Ivan's form of government 4. The reign of Ivan the Terrible. Reasons for introducing the oprichnina

The reign of Ivan the Terrible is the embodiment of Russia in the 16th century. This is the time when one centralized state is formed from disparate territories. Ivan the Terrible personally had a hand in the formation of a new form of autocratic rule in Muscovite Rus'; he considered it the only true one for the Russian state. He managed to do this. But on the other hand, it is controversial in historical science.

Many historians of pre-revolutionary, Soviet and modern historiography argued how useful the activities of Ivan the Terrible were for Russia. What were more positive or negative aspects on the board? And what is the role of Ivan IV in the further development of Russia. Some consider him a saint, others say that Ivan the Terrible became disastrous for Muscovite Rus'.

The reign of Elena Glinskaya under Ivan the Terrible

Ivan was his father's desired son. For the sake of his birth, he divorced his first wife. Divorce was generally unacceptable at that time; religion denied it. Soon Vasily married Elena Glinskaya, she was the daughter of a Lithuanian prince. They say that the sovereign even removed his beard in order to please his future wife more, which also does not fit into the morals of that time. It was in this marriage that the heir to the throne appeared; he was born in August 1530. After the death of Vasily III, Elena found the right moment to take power. The boyars, who were supposed to rule under the young tsar, were removed. Thus, Elena became in fact the second female ruler, the first being Princess Olga.

Her popularity in Moscow and the state as a whole was not high. Rather, many people disliked her. An arrogant and cruel woman with a Lithuanian upbringing did not evoke pleasant feelings in anyone. In addition, she sometimes behaved recklessly, not hiding her relationship with one of the boyars. But still, her reign was remembered by many. The main thing is because a monetary reform was carried out. After its expiration, there was only one coin in Russia - the penny, and it was also backed by silver. This was a big step in the development of the economy of Moscow Rus'. But in 1538 the princess died unexpectedly.

Scientists examined Elena's remains, they showed that there was a lot of mercury in her hair, most likely she was poisoned. At the age of three, the little one became the formal ruler of the state. But near his throne, the interests of many boyar families constantly clashed, who tried to take power into their own hands.

Ivan the Terrible and the beginning of his reign

Ivan the Terrible was a descendant of several glorious dynasties at once - both the Paleologians on his father’s side and the Crimean khans on his mother’s side. He was very proud of his family's past. And almost always at receptions with international ambassadors he said that he was not a purebred Russian.

The king's childhood was difficult. First, in 1533, his father died. Then in 1538 his mother Elena Glinskaya. The boyars did not hesitate to behave boorishly in front of the youngest Ivan. The already adult Terrible Tsar still remembered with childish resentment that this was unpleasant for the sovereign. For example, he was very offended by the behavior of Prince Ivan Shuisky, when he sat leaning on the bed of Vasily III and did not show respect to Ivan himself. He also saw the showdown with Fedor Vorontsov. Before his eyes, the boyar was beaten, then taken out into the street, and killed there. Thus, his character was strongly influenced by his difficult childhood.

It is believed that the boy was naturally impressionable. Left an orphan at a very young age, he saw all the reprisals of the boyars against each other. Constant fights in the Duma, when even the Metropolitan was not spared, the clergy’s clothes were torn, and then he was sent into exile. And this is only a small part of the atrocities that the young king had to observe. Of course, this left an imprint on his entire subsequent reign.

So the Grand Duke, one might say, received his first lessons in court politics. But he had no restrictions on entertainment. In the company of their teenage friends, they could race on horses, knocking down everyone who was on the road. At the same time, without experiencing any remorse. And at receptions in the Kremlin he loved to joke; he once set fire to one boyar’s beard while he was reading his petition.

Rule within the state of Ivan the Terrible

In February 1547, the Glinsky maternal relatives organized. It took place in the Kremlin, and was conducted by Metropolitan Macarius. But even after this action, the king’s reign was not independent. Many historians say that even after reaching adulthood, the boyars had a strong influence on decision-making.

In the summer of the same 1547, an uprising broke out in Moscow. It happened after a terrible fire. As a result, Ivan's uncle Yuri Glinsky was killed. He himself found himself face to face for the first time in front of his people, who were raging in front of the Kremlin. The rebels demanded that the tsar give them traitor boyars to deal with. This was a great challenge for Ivan.

After the uprising, other boyars came to power.

1. Alexey Adashev;
2. Andrey Kurbsky;
3. Metropolitan Macarius;
4. Sylvester;
5. clerk Viskovaty.

These are future members of the Elected Rada. It is interesting that the Elected Rada had strong power, and it was they who put an end to the struggle of court factions for power. We also carried out a number of useful reforms for the state.

Reforms of Ivan the Terrible:

• Introduction of free education;
• Creation of the Zemsky Sobor;
• creation of the Streletsky army;
• convening of the Stoglavy Council.

This is only part of the great reforms with the participation of the Elected Rada.

Next to the central core power, new elected bodies appeared in the center and locally. Mid-16th century This is a period of economic growth of the Moscow state. About 40 new cities appeared, Russia began to make its way onto the world stage.

Russian foreign policy under Ivan the Terrible

Ivan IV became the first. It was under him that Russia began to turn into an empire. During his reign, the state began to include a number of territories that had not previously belonged to the Russians. This is the time for Russia to enter. And the king is involved in all this.

After three campaigns that took place in 1547-1552. annexed the Kazan Khanate, and in 1554-1556. The Astrakhan Khanate was also annexed. This is how the Volga River began to flow entirely within Russia. It is believed that after the annexation of these particular territories, the people began to respect Ivan IV and began to consider him a truly real Russian Tsar.

In 1553, trade and economic relations with England were established. For the first time, Russia began to make its way into Europe. However, this state of affairs did not suit Sweden. The Livonian War would soon begin in 1558. The first years of the war were successful for Russia. Our troops defeated the Livonian Order and received the first port on the Baltic - Narva. By that time he began to rule independently. The role of the Elected Rada was declining, and the tsar did not consider it necessary to discuss his decisions with this body. They had differences, primarily in their views on the continuation of the Livonian War and in general. In addition, Queen Anastasia died, Ivan considered some members of the Elected Rada to be involved in her death. Yes, the age was suitable for absolute sole rule - he was already almost 30 years old.

The Livonian War lasted until 1583. The country found itself in a catastrophic situation, and the king was forced to sign peace treaties. Poland and Sweden received a number of cities and lands under the Yam-Zapolsky and Plyussky truces. And Muscovite Rus' was left without access to the Baltic Sea and in a terrible state within the state.

