attracted the attention of journalists.
The choir of the sovereign's royal clerks included the largest Russian composers of that time, who enjoyed the patronage of Ivan IV, Fyodor Krestyanin (Christian) and Ivan Nos.
The rapprochement with the West under Ivan IV could not remain without foreigners coming to Russia talking with Russians and introducing the spirit of religious speculation and debate that was then dominant in the West.
In the fall of 1553, a council opened on the case of Matvey Bashkin and his accomplices. A number of charges were brought against the heretics: denial of the holy cathedral apostolic church, rejection of the worship of icons, denial of the power of repentance, disdain for the decrees of ecumenical councils, etc. The chronicle reports: “ Both the Tsar and the Metropolitan ordered him to be taken away and tortured for these reasons; he is a Christian confessing himself, hiding in himself the enemy’s charm, satanic heresy, because he thinks he’s crazy to hide from the All-Seeing Eye».
The most significant relations of the tsar with the saints Metropolitan Macarius, Metropolitan German, Metropolitan Philip, the Monk Cornelius of Pskov-Pechersk, as well as Archpriest Sylvester. The actions of the church councils that took place at that time are important, in particular the Stoglavy Council.
One of the manifestations of Ivan IV’s deep religiosity is his significant contributions to various monasteries. Numerous donations for the commemoration of the souls of people killed by his decree have no analogues not only in Russian, but also in European history. However, modern researchers note the initial profanation of this list (the inclusion of Orthodox Christians in it not by baptismal names, but by worldly nicknames, as well as Gentiles, “witch women,” etc.) and consider the synodik “just a kind of pledge, with the help of which the monarch hoped to “redeem” the soul of the deceased prince from the clutches of demons.” In addition, church historians, characterizing the personality of Ivan the Terrible, emphasize that “the fate of the metropolitans after St. Macarius is entirely on his conscience” (all of them were forcibly removed from the high priestly throne, and not even the graves of Metropolitans Athanasius, Cyril and Anthony survived). The mass executions of Orthodox priests and monks, the robberies of monasteries and the destruction of churches in the Novgorod lands and the estates of disgraced boyars also do not honor the tsar.
At the end of the 20th century, part of the church and parachurch circles discussed the issue of canonization of Grozny. This idea met with categorical condemnation by the church hierarchy and the patriarch, who pointed out the historical failure of the rehabilitation of Grozny, its crimes before the church (the murder of saints), as well as those who rejected claims about his popular veneration.
Ivan grew up in an atmosphere of palace conspiracies, a struggle for power among the warring boyar families of the Shuisky and Belsky. Therefore, it was believed that the murders, intrigues and violence that surrounded him contributed to the development of suspicion, vindictiveness and cruelty in him. S. Solovyov, analyzing the influence of the morals of the era on the character of Ivan IV, notes that he “did not recognize the moral, spiritual means for establishing truth and order, or, even worse, having realized it, he forgot about them; instead of healing, he intensified the disease, accustomed him even more to torture, bonfires and the chopping block.”
However, in the era of the Elected Rada, the tsar was described enthusiastically. One of his contemporaries writes about 30-year-old Grozny: “The custom of John is to keep himself pure before God. And in the temple, and in solitary prayer, and in the boyar council, and among the people, he has one feeling: “May I rule, as the Almighty ordered his true Anointed to rule!” An impartial judgment, the safety of each and everyone, the integrity of the states entrusted to him, the triumph of faith , the freedom of Christians is his constant thought. Burdened with affairs, he knows no other joys except a peaceful conscience, except the pleasure of fulfilling his duty; does not want the usual royal coolness... Affectionate towards the nobles and the people - loving, rewarding everyone according to their dignity - eradicating poverty with generosity, and evil - with an example of goodness, this God-born King wishes on the day of the Last Judgment to hear the voice of mercy: “You are the King of righteousness!” .
“He is so prone to anger that, while in it, he foams like a horse and goes as if into madness; in this state, he also gets angry at people he meets. - Ambassador Daniil Prince writes from Bukhov. - The cruelty that he often commits on his own, whether it originates in his nature, or in the baseness (malitia) of his subjects, I cannot say.<…>When he is at the table, the eldest son sits on his right hand. He himself is of rude morals; for he rests his elbows on the table, and since he does not use any plates, he eats food by taking it with his hands, and sometimes he puts the uneaten food back into the cup (in patinam). Before drinking or eating anything offered, he usually marks himself with a large cross and looks at the hanging images of the Virgin Mary and St. Nicholas.”
