INSTRUCTIONS AND PROPHECIES OF THE Blessed MOTHER ALIPIA GOLOSEEVSKY, Kyiv...
Vasily Ivanovich was born on March 25, 1479. He was the first son of Ivan III from his second marriage, with Sofia Paleolog, who was a representative of the last Byzantine imperial dynasty.
However, Vasily did not claim the throne, since Ivan III had from his first marriage the eldest son, Ivan the Young, who, approximately eight years before the birth of Vasily, had already been declared co-ruler of Ivan III. In 1490, Ivan the Young died, and Vasily had a chance to claim a great reign. At court, a struggle broke out between two factions. One played for the son of Ivan the Young - Dmitry Vnuk, and the other for Vasily. As a result, Ivan III himself proclaimed Vasily "sovereign grand duke."
Basil's reignIII
Basil's reign lasted six years, and after Ivan III died in 1505, he became an independent sovereign.
Basil III continued the centralization policy of his father. In 1506, the Grand Duke's governor established himself in the Great Perm. In 1510, the formal independence of the Pskov land was abolished. In 1521, the Ryazan principality joined the Grand Duchy. The Grand Duke waged the fight against the appanages in a variety of ways. Sometimes the inheritances were simply destroyed on purpose, sometimes the brothers were not allowed to marry, and therefore, to have legitimate heirs.
The local system was strengthened, which helped to ensure the combat effectiveness of the army and limit the independence of the aristocracy. The land was given to the nobles in conditional possession for the duration of the “princely service”.
Localism developed - a system of hierarchy, in which positions and titles were occupied exclusively in accordance with the nobleness of the prince or boyar.
The general strengthening of the state, political and ideological necessity gave impetus to the development of theories substantiating the special political rights of the Grand Dukes of Moscow.
Foreign policy
In 1514, Smolensk, one of the largest Russian-speaking centers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, was conquered. Campaigns to Smolensk were personally led by Vasily III, but the defeat of the Russian troops near Orsha for some time suspended the movement of Russian troops to the west.
Russian-Crimean relations remained tense. In 1521, the campaign of the Crimean Khan Mohammed Giray was sent to Moscow. The Crimean Tatars reached almost to Moscow. The country was heavily damaged. Vasily III had to concentrate his efforts on the defense of the southern borders, passing along the Oka River.
Basil III began to deepen Russia's contacts with the Orthodox peoples conquered by the Ottoman Empire, including Athos. Attempts were made to establish relations with the Holy Roman Empire and the papal curia against the Ottoman Empire.
Personal life
In 1505, Vasily III married Solomonia Saburova. For the first time, a representative of the boyar, and not the princely, family became the chosen one of the Grand Duke. For twenty years there were no children in this marriage, and Vasily III married a second time. The new wife of the sovereign was Elena Glinskaya, who came from the Lithuanian boyars. From this marriage, the future Tsar of All Russia was born.
On June 20, 1605, the second tsar from the Godunov dynasty, Fedor Borisovich, was killed, and it began.And 100 years before that, on September 4, 1505, Grand Duke Vasily III married Solomonia Yurievna Saburova. Thanks to this alliance, Russia avoided a change ruling dynasty and troubles that could have begun a century earlier than this happened. But what do we know about it?
Very often, if people do something evil, we do not skimp on words addressed to them. But if a person did something good or refrained from evil, we sometimes do not appreciate this, we do not know how to be grateful to his memory. This is precisely the fate of the Grand Duchess Solomonia, who saved our autocracy from the impending storm.
Solomonia Yuryevna Saburova at baptism received a name in honor of the heroine of the Israeli people - the mother of the seven martyrs of Maccabees, whose feat prompted the Jews to revolt against Antiochus Epifan, who defiled Solomon's temple. Solomonia was the daughter of Yuri Konstantinovich Saburov and the great-granddaughter of Fyodor Sabur. Her close relatives served in Veliky Novgorod, which Ivan III had annexed to Moscow shortly before. His father was a scribe of the Novgorod land (the compiler of the oldest Novgorod scribe books), and his brother Ivan Yuryevich was a Novgorod butler.
In 1505, her father married Solomonia to the heir to the Russian throne, Prince Vasily Ivanovich, the future Vasily III. In the same year, Grand Duke Ivan III died and Vasily Ivanovich became the ruler of the Russian land, and Solomonia became the Grand Duchess.
There is a legend that Ivan III, having decided to marry his son Vasily, went to ask for advice at the grave of his great-grandmother, the wife of Dmitry Donskoy, whose husband Fyodor Sabur saved. During the prayer, in front of the Grand Duke, the candle bent in the form of the letter “C”, and the Grand Duke understood the answer to his prayer as follows: “We need our own, Russian, Saburova” ...
Such a choice was not accidental and turned out to be possible because the Rurikovichs treated the Saburovs very favorably. When the grandson of Dmitry Donskoy Ivan III, after the death of his parents - Vasily II the Dark and Sophia Vitovtovna, gave the Trinity-Sergius Monastery several villages - to commemorate their souls, November 14 was determined as the day of special commemoration of their parents. This is the day of the holy Apostle Philip and Hieromartyr Hypatius - the patrons of the boyar Zacharias Chet, all his descendants and the Ipatiev Monastery: “Fodder for the great princes. Remember the Grand Duchess Sophia of the Grand Duke Vasily ... ". This day could be chosen in memory of how Dmitry Donskoy, during the Tatar raid, was hiding with his family in the ancestral home of the Saburovs -. It is not surprising, therefore, that Ivan III chose the great-granddaughter of Fyodor Sabur as his wife.
In the same year, another wedding took place, which cemented the union of the Rurikovichs and the Saburovs: Solomonia's sister Maria Yurievna married Prince Vasily Semenovich Starodubsky, also the great-great-grandson of Dmitry Donskoy. And their father - Yuri Konstantinovich - was granted a boyar.
The marriage of Vasily Ivanovich and Solomonia Yuryevna was formalized in Byzantine traditions - Solomonia was chosen from 500 girls at a brides show gathered in Moscow for such an occasion: it was ordered “to announce in all parts of your state that - regardless of nobility or blood, but only for beauty - the most beautiful girls were found, and in pursuance of this decree, more than 500 girls were chosen and brought to the city; of these, 300 were chosen, then 200, and finally reduced to 10, which were examined by midwives with all possible attention, in order to make sure whether they were really girls and whether they were capable of bearing children and whether they had any defect - and finally from these 10 was chosen wife. It is interesting that later Ivan the Terrible would do exactly the same: in 1571 he would hold a review of brides, at which he would choose Martha Sobakin as his wife, and Yevdoky Saburov for his son Ivan. Thus, the pre-made choice of a bride from the Saburov family was twice arranged as a magnificent celebration.
During the marriage with the Grand Duke, the name of Solomonia is mentioned three times in the annals: for the first time in connection with the relocation of the Grand Duke's family to a new courtyard near the Church of the Annunciation in the Kremlin (May 7, 1508 - it was on this day that the Monk Nil of Sorsky passed away), then in connection with departure together with the Grand Duke on the autumn detour of the Russian land (September 8, 1511 - on the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos and on the day on which Fyodor Sabur became famous) and in connection with the burial of Vasily III's brother, Prince Semyon Ivanovich (June 28, 1518). Thus, the Grand Duchess took an active part in the life of her husband. It is known that there was a correspondence between them, which, unfortunately, has not been preserved. In addition, we again see that many events in the life of the family were timed to coincide with memorable dates.
Samples of Russian facial sewing have survived to our time - amazing multi-figure compositions by Solomonia herself: the veil “The Appearance of the Mother of God to St. Sergius” with holidays and “St. Cyril Belozersky with Life”. One-figure compositions have also been preserved: the veils “Our Lady of Petrovskaya” and “Metropolitan Peter” (let me remind you that, like the Saburovs, the saint was of Galician-Volyn origin and, according to legend, his fate is closely connected with them), “Reverend Sergius of Radonezh”, “ Rev. Kirill Belozersky”, “Reverend Pafnuty Borovsky”, “Reverend Leonty of Rostov”, “Reverend Euphrosyne of Suzdal”. The last work speaks of the attention of the grand ducal couple to Suzdal shrines and monasteries - in 1509 Vasily III visited the Suzdal Intercession Monastery and began stone construction here. By 1518, the gate church of the Annunciation, the Church of the Origin of the Holy Tree of the Holy Cross and the Intercession Cathedral were built, which have survived to this day.
Along with the works that came out of the workshops of other descendants of Zakharia Chet - the Saburovs, Godunovs and Peshkovs, facial sewing from the workshop of the Grand Duchess Solomonia is constantly mentioned in the works of art historians - as the most striking example of Russian art of the 16th century.
Several icons of this century are known with images of the patrons of the grand-ducal family - the martyr Solomonia, Basil of Pariah and Basil the Great. This is the icon "Basil the Great and Grand Duke Vasily", thanks to which we know what Solomon's husband looked like - he is depicted in full height opposite the saint. This is the icon "Brothers of Maccabees, their teacher Eleazar and their mother Solomonia", which is a contribution of the Grand Duke's house to one of the monasteries. And, finally, this is the image of the Mother of God of Vladimir with Basil the Great and Solomonia, which belonged to the Saburov family.As for the last icon, this copy of the famous miraculous icon was made at the highest level, probably by the royal icon painter, who referred directly to the icon of the 12th century (the Vladimir icon of the Mother of God until 1514 was preserved in its original form, without renovations). In the 17th century, in memory of the family union of Basil and Solomon, Saints Basil and Solomon were depicted on the margins of the icon, and in the 19th century, the inscription was applied on the back of the icon: “1508 [years]. From the clan of the boyars, the Grand Duchess Solomonia passed into the Denisov clan, from the Denisov clan into the Koshutin clan.
It can be assumed that this is not about the Denisovs, but about the Denisyevs (the inscription was probably made by a representative of the Koshutin family, which could distort the surname) - two ancient Denisyev families are known, one of which comes from Grigory Mikhailovich Denisyev, mentioned at the wedding of Vasily III's sister Theodosius and Prince Vasily Danilovich Kholmsky (1500). Probably, the Saburovs and Denisyevs also became related through marriage.
Divorce case
Grand Duke Vasily and Grand Duchess Solomonia had been married for 19 years, but they had no offspring. This prompted them to pray for the bestowal of offspring: for example, on the already mentioned shroud of 1525 “The Appearance of the Mother of God to St. Sergius”, donated by the couple to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, images of the Conception of the Most Holy Theotokos and the Conception of John the Baptist were embroidered with the inscription: “Lord, have mercy on the faithful Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich, Sovereign of All Russia and his noble Grand Duchess Solomonia and their cities, give them, Lord, the fruit of the womb.”
This sadness of the grand-ducal couple is poetically reflected in the chronicle - based on the "Tale of Jacob about the birth of Mary", a well-known non-canonical work that tells about Joachim and Anna, who had no children for a long time, and about their joy in connection with the birth of Mary - the future Mother of God . In the same 1525, “the great prince, the king of all Russia, went on a detour; Be quick to march him on the chariots of the gilded armourer with him, as it befits a king; and roaring up to heaven and seeing a bird's nest on a tree, and create weeping and sobbing great, saying in yourself: fierce to me, to whom I am likened; not likened to the birds of heaven, like the birds of heaven are fruitful, nor to the beast of the earth, like the beasts of the earth are fruitful, not like I am to anyone, nor to the waters, like the waters of this fruitful essence, the waves are comforting them and their fish mocking (that is, amuse. - A PIECE OF CHALK.); and in spite of the earth and saying: Lord, I have not become like this earth, for the earth also bears its fruits at all times, and bless you, Lord.
It is important to note that five years later, in exactly the same terms, the chronicler will describe the sadness of Vasily III about the second childless marriage. Thus, speaking about which of the spouses was the cause of childlessness, we must understand that Rurikovich could also be the “culprit”.
The “Tale of the tonsure of the Grand Duchess Solomonida” says that she wanted to be tonsured: “In the summer of 7034, the blessed Grand Duchess Solomanida, seeing the barrenness of her womb, like the ancient Sarah, began to pray to the sovereign Grand Duke, and command her to robe into a monastic image". A striking detail: Solomonia is constantly compared either with Abraham's wife Sarah, or with the righteous Anna, but after all, both of them, after many years of fruitless marriage, brought offspring!
The Grand Duke for a long time did not agree with the proposal of his kind wife, not wanting to part with her. But when Solomonia turned to the metropolitan and he supported her, he nevertheless agreed. Grand Duchess wanted the family of Vasily III to continue, and even without an heir, his positions were shaky, and this could lead to the suppression of the Rurik dynasty or, at least, to a struggle for power: say sice: “How can I ruin a marriage? If I do this, and it’s impossible for the second one to succumb to me ”... The Grand Duchess, seeing the sovereign’s adamant prayer for her, began to pray ... the metropolitan of all Russia, let her beg the sovereign about this and do the will of her being ... His Holiness ... the metropolitan of all Russia, prayer do not despise her tears, praying a lot about this to the sovereign with all the sacred sonm, may he command her will to be. The king and sovereign of all Russia, seeing the unshakable faith of ea ... commanded to do the will of ea. The Blessed Grand Duchess, having enjoyed herself like a honeycomb from the royal lips, joyfully departs to the monastery ... and she cuts off the hair of her head from her father, the spiritual Abbot of St. Nicholas, David. And her name was named in the Mnish rank Sophia. It happened on November 28th.
