In the XIII-XIV centuries, the prerequisites for the formation of a Russian centralized state—economic and political—were formed. The starting point in the development of the feudal economy was the rapid development of agriculture, and abandoned lands were being reclaimed. There was an urgent need for more new, more advanced tools, which led to the separation of crafts from agriculture, and hence the growth of cities. There is a process of exchange in the form of trade between the artisan and the farmer, ᴛ.ᴇ. between city and countryside.
The division of labor between separate regions of the country required the political unification of Russian lands. Especially in there were interested nobles, merchants, artisans. Strengthening economic ties was one of the reasons for the formation of a unified Russian state. During this period, the exploitation of peasants intensifies, which leads to an intensification of the class struggle. The feudal lords strive to legally subjugate the peasants and secure them in their property. Only a centralized state can perform this function. The threat of attack from outside accelerated the process of centralization of the Russian state, because All layers of society were interested in the fight against the external enemy.
In the process of formation of a unified Russian state, three stages can be distinguished.
Back in the 12th century, there was a tendency towards the unification of lands under the rule of one prince in the Vladimir-Suzdal principality.
- The first stage (end of the 13th century) – the rise of Moscow, the beginning of unification. Moscow is becoming the main contender to be considered the center of Russian lands.
- The second stage (1389-1462) – the fight against the Mongol-Tatars. Strengthening Moscow.
- The third stage (1462-1505) is the completion of the formation of a unified Russian state. The Mongol-Tatar yoke was overthrown, the process of unification of Rus' was completed.
Unlike the countries of Western Europe, the formation of the Russian centralized state had its own characteristics:
- The unification took place against the backdrop of late feudalism, and not flourishing as in Europe;
- The unification of Russian lands was led by the Moscow princes, and in Europe by the urban bourgeoisie;
- First of all, Rus' united for political reasons, and then for economic ones, while for European countries the main reasons were economic.
He became the first Tsar of all Rus' and the highest judge Ivan IV Vasilievich the Terrible, son Vasily 3. The appanage princes were now under the control of proteges from Moscow.
A young centralized state in the 16th century. became known as Russia. The country has entered a new stage of its development.
Formation of the Russian centralized state
The period from the end of the 13th to the 15th centuries inclusive was very difficult in the life of Rus'. The Tatar-Mongol yoke threw Rus' back and caused it to lag behind the countries of Western Europe, leaving it for a long time as a feudal country. But the development of the country, slowed down by the invasion, continued: Rus' was getting back on its feet.
Agriculture developed most rapidly in the area between the Oka and Volga, where the influx of population increased, the arable land grew, forests were cut down, cattle breeding and crafts developed
Feudal land ownership developed. The major owners of the land were princes and boyars, and there was a struggle for land and the enslavement of peasants. Craft production grew in cities, especially in Moscow, Novgorod, Pskov and other cities of northeastern Rus', protected by dense forests and a dense network of rivers and lakes.
The rise of the economy, the development of cities, and trade led to increased communication between the Russian lands and their unification, which was dictated by the struggle against external enemies, primarily against the Mongol-Tatars. For a successful struggle, a unified state with a strong government was required.
At the end of the 15th century, the concept of “Russia” (and before that – “Rus”) appeared, uniting the Russian lands
The formation of the Russian centralized state was a long process that lasted until the middle of the 16th century. Its territory consisted of the lands of the Vladimir-Suzdal, Novgorod, Smolensk, Muromo-Ryazan principalities. And from the end of the 12th century. There was a stubborn struggle for supremacy in these lands. With XIII, the Moscow Principality also entered into this struggle. It was Moscow that became the center of gathering Russian lands. In addition to Moscow, Tver, Ryazan, and Novgorod were real contenders for this role. However, already during the reign of Ivan Kalita (1325-1340), the importance of the young Moscow principality increased immeasurably.
The main reasons for the rise of Moscow were: its relative distance from the Golden Horde; patronage of the Horde khans; the intersection of trade routes in North-Eastern Rus', etc. However, there were two main prerequisites: the transformation of Moscow into the center of the struggle for liberation from Horde rule and the transfer of the center of the Russian Orthodox Church to Moscow under Ivan Kalita.
Moscow took upon itself the organization of the fight against the yoke of the Mongol-Tatars. At the first stage of this struggle and the collection of Russian lands by Moscow, from the formation of the Moscow Principality to the beginning of the reign of Ivan Kalita and his sons, the foundations of the economic and political power of the principality were laid. At the second stage (during the reign of Dmitry Donskoy and his son Vasily I), a fairly successful military confrontation between Rus' and the Horde began. The largest battles of this period were the battles on the Vozha River (1378) and on the Kulikovo Field (1380). At the same time, the territory of the Moscow state is significantly expanding, and the international authority of the Moscow princes is growing.
Along with the military and political processes that took place in the Russian lands during the XIV-XV centuries. and lasting until the middle of the 16th century, significant socio-economic processes took place in them, which largely determined the nature, pace and features of the formation of the Russian centralized state. The essence of these processes is that, firstly, the catastrophic consequences of the Mongol-Tatar invasion and the 240th anniversary of the Golden Horde yoke delayed the economic development of Russian lands. This contributed to the preservation of feudal fragmentation; secondly, this historical period can be characterized in general as a period of formation and strengthening of feudal-serf relations that determined the system of feudal hierarchy, political system and management. The presence of enormous land and human resources in Rus' also contributed to the aggressive development of feudalism in depth and breadth; Thirdly; political centralization in Rus' was to significantly determine the beginning of the process of overcoming the economic disunity of the country and was accelerated by the struggle for social independence.
An important prerequisite for the unification of the Russian lands was the toast of social forces interested in the elimination of feudal fragmentation and the creation of a unified Russian state in conditions of economic growth, the growth of social development of labor, expressed in the separation of crafts from agriculture, and the development of trade.
One of these social forces was primarily the townspeople, since feudal fragmentation was a significant obstacle to the development of crafts and trade. The fact is that numerous political partitions between the principalities with their outposts and trade duties significantly complicated the exchange and free distribution of goods. Feudal strife sharply undermined the economy of cities.
The main forces of the feudal lords were also interested in creating a Russian state. For the Moscow boyars, for example, the growth of the political power of the Moscow principality and the expansion of its territory meant an increase in its own power. The middle and small feudal lords, who were entirely dependent on the Grand Duke, were even more interested and fought for a unified Russian state. The unifying tendencies were also supported by the Russian Church, which sought to consolidate its privileges throughout the country.
The trends towards overcoming the feudal fragmentation of Rus', which emerged in the 14th century, corresponded to the progressive course of historical development, since the political unification of Rus' was a necessary prerequisite for its further economic growth and achievement of state independence.
A major role in the condition of the Moscow principality, in the gathering of Russian lands around Moscow, was played by the Moscow prince Ivan Kalita - a tough and cunning, intelligent and persistent ruler in achieving his goals. For these purposes, he used the help of the Golden Horde, for which he collected huge tribute from the population. He accumulated great wealth, for which he received the nickname “Kalita” (purse, “money bag”), and used this wealth to acquire lands in foreign principalities and possessions, for which he was nicknamed “the collector of Russian lands.” Under Ivan Kalita, Moscow became the residence of the Metropolitan of “All Rus'”, which had important, since the church enjoyed great influence. Kalita's position contributed to the fact that the foundation of the political and economic power of Moscow was laid and the economic rise of Rus' began.
In the third stage (1425-1462) main goal The struggle was the desire to seize power in the growing weight in the Moscow state. The final stage in the struggle was the reign of Ivan III (1462-1505 and Vasily III (1505-1533), when the main Russian principalities were united under the rule of Moscow. A single set of laws was adopted, government bodies were created, economic orders were established, etc.
The Tver Principality was annexed to the Moscow Principality, in 1489 - the Vyatka Land, in 1510 - the Pskov Republic, in 1521 - the Ryazan Principality.
Under Ivan III, Moscow refused to pay tribute to the Horde, and the punitive campaign of Khan Akhmat was repulsed by the Russian army. Thus, in 1480, the yoke of the Golden Horde ended.
Russian state from the very beginning it developed as a multinational one.
With the unification of lands, the task of creating centralized system administration: the importance of the Boyar Duma increased (it became the permanent supreme body under the Grand Duke). At the end of the 15th century, the first order appeared as a central institution; in 1497, the Sudebnik was compiled - a collection of laws that played a large role in the centralization of public administration. He laid the foundation for the creation of a nationwide system of serfdom.
The formation of the Russian centralized state was a natural and progressive process and had a great historical meaning. It contributed to the liberation of Rus' from the Horde yoke. The formation of a political center strengthened the position of the state in the international arena. The formation of a single economic space began on Russian lands. The national economy and culture began to develop faster, local isolation disappeared; the security of the country was better ensured; The influence of the church expanded.
The awareness of the Russian people as a single whole now formed the basis of the spiritual life of residents of various regions of the state.
The Moscow princes began to be called “the states of all Rus'” and transfer power in the state by inheritance.
This is how the largest country in Europe was formed. From the end of the 15th century, its new name, Russia, began to be widely used. This meant that at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries a single Russian state emerged. But its education took place only in part of the ancient Russian lands, that part that consisted of principalities that became dependent on the Golden Horde. The process of unifying these lands around Moscow was at the same time a process of gradual, step-by-step liberation (the struggle for independence) from the Golden Horde oppression. And the formation of a unified Russian state was based not so much on economic and cultural ties, but on military power unifying force - the Great Moscow Principality.
In the XIII-XV centuries, the main events that determined the development of the culture of Russian lands were Batu’s invasion and the establishment of Mongol-Tatar rule. The largest cultural monuments - cathedrals and monasteries, frescoes and mosaics, handicrafts - were destroyed or lost. The artisans and craftsmen themselves were killed or driven into Horde slavery. Stone construction stopped.
The formation of the Russian nationality and a single state, the struggle for liberation from the Mongols, and the creation of a single language became important factors in the development of the culture of Russian lands in the 13th-15th centuries.