The historian Solovyov believes that it is necessary to consider the personality and character of the tsar in the context of his environment in his youth:
The historian will not utter a word of justification for such a person; he can only utter a word of regret if, peering carefully at the terrible image, under the gloomy features of the tormentor he notices the mournful features of the victim; for here, as elsewhere, the historian is obliged to point out the connection between the phenomena: the Shuiskys and their comrades sowed through self-interest, contempt for the common good, contempt for the life and honor of their neighbors - Grozny grew up.
- Solovyov S. M. History of Russia from ancient times.
Evidence from contemporaries about the appearance of Ivan the Terrible is very scarce. All available portraits of him, according to K. Waliszewski, are of dubious authenticity. According to contemporaries, he was lean, tall and had a good physique. Ivan's eyes were blue with a penetrating gaze, although in the second half of his reign a gloomy and gloomy face was already noted. The king shaved his head, wore a large mustache and a thick reddish beard, which turned gray towards the end of his reign. “The Tale of the Book of Sowing from Previous Years” of the first third of the 17th century describes the ruler as follows: “ Tsar Ivan looks ridiculous, his eyes are gray, his nose is long, he gags; he is large in age, has a dry body, has high shoulders, wide chests, thick muscles; a man of wonderful reasoning, in the science of book veneration, he is content and eloquent...».
The Venetian ambassador Marco Foscarino in “Report on Muscovy” writes about the appearance of 27-year-old Ivan Vasilyevich: “Handsome in appearance.”
The German ambassador Daniil Prince, who visited Ivan the Terrible in Moscow twice, described the 46-year-old Tsar: “He is very tall. The body is full of strength and quite strong, large narrow eyes that observe everything most carefully. The jaw is prominent and courageous. His beard is red, with a slight tint of black, quite long and thick, curly, but, like most Russians, he shaves the hair on his head with a razor. In his hand is a staff with a heavy knob, symbolizing the strength of state power in Rus' and the great masculine dignity of the Tsar himself.”
In 1963, the tomb of Ivan the Terrible was opened in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. The king was buried in the vestments of a schemamonk. Based on the remains, it was established that Ivan the Terrible’s height was about 180 cm. In the last years of his life, his weight was 85-90 kg. Soviet scientist M. M. Gerasimov used the technique he developed to restore the appearance of Ivan the Terrible from the preserved skull and skeleton. Based on the results of the study, we can say that “by the age of 54, the king was already an old man, his face was covered with deep wrinkles, and there were huge bags under his eyes. Clearly expressed asymmetry (the left eye, collarbone and shoulder blade were much larger than the right ones), the heavy nose of the descendant of the Paleologians, and the disgustingly sensual mouth gave him an unattractive appearance.”
The dispute about the results of the reign of Ivan the Terrible began during his lifetime and continues at the present time.
J. Fletcher pointed out the increasing lack of rights of commoners, which negatively affected their motivation to work:
A. D. Litovchenko. Ivan the Terrible shows his treasures to the English ambassador Horsey. Canvas, oil. 1875. Russian Museum
I often saw how, having laid out their goods (such as furs, etc.), they kept looking around and looking at the doors, like people who are afraid that some enemy will overtake them and capture them. When I asked them why they were doing this, I learned that they doubted whether one of the royal nobles or some son of a boyar was among the visitors, and that they would not come with their accomplices and take from them by force all product.
That is why the people (although generally capable of enduring all kinds of labor) indulge in laziness and drunkenness, not caring about anything more than daily food. From the same thing, it happens that products characteristic of Russia (as mentioned above, such as wax, lard, leather, flax, hemp, etc.) are mined and exported abroad in quantities much smaller than before, for the people, being constrained and deprived of everything he gains, he loses all desire to work.
Assessing the results of the tsar’s activities to strengthen the autocracy and eradicate heresies, the German guardsman Staden wrote:
Although Almighty God punished the Russian land so hard and cruelly that no one can describe it, yet the current Grand Duke has achieved that throughout the Russian land, throughout his entire empire, there is one faith, one weight, one measure! He alone rules! Whatever he orders is carried out, and whatever he forbids really remains prohibited. No one will contradict him: neither the clergy nor the laity.
