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Several reasons pushed Tsar Ivan IV to the creation of this unprecedented political system. The first is a sharp exacerbation of contradictions with the higher nobility after the issuance of a decree on the confiscation of escheat princely estates in 1562 (Previously, these estates went to the relatives of the deceased or went to a monastery "for the sake of the soul.") Second, the heavy defeats of the Russian army in the Livonian War in 1564, the flight to Lithuania of Prince Andrei Kurbsky. Fear of the boyar conspiracy haunted the tsar. And then he decided to get ahead of the enemies.
The oprichnina had two goals: undermining the economic power of the big aristocracy and physical extermination of its most prominent representatives.
The first goal of the oprichnina was achieved by the resettlement policy. Tsar Ivan the Terrible carefully thought out the list of regions included in the oprichnina. In addition to the rich trading cities and areas of salt production, there were counties in which the ancestral estates of the old Rostov-Suzdal nobility - the backbone of the Moscow boyar corporation - were located. All these estates were immediately "assigned to the sovereign" and distributed to the estates of the guardsmen. Their owners were forcibly exiled to the Zemshchyna. There they were ordered to give small estates somewhere on the southern or eastern borders of the country. The settlers were forbidden to take property and valuables with them. All this became the prey of the new owners - the guardsmen. And the recent owners of the golden-domed chambers turned into beggars overnight.
The second goal of the oprichnina - the physical destruction of a significant part of the aristocracy - was achieved with the help of terror. By order of the tsar, the oprichniks seized the unwanted, took them to the Aleksandrov Sloboda (the oprichnaya capital of Ivan the Terrible) and there after brutal torture killed. Sometimes executions were carried out in Moscow, where next to the Kremlin, on the other bank of the Neglinka River, a gloomy castle grew - "the sovereign's oprichnaya yard". Tsar Ivan IV experienced sadistic pleasure, looking at the torment of the unfortunate, and personally took part in torture and executions. Some historians believe that from his youth he suffered from serious mental disabilities.
Fall of the Chosen glad
In 1560, the relationship between the Tsar and the Chosen Rada suddenly deteriorated. The reason for the discord was the disagreement between the tsar and Alexei Adashev in the field of foreign policy, and the real reason was Ivan's long-overdue desire to rule independently. He believed that peaceful methods of fighting the big aristocracy were insufficient, that for complete control over ruling class one must resort to the sword. However, advisers (people, as a rule, religious and virtuous) prevented the king from giving free rein to his base instincts, his innate tendency to cruelty and arbitrariness.
As a result, the main figures of the Chosen Rada - Adashev and Sylvester - lost their posts and went into exile. Prince Kurbsky was sent by the governor to Livonia. The aged Metropolitan Macarius no longer had the strength for a political struggle. On December 31, 1563, he died at the age of 82.
Boyar Duma
Having got rid of his advisers, the tsar still could not rule solely. The Boyar Duma, with its traditional authority and deep connections in all strata of society, stood in its way. All important decisions of the sovereign were made to be coordinated with the Boyar Duma. Having dispersed this organ of power of the highest aristocracy, the tsar could well have gotten the most difficult inner turmoil. The only way out was to bring the aristocracy to their knees.
The beginning of the oprichnina
In 1564, Ivan IV unexpectedly left Moscow with his family and went to the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda (now the city of Aleksandrov, 100 km north-east of Moscow). From here he sent a letter to the boyars, clergy and service people to the capital, where he accused them of treason. His message was read on Red Square. A commotion began in the city. They decided to persuade the king to return. He agreed, but on condition that "he has the right to punish everyone he considers a traitor." For these punitive purposes, the oprichnina was created with its good armed forces.
In 1565, Ivan IV allocated himself a special possession - oprichnina, and the territory not included in the oprichnina was called zemstvo.
The whole country was divided into two parts: oprichnina and Zemshchina... Each had its own government, its own Boyar Duma. Zemschina was led by the boyars. In the oprichnina, all power passed to the tsar.
The best lands with the most developed economy were taken to the oprichnina. When the guardsmen ruined them, the king took himself new rich lands. The oprichnina had its own treasury, its own army, its own administration. It was a "state within a state". Zemshchina turned out to be defenseless against the robbery raids of the guardsmen, who were supported by the tsar himself. In addition, she had to pay a ruinous tax on the maintenance of the oprichnina.
Guardsmen
The oprichnik was called the one who was in the ranks of the oprichnina. Among the people, the guardsmen were called "pitchmen" - the black forces of the tsar.
Initially, the oprichnina army consisted of one thousand people, and by the end of the oprichnina it had grown to six thousand. These were carefully selected nobles who had no family ties with the Zemschina, ready to carry out any order of the sovereign. The guardsmen dressed in everything dark and wore a special uniform - black robes with a wide belt. They rode black horses with black harness. The oprichniki attached a broom to the saddle of their horses, and a dog's head to the horse's neck - a sign of their readiness to sweep any treason out of the state and chop off the "dog's heads" of traitor boyars. They had the right to break into any estate, to any courtyard of a person suspected of treason from the Zemschina, to ravage his house, to expel his household members (or even kill). No one knew against whom the tsar's next wrath would turn.
After the elimination of the Chosen Rada, the goals of Ivan IV's internal policy remain, on the whole, the same as before. However, the methods of achieving them are already different. Carefully thought out, consistent reforms are a thing of the past. The executioner's ax becomes the main instrument of political struggle. Frightened by the bloody reprisals, the Boyar Duma is silent, and the governments that quickly replace each other serve as an obedient instrument in the hands of the autocrat intoxicated with unlimited power and sometimes losing his mind.
The oprichnina destroyed the normal order of governing the country. Fear and chaos reigned everywhere. No one - not even the tsar's closest henchmen - was sure of the future. Having received the estates of the exiled and disgraced boyars, the guardsmen treated them as if they were enemy territories. For a short time, the previously prosperous, populous farms turned into wastelands. The peasants fled in horror in all directions. Frightened by the repression, the aristocracy was silent.
The fate of those who tried to resist the oprichnina was hard. Metropolitan Macarius had already died by this time, and the new one retired to a monastery. Philip Kolychev became Metropolitan instead. (1566-1568), who sought to stop the atrocities of the guardsmen: he alone dared to publicly oppose the oprichnina. For this, the courageous hierarch was defrocked, deposed, imprisoned in a monastery and soon strangled by the guardsmen on the tsar's order.
Then the executions of the guardsmen themselves, who stood at its origins, began. They were replaced by "especially distinguished". Among them, history has retained the name of the guardsman Malyuta Skuratov. It has become common. It is still used today in the sense of a cruel and senseless reprisal against the innocent.
Suspicion and fear reigned in the country. The tsar's anger turned not only against the rich boyar families, but also against entire cities.
Hikes of Ivan the Terrible
At the end of 1569, the tsar accused the city of Novgorod of treason and went on a campaign against it. The campaign of Ivan the Terrible to Novgorod in 1570 became the largest mass massacre of the times of the oprichnina.
Suspecting the Novgorodians of treason, the tsar perpetrated a terrible pogrom in the city. The defeat of the city lasted six weeks. Many servicemen, townspeople, priests and monks were killed or drowned in the Volkhov River. The property of the Novgorodians, as well as the values of the church, were plundered. The outskirts of the city are devastated.
The cities of Tver, Torzhok and the villages and villages adjacent to them were also destroyed. Military garrisons and residents were destroyed in Narva, Ivangorod and Pskov.
Hunger and plague
Simultaneously with the oprichnina, the central regions of the country were visited by two other disasters: a terrible three-year famine and a plague epidemic in 1569-1571. To all this were added the heavy duties imposed on the population in connection with the endless Livonian War. As a result, in the 70s. XVI century there is a sharp decline in the population of the Moscow lands. A significant part of the people died from natural disasters and oprichnina terror, and the rest rushed to the outskirts of the country, to the impenetrable forests of the Russian North or to the southern steppes. Material from the site
An Englishman D. Fletcher traveling around Russia noted: “It happens to see many villages and towns, completely empty, the people all fled to other places ... So, on the way to Moscow, between Vologda and Yaroslavl, there are up to fifty villages at least completely abandoned, so that there is not a single inhabitant in them. "
While the oprichnina army was dealing with the cities and villages of their country, the Crimean Khan Girey approached Moscow and burned it. The Russian state was ravaged to the ground. Its population has decreased several times. The fields were abandoned. The cities were empty.
Oprichnina - a period at the end of the 16th century in Russia, characterized by terror and bloody crimes of the tsar's warriors Ivan the Terrible.
