Mother of Ivan the Terrible, her origin.
Elena Vasilyevna Glinskaya (1508 - April 4 (April 13), 1538) - Grand Duchess of Moscow, daughter of Vasily Lvovich Glinsky, a native of Lithuania, who descended from the Horde prisoner Mamai. The beginning of the Glinsky family, according to legend, was laid by one of the sons of Mamai. Having fled to Lithuania, he received the city of Glinsk as his inheritance. In 1526, young Elena became the wife of the already middle-aged Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III, who was divorced from his first wife.
The girl did not want to marry the old prince, but gave in to her father's wishes. She had two sons: Ivan the Terrible and Yuri. Quite quickly, after the death of her husband, Grand Duchess Elena Glinskaya became the sole ruler of Russia as regent for the young Ivan. Glinskaya managed to uncover several boyar conspiracies aimed at overthrowing her, and she managed, although this required her to repeatedly disregard moral standards, to remain on the throne.
During the five years of her regency, Elena Glinskaya managed to do as much as not every male ruler manages to accomplish in decades. Ruler since 1533, she energetically suppressed the oligarchic aspirations of the boyars. She sent her uncle Mikhail Glinsky to prison for dissatisfaction with her favorite Ovchina-Telepnev-Obolensky. In 1536, she forced Sigismund of Poland to conclude a peace beneficial to Russia; Sweden was obliged not to help the Livonian Order and Lithuania. Unloved by the people, she died as a woman of non-Russian morals and upbringing. According to rumors, she was poisoned by the Shuiskys; data from a study of her remains indicate the cause of death was poisoning (mercury). 
The most important point in the reign of Elena Glinskaya is her implementation of monetary reform (begun in 1535). She actually introduced a single currency on the territory of Rus'. It was a silver penny, weighing 0.68 g, one-fourth of a penny - half a penny. This was a significant step to stabilize the Russian economy.
".... Elena, with her amazing beauty, was smart, cheerful in disposition and well educated: she knew German and Polish, spoke and wrote in Latin. Moreover, she was of a noble family and was distantly related to many powerful South Slavic houses. ..." (Voldemar Balyazin, Interesting history of Russia.)
There are a number of ancient Glinsky noble families, many of which descend from the Lithuanian princes of Glinsky. The oldest of them, dating back to Trajan Semyonov Glinsky, is recorded in the 1st part of the genealogical books of the Vilna, Kovno and Grodno provinces; another family, from Christopher Glinsky - in the 6th part of the genealogical book of the Smolensk province; the third family, from Ivan Glinsky, who signed the electoral charter of the Polish king Augustus 2nd in 1697 - in the 1st part of the genealogical books of the Vilna, Vitebsk, Volyn and Minsk provinces.
It is impossible to say exactly who Elena Glinskaya’s nationality was today, due to the fact that nations emerged somewhat later. In addition, the Glinsky family is very noble, which determines their relationship with many European dynasties...
Elena Glinskaya - Grand Duchess of Moscow, mother of Ivan the Terrible.
The twenty-year marriage of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III with Solomonia Saburova was fruitless. There is no sufficient reason to blame Solomonia alone for this. The well-known opponent of Ivan the Terrible, the traitor Prince Andrei Kurbsky, wrote that the father of his enemy Vasily III was looking for healers and sorcerers who would help him acquire male strength. In the end, the Grand Duke, with the help of Metropolitan Daniel and the obedient part of the clergy, managed to send his legal wife to a monastery against her will and marry the charming young Lithuanian princess Elena Glinskaya.
The wedding took place in 1526. Ivan IV, later nicknamed the Terrible, was born in 1530, when his father, Vasily III, was already over fifty. He was a very desirable child, and the whole country was awaiting his birth. However, contrary to expectations, she did not have children for another 3 years.
This interval caused the aging prince a lot of trouble. And finally, Elena found herself pregnant. Some holy fool Domitian announced to her that she would be the mother of Titus, a broad-minded man, and on August 25, 1530, at 7 o’clock in the morning, a son was actually born, later named Ivan. They write that at that very moment the earth and sky shook from unheard-of thunderclaps. But this was taken as a good sign. All cities sent ambassadors to Moscow with congratulations. But the king did not live long after the birth of his son. He died in 1534, and power passed to Elena Glinskaya. In 1538, she too died, poisoned, as is commonly believed, by seditious boyars. The boyars led by the Shuiskys seized power. Ivan was raised by the great and proud boyars to their own and their children’s misfortune, trying to please him in every way.
Ivan grew up as a homeless but watchful orphan in an atmosphere of court intrigue, struggle and violence that penetrated his children's bedchamber even at night. Ivan’s childhood remained in Ivan’s memory as a time of insults and humiliation, a concrete picture of which he gave about 20 years later in his letters to Prince Kurbsky. The Shuisky princes, who seized power after the death of Grand Duchess Elena, were especially hated by John. Princes Ivan Fedorovich Ovchina-Telepnev-Obolensky, who enjoyed influence under Elena, his sister, Ivan’s mother, Chelyadnina, Prince Ivan Fedorovich Belsky, were removed from the throne; Metropolitan Daniel, an opponent of the coup, was removed from the throne. Uncontrolled disposal of state property, extremely inattentive and insulting attitude towards the little Grand Dukes Ivan and Yuri characterize the two-year reign of the Shuiskys.
In 1540, on the initiative of Metropolitan Joasaph, Prince Belsky, who took the place of Prince Ivan Shuisky, who was removed to the voivodeship, and the appanage prince Vladimir Andreevich Staritsky and his mother were released. In 1542 - a new coup in favor of the Shuiskys, in which Belsky died, Metropolitan Joasaph paid with the see, replaced by Archbishop Macarius of Novgorod. The head of the circle, Prince Andrei Mikhailovich Shuisky, eliminated possible influences on Ivan from persons who did not belong to the circle in extremely rude forms (the reprisal against Semyon Vorontsov in the palace in front of Ivan’s eyes). In 1543, the tsar showed his character for the first time by ordering the capture of the chief of the Shuiskys, Andrei. In 1543, 13-year-old Ivan rebelled against the boyars, gave Prince Andrei Shuisky to be torn to pieces by the hounds, and from then on the boyars began to fear Ivan. Power passed to the Glinskys - Mikhail and Yuri, Ivan's uncles, who eliminated rivals with exile and execution and involved the young Grand Duke in their measures, playing on cruel instincts, and even encouraging them in Ivan. Not knowing family affection, suffering to the point of fear from violence in the environment in everyday life, from the age of 5 Ivan acted as a powerful monarch in ceremonies and court holidays: the transformation of his own posture was accompanied by the same transformation of the hated environment - the first visual and unforgettable lessons of autocracy. By directing thought, they cultivated literary tastes and reader impatience. In the palace and metropolitan library, Ivan did not read the book, but read from the book everything that could justify his power and the greatness of his natural rank as opposed to his personal powerlessness before the seizure of power by the boyars. He was easily and abundantly given quotations, not always accurate, with which he replete his writings; He has a reputation as the most well-read man of the 16th century and the richest memory.
In the seventeenth year of his life, Ivan announced to Metropolitan Macarius that he wanted to get married and he also made a speech that he wanted to accept the title of king. On January 16, 1547, the solemn crowning of Grand Duke Ivan IV took place in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Signs of royal dignity were placed on him: the cross of the Life-Giving Tree, barmas and the cap of Monomakh. After receiving the Holy Mysteries, Ivan Vasilyevich was anointed with myrrh. The royal title allowed him to take a significantly different position in diplomatic relations with Western Europe. The grand ducal title was translated as “prince” or even “grand duke.” The title “king” was either not translated at all, or translated as “emperor”. The Russian autocrat thereby stood on a par with the only Holy Roman Emperor in Europe. And on February 3 we got married to Anastasia Zakharyina-Romanova. A union with such a woman, if it did not immediately soften the tsar’s violent character, then prepared for his further transformation. Over the course of thirteen years of marriage, the queen exerted a softening influence on Ivan and bore him sons. But a series of major fires in Moscow in the spring and summer of 1547 interrupted the reign of Ivan IV, which had so solemnly begun.
The murders, intrigues and violence that surrounded him contributed to the development of suspicion, vindictiveness and cruelty in him. Ivan’s tendency to torment living beings manifested itself already in childhood, and those close to him approved of it. One of the strongest impressions of the tsar in his youth was the “great fire” and the Moscow uprising of 1547. The greatest devastation was caused by a fire on June 21, 1547, which lasted 10 hours. The main territory of Moscow burned down, 25 thousand houses burned down, about 3 thousand people died. The Glinskys in power were blamed for the disasters. A rumor spread throughout the city that the Tsar’s grandmother Anna Glinskaya, turning into a bird, flew around the city, “washed out human hearts and put them in water, and sprinkled them with that water while driving around Moscow,” which caused the fire.
Another rumor that fueled passions was about the campaign of the Crimean Khan against Rus'. The Tsar and his court were forced to leave for the village of Vorobyovo near Moscow, and the Glinskys - Mikhail and Anna - fled to monasteries near Moscow. Open uprising began on June 26. After the veche gathering, the townspeople moved to the Kremlin and demanded the extradition of the Glinskys. Their yards were destroyed, and one of the Glinskys, Yuri, was killed.
On June 27-28, Moscow was essentially in the hands of the townspeople, who, perhaps, “even tried to create some kind of their own management of the city” (N.E. Nosov). On June 29, after the murder of one of the Glinskys, a relative of the Tsar, the rebels came to the village of Vorobyovo, where the Grand Duke had taken refuge, and demanded the extradition of the remaining Glinskys. “Fear entered my soul and trembling entered my bones, and my spirit was humbled,” the king later recalled. It took him a lot of work to convince the people to disperse. A number of protests at the same time took place in some other cities - the reason was crop failure, increased taxes and administrative abuses.
As soon as the danger had passed, the king ordered the arrest of the main conspirators and their execution. The king’s favorite idea, realized already in his youth, was the idea of unlimited autocratic power. However, the speeches of 1547 did not disrupt the objective course of events in recent decades. They only emphasized the need for further changes. After a number of new beginnings at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries and their continuation in the 30-40s of the 16th century, the country was prepared to carry out more large-scale reforms.
Plans for the reorganization of Russia were hatched by a small group of people surrounding Ivan IV at that time. One of them was Metropolitan Macarius, the most educated man of that time, who actively participated in government activities in the 40s and 50s. Another close associate was the priest of the court Cathedral of the Annunciation, Sylvester. Ivan IV’s entourage also included a nobleman, Alexey Fedorovich Adashev, who was not of noble origin. By the beginning of 1549, the influence on Tsar Sylvester and Adashev had increased significantly, and the latter became, in fact, the head of the government, which Andrei Kurbsky later called the “Elected Rada”. Sylvester, with “childish scarecrows”, as Ivan put it, pushed him onto the path of repentance and attempts to cleanse himself and the country from all evil with the help of new advisers, who were selected according to Sylvester’s instructions and constituted the “elected council”, which overshadowed the boyar duma in the current administration and legislation . Its significance is undeniable for the 50s, but not unlimited, as it was complicated and weakened by the influences of the Zakharyins and Metropolitan Macarius. The surviving news completely conceals the great preparatory work that began from that time, from 1550, which made it possible to carry out a number of major state events and captured not only Ivan himself and his employees, but also in non-governmental circles of society, causing a discussion in it of the main issues of internal and foreign policy of the renewed Moscow kingdom. Issues about the significance of the secular aristocracy, large landownership, clergy, monasteries, the local class, autocracy, the Zemsky Sobor, etc. were touched upon and resolved controversially. Ivan’s personal participation imparted some external drama to the first government speech on the path of reform and turned it into a condemnation of the era of boyar rule and childhood tsar, which was assessed as a time of state disorder and popular suffering. All subsequent reforms, as well as the successes of Russian foreign policy in the mid-16th century, are associated with the name of Alexei Adashev. In addition to them, Duma members Zakharyin, D.I. Kurlyatev, I.V. Sheremetev, A.I. also participated in the development and implementation of reforms. Kurbsky.
February 1549 marks the beginning of the activity of Zemsky Sobors in Rus' - estate representative bodies. “Zemstvo Sobors,” wrote L.V. Cherepnin, “are a body that replaced the veche,” which adopted the ancient Russian “traditions of the participation of public groups in resolving government issues,” but replaced “elements of democracy with the principles of class representation.”
The first council is usually considered to be a meeting convened by the king on February 27. First, he spoke before the boyars, okolnichy, butlers and treasurers in the presence of the church "consecrated council", and on the same day he spoke before the governors, princes and nobles.
The next step was the direct elimination of viceroyal administration in certain regions in 1551-1552. And in 1555-1556, by the tsar’s verdict “on feeding”, viceroyal administration was abolished on a national scale. Its place was taken by local government, which had come a long and difficult way.
Local government was not uniform, but took different forms depending on the social composition of a particular area.
In the central districts, where private land ownership was developed, provincial government was introduced, and the nobles elected provincial elders from among themselves. Together with also elected city clerks, they headed the district administration. This meant the completion of the lip reform.
Elected authorities began to appear in those counties where there was no private land ownership. Here, zemstvo elders were elected from the wealthy strata of the black-sown population. However, the Black Sowing communities previously had their own elected secular authorities in the person of elders, sotskys, fiftieths, tens, etc. These volost administrators were genetically descended from the representatives of the ancient hundred community organization of Kievan Rus. They traditionally supervised communal lands, distributed and collected taxes, resolved minor court cases, and resolved other issues affecting the interests of the community as a whole. And previously, secular authorities consisted of representatives of the most prosperous peasantry: the “best” and “average” people. By the way, black volosts, even becoming privately owned lands, retained the structure of secular government.
The zemstvo reform, along with the black-plowed lands, also affected the cities, where zemstvo elders were also elected (but from the wealthy townsfolk population). Guba and zemstvo elders, unlike feeders - newcomers - acted in the interests and benefit of their districts, cities and communities. In fairness, it should be noted that completely local reforms were carried out only in the North.
It is believed that the provincial and zemstvo reforms are a step towards centralization. This, however, does not take into account the fact that local authorities became elected, and, consequently, self-government developed in the localities. The institutions of self-government of the 16th century seem to be a continuation of the democratic veche traditions of Ancient Rus' in the new conditions of the formation of a single state. These traditions turned out to be effective even later - during the Time of Troubles.
The time of the Elected Rada dates back to the strengthening of the importance of orders as functional governing bodies. It was in the middle of the 16th century. the most important orders arise. These include the Petition, which accepted complaints addressed to the king and conducted an investigation into them. At the head of this, essentially the highest control body, was A. Adashev. The ambassadorial order was headed by clerk Ivan Viskovaty. The local order was in charge of the affairs of local land ownership, and Rozboyny searched for and tried “dashing people.” The first order of the military department - Razryadny - ensured the collection of the noble militia and appointed the governor, and the second - Streletsky - was in charge of the army of archers created in 1550. For some time, the discharge order was led by clerk I.G. Vyrodkov, under whom he became, as it were, the general staff of the Russian army. Financial affairs were the responsibility of the Grand Parish and the Quarters (Chets). With the annexation of the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates, the order of the Kazan Palace was created. The final completion of the formation of the order system occurred in the 17th century.
Already in the Code of Laws of 1550, significant issues of land ownership are addressed. In particular, resolutions are adopted that make it difficult for the continued existence of patrimonial lands.
Articles on the privately owned population occupy a special place. In general, the right of peasants to move on St. George’s Day under Art. 88 remained, but the fee for the “elderly” increased slightly. Art. 78 determined the position of another significant group of the population - indentured servants. It was forbidden, for example, to turn service people who became debtors into slaves.
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However, the main changes in the socio-economic sphere were aimed at providing land for service people - the nobles. In 1551, at the Council of the Stoglavy, Ivan IV declared the need to redistribute ("re-allocate") lands between landowners: "those who have a surplus, others who have not enough, are granted." By “insufficient” we meant service people. To organize the lands, a general census is being undertaken. In the process of its implementation, the previous household taxation was replaced by land taxation. In the main territories, a new unit of taxation was introduced - the “big plow”. Its size varied depending on the social status of the landowner: a black-plowed peasant had less land per plow, but more taxes. The interests of the church were also infringed, but landowners found themselves in a privileged position.
The size of land holdings also determined the previous services of the nobles. The “Code of Service” (1555) established the legal basis for local land ownership. Each service person had the right to demand an estate of at least 100 quarters of land (150 acres, or approximately 170 hectares), since it was from such an area of land that “a man on horseback and in full armor” had to go to service. Thus, from the first 100 quarters the landowner himself came out, and from the next - his armed slaves. According to the "Code"; In terms of service, estates were equal to estates, and estates had to serve on the same basis as landowners.
Changes in the position of service people are also closely related to the abolition of viceroyal administration (feeding). Instead of the “feeding income”, which went mainly into the hands of governors and volosts, a nationwide tax “feeding tax” was introduced. This tax went to the state treasury, from where it was distributed to service people as a salary - “help”. Monetary “help” was given to those who took out more people than they were supposed to, or had less than the norm. But the one who brought out fewer people paid a fine, and failure to appear could lead to confiscation of possessions and corporal punishment.
The basis of the armed forces was now the horse militia of landowners. The landowner or patrimonial owner had to go to work “on horseback, in crowds and armed.” In addition to them, there were service people “according to the instrument” (recruitment): city guards, artillerymen, archers. The militia of peasants and townspeople was also preserved - the staff, which carried out auxiliary service.
In 1550, an attempt was made to organize a three-thousand-strong corps of “elected archers from the arquebus” near Moscow, who were obliged to always be ready to carry out important assignments. It included representatives of the most noble families and the top of the Sovereign's Court. The Streltsy were already a regular army, armed with the latest weapons and supported by the treasury. The organizational structure of the Streltsy army was later extended to all troops.
The control of the noble army was extremely complicated by the custom of localism. Before each campaign (and sometimes during the campaign) protracted disputes took place. “No matter who they send with whomever they do, everyone will take their place,” noted Ivan IV in 1550. Therefore, localism in the army was prohibited and military service “without places” was prescribed. The principle of high-born princes and boyars occupying the highest positions in the army was thereby violated.
The primary task in the middle of the 16th century was the fight against the Kazan Khanate, which directly bordered Russian lands and held the Volga trade route in its hands. Initially, they tried to resolve the Kazan issue diplomatically by placing a Moscow protege on the throne. However, this ended in failure, as did the first campaigns (1547-1548; 1549-1550).
In 1551, preparations began for a new campaign. In the spring, 30 km west of Kazan, at the confluence of the Sviyaga River with the Volga, a wooden fortress was built in the shortest possible time - Sviyazhsk, the construction of which from pre-prepared blocks was supervised by the clerk of the Discharge Order. I.G. Vyrodkov. In August, a large Russian army (150 thousand) besieged Kazan. The siege lasted almost a month and a half. And again Vyrodkov distinguished himself by bringing the movable siege towers of the “walk-city” to the walls, and also carried out a number of tunnels under the walls.
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As a result of the explosions of barrels of gunpowder placed in the tunnels, a large section of the wall was destroyed, and on October 2 Kazan was taken by storm.
The fall of the Kazan Khanate predetermined the fate of another - Astrakhan, which had important strategic and commercial significance. In August 1556, Astrakhan was annexed. At the same time, the Nogai Horde also recognized vassal dependence on Russia (it roamed between the middle reaches of the Volga and Yaik). In 1557, the annexation of Bashkiria was completed.
Thus, the lands of the Volga region and the trade route along the Volga became part of Russia.
Successful military operations in the eastern and southeastern directions significantly limited the possibility of an attack by the Tatars of the Crimean Khanate; the de facto leader of foreign policy at that time, A. Adashev, insisted on active actions against the Crimea, but met resistance from Ivan IV, who persistently sought to resolve the Baltic issue. Therefore, in order to defend against the Crimeans, in the 50s the construction of the Zasechnaya Line began - a defensive line of forest fences, fortresses and natural barriers, passing south of the Oka, not far from Tula and Ryazan. The structure of the Zasechnaya Line justified itself already in 1572, when the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey with an army of 120 thousand was completely defeated 50 km from Moscow.
