Ivan IV the Terrible. The beginning of the reign of Ivan the Terrible: year, reforms

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.

Childhood and adolescence

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:

• Andrey Staritsky, Ivan's uncle on his father's side;
• M. L. Glinsky, maternal uncle;
• advisors: Mikhail Vorontsov, Vasily and Ivan Shuisky, Mikhail Tuchkov, Mikhail Zakharyin.

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.

Reign of Ivan the Terrible

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.

“Elected Rada” and reforms

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.

Campaigns of the fifties of the sixteenth century

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.:

• in 1547-1548 The siege of Kazan lasted seven days and did not bring the desired results;
• in 1549-1550 The city of Kazan was also not taken, but the construction of the Sviyazhsk fortress contributed to the success of the third campaign;
• in 1552 Kazan was taken.

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:

• in 1554, the Astrakhan army was defeated at the Black Island, Astrakhan was taken;
• in 1556, the betrayal of the Astrakhan khan forced Rus' to make another campaign to finally subjugate these lands.

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:

• in 1558, troops led by Dmitry Vishnevetsky defeated the Crimeans near Azov;
• in 1559, the large Crimean port of Gezlev (Evpatoria) was destroyed, many Russian prisoners were freed, and the campaign was led by Daniil Adashev.

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 trade routes 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, Alexei 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.

Oprichnina period

After the actual defeat in 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.

Russian-Crimean War

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:

• back in 1563 and 1569. the Crimean Khan Dovlet Giray, in alliance with the Turks, launched unsuccessful campaigns against Astrakhan;
• in 1570, the outskirts of Ryazan were devastated, and the Crimean army received almost no resistance;
• in 1571, Dovlet Giray launched a campaign against Moscow, the outskirts of the capital were devastated, the oprichnina army turned out to be ineffective
• in 1572, in the Battle of Molodi, together with the zemstvo army, the Crimean Khan was defeated.

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.

End of the Livonian War

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.

Conquest of Siberia

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.

Historical assessment of the reign of Ivan IV

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:

• the territory of Rus' increased more than twice;
• the beginning of the struggle for access to the Baltic Sea began, which was completed by Peter I;
• managed to strengthen the central government based on the nobility.

In December 1533, Vasily III died, and his successor on the throne was his young son Ivan (1533-1584), under whom a regency (guardianship) council was created consisting of Prince Andrei Ivanovich Staritsky and the most influential members of the Boyar Duma - Princes Vasily and Ivan Shuisky, Mikhail Glinsky and the boyars Mikhail Yuryev, Mikhail Tuchkov and Mikhail Vorontsov. However, the “Seven Boyars” ruled the country for only a few months, after which state power passed into the hands of Elena Glinskaya and her favorite, Prince Ivan Fedorovich Obukha-Telepnev-Obolensky. But in April 1538, with quite mysterious circumstances The Grand Duchess dies, and the most acute struggle of the boyar clans for power begins at the throne (1538-1547), in which the princes Shuisky, Glinsky and Belsky took an active part.

2. Beginning of the reign of Ivan the Terrible

In January 1547, Ivan IV was solemnly crowned king in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, which had enormous political significance, since the new title disproportionately elevated the royal power over the patrimonial boyar-princely aristocracy within the country and put the Russian monarch on a par with the Tatar khans, who were revered as kings in Rus'. And in February 1547, the young tsar married the young beauty Anastasia Romanovna Yuryeva.

Rice. 3. Order from the time of John IV Vasilyevich ()

In June 1547, a terrible fire occurred in Moscow, as a result of which over 2,000 Muscovites died and almost 80,000 were left homeless. The Glinsky princes were blamed for this tragedy, in particular the Tsar’s grandmother, Princess Anna, who were removed from power and were replaced by a new boyar clan - relatives of Queen Anastasia, the boyars Zakharyin-Yuryev and Vorontsov.

3. Reforms of the Elected Rada (1550-1560)

In February 1549, at a representative meeting in the Faceted Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin, which in historical science (L. Cherepnin, N. Nosov) is considered to be the first Zemsky Sobor, Ivan IV presented an extensive program government reforms. To implement it, a new government was created, called the Elected Rada (1550-1560), which included Alexei Fedorovich Adashev, Ivan Mikhailovich Viskovaty, Andrei Mikhailovich Kurbsky and the tsar’s confessor, Archpriest Sylvester. Metropolitan Macarius (1542-1563) also had a great influence on the activities of the Elected Rada.

The Government of the Elected Rada has carried out a number of significant reforms, which can be divided into the following groups:

1. Reform central control embodied:

a) in the adoption of the new Code of Law of 1550;

b) in holding the Hundred-Glavy Council of the Russian Orthodox Church (1551), at which the unification of all church services and rituals took place, and a decision was made to limit the tax (tarkhan) privileges of the Russian Orthodox Church and monastic land ownership;

c) in the reform of the “sovereign court” and the creation of a “palace notebook” and a “sovereign genealogy”, on the basis of which appointments to all the most important administrative, military and diplomatic posts began to be made;

d) in creation in 1551-1555. a new system of central government bodies - orders, the basis of which was the sectoral or territorial principle of management: the Ambassadorial order was in charge of external relations, the Razryadny - the appointment of governors to the troops and the collection of local militia, the Local - the distribution and confiscation of estates, the Robber and Zemsky - the protection of public order , Streletsky was in charge of the Streltsy army, Kazansky ruled the territory of the Kazan Khanate, etc.

2. Tax reform (1551-1556), as a result of which a unit of taxation common to all classes was established - the plow, that is, a measure of land area.

3. Military reform, which was carried out in two stages. At the first stage (1550), it touched upon the institution of localism, which was limited during military campaigns, and the subordination of all governors to the first governor of the Great Regiment was established. The second stage of military reform was carried out in 1556, when the government adopted the “Code of Service”, according to which all landowners were obliged to go to the sovereign’s military service “on horseback, in force and in arms.”

It must be said that in Russian historical science, representatives of the so-called state school (S. Solovyov, K. Kavelin, B. Chicherin) considered the “Code of Service” as the first stage of the enslavement of the noble class, which would then be followed by the enslavement of all other classes. But this theory of “enslavement of the estates” was completely rejected in Soviet historical science and focused only on the enslavement of the peasantry and the settlement, which would occur at the end of the 16th century.

4. Reform of local government (1556), which, in development of the provincial reform (1539), completely eliminated the institution of governors and volosts and established that the heads of local administrations were city clerks and provincial elders and kissers, who were elected from among local servants people (landowners) and black-sown peasants.

4. Foreign policy in the 1540-1550s.

In the middle of the 16th century. The main directions of Russian foreign policy were:

1) Eastern, that is, relations with the Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberian khanates and the Nogai Horde;

2) Southern, that is, relations with the Ottoman Empire and its vassal, the Crimean Khanate;

3) Western, that is, relations with Russia’s closest European neighbors - Poland, Lithuania, Livonia and Sweden.

