Grand Duchy of Moscow
gigatos | May 24, 2022
Summary
The Grand Duchy or Grand Principality of Moscow (Russian: Вели́кое кня́жество Моско́вское?, transliterated: Velikoe Knjažestvo Moskovskoe), was one of the major Russian principalities of the Middle Ages and early Modern Age; it had Moscow as its capital, existed between the 13th century and 1547, and was the predecessor of the Russian Tsarate.
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From Jurij Dolgorukij to Ivan I: birth and expansion of Muscovy
The name Moscow first appears in the chronicles of Kievan Rus” (in the Chronicle of Galicia, Volinia, but not in the Moscow Chronicle, which is later) in the year 1147. At that time it was an insignificant village (selo) near the southern border of the Vladimir-Suzdal” Principality.
In 1156, according to the Chronicle of Vladimir, a fortification of tree trunks had been built by Jurij Dolgorukij of Kiev: this is the beginning of the Moscow Kremlin, in an area that until then was covered with swamps.
In 1236-1237, when the Tatar-Mongols invaded Kievan Rus”, this fortified area was completely burned. At that time Moscow was only an insignificant commercial outpost belonging to the Vladimir-Suzdal” Principality; it was at this time, however, that Moscow began its rise to become the hegemon of all of Eastern Europe. The remote location in a region of forests offers some protection against possible assaults by invaders while the abundance of rivers ensures connections with the Baltic Sea in the north and the Black Sea in the Caucasus region. Even more important than geographical location for Moscow”s transformation into a new Russian state is the role played by several of its princes, who were ambitious, determined, and fortunate.
Thus, in the 13th-14th centuries, Kievan Rus” finds itself in a disastrous situation: Kiev and the Dnepr basin have been devastated by the Tatar-Mongols, all the Russian principalities are subjugated to them, and they have to pay huge tributes to the khan of Saraj (part of which was going to the center of the Empire, to the grand khan in Mongolia). The Russian territory is found fractioned into a great many small, independent and warring principalities, formally autonomous from Saraj even though from the khan of the Golden Horde the princes had to obtain the jarlyk, the license letter allowing them to rule. The western regions, Galicia, Volynia, Podolia, and Polesia, increasingly entered the sphere of influence of the Kingdom of Poland.
In 1263, upon the death of Grand Prince Aleksandr Nevsky, his youngest son Daniil Aleksandrovich obtains the village of Moscow, and this has a major impact on the subjugation of neighboring populations. Moscow thus probably becomes an enclave of the Novgorod Republic in the territory of the Vladimir-Suzdal” principality. Daniil is the first to bear the title of prince of Moscow, thus bringing to the throne of the city a line of that Rurik dynasty that has ruled Kievan Rus” since its founding.
Daniil”s eldest son, Jurij Danilovič continued Moscow”s policy of expansion into some neighboring areas, such as Kolomna and Možajsk, a policy already inaugurated by his father Daniil. Gradually Moscow thus begins to enlarge its territory. The causes of this expansion were not so much related to Jurij”s military prowess as to his economic availability. Moscow”s financial revenues, in fact, begin to be substantial due to several factors:
Subsequently, Moscow”s population also experienced a great increase, especially as many refugees, both peasants and nobles, took refuge in the city and its territory: Jurij welcomed them all, both to have soldiers to enlist and to impose taxes on them.
At this point Jurij has an army and large sums of money at his disposal; he thus wages a struggle against the city of Tver”, which aspires to take the place of the destroyed Kiev. Jurij declares war on the prince of Tver”, Mikhail Jaroslavič; unable to defeat him by force of arms (Tver” is located far enough north to be autonomous from the Tatars and maintain a good army), in 1317 Jurij marries the sister of the khan of the Golden Horde, Uzbek (the girl”s name was Končaka). With Končaka”s personal guard (two or three thousand men), provided by the khan, Jurij attacked Michail of Tver”, but was defeated by him, captured and imprisoned with his wife (who in prison converted to Christianity and took the name Agaf”ia). A few years later, around 1318, Agaf”ia dies of poisoning in Tver”, and Michail himself is blamed for her death by Jurij and the Tatar ambassador to Moscow, Kavdygai: Michail must therefore travel to Saraj to clear himself of the charge that he even had the khan”s sister killed. A trial then takes place (documented in both Tatar and Russian sources), following which Michail is found guilty and beheaded. Subsequently his eldest son, Dmitry Michajlovič, having taken his father”s place, in revenge for Jurij accuses him of seizing some tribute intended for the khan: this time it is Jurij who is summoned to Saraj to exonerate himself, and along the way Dmitry himself kills him. For this prevarication, however, Dmitry is also put to death by Uzbek: justice, in such a case, had to be exercised by the Tatars, since this was not just an internal matter for the Russian principalities.
