THE BEGINNING OF THE UNIFICATION OF RUSSIAN LANDS

The struggle to overthrow the Golden Horde yoke began in the XIII-XV centuries. main national task. The restoration of the country's economy and its further development created the prerequisites for the unification of Russian lands. The question was being resolved - around which center the Russian lands would unite.

First of all, Tver and Moscow laid claim to leadership. The Tver principality as an independent inheritance arose in 1247, when it was received by the younger brother of Alexander Nevsky, Yaroslav Yaroslavich. After the death of Alexander Nevsky, Yaroslav became Grand Duke (1263-1272). The Tver principality was then the strongest in Rus'. But he was not destined to lead the unification process. At the end of the XIII - beginning of the XIV century. The Principality of Moscow is rapidly rising.

The rise of Moscow. Moscow, which before the Mongol-Tatar invasion was a small border point of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality, at the beginning of the 14th century. turns into an important political center of the time. What were the reasons for the rise of Moscow?

Moscow occupied a geographically advantageous central position among the Russian lands. From the south and east it was protected from the Horde invasions by the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod and Ryazan principalities, from the north-west by the Tver principality and Veliky Novgorod. The forests surrounding Moscow were impassable for the Mongol-Tatar cavalry. All this caused an influx of population to the lands of the Moscow Principality. Moscow was a center of developed crafts, agricultural production and trade. It turned out to be an important junction of land and water routes, serving both trade and military operations. Through the Moscow River and the Oka River, the Moscow Principality had access to the Volga, and through the tributaries of the Volga and the system of portages it was connected with the Novgorod lands. The rise of Moscow is also explained by the purposeful, flexible policy of the Moscow princes, who managed to win over not only other Russian principalities, but also the church.

Alexander Nevsky bequeathed Moscow to his youngest son Daniil. Under him, it became the capital of the principality, perhaps the most seedy and unenviable in Rus'. At the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, its territory expanded noticeably: it included Kolomna (1300) and Mozhaisk (1303) with their lands captured by the regiments of Daniil and his son Yuri. Upon the death of Prince Ivan Dmitrievich, the childless grandson of Nevsky, the Pereyaslav Principality passes to Moscow.

And Yuri Danilovich of Moscow in the first quarter of the 14th century. is already fighting for the Vladimir throne with his cousin Mikhail Yaroslavich of Tver. He received the khan's label in 1304. Yuri opposes Mikhail and, having married the sister of the Horde khan, becomes the Grand Duke of Vladimir (1318). The struggle for power is not over - after the execution in the Horde of the Tver prince Mikhail, who defeated a large Tatar detachment, his son Dmitry achieves his goal: he kills Yuri of Moscow in the Horde (1325). But Dmitry also dies in the Horde.

All these years, according to the chronicles, “confusion” reigned in Rus' - cities and villages were robbed and burned by the Horde and their own Russian troops. Finally, Alexander Mikhailovich, brother of Dmitry, executed in the Horde, became the Grand Duke of Vladimir; Moscow Grand Duke - Ivan Danilovich, brother of the also executed Moscow ruler.

In 1327, an uprising broke out in Tver against the Horde Baskak Chol Khan. It began at a trade - the Tatar took a horse from the local deacon, and he called on his fellow countrymen for help. People came running, the alarm sounded. Having gathered at the assembly, the Tver residents made a decision about the uprising. They came from all sides They rushed at the rapists and oppressors, killing many. Chol Khan and his entourage took refuge in the princely palace, but it was set on fire along with the Horde. The few survivors fled to the Horde.

Ivan Danilovich immediately hurried to Khan Uzbek. Having returned with the Tatar army, he walked through the Tver places with fire and sword. Alexander Mikhailovich fled to Pskov, then to Lithuania the Moscow prince received Novgorod and Kostroma as a reward. Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod and Gorodets were handed over by the Khan to Alexander Vasilyevich, Prince of Suzdal; Only after his death in 1332 did Ivan finally receive a label for the reign of Vladimir.

Having become the ruler “over all Russian land,” Ivan Danilovich diligently expanded his land holdings - he bought them, seized them. In the Horde he behaved humbly and flatteringly, and did not skimp on gifts to khans and khans, princes and murzas. He collected and transported tributes and taxes from all over Rus' to the Horde, mercilessly extorted them from his subjects, and suppressed any attempt at protest. Part of what was collected ended up in his Kremlin basements. Starting with him, the label for the reign of Vladimir was received, with short exceptions, by Moscow rulers. They headed the Moscow-Vladimir Principality, one of the most extensive states in Eastern Europe.

It was under Ivan Danilovich that the metropolitan see moved from Vladimir to Moscow - this is how its power and political influence increased. Moscow became essentially the ecclesiastical capital of Rus'. The Horde Khan, thanks to the “humble wisdom” of Ivan Danilovich, became, as it were, an instrument for strengthening Moscow. The princes of Rostov, Galicia, Belozersk, and Uglich submitted to Ivan. Horde raids and pogroms stopped in Rus', the time had come for “great silence.” The prince himself, as the legend says, was nicknamed Kalita - he walked everywhere with a purse (kalita) on his belt, giving to the poor and wretched “Christians” rested “from great languor, many hardships and violence of the Tatars."

Under the sons of Ivan Kalita - Semyon (1340-1353), who received the nickname "Proud" for his arrogant attitude towards other princes, and Ivan the Red (1353-1359) - the Moscow principality included the Dmitrov, Kostroma, Starodub lands and the Kaluga region.

Dmitry Donskoy. Dmitry Ivanovich (1359-1389) received the throne as a nine-year-old child. The struggle for the Grand Duke's Vladimir table broke out again. The Horde began to openly support Moscow's opponents.

A unique symbol of the success and strength of the Moscow Principality was the construction in just two years of the impregnable white stone Kremlin of Moscow (1367) - the only stone fortress in the territory of north-eastern Rus'. All this allowed Moscow to repel the claim to all-Russian leadership of Nizhny Novgorod, Tver, and repel the campaigns of the Lithuanian prince Olgerd.

The balance of power in Rus' changed in favor of Moscow. In the Horde itself, a period of “great turmoil” began (50-60s of the 14th century) - a weakening of central power and the struggle for the khan’s throne. Rus' and the Horde seemed to be “testing” each other. In 1377 on the river. Drunken (near Nizhny Novgorod) the Moscow army was crushed by the Horde. However, the Tatars were unable to consolidate their success. In 1378, the army of Murza Begich was defeated by Dmitry on the river. Vozha (Ryazan land). This battle was a prelude to the Battle of Kulikovo.

Battle of Kulikovo. In 1380, the temnik (head of the tumen) Mamai, who came to power in the Horde after several years of internecine hostility, tried to restore the shaken dominance of the Golden Horde over the Russian lands. Having concluded an alliance with the Lithuanian prince Jagiel, Mamai led his troops to Rus'. Princely squads and militias from most Russian lands gathered in Kolomna, from where they moved towards the Tatars, trying to forestall the enemy. Dmitry proved himself to be a talented commander, making an unconventional decision for that time to cross the Don and meet the enemy on the territory that Mamai considered his own. At the same time, Dmitry set a goal to prevent Mamai from connecting with Jagiel before the start of the battle.

The troops met on the Kulikovo field at the confluence of the Nepryadva River with the Don. The morning of the battle - September 8, 1380 - turned out to be foggy. The fog cleared only by 11 o'clock in the morning. The battle began with a duel between the Russian hero Peresvet and the Tatar warrior Chelubey. At the beginning of the battle, the Tatars almost completely destroyed the leading Russian regiment and wedged themselves into the ranks of a large regiment stationed in the center. Mamai was already triumphant, believing that he had won. However, there followed an unexpected strike for the Horde from the flank of a Russian ambush regiment led by governor Dmitry Bobrok-Volynets and Prince Vladimir Serpukhovsky. This blow decided the outcome of the battle by three o'clock in the afternoon. The Tatars fled in panic from the Kulikovo field. For personal courage in battle and military leadership, Dmitry received the nickname Donskoy.

The defeat of Moscow by Tokhtamysh. After the defeat, Mamai fled to Kafa (Feodosia), where he was killed. Khan Tokhtamysh seized power over the Horde. The struggle between Moscow and the Horde is not over yet. In 1382, using the help of the Ryazan prince Oleg Ivanovich, who pointed out the fords across the Oka River, Tokhtamysh and his horde suddenly attacked Moscow. Even before the Tatar campaign, Dmitry left the capital to the north to gather a new militia. The population of the city organized the defense of Moscow, rebelling against the boyars who rushed out of the capital in panic. The Muscovites managed to repel two enemy assaults, using for the first time in battle the so-called mattresses (forged iron cannons of Russian production).

Realizing that the city could not be taken by storm and fearing the approach of Dmitry Donskoy with his army, Tokhtamysh told the Muscovites that he had come to fight not against them, but against Prince Dmitry, and promised not to plunder the city. Having broken into Moscow by deception, Tokhtamysh subjected it to a brutal defeat. Moscow was again obliged to pay tribute to the khan.

The meaning of the Kulikovo victory. Despite the defeat in 1382, the Russian people, after the Battle of Kulikovo, believed in their imminent liberation from the Tatars. The Golden Horde suffered its first major defeat on the Kulikovo Field. The Battle of Kulikovo showed the power and strength of Moscow as a political and economic center - the organizer of the struggle to overthrow the Golden Horde yoke and unify the Russian lands. Thanks to the Kulikovo victory, the size of the tribute was reduced. The Horde finally recognized the political supremacy of Moscow among the rest of the Russian lands. The defeat of the Horde in the Battle of Kulikovo significantly weakened their power. Residents from different Russian lands and cities came to the Kulikovo field - but they returned from the battle as the Russian people.

Having lived only less than four decades, Dmitry Ivanovich did a lot for Rus'. From boyhood until the end of his days, he was constantly on campaigns, worries, and troubles. We had to fight with the Horde, and with Lithuania, and with Russian rivals for power and political primacy. The prince also settled church affairs - he tried, however unsuccessfully, to make his protégé from Kolomna Mityai a metropolitan (metropolitans in Rus' were approved by the Patriarch of Constantinople).

A life full of worries and anxieties did not become long-lasting for the prince, who was also distinguished by his corpulence and plumpness. But, ending his short earthly journey, Dmitry of Moscow left a greatly strengthened Rus' - the Moscow-Vladimir Grand Duchy, covenants for the future. Dying, he transfers, without asking the consent of the khan, to his son Vasily (1389-1425) the Great Reign of Vladimir as his fatherland; expresses the hope that “God will change the Horde,” that is, he will free Rus' from the Horde yoke.

Timur's campaign. In 1395, the Central Asian ruler Timur - the “great lame man”, who made 25 campaigns, conquered Central Asia, Siberia, Persia, Baghdad, Damascus, India, Turkey, defeated the Golden Horde and marched on Moscow. Vasily I gathered a militia in Kolomna to repel the enemy. The intercessor of Rus' - the icon of Our Lady of Vladimir - was brought from Vladimir to Moscow. When the icon was already near Moscow, Timur abandoned the campaign against Rus' and, after a two-week stop in the Yelets region, turned south. The legend connected the miracle of the capital's deliverance with the intercession of the Mother of God.

Feudal war of the second quarter of the 15th century. (1431-1453). The feuds, called the feudal war of the second quarter of the 15th century, began after the death of Vasily I. By the end of the 14th century. The Moscow principality formed several appanage estates that belonged to the sons of Dmitry Donskoy. The largest of them were Galitskoye and Zvenigorodskoye, which were received by the youngest son of Dmitry Donskoy, Yuri. He, according to Dmitry’s will, was to inherit the grand-ducal throne after his brother Vasily I. However, the will was written when Vasily I did not yet have children. Vasily I handed over the throne to his son, ten-year-old Vasily II.

