How Ivan the Terrible took Kazan

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How Ivan the Terrible took Kazan
Sviyazhsk. Facial annalistic set. The caption under the image: "And they surrounded the city and laid the church in the city in the name of the Nativity of the Most Pure and the miracle-worker Sergius, from the image of the miracle-worker Sergius, miracles have been done."

How the weather disrupted the Kazan campaign of 1547–1548.


Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich personally headed the new campaign against Kazan. The decision was announced with extraordinary solemnity:

"... the Tsar and Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of All Russia with the Metropolitan and his brothers and s bolyars thought to go against his foe against the Kazan tsar Safa-Kirey and against the perjurers of Kazan for their perjury."

True, because of the fire in Moscow and the riots, the campaign had to be postponed until winter.



In November 1547, troops headed by the voivode Dmitry Belsky set out along the winter route, in December the sovereign himself left. This was no longer an easy raid. Infantry regiments and artillery - the "outfit" were concentrated in Vladimir. From Vladimir, the troops set out for Nizhny Novgorod. On Meschera, the second army was preparing under the command of Shah-Ali and the governor Fyodor Prozorovsky. It consisted of cavalry regiments, which were supposed to go in the steppe to the meeting point of the two men appointed at the mouth of the Tsivili River.

But the winter turned out to be unusually warm and rainy, which made the trip even longer. The cannons were stuck in the mud. From Moscow to Vladimir and Nizhny they were dragged by "a great need." The "outfit" was delivered to Vladimir only after Epiphany (December 6). The main forces arrived in Nizhny Novgorod only at the end of January 1548. And on February 2, Russian troops went down the Volga to the Kazan border. When the Volga was crossed, a big thaw began, the ice became covered with water, and began to fall under the weight of the cargo.

As the historian N.M. Karamzin wrote:

“When the king ... arrived on the island of Robotka, the entire Volga was covered with water: the ice cracked; the gunshot shell fell through and many people died. For three days the sovereign lived on the island and waited in vain for the way: finally, as if frightened by a bad omen, he returned with sorrow to Moscow.

Thus, an abnormally warm winter thwarted a large march to Kazan, which involved its assault and capture. Most of the artillery was lost. The tsar returned to Nizhny, then to Moscow. However, part of the regiments that crossed the river, led by Belsky, continued to move. On February 18, the troops united on the river. Civil with Shah Ali's cavalry regiments. The Russians went to Kazan. Safa-Girey led his army to the Arsk field, but was utterly defeated. Remnants of Kazan citizens were "trampled" into the city. They did not lay siege to Kazan without artillery, having stood under the walls for 7 days. They also walked through the khanate in a devastating wave.


Changes in Kazan


In the summer of 1548, the Kazanians made a retaliatory raid.

A large detachment of Arak the hero attacked the Galician and Kostroma places. The Kostroma voivode Zakhary Yakovlev overtook and defeated the enemy, weighed down by prey and full on Gusev Pole, on the Ezovka River. Other Kazan detachments, having learned about the defeat of Arak, preferred to retreat.

Meanwhile, great changes have taken place in Kazan itself. In words, the local elite have always adhered to Islam. But the princes and murzas themselves did not always follow the rules of their religion. In particular, according to the old tradition, they liked to drink. It happened that the Russian troops took advantage of this and smashed a drunken enemy.

Safa-Girey was a bitter drunkard. In March 1549, Moscow was informed of the death of the Kazan Khan. In a drunken state, he slipped and killed himself in his mansion about the "washing house". True, there are certain doubts about this news. It is possible that the eccentric khan, who brought Kazan a lot of troubles, was simply eliminated, taking advantage of his binge.

Kazan tried to get a new king from the Crimea, but their ambassadors could not fulfill the mission entrusted to them. As a result, the two-year-old son of Safa-Girey, Utyamysh-Girey, was proclaimed khan. His mother, Queen Syuyumbike, began to rule in his name.


Warriors of the Kazan Khanate. Adam Olearius

Kazan campaign 1549-1550.


The citizens of Kazan offered Moscow to conclude peace. However, the Russian government no longer believed the perjurers. The Cossacks intercepted the Kazan ambassadors to the Crimea "on the Field" and in Moscow they knew that the Kazan people were expecting the Crimeans and Turks. The government of Ivan Vasilyevich decided to take advantage of the dynastic crisis in Kazan and continue the war.

