The last Zemsky Sobor in history. Zemsky Cathedral. The history of development

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Belyaev I. D. Zemsky Cathedrals in Russia. M., 1867 ;

Vladimirsky-Budanov M.F. Zemsky Cathedrals in the Moscow State, V.I. Sergeevich. (Collection of state knowledge. Vol. II). Kiev., 1875 ;

Dityatin I. I. The role of petitions and zemstvo councils in the management of the Moscow state. Rostov n / a., 1905 ;

Knyazkov SA Pictures on Russian history, published under the general editorship [and explanatory text] by SA Knyazkova. No. 14: S. V. Ivanov. Zemsky Cathedral (XVII century). 1908 ;

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Lipinsky M. A. Criticism and bibliography: V. N. Latkin. Zemsky cathedrals of ancient Russia. SPb., 1885 ;

Since ancient times in Russia there was a custom to solve problems and settle matters with the whole community, "conciliarly", despite the fact that the convocation of the first Zemsky Sobor took place only in the middle of the sixteenth century, during the reign of the country by Ivan the Terrible. The existence of such institutions is typical for many European countries that have passed the stage of estate-representative monarchy in their development. The first zemstvo councils arose on the territory of England, Catalonia, Portugal. In Spain, such deliberative institutions were called Cortes, in Poland - Seimas, in Germany - Landtags.

So, the Zemsky Sobor is higher institution estate-representative power, endowed with legislative functions. It was convened to resolve political and administrative matters. In other words, this is a convocation of representatives of different estates to resolve any matter of state significance. The emergence of such an institution was the result of the end of the unification of the Russian lands into a single state, the strengthening of the nobility at the local level. In terms of the composition of its members, the Russian Zemsky Sobor was close to the Western European estate representatives, but differed from them in the presence of only an advisory function. European zemstvo councils had the right to legislate. In Russia solutions this institution came into force only after their approval from the tsar and the Boyar Duma.

The convocation of the first Zemsky Sobor in Russia was timed to coincide with the beginning of the reforms of Ivan IV the Terrible. It included the highest clergy, boyars, appanage princes, wealthy townspeople, representatives of the nobility from different provinces of the country. The Zemsky Sobor conventionally consisted of two chambers. One of them included boyars, treasurers, butlers, the other - nobles, military leaders. Each convocation of the Zemsky Sobor lasted, as a rule, no more than two days. Three times the tsar spoke at it, after which the boyars could express their opinion on the issue to be solved, in conclusion, a meeting of the Boyar Duma was held. All meetings were held strictly by rank, decisions were made unanimously.

Of great importance for the political and cultural life of the country was the convocation of the first Zemsky Sobor in February 1549, which proclaimed the transition of the Russian state to the estate-representative monarchy. Since that time, the role of the nobility in governing the country has increased. In the course of the convocation, a new set of laws is established and a decision is made to create a petty hut. From now on, any people could apply with a petition (petition) addressed to the Tsar and almost immediately receive an answer to it. In a similar way, the petition hut regulated the activities of other government agencies.

The first Zemsky Sobor, convened in Russia, was called the "Sobor of Reconciliation"; in parallel with it, a meeting of the Church Council took place, which considered the biography of sixteen Orthodox saints and established the church celebration of the holidays named after them.

The convocation of the first Zemsky Sobor, and all those following it, was carried out by a special letter, which indicated the reason for the convocation and the number of elected representatives. Often the population itself decided how many people should sit at the Zemsky Sobor. Representatives were selected in elections held in various cities of the country in the form of assemblies. Persons who are serving, and also regularly pay taxes to the state treasury, could take part in these elections. Elected representatives did not receive a salary for their participation in the convocation of the Zemsky Sobor. Moreover, they had to independently provide themselves with everything necessary, going to such a meeting.

All convocations of the Zemsky Sobor took place, as a rule, in a solemn atmosphere in the Kremlin. A service was held in their honor in the Assumption Cathedral. In total, over the two centuries of existence of this institution, a meeting of 57 Zemsky Sobors was held.