Reign of Ivan IV during the oprichnina

The reign of the first tsar was a time of shock for Muscovite Rus'. led the country into economic and social chaos. This is an internal shock when the state actually split into two parts. This is a time of war between several social groups of society - in fact, a state of civil war. The number of taxes collected from the population increased fourfold. This is a huge amount, which led many families into decline and ruin.

In December 1533, Vasily III died, and his successor on the throne was his young son Ivan (1533-1584), under whom a regency (guardianship) council was created consisting of Prince Andrei Ivanovich Staritsky and the most influential members of the Boyar Duma - Princes Vasily and Ivan Shuisky, Mikhail Glinsky and the boyars Mikhail Yuryev, Mikhail Tuchkov and Mikhail Vorontsov. However, the “Seven Boyars” ruled the country for only a few months, after which state power passed into the hands of Elena Glinskaya and her favorite, Prince Ivan Fedorovich Obukha-Telepnev-Obolensky. But in April 1538, under rather mysterious circumstances, the Grand Duchess dies, and the most acute struggle of boyar clans for power begins at the throne (1538-1547), in which the princes Shuisky, Glinsky and Belsky took an active part.

2. Beginning of the reign of Ivan the Terrible

In January 1547, Ivan IV was solemnly crowned king in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, which had enormous political significance, since the new title disproportionately elevated the royal power over the patrimonial boyar-princely aristocracy within the country and put the Russian monarch on a par with the Tatar khans, who were revered as kings in Rus'. And in February 1547, the young tsar married the young beauty Anastasia Romanovna Yuryeva.

Rice. 3. Order from the time of John IV Vasilyevich ()

In June 1547, a terrible fire occurred in Moscow, as a result of which over 2,000 Muscovites died and almost 80,000 were left homeless. The Glinsky princes were blamed for this tragedy, in particular the Tsar’s grandmother, Princess Anna, who were removed from power and were replaced by a new boyar clan - relatives of Queen Anastasia, the boyars Zakharyin-Yuryev and Vorontsov.

3. Reforms of the Elected Rada (1550-1560)

In February 1549, at a representative meeting in the Faceted Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin, which in historical science (L. Cherepnin, N. Nosov) is considered to be the first Zemsky Sobor, Ivan IV came up with an extensive program of government reforms. To implement it, a new government was created, called the Elected Rada (1550-1560), which included Alexei Fedorovich Adashev, Ivan Mikhailovich Viskovaty, Andrei Mikhailovich Kurbsky and the tsar’s confessor, Archpriest Sylvester. Metropolitan Macarius (1542-1563) also had a great influence on the activities of the Elected Rada.

The Government of the Elected Rada has carried out a number of significant reforms, which can be divided into the following groups:

1. The reform of the central government was realized:

a) in the adoption of the new Code of Law of 1550;

b) in holding the Hundred-Glavy Council of the Russian Orthodox Church (1551), at which the unification of all church services and rituals took place, and a decision was made to limit the tax (tarkhan) privileges of the Russian Orthodox Church and monastic land ownership;

c) in the reform of the “sovereign court” and the creation of a “palace notebook” and a “sovereign genealogy”, on the basis of which appointments to all the most important administrative, military and diplomatic posts began to be made;

d) in creation in 1551-1555. a new system of central government bodies - orders, the basis of which was the sectoral or territorial principle of management: the Ambassadorial order was in charge of external relations, the Razryadny - the appointment of governors to the troops and the collection of local militia, the Local - the distribution and confiscation of estates, the Robber and Zemsky - the protection of public order , Streletsky was in charge of the Streltsy army, Kazansky ruled the territory of the Kazan Khanate, etc.

2. Tax reform (1551-1556), as a result of which a unit of taxation common to all classes was established - the plow, that is, a measure of land area.

3. Military reform, which was carried out in two stages. At the first stage (1550), it touched upon the institution of localism, which was limited during military campaigns, and the subordination of all governors to the first governor of the Great Regiment was established. The second stage of military reform was carried out in 1556, when the government adopted the “Code of Service”, according to which all landowners were obliged to go to the sovereign’s military service “on horseback, in force and in arms.”

It must be said that in Russian historical science, representatives of the so-called state school (S. Solovyov, K. Kavelin, B. Chicherin) considered the “Code of Service” as the first stage of the enslavement of the noble class, which would then be followed by the enslavement of all other classes. But this theory of “enslavement of the estates” was completely rejected in Soviet historical science and focused only on the enslavement of the peasantry and the settlement, which would occur at the end of the 16th century.

4. Reform of local government (1556), which, in development of the provincial reform (1539), completely eliminated the institution of governors and volosts and established that the heads of local administrations were city clerks and provincial elders and kissers, who were elected from among local servants people (landowners) and black-sown peasants.

4. Foreign policy in the 1540-1550s.

In the middle of the 16th century. The main directions of Russian foreign policy were:

1) Eastern, that is, relations with the Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberian khanates and the Nogai Horde;

2) Southern, that is, relations with the Ottoman Empire and its vassal, the Crimean Khanate;

3) Western, that is, relations with Russia’s closest European neighbors - Poland, Lithuania, Livonia and Sweden.

In the middle of the 16th century. The main direction of Russian foreign policy is the eastern direction. After the defeat of the “pro-Moscow party” (Shah-Ali, Jan-Ali) in the struggle for power and the victory of the “pro-Crimean party” (Sahib-Girey, Safa-Girey, Yadigir-Magomed) of the Kazan nobility in Moscow, a decision was made to finally solve this problem, and in June 1552, a Russian army of thousands under the command of Tsar Ivan and the governors of princes A. Gorbaty-Shuisky, A. Kurbsky and I. Vorotynsky went on a campaign. In August 1552, the Russian army crossed the Volga and began the siege of Kazan, which ended with the assault and capture of the khan's capital on October 2, 1552.

In 1556, without resorting to large-scale hostilities, Russia annexed the Astrakhan Khanate, and in 1557 the Nogai Horde and Bashkiria recognized vassal dependence on Moscow. Thus, on the eastern borders of Russia there was only one serious enemy left - the Siberian Khanate, where, after another palace coup, Khan Kuchum came to power.

After the successful solution of the eastern problem, a struggle broke out within the government about which direction - western or southern - to give preference to. Ivan the Terrible insisted on the first option, and Alexey Adashev on the second. In the end, a decision was made to start the Livonian War (1558-1583), the first stage of which ended with the defeat and liquidation of the Livonian Order (1561).

5. The Fall of the Chosen One

In 1560, the government of the Chosen Rada fell. Historians have different assessments of this event. Some (V. Korolyuk, K. Bazilevich, A. Kuzmin) believe that the reason for the fall of A. Adashev was his disagreements with the tsar on foreign policy issues. Others (V. Kobrin, A. Yurganov) believe that the main reason was disagreements over the pace of reforms. Still others (R. Skrynnikov) see the reasons for the fall of the Chosen Rada in the struggle of boyar groups for power, in particular in the intrigues of the Zakharyins-Yuryevs, who accused A. Adashev of poisoning Queen Anastasia, who died in 1560.