Nikolai Karamzin described Ivan the Terrible as a great and wise sovereign in the first half of his reign, and a merciless tyrant in the second:
Between other difficult experiences of Fate, in addition to the disasters of the Appanage system, in addition to the yoke of the Mughals, Russia had to experience the threat of the tormenting autocrat: it resisted with love for the autocracy, because it believed that God sends plagues and earthquakes and tyrants; did not break the iron scepter in the hands of John and endured the destroyer for twenty-four years, arming herself only with prayer and patience, so that in better times she would have Peter the Great, Catherine the Second (History does not like to name the living). In magnanimous humility, the sufferers died on the execution site, like the Greeks at Thermopylae for their fatherland, for Faith and Fidelity, without even a thought of rebellion. In vain, some foreign historians, excusing Ioannova’s cruelty, wrote about conspiracies that were supposedly destroyed by her: these conspiracies existed only in the vague mind of the Tsar, according to all the evidence of our chronicles and state papers. The clergy, Boyars, famous citizens would not have summoned the beast from the den of Sloboda Aleksandrovskaya if they had been plotting treason, which was brought against them as absurdly as sorcery. No, the tiger reveled in the blood of lambs - and the victims, dying in innocence, with their last glance at the disastrous land demanded justice, a touching memory from their contemporaries and posterity!
John's good glory outlived his bad glory in the people's memory: the lamentations fell silent, the sacrifices decayed, and the old traditions were eclipsed by the newest ones.
From the point of view of Nikolai Kostomarov, almost all the achievements during the reign of Ivan the Terrible occurred in the initial period of his reign, when the young tsar was not yet an independent figure and was under the close tutelage of the leaders of the Elected Rada. The subsequent period of Ivan’s reign was marked by numerous foreign and domestic political failures. Kostomarov draws the reader’s attention to the contents of the “Spiritual Testament” compiled by Ivan the Terrible around 1572, according to which the country was supposed to be divided between the tsar’s sons into semi-independent fiefs. The historian argues that this path would lead to the actual destruction of a single state according to a scheme well known in Rus'.
Sergei Solovyov saw the main pattern of Grozny’s activity in the transition from “tribal” relations to “state” ones, which were completed by the oprichnina (“... in the will of John IV, the appanage prince becomes a completely subject of the Grand Duke, the elder brother, who already bears the title of tsar. This is the main, fundamental phenomenon - the transition of tribal relations between princes into state ones..."). (Ivan Boltin pointed out that, as in Western Europe, feudal fragmentation in Rus' is being replaced by political unification, and compared Ivan IV with Louis XI; the same comparison of Ivan with Louis is also noted by Karamzin).
Vasily Klyuchevsky considered Ivan’s internal policy aimless: “The question of state order turned for him into a question of personal safety, and he, like an overly frightened person, began to strike right and left, without distinguishing between friends and enemies”; the oprichnina, from his point of view, prepared “real sedition” - the Time of Troubles.
S. F. Platonov saw the strengthening of Russian statehood in the activities of Ivan the Terrible, but condemned him for the fact that “a complex political matter was further complicated by unnecessary torture and gross debauchery”, and that the reforms “took on the character of general terror.”
R. Yu. Vipper considered Ivan the Terrible in the early 1920s as a brilliant organizer and creator of a major power; in particular, he wrote about him: “Ivan the Terrible, a contemporary of Elizabeth of England, Philip II of Spain and William of Orange, the leader of the Dutch Revolution, had solve military, administrative and international problems similar to the goals of the creators of the new European powers, but in a much more difficult situation. His talents as a diplomat and organizer perhaps surpass them all.” Vipper justified harsh measures in domestic politics by the seriousness of the international situation in which Russia was: “The division of the reign of Ivan the Terrible into two different eras contained at the same time an assessment of the personality and activities of Ivan the Terrible: it served as the main basis for belittling his historical role, for including him among the greatest tyrants. Unfortunately, when analyzing this issue, most historians focused their attention on changes in the internal life of the Moscow state and paid little attention to the international situation in which (it) found itself during... the reign of Ivan IV. Severe critics seemed to have forgotten that the entire second half of the reign of Ivan the Terrible took place under the sign of a continuous war, and, moreover, the most difficult war that the Great Russian state had ever waged.”
At that time, Vipper’s views were rejected by Soviet science (in the 1920-1930s, which saw Grozny as an oppressor of the people who prepared serfdom), but were subsequently supported during the period when the personality and activities of Ivan the Terrible received official approval from Stalin. During this period, Grozny’s terror was justified by the fact that the oprichnina “finally and forever broke the boyars, made it impossible to restore the order of feudal fragmentation and consolidated the foundations of the political system of the Russian national state”; This approach continued the concept of Solovyov - Platonov, but was complemented by the idealization of the image of Ivan.
