"Oprichniki" as an alternative to "manual control"
Vladimir Putin said that "there will be no war." He supported his statement with information about the latest Russian weapons capable of inflicting absolutely unacceptable damage on any enemy.
This makes direct military aggression against our country unlikely.
Wickets for gold donkeys
However, as we know, according to legend, the impregnable strongholds of Constantinople fell because of the small gate, which they had forgotten to close.
In addition, you can recall the famous aphorism of Philip II of Macedon: "A donkey loaded with gold will take any fortress", which has long been the basis of the strategy of the West.
In other words, the issues of the country's internal security are no less relevant and important than aspects of foreign defense.
And here we must admit that there are many loopholes in our walls, where it’s not that a donkey, KAMAZ loaded with gold will stop.
And all these numerous breaks, troughs and wickets must be urgently sealed and locked. And it is here that it turns out that with the specialists who are able to carry out this colossal work, there is “tension” in the country.
This very clearly (and again) showed the tragedy in Kemerovo. It turns out that the only person in the power structures of the country who is able to talk with angry and outraged people, as well as carry out crisis management is President of Russia Vladimir Putin.
The inefficiency of the existing system of government, managerial impotence and the “wrong motivation” of officials create more and more loopholes and breaks, much faster than Putin has time to close them up.
The experience of successful reformers (not destructors, like Gorbachev or Yeltsin) who revived the country from the ashes, and brought it to a qualitatively new level, suggests that they need a cohort of like-minded people on whom they can rely, the most trusted powers.
Kinked sovereign
The most famous (and most slandered) such structure in the domestic stories was created by John IV the Terrible oprichnina. On the basis of which the sovereign Ivan Vasilyevich carried out the reorganization of the Muscovite state into the autocratic kingdom and laid the foundations of the future Russian Empire.
It should be noted that the image of Ivan the Terrible, as a cruel tyrant, a fierce sadist who surrounded himself with unprincipled bloodthirsty murderers and executioners, took root in the public consciousness. The ancestor of this view was the historian Karamzin, whose works were based on the testimony of foreigners, for one reason or another, who were in Russia during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, as well as the works of the prince - defector Andrei Kurbsky.
“The prince-traitor, who led Lithuanian detachments to Russia, became the founder of literature devoted to Ivan IV. ... A significant contribution to the creation of the image of the Terrible Tsar was made by the Livonians I. Taube and E. Kruse. Participating in the Livonian war, both were captured and with the beginning of the oprichnina involved in the diplomatic field. In the 1671 year, after an unsuccessful siege of Revel, they fled to Lithuania. In order to justify themselves in double treason in front of their new owners, in the narrative of life in Russia, they deliberately exaggerated the colors, interweaving the truth with obvious fiction, ”writes the famous Russian historian Yury Kondakov.
Another contemporary researcher Vyacheslav Manyagin adheres to a similar point of view: Taube and Kruse's “Memoirs” are wordy and detailed, but their clearly slanderous nature puts them outside the brackets of reliable sources. Serious scientific researchers do not consider them as such. Thus, R.G. Skrynnikov, a leading expert on the Russian history of this period, notes: “Four years after the trial, eyewitnesses to the events Taube and Kruse made a lengthy, but rather tendentious account of the events.”
At the moment, proved the failure of the majority of the charges against John IV and his closest servants.
The closest to the understanding of the image of Ivan the Terrible, the oprichnina he created and their significance in Russian life, according to a number of modern researchers, metropolitan John (Snychev) approached in his writings. "The oprichnina became in the hands of the king an instrument with which he sifted all Russian life, her entire order and way of life, separated the good seeds of Russian Orthodox conciliarism and statehood from the chaff of heretical ingenuity, foreign morals and oblivion of their religious duty," wrote Vladyka.
“With all the bias of the concept of Metropolitan John, many of the points put forward in his book are shared by modern academic researchers,” points out Yuri Kondakov, referring to the works of historians V.V.Shaposhnik and V.A. Kolobkov.
Replacing inefficient institutions of power
So, what was it - oprichnina?
Let's start with the reasons for its origin. All childhood and youth of Ivan Vasilyevich proceeded against the background of an unceasing series of boyar conspiracies, intrigues and insurrections that shook the foundations of the Russian state.