Upon Jurij”s death his brother, Ivan I, now known by the epithet Kalità (Ivan of the “purse”), becomes prince of Moscow. Ivan goes to Uzbek (his brother”s brother-in-law), gets an army of 50,000 men under the pretext of wanting to pacify, in the name of the khan, the situation, and marches against Tver”, which cannot resist. Ivan completely destroys the city, annexes it to his territory, and as a reward obtains from Uzbek the title of Grand Prince of Vladimir: this is because Ivan did not exercise vengeance in his personal capacity, but did justice in the name of the khan. The Vladimir-Suzdal” principality is in a situation of severe decay, and if a descendant of Michail and Dmitry of Tver” wanted to claim the title of Grand Prince, he would already know that he would be forcibly removed.
In the following years, 1329-1331, Ivan, as a very shrewd politician, cooperates closely with the Tatar-Mongols in collecting taxes and tributes from the other Russian principalities: he thus succeeds in obtaining the right to collect the taxes owed to the khan (there is also a Tatar-Mongol collector, a baskak, in Moscow, but in this case he does not play a decisive role). Thus the taxes are collected by Ivan himself, who takes advantage of this to increase the amount of taxes and thereby increase Moscow”s power and prestige. For this reason people give Ivan the above-mentioned nickname of kality, “purse of money.” When it comes to winning a jarlyk from the khan, Ivan now has a better chance of obtaining it, as he has more money at his disposal, and this applies not only to Moscow but also – unimpeachably according to Golden Horde practice – to many other cities. Moreover, with this money Ivan ransoms a large number of Russian slaves (rab”), whom he then enlists in the army because they owe their ransom to the city of Moscow and the grand prince.
Ivan also seizes several small principalities to increase the territorial extent of Muscovy; to govern them, he buys jarlyk directly from their princes (an operation not contemplated by Tatar institutions). Many princes, knowing that they would lose their cities anyway, since Moscow was now too strong for them to resist, sold their title of prince in exchange for a title of nobility: thus an increasingly numerous and powerful class of boyars was born.
Ivan”s power rests on several foundations:
Another milestone in the history of Moscow”s glory is the transfer in 1325 (i.e., at the advent of Ivan I) of the metropolitan of Kiev-Vladimir, Maximus”s (†1305) successor Peter (also later canonized). Just as from Kiev, devastated by the Mongols, the metropolitan moved to Vladimir, the new seat of the Grand Principality, from Vladimir he moved to Moscow, corroborating his rise.
After Metropolitan Peter, the bishops are not re-electing a metropolitan even for Vladimir-Suzdal”: Russia must have only one metropolitan. True, there remains another metropolitan in Kiev, but by now Kiev has taken a different path, entering Poland”s orbit of influence.
In 1341 Ivan died. He will be considered the founder of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.
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From Semen to Dmitry Donskoy: the consolidation of Moscow”s hegemony.
By the 14th century the Moscow princes were powerful enough to attempt to oppose the Tatar-Mongols, weakened by infighting, and defeated them in 1380, at the Battle of Kulikovo. Despite a resurgence of Tatar power (they will go so far as to sack Moscow) from this time on, the Moscow principality is transformed into a large state, slowly expanding from the 15th century onward eastward into Asia.
