Chapter IV The initial period of the unification of Russian lands around Moscow until the 80s of the 14th century. Beginning of the state

Political system of Rus' in the 14th century.

The Mongol-Tatar invasion and the then established yoke with the continued raids of the Horde led to significant changes in North-Eastern Rus'. Among the independent (“great”) principalities into which it broke up at the beginning of the 14th century. North-Eastern Rus', the largest were the principalities of Moscow, Tver, Ryazan and Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod. The Novgorod and Pskov lands were boyar republics. The head of North-Eastern Rus' was the prince, who received a label (letter) for the right to occupy the great reign of Vladimir from the Golden Horde khan. The grand dukes concluded agreements among themselves that established the boundaries of the principalities, the conditions for the extradition of fugitive peasants and slaves, the rules for the passage of merchants, and also determined the general line of foreign policy and diplomacy. However, in conditions of political fragmentation, these agreements were constantly violated.

Great duchies in the XIV-XV centuries. were split into a number of appanages, within which local princes were independent rulers. Agreements between the princes assigned to each of them ownership of the land and the right to collect taxes within the limits of their inheritance. The princes could not buy villages in other people's appanages, keep people there dependent on them, send tributaries there to collect tribute and issue letters of grant to these lands.

Appanage princes, sovereign sovereigns in their domains, were vassals of the Grand Duke and were obliged, on his orders, to go on a campaign or send their military detachments along with the regiments that were under the command of the Grand Duke’s commanders. Only the Grand Duke enjoyed the right to communicate with the Horde, who sent tribute to the Horde collected by the appanage princes according to their destinies. The appanage princes fought against the grand ducal power, which sought to restrict their political rights.

A peculiar political system developed in the Novgorod land, where an aristocratic republic was formed. Formally, the highest authority in Novgorod was the general meeting of citizens - the veche. It entered into agreements with princes invited to reign in Novgorod, had the right to declare war and make peace, approve new laws and repeal old ones, select executive bodies of power and administration, as well as exercise the supreme court. In reality, all power was concentrated in the hands of the large Novgorod boyars, who exercised it through the boyar council (the master). It consisted of the Novgorod archbishop (lord), posadnik and tysyatsky (senior officials), “old” (i.e., those who had already served their term) mayor and tysyatsky, headmen of the Novgorod ends and other boyars. The boyar council decided all major state issues. The posadnik, tysyatsky and headmen of the ends were selected for a certain period of time from among the large boyars. The large merchant class was closely connected with the Novgorod boyars. The veche was needed by the boyars as a body opposed to the princes in order to prevent them from strengthening their political positions in Novgorod.

At the same time, in conditions of heightened class struggle, the boyars used forms of veche democracy to maintain their dominance over the masses of urban artisans, who often acted together with the enslaved rural population. However, the veche was not just an obedient instrument in the hands of the boyars.

On the contrary, it more than once became the place where the most acute class clashes took place.

With the unification of Russian lands and the formation of a centralized state, the existence of an independent Novgorod feudal republic, whose boyars pursued a separatist policy, became an obstacle to the political unification of the country. Already from the 13th century. The rich trade and craft city of Pskov began to act as a major political center.

If initially Pskov was dependent on Novgorod, then in the middle of the 14th century. The Pskov boyar government managed to obtain recognition of its independence from the Novgorod authorities. The socio-economic and political system of ancient Pskov was close to the system of Veliky Novgorod.

The beginning of the unification of Russian lands.

Under the influence of the Tatar-Mongol raids, the center of economic and political life of North-Eastern Rus' moved from the regions of Vladimir-Suzdal to the central forest areas less accessible to the Horde, where on the eve and after the Batu invasion a number of new feudal principalities were formed (Tver, Moscow, Gorodets, Belozersk , Starodubskoye, Suzdalskoye, etc.). The inclusion of the rulers of these new principalities in the struggle for the great reign of Vladimir, for the territorial growth of their possessions, outwardly did not go beyond the scope of typical feudal princely strife, but objectively acquired the significance of the beginning of the unification process.

The main rivals in the struggle for the center of unification of Russian lands in the first third of the 14th century. Moscow and Tver became, turning from the capitals of small peripheral principalities into large feudal centers of North-Eastern Rus'. Their economic and political rise was facilitated by the rapid increase in their population due to the influx of peasants and artisans from other lands who fled under the pressure of the Tatars.

In comparison with Tver, the Moscow Principality occupied a more advantageous position in relation to other Russian lands. The river and land routes passing through its territory gave Moscow the significance of the most important hub of trade and other connections between Russian lands. The Moscow region was a center of developed agriculture. Even before the Tatar-Mongol invasion, Moscow was a city with a significant trade and craft settlement. Moscow was a center of particularly complex crafts; the production of weapons and luxury goods was concentrated here. Moscow became in the 14th century. large shopping center. Trade ties of Moscow merchants stretched far beyond the borders of Russian lands. Covered from the north-west of Lithuania by the Tver Principality, and from the east and south-east of the Golden Horde by other Russian lands, the Moscow Principality was less subject to sudden ruinous raids of the Golden Horde. The trade and craft population of Moscow supported the strong princely government in its struggle with the large boyars for political unification.

This allowed the Moscow princes to gather and accumulate strength, gradually create superiority in material and human resources in order to act as organizers and leaders in the unification process that had begun.

The geographical position of the Moscow principality also predetermined its role as the ethnic core of the emerging Great Russian nation. The importance of Moscow as the future capital of the Russian centralized state was also determined by the fact that it was located in the center of the territory occupied by the emerging Great Russian nationality. The role of Moscow grew as it became the center of the Russian people’s struggle against the Tatar-Mongol yoke.

The founder of the dynasty of Moscow princes was the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky, Daniel. Under him, the rapid growth of the Moscow Principality began. In 1301, Daniil Alexandrovich captured Kolomna from the Ryazan princes, and in 1302, according to the will of the Pereyaslavl prince, who was at enmity with Tver, the Pereyaslavl principality passed to him.

In 1303, Mozhaisk, which was part of the Smolensk Principality, was annexed, as a result of which the Moscow River, which was then an important trade route, found itself from source to mouth within the Moscow Principality. In three years, the Moscow principality almost doubled in size, became one of the largest and strongest in North-Eastern Rus', and the Moscow prince Yuri Danilovich entered the struggle for the great reign of Vladimir.

Mikhail Yaroslavich of Tver, who received the label for the great reign in 1304, strove for absolute rule in “all Rus'”, for the subjugation of Novgorod and other Russian lands by force. He was supported by the church and its head, Metropolitan Maxim, who moved his residence to Vladimir in 1299. Mikhail Yaroslavich's attempt to take Pereyaslavl from Yuri Daniilovich led to a protracted and bloody struggle between Tver and Moscow, in which the issue was already being decided not so much about Pereyaslavl, but about political supremacy in Rus'. In 1318, through the machinations of Yuri Danilovich, Mikhail Yaroslavich was killed in Sarai and the label for the great reign was transferred to the Moscow prince.