In the middle of the 16th century. The main direction of Russian foreign policy is the eastern direction. After the defeat of the “pro-Moscow party” (Shah-Ali, Jan-Ali) in the struggle for power and the victory of the “pro-Crimean party” (Sahib-Girey, Safa-Girey, Yadigir-Magomed) of the Kazan nobility in Moscow, a decision was made to finally solve this problem, and in June 1552, a Russian army of thousands under the command of Tsar Ivan and the governors of princes A. Gorbaty-Shuisky, A. Kurbsky and I. Vorotynsky went on a campaign. In August 1552, the Russian army crossed the Volga and began the siege of Kazan, which ended with the assault and capture of the khan's capital on October 2, 1552.

In 1556, without resorting to large-scale hostilities, Russia annexed the Astrakhan Khanate, and in 1557 the Nogai Horde and Bashkiria recognized vassal dependence on Moscow. Thus, on the eastern borders of Russia there was only one serious enemy left - the Siberian Khanate, where, after another palace coup, Khan Kuchum came to power.

After the successful solution of the eastern problem, a struggle broke out within the government about which direction - western or southern - to give preference to. Ivan the Terrible insisted on the first option, and Alexey Adashev on the second. In the end, a decision was made to start the Livonian War (1558-1583), the first stage of which ended with the defeat and liquidation of the Livonian Order (1561).

5. The Fall of the Chosen One

In 1560, the government of the Chosen Rada fell. Historians have different assessments of this event. Some (V. Korolyuk, K. Bazilevich, A. Kuzmin) believe that the reason for the fall of A. Adashev was his disagreements with the tsar on foreign policy issues. Others (V. Kobrin, A. Yurganov) believe that main reason There were disagreements over the pace of reforms. Still others (R. Skrynnikov) see the reasons for the fall of the Chosen Rada in the struggle of boyar groups for power, in particular in the intrigues of the Zakharyins-Yuryevs, who accused A. Adashev of poisoning Queen Anastasia, who died in 1560.

References

1. Zimin A. A. Reforms of Ivan the Terrible. - M., 1960

2. Kobrin V. B. Power and property in medieval Russia. - M., 1985

3. Leontyev A.K. Formation of the order management system in the Moscow State. - M., 1961

4. Korolyuk A. S. Livonian War. - M., 1954

5. Kuzmin A. G. History of Russia from ancient times to 1618 - M., 2003

6. Nosov N. E. Formation of class-representative institutions in Russia. - L., 1969

7. Smirnov I. I. Essays on the political history of the Russian state of the 30-50s. XVI century - M., 1958

8. Froyanov I. Ya. Drama of Russian history: on the path to the oprichnina. - M., 2007

9. Cherepnin L.V. Zemsky Sobors of the Russian State in the XVI-XVII centuries. - M., 1978

10. Shmidt S. O. Formation of the Russian autocracy. - M., 1973

Ivan IV Vasilievich , nicknamed Grozny , by direct name Titus and Smaragd, tonsured - Jonah

Sovereign, Grand Duke of Moscow and All Rus' since 1533, first Tsar of All Rus' (since 1547; except 1575-1576)

Brief biography

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 all those who have 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 end to the biography of Ivan the Terrible was set on March 18, 1584. The place of his burial was Moscow Archangel Cathedral. 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.

Biography from Wikipedia

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.

Early years

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.

Childhood of the Grand Duke

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 (mother's uncle - Grand Duchess Elena) and advisors: 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.

Royal wedding

Great sovereign title of Tsar John IV Vasilyevich at the end of his reign

Bzhїey mlⷭ҇tїyu, the great city of the Tsar and the great Kazakh Izhѡann Vasilyevich of all, Vladimir, Moscow, Ovogorodskaya, Tsar Kazan, Tsar Aistrakhan, Pskov, Great Kazan Smolensk, Tver, Yugorsk, ѧ́tsk, Bulgarian and ҆҆ны́хъ, whereⷭ҇рь и҆ мідікїй к҃зў new towns Nizovsk land, Chernigov, Rizan, Polotsk, Rostov, Roslav, Beloyezersk, U҆dorsk, 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, however, 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. A different understanding of supreme power by Archpriest Sylvester 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 incessantly, 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.”

About the digital designation in the title of Ivan the Terrible

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 those that have reached us. rare coins 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.

Board under the “Elected Rada”

V. M. Vasnetsov Tsar Ivan the Terrible, 1897

Reforms

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).

At the beginning of the 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 walking force was formed Streltsy army, armed with a firearm. 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 appears in Russia state seal. 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 of 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».

Kazan campaigns (1547-1552)

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 with 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».

Astrakhan campaigns (1554-1556)

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 associated with 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.

War with Sweden (1554-1557)

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 circumnavigated 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.

Beginning of the Livonian War

Causes of the war

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 shore 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.

Defeat of the Livonian Order

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's 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, 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 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 or Europeans to 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...

Campaigns against the Crimean Khanate

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.

The Fall of the "Chosen One" War with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

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 the Treaty of military assistance Livonia, Poland and Lithuania. This diplomatic action served as an important milestone in the course and development of the Livonian War: Russia’s war with 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. Aleksei Adashev (voivode of a large regiment) was appointed to Fellin, but he, being ill-born, was 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 the 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.

Oprichnina period (1565-1572)

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).

Reasons for introducing the oprichnina

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».

Establishment of the oprichnina

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. Oprichnina included mainly 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 the 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.

Hike to Novgorod

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.

Russian-Crimean War (1571-1572)

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 everything 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 good deed We won't come. 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 happen soon: for it we must have your ambassadors, but it is impossible to make such a great matter 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 the 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)

Flight of the Tsar from Moscow

Sources say different versions about the flight of the king. 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

The end of the oprichnina

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 abolished the oprichnina altogether 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 blow” 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.

International relations during the oprichnina period

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 to enter 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 purchased and equipped ships with royal money, Rode went to sea and until September 1570 traded in the Baltic Sea against Swedish and Polish merchants.

Khan on the Moscow throne

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 that he annexed 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.

The final stage of the Livonian War

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.

Recent years

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 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, to which the Jesuit himself had to give justice, 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.

Conquest Western Siberia 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.

Death

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 order 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 witness, 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 Godunovs’ secret plans against the tsar and put forward a version of the tsar’s strangulation, 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 and his advisers harassed Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, and now he wants to beat the boyars and wants to find the kingdom of Moscow for his adviser (Godunov) under Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich.”

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 medicines XVI century and which was used to treat syphilis, which the king was supposedly sick with. 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.

Family and children

The number of wives of Ivan the Terrible has not been 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.

Children

Sons

Daughters

(all from Anastasia)

• Anna Ioannovna(August 10, 1549-1550) - died before reaching the age of one year.
• Maria Ioannovna(March 17, 1551 - December 8, 1552) - died in infancy.
• Evdokia Ioannovna(February 26, 1556-1558) - died at the age of 3.

