Although his son, Ivan the Terrible, is remembered more often, it was Vasily III who largely determined both the vectors of state policy and the psychology of the Russian government, which was ready to do anything to preserve itself.
Spare king
Vasily III came to the throne thanks to the successful struggle for power carried out by his mother, Sophia Paleologus. Vasily's father, Ivan III, declared his eldest son from his first marriage, Ivan the Young, as his co-ruler. In 1490, Ivan the Young suddenly died of illness and two parties began to fight for power: one supported Ivan the Young’s son Dmitry Ivanovich, the other supported Vasily Ivanovich. Sofia and Vasily overdid it. Their plot against Dmitry Ivanovich was discovered and they even fell into disgrace, but this did not stop Sofia. She continued to influence the authorities. There were rumors that she even cast a spell against Ivan III. Thanks to the rumors spread by Sofia, Dmitry Ivanovich's closest associates fell out of favor with Ivan III. Dmitry began to lose power and also fell into disgrace, and after the death of his grandfather he was shackled and died 4 years later. So Vasily III, the son of a Greek princess, became the Russian Tsar.
Solomonia
Vasily III chose his first wife as a result of a review (1500 brides) during his father’s lifetime. She became Solomonia Saburova, the daughter of a scribe-boyar. For the first time in Russian history, the ruling monarch took as his wife not a representative of the princely aristocracy or a foreign princess, but a woman from the highest stratum of “service people.” The marriage was fruitless for 20 years and Vasily III took extreme, unprecedented measures: he was the first of the Russian tsars to exile his wife to a monastery. Regarding children and inheriting power, Vasily, accustomed to fight for power in all possible ways, had a “fad.” So, fearing that the possible sons of the brothers would become contenders for the throne, Vasily forbade his brothers to marry until he had a son. The son was never born. Who is to blame? Wife. Wife - to the monastery. We must understand that this was a very controversial decision. Those who opposed the dissolution of the marriage, Vassian Patrikeev, Metropolitan Varlaam and the Monk Maxim the Greek, were exiled, and for the first time in Russian history, a metropolitan was defrocked.
Kudeyar
There is a legend that during her tonsure, Solomonia was pregnant, gave birth to a son, George, whom she handed over “to safe hands,” and announced to everyone that the newborn had died. Afterwards this child became the famous robber Kudeyar, who with his gang robbed rich convoys. Ivan the Terrible was very interested in this legend. The hypothetical Kudeyar was his older half-brother, which means he could lay claim to power. This story is most likely a folk fiction. The desire to “ennoble the robber”, as well as to allow oneself to believe in the illegitimacy of power (and therefore the possibility of its overthrow) is characteristic of the Russian tradition. With us, no matter what the ataman is, he is the legitimate king. Regarding Kudeyar, a semi-mythical character, there are so many versions of his origin that there would be enough for half a dozen atamans.
Lithuanian
For his second marriage, Vasily III married a Lithuanian, young Elena Glinskaya. “Just like his father,” he married a foreigner. Only four years later, Elena gave birth to her first child, Ivan Vasilyevich. According to legend, at the hour of the baby's birth, a terrible thunderstorm allegedly broke out. Thunder struck from the clear sky and shook the earth to its foundations. The Kazan Khansha, having learned about the birth of the tsar, announced to the Moscow messengers: “A tsar was born to you, and he has two teeth: with one he can eat us (Tatars), and with the other you.” This legend stands among many written about the birth of Ivan IV. There were rumors that Ivan was an illegitimate son, but this is unlikely: an examination of the remains of Elena Glinskaya showed that she had red hair. As you know, Ivan was also red-haired. Elena Glinskaya was similar to the mother of Vasily III, Sofia Paleologus, and she handled power no less confidently and passionately. After the death of her husband in December 1533, she became the ruler of the Grand Duchy of Moscow (for this she removed the regents appointed by her husband). Thus, she became the first after Grand Duchess Olga (if you don’t count Sofia Vitovtovna, whose power in many Russian lands outside the Moscow principality was formal) ruler of the Russian state.
Italian mania
Vasily III inherited from his father not only a love for strong-willed overseas women, but also a love for everything Italian. Italian architects hired by Vasily the Third built churches and monasteries, kremlins and bell towers in Russia. Vasily Ivanovich’s security also consisted entirely of foreigners, including Italians. They lived in Nalivka, a “German” settlement in the area of modern Yakimanka.
Barberbearer
Vasily III was the first Russian monarch to get rid of chin hair. According to legend, he trimmed his beard to look younger in the eyes of Elena Glinskaya. He did not last long in a beardless state, but it almost cost Rus' independence. While the Grand Duke was flaunting his clean-shaven youth, the Crimean Khan Islyam I Giray, complete with armed, sparsely bearded fellow countrymen, came to visit. The matter threatened to turn into a new Tatar yoke. But God saved. Immediately after the victory, Vasily grew his beard again. So as not to wake up the dashing.
The fight against non-covetous people
The reign of Basil III was marked by the struggle of the “non-possessors” with the “Josephites.” For a very short time, Vasily III was close to the “non-covetous”, but in 1522, instead of Varlaam, who had fallen into disgrace, the disciple of Joseph of Volotsky and the head of the Josephites, Daniel, was appointed to the metropolitan throne, who became an ardent supporter of strengthening the grand-ducal power. Vasily III sought to substantiate the divine origin of the grand ducal power, relying on the authority of Joseph Volotsky, who in his works acted as an ideologist of strong state power and “ancient piety.” This was facilitated by the increased authority of the Grand Duke in Western Europe. In the treaty (1514) with the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian III, Vasily III was even named king. Vasily III was cruel to his opponents: in 1525 and 1531. Maxim the Greek was twice condemned and imprisoned in a monastery.