History of Zemsky Cathedrals

The history of zemstvo councils is the history of the internal development of society, the evolution of the state apparatus, the formation of social relations, changes in the estate system. In the 16th century, the process of the formation of the given is just beginning, initially it was not clearly structured, and its competence was not strictly defined. For a long time, the practice of convening, the procedure for forming, especially, its composition of Zemsky Councils, was not regulated for a long time.

As for the composition of the Zemsky Councils, even during the reign of Mikhail Romanov, when the activity of the Zemsky Councils was the most intense, the composition varied depending on the urgency of the issues to be resolved and on the very nature of the issues.

Periodization of Zemsky Sobors

The periodization of Zemsky Councils can be divided into 6 periods:

1. The history of Zemsky Sobors begins during the reign of Ivan IV the Terrible. The first council took place in the city of Councils convened royal power- this period lasts until g.

There is also an opinion that it was the so-called "cathedral of reconciliation" (perhaps the tsar with the boyars, or reconciliation between representatives of different classes among themselves).

BA Romanov that the Zemsky Sobor consisted, as it were, of two "chambers": the first consisted of boyars, okolniks, butlers, treasurers, the second - governors, princes, boyar children, great nobles. Nothing is said about who the second "chamber" consisted of: from those who happened to be in Moscow at that time, or from those who were summoned to Moscow on purpose. The data on the participation of the posad population in zemstvo councils is very doubtful, although the decisions made there were often very beneficial to the top of the posad. Often, the discussion took place separately among the boyars and okolnichy, clergy, service people, that is, each group separately expressed its opinion on this issue.

The earliest council, the activity of which is evidenced by the letter of judgment that has come down to us (with signatures and a list of participants in the Duma council) and news in the annals took place in 1566, where the main issue was the continuation or termination of the bloody Livonian War.

An important place in the composition of the Zemsky Councils was occupied by the clergy, in particular the Zemsky Councils of February - March 1549 and the spring of 1551 were simultaneously full church councils, and only the Metropolitan and the higher clergy participated in the rest of the Moscow Councils. Participation in the councils of the clergy was intended to emphasize the legitimacy of the decisions made by the monarch.

Historical preconditions for the appearance and disappearance of Zemsky sobors

R.G. Skrynnikov expresses the opinion that Russian state The 16th century until the 1566 Zemsky Sobor was an autocratic monarchy with an aristocratic boyar duma, and later followed the path of transformation into an estate-representative monarchy.

Already under the Grand Duke Ivan III, the supreme power, trying to reduce the power functions of large feudal lords, turned to peasant self-government for support. The Code of Law of 1497 determined that court officials, elders and the best people from the volosts, that is, representatives of peasant communities, must be present at the court of governors.

The government, even under Ivan IV, is trying to expand its social base, addressing directly to various estates overcoming the feudal fragmentation of the Russian state. The Zemsky Sobor can be considered as the organ replacing the veche. Perceiving the tradition of the participation of public groups in solving government issues, he replaces the elements of democracy with the principles of class representation.

According to some historians, the existence of Zemsky Councils was relatively short and did not have great influence on the social development of Russia:

Firstly, councils were never assembled independently, they were convened by the monarch, most often to support his policy, in order to give them legitimacy and justice in the eyes of the people (the approval of new taxes by the will of “the whole earth” excluded complaints from the population);

Secondly, the estate-representative body could not develop in Russia due to the fact that all estates, by and large, were equally disenfranchised before the unlimited tsarist power, regardless of nobility and wealth. "We are free to execute and have mercy on our servants," Ivan the Terrible asserted, meaning all his subjects, from well-born princes to the last enslaved peasants, by serfs. As V. O. Klyuchevsky wrote: "The estates in Russia XVI-XVII differed not in rights, but in duties."

Other researchers, such as I.D.Belyaev, believed that Zemsky Cathedrals:

Helped to overcome the residues feudal fragmentation in Russian society, both politically and psychologically;

We accelerated the implementation of reforms in the court and local government, because different classes of society have the opportunity to inform the supreme power about their needs.

