Ivan the Terrible: biography, years of the reign of the tsar and features of politics. Ivan the Terrible: biography and interesting facts

Ivan IV Vasilyevich, nicknamed the Terrible. Born on August 25, 1530 in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow - died on March 18 (28), 1584 in Moscow. The Grand Duke of Moscow and All Russia since 1533, the first Tsar of All Russia (since 1547) (except for 1575-1576, when Simeon Bekbulatovich was nominally the "Grand Duke of All Russia").

The eldest son of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III and Elena Glinskaya. On the paternal side, he descended from the Moscow branch of the Rurik dynasty, on the maternal side - from Mamai, who was considered the ancestor of the Lithuanian princes Glinsky. Paternal grandmother, Sophia Paleolog - from the family of Byzantine emperors.

Nominally, Ivan became ruler at the age of 3. After the uprising in Moscow in 1547, he ruled with the participation of a circle of close associates - the Chosen Rada. Under him, the convocation of Zemsky Sobors began, the Sudebnik of 1550 was drawn up. Reforms of the military service, the judiciary and public administration have been carried out, including the introduction of elements of self-government at the local level (labial, zemstvo and other reforms). The Kazan and Astrakhan khanates were conquered, Western Siberia, the Donskoy Host Region, Bashkiria, and the lands of the Nogai Horde were annexed. In this way, under Ivan IV, the increase in the territory of Russia amounted to almost 100%, from 2.8 million km² to 5.4 million km², by the end of his reign, the Russian state had become larger than the rest of Europe.

In 1560, the Chosen Rada was abolished, its main figures fell into disgrace, and the completely independent reign of the tsar in Russia began. The second half of the reign of Ivan the Terrible was marked by a streak of setbacks in the Livonian War and the establishment of the oprichnina, during which the old tribal aristocracy was struck and the position of the local nobility was strengthened. Ivan IV ruled longer than all those who headed the Russian state - 50 years and 105 days.

Basil III's firstborn. He was baptized in the Trinity Monastery by hegumen Joasaph (Skripitsyn); two elders were elected as godparents - Cassian Bosoy, a monk of the Joseph-Volokolamsk monastery, and hegumen Daniel.

Tradition says that in honor of the birth of John, the Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye was founded.

According to the right of succession established in Russia, the grand-ducal throne passed to the eldest son of the monarch, however, Ivan (“direct name” on his birthday - Titus) was only three years old when his father, Grand Duke Vasily III, became seriously ill. The closest contenders for the throne, except for the young Ivan, were Vasily's younger brothers. Of the six sons, two remained - Prince Staritsky Andrey and Prince Dmitrovsky Yuri.

Anticipating his imminent death, Vasily III formed a “seventh” boyar commission to govern the state (it was for the board of trustees under the young Grand Duke that the name "Seven Boyars", more often in modern times associated exclusively with the oligarchic boyar government of the Time of Troubles in the period after the overthrow of Tsar Vasily Shuisky). The guardians were supposed to take care of Ivan until he reaches the age of 15. The Board of Trustees included Prince Andrei Staritsky, the younger brother of Ivan's father, M. L. Glinsky, the uncle of Grand Duchess Elena, and advisers: the Shuisky brothers (Vasily and Ivan), Mikhail Zakharyin, Mikhail Tuchkov, Mikhail Vorontsov. According to the plan of the Grand Duke, this was to preserve the order of government of the country by trusted people and reduce strife in the aristocratic Boyar Duma. The existence of the regency council is not recognized by all historians: for example, according to the historian A. A. Zimin, Vasily transferred the conduct of state affairs to the Boyar Duma, and appointed M. L. Glinsky and D. F. Belsky as guardians of the heir. A.F. Chelyadnina was appointed mother for Ivan.

Vasily III died on December 3, 1533, and after 8 days the boyars got rid of the main contender for the throne - Prince Yuri of Dmitrovsky.

The Board of Trustees ruled the country for less than a year, after which its power began to crumble. In August 1534, a series of reshuffles took place in the ruling circles. On August 3, Prince Semyon Belsky and the experienced military leader Ivan Lyatsky left Serpukhov and left for the service of the Lithuanian prince. On August 5, one of the guardians of the young Ivan, Mikhail Glinsky, was arrested, who then died in prison. For complicity with defectors, Semyon Belsky's brother Ivan and Prince Ivan Vorotynsky with their children were captured. In the same month, another member of the Board of Trustees, Mikhail Vorontsov, was also arrested. Analyzing the events of August 1534, the historian S. M. Solovyov concludes that "all this was the result of the general indignation of the nobles at Elena and her favorite Obolensky."

An attempt by Andrei Staritsky in 1537 to seize power ended in failure: locked in Novgorod from the front and rear, he was forced to surrender and ended his life in prison.

In April 1538, 30-year-old Elena Glinskaya died (according to one version, she was poisoned by the boyars), and six days later the boyars (princes I.V. Shuisky and V.V. Shuisky with advisers) also got rid of Obolensky. Metropolitan Daniel and clerk Fyodor Mishchurin, staunch supporters of a centralized state and active figures in the government of Vasily III and Elena Glinskaya, were immediately removed from government. Metropolitan Daniel was sent to the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery, and Mishchurin "was executed by the boyars ... not loving the fact that he stood for the Grand Duke of the cause."

According to Ivan himself, “Prince Vasily and Ivan Shuisky arbitrarily imposed themselves ... as guardians and thus reigned”, the future tsar and his brother George “began to be raised as foreigners or the last poor”, up to “deprivations in clothing and food”.

In 1545, at the age of 15, Ivan came of age, thus becoming a full-fledged ruler. One of the strong impressions of the tsar in his youth was the "great fire" in Moscow, which destroyed over 25 thousand houses, and the Moscow uprising of 1547. After the murder of one of the Glinskys, a relative of the tsar, the rebels came to the village of Vorobyovo, where the Grand Duke had taken refuge, and demanded the extradition of the rest of the Glinskys. With great difficulty, they managed to persuade the crowd to disperse, convincing them that there were no Glinskys in Vorobyov.

On December 13, 1546, Ivan Vasilievich for the first time expressed his intention to marry Macarius, and before that, Macarius invited Ivan the Terrible to marry the kingdom.

A number of historians (N. I. Kostomarov, R. G. Skrynnikov, V. B. Kobrin) believe that the initiative to adopt the royal title could not come from a 16-year-old youth. Most likely, Metropolitan Macarius played an important role in this. Strengthening the power of the king was also beneficial to his relatives on the maternal side. V. O. Klyuchevsky adhered to the opposite point of view, emphasizing the desire for power that was early formed in the sovereign. In his opinion, "the tsar's political thoughts were developed secretly from those around him", the idea of ​​​​a wedding came as a complete surprise to the boyars.

The ancient Byzantine kingdom with its divinely crowned emperors has always been a model for Orthodox countries, but it fell under the blows of the infidels. Moscow, in the eyes of the Russian Orthodox people, was to become the heiress of Tsargrad - Constantinople. The triumph of autocracy also personified the triumph of the Orthodox faith for Metropolitan Macarius. Thus intertwined the interests of the royal and spiritual authorities (Philotheus). At the beginning of the 16th century, the idea of ​​the divine origin of the power of the sovereign was becoming more widespread. One of the first to talk about this was Joseph Volotsky. A different understanding of the power of the sovereign by Archpriest Sylvester later led to the exile of the latter. The idea that the autocrat is obliged in everything to obey God and his institutions runs through the entire “Message to the Tsar”.

On January 16, 1547, a solemn wedding ceremony took place in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin., the rank of which was compiled by the metropolitan. The Metropolitan laid on Ivan the signs of royal dignity: the cross of the Life-Giving Tree, barmas and the cap of Monomakh; Ivan Vasilievich was anointed with chrism, and then the metropolitan blessed the tsar.

Later, in 1558, Patriarch Joasaph II of Constantinople informed Ivan the Terrible that “his royal name is commemorated in the Cathedral Church on all Sundays, as the names of former Byzantine Tsars; this is commanded to be done in all dioceses, where there are only metropolitans and bishops”, “and about your blessed wedding to the kingdom from St. Metropolitan of All Russia, our brother and comrade-in-arms, has been accepted by us for the good and worthy of your kingdom.” “Show us,” wrote Joachim, Patriarch of Alexandria, “in the present times, a new nurturer and providence for us, a good champion, chosen and God-instructed Ktitor of this holy monastery, what was once the divinely crowned and Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine ... Your memory will abide with us incessantly not only on the church rule, but also at meals with the ancient, former kings.

The royal title allowed him to take a significantly different position in diplomatic relations with Western Europe. The grand ducal title was translated as "prince" or even "great duke". The title "king" in the hierarchy was on a par with the title of emperor.

Since 1554, the title of Ivan has been unconditionally recognized by England. The question of his title in Catholic countries, in which the theory of a single "holy empire" was firmly held, was more difficult.

In 1576, Emperor Maximilian II, wishing to bring Ivan the Terrible to an alliance against Turkey, offered him the throne and the title of "Eastern [Eastern] Caesar" in the future. John IV was completely indifferent to the "Greek tsardom", but demanded immediate recognition of himself as the king of "all Russia", and the emperor yielded on this important matter of principle, especially since Maximilian I recognized the royal title for Vasily III, calling the Sovereign "God's grace Caesar and owner of the All-Russian and Grand Duke. The papacy turned out to be much more stubborn, which defended the exclusive right of popes to grant royal and other titles to sovereigns, and on the other hand, did not allow violations of the principle of a “united empire”. In this irreconcilable position, the papal throne found support from the Polish king, who perfectly understood the significance of the claims of the Moscow Sovereign.

Sigismund II August presented a note to the papal throne, in which he warned that the recognition by the papacy of Ivan IV of the title of "Tsar of All Russia" would lead to the exclusion from Poland and Lithuania of the lands inhabited by the "Rusyns" related to the Muscovites, and would attract Moldovans and Vlachs to his side. For his part, John IV attached particular importance to the recognition of his royal title by the Polish-Lithuanian state, but Poland throughout the 16th century did not agree to his demand. Of Ivan IV's successors, his imaginary son False Dmitry I used the title of "emperor", but Sigismund III, who helped him take the throne of Moscow, officially called him simply a prince, not even "great".

After the coronation, the tsar's relatives strengthened their position, having achieved significant benefits, but after the Moscow uprising of 1547, the Glinsky family lost all its influence, and the young ruler became convinced of the striking discrepancy between his ideas about power and the real state of affairs.

With the accession to the throne in 1740 of the infant emperor John Antonovich, a digital indication was introduced in relation to the Russian tsars bearing the name Ivan (John). John Antonovich became known as John III Antonovich. This is evidenced by rare coins that have come down to us with the inscription "John III, by the grace of God, Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia."

"The great-grandfather of John III Antonovich received the specified title of Tsar John II Alekseevich of All Russia, and Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible received the specified title of Tsar Ivan I Vasilyevich of All Russia." In this way, Ivan the Terrible was originally called John the First.

The digital part of the title - IV - was first assigned to Ivan the Terrible by Karamzin in the History of the Russian State, since he began counting from Ivan Kalita.

