Livonian war the course of events briefly. Causes of the Livonian War - abstract

Livonian War (1558-1583) - the war of the Russian kingdom against the Livonian Order, the Polish-Lithuanian state, Sweden and Denmark for hegemony in the Baltic states.

Main events (Livonian War - briefly)

Causes: Access to the Baltic Sea. The hostile policy of the Livonian Order.

Occasion: Refusal of the order to pay tribute for Yuriev (Derpt).

First stage (1558-1561): The capture of Narva, Yuriev, Fellin, the capture of Master Furstenberg, the Livonian Order as a military force practically ceased to exist.

Second stage (1562-1577): The entry into the war of the Commonwealth (since 1569) and Sweden. Capture of Polotsk (1563). Defeat on the river Ole and near Orsha (1564). Capture of Weissenstein (1575) and Wenden (1577).

Third stage (1577-1583): Campaign of Stefan Batory, Fall of Polotsk, Velikiye Luki. Defense of Pskov (August 18, 1581 - February 4, 1582) Capture of Narva, Ivangorod, Koporye by the Swedes.

1582- Yam-Zapolsky truce with the Commonwealth (the refusal of Ivan the Terrible from Livonia for the return of the lost Russian fortresses).

1583- Plyussky truce with Sweden (renunciation of Estonia, concession to the Swedes of Narva, Koporye, Ivangorod, Korela).

Reasons for the defeat: an incorrect assessment of the balance of power in the Baltic states, the weakening of the state as a result of the internal policy of Ivan IV.

Course of the Livonian War (1558–1583) (full description)

Causes

In order to start a war, formal reasons were found, but the real reasons were the geopolitical need for Russia to gain access to the Baltic Sea, as more convenient for direct ties with the centers of European civilizations, and the desire to participate in the division of the territory of the Livonian Order, the progressive collapse of which became obvious, but which, not wanting to strengthen Muscovite Russia, prevented its external contacts.

Russia had a small segment of the Baltic coast, from the Neva basin to Ivangorod. However, it was strategically vulnerable, and there were no ports or developed infrastructure. Ivan the Terrible hoped to use the transport system of Livonia. He considered it an ancient Russian patrimony, which was illegally seized by the Crusaders.

The forceful solution of the problem predetermined the defiant behavior of the Livonians themselves, who, even according to their historians, acted imprudently. The mass pogroms of Orthodox churches in Livonia served as a pretext for aggravating relations. Even at that time, the term of the truce between Moscow and Livonia (concluded in 1504 as a result of the Russian-Lithuanian war of 1500-1503) ended. To extend it, the Russians demanded the payment of the Yuryev tribute, which the Livonians were obliged to pay even to Ivan III, but for 50 years they never collected it. Recognizing the need to pay it, they again did not fulfill their obligations.

1558 - the Russian army entered Livonia. Thus began the Livonian War. It lasted 25 years, becoming the longest and one of the most difficult in Russian history.

First stage (1558-1561)

In addition to Livonia, the Russian tsar wanted to conquer the East Slavic lands, which were part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. 1557, November - he concentrated a 40,000-strong army in Novgorod to march on the Livonian lands.

Capture of Narva and Syrensk (1558)

In December, this army, under the command of the Tatar prince Shig-Aley, Prince Glinsky and other governors, advanced to Pskov. Meanwhile, the auxiliary army of Prince Shestunov began hostilities from the Ivangorod region at the mouth of the Narva (Narova) River. 1558, January - the tsarist army approached Yuryev (Derpt), but could not capture it. Then part of the Russian army turned towards Riga, and the main forces headed for Narva (Rugodiv), where they joined up with Shestunov's army. There was a lull in the fighting. Only the garrisons of Ivangorod and Narva fired at each other. On May 11, the Russians from Ivangorod attacked the Narva fortress and were able to take it the next day.

Soon after the capture of Narva, Russian troops under the command of the governor Adashev, Zabolotsky and Zamytsky and the duma clerk Voronin were ordered to capture the fortress of Syrensk. On June 2, the regiments were under its walls. Adashev set up barriers on the Riga and Kolyvan roads in order to prevent the main forces of the Livonians under the command of the Master of the Order from reaching Syrensk. On June 5, large reinforcements from Novgorod approached Adashev, which the besieged saw. On the same day, artillery shelling of the fortress began. The next day the garrison surrendered.

Capture of Neuhausen and Dorpat (1558)

From Syrensk, Adashev returned to Pskov, where the entire Russian army was concentrated. In mid-June, it took the fortresses of Neuhausen and Dorpat. The entire north of Livonia was under Russian control. The army of the Order in numerical ratio was several times inferior to the Russians and, moreover, was scattered over separate garrisons. It could not oppose anything to the army of the king. Until October 1558, the Russians in Livonia were able to capture 20 castles.

Battle of Tiersen

1559, January - Russian troops marched on Riga. Near Tirzen they defeated the Livonian army, and near Riga they burned the Livonian fleet. Although it was not possible to capture the Riga fortress, 11 more Livonian castles were taken.

Truce (1559)

The Master of the Order was forced to conclude a truce before the end of 1559. By November of this year, the Livonians were able to recruit landsknechts in Germany and resume the war. But they did not cease to pursue failures.

1560, January - the army of governor Borboshin captured the fortresses of Marienburg and Fellin. The Livonian Order as a military force practically ceased to exist.

1561 - the last master of the Livonian Order, Kettler, recognized himself as a vassal of the king of Poland and divided Livonia between Poland and Sweden (Esel Island went to Denmark). The Poles got Livonia and Courland (Kettler became the Duke of the latter), the Swedes got Estland.

Second stage (1562-1577)

Poland and Sweden began to demand the withdrawal of Russian troops from Livonia. Ivan the Terrible not only did not comply with this requirement, but at the end of 1562 invaded the territory of Lithuania, allied to Poland. His army numbered 33,407 men. The purpose of the campaign is the well-fortified Polotsk. 1563, February 15 - Polotsk, unable to withstand the fire of 200 Russian guns, capitulated. Ivan's army moved to Vilna. The Lithuanians were forced to conclude a truce until 1564. After the resumption of the war, Russian troops occupied almost the entire territory of Belarus.

But the repressions that began against the leaders of the "chosen council" - the actual government until the end of the 50s, had a negative impact on the combat capability of the Russian army. Many of the governors and nobles, fearing reprisals, preferred to flee to Lithuania. In the same 1564, one of the most prominent governors, Prince Andrei Kurbsky, who was close to the Adashev brothers, who were members of the elected Rada, and feared for his life, moved there. The subsequent oprichnina terror further weakened the Russian army.

1) Ivan the Terrible; 2) Stefan Batory

The formation of the Commonwealth

1569 - as a result of the Union of Lublin, Poland and Lithuania formed a single state of the Commonwealth (Republic) under the authority of the King of Poland. Now the Polish army came to the aid of the Lithuanian army.

1570 - the fighting in both Lithuania and Livonia intensified. To secure the Baltic lands, Ivan IV decided to create his own fleet. At the beginning of 1570, he issued a "letter of commendation" for the organization of a privateer (private) fleet, which acted on behalf of the Russian tsar, to the Dane Carsten Rode. Rode was able to arm several ships, and he caused significant damage to the Polish maritime trade. In order to have a reliable naval base, the Russian army in the same 1570 tried to capture Revel, thereby starting a war with Sweden. But the city freely received supplies from the sea, and Grozny was forced to lift the siege after 7 months. The Russian privateer fleet was never able to become a formidable force.

Third stage (1577-1583)

After a 7-year lull, in 1577, the 32,000-strong army of Ivan the Terrible undertook a new campaign to Revel. But this time the siege of the city did not bring anything. Then the Russian troops went to Riga, capturing Dinaburg, Wolmar and several other castles. But these successes were not decisive.

Meanwhile, the situation on the Polish front began to deteriorate. 1575 - an experienced military leader, the Transylvanian prince, was elected king of the Commonwealth. He was able to form a strong army, which also included German and Hungarian mercenaries. Batory concluded an alliance with Sweden, and in the fall of 1578 the combined Polish-Swedish army was able to defeat the 18,000-strong Russian army, which lost 6,000 people killed and captured and 17 guns.

By the beginning of the 1579 campaign, Stefan Batory and Ivan IV had approximately equal main armies of 40,000 men each. Terrible after the defeat at Wenden was not confident in his abilities and offered to start peace negotiations. But Batory rejected this proposal and launched an offensive against Polotsk. In the autumn, Polish troops laid siege to the city and, after a month-long siege, captured it. Rati governor Sheina and Sheremeteva, sent to the rescue of Polotsk, only reached the Sokol fortress. They did not dare to engage in battle with superior enemy forces. Soon the Poles also captured Sokol, defeating the troops of Sheremetev and Shein. The Russian tsar clearly did not have enough strength to successfully fight on two fronts at once - in Livonia and Lithuania. After the capture of Polotsk, the Poles took several cities in Smolensk and Seversk lands, and then returned to Lithuania.

1580 - Batory undertook a big campaign against Russia, he captured and ravaged the cities of Ostrov, Velizh and Velikiye Luki. Then the Swedish army under the command of Pontus Delagardi took the city of Korela and the eastern part of the Karelian Isthmus.

1581 - the Swedish army captured Narva, and the next year they occupied Ivangorod, Yam and Koporye. Russian troops were expelled from Livonia. The fighting moved to the territory of Russia.

Siege of Pskov (August 18, 1581 – February 4, 1582)

1581 - 50,000 Polish troops led by the king laid siege to Pskov. It was a very strong fortress. The city, which stood on the right, high bank of the Velikaya River at the confluence of the Pskov River, was surrounded by a stone wall. It stretched for 10 km and had 37 towers and 48 gates. However, from the side of the Velikaya River, from where it was difficult to expect an enemy attack, the wall was wooden. Under the towers there were underground passages that provided covert communication between different sections of the defense. The city had significant stocks of food, weapons and ammunition.

Russian troops were dispersed over many points, from where an enemy invasion was expected. The tsar himself with a significant detachment stopped in Staritsa, not daring to meet the Polish army marching towards Pskov.

When the sovereign learned about the invasion of Stefan Batory, an army of Prince Ivan Shuisky, who was appointed "great governor", was sent to Pskov. 7 other governors were subordinate to him. All the inhabitants of Pskov and the garrison were sworn in that they would not surrender the city, but would fight to the end. The total number of Russian troops defending Pskov reached 25,000 people and was about half the size of Batory's army. By order of Shuisky, the surroundings of Pskov were devastated so that the enemy could not find food and food there.

Livonian War 1558-1583. Stefan Batory near Pskov

On August 18, Polish troops approached the city at a distance of 2–3 cannon shots. For a week, Batory conducted reconnaissance of the Russian fortifications and only on August 26 gave the order to his troops to approach the city. But the soldiers soon came under fire from Russian guns and retreated to the Cherekha River. There Batory set up a fortified camp.