The main topic of the oral folk art began the fight against Horde domination. Legends about the Battle of Kalka, the devastation of Ryazan by Batu, Evpatiy Kolovrat, the exploits of Alexander Nevsky, and the Battle of Kulikovo have been preserved or have survived to this day in a revised form. All of them constituted a heroic epic. In the 14th century, epics and the power of their land were created. Appeared the new kind oral folk art - a historical song that described in detail events of which the author was a contemporary.
In works of literature, the theme of the fight against invaders was also central. At the end of the 14th century, all-Russian chronicles were resumed.
From the end of the 13th century, a revival of stone construction began. It developed more actively in the lands that were least affected by the invasion. Novgorod became one of the centers of culture in these years, whose architects built the Church of St. Nicholas and the Church of Fyodor Stratelates. These temples marked the emergence of a special architectural style, distinguished by a combination of simplicity and majesty. In Moscow, stone construction began during the time of Ivan Kalita, when the Assumption Cathedral was founded in the Kremlin, which became the cathedral (main) temple of Rus'. At the same time, the Annunciation Cathedral and the Archangel Cathedral (the tomb of Moscow rulers) were created.
The victim during Mongol invasion Russian culture began its revival at the end of the 13th century. Literature, architecture and art of this time were permeated with the idea of the struggle to overthrow Horde rule and form the foundations of all-Russian culture.
The formation of the Russian state was an objective and natural process further development state forms on the territory of the East European Plain. The formation of Russian statehood was greatly influenced by the Mongol-Tatar invasion, which led, in particular, to changes in the authorities: the strengthening of monarchical, autocratic principles in the person of the princes. Important reasons for the emergence and development of a new state form - a unified Russian state were economic and social change, as well as a foreign policy factor: the need for constant defense from enemies. The chronological proximity of the formation of a unified Russian state and centralized monarchies in Western Europe is often noted. Indeed, the formation of a single state in Rus', as in France and Spain, occurred in the second half of the 15th century. However, in socio-economic terms, Rus' was at an earlier stage of development. In Western Europe in the 15th century, seigneurial relations dominated, and the personal dependence of peasants was weakened. In Rus', state-feudal forms still prevailed; relations of personal dependence of peasants on feudal lords were just taking shape. Unlike Western Europe, where an active role in political life cities played, in Rus' they were in a subordinate position in relation to the feudal nobility. Thus, in Rus' there were no sufficient socio-economic prerequisites for the formation of a single state.
The leading role in its formation was played by the foreign policy factor - the need to confront the Horde and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This “advanced” (in relation to socio-economic development) nature of the process determined the features of the development that took shape towards the end of the 15th – 16th centuries. state: strong monarchical power, strict dependence of the ruling class on it, a high degree of exploitation of direct producers.
Decisive steps in creating a unified Russian state were taken by the son of Vasily the Dark, Ivan III. Ivan remained on the throne for 43 years. The blind father early made Ivan co-ruler and grand duke, and he quickly acquired worldly experience and the habit of business. Ivan, who began as one of the appanage princes, became in his life the sovereign of a single nationality.
By the mid-70s, the Yaroslavl and Rostov principalities were finally annexed to Moscow. After 7 years of diplomatic and military struggle in 1478
Formation of the Russian centralized state
Ivan III managed to subjugate the vast Novgorod Republic. At this time, the veche was liquidated, the symbol of Novgorod freedom - the veche bell - was taken to Moscow. The confiscation of Novgorod lands, unprecedented in its scale, began. They were handed over to the servants of Ivan III. Finally, in 1485, as a result of a military campaign, the Tver Principality was annexed to Moscow. From now on, the overwhelming part of the northeastern Russian lands was part of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Ivan III began to be called the Sovereign of All Rus'. In general, a single state was created and finally asserted its independence.
Already in 1476, Ivan III refused to travel to the Horde and send gifts. In 1480, the Nogai Horde emerged from the Great Horde. At the end of the first quarter of the 15th century, the Crimean Khanate was formed, in the second quarter - the khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberian. Horde Khan Akhmat moved to Rus'. He entered into an alliance with the Lithuanian prince Casimir and assembled an army of 100,000. Ivan III hesitated for a long time, making a choice between an open fight against the Mongols and accepting the humiliating terms of surrender proposed by Akhmat. But by the fall of 1480, he managed to come to an agreement with his rebellious brothers, and the newly annexed Novgorod became calmer. In early October, the rivals met on the banks of the Ugra River (a tributary of the Oka). Casimir did not appear on the battlefield, and Akhmat waited in vain for him. Meanwhile, early snow covered the grass, the cavalry became useless and the Tatars retreated. Khan Akhmat soon died in the Horde, and Golden Horde finally ceased to exist. The 240-year-old Horde yoke fell.
The name “Russia” is the Greek, Byzantine name of Rus'. It came into use in Muscovite Rus' in the second half of the 15th century, when, after the fall of Constantinople and the liquidation of the Horde yoke, the Grand Duchy of Moscow, being the only independent Orthodox state, was considered by its rulers as the ideological and political heir of the Byzantine Empire.
During the reign of Ivan III's son, Vasily III, the Russian state continued to grow rapidly. In 1510, the Pskov land became part of it, and in 1521, the Ryazan principality. As a result of wars with Lithuania at the end of the 15th - first quarter of the 16th centuries. Smolensk and partially Chernigov lands were annexed. Thus, in the first third of the 16th century, Russian lands that were not part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were annexed to Moscow.
Significant influence on the emergence of autocracy and the formation of the Russian political ideology Byzantium provided. In 1472, Ivan III married the niece of the last Byzantine emperor, Sophia Paleologus. The double-headed eagle, a symbol common in Byzantium, becomes the state emblem of Russia. Even the appearance of the sovereign changed: he had a scepter and an orb in his hands, and a “Monomakh’s hat” on his head. The fall of Byzantium under the blows of the Ottoman Turks made Russia the last stronghold of Orthodoxy and contributed to a certain ideologization of the supreme state power. From the 16th century The idea of Moscow as the “third Rome” is spreading, in which religious and political motives are especially closely intertwined. The Pskov monk Philotheus, in a letter to Vasily III, argued that the “first Rome” fell because of heresies, the “second” - because of the union with Catholicism, the “third,” truly Christian Rome, stands, “but there will not be a fourth.” Thus, the preservation of Orthodoxy was seen as the most important condition national independence, state power, and Russian sovereigns acted as guardians of the faith.
System of central and government agencies The departments were formed by: the advisory Boyar Duma, which combined the highest legislative, military-administrative and judicial functions, and two executive bodies - the Sovereign Palace and the Sovereign Treasury. There was no clear distribution of management functions. Basically, the Palace was in charge of the sovereign's lands. The treasury was primarily in charge of the state press, finances and foreign policy. The formation of the state apparatus and its centralization was facilitated by the Code of Laws of Ivan III; it was adopted in 1497 and was the first set of Russian laws.
The system of administrative-territorial division was gradually streamlined. Ivan III limited the rights of appanage princes, and Vasily III reduced the number of appanages. By the end of the first third of the 16th century, there were only two of them left. Instead of the former independent principalities, counties appeared, governed by the governors of the Grand Duke. Then the counties began to be divided into camps and volosts, which were headed by volostels. The governors and volosts received the territory for “feeding”, i.e. took for themselves court fees and part of the taxes collected in this territory. Feeding was a reward not for administrative activities, but for previous service in the army. Therefore, the governors had no incentive to engage in active administrative activities. Since they had no experience in administrative work, they often delegated their powers to tiuns - assistants from the slaves.
It should be emphasized that from the very beginning of its existence, the Russian state demonstrated an expansion of borders unprecedented in scale and speed. With the accession of Ivan III to the throne and until the death of his son Vasily III, i.e. from 1462 to 1533, the territory of the state grew six and a half times - from 430,000 square meters. kilometers up to 2,800,000 sq. kilometers.
Thus, despite the chronological proximity of the periods of formation of centralized monarchies in Russia and Western Europe, the Russian state differed from Western ones in its colossal territory, which was constantly growing, multinationality and some features of the organization of power. These features of the Russian state were determined not only by its geopolitical position, but also by the specifics of its creation. Let us remember that a single state was formed in our country thanks mainly to foreign policy factors, and not to new elements in socio-economic development. Therefore, Russian sovereigns, unlike Western European monarchs, relied not on cities, not on contradictions between feudal lords and the third estate, but on the military-bureaucratic apparatus and, to some extent, on the patriotic and religious feelings of the people.
In all of Russian history, there is no event or process comparable in significance to the formation of the Moscow State at the turn of the 15th – 16th centuries. These half centuries are a pivotal time in the fate of the Russian people. The conditions under which and how the formation of the Moscow state took place predetermined the social, political and cultural history of not only the Russian people, but in many ways all the peoples of Eastern Europe.
Features of formation
Russian centralized state
The formation of the Russian centralized state chronologically coincides with the formation of monarchies in a number of Western European countries. However, the content of this process had its own specifics.
On the European continent, as a result of acute political and religious struggle, national-territorial states of a secular type with a rational worldview and personal autonomy were formed. This was due to the formation of a civil society and the limitation of government rights by law. This trend was personified by England, France, and Sweden. In the first half of the 17th century, the Holy Roman Empire, a stronghold of the medieval type of development, collapsed, turning into a conglomerate of independent states.
During the same period, a special type of feudal society was formed in Russia, different from the general European one, with an autocracy at its head, strict dependence on the monarchical power of the ruling class, high degree exploitation of the peasantry.
As Klyuchevsky notes, the unification of Russian lands around Moscow led to a radical change in the political significance of this city and the great Moscow princes. They, the recent rulers of one of the Russian principalities, found themselves at the head of the largest state in Europe. The emergence of a single state created favorable conditions for the development of the national economy and for repelling external enemies. The inclusion of a number of non-Russian nationalities into a single state created conditions for the growth of ties between these nationalities and the higher-level economy and culture of Russia.