“Even in Grozny, before the oprichnina, landowners from the highest nobility met, who ruled and judged outright in their vast estates, without even reporting to the tsar,” wrote the historian VO Klyuchevsky.
To this we can add that the king, who concentrated in himself the full responsibility for what is happening in the country, seemed to such boyars a convenient screen, which deprived them of this responsibility, but left them with all their imaginary “rights”. The number of the most distinguished boyar surnames was small - no more than two or three hundred, but their share in the mechanism of governing the country was overwhelming. Their motivation was not the strength and greatness of the country, but personal wealth and the satisfaction of their own ambitions. For the sake of what, they easily went even for treason.
The situation became unbearable, but to correct it, the king needed like-minded people who could take over the administrative management of the country, which traditionally belonged to the boyars. In its unworthy part, it should have been removed from these functions.
The first attempts to create an alternative to the boyar government were the “elected glad”, where the sovereign gathered people close to him, like-minded people whom, as he supposed, you can trust. But it soon became apparent that they were also involved in boyar intrigues. The closest - Alexey Adashev and priest Sylvester changed the king and even found themselves involved in the poisoning of his spouse Anastasia. Andrei Kurbsky, as already mentioned, moved to the side of the enemy. Also entered and another voivode - Dmitry Vishnevetsky. Convinced of the ineffectiveness of his means, the sovereign takes an extraordinary step, culminating in the creation of the oprichnina, which was not at all an exclusively “anti-Boyar” instrument.
“The tsar in the decree on the establishment of the oprichnina made it clear that he does not divide the" traitors "and" Likhodeans "into any groups" neither by kind, nor by tribe, "nor by rank, nor by class," said Metropolitan John.
The term "oprichnina" had a long origin. That was the name of the inheritance, which the prince singled out, “to oprich” (except) for another land. However, in this case, the oprichnina meant the king’s personal lot. The rest of the state became known as the Zemstvo, which was governed by the Boyar Duma. The “special court” with its Boyar Duma and orders, partially translated from the land, became the political and administrative center of the oprichnina. In oprichnina was a special treasury. Initially, a thousand were taken into the oprichnina (by the end of the oprichnina - already 6 thousand), mainly service people, but there were also representatives of some old princely and boyar families.
Mouth and broom
The oprichniki had a special emblem in the form of a dog's head and a broom. This meant that the oprichnik had to gnaw the “sovereign traitors” and sweep the treason.
However, the punitive function was not the only one for the oprichnina and not the main one. A much more important area of its activity was the creation of a new administrative system of the nascent empire, or rather, the correction and modernization of the old one. And the oprichnas of the land became the place of realization of the new model.
Another function facing the organization was military. The oprichnina consisted of a special, oprichnaya army - a kind of Life Guards with the person of the monarch. The selection was very tough, and only the “best people” had a chance to be admitted to the oprichnich regiments. They were staffed mainly from noblemen loyal to the tsar and children of the boyar “oprichnykh” volosts and counties. In 1565 it included 1000 oprichniki. On 20 March 1573. in the oprichnogo court of King John was listed 1854 man. Of these, 654 was the sovereign’s bodyguards.
By 70. the army grew to 5-6 thousand people. By its nature it was local. Oprichniki received for the service of the estate for temporary use and the "sovereign" salary. They swore allegiance to the king, pledged not to have any relations with the boyars of the land. Oprichnaya army was equestrian, in its composition was its own artillery. It had a regimental structure and was governed by the voivods, whom the king appointed personally, and an oprichnym (yard) order. The functions of this order were identical to the functions of the discharge order of the land.
The most important task of the oprichnich troops was the fight against internal sedition and separatist tendencies, the suppression and prevention of insurrections. And in this sense, the oprichnaya army can be compared with the modern Rosgvardia.
In addition, the guardsmen carried foreign service, guarding the borders of the state, and participated in the wars together with the Zemstvo army, being on the most responsible or dangerous sectors and acting as shock troops. At the same time, the oprichny regiments were united with the respective Zemstvo regiments (for example, the Big regiment of the oprichnich army with a large regiment of the Zemstvo, the oprichny advanced regiment with the advanced regiment of the Zemstvo, etc.) Oprichnaya army acted against an external enemy and independently. Despite its small number, it played a prominent role in defending Russia, for example, in the Battle of Molodi, in 1572, during which Tatar troops were defeated, and their commander Divey Murza was captured by oprichnik Atalykin.