The Poles began to dig trenches and set up tours to get closer to the walls of the fortress. On the night of September 4-5, they rolled rounds to the Pokrovskaya and Svinaya towers on the southern face of the walls and, placing 20 guns, from the morning of September 6, they began to fire at both towers and 150 m of the wall between them. By the evening of September 7, the towers were badly damaged, and a breach 50 meters wide was formed in the wall. However, the besieged managed to build a new wooden wall against the breach.

On September 8, the Polish army launched an assault. The attackers were able to capture both damaged towers. But shots from the large gun "Bars", capable of sending cores over a distance of more than 1 km, the Pig Tower occupied by the Poles was destroyed. Then the Russians blew up its ruins, rolling up barrels of gunpowder. The explosion served as a signal for a counterattack, led by Shuisky himself. The Poles could not hold the Pokrovskaya Tower either - and retreated.

After an unsuccessful assault, Batory ordered to conduct tunnels to blow up the walls. The Russians were able to destroy two tunnels with the help of mine galleries, the enemy could not finish the rest. On October 24, Polish batteries began shelling Pskov from across the Velikaya River with red-hot cannonballs to start fires, but the city's defenders quickly coped with the fire. After 4 days, a Polish detachment with crowbars and pickaxes approached the wall from the Velikaya side between the corner tower and the Pokrovsky Gate and destroyed the sole of the wall. It collapsed, but it turned out that behind this wall there is another wall and a ditch that the Poles could not overcome. The besieged threw stones and pots of gunpowder on their heads, poured boiling water and pitch.

On November 2, the Poles launched the last assault on Pskov. This time Batory's army attacked the western wall. Prior to that, for 5 days it was subjected to powerful shelling and in several places it was destroyed. However, the Russians met the enemy with heavy fire, and the Poles turned back, never reaching the breaches.

By that time, the morale of the besiegers had fallen noticeably. However, the besieged experienced considerable difficulties. The main forces of the Russian army in Staritsa, Novgorod and Rzhev were inactive. Only two detachments of archers of 600 people each tried to break into Pskov, but more than half of them died or were captured.

On November 6, Batory removed the guns from the batteries, stopped siege work and began to prepare for the winter. At the same time, he sent detachments of Germans and Hungarians to capture the Pskov-Caves Monastery, 60 km from Pskov, but the garrison of 300 archers, supported by monks, successfully repulsed two attacks, and the enemy was forced to retreat.

Stefan Batory, having made sure that he could not take Pskov, in November handed over command to Hetman Zamoysky, and he himself went to Vilna, taking with him almost all the mercenaries. As a result, the number of Polish troops almost halved - to 26,000 people. The besiegers suffered from cold and disease, the death toll and desertion increased.

Results and consequences

Under these conditions, Bathory agreed to a ten-year truce. It was concluded in Yama-Zapolsky on January 15, 1582. Russia renounced all its conquests in Livonia, and the Poles liberated the Russian cities they had occupied.

1583 - the Treaty of Plyus was signed with Sweden. Yam, Koporye and Ivangorod passed to the Swedes. For Russia there was only a small section of the Baltic coast at the mouth of the Neva. But in 1590, after the expiration of the truce, hostilities between the Russians and the Swedes resumed and this time they were successful for the Russians. As a result, according to the Tyavzinsky Treaty on "eternal peace", Russia regained Yam, Koporye, Ivangorod and Korelsky district. But that was only small consolation. In general, Ivan IV's attempt to gain a foothold in the Baltic failed.

At the same time, sharp contradictions between Poland and Sweden on the issue of control over Livonia facilitated the position of the Russian tsar, excluding a joint Polish-Swedish invasion of Russia. The resources of Poland alone, as the experience of Batory's campaign against Pskov showed, were clearly not enough to capture and hold a significant territory of the Muscovite kingdom. At the same time, the Livonian War showed that Sweden and Poland in the east had a formidable enemy to be reckoned with.

The reason for the war was the desire of the Muscovite state to take possession of convenient harbors on the Baltic Sea and establish direct trade relations with Western Europe. In July 1557, by order of Ivan IV (1533–1584), a harbor was built on the right bank of the border Narova; the tsar also forbade Russian merchants to trade in the Livonian ports of Revel (modern Tallinn) and Narva. The reason for the outbreak of hostilities was the non-payment by the Order of the “Yuriev tribute” (a tax that the Derpt (Yuriev) bishopric undertook to pay Moscow under the Russian-Livonian treaty of 1554).

The first period of the war (1558–1561).

In January 1558 the Moscow regiments crossed the border of Livonia. In the spring and summer of 1558, the northern grouping of Russian troops, which invaded Estonia (modern Northern Estonia), captured Narva, defeated the Livonian knights near Wesenberg (modern Rakvere), captured the fortress and reached Revel, and the southern group, which entered Livonia (modern Southern Estonia and Northern Latvia), took Neuhausen and Dorpat (modern Tartu). At the beginning of 1559, the Russians moved to the south of Livonia, captured Marienhausen and Tirzen, defeated the detachments of the Archbishop of Riga, and penetrated Courland and Semigallia. However, in May 1559, Moscow, on the initiative of A.F. Adashev, the leader of the anti-Crimean party at court, concluded a truce with the Order in order to send forces against the Crimean Khan Devlet Giray (1551–1577). Taking advantage of the respite, the Grand Master of the Order G.Ketler (1559–1561) signed an agreement with the Grand Duke of Lithuania and the Polish King Sigismund II Augustus (1529–1572) recognizing his protectorate over Livonia. In October 1559 hostilities resumed: the knights defeated the Russians near Derpt, but could not take the fortress.

The disgrace of A.F.Adasheva led to a change in the foreign policy course. Ivan IV made peace with Crimea and concentrated forces against Livonia. In February 1560, Russian troops launched an offensive in Livonia: they captured Marienburg (modern Aluksne), defeated the army of the Order near Ermes and captured Fellin Castle (modern Viljandi), the residence of the Grand Master. But after the unsuccessful siege of Weissenstein (modern Paide), the Russian offensive slowed down. Nevertheless, the entire eastern part of Estonia and Livonia was in their hands.

In the conditions of the military defeats of the Order, Denmark and Sweden intervened in the struggle for Livonia. In 1559, Duke Magnus, brother of the Danish king Fredrik II (1559-1561), acquired the rights (as a bishop) to the island of Ezel (modern Saaremaa) and in April 1560 took possession of it. In June 1561, the Swedes captured Revel and occupied Northern Estonia. On October 25 (November 5), 1561, Grand Master G. Ketler signed the Vilna Treaty with Sigismund II Augustus, according to which the Order’s possessions north of the Western Dvina (Zadvinsky Duchy) became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the territories to the south (Courland and Zemgalia) formed a vassal duchy from Sigismund, whose throne was occupied by G. Ketler. In February 1562 Riga was declared a free city. The Livonian Order ceased to exist.

Second period of the war (1562–1578).

To prevent the emergence of a broad anti-Russian coalition, Ivan IV concluded an alliance treaty with Denmark and a twenty-year truce with Sweden. This allowed him to gather forces to strike at Lithuania. In early February 1563, the tsar at the head of an army of thirty thousand besieged Polotsk, which opened the way to the Lithuanian capital Vilna, and on February 15 (24) forced its garrison to capitulate. Russian-Lithuanian negotiations began in Moscow, which, however, did not yield results due to the refusal of the Lithuanians to fulfill the demand of Ivan IV to clear the areas of Livonia occupied by them. In January 1564 hostilities resumed. Russian troops tried to launch an offensive deep into Lithuanian territory (to Minsk), but were defeated twice - on the Ulla River in the Polotsk region (January 1564) and near Orsha (July 1564). At the same time, the campaign of the Lithuanians against Polotsk ended unsuccessfully in the autumn of 1564.

After the Crimean Khan violated the peace treaty with Ivan IV in the autumn of 1564, the Muscovite state had to fight on two fronts; hostilities in Lithuania and Livonia took on a protracted character. In the summer of 1566, the tsar convened a Zemsky Sobor to resolve the issue of continuing the Livonian War; its participants spoke in favor of its continuation and rejected the idea of ​​peace with Lithuania by ceding Smolensk and Polotsk to it. Moscow began rapprochement with Sweden; in 1567 Ivan IV signed an agreement with King Eric XIV (1560–1568) to lift the Swedish blockade of Narva. However, the overthrow of Eric XIV in 1568 and the accession of the pro-Polish minded Johan III (1568–1592) led to the dissolution of the Russian-Swedish alliance. The foreign policy position of the Muscovite state worsened even more as a result of the creation in June 1569 (Unia of Lublin) of a single Polish-Lithuanian state - the Commonwealth - and the start of a large-scale offensive of the Tatars and Turks in southern Russia (a campaign against Astrakhan in the summer of 1569).

Having secured himself from the Commonwealth by concluding a three-year truce with it in 1570, Ivan IV decided to strike at the Swedes, enlisting the help of Denmark; to this end, he formed a vassal Livonian kingdom from the Baltic lands he captured, headed by Magnus of Denmark, who married the royal niece. But the Russian-Danish troops could not take Reval, an outpost of the Swedish possessions in the Baltic, and Fredrik II signed a peace treaty with Johan III (1570). Then the king tried to get Revel through diplomacy. However, after the burning of Moscow by the Tatars in May 1571, the Swedish government refused to negotiate; At the end of 1572, Russian troops invaded Swedish Livonia and captured Weissenstein.

In 1572, Sigismund II died, and a period of long “royallessness” (1572–1576) began in the Commonwealth. Part of the gentry even nominated Ivan IV as a candidate for the vacant throne, but the tsar preferred to support the Austrian pretender Maximilian Habsburg; an agreement was concluded with the Habsburgs on the division of the Commonwealth, according to which Moscow was to receive Lithuania, and Austria - Poland. However, these plans did not materialize: in the struggle for the throne, Maximilian was defeated by the Transylvanian prince Stefan Batory.

The defeat of the Tatars near the village of Molodi (near Serpukhov) in the summer of 1572 and the temporary cessation of their raids on the southern Russian regions made it possible to send forces against the Swedes in the Baltic. As a result of the campaigns of 1575–1576, the Russians captured the ports of Pernov (modern Pärnu) and Gapsal (modern Haapsalu) and established control over the western coast between Revel and Riga. But the next siege of Reval (December 1576 - March 1577) again ended in failure.

After the election of the anti-Russian Stefan Batory (1576–1586) as the Polish king, Ivan IV unsuccessfully proposed to the German emperor Rudolf II of Habsburg (1572–1612) to conclude a military-political pact against the Commonwealth (Moscow embassy to Regensburg 1576); negotiations with Elizabeth I (1558–1603) on an Anglo-Russian alliance (1574–1576) also turned out to be fruitless. In the summer of 1577, Moscow last tried to solve the Livonian issue by military means, launching an offensive in Latgale (modern southeast Latvia) and Southern Livonia: Rezhitsa (modern Rezekne), Dinaburg (modern Daugavpils), Kokenhausen (modern Koknese) were taken , Wenden (modern Cesis), Wolmar (modern Valmiera) and many small castles; by the autumn of 1577, all of Livonia up to the Western Dvina was in the hands of the Russians, except for Revel and Riga. However, these successes were temporary. The very next year, the Polish-Lithuanian detachments recaptured Dinaburg and Wenden; Russian troops tried twice to recapture Wenden, but were ultimately defeated by the combined forces of Bathory and the Swedes.

