Vasily 3 (reigned 1505-1533) was marked by the final gathering of Russian lands around Moscow. It was under Vasily III that the process of unifying the lands around Moscow was completed and the process of creating the Russian state continued to take shape.
Most historians agree that Vasily 3, as a ruler and personality, was greatly inferior to his father, Ivan 3. It is difficult to say for sure whether this is true or not. The fact is that Vasily continued the business (and successfully) started by his father, but did not have time to start his own important business.
The end of the appanage system
Ivan 3 transferred all power to Vasily 3, and ordered his younger sons to obey their elder brother in everything. Vasily 3 inherited 66 cities (30 to his other sons), as well as the right to determine and conduct the country's foreign policy and mint coins. Specific system remained, but the power of the Grand Duke over others became increasingly stronger. The system of Rus' of that period was very accurately described by Joseph Volotsky (church leader), who called the reign of Vasily 3 the reign of the “Sovereign Sovereign of All Russian Lands.” Sovereign, Sovereign- that’s how it really was. There were sovereigns who owned appanages, but over them there was a single sovereign.
In the fight against the estates, Vasily 3 showed cunning - he forbade his brothers, the owners of the estates, to marry. Accordingly, they had no children and their power died away, and the lands became subordinate to Moscow. By 1533, only 2 estates were settled: Yuri Dmitrovsky and Andrei Staritsky.
Domestic policy
Land unification
The domestic policy of Vasily 3 continued the path of his father, Ivan 3: the unification of Russian lands around Moscow. The main initiatives in this regard were as follows:
- Subjugation of independent principalities.
- Strengthening the borders of the state.
In 1510, Vasily 3 subjugated Pskov. The Pskov prince Ivan Repnya-Obolensky, who was a cruel and unprincipled man, contributed greatly to this. The people of Pskov did not like him and staged riots. As a result, the prince was forced to turn to the main Sovereign, asking him to pacify the citizens. After this there are no exact sources. It is only known that Vasily 3 arrested the ambassadors who were sent to him from the townspeople, and offered them only decision problems - subordination to Moscow. That's what they decided on. To gain a foothold in this region, the Grand Duke sends 300 of the most influential families of Pskov to the central regions of the country.
In 1521, the Ryazan principality submitted to the authorities of Moscow, and in 1523, the last southern principalities. Thus, the main task of the internal politics of the reign of Vasily 3 was solved - the country was united.
Map of the Russian state under Vasily 3
A map showing the last stages of the unification of Russian lands around Moscow. Most of these changes took place during the reign of Prince Vasily Ivanovich.
Foreign policy
Extension Russian state under Vasily 3 it also turned out to be quite extensive. The country managed to strengthen its influence, despite its rather strong neighbors.
Western direction
War of 1507-1508
In 1507-1508 there was a war with Lithuania. The reason was that the border Lithuanian principalities began to swear allegiance to Rus'. The last to do this was Prince Mikhail Glinsky (before that the Odoevskys, Belskys, Vyazemskys and Vorotynskys). The reason for the reluctance of the princes to be part of Lithuania lies in religion. Lithuania banned Orthodoxy and forcibly implanted to the local population Catholicism.
In 1508, Russian troops besieged Minsk. The siege was successful and Sigismund 1 asked for peace. As a result, all the lands that Ivan 3 annexed were assigned to Russia. This was a big breakthrough and important step in foreign policy and in strengthening the Russian state.
War of 1513-1522
In 1513, Vasily 3 learned that Lithuania had reached an agreement with the Crimean Khanate and was preparing for a military campaign. The prince decided to take the lead and besieged Smolensk. The assault on the city was difficult and the city repelled two attacks, but ultimately, in 1514, Russian troops took the city. But this same year Grand Duke lost the battle of Orsha, which allowed the Lithuanian-Polish troops to approach Smolensk. It was not possible to take the city.
Minor battles continued until 1525, when peace was signed for 5 years. As a result of the peace, Russia retained Smolensk, and the border with Lithuania now ran along the Dnieper River.
Southern and eastern directions
The eastern and southern directions of the foreign policy of Prince Vasily Ivanovich should be considered together, since the Crimean Khan and the Kazan Khan acted together. Back in 1505, the Kazan Khan invaded Russian lands with plunder. In response, Vasily 3 sends an army to Kazan, forcing the enemy to again swear allegiance to Moscow, as was the case under Ivan 3.
1515-1516 – Crimean army reaches Tula, devastating the lands along the way.
1521 - the Crimean and Kazan khans simultaneously began a military campaign against Moscow. Having reached Moscow, the Crimean Khan demanded that Moscow pay tribute, as it was before, and Vasily 3 agreed, since the enemy was numerous and strong. After that Khan's army went to Ryazan, but the city did not surrender, and they returned to their lands.
1524 - the Crimean Khanate captures Astrakhan. All Russian merchants and the governor were killed in the city. Vasily 3 concludes a truce and sends an army to Kazan. Kazan ambassadors arrive in Moscow for negotiations. They dragged on for several years.
1527 - on the Oka River, the Russian army defeated the army of the Crimean Khan, thereby stopping constant raids from the south.
1530 - the Russian army is sent to Kazan and takes the city by storm. A ruler is installed in the city - a Moscow protege.
Key dates
- 1505-1533 – reign of Vasily 3
- 1510 – annexation of Pskov
- 1514 – annexation of Smolensk
The king's wives
In 1505, Vasily 3 decided to get married. A real show was organized for the prince - 500 noble girls from all over the country came to Moscow. The prince's choice settled on Solomnia Saburova. They lived together for 20 years, but the princess could not give birth to an heir. As a result, by the decision of the prince, Solomnia was tonsured as a nun and sent to the Suzdal convent of the Intercession.
In fact, Vasily 3 divorced Solomonia, violating all the laws of that time. Moreover, for this it was even necessary to remove Metropolitan Varlaam, who refused to arrange a divorce. Ultimately, after the change of metropolitan, Solomonia was accused of witchcraft, after which she was tonsured a nun.
In January 1526, Vasily 3 married Elena Glinskaya. The Glinsky family was not the most noble, but Elena was beautiful and young. In 1530, she gave birth to her first son, who was named Ivan (the future Tsar Ivan the Terrible). Soon another son was born - Yuri.
Maintain power at any cost
The reign of Vasily 3 seemed impossible for a long time, since his father wanted to pass the throne to his grandson from his first marriage, Dmitry. Moreover, in 1498, Ivan 3 crowned Dmitry as king, declaring him heir to the throne. The second wife of Ivan 3, Sophia (Zoya) Paleologus, together with Vasily, organize a conspiracy against Dmitry in order to get rid of a competitor for the inheritance of the throne. The plot was discovered and Vasily was arrested.
- In 1499, Ivan 3 pardoned his son Vasily and released him from prison.
- In 1502, Dmitry himself was accused and imprisoned, and Vasily was blessed to reign.
In light of the events of the struggle for the rule of Russia, Vasily 3 clearly understood that power at any cost is important, and anyone who interferes with this is an enemy. Here, for example, are the words in the chronicle:
I am king and lord by right of blood. I didn’t ask anyone for titles or buy them. There are no laws that require me to obey anyone. Believing in Christ, I reject any rights begged from others.
Prince Vasily 3 Ivanovich
The Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III Ivanovich (1479-1534, Grand Duke from 1506) completed the unification of Russian lands around Moscow. Became the first autocratic ruler. He went down in history as a brave and intelligent ruler, but a tough, domineering, vindictive man with a difficult personal life from his youth to adulthood.
How Vasily III became king
At the age of 26, they decided to marry Prince Vasily. To choose a bride, his father, Grand Duke Ivan III, ordered the first beauties from all the Russian principalities to be collected in Moscow, since he was unable to find a bride for Vasily among the foreign ruling houses. 1,500 girls arrived in Moscow - very beautiful, noble and ignorant, of which 300 were gradually selected, then the 200, 100 and 10 best were shown to Vasily, who chose the daughter of eminent Moscow boyars, Solomonia Saburova. In 1505 the wedding took place, 4 months later Ivan III died, Vasily became the Grand Duke. The marriage was long and happy, but there were no children. The grand ducal couple traveled to monasteries, made rich deposits, but still there were no children, the marriage remained childless. Vasily III had four brothers to whom he did not want to leave the throne and did not allow them to marry. According to their father's will, the brothers received 30 cities into their possession, and Vasily - 66. Vasily III almost hated the brothers, who considered their father's will unfair, awaiting his death and the transfer of supreme power to one of them. Having fallen ill, Vasily III even intended to transfer the right of inheritance to the throne to the husband of his sister Evdokia - the Tatar prince Kuidakul, in Orthodoxy Peter, but he died suddenly (most likely, he was poisoned). Vasily III learned about rumors about him own infertility. He also learned that his wife had turned to fortune-tellers and witches several times so that they could save the grand-ducal couple from childlessness. The Church categorically forbade (and forbids) turning to fortune-tellers and sorcerers, and evaluates such actions as a great sin. Then such actions of the queen were assessed not only as a sin, but also as harm to her husband, who turned out to be a victim of damage. One of the fortune tellers confidently told the queen that they would never have children. Vasily III began to think about the inevitability of their divorce, and to resolve this issue he assembled a council of clergy and boyars. Moscow Metropolitan Daniel expressed his readiness to take the sin of the prince’s divorce upon his soul. Some boyars and clergy openly opposed divorce (Prince Patrikeev - monk Vassian Kosoy, monk Makrsim the Greek, Prince Semyon Kurbsky), all of them were severely punished and imprisoned for this. Most people were against the divorce, condemned the intention of Vasily III, but were afraid of his anger and remained silent.
Marriage of Vasily III and Solomonia Saburova
Vasily III was guided by state interests in personal life. After difficult thoughts, Vasily III decided to divorce. With the permission of Metropolitan Daniel, he divorced and received the right to enter into new marriage. Ex-wife Vasily III imprisoned Solomonia Saburova in the Moscow Nativity Monastery in 1525, then she was taken to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery, where she lived for 14 years and died, having survived ex-husband and his new wife. The legend claims that Solomonia, abandoned by the king, allegedly secretly gave birth to a son and he was secretly raised in one of the boyar houses. According to another version, he allegedly became the famous robber Kudeyar.