Personality of Ivan the Terrible

Cultural activities

Ivan IV was one of the most educated people of his time, 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 for the Presentation of the Vladimir Icon Mother of God, on the death of Peter, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus', Canon to the Angel the Terrible Voivode (under the pseudonym Parthenius the Ugly). In 1551, by order of the Tsar, the Moscow Cathedral obliged clergy to organize schools in all cities for children for “learning to read and write, and for teaching books.” letters and church psalter singing." 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, brothers Potapovs, 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 Front 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.

Tsar Ivan and the church

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 original profanation this list(inclusion of Orthodox Christians 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” from the clutches of demons the soul of the dead prince." 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.

The question of canonization

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.

The character of the king according to contemporaries

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: “Let me rule, as the Almighty ordered his true Anointed to rule!” 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 emits foam 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 picking it up with his hands, and sometimes he puts what he has not eaten 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.

Appearance

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 very 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.”

Board performance assessments

The dispute about the results of the reign of Ivan the Terrible began during his lifetime and continues at the present time.

In the eyes of contemporaries

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. Oil on canvas. 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 found out 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.

19th century historiography

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 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 solely 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 look 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.

Historiography of the 20th century

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 included 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.”

Whipper's views were rejected at the time Soviet science(in the 1920-1930s, who saw Grozny as an oppressor of the people who prepared serfdom), however, they 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 Russian state system nation 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 of 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 mentions of “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 bankrupt that they abandoned their estates, from where all the peasants fled, and turned into beggars - “dragging between the yards.”

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.

Positive characteristics

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 the Russian State

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 of paramount importance 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 layer 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 as 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.

Ivan the Terrible in culture

S. A. Kirillov. "Ivan the Terrible". 1990

Cinema

• The Death of Ivan the Terrible (1909) - actor A. Slavin
• Song about the merchant Kalashnikov (1909) - actor Ivan Potemkin
• Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible (1915) - actor Fyodor Chaliapin
• The Wax Cabinet / Das Wachsfigurenkabinett (1924) - Conrad Veidt
• Wings of a Serf (1926) - Leonid Leonidov
• Pioneer printer Ivan Fedorov (1941) - Pavel Springfeld
• Ivan the Terrible (1944) - Nikolay Cherkasov
• The Tsar's Bride (1965) - Petr Glebov
• Sport, sport, sport (1970) - Igor Klass
• Ivan Vasilievich changes profession (1973) - Yuri Yakovlev
• Tsar Ivan the Terrible (1991) - Kakhi Kavsadze
• Kremlin secrets of the sixteenth century (1991) - Alexey Zharkov
• Revelation of John the Prime Printer (1991) - Innokenty Smoktunovsky
• Thunderstorm over Russia (1992) - Oleg Borisov
• Ermak (1996) - Evgeniy Evstigneev
• Old songs about the main thing 3 (1997) - Yuri Yakovlev
• Miracles in Reshetov (2004) - Ivan Gordienko
• Tsar (2009) - Peter Mamonov
• Ivan the Terrible (2009 television series) - Alexander Demidov
• Night at the Museum 2 (2009) - Christopher Guest
• Terrible time (2010) - Oleg Dolin
• Treasures O.K. (2013) - Gosha Kutsenko

Theater

• Ivan the Terrible (1943) is a play in two parts by Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy.
• Ivan Vasilyevich (1936) - play by Mikhail Bulgakov.
• The Death of Ivan the Terrible is a play by Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy. It is the beginning of the trilogy “The Death of Ivan the Terrible. Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich. Tsar Boris."
• Woman of Pskov (1871) - opera by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Written based on the plot of the play of the same name by Lev May.
• Vasilisa Melentyevna (1867) - play by Alexander Ostrovsky.
• The Great Sovereign (1945) - play by Vladimir Solovyov.
• Marfa Posadnitsa, or the Conquest of Novagorod (1809) - play by Fyodor Ivanov.
• 2016 - Chronicles “Ivan the Terrible” at the Municipal Theater. M. M. Bakhtin (Orel). Director - Valery Simonenko

Literature

The image of Ivan the Terrible in modern art. Artist G. G. Gorelova, Sketch for the work. 1962

• The novel-trilogy “Ivan the Terrible” by V. I. Kostylev (Stalin Prize 2nd degree for 1948).
• “Prince Silver. The Tale of the Times of Ivan the Terrible" by A. K. Tolstoy
• “Kudeyar” by N. I. Kostomarov
• The novel “The Third Rome” by L. Zhdanov
• "Ivan the Terrible" by Henri Troyat
• "Ivan IV. Grozny" by E. Radzinsky
• “Ivan the Terrible” R. Payne, N. Romanov
• “Corsairs of Ivan the Terrible” by K. S. Badigin
• “Kings and Wanderers” by V. A. Usov
• “Faces of immortal power. Tsar Ivan the Terrible” by A. A. Ananyeva
• “The Secret Year” by M. Gigolashvili

Music

• Songs “The Terrible Tsar” and “Tsar John” by Zhanna Bichevskaya
• Song “Ivan the Terrible kills the son of Ivan” by Alexander Gorodnitsky
• The song "The Terrible One" by German heavy metal band Grave Digger.

fine arts

• Three paintings dedicated to the death of the son of Ivan the Terrible:
  • Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan November 16, 1581 Repina I. E. (1885).
  • Ivan the Terrible at the tomb of the son he killed Shustova N. S.(1860s).
  • Ivan the Terrible near the body of his son he killed Schwartz V. G.
• Death of Ivan the Terrible (painting by Konstantin Makovsky, 1888)
• Two paintings dedicated to Vasilisa Melentyevna:
  • Vasilisa Melentyevna and Ivan the Terrible Nevreva N.V.(1880s).
  • Tsar Ivan the Terrible admires Vasilisa Melentyevna Sedova G. S. (1875)
• Tsar Ivan the Terrible Vasnetsova V. M. (1897).
• Oprichniki Nevreva N.V.(formerly 1904)Painting.
• Ivan the Terrible and Malyuta Skuratov Sedova G. S. Painting.
• Tsar Ivan the Terrible in the cell of the holy fool Nicholas Salos Pelevina I. A. Painting
• Tsar Ivan the Terrible asks Abbot Kirill (Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery) to bless him to become a monk Lebedeva K.V. Painting.
• Ivan the Terrible shows treasures to the English ambassador Horsey Litovchenko A. D. (1875).
• Metropolitan Philip refuses to bless Tsar Ivan the Terrible (Engraving based on the painting V. V. Pukireva).
• Ivan the Terrible. Sculpture by Mark Antokolsky.