Let us consider in more detail what name Solomonia took during her tonsure, where it happened and who tonsured her.
Hagia Sophia is not commemorated either on November 28, when the tonsure took place, or in the coming days. But remember that this was the name of the mother (Sofya Paleolog) and grandmother (Sofya Vitovtovna) of her husband, Vasily III. It is logical to assume that Solomonia took the name of the patron saint of one of her husband's relatives during her tonsure. This is supported by the fact that the Byzantine custom of the review of brides (during which Solomonia was chosen) was entrenched in Russia thanks to the Greek Trachaniotes - members of the retinue of Sophia Paleolog - and that the veil "The Appearance of the Mother of God to St. Sergius" was embroidered by Solomonia on the model of a similar veil of Sophia Paleolog 1498 of the year. Thus, the choice of the name "Sophia" was a gesture designed to emphasize that even after the tonsure, Solomonia-Sophia remains devoted to her husband and his cause.
This is supported by the choice of the monastery for tonsure: the Moscow monastery of St. Nicholas the Old was first mentioned in chronicles in 1390, in connection with the arrival in Moscow from Constantinople of Metropolitan Cyprian with the monks who accompanied him. It was in this monastery that the metropolitan, preparing for a meeting with the Grand Duke, put on bishop's vestments and from there went to the Kremlin with a procession. The monastery has been positioned as "Greek" since ancient times. It was logical for Solomonia to take the name of her husband's mother (a Greek woman) in the "Greek" monastery. A little later, Tsar Ivan the Terrible assigned the Nikolsky Monastery to Athos monks.
It is even more interesting that the spiritual father and abbot of the monastery of St. Nicholas the Old was the Monk David of Serpukhov - in the world Prince Daniel Vyazemsky, from the Rurikovichi (+ September 19, 1529). For more than 40 years he labored in the Borovsky Monastery, but in 1515 he left this monastery to found a new monastery. The lands for him (20 kilometers from Serpukhov and 80 kilometers from Moscow) were provided by Prince Vasily Semenovich Starodubsky, the husband of Maria, the sister of the Grand Duchess. Having settled here, the Monk David built cells, erected the first churches - in honor of the Ascension of the Lord with a chapel in honor of the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos and a refectory in the name of St. Nicholas.
The Monk David was the spiritual child of the Monks Paphnutius of Borovsky and Joseph of Volotsk. Since Pafnuty was a student of St. Nikita of Serpukhov, and he, in turn, was a child of St. Sergius of Radonezh, it can be said that the Grand Duchess was the spiritual great-granddaughter of St. Sergius. The dedication to St. Sergius and Paphnutius of the veils embroidered by Solomonia immediately becomes clear. Nothing was done without meaning!
The tonsure took place in the monastery of St. Nicholas the Old, and Sophia began to live in the Moscow monastery of the Nativity of the Virgin on the Moat. However, she did not stay here for long - relatives and friends who wanted to express their support to her often visited her. All this distracted from the monastic feat, and she asked the Grand Duke for permission to move to the Intercession Monastery in Suzdal, which she knew very well and where she had been many times before her tonsure: from the nobles and from her relatives, and the princess, and the noblewoman began to come to her, for the sake of visiting, and shed many tears, looking at the nude. The God-loving Grand Duchess Monk Sophia is full of grief about this, and they begin to say: “If I wished for the glory of this world, then I would reign together with the tsar and sovereign of all Russia, but today I wish to remain silent alone and pray for the sovereign’s health to the All-Generous God, and yes Some of the Lord God gave by my great sin, he did not let go, but for the sake of sin, God did not give fruit to the Sovereign, and all Orthodoxy was deprived of the state by my infertility? And they began to pray to the sovereign, to command her to go to the monastery of the Most Pure Lady Theotokos of the honest Ea Intercession in the God-saving city of Suzhdal. The great prince about this gave thanks to the Lord God, who gave her so much zeal and marveled at the warmth of faith ea, and soon commanded that being ... This is for Christ-loving, do not become like Sarah, but Anna, the wife of Jacob the God-father: Anna, with fasting and prayer, resolve infertility, and conceived in the womb of the Mother of God Mary and give birth to them the Light of the immaterial, the Queen.In the same way - as voluntary - tonsure is described in the annals: “In the summer of 7034, on November 28, the Grand Duchess Solomonya was tonsured into blueberries, for the sake of illness; and let her go, the prince is great, to the maiden monastery in Suzdal ”; “The great prince Vasilei Ivanovich ordered his Grand Duchess Solomanida to be tonsured into blueberries and sent to Suzdal to the monastery to the Intercession, to the maiden monastery, and tonsured her in Moscow at Christmas, the most pure behind the cannon huts in the maiden monastery Nikolsky hegumen old Davyd”; “The great prince Vasilei Ivanovich tonsured the Grand Duchess Solomonia, on her advice, for the sake of hardship and illness and childlessness; and lived with her for 20 years, but had no children.
In favor of the fact that the decision to tonsure was meaningful and voluntary, the following fact speaks: for tonsure, Solomonia chose November 28 - the memory of the venerable martyr Stephen the New and the martyr Irinarkh. This date was celebrated in the Saburov family as a memorable one: in the Stern Book of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the Peshkov-Saburov family is commemorated precisely on November 28: “The Peshkov family. Remember Dimitry (Semenovich, cousin of Solomon's father. - A PIECE OF CHALK.), Semion, Akilina, John, Nicephorus (the last three men are second cousins of Solomon. - A PIECE OF CHALK.), Dominica, Dimitri, monk Sergius, monk Andreyan (Angelov, elder, cellar of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. - A PIECE OF CHALK.). Their dachas [for the remembrance of the soul] are a fiefdom in the Kolomensky district on the Moscow River, the village of Saburovo.
It is amazing that the granddaughter of the second cousin of Solomonia - the first wife of Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich Evdoky Saburov, in nuns Alexander - passed away on the same day - November 28! This happened at the beginning of the 17th century (in 1614 or 1619).
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As we can see, the voluntary tonsure of Solomonia, the sorrow of the Grand Duke for the dissolution of her marriage, and the blessing of the priesthood (including the disciple of St. Joseph of Volotsk, Metropolitan Daniel) for a remarriage with Elena Glinskaya are facts beyond doubt.
However, there were opponents of this marriage.
The grandson of Yuri Patrikeevich, at whose wedding Fyodor Sabur uttered the famous “God in a kick,” was the monk-prince Vassian (Patrikeev), a student of the Monk Nil of Sora. Here is how his answer to the Grand Duke is described in a tale of the 16th century: “Vasyan said to the great sovereign sitsa: “Never ... did I invent such a resurrection, as if you were asking from my unworthy lips. There is such an inquiry of Herodius, the single head of the Baptist, ”that is, the desire to divorce his wife is similar to the act of the daughter of Herodias, who, having pleased her feasting dance, asked the king for the severed head of John the Baptist. “The Grand Duke Sovereign ... broadcasts his thought to the elder Vasyan: “I want to part my first marriage, my Grand Duchess Solomonia, for the sake of childlessness ... And I want a second marriage of perception, for the sake of childbearing, and so that the seed of our Vladimir progenitor is not exhausted.” And Vasyan answered the Grand Duke ... the words of the verb: “Scripture, sovereign, writes: God combined, let no man separate ... And if you separate your first marriage from yourself, and join the second, you will be called an adulterer ”".
The authors of the chronicles compiled in the Pskov and Novgorod lands, who were often very critical of Moscow, gave the same assessment: and all this is for our sin, as the apostle wrote: let his wife go, and marry another, commit adultery ”; "The Sovereign Prince Veliky Vasilei Ivanovich of All Russia tonsured the Grand Duchess Solomania in blueberries and exiled to Suzdal."
Except for Patrikeyev, who had not found common language with Vasily III, it is difficult to name other opponents of divorce. In Soviet times, when they wrote about this divorce, they came up with many imaginary opponents - for example, the Monk Maxim the Greek. But he was not at all opposed to divorce. Soviet historians generally had a poor understanding of canonical issues and religious disputes. After all, the divorce of spouses due to childlessness and, at the request of one of the spouses, to be tonsured into monasticism was allowed by the Church. Another thing is that it was the first such example in Russian history.
It is much more interesting to pay attention to the "Inventory of the Tsar's Archive of the 16th century", in which "the fairy tale of Yuri Maly, and Stefanida rezanka, and Ivan Yuryev's son Saburov, and Mashka Korelenko, and others about the Grand Duchess Solomanides being sick" were recorded. Of the cases mentioned in this inventory, only one has survived, which tells about the interrogation of Solomonia's elder brother Ivan Yuryevich Saburov: “Summer 7034 November 23 days, Ivan said: the Grand Duchess told me:“ and you wake up and come to me”; and the yaz of Stephanida tried to find out and ... sent you to the court of the Grand Duchess with his wife with Nastya, and that Stephanida was with the Grand Duchess; and Nastya told me that Stephanida slandered the water and moistened the Grand Duchess with it, and even looked at her belly and said that the Grand Duchess would not have children, and after that the tongue came to the Grand Duchess and she said to me: “... but she told me water Stefanida ordered me to wet myself so that the Grand Duke loved me, and Stephanida told me the water in the washstand, and ordered me to wet it with that water ”... and the Grand Duchess, unfolding a shirt or a cover, or something like a dress of the Grand Duke, and from that washstand and wetted that dress".
In addition to Stephanida, the Grand Duchess called on a certain Mashka: “Yes, Ivan said: the Grand Duchess said to me, sir, “they told me blueberry that she knows the children (and she herself is no-nosed) and you get that blueberry” and I sent that blueberry to get ... and that blueberry slandered, I don’t remember butter, I don’t remember fresh honey, and she sent it to the Grand Duchess with Nastya, and ordered her to rub against the fact that the Grand Duke loved her, and sharing the children, and after that the language itself to the Grand Duchess came, and the Grand Duchess said to me: “Nastya brought me from the blueberry, and the tongue was rubbed with it.” Ivan put his hand to this memory.” On the back of the document there is a postscript: “Yes, Ivan said: what do you say to my lord, I can’t remember how many women and peasants came to me about those affairs.”
As can be seen from the case, “Stefanida-Ryazanka” and “Mashka-Karelka” are healers. “Yuri Malay” is Yuri Dmitrievich Trakhaniot, a native of a family of Greeks who came to Russia with Sophia Paleolog. He is known as a confidant of the Russian sovereigns - for example, he was entrusted with such delicate cases as the investigation of the betrayal of Vasily Shemyachich and the escape of Prince Ivan of Ryazan. In addition, he was a member of the inner circle of St. Gennady of Novgorod, the creator of the first Russian Bible.
Solomonia's brother Ivan Yuryevich was also a prominent person at the sovereign's court - a kravchim, whose duties included not only serving the sovereign at the table and sending food from the royal table to his neighbor boyars, but also making sure that through food and drink the sovereign and members of the Boyar Duma did not were poisoned either by accident or on purpose. The kravchis were well-born, especially trusted people. Therefore, we have no reason not to trust the testimony of Ivan Yurievich.
Those actions that Stefanida and Marya taught the Grand Duchess (to give her husband water to drink or to wet his clothes with this water) are a sin. In the 16th century, such penances were imposed on him: according to one source - “it is a sin to wash yourself with milk or honey and give someone to drink mercy for. Penance - 8 weeks, 100 prostrations a day"; according to another - “or she smeared herself with oil or honey and, having washed herself, gave someone to drink or eat, doing magic, penance - a year, and 300 bows a day” . Considering that at that time many years of penance were due for some sins (thousands of bows a day for tens of years, with excommunication from communion), we can conclude that the sin of the Grand Duchess was not regarded as serious. This is also supported by the fact that the testimony was given by the brother of Solomonia, who, without hiding, also named his wife - Anastasia. Of course, this sin was against the Grand Duke (although at the same time for him), but, as subsequent events show, the case was not given a go.
It must be borne in mind that accusations of witchcraft and infertility were at that time a very popular weapon of political struggle. As an example, we can cite Prince Kurbsky, bold from afar - "the first dissident." In The History of the Grand Duke of Moscow, he wrote exactly the same thing about Vasily III, which Solomonia was accused of: brother Yuri.
Solomonia became a nun on November 28, while her brother had testified only three years earlier. Although Solomonia herself expressed her desire to enter a monastery, there were probably other circumstances as well. Vasily III tried to provide for a variant with her disagreement. An inquiry was launched to find out how the Grand Duchess behaved in marriage. Such an investigation was also necessary in order to be sure: she would not be able to give birth to a child in the future.
If the testimony of Ivan Saburov corresponds to historical truth, then it must be assumed that Solomonia really used conspiracies as a means of conceiving a child.
In modern consciousness, the image of not only holy people, but even ordinary clergymen is very easily destroyed at the slightest hint of a sin committed by them. “How can a priest behave like this?”, “What kind of a saint is he, because he did this and that?” - such questions are often heard. This is precisely a liberal, distorted view of the subject at hand. Examples of Israeli, Byzantine, Russian and any other history show that, no matter how trite it sounds, the ministers of the Church of Christ are also people with their own sins and weaknesses. What is surprising in the fact that they sometimes fell? After all, the main thing is not to fall, but to be able to rise.