Vasily III probably felt sorry for his divorced wife in his soul, at least partially reproaching himself for the sin of divorce, and as best he could (within the bounds of decency) showed concern for her and the city and monastery where she ended up. So, in the Suzdal Kremlin in 1528-1530. At the behest and with the assistance of Vasily III, the restoration of the Nativity Cathedral was carried out. For the proper maintenance of the divorced queen in the Suzdal Intercession Monastery, he allocated the village of Vysheslavskoye with peasants to the monastery. In the Intercession Monastery, by order of Vasily III, a small room for a separate altar was built in the gate church, intended only for one nun - Sophia, his divorced wife. In general, Vasily III somehow in advance singled out the Intercession Monastery from other women’s monasteries, almost guessing about its special role in the fate of the grand-ducal couple. During the first decade family life with Solomonia Saburova, he came to the Intercession Monastery, allocated significant funds, which laid the foundation for the monastery’s well-being and made it possible to begin detailed stone construction in it.
Marriage of Ivan III with Elena Glinskaya
The tsar's second wife was Elena Vasilyevna Glinskaya (1509-1538), in whose veins Lithuanian blood flowed. Her uncle Alexander fled from Lithuania to Russia. And this meant that the tsar’s chosen one came from a family of fugitives and traitors who had disgraced themselves in their homeland, in Lithuania. A very unpleasant fact: the great princes usually chose their wives from glorious boyar families or from respected families - royal, royal - outside Russia. Contemporaries wrote that Tsar Vasily III fell passionately in love with the young Elena Glinskaya, in order to please her, he decided to do an unprecedented thing: he began to look younger and even shaved his beard and used cosmetics. Two months after the divorce and tonsure of Solomonia Saburova, Tsar Vasily III married Elena Glinskaya (he was 48 years old, she was 18). The tsar, in love with his young wife, did not notice in her retinue her former lover, Prince Ivan Fedorovich Telepnev-Obolensky-Saburov-Ovchina (he was soon elevated to noble ranks of the state and, perhaps, is the father of the next tsar - Ivan IV, born in 1530) . For seven years the Tsar enjoyed life with his young wife, who bore him sons Ivan and Yuri (the former later became Tsar). The fate of the young queen was hardly enviable. Only after the death of her husband was she able, by adding more honorary positions to I.F. Telepnev-Obolensky, to somehow legitimize him as her practically official favorite; this happened for the first time in a grand-ducal family in Rus'. E.V. Glinskaya and her prince brothers and I.F. Telepnev-Obolensky after the death of Vasily III began to rule Moscow and Russia. But the fate of all of them was bad: Glinskaya was poisoned in 1538, Telepnev-Obolensky was starved to death in captivity, etc. This was retribution for feigned love for the king and the desire for power, profit, and wealth by any means.
Broadcast from the “Hour of Truth” series dedicated to Vasily III Ivanovich
Reign of Vasily III (briefly)
Reign of Vasily III (briefly)
On March 25, 1479, Vasily the Third, the future ruler, was born. Vasily was born into the family of Ivan the Third and was his second son. For this reason, in 1470, the prince announced Ivan the Young (eldest son) as his co-ruler, intending to transfer complete rule to him in the future. However, unfortunately, Ivan died in 1490, and already in 1502, Vasily the Third Ivanovich, who at that time was already the Pskov and Great Novgorod prince, was declared co-ruler and future full-fledged heir of Ivan the Third.
In his policy, Vasily the Third fully adhered to the course that was chosen by his father. Its main goals were:
· centralization and strengthening of power;
· defending the interests of the Orthodox Church.
During the reign of Vasily the Third, the Starodub and Novgorod-Seversky principalities, as well as the lands of Ryazan, Smolensk and Pskov, were annexed to the Moscow principality.
Trying to protect Russian borders from active regular Tatar raids from the Crimean and Kazan kingdoms, Vasily the Third introduced the practice of introducing Tatar princes into the service, giving them considerable territories for this. The policy of this ruler in relation to distant states was quite friendly. Vasily even discussed with the Pope about the possibility of a union against Turkey, which was disadvantageous for both, and also tried to develop trade contacts with Austria, Italy and France.
In domestic policy Vasily the Third concentrated his efforts on strengthening the autocracy, which soon led to the “curtailment” of the privileges of the boyars and princes. For example, they were removed from solving important state issues, which from now on were taken exclusively by Vasily the Third and his circle of close advisers. At the same time, representatives of the boyar class were able to retain important places in the prince’s army.
Historians indicate that the prince was married twice. The first time was with Solomonia Saburova, who herself was from a noble boyar family, but turned out to be childless. And the second time he married Elena Glinskaya, who bore him two sons, the youngest of whom, Yuri, suffered from dementia.
On December 3, 1533, Moscow Prince Vasily the Third died from a blood poisoning disease, after which he was buried in the Moscow Kremlin (Archangel Cathedral). In subsequent years, the boyars Belsky and Glinsky acted as regents for the young Ivan.
On June 20, 1605, the second tsar from the Godunov dynasty, Fyodor Borisovich, was killed, and the war began.And 100 years before that, on September 4, 1505, Grand Duke Vasily III married Solomonia Yuryevna Saburova. Thanks to this alliance, Russia avoided change ruling dynasty and unrest that could have begun a century earlier than it did. But what do we know about this?
Very often, if people do something evil, we do not skimp on our words towards them. But if a person did something good or refrained from evil, we sometimes do not appreciate it, we do not know how to be grateful to his memory. This is precisely the fate of the Grand Duchess Solomonia, who saved our autocracy from the approaching storm.
At baptism, Solomonia Yurievna Saburova received the name in honor of the heroine of the Israeli people - the mother of the seven Maccabean martyrs, whose feat prompted the Jews to rebel against Antiochus Epiphanes, who desecrated the Temple of Solomon. Solomonia was the daughter of Yuri Konstantinovich Saburov and the great-granddaughter of Fyodor Sabur. Her close relatives served in Veliky Novgorod, which shortly before was annexed to Moscow by Ivan III. His father was a scribe of the Novgorod land (compiler of the oldest Novgorod scribe books), and his brother Ivan Yuryevich was a Novgorod butler.
In 1505, her father gave Solomonia in marriage to the heir to the Russian throne - Prince Vasily Ivanovich, the future Vasily III. In the same year, Grand Duke Ivan III died and Vasily Ivanovich became the ruler of the Russian land, and Solomonia became the Grand Duchess.
There is a legend that Ivan III, having decided to marry his son Vasily, went to ask for advice at the grave of his great-grandmother, the wife of Dmitry Donskoy, whose husband was saved by Fyodor Sabur. During the prayer, in front of the Grand Duke, the candle bent in the shape of the letter “C”, and the Grand Duke understood the answer to his prayer as follows: “we need our own, Russian, Saburova”...
Such a choice was not accidental and was possible because the Rurikovichs treated the Saburovs very favorably. When the grandson of Dmitry Donskoy Ivan III, after the death of his parents - Vasily II the Dark and Sofia Vitovtovna, gave several villages to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery - in commemoration of their souls, the day of special commemoration of the parents was determined to be November 14. This is the day of the Holy Apostle Philip and the Hieromartyr Hypatius - the patrons of the boyar Zechariah Chet, all his descendants and the Ipatiev Monastery: “Food for the great princes. Pominati Grand Duchess Sofia of Grand Duke Vasily...". This day could have been chosen in memory of how Dmitry Donskoy, during the Tatar raid, hid with his family in the Saburov family monastery -. It is not surprising, therefore, that Ivan III chose the great-granddaughter of Fyodor Sabur as his wife for his son.
In the same year, another wedding took place, cementing the union of the Rurikovichs and the Saburovs: Solomonia’s sister Maria Yuryevna married Prince Vasily Semenovich Starodubsky, also the great-great-grandson of Dmitry Donskoy. And their father, Yuri Konstantinovich, was granted a boyar status.
The marriage of Vasily Ivanovich and Solomonia Yuryevna was formalized in Byzantine traditions - Solomonia was chosen from 500 girls at a show of brides gathered in Moscow for such an occasion: it was ordered to “announce in all parts of your state so that - regardless of nobility or blood, but only for beauty - the most beautiful girls were found, and in pursuance of this decree, more than 500 girls were chosen and brought to the city; Of these, 300 were selected, then 200, and finally reduced to 10, which were examined by midwives with all possible attention, in order to make sure whether they were really girls and whether they were capable of giving birth to children and whether they had any defect - and finally, from these 10 there was wife chosen." It is interesting that Ivan the Terrible would subsequently do exactly the same thing: in 1571 he would hold a viewing of brides, at which he would choose Marfa Sobakina as his wife, and Evdokia Saburova for his son Ivan. Thus, the pre-made choice of a bride from the Saburov family was twice staged as a magnificent celebration.
During her marriage with the Grand Duke, the name of Solomonia is mentioned three times in the chronicles: first in connection with the move of the Grand Duke's family to a new courtyard near the Church of the Annunciation in the Kremlin (May 7, 1508 - it was on this day that the Monk Nil of Sorsky passed away), then in connection with traveling together with the Grand Duke on an autumn tour of the Russian land (September 8, 1511 - at Christmas Holy Mother of God and on the day in which Fyodor Sabur became famous) and in connection with the burial of brother Vasily III Prince Semyon Ivanovich (June 28, 1518). Thus, the Grand Duchess took an active part in the life of her husband. It is known that there was correspondence between them, which, unfortunately, has not survived. In addition, we again see that many events in the life of the family were timed to coincide with memorable dates.
Samples of Russian facial embroidery have survived to this day - amazing multi-figure compositions by Solomonia herself: the veil “The Appearance of the Mother of God to St. Sergius” with holidays and “Reverend Kirill of Belozersky with the Life”. Single-figure compositions have also been preserved: the shrouds “Our Lady of Petrovskaya” and “Metropolitan Peter” (let me remind you that, like the Saburovs, the saint was of Galician-Volyn origin and, according to legend, his fate is closely connected with them), “Reverend Sergius of Radonezh”, “ Venerable Kirill of Belozersky”, “Venerable Paphnutius of Borovsky”, “Venerable Leonty of Rostov”, “Venerable Euphrosyne of Suzdal”. Last work speaks of the attention of the grand ducal couple to Suzdal shrines and monasteries - in 1509 Vasily III visited the Suzdal Intercession Monastery and began stone construction here. By 1518, the Gate Church of the Annunciation, the Church of the Origin of the Precious Tree of the Holy Cross and the Intercession Cathedral were built, which have survived to this day.
Along with works that came out of the workshops of other descendants of Zakharia Chet - the Saburovs, Godunovs and Peshkovs, facial embroidery from the workshop of Grand Duchess Solomonia is constantly mentioned in the works of art historians - as the most striking example of Russian art of the 16th century.
