§ 59. TVER REGION AT THE TURN OF THE MILLENNIUM In the second half of the 1980s. In the USSR, a policy called “perestroika” was carried out. The Communist Party, the country's leadership led by M.S. Gorbachev tried to democratize domestic and foreign policy without having

Muscovite Rus' (1262-1538)

With the death of Alexander Nevsky in 1263, strife - “dislike” - broke out again in Rus'. His numerous brothers, sons and nephews never became worthy successors to the Grand Duke. They quarreled and, “running... to the Horde,” led the Tatars to Rus'. Bishop Serapion of Vladimir wrote about this with pain and anger: “We... consider ourselves Orthodox... (a) untruths are always filled with envy and unmercifulness: we rob and kill our brothers, sell them to the pagans... if it were possible, we would eat each other ..."

After Alexander, his brother Yaroslav Yaroslavich became the Grand Duke, who ruled until 1271, until, like his father and brother, he died on the way from the Horde. The last surviving child of Yaroslav, Vasily Yaroslavich, received the golden label, but in 1276 he too died. The Grand Duke's table passed to the son of Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Alexandrovich. His younger brother Andrei was fiercely at enmity with him, who “obtained” a golden label for himself in the Horde and brought the Tatars, who helped him overthrow Dmitry. So Prince Andrei Alexandrovich was the first of the Russian princes to seize power with the help of enemy force. The so-called “Dudenev’s army” that came to Rus' with Andrei burned and plundered 14 Russian cities. Contemporaries compared this time with Batu's invasion. In a word, Rus' suffered most from these strife, being subjected to the devastating raids of the conquerors.

The struggle of the brothers, who brought the Mongol-Tatar army to Rus', lasted for almost a quarter of a century, until 1294, when Dmitry died. From then on, Andrei Alexandrovich enjoyed the power he gained through treachery and betrayal for 10 years (until his death in 1304), although the true masters of the country were the Baskaks - tribute collectors who mercilessly robbed the subjects of the pathetic heirs of Alexander Nevsky.

Due to the constant quarrels of the princes, the capital city of Vladimir lost its former luster. The time has come for the heyday of the new centers of Rus' - Moscow and Tver. Among the sons of Alexander Nevsky, the youngest son, Daniil Alexandrovich, stood out least of all. As the youngest (born in 1261), he constantly maneuvered between powerful older brothers. Yes, he inherited from his father the worst and smallest of the appanage principalities - Moscow. Daniel stayed away from the feud between the brothers Dmitry and Andrey. According to legend, he received a significant increase in the Principality of Moscow as an inheritance from his neighbor and nephew Ivan Dmitrievich Pereslavsky. He, dying childless in 1302, bequeathed to Daniel the rich Pereslavl-Zalessky inheritance. Earlier, Daniel captured the city of Mozhaisk, and later, in 1303, the city of Kolomna, which was part of the Ryazan principality. Thus began the rise of Moscow. Daniil died in 1303 and was buried in the Danilov Monastery in the Kremlin, which he founded - the first monastery in Moscow. Later, miracles began to happen in this place, and Prince Daniel was canonized. Under Daniel's successor and son, Prince Yuri, the Moscow principality increased and began to stand out noticeably among other Russian lands. In 1326, the first stone church was built in Moscow. From the very beginning, Moscow sought friendly relations with the Tatars, who did not ravage the city and lands of a friendly prince. The Moscow princes were distinguished by constancy and attachment to their city. Even after achieving power over Vladimir and conquering other cities, they continued to rule from Moscow. To the splendor and vanity of capital life in golden-domed Vladimir, Daniil and his descendants preferred the convenience and safety of their father’s house on a fortified hill near the Moscow River.

Daniel's heir Yuri had to defend his inheritance in the fight against the strengthened Tver princes. Tver was a young city at that time. It went to Alexander Nevsky's brother, Yaroslav Yaroslavich, in 1252. He turned out to be a skillful ruler, strengthened the principality without wasting energy in the fight for the Vladimir table, and happily avoided Tatar raids.

Tver, located on the Volga, quickly became a rich trading city. It is no coincidence that it was there that for the first time in Rus' after the ruin of Khan Batu, a stone church was built, and a bell, rare for that time in Rus', gathered parishioners for prayer. Yaroslav was poisoned in the Horde in 1272. His work was continued by Prince Mikhail Yaroslavich, who, after the death of Grand Duke Andrei Yaroslavich in 1304, managed to receive a gold label from Khan Tokhta and became the Grand Duke of Vladimir.

This immediately strained relations between Tver and Moscow. Yuri Moskovsky responded to the evil of Prince Mikhail Tverskoy with evil, and he, in turn, did the same. In short, by the beginning of the 14th century. Moscow and Tver turned into sworn enemies. This mutual enmity between the princes and relatives cost Rus' dearly, delaying the hour of liberation from Mongol-Tatar oppression for a long time. The princes often traveled to the Horde and intrigued against each other. Yuri Danilovich, for the sake of the success of his business, married the khan’s sister, Konchak, who became Agafya in Orthodoxy. As a result, in 1317, the khan took the gold label from Mikhail Tverskoy and gave it to Yuri Danilovich. Thus, for the first time, Moscow acquired the coveted gold table in Vladimir. Then Yuri went to war against Tver, but failed - he lost the battle. Princess Agafya was captured by the Tver residents and soon died in Tver (possibly from poison), which served as a reason for the bitterness of the Moscow-Tver struggle. In 1318, at the call of the khan, Yuri and Mikhail came to the Horde. The Khan's wrath fell on Mikhail Yaroslavich. For the death of the khan's sister, he was handed over to Yuri and his people for reprisal.

The prisoner was put in stocks, stripped and brutally beaten, and in the end Yuri’s henchmen cut out his heart. The Tver prince bravely faced his terrible death. He was subsequently canonized as a holy martyr. Even Yuri’s supporter, the noble Tatar Kavdygai, was indignant at the heartlessness of Yuri, who, sitting on a horse, calmly looked at the naked, bloody corpse of his relative: “Why are you looking at his body being thrown naked?” Then Yuri ordered to cover up Mikhail’s body and took it with him to Moscow in order to blackmail Mikhail’s successor, Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Groznye Ochi with it, and to achieve the submission of Tver.

Only a year later, Yuri took pity and gave the body of the martyr to his relatives. He realized that Tver would not give in, especially since in 1322 the new Uzbek Khan still handed over the golden label not to him, but to Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Groznye Ochi, the son of the murdered Mikhail. After 3 years, Dmitry Mikhailovich and Yuri Danilovich accidentally collided in the Horde. A quarrel broke out, during which Dmitry killed Yuri, avenging the murder of his father. The Khan, enraged by the arbitrariness of his Russian tributaries, immediately ordered the execution of Prince Dmitry Groznye Ochi.

But even then, Moscow missed the label for the great reign, because after the execution of Dmitry Mikhailovich, the label went not to Muscovites, but to Dmitry Tverskoy’s brother, Prince Alexander Mikhailovich. However, the khan's mercy turned out to be difficult for the new Grand Duke. Alexander returned to Tver from the Horde not alone, but with the Horde ambassador Chol-khan (Shchelkan), who felt like a rightful master in Tver: he kicked Prince Alexander out of the court and settled in his house, and subjected the city residents to violence and robbery. Soon the patience of the Tver residents ran out, and on August 15, 1327, an uprising began in the city. That morning, the Tatars took away his mare from the local deacon Dudko, which he was leading to a watering hole. The townspeople came running to the deacon's cry and began to kill the Tatars. Soon the uprising became general. Alexander Mikhailovich was unable to calm his subjects.

Moscow rejoiced at the tragedy in Tver. The new Moscow prince Ivan Danilovich (brother of Yuri, who had died by that time) went to the Horde and soon brought a punitive 50,000-strong Mongol-Tatar army to Tver. Together with the Moscow regiments, the Horde took Tver and destroyed it, as well as other cities of the principality. Prince Alexander Mikhailovich and his brother fled to Pskov. For obedience and diligence, Ivan Danilovich (Kalita) in 1328 received a gold label from the hands of the khan. True, even then the khan hesitated, for a long time not deciding which of his emirs - Tver or Moscow - to give the label. It is not surprising that Ivan Danilovich did not calm down until he managed to deal with the Tver princes. To do this, he and his sons, led by the eldest, Semyon, more than once traveled to the Horde and intrigued there against Tver. With the approval of Khan Uzbek, Kalita moved to Pskov, where Prince Alexander Mikhailovich took refuge. When the Pskovites refused to hand over the fugitive to Moscow, Kalita resorted to a method previously unheard of in Rus' to fight fellow believers: Metropolitan Feognost of Vladimir, who was in his train, began threatening the Pskovites with a church curse for supporting the Tver fugitive. No wonder the Metropolitan was welcomed in Moscow! The Pskovites were afraid of excommunication, and Alexander, so as not to destroy the souls of his generous patrons, voluntarily left Pskov and went to Lithuania. But even then Kalita still had no peace: in 1337 he learned that Khan Uzbek accepted Prince Alexander, who had come to him to confess, and returned the Tver principality to him.

Dissatisfied with this turn of events, Kalita nevertheless managed to once again discredit the Tver people in the eyes of the khan. Prince Alexander and his son Fyodor were summoned to the Horde, arrested and immediately quartered, “and Prince Semyon and his brothers,” says the chronicle about Kalita’s children watching the massacre, “were released with love to Rus'.” These atrocities cast a shadow over the era of Moscow's rise. As Karamzin wrote: “The court of history, the only one for sovereigns, except the Heavenly Court, does not excuse even the happiest villainy!” For Tver, all this turned into a tragedy: the Mongol-Tatars actually exterminated three generations of its princes!

After the massacre of the Tver princes, Ivan Kalita acted assertively and quickly. He dealt with Tver, expelled all the boyars from the city, and took away the bell from the Tver residents - the symbol and pride of the city. This meant complete surrender and humiliation of Tver.

The foundation of the Moscow cathedrals is usually associated with the ministry of Metropolitan Peter in Moscow. Back in 1299, Metropolitan Maxim of Kiev and All Rus' left devastated Kyiv and moved to a more reliable, calm Vladimir, and thereby actually moved the center of Russian Orthodoxy here. Erected metropolitan in 1305, Peter took a step further - he moved to Moscow as the capital of the most powerful Russian principality. He had been preparing for this step for a long time, often stopping for a long time in Moscow under the caring gaze of Kalita, who persuaded the saint to settle in the Kremlin. Allegedly, Peter advised the prince to build a stone Assumption Cathedral.

For the Moscow prince, the metropolitan's move was a huge success - after all, Moscow became the ecclesiastical center of Rus', and the authority of the growing principality of Moscow was strengthened. Metropolitan Peter died in 1326 and was declared the first Moscow saint. His successor Theognostus finally transferred the metropolitan see to Moscow.

Ivan Danilovich was the youngest son of Prince Daniil, brother of Yuri. Having become the Grand Duke, he managed, with the help of the Horde, not only to deal with Tver, but also to annex Suzdal, as well as part of the Rostov principality, to Moscow. Ivan was as flattering and cautious with the Tatars as his father and older brother. He carefully paid tribute - a “way out”, and for the first time in the Horde he achieved the right to collect tribute from Russian lands independently, without Baskaks or bessermen moneylenders. Of course, part of the money “stuck” to the hands of the prince, who received the nickname Kalita (belt wallet). However, according to the chronicle, Ivan often untied the gate, giving out alms. He was the first of the great princes of Vladimir to receive the name “Great Prince of All Rus'.” Within the walls of the wooden Kremlin, built in 1339 from oak logs, Ivan founded several stone churches, including the Assumption and Archangel Cathedrals - the most famous churches of Moscow Rus'.

The prince's bright personality was remembered for a long time by his contemporaries and descendants. In the legendary history of the Moscow principality, Ivan I Kalita is portrayed as a wise sovereign, whose policy of “pacifying” the ferocious Horde was so necessary for Rus', tormented by the enemy and strife. In one of the chronicles’ praises of Kalita it is directly stated that only thanks to him the long-awaited peace and tranquility came to Rus' for a long time, “from then on there was great silence for 40 years, and the abominations stopped fighting the Russian land and slaughtering Christians.”

In the minds of his descendants, the prince appears as the founder of a new dynasty, a kind of Moscow “Forefather Adam.” From him, as depicted on the icons, begins the dynastic tree of the Moscow Grand Dukes and Tsars, protected by the Mother of God, especially revered in Moscow. In the chronicle miniature, the ancient artist depicted Kalita and Metropolitan Peter, who, like caring gardeners, are cultivating the tree of Russian statehood behind the strong walls of the Kremlin and under the shadow of the Assumption Cathedral.

A symbolic legend is associated with the death of Ivan Kalita. Once the prince had a strange dream: as if he was riding on horseback in the vicinity of Moscow and suddenly saw in front of him an unprecedentedly high snow-white mountain. Before Kalita’s eyes, the snow cap melted into the air, and then the mighty mountain itself disappeared. Metropolitan Peter, to whom the concerned prince turned, told Ivan that this dream was a prophecy about their imminent death: first he, Peter, would die (the saint wore a white doll on his head), and then Ivan himself would die. And so it happened.

Kalita did not survive Metropolitan Peter for long. Even when in 1339 Ivan Kalita sought the execution of Alexander Tverskoy in the Horde, he already knew about his serious illness and cared about the fate of his son and heir Semyon (Simeon). This explains his persistent desire to quickly deal with the Tver prince Alexander, a dangerous rival of his son in the struggle for the label of great reign. As a result, in 1340, after the death of his father, Semyon Ivanovich easily became the Grand Duke. He followed Kalita’s precepts in everything. As N.M. Karamzin wrote, Semyon “caressed the khans to the point of humiliation, but strictly commanded the Russian princes and earned the name of the Proud.”

Like his father, Semyon had to endure humiliation and insults more than once in the Horde, where he traveled six times. Of the 13 years of his reign, he lived there for more than one year, waiting for months to be received by the khan. He wasn't always lucky. So, in 1343, Semyon argued with Konstantin Vasilyevich Suzdal about reigning in Nizhny Novgorod, and the Nizhny Novgorod boyars took Semyon’s side. Both went to the Horde for the truth. “And he,” the chronicler narrates, “had a harsh judgment, and the reign of Nizhny Novgorod went to Prince Konstantin, and the boyars (of Nizhny Novgorod) were given to him. And those (boyars) were brought to Nizhny Novgorod in chains, and (Prince Constantine) took away their property, and ordered them to be executed.” Despite this failure, Prince Semyon ruled the Principality of Moscow, holding a priceless gold label in his hands.

Moscow under Semyon Proudly expanded, new buildings were built. Russian icon painters Zachary, Joseph and Nicholas painted the Archangel Cathedral, and the Spassky Cathedral was decorated by a foreign master named Goitan, probably an Italian. In 1346, master Boris cast the first five Moscow bells. For the first time, it was on Semyon’s seals that the words “Great Prince of All Rus'” appeared. This did not mean that Rus' had already united around Moscow. "Grand Dukes" in the middle of the 14th century. they called not only Vladimir, but also many other princes. So, in 1341, in addition to the Vladimir and Tver great principalities, Uzbek Khan created the Nizhny Novgorod-Suzdal Grand Duchy, separating it at his own request from the great Vladimir principality. The owner of this inheritance, Konstantin Vasilyevich (the same one with whom Semyon unsuccessfully argued before the khan) and his son Andrei, who replaced him, pursued, like the princes of Tver and Moscow, an active policy of “gathering Russian lands.” This once again demonstrates that the “Moscow path” of the unification of Rus' was not the only one.

The first wife of Semyon Ivanovich was the Lithuanian princess Augusta (Anastasia). After her death in 1345, the Grand Duke married the Smolensk princess Eupraxia, but she was allegedly “spoiled” at the wedding (the chronicle says: “She lies with the Grand Duke, and she seems dead to him”). After divorcing her, Semyon in 1347 married, contrary to the prohibitions of the church, Maria, the daughter of the Tver prince Alexander, who was killed in the Horde. The history of this marriage turned out to be scandalous. Metropolitan Theognostus, who did not recognize Semyon’s divorce and was outraged by the disobedience of his spiritual son, refused to bless the bride and groom and even closed the church gates to the newlyweds. But Semyon persisted and achieved his goal - after all, politically this marriage was very important for Moscow, it allowed Moscow to completely break the will of the Tver people.

Another thing is Veliky Novgorod, whose wealth so attracted the greedy Semyon Ivanovich. Having received the golden label, he immediately set off to war against Novgorod. Even then, Semyon showed his truly proud and cruel disposition, demanding unheard-of humiliation from free Novgorod: the mayors and thousands had to appear before him barefoot and on their knees to ask the prince for peace. And everything happened in the bitter winter. No, the Horde lessons were not in vain for the Russian princes! At the cost of great tribute, the Novgorodians managed to avoid shame.

It was more difficult for Semyon to cope with Lithuania: the ruler there, Prince Olgerd, was himself famous as a brave warrior and a subtle politician. He knew how to turn the Horde against Moscow and even tried to suddenly seize Mozhaisk, which belonged to Moscow. All neighbors were afraid of Olgerd's brilliant military talent and the great strength of the Lithuanian troops. Once he brought fear to the whole of Veliky Novgorod, only by sending a challenge to the evening: “Your mayor Eustathius dared to publicly call me a dog, I’m coming at you!” The Novgorodians became cowardly and, to their shame, killed the mayor right at the veche.

In the mid-1350s. A terrible misfortune was approaching Rus' - a plague, the “Black Death”, which killed people quickly and terribly. From the appearance of the first signs of illness to the death of a person, sometimes only two or three days passed. As the chronicler wrote: “...the disease was like that. First, like a spear, it will hit you under the shoulder blade, or against the heart, under the chest, or between the shoulders. And the person will get sick, and begin to cough up blood, and the fire will begin to burn, and then sweat, then trembling will begin, and so, lying sick, he dies. Some, having been ill for one day, died, others for two days, and others for three days.”

In March 1353, Metropolitan Theognost died of the plague, then the sons of Grand Duke Semyon Ivanovich - Ivan and Semyon. On April 26, 1353, the plague also killed the Grand Duke himself. Dying, Semyon became a monk under the name Sozont and in his will he begged the brothers Andrei and Ivan to live peacefully, “so that the memory of our parents and ours would not cease and the candle would not go out.” But then fate was merciless to Kalita’s family and almost extinguished the candle: soon the plague took away his brother and heir Andrei. Of the entire extended family, only one remained, the youngest son of Ivan Kalita and brother of Semyon, 28-year-old Ivan Ivanovich. Having buried his loved ones, he became the Grand Duke and immediately went to the Horde, where in 1354 he received a label for the great reign from Khan Bedirbek.

