1505 – Death of Ivan III

The marriage of Ivan III to Sophia Paleolog and the birth of their prince Vasily led to a worsening of relations in Ivan’s large family. The heir to the throne was then considered the eldest son of the Grand Duke Ivan the Young, married to the daughter of the ruler of Moldavia, Elena Stefanovna Voloshanka. But in 1490, Ivan the Young died unexpectedly. People said that he was tormented by Ivan's new wife, Sophia Paleolog, who hated her stepson and his wife, and was still fussing about the future of her son Vasily. But then she failed. After the death of Ivan the Young, Ivan III declared not Vasily as heir, but his grandson Dmitry, the son of Ivan the Young. Sophia Paleologue even found herself in disgrace, and Ivan III ordered her supporters to be brutally executed. Ivan III did not limit himself to declaring 15-year-old Dmitry his heir, but made him his co-ruler (as Vasily II the Dark once did with himself). The young man was crowned king according to the Byzantine rite with the cap of Monomakh, which Ivan III himself placed on his head. After this ceremony, Dmitry became the full-fledged co-ruler of his grandfather.

But not everything went smoothly. Prominent boyars opposed Ivan III's plans to rule together with his grandson, and executions of the dissatisfied began. However, soon the autocratic Ivan III - for some currently unknown reasons - changed his mind. He forgave Sophia, “gave his dislike to her,” the chronicler wrote politely, “and began to live with her as before.” The crowned Grand Duke Dmitry and his mother Elena found themselves in disgrace and were sent to prison. Elena was killed there. But it’s even stranger that this murder happened after Sophia’s death. Both princesses, who hated each other during their lifetime, were buried side by side in the Kremlin Church of the Ascension. In 1509, already under Vasily III, Dmitry also died “in poverty and in prison.”

Towards the end of his life, Ivan III became intolerant of others, unpredictable, unjustifiably cruel, he indiscriminately executed his friends and enemies. As the German envoy Herberstein wrote, women were especially afraid of Ivan III: with just one glance he could plunge a woman into unconsciousness. “During dinners, he mostly indulged in such drunkenness that he was overcome by sleep, while all those invited sat, stricken with fear, and remained silent. Upon waking up, he usually rubbed his eyes and then only began to joke and show cheerfulness towards the guests.” His changeable will has long become law. When the envoy of the Crimean Khan asked him why Ivan had overthrown his hitherto beloved grandson Dmitry, Ivan answered like a true autocrat: “Am I not, the Great Prince, free in my children and in my reign? I will give reign to whomever I want!” In the year of the death of Grand Duchess Sophia (1503), Ivan III became seriously ill. He became blind in one eye and lost use of his arm—a sure sign of extensive brain damage. On October 27, 1505, the formidable Grand Duke died. According to his will, power passed to his 26-year-old son Vasily III.

Negotiations dragged on for three years. On November 12, the bride finally arrived in Moscow.

The wedding took place on the same day. The marriage of the Moscow sovereign with the Greek princess was an important event in Russian history. He opened the way for connections between Muscovite Rus' and the West. On the other hand, together with Sophia, some orders and customs of the Byzantine court were established at the Moscow court. The ceremony became more majestic and solemn. The Grand Duke himself rose to prominence in the eyes of his contemporaries. They noticed that Ivan, after marrying the niece of the Byzantine emperor, appeared as an autocratic sovereign on the Moscow grand-ducal table; he was the first to receive the nickname Grozny, because he was a monarch for the princes of the squad, demanding unquestioning obedience and strictly punishing disobedience. He rose to a royal, unattainable height, before which the boyar, prince and descendant of Rurik and Gediminas had to reverently bow along with the last of his subjects; at the first wave of Ivan the Terrible, the heads of the seditious princes and boyars lay on the chopping block.