The dispute about the succession to the throne, which arose at the end of the reign of John III and in which the boyars, out of hatred for the wife of John III and the mother of Vasily Ioannovich, Sophia Fominishna Palaeolog, sided with Dimitri Ioannovich (see John III), was reflected throughout the entire period of the great reign of Vasily Ioannovich. He ruled through clerks and people who were not distinguished by their nobility and antiquity. With this order, he found strong support in the influential Volokolamsk monastery, the monks of which were called Josephites, named after Joseph of Volotsky, the founder of this monastery, a great supporter of Sophia Fominishna, in which he found support in the fight against the heresy of the Judaizers. Vasily III treated the old and noble boyar families coldly and distrustfully; he consulted with the boyars only for appearances, and then rarely. The closest person to Vasily and his advisor was the butler Shigona-Podzhogin, one of the Tver boyars, with whom he decided matters, locking himself together. In addition to Shigona-Podzhogin, Vasily III’s advisers were about five clerks; they were also the executors of his will. Vasily III treated the clerks and his humble confidants rudely and cruelly. For refusing to go to the embassy, Vasily Ioannovich deprived clerk Dalmatov of his estate and sent him to prison; when Bersen-Beklemishev, one of the Nizhny Novgorod boyars, allowed himself to contradict Vasily Ioannovich, the latter drove him away, saying: “Go away, smerd, I don’t need you.” This Bersen decided to complain about the bike. the prince and the changes that, in Bersen’s opinion, the mother led. prince - and his tongue was cut out. Vasily Ioannovich acted autocratically, due to his personal character, coldly cruel and extremely calculating. Regarding the old Moscow boyars and noble families from the tribe of St. Vladimir and Gedimina he was extremely restrained, not a single noble boyar was executed under him; The boyars and princes who joined the ranks of the Moscow boyars constantly remembered the old days and the ancient right of the squad of departure. Vasily III took notes from them, oaths not to leave for Lithuania for service; By the way, Prince V.V. Shuisky gave the following note: “From his sovereign and from his children from their land to Lithuania, also to his brothers, and will not leave anywhere until his death.” The same records were given by the princes Belsky, Vorotynsky, Mstislavsky. Under Vasily Ioannovich, only one prince, V.D. Kholmsky, fell into disgrace. His case is unknown, and only fragmentary facts that have reached us cast some faint light on him. Under John III, Vasily Kholmsky was taken to swear an oath not to go to Lithuania for service. This did not prevent him from taking first place among the boyars under Vasily and marrying his sister. prince Why he fell into disgrace is unknown; but the occupation of his place by Prince Danila Vasilyevich Shchenya-Patrikeev and the frequent change in this place of princes from the tribe of St. Vladimir by the princes from the family of Gediminas give reason to think about discord among the boyars themselves (see Ivan the Terrible). The words of Prof. are quite applicable to Vasily Ioannovich’s relationship with the noble boyars. Klyuchevsky, who led. the prince in the regimental lists could not appoint the faithful Khabar Simsky instead of the unreliable Gorbaty-Shuisky ("Boyar Duma", p. 261), that is, he could not push well-known names from the front rows and had to obey the order with which he entered into the fight son. At the slightest conflict, he treated his relatives with the usual severity and mercilessness of the Moscow princes, about which the opponent of the son of Vasily III, Prince Andrei Kurbsky, complained so much, calling Kalita’s family “has long been bloodthirsty.” Vasily's rival in the succession to the throne, his nephew Dimitri Ioannovich, died in prison, in need. The brothers of Vasily III hated the people surrounding Vasily, and therefore the established order, and meanwhile, due to the childlessness of Vasily III, these brothers should have succeeded him, namely his brother Yuri. People close to Vasily had to fear under Yuri the loss of not only influence, but even life. Therefore, they joyfully greeted Vasily’s intention to divorce his barren wife, Solomonia, from the Saburov family. Perhaps these close people suggested the very idea of divorce. Metropolitan Varlaam, who did not approve of the idea of divorce, was removed and replaced by the abbot of the Volokolamsk monastery, Daniel. Josephite Daniel, a still young and determined man, approved of Vasily’s intentions. But the monk Vassian Kosoy Patrikeev rebelled against the divorce, who, even under the monastic robe, retained all the passions of the boyars; he was accosted by the monk Maxim, a learned Greek, a man completely alien to the calculations of Moscow politics, summoned to Russia to correct church books. Both Vassian and Maxim were both exiled to prison; the first died under Vasily, and the second outlived both Vasily III and the Metropolitan.