Bibliography

1. Zimin A. A. Reforms of Ivan the Terrible. - M., 1960

2. Kobrin V. B. Power and property in medieval Russia. - M., 1985

3. Leontiev A.K. Formation of the order management system in the Moscow State. - M., 1961

4. Korolyuk A. S. Livonian War. - M., 1954

5. Kuzmin A. G. History of Russia from ancient times to 1618 - M., 2003

6. Nosov N. E. Formation of class-representative institutions in Russia. - L., 1969

7. Smirnov I.I. Essays on the political history of the Russian state of the 30-50s. XVI century - M., 1958

8. Froyanov I. Ya. Drama of Russian history: on the path to the oprichnina. - M., 2007

9. Cherepnin L.V. Zemsky Sobors of the Russian State in the XVI-XVII centuries. - M., 1978

10. Shmidt S. O. Formation of the Russian autocracy. - M., 1973

Ivan IV, Tsar of Russia and Grand Duke of Moscow, who later received the nickname Grozny, was born on August 25, 1530. After the death of his father, Grand Duke Vasily III, in 1533, 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. Reconstruction from the skull, S. Nikitin, 1999

The Shuiskys became famous for their cruel, selfish rule. Metropolitan Daniel was overthrown by them, and the royal treasury was plundered. Supporters of the Shuiskys seized the lucrative positions of governors and judges in areas where they oppressed the people with impunity through extortion and traded justice. In 1540, the Shuiskys were removed from power, and it passed to the smart Ivan Belsky. During his six-month reign, he carried out reforms that anticipated many future transformations of the Chosen Rada. On Belsky’s initiative, robbery and tateb cases were excluded from the jurisdiction of government officials (governors and tiuns) and transferred to the elected court lip prefects or heads together with jurors or kissers. The campaign against Moscow launched by the Crimean Khan Saip-Girey 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 robbery and oppression in the position of Pskov governor.

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

The most important matter of this time during the reign of Ivan IV the Terrible was the convening of the first Zemsky Sobor in Rus' in 1550, the result of which was to provide the population of the Moscow state with wider elected self-government. In the same year appeared new code of law. In 1551, a church council was convened, which received the name Stoglavogo. Of the foreign policy affairs 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, discord and unrest began among his subjects. Ivan approached the walls of Kazan with his army (1550). He did not take the city that time, but founded the strong fortress of Sviyazhsk, 37 versts opposite Kazan - a convenient stronghold for new campaigns. There the Russian government imprisoned Shig-Aley, who had been the Kazan Khan more than once. Soon he was restored to the Kazan throne as a henchman of Moscow, and then Ivan IV overthrew him and directly sent his governor, Prince Semyon Mikulinsky, to Kazan.

The Kazan people did not let him into the city. All parties of local Murzas and mullahs reconciled, inviting the Nogai prince Ediger, with 10,000 Nogais, to their city. The Russian government gathered 100,000 troops, Ivan the Terrible himself became their leader. The Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey, who tried to help his co-religionists, attacked Moscow lands from the south, but was repulsed from Tula. The troops of Ivan IV besieged Kazan on August 20, 1552 and continued the siege until October 2. On this day, the wall was destroyed by an explosion. The Russians burst into the city and took it. The conquest of the Kazan kingdom subjugated 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 the disagreements in Astrakhan and the precarious position of Khan Yamgurchey, Ivan the Terrible in 1554 sent an army that expelled Yamgurchey and imprisoned the Nogai prince Derbysh. He, however, soon entered into relations with the Crimean Devlet-Girey and opened a war against Moscow. The Russian detachment remaining in Astrakhan defeated and drove out Derbysh, and Astrakhan was annexed to the Moscow state (1556). The entire Volga region became part of Russia.

Siege and capture of Kazan in 1552

In 1553, Ivan IV began to have disagreements with his advisers on government affairs, who were too constraining for the power-hungry tsar. The beginning of disagreements was the question of succession to the throne during the serious illness of the king (1553). Ivan wanted to see his young son Dmitry on the throne, and his closest advisers, fearing the excessive influence of the relatives of Dmitry’s mother, the Zakharyins, stood for the sovereign’s cousin, Vladimir Andreevich. Ivan IV recovered and harbored a grudge against the members of the Chosen Rada. At the same time, departures and secret negotiations with Lithuania began for some of the most cautious boyars. Ivan the Terrible also disagreed with his advisers on foreign policy issues: the Rada tried to focus all its attention on Crimean affairs, and Ivan turned his gaze to the West. In 1560, Tsarina Anastasia, who had a restraining influence on her husband, died. Saddened by the death of his wife, Ivan IV distanced himself even more from his entourage. Alexey Adashev was soon sent by the governor to the remote city of Fellin, and the priest Sylvester voluntarily went to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. Their enemies, especially the Zakharins, began to slander their favorites, as if they had tormented Anastasia. Ivan allegedly gave credence 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, Alexey 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 dissipation along with his new favorites, who greatly influenced him in a bad way, but did not embarrass him in any way. These were Alexey Basmanov and his son Fyodor, Prince Afanasy Vyazemsky, Malyuta Skuratov-Belsky and Vasily Gryaznoy. At the same time, still fragmentary persecutions and executions of boyars who seemed suspicious for some reason began. In the early 1560s. Daniil Adashev (Alexei's brother), Prince Dmitry Ovchina-Obolensky, Mikhail Repnin, Dmitry Kurlyatov and his family, etc. were executed. The heroes of the wars with Kazan and Crimea, Mikhail Vorotynsky, Ivan Vasilyevich Bolshoi, Sheremetev and others, were sent to prison. Ivan the Terrible took oaths from some other noble boyars that they would faithfully serve the Tsar and would not leave for Lithuania and other states. But the flights 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 Cherkassy, ​​Vladimir Zabolotsky and others went there. Disgrace 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 out with thunderous letters and denunciations. Also in 1564, Metropolitan Macarius, who retained some authority before Ivan IV, died. By the will of the tsar, the church council elected his former confessor, the Archpriest of the Annunciation Elder Athanasius, as the new metropolitan.

