Russian History Lexicon

Monday, February 17th, 2014

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Rus

▪ people

also spelled Ros

ancient people who gave their name to the land of Russia. Their origin and identity are much in dispute. Traditional Western scholars believe them to be Scandinavian Vikings (Viking), an offshoot of the Varangians, who moved southward from the Baltic coast and founded the first consolidated state among the eastern Slavs, centring on Kiev. Russian scholars, along with some Westerners, consider the Rus to be a southeastern Slavic tribe that founded a tribal league; the Kievan state, they affirm, was the creation of Slavs and was attacked and held only briefly by Varangians.

The Viking, or “Normanist,” theory was initiated in the 18th century by such German historian-philologists as Gottlieb Siegfried Bayer (1694–1738) and August Ludwig von Schlözer (1735–1809); Bayer was an early member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. These two relied on The Russian Primary Chronicle (Russian Primary Chronicle, The), an account written in the 12th century and covering the period 852 to 1110; it says that the Rus, a Norman people, were first asked to come to Novgorod by the local population to put an end to their feuds; the Rus later extended their rule to Kiev, making it their keystone of defense. This theory was advanced in the 19th century by the Danish philologist Vilhelm Thomsen (1842–1927) and the German-Russian historian-philologist Ernst Eduard Kunik (1814–99). It was noted that early Arabian writers had represented the seat of Rus as an island covered with woods and marshes; excavations of 9th- and 10th-century tumuli confirmed the presence of Norse warriors in such a region around Lake Ilmen, near the ancient town of Novgorod, and Lake Ladoga, where the Neva River has its origin. These Baltic regions seemed to indicate the origin of the Rus.

Russian scholars have rejected The Russian Primary Chronicle as unreliable and have insisted that the eastern Slavs, before the entry of the Varangians, had evolved a sophisticated feudal state comparable to the Carolingian empire in the West. The Rus were simply a southern Slavic tribe living on the Ros River.

Russian Primary Chronicle, The

▪ Russian literature

also called Chronicle of Nestor or Kiev Chronicle , Russian Povest vremennykh let (“Tale of Bygone Years”)

medieval Kievan Rus historical work that gives a detailed account of the early history of the eastern Slavs to the second decade of the 12th century. The chronicle, compiled in Kiev about 1113, was based on materials taken from Byzantine chronicles, west and south Slavonic literary sources, official documents, and oral sagas; the earliest extant manuscript of it is dated 1377. While the authorship was traditionally ascribed to the monk Nestor, modern scholarship considers the chronicle a composite work

Khazar

▪ people

member of a confederation of Turkic-speaking tribes that in the late 6th century AD established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia. Although the origin of the term Khazar and the early history of the Khazar people are obscure, it is fairly certain that the Khazars were originally located in the northern Caucasus region and were part of the western Turkic empire (in Turkistan). The Khazars were in contact with the Persians in the mid-6th century AD, and they aided the Byzantine emperor Heraclius (reigned 610–641) in his campaign against the Persians.

By the beginning of the 7th century, the Khazars had become independent of the Turkic empire to the east. But by the middle of that century, the expanding empire of the Arabs had penetrated as far northward as the northern Caucasus, and from then on until the mid-8th century the Khazars engaged in a series of wars with the Arab empire. The Arabs initially forced the Khazars to abandon Derbent (661), but around 685 the Khazars counterattacked, penetrating southward of the Caucasus into present-day Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Khazars and Arabs fought each other directly in Armenia in the 720s, and, though victory passed repeatedly from one side to the other, Arab counterattacks eventually compelled the Khazars to permanently withdraw north of the Caucasus. The Khazars' initial victories were important, though, since they had the effect of permanently blocking Arab expansion northward into eastern Europe. Having been compelled to shift the centre of their empire northward, the Khazars after 737 established their capital at Itil (located near the mouth of the Volga River) and accepted the Caucasus Mountains as their southern boundary.

During the same period, however, they expanded westward. By the second half of the 8th century, their empire had reached the peak of its power—it extended along the northern shore of the Black Sea from the lower Volga and the Caspian Sea in the east to the Dnieper River in the west. The Khazars controlled and exacted tribute from the Alani and other northern Caucasian peoples (dwelling between the mountains and the Kuban River); from the Magyars (Hungarians) inhabiting the area around the Donets River; from the Goths; and from the Greek colonies in the Crimea. The Volga Bulgars and numerous Slavic tribes also recognized the Khazars as their overlords.

Although basically Turkic, the Khazar state bore little resemblance to the other Turkic empires of central Eurasia. It was headed by a secluded supreme ruler of semireligious character called a khagan—who wielded little real power—and by tribal chieftains, each known as a beg. The state's military organization also seems to have lacked the forcefulness of those of the greater Turkic-Mongol empires. The Khazars seem to have been more inclined to a sedentary way of life, building towns and fortresses, tilling the soil, and planting gardens and vineyards. Trade and the collection of tribute were major sources of income. But the most striking characteristic of the Khazars was the apparent adoption of Judaism by the khagan and the greater part of the ruling class in about 740. The circumstances of the conversion remain obscure, the depth of their adoption of Judaism difficult to assess; but the fact itself is undisputed and unparalleled in central Eurasian history. A few scholars have even asserted that the Judaized Khazars were the remote ancestors of many eastern European and Russian Jews. Whatever the case may be, religious tolerance was practiced in the Khazar empire, and paganism continued to flourish among the population.

The prominence and influence of the Khazar state was reflected in its close relations with the Byzantine emperors: Justinian II (704) and Constantine V (732) each had a Khazar wife. The main source of revenue for the empire stemmed from commerce and particularly from Khazar control of the east-west trade route that linked the Far East with Byzantium and the north-south route linking the Arab empire with northern Slavic lands. Income that was derived from duties on goods passing through Khazar territory, in addition to tribute paid by subordinate tribes, maintained the wealth and the strength of the empire throughout the 9th century. But by the 10th century the empire, faced with the growing might of the Pechenegs to their north and west and of the Russians around Kiev, suffered a decline. When Svyatoslav, the ruler of Kiev, launched a campaign against the Khazars (965), Khazar power was crushed. Although the Khazars continued to be mentioned in historical documents as late as the 12th century, by 1030 their political role in the lands north of the Black Sea had greatly diminished. Despite the relatively high level of Khazar civilization and the wealth of data about the Khazars that is preserved in Byzantine and Arab sources, not a single line of the Khazar language has survived.

Eastern Europe

The eastern Viking expansion was probably a less violent process than that on the Atlantic coasts. Although there was, no doubt, plenty of sporadic raiding in the Baltic and although “to go on the east-Viking” was an expression meaning to indulge in such activity, no Viking kingdom was founded with the sword in that area.

The greatest eastern movement of the Scandinavians was that which carried them into the heart of Russia. The extent of this penetration is difficult to assess, for, although the Scandinavians were at one time dominant at Novgorod, Kiev, and other centres, they were rapidly absorbed by the Slavonic population, to which, however, they gave their name Rus, “Russians.” The Rus were clearly in the main traders, and two of their commercial treaties with the Greeks are preserved in the Primary Chronicle under 912 and 945; the Rus signatories have indubitably Scandinavian names. Occasionally, however, the Rus attempted voyages of plunder like their kinsmen in the west. Their existence as a separate people did not continue past 1050 at the latest.

The first half of the 11th century appears to have seen a new Viking movement toward the east. A number of Swedish runic stones record the names of men who went with Yngvarr on his journeys. These journeys were to the east, but only legendary accounts of their precise direction and intention survive. A further activity of the Scandinavians in the east was service as mercenaries in Constantinople (Istanbul), where they formed the Varangian Guard of the Byzantine emperor.

After the 11th century the Viking chief became a figure of the past. Norway and Sweden had no more force for external adventure, and Denmark became a conquering power, able to absorb the more unruly elements of its population into its own royal armies. Olaf II Haraldsson of Norway, before he became king in 1015, was practically the last Viking chief in the old independent tradition.

Rurik

▪ Norse leader

also spelled Rorik or Hrorekr , Russian Ryurik

died AD 879

the semilegendary founder of the Rurik Dynasty of Kievan Rus.

Rurik was a Viking, or Varangian, prince. His story is told in the The Russian Primary Chronicle (Russian Primary Chronicle, The) (compiled at the beginning of the 12th century) but is not accepted at face value by modern historians. According to the chronicle, the people of Novgorod, tired of political strife, invited the Varangians about AD 862 to establish an orderly and just government there. Hence, Rurik came with his two brothers and a large retinue (druzhina) and became ruler of the city and region of Novgorod.

Some historians think that Rurik came from the Scandinavian peninsula or from Jutland (now in Denmark) and seized the town of Ladoga, on Lake Ladoga. After establishing a stronghold there (c. 855), he may have gone southward along the Volkhov and captured Novgorod. Another possibility is that Rurik and his army were mercenaries, hired to guard the Volkhov-Dnieper waterway, who turned against their employers.

Rurik's kinsman Oleg founded the grand principality of Kiev. Oleg's successor, Igor, believed to be Rurik's son, is considered the real founder of the Russian princely house.

Rurik Dynasty

▪ medieval Russian rulers

princes of Kievan Rus and, later, Muscovy who, according to tradition, were descendants of the Varangian prince Rurik, who had been invited by the people of Novgorod to rule that city (c. 862); the Rurik princes maintained their control over Kievan (Kiev) Rus and, later, Muscovy until 1598.

Rurik's successor Oleg (d. 912) conquered Kiev (c. 882) and established control of the trade route extending from Novgorod, along the Dnieper River, to the Black Sea. Igor (allegedly Rurik's son; reigned 912–945) and his successors—his wife, St. Olga (regent 945–969), and their son Svyatoslav (reigned 945–972)—further extended their territories; Svyatoslav's son Vladimir I (St. Vladimir; reigned c. 980–1015) consolidated the dynasty's rule.

Vladimir compiled the first Kievan Rus law code and introduced Christianity into the country. He also organized the Kievan Rus lands into a cohesive confederation by distributing the major cities among his sons; the eldest was to be grand prince of Kiev, and the brothers were to succeed each other, moving up the hierarchy of cities toward Kiev, filling vacancies left by the advancement or death of an elder brother. The youngest brother was to be succeeded as grand prince by his eldest nephew whose father had been a grand prince. This succession pattern was generally followed through the reigns of Svyatopolk (1015–19); Yaroslav the Wise (1019–54); his sons Izyaslav (1054–68; 1069–73; and 1077–78), Svyatoslav (1073–76), and Vsevolod (1078–93); and Svyatopolk II (son of Izyaslav; reigned 1093–1113).

The successions were accomplished, however, amid continual civil wars. In addition to the princes' unwillingness to adhere to the pattern and readiness to seize their positions by force instead, the system was upset whenever a city rejected the prince designated to rule it. It was also undermined by the tendency of the princes to settle in regions they ruled rather than move from city to city to become the prince of Kiev.

In 1097 all the princes of Kievan Rus met at Lyubech (northwest of Chernigov) and decided to divide their lands into patrimonial estates. The succession for grand prince, however, continued to be based on the generation pattern; thus, Vladimir Monomakh (Vladimir II Monomakh) succeeded his cousin Svyatopolk II as grand prince of Kiev. During his reign (1113–25) Vladimir tried to restore unity to the lands of Kievan Rus; and his sons (Mstislav, reigned 1125–32; Yaropolk, 1132–39; Vyacheslav, 1139; and Yury Dolgoruky, 1149–57) succeeded him eventually, though not without some troubles in the 1140s.

Nevertheless, distinct branches of the dynasty established their own rule in the major centres of the country outside Kiev—Halicz, Novgorod, and Suzdal. The princes of these regions vied with each other for control of Kiev; but when Andrew Bogolyubsky (Andrew I) of Suzdal finally conquered and sacked the city (1169), he returned to Vladimir (a city in the Suzdal principality) and transferred the seat of the grand prince to Vladimir. Andrew Bogolyubsky's brother Vsevolod III succeeded him as grand prince of Vladimir (reigned 1176–1212); Vsevolod was followed by his sons Yury (1212–38), Yaroslav (1238–46), and Svyatoslav (1246–47) and his grandson Andrew (1247–52).

Alexander Nevsky (Alexander Nevsky, Saint) (1252–63) succeeded his brother Andrew; and Alexander's brothers and sons succeeded him. Furthering the tendency toward fragmentation, however, none moved to Vladimir but remained in their regional seats and secured their local princely houses. Thus, Alexander's brother Yaroslav (grand prince of Vladimir, 1264–71) founded the house of Tver, and Alexander's son Daniel founded the house of Moscow.

After the Mongol invasion (1240) the Russian princes were obliged to seek a patent from the Mongol khan in order to rule as grand prince. Rivalry for the patent, as well as for leadership in the grand principality of Vladimir, developed among the princely houses, particularly those of Tver and Moscow. Gradually, the princes of Moscow became dominant, forming the grand principality of Moscow (Muscovy), which they ruled until their male line died out in 1598.

Oleg

▪ ruler of Novgorod

died c. 912

semilegendary Viking (Varangian) leader who became prince of Kiev and is considered to be the founder of the Kievan Rus state.

According to The Russian Primary Chronicle (Russian Primary Chronicle, The) of the 12th century, Oleg, after succeeding his kinsman Rurik as ruler of Novgorod (c. 879), went down the Dnieper River with his Varangian retinue and seized control of Smolensk and Kiev (882), which he subsequently made his capital. Extending his authority east and west of the Volkhov–Dnieper waterway, he united the local Slavic and Finnish tribes under his rule and became the undisputed ruler of the Kievan–Novgorodian state.

Described in the chronicle as a skilled warrior, Oleg defeated the Khazars, delivering several Slavic tribes from dependence upon them, and also undertook a successful expedition against Constantinople (907), forcing the Byzantine government to sue for peace and pay a large indemnity. In 911 Oleg also concluded an advantageous trade agreement with Constantinople, which regulated commercial relations between the two states and laid the basis for the development of permanent and lucrative trade activities between Constantinople and Kievan Rus.

Igor

▪ Russian prince

also called Ingvar

born c. 877

died 945, Dereva region [Russia]

grand prince of Kiev and presumably the son of Rurik, prince of Novgorod, who is considered the founder of the dynasty that ruled Kievan Rus and, later, Muscovy until 1598. Igor, successor to the great warrior and diplomat Oleg (reigned c. 879–912), assumed the throne of Kiev in 912.

Depicted as a greedy, rapacious, and unsuccessful prince by the 12th-century The Russian Primary Chronicle (Russian Primary Chronicle, The), Igor in 913–914 led an expedition into Transcaucasia that ended in total disaster for his forces. He also conducted two expeditions against Byzantium (941 and 944), but many of his ships were destroyed by “Greek fire,” and the treaty that he finally concluded in 944 was less advantageous to Kiev than the one obtained by Oleg in 911. Igor did manage to extend the authority of Kiev over the Pechenegs, a Turkic people inhabiting the steppes north of the Black Sea, as well as over the East Slavic tribe of Drevlyane. When he went to Dereva (the land of the Drevlyane located in the region of the Pripet River) to collect tribute (945), however, his attempt to extort more than the customary amount provoked the Drevlyane into rebelling and killing him.

Vladimir I

▪ grand prince of Kiev

in full Vladimir Svyatoslavich, byname Saint Vladimir, or Vladimir The Great, Russian Svyatoy Vladimir, or Vladimir Veliky

born c. 956, , Kiev, Kievan Rus [now in Ukraine]

died July 15, 1015, Berestova, near Kiev; feast day July 15

grand prince of Kiev and first Christian ruler in Kievan Rus, whose military conquests consolidated the provinces of Kiev and Novgorod into a single state, and whose Byzantine baptism determined the course of Christianity in the region.

Vladimir was the son of the Norman-Rus prince Svyatoslav of Kiev by one of his courtesans and was a member of the Rurik lineage dominant from the 10th to the 13th century. He was made prince of Novgorod in 970. On the death of his father in 972, he was forced to flee to Scandinavia, where he enlisted help from an uncle and overcame Yaropolk, another son of Svyatoslav, who attempted to seize the duchy of Novgorod as well as Kiev. By 980 Vladimir had consolidated the Kievan realm from Ukraine to the Baltic Sea and had solidified the frontiers against incursions of Bulgarian, Baltic, and Eastern nomads.

Although Christianity in Kiev existed before Vladimir's time, he had remained a pagan, accumulated about seven wives, established temples, and, it is said, taken part in idolatrous rites involving human sacrifice. With insurrections troubling Byzantium (Byzantine Empire), the emperor Basil II (976–1025) sought military aid from Vladimir, who agreed, in exchange for Basil's sister Anne in marriage. A pact was reached about 987, when Vladimir also consented to the condition that he become a Christian. Having undergone baptism, assuming the Christian patronal name Basil, he stormed the Byzantine area of Chersonesus (Korsun, now part of Sevastopol) to eliminate Constantinople's final reluctance. Vladimir then ordered the Christian conversion of Kiev and Novgorod, where idols were cast into the Dnieper River after local resistance had been suppressed. The new Rus Christian worship adopted the Byzantine rite in the Old Church Slavonic language. The story (deriving from the 11th-century monk Jacob) that Vladimir chose the Byzantine rite over the liturgies of German Christendom, Judaism, and Islām because of its transcendent beauty is apparently mythically symbolic of his determination to remain independent of external political control, particularly of the Germans. The Byzantines, however, maintained ecclesiastical control over the new Rus church, appointing a Greek metropolitan, or archbishop, for Kiev, who functioned both as legate of the patriarch of Constantinople and of the emperor. The Rus-Byzantine religio-political integration checked the influence of the Roman Latin church in the Slavic East and determined the course of Russian Christianity, although Kiev exchanged legates with the papacy. Among the churches erected by Vladimir was the Desyatinnaya in Kiev (designed by Byzantine architects and dedicated about 996) that became the symbol of the Rus conversion. The Christian Vladimir also expanded education, judicial institutions, and aid to the poor.

Another marriage, following the death of Anne (1011), affiliated Vladimir with the Holy Roman emperors of the German Ottonian dynasty and produced a daughter, who became the consort of Casimir I the Restorer of Poland (1016–58). Vladimir's memory was kept alive by innumerable folk ballads and legends.

Vladimir II Monomakh

▪ grand prince of Kiev

in full Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh

born 1053

died May 19, 1125, near Kiev [now in Ukraine]

grand prince of Kiev from 1113 to 1125.

Vladimir was the son of Grand Prince Vsevolod I Yaroslavich (ruled Kiev 1078–93) and Irina, the daughter of the Byzantine emperor Constantine IX Monomachus. He became active in the politics of Kievan Rus, helping his father and uncle Izyaslav I (ruled at Kiev intermittently 1054–78) defeat his cousins Oleg Svyatoslavich and Boris Vyacheslavich at Chernigov (1078; modern Chernihiv, Ukraine) and succeeding his father as prince of Chernigov when Vsevolod became grand prince of Kiev. Vladimir ruled Chernigov from 1078 to 1094, restoring order among his cousins in Volhynia (1084–86) and assuming a leading role among princes of Rus at the conferences held to avert perpetual warfare among themselves (1097 and 1100). When his cousin Grand Prince Svyatopolk II (ruled Kiev 1093–1113) died, the veche (city council) of Kiev named him successor.

During his reign, as prior to it, Vladimir was almost constantly involved in wars, fighting primarily the Polovtsy (Kipchak), who had settled in the steppe region southeast of the Kievan state and had been raiding the lands of Rus since 1061. In his “Testament,” which he wrote for his sons and which constitutes the earliest known example of Old Russian literature written by a layman, Vladimir recounted participating in 83 noteworthy military campaigns and recorded killing 200 Polovtsy princes. In addition to his martial qualities, Vladimir Monomakh was known as an adept administrator, whose ability to curtail the internecine warfare among his princely relatives revived, if only temporarily, the declining strength of Kievan Rus. He was also noted as a builder; he founded the city of Vladimir on the Klyazma River in northeastern Russia, which by the end of the 12th century replaced Kiev as the seat of the grand prince.

Andrew I

▪ Russian prince

Russian in full Andrey Yuryevich Bogolyubsky

born c. 1111

died June 1174, Bogolyubovo, near Vladimir, Russia

prince of Rostov-Suzdal (1157) and grand prince of Vladimir (1169), who increased the importance of the northeastern Russian lands and contributed to the development of government in that forest region.

Having accompanied his father, Yury Dolgoruky, on his conquest of Kiev, Andrew refused to remain in the ancient capital of Rus and returned to Vladimir, a town in his father's principality of Rostov-Suzdal in northeastern Russia. When his father died (1157), the cities of Rostov and Suzdal elected Andrew their prince, and he transferred the capital of the entire principality to Vladimir. Subsequently, he encouraged colonists to settle in his principality, fortified and enlarged Vladimir, and built many churches.