The annexation of the Volga region also created the preconditions for further development of lands in the east. Now the path lay in Siberia, which attracted huge reserves of furs. In the 50s of the 16th century, the Siberian Khan Ediger recognized himself as a vassal of Russia, but Khan Kuchum, who then came to power, broke off these relations. The merchants and industrialists Stroganovs played a major role in the advance to Siberia, who received extensive possessions along the Kama and Chusovaya rivers. To protect their possessions, they built a number of fortified cities and created military garrisons populated by “hunting people” - Cossacks. Around 1581-1582 (there is disagreement regarding this date), the Stroganovs equipped a military expedition of Cossacks and military men from the cities beyond the Urals. The head of this detachment (about 600 people) was Ataman Ermak Timofeevich.
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Having crossed the Ural Mountains, he reached the Irtysh, and a decisive battle took place near the capital of Kuchum - Kashlyk. The Khan's multi-tribal army could not withstand the Cossack onslaught and fled. Ermak entered Kashlyk and began to collect yasak (tribute) from the Siberian inhabitants. However, the victory of the Cossacks turned out to be fragile, and a few years later Ermak died. His campaign did not lead to the direct annexation of Siberia, but a beginning was made for this. Since the second half of the 80s, cities and fortresses have been built in the western part of Siberia: Tyumen, Tobolsk fort, Surgut, Tomsk. Tobolsk becomes the administrative center of Siberia, where a governor was appointed. He was in charge of collecting yasak, supervised trade and crafts, and had at his disposal archers, Cossacks, and other service people. Colonization flows of the Russian peasantry also moved to Siberia, bringing with them the traditions of Russian zemstvo self-government.
At the first Zemsky Sobor, Ivan IV the Terrible decided to create a new legal code - the Sudebnik. The basis was the previous Code of Laws of 1497.
In the Code of Laws of 1550, out of 100 articles, most are devoted to issues of administration and court. In general, the old governing bodies (central and local) were still retained, but significant changes were made to their activities. Thus, their evolutionary transformation continued within the framework of the emerging class-representative state. Thus, the governors were now deprived of the right of final judgment in higher criminal cases; it was transferred to the center. The Code of Law, at the same time, expanded the activities of city clerks and provincial elders: the most important branches of local government were completely assigned to them. And their assistants - elders and “best people” - according to the decree of the Code of Law, were required to participate in the viceroyal court, which meant control by the elected representatives of the population over the activities of the governors. The importance of service people - nobles - was also raised by the fact that they were not subject to the jurisdiction of the governors' court.
The process of strengthening state power inevitably again raised the question of the position of the church in the state. The royal power, whose sources of income were few and whose expenses were high, looked with envy at the wealth of churches and monasteries.
At a meeting of the young tsar with Metropolitan Macarius in September 1550, an agreement was reached: monasteries were forbidden to found new settlements in the city, and to establish new courtyards in old settlements. Posad people who fled from the tax to the monastery settlements, in addition, were “brought back” back. This was dictated by the needs of the state treasury.
However, such compromise measures did not satisfy the government. In January-February 1551, a church council was convened, at which the royal questions, compiled by Sylvester and imbued with a non-covetous spirit, were read out. The answers to them amounted to one hundred chapters of the verdict of the council, which received the name Stoglavogo, or Stoglav. The king and his entourage were worried about whether “it was worthy for monasteries to acquire land and receive various preferential charters.
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By decision of the council, royal support to monasteries that had villages and other possessions ceased. Stoglav forbade giving money from the monastery treasury for "growth" and bread for "nasp", i.e. - at interest, which deprived the monasteries of permanent income.
A number of participants in the Council of the Hundred Heads (Josephites) met the program set out in the royal questions with fierce resistance.
The program of tsarist reforms outlined by the Elected Rada was rejected in the most significant points by the Stoglavy Council. The wrath of Ivan IV the Terrible fell on the most prominent representatives of the Josephites. On May 11, 1551 (i.e., a few days after the end of the council), the purchase of patrimonial lands by monasteries “without reporting” to the tsar was prohibited. All the lands of the boyars, which they had transferred there during Ivan’s childhood (from 1533), were taken away from the monasteries. Thus, control of the royal power was established over the movement of church land funds, although the properties themselves remained in the hands of the church. The church retained its possessions even after 1551.
At the same time, transformations were carried out in the internal life of the church. The previously created pantheon of all-Russian saints was established, and a number of church rituals were unified. Measures were also taken to eradicate the immorality of the clergy.
IVAN IV THE TERRIBLE
LIFE STORY
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Childhood and youth of Ivan the Terrible.
The twenty-year marriage of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III with Solomonia Saburova was fruitless. There is no sufficient reason to blame Solomonia alone for this. The well-known opponent of Ivan the Terrible, the traitor Prince Andrei Kurbsky, wrote that the father of his enemy Vasily III was looking for healers and sorcerers who would help him acquire male strength. In the end, the Grand Duke, with the help of Metropolitan Daniel and the obedient part of the clergy, managed to send his legal wife to a monastery against her will and marry the charming young Lithuanian princess Elena Glinskaya.
The wedding took place in 1526. Ivan IV, later nicknamed the Terrible, was born in 1530, when his father, Vasily III, was already over fifty. He was a very desirable child, and the whole country was awaiting his birth. However, contrary to expectations, she did not have children for another 3 years.
Ivan grew up as a homeless but watchful orphan in an atmosphere of court intrigue, struggle and violence that penetrated his children's bedchamber even at night. Ivan’s childhood remained in Ivan’s memory as a time of insults and humiliation, a concrete picture of which he gave about 20 years later in his letters to Prince Kurbsky. The Shuisky princes, who seized power after the death of Grand Duchess Elena, were especially hated by John. Princes Ivan Fedorovich Ovchina-Telepnev-Obolensky, who enjoyed influence under Elena, his sister, Ivan’s mother, Chelyadnina, Prince Ivan Fedorovich Belsky, were removed from the throne; Metropolitan Daniel, an opponent of the coup, was removed from the throne. Uncontrolled disposal of state property, extremely inattentive and insulting attitude towards the little Grand Dukes Ivan and Yuri characterize the two-year reign of the Shuiskys. In 1540, on the initiative of Metropolitan Joasaph, Prince Belsky, who took the place of Prince Ivan Shuisky, who was removed to the voivodeship, and the appanage prince Vladimir Andreevich Staritsky and his mother were released. In 1542 - a new coup in favor of the Shuiskys, in which Belsky died, Metropolitan Joasaph paid with the see, replaced by Archbishop Macarius of Novgorod. The head of the circle, Prince Andrei Mikhailovich Shuisky, eliminated possible influences on Ivan from persons who did not belong to the circle in extremely rude forms (the reprisal against Semyon Vorontsov in the palace in front of Ivan’s eyes). In 1543, the tsar showed his character for the first time by ordering the capture of the chief of the Shuiskys, Andrei. In 1543, 13-year-old Ivan rebelled against the boyars, gave Prince Andrei Shuisky to be torn to pieces by the hounds, and from then on the boyars began to fear Ivan. Power passed to the Glinskys - Mikhail and Yuri, Ivan's uncles, who eliminated rivals with exile and execution and involved the young Grand Duke in their measures, playing on cruel instincts, and even encouraging them in Ivan. Not knowing family affection, suffering to the point of fear from violence in the environment in everyday life, from the age of 5 Ivan acted as a powerful monarch in ceremonies and court holidays: the transformation of his own posture was accompanied by the same transformation of the hated environment - the first visual and unforgettable lessons of autocracy. By directing thought, they cultivated literary tastes and reader impatience. In the palace and metropolitan library, Ivan did not read the book, but read from the book everything that could justify his power and the greatness of his natural rank as opposed to his personal powerlessness before the seizure of power by the boyars. He was easily and abundantly given quotations, not always accurate, with which he replete his writings; He has a reputation as the most well-read man of the 16th century and the richest memory.
Crowning of Ivan IV the Terrible.
In the seventeenth year of his life, Ivan announced to Metropolitan Macarius that he wanted to get married and he also made a speech that he wanted to accept the title of king. On January 16, 1547, the solemn crowning of Grand Duke Ivan IV took place in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Signs of royal dignity were placed on him: the cross of the Life-Giving Tree, barmas and the cap of Monomakh. After receiving the Holy Mysteries, Ivan Vasilyevich was anointed with myrrh. The royal title allowed him to take a significantly different position in diplomatic relations with Western Europe. The grand ducal title was translated as “prince” or even “grand duke.” The title “king” was either not translated at all, or translated as “emperor”. The Russian autocrat thereby stood on a par with the only Holy Roman Emperor in Europe. And on February 3 we got married to Anastasia Zakharyina-Romanova. A union with such a woman, if it did not immediately soften the tsar’s violent character, then prepared for his further transformation. Over the course of thirteen years of marriage, the queen exerted a softening influence on Ivan and bore him sons. But a series of major fires in Moscow in the spring and summer of 1547 interrupted the reign of Ivan IV, which had so solemnly begun.
Revolt against the Glinskys.
The murders, intrigues and violence that surrounded him contributed to the development of suspicion, vindictiveness and cruelty in him. Ivan’s tendency to torment living beings manifested itself already in childhood, and those close to him approved of it. One of the strongest impressions of the tsar in his youth was the “great fire” and the Moscow uprising of 1547. The greatest devastation was caused by a fire on June 21, 1547, which lasted 10 hours. The main territory of Moscow burned down, 25 thousand houses burned down, about 3 thousand people died. The Glinskys in power were blamed for the disasters. A rumor spread throughout the city that the Tsar’s grandmother Anna Glinskaya, turning into a bird, flew around the city, “washed out human hearts and put them in water, and sprinkled them with that water while driving around Moscow,” which caused the fire.
Another rumor that fueled passions was about the campaign of the Crimean Khan against Rus'. The Tsar and his court were forced to leave for the village of Vorobyovo near Moscow, and the Glinskys - Mikhail and Anna - fled to monasteries near Moscow. Open uprising began on June 26. After the veche gathering, the townspeople moved to the Kremlin and demanded the extradition of the Glinskys. Their yards were destroyed, and one of the Glinskys, Yuri, was killed.On June 27-28, Moscow was essentially in the hands of the townspeople, who, perhaps, “even tried to create some kind of their own management of the city” (N.E. Nosov). On June 29, after the murder of one of the Glinskys, a relative of the Tsar, the rebels came to the village of Vorobyovo, where the Grand Duke had taken refuge, and demanded the extradition of the remaining Glinskys. “Fear entered my soul and trembling entered my bones, and my spirit was humbled,” the king later recalled. It took him a lot of work to convince the people to disperse. A number of protests at the same time took place in some other cities - the reason was crop failure, increased taxes and administrative abuses.
As soon as the danger had passed, the king ordered the arrest of the main conspirators and their execution. The king’s favorite idea, realized already in his youth, was the idea of unlimited autocratic power. However, the speeches of 1547 did not disrupt the objective course of events in recent decades. They only emphasized the need for further changes. After a number of new beginnings at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries and their continuation in the 30-40s of the 16th century, the country was prepared to carry out more large-scale reforms.
Elected Rada.
Plans for the reorganization of Russia were hatched by a small group of people surrounding Ivan IV at that time. One of them was Metropolitan Macarius, the most educated man of that time, who actively participated in government activities in the 40s and 50s. Another close associate was the priest of the court Cathedral of the Annunciation, Sylvester. Ivan IV’s entourage also included a nobleman, Alexey Fedorovich Adashev, who was not of noble origin. By the beginning of 1549, the influence on Tsar Sylvester and Adashev had increased significantly, and the latter became, in fact, the head of the government, which Andrei Kurbsky later called the “Elected Rada”. Sylvester, with “childish scarecrows”, as Ivan put it, pushed him onto the path of repentance and attempts to cleanse himself and the country from all evil with the help of new advisers, who were selected according to Sylvester’s instructions and constituted the “elected council”, which overshadowed the boyar duma in the current administration and legislation . Its significance is undeniable for the 50s, but not unlimited, as it was complicated and weakened by the influences of the Zakharyins and Metropolitan Macarius. The surviving news completely conceals the great preparatory work that began from that time, from 1550, which made it possible to carry out a number of major state events and captured not only Ivan himself and his employees, but also in non-governmental circles of society, causing a discussion in it of the main issues of internal and foreign policy of the renewed Moscow kingdom. Issues about the significance of the secular aristocracy, large landownership, clergy, monasteries, the local class, autocracy, the Zemsky Sobor, etc. were touched upon and resolved controversially. Ivan’s personal participation imparted some external drama to the first government speech on the path of reform and turned it into a condemnation of the era of boyar rule and childhood tsar, which was assessed as a time of state disorder and popular suffering. All subsequent reforms, as well as the successes of Russian foreign policy in the mid-16th century, are associated with the name of Alexei Adashev. In addition to them, Duma members Zakharyin, D.I. Kurlyatev, I.V. Sheremetev, A.I. also participated in the development and implementation of reforms. Kurbsky.
Reforms of central and local authorities under Ivan the Terrible.
February 1549 marks the beginning of the activity of Zemsky Sobors in Rus' - estate representative bodies. “Zemstvo Sobors,” wrote L.V. Cherepnin, “are a body that replaced the veche,” which adopted the ancient Russian “traditions of the participation of public groups in resolving government issues,” but replaced “elements of democracy with the principles of class representation.”
The first council is usually considered to be a meeting convened by the king on February 27. First, he spoke before the boyars, okolnichy, butlers and treasurers in the presence of the church "consecrated council", and on the same day he spoke before the governors, princes and nobles.
The next step was the direct elimination of viceroyal administration in certain regions in 1551-1552. And in 1555-1556, by the tsar’s verdict “on feeding”, viceroyal administration was abolished on a national scale. Its place was taken by local government, which had come a long and difficult way.
In the central districts, where private land ownership was developed, provincial government was introduced, and the nobles elected provincial elders from among themselves. Together with also elected city clerks, they headed the district administration. This meant the completion of the lip reform.
Elected authorities began to appear in those counties where there was no private land ownership. Here, zemstvo elders were elected from the wealthy strata of the black-sown population. However, the Black Sowing communities previously had their own elected secular authorities in the person of elders, sotskys, fiftieths, tens, etc. These volost administrators were genetically descended from the representatives of the ancient hundred community organization of Kievan Rus. They traditionally supervised communal lands, distributed and collected taxes, resolved minor court cases, and resolved other issues affecting the interests of the community as a whole. And previously, secular authorities consisted of representatives of the most prosperous peasantry: the “best” and “average” people. By the way, black volosts, even becoming privately owned lands, retained the structure of secular government.
The zemstvo reform, along with the black-plowed lands, also affected the cities, where zemstvo elders were also elected (but from the wealthy townsfolk population). Guba and zemstvo elders, unlike feeders - newcomers - acted in the interests and benefit of their districts, cities and communities. In fairness, it should be noted that completely local reforms were carried out only in the North.
It is believed that the provincial and zemstvo reforms are a step towards centralization. This, however, does not take into account the fact that local authorities became elected, and, consequently, self-government developed in the localities. The institutions of self-government of the 16th century seem to be a continuation of the democratic veche traditions of Ancient Rus' in the new conditions of the formation of a single state. These traditions turned out to be effective even later - during the Time of Troubles.
The time of the Elected Rada dates back to the strengthening of the importance of orders as functional governing bodies. It was in the middle of the 16th century. the most important orders arise. These include the Petition, which accepted complaints addressed to the king and conducted an investigation into them. At the head of this, essentially the highest control body, was A. Adashev. The ambassadorial order was headed by clerk Ivan Viskovaty. The local order was in charge of the affairs of local land ownership, and Rozboyny searched for and tried “dashing people.” The first order of the military department - Razryadny - ensured the collection of the noble militia and appointed the governor, and the second - Streletsky - was in charge of the army of archers created in 1550. For some time, the discharge order was led by clerk I.G. Vyrodkov, under whom he became, as it were, the general staff of the Russian army. Financial affairs were the responsibility of the Grand Parish and the Quarters (Chets). With the annexation of the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates, the order of the Kazan Palace was created. The final completion of the formation of the order system occurred in the 17th century.
Reforms in the socio-economic sphere under Ivan the Terrible.
Already in the Code of Laws of 1550, significant issues of land ownership are addressed. In particular, resolutions are adopted that make it difficult for the continued existence of patrimonial lands.
Articles on the privately owned population occupy a special place. In general, the right of peasants to move on St. George’s Day under Art. 88 remained, but the fee for the “elderly” increased slightly. Art. 78 determined the position of another significant group of the population - indentured servants. It was forbidden, for example, to turn service people who became debtors into slaves.
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The size of land holdings also determined the previous services of the nobles. The “Code of Service” (1555) established the legal basis for local land ownership. Each service person had the right to demand an estate of at least 100 quarters of land (150 acres, or approximately 170 hectares), since it was from such an area of land that “a man on horseback and in full armor” had to go to service. Thus, from the first 100 quarters the landowner himself came out, and from the next - his armed slaves. According to the "Code"; In terms of service, estates were equal to estates, and estates had to serve on the same basis as landowners.
Changes in the position of service people are also closely related to the abolition of viceroyal administration (feeding). Instead of the “feeding income”, which went mainly into the hands of governors and volosts, a nationwide tax “feeding tax” was introduced. This tax went to the state treasury, from where it was distributed to service people as a salary - “help”. Monetary “help” was given to those who took out more people than they were supposed to, or had less than the norm. But the one who brought out fewer people paid a fine, and failure to appear could lead to confiscation of possessions and corporal punishment.
Military transformations under Ivan the Terrible.
The basis of the armed forces was now the horse militia of landowners. The landowner or patrimonial owner had to go to work “on horseback, in crowds and armed.” In addition to them, there were service people “according to the instrument” (recruitment): city guards, artillerymen, archers. The militia of peasants and townspeople was also preserved - the staff, which carried out auxiliary service.
In 1550, an attempt was made to organize a three-thousand-strong corps of “elected archers from the arquebus” near Moscow, who were obliged to always be ready to carry out important assignments. It included representatives of the most noble families and the top of the Sovereign's Court. The Streltsy were already a regular army, armed with the latest weapons and supported by the treasury. The organizational structure of the Streltsy army was later extended to all troops.
The control of the noble army was extremely complicated by the custom of localism. Before each campaign (and sometimes during the campaign) protracted disputes took place. “No matter who they send with whomever they do, everyone will take their place,” noted Ivan IV in 1550. Therefore, localism in the army was prohibited and military service “without places” was prescribed. The principle of high-born princes and boyars occupying the highest positions in the army was thereby violated.
Annexation of the Astrakhan and Kazan Khanates.
The primary task in the middle of the 16th century was the fight against the Kazan Khanate, which directly bordered Russian lands and held the Volga trade route in its hands. Initially, they tried to resolve the Kazan issue diplomatically by placing a Moscow protege on the throne. However, this ended in failure, as did the first campaigns (1547-1548; 1549-1550).
In 1551, preparations began for a new campaign. In the spring, 30 km west of Kazan, at the confluence of the Sviyaga River with the Volga, a wooden fortress was built in the shortest possible time - Sviyazhsk, the construction of which from pre-prepared blocks was supervised by the clerk of the Discharge Order. I.G. Vyrodkov. In August, a large Russian army (150 thousand) besieged Kazan. The siege lasted almost a month and a half. And again Vyrodkov distinguished himself by bringing the movable siege towers of the “walk-city” to the walls, and also carried out a number of tunnels under the walls.
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The fall of the Kazan Khanate predetermined the fate of another - Astrakhan, which had important strategic and commercial significance. In August 1556, Astrakhan was annexed. At the same time, the Nogai Horde also recognized vassal dependence on Russia (it roamed between the middle reaches of the Volga and Yaik). In 1557, the annexation of Bashkiria was completed.
Thus, the lands of the Volga region and the trade route along the Volga became part of Russia.