Third period of the war (1579–1583).

Stefan Batory managed to overcome the international isolation of the Commonwealth; in 1578 he concluded an anti-Russian alliance with the Crimea and the Ottoman Empire; Magnus of Denmark went over to his side; he was supported by Brandenburg and Saxony. Planning an invasion of Russian lands, the king carried out a military reform and raised a significant army. In early August 1579, Batory laid siege to Polotsk and on August 31 (September 9) took it by storm. In September, the Swedes blockaded Narva, but failed to capture it.

In the spring of 1580, the Tatars resumed raids on Russia, which forced the tsar to transfer part of his military forces to the southern border. In the summer - autumn of 1580, Batory undertook his second campaign against the Russians: he captured Velizh, Usvyat and Velikie Luki and defeated the army of the governor V.D. Khilkov at Toropets; however, the Lithuanian attack on Smolensk was repulsed. The Swedes invaded Karelia and in November captured the Korela fortress on Lake Ladoga. Military failures prompted Ivan IV to turn to the Commonwealth with a peace proposal, promising to cede all of Livonia to it, with the exception of Narva; but Batory demanded the transfer of Narva and the payment of a huge indemnity. In the summer of 1581, Batory began his third campaign: having occupied Opochka and Ostrov, at the end of August he laid siege to Pskov; a five-month siege of the city, during which thirty-one assaults were repulsed by its defenders, ended in complete failure. However, the concentration of all Russian troops to repel the Polish-Lithuanian invasion allowed the Swedish commander-in-chief P. Delagardie to launch a successful offensive on the southeastern coast of the Gulf of Finland: on September 9 (18), 1581, he took Narva; then Ivangorod, Yam and Koporye fell.

Realizing the impossibility of fighting on two fronts, Ivan IV again tried to reach an agreement with Bathory in order to direct all forces against the Swedes; at the same time, the defeat near Pskov and the aggravation of contradictions with Sweden after the capture of Narva softened anti-Russian sentiments at the Polish court. On January 15 (24), 1582, in the village of Kiverova Gora near Zampolsky Yam, through the mediation of the papal representative A. Possevino, a ten-year Russian-Polish truce was signed, according to which the tsar ceded to the Commonwealth all his possessions in Livonia and the Velizh district; for its part, the Commonwealth returned the captured Russian cities of Velikie Luki, Nevel, Sebezh, Opochka, Kholm, Izborsk (Yam-Zampolsky truce).

In February 1582, Russian troops moved against the Swedes and defeated them near the village of Lyalitsa near Yam, but because of the threat of a new invasion of the Crimean Tatars and the pressure of Polish-Lithuanian diplomacy, Moscow had to abandon plans to attack Narva. In the autumn of 1582, P. Delagardie launched an attack on Oreshek and Ladoga, intending to cut off the routes between Novgorod and Lake Ladoga. On September 8 (17), 1582, he laid siege to Oreshek, but in November he was forced to lift the siege. The invasion of the Great Nogai Horde in the Volga region and the anti-Russian uprising of the local peoples forced Ivan IV to enter into peace negotiations with Sweden. In August 1583, a three-year truce was concluded, according to which the Swedes kept Narva, Ivangorod, Yam, Koporye and Korela with counties; The Muscovite state retained only a small section of the coast of the Gulf of Finland at the mouth of the Neva.

As a result of the Livonian War, Russia failed to establish itself in the Baltic; moreover, she lost the Northern and Western Ladoga region. The Livonian Order was liquidated, but its possessions were divided between the Commonwealth (Lifland, Latgale, Zemgalia, Courland), Sweden (Estland) and Denmark (Fr. Ezel).

