Examination: The formation of the Russian centralized state of the XVI century. The chosen one is glad By the time of the chosen one
On January 16, 1547, Ivan the 4th was solemnly married to the kingdom and received the title of Tsar and Grand Duke of All Russia. The procession was solemn, and its officiality contributed to the strengthening of the autocracy, the authority of the central government and legitimacy in the eyes of the governments of the Western powers.
Participation of Ivan the 4th in state activities began with the creation, which operated from 1549 to 1560 and was the body conducting the reform efforts of the new king. Already in February 1549, Ivan the 4th at the first announced the preparation of reforms.
In 1550, Ivan the 4th, at a council of representatives of the regions of Russia, harshly denounced the abuses of the boyar power and promised to personally protect the people from the excesses of the boyars.
In December 1564, the tsar and his entire family unexpectedly left the capital. Stopping in Alexandrova Sloboda, he turned to the people demanding reprisals against traitors at his "royal" discretion and the establishment of an oprichnina. This was a condition for his return to the throne.
A delegation of clergy and boyars went to the tsar with a request to return and rule "as he pleases, according to his sovereign will." Ivan returned to Moscow in February 1565 and announced the conditions under which he took power back: traitors and disobedients to be executed, their property to be taken to the treasury. With the introduction of the oprichnina, the country was divided into two parts: the zemshchina, which was controlled by orders, and the oprichnina, in which a parallel system of governing bodies and an army of 6 thousand guardsmen was created.
The oprichnina included the most developed, as well as economically and strategically conveniently located regions of the country. Noble guardsmen settled on these lands, their maintenance was the responsibility of the zemstvo.
Oprichnina was created to combat the alleged betrayal among the feudal lords. Immediately after its establishment, bloody terror began throughout the country. The path of centralization through the oprichnina turned out to be tragic for the country.
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
FEDERAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
SEI VPO Ural State University of Economics
CENTER FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION
Teacher
Student Ryabukhin A.S. UKp-10 Paul
(full name, specialty, group number)
Yekaterinburg
The formation of the Russian centralized States XVI century.
1. Trends in the socio-economic and political development of Russia in the first half of the 16th century.
2.Domestic politics Ivan the Terrible:
a) reforms of the Chosen One: causes, content, results.
b) the oprichnina of Ivan IV, its consequences.
The trend of the socio-economic and political development of Russia in the first half of the 16th century.
The main state-forming people of our country is the Russian people. The Russian people - one of the largest peoples in the world - for many centuries played a leading role in the political, economic, cultural development countries.
At the end of the XV - the first half of the XVI century. more than two centuries of war of the Russian people for their state unity and national independence ended with the unification of Russian lands into single state, there was an intensive growth of the territory of the Russian state. By the end of the XVI century. Russian possessions reached 5.4 million square meters. km (of which the European part accounted for 3.9 million sq. km). Russia became the largest of the European centralized states in terms of territory, but this territory was poorly populated (the average population density ranged from 0.4 to 8 people per 1 sq. km) and unevenly. In the first half of the XVI century. there were up to 160 Russian cities, in the second half of the XVI century. more than 70 new cities appeared.
Russian state was multinational. The main nationality - the Great Russians - occupied a huge continuous territory in the center, non-Russian peoples settled mainly on the outskirts.
Political centralization in Russia significantly determined the beginning of the process of overcoming the economic disunity of the country and the struggle for national independence, for organizing a rebuff to external aggression, was accelerated.
The leading branch of the economy was agriculture, but a significant size in the XVI century. reached the craft. Advances in handicraft production, especially in metallurgy, woodworking and non-ferrous metals, contributed to the growth of labor productivity in agriculture. First half of the 16th century was a fairly stable time economic development states.
The basis of production relations in the Russian countryside was feudal ownership of land. The land with the population working on it was of great value. The economic basis of Ancient Russia was a large feudal land tenure of princes, boyars, husbands - combatants, after the adoption of Christianity - the Church. Land ownership was of a class nature, there were privately owned, church and monastery, palace and black-mow lands. Type feudal tenure patrimonial and local lands were distinguished. The conditional nature of landed property helped to form a broad class of landowners, a social support centralized state. Total number landowners in the first half of the 16th century. increased rapidly. The local system guaranteed the reproduction and material support of military personnel. Since military service was the main condition for owning the estate, the sons continued to serve the sovereign in order to preserve land ownership. From the owners of the estates, the army of the state was formed, busy expanding its territory and consolidating previous conquests. This nature of the economic development of the Russian lands predetermined a number of features of the unification process in
The main labor force in the farms of estates and landlords at the beginning of the XVI century. were serfs. But during the sixteenth century the peasants, who became dependent on the feudal lords, were increasingly involved in the processing of the lord's arable land. The development of feudalism led to an increase in the dependence of the peasants on the feudal lord, on whose land they sat, to the restriction of their rights. Already at the end of the XV century. The law code of Ivan III (1497) limited the right of peasants to move from one feudal lord to another two weeks a year, and throughout the 16th century. enslavement of the peasants intensified. Attaching the peasants to the land ensured the power and income of the class of landowners.
The process of state-political centralization in Russia was ahead of economic centralization. The economic unity of the country in the XVI century. not yet; its economic zoning, and the ways of creating an all-Russian market were just outlined. Under these conditions, state-political centralization developed along the path of "bureaucratization" of management. Power was concentrated by strengthening the clerical, boyar and military administration. This is what appeared characteristic feature the process of centralization in Russia.
The development of the state-political system in the XVI century. followed the path of a steady increase in the role of the state administration apparatus. Central and local government bodies, formed in the second half of the 15th century, continued to exist and develop.
The Boyar Duma was the highest legislative body and the highest governing body of the country. She did not have independent competence separate from the monarch. Along with issues of national importance (drafts of new laws, foreign policy problems), the Duma considered cases of land grants, official appointments, and violations of the law. Usually, the main issues were discussed together with the monarch (“the verdict of the tsar with the boyars” or “the tsar pointed out, and the boyars were sentenced”), sometimes in the absence of the sovereign.
Control individual industries the life of the state became more complicated, and this required the creation of appropriate bodies. Palace institutions (together with the treasury) were already struggling to cope with the administration of individual territories, military matters or court problems. Therefore, the urgent task of the centralization of power was the creation of an extensive system of bodies of sectoral state administration.
It was very vulnerable at the beginning of the 16th century. and the appointment system (locality) associated with the feudal hierarchy. The name comes from the custom to be considered "places" at the table and in the service. The place depended on the pedigree (“fatherland”) and the service career of the ancestors (“fatherly honor”). It was with these data in mind that a person was appointed to a specific position in the military and administrative service. The imperfection of localism as a system of service relations interfered with the work of the apparatus government controlled and required reorganization.
Another weak link in the system of government was local government. The system of feeding, according to which governors and volostels received "feed" (that is, in-kind and monetary fees from the population subject to them), did not ensure the accurate work of local authorities. Judicial-administrative functions were not performed by them to the required extent. The feeding system could not provide either the suppression of peasant unrest or defense against external enemies.
There is a struggle between the Russians and the princes for the center of the unification. Since (1240) Russia was under the control of the horde, the princes were not independent and the Mongols participated in the political struggle of the Russian princes. To collect tribute, the Mongols introduce labels into the system (the label is a great reign was given to one of the princes in the horde, he allowed the prince to collect tribute from all Russian princes). But he could not organize the collection of tribute in Tver, an anti-Horde uprising broke out (1327). Ivan Kolita gathers an army and suppresses the uprising. Speaking on the side of the Mongols. His policy is continued by his sons - Semont the Proud and Ivan the Red. The grandson of Ivan Kolita (Dmitry), tried to free himself from paying tribute, and in 1380 a battle took place on the Kulikovo field between the Russians and the Mongols. The Russians won and stopped paying tribute. Nevertheless, the Battle of Kulikovo played a big role and it showed a significant role that the Mongol army could be defeated. After the death (1389) of Dmitry Donskoy, there is a struggle between the descendants. As a result of the war that lasted (20 years), Vasily the Dark won and power begins to pass from father to son in the direct male line. During this period, the Moscow Principality continued to grow through the purchase and conquest of neighboring lands.