Ivan Kalità”s eldest son, Grand Prince Semën Ivanovič, known as Semën Gordij (“Simeon the Proud”), consolidates what his father had done. More and more princes give him their cities, acquiring a role in the Kremlin as boyars. Moscow grows territorially; with the territory comes an increase in the number of people living there, in taxes, and in the numerical size of the army, which has now become a stable army under the direct dependence of the grand prince. Semen, however, still behaves as a vassal to the Tatars. He died during the great plague in 1353.
Semën”s brother Ivan II Ivanovič reigned for a short time. He must mainly deal with managing relations with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (roughly peaceful) and the Confederation of Livonia, continuing the policy of supporting the Orthodox Church and avoiding annoying the boyars. Traditionally considered unfit to rule by contemporaries, in his place actually ruled Metropolitan Alexis, a very strong figure in the Russian political landscape:
Finally, with Dmitry Ivanovič, some unity is achieved in the territory of Muscovy. Dmitry succeeds in conquering the cities of Tver” (permanently annexing its principality), Kaluga and Ryazan” (to the south), Smolensk (to the west), and Nizhny Novgorod (to the east). In this way a protective belt is formed around Moscow.
In 1371, the ruler of the Lithuanians, Algirdas, brings war to the north of Russia, managing to conquer territories in the Novgorod countryside and attempting to attack the present Russian capital three times. With this motivation, Dmitry succeeds in obtaining from the khan of Saraj a decrease in taxes payable to the Golden Horde (due to infighting in Novgorod, Moscow had managed to extend its jurisdiction over the territory of this city as well).
With Dmitry, the myth of the invincibility of the Tatar-Mongols was shattered and the fight against the people of the steppe began. By the mid-14th century, moreover, the Golden Horde had split into two parts due to political rivalries: the Saraj khanate and a Don khanate, founded perhaps by a part of the nobility, noyons, who wanted to gain more power (the Don khanate, in fact, was not unitary like the Sarai khanate, but was a kind of confederation), or by exiles, especially politicians. All this had weakened the military capacity of the khan of Saraj.
In 1378 the Battle of Voža takes place: on the Voža River, a tributary of the Oká, Dmitry succeeds in inflicting an initial defeat on groups of Tatar marauders (probably forces from the Don Khanate). The victory, geopolitically and strategically, brings no advantage to Dmitry, but it rings a kind of alarm bell for the khan of Saraj, Mamaj. Concerned about Moscow”s strengthening, Mamaj forms an alliance with the Lithuanian ruler Ladislaus II Jagellon so that he can take Muscovy from two fronts, from the northwest and from the south. Faced with this threat, all internal rivalries among the Russian principalities are put aside and numerous Russian armies flow to Moscow to place themselves under Dmitry”s unified leadership.
The battle of Kulikovo will be pivotal for all of Russian history. However, Dmitry is not in a position to immediately use the victory to the Russians” advantage: he is left without soldiers, and therefore cannot directly attack the Tatar khanate. The victory at Kulikovo will be decisively overestimated by the Russians: there will be an illusion that the Tatars will not dare to raise their heads again; what is more, once the moment of danger has passed, frictions and divisions will re-emerge at home, showing how a true national consciousness has not yet been consolidated.
In the same years as the Battle of Kulikovo, a new threat looms over Muscovy. From Samarkand a new Mongol Grand Khan, Timur-Lenk (Tamerlane), succeeds in subjugating once again the peoples of Central Asia (Kyrgyz, Tajiks, Kazakhs, etc.), northern China, Persia and Asia Minor, present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan.
At Tamerlane”s behest, a Mongol leader, Toktamish, begins to invade Russia from the south, along the lower reaches of the Volga River. Toktamish first defeats Mamaj and reunites the Golden Horde under the direct dependencies of the Mongol Empire. Then he sends ambassadors to Dmitry Donskoy, instructed to report to the prince of Moscow that the common enemy (Mamaj) is now defeated and therefore the customary tribute to the Horde is demanded.
Dmitry sends rich gifts to Toktamish, now the new khan of the Golden Horde, but refuses to appear before him in Saraj (he fears that by going to the capital he would be killed, partly because he has no intention of continuing to pay the annual tribute).