In addition to strengthening his own lands, Andrew strove to extend his authority over other principalities of Rus. In 1169 he and his allies sacked Kiev, and Andrew acquired the title grand prince. But rather than move his seat to Kiev, as his father had done, Andrew made Vladimir the centre of the grand principality and placed a series of his relatives on the now secondary princely throne of Kiev. Later he also compelled Novgorod to accept a prince of his choice. In governing his realm, Andrew not only demanded that the subordinate princes obey him but also tried to reduce the traditional political powers of the boyars (i.e., the upper nobility) within his hereditary lands. In response, his embittered courtiers formed a conspiracy and killed him.

Kipchak

▪ people

Russian Polovtsy , Byzantine Kuman , or Cuman

a loosely organized Turkic tribal confederation that by the mid-11th century occupied a vast, sprawling territory in the Eurasian steppe, stretching from north of the Aral Sea westward to the region north of the Black Sea. Some tribes of the Kipchak confederation probably originated near the Chinese borders and, after having moved into western Siberia by the 9th century, migrated further west into the trans-Volga region (now western Kazakhstan) and then, in the 11th century, to the steppe area north of the Black Sea (now in Ukraine and southwestern Russia). The western grouping of this confederation was known as the Polovtsy, or Kuman, or by other names, most of which have the meaning “pale,” or “sallow.”

The Kipchak were nomadic pastoralists and warriors who lived in yurts (movable tents). In the late 11th and early 12th centuries they became involved in various conflicts with the Byzantines, Kievan Rus, the Hungarians, and the Pechenegs, allying themselves with one or the other side at different times.

The Kipchak remained masters of the steppe north of the Black Sea until the Mongol invasions. During the first Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus (1221–23), the Kipchak sided at different times with the invaders and with the local Slavic princes. In 1237 the Mongols penetrated for the second time into Kipchak territory and killed Bachman, the khan of the eastern Kipchak tribes. The Kipchak confederation was destroyed, and most of its lands and people were incorporated into the Golden Horde, the westernmost division of the Mongol empire.

The Kuman, or western Kipchak tribes, fled to Hungary, and some of their warriors became mercenaries for the Latin crusaders and the Byzantines. The defeated Kipchaks also became a major source of slaves for parts of the Islāmic world. Kipchak slaves—called Mamlūks (Mamlūk)—serving in the Ayyūbid dynasty's armies came to play important roles in the history of Egypt and Syria, where they formed the Mamlūk state, the remnants of which survived until the 19th century.

The Kipchak spoke a Turkic language whose most important surviving record is the Codex Cumanicus, a late 13th-century dictionary of words in Kipchak, Latin, and Persian. The presence in Egypt of Turkic-speaking Mamlūks also stimulated the compilation of Kipchak-Arabic dictionaries and grammars that are important in the study of several old Turkic languages.

Golden Horde

▪ ancient division, Mongol Empire

also called Kipchak Khanate

Russian designation for the Ulus Juchi, the western part of the Mongol Empire, which flourished from the mid-13th century to the end of the 14th century. The people of the Golden Horde were a mixture of Turks and Mongols, with the latter generally constituting the aristocracy.

The ill-defined western portion of the empire of Genghis Khan formed the territorial endowment of his oldest son, Juchi. Juchi predeceased his father in 1227, but his son Batu (q.v.) expanded their domain in a series of brilliant campaigns that included the sacking and burning of the city of Kiev in 1240. At its peak the Golden Horde's territory included most of European Russia from the Urals to the Carpathian Mountains, extending east deep into Siberia. On the south the Horde's lands bordered on the Black Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, and the Iranian territories of the Mongol dynasty known as the Il-Khans.

Batu founded his capital, Sarai Batu, on the lower stretch of the Volga River. The capital was later moved upstream to Sarai Berke, which at its peak held perhaps 600,000 inhabitants. The Horde was gradually Turkified and Islāmized, especially under their greatest khan, Öz Beg (1313–41). The Turkic tribes concentrated on animal husbandry in the steppes, while their subject peoples, Russians, Mordvinians, Greeks, Georgians, and Armenians, contributed tribute. The Russian princes, particularly those of Muscovy, soon obtained responsibility for collecting the Russian tribute. The Horde carried on an extensive trade with Mediterranean peoples, particularly their allies in Mamlūk Egypt and the Genoese.

The Black Death, which struck in 1346–47, and the murder of Öz Beg's successor marked the beginning of the Golden Horde's decline and disintegration. The Russian princes won a signal victory over the Horde general Mamai at the Battle of Kulikovo (q.v.) in 1380. Mamai's successor and rival, Tokhtamysh, sacked and burned Moscow in retaliation in 1382 and reestablished the Horde's dominion over the Russians. Tokhtamysh had his own power broken, however, by his former ally Timur, who invaded the Horde's territory in 1395, destroyed Sarai Berke, and deported most of the region's skilled craftsmen to Central Asia, thus depriving the Horde of its technological edge over resurgent Muscovy.

In the 15th century the Horde disintegrated into several smaller khanates, the most important being those of the Crimea, Astrakhan, and Kazan. The last surviving remnant of the Golden Horde was destroyed by the Crimean Khan in 1502.

Batu

▪ Mongol ruler

died c. 1255, , Russia

grandson of Genghis Khan and founder of the Khanate of Kipchak, or the Golden Horde.

In 1235 Batu was elected commander in chief of the western part of the Mongol empire and was given responsibility for the invasion of Europe. By 1240 he had conquered all of Russia. In the campaign in central Europe, one Mongol army defeated Henry II, Duke of Silesia (now in Poland), on April 9, 1241; another army led by Batu himself defeated the Hungarians two days later.

With Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, and the Danube valley under his control, Batu was poised for the invasion of western Europe when he received news of the death of the head of the Mongol empire, the great khan Ögödei (December 1241). In order to participate in the choice of a successor, Batu withdrew his army, saving Europe from probable devastation. He established the state of the Golden Horde in southern Russia, which was ruled by his successors for the next 200 years. In 1240 Batu's army sacked and burned Kiev, then the major city in Russia. Under the Golden Horde, the centre of Russian national life gradually moved from Kiev to Moscow.

Alexander Nevsky, Saint

▪ prince of Russia

Russian Aleksandr Nevsky, original name Aleksandr Yaroslavich

born c. 1220, , Vladimir, Grand Principality of Vladimir

died Nov. 14, 1263, Gorodets; canonized in Russian Church 1547; feast days November 23, August 30

prince of Novgorod (1236–52) and of Kiev (1246–52) and grand prince of Vladimir (1252–63), who halted the eastward drive of the Germans and Swedes but collaborated with the Mongols in imposing their rule on Russia. By defeating a Swedish invasion force at the confluence of the Rivers Izhora and Neva (1240), he won the name Nevsky, “of the Neva.”

Alexander was the son of Yaroslav II Vsevolodovich, grand prince of Vladimir, the foremost among the Russian rulers. In 1236 Alexander was elected prince—a figure who functioned as little more than military commander—of the city of Novgorod. In 1239 he married the daughter of the Prince of Polotsk.

When in 1240 the Swedes invaded Russia to punish the Novgorodians for encroaching on Finnish tribes and to bar Russia's access to the sea, Alexander defeated the Swedes at the confluence of the Rivers Izhora and Neva. His standing enhanced by his victory, he apparently began to intervene in the affairs of the city and was expelled a few months later.

When, urged by Pope Gregory IX to “Christianize” the Baltic region, the Teutonic Knights (Teutonic Order) shortly thereafter invaded Russia, Novgorod invited Alexander to return. After a number of battles, Alexander decisively defeated the Germans in the famous “massacre on the ice” in April 1242 on a narrow channel between Lakes Chud (Peipus) and Pskov. Alexander, who continued to fight both the Swedes and Germans and eventually stopped their eastward expansion, also won many victories over the pagan Lithuanians and the Finnic peoples.

In the east, however, Mongol armies were conquering most of the politically fragmented Russian lands. Alexander's father, the grand prince Yaroslav, agreed to serve the new rulers of Russia but died in September 1246 of poisoning after his return from a visit to the Great Khan in Mongolia. When, in the ensuing struggle for the grand princely throne, Alexander and his younger brother Andrew appealed to Khan Batu of the Mongol Golden Horde, he sent them to the Great Khan. Violating Russian customs of seniority, the Great Khan appointed Andrew grand prince of Vladimir and Alexander prince of Kiev—probably because Alexander was Batu's favourite and Batu was in disfavour with the Great Khan. When Andrew began to conspire against the Mongol overlords with other Russian princes and western nations, Alexander went to Saray on the Volga and denounced his brother to Sartak, Batu's son, who sent an army to depose Andrew and installed Alexander as grand prince. Henceforth, for over a century, no northeastern Russian prince challenged the Mongol conquest. Alexander proceeded to restore Russia by building fortifications and churches and promulgating laws. As grand prince, he continued to rule Novgorod through his son Vasily, thus changing the constitutional basis of rule in Novgorod from personal sovereignty by invitation to institutional sovereignty by the principal Russian ruler. When, in 1255, Novgorod, tiring of grand princely rule, expelled Vasily and invited an opponent of Mongol hegemony, Alexander assembled an army and reinstalled his son.

In 1257 the Mongols, in order to levy taxes, took a census in most of Russia. It encountered little opposition, but when news of the impending enumeration reached Novgorod an uprising broke out. In 1258 Alexander, fearing that the Mongols would punish all of Russia for the Novgorodian revolt, helped force Novgorod to submit to the census and to Mongol taxation. This completed the process of imposing the Mongol yoke on northern Russia.

In 1262 uprisings broke out in many towns against the Muslim tax farmers of the Golden Horde, and Alexander made a fourth journey to Saray to avert reprisals. He succeeded in his mission, as well as in obtaining exemption for Russians from a draft of men for a planned invasion of Iran. Returning home, Alexander died on Nov. 14, 1263, in Gorodets on the Volga. After his death Russia once more disintegrated into many feuding principalities. His personal power, based upon support of the princes, boyars, and clergy, as well as the fear of Mongols, could not be transmitted to any other man, including his weak sons.

Whether Alexander was a quisling in his dealings with the Mongol conquerors is a question seldom posed by Russian historians, because some Russian princes had for centuries concluded alliances with Turkic steppe nomads in order to gain advantage in domestic rivalries. Because Alexander was a willing collaborator, he may have reduced the common people's suffering by interceding for them with the Khan. He was supported by the church, which thrived under Mongol protection and tax exemption and feared the anti-Mongol princes who negotiated with the papacy. For these reasons, Alexander by 1381 was elevated to the status of a local saint and was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1547. Alexander's son Daniel founded the house of Moscow, which subsequently reunited the northern Russian lands and ruled until 1598. Alexander was one of the great military commanders of his time, who protected Russia's western frontier against invasion by Swedes or Germans. This image of him was popular in northwestern Russia and has in succeeding centuries been adduced for propaganda purposes. Thus, after the conclusion of the war with Sweden, the Order of Alexander Nevsky was created in 1725, and during World War II (in July 1942), when Germany had deeply penetrated into the Soviet Union, Stalin pronounced Alexander Nevsky a national hero and established a military order in his name.

Richard Hellie

Additional Reading

There is no book-length study of Nevsky in English. Information may be found in A.E. Presniakov, The Formation of the Great Russian State: A Study of Russian History in the Thirteenth to Fifteenth Centuries (1970; orig. pub. in Russian, 1918); and George Vernadsky, A History of Russia, vol. 3, The Mongols and Russia (1953).

Khazar

▪ people

member of a confederation of Turkic-speaking tribes that in the late 6th century AD established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia. Although the origin of the term Khazar and the early history of the Khazar people are obscure, it is fairly certain that the Khazars were originally located in the northern Caucasus region and were part of the western Turkic empire (in Turkistan). The Khazars were in contact with the Persians in the mid-6th century AD, and they aided the Byzantine emperor Heraclius (reigned 610–641) in his campaign against the Persians.

By the beginning of the 7th century, the Khazars had become independent of the Turkic empire to the east. But by the middle of that century, the expanding empire of the Arabs had penetrated as far northward as the northern Caucasus, and from then on until the mid-8th century the Khazars engaged in a series of wars with the Arab empire. The Arabs initially forced the Khazars to abandon Derbent (661), but around 685 the Khazars counterattacked, penetrating southward of the Caucasus into present-day Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Khazars and Arabs fought each other directly in Armenia in the 720s, and, though victory passed repeatedly from one side to the other, Arab counterattacks eventually compelled the Khazars to permanently withdraw north of the Caucasus. The Khazars' initial victories were important, though, since they had the effect of permanently blocking Arab expansion northward into eastern Europe. Having been compelled to shift the centre of their empire northward, the Khazars after 737 established their capital at Itil (located near the mouth of the Volga River) and accepted the Caucasus Mountains as their southern boundary.

During the same period, however, they expanded westward. By the second half of the 8th century, their empire had reached the peak of its power—it extended along the northern shore of the Black Sea from the lower Volga and the Caspian Sea in the east to the Dnieper River in the west. The Khazars controlled and exacted tribute from the Alani and other northern Caucasian peoples (dwelling between the mountains and the Kuban River); from the Magyars (Hungarians) inhabiting the area around the Donets River; from the Goths; and from the Greek colonies in the Crimea. The Volga Bulgars and numerous Slavic tribes also recognized the Khazars as their overlords.

Although basically Turkic, the Khazar state bore little resemblance to the other Turkic empires of central Eurasia. It was headed by a secluded supreme ruler of semireligious character called a khagan—who wielded little real power—and by tribal chieftains, each known as a beg. The state's military organization also seems to have lacked the forcefulness of those of the greater Turkic-Mongol empires. The Khazars seem to have been more inclined to a sedentary way of life, building towns and fortresses, tilling the soil, and planting gardens and vineyards. Trade and the collection of tribute were major sources of income. But the most striking characteristic of the Khazars was the apparent adoption of Judaism by the khagan and the greater part of the ruling class in about 740. The circumstances of the conversion remain obscure, the depth of their adoption of Judaism difficult to assess; but the fact itself is undisputed and unparalleled in central Eurasian history. A few scholars have even asserted that the Judaized Khazars were the remote ancestors of many eastern European and Russian Jews. Whatever the case may be, religious tolerance was practiced in the Khazar empire, and paganism continued to flourish among the population.

The prominence and influence of the Khazar state was reflected in its close relations with the Byzantine emperors: Justinian II (704) and Constantine V (732) each had a Khazar wife. The main source of revenue for the empire stemmed from commerce and particularly from Khazar control of the east-west trade route that linked the Far East with Byzantium and the north-south route linking the Arab empire with northern Slavic lands. Income that was derived from duties on goods passing through Khazar territory, in addition to tribute paid by subordinate tribes, maintained the wealth and the strength of the empire throughout the 9th century. But by the 10th century the empire, faced with the growing might of the Pechenegs to their north and west and of the Russians around Kiev, suffered a decline. When Svyatoslav, the ruler of Kiev, launched a campaign against the Khazars (965), Khazar power was crushed. Although the Khazars continued to be mentioned in historical documents as late as the 12th century, by 1030 their political role in the lands north of the Black Sea had greatly diminished. Despite the relatively high level of Khazar civilization and the wealth of data about the Khazars that is preserved in Byzantine and Arab sources, not a single line of the Khazar language has survived.

Svyatoslav I

▪ prince of Kiev

also spelled Sviatoslav , Russian in full Svyatoslav Igorevich

died 972

grand prince of Kiev from 945 and the greatest of the Varangian princes of early Russo-Ukrainian history.

He was the son of Grand Prince Igor, who was himself probably the grandson of Rurik, prince of Novgorod. Svyatoslav was the last non-Christian ruler of the Kievan state. After coming of age he began a series of bold military expeditions, leaving his mother, Olga (Olga, Saint), to manage the internal affairs of the Kievan state until her death in 969.

The Russian Primary Chronicle (Russian Primary Chronicle, The) (Povest vremennykh let) says that Svyatoslav “sent messengers to the other lands announcing his intention to attack them.” Between 963 and 965 he defeated the Khazars along the lower Don River and the Ossetes and Circassians in the northern Caucasus; he also attacked the Volga Bulgars. In 967 he defeated the Balkan Bulgars at the behest of the Byzantines, to whom he then refused to cede his conquest. He declared his intention of establishing a Russo-Bulgarian empire with its capital at Pereyaslavets (now Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky) on the Danube River. In 971, however, his comparatively small army was defeated by a Byzantine force under the emperor John I Tzimisces, and Svyatoslav was compelled to abandon his claim to Balkan territory.

In the spring of 972, while Svyatoslav was returning to Kievan Rus with a small retinue, he was ambushed and killed by the Pechenegs (a Turkic people) near the cataracts of the Dnieper River.

Olga, Saint

▪ Russian saint and regent

also called Helga

born c. 890

died 969, Kiev; feast day July 11

princess who was the first recorded female ruler in Russia and the first member of the ruling family of Kiev to adopt Christianity. She was canonized as the first Russian saint of the Orthodox Church.

Olga was the widow of Igor I, prince of Kiev, who was assassinated (945) by his subjects while attempting to extort excessive tribute. Because Igor's son Svyatoslav was still a minor, Olga became regent of the grand principality of Kiev from 945 to 964. She soon had Igor's murderers scalded to death and hundreds of their followers killed. Olga became the first of the princely Kievans to adopt Orthodox Christianity. She was probably baptized (c. 957), at Constantinople (now Istanbul), then the most powerful patriarchate. Her efforts to bring Christianity to Russia were resisted by her son but continued by her grandson, the grand prince St. Vladimir (died 1015); together they mark the transition between pagan and Christian Russia.

Yaroslav I

▪ prince of Kiev

byname Yaroslav The Wise, Russian Yaroslav Mudry

born 980

died Feb. 2, 1054

grand prince of Kiev from 1019 to 1054.

A son of the grand prince Vladimir, he was vice-regent of Novgorod at the time of his father's death in 1015. Then his eldest surviving brother, Svyatopolk the Accursed, killed three of his other brothers and seized power in Kiev. Yaroslav, with the active support of the Novgorodians and the help of Varangian (Viking) mercenaries, defeated Svyatopolk and became the grand prince of Kiev in 1019.

Yaroslav began consolidating the Kievan state through both cultural and administrative improvements and through military campaigns. He promoted the spread of Christianity in the Kievan state, gathered a large collection of books, and employed many scribes to translate Greek religious texts into the Slavic language. He founded churches and monasteries and issued statutes regulating the legal position of the Christian Church and the rights of the clergy. With the help of Byzantine architects and craftsmen, Yaroslav fortified and beautified Kiev along Byzantine lines. He built the majestic Cathedral of St. Sophia and the famous Golden Gate of the Kievan fortress. Under Yaroslav the codification of legal customs and princely enactments was begun, and this work served as the basis for a law code called the Russkaya Pravda (“Russian Justice”).

Yaroslav pursued an active foreign policy, and his forces won several notable military victories. He regained Galicia from the Poles, decisively defeated the nomadic Pechenegs on the Kievan state's southern frontier, and expanded Kievan possessions in the Baltic region, suppressing the Lithuanians, Estonians, and Finnish tribes. His military campaign against Constantinople in 1043 was a failure, however.

Trade with the East and West played an important role in Kievan Rus in the 11th century, and Yaroslav maintained diplomatic relations with the European states. His daughters Elizabeth, Anna, and Anastasia were married respectively to Harald III of Norway, Henry I of France, and Andrew I of Hungary.

In his testament, Yaroslav sought to prevent a power struggle among his five sons by dividing his empire among them and enjoining the younger four sons to obey the eldest, Izyaslav, who was to succeed his father as grand prince of Kiev. This advice had no lasting effect, and civil war ensued after Yaroslav's death.

boyar

▪ Russian aristocrat

Russian Boyarin, plural Boyare,

member of the upper stratum of medieval Russian society and state administration. In Kievan Rus during the 10th–12th century, the boyars constituted the senior group in the prince's retinue ( druzhina) and occupied the higher posts in the armed forces and in the civil administration. They also formed a boyar council, or Duma, which advised the prince in important matters of state. In the 13th and 14th centuries, in the northeastern Russian principalities, the boyars were a privileged class of rich landowners; they served the prince as his aides and councillors but retained the right to leave his service and enter that of another prince without losing their estates.

From the 15th to the 17th century, the boyars of Muscovy formed a closed aristocratic class that surrounded the throne of the grand prince (later the tsar) and ruled the country together with him. They were drawn from about 200 families, descended from former princes, old Moscow (Moscow, Grand Principality of) boyar families, and foreign aristocrats. The rank of boyar did not belong to all members of these families but only to those senior members to whom the tsar granted this title. Below the boyars stood the group of okolnichy. Together these two strata formed the boyar council, which helped the tsar direct the internal and foreign affairs of the state. The decisions of the boyar council, as confirmed by the tsar, were recognized as the normal form of legislation. The boyars and okolnichy generally served as heads of government offices, provincial governors, and military commanders.