After the death of Grand Duke Yuri, as the eldest in the princely family, he began to fight for the Grand Duke's throne with his nephew, Vasily II (1425-1462). After the death of Yuri, the fight was continued by his sons - Vasily Kosoy and Dmitry Shemyaka. If at first this clash of princes could still be explained by the “ancient right” of inheritance from brother to brother, i.e. to the eldest in the family, then after the death of Yuri in 1434 it represented a clash of supporters and opponents of state centralization. The Moscow prince advocated political centralization, the Galich prince represented the forces of feudal separatism.

The fight followed all the “rules of the Middle Ages,” i.e. blinding, poisoning, deception, and conspiracies were used. Twice Yuri captured Moscow, but could not hold on to it. Opponents of centralization achieved their greatest success under Dmitry Shemyak, who was the Moscow Grand Duke for a short time.

Only after the Moscow boyars and the church finally sided with Vasily Vasilyevich II the Dark (blinded by his political opponents, like Vasily Kosoy, hence the nicknames “Kosoy”, “Dark”), Shemyaka fled to Novgorod, where he died. The feudal war ended with the victory of the forces of centralization. By the end of the reign of Vasily II, the possessions of the Moscow principality increased 30 times compared to the beginning of the 14th century. The Principality of Moscow included Murom (1343), Nizhny Novgorod (1393) and a number of lands on the outskirts of Rus'.

Rus' and the Union of Florence. The strength of the grand ducal power is evidenced by the refusal of Vasily II to recognize the union (union) between the Catholic and Orthodox churches under the leadership of the pope, concluded in Florence in 1439. The pope imposed this union on Rus' under the pretext of saving the Byzantine Empire from conquest by the Ottomans. Metropolitan of Rus', Greek Isidore, who supported the union, was deposed. In his place, Ryazan Bishop Jonah was elected, whose candidacy was proposed by Vasily P. This marked the beginning of the independence of the Russian Church from the Patriarch of Constantinople. And after the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453, the choice of the head of the Russian church was determined in Moscow.

Summing up the development of Rus' in the first two centuries after the Mongol devastation, it can be argued that as a result of the heroic creative and military work of the Russian people during the 14th and first half of the 15th centuries. conditions were created for the creation of a unified state and the overthrow of the Golden Horde yoke. The struggle for the great reign was already underway, as the feudal war of the second quarter of the 15th century showed, not between individual principalities, but within the Moscow princely house. The Orthodox Church actively supported the struggle for the unity of Russian lands. The process of formation of the Russian state with its capital in Moscow became irreversible.

COMPLETION OF THE UNIFICATION OF RUSSIAN LANDS AROUND MOSCOW AT THE END OF THE 15TH - BEGINNING OF THE 16TH CENTURIES. FORMATION OF THE RUSSIAN STATE

End of the 15th century Many historians define it as the transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age. Suffice it to remember that in 1453 the Byzantine Empire fell. In 1492 Columbus discovered America. Many great geographical discoveries were made. In the countries of Western Europe at this time there was a leap in the development of productive forces. Printing appears (1456, Gutenberg). This time in world history was called the Renaissance.

End of the 15th century century is the time of completion of the formation of national states on the territory of Western Europe. Historians have long noticed that the process of replacing fragmentation with a single state is a natural result of historical development.

The unification of the principalities and lands of the period of fragmentation took place in the most developed countries of Western Europe in connection with the growth of material production due to the development of commodity-money relations and the destruction of the natural economy as the basis of the economy. For example, the yield in the advanced countries of Western Europe was sam-5 and even sam-7 (i.e., one planted grain yielded a harvest of 5-7 grains). This in turn allowed the city and craft to develop quickly. In the countries of Western Europe, the process of overcoming economic fragmentation began, and national ties emerged.

In the current conditions, the royal power, relying on the wealth of the cities, sought to unite the country. The process of unification was led by the monarch, who stood at the head of the nobility - the ruling class of that time.

The formation of centralized states in different countries had its own characteristics. The comparative historical method of studying historical processes gives grounds to say that even in the presence of appropriate socio-economic reasons, unification may either not occur at all, or be greatly delayed due to subjective or other objective reasons (for example, Germany and Italy were united only in the 19th century) . There were certain features in the formation of the Russian state, the process of creation of which chronologically coincides with many Western European countries.

Features of the formation of the Russian state. The Russian centralized state developed in the northeastern and northwestern lands of Kievan Rus, its southern and southwestern lands were included in Poland, Lithuania, and Hungary. Its formation was accelerated by the need to fight external dangers, especially the Golden Horde, and subsequently the Kazan, Crimean, Siberian, Astrakhan, Kazakh khanates, Lithuania and Poland.

The Mongol-Tatar invasion and the Golden Horde yoke slowed down the socio-economic development of Russian lands. In contrast to the advanced countries of Western Europe, the formation of a single state in Russia took place under the complete dominance of the traditional method of economy of Russia - on a feudal basis. This allows us to understand why a bourgeois, democratic, civil society began to take shape in Europe, while in Russia serfdom, class, and inequality of citizens before the laws will continue to dominate for a long time.

The completion of the process of unifying the Russian lands around Moscow into a centralized state occurred during the reign of Ivan III (1462-1505) and Vasily III (1505-1533).

Ivan III. The blind father Vasily II early made his son Ivan III co-ruler of the state. He received the throne when he was 22 years old. He gained a reputation as a prudent and successful, cautious and far-sighted politician. At the same time, it was noted that he more than once resorted to deceit and intrigue. Ivan III is one of the key figures in our history. He was the first to accept the title of "Sovereign of All Rus'". Under him, the double-headed eagle became the emblem of our state. Under him, the red brick Moscow Kremlin, which has survived to this day, was erected.

At the Moscow court, a magnificent ceremony was established, following the Byzantine model. This was facilitated by the second marriage of Ivan III, after the death of his first wife, to Sophia Paleologus, the niece of the last emperor of Byzantium, who fell under the blows of the Turks in 1453.

Under Ivan III, the hated Golden Horde yoke was finally overthrown. Under him, in 1497, the first Code of Law was created and national governing bodies of the country began to be formed. Under him, in the newly built Palace of Facets, ambassadors were received not from neighboring Russian principalities, but from the Pope, the German Emperor, and the Polish King. Under him, the term “Russia” began to be used in relation to our state.

Unification of the lands of North-Eastern Rus'. Ivan III, relying on the power of Moscow, managed to complete the unification of northeastern Rus' almost bloodlessly. In 1468, the Yaroslavl principality was finally annexed, whose princes became service princes of Ivan III. In 1472, the annexation of Perm the Great began. Vasily II the Dark bought half of the Rostov principality, and in 1474 Ivan III acquired the remaining part. Finally, Tver, surrounded by Moscow lands, passed to Moscow in 1485 after its boyars took the oath to Ivan III, who approached the city with a large army. In 1489, the Vyatka land, which was important in commercial terms, became part of the state. In 1503, many princes of the western Russian regions (Vyazemsky, Odoevsky, Vorotynsky, Chernigov, Novgorod-Seversky) moved from Lithuania to the Moscow prince.

Annexation of Novgorod. The Novgorod Boyar Republic, which still possessed considerable power, remained independent of the Moscow prince. In Novgorod in 1410, a reform of the posadnik administration took place: the oligarchic power of the boyars strengthened. Vasily the Dark in 1456 established that the prince was the highest court in Novgorod (Yazhelbitsky Peace).

Fearing the loss of their privileges in the event of subordination to Moscow, part of the Novgorod boyars, led by the mayor Martha Boretskaya, entered into an agreement on the vassal dependence of Novgorod on Lithuania. Having learned about the agreement between the boyars and Lithuania, Ivan III took decisive measures to subjugate Novgorod. The campaign of 1471 involved troops from all lands subject to Moscow, which gave it an all-Russian character. The Novgorodians were accused of “falling away from Orthodoxy to Latinism.”

The decisive battle took place on the Shelon River. The Novgorod militia, having a significant superiority in strength, fought reluctantly; the Muscovites, according to chroniclers close to Moscow, “like roaring lions,” pounced on the enemy and pursued the retreating Novgorodians for more than twenty miles. Novgorod was finally annexed to Moscow seven years later, in 1478. The veche bell was taken from the city to Moscow. Moscow's opponents were relocated to the center of the country. But Ivan III, taking into account the strength of Novgorod, left him a number of privileges: the right to conduct relations with Sweden, and promised not to involve Novgorodians in service on the southern borders. The city was now ruled by Moscow governors.

The annexation of the Novgorod, Vyatka and Perm lands with the non-Russian peoples of the north and northeast living here to Moscow expanded the multinational composition of the Russian state.

Overthrow of the Golden Horde yoke. In 1480, the Mongol-Tatar yoke was finally overthrown. This happened after a clash between Moscow and Mongol-Tatar troops on the Utra River. At the head of the Horde troops was Ahmed Khan (Ahmad Khan), who entered into an alliance with the Polish-Lithuanian king Casimir IV. Ivan III managed to win over the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey, whose troops attacked the possessions of Casimir IV, thwarting his attack against Moscow. After standing on the Ugra for several weeks, Ahmed Khan realized that it was hopeless to engage in battle; and when he learned that his capital Sarai was attacked by the Siberian Khanate, he withdrew his troops back.

Rus' finally stopped paying tribute to the Golden Horde several years before 1480. In 1502, the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey inflicted a crushing defeat on the Golden Horde, after which its existence ceased.

Vasily III. The 26-year-old son of Ivan III and Sophia Paleologus Vasily III continued his father’s work. He began the fight for the abolition of the appanage system and behaved like an autocrat. Taking advantage of the attack of the Crimean Tatars on Lithuania, Vasily III annexed Pskov in 1510. 300 families of the richest Pskovites were evicted from the city and replaced by the same number from Moscow cities. The veche system was abolished. Pskov began to be governed by Moscow governors.

In 1514, Smolensk, captured from Lithuania, became part of the Moscow state. In honor of this event, the Novodevichy Convent was built in Moscow, in which the icon of Our Lady of Smolensk, the defender of the western borders of Rus', was placed. Finally, in 1521, the Ryazan land, which was already dependent on Moscow, became part of Russia.

Thus, the process of uniting northeastern and northwestern Rus' in one state was completed. The largest power in Europe was formed, which from the end of the 15th century. began to be called Russia.

Centralization of power. Fragmentation gradually gave way to centralization. After the annexation of Tver, Ivan III received the honorary title “By the grace of God, the Sovereign of All Rus', Grand Duke of Vladimir and Moscow, Novgorod and Pskov, and Tver, and Yugra, and Perm, and Bulgaria, and other lands.”

The princes in the annexed lands became boyars of the Moscow sovereign (“boyarization of princes”). These principalities were now called districts and were governed by governors from Moscow. The governors were also called “feeder boyars”, since for the management of the districts they received food - part of the tax, the amount of which was determined by the previous payment for service in the troops. Localism is the right to occupy a particular position in the state, depending on the nobility and official position of the ancestors, their services to the Moscow Grand Duke.

A centralized control apparatus began to take shape.

Boyar Duma. It consisted of 5-12 boyars and no more than 12 okolnichy (boyars and okolnichy are the two highest ranks in the state). In addition to the Moscow boyars, from the middle of the 15th century. Local princes from the annexed lands also sat in the Duma, recognizing the seniority of Moscow. The Boyar Duma had advisory functions on the “affairs of the land.”

The future order system grew out of two national departments: the Palace and the Treasury. The palace controlled the lands of the Grand Duke, the Treasury was in charge of finances, the state seal, and the archive.

During the reign of Ivan III, a magnificent and solemn ceremony began to be established at the Moscow court. Contemporaries associated its appearance with the marriage of Ivan III to the Byzantine princess Zoe (Sophia) Paleologus - the daughter of the brother of the last emperor of Byzantium, Constantine Palaiologos, in 1472.

Code of Law of Ivan III. In 1497, the Code of Laws of Ivan III was adopted - the first code of laws of a united Russia - which established a unified structure and administration in the state. The highest institution was Boyar Duma- council under the Grand Duke; its members managed individual branches of the state economy, served as governors in regiments and governors in cities. Volosteli, from the “free people”, exercised power in rural areas - volosts. The first ones appear orders- central government bodies, they were headed boyars or clerks, whom the Grand Duke “ordered” to be in charge of certain matters.

