It acquired the meaning of political asylum, where Tsar Ivan the Terrible wanted to hide from his seditious boyars. The thought that he must flee from his boyars gradually took possession of his mind and became his incessant thought. In his spiritual, written around 1572, the king very seriously portrays himself as an exile, a wanderer. Here he writes: “Because of the multitude of my iniquities, the wrath of God has spread upon me, I was expelled by the boyars for their arbitrariness from my property and am wandering around the countries.” He was credited serious intention flee to England.
So, the oprichnina was an institution that was supposed to protect the personal safety of the tsar. She was indicated by Ivan the Terrible political goal, for which there was no special institution in the existing Moscow state structure. This goal was to exterminate the sedition that nested in the Russian land, mainly among the boyars. The oprichnina received the appointment of the highest police in cases of high treason. A detachment of a thousand people, enlisted in the oprichnina and then increased to 6 thousand, became a corps of watchmen for internal sedition. Malyuta Skuratov, i.e. Grigory Yakovlevich Pleshcheev-Belsky, relative of St. Metropolitan Alexy, was, as it were, the chief of this corps, and the tsar begged himself from the clergy, boyars and the whole land for a police dictatorship to combat this sedition. As a special police detachment, the oprichnina received a special uniform: the oprichnina had a dog's head and a broom tied to the saddle - these were the signs of his position, whose purpose was to track down, sniff out and sweep out treason and gnaw on the sovereign's seditious villains. The oprichnik rode all in black from head to toe, on a black horse in black harness, which is why contemporaries called the oprichnina “pitch darkness”, they said about it: “... like night, dark.” It was some kind of order of hermits, like monks who renounced the land and fought with the land, like monks fight the temptations of the world. The very reception into the oprichnina squad was furnished with either monastic or conspiratorial solemnity. Prince Kurbsky in his History of Tsar Ivan writes that the Tsar from all over the Russian land gathered for himself “nasty people and filled with all sorts of evils” and obliged them with terrible oaths not to know not only their friends and brothers, but also their parents, but to serve only him and this forced them to kiss the cross. Let us remember at the same time what I said about the monastic order of life, which Ivan the Terrible established in the settlement for his chosen oprichnina brethren.
Contradictions in the structure of the Moscow state before Ivan the Terrible
This was the purpose of the oprichnina. But, having explained its origin and purpose, it is still quite difficult to understand it political meaning. It is easy to see how and why it arose, but it is difficult to understand how it could have arisen, how the very idea of such an institution could have come to Ivan the Terrible. After all, the oprichnina did not answer the political question that was then on the agenda, and did not eliminate the difficulties that it caused. The difficulty was created by the clashes that arose between the sovereign and the boyars. The source of these clashes was not the contradictory political aspirations of both state forces, but one contradiction in the very political system Moscow State.
The sovereign and the boyars did not irreconcilably disagree with each other in their political ideals, goals, plans for state order, but only came across one inconsistency in the already established state order, which they did not know what to do with. What it really was Moscow State in the 16th century, even before the establishment of the oprichnina? It was absolute monarchy, but with aristocratic management, that is, government personnel. There was no political legislation that would define the boundaries of the supreme power, but there was a government class with an aristocratic organization that the government itself recognized. This power grew together, simultaneously and even hand in hand with the other. political force, which embarrassed her. Thus, the character of this power did not correspond to the character of the governmental instruments through which it was supposed to act. The boyars imagined themselves to be powerful advisers to the sovereign of all Rus' at the very time when this sovereign, remaining faithful to the view of the appanage patrimonial landowner, in accordance with ancient Russian law, granted them as his courtyard servants the title of the sovereign's slaves. Both sides found themselves in such an unnatural relationship to each other, which they did not seem to notice while it was developing, and which they did not know what to do with when they noticed it. Then both sides felt in an awkward position and did not know how to get out of it. Neither the boyars knew how to settle down and organize public order Without the sovereign power to which it was accustomed, neither the sovereign knew how to manage his kingdom within its new borders without the boyars’ assistance. Both sides could neither get along with each other nor do without each other. Unable to either get along or separate, they tried to separate - to live side by side, but not together. The oprichnina was such a way out of the difficulty; this was its main goal.
N. Nevrev. Oprichnina. The murder of boyar Fedorov by Ivan the Terrible
Oprichnina as preparation for the replacement of the boyars by the nobility
But the division of the state into oprichnina and zemshchina did not eliminate the difficulty itself. It consisted in an inconvenient for the sovereign political situation the boyars as a government class that constrained him.