The disciple and spiritual child of the Athos and Optina elders, Konstantin Nikolaevich Leontiev (later monk Clement), understood this very correctly: “Many of the saints, many of the martyrs, perhaps, were cunning in moments of falling; they were people; to consider the saints sinless is a sin. The Apostle Peter cheated out of fear and denied Christ for a moment. This must be clearly understood before passing judgment on the evidence that Solomonia - the future St. Sophia of Suzdal - called on healers for help.
The case of Yuri Tsarevich
Outside of Russia, the unprecedented precedent of a prince's divorce from his wife was perceived purely practical - as an informational occasion that could be used in the fight against Russia.
In 1526, stunning news came from Suzdal to Moscow: in the monastery, the Grand Duchess gave birth to a son, George (Yuri). The Austrian diplomat Sigismund Herberstein wrote that a rumor arose: Solomonia would soon be resolved. “This rumor was confirmed by two respectable women, the spouses of the first advisers: Treasurer Georgy Maly (Yuri Dmitrievich Trakhaniot. - A PIECE OF CHALK.) and Yakov Mazur (bed-keeper Yakov Ivanovich Mansurov. - A PIECE OF CHALK.), - and assured that they heard from the lips of Solomon herself. Wanting to find out the matter with certainty, the Grand Duke sent to Suzdal “advisor Fyodor Rak (deacon Tretiak Mikhailovich Rakov. - A PIECE OF CHALK.) and a certain secretary of Potat (clerk Grigory Nikitich Lesser Putyatin. - M.E.-L.), instructing them to carefully investigate the veracity of this rumor ... She, they say, answered them that they were not worthy to see the child ... Some stubbornly denied that she gave birth. So, the rumor says about this incident in two ways.On the one hand, foreigners were very fond of conveying in their writings about Russia precisely questions of an intimate nature - the more dubious and dirty, the better. Here, for example, is what Herberstein wrote (already in an affirmative tone) about the second wife of Vasily III, Elena Glinskaya: “... immediately after the death of the sovereign, his widow began to dishonor the royal bed with a certain [prince] nicknamed Ovchin.”
On the other hand, we see that Herberstein's first message mentions real historical figures: Yakov Mansurov, Fyodor Rakov, Grigory Putyatin, Yuri Trakhaniot. Moreover, the latter is mentioned in Russian archival sources as a person who was interrogated in connection with the infertility of Solomon. All these persons are known as trusted people of the sovereign in a special way. important matters.
Let's look at another foreign evidence. The famous historian of Russian life I.E. Zabelin owned the manuscript of the translation of "Moscow, or Russian History" by the German Heidensthal. He quotes her in his “Home Life of Russian Tsarinas”: “When rumors circulated at court, allegedly former queen Solomey in the monastery is not idle and soon has to give birth, Tsar Vasily soon sent boyars and two noble ladies to directly examine Solomey. Solomeya, when she heard their arrival in Suzdal, was terribly afraid and went into the church to the very altar and, holding the throne with her hand, stood, waiting for those sent to her; and when the boyars and ladies came to her, they asked her to come out of the altar to them. And she didn't want to go to them. And whenever she was asked if she could be not idle, she answered them that I, with all my proper position and honor, was the queen and ... for some time I began to be not idle from the husband of my tsar Vasily Ivanovich and had already given birth to a son George, who is now given from me to a keeper in a secret place until his age; and where he is now, I can’t tell you in any way, although I will accept death in myself. The boyars comprehended her lie, and the ladies, examining her that she had never been idle, returned to Moscow and told Tsar Vasily about everything, as if everything was a lie and a deceit.
Sophia's entry into the altar seems impossible. The Grand Dukes had such a right, according to the 69th canon of the VI Ecumenical Council: “None of all those belonging to the category of the laity? let it not be allowed to enter the interior of the sacred altar. But according to some ancient tradition, this is by no means forbidden to the power and dignity of the king, when he wants to bring gifts to the Creator. But this does not apply to women. Although the Byzantine empresses sometimes entered the altar, before that they were ordained deaconesses.
However, the main motive (the birth of a son, George) is confirmed by the fact that “the Nemchin Heidenstalus himself heard all this from the lips of one boyar daughter, who herself was among the girls at the royal review during the election of Sobakina.” The fact is that this review of 1571 was attended by Evdokia Saburova, whom Ivan the Terrible betrothed to his son, as well as a close relative of the future Tsar Boris Godunov Vasily Fedorovich with his wife Pelageya. They could very well be the source of this information.
Indirect evidence in favor of the birth of George can be a number of facts, which in themselves can be explained differently, but in their totality are of considerable interest.
Given the Orthodox fasts and the tonsure of Solomon on November 28, 1525, the birth of her child may fall in April 1526, when the memory of several Saints George is celebrated at once. This name could have been chosen either in honor of Solomonia's father, Yuri Konstantinovich Sverchkov-Saburov, or, more likely, according to the Rurik family tradition.
The foundations of veneration in Russia of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious and the name George (Yuri) were laid in the 11th century by Grand Duke Yaroslav-Yuri the Wise. This name was borne by many famous Ruriks, including Yuri Dolgoruky. Gradually, a tradition took shape to give names to a newborn baby at the same time in honor of the patron saint and in honor of an ancestor (or relative). And often this was done with two different purposes.
First, the baby was given the name of that relative whose dynastic rights and tribal seniority were disputed. So, for example, Vasily the Dark named his son Yuri the Elder (1437-1441) in honor of his great-uncle Yuri Zvenigorodsky, with whom he disputed the rights to the Great Moscow reign. And when Yuri Vasilievich died, he named his next son, Yuri Molodoy (1441-1472), in honor of both Yurievs. Also, Ivan III named his son Yuri in honor of his brother, thereby "taking away" from him the fullness of dynastic rights.
Secondly, the Rurik fathers called their new children the names of children who died in infancy. So, Ivan the Terrible named his son Dmitry (1552-1553) in honor of the ancestor - Dmitry Donskoy, and when he died, he named in honor of both Dmitrievs - and Donskoy, and an early deceased son - his other descendant - Tsarevich Dmitry Uglichsky (1582-1591 ).
Based on this material, we can confidently say that the son of Vasily III and the nun Sophia, Yuri Vasilyevich, was named after his great-uncle, Yuri Vasilyevich Molodoy. Tsarevich Yuri did not live long, and by 1533 he was no longer alive, which allowed Vasily III to name his second son from Elena Glinskaya. Thus, Yuri Vasilyevich the Young (1533-1563) received not only the name of Yuri Vasilyevich the Elder (1526 - ca. 1533), but also his rights to the Grand Duke's table.
As you can see, genealogical and onomastic studies give us additional indications of some facts of the biography of the son of Solomon.
What else do we have?
The great princes (and not only them) had a custom to take a vow - to build a temple or monastery in honor of the birth of a son. Moreover, this was not necessarily done in the year the child was born. So, in 1531, Vasily III built the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist in Stary Vagankovo, which was dedicated to the birth of his son Ivan in 1530.Did Vasily III build a temple in honor of the birth of his first-born son Solomon? Indeed, in the Resurrection Chronicle we find a mention of this: in April 1527, a church was erected at the Frolovsky Gates of the Moscow Kremlin in the name of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious. Here was placed the famous sculpture of St. George (the work of Yermolin), which since 1464 was located on the Frolovskaya (now Spassky) tower of the Kremlin.
A few days later - on May 7, 1526 - the Suzdal Intercession Monastery, in which St. Sophia lived, received as a gift the village of Pavlovskoye in the Suzdal district: granted them, gave them to them in the house of the Most Holy Intercession in Suzhdal, his village of Pavlovskoye with villages and repairs ... "
And a few months after that, on September 19, the nun Sophia herself was granted by the village: “Behold the great prince Vasily Ivanovich of all Russia. I granted the old woman Sofya in Suzdal with your village of Vysheslavsky with villages and with repairs, with everything that to that village and to the villages and to the repair of Istari drew up to her stomach, and after her stomach, sometimes the village of Vysheslavskoe into the house of the most pure Intercession of the Holy Mother of God abbess Ulyana and to all the sisters. Or, according to her, another abbess will be in that monastery at the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God, for their benefit.
Note: On May 7, 1508, the Grand Duke's family moved to a new courtyard near the Church of the Annunciation in the Kremlin, and on the same day, the Monk Nil of Sorsky passed away. And September 19 is the eve of the feast of the holy martyr Eustathius, Grand Duke Mikhail of Chernigov and his boyar Fyodor. It is on this day that the Saburov family is commemorated in the Stern Book of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. It seems that this gift was specially timed to coincide with the holiday (as you know, the church day begins at 6 pm the previous day).
There is evidence of the remembrance of Prince Yuri Vasilyevich for the rest. The Stern Book of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery (a list of the Imperial Public Library, located in a collection of the 17th century) contains the following entry: “The month of January on the 1st day for Prince Yury Ivanovich, and for Prince Yury Vasilyevich, and for Prince Ondria Ivanovich, and for Princess his Euphrosyne, in the monastery of Evdokey, and for their son after Prince Volodimer Ovdrievich, and for his princess for Evdokia, and for his son for his prince Vasily, and for his two daughters for Evdokia and for Marya, they wrote the food of the profits for the sovereign's salary that the sovereign gave alms for them."
Mentioned persons are Andrei Staritsky (1490-1537) and Yuri Ivanovich (1480-1536) - brothers of Vasily the Third; Euphrosinia Andreevna Staritskaya († in 1569), née Princess Khovanskaya, wife of Andrei Staritsky; their son Vladimir Staritsky (1533-1569), Princess Evdokia Nagaya († 1597) - the first wife of Vladimir Staritsky; their son Vasily Staritsky (1552-1573); as well as the children of Vladimir Staritsky from his second marriage (with Princess Evdokia Odoevskaya) († 1569) - Maria († 1569) and Evdokia (1561-1570). All these persons died between 1536 and 1597. Thus, the mentioned sovereign is, of course, Fedor Ivanovich. But who is "Prince Yuri Vasilyevich"?
Let's look at the entry in another Stern Book -: “According to Prince Yury Vasilyevich, the memory of April on the 22nd day of panahida, sing and serve as a cathedral, as long as the monastery stands.”
A certain "Prince Yuri Vasilievich" is mentioned again. Vasily III had a son, Yuri, brother of Ivan the Terrible, from Elena Glinskaya. However, he was born on October 30, 1533, was baptized on November 3 of the same year, and died on November 24, 1563. But in the above two entries, January 1 and April 22 are mentioned (the eve of the feast of George (Yuri) the Victorious). There is every reason to assume that this is not Ivan the Terrible's brother by Elena Glinskaya, but his brother from his father's first marriage - that is, the son of Solomonia, who was born in April and died in January.
Sovereign Ivan the Terrible was a very intelligent and educated person, he knew the history of his family very well, studied archival documents. Let's remember the "Box 44th" - "And in it are the lists - the fairy tale of Yuri Maly, and Stefanida rezanka, and Ivan Yuryev, the son of Saburov, and Mashka Korelenko, and others about the Grand Duchess Solomanides being sick" - and about what was preserved from it just one thing. So, this box in 1566 "on the 7th day of August the sovereign took to himself." Ivan the Terrible took to himself a lot of archival files, but his interest in this box is very indicative.
An unexpected confirmation that the son of Sophia existed was received more than 300 years later, during the years when representatives of the Soviet authorities were actively opening the tombs and shrines of saints.
The monastic tradition clearly recorded the place of burial of the son of the nun Sophia. In "Historical and archaeological description Pokrovsky maiden monastery” states that “on the right side of the tomb of Solomonia there is a half-yard monument; as they say, her seven-year-old son, who was born in the monastery, is buried here ”(although, according to another version, the young“ Princess Anastasia Shuiskaya ”- the daughter of Tsar Vasily) was buried here; “There is a legend, similar to the truth, that Solomonia, already tonsured in Suzdal, gave birth to a son, Yuri, who lived with her and died 7 years old. The stone covering his grave is shown near the tomb of Solomon.
After 1934, the director of the Suzdal Museum A.D. Varganov picked up an anonymous white stone slab, which was located next to the tomb of St. Sophia in the crypt of the Pokrovsky Cathedral. Under it, a small burial deck was found, covered from the inside with a layer of lime. It contained "the remains of a child's shirt and decayed rags without any trace of bones."
It is important to note three features that allow us to date this burial and dismiss the version that there was a burial of a girl from the Shuisky family: firstly, the slab above the burial repeated with its ornament the nearby tombstone of an old woman who died in 1525. Secondly, such decks were characteristic of the 16th century. And, thirdly, the shirt turned out to be male.