Zemsky Cathedrals of the XVI-XVII centuries for quite objective reasons did not give rise to a stable estate representation in Russia. The Russian economy of that period was still insufficiently productive for the development of industrial and commercial estates (and in most European countries that period, much stronger economically, absolutism prevailed), however, zemstvo councils played a significant role in overcoming crises and the development of Russian society in the 16th-17th centuries.

Bibliography

• A. N. Zertsalov. "To the history of Zemsky Sobors". Moscow ,
• A. N. Zertsalov. "New data on the Zemsky Councils in Russia 1648-1649". Moscow, 1887.

Notes (edit)

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See what "Zemsky Sobor" is in other dictionaries:

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Zemsky Cathedral- (English Zemsky Sobor) in the Russian state in the XVI XVII centuries. a nationwide meeting of representatives of the elite estates, convened for collegial discussion and resolution of issues that are usually within the competence of the monarch. State history and ... Big Law Dictionary

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ZEMSKY CATHEDRAL- - - the central body of estate representation in the Russian state from the middle of the 16th century. until the middle of the 17th century, which was an instrument of influence primarily of the local nobility. Appearance 3. p. was caused by changes in the economy and social order ... ... Soviet legal dictionary

ZEMSKY CATHEDRAL- the highest estate representative body in medieval Russia (XVI XVII centuries), which included members of the Consecrated Cathedral, the Boyar Duma, the sovereign's court, elected from the provincial nobility and the elite of the townspeople. Z.w. solved the most important issues ... ... Political Science: Reference Dictionary

The first Zemsky Sobor ("Cathedral of Reconciliation"), the highest estate-representative institution of the Russian kingdom, was assembled by Tsar Ivan IV in 1548 to discuss political, economic and administrative issues. Subsequently, such cathedrals began to be called Zemsky (as opposed to church cathedrals).

REASONS FOR CALLING THE FIRST ZEMSKY COUNCIL

According to some, this council was convened by the tsar to fight the boyars, against whom Grozny was looking for support among the people8. This view is not supported by historical evidence. On the contrary, it was precisely in 1550 that the tsar could least of all think about the struggle against the boyars. By that time, through the mediation of Metropolitans Macarius and Sylvester, he became close to the best people from the boyars and made up of them a circle of advisers and employees who helped him in his bold external and internal undertakings. Sensing this difficulty, other researchers correct their guess, adding that the first Zemsky Sobor gave the tsar a solid foundation for the future struggle against the boyars. But when this anticipated struggle came, the tsar did not seek support in the solid ground of the Zemsky Sobor, but created for this a new institution of a completely anti-Zemsky nature, the oprichnina. Everything that is known about the goals of the first Zemsky Sobor from the supreme culprit and its leader also does not support speculation about the militant democratic motives that allegedly provoked it. […]

Other researchers point to other reasons for the convocation of the first Zemsky Sobor; these reasons are sometimes repeated as a reinforcement of their conjecture and supporters of the anti-boyar origin of this council. These were: the need that arose with the unification of Russia by Moscow for a common organ for the entire Russian land, with the help of which it could declare its needs and desires before the emerging general supreme power, the need to give a general direction to the interests and aspirations of individual zemstchines of the Moscow state, so that the consciousness of an integral all-Russian zemstvo, the need for the tsar to enter into an alliance with the land, removing the boyars from the path that led to the unity of the tsar and the land, the tsar clearly understood the need for direct communication with the people in order to have a firm support in government activities, etc. Clause 10 It is impossible not to admit the convenience of these considerations, that they concern the origin of council representation in general, and not only the first council; it is difficult to explain the origin of the first council separately from the subsequent ones, especially when there is so little data for judgments about the first council.

