Members of the elected council. Reforms of the elected council of Ivan the Terrible. Prikaznaya and other reforms of Ivan IV and the Elected Rada

The reforms of the Chosen Rada became an overdue, necessary measure in the socio-political and economic life of the Russian state in the middle of the 17th century.

Formation of the Chosen Rada

In 1547, a popular riot occurred in Moscow, during which commoners killed a member of the royal family. The uprising was a consequence of the arbitrariness of the boyar rule, which was carried out in previous years, and revealed

the frank need to transform the state apparatus and develop political and legal norms of government in the state. To achieve this goal, an actual unofficial government was created that operated under Ivan the Terrible from 1547 to 1560 - the Elected Rada. The reforms of this government were aimed at creating a high-quality bureaucratic system in the young Moscow kingdom, centralizing power, taking control of the situation throughout the country, and overcoming the remnants of feudal fragmentation. This government included some boyars, a number of nobles (who at that time were the courtyard entourage of the tsar and the boyars), clergy and some government officials. Among them were confessor Sylvester, Prince Andrei Kurbsky, clerk Viskovaty, Metropolitan Macarius, nobleman Aldashev and other prominent figures of their time. However, the full composition of this body is unknown to us. Apparently, it did not have an exact number and was a situational meeting of people close to the tsar who performed the role of an anti-crisis government.

Reforms of the Chosen Rada under Ivan the Terrible

The main measures of this government's activities were the following:

Oprichnina and the fall of the Chosen Rada

Over time, disagreements between the king and the aristocracy grew. The reason for this was both personal hostility (which was facilitated by the first wife of Ivan IV) and disagreement regarding the pace of centralization of power. If the tsar sought to achieve the establishment of an absolute monarchy as quickly as possible (the absolutization of royal power was characteristic not only of Russia, but of all of Europe), then the reforms of the Elected Rada were aimed at evolutionary changes. All this led to the fall of the unofficial government and the emergence of the notorious guardsmen, who acted using simpler and more radical methods to strengthen the tsarist power and actually carried out terror against the boyars.

In the 16th century P's territory expanded even further. It included the Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberian khanates and Bashkiria. Land development was underway on the southern outskirts of the country (“wild field”). Attempts were made to reach the Baltic Sea. About 7 million people lived in the country. The country faced difficult problems. The centralization process was far from complete. The real estates are the possessions of the king's relatives with their own administration and army. Appanage princes could not lead an independent external affairs, but as members of the ruling dynasty they had the right to the throne in the absence of a direct heir. The church remained a powerful and relatively independent structure. She possessed not only spiritual, but also considerable swearing power: the Metropolitan had his own orders, boyars and secular service people. The local nobility (princes of Rostov and Obolensky) retained their strength and independence. Despite the remnants of feudal fragmentation, Russia in the 16th century. took a step forward in social and economic development. There was further growth and development of feudal land ownership. Patrimony remained the dominant form of feudal land tenure, but there were tendencies towards limiting patrimonial rights. After the death of Vasily 3, the grand-ducal throne was taken by his 3-year-old son Ivan. In fact, the state was ruled by his mother Elena Glinskaya. The struggle for power between groups of princes did not subside, which led to the weakening of central power. As Ivan grew older, a new ruling elite gradually formed. The political figure who played a key role in recent events was Metropolitan Macarius. Thanks to Macarius, the young ruler found himself surrounded by those people who were capable of carrying out the necessary reforms. The Russian nobility was particularly interested in carrying out reforms, which were developed by I.S. Peresvetov. He outlined the need for change to the tsar in 2 petitions (petition, complaint): the idea of ​​strong royal power, curbing boyar arbitrariness, relying on service people (nobles). This program was supported by the king. The Izb Rada was created - a circle of people who made up the informal government under Ivan the Terrible in 1549-1560. Creation: The formation of a select circle of people around the king occurs after the Moscow events of the summer of 1547: the fire, and then the Moscow uprising. According to Kurbsky’s version, during these events Archpriest Sylvester appeared to the king and “threatened the king with a terrible spell from the Holy Scriptures in order to stop his riots and moderate his violent temper.

Compound: A prominent position was occupied by the Duma nobleman A.F. Adashev, court priest Sylvester, Metropolitan Macarius, Duma clerk I.M. Viskovaty, Prince A.M. Kurbsky. Target: strengthening, centralization of the state.