In the summer of 1381 Toktamish waged war against Moscow, where he did not arrive until August of the following year. Moscow, with its five circles of walls and through the use of artillery, manages to resist the siege. Toktamish then behaves very cunningly: he pretends to negotiate a truce and withdraw his army; Dmitry falls for the trick, and when he has the city gates reopened one night, a group of Tatar soldiers takes possession of a gate. The Tatar army thus pours into the city and completely destroys it; in the siege and destruction of Moscow, perhaps just under 50,000 people find death.
Dmitry is spared his life and granted the honor of arms (this is the first case in which a Russian leader is spared his life by the Tatar-Mongols: Toktamish fears the outbreak of anarchy in Moscow-controlled territories), but he must now really submit and pay tribute to the Tatars.
The Tatars do not continue an operation to conquer Muscovy: after devastating the territory south of the city, they withdraw, so as to leave Moscow to collect tribute for them.
Moscow, however, quickly recovers. The Russian principalities returned to submission to Grand Prince Dmitry, who died in 1389.
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From the “great feudal war” to Ivan IV: Moscow capital of Russia
Dmitry Donskoy died in 1389; upon his death his eldest son, Vassily I, became grand prince, who obtained the jarlyk of the Tatar-Mongols directly from Grand Khan Tamerlane.
Around 1390 the Mongol leader Toktamish begins to show a desire to make himself autonomous from the central empire: the following year Tamerlane himself wages war against him and defeats him on the Kama River near the city of Kazan”. In 1395 Tamerlane takes the war to Saraj, razes it to the ground and devastates the Golden Horde Khanate; Toktamish is killed, probably by the very hands of Tamerlane, who now moves to conquer Lithuania and Moscow. However, at the Oka River in early 1396, Tamerlane encounters a very large Russian army deployed, and he does not feel up to facing Vassily in the open field, preferring to retreat to Central Asia.
In 1408 the leader Edigej, with Tamerlane”s approval, gained power over the Golden Horde, and immediately decided to march to Moscow. This war, however, remains only in plans: Vassily strengthens the walls around the city (up to ten circles), and with the help of French and Italian architects organizes a strong defense system with artillery pieces. Edigej, after putting the countryside to the sword, fails to break through even the first circle of walls. Oedigej therefore decides to negotiate peace with the Russians, and Vassily is forced to pay a large sum of money to finalize the negotiations. This situation, which seems paradoxical as a result of the victory won by the Muscovites, is brought about by the fact that Vassily knows that he is in an unstable geo-political situation: at the same time Muscovy is being attacked in the north by the Polish-Lithuanian Grand Duchy. The Lithuanian Grand Duke Vitoldo has already conquered much of northern Russia, and Vassily must surrender to him as a pledge the city of Smolensk (which will be taken back only by Ivan III). Vassily, in essence, behaves similarly to his predecessor Aleksandr Nevsky in Veliky Novgorod: he normalizes relations with the Tatars (an operation that the aforementioned Grand Duke Vitoldo also attempts to initiate, for different purposes) in order to cope with the Polish-Lithuanian attack.
Regardless of the battles, however, under Vassily I the Moscow Grand Duchy is further strengthened; the grand prince is now master of everything and everyone, in an atmosphere of general absolutism. In contrast, the Golden Horde khanate experiences a radical weakening, which will lead to its complete shattering. Different independent entities are now formed from the original khanate: the Khanate of Kazan”, Astrachan”, Qasim, Crimea, and Nogai. A great many Tatar nobles, also to gain power and privileges, convert to Christianity and donate their lands to the grand prince of Moscow: thus enclaves of lands are formed that geographically belong to one of the khanates but legally belong to the grand prince (who, of course, puts them back into the hands of the Tatar nobles, making them their administrators). Clergymen, regular and secular, are sent to all these regions to evangelize them: all these territories become eparchies ecclesiastically dependent on the Metropolitan of Moscow.