Ivan II Ivanovich, nicknamed the Red for his beauty, was called “Christ-loving, quiet, and merciful” by the chronicler, although under him Moscow politics remained cruel and bloody. On February 3, 1357, unknown persons killed the Moscow tysyatsky (city mayor) Alexei Khvost, who had previously quarreled with Semyon the Proud. As the chronicler writes, “his murder was committed in an incomprehensible way: it is not known who killed him, or how - they just found him lying in the square... That same winter, after the last snow, the big Moscow boyars, because of that murder, went to Ryazan with their wives and children " From Ryazan, the boyars went to the Horde and only a year later, having secured guarantees from the khan, they returned to Moscow, to Ivan. Apparently, they had reason to fear their “Christ-loving and quiet” Grand Duke. Meanwhile, Tysyatsky personified the most important “branch” of the then government. He was the elected head of city government, with whom princes in all cities were forced to reckon. The murder of Khvost is symbolic - the Moscow princely government did not tolerate the power of the townspeople, and in the 14th century. this position disappeared forever.

Perhaps Prince Ivan would have acted more harshly, but his temper was softened by Moscow Metropolitan Alexy - an educated, intelligent and far-sighted man. This monk (in the world Semyon), a native of Chernigov, came from a boyar family. Even in his youth, Metropolitan Theognostus brought him closer to him. After the death of Metropolitan Alexy, it was not without difficulty that he managed to establish himself in the metropolitan see, the transfer of which from Kyiv to Vladimir was finally recognized by the Greeks. Metropolitan Alexy enjoyed enormous authority among the people and the Grand Duke. When Ivan the Red died in 1359, he left his wife Princess Alexandra and 9-year-old son Dmitry, the future great commander, in the care of Metropolitan Alexy - and he was not mistaken.

An important event in the spiritual life of Rus' dates back to the time of Ivan II - the founding of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, the greatest national shrine of Russia. The monastery was founded by monk Sergius (in the world Bartholomew) originally from the town of Radonezh. The impetus for the beginning of the righteous life of the youth was the vision of the Mother of God who visited Bartholomew. Around 1345, he became a monk and built a cell and a church in a forest tract. Then other monks settled here. This is how a modest monastery arose - even the monks’ church utensils were made of wood. Hegumen Sergius introduced a new principle in Russian monasticism of the community of poor monastic brotherhood with common property.

Sergius was a true righteous man. Seeing that the monastery he founded had become rich, and the monks began to live in contentment and satiety, he left the monastery and founded a new monastery in the forest, where he settled, renouncing all the benefits and privileges of the abbot of a rich monastery. His political weight in the country was great. Sergius reconciled the Russian princes and prayed for victory on the Kulikovo field. This, according to the chronicler, “a holy elder, wonderful and kind, and quiet, meek, humble” was revered as a saint in Rus' during his lifetime. Sergius of Radonezh asked to be buried not in the Church of the Holy Trinity, which he cut down with his own hands, but in a common cemetery, together with ordinary brothers, but his will was not fulfilled: the shrine with the relics of the saint still stands in the Trinity Cathedral of the modern Trinity-Sergius Lavra.

Dying in 1359, Ivan II left behind his 9-year-old son Dmitry. This was Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy, famous in Russian history. It is incorrect to imagine him only as a figure whose sole goal has always been the liberation of Rus' from the Mongol-Tatar yoke. No, Dmitry was a man and the ruler of his time, he waged an almost continuous, and often unscrupulous, struggle with his fellow Russian princes, and more than once humiliated himself in the Horde for the sake of power. Indeed, in 1360, the Horde gave the golden label to the Suzdal prince Dmitry Konstantinovich, who occupied the Vladimir table.

It is noteworthy that Khan Navruz first gave the gold label not to Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich, but to his brother, Prince Andrei Konstantinovich of Nizhny Novgorod. And then an unexpected event occurred, perhaps unique in the history of Russia: Prince Andrei, Rurikovich by birth, renounced power in favor of his younger brother Dmitry, because, as the historian dryly writes, “he had no inclination for state activities.” Later, in 1364, Prince Andrei ceded his Nizhny Novgorod table to his other younger brother, Boris, finally withdrawing from power and politics. The history of Russia has never seen anything like this.

So, Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich of Suzdal became the Grand Duke of Vladimir. The loss of the gold label was perceived as a disaster for Moscow. Her prince was losing the vast Vladimir lands, and the Moscow principality was “shrinking” to the borders of the times of Ivan Kalita. Therefore, the struggle for the label for the 10-year-old Prince Dmitry of Moscow became a desperate struggle for survival. It is not surprising that the “parties” of the namesake princes rigidly, in the words of the chronicle, “argued about the great reign.”

But here a case helped Dmitry of Moscow: in 1361, Khan Navruz was killed by enemies. A feud began in the Golden Horde, and, taking advantage of it, Moscow troops moved against Dmitry Konstantinovich. He did not have the strength to defend his label and resignedly gave power to Dmitry Ivanovich. This happened quite peacefully, and the princes even became related: in 1367, Dmitry Ivanovich married the daughter of Dmitry Konstantinovich Evdokia. The wedding was held in Kolomna, since Moscow lay in terrible ruins: in the hot summer of 1365 there was a great fire. In an hour or two, the city burned to the ground, “and everything was consumed by fire, and burned to ashes by flames.”

As soon as this inter-princely feud subsided, a new round of the Moscow-Tver war began. In 1368, having lured Prince Mikhail Alexandrovich of Tver to Moscow “with love, with a kiss on the cross,” Prince Dmitry Ivanovich treacherously captured him and put him in prison - “languidly.” Metropolitan Alexy sanctified this atrocity. Only the threat of a raid by the Horde, to whom the Tver residents complained about Moscow, forced Dmitry to release his noble captive. However, as soon as the Mongol-Tatars left, Dmitry again set out on a campaign against Tver. Prince Mikhail Tverskoy fled to Lithuania to his son-in-law, Prince Olgerd. In 1368, he suddenly approached Moscow, ravaged its surroundings and took away many prisoners and livestock.

A few years later, Olgerd and the Tver residents again came near Moscow and sowed death and fire around it. Taking advantage of this temporary weakening of Moscow, Mikhail Alexandrovich Tverskoy rushed to the Horde and in 1371 returned from there with a golden label for the great reign of Vladimir. In response, Dmitry of Moscow resorted to intrigue - he began to persuade other cities to disobey the new Grand Duke, and told the Tatar ambassador, who arrived with Mikhail from the Horde, that he would not swear allegiance to Mikhail in Vladimir and would not let him “into the land for a great reign.”

Soon Prince Dmitry Ivanovich himself became the Grand Duke of Vladimir. Even earlier, in the Horde, Dmitry became close to Emir Mamai, and he, having seized supreme power, gave his Russian friend a golden label. And so that the people of Tver would not immediately try to intercept the priceless sign of power in Rus', Prince Dmitry actually bought from the Mongol-Tatars (for the then enormous sum of 10 thousand rubles) the son of Prince Mikhail Tverskoy, Prince Ivan Mikhailovich, who was then in the Horde as an amanat - a hostage khan. For three years Dmitry of Moscow held Prince Ivan hostage in “languor.” This time, the gold label cost dearly to Prince Dmitry Ivanovich and all of Moscow: numerous creditors of Dmitry came from the Horde with him, from whom he borrowed money to buy a prisoner - a heavy tribute was imposed on Rus'. But at the same time, Mamai, having given the golden label to Dmitry, did not take the golden label from the Tver prince Mikhail. Mamai only wrote to Mikhail with reproach and mockery: “We gave you a great reign and gave you an army, but you didn’t take it, you wanted to sit down with your army for a great reign, and now rule whoever you want.” This is how two Grand Dukes of Vladimir appeared in Rus'. This was the cunning policy of the Horde - to divide and conquer.

In 1371, Dmitry Ivanovich made a new campaign against his brothers - he ruined the Ryazan principality and drove Prince Oleg Ivanovich from the Ryazan table. In 1375, with a huge army of allied princes, Prince Dmitry Ivanovich besieged Tver and forced the Tver prince Mikhail Alexandrovich, abandoned by the Horde, to make peace on Moscow’s terms: “And if we (Dmitry. - E. A.) remove the Tatars from reigning and will offer you (to Mikhail. - E. A.) our patrimony, a great reign, and you won’t take it until your death.” For the first time, the Tver prince, in such a tributary form, recognized the supremacy of Moscow and at the same time called himself the “young brother” of the Grand Duke of Moscow Dmitry Ivanovich and thereby, as they said then, “went under his hand.”

It is noteworthy that the text of the Moscow-Tver Treaty included a norm that had become typical for Moscow, which legitimized denunciation: “And you (Prince Mikhail. - E.A.)… if you learn good or bad news about us from a Christian or from a vile person, then tell us in truth, according to your oath, without cunning...” After this, it is clear why in 1380 there were no Tverians, Ryazans, or others on the Kulikovo field princes who had previously been cruelly oppressed by Prince Dmitry. For them, he was no better than the Tatar Mamai. For the same reasons, the Novgorodians did not rush to the Kulikovo field.

For many years, Metropolitan Alexy remained the true ruler of the principality under the young prince Dmitry Ivanovich. He was experienced, wise and skillfully protected the young man from danger, enjoying the respect and support of the Moscow boyars and townspeople. Thanks to him, in these troubled years, despite the failures, the importance of Moscow did not fall in the eyes of the Golden Horde. The Metropolitan was especially revered there after the famous “miracle of Taidula.” In 1357, Alexy was called to the Horde to visit the sick Khansha Taidula, the wife of Khan Janibek. Before Alexy left, a miracle happened in the Church of the Assumption - a candle lit up by itself. The Metropolitan brought the candle to the Horde, and its light healed Taidula. Around 1360, near Moscow, on the very road to Orda, Metropolitan Alexy founded the Andronikov Monastery, named after the first abbot, a student of Sergius of Radonezh, monk Andronik. It was not miracles that brought glory to the monastery, but the unusually beautiful white-stone Spassky Cathedral and the name of the brilliant master Andrei Rublev, who painted it. Here, around 1430, Andrei Rublev was buried next to his friend, the icon painter Semyon Cherny.

In 1378, 85-year-old Alexy died. He became the second Moscow saint after Metropolitan Peter. After the death of Alexy, discord began in the church. For many years, Prince Dmitry’s protege, Metropolitan Mityai, fought with the Bulgarian, Metropolitan Cyprian, ordained and sent to Rus' by the Greeks, who wanted to unite the Orthodox churches of the Kyiv, Lithuanian and Vladimir principalities, separated by political unrest. But such unity under the rule of Constantinople no longer met the interests of Moscow - it went its own way. Therefore, the Moscow prince did everything to prevent the Russian Orthodox Church from being united. Or rather, he wanted it to unite under the leadership of the Moscow Metropolitan, and even then appointed with his, the prince’s, approval. Therefore, Dmitry mocked Saint Cyprian and twice “kicked him out of Moscow in disgrace.” He was able to establish himself in the capital only after the death of Dmitry Donskoy in 1390.

In the 1370s. The Mongol-Tatars constantly visited Rus'. In 1377, the horde of Tsarevich Arab Shah attacked the Russian army on the Piana River near Nizhny Novgorod. The Russian regiments did not expect an attack; the princes did not even know where the horde was. Without setting up patrols, some half-naked warriors rested carelessly, others hunted, and others drank honey and mash. Many had their armor lying in the wagon train, hidden in bags, the spears were not mounted on the shafts, and the shields were not assembled. The Mordovian guides showed the Mongol-Tatars the approaches to the camp - and they suddenly hit the Russians, “hitting, piercing and cutting.” “In a daze” (confusion), the Russian troops, pursued by the Horde, fled, covering the road to Nizhny Novgorod with the bodies of the dead. The unfortunate military leader Prince Ivan Dmitrievich (brother of Dmitry Donskoy’s wife) threw himself into the river and drowned while crossing. On the shoulders of the Russians, the Horde burst into Nizhny Novgorod. Residents of the city hastily moved across the river in boats to neighboring Gorodets and watched as the enemies robbed and burned their hometown. The Mongol-Tatars took a huge load, and the shame of Piana was remembered forever.

Meanwhile, the Golden Horde itself was restless - the nomadic society was torn apart by the squabbles of clans and noble families of the Murzas. In the mid-1350s. The horde split. In 1357, Khan Janibek was killed by his son Berdibek, who immediately massacred 12 of his half-brothers. After this, according to the Russian chronicler, “a great racket in the Horde” began. In 25 years (until 1381), 25 khans replaced the throne in the Horde!

By 1380, the situation in the Horde remained confused: part of it stood for Emir Mamai, and part for Khan Tokhtamysh from the Juchid clan. The Russian princes had to appease both... or, taking advantage of their feuds, not pay tribute (“exit”) to anyone. This is what Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich did. He refused to answer Mamai’s “request” and did not go to the Horde at his call. Formally, he acted according to the law: Mamai did not come from the Genghisids, that is, he did not belong to the royal family, but was, like Dmitry, only an emir. Moreover, in 1378, in the Ryazan land, on the Vozhzha River, Prince Dmitry defeated the “Begichev’s army” sent by Mamai. This battle would have been one of the most brilliant victories of Russian weapons if it had not been overshadowed by the even more grandiose victory on the Kulikovo Field.

After the battle on Vozha, Mamai decided to punish the disobedient Moscow tributary with his own hands and marched against him. Dmitry Ivanovich understood what a desperate thing he had started - to challenge the mighty and invincible Horde for 150 years! According to legend, Sergius of Radonezh inspired him to this feat. But it was not only the approval of the church that Prince Dmitry secured. Having completely ruined relations with Mamai, he actively and skillfully put together a princely coalition.

For the first time since pre-Mongol times, Prince Dmitry convened a large princely congress. At the call of the Grand Duke, in November 1374, no less than 150 appanage princes gathered in Pereslavl-Zalessky! They agreed on joint actions against, as they would now say, a “probable enemy.” But at first they were not Horde people at all, but... Tverians. In 1375, squads “from all over the Russian land” were already standing under the walls of the Russian city. Prince Mikhail of Tver quickly recognized the supremacy of Grand Duke Dmitry, as already mentioned above.

Soon this experience of joint actions of allied and Moscow-subordinate appanage princes came in handy in the fight against the Horde. In the summer of 1380, at the call of Dmitry, a huge 100,000-strong army gathered in Moscow. It moved out of the capital along three roads. The streets of Moscow then saw an extraordinary sight: to the ringing of bells, priests with banners, icons and crosses, in golden vestments, sprinkled holy water on thousands of soldiers passing by. “Then... it is not knocking that knocks, it is not thunder that thunders,” the chronicler wrote, “then the mighty army of Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich is knocking, the Russian daredevils are thundering with gilded armor and scarlet shields.” Holding back tears, Dmitry Ivanovich said goodbye to Princess Evdokia: “Wife, if God is for us, then who can be against us?”

On August 26, 1380, the news spread throughout Moscow that the Russian army had crossed the Oka River, and “there was great sadness in the city of Moscow, and bitter crying and cries and sobs arose in all parts of the city.” Everyone knew that if the army crossed the river, then the command had made the final choice: there was no turning back, the battle and the death of many relatives and friends were inevitable. On September 8, 1380, as soon as the morning fog cleared, the battle on the Kulikovo Field began in a duel between the monk Peresvet and the Tatar hero Chelubey. Both fighters fell to the ground dead - according to a long-standing belief, such an outcome of the duel foreshadowed a difficult battle. And indeed, the cup of success wavered for a long time. At first, the Mongol-Tatars managed to break through the Russian ranks and even cut down the staff of the regimental banner in the Big Regiment. It was a terrible moment - after all, every warrior in the cramped and chaos of battle is guided by the banner of the regiment, and its disappearance means defeat, death. But the Russian soldiers did not lose heart, launched a counterattack and won. Their losses were horrific - after the battle, the soldiers spent six days burying their dead comrades.

But still, on that day God was really on the side of Rus'! Prince Dmitry was found under a fallen tree, shell-shocked, but alive. It is known that he, supporting the courage of the “unprecedents” (recruits), led the first attack on the enemy. A huge role in the victory was played by his cousin Vladimir Andreevich, who commanded a reserve regiment, which suddenly ambushed the Tatars and thereby decided the fate of the battle. Like Prince Dmitry, Vladimir Andreevich received the nickname Donskoy.

It is generally accepted that Oleg Ryazansky is almost a traitor, who allegedly was on the side of Mamai and on the day of the battle on the Kulikovo Field, it was only by chance that he did not have time to come to the aid of the Tatars. This is what the Moscow chronicler wrote after the victory. In reality, everything was much more complicated. The Ryazan principality is the “extreme” land closest to the steppe, and usually the first blows of the nomads fell precisely on the Ryazan people. How many times have they bravely fought off the Horde! Let us not forget that Prince Oleg is famous for the fact that he was the first of the Russian princes in almost a century and a half of the Mongol-Tatar yoke to defeat the army of the Horde: in 1365, he, together with Prince Ivan Pronsky, defeated the army of Emir Tagai. In 1378, in the glorious battle on the Vozha River, the Muscovites defeated Begich's army shoulder to shoulder with the Ryazan people. Soon, in retaliation for this, Mamai suddenly attacked the Ryazan land and burned its capital, Pereyaslavl-Ryazansky. Grand Duke Oleg of Ryazan fled across the Oka River, closer to the Moscow borders.

He had uneven relations with Moscow. And although Oleg never went for a label to the reign of Vladimir, he “did not fight” in Moscow, nevertheless he was constantly subjected to raids by Muscovites and their allies. So, in December 1371, Moscow governors defeated Oleg’s army, overthrew him from the Ryazan table, and his place was taken by Dmitry Ivanovich’s vassal, Prince Vladimir Pronsky. Not without difficulty, through concessions to Moscow, Oleg regained his fatherland.