It is worth noting that the constant intervention of the Tatar khans in the political processes taking place in Rus' was the rule during this period. Thus, the unsuccessful uprising in Tver in 1327, suppressed by the Tatars with great cruelty, played into the hands of Moscow. The punitive army was led by none other than the Moscow prince Ivan Kalita. The pogrom that was carried out permanently removed Tver from the list of potential opponents of Moscow.

Having earned the full “trust” of the Tatars, Ivan Kalita not only received a label for the Vladimir Principality, but also the right to collect tribute from all Russian lands. The strengthening of Moscow leads to the fact that the Metropolitan moves his residence here, the city, thereby becoming the ecclesiastical center of Rus'. The significant superiority in material and human resources achieved by Moscow during Kalita's reign was reinforced by the construction of a stone Kremlin in 1367, which strengthened the military-defensive potential of the Moscow principality.

Kalita's foreign policy was aimed at maintaining the appearance of complete submission to the Tatars, so as not to give rise to new invasions. During his reign, the raids stopped: “And from then on there was great silence for 40 years and the trash stopped fighting the Russian land,” the chronicler wrote. The collection of tribute, carried out with inexorable cruelty, was a means of Moscow accumulating significant wealth, as well as a measure of influence on other Russian lands. Kalita, without resorting to weapons, through a policy of generous offerings to the khans and bribes to the khan's officials, was able to significantly expand the territory of the Moscow principality at the expense of the Galich, Uglich and Beloozersky principalities.

Kalita's son Simeon had already laid claim to the title of "Grand Duke of All Rus'" and for his arrogance received the title "Proud".

XV century became the time when politically fragmented Rus' actually turned into a single centralized state. Historiography identifies three main periods of the complex and contradictory process of political centralization of Russian lands after the victory in the Battle of Kulikovo.

The first - 1380 - 1425. The “Mamaevo Massacre” became not only a symbol of the unity of Rus', but also the beginning of the establishment of the ideas of statehood and strong grand-ducal power. It is characteristic that the victory of Dmitry Donskoy forced the Golden Horde to recognize the dominant position of Moscow among other Russian principalities. The son of Dmitry Donskoy, Vasily inherited the Great reign of Vladimir by the right of “fatherland”, i.e. by will, without the consent of the Golden Horde Khan. Another result of the victory was a reduction in the size of tribute, which contributed to the economic revival of Rus'.

However, the Battle of Kulikovo could not lead to the restoration of the independence of Rus': the unity of the princes that emerged was still extremely fragile, the balance of forces remained unfavorable. In 1382, Khan Tokhtamysh, taking advantage of discord among the Russians, plundered and burned Moscow. At the end of the 14th century. Russian lands faced a terrible threat of invasion by new conquerors - the Central Asian ruler Timur, who by this time had conquered Persia, India, Turkey, the Middle East and Siberia. In 1395, Timur's army, having defeated the Horde, reached the Yelets region, but retreated to the steppe. According to legend, Moscow was saved by the miraculous icon of Our Lady of Vladimir.

The second stage is the feudal war of 1431-1453. for grand-ducal power between the most powerful clans of the “nest of Kalita”, the ruling dynasty in North-Eastern Rus': the young Moscow prince Vasily II the Dark and the Galich princes Yuri Dmitrievich and Dmitry Yuryevich Shemyaka (father and son), who received inheritance according to tradition after the death of Dmitry Donskoy appanage principalities. The bloody war for the throne according to all the “medieval rules” (conspiracies, conversion to the Horde, breaking an oath, poisoning and blinding of opponents) almost destroyed the Moscow principality. However, none of the warring parties questioned the significance of centralization; only the question of which branch of the Kalita dynastic family would lead this process was resolved. The war largely predetermined the subsequent policy of eliminating specific fragmentation and establishing monarchical power under Ivan III.

By the end of the reign of Vasily II the Dark (1425-1462), so named after his blinding in 1442 by Dmitry Shemyaka, the territory of the Great Moscow Principality increased 30 times compared to the beginning of the 14th century. Moscow became not only the Center, but also the generally recognized leader of the unification of Russian lands.

The third stage is the second half of the 15th century. - the time of formation under Ivan III of a single Russian state as a result of the merger of North-Eastern and North-Western Rus', the overthrow of the Golden Horde yoke, the formation of a state ideology, a unified system of governance and the unification of all lands. The territory of the Great Moscow Principality grew 6 times (more than 500 thousand sq. km), it received European recognition as a monarchy and a powerful military power.

In modern historiography, special attention is paid to the study of the specific problems of the formation of a unified Russian state and the formation of feudal relations in it. In the context of the civilizational method of cognition, most modern domestic and foreign historians define this period of medieval Russia as a contradictory process of the formation of a special, essentially intermediate between East and West, national type of statehood.

Specifics of the formation of a unified Russian state.

Processes of formation of a centralized state, similar in time and significance, also took place in Russia. However, if in Western Europe the formation of national states took place on the basis of the formation of capitalist relations, then in Russia it was exclusively on a feudal basis. In Russia, a unique, national type of political centralization was developing, which is characterized by the following main features.

Firstly, Rus' went through this stage of its history in the fight against external danger, especially the Golden Horde, to achieve national independence, which was the main reason for accelerated political centralization - “the gathering of lands and authorities” (V.O. Klyuchevsky). In the 15th century, despite the weakening and overthrow of the Mongol yoke, the threat from the West intensified. The confrontation between Muscovite Rus' and Lithuania and Sweden for the possession of Novgorod and other ancient Russian lands led to several major wars. Two, the most protracted of them, in 1487-1494. and at the beginning of the 16th century. brought success to Russia. Moscow is simultaneously and quite successfully strengthening its policy of territorial expansion in the East, subordinating the Kazan Khanate to its influence. Such an active foreign policy required the unconditional mobilization of all society's resources.

Secondly, compared to the West, in Russia the formation of a single centralized state took place at an earlier phase of social development.

The socio-economic development of Russia (the growth of commodity production, the formation of the Great Russian people and a single national market, the genesis of capitalism) created the prerequisites for the formation of a national state only in the second half of the 17th century. But in fact, the unification of Russian lands into a single Russian state took place already in the second half of the 15th century. Compared to Western Europe, the process of formation of the Russian state followed an “unnatural” path and took on an “advanced” character, when first a centralized state arose, and two centuries later the necessary socio-economic prerequisites for its unity were formed. Also S.M. Soloviev substantiated the conclusion that the main result of accelerated political centralization was the formation in Russia of a special historical type of statehood.

Thirdly, according to most historians, the fate of Russian civilization was predetermined by the very problem of preserving the identity of the Russian people, who found themselves under geopolitical pressure between the East - the Golden Horde, and later the Ottoman Empire, and the West - Lithuania, Poland, the Livonian Order and Sweden. The efforts of many generations, until the middle of the 18th century. were aimed at preserving the foundations of sovereignty (from the French - complete independence from other states) and conquering neighboring lands that were springboards against us.