The tsar did not have complete freedom in the choice of his chief aides and subordinates. He was bound by the peculiar aristocratic custom of mestnichestvo. This was a complicated hierarchy of precedence among aristocratic Muscovite families. They were ranked in a definite genealogical order according to their relative seniority, and, in the course of filling the highest posts in his army and administration, the tsar had to consider not so much the candidate's personal merits as his genealogical seniority as defined by earlier precedents. Mestnichestvo, which hampered the selection of appropriate candidates for high offices, caused endless quarrels among the boyar families and was finally abolished in 1682.

Throughout the 17th century, the social and political importance of the boyars declined. Early in the 18th century, Tsar Peter I the Great abolished the rank and title of boyar and made state service the exclusive means of attaining a high position in the bureaucratic hierarchy.

druzhina

▪ Russian history

in early Rus, a prince's retinue, which helped him to administer his principality and constituted the area's military force. The first druzhinniki (members of a druzhina) in Rus were the Norse Varangians, whose princes established control there in the 9th century. Soon members of the local Slavic aristocracy as well as adventurers of a variety of other nationalities became druzhinniki.

The druzhina was composed of two groups: the senior members (who became known as boyars (boyar)) and the junior members. The boyars were the prince's closest advisers; they also performed higher state functions. The junior members constituted the prince's personal bodyguard and were common soldiers. All the members were dependent upon their prince for financial support, but each member served the prince freely and had the right to leave him and join the druzhina of another prince. As a result, a prince was inclined to seek the goodwill of his druzhina; he paid the druzhinniki wages, shared his war booty and taxes with them, and eventually rewarded the boyars with landed estates, complete with rights to tax and administer justice to the local population.

By the middle of the 12th century, the characteristics of the two groups had begun to change. The boyars, having acquired their own patrimonial estates and retinues, became less dependent on the princes and began to form a new landed aristocratic class. The junior members became a prince's immediate servitors and collectively assumed the name dvoriane (courtiers). During the period of Mongol rule (after 1240), the term druzhina fell out of use. See also boyar.

Moscow, Grand Principality of

▪ medieval principality, Russia

also called Muscovy, Russian Moskovskoye Velikoye Knazhestvo,

medieval principality that, under the leadership of a branch of the Rurik dynasty, was transformed from a small settlement in the Rostov-Suzdal principality into the dominant political unit in northeastern Russia.

Muscovy became a distinct principality during the second half of the 13th century under the rule of Daniel, the youngest son of the Rurik prince Alexander Nevsky. Located in the midst of forests and at the intersection of important trade routes, it was well protected from invasion and well situated for lucrative commerce. In 1326 it became the permanent residence of the Russian metropolitan of the Orthodox church. Muscovy attracted many inhabitants, and its princes collected large revenues in customs and taxes. After a short period of rivalry with the princes of Tver during the reign of Prince Daniel's son Yury (d. 1326), the princes of Muscovy received the title of grand prince of Vladimir from their Tatar overlords (1328). That title enabled them to collect the Russian tribute for the Tatar khan and, thereby, to strengthen the financial and political position of their domain.

The Muscovite princes also pursued a policy of “gathering the Russian lands.” Yury extended his principality to include almost the entire Moscow basin; and Ivan I (Ivan Kalita, reigned 1328–40), followed by his sons Semyon (reigned 1341–53) and Ivan II (reigned 1353–59), purchased more territory.

Dmitry Donskoy (Dmitry (II) Donskoy) (reigned as prince of Moscow from 1359, grand prince of Vladimir 1362–89) increased his holdings by conquest; he also won a symbolically important victory over the Tatars (Battle of Kulikovo, 1380). Dmitry's successors Vasily I (reigned 1389–1425) and Vasily II (reigned 1425–62) continued to enlarge and strengthen Moscow despite a bitter civil war during the latter's reign.

Ivan III (reigned 1462–1505) completed the unification of the Great Russian lands, incorporating Ryazan, Yaroslavl (1463), Rostov (northwest of Vladimir and southeast of Yaroslavl; 1474), Tver (1485), and Novgorod (1478) into the Muscovite principality. By the end of Ivan's reign, the prince of Moscow was, in fact, the ruler of Russia proper. See also Rurik Dynasty.

Tatar

▪ people

also spelled Tartar,

any member of several Turkic-speaking peoples that collectively numbered more than 5 million in the late 20th century and lived mainly in west-central Russia along the central course of the Volga River and its tributary, the Kama, and thence east to the Ural Mountains. The Tatars are also settled in Kazakhstan and, to a lesser extent, in western Siberia.

The name Tatar first appeared among nomadic tribes living in northeastern Mongolia and the area around Lake Baikal from the 5th century AD. Unlike the Mongols, these peoples spoke a Turkic language, and they may have been related to the Cuman or Kipchak peoples. After various groups of these Turkic nomads became part of the armies of the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan in the early 13th century, a fusion of Mongol and Turkic elements took place, and the Mongol invaders of Russia and Hungary became known to Europeans as Tatars (or Tartars).

After Genghis Khan's empire broke up, the Tatars became especially identified with the western part of the Mongol domain, which included most of European Russia and was called the Golden Horde. These Tatars were converted to Sunnite Islām in the 14th century. Owing to internal divisions and various foreign pressures, the Golden Horde disintegrated late in the 14th century into the independent Tatar khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan on the Volga River, Sibir in western Siberia, and the Crimea. Russia conquered the first three of these khanates in the 16th century, but the Crimean khanate became a vassal state of the Ottoman Turks until it was annexed to Russia by Catherine the Great in 1783.

In their khanates the Tatars developed a complex social organization, and their nobility preserved its civil and military leadership into Russian times; distinct classes of commoners were merchants and tillers of the soil. At the head of government stood the khan of the foremost Tatar state (the Kazan khanate), part of whose family joined the Russian nobility by direct agreement in the 16th century. This stratification within Tatar society continued until the Russian Revolution of 1917.

During the 9th to 15th centuries, the Tatar economy became based on mixed farming and herding, which still continues. The Tatars also developed a tradition of craftsmanship in wood, ceramics, leather, cloth, and metal and have long been well known as traders. During the 18th and 19th centuries, they earned a favoured position within the expanding Russian Empire as commercial and political agents, teachers, and administrators of newly won Central Asian territories.

More than 1.5 million Kazan Tatars still live in the Volga and Urals regions, and they constitute about half the population within the republic of Tatarstan. They are now known as Volga Tatars and are the wealthiest and most industrially advanced of the Tatar groups. Almost a million more Tatars live in Kazakhstan and Central Asia, while the Siberian Tatars, numbering only about 100,000, live scattered over western Siberia.

The Crimean Tatars had their own history in the modern period. They formed the basis of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, which was set up by the Soviet government in 1921. This republic was dissolved in 1945, however, when the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin accused the approximately 200,000 Crimean Tatars of having collaborated with the Germans during World War II. As a result, the Crimean Tatars were deported en masse to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, where their use of the Tatar language was forbidden. They regained their civil rights in 1956 under the de-Stalinization program of Nikita Khrushchev, but they were not allowed to return to the Crimea, which had been incorporated into the Ukrainian S.S.R. in 1954. It was not until the early 1990s that many Crimean Tatars, taking advantage of the breakup of the Soviet central government's authority, began returning to settle in the Crimea after nearly five decades of internal exile. They now number about 270,000.

Dmitry (II) Donskoy

▪ prince of Moscow

byname of Dmitry Ivanovich

born Oct. 12, 1350, Moscow [Russia]

died May 19, 1389, Moscow

prince of Moscow, or Muscovy (1359–89), and grand prince of Vladimir (1362–89), who won a victory over the Golden Horde (Mongols who had controlled Russian lands since 1240) at the Battle of Kulikovo (Kulikovo, Battle of) (Sept. 8, 1380).

Son of Ivan II the Meek of Moscow (reigned 1353–59), Dmitry became ruler of Muscovy when he was only nine years old; three years later he convinced his suzerain, the great khan of the Golden Horde, to transfer the title grand prince of Vladimir (which had been held by Muscovite princes from 1328 to 1359) from Dmitry of Suzdal to him.

In addition to gaining the title grand prince of Vladimir for himself, Dmitry strengthened his position by increasing the territory of the principality of Muscovy, by subduing the princes of Rostov and Ryazan, and by deposing the princes of Galich and Starodub. While the Golden Horde was suffering from internal conflicts, Dmitry stopped making regular tribute payments and encouraged the Russian princes to resist the Mongols' raids. In 1378 the Russians defeated an army of the Horde on the Vozha River.

Subsequently, Mamai, the Mongol general who was the effective ruler of the western portion of the Golden Horde, formed a military alliance with neighbouring rulers for the purpose of subduing the Russians. Confronting the Mongols on the Don River, however, in the bloody battle on Kulikovo Pole (“Snipes' Field”), Dmitry routed Mamai's forces; for his victory Dmitry was honoured with the surname Donskoy (“of the Don”). Shortly afterward, however, his lands were resubjected to Mongol domination when the Mongol leader Tokhtamysh overthrew Mamai (1381), sacked Moscow (1382), and restored Mongol rule over the Russian lands.

Kulikovo, Battle of

▪ Russian history

(Sept. 8, 1380), military engagement in which the Russians defeated the forces of the Golden Horde, thereby demonstrating the developing independence of the Russian lands from Mongol rule (which had been imposed in 1240). The battle occurred when Mamai, a Mongol general who effectively ruled the western portion of the Golden Horde, invaded the Russian lands. The Russians, whose respect for Mongol authority had been declining—particularly since a series of dynastic quarrels following the death of the khan Jani Beg (1357) had weakened the Horde—resisted Mamai.

Led by Dmitry Ivanovich (Dmitry (II) Donskoy), prince of Moscow and grand prince of Vladimir, the Russians met Mamai's forces at Kulikovo Pole (“Snipes' Field”) on the upper Don River before Mamai's Lithuanian allies could join him. Although the Mongol armies gained an early advantage, they fled when the Russians sent in a reserve force. The battle was extremely bloody, and casualties on both sides were heavy. In honour of the victory on the Don, Dmitry assumed the surname Donskoy (“of the Don”).

But the great victory of the Russians was of little political consequence. Two years later (1382) Tokhtamysh, the khan who had overthrown Mamai in 1381 and extended his control over the entire Golden Horde, invaded Russia. He devastated the lands, looted and burned Moscow, and forced the Russians to recognize once again the suzerainty of the Golden Horde.

Ivan III

▪ Russian prince

Introduction

Russian in full Ivan Vasilyevich, byname Ivan the Great, Russian Ivan Veliky

born Jan. 22, 1440, Moscow

died Oct. 27, 1505, Moscow

grand prince of Moscow (1462–1505), who subdued most of the Great Russian lands by conquest or by the voluntary allegiance of princes, rewon parts of Ukraine from Poland–Lithuania, and repudiated the old subservience to the Mongol-derived Tatars. He also laid the administrative foundations of a centralized Russian state.

Early life and reign

Ivan was born at the height of the civil war that raged between supporters of his father, Grand Prince Vasily II of Muscovy (Moscow, Grand Principality of), and those of his rebellious uncles. His early life was dramatic and tumultuous: when his father was arrested and blinded by his cousin in 1446, Ivan was first hidden in a monastery and then smuggled to safety, only to be treacherously handed over to his father's captors later in the year; shortly after his father's release in the same year Ivan was solemnly affianced—for purely political reasons—to the daughter of the Grand Prince of Tver, whom he married in 1452. During the last years of his father's reign, he gained experience in the arts of war and government. At the age of 12 he was placed nominally in command of a military expedition dispatched to deal with the remnants of his father's internal enemies in the far north; and at 18 he led a successful campaign against the Tatars in the south. Vasily II died on March 27, 1462, and was succeeded by Ivan as grand prince of Moscow.

Little is known of Ivan's activities during the early part of his reign. Apart from a series of sporadic and largely successful campaigns against his eastern neighbours, the Tatars (Tatar) of Kazan, there was evidently not much beyond the routine business of ruling to occupy him. But his private life soon changed radically. In 1467 his childhood bride died (perhaps poisoned), leaving him with only one son. In view of the primitive state of Muscovite medicine and the demonstrable reluctance of Ivan's brothers to see the royal line continued longer than was necessary, the likelihood of the son predeceasing his father and thus robbing him of an heir appeared only too real, and another wife had to be sought. Curiously, the initiative seems to have come from outside; in 1469 Cardinal Bessarion wrote from Rome offering Ivan the hand of his ward and pupil, Zoë Palaeologus, niece of the last emperor of Byzantium. It took three years before the fat and unattractive Zoë, who, on entering Moscow, changed her name to Sofia (and perhaps her faith to Orthodoxy), was married to Ivan in the Kremlin.

Middle reign

At Ivan's accession many Great Russian lands were not yet under Muscovite control; the entire Ukraine and the upper Oka districts were part of the Polish–Lithuanian union and Ivan himself, in name at least, was a tributary of the Khan of the Golden Horde. He set himself the task of reconquering from Poland–Lithuania the Ukrainian possessions of his forefathers. But first the independent Great Russian lands had to be annexed or subdued and subservience to the Tatars had to be repudiated.

After rendering the Kazan Horde on his eastern flank temporarily impotent by a series of campaigns (1467–69), Ivan attempted to subdue Novgorod and its huge northern empire. He repeatedly invaded Novgorod, formally forced it to accept his sovereignty (1478), stripped it of the last vestiges of political freedom, secularized large tracts of its church lands, annexed its colonies, and replaced many of its citizens with reliable elements from his own domains. By 1489 Novgorod could offer no more resistance to Ivan. Of the remaining Russian lands still technically independent in 1462, Yaroslavl and Rostov were annexed by treaty (1463 and 1474, respectively). Tver offered little resistance and meekly yielded to Moscow in 1485. Ryazan and Pskov alone retained their independence at the cost of abject subservience to their virtual suzerain.

Freedom from subjection to Khan Ahmed of the Golden Horde came in 1480. To counterbalance Ahmed's friendship with Poland–Lithuania, Ivan concluded an invaluable alliance with Khan Mengli Girei of Crimea. After a victorious campaign by Ivan in 1480, Ahmed withdrew his forces from Ivan's dominions, and although Ahmed's sons continued to worry Moscow and Crimea until their final defeat in 1502, Ivan from 1480 no longer considered himself a vassal of the Khan and entered the field of European diplomacy as an independent sovereign. By tact and diplomacy he managed to maintain his friendship with Mengli and to avoid serious trouble in Kazan for the rest of his reign.

In 1480 Ivan also had to cope with the danger of rebellion by his two brothers Andrey and Boris, who had been incensed by his high-handed appropriation of their deceased elder brother's estates. They defected with their armies to the western frontiers but eventually returned and acknowledged Ivan's territorial acquisitions and primacy.

Late reign

In 1490 Ivan's eldest son by his first wife died of gout. He had been ineptly treated by a Jewish doctor who had been brought to Russia by Sofia's brother, and Ivan suspected foul play. He now had to solve the problem of who was to be his heir—his eldest son's son Dmitry (born 1483) or his eldest son by Sofia, Vasily (born 1479). For seven years he vacillated. Then, in 1497, he nominated Dmitry as heir. Sofia, anxious to see her son assured of the throne, planned rebellion against her husband, but the plot was uncovered. Ivan disgraced Sofia and Vasily and had Dmitry crowned grand prince (1498).

However, in 1500 Vasily rebelled again and defected to the Lithuanians. Ivan was forced to compromise. At that stage of his war with Lithuania he could not risk the total alienation of his son and wife. And so, in 1502, he gave the title to Vasily (Vasily III) and imprisoned Dmitry and his mother, Yelena.

At home Ivan's policy was to centralize the administration by stripping the appanage princes of land and authority. As for the boyars, they were stripped of much of their authority and swiftly executed or imprisoned if suspected of treason. Ivan's reign saw the beginning of the pomestie system, whereby the servants of the grand prince were granted estates on a basis of life tenure and on condition of loyal service.

Ivan's last years were years of disappointment. The war against Lithuania had not ended as conclusively and satisfactorily as he had expected—much of Ukraine was still in the hands of a strangely buoyant enemy; his ecclesiastical plans for secularizing church lands had been thwarted at the Council of 1503, and the Khanate of Kazan, which had been so carefully neutralized during Ivan's reign, was beginning to rid itself of Muscovite tutelage. Ivan died in the autumn of 1505.

Assessment

In terms of political success, the 15th-century grand prince Ivan III was easily the greatest of all the descendants of Rurik, the reputed founder of Russia. No ruler of Muscovy until Peter I the Great, two centuries later, did more to consolidate and develop the achievements of his predecessors, to strengthen the authority of the monarch, or to lay the foundations for a centralized state. By means of cunning diplomacy and shrewdly calculated aggression, Ivan not only established Muscovy as a great power to be reckoned with by the rulers and diplomats of Europe but also set in motion the reconquest of the Ukraine from Poland and Lithuania.

In spite of his great achievements, Ivan died unmourned and seemingly unloved. Singularly little is known about him as a man. He was tall and thin and had a slight stoop. It is said that women fainted in his presence, so frightened were they by his awesome gaze. His only known pleasures were those of the bed and the table. His contemporaries are silent about his virtues. Yet few scholars have underestimated the role of Ivan in the creation of the Russian state, and none dispute the significance of his diplomatic and military successes. It may be that the excessive cautiousness of his character, the lack of élan and glamour, and the very dullness of the man have prevented historians from universally recognizing the appellation of “the Great,” first attributed to him by the Austrian ambassador to his son's court.

John Lister Illingworth Fennell Ed.

Additional Reading

J.L.I. Fennell, Ivan the Great of Moscow (1962), the most detailed account of Ivan's reign in English, emphasizes his diplomacy and foreign policy.

Vasily II

▪ grand prince of Moscow

in full Vasily Vasilyevich , byname Vasily the Blind , Russian Vasily Tyomny

born 1415

died March 27, 1462, Moscow

grand prince of Moscow from 1425 to 1462.

Although the 10-year-old Vasily II was named by his father Vasily I (ruled Moscow 1389–1425) to succeed him as the grand prince of Moscow and of Vladimir, Vasily's rule was challenged by his uncle Yury and his cousins Vasily the Squint-Eyed and Dmitry Shemyaka. After a long, chaotic, and bitter struggle, during which Vasily not only temporarily lost his throne both to Yury (1434) and to Dmitry Shemyaka (1446–47) but was also blinded by Dmitry (1446), Vasily recovered his position (1447) and ruled Muscovy for another 15 years.

Despite the prolonged internal discord, which finally ended in 1452, Muscovy made great strides toward becoming a large, politically consolidated, powerful Russian state during Vasily's reign. The Russian Church asserted its independence from the patriarch at Constantinople; and the state of Muscovy, in an effort to enlarge its territories, absorbed most of the neighbouring principalities. It gained suzerainty over the Grand Principality of Ryazan (1447) and the city of Vyatka (1460; now Kirov). To pursue his policy of aggrandizement without foreign interference, Vasily concluded a non-aggression pact with Lithuania in 1449. He could not, however, avoid intermittent conflict with the rival Tatar hordes bordering his lands on the south and east, one of which tried unsuccessfully to storm Moscow in 1451. Nevertheless, he welcomed individual Tatars at his court and, encouraging them to enter his service, established a vassal Tatar horde to defend his state's southeastern frontier (c. 1453). By the end of his reign he had also substantially reduced the domination of the Tatar khan, who formally remained his suzerain, over Muscovy.

Vasily III

▪ grand prince of Moscow

in full Vasily Ivanovich

born 1479

died Dec. 3, 1533, Moscow

grand prince of Moscow from 1505 to 1533. Succeeding his father, Ivan III (ruled Moscow 1462–1505), Vasily completed his father's policy of consolidating the numerous independent Russian principalities into a united Muscovite state by annexing Pskov (1510), Ryazan (1517), and Starodub and Novgorod-Seversk (now Novgorod-Seversky) by 1523. He also strengthened his growing state by capturing Smolensk from Lithuania in 1514. His forces were defeated by the Lithuanians at Orsha (1514), however, and Muscovy also suffered devastating raids by Tatars of both the Crimea and Kazan. Nevertheless, Vasily was loyally supported by the metropolitan Daniel, who intrigued in his favour and sanctioned his canonically unjustifiable divorce from his barren first wife (1525). Vasily overcame the opposition of those boyars who objected to his autocratic tendencies and transmitted an enlarged, powerful, centralized state to his son Ivan IV the Terrible.