And then the year 1380 came. The people of Ryazan were famous for their courage, but they well understood that the terrible power of the Horde moving towards Rus' would grind their principality into powder and no one would help them. Therefore, on the eve of the Horde’s speech, Prince Oleg recognized the power of Mamai and paid him a “exit”... Perhaps he really came out with his army to help Mamai as an obedient vassal, but he didn’t get there... The same thing happened 2 years later, when Khan Tokhtamysh moved to Rus'. Moscow chronicles claim that Prince Oleg showed him the fords across the Oka River. It is difficult to imagine that the Horde, without the help of the guides-“leaders” of Prince Oleg, would not have been able to cross the border river. And although Oleg and Tokhtamysh did not go to Moscow, Dmitry Donskoy took out all his frustration for the death of the capital on the Ryazan people in the fall of 1382: “Taking all the land to the last and burning it with fire and creating a waste, the Tatar armies are worse than him,” i.e. worse than the Tatars. In retaliation for this, in 1386, Prince Oleg captured and plundered Kolomna. Then Dmitry Donskoy sent the squad of Prince Vladimir Andreevich against him. With great difficulty, Sergius of Radonezh managed to reconcile the Moscow and Ryazan princes... Prince Oleg died in 1402, and his full-length image can be seen on the modern coat of arms of Ryazan.

The success of the Russian squads on the Kulikovo field was complete, and the trophies were huge and rich. “And many of his warriors rejoiced, having captured rich booty: they drove behind them numerous herds of horses, camels, oxen, numberless, and armor, and clothing, and goods.” But Prince Dmitry Donskoy did not have to rejoice at the victory for long. Khan Tokhtamysh overthrew the loser Mamai and informed Prince Dmitry that, having defeated their common enemy, he was ready to again take Rus' “under his own hand.” Dmitry did not have the strength to resist the khan; the victors - the Russian princes - had already managed to quarrel again, so Prince Dmitry could not gather an army again. Therefore, he expressed his submission to the khan, released his ambassadors with honor, but did not go to the Horde to pay his respects.

Then Tokhtamysh decided to teach the stubborn man a lesson. In 1382, his horde suddenly appeared near Moscow. For the first time since the time of Batu Khan, the king himself came to Rus' with the entire Horde! It was deadly. Prince Dmitry Donskoy left for Kostroma. He cannot be accused of cowardice: he could not remain under siege, since this sharply reduced his chances of resistance and did not allow him to gather allied troops. In the white stone Moscow Kremlin, the walls of which had been erected since 1367, his vassal, the Lithuanian prince Ostey, settled down with the townspeople. Then, for the first time, Russian cannons thundered from the walls. But the Mongol-Tatars cunningly entered the Kremlin: in modern terms, they asked for a tour. The chronicler reports that Tokhtamysh’s envoys told the Muscovites: the khan’s intentions are pure, he only “wants to see this city, and gives you all peace and love.” Naive townspeople opened the gates and came out with gifts... The Mongol-Tatars killed Prince Ostey, who led the procession, broke into the Kremlin, plundered and burned it, “and the Christians,” the chronicler writes, “they cut down so many of them that the cursed’s shoulders began to ache.” Then the Horde swept through all of Rus' with fire and sword, burning cities, killing and leading people away. “There was nothing to see,” a contemporary wrote, “except earth, and dust, and ashes, and ashes, and many corpses of the dead lay, and the holy churches lay destroyed.” On top of everything else, in retaliation for disobedience, “a great heavy tribute was imposed on Rus' throughout the entire Grand Duchy - from everyone without relief, from every village - half a ruble.”

The paradox was that, having defeated Mamai on the Kulikovo field (the emir fled to the Crimea, and there he was killed by the Nogais), Dmitry unwittingly helped Genghisid Khan Tokhtamysh deal with Mamai and unite the Horde under his rule. Therefore, the victory over the Mongol-Tatars on the Kulikovo field was mainly of great moral significance, but did not allow freedom from the yoke. And even on the contrary, from a political and military point of view, this victory turned out to be Pyrrhic: as a result, the Horde became stronger, and Rus' turned out to be weakened by losses. Therefore, it is clear why, after the death of Moscow, Prince Dmitry again resigned himself to the yoke and in 1383 sent his son Vasily to the khan with a huge two-year “output” of 8 thousand rubles. Moreover, in exchange for the gold label, he promised to repay the debt for all the previous years of his “stubbornness.” Prince Mikhail of Tver, who arrived in the Horde, could not give the same generous promises, and therefore the label remained with Dmitry. Both sides could be happy: Tokhtamysh restored the power of the Horde over Russia, and Dmitry, even after the terrible defeat of Moscow, remained in power and with a golden label in his hands.

After Tokhtamysh's raid, Prince Dmitry fell ill - most likely the cause of the illness was monstrous nervous tension. For a while, the illness relieved him, but then, as a contemporary wrote, “he fell into an even greater illness, and groans entered his heart so that his insides were torn and his soul was already approaching death.” Before his death, which followed him on May 19, 1389, he made a will. In this document, for the first time, the great reign of Vladimir is called the fatherland, that is, the hereditary possession of the Moscow prince, which he freely, of his own free will, transferred to his son Vasily. And there appeared new words, unusual for a tributary of the Horde: “But God will change the Horde, my children will not give way to the Horde, and whoever of my sons takes tribute in his inheritance, to him it is...” Strictly speaking, this is what it is the financial expression of the idea of ​​national independence is to take taxes in one’s own country and not pay tribute from them to the conqueror. But the hopes of the conqueror Mamai, alas, did not come true: neither his sons nor his grandchildren were freed from the payment of “exit” to the Horde. Only the great-grandson of Dmitry Donskoy, Ivan III, almost 100 years after his death, was able to fulfill his great-grandfather’s great dream!

As a result, the reign of Prince Dmitry Ivanovich turned out to be unusually difficult for Rus'. A continuous series of external and internecine wars dragged on, terrible fires and epidemics destroyed its cities and villages. Drought destroyed the seedlings in the fields of Rus', depopulated by the plague. But grateful descendants forgot the failures of the reign of Prince Dmitry Ivanovich: in the memory of the people he remained, first of all, a great commander, who for the first time defeated not only the army of Mamai, but also the fear of the Russian people before the previously indestructible and terrible power of the Horde. And subsequently, the name of the winner on the Kulikovo field was remembered whenever the enemy threatened the independence of Russia.

After Tokhtamysh's raid, the Horde's oppression over Moscow intensified. When in 1383 Dmitry sent his son Vasily Dmitrievich to the Horde for confirmation of his label, Tokhtamysh left 11-year-old Vasily Dmitrievich (born in 1371) in the Horde as an amanat - a hostage. However, he did the same with Prince Alexander, the son of Dmitry’s rival, Prince Mikhail of Tver. Only 3 years later, Prince Vasily managed to escape to Rus'.

So, Vasily I Dmitrievich became the Grand Duke according to his father’s will, which had never happened before. And this, despite the restoration of the formal pre-Kulikov position, can be considered as evidence of the strengthening of the power of the Grand Duke of Moscow. To be fair, we note that Khan Tokhtamysh also approved of Dmitry’s choice. His ambassador Shikhmat participated in the ceremony of proclaiming Vasily Grand Duke in Vladimir. And Tokhtamysh himself greeted Vasily in the Horde in a friendly manner in 1392, when he arrived to confirm his tributary status. Let us note that the king changed his anger to mercy not of his own free will. Fearing the troops of the invincible Tamerlane approaching from Central Asia, he pleased his tributary: he gave him the Principality of Nizhny Novgorod and was not even angry when the emboldened Vasily asked for Murom and other cities in addition. Of course, gold and silver, generously distributed by Moscow ambassadors to the khan’s entourage, also played a role!

In a word, the beginning of Vasily Dmitrievich’s reign turned out to be successful. And he himself later tried not to rock the boat: he ruled Moscow carefully and prudently for 36 long years. Under him, the petty princes began to forget about their former will (as far as it was even possible under the khan’s heel) and gradually turned into grand-ducal servants. Vasily began to mint his own coins and forced the church, which had previously been exempt from tribute, to participate in the payment of the khan’s “exit.” Although he was not, unlike his father, the conqueror of Mamai, a brave warrior, he showed firmness in relations with Veliky Novgorod, seizing its northern possessions. For the first time, Moscow’s hand extended to Bulgaria on the Volga: Vasily’s squads burned Kazan. Ryazan, which had long competed with Moscow under the brave Prince Oleg, already fell under the influence of Moscow during the reign of Vasily Dmitrievich.

The church life of Muscovite Rus' under Vasily did not stand still. Monk Kirill, a righteous and stern saint, founded a monastery in gloomy northern places (“convenient for silence”), near Beloozero, famous for the asceticism and non-covetousness of its monks. Russian princes listened to Cyril's voice. After the death of Kirill in 1427, the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery became not only a holy place, but also a prison for noble criminals.

The time of Vasily I Dmitrievich left a noticeable mark on the history of Russian culture. It was under him that the cathedrals in the Kremlin were painted by the famous Theophanes the Greek, who arrived from Byzantium first to Veliky Novgorod (his frescoes there have survived to this day), and then moved to Moscow. He was first mentioned in 1399 as a master who painted the Archangel Cathedral of the Kremlin. Feofan the Greek made an unforgettable impression. As Epiphanius the Wise wrote about him, the Greek was not only a creator, but also “a glorious wise man, a great cunning philosopher.” His writing style seemed amazing. He was not like other painters who did not take their eyes off the model (an old icon), but created as if casually: “Standing with your feet without rest, talking with your tongue in Glagolitic, and guessing with your mind far and wisely.” Under this great artist, a type of Russian high iconostasis developed, the main decoration of which was the “Deesis” - a composition with the image of Jesus Christ in the middle and the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist on the sides. The pictorial space of the Greek Deesis series was unified and harmonious, and painting, like frescoes, is full of feeling and internal movement.

When young Vasily fled to Rus' from the Horde through Lithuania in 1386, he met Prince Vitovt. Vitovt liked the brave prince, who challenged the will of the khan, and he promised him his daughter Sophia as his wife. The wedding took place in January 1391. Soon Vytautas became the Grand Duke of Lithuania. Of course, the state interests of the father-in-law and son-in-law remained above the personal ones - after all, Moscow and Lithuania were then keenly competing for border lands.

But still, Sophia turned out to be a good wife and a grateful daughter - she did everything to prevent Vasily and Vitovt from becoming sworn enemies, although there was every reason for this: Vitovt was a restless and impudent neighbor - in 1395 he captured Smolensk by deception and tried to capture Ryazan . In 1399, Vasily Dmitrievich, not wanting to participate in the dangerous campaign against the Horde planned by Vytautas, sent Sophia to his father - and she managed to dissuade him from a joint campaign with Moscow. Vasily, in order to smooth out the conflict, went to Vitovt in Smolensk for Easter, where he feasted with him in a friendly manner. In general, relations between Moscow and Lithuania have never remained smooth and calm. Vitovt was more energetic and experienced than his son-in-law. He constantly kept Vasily in suspense, pursuing an active policy of conquest in the lands adjacent to Muscovite Russia. So, in 1400, he decided to put his protege Tokhtamysh, who fled from Tamerlane’s troops to Lithuania, in power in the Golden Horde. To do this, he went on a campaign against Khan Temir-Kutluk, who was entrenched in the Horde, behind whom stood the influential Emir Edigei. But in the battle on the Vorskla River on August 12, 1400, the previously invincible Vitovt (together with the army of Tokhtamysh) suffered a terrible defeat from Edigei. That’s why Vasily was probably glad that he did not go to war against the Horde in company with his father-in-law and the destroyer of Moscow Tokhtamysh. In 1405, due to Vitovt’s attack on Pskov, which Moscow considered “its own,” things came to a direct conflict - Russian and Lithuanian regiments converged on the Plava River near Tula. However, old friendship and kinship prevailed, and bloodshed was avoided.

In general, Princess Sofya Vitovtovna was an extraordinary woman: strong-willed, stubborn and decisive. She gave birth to Vasily four daughters and five sons, and after the death of her husband from the plague, she fiercely defended the rights of her youngest son Vasily II Vasilyevich during the terrible strife that then again swept Rus'. The Grand Duchess died in 1453, outliving her husband by almost 30 years.

In the 1360s in Central Asia, Timur (Tamerlane), an outstanding ruler and commander, famous for his lameness, military exploits and incredible cruelty that amazed even his contemporaries, rose to power. He created a huge empire and wanted to conquer the whole world. By defeating the Turkish Sultan Bayazid, who was finishing off the once mighty Byzantine Empire, Timur thereby helped Constantinople extend its existence for another half a century. In 1395, on the Terek River, Timur destroyed the army of Khan Tokhtamysh, who then fled to Lithuania. Timur invaded the Tatar steppes, and then the Ryazan lands. With him came a gigantic army of 400,000. Horror gripped Rus', which remembered Batu’s invasion, and now knew that Timur had defeated the Horde king himself! Prince Vasily could not resist the new merciless conqueror. Having captured Yelets, Timur moved towards Moscow, but on August 26 he stopped and, after standing for two weeks, turned south. The day before, Muscovites tried to strengthen their city, began to dig a huge ditch, but they worked in a hurry, thoughtlessly: “And they caused a lot of damage to people: they swept away houses, but did nothing.” We had to rely on a lucky chance or the will of God. And so it happened. Since the “iron lame man” turned back, in Moscow it was believed that Rus' was saved not by the strategic calculations of Timur, who did not want to get stuck in Rus' at the beginning of autumn, but by the famous icon of Our Lady of Vladimir, once brought by Andrei Bogolyubsky from Kyiv. She was urgently taken from Vladimir to Moscow, and just on the same day Timur turned back. People believed that it was their desperate common plea that averted the coming of the terrible conqueror to Rus'.

The relations between Lithuania and Muscovite Rus' were closely monitored from the Horde by Emir Edigei, the de facto ruler under the successive puppet khans Temir-Kutluk, Shadibek and Bulat-Saltan. In 1408, having failed to pit Muscovite Rus' against Lithuania, he attacked Moscow, which by this time had not paid the Horde “exit” for 13 years, “owing” 90 thousand rubles (!), and generally began to behave independently. In 1408, Edigei wrote reproachfully to Vasily: “When Tsar Temir-Kutluk took over the kingdom, and you became the sovereign of your ulus, from that time on you did not visit the Tsar in the Horde, you did not see the Tsar in person, neither his princes nor your boyars, I didn’t send anyone else, neither my son nor my brother, with any word.” And further: “And how do you send us complaints and letters of complaint, and in them you say that “the ulus is tired, there is no one to find a way out”? As if we had never seen this ulus of yours before, but only heard about it! and what about your messages or your letters to us, it’s all a lie, but what did you get for your state from every ulus from two dry rubles, and where did you put this silver?”

In a word, Edigei, although he called Vasily “beloved son,” nevertheless decided, like his predecessors on the throne, to teach the tributary wisdom. He wrote to Vasily that he was going to Lithuania, and he unexpectedly struck Moscow. Prince Vasily fled to Kostroma, but the Kremlin's cannons and its high stone walls, as well as the presence of a strong army led by Prince Vasily Andreevich (the one who commanded the reserve regiment on the Kulikovo field) forced the Mongol-Tatars to abandon the assault on the capital of Muscovite Rus'. For successful defense, Prince Vasily Andreevich ordered the burning of the settlements. “And it was a pity to see,” we read in the chronicle, “how the wonderful churches, created over many years and with their lofty heads giving greatness and beauty to the city, suddenly disappeared in flames - so the greatness and beauty of the city and wonderful temples perished from the fire. It was a terrible time: people rushed about and screamed, and a huge flame roared, rising into the air, and the city was surrounded by regiments of lawless foreigners.”

Then Edigei decided to starve Moscow out. He settled in Kolomenskoye for the winter and began to wait for his vassal, the Tver prince Ivan Mikhailovich, with siege weapons. He could not get close to the Kremlin because of the fire of Moscow cannons. But Prince Ivan Tverskoy got ready so slowly, marched so hard on Moscow that the matter was resolved without him. Edigei, having received bad news from the Horde, where another rebellion had begun, entered into negotiations with the besieged, demanded a huge ransom of 3 thousand rubles from the Muscovites at that time, received it and on December 20, with many Russian Polonyanniks, migrated to his native steppes. “It was sad to see and worthy of the tears of many,” the chronicler wrote, “how one Tatar led up to forty Christians, roughly tying them up... And then in the entire Russian land there was a great torment among all Christians and inconsolable crying, and sobbing, and groans, for all the land was captured, starting from the land of Ryazan and to Galich, and to Beloozero.”

Muscovites, ruined by the huge ransom, only later learned about the true reasons for Edigei’s hasty departure, and therefore bit their elbows, sparing their money. After all, it turned out that they paid the filthy people in vain; Edigei himself would have left Moscow!

In general, the true reason for Edigei’s raid on Moscow was that Vasily I’s relationship with him did not work out: the prince considered the Tatar no higher than himself in status. The situation with Donskoy and Mamai was repeated - according to the “Golden Horde account”, both were emirs, that is, equal in status to the royal Genghisids. And the Russian emir, according to the traditional right to bow to the Horde emir, might not go. But when a coup took place in the Horde - Edigei was overthrown, and the real Genghisid, the son of Tokhtamysh, Khan Jalal ad-Din, reigned, Vasily I got ready to go to the Horde with a bow and a big “exit”.

But he was unlucky: before he had time to set off, Khan Jalal ad-Din was killed by his brother Kerim-Berdi, and then, having nominated his protege Khan Chokre, Moscow’s sworn enemy Edigei returned to power. In general, in Moscow they decided to wait until clarity came in the Horde. But she was still not there: Edigei’s proteges, Tokhtamyshevichs, other princes and emirs desperately fought for power, replacing each other in the khan’s tent. The death in battle of Edigei in 1419 did not change the situation - the “rebellion” in the Horde continued until Khan Ulug-Muhammad reigned there in 1422, who only by the beginning of 1430 managed to cut and strangle all his opponents.

Those who have seen Andrei Tarkovsky’s great film “Andrei Rublev” remember the terrible scene of the capture of the city by the Russian-Tatar army, the destruction of churches and the terrible torture of a priest who refused to show the robbers where the church treasures were hidden. This whole story has a true, documentary basis.

In 1410, the Nizhny Novgorod prince Daniil Borisovich, together with the Tatar prince Talych, secretly approached Vladimir and suddenly, at the hour of the afternoon rest of the guards, burst into the city. The priest of the Assumption Cathedral, Father Patrikey, managed to lock himself in the temple, hid the sacred vessels, and also locked his clergy in a special secret room. He himself, while the Tatars and Nizhny Novgorod residents were breaking down the doors of the church, knelt down and began to pray. The villains burst in and grabbed the priest and began to ask where he hid the treasures. They burned him with fire, drove wood chips under his nails, but he was silent. Then, tying him to a horse, the enemies dragged the priest along the ground, and then killed him. But people and church treasures were saved.