Fourthly, in modern historiography the formation of a centralized Russian state is justified by the concept of “polycentrism”, according to which the process of unification of Russian lands could take place around several geopolitical centers.

One of these potential centers is the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia, which arose on the ruins of Kievan Rus as a result of annexation with Lithuania in the middle of the 14th century. Western Slavic lands. A kind of federation of individual lands and principalities arose that retained their freedom and did not pay tribute to the Golden Horde - “Belaya Rus”.

Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia in the 15th century. extended from the Baltic to the Black Sea and from the borders of Poland and Hungary to the Moscow region. Feudal relations in this state developed primarily according to patterns typical of Europe: the formation of an estate-representative monarchy, the relative autonomy of the church from the state, vassalage relations, independence and self-government of cities on principles very similar to Magdeburg Law.

However, in this predominantly Slavic state, the equality of the Orthodox and Catholic faiths was officially established, which was periodically violated by the grand dukes and the Lithuanian nobility. Throughout the XIV century. The Lithuanian nobility ousted the Russian princes from the princely thrones, but very quickly became glorified, and from the end of the century the rapprochement of Lithuania with Poland began. In 1385, the Krevo dynastic union was concluded: the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jagiello also became the king of Poland. Western influence in this principality increased even more.

Another possible center for the unification of Russian lands could be the economically developed Novgorod feudal boyar republic, which suffered significantly less from the foreign invasion than Vladimir-Suzdal Rus'. Until the conquest of Novgorod by Ivan III in 1478, the political development of North-Western Rus' remained original. However, following the reform of the townspeople's administration in 1410, the veche (a meeting of the people to resolve common affairs) lost its former significance, and the administration of the republic took on complete oligarchic forms, which caused an aggravation of social conflicts. There was a split in Novgorod society into the boyar nobility, which bowed down in the 70s. XV century towards an alliance with Lithuania, and against supporters of an alliance with Moscow.

According to the famous researcher of this era, A. A. Zimin, history developed in such a way that the center of the formation of a single state became the lands around Moscow, which were inferior in terms of socio-economic development to other regions. Victory in the war of the feudal lords of the Central regions of the Moscow principality over the northern (Galich and Uglich), and later the northwestern (Novgorod and Pskov), where the salt mining industry began and trade with Europe developed, where the free “black-mown” peasantry prevailed and the preconditions for pre-bourgeois development were outlined , Zimin notes, foreshadowed the formation of a strong monarchical government and the strict dependence of all segments of the population on it. “The death of Galich’s freedom led to the fall of Tver and Novgorod, and then the bloody glow of the oprichnina.”

The struggle to overthrow the Golden Horde yoke began in the XIII-XV centuries. main national task. The restoration of the country's economy and its further development created the prerequisites for the unification of Russian lands. The question was being resolved - around which center the Russian lands would unite.

First of all, Tver and Moscow laid claim to leadership. The Tver principality as an independent inheritance arose in 1247, when it was received by the younger brother of Alexander Nevsky, Yaroslav Yaroslavich. After the death of Alexander Nevsky, Yaroslav became Grand Duke (1263-1272). The Tver principality was then the strongest in Rus'. But he was not destined to lead the unification process. At the end of the XIII - beginning of the XIV century. The Principality of Moscow is rapidly rising.

Moscow, which before the Mongol-Tatar invasion was a small border point of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality, at the beginning of the 14th century. turns into an important political center of the time. What were the reasons for the rise of Moscow?

Moscow occupied a geographically advantageous central position among the Russian lands. From the south and east it was protected from the Horde invasions by the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod and Ryazan principalities, from the north-west by the Tver principality and Veliky Novgorod. The forests surrounding Moscow were impassable for the Mongol-Tatar cavalry. All this caused an influx of population to the lands of the Moscow Principality. Moscow was a center of developed crafts, agricultural production and trade. It turned out to be an important junction of land and water routes, serving both trade and military operations.

Through the Moscow River and the Oka River, the Moscow Principality had access to the Volga, and through the tributaries of the Volga and the system of portages it was connected with the Novgorod lands. The rise of Moscow is also explained by the purposeful, flexible policy of the Moscow princes, who managed to win over not only other Russian principalities, but also the church.

The founder of the dynasty of Moscow princes was the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky, Daniil Alexandrovich (1276-1303). Under him, the territory of the Moscow Principality grew rapidly. In 1301 it included Kolomna, conquered from the Ryazan prince. In 1302 According to the will of the childless Pereyaslavl prince, his possessions passed to Moscow. In 1303 Mozhaisk was annexed from the Smolensk Principality to Moscow. Thus, the territory of the Moscow principality doubled in three years and became one of the largest in northeastern Rus'. Since Mozhaisk is located at the sources of the Moscow River, and Kolomna is located at the mouth, with their annexation the entire river came into the possession of the Moscow princes. Pereyaslavl-Zalessky was one of the richest and most fertile regions of the northeast, so its inclusion in the Moscow Principality significantly increased the economic potential of the latter. The Moscow prince entered into the struggle for the Great Reign.

The struggle between Moscow and Tver for the grand-ducal throne

As a representative of an older branch, the Tver prince Mikhail Yaroslavich (1304-1317) received a label for the great reign in the Horde. In Moscow at this time, the son of Daniil Alexandrovich Yuri (1303-1325) ruled.

Yuri Danilovich Moskovsky was married to the sister of Khan Uzbek Konchak (Agafya). He promised to increase tribute from Russian lands. The Khan gave him the label to the Grand Duke's throne. In 1315, Mikhail started a war with Yuri, defeated his squad, and captured the khan’s sister, who soon died in Tver. Yuri blamed the Tver prince for the death of his wife. Mikhail, summoned to the Horde, was executed. Moscow prince for the first time in 1319. received a label for the great reign. However, already in 1325. Yuri was killed by the eldest son of Mikhail Tverskoy - Dmitry Groznye Ochi. Khan Uzbek executed Dmitry, but, continuing the policy of pitting Russian princes against each other, he transferred the great reign to the brother of the executed man, Alexander Mikhailovich (1326-1327).

Uprising in Tver

In 1327 the population of Tver rebelled against the tax collector Baskak Cholkhan (in Rus' he was called Shchelkan), a relative of Uzbek. Outraged by the extortions and violence, the residents of Tver turned to Prince Alexander Mikhailovich for help. The Tver prince took a wait-and-see attitude. The rebels of Tver killed the Tatars. Taking advantage of this, the Moscow prince Ivan Danilovich came to Tver with a Mongol-Tatar army and suppressed the uprising. At the cost of the lives of the population of another Russian land, he contributed to the rise of his own principality. At the same time, the defeat of Tver deflected the blow from the rest of the Russian lands.

And today the debate continues about two possible trends in the fight against the Horde. Who was right in the rivalry between the two principalities of the 14th century? Moscow, which was accumulating strength to fight the enemy, or Tver, which opposed the invaders with an open visor? There are supporters of both one and the other point of view.