Ivan III continues to collect Russian lands and tax them in favor of Moscow. In 1480 - Moscow stops paying tribute, during this period the horde was weakened between separate wars. Khan gathers an army on the river Ugra, Russian army headed by Ivan III.
The army stood along the banks of the river - there was no battle, bloodless ''standing on the Ugra'' showed both the power of the young state and the diplomatic skill of Ivan the Third. Vasily the third completes Russian centralization by adding Novgorod to Moscow, thus, in the 16th century, the process of formation of a centralized state as a whole was completed.
But in the future, the state faced the task of “strengthening” the centralization of the state. The governments of Vasily III and Ivan IV faced this problem.
During the reign of Vasily III (1505-1533), the completion of the territorial unification of North-Eastern and North-Western Russia was accompanied by the first attempts to improve the state-political system. In the composition of the palace began to stand out, for example, huts-prototypes of the bodies of sectoral state administration. In the system of local government, some criminal cases were transferred to the jurisdiction of elected persons from local nobles. However, in the 1630s, the first steps were taken in the development of the state administration system.
The new state was significantly different from Kievan Rus, having inherited a lot from the Horde - a subservient attitude of power, cruelty in management. In 1533, Vasily III died, leaving Ivan IV as his heir. Now the sovereign was not just the eldest of the princes, but the king - this title was considered equal to the imperial one.
Domestic policy of Ivan the Terrible.
a) Reforms of the Chosen One: Causes, Contents, Results.
The tsar's title undermined possible attempts by the specific princes to co-government, with the same title the Moscow sovereign was equated with the sovereigns of the "great powers". Strengthening the authority of the central government contributed to its transformation into a center for the consolidation of political forces.
Around the young Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible in 1549, a government circle was formed, figures close to him - which went down in history under the name - "The Chosen Rada", an unofficial government. It included the court nobleman Alexei Fedorovich Adashev, the court priest of the Annunciation Cathedral Sylvester, Metropolitan Macarius, Prince A.M. Kurbsky influenced the policy of the government. Elected Rada in the middle of the XVI century. She carried out a series of serious reforms aimed at centralizing the state. In particular, it became a body that exercised direct executive power and formed a new apparatus of state administration. In 1550 a new Law was adopted. It was based on the Sudebnik of 1497, but expanded, better systematized, it had an accounting arbitrage practice. The norms of the peasant transition on St. George's Day were approved and clarified. The ''old age'', which the peasant paid to the feudal lord upon transition, was slightly increased, probably due to the depreciation of the currency that had taken place. The power of the feudal lords over the peasants increased - the master was made responsible for the crimes of the peasants; the feudal lord was called the "sovereign" of the peasants.
The creation of the first functional governing bodies - orders (originally they were called huts) dates back to the time of the Chosen One. In 1556, feeding was canceled. The population had to pay a nationwide tax - a payback for food, which replaced the former, food income. The cancellation of feedings is only the final act of a long process of transformation of local government. Even under Elena Glinskaya, the lip reform began, and during the years of boyar rule, the reform continued. Its essence is as follows. The nobles elected in each county, where the provincial administration was introduced, from their midst the provincial elders. They were entrusted with the fight against the most dangerous crimes for the feudal state - robbery,. Unlike the people who came to the county - governors and volostels, they were vitally interested in establishing a cruel order in their counties.
In the reforms of the Chosen One, the abolition of feeding is glad, the Zemstvo reform is central, structure-forming. They entailed the restructuring of the judicial and financial-tax systems, central and local authorities. These reforms brought together various groups of feudal lords, equalizing them on the principle of a single provision - the sovereign's salary. The zemstvo reform contributed to the unification of the provincial nobility into county corporations - servicemen, cities, which became an important institution for the estate structure of the bulk of the landowners. However, the reforms did not complete the process of centralization. The state apparatus was not sufficiently developed for the government to do without the participation of representatives of the estates in management - feudal lords, peasants, townspeople. In Russia, in contrast to Western Europe, where the highest bodies of power (States General, parliaments) were estates, the building of a class-representative monarchy was built from below, with a local government. In 1954 The first Zemsky Sobor was also convened, consisting of the Boyar Duma, representatives of the clergy and feudal lords. Ivan IV came up with a broad program of consolidation and internal reforms. In 1550 Yard notebook was compiled full list The sovereign's court, about 4,000 people. People who entered the Sovereign's court were called courtyard children of the boyars or nobles. In the Dvorovaya Notebook, nobles are listed according to the counties where they owned land.
Localism was ordered. It arose only at the turn of the XI-XVI centuries. And it consisted in the fact that when appointed to military and government posts crucial had the origin of a service man. It was not abstract nobility that was taken into account, but the services of ancestors and relatives. The descendants had to be with each other in the same official relations - commanding, equality, subordination - as the ancestors. Decree of 1550 introduced two local restrictions. First, only aristocratic families, “pedigree” people, had the right to localize. Their composition was accurately determined by the official genealogical guide compiled in the middle of the 16th century - the Sovereign's genealogy. In 1555-1556. adopted the Service Regulations. It was determined how much land an armed warrior on horseback should leave, if the estates or estates of the feudal lords were large, then he should also bring armed serfs with him.
Although not all of the reforms of the Chosen Rada were fully implemented, they nevertheless meant an unprecedented step forward in the direction of centralization and overcoming the remnants of feudal fragmentation. In the middle of the XVI century. Russia is pursuing an active foreign policy. Its success was largely due to the reforms of the Chosen Rada, in particular the strengthening armed forces. The main part of them was the cavalry militia of the feudal lords. In the middle of the XVI century. the same directions of foreign policy were preserved as in the previous period. The main one was at first the eastern one. First of all, they sought to achieve the accession of the Kazan Khanate. Russian feudal lords hoped to get new lands, merchants - a trade route along the Volga. Finally, the tsarist government counted on income from tribute from the people of the Volga region. However, the reasons for campaigns against the Kazan Khanate cannot be reduced only to these material interests. Many thousands of Russian slaves accumulated in Kazan. The need to repulse the raids hindered the struggle for access to the Baltic Sea.
In 1551 began preparing for a new campaign. In May-June, in just 4 weeks at the confluence of the Volga river. Sviyagi built a wooden fortress - Sviyazhsk. Siege
Kazan began in August 1552. Kazan was taken by storm. In 1556 Astrakhan was annexed, Western Bashkiria was still part of Russia.
The accession of the Volga region contributed not only to the development of the region by Russian peasants, but also to the development of crafts, trade and Agriculture on the territory of the former Kazan Khanate. The government sought to join the Baltic States, to obtain access to the Baltic Sea. Without it, it was difficult to establish ties with the more developed countries of Western Europe and overcome the country's backwardness. The feudal lords, who hoped for new lands and peasants, were interested in the fight against the Livonian Order, which dominated the Baltic states. Merchants counted on the expansion of trade relations through the ports of the Baltic coast. By the middle of the XVI century. most of the townspeople and feudal lords adopted Lutheranism, the possessions of the Catholic Church were confiscated.