However, Moscow was not able to immediately take advantage of the favorable situation on the eastern border. It was necessary to cast new cannons to replace the drowned ones. And the Cannon Yard burned down during the fire. Livonia was not allowed to enter Russia armory copper. In addition, it was not possible to immediately send large forces to the Volga. The best Russian regiments from spring to autumn 1549 stood on the southern border, on the "coast", where an attack by the Crimeans was expected.

In the summer, it was possible to send only the light army of the Saltykovs to the Kazan places. The raid was obviously of a reconnaissance and demonstration nature, so that the enemy would not be naughty.

A large campaign was organized already in the winter of 1549-1550.

The regiments were assembled in Vladimir, Suzdal, Shuya, Murom, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Rostov and Yuryev in November 1549. The army was led by the king himself.

On December 20, voivods Vasily Yuriev and Fedor Nagoy advanced from Vladimir to Nizhny Novgorod with siege artillery. The regiments were seen off by Metropolitan Macarius and Vladyka of Krutitsk Sava. The Metropolitan called on the governor and the children of the boyars "for the sake of Christianity" to go on a campaign "without places", threatened with punishment. The fact is that the campaign was greatly hampered by the parochial disputes of the voivods, the noble boyars did not want to obey the "noble" ones. Ivan Vasilievich, trying to calm the unruffled aristocrats, summoned the metropolitan to Vladimir to stop the boyars' quarrels.

On January 23, 1550, the Russian army set out from the Nizhny Novgorod and went down the Volga to the Kazan lands. This trip also turned out to be difficult. Severe frosts hit, many people froze to death or were frostbitten. Russian regiments reached Kazan on February 12. The tsar offered the citizens of Kazan to surrender the fortress.

There was a hope to take the city without a fight, in Kazan there was a pro-Russian party that promised to open the gates. But these promises turned out to be empty. Siege work began: they set up tours - siege towers, batteries. The shelling of the fortress began. They tried to go to the assault, but he was ill prepared, there were no gaps or breaks in the walls. Kazan fought desperately. The felling lasted the whole day, the warriors climbed the walls, they were thrown from there. The attack drowned.

The weather failed again. According to the chronicles, an early and strong thaw began,

“The winds are strong, and the rains are great, and the phlegm is immeasurable; and it is not powerful to shoot from cannons and squeaks, and it is not possible to approach the city for phlegm. "

The Russian army stood at Kazan for 11 days and it rained all the time, "great sputum" came, many rivers opened. Gunpowder is wet. The roads turned into streams of mud, disrupting the supply of food.

As a result, on February 25, the tsar turned the troops back. The case could turn out to be a complete failure. Kazan, seeing that the Russians were leaving, grew bolder, rallied and began to persecute. They could dismember, crush and destroy the exhausted Russian regiments stretched out on the march to the Volga. However, the light cavalry regiments threw back the enemy. The Russians successfully crossed the Volga, crossing the dangerous ice, taking their outfit and carts with them.


Preparing a new campaign


Thus, Kazan could not be taken due to unfavorable weather and local disputes between the boyars, who delayed the army's advance.

But the main reason for the failures of 1547-1550 (and earlier campaigns) was the impossibility of organizing the supply of a large army. The Russian army operated away from their cities, on enemy territory. The rear disturbed the enemy light detachments, which used a good knowledge of the terrain, hid from retaliatory strikes in the forests and swamps.

To remedy this situation, it was decided in the next 1551 to erect a new fortress at the mouth of the Sviyaga River, on Round Mountain. It was located 20 versts from Kazan. From the Sviyazhsk fortress, the Russians could control the entire right bank ("Mountain side") of the Volga and the nearest approaches to Kazan. The main part of the walls and towers, as well as living quarters and two churches of the future fortress in the winter of 1550-1551 were prepared in advance on the Upper Volga in the Uglitsky district in the patrimony of the princes Ushatykh. The clerk Ivan Vyrodkov was responsible for the construction, who was instructed not only to make the city, but then, disassembled, to deliver it to the mouth of the Sviyaga.