Monuments

• On October 1, 2016, in Orel, founded by decree of Ivan the Terrible, the first monument in Russian history was erected on the embankment near the Epiphany Cathedral at the confluence of the Oka and Orlik rivers. October 14, 2016, in the presence of the governor Oryol region Vadim Potomsky, writer Alexander Prokhanov, leader of the “Essence of Time” movement Sergei Kurginyan, leader of the Night Wolves biker club Alexander “Surgeon” Zaldostanov and a large number of townspeople, the grand opening of the monument took place.
• On November 4, 2017, in the village of Irkovo, Aleksandrovsky district, a monument to Ivan the Terrible was erected using public money. The author of the bust is Alexander Apollonov.

Computer games

• In Age of Empires III, Ivan the Terrible is introduced as the leader of the Russian civilization.
• In Night at the Museum 2, Ivan the Terrible is introduced as one of the four main villains, along with Al Capone, Kamunra and Napoleon.

The political situation in the state began to change in 1547. Conventionally, the reign of Ivan IV can be divided into two periods.

First period (1547 – 1564) characterized by major domestic and foreign policy successes. During the first ten years of his reign, as many reforms were carried out as were not known in any decade of the previous history of the state.

3.2.1. Crowning - 1547

January 16, 1547 Grand Duke Ivan IV Vasilievich married to the kingdom in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. This event was perceived in the West and East as a natural legal formalization of the actually existing situation. It is unlikely that 16-year-old Ivan IV was the initiator of the adoption of the title. In his circle, an important role was played by Metropolitan Macarius (at the metropolitan see from 1542 to 1563, in 1988 he was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church), one of the most educated people in Russia at that time. He, together with the Glinskys, raised the authority of the sovereign with the help of a new title.

Ivan IV decided to do an act that neither his grandfather nor his father allowed themselves to do. Becoming king ( the first Russian Tsar!), he was equated with the greatest sovereigns of the past and present, became on par with the Holy Roman Emperor and above European kings. The Russian kingdom has now become the sovereign heir of both the “old” Rome and the “new” Rome.

But royal wedding is filled with the deepest religious meaning. For each believer, the sacrament of confirmation is performed only once - immediately after baptism. Starting from Grozny, the Russian Tsar was the only person on earth, over whom the Church performed this sacrament twice in order to bestow on him the abilities necessary for the difficult royal service. The young king himself most likely did not fully understand this at first. And only the terrible events that immediately followed the crowning of the kingdom convinced Ivan Vasilyevich that he was obliged to repent of his sins and begin to fulfill his destiny steadily and zealously. What events influenced the king?

In 1547, three events occurred in Moscow fire- two in April, and one - the worst - in June. In the June fire, almost the entire capital (25 thousand households) burned out and thousands of Muscovites died. After the fire, an uprising broke out, and rumor placed all the blame for what happened on the royal relatives. An excited crowd came to Ivan in the village of Vorobyovo (present-day Vorobyovy Gory) near Moscow, demanding that his grandmother Anna Glinskaya be handed over. With great difficulty, Ivan convinced those gathered that the Glinskys were not at his residence.

The fire and uprising were perceived by Ivan Vasilyevich as “executions of God” for negligence in fulfilling his royal duty, so he made a drastic change in both his own behavior and the general political line.

3.2.2. “The Chosen Rada” (1547 – 1560)

Having assumed this burden of responsibility, Ivan IV brought new advisers closer to him. In the first years of his reign, a circle of close associates, the so-called, formed around him. "The Chosen Rada" which was led by a nobleman of humble origin Alexey Fedorovich Adashev and presbyter of the Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, confessor of the Tsar Sylvester. Its active participants were Metropolitan Macarius, noble princes A.M. Kurbsky, N.I. Odoevsky, M.I. Vorotynsky, Duma clerk THEM. Viscous, nearby boyars DI. Kurlyatev, I.V. Sheremetev, M.Ya. Morozov.

For the first time the term “Chosen Rada” was used by Prince A.M. Kurbsky in the book "The story of the Grand Duke of Moscow." Most researchers believe that this is how Kurbsky called a government body in Polish, which actually had a different, Russian name. The question is very complex - the records of the “Elected Rada” have not been preserved and its existence is not reflected in the chronicles.

The “elected Rada” concentrated in its hands all the threads of governing the country; its activities were aimed at strengthening the state and strengthening the authority of the central government. At the same time, the “Elected Rada” tried to rely on broad popular representation - it was during its reign that Zemsky Sobors began to be convened in Rus', which approved the most important decisions of the government. Thus, politically, the “Elected Rada” sought to rely on a combination of strong central government and developed local self-government.

3.2.3. Zemsky Sobor - 1549

In February 1549 Ivan IV convened the first Zemsky Sobor.

Zemsky Sobors were central, nationwide estate-representative institutions, but, unlike similar Western European institutions (parliament in England, states general in France and the Netherlands, Cortes in Spain, diets in the Czech Republic and Poland), they played a less significant role, being not legislative, but legislative body.

The era of Zemsky Councils lasted over a century (1549 – 1684) and left a deep mark on the national-state consciousness. Zemsky Sobors were convened on the initiative of the autocrat (rarely on the initiative of the estates) for advice on resolving the most important problems of Russian life.

Thus, the elective principle did not at all contradict the monarchical principle; on the contrary, the zemshchina was taking shape simultaneously with the emergence of autocracy. Along with the Tsar, the Boyar Duma and the hierarchs of the Church - the “Consecrated Council” - elected people from localities from all classes took part in the work of the Zemsky Councils. The councils resolved issues of war and peace, carried out, if necessary, the zemstvo election of monarchs (the first elected autocrat was Boris Godunov (1598)), etc.

3.2.4. Code of Law – 1550

The general trend towards centralization of the country and the state apparatus entailed the publication of 1550 new Sudebnik, which was one of the most significant events of the “Chosen Council”. The “Tsar’s” Code of Laws was based on the Code of Laws of 1497, but expanded, better systematized, and took into account judicial practice. The norms for the peasant transition on St. George's Day (November 26) were confirmed and clarified. The “elderly”, which the peasant paid to the feudal lord upon transition, was slightly increased. The Code of Law limited the rights of governors and toughened the punishment for robbery. For the first time, punishment for bribery was introduced.

Continued unification tax system , a unified system of land taxation was introduced. The population of the country was obliged to bear tax- a complex of natural and monetary duties. The amount of the tax depended on the nature of land ownership and the quality of the land used. The Code of Law of 1550 abolished the tarkhan letters that exempted people from paying taxes.

3.2.5. Military reforms (1550 – 1556)

The next event of the “Elected Rada” was the legal regulation of localism. Localism- This is a system for distributing official positions in the Russian state. Appointment to military, administrative and court service was carried out taking into account the origin (antiquity of the family), the official position of a person’s ancestors and his personal merits.

From the middle of the 16th century. local disputes are becoming epidemic. The basis of the parochial “account” was not abstract nobility, but precedents, “cases.” Descendants had to be in the same official relations with each other - command, equality, subordination - as their ancestors. Accepting an “inappropriate” appointment was considered unacceptable, otherwise damage would be caused to the entire clan.