The first council was convened by Ivan IV at the time of the tsar's extreme governmental excitement. The wedding to the kingdom with the acceptance of the royal title, marriage and after that the terrible Moscow fires, the popular revolt, the Kazan and Crimean raids - all these troubles from the very beginning of 1547 alternately raised and then plunged into despondency his unstable spirit. For a long time he could not recover from the impression of the Moscow fires, and after more than three years at the Stoglava Cathedral he described his then fright with the vividness of the moment he had just experienced: then "enter fear into my soul and trembling into my bones, and humble my spirit, and know your sins. " Then he decided to put an end to the boyar rule, and with his frivolous youth and busily set about state affairs. He began to look around him for people and means that would help him to improve the state of affairs. In such a mood of the tsar, a council was convened in 1550. The act or minutes of this council did not come down to us, and we do not know either its composition or the details of its activities. But such a story has survived about him. In the twentieth year of his age, Tsar Ivan, seeing the state in great tautness and grief from the violence of the strong, contemplated to bring everyone into love. After consulting with the Metropolitan, how to eliminate sedition and quench enmity, the tsar "ordered to collect his state from cities of every rank." On Sunday, the tsar walked out with crosses to Moscow's Red Square and after a prayer service from the frontal place said to the metropolitan: "I pray you, holy lord, be my helper and champion of love. I know that you desire good deeds and love. You yourself know that I am four years remained after his father, and eight years after his mother. " Having then depicted with vivid features the disturbances of the boyar rule during his minority, the tsar suddenly threw into the eyes of the boyars present on the square with heated words: "I am clean of this blood; wait for your reward." Then the king bowed to all sides and continued: "People of God and given to us by God! I pray your faith to God and love to us; now we cannot correct your grievances and ruin and taxes ... I pray you, leave each other's enmity and burdens ... I myself will be your judge and defense, I will ruin lies and return theft. "

Klyuchevsky V.O. Russian history. Complete course lectures. M., 2004.http: //magister.msk.ru/library/history/kluchev/kllec40.htm

INTERNAL STATE REFORM

Simultaneously with the Kazan campaigns of Grozny, his internal reform... Its beginning is associated with the solemn "cathedral" that met in Moscow in 1550-1551. It was not a Zemsky Sobor in the usual sense of the term. The legend that in 1550 Grozny convened in Moscow a representative meeting of "every rank" from the cities is now recognized as unreliable. As IN Zhdanov showed for the first time, a council of clergy and boyars met in Moscow at that time on church affairs and "zemstvo" affairs. At this council or with its approval in 1550, the Code of Law of 1497 was "corrected", and in 1551 "Stoglav", a collection of canonical decrees, was compiled. Reading these monuments and, in general, the documents of government activities of those years, we come to the conclusion that then in Moscow a whole plan of restructuring local government was created. […] Since the primitive feeding system could not meet the requirements of the time, the growth of the state and the complication of social order, it was decided to replace it with other forms of government. Before the abolition of feeding in a given place, the feeders were placed under the control of the public electives, and then they were completely replaced by self-government bodies. Self-government in this case received two types: 1) The jurisdiction of the elected people was transferred to the court and the police in the district ("lip"). This was usually the case in those places where the population had a multi-class character. Servicemen were usually chosen as lip chiefs, and they were provided with elective kissers (that is, the jury) and the clerk, who constituted a special presence, the “lip hut”. All classes of the population were elected together. 2) The jurisdiction of the elected people was transferred not only to the court and the police, but also to financial management: the collection of taxes and the management of the communal economy. This was usually the case in districts and volosts with a continuous taxable population, where zemstvo elders had long existed for tax self-government. When these elders were given the functions of the lip institute (or, what is the same, the governor's office), then the most full form self-government, embracing all aspects of rural life. Representatives of such self-government were called differently: beloved elders, beloved heads, zemstvo judges. The abolition of feeding was in principle decided around 1555, and all volosts and cities were allowed to move to a new order of self-government. "Fodder" had to remain without "feed" henceforth, and the government needed funds to replace the feed with something. To obtain such funds, it was established that cities and volosts must, for the right to self-government, contribute to the sovereign's treasury a special quitrent, which is called the "fed pay". He entered special cash offices, "treasuries", which received the name "quarters" or "chets", and the former breeders received the right to annual "lessons" or salary "from the cheetah" and began to be called "quarters".