Reforms of the Chosen One: 1) 1549 1 Zemsky Sobor- a body of class representation that provides a connection between the center and the localities, Ivan 4’s speech from the frontal seat: condemnation of the wrong boyar rule, announcement of the need for reforms. 2) Code of Law 1550- a new judge, the character trait of a cat is the improvement of justice. This is the first time the issue of bribes has been raised. St. George's Day has been confirmed, the elderly (tax for leaving the land) is increasing. The social status of a peasant is equal to that of a serf, i.e. The feudal lord is legally responsible. 3) 1550 departments of the government apparatus– Appeared 1 orders - administrative bodies - will execute the authorities: ambassadorial(foreign affairs), Petition(supreme control body), Zemsky(was in charge of order in Moscow), robber(criminal cases), Streltsy( was in charge of the army created by the archer ), bit ( noble army, appointment of governor) ,Local(in charge of land ownership) Great Parish(tax collection), Yamskaya(postal service and stations). The expansion of orders indicates the need for more bureaucracy. 4) Stoglavy Cathedral 1551 - Council of the Consecrated Clergy, creation of the Pantheon of Saints. The question of the education of clergy (to create schools). The question of the secularization of churches has been raised. land holdings: metropolitan lands remained unchanged, the church and monasteries were subject to taxes. The establishment of a strict iconographic canon, requirements for improving the morals of the clergy, a ban on usury among priests. 5) 1556 local government districts- governors and feeders were abolished, and instead of them, the institution of zemstvo elders (elected) from the small nobility was introduced + kissers (elected by the zemshchina in counties and towns to perform judicial, financial and police duties) to help them. Got money for implementation military reform. Detachments of squeakers (infantry troops armed with firearms - squeakers) were transformed into the Streltsy army, they were hired for a salary (paid in money and gunpowder). The basis of the army was the noble horse militia. 6) 1556 - the service code was introduced - from the age of 15 a nobleman entered the service, for which land was given from 150 to 450 dessiatines, depending on fertility. For failure to perform the service, the land was taken away. Limitation of localism during the period of hostilities. Near Moscow, the “chosen thousand” were planted on the ground - 1070 provincial nobles, who were supposed to strengthen the power of the tsar. A royal genealogy book was introduced, where the clans were listed, and they have the right to local accounts. As a result, the entire Volga was annexed, the Astrakhan and Khazar khanates were liquidated => the choice was to go to Siberia or continue with the strongholds of the Golden Horde. 7) Taxation rules- single form; The plow was taken as a unit of measurement (about 400 dessiatines), taxes were collected from the cat (a complex of in kind and tax money). Black-growing peasants paid the most (depending on the state), followed by peasants who lived on church lands; Landowner peasants paid the least (but they were required to work corvée). Results: We helped strengthen the center of power, limited the privileges of the nobles and increased the role of the nobles in governing the country. Transformations were carried out in the army, a national code was created - the Code of Laws. The reforms contributed to the formation of a centralized apparatus of power and ensured major foreign policy successes, incl. capture of Kazan. More clearly visible are the government's attempts to satisfy the interests of the nobility, this time by infringing on the rights of the feudal aristocracy. The most important huts are formalized (orders, central government institutions headed by the noble bureaucracy). The strengthening of the tax process and the growth of landownership led to a further aggravation of the class. struggle, the cat manifested itself in an increase in the number of crosses. escapes, uprisings in the city, development of the reform movement. The main reason for the fall of the Adashev government was that it was unable to implement the most important social demands of the nobility and provide landowners with new lands and workers. Some members of the Chosen Council advised the Tsar to end the Livonian War as quickly as possible. Changes in the external as well as internal policies of Ivan IV led to the fall of the Chosen Rada.

). It was a time of reform.

At the beginning of his reign, Ivan IV surrounded himself with far-sighted and intelligent people whom he trusted. Their number included the nobleman Adashev, Metropolitan Macarius, priest Sylvester, and the head of the Ambassadorial Prikaz, Ivan Viskovaty. They went down in history under the name “The Chosen Rada”.

The term “Chosen Rada” was introduced by Prince Kurbsky. Prince Andrei Mikhailovich Kurbsky is an outstanding commander, one of the educated people of his time. He was a personal friend of Ivan IV and served him “faithfully.” The historian N.M. Karamzin wrote about him: “Whether he fought near Tula, near Kazan, in the steppes of Bashkiria, in the fields of Livonia, everywhere victory adorned his brow with its laurels.” For his feat near Kazan, Kurbsky received lands in the Moscow region and the rank of boyar.

The relatives of Tsar Ivan the Terrible from the Glinsky family earned universal hatred with their arrogance and arbitrariness. In the summer of 1547, after a huge fire in Moscow, a popular uprising broke out against them. The king's uncle Yuri Glinsky was killed by a crowd on Cathedral Square in the Kremlin. Frightened Ivan took refuge in his country residence on Vorobyovy Gory. The Glinsky estates were plundered, and they themselves fled from the capital. The authorities hardly managed to restore order in the city.

The Moscow uprising shocked and frightened Tsar Ivan. He realized that he urgently needed advisers who could prevent him from mistakes in time and explain the mechanisms of supreme power. Not trusting the boyars, Ivan decided to resort to the help of people who were not very noble, but honest and knew their business. So, under the young Tsar Ivan IV, in addition to the Boyar Duma, a kind of “highest council” arose - the Chosen Rada.

The Elected Rada included Metropolitan Macarius, orderly figure Alexey Adashev, royal confessor priest Sylvester, head of the Ambassadorial Prikaz clerk Ivan Viskovaty, young voivode prince Andrey Kurbsky and etc.

Members of the Chosen Rada were outstanding figures of that era.

Alexey Fedorovich Adashev

Alexey Fedorovich Adashev is a Kostroma landowner. He was in charge of the royal archive, was the custodian of the state seal, headed the Petition Order, had the court rank of sleeping man, that is, he was one of the people closest to the king. Russian historian N.M. Karamzin spoke of him like this: “The beauty of the century and humanity.”