Localism, from the government’s point of view, also had obvious advantages. It thereby ensured primacy for those boyar families who had previously gone into the service of the Moscow sovereigns and were connected with them by traditions of loyalty.

Although localism restrained arbitrariness in appointments, it was a serious obstacle to the development of the noble service class and hampered the development military power Russian state. However, its abolition in the conditions of a hierarchically structured political entity was practically impossible. It was only possible to somehow limit this phenomenon. The failure of the campaign against Kazan in 1549 hastened the decision. IN 1550 G. published "The verdict on localism" providing for the relationship between governors during campaigns. The commander of the Great Regiment is declared the oldest in relation to the rest. The appointment of governors is now carried out in the name of the king.

During the military reform in the summer of 1550, it was created standing streltsy army, which became the backbone of the country's armed forces (although the main force of the Russian army in the 16th century remained a militia of small nobles). 6 rifle regiments were formed, divided into hundreds. The corps of “elected archers” initially numbered 3 thousand people, by the end of the 16th century. – 25 thousand. Streltsy received 4 rubles a year, which corresponded to the income of the average townsman, and lived in Vorobyovoy Sloboda near Moscow.

In accordance with the decree of October 1, 1550, it was decided to place chosen thousand nobles. However, due to the lack of land for “location”, the project of creating a horse guard remained unfulfilled; it was implemented later - it was the famous oprichnina “thousand”.

Completed military reform "Code of Service" (1556), which determined the scope and nature of the official duties of landowners in strict dependence on the estates and estates they had.

The local system was the basis of the Russian state, already at the end of the 15th century. it has become widespread. For his service, the warrior was given an estate with peasants from the sovereign, but this possession remained state property; the landowner was owed only the payments recorded in the census forms. The estate was small, the young warrior - a “novik” - received no more than 150 acres of land - about ten peasant farms. Landowners were regularly called to inspections, and if a warrior displeased the commanders, the estate could be taken away; if the landowner proved himself in battle, then the “manor’s dacha” was increased. Military commanders, boyars and governors, received up to 1,500 tithes, but were required to bring with them additional soldiers - hired servants or military slaves. A nobleman who was retired due to old age or because of wounds had the right to part of the estate - “subsistence”. If the son of a landowner entered the service in place of his deceased father, then he could inherit his father’s estate, but not all of it, but only in the amount that was due to the “novice”.

During the period of boyar rule, the local system fell into decay. Urgent measures were needed to restore order. The Code required that for every 150 acres of land one equipped mounted warrior be assigned to the royal army. Those who brought more people than required received monetary compensation - “I will help”; those who did not meet the quota paid a fine.

This innovation was especially important in organizing the service of patrimonial lords: although, in principle, they were obliged to perform military service, there were no service standards, and the boyars removed only a small number of horsemen from their vast estates. Now accounting was organized, duty lists were drawn up in the districts, and from now on no one could evade service. The local system made it possible for Ivan the Terrible to maintain an army of 100 thousand horsemen.

The boyars and nobles who made up the militia were called “serving people of the fatherland,” that is, by origin. The other group consisted of “service people according to the instrument” (i.e., recruited). In addition to the archers, it included gunners (artillerymen), city guards, and the Cossacks were close to them. In addition, foreigners began to be recruited into the army, the number of whom was insignificant.

Thus, the military reforms of Ivan the Terrible achieved their goal - a powerful army was created, which allowed Russia to greatly expand its territory and become a great power of that time.

In 1562, a decree appeared prohibiting the sale of family princely estates; in the absence of a direct heir, the estates were taken to the treasury. Following the obligation to pay taxes and field soldiers, this decree was a new step that infringed on the interests of the nobility. In fact, we were talking about the partial confiscation of boyar lands (escheat estates).

The transformations of Ivan IV were complex, programmatic and structural in nature. Overall, they were beneficial to the nobility and ultimately contributed to the strengthening of the centralized state.

3.2.6. Church Council - 1551

In January 1551 g., on the initiative of the Tsar and the Metropolitan, took place Church Cathedral, on which a collection of rules of church order of deanery was compiled, containing 100 chapters. Therefore, later the Cathedral received the name “Stoglavogo”.

“Is it worthy for monasteries to acquire land?” - this was one of the questions asked by the king to the cathedral. There have long been disagreements in the church on this issue, which were expressed in the formation of the party of “money-grubbers” and “non-money-grubbers.”

Considering the process of formation of the Russian centralized state, one should at least briefly characterize polemics between Nil Sorsky (c. 1433 - 1508) and Joseph Volotsky (1439 - 1515), which, outwardly touching only on issues of church organization and relations between the church and the state, in fact had a significant influence on the formation of state ideology.

Nil Sorsky and his supporters (much later, already in the second quarter of the 16th century, they began to be called “non-covetous”) condemned the status of the contemporary monastery and condemned the form of organization of black monasticism. Sorsky was a supporter of the early Christian community, based on common property, free self-government, and compulsory labor for each of its members. He rejected wealth (accumulation of possessions). In his opinion, “love of money” gave rise to a disastrous vice for humanity – “acquisitiveness”, and the task righteous man lies in overcoming it intelligently. Nil Sorsky and his associates were looking for an ideal church, unencumbered by worldly concerns and serving as a spiritual and moral guiding light for a dark and sinful world.

The opponent of the “non-acquisitors” was Joseph Volotsky and his followers (“Josephites”, “acquisitors”). An adherent of strict personal asceticism, Joseph strongly advocated the right of monasteries to own land property. He believed that by owning property and not caring about their daily bread, monasticism would increase and engage in its main task - bringing the Word of God to the people. At the same time, all monastic wealth should be directed to charity and other social goals.

Volotsky formulated the concept of state power, clarified its origin and essence. He considered the Divine will to be the source of state power. Here Joseph followed the traditional gospel understanding of authority: “There is no authority except from God.” But if power is of Divine origin, then its bearer is a person, and he, like any person, can make mistakes and must bear responsibility for mistakes. In addition, the entire nation may suffer from these mistakes - “For the sovereign’s sin, God will execute the entire earth.” Moreover, the fact that a certain person was chosen by Divine Providence already deprived ordinary people of the right to criticize the Grand Duke. The Josephite party reached the apogee of its influence under Metropolitan Macarius, who gave Ivan IV the idea of ​​becoming crowned king.

Returning to the question asked by Ivan IV to the Church Council, it should be noted that the majority at it were Josephites (“money-grubbers”). Despite the fact that the Council declared the inviolability of church property, it was decided to hold partial secularization of church properties, which made it easier to solve the problem of finding land for the nobility. The Church was deprived of land holdings transferred to bishops and monasteries by the Boyar Duma after the death of Vasily III; in the future, the acquisition or receipt of land as a gift could only be carried out after a report to the Tsar.

In speeches at the Church Council of 1551, Ivan Vasilyevich for the first time publicly announced that he was taking on the role of a “pious king” and turned to the participants of the Council with a request for help in strengthening the Christian faith.