So, what influenced the creation of a centralized state in Russia? Let's consider some points:
¨ Geographical position
In comparison with Tver, the Moscow principality occupied a more advantageous central position in relation to other Russian lands. The river and land routes passing through its territory gave Moscow the significance of the most important hub of trade and other connections between Russian lands.
Moscow became in the 14th century. a large trade and craft center. Moscow artisans gained fame as skilled masters of foundry, blacksmithing and jewelry. It was in Moscow that Russian artillery was born and received its baptism of fire. Trade ties of Moscow merchants stretched far beyond the borders of Russian lands. Covered from the north-west of Lithuania by the Tver Principality, and from the east and south-east of the Golden Horde by other Russian lands, the Moscow Principality was to a lesser extent subjected to sudden ruinous raids of the Golden Horde. This allowed the Moscow princes to gather and accumulate strength, gradually create superiority in material and human resources, which allowed them to act as organizers and leaders of the unification process and liberation struggle. The geographical position of the Moscow principality also predetermined its role as the ethnic core of the emerging Great Russian nation. All this, combined with the purposeful and flexible policy of the Moscow princes in relations with the Golden Horde and other Russian lands, ultimately determined the victory of Moscow for the role of the leader and political center of the formation of a unified Russian state.
¨ Economic situation
From the beginning of the 14th century. the fragmentation of Russian lands stops, giving way to their unification. This was caused primarily by the strengthening of economic ties between Russian lands, which was a consequence of the general economic development of the country.
At this time, intensive development of agriculture began. But the rise was due not so much to the development of labor tools as to the expansion of cultivated areas through the development of new and previously abandoned lands. Increasing the surplus product in agriculture makes it possible to develop livestock farming, as well as sell bread externally. The increasing need for agricultural tools determines the necessary development of crafts. As a result, the process of separating crafts from agriculture is going deeper and deeper. It entails the need for exchange between peasant and artisan, that is, between city and countryside. This exchange takes place in the form of trade, which in this period intensifies accordingly and entails the creation of local markets. The natural division of labor between individual regions of the country, due to their natural characteristics, forms economic ties on the scale of all of Rus'. The establishment of these connections also contributed to the development of foreign trade. All this urgently required the political unification of the Russian lands, that is, the creation of a centralized state.
¨ Political situation
Another factor that determined the unification of the Russian lands was the intensification of the class struggle, the strengthening of class resistance of the peasantry. The rise of the economy and the opportunity to obtain an ever-increasing surplus product encourage the feudal lords to intensify the exploitation of the peasants. Moreover, the feudal lords strive not only economically, but also legally to secure the peasants in their estates and estates, to enslave them.
Such a policy caused natural resistance among the peasantry, which took on various forms. Peasants kill feudal lords, seize their property, and set fire to their estates. Such a fate often befalls not only secular, but also spiritual feudal lords—monasteries. Sometimes a form of class struggle was a battle directed against the masters. The flight of peasants, especially to the south, to lands free from landowners, is taking on certain proportions. In such conditions, the feudal lords are faced with the task of keeping the peasantry in check and completing enslavement. This task could only be solved by a powerful centralized state, capable of performing the main function of an exploitative state - suppressing the resistance of the exploited masses.
¨ Ideology
The Russian Church was the bearer of national Orthodox ideology, which played an important role in the formation of powerful Rus'. In order to build an independent state and bring foreigners into the fold of the Christian Church, Russian society needed to strengthen its moral strength. Sergius dedicated his life to this. He builds a Trinity temple, seeing in it a call for the unity of the Russian land, in the name of supreme reality. In a religious shell, heretical movements represented a unique form of protest. At a church council in 1490, heretics were cursed and excommunicated.
In the very first years of his reign, Ivan Kalita gave moral significance to Moscow by transferring the metropolitan see from Vladimir to Moscow. Back in 1299, Metropolitan Maxim of Kiev left Kyiv for Vladimir-on-Klyazma. The Metropolitan was supposed to visit the southern Russian dioceses from Vladimir from time to time.
The formation of a centralized state in Rus' briefly
On these trips he stopped at a crossroads in Moscow. Metropolitan Maxim was succeeded by Peter (1308). A close friendship began between Metropolitan Peter and Ivan Kalita. Together they laid the stone foundation for the Cathedral of the Assumption in Moscow. When visiting Moscow, Metropolitan Peter lived in his diocesan town in the ancient courtyard of Prince Yuri Dolgoruky, from where he later moved to the place where the Assumption Cathedral was soon founded. It was in this town that he died in 1326. Peter’s successor, Theognost, no longer wanted to live in Vladimir and settled in the new metropolitan courtyard in Moscow.
Personal factor
V. O. Klyuchevsky notes that all the Moscow princes before Ivan III are like two peas in a pod. Some individual characteristics are noticeable in their activities. However, following the succession of Moscow princes, one can discern in their appearance only typical family traits.
The founder of the dynasty of Moscow princes was the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky, Daniel. Under him, the rapid growth of the Moscow Principality began. In 1301, Daniil Alexandrovich captured Kolomna from the Ryazan princes, and in 1302, according to the will of the childless Pereslavl prince, who was at enmity with Tver, the Pereslavl principality passed to him. In 1303, Mozhaisk, which was part of the Smolensk Principality, was annexed, as a result of which the Moskva River, which was then an important trade route, found itself from source to mouth within the Moscow Principality. In three years, the Moscow principality almost doubled in size, became one of the largest and strongest principalities in North-Eastern Rus', and the Moscow prince Yuri Daniilovich considered himself strong enough to join the fight for the great reign of Vladimir.
Mikhail Yaroslavich of Tver, who received the label for the great reign in 1304, strove for absolute rule in “all Rus'”, subordination of Novgorod and other Russian lands by force. He was supported by the church and its head, Metropolitan Maxim, who in 1299 moved his residence from devastated Kyiv to Vladimir. Mikhail Yaroslavich's attempt to take Pereslavl from Yuri Danilovich led to a protracted and bloody struggle between Tver and Moscow, in which the issue was already being decided not so much about Pereslavl, but about political supremacy in Rus'. In 1318, through the machinations of Yuri Daniilovich, Mikhail Yaroslavich was killed in the Horde, and the label for the great reign was transferred to the Moscow prince. However, in 1325, Yuri Daniilovich was killed in the Horde by one of the sons of Mikhail Yaroslavich, who avenged his father’s death, and the label for the great reign was again in the hands of the Tver princes.
During the reign of Kalita, the Moscow principality was finally determined as the largest and strongest in North-Eastern Rus'. Since the time of Kalita, a close alliance has been formed between the Moscow grand princely government and the church, which played a large role in the formation of a centralized state. Kalita's ally, Metropolitan Peter, moved his residence from Vladimir to Moscow (1326), which became the ecclesiastical center of all Rus', which further strengthened the political positions of the Moscow princes.
In relations with the Horde, Kalita continued the line outlined by Alexander Nevsky of external observance of vassal obedience to the khans, regular payment of tribute, so as not to give them grounds for new invasions of Rus', which almost completely ceased during his reign. “And from then on there was great silence for 40 years and the abominations ceased to fight the Russian land and slaughter Christians, and the Christians rested and set in motion from great languor and many hardships about Tatar violence...” the chronicler wrote, assessing Kalita’s reign.
The Russian lands received the respite they needed to restore and boost their economy and accumulate strength for the upcoming struggle to overthrow the yoke.
In the second half of the 14th century. in northeastern Rus', the tendency towards the unification of lands intensified. The center of unification became the Moscow principality, which was separated from the Vladimir-Suzdal principality in the 12th century.
Causes.
The role of unifying factors was played by: the weakening and collapse of the Golden Horde, the development of economic ties and trade, the formation of new cities and the strengthening of the social stratum of the nobility. A system developed in the Moscow Principality local relations: the nobles received land from the Grand Duke for their service and for the duration of their service. This made them dependent on the prince and strengthened his power. Also the reason for the merger was struggle for national independence.
Features of the formation of the Russian centralized state:
When talking about “centralization,” two processes should be kept in mind: the unification of Russian lands around a new center - Moscow and the creation of a centralized state apparatus, a new power structure in the Moscow state.
The state arose in the northeastern and northwestern lands of the former Kievan Rus; From the 13th century Moscow princes and the church begin to carry out widespread colonization of the Trans-Volga territories, new monasteries, fortresses and cities are formed, and the local population is conquered.
The formation of the state took place in a very short time, which was due to the presence of an external threat in the form of the Golden Horde; the internal structure of the state was fragile; the state could at any moment disintegrate into separate principalities;
the creation of the state took place on a feudal basis; Feudal society began to form in Russia: serfdom, class, etc.; in Western Europe, the formation of states took place on a capitalist basis, and bourgeois society began to form there.
Features of the process of state centralization And boiled down to the following: Byzantine and Eastern influence determined strong despotic tendencies in the structure and politics of power; The main support of autocratic power was not the union of cities with the nobility, but landed nobility; centralization was accompanied by the enslavement of the peasantry and increased class differentiation.
The formation of the Russian centralized state took place in several stages:
Stage 1. The Rise of Moscow(late XIII - early XIV centuries). By the end of the 13th century. the old cities of Rostov, Suzdal, Vladimir are losing their former importance. The new cities of Moscow and Tver are rising.
The rise of Tver began after the death of Alexander Nevsky (1263). During last decades XIII century Tver acts as a political center and organizer of the struggle against Lithuania and the Tatars and tried to subjugate the most important political centers: Novgorod, Kostroma, Pereyaslavl, Nizhny Novgorod. But this desire encountered strong resistance from other principalities, and above all from Moscow.
The beginning of the rise of Moscow is associated with the name of the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky - Daniil (1276 - 1303). Daniel inherited the small village of Moscow. In three years, the territory of Daniil’s possession tripled: Kolomna and Pereyaslavl joined Moscow. Moscow became a principality.
His son Yuri (1303 - 1325). entered into a struggle with the Tver prince for the Vladimir throne. A long and stubborn struggle for the title of Grand Duke began. Yuri's brother Ivan Danilovich, nicknamed Kalita, in 1327 in Tver Ivan Kalita went to Tver with an army and suppressed the uprising. In gratitude, in 1327 the Tatars gave him a label for the Great Reign.