In the 1940s-1950s, Academician S.B. Veselovsky studied a lot about Ivan the Terrible, who did not have the opportunity, due to the prevailing position at that time, to publish his main works during his lifetime; he abandoned the idealization of Ivan the Terrible and the oprichnina and introduced a large number of new materials into scientific circulation. Veselovsky saw the roots of terror in the conflict between the monarch and the administration (the Sovereign's court as a whole), and not specifically with the large feudal boyars; he believed that in practice Ivan did not change the status of the boyars and the general order of governing the country, but limited himself to the destruction of specific real and imaginary opponents (Klyuchevsky already pointed out that Ivan “beat not only the boyars and not even the boyars primarily”).
At first, the concept of Ivan’s “statist” domestic policy was also supported by A. A. Zimin, speaking of justified terror against feudal lords who betrayed national interests. Subsequently, Zimin accepted Veselovsky’s concept of the absence of a systematic fight against the boyars; in his opinion, the oprichnina terror had the most destructive effect on the Russian peasantry. Zimin recognized both the crimes and state services of Grozny:
For Russia, the reign of Ivan the Terrible remained one of the darkest periods in its history. The defeat of the reform movement, the outrages of the oprichnina, the “Novgorod pogrom” - these are some of the milestones of Grozny’s bloody path. However, let's be fair. Nearby are the milestones of another path - the transformation of Russia into a huge power, which included the lands of the Kazan and Astrakhan Khanates, Western Siberia from the Arctic Ocean to the Caspian Sea, reforms in the governance of the country, strengthening the international prestige of Russia, expanding trade and cultural ties with the countries of Europe and Asia
V. B. Kobrin assesses the results of the oprichnina extremely negatively:
“Scribe books compiled in the first decades after the oprichnina give the impression that the country experienced a devastating enemy invasion. “In the void” lies not only more than half, but sometimes up to 90 percent of the land, sometimes for many years. Even in the central Moscow district, only about 16 percent of arable land was cultivated. There are frequent references to “arable fallow land,” which has already been “overgrown with bushes,” “overgrown with a forest-grove,” and even “with forest overgrown into a log, into a stake, and into a pole”: the timber has managed to grow on the former arable land. Many landowners became so ruined that they abandoned their estates, from where all the peasants fled, and turned into beggars - “dragging between the yard.”
The internal policy of Ivan IV, after a streak of failures during the Livonian War and as a result of the sovereign’s own desire to establish undivided royal power, acquired a terrorist character and in the second half of his reign was marked by the establishment of the oprichnina (6 years), mass executions and murders, the defeat of Novgorod and atrocities in other cities (Tver, Klin, Torzhok). The oprichnina was accompanied by thousands of victims, and, according to many historians, its results, together with the results of a long and unsuccessful war, led the state to a socio-political crisis.
Despite the fact that in Russian historiography there has traditionally been a negative image of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, there was also a direction in it that was inclined to positively evaluate his results. As a general assessment of the results of the reign of Ivan IV, determined by historians adhering to this point of view, the following can be indicated:
Assessing the results of the heyday of the Russian state, the author (R. G. Skrynnikov) mentions the end of feudal strife, the unification of lands, the reforms of Ivan the Terrible, which strengthened the system of government and the armed forces. This made it possible to crush the last fragments of the Golden Horde on the Volga - the Kazan and Astrakhan kingdoms.
But next to this, at the same time, there were Russia’s failures in the Livonian War (1558-1583) for access to the Baltic, there were crop failures in the 60s. XVI century, famine, plague that devastated the country. There was discord between Ivan IV and the boyars, the division of the state into zemshchina and oprichnina, oprichnina intrigues and executions (1565-1572) , weakened the state. ...the invasion of the 40,000-strong Crimean horde, the large and small Nagai hordes on Moscow in 1571, the battle of Russian regiments with a new invasion in the summer of 1572 on the approaches to Moscow; the battle of Molodi, near the Danilov Monastery in July 1591. Those battles became victories.
S. V. Bushuev, G. E. Mironov. History of Russian Goverment
In addition, historians who are of the opinion about the beneficial influence of the reign of Ivan the Terrible on the development of the Russian state cite the following statements as positive results of his reign:
1) Preservation of the country's independence. With sufficient grounds for comparing the scale of the Battle of Kulikovo with the Battle of Molodi (participation of 5 thousand in the first, for example, according to S. B. Veselovsky or 60 thousand according to V. N. Tatishchev, and over 20 thousand in the second - according to R. G. Skrynnikov), the latter also had epochal significance for the further development of the state: it put an end to the inevitable danger of regular devastating Tatar-Mongol expansion; “The chain of Tatar ‘kingdoms’, stretching from Crimea to Siberia, was forever broken.”