Several icons of this century are known with images of the patrons of the grand ducal family - the martyr Solomonia, Basil of Paria and Basil the Great. This is the icon “Basily the Great and Grand Duke Vasily”, thanks to which we know what Solomonia’s husband looked like - he is depicted in full height opposite the saint. This is the icon of the Maccabee Brothers, their teacher Eleazar and their mother Solomonia, which is the contribution of the grand ducal house to one of the monasteries. And finally, this is the image of “Our Lady of Vladimir with Basil the Great and Solomonia,” which belonged to the Saburov family.As for the last icon, this copy of the famous miraculous icon was made on the highest level, probably by a royal icon painter who turned directly to the 12th century icon (the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was preserved in its original form, without renovations, until 1514). In the 17th century, in memory of family union Basil and Solomonia, Saints Basil and Solomonia were depicted in the margins of the icon, and in the 19th century the inscription was written on the back of the image: “1508 [year]. From the clan of boyars, Grand Duchess Solomonia passed into the Denisov clan, from the Denisov clan to the Koshutin clan.”
It can be assumed that we are not talking about the Denisovs, but about the Denisyevs (the inscription was probably made by a representative of the Koshutin family, who could distort the surname) - two ancient families of the Denisyevs are known, one of which comes from Grigory Mikhailovich Denisyev, mentioned at the wedding of the sister of Vasily III Feodosia and Prince Vasily Danilovich Kholmsky (1500). Probably, the Saburovs and Denisyevs also became related through marriage.
Divorce case
Grand Duke Vasily and Grand Duchess Solomonia lived in marriage for 19 years, but they had no offspring. This prompted them to intensely pray for the gift of offspring: thus, on the already mentioned shroud of 1525, “The Appearance of the Mother of God to St. Sergius,” donated by the couple to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, images of “The Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary” and “The Conception of John the Baptist” were embroidered with the inscription: “Lord have mercy on the blessed Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich, Sovereign of All Russia and his blessed Grand Duchess Solomonia and their cities, may the Lord give them the fruit of the womb.”
This sadness of the grand ducal couple is poetically reflected in the chronicle - it is based on “Jacob’s Tale of the Birth of Mary,” a well-known non-canonical work that tells about Joachim and Anna, who had no children for a long time, and about their joy in connection with the birth of Mary, the future Mother of God . In the same 1525, “the Great Prince, the king of all Russia, went on a detour; Let him go quickly into gilded chariots and armourers with him, as befits a king; and looked up to the sky and saw a bird's nest on a tree, and made great weeping and sobbing, saying within yourself: Be cruel to me, to whom I am likened; I am not like the birds of the air, for the birds of the sky are fertile, nor the beasts of the earth, for the beasts of the earth are fertile, I am not like anyone else, nor the waters, for the waters are fertile, for the waves comfort them and the fish mock them (that is, having fun. - CHALK.); and despite the earth and saying: Lord, I am not like this earth, for the earth bears its fruit for all time, and bless you, Lord.”
It is important to note that five years later, in exactly the same terms, the chronicler will describe the sadness of Vasily III regarding his second childless marriage. Thus, speaking about which of the spouses was the cause of childlessness, we must understand that Rurikovich could also be the “culprit”.
In the “Tale of the tonsure of the Grand Duchess Solomonida” it is said that she wanted monastic tonsure: “In the summer of 7034, the blessed Grand Duchess Solomonida, seeing the barrenness of her womb, like Sarah of old, began to pray to the sovereign Grand Duke, that he would command her to be clothed into a monastic image." A striking detail: Solomonia is constantly compared either with Abraham’s wife Sarah or with the righteous Anna, but both of them, after many years of barren marriage, brought offspring!
The Grand Duke did not agree with the proposal of his dear wife for a long time, not wanting to part with her. But when Solomonia turned to the metropolitan and he supported her, he still agreed. The Grand Duchess wanted the family of Vasily III to continue, and even without an heir, his position was shaky, and this could lead to the suppression of the Rurik dynasty or, at least, to a struggle for power: “The Tsar and Sovereign of All Russia does not want to do his will.” , began to say: “How can I ruin a marriage? If I do this, the second one won’t be able to buy anything”... The Grand Duchess, seeing the sovereign’s adamantness in her prayer, began to pray... the Metropolitan of All Russia, may he beg the sovereign for this and do the will of her being... His Holiness... the Metropolitan of All Russia, prayer Do not despise her tears, praying a lot for this to the sovereign with all the sacred host, may he command her will to be. The Tsar and Sovereign of All Russia, seeing her unshakable faith... commanded her will to be done. The blessed Grand Duchess, having enjoyed the honeycomb of the bees from the royal lips, joyfully departs to the monastery... and she cuts off the hair of her head from her spiritual father, the Nikolsky Abbot David. And her name for the rank of Mnishe was called Sophia.” This happened on November 28th.
Let's take a closer look at what name Solomonia took when she was tonsured, where it happened and who tonsured her.
Saint Sophia is not commemorated either on November 28, when her tonsure took place, or in the coming days. But let us remember that this was the name of the mother (Sofya Paleolog) and grandmother (Sofya Vitovtovna) of her husband, Vasily III. It is logical to assume that Solomonia took the name of the patron saint of one of her husband’s relatives when she was tonsured. This is supported by the fact that the Byzantine custom of viewing brides (during which Solomonia was chosen) was established in Rus' thanks to the Greeks Trachaniots - members of the retinue of Sophia Paleologus - and that the veil “Appearance of the Mother of God to St. Sergius” was embroidered by Solomonia based on a similar veil of Sophia Paleologus 1498 of the year. Thus, the choice of the name “Sophia” was a gesture designed to emphasize that even after tonsure, Solomonia-Sophia remained devoted to her husband and his cause.
This is supported by the choice of the monastery for tonsure: the Moscow monastery of St. Nicholas the Old was first mentioned in chronicles in 1390 - in connection with the arrival of Metropolitan Cyprian and the monks accompanying him to Moscow from Constantinople. It was in this monastery that the Metropolitan, in preparation for the meeting with the Grand Duke, put on his bishop's vestments and from here went with a procession to the Kremlin. Since ancient times, the monastery has been positioned as “Greek”. It was logical for Solomonia to take the name of her husband’s mother (Greek) in the “Greek” monastery. A little later, Tsar Ivan the Terrible assigned the St. Nicholas Monastery to Athonite monks.
It is even more interesting that the spiritual father and abbot of the monastery of St. Nicholas the Old was the Venerable David of Serpukhov - in the world Prince Daniil Vyazemsky, from the Rurikovichs († September 19, 1529). For more than 40 years he labored in the Borovsky monastery, but in 1515 he left this monastery to found a new monastery. The lands for him (20 kilometers from Serpukhov and 80 kilometers from Moscow) were provided by Prince Vasily Semenovich Starodubsky, the husband of Maria, the sister of the Grand Duchess. Having settled here, the Monk David set up cells, erected the first churches - in honor of the Ascension of the Lord with a chapel in honor of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary and a refectory in the name of St. Nicholas.
The Monk David was the spiritual child of the Monks Paphnutius of Borovsky and Joseph of Volotsk. Since Paphnutius was a student of St. Nikita of Serpukhov, and he, in turn, was a child of St. Sergius of Radonezh, we can say that the Grand Duchess was the spiritual great-granddaughter of St. Sergius. The dedication of the shrouds embroidered by Solomonia to Saints Sergius and Paphnutius immediately becomes clear. Nothing was done without meaning!
The tonsure took place in the monastery of St. Nicholas the Old, and Sofia began to live in the Moscow monastery of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary on the Moat. However, she did not stay here for long - relatives and friends began to visit her often, wanting to express their support for her. All this distracted from the monastic feat, and she asked the Grand Duke for permission to go to the Intercession Monastery in Suzdal, which she knew very well and where she had been more than once before being tonsured: “The blessed Grand Duchess monk Sophia, seeing God, did not want her to remain: many from the nobles and from her relatives, and the princesses, and the noblewomen began to come to her, for the sake of visiting, and shed many tears, looking at her nudes. The God-loving Grand Duchess monk Sophia was overcome with great sorrow for this, and began to say: “If I had desired the glory of this world, I would have reigned together with the Tsar and Sovereign of All Rus', but today I wish to remain silent in private and pray to the All-Bountiful God for the sovereign’s health, and yes If only the Lord God had given me my great sin and received remission, but for the sake of my great sin God would not have given fruit to the sovereign and deprived all Orthodoxy of the state through my infertility? And they began to pray to the sovereign to command her to go to the monastery of the Most Pure Lady Mother of God of the Honorable Protection of the Protection in the God-saved city of Suzhdal. The great prince gave thanks for this to the Lord God, who gave her so much zeal and was amazed at the warmth of her faith, and soon commanded that being... This Christ-loving woman was not like Sarah, but Anna, the spouse of Jakim the God-father: Sarah, for the sake of barrenness, commanded to bring Hagar to Abraham, the rob Anna, by fasting and prayer, resolved the infertility, and conceived the Mother of God Mary in her womb and gave birth to the immaterial Light, the Queen.”In the same way - as a voluntary - tonsure is described in the chronicles: “In the summer of 7034, November 28, the Grand Duchess Solomoneya tonsured herself as a monk, for the sake of illness; and the great prince let her go to a nunnery in Suzdal”; “Great Prince Vasilei Ivanovich ordered his Grand Duchess Solomanida to be tonsured a monk and sent her to Suzdal to the monastery of the Intercession of the Most Pure Ones, to the maiden monastery, and she was tonsured in Moscow at the Nativity of the Most Pure Ones behind the cannon huts in the maiden monastery of St. Nicholas by the old abbot David”; “Great Prince Vasilei Ivanovich tonsured Grand Duchess Solomonia, on her advice, due to the burden of illness and childlessness; but he lived with her for 20 years, but there were no children.”
The fact that the decision to take the tonsure was meaningful and voluntary is supported by the following fact: for the tonsure Solomonia chose November 28 - the memory of the Venerable Martyr Stephen the New and the Martyr Irinarch. This date was celebrated in the Saburov family as memorable: in the Fodder Book of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the Peshkov-Saburov family is commemorated precisely on November 28: “The Peshkov family. Remember Dimitri (Semenovich, cousin of Solomonia’s father. - CHALK.), Semion, Aquilina, John, Nicephorus (the last three men are Solomonia's second cousins. - CHALK.), Dominica, Demetrius, monk Sergius, monk Andreyan (Angelov, elder, cellarer of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. - CHALK.). Their dachas [for the soul’s remembrance] are a patrimony in the Kolomensky district on the Moscow River, the village of Saburovo.”