When Vassily died, a difficult period opened for the Moscow Grand Duchy, mainly due to struggles over succession to the throne (Moscow Civil War or “Great Feudal War”). The situation is intricate: Dmitry Donskoj had left the Grand Duchy of Moscow to Vassily and another son, Jurij, the territory of Kostroma. (When Vassily dies and leaves the Grand Duchy to his son Vassily II, Jurij impugns Russkaja Pravda and does not recognize the validity of this succession. Jurij therefore appeals to the first khan of Khazan”, Ulugh Muhammad, submitting the matter to him. In the dispute with his uncle, the very young Vassily II was assisted by a very powerful executioner, Ivan Vsevolškij: the latter admits before the khan that, “according to our law,” the title of grand prince would belong to Jurij, but pleads with the khan that he pardon and grant the jarlyk to Vassily II (which the khan would only finally grant in 1435, after Jurij”s death).
The struggle continues for several years. Three times Jurij will conquer Moscow, but he will always be forced to leave the city because the people and boyars sided against him. In 1440 Vassily has ambassadors from the opposing side blinded, thus tainting himself with a grave fault: in 1446 he himself will be blinded by his uncle”s son, Dmitry Jur”jevič Šemjaka (thus receiving the epithet Vassily Tëmnyj, “the Blind”), but this will shift the confidence of the boyars-including those of Kostroma-on Vassily even more.
Vassily the Blind died in 1462, and his son Ivan assumed the crown of grand prince of Moscow at age 22.
Born in 1440, Ivan III was educated in political life from an early age, and he would always prove to be a very capable politician. With Ivan III, called the Great, who reigned from 1462 to 1505, we witness the creation of the Russian nation-state: with him the Middle Ages ended for Russia. Muscovy gained full control of all of Russia between 1480, when Tatar-Mongol sovereignty officially ceased, and the beginning of the 16th century.
During the reign of Ivan III most of the Russian nobles continued to come to Moscow and donate their territory to the grand prince in order to get a noble title and an office in the Kremlin from him; the boyars thus gained more and more power, until they became a kind of “state within a state.” Ivan conquered Veliky Novgorod in 1478. By inheritance he also already obtained part of the province of Ryazan”, while the princes of Rostov and Yaroslavl” voluntarily submitted.
Ivan regards Russia as his personal estate: all of Russia is his inheritance, and he can leave it to whomever he wishes. That is why he revises Russkaya Pravda, placing succession to the throne only in the direct line to the eldest son: his aim is to avoid any splitting of the kingdom.
Ivan was inspired by the myth of the “Third Rome,” according to which, having fallen the “Second Rome” (i.e., Constantinople), the ideal, political and religious legacy of the Eastern Empire must be picked up by the princes of Moscow.
On May 30, 1453, Constantinople had fallen into the hands of the Turks. With the fall of the Byzantine capital, the brother of the last emperor Constantine XI Paleologus, Thomas, had refused to go to Rome with his own daughter, Princess Zoe, after the sack of the city. Thomas and Zoe were pro-Catholic and supported the Ferrara-Florence union. The Roman Curia, particularly Pope Paul II, arranged Zoe”s marriage to Ivan III. The Metropolitan of Moscow, Isidore, had also attended the Council of Florence and accepted and signed the 1439 union: in the pope”s eyes, Russia was now Catholic. Very different, however, had been the reaction in Russia: Ivan”s father, Vassily II, had Isidore blinded, deposed, and imprisoned him; the pope hoped that this marriage to Zoe would bring the Moscow Grand Duchy closer to Rome again. A Vicenza coin coiner in Ivan”s service, Giovanni Battista Volpe, succeeded in convincing him. In 1472 a wedding between Ivan and Zoe was celebrated, but no union with Rome took place; rather, Zoe (now known as Sophia) revealed herself to be on bitterly anti-Catholic positions. Consequences of this marriage are:
Ivan has in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania a powerful opponent with regard to control of the principalities once part of Kievan Rus” in the upper Dnepr and Donec basin. Thanks to the defection of some princes, and after border skirmishes and an inconclusive war with Lithuania that would end in 1503, Ivan managed to push his influence westward. Against those principalities that had refused to give him their territory amicably, he conducts a very aggressive policy. First target of these aggressions will be the Novgorod Republic. Against Veliky Novgorod Ivan conducts as many as three wars until, in 1478, the city loses its independence. In the campaign against Novgorod, Ivan III really proves to be a very clever politician: he hides the obvious ambitions of conquest under the guise of religious motivation, and writes in his letters to the citizens of Novgorod, “Remain faithful to the Church of the Holy Fathers” (i.e., Orthodoxy founded on the first seven ecumenical councils). The Veče of Novgorod, piloted by the pro-Polish party, rejected Ivan”s exhortations; in 1471, during the second phase of the confrontation, the Veče even entered into an alliance with Casimir Jagellon, who pledged to declare war on Moscow if it dared to attack Novgorod. Ivan III sends one of his ambassadors to Novgorod, begging the Republic to withdraw this alliance, but he is evidently looking for a casus belli.
