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. The appanage system was preserved, 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 the only solution to the problem - submission 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
The expansion of the Russian state under Vasily 3 also turned out to be quite extensive. The country managed to strengthen its influence, despite its fairly 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 introduced Catholicism to the local population.
In 1508, Russian troops besieged Minsk. The siege was successful and Sigismund 1 asked for peace. As a result, all the lands that Ivan III annexed were assigned to Russia. This was a big breakthrough and an 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 in the same year, the 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 - the 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 this, the 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
Vasily the Third Ivanovich was born on March twenty-fifth, 1479 in the family of Ivan the Third. However, Ivan the Young, his eldest son, was announced as Ivan’s co-ruler back in 1470. There was no hope that Vasily would gain power, but in 1490 Ivan the Young died. Soon Vasily the Third is declared heir. At the same time, he became his father’s official heir only in 1502. At that time, he was already the Grand Duke of Novgorod and Pskov.
Like foreign policy, domestic policy was a natural continuation of the course begun by Ivan the Third, who directed all his actions towards centralizing the state and defending the interests of the Russian church. In addition, his policies led to the annexation of vast territories to Moscow.
So in 1510 Pskov was annexed to the Moscow Principality, four years later Smolensk, and in 1521 Ryazan. A year later, the Novgorod-Seversky and Starodub principalities were also annexed. The careful innovative reforms of Vasily the Third led to a significant limitation of the privileges of the princely-boyar families. All important state affairs were now accepted personally by the prince, and he could receive advice only from trusted persons.
The policy of the ruler in question had a clearly defined goal of preserving and protecting the Russian land from regular raids, which periodically occurred “thanks to” the detachments of the Kazan and Crimean Khanates. To resolve this issue, the prince introduced a rather interesting practice, inviting noble Tatars to serve and allocating vast territories for them to rule. In addition, in foreign policy, Vasily the Third was friendly to distant powers, considering the possibility of concluding an anti-Turkish union with the Pope, etc.
During his entire reign, Vasily the Third was married twice. His first wife was Solomonia Saburova, a girl from a noble family of boyars. However, this marriage union did not bring heirs to the prince and was dissolved for this reason in 1525. A year later, the prince marries Elena Glinskaya, who gave him two sons, Yuri and Stepan.
On December 3, 1533, Vasily the Third died of blood poisoning, after which he was buried in the Moscow Kremlin. Historians consider the most important result of the era of his reign to be the unification of the northeastern and northwestern territories of Rus'. After Vasily the Third, his young son Ivan ascended to the Russian throne under the regency of Glinskaya, who became the most famous Tsar of Rus'.
Video lecture by Vasily III:
The dispute about the succession to the throne, which arose at the end of the reign of John III and in which the boyars, out of hatred for the wife of John III and the mother of Vasily Ioannovich, Sophia Fominishna Palaeolog, sided with Dimitri Ioannovich (see John III), was reflected throughout the entire period of the great reign of Vasily Ioannovich. He ruled through clerks and people who were not distinguished by their nobility and antiquity. With this order, he found strong support in the influential Volokolamsk monastery, whose monks were called Josephites, named after Joseph of Volotsky, the founder of this monastery, a great supporter of Sophia Fominishna, in which he found support in the fight against the heresy of the Judaizers. Vasily III treated the old and noble boyar families coldly and distrustfully; he consulted with the boyars only for appearances, and then rarely. The closest person to Vasily and his advisor was the butler Shigona-Podzhogin, one of the Tver boyars, with whom he decided matters, locking himself together. In addition to Shigona-Podzhogin, Vasily III’s advisers were about five clerks; they were also the executors of his will. Vasily III treated the clerks and his humble confidants rudely and cruelly. For refusing to go to the embassy, Vasily Ioannovich deprived clerk Dalmatov of his estate and sent him to prison; when Bersen-Beklemishev, one of the Nizhny Novgorod boyars, allowed himself to contradict Vasily Ioannovich, the latter drove him away, saying: “Go away, smerd, I don’t need you.” This Bersen decided to complain about the bike. the prince and the changes that, in Bersen’s opinion, the mother led. prince - and his tongue was cut out. Vasily Ioannovich acted autocratically, due to his personal character, coldly cruel and extremely calculating. Regarding the old Moscow boyars and noble families from the tribe of St. Vladimir and Gedimina he was extremely restrained, not a single noble boyar was executed under him; The boyars and princes who joined the ranks of the Moscow boyars constantly remembered the old days and the ancient right of the squad of departure. Vasily III took notes from them, oaths not to leave for Lithuania for service; By the way, Prince V.V. Shuisky gave the following note: “From his sovereign and from his children from their land to Lithuania, also to his brothers, and will not leave anywhere until his death.” The same records were given by the princes Belsky, Vorotynsky, Mstislavsky. Under Vasily Ioannovich, only one