Reigns of Ivan 4. Ivan the Terrible in popular culture

The biography of Ivan the Terrible still amazes many with its originality and significance. This is one of the most famous Grand Dukes of Moscow and All Russia today, who actually led the country for 37 years, with the exception of a short period when Simeon Bekbulatovich was the nominal tsar. The reign of Ivan the Terrible was remembered by many for the unreasonable cruelty with which he led his subordinates.

Prince's childhood

The hero of our article was born in 1530. Talking about the biography of Ivan the Terrible, one must begin with the fact that they began to consider him as a contender for the throne already at the age of three, when his father Vasily III became seriously ill.

Anticipating his imminent death, he formed a boyar commission to govern the state, the members of which were supposed to act as guardians. An interesting fact from the biography of Ivan the Terrible: he could become king only after the onset of 15 years.

power struggle

After the death of Vasily, everything was calm in the country for only about a year. In 1534, a series of reshuffles took place in the ruling circles. The influence was exerted by the fact that Prince Belsky and the devious Lyatsky went over to the service of the Lithuanian prince. Soon one of Ivan's guardians was arrested, who died in prison. Several more well-known boyars were arrested.

Ivan the Terrible became a full-fledged ruler only in 1545. In his memoirs, he described that one of his most vivid impressions of his youth was the so-called great fire in Moscow, when about 25 thousand houses were destroyed. Interesting facts from the life, biographies of Ivan the Terrible often amazed and surprised many. So, at the very beginning of his reign, he almost became a victim of an uprising. In 1547, the rebels killed one of the Glinskys, relatives of the Tsar's mother, and then came to the village of Vorobyevo, where the Grand Duke was hiding. With great difficulty the crowd managed to convince that the prince was not there.

An important event in the brief biography of Ivan the Terrible, which is given in this article, was the wedding.

Historians are still arguing who insisted on this rite. Some argue that he was beneficial to the relatives of the king, while others believe that Ivan showed a desire for power at a young age. Therefore, it was his personal decision, which came as a complete surprise to the boyars.

There is also a version that Metropolitan Macarius had a hand in the wedding, for whom it was beneficial to bring the church closer to the state. As a result, the solemn ceremony took place in January 1547. Macarius blessed Ivan for the kingdom.

Reforms in Russia

An important role in the biography of Ivan the Terrible is played by reforms, of which he carried out many. Basically, all of them were aimed at strengthening power, centralizing the state, as well as building relevant public institutions.

In Wikipedia, in the biography of Ivan the Terrible, interesting initiatives are often mentioned. In 1549, the first Zemsky Sobor was convened, in which all Russian classes took part, except for the peasantry. So the estate-representative monarchy officially took shape.

In 1550, a new code of laws came out, which established a single unit of taxation for all, the value of which depended on the social status of the owner and the fertility of the soil.

Then the lip and zemstvo reforms took place in the country, which radically redistributed the powers of the governors in the volosts. In 1550, a streltsy army appeared.

It was under Grozny that a system of orders was formed in the state. In the 1560s, the familiar reform of state sphragistics was carried out, which established the type of state seal. A rider appeared on the eagle's chest, which was taken from the coat of arms of the Rurikids. For the first time, the new seal was used on a treaty with the Kingdom of Denmark.

Military campaigns

The biography of Ivan the Terrible included a large number of military campaigns. From the beginning of the 16th century, the Kazan Khanate was constantly at war with Moscow Rus. During these years, about forty trips to Russian lands were made. Kostroma, Vladimir, Vologda, Murom suffered more than others.

Most historians believe that the first took place in 1545. In total, Ivan the Terrible, a brief biography confirms this, made three trips to Kazan. The first ended in failure when the siege artillery left due to an early thaw. Therefore, those troops that reached Kazan stood under the walls of the city for only a week.

It was not possible to take the city during the second campaign, which began after the death of Safa Giray. But the Russian army built the Sviyazhsk fortress, which for many years became a stronghold for the Russian army.

Finally, the third campaign ended in triumph. In October 1552, Kazan was taken. It was attended by about 150 thousand soldiers armed with 150 guns. The Kremlin of Kazan was taken as a result of the assault. Khan is captured. This victory meant an important foreign policy success of the king, and also contributed to the strengthening of his power within the state.

Prince Gorbaty-Shuisky was left as governor of Grozny in Kazan. After Ivan the 4th the Terrible, in a brief biography about this, took Kazan, he had ambitious plans to capture all of Siberia.

Trade links with England

But Russia had problems not only with the Kazan Khanate. Soon they had to wage war against Sweden. An interesting fact from the biography of Ivan the Terrible, Wikipedia tells about him, like this article, is the establishment of trade relations with England. It was possible to establish communication through the White Sea and the Arctic Ocean. Previously, trade routes lay through Sweden, so the Scandinavians were at a loss, having lost a large share of the profits they received for providing transit.

The beginning of the relationship between Moscow and London was laid by the British navigator Richard Chancellor, who sailed to Russia through the White Sea in 1553. Ivan the Terrible met with him personally, shortly after that, the Moscow Company was founded in the English capital, which received a monopoly from Ivan on trading rights.

Confrontation with Sweden

The outraged Swedish king Gustav I Vasa tried to create an anti-Russian coalition, but this plan failed. Then he decided to act on his own.

The reason for the war with Sweden was the capture of Russian merchants in Stockholm. The Swedes went on the offensive, capturing Oreshek, but they could not reach Novgorod. In January 1556, the 25,000-strong Russian army utterly defeated the Swedes, besieging Vyborg, but could not capture it.

Gustav I then proposed a truce, which Ivan the Terrible agreed to. In 1557, the Novgorod truce was concluded for a period of 40 years. It also stipulated diplomatic relations through the Novgorod governors.

Livonian War

In life, the biography of Ivan the Terrible was another important war - the Livonian. Its main goal was to take possession of the Baltic coast. At first, the Russian army was successful: Narva, Neuhaus, Derpt were taken, the order troops were defeated near Riga. By 1558, the Russian army had captured almost the entire eastern part of Estonia, and in 1559 it actually completed the defeat of the Livonian Order.

Only then did the governors decide to accept the offer of peace put forward by Denmark. The parties were able to maintain neutrality until the end of 1559. At the same time, they began to actively negotiate peace with Livonia, in exchange for certain concessions from the German large cities.

In the biography of Ivan the Terrible, interesting facts were often encountered. So, thanks to his military successes, he was able to gain respect among foreign leaders. As a result, in 1560, an imperial congress of deputies was convened in Germany, at which foreigners finally recognized the strength and power of the Russian army. It was decided to send an embassy to Moscow and offer the tsar eternal peace.

The appearance of the oprichnina

In addition to militancy, Grozny also became famous for the introduction of the oprichnina in the country. He announced this in 1565. After that, the country, by his decree, was divided into two parts - the oprichnina and the zemshchina.