In that same year, 1471, Moscow”s army moves against Novgorod, devastates its countryside, and attacks battle against the armies of Novgorod and the Polish-Lithuanian Union, defeating them. Ivan, however, hides his expansionist aims, and although he emerged victorious, he merely annulled the treaty of alliance with Poland, demanded high war indemnity, and asserted his fiscal and legal rights, but did not annex any territory to Muscovy.
After 1471, the pro-Moscow party was strengthened in Novgorod, although its pro-Polish counterpart continued to foment unrest in Veče; indeed, contract killings were even organized by the pro-Polish party against pro-Moscow party leaders. In 1475 some influential figures from the pro-Moscow party go to Ivan III, asking him to intervene in their aid. In the summer of 1475, Ivan marches against Novgorod, but no battle takes place; Ivan takes the city but does not occupy it militarily: he merely deports in chains the leading representatives of the pro-Polish party, the instigators of the murders of the previous years.
In April-May 1477, an audience was held at the Moscow Kremlin: during an official ambassadorship to pacify relations between Moscow and Novgorod, two ambassadors from the Novgorod Republic addressed Ivan III, giving him the title of gosudàr instead of the usual one of góspodin (both words can be translated as “lord,” but the former implies something more, referring to a lordship from a political point of view as well). Ivan immediately understands that the intent of these ambassadors, even though they were elected by representatives of both parties, is to hand Novgorod over to him, and he considers ambassadors from Novgorod to have formally given him their city. It is very likely that the initiative of the two ambassadors was not improvised, but studied at the table by the pro-Moscow party, which wanted to anticipate any attempt by the pro-Polish to make new agreements with the szlachta. Back in the city, the two ambassadors were accused of high treason and sentenced to death. However, this turns out to be a big mistake by the pro-Polish: after the donation, these two are no longer ambassadors of Novgorod, but ambassadors of Moscow, of Ivan III. This will be the casus belli. In September of the same year Ivan marches against Novgorod with a strong army; from September to the following March several battles are fought, and finally on March 14, 1478, Ivan III”s army enters the city of Novgorod, which thus also effectively loses its independence.
Novgorod had been a kind of trait-d”union between Germanic Western Europe and Slavic Eastern Europe. With the fall of Novgorod, Russia lost almost all contact with Western Europe commercially, culturally, artistically, and religiously. To Ivan III this loss of trade relations with Western Europe does not affect him: he focuses mainly on agriculture and crafts within Muscovy. With Ivan III begins an isolation of Russia (also on the cultural level) that will last until Peter the Great (who reigned from 1689 to 1721) and Catherine (from 1762 to 1796).
In the years 1480 and 1481, the Grand Duchy of Moscow supported the Republic of Pskov in the battle against the Order of Livonia over the border lands between the Knights and the Russians in a geographical area that can be ascribed to the present-day demarcation line between Estonia and Russia: the conflict ended with a strengthening of Russian dominance and the initiation by Ivan III of a policy aimed at establishing military alliances and
After the conquest of Novgorod and the victory over the former sword-bearers, Ivan did not neglect other Russian territories already subjugated or waiting to be: in 1489 he conquered all the lands east of the Vyatka River, by 1472 he had reached the city of Perm”, close to the Urals (until then inhabited by a non-Slavic, but Finno-Ugric population, evangelized by St. Stephen of Perm”) and strengthened it. In 1510 and 1514, respectively, he retook, to the west, the cities of Pskov and Smolensk, which had fallen under Lithuanian-Polish control a century earlier.