Novgorod

▪ Russia

also called Velikiy Novgorod

city and administrative centre of Novgorod oblast (region), northwestern Russia, on the Volkhov River just below its outflow from Lake Ilmen. Novgorod is one of the oldest Russian cities, first mentioned in chronicles of 859. In 882 Oleg, prince of Novgorod, captured Kiev and moved his capital there. In 989, under Vladimir, Novgorod's inhabitants were forcibly baptized. In 1019 Prince Yaroslav I the Wise of Kiev granted the town a charter of self-government; the town assembly, or veche, elected their prince, chiefly as a military commander. After 1270 the veche elected only a burgomaster, and sovereignty resided in the town itself, which was styled Lord Novgorod the Great. The town was divided into five ends, each with its own assembly and each responsible for one-fifth of Novgorod's extensive territorial possessions. It flourished as one of the greatest trading centres of eastern Europe, with links by river routes to the Baltic, Byzantium, Central Asia, and all parts of European Russia. Trade with the Hanseatic League was considerable since Novgorod was the limit of Hanseatic trade into Russia. Prosperity was based upon furs obtained in the forests of northern Russia, much of which came under Novgorod's control. “Daughter” towns were founded by Novgorod in the 12th century at Vologda and Vyatka.

During the 12th century, Novgorod was engaged in prolonged struggles with the princes of Suzdal and gained victories in 1169 and 1216. Although the town avoided destruction in the great Tatar invasion of 1238–40, Tatar suzerainty was acknowledged. Under Alexander Nevsky, prince of Vladimir, Novgorod's defenders repulsed attacks by the Swedes on the Neva River in 1240 and by the Teutonic Knights on the ice of Lake Peipus in 1242. During the 14th and 15th centuries, Novgorod was involved in a long, bitter struggle for supremacy with Moscow and frequently sought help from Lithuania. Although the city survived Muscovite onslaughts in 1332 and again in 1386 by Dmitry Donskoy, it was defeated by Vasily II in 1456. It continued to oppose Moscow and again sought Lithuanian assistance, but in 1471 Ivan III the Great defeated Novgorod and annexed much of its northern territories, finally forcing the city to recognize Moscow's sovereignty in 1478. Opposition by its citizens to Moscow continued until Ivan IV the Terrible in 1570 massacred many of them and deported the survivors. In 1611 Novgorod was captured by the Swedes, who held it for eight years. From the reign (1682–1725) of Peter I the Great, the city declined in importance, although it was made a provincial seat in 1727.

During World War II, the city suffered heavy damage, but the many historic buildings were subsequently restored. These include the kremlin on the Volkhov left bank (the Sofiyskaya Storona). It was first built of wood in 1044, and its first stone walls date from the 14th century. Within the kremlin, the St. Sofia Cathedral, built in 1045–50 on the site of an earlier wooden church, is one of the finest examples of early Russian architecture, with magnificent bronze doors from the 12th century. From the 15th century date the Granite Palace (1433), the bell tower (1443), and the St. Sergey Chapel. The Chapel of St. Andrew Stratilata was built in the 17th century. Across the Volkhov (the Torgovaya Storona) stands the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, dating from 1113. In and around Novgorod are many other surviving churches, including the 12th-century cathedrals of the Nativity of Our Lady and of St. George, the 14th-century churches of the Transfiguration and of St. Theodore Stratilata, and the 17th-century Znamensky Cathedral. Novgorod's many medieval monuments and 14th-century frescoes were collectively designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1992.

Modern Novgorod is important as a tourist centre and as a major producer of chemical fertilizers. It also has metal and woodworking industries. Pop. (2006 est.) 217,706.

▪ oblast, Russia

oblast (region), northwestern Russia, extending across the morainic Valdai Hills, which rise to 971 ft (296 m); the lowland basins of Lake Ilmen lie to the west and of the upper Volga River to the east. Much of the oblast's terrain is in swamp of peat bog or reed and grass marsh, with innumerable small lakes. The remainder (about 60 percent) is mostly in mixed forest of spruce, oak, pine, and birch, and soils are usually infertile. Agriculture is poorly developed, with under one-tenth of the area plowed. Dairying, especially to supply the Leningrad market, is the principal activity, with some cultivation of flax, rye, oats, and potatoes. Since 1870, much swamp has been drained for pasture and improved forest. Much peat is cut for fuel. Machine-building, metalworking, chemical, and food-processing industries have been developed. Aside from Borovichi, Staraya Russa, and the oblast headquarters, Novgorod city, settlements are small and engaged in processing timber and flax. Area 21,400 square miles (55,300 square km). Pop. (2006 est.) 665,365.

veche

▪ medieval Russian assembly

popular assembly that was a characteristic institution in Russia from the 10th to the 15th century. The veche probably originated as a deliberative body among early Slavic tribes. As the tribes settled in permanent trading centres, which later became cities, the veche remained as an element of democratic rule, sharing power with a prince and an aristocratic council. Although its power varied from city to city, the veche generally could accept or reject the prince who “inherited” the city and, by controlling the town's militia, could veto a prince's plans for a military campaign.

In Novgorod, where the veche acquired its greatest power, it was able to choose the city's prince, to enter into a contract with him that specifically defined and limited his powers, and to dismiss him. It also elected the major military and civil officials subordinate to the prince. In most areas the veche ruled both a city and its dependent villages; the heads of families in the entire region were entitled to participate in its sessions, which could be convoked by the prince, the town officials, or the citizenry. (Usually only the townsmen attended the meetings and the veche thus became a representative of urban interests.) The veche met irregularly; it had no formal procedural rules, and decisions were reached when one side gave up.

During the 11th and 12th centuries the veche acquired its greatest power but gradually lost importance with the decline of the old trading cities in the central Dnieper River region. The political centre of Russia was shifting to the northeastern region, where newer cities lacked the strong urban classes capable of developing their own political organs and of successfully competing with the authority of the princes. After the Mongol invasion of Russia (1240), the veche was further weakened; it was suppressed by the Mongols, who wanted to control the townspeople, considered to be the greatest opponents of Mongol rule. The Russian princes also aided the Mongol suppression in order to curtail the power of the institution.

By the middle of the 14th century the veche in most Russian cities no longer functioned as an independent, permanent governing body, although it sporadically reappeared in times of crisis. In Novgorod the veche survived until 1478, when the Muscovite grand prince Ivan III conquered that city and abolished it; the Pskov veche was similarly dissolved in 1510.

Lithuania, grand duchy of

▪ historical state, Europe

state, incorporating Lithuania proper, Belorussia, and the western Ukraine, which became one of the most influential powers in eastern Europe (14th–16th century). Pressed by the crusading Teutonic and Livonian Knights, the Lithuanian tribes united under Mindaugas (d. 1263) and formed a strong, cohesive grand duchy during the reign of Gediminas (reigned 1316–41), who extended their frontiers across the upper Dvina River in the northeast to the Dnieper River in the southeast and to the Pripet Marshes in the south. After Gediminas' death, two of his sons succeeded him: Kęstutis ruled Lithuania proper, preventing territorial encroachments from the German knights and their allies, while Algirdas, the titular grand duke, continued his father's expansionist policies and, by conquering vast Russian and Tatar territories, stretched his domain from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

Influenced greatly by their Russian subjects, the Lithuanians not only reorganized their army, government administration, and legal and financial systems on Russian models but also allowed the Russian nobility to retain its Orthodox religion, its privileges, and its local authority.

The Lithuanians, however, also remained involved with their western neighbours; in 1385, under pressure from the hostile Teutonic Knights, the grand duke Jogaila (Władysław II Jagiełło) (reigned 1377–1434) concluded a pact with Poland (Union of Krewo), agreeing to accept the Roman Catholic faith, marry the Polish queen, become king of Poland, and unite Poland and Lithuania under a single ruler. Jogaila took the Polish name Władysław II Jagiełło.

Polish influence subsequently began to replace Russian influence in Lithuania. The grand duchy, however, retained its autonomy, and, under the rule of Vytautas (Vytautas the Great), Jogaila's cousin and former political rival, who was named viceroy in 1392, it expanded to the Ugra and Oka rivers in the east, assumed a dominant role in Tatar and east Russian political affairs, and became the most powerful state in eastern Europe. In 1410 Lithuania, led by Vytautas, also joined Poland and decisively defeated the Teutonic Knights (Teutonic Order) (Battle of Tannenberg). As a result, it gained control of the northwestern territory of Samogitia (confirmed in 1422) and permanently reduced the German threat to Lithuania.

After Vytautas' death (1430), Lithuania continued to have its own rulers, who were nominally subordinate to the Polish king but maintained Lithuania's autonomy and its authority in eastern European affairs. When the Poles chose the 19-year-old Lithuanian grand duke Casimir (Casimir IV) as their king (1447), the two countries became somewhat more closely associated. Casimir, however, in an attempt to guarantee Lithuania's independent status, granted a charter to the Lithuanian boyars who had proclaimed him grand duke (1447), verifying the nobles' rights and privileges, giving them extensive authority over the peasantry, and thereby increasing their political power.

The authority of the grand duke subsequently declined, and, without its strong ruler, Lithuania was unable to prevent the Tatars from continually raiding its southern lands; nor could it stop Muscovy (Moscow, Grand Principality of) from annexing the principalities of Novgorod (1479) and Tver (1485), which had maintained close relations with Lithuania, from seizing one-third of Lithuania's Russian lands (1499–1503), and from capturing Smolensk (1514), which Lithuania had held since 1408.

During the 16th century Lithuania made major economic advances, including agrarian reforms, and generally appeared to maintain itself as a strong, dynamic state. When the wars between Muscovy and Lithuania were resumed in the Livonian War (q.v.; 1558–83), however, Lithuania's resources were strained, and it was forced to appeal to Poland for help. The Poles refused unless the two states were formally united. Lithuanian resistance to a union was strong, but, when Sigismund II Augustus (grand duke of Lithuania 1544–72; king of Poland 1548–72) attached one-third of Lithuania's territories (Volhynia, Kiev, Bratslav, and Podlasia) to Poland, the Lithuanians had to accept the Union of Lublin (Lublin, Union of) (1569).

Under the terms of the union, Lithuania officially remained a distinct state, constituting an equal partner with Poland in a Polish-Lithuanian confederation. Nevertheless, it soon became the subordinate member of the new state. Its gentry adopted Polish customs and language; its administration organized itself on Polish models and pursued Polish policies. Although the peasants retained their Lithuanian identity, Lithuania was politically an integral part of Poland from 1569 until the end of the 18th century, when the partitions of Poland placed it in the Russian Empire.

Livonian War

▪ Russian history

(1558–83), prolonged military conflict, during which Russia unsuccessfully fought Poland, Lithuania, and Sweden for control of greater Livonia—the area including Estonia, Livonia, Courland, and the island of Oesel—which was ruled by the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Knights (Order of the Brothers of the Sword (Brothers of the Sword, Order of the)).

In 1558 Ivan IV of Russia invaded Livonia, hoping to gain access to the Baltic Sea and to take advantage of the weakness of the Livonian Knights; he seized Narva and Dorpat and besieged Reval. The Knights, unable to withstand the Russian attack, dissolved their Order (1561); they placed Livonia proper under Lithuanian protection and gave Courland to Poland, Estonia to Sweden, and Oesel to Denmark.

Ivan was then obliged to wage war against Sweden and Lithuania to retain his conquests in Livonia. Initially successful, the Russians captured Polotsk, in Lithuanian Belorussia (1563), and occupied Lithuanian territory up to Vilna. In 1566 the Russian zemsky sobor (“assembly of the land”) refused a Lithuanian peace proposal. But as the war progressed, Russia's position deteriorated; during the 1560s Russia experienced severe internal social and economic disruptions while Lithuania became stronger, forming a political union with Poland (1569) and acquiring a new king, Stephen Báthory (1576).

Báthory launched a series of campaigns against Russia, recapturing Polotsk (1579) and laying siege to Pskov. In 1582 Russia and Lithuania agreed upon a peace settlement (Peace of Yam Zapolsky), whereby Russia returned all the Lithuanian territory it had captured and renounced its claims to Livonia. In 1583 Russia also made peace with Sweden, surrendering several Russian towns along the Gulf of Finland (its only access to the Baltic Sea) and giving up its claims to Estonia.

History

The early period

Origins and foundation

Kiev has a long, rich, and often stormy history. Its beginnings are lost in antiquity. Archaeological findings of stone and bone implements, the remains of primitive dwellings built of wood and skins, and large accumulations of mammoths' bones indicate that the first settlements in the vicinity date from the Upper Paleolithic Period (some 15,000 to 40,000 years ago). As early as 3000 BC in the Neolithic Period and subsequently at the time of the Cucuteni-Trypillya culture (Trypillya culture) at the end of the Neolithic, tribes engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry lived on the site of modern Kiev. Excavations continue to uncover many artifacts from settlements dating from the Copper, Bronze, and Iron ages. The tribes of the area traded with the nomadic peoples of the steppes to the south, Scythians, Sarmatians, and later Khazars, and also with the ancient Greek colonies that were located on the Black Sea coast.

According to the 12th-century chronicle Povest vremennykh let (“Tale of Bygone Years,” also known as the The Russian Primary Chronicle (Russian Primary Chronicle, The)), Kiev was founded by three brothers, Kiy, Shchek, and Khoriv, leaders of the Polyane tribe of the East Slavs (Slav). Each established his own settlement on a hill, and these became the town of Kiev, named for the eldest brother, Kiy; a small stream nearby was named for their sister Lybed. Although the chronicle account is legendary, there are contemporary references to Kiev in the writings of Byzantine, German, and Arab historians and geographers. Archaeological evidence suggests that Kiev was founded in the 6th or 7th century AD.

The first Rus capital

Less legendary is the chronicle account of the Varangians (Viking), who seized Kiev in the mid-9th century. As in Novgorod to the north, a Slavo-Varangian ruling elite developed. Kiev, with its good defensive site on the high river bluffs and as the centre of a rich agricultural area and a group of early Slavic towns, began to gain importance. About 882 Oleg (Oleh), the ruler of Novgorod, captured Kiev and made it his capital, the centre of the first East Slavic state, Kievan Rus. The town flourished, chiefly through trade along the Dnieper going south to Byzantium and north over portages to the rivers flowing to the Baltic, the so-called “road from the Varangians to the Greeks,” or “water road.” Trade also went to the Caspian Sea and Central Asia.

In 988 the introduction of Christianity to Kiev enhanced its significance as the spiritual centre of Rus. By the 12th century, according to the chronicles, the city's wealth and religious importance was attested to by its more than 400 churches. The Cathedral of St. Sophia, parts of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Caves), and the ruins of the Golden Gate remain today as witnesses to Kiev at the height of its splendour. The town was famed for its art, the mosaics and frescoes of its churches, its craftsmanship in silver, and the quality of many of its manufactures. One of Europe's major cities, Kiev established diplomatic relations with Byzantium, England, France, Sweden, and other countries. Travelers wrote of its population as numbering tens of thousands.

Throughout the period of Kievan Rus, however, the city was engaged in a succession of wars against the nomadic warrior peoples who inhabited the steppes to the south, in turn the Khazars (Khazar), Pechenegs, and Polovtsy (Kipchaks (Kipchak)). These conflicts weakened the city, but even greater harm was done by the endless, complex internecine struggles of the princedoms into which Rus was divided. In 1169 Prince Andrew Bogolyubsky (Andrew I) of Rostov-Suzdal captured and sacked Kiev. Thus by the late 12th century the power of the city had declined, and in the following century it was unable to resist the rising and formidable power of the Mongols (Golden Horde). In 1238 a Mongol army under Batu, grandson of Genghis Khan, invaded Rus and, having sacked the towns of central Rus, in 1240 besieged and stormed Kiev. Much of the city was destroyed and most of its population killed. The Franciscan friar and traveler Giovanni Da Pian Del Carpini six years later reported only 200 houses surviving in Kiev.

Kiev under Lithuania and Poland

In the 14th century what was left of Kiev and its surrounding area came under the control of the powerful and expanding grand duchy of Lithuania (Lithuania, grand duchy of), which captured it in 1362. For a long time thereafter Kiev had little function except as a fortress and minor market on the vaguely defined frontier between Lithuania and the steppe Tatars (Tatar), based in the Crimea. It frequently came under attack from the Tatars; in 1482 the Crimean khan, Mengli Giray, took and sacked the town. Almost the only survival of Kiev's former greatness was its role as the seat of an Orthodox metropolitan. A step forward came in 1516, when the grand duke Sigismund I granted Kiev a charter of autonomy, thereby much stimulating trade.

In 1569 the Union of Lublin (Lublin, Union of) between Lithuania and Poland gave Kiev and the Ukrainian lands to Poland. Kiev became one of the centres of Orthodox (Eastern Orthodoxy) opposition to the expansion of Polish Roman Catholic influence, spearheaded by vigorous proselytization by the Jesuits. In the 17th century a religious Ukrainian brotherhood was established in Kiev, as in other Ukrainian towns, to further this opposition and encourage Ukrainian nationalism. Peter Mogila (Mogila, Peter) (Petro Mohyla), a major theologian and metropolitan of Kiev from 1633 to 1646, founded there the Collegium (later the Academy of Kiev), which became a major focus of the struggle with Roman Catholicism.

In the 17th century there was also increasing unrest among the Zaporozhian Cossacks of the Dnieper downstream of Kiev and an ever-growing struggle between them and the Polish crown. This eventually culminated in the revolt of Bohdan Khmelnytsky (Khmelnytsky, Bohdan), who, assisted by the Crimean Tatars, entered Kiev with his insurgent Cossacks in 1648. He came under heavy pressure from the Polish forces, and in 1654 Khmelnytsky and the Cossacks signed the Pereyaslav Agreement, in essence submitting Ukraine to Moscow (Moscow, Grand Principality of); this was followed by a prolonged and confused period of strife and destruction leading in 1667 to the Treaty of Andrusovo (Andrusovo, Truce of), by which Kiev and the Dnieper left-bank part of Ukraine became an autonomous Cossack state under the suzerainty and protection of Moscow. Thereafter further struggle ensued against the Turks, with the Cossacks constantly changing sides and engaging in internecine disputes. In 1686 Kiev was finally yielded to Muscovy by Poland and stood as the sole Muscovite outpost on the right bank of the Dnieper.

Trypillya culture

▪ anthropology

also called Cucuteni-Trypillya, Trypillya also spelled Trypillia, or Tripillya, Russian Tripolye

Neolithic European culture that arose in Ukraine between the Seret and Bug rivers, with extensions south into modern-day Romania and Moldova and east to the Dnieper River, in the 5th millennium BC. The culture's characteristic pottery was red or orange and was decorated with curvilinear designs painted or grooved on the surface. Its makers occupied villages of long, rectangular houses that were sometimes arranged in concentric circles. In the centre, cattle were fenced in an enclosure. The Trypillya people practiced shifting agriculture, frequently moving their settlements.

Slav

▪ people

member of the most numerous ethnic and linguistic body of peoples in Europe, residing chiefly in eastern and southeastern Europe but extending also across northern Asia to the Pacific Ocean. Slavic languages belong to the Indo-European family. Customarily Slavs are subdivided into east Slavs (chiefly Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians), west Slavs (chiefly Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, and Wends, or Sorbs), and south Slavs (chiefly Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, and Macedonians). Bulgarians, though of mixed origin like the Hungarians, speak a Slavic language and are often designated as south Slavs. (See Bulgar.)

In religion, the Slavs traditionally divided into two main groups: those associated with the Eastern Orthodox church (Russians, most Ukrainians, some Belarusians, Serbs, and Macedonians) and those associated with the Roman Catholic church (Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Croats, Slovenes, some Ukrainians, and most Belarusians). The division is further marked by the use of the Cyrillic alphabet by the former (but including all Ukrainians and Belarusians) and the Latin alphabet by the latter. There are also many minority religious groups, such as Muslims, Protestants, and Jews; and in recent times Communist governments' official encouragement of atheism, together with a general trend toward secularism, has eroded membership in the traditional faiths.

Prehistorically, the original habitat of the Slavs was Asia, from which they migrated in the 3rd or 2nd millennium BC to populate parts of eastern Europe. Subsequently, these European lands of the Slavs were crossed or settled by many peoples forced by economic conditions to migrate. In the middle of the 1st millennium BC, Celtic tribes settled along the upper Oder River, and Germanic tribes settled on the lower Vistula and lower Oder rivers, usually without displacing the Slavs there. Finally, the movement westward of the Germans in the 5th and 6th centuries AD started the great migration of the Slavs, who proceeded in the Germans' wake westward into the country between the Oder and the Elbe-Saale line, southward into Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, and the Balkans, and northward along the upper Dnieper River. When the migratory movements had ended, there appeared among the Slavs the first rudiments of state organizations, each headed by a prince with a treasury and defense force, and the beginning of class differentiation.

In the centuries that followed, there developed scarcely any unity among the various Slavic peoples. The cultural and political life of the west Slavs was integrated into the general European pattern. They were influenced largely by philosophical, political, and economic changes in the West, such as feudalism, Humanism, the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the French and Industrial revolutions. As their lands were invaded by Mongols and Turks, however, the Russians and Balkan Slavs remained for centuries without any close contact with the European community; they evolved a system of bureaucratic autocracy and militarism that tended to retard the development of urban middle classes and to prolong the conditions of serfdom. The state's supremacy over the individual tended to become more firmly rooted.