Under Vasily, the last appanage principalities and the veche city of Pskov were annexed to Moscow. From 1508 to 1509, the governor in Pskov was Prince Repnya-Obolensky, whom the Pskovites met unfriendly from his very arrival, because he did not come to them according to custom, without being asked or announced; the clergy did not come out to meet him with a procession of the cross, as was always done. In 1509 he led. The prince went to Novgorod, where Repnya-Obolensky sent a complaint against the Pskov people, and after that the Pskov boyars and mayors came to Vasily with complaints against the governor himself. V. the prince released the complainants and sent trusted people to Pskov to sort out the matter and reconcile the Pskov people with the governor; but no reconciliation followed. Then the Grand Duke summoned the mayors and boyars to Novgorod; however, he did not listen to them, but ordered all the complainants to gather in Novgorod for Epiphany in order to judge everyone at once. When a very significant number of complainants had gathered, they were told: “You have been caught by God and the Grand Duke Vasily Ioannovich of All Rus'.” Vel. the prince promised to show them mercy if they removed the veche bell, so that there would be no veche in the future, and only governors would rule in Pskov and its suburbs. Clerk Tretyak-Dalmatov was sent to Pskov to convey the will of the Pskov people. prince On January 19, 1510, the veche bell at St. Trinity. On January 24, Vasily III arrived in Pskov. Boyars, posadniks and living people, three hundred families, were exiled to Moscow, and Moscow rules were introduced in Pskov. Vasily III sought election to the great. princes of Lithuania. When his son-in-law Alexander died in 1506, Vasily wrote to his sister Elena, Alexander’s widow, so that she would persuade the lords to elect him as leader. princes, promising not to restrict the Catholic faith; He ordered the same through ambassadors to Prince Vojtech, the Bishop of Vilna, Pan Nikolai Radzivil and the entire Rada; but Alexander had already appointed himself a successor, his brother Sigismund. Having not received the Lithuanian throne, Vasily III decided to take advantage of the unrest that arose between the Lithuanian lords after the death of Alexander. The culprit of this unrest was Prince Mikhail Glinsky, a descendant of the Tatar Murza, who went to Lithuania under Vytautas. Mikhail Glinsky, Alexander's favorite, was an educated man who traveled a lot throughout Europe, an excellent commander, especially famous for his victory over the Crimean Khan; with his education and military glory, his wealth also attached importance to him, for he was richer than all the Lithuanian lords - almost half of the Principality of Lithuania belonged to him. The prince enjoyed enormous influence among the Russian population of the grand duchy, and therefore the Lithuanian lords were afraid that he would seize the throne and move the capital to Rus'. Sigismund had the imprudence to insult this strong man, which Vasily took advantage of, inviting Glinsky to go into his service. Glinsky's transition to the Moscow Grand Duke caused a war with Lithuania. At first this war was marked by great success. On August 1, 1514, Vasily III, with the assistance of Glinsky, took Smolensk, but on September 8 of the same year, the Moscow regiments were defeated by Prince Ostrozhsky at Orsha. After the defeat at Orsha, the war, which lasted until 1522, did not represent anything remarkable. Through the Emperor. Maximilian I, peace negotiations began back in 1517. The emperor's representative was Baron Herberstein, who left notes on the Moscow State - the best of foreign writings about Russia. With all the diplomatic skill of Herberstein, the negotiations were soon interrupted, because Sigismund demanded the return of Smolensk, and Vasily III, for his part, insisted that not only Smolensk remain with Russia, but that Kiev, Vitebsk, Polotsk and other cities that belonged to Russia should be returned to princes from the tribe of St. Vladimir. With such claims from the opponents, only in 1522 was a truce concluded. Smolensk remained behind Moscow. This truce was confirmed in 1526, through the same Herberstein, who came to Moscow for the second time as an ambassador from Charles V. During the continuation of the war with Lithuania, Vasily put an end to his last inheritances: Ryazan and the Seversky principalities. Prince Ivan of Ryazan, they said in Moscow, planned to restore independence to his principality with the help of the Crimean Khan Makhmet-Girey, whose daughter he intended to marry. Vasily III called Prince Ivan to Moscow, where he put him in custody, and imprisoned his mother, Agrippina, in a monastery. Ryazan was annexed to Moscow; Ryazan residents were resettled in droves to Moscow volosts. There were two princes in the Seversk land: Vasily Ivanovich, grandson of Shemyaka, Prince of Novgorod-Seversky, and Vasily Semenovich, Prince of Starodubsky, grandson of Ivan Mozhaisky. Both of these princes constantly denounced each other; Vasily III allowed Shemyachich to expel the Starodub prince from his domain, which was annexed to Moscow, and a few years later he also took Shemyachich into custody, and his inheritance was also annexed to Moscow in 1523. Even earlier, the Volotsk inheritance was annexed, where the last prince, Feodor Borisovich, died childless. During the fight against Lithuania, Vasily asked for help from Albrecht, Elector of Brandenburg, and from the Grand Master of the German Order. Sigismund, in turn, sought an alliance with Makhmet-Girey, Khan of Crimea. The Gireys, successors of the famous Mengli-Girey, an ally of John III, sought to unite all the Tatar kingdoms under the rule of their family; therefore, the Crimean Khan Makhmet-Girey became a natural ally of Lithuania. In 1518, the Kazan Tsar Magmet-Amin, a Moscow henchman, died childless, and the question of succession to the throne arose in Kazan. Vasily III placed Shig-Aley, the grandson of Akhmet, the last khan of the Golden Horde, the family enemy of the Girays, here on the kingdom. Shig-Aley was hated in Kazan for his tyranny, which Sahib-Girey, Mahmut-Girey’s brother, took advantage of and captured Kazan. Shig-Alei fled to Moscow. After this, Sahib-Girey rushed to devastate the Nizhny Novgorod and Vladimir regions, and Mahmut-Girey attacked the southern borders of the Moscow state. He reached Moscow itself, from where Vasily III retired to Volokolamsk. Khan took a written obligation from Moscow to pay him tribute and turned to Ryazan. Here he demanded that the governor come to him because he was leading. the prince is now a tributary of the khan; but governor Khabar-Simsky demanded proof that he led. the prince obliged to pay tribute. The Khan sent the letter given to him near Moscow; then Khabar, holding her, dispersed the Tatars with cannon shots. Sahib-Girey was soon expelled from Kazan, where, as a result of the struggle between the Crimean and Moscow parties, constant unrest occurred, and Vasily appointed Yenaley, Shig-Aley’s brother, as khan there. In this situation, Vasily III left his affairs in Kazan. The power of Father Ivan the Terrible was great; but he was not yet an autocrat in the later sense. In the era that preceded and followed the fall of the Tatar yoke, the word: autocracy was opposed not to the constitutional order, but to vassalage: an autocrat meant an independent ruler, independent of other rulers. The historical meaning of the word: autocracy is clarified by Kostomarov and Klyuchevsky.