At the beginning of 1944, Varganov handed over the following to the Department of Textile Restoration of the State Historical Museum in Moscow: “1) a small bundle of scraps of dark brown silk fabric, tied together with a blackened metal braid; 2) breast decorations made of metal cord, sewn in rows on silk fabric, with a slit in the middle; 3) a piece of metal braid-braid with a smaller end of the same braid sewn to it from the side, torn downwards; 4) a bottom decoration made of a metal lace sewn in rows onto a silk fabric, with two torn ends of the braid at the bottom; 5) a braided belt made of untwisted reddish silk and metallic threads, with scraps of tassels at the ends. Dry earth, mixed with sparkles of silver, fell from all these objects. Moreover, “scraps of fabrics, metal stripes and a belt were covered with dark brown spots, warped and were hard to the touch. The fabric was wrinkled and sagging. Metal cords darkened ... "
As a result of long and painstaking work, the restorer E.S. Vidonova restored the shirt of a boy of about 5 years old, who belonged to the nobility, made of worm-colored silk taffeta, with blue gussets, lining and backing, decorated with silver stripes and the remains of pearl embroidery along the collar, sleeves and hem, along with a Shemakhan silk belt with spun silver and tassels at the ends. The material and technique have been confidently dated to the first half of the 16th century.
Let's pay attention to the dark brown spots, the absence of the boy's remains in the children's burial, the presence of earth and lime inside the deck. Apparently, this suggests that the child died as a result of a tragic accident, but even years later he was not left alone: the grave was opened, because someone was very interested in the reality of the existence of the son of Solomon.
What was the cause of the death of Tsarevich Yuri Vasilyevich and where his body disappeared remains a mystery. However, if we assume that he lived for 7 years, then he died in 1533. And the grave could be opened soon - in the reign of Elena Glinskaya. The fact is that at the end of this year Vasily III died, and Grand Duchess Elena remained for some time the ruler under the young Ivan Vasilyevich. The exile of the monk Sophia immediately followed: she “was in Kargopol for five years and was then transferred to the Maiden Monastery in Suzdal to the Protection of the Most Pure Ones.” The nun Sophia was returned to Suzdal only after the death of Elena herself, that is, already by order of Ivan the Terrible (in 1538).
Kargopol was not chosen by chance: from the beginning of the century, this city was under the personal control of Vasily III and was known as a place of exile for noble people. In addition, in the middle of the century, Ivan Yakovlevich Saburov, a cousin of the monk Sophia, described this area.
All this suggests that the Grand Duchess Solomonia - the nun Sophia was perceived by Elena as a possible rival. If we assume that Sophia did not have a child, then her claim to the throne is doubtful. But if we assume that there was a boy, this suggests that he about more right to claim the throne than the children of Helen. Thus, the repression of Glinskaya against the first wife of Vasily III speaks in favor of the existence of Tsarevich Yuri.However, we concluded that Yuri died during the life of Vasily III, who managed to name his second son in honor of him by the same name. What worried Elena Glinskaya, since the boy died? Probably, his funeral was furnished with all secrecy, or Vasily did not discuss the fate of Prince Yuri with his second wife at all. So she wanted to make sure that the child died.
The sequence of events is clear: the death of Yuri (son of Solomonia) - the birth and naming of Yuri (son of Elena) - the death of Vasily III - the regency of Elena - the exile of Sofia - the opening of the grave of Yuri - the death of Elena - the return to Suzdal of Sofia - the reign of the infant Ivan the Terrible.
It remains only to guess what feelings St. Sophia must have experienced, who gave birth to a son after tonsure, witnessed his death, and then discovered the opened grave of her son (and the body disappeared). Of course, this was all a difficult test for the mother.
In my opinion, there is no doubt that Tsarevich Georgy (Yuri) Vasilyevich is a real historical person and that he died as a child. But the Russian people have their own opinion on this matter: Tsarevich Yuri has been called Ataman Kudeyar for almost 500 years.
Ataman Kudeyar
This person is one of the most popular in Russian folklore: legends about Kudeyar are recorded on a vast territory coinciding with the boundaries of the Wild Field of the 16th century - in Kaluga, Bryansk, Tula, Oryol, Kursk, Belgorod, Ryazan, Tambov, Voronezh, Penza, Saratov , Samara and Ulyanovsk (former Simbirsk province) regions, as well as in Suzdal.
I know six legends in which the son of Vasily III and Solomonia Saburova - Tsarevich Yuri - is identified with Ataman Kudeyar.
1. The Saratov legend about how, setting off to fight Kazan, Ivan the Terrible entrusted Moscow to Kudeyar Vasilyevich, but he drew up a false decree on a call to Kazan and left for the steppes with the sovereign's treasury.
2. The Simbirsk legend that Ivan the Terrible wanted to execute his brother Yuri-Kudeyar and summoned him to Kazan for this, but Kudeyar found out about these intentions and took up defense on the Krotkovsky town near Sengiley on the Volga.
3. The story of how Ivan the Terrible met with Yuri (who was hiding under the name of "Prince Lukhovsky") under the walls of besieged Kazan, after which Yuri fled to the north - almost to Solovki.
4. The Kursk legend that Yuri Kudeyar was kidnapped by the Tatars in order to ask the king for a ransom for him, but when this failed, Yuri was sent along with the Tatar army to get the Moscow throne for himself. When this also failed, he did not return to the Crimea and remained in Russia, where he took up robbery.
5. The Suzdal legend that Kudeyar made an alliance with the Tatars, came to Russia with them, and then, seeing their excesses, returned to the Russian camp and helped his own defend Moscow.
6. The story contained in the memoirs of A.Ya. Artynov, a well-known Rostov local historian of the 19th century, a peasant of the palace village of Ugodichi near Rostov: “About Sidorka Altin, his direct descendant, my uncle Mikhail Dmitriev Artynov, in his story about the village of Ugodichi, written by him in 1793, says the following: Sidorko Amelfov was a kisser of Rostov Lake and the headman of the sovereign's fish catchers; he often went to Moscow with a fish quitrent to the big Sovereign's Palace; on one of these trips, he was an involuntary hearer of the royal secret, for which he paid with his life. His guilt was as follows: being in his position in the large Moscow Palace and being a little tipsy (having drunk), he got lost there, went into a deserted part of the palace. Looking for a way out, he finally came to a small chamber adjacent to the royal dwelling, and there he heard a loud conversation between the Terrible Tsar and Malyuta Skuratov about Prince Yuri, the son of Solomanida Saburova. Grozny orders Malyuta to find Prince Yuri and rid him of him. Malyuta promised the tsar to fulfill this exactly, and after this conversation he went out through the doors, in front of which Sidorko barely stood alive. Malyuta saw him, stopped; then he went back to the tsar, after which he imprisoned Sidorka and tortured him to death on the rack together with his father Amelfa, who had come to Moscow to visit his son. The genealogy of the author of this story is known just from the time when his ancestors served the Grand Duchess Elena Glinskaya - in the 30s of the 16th century they were palace peasants.
A sign that there is no "smoke without fire" and in this case, is the mention in the legends about Yuri-Kudeyar of “Prince Lukhovsky”, he is also “Prince Lykov”: in 1664, among the treasure hunters, a certain “letter was known that was sent from the Crimea, to Putivl in the past years, “from that thief Kudoyar to his brother Kudoyarov and from a comrade from his Kudoyarov, from a certain Prince Lykov.
As the genealogies show, there really is a direct, historically reliable connection between the Saburovs-Godunovs (and therefore Tsarevich Yuri) and the Lykov princes. Fyodor Nikitich Romanov, the future Patriarch Filaret and father of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, had five brothers and six sisters. His sister Irina was married to Ivan Ivanovich Godunov, and his sister Anastasia was married to Prince Boris Mikhailovich Lykov-Obolensky, who betrayed Tsar Boris Godunov and supported False Dmitry I - Grishka Otrepyev. That is, Ivan Godunov and Prince Boris Lykov were brothers-in-law.
The daughter of Prince Lykov and Romanova, Maria, married Ivan Shein, whose mother was Maria Mikhailovna Godunova. In this case, Prince Boris Lykov and Maria Godunova were each other's matchmaker and matchmaker. Thus, Prince Boris Lykov had a brother-in-law, Ivan Godunov, and a mother-in-law, Maria Godunova. If we assume that Prince Yuri Vasilyevich is a real historical person, then Ivan Godunov is his fifth cousin. For that time and for this genus - a fairly close relationship. The great-grandfather of Prince Boris Lykov-Obolensky is the second cousin of Mikhail Yaroslavich Chet-Obolensky. But after all, Mikhail Chet and Solomoniya Saburova are also second cousins. Thus, the princes Lykovs are relatives of Solomonia Saburova both according to the Saburovs, and according to the Godunovs, and according to the Obolenskys.
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Here Tsar Ivan the Terrible, the capture of Kazan and a certain Yuri are mentioned again. This plot allows us to say that we are talking about the Russian serviceman Kudeyar Bakhmetev mentioned in the sources: we know his arrival in December 1553 as a messenger from the Nogai Murza Kasim to Ivan the Terrible.
Thus, we are talking about a specific representative of the Bakhmetev family, who, of course, was not a relative of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, but was in his service. And he became a “relative” due to the fact that, in addition to the baptismal name Yuri, he also bore the name Kudeyar, which in the popular mind was firmly connected with the personality of the son of Vasily III and Solomonia Saburova.
In general, the name Kudeyar is by no means as rare as researchers sometimes try to imagine. In the 17th century alone, I know (in addition to Bakhteyarov) five more people who bore this name:
1. Kudeyar Chufarov, landowner from Arzamas, mentioned in 1581.
2. Prince Kudeyar Ivanovich Meshchersky, 1580.
3. Kudeyar Karachaev, son of Mudyuranov, Moscow ambassador, Cossack.
4. Kildeyar (Kudeyar) Ivanovich from the family of the Kursk noblemen Markovs.
5. The son of a boyar from Belev Kudeyar Tishenkov, who betrayed his homeland and fled to the Crimea. In 1571, he convinced the Crimean Khan Devlet Giray to march not on Kozelsk, as was planned, but directly on Moscow. The raid was very devastating, Moscow burned out, and Kudeyar went back with the Tatars to the Crimea. However, after some time, Tishenkov turned to Ivan the Terrible with a request for pardon and permission to return to Moscow. Permission has been granted. Nothing more is known about him.
Thus, we can confidently say that in the image of Yuri Kudeyar, the biographies of several completely real, but different people have merged into one in the public mind. Initially, the people paid attention to how the grand-ducal and royal children, brothers and uncles "disappeared" - people perfectly understood that some of these deaths were caused by the struggle for the throne. Here the concept of "God's executions" emerged in the people's minds - an idea that is in full accordance with biblical values that the invasions of foreigners are God's punishments for human sins. Tatar invasions were such an execution, in one of which Kudeyar Tishenkov took an active part. Paradoxically, the people considered the arrival of Tsarevich Yuri Vasilyevich himself, but already in the form of Tsarevich Kudeyar, as a punishment for the death and removal from the throne of Tsarevich Yuri Vasilyevich.
Further more. After the chain “Tsarevich Yuri - the execution of God - Kudeyar” was fixed in the popular consciousness, biographical facts from the life of all famous Kudeyars of the 16th century, for example Kudeyar Bakhmetev, began to be added to the legends about Yuri-Kudeyar, and then the name Kudeyar became a household name, and “kudeyars ”began to call all the robbers in general. The “exploits” of the “kudeyars” (especially with a Robin Hood tinge) began to be attributed to Yuri Kudeyar, whose subordinates Stenka Razin began to act from the 17th century, and Emelka Pugachev from the 18th century. By this time, the son of Solomon should have been 250 years old.
Thus, we see that there is a historical basis under the legends about Tsarevich Yuri Kudeyar, but this is a collective image.
It is important to note one more story that will help us understand the place that the personal tragedy of Solomon's son occupies in Russian history. We are talking about the fate of the eldest and only son of Ivan III from his first marriage - Ivan Molodoy and the son of the latter - Dmitry Vnuk. They are Vasily III's brother and nephew, and Tsarevich Yuri Vasilyevich is his uncle and cousin.
For a long time there was even no talk of Vasily Ivanovich becoming the heir to the Russian throne. This role was assigned to Ivan Ivanovich Molodoy, married to Elena Voloshanka, the daughter of the Moldavian ruler Stefan. And even after Ivan the Young died, Ivan III saw as his successor neither Vasily, but Dmitry Vnuk - the son of Ivan the Young. Moreover, Dmitry Vnuk was crowned king on the model of the Byzantine emperors - even during the life of his grandfather. But at the turn of the 16th century, the situation changed dramatically: the crowned successor to the throne, along with his mother, faded into the background, and Vasily Ivanovich began to be called the official heir.
What happened? Often historians try to explain this by the struggle of people and clans. But this is only partly true, since it was based on a struggle of ideas. The fact is that behind Ivan Molodoy and Dmitry Vnuk there were forces that were dear to Specific Russia, in other words, separatists. Even worse, through Elena Voloshanka, the heresy of the Judaizers penetrated into the family of Ivan the Young - a colossal threat to Russian Orthodoxy, which consisted in sympathy for Jewish religious ideas. The Judaizers did not recognize the domestic Paschal and the chronology from the Creation of the world, the icons and relics of the saints, they focused on the celebration of the Sabbath, etc. The greatest fighters against this heresy were St. Gennady of Novgorod and St. Joseph of Volotsky.
It so happened that Vasily Ivanovich, together with his mother Sophia Paleolog, was involved in a conspiracy against the family of Ivan the Young, which was revealed. Ordinary perpetrators of the conspiracy were executed, and Vasily and his mother fell into disgrace and were not even invited to the wedding of Dmitry Vnuk to the kingdom.