Stage 2. Moscow - the center of the fight against the Mongol-Tatars(second half of the 14th - first half of the 15th centuries). The strengthening of Moscow continued under the children of Ivan Kalita - Simeon Gordom (1340-1353) and Ivan II the Red (1353-1359). During the reign of Prince Dmitry Donskoy, the Battle of Kulikovo took place on September 8, 1380. The Tatar army of Khan Mamai was defeated.
Stage 3. Completion of the formation of the Russian centralized state (end of the 10th - beginning of the 16th centuries). The unification of Russian lands was completed under the great-grandson of Dmitry Donskoy, Ivan III (1462 - 1505) and Vasily III (1505 - 1533). Ivan III annexed the entire North-East of Rus' to Moscow: in 1463 - the Yaroslavl principality, in 1474 - the Rostov principality. After several campaigns in 1478, the independence of Novgorod was finally eliminated.
Under Ivan III, one of the most important events in Russian history took place - the Mongol-Tatar yoke was thrown off (in 1480 after standing on the Ugra River).
With the revival and further development of the economy, the political strengthening of Russian lands since the 14th century. tendencies towards their unification around Moscow began to appear (see Russian lands in the second half of the 13th-14th centuries). The core of the future vast and powerful state was the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which, thanks to a number of objective and subjective reasons (successful geographical location at the crossroads of water and land communications, distance from the Horde, far-sighted policy of the princes, influx of population from the south, etc.) came to the fore among other major political centers of North-Eastern Rus'. His rise was also facilitated by the transfer, even under Ivan Kalita, of the Metropolitan's residence to Moscow (see Moscow - the capital of Russia), the victory on the Kulikovo Field, won in 1380 under the leadership of the Moscow Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich (see The Horde Yoke and its Overthrow) .
And yet, by the 15th and even 16th centuries. The economic prerequisites for the creation of a unified state in Rus' have not yet been formed. International trade Novgorod and Pskov were oriented primarily to the west, and Moscow - to the south. Internal trade ties between the Russian principalities and lands were not sufficiently strong and regular. And in political terms, the veche system (see Veche) of the same Novgorod and Pskov clearly did not correspond to the Moscow despotic order. The Novgorod and Pskov boyars, along with the rich merchants, did not at all strive to find themselves under the rule of Moscow, as did the ruling elite of other centers, for example Tver or Vyatka.
Why did the unification of Russian lands still occur in the last third of the 15th - first quarter of the 16th century, i.e. much earlier than in Germany or Italy? Political circumstances played a decisive role in accelerating this process, and above all the factor of external danger from the other two major state entities Eastern Europe - the Golden Horde and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The first tried in every possible way to prevent the excessive strengthening of the Moscow principality and to keep Rus' in subjection, and the second, along with Moscow, laid claim to the role of a unifier of all Russian lands, and not just the territory of Western Rus'.
The unification around Moscow took place in difficult foreign policy conditions. Its final stage was preceded by a long feudal war within the Moscow principality itself. It was carried out in the second quarter of the 15th century. between the Moscow Grand Duke Vasily II the Dark (1425-1462), on the one hand, and his opponents, appanage princes Yuri Galitsky, Vasily Kosy and Dmitry Shemyaka, on the other. Blinded and expelled from Moscow more than once, Vasily II managed to win this fierce struggle for power and continue moving along the path to centralization. His name is also associated with the defeat of the Novgorod army in the battle of Staraya Russa in the winter of 1456. But after the Yazhelbitsky Peace Treaty signed with Moscow at that time, Novgorod retained the inviolability of its internal system, and part of the influential boyars adhered to the Lithuanian orientation, considering an alliance with Lithuania more acceptable than joining composition of Muscovy.
The last stage of the unification process occurred during the reign of the Moscow Grand Dukes Ivan III (1462-1505) and his son Vasily III (1505-1533). The first inherited an area of 430 square meters. km, which the second increased 6 times. The crushing defeat of the Novgorodians on the river. Sheloni in 1471 led to the liquidation of the Novgorod feudal republic in 1478. Several thousand of the most influential townspeople (boyars and wealthy merchants) were resettled from Novgorod to remote areas of Rus', and power in the city passed to the Grand Duke's governor and Moscow clerks. In approximately the same way, the annexation of Tver (1485) and Vyatka (1489) took place. In 1510, Pskov was finished, in 1514, as a result of the war with Lithuania, Smolensk went to Moscow, and in 1521, the Ryazan principality completely lost its independence. All segments of the population (local aristocracy, service people, merchants, artisans, peasants) became subjects of the Moscow Grand Duke.
The positive political, economic and cultural consequences of the creation of the Russian centralized state are undeniable. The united Rus' managed to throw off the Horde yoke in 1480 and strengthen its security. The international authority of Muscovy increased, its ruler Ivan III began to call himself “Sovereign of All Rus'.” Appeared with him new coat of arms- double-headed eagle (see State Coat of Arms), a system of central bodies and localism arose, a local system of land ownership was formed, the privileges of the church were gradually limited, the first code of laws of a united Rus' was adopted - the Code of Laws of 1497 (see Legislation of feudal Russia). Ivan III showed himself to be talented statesman, diplomat and commander, although, like other medieval rulers, he showed cruelty and treachery.
But unlike a number of countries in Western Europe (England, the Netherlands, Italy), where at that time the sprouts of bourgeois relations were already emerging, and the peasants were freed from feudal dependence, in Rus' the unification coincided with the beginning of the legislative registration of serfdom, the restriction of peasant movements on St. George’s Day. And within the framework of the already united Russian state in the 16th century. There were many remnants of the previous period, traces of the previous autonomy: appanage principalities, privileges of the aristocracy and monasteries, the absence of a unified monetary, judicial, tax systems, strong economic ties, a branched structure of central and local administrative bodies, disordered relations between the authorities and the emerging estates of the feudal society of Russia ( This is how our state began to be called more and more often from the 16th century). Political unification far ahead of the economic one. It was necessary to go through a long and thorny path of strengthening and expanding state centralization, gradually eradicating the remnants of the past, the consequences of which continued to affect the development of the country for a long time.
The first stage: the rise of Moscow and the beginning of the unification of the state.
At the turn of the XIII-XIV centuries. The political fragmentation of Rus' reached its apogee. In the northeast alone, 14 principalities appeared, which continued to be divided into fiefs. By the beginning of the 14th century. the importance of new political centers has increased: Tver, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, while many old cities fell into decay, never regaining their positions after the invasion. The Grand Duke of Vladimir, being the nominal head of the entire land, having received the label, practically remained the ruler only in his own principality and did not move to Vladimir. True, the grand reign provided a number of advantages: the prince who received it controlled the lands that were part of the grand ducal domain and could distribute them to his servants, he controlled the collection of tribute, as the “eldest” represented Rus' in the Horde. This, ultimately, raised the prince’s prestige and increased his power. That is why the princes of individual lands fought fiercely for the label.
The main contenders in the 14th century. there were Tver, Moscow and Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod princes. In their confrontation, it was decided which way the unification of Russian lands would take place.
In the initial period, the main rivalry developed between Moscow and Tver. At first, the predominant position belonged to the Tver Principality. After the death of Alexander Nevsky, the grand-ducal throne was taken by his younger brother, Prince Yaroslav of Tver (1263-1272). The advantageous geographical position in the Upper Volga and fertile lands attracted people here and contributed to the growth of the boyars. The Moscow principality, which went to the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky, Daniil, became an independent principality only in the 1270s. and, it seemed, did not have any prospects in competition with Tver. However, the founder of the dynasty of Moscow princes, Daniel, managed to make a number of land acquisitions (in 1301, take away Kolomna from Ryazan, and in 1302, annex the Pereyaslavl principality) and, thanks to prudence and frugality, somewhat strengthen the Moscow principality.
His son Yuri (1303-1325) had already waged a decisive struggle for the label with Grand Duke Mikhail Yaroslavich of Tver. In 1303, he managed to capture Mozhaisk, which allowed him to take control of the entire Moscow River basin. Having gained the trust of Khan Uzbek and having married his sister Konchak (after the baptism of Agafya), Yuri Danilovich in 1316 received a label taken from the Tver prince. But soon he was defeated in a battle with Michael’s army, and his wife was captured. She died in Tver, which gave Yuri grounds to accuse the Tver prince of all sins. Realizing what awaited him in the Horde, Mikhail Yaroslavovich nevertheless decided to appear before the Khan's court, hoping thereby to save his land from Tatar devastation.
Thus, in his behavior one can trace features characteristic of the Russian princes of the pre-Mongol era. The Moscow princes represented politicians of a new generation, professing the principle “the end justifies the means.”
As a result, Mikhail was executed. In 1324, his son Dmitry the Terrible Eyes, having met the culprit of his father’s death in the Horde, could not stand it and hacked to death Yuri Danilovich. He had to pay for this lynching own life, but Khan Uzbek decided to give the label for the great reign to Dmitry’s younger brother, Alexander Mikhailovich. Thus, by pitting the Russian princes against each other, fearing the strengthening of one of them and transferring the label to the weakest, the Horde maintained dominance.
The economic, political and military strengthening of the Moscow principality occurred under Ivan Kalita and his sons. In 1327, a spontaneous popular uprising broke out in Tver, caused by the actions of a Tatar detachment led by Baskak Chol Khan. The successor of Moscow Prince Yuri, Ivan Danilovich, nicknamed Kalita, took advantage of this (Kalita was the name given to a purse for money). At the head of the Moscow-Horde army, he suppressed the popular movement and devastated the Tver land. As a reward, he received a label for a great reign and did not miss it until his death.