For the first time on a national scale, the Code of Justice introduced the rule restricting the exit of peasants; their transfer from one owner to another was now allowed only once a year, during the week before and the week after St. George’s Day (November 26), after the end of field work. In addition, immigrants were required to pay the owner elderly- money for the “yard” - outbuildings.

The Code of Law puts local government under the control of the center in the person of feeders. Instead of squads, a single military organization is created - the Moscow army, the basis of which is made up of noble landowners. At the request of the Grand Duke, they must appear for service with armed men from their slaves or peasants, depending on the size of the estate (“horse-mounted, crowded and armed”). The number of landowners under Ivan III increased greatly due to slaves, servants and others; they were given lands confiscated from Novgorod and other boyars, from princes from the newly annexed regions.

Along with the unification of the lands of Rus', the government of Ivan III I also solved another task of national importance - liberation from the Horde yoke.

Russian Church at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century. The Russian Church played a significant role in the unification process. After the election of Ryazan Bishop Jonah as metropolitan in 1448, the Russian Church became independent (autocephalous).

In the western lands of Rus', which became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia, a metropolitan was installed in Kyiv in 1458. The Russian Orthodox Church split into two independent metropolises - Moscow and Kyiv. Their unification will occur after the reunification of Ukraine with Russia.

Intra-church struggle was associated with the emergence of heresies. In the XIV century. The Strigolnik heresy arose in Novgorod. The hair on the head of a person being accepted as a monk was cut into a cross. The Strigolniki believed that faith would become stronger if it was based on reason.

At the end of the 15th century. In Novgorod, and then in Moscow, the heresy of the Judaizers spread (its founder was considered a Jewish merchant). Heretics denied the power of priests and demanded the equality of all people. This meant that monasteries did not have the right to own land and peasants.

For some time, these views coincided with the views of Ivan III. There was also no unity among the churchmen. Militant churchmen led by the founder of the Assumption Monastery (now Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery near Moscow) Joseph Volotsky sharply opposed the heretics. Joseph and his followers (Josephites) defended the right of the church to own land and peasants. Opponents of the Josephites also did not support the heretics, but objected to the accumulation of wealth and land holdings of the church. The followers of this point of view were called non-covetous or Sorians - after the name of Nile of Sorsky, who retired to a monastery on the Sora River in the Vologda region.

Ivan III at the church council of 1502 supported the Josephites. Heretics were executed. The Russian Church became both state and national. Church hierarchs proclaimed the autocrat the king of the earth, with his power similar to God. Church and monastic land ownership was preserved.

CULTURE XIV-XV CENTURIES.

Folklore. Oral folk art - epics and songs, proverbs and sayings, fairy tales and conspiracies, ritual and other poetry - reflected the ideas of Russian people about their past and the world around them. The epics about Vasily Buslaevich and Sadko glorify Novgorod with its bustling city life and trade caravans sailing to overseas countries.

It was during these centuries that the Kiev epic cycle about Vladimir the Red Sun finally took shape, in whose image one can discern the features of two great Russian princes: Vladimir Svyatoslavich and Vladimir Monomakh; about Ilya Muromets and other heroes of the Russian land. In addition to the facts of ancient Russian history, the epics also reflect later events associated with the Horde invasion and yoke: the battle on Kalka, victory on the Kulikovo field, liberation from the yoke of the Horde.

Many legends have folklore features - about the Battle of Kalka, about the devastation of Ryazan by Batu and Evpatiy Kolovrat, the defender of Smolensk Mercury, “Zadonshchina” and “The Legend of the Massacre of Mamaev”. The historical song about Shchelkan Dudentievich tells about the uprising of the Tver people against Chol Khan and his detachment:
"And there was a battle between them. The Tatars, hoping for autocracy, began the battle. And the people flocked and the people were confused, and they struck the bells and stood with the eve. And the whole city turned around, and all the people gathered that hour, and there was a jam in them And the people of Tver shouted and began to beat the Tatars..."

The song, on the one hand, quite accurately depicts the course of the uprising of 1327, and on the other hand, it ignores the fact that the Tatars eventually took revenge on the Tver people. The compilers of the song, without taking this circumstance into account, based on the rightness of the people, state otherwise: “It was not exacted from anyone.”

Literature. Historical thought. Heroic and hagiographic, or biographical, themes have occupied a large place in literature. A number of military stories tell about the invasion of the Tatar-Mongols and the struggle of brave Russians against them. Defense of their native land, fearlessness in the fight against its enemies and invaders is their constant motive: “It is better for us to buy our belly by death than by the vile will of being.”

A sublime and patriotic story about Alexander Nevsky was written by his warrior. He glorifies the “courage and life” of his hero - “our Grand Duke, both smart and meek, sensible, and brave,” “invincible, never mind.” Describes the battles won by the “thoughtful” commander, his trip to the Horde and his death.

Later, on the basis of this story, “The Life of St. Alexander Nevsky” was created. His hero is depicted as an ideal ruler, similar to biblical and Roman heroes: with a face like Joseph, strength like Samson, wisdom like Solomon, and courage like the Roman emperor Vespasian.

Under the influence of this monument, the life of Dovmont, the Pskov prince of the 13th century, the winner of the Lithuanian princes and Livonian knights, was reworked: its short and dry edition turned into a lengthy one, filled with sublime and picturesque descriptions of the exploits of the Pskov hero.

Other stories and lives are dedicated to the princes who died in the Horde: Vasilko Konstantinovich of Rostov, Mikhail Vsevolodovich of Chernigov, Mikhail Yaroslavich and Alexander Mikhailovich of Tver, etc. All of them are presented as undaunted defenders of the Christian faith, that is, their land and people.

From the second half of the 14th century. a significant number of works talk about the fight against the Horde - the Battle of Kulikovo ("Zadonshchina", chronicle stories), Tokhtamyshev's ruin in 1382, the "coming" of Tamerlane to Rus'.

“Zadonshchina” occupies a special place among these monuments. Its author, Sophony Ryazanets, views the events of 1380 as a direct continuation of the struggle of Kievan Rus against steppe nomadic predators. It is not without reason that his model is “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” which tells the story of the campaign of Igor Svyatoslavich, Prince of Novgorod-Seversky, against the Polovtsians in 1185. The victory on the Kulikovo Field is retribution for the defeat on the Kayala River. From the Lay, Zephanius borrows images, literary style, individual phrases, and expressions.

Other Moscow monuments of the 14th - 15th centuries also provide high examples of folk poetic speech. This is the lyrical lament of “The Tale of the Ruin of Moscow by Khan Tokhtamysh”: “Who would not weep like this for the destruction of this glorious city.” In the devastated capital, the author continues, there reigned “crying and sobbing, and much crying, and tears, and inconsolable screaming, and much lamentation, and bitter sadness, and inconsolable sorrow, unbearable misfortune, terrible need, and mortal grief, fear, horror and trembling".

Chronicles occupied a leading place in literature and historical thought. After the break caused by Batu's invasion, chronicle writing resumed, more or less quickly, at the courts of princes, at the metropolitan and episcopal departments. Chronicles were already written in the 30-40s. XIII century in Rostov the Great, Ryazan, then in Vladimir (from 1250), Tver (from the end of the 13th century). Chronicle writing continued in Novgorod and Pskov.

All chronicles reflected local interests, the views of princes and boyars, church hierarchs; sometimes - the views of ordinary, “lesser” people. These are, for example, the records of one of the Novgorod chronicles about the rebellion of the mid-13th century:
"And the menshii rekosha at St. Nicholas (at the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker) at the veche: "Brother! Qi how the prince says: “Give up my enemies!” And you kissed the Holy Mother of God (the icon of the Mother of God) of the menshii - what on earth for everyone, either life (life) or death for the truth of Novgorod, for their fatherland. And when the council of the rich, noble became angry, how to defeat the menshii and bring in the prince of his own free will.”

This passage is about an uprising, during which the Novgorodians were divided in two - the “smaller” (poor) against the “big” (rich); if the first opposed the second and the prince, then the second sought to “defeat” the first, and keep the prince “in their will.” It is characteristic that “for the truth of Novgorod, for their fatherland,” i.e., for the interests of the Novgorod land, according to this entry, it is “lesser” and not “big” people who stand.

The compilation of chronicles and other works, the copying of manuscripts has been on the rise since the second half of the 14th century. Gradually the leading place passes to Moscow. In the capital itself, its monasteries (Simonov, Andronikov, etc.), the Trinity-Sergius Monastery at this and later times, a large number of manuscripts of spiritual and secular content (Gospels, chronicles, lives of saints, words, teachings, etc.) were copied.

In the Moscow chronicles of the late XIV - XV centuries. the ideas of the unity of Rus', the Kyiv and Vladimir heritage, the leading role of Moscow in the unification of Russian lands and the fight against the Horde are promoted. A presentation of world history, including Russian history, is given in the "Russian Chronograph".

Architecture, painting. Andrey Rublev. The construction of wooden buildings - huts and mansions, chapels and churches - resumed after the Mongol-Tatar invasion quite quickly - life required housing and a temple, even the most modest one. Stone buildings appear at the end of the 13th century. In the XIV - XV centuries. their number is greatly increasing. The churches of St. Nicholas on Lipna near Novgorod (1292), Fyodor Stratilates on the Stream (1360), the Savior on Ilyin Street (1374) and others in the city itself have survived to this day.

In cities and monasteries, stone walls and other fortifications are built. Such are the stone fortresses in Izborsk, Oreshk and Yama, Koporye and Porkhov, the Moscow Kremlin (60s of the 14th century), etc. In Novgorod the Great in the 15th century. built a complex of buildings of the Sophia House - the residence of the archbishop (the Faceted Chamber, the clock-bell, the palace of Bishop Evfimy), the boyar chambers.

Churches and cathedrals were usually painted with frescoes, and icons were hung in altars and on the walls. The names of the masters are sometimes given in chronicles. In one of the Moscow chronicles, for example, it is written: the Archangel Cathedral was painted (1344) by “Russian scribes... among them were the elders and chief icon painters - Zacharias, Joseph, Nicholas and their other retinue.”

Among the craftsmen who worked in Novgorod, Theophanes the Greek, or Grechin, who came from Byzantium, became especially famous. His frescoes in the churches of the Savior on Ilyin and Fyodor Stratelates amaze with their majesty, monumentality and great expression in depicting biblical subjects. He also worked in Moscow. Epiphanius the Wise, compiler of the lives of saints, called Theophan a “glorious sage”, “a very cunning philosopher”, “a deliberate isographer and an elegant painter of icon painters”. He writes that the master worked in a free, easy manner: standing on a stage in the church and applying paints to the walls, at the same time talking with the audience standing below; and every time there were quite a lot of them.

Russian fresco painting and icon painting reached the highest degree of expressiveness and perfection in the work of the brilliant Andrei Rublev. He was born around 1370, became a monk of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, then the Moscow Spaso-Andronikov Monastery. Together with Theophan the Greek and Prokhor from Gorodets, he painted the walls of the Annunciation Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin, then, this time in collaboration with friend Daniil Cherny, the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir. Later, they also worked on frescoes and icons for the Trinity Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery At the end of his life the master worked in Andronievo, where he died and was buried (around 1430).

The work of Andrei Rublev was highly valued already in the 15th - 16th centuries. According to contemporaries and descendants close in time, he is “an extraordinary icon painter and surpasses everyone in wisdom.” Epiphanius the Wise, a student of Sergius of Radonezh and the author of his life, placed in the latter miniatures depicting Rublev (the artist on the stage paints a wall icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands, the burial of Rublev by monks).

The era of national upsurge during the struggle of Dmitry Donskoy, Moscow with the Horde, the Kulikovo victory, success in uniting Russian forces was reflected in the work of the great artist - the world of his images and ideas called for unity, harmony, humanity.