Ivan Kalita

Ivan Danilovich (1325-1340), having defeated the uprising in Tver, received a label for the great reign, which from that time almost constantly remained in the hands of the Moscow princes.

The Grand Duke managed to achieve a close alliance between the grand ducal power of Moscow and the church. Metropolitan Peter lived for a long time and often in Moscow, and his successor Theognost finally moved there. Moscow became the religious and ideological center of Rus'.

Ivan Danilovich was an intelligent, consistent, albeit cruel politician in achieving his goals. Under him, Moscow became the richest principality in Rus'. Hence the prince’s nickname - “Kalita” (“money bag”, “purse”). Under Ivan Kaliga, the role of Moscow as the center of unification of all Russian lands increased. He achieved the necessary respite from the Horde invasions, which made it possible to boost the economy and accumulate forces to fight the Mongol-Tatars. Ivan Kaliga received the right to collect tribute from the Russian principalities and deliver it to the Horde. Without resorting to weapons, he significantly expanded his possessions. Under him, the Galich (Kostroma region), Uglich, and Belozersk (Vologda region) principalities submitted to the Moscow principality.

Under the sons of Ivan Kalita - Semyon (1340-1353), who received the nickname Proud for his arrogant attitude towards other princes, and Ivan the Red (1353-1359) - the Moscow principality included the Dmitrov, Kostroma, Starodub lands and the Kaluga region.

Dmitry Donskoy

Dmitry (1359-1389) received the throne as a nine-year-old child. The struggle for the Grand Duke's Vladimir table broke out again. The Horde began to openly support Moscow's opponents.

A unique symbol of the success and strength of the Moscow Principality was the construction in just two years of the impregnable white stone Kremlin of Moscow (1367) - the only stone fortress in the territory of north-eastern Rus'. All this allowed Moscow to repel the claim to all-Russian leadership of Nizhny Novgorod, Tver, and repel the campaigns of the Lithuanian prince Olgerd.

The balance of power in Rus' changed in favor of Moscow. In the Horde itself, a period of “great turmoil” began (50-60s of the 14th century) - a weakening of central power and the struggle for the khan’s throne. Rus' and the Horde seemed to be “testing” each other. In 1377, on the Piana River (near Nizhny Novgorod), the Moscow army was crushed by the Horde. However, the Tatars were unable to consolidate their success. In 1378 the army of Murza Begich was defeated by Dmitry on the Vozhens River (Ryazan land). These battles were a prelude to.

Battle of Kulikovo

In 1380 temnik (head of the tumen) Mamai, who came to power in the Horde after several years of internecine hostility, tried to restore the shaky dominance of the Golden Horde over the Russian lands. Having concluded an alliance with the Lithuanian prince Jagiel, Mamai led his troops to Rus'. Princely squads and militias from most Russian lands gathered in Kolomna, from where they moved towards the Tatars, trying to forestall the enemy. Dmitry proved himself to be a talented commander, making an unconventional decision for that time to cross the Don and meet the enemy on the territory that Mamai considered his own. At the same time, Dmitry set the goal of preventing Mamai from connecting with Yagail before the start of the battle.

The troops met on the Kulikovo field at the confluence of the Nepryadva River and the Don. The morning of the battle - September 8, 1380 - turned out to be foggy. The fog cleared only by 11 o'clock in the morning. The battle began with a duel between the Russian hero Peresvet and the Tatar warrior Chelubey. At the beginning of the battle, the Tatars almost completely destroyed the leading Russian regiment, and wedged themselves into the ranks of a large regiment stationed in the center. Mamai was already triumphant, believing that he had won. However, there followed an unexpected strike for the Horde from the flank of an ambush Russian regiment led by governor Dmitry Bobrok-Volynets and Prince Vladimir Serpukhovsky. This blow decided the outcome of the battle by three o'clock in the afternoon. The Tatars fled in panic from the Kulikovo field. For personal courage in battle and military leadership, Dmitry received the nickname Donskoy.

The defeat of Moscow by Tokhtamysh

After the defeat, Mamai fled to Kafa (Feodosia), where he was killed. Khan Tokhtamysh seized power over the Horde. The struggle between Moscow and the Horde is not over yet. In 1382, using the help of the Ryazan prince Oleg Ivanovich, who pointed out the fords across the Oka River, Tokhtamysh and his horde suddenly attacked Moscow. Even before the Tatar campaign, Dmitry left the capital to the north to gather a new militia. The population of the city organized the defense of Moscow, rebelling against the boyars who rushed out of the capital in panic. Muscovites managed to repel the enemy's assault, using for the first time in battle the so-called mattresses (forged iron cannons of Russian production).

Realizing that the city could not be taken by storm, and fearing the approach of Dmitry Donskoy with his army, Tokhtamysh told the Muscovites that he had come to fight not against them, but against Prince Dmitry, and promised not to plunder the city. Having broken into Moscow by deception, Tokhtamysh subjected it to a brutal defeat. Moscow was again obliged to pay tribute to the khan.

The meaning of the Kulikovo victory

Despite the defeat in 1382, the Russian people, after the Battle of Kulikovo, believed in their imminent liberation from the Tatars. The Golden Horde suffered its first major defeat on the Kulikovo Field. The Battle of Kulikovo showed the power and strength of Moscow as a political and economic center - the organizer of the struggle to overthrow the Golden Horde yoke and unify the Russian lands. Thanks to the Kulikovo victory, the size of the tribute was reduced. The Horde finally recognized the political supremacy of Moscow among the rest of the Russian lands. The defeat of the Horde in the Battle of Kulikovo significantly weakened their power. Residents from different Russian lands and cities walked to the Kulikovo Field - but they returned from the battle as the Russian people.

Before his death, Dmitry Donskoy transferred the Great Reign of Vladimir to his son Vasily (1389-1425) in his will as the “fatherland” of the Moscow princes, without asking for the right to a label in the Horde. There was a merger of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir and Moscow.

Timur's campaign

In 1395, the Central Asian ruler Timur - the “great lame man”, who made 25 campaigns, the conqueror of Central Asia, Siberia, Persia, Baghdad, Damascus, India, Turkey - defeated the Golden Horde and marched on Moscow. Vasily I gathered a militia in Kolomna to repel the enemy. The intercessor of Rus' - the icon of Our Lady of Vladimir - was brought from Vladimir to Moscow. When the icon was already near Moscow, Timur abandoned the campaign against Rus' and, after a two-week stop in the Yelets region, turned south. The legend connected the miracle of the capital's deliverance with the intercession of the Mother of God.

Feudal war of the second Thursdays of the 15th century. (1431-1453)

The feuds, called the feudal war of the second quarter of the 15th century, began after the death of Vasily I. By the end of the 14th century. In the Moscow principality, several appanage estates were formed that belonged to the sons of Dmitry Donskoy. The largest of them were Galitskoye and Zvenigorodskoye, which were received by the youngest son of Dmitry Donskoy, Yuri. According to Dmitry’s will, he was supposed to inherit the grand-ducal throne after his brother Vasily I. However, the will was written when Vasily I did not yet have children. Vasily I handed over the throne to his son, ten-year-old Vasily II.