The reason for the start of the war was the question of the '' Yuryev tribute '' which the order had to pay to Russia. In January 1558, the Livonian War began. The Livonian knights suffered one defeat after another. Nerva, Dorpat, the largest fortresses - Fellin and Marienburg were taken by Russian troops. Foreign policy Russia in these years was not limited to the military sphere. Good-neighborly relations connected Russia with many countries of the East and West. Trade developed with German Empire, with the states of Italy.
In 1560 the government of the Chosen One fell. Disagreements between Ivan IV and his entourage accumulated for a long time, but the reasons for the gap were much deeper: the power-hungry tsar could not endure powerful advisers next to him for a long time. Ivan IV accused Adashev and Sylvester of conspiring to establish a system of limited monarchy in the Russian state, where the tsar is honored only by the chairman, has only nominal power, while real power is in the hands of his advisers. This is the reason for what happened between the king and his former advisers, the main reason for the collapse of the government of political compromise and the start of a “war” between them. The disgrace of Sylvester and Adashev led to a sharp turn in government policy. The elected council carried out structural reforms, the pace of which did not suit the tsar. Structural transformations cannot be too hasty. In the conditions of Russia in the 16th century, where the prerequisites for centralization were not ripe, an accelerated movement towards it is possible only on the paths of violence and terror, since the apparatus of power has not yet been formed, especially in the localities. And the newly created central departments (orders) acted in the tradition of deep patriarchy. The path of terror, which Tsar Ivan tried to replace the long and difficult work of creating a state apparatus, was unacceptable for the leaders of the Chosen Rada.
b) Oprichnina of Ivan IV, its consequences.
The fall of the Chosen Rada served as a prologue to one of the darkest periods in Russian history - the oprichnina. Events of the first half of the 60s. became her backstory. For 7 years, from 1565 to 1572. in the Muscovite state flared up and burned, in the figurative expression of a contemporary of these events, Prince Andrei Kurbsky, a fire of ferocity that claimed tens of thousands human lives. So in the memory of the people of the XVI - th century. The oprichnina remained the same symbol of the human meat grinder, as in ours - 1937. And yet, it was not by chance that the oprichnina became a symbol of terror: the number of executions and sadistic reprisals was especially high in this seven years. At this time, serious successes were achieved in the Lebanese war. The capture of Polotsk was an important strategic and political event: the tsar showed that he could successfully wage war even after the elimination of Sylvester and Adashev.
The beginning of the policy of the oprichnina is connected with the events of 1565, when the tsar renounced the throne, referring to the "treason" of the boyars. The political calculation of this step was that Ivan IV agreed to return to the throne with three conditions: the right to execute traitors at his own discretion; the introduction of the oprichnina to ensure royal life and security; payment for the "rise" (for the initial device) by the rest of the country (zemstvo) 100 thousand rubles. - a huge amount by the standards of that time.
The tsar took many counties in the west, southwest and center of the country, rich northern regions, part of the territory of Moscow into his inheritance (oprichnina). The oprichnina corps - a thousand specially selected noblemen - received estates in the oprichnina districts, and all the zemstvos were evicted from them. The oprichnina had its own Duma, its own court, its own orders. The king concentrated in his hands control over diplomacy and the most important things, he retired from the current administration, all the hardships of the Livonian War lay on the zemstvo. The oprichnina corps had only two duties: the protection of the king and the extermination of traitors.
The fight against the alleged betrayal was carried out through mass repression: executions, resettlement, confiscation of land and property. Soon terror seized the whole country, not only individual boyar or noble families, but also entire cities became its victims. Mass executions took place in Novgorod (according to minimal estimates, the victims were about 3 thousand people). The reason for this was the tsar's suspicions about the treacherous ties of the Novgorodians with the Polish king. The oprichnina terror took on a terrifying scope, the leaders of the oprichnina army changed (A. Basmanov was executed, Malyuta Skuratov took his place), but the reprisals against the "traitors" did not stop. Eminent boyars with numerous people close to them, and senior government officials, and not at all eminent people, and peasants became victims of repression. Oprichnina lasted 7 years - until 1572. Its abolition was associated with the complete economic decline of the country - the ruin of entire regions, with the defeat of the Russian army in the Livonian War, with the campaign of the Crimean Khan against Russia.
The history of the oprichnina is still not entirely clear, there are several concepts trying to explain the meaning and reasons for the policy of state terror of Ivan IV (who received the nickname "The Terrible"). A number of historians see the oprichnina as a super-tough path to centralization. In their opinion, Ivan the Terrible's refusal to reform was dictated by a desire to accelerate the pace of centralization. Another concept connects the causes of the oprichnina with the desire of the king to have the fullness of state power. While the king was too young, he tolerated smart and powerful advisers (the Chosen Rada) next to him, and when he gained the necessary political experience, he removed them and began to rule alone. A number of historians see the oprichnina as a way to fight objective opponents of centralization (Novgorod separatism, the church, etc.). There is a point of view on oprichnina as a result mental disorders king, as a product of his painful suspicion and cruelty. The victim of the unbridled anger of the king was his son, heir to the throne, Ivan, whom he mortally wounded. Although the actual knowledge of the events of the oprichnina has greatly expanded today, a consistent explanation of this event Russian history hardly possible.
But the results of the oprichnina and their influence on the further course of events are quite obvious. First of all, the oprichnina led to a severe economic crisis. Villages were deserted, in the Novgorod lands up to 90% of arable land was not cultivated. For the state, whose economy was based on the agricultural sector, this was a terrible blow.
The consequence of the oprichnina was the fall of the combat power of the Russian army. The impoverishment and ruin of the landlords, from whom the armed forces were formed, caused a crisis in the army. The Livonian war was lost.
Mass repressions during the oprichnina had demographic consequences. Rough estimates by R.G. Skrynnikov determine the number of deaths at 10-15 thousand people. For Russia, with its traditionally low population density, these losses were enormous. Net settlements sharply reduced, the working population decreased.
Terror led to the final establishment of a despotic regime in Russia. Even the feudal elite did not have any protection from the arbitrariness of the monarch, the Russian nobles (whose rights were significantly limited before the oprichnina) became "serfs of the autocracy."
The difficult situation of the country after the abolition of the oprichnina did not improve. The tax pressure of the state on the sharply reduced contingent of the tax-paying class did not weaken. The response of the peasants was to run away (including to the outskirts of the country), leaving for lands that were not taxed. The lands in the center fall into desolation, the country's defense-capacity is weakened. In such a situation, the government in 1581 introduced the regime of "reserved years", when the right of peasant transition was abolished. This was a real step towards the formation of serfdom.
The death of Ivan IV in 1584 exposed the crisis of the ruling dynasty. Power was inherited by the second son of Ivan the Terrible - Fedor, whose inferiority was obvious. The third son of Ivan IV - Tsarevich Dmitry died as a child in Uglich. The sick and morally broken monarch stepped aside from government and entrusted it to his brother-in-law, Boris Godunov. Tsar Fyodor died childless in 1598, and with him the dynasty of the descendants of Ivan Kalita ended and power passed to Godunov. The successors of Ivan IV inherited great power from him, but they did not strengthen it with the help of terror, which was compromised. They relied on the stability of the apparatus of central and local government that took shape during the reforms of the Elected Rada. Like most dictatorial regimes, the Grozny regime, cemented only by terror and demagogy, did not survive its creator, although it left a deep negative mark both in the psychology of the ruling class and in the fate of the country and its people.
The first Russian tsar genus. August 25, 1530, died March 18, 1584. Grand Duke of Moscow, tsar from January 1547.
The Zemsky Sobor is a meeting of class representatives - the boyars, the capital's nobility, and the clergy. Until the end of the XVI century. The Zemsky Sobor was convened 3 more times - in 1566, 1584, 1598. G.
The custom originated at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. and lasted until 1682.