This large-scale operation was covered by the raid of Prince Peter Serebryany. In the spring of 1551 he received an order to go with the regiments "exiled to the Kazan posad." At the same time, the Vyatka army of Zyuzin and the Volga Cossacks were to occupy all transportations along the main transport arteries of the region: the Volga, Kama and Vyatka. To help Zyuzin, 2500 Cossacks were sent from the Meshchera, led by the atamans Severga and Yolka. The Cossacks had to "Polem" go to the Volga, build plows and go up the river to fight the Kazan places. The Cossacks reached the Volga and established contact with the army of Zyuzin, operating on Vyatka. Other detachments of the Cossacks operated on the Lower Volga. Nuradin (ruler) of the Nogai horde, Ishmael, complained about them to Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich. He wrote to Moscow that the Cossacks "took both banks of the Volga and our freedom was taken away and our uluses are fighting."

In April 1551, the army of commanders Mikhail Voronov and Grigory Filippov-Naumov left Ryazan "for the Field". The Russian army was supposed to interrupt the connection between Kazan and the Crimea, to cover the southern border of the Russian kingdom.

Sviyazhsky grad


The Host of Serebryany set out from Nizhny to Kazan on May 16, 1551, and already on the 18th was at the city walls. The attack by the Russians came as a complete surprise to the citizens of Kazan. The warriors of the Russian commander broke into the Kazan posad and inflicted heavy damage on the enemy. But Kazan quickly came to their senses and rushed to the counterattack. The Russians were pushed back to the courts, 50 archers, led by the centurion Skoblev, were surrounded and captured. Having retreated from Kazan, the army of Serebryany broke the camp on the river. Sviyage, waiting for the arrival of the regiments of Shah-Ali (Tsar Shigalei), which covered the delivery of the main part of the Sviyazhsky castle. A large river caravan set out in April and approached Round Mountain at the end of May.

The activity and scale of the actions of the Russian army stunned the citizens of Kazan and distracted them from the construction of the fortress on Sviyaga. On May 24, Shah Ali and his people began to cut down the forest at the site of the future city. Then the walls, towers and internal buildings were erected. The fortress was erected in 4 weeks. The new city was named "in the royal name" Ivangorod Sviyazhsky. It was a Russian bridgehead on the territory of the Kazan Khanate. Local residents (“mountain people) asked to accept them into Russian citizenship. Chuvash and mountain Cheremis-Mari finally go over to the side of Moscow.

The active and successful actions of the Russian troops, the loss of subjects, the blockade of the waterways of the Khanate by Moscow detachments caused another internal crisis in Kazan. A conspiracy has matured in the city, directed against the Crimean party led by the ulan Koschak, the favorite of the queen Syuyumbike. The Crimeans, seeing that they are in the minority and they want to hand them over to Ivan Vasilyevich in order to make peace with Moscow, gathered and fled from the city, having robbed him before that. However, a small detachment of Crimeans - about 300 uhlans, princes, murzas and "good Cossacks", could not leave. There were Russian outposts on all the convenient transports. Koshchak's detachment strongly deviated from the original path, went to Vyatka, where Russian warriors stood in ambush. When the Tatars began the crossing, they were attacked by the army of Zyuzin, atamans Pavlov and Sverga. Most of the Tatars were killed, 46 people led by Koschak were taken prisoner. They were taken to Moscow, where Ivan IV ordered their execution "for their cruelty".

The new Kazan government, headed by the oglan Khudai-Kul and the prince Nur-Ali Shirin, entered into negotiations with Moscow. Kazan again agreed to accept King Shah-Ali (previously he had already been Kazan Khan twice). The Kazan ambassadors agreed to hand over Khan Utyamysh and Syuyumbike to the Russian side, recognize the annexation of the mountain (western) side of the Volga to the Russian kingdom, and prohibit the enslavement of Christians.

August 14, 1551 on a field at the mouth of the river. Kazanka held a kurultai, at which the Kazan nobility and clergy approved the terms of the agreement concluded with Moscow. On August 16, Shah Ali solemnly entered Kazan. With him were representatives of Russia boyar Ivan Khabarov and clerk Ivan Vyrodkov. On the next day, the citizens of Kazan handed over 2700 of the most prominent Russian prisoners to the sovereign.

However, the reign of the new Kazan tsar was short-lived. His position among the nobility was very weak. Shah Ali could strengthen his position in the Kazan Khanate only with the help of a strong Russian garrison. But, despite the threat of an uprising, Shah-Ali agreed to bring into Kazan only 300 Kasimov princes, Murzas and Cossacks loyal to him, and 200 Russian archers. The local elite was unhappy with the fact that it was necessary to hand over the remaining prisoners to Russia. Moscow also refused to return the residents of the "Mountain Side" under the authority of Kazan.