Sylvester

Sylvester is a priest of the Annunciation Cathedral in the Kremlin. Originally from Novgorod, he was an educated man and collected a rich library. He was one of the authors and compilers of a book on home economics - “Domostroya”.

Metropolitan Macarius

Metropolitan Macarius took care of Ivan IV from childhood and had a beneficial influence on him. He did a lot for training the clergy. With his participation and with his blessing, the first printing house was opened in Moscow and the first printed book “Apostle” was published.

Under the Elected Rada, a number of reforms were carried out in the country. Material from the site

At the end of the 50s. XVI century The Tsar's attitude towards the members of the Chosen Council changed. Adashev was sent by the governor to Livonia, where he soon died. Sylvester was exiled to the Solovetsky Monastery, where he died. Prince Kurbsky, fearing reprisals, fled the country and went into the service of the Polish king.

Historians believe that the main reason for the tsar’s cooling towards his comrades should be sought in the reforms that they began to implement. The transformations begun by the Elected Rada proceeded slowly, and the results did not appear immediately. Ivan IV, as an impatient man, accused his associates of doing nothing for the state, but only trying to take power away from him.

After the fall of the “Chosen Rada”, the second period of the reign of Ivan IV (oprichnina) began. The centralization of power in the country began to be carried out through violence.

The first Russian Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich IV the Terrible was born on August 25, 1530, died on March 18, 1584.

After the death of Vasily III in 1533, his three-year-old son Ivan IV ascended the grand-ducal throne. In fact, the state was ruled by his mother, Elena Vasilievna, the daughter of Prince Glinsky, a native of Lithuania. Both during the reign of Elena and after her death (1538; there is an assumption that she was poisoned), the struggle for power between the boyar groups of the Belskys, Shuiskys, and Glinskys did not stop.

Boyar rule led to the weakening of central power, and the arbitrariness of the patrimonial owners had a serious impact on the position of the masses, causing discontent and open protests in a number of Russian cities.

The boy sovereign, naturally intelligent, lively, impressionable and observant, grew up in an atmosphere of abandonment and neglect. Thus, in the boy’s soul an early feeling of enmity and hatred towards the boyars as his enemies and thefts of power was formed. The ugly scenes of boyar self-will and violence and his own helplessness and impotence developed in him timidity, suspicion, distrust of people, and on the other hand, disdain for the human person and human dignity.

Having a lot of free time at his disposal, Ivan indulged in reading and re-read all the books that he could find in the palace. His only sincere friend and spiritual mentor was Metropolitan Macarius (from 1542), the famous compiler of the Four Menaions, a huge collection of all church literature known at that time in Rus'.

The young Grand Duke was not yet fully 17 years old when his uncle Mikhail Glinsky and his grandmother Princess Anna managed to prepare a political act of great national importance. On January 16, 1547, the Grand Duke of Moscow and All Rus' Ivan Vasilyevich was solemnly crowned with the title of Tsar Ivan IV. The ceremony of accepting the royal title took place in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin. From the hands of the Moscow Metropolitan Macarius, who developed the ritual of crowning the king, Ivan IV accepted the Monomakh cap and other regalia of royal power. The Church seemed to affirm the divine origin of royal power, but at the same time strengthened its authority. Upon completion of the wedding ceremony, the Grand Duke became the “God-crowned Tsar.”

Thus, the new title - tsar - not only sharply emphasized the sovereignty of the Russian monarch in external relations, especially with the Horde khanates (khans in Rus' were called tsars), but also more clearly than before, separated the sovereign from his subjects. The royal title secured the transformation of vassal princes into subjects. The capital of the state, Moscow, was now adorned with a new title - it became the “reigning city”, and the Russian land - the Russian kingdom. But for the peoples of Russia, one of the most tragic periods of its history began. The “time of Ivan the Terrible” has come.

By the way, Russia as the name of the state appears in Russian sources in the second half of the 16th century. The term “Russia” is not Russian in origin, but Greek. It has been known in Byzantium since the 10th century. and was used in the lists of dioceses: the great princes in Greek were called archons of all Russia. During the wedding of Ivan IV, in order to give the individual more authority, they returned to this “foreign” word.

The term “Moscow State”, along with the name “Russia”, was used in official documents in the 16th-17th centuries. Russian began to mean belonging to the state, and “Russian” - to an ethnic group (nationality).

On June 21, 1547, a strong fire broke out in Moscow. The fire raged for two days. The city was almost completely burned out. About 4 thousand Muscovites died in the fire. Ivan IV and his entourage, fleeing smoke and fire, hid in the village of Vorobyovo. The cause of the fire was sought in the actions of real persons. Rumors spread that the fire was the work of the Glinskys, with whose name the people associated the difficult years of boyar rule.

A meeting gathered in the Kremlin on the square near the Assumption Cathedral. One of the Glinskys was torn to pieces by the rebel people. The yards of their supporters and relatives were burned and looted. With great difficulty the government managed to suppress the uprising. Actions against the feudal lords took place in the cities of Opochka, and somewhat later in Pskov and Ustyug.