The concept of "oprichnina" existed in Russia from 1565 to 1572. So Ivan the Terrible called the personal lot, which was his own army and state apparatus. At the same time, the proceeds went to the state treasury.

In those days, the same word began to be called the policy of terror, which was introduced in the country by the tsar. He held it against any opposition-minded citizens in all spheres of society. According to many historians, the oprichnina took the form of a terrorist despotism under the autocracy.

The oprichnina included regions in the north-east of the country, where patrimonial boyars were rarely found. Its center was Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, which the tsar declared to be his new official residence. It was from there that in 1565 he sent a letter addressed to the boyars, the clergy and all the people, that he was abdicating the throne. This news greatly excited the people of Moscow. The prospect of anarchy did not please anyone.

victims of terror

Soon the first victims of the terror organized by Grozny appeared. The first victims of the oprichnina were well-known and status boyars. Oprichniki were not afraid of any punishment, because they were released from criminal liability. The tsar began to forcibly confiscate the estates, transferring them to the nobles from among the guardsmen. The princes and boyars, from whom he took away land, he gave estates in other regions of the country, for example, in the Volga region.

At the same time, it should be noted that the decree on the introduction of the oprichnina in Russia was officially approved by both secular and spiritual authorities. It is believed that this decision was approved by the Zemsky Sobor. At the same time, most of the Zemshchina protested against this state of affairs. For example, in 1556, about 300 representatives of the nobility turned to the tsar with a petition with a request to cancel the oprichnina. Three of them were executed by beheading, some had their tongues cut out, and about 50 people were subjected to public corporal punishment.

The end of the oprichnina

The end of the oprichnina for many came as unexpectedly as its beginning. In many ways, this was facilitated by the invasion of Crimean Rus in 1571. By that time, many of the guardsmen had already demonstrated their complete incompetence, morally decomposed. They are accustomed to the robbery of ordinary citizens and simply did not show up for a real battle.

As a result, Moscow was burned. By 1572, the oprichnina army was united with the zemstvo, and the tsar decided to completely abolish the oprichnina in Russia. Although the name itself, in the meaning of his sovereign's court, survived until the death of Ivan IV.

Death of Ivan the Terrible

The study of the remains of the king showed that in the last years of his life he developed various diseases. In particular, he developed an osteophyte, due to which he could not walk, he was carried around the wards on a stretcher. Because of this immobility, which was aggravated by an unhealthy lifestyle and constant stress, by the age of 50 the king looked like a decrepit old man.

As early as 1584, he was engaged in state affairs, but by March his health had deteriorated sharply. The king fell into unconsciousness. On March 18 he died. His body was swollen and smelled bad. The British ambassador to the Russian court, Horsey, claimed that Grozny played chess just before his death.

Versions of the death of the king

Contemporaries were never able to reliably establish whether the king died from illness or for some violent reason. There was immediate confusion in the court.

There were persistent rumors that the king was poisoned by his entourage. In particular, Boris Godunov and Bogdan Belsky were suspected of this. There was even evidence that Godunov bribed the doctor who treated Grozny, fearing that he himself would be executed along with other nobles.

Horsey put forward a version of the strangulation of Ivan IV, also suspecting Godunov of this. The Englishman claimed that at first the king was given poison, and in the confusion that arose when he fell, they also strangled him.

In the middle of the 20th century, the version of poisoning was not confirmed. As a result of the analysis, a normal content of arsenic was found in his remains, but there was a lot of mercury, which, however, was explained by the fact that in the 16th century it was part of many medicines. She was even treated for syphilis, from which, presumably, the king also suffered.

According to other researchers, Ivan the Terrible's allowable arsenic norm for humans was doubled. They suspected that he was the victim of a deadly "cocktail" of mercury and arsenic. And they gave it to Grozny for a certain time, so it was not possible to unequivocally immediately confirm the version of the poisoning.

Ivan was born in the family of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III (Rurikovich) and the Lithuanian princess Elena Glinskaya in 1530, but already in 1533 Ivan lost his father, and in 1538 his mother also died. After the death of his father, little Ivan IV witnessed a fierce struggle between the boyar clans of the Velskys and Shuiskys, which caused the tsar's suspicious suspiciousness and distrust of the boyars.

In 1547, Ivan decides to marry the kingdom, which significantly raised the status of the Moscow ruler to the title of emperor or khan. Already after 2 years, Ivan creates the Chosen Rada from his like-minded people, which initiated a number of reforms. The Rada included the most progressive people of their time - Alexei Adashev, Andrei Kurbsky, Archpriest Sylvester, Metropolitan Macarius. In 1550, a streltsy army was created, which significantly increased the country's defense capability, a Code of Laws was compiled, which streamlined all the existing regulatory legal acts of that time. In 1555, Ivan adopted the Code of Service, a document that regulated the passage of public service, and also explained the rules of land ownership. By 1556, the feeding system was abolished throughout the country and local government was created, which at the state level was crowned with a system of orders. Some of them were sectoral, and some were territorial.

In the foreign policy of Ivan IV, two directions are strictly distinguished: eastern and western. In 1552, Ivan IV was waiting for the first success - the Russian troops took Kazan, which meant the annexation of the entire Kazan Khanate to Russia, and in 1556 Astrakhan was annexed. Since 1581, the active penetration of Russians beyond the Ural Range, into Western Siberia, begins.

Success in annexing Astrakhan and Kazan confirmed Ivan's opinion about the invincibility of his new army. He decided to annex the territory of the weakening Livonian Order. In 1558, the Livonian War began, in which Sweden, Poland and Denmark entered. As a result of this protracted conflict, in 1583 Ivan had to admit his defeat and give up a number of territories in the Baltic.

Contradictions on foreign policy issues affected the relationship between the tsar and Alexei Adashev, the leader of the head of the Chosen Rada. The death of Empress Anastasia (1560) increased the suspicion of the king, and from 1565 to 1572 the country was divided into two parts - the zemshchina and. Oprichniki constituted a special military monastic order, the hegumen of which was Ivan the Terrible himself. As a result of the activities of the oprichnina troops, many cities were devastated and devastated, in which some historians see the reasons for the Time of Troubles.

Ivan the Terrible died in 1584 under mysterious circumstances.

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

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

3.2.1. Crowning the kingdom - 1547

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

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

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

In 1547, three fire- two in April, and one - the most terrible - in June. In the June fire, almost the entire capital (25,000 households) burned out and thousands of Muscovites died. After the fire, an uprising broke out, the rumor placed all the blame for what had happened on the royal relatives. An excited crowd came to Ivan in the village of Vorobyevo near Moscow (today's Sparrow Hills) demanding that his grandmother, Anna Glinskaya, be handed over. With great difficulty, Ivan convinced the audience that Glinsky was not in his residence.

The fire and the uprising were perceived by Ivan Vasilyevich as "the execution of God" for negligence in the performance of the royal duty, so he went to a sharp change in his own behavior and the general political line.