In 1533, Vasily III died, leaving the three-year-old Ivan IV as his heir. The young widow Elena Glinskaya became the de facto ruler of the state. Many obstacles stood in the way of consolidating her power. The brother of Vasily III, Dmitrov Prince Yuri Ivanovich, was dangerous. He was not even allowed to go home from the funeral and was immediately arrested. The regency of the Grand Duchess was challenged by her uncle Mikhail Glinsky, but he was imprisoned by his own niece. The closest adviser to the Grand Duchess, who now officially acted as co-ruler of her son, was the boyar Prince Ivan Fedorovich Ovchina-Telepnev Obolensky. In 1537, fearing "catching" (arrest), the uncle of the Grand Duke, Staritsky Prince Andrei Ivanovich, revolted. His rebellion was not a "specific fronde": Prince Andrei sought to seize the throne of the Grand Duke. However, the forces were unequal. Many even from among the Staritsa nobles did not support their prince. Sheepskin and Elena managed to lure Andrey to Moscow by deceit, where he was immediately arrested. The old lot was liquidated.
Elena Glinskaya died soon after (1538). It was suspected that she had been poisoned. A sharp struggle for power began around the 8-year-old sovereign. Elena's favorite Ovchina-Telepnev was arrested immediately after her death and "killed" in prison. The power was contested by the Shuisky and Belsky groups. There is not much difference in their programs. All groups during the years of boyar rule tried to continue the centralization measures begun under Basil III and Elena Glinskaya. During these years, the local system received particular development. But the unprincipled struggle for power disorganized government activities.
During the years of boyar rule, the character of the future Ivan the Terrible was formed. Before the eyes of the boy, bloody scenes played out: adherents of the boyar clans sent opponents to prison, beaten and even killed. It was a true school of cruelty. Not without reason, at the age of 13, in 1543, Ivan IV passed his first death sentence: he ordered the murder of the hated prince. Andrey Shuisky. Of course Grand Duke acted at the instigation of his mother's relatives - Glinsky, and the execution of Shuisky only led to a change in the boyar group in power.
During the years of boyar rule, the situation of the masses worsened. Supporters of the warring factions, receiving profitable feeding as a reward for helping in the struggle for power, were, in fact, uncontrolled, and therefore their abuse and bribery reached unprecedented proportions. A contemporary even compared feeders of those years with wild animals. The current situation led to an intensification of the class struggle. At the end of the 1940s and 1950s, the authorities intensified repressions against "robbers" (and the peasants' protests were often of a robbery character), which testifies to the tense situation in the countryside. Writer of the middle of the XVI century. Ermolai-Erasmus wrote about the "mournful unrest" in which the peasants constantly reside.
During these years, the speeches of the townspeople were of the greatest scope. In the summer of 1547 an uprising broke out in Moscow. The reason was a grandiose fire, which left homeless and ruined most of the inhabitants of the capital. The townspeople hated the boyars so fiercely that they decided that they had set fire to Moscow. The main culprits were considered those who were in power - the princes of Glinsky. There was even a rumor that Ivan IV's grandmother Anna Glinskaya turned into a bird, flew around the city and sprinkled blood from the hearts of the dead at home, which caused a fire. One of the Glinskys was killed, the others fled. Then the Muscovites went to the country residence of Ivan IV - the village of Vorobyevo to demand the extradition of the Glinskys. Barely, not sparing promises, Ivan IV persuaded the townspeople to disperse. But it was not only Moscow that was seething. Just before the Moscow uprising, a movement began in Pskov. A delegation of Pskovites came to Ivan IV with a complaint about the abuses of the governor. The 17-year-old sovereign brutally cracked down on the "posad peasants" who decided to seek justice from him. According to the chronicler, he "dishonored them, dousing them with combustible wine (i.e. alcohol), burned their beards and hair and lit a candle, and ordered them to be laid naked on the ground." Unrest also swept Kolomna, Veliky Ustyug, Opochka.
The speeches testified to the strong social discontent that had penetrated various sections of society. There was an urgent need to achieve calm, gain social balance, stability. These tasks were directly related to the restoration of the disordered state apparatus, the strengthening of power, and reforms. The latter, in their content, objectively should have been aimed at strengthening centralization. Another question is that various class groups, politicians offered their own options and models of centralization.
The new title of tsar, which Ivan IV took shortly before the Moscow uprising - in January 1547, should also have contributed to the strengthening of autocracy, and consequently, to centralization. Now the sovereign was not just the eldest of the princes, but the tsar: this title was considered equal to the imperial one, so Byzantine emperors and khans of the Golden Horde. All Byzantine teachings, translated into Russian, calling for "the king to honor", now began to refer to the person of the king and the Grand Duke of All Russia.
OK. In 1549, a government circle was formed, which went down in history under the name of the Chosen One. This government was headed by Alexei Fedorovich Adashev, a bright and talented statesman, a descendant of a wealthy, but not too ancient family of Kostroma estates. Participated in this government and the priest of the court of the Annunciation Cathedral Sylvester. The head of the church, Metropolitan Macarius, also influenced the policy of the government. Elected Rada in the middle of the XVI century. carried out a series of major reforms aimed at centralizing the state. In 1550 a new Code of Laws was adopted. It was based on the Sudebnik of 1497, but expanded, better systematized, it took into account judicial practice. The norms of the peasant transition on St. George's Day were confirmed and clarified. The "older", which the peasant paid to the feudal lord upon transition, was slightly increased, probably due to the fall in the exchange rate. The power of the feudal lord over the peasants increased: the master was made responsible for the crimes of the peasants; the feudal lord was called the "sovereign" of the peasant: thus the legal position of the peasant approached the status of a serf; it was a step towards serfdom. The punishments for "dashing people" accused of "robbery" became more severe. For the first time in Sudebnik, punishments were introduced for boyars and clerks who took bribes, and the rights of governors and volostels were limited.
The creation of the first functional governing bodies - orders (originally they were called "huts") belongs to the time of the Chosen One. Handled foreign policy Ambassadorial order headed by Ivan Mikhailovich Viskovatov. A.F. Adashev was entrusted with the Petition Order: complaints addressed to the tsar were received there and an investigation was carried out on them. It was thus the supreme organ of control. The local order was in charge of the land ownership of the feudal lords. The robbery order searched for and judged "dashing people." The collection of the noble militia and the appointment of governors were within the competence of the Discharge Order. In 1550, the pishchalnik detachments created under Vasily III were transformed into a streltsy army. There were several thousand archers, they received a monetary salary, firearms and uniforms. They were in charge of the Streltsy order.
In 1556 feedings were cancelled. The population now had to pay a nationwide tax - "feeding payback", which replaced the former "feeding income". At the expense of the "feeding payback", service people were paid "help" to enter the military service. Its dimensions were determined in the Service Regulations adopted at the same time. According to the Code, from every 100 quarters of land "in one field" (150 acres, or about 165 hectares), an armed horseman had to go to work. From the first 100 quarters, the landowner himself came out, from the next - his military servants. Monetary "help" was given to those who brought out more people than they were supposed to, or had a possession of less than 100 quarters. But the one who brought less people paid a fine. There was a close connection between the Code of Service and the abolition of feeding: without the "feed payback" the government would not have received money to "help".
The cancellation of feedings is only the final act of a long process of transformation of local government. Even under Elena Glinskaya, the lip reform began, and during the years of boyar rule, the reform continued. Its essence is as follows. The nobles elected in each county, where the provincial administration was introduced, from their midst the provincial elders. They were entrusted with the fight against the most dangerous crimes for the feudal state - "robbery". The Sudebnik of 1550 completely gave the "robbery cases" into the hands of the labial elders. When the feedings were canceled, the labial elders, together with city clerks (also chosen from local nobles), headed the county administration. Unlike the people who came to the county - governors and volostels, they were vitally interested in establishing a strict order in their counties. In those counties where there was no private landownership, as well as in cities, the population elected zemstvo elders, usually from the most prosperous strata of the black-haired and townspeople.