Since 1549, together with the Chosen Rada (A.F. Adashev, Metropolitan Macarius, A.M. Kurbsky, Archpriest Sylvester, and others), Ivan IV carried out a number of reforms aimed at centralizing the state.

In 1549, the first Zemsky Sobor was convened with representatives from all estates, except for the peasantry. A class-representative monarchy took shape in Russia.

In 1550, a new code was adopted, who introduced a single unit of tax collection - a large plow, which amounted to 400-600 acres of land, depending on the fertility of the soil and the social status of the owner, and limited the rights of serfs and peasants (the rules for the transition of peasants were tightened).

In the early 1550s, the zemstvo and gubernatorial (started by the government of Elena Glinskaya) reforms were carried out, which redistributed some of the powers of governors and volostels, including judicial ones, in favor of elected representatives of the black-haired peasantry and nobility.

In 1550, a "chosen thousand" of Moscow nobles received estates within 60-70 km from Moscow and a foot semi-regular archery army was formed, armed with firearms. In 1555-1556, Ivan IV canceled feeding and adopted the Code of Service. votchinniks became obliged to equip and bring soldiers, depending on the size of land holdings, on a par with landowners.

Under Ivan the Terrible, a system of orders was formed: Petition, Posolsky, Local, Streltsy, Pushkarsky, Bronny, Robbery, Printed, Sokolnichiy, Zemsky orders, as well as quarters: Galician, Ustyug, Novaya, Kazansky order.

In the early 1560s, Ivan Vasilyevich made a landmark reform of state sphragistics. From that moment on, a stable type of state seal appeared in Russia. For the first time, a rider appears on the chest of the ancient double-headed eagle - the coat of arms of the princes of the Rurik House, previously depicted separately, and always on the front side of the state seal, while the image of the eagle was placed on the back. The new seal sealed the treaty with the Danish kingdom of April 7, 1562.

Stoglavy Cathedral of 1551 regulated ecclesiastical matters.

Under Ivan the Terrible Jewish merchants are banned from entering Russia. When, in 1550, the Polish king Sigismund-August demanded that they be allowed free entry into Russia, John refused such words: “Don’t order Zhid to go to your states, we don’t want to see any dashing in our states, but we want God to give my people in my states in silence without any embarrassment. And you, our brother, would not write to us about Zhideh in advance. because they are Russian people “They were taken away from Christianity, and poisonous potions were brought to our lands and many dirty tricks were done to our people”.

In the first half of the 16th century, mainly during the reign of the khans from the Crimean family of Gireys, the Kazan Khanate waged constant wars with Muscovite Russia. In total, the Kazan khans made about forty trips to Russian lands, mainly to the regions of Nizhny Novgorod, Vyatka, Vladimir, Kostroma, Galich, Murom, Vologda. “From the Crimea and from Kazan to the semi-earth it was empty”, - the king wrote, describing the consequences of the invasions.

The history of the Kazan campaigns is often counted from the campaign that took place in 1545, which "was in the nature of a military demonstration and strengthened the position of the" Moscow Party "and other opponents of Khan Safa Giray." Moscow supported the ruler of Kasimov, Shah Ali, loyal to Russia, who, having become the Kazan khan, approved the project of a union with Moscow. But in 1546, Shah-Ali was expelled by the Kazan nobility, who elevated Khan Safa-Girey to the throne from a dynasty hostile to Russia. After that, it was decided to move on to active actions and eliminate the threat posed by Kazan. “Starting from that moment,” the historian points out, “Moscow put forward a plan for the final crushing of the Kazan Khanate.”

In total, Ivan IV led three campaigns against Kazan. During the first (winter 1547/1548), due to an early thaw 15 versts from Nizhny Novgorod, siege artillery went under the ice on the Volga, and the troops that reached Kazan stood under it for only 7 days. The second campaign (autumn 1549 - spring 1550) followed the news of the death of Safa Giray, also did not lead to the capture of Kazan, but the Sviyazhsk fortress was built, which served as a stronghold for the Russian troops during the next campaign.

The third campaign (June-October 1552) ended with the capture of Kazan. The 150,000th Russian army participated in the campaign, the armament included 150 guns. The Kazan Kremlin was taken by storm. Khan Yediger-Magmet was captured by Russian commanders. The chronicler recorded: “On himself, the sovereign did not order to imati not a single coppersmith (that is, not a single penny), nor captivity, only the single king Ediger-Magmet and the royal banners and city cannons”. I. I. Smirnov believes that “the Kazan campaign of 1552 and the brilliant victory of Ivan IV over Kazan not only meant a major foreign policy success of the Russian state, but also contributed to strengthening the power of the tsar.” Almost simultaneously with the start of the campaign in June 1552, the Crimean Khan Devlet I Giray made a campaign to Tula.

In the defeated Kazan, the tsar appointed Prince Alexander Gorbaty-Shuisky as Kazan governor, and Prince Vasily Serebryany as his assistant.

After the establishment of the episcopal chair in Kazan, the tsar and the church council by lot elected hegumen Guriy in the rank of archbishop for it. Guriy received an order from the tsar to convert Kazanians to Orthodoxy solely at the own request of each person, but "unfortunately, such prudent measures were not followed everywhere: the intolerance of the century took its toll ...".

From the first steps towards the conquest and development of the Volga region, the tsar began to invite all the Kazan nobility to his service, who agreed to swear allegiance to him, sending “dangerous letters to black people who were tributary in all uluses, so that they would go to the sovereign without fear of anything; and who famously repaired, God took revenge on him; and their sovereign will grant, and they would pay yasaks, just like the former Kazan tsar. This nature of the policy not only did not require the preservation of the main military forces of the Russian state in Kazan, but, on the contrary, made Ivan's solemn return to the capital natural and expedient. During the Livonian War, the Muslim regions of the Volga region began to supply the Russian army with "multiple 30,000 fighting men", well prepared for the offensive.

Immediately after the capture of Kazan, in January 1555, the ambassadors of the Siberian Khan Ediger asked the king to “He took the whole Siberian land under his name and defended (protected) from all sides and put his tribute on them and sent his man to whom to collect tribute” .

In the early 1550s, the Astrakhan Khanate was an ally of the Crimean Khan, controlling the lower reaches of the Volga. Before the final subjugation of the Astrakhan Khanate under Ivan IV, two campaigns were made.

Campaign of 1554 was committed under the command of the voivode Prince Yuri Pronsky-Shemyakin. In the battle near the Black Island, the Russian army defeated the leading Astrakhan detachment, and Astrakhan was taken without a fight. As a result, Khan Dervish-Ali was brought to power, promising support for Moscow.

The campaign of 1556 was connected with the fact that Khan Dervish-Ali went over to the side of the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire. The campaign was led by governor Ivan Cheremisinov. First, the Don Cossacks of the detachment of ataman Lyapun Filimonov defeated the khan's army near Astrakhan, after which Astrakhan was again taken without a fight in July. As a result of this campaign, the Astrakhan Khanate was subordinated to the Russian kingdom.

In 1556, the capital of the Golden Horde, Sarai-Batu, was destroyed.

After the conquest of Astrakhan, Russian influence began to extend to the Caucasus. In 1559, the princes of Pyatigorsk and Cherkassky asked Ivan IV to send them a detachment to protect them against the raids of the Crimean Tatars and priests to maintain the faith; the tsar sent them two governors and priests, who renewed the fallen ancient churches, and in Kabarda they showed extensive missionary activity, baptizing many into Orthodoxy.

During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, trade relations between Russia and England were established across the White Sea and the Arctic Ocean, which hit the economic interests of Sweden, which received considerable income from transit Russian-European trade. In 1553, the expedition of the English navigator Richard Chancellor rounded the Kola Peninsula, entered the White Sea and anchored to the west of the Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery opposite the village of Nenoksa. Having received news of the appearance of the British within his country, Ivan IV wished to meet with Chancellor, who, having traveled about 1000 km, arrived in Moscow with honors. Shortly after this expedition, the Moscow Company was founded in London, which subsequently received monopoly trading rights from Tsar Ivan.

The Swedish king Gustav I Vasa, after an unsuccessful attempt to create an anti-Russian alliance, which would include the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Livonia and Denmark, decided to act independently.

The first motive for declaring war on Sweden was the capture of Russian merchants in Stockholm. On September 10, 1555, the Swedish admiral Jacob Bagge besieged Oreshek with a 10,000-strong army, the Swedes' attempts to develop an offensive against Novgorod were thwarted by a guard regiment under the command of Sheremetev. January 20, 1556 20-25 thousand. Russian army defeated the Swedes at Kivinebba and laid siege to Vyborg, but could not take it.

In July 1556, Gustav I made a peace proposal, which was accepted by Ivan IV. March 25, 1557 was concluded Second Novgorod truce for forty years, which restored the border, already defined by the Orekhov peace treaty of 1323, and approved the custom of diplomatic relations through the Novgorod governor.

In 1547, the king instructed the Saxon Schlitte to bring artisans, artists, doctors, pharmacists, printers, people skilled in ancient and new languages, even theologians. However, after the protests of Livonia, the senate of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck arrested Schlitte and his people.

In 1554, Ivan IV demanded from the Livonian Confederation the return of arrears under the “Yuryev tribute” established by the 1503 treaty, the rejection of military alliances with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Sweden, and the continuation of the truce. The first payment of the debt for Dorpat was to take place in 1557, but the Livonian Confederation did not fulfill its obligation.

In the spring of 1557, on the banks of the Narva, by order of Ivan, a port was set up: “The same year, July, a city was set up from the German Ust-Narova River Rozsene by the sea for the shelter of a sea ship”, “The same year, April, the tsar and the Grand Duke sent Prince Dmitry Semenovich Shastunov and Pyotr Petrovich Golovin and Ivan Vyrodkov to Ivangorod, and ordered to put on the Narova below Ivanyagorod at the mouth of the sea city for a ship shelter ... ”However, the Hanseatic League and Livonia did not allow European merchants to enter the new Russian port, and they continued to go , as before, to Revel, Narva and Riga.

The Posvolsky Treaty of September 15, 1557 of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Order created a threat to the establishment of Lithuanian power in Livonia. The coordinated position of the Hansa and Livonia to prevent Moscow from independent maritime trade led Tsar Ivan to the decision to start a struggle for a wide outlet to the Baltic.

In January 1558, Ivan IV began the Livonian War for the mastery of the coast of the Baltic Sea. Initially, hostilities developed successfully. The Russian army conducted active offensive operations in the Baltic states, took Narva, Derpt, Neishloss, Neuhaus, and defeated the order troops near Tirzen near Riga. In the spring and summer of 1558, the Russians captured the entire eastern part of Estonia, and by the spring of 1559 the army of the Livonian Order was finally defeated, and the Order itself actually ceased to exist. At the direction of Alexei Adashev, the Russian governors accepted a truce proposal from Denmark, which lasted from March to November 1559, and began separate negotiations with the Livonian urban circles to pacify Livonia in exchange for some trade concessions from the German cities. At this time, the lands of the Order come under the protection of Poland, Lithuania, Sweden and Denmark.