Ivan III always refuses to give open battle to the Tatars: instead, he has a way (the only Russian prince to do this besides Dmitry Donskoy) to study the Tatars” way of fighting, for during his reign there are several who convert and donate their territories to the grand prince, informing the Russians of their customs and traditions. A number of Tatar-Mongols lived at court, so much so that this period also witnessed the flourishing of a properly Tatar culture in Muscovy. This process of assimilation was not easy: from a Russian nationalist perspective, the Tatars were looked upon with suspicion, being accused of being the oppressors and that it would only be a matter of time before the Muscovites were able to regain control of the regions still in their hands. As mentioned, Ivan III maintained stable relations only with the Tatars of the Saraj Khanate; he paid only the customary tribute in money for a few years, no later than 1475. In March 1476 a dozen Tatar ambassadors from the Saraj khanate arrive in Moscow to demand the customary tribute that Ivan had not paid since the previous year: for a whole year the khan of Saraj, who knows Ivan III”s power, had waited to send ambassadors. Ivan has all but one of them killed so that by the summer he can return to report to the khan that Ivan now considers himself independent and owes nothing more to the Tatars (despite anti-Polish alliance relations). Thus we come to the clash between Ivan III and Khan Achmat: the latter, after waiting a couple more years, partly because of internal rivalries, formally declares war on Ivan to reassert his power. The forces deployed are numerically quite similar, about 250,000 armed men on each side, but the two armies do not move against each other. They arrive in the area of the Oká River, on the banks of the Ugrà River, in late August, face each other on the two banks of the river, and stay that way from August until mid-November (in Russian sources they are referred to as stojàne na Ugrè: “stationing on the Ugrà”). From early September the rivers in Russia begin to ice over: by November the ice would be thick enough to support the weight of the two armies launched to the attack, but suddenly on both sides the order to retreat is given. It is mainly Ivan who thinks that the Tatars” retreat is a strategic move, and he avoids pursuing the enemy, fearing that he will fall victim to a pincer move. Thus ends, in 1480, the Tatar rule (referred to by the Muscovites as the “Tatar yoke”) over Russia. In that same year, 1480, Achmat would be killed in the usual infighting of the Tatar Horde, in 1502 Saraj would be completely destroyed by other Tatars, and the Golden Horde would be dissolved for good.
The fleeing Tatars dispersed in many directions, especially in Central Asia. Many of them, however, seek and find refuge precisely in Moscow, where they convert to Christianity. Still others would found another khanate, heir to the Golden Horde: the Khanate of Astrachan” (later finally subdued by the Russians after 1550). Along the border of Russia, the Astrachan” Tatars would always create problems, especially by carrying out raids reaching the areas of present-day Rostov-on-Don and Volgograd.
By the time of his death, Ivan III had accomplished the unification of all the lands of European Russia: he leaves behind a Muscovy three times larger than at the time of his accession to the throne. Ivan III died in 1505 and was succeeded to the throne by his son Vassily III (1505-1533), whose main aim was to consolidate his father”s empire.
Territorial expansion then continued through the work of Ivan IV, “the Terrible” (Ivan Vasilevič Gròžnyj 1533-1584), son of Vassily, who among other things completely wiped out the power of the boyars, who by then had established a “state within a state.” With Ivan IV also began the conquest of territories east of the Urals: in 1582-1583 Ivan, with the Cossack Ermak, conquered much of Siberian territory, where he then sent some of the boyars he had spared. It would be Ivan who liquidated the aforementioned Astrachan” and Kazan” Khanates.
Ivan IV and his successors assumed the title Tsar, or “Caesar.” The reference to Constantinople and Roman civilization serves to consolidate the prestige of Moscow, which begins to exercise in Russia the same unifying action carried out in the West by the great monarchies. The forces hindering this new process are also similar: in the West the kings must fight against the great feudal lords; in the East the tsars must subdue the nobles (boyars) and the small princes, i.e., the already independent local lords, who had been progressively subordinated to the power of Moscow, but who claim to limit the authority of the tsars.