In 1568, only guardsmen carried the guard of the southern border of the Russian state. The large, advanced and guard regiments were located in Mtsensk, and the regiments of the right and left hands and the Ortoulny (sentinel, reconnaissance) regiments were located in Kaluga.
Crisis managers of Ivan the Terrible
The already mentioned 600 oprichniki, especially close to the sovereign, were not limited to the function of bodyguards. If necessary, they performed the tasks of the tsar's entrusted delegates who carried out administrative, intelligence, investigative and punitive functions.
If necessary, each of the approximate guardsmen was ready to take over the leadership of military or civilian structures. So, for example, in September 1577. during the Livonian campaign, the king sent Prince Mikhail Nozdrovaty and Andrei Saltykov with the troops to the capture of the city of Smiltin.
The Germans and Lithuanians entrenched in the city refused to surrender, and the tsar's military leaders blocked the fortifications in no hurry to report to the tsar about the situation and about the negotiations with the besieged. Concerned sovereign sent to find out the situation on the spot of the oprichnik boyarsky son Pronu Bolakirev. Arriving at Smiltin at night, the tsar's spy stated the absence of a full-fledged military guard and many other omissions in service. The king, who received a report from him, "thought it was Kruchinitsa, but he sent Demenshu Cheremisinov, and ordered him to find what they were doing."
The famous oprichnik, D. Cheremisinov, endowed with the necessary powers, found out on the spot that in addition to the careless duty, the governors refused to release the Lithuanians from the besieged city along with their property, hoping to plunder it.
After the oprichnik, taking command of his own hands, allowed the inhabitants to withdraw their belongings, "immediately Lithuania was cleared the city." The governors were punished for non-fulfillment of the tsarist instructions — Nozdrevaty was beaten with a whip, and “for the non-service the emperor did not order to give Saltykov for giving.”
When necessary, the leadership of military operations was withdrawn from the hands of the governor and transferred to the entrusted guardsmen. In July, 1577. the royal governors moved to the city of Kes and "became dependent", that is, they began to argue about seniority.
But it only cost the commanders to begin to “fool”, as a confidant of the tsar, a wilder Daniil Borisovich Saltykov was authorized to lead the troops “past” the governor, that is, removing them from command. The princes who had just interfered with each other because of the places were all at once subordinated to the nobleman Saltykov, a man in comparison with them completely "young."
Not alone repression
Undoubtedly, repressive functions for the oprichnina were among the main ones. But what were the sizes of these repressions? One of the "eyewitnesses" - an Englishman, Jerome Garsey, claimed that in Novgorod in 1870, the guardsmen killed the 700 000 people!
The figure indicated by the Englishman was several times larger than the population of Novgorod of those times. Historian Nikolai Skuratov in his article “Ivan the Terrible - a look at the time of the reign from the point of view of strengthening the Russian state” writes: “It may seem to an ordinary, ignorant person in history who is not averse to sometimes watch a movie and read a newspaper, that the oprichniki Ivan the Terrible had killed half population of the country. Meanwhile, the number of victims of political repression of the 50-year reign is well known from reliable historical sources. The overwhelming majority of the victims were named by their names .... the detainees belonged to the upper classes and were guilty of very real, not mythical conspiracies and betrayals .... almost all of them had been forgiven under the crusading oaths, that is, they were persecutors, political re-offenders ”.
Famous Soviet historian Ruslan Skrynnikov and Metropolitan John. Both the one and the other indicate that 50-4 thousands of people were sentenced to death by 5 during the years of the reign of Ivan the Terrible.
In the same century, in other states, governments committed truly monstrous lawlessness. In 1572 during the night of St. Bartholomew in France, 30 000 was killed by Protestants. In England, for the first half of the 16th century, only 70.000 people were hanged for vagrancy. In Germany, with the suppression of the peasant uprising 1525g. executed more xnumx people. The Duke of Alba destroyed during the capture of Antwerp 100.000 and in Harlem 8.000 people, and in total in the Netherlands the Spaniards killed about 20.000.