It is amazing that the granddaughter of Solomonia's second cousin - the first wife of Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich Evdokia Saburov, nun Alexander - passed away on the same day - November 28! This happened at the beginning of the 17th century (in 1614 or 1619).
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As we see, Solomonia’s voluntary tonsure, the Grand Duke’s grief over the dissolution of his marriage with her, and the blessing of the priesthood (including the disciple of St. Joseph of Volotsk, Metropolitan Daniel) for his remarriage to Elena Glinskaya are facts beyond doubt.
However, there were also opponents of this marriage.
The grandson of Yuri Patrikeevich, at whose wedding Fyodor Sabur uttered the famous “God in Kike,” was the monk prince Vassian (Patrikeev), a student of St. Nile of Sorsky. This is how his response to the Grand Duke is described in a 16th-century story: “Vasyan said to the great sovereign Sitsa: “I never... invented such a forgiveness as you ask from my unworthy lips. This is the question of Herodius of the only head of the Baptist” - that is: the desire to divorce his wife is similar to the act of the daughter of Herodias, who, having pleased the feasters with her dance, asked the king for the severed head of John the Baptist. “The Grand Duke Sovereign... conveys his thought to Elder Vasyan: “I want my Grand Duchess Solomonia to be separated from her first marriage for the sake of childlessness... And I want a second marriage, for the sake of childbearing, and so that the seed of our Vladimir ancestor is not exhausted.” And Vasyan answered the Grand Duke... in words, saying: “The Scripture, sir, writes: God has united, let not man separate... And if you separate your first marriage from yourself, and join the second, you are called an adulterer.”
The same assessment was given by the authors of the chronicles compiled in the Pskov and Novgorod lands, who were often very critical of Moscow: “The Great Prince Vasily Ioanovich tonsured his princess Solomoneya, and took Elena for himself; and all this is for our sin, as the apostle wrote: he lets his wife go, and marries another, commits adultery”; “Sovereign Prince Great Vasilei Ivanovich of All Rus' tonsured Grand Duchess Solomania as a monk and exiled him to Suzdal.”
Except Patrikeev, who has not been found for a long time common language with Vasily III, it is difficult to name other opponents of divorce. IN Soviet time, when they wrote about this divorce, they came up with many imaginary opponents - for example, the Monk Maxim the Greek. But he was not at all against divorce. Soviet historians generally had little understanding of canonical issues and religious disputes. After all, the divorce of spouses due to childlessness and the desire of one of the spouses to become a monk was permitted by the Church. Another thing is that this was the first such example in Russian history.
It is much more interesting to pay attention to the “Inventory of the Tsar’s Archive of the 16th century,” in which “the tale of Yury Maly, and Stefanida Rezanka, and Ivan Yuryev’s son Saburov, and Mashka Korelenka, and others about the illness of the Grand Duchess Solomanida” was recorded. Of the cases mentioned in this inventory, only one has been preserved, which tells about the interrogation of Solomonia’s elder brother Ivan Yuryevich Saburov: “On the summer of November 7034, 23 days, Ivan said: the Grand Duchess told me: “There is a wife named Stefanida, a cutter, and now in Moscow, and you get it and come to me”; and Stefanida’s tongue was tried and... he sent her to the courtyard of the Grand Duchess with his wife and Nastya, and that Stefanida was with the Grand Duchess; and Nastya told me that Stefanida was slandering water and moistening the Grand Duchess with it, and she looked at her on her belly and said that the Grand Duchess would not have children, and after that the tongue came to the Grand Duchess and she told me: “... and she was slandering water to me Stefanida ordered me to wet myself so that the great prince loved me, and Stefanida told me to drink water in the washstand, and ordered me to wet myself with that water”... and the Grand Duchess unwrapped the shirt or cover, or some other dress of the Grand Duke, and from that washstand she wet it dress".
In addition to Stefanida, the Grand Duchess called on a certain Masha: “Yes, Ivan said: the Grand Duchess said to me, sir: “They told me the blueberry that she knows the children (and she herself is without a nose) and you get that blueberry” and then sent the blueberry to get it... and that blueberry said I don’t remember butter, I don’t remember unleavened honey, and she sent her to the Grand Duchess with Nastya, and told her to get rid of it so that the Grand Duke would love her, and share the children, and after that he went to the Grand Duchess came, and the Grand Duchess told me: “Nastya brought me some of the blueberry, and rubbed it with it.” Ivan had a hand in this memory.” On the back of the document there is a note: “Yes, Ivan said: what do you say to the gentleman, I won’t forget how many wives and men came to me about those matters.”
As can be seen from the case, “Stephanida the Ryazanka” and “Mashka the Karelka” are healers. “Yuri Maloy” is Yuri Dmitrievich Trakhaniot, a native of a family of Greeks who came to Russia with Sophia Paleologus. He is known as a confidant of the Russian sovereigns - for example, he was entrusted with such sensitive matters as the investigation of the betrayal of Vasily Shemyachich and the escape of Prince Ivan Ryazansky. In addition, he was part of the inner circle of St. Gennady of Novgorod, the creator of the first Russian Bible.
Solomonia's brother Ivan Yuryevich was also a prominent person at the sovereign's court - a kravchiy, whose duties included not only serving the sovereign at the table and sending out dishes from the royal table to nearby boyars, but also ensuring that through food and drink the sovereign and members of the Boyar Duma did not were poisoned - accidentally or on purpose. Kravchim were well-born, especially trusted people. Therefore, we have no reason not to trust the testimony of Ivan Yuryevich.
Those actions that Stefanida and Marya taught the Grand Duchess (giving her husband the spoken water to drink or moistening his clothes with this water) are a sin. In the 16th century, the following penances were imposed for him: according to one source, “it is a sin to wash yourself with milk or honey and give someone to drink mercy for.” Penance - 8 weeks, 100 bows per day"; according to another - “or she anointed herself with oil or honey and, having washed herself, gave someone something to drink or eat, creating magic, penance for a year, and 300 bows per day.” Considering that at that time, for some sins, many years of penance were imposed (thousands of prostrations a day for decades, with excommunication from communion), we can conclude: the Grand Duchess’s sin was not regarded as serious. This is also supported by the fact that he gave testimony brother Solomonia, who, without hiding, named his wife Anastasia. Of course, this sin was against the Grand Duke (although at the same time for him), but, as subsequent events show, the matter did not proceed.
It must be borne in mind that accusations of witchcraft and infertility were at that time a very popular weapon of political struggle. As an example, we can cite Prince Kurbsky, brave from afar - the “first dissident”. In “The History of the Grand Duke of Moscow,” he wrote about Vasily III exactly the same thing that Solomonia was accused of: “Old in the future, he was looking for evil enchanters from everywhere, so that they would help him to fruitfulness, because he did not want the ruler to be his brother after him, because he had brother Yury."
Solomonia became a nun on November 28, and her brother testified just three days earlier. Although Solomonia herself expressed the desire to go to the monastery, there were probably other circumstances. Vasily III tried to provide for an option with her disagreement. An inquiry was launched to find out how the Grand Duchess behaved in marriage. Such an investigation was also necessary in order to be sure that she would not be able to give birth to a child in the future.
If Ivan Saburov's testimony answers historical truth, in this case, it must be assumed that Solomonia really used conspiracies as a means of conceiving a child.
In modern consciousness, the image of not only holy people, but even ordinary clergymen very easily collapses at the slightest hint of a sin committed by them. “How can the priest behave like this?”, “What kind of saint is he, because he did such and such?” - such questions are heard often. This is precisely a liberal, distorted view of the subject in question. Examples from Israeli, Byzantine, Russian and any other history suggest that, no matter how banal it may sound, the ministers of the Church of Christ are also people with their sins and weaknesses. Is it any wonder that they sometimes fell? After all, the main thing is not to fall, but to be able to rise.
The disciple and spiritual child of the Athonite and Optina elders, Konstantin Nikolaevich Leontyev (later the monk Clement) understood this very correctly: “Many of the saints, many of the martyrs, perhaps, were cunning in the moments of their fall; they were people; It is a sin to consider saints sinless. The Apostle Peter cheated out of fear and denied Christ for a moment.” This must be clearly understood before making a judgment on the evidence that Solomonia - the future Venerable Sophia of Suzdal - called upon healers for help.
The case of Yuri Tsarevich
Outside Russia, the unheard-of precedent of a prince’s divorce from his wife was perceived in a purely practical way - as an informational occasion that could be used in the fight against Russia.
In 1526, stunning news came from Suzdal to Moscow: in the monastery the Grand Duchess gave birth to a son, George (Yuri). The Austrian diplomat Sigismund Herberstein wrote that a rumor arose: Solomonia would soon be resolved. “This rumor was confirmed by two respectable women, the wives of the first advisers: the treasury guard Georgy Maly (Yuri Dmitrievich Trakhaniot. - CHALK.) and Yakov Mazur (bed-bed Yakov Ivanovich Mansurov. - CHALK.), - and they assured that they heard from the lips of Solomonia herself. Wanting to find out the matter with certainty, the Grand Duke sent “adviser Fyodor Rak (secretary Tretyak Mikhailovich Rakov) to Suzdal. - CHALK.) and a certain secretary Potat (secretary Grigory Nikitich the Lesser Putyatin. - M.E.-L.), instructing them to carefully investigate the veracity of this rumor... She, they say, answered them that they were unworthy to see the child... Some stubbornly denied that she gave birth. So, the rumor says two things about this incident.”On the one hand, foreigners were very fond of conveying precisely questions of an intimate nature in their writings about Russia - the more dubious and dirty, the better. Here, for example, is what Herberstein wrote (already in an affirmative tone) about the second wife of Vasily III, Elena Glinskaya: “...immediately after the death of the sovereign, his widow began to disgrace the royal bed with a certain [prince] nicknamed Sheepskin.”
On the other hand, we see that Herberstein’s first message mentions real historical figures: Yakov Mansurov, Fyodor Rakov, Grigory Putyatin, Yuri Trakhaniot. Moreover, the latter is mentioned in Russian archival sources as a person who was interviewed in connection with Solomonia’s infertility. All these persons are known as the sovereign’s trusted people in special important matters.