3.2.2. "The Chosen Rada" (1547 - 1560)

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

For the first time, the term "Chosen Rada" was used by Prince A.M. Kurbsky in the book "History of the Grand Duke of Moscow". Most researchers believe that this is how, in Polish, Kurbsky called the government body, which actually had a different, Russian name. The question is very complicated - the office work of the "Chosen Rada" has not been preserved and its existence is not reflected in the annals.

The Chosen Rada concentrated in its hands all the threads of governing the country, its activities were aimed at strengthening the state and strengthening the authority of the central government. At the same time, the Chosen Rada tried to rely on a broad representation of the people - it was during her reign that Zemsky Sobors began to convene in Russia, which approved the most important decisions of the government. Thus, politically, the Chosen Rada sought to rely on a combination of a strong central government with developed local self-government.

3.2.3. Zemsky Sobor - 1549

In February 1549 Ivan IV called the first Zemsky Sobor.

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

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

Thus, the elective principle did not at all contradict the monarchical principle; on the contrary, the zemstvo took shape simultaneously with the emergence of autocracy. In the work of the Zemsky Sobors, along with the tsar, the Boyar Duma and the hierarchs of the Church - the "Consecrated Council" - elected people from the localities from all estates took part. The councils resolved issues of war and peace, carried out, if necessary, the zemstvo choice of monarchs (the first elected autocrat was Boris Godunov (1598)) and so on.

3.2.4. Sudebnik - 1550

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

continued unification of the tax system introduced a unified system of land taxation. The population of the country was obliged to bear tax- a complex of natural and monetary duties. The amount of the tax depended on the nature of land ownership and the quality of the land used. The Sudebnik of 1550 abolished the tarkhan charters, which exempted from paying taxes.

3.2.5. Military reforms (1550 - 1556)

The next event of the "Chosen Rada" was the legal regulation of locality. Localism- This is a system for distributing official places in the Russian state. The appointment to military, administrative and court service was carried out taking into account the origin (antiquity of the family), the official position of the person's ancestors and his personal merits.

From the middle of the XVI century. parochial disputes acquire the character of an epidemic. The basis of the parochial "account" was not abstract nobility, but precedents, "cases". The descendants had to be with each other in the same official relations - commanding, equality, subordination - as the ancestors. It was considered unacceptable to accept a “non-local” appointment, otherwise the whole family was damaged.

Localism, from the point of view of the government, had obvious pluses. It thereby ensured the primacy of those boyar families who had earlier switched to the service of the Moscow sovereigns and were connected with them by traditions of fidelity.

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

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

In accordance with the decree of October 1, 1550, in Moscow and neighboring districts, it was decided to place chosen thousand nobles. However, due to the lack of land for "placement", the project of creating a horse guard remained unfulfilled; it was implemented later - it was the famous oprichnina "thousand".

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

The local system was the basis of the Russian state, already at the end of the 15th century. it has become widespread. For his service, a soldier was given an estate with peasants from the sovereign, but this possession remained state property; the landowner was only entitled to payments recorded in the census sheets. The estate was small, the young warrior - "novik" - received no more than 150 acres of land - about ten peasant farms. The landowners were regularly called to the reviews, and if the warrior caused the discontent of the commanders, then the estate could be taken away; if the landowner proved himself in battle, then the “local dacha” was increased. Military commanders, boyars and governors, received up to 1,500 acres, but were required to bring additional soldiers with them - hired servants or combat serfs. A nobleman who was retired due to old age or because of wounds had the right to a part of the estate - “living”. If the son of a landowner entered the service instead of his deceased father, then he could inherit his father's estate, but not all, but only in those sizes that were supposed to be "novik".

During the period of boyar rule, the local system fell into decay. Urgent action was needed to restore order. The Code demanded that every 150 acres of land be assigned to the royal army one equipped equestrian warrior. Those who brought more than expected, people received monetary compensation - “I will help”, those who did not fulfill the norm paid a fine.

This innovation was of particular importance in organizing the service of the estates: although, in principle, they were obliged to military service, there were no service standards, and the boyars led only a small number of horsemen from their vast possessions. Now registration was organized, smart lists were drawn up for the counties, and from now on no one could evade service. The local system made it possible for Ivan the Terrible to maintain an army of 100,000 horsemen.

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

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

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

The transformations of Ivan IV had a complex, programmatic and structural character. In general, they were beneficial to the nobility and, ultimately, contributed to the strengthening of the centralized state.

3.2.6. Church Cathedral - 1551

In January 1551 city, on the initiative of the tsar and the metropolitan, took place church cathedral, on which a collection of rules for the church order of deanery was compiled, containing 100 chapters. Therefore, later the Cathedral was called "Stoglavy".

“Is it worthy for monasteries to acquire land?” - such was one of the questions posed by the king to the cathedral. Disagreements have long existed in the church on this issue, expressed in the formation of a party of "possessors" and "non-possessors".

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

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

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

Volotsky formulated the concept of state power, found out its origin, essence. He considered the divine will to be the source of state power. Here Joseph followed the traditional evangelical understanding of authority: "There is no authority except from God." But if power is of Divine origin, then its bearer is a person, and he, like any person, can make mistakes and must bear responsibility for mistakes. In addition, the whole nation can suffer from these mistakes - "For the sovereign sin, God will execute the whole earth." At the same time, the fact that a certain person was chosen by Divine Providence already deprived ordinary people of the right to criticize the Grand Duke. The Josephite party reached its apogee of influence under Metropolitan Macarius, who gave Ivan IV the idea of ​​marrying the kingdom.

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

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

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

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

3.2.7. Bodies of central and local government

Serious changes have affected the central state administration. The tax and local reform, the land cadastre, smart books - all this required accounting and control, the creation of new specialized departments. Instead of the two previous nationwide institutions - the Sovereign Palace and the Treasury - which had vague, intertwined management functions, a whole system of specialized orders was created.

Orders – These are permanent bodies of central government. And although the first institutions of the order type appear at the end of the 15th century, however, only in the mid-50s. 16th century a unified system of state administration is being formed. The number of orders was constantly growing due to the increasing complexity of management functions (by the end of the 16th century, their number reached 30).

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

Each order was commanded by a duma boyar, but the boyars were poorly versed in office work, and in reality the head of the order was an experienced and competent clerk. Dyaks were usually ignorant people, but nevertheless, they were included in the Duma and became "Duma Dyak".

In the 50s. the system of local government was reorganized. As a result lip reform(begun in the 30s of the 16th century), cases of “robbery” (dangerous criminal offenses) were withdrawn from the jurisdiction of governors and volostels and transferred to labial elders who were elected by the nobility of the county. For their service, the labial elders did not receive a salary, respectively, and they treated their official duties carelessly. But the “verdict on robbery” (1555), according to which careless elders were supposed to be put “for a while” in prison, forced them to catch robbers. After 1556, the labial elders became heads of district administrations.