His most famous work is “The Trinity” from the iconostasis of the aforementioned Trinity Cathedral. Written in the ancient tradition, it is deeply national in its softness and harmony, the noble simplicity of the figures depicted and the transparency and tenderness of the colors. They reflect the characteristic features of Russian nature and human nature. They are also inherent in other icons and frescoes - “Savior”, apostles, angels. The work of the great artist was highly valued by his descendants - chronicles mention him, his icons were given to influential people, princes. The Council of the Hundred Heads in 1551 ordered that “an icon painter should paint icons... as Andrei Rublev and other notorious (famous, illustrious) icon painters wrote.”

In the 15th century on the icons, in addition to traditional scenes from the Bible, the lives of saints, landscapes (forests and mountains, cities and monasteries), portraits (for example, on the icon “Praying Novgorodians” - a portrait of a boyar family), battle scenes (for example, the victory of the Novgorodians over Suzdal residents on one of the Novgorod icons).

INTERNAL POLITICS AND REFORM OF IVAN IV

Beginning of the reign of Ivan IV. The reign of Vasily III was coming to an end. He died in 1533, leaving his three-year-old son Ivan as heir under the regent mother Elena Vasilievna (from the family of the Glinsky princes). Soon, five years later, the Grand Duke also lost his mother. The boy ruler, endowed with a smart mind, mocking and dexterous, from an early age felt like an orphan, deprived of attention. Surrounded by pomp and servility during ceremonies, in everyday life in the palace he suffered greatly from the neglect of the boyars and princes, the indifference and insults of those around him. Added to this was a fierce struggle for power among the boyar groups of the Glinskys and Belskys, the Shuiskys and the Vorontsovs. Later, already in his mature years, Tsar Grozny could not forget his childhood hardships: “We used to play children’s games, and Prince Ivan Vasilyevich Shuisky would sit on a bench, leaning his elbow on our father’s bed and putting his foot on a chair, but not on us.” looks."

Some of the boyars (Glinsky, Belsky) pursued a policy of limiting the power of governors and volosts - representatives of the center in counties and volosts; Even under Elena Glinskaya, a single all-Russian coin was introduced - the silver penny, which replaced the numerous money of specific lands. Others (the Shuiskys), on the contrary, advocated strengthening the position of the feudal aristocracy (distribution of lands, privileges, tax and judicial privileges, to boyars, monasteries). First one group, then another, came to power. The spiritual ruler, the metropolitan, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, also changed: in the place of Daniel, Joasaph, the Trinity abbot close to the Belskys, sat on the metropolitan throne (1539); then Novgorod Archbishop Macarius, supported by the Shuiskys. Court disturbances were accompanied by intrigues and executions. The “boyar rule” (1538-1547) was long remembered by the Russian people for the shameless plunder of the treasury, the distribution of positions to “their people,” reprisals, and robberies.

The Grand Duke grew up in such an environment. Already in those years, unattractive traits were forming in his character: timidity and secrecy, suspiciousness and cowardice, distrust and cruelty. Observing scenes of civil strife and reprisals, he himself, growing up, gets a taste for it - for example, he gives his hounds the order to hunt down Prince Andrei Shuisky, whom he dislikes.

The young Grand Duke was outraged by the unjust deeds of the boyars in cities and volosts - seizures of peasant lands, bribes, court fines, etc. “Black people” - peasants and artisans - suffered from their extortion, and, most importantly (in the eyes of Ivan IV, - the treasury, order and peace in the state.

Royal wedding. The struggle between the boyars and princes for power continued. The Shuiskys were replaced by the Vorontsovs and Kubenskys, and they were replaced by the Glinskys, relatives of the Grand Duke on their mother’s side. The infighting of the noble rulers, revelry and oppression caused general discontent among the peasants, townspeople, nobles, and a significant part of the boyars and clergy. Many looked to Ivan IV with hope. When he came of age, he was crowned king. In January 1547, when Ivan was 16 years old, he was crowned in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. According to the “wedding ceremony” compiled by Metropolitan Macarius, a staunch supporter of the autocracy of the Moscow sovereign, Ivan Vasilyevich began to be called “the Tsar and Grand Duke of All Rus'.” His power, it was emphasized, is of divine origin. This increased the authority of the Russian ruler, whose family, as Moscow politicians then believed, dates back to Augustus, the successor of Julius Caesar. The title “king” comes from the latter’s name.

The following month, the young tsar married Anastasia Romanovna Yuryeva, the daughter of the okolnichy Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin-Yuryev. The tsar's new relatives, who appeared at court and received high ranks and positions, Metropolitan Macarius, and their supporters from the boyars and princes soon united against the Glinskys, who headed the government. A suitable opportunity presented itself.

Uprising in Moscow 1547 In June 1547, a strong fire broke out on the Arbat in Moscow. The fire raged for two days, the city was almost completely burned out. About 4 thousand Muscovites died in the fire. Ivan IV and his entourage, fleeing smoke and fire, hid in the village of Vorobyovo (present-day Vorobyovy Gory). The cause of the fire was sought in the actions of real persons. Rumors spread that the fire was the work of the Glinskys, with whose name the people associated the years of boyar rule.

A meeting gathered in the Kremlin on the square near the Assumption Cathedral. One of the Glinskys was torn to pieces by the rebel people. The yards of their supporters and relatives were burned and looted. “And then fear entered my soul and trembling entered my bones,” Ivan IV later recalled. With great difficulty the government managed to suppress the uprising.

Demonstrations against the authorities took place in the cities of Opochka, and somewhat later in Pskov and Ustyug. The discontent of the people was reflected in the emergence of heresies. For example, the slave of Theodosius Kosoy, the most radical heretic of that time, advocated the equality of people and disobedience to authorities. His teachings became widespread, especially among the townspeople.

Popular uprisings showed that the country needs reforms to strengthen statehood and centralize power. Ivan IV embarked on the path of structural reforms.

I.S. Peresvetov. The nobility expressed particular interest in carrying out reforms. Its original ideologist was the talented publicist of that time, nobleman Ivan Semenovich Peresvetov. He addressed the king with messages (petitions), which outlined a unique program of reforms. Proposals by I.S. Peresvetov was largely anticipated by the actions of Ivan IV. Some historians even believed that the author of the petitions was Ivan IV himself. It has now been established that I.S. Peresvetov is a real historical figure.

Based on the interests of the nobility, I.S. Peresvetov sharply condemned the boyar arbitrariness. He saw the ideal of government in strong royal power, based on the nobility. “A state without a thunderstorm is like a horse without a bridle,” believed I.S. Peresvetov.

Reforms of the Chosen One are welcome. By the end of the 40s. Under the young tsar, a circle of court figures was formed, to whom he entrusted the conduct of state affairs. Prince Andrei Kurbsky later called this new government the “Chosen Rada” (rada - council under the monarch). In fact, it was the so-called Middle Duma, composed of members of the “big” Boyar Duma who were especially close to the tsar. The main role was played in it by Alexey Fedorovich Adashev, one of the rich Kostroma nobles, the tsar’s bed servant, who by his will became a Duma nobleman (the third rank in the Boyar Duma after the boyar and okolnichy), as well as the head of the Ambassadorial Prikaz (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the 16th - 17th centuries) Ivan Mikhailovich Viskovaty, Duma clerk (fourth Duma rank), confessor to Tsar Sylvester, several noble princes and boyars.

The end of February 1549 surprised Muscovites with a magnificent and solemn event: along the streets adjacent to the Kremlin, in beautiful carriages, carts, on horses decorated with rich harness, boyars and metropolitan nobles, hierarchs and clerks came to the royal palace, making their way through crowds of people . Their meeting, called by contemporaries the “Cathedral of Reconciliation,” heard reproaches from the monarch for the violence and extortions of his childhood, when the boyars, “like fierce beasts, did everything according to their own will.” However, Ivan Vasilyevich moved from angry reproaches to action: calling on everyone to work together, he announced the need and the beginning of reforms.

According to the program outlined by this first Zemsky Assembly in the history of Russia, that is, a representative body under the Tsar, they began with military reforms. According to the verdict of 1550, local disputes between governors during campaigns were prohibited; all of them, in accordance with strict regulations, were subordinate to the first governor of a large regiment 1, i.e., the commander-in-chief. In the same year, an army of Streltsy appeared - warriors armed not only with edged weapons, like the noble cavalry, but also with firearms (pishchal; the predecessors of the Streltsy were called pishchalnik). Unlike the noble army, which was convened as a militia if necessary, the archers served constantly, received uniforms, cash and grain salaries.

According to the Sudebnik of 1550, which replaced the old code of Ivan III, the privilege of monasteries not to pay taxes to the treasury was eliminated, and it was forbidden to turn the children of boyars from the noble class into serfs. The transition of peasants from one owner to another on St. George's Day was made more difficult by increasing the amount of the elderly levied on them. The new code of laws strengthened control over the judicial activities of governors and volosts in cities, districts and volosts: the most important cases began to be decided in Moscow by the Tsar and the Boyar Duma; on the ground, the trial was observed by elders and kissers (elected people from local townspeople and chernososhnys (free peasants).

The Church Council of 1551 adopted Stoglav - a collection of council decisions in the form of one hundred chapter-articles from answers to Tsar Ivan’s questions about the church “structure”. He strengthened discipline and regulated church life - services and rituals in the church, everyday aspects of monastic and church life. But the tsar’s intentions to confiscate the lands of the church and monasteries were not approved by the council.

In the middle of the century, the government organized the description of land and introduced a certain unit of land tax - a large plow. The same amount was taken from 500 quarters of 1 “good” (good) land in one field from black-growing peasants; from 600 quarters - from church lands; from 800 quarters - from service feudal lords (landowners and patrimonial owners).

Important reforms were carried out in central and local government. A system of orders is being developed in Moscow. The Ambassadorial Prikaz was in charge of external relations with the surrounding states, the Razryadny Prikaz was in charge of the noble army, appointed governors to regiments and cities, and directed military operations; Local - allocated lands to serving people; Streletsky - was in charge of the Streletsky army; Robber - trial of "dashing people"; Great Parish - collection of national taxes; Yamskaya - postal service (Yamskaya chase, yams - postal stations with coachmen); Zemsky - law enforcement in Moscow. There was a kind of “order above orders” - Petition, which examined complaints on various cases, thereby controlling other orders; it was headed by Adashev himself, the head of the “Chosen Rada”. As new lands were annexed to Russia, new orders arose - Kazan (in charge of the Volga region), Siberian. At the head of the order was a boyar or clerk - a major government official. The orders were in charge of administration, tax collection and the courts. As the tasks of public administration became more complex, the number of orders grew. By the time of Peter the Great's reforms at the beginning of the 18th century. there were about 50 of them. The design of the order system made it possible to centralize the management of the country.

In the mid-50s. completed the so-called provincial reform, begun back in 1539: governors and volosts were deprived of the right to trial for the most important criminal offenses and transferred it to provincial elders from among the local elected nobles. They obeyed the Robbery Order. Then the power of governors and volostels (feeders) was completely eliminated. Now their functions were transferred to the bodies of zemstvo self-government - in the person of the “favorite heads” and their assistants - kissers. Both of them were chosen from their midst by local townspeople and black-growing peasants.

The Service Code (1556) established a uniform procedure for military service from estates and estates: from 150 acres of land, each nobleman must field a warrior on horseback and in full armor (“mounted, manned and armed”); for extra soldiers, additional monetary compensation was due, and for shortfalls, a fine. During campaigns, servicemen were paid a strictly defined salary - cash and grain. Periodic military reviews were introduced, tens - lists of nobles by district.

The reforms strengthened public administration, the military system of the state, and significantly contributed to its centralization. The tax system developed in the same direction - new taxes were introduced ("pishchalnye money" - for the maintenance of the Streltsy army, "polonyanichnye money" - for the ransom of captives), old taxes grew (for example, "Yamskaya money" - for the postal service, "for the police business" - the construction of cities and fortresses). All transformations were aimed primarily at strengthening the power of the state. A policy of a kind of compromise was pursued - a combination of the interests of all layers of feudal lords from small provincial nobles to noble boyars.