Let's look at another foreign certificate. The famous historian of Russian life I.E. Zabelin owned the manuscript of the translation of “Moscow, or Russian, History” by the German Heydensthal. He quotes her in his “Home Life of Russian Tsarinas”: “When rumors spread at court, supposedly former queen Solomeya is not idle in the monastery and will soon give birth; Tsar Vasily soon sent boyars and two noble ladies to directly examine Solomea. Solomeya, when she heard their arrival in Suzdal, was extremely afraid and went out into the church at the very altar and, holding the throne with her hand, stood, waiting for those sent to her; and when the boyars and ladies came to her, they asked her to come out of the altar to them. And she didn’t want to go out to them. And when they asked whether she had to be non-idle, she answered that I, with all my proper position and honor, was a queen and... in a short time I began to be non-idle from my husband Tsar Vasily Ivanovich and had already given birth to a son, George, who is now I have given him a guardian in a secret place until he grows old; and where he is now, I cannot tell you in any way, although in that I will accept death for myself. The boyars realized that she was untruthful, and the ladies, having examined her, that she had never been idle, returned to Moscow and told Tsar Vasily about everything, as if it was all a lie and a deception.”
Sophia's entry into the altar seems impossible. The great princes had this right, according to the 69th rule of the VI Ecumenical Council: “None of all those belonging to the category of laity? let him not be allowed to enter the sacred altar. But according to some ancient legend, this is by no means forbidden to the power and dignity of the king when he wants to bring gifts to the Creator.” But this does not apply to women. Although Byzantine empresses sometimes entered the altar, they were ordained deaconesses before that.
However, the main motive (the birth of his son George) is confirmed by the fact that all this “Nemchin Heidenstalus himself heard from the lips of one boyar's daughter, who herself was among the girls at the royal review during the election of Sobakina.” The fact is that this review in 1571 was attended by Evdokia Saburova, whom Ivan the Terrible wooed for his son, as well as a close relative of the future Tsar Boris Godunov, Vasily Fedorovich, and his wife Pelageya. They could well be the sources of this information.
Indirect evidence in favor of the birth of George can be whole line facts that in themselves can be explained differently, but in their totality are of significant interest.
Taking into account the Orthodox fasts and the tonsure of Solomonia on November 28, 1525, the birth of her child may occur in April 1526, when the memory of several Saint Georges is celebrated at once. This name could have been chosen either in honor of Solomonia’s father, Yuri Konstantinovich Sverchkov-Saburov, or, even more likely, in accordance with the family tradition of the Rurikovichs.
The foundations of veneration in Rus' of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious and the name George (Yuri) were laid in the 11th century by Grand Duke Yaroslav-Yuri the Wise. Many famous Rurikovichs bore this name, including Yuri Dolgoruky. Gradually, a tradition took shape to name a newborn baby both in honor of the patron saint and in honor of an ancestor (or relative). Moreover, this was often done with two for various purposes.
Firstly, the baby was given the name of that relative whose dynastic rights and clan seniority were disputed. For example, Vasily the Dark named his son Yuri the Elder (1437-1441) in honor of his great-uncle Yuri of Zvenigorod, from whom he disputed the rights to the Moscow Grand Reign. And when Yuri Vasilyevich died, he named his next son, Yuri the Young (1441-1472), in honor of both Yuri. Also, Ivan III named his son Yuri in honor of his brother, thereby “taking away” the fullness of dynastic rights from him.
Secondly, the Rurik fathers named their new children after the names of the children who died in infancy. So, Ivan the Terrible named his son Dmitry (1552-1553) in honor of his ancestor - Dmitry Donskoy, and when he died, he named in honor of both Dmitrievs - both Donskoy and his early deceased son - his other descendant - Tsarevich Dmitry of Uglich (1582-1591 ).
Based on this material, we can confidently say that the son of Vasily III and the nun Sophia, Yuri Vasilyevich, was named after his great-uncle, Yuri Vasilyevich Molodoy. Tsarevich Yuri did not live long, and by 1533 he was no longer alive, which allowed Vasily III to name his second son from Elena Glinskaya that way. Thus, Yuri Vasilyevich the Young (1533-1563) received not only the name of Yuri Vasilyevich the Elder (1526 - ca. 1533), but also his rights to the grand-ducal table.
As you can see, genealogical and onomastic studies give us additional indications of some facts in the biography of Solomonia’s son.
What else do we have?
The great princes (and not only them) had a custom of making a vow - to build a temple or monastery in honor of the birth of a son. Moreover, this was not necessarily done in the year the child was born. So, in 1531, Vasily III built the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist in Stary Vagankovo, which was dedicated to the birth of his son Ivan in 1530.Didn't Vasily III build a temple in honor of the birth of his first-born son Solomonia? Indeed, in the Resurrection Chronicle we find mention of this: in April 1527, a church was erected at the Frolov Gate of the Moscow Kremlin in the name of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious. The famous sculpture of St. George (by Ermolin), which since 1464 has been on the Frolovskaya (now Spasskaya) tower of the Kremlin, was placed here.
A few days later - on May 7, 1526 - the Suzdal Intercession Monastery, in which the Venerable Sophia lived, received the village of Pavlovskoye, Suzdal district, as a gift: “Behold, the Great Prince Vasily Ivanovich of all Russia granted the Most Pure Protection of the Holy Theotokos to Abbess Ulyanea and all the sisters that are He granted them, gave them the Most Pure Protection of the Intercession in Suzhdal, his village of Pavlovskoe with villages and repairs ... "
And a few months after that, on September 19, nun Sophia herself was granted the village: “Behold, the prince great Vasily Ivanovich All Russia. I granted Elder Sophia in Suzdal my village of Vysheslavskoye with villages and repairs, with everything that came to that village and villages and repairs from the time of birth to her belly, and after her belly another village of Vysheslavskoye to the house of the most pure Protection of the Holy Virgin. Abbess Ulyana and all the sisters. Or according to her, another abbess will be in that monastery at the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God, for their good.”
Let us note: on May 7, 1508, the grand-ducal family moved to a new courtyard near the Church of the Annunciation in the Kremlin, and on the same day the Monk Nil of Sorsky passed away. And September 19 is the eve of the feast of the holy martyr Eustathius, Grand Duke Mikhail of Chernigov and his boyar Fyodor. It is on this day that the Saburov family is commemorated in the Fodder Book of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. It seems that this gift was specially timed to coincide with the holiday (as you know, the church day begins at 6 pm the previous day).
There is also evidence of the commemoration of Prince Yuri Vasilyevich for his repose. In the Fodder Book of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery (a list of the Imperial Public Library, located in the collection of the 17th century) there is the following entry: “The month of January on the 1st day according to Prince Yurya Ivanovich, and according to Prince Yurya Vasilyevich, and according to Prince Ondriya Ivanovich, and according to the princess his Euphrosyne, in the other guild Evdokia, and by his son, Prince Volodymer Ovdrievich, and by his princess, Evdokia, and by his son, Prince Vasily, and by his two daughters, by Evdokia and by Marya, they wrote the profit food for the sovereign’s salary that the sovereign granted mercy for them.”
The persons mentioned are Andrei Staritsky (1490-1537) and Yuri Ivanovich (1480-1536) - brothers of Vasily the Third; Evfrosiniya Andreevna Staritskaya († in 1569), née Princess Khovanskaya, wife of Andrei Staritsky; their son Vladimir Staritsky (1533-1569), Princess Evdokia Nagaya († 1597) - the first wife of Vladimir Staritsky; their son Vasily Staritsky (1552-1573); as well as the children of Vladimir Staritsky from his second marriage (with Princess Evdokia Odoevskaya) († 1569) - Maria († 1569) and Evdokia (1561-1570). All of these individuals died between 1536 and 1597. Thus, the sovereign mentioned is, of course, Fyodor Ivanovich. But who is “Prince Yuri Vasilyevich”?
Let's look at the entry in another Fodder book -: “According to Prince Yury Vasilyevich, the memory of April on the 22nd day of the panakhida and mass serve as a cathedral, until the monastery stands.”
A certain “Prince Yuri Vasilyevich” is mentioned again. Vasily III had a son, Yuri, from Elena Glinskaya, the brother of Ivan the Terrible. However, he was born on October 30, 1533, was baptized on November 3 of the same year, and died on November 24, 1563. But the two entries above mention January 1 and April 22 (the eve of the holiday of St. George (Yuri) the Victorious). There is every reason to assume that this is not Ivan the Terrible’s brother according to Elena Glinskaya, but his brother from his father’s first marriage - that is, the son of Solomonia, born in April and died in January.
Sovereign Ivan the Terrible was a very smart and educated man, he knew the history of his family very well, studied archival documents. Let’s remember about “Box 44” - “And in it there are lists - the fairy tale of Yury Maly, and Stefanida Rezanka, and Ivan Yuryev’s son Saburov, and Mashka Korelenka, and others about the illness of the Grand Duchess Solomanida” - and about what has been preserved from it just one thing. So, in 1566, “on the 7th day of August, the sovereign took this box to himself.” Ivan the Terrible took on a lot of archival matters, but his interest in this box is very indicative.
Unexpected confirmation that Sophia's son existed came more than 300 years later, during the years when representatives Soviet power They actively opened the tombs and shrines of saints.
Monastic tradition clearly recorded the burial place of the nun Sophia’s son. The “Historical and Archaeological Description of the Intercession Convent” states that “on the right side of Solomonia’s tomb there is a half-arshin monument; as they say, her seven-year-old son, who was born in the monastery, is buried here” (although, according to another version, the young “Princess Anastasia Shuiskaya”, the daughter of Tsar Vasily, was buried here); “There is a legend similar to the truth that Solomonia, already tonsured in Suzdal, gave birth to a son, Yuri, who lived with her and died 7 years old. The stone covering his tomb is shown near Solomonia's tomb."
After 1934, the director of the Suzdal Museum A.D. Varganov lifted an anonymous white stone slab located next to the tomb of St. Sophia in the crypt of the Intercession Cathedral. Underneath it was discovered a small burial log, covered on the inside with a layer of lime. It contained “the remains of a child’s shirt and decayed rags without any traces of bones.”
It is important to note three signs that allow us to date this burial and dismiss the version that there was a burial there of a girl from the Shuisky family: firstly, the slab above the burial with its ornamentation repeated the nearby tombstone of the old woman who died in 1525. Secondly, such decks were typical for the 16th century. And thirdly, the shirt turned out to be a man's shirt.