N. Nevrev. Oprichniki (Murder of Boyar Fedorov by Ivan the Terrible)

The end of 1564 was marked by an unusual and unexpected act of the king. Ivan the Terrible left Moscow with his courtiers and a large baggage train and settled not far from the capital, in Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda. A month after leaving, on January 3, 1565, he sent a letter to Moscow addressed to the clergy and boyars. It listed “the betrayals of boyars and governors and all sorts of commanding people,” and then it was reported that the tsar, “not though they could tolerate many treacherous 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 that the anger and disgrace of Ivan IV did not concern Moscow guests, merchants and ordinary people. Numerous petitioners went to Alexandrovskaya Sloboda to ask the Tsar to resign from disgrace, continue to reign, execute his villains and bring out treason. After intense requests, Ivan the Terrible agreed to change his anger to mercy, but on the condition of allocating for himself oprichnina- a special part of the state, which he will rule independently of the boyars.

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

All possessions of the Moscow state were divided into two parts. Ivan IV chose cities with volosts for himself and his sons, which were supposed to cover the costs of the royal household 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 enrolled in the oprichnina. The rest of Rus' was called Zemshchina and entrusted the leadership of the zemstvo boyars, Ivan Belsky, Ivan Mstislavsky and others (in 1575, the baptized Tatar prince Simeon Bekbulatovich was placed at the head of the zemshchina, as if in mockery, with the title of Grand Duke). In the zemshchina there were old ranks with the same names as in the oprichnina. All matters of zemstvo administration were referred to the boyar council, and the boyars reported to the sovereign in the most important cases. Zemshchina had the meaning of a disgraced land suffered by the tsar's wrath. The territory of lands that went to the oprichnina in the 1570s. XVI century covered almost half of the Muscovite kingdom and was made up of cities and volosts located in the central and northern regions of the state - in Pomorie, Zamoskovnye and Zaoksky cities, in the pyatinas of the Novgorod land, Obonezh and Bezhetsk. Resting in the north on the White Sea, the oprichnina lands cut like a wedge into the “zemshchina”, dividing it in two. In the east, the Perm and Vyatka cities, Ponizovye and Ryazan remained behind the zemshchina; in the west - the cities of border and Seversky.

The territory of the oprichnina was largely the territory of the old specific estates, where the ancient orders still lived and the old authorities still acted next to the power of the Moscow sovereign. With few and insignificant exceptions, all those places in which these old appanage principalities 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 entire territory. With the oprichnina, the “armies” of several thousand servants, with whom the princes used to come to the sovereign’s service, should have disappeared, just as all other traces of old appanage customs and liberties in the field of official relations should have been eradicated. Thus, taking ancient appanage territories under the control of the oprichnina to house his new servants, Ivan IV made radical changes in them, replacing the remnants of appanage remnants with new orders that made everyone equal before the sovereign in his “special everyday life”, where there could no longer be appanage memories and aristocratic traditions. Eliminating the old land relations in the oprichnina, the government of Ivan IV, in their place, established monotonous orders everywhere, tightly linking the right of 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 ancient times. The former appanage aristocracy turned into ordinary service landowners. If we remember that along with this land movement there were disgraces, exiles and executions, directed primarily at the same princes, then we can be sure that in the oprichnina there was a complete defeat of the appanage aristocracy. The guardsmen included at first about 1000 people with families, and then more than 6000. At the head of the oprichnina were the favorites of Ivan IV: Malyuta Skuratov, Basmanovs, Afanasy Vyazemsky, etc. During this period of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, terrible times of violence, deprivation of land and property came and the rights of the “zemstvo” people, robberies and executions. At this time, the following died: son-in-law of Ivan Mstislavsky Alexander Gorbaty Shuisky, Ivan Chelyadnin, Prince Kurakin-Bulgakov, Dmitry Ryapolovsky, princes of Rostov, Turuntai-Pronsky, Pyotr Shchenyatev, Duma clerk Kazarin-Dubrovsky and many others.

A. Vasnetsov. Moscow dungeon during the oprichnina era

Ivan IV created a strange lifestyle at the oprichnina court. He started a kind of monastery in the Alexandrovskaya Sloboda, selected 300 guardsmen, put black robes on them over gold-embroidered caftans, and taffeta or hats on their heads. The Terrible called himself abbot, others - cellarer and sexton, etc., composed a monastic rule for the brethren, rang in the bell tower, read the lives of saints at meals in a monastic manner, etc. From this “monastic life” Ivan IV directly passed to searches, torture, torment, revelry and debauchery. Then Metropolitan Philip also died. He was from a noble family of boyars, the Kolychevs, elected from among the abbots of the Solovetsky Monastery, at the insistence of Ivan IV, appointed metropolitan after the retirement of Athanasius (June 1566) and did not cease to grieve and beat the Tsar with his forehead for those who had been disgraced. Philip denounced the tsar for his behavior and attacked the guardsmen and their self-will. 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. They suspected him that he wanted to go to King Sigismund Augustus, and they killed him along with his wife in Alexandrovskaya Sloboda.

Entire cities and regions began to fall into disgrace. Based on a false denunciation accusing Archbishop Pimen and many Novgorodians of wanting to surrender to the Polish king Sigismund Augustus, Ivan IV decided to conduct a search and punish the perpetrators. In December 1569, Grozny set out on a military campaign in his own state. Klin, Tver and Torzhok were plundered, and many residents were killed. Through Vyshny Volochok, Valdai and Yazhelbitsy, Ivan IV with his guardsmen and army approached Novgorod. Even earlier, an advanced regiment arrived in the city and arrested a number of residents. The king, who arrived on January 6, 1570, ordered the killing of many of the black clergy. Then Archbishop Pimen and other clergy and inhabitants of Novgorod were captured. Monasteries and churches were robbed, and then, on the orders of Ivan the Terrible, the massacre of Novgorodians began indiscriminately. The beating was accompanied by preliminary torture and torment. The guardsmen 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 surroundings were destroyed and plundered. On February 13, Ivan IV went to Pskov, whose frightened inhabitants expressed humiliation and submission and were spared. In Moscow, the tsar continued to investigate the case of Novgorod treason, carried out torture interrogations of many of those arrested, and in June up to 120 people were executed on Red Square - and among them were 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 person of the Poles. He concluded an agreement with the Polish-Lithuanian king: Livonia was given under the protection 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 between neighboring powers. The island of Ezel and the adjacent coast were captured by the Danes, Revel and the lands near the Gulf of Finland by the Swedes. The rest (most) of the Order's possessions were placed under the supreme rule of Sigismund in vassal relations. In the fall of 1561, Ketler accepted the title of hereditary Duke of Courland and Semigallia, and Livonia, in which he remained royal governor, was united with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Now Russia had to fight with Poland and Lithuania. Ivan IV himself moved with an army and took Polotsk in 1563, but in January 1565 the Russian army was defeated near Orsha by Polish-Lithuanian troops. In 1570, a three-year truce was concluded, subsequently continued, on the terms of ownership of what was captured by whom. In 1576, the warlike Stefan Batory, an excellent commander, was elected to the Polish-Lithuanian throne. Already in 1578, an 18,000-strong Russian detachment was defeated by united 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 he approached the walls of Pskov. However, the siege of Pskov by the Poles dragged on, and Batory was unable to take it. New diplomatic negotiations began, at which the pope's envoy, the Jesuit Anthony Possevin, acted as a mediator. The negotiations ended on January 6, 1582 in Zapolsky Yam 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 their attack on it from the south. The Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey, encouraged by the Sultan, who did not think of abandoning the Kazan and Astrakhan kingdoms, in 1571 organized a campaign against Moscow with 120,000 Crimeans and Nogais. The governors of Ivan the Terrible did not have time to block his path across the Oka. The Khan walked around them and headed to Serpukhov, where the Tsar and the guardsmen were at that time. Ivan IV cowardly fled to the north. Devlet-Girey approached Moscow and burned it, except the Kremlin. Many people died or were taken into captivity 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 towards Moscow, but was defeated on the banks of the river. Lopasni, y Younger, Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky. Ivan the Terrible then 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 the Cossacks of the ataman annexed part of Siberia. From the history of Russia's relations with the West during 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 was delighted 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 to trade with Russia.