E. Belov
Encyclopedia Brockhaus-Efron
Vasily III (1505-1533)
From the family of Moscow Grand Dukes. Son of Ivan III Vasilyevich the Great and the Byzantine princess Sophia Fominishna Palaeologus. Genus. March 25, 1479 Vel. book Moscow and All Rus' in 1506 - 1534. Wives: 1) from 4 September. 1506 Solomonia Yurievna Saburova (d. 1542), 2) from January 21. 1526 book. Elena Vasilievna Glinskaya (d. April 3, 1538).
The childhood and early youth of Vasily III passed in worries and trials. It was not long before he was proclaimed his father’s heir, since Ivan III had an eldest son from his first marriage, Ivan the Young. But in 1490, Ivan the Young died. Ivan III had to decide who to bequeath the throne to - his son Vasily or his grandson Dmitry Ivanovich. Most of the boyars supported Dmitry and his mother Elena Stefanovna. Sophia Paleologue was not loved in Moscow; only the children of the boyars and clerks took her side. Clerk Fyodor Stromilov informed Vasily that his father wanted to reward Dmitry with the great reign, and together with Afanasy Yaropkin, Poyarok and other boyar children, he began to advise the young prince to leave Moscow, seize the treasury in Vologda and Beloozero and destroy Dmitry. The main conspirators recruited themselves and other accomplices and brought them secretly to the kiss of the cross. But the conspiracy was discovered in December 1497. Ivan III ordered his son to be kept in custody in his own yard, and his followers to be executed. Six were executed on the Moscow River, many other boyar children were thrown into prison. At the same time, the Grand Duke became angry with his wife because sorcerers came to her with a potion; These dashing women were found and drowned in the Moscow River at night, after which Ivan began to beware of his wife.
On February 4, 1498, he married Dmitry, the “grandson,” into the great reign in the Assumption Cathedral. But the triumph of the boyars did not last long. In 1499, disgrace overtook two of the noblest boyar families - the princes Patrikeev and the prince Ryapolovsky. The chronicles do not say what their sedition consisted of, but there is no doubt that the reason must be sought in their actions against Sophia and her son. After the execution of the Ryapolovskys, Ivan III began, as the chroniclers put it, to neglect his grandson and declared his son Vasily the Grand Duke of Novgorod and Pskov. On April 11, 1502, he put Dmitry and his mother Elena into disgrace, put them in custody and did not order to call Dmitry the Grand Duke, and on April 14 he granted Vasily, blessed him and placed him in the great reign of Vladimir, Moscow and All Rus' as autocrat.
Ivan III's next concern was to find a worthy wife for Vasily. He instructed his daughter Elena, who was married to the Grand Duke of Lithuania, to find out which sovereigns would have marriageable daughters. But his efforts in this regard remained unsuccessful, as well as the search for brides and grooms in Denmark and Germany. Ivan was forced in the last year of his life to marry Vasily to Solomonia Saburova, chosen from 1,500 girls presented to the court for this purpose. Solomonia's father, Yuri, was not even a boyar.
Having become the Grand Duke, Vasily III followed in everything the path indicated by his parent. From his father he inherited a passion for construction. In August 1506, the Lithuanian Grand Duke Alexander died. Hostile relations between the two states resumed after this. Vasily accepted the Lithuanian rebel Prince Mikhail Glinsky. Only in 1508 was a peace concluded, according to which the king renounced all the ancestral lands that belonged to the princes who came under the rule of Moscow under Ivan III.
Having secured himself from Lithuania, Vasily III decided to end the independence of Pskov. In 1509, he went to Novgorod and ordered the Pskov governor Ivan Mikhailovich Ryapne-Obolensky and the Pskovites to come to him so that he could sort out their mutual complaints. In 1510, on the feast of Epiphany, he listened to both sides and found that the Pskov mayors did not obey the governor, and he received a lot of insults and violence from the Pskov people. Vasily also accused the Pskovites of despising the sovereign’s name and not showing him due honors. For this, the Grand Duke put disgrace on the governors and ordered them to be captured. Then the mayors and other Pskovites, admitting their guilt, beat Vasily with their foreheads so that he would grant his fatherland to Pskov and arrange it as God informed him. Vasily III ordered to say: “I will not hold an evening in Pskov, but two governors will be in Pskov.” The Pskovites, having gathered a veche, began to think about whether to oppose the sovereign and lock themselves in the city. Finally they decided to submit. On January 13, they removed the veche bell and sent it to Novgorod with tears. On January 24, Vasily III arrived in Pskov and arranged everything here at his own discretion. 300 of the most noble families, abandoning all their property, had to move to Moscow. The villages of the withdrawn Pskov boyars were given to the Moscow ones.