A faint kind of Slavic unity sometimes appeared. In the 19th century, Pan-Slavism developed as a movement among intellectuals, scholars, and poets, but it rarely influenced practical politics. The various Slavic nationalities conducted their policies in accordance with what they regarded as their national interests, and these policies were as often bitterly hostile toward other Slavic peoples as they were friendly toward non-Slavs. Even political unions of the 20th century, such as that of Yugoslavia, were not always matched by feelings of ethnic or cultural accord; nor did the sharing of communism after World War II necessarily provide more than a high-level political and economic alliance.

Pechenegs

▪ people

Byzantine Patzinakoi , Latin Bisseni , Hungarian Besenyo

a seminomadic, apparently Turkic people who occupied the steppes north of the Black Sea (8th–12th century) and by the 10th century were in control of the lands between the Don and lower Danube rivers (after having driven the Hungarians out); they thus became a serious menace to Byzantium. Pastoralists, traders, and mounted warriors originally inhabiting the area between the Volga and Yaik (Ural) rivers, the Pechenegs were attacked by the Khazars and the Oghuz (c. 889). They moved westward (especially as the Khazar state declined and could no longer impede the migration) at Byzantine instigation, driving the Hungarians into the Carpathian Basin and attacking Russian territory.

Kept at bay by the Russians—whose Prince Sriatoslav they killed in battle (972)—and the Hungarians, the Pechenegs repeatedly invaded Thrace (10th century); they increased the frequency and intensity of their raids (11th century) after Byzantium conquered Bulgaria (1018) and thereby became an immediate neighbour of the Pechenegs. In 1090–91 the Pechenegs advanced to the gates of Constantinople (now Istanbul), where Emperor Alexius I with the aid of the Kumans annihilated their army, and another Byzantine victory in 1122 effectively destroyed Pecheneg power. Important Pecheneg settlements were later established in Hungary, probably after their defeat by Byzantium. A key source on Pecheneg history is the De administrando imperii

Vladimir

▪ Russia

city and administrative centre of Vladimir oblast (province), western Russia, situated on the Klyazma River. Vladimir was founded in 1108 by Vladimir II Monomakh, grand prince of Kiev. The community became the centre of a princedom, deriving importance from trade along the Klyazma. In 1157 Prince Andrew Bogolyubsky moved his capital there from Kiev. The city was twice sacked by the Mongols (1238, 1293); on each occasion it rapidly recovered. In 1300 the Orthodox metropolitan was established there, but in 1326 the church authority and in 1328 temporal authority were transferred to Moscow. Thereafter the city, suffering several further Tatar attacks in the 15th century, became a minor local centre, although in 1796 it was made a seat of provincial government.

Post-revolutionary Vladimir grew chiefly on the basis of its textile, machine-building, and chemical industries. The city possesses some superb examples of early Russian architecture. Especially noteworthy among these are the kremlin; the Cathedral of the Assumption, originally built in 1158; the triumphal Golden Gate of 1158, restored under Catherine II the Great; and the Cathedral of St. Dmitry (1197, restored 1835). Pop. (1991 est.) 355,600.

▪ oblast, Russia

oblast (province), western Russia. It is centred on Vladimir city and lies east of Moscow in the basin of the Oka River. The greater part is a low plain, with extensive swamps in the south. The oblast has spruce, pine, and oak, but much of the forest has been cleared. Industries produce textiles, engineering goods, timber goods, and glassware. Agriculture is concentrated chiefly in the northwest, where there is considerable market gardening. Much swampland has been reclaimed. Area 11,200 square miles (29,000 square km). Pop. (1991 est.) 1,659,800.

Rostov

▪ Russia

formerly (12th–17th century) Rostov Veliky

(“Rostov the Great”), city, Yaroslavl oblast (province), northwestern Russia. It lies along Lake Nero and the Moscow-Yaroslavl railway.

First mentioned in the chronicles in 862, Rostov was an outstanding centre of early medieval Russia. In 1207 Rostov became the capital of a princedom, which remained under Tatar rule in the 14th and 15th centuries. In 1474 it came into the possession of Moscow under Dmitry Donskoy. At the end of the 16th century, Rostov grew in importance as a trade centre on the route between Moscow and the White Sea. Surviving buildings in the city include the kremlin, the Cathedral of the Assumption (1230), the 15th-century Terem Palace, and the 17th-century White Palace (Belaya Palata). Modern Rostov maintains a traditional handicraft of enamel on metal. Pop. (1991 est.) 36,400.

Ivan I

▪ Russian prince

in full Ivan Danilovich, byname Ivan Moneybag, Russian Ivan Kalita

born 1304?

died March 31, 1340, Moscow

grand prince of Moscow (1328–40) and grand prince of Vladimir (1331–40) whose policies increased Moscow's power and made it the richest principality in northeastern Russia.

The son of Prince Daniel of Moscow, Ivan succeeded his brother Yury as prince (1325) and then as grand prince (1328) of Moscow. Determined to persuade the Khan of the Golden Horde, the overlord of all the Russian princes, to make him grand prince of Vladimir, he cooperated with the Khan in an expedition against his chief rival, Grand Prince Alexander of Tver, whose subjects had revolted against the Khanate (1327). Despite his efforts, when Alexander was deposed as grand prince, Ivan was not chosen to replace him until 1331; and he was never given authority over the major principalities of Tver, Suzdal, and Ryazan.

Nevertheless, Ivan maintained cordial relations with the Khan; and, while collecting tribute for the Tatars throughout his domain, he acquired a reputation for thrift and financial shrewdness that earned him the nickname Kalita (“Moneybag”). Preferring to expand his realm by purchasing territory rather than conquering it, Ivan enlarged Moscow; he also increased its influence over the neighbouring principalities, and, by forming a close alliance with the metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church, whose seat was transferred to Moscow in 1326, he made Moscow the spiritual centre of the Russian lands.

Suzdal

▪ historical principality, Russia

in full Suzdal Principality, Russian in full Suzdalskoye Knyazhestvo,

medieval principality that occupied the area between the Oka River and the Upper Volga in northeastern Russia. During the 12th to 14th centuries, Suzdal was under the rule of a branch of the Rurik dynasty. As one of the successor regions to Kiev, the principality achieved great political and economic importance, first becoming prominent during the reign of Andrey Bogolyubsky (Andrew I) (1157–74), who conquered Kiev (1169) and transferred the title of “grand prince” from that ancient capital first to Suzdal, then to Vladimir, his new capital on the Klyazma River. He and his brother and successor, Vsevolod III (1176–1212), organized a strong monarchical political system and, as rulers of the Grand Principality of Vladimir, became the most powerful of the Russian princes. They encouraged their subordinate princes to develop the principality and to build churches, palaces, and new cities.

But the Suzdal princes came to regard their territories as private, hereditary property, and, contrary to Russian custom, they divided it among their heirs. Suzdal–Vladimir thus disintegrated into small principalities (13th and 14th centuries), which nominally recognized the seniority of the grand prince of Vladimir. After the Tatar invasion (1237–40), they became subject to the Golden Horde. Prince Konstantin Vasilyevich (1332–55) attempted to rebuild the area of Suzdal and Nizhny Novgorod, which the Tatar khan Jani Beg had made into a new grand duchy (c. 1342). His son Dmitry was briefly the grand prince of Vladimir (1359–62). Nevertheless, the title of grand prince soon reverted to the princes of Moscow, and in 1392 Prince Vasily I Dmitriyevich of Moscow annexed the Suzdal–Nizhny Novgorod region.

Vasily I

▪ grand prince of Moscow

in full Vasily Dmitriyevich

born 1371

died February 1425, Moscow

grand prince of Moscow from 1389 to 1425.

While still a youth, Vasily, who was the eldest son of Grand Prince Dmitry Donskoy (ruled Moscow 1359–89), travelled to the Tatar khan Tokhtamysh (1383) to obtain the Khan's patent for his father to rule the Russian lands as the grand prince of Vladimir. Diplomatically overcoming the challenge of the prince of Tver, who also sought the patent, Vasily succeeded in his mission. But he was subsequently kept at Tokhtamysh's court as a hostage until 1386 when, taking advantage of Tokhtamysh's conflict with his suzerain Timur Lenk (Tamerlane), he escaped and returned to Moscow.

Despite the hostility caused by his flight, in 1388 Vasily led a Muscovite military contingent in Tokhtamysh's campaign against Timur Lenk in Central Asia; and after returning home he received Tokhtamysh's patent and succeeded his father as grand prince of Moscow and Vladimir (1389). Embarking on a program of aggrandizement for Moscow, Vasily (with permission from Tokhtamysh) annexed the principalities of Nizhny Novgorod and Murom, thereby increasing Moscow's control over the central Volga region. His efforts to expand westward, however, brought him into conflict with both Lithuania (with which he had maintained cordial relations, particularly after marrying the Grand Duke's daughter Sophia in 1390) and Novgorod. Although he temporarily settled the Muscovite–Lithuanian territorial disputes by placing the border between the two states along the Ugra River, his clashes with Novgorod continued intermittently from 1397 to 1417.

Vasily also remained involved in Tatar politics. In 1395 he raised an army to fight Timur Lenk, who had invaded the Russian lands after defeating Tokhtamysh. Timur Lenk retreated before engaging Vasily in battle, and during the next decade the Muscovite Grand Prince was able to make his state effectively independent of Tatar dominance. In 1408, however, Edigü, who had replaced Tokhtamysh and reorganized the Tatar khanate, laid siege to Moscow and compelled Vasily to resume his tribute payments to the Khan and again recognize Tatar suzerainty.

Vasily II

▪ grand prince of Moscow

in full Vasily Vasilyevich , byname Vasily the Blind , Russian Vasily Tyomny

born 1415

died March 27, 1462, Moscow

grand prince of Moscow from 1425 to 1462.

Although the 10-year-old Vasily II was named by his father Vasily I (ruled Moscow 1389–1425) to succeed him as the grand prince of Moscow and of Vladimir, Vasily's rule was challenged by his uncle Yury and his cousins Vasily the Squint-Eyed and Dmitry Shemyaka. After a long, chaotic, and bitter struggle, during which Vasily not only temporarily lost his throne both to Yury (1434) and to Dmitry Shemyaka (1446–47) but was also blinded by Dmitry (1446), Vasily recovered his position (1447) and ruled Muscovy for another 15 years.

Despite the prolonged internal discord, which finally ended in 1452, Muscovy made great strides toward becoming a large, politically consolidated, powerful Russian state during Vasily's reign. The Russian Church asserted its independence from the patriarch at Constantinople; and the state of Muscovy, in an effort to enlarge its territories, absorbed most of the neighbouring principalities. It gained suzerainty over the Grand Principality of Ryazan (1447) and the city of Vyatka (1460; now Kirov). To pursue his policy of aggrandizement without foreign interference, Vasily concluded a non-aggression pact with Lithuania in 1449. He could not, however, avoid intermittent conflict with the rival Tatar hordes bordering his lands on the south and east, one of which tried unsuccessfully to storm Moscow in 1451. Nevertheless, he welcomed individual Tatars at his court and, encouraging them to enter his service, established a vassal Tatar horde to defend his state's southeastern frontier (c. 1453). By the end of his reign he had also substantially reduced the domination of the Tatar khan, who formally remained his suzerain, over Muscovy.

Tver

▪ Russia

formerly (1931–90) Kalinin,

city and administrative centre of Tver oblast (province), western Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the upper Volga and Tvertsa rivers.

The first mention of Tver dates from 1134–35, when it was subject to Novgorod. It became part of the Principality of Vladimir-Suzdal in 1209, and in 1246 it became the capital of the Principality of Tver. In 1327, with its kremlin large and well fortified, Tver organized an uprising against the Tatars but was defeated. The Principality of Tver was annexed by Moscow in 1485. In the 14th and 15th centuries Tver was well known as an important crafts centre. With the construction of the Vyshny Volochok canal system between the Tvertsa and the Msta rivers in 1703–08, river trade through Tver became important. Although this route is no longer used, Tver remains the major river port of the upper Volga and is linked by the Moscow Canal to the national capital. The city was laid out in a gridiron pattern in the 18th century, and a number of historic buildings survive.

Tver is now the centre of a major flax-growing region and is also an industrial centre, with emphasis on textile manufacturing and other light industries and on the manufacture of railroad rolling stock. It was renamed Kalinin in 1931 after Mikhail Kalinin (1875–1946), a revolutionary and ceremonial head of state of the Soviet Union, but it reverted to its old name in 1990. The city was severely damaged during World War II when it was captured and occupied by the Germans in 1941. Its buildings were subsequently restored. Pop. (1989 prelim.) 451,000.

▪ historical principality, Russia

in full Principality Of Tver, Russian Tver, or Tverskoye Knyazhestvo,

medieval principality located in the region northwest of Moscow and centring on the city of Tver and including the towns of Kashin, Mikulin, Kholm, Dorogobuzh, and Staritsa. Descendants of Prince Yaroslav Yaroslavich (brother of Alexander Nevsky and son of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich) founded the principality in 1246. Under their rule Tver rivaled Moscow for supremacy in northeastern Russia during the 14th and 15th centuries. In 1305 Yaroslav's son Michael I was made grand prince of Vladimir (i.e., chief among the Russian princes). Yury of Moscow, however, gained the support of Öz Beg (Uzbek), khan (1313–41) of the Golden Horde, and in 1317 replaced Michael as grand prince. Michael refused to accept his loss and defeated the military force sent by Öz Beg and Yury to dethrone him. He was killed by Öz Beg in 1318.

In 1322 the patent conferring the title was again bestowed on a Tver prince, Dmitry Mikhaylovich. But he was executed (1326) by Öz Beg for killing Yury of Moscow. The patent was then passed to his brother Alexander, who held it until the Tver population revolted against Mongol officials (1327). Tver was then plundered by an expedition sent by the Golden Horde; the patent for the grand prince of Vladimir was never again bestowed upon a Tver prince.

Alexander fled to Lithuania, but his brothers, Constantine and Vasily, tried to restore the principality. Although Tver suffered from civil war during Vasily's reign (1346–67), it was strong enough by 1368, under Michael II, son of Alexander, to join Lithuania and challenge Moscow's dominant position. Dmitry Donskoy decisively defeated Michael in 1375 and forced Tver to acknowledge Moscow's suzerainty. Michael and his son Ivan, however, maintained Tver's independence, and under the rule of Boris Aleksandrovich (1425–61) the principality flourished culturally and economically, while maintaining cordial relations with Moscow. Nevertheless, in 1485 Ivan III of Moscow annexed the Principality of Tver, whose last prince, Michael III Borisovich (1461–85), unsuccessfully allied himself with King Casimir IV of Poland and was forced to flee.

Vasily III

▪ grand prince of Moscow

in full Vasily Ivanovich

born 1479

died Dec. 3, 1533, Moscow

grand prince of Moscow from 1505 to 1533. Succeeding his father, Ivan III (ruled Moscow 1462–1505), Vasily completed his father's policy of consolidating the numerous independent Russian principalities into a united Muscovite state by annexing Pskov (1510), Ryazan (1517), and Starodub and Novgorod-Seversk (now Novgorod-Seversky) by 1523. He also strengthened his growing state by capturing Smolensk from Lithuania in 1514. His forces were defeated by the Lithuanians at Orsha (1514), however, and Muscovy also suffered devastating raids by Tatars of both the Crimea and Kazan. Nevertheless, Vasily was loyally supported by the metropolitan Daniel, who intrigued in his favour and sanctioned his canonically unjustifiable divorce from his barren first wife (1525). Vasily overcame the opposition of those boyars who objected to his autocratic tendencies and transmitted an enlarged, powerful, centralized state to his son Ivan IV the Terrible.

▪ tsar of Russia

Introduction

Russian in full Ivan Vasilyevich, byname Ivan the Terrible, Russian Ivan Grozny

born August 25, 1530, Kolomenskoye, near Moscow [Russia]

died March 18, 1584, Moscow

grand prince of Moscow (1533–84) and the first to be proclaimed tsar of Russia (from 1547). His reign saw the completion of the construction of a centrally administered Russian state and the creation of an empire that included non-Slav states. Ivan engaged in prolonged and largely unsuccessful wars against Sweden and Poland, and, in seeking to impose military discipline and a centralized administration, he instituted a reign of terror against the hereditary nobility.

Early life

Ivan was the son of Grand Prince Vasily III of Moscow and his second wife, Yelena Glinskaya. He was to become the penultimate representative of the Rurik dynasty. On Dec. 4, 1533, immediately after his father's death, the three-year-old Ivan was proclaimed grand prince of Moscow. His mother ruled in Ivan's name until her death (allegedly by poison) in 1538. The deaths of both of Ivan's parents served to reanimate the struggles of various factions of nobles for control of the person of the young prince and for power. The years 1538–47 were thus a period of murderous strife among the clans of the warrior caste commonly termed “boyars.” (boyar) Their continual struggles for the reins of government to the detriment of the realm made a profound impression on Ivan and imbued him with a lifelong dislike of the boyars.

Early reforms

On Jan. 16, 1547, Ivan was crowned “tsar and grand prince of all Russia.” The title tsar was derived from the Latin title “caesar” and was translated by Ivan's contemporaries as “emperor.” In February 1547 Ivan married Anastasiya Romanovna, a great-aunt of the future first tsar of the Romanov dynasty.

Since 1542 Ivan had been greatly influenced by the views of the metropolitan of Moscow, Makari, who encouraged the young tsar in his desire to establish a Christian state based on the principles of justice. Ivan's government soon embarked on a wide program of reforms and of the reorganization of both central and local administration. Church councils summoned in 1547 and 1549 strengthened and systematized the church's affairs, affirming its Orthodoxy and canonizing a large number of Russian saints. In 1549 the first zemski sobor (zemsky sobor) was summoned to meet in an advisory capacity—this was a national assembly composed of boyars, clergy, and some elected representatives of the new service gentry. In 1550 a new, more detailed legal code was drawn up that replaced one dating from 1497. Russia's central administration was also reorganized into departments, each responsible for a specific function of the state. The conditions of military service were improved, the armed forces were reorganized, and the system of command altered so that commanders were appointed on merit rather than simply by virtue of their noble birth. The government also introduced extensive self-government, with district administrators elected by the local gentry.

One object of the reforms was to limit the powers of the hereditary aristocracy of princes and boyars (who held their estates on a hereditary basis) and promote the interests of the service gentry, who held their landed estates solely as compensation for service to the government and who were thus dependent on the tsar. Ivan apparently aimed at forming a class of landed gentry that would owe everything to the sovereign. All the reforms took place under the aegis of the so-called “Chosen Council,” an informal advisory body in which the leading figures were the tsar's favourites Aleksey Adashev and the priest Silvestr. The council's influence waned and then disappeared in the early 1560s, however, after the death of Ivan's first wife and of Makari, by which time Ivan's views and his entourage had changed. Ivan's first wife, Anastasiya, died in 1560, and only two male heirs by her, Ivan (b. 1554) and Fyodor (b. 1557), survived the rigors of medieval childhood.

Russia was at war for the greater part of Ivan's reign. Muscovite rulers had long feared incursions by the Tatars (Tatar), and in 1547–48 and 1549–50 unsuccessful campaigns were undertaken against the hostile khanate of Kazan, on the Volga River. In 1552, after lengthy preparations, the tsar set out for Kazan, and the Russian army then succeeded in taking the town by assault. In 1556 the khanate of Astrakhan, located at the mouth of the Volga, was annexed without a fight. From that moment onward, the Volga became a Russian river, and the trade route to the Caspian Sea was rendered safe.

The Livonian War

With both banks of the Volga now secured, Ivan prepared for a campaign to force an exit to the sea, a traditional concern of landlocked Russia. Ivan felt that trade with Europe depended on free access to the Baltic and decided to turn his attention westward. In 1558 he went to war in an attempt to establish Russian rule over Livonia (in present-day Latvia and Estonia). Russia was at first victorious and succeeded in destroying the Livonian knights, but their ally Lithuania became an integral part of Poland in 1569. The war dragged on; while the Swedes supported Poland against Russia, the Crimean Tatars attacked Astrakhan and even made an extensive incursion into Russia in 1571; they burned Moscow, leaving only the Kremlin standing. When Stephen Báthory of Transylvania became king of Poland in 1575, reorganized Polish armies under his leadership were able to carry the war onto Russian territory while the Swedes recaptured parts of Livonia. Ivan at last asked Pope Gregory XIII to intervene, and through the mediation of his nuncio, Antonio Possevino, an armistice with Poland was concluded on Jan. 15, 1582. Under its terms Russia lost all its gains in Livonia, and an armistice with Sweden in 1583 compelled Russia to give up towns on the Gulf of Finland. The 24-year-long Livonian War had proved fruitless for Russia, which was exhausted by the long struggle.