In 1560, at the Congress of German Imperial Deputies, Albert of Mecklenburg reported: “The Moscow tyrant begins to build a fleet on the Baltic Sea: in Narva, he turns merchant ships belonging to the city of Lübeck into warships and transfers control of them to Spanish, English and German commanders.” The congress decided to turn to Moscow with a solemn embassy, ​​to which to attract Spain, Denmark and England, to offer the eastern power eternal peace and stop its conquests.

The Crimean khans of the Girey dynasty from the end of the 15th century were vassals of the Ottoman Empire, which was actively expanding in Europe. Part of the Moscow aristocracy and the Pope persistently demanded that Ivan the Terrible enter into a fight with the Turkish Sultan Suleiman the First.

Simultaneously with the start of the Russian offensive in Livonia, the Crimean cavalry raided the Russian kingdom, several thousand Crimeans broke through in the vicinity of Tula and Pronsk, and R. G. Skrynnikov emphasizes that the Russian government in the person of Adashev and Viskovaty "should have concluded a truce on the western borders" , as it was preparing for a "decisive clash on the southern border." The tsar yielded to the demands of the opposition aristocracy about a campaign against the Crimea: "the brave and courageous men advised and urged that he (Ivan) move with his head, with great troops against the Perekop Khan."

In 1558, the army of Prince Dmitry Vishnevetsky defeated the Crimean army near Azov, and in 1559 the army under the command of Daniil Adashev made a trip to the Crimea, ruining the large Crimean port of Gyozlev (now Evpatoria) and freeing many Russian captives. Ivan the Terrible offered an alliance to the Polish king Sigismund II against the Crimea, but he, on the contrary, leaned towards an alliance with the khanate.

On August 31, 1559, the Master of the Livonian Order, Gotthard Ketler, and the King of Poland and Lithuania, Sigismund II Augustus, concluded the Vilna Treaty on the entry of Livonia under the protectorate of Lithuania, which was supplemented on September 15 by an agreement on military assistance to Livonia by Poland and Lithuania. This diplomatic action served as an important milestone in the course and development of the Livonian War: the war between Russia and Livonia turned into a struggle between the states of Eastern Europe for the Livonian inheritance.

In January 1560 Grozny ordered the troops to go on the offensive again. The army under the command of the princes Shuisky, Serebryany and Mstislavsky took the fortress of Marienburg (Aluksne). On August 30, the Russian army under the command of Kurbsky took the residence of the master - the castle of Fellin. An eyewitness wrote: "The oppressed est is more likely to submit to the Russian than to the German." All over Estonia the peasants revolted against the German barons. There was a possibility of a quick end to the war. However, the governors of the king did not go to capture Revel and failed in the siege of Weissenstein. Aleksey Adashev (voivode of a large regiment) was appointed to Fellin, however, being of poor birth, he was mired in local disputes with the voivodes who stood above him, fell into disgrace, was soon taken into custody in Dorpat and died there of a fever (there were rumors that he poisoned himself, Ivan the Terrible even sent one of his neighbors to Derpt to investigate the circumstances of Adashev's death). In this regard, Sylvester left the courtyard and took the vows in the monastery, and with that, their smaller confidants also fell - the Chosen Rada came to an end.

In the autumn of 1561, the Vilna Union was concluded on the formation of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia on the territory of Livonia and the transfer of other lands to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

In January-February 1563, Polotsk was taken. Here, on the orders of the Terrible, Thomas, a preacher of reform ideas and an associate of Theodosius Kosoy, was drowned in the hole. Skrynnikov believes that Leonid, hegumen of the Joseph-Volokolamsk monastery, who accompanied the tsar, supported the massacre of the Polotsk Jews. Also, on the royal order, the Tatars, who took part in hostilities, killed the Bernardine monks who were in Polotsk. The religious element in the conquest of Polotsk by Ivan the Terrible is also noted by Khoroshkevich.

On January 28, 1564, the Polotsk army of P. I. Shuisky, moving towards Minsk and Novogrudok, unexpectedly fell into an ambush and was utterly defeated by the troops of N. Radziwill. Grozny immediately accused the governor M. Repnin and Yu. Kashin (the heroes of the capture of Polotsk) of betrayal and ordered them to be killed. Kurbsky, in connection with this, reproached the tsar that he had shed the victorious, holy blood of the governor "in the churches of God." A few months later, in response to Kurbsky's accusations, Grozny directly wrote about the crime committed by the boyars.

At the beginning of December 1564, an attempt was made at an armed rebellion against the tsar, in which Western forces took part.

In 1565 Grozny announced the introduction of the Oprichnina in the country. The country was divided into two parts: "Sovereign Grace Oprichnin" and Zemstvo. In Oprichnina, mainly the northeastern Russian lands fell, where there were few boyars-patrimonials. The center of the Oprichnina was Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, the new residence of Ivan the Terrible, from where, on January 3, 1565, the messenger Konstantin Polivanov delivered a letter to the clergy, the boyar Duma and the people about the abdication of the king from the throne. Although Veselovsky believes that Grozny did not announce his renunciation of power, the prospect of the departure of the sovereign and the onset of "stateless time", when the nobles can again force the city merchants and artisans to do everything for them for nothing, could not but excite the Moscow citizens.

The most prominent boyars became the first victims of the oprichnina: the first voivode in the Kazan campaign A. B. Gorbaty-Shuisky with his son Peter, his brother-in-law Pyotr Khovrin, the roundabout P. Golovin (whose family traditionally held the positions of Moscow treasurers), P. I. Gorensky-Obolensky ( his younger brother, Yuri managed to escape in Lithuania), Prince Dmitry Shevyryov, S. Loban-Rostovsky and others. With the help of guardsmen, who were released from legal responsibility, Ivan IV forcibly confiscated boyar and princely estates, transferring them to noble guardsmen. The boyars and princes themselves were granted estates in other regions of the country, for example, in the Volga region.

The decree on the introduction of the Oprichnina was approved by the highest bodies of spiritual and secular power - the Consecrated Cathedral and the Boyar Duma. There is also an opinion that this decree was confirmed by the decision of the Zemsky Sobor. However, according to other sources, members of the Council of 1566 sharply protested against the oprichnina, filing a petition for the abolition of the oprichnina for 300 signatures; 50 of the petitioners were subjected to commercial execution, several had their tongues cut off, and three were beheaded.

For the consecration to the rank of Metropolitan Philip, which took place on July 25, 1566, a letter was prepared and signed, according to which Philip promised "not to intervene in the oprichnina and royal life and, upon order, because of the oprichnina ... not to leave the metropolis." According to R. G. Skrynnikov, thanks to the intervention of Philip, many petitioners of the Cathedral of 1566 were released from prison. On March 22, 1568, in the Assumption Cathedral, Philip refused to bless the tsar and demanded the abolition of the oprichnina. In response, the guardsmen beat the Metropolitan's servants to death with iron sticks, then a trial was initiated against the Metropolitan in the church court. Philip was defrocked and exiled to the Tver Otroch Monastery.

As an oprichnina "abbot", the king performed a number of monastic duties. So, at midnight everyone got up for the midnight office, at four in the morning - for matins, at eight mass began. The tsar set an example of piety: he himself rang for matins, sang in the kliros, prayed earnestly, and read the Holy Scripture aloud during the common meal. In general, the service took about 9 hours a day. At the same time, there is evidence that orders for executions and torture were often given in the church. Historian G. P. Fedotov believes that “without denying the tsar’s repentant mood, one cannot but see that he was able to combine brutality with church piety in well-established everyday forms, defiling the very idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe Orthodox kingdom.”

In 1569, the tsar's cousin, Prince Vladimir Andreevich Staritsky, died (presumably, according to rumors, on the orders of the tsar, they brought him a bowl of poisoned wine and an order that Vladimir Andreevich himself, his wife and their eldest daughter drink the wine). Somewhat later, the mother of Vladimir Andreevich, Efrosinya Staritskaya, who repeatedly stood at the head of boyar conspiracies against John IV and was repeatedly pardoned by him, was also killed.

In December 1569, suspecting the Novgorod nobility of complicity in the "conspiracy" of Prince Vladimir Andreevich Staritsky, who had recently been killed on his orders, and at the same time of their intention to turn themselves over to the Polish king, Ivan, accompanied by a large army of guardsmen, set out on a campaign against Novgorod. Moving to Novgorod in the autumn of 1569, guardsmen staged massacres and robberies in Tver, Klin, Torzhok and other neighboring cities.

In the Tver Otrochy Monastery in December 1569, he personally strangled Metropolitan Philip, who refused to bless the campaign against Novgorod. The Kolychev family, to which Philip belonged, was persecuted; some of its members were executed on Ivan's orders.

Having dealt with Novgorod, the tsar marched on Pskov. The tsar limited himself only to the execution of several Pskovites and the robbery of their property. At that time, as the legend says, Grozny was visiting a Pskov fool (a certain Nikola Salos). When it was time for dinner, Nikola handed Grozny a piece of raw meat with the words: “Here, eat, you eat human meat,” and after that he threatened Ivan with many troubles if he did not spare the inhabitants. Grozny, having disobeyed, ordered to remove the bells from one Pskov monastery. At the same time, his best horse fell under the king, which impressed Ivan. The tsar hurriedly left Pskov and returned to Moscow, where a “search” for the Novgorod treason began, which was carried out throughout 1570, and many prominent guardsmen were also involved in the case.

In 1563 and 1569, together with the Turkish troops, Devlet I Giray made two unsuccessful campaigns against Astrakhan. The Turkish fleet also participated in the second campaign, and the Turks also planned to build a canal between the Volga and the Don to strengthen their influence in the Caspian, but the campaign ended in an unsuccessful 10-day siege of Astrakhan. Devlet I Giray, not happy with the strengthening of Turkey in this region, also secretly interfered with the campaign.

Starting from 1567, the activity of the Crimean Khanate began to increase, campaigns were made every year. In 1570, the Crimeans, almost without rebuff, subjected the Ryazan region to terrible devastation.

In 1571, Devlet Giray undertook a campaign against Moscow. Having deceived Russian intelligence, the Khan crossed the Oka near Kromy, and not at Serpukhov, where Ivan was waiting for him, and rushed to Moscow. Ivan left for Rostov, and the Crimeans burned Moscow, with the exception of the Kremlin and Kitay-gorod protected by stone walls. In the correspondence that followed, the tsar agreed to cede Astrakhan to the khan, but he was not satisfied with this, demanding Kazan and 2,000 rubles, and then announced his plans to capture the entire Russian state.

Devlet Giray wrote to Ivan: "I burn and waste everything because of Kazan and Astrakhan, and I apply the wealth of the whole world to dust, hoping for the majesty of God. I came to you, I burned your city, I wanted your crown and head; but you did not come and did not become against us, and you also boast that I am the sovereign of Moscow! If you had shame and dignity, then you would come against us and stand ".

Stunned by the defeat, Ivan the Terrible replied in a reply message that he agreed to transfer Astrakhan under Crimean control, but Kazan refused to return Gireyam: “You write about the war in a letter, and if I start writing about this, then we won’t come to a good deed. we must have your ambassadors, and it is impossible to do such a great deed as messengers; until then, you would have granted, given terms and did not fight our land ".