After the death of Grand Duke Yuri, as the eldest in the princely family, he began to fight for the Grand Duke's throne with his nephew, Vasily II (1425-1462). After the death of Yuri, the fight was continued by his sons - Vasily Kosoy and Dmitry Shemyaka. If at first this clash of princes could still be explained by the “ancient right” of inheritance from brother to brother, that is, to the eldest in the family, then after the death of Yuri in 1434 it represented a clash of supporters and opponents of state centralization. The Moscow prince advocated political centralization, the Galician prince represented the forces of feudal separatism.

The fight followed all the “rules of the Middle Ages,” that is, blinding, poisoning, deception, and conspiracies were used. Twice Yuri captured Moscow, but could not hold on to it. Opponents of centralization achieved their greatest success under Dmitry Shemyak, who was the Moscow Grand Duke for a short time.

Only after the Moscow boyars and the church finally sided with Vasily Vasilyevich II the Dark (blinded by his political opponents, like Vasily Kosoy, hence the nicknames “Kosoy”, “Dark”), Shemyaka fled to Novgorod, where he died. The feudal war ended with the victory of the forces of centralization. By the end of the reign of Vasily II, the possessions of the Moscow principality increased 30 times compared to the beginning of the 14th century. The Principality of Moscow included Murom (1343), Nizhny Novgorod (1393) and a number of lands on the outskirts of Rus'.

Rus' and the Union of Florence

The strength of the grand ducal power is evidenced by the refusal of Vasily II to recognize the union (union) between the Catholic and Orthodox churches under the leadership of the pope, concluded in Florence in 1439. The pope imposed this union on Rus' under the pretext of saving the Byzantine Empire from conquest by the Ottomans. Metropolitan of Rus', Greek Isidore, who supported the union, was deposed. In his place, Ryazan Bishop Jonah was elected, whose candidacy was proposed by Vasily II. This marked the beginning of the independence of the Russian Church from the Patriarch of Constantinople. And after the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453. the choice of the head of the Russian church was already determined in Moscow.

Summing up the development of Rus' in the first two centuries after the Mongol devastation, it can be argued that as a result of the heroic creative and military labor of the Russian people during the 14th and first half of the 15th centuries. conditions were created for the creation of a unified state and the overthrow of the Golden Horde yoke. The struggle for the great reign was already underway, as the feudal war of the second quarter of the 15th century showed, not between individual principalities, but within the Moscow princely house. The Orthodox Church actively supported the struggle for the unity of Russian lands. The process of formation of the Russian state with its capital in Moscow became irreversible.

Introduction

Chapter I. Reasons for the rise of Moscow in Soviet historiography

Chapter II. Moscow. The unification of lands around Moscow in Klyuchevsky’s historical generalizations.

Conclusion

References

Introduction

Today, many aspects of Russian history are being rethought. For example, during the Soviet period, class struggle was presented as the main stimulator of the development of history, and many events were viewed from this perspective. History was presented as a revolutionary process of transition from one formation to another, which modern historical science recognizes as not entirely legitimate.

This work is an attempt to consider the problem of the unification of Russian lands around Moscow and the centralization of the Russian state in the 14th - 16th centuries, which is one of the leading ones in Russian historical science, from the point of view of pre-revolutionary and Soviet historiography. The approach to considering the reasons for the rise of Moscow is quite ambiguous, but the conclusions are definitely consistent on the following points:

1. The influence of the geographical location of Moscow;

2. Purposeful, persistent policy of the Moscow princes over several generations;

3. The unity of church and state policies in strengthening the Moscow principality.

At the turn of the XIII-XIV centuries, the political fragmentation of Rus' reached its apogee. In the Northeast alone, 14 principalities appeared, which continued to be divided into fiefs. By the beginning of the 14th century, the importance of new political centers increased: Tver, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, while many old cities fell into decay, never regaining their positions after the invasion.

A center was needed to unite the Russian lands. Moscow became such a center.

In anticipation of my work to unite the Russian lands around Moscow, I want to say that everything I said cannot be considered the absolute truth. The history of ancient Rus' is shrouded in darkness. The chroniclers left us very little information. And even the little that is in the chronicles is half made up, because each new ruler rewrote history for himself.

For example, there are big doubts about the founding of Moscow by Yuri Dolgoruky - it is much older, the Vyatichi tribes have lived on its territory since the 10th century. The baptism of Rus' took place even before Prince Vladimir, and he only attributed all the laurels to himself. There was no Mongol yoke (this is what supporters of academician A.T. Fomenko think, for example, the author of detective stories A. Bushkov, but who knows, maybe they are right?). Ivan Susanin did not take the Poles anywhere, and False Dmitry 1 was finally recognized as a positive sovereign.

There are more questions about the history of ancient Rus' than answers. It is impossible to check where is the truth and where is the lie, but there are “traditional” historical sources of information that are officially accepted. Of these, I would especially like to highlight the lectures of V. O. Klyuchevsky. Perhaps he describes this process in the most detail. We will dwell on it in the second chapter of the essay. Soviet historical science, presented in this work by Orlov A.S., Georgiev V.A. on the issue of the formation of centralized states, he proceeds from the provisions developed by K. Marx, F. Engels and V.I. Lenin on the example of development of both advanced countries of Western Europe and Russia. The classics of Marxism-Leninism noted that a centralized state is a natural stage in the development of feudalism in all countries.

ChapterI. Reasons for the rise of Moscow in Soviet historiography

In the question of the reasons for the formation of centralized states, the classics of Marxism (K. Marx, F. Engels and V. I. Lenin) proceeded from the socio-economic prerequisites of this process. The formation of centralized states in different countries had its own characteristics.

The Russian centralized state developed in the northeastern and northwestern lands of Kievan Rus; the southern and southwestern lands of the former Old Russian state were included in Poland, Lithuania, and Hungary. Its formation was accelerated by the need to fight external danger, especially the Golden Horde, and subsequently the Kazan, Crimean, Siberian, Astrakhan, Kazakh khanates, Lithuania and Poland. F. Engels wrote that “in Russia, the conquest of appanage princes went hand in hand with liberation from the Tatar yoke...” (Marx K., Engels F. Works, 2nd ed., vol. 21, p. 416).

The Mongol-Tatar invasions and the Golden Horde yoke slowed down the socio-economic development of Russian lands. The level of social division of labor has weakened. The Mongol-Tatars inflicted especially great damage on cities as centers of handicraft production.

The formation of the Russian centralized state was based on the growth of feudal land ownership and economy, the development of serfdom, and the strengthening of class struggle. The expansion of the scale of land ownership forced the feudal lords to look for ways to secure the peasants. During the period of feudal fragmentation, peasants often moved from one principality-state to another. Only a unified state could ensure the assignment of peasants to certain feudal lords in conditions of increasing exploitation.