Characteristics of the oprichnina
The word "oprichnina" usually means several phenomena. The word itself comes from the Old Russian "oprich", which means "special", this is the word Ivan the Terrible called his personal warriors, oprichniks, who guarded him and committed atrocities by his decree. Hence the name of this entire historical period - "oprichnina" - as the period of atrocities of the tsar's oprichniks. In addition, Ivan the Terrible and his guardsmen were engaged in taking away land and money from the people in favor of the tsar and the tsar's retinue, this phenomenon was also called "oprichnina".
Thus, the essence of the oprichnina is the seizure of property from citizens in favor of the state using especially brutal methods.
Oprichnina was the result of the state reforms of 1565, carried out by Ivan the Terrible.
The beginning of the oprichnina. Causes of occurrence.
The creation of a special guard and oprichniki was associated with Livonian War... Ivan the Terrible was famous for his brutal disposition and suspicion. In 1558 he started the Livonian War, the purpose of which was to conquer new lands on the Baltic coast. Unfortunately, the war did not go on as quickly and successfully as the tsar wanted, so he repeatedly expressed his displeasure and reproached the governor for the wrong conduct of military operations.
Failures accumulated, and this aroused suspicion in Ivan 4. Pretty soon he came to the conclusion that there was a secret conspiracy against him, in which the boyars (who never supported his military decisions) and the governors took part. In confirmation of the words of the king during Livonian War one of the governors betrayed him and went over to the side of the enemy.
As a result, tormented by suspicions, the king decides that they want to kill him and put another person on the throne in his place. To protect himself, Ivan the Terrible creates a special retinue, consisting of a thousand people, which he calls oprichniki and orders her to monitor his safety and the integrity of his power. The number of guardsmen included boyars and ordinary soldiers and representatives of other strata of the population. Over time, the oprichniks from warriors turned into an analogue of the royal court.
The main events of the oprichnina
Ivan the Terrible was very afraid for his power and his life and everywhere suspected treason, so he quite often forced his guardsmen to carry out executions. As a result, the actions of the royal soldiers sometimes went beyond his orders and became extremely brutal, the guardsmen killed, robbed and took away property and often innocent people. The king closed his eyes to this, worrying more about his own safety.
The huge retinue must be somehow maintained. Ivan the Terrible, together with the guardsmen, leaves for the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda and organizes a settlement there, from where he manages state affairs and carries out executions of alleged treason. In the same period, a decree was adopted, according to which the state was to receive funds and land, which the king sent to the maintenance of his guardsmen. Despite the decree, the lands were often taken by force. By this time, the remaining boyars, princes and ordinary people are already extremely unhappy with the atrocities of the king, but everyone who tried to stop him perishes.
In 1569, Ivan 4 received information that Novgorod was preparing a campaign against him and regicide. Ivan gathers a huge army consisting of his guardsmen and moves to Novgorod in order to reason with the state traitors. While the king, who entered the city, is trying to find the guilty, his guardsmen simply rob the inhabitants and kill them, taking their property for themselves.
After Novgorod, the king moves to Pskov, where he sees new conspiracy... In Pskov, the guardsmen limit themselves only to the executions of some residents, whom the tsar called traitors.
The era of revelry of the oprichnina is coming. In 1570-1571, Ivan the Terrible returned to Moscow. By this time, the tsar sees conspiracies almost everywhere, so a real terror begins in Moscow. Almost everyone was executed, including those closest to them. The guardsmen, by order of the tsar, and sometimes without him, brutally beat people, maimed, took away their property and money. Moscow is mired in chaos and blood.
The content of the article
Oprichnina- a system of extraordinary measures applied by the Russian Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible in 1565-1572 in domestic politics to defeat the boyar-princely opposition and strengthen the Russian centralized state. (The very word "oprichnina" ("oprishnina") comes from the ancient Russian - "special."
The introduction of the oprichnina in the 16th century. Ivan the Terrible was caused by the difficulties of the internal situation in the country, including the contradiction between the political consciousness of the boyars, certain circles of the higher bureaucracy (clergy), the higher clergy who wanted independence, on the one hand, and, on the other, - the desire of Ivan the Terrible for unlimited autocracy based on on the latter's firm belief in personal godlikeness and God's chosenness and who set the goal of bringing reality in line with his own convictions. Ivan the Terrible's stubbornness in achieving absolute power, not constrained by law, custom, or even common sense and considerations of state benefits, was strengthened by his tough temper. The emergence of the oprichnina was associated with the Livonian War, which began in 1558, bleeding the country, the deterioration of the situation of the people due to poor harvests, hunger, and fires caused by extremely hot summers for many years. The people perceived adversity as God's punishment for the sins of the rich boyars and expected the tsar to create an ideal state structure("Holy Russia").
The internal political crisis was aggravated by the resignation of Ivan the Terrible of the Chosen Rada (1560), the death of Metropolitan Macarius (1563), who kept the tsar within the framework of prudence, treason and flight abroad of Prince A.M. Kurbsky (April 1564). Deciding to break the brewing opposition, on December 3, 1564 Ivan the Terrible, taking with him the state treasury, personal library, revered icons and symbols of power, together with his wife Maria Temryukovna and children, suddenly left Moscow, leaving on a pilgrimage to the village of Kolomenskoye. He did not return to Moscow, wandered for several weeks in its vicinity, until he settled 65 versts from the capital in the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda. On January 3, 1565, Ivan the Terrible announced his abdication from the throne because of "anger" at the boyars, voivodship and clerks, accusing them of treason, embezzlement, unwillingness to "fight against enemies." Posadsky announced that he had no anger and disgrace on them.
Fearing a "turmoil" in Moscow, on January 5, a deputation from the boyars, clergy and townspeople, led by Archbishop Pimen, arrived in the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda with a request to the tsar to return and "do the sovereign's business." Having wrested from the Boyar Duma consent to the introduction of a state of emergency in the state, the tsar put forward conditions that henceforth he was free to execute and pardon at his discretion and demanded to establish an oprichnina. In February 1565 Grozny returned to Moscow. Those close to him did not recognize him: his burning gaze faded, his hair turned gray, his gaze was running, his hands were shaking, his voice was hoarse (After reading this from V.O. )
A significant part of the territory of the Moscow state was allocated by Ivan the Terrible to a special sovereign inheritance ("oprich"); here the traditional law was replaced by the "word" (arbitrariness) of the monarch. In the sovereign's destiny, “their own” were created: the duma, orders (“cells”), the personal guard of the tsar (up to 1 thousand oprichniks at the beginning and by the end of the oprichnina - up to 6 thousand). The best lands and more than 20 major cities(Moscow, Vyazma, Suzdal, Kozelsk, Medyn, Veliky Ustyug, etc.); by the end of the oprichnina, its territory accounted for 60% of the Moscow state. The territory that was not included in the oprichnina was called zemstvo; she kept the Boyar Duma and "her" orders. From the Zemshchina, the tsar demanded a huge amount for the device of the oprichnina - 100 thousand rubles. However, the tsar did not limit his power to the territory of the oprichnina. During negotiations with a deputation from the Zemshchyna, he persuaded himself the right to uncontrollably dispose of the life and property of all subjects of the Moscow state.
The composition of the oprichnina court was heterogeneous: among the oprichniki there were princes (Odoevsky, Khovansky, Trubetskoy, etc.), and boyars, foreign mercenaries, just service people. Entering the oprichnina, they renounced family and generally accepted norms of behavior, swore an oath of fidelity to the tsar, including not to communicate with "zemstvo" people. Their goal was to get closer to the throne, power and wealth.
Promising the people “to establish the Kingdom of God on earth” headed by him, “God's anointed one,” Grozny began with a bloody affirmation of the autocrat's power. He called himself “abbot”; oprichnikov - a "monastic brother" who in churches at night, dressed in black, performed blasphemous rituals. A dog's head and a broomstick became the symbol of the oprichniks' service to the tsar, which meant "gnaw out and sweep out treason." Being a suspicious person, the king began to see this betrayal everywhere and especially did not tolerate honest and independent people who stood up for the persecuted.
Bound by harsh discipline and common crimes, the guardsmen operated in the Zemshchyna as in enemy territory, zealously carrying out Grozny's orders to eradicate "sedition", infinitely abusing the power given to them. Their actions were aimed at paralyzing the will of people to resist, to instill terror, to achieve unquestioning obedience to the will of the monarch. Cruelty and atrocities in the massacre of people became the norm for the guardsmen. Often they were not satisfied with a simple execution: they cut off their heads, cut people to pieces, and burned them alive. Opals and executions became a daily occurrence. The provincial nobleman Malyuta Skuratov (M.L. Skuratov - Belsky), the boyar A.D. Basmanov, and Prince A.I. In the eyes of the people, the guardsmen became more terrible than the Tatars.