The oprichnina

Ivan's first executions apparently arose out of his disappointment over the course of the Livonian War and the suspected treason of several Russian boyars. The defection of one of Ivan's outstanding field commanders, Prince Andrey Kurbsky (Kurbsky, Andrey Mikhaylovich, Prince), to Poland in 1564 greatly startled the tsar, who announced later that year his intention of abdicating in view of the boyars' betrayal. The Muscovites, however, led by the clergy, implored him to continue to rule, and in 1565 he acceded to their request on condition that he should be allowed to deal with the traitors as he wished and that he should form an oprichnina—i.e., an aggregate of territory that would be administered separately from the rest of the state and put under his immediate control as crown land. A bodyguard of 1,000–6,000 men, known as the oprichniki, was raised; and specified towns and districts all over Russia were included in the oprichnina, their revenues being assigned to the maintenance of the tsar's new court and household, which consisted of a number of carefully selected boyars and service gentry. Ivan lived exclusively in this entourage and withdrew from the day-to-day management of Russia's administrative apparatus (now called the zemschina, or “the land”), which he left in the hands of leading boyars and bureaucrats. Ivan cut himself off from almost all communication with them, while the oprichniki trampled with impunity on everyone beyond Ivan's immediate circle.

Since nearly all the documents relating to this epoch were destroyed in one of Moscow's periodic fires, historians tend to give differing explanations for Ivan's actions during this part of his reign. The majority tend to the view that the struggle was between the tsar and the old hereditary nobility, which, jealous of surrendering its power and privileges, had resisted his internal reforms and military projects. The oprichnina thus may have been Ivan's attempt to create a highly centralized state and destroy the economic strength and political power of the princes and the high nobility. The increasingly resentful boyars had indeed opposed Ivan and plotted against him on occasion, but the reign of terror that Ivan initiated by the oprichnina proved far more dangerous to the stability of the country than the danger that it was designed to suppress. In 1570, for example, Ivan personally led his oprichniki troops against Novgorod, destroying that city and executing several thousand of its inhabitants. Many boyars and other members of the gentry perished during this period, some being publicly executed with calculated and symbolic cruelty. Ivan later sent to various monasteries memorials (sinodiki) of more than 3,000 of his victims, most of whom were executed in the course of the oprichnina.

The oprichnina lasted only seven years, from 1565 to 1572, when it was abolished as a result of the failure of the oprichnina regiments to defend Moscow from attack by the Crimean Tatars. The oprichnina army was reintegrated with that of the zemschina, and some of the estates confiscated by Ivan's followers were returned to their owners. The entire episode of the oprichnina leaves a bloody imprint on Ivan's reign, causing some doubts about his mental stability and leaving historians with the impression of a morbidly suspicious and vindictive ruler.

Later years

Withdrawal and flight are themes that run through the later years of Ivan's reign. He expressed an interest in establishing diplomatic and trade relations with England, even suggesting his readiness to marry an English noblewoman. In 1575 he seems to have abdicated for about a year in favour of a Tatar prince, Simeon Bekbulatovich. During the 1570s he married five wives in succession in only nine years. Finally, in a fit of rage, he murdered his only viable heir, Ivan, in 1581. This murder set the clock ticking for the political crisis, known as the Time of Troubles (Troubles, Time of), that began with the extinction of the Rurik dynasty upon the infirm Fyodor's death in 1598.

Assessment

Ivan's achievements were many. In foreign policy all his actions were directed toward forcing Russia into Europe—a line that Peter I the Great was to continue. Internally, Ivan's reign of terror eventually resulted in the weakening of all levels of the aristocracy, including the service gentry he had sponsored. The prolonged and unsuccessful Livonian War overextended the state's resources and helped bring Russia to the verge of economic collapse. These factors, together with Tatar incursions, resulted in the depopulation of a number of Russian provinces by the time of Ivan's death in 1584. Nevertheless, he left his realm far more centralized both administratively and culturally than it had been previously.

Ivan also encouraged Russia's cultural development, especially through printing. He himself wrote well, and, though his surviving writings are mainly of a political nature, his command of words and his biting sarcasm are very evident. Ivan was a devout adherent of the Orthodox church. His arguments on religious questions are striking in their power and conviction, but he placed the most emphasis on defending the divine right of the ruler to unlimited power under God—a view with which most other monarchs of the time would have been in agreement.

Nikolay Andreyev Ed.

Additional Reading

Biographies of Ivan include S.F. Platonov, Ivan the Terrible (1974, reissued 1986); Robert Payne and Nikita Romanoff, Ivan the Terrible (1975); Ruslan G. Skrynnikov, Ivan the Terrible (1981), interesting for its official Soviet interpretation of his place in history; and Benson Bobrick, Fearful Majesty: The Life and Reign of Ivan the Terrible (1987).

tsar

▪ Russian ruler

also spelled tzar , or czar , English feminine tsarina, tzarina , or czarina

title associated primarily with rulers of Russia. The term tsar, a form of the ancient Roman imperial title caesar, generated a series of derivatives in Russian: tsaritsa, a tsar's wife, or tsarina; tsarevich, his son; tsarevna, his daughter; and tsesarevich, his eldest son and heir apparent (a 19th-century term).

In medieval Russia the title tsar referred to a supreme ruler, particularly the Byzantine emperor, who was considered the head of the Orthodox Christian world. But the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 and the Ottoman Turks' conquest of the Balkans left the grand princes of Moscow as the only remaining Orthodox monarchs in the world, and the Russian Orthodox clergy naturally began to look to them as the defenders and possible supreme heads of Orthodox Christianity. Claims were put forth that Moscow would become the “third Rome” in succession to Constantinople (now Istanbul) and Rome itself. In 1472 Ivan III, grand prince of Moscow, married Sofia (Zoë) Palaeologus, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor. Sofia brought with her the traditions of the Byzantine court and its concept of the exalted nature of monarchical power.

In 1547 Ivan IV the Terrible, grand prince of Moscow, was officially crowned “tsar of all Russia,” and thus the religious and political ideology of the Russian tsardom took final form. As tsar, Ivan IV theoretically held absolute power, but in practice he and his successors were limited by the traditional authority of the Orthodox church, the Boyar Council, and the legal codes of 1497, 1550, and 1649.

In 1721 Tsar Peter I discarded the title of tsar for that of “emperor of all Russia” as part of his effort to secularize and modernize his regime and assert the state's primacy over the church. “Emperor” remained the official title for subsequent Russian rulers, but they continued to be known as “tsars” in popular usage until the imperial regime was overthrown by the Russian Revolution of 1917. The last Russian tsar, Nicholas II, was executed by the Soviet government in 1918. The early Bulgarian emperors (10th to 14th century AD) and the 20th-century kings of Bulgaria (from 1908 to 1946) also called themselves tsars.

Kazan

▪ Russia

capital city, Tatarstan republic, western Russia. It lies just north of the Samara Reservoir on the Volga River, where it is joined by the Kazanka River. The city stretches for about 15 miles (25 km) along hills, which are much dissected by ravines.

Ancient Kazan (Iske Kazan) was founded in the late 13th century by the Mongols (Tatars) of the Golden Horde after their overthrow of the Bulgar kingdom on the middle Volga. It was located about 28 miles (45 km) upstream on the Kazanka and was transferred to the mouth of the river at the end of the 14th century. After the disintegration of the Golden Horde in the 15th century, Kazan became the capital of an independent khanate. It developed as an important trading centre; annual fairs were held on an island in the Volga. In 1469 Ivan III captured Kazan, but his puppet khan organized a massacre of all Russians in the town in 1504. Finally in 1552 Ivan IV the Terrible captured Kazan after a long siege and subjugated the khanate. The old Tatar fortress was rebuilt as a Russian kremlin, the white walls and towers of which survive as a feature of the modern skyline. Kazan was seized in a revolt of 1773–74, and much of the city was burned to the ground; Catherine II the Great rebuilt it on a gridiron pattern. The Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul dates from the 18th century.

As Siberia was opened up, Kazan's trading importance greatly increased, and industry developed in the 18th century; by 1900 it was one of the chief manufacturing cities of Russia. In its wide range of industries, some long-established ones still flourish on a large scale: soapmaking, leatherworking, shoemaking, and fur preparation. New industries include oil refining, electrical and precision engineering, and chemical production. Linen and foodstuffs are also produced. In 1920 Kazan became the capital of the Tatar A.S.S.R. (now Tatarstan, Russia).

Kazan is a major cultural and educational centre. Kazan State University was founded in 1804. The mathematician N.I. Lobachevsky was its rector in 1827–46, and among those who studied there were Leo Tolstoy (Tolstoy, Leo), the composer M.A. Balakirev, and Vladimir I. Lenin (Lenin, Vladimir Ilich). There is also a branch of the Academy of Sciences, a conservatory, and other institutions of higher education. Kazan has a theatre of Tatar opera and ballet, a philharmonic society, and a noted Tatar museum. Pop. (2006 est.) 1,112,673.

oprichnina

▪ Russian history

private court or household created by Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible (1565) that administered those Russian lands (also known as oprichnina) that had been separated from the rest of Muscovy and placed under the tsar's direct control. The term also refers generally to the economic and administrative policy that divided the Russian lands into two parts and established the new court.

The oprichnina land area was located in northern and central Muscovy and was created by the forcible removal of boyars (boyar) (upper nobility) from their estates; the boyars were either executed or relocated on land that continued to be ruled in the traditional manner.

The term oprichnina also refers to this reign of terror, which was conducted by the oprichniki, members of the tsar's new court, who were primarily drawn from the lower gentry and foreign population. The terror culminated with the proscription of the entire population of Novgorod and the sack of that northern city, which opposed Muscovite dominance (1570). The policy reduced the boyars' political power, disrupted the Russian economy, and contributed to the centralization of the Muscovite state. After 1572, when the oprichniki were disbanded, the term dvor (court) replaced oprichnina.

Livonian War

▪ Russian history

(1558–83), prolonged military conflict, during which Russia unsuccessfully fought Poland, Lithuania, and Sweden for control of greater Livonia—the area including Estonia, Livonia, Courland, and the island of Oesel—which was ruled by the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Knights (Order of the Brothers of the Sword (Brothers of the Sword, Order of the)).

In 1558 Ivan IV of Russia invaded Livonia, hoping to gain access to the Baltic Sea and to take advantage of the weakness of the Livonian Knights; he seized Narva and Dorpat and besieged Reval. The Knights, unable to withstand the Russian attack, dissolved their Order (1561); they placed Livonia proper under Lithuanian protection and gave Courland to Poland, Estonia to Sweden, and Oesel to Denmark.

Ivan was then obliged to wage war against Sweden and Lithuania to retain his conquests in Livonia. Initially successful, the Russians captured Polotsk, in Lithuanian Belorussia (1563), and occupied Lithuanian territory up to Vilna. In 1566 the Russian zemsky sobor (“assembly of the land”) refused a Lithuanian peace proposal. But as the war progressed, Russia's position deteriorated; during the 1560s Russia experienced severe internal social and economic disruptions while Lithuania became stronger, forming a political union with Poland (1569) and acquiring a new king, Stephen Báthory (1576).

Báthory launched a series of campaigns against Russia, recapturing Polotsk (1579) and laying siege to Pskov. In 1582 Russia and Lithuania agreed upon a peace settlement (Peace of Yam Zapolsky), whereby Russia returned all the Lithuanian territory it had captured and renounced its claims to Livonia. In 1583 Russia also made peace with Sweden, surrendering several Russian towns along the Gulf of Finland (its only access to the Baltic Sea) and giving up its claims to Estonia.

zemsky sobor

▪ Russian assembly

(“assembly of the land”), in 16th- and 17th-century Russia, an advisory assembly convened by the tsar or the highest civil authority in power whenever necessary. It was generally composed of representatives from the ecclesiastical and monastic authorities, the boyar council, the landowning classes, and the urban freemen; elections for representatives and the sessions of each group were held separately.

Zemskie sobory were first called by Ivan IV the Terrible, and the assemblies met often during his reign; the most important one (1566) considered the Livonian War against Poland. After a zemsky sobor confirmed the accession of Fyodor I in 1584, none was called until the assembly that elected Boris Godunov tsar in 1598. During the Time of Troubles (1598–1613), the assemblies were again convened frequently and were highly influential; the zemsky sobor that assembled in 1613 elected Michael Romanov tsar. Several others subsequently assisted with internal reforms, but after 1622 the zemsky sobor declined in importance; the last one was convened in 1653.

In the 19th century the Slavophiles (Slavophile) revived the concept of the zemsky sobor, considering it a reflection of the ideal union between the tsar and the Russian people; a proposal to reestablish the institution resulted in the dismissal of the minister who suggested it, N.P. Ignatiev.

Troubles, Time of

▪ Russian history

Russian Smutnoye Vremya,

period of political crisis in Russia that followed the demise of the Rurik dynasty (1598) and ended with the establishment of the Romanov dynasty (1613). During this period foreign intervention, peasant uprisings, and the attempts of pretenders to seize the throne threatened to destroy the state itself and caused major social and economic disruptions, particularly in the southern and central portions of the state.

The Time of Troubles was preceded by a series of events that contributed to the country's instability. In 1598 Fyodor, the last in the line of the Rurik Dynasty, died; he was succeeded as tsar of Russia by his brother-in-law Boris Godunov. Boris (Godunov, Boris) was faced with problems of famine (1601–03), boyar opposition, and the challenge of a Polish-supported pretender to the throne, the so-called False Dmitry, who claimed to be Dmitry, half brother of the late tsar and legitimate heir to the throne. (The real Dmitry had died in 1591.) Boris was able to maintain his regime, but when he died (April 1605), a mob favouring the False Dmitry killed Boris' son and made “Dmitry” tsar (June 1605).

The boyars, however, soon realized that they could not control the new tsar, and they assassinated him (May 1606), placing the powerful nobleman Vasily Shuysky (Vasily (IV) Shuysky) on the throne. This event marked the beginning of the Time of Troubles. Although Shuysky was supported by the wealthy merchant class and the boyars, his rule was weakened by a series of revolts, the most important of which was a peasant rebellion led by the former serf Ivan Isayevich Bolotnikov in the southern and eastern sections of the country. Shuysky also had to contend with many new pretenders, particularly the Second False Dmitry, who was supported by the Poles, small landholders, and peasants. Claiming to have escaped assassination in 1606 and recognized by the wife of the First False Dmitry as her husband, the new Dmitry established a camp at Tushino (1608) and besieged Moscow for two years. A group of boyars, including the Romanovs, joined him at Tushino, forming a government there that rivaled Shuysky's. While elements of “Dmitry's” army took control of the northern Russian provinces, Shuysky bargained with Sweden (then at war with Poland) for aid. The arrival of Swedish mercenary troops caused “Dmitry” to flee from Tushino. Some of his supporters returned to Moscow; others joined the Polish king Sigismund III (Sigismund III Vasa), who declared war on Muscovy in response to the Swedish intervention and in September 1609 led an army into Russia and defeated Shuysky's forces (June 1610).

Disappointed with Shuysky, the Muscovites deposed him; and the conservative boyars, fearing the rule of “Dmitry,” whose supporters desired radical social changes, agreed (August 1610) to accept the compact already made between Sigismund and the boyars who had been at Tushino, named Władysław (son of the Polish king) tsar-elect, and welcomed Polish troops into Moscow. “Dmitry,” however, was killed by his own allies (December 1610), and Sigismund, changing his mind, demanded direct personal control of Russia and continued the Polish invasion (autumn 1610). This finally stimulated the Russians to rally and unite against the invader. The first resistance, an alliance—instigated by the patriarch Hermogen—between small landholders led by Prokopy Petrovich Lyapunov and some Cossacks, quickly disintegrated. But it was followed in October 1611 by a new movement, composed of landowners, Cossacks, and merchants. Prince Dmitry Mikhaylovich Pozharsky led the army, and the merchant Kuzma Minin handled the finances. The army advanced toward Moscow and, threatened by the approach of Polish reinforcements, attacked and captured the garrison (October 1612). The following year a widely representative zemsky sobor (“assembly of the land”) elected a new tsar, Michael Romanov, establishing the dynasty that ruled Russia for the next three centuries

Godunov, Boris

▪ tsar of Russia

born c. 1551

died April 13 [April 23, New Style], 1605, Moscow, Russia

Russian statesman who was chief adviser to Tsar Fyodor I (reigned 1584–98) and was himself elected tsar of Muscovy (reigning 1598–1605) after the extinction of the Rurik dynasty. His reign inaugurated the devastating Time of Troubles (Troubles, Time of) (1598–1613) in the Russian lands.

A member of the noble Tatar family Saburov-Godunov that had migrated to Muscovy in the 14th century, Boris Godunov began his career of service in the court of Ivan IV the Terrible (reigned 1533–84). After gaining Ivan's favour by marrying the daughter of a close associate of the tsar (1571), Godunov gave his sister Irina to be the bride of the tsarevich Fyodor (1580), was promoted to the rank of boyar (1580), and in 1584 was named by Ivan to be one of the guardians for the dim-witted Fyodor, who shortly afterward ascended the throne. A group of boyars who regarded Godunov as a usurper conspired to undermine his authority, but Godunov banished his opponents and became the virtual ruler of Russia.

Having complete control over Muscovy's foreign affairs, Godunov conducted successful military actions, promoted foreign trade, built numerous defensive towns and fortresses, recolonized Western Siberia, which had been slipping from Moscow's control, and arranged for the head of the Muscovite Church to be raised from the level of metropolitan to patriarch (1589). Domestically, Godunov promoted the interests of the service gentry.

When Fyodor died leaving no heirs (1598), a zemsky sobor (assembly of the land), dominated by the clergy and the service gentry, elected Boris Godunov successor to the throne (Feb. 17, 1598). Tsar Boris, proving himself to be an intelligent and capable ruler, undertook a series of benevolent policies, reforming the judicial system, sending students to be educated in western Europe, allowing Lutheran churches to be built in Russia, and, in order to gain power on the Baltic Sea, entering into negotiations for the acquisition of Livonia.

In an effort to reduce the power of the boyar families that opposed him, however, Boris banished the members of the Romanov family; he also instituted an extensive spy system and ruthlessly persecuted those whom he suspected of treason. These measures, however, only increased the boyars' animosity toward him, and, when his efforts to alleviate the suffering caused by famine (1601–03) and accompanying epidemics proved ineffective, popular dissatisfaction also mounted. Thus, when a pretender claiming to be Prince Dmitry (i.e., Tsar Fyodor's younger half brother who had actually died in 1591) led an army of Cossacks and Polish adventurers into southern Russia (October 1604), he gained substantial support. The Tsar's army impeded the false Dmitry's advance toward Moscow; but with Boris' sudden death, resistance broke down, and the country lapsed into a period of chaos characterized by swift and violent changes of regime, civil wars, foreign intervention, and social disorder (the Time of Troubles) that did not end until after Michael Romanov, son of Fyodor Nikitich Romanov, was elected tsar in 1613.

Vasily (IV) Shuysky

▪ tsar of Russia

original name Vasily Ivanovich, Knyaz (Prince) Shuysky, or Shuisky

born 1552

died Sept. 12, 1612, Gostynin, near Warsaw

boyar who became tsar (1606–10) during Russia's Time of Troubles.

A member of an aristocratic family descended from Rurik, the legendary founder of the dynasty that ruled Russia until 1598, Vasily Shuysky achieved prominence in 1591 when he conducted the investigation of the death of Dmitry Ivanovich, the brother and heir of Tsar Fyodor I (ruled Russia 1584–98) and determined that the nine-year-old child had killed himself with a knife while suffering an epileptic fit. In 1605, however, after Boris Godunov, Fyodor's chief adviser and his brother-in-law, had become tsar and a pretender claiming to be Prince Dmitry had appeared, Shuysky reversed himself and, declaring that Dmitry had escaped death in 1591, supported the pretender's claim to the throne. When Boris died in April 1605, Shuysky instigated a movement to murder Boris' son Fyodor II and swore allegiance to the first False Dmitry.

Shortly after Dmitry had been crowned, Shuysky reversed his position again and, accusing the new tsar of being an impostor, engaged in a plot to overthrow him. After a brief period of banishment, he organized a group of boyars opposed to the pretender, provoked a popular riot, and assassinated Dmitry. On May 29 (May 19, old style), 1606, Shuysky was named tsar of Russia.