Popular protests showed that the country needs reforms. Further development of the country required the strengthening of statehood and centralization of power. The nobility showed particular interest in carrying out reforms. Its original ideologist was the talented publicist of that time, nobleman Ivan Semenovich Peresvetov. He addressed the king with messages outlining a program of reforms. These proposals by Peresvetov largely anticipated the actions of Ivan IV.

Based on the interests of the nobility, I.S. Peresvetov sharply condemned the boyar arbitrariness. He saw the ideal of government in strong royal power, based on the nobility. “A state without a thunderstorm is like a horse without a bridle,” believed I.S. Peresvetov.

With the participation of Metropolitan Macarius, the young tsar was surrounded by those persons who were destined in the eyes of their contemporaries to symbolize the new government - the “Chosen Rada”. Around 1549 a new government was formed. It was called the Chosen Rada - that’s what A. Kurbsky called it in the Polish manner in one of his writings. The composition of the Elected Rada is not entirely clear. It was headed by A.F. Adashev, who came from a rich, but not very noble family. Representatives of various strata of the ruling class took part in the work of the Elected Rada: princes D. Kurlyatev, M. Vorotynsky, Moscow Metropolitan Macarius and the priest of the Annunciation Cathedral of the Kremlin (the home church of the Moscow kings) Sylvester, clerk of the Ambassadorial Prikaz I. Viskovaty. The composition of the Elected Rada seemed to reflect a compromise between various layers of the ruling class. The elected council existed until 1560 and was the body that carried out the transformations that were called the reforms of the mid-16th century.

On February 27, 1549, the First Zemsky Sobor was convened. He decided to draw up a new Code of Law (approved in 1550) and formulated a program of reforms in the mid-16th century. According to experts, more than 50 Zemsky Sobors took place; The last Zemsky Sobors in Russia met in the 80s. XVI century The Zemsky Sobors included the Boyar Duma, the Consecrated Cathedral - representatives of the highest clergy; Many Zemsky Sobors were also attended by representatives of the nobility and the upper classes of the town.

1. Under the Elected Rada, an order system of public administration is drawn up. Even before the reforms of the mid-16th century. certain branches of government administration of individual territories began to be entrusted (“ordered,” as they called it then) to the boyars. This is how the first orders-institutions appeared that were in charge of branches of public administration or individual regions of the country. In the middle of the 16th century. There were already two dozen orders. Military affairs were supervised by the Razryadny Prikaz (in charge of the local army), Pushkarsky (artillery), Streletsky (streltsy), Armory Chamber (arsenal), Foreign Affairs were in charge of the Ambassadorial Prikaz, state lands distributed to the nobles, the Local Prikaz; serfs - Serf order. There were orders that were in charge of certain territories: the order of the Siberian Palace governed Siberia; order of the Kazan Palace - annexed by the Kazan Khanate.

At the head of the order was a boyar or clerk - a major government official. The orders were in charge of administration, tax collection and the courts. As the tasks of public administration became more complex, the number of orders grew. By the time of Peter the Great's reforms at the beginning of the 18th century. there were about 50 of them. The design of the order system made it possible to centralize the management of the country.

2. It should be noted that at first the Elected Rada did not intend to radically change the existing order of local government. The Code of Law of Ivan IV only clarified the rights and responsibilities of feeders (deputies - in districts and volostels - in volosts) and at the same time expanded the competence of zemstvo elders and tselovniks, turning them into permanent jurors (before that they simply acted as witnesses at the trial of governors and volostels ).

A unified management system gradually began to be created locally. Local tax collection was previously entrusted to feeding boyars. They were actually rulers of individual lands. All funds collected in excess of the required taxes to the treasury were at their personal disposal, i.e. they “fed” by managing the lands. In 1556, feedings were abolished. Local administration (investigation and court in particularly important state affairs) was transferred to the hands of provincial elders (guba-okrug), elected from local nobles, zemstvo elders - from among the wealthy strata among the black sosh population where there was no noble land ownership, and city officials clerks or favorite heads - in cities. Thus, in the middle of the 16th century. An apparatus of state power emerged in the form of an estate-representative monarchy.

3. Code of Law 1550

The general trend of centralization of the country and the state apparatus entailed the publication of a new collection of laws - the Code of Laws of 1550. Taking the Code of Laws of Ivan III as a basis, the compilers of the new Code of Laws made changes to it related to the strengthening of central power. It confirmed the right of peasants to move on St. George’s Day and increased the payment for the “elderly”. The feudal lord was now responsible for the crimes of his peasants, which increased their personal dependence on the lord. For the first time, punishment for bribery was introduced.

4. Even under Elena Glinskaya, monetary reform was started. The Moscow ruble became the main payment unit in the country. The right to collect trade duties passed into the hands of the state. The population of the country was obliged to bear taxes - a complex of natural and monetary duties. In the middle of the 16th century. a single unit for collecting taxes was established for the entire state - the large plow. Depending on the fertility of the soil, as well as the social status of the owner of the land, the plow amounted to 400-600 hectares of land. The tax reform further worsened the situation of the masses.

5. Military reform

Much has been done to strengthen the country's forces. The core of the army was the noble militia. Near Moscow, the “chosen thousand” were planted on the ground - 1070 provincial nobles, who, in the opinion of the tsar, were to become the support of power.