It was at that time that Ivan III began to inspire fear with his very appearance. Women, contemporaries say, fainted from his angry gaze. The courtiers, fearing for their lives, had to amuse him during his leisure hours, and when he, sitting in his armchairs, indulged in a doze, they stood motionless around him, not daring to cough or make a careless movement, so as not to wake him. Contemporaries and immediate descendants attributed this change to the suggestions of Sophia, and we have no right to reject their testimony. The German ambassador Herberstein, who was in Moscow during the reign of Sophia’s son, said about her: “ She was an unusually cunning woman; at her inspiration, the Grand Duke did a lot".

War with the Kazan Khanate 1467 - 1469

A letter from Metropolitan Philip to the Grand Duke, written at the beginning of the war, has been preserved. In it he promises the crown of martyrdom to all who shed their blood." for the holy churches of God and for Orthodox Christianity».

At the first meeting with the leading Kazan army, the Russians not only did not dare to start a battle, but did not even make an attempt to cross the Volga to the other bank, where the Tatar army was stationed, and therefore simply turned back; So, even before it began, the “campaign” ended in shame and failure.

Khan Ibrahim did not pursue the Russians, but made a punitive foray into the Russian city of Galich-Mersky, which lay close to the Kazan borders in Kostroma land, and plundered its surroundings, although he could not take the fortified fort itself.

Ivan III ordered strong garrisons to be sent to all border cities: Nizhny Novgorod, Murom, Kostroma, Galich and to carry out a retaliatory punitive attack. The Tatar troops were expelled from the Kostroma borders by the governor Prince Ivan Vasilyevich Striga-Obolensky, and the attack on the lands of the Mari from the north and west was carried out by detachments under the command of Prince Daniil Kholmsky, which even reached Kazan itself.

Then the Kazan Khan sent a response army in the following directions: Galich (the Tatars reached the Yuga River and took the Kichmensky town and occupied two Kostroma volosts) and Nizhny Novgorod-Murmansk (near Nizhny Novgorod the Russians defeated the Tatar army and captured the leader of the Kazan detachment, Murza Khodzhu-Berdy ).

"All Christian blood will fall on you because, having betrayed Christianity, you run away, without putting up a fight with the Tatars and without fighting them, he said. - Why are you afraid of death? You are not an immortal man, a mortal; and without fate there is no death for man, bird, or bird; give me, an old man, an army in my hands, and you will see if I turn my face before the Tatars!"

Ashamed, Ivan did not go to his Kremlin courtyard, but settled in Krasnoye Selets.

From here he sent an order to his son to go to Moscow, but he decided it would be better to incur his father’s wrath than to go from the coast. " I'll die here and won't go to my father", he said to Prince Kholmsky, who persuaded him to leave the army. He guarded the movement of the Tatars, who wanted to secretly cross the Ugra and suddenly rush to Moscow: the Tatars were repulsed from the shore with great damage.

Meanwhile, Ivan III, having lived for two weeks near Moscow, somewhat recovered from his fear, surrendered to the persuasion of the clergy and decided to go to the army. But he didn’t get to Ugra, but stopped in Kremenets on the Luzha River. Here again fear began to overcome him and he completely decided to end the matter peacefully and sent Ivan Tovarkov to the khan with a petition and gifts, asking for a salary so that he would retreat away. Khan replied: " I feel sorry for Ivan; let him come to beat with his forehead, as his fathers went to our fathers in the Horde".

However, gold coins were minted in small quantities and for many reasons did not take root in the economic relations of the then Rus'.

In the year, the all-Russian Code of Law was published, with the help of which legal proceedings began to be carried out. The nobility and the noble army began to play a larger role. In the interests of the noble landowners, the transfer of peasants from one master to another was limited. The peasants received the right to make the transition only once a year - a week before the autumn St. George's Day to the Russian Church. In many cases, and especially when choosing a metropolitan, Ivan III behaved as the head of the church administration. The metropolitan was elected by the episcopal council, but with the approval of the Grand Duke. On one occasion (in the case of Metropolitan Simon) Ivan solemnly conducted the newly consecrated prelate to the metropolitan see in the Assumption Cathedral, thus emphasizing the prerogatives of the Grand Duke.