After the Tver uprising, the Horde finally abandoned the Baska system and transferred the collection of tribute to the hands of the Grand Duke. The collection of tribute - the “Horde exit”, the establishment of control over a number of neighboring territories (Uglich, Kostroma, northern Galich, etc.), and in connection with this - the expansion of land holdings, which attracted the boyars, and ultimately strengthened the Moscow principality. In addition, Kalita himself acquired and stimulated the purchase by his boyars of villages in other principalities, which strengthened the influence of Moscow and brought Kalita under the rule boyar surnames from other principalities.
In 1325, taking advantage of the quarrel between Metropolitan Peter and the Tver prince, Ivan managed to move the metropolitan see to Moscow. The authority and influence of Moscow also increased in connection with its transformation into the religious center of North-Eastern Rus'.
Historians explain in different ways the reasons for the transformation of Moscow from a seedy principality of North-Eastern Rus' into the strongest economically and military-politically.
Some advantages lay in the geographical location: important trade routes passed through Moscow, it had relatively fertile lands that attracted the working population and boyars, and was protected from attacks by individual Mongol detachments by forests. But similar conditions existed in Tver, which stood on the Volga and was even further from the Horde.
Moscow was the spiritual center of the Russian lands, but it became one after the first victories in the struggle for the right to lead the unification process.
The main role was played by the policy of the Moscow princes and their personal qualities. Having relied on an alliance with the Horde and, in this regard, continuing the line of Alexander Nevsky, realizing the role of the church in the conditions of the Horde’s departure from the policy of religious tolerance, the Moscow princes of the first half of the 14th century. used all means to achieve their goals. As a result, humiliating themselves before the khan and brutally suppressing anti-Horde protests, hoarding, enriching themselves and collecting Russian land bit by bit, they managed to elevate their principality and create conditions for both unifying the lands and entering into an open fight with the Horde.
Second stage of unification
If at the first stage Moscow only became the most significant and powerful principality, then at the second stage (second half of the 14th - mid-15th centuries) it turned into the undisputed center of unification. The power of the Moscow prince increased, an active struggle against the Horde began, and dependence gradually weakened.
Kalita's grandson Dmitry Ivanovich (1359-1389) at the age of 9 found himself at the head of the Moscow principality. Taking advantage of his early childhood, the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod prince Dmitry Konstantinovich obtained a label from the Horde. But the Moscow boyars, rallying around Metropolitan Alexei, managed to return the great reign into the hands of their prince. Evidence of the strengthening of the position of the Moscow prince was the construction of the Kremlin from white limestone in 1367 - the first stone structure in Rus' after the invasion.
His opponent was Lithuania, on which Tver relied. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania (9/10 of its inhabitants were Orthodox people who inhabited the Southern, Southwestern and Western lands of the former Ancient Rus') under the leadership of Prince Olgerd turned into a powerful force claiming to unite all Russian lands. Olgerd inflicted a series of defeats on the Horde and liberated the Kiev, Chernigov and Volyn principalities from the yoke. Three campaigns against Moscow (1368, 1370 and 1372) did not bring him the desired success. As a result, Lithuania, due to internal religious and ethnic contradictions, the weakness of the princely power and the intervention of external Catholic forces, was unable to become the head of the unification process of the Russian lands.
In 1375, Dmitry Ivanovich, at the head of a coalition of princes of North-Eastern Rus', attacked Tver, took away the label, which, as a result of intrigues, ended up in the hands of the Tver prince, and forced him to recognize vassal dependence on Moscow (to become a “young brother” in the terminology of that time) . Thus began the process of transforming independent princes into appanages, which unusually strengthened the Moscow principality, secured its rear and allowed it to enter the fight against the Horde.
This was also facilitated by the offensive from the late 1350s. “Great trouble” in the Horde itself, expressed in frequent and violent changes of khans. In 1375, power was seized by Temnik Mamai, who had no legal rights to the “royal throne.” Dmitry Ivanovich, taking advantage of the weakening of the Horde, refused to pay tribute. A collision became inevitable. After the first defeat of the Russians on the river. Drunk in 1377, Dmitry Ivanovich in 1378 personally led the regiments and inflicted a crushing defeat on the troops of Murza Begich on the river. Vozhe.
The decisive battle took place on the Kulikovo field on September 8, 1380. Mamai entered into an alliance with the Lithuanian prince Jagiello and moved towards him. Dmitry, having rallied the forces of almost all the North-Eastern lands under his banners (except Tver and Nizhny Novgorod-Suzdal; information about the participation of Novgorodians in the militia is contradictory), supported by two brothers Yagaila (Andrei Polotsky and Dmitry Bryansky) crossed the Don to prevent the allies from uniting . In addition, with this action he cut off the possible routes of retreat of the Russian troops and demonstrated his readiness to fight to the last. The forces of the parties (approximately 50 thousand people each) were equal.
Thanks to the patriotism and courage of the Russian soldiers, united by a common faith and unified leadership, as well as the skillful actions of the ambush regiment under the command of Dmitry’s cousin Vladimir Andreevich Serpukhovsky and the governor Dmitry Bobrok-Volynets, who at the decisive moment managed to turn the tide of the battle, a brilliant victory was won.
The historical significance of the victory lay in the fact that Rus' was saved from ruin, which threatened to become no less terrible than Batyev’s. Moscow finally secured the role of a unifier, and its princes - the defenders of the Russian land. This first strategically important victory, which gave Dmitry the nickname “Donskoy,” made the Russian people believe in their strength and strengthened them in the correctness of their faith.
However, the Battle of Kulikovo has not yet brought liberation. In 1382, Khan Tokhtamysh, who led the Horde after the murder of Mamai, burned Moscow. Dmitry, having lost a lot of strength in the Battle of Kulikovo, left before the Horde arrived from the city in order to have time to recruit a new militia. As a result, Rus' resumed paying tribute, but political dependence on the Horde became much weaker. In his will, Dmitry Donskoy transferred to his son Vasily I (1389-1425) the right to a great reign, without referring to the will of the khan.
Grand Duke of Vladimir and Moscow, eldest son of Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy. He ascended the throne in 1389. Both by his character and by the conditions created partly under his father, Vasily could have little influence on the policy of the great reign. After the Tokhtamyshev pogrom in 1382, sent by his father to the Horde to represent in the dispute over the grand-ducal table with the Tver prince Mikhail Alexandrovich, Vasily was held there as a hostage for the eight-thousand-dollar debt of the Moscow Grand Duke. After spending two years in the Horde, he fled from there to Moldavia and through Lithuania, where he saw Vytautas and where his marriage to Sophia Vitovtovna was decided (concluded in 1391), accompanied by a Polish-Lithuanian retinue, he returned to Moscow only in January 1387 G.
In the East, thanks to the experience of the 80s. and skillful politics in the Horde of the Moscow boyars, Vasily was given the opportunity to succeed in collecting appanage Russian lands. The acceptance of the great reign with the approval of the Horde provided Vasily with a strong political position. In the same 1389, an agreement was concluded recognizing Vasily’s grand-ducal power. One clause of the agreement provided for the possibility of expanding (Murom, Tarusa and “other places”) Vasily’s possessions.
Having secured peace on the western border (a treaty with Veliky Novgorod in 1390, marriage with Sophia in 1391), Vasily in 1392 went to the Horde, where Moscow money and, perhaps, the danger from the approaching Tamerlane brought him a label for the Great Nizhny Novgorod principality, Gorodets, Meshchera, Murom and Tarusa. The Nizhny Novgorod prince Boris Konstantinovich failed to defend either his rights, confirmed by the Horde in 1389, or the city: Nizhny Novgorod was taken by the Moscow boyars as a result of the betrayal of the local boyars led by Vasily Rumyants; Moscow governors settled there.
After the death of Boris Konstantinovich in captivity (1393), Vasily had to fight for his acquisition with Boris’s nephew, Semyon Dmitrievich; in 1401 it was possible to bring him to renounce his claims to inheritance. With the death of Semyon in 1402, the Nizhny Novgorod issue was resolved in a sense favorable for Moscow for a long time.
The invasion of Tamerlane, which touched the south-eastern edge of Rus', but did not penetrate to Moscow, in 1395 upset the Horde of Tokhtamysh in the lower Volga and threw Tatar masses from there along the Volga up to the Kama, threatening the Russian border. The Moscow prince was faced with the task of defending the border, and subsequently a colonization offensive to the east. In his hands was the beginning of the trade route down the Volga and a new source of influence on Veliky Novgorod: with the strengthening of Moscow power on the Volga, Veliky Novgorod had to fear more for its Dvina and other lands, weakly connected with the metropolis and economically looking more to the south than to the west .
Immediately after the annexation of the Nizhny Novgorod principality, Vasily made demands on Veliky Novgorod, including the metropolitan court (abolished in the evening in 1385 and not restored, contrary to the insistence of Metropolitan Cyprian, in 1391). Novgorod responded with an attack on Ustyug and Beloozero, but then asked for peace, which was concluded “as of old” (1393), with the fulfillment of all Vasily’s conditions.
An attempt to tear away its “lands” from Veliky Novgorod soon became possible - at the cost of national humiliation. The year 1395 was critical for Moscow in this sense: only an accident saved it from ruin by Tamerlane; Vitovt launched an offensive to the east, taking Smolensk and sending an army to Ryazan, where one of the Smolensk princes took refuge. Vasily not only did not come to the defense of the Russian regions, but together with Metropolitan Cyprian he ended up in Smolensk in 1396 visiting Vytautas, where negotiations (on church affairs in Lithuania) were successfully conducted by the metropolitan. After Vitovt’s defeat of the Ryazan land, he was honorably received by Vasily Dmitrievich on Moscow territory, in Kolomna. Here joint actions were decided against Veliky Novgorod, which concluded an agreement with the Germans that was undesirable to Vytautas and indifferent to Moscow. Vasily's embassy demanded in 1397 in Novgorod the abolition of this treaty, but to no avail. But at the same time an invitation was sent to the Dvina to leave Novgorod and kiss the cross of Moscow. The Dvinians accepted the offer. Volok-Lamsky, Torzhok, Bezhetsky Verkh and Vologda were taken away from Novgorod, but in 1398 the Novgorodians returned what had been taken away, and Vasily had to make peace again “in the old way.”