The “Code of Service” was drawn up. A votchinnik or landowner could begin service at the age of 15 and pass it on by inheritance. From 150 acres of land, both the boyar and the nobleman had to field one warrior and appear at the reviews “on horseback, in crowds and armed.”

A big step forward in the organization of Russian military forces was the creation in 1550 of a permanent Streltsy army. At first there were three thousand archers. In addition, foreigners began to be recruited into the army, the number of whom was insignificant. Artillery was reinforced. The Cossacks were recruited to perform border service.

The boyars and nobles who made up the militia were called “serving people for the fatherland,” i.e. by origin. Another group of people consisted of “service people according to the instrument” (i.e., recruited). In addition to the archers, there were gunners (artillerymen), city guards, and the Cossacks were close to them. Rear work (cart trains, construction of fortifications) was carried out by the “staff” - a militia from among the Chernososhny, monastery peasants and townspeople.

6. Limitation of localism

During military campaigns, localism was limited - the procedure for filling positions depending on the nobility and career of the ancestors. In the middle of the 16th century. An official reference book was compiled - “The Sovereign's Genealogist”, which streamlined local disputes.

7. Church councils

Significant reforms were carried out in the life of the church. During the period of feudal fragmentation, each principality had its own “locally revered” saints. In 1549, a church council carried out the canonization of the “new miracle workers”: local saints turned into all-Russian saints, and a unified pantheon was created for the entire country. In 1551 a new church council was held.

Stoglavy Cathedral

In 1551, on the initiative of the Tsar and the Metropolitan, a Council of the Russian Church met, which was called the Stoglavy Council, since its decisions were formulated in one hundred chapters. The decisions of the clergy reflected the changes associated with the centralization of the state. The Council approved the adoption of the Code of Law of 1550 and the reforms of Ivan IV. An all-Russian list was compiled from the number of local saints revered in individual Russian lands. Rituals were streamlined and unified throughout the country. Even art was subject to regulation.

The Council of the Hundred Heads in 1551 drew a line under the historical dispute between the Josephites and non-covetous people. Even before its convening in September 1550, an agreement was reached between the tsar and Metropolitan Macarius (1542-1568), according to which monasteries were forbidden to found new settlements in cities, and to establish new courtyards in old ones. The townspeople, who were hiding there from the burden of the burden, were expelled from the monastery settlements. In the future, clergy could buy land and receive it as a gift only with royal permission. Thus, on the issue of monastic land ownership, the line to limit it and control it on the part of the tsar won.

Even under Ivan III and Vasily III, the issue of church land ownership was acute. A number of clergy, whose spiritual forerunner was Nil Sorsky (1433-1508), advocated the renunciation of land ownership by monasteries and strict asceticism (hence their name - non-acquisitive). Another group of church leaders fought against this, the head of which was Abbot Joseph Volotsky (1439-1515), who believed that only a rich church could fulfill its high mission in the state. During the reign of Vasily Sh, the Josephites (money-grubbers) gained the upper hand.

During the Council of the Hundred Heads, the issue of church lands was raised again. It was decided to preserve the lands of churches and monasteries, but in the future their acquisition or receipt as a gift could only be carried out after a report to the king.

Reforms of the mid-16th century. significantly strengthened central power and public administration, which allowed Ivan IV to move on to solving foreign policy problems.

Agreement between the king and his closest advisers, i.e. Sylvester and Adashev did not last long: the ardent, power-hungry John soon began to be burdened by the influence of his favorites. This was also accompanied by their rivalry with the Zakharyins, relatives of the queen, and Anastasia herself’s dislike of them.

The beginning of this reluctance dates back to 1553. Soon after the Kazan campaign, the tsar fell into a serious illness; wrote a spiritual document, appointed his son, baby Dimitri, as heir, and demanded that the boyars swear allegiance to him. Then there was noise and abuse in the palace: some took the oath, others refused on the grounds that Dimitri was still small and the Zakharins would rule instead of him, that it was better for an adult to be sovereign, while they pointed to the royal cousin Vladimir (son of Andrei Staritsky) , the latter also did not want to swear allegiance to Dimitri, Sylvester and Adashev’s father sided with the disobedient boyars. Only after persistent persuasion by the king and the nobles loyal to him did the opposing side yield. John recovered, although he showed no signs of displeasure at first, but he could not forget this incident and began to look suspiciously at the people around him. The queen also considered herself offended.

After recovery, John with his wife and little Demetrius, according to a vow, went on a pilgrimage to the Kirillov Belozersky Monastery. First, the Tsar stopped by the Trinity Lavra. Here,” says Prince Kurbsky in his History of Ivan the Terrible, “the famous Maxim the Greek talked to him and persuaded him not to undertake such a long and difficult journey, but rather to work on alleviating the lot of widows and orphans who were left behind by the soldiers who fell under the walls of Kazan. But the king went by water to Kirillov. The journey was truly unhappy: John lost his son. On the way, in one monastery, he saw the former Bishop of Kolomna Vassian and asked him how one should reign in order to have nobles in obedience. “If you want to be an autocrat,” answered Vassian, “then do not keep advisers smarter than yourself” (a hint at Sylvester and Adashev).