The formation of a unified state in Russia took place under the complete dominance and further progress of the feudal mode of production. This entailed the strengthening of serfdom and the establishment of a state system of serfdom in the country.

The most intensive process of restoration and development of the Russian economy after the Mongol-Tatar invasion took place in the northeast of the former Kievan Rus - mainly in the lands of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality.

In the XIII – XV centuries. There is an increase in population between the Oka and Volga rivers. These territories were relatively far from the centers of Mongol-Tatar aggression and were covered by the outlying southern and southeastern Russian lands from the Golden Horde. The influx of population came from the south, where there was constant danger from the Mongol-Tatars, and from the north-west, which was subject to pressure from Lithuania and Poland.

The restoration of productive forces and their further development proceeded faster in the field of agricultural production: arable land increased, soil cultivation techniques were improved. Three-field farming became widespread, and metal tools—plows with iron tips and plows—became more widely used.

The main thing in social development in the XIV–XV centuries. was the intensive growth of feudal land ownership. Its main dominant form was the patrimony; its owner could be a prince, a boyar, or a monastery.

In addition to private feudal land ownership, there was a significant number of free peasant communities - black lands that paid taxes to the treasury. The state acted as a feudal lord in relation to these peasants.

The rise of agricultural production created favorable conditions for the restoration and further development of Russian cities.

The destruction of old large cities, former centers, changes in the nature of economic and trade relations and routes led to the fact that in the XIII - XV centuries. New cities received significant development: Tver, Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow, Kolomna, Kostroma, etc. In these cities, the population increased, stone construction was revived, and the number of artisans and merchants grew. Despite the fact that the Golden Horde, Lithuania, Poland, and the Hanseatic League slowed down and tried to control the foreign trade of the Russian state, the cities became centers of not only domestic but also foreign trade.

Despite the slow development as a result of the ruin and the Golden Horde yoke, Russian cities played a significant role in the unification process. They were the centers that supported economic, although still weak, ties between individual parts of the country. The nature of handicraft production and trade determined the interest of the townspeople in the unification of the country. The process of uniting Russian lands into a Russian centralized multinational state took approximately two and a half centuries.

Supreme power over the Russian lands, in conditions of dependence on the Golden Horde, formally belonged to the Grand Duke of Vladimir. In the XIII - early XIV centuries. The label for the great reign of Vladimir was, as a rule, owned by the Tver princes, since Tver was the most powerful Russian principality of that time. Moscow was Tver's enemy.

Moscow, which before the Mongol-Tatar invasion was a small border point of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality, at the beginning of the 14th century. turns into the largest feudal center of that time. 1

The reasons for the strengthening of the Moscow Principality were:

1. Favorable strategic location. Moscow, which controlled the supply of grain to Novgorod from the Volga region, blocked trade routes in crisis situations, which made the Novgorodians more accommodating. Since the 14th century in Novgorod, princes controlled by Moscow were elected.

2. The seizure of the Great Reign of Vladimir, which gave Moscow economic (collection of “exit”) and political (in case of disobedience, Horde detachments were used against local princes) control over all the principalities of North-Eastern Rus'.

3. Exceptional pragmatism of the Moscow princes. They were among the first to cooperate closely with the Horde. This made it possible to subjugate almost all the principalities of North-Eastern Rus' to Moscow and ensure the end of the Horde pogroms, as well as restrain the onslaught of Lithuania. 2

4. The Moscow principality occupied a geographically advantageous central position among the Russian lands: from the south it was covered by the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod and Ryazan principalities, from the north-west by the Tver principality. The forests surrounding Moscow were impassable for the Mongol-Tatar cavalry. This provided it with an influx of population.

5. Moscow was a center for the development of crafts, agricultural production, and trade. It turned out to be a kind of junction of land and water routes, serving both for trade and military operations. Through the Moscow River and the Oka River, the Moscow Principality had access to the Volga, and through the tributaries of the Volga and the system of portages it was connected with the Novgorod lands.

6. The rise of Moscow is also explained by the purposeful flexible policy of the Moscow princes, who managed to win over not only other Russian principalities, but also the church. 3 With its unified teaching, liturgical practice and hierarchy, it was a powerful factor in the unity of the Russian people. 4

The founder of the dynasty of Moscow princes was the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky, Daniil Alexandrovich (1276-1303). Under him, the territory of the Moscow principality grew rapidly. In 1301, Kolomna, conquered from the Ryazan prince, became part of it. In 1302, according to the will of the childless Pereyaslavl prince, his principality passed to Moscow. In 1303, Mozhaisk was annexed from the Smolensk Principality to Moscow. Thus, in three years the territory of the Moscow Principality almost doubled and became one of the largest in North-Eastern Rus'. Since Mozhaisk is located at the source, and Kolomna at the mouth, with their annexation, the entire Moscow River came into the possession of the Moscow princes. Pereyaslavl-Zalessky was one of the richest regions of the northeast, so its inclusion in the Moscow land significantly increased the economic potential of the Moscow prince.

In 1327, there was an uprising of the population of Tver, the Tver residents killed the Tatars - tax collectors. Taking advantage of this, the Moscow prince Ivan Danilovich (Kalita) came from the Golden Horde with a Mongol-Tatar army and suppressed the uprising. The Moscow prince acted as a representative of the class of feudal lords of Moscow; at the cost of the lives of the population of another Russian land, he contributed to the rise of his own principality and diverted the blow from the rest of the Russian lands.

Ivan Kalita (1325-1340), having defeated the uprising in Tver, received the label for the great reign, which from that time almost constantly remained in the hands of the Moscow princes. The Grand Duke managed to achieve a close alliance between the grand ducal power of Moscow and the church. This was facilitated by the move of Metropolitan Peter to Moscow, which became the religious and ideological center of Rus'.

Under Ivan Danilovich, Moscow became the richest principality of Rus', and the role of Moscow as the center of unification of all Russian lands also increased. He achieved the respite necessary from the Horde invasions, which made it possible to boost the economy and accumulate forces to fight the Mongol-Tatars.

Ivan Kalita received the right to collect tribute from the Russian principalities and deliver it to the Horde. Without resorting to weapons, he significantly expanded his possessions. Under him, the Galich, Uglich, and Belozersk principalities came under the control of the Moscow principality.

Under the sons of Ivan Kalita - Semyon (Proud) (1340-1353) and Ivan Ivanovich the Red (1353-1359) - the Moscow principality included the Dmitrov, Kostroma, Starodub lands and the Kaluga region.

In the middle of the 14th century. In addition to Moscow and Tver, the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod and Ryazan principalities laid claim to the Grand Duchy.

The Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod prince Dmitry Konstantinovich tried to take advantage of the early childhood of the nine-year-old Dmitry Ivanovich (1359-1389), the Moscow prince, to receive a label for the great reign of Vladimir. With great difficulty, Dmitry managed to force the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod prince to renounce his great reign.