Ivan came out to the Tatar ambassadors in a sermyage, saying to them: “Do you see me, what am I in? So the king (khan) made me! All de my kingdom cast out and burned the treasury, give me nothing to the king ".

In 1572, the Khan began a new campaign against Moscow, which ended with the destruction of the Crimean-Turkish army in the Battle of Molodi. The death of the elite Turkish army near Astrakhan in 1569 and the defeat of the Crimean horde near Moscow in 1572 put a limit to the Turkish-Tatar expansion in Eastern Europe.

There is a version based on the “History” of Prince Andrei Kurbsky, according to which the winner at Molodi, Vorotynsky, was accused of intending to bewitch the tsar the following year, following a denunciation of a serf, and died of torture, moreover, during the torture, the tsar himself raked coals with his staff.

Unsuccessful actions against Devlet Giray in 1571 led to the final destruction of the oprichnina top of the first composition: the head of the oprichnina duma, the royal brother-in-law M. Cherkassky (Saltankul Murza) "for deliberately bringing the tsar under the Tatar attack" was impaled; nursery P. Zaitsev hanged on the gates of his own house; Oprichny boyars I. Chebotov, I. Vorontsov, butler L. Saltykov, kravchiy F. Saltykov and many others were also executed. Moreover, the reprisals did not subside even after the Battle of Molodi - celebrating the victory in Novgorod, the tsar drowned "children of the boyars" in Volkhov, after which a ban was introduced on the very name of the oprichnina. At the same time, Ivan the Terrible brought down repressions on those who had previously helped him deal with Metropolitan Philip: the Solovki abbot Paisius was imprisoned on Valaam, the Ryazan bishop Filofei was defrocked, and the bailiff Stefan Kobylin, who oversaw the metropolitan in the Otroche Monastery, was exiled to the distant Stone Monastery. islands.

As a result, during the new invasion in 1572, the oprichnina army was already united with the zemstvo; in the same year the tsar abolished the oprichnina altogether and banned its very name, although in fact, under the name of the “sovereign court”, the oprichnina existed until his death.

In 1575, at the request of Ivan the Terrible, the baptized Tatar and Khan of Kasimov Simeon Bekbulatovich was crowned king as "the Grand Duke of All Russia", and Ivan the Terrible himself called himself Ivan of Moscow, left the Kremlin and began to live on Petrovka.

According to the English historian and traveler Giles Fletcher, by the end of the year, the new sovereign had taken away all the charters granted to bishops and monasteries, which the latter had been using for several centuries. All of them were destroyed. After that (as if dissatisfied with such an act and the bad rule of the new sovereign), Grozny again took the scepter and, as if to please the church and the clergy, allowed him to renew the letters that he had already distributed from himself, holding and adding to the treasury as much land as he himself had whatever.

In this way, Grozny took away from bishops and monasteries (except for the lands attached to the treasury) a myriad of money: some 40, others 50, others 100 thousand rubles, which was done by him with the aim of not only increasing his treasury, but also removing a bad opinion of his cruel rule, setting an example even worse in the hands of another king.

This was preceded by a new surge of executions, when the circle of close associates that had been established in 1572, after the destruction of the oprichnina elite, was defeated. Having abdicated the throne, Ivan Vasilyevich took his "destiny" and formed his own "specific" Duma, which was now ruled by the Nagy, Godunovs and Belskys. After 11 months, Simeon, retaining the title of Grand Duke, went to Tver, where he was given an inheritance, and Ivan Vasilyevich again began to be called the Tsar and Grand Duke of All Russia.

On January 23, 1577, the 50,000-strong Russian army again besieged Revel but failed to take the fortress. In February 1578, Nuncio Vincent Laureo reported to Rome with alarm: "The Muscovite has divided his army into two parts: one is waiting near Riga, the other near Vitebsk." By this time, all of Livonia along the Dvin, with the exception of only two cities - Revel and Riga, was in the hands of the Russians.

In 1579, the royal messenger Wenceslas Lopatinsky brought a letter to the tsar from Bathory declaring war. Already in August, the Polish army took Polotsk, then moved to Velikiye Luki and took them.

At the same time there were direct peace negotiations with Poland. Ivan the Terrible offered to give Poland all of Livonia, with the exception of four cities. Batory did not agree to this and demanded all the Livonian cities, in addition to Sebezh, and the payment of 400,000 Hungarian gold for military expenses. This infuriated Grozny, and he responded with a sharp letter.

After that, in the summer of 1581, Stefan Batory invaded deep into Russia and laid siege to Pskov, which, however, could not be taken. Then the Swedes took Narva, where 7,000 Russians fell, then Ivangorod and Koporye. Ivan was forced to negotiate with Poland, hoping to conclude an alliance with her then against Sweden. In the end, the king was forced to agree to conditions under which “the Livonian cities, which are for the sovereign, should be ceded to the king, and Luke the Great and other cities that the king took, let him cede to the sovereign” - that is, the war that lasted almost a quarter of a century ended in restoration status quo ante bellum, thus becoming barren. A 10-year truce under these conditions was signed on January 15, 1582 in the Yama Zapolsky.

After the intensification of hostilities between Russia and Sweden in 1582 (the Russian victory near Lyalitsy, the unsuccessful siege of Oreshok by the Swedes), peace negotiations began, the result of which was the Plus Truce. Yam, Koporye and Ivangorod passed to Sweden along with the adjacent territory of the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. The Russian state was cut off from the sea. The country was devastated, and the northwestern regions were depopulated. It should also be noted that the Crimean raids influenced the course of the war and its results: only for 3 years out of 25 years of the war there were no significant raids.

On January 15, 1580, a church council was convened in Moscow. Addressing the higher hierarchs, the tsar directly said how difficult his situation was: “countless enemies rose up against the Russian state,” which is why he asks for help from the Church.

In 1580, the tsar defeated the German settlement. The Frenchman Jacques Margeret, who lived in Russia for many years, writes: “The Livonians, who were taken prisoner and brought to Moscow, professing the Lutheran faith, having received two churches inside the city of Moscow, sent a public service there; but in the end, because of their pride and vanity, the said temples ... were destroyed and all their houses were ruined. And, although they were driven out in winter naked and what their mother gave birth to, they could not blame anyone but themselves for this, for ... they behaved so arrogantly, their manners were so arrogant, and their clothes were so luxurious that they could all be was mistaken for princes and princesses ... The main profit was given to them by the right to sell vodka, honey and other drinks, on which they make not 10%, but a hundred, which seems incredible, but it's true.

In 1581, the Jesuit A. Possevino went to Russia, acting as an intermediary between Ivan and Poland, and, at the same time, hoping to persuade the Russian Church to unite with the Catholic. His failure was predicted by the Polish hetman Zamoyski: “He is ready to swear that the Grand Duke is disposed towards him and will accept the Latin faith to please him, and I am sure that these negotiations will end with the prince hitting him with a crutch and driving him away.” M. V. Tolstoy writes in the History of the Russian Church: “But the hopes of the pope and the efforts of Possevino were not crowned with success. John showed all the natural flexibility of his mind, dexterity and prudence, to which the Jesuit himself had to do justice, rejected harassment for permission to build Latin churches in Russia, rejected disputes about faith and the unification of the Churches on the basis of the rules of the Florentine Council and was not carried away by the dreamy promise of acquiring all Byzantine empire, lost by the Greeks as if for retreat from Rome. The ambassador himself notes that "the Russian Sovereign stubbornly evaded, avoided talking on this topic." Thus, the papacy did not receive any privileges; the possibility of Moscow's entry into the bosom of the Catholic Church remained as vague as before, and meanwhile the papal ambassador had to begin his mediating role.

The conquest of Western Siberia by Yermak Timofeevich and his Cossacks in 1583 and his capture of the capital of the Siberian Khanate - Isker - marked the beginning of the conversion of the local population to Orthodoxy: Yermak's troops were accompanied by four priests and hieromonks. However, this expedition was carried out against the will of the tsar, who in November 1582 scolded the Stroganovs for calling into their fiefdom the Cossacks - "thieves" - the Volga chieftains, who "previously quarreled with us with the Nogai Horde, the Nogai ambassadors on the Volga on they beat the transporters, and the Ordobazarians were robbed and beaten, and many robberies and losses were repaired by our people. Tsar Ivan IV ordered the Stroganovs, under fear of "great disgrace", to return Yermak from a campaign in Siberia and use his forces to "protect the Perm places." But while the tsar was writing his letter, Yermak had already inflicted a crushing defeat on Kuchum and occupied his capital.

A study of the remains of Ivan the Terrible showed that in the last six years of his life he developed osteophytes, and to such an extent that he could no longer walk - he was carried on a stretcher. M. M. Gerasimov, who examined the remains, noted that he had not seen such powerful deposits even among the deepest old people. Forced immobility, combined with a general unhealthy lifestyle, nervous shocks, etc., led to the fact that in his 50s, the tsar looked like a decrepit old man.

In August 1582, A. Possevino, in the report of the Signoria of Venice, stated that "the Moscow sovereign will not live long." In February and early March 1584, the tsar was still engaged in state affairs. By March 10, the first mention of the disease dates back (when the Lithuanian ambassador was stopped on the way to Moscow “due to the sovereign’s illness”). On March 16, deterioration began, the king fell into unconsciousness, but on March 17 and 18 he felt relief from hot baths. But in the afternoon of March 18, the king died. The body of the sovereign was swollen and smelled bad "because of the decomposition of the blood."

Vifliofika preserved the tsar’s dying order: “When the Great Sovereign of the last journey was honored, the most pure body and blood of the Lord, then presenting his confessor Archimandrite Theodosius as a testimony, filling his eyes with tears, saying to Boris Feodorovich: I command you my soul and my son Feodor Ivanovich and daughter my Irina ... ". Also, before his death, according to the chronicles, the tsar bequeathed to his youngest son Dmitry Uglich with all the counties.

It is difficult to reliably find out whether the death of the king was caused by natural causes or was violent.

There were persistent rumors about the violent death of Ivan the Terrible. A chronicler of the 17th century reported that "the close people gave poison to the king." According to the testimony of the clerk Ivan Timofeev, Boris Godunov and Bogdan Belsky "prematurely ended the life of the tsar." The crown hetman Zholkiewski also accused Godunov: “He took the life of Tsar Ivan by bribing the doctor who treated Ivan, because the case was such that if he had not warned him (hadn’t gotten ahead of him), he himself would have been executed along with many other noble nobles” . The Dutchman Isaac Massa wrote that Belsky put poison in the royal medicine. Horsey also wrote about the secret plans of the Godunovs against the tsar and put forward a version of the tsar's strangulation, with which V.I. , and also strangled. The historian Valishevsky wrote: “Bogdan Belsky with his advisers brought down Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, and now he wants to beat the boyars and wants to find the kingdom of Moscow under Tsar Fedor Ivanovich for his adviser (Godunov).”

The version of the poisoning of Grozny was tested during the opening of the royal tombs in 1963: studies showed the normal content of arsenic in the remains and an increased content of mercury, which, however, was present in many medicines of the 16th century and which was treated for syphilis, which the tsar was supposedly ill with. The version of the murder remained a hypothesis.