The problem of church lands was widely discussed by both the laity and the clergy. Many laymen, including some boyars, approved of the activities of the Trans-Volga elders, aimed at the spiritual revival and cleansing of the church.

The right of monasteries to own land was also called into question by another religious movement, which actually denied the entire institution of the Orthodox Church: ".

Potin V.M. Hungarian gold of Ivan III // Feudal Russia in the world-historical process. M., 1972, p.289

Cautious and prudent by nature, he avoided overly bold actions in politics, achieving major goals not immediately, but in several successive steps. This tactic was most clearly manifested during the annexation of Novgorod and Tver to Moscow. Novgorod, which had become closely dependent on Moscow under the Yazhelbitsky Treaty of 1456 concluded under the father of Ivan III, tried to regain its former independence. Among the Novgorod merchants, a strong party of friends of Lithuania was formed, led by the influential Boretsky family. In 1470, this party invited the Orthodox Lithuanian magnate Mikhail Olelkovich to reign in Novgorod. Soon the Novgorodians concluded an agreement with the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania Casimir on the transfer under his authority - instead of Moscow.

Having learned about this, Ivan III moved towards Novgorod with a large army. The hopes of the Novgorodians for Casimir's help were not justified. July 14, 1471 Moscow governor Daniil Kholmsky defeated the Novgorod militia on the Sheloni River. The Muscovites defeated another enemy army on the Dvina. Novgorod was forced to break the alliance with Lithuania and promise not to renew it in the future, pay Ivan III a large “payback” (15 and a half thousand rubles) and cede some regions to him. Even under the Yazhelbitsky Treaty of 1456, the court of the Moscow prince was recognized as the supreme authority for all Novgorod litigation. Taking advantage of this, Ivan III came to Novgorod in 1475 and tried court cases here. Then complaints from Novgorod residents began to be accepted in Moscow.

Clashes between the Moscow and Lithuanian parties continued in Novgorod. The first was supported mainly by the common people, and the second by the merchant nobility. Seeing that the situation remained turbulent, Ivan III secretly prepared to completely destroy the autonomy of Novgorod. In 1477, Novgorod ambassadors who arrived in Moscow (apparently supporters of the Moscow party) called Ivan III not “Mr.,” as usual, but “Sovereign.” Ivan saw in this a request to accept the possessions of Novgorod under full Moscow authority. The Novgorod government began to claim that it did not give its ambassadors the authority to ask for this. Ivan III responded by accusing the Novgorodians of causing dishonor. In October 1477, the Grand Duke again opened a campaign against Novgorod and put it under siege. The inhabitants did not have the strength to defend themselves; in addition, a significant part of them stood for Moscow. On January 15, 1478, the Novgorodians swore allegiance to Ivan III, agreeing to no longer gather for their violent veche and to transfer the powers of the Novgorod government to the grand ducal governors. The leaders of the Lithuanian party were captured and sent to Moscow prisons.

In 1479, supporters of the Boretskys who remained free, at the instigation of King Casimir, tried to raise an uprising in Novgorod. But it was suppressed, its leaders were executed, and the Novgorod Archbishop Theophilus was deposed. Ivan III evicted more than 1,000 wealthy families from Novgorod to other places, replacing them with Muscovites. Similar evictions were then repeated more than once, especially widely - in 1488, when 7,000 wealthy citizens were transferred from Novgorod. In 1489, Ivan III destroyed the autonomy of Vyatka. Of the veche cities, only Pskov has so far retained its independence.