prince, V.D. Kholmsky, fell into disgrace. His case is unknown, and only fragmentary facts that have reached us cast some faint light on him. Under John III, Vasily Kholmsky was taken to swear an oath not to go to Lithuania for service. This did not prevent him from taking first place among the boyars under Vasily and marrying his sister. prince Why he fell into disgrace is unknown; but the occupation of his place by Prince Danila Vasilyevich Shchenya-Patrikeev and the frequent change in this place of princes from the tribe of St. Vladimir by the princes from the family of Gediminas give reason to think about discord among the boyars themselves (see Ivan the Terrible). The words of Prof. are quite applicable to Vasily Ioannovich’s relationship with the noble boyars. Klyuchevsky, who led. the prince in the regimental lists could not appoint the faithful Khabar Simsky instead of the unreliable Gorbaty-Shuisky ("Boyar Duma", p. 261), that is, he could not push well-known names from the front rows and had to obey the order with which he entered into the fight son. At the slightest conflict, he treated his relatives with the usual severity and mercilessness of the Moscow princes, about which the opponent of the son of Vasily III, Prince Andrei Kurbsky, complained so much, calling Kalita’s family “has long been bloodthirsty.” Vasily's rival in the succession to the throne, his nephew Dimitri Ioannovich, died in prison, in need. The brothers of Vasily III hated the people surrounding Vasily, and therefore the established order, and meanwhile, due to the childlessness of Vasily III, these brothers should have succeeded him, namely his brother Yuri. People close to Vasily had to fear under Yuri the loss of not only influence, but even life. Therefore, they joyfully greeted Vasily’s intention to divorce his barren wife, Solomonia, from the Saburov family. Perhaps these close people suggested the very idea of divorce. Metropolitan Varlaam, who did not approve of the idea of divorce, was removed and replaced by the abbot of the Volokolamsk monastery, Daniel. Josephite Daniel, a still young and determined man, approved of Vasily’s intentions. But the monk Vassian Kosoy Patrikeev rebelled against the divorce, who, even under the monastic robe, retained all the passions of the boyars; he was accosted by the monk Maxim, a learned Greek, a man completely alien to the calculations of Moscow politics, summoned to Russia to correct church books. Both Vassian and Maxim were both exiled to prison; the first died under Vasily, and the second outlived both Vasily III and the Metropolitan.
Under Vasily, the last appanage principalities and the veche city of Pskov were annexed to Moscow. From 1508 to 1509, the governor in Pskov was Prince Repnya-Obolensky, whom the Pskovites met unfriendly from his very arrival, because he did not come to them according to custom, without being asked and announced; the clergy did not come out to meet him with a procession of the cross, as was always done. In 1509 he led. The prince went to Novgorod, where Repnya-Obolensky sent a complaint against the Pskov people, and after that the Pskov boyars and mayors came to Vasily with complaints against the governor himself. V. the prince released the complainants and sent trusted people to Pskov to sort out the matter and reconcile the Pskov people with the governor; but no reconciliation followed. Then the Grand Duke summoned the mayors and boyars to Novgorod; however, he did not listen to them, but ordered all the complainants to gather in Novgorod for Epiphany in order to judge everyone at once. When a very significant number of complainants had gathered, they were told: “You have been caught by God and the Grand Duke Vasily Ioannovich of All Rus'.” Vel. the prince promised to show them mercy if they removed the veche bell, so that there would be no veche in the future, and only governors would rule in Pskov and its suburbs. Clerk Tretyak-Dalmatov was sent to Pskov to convey the will of the Pskov people. prince On January 19, 1510, the veche bell at St. Trinity. On January 24, Vasily III arrived in Pskov. Boyars, posadniks and living people, three hundred families, were exiled to Moscow, and Moscow rules were introduced in Pskov. Vasily III sought election to the great. princes of Lithuania. When his son-in-law Alexander died in 1506, Vasily wrote to his sister Elena, Alexander’s widow, so that she would persuade the lords to elect him as leader. princes, promising not to restrict the Catholic faith; He ordered the same through ambassadors to Prince Vojtech, the Bishop of Vilna, Pan Nikolai Radzivil and the entire Rada; but Alexander had already appointed himself a successor, his brother Sigismund. Having not received the Lithuanian throne, Vasily III decided to take advantage of the unrest that arose between the Lithuanian lords after the death of Alexander. The culprit of this unrest was Prince Mikhail Glinsky, a descendant of the Tatar Murza, who went to Lithuania under Vytautas. Mikhail Glinsky, Alexander's favorite, was an educated man who traveled a lot throughout Europe, an excellent commander, especially famous for his victory over the Crimean Khan; with his education and military glory, his wealth also attached importance to him, for he was richer than all the Lithuanian lords - almost half of the Principality of Lithuania belonged to him. The prince enjoyed enormous influence among the Russian population of the grand duchy, and therefore the Lithuanian lords were afraid that he would seize the throne and move the capital to Rus'. Sigismund had the imprudence to insult this strong man, which Vasily took advantage of, inviting Glinsky to go into his service. Glinsky's transition to the Moscow Grand Duke caused a war with Lithuania. At first this war was marked by great success. On August 1, 1514, Vasily III, with the assistance of Glinsky, took Smolensk, but on September 8 of the same year, the Moscow regiments were defeated by Prince