In the reforms of the Chosen One, the abolition of feedings, the Zemstvo reform are central, structure-forming. They entailed the restructuring of the judicial and financial-tax systems, central and local authorities. With the abolition of feeding, there was a need to centralize the collection of taxes. In connection with the redistribution of power prerogatives in favor of the center, the importance of orders increased, which, in turn, contributed to further development command system. The same reforms brought together various groups of feudal lords, equalizing them on the principle of a single provision of "state salaries". The zemstvo reform contributed to the unification of the provincial nobility into county corporations - service "cities", which became an important institution for the estate structure of the bulk of the landowners.
However, the reforms did not complete the process of centralization. The state apparatus was not sufficiently developed so that the government could do without the participation of representatives of the estates in management: feudal lords, peasants, townspeople. Russia thus developed in the direction of a class-representative monarchy, a form of government that provided for the participation of class representatives in the government of the country. In Western Europe, the estate-representative monarchy preceded absolutism, in Russia - political centralization. In Russia, in contrast to Western Europe, where the estates were the highest authorities (States General, parliaments), the building of the estate-representative monarchy was built from below, from local authorities. In 1549, the first Zemsky Sobor was also convened, which consisted of the Boyar Duma, representatives of the clergy and feudal lords. Zemsky Sobors in the 16th century met irregularly, the nature of representation in them was not clearly defined, they were not yet a permanent body of power, as in the 17th century.
The organization of the class of feudal lords occupied an important place in the government activities of the Chosen One. In 1550, it was decided to give estates within a radius of 60 to 70 versts from Moscow to a thousand boyars and noblemen - "best servants" who were obliged to be always ready to carry out responsible assignments. A list was compiled, which included representatives of the most noble families and the top of the Sovereign's court. However, the assumption (not shared by all researchers) is likely that the reform was not carried out: the necessary reserve of land was not found. In 1552, the Yard Notebook was compiled - a complete list of the Sovereign's court, about 4,000 people. It was from the composition of the Court that the governors, and the heads (the highest and senior command staff), and diplomats, and administrators, etc., came out. it’s just that the boyar children made up the lower layer of service people. In the Dvorovaya Notebook, the nobles are recorded according to those counties ("cities") where they owned land. Thus, the organization of feudal lords into county service corporations was consolidated. Boyar children of one county went to work together, decided the fate of escheated estates, determined salaries (local and monetary) for each other.
Localism was ordered. It arose only at the turn of the XV-XVI centuries. and consisted in the fact that when appointing to military and state positions, the origin of a service person was of decisive importance. It was not abstract nobility that was taken into account, but the services of ancestors and relatives. If once one service person was subordinate to another, then their children, nephews, and grandchildren should always be in the same ratio. Boyars and nobles created long chains of parochial "cases" (precedents) such as: "A" was "less" than my father, his nephew was equal to "B", his younger brother was less than "C", and he was less than your father. Therefore, it was dangerous to miss a "misplaced" appointment: a bad precedent was created for the whole clan, a "poor" to the clan. Although parochialism gave the aristocracy certain guarantees for the preservation of its dominant position, at the same time it promoted those clans that had long and faithfully served the Grand Dukes of Moscow. However, the solution of local affairs was very difficult: against one chain of "cases", if desired, another was put forward. Before each campaign, protracted disputes began. “With whomever they send anyone to any business, otherwise everyone settles,” Ivan IV complained in 1550. In the same year, cases were limited when the service was considered joint, and local accounts became somewhat more streamlined.
Only aristocratic families, "pedigree" people, had the right to localize. Their composition was precisely determined by the official genealogical guide, compiled in the middle of the 16th century, - "The Sovereign's genealogy". All appointments were recorded in bit books, which from the middle of the 16th century. were conducted under the Discharge Order. These records were systematized in the official "Tsar's rank": only it could now be relied upon in local disputes.
There was a centralization of the monetary system and the system of measures. Under Elena Glinskaya, the Moscow ruble became the main monetary unit for the whole country. But they continued to mint Novgorod money, equal to two Moscow ones. On the "Novgorodka" was depicted a horseman with a spear. This money was therefore called penny money. From here comes a penny - 1/100 of the ruble. For the most common measure of the capacity of bulk solids - a quarter (grain was measured with it), copper standards were created, which were sent to all counties. Thus, uniformity of measures was achieved.
Centralization also affected church administration. Back in the late 40s, many "locally venerated" saints were recognized as all-Russian. A single pantheon of saints was created in the state. These decisions were approved in 1551 by the so-called Stoglavy Cathedral (in the collection of its decisions there were 100 chapters, hence the name "Stoglav"). The cathedral, whose work was led by Metropolitan Macarius, unified church rites. With the participation of Ivan IV, he took measures to eradicate immorality in the clergy. For example, the Council forbade monks to drink vodka, and allowed only grape wine, beer and honey. The archpriests (senior priests) had to make sure that the priests "did not fight and bark and swear and drink into the church and into the holy altar and did not fight to the point of bloodshed." The cathedral also preserved one of the vestiges of specific antiquity: the clergy and "church people" were subject to the judgment of the bishops, and not the state.
Although not all of the reforms of the Chosen Rada were fully implemented, they nevertheless meant an unprecedented step forward in the direction of centralization and overcoming the remnants of feudal fragmentation.
In the middle of the XVI century. Russia conducts an active foreign policy. Its success was largely due to the reforms of the Chosen Rada, in particular the strengthening of the armed forces. The main part of them was the cavalry militia of the feudal lords. The son of a boyar at the age of 15 "kept pace" in the service and from a "undergrowth" became a "novice". He continued to serve until his death or serious illness. The votchinnik or landowner went to work on a horse, armed and with his serfs ("horse, crowded and armed"). For non-attendance at the service or review, the "netchik" was subjected to severe corporal punishment, his estates and estates could be confiscated.
In addition to the nobles and children of the boyars, service people "according to the fatherland" (i.e., by origin), there were service people "according to the instrument" who were "cleaned up" (i.e., recruited) for service: archers, artillerymen, city guards. The Cossacks were close to them. Auxiliary service (convoys, road and fortification work) was carried out by a militia of black and monastic peasants and townspeople - a staff: a certain number of militias were exhibited from each "plow" (a unit of taxation).
In the middle of the XVI century. the same directions of foreign policy were preserved as in the previous period. The main one was at first the eastern one. First of all, they sought to achieve the accession of the Kazan Khanate. Russian feudal lords hoped to get new lands, merchants - a trade route along the Volga. Finally, the tsarist government counted on income from tribute from the peoples of the Volga region. However, the reasons for campaigns against the Kazan Khanate cannot be reduced only to these material interests. Kazan khans and murzas raided Russian lands, many thousands (according to inaccurate, possibly overestimated data, 100 thousand) of Russian slaves accumulated in Kazan. The need to repulse the raids hindered the struggle for access to the Baltic Sea. Finally, the peoples of the Volga region subject to Kazan (Mari, Mordovians, Chuvash) sought to be freed from the Khan's oppression.
Among the Kazan feudal lords there was a constant struggle between supporters of the Russian and Crimean orientations. Several times the protege of Moscow, Shigalei (Shah Ali), occupied the khan's throne, but most time on the throne sat the opponents of Russia. Despite the help of the peoples of the Volga region who accepted citizenship, the first campaigns near Kazan (1547 - 1548, 1549 - 1550) ended in failure.