The task of Ivan the Terrible was to weaken the Boyar Duma. The first victims of the guardsmen were representatives of a number of high-born noble families, especially severely the tsar persecuted his distant relatives, the descendants of the Suzdal princes. Hundreds of local landowners-feudal lords were evicted from the territory of the oprichnina. Their lands and the lands of their peasants were transferred to the noblemen-guardsmen, while the peasants were often simply killed. The nobles taken into the oprichnina were better than other landowners, allotted land and serfs, received generous benefits. This land redistribution, indeed, greatly undermined the economic and political influence of the landed aristocracy.
The establishment of the oprichnina and its use by the tsar as an instrument of physical destruction of political opponents, the confiscation of land holdings, caused a growing protest from part of the nobility and clergy. In 1566, a group of nobles filed a petition for the abolition of the oprichnina. All petitioners were executed by Ivan the Terrible. In 1567, opposite the Trinity Gates of the Kremlin (on the site of the building of the Russian State Library), an oprichnina courtyard was built, surrounded by a powerful stone wall, where the unjust judgment was held. In 1568, with the "case" of the boyar IP Fedorov, a large wave of repressions began, as a result of which from 300 to 400 people were executed, mostly people from noble boyar families. Even Metropolitan Philip Kolychev, who opposed the oprichnina, was imprisoned in a monastery by the order of the tsar, and was soon strangled by Malyuta Skuratov.
In 1570 all the forces of the guardsmen were turned to the rebellious Novgorod. In the course of the advance of the tsar's oprichnina army to Novgorod in Tver, Torzhok, in all settlements the oprichniks killed and robbed the population. After the defeat of Novgorod, which lasted for six weeks, hundreds of corpses remained, as a result of this campaign, their number was no less than 10 thousand, in Novgorod itself most of the dead were posad people. All repressions were accompanied by robberies of the property of churches, monasteries and merchants, after which the population was imposed unbearable taxes, for the collection of which the same torture and executions were used. The number of victims of the oprichnina for 7 years only of its "official" existence amounted to a total of up to 20 thousand (with the total population of the Moscow state at the end of the 16th century about 6 million).
Grozny managed to achieve a sharp strengthening of the autocratic power, to give it the features of Eastern despotism. The Zemsky opposition was broken. The economic independence of large cities (Novgorod, Pskov, etc.) was undermined and they never rose to their previous level. In an atmosphere of general mistrust, the economy could not develop. Of course, the oprichnina ultimately could not change the structure of large land ownership, but after Grozny it took time to revive boyar and princely land ownership, which was necessary at that time for economic development country. The division of troops into oprichnina and zemstvo was the reason for the decline in the fighting efficiency of the Russian state. Oprichnina weakened the Muscovy, corrupted upper layer society. When in 1571 the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey attacked Moscow, the oprichniks, who became robbers and murderers, did not want to go on a campaign to defend Moscow. Devlet-Girey reached Moscow and burned it, and the frightened tsar rushed to flee the capital. The campaign of Devlet-Girey "sobered" Grozny and was the reason for the very quick official cancellation of the oprichnina: in 1572, Grozny forbade even mentioning the oprichnina under pain of a whip.
However, only the very name of the oprichnina disappeared, and under the name of the "sovereign court" the arbitrariness of Grozny and repressions continued, but they were now turned against the oprichniki. In 1575, the tsar, hoping to gain allies in foreign policy, even declared the Tatar service khan Simeon Bekbulatovich "the sovereign of all Russia", and called himself the appanage prince "Ivanets of Moscow", but already in 1576 he regained the tsar's throne, simultaneously changing almost the entire composition of the oprichnina.
The essence of the oprichnina and its methods contributed to the enslavement of the peasants. During the years of the oprichnina landowners were generously distributed "black" and palace lands, peasant obligations increased sharply. The guardsmen took the peasants out of the Zemshchyna "by violence and not on time." This affected almost all lands, leading to the ruin of land farms. The area of arable land was rapidly decreasing. (in the Moscow district by 84%, in the Novgorod and Pskov lands - by 92%, etc.) The devastation of the country played its negative role in the establishment of serfdom in Russia. The peasants fled to the Urals, to the Volga region. In response, in 1581, "reserved summers" were introduced, when the peasants were "temporarily" forbidden to leave the landlords altogether, even on St. George's Day.
The cities were depopulated from state taxes, pestilence, hunger. The exhausted country suffered one serious defeat after another in the Livonian War. Under the armistice of 1582, she ceded all Livonia to the Poles, under an agreement with the Swedes, she lost the cities of Yam, Ivan-gorod, etc.
Historians are still arguing over whether the oprichnina was aiming at the remnants of the appanage-princely antiquity or was directed against the forces that interfered with the strengthening of the autocracy of Ivan the Terrible, and the defeat of the boyar opposition was only a side effect. The question of whether the oprichnina was abolished by the tsar and whether there was a second “surge” of it in the 1570s and on other issues has not been resolved either. Only one thing is clear, that the oprichnina was not a step towards a progressive form of government and did not contribute to the development of the state. This was a bloody reform destroying it, as evidenced by its consequences, including the onset of "troubles" in the early 17th century. The dreams of the people, and above all of the nobility, of a strong monarch "standing for great truth" were embodied in unbridled despotism.
Lev Pushkarev, Irina Pushkareva
APPENDIX. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE GARDEN
(according to the Nikon Chronicle)
(...) The same winter, December on the 3rd day, a week, the king and Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of All Russia with his tsarina and Grand Duchess Marya and with his children (...) went from Moscow to a village in Kolomenskoye. (...) His rise was not like that, as if he had previously traveled around the monastery to pray, or to which he took his amusements on detours: he took with him holiness, icons and crosses, decorated with gold and stone, and gold and silver courts And the purveyors of all kinds of ships, gold and silver, and wages and money, and all their treasury were commanded to be taken with them. Which boyar and nobleman, a neighbor and orderly people, led the drive with him, and those who led many with him to drive with him with wives and children, and as a nobleman and a boyar's child, the boyar choice from all the cities that the sovereign of life had cleaned up with him, ordered those all to drive with him with people and with whom, with all service attire. And he lived in a village in Kolomenskoye for two weeks for bad weather and bezput, that there were rains and there was a lot of reins in the rivers ... And as the rivers became, the Tsar and Tsar of Kolomenskoye went to the village of to the Trinity, and the wonderworker is the memory of Metropolitan Peter. December 21st, celebrated at the Trinity in the Sergiev Monastery, and from the Trinity from the Sergiev Monastery I went to Sloboda. At that time in Moscow, Afonasy was the Metropolitan of All Russia, Pimin Archbishop of Great Novagrad and Pskov, Nikandr Archbishop of Rostov and Yaroslavl and other bishops and archimandrites and abbots, and the Tsar and the Grand Duke, boyars and warriors and all the orderly people; nevertheless, about that in bewilderment and in despondency, there was such a sovereign's great unusual upsurge, and his worthwhile procession is not vedamo, where is it. And on the 3rd day, the tsar and the Grand Duke from Sloboda sent the tsar and the grand duke from Sloboda to his father and the pilgrim to Ofonasiy the Metropolitan of All Russia with Kostyantin Dmitriev's son Polivanov with a list of goods and a list, and it contains the treason of the boyar and voivodship and all sorts of clerks that they made treason and losses to his state until his sovereign age after his father are blessed in the memory of the great sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich of all Russia. And the tsar and the grand duke put his anger on his pilgrims, on archbishops and bishops and on archimandrites and abbots, and on his boyars and on the butler and equestrian and on the attendants and on the treasurers and on the clerks and on the children of the boyars and on all the orderly people. he put his disgrace in the fact that after his father ... the great sovereign Vasily ... in his sovereign uncompleted years, the boyars and all the clerical people of his sovereign people made many losses and the treasury of his sovereign wasted, and did not add any profits to his treasury , also his boyars and the governors of the sovereign's lands gave themselves money, and to their friends and his tribes the sovereign's lands were distributed; and the boyars and voivods hold great estates and estates for themselves, and the emperor's salaries are well-fed, and having collected great riches for themselves, and about the sovereign and about his state and about all Orthodox Christianity, they are not at least happy, and from his enemies from the Crimean and Lithuanian and from the Germans, not even though the peasantry was to defend, especially the peasants' violence, repaired, and they themselves taught to retire from the service, and for the Orthodox peasants bloodshed against sermen and against Latyn and Nemets did not want to stand; and in what he, the sovereign, his boyars and all the orderly people, also the serving princes and the children of the boyars, will want them in their wines to be punished and looked at by the archbishops and bishops and archimandrites and abbots, made up of the boyars and the nobles and the clerks and with all clerical people, they sent them to the sovereign king and the grand duke to cover; and the tsar and the sovereign and the grand duke, out of great pity of the heart, not even though they endure many treacherous deeds, left his sovereign and went where to settle down, where, sovereign, God would instruct him.