Conquest of Siberia by Ermak. Painting by V. Surikov, 1895

Exhausted by his abnormal and dissolute life and the hardships of his cruel rule, 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 reached us. One of them was said by him at the Zemsky Sobor in 1550. In it, the tsar regretted the injustices that were 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 Church Council of the Stoglavy, preserved in the acts of the latter and remarkable for its acquaintance with the shortcomings of church life of that time. But the most famous is the Correspondence of Ivan the Terrible with Prince A. M. Kurbsky. From this Correspondence Ivan the Terrible owns two letters in which the idea of ​​unlimited royal power is ardently defended. The same idea is conveyed in two other letters from 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,” which is remarkable for its vivid depiction of the shortcomings of monastic life of that time. The shortcomings of Ivan the Terrible as a writer should include the absence of any plan in his works, an excessive number of quotes and examples from the Holy Scriptures and other sources, and extreme verbosity, which was aptly characterized by his opponent Kurbsky, saying that he cannot “many in short words.” close the mind." However, the corrosive irony, which Kurbsky aptly called biting, the ability to notice the weak side of the enemy, deftly reflect the blow, as well as strong figurative language force one to recognize Ivan the Terrible as one of the most gifted Russian writers of pre-Petrine times.

“The Tsar did or planned a lot of good, smart, even great things, and along with this he did even more actions that made him an object of horror and disgust for his contemporaries and subsequent generations” (V. Klyuchevsky “Course of Russian History”)

The reign of Ivan the Terrible over the Russian state 1547 - 1584

Biography of Ivan the Terrible. Briefly

Ivan Vasilyevich (Grozny) was the eldest son of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III and Elena Glinskaya (daughter of Prince Vasily Lvovich from the Lithuanian Glinsky family and his wife Anna, originally from Serbia)

• 1530, August 25 - Ivan the Terrible was born

“By nature, Ivan received a lively and flexible mind, thoughtful and a little mocking. But the circumstances among which Ivan’s childhood passed spoiled this mind early and gave it an unnatural, painful development. Since childhood, he saw himself among strangers. A feeling of orphanhood, abandonment, and loneliness was etched into his soul early and deeply and remained throughout his life, about which he repeated at every opportunity: “My relatives did not care about me.” Hence his timidity, which became the main feature of his character. Like all people who grew up among strangers, without a father's gaze or a mother's greeting, Ivan early acquired the habit of walking around looking around and listening. This developed suspicion in him, which over the years turned into a deep distrust of people. As a child, he often experienced indifference or neglect from others. He himself later recalled in a letter to Prince Kurbsky how he and his younger brother Yuri were constrained in everything in childhood, kept like wretched people, poorly fed and clothed, not given any will in anything, forced to do everything by force and beyond their age. On solemn, ceremonial occasions - when leaving or receiving ambassadors - they surrounded him with royal pomp, stood around him with servile humility, and on weekdays the same people did not stand on ceremony with him, sometimes pampered him, sometimes teased him. They used to play with their brother Yuri in the bedroom of their late father, and the leading boyar, Prince I.V. Shuisky, would lounge in front of them on a bench, lean his elbow on the bed of the late sovereign, their father, and put his foot on it, not paying any attention to the children , neither paternal, nor even sovereign"

• 1533, December 3 - Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III, father of Ivan the Terrible, died
• 1533, December - Elena Glinskaya, Ivan’s mother, removed from power the seven guardians appointed by her husband’s last will, including her brother-in-law and her uncle, and became the ruler of the Russian state. She was assisted by her favorite Prince Ivan Fedorovich Ovchina-Telepnev-Obolensky, Prince Mikhail Lvovich Glinsky, former adviser to Vasily the Third Ivan Yuryevich Podzhogin

Elena Glinskaya ruled Muscovy for five years. It was a time of numerous boyar intrigues against her, arrests and deaths of the conspirators. Under Helena in 1537, a peace beneficial for Russia was concluded with the Polish king Sigismund I, which ended the Russian-Lithuanian war of 1534-1537, Sweden pledged not to help the Livonian Order and Lithuania, a monetary reform was carried out (a single currency was introduced - silver money weighing 0. 34 gr.), the Kitai-Gorod wall was built

• 1538, April 4 - Elena Glinskaya died, rumored to have been poisoned by the boyars
• 1538-1543 - the childhood of Ivan IV, which took place in continuous bloody feuds of the boyar clans of the Shuisky and Belsky
• 1542, January 3 - supporters of Prince I. Shuisky at night by surprise attacked Metropolitan Joasaph, who stood for the princes of Belsky. The ruler hid in the palace of the Grand Duke. The rebels broke the metropolitan's windows, rushed after him into the palace and at dawn broke into the bedroom of the little sovereign Ivan the Fourth, waking him up and frightening him.
• 1543, September - Prince Andrei Mikhailovich Shuisky, his like-minded people, in front of the eyes of Metropolitan Macarius and 13-year-old Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich, beat the boyar Fyodor Vorontsov, who had won the love of the growing Ivan IV
• 1543, December 29 - Ivan Vasilyevich (the future Grozny), accusing the Shuiskys of “committing lawlessness and arbitrariness,” ordered the hounds to kill Shuisky
• 1546, December 13 - Ivan Vasilyevich expressed his intention to marry Metropolitan Macarius
• 1547, January 7 - on the advice of Metropolitan Macarius, Ivan Vasilyevich was married to the kingdom and for the first time in Russian history received the title of tsar

Crowning - the coronation ceremony of Russian monarchs, which had a pronounced sacred connotation and included the sacrament of anointing