Seeing John's cooling towards him, Sylvester himself withdrew from the court, and the king sent Adashev to Livonia (to the army). In 1560, Anastasia died. It was said at court that Sylvester and Adashev had harassed the queen. The Tsar imprisoned Sylvester in the Solovetsky Monastery, and imprisoned Alexei Adashev (in Yuryev). Relatives and supporters of the accused were exiled or executed.

Oprichnina of Ivan IV (the Terrible):

goal and means of its implementation

On December 3, 1564, Ivan IV with his family and associates suddenly went on a pilgrimage to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery to the tomb of Sergius of Radonezh. Having been delayed near Moscow due to the sudden onset of thaw, the tsar, by the end of December, reached the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda (now the city of Aleksandrov, Vladimir region), where Ivan III and Vasily III rested more than once. From there, on January 3, 1565, a messenger arrived in Moscow, bringing two letters.

In the first, addressed to the metropolitan, it was reported that “the sovereign placed his anger on all bishops and abbots of monasteries, and his disgrace on all service people, from boyars to ordinary nobles, since service people drain his treasury, serve poorly, and church hierarchs cover them up.” . He asked to be given a special inheritance. The term “oprichnina” comes from the word “oprich” - except. This is what Ivan IV called the territory, which he asked to allocate to himself as a special inheritance.

In the second message addressed to the townspeople, the tsar reported on the decision made and added that he had no complaints about the townspeople.

It was a well-calculated political maneuver. Using the people's faith in the tsar, Ivan the Terrible expected that he would be called to return to the throne. Soon a crowded deputation beat him with their foreheads, begging him to return to the kingdom. The Tsar dictated his conditions: the right to unlimited autocratic power and the establishment of the oprichnina. The country was divided into two parts: the oprichnina and the zemshchina.

To maintain his new court, or personal estate, Ivan IV took over 10 cities with counties, individual volosts, several settlements near Moscow, and even several streets in Moscow itself. The tsar granted land to his faithful servants, without stopping to evict the former patrimonial owners and landowners), some of them simply moved to the oprichnina (in the “zemskie” districts. The new servants chosen for it were obliged to obey exclusively the tsar. Oprichniki dressed in black, whose corps initially numbered a thousand people, they were called upon to “gulp” the tsar’s enemies and “sweep out” treason from the country (dog heads and brooms were attached to their saddles, symbolizing the canine devotion of the guardsmen to the tsar and the readiness to sweep treason out of the country).

With the increase in the number of oprichnina troops (up to 6 thousand people), there was an expansion of oprichnina possessions and the zone of special (oprichnina) control. The rest of the territory of the state constituted the “zemshchina,” remaining under the jurisdiction of the “zemsky” boyars, who ruled according to the will of Tsar Ivan “according to the previous custom” (i.e., the Boyar Duma).

The introduction of the oprichnina (1565-1572) was preceded by a number of events that had an undoubted impact on the mental state of Ivan IV.

So, in 1554 he became aware of the boyars’ sympathies for the Staritsa prince Vladimir Andreevich, which manifested themselves during his serious illness in 1553.

It was then that his distrust of Adashev and Sylvester first arose. In 1557-1558 the tsar was faced with boyar opposition to the course of unleashing the Livonian War. He did not find support on this issue from the Elected Rada either.

In 1560, Ivan IV was acutely worried about the death of his beloved wife Anastasia Romanovna. It was then that his final break with Sylvester and Adashev occurred. The king's closest advisers, suspected of infidelity, were removed from the court and then sent into exile.

A real flurry of emotions caused the tsar to escape from the governor, Prince Andrei Kurbsky, to Lithuania (1564). After this, the persecution of the boyars was intensified.

There is no doubt that each of these events could somehow influence the change in political course in 1565. It seems, however, that the transition to the oprichnina was caused not so much by the personal motives of Tsar Ivan, but by the objective contradictions (political and social) of the internal structure of the Moscow state:

1. Relations between the monarch and the boyar aristocracy remained disordered and unsettled.

2. An active military policy and the need to constantly increase the number of troops forced the state to systematically subordinate the interests of producers (peasants, artisans and traders) to the interests of the service class.

Both contradictions in their development in the second half of the 16th century. created a state crisis.

Indeed, the titled boyars occupied at this time all the highest positions in the central and local government, commanded the Moscow regiments (very often the former appanage prince continued to rule his appanage as a Moscow governor). At the same time, the boyars were dissatisfied with the burdensomeness of military service and other duties assigned to them by the supreme power, and bitterly regretted the lost benefits of their former appanage independence. The Moscow sovereigns did not always take into account his opinion and advice.

Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich called the boyars “smerds.” The omnipotence enjoyed by the titled nobility in the years of Ivan the Terrible's youth should have increased their dissatisfaction with the strengthening of the position of their matured sovereign, who became the “tsar.” Some of the boyars doubted his right to individually dispose of state power and pass it on by inheritance.