From Pskov affairs Vasily returned to Lithuanian affairs. In 1512, war began. Its main goal was Smolensk. On December 19, Vasily III set out on a campaign with his brothers Yuri and Dmitry. He besieged Smolensk for six weeks, but without success, and returned to Moscow in March 1513. On June 14, Vasily set out on a campaign for the second time, he himself stopped in Borovsk, and the governor sent him to Smolensk. They defeated the governor Yuri Sologub and besieged the city. Having learned about this, Vasily III himself came to the camp near Smolensk, but this time the siege was unsuccessful: what the Muscovites destroyed during the day, the Smolensk people repaired at night. Satisfied with the devastation of the surrounding area, Vasily ordered a retreat and returned to Moscow in November. On July 8, 1514, he set out for the third time to Smolensk with his brothers Yuri and Semyon. On July 29, the siege began. Gunner Stefan led the artillery. The fire of Russian cannons inflicted terrible damage on the Smolensk people. On the same day, Sologub and the clergy went to Vasily and agreed to surrender the city. On July 31, the Smolensk residents swore allegiance to the Grand Duke, and on August 1, Vasily III solemnly entered the city. While he was organizing affairs here, the governors took Mstislavl, Krichev and Dubrovny.
The joy at the Moscow court was extraordinary, since the annexation of Smolensk remained the cherished dream of Ivan III. Only Glinsky was dissatisfied, to whose cunning the Polish chronicles mainly attribute the success of the third campaign. He hoped that Vasily would give him Smolensk as his inheritance, but he was mistaken in his expectations. Then Glinsky started secret relations with King Sigismund. Very soon he was exposed and sent to Moscow in chains. Some time later, the Russian army under the command of Ivan Chelyadinov suffered a heavy defeat from the Lithuanians near Orsha, but the Lithuanians were unable to take Smolensk after that and thus did not take advantage of their victory.
Meanwhile, the collection of Russian lands went on as usual. In 1517, Vasily III summoned the Ryazan prince Ivan Ivanovich to Moscow and ordered him to be captured. After this, Ryazan was annexed to Moscow. Immediately after that, the Starodub Principality was annexed, and in 1523, Novgorod-Severskoye. Prince Novgorod-Seversky Vasily Ivanovich Shemyakin, like the Ryazan prince, was summoned to Moscow and imprisoned.
Although the war with Lithuania was not actually fought, peace was not concluded. Sigismund's ally, the Crimean Khan Magmet-Girey, raided Moscow in 1521. The Moscow army, defeated on the Oka, fled, and the Tatars approached the walls of the capital itself. Vasily, without waiting for them, left for Volokolamsk to collect shelves. Magmet-Girey, however, was not in the mood to take the city. Having devastated the land and captured several hundred thousand captives, he went back to the steppe. In 1522, the Crimeans were again expected, and Vasily III himself stood guard on the Oka with a large army. The Khan did not come, but his invasion had to be constantly feared. Therefore, Vasily became more accommodating in negotiations with Lithuania. In the same year, a truce was concluded, according to which Smolensk remained with Moscow.
So, state affairs were slowly taking shape, but the future of the Russian throne remained unclear. Vasily was already 46 years old, but he did not yet have heirs: Grand Duchess Solomonia was barren. In vain she used all the remedies that were attributed to her by the healers and healers of that time - there were no children, and her husband’s love disappeared. Vasily said with tears to the boyars: “Who should I reign on the Russian land and in all my cities and borders? Should I hand it over to my brothers? But they don’t even know how to arrange their own inheritances.” To this question, an answer was heard among the boyars: “Sovereign, great prince! They cut down a barren fig tree and sweep it out of its grapes.” The boyars thought so, but the first vote belonged to Metropolitan Daniel, who approved the divorce. Vasily III met unexpected resistance from the monk Vassian Kosoy, the former prince of Patrikeev, and the famous Maxim the Greek. Despite, however, this resistance, in November 1525, the Grand Duke’s divorce from Solomonia was announced, who was tonsured under the name of Sophia at the Nativity nunnery, and then sent to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery. Since this matter was looked at from different points of view, it is not surprising that conflicting news about it has reached us: some say that divorce and tonsure followed according to the wishes of Solomonia herself, even at her request and insistence; in others, on the contrary, her tonsure seems to be a violent act; They even spread rumors that soon after the tonsure Solomonia had a son, George. In January of the following 1526, Vasily III married Elena, the daughter of the deceased Prince Vasily Lvovich Glinsky, the niece of the famous Prince Mikhail.