• 1547, February 2 - marriage of Ivan the Terrible with Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yuryeva
• 1547, April 12-June - fires in Moscow. A third of the city was destroyed, including Arbat and the Kremlin, large parts of Kitai-Gorod, Tverskaya, Dmitrovka, Myasnitskaya. Ivan IV and his close boyars waited out the fires in the village of Vorobyovo. Then the first thing he ordered was the restoration of the Kremlin
• 1547, June 21 - uprising of Muscovites, confident that Moscow burned down from the witchcraft of the Glinskys.
• 1547, June 29 - the rebels came to the village of Vorobyovo, where Ivan IV had taken refuge, and demanded the extradition of the Glinskys. With great difficulty, they managed to persuade the crowd to disperse, convincing them that there were no Glinskys in Vorobyov. As soon as the danger had passed, the king ordered the arrest of the main conspirators and their execution
• 1547-1548, December 20-March 7 - the first unsuccessful campaign of the army of Ivan the Terrible to conquer Kazan
• 1548, late autumn - a group of several progressive-minded nobles and priests formed around the young king (the so-called “elected council”), whose advice Ivan listened to in pursuing his domestic and foreign policy.

The “Chosen Rada” included princes D. Kurlyatev, M. Vorotynsky, A. Kurbsky, okolnichy A. Adashev, Moscow Metropolitan Macarius, priest of the home church of the Moscow kings Sylvester, clerk of the Ambassadorial Prikaz I. Viskovaty

• 1549-1550, November 24-March 25 - the second unsuccessful campaign of Ivan the Terrible to conquer Kazan
• 1549, August 10 - the daughter of Ivan and Anastasia Anna was born, died July 20, 1550
• 1551, March 17 - daughter Maria was born, died December 8, 1552
• 1552, June 16-October 11 - the third successful campaign of Ivan Vasilyevich to conquer Kazan
• 1552, October 2 - conquest of Kazan
• 1552, October - son Dmitry was born, died June 4, 1553
• 1553, autumn - Ivan the Terrible's serious illness. The political crisis associated with it: a manifestation of the opposition of the boyars
• 1554, March 28 - son Ivan was born
• 1555-1561 - construction of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow
• 1556, February 25 - daughter Evdokia was born, died in June 1558
• 1556, August 26 - the Astrakhan kingdom was annexed to Russia
• 1557, May 31 - son Fedor was born, died January 7, 1558
• 1560, spring - Ivan IV’s advisors Sylvester and A. Adashev fall out of favor
• 1560, September - death of Tsarina Anastasia Romanovna
• 1560, August 21 - wedding of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich and the daughter of the Kabardian prince Temryuk Maria
• 1563, March - son Vasily was born, died on May 3
• 1564, March - Ivan Fedorov completed work on the first Russian printed book, “The Acts of the Apostles...” in the first Russian printing yard, located in Moscow on Nikolskaya Street

Eternally anxious and suspicious, Ivan early got used to thinking that he was surrounded only by enemies, and cultivated in himself a sad inclination to look out for how an endless network of intrigues was being woven around him, with which, it seemed to him, they were trying to entangle him from all sides. This made him constantly on guard; the thought that an enemy was about to rush at him from around the corner became his habitual, every-minute expectation. With a suspicious and painfully excited sense of power, he considered good direct advice an encroachment on his sovereign rights, disagreement with his plans - a sign of sedition, conspiracy and treason. Having removed good advisers from himself, he surrendered to the one-sided direction of his suspicious political thought, which everywhere suspected intrigues and sedition, and inadvertently raised the old question about the attitude of the sovereign to the boyars - a question that he was not able to resolve and which therefore should not have been raised. This question was insoluble for the Moscow people of the 16th century. Therefore, it was necessary to hush it up for the time being, smoothing out the contradiction that caused it through the means of prudent policy, but Ivan wanted to cut the issue down at once, exacerbating the contradiction itself

• 1564, December 25 (January 3, New Style) - two letters from Ivan Vasilyevich, one to the people with assurances of good feelings, the second to the Metropolitan - accusing the boyars of treason and announcing their intention to abdicate the throne. The people's delegation begged him not to do this. As a condition for his return, Ivan the Terrible demanded that he be given his own inheritance, where he could rule at his own discretion
• 1565, January 5 - Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible established the oprichnina

As a result, the whole country was divided into two parts - zemshchina and oprichnina, that is, into state and personal lands of the kings. The oprichnina included the northern and northwestern regions, rich in fertile lands, some central destinies, the Kama region, and even individual streets of Moscow. The capital of the oprichnina became Alexandrovskaya Sloboda, the capital of the state still remained Moscow. The oprichnina lands were ruled personally by the tsar, and the zemstvo lands by the Boyar Duma; the oprichnina also had a separate treasury, its own. However, the Grand Parish, that is, the analogue of the modern Tax Administration, which was responsible for the receipt and distribution of taxes, was uniform for the entire state; The Ambassadorial Order also remained common. This seemed to symbolize that, despite the division of the lands into two parts, the state is still united and indestructible

• 1565-1569 - Oprichnina. These years went down in history with many stories about persecution, injustice, cruel executions of boyars, servicemen and their servants
• 1566, June 28 - the Zemsky Cathedral opened. Its members protested the establishment of the oprichnina, filing a petition for its abolition for 300 signatures; Of the petitioners, 50 were beaten with a whip, several had their tongues cut out, and three were beheaded (Wikipedia).
• 1568, March 22 - in the Assumption Cathedral, Metropolitan 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 church court
• 1569, September 6 - the second wife of Ivan the Terrible, Maria Temryukovna, died
• 1569, December 23 - Metropolitan Philip (in the world boyar Fyodor Kolychev) strangled by Malyuta Skuratov
• 1569, December - 1570, February - campaign of the oprichnina army to Novgorod, whose nobles Ivan the Terrible suspected of intending to surrender to the Polish king Sigismund. As a result, in Novgorod, with a population of approximately 30,000, about 5,000 were killed (during the campaign against Novgorod, the oprichnina army defeated Pskov, Tver, Klin, Torzhok)