While the struggle for power was going on in the Horde, Moscow was waiting with partiality and interest: how will it end? The fact is that by this time Vasily I had already died (in 1425), and his 10-year-old son Vasily II Vasilyevich was on the throne. But he didn't have a gold label. And it was unknown who in the Horde, torn apart by strife, to ask for this label!..

The reign of Vasily II turned out to be, unfortunately for Rus', disastrous. It was marked by rivers of blood from the quarter-century civil war that engulfed Rus', and by the cruel “dislike” of Kalita’s descendants. Dying, Grand Duke Vasily I bequeathed the grand-ducal table to his son Vasily II, and appointed his father-in-law Vitovt as guardian. This did not suit Prince Yuri Dmitrievich, the younger brother of the late Vasily I and, accordingly, the uncle of Vasily II. Yuri, then the appanage prince of Galich, himself dreamed of a grand-ducal table and formally, according to the “family account”, had more rights to this than his nephew.

The dispute between uncle and nephew about primacy and power was resolved in 1432 in the Horde tent in front of the throne of Khan Ulug-Muhammad. In his speech, Prince Yuri Galitsky justified his rights to primacy in inheriting the great reign with references to the chronicles and will of Dmitry Donskoy - the table should go to him, his younger brother, and not to the son of his late brother, the Grand Duke. It was the same way “in the old days”!

On behalf of the young Prince Vasily II Vasilyevich, boyar Ivan Vsevolozhsky made a speech to the khan. He structured his speech cleverly and showed a special guile in his apparent directness. He said to the khan: “Sovereign! Our sovereign, Grand Duke Vasily, is looking for the table of his great reign, and your ulus, according to your royal grant and according to your ... labels, and here is your grant before you.” At this moment, Vsevolozhsky presented the khan with his own label, issued to Vasily long before the events described, in 1423, when Ulug-Muhammad himself, in an acute internecine struggle, was overthrown (as it turned out, temporarily, for only a few months) by Khan Borak and took refuge with his friend Vytautas in Lithuania. It so happened that just at this time, Grand Duchess Sofya Vitovtovna brought her 8-year-old grandson Vasily from Moscow to Lithuania to show him to his grandfather Vitovt. It was not difficult for Vitovt to get a “spare” (just in case) label for his grandson from Ulug-Mukhammed. And now, many years later, that label came in handy. In addition, dismissing the arguments of Prince Yuri Galitsky, Vsevolozhsky said: “Our lord, Prince Yuri Dmitrievich, wants to take the great reign according to the dead letter of his father, and not according to your grant, a free king, and you are free to dispose of your ulus.” It is not surprising that after such a speech the khan supported Vasily II and Yuri Dmitrievich was forced to “lead his horse under him,” that is, to submit to the authority of his nephew. So Vasily won an important dispute for the future of Russia. The traditional right of the younger brother to take the grand ducal throne after the death of the elder turned out to be “beaten” by the new – essentially autocratic – right of the grand duke to transfer power by inheritance to his son (for now with the approval of the khan).

However, it soon became clear that Prince Yuri Galitsky, offended by the results of the proceedings in the Horde, did not consider himself defeated and in 1432 broke the peace with his nephew. Shortly before this, the aforementioned influential Moscow boyar, Prince Ivan Vsevolozhsky, fled to him in Galich, having betrayed his master. He began to persuade Prince Yuri to fight for the grand-ducal table. His three sons wanted the same thing: Vasily (later called Kosy), Dmitry Shemyaka and Dmitry Krasny. They tirelessly repeated to him: “Father! Go to a great reign! Father! Go to your great reign!

The reason for the open fratricidal war was a quarrel at the wedding feast of Vasily II (he married Marya Yaroslavna, the daughter of Prince Maloyaroslavsky). The fact is that in the midst of the feast, the mother of Vasily II Sofya Vitovtovna suddenly accused the son of Prince Yuri Galitsky Vasily (Kosoy) of allegedly misappropriating the golden belt of Dmitry Donskoy. In front of all the guests, she tore off the belt from Vasily Yuryevich and thereby terribly insulted him as a warrior and a man. What is the essence of the conflict? In those days, precious belts were a symbol of power, one of the regalia of power. They were valued as a crown, a staff, cherished, passed on by inheritance.

Precious belts, as the greatest value, were mentioned in princely wills. At the wedding feast, one of the Moscow boyars close to Sofia Vitovtovna allegedly recognized Prince Vasily Yuryevich as wearing “the belt of Prince Dmitry Donskoy.” More precisely, this rich belt “on chains with stones” (among other belts and jewelry) was once intended for Dmitry Donskoy as a dowry when he married the daughter of Prince Dmitry of Suzdal Evdokia in 1367.

However, Sophia believed that the thousand Vasily, who accepted the dowry for Dmitry Donskoy from the Suzdal residents, replaced him. He gave the smaller, worse belt to Prince Dmitry, and secretly gave the best one to his son Mikula. Mikula kept this belt until the time came for the marriage of his son Ivan, to whom he gave the jewel. This Ivan is the same boyar, Prince Ivan Vsevolozhsky, who caused so much grief to Sophia’s family by escaping to the Galician princes. From Vsevolozhsky the belt passed to Vasily Kosoy, who was married to Vsevolozhsky’s granddaughter. It was in this update, which attracted Sophia’s attention, that Prince Vasily Yuryevich appeared at the wedding of Vasily II.

The reader need not strain to fully understand this intricate story. Most likely, this was a provocation on the part of Sophia, because it is unclear how her associates, 65 years later, suddenly “recognized” the belt that Dmitry Donskoy never received in 1367. After all, before Vasily Kosoy, both Mikula and the boyar Ivan Vsevolozhsky, who was once close to Sophia, had to wear it in public - such belts are not hidden in chests on special days. The real reason probably lies in the revenge of Sophia and her entourage on the traitor, once the first boyar Ivan Vsevolozhsky, who fled to the enemy of Moscow - the Galician prince Yuri Dmitrievich.

Vsevolozhsky's betrayal annoyed Sophia so much that she accused the Galicians, who sheltered the traitor, of cheating with belts, in which Vsevolozhsky was allegedly involved. It is also known that soon after a quarrel at a wedding feast, Vasily II managed to grab Prince Vsevolozhsky and ordered to blind him - “he took out his eyes.” Thus began a series of cruel blindings in Russian history. Then it was believed that a person who had lost his sight could not rule, and the subjects of a blind sovereign did not receive the innocent happiness of “seeing the sovereign’s eyes.”

Meanwhile, offended and humiliated by the act of Princess Sophia, Prince Vasily Yuryevich, together with his brother Dmitry Shemyaka, left the feast in a rage and went to his father in Galich. At the same time, on the road, wanting to take revenge on the Moscow prince, they plundered the innocent Yaroslavl - the patrimony of Vasily II. And this was already a declaration of war. Prince Yuri Galitsky immediately sided with his sons, gathered an army and marched on Moscow. In the spring of 1433, in a battle on the banks of the Klyazma River, he defeated the army of Vasily II, who fled to Tver and further to Kostroma. The new Grand Duke Yuri (George) Dmitrievich entered Moscow. But he could not stay there for long - the Muscovites did not support Yuri, although he was the legal heir of Vasily I, his younger brother. “Yuri,” the chronicler reports, “saw that it was unsafe for him to sit on the great reign,” and sent for the fleeing Vasily II. Yuri made peace with him, gave him the grand-ducal table, and he himself left the capital. But his sons did not calm down and persistently demanded from their father that he again take the great reign.

In March 1434, near Rostov, the troops of Yuri Galitsky again defeated the army of Vasily II. Yuri occupied Moscow for the second time. This time the Muscovites recognized him as their ruler. But Grand Duke Yuri (George) Dmitrievich ruled for only two months and died in the summer of 1434. He remained in history thanks to two circumstances. Firstly, for the first time in the charters, it was in the title of Grand Duke Yuri Dmitrievich that the words “by God’s grace” appeared, which gave the Moscow princely power special significance and contributed to the establishment of autocracy. Secondly, during his reign, for the first time on a Moscow coin, the image of St. George the Victorious slaying a serpent with a spear appeared. This is where the name “kopek” came from, as well as the coat of arms of Moscow, which was later included in the coat of arms of Russia.

Dying, Grand Duke Yuri Dmitrievich bequeathed Moscow to his eldest son Vasily Yuryevich Kosoy. But even he was unable to gain a foothold in power for a long time due to a quarrel with his brothers - Dmitry Shemyaka and Dmitry Krasny, who were jealous of Vasily. According to the chronicler, they allegedly told Vasily: “If God did not want our father to reign, then we ourselves do not want you.” They immediately sent messengers to Prince Vasily II, whom they had overthrown, who was already planning to flee to the Horde, and made peace with him. Recognizing him as ruler, they then moved together towards Moscow. Soon they drove their brother, Grand Duke Vasily Kosoy, from the table. So, unexpectedly for himself, Vasily II returned to power. In general, he was a “lucky loser” on the throne. On the battlefield, he suffered only defeats, he was humiliated many times, and was captured by his enemies. Like his opponents, Vasily II was an oathbreaker and fratricide. However, every time Vasily was saved by a miracle, and his rivals made mistakes even worse than he himself. As a result, despite numerous defeats and failures, Vasily II managed to hold on to power for more than 30 years and successfully passed the throne to his son Ivan III.

This cruel, alarming time became the era of the heyday of the work of the great Russian icon painter Andrei Rublev. He was a student of Theophan the Greek, worked with a teacher in Moscow, and then, together with his friend Daniil Cherny, painted the cathedrals in Vladimir, the Trinity-Sergius and Andronikov monasteries. The chronicler wrote about him: “An old man named Andrei, an extraordinary icon painter, surpassing everyone in his great wisdom.” The monk icon painter Andrei wrote differently than Theophanes. Andrey does not have the harshness of faces characteristic of Feofan; the main thing in his painting is compassion, love and forgiveness. Rublev's wall paintings and icons amazed contemporaries who came to watch him work with their spirituality. The work of Rublev and other icon painters was influenced by the powerful influence of Byzantine art. In general, Byzantium remained the spiritual homeland of Russian Orthodoxy, and for several centuries Russian culture was nourished by the juices of Greek soil.

The most famous icon of Andrei Rublev, “The Trinity,” which he created for the Trinity-Sergius Monastery (after 1429), immortalized his name. The plot of the icon is taken from the Bible: according to the will of God, a son Isaac should be born to the elderly Abraham and Sarah, and three angels came to them with the news of this. They are patiently waiting for the home team to return from the field. It is believed that these are incarnations of the triune God: on the left is God the Father, in the center is Jesus Christ, ready to sacrifice in the name of people, on the right is the Holy Spirit. The figures are inscribed by the artist in a circle - a symbol of eternity. This great creation of the 15th century is imbued with peace, harmony, light and goodness.

Moscow strove not only for political, but also for church independence, and resisted Byzantium’s attempts to determine the church life of Rus' in everything and appoint its metropolitans. In 1441, Basil II rejected the church union of the Catholic and Orthodox churches concluded at the Council of Florence in 1439, according to which Byzantium, clinging to any help in the fight against the Turks, recognized the supremacy of the Pope. Vasily II was offended by the actions of the Greek Metropolitan of Moscow, Isidore, who was in Florence. And when, during the service on May 29, 1441, Isidore proclaimed: “Remember, Lord, the Pope of Rome!”, a scandal occurred: the Grand Duke and other parishioners condemned Isidore’s act. Soon a church council was convened, at which the Greek, as the chronicler writes, “were argued, captured... and imprisoned in the Chudov Monastery. He sat here all summer...", and then fled to Tver, "and from there to Lithuania, and even to Rome, to his dad...”.

As a result, in 1448, the Consecrated Council of Russian Bishops elected the first metropolitan independent from Constantinople. He became Jonah, the Ryazan ruler. This meant actual autocephaly (independence) of the Moscow branch of the Russian Orthodox Church, without regard to Byzantium. Obediently carrying out the will of Vasily II in the fight against Vasily Shemyaka, Jonah joined the long line of church hierarchs who sanctified all the righteous and unrighteous deeds of the Moscow sovereigns. Under him, the united Russian Orthodox Church finally disintegrated into Eastern (Russian) and Western (Kyiv, Lithuanian).

By this time, the ascetics had founded the Solovetsky Monastery on the distant islands of the White Sea. At first, the hermit Savvaty (died in 1436) settled there, and after him the elders Zosima and German built a monastery. In 1452, Zosima became the first abbot of the monastery, which was distinguished by the particular severity of its charter and the way of life of its inhabitants. Women were prohibited from visiting the islands, monks were not allowed to shave their beards, and they were not even allowed to keep female farm animals. But most of all, the monastery became known as a prison for famous state criminals and as a place of severe repentance for terrible sinners. And in the 20th century. The Bolsheviks turned the Solovetsky Monastery into the first concentration camp in the Soviet Union, where thousands of prisoners were kept and destroyed. The experience of SLON (Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp) was then widely used in organizing the Gulag system.

After the expulsion of Vasily Kosoy and the return of Vasily II to Moscow, the situation in the country remained tense. Kosoy continued to fight against Vasily II and his brothers. In 1436, this union was upset: Vasily II invited Dmitry Shemyaka to visit, and then arrested and exiled him to Kolomna. The army and courtyard of Shemyaki immediately went over to Vasily Kosoy. In the battle on the Cherekha River near Rostov, Vasily II won. Prince Vasily Kosoy was captured, and Vasily II ordered the prisoner to be blinded. It was probably from that time that they began to call him Oblique, which, however, did not mean complete blindness. However, even though he was left with one eye, he retired from politics and died in 1448.

Meanwhile, the situation in Rus' suddenly worsened. After Vasily Kosoy dropped out of the struggle for power, Dmitry Shemyaka regained the favor of Vasily II and, in alliance with him, went on a campaign against the Tatars. On July 7, 1445, in the battle of Suzdal, Vasily II was captured by Tsarevich Makhmutek, the son of Khan Ulug-Muhammad. The battle with the Tatars was lost for reasons that are very common in Russia. In the evening, the princes and boyars ate a hearty dinner and drank excessively, then everyone fell asleep and forgot to set up patrols. Early in the morning everyone was raised by a cry that the Tatars were already nearby - they were crossing the Nerl River. The Russians rushed to quickly put on armor, saddle horses, and line up. But the entire army did not have time to gather. Dmitry Shemyaka with his regiment, for which Vasily II immediately sent, for some reason (perhaps deliberately) was very late. During a chaotic but stubborn battle, the Grand Duke and many of his boyars surrendered to the Tatars. Tsarevich Makhmutek tore off Vasily’s pectoral crosses and sent them to Moscow - so that Sofia Vitovtovna and the entire grand-ducal family would have no doubt that the Grand Duke had been captured. Just at this moment, a severe fire began in the capital, destroying the Kremlin and the entire treasury. This was doubly scary - after all, by that time Khan Ulug-Muhammad had demanded an unprecedented ransom of 200 thousand rubles from the Muscovites for Vasily.

Shemyaka, who never appeared on the battlefield, received the Tatar ambassador Begich with special honor and made him understand that he did not want to rescue Vasily II from captivity. He himself wants to become a Grand Duke, hoping that “the Grand Duke (Vasily II. - E. A.) not to go out to the great reign” from captivity. But Shemyaka was unlucky here. The unexpected happened: on the way back to the khan’s camp, Begich for some reason lingered in Murom, and the khan thought that his ambassador had been killed by a loyal Vasily II Shemyaka. Therefore, he released Vasily II, who had sworn to pay the ransom, and he arrived home on November 17, in Moscow.

Shemyaka was terribly upset by the sudden, unexpected release of Vasily II from captivity - after all, the Moscow table was almost his! But Shemyaka did not lose heart, but immediately organized a conspiracy against the Grand Duke - this great loser. Vasily II's cousin, Prince Ivan Mozhaisky, went over to the side of the conspirators. In February 1446, Shemyaka's people captured the Kremlin at night and arrested the mother and wife of Vasily II. The conspirators were supported by many Muscovites: Vasily II seemed to them then an incompetent ruler who ruined the country with his monstrous ransom. Vasily II himself was not in the Kremlin at that moment. Together with his sons Ivan and Yuri, he went on a pilgrimage to the Trinity Monastery. Servant Bunko secretly fled from Moscow and informed Vasily II about the betrayal of Mozhaisky and Shemyaka. Vasily did not believe the servant’s words, but still set up a patrol. However, the people of Prince Ivan Mozhaisky and Shemyaki outwitted the sentries and broke into the monastery. The Grand Duke's entourage fell into panic, Vasily himself ran to the stable. But the horses were no longer there - someone had taken them away. Then he hid in the church... Soon, hearing the voices of his pursuers, Vasily II realized that it was useless to hide. With an icon in his hands, he went out to meet the conspirators and asked Ivan of Mozhaisky to spare him, not to blind him, “not to deprive him of seeing the image of God and his Most Pure Mother and all the saints.” Apparently, Vasily understood that after he blinded Vasily Kosoy, Shemyaka’s brother, the same fate awaited him. Prince Mozhaisky was adamant. He ordered the capture of Vasily, who, as a simple prisoner, on a wretched sleigh, was taken to Moscow to the Shemyaki courtyard and there “his eyes were taken out,” and then exiled with his family to Uglich. So Vasily II became the “Dark”, and Shemyaka became Grand Duke Dmitry Yuryevich.

The brutal reprisal against Vasily outraged the boyars and townspeople, and unrest began in the city. Then Shemyaka, seeing that he was losing public support, decided to play it safe: he came to Uglich to visit Vasily and forced him to take a vow of allegiance to him, Grand Duke Dmitry. Rejoicing at Vasily’s obedience, Shemyaka threw a feast and granted the captive Vologda as his inheritance. But Vasily the Dark, as soon as he arrived in Vologda, immediately renounced this vow, fled to Tver and, in alliance with the Tver prince, went to war against Shemyaka. Soon, the boyar Vasily the Dark Pleshcheev with a small detachment captured the Moscow Kremlin, and Shemyaka fled to the North, to Kargopol. Vasily II once again reigned in Moscow.