This appeal was not accidental. As the materials of the Stoglavy Cathedral show, the state of affairs with the Orthodox faith in the country was far from the best - the spread of pagan and heretical beliefs, non-observance of Christian rituals (many ordinary parishioners did not even know how to be baptized correctly!), and the lack of education of the clergy appeared in the middle of the 16th century. mass phenomena. The Church, as evidenced by the materials of the Council, was unable to cope with them on its own. Therefore, Ivan IV believes that the tsar, if he wants to establish a true Orthodox kingdom, must first strengthen the faith in his state.

The cathedral consolidated the unification of the all-Russian pantheon of saints, a single cult and rituals, and established general rules - canons - for church painting. The church was entrusted with the establishment of schools for the laity.

3.2.7. Bodies of central and local government

Serious changes affected the central government administration. Tax and local reform, land cadastre, official registers - all this required accounting and control, and the creation of new specialized departments. Instead of the two previous national institutions - the Sovereign's Palace and the Treasury - which had vague, intertwined management functions, it was created the whole system specialized orders.

Orders – These are permanent central government bodies. And although the first command-type institutions appeared at the end of the 15th century, it was only in the mid-50s. XVI century A unified system of public administration is emerging. The number of orders constantly grew due to the complication of management functions (by the end of the 16th century their number reached 30).

The most important institutions were Ambassadorial order (headed by I.M. Viskovaty), in charge of foreign policy, Petition order (headed by A.F. Adashev), which examined complaints and exercised control, Local(whose functions included accounting, description of lands and the population living in private estates), as well as Razboyny, who fought crime, Razryadny and Streletsky, who were involved in military affairs. There were also many small orders.

Each order was headed by a duma boyar, but the boyars were poorly versed in office work, and in reality the head of the order was an experienced and competent clerk. The clerks were usually humble people, but nevertheless, they were included in the Duma and became “Duma clerks.”

In the 50s The local government system was also reorganized. As a result labial reform(started back in the 30s of the 16th century), cases of “robberies” (dangerous criminal offenses) were removed from the jurisdiction of governors and volosts and transferred lip prefects, who were elected by the nobles of the county. The provincial elders did not receive a salary for their service, and accordingly they treated their official duties carelessly. But the “sentence on robbery” (1555), according to which negligent elders were supposed to be put “temporarily” in prison, forced them to catch the robbers. After 1556, provincial elders became heads of district administrations.

IN 1555 – 1556 in cities and counties with a black-growing population (depending directly on the state, and not on private owners) and in palace volosts, it was carried out zemstvo reform.

Previously, leadership in cities and volosts was carried out by the sovereign’s “feeders” appointed from above (for their service they received “feed” from the population - in-kind or monetary duties). Feedings were not so much a system of administration and court, but rather a system of rewarding feudal lords for their service: they received the positions of governors and volosts for a certain period of time as reward for participating in hostilities. That is why the feeding system was not effective: the governors and volostels knew that they had already “earned out” their income on the battlefield, and therefore were careless about their judicial and administrative duties, often entrusting them to their “slaves” - tiuns, caring only about receiving required “feed” and court fees. Now feedings were canceled, the money that previously went to the feeders was now collected by the state as a tax - “the feeder's farm-out.” The reform encountered resistance from the nobility, who did not want to part with their food, so the reform dragged on for decades; in the border areas the governorships were never eliminated.

The feeding system was replaced zemstvo self-government, whose local representatives are elected from among wealthy peasants and townspeople zemstvo elders, zemstvo judges And kissers. Headmen handled small court cases; layout, collection of taxes; were in charge of the city economy; maintaining order in the territory of the volost or city; land allocation, i.e., the basic needs of townspeople and district people.

Black-nosed peasants, townspeople, and service people chose "kissers"(i.e. jurors in courts who took an oath of honesty “kissed the cross”), without which no trial could take place. The administration did not have the right to arrest a person without obtaining the consent of the elders and kissers, otherwise they could release the arrested person. In addition, the zemshchina had far from a formal right to complain to the sovereign about the rulers.

Thus, the power of the governors was completely replaced by the power of elected zemstvo bodies. The autocratic foundations of Russian state power were strengthened by the support of broad zemstvo self-government.

3.2.8. Eastern campaigns

Foreign policy successes of Russia in the 50s. XVI century were largely a consequence of the reforms carried out.

The Tatar khanates that formed after the collapse of the Golden Horde (in 1395) posed a threat to the Russian state: in the east and southeast - Kazan and Astrakhan, in the south - Crimea, which in 1475 became a vassal of the powerful Turkish (Ottoman) Empire.

The end of the era of boyar rule put an end to Moscow's hesitation regarding the Kazan Khanate, whose rulers constantly violated peace agreements with Russia and enriched themselves by raiding the Russian border lands. Moscow could no longer ignore the hostile actions of the Volga Tatars and put up with them. Gradually, the idea of ​​forcefully subjugating the Kazan kingdom to Russia as the only means of stopping the Tatar invasions of their eastern lands matured in the tsar’s circle.

IN 1552 G . The Kazan Khanate was annexed to Russia. It is important that the very meaning of the Kazan campaign of 1552 was seen by both the sovereign and his entire entourage not only in his political significance, but also in a religious sense - it was a campaign of the Orthodox people against the infidels who threatened the Russian land. As evidenced by the entire behavior of Ivan IV during the storming of Kazan.

It is worth recalling that Russian troops had already undertaken campaigns against Kazan, the capital of the Tatar kingdom, but all of them did not bring final victory. In the autumn of 1552, the campaign was led by the sovereign. It would seem that, according to established tradition, the king should go to the enemy at the head of the army, or lead him. But Ivan Vasilyevich acted completely differently that time. During the decisive battle - the storming of Kazan - he was in a specially built camp church and fervently prayed for victory. As soon as Ivan IV finished mass, he left the church, mounted his horse and galloped off to his regiment. When he found himself under the walls of Kazan, the city was practically captured.

Such behavior is not evidence of cowardice or indecisiveness, it is an example of the king’s sincere confidence that such a great victory can only be won with God’s help. It was in prayer that, according to Ivan Vasilyevich’s conviction, his main task during the storming of Kazan was, for the duty of the Anointed of God was not to throw himself on the Kazan walls with a saber in his hands, but to beg the Lord for help. And life seemed to confirm the tsar’s rightness - Kazan fell while he was praying.

Next to the Kazan Khanate, in the lower reaches of the Volga, there was another Tatar state - the Astrakhan Khanate. Taking advantage of the exceptionally favorable position of their possessions in the Volga delta, the Astrakhan khans controlled the trade of Rus' and Kazan with the countries of the East. Slavery and the slave trade persisted here until the Russian conquest. Astrakhan Tatars more than once took part in the campaigns of the Crimean and other Tatar hordes on Russian lands. IN 1556 G. The Astrakhan Khanate was also conquered.