In 1551, preparations began for a new campaign. In May - June, in just 4 weeks at the confluence of the Volga river. Sviyagi (30 km west of Kazan) a wooden fortress was built - Sviyazhsk. The construction was led by the talented fortifier clerk Ivan Grigoryevich Vyrodkov. The main details of the future fortress were made in advance, they were brought to Sviyazhsk along the river and mounted there.
The siege of Kazan began in August 1552. Russian army totaled approx. 150 thousand people, among them - many archers, powerful siege artillery (about 150 guns). Mobile siege towers of the "walk-city" were brought up to the walls. An underground explosion in September destroyed one of the sections of the wall. On October 2, 1552, Kazan was taken by storm, the last Kazan Khan, Yadigar-Magmet, was captured, was soon baptized, and as "Tsar Simeon Kasaevich" became the ruler of Zvenigorod and an active participant in Russia's wars in the West.
In 1556, Astrakhan was annexed: Khan Derbysh (Dervish) Ali fled at the approach of Russian troops. Another khanate that separated from the Golden Horde at one time - the Nogai Horde (Northern Caspian and Urals), recognized vassal dependence on Russia.
Back in 1552, Western Bashkiria, which was part of the Kazan Khanate, became part of Russia. The rest of Bashkiria was divided between the Siberian Khanate and Nogai horde. By 1557, the annexation of Bashkiria was completed: almost the entire Bashkir people united in Russia, with the exception of a part subject to the Siberian Khanate. The Russian government retained their lands for the Bashkirs, setting a tax in kind - yasak - for them.
After the annexation of the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates, Ivan IV began to call himself the king of Kazan and Astrakhan: after all, khans in Russia were always called tsars. From now on, the royal title of Ivan IV has become more justified in the eyes of society. Military successes strengthened the autocracy.
The accession of the Volga region contributed not only to the development of the region by Russian peasants, but also to the development of crafts, trade and agriculture on the territory of the former Kazan Khanate.
At the same time, tsarism distributed the lands of the indigenous population to the feudal lords, the peasants fell into dependence. The tops of the local society, receiving privileges and awards from the government, intensified the exploitation of their compatriots. Over time, the pressure increased Orthodox Church with the aim of converting the inhabitants to Christianity, national and religious strife was fomented between peoples. The working people experienced a double oppression - their masters and Russian feudal lords.
The accession of Kazan and Astrakhan had a beneficial effect on the country's foreign policy position. Opportunities for aggression of the Crimean Khanate and standing behind him were limited. Ottoman Empire. The prestige of Russia in the Caucasus increased. In the 50s. Circassian, Kabardian and Dagestan princes turn to Russia for help, some of them accept Russian citizenship. The Crimean khans, worried about Russian successes in the Volga region, raid the southern regions of Russia. The government did not consider a direct confrontation with the Crimea, and therefore with the mighty Ottoman Empire, possible, and therefore limited itself to defensive measures. So, in the 50s. the construction of the Zasechnaya line was begun - a defensive line of forest fences, fortresses and natural barriers. The constructed section of the line ran south of the Oka, not far from Tula and Ryazan. Several trips to the Crimea were undertaken.
In the second half of the 50s. Western direction became the main one in Russian foreign policy. The government sought to join the Baltic States, to obtain access to the Baltic Sea. Without it, it was difficult to establish ties with the more developed countries of Western Europe and overcome the country's backwardness.
The feudal lords, who hoped for new lands and peasants, were primarily interested in the struggle against the Livonian Order, which dominated the Baltic states. Merchants counted on the expansion of trade relations through the ports of the Baltic coast. The Latvians and Estonians, who were under the heavy feudal oppression of the German barons and bishops, sympathized with the Russian plans (in addition to the Livonian Order, the Baltics were the possessions of the Archbishop of Riga, the Bishop of Ezel and other spiritual feudal lords). Estonian and Latvian peasants were serfs, serving a heavy corvée. In the cities, the largest of which were Riga, Revel (Tallinn) and Derpt (Tartu), social contradictions were also intertwined with national ones: the urban elite consisted of Germans, while Latvians and Estonians predominated among the lower classes. They occupied an unequal position, they were not allowed to elective city posts.
The Peasant War in Germany (1525) led to an intensification of the struggle of the Latvian and Estonian peasantry, many fled to Russia. Not passed Livonia and reformation. By the middle of the XVI century. most of the townspeople and the feudal elite adopted Lutheranism, the possessions of the Catholic Church were confiscated.
The reason for the start of the war was the question of the "Yuryev tribute", which the order had to pay to Russia. The order did not pay tribute for a long time, and was not going to repay the penalty. In addition, he entered into a military alliance with the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Sigismund II August. In January 1558, the Livonian War began. The Livonian knights suffered one defeat after another. Narva, Dorpat, the largest fortresses - Fellin and Marienburg were taken by Russian troops. Almost all of Livonia was occupied, the master of the Livonian Order Furstenberg was captured.
The policy of the Russian government in the Livonian lands was contradictory. On the one hand, everything was done to ensure that the local population supported the king: Narva was given the right to free trade with Russia and the German Empire. Peasants received loans in grain and livestock. But at the same time, the distribution of land to Russian landowners immediately began. Latvian and Estonian peasants, instead of being freed from feudal dependence, received only new owners. Extortions for the war, the stay of the troops had a heavy effect on the peasant economy. Discontent was brewing among the Baltic peasants.
The main result of the hostilities of 1558 - 1560. was the destruction of the Livonian Order. The new master Ketler recognized himself as a vassal of Sigismund II Augustus, gave him all of Livonia, leaving himself only the Duchy of Courland. Northern Estonia came under Swedish rule. The Danish prince Magnus became the owner of the island of Ezel (Saaremaa). Now the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (also united with Poland), and Sweden, and Denmark were interested in Livonia not falling under Russian rule. Instead of one Livonian Order, Russia had three strong opponents. This circumstance in to a large extent determined the course of the Livonian War in subsequent years.
Russia's foreign policy during these years was not limited to the military sphere. Good-neighborly relations connected Russia with many countries of the East and West. There were embassies of Iran, India, the Ottoman Empire in Moscow. Developed trade with the German Empire, with the states of Italy. From 1553, lively Russian-English relations began. The English navigator Richard Chancellor, who sailed at the mouth of the Northern Dvina, received from Ivan IV a charter for the right to free trade with Russia. Following trade relations (in England, the "Moscow Company" was even created for trade with Russia), lively diplomatic relations began.
In 1560, the government of the Chosen Rada fell. Disagreements between Ivan IV and his entourage accumulated for a long time. In 1553 the tsar fell dangerously ill. Many courtiers, including Sylvester and the father of A.F. Adashev Fedor Grigoryevich, did not want to swear allegiance to the infant, the son of Tsar Ivan Dmitry. It was feared that under the "diaper" tsar, boyar rule could be repeated. The cousin of Ivan IV, the Staritsky appanage prince Vladimir Andreevich, was offered as heirs. True, everything worked out: everyone eventually swore allegiance, and the king recovered. But the king's relationship with the advisers cooled.
Ivan IV, a man with an exorbitantly developed lust for power, eventually became burdened by people with independent views. The tsar considered any independence in judgments to be a dangerous disobedience. It was not for nothing that he subsequently accused Sylvester and Adashev of having taken away all power from him. The relations of Sylvester and Adashev with the relatives of the first and beloved wife of Tsar Ivan, Anastasia Zakharyina-Yuryeva, were tense. When the queen died, Ivan IV accused his former favorites of neglecting his "youth". There were foreign policy differences: Adashev was against a hopeless war in Livonia.