The new wife of Vasily III differed in many ways from Russian women of that time. Elena learned foreign concepts and customs from her father and uncle and probably captivated the Grand Duke. The desire to please her was so great that, as they say, Vasily III even shaved his beard for her, which, according to the concepts of that time, was incompatible not only with folk customs, but also with Orthodoxy. The Grand Duchess became more and more possessed of her husband; but time passed, and Vasily’s desired goal - to have an heir - was not achieved. There was a fear that Elena would remain as barren as Solomonia. The Grand Duke and his wife traveled to various Russian monasteries. In all Russian churches they prayed for the childbearing of Vasily III - nothing helped. Four and a half years passed until the royal couple finally resorted in prayer to the Monk Paphnutius of Borovsky. Then only Elena became pregnant. The Grand Duke's joy knew no bounds. Finally, on August 25, 1530, Elena gave birth to her first child, Ivan, and a year and a few months later, another son, Yuri. But the eldest, Ivan, was barely three years old when Vasily III fell seriously ill. When he was driving from the Trinity Monastery to Volok Lamsky, on his left thigh, on the bend, a purple sore the size of a pinhead appeared. After this, the Grand Duke began to quickly become exhausted and arrived in Volokolamsk already exhausted. The doctors began to treat Vasily, but nothing helped. More pus flowed out of the sore than the pelvis, the rod also came out, after which the Grand Duke felt better. From Volok he went to the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery. But the relief was short-lived. At the end of November, Vasily, completely exhausted, arrived in the village of Vorobyovo near Moscow. Glinsky’s doctor Nikolai, having examined the patient, said that all that remained was to trust only in God. Vasily realized that death was near, wrote a will, blessed his son Ivan for the great reign and died on December 3.
He was buried in Moscow, in the Archangel Cathedral.
Konstantin Ryzhov. All the monarchs of the world. Russia.
The Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily Ivanovich III (1505 - 1533, born in 1479) is most famous for the fact that during his reign the gathering of the fragmented appanages of North-Eastern Rus' into a single state was completed. Under Vasily III, the veche city of Pskov (1510) and the last appanage principalities - Ryazan (1517) and Chernigov-Seversky (1517-1523) were annexed to Moscow. Vasily continued the domestic and foreign policies of his father, Ivan III, whom he resembled in his stern, autocratic character. Of the two main church parties of the time, in the first years of his reign, the predominance belonged to non-covetous people, but then it passed to the Josephites, whom Basil III supported until his death.
Vasily III. Miniature from the Tsar's title book
The former, purely service composition of the Moscow boyars, as the Russian North-East was unified, was replenished with recent appanage princes, people much more influential and demanding. In this regard, Vasily treated the boyars with suspicion and distrust, consulting with him only for show, and even then rarely. He conducted the most important affairs not with the help of the boyars, but with the help of humble clerks and nobles (like his close butler Shigona Podzhogin). Vasily treated such rootless nominees rudely and unceremoniously (deacon Dolmatov paid with imprisonment for refusing to go to the embassy, and Bersen-Beklemishev was executed for contradicting the Grand Duke). During the reign of Vasily III, the conflict between the grand-ducal power and the boyars, which during the reign of his son, Ivan the Terrible, led to the horrors of the oprichnina, began to gradually intensify. But Vasily behaved with the boyars still very restrained. Neither of noble representatives of the boyar class were not executed under him. Vasily, for the most part, limited himself to taking oaths from the boyars (Shuisky, Belsky, Vorotynsky, Mstislavsky) that they would not leave for Lithuania. Only Prince Vasily Kholmsky fell into disgrace under him (for what, it is unknown).
Unification of Muscovite Rus' under Ivan III and Vasily III
But Vasily treated close relatives who, due to dynastic kinship, could challenge his power with the usual severity of his predecessors. Vasily's rival, his nephew Dmitry Ivanovich (grandson of Ivan III from his eldest son, Ivan), died in prison. Vasily III established strict supervision over his brothers, Yuri and Andrei. Andrei was allowed to marry only when Vasily III himself became the father of two children. Vasily's brothers hated his favorites and the new order.
Not wanting to transfer the throne to either Yuri or Andrei, Vasily, after a long childless marriage, divorced his first wife, the barren Solomonia Saburova, and married (1526) Elena Vasilyevna Glinskaya, the niece of the famous Western Russian nobleman Mikhail Glinsky. From her he had sons Ivan (in 1530, the future Ivan the Terrible) and Yuri (1533). Solomonia Saburova was imprisoned in the Suzdal Intercession Monastery, and opponents of the divorce (Metropolitan Varlaam, as well as the leaders of non-covetous people Vassian Kosoy Patrikeev and the famous Byzantine scientist Maxim the Greek) also suffered.
Solomonia Saburova. Painting by P. Mineeva
Foreign policy of Vasily III
After the death of his son-in-law, Grand Duke Alexander of Lithuania (1506), Vasily decided to take advantage of the turmoil that arose among the noble lords of Lithuania. Among them, Mikhail Glinsky, who was insulted by Alexander's brother and successor, Sigismund, stood out for his education, military glory, wealth and land holdings. Mikhail Glinsky in response went into the service of Vasily III. This circumstance, as well as the poor treatment in Lithuania of Vasily’s sister (Alexander’s wife) Elena, who died in 1513, as was suspected of poison, caused a war between Lithuania and Moscow. During it, Glinsky lost all his former Lithuanian possessions, in return for which he received Medyn and Maloyaroslavets from Vasily. Sigismund's alliance with the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey caused the second war between Vasily III and Lithuania in 1512. On August 1, 1514, Vasily, with the assistance of Glinsky, took Smolensk from the Lithuanians, but on September 8 of the same year, Sigismund’s commander, Prince Ostrozhsky, inflicted a heavy defeat on the Moscow army at Orsha. However, according to the truce of 1522, concluded through the ambassador of the German Emperor Maximilian I, Herberstein, Smolensk remained with Moscow.