Ostrozhsky at Orsha. After the defeat at Orsha, the war, which lasted until 1522, did not represent anything remarkable. Through the Emperor. Maximilian I, peace negotiations began back in 1517. The emperor's representative was Baron Herberstein, who left notes on the Moscow State - the best of foreign writings about Russia. With all the diplomatic skill of Herberstein, the negotiations were soon interrupted, because Sigismund demanded the return of Smolensk, and Vasily III, for his part, insisted that not only Smolensk remain with Russia, but that Kyiv, Vitebsk, Polotsk and other cities that belonged to Russia should be returned to princes from the tribe of St. Vladimir. With such claims from the opponents, only in 1522 was a truce concluded. Smolensk remained behind Moscow. This truce was confirmed in 1526, through the same Herberstein, who came to Moscow for the second time as an ambassador from Charles V. During the continuation of the war with Lithuania, Vasily put an end to his last inheritances: Ryazan and the Seversky principalities. Prince Ivan of Ryazan, they said in Moscow, planned to restore independence to his principality with the help of the Crimean Khan Makhmet-Girey, whose daughter he intended to marry. Vasily III called Prince Ivan to Moscow, where he put him in custody, and imprisoned his mother, Agrippina, in a monastery. Ryazan was annexed to Moscow; Ryazan residents were resettled in droves to Moscow volosts. There were two princes in the Seversk land: Vasily Ivanovich, grandson of Shemyaka, Prince of Novgorod-Seversky, and Vasily Semenovich, Prince of Starodubsky, grandson of Ivan Mozhaisky. Both of these princes constantly denounced each other; Vasily III allowed Shemyachich to expel the Starodub prince from his domain, which was annexed to Moscow, and a few years later he also took Shemyachich into custody, and his inheritance was also annexed to Moscow in 1523. Even earlier, the Volotsk inheritance was annexed, where the last prince, Feodor Borisovich, died childless. During the fight against Lithuania, Vasily asked for help from Albrecht, Elector of Brandenburg, and from the Grand Master of the German Order. Sigismund, in turn, sought an alliance with Makhmet-Girey, Khan of Crimea. The Gireys, successors of the famous Mengli-Girey, an ally of John III, sought to unite all the Tatar kingdoms under the rule of their family; therefore, the Crimean Khan Makhmet-Girey became a natural ally of Lithuania. In 1518, the Kazan Tsar Magmet-Amin, a Moscow henchman, died childless, and the question of succession to the throne arose in Kazan. Vasily III placed Shig-Aley, the grandson of Akhmet, the last khan of the Golden Horde, the family enemy of the Girays, here as king. Shig-Aley was hated in Kazan for his tyranny, which Sahib-Girey, Mahmut-Girey’s brother, took advantage of and captured Kazan. Shig-Alei fled to Moscow. After this, Sahib-Girey rushed to devastate the Nizhny Novgorod and Vladimir regions, and Mahmut-Girey attacked the southern borders of the Moscow state. He reached Moscow itself, from where Vasily III retired to Volokolamsk. Khan took a written obligation from Moscow to pay him tribute and turned to Ryazan. Here he demanded that the governor come to him because he was leading. the prince is now a tributary of the khan; but governor Khabar-Simsky demanded proof that he led. the prince obliged to pay tribute. The Khan sent the letter given to him near Moscow; then Khabar, holding her, dispersed the Tatars with cannon shots. Sahib-Girey was soon expelled from Kazan, where, as a result of the struggle between the Crimean and Moscow parties, constant unrest occurred, and Vasily appointed Yenaley, Shig-Aley’s brother, as khan there. In this situation, Vasily III left his affairs in Kazan. The power of Father Ivan the Terrible was great; but he was not yet an autocrat in the later sense. In the era that preceded and followed the fall of the Tatar yoke, the word: autocracy was opposed not to the constitutional order, but to vassalage: an autocrat meant an independent ruler, independent of other rulers. The historical meaning of the word: autocracy is clarified by Kostomarov and Klyuchevsky.
E. Belov
Encyclopedia Brockhaus-Efron
Vasily III (1505-1533)
From the family of Moscow Grand Dukes. Son of Ivan III Vasilyevich the Great and the Byzantine princess Sophia Fominishna Palaeologus. Genus. March 25, 1479 Vel. book Moscow and All Rus' in 1506 - 1534. Wives: 1) from 4 September. 1506 Solomonia Yurievna Saburova (d. 1542), 2) from January 21. 1526 book. Elena Vasilievna Glinskaya (d. April 3, 1538).
The childhood and early youth of Vasily III passed in worries and trials. It was not long before he was proclaimed his father’s heir, since Ivan III had an eldest son from his first marriage, Ivan the Young. But in 1490, Ivan the Young died. Ivan III had to decide who to bequeath the throne to - his son Vasily or his grandson Dmitry Ivanovich. Most of the boyars supported Dmitry and his mother Elena Stefanovna. Sophia Paleologue was not loved in Moscow; only the children of the boyars and clerks took her side. Clerk Fyodor Stromilov informed Vasily that his father wanted to reward Dmitry with the great reign, and together with Afanasy Yaropkin, Poyarok and other boyar children, he began to advise the young prince to leave Moscow, seize the treasury in Vologda and Beloozero and destroy Dmitry. The main conspirators recruited themselves and other accomplices and brought them secretly to the kiss of the cross. But the conspiracy was discovered in December 1497. Ivan III ordered his son to be kept in custody in his own yard, and his followers to be executed. Six were executed on the Moscow River, many other boyar children were thrown into prison. At the same time, the Grand Duke became angry with his wife because sorcerers came to her with a potion; These dashing women were found and drowned in the Moscow River at night, after which Ivan began to beware of his wife.