Ivan Krivushin

I wholeheartedly welcome you! Klim Sanych, good afternoon. Good afternoon. Hello. Happy Birthday! Thank you. Health! It is important. You will take the rest yourself. Yes. About what today? We, with all these terrible movie tricks that the domestic film industry poured on us in a flurry, as well as with a regular reaction to current moments, as well as with all sorts of decent films that we also constantly analyze, we completely forgot about the basis, namely about military history. I'm still a military historian, I yearned, I want to talk about the war. And not an expert on shit like "Form of Water", damn it. Yes. Which we have to do to get high. Yes, yes, of course, of course, of course. Yes, and so, we have the Livonian War, which in some way has its anniversary this year. It started in 1558, and now it's 2018, i.e. we get an even date, and there is no reason not to analyze this significant event, especially since it is already so publicized in history books. Judging by the name, we fought with some kind of Livonia? Yes Yes Yes. But this is actually a big misconception. Everyone thinks that the Livonian War means that we fought with Livonia, that's it. And today I propose to give some introductory, because the Livonian War is a very long, very big (as they would say now, stupid term) geopolitical conflict. So-so. And it is impossible, I think, to start immediately directly to military operations, we need to make a well-founded approach. Those. first, figure out what was happening there around this very Livonia and not only, and only then, step by step, analyze the course of hostilities, all kinds of wonderful battles that took place inside there, especially since we have already sorted out one of them - the Polotsk capture. Will we fit in 1 video? Nine! Only a few. So-so. And then I immediately say that we are still for the start, then as it goes, we will analyze only the Livonian war itself, because, but I’m running a little ahead. And you need to start with periodization, firstly, and secondly, with the same thing as the term, what was, in fact, the Livonian War. Because, as you rightly said, the Livonian war, which means it is with the Livonians. And we know from school that it was a very important conflict that tore the Muscovite kingdom of Ivan the Terrible, because of which the Troubles immediately began. Because they spent all the money there, they killed all the military, and those who were not killed, they became poorer, everyone became brutalized because of this Livonian war, we lost it in the end, and then Ivan the Terrible suddenly died, and it happened ... From anger. From anger, from rage, yes, from bedsores. And the Troubles began, and everything was bad as a result. Well, in this way it turns out logically that it was the Livonian War that was the main war waged by Russia during the time of Ivan the Terrible. Well, since they lost it and everything is bad, then it is so. But it is not so. But I’ll interrupt you, excuse me, because as usual they will start asking questions, but due to illiteracy, exactly one author, citizen Skrynnikov, is known to me. Yes. Are his books under Ivan the Terrible good? Well, you need to know them, because Skrynnikov dug deep. We send everyone - ZhZL, the life of wonderful people, the author is Skrynnikov, I don’t remember the name. Ruslan Grigorievich. Ruslan Grigorievich. The book is called “Ivan the Terrible”. And there are a number of others. In fact, of course, there are many more books about Ivan the Terrible, there are far from only Skrynnikov, but we will definitely give a list of recommended literature, as we usually do when examining historical topics. But about the Livonian War, it would seem, the most important war of Ivan the Terrible, and until recently there were no special books about it at all. Why? Those. inside different books, of course, they wrote about her, and sometimes quite a lot. And if you collect them to the heap, all these books, then in general you get some kind of incredible historiographical background. And now they have just begun to write, by and large, about the Livonian War personally. It's hard to say why, I don't know why. Ie ... Do not want to indicate the merits of Ivan? I don't know, it's a mystery. I just think that it’s impossible to do everything in a row, and the Livonian War is such a giant tangle that you can’t take it on the fly, so we think - well, we have it, well, okay, then. Here. And then someone else says "later." In the meantime, about the repression. In the meantime, of course, let's talk about repression, yes. But the stable historiographical term "Livonian War" nevertheless developed, although, of course, if contemporaries knew that they were participating in the Livonian War, they would be very surprised. About how the French and the British, having learned that they are fighting in the Hundred Years War. Because the Livonian War is from 1558, and it is traditionally considered that from 1583 to the Plyussky truce with Sweden. In fact, of course, this is not entirely true. And why, now I will try to explain. Because there was no Livonian war as such, it is a series of interconnected conflicts, albeit thematically in terms of meaning, but which each fought back from each other both by the participating countries, and by specific peace treaties, specific declarations of war. It was a protracted conflict of the parties, in which far from only Russia and Livonia participated, this is the most important thing, Livonia almost did not participate there at all. There were Lithuanians, Poles, Swedes, Danes, Russia, of course, a little Livonia, and even the Tatars managed to participate directly and indirectly. And all why - because Livonia, i.e. Livonian Confederation, the so-called. By the end of the 15th century, and even in the 16th century, the Livonian Order was all the more sick man in Europe, which the Ottoman Empire later became in the 19th century. This was the naturally sick man of Europe. This was due to something - well, in general, of course, with the crisis of the order state. It was the last state of the Order of all that were, probably, except for the knights of the Order of Ivan of Jerusalem, the Hospitallers in Malta. The fact is that the top-level organizations that cover them, namely the states that somehow formed these very orders, were not up to it in the 16th century. In particular, the Livonian Confederation was also a vassal of the Holy Roman Emperor of the German Nation. But, as it turned out, the emperor was the first to leak it. Moreover, there were such seemingly impossible moments when the former Teutonic Order, which at that time had already become just Prussia, fought on the side of the Poles and Lithuanians against Livonia. Those. it’s generally one whole that just happened literally in the 15th century. Those. The Teutonic Order, it was, as it were, the commander of the Livonian landmaster, it was one whole, there was Lithuania between them and they tried to unite. But, nevertheless, here we see how the Prussian Duke Albrecht, together with the Poles and Lithuanians, withdraws his troops to the border with Livonia. Because even the Prussians also looked in that direction. And why did they look - well, it's easy to guess that this part of the Baltic coast was a very important trading point, because there are such wonderful cities as Tallinn ... the Danish fortress. Danish fortress, later known as Revel. Riga is standing there. And all these cities close on themselves, well, almost the entire Russian trade in the Baltic. And the Russian Baltic trade, who did not hear our last year's videos about the milestones of Russian history, the Baltic trade is very important, because the Baltic trade is what closes all, almost all, Eurasian trade. That is, everything that goes along the Volga from the Caspian Sea; everything that goes through the Dnieper from the Black Sea; everything that goes along what used to be called the Great Silk Road, it is somehow distributed over different, as they say now, hubs. That is, to the Mediterranean Sea in one direction, and in the other direction, the only sea route there is the Baltic, everything comes to the Baltic. And who will be at the distribution point, he will inevitably receive a lot of money. Because the Baltic, as you might guess, is the northern Mediterranean Sea, because it is located among the lands - on the one hand, Scandinavia, closes all of Denmark and, therefore, the German Baltic coast. And the Swedes just wanted to make it their inland sea. Yes. And even for a moment they succeeded. By the time of the Kalmar Union of the 14th century, when Denmark, Sweden and Norway were practically united, then it all, of course, fell apart, and by the time of the reign of Charles XII at the beginning of the 18th century, and, in fact, under his dad, under Charles XI, this is already the end of the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich - the beginning of the reign of Peter I, this, too, for some time was practically the Swedish inland sea, practically. Well, not only the Swedes wanted to make it an inland sea. That is, it is clear that neither Germany nor anyone else could make it internal, but they really wanted to crush the entire coast under themselves. And whoever wanted it - Lithuania, of course, it has direct access to the Baltic Sea, and it needed the whole piece of the Baltic to be its own. Naturally, Poland, as friends of the Lithuanians, since the Union of Krevo, is also the 14th century, a union state. Naturally, I have already mentioned Germany through Prussia; Denmark, because at one time the Danes sold their Danish fortress Daalina along with the knights who settled there around the Livonians. And now, well, the Livonians are dying, so you need to take it back, this is a Danish fortress, even the name is like that, you look. Here, first. Secondly, of course, the Danes could not allow the Swedes to become stronger at this expense, because the Swedes are their direct competitors from all sides for many centuries. And, of course, Russia, because the Livonian Order is something that was constantly in close, I would even say dialectical relationship with the northwestern lands of Russia, that is, Novgorod and Pskov. And, of course, everything was brewed not under Ivan the Terrible, everything was brewed under Ivan III. Those. it, of course, was brewed much earlier, but here is the story that is directly adjacent to ours, to the Livonian war, it all began under the grandfather of Ivan IV, under Ivan the Great, under Ivan III. At this time, the Livonian Order was already feeling unwell, the Livonian Confederation. Well, first of all, because it's a confederation. Not a single confederate state of small size, surrounded by generally quite strong neighbors, will last long, because, as we remember, what Livonia is - Livonia is actually order territories, that is, military monastic ones, these are several bishoprics, which, it would seem, are included into one confederation, but they, as a rule, pursued their very independent policy, sometimes they directly clashed inside, it came to armed clashes. Wow - inside the state, some bishop said - something I don’t like everything, and went to fight with his president. They entered into direct conspiracies with the enemies of the order, there they periodically had to be arrested, these bishops, if they could, of course. Well, of the bishoprics, the 2 largest ones played the main role, these are Terpsky (on the site of the old Russian city of Yuryev) and Riga. Riga is the oldest city in Livonia, founded in 1202 by Bishop Albrecht. And unfortunately for the Livonians, and to great happiness for everyone else, the last master, Walter von Plettenberg, I do not mean the last master of the Livonian Order, but the last such a successful master, who acted as an independent figure, such a bright independent figure, he was , firstly, a very energetic person, an extremely successful military leader and a very skilled military leader, frankly, even Ivan III cried with him. Although where is this Livonia of this size, and, therefore, the Moscow nascent kingdom of this size. He beat us regularly. By virtue of his charisma and powerful organizational abilities, he fixed this state of confederation, i.e. through Lithuania, the Teutonic Order, also not feeling well, it was able to transform in the 16th century, turning into a secular state. He let himself under the roof of the Poles and, in general, lived well. But the Livonians are not, the Livonians are fixed in the old medieval form. Of course, Plettenberg had reason to do so - why, because Livonia was a point where all sorts of fools and parasites, alcoholics and other downshifters were fused. Like Finland for the Swedes. Yes Yes Yes. But downshifters went there with a specific goal - to re-downshift back, because there are again great prospects. And, of course, fraternities immediately formed there, because it’s just to come to the Livonian Order and say that I’m here too, excuse me, knight, I’ll fight here for a little, of course, it was possible, and even you would have been given to fight, but you would have been given nothing to earn there - no land, no money, well, except for the fact that you will directly fight. People were exiled there, as I once said, when we talked about the short Livonian-Novgorod war in the 40s of the 15th century, people from the Rhine and Westphalia were exiled there. So they trod this path, naturally formed a community there, and they didn’t let anyone in, well, at least on an industrial scale. Well, then the Danes let in another constellation of independent Danish knights, who were simply handed over together with Tallinn, who saw both the Westafalians and the Rhines in the coffin, but loved themselves. This, of course, added strength to this state. Well, proceeding from this, a crisis erupted, because Walter von Plettenberg died, and there was no longer such a boss - energetic, charismatic, etc., who simply by his personality could solder it all together. Because in fact, to expect that everyone will be such a wonderful boss is rather stupid, this does not happen. And the system itself was practically unviable. Well, of course, everyone immediately became interested that if it all dies, and it dies before our eyes, someone lucky will be the first to take it, so everyone immediately pricked up their hairy ears and began to look closely who would just rush there first. Walther von Plettenberg, it must be said, although he defeated the Russian troops several times, he never, as a sober person, thought that this could be done on an ongoing basis. He understood perfectly well that he could beat the Russians only because Ivan III was at war with Casemir IV of Lithuania. He is just very busy, he can not come to grips with all this, there is no time. Therefore, when the Lithuanians and Poles offered Walter von Plettenberg to form a single anti-Russian coalition, he nobly refused, saying that nothing good would come of it for me. You may be, I won't survive this. Let's do it ourselves. I won't survive this. Yes, and, of course, there was a very strong pro-Russian party in the order, and a strong, of course, anti-Russian party, i.e. hawks and doves of peace. The doves of the world, as a rule, were connected directly with the trading circles, who just needed to trade, that's all, period. And the hawks had to impose some kind of their own will, well, this is a paramilitary state, it was necessary to expand somehow, at least in the commercial sense. Naturally, they clashed with Sweden, because Sweden is another point with which Russia borders, through which we can sell or buy something, vice versa. And now, after Walther von Plettenberg, Master von der Recke, he issued a certain decree, where once again it was written what goods could be traded with Russia. This is a potential military adversary, therefore, starting from the 13th century, strategic goods were not allowed to pass to us on an ongoing basis. Here von der Recke once again wrote what exactly should not be missed. And you can not skip gold, silver, tin, lead, iron, horses, armor and weapons. Sanctions have been imposed on us. Well, because silver is money, everyone knew perfectly well that Russia does not have its own silver, we do not have our own lead, we do not have our own tin, well, there is not enough tin at all. It needs to be specially developed, extracted from ores, then they did not know how to do this, it needs to simply be native, and this is a big problem. Only when Varlam Shalamov appeared, he was sent to develop tin. Yes Yes. Those. there will be no silver - there will be no money; there will be no tin - there will be no bronze; there will be no bronze - there will be no guns. Well, there will be no lead, there will be nothing to make bullets from. Well, everything is clear about armor and weapons, they have a specific military purpose, horses are the same. Everyone knew very well that in Russia the horse stock was weak. Those. It is simply impossible to equip mass cavalry with good horses. Therefore, we do not supply horses. And the merchants wanted to supply, because it is a lot of money, that's all, because of this there was a constant conflict. The merchants, and first of all, the Germans did not try from the Livonian Confederation, they were regularly caught here. For example, this was already after Ivan III, it was under Vasily III, they caught a certain Dutch merchant, who, as it turned out, was not the first time bringing ships full of tin and herring to Novgorodians. He was caught and fined and sent to hell in 1530. Back in the 15th century, a German merchant who regularly brought iron and weapons to Russia was eventually caught, arrested, fined, taken away everything and thrown away. And he drove again, because, apparently, it was very profitable. And so they caught him a second time and cut off his head. No, well, since such decrees were constantly, it means that someone constantly tried to smuggle and successfully drove. On the other hand, Novgorodians and Pskovians could not pass by the Order's possessions on the sea route. The sea route of the Middle Ages is coastal. Along the shore. Along the coast, first. Secondly, even if it is not along the coast, then a serious port, in which a serious fleet is stationed, has the ability to intercept other people's ships at a fairly large distance from its own base. Those. post some patrols. Yes sir. Those. you are sailing somewhere to trade, you - rest with us. - Well no. - Get some rest. With all due respect. With all due respect, yes. Immediately, customs comes to you, asks what you have. Well, they say - listen, but we, by the way, signed an agreement 150 years ago, you can only trade with us. You seem to be from Novgorod, well, apparently, yes, you will trade here. Well, that's all, you have to trade in Riga or Tallinn. Those. you will no longer sail past Riga and Tallinn. Maybe you will be able to slip past one of the cities, but somewhere you will definitely fall completely. I don't go past Tallinn and Riga without joking. Yes. So. For the umpteenth time I am surprised how the ancestors always seem to be somehow narrow-minded, unreasonable, but here you go - and the port, and patrols, and interception, and customs. And sanctions. And you can trade only here, where the money is, damn it. Yes. Therefore, Novgorodians, starting from the 12th century, simply could not swim anywhere, they received guests at home. Ours, of course, responded with all love. Complete reciprocity. Complete reciprocity. Those. here comes a German from Livonia, you will trade only in the German courtyard with specially indicated merchants. Here 3 people will