The Tsardom of Russia (Russian: Ру́сское ца́рство, Russkoje tsarstvo), also called the Tsardom of Muscovy, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of Tsar by Ivan IV in 1547.
As the Golden Horde weakened, the more settled areas of the Steppe broke off as follows:
The Bank or Oka Line:
The Abatis Line or Zasechnaya cherta:
By the 16th century, the Russian ruler had emerged as a powerful, autocratic figure, a Tsar. By assuming that title, the sovereign of Moscow tried to emphasize that he was a major ruler or emperor (tsar,(Russian: царь) represents the Slavic adaptation of the Roman Imperial title/name Caesar) on a par with the Byzantine emperor or with the Mongol khan. Indeed, after Ivan III married Sophia Palaiologina, the niece of the late Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos, in 1472, the Moscow court adopted Byzantine terms, rituals, titles, and emblems such as the double-headed eagle, which survives in the Coat of Arms of Russia.
At first, the Byzantine term autokrator expressed only the literal meaning of an independent ruler, but in the reign of Ivan IV (1533-1584) it came to imply unlimited (autocratic) rule. In 1547 the Grand Duke Ivan IV was crowned Tsar and thus was recognized - at least by the Russian Orthodox Church - as Emperor. Notably, the hegumen Philotheus of Pskov claimed in 1510 that after Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, the Russian Tsar remained the only legitimate Orthodox ruler, and that Moscow was the Third Rome, becoming the final lineal successor to Rome and Constantinople, the two centers of Christianity and of the Roman Empires (Western and Eastern) of earlier periods. The "Third Rome" concept would resonate in the self-image of the Russian people in future centuries.
The development of the Tsar's autocratic powers reached a peak during the reign of Ivan IV, and he gained the sobriquet "Grozny". The English word terrible is usually used to translate the Russian word grozny in Ivan's nickname, but this is a somewhat archaic translation. The Russian word grozny reflects the older English usage of terrible as in "inspiring fear or terror; dangerous; powerful; formidable". It does not convey the more modern connotations of English terrible, such as "defective" or "evil". Vladimir Dal defined grozny specifically in archaic usage and as an epithet for tsars: "Courageous, magnificent, magisterial and keeping enemies in fear, but people in obedience".Other translations have also been suggested by modern scholars.
Ivan IV became Grand Prince of Moscow in 1533 at the age of three. The Shuysky and Belsky factions of the boyars competed for control of the regency until Ivan assumed the throne in 1547. Reflecting Moscow's new imperial claims, Ivan's coronation as Tsar was a ritual modeled after those of the Byzantine emperors. With the continuing assistance of a group of boyars, Ivan began his reign with a series of useful reforms. In the 1550s, he declared a new law code, revamped the military, and reorganized local government. These reforms undoubtedly were intended to strengthen the state in the face of continuous warfare.
Muscovy (Grand Duchy) remained a fairly unknown society in Western Europe until Baron Sigismund von Herberstein published his Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii (literally Notes on Muscovite Affairs) in 1549. This provided a broad view of what had been a rarely visited and poorly reported state. In the 1630s, the Russian Tsardom was visited by Adam Olearius, whose lively and well-informed writings were soon translated into all the major languages of Europe.
Further information about Russia was circulated by English and Dutch merchants. One of them, Richard Chancellor, sailed to the White Sea in 1553 and continued overland to Moscow. Upon his return to England, the Muscovy Company was formed by himself, Sebastian Cabot, Sir Hugh Willoughby, and several London merchants. Ivan IV used these merchants to exchange letters with Elizabeth I.
Despite the domestic turmoil of the 1530s and 1540s, Russia continued to wage wars and to expand. It grew from 2.8 to 5.4 million square kilometers from 1533 to 1584. Ivan defeated and annexed the Khanate of Kazan on the middle Volga in 1552 and later the Astrakhan Khanate, where the Volga meets the Caspian Sea. These victories transformed Russia into a multiethnic and multiconfessional state, which it continues to be today. The tsar now controlled the entire Volga River and gained access to Central Asia.
Expanding to the northwest toward the Baltic Sea proved to be much more difficult. In 1558, Ivan invaded Livonia, eventually involving himself in a twenty-five-year war against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sweden, and Denmark. Despite occasional successes, Ivan's army was pushed back, and the nation failed to secure a coveted position on the Baltic Sea.
Hoping to make profit from Russia's concentration on Livonian affairs, Devlet I Giray of Crimea, accompanied by as many as 120,000 horsemen, repeatedly devastated the Moscow region, until the Battle of Molodi put a stop to such northward incursions. But for decades to come, the southern borderland was annually pillaged by the Nogai Horde and the Crimean Khanate, who took local inhabitants with them as slaves. Tens of thousands of soldiers protected the Great Abatis Belt — a burden for a state whose social and economic development was stagnating.