On February 4, 1498, he married Dmitry, the “grandson,” into the great reign in the Assumption Cathedral. But the triumph of the boyars did not last long. In 1499, disgrace overtook two of the noblest boyar families - the princes Patrikeev and the prince Ryapolovsky. The chronicles do not say what their sedition consisted of, but there is no doubt that the reason must be sought in their actions against Sophia and her son. After the execution of the Ryapolovskys, Ivan III began, as the chroniclers put it, to neglect his grandson and declared his son Vasily the Grand Duke of Novgorod and Pskov. On April 11, 1502, he put Dmitry and his mother Elena into disgrace, put them in custody and did not order to call Dmitry the Grand Duke, and on April 14 he granted Vasily, blessed him and placed him in the great reign of Vladimir, Moscow and All Rus' as autocrat.
Ivan III's next concern was to find a worthy wife for Vasily. He instructed his daughter Elena, who was married to the Grand Duke of Lithuania, to find out which sovereigns would have marriageable daughters. But his efforts in this regard remained unsuccessful, as well as the search for brides and grooms in Denmark and Germany. Ivan was forced in the last year of his life to marry Vasily to Solomonia Saburova, chosen from 1,500 girls presented to the court for this purpose. Solomonia's father, Yuri, was not even a boyar.
Having become the Grand Duke, Vasily III followed in everything the path indicated by his parent. From his father he inherited a passion for construction. In August 1506, the Lithuanian Grand Duke Alexander died. Hostile relations between the two states resumed after this. Vasily accepted the Lithuanian rebel Prince Mikhail Glinsky. Only in 1508 was a peace concluded, according to which the king renounced all the ancestral lands that belonged to the princes who came under the rule of Moscow under Ivan III.
Having secured himself from Lithuania, Vasily III decided to end the independence of Pskov. In 1509, he went to Novgorod and ordered the Pskov governor Ivan Mikhailovich Ryapne-Obolensky and the Pskovites to come to him so that he could sort out their mutual complaints. In 1510, on the feast of Epiphany, he listened to both sides and found that the Pskov mayors did not obey the governor, and he received a lot of insults and violence from the Pskov people. Vasily also accused the Pskovites of despising the sovereign’s name and not showing him due honors. For this, the Grand Duke put disgrace on the governors and ordered them to be captured. Then the mayors and other Pskovites, admitting their guilt, beat Vasily with their foreheads so that he would grant his fatherland to Pskov and arrange it as God informed him. Vasily III ordered to say: “I will not hold an evening in Pskov, but two governors will be in Pskov.” The Pskovites, having gathered a veche, began to think about whether to oppose the sovereign and lock themselves in the city. Finally they decided to submit. On January 13, they removed the veche bell and sent it to Novgorod with tears. On January 24, Vasily III arrived in Pskov and arranged everything here at his own discretion. 300 of the most noble families, abandoning all their property, had to move to Moscow. The villages of the withdrawn Pskov boyars were given to the Moscow ones.
From Pskov affairs Vasily returned to Lithuanian affairs. In 1512, war began. Its main goal was Smolensk. On December 19, Vasily III set out on a campaign with his brothers Yuri and Dmitry. He besieged Smolensk for six weeks, but without success, and returned to Moscow in March 1513. On June 14, Vasily set out on a campaign for the second time, he himself stopped in Borovsk, and the governor sent him to Smolensk. They defeated the governor Yuri Sologub and besieged the city. Having learned about this, Vasily III himself came to the camp near Smolensk, but this time the siege was unsuccessful: what the Muscovites destroyed during the day, the Smolensk people repaired at night. Satisfied with the devastation of the surrounding area, Vasily ordered a retreat and returned to Moscow in November. On July 8, 1514, he set out for the third time to Smolensk with his brothers Yuri and Semyon. On July 29, the siege began. Gunner Stefan led the artillery. The fire of Russian cannons inflicted terrible damage on the Smolensk people. On the same day, Sologub and the clergy went to Vasily and agreed to surrender the city. On July 31, the Smolensk residents swore allegiance to the Grand Duke, and on August 1, Vasily III solemnly entered the city. While he was organizing affairs here, the governors took Mstislavl, Krichev and Dubrovny.
The joy at the Moscow court was extraordinary, since the annexation of Smolensk remained the cherished dream of Ivan III. Only Glinsky was dissatisfied, to whose cunning the Polish chronicles mainly attribute the success of the third campaign. He hoped that Vasily would give him Smolensk as his inheritance, but he was mistaken in his expectations. Then Glinsky started secret relations with King Sigismund. Very soon he was exposed and sent to Moscow in chains. Some time later, the Russian army under the command of Ivan Chelyadinov suffered a heavy defeat from the Lithuanians near Orsha, but the Lithuanians were unable to take Smolensk after that and thus did not take advantage of their victory.