To the guest and to the merchant and to the entire Orthodox peasantry of the city of Moscow, the tsar and the grand duke sent a letter with Kostyantin Polivanov, and ordered the clerk to carry that letter to the guests and to all the people by the clerk Scarecrow Mikhailov and Ovdrey Vasilyev; and in his letter to them he wrote that they should not hold any doubts for themselves, there is no anger at them and no disgrace. Hearing this blessed Athos, the Metropolitan of All Russia and the archbishops and bishops and the entire consecrated cathedral, that they had been turned down for their sins, the sovereign left the state, very insulting about this and in great bewilderment of everyday life. But the boyars and the okolnichy, and the boyar children and all the orderly people, and the priestly and monastic rank, and many people, hearing such that the sovereign put his anger and disgrace on them and left his kingdom, they were all Russia and in front of the archbishops and bishops and in front of all the consecrated cathedral with a cry, saying: “Alas! grief! what a sin before God and the wrath of their sovereign, how many have transformed his sins before him and his great mercy turned into wrath and fury! now we will resort to this and who will have mercy on us and who will save us from finding strangers? What kind of sheep can there be without a shepherd? Whenever wolves see a sheep without a shepherd, and the wolves will snatch the sheep, who is the scammer from them? how can we be without a sovereign? " And many other words like these uttered to Afonasiy the Metropolitan of All Russia and the entire consecrated cathedral, and not only this verbally, with a great voice praying to him with many tears, that Afonasii Metropolitan of All Russia with the archbishops and bishops and with his consecrated cathedral and podvig their cry and quenched, and the pious sovereign and the tsar for mercy begged that the sovereign tsar and the great prince turn away his anger, show mercy and give up his disgrace, but did not leave his kingdom and owned his own kingdom and ruled, as it was for him, the sovereign; and who will be the sovereign rogues who did treasonous deeds, and God knows about those, so he, sovereign, and in the stomach and in execution his sovereign will: beat his brow and lament at his sovereign's mercy. "
Also, the guests and merchants and all the citizens of the city of Moscow for the same bishom Afonasy to the Metropolitan of All Russia and the entire consecrated cathedral, so that they beat the Tsar and the Grand Duke with their foreheads, so that he would show mercy over them, he would not leave the sovereign and would not give them up to be plundered by the wolf but delivered from the hands of the mighty; but who will be the sovereign's rogues and traitors, and they do not stand for those and will consume those themselves. Metropolitan Afonasy, hearing from them crying and insatiable groaning, do not deign himself to go to the sovereign for the city's neglect, that all the commanding people have deferred the sovereign’s orders and deferred the city by no bank, and sent them to the pious tsar and the grand duke in the Oleksandrovsk settlement from himself. on the same days, General War on Day 3, Pimin Archbishop of Veliky Novgorod and Pskov and Mikhailov Chud Archimandrite Levkia pray and beat the brow so that the Tsar and the Grand Duke over him, his father and the pilgrim, and over their pilgrims, over the archbishops and bishops, and on everything to the consecrated cathedral, he showed mercy and put off his anger, so he would have shown his mercy over his boyars and over the wardens and over the treasurers and over the governors and over all the commanding people and over all the people of Chrestian I would have owned my own kingdoms and ruled as it suits him, the sovereign: and who will be for him, the sovereign, and his state, traitors and rascals, and over those in the stomach and in execution his sovereign will. And the archbishops and bishops about themselves went to Sloboda for the Tsar and the Tsar and the Grand Duke about his royal mercy. (...) Boyars Prince Ivan Dmitrievich Belskoy, Prince Ivan Fedorovich of Mstislavskaya and all the boyars and okolnichy, and treasurers and noblemen and clerks, many, without going to their homes, went from the metropolitan's court from the city to the archbishop and rulers to Oleksandrovskaya settlement; also guests and merchants and many black people, with many weeping and tears of the city of Moscow, went for the archbishops and bishops to beat their brows and mourn to the tsar and the grand duke about his tsar's mercy. Pimin (...) yes Chudovsky Archimandrite Leukia arrived in Slotino And exiled to Sloboda, as the sovereign orders his eyes to see.
The sovereign ordered them to go to him from the bailiffs; came to the Sloboda Genvariya on the 5th day ... And with many prayers I prayed him with tears for all the peasant people, as before with a speech. The pious sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of All Russia, having mercy on all Orthodox peasantry, for his father and the pilgrim Athos, the Metropolitan of All Russia and for his pilgrims, archbishops and bishops, his boyars and orderly people, the bishop ordered his eyes to all the bishop and the archbishop to the consecrated cathedral, his merciful word of the rivers: “for his father and the pilgrim Athos, Metropolitan of the weight of Rusia, prayers and you for, our pilgrims, we want to take our states, but how we have taken our states and our rulers, about that we will order everything to our father his own and the pilgrim to Ophonasius, the Metropolitan of all Rusia with their pilgrims "... and sent them to Moscow ... But keep the boyars of Prince Ivan Dmitrievich Belsky and Prince Peter Mikhailovich Shchetanev and other boyars, and to Moscow the same days in January 5 day, the boyars let go of Prince Ivan Fedorovich Mstislavsky, Prince Ivan Ivanovich Pronsky and other boyars and clerks, may they be on their own and ruled by his kingdom according to the old custom. The tsar and the grand duke of the tsar and the grand duke accepted the archbishops and bishops on the idea that his traitors, who betray him, the sovereign, and in what he, the sovereign, were disobedient, put their own disgrace on those, and execute others and their bellies and stumps imati; and give him an oprishnina in his kingdom, make him a special court for himself and for all his daily life, and make himself special ; and in the palace, on Sytnoye and on Kormovoye and on Khlebennoye, to make hockey sticks and hookers and sytniks and cooks and bakers, and all kinds of craftsmen and grooms and hounds and all kinds of courtyard people for every use, and he sentenced the shooters to make themselves special.
And the tsar and the grand duke commanded for their daily life, and for the children of their princes Ivanov and tsareviches Fedorov, everyday life, cities and volosts: the city of Jozhaesk, the city of Vyazma, the city of Kozelesk, the city of Przemysl, two lots, the city of Belev, the city of Likhvin, both halves, the city Yaroslavets and Sukhodrovy, the city of Medyn and Tovarkova, the city of Suzdal and Shuya, the city of Galich with all the suburbs, with Chyukhloma and Unzhey and with Koryakov and Belogorodie, the city of Vologda, the city of Yuryevets Povolskoy, Balakhna and Uzola, Staraya Rusu, the city of Vyshegorod on Porotva, the city of Ustyug with all the volosts, the city of Dvina, Kargopol, Vagu; and volosts: Oleshnya, Khotun, Gus, Muromskoe village, Argunovo, Gvozdnu, Opakov na Ugra, Circle of Klinskaya, Chislyaki, Ordin villages and Pakhryanskaya camp in the Moscow district, Belgorod in Kashin, and Vselun, Oshtu volosts. Ladoshskaya threshold, Totmu, Pribuzh. And other volosts the sovereign housed with a well-fed okup from which volosts receive all kinds of income for his sovereign household, to pay the boyars and nobles and all of his sovereign courtyards who will be with him in the oprishnina; and from which cities and volosts the income will not reach for his sovereign use, and other cities and volosts imati.
And give the sovereign in his oprishnina princes and noblemen and children of boyar courtyards and city governors 1000 heads, and gave them estates in those towns at the same time, which cities he took in oprishnina; but he ordered the patrimonials and landowners, who do not live in the oprishnina, and ordered to withdraw the land from those cities and give them to that place in the new towns; Chertolskaya Street and from Semchinsky Selets and to the widening, and Arbatskaya Street on both sides with Sivtsov Enemy and to Dorogomilovsky Splitting, and half of the street to Nikitskaya Street, driving from the city to the left side and until the Splash, defile the Novinsky Monastery and the Savinsky Monastery of the settlements and delineate Dorogomilovskie Sloboda, and to the New Devich Monastery and the Alekseevsky Monastery of the Sloboda; and the settlements to be in the oprishnina: Ilyinskaya, near Sosenki, Vorontsovskaya, Lyshchikovskaya. And which streets and settlements the sovereign caught in the oprishnina, and in those streets he ordered the life of a boyar and a nobleman and every orderly people whom the sovereign caught in an oprishnina, but who did not order to be in an oprishnina, and ordered those from all streets to be transferred to the new streets on posad.
His state of Moscow, the army and the court and the council and all sorts of zemstvo affairs, ordered the vedati and deeds of his boyars, whom he ordered to live in the zemstvo: Prince Ivan Dmitrievich Belsky, Prince Ivan Fedorovich Mstislavsky and all the boyars; and ordered the groom and the nobleman and the treasurer and the clerk and all the orderly people to be by his order and the council in the old days, and about big matters come to the boyars; and the warriors what will be the great deeds of the zemstvo, and the boyar comes to the sovereign about those matters, and the sovereign of the boyars orders the council to fix the matter.