Bodies of power and administration in the second half of the 16th century.

A unified local management system began to take shape. Previously, the collection of taxes there was entrusted to the feeding boyars; they were the actual rulers of individual lands. All funds collected in excess of the required taxes to the treasury were at their personal disposal, i.e. they "fed" by managing the lands. In 1556, feedings were abolished. Local administration (investigation and court in particularly important state affairs) was transferred to the hands of provincial elders (guba - district), elected from local nobles, zemstvo elders - from among the wealthy strata of the Chernososhny population where there was no noble land ownership, city clerks or favorite heads - in cities. Thus, in the middle of the 16th century. An apparatus of state power emerged in the form of an estate-representative monarchy.

Law code 1550 The general trend towards centralization of the country necessitated the publication of a new set of laws - the Code of Laws of 1550. Taking the Code of Laws of Ivan III as a basis, the compilers of the new Code of Laws made changes to it related to the strengthening of central power. It confirmed the right of peasants to move on St. George’s Day and increased the payment for the “elderly”. The feudal lord was now responsible for the crimes of the peasants, which increased their personal dependence on the master. For the first time, penalties were introduced for bribery of government officials.

Even under Elena Glinskaya, a monetary reform was launched, according to which the Moscow ruble became the main monetary unit of the country. The right to collect trade duties passed into the hands of the state. The population of the country was obliged to bear taxes - a complex of natural and monetary duties. In the middle of the 16th century. a single unit for collecting taxes was established for the entire state - the large plow. Depending on the fertility of the soil, as well as the social status of the owner of the land, the plow amounted to 400-600 acres of land.

Military reform. The core of the army was the noble militia. Near Moscow, the “chosen thousand” were planted on the ground - 1070 provincial nobles, who, according to the Tsar’s plan, were to become his support. For the first time, the “Code of Service” was drawn up. A votchinnik or landowner could begin service at the age of 15 and pass it on by inheritance. From 150 dessiatines of land, both the boyar and the nobleman had to field one warrior and appear at the reviews “on horseback, with people and with weapons.”

In 1550, a permanent streltsy army was created. At first, the archers recruited three thousand people. In addition, foreigners began to be recruited into the army, the number of whom was insignificant. Artillery was reinforced. The Cossacks were recruited to perform border service.

The boyars and nobles who made up the militia were called “serving people for the fatherland,” i.e. by origin. The other group consisted of “service people according to the instrument” (i.e., according to recruitment). In addition to the archers, there were gunners (artillerymen), city guards, and the Cossacks were close to them. Rear work (cart trains, construction of fortifications) was carried out by the "staff" - a militia from among the black soshns, monastery peasants and townspeople.

During military campaigns, localism was limited. In the middle of the 16th century. An official reference book was compiled - "The Sovereign's Genealogist", which streamlined local disputes.

Stoglavy Cathedral. In 1551, on the initiative of the Tsar and the Metropolitan, a Council of the Russian Church was convened, which was called the Stoglavoy, since its decisions were formulated in one hundred chapters. The decisions of church hierarchs reflected the changes associated with the centralization of the state. The Council approved the adoption of the Code of Law of 1550 and the reforms of Ivan IV. An all-Russian list was compiled from the number of local saints revered in individual Russian lands.

Rituals were streamlined and unified throughout the country. Even art was subject to regulation: it was prescribed to create new works following approved models. It was decided to leave in the hands of the church all the lands acquired by it before the Council of the Hundred Heads. In the future, clergy could buy land and receive it as a gift only with royal permission. Thus, on the issue of monastic land ownership, a line on its limitation and control by the tsar was established.

Reforms of the 50s of the 16th century. contributed to the strengthening of the Russian centralized multinational state. They strengthened the power of the king, led to the reorganization of local and central government, and strengthened the military power of the country.

FOREIGN POLICY

The main objectives of Russian foreign policy in the 16th century. were: in the west - the struggle for access to the Baltic Sea, in the southeast and east - the struggle with the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates and the beginning of the development of Siberia, in the south - the defense of the country from the raids of the Crimean Khan.

Annexation and development of new lands. The Kazan and Astrakhan khanates, formed as a result of the collapse of the Golden Horde, constantly threatened Russian lands. They controlled the Volga trade route. Finally, these were areas of fertile land (Ivan Peresvetov called them “sub-divine”), which the Russian nobility had long dreamed of. The peoples of the Volga region - the Mari, Mordovians, and Chuvash - sought liberation from the khan's dependence. The solution to the problem of subordination of the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates was possible in two ways: either to install your proteges in these khanates, or to conquer them.

After a series of unsuccessful diplomatic and military attempts to subjugate the Kazan Khanate, in 1552 the 150,000-strong army of Ivan IV besieged Kazan, which at that time was a first-class military fortress. To facilitate the task of taking Kazan, a wooden fortress was built in the upper reaches of the Volga (in the Uglich area), which, disassembled, was floated down the Volga until the Sviyaga River flows into it. Here, 30 km from Kazan, the city of Sviyazhsk was built, which became a stronghold in the struggle for Kazan. The work on the construction of this fortress was headed by the talented master Ivan Grigorievich Vyrodkov. He supervised the construction of mine tunnels and siege devices during the capture of Kazan.

Kazan was taken by storm, which began on October 1, 1552. As a result of the explosion of 48 barrels of gunpowder placed in the mines, part of the wall of the Kazan Kremlin was destroyed. Russian troops broke into the city through breaks in the wall. Khan Yadigir-Matet was captured. Subsequently, he was baptized, received the name Simeon Kasaevich, became the owner of Zvenigorod and an active ally of the tsar.

Four years after the capture of Kazan in 1556, Astrakhan was annexed. In 1557, Chuvashia and most of Bashkiria voluntarily became part of Russia. Dependence on Russia was recognized by the Nogai Horde, a state of nomads that separated from the Golden Horde at the end of the 14th century. (it was called by the name of Khan Nogai and covered the steppe spaces from the Volga to the Irtysh). Thus, new fertile lands and the entire Volga trade route became part of Russia. Russia's ties with the peoples of the North Caucasus and Central Asia expanded.

The annexation of Kazan and Astrakhan opened up the possibility of advancing into Siberia. Rich merchant-industrialists the Stroganovs received charters from Ivan IV (the Terrible) to own lands along the Tobol River. Using their own funds, they formed a detachment of 840 (according to other sources 600) people from free Cossacks, led by Ermak Timofeevich. In 1581, Ermak and his army penetrated the territory of the Siberian Khanate, and a year later defeated the troops of Khan Kuchum and took his capital Kashlyk (Isker). The population of the annexed lands had to pay rent in kind in fur - yasak.

In the 16th century The development of the territory of the Wild Field (fertile lands south of Tula) began. The Russian state was faced with the task of strengthening its southern borders from the raids of the Crimean Khan. For this purpose, the Tula (in the middle of the 16th century), and later the Belgorod (in the 30-40s of the 17th century) abatis lines were built - defensive lines consisting of forest rubble (zasek), in the spaces between which wooden fortresses were placed (fortresses), which closed the passages in the abatis for the Tatar cavalry.

Livonian War (1558-1583). Trying to reach the Baltic coast, Ivan IV fought the grueling Livonian War for 25 years. Russia's state interests required the establishment of close ties with Western Europe, which were then most easily achieved through the seas, as well as ensuring the defense of Russia's western borders, where its enemy was the Livonian Order. If successful, the opportunity to acquire new economically developed lands opened up.

The reason for the war was the delay by the Livonian Order of 123 Western specialists invited to Russian service, as well as the failure of Livonia to pay tribute for the city of Dorpat (Yuryev) and the adjacent territory over the past 50 years. Moreover, the Livonians entered into a military alliance with the Polish king and the Grand Duke of Lithuania.

The beginning of the Livonian War was accompanied by victories of Russian troops, who took Narva and Yuriev (Dorpat). A total of 20 cities were taken. Russian troops advanced towards Riga and Revel (Tallinn). In 1560, the Order was defeated, and its master W. Furstenberg was captured. This entailed the collapse of the Livonian Order (1561), whose lands came under the rule of Poland, Denmark and Sweden. The new Master of the Order, G. Ketler, received Courland as his possession and recognized dependence on the Polish king. The last major success at the first stage of the war was the capture of Polotsk in 1563.

The war became protracted, and several European powers were drawn into it. Controversies within Russia and disagreements between the Tsar and his entourage intensified. Among those Russian boyars who were interested in strengthening the southern Russian borders, dissatisfaction with the continuation of the Livonian War grew. Figures from the tsar’s inner circle, A. Adashev and Sylvester, also showed hesitation, considering the war futile. Even earlier, in 1553, when Ivan IV became dangerously ill, many boyars refused to swear allegiance to his little son Dmitry, the “diaperman.” The death of his first and beloved wife Anastasia Romanova in 1560 was a shock for the tsar.

All this led to the cessation of the activities of the Elected Rada in 1560. Ivan IV took a course towards strengthening his personal power. In 1564, Prince Andrei Kurbsky, who had previously commanded the Russian troops, went over to the side of the Poles. In these difficult circumstances for the country, Ivan IV introduced the oprichnina (1565-1572).

In 1569, Poland and Lithuania united into one state - the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Union of Lublin). The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden captured Narva and carried out successful military operations against Russia. Only the fall of the city of Pskov in 1581, when its inhabitants repulsed 30 assaults and made about 50 forays against the troops of the Polish king Stefan Batory, allowed Russia to conclude a truce for a period of ten years in Yama Zapolsky - a town near Pskov in 1582. A year later it was concluded Plyusskoe truce with Sweden. The Livonian War ended in defeat. Russia gave the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Livonia in exchange for the return of captured Russian cities, except Polotsk. Sweden retained the developed Baltic coast, the cities of Korela, Yam, Narva, and Koporye.

The failure of the Livonian War was ultimately a consequence of Russia's economic backwardness, which was unable to successfully withstand a long struggle against strong opponents. The ruin of the country during the oprichnina years only made matters worse.

Oprichnina. Ivan IV, fighting against the rebellions and betrayals of the boyar nobility, saw them as the main reason for the failures of his policies. He firmly stood on the position of the need for strong autocratic power, the main obstacle to the establishment of which, in his opinion, was the boyar-princely opposition and boyar privileges. The question was what methods would be used to fight. The urgency of the moment and the general underdevelopment of the forms of the state apparatus, as well as the character traits of the tsar, who was, apparently, an extremely unbalanced person, led to the establishment of the oprichnina. Ivan IV dealt with the remnants of fragmentation using purely medieval means.

In January 1565, from the royal residence of the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow, through the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, the tsar left for Alexandrovskaya Sloboda (now the city of Alexandrov, Vladimir region). From there he addressed the capital with two messages. In the first, sent to the clergy and the Boyar Duma, Ivan IV announced his renunciation of power due to the betrayal of the boyars and asked to be allocated a special inheritance - oprichnina (from the word "oprich" - except. This was the name of the inheritance allocated to the widow when dividing her husband's property) . In the second message, addressed to the townspeople of the capital, the tsar reported on the decision made and added that he had no complaints about the townspeople.

It was good

The formation of major political centers in Rus' and the struggle between them for the great reign of Vladimir. Formation of the Tver and Moscow principalities. Ivan Kalita. Construction of the white stone Kremlin.

Dmitry Donskoy. The Battle of Kulikovo, its historical significance. Relations with Lithuania. Church and State. Sergius of Radonezh.

Merger of the Great Vladimir and Moscow principalities. Rus' and the Union of Florence. The internecine war of the second quarter of the 15th century, its significance for the process of unification of Russian lands.

In 2016, the Altai Republic celebrates the 260th anniversary of the voluntary entry of the Altai people into Russia and the 25th anniversary of the creation of the republic.

The National Museum named after A.V. Anokhin plans to prepare and arrange an exhibition “Altai, Central Asia and Russia in the XII-XV, XVI-XVII, XVIII-XX centuries.” and open an exhibition “Turkic world from the collections of the Russian Ethnographic Museum”, dedicated to the 260th anniversary of the entry of Gorny Altai into the Russian state.