But, despite the minority of Vasily's family line, despite the conspiracy in which he participated, shortly before his death, Ivan III transferred the throne to him. Vasily was never crowned king, and only his son Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible was crowned (in the image of the wedding ceremony of Dmitry Vnuk) in 1547.
At the same time, Dmitry Vnuk himself was kept in prison, where he ended his life shortly after Vasily's marriage to Solomonia Saburova. Is it possible to feel sorry for him, married to the Russian kingdom, but who died in captivity? Undoubtedly. Is it possible to feel sorry for his father - Ivan Molodoy, who was a successful statesman and Prince of Tver, but as a result of the struggle for power he died young? Undoubtedly. Does this mean that Ivan III or his wife Sophia Paleolog or their son Vasily III were villains? Of course not! They were great statesmen, thanks to whom and during whose reign the Russian state ideology took shape, known to us from the works of the Josephites and as the idea of Moscow - the Third Rome. It was thanks to these people that a single Russia, not divided into destinies, with its united national idea.
Thus, having briefly examined the fate of Dmitry Tsarevich, we see that there was nothing surprising in the fate of Yuri Tsarevich - the removal from the throne and the subsequent death of the young heir at the end of the 15th - first half of the 16th century were not isolated phenomena. The fate of Yuri-Kudeyar was exactly the same as the fate of his uncle Ivan Molodoy and the fate of his cousin Dmitry-Vnuk.
The Russian people, simple contemporaries of these events, saw only the external side of these events, and did not have all the necessary information in order to make judgments at the national level, therefore, sympathy for the losing side is reflected in Russian folklore.
The fate of Ivan the Young became the basis for the appearance of a cycle of Russian fairy tales about Ivan Tsarevich. Let us compare the main episodes from the life of Ivan Tsarevich and the well-known biographical details of Ivan Ivanovich Molodoy.
Ivan Tsarevich has two villain brothers - Vasily and Dmitry, and Ivan the Young has brothers Vasily and Dmitry.
In a fairy tale: golden apples begin to mysteriously disappear, and Ivan's brothers turn a blind eye to this, and Ivan is the only one who was able to catch the kidnapper. In life: Sophia and Vasily were accused of intending to seize the grand ducal treasury located in Beloozero during the conspiracy.
In a fairy tale: Ivan married Princess Elena the Beautiful / Wise, whom he brought home from distant lands. In life: Ivan married Elena, the daughter of the Moldavian ruler Stefan.
In a fairy tale: Ivan was treacherously killed by his own brothers. In life: Ivan died during the struggle for the throne.
In a fairy tale: The Tsar was angry with the Ivanov brothers and put them in prison. In life: soon after the death of Ivan, Sophia was sent to prison with her son Vasily.
In a fairy tale: we meet the Firebird and the Gray Wolf. In life: on the coins of Tsarevich Ivan, the former prince of Tver, we meet them.
It is clear that the Russian people in fairy tales romanticized the image of the losing side, or at least did not tell the tale to the end: after all, the “villains” won and turned out to be positive heroes.
We observe exactly the same in the case of Yuri Tsarevich - Ataman Kudeyar. Let's think: what was Vasily III supposed to do when he found out that his wife had given birth to his son in the monastery? Recognize an heir and return the wife-nun to Moscow? To avoid bigamy at the same time, he had to divorce a second time - with his young wife Elena Glinskaya. Would anyone seriously take a sovereign who, in two years, first divorces his first wife and marries a second, then divorces his second in order to reunite with the first - a nun?! Of course not. Yes, it was not possible.
Maybe Vasily III had to leave Sophia in the monastery, but bring his son Yuri closer? And how would his second wife react to this, the meaning of marriage with which was the birth of an heir? To do this means to bring confusion into the grand ducal family and forever quarrel everyone who stood behind Elena Glinskaya with the descendants of Zakharia Chet. Thus, a “delayed-action mine” would have been laid: immediately after the death of Vasily, two groups would have formed - pro-Yuryev and Proglinskaya. No, Vasily already went through this, in his youth, and tried his best to avoid a similar situation for his descendants.
Thus, we see that the fate of Yuri Vasilyevich was a foregone conclusion - especially after the birth of his son Ivan from his marriage with Elena. Yuri Vasilievich had to live his whole life under supervision: even if he himself had not taken up the “getting the throne”, there would always be people (both inside the country and outside) who would raise the banner of Yuri for their political purposes. Can you feel sorry for Yuri? Undoubtedly. Does this mean that Vasily III or Ivan the Terrible were villains? Of course not.
So the situation with the birth of a son from Sophia was perceived only by two observers - ordinary Russian people and foreigners, who equally considered that "the villains imprisoned the innocent Yuri." But the reasons for this opinion were different. If in Russian folklore the legends about Yuri Kudeyar became, as it were, a continuation of the cycle of fairy tales about Ivan Tsarevich, then foreigners perceived the information about Solomon's son in a completely different way. The idea that the grand ducal couple had a son who has more rights to the throne than Ivan the Terrible, who is on it, runs like a red thread through the works of numerous foreign intelligence officers and adventurers.
Many of the authors of the 16th-17th centuries talk about this. For example, Adam Olearius wrote: “tyrant Ivan Vasilievich” “forcibly sent his wife Solomonia to the monastery after having spent 21 years in marriage with her, he could not have children; he then married another, named Elena ... The first wife, however, soon after gave birth to a baby son in the monastery.
Yes, yes, that's right: according to Olearius, Solomonia's husband was not Vasily Ivanovich, but Ivan Vasilyevich, that is, Ivan the Terrible! Further more.
Petreus de Erlezund put the following words into Sophia's mouth: “Neither she nor the Grand Duke will see the bright face and sweet eyes of the baby; but the day will come when in due time he will fearlessly appear before the eyes of his subjects, let them see his bright eyes and will not leave her shame, reproach and humiliation without vengeance ... Many of the Russians told for sure that Salome gave birth to a son ... and then, having entered on the great reign, he called himself Ivan and did many inhuman cruelties in Russia and Livonia. But some dispute this and think that Ivan is the youngest son of Vasily from Elena, the daughter of Vasily Glinsky.
As we can see, two ideas are being carried out here simultaneously: Yuri Tsarevich will take revenge on the Rurikovichs for tonsuring his mother and removing himself from the throne; and, probably, he did, because, having changed his name, he ruled Russia as Ivan the Terrible - "a tyrant and a murderer."
It turns out that Yuri was both the son and husband of Solomonia, and even Ivan the Terrible! Even if we put aside the genealogical nonsense of the two authors, in any case, their pathos is unambiguous: Russian rulers are tyrants and usurpers who illegally own the throne. What is the next thought? Of course, we need to help Russia and give her a beneficent ruler! As rightly noted by I.E. Zabelin, the rumor about the birth of George in the mouths of foreigners "is a seditious attempt to bring confusion into the sovereign's family and the state, the first attempt to install an impostor." And if in the 16th century it was not possible to steal the name of Tsarevich Yuri for this purpose, then at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries it was quite possible - in the case of Tsarevich Dmitry Uglichsky, whose name was ruled by several False Dmitrys at once.
Miracles of Saint Sophia
However, politics was politics, and life went on: after being tonsured a monk, Sophia became famous for her pious life and labors. In the monastery, the Grand Duchess continued to embroider, dug a well with her own hands. She lived another 17 years and passed away at the age of about 60 - December 16, 1542, having outlived not only her husband and his second wife, but also her son Yuri.According to the monastery tradition, Tsar Ivan the Terrible visited the monastery in 1552, before going to Kazan. After her capture, he made a contribution to the monastery, and Tsarina Anastasia Romanova laid a veil on the tomb of St. Sophia.
In 1563, the second wife of Ivan the Terrible, Tsarina and Grand Duchess Maria Temryukovna and Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich, went to pray at the Suzdal Pokrovsky Monastery, and the next year Tsar Ivan himself went “to Suzdal for the Intercession of the Most Pure Virgin to the maiden monastery for a feast on the Intercession of the Most Pure One to pray with his great queen Princess Marya, with her son with Tsarevich Ivan. Let me remind you that in seven years this prince will marry Evdokia Saburova, and in eight years she will also be tonsured a nun (under the name of Alexander) - in the same monastery.
At the end of the 16th century, Tsarina Irina Godunova, a relative of Sophia, made a contribution to the monastery: “Yes, the Empress, the Empress, Grand Duchess Irina sent to the Grand Duchess Solomonida, and to Sophia in the foreign shop, the cover is black velvet, and on it is a cross, silver cloaks are gilded knocked out, and carved on the cloaks the deesis and the chosen saints, and near the cloaks and the spear and the cane and the signature near the cross are embroidered with pearls, and near the cover of the signature the words are embroidered with gold on tausin satin, and near the signature the rope is embroidered with gold, and lined with crimson taffeta.
In 1598, half a century after the repose of Sophia, the first miracle known to us occurred on her grave - the wife of Prince Daniil Andreevich of Suzdal, Princess Anna Feodorovna Nogteva, who had been blind for six years, saw her sight. After the death of her husband, she also took the vows in this monastery and took the monastic name of Alexander.
In the new century, Russia faced severe trials. In the Time of Troubles, in 1609, detachments of a faithful supporter of the false Dmitrys, Prince Alexander Lisovsky, came to Suzdal, known for his ruthlessness in the capture of cities and monasteries, which he subjected to complete ruin (it would not be superfluous to note that he was a Jesuit). But this time a miracle happened: in a dream, a formidable nun appeared to him with burning candles in her hands and began to scorch him with a flame. Fear attacked the ataman, and his hand was taken away. Struck by the wrath of God, Lisovsky did not ruin Suzdal.
Many miracles at the tomb of Sophia are known to us thanks to the dean of the Intercession Cathedral, priest Anania Fedorov, who wrote them down and told posterity about the popular veneration of the nun Sophia. Miracles multiplied, the Suzdal hierarchs began to raise the issue of canonization. In 1750, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Joseph allowed her to be venerated as a saint. But soon Russia was shaken by even more difficult trials than the Time of Troubles: a church schism, the liquidation of the patriarchate, and Peter's reforms. As a result, for more than two centuries the name of St. Sophia was under an unspoken ban. But people continued to venerate the saint.
Only in 1916, with the blessing of the Holy Synod, the name of St. Sophia of Suzdal was included in the church calendar, and in 1995 her relics were solemnly acquired.
Hagia Sophia is one of those saints whose help we constantly feel: miracles multiply. I will give several examples of 2001-2006, told by residents of Moscow, Ivanovo, the Vladimir region and Tyumen.
“In mid-February 2003, my mother had a stroke, the left side of her face was distorted, her speech was disturbed, her eyes hardly opened. I had a consecrated oil from the relics of St. Sophia of Suzdal, which I purchased at the Intercession Monastery, and with this oil I suggested that my mother anoint her head and face ... In
In the hospital, she had a dream: she was standing in a large temple, surrounded by people in black clothes, their faces were severe. Mother was scared, she wanted to break out of this circle. Suddenly she saw a woman in princely clothes appear in the temple, very beautiful. Easily approaching her mother, she took her by the hand and said, “Let's go.” In the morning my mother felt much better.”
“In 2002, doctors diagnosed me with cancer of the uterus; in the autumn they were supposed to have an operation ... I saw in a dream an old icon depicting a saint unknown to me, and at the same time I felt that I should come to her relics ... In August, I arrived in Suzdal for the Feast of the Transfiguration ... Entering the main cathedral of the Intercession Monastery, I saw on the wall the same icon that I saw in a dream. It was an icon of St. Sophia of Suzdal. For three days I went to the monastery for services and venerated the relics of the holy ascetic. When I went to the hospital in September, it turned out that there was no need for an operation, and six months later I was deregistered.”
The reign of Basil 3 briefly became the time of the end. Basil 3 actually destroyed the remnants of the specific principalities and created a single state. His son already got a powerful state.
In short, in the first half of the XVI century. Russia has experienced a great economic recovery. Even Vasily's father began to pursue an active policy in this direction. He made several campaigns towards Siberia and the Urals, made an alliance with the Crimean Khanate. This policy made it possible to stabilize relations on the southern borders and bring peace there.
The reign of Ivan 3 and Vasily 3
The reign of Ivan 3 and Vasily 3 allowed to stabilize the state inside the country, was able to defeat another hostile state for Moscow Russia - the Livonian Order. The Livonian Order attacked Pskov. The board of Pskov and Novgorod was similar, both territories were a republic. However, the power of Novgorod was much greater. By the way, Pskov himself helped annex Novgorod to the territory of the Russian state. But when the Order attacked Pskov, it had to rely only on the help of Moscow. He did not have a large army of his own.
Pskov began to gradually turn into a territory where dual control was established:
- Pskov Veche;
- Prince sent from Moscow.
It is clear that the Moscow governor could not agree with the Veche in everything, there were conflicts. When Vasily 3 came to the throne, he decided that it was no longer necessary to appoint a prince. He planned to abolish this system. Prince Repnya-Obolensky was sent to the city. He provoked a conflict with Veche and Vasily began to prepare for the attack and conquest of Pskov.