For his ascent the tsar and the grand duke sentenced to take from the zemstvo one hundred thousand rubles; and which boyars and governors and clerks went to death for the imperial great treason, and others came to disgrace, and those bellies and statues should be taken by the emperor. The archbishops and bishops and archimandrites and abbots, and the entire consecrated cathedral, and the boyars and clerks, put everything on the sovereign's will.
That same winter, February, commanded the king and the grand duke to execute death penalty for their great treacherous deeds of the boyar Prince Oleksandr Borisovich Gorbatovo and the son of his prince Peter, and the okolichchevo of Peter Petrov, the son of Golovin, and the prince Ivan to Prince Ivanov, the son of Sukhovo-Kashin, and the prince Dmitry to the prince Ondreev, the son of Shevyrev. The boyar of Prince Ivan Kurakin, Prince Dmitry Nemovo, led him to mow in Chernets. And the noblemen and boyar children, who reached the sovereign's disgrace, and put their disgrace on those and put their bellies on himself; and others he sent to his patrimony in Kazan to live with wives and children.
MINISTRY OF BRANCH OF RUSSIA
Branch of the federal state budget educational institution higher vocational education
"RUSSIAN STATE HUMANITARIAN UNIVERSITY"
in the city of Zheleznodorozhny, Moscow region
Test
on the History of Russia
OPRICHNINA IVAN THE GROZNY: HOW WAS IT?
Oksana Govorukha
Railway 2013
Introduction
1.The formation of the oprichnina
2. Zemsky Cathedral 1566
Oprichnina's opponents
The defeat of Novgorod
Power and economy in the years of the oprichnina
The end of the oprichnina
Conclusion
Introduction
Oprichnina is a system of emergency measures applied by Tsar Ivan VI in 1565-1572. in the domestic policy of Russia to weaken the boyar-princely opposition and strengthen the power of the tsar.
The political development of Russia in the 6th century was marked by contradictions. The unification of the Russian lands within the framework of a single state did not lead to the disappearance of the remnants of feudal fragmentation. The needs of political centralization required the transformation of feudal institutions. Reforms were needed. Reforming the army allowed Russia to solve such major foreign policy tasks as the reunification of Western Russian lands that fell under the rule of Lithuania, and the conquest of an outlet to the sea. This was the time of the strengthening of the Russian state. The introduction of the oprichnina by Ivan VI was caused by the difficulties of the internal situation in the country, the contradiction between the political consciousness of the boyars and the higher clergy, who wanted independence, on the one hand, and the desire of Ivan VI for unlimited autocracy, on the other. Ivan VI's stubbornness in achieving absolute power, not constrained by law, custom, or common sense and considerations of state benefits, was strengthened by his tough temper. The emergence of the oprichnina was associated with the protracted Livonian War, the deterioration of the situation of the people due to crop failures, hunger, and fires. The internal political crisis was aggravated by the resignation of Ivan VI of the Chosen Rada (1560), the death of Metropolitan Macarius (1563), who kept the tsar within the framework of prudence, treason and flight abroad of Prince A.M. Kurbsky (April, 1564).
1. Formation of the oprichnina
December 1564 Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible with his family went to the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow to celebrate Nikolin's Day (December 6). Departure of the Moscow tsar on pilgrimage was commonplace. This time it was unusual that the tsar took with him not only icons and crosses, but also jewelry, clothing and the state treasury. Also, an order to leave Moscow was given to the selected boyars, near nobles and officials, all of whom were to leave with their wives and children. The ultimate purpose of this trip was kept secret. After spending two weeks in Kolomenskoye, Ivan VI went to the Trinity Monastery, after which he arrived in Aleksandrov Sloboda. Arriving in the settlement in December 1564, Ivan the Terrible ordered to cordon off the settlement with armed guards and bring to him from Moscow and other cities those boyars whom he demanded. On January 3, Ivan VI sent a message to Metropolitan Athanasius, in which he announced his abdication from the throne due to dissatisfaction with the boyars, governors and commanding people, accusing them of treason, embezzlement, unwillingness to fight enemies. On January 3, the news of the tsar's abdication was communicated to the Moscow population at a meeting of the Zemsky Sobor. Fearing unrest, on January 3, Metropolitan Athanasius sent a deputation to the tsar in Sloboda, headed by Archbishop Pimen and Archimandrite Leukia, who were closest to Ivan VI. Together with them went other members of the consecrated cathedral, the boyars headed by I.D. Velsky and I.F. Mstislavsky, clerks and service people. In the petition, which the deputation of Moscow residents was carrying with them, there was a request to return to public administration.
January the tsar received Pimen, Leukia and other members of the council. The tsar accused his boyars of striving to deprive him of power. But at the same time, it was announced to the audience that the tsar agreed to return to governing the state. Ivan VI took note of the consent of the petitioners that the tsar, at his own discretion, executed the traitors and imposed disgrace. At the same time, it was reported about the decision of the tsar to establish an oprichnina. Its essence boiled down to the creation of a new royal court, the personnel of which was provided with land allotments in certain territories of Russia. A significant part of the territory of the Moscow state was allocated for oprichnina lands. The best lands and more than 20 large cities (Moscow, Vyazma, Suzdal, Kozelsk, Medyn, Veliky Ustyug, etc.) went to the oprichnina. The territory that was not included in the oprichnina was called zemstvo. From the Zemshchina, the tsar demanded 100 thousand rubles for the organization of the oprichnina. The tsar did not limit his power only to the territory of the oprichnina. During negotiations with the deputation, he established for himself the right to dispose of the life and property of all subjects of the Moscow state uncontrollably.
February, Tsar Ivan the Terrible returned to Moscow. The next day, a decree was issued on the introduction of the oprichnina.
The main residence of the guardsmen was the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda.
The guardsmen took a special oath to the king. They pledged not to enter into contact with zemstvo people, even with relatives. All the guardsmen wore black clothes, similar to those of a monk, and distinctive signs - a broom to sweep out treason, and a dog's head to gnaw it out. There was also a general meal, combined with divine services. This meal reminded of the times when the princes feasted with their retinue. The oprichnina feasts were very abundant.
The introduction of the oprichnina was marked by reprisals against persons objectionable to the tsar. The boyar Alexander Borisovich Gorbaty and his son Peter, the okolnich Peter Petrovich Golovin, Prince Ivan Ivanovich Sukhovo - Kashin, and Prince Dmitry Fedorovich Shevyrev were executed. Princes Kurakin were tonsured into monks and
Mute. Executions and disgraces in the first half of 1565 were directed primarily against those who back in 1553 supported Vladimir Staritsky, resisting the will of the tsar. These measures were primarily aimed at weakening the Boyar Duma and strengthening the power of the tsar.
The repressive measures that fell upon the feudal nobility did not end with executions and forcible tonsure as monks. Violent separation of princes from their possessions was also practiced. Disgraced princes and boyar children moved to the outskirts of the Russian state (Kazan, Sviyazhsk) with the confiscation of their lands in the center of Russia. With such relocations, Ivan the Terrible continued repressions against the supporters of the Chosen Rada. Among the settlers in the Volga region there were also trade and craft people from Tver, Kostroma, Vladimir, Ryazan, Vologda, Pskov, Uglich, Ustyug, Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow. Among other things, the resettlement policy of Ivan VI testifies to the desire to Russify the newly annexed regions of the Middle Volga region.
During 1565, the oprichnina apparatus was built, people loyal to the tsar were selected, persons who had instilled fear in the tsar were exiled and executed. Ivan the Terrible lived in Sloboda for a long time, traveled to his new possessions, built a stone fortress in the oprichnina Vologda. Vologda occupied advantageous position on the routes to Kholmogory, Russia's trade port in the north. In the spring of 1565 negotiations for a seven-year truce with Sweden were completed. The question of the further course of the Livonian War was also decided. In August 1565, a messenger from Lithuania arrived in Moscow with a letter from the Lithuanian nobles with a proposal to continue peace negotiations and hostilities were stopped. On May 30, 1566, Lithuanian ambassadors arrived in Moscow, headed by Hetman Chodkiewicz. Russia was faced with a dialem - either the continuation of the war, or the refusal of further territorial acquisitions in Livonia and Lithuania. To resolve this issue, in the summer of 1566, a Zemsky Sobor was convened.