Khan tried to suppress the opposition with repression, but this did not help, only united his opponents. As a result, in Moscow, where they closely watched the situation in Kazan, they began to tend to the idea that it was necessary to recall the unpopular khan and replace him with the Russian governor. Khan, having learned about this, decided not to wait for the Russian governors and left Kazan himself. In March 1552, Shah Ali left the city under the pretext of a fishing trip. With him as hostages, he took the princes and murz accompanying him (84 people). The khan left for Sviyazhsk.

Moscow governors were sent to Kazan, but they could not enter the fortress. On March 9, the princes Islam, Kebek and Murza Alikey Narykov revolted. Opponents of peace with Moscow came to power. Astrakhan prince Ediger-Mohammed was invited to the Kazan table. Kazan residents resumed hostilities, trying to regain control of the Mountain side.

To be continued ...
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  1. +13
    5 August 2021 05: 40
    Only in the late "perestroika" years did I learn that this beauty
    in honor of those events was erected.In Kazan itself was a couple of times, and about the history of this monument
    also somehow it was not accepted in those days to speak, and this is the Temple-memorial to the soldiers who fell during the capture of Kazan ..
    1. +8
      5 August 2021 06: 24
      Good morning, I read it and I will correct it a little - everyone in Kazan always knew that the Temple at the mouth of Kazan is a monument to Russian soldiers. At school I was told this in class, whoever wants to listen will hear.
      When it was not customary to talk about it, do not explain? hi
      1. +13
        5 August 2021 06: 58
        Good morning to you! I am forgiven, I am behind the dark forests, wide steppes, high mountains (Ural) I live and I cannot know the history of your city ... other people got caught on business trips - they brushed aside the question "what about the ethno, what have you got there?" and somehow the conversation was hastily shifted to another topic. and other factors .. And "History is a witness of the past, the light of truth, living memory, a teacher of life, a messenger of antiquity.", as Mark Tullius Cicero very rightly said
        1. +3
          5 August 2021 07: 24
          Now the friendship of peoples will begin to grow stronger in the comments)))
        2. +10
          5 August 2021 08: 32
          I agree with you, the facts are mercilessly misinterpreted. That is why we are with you and educated secular people to know the history of their country.
          I cannot but note that in the 90s, during the rampant of nationalism, there were numerous demands to demolish the temple as a memory of the conquest of Kazan. What saved - I do not know, probably a miracle happened. Now the Temple is being restored.
          Have a nice day!
          hi
          1. +2
            6 August 2021 11: 45
            Quote: Cheshire
            I agree with you, the facts are mercilessly misinterpreted. That is why we are with you and educated secular people to know the history of their country.
            I cannot but note that in the 90s, during the rampant of nationalism, there were numerous demands to demolish the temple as a memory of the conquest of Kazan. What saved - I do not know, probably a miracle happened. Now the Temple is being restored.
            Have a nice day!
            hi

            Nationalism is quite alive there and now. Just try not to "glow" much.
            1. 0
              6 August 2021 18: 54
              Quite, Kazan is full of companies, organizations where the dominance of local chaplashek (the problem is direct. Frankly speaking, the level of service there does not shine.
    2. +7
      5 August 2021 08: 43
      It is also good that it has survived. How many historical monuments were destroyed
  2. +9
    5 August 2021 05: 41
    Good morning everyone. smile

    "Ivan Vasilich the Terrible
    His name was
    For being serious
    A solid man. "(S. A. K. Tolstoy)

    And further - "General history, processed by" Satyricon "

    The capture of Kazan

    Meanwhile, riots broke out in Kazan. They began to utter words against the authorities. Unlawful songs were sung at the university.
    - All this foreigners stir up! - they said in Moscow. And those who spoke so were not mistaken. The Tatar party took possession of the minds of the youth and harassed them. On the street every now and then was heard:

    - Renounce the old world ...

    The wretched were exhausted, taking bribes and arresting whoever was needed, and even more who wasn’t needed.

    - We need to punish the rioters approximately! - said, angry, Ioann Vasilievich.

    He gathered an army, went to Kazan and laid siege to it. Stoessel was not the commandant of the fortress, and the besieged stubbornly defended themselves. One day, just before the sunniest sunrise, a large tunnel was blown up, where there were 48 barrels of gunpowder.
    From the fact that the barrels were not stolen before the digging, and the gunpowder immediately exploded, historians conclude that the intendants and the engineer who led the digging were Germans.