But the most difficult were internal political differences. The elected council carried out serious, deep reforms designed for a long period. Tsar Ivan sought immediate results. But with the underdevelopment of the apparatus of state power, a rapid movement towards centralization was possible only with the help of terror. The king went exactly this way, the Chosen One did not agree to it.
In 1560, the tsar exiled Sylvester to the distant Solovetsky Monastery, A.F. Adashev and his brother Danila were sent to the province in Livonia, they were soon arrested. A.F. Adashev died in prison, and Danilo was executed. In 1564 he fled to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Prince. Andrei Mikhailovich Kurbsky, who led the troops in Livonia. He was in close relations with Adashev and understood that disgrace and execution awaited him.
Around 1549 a government circle was formed, which went down in history under the name Elected Rada. This government was headed by Adashev. By the middle of the 16th century, the elected Rada carried out a series of serious reforms aimed at centralizing the state. In 1550 a new Law was adopted. It was based on the Sudebnik of 1497. The norms of the peasant transition on St. George's Day were confirmed and clarified. The power of the feudal lord over the peasants increased: the master was made responsible for the crimes of the peasants; it was a step towards serfdom. The creation of the first functional governing bodies belongs to the time of the Chosen One. orders. AT 1550 the pishchalnik detachments created under Vasily III were transformed into a streltsy army. There were several thousand archers, they received firearms and uniforms. They were in charge of the Streltsy order.
In 1556 feedings were cancelled. In the reforms of the Chosen One, the abolition of feeding is glad, the Zemstvo reform is central, structure-forming. They entailed the restructuring of the judicial and financial-tax systems, central and local authorities. With the abolition of feeding, there was a need to centralize the collection of taxes. The zemstvo reform contributed to the unification of the provincial nobility into county corporations, which became an important institution for the estate structure of the bulk of the landlords. However, the reforms did not complete the process of centralization. The organization of the class of feudal lords occupied an important place in the government activities of the Chosen One. In 1552, the Yard Notebook was compiled - a complete list of the Sovereign's court, about 4,000 people. It was from the composition of the Court that the governors, and the heads (higher and senior command staff), diplomats, and administrators came out.
Oprichnina. At the beginning of January 1565 the messenger brought to Moscow two messages from the tsar, announced on Red Square. In the first, the king reported that he "put wrath and disgrace" on higher clergy and all feudal lords. In a letter addressed to the townspeople of Moscow, Ivan IV assured them that "there is no anger against them and disgrace." It was a calculated demagogic gesture: the tsar deftly opposed the feudal lords and townspeople, posing as a defender ordinary people from the violence of the feudal lords. Moscow black people demanded that the boyars and the clergy persuade the tsar to return to the throne. A few days later, the tsar sent a delegation of clergy and boyars and agreed to return to the throne, but only to execute the "traitors" at his own discretion and establish an oprichnina. Now, again, the "oprich" of the entire Russian land stood out the sovereign's oprichnina, a kind of personal inheritance of the sovereign of all Russia. The rest of the state was called zemstvo. The decree provided that the feudal lords who were not accepted into the oprichnina were deprived of their estates and estates in the oprichnina districts and received compensation in the zemstvo districts. However, the significance of this measure cannot be exaggerated: many local feudal lords entered the oprichnina, and the rest were evicted only partially; the relatives of the disgraced, who would have had a hard time in the zemshchina, suffered mainly. The oprichnina leadership in its social composition almost did not differ from the old Sovereign's court. The role of the oprichnina was determined not by its composition, but by the fact that the guardsmen were the personal servants of the tsar and enjoyed complete impunity. This strengthened both the autocracy and its despotic traits. The authorities tried to compensate for their weakness, due to the underdevelopment of the state apparatus, with cruelty. Oprichnina did not change the structure of feudal land ownership. Nevertheless, the oprichnina seriously undermined the remnants of specific antiquity in the country, although it is unlikely that the tsar set himself this particular task: he only sought to strengthen his personal power.
In the autumn of 1569, a denunciation fell into the hands of the tsar that the people of Novgorod wanted to change: to exterminate the tsar, put Vladimir Andreevich on the throne, and themselves - to pass under the authority of the Polish king. Ivan the Terrible had long wanted to get rid of Novgorod, in which not only some sympathy for the old princes lived, but also remnants of the times of independence and memories of this time were preserved. In December 1569, an army of guardsmen led by Ivan the Terrible set out on a campaign against the Russian city. The path of the guardsmen to Novgorod was marked by brutal mass executions and violence against women. Near Tver, Malyuta Skuratov, the tsar's favorite executioner, who is being promoted to the ranks of the main leaders of the oprichnina, strangled Metropolitan Philip. In Novgorod itself, the pogrom lasted 6 weeks. Thousands of inhabitants died, many were thrown under the ice of the Volkhov, often before their death they were subjected to cruel torture. All churches were robbed. The city was devastated. Oprichniki robbed and killed indiscriminately and in Novgorod land.
The achievement, perhaps even against the will of Ivan IV himself, of some successes in centralization as a result of the oprichnina does not give grounds to consider the oprichnina policy progressive. The fight against the remnants of specific antiquity followed from the entire course of the country's development, it went on during the years of the rule of the Chosen Rada, and even more successfully. This struggle could be waged in different ways. The path of the oprichnina was not the best, it was ruinous for the country and painful for the masses.
After the Novgorod pogrom, the executions of the guardsmen themselves began. In the summer of 1570, several dozen people were subjected to sophisticated executions on Red Square in Moscow. Executed and myself the king and his associates. Oprichnina finally degenerated into a gang of robbers and murderers with high titles. In the Alexander Sloboda, the tsar created something like an oprichnina monastery, where he himself was hegumen.
In the summer of 1571, the raid of the Crimean Khan Devlet Giray was expected. But Devlet-Girey did not besiege the capital, but set fire to the settlement. The fire spread over the walls. The whole city burned down, and those who took refuge in the Kremlin and in the Kitay-gorod fortress adjoining it, suffocated from smoke and “fire heat”. Negotiations began, in which Russian diplomats received secret instructions to agree, as a last resort, to the abandonment of Astrakhan. Devlet Giray also demanded Kazan. In order to finally break the will of Ivan IV, he repeated the raid the following year. Ivan IV understood the seriousness of the situation. United army in the battle the village of Molodi(50 km south of Moscow) utterly defeated the army of Devlet-Girey, almost twice his size. The Crimean threat was eliminated for many years. The victory at Molodi showed how dangerous it is to divide the country and troops into two parts. Already in the autumn of the same 1572, the oprichnina was abolished. And the territories and service people were united. Some of the confiscated lands were returned to the former owners. Even Novgorod was solemnly returned the "miracle-working icon" taken out of there. But the terror did not stop, but only changed direction: the executions of guardsmen began. However, not only guardsmen: in 1573-1575. many prominent figures died, including the winner of Devlet-Girey M.I. Vorotynsky. But there was no previous scope: neither the pogrom, as in Novgorod, nor the mass executions, as in Moscow in 1570, were repeated.
Goals of the oprichnina:
Mobilization of landed property under the control of the state (liquidation of striped strips).
Strengthening autocratic power and creating an effective apparatus for managing and controlling society.
Oprichnina methods:
Resettlement policy (caused speeches of the nobility),
Oprichnina results:
Elimination of the economic power of the Rostov-Suzdal landed aristocracy.
Creation of the state territory in the center of the state.
Creation of the noble guard.
And yet, on the whole, the results of the reign of Ivan IV were disappointing. As a result of the oprichnina, there were no serious changes in the structure of social relations, but the oprichnina repressions and the growth of tax oppression in connection with the Livonian War sharply worsened the situation of the masses. The result was an economic crisis. The center and northwest were devastated. Villages and villages were abandoned, arable land was overgrown with forest: some peasants died of starvation and epidemics, others were killed by enemy troops or tsarist guardsmen. Enslavement became possible as a result of the oprichnina policy. Only despotic rule, with the underdevelopment of the state apparatus, could keep the peasants in obedience.