AT 1555 - 1556 in cities and counties with a black-haired population (depending directly on the state, and not on private owners) and in palace volosts, zemstvo reform.

Previously, leadership in cities and townships was carried out by sovereign “feeders” placed from above (for their service they received “feed” from the population - natural or monetary duties). Feedings were not so much a system of administration and courts, but a system of rewarding feudal lords for service: they received the positions of governors and volosts for a certain period as a reward for participating in hostilities. That is why the feeding system was not effective: governors and volostels knew that they had already “worked out” their income on the military field, and therefore they were careless about their judicial and administrative duties, often entrusted them to their “serfs” - tiuns, caring only about receiving the prescribed "feed" and court fees. Now feedings were canceled, the money that used to go to the feeders, from now on, was collected by the state as a tax - “farmer farming”. The reform was resisted by the nobility, who did not want to part with their feeding, so the reform dragged on for decades; in the border areas, the governorships were never liquidated.

The feeding system was replaced zemstvo self-government, whose representatives on the ground are elected from among wealthy peasants and townspeople zemstvo elders, zemstvo judges and kissers. Headmen engaged in the analysis of small court cases; layout, collection of taxes; were in charge of the city economy; maintenance of order in the territory of the volost or city; land development, i.e., the basic needs of the townspeople and county people.

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

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

3.2.8. Eastern campaigns

Russia's foreign policy successes in the 1950s. 16th century were largely the result of the reforms.

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

The end of the era of boyar rule put an end to Moscow's hesitations regarding the Kazan Khanate, whose rulers constantly violated peace agreements with Russia and enriched themselves by raiding Russian border lands. Moscow could no longer ignore the hostile actions of the Volga Tatars and put up with them. Gradually, in the environment of the king, the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe forceful subordination of the Kazan kingdom to Russia matured as the only means of stopping the Tatar invasions of their eastern lands.

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

It is worth recalling that Russian troops have already undertaken campaigns against Kazan, the capital of the Tatar kingdom, but all of them did not bring final victory. In the autumn of 1552, the emperor led the campaign. It would seem that, according to established tradition, the king must go to the enemy at the head of the army, or lead him. But Ivan Vasilyevich at that time acted completely differently. During the decisive battle - the storming of Kazan - he was in a specially arranged camp church and earnestly prayed for victory. Only after finishing mass, Ivan IV, left the temple, mounted a horse and galloped to his regiment. When he was under the walls of Kazan, the city was almost captured.

Such behavior is not evidence of cowardice or indecision, it is an example of the sincere confidence of the king that such a great victory can be won only with God's help. It was in prayer that, according to Ivan Vasilievich, his main task during the assault on Kazan, for the duty of the Anointed of God was not to rush at the Kazan walls with a saber in his hands, but to beg the Lord for help. And life, as it were, confirmed the correctness of the tsar - Kazan fell while he was praying.

In the neighborhood of the Kazan Khanate, in the lower reaches of the Volga, there was another Tatar state - the Astrakhan Khanate. Taking advantage of the exceptionally favorable position of their possessions in the Volga delta, the Astrakhan khans controlled the trade of Russia and Kazan with the countries of the East. Until the conquest by Russia, slavery and the slave trade remained here. The Astrakhan Tatars participated more than once in the campaigns of the Crimean and other Tatar hordes against Russian lands. AT 1556 G. The Astrakhan Khanate was also conquered.

After these victories, 1557 G. Chuvash and Bashkirs, vassal dependence on Russia was recognized by the Nogai Horde. Thus, the new fertile lands and the entire Volga trade route became part of Russia.

3.2.9. Dynastic crisis - 1553

At the end of the 50s. 16th century between the tsar and his "Chosen Rada" there is a clear cooling, largely due to dynastic crisis caused by Ivan's disease in the spring of 1553 The tsar became so seriously ill that, while awaiting death, he ordered his close associates to swear allegiance to the infant Tsarevich Dmitry. Fearing another struggle for power under the infant king, many, including Sylvester, showed serious hesitation. The cousin of Ivan IV, Prince Vladimir Andreevich Staritsky, was nominated as a candidate for the throne. Although, after his recovery, the king announced the forgiveness of his relative and close associates, he did not forget their hesitation.

3.2.10. Livonian War (1558 - 1583). Start

Gradually, the role of the Chosen Rada also decreases due to disagreements with the tsar on issues of domestic and foreign policy.

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

The state interests of Russia required the establishment of close ties with Western Europe, which were then the easiest to implement through the seas, as well as ensuring the defense of Russia's western borders, where the Livonian Order acted as its enemy. In case of success, the possibility of acquiring new economically developed lands opened up.

AT 1558 g., ignoring the protests, Ivan the Terrible began war in Livonia . In 1560, in a message to Emperor Ferdinand I, the Russian Tsar declared that the Livonian War was being waged against those who “transgressed the commandment of God”, “fell into Luthor’s heresy”, and therefore the just goal of the war was the struggle for the restoration of the “old law” - Orthodoxy. And it is characteristic that the correction of "godless Lithuania" was carried out in practice: after the capture of cities, Orthodox churches were immediately erected.

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

occasion By the beginning of hostilities in the Baltic States, the Livonian Order had delayed 123 Western specialists invited to the Russian service, as well as non-payment by Livonia of the old "Yuryev tribute"- long established monetary compensation for the Germans who settled in the Baltic states for the right to settle on the lands that belonged to the Polotsk princes(territories lying along the Western Dvina). Later, these payments were transformed into a very significant tribute for the Russian city of Yuryev (Derpt), captured by the knights of the sword, built in 1030 by the Kyiv prince Yaroslav the Wise. The validity of the Russian demands was also recognized by the Livonian side in the treaties of 1474, 1509 and 1550. At the negotiations held in Moscow in 1554, agreeing with the arguments of A.F. Adasheva and I.M. Viskovaty, diplomats of the Order and the Bishop of Dorpat pledged to pay tribute to the Russian Tsar for three years. However, the Livonians could not collect such a significant amount (60 thousand marks) even after the outbreak of hostilities. Other requirements of the Moscow government were also not fulfilled:

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

ü ensuring free trade for Russian merchants and

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thus, new forces were involved in military operations in the Baltic states. And if the Moscow diplomacy that captured Reval Sweden was able to neutralize for the time being, concluding a truce with it in the summer of 1561 for 20 years, then the armed conflict with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which began with separate border clashes, soon grew into a real war.

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

In April 1564, he went over to the side of the enemy, the famous Russian military leader, who once enjoyed the special favor of the tsar, boyar and voivode, Prince A.M., fled to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Kurbsky, who had detailed information about the number, places of concentration and command plans, which he handed over to the enemy.

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

Ivan Vasilievich, the penultimate of the Rurik dynasty and the first tsar of his kind, was an outstanding personality. In him, in an amazing way, traits of character opposite to human nature coexisted. The early deaths of his father and mother, the lawlessness of the boyar clans in the struggle for power and other important reasons left their indelible imprint in the formation of the person of the future Tsar Ivan IV, later nicknamed the Terrible.