The need for reform

The most important milestone political development there was an uprising in Moscow, which took place shortly after the coronation of Grozny. In 1547, an unusually dry summer turned out. Fires have become more frequent in Moscow. The largest of them destroyed most wooden city. Several thousand inhabitants died in the fire, tens of thousands were left homeless and without food. There were rumors that arson and witchcraft were the cause of the fires. The authorities took the most ferocious measures against the "lighters": they were tortured and during the torture they spoke to themselves, after which they were executed. On the second day after the "great fire", a boyar commission was formed to punish those responsible for the disaster. On June 26, the boyars gathered people in front of the Assumption Cathedral and found out who had set Moscow on fire. The mob accused Anna Glinskaya of arson. The people came out of obedience and perpetrated reprisals against the boyar Yu. V. Glinsky. On June 29, the mob moved to Vorobyovo, demanding that the tsar's grandmother Anna Glinskaya be handed over to punishment. But the uprising was dispersed and its instigators were punished.

In 1547-1550 riots occurred in other cities. The situation of its people worsened more because of the poor harvest in 1548-1549.

“The popular speeches showed that the country needs reforms. Further development of the country required strengthening of statehood, centralization of power. "

Moscow completed the unification of Russian lands in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. It turned out to be impossible to govern a vast state with the help of archaic institutions and institutions that developed in the small principalities during the period of fragmentation. The All-Russian Code of Laws of 1497 is hopelessly outdated. The boyar court, famous for its abuses, was the source of constant discontent among the boyar children. Only with the help of the noble detachments was it possible to suppress popular unrest. These facts also tell us about the need for Russian reforms.

Thus, it is clear that in the middle of the 16th century, Russia needed strengthening of statehood, centralization of power. The need for reforms in governing the country was obvious.

New level political organization countries that had developed by the middle of the 16th century, new state institutions- estate and representative institutions that defended the interests of large regions. The Zemsky Sobor became such an organ.

In February 1549, the tsar gathered for a meeting the boyar duma, the Consecrated Cathedral (the top of the church) and the highest representatives of the boyars and nobility - the first Zemsky Sobor. The tsar accused the boyars of the abuses and violence that they committed in his early childhood, and reminded them how they mocked him. Then he called to forget all grievances and act together for the common good. Hence the name of the Cathedral - "Cathedral of Reconciliation". The Council announced the planned reforms and the preparation of a new Code of Laws. By the decision of the Council, the nobles were freed from the court of the boyars-governors and given them the right to the court of the tsar himself.

The Council of 1549 was the first Zemsky Council, that is, a meeting of estate representatives with legislative functions. Its convocation reflected the establishment of an estate-representative monarchy in Russia. However, the first Council was not yet elective, and representatives of the city's trade and craft population and peasants were not present there. However, both of these categories of the population did not play a big role in the cathedrals in the future. The emergence of the estate-representative monarchy meant that now all the most important permits would be sanctioned by representatives of the ruling class.

It is necessary to indicate the meaning of the term "Zemsky Sobor". Soloviev saw in this term a sign of the strength of the people opposing the tsar. According to Cherepnin's definition, the Zemsky Sobor is "the estate-representative body of a single state, created in opposition to feudal law."

At the Zemsky Sobor in 1550, a new Code of Law was adopted, which incorporated (in contrast to the rather archaic Code of Law of 1497) the norms of all the main sections of the law of that time. A fundamental innovation was the proclamation of two norms in the final articles: the continuity of the development of legislation, as well as the public nature of the entry into force of the Code of Law. It takes into account judicial practice.

New Code of Law fully met the needs of the time. For example, it introduced punishment for bribery for the first time. In the new legislative document, the norms of law appear, which still exist, and the institutions of power that had appeared earlier on the ground in 1551 received statutory letters, that is, “they signed under the Code of Law”. Later, new codes were also published, supplementing the Code of Laws.

The norms of the peasant transition on St. George's Day were confirmed and clarified, the "elderly" was increased; the power of the feudal lord over the peasants is increasing: the master is responsible for the crime of the peasants; the action of the Code of Law extends to the newly annexed lands. Abolished the privileges of monasteries not to pay taxes to the treasury. It is forbidden to submit boyar children to serfs; introduced punishments for boyars and clerks-bribe-takers.

Thus, in the middle of the 16th century in Russia, the estate-representative monarchy began to take root in the person of the Zemsky Sobor, which received support thanks to the publication of the new Code of Laws