At the same time, the chief archaeologist of the Kremlin, Tatyana Panova, together with the researcher Elena Alexandrovskaya, considered the conclusions of the 1963 commission to be incorrect. In their opinion, Ivan the Terrible exceeded the allowable rate of arsenic by more than 2 times. According to them, the king was poisoned by a "cocktail" of arsenic and mercury, which was given to him for some time.

Wives of Ivan the Terrible:

The number of wives of Ivan the Terrible has not been precisely established; historians mention the names of six or seven women who were considered the wives of Ivan IV. Of these, only the first 4 are “married”, that is, legal from the point of view of church law (for the fourth marriage, prohibited by the canons, Ivan received a conciliar decision on its admissibility).

The first, longest marriage was concluded as follows: on December 13, 1546, 16-year-old Ivan consulted with Metropolitan Macarius about his desire to marry. Immediately after the wedding in January, noble dignitaries, devious and clerks began to travel around the country, looking for a bride for the king. A review of the brides was arranged. The choice of the king fell on Anastasia, the daughter of the widow Zakharyina. At the same time, Karamzin says that the tsar was guided not by the nobility of the family, but by the personal merits of Anastasia. The wedding took place on February 13, 1547 in the Church of Our Lady. The tsar's marriage lasted 13 years, until the sudden death of Anastasia in the summer of 1560. The death of his wife greatly influenced the 30-year-old king, after this event, historians note a turning point in the nature of his reign. A year after the death of his wife, the tsar entered into a second marriage, combined with Maria Temryukovna, who came from a family of Kabardian princes. After her death, Marfa Sobakina and Anna Koltovskaya became wives in turn. The third and fourth wives of the king were also chosen according to the results of the bride review, and the same one, since Martha died 2 weeks after the wedding.

At this point, the number of legal marriages of the king ended, and further information becomes more confused. It was 2 similarities of marriage (Anna Vasilchikova and), covered in reliable written sources. Probably, information about the late "wives" (Vasilisa Melentyeva and Maria Dolgorukaya) are legends or pure falsification.

In 1567, through the plenipotentiary English ambassador Anthony Jenkinson, Ivan the Terrible negotiated marriage with the English Queen Elizabeth I, and in 1583, through the nobleman Fyodor Pisemsky, he wooed a relative of the queen, Maria Hastings, not embarrassed by the fact that he himself was once again married at that time .

A possible explanation for the large number of marriages, which was not typical for that time, is the assumption of K. Valishevsky that Ivan was a great lover of women, but at the same time he was a great pedant in observing religious rites and sought to possess a woman only as a legal husband. On the other hand, according to the Englishman Jerome Horsey, who knew the king personally, "he himself boasted that he had corrupted a thousand virgins and that thousands of his children were deprived of their lives" According to V. B. Kobrin, this statement, although it contains a clear exaggeration, vividly characterizes the depravity of the king. The Terrible himself in spiritual literacy recognized for himself both "fornication" simply, and "supernatural wanderings" in particular.

Anastasia Romanovna

Anastasia Zakharyina-Yuryeva (1532-1560) was a representative of the boyar family, which had no political power in the country. It was only later that he gained both weight and position, and later the Romanov dynasty emerged from it. But at the moment being described, the Zakharyins-Yurievs did not think of anything like that.

Anastasia herself was the youngest of 2 daughters. In 1543 her father died, and the girl lived with her mother. It should be noted that her physique was fragile and graceful, her face was beautiful, and her mind was sharp and inquisitive.

In 1547, the time came for the sovereign to marry. A cry was thrown across Russia - to provide all the boyar families with their daughters, who are marriageable, for the bride. Special people examined the girls, and the best ones were sent to the palace to the crowned groom. There were up to 500 beauties collected from all over the Russian land. Among them was 14-year-old Anastasia.

It was she who liked the young autocrat. He took a liking to her heart and soul, and on February 3, 1547 they played a wedding to the delight of all honest people. The bride and groom were crowned by Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia Macarius.

The couple have been married for 13.5 years. The queen gave birth to 6 children. Four of them died in infancy. Son Ivan Ioannovich died during a quarrel with his father in 1581. Son Fyodor Ioannovich later became the king of all Russia. Anastasia had a very great influence on her husband, which caused discontent in the royal environment.

This truly wise woman died suddenly on August 7, 1560. Her death caused a lot of gossip and suspicion. Of course, the woman was not so young by the standards of the XVI century. Moreover, she gave birth to 6 children. But, as a rule, at that time, the reigning persons went to another world, having crossed the 50-year mark. Cosmetics were to blame for this, which contained a large amount of arsenic, lead and mercury. These harmful components slowly killed the body. But on the eve of the 30th anniversary, it was possible to die only from a large dose of poison.

In 2000, the remains of the deceased were examined. Conducted a thorough spectral analysis of the queen's hair. They had a huge concentration of mercury. No cosmetics could give such a high content of this toxic substance. Therefore, the version of the poisoning looks quite real.

Anastasia was buried in the Ascension Monastery of the Kremlin. The king wept bitter tears and could hardly stand on his feet, so dear to him was this woman. Throughout his subsequent life, he remembered her with warmth and tenderness.

Maria Temryukovna

The second wife of the autocrat was Princess Kuchenei (1545-1569), daughter of the Kabardian prince Temryuk (principality in the North Caucasus). The rumor about her beauty reached Moscow, and the sovereign expressed a desire to tie the knot with her. The wedding took place on August 21, 1561. The bride and groom were crowned again by the permanent Metropolitan Macarius. Before the wedding celebrations, the bride was baptized and named Maria Temryukovna.

It should be noted that the young woman had a very cruel and domineering character. It is she who is accused of completely spoiling the character of the sovereign. But it seems that if a person did not want to, then no one would have influenced him. The importance of Mary in the life and formation of the personality of Ivan the Terrible is greatly exaggerated.

Maria Temryukovna died on September 6, 1569. According to other sources, she died on September 1, having lived in marriage for 7 years. In 1563 she gave birth to a boy, Vasily. The baby died at 2 months of age. The second wife was buried next to the feather, and the sarcophagus with the body was placed to the left of Anastasia's sarcophagus. The king associated the sudden death of Mary with poisoning. This aggravated the political situation in the country.

Marfa Sobakina

The third betrothed of the sovereign was Marfa Sobakina, a Kolomna noblewoman. The king chose her after the usual procedure of the bride. The marriage ceremony took place on October 28, 1571. But even as a bride, Martha caught a cold and fell ill. Already on November 13, 1571, she died suddenly, having been queen for only 15 days. The terrible sovereign considered that the third wife was also poisoned. An investigation was organized, as a result of which 2 dozen people were executed.

In the late 90s of the XX century, the remains of the queen were subjected to examination. But no poisonous substances were found. However, it can be assumed that the woman was given a poison of plant origin. After centuries, such a poison is impossible to detect.

Anna Koltovskaya

The Orthodox Church allowed men to have only 3 wives. But the tsar told the clergy that Sobakina did not have time to become his betrothed because of her quick death. Therefore, the list of wives of Ivan the Terrible on Marfa did not end. Anna Koltovskaya continued it. It is noteworthy that she participated in the same bride as Martha Sobakina. The king noticed her, but gave preference to another. Then he remembered this noble girl when the 3rd marriage did not work out.

The marriage ceremony took place on April 29, 1572. After that, the newlyweds lived 4 months soul to soul. Apparently, the young woman was distinguished by an extraordinary mind, as she managed to tame the formidable temper of the king. It is she who is credited with the successful fight against such a terrible phenomenon on Russian soil as the oprichnina.

The woman managed to prove to the sovereign that terror, unjustified by anything, brings terrible harm to the Russian land. After such conversations, the tsar began to destroy the leaders of terror. The heads of Mikhail Cherkassky, the fierce Vyazemsky, Vasily Gryazny, Alexei Basmanov flew off. The horrendous phenomenon has almost vanished. But for some reason, the love between the spouses also ended.

In September 1572, at the behest of the Tsar, Anna retired to a monastery and took monastic vows under the name Daria. Until the end of her life, she remained a nun-queen, and died on April 5, 1626, having survived both an ungrateful spouse and difficult Time of Troubles. She was buried in the Tikhvin Vvedensky Monastery.

Maria Dolgorukaya

After the marriage with Anna Koltovskaya, the sovereign exhausted the limit of wives. According to the canons of the Orthodox Church, he no longer had the right to bind himself to someone by marriage. However, history recorded the 5th wife - this is Princess Maria Dolgorukaya. In modern terms, in November 1573, Ivan and Maria had an affair.

The feelings were so strong that the lovers secretly got married. But on the wedding night it turned out that the chosen one is not a virgin. Shocked and heartbroken, the sovereign ordered to tie the deceiver to the tails of the horses. The horses were burned with whips, and they rushed in different directions. It is not difficult to imagine what remains of the body of Maria Dolgoruky.

Anna Vasilchikova

Anna Vasilchikova is considered the 6th wife of the formidable Tsar of All Russia. The woman was from the boyar family of the Vasilchikovs, but many historians do not consider her a wife and queen. The wedding, which supposedly took place in December 1574, is also called into question. However, there was a love affair, but a year passed, and the king lost interest in his beloved. After that, the woman was forcibly tonsured a nun and sent to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery. It is believed that the unfortunate woman died either in December 1576 or in January 1577. Her body was buried in the same monastery.

Vasilisa Melentievna

The wives of Ivan the Terrible after the first 2 long marriages changed like gloves. Vasilisa Melentyeva is considered the seventh wife. This is a noblewoman and a widow. She had a love affair with the sovereign either at the end of 1575, or at the beginning of 1576. The king made her his wife through prayer, but there was no wedding. At the end of April 1577, the husband became jealous of his unmarried betrothed to one of the courtiers. Togo was executed, and Vasilisa was tonsured a nun in May 1577. The further fate of this woman is unknown.

Maria Nagaya

The last 8th wife is Maria Nagaya. She came from the boyar family Nagy, the daughter of Fedor Fedorovich Nagoy. She became the unmarried wife of the king in 1580, when he was 50 years old. In October 1582 she gave birth to a son, Dmitry. He became the last child of the formidable autocrat. He died in 1591 at the age of 8.

In 1583 she fell into disgrace. But her husband did not have time to send her to the monastery, as he died. Other people did it. Maria, together with her son, was removed to live in Uglich. After the tragic death of the boy, she took monastic vows and took the name Martha.

This woman played a minor political role in the Time of Troubles. In 1604, she was brought to Moscow to confirm the death of her son. This was due to the appearance of False Dmitry I. But she did not say anything new to Boris Godunov. In July 1605, Naguya was again taken to Moscow, but already on the orders of False Dmitry I. The woman publicly recognizes him as her son. However, a year later she withdrew her confession due to the execution of the impostor.

The exact date of Maria Nagoya's death is unknown. She rested in the Goritsky Resurrection Monastery either in 1608 or in 1610. Thus ended the life of the last wife of Ivan the Terrible.