That is, taking into account the realities of that time, John VI can rightly be called one of the most humane sovereigns of that century.
“In time, the boyars, with the help of the oprichnina, recovered from the arrogance of the estate, harnessed to the common burden. The testament of the king, written during the illness in Novgorod in 1572, testifies that the oprichnina was not considered as an independent value and its long existence was not originally intended. “And what did the oprichnina accomplish,” writes Grozny, “and then, in the midst of my children Ivan and Fyodor, they are as profitable as they are, let them do it, but they’re done the sample.” I supposedly showed my way as best I could, and I’m not constraining the choice of specific methods of action for you. Zemshchina and oprichnina eventually mixed up, and the latter quietly died off as the ruling class of Russia understood its religious duty, its place in the all-Russian ministry, ”wrote Metropolitan John.
37 year will not be
A kind of "guardsmen" of another great Russian reformer Peter the Great became his "amusing".
They were for him not only the guarantors of his personal security and an instrument in the struggle for power, but also a forge of personnel — military and administrative.
Vladimir Putin, of course, is in dire need of like-minded people on whom he could rely, and with whom he could entrust the resolution of important issues, and give him broad powers. However, not “United Russia”, not ONF, alas, are not suitable, for a number of reasons to solve these problems. So, the question of presidential "oprichniki", which can help our leader to clean up the management system and modernize it, is still open.
It should be noted that the “purge” of the state apparatus and the business community integrated with it does not necessarily have to look like the 37 year, “when the periods were huge, they walked long stages”.
Actually, Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that he categorically rejects mass and large-scale repression as a way of governing the state, indicating that Russia may not survive this time.
The “cleansing” of the state apparatus can be carried out not by shooting, or by sending careless or unreliable officials, but by sending them to a “well-deserved” rest, or transferring them to positions where the damage from them will be minimal.
This approach will avoid repression, and even ensure the loyalty of the “cleaned up”, to the extent that they are capable of.
Unlike the beginning of the reign of Ivan Vasilyevich, law enforcement agencies in Russia exist, they are fully capable, and, as a rule, more effective than the authorities. That is, the repressive functions of the current “guardsmen” (if they appear) will not be needed, their main task will be crisis management and modernization of administrative structures. Which could lead the country out of the "manual control" mode.
This makes direct military aggression against our country unlikely.
Wickets for gold donkeys
However, as we know, according to legend, the impregnable strongholds of Constantinople fell because of the small gate, which they had forgotten to close.
In addition, you can recall the famous aphorism of Philip II of Macedon: "A donkey loaded with gold will take any fortress", which has long been the basis of the strategy of the West.
In other words, the issues of the country's internal security are no less relevant and important than aspects of foreign defense.
And here we must admit that there are many loopholes in our walls, where it’s not that a donkey, KAMAZ loaded with gold will stop.
And all these numerous breaks, troughs and wickets must be urgently sealed and locked. And it is here that it turns out that with the specialists who are able to carry out this colossal work, there is “tension” in the country.
This very clearly (and again) showed the tragedy in Kemerovo. It turns out that the only person in the power structures of the country who is able to talk with angry and outraged people, as well as carry out crisis management is President of Russia Vladimir Putin.
The inefficiency of the existing system of government, managerial impotence and the “wrong motivation” of officials create more and more loopholes and breaks, much faster than Putin has time to close them up.
The experience of successful reformers (not destructors, like Gorbachev or Yeltsin) who revived the country from the ashes, and brought it to a qualitatively new level, suggests that they need a cohort of like-minded people on whom they can rely, the most trusted powers.
Kinked sovereign
The most famous (and most slandered) such structure in the domestic stories was created by John IV the Terrible oprichnina. On the basis of which the sovereign Ivan Vasilyevich carried out the reorganization of the Muscovite state into the autocratic kingdom and laid the foundations of the future Russian Empire.
It should be noted that the image of Ivan the Terrible, as a cruel tyrant, a fierce sadist who surrounded himself with unprincipled bloodthirsty murderers and executioners, took root in the public consciousness. The ancestor of this view was the historian Karamzin, whose works were based on the testimony of foreigners, for one reason or another, who were in Russia during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, as well as the works of the prince - defector Andrei Kurbsky.