The process of annexing Gorny Altai into Russia took a long historical period.

Turkic-speaking tribes of Altai in the 17th and first half of the 18th centuries. were politically dependent on the Western Mongols, or Oirats, who from the second half of the 17th century. more often known as Dzungars. The Oirats were united into a vast feudal state, called in Russian sources Dzungaria (at present, Dzungaria is considered to be the region of Central Asia bordering Kazakhstan and the Mongolian People's Republic, constituting the northern part of the Chinese province of Xinjiang, Chuguchak, Shikho, Turfan, Gulja. In the middle of the 17th century. for a short time it was a vast area between Altai, Tien Shan and Balkhash).

A significant part of the Altai nomads, then known as Telenguts, Teleuts or White Kalmyks, constituted an outflow of 4,000 tents in Dzungaria and were in vassal relations with the Dzungar Khan. The Altai tribes paid the Dzungar feudal lords Alban, or Alman, furs, iron products and cattle.

Before the arrival of the Oirats and Russians, Otoks appeared in the political arena of Altai. Otok included a group of clans and individual families that lived in a certain territory and were feudally dependent on the ruler of Otok, the zaisan. The leading position in the otok was occupied, as a rule, by the most numerous clan - the syok. The semi-nomadic or nomadic population of Otok could relatively easily change their territory, but the same social relations were preserved in the new place. At the head of the outflow was the zaisan (jaizan). Otok consisted of duchins (tӧchin). Dyuchina was divided into taxation units of approximately 100 households - armans, headed by demichs (temichi). The collection of taxes in the Arman was in charge of the Shulengs (kundi - among the Chui Telengits). Arman was divided into ten-yards (arbans) headed by ten-yards - arbanaks (boshko among the Chuyts).

The political history of the Altai Mountains and the neighboring Upper Ob region in the 17th and first half of the 18th centuries was directly connected and determined by the relations of the Dzungar Khanate with neighboring states, mainly with the Russian state and Qing China. After annexing the Kazan Khanate in the mid-16th century, the Russians, led by Ermak, defeated the Siberian Khanate in 1582. Khan Kuchum fled with part of his people to the east, but in 1598 he was defeated on the Irmen River, which flows into the Ob. Russian fortresses began to be built on the lands of the former Siberian Khanate. Tyumen was founded in 1586, then Tobolsk, Tara, and Surgut arose. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Russian governors of Tobolsk and Tomsk established contacts with Abak (from the Mundus clan), the prince of the Telenguts of the Upper Ob region. The entire subsequent history of Russian-Altai (Telengut) relations is filled with both peaceful and dramatic events.

In the second half of the 17th century, the political situation within the Dzungar Khanate was characterized by confrontation between the main clan groups, and its foreign policy was aimed at fighting the neighboring states of Central Asia. Therefore, Dzungaria could not resist Russia’s advance up the Irtysh and Ob. During 1713-1720, the Omsk, Semipalatinsk and Ust-Kamenogorsk fortresses were built along the Irtysh, and along the Ob - the Chaussky and Berdsky forts, the Beloyarsk and Biysk fortresses.

At the beginning of the second quarter of the 18th century, the Altai section of the state border of Russia with Dzungaria passed south of the city of Kuznetsk in a direction southwest along the valleys of the Lebedi-Biya rivers, then along the foothills of Altai, crossing the lower reaches of the Katun, Kamenka, Peschanaya, Anui, Charysh rivers , the upper reaches of Alei, Ubu and ended in the area of ​​Ust-Kamenogorsk.

At the end of the 17th - first half of the 18th centuries, the population of Gorny Altai was divided into two main groups according to their political status. One group of the population, living in the Biya valley, near Lake Teletskoye and in the lower reaches of the Katun (between the Isha and Naima tributaries) had the status of double subordination of the “dualism” of Russia and Dzungaria. The difference between them was manifested in the fact that the inhabitants of the Biya valley were highly dependent on the administration of the Kuznetsk district of Russia, and the population of the Teles and Tau-Teleut volosts gravitated towards the border authorities of Dzungaria. The other, larger part of the population of the Altai Mountains (the territory from the Katun valley to the southwest to the Irtysh, Bashkaus, Chuya, Argut valleys) was part of the Dzungar Khanate.

After the death of the last Kagan of the Dzungar Khanate, Galdan-Tseren in 1745, civil strife flared up in the state for many years, of which Dabachi (Davatsi) emerged victorious. However, a number of noyons elevated their protege, Nemekha-Jirgal, to the throne, and there were two khans in Dzungaria at once. With the help of the Khoyt prince Amursana, Davatsi in 1753 deposed and killed his rival. But soon his associate Amursana demanded that “Kan-Karakol, Tau-Teleut, Telets and Sayan lands” be given to him. Dabachi’s refusal caused enmity with Amursana, which led to military clashes.

During the fight between Dabachi and Amursana in 1753-1754. The Altai zaisans sided with the first, legitimate, in their opinion, ruler of Dzungaria. This circumstance later played an ominous role in the destinies of the Altai people.

In August 1754, Amursana, having suffered defeat, fled to Khalkha, from where he turned to the Qing Emperor Qianlong for help. At court, Amursana was greeted with great joy. The Qing dynasty saw in Amursan a convenient weapon in the struggle to achieve its cherished goal - the destruction of the Dzungar Khanate. Qianlong organized a large punitive campaign against Dzungaria. A huge Qing army invaded Dzungaria and occupied the entire territory of the Khanate. In June-July 1755, the Manchus captured important areas of the Irtysh and Ili. Along with the Manchus was the Khoyt noyon of Amursan. Amursana, who commanded the vanguard of the northern column of the Qing army, advancing from Khalki through the Mongolian Altai, began to cruelly take revenge on the Altai princes. The commander of the troops on the Kolyvano-Kuznetsk line, Colonel F.I. Degarriga in September 1755 reported to the commander on the Siberian lines, Brigadier I.I. Croft that “Amursanay had already moved into the Zengorskaya village in the extreme uluses with his army, and they, the Kalmyks, were pressed to that Katuna River by himself, Amursanai, with his army standing in the Kansky and Karakol volosts...”.

Russian archival documents contain information about Amursana’s beating of the Altai princes. The Dzungarian noyon sent troops to the Kan and Karakol volosts “to take away all the local zaisans under the guise of this: supposedly, by order of the Chinese Khan, they are required for worship, which they gathered and seventeen people came to him, Amursana, and whom he, Amursana, before the malice inflicted on him, in revenge, he cut off the heads of fifteen people, and he released two de zaisans for the virtues shown, as before, to their volosts without harm.” Amursana's envoys demanded that the Altai zaisan Omba “clear the land to the owner of our noyon Amursana without any battle or quarrel for residence,” threatening otherwise to “cut down his entire root.” Amursana’s actions prompted Zaisan Omba and others in 1754 to turn to the Russian authorities with requests for protection and shelter under the walls of Russian fortresses. The Altai princes turned to the Russian authorities first for military assistance, asylum, and then, from 1755, with requests for citizenship and places to live near Russian fortresses.

In the summer of 1755, Dzungaria ceased to exist. The Qing Empire decided to divide the Oirot state into four parts, each of which was to be headed by an independent khan. But these plans were not destined to come true, since an uprising broke out in Dzungaria, which was raised by Amursana, who had lost all hope of becoming an all-Oirat khan. Having defeated the small Qing detachment remaining in the Oirat land and settled on the Borotal River, Amursana developed active efforts to create a coalition of all anti-Manchu forces, including the Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and Turkic peoples of Altai.

Amursana's uprising forced Qing Beijing to take all measures to suppress the rebellion.

Long before these events, back in May 1755, the Qing emperor ordered the Khotogoit prince Tsengundzhab to “bring into submission” the tribes of the southern regions of the Altai Mountains. On June 12, 1755, Qing troops reached the Sailyugem ridge, which, as is known, separates the Mongolian and Gorny Altai. Having overcome the ridge, part of the troops went to the area of ​​​​the upper reaches of the Katun River to subjugate the Altaians living there, another - downstream of the Argut River, and a third - to the Chagan-Usun region. Thus, a significant part of Southern Altai came under the control of Manchu troops. The arrival of the Chinese in the region and their “inclination” of local residents to accept Manchu citizenship was reported to the Russians in August 1755 by the Tau-Teleuts Ereldey Maachak and Dardy Baachak. The appearance of a significant Qing army in Altai forced the Altai zaisans and elders, especially those who lived in the upper reaches of the Katun, along Chuya, Argut, Bashkaus, etc. not having sufficient strength to resist the troops, the Zaisans Buktush, Burut, Gendyshka, Namky, Ombo and others, fearing being physically destroyed, were forced to formally submit to the Manchus. Satisfied with the agreement of the Altai Zaisans to recognize the power of the Son of Heaven, Tsengundzhab reported to Beijing and, having gathered his troops, went with them to Mongolia, leaving no guards, no posts, no officials to manage the new subjects.

Having learned about the departure of the “Mungals”, Amursana’s envoy arrived in the Altai and Tuvan nomads with a request to help the rebel Oirats in the fight against Manchu dominance. However, this request did not find a response in the hearts of the locals, since the atrocities of Amursana and the Manchu troops he brought in 1754 were fresh in their memory. The Altai and Tuvan zaisans not only did not respond, moreover, they even reported this to the commander of the Manchurian troops.

In December 1755, a delegation of Altai zaisans, consisting of Gulchugai, Kamyk (Namyk), Kutuk, Nomky and others, was solemnly received by the Qing emperor in his palace, where he granted them official titles and corresponding insignia. Before leaving, they were familiarized with an order that obligated each of them to be ready to support with their troops the Chinese army, which would march “in the spring to Amursanaya.”

The Manchu troops, who arrived to protect the Altai “new subjects from possible actions of the rebel Oirats,” did not behave like defenders. Protecting the Altaians from being taken by the Oirats to Dzungaria, they began to “en masse drive away the inhabitants to their mungals.” These aspirations of the latter were accompanied by the robbery of civilians, all kinds of extortions and often the murder of innocent people. These actions of the Manchus had the most negative impact on the Altai Zaisans: they not only began to reconsider their attitude towards them, but also forced them to take up arms and oppose the Chinese. Thus, the Altai population, opposing the Qing troops, supported the Dzungar uprising.

The Qing emperor ordered strict punishment of the rebels, especially their instigators, who dared to resist the Qing troops. Fulfilling the order, the Manchus unleashed all their forces on the Altai nomads. The first to fall under this massive blow were the inhabitants of the nomads and uluses of the Zaisans of Buktush, Burut and Namky.

The Altaians, who were attacked by Qing troops, defended themselves as best they could. But the forces were not equal. Therefore, they began to leave the Manchus who were pressing on them under the protection of Russian fortresses and outposts.

With the start of a new campaign by the Qing army, the Altai zaisans began to resettle their people closer to Russian fortresses. At the beginning of March 1756, Buktush, Burut, Namykai and Namyk pulled up units of their otoks to the mouth of the Sema River. Some of the people of Zaisan Kulchuga approached the Ust-Kamenogorsk fortress.

Petitions “for intercession” and the possibility of “their salvation from the evil times on the Russian side” were submitted by the Zaisans since 1754.

12 Altai zaisans: Ombo, Kulchugai, Kutuk, Naamky, Bookhol, Cheren, Buurut, Kaamyk, Naamzhyl, Izmynak, Sandut, Buktusha addressed a letter to the Russian authorities in 1755 with a request to accept them as citizenship.