Crimean Tatar archer
Besides Lithuania, the main concern of the reign of Vasily III was Tatar relations, especially Crimean ones. Having submitted to powerful Turkey at the end of the 15th century, Crimea began to receive strong support from it. The raids of the Crimean Tatars alarmed the Moscow state more and more (raid on the Oka in 1507, on the Ryazan Ukraine in 1516, on the Tula in 1518, the siege of Moscow in 1521). Russia and Lithuania alternately gave gifts to the Crimean robbers and embroiled them in their mutual squabbles. The strengthened Crimean khans tried to subjugate Kazan and Astrakhan in order to restore the former Golden Horde - from the Upper Volga region and the Urals to the Black and Caspian seas. Vasily III did his best to oppose the annexation of Kazan to Crimea, which in 1521 led to the most dangerous Tatar raid on Rus' from the south and east. However, Kazan, torn apart by internal strife, became more and more subordinate to Moscow (the siege of Kazan in 1506, peace with its khan, Muhammad-Amen in 1507, the appointment from Moscow of the Kazan king Shah-Ali (Shigaleya) in 1519. and Jan-Ali in 1524, the construction by Vasily on the border with the Kazan possessions of the powerful fortress of Vasilsursk in 1524, etc.). With this constant pressure on Kazan, Vasily also anticipated the achievements of Ivan the Terrible. In 1523, the Crimean Khan Muhammad-Girey captured Astrakhan, but was soon killed there by the Nogais.
IV˜AN III Vasilyevich (January 22, 1440 - October 27, 1505, Moscow), Moscow Grand Duke (from 1462), eldest son of Vasily II Vasilyevich the Dark. Since 1450 he has been referred to as the Grand Duke - co-ruler of his father. During the reign of Ivan III, a centralized apparatus of power began to take shape: a command system of government was born, and the Code of Laws of 1497 was drawn up. Local land ownership developed and the political importance of the nobility increased. Ivan III fought against the separatism of the appanage princes and significantly limited their rights. By the end of the reign of Ivan III, many appanages were liquidated. In the 1460-1480s, the Moscow prince successfully fought against the Kazan Khanate, which from 1487 came under the strong political influence of Rus'. His most important achievement was the overthrow of the Tatar-Mongol yoke. With the broad support of the entire Russian population, Ivan III organized a strong defense against the invasion of Khan Akhmat (Standing on the Ugra). During the reign of Ivan III, the international authority of the Russian state grew, diplomatic ties were established with the papal curia, the German Empire, Hungary, Moldova, Turkey, Iran, and Crimea. Under Ivan III, the formalization of the full title of Grand Duke of “All Rus'” began (in some documents he is already called Tsar). For the second time, Ivan III was married to Zoya (Sophia) Paleologus, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor. During the reign of Ivan III, large construction began in Moscow (the Kremlin, its cathedrals, the Chamber of Facets); Stone fortresses were built in Kolomna, Tula, and Ivangorod. Under Ivan III, the territorial core of the Russian centralized state was formed: the Yaroslavl (1463), Rostov (1474) principalities, the Novgorod Republic (1478), the Tver Grand Duchy (1485), the Vyatka (1489), the Perm and most of the Ryazan lands were annexed to the Moscow principality . Influence on Pskov and the Ryazan Grand Duchy was strengthened. After the wars of 1487-1494 and 1500-1503 with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a number of western Russian lands went to Moscow: Chernigov, Novgorod-Seversky, Gomel, Bryansk. After the war of 1501-1503, Ivan III forced the Livonian Order to pay tribute (for Yuryev).
Reign of Vasily III.
After the death of Ivan III, his eldest son from his second wife, Vasily III (1505 - 1533), became the Grand Duke.
The new Grand Duke continued the policies of his father. Under him, the independence of the last remaining unannexed Russian lands was finally eliminated. In 1510, the independent history of Pskov ended: the veche bell was removed and taken to Moscow, the city began to be governed by the governors of the Grand Duke, and in 1521 a similar fate befell the Ryazan principality. The last Ryazan prince was able to escape to the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Another task was no less important: to return the Russian lands that continued to be part of Lithuania. In 1512 - 1522 There was another Russian-Lithuanian war. The Moscow government apparently hoped to occupy Smolensk, and then the territories of modern Belarus and Ukraine. But these optimistic hopes were not destined to come true. The only major success was the capture of Smolensk (1514). After this, one could expect new victories, but in reality it happened differently: in the same year, Russian troops suffered a heavy defeat near Orsha. The war, which continued for several more years, did not lead either side to decisive successes. Under the terms of the truce of 1522, only Smolensk and its surrounding area became part of Russia.
Results of the reign of Vasily III
completed the territorial unification of North-Eastern and North-Western Rus'. In 1510, the autonomous state existence of Pskov ceased, and the entire Pskov elite was moved to the central and southeastern districts of the country. In 1521, the “independent” life of the Ryazan Great Reign ended. under him, the last semi-independent Russian lands were annexed to Moscow: Pskov (1510), Volotsky inheritance (1513), Ryazan (about 1521), Novgorod-Seversky (1522) principalities. During the reign of Vasily III, local noble land ownership grew; measures were taken to limit the immune political privileges of the princely-boyar aristocracy. In foreign policy, Vasily III fought for Russian lands in the west and southwest, as well as with the Crimean and Kazan khanates. As a result of the Russian-Lithuanian wars of 1507-1508, 1512-1522, Smolensk was annexed to Russia (1514).