At the beginning of 1944, the tissue restoration department of the State Historical Museum in Moscow, Varganov conveyed the following: “1) a small tangle of scraps of dark brown silk fabric, tied together with blackened metal woven braid; 2) chest decorations made of metal cord, sewn in rows onto silk fabric, with a slit in the middle; 3) a piece of metal braid with a smaller end of the same braid sewn to it on the side, torn downwards; 4) a floor decoration made of metal cord sewn in rows onto silk fabric, with two torn ends of the braid at the bottom; 5) a woven belt made of untwisted reddish silk and metal threads, with scraps of tassels at the ends.” Dry earth mixed with sparkles of silver fell from all these objects. Moreover, “the scraps of fabric, metal stripes and belt were covered with dark brown spots, warped and were hard to the touch. The fabric was wrinkled and caked. The metal cords have darkened..."
As a result of a long and painstaking work restorer E.S. Vidonova restored the shirt of a boy about 5 years old, who belonged to the nobility, from worm-colored silk taffeta, with gussets, lining and backing of blue color, decorated with silver stripes and remnants of pearl embroidery along the collar, sleeves and hem, along with a belt made of Shemakhan silk with spun silver and tassels at the ends. The material and technique were confidently dated to the first half of the 16th century.
Let us pay attention to the dark brown spots, the absence of the boy’s remains in the children’s burial, and the presence of earth and lime inside the log. Apparently, this indicates that the child died as a result of a tragic accident, but even years later he was not left alone: the grave was opened because someone was very interested in the reality of the existence of Solomonia’s son.
What was the cause of death of Tsarevich Yuri Vasilyevich and where his body disappeared remains a mystery. However, if we assume that he lived for 7 years, then he died in 1533. And the grave could be opened soon - during the reign of Elena Glinskaya. The fact is that at the end of this year Vasily III died, and Grand Duchess Elena remained ruler for some time under the young Ivan Vasilyevich. The exile of the monk Sofia immediately followed: she “was in Kargopol for five years and from then she was quickly transferred to the Maiden Monastery in Suzdal to the Intercession of the Most Pure Ones.” Nun Sofia was returned to Suzdal only after the death of Elena herself, that is, already by order of Ivan the Terrible (in 1538).
Kargopol was not chosen by chance: from the beginning of the century this city was under the personal control of Vasily III and was known as a place of exile for high-born people. In addition, in the middle of the century, this area was described by the cousin of the monk Sofia, Ivan Yakovlevich Saburov.
All this suggests that Grand Duchess Solomonia - nun Sophia was perceived by Elena as a possible rival. If we assume that Sophia did not have a child, then her claim to the throne is doubtful. But if we assume that there was a boy, this suggests that he O could have a better right to claim the throne than the children of Helen. Thus, Glinskaya’s repression against the first wife of Vasily III speaks in favor of the existence of Tsarevich Yuri.However, we concluded that Yuri died during the lifetime of Vasily III, who managed to name his second son after him with the same name. What worried Elena Glinskaya, since the boy died? Probably, his funeral was arranged with complete secrecy, or Vasily did not discuss the fate of Prince Yuri with his second wife at all. So she wanted to make sure that the child died.
The sequence of events is clear: death of Yuri (son of Solomonia) - birth and naming of Yuri (son of Elena) - death of Vasily III - regency of Elena - exile of Sofia - opening of Yuri's grave - death of Elena - return to Suzdal of Sofia - reign of the young Ivan the Terrible.
One can only guess what feelings the Monk Sophia must have experienced, who gave birth to a son after tonsure, witnessed his death, and then discovered her son’s open grave (and the body had disappeared). Of course, all this was a difficult ordeal for the mother.
In my opinion, there is no doubt that Tsarevich Georgy (Yuri) Vasilyevich is a real historical person and that he died as a child. But the Russian people have their own opinion on this matter: Tsarevich Yuri has been called Ataman Kudeyar for almost 500 years.
Ataman Kudeyar
This personality is one of the most popular in Russian folklore: legends about Kudeyar are recorded on huge territory, coinciding with the boundaries of the Wild Field of the 16th century - in Kaluga, Bryansk, Tula, Oryol, Kursk, Belgorod, Ryazan, Tambov, Voronezh, Penza, Saratov, Samara and Ulyanovsk (former Simbirsk province) regions, as well as in Suzdal.
I know of six legends in which the son of Vasily III and Solomonia Saburova - Tsarevich Yuri - is identified with Ataman Kudeyar.
1. Saratov legend about how, going to fight Kazan, Ivan the Terrible entrusted Moscow to Kudeyar Vasilyevich, but he drew up a false decree calling for Kazan and went to the steppes with the sovereign’s treasury.
2. Simbirsk legend that Ivan the Terrible wanted to execute his brother Yuri-Kudeyar and for this purpose called him to Kazan, but Kudeyar learned about these intentions and took up defense in the Krotkovsky town near Sengiley on the Volga.
3. The story of how Ivan the Terrible met with Yuri (who was hiding under the name of “Prince Lukhovsky”) under the walls of besieged Kazan, after which Yuri fled to the north - almost to Solovki.
4. Kursk legend that Yuri-Kudeyar was kidnapped by the Tatars in order to ask the king for a ransom for him, but when this failed, Yuri was sent along with the Tatar army to obtain the Moscow throne for himself. When this also failed, he did not return to Crimea and remained in Rus', where he took up robbery.
5. The Suzdal legend that Kudeyar entered into an alliance with the Tatars, came to Rus' with them, and then, seeing their atrocities, returned to the Russian camp and helped his own people defend Moscow.
6. The story contained in the memoirs of A.Ya. Artynov, a famous Rostov local historian of the 19th century, a peasant of the palace village of Ugodichi near Rostov: “About Sidorka Altina, his direct descendant, my uncle Mikhail Dmitriev Artynov, in his history about the village of Ugodichi, written by him in 1793, says the following: Sidorko Amelfov was a kisser of the Rostov lake and the headman of the sovereign fishermen; he often traveled to Moscow with fish rent to the great Sovereign Palace; on one of these trips he was an involuntary listener royal secret, for which he paid with his life. His guilt was as follows: while on duty in the large Moscow palace and being a little tipsy (having drunk), he got lost there and went into a deserted part of the palace. Looking for a way out, he finally came to a small chamber adjacent to the royal dwelling, and there he heard a loud conversation between the Terrible Tsar and Malyuta Skuratov about Prince Yuri, the son of Solomanida Saburova. Grozny orders Malyuta to find Prince Yuri and rid him of him. Malyuta promised the tsar to fulfill this exactly and after this conversation he went out the door, in front of which Sidorko was barely standing alive. Malyuta saw him and stopped; then he went back to the king, after which he imprisoned Sidorka and tortured him to death on the rack together with his father Amelfa, who had come to Moscow to visit his son.” The pedigree of the author of this story is known precisely from the time when his ancestors served Grand Duchess Elena Glinskaya - in the 30s of the 16th century they were palace peasants.
A sign that there is no smoke without fire in in this case, is a mention in the legends of Yuri-Kudeyar of “Prince Lukhovsky”, also known as “Prince Lykov”: in 1664, among treasure hunters, a certain “letter of paper, which was sent from the Crimea, to Putivl in the past years, “from that thief Kudoyar” became known to his brother Kudoyarov and from a friend from his Kudoyarov, from a certain Prince Lykov."
As genealogists show, there really is a direct, historically reliable connection between the Saburov-Godunovs (and therefore Tsarevich Yuri) and the Lykov princes. Fyodor Nikitich Romanov - the future Patriarch Filaret and the father of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich - had five brothers and six sisters. His sister Irina was married to Ivan Ivanovich Godunov, and his sister Anastasia was married to Prince Boris Mikhailovich Lykov-Obolensky, who betrayed Tsar Boris Godunov and supported False Dmitry I - Grishka Otrepiev. That is, Ivan Godunov and Prince Boris Lykov were brothers-in-law.
The daughter of Prince Lykov and Romanova, Maria, married Ivan Shein, whose mother was Maria Mikhailovna Godunova. In this case, Prince Boris Lykov and Maria Godunova were each other's matchmaker and matchmaker. Thus, Prince Boris Lykov had a brother-in-law Ivan Godunov and a matchmaker Maria Godunova. If we assume that Prince Yuri Vasilyevich is a real historical person, then Ivan Godunov is his fifth cousin. For that time and for this family - a fairly close relationship. The great-grandfather of Prince Boris Lykov-Obolensky is the second cousin of Mikhail Yaroslavich Chet-Obolensky. But Mikhail Chet and Solomonia Saburova are also second cousins. Thus, the Lykov princes are relatives of Solomonia Saburova both according to the Saburovs, and according to the Godunovs, and according to the Obolenskys.
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Here again Tsar Ivan the Terrible, the capture of Kazan and a certain Yuri are mentioned. This plot allows us to say that we are talking about the Russian mentioned in the sources. served a person Kudeyar Bakhmetev: we know of his arrival in December 1553 as a messenger from the Nogai Murza Kasim to Ivan the Terrible.
Thus, we are talking about a specific representative of the Bakhmetev family, who, of course, was not a relative of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, but was in his service. And he became a “relative” due to the fact that, in addition to the baptismal name Yuri, he also bore the name Kudeyar, which in the popular consciousness was firmly connected with the personality of the son of Vasily III and Solomonia Saburova.
In general, the name Kudeyar is by no means as rare as researchers sometimes try to imagine. In the 17th century alone, I know (besides Bakhteyarova) five more people who bore this name:
1. Kudeyar Chufarov, a landowner from Arzamas, mentioned in 1581.
2. Prince Kudeyar Ivanovich Meshchersky, 1580.
3. Kudeyar Karachaev, son of the Mudyuranovs, - Moscow ambassador, Cossack.
4. Kildeyar (Kudeyar) Ivanovich from the family of Kursk nobles Markov.
5. The son of a boyar from Belev, Kudeyar Tishenkov, who betrayed his homeland and fled to Crimea. In 1571, he convinced the Crimean Khan Devlet Girey to march not on Kozelsk, as was planned, but directly on Moscow. The raid was very devastating, Moscow burned out, and Kudeyar went back with the Tatars to the Crimea. However, after some time, Tishenkov turned to Ivan the Terrible with a request for pardon and permission to return to Moscow. Permission was given. Nothing more is known about him.