Meanwhile, the collection of Russian lands went on as usual. In 1517, Vasily III summoned the Ryazan prince Ivan Ivanovich to Moscow and ordered him to be captured. After this, Ryazan was annexed to Moscow. Immediately after that, the Starodub principality was annexed, and in 1523, Novgorod-Severskoye. Prince Novgorod-Seversky Vasily Ivanovich Shemyakin, like the Ryazan prince, was summoned to Moscow and imprisoned.
Although the war with Lithuania was not actually fought, peace was not concluded. Sigismund's ally, the Crimean Khan Magmet-Girey, raided Moscow in 1521. The Moscow army, defeated on the Oka, fled, and the Tatars approached the walls of the capital itself. Vasily, without waiting for them, left for Volokolamsk to collect shelves. Magmet-Girey, however, was not in the mood to take the city. Having devastated the land and captured several hundred thousand captives, he went back to the steppe. In 1522, the Crimeans were again expected, and Vasily III himself stood guard on the Oka with a large army. The Khan did not come, but his invasion had to be constantly feared. Therefore, Vasily became more accommodating in negotiations with Lithuania. In the same year, a truce was concluded, according to which Smolensk remained with Moscow.
So, state affairs were slowly taking shape, but the future of the Russian throne remained unclear. Vasily was already 46 years old, but he did not yet have heirs: Grand Duchess Solomonia was barren. In vain she used all the remedies that were attributed to her by the healers and healers of that time - there were no children, and her husband’s love disappeared. Vasily said with tears to the boyars: “Who is it for me to reign on the Russian land and in all my cities and borders? Should I hand it over to my brothers? But they don’t even know how to arrange their own inheritances.” To this question, an answer was heard among the boyars: “Sovereign, Great Prince! They cut down a barren fig tree and sweep it out of its grapes.” The boyars thought so, but the first vote belonged to Metropolitan Daniel, who approved the divorce. Vasily III met unexpected resistance from the monk Vassian Kosoy, the former prince of Patrikeev, and the famous Maxim the Greek. Despite, however, this resistance, in November 1525, the Grand Duke’s divorce from Solomonia was announced, who was tonsured under the name of Sophia at the Nativity nunnery, and then sent to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery. Since this matter was looked at from different points of view, it is not surprising that conflicting news about it has reached us: some say that divorce and tonsure followed according to the wishes of Solomonia herself, even at her request and insistence; in others, on the contrary, her tonsure seems to be a violent act; They even spread rumors that soon after the tonsure Solomonia had a son, George. In January of the following 1526, Vasily III married Elena, the daughter of the deceased Prince Vasily Lvovich Glinsky, the niece of the famous Prince Mikhail.
The new wife of Vasily III differed in many ways from Russian women of that time. Elena learned foreign concepts and customs from her father and uncle and probably captivated the Grand Duke. The desire to please her was so great that, as they say, Vasily III even shaved his beard for her, which, according to the concepts of that time, was incompatible not only with folk customs, but also with Orthodoxy. The Grand Duchess became more and more possessed of her husband; but time passed, and Vasily’s desired goal - to have an heir - was not achieved. There was a fear that Elena would remain as barren as Solomonia. The Grand Duke and his wife traveled to various Russian monasteries. In all Russian churches they prayed for the childbearing of Vasily III - nothing helped. Four and a half years passed until the royal couple finally resorted in prayer to the Monk Paphnutius of Borovsk. Then only Elena became pregnant. The Grand Duke's joy knew no bounds. Finally, on August 25, 1530, Elena gave birth to her first child, Ivan, and a year and a few months later, another son, Yuri. But the eldest, Ivan, was barely three years old when Vasily III fell seriously ill. When he was driving from the Trinity Monastery to Volok Lamsky, on his left thigh, on the bend, a purple sore the size of a pinhead appeared. After this, the Grand Duke began to quickly become exhausted and arrived in Volokolamsk already exhausted. The doctors began to treat Vasily, but nothing helped. More pus flowed out of the sore than the pelvis, the rod also came out, after which the Grand Duke felt better. From Volok he went to the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery. But the relief was short-lived. At the end of November, Vasily, completely exhausted, arrived in the village of Vorobyovo near Moscow. Glinsky’s doctor Nikolai, having examined the patient, said that all that remained was to trust only in God. Vasily realized that death was near, wrote a will, blessed his son Ivan for the great reign and died on December 3.
He was buried in Moscow, in the Archangel Cathedral.
Konstantin Ryzhov. All the monarchs of the world. Russia.