There were two ways out of the difficulty: it was necessary either to eliminate the boyars as a government class and replace them with other, more flexible and obedient instruments of government, or to separate them, to attract the most reliable people from the boyars to the throne and to rule with them, as Ivan the Terrible ruled. at the beginning of his reign. He could not do the first soon, the second he was unable or did not want to do. In conversations with close foreigners, the king carelessly admitted that he had the goal of changing the entire government of the country and even exterminating the nobles. But the idea of transforming government was limited to dividing the state into zemshchina and oprichnina, and the goal of the wholesale extermination of the boyars remained an absurd dream of an excited imagination: it was tricky to isolate from society and destroy an entire class that was intertwined with various everyday threads with the layers that lay underneath it. In the same way, Ivan the Terrible could not soon, even with the help of the bloody oprichnina, create another government class to replace the boyars. Such changes require time and skill: it is necessary for the ruling class to get used to power and for society to get used to the ruling class.
A. Vasnetsov. Moscow dungeon during the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible
But undoubtedly, Ivan the Terrible was thinking about such a replacement and main goal his oprichnina was preparing for it. He took this thought out of childhood, from the turmoil of boyar rule; She also prompted him to bring A. Adashev closer to her, taking him, in the tsar’s words, from the stick insects, “from the rot,” and putting him together with the nobles, expecting direct service from him. So Adashev became the prototype of the guardsman. Ivan the Terrible had the opportunity to become acquainted with the way of thinking that later dominated the oprichnina at the very beginning of his reign.
Based on materials from lectures by V. O. Klyuchevsky (revised)
Several reasons prompted Tsar Ivan IV to create this unprecedented political system. The first is a sharp escalation of contradictions with the highest nobility after the issuance of a decree on the confiscation of escheated princely estates in 1562 (Previously, these estates went to the relatives of the deceased or went to the monastery “for the wake of the soul.”) The second is the heavy defeats of the Russian army in Livonian War in 1564, the flight of Prince Andrei Kurbsky to Lithuania. Fear of a boyar conspiracy haunted the Tsar. And then he decided to get ahead of his enemies.
Oprichnina had two goals: undermining the economic power of the large aristocracy And physical extermination of its most prominent representatives.
The first goal of the oprichnina was achieved by the policy of resettlement. Tsar Ivan the Terrible carefully thought out the list of regions included in the oprichnina. In addition to rich trading cities and salt production areas, there were counties in which the ancestral estates of the old Rostov-Suzdal nobility were located - the core of the Moscow boyar corporation. All these estates were immediately “assigned to the sovereign” and distributed to the estates of the guardsmen. Their owners were forcibly deported to the zemshchina. There they were ordered to give small estates somewhere in the southern or eastern borders countries. The resettlers were forbidden to take property and valuables with them. All this became the prey of the new owners - the guardsmen. And the recent owners of the golden-domed towers overnight turned into beggars.
The second goal of the oprichnina—the physical destruction of a significant part of the aristocracy—was achieved through terror. By order of the tsar, the oprichniki seized the unwanted, took them to Alexandrov Sloboda (the oprichnina capital of Ivan the Terrible) and there after brutal torture killed. Sometimes executions were carried out in Moscow, where next to the Kremlin, on the other side rivers Neglinka, a gloomy castle grew up - “the sovereign’s oprichnina courtyard.” Tsar Ivan IV experienced sadistic pleasure looking at the torment of the unfortunate, and personally took part in torture and executions. Some historians believe that from his youth he suffered from serious mental disorders.
The Fall of the Chosen One
In 1560, the relationship between the king and Elected Rada unexpectedly deteriorated. The reason for the discord was the disagreement between the tsar and Alexei Adash in the region foreign policy, and the real reason is Ivan’s long-overdue desire to rule on his own. He believed that peaceful methods of fighting the big aristocracy were insufficient, that for full control above ruling class one must resort to the sword. However, the advisers (people, as a rule, religious and virtuous) prevented the king from giving free rein to his base instincts, his innate tendency to cruelty and tyranny.
As a result, the main figures of the Chosen Rada - Adashev and Sylvester - lost their posts and went into exile. Prince Kurbsky was sent by the governor to Livonia. The elderly Metropolitan Makarii no longer had the strength to political struggle. On December 31, 1563, he died at the age of 82.
Boyar Duma
Having gotten rid of his advisers, the king still could not rule with absolute authority. Standing in his way was the Boyar Duma with its traditional authority and deep connections in all layers society. It was decided to coordinate all the most important decisions of the sovereign with the Boyar Duma. Having dispersed this body of power of the highest aristocracy, the tsar could well have received the most difficult internal troubles. The only way out was to bring the aristocracy to its knees.
The beginning of the oprichnina
In 1564, Ivan IV unexpectedly left Moscow with his family and went to Alexandrovskaya Sloboda (now the city of Alexandrov, 100 km north-east of Moscow). From here he sent the boyars, clergy and service people a letter accusing them of treason. His message was read on Red Square. Unrest began in the city. They decided to persuade the king to return. He agreed, but on the condition that “he has the right to punish everyone he considers a traitor.” For these punitive purposes the oprichnina was created with its good armed forces.