come to you, here you will trade with them. Rates are like this, volumes are like this. Yes of course. You cannot engage in retail trade yourself, you cannot deal with purchases yourself. Again, if you want purchases, here are those guys with licenses. Hans and Friedrich. Yes, no, these are Russians Vanya and Petya. Here you, Hans and Friedrich, will buy from them what you wanted to buy there, by the way. Here. It is clear that special trading corporations were engaged in all this. For example, fur has covered the entire northern trade with fur since the 13th century, the so-called. Ivanova hundred, Ivanova 100 in Novgorod, one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful trading corporation. Because fur was a strategic commodity, which was actually a real currency. And now you could only buy fur from Ivanov 100. You couldn’t go to this Yugra yourself, to Biarmia, where, in fact, the fur came from. The Germans, of course, tried to swim around the Kola Peninsula, around Arkhangelsk, but it was too far away, the ice conditions there were not good. Well, in general, you can’t climb there on a permanent basis. Since the early Middle Ages, since the Viking times, there is a well-known saga there, how they rode there, to Biarmia. Accordingly, if you want to go to Novgorod, you will hire only Novgorod pilots. Pilots were specially on duty there, then these barge haulers who dragged the ships through the portage, please don’t bring your own. If you brought it, let them rest here for now. They will wait. They will wait. Well, or as a guest they will go to Novgorod, where they will leave money in a brothel, in a tavern somewhere. You can't work. And in such an environment, Ivan III annexed Novgorod. And then they wonder where the war comes from. How else can this issue be resolved, why do you have all the money, and not us? Yes. Ivan III in such a situation, this Novgorod finally accepted back into the bosom of the Russian state with open arms - we walked, that's enough. Since 1136, at large, something is not working out well for you, come with us, here. Novgorod was besieged, everyone was given a cap, and Novgorod became the site of a very broad social experiment, as we would now put it, namely, 2,600 Moscow nobles, the children of the boyars, were resettled in Novgorod, spreading land there for them. Actually, regular local typesetting begins from Novgorod, i.e. these same children of the boyars, the nobles, turned into landlords in the full sense of the word, i.e. into knights obligated to feudal service for the conditional holding of land and peasants. And from Novgorod, accordingly, some nobles were evicted to other places, so that they would not be very happy there ... Clusters. Kuchkovaniy, yes, so for sure, so that they are not very satisfied. True, of course, it must be said that the Muscovites, when we were in Novgorod, arranged a grouping themselves, they immediately made friends with the Novgorodians right there, they formed their own kublo. Novgorod, as you know, had to be brought to life several more times, and the last time it was Ivan the Terrible. Most successful. Well, Ivan III also did it very successfully, just Ivan IV did it for the last time and finally. By the way, he then had to extinguish when they say that he extinguished the Novgorodians, he extinguished the descendants of Muscovites, who were settled there by his grandfather. It was they who, in general, arranged some initiatives, which then had to be dealt with somehow. It is their rotten devils who muddy the water in the pond. Yes Yes Yes. Well, we have already talked about the uprising, and it will probably be necessary to talk separately, for now, about the war. Ivan III took over Novgorod, and suddenly it became clear that this Livonian confederation was a very dialectical neighbor. That is, on the one hand, it directly harms, but it simply directly harms. On the other hand, they have been negotiating with him for 150 years, and it is possible to coexist. But if you keep the Livonians in such a loose form, this is a magnificent limitrophe as a counterbalance to the Lithuanians. Those. no one even thought to win it. Of course, there were quite specific territorial claims, especially on the ground, there, in general, apparently, this was a trade war, then a small war of partisan sabotage groups, small detachments in general very rarely stopped. But in a global sense, no one needs to conquer them. What for? You can give money and they will fight against the Lithuanians. It's much cheaper than having your own troops. Certainly. And if you conquer them, they will have to be protected, these territories. Well, this is a huge territory, in fact, there are a lot of buildings, they will need to be maintained, guarded, defended against the Lithuanians, the front will immediately lengthen. Therefore, for some time, for a very long time, no one thought about finally resolving the issue with the Livonians. On the contrary, they tried to keep them in such a state, in a state of eternal semi-chaos as long as possible. And here, of course, you need to look in 2 directions at once, namely, in the direction of Lithuanian and Polish, and in the direction of the Crimean. Because the Lithuanians, especially when they became close friends with the Poles, became, in general, at some point the dominant force in the region. Actually, only Ivan III and Vasily III were able to successfully resist them on an ongoing basis. Accordingly, the Poles have just dealt with the Teutonic Order, i.e., as it is correct to say, with the German Order. By the way, do you remember once asking me why the Teutonic Order, although the Teutons have all been there for a long time? Mariy also cut them, yes. So, it just actually turned out, I never even thought about this issue. You know that the word Germany is spelled Deutsch, i.e. Deutsch. And earlier, in the Middle Ages, it was written through T. Teutsch. Toych. Teutsch. So it turns out Teut, this is the German Order. Teutonic means Germanic, Teutonic means only Germanic. Teut, well, or Teut, like that. Interesting. So, the Poles dealt with the Teutonic Order and had very specific intentions to deal with the Livonian Order too. But they also needed a limitroph, i.e. someone who will create a kind of counterbalance to Russia in the Northwest. State-laying. Yes Yes Yes. And so they constantly tried to bring the confederation under some kind of treaty, which would imply either an armed alliance against Russia, or at least armed neutrality against Russia. Those. if we are at war with Russia, you are either obliged to deploy troops, or you are obliged to look approvingly at our actions, and, accordingly, to carry out some trade sanctions there. Yes. It was the same thing that Ivan III sought, only from the other side. Well, Ivan III began to successfully fight the Lithuanians, with Casimir IV. Subsequently, his policy was continued very successfully by Vasily III. Those. we remember this war of the early 16th century, which ended with the battle of Vedrosh, we remember the first Smolensk war of 1512-1522, when in 1514 Vasily III captured Smolensk on the 3rd attempt. After that, he lost the battle of Orsha, which, in general, did not lead to anything, we left the town for ourselves until the Time of Troubles. And Ivan III walked so wide for only one reason: he brought Kazan under his arm. Those. Kazan, he did not actually capture, i.e. yes, there was a successful military enterprise, Kazan actually submitted to it, it became a friendly state. And he was friends with the Krymchaks, namely with the founder of the Giray Mengli-Girai I. In this case, you can be friends only for one reason, when there is someone to be friends with, because the Krymchaks hated the Great Horde with the center in modern Astrakhan. Because the Astrakhans, as the heirs of the Juchi ulus, quite seriously believed that the Kazanians, the Crimeans, and the Nagais owed them everything, i.e. they should be at their fingertips, it's our everything. And neither the Nagais, nor the Kazanians, nor the Crimeans categorically disagreed with this, i.e. at all. Well, i.e. all this meant that money had to be paid, and no one wanted to pay money, they needed it themselves. Firstly, to pay money, and secondly, if those in Astrakhan come up with something, go somewhere to fight. But the Krymchaks, for example, were not interested in fighting for the Astrakhans at all, the Krymchaks have an excellent position. On the one hand, they are located on the Black Sea and from this Crimea they can trade with anyone - slaves in the first place. And secondly, instead of going somewhere to Derbent, waving a saber there, it’s not at all clear for what purpose, it’s much easier to run into either Moscow or Vilna, catch men and women there and sell them in Kaffa. Here. And since The Great Horde at that time was a serious force, whatever one may say, although it seems that Ivan III repelled them there and on the Ugra, but still they had to be reckoned with, and everyone, it was a very dangerous opponent if you quarreled with him. So, Mengli Giray and Ivan III were friends against the Great Horde. And Ivan III constantly skillfully let his sidekick Mengli-Giray into Podolia, i.e. the southwestern lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, so that he would work there, as the Germans say, this is the very thing, raub und moert, i.e. robbed and killed, he was an excellent specialist in this respect, he robbed and killed. Lock the floors, now there will be robberies. Yes sir. True, of course, it must be said that Ivan III was extremely clever in letting his Muslim sidekick into his own Orthodox lands. Well done. Because, of course, Mengli Giray would like to get to the Lithuanian lands, but it is very far away. Actually, where ethnic Lithuanians live. But there is no need to think very badly about Ivan III, he was just a man of the feudal era, for him these were his own, those who were his subjects, i.e. who pay taxes to him and owe him vassalage. And the people of Kiev, for example, were obliged to vassal service to the Lithuanians, so excuse me. What nationality and specifically religion they were, everyone was on the drum. Nobody is interested. Yes. No, well, of course, in this way, again, according to medieval customs, for example, the people of Kiev or the people of Chernigov, Novgorod-Severets made it clear that you were watching while you were with these Lithuanian fools, you would be robbed. And if you are with us, you will not be robbed. So did everyone in all the Middle Ages. There, for example, the civilized Edward III Plantagenet went to war with France. The first thing he did, after winning the battle of Sluys there, which allowed him to land an army (battle of the sea), which allowed him to land an army in French territory, he engaged in the well-known practice of grandes voyages, i.e. long walks, i.e. just bandit raids on the territory of France there with burned villages and stolen people. The name of the idiotic film, in my opinion, with Louis de Funes, "The Big Walk", is it just about that, or what? Yes, somehow it was different, there were no grandes voyages, the allusion is unequivocal that there are 3 Englishmen going through France, that's what it is, grandes voyages. Deep, damn it. Here. This is such a hint that is generally understandable to people who in France and England read a school history textbook. And here you are, civilized people were doing exactly the same thing at about the same time. I’m already silent, what they were doing when there were religious wars of Catholics and Huguenots inside France, the same thing. And this is literally at the same time that we will talk about, the middle-second half of the 16th century. Nothing interfered. Although these are not just Catholics and Huguenots, this is just one country, France, within themselves, they did such things there that Ivan IV would seem like a funny guy with a beard, here, in some kind of ridiculous golden mantle, here. And they are all so refined, so, in tights with codpieces, they did absolutely terrible things with each other. We'll talk about this, I hope. Necessarily. I want, when we talk, in fact, about the military operations of the Livonian War, to talk about a parallel process that took place in Europe, in fact, and dwell on the wonderful battle of Dro. Who beat whom there? French French. Here. Aside, to the Crimeans again. The Crimeans were friends with Ivan III and really interfered with the Lithuanians, so Ivan III simply had his hands untied, he could constantly engage in western expansion, take back the lands of the Rurikovichs, because he himself was a Rurikovich, and for good reason believed that he had the right on the entire legacy of the Rurikovichs. Vasily III did the same, but he quarreled with the Girays, and specifically with Muhammad-Giray. And he quarreled for one simple reason, because the entire alliance with Mengli Giray was actually built on sand. As soon as we looked towards the Volga and we became an enemy of the Great Horde, the Krymchaks did not need to be friends with us, because if we deal directly with the Great Horde, then the Krymchaks have a free hand, on the one hand. On the other hand, Crimea is a vassal territory of the Ottoman Empire, which the Ottoman Empire influenced very, very strongly. They could give some kind of order, because the most important interests on the Volga were, of course, not with the Great Horde, despite all the remnants of its power. It was with a new player, namely the Ottoman Empire, which sought to subdue all Muslim lands under itself, either directly or indirectly. And under Vasily III, in 1522, Muhammad Giray sent him a letter demanding tribute. And Vasily III, of course, refuses, because for what, in fact, the reason? Well, Muhammad-Giray reaches Moscow, crosses the Oka, smashes the army of Vasily III to smithereens, Vasily III flees from Moscow, leaving instead of himself the baptized Tatar Peter in Moscow to steer instead of Luzhkov. He himself escapes to Novgorod, Peter is forced to give him on behalf of the king, Muhammad Giray, a letter stating that the Moscow Tsar is a tributary of the Crimean Tsar. Strongly. Here. The suburbs of Moscow have been burnt down, Tatar patrols are walking on Sparrow Hills in Tsarskoye Selo. There was one of the villages that belonged personally to the king, they plundered everything there. And after that, we could not fight normally with the Lithuanians simply because we had a multi-pood Crimean core hanging on our leg. And here you need to understand a very important thing, who fought with the Lithuanians. Lithuanians were in constant contact with people of the future Novgorod category, i.e. those who were just sitting here Novgorod, Pskov, this is about 1/6 of our entire cavalry, it was the 2nd territorial point in terms of power, after Moscow, of course. Moreover, unlike Moscow, Novgorod, the future Novgorod category, as we would say, the governor-general, probably, this could be called this. It has never been territorially divided, it was one whole territorial border division. Moscow has never acted as some kind of such a single entity, because they could transfer part of the cities for warfare and organizational and accounting activities to their neighbors, take it for themselves, in short, it has been transformed all the time. Novgorodians all the time stayed in the monolith. Because of this, they had a very powerful merged corporation, which again had a very strong tradition of local feudal corporate self-government. And fighting, for example, with Lithuanians or Livonians, they, firstly, defended their own interests, because they were on the border, they defended their lands, or they could take something away for themselves. Those. receive a visible material profit for yourself or your family. Well, if they slap you, it happens, then at least the children will not be left behind, because you will take away land from someone and cut them off for yourself. Or you will take away the peasants and settle them at your place. But since then, they have constantly had to leave every year for the Oksky border on the river to fight with the Krymchaks. And it was without any profit to fight the Krymchaks. Because what are Krymchaks? Krymchaks appear incomprehensibly when, and without declaring war easily, having gathered ... Murzas, uhlans and Tatar Cossacks, they simply ran on the decision of some local regional chief, and they had to be caught. The fights were constant, maybe not very big, but extremely fierce. And here we have, counting from 1522, the reign of actually Alexei Mikhailovich, we have this Oksky, then Belgorod frontier, it never stopped, service was required there all the time, but you could not win anything there. You could only die there. Just fight back, yes. Yes. Because in order to win something from the Krymchaks, it was necessary to reach the Crimea, but we could not do this, because we, as a settled empire of that time, were very much attached to the means of communication, and these were rivers. Those. we could fight with Kazan, Astrakhan, with the Lithuanians simply because we could drag heavy artillery and artillery outfit in general along the rivers, and along some more or less acceptable roads, and it will help both in field combat and heavy artillery help to take the city, that's how they took Polotsk, for example, or how they took Kazan. And it was impossible to bring it to the Krymchaks, because if you leave for the steppe, then you may simply not return from there. Food, water, diarrhea. Because the march across the steppe looks like without points where you can concentrate food, ammunition, rest, recover, well, it turned into just creepy horror even for regular armies. How Peter I went to the Prut and how it ended, this is the only serious defeat in general, and it almost turned into a catastrophe for the Russian army in the 18th century. We could not cope with the Turks, and with the same Krymchaks who were let in there, although the regular army. This is not a medieval army, it is managed differently, manned differently, supplied differently. Somehow, again, there is a layout according to how the march of the Russian cavalry looked like. We talked about the Mongols a long time ago, so we need to talk about the Russians. So, we couldn’t bring the guns to the Crimea, so we could only fight off the Krymchaks, and it was generally clear to the Novgorodians what they needed, but it was without any profit for them, they wanted to fight the Livonians, it’s not so dangerous. And the Krymchaks, understanding all these nuances, organized the Crimean auction. This is an accepted term in historiography. Well, they sold themselves to Lithuanians and attacked Moscow, or Muscovites and attacked Lithuanians. Well done. Here. We understand that there were people lured in the Crimea. Like the Lithuanians, I guess. As, of course, with the Lithuanians, there was a diplomatic mission there on a permanent basis, and our well-wishers, such as, for example, such Yamat-Murza, he directly wrote to the Grand Duke that I cannot defend your interests, because the Lithuanians literally bombard the khan with gold, jewelry , commemoration, i.e. gifts. Are commemorations gifts? Yes. He demanded regular commemorations. And if you didn’t do regular commemoration for him, he went to fight against you. And the brother of Muhammad-Giray Sahib-Giray, for example, he did not hesitate to write to Vasily III that he demanded to be his vassal, as we would say now, and to regularly pay him money, formulating it in such a way that if you do not pay, I will come myself and I'll take a lot more. Those. you better pay. Set out rates. Yes, yes, yes, because as much as I take, I take as much, I take as much. So if you just pay, it will be cheaper. Be kind. Yes. Which, of course, Vasily III did not like in any case, but not to pay, he could not not pay all the time, because it was really cheaper to pay, on the one hand; on the other hand, given the Lithuanian factor, it was too expensive to pay the Krymchaks all the time. But then Vasily III died, in fact, to what I am leading all this, to Ivan IV, because where is the Crimea, where is Livonia, now we will tie them up. Vasily III died, Ivan IV came, he was the third grandson, kalach in the kingdom grated and husband of many wives. Here. Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible was his name, because he was a serious, respectable person. He is not sweet with tricks and his mind is not lame, he brought order - at least roll a ball. He was still, when he was 15 years old, respectively, he was born in 1530, in 1545 the first trip to Kazan, which under Vasily III was completely abandoned from us. It all ended with the bloody capture of 1552, after which it suddenly turned out that we were not only not friends to the Krymchaks, but fierce enemies, because in 1556 we took Astrakhan, we closed the Volga on ourselves, and the Krymchaks had no enemies at all, except for Russia. After that, it became impossible to put up with us. In addition, the Turks simply killed the predecessor of Devlet Giray I when he began to pursue too independent a policy. And Devlet-Giray was a cautious man, he, when he is presented as such a Hitler in a skullcap who wanted to continuously fight with Russia, no, he would not be against theoretically, but he was a cautious person, a very, very smart and careful person. But since he was cautious, he understood that if he did not fight with Russia, the Turks would also do something to him, because they had all the possibilities and means of influence on the Crimea, especially since it was their official vassal, Crimea, they were obliged obey. Well, of course, with reservations, like any vassal, he is a vassal only because he is obliged to the overlord to the same extent as the overlord is obliged to him. And this balance is maintained only in the sense that the overlord can be very strong, and yet you owe him a little more. Those. partnership is unbalanced. And they began to push him to war. On the one hand, the Lithuanians continuously paid him, they simply continuously bombarded him with gifts, just this Yamat-Murza wrote that I could not do anything. And Devlet-Girey wrote to Ivan the Terrible with approximately the same content as Sahib-Girey, saying that you would be my younger brother, i.e. vassal. Vanya... Yes, and it began... This, by the way, immediately coincides with the capture of Kazan, 1552. And the 25-year war with the Krymchaks began, which ended only in 1577, only in 1577 did it end. And it was during this war that an organizational, military, and even a psychological portrait of a Russian serviceman in general was formed, who was forced every year to defend his native borders, which is called disinterestedly, i.e. not having the desire to rob something, the desire and ability to rob something, to this very damn Oka. And moreover, all military corporations throughout Russia were involved there. Those. Novgorodians have been there, and Kazanians have been there, and, of course, Muscovites have been there on a permanent basis. In general, this shift service at the Oka line devoured monstrous resources, simply monstrous. It all ended with the fact that in 1571 Devlet Giray burned Moscow to the ground, in fact, only the Kremlin remained. The next year, in 1572, the bloody battle of Molodi, which, in fact, decided the outcome of this war. Well, even there it somehow flared up, then faded on a small scale until the death of Devlet Giray in 1577. There was a serious man. Yes. And now you need to compare this war and the situation in Livonia. We have never included such efforts in the Livonian direction as were involved in the Crimean direction, even approximately. And even when things went badly under the rule of Stefan Batory in 1580-83. Stefan Batory did not even dream of going to Moscow, he did not have such strength. And Devlet Giray burned it down. Therefore, the Livonian War was a secondary direction for Ivan the Terrible. Actually, it didn't end very well for us for the simple reason that we were busy with the Krymchaks. We could not afford to throw decisive forces there. Yes, at some point large forces were involved there, but this is not the main direction. That is why it was a private failure that could not lead to any damn Time of Troubles, it was just an episode. Which, yes, was expensive, but not too expensive. But what about Livonia, in fact? Here we have Ivan IV sat on the throne. Ivan IV needs to be constantly replenished with strategic resources for the war on the Volga, because, as we remember, 3 campaigns near Kazan, only the third was successful, and this was the most difficult situation. Plus, it was necessary to constantly bribe their people in the Podraysk land, to feed the pro-Russian party in every possible way. To keep garrisons against Astrakhan, to build cities, resources and specialists were needed. And at that time Ivan IV, more precisely, he was then still a young man at all, i.e. Ivan IV and his company, they went for rapprochement with the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and Charles V went very actively towards rapprochement with Russia. Simply because Charles V was at war with the Turks, and he needed any counterbalance to the Turks on his part. Well, literally just now, in 1535, Charles personally leads an expedition to Tunisia, takes him, kicks out the Turks and, of course, mainly their local hangers-on, the famous pirate Hayraddin Barbarossa. It turns out that when the locals took Filyuks in Tunisia, it turns out that guns are being sold to the French. French them. The French sell guns to the Turks, because they were all branded with 3 lilies, i.e. hallmark of the French royal arsenal. Those. on the one hand, the French never spoke out for the Turks, but everyone understood who was a friend to whom, because the Germans needed some kind of counterbalance to Turkey. It would seem, where is France, where is Russia, but the decision of the French, Francis I to help the Turks, it directly prompted Charles V to move closer to Russia. And he begins very active steps in this direction, remembering that his grandfather Maximilian I negotiated quite successfully with both Ivan III and Vasily III. True, of course, not against the Turks in the first place, but against the Poles. In general, this did not bring any significant results, but there were attempts and attempts are quite visible, these are German advances towards Russia. And who reared up first? - Yes, the Livonian Order, because we had a requirement from Charles V to help with resources. And he was ready, because, Lord, there in this Germany they mine silver and copper and tin and lead, and they have a lot of military specialists, and military specialists of the highest class, who have just literally gone through fire, water and copper pipes of the Italian wars. Those. there was a mass of military people who right now are ready to go somewhere and tell everyone for money how to do it. Hot spots veterans. So there was not a hot spot, there these Italian wars were just a bloody meat grinder, tens of thousands of people went through it, having gained very serious experience and complete unwillingness to do anything else except war, because it is profitable. And a military specialist at that time is a person who could make himself not just a future, but become some kind of great figure in history. For example, who would have known such nobles as, for example, the Frundsbergs. Yes, no one would have known, except for some very dull heraldists, who generally pick these same noble families, coats of arms and so on there. But Georg Frundsberg became simply because he deftly commanded the landsknechts, he became a world-famous figure without fools, all of Europe literally knew him. Just because he successfully commanded the regiments of landsknechts. And we were ready to receive such adventurers with all our arms. To intensify this process in 1548, a handsome young Saxon adventurer Hans Schlitte comes to Charles V to intensify this process, and he offers to take over relations with Moscow. Apparently, he sat well on the ears of Charles V, because he gave him full carte blanche, and he went to Moscow. In Moscow, he also sat down on the ears of Ivan IV, who, for his part, gave him full carte blanche, and now Schlitte began to supply us, and he himself was from Saxony, specifically, he was born in a city where there were some of the best silver mines, those. he knew with whom he needed to quickly negotiate in order to supply precious metals directly. He recruited specialists, recruited strategic resources, and began to supply them to Ivan IV. And the Livonians caught him along with another portion of specialists. A monstrous scandal erupted, the Livonians quarreled with Emperor Charles V, saying that this should not be done, you understand that you are supplying Ivan IV with weapons and strategic resources, and we are already afraid of him. And this, of course, played a very important role, the Schlitte case played a very important role in the fact that Ivan the Terrible drew attention to Livonia, because the Livonians, this small dilapidated state, they had the opportunity to simply turn off the valve for us. Which is unacceptable. Which is absolutely unacceptable. And Ivan the Terrible goes first to diplomatic efforts, and then to military efforts, and it is here that an important reservation must be made. Grozny did not consider Livonia equal to himself, he did not send sovereign ambassadors there, he negotiated with the Livonians only with the help of Novgorod officials. Some clerk leaves from Novgorod, negotiate with him. Because he considered Livonia a principality only. People need to be sent to the level. Yes. And he is an emperor, it is impossible for him to communicate with the prince. Let the Novgorodians communicate there for 200 years and let them communicate further, but, of course, with an eye on the party line. And then he sends ambassadors already sovereign. The matter is taken to another level. The matter goes to a completely different level, and the Livonians understand this immediately. Why are they just there with the Novgorodians, with their buddies, with whom they either fought or were friends, and then look, Adashev and Voskovaty arrived directly from Moscow. Famous surnames. Certainly. Who needed a reason to find fault with the Livonians. Because they, on their territory, have the right to adopt any laws and issue any decrees - a sovereign state. Let it be unpleasant, but what is your business, what is pleasant or unpleasant for you. You need a reason, and a well-known reason - St. George's tribute. Those. what the Livonians promised to pay for the possession of Derpt, which they once took away and pledged to pay money for this. No one knows exactly when and how much they promised to pay. But for unclear reasons, they didn't pay, right? Yes. But for unclear reasons, nothing has been paid for 100 years. They came up with an amount, calculated interest from it, as a result, they got a wagon of silver, which had to be immediately given to Ivan IV. Well, and right there, in pursuit of the St. George's tribute, they rolled out a bunch of claims that merchants are being offended, by the way, who pay taxes to Moscow, peel the wax, use a merciless bekloppen. What is it? I once told you this, when a barrel of wax just fell, for example, in Riga, you could take a sample from it, whether it was high-quality wax or not. The sample size was not specified. Those. it was possible to just chop off half and not pay - I did not taste it. Yes. I didn't sort it out. I didn't sort it out. Well, pay for the rest. The same thing happened with furs. It was possible to see if the fur was fit, well, pick up a piece there, and because. the size was not discussed ... Cut off each skin. Yes. Because size was not specified, it was terrible. Accordingly, we did not have the right to check with them, for example, they supply us with wine, wine or, say, good Flemish cloth. Delivered in barrels and pieces. Those. we could pay per piece and per barrel, but we couldn't check the dimensions of the barrel and the piece. Fine. Do you know where the word “enough” comes from in Russian? This is a very interesting linguistic incident. So-so. This is opening a barrel, for example, with wine or beer, if you got your finger, it means enough, and if not, then not enough, you didn’t get it. Here. And, accordingly, they constantly tried to ... deceive us. Deceive. cheat, yes. And all these small territorial claims, connected primarily, of course, with claims to Narva, this is St. George's tribute, insults of merchants, they simply presented it all, and said that it was necessary to pay, stop, and Ivan IV rolled out the contract, one of the main points of which it was that gold, silver, cloth, iron, armor, i.e. except for armor. And willing people from the Germans had a free path by water and mountains. Those. cloth and specialists were more expensive than armour. About the armor, he said that if you want to supply - supply, no - okay. And this completely coincides, by the way, with the list of von der Recke, who forbade this very thing to be transported. Those. Ivan IV knew exactly what he needed. We will make shells somewhere ourselves, we will buy resources and specialists somewhere else. But the Livonians are a confederation, they were in complete shock, on the one hand, on the other hand, of course, in complete happiness, because the tribute is St. George's, so let this St. George, damn it, pay. Those. Dorpat. And everything else does not concern us. They were also smart, by the way. Here is the wording - St. George's tribute, so let the Derptians pay it. The residents of Derpt said that we simply do not have so much money physically and cannot have it. Well, it was then that Grozny decided that he was being deceived ... Not without reason. Yes. What are these squiggles? What kind of antics, yes. It means that the Livonian Landshers were called there, i.e. landlords were invited to Novgorod, where, as they say, a 200,000-strong army of Muscovites was waiting for them at the border so that they would be properly frightened. This, of course, is bullshit, maybe there were 2,000 of them waiting for them, here. But it was also scary. But it was also embarrassing. And they fired cannons for a day, while they agreed that it would also be scary. What a lot of gunpowder we have, we can do this here! Agreed for 3 years to raise money. Meanwhile, the Lithuanians, Poles and Prussians tried to enter Livonia from the other side, namely, they decided to appoint a vicar, as we would say, or a coadjutor, as it is correct, i.e. the closest assistant, deputy of the Archbishop of Riga Krzysztof (Christopher) of Macklenburg, who was a relative of the King of Poland Sigismund, in my opinion, a nephew, if I'm not mistaken. They decided to imprison him and through him to influence the Bishop of Riga and the Master, speaking accordingly. But the master did not need this, and master Furstenberg arrested him, realizing that he was a nit, a spy and a provocateur. After that, the Prussians, just the former Teutons, Lithuanians and Poles simply took and unobtrusively gathered about 15,000 troops there and put them on the border with Livonia, after which Furstenberg realized that either the water was drained here, or it was necessary to somehow agree, because could not resist them at all, they would simply crush him. And it is not excluded that he was hanged for the arrest of a relative of the king. And they conclude a very important agreement in the town of Pozvol, where the Livonians are led to the obligation of armed neutrality against Russia. Tellingly, our intelligence service, apparently, completely missed this Pozlo agreement, we simply did not know about it. Because Ivan the Terrible did not react at all for at least a year. And in Lithuanian, for example, letters, internal correspondence, there are subtle mocking hints that Vanya does not catch mice at all. We have already settled everything with Livonia, but he is still waiting for some kind of tribute. But, of course, it is impossible to hide such an awl in a bag of hay, because as soon as the Livonian ambassadors came again to negotiate with Ivan IV at the end of the three-year truce, it suddenly became clear that they were not going to pay tribute to him, but asked to think a little more, maybe there let's agree. After that, we do not know for sure whether Ivan the Terrible found out about the Pozvolsky treaty, but in fact he realized that he had an agreement with someone else behind his back. And this was the last point, because he didn’t care at all about these petty squabbles of the Novgorodians, even the fact that they didn’t let specialists and strategic goods to us there - in the end, it was always possible to get around these problems, 200 years ago - they bypassed it, or negotiate with the Swedes, get lucky through Sweden, not so convenient, but also possible. By the way, you could buy iron from the Swedes, which is what we did. But then it became clear that Livonia was living its last days on its own, and now it would all fall under the feet of Lithuania, and this could not be allowed in any case. And here Ivan the Terrible takes a step such that the Livonians must understand that the jokes are over altogether, in 1557 a large army is formed on the border with Livonia, which consisted of Novgorod and Pskov horsemen and Kazan Tatars, who were promised that it would be possible to rob. And this autumn-winter of 1557 was the last peaceful day in general in Livonia, because since 1559 cannons rattled there and swords rang almost continuously. Because the year 1583, our very peace with Sweden, it meant absolutely nothing. Returning to the beginning of the conversation - the Livonian War is not the Livonian War, but the Livonian Wars. Because the Danes fought with the Swedes and vice versa, Sweden with the Russians, Poland, Lithuania with Russia, Russia with Livonia, Poland and Lithuania. This is a series of very tense conflicts, this is the war for the Livonian inheritance, that's how we would say it correctly. Well, while everyone froze at the start, next time we will analyze what happened. Fierce, damn it. Somehow I don’t even know, every time it’s a dive ... I repeat that it seems all the time that now everyone is cunning, smart, intelligent, such intricacies ... They know everything. And here is nothing less tricky. And most importantly, for me, as a commoner, history is a set of some kind of anecdotes - someone sent someone to hell, took the woman away, and then the war. It turns out that the matter is not in the woman and not in the message, but in completely different things. Messed up, damn it. It's a pity there are no pictures of where someone lives, who went where, who why. This is when we will talk about military operations. By the way, maybe I’ll even prepare some maps for this, for this conversation, at least so that people understand that Crimea is here, Moscow is here. And the state of Ukraine to be designated ancient. Ancient, yes. There, however, there will be a flagpole of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania stuck up to the very tonsils in this state of Ukraine. That's it. Thank you, Klim Sanych. We look forward to continuing. We try. And that's all for today. See you again.