Attempts by the Elected Rada to soften the contradictions between the boyars and the tsar and the nobility ended in failure. It is possible that in carrying out structural reforms she showed more pandering to boyar interests than the tsar wanted. In addition, the tsar and his advisers had different concepts of centralization, and their rivalry ended with the victory of the concept of Ivan the Terrible.

At the same time, one should not overestimate the anti-boyar orientation of the oprichnina policy. It is estimated that at the beginning of the 17th century. The princely estate was on average twice the area of ​​the noble estate.

The oprichnina was a system of internal political measures of a predominantly repressive nature; it was not something uniform for seven years:

1. At the very beginning of the oprichnina rule (1565/), about 100 of the 282 princes were sent into exile in Kazan with simultaneous confiscation from their ancestral estates.

2. Then came the turn of the boyars and zemstvo nobles (500 people were executed in 1568 alone in the “case” of boyar I.P. Fedorov).

Among the guardsmen, Prince A.I. Vyazemsky, boyar Vasily Gryaznoy and the common nobleman G.L. stood out. Malyuta Skuratov-Belsky, who was in charge of executions and torture.

In an effort to destroy the separatism of the feudal nobility, Ivan IV did not stop at any cruelty. Oprichnina terror, executions, exiles began. Major church figures were among the first to die at the hands of the guardsmen: in 1568, Archimandrite German; in 1569, the deposed Metropolitan Philip, who had publicly refused the Tsar’s blessing, was strangled by Skuratov in Tver. In the fall of the same year, the entire family of Prince Vladimir Staritsky was destroyed and he himself was killed.

Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich “smashed” Novgorod the Great. The reason for this terrible action was a false denunciation that the Novgorodians allegedly wanted to come under the rule of the Polish king, and to “lime” Tsar Ivan himself and install the Staritsa appanage prince Vladimir Andreevich in his place. The pogrom lasted more than five weeks, from January 6 to February 13, 1570, when 500-600 people were “thrown into the water” (under the ice) every day, and on other days up to 1,500 people.

In the summer of 1570, with the personal participation of Ivan IV, mass repressions unfolded in Moscow, where about a hundred people were executed. The terror was all the more terrible because it was completely unpredictable. On average, there were 3-4 ordinary landowners per killed boyar, and 10 commoners per 1 landowner. In 1570, it was the turn of the organizers of the oprichnina themselves: they were all killed in a manner no less brutal than they killed themselves. Closing the bloody list were the direct creators of the oprichnina - father and son Basmanov, Prince Afanasy Vyazemsky, Mikhail Cherkassky (brother of Maria Temryukovna, Russian queen 1561-1569).

The end of the oprichnina was helped, paradoxically, by the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey, who broke through to Moscow in the summer of 1571 due to the fault of the oprichnina army, which did not offer resistance to him. The Khan did not besiege the city, but managed to set it on fire. Moscow burned to the ground, and the bodies of those who were burned and suffocated took almost two months to be removed. Ivan the Terrible understood: a mortal danger loomed over the state.

In the summer of 1572, Devlet-Girey repeated the campaign against Moscow. The Tsar appointed Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky as commander of the troops.

The united army on June 30, 1572 near the village of Molodi (about 45 km south of Moscow, near Podolsk) completely defeated Devlet-Girey. Even the famous Crimean commander Divey-Murza was captured. The country was saved. Tsar Ivan thanked Vorotynsky in his own way: less than a year later he was executed on the denunciation of his servant, who claimed that Vorotynsky wanted to bewitch the tsar.

Most historians believe that in the fall of 1572 the tsar abolished the oprichnina. However, the executions of the “conspirators” did not stop. In 1573, the governor, Prince M.I., died from torture. Vorotynsky, who defeated Devlet-Girey in the Battle of Molodin in 1572. In 1575, Ivan IV tried to return to the oprichnina order. He again secured his “destiny”, leaving the country to the baptized Tatar Khan Simeon Bekbulatovich, who was titled “Grand Duke of All Rus'”, to formally rule the country. Simeon's reign lasted less than a year, then Ivan IV returned to the throne. Mass terror has ceased. However, since the lawlessness, the “excess of little people” continued until the death of Ivan the Terrible, some scientists (S.M. Solovyov, S.F. Platonov, P.A. Sadikov) considered the oprichnina within the chronological framework of 1565-1584.

What are the immediate and long-term results of the oprichnina?

1. During the seven years of oprichnina, the country has moved significantly forward along the path of centralization: the influence of the titled Moscow boyars has weakened; with the death of Vladimir Staritsky, the last appanage principality disappeared; with the deposition of Metropolitan Philip Kolychev, the previous relations between the state and the church were disrupted; With the defeat of Novgorod, the social independence of the “third estate” was completely undermined.

It should be borne in mind that the oprichnina policy, carried out in the absence of sufficient socio-economic prerequisites for centralization (in the 16th century, the state did not yet have the necessary means to maintain a large bureaucracy, regular troops, developed punitive bodies, separated from the landowner class), with inevitably gave rise to such relapses of decentralization, such as, for example, the division of the country into the oprichnina and zemshchina.