In 1447, the opponents made peace. Now Shemyaka swore allegiance to Grand Duke Vasily II, but not for long. Soon he broke his oath, and “dislike” began again in Rus'. In 1450, in the battle of Galich, Shemyaka’s army was defeated, the prince fled to Veliky Novgorod. Here, in 1453, the life of the exile was cut short: the cook Poganka, bribed by Vasily II, poisoned Dmitry Shemyaka - “gave him a potion in the smoke.” As N.M. Karamzin writes, Vasily II, having received the news of Shemyaka’s death, “expressed immodest joy.” Of course: with the death of Shemyaka, he had no serious rivals left. Prince Ivan Mozhaisky, who played such a sad role in the fate of Vasily the Dark, Shemyaka’s son Ivan and other losers who took refuge in Lithuania, did not pose a threat to his power... Live and rejoice!

No portraits of Shemyaka have survived. His worst enemies tried to denigrate the moral character of the Galician prince. In Moscow chronicles, Shemyaka looks like a monster, and Vasily - a bearer of good. Perhaps if Shemyak had won, we would have seen a completely different picture. In fact, these princes, cousins, were similar in many ways. But it is still no coincidence that the cult of the Galician prince was preserved for a long time in the Russian North. Shemyaka, a desperate and determined man, followed his own path to the unification of Rus'. Fighting against Vasily and Moscow, he tried to create a powerful principality with a center in Ustyug the Great, while relying on the forces and traditions of the free North, which was less affected by the Tatars than Moscow. But he had little strength, Vasily II won, and therefore the last word in history remained with him.

The year 1453 turned out to be difficult for Vasily II - his mother Sofya Vitovtovna died, and then the terrible news came about the fall of Constantinople.

One of the world's greatest empires disappeared, the stronghold of Orthodoxy collapsed, and the spiritual homeland of the Russian people perished. Of course, Moscow knew about the deplorable state of Byzantium in the last years of its existence. When Sultan Bayazid besieged the great city in 1398, Vasily I, like his rival, the prince of Tver, sent money to the Byzantine emperor. But Rus' could not provide effective assistance to the dying colossus...

The collapse of Byzantium struck the Russian people. From now on, Rus' was doomed to church-cultural loneliness, surrounded by hostile “Papists” (Catholics), “Luthors” (Lutherans), “Hagarians” (Muslims) and idolaters. The torn roots of culture, the desecration of the greatest shrine of Eastern Orthodoxy - the Church of Hagia Sophia - turned into a mosque - all this was not in vain for the consciousness of the Russian people, it increased the feeling of church and political loneliness, self-isolation, and the proud consciousness of their chosenness. Now they thought that the great Greek kingdom had fallen at the hands of the “Hagarians” for their sins and that God had entrusted the mission of saving the Christian world from the advancing Antichrist to Rus' - the last true Orthodox kingdom. It was Vasily II who first began to be called in the then “Tales” and “Lives” the tsar - the defender of Orthodoxy with the corresponding epithets (“the white tsar of all Rus'”, “the great Russian tsar”, “the prudent tsar”). So the title passed to him, which previously in Rus' was used only to call the Khan of the Golden Horde.

However, Vasily II had no time to think about the consequences of the death of Byzantium. The victory over Shemyaka allowed him to strengthen Moscow’s foreign policy position, which remained difficult. A new dangerous neighbor has arisen very close to the Russian lands. In 1437, Khan Ulug-Muhammad, expelled by his brother Kichi-Muhammad, fled from the Horde to Rus', to Belev. He counted on the help of Vasily II, but he refused to help the exile. The angry khan suddenly approached Moscow in 1439, and Vasily even had to flee the capital. In 1445, it was the son of Ulug-Muhammad, Makhmutek, who captured Vasily II near Suzdal, and the khan himself demanded 200 thousand rubles from the Grand Duke. Eventually, Ulug-Muhammad made his way to the Volga and settled in the ruins of Kazan, which had been sacked by the Russians in 1399. There he built a wooden fortress city and founded the Khanate of Kazan, which quickly grew in strength and soon became a serious rival to Rus' in the northeast. But Moscow also had its own, friendly Tatars from the same Chingizid family. The fact is that the above-mentioned founder of Kazan, Ulug-Muhammad, did not rule Kazan for long: he was killed by his son Makhmutek. His two brothers, Kasym and Yagup, not without reason fearing for their lives, fled from Kazan and entered the service of Vasily II. Soon Kasym's horde successfully repelled the attack on Rus' by the Golden Horde khan Seid-Akhmet, and in 1452, as a reward for his loyalty, Kasym received from Vasily II the patrimony of Gorodets-Meshchersky on the Oka River, which became Kasimov, the center of the Kasimov kingdom, a vassal Tatar principality, whose warriors Since then, they have constantly participated in all campaigns of the Russian army. Vasily’s grandfather, Vitovt, did the same in his time, having “his own” Tatars from the Tokhtamysh clan.

Another problem for Vasily was relations with Veliky Novgorod. Naturally, the Grand Duke was dissatisfied with the way Novgorod supported Shemyaka and even gave him refuge. In 1456, Vasily II, together with a Tatar detachment, set out on a campaign. In the ensuing battle near Rusa (Staraya Russa), the Novgorodians were defeated, and their leaders were captured. At the negotiations in Yazhelbitsy, Vasily II forced the Novgorodians to curtail their rights in favor of Moscow. Now Novgorod could not conduct its own foreign policy. Times have changed: over the years, Moscow's forces grew, and the unfriendly Novgorodians did not think about strengthening the defense of their state. They were not in a strong alliance with any of their neighbors; on the contrary, they constantly quarreled with everyone and with their own hands prepared the destruction of their free republic. This had sad consequences for the future of Russia, for the self-awareness of its people.

After the victory over Novgorod, Vasily II dealt with Shemyaka’s other allies: he captured Mozhaisk and other principalities, and defeated Vyatka. The power of Vasily II increased, he made his young son Ivan Vasilyevich co-ruler and, dying, calmly transferred power into his already strengthened hands.

The death of Vasily the Dark was preceded by dramatic events in Moscow. Once upon a time, during his exile in Uglich, Prince Vasily Yaroslavich Borovsky helped free the newly blinded Vasily. Then he went over to the side of Shemyaka, was captured by Vasily II and was imprisoned in the same Uglich. In 1462, Vasily II learned that Borovsky’s supporters decided to release him from prison. He ordered the conspirators to be captured, taken to Moscow and “executed, beaten and tortured, and dragged by horses throughout the city and at all auctions, and then ordered their heads to be cut off.” As the chronicler writes further, “many people, from the boyars, and from the big merchants, and from the priests, and from the common people, seeing this, came into horror and surprise, and it was pitiful to see how everyone’s eyes filled with tears, because never “We have never heard of or seen anything like this among the Russian princes, so that such executions would be executed and blood would be shed during the holy Great Lent, and this is unworthy of an Orthodox great sovereign.” The brave chronicler wrote these lines! But 100 years will pass, and his successors - fellow writers - will almost indifferently list the thousands of martyrs mercilessly torn to pieces by the ferocious Ivan the Terrible and his guardsmen, and crowds of townspeople will quickly get used to the blood spilled on the streets and will even run to execution as if it were a holiday. crowd around the scaffold for good luck! - wet a handkerchief with the blood of the executed person or cut off a piece of the hanged person’s rope. This episode testified to the onset of new, terrible times of Moscow autocracy.

Vasily II himself died in an unusual manner. He began to feel numbness in some parts of his body, so much so that the prince applied lighted tinder to them and did not feel pain. Then pus came out of the wounds and Vasily “fell into a serious illness” from which he never recovered.

From an early age, Prince Ivan (born in 1440) experienced the horrors of civil strife. He was with his father on the very day when Shemyaka’s people forcibly dragged Vasily II out of the church to blind him. In the confusion, Ivan and his brother Yuri managed to escape to their relatives. He did not have a childhood - already from the age of 10 (in 1450) he became co-ruler of his blind father, sat next to him on the throne and was called the Grand Duke. At the age of 12, he was married to young Maria, the daughter of Tver Prince Boris Alexandrovich. In total, Ivan III Vasilyevich remained in power for 55 years! Moreover, he ruled independently for 43 years.

According to the foreigner who saw him, he was a tall, handsome, thin man. He also had two nicknames: “Humpbacked” - it’s clear that Ivan was stooped, and “Terrible”. The latter nickname was later forgotten - his grandson Ivan IV turned out to be even more formidable. Ivan III was power-hungry, cruel, and treacherous. He remained harsh towards his loved ones: he starved his brother Andrei to death in prison.

Ivan was distinguished by his outstanding talent as a politician and diplomat. He could wait for years, slowly move towards his goal and achieve it without serious losses. This happened with the liberation from the Tatar yoke, with the conquest of Tver and Novgorod. Ivan III became a true “gatherer” of lands. Ivan annexed some quietly and peacefully (Yaroslavl and Rostov principalities), others he conquered by force (Chernigov-Seversk land, Bryansk). His army’s campaigns to the northeast were also successful - Ivan took Vyatka, the Ugra land along the banks of the Pechera River, into his hands. Under him, Moscow power was established in the Urals, and in 1472 the Perm land that belonged to Novgorod was subordinated to Moscow.

By the end of Ivan’s life, the Principality of Moscow increased 6 times! As S. Herberstein, the Austrian ambassador to the court of Vasily III, wrote: “He, as a rule, never went into battle and yet always won victories, so that the great Stefan, the famous governor of Moldavia, often remembered him at feasts, saying that he ", sitting at home and indulging in sleep, he multiplies his power, and he (Stephen), fighting every day, is hardly able to defend his borders."

The inclusion of Novgorod into Muscovite Rus' under Ivan III was not just one of the episodes of the country’s unification. This was a victory for the nascent autocracy over the ancient (from pre-Mongol times) republic. The reason for Moscow’s drastic actions was the transition of the Novgorodians “under the arm” of the Polish-Lithuanian king Casimir IV, who, according to the agreement, “kissed the cross” - he swore an oath that he would keep the rights of the city intact. And although this was an ordinary, traditional, “old-fashioned” agreement between Novgorod and Lithuania, which actually did not oblige the parties to anything, Ivan III took advantage of this opportunity, believing that, according to the same “old times,” Novgorod had previously recognized the supremacy of the Grand Dukes of Vladimir. Ivan was also worried about Casimir’s alliance with Khan Akhmat. He knew that one of the conditions of the alliance was the recognition by the Horde of the supremacy of Casimir over Novgorod. Ivan also took into account that the break with Moscow was the intrigue of Ivan’s longtime enemy, the influential Martha Boretskaya, the widow of the Novgorod mayor Isaac and the mother of the current mayor Dmitry. Therefore, ahead of possible joint actions of the Tatars, Lithuanians and Novgorodians, Ivan moved to Novgorod, giving the order to the troops to “burn, capture and lead, and execute without mercy.” The prisoners taken near Russa were forced to cut each other's lips, ears and noses and, to intimidate them, they were released to Novgorod. On July 14, 1471, the Novgorodians suffered a crushing defeat from the Moscow army in the decisive battle on the Sheloni River. Fleeing from the battlefield, they died in the forests, drowned in swamps, “and there has not been,” a contemporary wrote, “such an invasion on them since their land stood.” The captured mayor Dmitry Boretsky and other supporters of Casimir were executed as traitors, while others were put in “languor”. According to the agreement concluded in the village of Korostyn, Novgorod actually lost its independence and paid a huge tribute to Moscow. However, Ivan finally secured his victory only 4 years later.

It was on November 23, 1475 that Ivan III entered Novgorod to “rule court,” and in fact, to “sort out little people”: to deal with his opponents. The heavy Moscow hand did not please the Novgorodians, even those who had previously stood for Ivan. Unrest began in the city. In September 1477, Ivan III again came to Novgorod and presented an ultimatum to the Novgorod archbishop and other Novgorodians: “Since you, Vladyka, and our entire fatherland, Veliky Novgorod, have shown us guilty ... and now you are testifying to yourself and asking who for our state to be in our fatherland, in Novgorod, then we, the great princes (Ivan was with his son Ivan the Young. - E. A.), we want our own state (i.e., power in Novgorod. - E. A.) as in Moscow... And our state, the great princes, is this: there will be no veche bell in our homeland, in Novgorod, there will not be a mayor, but we will keep the state everything.” At the beginning of January 1478, the Novgorodians signed a capitulation, recognized themselves as slaves of Ivan, calling him their sovereign. The symbol of independence - the veche bell - was removed and taken to Moscow. Marfa Boretskaya and many boyars were arrested, their lands were confiscated, and together with thousands of citizens of Novgorod they were “deported” (evicted) to other districts, desert corners.

Why did Novgorod fall? Perhaps its veche democracy has degenerated? But even before the evening, strife between the upper and lower classes was torn apart, and “Mr. Sovereign Veliky Novgorod” still stood. Probably, the wayward Novgorod mob played a fatal role in the death of Novgorod. Showing sympathy for the “strong” power of Ivan, she did not think that she would receive not the “fair trial” she expected for the local boyars, but the terrible Moscow tyranny and lawlessness. It is known for sure that the leaders of Novgorod (those whom foreign merchants called “300 golden belts”) did not unite even in the face of defeat and death. In addition, Moscow controlled Novgorod's roads to the east and could, by closing the supply of grain, starve the great city to death. Finally, the motley Novgorod militia, which fought, as in the 12th century, barefoot and without armor, turned out to be unable to resist the strong Moscow army.

And yet, the main event of the reign of Ivan III was the overthrow of the Mongol-Tatar yoke. By this time, a single Horde no longer existed. Several khanates were formed - Crimean, Nogai, Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberian, although this process was uneven. In a stubborn internecine struggle, Khan Akhmat managed to revive for some time the former power of the Great Horde. Rus' all the time tried to play on the contradictions of the various khanates, especially on the deadly enmity of the Crimean Khanate with the Great Horde, as well as on the infighting within the Horde elite. Russian diplomats have accumulated extensive experience in dealing with the Horde. They knew how to win the favor of the khans’ confidants and relatives, who were greedy for rich Russian gifts. But by the mid-1470s. the situation began to change. The experienced Russian ambassador D. Lazarev was unable to come to an agreement with the khan to prevent a campaign against Rus', and, fearing death, even fled from the Horde. The Khan's ambassador Bochuk, who arrived in Moscow in 1476, harshly demanded that the Grand Duke appear, like his ancestors, to the Khan for a label. Moscow understood that the time for “hush up” in the Great Horde had passed. Akhmat has strengthened himself and is determined to return Moscow “under his own hand” and to recover the “output” accumulated over 8 years for the Horde. However, feeling his strength, Ivan III did not obey the call and did not go to the Horde. So, from 1476, relations with the Horde were actually interrupted, and in 1480 Akhmat set out on a campaign.

The Khan chose a favorable time for his attack on Rus': Ivan III was in Novgorod, where he was “sorting out little people.” At the same time, the threat of an attack by the Livonian Order loomed over Moscow (by the fall of 1480 it even besieged Pskov), and Casimir IV was about to move to Rus'. Here, Ivan III’s brothers, princes Boris and Andrei Vasilyevich, started trouble within the country. They settled in Velikiye Luki and negotiated with Casimir, who immediately informed Khan Akhmat about the unrest in Rus'. This alliance between the king and the khan particularly worried Ivan III - he had to be wary of a simultaneous attack of the Lithuanians and Tatars on Rus'. Of course, the experienced Ivan III had been preparing for defense for a long time. So, in 1473, he established relations with the Crimean Khanate, hostile to Akhmat, and in the spring of 1480, he concluded an alliance treaty with Khan Mengli-Girey against the “blatant enemies” - Akhmat and Casimir. But still, despite this alliance, only its own strength could save Rus'...

The Horde appeared on the right bank of the Oka already in June 1480. During the summer and early autumn, there were clashes between Russian troops and the Mongol-Tatars, who tried to cross to the left, Moscow bank. Ivan stood in Kolomna, but on September 30 he returned to Moscow and found the capital preparing for a siege. The appearance of the Grand Duke in the city, far from the troops, the main forces of which began to retreat to Borovsk, was greeted by the townspeople with irritation. They shouted to their lord: “When you, sir... reign over us in meekness and quietness, then you ruin us immeasurably. And now, having angered the Tsar, without paying him a way out, you are handing us over to the Tsar and the Tatars!”

The Grand Duke, fearing a rebellion in the capital, left the Kremlin and settled outside the city. And there were reasons for the anger of Muscovites: they learned that Ivan had sent his family and treasury to Beloozero. Such prudence, as Muscovites knew from the past, usually resulted in the Grand Duke abandoning the capital to the mercy of fate. The confessor of Ivan III, Bishop Vassian of Rostov, in his letter to Ivan called him a “runner,” accused him of cowardice, and urged him not to listen to the “party of peace,” but to boldly follow the path of Dmitry Donskoy. To prevent the indignation of the townspeople, the church hierarchs persuaded the mother of the Grand Duke, nun Martha (Maria Yaroslavna), to stay in the capital.

After some hesitation, on October 3, Ivan again went to the troops on the Ugra River. Bishop Vassian wrote to Ivan that he freed him from responsibility for the attempt on the highest, royal power: “You will not go against the king, but as a robber, predator and fighter against God.”

According to legend, the conflict with the Horde began when Ivan rudely met Akhmat's ambassadors. He trampled the basma (a plate that served as a credential) and ordered the ambassadors to be killed. This legend is unreliable: Ivan was an experienced, careful ruler. It is known that he hesitated for a long time - whether to enter into a mortal battle with the Tatars or still submit to Akhmat. And on the Ugra River, Ivan was not sure whether to fight the Tatars to the end or, spitting on his pride, to kneel before Akhmat. The risk of losing everything in a battle with a formidable enemy seemed too great. And yet, the Muscovites and Vassian confirmed his determination to resist. It so happened that by this time the mood in Moscow had finally tilted towards the struggle for independence. The growing power of the Moscow state and chronic strife in the Horde aroused self-confidence in the Russian people. The consciousness of the power of Rus' clearly came into obvious inconsistency with its status. His wife Sophia Paleologue also played an important role in Ivan’s determination. Ambassador Herberstein found Ivan’s position at that time strange: “How he was not powerful, and yet was forced to obey the Tatars. When the Tatar ambassadors arrived, he went out to meet them outside the city and, standing, listened to them as they sat. His Greek wife was so indignant at this that she repeated every day that she had married a Tatar slave...” This had to be ended...

Meanwhile, Akhmat decided to bypass the Russian defense line west of the Oka River, to become closer to the roads along which the Lithuanians promised to approach. So, at the beginning of October 1480, the main forces of the Horde and Russians converged on the Ugra River, a tributary of the Oka. All attempts by the Mongol-Tatars to cross the Ugra were repulsed by Russian troops. The opponents, fearing each other, limited themselves to a firefight, and then for the first time in history Russian artillery operated in the field.