“The prince-traitor, who led Lithuanian detachments to Russia, became the founder of literature devoted to Ivan IV. ... A significant contribution to the creation of the image of the Terrible Tsar was made by the Livonians I. Taube and E. Kruse. Participating in the Livonian war, both were captured and with the beginning of the oprichnina involved in the diplomatic field. In the 1671 year, after an unsuccessful siege of Revel, they fled to Lithuania. In order to justify themselves in double treason in front of their new owners, in the narrative of life in Russia, they deliberately exaggerated the colors, interweaving the truth with obvious fiction, ”writes the famous Russian historian Yury Kondakov.
Another contemporary researcher Vyacheslav Manyagin adheres to a similar point of view: Taube and Kruse's “Memoirs” are wordy and detailed, but their clearly slanderous nature puts them outside the brackets of reliable sources. Serious scientific researchers do not consider them as such. Thus, R.G. Skrynnikov, a leading expert on the Russian history of this period, notes: “Four years after the trial, eyewitnesses to the events Taube and Kruse made a lengthy, but rather tendentious account of the events.”
At the moment, proved the failure of the majority of the charges against John IV and his closest servants.
The closest to the understanding of the image of Ivan the Terrible, the oprichnina he created and their significance in Russian life, according to a number of modern researchers, metropolitan John (Snychev) approached in his writings. "The oprichnina became in the hands of the king an instrument with which he sifted all Russian life, her entire order and way of life, separated the good seeds of Russian Orthodox conciliarism and statehood from the chaff of heretical ingenuity, foreign morals and oblivion of their religious duty," wrote Vladyka.
“With all the bias of the concept of Metropolitan John, many of the points put forward in his book are shared by modern academic researchers,” points out Yuri Kondakov, referring to the works of historians V.V.Shaposhnik and V.A. Kolobkov.
Replacing inefficient institutions of power
So, what was it - oprichnina?
Let's start with the reasons for its origin. All childhood and youth of Ivan Vasilyevich proceeded against the background of an unceasing series of boyar conspiracies, intrigues and insurrections that shook the foundations of the Russian state.
“Even in Grozny, before the oprichnina, landowners from the highest nobility met, who ruled and judged outright in their vast estates, without even reporting to the tsar,” wrote the historian VO Klyuchevsky.
To this we can add that the king, who concentrated in himself the full responsibility for what is happening in the country, seemed to such boyars a convenient screen, which deprived them of this responsibility, but left them with all their imaginary “rights”. The number of the most distinguished boyar surnames was small - no more than two or three hundred, but their share in the mechanism of governing the country was overwhelming. Their motivation was not the strength and greatness of the country, but personal wealth and the satisfaction of their own ambitions. For the sake of what, they easily went even for treason.
The situation became unbearable, but to correct it, the king needed like-minded people who could take over the administrative management of the country, which traditionally belonged to the boyars. In its unworthy part, it should have been removed from these functions.
The first attempts to create an alternative to the boyar government were the “elected glad”, where the sovereign gathered people close to him, like-minded people whom, as he supposed, you can trust. But it soon became apparent that they were also involved in boyar intrigues. The closest - Alexey Adashev and priest Sylvester changed the king and even found themselves involved in the poisoning of his spouse Anastasia. Andrei Kurbsky, as already mentioned, moved to the side of the enemy. Also entered and another voivode - Dmitry Vishnevetsky. Convinced of the ineffectiveness of his means, the sovereign takes an extraordinary step, culminating in the creation of the oprichnina, which was not at all an exclusively “anti-Boyar” instrument.
“The tsar in the decree on the establishment of the oprichnina made it clear that he does not divide the" traitors "and" Likhodeans "into any groups" neither by kind, nor by tribe, "nor by rank, nor by class," said Metropolitan John.
The term "oprichnina" had a long origin. That was the name of the inheritance, which the prince singled out, “to oprich” (except) for another land. However, in this case, the oprichnina meant the king’s personal lot. The rest of the state became known as the Zemstvo, which was governed by the Boyar Duma. The “special court” with its Boyar Duma and orders, partially translated from the land, became the political and administrative center of the oprichnina. In oprichnina was a special treasury. Initially, a thousand were taken into the oprichnina (by the end of the oprichnina - already 6 thousand), mainly service people, but there were also representatives of some old princely and boyar families.