Thus, we can confidently say that in the image of Yuri-Kudeyar, the biographies of several completely real, but different people have merged in the popular consciousness. Initially, the people paid attention to how the grand ducal and royal children, brothers and uncles “disappeared” - people understood perfectly well that some of these deaths were caused by the struggle for the throne. Here the concept of “executions of God” surfaced in the popular consciousness - the idea, in full accordance with biblical values, that invasions of foreigners are God’s punishments for human sins. Such executions were also Tatar invasions, in one of which Kudeyar Tishenkov took an active part. Paradoxically, the people considered the arrival of himself, but in the guise of Tsarevich Kudeyar, as a punishment for the death and removal from the throne of Tsarevich Yuri Vasilyevich.
Further more. After the chain “Tsarevich Yuri - the execution of God - Kudeyar” became entrenched in the popular consciousness, legends about Yuri-Kudeyar began to be added biographical facts from the life of all the famous Kudeyars of the 16th century, for example Kudeyar Bakhmetev, and then the name Kudeyar became a household name, and all robbers began to be called “Kudeyars”. The “exploits” of the “Kudeyars” (especially with a Robinhoodian touch) began to be attributed to Yuri-Kudeyar, whose subordinates were Stenka Razin from the 17th century, and Emelka Pugachev from the 18th century. By this time, the son of Solomonia should have been 250 years old.
Thus, we see that there is a historical basis under the legends about Tsarevich Yuri-Kudeyar, but this collective image.
It is important to note one more plot that will help us understand the place that the personal tragedy of the son of Solomonia occupies in Russian history. We are talking about the fate of the eldest and only son of Ivan III from his first marriage, Ivan the Young, and the latter’s son, Dmitry Vnuk. They are Vasily III's brother and nephew, and Tsarevich Yuri Vasilyevich's uncle and cousin.
For a long time There was not even any talk about the fact that Vasily Ivanovich would become the heir to the Russian throne. This role was assigned to Ivan Ivanovich the Young, married to Elena Voloshanka, the daughter of the Moldavian ruler Stefan. And even after Ivan the Young died, Ivan III saw neither Vasily, but Dmitry Vnuk, the son of Ivan the Young, as his successor. Moreover, Dmitry Vnuk was crowned king according to the model Byzantine emperors- during the lifetime of his grandfather. But at the turn of the 16th century, the situation changed dramatically: the crowned successor to the throne, together with his mother, faded into the background, and Vasily Ivanovich began to be called the official heir.
What happened? Often historians try to explain this by the struggle of people and clans. But this is only partly true, since at the heart of it was a struggle of ideas. The fact is that behind Ivan the Young and Dmitry Vnuk there were forces that loved Appanage Rus', in other words - separatists. What’s even worse, through Elena Voloshanka, the heresy of the Judaizers penetrated into the family of Ivan the Young - a colossal threat to Russian Orthodoxy, which consisted of sympathies for Jewish religious ideas. Judaizers did not recognize the Russian Paschal and chronology from the Creation of the world, icons and relics of saints, they focused on the celebration of Saturday, etc. The greatest fighters against this heresy were St. Gennady of Novgorod and St. Joseph of Volotsk.
It so happened that Vasily Ivanovich, together with his mother Sophia Paleolog, became involved in a conspiracy against the family of Ivan the Young, which was uncovered. The ordinary executors of the conspiracy were executed, and Vasily and his mother fell into disgrace and were not even invited to the crowning of Dmitry Vnuk.
But despite the minor family line Vasily, despite the conspiracy in which he participated, shortly before his death, Ivan III transferred the throne to him. Vasily was never crowned king, and only his son Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible was crowned (in the image of the wedding ceremony of Dmitry Vnuk) in 1547.
At the same time, Dmitry Vnuk himself was kept in captivity, where he ended his life shortly after Vasily’s marriage to Solomonia Saburova. Is it possible to feel sorry for him, married to Russian kingdom, but died in captivity? Undoubtedly. Is it possible to feel sorry for his father, Ivan the Young, who was a successful statesman and prince of Tver, but died young as a result of a struggle for power? Undoubtedly. Does this mean that Ivan III or his wife Sophia Paleologus or their son Vasily III were villains? Of course not! They were great statesmen, thanks to whom and under whose rule the Russian state ideology, known to us from the works of the Josephites and as the idea of Moscow - the Third Rome. It was thanks to these people that a united Russia, not divided into appanages, with its single national idea, became stronger.
Thus, having briefly examined the fate of Dmitry Tsarevich, we see that there was nothing surprising in the fate of Yuri Tsarevich - removal from the throne and subsequent death young heir at the end of the 15th - first half of the 16th centuries were not isolated phenomena. The fate of Yuri-Kudeyar was exactly the same as the fate of his uncle Ivan the Young and the fate of his cousin Dmitry-Vnuk.
The Russian people, simple contemporaries of these events, saw only the external side of these events, and did not have the whole necessary information in order to make judgments at the national level, therefore Russian folklore reflects sympathy specifically for the losing side.
The fate of Ivan the Young became the basis for the appearance of a cycle of Russian fairy tales about Ivan Tsarevich. Let's compare the main episodes from the life of Ivan Tsarevich and the well-known biographical details of Ivan Ivanovich the Young.
Ivan Tsarevich has two villain brothers - Vasily and Dmitry, and Ivan the Young has brothers Vasily and Dmitry.
In a fairy tale: golden apples begin to mysteriously disappear, and Ivan’s brothers turn a blind eye to this, and Ivan is the only one who was able to catch the thief. In life: Sophia and Vasily were accused of intending to seize the grand ducal treasury, located in Beloozero, during the conspiracy.
In the fairy tale: Ivan married the princess Elena the Beautiful/Wise, whom he brought home from distant lands. In life: Ivan married Elena, the daughter of the Moldavian ruler Stefan.
In the fairy tale: Ivan was treacherously killed by his own brothers. In life: Ivan died during the struggle for the throne.
In the fairy tale: The Tsar was angry with Ivan’s brothers and put them in prison. In life: shortly after Ivan’s death, Sophia was sent to prison along with her son Vasily.
In a fairy tale: we meet the Firebird and Gray wolf. In life: on the coins of Tsarevich Ivan, who was the appanage prince of Tver, we meet them.
It is clear that the Russian people romanticized the image of the losing side in fairy tales, or at least did not tell the tale to the end: after all, the “villains” won and turned out to be positive heroes.
We see exactly the same thing in the case of Yuri Tsarevich - Ataman Kudeyar. Let's think: what should Vasily III do when he learned that his wife gave birth to a son in the monastery? Recognize the heir and return his nun wife to Moscow? To avoid bigamy, he had to divorce a second time - from his young wife Elena Glinskaya. Would anyone take seriously a sovereign who, within two years, first divorces his first wife and marries a second, then divorces his second in order to reunite with his first - a nun?! Of course not. Yes, it was not possible.
Maybe Vasily III should have left Sophia in the monastery, but brought his son Yuri closer? How would his second wife, the point of marriage with whom was to give birth to an heir, react to this? To do this means to bring confusion into the grand-ducal family and forever quarrel with everyone who stood behind Elena Glinskaya and the descendants of Zechariah Chet. Thus, a “time bomb” would have been laid: immediately after Vasily’s death, two groups would have formed - pro-Yurievskaya and proglinskaya. No, Vasily already went through this in his youth, and tried in every possible way to avoid a similar situation for his descendants.
Thus, we see that the fate of Yuri Vasilyevich was predetermined - especially after the birth of his son Ivan from his marriage with Elena. Yuri Vasilyevich had to live his whole life under supervision: even if he himself had not taken up the task of “getting the throne,” there would always have been people (both within the country and outside) who would have raised the banner of Yuri for their own political purposes. Is it possible to feel sorry for Yuri? Undoubtedly. Does this mean that Vasily III or Ivan the Terrible were villains? Of course not.
This is how the situation with the birth of Sofia’s son was perceived by only two observers - ordinary Russian people and foreigners, who equally believed that “the villains imprisoned the innocent Yuri.” But the reasons for this opinion were different. If in Russian folklore the legends about Yuri-Kudeyar became, as it were, a continuation of the cycle of fairy tales about Ivan Tsarevich, then foreigners perceived the information about the son of Solomonia in a completely different way. The idea that the grand ducal couple had a son who has more rights to the throne than Ivan the Terrible, who is on it, runs like a red thread through the works of numerous foreign intelligence officers and adventurers.
Many of the authors of the 16th-17th centuries talk about this. For example, Adam Olearius wrote: “the tyrant Ivan Vasilyevich” “forcibly sent his wife Solomonia to the monastery after, having spent 21 years in married life with her, he could not bear children; he then married another woman named Elena... The first wife, however, soon gave birth to a baby son in the monastery.”
Yes, yes, that’s right: according to Olearius, Solomonia’s husband was not Vasily Ivanovich, but Ivan Vasilyevich, that is, Ivan the Terrible! Further more.
Petrey de Erlesund put the following words into Sophia’s mouth: “Neither she nor the Grand Duke will see the baby’s bright face and sweet eyes; but the day will come when in due time he will fearlessly appear before the eyes of his subjects, let them see his bright eyes and will not leave her shame, desecration and humiliation without vengeance... Many of the Russians told for sure that Salome gave birth to a son... and then, having entered During his great reign, he called himself Ivan and committed many inhuman cruelties in Russia and Livonia. But some dispute this and think that Ivan is Vasily’s youngest son from Elena, daughter of Vasily Glinsky.”
As we see, two ideas are being pursued here simultaneously: Yuri Tsarevich will take revenge on the Rurikovichs for tonsuring his mother and removing himself from the throne; and he probably did this, since, having changed his name, he ruled Russia as Ivan the Terrible - “tyrant and murderer.”
It turns out that Yuri was both the son and husband of Solomonia and also Ivan the Terrible! Even if we put aside the genealogical nonsense of the two authors, then in any case their pathos is clear: Russian rulers are tyrants and usurpers who illegally own the throne. What's the next thought? Of course, we need to help Russia and give it a beneficent ruler! As I.E. rightly noted. Zabelin, the rumor about the birth of George in the mouths of foreigners “is a seditious attempt to cause confusion in the sovereign’s family and in the state, the first attempt to install an impostor.” And if in the 16th century it was not possible to steal the name of Tsarevich Yuri for this purpose, then at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries this was completely successful - in the case of Tsarevich Dmitry of Uglich, in whose name several False Dmitrievs ruled at once.