    (S. Arkady Averchenko)
  3. +3
    5 August 2021 06: 14
    Why Epiphany - December 6?
    1. +9
      5 August 2021 06: 45
      Because in many sources it is written in Russian in black. Here, for example This is how he is, Yandex Gugelevich Tryntrynnetov - both a faithful assistant and a great confusion. But he was asked by Omar Khayyam:
      And with a friend and an enemy, you must be good! Who is good by nature, in that you will not find malice. If you offend a friend, you will make an enemy; if you embrace the enemy, you will find a friend.
      1. +8
        5 August 2021 08: 28
        “- You can't treat translators like that” (c).
    2. +6
      5 August 2021 11: 58
      Quote from Korsar4
      Why Epiphany - December 6?

      An obvious mistake.
      That's right - January 6th.
  4. +13
    5 August 2021 06: 53
    What is permissible for a writer, that is not permissible for a historian. I mean that in the history of Russia there was no such prince of Silver. It appeared only in the book by A. Tolstoy "Prince Serebrenny. The Tale of the Times of Ivan the Terrible". And in the history of the Russian state and in the archival pedigree "Velvet Book" of noble boyar and noble families of Russia there is only Prince Serebrenny-Obolensky Pyotr Semyonovich, if we are talking about the governor Ivan the Terrible. Princes Silver-Obolensk.
    And there are also the princes of the Golden-Obolensky. And both surnames are descendants of the two sons of Shchepa-Obolensky. One branch was called Serebrenye-Obolensky, another branch was called Golden-Obolensky.
    So even a school summary on history, which is what this article is, the names of the princes should be
    writing is not literary attractive, but it is necessary to write historically correctly ...
    1. +6
      5 August 2021 07: 20
      Quote: north 2
      So even a school summary on history, which is what this article is, the names of the princes should be
      writing is not literary attractive, but it is necessary to write historically correctly ...

      Duc, sho to do? What are the school "textbook notes", such is the article! Some of the story was "taught", perhaps in cinemas with the girls in the back row!
    2. +4
      5 August 2021 17: 21
      Quote: north 2
      both surnames are descendants of two sons of Shchepa-Obolensky

      Chips - that was the name of the groom.
      And the prince was called Shchepin-Obolensky.
      In any case, thanks for the excursion.
  5. +8
    5 August 2021 08: 32
    The great merit of clerk Vyrodkov was taken in Kazan. The author did not mention how the further fate of Ivan Grigorievich Vyrodkov developed.
    Unfortunately, the fate of I. G. Vyrodkov, a talented engineer fortifier, was tragic: he was executed with all his relatives.
  6. +7
    5 August 2021 09: 45
    This large-scale operation was covered by the raid of Prince Peter the Silver
    to clarify, from the Shchepin-Obolensky family, Rurikovich is in the 19th generation. In 1570 he was killed by order of Ivan the Terrible. Researchers believe that the death of the prince was associated with the "Great Treason", in which many noble boyars were accused of wanting to surrender Novgorod and Pskov to the Polish king, but this, as they say, is another story.
  7. +2
    5 August 2021 18: 58
    The fate of Ivan Vyrodkov was tragic - in September 1568, he was captured by the guardsmen on a denunciation, tortured and executed. Together with him, almost all representatives of the Vyrodkov family lost their lives - his four children, two brothers, a sister, and members of their families - only seventeen people. Executed, probably in the case of "treason" of the boyar and groom I. P. Fedorov-Chelyadnin. Https://ardexpert.ru/article/4348
  8. +1
    6 August 2021 00: 59
    Guys, excuse my stupidity, but if I'm not mistaken, Tsar Ivan the Terrible, after the capture of the Kazan Khanate, took the title of "Tsar of Rus and BULGAR" and not Tatars !!! And why would it be if the so-called. Was the Kazan Khanate a Tatar Khanate? hi
    1. ANB
      +2
      6 August 2021 03: 15
      ... Was the Kazan Khanate a Tatar Khanate?

      Volga Bulgaria. Some Tatar historians believe that the present Tatars are the Bulgars.
      A typical Kazan Tatar is fair-haired and blue-eyed.
  9. 0
    7 August 2021 19: 31
    Where does such a card come from ??? Mordva-Moksha and Mordva-Erzya are reversed.

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