Some modern historians call the stand on the Ugra a battle. In principle, this standing played the role of a victorious battle, but still the general battle never happened. Through envoys, Ivan asked the khan to leave, promising to recognize the Moscow state as a “tsar’s ulus.” But Akhmat demanded that Ivan come to him in person and “be at the Tsar’s stirrup.” Ivan not only did not go to the khan himself, but also did not send his son, as required by the custom of hostage-taking - a guarantee of accepted obligations. In response, Akhmat threatened Ivan: “God grant winter to you, and the rivers will all stop, otherwise there will be many roads to Rus'.” But he himself feared winter much more than the Grand Duke. Having stood there until November 11 and not waiting for the arrival of the allied troops of the Lithuanians (who were then very opportunely attacked by Ivan III’s ally, the Crimean Khan MengliTirey), Akhmat went to the steppes. Thus ended the victorious “stand on the Ugra River” that brought independence to Rus'.

Khan Akhmat died soon after. Early in the morning of January 6, 1481, in a camp near Azov, the Siberian Khan Ivak, who had come from across the Volga, burst into his white tent and stabbed Akhmat to death. The struggle of the sons of Akhmat began in the Horde, and Rus' could rest for some time from the raids of the Horde.

Soon it was the turn of Tver, which was still formally independent, but no longer dangerous for Moscow. Ivan III began a family relationship with the Tver princes - his first wife was Maria Borisovna, the sister of Prince Mikhail Borisovich. Prince Mikhail had no children, and Ivan believed that after Mikhail’s death he (as a son-in-law) would easily inherit his principality. But in 1485, Ivan learned that Mikhail had married the granddaughter of King Casimir IV and, in anticipation of children-heirs, was not going to transfer Tver to Ivan III. Soon Moscow troops besieged the city. The Tver boyars went over to Ivan's side, and Prince Mikhail himself fled to Lithuania, where he remained forever. Ivan III seated his son, Ivan the Young, on the Tverskaya table. Naturally, relations between Rus' and Lithuania remained tense and even hostile all this time. In 1492, Ivan’s longtime enemy, King Casimir IV, died. His son Alexander became the Grand Duke of Lithuania, who unexpectedly wooed one of the daughters of Ivan III, Elena. Ivan agreed to this marriage, but the relationship between the new relatives did not work out - Ivan and Alexander quarreled, and in 1500 they started a war. Russian troops won a victory on the Vedrosh River and occupied a number of Lithuanian lands. But in 1501, Alexander was elected king in Poland and he was able to lead the crown troops to the war. At the same time, the Livonian Order came out against Rus', and attacks from the Horde of Shikh-Akhmat began from the south. In short, in 1503 Moscow had to sign peace with the Lithuanians. The fight for the return of Smolensk had to be postponed until the future...

In 1467, the wife of Ivan III, Maria Tverityanka, died. Everyone believed that she was poisoned. The chronicle says that she died “from a mortal potion, because her body was all swollen.” The poison is believed to have been in a belt given to the Grand Duchess by someone. In February 1469, the Greek Yuri arrived in Moscow with a letter from Rome from Cardinal Vissarion. The letter stated that the daughter of the ruler (“despot”) of the Morean Thomas the Old Speaker (i.e., Paleologus) named Zoya (Sophia) lived in Rome. She was the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine Palaiologos, was an Orthodox Christian and rejected Catholic suitors - “she doesn’t want to go into Latin.” In 1460 Zoya ended up in Rome, where she received a good upbringing. Rome offered Ivan Sophia as his bride, thereby believing to involve Moscow in the sphere of its politics.

After much thought, Ivan sent the Italian Ivan Fryazin to Rome to “see the princess,” and if he liked her, then to give consent to the marriage for the Grand Duke. Fryazin did just that, especially since the princess happily agreed to marry the Orthodox Ivan III. For the Grand Duke, this marriage was extremely important and symbolic - after all, the blood of his sons from Zoe would have flowed the blood of the Caesars themselves! Finally, after long negotiations, the bride and her retinue went to Rus'. Near Pskov, the royal bride was met by the clergy. In the Trinity Cathedral of Pskov, Zoya amazed the papal legate who accompanied her with her touching commitment to Orthodoxy - apparently, childhood memories overpowered her Roman training. In Moscow, the entry of the embassy made an indelible impression on Muscovites, who have since disliked the “Roman woman” - after all, at the head of the procession was the papal legate, dressed in red, with a huge cast Catholic cross in his hands. The grand ducal family began to think - what to do? Finally, Ivan III told the legate to remove his cross out of sight. Legate Antony argued a little, and then complied. Then everything went our way, “the old way.” On November 12, 1472, Sophia married Ivan III according to the Orthodox rite.

Sophia was known as an educated, strong-willed woman and, as contemporaries say, quite obese, which in those days was by no means considered a disadvantage. With the arrival of Sophia, the Moscow court acquired the features of Byzantine splendor, and this was a clear merit of Sophia and her entourage.

Ivan III devoted a lot of energy to the construction of Moscow, or rather the Kremlin. Ivan had long wanted to rebuild the main Kremlin churches, which had fallen into disrepair. One Kremlin church had to be dismantled, while another, almost rebuilt by Russian craftsmen, to the horror of the Orthodox, suddenly collapsed on the night of May 20, 1474, so that “all the churches shook, and even the earth shook.” The fact is that Russian craftsmen did not have the practice of constructing large buildings. Then Ivan III ordered to look for craftsmen abroad, in the “Roman lands”. The engineer Aristotle Fioravanti was invited from Venice, who “for the sake of the cunning of his art” was hired for a huge amount of money at that time - 10 rubles a month. No one else wanted to go to a distant country. Aristotle arrived in 1475, examined the ruins of the cathedral, praised his predecessors for the smoothness of the walls, but chided that “lime is not adhesive, and the stone is not hard.” He began with the complete destruction of the remains of the cathedral. “And it was wonderful to see,” the chronicler marveled, “they spent three years making it and destroying it in less than a week. So we didn’t even have time to remove the stones.” And then construction began on the famous masterpiece, the white stone Assumption Cathedral - the main temple of Russia. The shocked chronicler conveys his enthusiastic feelings at the sight of the new building: the church is “wonderful with its great majesty, and height, and lightness, and ringing, and space, such has never happened in Rus'.” Fioravanti's skill delighted Ivan, and he ordered more craftsmen to be hired in Italy. Since 1485, Anton and Mark Fryazin, Pietro Antonio Solari and Alevisio Novy, who arrived in Moscow, began to build (instead of those that had dilapidated since the time of Dmitry Donskoy) new walls of the Moscow Kremlin with 18 towers that still stand today. The Italians built the walls for a long time - more than 10 years, but now it is clear that they built for centuries. The Faceted Chamber for receiving foreign embassies, built from faceted white stone blocks, was distinguished by its extraordinary beauty. It was created by Mark Fryazin and Pietro Antonio Solari. Alevisio Novy erected the Archangel Cathedral next to the Assumption Cathedral - the tomb of Russian princes and tsars. Cathedral Square - the place of solemn ceremonies - was completed by the bell tower of Ivan the Great and the Annunciation Cathedral, the home church of Ivan III, built by Pskov craftsmen.

The power of Ivan III was not comparable to the power of his predecessors on the Moscow table. Ivan was already an “autocrat,” that is, he did not receive power from the hands of the Tsar Khan. In the treaty with Novgorod he is called “sovereign,” that is, the ruler, the only master. After occupying Tver, Ivan calls himself, although the Grand Duke, still “the sovereign of all Rus',” and the double-headed Byzantine eagle becomes its coat of arms. A magnificent Byzantine ceremony reigns at the court. The “Monomakh cap” appears on the head of Ivan III; he sits on the throne, holding in his hands the symbols of power - a scepter and the “power” - an apple, a ball. Thus, Ivan’s Muscovite Rus' adopts the imperial traditions of Byzantium. And Moscow from a modest princely city is turning into the “Third Rome” with a new Kremlin and magnificent cathedrals.

Under Ivan, the main symbol of autocratic Russia was established - the coat of arms with a double-headed eagle. This image has been known since 1497. For a long time, the appearance of the double-headed eagle has been associated with the arrival of Sophia Paleologus to Russia, who allegedly brought with her the symbols of Byzantium. However, some scientists dispute this opinion, believing that the double-headed eagle is one of the symbols of the Ancient East. It is known from the seals of the rulers of Chaldea in the 6th century. BC e., it can also be seen on coins of the Golden Horde of the mid-14th century. It is known that the crusaders brought it in the 12th century. to Europe. It became the coat of arms of German emperors, kings, archbishops and free cities. This symbol could also be seen on the pope's banners. In Byzantium, it took root as a distinctive sign of the emperor, although it was never used as a coat of arms. But it was precisely as a coat of arms that it turned out to be popular in Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro and, most importantly, in Morea, where Sophia Paleologus came from. Sophia's father, Thomas Palaeologus, was precisely the ruler of this last fragment of the Byzantine Empire. In a word, it is unclear where this wondrous bird came to us from: from the southern Slavs, from the Golden Horde or Morea, or perhaps from the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation. It is important that under Ivan III the eagle did not occupy a dominant position in symbolism - it was depicted not on the front, but on the back of the seal. On the front you can see a horseman slaying a dragon - the Moscow coat of arms. The combination of the image of an eagle and the image of a horseman in one heraldic space gave us the coat of arms of Russia.

Under Ivan III, a new management system emerged. Along with the appanages, in which virtually powerless local princes or brothers and children of the Grand Duke sat, the lands began to be governed by governors - Moscow boyars. They were monitored from Moscow and changed frequently. For the first time under Ivan III, documents also mention the Boyar Duma - a council of appanage princes and boyars, where heated disputes sometimes flared up. Under Ivan III, the local system began to develop. Princely servicemen began to receive estates inhabited by peasants - estates. They were given to a person only for the duration of his service. The estate system for the Grand Duke turned into a powerful lever for the subjugation of other Russian lands, where the estate system was introduced. Only people loyal to the Grand Duke received them.

The creation of a single state also required a single all-Russian code of laws. This is how the Code of Law of 1497 arose, which regulated legal proceedings and the amount of feeding (“feed” - the maintenance of governors and other local officials). The Code of Law legalized the tradition of peasants leaving the landowners during the week before and the week after St. George’s Day (November 26, Old Style) after they paid the “elderly” - a kind of ransom for the years they lived on the owner’s land in the amount of 1 ruble (worth about 200 pounds of rye or 14 pounds of honey). From this moment we can talk about the beginning of Rus''s movement towards serfdom.

Under Ivan III, disagreements in the church environment intensified. From childhood, the Grand Duke loved his confessor, Metropolitan Philip, and often consulted with him. The chronicler tells about their relationship as follows: in the spring of 1473, a fire started in Moscow, destroying the metropolitan court. Philip in church “began to sing prayers with many tears at the tomb of the wonderworker Peter. At that time, the Grand Duke himself came here and began to say: “Father, sir, do not grieve, this is the will of God.” And if your yard is burned, then I will give you as many houses as you want, or if any property has burned, then take everything from me,” thinking that this is why he is crying. His body began to weaken from crying a lot, his arm began to be taken away, and then his leg.” On April 5, 1474, Philip died. His successor Gerontius suffered troubles worse than a fire. Apparently, Gerontius did not behave in all these troubles the way Ivan wanted. In 1479, the Grand Duke was angry with the Metropolitan because “the Metropolitan walked with crosses around the church not in the direction of the sun.”

A heated argument began, part of the clergy was on the side of the Grand Duke, but the majority was on the side of Gerontius. The offended metropolitan left his see in 1481 and went to the Simonov Monastery. Ivan had to bow to Gerontius and ask for his forgiveness. But later, when Gerontius again, because of disagreement with Ivan, left his staff and retired to the monastery, the Grand Duke not only did not go to him, but even began to forcibly hold the saint in his voluntary imprisonment - let him, they say, find out whose power is higher!

In the defeated Novgorod under Ivan III, the heresy of the Strigolniks, book experts, arose. They criticized the official church for the unrighteous life of the clergy, denied the church hierarchy and some dogmas of faith. All this happened against the background of the expectation of the end of the world in 7000 from the creation of the world (1492). The Moscow authorities dealt harshly with heretics - their leaders were drowned in Volkhov. But some of the ideas of the heretics, who demanded a righteous, silver-free life from the church, still appealed to Ivan III, who had his own plans for the wealth of the church. It is known that, having captured Novgorod, Ivan III confiscated the lands of local monasteries. He decided to repeat this in other parts of the state.

In his calculations, Ivan relied on the ideology of the “non-covetous” who rallied around the hieroschemamonk Nilus of Sorsky, which was beneficial to the treasury. This elder of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery believed that monks should live in poverty, not to gain money, because the main thing for them is humility, self-absorption, and solitary communion with God. At the same time, non-acquisitive people came to the dangerous idea of ​​​​the supremacy of spiritual power over earthly power, which, of course, Ivan did not like.

Nile was objected to by the “Josephites” - supporters of the abbot of the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery, Joseph of Volotsky (1439-1515). He also preached the ideas of personal poverty for the monks; in his monastery, the principles of decent and meager communal living for the monks did not remain just words. But at the same time, Joseph believed that the monastery itself should become rich - otherwise it would not be able to help people or show mercy to the sick and poor.

In the end, Ivan III never decided to secularize church lands. Moreover, in 1504, some supporters of non-covetous people were declared heretics, and Joseph, in order to preserve the wealth of the monasteries, went into complete submission to the Grand Duke.

The marriage of Ivan III to Sophia Paleolog and the birth of their prince Vasily led to a worsening of relations in Ivan’s large family. The heir to the throne was then considered the eldest son of the Grand Duke Ivan the Young, married to the daughter of the ruler of Moldavia, Elena Stefanovna Voloshanka. But in 1490, Ivan the Young died unexpectedly. People said that he was tormented by Ivan's new wife, Sophia Paleolog, who hated her stepson and his wife, and was still fussing about the future of her son Vasily. But then she failed. After the death of Ivan the Young, Ivan III declared not Vasily as heir, but his grandson Dmitry, the son of Ivan the Young. Sophia Paleologue even found herself in disgrace, and Ivan III ordered her supporters to be brutally executed. Ivan III did not limit himself to declaring 15-year-old Dmitry his heir, but made him his co-ruler (as Vasily II the Dark once did with himself). The young man was crowned king according to the Byzantine rite with the cap of Monomakh, which Ivan III himself placed on his head. After this ceremony, Dmitry became the full-fledged co-ruler of his grandfather.

But not everything went smoothly. Prominent boyars opposed Ivan III's plans to rule together with his grandson, and executions of the dissatisfied began. However, soon the autocratic Ivan III - for some currently unknown reasons - changed his mind. He forgave Sophia, “gave his dislike to her,” the chronicler wrote politely, “and began to live with her as before.” The crowned Grand Duke Dmitry and his mother Elena fell into disgrace and were sent to prison. Elena was killed there. But it’s even stranger that this murder happened after Sophia’s death. Both princesses, who hated each other during their lifetime, were buried side by side in the Kremlin Church of the Ascension. In 1509, already under Vasily III, Dmitry also died “in poverty and in prison.”

Towards the end of his life, Ivan III became intolerant of others, unpredictable, unjustifiably cruel, he indiscriminately executed his friends and enemies. As the German envoy Herberstein wrote, women were especially afraid of Ivan III: with just one glance he could plunge a woman into unconsciousness. “During dinners, he mostly indulged in such drunkenness that he was overcome by sleep, while all those invited sat, stricken with fear, and remained silent. Upon waking up, he usually rubbed his eyes and then only began to joke and show cheerfulness towards the guests.” His changeable will has long become law. When the envoy of the Crimean Khan asked him why Ivan had overthrown his hitherto beloved grandson Dmitry, Ivan answered like a true autocrat: “Am I not, the great prince, free in my children and in my reign? I will give reign to whomever I want!” In the year of the death of Grand Duchess Sophia (1503), Ivan III became seriously ill. He became blind in one eye and lost use of his arm—a sure sign of extensive brain damage. On October 27, 1505, the formidable Grand Duke died. According to his will, power passed to his 26-year-old son Vasily III.

Vasily III Ivanovich ascended the throne in 1505. Even 10 years earlier, Ivan III, going to war, “ordered Moscow” to his 16-year-old son Vasily, whom he taught to do business. When Ivan III died, Vasily III became the true heir of his father - the same, in essence, unlimited and despotic ruler. According to Herberstein, “he oppresses everyone equally with cruel slavery.” In general, the reign of Vasily III went quite well: he fought successfully, and the overthrow of the Horde yoke contributed to the internal development of the country. Unlike his father, Vasily was a lively, active person, traveled a lot, and loved hunting in the forests near Moscow. He was distinguished by his piety, so trips on pilgrimage to the surrounding monasteries were an important part of his life. Vasily’s title sounded magnificent: “Great Sovereign Vasily, by the grace of God the Sovereign of All Rus' and the Grand Duke of Vladimir, Moscow, Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk, Tver...”, etc. With him, derogatory forms of addressing the nobles to the sovereign appeared: “Your serf, Ivashka, beats with his forehead...” Such expressions emphasized the system of autocratic power, in which one person was the master, and everyone else was serfs, slaves.

Under Vasily III, Russia's territorial growth continued. Vasily completed his father’s work and annexed Pskov. The humility shown by the Pskovites before Vasily did not help them much. When Vasily arrived in the city, his close people publicly, in the presence of the Pskovites, congratulated the sovereign on the capture of Pskov, as if they were talking about an enemy city. Yes, he behaved in Pskov like an Asian conqueror. The author of “The Tale of the Capture of Pskov” exclaims with bitterness: “O most glorious among cities - great Pskov! What are you complaining about, what are you crying about? And the city of Pskov answered: “How can I not complain, how can I not cry!” A many-winged eagle swooped down on me, its paws full of claws, and tore out the cedars of Lebanon (since ancient times, these have been symbols of power and sovereignty. - E. A.)"". Indeed, the republican system and all previous liberties (including the right to mint one’s own coins) were eliminated. Mass arrests of Pskov residents began, confiscation of their lands and property, and then the eviction of exiles to the deserted places of Muscovy. In a word, another “bust of people” has begun. All the Pskovites could do was “cry for their antiquity and their own will.”