Ulus Dzhuchiev. Or the ulus of Jochi. Illiterate historians call it the "Golden Horde". They picked up this term from Kazan History, which was published in Russia in 1566. By this time, the Jochi ulus had already collapsed, and there were wars between the newly formed states:

In contact with

• Muscovy.
• Kazan Khanate.
• Nogai Khanate.
• Siberian Khanate.
• Crimean Khanate.
• And many other large and small formations.

Reasons necessary for the Livonian War

For the power of the state, it is not enough to have its own production and domestic market. But to replenish state treasury goods produced in the country must be sold abroad. And Muscovy did not have its own trade routes. Russian merchants paid a large fee for the export of their goods to the south, north and west.

The main trade routes were:

• Volga river.
• Dnepr River.
• Baltic Sea.

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania firmly sat on the Dnieper. The exit to the Baltic was blocked by the Livonian Confederation. Kazan and Astrakhan khanates settled on the Volga.

Russian Tsar Ivan IV saw a weak link in this environment. In 1549, the Kazan Khan died and his three-year-old son Utyamysh - Girey was elevated to the throne. And this hastened to take advantage Russia. In 1552 Ivan subordinated Kazan to Moscow. Then he conquered the Astrakhan Khanate. The Nogai and Siberian khanates became dependent on Ivan. The trade route along the Volga now belonged to Moscow.

In 1953, a trade agreement was concluded between Russia and England. The shortest way there passed through the Baltic and North Seas. And Ivan IV in 1558 began a war for access to the Baltic Sea, annexing its coast to his kingdom.

Livonian Confederation

A confederation is a union of independent states to achieve common goals. This is not a state structure, but some form of union of sovereign countries. The Livonian Confederation was formed in 1435. The confederation included:

• Livonian Order of German Knights.
• Archbishopric of Riga.
• Bishopric of Dorpat.
• Bishopric of Ezel-Vik.
• Revel bishopric.
• Bishopric of Courland.

Information table

The confederation was ruled by a landmaster appointed for life by the Teutonic Order. He automatically became Master of the Livonian Order. Encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church, the confederation pursued a policy of pressure on the northern borders of Muscovy. Repeatedly unleashed wars.

In 1501, Livonia, having concluded an alliance with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, once again declared war on Moscow. But, despite several successful victories, she was unable to gain a foothold in the northern territories of Muscovy. In 1503 the great prince of moscow Ivan III expelled the aggressor from his northern region. The consequence of this war was the conclusion of a peace treaty, which was in force until the very beginning of the Livonian War. Under the terms of the agreement, the Derpt bishopric had to pay tribute to Pskov every year.

Beginning of the Livonian War

The treaty of 1503 was renewed every six years. Tsar Ivan IV of the Russian state, before the next extension of the contract, demanded that the bishopric of Dorpat compensate for the arrears in the payment of annual tribute. The Master of the Livonian Order refused. And this was the reason to start a war. In the spring of 1557, Ivan built a fortress on the Narva River. However, Livonia, with the support of the Hanseatic League, blocked the passage of European merchants to the built Russian port. And they were still forced to unload in the Livonian ports. And Livonia in the same year concludes an allied treaty with the Kingdom of Poland.

The Hanseatic League (Hanse) is an economic and political union, which in the Middle Ages united about three hundred trading cities in northwestern Europe. Carried out trade on the coasts of the North and Baltic seas. At first it was an alliance of merchants, then an alliance of merchant guilds, and then it was formed as an alliance of trading cities.

Stages of the Livonian War

The war between the Russian kingdom and the Livonian Confederation lasted 25 years. It was one of the largest military conflicts in Europe in the sixteenth century, the events of which are deeply studied by historical science. In January 1558, Russian troops began to conquer the Livonian state.