  The theme of the Novgorod veche is illustrated by a painting by a proletarian artist, where a group of fashionable boyars argue almost to the point of a fight with ragged workers. Meanwhile, the greatest expert on Ancient Novgorod, Anatoly Kirpichnikov, assures that there were no crowds at the meeting, but sat on benches. Kirpichnikov lined the entire Sofia Square with benches, and it turned out that no more than 300 people could attend the meeting. This means that Novgorod democracy was representative, parliamentary. In Novgorod during the so-called “Mongol-Tatar yoke,” the literacy of the population was universal, children were taught in schools. Instead of bast shoes, they wore morocco here, since there was little dirt on the streets: city services lined the sidewalks with wood. The scribe books mention about 30 trades that the Novgorodians were engaged in in addition to their agricultural work. By the 15th century in Vodskaya Pyatina alone (northwest Novgorod possessions) there were 215 blast furnaces, each smelting 1.5 tons of iron. Even then, firearms were produced in the city. Along with London, Bruges, Cologne, Bergen, Hamburg, our northern city was a member of the Hanseatic League - the then prototype of the WTO. If in the 15th century. Novgorod defeated Moscow, we probably would have had a completely different story. But it turned out the other way around. Later, under Ivan the Terrible, the guardsmen carried out genocide in Novgorod on such a scale that 150 years later, Peter I was thinking about how to teach at least noble children to write their names and where to get guns for the war with the Swede (“Arguments of the Week,” No. 34 (576) from 08/31/2017)

• 1570, July 25 - on suspicion of high treason, the head of the embassy order, the outstanding diplomat I. Viskovaty, was executed, who was crucified on a cross and dismembered alive in front of the king and the crowd. Together with Viskovaty, about a hundred more people were executed, and state treasurer N. Funikov was boiled alive
• 1571, May - Crimean Khan Devlet-Gerey burned Moscow
• 1571, October 28 - Ivan Vasilyevich married Marfa Vasilievna Sobakina
• 1571, mid-November - the third wife of Ivan the Terrible died
• 1572, June 30 - in the battle of the village of Molodi, 45 km. south of Moscow, near Podolsk, the Russian army defeated the army of Devlet-Gerey
• 1572 - Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible abolished the oprichnina, but executions and lawlessness did not stop. In 1573, the governor, Prince M.I., died from torture. Vorotynsky, who defeated Devlet-Girey in the Battle of Molodin. So some scientists (including S.M. Solovyov) defined the oprichnina within the chronological framework of 1565-1584
• 1581, September 1 - Ermak’s campaign to Siberia began, marking the beginning of its annexation to Russia
• 1581, November 19 - Ivan the Terrible's son died, beaten by his father in a fit of anger
• 1582, October 19 - a son, Dmitry, was born to Ivan the Terrible from Maria Feodorovna Nagoy. Died May 15, 1591
• 1584, March 18 - Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible, the last, died

Reforms of Ivan the Terrible

The internal policy of Ivan the Terrible was subordinated to the goal of strengthening and centralizing government, strengthening royal power, weakening the influence of feudal boyars on affairs in the country, and establishing the supremacy of the state over the church.

- Convening of the Zemsky Sobor (1549, February 27)
- Organization of the royal service. Around Moscow, 1070 nobles received land, which formed a new Streltsy army for Rus' (1549, October)
- The adoption of the new “Tsar’s Code of Law”, which introduced a common unit for collecting taxes, confirmed the right of peasants to move on St. George’s Day, and punishment for bribery was introduced for the first time (1550, June)
- The Stoglavy Sobor (Church and Zemsky Sobor) limited the further growth of church properties in cities and the financial privileges of the clergy; the unification of the all-Russian pantheon of saints took place, the regulation of services and rituals, the establishment of schools for the population (1551, early January)
- Zemstvo reform: “the abolition of feeding, replacing governors and volostels with elected public authorities, entrusting not only the criminal police to the zemstvo worlds themselves, but also the entire local zemstvo administration together with the civil court” (1552)
- Reorganization of public administration - formation of a system of orders (future ministries): Petition, Ambassadorial, Local, Streletsky, Pushkarsky, Bronny, Robbery, Printed, Sokolnichiy, Zemsky orders
- Abolition of some boyar privileges, in particular the right to a portion of tax revenues (1555)
- The “Code of Service” (on the military service of nobles) was adopted (1556)
- Change in entry into inheritance rights: in the absence of immediate heirs, the estates are transferred to the state (1562)

Ivan IV Vasilevich (1533-1584) ascended the throne at the age of 3 after the death of his father Vasily III. In fact, the state was ruled by his mother Elena Glinskaya, but she also died, presumably from poisoning, when Ivan was 8 years old. After her death, a real struggle for power unfolded between the boyar groups of the Belskys, Shuiskys and Glinskys. This struggle was waged in front of the young ruler, instilling in him cruelty, fear, and suspicion. From 1538 to 1547 5 boyar groups came to power. Boyar rule was accompanied by the removal of 2 metropolitans, theft of the treasury, executions, torture, and exile. Boyar rule led to the weakening of central power and caused a wave of discontent and open protests. The international position of the state has also become more complicated.

In 1547, at the age of 17, Ivan IV was crowned king, becoming the first Tsar in Russian history. In 1549, a circle of close people formed around young Ivan, which was called « Elected Rada ». It included Metropolitan Macarius, the Tsar’s confessor Sylvester, Prince A.M. Kurbsky, nobleman A.F. Adashev. The Rada existed until 1560 and carried out a number of reforms.

Reforms of central and local government. In 1549, a new government body arose - the Zemsky Sobor. An order management system was established and the most important orders appeared. During the reign of Ivan IV, the composition of the Boyar Duma was expanded almost three times in order to weaken the role of the old boyar aristocracy in it. Elected zemstvo authorities were established locally in the person of “zemstvo elders,” who were chosen from wealthy townspeople and peasants. General supervision of local government passed into the hands of governors and city clerks. In 1556 the feeding system was abolished. Territory managers began to receive salaries from the treasury.

The territory was divided into the following territorial units: the guba (district) was headed by the provincial elder (from the nobility); the volost was headed by a zemstvo elder (from the Chernososhny population); the city was headed by a “favorite head” (from local service people).

Thus, as a result of the management reform in Russia, an estate-representative monarchy emerged.

Military reform. In the middle of the 16th century, from the Volga to the Baltic, Russia was surrounded by a ring of hostile states. In this situation, the presence of combat-ready troops was extremely important for Russia. Due to a lack of money in the treasury, the government paid for its services with land. For every 150 dessiatines of land (1 dessiatine - 1.09 hectares), a boyar or nobleman had to supply one warrior with a horse and weapons. With regard to military service, votchinas were equivalent to estates. Now a patrimonial owner or landowner could begin service at the age of 15 and pass it on by inheritance. Service people were divided into two main groups: those who served “by fatherland” (i.e. by inheritance - boyars and nobles), those who served from the ground and by “device” (i.e. by recruitment - gunners, archers, etc.), received a salary for their service.

In 1556, the “Code of Service” was first drawn up, which regulated military service. Cossacks were recruited for the border service. Foreigners became another component of the Russian army, but their number was insignificant. During military campaigns, localism was limited.