Birth of an heir

The whole twenty years of the married life of Vasily III with Solomonia Saburova were in vain. A long marriage did not lead to the birth of the coveted heir to the throne. In this scenario, power would have passed either to Yuri Ivanovich Dmitrovsky, or to Andrei Ivanovich Staritsky - the brothers of the Grand Duke. To whom Vasily III turned only: to doctors, healers, healers ... All in vain. Then the Grand Duke decided to heed the advice of Metropolitan Daniel, who recommended a divorce from Solomonia Saburova. The current situation called for it. A twenty-year marriage in the fall of 1525 was annulled, and the ex-wife was tonsured by force and sent to a monastery. Elena Glinskaya, the niece of the prince, a native of Lithuania, became the new life partner of the Grand Duke. The marriage took place in January 1526. The choice of a new wife was not accidental. Having listened to the advice of Metropolitan Daniel, Vasily III longed not only for an heir. In the future, the Grand Duke could also lay claim to the Lithuanian throne, as well as establish ties with Western European powers. The desired son had to wait another 4 years. In August 1530, the long-awaited boy was born, who was given the name Ivan. By that time, Vasily III was 51 years old. A couple of years later, the second son, Yuri, was born. Unfortunately, the father's joy lasted 3 years. In December 1533, the Grand Duke died.

Childhood and regency period

The Grand Ducal title passed to the 3-year-old Ivan Vasilyevich. Naturally, he could not rule on his own. Nominally, Elena Glinskaya ended up in power, and her uncle Mikhail officially ruled the country. But the latter was then deposed (starved to death in prison) by the favorite of the princess, Ivan Fedorovich Ovchina-Telepnev-Obolensky. First of all, the mother of the young Grand Duke decided to save her son from competitors, who were his own uncles, the brothers of Vasily III. Yuri Ivanovich Dmitrovsky was imprisoned in December 1533, where he soon died. Andrei Ivanovich Staritsky, in 1537, organized a riot, which was suppressed, and its organizer was arrested, and soon died of starvation in prison. Having got rid of the main contenders for power, Elena Glinskaya and her supporters set about reforming activities. Cities and fortresses were rebuilt. In 1538, a monetary reform was carried out, which actually led the country to a single monetary system. This transformation had many opponents among the boyar stratum. In 1538, Princess Elena Glinskaya died. Some sources claim that she was poisoned by the Shuiskys. Soon her favorite Ivan Ovchina-Telepnev-Obolensky was captured and imprisoned (he died of starvation). Other opponents of the coup were also eliminated. A fierce struggle began between the Shuiskys, Belskys and Glinskys for the right of guardianship. And the young Grand Duke for many years witnessed lawlessness, intrigue, humiliation, violence and lies. All this was deeply imprinted in the memory of the inquisitive orphan and his younger brother. The Shuiskys were especially distinguished, who, after the death of Elena Glinskaya, actually usurped power and did not deny themselves any pleasures, wasting the state treasury and taxing the people with exorbitant taxes. The growing up Grand Duke was more and more imbued with hatred for the boyar stratum. However, it was then that for the first time cruelty began to appear in him. At the age of 13, Ivan Vasilyevich decided to show the conceited guardians their place. The Grand Duke ordered the dogs to kill the eldest of the Shuiskys - Andrei. After this incident, some boyars began to be afraid of the rising ruler. However, his uncles Glinsky took advantage of the situation. They began to get rid of competitors by exile.

First Tsar of All Russia

Observing all the arbitrariness that was happening before his eyes, the growing up Grand Duke became more and more convinced that an unlimited absolute monarchy is an ideal form of government in the fight against boyar lawlessness. One of the supporters of this idea was Metropolitan Macarius. It was to him that the young prince turned with a double request. At the age of 16, he felt independent enough to lead the country on his own and asked the metropolitan to crown him king. In addition, Ivan Vasilievich also intended to marry as soon as possible. On January 16, 1547, the official wedding ceremony took place in the Assumption Cathedral. The Grand Duke became the first tsar from the Rurik family. In addition, by title, he now stood on a par with other European monarchs. On February 3, Ivan Vasilievich married Anastasia Romanova Zakharyina-Yuryeva. This woman managed to bring harmony into the life of her husband, significantly taming the violent temper in him. None of the following wives had as much influence on the king as his first life partner. The beginning of the reign of Ivan the Terrible (well, not quite the Terrible yet) would have turned out to be ideal, if not for the events that happened already in the summer of that year.

The first trials for the king

The beginning of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, in short, turned out to be blurred by the summer of 1547. On June 21, a fire of unprecedented proportions began in Moscow, which lasted about 10 hours and covered most of the city. Most of the buildings burned down, and many people died. But the disasters didn't end there. The enraged people blamed the Glinskys, close relatives of the tsar, for all the disasters. On June 26, residents of Moscow began an open protest. The tsar's uncle, Yuri Glinsky, fell victim to the maddened crowd. The rest of the Glinskys hastily left the city. On June 29, the rebels went to the village of Vorobyevo in the Moscow region, where the sovereign was, intending to find out from him the whereabouts of his relatives. It took a lot of effort for the newly minted monarch to persuade the people to calm down and disperse. After the last spark of the uprising went out, the young king ordered the organizers of the performance to be found and executed. Thus, 1547, the year of the beginning of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, further convinced the young tsar of the need for reforms.

Elected Rada

The reforms of the Chosen Rada and the beginning of the reign of Ivan the Terrible started at the same time period not by chance. The young king was far from the only person who believed that the country needed transformation. One of his first supporters was Metropolitan Macarius. By 1549, the royal confessor Sylvester, nobleman A. Adashev, not of the most noble family, clerk I. Viskovaty, clerk I. Peresvetov, princes D. I. Kurlyatev, A. M. Kurbsky, N. I. Odoevsky, M I. Vorotynsky and other lesser-known personalities. Later, the prince called this circle the Chosen Rada, which was a non-state deliberative and executive body.

Domestic politics and reforms

The main reason for the reforms were ... the boyars, or rather, the elimination of the consequences of their rule of the country in previous years. The lawlessness they have committed recently, the almost empty treasury, the complete turmoil in the cities - this is the result of the short-lived boyar leadership of the state.

Beginning in February 1549, the reforms of the beginning of the reign of Ivan the Terrible start with the convocation of Zemsky Sobors in the country - this is a class-representative council that replaced the People's Assembly. The first such cathedral was assembled personally by the king on February 27. Then Ivan IV ordered the complete abolition of the rule of governors in some regions of the country. This process was finally completed in 1555-56. decree of the sovereign on "feeding", which was replaced by local self-government. In more developed agrarian regions, labial elders were appointed.