Attempts to get out of the influence of Vytautas’s policies lasted several years. In 1408, Vasily took in Jogaila's unfortunate rival, Svidrigail. With the princes of Zvenigorod, Putivl, Peremyshl and Minsk and the boyars of Chernigov, Bryansk, Starodub and Roslavl, they gave Svidrigail the cities of Vladimir, Pereyaslavl and others. Vitovt responded to this with a campaign to the Ugra River, where the Moscow regiments with Vasily Dmitrievich also marched; The stand ended this time with eternal peace.
Meanwhile, a Tatar thunderstorm approached from the east. The leader of the Horde army Edigei in November 1408, within a month, devastated Moscow cities right up to Nizhny Novgorod. Moscow was freed from the siege for 3,000 rubles, Edigei was recalled by the khan, explaining to Vasily in a letter the reasons for the attack on the “ulus” (as the Tatars called Rus') by the obstinacy of Rus'. Under the influence of a circle of young boyars, headed by the treasurer Ivan Fedorovich Koshka, the Moscow government stopped sending an embassy to the Horde and stopping the payment of tribute.
Edigei's campaign once again aroused the claims of the Nizhny Novgorod princely family to the inheritance taken from them; Her efforts in the Horde convinced Vasily of the need for personal opposition to them. Vasily Dmitrievich won the Nizhny Novgorod case against the new Khan Kerimberdey. In 1419, Vasily appointed his son Vasily as his successor; dying, Vasily entrusted Vitovt with protecting the grand-ducal rights of his ten-year-old son.
Under Vasily Dmitrievich, Moscow's positions continued to strengthen. In 1392, he managed to annex the Nizhny Novgorod principality, generally improve, thanks to his marriage to Vitovt’s daughter, relations with Lithuania, and defend Moscow in 1408 from the raid of the Horde troops of Edigei. Some local princes moved into the category of service princes - servants of the Moscow prince, i.e. became governors and governors in counties that had previously been independent principalities.
In the second quarter of the fifteenth century. the unification process became more intense and controversial nature. Here the struggle for leadership no longer took place between individual principalities, but within the Moscow princely house. At the same time, behind the clash between Vasily II (1425-1462) and his uncle Yuri Dmitrievich Galitsky (the second son of Dmitry Donskoy), there was hidden a confrontation between the traditional principle of inheritance (from brother to brother), inherent in the transitional society of the era of Ancient Rus', with the new family one (from the father to his son), coming from Byzantium and strengthening the grand-ducal power.
During his childhood, Vasily II was under the patronage of his grandfather Vytautas, which forced Yuri in 1428 to recognize his 13-year-old nephew as “eldest brother” and grand duke. But after the death of the Lithuanian prince, the talented commander Yuri expelled Vasily II from Moscow in 1433. Having not received the support of the Moscow boyars, who began to “move” to Vasily II in Kolomna, allocated to him as an inheritance, Yuri was forced to leave the city. The behavior of the Moscow boyars, guided by clear ideas about the differences in the status of the great and appanage princes and understanding that with the arrival of Yuri, the service-local hierarchy that had developed within the boyars would change, predetermined the outcome of the war. True, due to the military and political inexperience of Vasily II and his fatal failure, it will continue for many years and will entail numerous casualties. Already in 1434, near Galich, the troops of the Grand Duke would be defeated again, and Prince Yuri would take the Moscow throne for the second time.
He soon died, and the fight for the great reign was continued by his eldest son, Vasily Kosoy (1434-1436). Yuri's younger sons, Dmitry Shemyaka and Dmitry Krasny, knowing the imperious nature of their brother, recognized Vasily II as the “eldest brother,” and therefore the legal heir to the throne. In the fratricidal war, means were used that corresponded to the spirit of this cruel age. Thus, Vasily II, having achieved victory and captured Vasily Kosoy, ordered him to be blinded.
Until 1445 a peaceful respite continued, which, however, did not extend to the foreign policy sphere, because The disintegrating Horde increased pressure on Rus'. In the summer of 1445, Vasily II was defeated by the founder of the Kazan Khanate, Ulu-Muhammad, and was captured. He is released for a huge ransom, the full burden of which falls on the civilian population. Taking advantage of the discontent of Muscovites, Dmitry Shemyaka carried out a coup in February 1446. Having seized the Moscow throne, he blinded Vasily II (hence his nickname “Dark” came from) and exiled him to Uglich, but the situation of 1433 repeated itself - the Moscow boyars began to “move away” from the capital, which allowed Vasily II, who received the support of the church and Prince of Tver in 1447 once again regained the throne. The war continued until Dmitry, who hid in Novgorod, was poisoned there by the people of Vasily II in 1453.
What are the results of the war? On the one hand, bringing with it innumerable disasters and destruction, it strengthened the power of the Horde, which again gained the opportunity to interfere in the affairs of weakened Rus'. On the other hand, the war aroused among all segments of the population a thirst for order, which only strong princely power could provide. And the fact that Vasily II, who was unsuccessful in military affairs, won the victory only confirms this situation.
Vasily II conducted a census of the tax-paying population, reduced land grants to the boyars and increased the number of conditional holders - landowners, faithful servants of the Grand Duke of Moscow.
The church also came under the influence of princely power. After Metropolitan Isidore signed the Union of Florence and recognized the supreme power of the Pope, Basil II ordered his arrest. In 1448, at a council of hierarchs of the Russian Church, at his insistence, Ryazan Bishop Jonah was installed as metropolitan, which meant the establishment of Russian autocephaly Orthodox Church(i.e. its complete independence from the Byzantine). But, on the other hand, this was the beginning of her transformation into an obedient instrument of the grand ducal power.
Thus, the bloody events of the second quarter of the 15th century ultimately accelerated the unification of the Russian lands, which, in turn, led to the final liberation from the yoke and the creation of a unified Russian state.
Third stage: completion of the unification of Russian lands. Formation of a single state.
At this stage, the process of unification of Russian lands acquired new dynamics. Grand Duke Ivan III (1462-1505) by 1468 completely subjugated the Yaroslavl principality, and in 1474 eliminated the remnants of independence of the Rostov principality.
The annexation of Novgorod and its vast possessions took place more intensely. Of particular importance to the struggle with Novgorod was the fact that there was a clash between two types of state system - the veche-boyar and the monarchical, moreover, with a strong despotic tendency. Part of the Novgorod boyars, trying to preserve city liberties and their privileges, entered into an alliance with Casimir IV, the Grand Duke of Lithuania and the Polish king. Ivan III, having learned about the signing of an agreement in which Novgorod recognized Casimir as its prince, organized a campaign and defeated it in 1471 on the river. Sheloni Novgorod militia, and in 1478 he completely annexed it. All attributes of former freedom, including the veche bell, were eliminated; instead of posadniks, the city was now ruled by the prince's governors. In addition, not keeping his word, Ivan III gradually evicted the boyars from the Novgorod land, transferring their possessions to Moscow service people.
In 1485, Tver, surrounded by the troops of Ivan III and abandoned by its prince Mikhail Borisovich, forced to seek salvation in Lithuania, was included in the Moscow possessions. The annexation of Tver completed the formation of the territory of the state, which filled the title previously used by the Moscow prince - sovereign of all Rus' - with real content.
As a result of the wars with Lithuania (1487-1494, 1500-1503) and the transfer of Russian Orthodox princes from Lithuania to Moscow service with their lands, Ivan III managed to expand his possessions. Thus, the principalities located in the upper reaches of the Oka (Vorotynskoye, Odoevskoye, Trubetskoye, etc.) and the Chernigov-Seversky lands became part of the Moscow state.
Under the son of Ivan III, Vasily III, Pskov (1510) was annexed, after a new war with Lithuania - Smolensk (1514), and in 1521 - Ryazan.
Thus, the main content of the third stage was the annexation of the remaining territories of North-Eastern Rus' to the Moscow Principality. If Ivan III, upon his accession to the throne, inherited a territory of 430 thousand km 2, then his grandson Ivan IV in 1533 received 6 times more.
One of the main conquests of Rus' during the reign of Ivan III was the complete liberation from the Horde yoke. In 1480, Khan Akhmat decided to force Rus' to pay tribute, the receipt of which probably stopped in mid. 70s To do this, he gathered a huge army and, having concluded a military alliance with the Lithuanian prince Casimir, moved to the southwestern borders of Rus'.
Ivan III, after some hesitation, took decisive action and closed the road to the Tatars, standing on the bank of the river. The Ugrians are a tributary of the Oka. Khan's attempts to cross the Ugra were decisively repulsed by Russian troops. Therefore, the famous “stand” on the Ugra River can hardly be called peaceful and bloodless, as some historians believe. Without waiting for help from Casimir, whose actions were neutralized by the raid on Lithuania by the troops of the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey, an ally of Ivan III, and internal strife, as well as fearing the early cold weather, Akhmat eventually retreated.
Thus ended the 240-year Horde yoke. The Horde broke up into a number of independent khanates, which the Russian state fought against throughout the 16th-18th centuries, gradually incorporating them into its composition.
Reasons and prerequisites for the formation of a centralized state.
At the end of the 13th century. the formation of a centralized state begins. This process actually continued until the 15th century. Feature The unification process was that the consequences of the Mongol-Tatar invasion delayed the economic development of Russian lands and contributed to the preservation of feudal fragmentation. Political centralization significantly outpaced the beginning of overcoming economic disunity and was accelerated by the struggle for national independence.
One of the prerequisites for centralization was the approximate synchronicity in the development of all principalities.
Reasons the formation of a centralized state was the growth and development of feudal land ownership, and the absorption of the peasant community by the feudal lords (the feudal lords were interested in creating a centralized apparatus of power to suppress the resistance of the peasants); the rise of cities (city residents were interested in eliminating feudal fragmentation, which impeded free trade); princely strife devastated peasant lands, so the peasants were also interested in stabilizing power.
In addition, the patrimonial owners (boyars) were interested in the unity of the country, since, for example, they did not have the right to buy land outside the borders of their principality.