Children of Ivan the Terrible:

Sons:

1. Dmitry Ivanovich (October 11, 1552 - June 4 (6), 1553), heir to his father during a fatal illness in 1553; in the same year, when the royal family was descending from the plow, the gangway overturned, and the baby drowned.

2. Ivan Ivanovich (March 28, 1554 - November 19, 1581), according to one version, died during a quarrel with his father, according to another version, he died as a result of an illness on November 19. Married three times, left no offspring.

3. Fedor I Ioannovich, (May 11, 1557 - January 7, 1598), no male children. Upon the birth of his son, Ivan the Terrible ordered to build a church in the Feodorovsky Monastery in the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky. This temple in honor of Theodore Stratilates became the main cathedral of the monastery and has been preserved to this day.

4. Vasily (son from Maria Kucheni) - died in infancy (1563).

5. Tsarevich Dmitry, (1582-1591), died in childhood (according to one of the versions, he stabbed himself to death in an epileptic fit, according to another, Boris Godunov's people killed him).

Daughters (all from Anastasia):

Ivan IV, Russian Tsar and Grand Duke of Moscow, later nicknamed the Terrible, was born on August 25, 1530. After the death in 1533 of his father, Grand Duke Vasily III, Ivan was in the care of his mother, Elena Glinskaya, until the age of eight. When she was poisoned by the boyars (1538), the influential Shuisky family came to power in Moscow.

Elena Glinskaya. Skull reconstruction, S. Nikitin, 1999

The Shuiskys became famous for their cruel, mercenary rule. Metropolitan Daniel was overthrown by them, and the royal treasury was plundered. The supporters of the Shuiskys seized the lucrative positions of governors and judges in the regions where they oppressed the people with requisitions and traded justice with impunity. In 1540, the Shuiskys were removed from power, and it passed to the smart Ivan Belsky. During the six months of his reign, he carried out reforms that anticipated many future transformations of the Chosen One. At the initiative of Belsky, robbery and tateb cases were excluded from the jurisdiction of state officials (governors and tiuns) and transferred to the court of elected labial elders or heads together with sworn people or kissers. The campaign against Moscow launched by the Crimean Khan Saip-Giray in 1541 failed: Dmitry Belsky forced him to retreat. But in January 1542 Ivan Belsky was overthrown by Ivan Shuisky and killed. Power passed to Ivan Shuisky, and then to his relative Andrei, who had previously become famous for robberies and harassment in the office of the Pskov governor.

P. Pleshanov. Ivan IV and Sylvester during the Moscow fire of 1547

The most important business of this time of the reign of Ivan IV the Terrible was the convocation in 1550 of the first Zemsky Sobor in Russia, which resulted in the provision of a broader elective self-government to the population of the Moscow state. In the same year appeared new Sudebnik. In 1551, a church council was convened, which received the name Stoglavy. Of the affairs of foreign policy of this period of the reign of Ivan IV, the main ones were the conquest of the Kazan kingdom and the campaign against Astrakhan. After the Kazan Khan Safa-Girey died in 1549, strife and unrest began among his subjects. Ivan approached the walls of Kazan with an army (1550). At that time, he did not take the city, but laid the strong fortress of Sviyazhsk 37 versts from Kazan - a convenient stronghold for new campaigns. There the Russian government imprisoned Shig-Aley, who had been Khan of Kazan more than once before. Soon he was restored to the Kazan throne as Moscow's assistant, and then Ivan IV overthrew him and directly sent his governor, Prince Semyon Mikulinsky, to Kazan.

Kazanians did not let him into the city. All parties of local murzas and mullahs reconciled, inviting the Nogai prince Ediger to their city, with 10,000 Nogais. The Russian government gathered 100,000 troops, Ivan the Terrible himself became their leader. The Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey, who tried to help fellow believers, attacked Moscow lands from the south, but was repulsed from Tula. The troops of Ivan IV laid siege to Kazan on August 20, 1552 and carried on the siege until October 2. On this day, the wall was destroyed by an explosion. The Russians broke into the city and took it. The conquest of the Kazan kingdom subordinated to the Russian state a significant area of ​​land to the east to Vyatka and Perm and to the south to the Kama. Taking advantage of disagreements in Astrakhan and the precarious position of Khan Yamgurchey, Ivan the Terrible sent an army in 1554, which expelled Yamgurchey and imprisoned the Nogai prince Derbysh. He, however, soon entered into relations with the Crimean Devlet Giray and opened a war against Moscow. The Russian detachment remaining in Astrakhan defeated and drove out Derbysh, and Astrakhan was annexed to the Muscovite state (1556). The entire Volga region became part of Russia.

Siege and capture of Kazan in 1552

From 1553, Ivan IV began to disagree with his advisers on matters of government, who too embarrassed the power-hungry tsar. The beginning of the disagreement was the question of succession to the throne during the serious illness of the king (1553). Ivan wanted to see Dmitry's young son on the throne after himself, and the closest advisers, fearing the excessive influence of Dmitry's mother's relatives, the Zakharyins, stood for the sovereign's cousin, Vladimir Andreevich. Ivan IV recovered and held a grudge against the members of the Chosen Rada. At the same time, departures and secret negotiations with Lithuania began for some of the more cautious boyars. Ivan the Terrible also parted ways with his advisers on foreign policy issues: the Rada tried to focus all its attention on Crimean affairs, while Ivan turned his eyes to the West. In 1560, Empress Anastasia, who had a restraining influence on her husband, died. Saddened by the death of his wife, Ivan IV became even more distant from his close associates. Alexey Adashev was soon sent as governor to the remote city of Fellin, and the priest Sylvester voluntarily left for the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. Their enemies, especially the Zakharyins, began to slander their favorites, as if they had exhausted Anastasia. Ivan allegedly gave faith to the accusations and brought the recent rulers of the state to trial, but did not allow them to appear for explanations. Sylvester was exiled to the Solovetsky monastery, Alexei Adashev was transferred to custody in Dorpat, where he soon died.

A year after the death of his first wife, Ivan the Terrible married the baptized Circassian princess Maria, but soon lost interest in her and indulged in debauchery along with new favorites, who strongly influenced him in a bad way, but did not constrain him in anything. These were Alexei Basmanov and his son Fyodor, Prince Athanasius Vyazemsky, Malyuta Skuratov-Belsky and Vasily Gryaznoy. At the same time, the still fragmentary persecution and execution of the boyars began, who for some reason seemed suspicious. In the early 1560s. Daniil Adashev (Alexei's brother), Prince Dmitry Ovchin-Obolensky, Mikhail Repnin, Dmitry Kurlyatov with his family, and others were executed. The heroes of the wars with Kazan and the Crimea, Mikhail Vorotynsky, Ivan Vasilyevich Bolshoy, Sheremetev, and others, were sent to prison. From some other noble boyars, Ivan the Terrible took an oath handwritten note that they would faithfully serve the tsar and would not leave for Lithuania and other states. But the flight to Lithuania continued - the head of the Dnieper Cossacks, Prince Dmitry Vishnevetsky, who had previously arrived from there to serve Ivan IV, two princes of Cherkassky, Vladimir Zabolotsky and others, went there. Opala also befell members of the Moscow ruling dynasty: Vladimir Andreevich and his wife Efrosinya. The tsar's particular anger was caused by the flight to Lithuania of Andrei Kurbsky, who burst into thunderous letters and denunciations. In the same 1564, Metropolitan Macarius died, who retained some authority over Ivan IV. By the will of the tsar, the church council elected his former confessor, the Annunciation archpriest elder Athanasius, as the new metropolitan.

N. Nevrev. Oprichniki (The murder of the Terrible boyar Fedorov)

The end of 1564 was marked by an unusual and unexpected act of the king. Ivan the Terrible left Moscow with courtiers and a large convoy and settled not far from the capital, in the Alexander Sloboda. A month after his departure, on January 3, 1565, he sent a letter to Moscow addressed to the clergy and boyars. It listed "the betrayals of the boyars and the voivodship and all sorts of orderly people", and then it was reported that the tsar "not though enduring many of their changing deeds" put his disgrace on them and went to live where God would indicate. At the same time, another letter was brought, dividing the interests of the Moscow population: it was written in it that the anger and disgrace of Ivan IV did not concern Moscow guests, merchants and ordinary people. Numerous petitioners went to Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda to ask the tsar to lay down his disgrace, continue to reign, execute his villains and bring out treason. After intensified requests, Ivan the Terrible agreed to change his anger to mercy, but on the terms of allocation for himself oprichnina- a special part of the state, which he will rule regardless of the boyars.

The explanations of the oprichnina by historians are varied. Kostomarov sees in her a semi-robber squad of royal servants, whom he could trust and exterminate everyone and everything that seemed suspicious and unpleasant to him. Close to the same opinion is V. O. Klyuchevsky, representing the oprichnina as a detective agency, "the highest police for high treason." Solovyov saw in the oprichnina an attempt by Ivan the Terrible to formally separate himself from the unreliable in his eyes boyar government class; the new court of the tsar, arranged for this purpose, degenerated into an instrument of terror in cases of boyar and any other treason. Bestuzhev-Ryumin and E. Belov give more political meaning to the oprichnina: they think that the oprichnina was directed against the offspring of specific princes and was aimed at breaking their traditional rights and advantages. S. F. Platonov, believing the latter opinion to be close to the truth, explains the oprichnina more widely and in more detail, pointing out its consequences in the further course of Russian history. Ivan IV set himself a special courtyard in Moscow on Vozdvizhenka, although he lived more in Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, established a special government household in it, chose for himself boyars, roundabouts, a butler, treasurer, clerks, clerks, selected special nobles, children of boyars, stewards, solicitors , residents. Grozny supplied all kinds of trusted henchmen in the tsarist services, as well as special archers.

All possessions of the Moscow state were divided into two parts. Ivan IV chose for himself and his sons cities with volosts, which were supposed to cover the costs of royal life and the salaries of service people selected for the oprichnina. In the volosts of these cities, estates were exclusively distributed to those nobles and boyar children who were recorded in the oprichnina. The rest of Russia was called zemstvo and believed in the management of the zemstvo boyars, Ivan Belsky, Ivan Mstislavsky and others (in 1575, the baptized Tatar prince Simeon Bekbulatovich with the title of Grand Duke was placed at the head of the zemstvo, as if in mockery). In the zemshchina there were old ranks of the same names as in the oprichnina. In all matters of the zemstvo administration, they belonged to the boyar council, and in the most important cases the boyars reported to the sovereign. Zemshchina had the meaning of a disgraced land, comprehended by royal anger. The territory of the lands ceded to the oprichnina in the 1570s. 16th century covered almost half of the Muscovite kingdom and was made up of cities and volosts that lay in the central and northern areas of the state - in Pomorie, Zamoskovny and Zaoksky cities, in the patches of Novgorod land, Obonezhskaya and Bezhetskaya. Leaning in the north on the White Sea, the oprichnina lands cut like a wedge into the "zemshchina", dividing it in two. In the east, beyond the Zemshchina, there remained the Perm and Vyatka cities, Ponizovye and Ryazan; in the west - frontier and Seversk cities.