Vasily was the second son of Ivan III and the eldest son of Ivan's second wife Sophia Paleologus. In addition to the eldest, he had four younger brothers:
- Yuri Ivanovich, Prince of Dmitrov (1505-1536)
- Dmitry Ivanovich Zhilka, Prince of Uglitsky (1505-1521)
- Semyon Ivanovich, Prince of Kaluga (1505-1518)
- Andrei Ivanovich, Prince of Staritsky and Volokolamsk (1519-1537)
Ivan III, pursuing a policy of centralization, took care of transferring all power through the line of his eldest son, while limiting the power of his younger sons. Therefore, already in 1470, he declared his eldest son from the first wife of Ivan the Young as his co-ruler. However, in 1490 he died of illness. Two parties were created at court: one grouped around the son of Ivan the Young, the grandson of Ivan III Dmitry Ivanovich and his mother, the widow of Ivan the Young, Elena Stefanovna, and the second around Vasily and his mother Sophia.
At first, the first party had the upper hand. In the circle of Prince Vasily, not without the participation of his mother, a conspiracy against Dmitry matured. In particular, some boyar children and clerks who supported Sophia, who was not very beloved in Moscow, kissed the cross and swore allegiance to Vasily and advised him to flee to the north with the treasury, having first dealt with Dmitry. This conspiracy was discovered, and its participants, including Vladimir Gusev, were executed. Vasily and his mother fell into disgrace and, by order of Ivan, were removed away from the prince and taken into custody. But Sophia did not give up. There were even rumors that she cast a spell on Ivan and even tried to poison him. Dmitry Ivanovich was crowned on February 4, 1498 in the Assumption Cathedral for the great reign.
However, the supporters of the grandson, not without the machinations of Sophia, came into conflict with Ivan III; in 1499, the princes Patrikeev and Ryapolovsky were one of the main allies of Dmitry the grandson. In the end, disgrace befell both Dmitry himself and his mother in 1502. On March 21, 1499, Vasily was declared the Grand Duke of Novgorod and Pskov, and on April 14, 1502, the Grand Duke of Moscow and Vladimir and All Rus', autocrat, that is, he became his father’s co-ruler. After Ivan's death in 1505, Dmitry was chained and died in 1509. Vasily was no longer afraid of losing his power.
The first marriage was arranged by his father Ivan, who first tried to find him a bride in Europe, but the search was not successful. I had to choose from 1,500 noble girls presented to the court for this purpose from all over the country. The father of Vasily Solomonia's first wife, Yuri Konstantinovich Saburov, was a scribe of the Obonezh Pyatina of the Novgorod Land, the grandson of the boyar Fyodor Sabur. After his daughter’s wedding, he became a boyar and gave his other daughter to the Starodub prince.
Since the first marriage was fruitless, Vasily obtained a divorce in 1525, and at the beginning of the next year (1526) he married Elena Glinskaya, daughter of the Lithuanian prince Vasily Lvovich Glinsky. Initially, the new wife also could not get pregnant, but in the end, on August 25, 1530, they had a son, Ivan, the future Ivan the Terrible, and then a second son, Yuri.
On the way to Volokolamsk, Vasily received an abscess on his left thigh, which developed very quickly. The doctors could not help, although in the end the sore burst and a lot of pus flowed out of it: the prince temporarily felt better. Without strength, he was taken to the village of Vorobyovo near Moscow. Realizing that he would not survive, Vasily wrote a will, called Metropolitan Daniel, several boyars and asked them to recognize his three-year-old son Ivan as heir to the throne. On December 3, 1533, having previously accepted the schema, he died of blood poisoning.
Internal affairs
Vasily III believed that nothing should limit the power of the Grand Duke. He enjoyed the active support of the Church in the fight against the feudal boyar opposition, harshly dealing with all those who were dissatisfied. In 1521, Metropolitan Varlaam was exiled due to his refusal to participate in Vasily’s fight against Prince Vasily Ivanovich Shemyachich, the Rurik princes Vasily Shuisky and Ivan Vorotynsky were expelled. The diplomat and statesman Ivan Bersen-Beklemishev was executed in 1525 because of criticism of Vasily’s policies, namely because of open rejection of Greek novelty, which came to Rus' with Sophia Paleologus. During the reign of Vasily III, the landed nobility increased, the authorities actively limited the immunity and privileges of the boyars - the state followed the path of centralization. However, the despotic features of government, which were fully manifested already under his father Ivan III and grandfather Vasily the Dark, only intensified even more in the era of Vasily.
In church politics, Vasily unconditionally supported the Josephites. Maxim the Greek, Vassian Patrikeev and other non-covetous people were sentenced at Church councils, some to death, some to imprisonment in monasteries.
During the reign of Vasily III, a new Code of Law was created, which, however, has not reached us.
As Herberstein reported, at the Moscow court it was believed that Vasily was superior in power to all the monarchs of the world and even the emperor. On the front side of his seal there was an inscription: “The Great Sovereign Basil, by the grace of God, is the king and lord of all Rus'.” On the reverse side it read: “Vladimir, Moscow, Novgorod, Pskov and Tver, and Yugorsk, and Perm, and many lands of the Sovereign.”
The reign of Vasily is the era of the construction boom in Rus', which began during the reign of his father. The Archangel Cathedral was erected in the Moscow Kremlin, and the Ascension Church was built in Kolomenskoye. Stone fortifications are being built in Tula, Nizhny Novgorod, Kolomna, and other cities. New settlements, forts, and fortresses are founded.