Successful military operations in the eastern and southeastern directions significantly limited the possibility of an attack by the Tatars of the Crimean Khanate; the de facto leader of foreign policy at that time, A. Adashev, insisted on active actions against the Crimea, but met resistance from Ivan IV, who persistently sought to resolve the Baltic issue. Therefore, in order to defend against the Crimeans, in the 50s the construction of the Zasechnaya Line began - a defensive line of forest fences, fortresses and natural barriers, passing south of the Oka, not far from Tula and Ryazan. The structure of the Zasechnaya Line justified itself already in 1572, when the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey with an army of 120 thousand was completely defeated 50 km from Moscow.
Development of Siberia.
The annexation of the Volga region also created the preconditions for further development of lands in the east. Now the path lay in Siberia, which attracted huge reserves of furs. In the 50s of the 16th century, the Siberian Khan Ediger recognized himself as a vassal of Russia, but Khan Kuchum, who then came to power, broke off these relations. The merchants and industrialists Stroganovs played a major role in the advance to Siberia, who received extensive possessions along the Kama and Chusovaya rivers. To protect their possessions, they built a number of fortified cities and created military garrisons populated by “hunting people” - Cossacks. Around 1581-1582 (there is disagreement regarding this date), the Stroganovs equipped a military expedition of Cossacks and military men from the cities beyond the Urals. The head of this detachment (about 600 people) was Ataman Ermak Timofeevich.
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Code of laws of 1550.
At the first Zemsky Sobor, Ivan IV the Terrible decided to create a new legal code - the Sudebnik. The basis was the previous Code of Laws of 1497.
In the Code of Laws of 1550, out of 100 articles, most are devoted to issues of administration and court. In general, the old governing bodies (central and local) were still retained, but significant changes were made to their activities. Thus, their evolutionary transformation continued within the framework of the emerging class-representative state. Thus, the governors were now deprived of the right of final judgment in higher criminal cases; it was transferred to the center. The Code of Law, at the same time, expanded the activities of city clerks and provincial elders: the most important branches of local government were completely assigned to them. And their assistants - elders and “best people” - according to the decree of the Code of Law, were required to participate in the viceroyal court, which meant control by the elected representatives of the population over the activities of the governors. The importance of service people - nobles - was also raised by the fact that they were not subject to the jurisdiction of the governors' court.
Stoglavy Cathedral of 1551.
The process of strengthening state power inevitably again raised the question of the position of the church in the state. The royal power, whose sources of income were few and whose expenses were high, looked with envy at the wealth of churches and monasteries.
At a meeting of the young tsar with Metropolitan Macarius in September 1550, an agreement was reached: monasteries were forbidden to found new settlements in the city, and to establish new courtyards in old settlements. Posad people who fled from the tax to the monastery settlements, in addition, were “brought back” back. This was dictated by the needs of the state treasury.
However, such compromise measures did not satisfy the government. In January-February 1551, a church council was convened, at which the royal questions, compiled by Sylvester and imbued with a non-covetous spirit, were read out. The answers to them amounted to one hundred chapters of the verdict of the council, which received the name Stoglavogo, or Stoglav. The king and his entourage were worried about whether “it was worthy for monasteries to acquire land and receive various preferential charters.
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By decision of the council, royal support to monasteries that had villages and other possessions ceased. Stoglav forbade giving money from the monastery treasury for "growth" and bread for "nasp", i.e. - at interest, which deprived the monasteries of permanent income.
A number of participants in the Council of the Hundred Heads (Josephites) met the program set out in the royal questions with fierce resistance.
The program of tsarist reforms outlined by the Elected Rada was rejected in the most significant points by the Stoglavy Council. The wrath of Ivan IV the Terrible fell on the most prominent representatives of the Josephites. On May 11, 1551 (i.e., a few days after the end of the council), the purchase of patrimonial lands by monasteries “without reporting” to the tsar was prohibited. All the lands of the boyars, which they had transferred there during Ivan’s childhood (from 1533), were taken away from the monasteries. Thus, control of the royal power was established over the movement of church land funds, although the properties themselves remained in the hands of the church. The church retained its possessions even after 1551.
At the same time, transformations were carried out in the internal life of the church. The previously created pantheon of all-Russian saints was established, and a number of church rituals were unified. Measures were also taken to eradicate the immorality of the clergy.
The fate of the reforms of the 50s of the 16th century.
It is generally accepted that the reforms of the Elected Rada were carried out in order to strengthen the social position of the noble class as opposed to the conservative boyars, which was slowing down this process. V.B. Kobrin managed to prove that almost all layers of society were interested in strengthening the state. Therefore, the reforms were carried out not to please any one class and not against any class. The reforms meant the formation of a Russian estate-representative state. At the same time, a reasonable balance in the distribution of power between a number of classes (Zemsky Sobors), the government (the Elected Rada) and the tsar was implied and put into practice. It took time for this system to be approved. Due to a number of circumstances, the balance of power structures became unstable already in the first half of the 50s. Reform activities were nullified in the 60s by external (Livonian War) and internal (oprichnina) reasons. The personality of Tsar Ivan the Terrible also meant a lot here - a man of statesmanship, but with an exaggeratedly developed lust for power, and, perhaps on this basis, with some mental deviations.
Subsequently, as if justifying his actions, Ivan IV wrote that Adashev and Sylvester “themselves became sovereigns as they wanted, but the state was naturally removed from me: in word I was a sovereign, but in deed I had no control over anything.” However, modern historians assign him a slightly different place in government affairs. “The participation of Ivan IV in government activities in the 60s does not contradict the fact that many reforms (perhaps even most of them) were conceived by the leaders of the Elected Rada. The main merit of Ivan IV in these years was that he called for the rule of such politicians as like Adashev and Sylvester, and, apparently, really submitted to their influence,” writes V.B. Kobrin.The break with those close to him did not come immediately. Their hesitation during Ivan’s illness in 1553, tense relations with the Tsarina’s relatives, the Zakharyins, and, perhaps, with herself lead to psychological incompatibility. The desire to pursue an independent policy - foreign and domestic - leads to political incompatibility. By the autumn of 1559, reform activities ceased. In 1560, a denouement occurs. Sylvester was sent into exile: first to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, then to the Solovetsky Monastery. A. Adashev was sent to the army operating in Livonia, but was soon arrested together with his brother Danil. Only death (1561) saved the former head of the Elected Rada from further persecution. Around 1560, the king broke with the leaders of the Chosen Rada and placed various disgraces on them. According to some historians, Sylvester and Adashev, realizing that the Livonian War did not promise success for Russia, unsuccessfully advised the tsar to come to an agreement with the enemy. In 1563, Russian troops captured Polotsk, at that time a large Lithuanian fortress. The Tsar was especially proud of this victory, won after the break with the Chosen Rada. However, already in 1564 Russia suffered serious defeats. The king began to look for those “to blame”, disgraces and executions began.
Oprichnina.
The famous Russian historian V.O. Klyuchevsky once remarked about the oprichnina: “This institution always seemed strange both to those who suffered from it and to those who studied it.” Indeed, the oprichnina existed for only seven years, but how many scientific “copies” have been broken to clarify its causes and goals.
In general, all the diverse opinions of historians can be reduced to two mutually exclusive statements: 1) the oprichnina was determined by the personal qualities of Tsar Ivan and had no political meaning (V.O. Klyuchevsky, S.B. Veselovsky, I.Ya. Froyanov); 2) the oprichnina was a well-thought-out political step of Ivan the Terrible and was directed against those social forces that opposed his “autocracy.” The latter point of view, in turn, also “bifurcates.” Some researchers believe that the purpose of the oprichnina was to crush the boyar-princely economic and political power (S.M. Solovyov, S.F. Platonov, R.G. Skrynnikov). Others (A.A. Zimin and V.B. Kobrin) believe that the oprichnina “targeted” the remnants of the appanage princely antiquity (Staritsky Prince Vladimir), and was also directed against the separatist aspirations of Novgorod and the resistance of the church as a powerful organization opposing the state. None of these provisions are indisputable, so the debate about oprichnina continues.
Apparently, the reasons for the emergence of the oprichnina should be sought not in the fight against certain social groups, but in the reaction of the autocratic government, which is trying to strengthen itself, to the alternative to state development presented by class-representative institutions.
However, it is necessary to know not only the opinion of researchers, but also the course of the oprichnina “action” itself.
On December 3, 1564, the tsar, unexpectedly for many, left Moscow with his family, accompanied by pre-selected boyars and nobles. He also took with him the treasury and “holiness”. After visiting the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, he headed to his summer residence - Alexandrovskaya Sloboda (now the city of Alexandrov, 100 km northeast of Moscow). From here, at the beginning of January 1565, Ivan IV the Terrible sent two letters to Moscow. In the first - addressed to the boyars, clergy and service people - he accused them of treason and condoning treason, and in the second the tsar announced to the Moscow townspeople that he “has no anger at them and no disgrace.” The Tsar's messages, read on Red Square, caused great excitement in the city. The Moscow “people” demanded that the tsar be persuaded to return to the throne, threatening that otherwise they would “consume the state’s villains and traitors.”
A few days later, in the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, Ivan Vasilyevich received a delegation of the clergy and boyars and agreed to return to the throne with the condition “that he would lay down his own disgrace on those who betrayed him, the sovereign, and in which he, the sovereign, were disobedient, and execute others and their bellies and their lives, and create an oprichnina for themselves in their state, create a courtyard for themselves and all their daily routine.”
Oprichnina was not a new thing, for this has long been the name of the inheritance that the prince gave to his widow, “oprichnina” (except for) other land. However, in this case, oprichnina meant the personal destiny of the king. The rest of the state began to be called the zemshchina, which was governed by the Boyar Duma. The political and administrative center of the oprichnina became the “special court” with its Boyar Duma and orders, partially transferred from the zemshchina. The oprichnina had a special treasury. Initially, a thousand were taken into the oprichnina (by the end of the oprichnina - already 6 thousand), mostly service people, but there were also representatives of some old princely and boyar families. A special uniform was introduced for the guardsmen: they tied dog heads to the necks of their horses, and a broom to the quiver of arrows. This meant that the guardsman had to gnaw at the “sovereign traitors” and sweep out treason.
It is usually believed that the oprichnina included territories where princely-boyar land ownership dominated. The eviction of large landowners from there to zemshchina lands thus undermined their economic base and weakened their position in the political struggle. However, recently it has become clear that the lands that became oprichnina were populated mainly by either service people (nobles), or other faithful servants of the sovereign (western lands), or were black-sown (Pomerania). An oprichnina unit was also allocated in Moscow. Moreover, some of the landowners of these lands simply went over to the oprichnina. Of course, evictions were carried out. But their scale should not be exaggerated, and the victims were soon returned to their places. The oprichnina did not at all change the structure of large-scale land ownership, writes V.B. Kobrin; boyar and princely land ownership survived the oprichnina. Although one cannot help but say that many boyars became victims of the tsar’s painful suspicions. He constantly imagined conspiracies against him - and the heads of often innocent people flew by the dozens.
The action of Ivan the Terrible and the guardsmen against the old appanage institutions reached its climax in 1569-1570. Church hierarchs did not support oprichnina policies. Metropolitan Afanasy retired to a monastery, and his replacement, Philip Kolychev, denounced the oprichnina. He was deposed and imprisoned in a monastery.
Since the beginning of the 50s, Tsar Ivan led the line towards the physical destruction of the last appanage prince in Rus' - Vladimir Andreevich Staritsky, who, as the events of 1553 associated with Ivan’s illness showed, could actually lay claim to the reign. After a series of disgraces and humiliations, Vladimir Andreevich was poisoned in October 1569.
In December 1569, an army of guardsmen, personally led by Ivan the Terrible, set out on a campaign against Novgorod, the reason for which was the suspicion of Novgorod’s desire to go over to Lithuania. All the cities along the road from Moscow to Novgorod were plundered. During this campaign in December 1569, Malyuta Skuratov strangled Metropolitan Philip (Kolychev Fedor Stepanovich) (1507-69x), who publicly opposed the oprichnina and executions of Ivan IV, in the Tver Adolescent Monastery. It is believed that the number of victims in Novgorod, where no more than 30 thousand people lived at that time, reached 10-15 thousand. The king walked as if through enemy country. The guardsmen destroyed cities (Tver, Torzhok), villages and villages, killed and robbed the population. In Novgorod itself, the defeat lasted 6 weeks. Thousands of suspects were tortured and drowned in Volkhov. The city was plundered. The property of churches, monasteries and merchants was confiscated. The beating continued in Novgorod Pyatina. Then Grozny moved towards Pskov, and only the superstition of the formidable king allowed this ancient city to avoid a pogrom.
The Novgorod campaign of the guardsmen allows us to conclude that Ivan IV was afraid not only of representatives of the aristocracy (as an obstacle to unlimited power), but also equally (and perhaps more) of the urban and rural population, also represented at the Zemsky Sobors - the establishment class-representative.
After returning from Novgorod, the executions of the guardsmen themselves begin, those who stood at its origins: they are replaced by those who most distinguished themselves in pogroms and executions, among them Malyuta Skuratov and Vasily Gryaznoy. The oprichnina terror continued. The last mass executions in Moscow occurred in 1570.
In 1572, the oprichnina was abolished: “the sovereign abandoned the oprichnina.” The invasion of Moscow in 1571 by the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey, whom the oprichnina army could not stop, played a role; Posads were burned, the fire spread to Kitay-Gorod and the Kremlin. The Crimean Khan, unexpectedly appearing near Moscow with a 120,000-strong army, forced Ivan the Terrible to flee from Moscow to Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, and from there to Rostov. On May 24, 1571, Moscow was burned, with the exception of the Kremlin. The number of those killed in the fire amounted to several hundred thousand people, up to 150 thousand Tatars were taken into captivity. However, some researchers believe that only the sign was changed, and the oprichnina under the name of the “sovereign court” continued to exist. Other historians believe that Ivan IV tried to return to the oprichnina order in 1575, when he again took possession of the “destiny”, and put the baptized Tatar khan Simeon Bekbulatovich in charge of the rest of the territory, who was called “the Grand Duke of All Rus',” as opposed to simply “ Prince of Moscow." Without spending even a year on the throne, the khan was removed from his great reign. Everything returned to its place.
The oprichnina as a whole was unable to strengthen autocratic rule for a more or less long period of time (after the death of Ivan IV, we see the activities not so much of Tsar Fyodor Ioanovich as of his entourage, from which Boris Fedorovich Godunov was more distinguished than others, who, having reached the throne, was forced to establish himself as Zemsky cathedral), nor to liquidate the central estate-representative bodies and local self-government. Oprichnina should not be considered as a step towards a new “progressive” autocratic form of government, as its meaning is often defined. To a greater extent, it was a return to the times of appanage rule (if we keep in mind the division of the country into oprichnina and zemshchina, etc.). Oprichnina was a reform, but a reform with the opposite sign. This is evidenced by its consequences.
Livonian War.
In 1553, an English trading company sent an expedition to China across the Arctic Ocean, part of which died, and part, led by Richard Chancellor, arrived at the mouth of the Northern Dvina and reached Moscow, where Ivan graciously received him. Two years later, Chancellor appeared as an ambassador from the English government and concluded an agreement on duty-free trade for the British in Russia, and in 1557, a Moscow agent, Osip Nepeya, achieved the same for the Russians in England. This revived in Moscow the idea of breaking through to the Baltic Sea in order to establish direct and more convenient relations with Western Europe than in the north, which were resolutely prevented by the Livonian Order, which did not allow the craftsmen and artists recruited in Germany in 1547 in Germany on behalf of Ivan Schlitte to Russia .
The Livonian War became “the life’s work” of Ivan IV the Terrible (I.I. Smirnov), and K. Marx noted that its goal “was to give Russia access to the Baltic Sea and open communication routes with Europe.”
Livonia, created in the 13th century by the German knights of the sword, was a weak state in the 14th century, essentially divided between the Order, bishops and cities. The Order was headed by him only formally. At the same time, the Order, relying on the support of other states, prevented the establishment of contacts between Russia and Western European countries.
The immediate reason for the start of the Livonian War was the question of the “Yuriev tribute” (Yuriev, later called Dorpat (Tartu), was founded by Yaroslav the Wise). According to the treaty of 1503, an annual tribute had to be paid for it and the surrounding territory, which, however, was not done. In addition, the Order concluded a military alliance with the Lithuanian-Polish king in 1557. In January 1558, Ivan IV moved his troops to Livonia. The beginning of the war brought him victories: Narva and Yuriev were taken.
The threat of complete defeat forced the Livonians to ask for a truce. In March 1559 it was concluded for a period of six months. The hostilities that began in 1560 brought new defeats to the Order: the large fortresses of Marienburg and Fellin were taken, and the Master of the Order, Fürstenberg, was captured. The result of the company of 1560 was the virtual defeat of the Livonian Order as states. However, his lands came under the rule of Poland, Denmark and Sweden, and his last master, Ketler, received only Courland, and even then it was dependent on Poland.
Thus, instead of weak Livonia, Russia now had three strong opponents. True, while Sweden and Denmark were at war with each other, Ivan IV led successful actions against Sigismund II Augustus. In February 1563 he took Polotsk. But already at the beginning of the next year, Russian troops suffered a series of defeats (battles on the Ula River and near Orsha). Then Ivan IV tried to restore the Livonian Order, but under the protectorate of Russia, and negotiated with Poland. The terms of peace were announced by the Tsar at the Zemsky Sobor in 1566. They turned out to be unacceptable, and the council spoke out in favor of continuing the war: “It is not suitable for our sovereign to give up those cities of Livonia, which the king took for protection, but it is suitable for our sovereign to stand for those cities.” The council's decision also emphasized that abandoning Livonia would harm trade interests.
In 1568-1569 the war became protracted. And in 1569, at the Sejm in Lublin, the unification of Lithuania and Poland took place into a single state - the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, with which in 1570 they managed to conclude a truce for three years. John took advantage of the truce to form a vassal state from Livonia under the auspices of Russia for the Danish prince Magnus, who married Ivan’s niece, Marya Vladimirovna (in 1573). However, Magnus' actions there did not lead to success. Poland raised the Crimean Khan against Russia, who reached Moscow in 1571, but was repulsed from Oka in 1572. In 1572, Sigismund-August died, and Ivan put forward his candidacy for the Polish throne, which became electoral, but the French prince Henry of Anjou was elected, and after his departure from Poland - Stefan Batory (1576), who resumed the war, returning all the conquests to Poland. However, back in 1577, Russian troops occupied almost all of Livonia, except for Riga and Revel, which was besieged in 1576-1577. But this year was the last year of Russian success in the Livonian War. In 1579, Sweden resumed hostilities, and Batory returned Polotsk and took Velikiye Luki. In August 1581, Batory's siege of Pskov began. The Pskovites swore “to fight for the city of Pskov with Lithuania to the death without any cunning.” They kept their oath, fighting off 31 attacks. After five months of unsuccessful attempts, the Poles were forced to lift the siege of Pskov, who withstood the siege under the command of Prince I.P. Shuisky. The Swedes, who entered into an alliance with Batory, then took Narva, Gapsal, Yam, Koporye and Korela. Ivan the Terrible sent Shevrigin to Rome with a request for mediation from Pope Gregory XIII; The pope sent the Jesuit Anthony Possevin, who arranged peace negotiations that led to a truce. In January 1582, a 10-year truce with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was concluded in Yama-Zapolsky (near Pskov). Russia renounced Livonia and Belarusian lands, but some border Russian lands were returned to it.
In May 1583, the 3-year Truce of Plyus with Sweden was concluded, according to which Koporye, Yam, Ivangorod and the adjacent territory of the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland were ceded. The Russian state again found itself cut off from the sea.
Sons and wives of Ivan the Terrible.
Periods of repentance and prayer were followed by terrible fits of rage. During one of these attacks on November 9, 1582, in the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, a country residence, the tsar accidentally killed his son Ivan Ivanovich, hitting him in the temple with a staff with an iron tip. The death of the heir plunged the tsar into despair, since his other son, Fyodor Ivanovich, was unable to rule the country. Ivan the Terrible sent a large contribution to the monastery to commemorate the soul of his son; he even thought about leaving for the monastery. The exact number of wives of Ivan the Terrible is unknown, but he was probably married seven times. Not counting the children who died in infancy, he had three sons. From his first marriage to Anastasia Zakharyina-Yuryeva, who was his beloved wife, three sons were born, Dmitry, Ivan and Fedor. Tsarevich Dmitry Sr. was born immediately after the capture of Kazan (1552). Ivan the Terrible, who vowed to make a pilgrimage to the Cyril Monastery on Beloozero in the event of victory, took a newborn baby on the journey.