Marfa Posadnitsa (Boretskaya). Destruction of the Novgorod veche. Artist K. Lebedev, 1889)

Completion of the unification of Russian lands under Ivan III - briefly

The direct possessions of Moscow under Ivan III also included the appanages of most neighboring princes. In 1463, the Yaroslavl princes voluntarily agreed to this, and in 1474, the Rostov princes. In exchange for the loss of specific independence, the rulers who lost it were enrolled in the Moscow boyars. Tverskoye remained the largest of the principalities neighboring Moscow. In 1484, its ruler, Mikhail Borisovich, following the example of Novgorod, entered into an alliance with Casimir of Lithuania and married his granddaughter. Ivan III opened the war against Tver. Having won it, he was initially content with Mikhail Borisovich’s agreement to break the alliance with Casimir. But the Tver prince soon again established ties with Lithuania, and in the fall of 1485, after a short siege of Tver, Ivan III finally deposed Michael and annexed his inheritance to the Moscow possessions. In the same year, Vereya passed to Moscow, according to the will of a local prince.

Within the Moscow principality itself there were also appanages of the brothers of Ivan III. When one of them, the childless Yuri Dmitrovsky, died in 1472, Ivan appropriated the lands remaining after him entirely, without sharing, contrary to custom, with other brothers. The Grand Duke did not give his relatives anything from the regions of conquered Novgorod. Ivan's disgruntled brothers, princes Boris Volotsky and Andrei Uglitsky (Andrei Bolshoi), tried to support the Novgorod uprising of 1479, sought help from Lithuania, but during the Tatar invasion of 1480 they made peace with their brother. However, mutual suspicion has far from disappeared. In 1491, Ivan III arrested Andrei Uglitsky for refusing to participate in a campaign against the Tatars. Three years later, Andrei died in captivity, and his inheritance was annexed to Moscow. By the end of the reign of Ivan III, the new rule of undivided inheritance of escheated estates by one Grand Duke was firmly established.

Unification of North-Eastern Rus' by Moscow 1300-1462

Wars of Ivan III with Lithuania

Many princes of the eastern border of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania have long gravitated towards Moscow. At the beginning of the reign of Ivan III, the princes of Vorotyn, Belsky and some others switched from Lithuanian service to Moscow. The increase in the number of such transitions led to the Russian-Lithuanian war of 1487-1494 (according to another dating - 1492-1494). As a result, most of the Moscow state became part of the Verkhovsky principalities(with the cities of Belev, Odoev, Kozelsk, Novosil, Vyazma). At the end of the war, Grand Duke Alexander of Lithuania married Ivan III's daughter, Helena, in an attempt to establish not only peaceful, but also allied relations between Moscow and Lithuania. But this marriage did not give the desired result. In 1499, a new Russian-Lithuanian war broke out, marked by a major victory for the troops of Ivan III on the Vedrosha River. According to the peace treaty that ended this war, 1503 Muscovites received Seversky principalities with the cities of Chernigov, Starodub, Novgorod-Seversky and Putivl.

The fall of the Tatar yoke - briefly

Under Ivan III, Muscovite Rus' was finally freed from the Tatar yoke. Already from the middle of the 15th century, Moscow sent tribute to the disintegrated Golden Horde only from time to time and in small amounts. During the first war of Ivan III with Novgorod, Khan of the Golden Horde Akhmat, at the instigation of Casimir of Poland, set out (1472) on a campaign against Moscow, but took only Aleksin and retreated from the Oka, behind which a powerful Moscow army had gathered. In 1480, Akhmat again went to Rus'. The governors of Ivan III met the Tatars on the Ugra River. All autumn, two hostile armies stood on its different banks, not daring to attack each other. With the onset of cold weather in November, Akhmat retreated, and attempts to again impose tribute on Moscow by the Golden Horde ceased.

Even before this, Ivan III himself launched an offensive against the fragments of the Golden Horde. At the end of 1467-1469, Russian armies made several campaigns against Kazan and forced the local khan Ibrahim to recognize himself as a Moscow henchman. After the death of Ibrahim, the Moscow army forcibly installed one of his sons, Muhammad-Amen (1487), in Kazan as a ruler dependent on Moscow. In 1496, Mohammed-Amen was overthrown by the Kazan people, but they soon recognized the authority of Tsarevich Abdyl-Letif, appointed by Ivan III, and then (1502) again Mohammed-Amen. Although shortly before the death of Ivan III, Amen broke away from Moscow (1505), killed Russian merchants and attacked Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan’s dependence on Rus' was soon restored by the new Grand Duke Vasily III. Khan of the Crimean Tatars Mengli-Girey was an ally of Ivan III against the Golden Horde (whose possessions were then limited to the Lower Volga region) and Lithuania. With the assistance of Mengli-Girey, Moscow began sending embassies to Turkey.