The territory of the oprichnina was largely the territory of the old specific possessions, where the old orders still lived and the old authorities still acted next to the power of the Moscow sovereign. With a few and minor exceptions, all those places in which these old specific principalities had previously existed were introduced into the oprichnina administration. Thus, the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible systematically destroyed the patrimonial land tenure of the service princes throughout its territory. With the oprichnina, the "hosts" of several thousand servants, with whom the princes used to come to the sovereign's service, were to disappear, as were all other traces of the old appanage customs and liberties in the field of official relations. So, seizing the old appanage territories under the control of the oprichnina to accommodate his new servants, Ivan IV made radical changes in them, replacing the remnants of appanage vestiges with new orders that equaled everyone in the face of the sovereign in his “special everyday life”, where there could no longer be specific memories. and aristocratic traditions. Eliminating the old land relations in the oprichnina, the government of Ivan IV instead of them established uniform orders everywhere, firmly linking the right to land ownership with compulsory service.

So, the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible crushed the land ownership of the nobility in its form, as it existed from antiquity. The former specific aristocracy turned into ordinary service landowners. If we recall that next to this land transfer there were disgraces, exiles and executions, addressed primarily to the same princes, then we can be sure that in the oprichnina there was a complete defeat of the specific aristocracy. First, about 1,000 people with families, and then more than 6,000, were included in the oprichniki. At the head of the oprichnina were the favorites of Ivan IV: Malyuta Skuratov, the Basmanovs, Afanasy Vyazemsky, etc. During this period of Ivan the Terrible’s reign, terrible times of violence, deprivation of land and property came and the rights of the "zemstvo" people, robberies and executions. At this time, the son-in-law of Ivan Mstislavsky, Alexander Gorbaty Shuisky, Ivan Chelyadnin, Prince Kurakin-Bulgakov, Dmitry Ryapolovsky, the princes of Rostov, Turuntai-Pronsky, Pyotr Shchenyatev, the duma clerk Kazarin-Dubrovsky and many others died.

A. Vasnetsov. Moscow dungeon from the time of the oprichnina

Ivan IV arranged a strange way of life at the oprichny court. He started a semblance of a monastery in Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, selected 300 guardsmen, put on them black cassocks over gold-embroidered caftans, taffeta or caps on their heads. Ivan the Terrible called himself hegumen, others - cellar and sexton, etc., composed a monastic charter for the brethren, rang the bell tower, read the lives of the saints in a monastic manner at the meal, etc. From this "monastic life" Ivan IV directly passed to searches, torture, torment, revelry and debauchery. Then Metropolitan Philip also perished. He was from the noble family of the Kolychev boyars, elected from the abbots of the Solovetsky Monastery, at the insistence of Ivan IV he was appointed metropolitan after the retirement of Athanasius (June 1566) and did not cease to grieve and beat the tsar with his brow for the disgraced. Philip denounced the king for his behavior and attacked the guardsmen and their willfulness. In 1568 he was deposed and imprisoned in the Otroch Monastery, where he was strangled by Malyuta Skuratov. At the beginning of the same year, Ivan the Terrible's cousin Vladimir Andreevich died. He was suspected that he wanted to go to King Sigismund Augustus, and they killed him together with his wife in the Alexander Sloboda.

Entire cities and regions began to fall into disgrace. According to a false denunciation, accusing Archbishop Pimen and many Novgorodians of wanting to surrender to the Polish king Sigismund Augustus, Ivan IV decided to search and punish the perpetrators. In December 1569 Grozny set out on a military campaign across his own state. Klin, Tver and Torzhok were robbed, and many residents were killed. Through Vyshny Volochok, Valdai and Yazhelbitsy, Ivan IV approached Novgorod with guardsmen and troops. Even earlier, an advanced regiment arrived in the city and arrested a number of residents. Arriving on January 6, 1570, the king ordered to kill many of the black clergy. Then Archbishop Pimen and other clerics and inhabitants of Novgorod were captured. Monasteries and churches were robbed, and then, on the orders of Ivan the Terrible, the total beating of Novgorodians began indiscriminately. The beating was accompanied by preliminary torment and torment. Oprichniki drowned people in the Volkhov River, sparing neither women nor children. The dead must be counted at least 15,000 people. The city and all its environs were destroyed and plundered. On February 13, Ivan IV went to Pskov, the frightened inhabitants of which expressed humiliation and humility and were spared. In Moscow, the tsar continued to investigate the case of the Novgorod treason, arranged torture questions for many of those arrested, and in June up to 120 people were executed on Red Square - and among them there were already many prominent guardsmen.

All these bloody events within the state took place simultaneously with the continuation of the mostly unsuccessful campaigns and battles in the war for Livonia. Ivan the Terrible began this war in 1558 with the Livonian Order. The Russians passed through Livonia, devastated it and took Narva, Dorpat, and other large cities and castles north of the Western Dvina. The master of the order, Ketler, had to look for allies in the face of the Poles. He concluded an agreement with the Polish-Lithuanian king: Livonia was given under the patronage of Sigismund II. The Lithuanians, however, did not help the Germans well, and the Russians captured the fortified places of Marienburg and Fellin. Soon Livonia fell apart, and the Order completely ceased to exist. His possessions were divided among neighboring powers. The Danes took over the island of Ezel and the adjacent coast, the Swedes took over Revel and the lands near the Gulf of Finland. The rest (most) of the possessions of the Order was given under the supreme dominion of Sigismund on vassal relations. In the autumn of 1561, Ketler assumed the title of Hereditary Duke of Courland and Semigallia, and Livonia, in which he remained the royal governor, was united with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Now Russia had to fight with Poland and Lithuania. Ivan IV himself moved with the army, took Polotsk in 1563, but in January 1565 the Russian army was defeated near Orsha by the Polish-Lithuanian troops. In 1570, a three-year, subsequently extended, truce was concluded on the terms of ownership of what was captured by whom. In 1576, the militant Stefan Batory, an excellent commander, was elected to the Polish-Lithuanian throne. Already in 1578, an 18,000-strong Russian detachment was defeated by the combined Polish, German and Swedish troops near Wenden. In 1579, Batory, with a large, well-organized army, took Polotsk from Ivan the Terrible, in 1580 - Velikie Luki, Nevel, Toropets, Opochka, Krasny, and at the end of August 1581 approached the walls of Pskov. However, the siege of Pskov by the Poles dragged on, and Batory could not take it. New diplomatic negotiations began, mediated by the papal envoy, the Jesuit Anthony Possevinus. The negotiations ended on January 6, 1582 in the Zapolsky Pit with a ten-year truce. Ivan IV abandoned Livonia, returned Polotsk and Velizh to Lithuania, and Batory agreed to return the Pskov suburbs he had taken.

Taking advantage of the distraction of Russian forces in Livonia, the Muslims resumed the onslaught on it from the south. The Crimean Khan Devlet Giray, prompted by the sultan, who did not think of abandoning the Kazan and Astrakhan kingdoms, in 1571 staged a campaign against Moscow with 120,000 Crimeans and Nogais. The governors of Ivan the Terrible did not have time to block his way through the Oka. Khan bypassed them, went to Serpukhov, where at that time the tsar was with guardsmen. Ivan IV cowardly fled to the north. Devlet Giray approached Moscow, burned it, except for the Kremlin. Many people died or were taken captive by the Tatars. Panic-stricken Ivan the Terrible at one time even intended to return Astrakhan to the Muslims, but abandoned this promise in view of the success achieved by the Russian commanders the following year. In 1572, Devlet-Girey again moved to Moscow, but was defeated on the banks of the river. Bang, at young, Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky. Ivan the Terrible after that refused to return Astrakhan to the Tatars.

Things were more successful at the end of the reign of Ivan IV in the East, where in 1582 a part of Siberia was annexed by the Cossacks of the ataman. From the history of Russia's relations with the West in the reign of Ivan the Terrible, it is important to establish close contacts with England. In 1553, three English ships set off to explore the northeastern trade routes. Two ships with the head of the expedition Willoughby froze off the coast of Lapland, the third under the command of Richard Chancellor reached the mouth of the Northern Dvina. Chancellor was reported to Ivan IV, who rejoiced at the opportunity to establish new relations with foreigners. He sent a letter to the English king, and then approved the privilege of an English merchant company founded for trade with Russia.

The conquest of Siberia by Yermak. Painting by V. Surikov, 1895

Exhausted by an abnormal and dissolute life and the hardships of his cruel reign, Ivan the Terrible fell mortally ill and died on March 18, 1584 at the age of 53.

Ivan IV was a brilliant publicist and orator. The contents of two of his speeches have come down to us. One of them was said by him at the Zemsky Sobor in 1550. In it, the tsar regretted the injustices committed by the boyars during his childhood, promised that this would not happen in the future, and asked the people to reconcile with the boyars. Another speech was delivered by him at the Stoglav Church Council, was preserved in the acts of the latter and is remarkable for acquaintance with the shortcomings of the church life of that time. But the Correspondence of Grozny with Prince A. M. Kurbsky is best known. Two letters belong to Grozny from this Correspondence, where the idea of ​​unlimited tsarist power is ardently defended. The same idea is carried out in two other letters of Ivan: to the Polish king Stefan Batory and the English queen Elizabeth (the latter is distinguished by extremely cynical expressions). In addition, he wrote the “Message to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery”, remarkable for its vivid depiction of the shortcomings of the then monastic life. The shortcomings of Ivan the Terrible, as a writer, should include the absence of any plan in his works, an excessive number of quotations and examples from Holy Scripture and other sources, and extreme verbosity, which his opponent Kurbsky aptly described, saying that he does not know how "in short words many close the mind." However, the corrosive irony, which Kurbsky aptly called biting, the ability to notice the weak side of the enemy, deftly repel the blow, as well as strong figurative language, make Grozny be recognized as one of the most gifted Russian writers of the pre-Petrine era.

Ivan the Terrible is the first tsar of all Russia, known for his barbaric and incredibly harsh methods of government. Despite this, his reign is considered significant for the state, which, thanks to the foreign and domestic policies of Grozny, has become twice as large in its territory. The first Russian ruler was a powerful and very evil monarch, but he managed to achieve a lot in the international political arena, maintaining a total one-man dictatorship in his state, full of executions, disgrace and terror for any disobedience to power.

Ivan the Terrible (Ivan IV Vasilyevich) was born on August 25, 1530 in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow in the family of Grand Duke Vasily III Rurikovich and the Lithuanian princess Elena Glinskaya. He was the eldest son of his parents, therefore he became the first heir to the throne of his father, whom he had to replace upon reaching the age of majority. But he had to become the nominal tsar of all Russia at the age of 3, since Vasily III became seriously ill and died suddenly. After 5 years, the mother of the future king also died, as a result of which at the age of 8 he was left a complete orphan.

The childhood of the young monarch passed in an atmosphere of palace coups, a serious struggle for power, intrigues and violence, which formed Ivan the Terrible's tough character. Then, considering the heir to the throne as an uncomprehending child, the trustees did not pay any attention to him, mercilessly killed his friends and kept the future king in poverty, even depriving him of food and clothing. This brought up in him aggression and cruelty, which already in his youth was manifested in the desire to torture animals, and in the future, the entire Russian people.