Unification of Russian lands
Vasily, in his policy towards other principalities, continued the policy of his father.
In 1509, while in Veliky Novgorod, Vasily ordered the Pskov mayor and other representatives of the city, including all the petitioners who were dissatisfied with them, to gather with him. Arriving to him at the beginning of 1510 on the feast of Epiphany, the Pskovites were accused of distrust of the Grand Duke and their governors were executed. The Pskovites were forced to ask Vasily to accept themselves into his patrimony. Vasily ordered to cancel the meeting. At the last meeting in the history of Pskov, it was decided not to resist and to fulfill Vasily’s demands. On January 13, the veche bell was removed and sent to Novgorod with tears. On January 24, Vasily arrived in Pskov and dealt with it in the same way as his father did with Novgorod in 1478. 300 of the most noble families of the city were resettled to Moscow lands, and their villages were given to Moscow service people.
It was the turn of Ryazan, which had long been in Moscow’s sphere of influence. In 1517, Vasily called to Moscow the Ryazan prince Ivan Ivanovich, who was trying to enter into an alliance with the Crimean Khan, and ordered him to be put into custody (later Ivan was tonsured as a monk and imprisoned in a monastery), and took his inheritance for himself. After Ryazan, the Starodub principality was annexed, in 1523 - Novgorod-Severskoye, whose prince Vasily Ivanovich Shemyachich was treated like the Ryazan principality - he was imprisoned in Moscow.
Foreign policy
At the beginning of his reign, Vasily had to start a war with Kazan. The campaign was unsuccessful, the Russian regiments commanded by Vasily’s brother, Prince of Uglitsky Dmitry Ivanovich Zhilka, were defeated, but the Kazan people asked for peace, which was concluded in 1508. At the same time, Vasily, taking advantage of the turmoil in Lithuania after the death of Prince Alexander, put forward his candidacy for the throne of Gediminas. In 1508, the rebellious Lithuanian boyar Mikhail Glinsky was received very cordially in Moscow. The war with Lithuania led to a rather favorable peace for the Moscow prince in 1509, according to which the Lithuanians recognized the capture of his father.
In 1512 a new war with Lithuania began. On December 19, Vasily, Yuri Ivanovich and Dmitry Zhilka set out on a campaign. Smolensk was besieged, but it was not possible to take it, and the Russian army returned to Moscow in March 1513. On June 14, Vasily set out on a campaign again, but after sending the governor to Smolensk, he himself remained in Borovsk, waiting to see what would happen next. Smolensk was again besieged, and its governor, Yuri Sologub, was defeated in the open field. Only after that Vasily personally came to the troops. But this siege was also unsuccessful: the besieged managed to restore what was being destroyed. Having devastated the outskirts of the city, Vasily ordered a retreat and returned to Moscow in November.
On July 8, 1514, the army led by the Grand Duke again set out for Smolensk, this time his brothers Yuri and Semyon walked with Vasily. A new siege began on July 29. The artillery, led by gunner Stefan, inflicted heavy losses on the besieged. On the same day, Sologub and the clergy of the city came to Vasily and agreed to surrender the city. On July 31, the residents of Smolensk swore allegiance to the Grand Duke, and Vasily entered the city on August 1. Soon the surrounding cities were taken - Mstislavl, Krichev, Dubrovny. But Glinsky, to whom the Polish chronicles attributed the success of the third campaign, entered into relations with King Sigismund. He hoped to get Smolensk for himself, but Vasily kept it for himself. Very soon the conspiracy was exposed, and Glinsky himself was imprisoned in Moscow. Some time later, the Russian army, commanded by Ivan Chelyadinov, suffered a heavy defeat near Orsha, but the Lithuanians were never able to return Smolensk. Smolensk remained a disputed territory until the end of the reign of Vasily III. At the same time, residents of the Smolensk region were taken to the Moscow regions, and residents of the regions closest to Moscow were resettled to Smolensk.
In 1518, Shah Ali Khan, who was friendly towards Moscow, became the Khan of Kazan, but he did not rule for long: in 1521 he was overthrown by his Crimean protege Sahib Giray. In the same year, fulfilling allied obligations with Sigismund, the Crimean Khan Mehmed I Giray announced a raid on Moscow. Together with him, the Kazan Khan came out from his lands; near Kolomna, the Crimeans and Kazan people united their armies together. The Russian army under the leadership of Prince Dmitry Belsky was defeated on the Oka River and was forced to retreat. The Tatars approached the walls of the capital. Vasily himself at that time left the capital for Volokolamsk to gather an army. Magmet-Girey did not intend to take the city: having devastated the area, he turned back to the south, fearing the Astrakhan people and the army gathered by Vasily, but taking a letter from the Grand Duke stating that he recognized himself as a loyal tributary and vassal of the Crimea. On the way back, having met the army of governor Khabar Simsky near Pereyaslavl of Ryazan, the khan began, on the basis of this letter, to demand the surrender of his army. But, having asked the Tatar ambassadors with this written commitment to come to his headquarters, Ivan Vasilyevich Obrazets-Dobrynsky (this was Khabar’s family name) retained the letter, and dispersed the Tatar army with cannons.