Hoping to avoid challenges from future pretenders, Vasily ordered that the remains of Prince Dmitry be brought to Moscow and had the late tsarevich canonized (June 1606). He also proclaimed his intentions to rule justly and in accord with the boyar Duma (an advisory council). Nevertheless, opposition to his regime mounted. Although he succeeded in suppressing a rebellion of Cossacks, peasants, and gentry (October 1607), he was unable to prevent the second False Dmitry, who had gained support from Poles, anti-Shuysky boyars, and many of the defeated rebels, from establishing a court and government at Tushino that rivalled Vasily's (spring 1608). Only with aid obtained from Sweden was Vasily able to restore his control over northern Russia and force the pretender to withdraw from Tushino (January 1610). But Sweden's intervention provoked a Polish declaration of war against Vasily. When Moscow was threatened by a Polish advance, as well as by a renewed offensive of the second False Dmitry, the Muscovites rioted, and an assembly, consisting of both aristocratic and common elements, deposed Vasily (July 1610), who was forced to take monastic vows.

tsar of Russia

Russian in full Mikhail Fyodorovich Romanov

born July 22 [July 12, old style], 1596

died July 23 [July 13, O.S.], 1645, Moscow

tsar of Russia from 1613 to 1645 and founder of the Romanov dynasty, which ruled Russia until 1917.

Son of Fyodor Nikitich Romanov (later the Orthodox patriarch Philaret), Michael was related to the last tsar of the Rurik dynasty, Fyodor I (reigned 1584–98) through his grandfather Nikita Romanov, who was Fyodor's maternal uncle. When the zemsky sobor (assembly of the land) met in 1613 to elect a new tsar after the Time of Troubles—a period of chaotic internal disorders, foreign invasions, and a rapid succession of rulers following the death of Fyodor I—it chose Michael Romanov as tsar (February 1613).

Emissaries came from Moscow to the monastery near Kostroma where Michael was living with his mother—who had been compelled to become a nun during the reign of Boris Godunov (ruled 1598–1605)—and in March he accepted the offer of the throne with great reluctance.

Only 16 years old and poorly educated at the time of his coronation on July 21 (July 11, O.S.), 1613, Michael at first allowed his mother's relatives to gain control of governmental affairs. Although they promoted their personal interests, they also restored order to Russia, suppressed internal uprisings, and made peace both with Sweden (Treaty of Stolbovo, 1617) and with Poland (Truce of Deulino, 1618).

In 1619 Michael's father, who had been forced to become a monk under the name Philaret (Filaret) in 1601 and had later been taken to Poland, was released from captivity. Upon his return to Russia, he was installed as patriarch of the church and Michael's co-ruler. From then until his death in 1633, he dominated Michael's government, which increased diplomatic, commercial, and cultural contact with western Europe, made extensive use of the zemski sobor as a popular consultative body, employed a variety of means to solve Russia's continuing financial dilemmas, reformed the structure of local government to increase the authority of the central administration, and strengthened the institution of serfdom. When his father died, Michael's maternal relatives again played prominent roles in his government until he died and left his throne to his son Alexis.

Philaret

▪ Russian Orthodox theologian

also spelled Filaret, original name Vasily Mikhaylovich Drozdov

born Dec. 26, 1782, [Jan. 6, 1783, New Style], Kolomna, near Moscow, Russia

died Nov. 19 [Dec. 1], 1867, Moscow

Russian Orthodox biblical theologian and metropolitan, or archbishop, of Moscow whose scholarship, oratory, and administrative ability made him the leading Russian churchman of the 19th century.

Upon his graduation from the Trinity Monastery, near Moscow, in 1803, Philaret was appointed as a teacher there and, in 1806, as a monastery preacher. In 1808 he took monastic vows and also was named professor of philosophy and theology, and subsequently rector, at St. Petersburg's Theological Academy. Rising rapidly in his church career, he became a member of the Holy Synod in 1818 after serving with numerous ecclesiastical-reform commissions, was named archbishop of Tver in 1819, and in 1821 was transferred to Moscow. An activist, Philaret quickly established himself as a power in church and state. Considered as charismatic by the Russian Orthodox, he served as the final authority in theological and legal questions, his decisions eventually being published in 1905 with the title “Views and Comments.”

By 1858, having overcome extended opposition, Philaret successfully directed the translation of the Bible into modern Russian. His chief theological work was the “Christian Catechism of the Orthodox Catholic Eastern Greco-Russian Church,” treating the 4th-century Nicene Creed, the theology of prayer, and the Mosaic Law. First published in 1823, Philaret's “Catechism” was subjected to several revisions to expunge its Lutheran influences, but after 1839 it exercised widespread influence on 19th-century Russian theology.

▪ patriarch of Moscow

also spelled Filaret, original name Fyodor Nikitich Romanov

born c. 1554, /55

died Oct. 12 [Oct. 22, New Style], 1633, Moscow, Russia

Russian Orthodox patriarch of Moscow and father of the first Romanov tsar.

During the reign (1584–98) of his cousin, Tsar Fyodor I, Philaret served in the military campaign against the Swedes in 1590 and later (1593–94) conducted diplomatic negotiations with them. After Fyodor's death, Philaret was banished to a monastery by Boris Godunov (reigned 1598–1605). On Godunov's sudden death in 1605 and the subsequent shift of power to the first False Dmitry, Philaret was released and made metropolitan (archbishop) of Rostov. In 1610 he was imprisoned by the Poles while trying to arrange the accession of Prince Władysław of Poland to the Russian throne, but he was freed in 1619 after the election of his son Michael as tsar. Philaret was made patriarch of Moscow that year.

Exercising both ecclesiastical and political rule in Russia, Philaret reformed church administration, instituted a program to establish a divinity college in each diocese, and established libraries to upgrade theological scholarship. In a Moscow synod he decreed that all Latin Christians coming into the Russian Orthodox church must be rebaptized. His ecclesiastical policy strove to minimize the influence of the Roman Catholic church among Russian and Polish bishops. In addition to further developing the Russian liturgical books, Philaret also sponsored social legislation to stabilize the peasant farmers, reformed the tax structure, and reorganized the military.

Russian Orthodox church

largest autocephalous, or ecclesiastically independent, Eastern Orthodox church in the world. Its membership is estimated at more than 85 million.

Christianity was apparently introduced into the East Slavic state of Kievan Rus by Greek missionaries from Byzantium in the 9th century. An organized Christian community is known to have existed at Kiev as early as the first half of the 10th century, and in 957 Olga, the regent of Kiev, was baptized in Constantinople (Istanbul). This act was followed by the acceptance of Christianity as the state religion after the baptism of Olga's grandson Vladimir (Vladimir I), prince of Kiev, in 988. Under Vladimir's successors, and until 1448, the Russian (Russia) church was headed by the metropolitans of Kiev (who after 1328 resided in Moscow) and formed a metropolitanate of the Byzantine patriarchate.

While Russia lay under Mongol (Golden Horde) rule from the 13th through the 15th century, the Russian church enjoyed a favoured position, obtaining immunity from taxation in 1270. This period saw a remarkable growth of monasticism. The Monastery of the Caves (Pechersk Lavra) in Kiev, founded in the mid-11th century by the ascetics St. Anthony (Anthony of Kiev) and St. Theodosius, was superseded as the foremost religious centre by the Trinity–St. Sergius monastery, which was founded in the mid-14th century by St. Sergius of Radonezh (in what is now the city of Sergiyev Posad). Sergius, as well as the metropolitans St. Peter (Peter) (1308–26) and St. Alexius (1354–78), supported the rising power of the principality of Moscow. Finally, in 1448 the Russian bishops elected their own patriarch without recourse to Constantinople, and the Russian church was thenceforth autocephalous (autocephalous church). In 1589 Job, the metropolitan of Moscow, was elevated to the position of patriarch with the approval of Constantinople and received the fifth rank in honour after the patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem.

In the mid-17th century the Russian Orthodox patriarch Nikon came into violent conflict with the Russian tsar Alexis. Nikon, pursuing the ideal of a theocratic state, attempted to establish the primacy of the Orthodox church over the state in Russia, and he also undertook a thorough revision of Russian Orthodox texts and rituals to bring them into accord with the rest of Eastern Orthodoxy. Nikon was deposed in 1666, but the Russian church retained his reforms and anathematized those who continued to oppose them; the latter became known as Old Believers and formed a vigorous body of dissenters within the Russian Orthodox church for the next two centuries.

In 1721 Tsar Peter I (the Great) abolished the patriarchate of Moscow and replaced it with the Holy Governing Synod, which was modeled after the state-controlled synods of the Lutheran church in Sweden and Prussia and was tightly controlled by the state. The chief procurator of the synod, a lay official who obtained ministerial rank in the first half of the 19th century, henceforth exercised effective control over the church's administration until 1917. This control, which was facilitated by the political subservience of most of the higher clergy, was especially marked during the procuratorship (1880–1905) of the archconservative K.P. Pobedonostsev.

In November 1917, following the collapse of the tsarist government, a council of the Russian Orthodox church reestablished the patriarchate and elected the metropolitan Tikhon (Tikhon, Saint) as patriarch. But the new Soviet government soon declared the separation of church and state and nationalized all church-held lands. These administrative measures were followed by brutal state-sanctioned persecutions that included the wholesale destruction of churches and the arrest and execution of many clerics. The Russian Orthodox church was further weakened in 1922, when the Renovated Church, a reform movement supported by the Soviet government, seceded from Patriarch Tikhon's church, restored a Holy Synod to power, and brought division among clergy and faithful.

After Tikhon's death (1925) the government forbade patriarchal elections to be held. In 1927, in order to secure the survival of the church, Metropolitan Sergius formally expressed his “loyalty” to the Soviet government and henceforth refrained from criticizing the state in any way. This attitude of loyalty, however, provoked more divisions in the church itself: inside Russia, a number of faithful opposed Sergius, and abroad, the Russian metropolitans of America and western Europe severed their relations with Moscow. Then, in 1943, benefiting from the sudden reversal of Joseph Stalin's (Stalin, Joseph) policies toward religion, Russian Orthodoxy underwent a resurrection; a new patriarch was elected, theological schools were opened, and thousands of churches began to function. Between 1945 and 1959 the official organization of the church was greatly expanded, although individual members of the clergy were occasionally arrested and exiled. The number of open churches reached 25,000. A new and widespread persecution of the church was subsequently instituted under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev (Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeyevich) and Leonid Brezhnev (Brezhnev, Leonid Ilich). Then, beginning in the late 1980s, under Mikhail Gorbachev (Gorbachev, Mikhail), the new political and social freedoms resulted in many church buildings being returned to the church, to be restored by local parishioners. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 furthered the spiritual progress, and in 2000 Tsar Nicholas II, the Russian emperor who had been murdered by the Bolsheviks (Bolshevik) after the October Revolution of 1917, and members of his family were canonized by the church.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 had severed large sections of the Russian church—dioceses in America, Japan, and Manchuria, as well as refugees in Europe—from regular contacts with the mother church. A group of bishops who had left their sees in Russia gathered in Sremski-Karlovci, Yugos., and adopted a clearly political monarchist stand. The group further claimed to speak as a synod for the entire “free” Russian church. This group, which to this day includes a sizable portion of the Russian emigration, was formally dissolved in 1922 by Patriarch Tikhon, who then appointed metropolitans Platon and Evlogy as ruling bishops in America and Europe, respectively. Both of these metropolitans continued intermittently to entertain relations with the synod in Karlovci, but neither of them accepted it as a canonical authority.

After World War II the patriarchate of Moscow made unsuccessful attempts to regain control over these groups. In 1970 it finally recognized an autocephalous Orthodox Church in America, thereby renouncing its former canonical claims in the United States and Canada; it also acknowledged an autonomous church established in Japan that same year. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, discussions concerning the reunification of the churches were initiated. In 2007 the churches were reunited when canonical communion was restored between the Russian Orthodox church and the church outside Russia.

Nikon

▪ Russian patriarch

original name Nikita Minin

born 1605, Veldemanovo, Russia

died Aug. 1 [Aug. 27, New Style], 1681, en route to Moscow

religious leader who unsuccessfully attempted to establish the primacy of the Orthodox church (Russian Orthodox church) over the state in Russia and whose reforms that attempted to bring the Russian church in line with the traditions of Greek Orthodoxy led to a schism.

Nikon (Nikita) was born in the village of Veldemanovo, near Nizhny Novgorod, the son of a peasant of Finnic stock. After acquiring the rudiments of an education in a nearby monastery, Nikon married, entered the clergy, was appointed to a parish in Lyskovo, and then settled in Moscow. The death of all three of his children moved him to seek repentance and solitude. For the next 12 years, from 1634 to 1646, he lived as a monk (it was at this point that he adopted the name Nikon), as a hermit, and finally as an abbot in several northern localities. In 1646 he went on monastic business to Moscow, where he made so favourable an impression on the young tsar Alexis and on Patriarch Joseph that they appointed him abbot of the Novospassky monastery in Moscow, the burial place of the Romanov (Romanov Dynasty) family.

During his stay there, Nikon became closely associated with the circle led by the tsar's confessor, Stefan Vonifatyev, and the priests Ivan Neronov and Avvakum Petrovich (all, like him, natives of the Nizhny Novgorod region). This group of priests strove to revitalize the church by bringing about closer contact with the mass of the faithful, and they also sought to purify religious books and rituals from accidental errors and Roman Catholic (Roman Catholicism) influences. With their backing, Nikon became first metropolitan of Novgorod (1648) and then patriarch of Moscow and all Russia (1652).

Nikon accepted the highest post in the Russian church only on condition that he be given full authority in matters of dogma and ritual. In 1654, when the tsar departed for the campaign against Poland, he asked Nikon to supervise the country's administration as well as watch over the safety of the tsar's family, and in 1657, with the outbreak of the new war with Poland, he invested Nikon with full sovereign powers. Enjoying the friendship of the tsar, the backing of the reformers, and the sympathy of the population of Moscow, Nikon stood at the pinnacle of his career.

It was not long, however, before Nikon alienated his friends and infuriated his opponents by his brutal treatment of all those who disagreed with him. On assuming the patriarchate, he consulted Greek scholars employed in Moscow as well as the books in the patriarchal library and concluded not only that many Russian books and practices were badly corrupted but also that the revisions of the circle of Vonifatyev had introduced new corruptions. He then undertook a thorough revision of Russian books and rituals in accord with their Greek models, which he believed were more authentic, to bring them into line with the rest of the Orthodox church. Assisted by Greek and Kievan monks and supported by the Greek hierarchy, he next carried out several reforms of his own: he altered the form of bowing in the church, replaced a two-fingered manner of crossing oneself with a three-fingered one, and ordered that three alleluias be sung where Moscow tradition called for two. A council of the Russian clergy that he convened in 1654 authorized him to proceed with the revision of liturgical books. He next began to remove from churches and homes icons that he considered incorrectly rendered. To quell mounting opposition to these moves, he called in 1656 another council, which excommunicated those who failed to adopt the reforms.

Though all the changes introduced by Nikon affected only the outward forms of religion, some of which were not even very old, the population and much of the clergy resisted him from the beginning. The uneducated Muscovite clergy refused to relearn prayers and rituals, while the mass of the faithful was deeply troubled by Nikon's contempt for practices regarded as holy and essential to Russia's salvation. His former friends spoke out against him, especially Avvakum Petrovich, who would lead the struggle against Nikon and proclaimed that the patriarch's decisions were inspired by the devil and filled with the spirit of Antichrist. This was the origin of the Raskol, or great schism within the Russian Orthodox Church. Yet what really brought about Nikon's downfall was the hostility of the tsar's family and the powerful boyar (aristocratic) families, who resented the high-handed manner in which he exercised authority in the tsar's absence. They also objected to his claims that the church could intervene in affairs of state but was itself immune to state interference. Nikon believed that the church was superior to the state because the heavenly kingdom was above the earthly kingdom. He also published a translation of the Donation of Constantine (a medieval forgery that claimed that the emperor Constantine had bestowed temporal and spiritual power on the pope) and used the document to support his claims to authority.

When Alexis returned to Moscow in 1658, relations between tsar and patriarch were no longer what they had been. Grown in self-confidence and incited by relatives and courtiers, Alexis ceased to consult the patriarch, though he avoided an open break with him. Nikon finally struck back after several boyars had insulted him with impunity and the tsar failed to appear at two consecutive services at which Nikon officiated. On July 20 (July 10, O.S.), 1658, in characteristically impetuous fashion, he announced his resignation to the congregation in the Assumption (Uspensky) Cathedral in the Kremlin, and shortly afterward he retired to the Voskresensky monastery.

Nikon had apparently hoped by this act to compel the tsar, whose piety was well-known, to recall him and to restore his previous influence. This did not happen. After several months in self-imposed exile, Nikon attempted a reconciliation, but the tsar either refused to answer his letters or urged him to formalize his resignation. Nikon refused to do so on the ground that he had resigned merely from the Moscow see, not from the patriarchate as such. For eight years, during which Russia was effectively without a patriarch, Nikon stubbornly held on to his post, while Alexis, troubled by lack of clear precedent and by the fear of damnation, could not decide on a formal deposition. Finally, in November 1666, Alexis convened a council attended by the patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria to settle the dispute.

The charges against Nikon were presented by the tsar himself. They concerned largely his behaviour in the period of the tsar's absence from Moscow, including his alleged arrogation of the title of “grand sovereign.” Many of the charges were entirely without foundation. The Greek hierarchy now turned against Nikon and decided in favour of the monarchy, whose favours it needed. A Greek adventurer, Paisios Ligaridis (now known to have been in collusion with Rome), was particularly active in bringing about Nikon's downfall. The council deprived Nikon of all his sacerdotal functions and on December 23 exiled him as a monk to Beloozero, about 350 miles (560 km) directly north of Moscow. It retained, however, the reforms he had introduced and anathematized those who opposed them and who were henceforth known as Old Believers (Old Believer) (or Old Ritualists). In his last years, Nikon's relations with Alexis improved. The successor of Alexis, Fyodor III, recalled Nikon from exile, but he died while en route to Moscow.

Nikon was one of the outstanding leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church and an able administrator. His ultimate failure was due to two main factors: (1) his insistence on the hegemony of church over state had no precedent in Byzantine or Russian traditions and could not be enforced in any event; and (2) his uncontrollable temper and autocratic disposition alienated all who came in contact with him and enabled his opponents first to disgrace and then to defeat him.

Richard E. Pipes

Additional Reading

William Palmer, The Patriarch and the Tsar, 6 vol. (1871–76); William-Kenneth Medlin, Moscow and East Rome: A Political Study of the Relations of Church and State in Muscovite Russia (1952, reprinted 1981); Paul Meyendorff, Russia, Ritual, and Reform: The Liturgical Reforms of Nikon in the 17th Century (1991); Paul Bushkovitch, Religion and Society in Russia: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1992).

Romanov Dynasty

▪ Russian dynasty

rulers of Russia from 1613 until the Russian Revolution of February 1917. Descendants of Andrey Ivanovich Kobyla (Kambila), a Muscovite boyar who lived during the reign of the grand prince of Moscow Ivan I Kalita (reigned 1328–41), the Romanovs acquired their name from Roman Yurev (d. 1543), whose daughter Anastasiya Romanovna Zakharina-Yureva was the first wife of Ivan IV the Terrible (reigned as tsar 1547–84). Her brother Nikita's children took the surname Romanov in honour of their grandfather, father of a tsarina. After Fyodor I (the last ruler of the Rurik dynasty) died in 1598, Russia endured 15 chaotic years known as the Time of Troubles (1598–1613), which ended when a zemsky sobor (“assembly of the land”) elected Nikita's grandson, Michael Romanov, as the new tsar. (For the Romanovs' predecessors, see Rurik Dynasty; Troubles, Time of.)

The Romanovs established no regular pattern of succession until 1797. During the first century of their rule they generally followed the custom (held over from the late Rurik rulers) of passing the throne to the tsar's eldest son or, if he had no son, to his closest senior male relative. Thus Alexis (reigned 1645–76) succeeded his father, Michael (reigned 1613–45), and Fyodor III (reigned 1676–82) succeeded his father, Alexis. But after Fyodor's death, both his brother Ivan (Ivan V) and his half-brother Peter (Peter I) vied for the throne. Although a zemsky sobor chose Peter as the new tsar, Ivan's family, supported by the streltsy, staged a palace revolution; and Ivan V and Peter I jointly assumed the throne (1682).

After Peter became sole ruler (1696), he formulated a law of succession (Feb. 5 [Feb. 16, New Style], 1722), which gave the monarch the right to choose his successor. Peter himself (who was the first tsar to be named emperor) was unable to take advantage of this decree, however, and throughout the 18th century the succession remained vexed. Peter left the throne to his wife, Catherine I, who was a Romanov only by right of marriage. On Catherine I's death, however, in 1727, the throne reverted to Peter I's grandson Peter II. When the latter died (1730), Ivan V's second surviving daughter, Anna, became empress. On Anna's death (1740), her elder sister's daughter Anna Leopoldovna, whose father belonged to the House of Mecklenburg, assumed the regency for her son Ivan VI, of the House of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel; but in 1741 this Ivan VI was deposed in favour of Elizabeth, daughter of Peter I and Catherine I. With Elizabeth, the Romanovs of the male line died out in 1762, but the name was conserved by the branch of the House of Holstein-Gottorp that then mounted the Russian throne in the person of Elizabeth's nephew Peter III. From 1762 to 1796 Peter III's widow, a German princess of the House of Anhalt-Zerbst, ruled as Catherine II. With Paul I, Peter III's son, a Romanov of Holstein-Gottorp became emperor again.