During the late 1550s, Ivan developed a hostility toward his advisers, the government, and the boyars. Historians have not determined whether policy differences, personal animosities, or mental imbalance caused his wrath. In 1565, he divided Russia into two parts: his private domain (or oprichnina) and the public realm (or zemshchina). For his private domain, Ivan chose some of the most prosperous and important districts of Russia. In these areas, Ivan's agents attacked boyars, merchants, and even common people, summarily executing some and confiscating land and possessions. Thus began a decade of terror in Russia that culminated in the Massacre of Novgorod (1570).
As a result of the policies of the oprichnina, Ivan broke the economic and political power of the leading boyar families, thereby destroying precisely those persons who had built up Russia and were the most capable of administering it. Trade diminished, and peasants, faced with mounting taxes and threats of violence, began to leave Russia. Efforts to curtail the mobility of the peasants by tying them to their land brought Russia closer to legal serfdom. In 1572, Ivan finally abandoned the practices of the oprichnina.
According to a popular theory, the oprichnina was started by Ivan in order to mobilize resources for the wars and to quell opposition. Regardless of the reason, Ivan's domestic and foreign policies had a devastating effect on Russia and led to a period of social struggle and civil war, the Time of Troubles (Smutnoye vremya, 1598-1613).
As the Golden Horde weakened, the more settled areas of the Steppe broke off as follows:
- 1438: Khanate of Kazan on the upper Volga,
- 1441: Khanate of Crimea on the Black Sea,
- 1452: Qasim Khanate on the Oka (a Russian vassal),
- 1466: Astrakhan Khanate on the lower Volga.
- 1480 to 1519: Russia and Crimea were allied against the steppe remnant known as the Great Horde and Poland-Lithuania.
- 1480: The Great Horde failed in an attempt to invade Muscovy (Great stand on the Ugra river), a date that is conventionally taken as the end of Tatar rule over Russia.
- 1502: The last Khan of the Great Horde was killed by the Crimeans. The steppe peoples then became known as the Nogai Horde. The Nogais on the Volga had their own Beg, while those north of the Black Sea were nominally subject to the Crimean Khan. The removal of the Great Horde as a buffer state brought Russia and Crimea into direct confrontation.
Consolidation North of the Oka: - 1450, the Grand Duchy of Moscow held most of the land north of the Oka, except for an enclave about 150 km north and west of Moscow. The enclave was annexed:
- 1463, Yaroslavl
- 1474, Rostov
- 1485, Tver
- 1470-1480, Novgorod
- 1510, Pskov
- 1521, Ryazan
Russo-Lithuanian Wars - 1492–1522, Moscow took the northeast part of Lithuania, including the Upper Oka Principalities:
- 1514, Smolensk
- 1503, Novgorod Seversky
- 1503, Chernihiv
- 1521, Moscow held all the forested land north of the Oka from its mouth at Nizhny Novgorod to the Oka bend at Kaluga and west almost to the Gulf of Finland. In addition, there was a bulge west of the Oka down to Chernihiv.
The Bank or Oka Line:
- The main line of Muscovite defense had always been the crossings of the Oka River. With the removal of the Great Horde as a buffer state, Crimea became the main enemy, and work was begun to strengthen the Oka defenses. By 1533 about 250 km of the bank was extensively fortified, mainly from Kaluga on the Oka bend to Kolomna. There were weaker fortifications in the west along the Ugra River and east down the Oka to Nizhny Novgorod. In addition, there was an 'out-fort' at Tula along the main invasion route. From 1522, the military headquarters was at Kolomna. The bank was manned during the spring-to-fall raiding season. Troops were mostly horse archers drawn from the land-owning class, with increasing numbers of artillery and musketeers.
The Abatis Line or Zasechnaya cherta:
- After 1533, work began on the Abatis Line. From the 1550s, troops began mustering on the emerging Abatis Line. This was about 100 km south of the Oka, in two sections. The first ran from the north-flowing part of the Oka south of Kaluga from Peremyshl or Belyov roughly along the Upa River to Odoyev, Krapivna, the great fort of Tula, and then past Venyov to the Oka at Ryazan. The second started southwest of Ryazan and ran from Skopin through Ryazhsk (1502) and Sapozhok to Shatsk (1552). There was a line of sorts from Shatsk to Alatyr (1552).
Four Major Houses of the Tsardom of Russia
House of Rurik
House of Godunov
House of Romanov
House of Vasa
House of Rurik
House of Godunov
House of Romanov
House of Vasa
By the 16th century, the Russian ruler had emerged as a powerful, autocratic figure, a Tsar. By assuming that title, the sovereign of Moscow tried to emphasize that he was a major ruler or emperor (tsar,(Russian: царь) represents the Slavic adaptation of the Roman Imperial title/name Caesar) on a par with the Byzantine emperor or with the Mongol khan. Indeed, after Ivan III married Sophia Palaiologina, the niece of the late Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos, in 1472, the Moscow court adopted Byzantine terms, rituals, titles, and emblems such as the double-headed eagle, which survives in the Coat of Arms of Russia.