After the defeat, Tver strengthened again. In 1375, Dmitry Ivanovich, at the head of the Moscow troops, opposed Mikhail Tverskoy, who received the label of Grand Duke of Vladimir and entered into an alliance with Lithuania. This campaign was for the first time of an all-Russian character. Mikhail was forced to renounce the great reign of Vladimir.

In 1372, the Ryazan Grand Duke recognized dependence on Moscow.

On September 8, 1380, the Battle of Kulikovo took place, ending in the defeat of the Tatars. For personal courage in battle and military successes, Dmitry received the nickname Donskoy.

The Battle of Kulikovo showed the power and strength of Moscow as a political and economic center - the organizer of the struggle to overthrow the Golden Horde yoke and unify the Russian lands. Thanks to her, the political supremacy of Moscow among the rest of the Russian lands was finally recognized in the Horde.

Before his death, Dmitry Donskoy transferred the great reign of Vladimir to his son Vasily I in his will as the “fatherland” of the Moscow princes, without asking for the right to a label in the Golden Horde.

The process of unifying the Russian lands around Moscow into a centralized state was completed during the reign of Ivan III (1462-1505) and Vasily III (1505-1533). The largest territory of Rus' that remained independent from the power of the Moscow prince was the Novgorod feudal boyar republic. It was annexed in Moscow in 1478.

In 1480, the Mongol-Tatar yoke was finally overthrown. After his overthrow, the principalities that remained independent for some time were included in the Moscow state. In 1485, after two days of siege, Tver surrendered, in 1489, lands in the Vyatka region became part of the Moscow state, in 1510 Pskov was annexed, in 1514 Smolensk was returned, whose residents opened the gates to Moscow troops. In 1521, the Ryazan principality was annexed, which had actually been subordinate to Moscow for a long time.

The largest country in Europe was formed, which from the end 15th century began to be called Russia. Thus, the Russian centralized state took shape as a feudal-serf monarchy. The formation of this state was undoubtedly of a progressive nature, since it ensured the security of the country from external invaders and, given the then level of productive forces, gave scope for the development of the feudal mode of production.

CHAPTERII. Moscow. The unification of lands around Moscow in Klyuchevsky’s historical generalizations

The chronicle lists the city of Moscow among the new Suzdal cities that arose during the reign of Yuri Dolgoruky. The city arose at the crossroads between the Dnepropetrovsk south and the Upper Volga north, with the significance of a border town.

The initial reasons for its rapid growth were the geographical location of the city and its region. First of all, this situation contributed to the relatively earlier and denser population of the region. Moscow arose at the border between southwestern Dnepropetrovsk and northeastern Volga Russia. This was the first region that the southwestern colonists entered after crossing the Ugra River; here, therefore, they settled in the greatest numbers, as at their first stop.

Since the end of the 13th century, even before the city of Moscow begins to play a noticeable role in northern Rus', noble service people from Murom, Nizhny, Rostov, Chernigov, even from Kyiv and Volyn gather from all sides. People's forces flocked to Moscow, like a central reservoir, from all the edges of the Russian land, threatened by external enemies. This central position of Moscow protected it on all sides from external enemies; external blows fell on the neighboring principalities of Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Smolensk and rarely reached Moscow. Thanks to this cover, the Moscow region became a refuge for the marginal Russian population, which everywhere suffered from external attacks. In the 13th and first half of the 14th centuries, the Moscow principality was the only region of northern Rus' free from such disasters. This is one of the conditions that contributed to its successful settlement. The same geographical location of Moscow contained another condition that contributed to its early industrial successes. The Moscow principality was diagonally cut from northwest to southeast by the flow of the Moscow River. In the old days, this river was of great commercial importance and was a trade route. Both of these conditions, arising from the geographical location of Moscow, were of great importance for the Moscow prince. The density of the population in his domain increased the number of direct tax payers. The development of trade transit traffic along the Moscow River revived the industry of the region and enriched the treasury of the local prince with trade duties.

Along with these economic consequences, which flowed from the geographical position of Moscow, a number of important political consequences arose from the same source. The genealogical position of its prince was closely connected with the geographical position of Moscow. As a new and outlying city, Moscow fell to one of the younger lines of Vsevolod’s tribe. Therefore, the Moscow prince could not harbor hopes of living up to seniority and occupying the senior grand-ducal table. Feeling powerless among his relatives and having no support in the customs and traditions of antiquity, he had to ensure his position by other means, regardless of the order of seniority. Thanks to this, the Moscow princes early developed a unique policy, which consisted of the ability to take advantage of the conditions of the current moment. The first Moscow prince of the Alexander tribe, Daniel, according to the chronicler's story, attacked his Ryazan neighbor Prince Constantine by surprise, defeated him by deception and took him prisoner. The son of this Daniel, Yuri, in 1303, attacking another neighbor, Svyatoslav, Prince of Mozhaisk, also took him prisoner and captured the Mozhaisk inheritance, then killed the captive father Constantine and seized the city of Kolomna from the Ryazan principality. The Moscow prince is the enemy of every great prince, no matter who he is. Daniel fought all his life with the great princes, even with his own older brother Dimitri of Pereslavl. But after the death of Dimitri, he became close to his kind and childless son Ivan and became such friends that Ivan, dying in 1302, refused his inheritance to his Moscow neighbor in addition to his older relatives. Daniel accepted the inheritance and defended it. But the enemies of seniority, the Moscow princes were flexible and savvy politicians. How quickly circumstances changed and they changed their course of action. The Tatar defeat plunged the national economy of northern Rus' into terrible chaos for a long time, for the entire 13th century. But from the 14th century, relations began to be established here, the national economy began to come into some order. Since then, the Moscow princes have been peaceful masters, thrifty organizers of their inheritance, taking care of establishing lasting order in it, populating it with industrial and working people, whom they call back to themselves from foreign principalities. They buy Russian prisoners from the Horde in droves and, on preferential terms, plant both of them in their Moscow wastelands, build villages, hamlets, and settlements.

These were the initial conditions for the rapid growth of the Moscow principality: the geographical position of Moscow and the genealogical position of its prince. The first condition was accompanied by economic benefits, which put in the hands of the Moscow prince abundant material resources for action, and the second condition showed him how best to put these funds into circulation and helped him develop a policy based not on family memories, but on skillful use of the moment. Using such means and adhering to such a policy, the Moscow princes in the 14th and first half of the 15th centuries were able to achieve very important political successes.