Internal consolidation corresponds to outward expansion of the state. In the 15th century, the rulers of Muscovy regarded all of Russia”s territory as their collective property. Several semi-independent princes still boast control over specific territories, but Ivan III forces the lesser princes to recognize the Grand Prince of Moscow and his descendants as undisputed rulers with complete control over military, legal, and foreign affairs matters.
Gradually the Moscow ruler emerges as a powerful, autocratic ruler, a tsar. In assuming this title, the prince of Moscow emphasizes that he is a supreme ruler, or emperor, on par with the Byzantine emperor and the Mongolian grand khan.
Indeed, after the marriage of Ivan III to Sophia Paleologa, niece of the last Byzantine emperor, the Moscow court adopted Byzantine-style language, rituals, titles, and emblems, such as the double-headed eagle. It even began to refer to the city of Constantinople with the epithet Tzargrad and set as its goal its return to Christianity.
Initially the term “autocrat” has the literal meaning of “independent ruler,” but during the reign of Ivan IV it takes on the generic meaning of ruler. Ivan IV crowned himself with the title of tsar and thus was recognized, at least by the Orthodox world, as emperor.
In 1520, the Orthodox monk Filofej of Pskov preached that since Constantinople had now fallen into the possession of the Ottoman Empire, the Tsar of Muscovy was the only legitimate Orthodox ruler and Moscow was the Third Rome, thus succeeding Rome and Constantinople as the center of Christendom.
In Russia there is no bourgeois class comparable qualitatively and quantitatively to the Western bourgeoisie: for this reason, the tsars found the basis of their power not in the bourgeoisie, but in the so-called service people, whose members provide their services as army officers, participate in the Duma (a kind of consultative parliament) and perform multiple state functions. As a quid pro quo, the service people receive land in conditional possession (pomestje), which they cannot sell or pass on as inheritance, and they exercise over the dependent peasants an increasingly comprehensive and extensive authority, which is destined to develop into outright sovereignty. Essentially, this mechanism can be compared to emphyteusis.
Town merchants and artisans are obliged to register with their respective guilds, a fact that entails a commitment for them to perform certain tasks in the administrative and financial fields. The entire population is divided into classes, each of which has specific and particular obligations to the state.
In spite of everything, in the 16th century, as a unitary state entity, Muscovy was still more of a hypothesis than a reality, and indeed in the early 17th century, during the historical phase known as the turbid period, it was temporarily overwhelmed by the intrigues of boyars and petty princes, the rebellions of the peasant masses, and Polish attempts to penetrate Russian territory and seize the Muscovite crown itself.
On May 30, 1453, Constantinople fell into the hands of the Turks. In Moscow, the Orthodox Church, which depends precisely on the Patriarch of Constantinople, begins to feel more independent.
Russia never had a patriarch until 1589, while other ex-imperial Orthodox Churches quickly succeeded in appointing their metropolitan as patriarch (the Serbian and Bulgarian Orthodox Churches, for example). Muscovy, however, remained subservient to Constantinople for a long time. The moment the patriarch of Constantinople loses all possibility of exercising his jurisdiction, the metropolitan of Moscow begins to claim for himself the inheritance of the Orthodox tradition. Thus was born the aforementioned myth of Moscow third Rome. Only in 1589 did Metropolitan Iob receive the patriarchal tomos from Patriarch Jeremiah of Constantinople.
From 1453 to 1589 the Russian Church went through a very delicate period, having lost its point of reference: many heresies developed. Canon law provided that if a synod of bishops met, they could elect their patriarch. However, for more than a hundred years local synods could not agree internally. Struggles between Moscow metropolitan and Russian diocesan bishops are often bitter and irreconcilable.
Relations between the metropolitan of Moscow and the grand prince, on the other hand, tended to increasingly resemble those between ecumenical patriarch and basileus (for example, during the period when the role of metropolitan was assumed by Alexis). It would be only the authority and power of Ivan IV of Russia that would allow the radical detachment of the Russian Church from the ecumenical patriarchate.
Giorgio Vernadsky, MOSCOVIA, in Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome, Istituto dell”Enciclopedia Italiana, 1934.
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