Stages of formation of a centralized state.
Conventionally, the process of formation of a centralized state can be divided into three periods:
1) The end of the XIII - first half of the XIV centuries - the movement of the economic center to the North-East; strengthening of the Moscow and Tver principalities, the struggle between them; the growth of the territory of the Moscow Principality, its victory over Tver.
2) II half of the XIV - beginning of the XV centuries - defeat by Moscow in the 60-70s. its main rivals and the transition from the assertion of political supremacy to the state unification of Russian lands around Moscow. Moscow's organization of a nationwide struggle to overthrow the Horde yoke. The feudal war of the second quarter of the 15th century was the defeat of a coalition of appanage princes who tried to defend the independence of their principalities.
3) Second half of the 15th - early 16th centuries. - subordination of Novgorod to Moscow; completion of the unification of lands around Moscow; elimination of the Mongol-Tatar yoke; registration of statehood.
The fight between Moscow and Tver.
At the end of the 13th century. the center of economic life is moving to the Northeast. About 14 principalities arose here, of which the most significant were: Suzdal, Gorodets, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Pereyaslavl, Tver and Moscow. However, most of them could not maintain their political independence for long and were forced to submit, one way or another, to a stronger neighbor.
The main rivals at the end of the XIII - beginning of the XIV centuries. become Moscow and Tver.
The founder of the dynasty of Moscow princes was the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky. Daniel (1271-1303). The Tver principality in 1247 was received by the younger brother of Alexander Nevsky, Yaroslav Yaroslavich.
At the first stage, both principalities fought to increase their territories.
Alexander Nevsky allocated the Moscow principality to his youngest son when Daniil was only two years old, so until 1271 the principality was ruled by the governors of the Grand Duke of Vladimir. From the beginning of the 80s, Daniil began to actively participate in the struggle of his brothers (princes Dmitry Pereyaslavsky and Andrei Gorodetsky) for the reign of Vladimir. In 1301, Daniel captured Kolomna from the Ryazan princes; in 1302, according to the will of the childless" Pereyaslavl prince Ivan Dmitrievich, who was at enmity with Tver, the Pereyaslavl principality passed to him; in 1303, Mozhaisk was annexed. Thus, in the interfluve of the Oka and Volga, the Moscow principality was formed, which included four cities, each of which had its own fortress-kremlin. In Moscow itself, two fortified monasteries were built - Epiphany, next to the Kremlin, and Danilov (founded in 1298) - in the south, on the road along which the Tatars most often approached the city. g., before his death, Prince Daniil became a monk at the Donskoy Monastery.
After the death of Daniel, the Principality of Moscow passes to his eldest son, Yuri (1303-1325), who, after the death of the Grand Duke of Vladimir Andrei Yaroslavich, enters the struggle for the grand-ducal throne.
In 1304, Prince Mikhail Yaroslavich of Tver received a label from the Horde for a great reign.
In 1315, Yuri Danilovich went to the Horde. Having married the sister of Uzbek Khan, Konchak (Agafya), and promising to increase the tribute from Russian lands, he finally received the label for the great reign. But the Tver prince did not obey the khan’s decision and started a war against Yuri. In December 1318, in a battle near the village of Borteneva, Mikhail defeated Yuri’s squad and captured his wife. Agafya died in captivity, and Yuri blamed Mikhail for her death. The Tver prince was summoned to the Horde and killed. The Moscow prince received the label for the great reign in 1319.
But in 1325, Yuri Danilovich was killed in the Horde by the Tver prince Dmitry Mikhailovich. Khan executed Dmitry, but the label was again transferred to Tver (Prince Alexander Mikhailovich).
Ivan Kalita.
The youngest son of Daniil Alexandrovich, Ivan Kalita (1325-1341), becomes the Prince of Moscow.
In 1326, Metropolitan Peter moved his residence from Vladimir to Moscow. It was officially moved under Theognostus in 1328. In 1327, an uprising against the Horde broke out in Tver. The Tatar took the horse from the local deacon, and he called on his fellow countrymen for help. People came running and rushed at the Tatars. Baskak Chol Khan and his entourage took refuge in the princely palace, but it was set on fire along with the Horde. Prince Alexander Mikhailovich initially tried to dissuade the townspeople from the uprising, but in the end he was forced to join them.
Ivan Danilovich, together with the Horde troops, came to Tver and suppressed the uprising. The Tver prince fled to Pskov, but Metropolitan Theognost, an ally of Kalita, cursed the Pskovites and excommunicated them. Alexander Mikhailovich had to flee to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Having defeated the uprising in Tver, Ivan Kalita in 1328 received the label for the Great Reign of Vladimir. In addition, he receives the right to collect tribute 6 Russian principalities and delivering it to the Horde.
Under Ivan Kalita, the boundaries of the Moscow Principality expanded significantly; The Galich, Uglich, and Beloozersk principalities submitted to him. Active construction is underway - four stone churches are being built in the Moscow Kremlin: the Assumption Cathedral (1326), the Church of Ivan Climacus (1329), the Church of the Savior on the Bor (1330), the Archangel Cathedral (1333).
Historians have different assessments of the role of Ivan Kalita in the formation of a centralized state. Some believe that Ivan Kalita did not set himself any major state goals, but pursued only selfish goals of enriching himself and strengthening his personal power. Others, on the contrary, believe that he sought to make the Moscow principality not “just one of the largest in Rus', but a center for the unification of lands. Ivan Kalita died on March 31, 1341.
Semyon Proud.
After his death, Semyon the Proud (1341-1353) becomes the Grand Duke. During this period of time, four great principalities were active on the political scene in North-Eastern Rus': Moscow, Tver, Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod and Ryazan. From the mid-40s, a long internecine struggle began in the Tver Principality, which was skillfully supported by Moscow. At the same time, the Moscow princes have to put up with the loss of the Nizhny Novgorod territories, which in 1341 Uzbek Khan transferred from the Grand Duchy of Vladimir to the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod Principality. The conflict with Ryazan over Lopasny also did not continue. Relations with Novgorod became complicated - they were only able to be established under Ivan the Red. Tensions are growing in relations with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
In 1353-1357 there was a plague epidemic in Moscow, from which Metropolitan Theognost died in March 1353, and later Semyon the Proud. His heir was his brother, Ivan the Red (1353-1359). Under the sons of Ivan Kalita, the Moscow principality included the Dmitrov, Kostroma, Starodub principalities and the Kaluga region. At the same time, the independence of most Russian lands is increasing.
The second stage of the creation of a centralized state begins in the second half of the 14th century.
Dmitry Donskoy.
After the death of Ivan Ivanovich the Red in 1359, his son, nine-year-old Dmitry Ivanovich, became the prince of Moscow. Taking advantage of his early childhood, Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich of Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod tried to obtain a label from the Horde for the Great Reign. However, Metropolitan Alexei and the Moscow boyars achieved in 1362 the transfer of the label to Dmitry Ivanovich. Soon, in 1363, Dmitry Konstantinovich again received the label, but this time his great reign lasted only 12 days - the Moscow army ravaged the outskirts of Vladimir, and the prince himself was expelled. In 1366, he renounced his claims to the Grand Duke's throne, and even married his daughter Evdokia to Dmitry Ivanovich.
In 1367, the construction of the stone Kremlin in Moscow began.
Tver remained a serious rival of Moscow. Based on an alliance with the Lithuanian prince Olgerd, the Tver prince Mikhail Alexandrovich attacked Moscow several times. Having failed to subjugate the Muscovites by force, he turned to the Horde and in 1371 received a label for the Great Reign. But the residents of Vladimir did not let Mikhail in. In 1375, Mikhail again received the label, but Dmitry refused to recognize him. Dmitry was supported by Yaroslavl, Rostov, Suzdal and even Novgorod, and the residents of Tver themselves, after a three-day siege of the city by Moscow regiments, demanded that their prince renounce his claims to the Grand Duke's throne. The peace of Tver and Moscow in 1375 lasted until 1383.
The struggle for the Grand Duke's throne showed a new balance of forces - the Horde increasingly supported the opponents of Moscow, but it itself had already weakened (from the late 50s, fragmentation began in the Horde) and was unable to provide active support to its proteges. In addition, the very appeal to the Horde compromised the princes. On the other hand, the Moscow princes already enjoy significant authority and support from other Russian lands.
It was at this moment that the policy of the Moscow princes towards the Horde changed. If earlier the Moscow princes were somehow forced to maintain peaceful relations with the Horde, now they are leading an all-Russian campaign against the Mongol-Tatars. This began in 1374 at the congress of princes in Pereyaslavl-Zalessky.
Having united his allies, Prince Dmitry won his first major victory over the Mongol-Tatars - in 1380 on the Kulikovo Field. And although after some time it will be necessary to resume paying tribute to the Horde, the prestige of the Moscow princes increases significantly.
In 1389, Dmitry Donskoy, drawing up his will, transferred the Vladimir Grand Duke's throne to his eldest son as the “patrimony” of the Moscow princes, without mentioning the label. Thus, the territory of the Vladimir and Moscow principalities merged.
Vasily I (1389-1425) continued his father's policies. In 1392, he bought a label for the Nizhny Novgorod principality, and then annexed Murom, Tarusa and Gorodets to Moscow. The annexation of these lands made it possible to create an all-Russian border defense system. But the attempt to annex the Dvina land ended in failure.
After the death of Vasily I, the ten-year-old son of Vasily I, Vasily, and the younger brother of Vasily I, Yuri Dmitrievich, became contenders for the grand-ducal throne.
According to the will of Dmitry Donskoy, after the death of Vasily, the Grand Duke's throne was supposed to pass to Yuri, but it was not stipulated that this order would continue after the birth of Vasily's son. The guardian of young Vasily was the father of Vasily I’s wife, the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas, so Yuri recognized his nephew as the “eldest brother” and the Grand Duke. But in 1430 Vytautas died, and Yuri opposed Vasily. In 1433 and 1434 he captured Moscow, but could not stay there. After the death of Yuri (June 5, 1434), the fight was continued by his sons: Vasily Kosoy and Dmitry Shemyaka. In 1445, the Kazan Khan Ulu-Mukhammed captured Vasily II, and Shemyak seized power. Soon, however, Vasily returned, promising a ransom to the khan. In February 1446, Shemyaka again seized power in Moscow. The arrested Vasily II was blinded and sent into exile in Uglich. In September, Vasily swore that he would not strive for the Grand Duke's throne and became an appanage prince in Vologda.