Strengthening the grand ducal power under Ivan III - briefly

The Byzantine princess instilled in Ivan III higher ideas about his power. Moscow adopted the Byzantine coat of arms (the double-headed eagle) and many of the ceremonial forms of Byzantine imperial ceremonial. The Grand Duke began to magnify himself more than before before the boyars around him. They began to show hostility towards Sophia Paleologue. From Maria Tverskaya, Ivan had a son, Ivan the Young, who died in 1490. Following the death of Ivan the Young, the question arose about who would inherit the Moscow throne: the son Vasily born by Sophia from the Grand Duke or the son Dmitry left by Ivan the Young. Two parties emerged at court: the majority of noble boyars stood for Dmitry’s rights, and the less influential courtiers and officials stood for Vasily.

This conflict was combined with strife in the church, where the free-thinking heresy of the Judaizers then emerged. Dmitry's mother, the Moldavian princess Elena, supported the heretics, and Sophia Paleologus and her supporters were hostile to them. In December 1497, Ivan III arrested his son Vasily, suspecting his supporters of an attempt on Dmitry's life. On February 4, 1498, Dmitry was married for the first time in Russia not for a great reign, but for a kingdom- as heir to the throne. But the very next year, Dmitry’s party, led by the boyars Patrikeevs and Ryapolovskys, was defeated. Not the least reason for this was her connection with the Judaizers. On April 14, 1502, Ivan III declared Vasily his heir.

Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Built under Ivan III

Under Ivan III, the first remarkable Moscow legal monument was compiled - Sudebnik 1497, which, however, no longer dealt with legislative norms, but with the rules of legal proceedings. After his marriage to Sophia, Ivan made great efforts to decorate Moscow, which had now become the main city of the entire Orthodox world. Skilled builders were summoned from Italy to Russia ( Aristotle Fioravanti etc.), who erected in Moscow a new Assumption Cathedral that has survived to this day, the Chamber of Facets, and new walls of the Kremlin.

Ivan 3

Biography of Ivan 3 (briefly)

Ivan Vasilyevich was born in the family of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily Vasilyevich. On the eve of his death, Ivan's father made a will, according to which the lands were distributed among his sons. So the eldest son Ivan receives 16 central cities into his possessions, including Moscow.
Having taken possession, after the death of his father, he issues a decree according to which gold coins are minted with the names of the king and his son. The first wife of Ivan 3 dies early. In order to become related to Byzantium, the king remarried Sophia Paleologus. In their marriage, their son Vasily is born. However, the Tsar does not appoint him to the throne, but his grandson Dmitry, whose father was Ivan the Young, the son from his first marriage, who died early. The tsar blamed the death of Ivan the Young on his second wife, who was hostile against her stepson, but was later forgiven. Grandson Dmitry, who had previously been declared heir to the throne, and his mother Elena found themselves in disgrace; they were imprisoned, where Elena was subsequently killed. Sophia also dies a little earlier. Despite mutual hatred during life, they are both buried side by side in the Church of the Ascension.
After the death of his second wife, the king becomes seriously ill, he becomes blind in one eye and his hand stops moving, which indicates brain damage. On October 27, 1505, Tsar Ivan 3 dies. According to his will, power passes to his son from his second marriage, Vasily 3.

Foreign policy of Ivan 3

During the reign of Ivan 3, many years of dependence on the Horde ceased; moreover, he ardently supported the opponents of the Horde. The final formation of the Russian independent state is taking place.
Foreign policy was also successful in the eastern direction; thanks to the right combination of military force and diplomatic negotiations, the tsar managed to annex the Kazan Khanate to Moscow politics.