In 1509, Vasily III and his army approached Novgorod. The inhabitants of Pskov found out about this, and hurried to the sovereign with their gifts. Vasily pretended to accept all the gifts. Everyone was ordered to appear at the sovereign's court. There, the inhabitants of Pskov were taken into custody. The People's Veche was abolished, about 300 families were evicted by order of the sovereign, and the lands were given over to service people from Moscow. In 1510, the Pskov Republic ceased to be independent.
It so happened that the reign of Vasily 3 until his death is perceived by many as the time between the two Ivans. IvanIII became the first sovereign, became the first to collect Russian lands.aka Grozny also made a great contribution to the history of Muscovite Russia. But here is the reign of BasilIII is somehow missed by many. But he ruled for almost 30 years. The term is very impressive.
The beginning of the reign of Vasily 3
The beginning of the reign of Vasily 3 began with the annexation of Pskov. In general, it is worth saying that Vasily III began to continue the work of his eminent father, Tsar Ivan III. The main directions of his policy coincided with his father's. Officially, Vasily Ivanovich was on the throne for 28 years. The years of the reign of Vasily 3 are 1505-1533, but in fact he began to rule when Ivan III was still on the throne. Basil was the official co-emperor.
Vasily Ivanovich knew exactly what fate awaited him. He was being prepared for the possibility that he could soon head the Muscovite state. But Vasily did not find out about this from an early age. The fact is that they had a son born in their first marriage - Ivan "Young". He was heir to the throne. Ivan Ivanovich had a son Dmitry. The boy could also claim the throne in the event of the death of his father. Of course, there was no clear decree that Ivan the Young would get the throne. However, the young man actively participated in public affairs, many perceived him as the heir. In 1490 Ivan fell ill and soon died.
Thus, in different time There were three contenders for the throne:
- Ivan Ivanovich "Young";
- Vasily Ivanovich III;
- Dmitry Ivanovich is the grandson of Ivan III.
In 1505, Vasily Ivanovich, the second oldest son of Vasily, was on the throne, he was born in a second marriage to the Byzantine princess Sophia Paleolog. As already mentioned, Vasily continued political course father. He built new temples, stone houses. By 1508, a new palace had been built, and Vasily III moved his family there.
Interestingly, many historians describe the character of BasilIII as a haughty and proud person. He believed in his exclusivity as the ruler of Russia, probably this vanity was inspired by his mother - Sophia Paleolog and father - IvanIII. He suppressed all resistance in Russia very harshly, sometimes using cunning and ingenuity. However, there are very few people he executed. His reign was not like the reign, there was no terror at all. BasilIII preferred to eliminate his opponents without the use of execution.
The reign of Basil 3
Based on his political views, Vasily sought to pursue a tough and clear policy. He sometimes consulted with his associates, but made most decisions on his own. But still, the Boyar Duma played an important role in governing the country. The reign of Vasily 3 did not become "disgraced" for the boyars. The Duma met regularly.
At various times, close associates of Vasily III were:
- Vasily Kholmsky;
- Prince of Denmark Shchenya;
- Dmitry Fedorovich Volsky;
- Princes from the Penkov family;
- Princes from the Shuisky family and others.
Major events in domestic and foreign policy:
- The confrontation between Moscow and the Crimean Khanate, as a result, Khan Mohammed Giray went over to the side of Lithuania;
- Strengthening the southern borders, building Zaraysk, Tula and Kaluga;
- 1514 capture of Smolensk by the troops of Daniil Schenya;
- 1518 an invitation from a monk from Mount Athos to translate Greek books, Mikhail Trivolis (Maxim the Greek) arrived;
- 1522 Daniel became the new metropolitan (he replaced the previously deposed
- Varlaam);
- Accession of the Ryazan principality (1522).
Creating and decorating churches, Vasily Ivanovich adhered to his interests in religion and art. He had excellent taste. In 1515, the Assumption Cathedral was completed on the territory of the Kremlin. When he first visited the cathedral, he noted that he felt great here. Vasily also showed great interest in Old Russian, he studied it, could speak it quite well. And he loved his wife Elena very much (she was his second wife) and son. There are several letters that show how warmly he treated them.
Russia in the reign of Vasily 3
In September 1533, Vasily III visited the Trinity-Sergius Monastery with his wife and children, then he went hunting. Soon after his arrival, Vasily fell ill. An anguish formed on the sovereign's left thigh. The inflammation gradually became more and more widespread, later the doctors diagnosed it as “blood poisoning”. It became clear that the sovereign could no longer be saved. Basil behaved very courageously in the face of impending death.
The last will of the ruler was:
- Securing the throne for the heir - three years old;
- Become a monk.
No one doubted the right to the throne for Ivan, but many opposed the tonsure of Vasily. But Metropolitan Daniel managed to smooth over this situation, and in early December, when the sovereign was already quite ill, he was tonsured. Then, on December 3, he already departed to another world.
The reign of Vasily III became milestone in the final unification of the Russian lands and their centralization. Many historians speak of his reign as a transitional one, but this is far from being the case.
The reign of Basil 3 briefly video
The dispute over the succession to the throne, which arose at the end of the great reign of John III and in which the boyars, out of hatred for the wife of John III and the mother of Vasily Ioannovich, Sophia Fominishna Paleolog, took the side of Demetrius Ioannovich (see John III), was reflected throughout the time of the great reign of Vasily Ioannovich. He ruled through clerks and people who did not stand out for their nobility and antiquity of the family. In this order, he found strong support in the influential Volokolamsk monastery, whose monks were called Josephites, named after Joseph Volotsky, the founder of this monastery, a great adherent of Sophia Fominishna, in which he found support in the fight against the heresy of the Judaizers. Vasily III treated the ancient and noble boyar families coldly and distrustfully, he consulted with the boyars only for show, and then rarely. The closest person to Vasily and his adviser was the butler Shigona-Podzhogin, from the Tver boyars, with whom he decided things, locking himself together. In addition to Shigona-Podzhogin, five clerks were advisers to Vasily III; they were also the executors of his will. Vasily III treated clerks and his ignorant close associates rudely and cruelly. Dyak Dalmatov for refusing to go to the embassy, Vasily Ioannovich deprived of his estate and exiled to prison; when Bersen-Beklemishev, from the Nizhny Novgorod boyars, allowed himself to contradict Vasily Ioannovich, the latter drove him away, saying: "Go, smerd, away, I don't need you." This Bersen took it into his head to complain about the bike. prince and the changes that, according to Bersen, the mother led. prince, and they cut out his tongue. Vasily Ioannovich acted autocratically, due to his personal character, coldly cruel and extremely prudent. Regarding the old Moscow boyars and noble families from the tribe of St. Vladimir and Gediminas, he was extremely restrained, not a single noble boyar was executed under him; boyars and princes, who joined the ranks of the Moscow boyars, now and then recalled the old days and the old right of the squad of departure. Vasily III took notes from them, oath letters to Lithuania for service not to leave; by the way, Prince V. V. Shuisky gave the following entry: "From his sovereign and from his children from their land to Lithuania, also to his brothers, and nowhere to go until his death." The same records were given by the princes Belsky, Vorotynsky, Mstislavsky. Under Vasily Ioannovich, only one prince V.D. Kholmsky fell into disgrace. His case is unknown, and only fragmentary facts that have come down to us throw some faint light on him. Under John III, an oath was taken from Vasily Kholmsky not to leave for Lithuania for service. This did not prevent him, under Vasily, from taking first place among the boyars and marrying his sister. prince. For what he falls into disgrace is unknown; but the occupation of his place by Prince Danila Vasilyevich Shchenya-Patrikeev and the frequent change in this place of the prince from the tribe of St. Vladimir princes from the family of Gediminas give reason to think about discord among the boyars themselves (see Ivan the Terrible). The words of prof. Klyuchevsky, who led. the prince in the regimental paintings could not appoint the faithful Khabar Simsky instead of the unreliable Hunchback-Shuisky ("Boyar Duma", p. 261), that is, he could not push well-known names from the front rows and had to obey the order with which he entered into a fight son. At the slightest collision, he treated his relatives with the usual severity and ruthlessness of the Moscow princes, about which the opponent of the son of Vasily III, Prince Andrei Kurbsky, complained so much, calling the Kalita family "long since bloody". Vasily's rival in the succession to the throne, his nephew Dimitry Ivanovich, died in prison, in need. The brothers of Vasily III hated the people who surrounded Vasily, and therefore the established order, - and meanwhile, due to the childlessness of Vasily III, these brothers should have inherited him, namely, his brother Yuri. People close to Vasily had to fear under Yuri the loss of not only influence, but even life. Therefore, they gladly met Vasily's intention to divorce his barren wife, Solomonia, from the Saburov family. Perhaps the very idea of divorce was inspired by these close people. Metropolitan Varlaam, who did not approve of the idea of divorce, was removed and replaced by the abbot of the Volokolamsk monastery Daniel. Daniel of Joseph, a young and determined man, approved Basil's intention. But the monk Vassian Kosoy Patrikeev rebelled against the divorce, and even under the monastic cassock he preserved all the passions of the boyars; monk Maxim, a learned Greek, a man who was completely alien to the calculations of Moscow politics, came to him, summoned to Russia to correct church books. Both Vassian and Maximus were both exiled to prison; the first died under Basil, and the second survived both Basil III and the metropolitan.
Under Vasily, the last specific principalities and the veche city of Pskov were annexed to Moscow. From 1508 to 1509, the governor in Pskov was Prince Repnya-Obolensky, whom the Pskovites met unfriendly from his very arrival, because he did not come to them according to custom, without being asked and announced; the clergy did not go out to meet him with the procession, as was always done. In 1509 led. the prince went to Novgorod, where Repnya-Obolensky sent a complaint against the Pskovites, and after that the Pskov boyars and posadniks came to Vasily, complaining about the governor himself. V. the prince released the complainants and sent trusted people to Pskov to sort out the matter and reconcile the Pskovites with the governor; but there was no reconciliation. Then the Grand Duke summoned the posadniks and boyars to Novgorod; however, he did not listen to them, but ordered all the complainants to gather in Novgorod for Epiphany, in order to judge everyone at once. When a very significant number of complainants gathered, they were told: "You are caught by God and the Grand Duke Vasily Ioannovich of All Russia." Vel. the prince promised to show them mercy if they removed the veche bell, so that there would no longer be a veche, and only governors would rule in Pskov and its suburbs. Dyak Tretyak-Dalmatov was sent to Pskov to convey the will of the Pskovites. prince. On January 19, 1510, the veche bell was removed from St. Trinity. On January 24, Vasily III arrived in Pskov. Boyars, posadniks and living people, three hundred families, were deported to Moscow, and Moscow rules were introduced in Pskov. Basil III sought election to the Great. princes of Lithuania. When his son-in-law Alexander died in 1506, Vasily wrote to his sister Elena, Alexander's widow, to persuade the pans to choose him as leader. princes, promising not to hamper the Catholic faith; about the same, he punished through ambassadors to Prince Voitekh, Bishop of Vilna, Pan Nikolai Radziwill and the whole Rada; but Alexander had already appointed his successor, his brother Sigismund. Having not received the Lithuanian throne, Vasily III decided to take advantage of the turmoil that arose between the Lithuanian lords after the death of Alexander. The culprit of this turmoil was Prince Mikhail Glinsky, a descendant of the Tatar Murza, who left for Lithuania under Vitovt. Mikhail Glinsky, Alexander's favorite, was an educated man who traveled a lot in Europe, an excellent commander, especially famous for his victory over the Crimean Khan; in education and military glory, his wealth also attached importance to him, for he was richer than all Lithuanian pans - almost half of the Lithuanian principality belonged to him. The prince enjoyed enormous influence among the Russian population of the Grand Duchy, and therefore the Lithuanian pans were afraid that he would seize the throne and transfer the capital to Russia. Sigismund had the imprudence to offend this strong man, which Vasily took advantage of, offering Glinsky to go to his service. The transition of Glinsky to the Grand Duke of Moscow caused a war with Lithuania. At first, this war was marked by great success. On August 1, 1514, Vasily III, with the assistance of Glinsky, took Smolensk, but on September 8 of the same year, the Moscow regiments were defeated by Prince Ostrozhsky at Orsha. After the defeat at Orsha, the war, which lasted until 1522, did not represent anything remarkable. Through the emperor Maximilian I, peace negotiations began as early as 1517. The emperor's representative was Baron Herberstein, who left notes on the Muscovite state - the best of foreign writings about Russia. With all the diplomatic skill of Herberstein, the negotiations were soon interrupted, because Sigismund demanded the return of Smolensk, and Vasily III, for his part, insisted that not only Smolensk remain with Russia, but that Kyiv, Vitebsk, Polotsk and other cities belonging to princes from the tribe of St. Vladimir. With such claims of opponents, only in 1522 was a truce concluded. Smolensk remained with Moscow. This truce was confirmed in 1526, through the same Herberstein, who came to Moscow for the second time as an ambassador from Charles V. In the course of the war with Lithuania, Vasily put an end to the last inheritances: Ryazan and the Seversk principalities. Ryazan Prince Ivan, they said in Moscow, planned to restore independence to his principality with the help of the Crimean Khan Makhmet Giray, whose daughter he intended to marry. Vasily III called Prince Ivan to Moscow, where he put him in custody, and imprisoned his mother, Agrippina, in a monastery. Ryazan was annexed to Moscow; Ryazanians were moved in droves to Moscow volosts. There were two princes in the Seversk land: Vasily Ivanovich, grandson of Shemyaka, prince of Novgorod-Seversky, and Vasily Semenovich, prince of Starodubsky, grandson of Ivan Mozhaisky. Both of these princes constantly denounced each other; Vasily III allowed Shemyachich to expel the Starodub prince from his possession, which was annexed to Moscow, and a few years later he also imprisoned Shemyachich, while his inheritance in 1523 was also annexed to Moscow. Even earlier, the Volotsk inheritance was annexed, where the last prince, Feodor Borisovich, died childless. During the struggle with Lithuania, Vasily asked for help from Albrecht, Elector of Brandenburg, and from the Grand Master of the German Order. Sigismund, in turn, sought an alliance with Mahmet Giray, Khan of the Crimea. The Gireys, the successors of the famous Mengli-Girey, an ally of John III, sought to unite all the Tatar kingdoms under the rule of their kind; therefore, the Crimean Khan Mahmet Giray became a natural ally of Lithuania. In 1518, the Kazan tsar Magmet-Amin, a Moscow assistant, died childless, and the question of succession to the throne arose in Kazan. Basil III installed Shig-Aley, the grandson of Akhmet, the last khan of the Golden Horde, the ancestral enemy of the Gireys, as king here. Shig-Aley was hated in Kazan for his tyranny, which Saib-Girey, brother of Mahmut-Girey, took advantage of and captured Kazan. Shig-Aley fled to Moscow. After that, Saib-Girey rushed to devastate the Nizhny Novgorod and Vladimir regions, and Mahmut-Girey attacked the southern borders of the Moscow state. He reached Moscow itself, from where Vasily III retired to Volokolamsk. Khan took from Moscow a written obligation to pay tribute to him and turned to Ryazan. Here he demanded that the governor come to him, because he was leading. the prince is now a tributary of the khan; but the voivode Khabar-Simsky demanded proof that he led. The prince was obliged to pay tribute. Khan sent a letter given to him near Moscow; then Khabar, holding her, dispersed the Tatars with cannon shots. Saib-Girey was soon expelled from Kazan, where, as a result of the struggle between the Crimean and Moscow parties, there were constant unrest, and Vasily appointed Enalei, brother of Shig-Aley, as Khan there. In this position, Vasily III left his affairs in Kazan. The power of Father the Terrible was great; but he was not yet an autocrat in the later sense. In the era preceding and following the fall Tatar yoke, the word: autocracy, was opposed not to the constitutional order, but to vassalage: the autocrat meant the ruler of an independent, independent of other rulers. historical meaning words: autocracy was clarified by Kostomarov and Klyuchevsky.