1. Using their means, the Moscow princes gradually removed their principality from its original narrow limits; at the very beginning of the 14th century in the north of Rus', perhaps, there was no inheritance smaller than Moscow. Its borders did not even coincide with the borders of the current Moscow province; at that time it did not include the cities of Dmitrov, Klin, Volokolamsk, Mozhaisk, Kolomna, Vereya. Even around the time when Ivan Kalita became the Grand Duke, the Moscow inheritance remained very insignificant; it included six cities with districts: those were Moscow, Kolomna, Mozhaisk, Zvenigorod, Serpukhov, Ruza. This is Kalita's entire lot around the time he became the Grand Duke. But he had abundant material resources in his hands, which he put into profitable circulation. The conditions of land tenure at that time forced landowners to sell their estates. Due to increased supply, land was cheap. The Moscow princes, having free money, began to buy land from private individuals and from church institutions, from other princes, from monasteries, from the metropolitan. Ivan Kalita bought three specific cities with counties: Belozersk, Galich and Uglich. The successors continued this mosaic assembling of Rus'. Initially these acquisitions were made through private amicable transactions; but then a violent seizure was launched. So the son of Dmitry Donskoy bought from Khan Murom, Tarusa and the entire Nizhny Novgorod principality and, with the help of the Tatars, expelled the owners of these principalities from their possessions. Thanks to these acquisitions, the territory of the Moscow Principality expanded significantly during the 14th and 15th centuries.

2. Using their means and prudent family policy, the Moscow princes in the 14th century gradually emerged from the position of small and powerless appanage princes. Younger, but rich, these princes undertook a bold struggle with their older relatives for the grand-ducal table. Their main rivals were the princes of Tver, their elder relatives. Acting in the name of force, not right, the Moscow princes were not successful for a long time. On the side of the Tver princes were the right of seniority and talents, legal and moral means. On the side of the Moscow princes were money and the ability to take advantage of circumstances, i.e. material and practical, everyday means, and then Rus' was going through a time when the last means were stronger than the first. The princes of Tver could not understand the true state of affairs and at the beginning of the 14th century they still considered it possible to fight the Tatars. The Moscow princes looked at the state of affairs differently. They did not even think about fighting the Tatars; seeing that it was much more profitable to influence the Horde with money than with weapons, they diligently courted the khan and made him an instrument of their policy. Thanks to this, the Moscow prince, who according to genealogy was the youngest among his brethren, achieved the senior grand-ducal throne. The Khan instructed Kalita to punish the Tver prince for the 1327 uprising against the Golden Horde. He duly fulfilled the order and in 1328 received as a reward the Grand Duke's table, which since then has never left the hands of the Moscow prince.

3. The acquisition of the Grand Duke's table by the Moscow prince was accompanied by important consequences for Rus'. The Moscow appanage owner, having become the Grand Duke, was the first to begin to lead the Russian population out of the despondency into which external misfortunes had plunged them. The chronicler emphasizes that since the Moscow prince received grand-ducal dignity from the khan, northern Rus' began to rest from the constant pogroms that it suffered. In 1380, almost all of northern Rus', standing against the Horde on the Kulikovo field under Moscow banners, won the first popular victory over the Hagarians. This informed the Moscow prince of the importance of the national leader of northern Rus' in the fight against external enemies.

4. The most important thing was that the Moscow prince acquired for his capital city the significance of the church capital of Rus'. The geographical location of Moscow also helped him in this acquisition. The ancient Kievan Rus was completely devastated by the Tatar defeat. Following the population, the highest hierarch of the Russian Church, the Metropolitan of Kiev, also went north. He settled in Vladimir, but since the southern Russian flock needed the care of a high shepherd, the metropolitan often traveled to the southern Russian dioceses. On these trips he stopped at a crossroads in Moscow. Thus, Metropolitan Peter often visited and lived for a long time in Moscow. Thanks to this, he struck up a friendship with the local prince Ivan Kalita; together they founded the cathedral church of the Assumption in Moscow; in the same city, Metropolitan Peter died in 1326. Peter's successor Theognost did not want to live in Vladimir, he settled in the metropolitan court in Moscow near the miracle worker's tomb. Thus, Moscow became the church capital of Rus' long before it became the state capital. The rich material resources that the Russian Church then had at its disposal began to flock to Moscow, contributing to its enrichment. Even more important was the moral impression made by this transfer of the metropolitan see on the population of northern Rus'. This population began to treat the Moscow prince with great confidence. As a result, Russian church society began to sympathize with the prince, who acted hand in hand with the highest shepherd of the Russian church. This sympathy of church society, perhaps most of all, helped the Moscow prince strengthen his national importance in northern Rus'. The political successes of the Moscow prince were sanctified in the popular imagination with the assistance and blessing of the highest spiritual authority of Rus'.

The significance acquired by these successes all went to the Grand Duke, the eldest of the Moscow princes, who, in addition to his Moscow inheritance, also owned the Grand Duke's Vladimir region. Since Ivan Kalita, for a hundred years, such a Grand Duke usually became the eldest son of the previous Grand Duke. The undisputed transfer of grand-ducal power from father to son, repeated over several generations, became a custom that society began to look upon as the correct order, forgetting about the previous order of succession by seniority. By 1447, the clergy considered the only correct order to be the succession of the Grand Duke's table in a descending line, and not in order of seniority, and even contrary to history, they recognized such an order as the original “Zemstvo duty”, i.e. ancient custom of the Russian land. This order was supposed to prepare the establishment of autocracy, strengthening one direct senior line of the Moscow princely house, eliminating and weakening the lateral junior ones.

Over time, various ethnographic elements began to merge into one national whole, and a whole dense Great Russian nationality emerged and strengthened within the Russian population. Having developed among external dangers, she felt the need to concentrate her forces, in a solid state order. This need was a new and powerful reason for the successes of the Moscow prince, joining the original ones, which were: the economic benefits of the geographical location of the Moscow principality, church significance, and the prudent course of action of the Moscow princes, consistent with the circumstances of the time. How soon did the population of northern Rus' feel that Moscow was capable of becoming a political center around which it could gather its forces to fight against the unifying aspirations of the Grand Duke of Moscow, who was acquiring the significance of the national sovereign of Great Russia.

Conclusion

The emergence of a unified Russian state was of great historical significance. The elimination of partitions on the territory of the country and the cessation of feudal wars created more favorable conditions for the development of the national economy and for repelling external enemies. The inclusion of a number of non-Russian nationalities into a single state created conditions for the growth of ties between these nationalities and the higher economic and cultural level of Russia.

You may not like Moscow and Muscovites. But it is impossible not to admit that it was Moscow that liberated Rus' from the Tatars (the rest, by the way, could not do this), united weak Rus' into a powerful state, and stopped Napoleon and Hitler. I sometimes think, what would have changed in the history of Russia if Moscow had not united the Russian lands, but, say, Tver, Vladimir, or Novgorod? And I come to the conclusion that everything would remain the same. The capital would have been called differently, but it would not have changed the history of Russia.

References

1. Orlov A.S., Georgiev V.A. A manual on the history of the USSR for preparatory departments of universities.

3. Orlov A.S., Georgiev V.A. A manual on the history of the USSR for preparatory departments of universities.

4. Borisov N.S., Levandovsky A.A., Shchetinov Yu.A. Key to the history of the Fatherland.

5. Klyuchevsky V.O. A short guide to Russian history.

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