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Death of the first Russian Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible.
According to the testimony of anthropologist Mikhail Gerasimov, who examined the skeleton of Ivan the Terrible, in the last years of his life, the tsar developed powerful salt deposits (osteophytes) on his spine, which caused him terrible pain with every movement. Before his death, Grozny looked like a decrepit old man, although he was only 53 years old. In the last year he could no longer walk on his own - he was carried.
 Ivan the Terrible (reconstruction by M. Gerasimov) |
This is how the historian N. Kostomarov describes the death of Ivan the Terrible: “At the beginning of 1584, a terrible illness appeared in him; some kind of rotting inside; a disgusting smell emanated from him. Foreign doctors lavished their skills on him; abundant alms were distributed in monasteries, to pray for the sick king, and at the same time, the superstitious Ivan invited healers and healers to his place. They were brought from the distant north; some wise men predicted for him, as they say, the day of death... Ivan then lost heart, prayed, ordered to feed the poor and prisoners, released prisoners from dungeons, then again rushed to his former unbridledness... It seemed to him that he had been bewitched, then he imagined that this witchcraft had already been destroyed by other means. He was either going to die, or he said with confidence that he would live Meanwhile, the body became covered with blisters and wounds, and the stench from it became more unbearable.
March 17th arrived. About the third hour the king went to the bathhouse prepared for him and washed himself with great pleasure; there they amused him with songs. After the bath, the king felt fresher. They sat him down on the bed; in addition to his underwear he was wearing a wide robe. He ordered the chess set to be brought, he began to arrange it himself, but could not put the chess king in his place and at that time he fell. A cry went up; some ran for vodka, some for rose water, some for doctors and clergy. The doctors appeared with their medicines and began to rub him; The Metropolitan appeared and hastily performed the rite of tonsure [as a monk], naming John Jonah. But the king was already lifeless. They rang the bell for the outcome of the soul. The people became agitated, the crowd rushed to the Kremlin. Boris [Godunov] ordered the gates to be closed. On the third day, the body of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich was buried in the Archangel Cathedral, next to the grave of the son he killed."
The legacy of Ivan the Terrible.
The division of the country had a detrimental effect on the state's economy. A huge number of lands were ravaged and devastated. In 1581, in order to prevent the desolation of estates, the tsar introduced reserved summers - a temporary ban on peasants leaving their owners on St. George's Day, which contributed to the establishment of serfdom in Russia.
The Livonian War ended in complete failure and the loss of the original Russian lands. Ivan the Terrible could see the objective results of his reign already during his lifetime: it was the failure of all domestic and foreign policy endeavors. Since 1578, the king stopped executing people. Almost at the same time, he ordered that synodics (memorial lists) be compiled for those executed and contributions sent to the monasteries for the commemoration of their souls; in his will of 1579 he repented of his deeds. With the massive and rapid change of landowners and the fragmentation of land ownership, the peasantry in the oprichnina received an extra impulse to emigrate to the spaces of our south and the Don, not comprehended by the oprichnina and not accessible to the state. Ivan’s policy thus prepared the Time of Troubles, intensifying the crisis of which it was the solution, and undermined the forces of the state already during the Polish war of the 70s, hence its failure.But Ivan IV the Terrible went down in history not only as a tyrant. He was one of the most educated people of his time, possessed a phenomenal memory and theological erudition. He is the author of numerous messages (including to Andrei Kurbsky), music and text of the service for the feast of Our Lady of Vladimir, and the canon to Archangel Michael. The Tsar contributed to the organization of book printing in Moscow and the construction of St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square to commemorate the conquest of the Kazan kingdom.
Used sources.
1. Mussky I.A. 100 great dictators. - Moscow: Veche, 2000.
2. Boris Florya. Ivan groznyj. - Moscow: Young Guard, 1999.
3. All the monarchs of the world. Russia/under control K. Ryzhova. - Moscow: Veche, 1999.
4. Encyclopedia "The World Around Us" (cd).
5. Great Encyclopedia of Cyril and Methodius 2000 (cd).
6. Chronicles of Charon. Encyclopedia of death.
Years of life - (08/25/1530 - 03/18/1584+) Parents:Vasily III(1479-1533+), Elena Glinskaya; Children: 1. Anastasia(?-08/07/1560+), daughter of Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin, one of the ancestors of the Romanov dynasty, wife from 02/13/1547 => Anna (1549-1550+); Maria (born 1551, died in infancy); Dmitry (1552-1553x); died tragically in an accident; Ivan (03/28/1554-11/19/1581x); On November 9, 1581, Ivan the Terrible, having met his daughter-in-law, who was already expecting a child, in one of the inner chambers, attacked her with abuse for some omission in the decoration, and hit his son Ivan, who tried to stand up for his wife, in the temple with the sharp tip of a staff. As a result, the frightened woman lost the fetus, and Ivan Ivanovich died ten days later; Evdokia (1556-1558+); Fedor (1557-1598+); 2. Maria(?-1.09.1569+), daughter of Temryuk Idarov, prince. Kabardian; wife from 08/21/1561 => Vasily (03/2/1563-05/6/1563); 3. Marfa Vasilievna Sobakina(?-11/13/1571+), wife from 10/28/1571; 4. Anna Alekseevna Koltovskaya(?); Wife since April 1572, divorced 1575; 5.Anna Vasilchikova(1579+), wife from 1575, divorced 1576; 6.Vasilisa Melentyeva (?); 7.Maria Fedorovna Nagaya(?-1612+); Wife since autumn 1580. In 1584 she was exiled with her son Dmitry to the city of Uglich. after his death, she was tonsured a nun under the name of nun Martha. In 1605 she recognized her son False Dmitry I, later renounced him => Dmitry (1582-1591x); Died under unclear circumstances on May 15, 1591 in Uglich as a result of an accident or murder. Contemporaries accused him of murder Boris Godunov , because Dmitry was the direct heir to the throne and prevented Boris from advancing to him. Recent studies provide evidence that Godunov still had nothing to do with this case.
Life highlights
Vel. Prince of Moscow (1533-1547), from 1547 - the first Russian Tsar; Since the late 40s, it has ruled with the participation of the Chosen Rada. Under him, the convening of Zemsky Sobors began, the Code of Law of 1550 was compiled. Reforms of administration and the court were carried out (Gubnaya, Zemskaya and other reforms). In 1565, the oprichnina was introduced. Under Ivan IV, trade ties were established with England (1553), and the first printing house was created in Moscow. The Kazan (1552) and Astrakhan (1556) khanates were conquered. In 1558-1583. was carried out Livonian War for access to the Baltic Sea, the annexation of Siberia began (1581). The domestic policy of Ivan IV was accompanied by mass disgraces and executions, and increased enslavement of the peasants.
Childhood
After the death of his father, 3-year-old Ivan remained in the care of his mother, who died in 1538, when he was 8 years old. Ivan grew up in an environment of palace coups, the struggle for power of the warring boyar families of the Shuisky and Belsky. The murders, intrigues and violence that surrounded him contributed to the development of suspicion, vindictiveness and cruelty in him. Ivan’s tendency to torment living beings manifested itself already in childhood, and those close to him approved of it. One of the strong impressions of the tsar in his youth was the “great fire” and the Moscow uprising of 1547. After the murder of one of the Glinskys, a relative of the tsar, the rebels came to the village of Vorobyovo, where the Grand Duke had taken refuge, and demanded the extradition of the rest of the Glinskys. With great difficulty they managed to persuade the crowd to disperse, convincing them that they were not in Vorobyovo. As soon as the danger had passed, the king ordered the arrest of the main conspirators and their execution.
Beginning of reign
The king’s favorite idea, realized already in his youth, was the idea of unlimited autocratic power. On January 16, 1547, the solemn crowning of Grand Duke Ivan IV took place in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Signs of royal dignity were placed on him: the cross of the Life-Giving Tree, barmas and the cap of Monomakh. After receiving the Holy Mysteries, Ivan Vasilyevich was anointed with myrrh. The royal title allowed him to take a significantly different position in diplomatic relations with Western Europe. The grand ducal title was translated as “prince” or even “grand duke.” The title “king” was either not translated at all, or translated as “emperor”. The Russian autocrat thereby stood on a par with the only Holy Roman Emperor in Europe. Since 1549, together with the Elected Rada (A.F. Adashev, Metropolitan Macarius, A.M. Kurbsky, priest Sylvester), Ivan IV carried out a number of reforms aimed at centralizing the state: Zemstvo reform of Ivan IV, Guba reform, reforms were carried out in the army, in 1550 a new code of law of Ivan IV was adopted. In 1549 The first Zemsky Sobor was convened in 1551. The Stoglav Sobor adopted a collection of decisions on church life "Stoglav". In 1555-1556, Ivan IV abolished feeding and adopted the Code of Service. In 1550-1551, Ivan the Terrible personally took part in the Kazan campaigns. In 1552 Kazan was conquered, then the Astrakhan Khanate (1556), the Siberian Khan Ediger and Nogai the Great became dependent on the Russian Tsar. In 1553, trade relations with England were established. In 1558, Ivan IV began the Livonian War for the capture of the Baltic Sea coast. Initially, military operations developed successfully. By 1560, the army of the Livonian Order was completely defeated, and the Order itself ceased to exist. Meanwhile, serious changes took place in the internal situation of the country. Around 1560, the king broke with the leaders of the Chosen Rada and placed various disgraces on them. According to some historians, Sylvester and Adashev, realizing that the Livonian War did not promise success for Russia, unsuccessfully advised the tsar to come to an agreement with the enemy. In 1563, Russian troops captured Polotsk, at that time a large Lithuanian fortress. The Tsar was especially proud of this victory, won after the break with the Chosen Rada. However, already in 1564 Russia suffered serious defeats. The king began to look for those “to blame”, disgraces and executions began.
Oprichnina
The Tsar became increasingly imbued with the idea of establishing a personal dictatorship. In 1565 he announced introduction of oprichnina in the country. The country was divided into two parts: the territories that were not included in the oprichnina began to be called zemshchina, each oprichnik swore an oath of allegiance to the tsar and pledged not to communicate with the zemstvo people. The guardsmen dressed in black clothes, similar to monastic clothes. Horse guardsmen had special insignia; gloomy symbols of the era were attached to their saddles: a broom - to sweep out treason, and dog heads - to gnaw out treason. With the help of the oprichniki, who were exempt from judicial responsibility, Ivan IV forcibly confiscated the boyar estates, transferring them to the oprichniki nobles. Executions and disgraces were accompanied by terror and robbery among the population. A major event of the oprichnina was the Novgorod pogrom in January-February 1570, the reason for which was the suspicion of Novgorod’s desire to go over to Lithuania. The king personally led the campaign. All the cities along the road from Moscow to Novgorod were plundered. During this campaign in December 1569, Malyuta Skuratov strangled Metropolitan Philip (Kolychev Fedor Stepanovich) (1507-69x), who publicly opposed the oprichnina and executions of Ivan IV, in the Tver Adolescent Monastery. It is believed that the number of victims in Novgorod, where no more than 30 thousand people lived at that time, reached 10-15 thousand. Most historians believe that in 1572 the tsar abolished the oprichnina. The invasion of Moscow in 1571 by the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey, whom the oprichnina army could not stop, played a role; Posads were burned, the fire spread to Kitay-Gorod and the Kremlin.
Results of the reign
The division of the country had a detrimental effect on the state's economy. A huge number of lands were ravaged and devastated. In 1581 In order to prevent the desolation of estates, the tsar introduced reserved summers - a temporary ban on peasants leaving their owners on St. George's Day, which contributed to the establishment of serfdom in Russia. The Livonian War ended in complete failure and the loss of the original Russian lands. Ivan the Terrible could see the objective results of his reign already during his lifetime: it was the failure of all domestic and foreign policy endeavors. Since 1578 the king stopped executing. Almost at the same time, he ordered that synodics (memorial lists) be compiled for those executed and contributions sent to the monasteries for the commemoration of their souls; in his will of 1579 he repented of his deeds.
Sons and wives of Ivan the Terrible
Periods of repentance and prayer were followed by terrible fits of rage. During one of these attacks on November 9, 1582, in the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, a country residence, the tsar accidentally killed his son Ivan Ivanovich, hitting him in the temple with a staff with an iron tip. The death of the heir plunged the tsar into despair, since his other son, Fyodor Ivanovich, was unable to rule the country. Ivan the Terrible sent a large contribution to the monastery to commemorate the soul of his son; he even thought about leaving for the monastery. The exact number of wives of Ivan the Terrible is unknown, but he was probably married seven times. Not counting the children who died in infancy, he had three sons. From his first marriage to Anastasia Zakharyina-Yuryeva, who was his beloved wife, three sons were born, Dmitry, Ivan and Fedor. Tsarevich Dmitry Sr. was born immediately after the capture of Kazan (1552). Ivan the Terrible, who vowed to make a pilgrimage to the Cyril Monastery on Beloozero in case of victory, took a newborn baby on the trip. Relatives of Tsarevich Dmitry on his mother's side, the Romanov boyars, accompanied Grozny and during the days of the journey they vigilantly monitored the strict observance of the ceremony, which emphasized their high position at court. Wherever the nanny appeared with the prince in her arms, she was invariably supported by the arms of two Romanov boyars. The royal family traveled on pilgrimage in plows. The boyars once happened to step together with their nurse onto the shaky gangplank of a plow. Everyone immediately fell into the water. For adults, swimming in the river did not cause any harm. The baby Dmitry choked and it was not possible to pump him out. The second wife was the daughter of the Kabardian prince Maria Temryukovna. The third is Marfa Sobakina, who died unexpectedly three weeks after the wedding. According to church rules, it was forbidden to marry more than three times. In May 1572, a church council was convened to permit a fourth marriage - with Anna Koltovskaya. But that same year she was tonsured a nun. The fifth wife was Anna Vasilchikova in 1575, who died in 1579, the sixth was probably Vasilisa Melentyeva. The last marriage took place in the fall of 1580 with Maria Naga. On November 19, 1582, the tsar’s third son, Dmitry Ivanovich, was born, who died in 1591 in Uglich.
The legacy of Ivan the Terrible
Ivan IV went down in history not only as a tyrant. He was one of the most educated people of his time, possessed a phenomenal memory and theological erudition. He is the author of numerous messages (including to Andrey Kurbsky), music and text of the service for the feast of Our Lady of Vladimir, canon to Archangel Michael. The Tsar contributed to the organization of book printing in Moscow and the construction of St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square to commemorate the conquest of the Kazan kingdom.