At the beginning of 1550s. the importance and number of orders (the ministries of that time) increased. The petition order was engaged in receiving complaints and requests to the king and their consideration. A. Adashev was appointed the head of this inspection body. was in charge of agriculture and land distribution. Rogue, on the other hand, searched for and punished criminals and defectors. There have also been significant changes in the military structure. The striking force of the tsarist army is the cavalry, assembled from the upper strata of society. The recruitment of the noble equestrian militia and the appointment of the commander (voivode) was carried out by the Discharge Order, which at first was led by I. Vyrodkov. Localism was abolished when the chief was appointed. worked on the creation of a streltsy army, which received a salary directly from the royal treasury, like gunners (artillerymen). The people's militia also survived. And finally, the Grand Parish dealt with financial matters.

To legitimize the ongoing reforms and decrees of the king, a new collection of laws was required. They became the new Sudebnik of 1550. It differed from the previous one (1497) in the orderliness of articles, tougher measures for violations both for peasants and landowners, as well as for robbery and corruption. Also in this collection of laws there were new chapters related to the centralization of power: careful monitoring of the regions, the introduction of a general state tax, and much more.

In 1551, with the direct participation of the tsar and the metropolitan, the Stoglavy Cathedral of the church was convened, which positively assessed the new Sudebnik and the reforms carried out by Ivan IV.

Foreign policy

During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, foreign policy set itself 3 goals:

1. The capture of the khanates formed after the collapse of the Golden Horde (primarily Kazan and Astrakhan).
2. Provisions for the country of access to the Baltic Sea.
3. Ensuring security from attacks from the south by the Crimean Khanate.

It was decided to proceed with the implementation of the assigned tasks immediately. Kazan was captured on October 1, 1552 from the 3rd attempt. Astrakhan was taken in 1556. Chuvashia and almost all of Bashkiria joined Russia without a fight, and the Nogai Horde recognized its dependence on the Russian Tsar. The Volga trade route passed into the use of Russia. With the Siberian Khanate, things were more complicated. Khan Ediger in the mid-1550s recognized dependence on Ivan IV, but Kuchum Khan, who replaced him in 1563, refused to submit. The merchants Stroganovs, who received approval from the tsar, in 1581 equipped the Cossacks, led by Yermak, on a campaign. In 1582, the capital of the khanate fell. However, due to strong resistance, it was not possible to completely occupy the khanate, and in 1585 Yermak died in battle. The final annexation of the Siberian Khanate took place in 1598, after

In the western direction, things did not work out, although everything started well. The Livonian Order stood on the way to the cherished dream of Ivan IV - access to the Baltic Sea. On their side were Poland, the Principality of Lithuania, Sweden and Denmark. In 1558, the Livonian War began, which lasted 25 years. Until 1560, hostilities unfolded in favor of the Russian army. The Livonian Order collapsed, the army, having captured a number of cities, approached Riga and Revel (Tallinn). Failures began after the entry into the war of the allies of the order. Under the Lublin Union, Poland and Lithuania united to form the Commonwealth. Sweden captured Narva and moved to Pskov. The Danes also joined the Swedes. The war dragged on for years. Attacks on Pskov were repulsed. The army was exhausted, the treasury was also devastated. I had to accept defeat. The Treaty of Yam-Zapolsky was concluded with the Commonwealth. I had to give Livonia. With the Swedes in 1583 they concluded the Peace of Plus. Russia gave all the conquests in the Baltic. I had to part with the dream of going to the sea.

As for the southern neighbor - the Crimean Khanate, here in the late 1550s. Zasechnaya line was built - a protective complex of fortresses and obstacles.

End of the Elected Rada

Relations between the young tsar and supporters from the Chosen Rada began to deteriorate already in 1553, when Ivan IV suddenly fell seriously ill. All close associates and relatives were gathered around the sovereign. They began to think about a successor. The tsar demanded to swear allegiance to his son Dmitry Ivanovich (he died in an accident a year later). However, the nobility and associates of Ivan IV in the Chosen Rada considered it wrong to kiss the cross to an infant, preferring the cousin of Tsar Vladimir Staritsky to the baby. Also, those close to the sovereign did not get along with the Zakharyins, relatives of Empress Anastasia Romanova. The king soon recovered. Completely lost confidence in those close to him. Ivan IV began to lean more and more towards absolute monarchy. The reform activity, which ended in 1559, also curtailed. The queen died in 1560. The king was very upset by the death of his beloved. He suspected that his wife had been poisoned. The fate of those close to him was sealed. Sylvester was sent into exile in a monastery in 1560. A. Adashev and his brother were sent to the war in Livonia, but then they were taken into custody. In prison, he died of a fever. A. Kurbsky, realizing that his turn would come to him, in 1565 fled to the Principality of Lithuania, where he corresponded with the tsar for a long time. The remaining members of the Rada were either exiled or executed. And the sovereign's cousin was executed in 1569 along with his family. The era of Ivan the Terrible began.

Oprichnina

At the beginning of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, only 2 reasons held back his fits of madness and rage: a loving wife and faithful adherents on the issue of reforms. Having lost his faithful companion in life and disappointed in his subjects, the king lost control of himself, became unpredictable, felt treason everywhere. The sovereign no longer needed advisers, he needed faithful dogs to follow his orders and the slightest whims. Such for him were the brothers Alexei and Fedor Basmanov, Afanasy Vyazemsky, Vasily Gryaznoy, Malyuta Skuratov and others.

At the beginning of 1565, the tsar went from the village of Kolomenskoye to the Moscow region, to Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda. From here he sent 2 letters to the capital. The content of the first message was that Ivan the Terrible, due to the betrayal of the boyars, renounces power and insisted on transferring to him a certain area (oprichnina) for management. The second message was intended for the citizens of Moscow. In it, the king reported that he did not hold a grudge against the people and was ready to return if he was asked. His expectations were justified. Ivan IV returned to the capital, but dictating his own conditions for managing the oprichnina - a number of strategically important and rich cities in Russia, where he appointed noblemen loyal to him. The oprichnina army was also created. They looked like monks. Dog heads and brooms were attached to the saddle. The less developed territories went to the boyars and were called zemshchina. In fact, the country was divided into 2 parts, which were at enmity with each other. Oprichnina has come - 7 years of terror, violence, numerous executions and destruction. The victims were not only the boyars, but also the common people, and sometimes the guardsmen who contradicted the will of the tsar. In the autumn of 1569, Ivan the Terrible led an army of 15,000 against recalcitrant Novgorod. For more than a month, the faithful dogs of the tsar killed and robbed Novgorodians and destroyed villages on their way. In the end, Novgorod was burned.

Oprichnina eradicated political disunity, but significantly shook the already fragile economy of the state. In addition, hunger and disease spread rapidly throughout the country. The Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey took advantage of the weakness of his northern neighbor, who in 1571 invaded Russia, reached the capital and staged a pogrom there. The oprichniki could not interfere with anything. Seeing the consequences of the decision, the tsar liquidated the oprichnina in 1572. Even the slightest mention of her was punishable by death. The country has become one again. But this did not mean that the king no longer gave vent to his madness. No one canceled the execution. And because of the escapes of the peasants, Ivan the Terrible issued a decree on serfdom, placing the former in a completely dependent position on their masters.