Ryazan for a long time remained the last appanage principality that was not included in Muscovite Rus'. Even before, it no longer posed a threat to Moscow, and its rulers obediently carried out the will of the Grand Duke. His influence especially intensified there after the death of the famous Prince Oleg Ryazansky, who the day before married his son Fyodor to the daughter of Dmitry Donskoy, Sophia. Their descendants were submissive to Moscow in everything, until in 1520 Prince Ivan Ryazansky wanted to marry the daughter of the Crimean Khan. Moscow did not approve of this choice. The Khan's failed son-in-law had to flee to Lithuania. This was the end of the independence of the Ryazan principality. It, as a destiny, became part of the Moscow state.

From the beginning of the 16th century. The strengthened Grand Duchy of Moscow began to be noticed in Europe. Twice (in 1517 and 1526) an embassy from the German (Austrian) Emperor Maximilian I came to Moscow, looking for allies against the Ottoman Empire. It was headed by Baron Sigismund Herberstein. The ambassador met with Vasily III more than once, and he awarded him a luxurious brocade fur coat “from the royal shoulder.” Perhaps this generosity is explained by the fact that in the letters of Maximilian I, Vasily III was first called “caesar” - king.

After the annexation of Pskov, a message was sent to Vasily III from the elder of the Pskov Elisarius Monastery, Philotheus. He argued that from the very beginning the center of the world was “Great (or Old) Rome,” but it lost its sanctity after the victory of Catholicism there. It was replaced by “New Rome” - Constantinople, which, in turn, also fell for sins under the onslaught of the “infidel Hagarenes”. The third Rome to accept all Orthodox holiness was Moscow. This was followed by the conclusion: “Two Romes have fallen, and the third stands, but the fourth will not happen.”

Subsequently, the ideas expressed by Filofey became the basis of the ideological doctrine of imperial Russia. Thus, the Russian great princes and tsars found themselves included in a single series of rulers of world centers. This is reflected in the famous icon of the mid-16th century. “Church militant”, where Russian grand dukes ride behind the founder of “New Rome” Constantine the Great, surrounded by the holy army.

During the reign of Vasily III, the sovereign's power over the church became unlimited. In 1511, by the will of Vasily III, and not as a result of the election of bishops by a council (as was supposed before), Varlaam became metropolitan. Later, also by the will of the Grand Duke, his successor Daniel received the metropolitan staff. In 1518, at the invitation of Vasily III, monk Maxim, who went down in history under the nickname Greek, came to correct old church books that had been rewritten many times, as well as to make new translations of sacred books from Greece (Athos). A circle of like-minded people formed around him, criticizing the order established in the Russian Orthodox Church. The Greek circle also included the head of the non-covetous people, Vassian Patrikeev, who demanded the distribution of the wealth accumulated by the church. At first, the members of the circle were patronized by Vasily III himself, but then the righteous fervor of Maxim and his friends began to irritate the sovereign, especially when it became clear that the Greek wanted to return Moscow to the fold of the Greek church. Then Vasily “put disgrace” on Maxim the Greek and his supporters. In 1525, the Greek was tried and expelled from Moscow. Later, the Orthodox dealt with Vassian Patrikeev.

Relations between Rus' and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth under Vasily III remained as tense as under his father. When King Alexander died in August 1506, Vasily III demanded that the Lithuanians choose him as their sovereign. But the brother of the deceased, Sigismund I, became king, who soon began a war with Muscovy. This war ended in “eternal peace,” which, however, lasted only 4 years. A new war, or rather a three-time siege of Smolensk, brought success to Vasily III: in the summer of 1514 the city fell. The Russian gunners of the artilleryman Stefan distinguished themselves near Smolensk, and during the siege of 1514, 2 thousand Moscow cannons and pishchal (small cannons) were installed near the walls of the city. According to the recollections of an eyewitness, “from the cannon and squeal roar and people’s screams and cries, as well as from oncoming fire... the earth shook and people did not see or hear each other, and it seemed that the entire city was rising in flames and puffs of smoke.” As a result, the Smolensk garrison surrendered, and on August 1, 1514, Vasily III solemnly entered the city. The population was treated mercifully. All the king's service people could freely go to Poland or stay in the new “fatherland” of the Grand Duke of Moscow. Those of the nobility who remained in Smolensk received awards and honorary clothing from the royal shoulder.

However, soon the Russian troops suffered a terrible defeat from the Poles near Orsha, and now they themselves found themselves besieged in Smolensk. At the time of the siege, the commandant and governor of Smolensk, Prince V.V. Shuisky, revealed the conspiracy of the gentry, for whom the Moscow hand turned out to be too heavy. The traitors were hanged on the walls of the fortress in the very fur coats from the royal shoulder that the Grand Duke had recently awarded them. After the siege was lifted, the Smolensk residents suffered the same fate as the Pskovites - they were evicted from the city. According to the peace treaty of 1522, Smolensk went to Rus'.

The monument to the annexation of Smolensk to Russia was the Mother of God of Smolensk Novodevichy Convent, which was founded in Luzhniki in 1525 by the will of Grand Duke Vasily III. The monastery was dedicated to the icon of the Smolensk Mother of God. According to one version, the monastery was named after its first abbess, the Suzdal elder Olena Devochkina, known for her righteousness. According to another (less reliable) version, on the Devichye Pole, located not far from the monastery, the Mongol-Tatars selected the most beautiful Russian maidens from the harvest for the Khan and the Murzas. Near this monastery, Russian tsars lived throughout the 17th century. In a special tent town, the church holiday of the icon of Our Lady of Smolensk was solemnly celebrated. In the Novodevichy Convent, many famous women of Russia took monastic vows: Tsarina Irina (Godunova), Tsarevna Sofya Alekseevna (she died here in 1704), the rejected wife of Peter I Evdokia Lopukhina (d. 1731). The monastery accepted foundlings—illegitimate children—for upbringing. The cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent is also famous - the last refuge of many great people of Russia. After the revolution of 1917, this cemetery behind a high wall became the second most important pantheon of the USSR (after the cemetery near the Kremlin wall), on which to lie after death was the secret dream of many party functionaries, officials, generals and their relatives.

In 1525, events occurred in the family of Vasily III that seriously influenced the course of Russian history. In this year, Vasily III divorced his wife Solomonia, with whom he had previously lived for 20 years and whom in 1505 he himself chose from 1,500 girls brought from all over the state to the bride in Moscow. For a long time they lived happily, but they did not have children, and this poisoned their lives. Childlessness became the reason for Solomonia’s divorce and tonsure. At the same time, the Grand Duchess was accused of witchcraft: she rubbed herself with some kind of potion, “so that the Grand Duke would love her and have children.” Solomonia did not want to go to the monastery. On her side was the church, traditions, and Vasily’s brothers, who hoped to inherit the throne of the childless Grand Duke. However, Vasily III turned out to be inexorable. When Solomonia was tonsured in the fall of 1525, she fought in anger, screamed, threw the monastic doll to the ground and trampled her feet. And then the closest boyar of Vasily III, Ivan Shigonya-Podzhogin, struck the Grand Duchess with a riding whip. The newly tonsured elder Sophia was taken to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery. There she died in 1542 and was buried in a tomb under the floor of the Intercession Cathedral. The name of the nun, surrounded by legends, glorified the monastery and made it rich. Many noble women from Moscow boyar and princely families were tonsured here and then buried. In 1650, Solomonia was canonized, and her tomb began to “exude miracles.”

At the same time, the Intercession Monastery has long served as a place of imprisonment for former queens. In 1610, the wife of Tsar Vasily Shuisky, Maria Petrovna (Elder Elena), tonsured a nun, was brought here, and in 1698 a new nun appeared here - Elder Elena - the former Tsarina Evdokia Feodorovna, who lived in the monastery for 20 years.

Some time after Solomonia's tonsure, rumors began to spread that Elder Sophia gave birth to a son from Vasily III in the monastery, whom she named George. Vasily urgently organized an investigation in Suzdal, and Solomonia, in order to save the child, allegedly giving him to someone to raise outside the monastery, spread a rumor about the death of the newborn and even staged the burial of the baby... Unexpectedly, already in our times, the legend of George was continued. In 1934, during the widespread desecration of church shrines by the Bolsheviks, a small white stone tombstone of the 16th century was uncovered under the floor of the cathedral, near the tomb of Solomonia. Inside there was a hollowed-out log - a coffin in which lay a decayed bundle of rags, without any signs of a child's skeleton. In other words, it was a fake, a doll... Therefore, the legend had a basis.

Solomonia was imprisoned in Suzdal, and 47-year-old Vasily, meanwhile, enjoyed life with his young wife, 17-year-old Elena (Olyona) Vasilievna, the niece of Prince Mikhail Glinsky, a defector from Lithuania. Many considered this marriage illegal, “not in the old days.” But he transformed the Grand Duke. To the horror of his subjects, Vasily “fell under the heel” of young Olena: he began to dress in fashionable Lithuanian clothes and shaved his beard.

By the beginning of the 16th century. Muscovites have already forgotten the horrors of the Tatar raids. Moscow knew how to negotiate with the Tatars. Relations with the Crimean Khan had long been established, to whom they brought rich gifts - “wake”, which were perceived by the Crimeans as an ancient “exit”, tribute. In the Kazan Khanate, it was also quiet - Moscow’s proteges sat there, until suddenly power in Kazan was seized by a khan from the Crimean Girey family. And suddenly everything changed. Not a trace remains of the former Russian-Crimean friendship! In the summer of 1521, the Crimean Khan Muhammad-Girey, in alliance with a Kazan relative, went “in exile” to Moscow. Having defeated the Russian troops on the Oka River, the Tatars found themselves 15 versts from the walls of the capital. The Grand Duke left Moscow. Panic gripped its inhabitants. Countless crowds of Muscovites, crushing the weak and infirm at the gates, took refuge in the Kremlin. As a contemporary wrote, “there was such a stench from the multitude of people in the fortress that if the enemy had stayed under the city for three or four days, the besieged would have died from infection, since in such crowded conditions everyone had to pay tribute to nature in the same place where they stood.”

The khan demanded from Vasily III a letter in which he would recognize himself as the eternal slave of the khan, as his ancestors were considered, and promised to pay a large “excess.” Vasily submitted to the will of the khan and affixed his seal to the document, which was shameful for a sovereign ruler. With a huge “full” force, the Tatars went south, to Ryazan, which they had besieged. As Herberstein wrote, some of the captives were sold in slave markets, and “the old and infirm, for whom it was impossible to get money, (were given) ... to the youth, like hares to puppies, for their first military experiments.” The Novgorod Chronicle supplements this evidence with terrible details: many noble boyars and boyar daughters were taken captive and “about one and a half hundred infants were taken from them and thrown into the forest, where they lived for a week without food, and only after the Tatars left the children were collected and taken to Moscow to to the Grand Duke." The Tatars besieged Ryazan, but the city withstood the siege. The commandant of the fortress, governor Prince I.V. Khabar, who turned out to be not only brave, but also dexterous, especially distinguished himself. In some unknown way, he managed to get his hands on the mentioned charter of Vasily III to the khan and destroy it. Delighted Vasily made Khabar a boyar.

Vasily treated his young wife with tenderness, wrote her affectionate letters: “...Yes, you sent your hand to you in this letter: and you would read that entry, and keep it with you.” The newlyweds did not have children for a long time. Only on August 25, 1530, at 7 o’clock in the evening, Elena gave birth to a son, who was named Ivan and baptized in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. “And there was,” the chronicler wrote, “there was great joy in the city of Moscow...” If Muscovites had looked into the future, they would have shuddered - after all, Ivan the Terrible was born that day! To celebrate the birth of his first child, and then his second son, Yuri, Vasily III founded the Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye. This church, located on a picturesque bend of the bank of the Moscow River, is beautiful, light and graceful. I can’t even believe that it was erected in honor of the birth of the greatest tyrant in Russian history - there is so much joy in it, aspiration upward, towards the sky. This is a truly majestic melody frozen in stone, beautiful and sublime.

Vasily rejoiced at the birth of an heir. His letters to his wife have been preserved, in which he asked with concern about the health of Ivan, who had an abscess on his neck: “Why didn’t you write to me about this before? And now you would write to me how God has mercy on Ivan’s son, and what appeared on his neck, and does this happen to small children? If it happens, then why does it happen, is it due to birth or something else? You should talk about all this with the boyars and ask them, but write to me in a genuine way... write about everything... Yes, about the food of Ivan’s son, write to me in advance, what Ivan’s son is eating, so that I know.”

But fate did not allow Vasily to see his son as an adult, but prepared him for a grave death. In the late autumn of 1533, while hunting near Volokolamsk, he fell ill. The initially inconspicuous wound on his leg suddenly grew into a terrible, rotting wound, from which pus was pumped out with basins. Apparently, the prince had periostitis - acute inflammation of the periosteum. The treatment was unsuccessful, and soon general blood poisoning began. Vasily did not lose heart, he strengthened himself and went about his business. Having learned about the illness of the Grand Duke, the prince's brother, Andrei, came from Dmitrov, but Vasily, fearing for the future of his son, sent him back to Dmitrov, where he lived in his own inheritance. Vasily was in such a hurry to get home that he ordered, without waiting for the freeze-up, to build a bridge across the Moscow River to get to the Kremlin. With difficulty he crossed the river and was secretly brought into the palace.

On November 23, Vasily III drew up a spiritual letter in favor of 3-year-old Ivan Vasilyevich, took communion and asked to be tonsured a monk. On the night of December 3-4, 1533, the Grand Duke died. According to the chronicler, “Shigona (Podzhogin, the same one who hit Solomonia) stood next to him. E. A.) and he saw... that when they placed the Gospel on his chest, his spirit departed like a small smoke. People were all crying and sobbing then.” He handed over the throne to 3-year-old Ivan, and the dying man instructed the boyars, led by Elena’s uncle Mikhail Glinsky, to take care of the young tsar and his mother.

Immediately after the death of Vasily III, a desperate struggle for power began among the boyars. The brothers of Vasily III, Yuri and Andrei Ivanovich, fell into disgrace - the boyars did not trust them, although immediately after the death of Vasily III they kissed the cross and swore “they would not seek a state under the Grand Duke Ivan.” Prince Yuri was captured first, put in a tower, where he died a “suffering death” from hunger in the summer of 1536. The primacy in the Duma passed to the favorite of Grand Duchess Elena, equestrian I.F. Ovchina-Obolensky. A quarrel occurred between him and the senior regent Mikhail Glinsky. Herberstein wrote that Glinsky was outraged by the behavior of his niece, who “began to disgrace the royal bed” with Ovchina. Elena took the side of her lover, but in August 1534 he was captured and imprisoned on charges of poisoning Vasily III. There he died in 1536. From that moment on, Elena usurped power, becoming regent under Ivan IV. She immediately showed herself to be a powerful and ambitious ruler and tried to get rid of Vasily III’s other brother, Andrei Staritsky. Even earlier, he refused to kiss the cross of allegiance to Ivan IV and did not go to Moscow to bow to the ruler. In 1537, realizing the danger that threatened him, the appanage prince fled to Novgorod. An army was sent after him, led by Ovchina, who deceived Prince Andrei into Moscow, where he was captured and put in prison “to death” - he died of hunger in a tight tight iron cap placed on his head by the executioners. All along the Novgorod road there were gallows on which Staritsky's servants were hanging.

Under Elena, some of her husband's undertakings were completed. Their initiative came from old advisers - the boyars of Vasily III, who continued to sit in the Duma. Around the Moscow Posad they built the Kitay-Gorod wall, woven from willow branches (“kita”) and filled with earth - hence the name “Kitay-Gorod”. For the first time in the country, a unified system of weights and measures was introduced. But the most important thing was the monetary reform - the establishment of a single monetary system throughout the entire territory of Moscow Rus'. The fact is that with the growth of trade, there was not enough cash in circulation, silver coins of varying weight were in use, and many counterfeiters appeared. And although they fought harshly (they poured metal from melted counterfeit coins into their throats), it was necessary to restore order in the monetary economy. And then it was decided to re-mint all the cash coins, taking as a model the Novgorod silver money (“Novgorodka”), called “kopek”, - it depicted a horseman with a spear. A little later, in 1539, an important provincial reform began - in local administration and courts (in the provinces), judicial power was given to provincial governors elected by the world from among the local nobles - a kind of district judges.

The ruler Elena herself died in 1538, leaving her son and the country in a difficult situation - continuous raids by the Tatars, feuds among the boyars for power and influence. At the beginning of this century, the skeleton of Elena Glinskaya, extracted from the Kremlin crypt, was examined by criminologists. It turned out that this tall, at that time (165 cm), red-haired, young (about 25-27 years old) woman was poisoned. With a normal mercury content in human tissue of 0.05 micrograms per gram, 55 micrograms of mercury per gram of tissue were found in Glinskaya’s remains, i.e. 1000 times more than the norm. The background level was also exceeded for many other elements harmful to humans: lead (28 times!), arsenic (8 times) and selenium (9 times).

A persistent and protracted struggle between Moscow and Tver began in 1304 with the death of Grand Duke Andrei Alexandrovich. Two candidates at once laid claim to the vacated grand-ducal throne: Prince Mikhail Yaroslavich of Tver and Prince Yuri Danilovich of Moscow. The Moscow and Tver principalities had an advantageous geostrategic position, which equalized the rivals in their chances for leading status among other Russian lands. The rulers of the warring sides used every opportunity to strengthen their own position and receive from the Mongols a label for a great reign. A large-scale punitive raid in 1293, known as Dudenev's army, ended with the destruction of 14 cities in North-Eastern Rus', including Vladimir and Moscow. Starting from the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, the struggle between the two principalities entered an active phase, which was expressed, first of all, in the possession of the grand ducal label.

After the suppression of the Tver uprising, Kalita received the Monomakh hat

In 1305, the label ended up with the Tver prince Mikhail Yaroslavich, who promised the khan to pay a larger tribute than the Moscow ruler Yuri Danilovich proposed. Inspired by success, Mikhail III decides to besiege Moscow, although it is unsuccessful, which is soon aggravated by the annexation of Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow, as a result of the decision made after the death of the childless Gorodets prince. The Tver prince spends the first two decades of the 14th century in military clashes with the troops of Veliky Novgorod for the possession of Torzhok, which end in receiving a significant payoff from the Novgorodians. At this time, Moscow Prince Yuri Danilovich marries the sister of Uzbek Khan Konchaka, who soon converts to Orthodoxy - the great reign passes into his hands. Trying to take advantage, the Moscow prince sets off on a military campaign against Tver, enlisting the support of the Horde commander Kavgady and the Novgorodians. In 1317, not far from the village of Bortenevo, the Tver prince wins a decisive victory, capturing the wife and brother of the Moscow ruler (Konchaka soon dies in Tver captivity). Dissatisfied with the willfulness of the Tver prince, the khan summons him to the Horde, where he accepts the death penalty.