But Shemyak aroused discontent among Muscovites: the Moscow boyars were pushed aside by Shemyakin’s entourage; when the independence of the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod principality was restored, the estates seized or purchased by Moscow boyars were returned to local feudal lords; collection of funds continued to pay the ransom to the Kazan Khan. Vasily the Dark was supported not only by the boyars close to him, but also by Tver Grand Duke Boris Alexandrovich (this union was sealed by the betrothal of Vasily II's six-year-old son Ivan and the four-year-old Tver princess Marya).
At the end of 1446 Shemyaka was expelled from Moscow, but the feudal war continued until his death (1453).
In 1456, Vasily the Dark defeated the Novgorod troops and in Yazhelbitsy concluded an agreement with Novgorod, according to which the power of the prince was strengthened in Novgorod (he, and not the veche, was now the highest court). Novgorod lost the right to foreign relations; paid a large indemnity and pledged not to provide support to Moscow’s opponents. The cities of Bezhetsky Verkh, Volok Lamsky, and Vologda were assigned to Moscow.
Feudal War of the Second QuarterXVV.
After the death of Vasily the Dark, his son Ivan III (1462-1505) becomes the Grand Duke. Under him, the Yaroslavl (1463-1468) and Rostov (1474) principalities lost their independence.
The struggle between Moscow and Novgorod.
But the main task remained the fight against Novgorod.
After the defeat of the Novgorodians on the Shelon River, inflicted by the troops of Ivan III (July 14, 1471), and the execution of Dmitry Boretsky, there was a further reduction in the independence of Novgorod - the Grand Duke acquired control over the judicial activities of the Novgorod authorities.
November 23, 1475 Ivan III enters Novgorod for “trial.” As a result, many boyars were arrested, some of them were sent to Moscow.
In 1477, some of Moscow's supporters were killed at a veche in Novgorod. As a result, a new campaign against Novgorod was undertaken. In January 1478, the Novgorod authorities capitulated. The veche was cancelled, the veche bell was taken to Moscow. Instead of posadniks and thousanders, Moscow governors began to govern the city. The confiscation of boyar lands began.
In 1480, after standing on the Ugra River, the yoke of the Mongol-Tatars was finally overthrown.
In September 1485, Tver was annexed. On September 8, Moscow troops approached Tver. On the night of September 11-12, Mikhail Borisovich fled to Lithuania. On September 15, Ivan III and his son Ivan solemnly entered Tver.
Completion of land consolidation. Formation of statehood.
The annexation of Tver meant the creation of a single state. It was from this moment that Ivan III titled himself the sovereign of all Rus'.
In 1489 the Vyatka land was annexed.
After the death in 1490 of the son of Ivan III from the Tver princess Maria Borisovna Ivan, a six-year-old grandson, Dmitry Ivanovich, remained; on the other hand, from his marriage with the niece of the Byzantine emperor Sophia Paleologus 1, he had a ten-year-old son, Vasily.
At the end of the 90s. A struggle for power unfolds between these two contenders for the throne, with Ivan III himself first supporting his grandson (crowned in 1498), then his son (crowned in 1502).
In October 1505, Ivan III died and Vasily III (1505-1533) became Grand Duke. Under him, Pskov was annexed in 1510, and Ryazan in 1521. In 1514, Smolensk, conquered from Lithuania, was included in the Moscow lands.
In addition, the size of appanages and the rights of appanage princes were being reduced: escheated appanages were to go to the Grand Duke, and the court in the Moscow villages of appanage princes was to be carried out by the viceroy of the Grand Duke. The brothers of the Grand Duke were forbidden to mint their own coins, trade in Moscow, and even enter Moscow unnecessarily.
After twenty years of a fruitless marriage with Solomonia Saburova, in 1526 Vasily divorced her (Solomonia was forcibly tonsured a nun) and
marries Elena Glinskaya. From this marriage, in August 1530, Elena gave birth to a son, Ivan, and later, Yuri.
In December 1533, Vasily III died.
Social and political structure of the new state.
So, by the first quarter of the 16th century. the process of creating a centralized state is almost complete, although many remnants of feudal fragmentation will still persist for quite a long time.
The state is formed in the form monarchy with strong Grand Ducal power. The Grand Duke already systematically used the title “sovereign” (from 1485 Ivan III began to be called the sovereign of all Russia), and the features of an autocrat appeared in his power.
The advisory body under the Grand Duke was the Boyar Duma. The Duma included about 24 people (Duma officials - boyars and okolnichy). In the 16th century Duma boyars will begin to favor princes (which actually lowered the status of princes and deprived them of the remnants of independence).
The organization of public administration was based on the principles of the inseparability of judicial and administrative powers. Functional management bodies have only just begun to take shape.
Until the middle of the 16th century. Two national departments emerged and operated: the Palace and the Treasury.
The palace, headed by the dvorsky (butler), was in charge of the personal lands of the Grand Duke. Subordinate to him were “servants under the court” (good boyars), who managed the “paths” - individual branches of the princely economy (stables, stewards, chashniki, hunters, falconers, etc.). Over time, the functions of the butlers became broader: they considered litigation about land ownership, judged the population of some counties, were in charge of collecting taxes, etc. As new lands were annexed to Moscow, local “palaces” were created to manage them (Dmitrovsky, Nizhny Novgorod, Novgorod, Ryazan, Tverskoy, Uglitsky).
Another department - the Treasury - was in charge not only of financial affairs, but also of the state archive and the state seal. Since 1467, the positions of state clerk and clerks in charge of office work appeared.
With the increase in the functions of public administration, the need arose to create special institutions that would manage military, foreign, judicial and other affairs. Inside the Grand Palace and the Treasury, special departments began to form - “tables” managed by clerks. Later they developed into orders. The first mention of orders dates back to 1512. Some historians believe that they arose somewhat earlier and by the time of the death of Vasily III there were already about 20 orders. According to others, the order system began to take shape only in the middle of the 16th century.
There was no clear division of functions in the state apparatus. There was no clear administrative-territorial division. The country was divided into
counties, and those, in turn, into camps and volosts. The districts were governed by governors, and the camps and volosts were governed by volostels. These positions were given, as a rule, for previous military service and there was no strict order in these appointments.
Speaking about the structure of local government, historians express almost opposite points of view on a number of issues. For example, some argue that “feeding” was given for a limited time, others - that it was a lifelong hold. Some believe that the “breadwinner’s income” (part of the taxes collected) and the “judgment” (court fees) were remuneration for judicial-administrative activities, while others believe that this remuneration was not for the performance of administrative and judicial duties, but for previous service in troops, etc.
In order to centralize and unify the procedure for judicial and administrative activities throughout the state, in 1497 the Code of Laws 1 was drawn up, which established uniform norms of tax liability and the procedure for conducting investigations and trials. In addition, in the Code of Laws in general outline the competence of individual officials was determined.
The strengthening of centralized power also contributed to changes social structure of society.
If at the beginning of the formation of a centralized state there was a complex system of feudal vassalage, and the immune rights of feudal lords developed, then gradually the independence of individual landowners is reduced. The Grand Duke becomes not just the head of the hierarchy - he is considered “father in place.” The number of appanage princes has been reduced, and their rights have been significantly curtailed. Princely land holdings are approaching patrimonial ones. The “conquest of the princes” begins; “departure” is prohibited.
The independence of the boyars is significantly limited. In the 15th century The boyars lost the right of free passage. Now they were obliged to serve not the appanage princes, but the Grand Duke of Moscow, and they swore allegiance to him in this. He, in turn, had the right to take away the boyar estates, impose disgraces, and deprive them of property and life.
In the 15th century a layer of “service princes” also appears, who went into the service of the Moscow prince (from the Lithuanian). Gradually, the number of service people increases significantly. They became the force on which the central government relies in the fight against local separatism. Receiving
land on the terms of service in favor of the Grand Duke, service people - landowners - were more interested in stable grand-ducal power than all other social groups.
Local land ownership was given to service people under certain conditions (administrative control or military service) for a certain period. The main difference was that the estates were forbidden to be sold or given away, they were not inherited and formally belonged to the Grand Duke.
Another large category of feudal lords are church lords. Large church landholdings are attracting increasing attention from the grand ducal authorities, who are seeking to find a way to take away the church’s lands. A confrontation is brewing between church and state. It is expressed in the support of “heresies” by the secular authorities and active intervention in the struggle of non-possessors and Josephites.
As for the feudal-dependent population, the position of its various categories is gradually getting closer - in the 14th century. a single term appeared for everyone - “peasants”.
According to the degree of involvement in feudal dependence, peasants can be divided into black-mush(the feudal lord in relation to them, according to most historians, was the state) and privately owned: a) living on the estate of a prince or boyar or on church and monastery lands; b) belonging to the Grand Duke personally.
Article 57 of the Code of Law of 1497 limited the right of a peasant to transfer from one feudal lord to another a week before and a week after the autumn St. George's Day (November 26); for care, the peasant had to pay “elderly”: a ruble in the steppe and half a ruble in forest areas (a quarter of this amount for each year lived). Some historians believe that the “elderly” was payment for the use of real estate (house) on land owned by the feudal lord. Others believe that this was a kind of compensation for the loss of an employee.
The social structure of the urban population was determined both by the existing mode of production in general and by the specific occupation of the townspeople. In the structure of cities, “white” settlements began to form, the population of which was in personal feudal dependence on secular or spiritual feudal lords and did not pay city taxes. Personally, the free population, who paid the tax, lived on the black lands (black hundreds 1). The top of the urban population were merchants and urban feudal lords.