In 1522, the Crimeans were again expected in Moscow; Vasily and his army even stood on the Oka River. Khan never came, but the danger from the steppe did not pass. Therefore, in the same 1522, Vasily concluded a truce, according to which Smolensk remained with Moscow. The Kazan people still did not calm down. In 1523, in connection with another massacre of Russian merchants in Kazan, Vasily announced a new campaign. Having ruined the Khanate, on the way back he founded the city of Vasilsursk on Sura, which was supposed to become a new reliable place of trade with the Kazan Tatars. In 1524, after the third campaign against Kazan, Sahib Giray, an ally of Crimea, was overthrown, and Safa Giray was proclaimed khan in his place.
In 1527, the attack of Islam I Giray on Moscow was repelled. Having gathered in Kolomenskoye, Russian troops took up defensive positions 20 km from the Oka. The siege of Moscow and Kolomna lasted five days, after which the Moscow army crossed the Oka and defeated the Crimean army on the Sturgeon River. The next steppe invasion was repulsed.
In 1531, at the request of the Kazan people, the Kasimov prince Jan-Ali Khan was proclaimed khan, but he did not last long - after the death of Vasily, he was overthrown by the local nobility.
Marriages and children
- Solomonia Yuryevna Saburova (from September 4, 1505 to November 1525).
- Elena Vasilievna Glinskaya (from January 21, 1526).
Children (both from his second marriage): Ivan IV the Terrible (1530-1584) and Yuri (1532-1564). According to legend, from his first marriage, after Solomonia was tonsured, a son, George, was born.
Grand Duke of Moscow and All Rus' (1505-1533).
Vasily III Ivanovich was born on March 25, 1479. He was the son of the Grand Duke (1440-1505) and. The father sought to transfer full power to his son from his first marriage, Ivan Ivanovich the Young, and back in 1470 he declared him his co-ruler, but he died in 1490.
The ensuing struggle to determine the future heir to the throne ended in the victory of Vasily Ivanovich. First, he was declared the Grand Duke of Novgorod and Pskov, and in 1502 - the Grand Duke of Moscow and Vladimir and All Rus', autocrat, that is, he became his father’s co-ruler.
After his death in October 1505, Vasily III Ivanovich unhinderedly ascended the throne, receiving, according to his father’s will, the Great Reign of Moscow, the right to manage the capital and all its income, the right to mint coins, 66 cities and the title of “Sovereign of All Rus'.”
Having become the head of state, Vasily III Ivanovich continued his father’s policy - “gathering lands,” strengthening the grand-ducal power and defending the interests of Orthodoxy in Western Rus'. From the very beginning, he energetically fought for the centralization of the state, under him the last semi-independent Russian lands were annexed - (1510), Volotsky inheritance (1513), (1514), Ryazan (1521), Starodub and Novgorod-Seversky (1522) principalities.
In foreign policy, Vasily III Ivanovich, in addition to the fight for Russian lands, also waged periodic wars with the Tatars of the Crimean and Kazan khanates, who raided. The Grand Duke's diplomatic method to protect himself from attacks was to invite Tatar princes to Moscow service, who received vast lands.
In relation to more distant countries, he pursued as friendly a policy as possible. Vasily III Ivanovich negotiated with Prussia, inviting it to an alliance against Lithuania and Livonia; received the ambassadors of Denmark, Sweden, Turkey, and the Hindu Sultan Babur. He discussed with the Pope the possibility of union and war against Turkey. Trade relations were connected with Italy, France and Austria.
In his domestic policy, Vasily III Ivanovich, in order to strengthen the autocracy, fought against the noble boyars and feudal opposition. For speaking out against the policies of the Grand Duke, many boyars and princes, and even Metropolitan Varlaam, fell into disgrace over the years. Vasily III Ivanovich took measures to remove the remnants of appanage rule to new places. The result of this policy was the rapid growth of local noble land ownership, the limitation of the immunity and privileges of the princely-boyar aristocracy.
Also, Vasily III Ivanovich pushed the boyars away from participating in solving state issues. “Councils” with the boyar duma during his reign were mainly of a formal nature: all matters were decided personally by the Grand Duke or in contact with a few trusted people. However, the strength of tradition was such that the tsar had to appoint representatives of the boyars to significant positions in the army and administration.
The reign of Vasily III Ivanovich was also marked by the rise of Russian culture, the spread of the Moscow style of literary writing, which took a leading place among other regional literatures. At the same time, the architectural appearance of the Moscow Kremlin took shape, which turned into a well-fortified fortress.
Vasily III Ivanovich was married twice. His first marriage took place back in 1505. His wife then became the boyar's daughter Solomonia Saburova. Since this marriage was fruitless, Vasily III Ivanovich, despite the protests of the church, obtained a divorce in 1525. His second wife was the princess, whom he married in 1526. In this marriage, sons Ivan (future) and the feeble-minded Yuri were born.
Grand Duke Vasily III Ivanovich died on December 3, 1533. He was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. The dying prince declared the three-year-old to be his heir under the regency of Elena Glinskaya.