Without the ability and authority to resolve such issues, the commander of the Kolyvano-Kuznetsk military line, Colonel F. Degarriga, time after time forwarded such “foreign” petitions to his superiors: the Siberian Governor V.A. Myatlev and the commander of the Siberian Corps, Brigadier Croft. However, both of them also did not have any clear instructions from above on this score, and therefore they were forced to ask for clarification on this matter from the Orenburg governor I. I. Neplyuev. Unfortunately, the latter could not resolve the issues raised by the Altai foreigners; he could only recommend to his Siberian colleagues, on the one hand, to refrain from accepting Altaians into Russian citizenship, and on the other, “not to reject these petitioners” from “the benevolence of Her Imperial Majesty "and allow the local foreigners" to roam near Russian military fortifications.

Without waiting for the Altaians to voluntarily accept Qing citizenship and seeing the difficulties and indecisiveness of the Russian authorities, the Qing troops began to show even greater activity in achieving their aggressive goals. At the end of May, the Qing commanders led their troops on the offensive, trying to capture them before reaching the Russian military line. V. Serebrennikov, who visited the Altai Mountains for reconnaissance purposes, reported on June 5 in Kuznetsk that, according to zaisan Buktush, the Qing troops had reached the Kur-Kechu crossing on the Katun, where they built rafts and intended to cross “to this side.”

On May 24, the commander of the Siberian troops, Croft, who was in Tobolsk, received a decree from the Collegium of Foreign Affairs dated May 2, 1756, with a detailed statement of the conditions and procedure for accepting “Zengorians” into Russian citizenship... all those accepted into citizenship, except for dvoedants and Bukharans, should gradually “transport along the lines to the Volga Kalmyks.”

The same decree was sent to the Siberian governor Myatlev.

On June 21, 1756, the zaisans Buktush, Burut, Seren, Namykai and demics Mengosh Sergekov arrived in Biysk. Those who arrived were sworn in and given written “undertakings in their dialect”:

“In the middle summer month of 1756, for 24 days, the zaisangs Namuk, Tserin, Buktush, Burut, wandering along the black river Oilin Telengutov, and instead of Bookhol, foreman Mingosh, all 3 with their wives and children and with all the ulus people, small and large, migrated to the citizenship of the All-Russian Empress into eternal birth without fail. And where we are commanded to have a village, according to that decree we must act and do no evil deeds against the Russians, theft and robbery, this is what we swore to the Burkhans, if we commit anything in violation, then according to the will and rights of the Great Empress we will be punished. And in assurance of this, we, the zaisangs and demichinars, gave our sons to the amanates, namely: Biokuteshev (Buktush) son of Tegedek, Mohiin son of Byudyuroshk... (etc.).”

The said Zaisans refused to move to the Volga, pointing out that they were so ruined by the attack of the Mongol army that many did not have horses and remained on foot. Among other reasons that did not allow them to immediately move to the Volga, they pointed out that “the horses and cattle are very exhausted from running away and restlessness.” In addition, during the attack of the Mongol army, many of their relatives, and others’ wives and children, “fled to hidden places in the mountains, retreating from the enemy with a light crew.”

After the first group of zaisans accepted into citizenship in Biysk, zaisans Namyk Emonaev and Kokshin Emzynakov came here later. The last of the Zaisans to reach Biysk was Kutuk. At the end of summer, the remaining part of the Kansk Otok, led by the zaisan Ombo and the demicians Samur and Altai, reached the Kolyvan line. Along with Omba, 15 smokes of Kulchugai’s zaisan also came out.

In order to persuade the Zaisans, who refused to move to the Volga, the arriving representatives of the governor of the Kalmyk Khanate and Colonel Degariga decided to read out to them a false letter, written in the Oirat language, allegedly sent from the Qing command, demanding the extradition of the Altaians. This had a strong effect on the Zaisans.

The decree of the KID of Russia dated May 20, 1757 ordered that the Altaians and other groups of Dzungarians accepted into Russia be sent to the Volga in different batches. On July 28, 1757, a large kosh - a caravan with 2277 settlers left Biysk. The list of settlers sent to the Volga included the zaisans Burut Chekugalin, Kamyk Yamonakov (Namyk Emonaev), Tseren Urukov (Seren) and the families of the deceased zaisans Kulchugaya and Ombo. In addition, there were people of the zaisan Buktush in the kosh.

According to the calculations of the Russian Foreign Committee, by the beginning of 1760, the total number of Dzungar refugees accepted into Russian citizenship was 14,617 people. The resettlement was accompanied by mass deaths of people from diseases: smallpox, dysentery, as well as from hunger and cold. Only as far as the Omsk fortress, where the first caravan arrived on September 11, leaving with 3,989 people, lost 488 people. In Omsk, from September 11 to 21, 63 died. On the way from Omsk to the Zverinogolovskaya fortress, another 536 people died. On October 22, 1758, a caravan of more than 800 families arrived in the Kalmyk nomads. Thus, in the middle of the 18th century. The main territory of the Altai Mountains is annexed to the Russian state.

In 1757-1759 Taking advantage of the geographical remoteness of the southeastern regions of the Altai Mountains from Russian military fortified lines, the actual impossibility on the part of Russia at this time to completely prevent the penetration of military detachments from Mongolia into the Altai Mountains, the Qing subjugated the inhabitants of the Chui River basin and the Ulagan Plateau. At the end of the 18th - first half of the 19th centuries. The territories of two modern districts (Kosh-Agachsky and Ulagansky), called the First and Second Chui volosts, were under the double protectorate of Russia and China, the inhabitants of which were dualists of two powerful empires for 100 years.

Thus, the Altai ethnic groups have traveled a long historical path. They were part of the first and second Turkic Khaganates, the Mongol Empire, the Dzungar Khanate, until they were subjected to the Chinese invasion in 1755-1759. To protect their people from extermination, the majority of the Altai tribal rulers - the Zaisans - turned to Russia with a request for protection and acceptance of their citizenship. The admission of Altaians to Russian citizenship was carried out by the Siberian authorities according to the decree of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs on the admission of the former “Zengor Zaisans” with their subjects to Russian citizenship dated May 2, 1756.

Literature:

Ekeev N.V. Altaians (materials on ethnic history). - Gorno-Altaisk, 2005. - 175 p.

Ekeev N.V. Problems of the ethnic history of the Altaians (research and materials). - Gorno-Altaisk, 2011. - 232 p.

History of the Altai Republic. Volume II. Mountain Altai as part of the Russian state (1756-1916) // Research Institute of Altaistics named after S. S. Surazakov. - Gorno-Altaisk, 2010. - 472 p.

Modorov N. S. Russia and the Altai Mountains. Political, socio-economic and cultural relations (XVII-XIX centuries). - Gorno-Altaisk, 1996.

Modorov N. S., Datsyshen V. G. The peoples of Sayan-Altai and North-Western Mongolia in the fight against Qing aggression. 1644-1758 - Gorno-Altaisk-Krasnoyarsk, 2009. - 140 p.

Moiseev V. A. Foreign policy factors of the accession of Gorny Altai to Russia. 50s XVIII century // Altai-Russia: through the centuries into the future. Materials of the All-Russian scientific and practical conference dedicated to the 250th anniversary of the entry of the Altai people into the Russian state (May 16-19, 2006). - Gorno-Altaisk, 2006. Volume 1. - P.12-17.

Samaev G.P. Gorny Altai in the 17th - mid-19th centuries: problems of political history and accession to Russia. - Gorno-Altaisk, 1991.- 256 p.

Samaev G.P. Accession of Altai to Russia (historical review and documents). - Gorno-Altaisk, 1996.- 120 p.

E. A. Belekova, Deputy Director for Research.

In 2015, the National Museum named after A.V. Anokhin received copies of documents on the accession of Gorny Altai to the Russian state from the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. We thank the archive staff for their cooperation!

Illustrations

1. Episode of the war between Dzungaria and the Chinese Empire in 1755-1756. (from a painting by an unknown artist)

2. Request of the Zaisans for their acceptance into the citizenship of the Russian Empire (in the Old Oirot language). February 1756

5. 1 page of the Decree of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs to the Siberian Governor, Lieutenant General V.A. Myatlev about the conditions and procedure for accepting the population of Southern Altai into Russian citizenship. 2/13 May 1756

6. 1 page from the list of Altaians who acquired Russian citizenship.

Entry into the Russian state (XIV-XVI centuries)

By the middle of the 15th century, having neither a strong economic base nor ethnic unity and united only by force of arms, the Golden Horde finally disintegrated into several states. The Black Sea steppes and Crimea formed the possessions of the Crimean Khanate; lower reaches of the Volga - Astrakhan; Ob-Siberian basin.

The Kazan Khanate was formed in the middle reaches of the Volga and lower reaches of the Kama. Below, along the left bank, stretched the nomadic nomads of the Nogai, and on the right bank - the Great Horde, whose khans had not yet given up hopes of recreating the once mighty nomadic empire. However, their time has passed. The final victory was won by the settled farmer, and the nomadic khanates, which relied on the plunder of surrounding peoples, quickly moved towards destruction amid endless wars and civil strife.

In those same years, the final unification of Russian lands around Moscow took place. A strong centralized state, headed in the second half of the 15th century by the experienced leader and politician Ivan III, who already bore the title of “Sovereign of All Rus',” threw off the Horde yoke and itself went on the offensive. Under attacks from the north and south, the Great Horde crumbled, which meant the end of the Horde yoke for the Mordovian people. However, the raids of nomads not only did not stop, but even intensified. The Crimean and Nogai khans tried to make up for the lack of constant tribute through regular predatory campaigns in the Mordovian lands.

There have been periods in the history of many nations when it was necessary to make historical choices. Often it came down to an alternative, a confrontation between two trends. The first of them meant integration, growing into a politically and militarily stronger organism, the second was expressed in open confrontation with it, a life-and-death struggle.

In the 14th century, the Mordovian people again found themselves in a similar situation. The Grand Duchy of Moscow acted as a political body, whose leading role in the system of Eastern European states after the Battle of Kulikovo was undeniable. In addition, it acted as the basis - the core of the emerging Russian centralized state.

The peoples of the Middle Volga at different times faced the problem of relationships with the Russian people and Russian state entities. But the chronological framework was not the main factor in this process; its character, its essential features, played a more important role.

One of the largest Russian historians of the 19th century, Konstantin Dmitrievich Kavelin, argued: “The intimate, internal history of the Russian people lies in the formation of the Great Russian branch, its settlement and the Russification of the Finns.” This means that the entry of the Mordovians into the Russian centralized state is an integral part of the “intimate”, “internal” history of Russia.

The prerequisites for this process took centuries to develop, their milestones being the annexation of a number of Mordovian lands to the Russian principalities, primarily Nizhny Novgorod and Ryazan... (see also the opinion of the historian V.O. Klyuchevsky)

By the beginning of the 16th century, the Mordovian land was a completely armed federation of small territories independent from each other, headed by either the multiplied descendants of former princes, both Mordovian and Tatar, or even elected leaders such as Cossack atamans. In Meshchera, which actually became part of the Russian state back in 1380, formally there was a small Kasimov kingdom, completely dependent on Moscow, ruled by Tatar feudal lords. As for the rest of the Mordovian territory, depending on the situation, it was considered a vassal either to Moscow or to Kazan.

In fact, the forest region inhabited by Cossack freemen was left to its own devices. Only its eastern regions paid a more or less constant tribute to the Kazan khans, mainly in furs, and the lands adjacent to Nizhny Novgorod gave taxes in favor of the Moscow prince.

The natural desire of the majority of Mordovian feudal lords was to maintain independence and independence from both Moscow and Kazan. Therefore, basically, the Mordovian region adhered to neutrality in the wars between them. Until the 20s of the 16th century, the advantage in the struggle was always on the side of the Russians. However, in 1521, the Crimean Khan Muhammad Giray, taking advantage of the Russian-Lithuanian war, organized a coup in Kazan and elevated his brother Sahib Giray to the khan's throne there. He also recognized the supreme power of the powerful Sultan of the Ottoman Porte.

The Nogai and then the Astrakhan feudal lords joined the union. Thus, the rallying of Turkic-Islamic forces from the Urals to the Danube took place again, this time under the auspices of Turkey. In the same year, the army of the Crimean Khan, together with the Nogai, struck Moscow.