2) Formation of defense lines; “...a curious and important feature in the activities of the Moscow government in the darkest and darkest time in the life of Grozny - during the years of its political failures and internal terror... - concern for strengthening the southern border of the state and populating the “wild field”. Under pressure from many reasons, the Grozny government began a series of coordinated measures to defend its southern outskirts...”
Together with the crushing defeat of the troops of the Crimean Khanate, with the Astrakhan Khanate, - “The Capture of Kazan” (1552) opened the way for the Russians to the lower reaches of the great Russian river Volga and to the Caspian Sea.” “Among the continuous failures of the end of the war (Livonian) the Siberian capture of Ermak flashed like lightning in the darkness of the night,” predetermining, along with the strengthening of the success of the previous points, the prospect for further expansion of the state in these directions, with the death of Ermak, ““under the high royal hand” the Moscow government took upon itself, sending to Siberia , to the aid of the Cossacks, their governors with the “sovereign servicemen” and with the “people” (artillery)”; and as for the eastern direction of expansion, the fact that already “half a century after the death of Ermak, the Russians reached the shores of the Pacific Ocean” speaks for itself.
“The Livonian War of Grozny was a timely intervention by Moscow in the paramount international struggle for the right to use the Baltic sea routes.” And even in an unsuccessful campaign, most of the most thorough researchers trace positive factors to the fact that at that time there was long-term trade with Europe by sea (via Narva), and that subsequently, more than a hundred years later, it was implemented and developed as one of the main directions of its policy Peter.
“The old view of the oprichnina as a senseless undertaking of a crazy tyrant has been abolished. It is seen as applying to the large landed Moscow aristocracy the “conclusion” that the Moscow government usually applied to the commanding classes of the conquered lands. The withdrawal of large landowners from their “patrimony” was accompanied by the fragmentation of their holdings and the transfer of land to the conditional use of small service people. This destroyed the old nobility and strengthened the new social stratum of “children of the boyars,” the oprichnina servants of the great sovereign.”
3) The general state of culture is characterized by an upsurge, the mature development of which became possible only after overcoming the turmoil. “The Crimean raids and terrible fires caused heavy damage to Moscow and Muscovites during the reign of John IV Vasilyevich. Moscow recovered slowly after that. “But the reign of Ivan the Terrible,” according to I.K. Kondratiev, “was still one of the remarkable reigns that left the stamp of special greatness on Moscow, and with it on the whole of Russia.” Indeed, during these years the first Zemsky Sobor took place in Moscow, Stoglav was created, the kingdoms of Kazan and Astrakhan were conquered, Siberia was annexed, trade with the British began (1553) (as well as with Persia and Central Asia), the first printing house was opened, Arkhangelsk, Kungur and Ufa were built, the Bashkirs were accepted into Russian citizenship, the Don Cossacks were established, the famous Church of the Intercession was erected in memory of the conquest of the Kazan kingdom, better known under the name of St. Basil." The Streletsky Army was established.
However, critics of this approach point to the small role that Ivan IV himself played in all these events. Thus, the main commander who ensured the conquest of Kazan in 1552 was Alexander Gorbaty-Shuisky, while previous campaigns against Kazan in 1547 and 1549, led by Ivan IV personally, ended in failure. Subsequently, Gorbaty-Shuisky was executed by order of Ivan the Terrible. The initial successes in Livonia and the capture of Polotsk are associated with the name of the talented commander Pyotr Shuisky, after whose death military successes in the Livonian War ceased. Victory over the superior forces of the Crimean Tatars at Molodi was ensured thanks to the military talents of Mikhail Vorotynsky and Dmitry Khvorostinin, and the former was also subsequently repressed by Ivan. Ivan the Terrible himself, both during the first Crimean campaign in 1571 and during the second in 1572, fled from Moscow and waited out the hostilities in Novgorod and Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda. In addition, it is believed that Ivan the Terrible was very distrustful of watchmen, who guarded the southern borders and from the executions of the tsar, many boyar children fled to Crimea, one of whom, Kudeyar Tishenkov, subsequently led the Crimeans along roundabout routes to Moscow. Also, cultural studies researchers point to the tenuous connection between the political regime of the state and the cultural state of society.
According to a FOM survey conducted in the fall of 2016, the overwhelming majority of Russians (71%) have a positive assessment of the role of Ivan the Terrible in history. 65% of Russians would approve of the installation of a monument to Ivan the Terrible in their locality.
S. A. Kirillov. "Ivan groznyj". 1990