Material from the site
FROM ANCIENT Rus' TO THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE
IVAN IV VASILIEVICH the Terrible (number 20) From the family of Moscow Grand Dukes. Son of Vasily III Ivanovich and Prince. Elena Vasilievna Glinskaya. Genus. Aug 25 1530 Vel. book Moscow in 1534 - 1547 it. from 16 Liv. 1547 to March 18, 1584 Tsar of All Rus'. J.: 1) from February 3. 1547 Anastasia Romanovna Yuryeva-Zakharyina (+ August 7, 1560); 2) from August 21 1561 Maria Temryukovna, prince. Cherkasy (+ 1 Sep. 1569); 3) from 28 Oct. 1571 Marfa Vasilievna Sobakina (+ November 14, 1571); 4) from 29 anr. 1572 Anna Alekseevna Kolotovskaya (+ April 5, 1626); 5) from Sept. 1580 Maria Fedorovna Nagaya (+ after Oct. 20, 1610). + March 18, 1584 *** Ivan IV, later nicknamed the Terrible, was born when his father, Grand Duke Vasily III, was already over fifty. He was an ardently desired child, whose birth was eagerly awaited by his parents and the whole country. Four years earlier, Vasily, who had gone through the disappointment of his first fruitless marriage, married the young Lithuanian princess Elena Vasilievna Glinskaya. It seemed that now the birth of an heir was guaranteed, but for more than three years Elena, contrary to the hopes of her husband and the people, had no children. She traveled with the Grand Duke to Pereyaslavl, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Vologda, and Beloozero; I went on foot to holy monasteries and deserts, gave out rich alms, prayed with tears for childbearing, but all without success. Some regretted it, others, condemning Vasily’s second marriage, gloated and said that God would never bless him with the desired fruit. And finally Elena found herself pregnant. Some holy fool, named Domitian, announced to her that she would be the mother of Titus, a broad-minded man, and on August 25, 1530, at 7 o’clock in the morning, a son, Ivan, was actually born. They write that at that very moment the earth and sky shook from unheard-of thunderclaps, which followed one after another with terrible continuous lightning. But this was perceived by parents and contemporaries as a good omen. All cities, even the most remote ones, sent ambassadors to Moscow with congratulations. Vasily III, not knowing how to express his joy, distributed huge sums to the monasteries and people, ordered all the dungeons to be opened, removed disgrace from many noble people and finally allowed his younger brother Prince Andrei to marry. *** Much to the misfortune of Russia and Ivan himself, Vasily did not live long after this joyful event. He died in 1534, and power passed to Princess Elena Glinskaya. In 1538, she died suddenly, poisoned, as is commonly believed, by seditious boyars. Thus, at the age of seven, Ivan was left an orphan, in the hands of the boyars, who cared about anything, but not about the upbringing of the future sovereign. Ivan himself later, in a letter to Kurbsky, spoke about the impressions of his childhood: “After the death of my mother, Elena, my brother George and I were left orphans; our subjects got their wish, found a kingdom without a ruler: they did not care about us, their sovereigns. ", began to worry only about acquiring wealth and fame, began to quarrel with each other. And how much evil they did! How many boyars and governors, well-wishers of our father, they killed! The courtyards, villages and estates of our uncles took over and settled in them! The treasury of our mother They carried it to a large treasury, and furiously kicked it and stabbed it with knitting needles, and took some of it for themselves.” The Shuiskys became the leaders of the boyars. Little Ivan retained the most painful memories of this time. In a letter to Kurbsky, he wrote: “My brother Georgy and I began to be raised as foreigners or as beggars. We suffered no shortage of clothing and food. We had no will for anything, nothing was done to us as we should be treated.” with the children. I remember one thing: it used to be that we were playing, and Prince Ivan Vasilyevich Shuisky was sitting on a bench, leaning his elbow on our father’s bed, with his leg resting on it. What can I say about the parents’ treasury? Everything was plundered with a crafty intent, as if the boyars’ children were getting a salary, but Meanwhile, they took everything for themselves; from the treasury of our father and grandfather they forged themselves gold and silver vessels, wrote the names of their parents on them, as if it were inherited property... Then they attacked the cities and villages and without mercy plundered the inhabitants, and which they brought dirty tricks on their neighbors and it is impossible to count them; they made all their subordinates their slaves, and made their slaves nobles; they thought that they were ruling and building, but instead there were only lies and disorder everywhere, they took immeasurable bribes from everywhere, everyone spoke and did according to bribe." However, Ivan Shuisky himself soon had to leave the court due to illness. His relative Andrei Mikhailovich Shuisky came to power, under whom licentiousness and anarchy reached their greatest strength. A man of little intelligence and completely short-sighted, he seemed to be doing everything on purpose to tease the growing Ivan. At the same time, they indulged all his base passions. According to Kurbsky, Ivan was raised by great and proud boyars to their own and their children’s misfortune, trying to please each other in all pleasure and voluptuousness. When he was about twelve years old, he began first of all to shed the blood of dumb animals, throwing them to the ground from high towers, and the nurturers allowed him to do this and even praised him, teaching the boy to spend their food. On December 29, 1543, Ivan ordered Andrei Shuisky himself to be captured and given to the hounds; The hounds killed the hated boyar on the way to prison. Ivan showed his character for the first time and received the nickname Grozny. From then on, the chronicler says, the boyars began to have fear and obedience to the sovereign. Ivan’s closest advisers were his uncles, Mikhail and Yuri Glinsky. Together with them, Ivan indulged in all sorts of riotous entertainment: for example, he gathered a crowd of noble youth around him and rode on horseback through the streets and squares, beat, robbed the men and women he met, and truly, according to Kurbsky, practiced the most criminal deeds. And the caresses only said to this: “Oh! This king will be brave and courageous.” The same violence and impatience are visible in the decisions of the young sovereign. First of all, disgrace overtook the Shuisky supporters. Prince Fyodor Shuisky-Skopin, Prince Yuri Temkin and Foma Golovin were exiled, the noble boyar Ivan Kubensky was sent to prison, Afanasy Buturlina, accused of impudent words, had his tongue cut out. Then Ivan fell into disgrace with Prince Pyotr Shuisky-Gorbaty, Dmitry Paletsky and his former favorite Fyodor Vorontsov. They were forgiven at the request of the Metropolitan, but not for long. In May. In 1546, having received news of the invasion of the Crimean Khan, Ivan went with his army to Kolomna. One day, having gone for a walk in the countryside, Ivan was stopped by Novgorod squeakers, who began to hit him with their foreheads about something. He was not in the mood to listen to them and ordered them to be driven away. A fight broke out between the pishchalniks and the royal boyars; the Grand Duke had to make his way to the camp by a roundabout road. Now he was overcome by suspicion: he ordered to find out at whose orders the squeakers dared to do this. The boy Vasily Zakharov informed him that the pishchalniks were trained by the boyars, Prince Kubensky and two Vorontsovs, Fyodor and Vasily Mikhailovich. Ivan, in great rage, ordered their execution. All three had their heads cut off. Kurbsky dates other executions to the same times. In the seventeenth year of his life, on December 13, 1546, Ivan announced to the Metropolitan that he wanted to get married. The next day, the Metropolitan served a prayer service in the Assumption Cathedral, invited all the boyars, even the disgraced ones, and went with everyone to the Grand Duke. Ivan said to Macarius: “At first I thought of marrying in foreign states with some king or tsar; But then I abandoned this thought, I don’t want to marry in foreign states, because after my father and mother I remained small; if I bring myself a wife from foreign land and we do not agree in morals, then there will be a bad life between us; therefore, I want to marry in my state, with whom God will bless with your blessing." Metropolitan and boyars, says the chronicler; They cried with joy, seeing that the sovereign was so young, and yet did not consult with anyone. But young Ivan immediately surprised them with another speech. “With the blessing of the Metropolitan’s father and with your boyar council, I want, before my marriage, to look for the ancestral ranks, as our ancestors, kings and great princes, and our relative Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh sat down for the kingdom and the great reign; and I also want to fulfill this rank for the kingdom, to sit down on a great reign." The boyars were delighted, although - as can be seen from Kurbsky's letters - some were not very happy that the sixteen-year-old Grand Duke wished to accept the title that neither his father nor his grandfather dared to accept - the title of Tsar. On January 16, 1547, the royal wedding took place , similar to the wedding of Dmitry the grandson under Ivan III. Anastasia, the daughter of the deceased okolnik Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin-Koshkin, was chosen as the bride for the Tsar. Contemporaries, depicting the properties of Anastasia, attribute to her all the feminine virtues for which they only found names in the Russian language: chastity, humility , piety, sensitivity, kindness, not to mention beauty, combined with a solid mind. The union with such a woman, if it did not immediately soften the tsar’s violent character, then prepared his further transformation. A wedding was celebrated on February 3. And on June 21, an unprecedentedly strong fire broke out , which had never happened in Moscow before. A rumor spread that Moscow burned down thanks to magic. Sorcerers, at the behest of the Glinskys, allegedly took out human hearts, soaked them in water, and sprinkled this water along the streets. Yuri Glinsky was killed by the mob right in the Assumption Cathedral. A crowd of rabble came to the Tsar's palace in the village of Vorobyovo, shouting for the Tsar to hand over to them his grandmother Anna Glinskaya and his uncle, Prince Mikhail, who allegedly hid in his chambers. Ivan ordered the screamers to be seized and executed; The rest were overcome with fear and fled. But from that time on, Glinsky completely lost his influence on the tsar. They were replaced by the priest of the Annunciation Cathedral, Sylvester, and the royal lieutenant, Alexei Fedorovich Adashev. Contemporaries attributed this change to the shock experienced by the Tsar during the uprising. Kurbsky wrote that at that moment Ivan was completely at a loss and that Sylvester suddenly appeared before him and in a passionate speech vividly outlined to Ivan the sad state of Moscow life, pointed out the reason for it - the vices of the Tsar himself, threatened future Divine punishments and thus produced a strong moral in Ivan coup. Perhaps Kurbsky's testimony is an exaggeration, but there is no doubt that Sylvester and Adashev appeared next to the tsar immediately after the rebellion. Grozny had a nervous and impressionable character. In love and hate, he knew no restraint, often fell under the strong influence of those close to him and began to look at life through their eyes. Sylvester's influence was generally beneficial. Gradually, an enlightened circle formed around the young tsar, which Kurbsky called the “Chosen Rada.” In addition to Sylvester, Adashev, Prince Andrei Kurbsky, it included princes Vorotynsky, Odoevsky, Serebryany, Gorbaty, Sheremetyev and others. The first big undertaking of Ivan’s independent kingdom was the Kazan campaigns. At the end of 1547, Ivan set out on a campaign against Kazan for the first time: in December he went to Vladimir, ordering guns to be led there. In February 1548, the army left Nizhny, but was forced to return due to the early onset of spring. Ivan returned to Moscow, as the chronicler says, in great tears, saddened by the fact that God did not vouchsafe him to complete the campaign. In November 1549, Ivan set out on a second campaign and this time, in February 1550, he reached Kazan itself. But the attack failed. Many people on both sides were beaten, and then a thaw came, strong winds blew, and rain began to pour. After standing for two days near the city, Ivan was forced to return, but preliminary success was still achieved; By order of the tsar, the city of Sviyazhsk was founded at the mouth of the Sviyaga River. After this, the entire mountainous side fell away from Kazan: the Cheremis, Chuvash, and Mordvins beat the sovereign with their foreheads, and Ivan accepted them into Russian citizenship. This was the first step towards the complete conquest of the Volga region, but for the final triumph of Moscow some more time had to pass. Ivan turned to internal affairs for now. *** Under the influence of his surroundings, in 1550 he decided to take a new step in Russian history - the convening of the first Zemsky Sobor. “In the twentieth year of his age,” says the Degree Book, “seeing the state in great melancholy and sadness from the violence of the strong and from untruths, the king intended to bring everyone into love. After consulting with the Metropolitan on how to destroy sedition, ruin untruths, satisfy enmity, he called to assemble his state from cities of all ranks." When the elected officials gathered, Ivan went out on Sunday with a cross to the Place of Execution and... after the prayer service he began to say to the metropolitan: “I pray to you, holy master! Be my helper and champion of love. I know that you desire good deeds and love. You yourself know that I remained four years after my father, and eight years after my mother; my relatives did not care about me, and my strong boyars and nobles did not care about me and were autocratic, they stole dignity and honors for themselves in my name and practiced themselves in many selfish thefts and troubles. It was as if I was deaf and did not hear, and did not have reproach in my mouth due to my youth and helplessness, but they ruled." And, turning to the boyars present in the square, Ivan threw at them passionate words: "O unrighteous covetous and predators and Unrighteous judges! What answer will you give us now that many have brought tears upon themselves? I am pure from this blood, expect your reward." Then, bowing on all sides, the king continued: "People of God and given to us by God! I pray for your faith in God and love for us. Now we cannot correct your previous troubles, ruins and taxes due to my long minority, the emptiness and lies of my boyars and authorities, the recklessness of the unrighteous, covetousness and love of money. I beg you, leave each other enmity and burdens, except perhaps for very big matters: in these matters and in new ones, I myself will be your judge and defense, as much as possible, I will ruin untruths and return what was stolen." On the same day, Ivan granted Adashev in okolnichy and at the same time said to him: “Alexey! I instruct you to accept petitions from the poor and offended and analyze them carefully. Do not be afraid of the strong and glorious, who steal honors and brutalize the poor and weak with their violence; do not look at the false tears of the poor, who slander the rich, who want to be right with false tears, but consider everything carefully and bring the truth to us, fearing the judgment of God; elect righteous judges from the boyars and nobles." There is no other news about the first Zemsky Sobor, but from a number of indirect signs one can see that the matter was not limited to one speech of the tsar, but many practical issues were raised. The tsar ordered the boyars to make peace with all Christians kingdom. And indeed, soon after this, an order was given to all feeding governors to quickly put an end to all disputes with the zemstvo societies regarding feeding in a peaceful manner. At the Council of the Stoglavy in 1551, Ivan said that the previous council had given him the blessing to correct the old Code of Law of 1497 and to establish elders and kissers throughout all the lands of their state.This means that the Zemsky Sobor of 1550 discussed a whole series of legislative measures aimed at restructuring local government. This plan began with the urgent elimination of all litigation between the zemstvo and the feeding officers, continued with the revision of the Code of Law with the mandatory universal introduction of elected elders and kissers into the court, and ended with the granting of statutory charters that generally abolished feeding. As a result of these measures, local communities were supposed to free themselves from the petty tutelage of boyar-governors, collect taxes themselves and administer justice themselves. It is known that feeding, unjust trials and uncontrolled collection of taxes became the real scourge of Russian life by the middle of the 16th century. I inform all sources of this time about the numerous abuses of boyar-governors in the performance of their duties. By abolishing feeding and creating independent communal courts, Ivan tried to destroy the evil that had taken deep roots in Russian society. All these measures were fully consistent with the tsar’s new state of mind and stemmed from his speech delivered to all the people in 1550. However, the charters, which gave the volosts the right to be governed by both elected authorities, were paid off. The volost paid off the governors with a certain sum, which we contributed to the treasury; the government gave her the right to pay off as a result of her request; if she did not strike with her brow and considered the new order of things unprofitable for herself, then she remained with the old one. The following year, 1551, a large church council, usually called Stoglav, was convened to organize church administration and the religious and moral life of the people. Here the new Code of Laws was presented, which was a corrected and distributed edition of the old grandfather’s Code of Laws of 1497. *** While the Tsar was busy with internal problems, the need for the Kazan War finally became ripe. Previously, there was a fairly strong Russian party in Kazan, with the help of which the Moscow princes more than once installed kings they liked here. But the fall of the mountain side and the construction of Sviyazhsk united all the dissatisfied. The final break followed in March 1552. The Kazan people began to be sent with mountain people, and they, having tasted Russian power, became agitated and went over to the side of Kazan. Ten thousand Nogais and the Astrakhan prince Ediger Magmet, whom the Kazan people installed as king, came to the aid of the Tatars there. On June 16, 1552, Ivan set out on his third Kazan campaign, not yet knowing for sure who he would have to fight with first - everyone was waiting for the arrival of the Crimeans. Indeed, on June 22, the Crimean Khan approached Tula, approached it all day, but, having learned that Ivan with the entire Russian army was standing on the Oka, he hastily left for the steppe. Having happily got rid of this enemy, Ivan continued his campaign and on August 13 came to Sviyazhsk. The voivode, Prince Mikulinsky, had already defeated the inhabitants of the mountainous side by this time and brought them back under the rule of Moscow. On August 18, the army crossed the Volga, and on the 23rd they approached Kazan. Ivan had 150 thousand troops and 150 guns with him. Kazan, protected only by wooden walls, was defended by 30,000 Tatars. Both of them were very determined. Ivan declared his firm intention to spend the winter near Kazan; I traveled around the city day and night, looking at places where it would be more convenient to make fortifications. The siege work went on non-stop: they set up tours and supplied them with cannons; Where it was impossible to place tours, they placed tyn there, so that Kazan was surrounded on all sides by Russian fortifications. The Kazan people constantly made forays, fought desperately, but each time the Russians drove them back into the city. Many people died in the city from the continuous firing throughout the city; The archers and Cossacks, dug in in ditches in front of the tours, with well-aimed shots prevented the Kazan people from climbing the walls. On August 31, Ivan called a German engineer skilled in destroying cities and ordered him to dig under the wall. Another tunnel was led under the hiding place, along which the besieged went for water. On September 4, the second tunnel was completed. Ivan ordered 11 barrels of gunpowder to be placed under the cache and exploded. Part of the wall flew into the air, many Kazan residents in the city were beaten by stones and logs falling from a great height. The Russians took advantage of this, broke into the city and beat and captured many Tatars. Meanwhile, another part of the Russian army moved the tours close to the ditch. Skirmishes and attacks continued continuously day and night. The besieged took refuge under tarasami (earthen fortifications), and their fire caused great damage to the Russian army. Ivan ordered to dig under the Taras, blow them up and then move the tours to the very gates. On September 30, the Taras flew into the air together with the people; the logs killed many people in the city, the rest remained inactive for a long time. Taking advantage of this, the Russians established tours against all the gates, and the regiment of Prince Mikhail Vorotynsky took the Arched Tower in battle. But the other regiments were not ready for the assault, and by order of the king, the soldiers were forcibly taken out of the city. On October 1, the cannons incessantly hit the walls and in many places destroyed them to the ground. The remains of the wall were demolished by a powerful explosion that occurred on the morning of October 2. After this, the Russians launched an assault. A terrible battle began at the gates and on the walls. The Tatars offered desperate resistance; For several hours the Russians could not take a single step forward, despite the fact that the Tsar rode up to the very walls of the city and encouraged them. Finally, the Russians burst into the city over the roofs of houses. The hottest battle broke out near the mosque. Seeing their defeat, 6,000 Tatars tried to break out of the city, but were almost completely exterminated. Only a few managed to reach the forest. In Kazan, not a single one of the defenders remained alive, because Ivan ordered all the armed men to be beaten, and only women and children to be taken prisoner. The tsar gave all the treasures taken in Kazan, as well as all the captives, to the army, and took for himself only Tsar Ediger, banners and city cannons. The news of the Kazan victory made an indelible impression on his contemporaries. Since the time of Dmitry Donskoy, Russian weapons have not achieved a more glorious victory. The very thought that after so many years of yoke, the Tatar kingdom had finally fallen, filled all hearts with stormy jubilation. Along the entire return route from Nizhny to Moscow, the Tsar was greeted by crowds of people shouting. For three days after returning to Moscow, from November 8 to 10, there was a feast in the royal palace; During this time, Ivan distributed gifts worth 48,000 rubles. *** There is no doubt that 1552 was the finest hour of Ivan’s entire reign. If he had died this year, after a brilliant victory, in the midst of important reforms, posterity would have had a completely different memory of this complex and controversial man. But he ruled for another thirty years and with many dark deeds almost eclipsed all the bright memories of the first years of his reign. The discord between Ivan and his entourage first emerged in 1553. This year, Ivan fell ill with a fever and, having recovered from his delirium, ordered a will to be written, in which he declared his son Dmitry, born the previous year, as heir. But when the boyars were gathered in the royal dining room to take the oath, many refused to take the oath. Alexei Adashev’s father boldly told the sick sovereign: “We are glad to obey you and your son, but we don’t want to serve the Zakharyins, who will rule the state in the name of the baby, and we have already experienced what boyar rule means.” The dispute between the boyars was heated. Among those “who did not want to take the oath was the sovereign’s cousin, Vladimir Andreevich Staritsky. And this subsequently gave the tsar a reason to interpret that the boyars’ refusal to take the oath was due to the secret intention of elevating Vladimir Andreevich to the throne after his death. The dispute about the oath lasted the whole day and was not resolved. Finally, all the boyars, one after another, swore allegiance, Vladimir Andreevich too. It is difficult to decide: whether some really had the intention of elevating Vladimir to the throne in the event of the death of the Tsar, or whether the stubbornness of the boyars came from dislike for the Zakharyins, from fear of falling under their power, and the boyars were only looking for a means in the event of Ivan’s death to