In 1565, Ivan IV allocated himself a special possession - oprichnina, and the territory not included in the oprichnina was called Zemshchina.
The whole country was divided into two parts: oprichnina And zemshchina. Each had its own government, its own Boyar Duma. The zemshchina was led by the boyars. In the oprichnina, all power passed to the tsar.
They were taken into the oprichnina best lands with the most developed economy. When the guardsmen ruined them, the tsar took new rich lands for himself. The oprichnina had its own treasury, its own army, its own administration. It was a “state within a state.” The Zemshchina found itself defenseless against the predatory raids of the guardsmen, who were supported by the Tsar himself. In addition, she had to pay a ruinous tax to maintain the oprichnina.
Oprichniki
An oprichnik was someone who was in the ranks of the oprichnina. The people called the guardsmen "kromeshniks" - the black forces of the king.
Initially the oprichnina army numbered one thousand Human, and by the end of the oprichnina it had grown to six thousand. These were carefully selected nobles who had no family ties to the zemshchina, ready to carry out any order of the sovereign. The guardsmen dressed in all dark and wore special shape- black robes with a wide belt. We rode blacks on horses with black harness. The guardsmen attached a broom to the saddle of their horses, and a dog’s head to the horse’s neck - a sign of their readiness to sweep out any treason from the state and chop off the “dog heads” of the traitor boyars. They had the right to break into any estate, into any yard of a person from the zemshchina suspected of treason, ruin his house, drive out his household (or even kill). No one knew against whom the king's next wrath would be directed.
After the elimination of the Chosen One, the target is happy domestic policy Ivan IV generally remain the same as before. However, the methods for achieving them are different. Carefully thought out, consistent reforms are becoming a thing of the past. The main instrument of political struggle becomes the executioner's ax. The Boyar Duma, intimidated by the bloody massacres, is silent, and the rapidly successive governments serve as an obedient instrument in the hands of an autocrat intoxicated by limitless power and sometimes losing his mind.
The oprichnina destroyed the normal order of governing the country. Fear and chaos reigned everywhere. No one - not even the king's closest henchmen - was sure of tomorrow. Having received the estates of the expelled and disgraced boyars, the guardsmen treated them as if they were enemy territories. Behind a short time previously prosperous, populous farms turned into wastelands. The peasants ran away in horror. The aristocracy, intimidated by repression, remained silent.
The fate of those who tried to resist the oprichnina was difficult. Metropolitan Macarius had already died by this time, and the new one had retired to a monastery. Instead, Filipp Kolychev became Metropolitan (1566-1568), who sought to stop the atrocities of the oprichniki: he alone dared to publicly speak out against the oprichnina. For this, the courageous hierarch was defrocked, deposed, imprisoned in a monastery and soon strangled by guardsmen on the tsar's orders.
Then the executions of the guardsmen themselves, who stood at its origins, began. They were replaced by “particularly distinguished” ones. Among them, history has preserved the name of the guardsman Malyuta Skuratov. It has become descriptive. It is still used today in the sense of cruel and senseless reprisals against the innocent.
Suspicion and fear reigned in the country. The tsar's anger was directed not only against rich boyar families, but also against entire cities.
Campaigns of Ivan the Terrible
At the end of 1569, the tsar accused the city of Novgorod of treason and launched a campaign against it. Ivan the Terrible's campaign against Novgorod in 1570 became the largest massacre of the oprichnina era.
Suspecting the Novgorodians of treason, the tsar committed a terrible pogrom in the city. The defeat of the city lasted six weeks. A lot of service people, townspeople, priests and monks were killed or drowned in the Volkhov River. The property of the Novgorodians, as well as the valuables of the church, were plundered. The outskirts of the city are devastated.
The cities of Tver, Torzhok and the villages adjacent to them were also destroyed. Military garrisons and residents in Narva, Ivangorod and Pskov were destroyed.
Famine and plague
Simultaneously with the oprichnina central areas The country was visited by two other disasters: a terrible three-year famine and a plague epidemic in 1569-1571. Added to all this were the heavy duties imposed on the population in connection with the endless Livonian War. As a result, in the 70s. XVI century There is a sharp decline in the population of Moscow lands. A significant proportion of people died from natural Disasters and oprichnina terror, and those who remained rushed to the outskirts of the country, to the impenetrable forests of the Russian North or to the southern steppes. Material from the site
The Englishman D. Fletcher, traveling around Russia, noted: “It happens to see many villages and towns, completely empty, the people have all fled to other places... So, on the road to Moscow, between Vologda and Yaroslavl, there are up to fifty villages along at least completely abandoned, so that there is not a single inhabitant in them.”