The personal life of the king

As mentioned above, Ivan the Terrible was an unpredictable person. He could execute a couple of dozen people, then go to church to repent, and then take up the bloody craft again. During the beginning of the reign of Ivan 4 the Terrible, only his first wife managed to restrain his outbursts of anger and madness. One of these attacks cost the life of his loved one. In November 1581, in a rage, he accidentally stabbed the heir to the throne, Ivan Ivanovich, with a staff in the temple. The prince died 4 days later. The grief and despair of the king knew no bounds, because his youngest son Fedor did not have the character of a ruler (according to other sources, he was weak-minded). Ivan the Terrible was married 7 times, although the legality of some of the marriages is questioned. From the second marriage, there were no children with the Kabardian princess, so the tsar married for the third time - to Marfa Sobakina. However, the new wife died less than a month later. The fourth marriage, with Anna Koltovskaya, in 1572 also did not last long. A year later, the sovereign's wife was tonsured and sent to a monastery. The fifth queen, Anna Vasilchikova (1575), died after 4 years, and there is little information about the sixth, Vasilisa Melentyeva. Only the seventh wife, Maria Nagaya (1580), 2 years later gave birth to a boy to the tsar, who, like the very first child, was named Dmitry. However, as with the namesake, the boy died in an accident. It happened in Uglich in 1591.

Illness and death of the king

Anthropological studies conducted by Mikhail Gerasimov confirmed that Ivan the Terrible at the end of his life had osteophytes (salt deposits) on his spine, which made the sovereign's slightest step full of hellish pain. A year before his death, it got to the point that he could not move independently. In 1584, not long before his death, it turned out that he was also undergoing a process of internal decomposition, a stench emanated from him. Some of the historians believe that Boris Godunov and Bogdan Bel'eva, close associates of Ivan IV, mixed a poisonous substance into the tsar's medicine. In addition, the body was covered with bleeding calluses. On March 17, 1584, while playing chess, the king suddenly fell. He didn't get up again. Ivan the Terrible died at the age of 53, but due to illness he looked at all 90. The Tsar of All Russia was gone.

The results of the reign of Ivan the Terrible

The situation in the state at the beginning and end of the reign of Ivan the Terrible looked completely different. Given the strangeness of the character of the king, this is not surprising. He changed his mind more than once, forgave, then executed, then repented of his sins, and further in a circle. If we talk about the pros and cons of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, then there is a clear advantage in the negative direction. Yes, Ivan IV managed to somewhat expand the borders of the state. But the dangerous and hopeless Livonian War largely predetermined the further decline. Oprichnina, in the end, finished off the country. Even the cessation of executions in 1578 and the frequent visits of the king to the church could not change much. And finally, the peasantry of Russia finished off the introduction of reserved years (a veto on the transfer of peasants to another landowner on St. George's Day). The beginning of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, in short, turned out to be much better than his end. After all, the ongoing reforms gave results. Only certain reasons forced him to cross out all previous successes and embark on the path of chaos and madness, which, after his death, after some time led to the Time of Troubles. The young years of Ivan the Terrible and the beginning of his reign, until 1560, were the best in the history of Russia in the 16th century. Perhaps if his reign had been interrupted this year, he would have gone down in history as a reformer tsar, and not as a tyrant tsar.

Ivan IV the Terrible was the son of Elena Glinskaya and Grand Duke Vasily III. He entered the history of Russia as a very controversial personality. On the one hand, he was a reformer and a talented publicist, the author of brilliant literary "messages" to various statesmen of that time, and on the other, a cruel tyrant and a man with a sickly psyche. Historians are still wondering who Ivan the Terrible is - a genius or a villain?

Brief description of the board

Tsar Ivan the Terrible began to rule with the participation of the Chosen Rada from the late 1540s. Under him, Zemsky Sobors began to be convened, and the Sudebnik of 1550 was created. Transformations of the judicial and administrative systems were carried out - partial local self-government was introduced (zemstvo, lip and other reforms). After the tsar suspected Prince Kurbsky of betrayal, the oprichnina was established (a set of administrative and military measures to strengthen tsarist power and destroy the opposition). Under Ivan IV, trade relations with Britain were established (1553), a printing house was founded in Moscow. The Kazan (in 1552) and Astrakhan (in 1556) khanates were conquered.

In the period 1558-1583, the Livonian War was actively carried out. The king wanted access to the Baltic Sea. The stubborn struggle against the Crimean Khan Devlet Giray did not subside. After the victory in the Battle of Molodin (1572), the Muscovite state gained de facto independence and strengthened its rights to the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates, and also began to annex Siberia (1581). However, the tsar's domestic policy, after a series of failures during the Livonian War, acquired a harsh repressive character against the boyars and the trading elite. Many years of exhausting war on various fronts led to an increase and intensification of the dependence of the peasantry. The king was more remembered by his contemporaries for his excessive cruelty. Based on the foregoing, it is very difficult to unambiguously answer the question of who Ivan the Terrible was. Genius or villain, this, no doubt, an extraordinary ruler?

Childhood

After the death of his father, the three-year-old boy was brought up by his mother, who was his regent. But she died on the night of April 3-4, 1538. Until 1547, when the prince came of age, the boyars ruled the country. The future monarch Ivan 4 the Terrible grew up in the conditions of palace coups due to the constant struggle for power between the warring boyar families of the Belsky and Shuisky. The boy saw the murders, he was surrounded by intrigue and violence. All this left an indelible mark on his personality and contributed to the development of such traits as suspicion, vindictiveness and cruelty.

The tendency to mock living beings manifested itself in Ivan already in childhood, and his inner circle approved of this. At the end of December 1543, the thirteen-year-old orphan prince showed his temper for the first time. He arrested one of the most influential boyars - Prince Andrei Shuisky - and "ordered him to be given to the kennels, and the kennels took and killed him when they dragged him to prison." "From that time (notes the chronicle) the boyars began to have a great fear from the tsar."

The Great Fire and the Moscow Uprising

One of the strongest youthful impressions of the tsar was the "big fire" and the Moscow uprising of 1547. 1700 people died in the fire. Then the Kremlin, various churches and monasteries burned. By the age of seventeen, Ivan had already committed so many executions and other cruelties that he perceived the devastating fire in Moscow as retribution for his sins. In a letter to the church council of 1551, he recalled: “The Lord punished me for my sins either with a flood or a pestilence, and I did not repent. In the end, God sent great fires, and fear entered my soul, and trembling into my bones, and my spirit is troubled." Rumors spread around the capital that the "villains" Glinsky were to blame for the fire. After the massacre of one of them - a relative of the king - the rebellious people appeared in the village of Vorobyevo, where the Grand Duke hid, and demanded the extradition of other boyars from this family. With great difficulty we managed to convince the angry crowd to disperse. As soon as the danger passed, the king ordered the capture and execution of the main conspirators.