arrange things in such a way as to prevent domination to his suryas. It seemed very suspicious to everyone that while the tsar lay dying, Vladimir Andreevich was distributing salaries to his boyar children and delayed until the last minute in taking the oath. The boyars who did not like him began to suspect him and did not even allow him to see the sick sovereign. Sylvester stood up for Vladimir, and Ivan really didn’t like it. He did not clearly show his displeasure, but there is no doubt that after this Sylvester lost much of his influence. In general, from everything that is known about this man, we can conclude that Sylvester was a well-intentioned and strictly pious husband, but prone to trifles and obsessive. Having undertaken to control the conscience and moral behavior of the young king, he, apparently, often took the wrong tone, went into unnecessary details, allowed himself to insist, and more than once forced the king to change his decision. Yielding to him at first, Ivan. Over time, he began to get irritated and burdened by this guardianship. Later, Grozny wrote to Kurbsky about Sylvester and Adashev: “They took away from us the power given to us from our ancestors to elevate you, boyars, according to our will, but they put everything under their and your power; as you liked, so it was done; you established friendship with each other , in order to contain everything in their will; they did not ask us about anything, as if we did not exist in the world; every arrangement and approval was carried out according to the will of them and their advisers. It happened that if we advised something good, then they consider it useless, but they themselves will invent something inconvenient and depraved, so everything is fine with them! In all small and insignificant things, before putting on shoes and before sleeping, I had no will, but everything was done according to their will. What is unreasonable here if we did not want to remain in infancy, being in perfect reason? Having freed himself from a fatal illness, Ivan decided to make a pilgrimage to the Kirillov Belozersky Monastery. Many important events are also associated with this trip. Ivan’s first son, baby Dmitry, died dearly. In the Trinity Monastery, Ivan met with Maxim the Greek, and in Dmitrov, in the Pesnoshsky Monastery, with another prisoner, Vassian Toporkov, the former bishop of Kolomna. Ivan, remembering that Toporkov was his father’s favorite, went to his cell and asked: “How should I reign in order to keep my nobles in obedience?” Vassian, according to Kurbsky, whispered the following answer in his ear: “If you want to be an autocrat, do not keep with you a single adviser who would be smarter than you, because you are better than everyone; if you do this, you will be strong in the kingdom and "You will have everything in your hands. If you have people smarter than yourself with you, then of necessity you will be obedient to them." Ivan kissed his hand and said: “If my father were alive, then he would not have given me such last advice!” Kurbsky says that all the trouble came from Toporkov’s satanic syllogism, that is, a change in Ivan’s behavior, but this is hardly true. The chronicler indicates the beginning of troubles in the events that occurred during Ivan’s illness, and it is unlikely that Ivan found anything new for himself in Toporkov’s words. Reading his late correspondence with Kurbsky, one can see that from childhood Ivan confirmed his favorite biblical texts and historical examples, and they all boiled down to one thing - they all talked about royal power and its Divine origin, about state order, about relations with advisers and subjects , about the disastrous consequences of discord and anarchy. Ivan the Terrible was the first of the Moscow sovereigns to see and vividly feel the king in himself in the true biblical sense, as God’s anointed. But this idea did not manifest itself to him right away: he doubted his abilities, suffered from self-abasement, gave himself up to voluntary submission to his advisers, as if sacrificing him, and at the same time saw that they were taking on a more and more authoritative tone over him, using him , and at the same time they are ready to sell it. He did not become autocratic until he was completely disillusioned with people, and in this sense, Toporkov’s words, which coincided with his own innermost thoughts, should have been of great importance. The destructive struggle of passions in Ivan’s soul had already begun, but its consequences appeared later. In 1556, the Moscow army captured Astrakhan. The entire territory of the Astrakhan Khanate and the Volga steppes right up to the Caspian Sea were annexed to Russia. The Kazan and Astrakhan wars inevitably led to a war with the Crimea, and meanwhile a new war was breaking out in the west, which gradually attracted all the forces of Russia. In 1553, the 50-year truce with Livonia ended, one of the conditions of which was the payment of tribute from Dorpat (Yuryev). Under Vasily III and during Ivan’s childhood, this tribute was not paid by the knights, and so, in 1554, the Livonian ambassadors came to Moscow to renew the treaty. Ivan the Terrible ordered to remember her and collect arrears for 50 years. The ambassadors promised to repay the debt within three years. In 1557, the arrears were never paid, and from that year the Livonian War began. The success that accompanied the Russians at its beginning exceeded all expectations. In May 1558, Narva was taken. Next month - Neuhaus. In July Dorpat capitulated, seduced by the favorable conditions offered to him by the Russian governors. By the fall, more than 20 cities had transferred to Russian citizenship. Some Revel residents continued to defend themselves and in 1559 turned to the Danish king with a request to accept them as his citizenship. The Livonian master Ketler followed their example and in the fall of 1559 entered into an alliance with the Polish king Sigismund Augustus. The Livonians gave 9 volosts to Poland on the condition that the king would assist them against Russia. By 1560, it became clear that instead of weak Livonia, Russia would face a war with Denmark, Poland, and possibly Sweden. The tsar's break with Sylvester and Adashev dates back to this time. Already before, Ivan had acted autocratically on many occasions, contrary to Sylvester’s advice. He convinced the tsar to continue the war in the east and crown his actions with the conquest of Crimea. Ivan turned instead to the Baltic states. Throughout the Livonian War, Sylvester was its fierce opponent and, in his quest to stop the Tsar, could not restrain himself. “Whether I, or the queen, or the children get sick,” Grozny later wrote to Kurbsky, “all this, according to you, was God’s punishment for our disobedience to you.” For Ivan, whose age was already approaching 30 years, Sylvester’s reproaches became completely unbearable, and it was not difficult for the enemies to completely quarrel between them. The break took place in the fall of 1559 during the return of the Tsar with the sick Tsarina Anastasia from Mozhaisk to Moscow. His circumstances are dark and unclear. Ivan, in a letter to Kurbsky, talks about them in passing. It is only obvious that this time Sylvester and Adashev had a clash with Anastasia herself. “For one small word of hers, she appeared displeasing to them,” wrote Grozny, “for one small word of hers they became angry.” What is hidden behind this phrase is unknown, but in the spring of 1560 we already see Adashev in honorable exile with the army leaving for Livonia. At the same time, Sylvester voluntarily retired to the Kirillov Belozersky Monastery. Reconciliation with them was still possible, if not for a fatal circumstance: in August 1560, Ivan’s beloved wife Anastasia Romanovna died, and with her death those who did not love her during her lifetime became completely hated. The enemies, among whom the Shurya of Tsar Zakharya played a prominent role, hastened to finally destroy their former favorites. In the same year, a trial took place over Adashev and Sylvester, who were accused indiscriminately, without even being summoned to Moscow for justification. Kurbsky says that they were accused of poisoning Anastasia, but this is hardly true. Grozny himself does not mention a word about this, but only says: “Having discovered the treason of the dog Alexei Adashev and all his advisers, we punished them mercifully: we did not execute anyone with the death penalty, but sent them to different places. Pop Sylvester, seeing his advisers in disgrace, left of his own free will, and we let him go, not because we were ashamed of him, but because we did not want to judge him here: I want to judge him in eternal life, before the lamb of God; and his son is still in prosperity, only He doesn’t see our faces.” Sylvester went to a monastery in Solovki, and nothing is known about his further fate. Adashev was imprisoned in Dorpat, where he died two months later from fever. Ivan dealt much more harshly with Adashev’s relatives and friends. In 1561, Alexei Adashev's brother, Danilo, with his 12-year-old son, his father-in-law Turov, three brothers of Alexei's wife, Satin, Adashev's relative, Ivan Shishkin, with his wife and children, and some noble widow Maria, a friend of Adashev, with five were executed. sons. *** The “chosen council” has come to an end. The tsar's favorites were boyar Alexei Basmanov, his son Fyodor, Prince Afanasy Vyazemsky, Vasily Gryaznoy and Chudov Archimandrite Levkiy. Ivan's lifestyle also changed dramatically. Just eight days after Anastasia’s death, the tsar announced that he intended to marry a second time and began to woo the sister of the Polish king. Ivan suddenly discovered a love for feasts and fun, which at first was of a completely decent nature. But gradually the new favorites took on their tone more and more, the fun turned into riotousness, the antics became obscene. An indispensable condition was to get drunk to the point of insensibility; those who drank little had wine poured on their heads. The most unbridled debauchery soon became commonplace. They even suspected that Ivan was indulging in sodomy with Fyodor Basmanov. One of the boyars, Dmitry Ovchina-Obolensky, reproached his favorite: “I and my ancestors have always served the sovereign with benefit,” he said, “and you serve with vile sodomy.” Basmanov complained to the tsar. Ivan affectionately invited Ovchina to the table and handed him a large cup of wine with the order to drink it in one gulp. Sheepskin couldn't drink even half of it. “That’s it,” said Ivan, “you wish well for your sovereign! If you don’t want to drink, go to the cellar, there are various drinks there, and you’ll drink to my health there.” Ovchina was taken to the cellar and strangled there, and the king, as if knowing nothing, sent the next day to Ovchina’s house to invite him to his place and was amused by the answer of his wife, who, not knowing what had happened to her husband, answered that he was still Yesterday I went to see the Emperor. This is Guagnini's story. Kurbsky writes that Ovchina was stabbed to death. Another boyar, Mikhail Repnin, a sedate man, did not allow the tsar to put on a jester's mask while the drunken Ivan was having fun with his favorites. The Tsar ordered him to be thrown out, and some time later he was killed (according to Kurbsky, right in the church). That same night, boyar Yuri Kashin, who was going to church for matins, was killed. (Kurbsky writes that he was also stabbed to death on the church porch.) Exiles and executions gradually befell all the boyars from the former Adashev circle. Dmitry Kurlyatev, along with his wife and children, was exiled to the Kargopol Chelm Monastery (in 1563). After some time, the king remembered him and ordered to kill him and his entire family. The hero of the Kazan campaign, Prince Mikhail Vorotynsky, with his wife, son and daughter, was exiled to Beloozero. But Ivan was more merciful to him, ordered him to be kept well and subsequently released him. Since the marriage with Sigismund's sister failed, Ivan began to look for a bride in other places. He was informed that one of the most noble Circassian princes, Temryuk, had a beautiful daughter. Ivan ordered to bring her to Moscow. He liked the girl, she was baptized, named Maria, and on August 21, 1561, Ivan married her. According to contemporaries, just like Anastasia, Maria had a great influence on the king, but in a completely different way. By nature, endowed with a wild disposition and a cruel soul, she further incited hatred and suspicion in the heart of the king. Her brother Mikhail, unbridled and depraved, became Ivan’s new favorite. *** Meanwhile, the Livonian War continued. In 1560 Fellin was taken. In the same year, the Bishop of Ezel sold his possessions to Denmark. In 1561, the Revelians ceded themselves to Sweden, and Livonian Master Ketler swore allegiance to Poland. According to the terms of the agreement, the Order was liquidated, Ketler married and received the title of Duke of Courland. Sigismund-August began to demand from Ivan that he withdraw his troops from Livonia, to which he, of course, could not agree. In September 1561, the Russians defeated the Lithuanians in front of Pernau and ravaged Tarvast. At the beginning of 1563, Ivan himself, with a large army and artillery, moved to the Lithuanian border. The goal of the campaign was Polotsk. On January 31, the city was besieged, on February 7, the fort was taken, and on February 15, after 300 fathoms of the wall were burned, the city surrendered. Ivan entered the fortress, proclaimed himself Prince of Polotsk and mercifully released the Poles, numbering five hundred people with their wives and children, giving them sable fur coats, but robbed the Polotsk governor and bishop and sent them to Moscow as prisoners along with other Lithuanians. The king ordered all the Jews and their families to be drowned in the river, and the Bernardine monks to be killed. All Latin churches were destroyed. The Tsar returned to Moscow as solemnly as from near Kazan. The war continued, but now it was going slowly. Internal affairs began to occupy Ivan much more. The tsar's suspicion of his boyars increased every year and eventually turned into some kind of manic illness. Records were taken from many boyars in which they promised not to move to Lithuania or other states. Others had to vouch for doubtful persons, and third parties had to vouch for the guarantors themselves. Each escape resulted in execution and disgrace for the traitor’s loved ones. Despite such measures, escapes continued. But most of all, the flight of Prince Kurbsky affected Ivan. This boyar, one of the most talented and influential members of the Adashev circle, commanding an army in Livonia at the end of 1563, fled from Dorpat to Volmar, then occupied by the Lithuanians, and went over to the side of King Sigismund, who received him kindly, gave him the estate of Kovel and other estates. Kurbsky was one of the most educated, well-read people of his time, not inferior in this regard to Ivan himself. Having fled, Kurbsky entered into a verbal duel with Ivan, sending him his Message. Ivan, by nature, could not resist answering. Correspondence began. It is precious for history because it reveals the connection between many historical phenomena. It is difficult to say for sure whether the introduction of the oprichnina was a consequence of Kurbsky’s betrayal. Rather, it became the result of the tsar’s long and painful thoughts about the same old subjects: about the exclusive, Divine nature of his power and about the corruption of the crafty boyars. In everything that Ivan did after 1564, it is difficult to see a definite meaning, but the sophisticated work of a sick thought and a sick soul is visible. Perhaps Grozny thought through his actions for a long time, but he did it alone, without consulting anyone, so that for everyone around them they were a complete surprise. This continued on - everyone saw what the king was doing, but few understood what goal he was pursuing. It seems that he took this secret with him. Outwardly, everything looked like this. At the end of 1564, the tsar ordered the gathering of nobles, children of boyars and clerks from the cities to Moscow, choosing them by name; was supposed to arrive with their wives and children. A rumor spread that the king was going to go to an unknown destination. Ivan announced to those around him: he became aware that many do not tolerate him, do not want him and his heirs to reign, and are plotting against his life; therefore he intends to abdicate the throne and transfer the government of the whole earth. They say that with these words Ivan laid down his crown, staff and royal clothes. The next day, icons were brought to Ivan from all the churches and monasteries. Ivan the Terrible bowed before them, kissed them, took a blessing from the spiritual, and then spent several days and nights visiting churches. Finally, on December 3, many sleighs arrived in the Kremlin; They began to take out all sorts of valuables from the palace and put them away: icons, crosses, clothes, and loaded the entire treasury. All nobles and boyar children who arrived from the cities were ordered to get ready for the journey with the tsar. Some of the Moscow boyars and nobles were chosen to accompany the Tsar, also with their wives and children. Mass was ordered to be celebrated for Metropolitan Athanasius in the Assumption Cathedral. Having served the liturgy in the presence of all the boyars, the tsar accepted the blessing of the metropolitan and allowed the boyars to kiss his hand; then he sat down in the sleigh with the queen and two sons. His favorites went with him: Alexey Basmanov, Mikhaile Saltykov, Prince Afanasy Vyazemsky, Ivan Chobotov, selected clerks and courtiers. An armed crowd of elected nobles and boyar children accompanied them. Everyone in Moscow was perplexed. Neither the metropolitan nor the saints, who then gathered in the capital, dared to ask the tsar for an explanation. Due to the thaw, the tsar stayed for two weeks in the village of Kolomenskoye, then moved with the entire baggage train to the village of Taininskoye, and from there, through the Trinity Monastery, he arrived in Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda. On January 3, Konstantin Polivanov came from him to the capital with a letter to the metropolitan. Ivan declared that he had laid his wrath on his pilgrims, archbishops, bishops and all the clergy, on the boyars, okolnichy, butler, treasurer, equerry, clerks, boyar children, clerks; he recalled what abuses, embezzlement of the treasury and losses they caused to the state during his childhood; he complained that the boyars and the governor took away the sovereign’s lands for themselves, their relatives and friends, accumulated great wealth for themselves, estates, estates, did not care about the sovereign and the state, oppressed Christians , run away from service, and when the tsar, it was said in the letter, wants to punish his boyars, nobles, servants and clerks, archbishops and bishops stand up for the guilty; they, together with the boyars, nobles and officials, cover them before the sovereign. Therefore, the sovereign, out of great pity, no longer wants to tolerate their treacherous deeds and went to settle where the Lord God would instruct him. The messenger brought another letter from the tsar to the guests, merchants and all the Moscow people. In it, the sovereign wrote so that the Moscow people would not doubt at all: the tsar had neither anger nor disgrace against them. When these letters were read, sobs and cries were heard between the boyars and the people. Everyone began to beg the metropolitan and bishops to go to the settlement and beat the sovereign with their foreheads so that he would not leave the state. At the same time, ordinary people shouted for the sovereign to return to the kingdom to defend them from wolves and predatory people, but they did not stand for the state traitors and scoundrels and would destroy them themselves. The clergy and boyars appeared in the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda and announced to Ivan a general decision, a common prayer: let him rule as he pleases, if only he would return the rule to his own hands again. Ivan accepted their petition with the idea that he should put disgrace on all traitors and disobedient people, take their property into the treasury and establish an oprichnina for himself in his state: make the courtyard and all his daily life special; boyars, okolnichi, butlers, treasurers, clerks, all sorts of clerks, nobles, boyar children, stewards, solicitors and tenants to appoint special ones; in the courtyards - Sytny, Kormovy and Khlebny - appoint special key keepers; Finally, appoint special archers for yourself. Cities and volosts were designated, from which the income went to the sovereign's use; from these same incomes came the salaries of the boyars, nobles and all kinds of courtyard people who would be in the oprichnina. Ivan announced his desire to gather 1000 princes, nobles and children of boyars, courtyards and policemen and distribute to them estates in those cities that were taken into the oprichnina, and patrimonial landowners and landowners who were not in the oprichnina were to be removed from these cities and given land to them in other cities. Also in “Moscow itself” some streets and settlements were taken into the oprichnina, and only those boyars, nobles and clerks who were selected for the oprichnina were allowed to live in them, and the former inhabitants were assigned to move to Other streets. The Moscow State, the army, the court, the council and all kinds of zemstvo affairs were ordered by Grozny to be in charge of his boyars, Prince Ivan Volsky and Prince Ivan Mstislavsky, as well as the rest, whom he ordered to be in the zemshchina. He ordered the clerks to follow their orders and conduct business the old way. For his rise, Ivan sentenced him to take 100,000 rubles from the zemstvo order; and which boyars, governors and officials deserve the death penalty or disgrace for great treason, their property will be confiscated to the treasury. On February 2, the Tsar arrived in Moscow and appeared before the clergy, boyars, nobles and officials. They barely recognized him: he had grown old, his gaze became restless and darting, almost all the hair on his head and beard had come out; Obviously, the king spent two months of absence in a terrible state of mind, not knowing how his undertaking would end. The next day, Prince Alexander Gorbaty and his son Peter, two Khovrins, Prince Sukhoi-Kashin, Prince Dmitry Shevyrev and Prince Peter Gorensky were captured and executed for their previous crimes. The establishment of the oprichnina began. First of all, Ivan himself, as the first guardsman, hastened to leave the ceremonial, decorous order of the sovereign's life established by his father and grandfather, left his hereditary Kremlin "door, moved to a new fortified courtyard, which he ordered to build for himself somewhere among, his oprichnina between Arbat and Nikitskaya, at the same time ordered his oprichnina boyars and nobles to set up courtyards for themselves in the Alexandrovskaya Sloboda, where they were to live, and also to build government buildings intended to manage the oprichnina. Soon he himself settled there, and began to move to Moscow come "not for a great time." The Tsar settled in the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, in a palace surrounded by a rampart and a moat. No one dared to either leave or enter without Ivan's knowledge: for this purpose, military guards were stationed three miles from the settlement. Ivan lived here surrounded by his Favorites recruited nobles and boyar children into the oprichnina, and instead of 1,000 people, there were soon up to 6,000 of them. They were given estates and estates, taken away from the previous owners, who had to endure ruin and move from their ashes. Not only their lands were taken from them, but even their houses and all movable property; It happened that in winter they were sent on foot to empty lands. There were more than 12,000 families of such unfortunates; many died along the way. The new landowners, relying on the special mercy of the king, carried out arbitrariness over the peasants living on their land, and soon brought them into such a beggarly situation that it seemed as if the enemy had visited these lands. The oprichniki gave the tsar a special oath, by which they obliged not only to report everything that they heard bad about the tsar, but not to have any friendly communication, not to eat or drink with the zemstvo people. They were even charged, as the chroniclers say, to rape, put to death zemstvo people and plunder their houses. Foreign contemporaries write that the symbol of the guardsmen was the image of a dog's head and a broom as a sign that they bite like dogs, protecting the royal health, and sweeping out all the bad guys. Ivan started a kind of monastery in his Alexandrovskaya Sloboda, selected 300 guardsmen, put black robes on them over caftans embroidered with gold, and tafyas, or hats, on their heads; he called himself abbot, appointed Vyazemsky as a cellarer, Malyuta Skuratov as a sexton, he himself composed a monastic charter for the brethren, and he and his sons personally went to ring the bell tower. At twelve o'clock at night everyone had to get up and go to a long midnight owl. At four o'clock in the morning every day, at the royal bell, all the brethren gathered for matins for the divine service. It lasted