At that time, the country was ruled by the princes Belsky and Shuisky, the nobleman Mikhail Vorontsov and relatives of the future ruler on the maternal side of the Glinsky. Their reign was marked for all of Russia by the careless disposal of state property, which Ivan the Terrible understood very clearly.

In 1543, for the first time, he showed his guardians his temper, ordering the death of Andrei Shuisky. Then the boyars began to fear the tsar, power over the country was completely concentrated in the hands of the Glinskys, who began to please the heir to the throne with all their might, cultivating bestial instincts in him.

At the same time, the future king devoted a lot of time to self-education, read many books, which made him the most well-read ruler of those times. Then, being a powerless hostage of temporary rulers, he hated the whole world, and his main idea was to obtain complete and unlimited power over people, which he placed above any moral laws.

Board and reforms

In 1545, when Ivan the Terrible came of age, he became a full-fledged tsar. His first political decision was the desire to marry the king, which gave him the right to autocracy and the heritage of the traditions of the Orthodox faith. At the same time, this royal title also became useful for the country's foreign policy, as it allowed it to take a different position in diplomatic relations with Western Europe and claim Russia for first place among European states.

From the first days of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, a number of key changes and reforms took place in the state, which he developed with the Chosen Rada, and a period of autocracy began in Russia, during which all power fell into the hands of one monarch.

The next 10 years the Tsar of All Russia devoted to global reform - Ivan the Terrible carried out a zemstvo reform, which formed a class-representative monarchy in the country, adopted a new judicial code that tightened the rights of all peasants and serfs, introduced a lip reform that redistributed the powers of volostels and governors in favor of the nobility.

In 1550, the ruler distributed estates within 70 km from the Russian capital to a “chosen” thousand Moscow nobles and formed a streltsy army, which he armed with firearms. The same period was marked by the enslavement of peasants and the ban on Jewish merchants from entering Russia.

The foreign policy of Ivan the Terrible at the first stage of his reign was full of numerous wars, which were very successful. He personally participated in campaigns and already in 1552 took control of Kazan and Astrakhan, and then annexed part of the Siberian lands to Russia. In 1553, the monarch began to organize trade relations with England, and after 5 years he entered the war with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in which he suffered a resounding defeat and lost part of the Russian lands.

After losing the war, Ivan the Terrible began to look for those responsible for the defeat, broke off law-making relations with the Chosen Rada and embarked on the path of autocracy, filled with repressions, disgraces and executions of everyone who did not support his policies.

Oprichnina

The reign of Ivan the Terrible at the second stage became even tougher and bloodier. In 1565, he introduced a special form of government, as a result of which Russia was divided into two parts - the oprichnina and the zemshchina. Oprichniki, who took an oath of allegiance to the tsar, fell under his complete autocracy and could not communicate with the zemstvos, who paid the lion's share of their income to the monarch.

In this way, a large army gathered on the estates of the oprichnina, which Ivan the Terrible freed from responsibility. They were allowed to organize robberies and pogroms of the boyars by force, and in case of resistance they were allowed to mercilessly execute and kill all those who disagreed with the sovereign.

In 1571, when the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey invaded Russia, the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible demonstrated complete incapacity to defend the state - the guardsmen spoiled by the ruler simply did not go to war, and out of the entire large army, the tsar managed to assemble only one regiment that could not resist the army of the Crimean khan. As a result, Ivan the Terrible canceled the oprichnina, stopped killing people, and even ordered that memorial lists of executed people be compiled so that their souls would be buried in monasteries.

The results of the reign of Ivan the Terrible were the collapse of the country's economy and a resounding defeat in the Livonian War, which, according to historians, was his life's work. The monarch realized that, while ruling the country, he made many mistakes not only in domestic but also in foreign policy, which by the end of his reign made Ivan the Terrible repent.

During this period, he committed another bloody crime and, in moments of rage, accidentally killed his own son and the only possible heir to the throne, Ivan Ivanovich. After that, the king completely despaired and even wanted to go to the monastery.

Personal life

The personal life of Ivan the Terrible is as rich as his reign. According to historians, the first tsar of all Russia was married seven times. The first wife of the monarch was Anastasia Zakharyina-Yuryeva, whom he married in 1547. In more than 10 years of marriage, the queen gave birth to six children, of whom only Ivan and Fedor survived.

After Anastasia died in 1560, Ivan the Terrible married the daughter of the Kabardian prince Maria Cherkasskaya. In the first year of married life with the monarch, the second wife bore him a son, who died at the age of one month. After that, Ivan the Terrible's interest in his wife disappeared, and after 8 years Maria herself died.

The third wife of Ivan the Terrible, Maria Sobakina, was the daughter of a Kolomna nobleman. Their wedding took place in 1571. The third marriage of the king lasted only 15 days - Mary died for unknown reasons. After 6 months, the king again married Anna Koltovskaya. This marriage was also childless, and after a year of family life, the tsar took his fourth wife to a monastery, where she died in 1626.

The fifth wife of the ruler was Maria Dolgorukaya, whom he drowned in a pond after the wedding night, as he learned that his new wife was not a virgin. In 1975, he remarried Anna Vasilchikova, who did not stay long as queen - she, like her predecessors, suffered the fate of being forcibly exiled to a monastery, allegedly for betraying the king.

The last, seventh wife of Ivan the Terrible was Maria Nagaya, who married him in 1580. Two years later, the queen gave birth to Tsarevich Dmitry, who died at the age of 9. Maria, after the death of her husband by the new king, was exiled to Uglich, and after that she was forcibly tonsured a nun. She became a significant figure in Russian history as a mother, whose short reign fell on the Time of Troubles.

Death

The death of the first Tsar of All Russia, Ivan the Terrible, occurred on March 28, 1584 in Moscow. The ruler died while playing chess from the growth of osteophytes, which in recent years have made him practically immobile. Nervous shocks, an unhealthy lifestyle and this serious illness made Ivan the Terrible at the age of 53 a “decrepit” old man, which led to such an early death.

Ivan the Terrible was buried next to his son Ivan, who was killed by him, in the Archangel Cathedral, located in the Moscow Kremlin. After the burial of the monarch, persistent rumors began to appear that the king had died a violent rather than a natural death. The chroniclers claim that Ivan the Terrible was poisoned with poison, which after him became the ruler of Russia.

The version about the poisoning of the first monarch was checked in 1963 during the opening of the royal tombs - the researchers did not find a high content of arsenic in the remains, so the murder of Ivan the Terrible was not confirmed. On this, the Rurik dynasty was completely stopped, and the Time of Troubles began in the country.

• Years of life: August 25 (September 3), 1530 - March 18 (28), 1584
• Father and mother: And .
• Spouses: Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yurieva, Princess Maria Temryukovna Cherkasskaya, Marfa Vasilievna Sobakina, Anna Alekseevna Koltovskaya, Anna Grigorievna Vasilchikova, Vasilisa Melentieva, Maria Fedorovna Nagaya.
• Children: Dmitry, Ivan, Fedor, Vasily, Dmitry Uglitsky, Anna, Maria, Evdokia.
• And .

Ivan IV (August 25, 1530 - March 18, 1584) is the Prince of Moscow and All Russia and the first Russian Tsar.

Mother of Ivan the Terrible - Princess Glinskaya Elena Vasilievna. She gave birth to a son in the village of Kolomenskoye. Glinskaya died in 1538. Father - Prince of Moscow BasilIII from the Rurik dynasty. He died when Ivan was only 3 years old.

After the death of his father, Ivan the Terrible became tsar. But because of his young age, power passed to his mother and the Boyar Duma. The boyars ruled until 1548. Ivan grew up in an unfavorable environment. He saw intrigues, coups, the struggle for power (between the boyars Shuisky and Belsky). The boyars did not pay attention to Ivan: they did not listen to him, kept him in poverty, killed his friends and patrons Ivan was surrounded by cruelty and violence. The king himself, already in childhood, began to show aggression, torturing living beings. In addition, such an environment developed suspicion and vindictiveness in him.

Ivan was very educated. Even in his youth, he read all the books that were in the palace. He also had an excellent memory.

Ivan was tormented by the thought that he, being an autocrat by birthright, had no real power for a long time, but did everything as the boyars ordered. Over time, this thought oppressed him more and more, as a result of which Ivan began to put his power above everything, even above moral laws.

On January 16, 1547, the solemn wedding ceremony of Prince Ivan IV took place in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. He was the first king who actually wielded power. Before him, there was no autocracy in Russia. But now everyone, including the boyars, had to obey the tsar. But the boyars, whose ancestors until recently were independent rulers of their own principalities, opposed this. As a result, Ivan IV took the following measure against the aristocracy - oprichnina.

In 1571, the Crimean Khan Devlet Giray attacked Moscow, the army of guardsmen could not stop him. As a result, in 1572 the tsar abolished the oprichnina.

The foreign policy of Ivan the Terrible was also not successful. In 1558 - 1583, it was going on, which ended in defeat.

The results of the reign of Ivan IV were unfavorable. The division of the country into oprichnina and zemstvos caused a deterioration in the state's economy. Many lands were devastated. Ivan the Terrible in 1581 introduced reserved summers- this is a temporary ban, when the peasants on St. George's Day could not leave the owners, so there was an increase in serfdom relations. As a result of the Livonian War, part of the Russian lands was lost.

In 1578 Ivan the Terrible stopped executions. He also ordered the compilation of memorial lists, which were sent to the monasteries to commemorate the souls of the executed.

In 1579, Ivan IV repented of his deeds: cruelty, robberies, executions.

The king had seven wives:

1. Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yurieva;
2. Princess Maria Temryukovna Cherkasskaya;
3. Marfa Vasilievna Sobakina;
4. Anna Alekseevna Koltovskaya;
5. Anna Grigoryevna Vasilchikova;
6. Vasilisa Melentyeva;
7. Maria Fedorovna Nagaya.

The first wife gave Ivan two sons, Ivan and Fedor. Another son, Dmitry, was born to Ivan by the seventh wife. The king also had three daughters: Anna, Maria and Evdokia.

For the last 6 years of his life, Ivan suffered from the development of osteophytes (salt deposits on the spine). Due to illness, the king could not walk. There was a terrible smell coming from him. Already at the age of 53, the king looked like a decrepit old man. There is also an opinion that the king was poisoned. Someone believes that it was Boris Godunov, because. it was he who became king after Ivan the Terrible.

March 16, 1584 Ivan IV felt worse. On March 17, he felt better after taking hot baths. But on March 18, Ivan the Terrible died. After 3 days, he was buried next to the grave of his son Ivan, who had been killed by him, in the Archangel Cathedral.

On Ivan IV stopped Rurik dynasty.

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

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

3.2.1. Crowning the kingdom - 1547

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.2.3. Zemsky Sobor - 1549

In February 1549 Ivan IV called the first Zemsky Sobor.

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

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

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

3.2.4. Sudebnik - 1550

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

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

3.2.5. Military reforms (1550 - 1556)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.2.6. Church Cathedral - 1551

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.2.7. Bodies of central and local government

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.2.8. Eastern campaigns

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.2.9. Dynastic crisis - 1553

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

3.2.10. Livonian War (1558 - 1583). Start

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ü ensuring free trade for Russian merchants and

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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