Crowning the kingdom

The main goal of the king, already outlined in his youth, was unlimited autocratic power. It relied on the concept of "Moscow - the Third Rome" created under Vasily III, which became the ideological basis of the Moscow autocracy. Ivan, given that his paternal grandmother was the niece of the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine, considered himself a descendant of Roman rulers. Therefore, on January 16, 1547, the wedding of Grand Duke Ivan to the kingdom took place in the Assumption Cathedral. Symbols of royal dignity were placed on him: Monomakh's cap, barmas and a cross.

The royal title made it possible to take a more advantageous diplomatic position in relation to Western European countries. The grand ducal title among Europeans is the same as "grand duke" or "prince". "Tsar" was not interpreted at all or was translated as "emperor". Thus, Ivan stood on a par with the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. However, this information does not answer the question of what Ivan the Terrible was. Was this man a genius or a villain?

Wars

In 1550-1551, the autocrat personally took part in Kazan. In 1552, Kazan fell, and then the Astrakhan Khanate (1556). They became dependent on the Khan of Siberia Yediger also submitted to Moscow. In 1553 trade relations with Britain were established. In 1558, the monarch unleashed the Livonian War for possession of the coast of the Baltic Sea. At first, the fighting went well for Moscow. In 1560, the Livonian army was completely defeated, and the Livonian Order ceased to exist.

Internal changes and the Livonian War

Serious changes began within the country. Around 1560, the tsar quarreled with the Chosen Rada and subjected its members to persecution. Ivan became especially cruel to the boyars after the unexpected death of Tsarina Anastasia, suspecting that she had been poisoned. Adashev and Sylvester unsuccessfully advised the tsar to end the Livonian War. However, in 1563 the troops took Polotsk. At that time it was a serious Lithuanian fortress. The autocrat was especially proud of this particular victory, which was won after the break with the Rada. But already in 1564, the army suffered a serious defeat. The king began to look for the "guilty". Executions and other repressions began.

Oprichnina

The reign of Ivan the Terrible went on as usual. The autocrat was more and more imbued with the idea of ​​establishing a personal dictatorship. In 1565, he announced the creation of the oprichnina. In fact, the state was divided into two parts: Zemshchina and Oprichnina. Each guardsman had to take an oath of allegiance to the autocrat and promised not to have contacts with the Zemstvo. They all wore black robes, like monastic ones.

Horse guardsmen were marked with special insignia. They clung to their saddles the gloomy signs of the era: brooms to drive treason with them, and dog heads to gnaw it out. With the help of the oprichniki, who were released by the tsar from any kind of responsibility, Ivan 4 the Terrible by force took away the boyar estates and transferred them to the oprichnina nobles. Executions and persecution were accompanied by unprecedented terror and robbery of the population.

The Novgorod pogrom of 1570 was a landmark event. The reason for it was the suspicion of Novgorod's desire to secede to Lithuania. The monarch personally led the campaign. All the villages were plundered along the way. During this campaign, Malyuta Skuratov in the Tver monastery strangled Metropolitan Philip, who tried to reason with Grozny, and then resist him. It is believed that the number of Novgorodians killed was about 10-15 thousand. At that time, no more than 30 thousand people lived in the city.

The abolition of the oprichnina

It is believed that the reasons for the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible are of a personal nature. A difficult childhood left its mark on his psyche. The fear of conspiracies and betrayals has become paranoia. In 1572, the tsar abolished the oprichnina. He was led to this decision by the unseemly role played by his oprichny associates during the attack on Moscow by the Crimean Khan in 1571. The army of guardsmen could not do anything. In fact, it fled. Tatars set fire to Moscow. The Kremlin also suffered from the fire. It is very difficult to understand such a person as Ivan the Terrible. Whether he was a genius or a villain, one cannot say for sure.

The results of the oprichnina

Tsar Ivan the Terrible severely undermined the economy of his state with the oprichnina. The division had a very detrimental effect. Much of the land was destroyed and devastated. In 1581, in order to prevent desolation, Ivan established a ban on the change of owners by peasants, which took place on St. George's Day. This contributed to even greater oppression and the establishment of serfdom.

The foreign policy of Ivan 4 the Terrible was also not particularly successful. The Livonian war ended in complete failure with the loss of territories. The objective results of the reign of Ivan the Terrible were visible even during his lifetime. In fact, it was the failure of most undertakings. Since 1578, the king stopped carrying out executions. These times of Ivan the Terrible were also well remembered by contemporaries. The king became even more pious. He ordered that commemorative lists of those killed be made on his orders and sent to monasteries for commemoration. In his will of 1579, he repented of what he had done. The history of the oprichnina fully reveals

son murder

Periods of repentance and prayer were replaced by terrible fits of rage. It was during one of them in 1582 that the autocrat accidentally killed his son Ivan, hitting him with a staff with a metal tip in the temple. He died 11 days later. The autocratic murder of the heir horrified the king, since his other offspring Fedor was not able to rule, because he was weak in mind. The king sent a huge amount to the monastery for the remembrance of the soul of his child. He even thought of becoming a monk himself.

Wives

The reign of Tsar Ivan the Terrible was rich in royal marriages. The exact number of wives of the autocrat is not known for certain, but most likely there were eight of them (including a one-day marriage). In addition to children who died in childhood, the monarch had three sons. The first marriage with Anastasia Zakharyina-Koshkina brought him two descendants. The second wife of the autocrat was the daughter of a Kabardian nobleman - the third wife was Marfa Sobakina, who died unexpectedly three weeks after the wedding. According to church canons, it was impossible to marry more than three times. In May 1572, a church council was held. He allowed a fourth marriage. Anna Koltovskaya became the sovereign's wife. However, for treason, the king in the same year imprisoned her in a monastery. The fifth wife was Anna Vasilchikova. She died in 1579. The sixth, most likely, was Vasilisa Melentyeva. The last wedding took place in 1580 with Maria Naga. In 1582, their son Dmitry was born, who, after the death of the autocrat, was killed in Uglich.

Results

Ivan 4 remained in history not only as a tyrant. The monarch was one of the most educated people of his era. He possessed a simply phenomenal memory, distinguished by the erudition of a theologian. The king is the author of numerous messages, which are of great interest from a creative point of view. Ivan wrote music and texts of divine services. Grozny contributed to the development of book printing. Under him, however, the reign of the king was essentially a war against his people. Under him, state terror reached simply unprecedented proportions. The autocrat strengthened his power in every possible way, not shunning any methods. In Ivan, in an incomprehensible way, talents were combined with extreme cruelty, piety with sexual depravity. Modern experts in the field of psychology believe that absolute power disfigures the individual. And only a few are able to cope with this burden and not lose some human traits. Nevertheless, the indisputable fact is that the personality of the king left a huge imprint on the entire subsequent history of the country.