from four to seven o'clock in the morning. Ivan the Terrible himself bowed so diligently that bumps formed on his forehead. At eight o'clock they went to mass. All the brethren dined in the refectory. Ivan, as abbot, did not sit at the table with them, read in front of everyone the life of the saint, whose memory was celebrated on that day, and dined alone afterwards. Everyone ate and drank to their fill. Often after dinner, Ivan went to torture and torment the disgraced. Contemporaries say that he constantly laughed wildly, looking at the torment of his victims. At the appointed time, Vespers was served, then the brethren gathered for the evening meal, Compline was served, and the king went to bed. Guagnini conveys the dark rumors that circulated about the king’s debauchery; they said that the guardsmen kidnapped girls and married women for him, and the husband should still rejoice if his wife was returned alive. They said that, having taken the wife of one clerk and learning that he took it as an insult, Ivan the Terrible ordered the raped woman to be hanged over the threshold of his house. Another clerk had his wife hanged right above his table. The ways in which Ivan dealt with unwanted boyars speak of his sick and perverted mind. The Terrible accused his old equerry Chelyadin of wanting to overthrow him from the throne and become king himself. Ivan called the groom to himself, ordered him to dress in royal attire, seated him on the throne, he himself began to bow to him on the ground and say: “Hello, sovereign of all Rus'! Now you have received what you wanted; I myself made you sovereign, but I I have the power to overthrow you from the throne." With these words, he plunged a knife into the boyar’s heart and ordered his body to be thrown to the dogs. Then his elderly wife was killed. Without stopping there, Ivan ordered the torture of many noble persons accused of complicity with the equerry. Then Prince Ivan Kurakin and Prince Dmitry Ryapolovsky were executed. Prince Semyon of Rostov, who was a governor in Nizhny Novgorod, was beheaded by guardsmen on the banks of the Volga, and his corpse was drowned in the river. At the same time, two more princes of Rostov were executed - Vasily and Andrei. The famous commander Prince Pyotr Shchenyatev thought of taking refuge from death in a monastery. The guardsmen took him to his cell - they set him on fire in a frying pan, pushed needles under his nails and eventually killed him. The guardsmen cut the sovereign's treasurer Tyutin into pieces along with his wife, two infant sons and two daughters. This execution was carried out by the queen's brother, Mikhail Cherkassky. Many were killed without any trial in broad daylight. Every day, five or six corpses were found on the streets of Moscow. By order of the tsar, the guardsmen also grabbed the wives of disgraced people, raped them, broke into estates, burned houses, tortured and killed peasants, stripped girls naked and, in mockery, forced them to catch chickens, and then shot at them. Many women took their own lives out of shame. Zemshchina was like a foreign conquered country, given over to the tyranny of the conquerors. At this time, Ivan the Terrible had to come into conflict with the spiritual authorities. In 1566, Metropolitan Afanasy retired to the Chudov Monastery. A new one had to be elected. Then the tsar proposed Abbot Philip to be the metropolitan of Solovetsky. The clergy and boyars unanimously said that there was no more worthy person. Having become a metropolitan, Philip was not afraid to raise his voice against the oprichnina and began to reproach the tsar for his crimes every now and then. This drove Ivan into a frantic rage. In 1568, Philip was deposed, accused of many sins, among other things, magic, and imprisoned in the monastery of St. Nicholas the Old. To further annoy the prisoner, Ivan ordered his nephew’s head to be cut off, sewed into a leather bag and brought to Philip. At the beginning of 1569, after the trial of Filipp, Ivan committed suicide with his cousin Vladimir Andreevich Staritsky. The tsar lured him and his wife to the Alexandrovskaya Sloboda and killed both of them. Following this, Vladimir’s mother, nun Evdokia, was drowned in Sheksna near the Goritsky Monastery. The same fate befell nun Juliania, the widow of Ivanov’s brother, Yuri, some nun Maria, also of noble family, and with them twelve people. In September 1569, the tsar's second wife, Maria Temryukovna, suddenly died. A rumor was immediately spread that she had been poisoned. Ivan was the first, it seems, to believe in him, and from that time on he began to seriously fear for his life. He wrote to Queen Elizabeth of England that traitors were conspiring against him, conspiring with neighbors hostile to him, and wanting to exterminate him and his entire family. Ivan asked to be given asylum in England. Elizabeth replied that the Moscow Tsar could come to England and live there as long as he wanted on his own support, observing the rituals of the Orthodox Church. But Grozny had something completely different on his mind. In the summer of 1569, a certain Peter, a native of Volyn, came to the king and reported that the Novgorodians wanted to surrender to the Polish king, that they had already written a letter about this and placed it in the St. Sophia Cathedral behind the image of the Mother of God. Ivan sent a trusted man to Novgorod together with the Volynian, who actually found the document behind the icon and brought it to the king. The signatures - of Archbishop Pimen and other leading citizens - turned out to be genuine. They say that this Peter, a tramp, punished by the Novgorodians, out of a desire to take revenge on them, himself composed a letter and signed with unusual skill for the archbishop and other townspeople. In Novgorod they waited with fear for punishment; everyone knew how terrible the king was in anger, but what happened exceeded the darkest expectations. In December 1569, Ivan set out on a campaign to the north. With him were all the guardsmen and many boyar children. The pogrom began from the border of the Tver possessions. The guardsmen burst into Klin and killed many people here indiscriminately. On the way to Tver, the tsar sent Malyuta Skuratov to the Tver Otroch monastery, where the deposed Metropolitan Philip was imprisoned; Malyuta strangled the old man with his own hands. Approaching Tver, the king ordered it to be surrounded on all sides and himself settled in one of the nearby monasteries. On the first day, the guardsmen robbed all the clergy, starting with the bishop. Then, two days later, they broke into the city again, began breaking into houses, breaking all kinds of household utensils, cutting down gates, doors, windows, taking all kinds of household supplies and merchant goods - wax, flax, leather, etc., putting them in heaps and burning them. On the fifth day it reached the residents themselves. The guardsmen began to beat everyone: men, women, babies; they burned some with fire, tore others with pincers, and threw the corpses of the dead into the Volga. The Polotsk prisoners and Germans taken out of Livonia were dragged ashore, in the presence of the Tsar, they were cut into pieces and thrown onto the ice. The same thing happened in Torzhok. Ivan’s memorial records 1,490 Orthodox Christians killed there. In addition to them, they killed all the captured Germans and Crimean Tatars held in the towers. From Torzhok Ivan went to Vyshny Volochek, Valdai, Yazhelbitsy. On both sides of the road, the guardsmen scattered to the villages, killing people and destroying their houses. Even before Ivan arrived in Novgorod, his advanced regiment arrived there. By order of the king, they immediately surrounded the city on all sides so that no one could escape from it. Then they seized the clergy from the surrounding monasteries and churches, shackled them in irons and put them in Gorodishche for justice; Every day they beat them on the right, demanding 20 Novgorod rubles from each, as if for a ransom, which lasted for five days. The nobles and children of the boyars, belonging to the oprichnina, called the most notable residents and merchants, as well as officials, to Detinets, chained them and handed them over to the bailiffs, and sealed their houses and property. This was done in early January 1570. On January 6, Friday, in the evening, Grozny arrived in Gorodishche with the rest of the army and 150 () Moscow archers. The next day, the order was given to kill, with clubs to death, all the abbots and monks who stood on the right, and to take their bodies to cemeteries, each to his own monastery. On January 8, Sunday, the king made it known that he would come to St. Sophia for mass. Archbishop Pimen with the entire cathedral, with crosses and icons, met him on the Volkhov Bridge. But the king did not kiss the cross, but said: “You, evildoer, are holding in your hand not a life-giving cross, but a weapon, and with this weapon you want to wound our heart.” And without approaching the cross, he ordered mass to be served to the archbishop. After serving mass, Gryazny and all his people went to the dining room, but had barely sat down at the table and tasted the food when he suddenly screamed. It was a conventional sign. The guardsmen seized Archbishop Pimen and rushed to plunder his lord's treasury. The butler Saltykov and the royal confessor Eustathius with the royal boyars took possession of the sacristy of the Church of St. Sophia, and from here they went to all the monasteries and churches to take away the church treasury and utensils for the benefit of the king. Ivan himself went to Gorodishche and there began a trial of those Novgorodians who had been taken into custody before his arrival. These were the lordly boyars, Novgorod boyar children, elected city officials and clerks, and the most distinguished merchants. Their wives and children were brought with them. Having gathered this entire crowd in front of him, Ivan ordered his boyar children to undress them and torment them with “inscrutable,” as a contemporary says, torments, among other things, to set them on fire with some composition he invented, which he called “fire.” Then he ordered the exhausted, scorched people to be tied to the back of the sleigh, quickly led to Novgorod, dragged along the frozen ground, and thrown into Volkhov from the bridge. Their wives and children were carried behind them; women had their arms and legs tied back, babies were tied to them and thrown into the Volkhov in this form; The king's servants rode along the river with hooks and axes and finished off those who surfaced. This was done every day for five weeks. After the trial and reprisal ended, Ivan began traveling around Novgorod to monasteries and... there he ordered the plunder of cells and service houses, the burning of bread in granaries and stacks, and the slaughter of cattle. Returning from the monasteries, he ordered to rob goods and destroy barns and shops throughout Novgorod, in shopping arcades and streets. Then he began to travel through the suburbs, ordered to rob all the houses, all residents without exception, men and women, break courtyards and mansions, cut out windows and gates. At the same time, armed crowds were sent in all four directions, to the Novgorod Pyatina, to the camps and volosts, 200 and 250 miles away, with orders to devastate and plunder everywhere. This whole debacle lasted six weeks. Finally, on the morning of February 13, Grozny ordered the best person to be selected from each street and placed in front of him. They stood before him in awe, exhausted, sad, like the dead. But the king looked at them with a merciful and meek eye and said: “Residents of Veliky Novgorod who are still alive! Pray to the Lord God, His Most Pure Mother and all the saints for our pious royal state, for my faithful children, princes Ivan and Fyodor... and "God judges. To my and your common traitor, Vladyka Pimen, to his evil advisers and like-minded people: all this blood will be exacted from them." On the same day, Ivan left Novgorod on the road to Pskov; Vladyka Pimen and noble Novgorodians, whose case had not yet been decided, were sent to Alexandrovskaya Sloboda. The number of exterminated inhabitants was given different names by contemporaries. In Ivan’s memorial, 1,505 people from Novgorod are silently recorded. Guagnini shows the number 2770, except for women and common people. But the Novgorod “story” says that the tsar drowned 1000 people a day and on rare occasions 500. Taube and Kruse put the total number of victims up to 15,000 people, Kurbsky even more. The consequences of the pogrom affected Novgorod for a long time. The destruction of grain reserves and livestock caused terrible famine and disease not only in the city, but also in its environs; it got to the point where people were eating each other and tearing the dead out of their graves. Throughout the summer of 1570, they brought the dead in heaps to the Church of the Nativity in Pole and buried them along with the bodies of those who had drowned and those who had floated to the surface. The Pskov Chronicle brings the total number of deaths to 60,000. From Novgorod, Ivan went to Pskov. Pskovites confessed, took communion and prepared for death. When Ivan the Terrible entered the city, all the residents greeted him with bread and salt and, seeing the king, fell on their faces. But they say that the holy fool Nikola had the greatest effect on the Tsar. Instead of bread and salt, he brought Ivan a piece of raw meat. “I’m a Christian and I don’t eat meat during Lent,” said Ivan. “You’re doing worse,” Nikola answered him, “you eat human flesh.” According to other news, the holy fool predicted trouble for him if he began to rage in Pskov, and after that Ivan’s favorite horse died. This had such an effect on the king that he did not execute anyone, but only plundered the townspeople and churches. Upon returning to Moscow, the search for the Novgorod case continued. A certain Fyodor Lovchikov reported on the royal favorite, Prince Afanasy Vyazemsky, that he was in a secret relationship with Archbishop Pimen. Previously, Ivan trusted Vyazemsky so much that he agreed to take medicine only from his hands. Now Ivan summoned him to his place, spoke to him very kindly, and at this time the royal people killed all the servants in Vyazemsky’s house. Vyazemsky returned home, not knowing anything, but, seeing the corpses of his servants, he realized that his fall from grace was inevitable. A few days later he was captured and subjected to painful torture, from which he died. Vyazemsky’s sister, who was behind the treasurer Funikov, was stripped naked in front of her daughter, put astride a rope stretched between two walls, and dragged several times from one end to the other. After this she was sent to a monastery. but she could not bear the torture and died. Many people were involved in the investigation, including the Tsar’s former favorites. They captured both Basmanovs, father and son, Duma clerk Viskovaty, treasurer Funikov, Prince Serebryany, Pleshcheev, Prince Ivan Vorontsov and others of lower rank - about 300 people in total, tortured them all and sentenced them to death. On the day of execution, July 25, Grozny pardoned 180 of them and executed the rest in a painful manner. Guagnini says that for each condemned person the king came up with his own special execution. For example, Viskovaty was hung up by his legs and cut into pieces like a meat carcass; Funikov was doused with boiling and ice water alternately, causing his skin to peel off like an eel. The next day, the wives of those executed were drowned, many of whom were raped before death. They said about the Basmanovs that, on the tsar’s order, Fyodor himself killed his father. Meanwhile, the success that accompanied Ivan in external enterprises gradually began to betray him. The spring of 1571 passed in anxiety - they were waiting for the arrival of the Crimeans. Zemstvo governors with 50 thousand troops stood on the Oka. The Tsar himself marched to Serpukhov with an army of guardsmen. But the khan bypassed all the outposts and unexpectedly appeared behind the Oka with an army of 120,000. Ivan fled from Serpukhov to Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, from there to Rostov, leaving Moscow to the mercy of fate. On May 24, the Tatars approached the capital and set fire to the suburbs. A strong wind quickly spread the fire. In one day, the entire city burned down with the exception of the Kremlin. The number of dead residents is impossible to determine, but it reached several hundred thousand, since many people from the surrounding area fled to Moscow. Up to 150,000 Tatars were taken into captivity. The terrible disaster did not prevent the king from fulfilling his long-standing desire - to acquire a third wife. The search for the bride was carried out in the same way as the first time. From all the cities, brides were brought to the settlement, both noble and ignorant, numbering more than two thousand: each was presented to him especially. First he chose 24, and then 12, which were to be examined by the doctor and grandmothers. Ivan the Terrible compared them for a long time, and finally chose Marfa Vasilyevna Sobakina, the daughter of a Novgorod merchant, whom he immediately made a boyar. But the royal bride suddenly fell ill, began to lose weight and dry out. It was immediately announced that she had been spoiled by villains, haters of Ivanov’s family well-being. Suspicion fell primarily on the relatives of the first two queens. They grabbed me and put me on. the stake of the brother of the second queen Mikhail Temryukovich, one of the most bloodthirsty guardsmen, Yakovlev and Saburov were whipped to death. Ivan exterminated some suspicious ones with the help of poisons that Elisha Bomelius prepared for him. Then the former favorite of Grozny, Vasily Gryaznoy, Prince Ivan Gvozdev-Rostovsky and some others were poisoned. On October 28, 1571, the king married Martha, and on November 13 she died. At the beginning of 1572, Ivan convened a church council and began to seek the right to marry for the fourth time, since his third wife had died before her virginity was resolved. Novgorod Archbishop Leonid, who presided over the council, found it possible to respect the king’s request, although the fourth marriage was prohibited by church statutes. In April, Grozny married Anna Alekseevna Koltovskaya. In the summer, the Crimean Khan appeared within Russian borders for the second time, but was repulsed with great damage by Prince Mikhail Vorotynsky on the bank of Lopasnya. In general, they began to pay more attention to the southern borders, they formed a guard and stanitsa service here from the children of boyars, Cossacks and archers, and founded the towns of Venev, Epifan, Chern, Dankov, Ryazhsk, Volkhov, Orel, which were supposed to restrain the movement of the Tatars. During the Khan's campaign, Ivan was in Novgorod. Having returned, he, according to Fletcher, abolished the very word oprichnina, which from that time on is no longer used. Zemstvo began to be called state, guardsmen began to be called simply courtyards, as well as lands, regions and cities assigned to the court. The hated symbols of the oprichnina and the black suits of the oprichnina themselves have disappeared. Since this year, some weakening of the terror has also been seen, although it was still far from ending. At the end of 1572, Ivan went on a campaign to Estonia and besieged Wittenstein. During the assault, the tsar's favorite Malyuta Skuratov, the only one of the former guardsmen who was still alive, died. Ivan, in revenge, burned all the Swedes and German prisoners at the stake, and Skuratov was buried with great pomp in the Volotsk Monastery. Grozny's family life with his new wife did not work out. Already in 1573, he began to clearly neglect her, and three years later he sent her to a monastery. In November, the Tsar brought Princess Marya Dolgorukaya closer to him, but she turned out to be not a girl. The next day, the king ordered her to be put in a rattletrap, harnessed to wild horses and sent to the pond in which the unfortunate woman died. “This pond,” notes Horsey, “was a real Gehenna, a vale of death, similar to the one in which human sacrifices were made; many victims were drowned in this pond; the fish in it ate human flesh in abundance and turned out to be extremely tasty and suitable for the royal table ". In subsequent years, Ivan had two more mistresses - Anna Vasilchikova, who was eventually executed, and Vasilisa Melentyeva, whom he imprisoned in a monastery out of jealousy. Another innovation appeared in internal management. In 1574, Ivan fell into disgrace with Prince Miloslavsky. The chronicle reports that this year “the tsar executed many boyars, Archimandrite Chudovsky, archpriest and all sorts of ranks of people in Moscow, at the Most Pure Church, on the square in the Kremlin, and threw their heads into Mstislavsky’s courtyard. In the same year, Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich put the tsar on Moscow Simeon Bekbulatovich (baptized Tatar, Kasimov Khan. - K.R.) and crowned him with the royal crown, and he called himself Ivan of Moscow and left the city, lived on Petrovka; he gave all his royal rank to Simeon, and he rode simply like a boyar , in shafts, and when he comes to Tsar Simeon, he sits down from the royal place in the distance, together with the boyars." Some historians are trying to find some meaning in this “trick of Ivan the Terrible.” For example, they say that it was at this time that he actively proposed his candidacy for the Polish king in place of the deceased Sigismund-Augustus and, for the sake of appearance, abdicated the Russian throne. But it is obvious that this self-denial could not deceive anyone. Foreign contemporaries treated Simeon's coronation as another of Ivan's quirks or simple buffoonery. For two years, Grozny himself diligently pretended that he was an ordinary private person, and wrote petitions to Simeon with deliberate self-deprecation: “Ivanets Vasilyev beats the Sovereign Grand Duke Simeon Bekbulatovich with his children.” In 1576, the performance ended: Ivan returned to the throne, and Simeon was sent to reign in Tver. Meanwhile, the Livonian War began to take an increasingly menacing turn for Russia. Sigismund Augustus died in 1572. The Jagiellon family ended with him, and the lords had to choose a new king. As already mentioned, Ivan the Terrible tried to take the Polish throne into his own hands. The Lithuanians, most of whom were Orthodox, were not averse to receiving the king from Moscow, but they did not want Ivan, but his son Fedor. Ivan the Terrible hesitated for a long time, and the matter ended in nothing. In 1574, Henry of Valois ruled Poland for some time. But when the French throne became vacant, he immediately left for Paris. After this, the anti-Russian party gained the upper hand in Krakow, and Prince Stefan Batory was elected king in April 1576. Having received the crown, he promised that he would take away from Russia all the lands captured in the last war. Active hostilities resumed. In January 1577, the Russians retreated from Revel with damage. In the summer, the tsar himself set out on a campaign from Novgorod, but instead of going to Revel, as they thought, he headed for Polish Livonia. One after another, several cities were taken, and in Wenden, which offered stubborn resistance, Russian military men, on the orders of the tsar, raped all the women and girls. Upon returning to Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, Grozny executed some governors. The reason for a new series of executions was a denunciation of the old prince Mikhail Vorotynsky, the hero of the Kazan campaign and the winner of the Crimean Khan. He was accused of witchcraft and connections with sorcerers. After severe torture, Vorotynsky was sent into exile to Beloozero, but he died on the way. At the same time, Prince Nikita Odoevsky, Prince Pyotr Kurakin, boyar Ivan Buturlin, several okolnichy and others were executed. Among the dead were the uncle and brother of one of the former queens, Marfa Sobakina. Prince Boris Tulupov was impaled, and his mother was tortured before his eyes. Somewhat later, Ivan the Terrible’s former favorite, the adventurer Elisha Bomelius, was tortured. After the tsar left, the Swedes attacked Narva, and the Poles appeared in southern Livonia and took one city after another here. In 1578, the Russians suffered a serious defeat at Wenden. In August 1579, Batory himself came with a mercenary army near Polotsk and, after a short siege, took it. At the same time, the Swedes captured Karelia and Izhora land. In September 1580, Batory took Velikiye Luki. Velizh, Nevel, Ozerishche, Zavolosye, Toropets were captured. The Swedes took Wesenberg. Moscow did not immediately learn about the defeat. Just in October there were two weddings here at once. The Terrible married for the fifth time the daughter of Fyodor the Nagoy, Maria, and his son. Fedora married Irina Godunova. (Her brother, Boris Godunov, was made a boyar and from that time on became a person close to the tsar.) When news arrived about the heavy defeats of the Russian army, Ivan was seriously alarmed and sent ambassadors to Poland with peace proposals. Batory did not agree to peace. In 1581 he approached Pskov. The Swedes, in turn, took Narva, Yam and Koporye. Almost all Livonian cities were taken from the Russians. But there weren’t enough enemies for more. The long-term war, which had exhausted the strength of all three states, was finally about to end. Peace