As a result of military reform, Russia for the first time began to have a standing army, which it did not have before. The creation of a combat-ready army allowed Russia to solve some long-standing strategic foreign policy problems.

Currency reform. A single monetary unit was introduced throughout the country - the Moscow ruble. The right to collect trade duties passed into the hands of the state. From now on, the tax-paying population had to bear « tax" - a complex of natural and monetary duties. A single tax collection unit was established for the entire state - "big plow" . Depending on the fertility of the soil and the social status of the owner, a large plow ranged from 400 to 600 hectares of land.

Judicial reform. In 1550, a new Code of Law was adopted. He introduced changes to the Code of Law of 1497, reflecting the strengthening of central power. It confirmed the right of the peasants to move on St. George’s Day (November 26), and the payment for the “elderly” was increased, which further enslaved the peasants. Punishment for bribery was introduced for the first time.

Church reform. In 1551 the Council of the Hundred Heads took place. It was so named because its decisions were formulated in one hundred chapters. For a long time, Stoglav became the code of Russian church law. An all-Russian list of saints was compiled, rituals were streamlined and unified (brought to uniformity) throughout the country. Church art was subject to regulation: models were approved that were to be followed. The work of Andrei Rublev was proclaimed as a model in painting, and the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin in architecture.

The reforms of the Elected Rada contributed to the strengthening of the Russian centralized state. They strengthened the power of the king, led to the reorganization of local and central government, and strengthened the military power of the country.

Oprichnina. Towards the end of the activities of the Chosen Rada, tension grew between the king and his entourage. The course towards centralization infringed on the interests of many princes and boyars. Dissatisfaction with the protracted Livonian War grew. In 1560, Ivan IV's wife Anastasia Zakharyina-Romanova, whom he loved very much, died. The Tsar suspected the boyars to be responsible for her death. In the early 1560s. betrayals became more frequent, the loudest of which was the flight of A. Kurbsky.

In 1565, Ivan IV introduced the oprichnina (1565-1572). The territory of Russia was divided into two parts: oprichnina (from “oprich” - except) and zemshchina. The oprichnina included the most important lands. Here the king had the right to be an unlimited ruler. Ivan IV settled an oprichnina army on these lands; the population of the zemshchina had to support it. Feudal lords who were not included in the oprichnina army, but whose land was located in the oprichnina, were evicted to the zemshchina. Fighting the remnants of the appanage orders and trying to destroy the slightest opposition sentiments (for example, the Novgorod freemen), Ivan IV carried out a brutal reign of terror. It was directed against the boyars and nobles, whom the tsar suspected of treason, but the common population also suffered from them. According to various estimates, 3-4 thousand people died from oprichnina terror. The oprichnina led to the ruin of the country, the desolation of many lands, worsened the situation of the peasants and largely contributed to their further enslavement. In order to prevent the ruin of the feudal lords, "reserved summers" – years when the crossing of peasants was prohibited even on St. George’s Day (according to some sources, the first “reserved” year was 1581).

Foreign policy Russia under Ivan IV was divided into three directions. On westward the main goal was access to the Baltic Sea and the fight for ancient Russian lands. Trying to reach him, Ivan IV waged a grueling 25-year Livonian War (1558-1583). At first, the war went well. In 1560, the Livonian Order was defeated, but its lands came under the rule of Poland, Denmark and Sweden. Instead of one weak enemy, Russia received three strong ones. The war was aggravated by the betrayal of Andrei Kurbsky, frequent raids by the Crimean Tatars and the oprichnina, which led to a severe economic crisis. The Livonian War ended with the defeat of Russia and the loss of a number of cities. Access to the Baltic Sea remained only at the mouth of the Neva. Foreign trade continued to be carried out through the White Sea. In the middle of the 16th century. Maritime connections were established with England. From Western Europe through Arkhangelsk, Russia imported weapons, cloth, jewelry, and wine in exchange for furs, flax, hemp, honey, and wax.

On east direction the main goal was the fight against the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates and the annexation of Siberia. The Kazan and Astrakhan khanates, formed as a result of the collapse of the Golden Horde, constantly threatened Russian lands. Here were the fertile soils that the Russian nobility dreamed of. In 1552, the Kazan Khanate was annexed, in memory of the conquest of which the Intercession Cathedral (St. Basil's Cathedral) was erected in Moscow. In 1556, the Astrakhan Khanate was annexed.

The Nogai Horde (the lands from the Volga to the Irtysh) recognized its dependence on Russia. Russia included Tatars, Bashkirs, Udmurts, Mordovians, and Maris. Relations with the peoples of the North Caucasus and Central Asia have expanded. The entire trade route along the Volga came under Russian control. The Volga trade route connected Russia with the countries of the East, from where silk, fabrics, porcelain, paints, spices, etc. were brought.

The annexation of Kazan and Astrakhan opened up the possibility of advancing into Siberia. The wealthy merchants Stroganovs received charters from Ivan IV to own lands along the Tobol River. Using their own funds, they formed a detachment of free Cossacks led by Ermak . In 1581, Ermak and his army entered the territory of the Siberian Khanate, and a year later defeated the troops of Khan Kuchum and took his capital, Kashlyk. The population of Siberia had to pay yasak – natural fur rent.

On south direction The main goal was to protect the country from the attacks of the Crimean Tatars, since in the 16th century the development of the territory of the Wild Field (fertile lands south of Tula) began. The Tula and Belgorod serif lines were built. The fight was carried out with varying degrees of success. In 1559, an unsuccessful campaign against the Crimean Khanate was made. In 1571, the Crimean Khan and his army reached Moscow and burned its settlement. The oprichnina army was unable to resist this, probably prompting the tsar to abolish the oprichnina. In 1572, at the Battle of Molodi, the Crimean troops were defeated by the united Russian army.

Thus, under Ivan IV, the most successful direction of foreign policy turned out to be the eastern one, and the most unsuccessful - the western one.

Historians assess the significance of the personality and activities of Ivan the Terrible contradictory. Some scientists believe that the policies of Ivan the Terrible undermined the power of the country and predetermined the further Troubles. Other researchers consider Ivan the Terrible a great creator.

The activities of the first Russian Tsar should be assessed taking into account the time: he was forced to apply repression against the boyars, since at that time the top of the boyars had become an anti-state force. According to the most recent estimates by scientists, during the 37 years of his reign, on the orders of Ivan the Terrible, from 3 to 4 thousand people were killed. For comparison, his contemporary, the French king Charles IX, in 1572 alone, with the blessing of the Pope, destroyed 30 thousand Huguenots - Catholic Protestants. Ivan the Terrible was undoubtedly a despot. But the tsar’s despotism was caused by the internal and external circumstances in which Russia found itself in the middle of the 16th century.