She failed to take the capital, but the lands from Tula to Vladimir suffered a terrible defeat. The army of Sahib Girey attacked the right bank of the Volga, reaching from Kazan to Vladimir and simultaneously devastating Mordovian territory. This was no longer an ordinary predatory raid, but a well-organized campaign aimed at undermining the productive forces of non-Turkic peoples. According to the chronicler, about 800,000 prisoners were taken out of Rus' alone. The invaders also caused enormous damage to the Mordovian land.

In 1540, a new predatory raid followed, during which the Mordovian lands from Sura to Murom were devastated. In addition, Kazan feudal lords began en masse to resettle entire Mordovian villages to the territory of the Khanate in the Volga region. The threat of complete extinction once again loomed over the Mordovian people.

And although the union of khanates soon fell apart, the danger of its renewal did not pass, especially since the Turks began advancing from the south, strengthening themselves in the lower reaches of the Don and in the North Caucasus. They even attempted to dig a canal to bring the Ottoman fleet into the Volga basin. In such conditions, the Mordovian feudal lords had to make a final choice, so to speak, between east and west.

Mordovia's ties with Kazan were very strong. Since the time of the Bulgarian kingdom, trade routes were established to the east for the sale of furs and other goods. The city itself was made the capital in the 30-40s of the 15th century by Khan Ulu-Mukhamed. Many folk legends have been preserved about the voluntary construction of this city, in which the Mordovian people call Kazan almost their capital.

Living in the same geographical region, the largely similar nature of economic activity, family ties with Kazan of many Mordovian princes, not to mention the Tatar Murzas - all this also brought the Mordovian region closer to the Kazan Khanate, in which the Finno-Ugrians made up a considerable part of the population. However, the random predatory raids of Kazan residents caused an extremely negative reaction from the bulk of the region's population. As for the Mordovian and even Tatar princes and Murzas, they were repelled by the political instability of the Khanate and incessant civil strife.

In Kazan, bloody clashes constantly took place between adherents of Rus', Crimea, the Nogai Horde and even Central Asian emirs. In the first half of the 16th century alone, 14 khans changed in it, every now and then drawing adherents from all over the Volga region into their feuds. In such a situation, the campaigns of 1521 and 1540 on neutral Mordovian lands became a turning point in their final break with Kazan and the transition to the side of Moscow.

The heir of Ivan III, the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily Ivanovich, was not slow to take advantage of this. In the 20s–40s, in the territory where the Mordovians settled, Russian garrisons, with the help of the local population, built fortress cities: Vasilsursk, Mokshansk, Temnikov (in a new location), Shatsk, Elatma; Arzamas, Kadom, Kurmysh, Narovchat are being restored. Even earlier, the Mordovians sporadically acted together with the Russians against the nomads.

For example, in 1444, the arrival of the Mordovian army to the aid of the Ryazan people turned out to be decisive in the defeat of the strong army of the Horde prince Mustafa. Since the 20s of the 16th century, the joint struggle against the Kazan and Crimean Khanates has become constant. A massive transition of Mordovian feudal lords to the service of the Russian government begins.

Since 1545, regular campaigns of Russian troops resumed against Kazan. Two of them were headed by Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich himself, who was later called the Terrible. As a result of these campaigns, the Volga region lands were annexed to Russia up to Sviyazhsk, at the mouth of which in 1551 the stronghold of Sviyazhsk was built. In 1552, Kazan was taken by troops under the command of Ivan the Terrible and the Kazan Khanate was annexed to Moscow.

In the memory of the Mordovian people, the year of the fall of Kazan is identified with the time of the Mordovians’ annexation to the Russian state. Both historical and folklore monuments do not provide grounds for asserting that such annexation at that time was due to conquest.

There is also a legend about this, but it also connects the annexation of Mordovian lands not with war, but with deception. In the legends of the neighboring Russian population, as, for example, in the epic, an excerpt from which is included in the epigraph to this essay, the annexation of Mordovian territory, although considered as a single process with the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan, is also not called conquest.

However, some pre-revolutionary historians believed that the peaceful annexation of Mordovian lands applied mainly to the southern regions of the region in the Moksha region, where the existing order remained without significant changes. At the same time, in their opinion, in the north “in the Erzi region, the establishment of Russian rule had the character of a conquest of the country and therefore was accompanied by deeper changes in life.” The basis for such a conclusion are some documents indicating the transfer of the estates of some Mordovian princes to Russian feudal lords - participants in the Kazan campaign.

There are other opinions about the time and form of the annexation of the main part of the Mordovian territory to Russia. Some researchers believe that we should not be talking about annexation, but about the “voluntary entry” of the Mordovian people into Russia, and by 1485.

It should be noted that the vast Mordovian territory was annexed gradually, in pieces, starting at least from the 12th century. Later, as mentioned above, it was a combination of several feudal estates, increasingly fragmented, often at odds with each other and without a common political and economic center, therefore, firstly, we cannot talk about any single act, be it “entry” or “annexation” of most of the Mordovian territory; secondly, the form of accession was by no means uniform.

In a number of places, such as in the region of Nizhny Novgorod or Kadoma, the annexation was preceded by a long, fierce war; in other areas, for example, in the same Meshchera region, it may have been more or less peaceful. As for the “voluntary” and not forced entry of a small country into a large one, completely different in ethnic, religious and political aspects, history does not know such examples at all.

The long process of annexing the Mordovian lands to Russia, as follows from documentary, as well as folklore sources that are in good agreement with them, was completed in the middle of the 16th century. At the same time, there is no need to talk about the conquest of the then main territory of settlement of the Mordovians, including modern Mordovia. The latter is also evidenced by the preferential position of the Mordovian population in comparison with the peoples of the Kazan Khanate (and even in comparison with the Russians - unlike Russian villages, there was no slavery in the Mordovian villages - serfdom). Mordva did not participate in the uprising that the Kazan people en masse raised against Moscow in 1553-1557.

The local population did not support the movement of the Mari people against Moscow in the 80s of the 16th century. On the contrary, some Mordovian princes and their squads were recruited to suppress similar uprisings in Kazan. So, under 1553, speaking about the campaign against the rebels, the chronicle indicates: “The same month (September), on Tuesday, the sovereign sent his governors into three regiments to the Arsk place and to the prison: in the large regiment, the boyar and the governor, Prince Alexander Borisovich Gorbatoy , boyar and governor Prince Semyon Ivanovich Mikulinsky and boyar and butler Danilo Romanovich; in the guard regiment the governor was Prince Pyotr Andreevich Bulgakov and Prince Davyd Fedorovich Paletskoy.

Yes, the boyars ordered the heads of his royal regiment to be with the children of the boyars, and with them the streltsy heads from the streltsy, and the ataman of many with the Cossacks (Volga Cossacks), and the Gorodets Tatars sow with all the Gorodets, and the Prince Yenikey with the Mordovians Temnikovskaya ... »

Until the second half of the 17th century, Mordovian warriors fought in national units under the command of their commanders, as a rule, Mordovian princes and Murzas.

In the 16th century, according to the Frenchman Margeret, who prepared a certificate for his government, the Mordovian region usually sent to war from seven to eight thousand horsemen, who received a salary of 8 to 30 rubles each. As part of the troops of Ivan the Terrible, the Mordovian cavalry took part in the campaign against Livonia in 1558, in the Lithuanian land in 1562 and 1563, in the defeat of Novgorod in 1571, in the Swedish campaign in 1590 and others.

2011 NOTE: In addition to the above, based on earlier research, we will add the latest discoveries and conclusions of scientists, indicating an earlier entry of the Mordovian people into the Russian state.

Based on materials from Mordovian scientists N. Mokshin, V. Abramov, V. Yurchenkov

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Originated in the middle of the 15th century. As a result of the fragmentation of the Golden Horde, the Kazan Khanate united under its rule the peoples of the Middle Volga region and the Urals - the Tatars, Udmurts, Mari, Chuvash, and part of the Bashkirs. The peoples of the Middle Volga region, who have lived here for a long time, more or less inherited the ancient culture of Volga Bulgaria. In the fertile regions of the Volga region, agriculture, beekeeping and hunting for fur-bearing animals were developed. The land belonged to the state. The khans distributed it to their vassals, who collected taxes from the population. Part of the land belonged to mosques. The main tax was food rent (kharaj); tithes went to the clergy. In the economy of the feudal lords, the labor of captive slaves was widely used. The situation of the Mordovians, Chuvash and Mari, who had to pay a large tribute, was more difficult. In the multinational Kazan Khanate, social and national contradictions were intertwined. The Kazan rulers saw a way out of them by organizing attacks on more developed Russian lands with the aim of robbery and capturing slave captives. The lack of developed urban life (except for the large center of transit trade - Kazan) also pushed for attacks on neighbors.
In the 30s - 40s of the 16th century. In the Kazan Khanate there were several significant popular uprisings against the feudal rulers. There was no unity among the Kazan feudal lords themselves: despite the orientation of most of them towards Crimea and Turkey, some feudal lords sought to develop political ties with the Russian state, with which Kazan supported trade.
Already in the mid-40s of the 16th century. The Chuvash and Mari were liberated from the power of the Kazan Khanate and became part of the Russian state.

Preparing for the trip to Kazan

By the middle of the 16th century. A strong coalition of Muslim sovereigns, which arose after the collapse of the Golden Horde and united by the influence and support of Sultan Turkey, acted against the Russian state.
The fight against external danger again arose as a primary, most important task, on the resolution of which the existence and development of the newly emerged united Russian state depended.
The entire second half of the 40s was spent in diplomatic and military attempts to achieve the elimination of the source of aggression in Kazan, either by restoring its vassalage, which could be achieved by establishing a supporter of Moscow in Kazan, or by conquering Kazan. But these attempts were unsuccessful. Moscow's protege Shah Ali failed to hold out in Kazan, and two campaigns of Russian troops in 1547 - 1548 and 1549 - 1950 were unsuccessful.
At the turn of the 50s, preparations began for a decisive blow to Kazan. The preference for military defeat over diplomatic solutions to this problem was associated with the need for land for the nobles. The Kazan Khanate with its “sub-district land” (Peresvetov’s expression) attracted service people. The capture of Kazan was also important for the development of trade - it opened the way along the Volga to the countries of the East, which so attracted Europeans in the sixteenth century with their riches.

Capture of Kazan

In the spring of 1551, on the right bank of the Volga, opposite Kazan, a wooden fortress of Sviyazhsk, pre-cut down and lowered down the river, was erected, which became a stronghold for conducting military operations against Kazan.
Russia's attack on Kazan alarmed the Turkish-Tatar coalition. By order of the Sultan, the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey struck from the south, intending to invade the central regions of Russia and thereby disrupt Russia's offensive on Kazan. But Moscow foresaw the possibility of such an attack and stationed troops in the Kashira-Kolomna area on the ancient Oka line. The Crimean Khan went back. In the second half of 1552, a hundred and fifty thousand strong Russian army, led by Ivan IV, princes A.M. Kurbsky, M.I. Vorotynsky and others, besieged Kazan. To destroy the walls of the Kazan Kremlin, according to the plans of Ivan Vyrodkov, mine tunnels and siege devices were built. As a result of the assault on October 2, 1552, Kazan was taken.

Mastering the Volga route

This was followed by the annexation of Bashkiria to Russia. In 1556 Astrakhan was taken. In 1557, Murza Ismail, the head of the Great Nogai Horde, swore allegiance to the Russian state. His opponents migrated with part of the Nogai to Kuban and became vassals of the Crimean Khan. The entire Volga has now become Russian. This was a huge success for the Russian state. In addition to eliminating dangerous hotbeds of aggression in the East, the victory over Kazan and Astrakhan opened up the possibility of developing new lands and developing trade with the countries of the East. This victory was the biggest event for contemporaries; it inspired the creation of a masterpiece of Russian and world architecture - the famous Intercession Cathedral on Red Square in Moscow, known as St. Basil's.

B.A. Rybakov - “History of the USSR from ancient times to the end of the 18th century.” - M., “Higher School”, 1975.