Monument to Mikhail Yaroslavich in Tver

An important milestone in the rivalry between the two principalities was the problem of the location of the metropolitan see - the actual center of Orthodoxy in the conditions of the fragmented Russian state. Of course, the presence and support of the head of the church greatly contributed to the growth of the authority of state power. In 1299, the then Metropolitan Maxim left Kyiv and moved to Vladimir. This decision was associated with the loss of its leading position among the Russian principalities due to the decline of trade on the Dnieper, although formally Kyiv remained an “aging city” and “mother of cities.” The metropolitan’s act displeased the Galician-Volyn prince Yuri Lvovich, who, not wanting to put up with a subordinate position to the Vladimir prince, sent his representative, Hierarch Peter, to Constantinople for initiation. However, Metropolitan Maxim unexpectedly dies, and the Byzantine Patriarch Athanasius ordains Peter as Metropolitan of All Rus'. At the instigation of the Tver prince Mikhail, who held the title of Grand Duke of Vladimir, a complaint was written to Constantinople, where Peter was accused of simony (distribution of church positions) and neglect of church obligations - facts sufficient for the deposition of the metropolitan. As an alternative, the candidacy of the Tver hierarch Gerontius was proposed. However, issues of church policy were the prerogative of the Russian clergy, and the Tatar-Mongol Baskaks provided the Orthodox Church with a special status, based on the khans’ use of the Christian idea of ​​humility.

The Tver princes, in alliance with the Principality of Lithuania, fought against Moscow

After the death of Metropolitan Peter, his successor was the Greek Theognostus, ordained in 1327 by Patriarch Isaiah of Constantinople. The new metropolitan begins to actively assert his power in the hope of uniting all of northeastern Rus' into a single diocese. He travels throughout the metropolitan area, building white-stone churches and the first grand ducal cathedral - the Transfiguration Monastery in Moscow. The conflict that arose in 1342 between Feognost and Khan Janibek is indicative here: the Baskaks spread a rumor that the Orthodox metropolitan was charging higher fees from the clergy, keeping excess income for himself. Theognost was subjected to torture in the Horde, and as a result was forced to distribute large sums of money to the khan's officials, however, he received confirmation from the Tatar-Mongols of all previous church benefits and preferences.

Ivan Kalita invites Metropolitan Peter to Moscow

In 1327, an uprising broke out in Tver against the Horde Baskak Cholkhan, a cousin of Khan Uzbek, who was in the city, who, according to chroniclers, “created a great persecution of Christians - violence, robbery, beating and desecration,” trying to take the Tver throne himself, and the local convert the population to Islam. During the riot, the people destroyed all the Tatars, including the Horde merchants - besermen. The then famous Moscow prince Ivan Kalita decided to take advantage of the weakening position of Tver and strengthen his political advantage. For military assistance in suppressing the uprising, Ivan was promised not only the coveted label, but also a significant reward. During a bloody raid known as Fedorchuk’s army, the united Russian-Tatar army destroyed many villages and cities, even reaching Pskov, where the fleeing Tver ruler Alexander Mikhailovich took refuge. Metropolitan Theognost openly exercised the right to excommunicate and curse those undesirable - the prince of Tver and the residents of Pskov who sheltered him were subjected to anathema, and the exiled rival of the Moscow ruler soon fled to Lithuania. By the way, it is the Grand Duchy of Lithuania that in the next century will turn out to be the main rival of Moscow, taking up the baton of the Tver Principality, which has lost its authority and military power.

In the 1360s, a plague raged in Rus', claiming the lives of the Tver nobility

The balanced policy of the Moscow prince, in which the suppression of the anti-Horde uprising played a significant role, led to Ivan Kalita becoming the sole ruler of North-Eastern Rus', who managed to build a centralized state and relegate Tver to a secondary role. In the second half of the 14th century, the Tver princes tried to enlist the support of the Lithuanian rulers in order to carry out the long-awaited revenge. So, in 1368, the Tver prince Mikhail Alexandrovich managed to come to an agreement with the Lithuanian Olgerd Gediminovich, who, having gathered an army, moved to Moscow. The siege of the city was made difficult by the newly built white-stone Kremlin, which became a reliable defense against attacks from outside; in addition, the invasion of the Lithuanian Principality of the Crusaders also played an important role, which threatened Olgerd with a war on two fronts. Mikhail Alexandrovich, however, managed to regain the Tver throne and restore the city, fortifying it with a wooden wall. Relying on the support of the Lithuanian ruler, the Tver prince in 1370 received from the hands of Khan Mamai a label for the great reign of Vladimir, which leads to a fierce confrontation with the Moscow prince Dmitry Ivanovich. The very next year, Dmitry managed to conclude an agreement with Mamai, which entailed Olgerd’s next campaign against Moscow, which was stopped after the battle near the city of Lyubutsk, which was then part of the Bryansk Principality.

Portrait of the Lithuanian Prince Olgerd Gediminovich

By the beginning of the 15th century, the Tver principality had finally lost its former power, and in 1453, the local prince Boris even swore allegiance to Moscow, giving his daughter to the future heir to the Moscow throne, Ivan Vasilyevich. Having ascended the throne, Ivan III confirmed his ownership rights to the Tver principality, even despite the death of his first wife from the plague epidemic that then spread throughout Rus'. In 1483, the last Tver prince Mikhail Borisovich was widowed and decided to ask for the hand of the granddaughter of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Casimir IV. After 2 years, Ivan III declared war on Mikhail, which ended with the signing of a peace treaty, limiting, first of all, the diplomatic freedom of the Tver ruler. This agreement was the last legal document of independent Tver. On August 21, 1485, Ivan III set out from Moscow with an army and artillery led by Aristotle Fioravanti, who was famous not only for the construction of the Assumption Cathedral in the Kremlin, but also for his extraordinary skills in fortification work and the establishment of the Moscow Cannon Yard. Two days later, almost all the princes and boyars fled from the burned Tver. Mikhail Borisovich took refuge in Lithuania, and the city surrendered. Ivan III forbade the army to plunder Tver and the surrounding area, and on September 15 he himself entered the city and transferred the reign to his son Ivan the Young, the presumptive heir to the throne.

In the 14th century, Moscow disputed its dominance over northeastern Russia with Tver. Political intrigues and military alliances became an integral part of the struggle between the two cities. And Moscow's superiority was not obvious.

Political situation

In the 14th century, Rus' began to gradually recover from the Tatar pogrom, at the same time demonstrating a desire to centralize appanage principalities. The most significant fact at this time was the growth of the economic and political power of the northeastern cities.

But if the old centers - Suzdal, Vladimir, Rostov, destroyed by the hordes of Batu, lost their former importance, then Pereslavl-Zalessky, thanks to its favorable location and natural resources, on the contrary, entered a time of prosperity.

Back in the middle of the 13th century, Moscow and Tver emerged from the vast Pereslavl region into independent possessions, and at the beginning of the 14th century, these cities already acted as the main political and economic forces of northeastern Rus'.

It should also be noted the role of the Horde, which, on the one hand, sought to infringe on the rights of the Moscow and Tver princes, and on the other, to promote the centralization of grand-ducal power, which would ensure a reliable and uninterrupted flow of income into the Horde treasury and keep the Russian population in check.

Power struggle

A persistent and protracted struggle between Moscow and Tver began in 1304 with the death of Grand Duke Andrei Alexandrovich. There were two contenders for the vacant grand-ducal throne: Prince Mikhail Yaroslavich of Tver and Prince Yuri Danilovich of Moscow.

The dispute over the reign was resolved in the Horde in favor of Mikhail Yaroslavich, who received the lands of the Vladimir principality as his patrimony. However, the confrontation with a determined Moscow promised to be difficult.

The fight broke out in 1313. Having secured the support of Novgorod, Suzdal, Kostroma, Pereslavl and won the trust of the Horde Khan Uzbek, Yuri Danilovich launched a campaign against the Tver Principality.

Together with the Suzdalians and the detachments of Kavgady, he began to devastate the left-bank part of the Tver principality, while, according to the chronicler, “he did a lot of evil to Christians.”
However, the invasion by coalition forces was ultimately unsuccessful. Tver held out, Yuri was defeated in the decisive Battle of Bortenev, and his wife Konchaka, as well as his brothers Boris and Afanasy, were captured.

Death of Mikhail

Having failed to subjugate Tver in a fair fight, the Moscow prince resorted to cunning. “Instructed by the Devil” Yuri tried to discredit Mikhail in front of Khan Uzbek, accusing him of collecting a lot of tribute from the cities and wanting to go “to Nemtsi”, but not going to the Horde.

On December 6, 1317, Mikhail Yaroslavich nevertheless arrived in the Horde, and Uzbek ordered his “radians” to judge him. According to the chronicler, they, “having slandered him to the lawless Tsar Ozbyak,” declared that Mikhail was worthy of death. After a month of torment and torture, the Tver prince was killed.

In the Nikon Chronicle you can read some details of the Horde trial of Michael. In particular, it lists such accusations as disobedience to the khan, insulting his ambassadors, an attempt to poison “Princess Yuryeva,” and even the prince’s intention to leave for Rome with the treasury.

Fracture

The next round of confrontation between Tver and Moscow occurred in 1326, when the Tver prince Alexander Mikhailovich received a label from the Uzbek Khan for the great reign of Vladimir. In 1327, Uzbek’s nephew Chol Khan (popularly Shchelkan) arrived in Tver with an impressive army, apparently intending to seriously and permanently settle in Rus'.

Historians suggest that, having established order within his possessions, Uzbek did not want to put up with the willfulness of the Russian princes and decided, through a proxy, to take the center of Russian lands under his direct control.

However, relations between the Tatars and the Russian population of Tver did not work out: conflicts on everyday grounds arose over and over again. One of them ended with a spontaneous uprising breaking out on August 15, 1327, during which the indignant people began to smash foreigners throughout the city. Chol Khan and his retinue hid in the princely palace, but this did not help: the khan was burned alive along with the palace, and all the Tatars in Tver, including the Horde merchants, were killed.

Some sources, in particular the Nikon Chronicle, as well as modern historians point to Prince Alexander as the instigator of the uprising. It is difficult to establish this for certain. One thing is clear: the prince did not take any measures to calm the crowd. However, was this suicidal rebellion in the prince’s interests?

The response to the uprising was a punitive expedition led by five Horde temniks, in which the Moscow prince Ivan Kalita, a longtime rival of Tver in the struggle for the Vladimir grand-ducal table, also took part. The situation could not have been better suited for Moscow to assert its dominance in Rus'. It was then, according to some researchers, that the new Grand Duke Ivan Kalita received the famous Monomakh cap from the hands of Uzbek, as a symbol of the union of Moscow and the Horde.

The last battle

The uprising significantly undermined the power of Tver and changed the political balance in northeast Rus' in favor of Moscow. For many decades, the Moscow-Tver confrontation entered a hidden phase. The political struggle between Moscow and Tver flared up with renewed vigor at the end of the 1360s. This time Lithuania intervened in the confrontation.

After the great Moscow fire, Prince Dmitry Ivanovich (the future Donskoy) laid the foundation for the stone Kremlin and demanded that “the Russian princes begin to be brought to their will, and whoever began to disobey their will, they began to encroach on you with malice.” Tver once again did not submit to Moscow, and the Tver prince Mikhail Alexandrovich went to Lithuania for support from his son-in-law, the Lithuanian prince Olgerd, to “force and teach” him to go to Moscow.

In the Tver Chronicle, the actions of the prince, who more than once “led” the Lithuanians to Rus', were explained solely by the need to defend against the Moscow onslaught.
Olgerd willingly responded to the proposal of the Tver prince and, having rather quickly defeated the border Moscow detachments, found himself at the walls of the city. The siege of Moscow lasted for eight days, but the stone Kremlin successfully withstood the onslaught of the Lithuanians. Having plundered the Moscow borders, Olgerd left for Lithuania with nothing. However, fearing the response of the united Russian forces, the Lithuanian prince hastened to make peace with Dmitry.

Mikhail was also obliged to make peace with Moscow, but instead, in 1371, he went to the Horde, from where he returned with a label for the great reign. However, the Tatars could no longer influence the internal affairs of the Russian principalities: the new political force - the inhabitants of the Vladimir lands - opposed seeing Mikhail as the Grand Duke.

In 1375, Dmitry Ivanovich, calling on the Novgorodians for help, surrounded Tver and took the city. Thus ended the dispute between Moscow and Tver for dominance in Rus' that had lasted for several generations. However, then not just the conflict between two principalities was resolved, but the prerequisites for the creation of a single centralized state with the capital in Moscow were formed, which took on real shape almost 100 years later - with the accession to the throne of Ivan III.

Plague

The work of destroying the family of Tver princes, begun by the Tatars and Moscow princes, was continued by the plague. In 1364-65, a pestilence raged in Rus', killing off representatives of many princely families: Moscow, Rostov, Suzdal. But it was the Tver rulers who suffered the most losses. Within a few months, Semyon Konstantinovich, Vsevolod, Andrei and Vladimir Alexandrovich died. Another wave of plague swept through the Tver principality half a century later. In one year, 1425, three generations of rulers changed here: princes Ivan Mikhailovich, Alexander Ivanovich and Yuri Alexandrovich, grandfather, father and son, died in turn.

1. The struggle for the label of Grand Duke of Vladimir. 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 “restoring their positions after the invasion. The Grand Duke of Vladimir, being the nominal head of the entire land, having received a label, practically remained the ruler only in own principality and did not move to Vladimir. True, the great reign provided a number of advantages: the prince who received it controlled the lands that were part of the grand-ducal domain and could distribute them to his servants, he controlled the collection of tribute, as the “eldest” represented Russia in the Horde. This, as a result, raised the prestige of the prince and strengthened his power. That is why the princes of individual lands fought a fierce battle for the title to the great reign.

The main contenders in the 14th century. there were Tver, Moscow and Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod princes. In their confrontation, it was decided which way the unification of Russian lands would take place.

2. Rivalry between Moscow and Tver.

Elementary period . At the turn of the XIII-XIV centuries. the predominant positions belonged to the Tver principality. After the death of Alexander Nevsky, the grand-ducal throne was taken by his younger brother, the Tver prince Yaroslav (1263-1272). The favorable geographical position in the upper reaches of the Volga and fertile lands attracted people here and contributed to the growth of the boyars. The Principality of Moscow, which went to the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky Daniil, it became independent only in the 1270s and did not seem to have any prospects in competition with Tver. However, the founder of the dynasty of Moscow princes, Daniel, managed to make a number of land acquisitions (in 1301, take Kolomna from Ryazan, and in 1302, annex the Pereyaslav principality) and, thanks to prudence and frugality, somewhat strengthen the Moscow principality.

His son Yuri (1303-1324) has already waged a decisive struggle for the label with the Grand Duke Mikhail Yaroslaevich Tverskoy. In 1303, he managed to capture Mozhaisk, which allowed him to take control of the entire Moscow River basin. Having entered into the confidence of Khan Uzbek and married his sister Konchak (after the baptism of Agafya), Yuri Danilovich 1316 received a label taken from the Tver prince. But soon he was defeated in a battle with Michael’s army, and his wife was captured. She died in Tver, which gave Yuri grounds to accuse the Tver prince of all sins. Realizing what awaited him in the Horde, Mikhail Yaroslavich nevertheless decided to appear before the Khan's court, thereby hoping to save his land from Tatar devastation.

Thus, in Mikhail’s behavior one can trace features characteristic of the Russian princes of the pre-Mongol era. The Moscow princes represented politicians of a new generation, professing the principle “the end justifies the means.”

As a result, Mikhail was executed. In 1324, his son Dmitry the Terrible Eyes, having met the culprit of his father’s death in the Horde, could not stand it and hacked to death Yuri Danilovich. He had to pay for this lynching with his own life, but Khan Uzbek decided to give the label for the great reign to Dmitry’s younger brother - Alexander Mikhailovich. Thus, by pitting Russian princes against each other, fearing the strengthening of one of them and transferring the label to the weakest, the Horde maintained dominance over Russia.

Economic and military strengthening of the Moscow Principality. Ivan Kalita and his sons . IN 1327 A spontaneous popular uprising broke out in Tver, caused by the actions of a Tatar detachment led by Baskak Cholkhan. The successor of Moscow Prince Yuri took advantage of this Ivan Danilovich nicknamed Kalita (Kalita was a money purse). At the head of the Moscow-Horde army, he suppressed the popular movement and devastated the Tver land. As a reward, he received a label for the great reign and did not miss it until his death.

After the Tver uprising, the Horde finally abandoned the Baska system and transferred the collection of tribute to the hands of the Grand Duke.

IN 1325, taking advantage of the quarrel between Metropolitan Peter and the Tver prince, Ivan managed to transfer the metropolitan see to Moscow. The authority and influence of Moscow have increased due to the fact that it has become religious center of North-Eastern Rus'

. 3. Reasons for the rise of Moscow. Historians explain in different ways the reasons for the transformation of Moscow from a seedy principality of North-Eastern Russia into the strongest economically and military-politically.

Some advantages were geographical location: Important trade routes passed through Moscow, it had relatively fertile lands that attracted the working population and boyars, and was protected from attacks by individual Mongol detachments by forests. But similar conditions existed in Tver, which stood on the Volga and was even further from the Horde.

Moscow was spiritualcenter Russian lands, but it became one after the first victories in the struggle for the right to lead the unification process.

Played the main role the politics of Moscow princes and their personal qualities. Having relied on an alliance with the Horde and continued the line of Alexander Nevsky in this regard, realizing the role of the church in the conditions of the Horde’s departure from the policy of religious tolerance, the Moscow princes in the first half of the 14th century. used all means to achieve their goals. As a result, humiliating themselves before the khan and brutally suppressing anti-Horde protests, hoarding, enriching themselves and collecting the Russian land bit by bit, they managed to elevate their principality and create conditions for both unifying the lands and entering into an open fight with the Horde.

An important role was also played by the fact that as a result of the conciliatory policy of Kalita and his sons, the Moscow land did not know Mongol raids for several decades.

For a long time, Moscow rulers managed to maintain the unity of the princely house, which saved Moscow from the troubles of internal strife.