After these victories, they became the subjects of the powerful Moscow sovereign. 1557 G. Chuvash and Bashkirs, The Nogai Horde recognized vassal dependence on Rus'. Thus, new fertile lands and the entire Volga trade route became part of Russia.

3.2.9. Dynastic crisis - 1553

At the end of the 50s. XVI century between the tsar and his “Chosen Rada” there is a clear cooling, largely due to dynastic crisis caused by Ivan's disease spring 1553 The tsar fell so seriously ill that, expecting death, he ordered his entourage to swear allegiance to the infant Tsarevich Dmitry. Fearing another struggle for power under the young king, many, including Sylvester, showed serious hesitation. Ivan IV's cousin, Prince Vladimir Andreevich Staritsky, was nominated as a candidate for the throne. Although after his recovery the king announced forgiveness of his relative and associates, he did not forget their hesitation.

3.2.10. Livonian War (1558 – 1583). Start

Gradually, the role of the Elected Rada is also decreasing due to disagreements with the tsar on issues of domestic and foreign policy.

There were two groups in the Moscow government. One, led by A.F. Adashev, insisted on the continuation of Eastern policy, the crushing of the steppe Tatar hordes, and the elimination of the military threat emanating from the Crimean Khanate. The second group, headed by I.M. Viskovaty advocated the struggle in the western direction, for the war with the Livonian Order.

The state interests of Russia required the establishment of close ties with Western Europe, which were then most easily achieved through the seas, as well as ensuring the defense of the western borders of Russia, where the Livonian Order acted as its enemy. If successful, the opportunity to acquire new economically developed lands opened up.

IN 1558 g., not paying attention to the protests, Ivan the Terrible began war in Livonia . In 1560, in a message to Emperor Ferdinand I, the Russian Tsar stated that the Livonian War was being waged against those who “transgressed the commandment of God”, “fell into the Luthorian heresy” and therefore the just goal of the war was the fight for the restoration of the “old law” - Orthodoxy. And it is characteristic that the correction of “godless Lithuania” was carried out in practice: after the capture of cities, Orthodox churches were immediately erected.

The moment chosen to begin hostilities seemed favorable. For a number of reasons, opponents of Russia’s access to the shores of the Baltic were unable to provide emergency military assistance to the Livonian Order. Sweden, having lost the war with Russia that began in 1554, was in dire need of a peaceful respite. Lithuania and Poland, the process of merging them into a single state had not yet been completed, counted on the stability of the knightly state. At first, they did not plan to intervene in the war with the Moscow state, from which the Kingdom of Sweden received all the benefits. The Crimean Khan (“tsar” in the terminology of Russian official papers of that time), frightened by the previous victories of Ivan IV, was not going to resume wars on the Russian borders, limiting himself to ordinary raids.

Occasion the outbreak of hostilities in the Baltic states was caused by the delay by the Livonian Order of 123 Western specialists invited to Russian service, as well as the failure of Livonia to pay the ancient "Yuriev tribute"- long established monetary compensation for the Germans who settled in the Baltic States for the right to settle on lands that belonged to the Polotsk princes(territories along the Western Dvina). Later, these payments were transformed into a very significant tribute for the Russian city of Yuryev (Dorpat), captured by the knights-swords, built in 1030 by the Kyiv prince Yaroslav the Wise. The fairness of Russian demands was also recognized by the Livonian side in the treaties of 1474, 1509 and 1550. At the negotiations held in Moscow in 1554, agreeing with the arguments of A.F. Adashev and I.M. Viskovaty, diplomats of the Order and the Bishop of Dorpat undertook to pay tribute to the Russian Tsar for three years. However, the Livonians were unable to collect such a significant amount (60 thousand marks) even after the outbreak of hostilities. Other demands of the Moscow government were also unfulfilled:

ü restoration in Livonian cities (Dorpta, Riga and Reval) of Russian quarters and Orthodox churches in them,

ü ensuring free trade for Russian merchants and

ü refusal of the order authorities from allied relations with Lithuania and Sweden.

Military operations began in January 1558. Russian armies entered the land of the Order and relatively easily captured the eastern borders of this country, capturing about 20 cities, including Narva and Yuryev (Dorpt).

In 1559, the Russian government, considering its position in Livonia quite strong, through the mediation of the Danes, agreed to conclude a six-month truce with the Master of the Order (from May to November 1559)

Having received a much-needed respite, the order authorities called for help from the troops of neighboring states: the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Denmark and Sweden, which hastened to divide among themselves the Baltic lands unoccupied by Russian troops. The new head of the order, Ketler, in October 1559, broke the truce with Moscow, and the war broke out with renewed vigor.

In the spring of 1560, an army led by Prince A. Kurbsky entered Livonia, and was later joined by A. Adashev. August 2 1560 near Ermes in the decisive battle the main forces of the order were defeated. However, Adashev suspended the offensive, which to some extent reversed what had been achieved. As a result, Adashev and Sylvester were dismissed.

The successes of Russian weapons accelerated the beginning of the collapse of the state of the Knights of the Sword. In June 1561, the cities of Northern Estonia swore allegiance to the Swedish king. According to the Vilna agreement on November 28, 1561, The Livonian state ceased to exist, transferring their cities, castles and lands under the joint authority of Lithuania and Poland.

Thus, new forces were drawn into hostilities in the Baltic states. And if Moscow diplomacy managed to neutralize Sweden, which had captured Revel for the time being, concluding a 20-year truce with it in the summer of 1561, then the armed conflict with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which began with isolated border clashes, soon escalated into a real war.

In December 1562, Ivan IV himself set out on a campaign against Lithuania with an army of 80,000. February 15 1563 after a three-week siege, it was possible to take a strategically important and well-fortified fortress Polotsk, which became one of the last major successes in the Livonian War. Less than a year later, in January 1564 in the battle of r. Uly, not far from Polotsk, Russian troops suffered a severe defeat: many soldiers were killed, hundreds of servicemen were captured.

In April 1564, the famous Russian military leader, who once enjoyed the special favor of the Tsar, boyar and governor Prince A.M., went over to the enemy’s side and fled to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Kurbsky, who had detailed information about the numbers, concentration areas and command plans, which he transmitted to the enemy.

The September offensive of large Lithuanian forces on the western border was coordinated with the Khan's great campaign. The latter was unexpected, since in February the khan took an oath before the Russian ambassadors. There was no information from Crimea, the border guards did not work. According to Ivan the Terrible, this could not have happened without extensive treason.

On Wednesday of the third week of Lent, March 1 (in 1553), the Tsar and Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of All Rus' fell ill. And his illness was very serious - he barely recognized people. And he was so ill that it seemed to many that he was approaching death... When the will was drawn up, the sovereign was reminded of the kiss of the cross, so that Prince Vladimir Andreevich and the boyars could be sworn in to the name of Tsarevich Prince Dmitry... And there was a great quarrel and excitement and many disputes among all the boyars - they do not want to serve a baby in diapers...