Miracles of St. Sophia
However, politics was politics, and life went on: after becoming a monk, Sophia became famous for her godly life and labors. In the monastery, the Grand Duchess continued to embroider and dug a well with her own hands. She lived another 17 years and passed away at the age of approximately 60 - on December 16, 1542, having outlived not only her husband and his second wife, but also her son Yuri.According to monastery legend, Tsar Ivan the Terrible visited the monastery in 1552, before his campaign against Kazan. After her capture, he made a contribution to the monastery, and Tsarina Anastasia Romanova placed a shroud on the tomb of St. Sophia.
In 1563, the second wife of Ivan the Terrible, Tsarina and Grand Duchess Maria Temryukovna and Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich went to pray at the Suzdal Intercession Monastery, and the next year Tsar Ivan himself went “to Suzdal to the Intercession of the Most Pure Mother of God in the maiden monastery for the holiday of the Intercession of the Most Pure One to pray with his great queen Princess Marya, with her son and Tsarevich Ivan.” Let me remind you that seven years later this prince will marry Evdokia Saburova, and eight years later she will also be tonsured a nun (under the name Alexandra) - in the same monastery.
IN late XVI century, a contribution to the monastery was made by Tsarina Irina Godunova, a relative of Sofia: “Yes, the Empress Tsarina Grand Duchess Irina sent to the Grand Duchess Solomonida, and to the monastery Sofia, the cover is black velvet, and on it there is a cross, silver cloaks are gilded, embossed, and on the cloaks there is a carving of the Deesis and the elect saints, and near the cloaks there is a copy and a cane and the signature of the cross is lowered with pearls, and near the cover of the signature the words are embroidered in gold on Tausin satin, and near the signature the rope is embroidered in gold and lined with crimson taffeta.”
In 1598, half a century after Sophia’s repose, the first miracle known to us occurred at her grave - the wife of Prince Daniil Andreevich of Suzdal, Princess Anna Fedorovna Nogteva, who had been blind for six years, regained her sight. After the death of her husband, she also took monastic vows in this monastery and took the monastic name of Alexander.
In the new century, Russia faced difficult trials. During the Time of Troubles, in 1609, detachments of a loyal supporter of the false Dmitry, Prince Alexander Lisovsky, who was known for his mercilessness in taking cities and monasteries, which he subjected to complete destruction (it would not be superfluous to note that he was a Jesuit), came to Suzdal. But this time a miracle happened: in a dream, a formidable nun appeared to him with burning candles in her hands and began to scorch him with flames. Fear fell on the chieftain, and his hand was taken away. Struck by the wrath of God, Lisovsky did not ruin Suzdal.
Many miracles at the tomb of Sophia are known to us thanks to the keymaster of the Intercession Cathedral, priest Anania Fedorov, who wrote them down and told descendants about the nationwide veneration of the nun Sophia. Miracles multiplied, Suzdal hierarchs began to raise the issue of canonization. In 1750, Patriarch Joseph of Moscow and All Rus' allowed her to be venerated as a saint. But soon Russia was shaken by even more severe trials than the Troubles: church schism, liquidation of the patriarchate, Peter's reforms. As a result, for more than two centuries the name of St. Sophia was under an unspoken ban. But people continued to venerate the saint.
Only in 1916, with the blessing Holy Synod The name of St. Sophia of Suzdal was included in the church calendar, and in 1995 her relics were solemnly discovered.
Saint Sophia is one of those saints whose help we constantly feel: miracles multiply. I will give several examples from 2001-2006, told by residents of Moscow, Ivanovo, Vladimir region and Tyumen.
“In mid-February 2003, my mother had a stroke. left-hand side her face was distorted, her speech was impaired, her eyes almost couldn’t open. I had consecrated oil from the relics of St. Sophia of Suzdal, which I acquired at the Intercession Monastery, and with this oil I offered my mother to anoint her head and face...
In the hospital, she had a dream: she stood in a large temple, surrounded by people in black clothes, their faces were stern. The mother became scared, she wanted to break out of this circle. Suddenly she saw a woman in princely clothes, very beautiful, appear in the temple. Easily approaching her mother, she took her hand and said: “Let's go.” In the morning, mom felt much better.”
“In 2002, doctors diagnosed me with uterine cancer; They were supposed to have an operation in the fall... I saw in a dream an ancient icon depicting a saint unknown to me, and at the same time I felt that I had to come to her relics... In August, for the Feast of the Transfiguration, I came to Suzdal... Entering the main cathedral of the Intercession Monastery, I saw on the wall the same icon that I saw in my dream. It was an icon of St. Sophia of Suzdal. For three days I went to the monastery for services and venerated the relics of the holy ascetic. When I went to the hospital in September, it turned out that there was no longer a need for surgery, and six months later I was taken off the register.”
Relations with the boyars
Under Vasily III, simple appanage relations between subjects and the sovereign disappeared.
Baron Sigismund von Herberstein, the German ambassador, who was in Moscow at that time, notes that Vasily III had power that no other monarch had, and then adds that when Muscovites are asked about a matter unknown to them, they say, equaling the prince with God :" We don’t know this, God and the Emperor know".
On the front side of the Grand Duke's seal there was an inscription: “ Great Sovereign Basil, by the grace of God, Tsar and Lord of All Rus'" On the back it read: “ Vladimir, Moscow, Novgorod, Pskov and Tver, and Yugorsk, and Perm, and many lands Sovereign».
Confidence in his own exclusivity was instilled in Vasily both by his far-sighted father and by the cunning Byzantine princess, his mother. Byzantine diplomacy can indeed be felt in all of Vasily's policies, especially in international affairs. In suppressing resistance to his authority, he used hard power, or cunning, or both. It should be noted that he rarely resorted to the death penalty to deal with his opponents, although many of them were imprisoned or exiled on his orders. This contrasts sharply with the wave of terror that swept Rus' during the reign of his son, Tsar Ivan IV.
Vasily III ruled through clerks and people who were not distinguished by their nobility and antiquity. According to the boyars, Ivan III still consulted with them and allowed himself to contradict, but Vasily did not allow contradictions and decided matters without the boyars with his entourage - the butler Shigona Podzhogin, and five clerks.
The spokesman for boyar relations at that time was I.N. Bersen-Beklemishev is a very smart and well-read person. When Bersen allowed himself to contradict the Grand Duke, the latter drove him away, saying: " Go away, you stinker, I don't need you"Later, Bersen-Beklemishev's tongue was cut out for speeches against the Grand Duke.
Intra-church relations
Thus, the so-called “destinations” were abolished and only simple servicemen and princes remained in the Moscow state.
War with Lithuania
Sigismund wrote to Rome on March 14 and asked to organize against the Russians crusade by the forces of the Christian world.
The campaign began on June 14. The army under the command of Vasily III moved towards Smolensk through Borovsk. The siege lasted four weeks, accompanied by intense artillery shelling of the city (several Italian specialists in the siege of fortresses were brought in). However, Smolensk survived again: the siege was lifted on November 1.
In February of the year, Vasily III gave the order to prepare for the third campaign. The siege began in July. The city was literally shot down by hurricane artillery fire. Fires started in the city. The townspeople crowded into churches, praying to the Lord for salvation from the Moscow barbarians. A special service was written to the patron saint of the city, Mercury of Smolensk. The city was surrendered on July 30 or 31.
The celebration of the capture of Smolensk was overshadowed severe defeat near Orsha. However, all attempts by the Lithuanians to recapture Smolensk ended in failure.
In the year a truce was concluded with the cession of Smolensk to Moscow until the “eternal peace” or “consummation”. In the year, according to the vow he made 9 years ago, the Grand Duke founded the Novodevichy Convent near Moscow in gratitude for the capture of Smolensk.
Wars with Crimea and Kazan
During Lithuanian war Basil III was in alliance with Albrecht, Elector of Brandenburg and Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, whom he helped with money for the war with Poland; Prince Sigismund, for his part, spared no money to raise the Crimean Tatars against Moscow.
Since the Crimean Tatars were now forced to refrain from raiding the Ukrainian lands belonging to the Grand Duke of Lithuania, they directed their greedy gaze towards the Seversk land and the border regions of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. This was the beginning protracted war between Russia and Crimean Tatars, in which the Ottoman Turks later took part on the side of the latter.
Vasily III tried to restrain the Crimeans, trying to conclude an alliance with the Turkish Sultan, who, as the supreme ruler, could prohibit the Crimean Khan from invading Rus'. But Rus' and Turkey did not have any common benefits and the Sultan rejected the offer of an alliance and responded with a direct demand that the Grand Duke not touch Kazan. Of course, the Grand Duke could not fulfill this requirement.
In the summer, the son and heir of Mengli-Girey, Khan Muhammad-Girey managed to reach the outskirts of Moscow itself. The governor of Cherkassy, Evstafiy Dashkevich, at the head of an army of Ukrainian Cossacks who were in his service, raided the Seversk land. When Vasily III received news of the Tatar invasion, he, in order to gather more troops, retreated to Volok, leaving Moscow to the Orthodox Tatar prince Peter, the husband of Vasily's sister Evdokia (+ 1513). Muhamed-Girey missed convenient time and did not occupy Moscow, only devastating the surrounding area. Rumors about the hostile plans of the Astrakhan people and the movement of the Moscow army forced the khan to retire to the south, taking with him a huge captivity.
Kazan Khan Muhammad-Emin opposed Moscow soon after the death of Ivan III. In the spring, Vasily III sent Russian troops to Kazan, but the campaign was unsuccessful - the Russians suffered two serious defeats. However, two years later, Muhammad-Emin returned the captives to Moscow and signed a friendly treaty with Vasily. After the death of Muhammad-Emin, Vasily III sent the Kasimov prince Shah-Ali to Kazan. The Kazan people first accepted him as their khan, but soon, under the influence of Crimean agents, they rebelled and invited Sahib-Girey, the brother of the Crimean khan (city), to the Kazan throne. Shah Ali was allowed to return to Moscow with all his wives and property. As soon as Sahib Giray sat in Kazan, he ordered some of the Russians living in Kazan to be destroyed and others to be enslaved.
Construction
The reign of Vasily III was marked in Moscow by the scale of stone construction.
- The walls and towers of the Kremlin were built on the river side. Neglinnaya.
- In the year the Archangel Cathedral and the Church of John the Baptist at the Borovitsky Gate were consecrated.
- In the spring of the year, the stone churches of the Annunciation in Vorontsovo, the Annunciation on Stary Khlynov, Vladimir in Sadekh (Starosadsky Lane), the Beheading of John the Baptist near Bor, Barbarians against the Master's Court, etc. were founded in Moscow.
By decree of the tsar, churches were also built in other parts of the Russian land. In Tikhvin in the year for the miraculous