On April 5, 1797 (Old Style), Paul I changed the succession law, establishing a definite order of succession for members of the Romanov family. He was murdered by conspirators supporting his son Alexander I (reigned 1801–25), and the succession following Alexander's death was confused because the rightful heir, Alexander's brother Constantine (Constantine, Veliky Knyaz), secretly declined the throne in favour of another brother, Nicholas I, who ruled from 1825 to 1855. Thereafter the succession followed Paul's rules: Alexander II, 1855–81; Alexander III, 1881–94; and Nicholas II, 1894–1917.

On March 2 (March 15, New Style), 1917, Nicholas II abdicated the throne in favour of his brother Michael, who refused it the following day. Nicholas and all his immediate family were executed in July 1918 at Yekaterinburg.

Raskol

▪ Russian Orthodoxy

(Russian: “Schism”), division in the Russian Orthodox Church in the 17th century over reforms in liturgy and forms of worship. Over the centuries, many features of Russian religious practice had been inadvertently altered by unlettered priests and laity, removing Russian Orthodoxy ever further from its Greek Orthodox parent faith. Reforms intended to remove these idiosyncrasies were instituted under the direction of the autocratic Russian patriarch Nikon between 1652 and 1667. The large group of traditionalists who resisted these changes, denouncing them as the work of the Antichrist, came to be known as Raskolniki (“Schismatics”), or Old Believers (Old Believer). See Old Believer.

Old Believer

▪ Russian religious group

Russian Starover,

member of a group of Russian religious dissenters who refused to accept the liturgical reforms imposed upon the Russian Orthodox church by the patriarch of Moscow Nikon (1652–58). Numbering millions of faithful in the 17th century, the Old Believers split into a number of different sects, of which several survived into modern times.

Patriarch Nikon faced the difficult problem of deciding on an authoritative source for the correction of the liturgical books in use in Russia. These books, used since the conversion of Rus to Christianity in 988, were literal translations from the Greek into Old Slavic. In the course of centuries, manuscript copies of the translations, which were sometimes inaccurate and obscure at the start, were further mutilated by the mistakes of the scribes. Reform was difficult, for there was no agreement as to where the “ideal” or “original” text was to be found. The option taken by Patriarch Nikon was to follow exactly the texts and practices of the Greek Church as they existed in 1652, the beginning of his reign, and to this effect he ordered the printing of new liturgical books following the Greek pattern. His decree also required the adoption in Russia of Greek usages, Greek forms of clerical dress, and a change in the manner of crossing oneself: three fingers were to be used instead of two. The reform, obligatory for all, was considered “necessary for salvation” and was supported by Tsar Alexis Romanov.

Opposition to Nikon's reforms was led by a group of Muscovite priests, notably the archpriest Avvakum Petrovich. Even after the deposition of Nikon (1658), who broached too strong a challenge to the Tsar's authority, a series of church councils culminating in that of 1666–67 officially endorsed the liturgical reforms and anathematized the dissenters. Several of them, including Avvakum, were executed.

The dissenters, sometimes called Raskolniki, were most numerous in the inaccessible regions of northern and eastern Russia (but later also in Moscow itself) and were important in the colonization of these remote areas. Opposed to all change, they strongly resisted the Western innovations introduced by Peter I, whom they regarded as Antichrist. Having no episcopal hierarchy, they split into two groups. One group, the Popovtsy (priestly sects), sought to attract ordained priests and were able to set up an episcopate in the 19th century. The other, the Bezpopovtsy (priestless sects), renounced priests and all sacraments, except Baptism. Many other sects developed out of these groups, some with practices considered extravagant.

The Old Believers benefitted from the edict of toleration (April 17, 1905), and most groups survived the Russian Revolution of 1917. Numerous branches of both the Popovtsy and the Bezpopovtsy succeeded in becoming registered and thus officially recognized by the Soviet state. The membership of one Moscow-centred Popovtsy group, the convention of Belaya Krinitsa, was estimated in the early 1970s at 800,000. Little is known, however, of the Old Believer settlements supposed to exist in Siberia, the Urals, Kazakhstan, and the Altai. Some groups exist elsewhere in Asia and in Brazil and the United States.

In 1971 the Council of the Russian Orthodox Church completely rescinded all the anathemas of the 17th century and recognized the full validity of the old rites.

Avvakum Petrovich

▪ Russian priest

born 1620/1621, Grigorovo, Russia

died April 14, 1682, Pustozersk

archpriest, leader of the Old Believers (Old Believer), conservative clergy who brought on one of the most serious crises in the history of the Russian church by separating from the Russian Orthodox church to support the “old rite,” consisting of many purely local Russian developments. He is also considered to be a pioneer of modern Russian literature.

In 1652 he went to Moscow and joined in the struggle against Patriarch Nikon, whose high-handed methods and brutal treatment of dissidents made unpopular his reforms of adopting Greek Orthodox church customs in an effort to unite the entire Orthodox church. Under Nikon's regime, Old Believers were excommunicated and severely persecuted. Avvakum himself was twice banished and finally imprisoned. It was during his imprisonment in Pustozersk that he wrote most of his works, the greatest of which is considered to be his Zhitiye (“Life”), the first Russian autobiography. Distinguished for its lively description and for its original, colourful style, the Zhitiye is one of the great works of early Russian literature. A council of 1682 against the Old Believers condemned Avvakum to be burned at the stake, and the sentence was carried out.

Fyodor III

▪ tsar of Russia

in full Fyodor Alekseyevich

born May 30 [June 9, New Style], 1661, Moscow, Russia

died April 27 [May 7], 1682, Moscow

tsar of Russia (reigned 1676–82) who fostered the development of Western culture in Russia, thereby making it easier for his successor, Peter I the Great (reigned 1682–1725), to enact widespread reforms based on Western models.

The eldest son of Alexis (reigned 1645–76), Fyodor not only was educated in the traditional subjects of Russian and Church Slavonic but also was tutored in Polish and Latin by Simeon Polotsky, a noted theologian who had studied in Kiev and Poland. When Alexis died, Fyodor ascended the throne (Jan. 19 [Jan. 29], 1676), but his youth and poor health prevented him from actively participating in the conduct of government affairs. His uncle Ivan B. Miloslavsky assumed the dominant position in Fyodor's government at first, but he was soon displaced by two courtiers, I.M. Yazykov and A.T. Likhachev, who shared Fyodor's educational background and who, in spite of objections from the Russian Orthodox clergy, promoted the spread of Polish customs, Roman Catholic religious doctrines, and Latin books among the Russian aristocracy. After 1681 Vasily V. Golitsyn (Golitsyn, Vasily Vasilyevich, Knyaz) became the most significant figure in Fyodor's administration; under his influence vast military reforms were undertaken, and the system of mestnichestvo, by which a noble was appointed to a service position on the basis of his family's rank in the hierarchy of boyars, was abolished (1682).

When Fyodor died childless, he was succeeded, after some dispute, by both his brother, Ivan V (coruled 1682–96), and his half-brother, Peter I (coruled 1682–96; reigned alone 1696–1725); his sister Sophia Alekseyevna served as regent for the two young tsars (1682–89).

Golitsyn, Vasily Vasilyevich, Knyaz

▪ Russian statesman

(Prince)

born 1643, Russia

died May 2 [April 21, old style], 1714, Kholmogory, Russia

Russian statesman who was the chief adviser to Sophia Alekseyevna and dominated Russian foreign policy during her regency (1682–89).

Extremely well educated and greatly influenced by western European culture, Golitsyn was awarded the rank of boyar (next in rank to the ruling princes) in 1676 by Tsar Alexis (ruled 1645–76) and was also given a military command in the Ukraine with broad political powers. Continuing his state service under Tsar Fyodor III (ruled 1676–82), Golitsyn worked on a commission established to reorganize the military service and on its behalf recommended that the system of mestnichestvo (hereditary precedence) be abolished.

When Sophia Alekseyevna became regent for her brother Ivan V and her half brother, Peter I, in 1682, she made Golitsyn, who was also her lover, the head of the posolsky prikaz (foreign office); in 1684 she named him keeper of the great seal. Golitsyn formulated many far-reaching reform measures, including the development of close diplomatic and cultural relations with western European nations, the abolition of serfdom, the establishment of religious toleration in Russia, and the construction of industrial enterprises. But he was prevented from enacting these measures by the opposition of traditionalists, who favoured Sophia's political rivals, the Naryshkins—the family of Peter's mother.

Golitsyn's activities, therefore, became confined to foreign affairs. In addition to improving commercial relations with Sweden, Poland, England, and other western states, he negotiated a treaty of perpetual peace and alliance with Poland (1686), in which the Poles recognized Kiev and all the territory east of the Dnieper River as Russian possessions, and Russia agreed to join Poland and its allies, Austria and Venice, in a Holy League against the Ottoman (Ottoman Empire) Turks. In accordance with this agreement, Golitsyn led two campaigns against the Crimean Tatars (vassals of the Turks; 1687, 1689); both were dismal defeats for Russia. Golitsyn also directed the negotiations with China and concluded the Treaty of Nerchinsk (Nerchinsk, Treaty of) (ratified 1689), which set the Russo-Chinese border along the Amur River, thereby preparing the way for Russia's subsequent expansion to the Pacific Ocean. But the diplomatic success of the Treaty of Nerchinsk did not engender enough support for Sophia's regime to save it from the Naryshkin coup d'etat that displaced Sophia in August 1689 and placed Peter on the throne. The new Naryshkin government exiled Golitsyn to the far north, where he remained until his death.

regent of Russia

Russian in full Sofya Alekseyevna

born September 17 [September 27, New Style], 1657, Moscow

died July 3 [July 14], 1704, Moscow

regent of Russia from 1682 to 1689.

The eldest daughter of Tsar Alexis (ruled 1645–76) and his first wife, Mariya Miloslavskaya, Sophia was tutored by the Belorussian monk Simeon Polotsky, from whom she received an exceptionally good education. When her brother Fyodor III died (April 27 [May 7], 1682), her half brother Peter (Peter I), son of Alexis and his second wife, Natalya Naryshkina, was proclaimed tsar. Sophia, as leader of the Miloslavsky family, however, objected to a government dominated by the Naryshkins and incited the discontented streltsy (household troops) to riot. After several members of the Naryshkin family were murdered, Sophia calmed the streltsy by arranging for her younger brother Ivan V to be proclaimed coruler with Peter; she assumed the role of regent (May 29 [June 8], 1682).

Ruling under the guidance of her chief adviser and lover, Prince Vasily V. Golitsyn (Golitsyn, Vasily Vasilyevich, Knyaz), Sophia took steps to consolidate her regime. To prevent the unreliable streltsy from reversing their position and removing her, she replaced their commander, Ivan Andreyevich Khovansky (who was executed for treason), with one of her favourites, Fyodor Leontyevich Shaklovity. In addition, she transferred 12 of the 19 Moscow regiments from the city to guard the frontier and revoked many of the privileges she had granted the troops when she seized power.

Sophia also promoted the development of industry and encouraged foreign craftsmen to settle in Russia. Despite Golitsyn's numerous plans for domestic reform, however, the regent failed to meet discontent among the peasants and religious dissidents. She also overruled several of her advisers and approved Golitsyn's plan to conclude a permanent peace with Poland (1686; which confirmed a truce of 1667), by which Russia obtained Kiev and the territory east of the Dnieper River in exchange for a promise to join a European coalition against the Turks; in 1687 and 1689 she sponsored two disastrous military campaigns, led by Golitsyn, against the vassals of the Turks, the Crimean Tatars. Although her government also concluded the favourable Treaty of Nerchinsk with China (1689), setting Russia's eastern border at the Amur River, Golitsyn's failures reinforced the increasing dissatisfaction among both the Naryshkins and the general population with her rule. Recognizing this and hoping to eliminate Peter, the figurehead of her rivals, Sophia tried once more to incite the streltsy against the Naryshkins (August 1689); many of the streltsy colonels, however, supported Peter, who overthrew Sophia and forced her to enter the Novodevichy Convent in Moscow (September 1689).

In 1698 an unsuccessful attempt was made by her supporters among the streltsy to restore her to the throne; although Sophia did not initiate the plot, she was afterward tried by a special tribunal and compelled to take the veil (October 1698).

streltsy

▪ Russian military unit

singular Strelets

(Russian: “musketeer”), Russian military corps established in the middle of the 16th century that formed the bulk of the Russian army for about 100 years, provided the tsar's bodyguard, and, at the end of the 17th century, exercised considerable political influence. Originally composed of commoners, the streltsy had become a hereditary military caste by the mid-17th century. Living in separate settlements (slobody), they performed police and security duties in Moscow and in the border towns where they were garrisoned; they often also engaged in trades and crafts. In 1681 there were about 55,000 streltsy, 22,500 of whom were stationed in Moscow.

The streltsy became discontented and unreliable in the second half of the 17th century after the government began paying them in land instead of money and grain. They then became involved in the succession struggle begun in 1682 between rival partisans of the half brothers Peter I and Ivan V. Supporting Ivan, they staged a revolt against the Naryshkin family (the relatives of Peter's mother, who had assumed actual power), named both Ivan and Peter tsars, and made Ivan's sister Sophia regent. In 1698, having unsuccessfully attempted to unseat Peter I (the Great) and restore Sophia to the regency (Peter had displaced her in 1689), the streltsy were forcibly disbanded by the tsar, with hundreds of them being executed or deported. Though revived briefly by Peter to participate in the Great Northern War (1702), the corps was gradually absorbed into the regular army thereafter.

Ivan V

▪ emperor of Russia

in full Ivan Alekseyevich

born Aug. 27 [Sept. 6, New Style], 1666, Moscow, Russia

died Jan. 29 [Feb. 8], 1696, Moscow

nominal tsar of Russia from 1682 to 1696.

The younger son of Tsar Alexis (reigned 1645–76) by his first wife, Mariya Ilinichna Miloslavskaya, Ivan was a chronic invalid, deficient mentally and physically, who suffered from scurvy and poor eyesight and in his later years was partially paralyzed. When his elder brother Tsar Fyodor III died in 1682, Ivan's half brother Peter, the son of Alexis and his second wife, Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina, was named tsar. But Ivan's sister Sophia, determined to maintain the Miloslavsky family in power, encouraged the streltsy (sovereign's bodyguard) to riot and to demand that Ivan become tsar (May 23 [June 2], 1682). Consequently, three days later the boyar duma (or council) proclaimed Ivan and Peter (Peter I) corulers with Ivan as the senior tsar. On June 25 (July 5) both boys were crowned, and Sophia became regent.

Although the Naryshkins overthrew Sophia in 1689, Ivan, who had adopted a conciliatory attitude toward Peter, was allowed to retain his official position until his death. He never participated in governmental affairs, however, and devoted the bulk of his time to prayer, fasting, and pilgrimages.

Peter I

▪ duke or count of Brittany

also called Peter Of Dreux, byname Peter Mauclerc, French Pierre De Dreux, or Pierre Mauclerc

born 1190

died 1250, at sea en route to France

duke or count of Brittany from 1213 to 1237, French prince of the Capetian dynasty, founder of a line of French dukes of Brittany who ruled until the mid-14th century.

Married by his cousin King Philip II Augustus of France to Alix, heiress to Brittany, Peter did homage for the province in 1213 and assumed the title of duke, though he was considered merely a count by the French. He energetically asserted his authority over the Breton lands, annexing new fiefs to the ducal domain, granting privileges to the towns, and regularizing the administration.

As guardian for his son, John I the Red, after Alix's death in 1221, Peter attempted to build up his own power against the day of his son's majority; he extorted concessions from the French regency in 1227 by means of rebellion. He transferred his allegiance from the French to the English king from 1229 until 1234, even though his predecessor, Arthur I, had been murdered by the English. But when John came of age (1237), Peter had to renounce Brittany and henceforth was merely count of Braine.

Called Mauclerc (“Bad Clerk”) either because his early training for the church was abortive or because he quarreled continually with the episcopate, Peter spent much of his life under excommunication and was persuaded to go on a crusade (1239–40) in penance. In 1248 he went to Egypt on another crusade. Wounded in battle, he died on his way home.

▪ emperor of Russia

Introduction

Russian in full Pyotr Alekseyevich, byname Peter the Great, Russian Pyotr Veliky

born June 9 [May 30, Old Style], 1672, Moscow, Russia

died Feb. 8 [Jan. 28, O.S.], 1725, St. Petersburg

tsar of Russia, who reigned jointly with his half-brother Ivan V (1682–96) and alone thereafter (1696–1725) and who in 1721 was proclaimed emperor (imperator). He was one of his country's greatest statesmen, organizers, and reformers.

Peter was the son of Tsar Alexis by his second wife, Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina (Naryshkina, Natalya Kirillovna). Unlike his half-brothers, sons of his father's first wife, Mariya Ilinichna Miloslavskaya, Peter proved a healthy child, lively and inquisitive. It is probably significant to his development that his mother's former guardian, Artamon Sergeyevich Matveyev (Matveyev, Artamon Sergeyevich), had raised her in an atmosphere open to progressive influences from the West.

Youth and accession

When Alexis died in 1676 Peter was only four years old. His elder half-brother, a sickly youth, then succeeded to the throne as Fyodor III; but, in fact, power fell into the hands of the Miloslavskys, relatives of Fyodor's mother, who deliberately pushed Peter and the Naryshkin circle aside. When Fyodor died childless in 1682, a fierce struggle for power ensued between the Miloslavskys and the Naryshkins: the former wanted to put Fyodor's brother, the delicate and feebleminded Ivan V, on the throne; the Naryshkins stood for the healthy and intelligent Peter. Representatives of the various orders of society, assembled in the Kremlin, declared themselves for Peter, who was then proclaimed tsar; but the Miloslavsky faction exploited a revolt of the Moscow streltsy, or musketeers of the sovereign's bodyguard, who killed some of Peter's adherents, including Matveyev. Ivan and Peter were then proclaimed joint tsars; and eventually, because of Ivan's precarious health and Peter's youth, Ivan's 25-year-old sister Sophia was made regent. Clever and influential, Sophia took control of the government; excluded from public affairs, Peter lived with his mother in the village of Preobrazhenskoye, near Moscow, often fearing for his safety. All this left an ineradicable impression on the young tsar and determined his negative attitude toward the streltsy.

One result of Sophia's overt exclusion of Peter from the government was that he did not receive the usual education of a Russian tsar; he grew up in a free atmosphere instead of being confined within the narrow bounds of a palace. While his first tutor, the former church clerk Nikita Zotov, could give little to satisfy Peter's curiosity, the boy enjoyed noisy outdoor games and took especial interest in military matters, his favourite toys being arms of one sort or another. He also occupied himself with carpentry, joinery, blacksmith's work, and printing.

Near Preobrazhenskoye there was a nemetskaya sloboda (“German colony”) where foreigners were allowed to reside. Acquaintance with its inhabitants aroused Peter's interest in the life of other nations, and an English sailboat, found derelict in a shed, whetted his passion for seafaring. Mathematics, fortification, and navigation were the sciences that appealed most strongly to Peter. A model fortress was built for his amusement, and he organized his first “play” troops, from which, in 1687, the Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky Guards regiments were formed—to become the nucleus of a new Russian Army.

Early in 1689 Natalya Naryshkina arranged Peter's marriage to the beautiful Eudoxia (Yevdokiya Fyodorovna Lopukhina). This was obviously a political act, intended to demonstrate the fact that the 17-year-old Peter was now a grown man, with a right to rule in his own name. The marriage did not last long: Peter soon began to ignore his wife, and in 1698 he relegated her to a convent.

In August 1689 a new revolt of the streltsy took place. Sophia and her faction tried to use it to their own advantage for another coup d'état, but events this time turned decisively in Peter's favour. He removed Sophia from power and banished her to the Novodevichy convent; she was forced to become a nun after a streltsy rebellion in 1698. Though Ivan V remained nominally joint tsar with Peter, the administration was now largely given over to Peter's kinsmen, the Naryshkins, until Ivan's death in 1696. Peter, meanwhile continuing his military and nautical amusements, sailed the first seaworthy ships to be built in Russia. His games proved to be good training for the tasks ahead.

External events

At the beginning of Peter's reign, Russia was territorially a huge power, but with no access to the Black Sea, the Caspian, or to the Baltic, and to win such an outlet became the main goal of Peter's foreign policy.