While the oprichnina army was dealing with the cities and villages of their country, the Crimean Khan Girey approached Moscow and burned it down. The Russian state was ruined to the ground. Its population has decreased several times. The fields were abandoned. The cities are empty.
Since ancient times, the word “oprichnina” was the name for a special land allotment that the prince’s widow received, that is, the land “oprichnina” - except for - the main lands of the principality. Ivan the Terrible decided to apply this term to the territory of the state allocated to him for personal management, his own destiny, in which he could rule without the intervention of the boyar duma, Zemsky Cathedral and church synod. Subsequently, oprichnina began to be called not the land, but the internal policy pursued by the tsar.
The beginning of the oprichnina
The official reason for the introduction of the oprichnina was the abdication of Ivan IV from the throne. In 1565, having gone on a pilgrimage, Ivan the Terrible refuses to return to Moscow, explaining his action as treason by the closest boyars. The tsar wrote two letters, one to the boyars, with reproaches and abdication of the throne in favor of his young son, the second - to the “posad people”, with assurances that his action was due to boyar treason. Under the threat of being left without a tsar, God’s anointed and protector, the townspeople, representatives of the clergy and boyars went to the tsar in Alexandrovskaya Sloboda with a request to return “to the kingdom.” The tsar, as a condition for his return, put forward the demand that he be allocated his own inheritance, where he could rule at his own discretion, without the intervention of church authorities.
As a result, the whole country was divided into two parts - zemshchina and oprichnina, that is, into state and personal lands of the kings. The oprichnina included northern and northwestern regions, rich fertile lands, some central districts, the Kama region and even individual streets of Moscow. The capital of the oprichnina became Alexandrovskaya Sloboda, the capital of the state still remained Moscow. The oprichnina lands were ruled personally by the tsar, and the zemstvo lands by the Boyar Duma; the oprichnina also had a separate treasury, its own. However, the Grand Parish, that is, the analogue of the modern Tax Administration, which was responsible for the receipt and distribution of taxes, was uniform for the entire state; The Ambassadorial Order also remained common. This seemed to symbolize that, despite the division of the lands into two parts, the state is still united and indestructible.
According to the tsar's plan, the oprichnina was supposed to appear as a kind of analogue of the European church Order. Thus, Ivan the Terrible called himself abbot, his closest associate Prince Vyazemsky became a cellarer, and the well-known Malyuta Skuratov became a sexton. The king, as the head of the monastic order, was assigned a number of responsibilities. At midnight the abbot rose to read the Midnight Office, at four in the morning he served matins, then followed mass. All Orthodox fasts and church regulations were observed, for example, daily reading Holy Scripture and all kinds of prayers. The tsar's religiosity, previously widely known, grew to its maximum level during the oprichnina years. At the same time, Ivan personally took part in torture and executions, and gave orders for new atrocities, often right during religious services. Such a strange combination of extreme piety and undisguised cruelty, condemned by the church, later became one of the main historical evidence in favor of the king's mental illness.
Reasons for the oprichnina
The “treason” of the boyars, to which the tsar referred in his letters demanding the allocation of oprichnina lands to him, became only official occasion to introduce a policy of terror. The reasons for the radical change in the format of government were several factors.
The first and, perhaps, most significant reason for the oprichnina was failures in Livonian War. The conclusion of an essentially unnecessary truce with Livonia in 1559 was actually giving the enemy a rest. The king insisted on taking strict measures against Livonian Order, The elected Rada considered the outbreak of war with Crimean Khan more priority direction. The break with the once closest associates, the leaders of the Chosen Rada, became, in the opinion of most historians the main reason introduction of oprichnina.
However, there is another point of view on this matter. Thus, most historians of the 18th-19th centuries considered the oprichnina the result of the mental illness of Ivan the Terrible, whose hardening of character was influenced by the death of his beloved wife Anastasia Zakharyina. A strong nervous shock caused the manifestation of the most terrible personality traits of the king, bestial cruelty and imbalance.
It is impossible not to note the influence of the boyars on the change in the conditions of power. Fears for their own situation led some to move statesmen abroad - to Poland, Lithuania, Sweden. A big blow for Ivan the Terrible was the flight to Principality of Lithuania Andrei Kurbsky, childhood friend and closest ally, who took an active part in government reforms. Kurbsky sent a series of letters to the Tsar, where he condemned Ivan’s actions, accusing “faithful servants” of tyranny and murder.
Military failures, the death of his wife, disapproval of the tsar’s actions by the boyars, confrontation with the Elected Rada and the flight - betrayal - of his closest ally dealt a serious blow to the authority of Ivan IV. And the oprichnina he conceived was supposed to rectify the current situation, restore damaged trust and strengthen the autocracy. To what extent the oprichnina lived up to its obligations, historians are still arguing.