Mouth and broom
The oprichniki had a special emblem in the form of a dog's head and a broom. This meant that the oprichnik had to gnaw the “sovereign traitors” and sweep the treason.
However, the punitive function was not the only one for the oprichnina and not the main one. A much more important area of its activity was the creation of a new administrative system of the nascent empire, or rather, the correction and modernization of the old one. And the oprichnas of the land became the place of realization of the new model.
Another function facing the organization was military. The oprichnina consisted of a special, oprichnaya army - a kind of Life Guards with the person of the monarch. The selection was very tough, and only the “best people” had a chance to be admitted to the oprichnich regiments. They were staffed mainly from noblemen loyal to the tsar and children of the boyar “oprichnykh” volosts and counties. In 1565 it included 1000 oprichniki. On 20 March 1573. in the oprichnogo court of King John was listed 1854 man. Of these, 654 was the sovereign’s bodyguards.
By 70. the army grew to 5-6 thousand people. By its nature it was local. Oprichniki received for the service of the estate for temporary use and the "sovereign" salary. They swore allegiance to the king, pledged not to have any relations with the boyars of the land. Oprichnaya army was equestrian, in its composition was its own artillery. It had a regimental structure and was governed by the voivods, whom the king appointed personally, and an oprichnym (yard) order. The functions of this order were identical to the functions of the discharge order of the land.
The most important task of the oprichnich troops was the fight against internal sedition and separatist tendencies, the suppression and prevention of insurrections. And in this sense, the oprichnaya army can be compared with the modern Rosgvardia.
In addition, the guardsmen carried foreign service, guarding the borders of the state, and participated in the wars together with the Zemstvo army, being on the most responsible or dangerous sectors and acting as shock troops. At the same time, the oprichny regiments were united with the respective Zemstvo regiments (for example, the Big regiment of the oprichnich army with a large regiment of the Zemstvo, the oprichny advanced regiment with the advanced regiment of the Zemstvo, etc.) Oprichnaya army acted against an external enemy and independently. Despite its small number, it played a prominent role in defending Russia, for example, in the Battle of Molodi, in 1572, during which Tatar troops were defeated, and their commander Divey Murza was captured by oprichnik Atalykin.
In 1568, only guardsmen carried the guard of the southern border of the Russian state. The large, advanced and guard regiments were located in Mtsensk, and the regiments of the right and left hands and the Ortoulny (sentinel, reconnaissance) regiments were located in Kaluga.
Crisis managers of Ivan the Terrible
The already mentioned 600 oprichniki, especially close to the sovereign, were not limited to the function of bodyguards. If necessary, they performed the tasks of the tsar's entrusted delegates who carried out administrative, intelligence, investigative and punitive functions.
If necessary, each of the approximate guardsmen was ready to take over the leadership of military or civilian structures. So, for example, in September 1577. during the Livonian campaign, the king sent Prince Mikhail Nozdrovaty and Andrei Saltykov with the troops to the capture of the city of Smiltin.
The Germans and Lithuanians entrenched in the city refused to surrender, and the tsar's military leaders blocked the fortifications in no hurry to report to the tsar about the situation and about the negotiations with the besieged. Concerned sovereign sent to find out the situation on the spot of the oprichnik boyarsky son Pronu Bolakirev. Arriving at Smiltin at night, the tsar's spy stated the absence of a full-fledged military guard and many other omissions in service. The king, who received a report from him, "thought it was Kruchinitsa, but he sent Demenshu Cheremisinov, and ordered him to find what they were doing."
The famous oprichnik, D. Cheremisinov, endowed with the necessary powers, found out on the spot that in addition to the careless duty, the governors refused to release the Lithuanians from the besieged city along with their property, hoping to plunder it.
After the oprichnik, taking command of his own hands, allowed the inhabitants to withdraw their belongings, "immediately Lithuania was cleared the city." The governors were punished for non-fulfillment of the tsarist instructions — Nozdrevaty was beaten with a whip, and “for the non-service the emperor did not order to give Saltykov for giving.”
When necessary, the leadership of military operations was withdrawn from the hands of the governor and transferred to the entrusted guardsmen. In July, 1577. the royal governors moved to the city of Kes and "became dependent", that is, they began to argue about seniority.