Sudebnik Ivana 3

One of the important moments of the reign was the Code of Law of Ivan 3, adopted in 1497. The Code of Laws was a set of laws that were applied at that time in Rus'. This, a kind of municipal act, recorded: a list of duties of officials, the right of peasants to transfer to another feudal lord, only on the eve or after St. George’s Day, with the obligatory payment of a tax for accommodation. These were the first prerequisites for the further establishment of serfdom. According to the Code of Laws, lynching was not allowed under any circumstances; trade transactions were monitored and adjusted. A new form of land ownership was introduced - local, according to which landowners work and submit to the king.

Domestic policy of Ivan 3

During the reign of Ivan Vasilyevich, most of the lands around Moscow itself were united, and Moscow itself became the center of the state. The structure included: Novgorod land, Tver, Yaroslavl, Rostov principality. After the victory over the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Chernigov, Bryansk and Novgorod-Seversky were annexed. Thanks to politics and conquests, Russia gained the right to make its own decisions. The order and local management systems appeared. In domestic policy, a course was taken to centralize the country. During the reign of Ivan Vasilyevich, culture reached an unprecedented rise: the Assumption Cathedral was erected, the chronicle developed rapidly.
The reign of Ivan 3 was successful and the tsar himself was called “The Great”.

Almost half a century of the reign of Ivan III, later nicknamed the Great, became the era of Moscow’s final victory in the struggle for the unification of the lands of northeastern Rus' and the elimination of the Mongol-Tatar yoke. Ivan the Great abolished the statehood of Tver and Novgorod and conquered significant territories west of Moscow from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He refused to pay tribute to the Horde, and in 1480, after standing on the Ugra, tributary relations with the Horde were completely broken. By the time of the death of Ivan III, the process of collecting lands was almost completed: only two principalities remained formally independent from Moscow - Pskov and Ryazan, but they also actually depended on Ivan III, and during his reign, his son Vasily III was actually included in the Moscow principality.

Grand Duke Ivan III strengthened not only the foreign policy positions of his state, but also its legal and financial system. The creation of the Code of Laws and the implementation of monetary reform streamlined the social life of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

Years of reign (from 1462 to 1505);

He was the son of Vasily II Vasilyevich the Dark;

The Novgorod land was annexed to the Moscow state during the reign of Ivan III;

In 1478, one of the oldest cities in Rus' was forcibly annexed to the Grand Duchy. This was the city of Novgorod the Great.

wars of the Moscow State with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania - 1487-1494;

Vasily III - 1507-1508;

1512-1522 - wars of the Moscow state with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania;

Rus' finally stopped paying tribute to the Golden Horde during the reign of Prince Ivan III;

1480 - standing on the Ugra River;

The reign of Ivan III is characterized:

• a qualitatively new stage in the development of statehood (centralization):
• entry of Rus' into the number of European states.

Russia has not yet played a definite role in world life; it has not yet truly entered the life of European humanity. Great Russia still remained a secluded province in world and European life; its spiritual life was isolated and closed.

This period of Russian history can be characterized as pre-Petrine time.

About gradual formation of a centralized state in Russia testifies:

monetary reform of Elena Glinskaya

division of Russian lands into volosts

In the Moscow state of the XV-XVI centuries. an estate was a land holding granted on the condition of service in the fight against the feudal elite: the Russian clergy, who sought to play a key role in politics, the sovereign elevated a group of young Novgorod priests led by Fyodor Kuritsyn. As it turned out, many of the views of these grand ducal protégés were heretical (the heresy of the “Judaizers”)

Signs of a centralized state:

1. highest state body - Boyar Duma (legislative)

2. single law - Sudebnik

3. multi-stage system of service people

4. a unified management system is being formed

The first order is from the middle of the 15th century. The Treasury stands out (it managed the palace economy).

The attributes of royal power took shape, and the double-headed Byzantine eagle became the coat of arms.