At first, the Byzantine term autokrator expressed only the literal meaning of an independent ruler, but in the reign of Ivan IV (1533-1584) it came to imply unlimited (autocratic) rule. In 1547 the Grand Duke Ivan IV was crowned Tsar and thus was recognized - at least by the Russian Orthodox Church - as Emperor. Notably, the hegumen Philotheus of Pskov claimed in 1510 that after Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, the Russian Tsar remained the only legitimate Orthodox ruler, and that Moscow was the Third Rome, becoming the final lineal successor to Rome and Constantinople, the two centers of Christianity and of the Roman Empires (Western and Eastern) of earlier periods. The "Third Rome" concept would resonate in the self-image of the Russian people in future centuries.
The development of the Tsar's autocratic powers reached a peak during the reign of Ivan IV, and he gained the sobriquet "Grozny". The English word terrible is usually used to translate the Russian word grozny in Ivan's nickname, but this is a somewhat archaic translation. The Russian word grozny reflects the older English usage of terrible as in "inspiring fear or terror; dangerous; powerful; formidable". It does not convey the more modern connotations of English terrible, such as "defective" or "evil". Vladimir Dal defined grozny specifically in archaic usage and as an epithet for tsars: "Courageous, magnificent, magisterial and keeping enemies in fear, but people in obedience".Other translations have also been suggested by modern scholars.
Ivan IV became Grand Prince of Moscow in 1533 at the age of three. The Shuysky and Belsky factions of the boyars competed for control of the regency until Ivan assumed the throne in 1547. Reflecting Moscow's new imperial claims, Ivan's coronation as Tsar was a ritual modeled after those of the Byzantine emperors. With the continuing assistance of a group of boyars, Ivan began his reign with a series of useful reforms. In the 1550s, he declared a new law code, revamped the military, and reorganized local government. These reforms undoubtedly were intended to strengthen the state in the face of continuous warfare.
Muscovy (Grand Duchy) remained a fairly unknown society in Western Europe until Baron Sigismund von Herberstein published his Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii (literally Notes on Muscovite Affairs) in 1549. This provided a broad view of what had been a rarely visited and poorly reported state. In the 1630s, the Russian Tsardom was visited by Adam Olearius, whose lively and well-informed writings were soon translated into all the major languages of Europe.
Further information about Russia was circulated by English and Dutch merchants. One of them, Richard Chancellor, sailed to the White Sea in 1553 and continued overland to Moscow. Upon his return to England, the Muscovy Company was formed by himself, Sebastian Cabot, Sir Hugh Willoughby, and several London merchants. Ivan IV used these merchants to exchange letters with Elizabeth I.
Despite the domestic turmoil of the 1530s and 1540s, Russia continued to wage wars and to expand. It grew from 2.8 to 5.4 million square kilometers from 1533 to 1584. Ivan defeated and annexed the Khanate of Kazan on the middle Volga in 1552 and later the Astrakhan Khanate, where the Volga meets the Caspian Sea. These victories transformed Russia into a multiethnic and multiconfessional state, which it continues to be today. The tsar now controlled the entire Volga River and gained access to Central Asia.
Expanding to the northwest toward the Baltic Sea proved to be much more difficult. In 1558, Ivan invaded Livonia, eventually involving himself in a twenty-five-year war against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sweden, and Denmark. Despite occasional successes, Ivan's army was pushed back, and the nation failed to secure a coveted position on the Baltic Sea.
Hoping to make profit from Russia's concentration on Livonian affairs, Devlet I Giray of Crimea, accompanied by as many as 120,000 horsemen, repeatedly devastated the Moscow region, until the Battle of Molodi put a stop to such northward incursions. But for decades to come, the southern borderland was annually pillaged by the Nogai Horde and the Crimean Khanate, who took local inhabitants with them as slaves. Tens of thousands of soldiers protected the Great Abatis Belt — a burden for a state whose social and economic development was stagnating.
During the late 1550s, Ivan developed a hostility toward his advisers, the government, and the boyars. Historians have not determined whether policy differences, personal animosities, or mental imbalance caused his wrath. In 1565, he divided Russia into two parts: his private domain (or oprichnina) and the public realm (or zemshchina). For his private domain, Ivan chose some of the most prosperous and important districts of Russia. In these areas, Ivan's agents attacked boyars, merchants, and even common people, summarily executing some and confiscating land and possessions. Thus began a decade of terror in Russia that culminated in the Massacre of Novgorod (1570).
As a result of the policies of the oprichnina, Ivan broke the economic and political power of the leading boyar families, thereby destroying precisely those persons who had built up Russia and were the most capable of administering it. Trade diminished, and peasants, faced with mounting taxes and threats of violence, began to leave Russia. Efforts to curtail the mobility of the peasants by tying them to their land brought Russia closer to legal serfdom. In 1572, Ivan finally abandoned the practices of the oprichnina.
According to a popular theory, the oprichnina was started by Ivan in order to mobilize resources for the wars and to quell opposition. Regardless of the reason, Ivan's domestic and foreign policies had a devastating effect on Russia and led to a period of social struggle and civil war, the Time of Troubles (Smutnoye vremya, 1598-1613).
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