negotiations began. *** Failing in foreign affairs, Grozny experienced a strong personal shock in November 1581 - the death of his eldest son Ivan. The king's unbridled rage was to blame for everything. According to the testimony of Anthony Possevin, Ivan found his daughter-in-law Elena lying on a bench in only her underwear. In anger, he hit her on the cheek and then began to beat her with the rod. The princess, who was expecting a child, became sick from the beatings, and the next day she had a miscarriage. The offended prince came to his father with a reproach. In character, he was like his parent in everything: he was tough and unyielding. The conversation, apparently, resulted in a violent, ugly quarrel. “You,” said the prince, “have already taken away two wives from me, tonsured them into a monastery, you want to take away the third and have already killed my son in her womb.” Ivan the Terrible rushed at his son with his staff. Boris Godunov tried to hold him back, but was beaten himself. In a blinding rage, Ivan hit the prince in the head with a staff, and he fell unconscious, bleeding profusely. At that very second the king came to his senses, began to tear out his hair and call for help. Doctors were called in, but it was all in vain - the prince died on the fifth day and was buried on November 19 in the Archangel Cathedral. The king, despondent, said that he did not want to reign anymore, but would go to a monastery. He gathered the boyars, announced to them that his second son, Fedor, was not capable of ruling, and allowed the boyars to choose a king from among them. It is possible that this time he was sincere, but the boyars were afraid: the tsar might be testing them and whether he would then kill both the one they chose and those who would choose the new sovereign. The boyars begged Ivan not to go to the monastery, at least until the end of the war. Since then, the king suffered terribly for many days, did not sleep at night, tossed about as if in a fever. Finally, little by little, he began to calm down and began sending rich alms to the monasteries. Perhaps at this time some regret about what he had done awoke in him. At the very least, he vigorously recalls all those killed and tortured by him and writes their names in the synodnik. Three months after the murder, at the beginning of 1582, a truce was concluded with Poland. According to his condition. Grozny abandoned Livonia, returned Polotsk and Velizh, and Batory agreed to cede the Pskov suburbs he had taken and retreat from Pskov itself, which he never managed to capture. In May 1583, a truce was concluded with Sweden. In addition to Estonia, the Swedes retained the Russian cities of Yam and Koporye. Partly, the failures of the aggressive policy in the west were compensated by successes in the east, in the Urals and Siberia, where at that time Ermak inflicted a heavy defeat on the Siberian Khanate. A year before his death, despite the fact that Ivan already had a pregnant wife, he began wooing a relative of Elizabeth of England, Countess Maria Hastings. The nobleman Pisemsky, who was negotiating marriage in London, was ordered to say that although the king had a wife, she was not some kind of princess, but a simple subject, and for the sake of the royal niece she could be driven away. But it didn't work out. Meanwhile, at the beginning of 1584, the king developed an illness - some kind of internal rotting. His health was rapidly deteriorating. Not yet an old man, he soon began to look like a decrepit old man. His legs refused to serve him. The body was covered with fetid sores. He was carried in chairs. On March 17, he sat down to play chess with his last favorite, Prince Bogdan Belsky, but before he could start the games, he fell and died. He was buried in Moscow, in the Archangel Cathedral. All the monarchs of the world. Russia. 600 short biographies. Konstantin Ryzhov. Moscow, 1999
IVAN IV VASILIEVICH THE GROZNY (1530, Kolomenskoye village, near Moscow - 1584, Moscow) - leader. prince from 1533; Tsar since 1547. Son of Vasily III Ivanovich Elena Glinskaya. If the genealogical legend of the Glinskys is true, then I. IV was simultaneously a descendant of Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy and Khan Mamai. After the death of his father in 1533, three-year-old I. IV sat on the throne and all his life he was proud of the fact that he did not remember a time when he was not a monarch. In 1538, I. IV’s mother died. The boyar groups fighting for power made the young sovereign a witness to bloody beatings, arrests, and murders, while at the same time indulging his whims. The early awakening cruelty of I. IV manifested itself in the torture of animals, in the first death sentence, which he handed down at the age of 13, to the boyar A.M. Shuisky and many others. Since the late 40s. I. IV began to rule independently; in 1547 he took the royal title. Terrible car washes. fires, popular uprisings and increased robberies required urgent measures. A circle of assistants was formed around I. IV, later called the “Elected Rada” (i.e., the Council of the Elected), the leaders of which were A.F. Adashev, Sylvester, Makariy, I.M. Bukovamy et al. took an active part in reform activities aimed at strengthening the autocracy. The following orders were created: Ambassadorial, Petition, Local, Robber, etc., which made it possible to better manage certain sectors of the state. life. In 1550, a new set of laws appeared - the Code of Laws. Localism was limited. The adopted “Code of Service” regulated the order of military service of feudal lords and others. The Council of the Hundred Heads unified church rituals and raised the authority of the clergy. Reform activity was accompanied by a cultural upsurge: work began on the creation of the “Great Chetiya-Menya” (a collection of orthodox ancient Russian literature), printing appeared, chronicle collections were compiled, St. Basil's Cathedral was built, and much more. The successes of domestic policy made it possible to intensify foreign policy: in In 1552 the Kazan Khanate was captured, and in 1556 the Astrakhan Khanate was bloodlessly annexed. Around 1560 the "Elected Rada" was dissolved. The power-hungry I. IV, dissatisfied with the relatively slow results of structural reforms, began to rule autocratically. The successful start of the Livonian War (1558 - 1583) and the destruction of the Livonian Order could not be completed. I. IV, having lost enormous funds and a lot of people, not only did not gain access to the Baltic Sea, but also lost part of the original Russian. lands. In 1565 there was a sharp turn in his policy. Having gone on a pilgrimage to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, I. IV informed the Muscovites in letters that he “placed his anger” on the boyars, governors and clerks and, no longer wanting to “endure their many treasonous deeds, left his state” and left wherever he could see them. they look. At the same time, the sovereign assured the townspeople of Moscow that “there is no anger at them and no disgrace.” The people begged I. IV to return, agreeing to terror against the “sovereign villains and traitors.” Thus, the introduction of the “oprichnina” was announced. Having taken the richest lands as his inheritance and created an oprichnina army, he received 100 thousand rubles from the zemshchina for expenses (“for his rise”). (a village with several villages then cost 100 - 200 rubles) and began mass repressions and confiscations. Commander A.B. was executed. Gorbaty-Shuisky with his 17-year-old son, treasurer N. Funikov, chancellor I. Viskovaty and hundreds of innocent people. I. IV forced his potential rival Vladimir Andreevich Staritsky, his wife and daughter to take poison. Metropolitan Philip was deposed and killed. As a result of the six-week pogrom in Novgorod and Pskov, probably between 10 and 15 thousand people died. Oprichnina killings also took place in other cities. After the burning of Moscow by the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey and under the threat of a new attack, I. IV abandoned the oprichnina. Nicknamed the Terrible for his monstrous cruelty, I. IV achieved the strengthening of autocratic power through the destruction of many people and the terrible devastation of the central regions of Russia (“The Tsar perpetrated the oprichnina... And from this came the desolation of the great Russian land”). And this, in turn, played a decisive role in the establishment of serfdom. In order to keep the peasants looking for a way out of their desperate situation, St. George's Day was cancelled. Morbidly suspicious, superstitious, constantly afraid for his life, I. IV sometimes committed acts that were difficult to explain. So, in 1575 he transferred the royal title to Simeon Bekbulatovich, and called himself appanage Mosk. prince, a year later he again took the voluntarily abandoned throne. I. IV - a talented, bright, literary and deeply educated man - was unhappy in his personal life. He was married six times, which was incredible for medieval Rus'. Of the 5 sons and 3 daughters, only three survived: Fyodor, incapable of governing the country, young Dmitry and Ivan, similar in intelligence and cruelty to his father. I. IV, in anger, brutally beat his son Ivan, and after 10 days the prince died. Seriously ill (“the body is exhausted, the spirit is sick”), I. IV died before reaching the age of 54. There were rumors about his violent death. The personality of I. IV and his era have been studied by major Russian historians, and there is a huge literature about him. Book materials used: Shikman A.P. Figures of Russian history. Biographical reference book. Moscow, 1997
Works of Ivan IV:
Russian Historical Library. St. Petersburg, 1914. T. 31. Messages of Ivan the Terrible. M.; L., 1951. Correspondence of Ivan the Terrible with Andrei Kurbsky. L., 1979; Same. M., 1981.
Literature:
Zimin A. A. Oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible. M., 1964. Kobrin V. B. Ivan groznyj. M., 1989. Skrynnikov R. G. Reign of Terror. St. Petersburg, 1992. Skrynnikov R. G. The beginning of the oprichnina. L., 1966. Skrynnikov R. G. Correspondence between Grozny and Kurbsky. The paradoxes of Edward Keenan. L. 1973 READ HERE: Message from Ivan the Terrible to Vasily Gryazny(document). Soloviev S.M. "Training book on Russian history" chapter 27 Skrynnikov R.G. Kurbsky's escape.(article) Establishment of the oprichnina(according to the Nikon Chronicle). Andrey Kurbsky
The Grand Duke of “All Russian Land” from 1533, the first Russian Tsar from 1547, as well as a representative of the Rurik dynasty, having ascended to the ruling throne, immediately began the complete conquest of the Kazan Khanate. It worked only on the third attempt and Rus' gained control of the entire Volga region.
Important events of that period:
· In 1556, the Moscow army finally takes Astrakhan and the Volga steppes right up to the Caspian Sea are included in Russia.
· In 1549, the tsar convened the very first Zemsky Sobor in history, which was an estate-representative body entrusted with making the most important state decisions.
· In 1557, the so-called Livonian War began, in which at the first stage Grozny was clearly successful. Thus, Russian troops took Dorpat, Neuhausen, Narva and about twenty other cities. But after this, Russia faced military action with Sweden, Poland and Denmark.
After the death of his beloved wife, Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible experiences a breakdown in his psyche, leading him to manic illness, which was later expressed in various acts of an insane nature. For example, the greatest debauchery at the king’s court became commonplace.
· In 1564, Tsar Ivan suddenly left Moscow and settled in Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda. The clergy and boyars prayed for his return to rule the Russian state, and the tsar returned again on the condition that he take for himself the right to establish the oprichnina. Thus begins a difficult time for all of Russia.
More than six thousand boyars and nobles served in the royal oprichnina itself, to whom estates were distributed right and left, illegally taken away from their previous owners, who were representatives of the zemshchina. At the same time, the guardsmen reported to their king about everything that could and was happening in his environment. They were also allowed to put zemstvo people to death by robbing their houses. All enemies of Tsar Ivan the Terrible - imaginary and real - were persecuted and then executed. Sometimes entire cities became victims of the brutal repressions of the oprichnina.
· In 1572, the oprichnina was (officially) abolished, but the executions never stopped.
· In 1578, the Russian army suffered a great defeat near Wenden and the Poles managed to take many Russian cities. As a result of the ensuing peace negotiations, Grozny renounces Livonia.
When the king died, he left behind two heirs - Dimitri and Fedor, with whose deaths the Rurik dynasty ended.
Ivan IV Vasilyevich the Terrible (1530─1584) - Grand Duke of Moscow, first Tsar of Rus'. During his reign, a number of reforms were carried out in the judicial system, military service, and public administration, and the territory of Rus' almost doubled due to the conquest of the Astrakhan and Kazan Khanates, the annexation of Western Siberia, Bashkiria and the Don Army Region.
Childhood
Ivan Vasilyevich was born on August 25, 1530, this happened in the village of Kolomenskoye (in the Moscow region). His father, Vasily III, belonged to the Rurik dynasty (Moscow branch), his mother, Elena Glinskaya, was from the Lithuanian princes. Vasily III Elena was the second wife; for a long time she could not get pregnant. Many already considered the marriage barren, when the first son, Ivan, was born, named after John the Baptist. In honor of his birth, the Church of the Ascension of the Lord was founded in the village of Kolomenskoye. Later, Ivan the Terrible had a younger brother, Yuri.
According to the rules established in Rus', Ivan was the first heir to the throne: having reached adulthood, he could replace his father, but it so happened that he actually ascended the throne at the age of three.
Vasily III was overtaken by illness, followed by sudden death. Anticipating an imminent death, so that the state would not be left without governance, Vasily formed a boyar commission of 7 people. They were obliged to protect Ivan until he was 15 years old. In addition to his son, the next contenders for the throne were considered the younger brothers of Vasily III - princes Yuri Dmitrovsky and Andrei Staritsky.
Ivan the Terrible's childhood passed in an endless series of palace coups, intrigues constantly wove around him, and there was a struggle for power. It all started after the death of Vasily III. Ivan’s father died on December 3, 1533, and after 8 days, through the actions of the boyars, the throne was relieved of such a contender as Yuri Dmitrovsky.
When Ivan was 8 years old, his mother died; there is a version that she was also poisoned by the boyars. The heir's trustees believed that he was still just a child, did not understand anything, and did what they wanted: he and his brother were deprived of clothes and food, kept in poverty, and their friends were killed. This could not but affect the character of the future king. The boy grew up angry, aggressive and cruel, at an early age this manifested itself in bullying of animals, and later he would treat people the same way. He hated the whole world, and his main dream was power - complete and unrestricted by anyone, any moral laws became nothing for him compared to power.
At the same time, Ivan the Terrible spent a lot of time educating himself; he read a huge number of books, which made him one of the most literate rulers of that time.
Beginning of government and reform
In 1545, Ivan turned 15 years old, and he became the rightful ruler of all Rus'. The first days of his reign were marked by a number of reforms and changes. Although the Rada was elected, Rus' entered a period of complete autocracy.
In 1549, the first meeting of the Zemsky Sobor was held, in which all classes were represented, except peasants, and the result was the formation of an estate-representative monarchy.
In 1550, the tsar adopted a new code of law, which outlined the unit for levying taxes and limited the rights of peasants and slaves.
In 1551, the provincial reform began to take effect, which implied the redistribution of powers of volost governors in favor of the nobles. Selected nobles were given lands within 70 km of the Russian capital. At the same time, a foot rifle army with firearms was formed.
In the mid-1550s, Ivan the Terrible banned Jewish merchants from entering Russia.
In the early 1560s, a stable state seal appeared in Russia.
Wars and campaigns
Ivan the Terrible led three Kazan campaigns.
The first took place in the winter from 1547 to 1548. But then the thaw came too early, and a whole siege artillery ended up under the ice on the Volga near Nizhny Novgorod. The army that reached Kazan lasted only a week.
The second campaign lasted from the autumn of 1549 to the spring of 1550; during this period, Russian troops built the Sviyazhsk fortress, which they used as a stronghold during the next campaign.
The third time Ivan the Terrible led an army to Kazan in 1552, 150 thousand people and 150 cannons took part in this campaign. Russian governors captured Khan Ediger-Magmet and took Kazan by storm. This was a brilliant victory for Ivan the Terrible; it strengthened his power in his homeland and meant the greatest success of the Russian state on the world stage.
In 1554 and 1556, two campaigns were made against Astrakhan, as a result of which the Khanate of Astrakhan annexed Russia and Russian influence began to extend all the way to the Caucasus.
Through the waters of the Arctic Ocean and the White Sea, Rus' began to establish trade with England, which Sweden did not like very much, since its economy suffered significantly as a result. The Swedish king Gustav I Vasa tried to create an alliance against Russia, but without receiving support from anyone, he began to act independently.
It all started with the capture of Russian merchants in Swedish Stockholm. And in the early autumn of 1555, the Swedish army besieged the city of Oreshek and attempted to take Novgorod. But the Swedes were defeated by the Russian army, and then Gustav made a proposal for a truce, Ivan the Terrible accepted this proposal.
In 1558, Ivan the Terrible started the Livonian War to capture the Baltic coast. By 1560, the Livonian Order ceased to exist due to the complete defeat of its army.
But at that moment, disagreements began within Russia; many in the Elected Rada were dissatisfied with the actions of the tsar and demanded an end to the Livonian War. But the tsar did not want to listen, he was inspired by success; in 1563, Russian troops took Polotsk, the largest Lithuanian fortress. However, 1564 brought defeat to the Russian army and disappointment to Ivan the Terrible; he tried in vain to find those responsible, and a period of executions and disgrace began.
Oprichnina
In 1565, the beginning of the oprichnina was announced in Russia. The country was divided into two territories, the one that was not included in the oprichnina began to be called the zemshchina.
The guardsmen swore allegiance to the sovereign and promised not to communicate in any way with the zemstvo. They walked in black robes, like monks; those who had horses attached distinctive signs to their saddles - brooms and dog heads.
The tsar released the army of the guardsmen from responsibility; they were allowed to rob and kill those who did not agree with the ruler.
However, in 1571, when the Crimean Khan invaded Russian lands, the guardsmen turned out to be completely incapacitated and could not defend the state. The king spoiled them, and they simply did not go to war.
Then the sovereign decided to abolish the oprichnina, they stopped killing people. He even gave the order to compile lists of those killed so that their souls would be buried in monasteries.
The country's economy collapsed, Russia suffered a major loss in the Livonian War, and the tsar realized that he had made many unforgivable mistakes. He was overcome by fits of rage, and in one of them he accidentally became the killer of his own son, hitting the young man’s temple with the pointed end of his staff.
Having come to his senses, the tsar fell into despair, the eldest son Ivan Ivanovich was the only heir to the throne, the second child Fedor turned out to be incompetent. Ivan the Terrible even wanted to go to a monastery.
Personal life
Sovereign Ivan Vasilyevich was married 7 times.
Almost immediately after ascending the throne, he informed Metropolitan Macarius that he intended to get married. All over Rus' they began to look for a royal bride and, as was customary at that time, they organized a bridesmaid ceremony. He liked the daughter of the widow Zakharyina, Anastasia, who became his first wife. In February 1547, Ivan and Anastasia were married in the Church of Our Lady.
The marriage lasted 13 years, in 1560 Anastasia Romanovna died. The sovereign was extremely shocked by the death of his wife, and even, as noted by historians, the nature of his reign changed.
During the marriage, 6 children were born. The first girls, Anna and Maria, died in infancy. The third was the son Dmitry, who drowned while the royal family was descending from the plow (the gangplank overturned), and did not even live to be a year old. Of the subsequent children, two sons, Ivan and Fyodor, survived; another girl, Evdokia, died at the age of about three years.
A year passed after the death of Anastasia and Ivan the Terrible married a second time. His chosen one was Princess Kuchenei Maria Temryukovna, who belonged to the family of Kabardian and Cherkasy princes. In the first year of their marriage, Maria gave birth to a son, Vasily, but the baby died at the age of a month. The king’s interest in his wife quickly cooled; he was more attracted to “prodigal” girls, so he did not maintain marital relations with Mary, and no more children were born in the marriage. Maria died in 1569 at the age of 24.
A couple of years after the death of his second wife, Ivan the Terrible married for the third time the beautiful Marfa Vasilyevna Sobakina, whom he chose at a brideshow. However, the wedding feast ended in a funeral: two weeks after the wedding, the young wife died. Martha is considered the most famous royal bride, and not only due to her indescribable beauty and quick death. There is a version that the girl was poisoned with a poison of plant origin.
Church canons forbade marrying more than three times; in order for the tsar to marry for the fourth time, a special church council was convened, at which he explained that he did not even have time to touch his third wife, who suddenly died. The church made a decision to allow Ivan the Terrible subsequent marriages.
A year later, the tsar was legally married to Anna Alekseevna Koltovskaya, they lived for one year, there were no children. By his decision, Ivan the Terrible forcibly doomed his wife to monastic vows and assigned her to the Tikhvin Vvedensky Monastery, where she then lived for almost half a century.
The fifth wife, Maria Dolgorukaya, turned out to be non-virgin, and the sovereign drowned her in a pond immediately after their first wedding night.
The sixth wife, Anna Vasilchikova, was with Ivan the Terrible for a little less than a year; she also suffered the fate of monastic tonsure. The Tsar allegedly convicted her of treason and sent her to the Intercession Monastery in the city of Suzdal, where she soon died.
The last seventh legal marriage of Ivan Vasilyevich was with Maria Naga in 1580, she gave birth to his son Dmitry. The prince died at the age of 9; according to one version, he stabbed himself to death during an epileptic fit, according to another, he was poisoned. After the death of Ivan the Terrible, his last wife Maria was exiled to Uglich and forcibly tonsured a nun.
Death of a ruler
Over the last six years of his life, the king’s osteophytes progressed; because of them, he practically stopped moving independently; he was carried on a stretcher. After studying the remains of Ivan the Terrible, it was noted that such deposits are mainly observed in very old people, and the ruler was only 54 years old at the time of his death.
According to preserved documents and according to studies of Ivan Vasilyevich’s skull, after 50 years he already looked like a decrepit old man.
In the early spring of 1584, the king was still engaged in state affairs, but by mid-March things worsened, and he at times fell into unconsciousness.
On March 17, at about three o'clock in the afternoon, he went to the bathhouse prepared for him, where he washed himself with great pleasure. There they entertained him with songs, and after the bath he felt much better; they put a wide robe on him over his underwear and sat him down on the bed. He ordered chess to be served, Ivan Vasilyevich adored this game. He began to place the pieces, but at some point he could not put the chess king in its place. Ivan Vasilyevich fell.
Everyone was running around, some started serving vodka, some rose water. They urgently sent for the metropolitan, he soon appeared and performed the rite of tonsure. Doctors tried to rub the almost lifeless body. On March 18, 1584, Ivan the Terrible died in Moscow. He was buried next to the grave of the son he killed in the Archangel Cathedral.
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