2. Zemsky Sobor 1566
The Zemsky Sobor, which began on June 28, 1566, first of all decided the question of the conditions for concluding peace with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Negotiations with the Lithuanian ambassadors in late 1563 - early 1564, which took place after the capture of Polotsk by the Russian troops, did not yield any results. Both sides took irreconcilable positions. The war took on a protracted nature, which was not beneficial to either Lithuania or Russia. The situation in the Lithuanian principality on the eve of the negotiations was tense due to the depletion of public finances due to the long war. In Russia, the situation was different. Due to the armistice with Sweden, it was possible to establish allied relations between these states. The raids of the Crimean ally of Lithuania to the southern outskirts were no longer dangerous thanks to the system of fortifications and regular patrol service. From the end of April to the end of May 1566, Ivan VI personally made a detour of Kozelsk, Belev, Volkhov, Aleksin and other border areas that were threatened by raids. The fortress barrier for confronting the Lithuanian cities - fortresses was supposed to block the way to the West in the event of a repetition of the campaigns of the Lithuanian troops against Russia. In July 1566, the construction of the Usvyat fortress near Ozerishche was completed. From the north and south, Polotsk was defended by the Sokol fortresses on the Narovsk road and Ula, from the summer of 1567 - a fortress in Kop'i. Also during these years, the fortresses of Susha, Sitna on the Velikiye Luki road, Krasny and Kasyanov on the Obol river were built. All of them covered the waterways to Polotsk. The construction of these fortifications on the newly annexed land meant that Russia considered the question of the future of this land resolved.
The internal political situation at that moment was also favorable. After the executions of the boyar Gorbaty and other prominent figures, by the first half of 1566 the oprichnina repressions subsided, which brought a certain calm to the life of the country. In the spring of 1566, the disgraced prince M.I. Vorotynsky is one of the most prominent commanders of the Russian army. In May 1566, most of the disgraced Kazan princes were also returned. A relatively calm situation was created, which made it possible for the Moscow government, in a favorable atmosphere, to consider the issue of peace terms with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
On June 9, 1566, negotiations began with the Lithuanian ambassadors. Since Ivan the Terrible did not completely trust the Boyar Duma, where the supporters of Adashev, who at one time opposed the Livonian War, were influential, he entrusted the negotiations to his most trusted representatives. They were the boyar V.M. Yuriev, A.I. Vyazemsky, Duma nobleman P.V. Zaitsev, printer I.M. Viscous and Duma ambassadorial clerks Vasiliev and Vladimirov. In essence, they were all guardsmen, expressing, first of all, the opinion of Ivan the Terrible himself. The main task of the negotiations was to resolve the territorial issue. Russia claimed the return of Kiev, Gomel, Vitebsk and Lyubech, as well as Livonia. The size of the concessions that the Lithuanian government could make was extremely small: the transfer of Smolensk, which had long been a part of Russia, as well as Polotsk, Ozerishch and that part of Livonia, where Russian troops were at the time of the negotiations.
The most main goal Ivan VI was the annexation of Riga. This made it possible to develop economic ties with the countries of Western Europe. The Lithuanian government did not agree to these conditions. The question boiled down to the following: either Russia's refusal from Riga, the conclusion of an armistice, or the breakdown of negotiations and the continuation of the Livonian War.
It was to resolve this issue that the convocation of the Zemsky Sobor was needed. The Zemsky Sobor in 1566 was attended by 374 people, among whom were representatives of the church, boyars, nobles, clerks, and merchants. The representatives of the peasants and ordinary townspeople were absent from the council, which is shown by the feudal composition of the council representatives. The Zemsky Sobor decided to continue the Livonsoy War.
Thus, the Zemsky Sobor in 1566 became one of the turning points of the Livonian War. The cathedral also influenced the fate of the oprichnina.
Encouraged by the government's appeal to the estates in search of a solution to foreign policy measures, representatives of the nobility demanded an end to the oprichnina repression. The answer was the strengthening of the oprichnina terror.
Oprichnina's opponents
In 1566, Metropolitan Athanasius retired due to illness. The tsar offered the metropolitan throne to the Kazan archbishop German Polevoy. Herman turned out to be an opponent of violence and oprichnina. German was sent back to Kazan and executed about 2 years later.
The next candidate for the post of metropolitan was the hegumen of the Solovetsky monastery Philip, in the world - Fyodor Stepanovich Kolychev, which was a big surprise. Philip in young age participated in the rebellion of Andrei Staritsky and thus was associated with the old princes. Meanwhile, the main enemy during the years of the oprichnina IVAN VI considered his cousin the old prince Vladimir Andreevich, the son of the rebel. In 1566, the tsar took away part of the land inheritance from him, giving him new lands in return, where the population was not used to seeing the old prince as a lord. The Kolychevs had estates in the Novgorod land, and the tsar always considered Novgorod to be dangerous for himself. When Philip went to Moscow, Novgorod residents asked him to intercede before the king for their city. Philip made the abolition of the oprichnina as a condition of his assumption of the post of Metropolitan. Nevertheless, the tsar persuaded Philip to become metropolitan and not interfere in the affairs of the oprichnina. In 1566 there was some relaxation of the terror. But soon it began new wave.
One of the high-profile cases was the case of Ivan Petrovich Fedorov - a noble boyar, owner of vast estates, who had a reputation as a very honest person. He enjoyed the love of the masses and was dangerous for Ivan VI with his independence. The execution of Fedorov, as well as many other innocent people, led to the fact that Philip was unable not to interfere in the affairs of the oprichnina. In the spring of 1568, Philip publicly refused the king's blessing during the divine service and condemned the executions. In November at church cathedral Philip was deposed. After the cathedral, Philip was forced to lead a service in the Assumption Cathedral. During the service, the guardsmen announced the deposition of the Metropolitan, tore off his vestments and arrested him. Then Philip was imprisoned in a monastery near Tver.
The defeat of Novgorod
For Ivan VI, Novgorod was dangerous as a major feudal center, as an ally of the old prince, as a potential supporter of Lithuania and as a major citadel of a strong opposition church. The first victim of the terror was Prince Vladimir Andreevich. At the end of September 1569, the tsar summoned him to his office. The old prince arrived with his wife and daughters. Ivan VI ordered the prince and his family to drink the poison prepared in advance.
December 1569 Ivan VI with a detachment of 15 thousand people. arrived in Klin, where the massacre was perpetrated. The same picture was repeated in Torzhok, Tver and Vyshny Volochyok. At the same time, the tsar received Malyute Skuratova to execute Philip, who was imprisoned near Tver. On January 2, 1570, the advanced regiment of the guardsmen reached Novgorod. Before the arrival of the rest of the oprichnina forces, the treasury was sealed in monasteries, churches and homes of rich people, many merchants and clergymen were arrested. In the evening of January 6, Ivan VI approached Novgorod. The tsar considered Archbishop Pimen to be the main conspirator. Therefore, first of all, the Novgorod clergy were subjected to repression. He also did not trust the Novgorod nobility, since none of its members entered the oprichnina.
The pogrom of Novgorod, which is considered one of the most terrible episodes of the oprichnina, lasted six weeks. The pogrom consisted not only of murders, but also of a planned robbery. After the defeat of Novgorod and the return of the tsar to the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, an investigation began on the Novgorod treason case. Among the accused were many of the leaders of the oprichnina - father and son Aleksey Danilovich and Fedor Alekseevich Basmanov, Afanasy Ivanovich Vyazemsky, Mikhail Temryukovich Cherkassky. On July 25, 1570, mass executions took place on Red Square, at the same time more than a hundred people were executed.
The mass executions of 1570 were the apogee of the oprichnina terror.
Power and economy in the years of the oprichnina
In the oprichnina years, the power of the autocratic power of the tsar increased. All important external and internal political issues were resolved directly by Ivan VI and his closest circle. Ivan the Terrible himself, after consulting the boyar duma, made decisions about war and peace, about campaigns, the construction of fortresses, military issues, land and financial matters. The king remained the last resort in land disputes. The king saw the ultimate goal of his activities in the unlimited subordination of all subjects to his will. Thus, the oprichnina terror was one of the forms of strengthening the autocracy. After the execution of Vladimir Staritsky and the defeat of Novgorod in Russia, appanages were practically liquidated. This was a positive result of the transformations during the oprichnina. The composition of the Boyar Duma has decreased
Since 1570, a gradual decline of the oprichnina begins.
During the years of the oprichnina, the population of the country had to experience epidemics and famine. In 1569 there was a poor harvest in Russia. In 1569-1571. in various regions of Russia, prices for bread and other products have increased significantly Agriculture... The year 1971 was especially difficult for Russia, when a plague epidemic, famine and the invasion of Devlet-Giray struck the country. On May 24, 1571, there was a huge fire in Moscow, which brought great devastation to the city. Lands were desolate all over the country. The peasants could not pay the increased royal duties and left the land. It is difficult to call the extermination of his political opponents by Ivan the Terrible the reason for the desolation, but during the oprichnina massacres many thousands of innocent people died, incl. peasants, townspeople, slaves. First of all, the reason for the ruin can be considered an increase in taxes, military operations, natural disasters... The economic crisis hastened the government's decision to abandon the continuation of the oprichnina policy. During the years of the oprichnina, black-wooded and palace lands were widely distributed to estates and estates. The plundering of peasant lands led to an increase in serfdom, into which new strata of the peasantry fell. In addition, the new landowners rarely cared about the establishment of the economy in the estates and estates they received. More often than not, they sought to squeeze as much income out of the peasants as possible. This method of exploitation of estates led to their ruin.