But it only cost the commanders to begin to “fool”, as a confidant of the tsar, a wilder Daniil Borisovich Saltykov was authorized to lead the troops “past” the governor, that is, removing them from command. The princes who had just interfered with each other because of the places were all at once subordinated to the nobleman Saltykov, a man in comparison with them completely "young."
Not alone repression
Undoubtedly, repressive functions for the oprichnina were among the main ones. But what were the sizes of these repressions? One of the "eyewitnesses" - an Englishman, Jerome Garsey, claimed that in Novgorod in 1870, the guardsmen killed the 700 000 people!
The figure indicated by the Englishman was several times larger than the population of Novgorod of those times. Historian Nikolai Skuratov in his article “Ivan the Terrible - a look at the time of the reign from the point of view of strengthening the Russian state” writes: “It may seem to an ordinary, ignorant person in history who is not averse to sometimes watch a movie and read a newspaper, that the oprichniki Ivan the Terrible had killed half population of the country. Meanwhile, the number of victims of political repression of the 50-year reign is well known from reliable historical sources. The overwhelming majority of the victims were named by their names .... the detainees belonged to the upper classes and were guilty of very real, not mythical conspiracies and betrayals .... almost all of them had been forgiven under the crusading oaths, that is, they were persecutors, political re-offenders ”.
Famous Soviet historian Ruslan Skrynnikov and Metropolitan John. Both the one and the other indicate that 50-4 thousands of people were sentenced to death by 5 during the years of the reign of Ivan the Terrible.
In the same century, in other states, governments committed truly monstrous lawlessness. In 1572 during the night of St. Bartholomew in France, 30 000 was killed by Protestants. In England, for the first half of the 16th century, only 70.000 people were hanged for vagrancy. In Germany, with the suppression of the peasant uprising 1525g. executed more xnumx people. The Duke of Alba destroyed during the capture of Antwerp 100.000 and in Harlem 8.000 people, and in total in the Netherlands the Spaniards killed about 20.000.
That is, taking into account the realities of that time, John VI can rightly be called one of the most humane sovereigns of that century.
“In time, the boyars, with the help of the oprichnina, recovered from the arrogance of the estate, harnessed to the common burden. The testament of the king, written during the illness in Novgorod in 1572, testifies that the oprichnina was not considered as an independent value and its long existence was not originally intended. “And what did the oprichnina accomplish,” writes Grozny, “and then, in the midst of my children Ivan and Fyodor, they are as profitable as they are, let them do it, but they’re done the sample.” I supposedly showed my way as best I could, and I’m not constraining the choice of specific methods of action for you. Zemshchina and oprichnina eventually mixed up, and the latter quietly died off as the ruling class of Russia understood its religious duty, its place in the all-Russian ministry, ”wrote Metropolitan John.
37 year will not be
A kind of "guardsmen" of another great Russian reformer Peter the Great became his "amusing".
They were for him not only the guarantors of his personal security and an instrument in the struggle for power, but also a forge of personnel — military and administrative.
Vladimir Putin, of course, is in dire need of like-minded people on whom he could rely, and with whom he could entrust the resolution of important issues, and give him broad powers. However, not “United Russia”, not ONF, alas, are not suitable, for a number of reasons to solve these problems. So, the question of presidential "oprichniki", which can help our leader to clean up the management system and modernize it, is still open.
It should be noted that the “purge” of the state apparatus and the business community integrated with it does not necessarily have to look like the 37 year, “when the periods were huge, they walked long stages”.
Actually, Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that he categorically rejects mass and large-scale repression as a way of governing the state, indicating that Russia may not survive this time.
The “cleansing” of the state apparatus can be carried out not by shooting, or by sending careless or unreliable officials, but by sending them to a “well-deserved” rest, or transferring them to positions where the damage from them will be minimal.
This approach will avoid repression, and even ensure the loyalty of the “cleaned up”, to the extent that they are capable of.
Unlike the beginning of the reign of Ivan Vasilyevich, law enforcement agencies in Russia exist, they are fully capable, and, as a rule, more effective than the authorities. That is, the repressive functions of the current “guardsmen” (if they appear) will not be needed, their main task will be crisis management and modernization of administrative structures. Which could lead the country out of the "manual control" mode.
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