E. Belov
Encyclopedia Brockhaus-Efron
Basil III (1505-1533)
From the family of the Moscow Grand Dukes. The son of Ivan III Vasilyevich the Great and the Byzantine princess Sophia Fominishna Paleolog. Genus. March 25, 1479 Vel. book. Moscow and all Russia in 1506 - 1534 Wives: 1) from 4 Sept. 1506 Solomonia Yuryevna Saburova (d. 1542), 2) from 21 Jan. 1526 book. Elena Vasilievna Glinskaya (d. April 3, 1538).
The childhood and early youth of Vasily III passed in anxieties and trials. Far from immediately, he was proclaimed the heir of his father, since Ivan III had the eldest son from his first marriage - Ivan Molodoy. But in 1490 Ivan the Young died. Ivan III had to decide who to bequeath the throne - to his son Vasily or grandson Dmitry Ivanovich. Most of the boyars supported Dmitry and his mother Elena Stefanovna. Sophia Paleolog was not loved in Moscow, only the children of the boyars and clerks took her side. The clerk Fyodor Stromilov informed Vasily that his father wanted to welcome Dmitry to the great reign, and together with Afanasy Yaropkin, Poyark and other boyar children began to advise the young prince to leave Moscow, seize the treasury in Vologda and Beloozero and destroy Dmitry. The main conspirators recruited themselves and other accomplices and led them secretly to the kiss of the cross. But the plot was discovered in December 1497. Ivan III ordered to keep his son in his own yard in custody, and his followers to be executed. Six were executed on the Moskva River, many other boyar children were thrown into prison. At the same time, the Grand Duke was also angry with his wife for the fact that fortune-tellers came to her with a potion; these dashing women were found and drowned in the Moscow River at night, after which Ivan began to beware of his wife.
On February 4, 1498, he married Dmitry the "grandson" in the Assumption Cathedral to the great reign. But the triumph of the boyars did not last long. In 1499, the disgrace overtook two of the noblest boyar families - the princes Patrikeyevs and the princes Ryapolovsky. The chronicles do not say what their sedition consisted of, but there is no doubt that the reason must be sought in their actions against Sophia and her son. After the execution of the Ryapolovskys, Ivan III began, in the words of the chroniclers, to neglect his grandson and declared his son Vasily the Grand Duke of Novgorod and Pskov. On April 11, 1502, he put Dmitry and his mother Elena in disgrace, put them in custody and did not order Dmitry to be called the Grand Duke, and on April 14 he granted Vasily, blessed and planted the autocrat for the great reign of Vladimir, Moscow and All Russia.
The next concern of Ivan III was to find a worthy wife for Vasily. He instructed his daughter Elena, who was married to the Grand Duke of Lithuania, to find out which sovereigns would have marriageable daughters. But his efforts in this regard were unsuccessful, as well as the search for grooms and brides in Denmark and Germany. Ivan was forced to Last year of his life to marry Vasily to Solomonia Saburova, chosen from 1500 girls presented to the court for this. Solomonia's father, Yuri, was not even a boyar.
Having become the Grand Duke, Vasily III followed the path indicated by his parent in everything. From his father, he inherited a passion for construction. In August 1506, the Lithuanian Grand Duke Alexander died. Hostile relations between the two states then resumed. Vasily received the Lithuanian rebel Prince Mikhail Glinsky. Only in 1508 was a peace concluded, according to which the king renounced all the fatherlands that belonged to the princes who, under Ivan III, came under the rule of Moscow.
Having secured himself from Lithuania, Vasily III decided to put an end to the independence of Pskov. In 1509, he went to Novgorod and ordered the Pskov governor Ivan Mikhailovich Ryapne-Obolensky and the Pskovites to come to him so that he could sort out their mutual complaints. In 1510, on the Feast of Epiphany, he listened to both sides and found that the Pskov posadniks did not obey the governor, and he had a lot of insults and violence from the Pskov people. Vasily also accused the people of Pskov that they despised the sovereign's name and did not show proper honors to him. For this, the Grand Duke put the governors in disgrace and ordered them to be seized. Then the posadniks and other Pskovites, admitting their guilt, beat Vasily with their foreheads so that he granted his fatherland Pskov and arranged it as God informed him. Vasily III ordered to say: "I intend not to be in Pskov, but to be in Pskov for two governors." The Pskovites, having gathered a veche, began to think whether to oppose the sovereign and whether to lock themselves in the city. Finally decided to submit. On January 13, they removed the veche bell and sent it to Novgorod with tears. On January 24, Vasily III arrived in Pskov and arranged everything here at his own discretion. 300 of the most noble families, leaving all their possessions, had to move to Moscow. The villages of the withdrawn Pskov boyars were given to the Moscow ones.
Vasily returned from Pskov affairs to Lithuanian ones. In 1512 the war began. Smolensk was its main goal. On December 19, Vasily III went on a campaign with the brothers Yuri and Dmitry. He besieged Smolensk for six weeks, but without success, and returned to Moscow in March 1513. On June 14, Vasily set out on a campaign for the second time, he himself stopped in Borovsk, and sent a governor to Smolensk. They defeated the governor Yuri Sologub and laid siege to the city. Upon learning of this, Vasily III himself came to the camp near Smolensk, but this time the siege was also unsuccessful: what the Muscovites destroyed during the day, the Smolensk people repaired at night. Satisfied with the devastation of the surrounding area, Vasily ordered a retreat and returned to Moscow in November. On July 8, 1514, he marched for the third time to Smolensk with the brothers Yuri and Semyon. On July 29 the siege began. Artillery was led by gunner Stefan. The fire of Russian cannons inflicted terrible damage on the Smolensk people. On the same day, Sologub with the clergy went to Basil and agreed to surrender the city. On July 31, the Smolensk people swore allegiance to the Grand Duke, and on August 1, Vasily III solemnly entered the city. While he was arranging business here, the governors took Mstislavl, Krichev and Dubrovny.
The joy at the Moscow court was extraordinary, since the annexation of Smolensk remained the cherished dream of Ivan III. Only Glinsky was dissatisfied, to whose cunning the Polish chronicles mainly attribute the success of the third campaign. He hoped that Vasily would give him Smolensk as an inheritance, but he was mistaken in his expectations. Then Glinsky started secret relations with King Sigismund. Very soon he was exposed and sent in chains to Moscow. Some time later Russian army under the command of Ivan Chelyadinov, suffered a heavy defeat from the Lithuanians near Orsha, but the Lithuanians could not take Smolensk after that and thus did not take advantage of their victory.
Meanwhile, the gathering of Russian lands went on as usual. In 1517, Vasily III summoned the Ryazan prince Ivan Ivanovich to Moscow and ordered him to be arrested. After that, Ryazan was annexed to Moscow. Immediately after that, the Starodub principality was annexed, and in 1523 - Novgorod-Severskoye. Prince Novgorod-Seversky Vasily Ivanovich Shemyakin, like the prince of Ryazan, was summoned to Moscow and imprisoned.
Although there was no actual war with Lithuania, no peace was concluded. Sigismund's ally, the Crimean Khan Magmet Giray, raided Moscow in 1521. The Moscow army, defeated on the Oka, fled, and the Tatars approached the walls of the capital itself. Vasily, without waiting for them, went to Volokolamsk to collect regiments. Magmet Giray was not, however, disposed to take the city. Having devastated the land and captured several hundred thousand captives, he went back to the steppe. In 1522, the Crimeans were again expected, and Vasily III himself guarded on the Oka with a large army. The Khan did not come, but his invasion had to be constantly feared. Therefore, Vasily became more accommodating in negotiations with Lithuania. In the same year, a truce was concluded, according to which Smolensk remained with Moscow.
So, state affairs were slowly formed, but the future of the Russian throne remained unclear. Vasily was already 46 years old, but he did not yet have heirs: Grand Duchess Solomonia was barren. In vain she used all the remedies that were attributed to her by healers and healers of that time - there were no children, her husband's love also disappeared. Basil weepingly said to the boyars: "Who for me to reign on the Russian land and in all my cities and borders? To pass on to the brothers? But they don’t know how to arrange their destinies either." To this question an answer was heard among the boyars: "Sir, the great prince! They cut down the barren fig tree and sweep it out of the grapes." The boyars thought so, but the first voice belonged to Metropolitan Daniel, who approved the divorce. Vasily III met unexpected resistance from the side of the monk Vassian Kosoy, former prince Patrikeev, and the famous Maxim Grek. Despite, however, this resistance, in November 1525 the divorce of the Grand Duke from Solomonia was announced, who was tonsured under the name of Sophia in the Nativity maiden monastery, and then sent to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery. Since this case was looked at from different points of view, it is not surprising that conflicting news about it has reached us: some say that the divorce and tonsure followed according to the desires of Solomonia herself, even at her request and insistence; in others, on the contrary, her tonsure seems to be a matter of force; they even spread rumors that soon after the tonsure, Solomon's son George was born. In January of the following 1526, Vasily III married Elena, the daughter of the deceased Prince Vasily Lvovich Glinsky, the native niece of the famous Prince Mikhail.
The new wife of Vasily III was in many ways different from the then Russian women. Elena learned foreign concepts and customs from her father and uncle and, probably, captivated the Grand Duke. The desire to please her was so great that, as they say, Vasily III even shaved his beard for her, which, according to the then concepts, was incompatible not only with folk customs but also with Orthodoxy. The Grand Duchess took possession of her husband more and more; but time passed, and Vasily's desired goal - to have an heir - was not achieved. There was a fear that Helen would remain as barren as Solomon. The Grand Duke and his wife traveled to various Russian monasteries. In all Russian churches they prayed for the childbearing of Vasily III - nothing helped. Four and a half years passed, until finally the royal couple resorted in prayer to the Monk Pafnutiy Borovsky. Then only Elena became pregnant. The joy of the Grand Duke knew no bounds. Finally, on August 25, 1530, Elena gave birth to their first child, Ivan, and a year and a few months later, another son, Yuri. But as soon as the eldest, Ivan, was three years old, Vasily III became seriously ill. When he was driving from the Trinity Monastery to Volok Lamsky, on his left thigh, in the fold, he had a purple sore the size of a pinhead. After that, the Grand Duke began to quickly faint and arrived in Volokolamsk already exhausted. Doctors began to treat Vasily, but nothing helped. More pus flowed out of the sore than the pelvis, and the rod came out, after which the Grand Duke felt better. From Volok he went to the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery. But the relief was short-lived. At the end of November, Vasily, completely exhausted, arrived in the village of Vorobyevo near Moscow. Glinsky's doctor Nikolai, after examining the patient, said that he had to rely only on God. Vasily realized that death was near, wrote a will, blessed his son Ivan for a great reign, and died on December 3.