The years of the oprichnina are associated with the strong growth of monastic land tenure. It grew so much that on October 9, 1572, a special decree was adopted prohibiting contributions to large monasteries. Along with the expansion of their estates, monasteries during the oprichnina achieved an increase in tax privileges. The burden of carrying national taxes was shifted onto the shoulders of the peasants of the black lands, as well as the peasants of the secular feudal lords, aggravating their already difficult situation. Landlessness of peasants, the transition of black-moor lands into exploitation by secular and spiritual feudal lords was accompanied by a sharp increase in state taxes and land rent. The process of development of corvee has intensified. The ruin of the peasantry, burdened with double oppression (state and feudal), was supplemented by an increase in the tyranny of the landowners, which prepared the final establishment of serfdom. This was one of the results of the oprichnina.
The end of the oprichnina
In the spring of 1571, it became known in Moscow that Devlet-Girey was preparing a campaign against Moscow. On the banks of the Oka, a screen of Russian troops was set up. One section of the coast was entrusted to the Zemstvo troops, and the other to the oprichnina. At the same time, there were five regiments of the zemstvo troops, and only one regiment of the oprichnites was convened. Oprichnina demonstrated the loss of combat effectiveness. The tsar, leaving one oprichnina regiment on the banks of the Oka, went deep into Russia to gather oprichnina troops. On May 23, the troops of Devlet-Girey approached the Oka and they managed to cross the Oka in a place that was not guarded by Russian troops due to their small numbers. The way for the troops of Divlet-Giray to Moscow was opened. The Russian governors managed to reach Moscow before Divlet-Girey and take up defenses around the city. Dvlet-Girey did not storm Moscow, but set fire to “the settlements unprotected by the walls. This fire burned down almost all the wooden buildings in Moscow. The Moscow oprichny yard was also burnt down. After the burning of Moscow, Divlet-Girey left, but at the same time he plundered many cities, especially in the Ryazan land. All this hit the prestige of Tsar Ivan VI and the oprichnina.
For the foreign policy position of Russia, the consequences of the Divlet-Giray raid were very grave. Khan believed that now he could dictate his will to Russia. The negotiations with the Crimean ambassadors were very difficult. The Russian representatives were ready to abandon Astrakhan, but the representatives of the Crimean Khan demanded Kazan as well. Ivan VI made a decision - to repulse the Tatar khan, he united the zemstvo and oprichnina troops. Now in each regiment there were both oprichnina and zemstvo soldiers. Often the guardsmen found themselves under the leadership of the zemstvo governors. The formerly disgraced prince M.I. was appointed commander-in-chief. Vorotynsky.
July 1572 near the village of Molodi, not far from Podolsk, a battle took place. Russian troops led by Vorotynsky were able to defeat the troops of Devlet - Girey. The danger from the Crimean Khan was eliminated.
In the fall of 1572, Ivan VI canceled the oprichnina. It was forbidden to mention the oprichnina. The mention of even the word "oprichnina" was followed by a whip punishment.
The oprichnina and zemstvo troops, oprichnina and zemstvo service people were united, the unity of the Boyar Duma was restored. Many were rehabilitated, some zemstvo people received back their estates.
Ivan Tsar Novgorod Oprichnina
Conclusion
The purpose of the oprichnina, first of all, was to strengthen the autocracy of Ivan VI. It is obvious that the oprichnina was not a step towards a progressive form of government and did not contribute to the development of the state. It was a bloody reform, as evidenced by it late consequences, including the onset of the Time of Troubles at the beginning of the 7th century. The nobility's dreams of a strong monarch were embodied in unbridled despotism. As a result of the activities of Ivan the Terrible, the country was ruined, but united under a single authority. The influence in the West was undermined.
The oprichnina depleted the country and had a heavy impact on the position of the masses. The bloody revelry of the guardsmen brought death to thousands of peasants and artisans, devastation to many cities and villages.
Nevertheless, one cannot fail to mention some of the positive aspects of the oprichnina. The oprichnina became the final step in the unification of the Russian lands around Moscow, the borders of the former appanage principalities were erased, almost disappeared feudal fragmentation in the state. The role of the nobles in government was strengthened. The state finally became centralized.
List of sources and literature
1.Zimin A.A. Oprichnina. - M .: Territory, 2001 .-- 450 p.
2.Zuev I.N. History of Russia Textbook for universities / M.N. Zuev. - M .: PRIOR Publishing House, 2000. - 688 p.
Kobrin V.B. Ivan the Terrible / V.B. Kobrin. - M .: Mosk. Worker, 1989 .-- 174 p.
A. L. Khoroshkevich The Russian state in the system of international relations at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries. / A.L. Khoroshkevich. - Moscow: Nauka, 1980 .-- 293 p.
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The Russian state(from 1565 to 1572), when the state struggle against the traitors to the Motherland came to the fore. It was a whole complex of measures, which was characterized by the creation of a special oprichnina army ("oprichniki"), at the time of Ivan Vasilyevich they were called "sovereigns". Initially, the number of this royal guard was small - 1 thousand people. Also "oprichnina" was called a part of the territory of the Muscovy, with special management, allocated for the maintenance of the royal court and "sovereign people" ("Tsar's oprichnina"). This measure was aimed at undermining the independence of large landowners. The word "oprichnina" comes from the Old Russian "oprich", which means "special", "except". This was the name of the part of the inheritance or patrimony that remained to the widow. Some of them went to their sons, and the “oprichit” went to feed the widow.
What led to the introduction of the oprichnina?
The main reason for the introduction of the oprichnina was the internal opposition to the tsar's course. Ivan Vasilyevich felt that things were not going well in Russia. Many of his activities met with latent opposition. Initiated business was sabotaged, slowed down, brought to naught. Many powerful people did not like the centralization of Russia, the course towards the elimination of old liberties. Naturally, they had strong allies abroad, especially in Poland and Rome.
The tsar also had information that there were traitors in the army and in the state apparatus, and they hinder the development of Russia, pass on secret data to the enemy, and sabotage important undertakings. Apparently, thanks to the traitors, the Polish troops were able to defeat the army of Peter Shuisky, which set out from Polotsk, on January 26, 1564 in the battle at Ula. Russian troops actually walked through their territory, this relaxed them, moved light, armor and heavy things were put in the carts. Radziwill with a small army was able to ambush and with a sudden blow practically destroyed the Russian command - Shuisky, princes Semyon and Fyodor Paletsky, several governors were taken prisoner. The troops, left without control, in fact simply fled, human losses were small, but the Poles captured the baggage train and artillery. Poland perked up, the shock of the loss of Polotsk was overcome, thoughts of peace were rejected. The war continued. It is believed that the Polish command was simply warned about the route of the Russian troops. The boyar Ivan Sheremetev and his brother Nikita, the governor of Smolensk, fell under suspicion. They were accused of treason. However, they had many supporters and intercessors, who acted as guarantors and made a bail, the boyars were released.
At the beginning of 1564, boyars Mikhail Repnin and Yuri Kashin were killed in Moscow. A little later Dmitry Ovchina-Obolensky was killed. Historians have found out that the cousins Repnin and Kashin from the Obolensky clan, each time acted as guarantors for those accused of treason and disgraced. They were the organizers of sabotage and opposition. Ovchina-Obolensky, apparently, was their accomplice. The king received information about their betrayal, but could not punish them with legal methods, their hands were tied by the old order. The Boyar Duma will not give out its own people, it will cover it up. Therefore, a secret order had to be given to eliminate the traitors. It is clear that the boyars immediately realized where the wind was blowing from. A scandal arose with the participation of the Metropolitan and the clergy. The Tsar had to explain (!). So much for the "tsarist dictatorship".
In April Kurbsky fled to Lithuania. In fact, he became the "Vlasov" of that time. And his fault is even heavier. Vlasov went over to the side of the enemy already in captivity. And Kurbsky went over to the side of the enemy long before the flight. At least since 1562 he was in secret correspondence with Radziwill, Sub-Chancellor Volovich and the Polish king. Even Valishevsky admitted that the defeat at Nevel in 1562, when Kurbsky's forces defeated four times smaller enemy troops, was caused by some kind of "suspicious relations" between the prince and the Lithuanians. It was Kurbsky who ensured the defeat of Shuisky's army, in Skrynnikov's work are his letters to Radziwill about which route the army is going, how best to organize an attack on it (Skrynnikov R.G. Ivan the Terrible). Kurbsky, after the death of Repnin and Kashin, realized that it was his turn and fled, taking a large sum of money (he was the governor of Livonia). He betrayed all Russian agents in Lithuania and Poland to the Poles and actively joined the information war against Russia. Sigismund gave him the city of Kovel, Krev's old age, 28 villages and 4 thousand acres of land.