The victory at the first stage of the war was on the side of the Russians. Troops numbering more than forty thousand people under the joint command of the governor D. Zakharyin - Yuryev, M. Glinsky (archers and spearmen) and Khan Shah - Ali (cavalry) made a deep raid across Livonia. They only walked eastern part current Estonia. After the promise of the Livonian authorities to pay a debt of sixty thousand thalers, the troops returned to their original positions. But by the summer, Livonia had paid only half of the debt. But apart from that, it provoked a new escalation of the conflict. At the end of May 1558, she attacked the Russian fortress Ivan - the city.

Then the tsar of the Russian state sent to Livonia a more powerful army under the command of A. Basmanov and D. Adashev with large-caliber siege weapons. A leisurely siege and the capture of fortresses and cities of perfidious Livonia began. thick walls of Livonian fortresses could not resist the effective fire of Russian siege guns and mortars. In a short time, Derpt, Narva and several other castles and cities were conquered.

The Neuhausen fortress put up the most stubborn resistance to the Russian troops. The garrison of this fortress was only six hundred people. They were commanded by the courageous and intelligent in all respects German knight von Padenorm. He with his small garrison for more than a month repulsed the attacks of the troops of Peter Shuisky. When the artillery almost completely destroyed the towers of the fortress, the Germans moved to the upper castle. Then the governor, respecting the courage of the besieged, allowed von Padenorm with the remnants of the garrison to leave the encirclement with honor and weapons.

Less courageous was the ruler of Dorpat, Bishop Herman Weiland. When P. Shuisky laid siege to the fortified city, the bishop immediately entered into negotiations with him. Three days later the city capitulated. The bishop handed over to Shuisky the entire treasury of the bishopric of eighty thousand thalers and a garrison of many thousands. Captured governor sent to Moscow, and Tsar Ivan gave them into slavery to the governors and khans, who distinguished themselves in the defeat of Livonia. Later, one of the Western historians lamented that the Livonian Confederation, due to its greed, lost much more than the Tsar of the Russian state demanded.

In October 1558, when more than twenty cities passed into the citizenship of the Russian Tsar, the troops were withdrawn to winter quarters. Only small garrisons of archers remained in the conquered fortresses and cities. Then the Teutonic Order appointed Gotthard Ketler as Master of the Livonian Order.

By the end of the year, the new energetic master approached the Ringen fortress with a ten thousandth army, the garrison of which consisted of two hundred archers. Thirty-five days Ketler attacked the fortress. I only went in when the whole garrison died under the leadership of Rusin-Ignatiev. And Ketler in this siege lost a fifth of his army, that is, two thousand knights. Such losses undermined the combat effectiveness of the troops, and he retreated to Riga. In response, Tsar Ivan IV sent Prince V. Serebryany on a winter raid in Livonia.

Vasily Serebryany - governor, prince, boyar, a veteran of many wars fought by Ivan the Terrible participated. He stood out during the storming of Kazan (1552), distinguished himself during the capture of Polotsk (1563), led the siege and capture of Yuryev-grad (1558). In January 1559, the voivode-prince entered the Livonian Confederation. In the very first major battle, he completely destroyed the army, consisting of the Livonian knights, and in one month, without meeting any more due resistance, reached the border with Prussia. In February, the Russian army returned home with huge booty. On this, the first stage of the war, victorious for the Russian state, was completed.

The events of the Livonian War and the successes of Moscow greatly alarmed the Roman papacy. Rome was losing its northern outpost, a springboard for the Catholicization of the Eastern Slavs. He stepped up pressure on Moscow from the Kingdom of Poland, Denmark and Sweden. Poland, in turn, pushed Muscovy's constant rival for dominance in the East Slavic territories, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the sixteenth century, the Principality of Lithuania occupied all of present-day Belarus, most of Lithuania, almost all of Ukraine and part of Moldova.

In August 1559, the Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund II took under his protection the lands of the Riga episcopate and the Livonian Order. Sweden took the fortress of Reval forever, and Denmark got the island of Ezel. The second stage of the Livonian War began.

Initially, the Russian state won a number of victories. Lithuania and Sweden demanded that the king remove his troops from Livonia, but he refused. And these states entered into direct military conflict with Moscow. Defeat after defeat followed. In the autumn of 1561, the Principality of Lithuania took over the Duchy of Courland, the Duchy of Semigallia and a number of other lands.

German Emperor Ferdinand I and Swedish King Eric XIV blockaded the port of Narva. Sweden has encouraged privateering in the Baltic for ships going to Narva. In 1566, Lithuania offered peace to Moscow and territories they conquered assign to the principality. Ivan refused. And in 1569 the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania merged into one state. This is how the Commonwealth was formed. The second stage of the Livonian War is over.

The third stage of the Livonian War was conducted mainly with the aim of diverting Russian troops from the north. The Commonwealth generously financed the campaign of the Crimean Khan Devlet I Giray against Moscow. Sweden persuaded Turkey to capture Astrakhan. Crimean Khan in 1571 ruined the southern part Russian kingdom, took and burned Moscow. Russia was in a ring of fire. In 1572, the Crimean Tatars were expelled from Russian lands, and the threat of Astrakhan was eliminated. And Ivan the Terrible again turned his attention to the Baltic. But prolonged wars brought Moscow's economy into decline and other internal difficulties. And in the north, the war was sluggish.

Results of the Livonian War

The Livonian War ended in 1583 with sad results for Russia. The defeat in the Livonian War led to the fact that Ivan the Terrible was forced to conclude two unfavorable contracts, many cities were lost. Western countries closed the Baltic Sea from Russia for a long time. The reasons for the defeat of the above events are still being studied by professional historians. The outcome of the events of the Livonian War had a tangible impact on the further foreign policy of Russia.

Since then, he has owned most of the modern Baltic states - Estonia, Livonia and Courland. In the 16th century, Livonia lost some of its former power. From within, it was engulfed in strife, which was intensified by the Church Reformation that penetrated here. The Archbishop of Riga quarreled with the Master of the Order, and the cities were at enmity with both of them. Internal turmoil weakened Livonia, and all of its neighbors were not averse to taking advantage of this. Before the start of the seizures of the Livonian knights, the Baltic lands depended on the Russian princes. With this in mind, the sovereigns of Moscow believed that they had quite legitimate rights to Livonia. Due to its coastal position, Livonia was of great commercial importance. After Moscow inherited the commerce of Novgorod conquered by it with the Baltic lands. However, the Livonian rulers in every possible way limited the relations that Muscovite Russia had with Western Europe through their region. Fearing Moscow and trying to prevent its rapid strengthening, the Livonian government did not allow European craftsmen and many goods to enter Russia. The obvious hostility of Livonia gave rise to hostility among the Russians towards her. Seeing the weakening of the Livonian Order, the Russian rulers feared that some other, stronger enemy would take over its territory, which would treat Moscow even worse.

Already Ivan III, after the conquest of Novgorod, built the Livonian border, against the city of Narva, the Russian fortress Ivangorod. After the conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan, the Chosen Rada advised Ivan the Terrible to turn to the predatory Crimea, whose hordes constantly raided the southern Russian regions, driving thousands of captives into slavery every year. But Ivan IV chose to attack Livonia. Confidence in easy success in the west gave the king a successful outcome of the war with the Swedes 1554-1557.

Beginning of the Livonian War (briefly)

Grozny remembered the old treaties that obliged Livonia to pay tribute to the Russians. It had not been paid for a long time, but now the tsar demanded not only to resume payment, but also to compensate for what the Livonians had not given to Russia in previous years. The Livonian government began to drag out negotiations. Having lost patience, Ivan the Terrible broke off all relations and in the first months of 1558 began the Livonian War, which was destined to drag on for 25 years.

In the first two years of the war, the Moscow troops acted very successfully. They ruined almost all of Livonia, except for the most powerful cities and castles. Livonia could not resist powerful Moscow alone. The order state collapsed, surrendering in parts under the supreme power of stronger neighbors. Estonia came under the suzerainty of Sweden, Livonia submitted to Lithuania. Ezel Island became the possession of the Danish Duke Magnus, and Courland was subjected to secularization, that is, it turned from a church property into a secular one. The former master of the spiritual order, Ketler, became the secular duke of Courland and recognized himself as a vassal of the Polish king.

Entry into the war of Poland and Sweden (briefly)

The Livonian Order thus ceased to exist (1560-1561). His lands were divided by neighboring strong states, which demanded that Ivan the Terrible renounce all the seizures made at the beginning of the Livonian War. Grozny rejected this demand and opened a fight with Lithuania and Sweden. Thus, new participants were involved in the Livonian War. The struggle of the Russians with the Swedes was intermittent and sluggish. The main forces of Ivan IV moved to Lithuania, acting against it not only in Livonia, but also in the regions south of the latter. In 1563 Grozny took the ancient Russian city of Polotsk from the Lithuanians. The royal rati ravaged Lithuania to the very Vilna (Vilnius). The Lithuanians, exhausted by the war, offered Grozny peace with the concession of Polotsk. In 1566, Ivan IV gathered a Zemsky Sobor in Moscow on the question of whether to stop the Livonian War or continue it. The council spoke in favor of continuing the war, and it went on for another ten years with a preponderance of Russians, until the talented commander Stefan Batory (1576) was elected to the Polish-Lithuanian throne.

The turning point of the Livonian War (briefly)

The Livonian War by that time had noticeably weakened Russia. The oprichnina, which devastated the country, undermined her strength even more. Many prominent Russian military leaders fell victim to the oprichnina terror of Ivan the Terrible. From the south, Crimean Tatars began to attack Russia with even greater energy, whom Grozny frivolously missed to subdue or at least completely weaken after the conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan. The Crimeans and the Turkish sultan demanded that Russia, now bound by the Livonian War, renounce possession of the Volga region and restore the independence of the Astrakhan and Kazan khanates, which had previously brought her so much grief with cruel attacks and robberies. In 1571, the Crimean Khan Devlet Giray, taking advantage of the diversion of Russian forces to Livonia, staged an unexpected invasion, marched with a large army to Moscow itself and burned the entire city outside the Kremlin. In 1572 Devlet Giray tried to repeat this success. He again reached the Moscow environs with his horde, but the Russian army of Mikhail Vorotynsky at the last moment distracted the Tatars with an attack from the rear and inflicted a severe defeat on them in the Battle of Molodi.

Ivan the Terrible. Painting by V. Vasnetsov, 1897

Energetic Stefan Batory began decisive action against Grozny just when the oprichnina had brought the central regions of the Muscovite state to desolation. Masses of the people fled from the arbitrariness of Grozny to the southern outskirts and to the newly conquered Volga region. The state center of Russia has run out of people and resources. Terrible now could not, with the same ease, put up large armies to the front of the Livonian War. The decisive onslaught of Batory did not meet with a proper rebuff. In 1577, the Russians achieved their last successes in the Baltic, but already in 1578 they were defeated there near Wenden. The Poles achieved a turning point in the Livonian War. In 1579 Batory recaptured Polotsk, and in 1580 he took the strong Moscow fortresses of Velizh and Velikiye Luki. Grozny, who had previously been arrogant towards the Poles, now sought the mediation of Catholic Europe in peace negotiations with Batory and sent an embassy (Shevrigin) to the pope and the Austrian emperor. In 1581