And the Tsar and the Grand Duke, seeing the boyars’ stubbornness, began to tell them this: “If you don’t kiss the cross for my son Dmitry, then it means you have another sovereign; and you kissed the cross for me more than once, so as not to look for other sovereigns besides us. And I bring you to the kiss of the cross and order you to serve my son Dmitry, and not the Zakharyins. I can't talk to you much; but you have forgotten your souls, you don’t want to serve us and our children, you don’t remember what you swore to us. And whoever does not want to serve the sovereign in diapers will not want to serve the great one. And if you don’t need us, then it will fall on your souls.”

And to the boyars who had kissed the cross before, the sovereign began to say: “Sovereign boyars, you swore with your souls to me and my son Dmitry that you will serve us. And now the boyars don’t want to see my son in the state. And if God’s will is done to me and I am no more, then please remember why they kissed the cross for me and my son; Do not somehow let the boyars know my son, but run with him to a foreign land, where God will show you.”

And the sovereign said to Daniil Romanovich and Vasily Mikhailovich: “And you, Zakharyins, why were you afraid? Or do you think that the boyars will spare you? You will be the first dead from the boyars! So you would have died for my son and his mother, but you would not have given my wife to the boyars to mock!”

And all the boyars were afraid of that harsh word from the sovereign and went to the front chamber to kiss the cross.

LETTER TO THE GOVERN TRAITOR (MESSAGE TO GROZNY TO KURBSKY)

You wrote that I am corrupted by reason, as you will not find among the infidels. I put you yourself as the judge between me and you: are you corrupted by reason or I, who wanted to dominate you, but you did not want to be under my power, and for this I was angry with you? Or are you corrupt, who not only did not want to obey me and obey me, but you yourself owned me, seized my power and ruled as you wanted, and removed me from power: in words I was a sovereign, but in reality I owned nothing. How many misfortunes I have suffered from you, how many insults, how many insults and reproaches! And for what? What was my fault before you from the very beginning? Who and with what did I offend?..

Why did you separate me from my wife? If you had not taken my young wife away from me, there would have been no Crown victims. And if you say that after that I could not endure it and did not maintain cleanliness, then we are all human. Why did you take a Streltsy wife? And if you and the priest had not rebelled against me, none of this would have happened: all this happened because of your self-will. Why did you want to put Prince Vladimir on the throne and destroy me and my children? Did I steal the throne or seize it through war and bloodshed? By God's will, from birth I was destined for the kingdom: and I no longer remember how my father blessed me with the state; on the royal throne and grew up. And why on earth should Prince Vladimir be a sovereign? He is the son of the fourth appanage prince. What merits does he have, what hereditary rights to be a sovereign, besides your treason and his stupidity? What is my fault before him? That your uncles and masters killed his father in prison, and kept him and his mother in prison? And I freed him and his mother and kept them in honor and prosperity; but he’s already lost the habit of all this. And I couldn’t stand such insults - and stood up for myself. And then you began to oppose me even more and change me, and therefore I began to oppose you even more decisively. I wanted to subjugate you to my will, and how, because of this, you outraged the shrine of the Lord and desecrated it! Angry at man, they rebelled against God. How many churches, monasteries and holy places have you desecrated and desecrated! You yourself will give an answer to God for this. But again, I’ll keep silent about this; I am writing to you here about current affairs. Look, prince, at God’s judgment: how God gives power to whomever he wants. After all, you and priest Sylvester and Alexei Adashev boasted like the devil in the Book of Job: “I walked around the earth and walked through the world, and the whole earth is under my feet” (and the Lord said to him: “Do you know my servant Job?”). So you too imagined that the entire Russian land was under your feet, but by God’s will your wisdom turned out to be in vain. This is why I sharpened my pen to write to you. You said: “There are no people in Rus', there is no one to defend,” but now you are not there; Who is conquering the most solid German fortresses today? It is the power of the life-giving cross, which defeated Amalek and Maxentius, that conquers fortresses...

In 1577, one of the largest and most successful campaigns of Ivan IV to Livonia was undertaken. By September, all of Livonia (with the exception of Revel-Tallinn and Riga) was in the hands of Ivan the Terrible. It was in this situation that the tsar wrote a number of messages to his various opponents - including the “tsar’s traitors” Andrei Kurbsky, Timokha Teterin, the Livonians Taube and Kruse, who served Grozny and betrayed him.

YOU ARE NOT MY BROTHER

When Kurbsky referred to other European states where subjects have political rights, Ivan the Terrible replied: “What can I say about godless people! All these people do not own their kingdoms: as the workers (subjects) command them, so they do. And the Russian autocrats themselves initially owned all the kingdoms, and not the boyars and nobles.” And defeated by Stefan Batory, he with dignity speaks to his ambassadors about the superiority of his principle: “It is not suitable for your Sovereign Stefan to be in equal brotherhood with us, but we, humble John, Tsar and Grand Duke of All Rus', are by God’s will, and not by the multi-rebellious humanity want." And he wrote to Elizabeth the Queen of England: “We hoped that you, Empress, are in your state and the power itself and your sovereign honor and your state’s profit. It’s just that people rule past you, and not only people, but trading men, and they don’t look at our sovereign heads and honors and lands for profit, but look for their own trade profits! And you remain in your maiden rank, as if you were a vulgar girl.” The same thought is expressed in the message to the Swedish king: “if you had a perfect kingdom, then your father would not have had all the land as his comrades.”

All European neighbors, according to John, are representatives of godless power, guided not by Divine commands, but by human passions: they are all slaves of corruption and lust.

The Orthodox-monarchist theory of Grozny and its correspondence to the Orthodox national consciousness. (From the book by M. Zazykin. Tsarist power and the law of succession to the throne in Russia. Sofia. 1924)

TORTORMER IN THE NAME OF THE KINGDOM

The exclusivity of the figure of the king, her loneliness and tragedy - this is what was revealed to Ivan the Terrible from the height of his position. This gives rise to the concept that the king becomes a “tormentor” in the name of the kingdom. As a deeply religious and theologically educated person, Ivan the Terrible could not and did not want to place responsibility for this torment on God. The king understood perfectly well that the Almighty is not involved in evil, the source of which is in the sinful will of created beings.

How does such a “tormentor” differ from a non-Christian king, a persecutor of the Orthodox, an Old Testament pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar? This is a ruler who maintains the purity of faith. The king's personal responsibility for sins does not relieve his subjects from the need to obey him. Every serf, every slave who is obliged to prepare for voluntary martyrdom, can suffer from it, but not in defending the dogmas and precepts of Christianity, but again “for the sake of the kingdom,” in the name of preserving the established order. Here the ideal of the “kingdom of Caesar” temporarily triumphs, demanding unconditional submission, but for the sake of God-pleasing goals - this is what Ivan the Terrible believes.