2. Oprichnina led to an aggravation of the economic crisis: a significant area was not cultivated, the “taxable population”, fleeing the burden of ever-new state duties, landowner enslavement, hunger and disease, especially in the late 60s - early 70s of the 16th century, fled to the southern and eastern outskirts of the state. This flow, continuing until the end of the 16th century, led to the fact that vast areas of the central and northwestern counties were half empty. Villages in the 70-80s. were overgrown with forest, arable land turned into pastures for livestock.

The oprichnina gave new impetus to the process of enslavement. Having an anti-peasant orientation, it helped many service people acquire land and peasants, and in those areas where not only large-scale boyar land ownership did not prevail, but where in general feudal-serf relations were characterized by comparative immaturity. The first serfdom decrees, which forbade peasants to leave their former owners even on St. George’s Day, in the so-called reserved years, appeared in the early 80s, even under Ivan IV. The government of Fyodor Ivanovich (1584-1598) and Boris Godunov (1598-1605) also adhered to the policy of enslaving the peasants. It is even possible that around 1592-1593. A decree was issued that forever banned peasant “exit” throughout the country. If the government of Godunov in 1601-1602. during the famine and allowed transitions for certain categories of peasants, they were of a temporary, situational nature. In 1597, a law was passed that established a five-year statute of limitations for the search of peasants (prescribed summers). At the same time, government authorities proceeded primarily from their own interests, trying to prevent the progressive desolation of the central counties. Until the beginning of the 17th century. the state considered contractual relations between landowners and peasants as their private matter: fugitives were prosecuted only on the claims of landowners.

4. Ultimately, the oprichnina inevitably degenerated into a senseless war between Ivan the Terrible and his people. The oprichnina, having split the noble class, contributed to the ripening of the preconditions for the first civil war (from the Time of Troubles) in Russia at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries.

Ivan the Terrible died on March 18, 1584. Of Anastasia’s children, John and Fyodor reached adulthood: during the Livonian War in 1581, the tsar once became angry with his eldest son Ivan for a contradiction and so carelessly hit him with his iron crutch that the prince died a few days later . The heir to the throne was his second son Fyodor, weak, sickly, and mentally retarded. Together with his eldest son Ivan, who died at the hands of his father, his hope for a worthy successor perished. Ivan the Terrible appointed Fyodor a regency council to help govern the country, where the leading role belonged to the Tsar's brother-in-law Boris Godunov. Boris Fedorovich Godunov is an intelligent, capable, energetic and ambitious boyar. Under Ivan the Terrible, he strengthened his position by marrying the daughter of his beloved guardsman Malyuta Skuratov-Belsky, and then Tsarevich Fyodor married his sister Irina, and Boris thus became a person close to the royal family. Having overcome the resistance of the old nobility, Godunov became the ruler of the state under Tsar Fedor.

A dynastic dispute arose immediately after the death of Ivan the Terrible. Tsarevich Dmitry was the youngest and last son of Ivan IV from his eighth (and fifth “crowned”) wife, Maria Nagaya.

After the death of Ivan the Terrible, young Dmitry (1882) with his mother and uncles was sent to Uglich, allocated as an inheritance to the prince. On May 15, 1591, under mysterious circumstances, Dmitry was killed. The dynastic dispute that had arisen with the murder of Dmitry was removed from the agenda.

Main reforms of the elected council

The turbulent events that took place in 1547 necessitated radical government reforms. The young tsar, as well as his entourage, created what one of its participants (Prince Kurbsky) called the Elected Rada

This political circle of serving courtiers and nobility was headed by Archpriest Sylvester (the Annunciation Cathedral of the Kremlin), as well as a fairly wealthy nobleman from a noble family, A. F. Adashev. They were joined by such noble princes as Vorotynsky, Odoevsky, Kurbsky and others. In addition, the Elected Rada included the first head of the Polish Prikaz, Viskovaty, as well as an active figure in this circle, Metropolitan Macarius.

While not formally a government agency, the Rada remained essentially the Russian government for thirteen years, governing the state on behalf of the Tsar himself and implementing a series of significant major reforms.

In the mid-sixteenth century, the Elected Rada established a single standard for collecting taxes for the entire state called “plow”.

Military reform

In order to strengthen the country's armament, in 1550 Ivan the Terrible began to implement military reforms. It was then that localism was abolished - the procedure for filling positions in the army according to the degree of nobility (during campaigns).

Also in the Moscow district, by order of the tsar on October 1, 1550, a “chosen thousand” was introduced (more than a thousand provincial nobles, constituting the core of the noble militia, as well as the support of autocratic power). But this project was not fully implemented.

One order of service was determined: by device (by recruiting) and by homeland (by origin). Boyar children and nobles served in their own country. Military service was regulated by the “Code of Service”, inherited and starting from the age of fifteen (a nobleman who had not reached this age was considered a minor). Nobles and boyars had to field a warrior, and if this was not done, it was punishable by a large fine.

Creation of the Streltsy army

Also in 1550, a rifle army was formed (from among the servicemen), armed with both bladed weapons (sabers and reeds) and firearms (squeaks). At the very beginning, three thousand people were recruited into this army, disbanded into six separate “orders” (regiments). It was they who made up the royal personal guard.

In addition, the government of the Chosen Rada strengthened the tsarist state apparatus, improving the order system and thus expanding the bureaucratic apparatus.