The main result of almost 50 years on the throne of Ivan the Terrible was the formation of a centralized Russian state-kingdom, equal to the great empires of the past. In the 16th century it acquired wide international prestige, had a powerful bureaucratic and military apparatus. And the oprichnina was a forced centralization without the necessary socio-economic prerequisites, when the authorities mask their weakness with a “subsystem” of total fear.
The tsar's title undermined possible attempts by the specific princes to co-government, with the same title the Moscow sovereign was equated with the sovereigns of the "great powers". Strengthening the authority of the central government contributed to its transformation into a center for the consolidation of political forces.
Around the young Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible in 1549, a government circle was formed, figures close to him - which went down in history under the name - "The Chosen Rada", an unofficial government. It included the court nobleman Alexei Fedorovich Adashev, the court priest of the Annunciation Cathedral Sylvester, Metropolitan Macarius, Prince A.M. Kurbsky influenced the policy of the government. Elected Rada in the middle of the XVI century. She carried out a series of serious reforms aimed at centralizing the state. In particular, it became a body that exercised direct executive power and formed a new apparatus of state administration. In 1550 a new Law was adopted. It was based on the Sudebnik of 1497, but expanded, better systematized, it included accounting judicial practice. The norms of the peasant transition on St. George's Day were approved and clarified. The “older” that the peasant paid to the feudal lord upon transition was slightly increased, probably due to the depreciation of the currency that had taken place. The power of the feudal lords over the peasants increased - the master was made responsible for the crimes of the peasants; the feudal lord was called the "sovereign" of the peasants.
The creation of the first functional governing bodies - orders (originally they were called "huts") belongs to the time of the Chosen One. In 1556 feedings were cancelled. The population had to pay a nationwide tax - "feeding payback" which replaced the former "feeding income". The cancellation of feedings is only the final act of a long process of transformation of local government. Even under Elena Glinskaya, the lip reform began, and during the years of boyar rule, the reform continued. Its essence is as follows. The nobles elected in each county, where the provincial administration was introduced, from their midst the provincial elders. They were entrusted with the fight against the most dangerous crimes for the feudal state - "robbery". Unlike the people who came to the county - governors and volosts, they were vitally interested in establishing a cruel order in their counties.
In the reforms of the Chosen One, the abolition of feeding is glad, the Zemstvo reform is central, structure-forming. They entailed the restructuring of the judicial and financial-tax systems, central and local authorities. These reforms brought together various groups of feudal lords, equalizing them according to the principle of a single provision - "sovereign salary". The zemstvo reform contributed to the unification of the provincial nobility into county corporations - service "cities" that became an important institution for the estate structure of the bulk of the landlords. However, the reforms did not complete the process of centralization. The state apparatus was not sufficiently developed so that the government could do without the participation of representatives of the estates in management - feudal lords, peasants, townspeople. In Russia, in contrast to Western Europe, where the highest bodies of power (States General, parliaments) were estates, the building of a class-representative monarchy was built from below, with a local government. In 1954 The first Zemsky Sobor was also convened, consisting of the Boyar Duma, representatives of the clergy and feudal lords. Ivan IV came up with a broad program of consolidation and internal reforms. In 1550 The Yard Notebook was compiled - a complete list of the Sovereign's court, about 4,000 people. The people who entered the Sovereign's court were called courtyard children of the boyars or nobles. In the Dvorovaya Notebook, nobles are listed according to the counties where they owned land.
Localism was ordered. It arose only at the turn of the XI-XVI centuries. And it consisted in the fact that when appointing to military and state positions, the origin of a service person was of decisive importance. It was not abstract nobility that was taken into account, but the services of ancestors and relatives. The descendants had to be with each other the same official relations - commanding, equality, subordination - as the ancestors. Decree of 1550 introduced two local restrictions. First, only aristocratic families, “pedigree” people, had the right to localize. Their composition was accurately determined by the official genealogical guide compiled in the middle of the 16th century - the Sovereign's genealogy. In 1555-1556. adopted the Service Regulations. It was determined how much land an armed warrior on horseback should leave, if the estates or estates of the feudal lords were large, then he should also bring armed serfs with him.
Although not all of the reforms of the Chosen Rada were fully implemented, they nevertheless meant an unprecedented step forward in the direction of centralization and overcoming the remnants of feudal fragmentation. In the middle of the XVI century. Russia is pursuing an active foreign policy. Her successes were largely due to the reforms of the Chosen Rada, in particular, the strengthening of the armed forces. The main part of them was the cavalry militia of the feudal lords. In the middle of the XVI century. the same directions of foreign policy were preserved as in the previous period. The main one was at first the eastern one. First of all, they sought to achieve the accession of the Kazan Khanate. Russian feudal lords hoped to get new lands, merchants - a trade route along the Volga. Finally, the tsarist government counted on income from tribute from the people of the Volga region. However, the reasons for campaigns against the Kazan Khanate cannot be reduced only to these material interests. Many thousands of Russian slaves accumulated in Kazan. The need to repulse the raids hindered the struggle for access to the Baltic Sea.
In 1551 began preparing for a new campaign. In May-June, in just 4 weeks at the confluence of the Volga river. Sviyagi built a wooden fortress - Sviyazhsk.
The siege of Kazan began in August 1552. Kazan was taken by storm. In 1556 Astrakhan was annexed, Western Bashkiria was still part of Russia. The accession of the Volga region contributed not only to the development of the region by Russian peasants, but also to the development of crafts, trade and agriculture on the territory of the former Kazan Khanate. The government sought to join the Baltic States, to obtain access to the Baltic Sea. Without it, it was difficult to establish ties with the more developed countries of Western Europe and overcome the country's backwardness. The feudal lords, who hoped for new lands and peasants, were interested in the fight against the Livonian Order, which dominated the Baltic states. Merchants counted on the expansion of trade relations through the ports of the Baltic coast. By the middle of the XVI century. most of the townspeople and feudal lords adopted Lutheranism, the possessions of the Catholic Church were confiscated.
The reason for the start of the war was the question of the "Yuryev tribute" that the order had to pay to Russia. In January 1558, the Livonian War began. The Livonian knights suffered one defeat after another. Nerva, Dorpat, the largest fortresses - Fellin and Marienburg were taken by Russian troops. Russia's foreign policy during these years was not limited to the military sphere. Good-neighborly relations connected Russia with many countries of the East and West. Developed trade with the German Empire, with the states of Italy.
In 1560 the government of the Chosen One fell. Disagreements between Ivan IV and his entourage accumulated for a long time, but the reasons for the gap were much deeper: the power-hungry tsar could not endure powerful advisers next to him for a long time. Ivan IV accused Adashev and Sylvester of conspiring to establish a system of limited monarchy in the Russian state, where the tsar is honored only by the chairman, has only nominal power, while real power is in the hands of his advisers. This is the reason for what happened between the king and his former advisers, the main reason for the collapse of the government of political compromise and the start of a "war" between them. The disgrace of Sylvester and Adashev led to a sharp turn in government policy. The elected council carried out structural reforms, the pace of which did not suit the tsar. Structural transformations cannot be too hasty. In the conditions of Russia in the 16th century, where the prerequisites for centralization were not ripe, an accelerated movement towards it is possible only on the paths of violence and terror, since the apparatus of power has not yet been formed, especially in the localities. And the newly created central departments (orders) acted in the tradition of deep patriarchy. The path of terror, which Tsar Ivan tried to replace the long and difficult work of creating a state apparatus, was unacceptable for the leaders of the Chosen Rada.