12. Alternatives to reforming Russia in the 16th century. Reforms of Ivan IV. Oprichnina. Since the late 1540s, it has ruled with the participation of the Elected Rada. Under him, the convening of Zemsky Sobors began, and the Code of Laws of 1550 was compiled. Reforms of the court and administration were carried out, including the introduction of elements of self-government at the local level (Gubnaya, Zemskaya and other reforms). In 1565, after the betrayal of Prince Kurbsky, the oprichnina was introduced. From 1549, together with the Elected Rada (A.F. Adashev, Metropolitan Macarius, A.M. Kurbsky, priest Sylvester), Ivan IV carried out a number of reforms aimed at centralizing the state: Zemstvo reform, Guba reform, reforms were carried out in the army, adopted in 1550 new Code of Law of Ivan IV. In 1549 the first Zemsky Sobor was convened, in 1551 the Stoglavy Sobor, which adopted a collection of decisions on church life “Stoglav”. In 1555-1556, Ivan IV abolished feeding and adopted the Most successful zemstvo reform took place in the northeastern Russian lands, where the black-sown (state) peasantry predominated and there were few patrimonial people, worse in the southern Russian lands, where patrimonial boyars predominated. Kurbsky's betrayal and the reluctance of the patrimonial boyars to participate in the fight against Poland and Lithuania leads the Tsar to the idea of establishing a personal dictatorship and defeating the boyars. In 1565 he announced the introduction of oprichnina in the country. The country was divided into two parts: the territories that were not included in the oprichnina began to be called zemshchina. The oprichnina included mainly the northeastern Russian lands, where there were few patrimonial boyars. The oprichnik swore an oath of allegiance to the tsar and pledged not to communicate with the zemstvo. The guardsmen dressed in black clothes, similar to monastic clothes. Horse guardsmen had special insignia; gloomy symbols of the era were attached to their saddles: a broom - to sweep out treason, and dog heads - to gnaw out treason. With the help of the oprichniki, who were exempt from judicial responsibility, Ivan IV forcibly confiscated the boyar estates, transferring them to the oprichniki nobles. A major event of the oprichnina was the Novgorod pogrom in January-February 1570, the reason for which was the suspicion of Novgorod’s desire to go over to Lithuania. In the abolition of the oprichnina in 1572, according to some historians, the invasion of Moscow in 1571 by the Crimean Khan played a role; the oprichniki showed their military inadequacy. However, most of the Russian army at that time was on the western borders and the southern border of the state was exposed.
Vasily Ivanovich was born on March 25, 1479. He was the first son of Ivan III from his second marriage, with Sophia Paleologus, who was a representative of the last Byzantine imperial dynasty.
However, Vasily did not claim the throne, since Ivan III had an eldest son, Ivan the Young, from his first marriage, who, approximately eight years before the birth of Vasily, had already been declared co-ruler of Ivan III. In 1490, Ivan the Young died, and Vasily had a chance to lay claim to the great reign. A struggle between two factions broke out at court. One stood for the son of Ivan the Young - Dmitry Vnuk, and the other for Vasily. As a result, Ivan III himself proclaimed Vasily “Sovereign Grand Duke.”
Vasily's reignIII
Vasily's reign lasted six years, and after Ivan III died in 1505, he became an independent sovereign.
Vasily III continued the centralizing policy of his father. In 1506, the Grand Duke's governor established himself in Perm the Great. In 1510, the formal independence of the Pskov land was abolished. In 1521, the Ryazan Principality joined the Grand Duchy. The Grand Duke fought against the appanages in a variety of ways. Sometimes inheritances were simply destroyed purposefully, sometimes brothers were not allowed to marry and, therefore, have legitimate heirs.
The local system was strengthened, which helped ensure the combat effectiveness of the army and limit the independence of the aristocracy. The land was given to the nobles as conditional possession for the duration of the “princes’ service.”
Localism developed - a system of hierarchy in which positions and titles were held exclusively in accordance with the birth of the prince or boyar.
The general strengthening of the state, political and ideological necessity gave impetus to the development of theories justifying the special political rights of the Grand Dukes of Moscow.
Foreign policy
In 1514, Smolensk, one of the largest Russian-speaking centers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, was conquered. The campaigns against Smolensk were led personally by Vasily III, but the defeat of Russian troops near Orsha stopped the movement of Russian troops to the west for some time.
Russian-Crimean relations remained tense. In 1521, the Crimean Khan Mohammed-Girey launched a campaign against Moscow. The Crimean Tatars reached almost Moscow. The country suffered heavy damage. Vasily III had to concentrate his efforts on the defense of the southern borders along the Oka River.
Vasily III began to deepen Russia’s contacts with the Orthodox peoples conquered by the Ottoman Empire, including Mount Athos. Attempts were made to improve relations with the Holy Roman Empire and the Papal Curia against the Ottoman Empire.
Personal life
In 1505, Vasily III married Solomonia Saburova. For the first time, a representative of a boyar rather than a princely family became the chosen one of the Grand Duke. For twenty years there were no children in this marriage, and Vasily III married a second time. The new wife of the sovereign was Elena Glinskaya, who came from Lithuanian boyars. From this marriage the future Tsar of All Rus' was born.