It should be noted that there is one more fact of Ivan Vasilyevich's "bloodiness" and "inhumanity". Running away, Kurbsky did not forget to grab gold and silver, but left his wife and son. The great sovereign did not touch the relatives of Kurbsky. Moreover, he sent them to Lithuania to see the head of the family.
In the setting hard fight with Poland and the Crimean Khanate, the king learned about a new conspiracy, the villains wanted to destroy his entire family. He accepts non-standard solution- the entire royal court began to gather on pilgrimages. Moreover, it was like an exodus, all the shrines, crosses, books, icons, treasury were loaded into the carts. The tsar summoned some boyars and clerks (officials) with him. He did not give any explanations. On December 3, 1564, Tsar Ivan the Terrible with his family, having received the blessing of the Metropolitan, left the capital. I visited the village of Kolomenskoye, where, due to the beginning of the thaw, the thaw, I stayed for two weeks. The king was in deep thought. What to do? Treason blossomed in lush color. Ruined his beloved wife Anastasia. Apparently, they already tried to poison the sovereign himself. It was possible to abandon the struggle, to abdicate the throne (as Emperor Nicholas II will do in the future), or to gather the will into a fist and fight treason, the “fifth column”. The first path led to chaos, the dominance of temporary workers, boyar clans, defeat in the war. Perhaps an attempt by Rome to establish itself on the Russian land.
After Kolomenskoye, the sovereign went to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, then to the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda. He has already made a choice, "crossed the Rubicon." Already on the way, the tsar sends out messengers, calls for "elected" nobles from all cities, with people and "with all the service attire." An impressive army loyal to him is gathering at the sovereign's hand. On January 3, 1565, the Metropolitan and the boyars received a letter from Ivan Vasilyevich, which listed the grievances and guilt of the nobility and officials from childhood - the plundering of the sovereign's treasury, lands, arbitrariness against people, treason, covering up criminals, neglecting the defense of the Motherland, etc. He said that he could not bear it, "left his state" and went to live where "God will instruct." However, the sovereign did not abdicate the throne, this would give the opposition a reason for the enthronement of Prince Vladimir Staritsky. He remained tsar and, by his decree, laid disgrace on the boyars and the government apparatus, they were removed from the management of the state.
At the same time, other emissaries of the king brought another letter, which was read out to the townspeople. It also listed the guilt of the nobility and officials. The king assured that he did not hold any grudge against ordinary people. It was a very skillful move. Moscow was seething. The people rose up for their king. The boyars and clergy, who had gathered for a meeting with the metropolitan, found themselves in a real siege. The people demanded to send a delegation to the king and ask him to return. Simple people and they themselves turned to him, asking not to leave them "to be plundered by the wolves." They said that they were ready to "consume" the villains and traitors on their own, let the tsar point at them.
The metropolitan himself wanted to go to Ivan Vasilyevich, but the boyars did not let him in, fearing that a riot and pogroms would begin in Moscow. A delegation headed by Archbishop Pimen of Novgorod went to the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda. Boyars, nobles, clerks followed him. It was “surrender”. The delegates begged the tsar to return to the capital, agreeing to "rule as he pleases, the sovereign," and over the traitors "in the stomach and execution is his will." The sovereign took pity, removed the disgrace and dictated a number of conditions to the Boyar Duma and the Consecrated Cathedral. He received the right to punish the guilty without trial by the Boyar Duma and grieving from the clergy. And to eradicate the proliferating "fifth column" and "liberal" - dreaming of complete freedom, opposition, a state of emergency was introduced, oprichnina. At the beginning of February 1565, the tsar returned to Moscow, and established the "oprichnina" on February 3.
The main activities of the oprichnina
The emphasis was not on repression, although it was impossible to do without them, but on preventive measures. The king assigned part of the land to his personal possession, they were called oprichnina. It included a number of counties in the Central and Western part of the Russian state, the entire North, part of Moscow, individual cities and volosts in other areas. All other lands were considered "zemstvo" and were governed as before. In fact, Ivan Vasilyevich formed his huge "patrimony" and, relying on it, began to destroy the patrimonial system of princes and boyars.
When the oprichnina was introduced from the treasury, the tsar took a huge amount - 100 thousand rubles, they were needed to get up, ”180 descendants of the Suzdal, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Starodub princes, who were moved to Kazan with their families. Their ancestral estates passed into the management of the sovereign. This was not a punishment, they remained in the service, received estates in the Middle Volga region, material compensation for the move. So the base of dozens of representatives of the nobility was undermined, with their ambitions, communication with "their" cities, counties, villages.
The king in his new destiny formed new system management: the oprichnina yard, the Duma, a special guard of a thousand soldiers. They tried to select reliable people. The Oprichnaya Duma was headed by the tsarina's brother Mikhail Temryukovich, key posts were occupied by the Basmanovs, Vyazemsky, Pleshcheevs, Kolychevs, Buturlins. The affairs of the "zemshchina" were directed by the old Boyar Duma. The boyars continued to solve current national affairs, and on the most important of them they made reports to the sovereign.
"The best thousand", the guard was an old dream of the sovereign. At one time, the "chosen council" was unable to resolve the issue of establishing the guard, since no land was found. Now boyar children from Vyazma, Suzdal and other cities were called. A thorough check of family ties, personal contacts was carried out, only "clean" ones who were not noticed in connections with participants in past conspiracies were accepted. The last interview was conducted by the king himself. Lands were found, other nobles were resettled from them, to other counties. A strict check was carried out in relation to the future officials of the oprichnina court, even the servants were checked. The "guardsmen" took a special oath, they were supposed not to know, not to deal with the "zemstvo" people. They were subject only to the court of the sovereign himself; they received twice the money and land salaries than ordinary boyar children. However, the sovereign did not want the "sovereign people" to become proud, having received special rights and privileges. He perceived his post as a service to God, the state and wanted the "oprichniks" to become a kind of military-religious brotherhood serving the people, Russia and the Creator. For this, 300 young people were selected. Their charter was close to that of a monastery. For them the tsar was an abbot, Vyazemsky was a cellarem, Grigory Lukyanov-Belsky was a sexton. The members of the fraternity wore black robes and skufeikas. The daily routine was very tough: at midnight prayer was midnight office, wake up at 4 am and Matins, then Liturgy. In general, the church service took about 9 hours a day. Late arrival or failure to appear was punishable by an 8-day penance. The king personally set an example of piety.
Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda became the center of the oprichnina yard. However, one should not talk about the transfer of the capital. Government offices remained in Moscow, the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda became the permanent residence of the sovereign. It was expanded, new buildings and churches were built. Anyone could come to the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda and talk about treason, abuse, announcing at the outpost that he had the sovereign's "word and deed."
The functions of the guardsmen were not limited to the protection of the king. The guardsmen actually became the first special service in Russia. Their number gradually increased to 6 thousand soldiers. They wore black clothes, their distinctive symbols were a broom and the image of a dog's head - they had to sweep out evil spirits, be faithful like dogs, protecting the sovereign and the state.
The king continued and resettlements, they were introduced into the system. Having resettled some, they were replaced by others. Already in the spring of 1566, a year after the eviction, half of the boyar families were returned from Kazan, the next year they returned the other half. But they were settled not in their native places, but in other counties, mainly in the Ryazan region (at the same time solving the problem of the defense of the southern borders). Lands were taken from large Ryazan estates, they were given in exchange for estates in other districts. As a result of such "castling" the princes and boyars were turned into the service nobility.
In 1566 the tsar "exchanged" the inheritance from Vladimir Staritsky. Staritsa, Vereya and Aleksin went to the oprichnina, and in return the tsar's cousin received Dmitrov, Borovsk and Zvenigorod. In material terms, the prince even won, having received larger and richer cities. But he was torn away from the "fiefdom", where he was considered a master. In the former possessions of Vladimir Andreevich, a "search" was carried out - some of the servicemen were left, others were sent to other districts. In 1567, Kostroma was taken to the oprichnina, and there was also a "search". In 1568, the same was done with the Belozersk district. In 1569, Yaroslavl, Rostov and Poshekhonye were taken to the oprichnina. After the addition of new counties, the oprichnina occupied almost half of the state. It must be said that not everyone was "sorted out"; most of the boyar children who were not connected with the opposition did not change their place of residence. So, out of about 50-60 thousand boyar children, not half, but about 12 thousand people changed their place of residence.
As a result, the tsar in about 4 years solved the main task - the elimination of large estates and the groupings of the nobility formed around them.