Buried in Moscow, in the Archangel Cathedral.
Konstantin Ryzhov. All the monarchs of the world. Russia.
Vasily III Ivanovich in baptism Gabriel, in monasticism Varlaam (born March 25, 1479 - death December 3, 1533) - Grand Duke of Vladimir and Moscow (1505-1533), Sovereign of All Russia. Parents: father John III Vasilyevich the Great, mother Byzantine princess Sofia Paleolog. Children: from first marriage: George (presumably); from the second marriage: and Yuri.
Vasily 3 short biography (article review)
The son of John III from his marriage to Sophia Paleolog, Vasily the Third was distinguished by pride and impregnability, punished the descendants of appanage princes and boyars subject to him, who dared to rebuke him. He is "the last collector of the Russian land." After joining the last appanages (Pskov, the northern principality), he completely destroyed the appanage system. He fought twice with Lithuania, on the teaching of the Lithuanian nobleman Mikhail Glinsky, who entered his service, and, finally, in 1514, he was able to take Smolensk from the Lithuanians. The war with Kazan and the Crimea was difficult for Vasily, but ended in the punishment of Kazan: Trade was diverted from there to the Makariev fair, which was subsequently transferred to Nizhny. Vasily divorced his wife Solomonia Saburova and married a princess, which even more aroused the boyars dissatisfied with him. From this marriage, Vasily had a son, Ivan IV the Terrible.
Biography of Basil III
The beginning of the reign. Bride's Choice
The new Grand Duke of Moscow, Vasily III Ivanovich, began his reign by resolving the “throne issue” with his nephew Dmitry. Immediately after the death of his father, he ordered that he be shackled “in iron” and put in a “cramped chamber”, where he died after 3 years. Now the king had no "legitimate" opponents in the rivalry for the throne of the grand duke.
Vasily ascended the Moscow throne at the age of 26. Having shown himself to be a skillful politician in the future, he was preparing for the role of autocrat in the Russian state even under his father. It was not in vain that he refused a bride from among foreign princesses and for the first time the bridegrooms for Russian brides were arranged at the Grand Duke's palace. 1505, summer - 1500 noble girls were brought to the bride.
A special boyar commission, after a careful selection, presented ten most worthy contenders to the heir to the throne in all respects. Vasily chose Salomoniya, the daughter of the boyar Yuri Saburov. This marriage would be unsuccessful - the royal couple had no children, and, first of all, no son-heir. In the first half of the 1920s, the problem of an heir for the grand ducal couple escalated to the limit. In the absence of an heir to the throne, Prince Yuri automatically became the main contender for the kingdom. With him, Vasily developed hostile relations. Known fact that the specific prince himself and his entourage were under the watchful eye of informants. Transition to Yuri supreme power in the state generally promised a large-scale shake-up in the ruling elite of Russia.
According to the strictness of the observed tradition, the second marriage Orthodox Christian in Russia was possible only in two cases: death or voluntary departure to the monastery of the first wife. The sovereign's wife was in good health and, contrary to the official report, was not at all going to voluntarily go to the monastery. The disgrace to Salomon and the forced tonsure at the end of November 1525 completed this act of family drama, which split Russian educated society for a long time.
Grand Duke Vasily III Ivanovich hunting
Foreign policy
Vasily the Third continued his father's policy of creating a unified Russian state, “followed the same rules in foreign and domestic policy; showed modesty in the actions of the monarchical government, but knew how to command; he loved the benefits of peace, not fearing war and not missing an opportunity for acquisitions important for sovereign power; he was less famous for military happiness, more for cunning dangerous for enemies; did not humiliate Russia, even exalted it ... ”(N. M. Karamzin).
At the very beginning of his reign, in 1506, he undertook an unsuccessful campaign against the Kazan Khan, which ended in the flight of the Russian army. This beginning greatly inspired King Alexander of Lithuania, who, relying on the youth and inexperience of Basil III, offered him peace on the condition of returning the lands conquered by John III. A rather stern and brief answer was given to such a proposal - the Russian tsar owns only his own lands. But, in the letter sent to Alexander on accession to the throne, Vasily rejected the complaints of the Lithuanian boyars against the Russians as unfair, and reminded of the inadmissibility of the inclination of Elena (the wife of Alexander and the sister of Vasily III) and other Christians living in Lithuania to Catholicism.
Alexander realized that a young but strong king had ascended the throne. When Alexander died in August 1506, Vasily tried to offer himself as king of Lithuania and Poland in order to end the confrontation with Russia. However, Alexander's brother Sigismund, who did not want peace with Russia, ascended the throne. Out of annoyance, the sovereign tried to recapture Smolensk, but after several battles there were no winners, and a peace was concluded according to which all the lands conquered under John III remained behind Russia and Russia promised not to encroach on Smolensk and Kyiv. As a result of this peace treaty, the Glinsky brothers first appeared in Russia - noble Lithuanian nobles who had a conflict with Sigismund and who came under the protection of the Russian Tsar.
By 1509 were settled foreign relations: letters were received from a longtime friend and ally of Russia - the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey, which confirmed the invariance of his attitude towards Russia; a 14-year peace treaty was concluded with Livonia, with the exchange of prisoners and the resumption: the security of movement in both powers and trade on the same mutually beneficial terms. It was also important that, according to this treaty, the Germans broke off allied relations with Poland.
Domestic politics
Tsar Vasily believed that nothing should limit the power of the Grand Duke. He enjoyed the active support of the Church in the fight against the feudal boyar opposition, harshly cracking down on those who expressed discontent.
Now Vasily the Third could take up domestic politics. He turned his attention to Pskov, proudly bearing the name of "brother Novgorod." On the example of Novgorod, the sovereign knew where boyar liberty could lead, and therefore he wanted, without leading to a rebellion, to conquer the city of his power. The reason for this was the refusal of the landowners to pay tribute, everyone quarreled and the governor had no choice but to turn to the court of the Grand Duke.
The young tsar went to Novgorod in January 1510, where he received a large embassy of the Pskovites, which consisted of 70 noble boyars. The trial ended with the fact that all the Pskov boyars were put in custody, because the tsar was dissatisfied with their insolence against the governor and injustice against the people. In this connection, the sovereign demanded that the Pskovites abandon the veche and accept sovereign governors in all their cities.
The noble boyars, feeling guilty and not having the strength to resist the Grand Duke, wrote a letter to the people of Pskov, asking them to agree with the requirements of the Grand Duke. It was sad for the free Pskovites to gather for the last time in the square to the sound of the veche bell. At this meeting, the sovereign's ambassadors were announced about their consent to submit to the royal will. Vasily III arrived in Pskov, put things in order there and planted new officials; took an oath of allegiance to all the inhabitants and laid the foundation of a new church of St. Xenia, the commemoration of this saint fell just on the day of the end of the liberty of the city of Pskov. Vasily sent 300 noble Pskovites to the capital and left home a month later. Following him, they soon brought the veche bell of the Pskovites.
By 1512, relations with the Crimean Khanate escalated. The clever and faithful Khan Mengli-Girey, who was a reliable ally of John III, became very old, decrepit, and his sons, the young princes Akhmat and Burnash-Girey, began to lead politics. Sigismund, who hated Russia even more than Alexander, was able to bribe the brave princes and incite them to campaign against Russia. In particular, Sigismund raged, having lost Smolensk in 1514, which had been under Lithuania for 110 years.
Sigismund regretted that he had released Mikhail Glinsky to Russia, who diligently served the new land, and began to demand the return of the Glinskys. Especially M. Glinsky tried during the capture of Smolensk, he hired skilled foreign warriors. Mikhail had the hope that out of gratitude for his merits, the sovereign would make him the sovereign prince of Smolensk. However, the Grand Duke did not love and did not believe Glinsky - once he changed, he would change the second time. In general, Vasily fought with inheritances. And so it happened: offended, Mikhail Glinsky went over to Sigismund, but fortunately, the governors quickly managed to catch him and, by order of the tsar, he was sent in chains to Moscow.
1515 - the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey died, and his son Muhammad-Girey succeeded his throne, who, unfortunately, did not inherit many of the good qualities of his father. During his reign (until 1523), the Crimean army acted either on the side of Lithuania or Russia - it all depended on who paid the most.
The power of Russia of that era aroused the respect of various countries. Ambassadors from Constantinople brought a letter and a kind letter from the famous and terrible for all of Europe Turkish Sultan Soliman. Good diplomatic relations with him frightened the eternal enemies of Russia - Mukhhamet Giray and Sigismund. The latter, without even arguing about Smolensk, made peace for 5 years.
Solomonia Saburova. Painting by P. Mineeva
Unification of Russian lands
Such a respite gave the Grand Duke time and strength to fulfill his and his great father's long-standing intention - to finally destroy the inheritances. And he succeeded. The Ryazan appanage, ruled by the young Prince John, almost seceded from Russia, with the active participation of Khan Mukhkhamet. Imprisoned, Prince John fled to Lithuania, where he died, and the Ryazan principality, which had been separate and independent for 400 years, merged into the Russian state in 1521. There remained the Seversk principality, where Vasily Shemyakin, the grandson of famous Dmitry Shemyaki, who stirred up the authorities at the time. This Shemyakin, who looked so much like his grandfather, had long been suspected of being friends with Lithuania. 1523 - his correspondence with Sigismund was revealed, and this is already an open betrayal of the fatherland. Prince Vasily Shemyakin was thrown into prison, where he died.
Thus, the dream was realized to unite Russia, fragmented into specific principalities, into a single whole under the rule of one king.
1523 - the Russian city of Vasilsursk was founded on Kazan land, and this event marked the beginning of the decisive conquest of the Kazan kingdom. And although during the entire reign of Vasily III had to fight with the Tatars and repel their raids, in 1531 the Kazan Khan Enalei became a novice of the Russian Tsar, recognizing his authority.
Divorce and marriage
Everything went well in the Russian state, but Vasily III did not have an heir for 20 years of marriage. And various boyar parties began to form for and against a divorce from the barren Saburova. The king needs an heir. 1525 - a divorce took place, and Solomonida Saburova was tonsured a nun, and in 1526 Tsar Vasily Ivanovich married Elena Vasilievna Glinskaya, the niece of the traitor Mikhail Glinsky, who in 1530 gave birth to the first son and heir to the throne, John IV (the Terrible ).
Elena Glinskaya - the second wife of Grand Duke Vasily III
Board results
The first signs of the prosperity of the Russian state were successfully developing trade. The largest centers in addition to Moscow were Nizhny Novgorod, Smolensk and Pskov. The Grand Duke took care of the development of trade, which he constantly pointed out to his deputies. Handicrafts also developed. In many cities there were craft suburbs - settlements. The country provided itself, at that time, with everything necessary and was ready to export more goods than to import what it needed. The wealth of Russia, the abundance of arable land, forest land with precious furs, are unanimously noted by foreigners who visited Muscovy in
those years.
Under Vasily III, urban planning continues to develop, the construction of Orthodox churches. The Italian Fioravanti builds in Moscow, on the model of the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir, the Kremlin Assumption Cathedral, which becomes the main shrine of Moscow Russia. The cathedral will be an image for Russian masters of church work for many decades.
Under Vasily III, the construction of the Kremlin was completed - in 1515 a wall was erected along the Neglinnaya River. The Moscow Kremlin is turning into one of the best fortresses in Europe. Being the residence of the monarch, the Kremlin has become a symbol of the Russian state up to the present day.
Death
Vasily III always had enviable health and he was not seriously ill with anything, probably because it was so unexpected that an abscess on his leg led him to death 2 months later. He died on the night of December 3-4, 1533, having managed to give all orders for the state, transferring power to his 3-year-old son John, and guardianship of his mother, boyars and his brothers - to Andrei and Yuri; and before his last breath he managed to accept the schema.
Vasily was called a kind and gentle sovereign, and therefore it is not surprising that his death was so sad for the people. All 27 years of his reign, the Grand Duke worked hard for the good and greatness of his state and was able to achieve a lot.
That night, for the history of the Russian state, "the last gatherer of the Russian land" passed away.
According to one of the legends, during the tonsure, Solomonia was pregnant, gave birth to a son, George, and handed him over "in safe hands", and it was announced to everyone that the newborn had died. Subsequently, this child will become the famous robber Kudeyar, who, with his gang, will rob rich carts. This legend was very interested in Ivan the Terrible. The hypothetical Kudeyar was his older half-brother, which means that he could claim the royal throne. This story is most likely a folk fiction.
For the second time, Vasily III married a Lithuanian, young Elena Glinskaya. Only 4 years later, Elena gave birth to her first child, Ivan Vasilyevich. According to legend, at the hour of the birth of a baby, a terrible thunderstorm seemed to break out. Thunder struck from a clear sky and shook the earth to its foundations. The Kazan khansha, having learned about the birth of the heir, told the Moscow messengers: “Your tsar was born, and he has two teeth: with one he will eat us (Tatars), and with the other you.”
There was a rumor that Ivan was an illegitimate son, but this is unlikely: an examination of the remains of Elena Glinskaya showed that she had red hair. As you know, Ivan was also red.
Vasily III was the first of the Russian tsars to shave off his chin hair. As the legend goes, he cut his beard to look younger in the eyes of his young wife. In a beardless state, he did not last long.
