Ivan the Terrible and the Meaning of the Livonian War
Ivan the Terrible in Livonia (The Capture of the Livonian Fortress of Kokenhausen by Ivan the Terrible). Artist: P. P. Sokolov-Skalya
Black myth
Ivan the Terrible is one of the most effective rulers of Rus' throughout its history. historyHe restored a great empire-state that united the legacy of both the Rurikid-Sokolov Rus' and the Horde Rus' (the heirs of the Scythian-Siberian world of the Rus' super-ethnos).
Therefore, Westerners and liberals, armed with European slanderous conjectures and information warfare manuals, tried to denigrate and discredit the great Russian sovereign. They accused him of everything: a despot and tyrant, the murderer of his son, a drunkard and a bloody oprichnik who drowned the country in blood."Black Myth" about the first Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible).
They even went so far as to accuse Ivan Vasilyevich of laying the foundations for the Great Troubles of the early 17th century. Although he was succeeded by his son, Fyodor Ivanovich, and the Godunov dynasty, under whom Rus' developed quite successfully.
In particular, for over two hundred years, a historical theory has been constructed that the Muscovite Tsardom was drawn into the disastrous Livonian War due to the mistakes of Ivan IV. They say they should not have "cut a window" to Europe, but continued their advance south and east, and following the conquest of the Kazan and Astrakhan Khanates, they should have gone beyond the Urals and seized Crimea. The demographic and economic losses in the Livonian War ultimately caused the Time of Troubles.
In reality, Ivan the Terrible had no choice. He had a strategic vision and understood that Rus' must move forward and develop. This is what Russia's future history demonstrated. The national challenges that the great Russian sovereign attempted to address were addressed after him by Tsars Alexei Mikhailovich and Peter I Alexeevich. Under Catherine the Great. This included the creation of a powerful state with an economic base, a regular army, and fleet, with access to the Baltic and Black Seas. The reunification of the entire Russian land and the Russian people.
"Window to Europe"
State policy is the concentrated expression of economics, a tool for realizing fundamental economic interests. All policy is based on an economic foundation.
Let me remind you that during the reign of Ivan Vasilyevich (1533–1584), there were two leading powers in Eastern Europe: the Russian state and Poland, which included the lands of today's Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine. Rus', which faced the harshest natural and climatic conditions, simply could not compete with the other powers. To see this, one can simply compare the average annual temperatures in Moscow and Novgorod with those in Berlin, Paris, and Rome. This is very well described in Andrey Parshev's work "Why Russia Is Not America."
Russia was also cut off from the main maritime routes (the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and the North Sea), through which most global trade flowed. This meant that Muscovite Rus' was on the periphery of the emerging global economic system.
To change the situation, it was necessary to become a leading grain exporter. The grain market became the first and most capacious pan-European commodity market of the time. It absorbed the funds siphoned off from the American colonies. By becoming the leading grain exporter, Moscow gained a stable source of revenue for its treasury and development. This way, Russia could return to the mainstream politics and economics of Europe.
But for this Several overarching objectives had to be addressed. First, it was necessary to complete the reunification of the Russian lands and recapture the grateful lands of the former Kievan Rus' from the Poles and Lithuanians. The lands that would later be called "Ukraine," from the Russian word for "ukraina-okraina." The chernozems there are rich and fertile, and the winters are much milder than in northeastern Rus'. The soils in the Non-Chernozem region are poor and podzolic, and the winters are long. Yields are low: at best, 3%, meaning for every seed sown, three were harvested, meaning the harvest was three times greater than the original. And during the Little Ice Age (a period of global relative cooling that occurred on Earth from the 14th to the 19th centuries), yields fell even further.
Therefore, it was necessary to reconquer the lands of the former Kyiv and Volyn regions. To begin reclaiming the so-called "Wild Field"—the forest-steppes and steppes of the former Southern Rus', devastated by the predatory raids and campaigns of the steppe dwellers and Crimeans. These lands had to be recaptured from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland, not forgetting the southern front—the Crimean Khanate. An incredibly complex task.
A second objective followed from this. It was necessary to critically weaken the alliance of Poland and Lithuania (from 1569, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), the main exporter of grain to Europe and Moscow's geopolitical adversary, backed by the Roman Catholic world.
Thirdly, it was necessary to create a direct transit corridor through the Baltic to Northern Europe Denmark, Holland, Northern Germany, Northern France, and England. These were Russia's main trading partners, the economic leaders of Europe at the time. To achieve this, it was necessary to regain access to the Baltic Sea (via the Ingrian lands) and reclaim the Baltic cities and ports—Narva, Reval (Tallinn), Dorpat (Russian Yuryev), and Riga. These had to be recaptured not only from the decrepit Livonian Order, but also from Poland and Sweden, who had their eye on them.
Incidentally, these objectives remain relevant today. For Russia to regain its status as a great power empire, control over Southern Rus' (today's Ukraine) and the Baltics is essential. These are questions of economics, strategy, and national security.
War of civilizations
So Ivan the Terrible didn't have many options. Insanely complex tasks ultimately took nearly two centuries to resolve, including the governments of Alexei Mikhailovich, Peter I, and Catherine the Great. Over the course of several bloody and protracted wars, a "window to Europe" was opened on the Baltic. In several stages, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was defeated (even to the point of eliminating Polish statehood) and the lands of Southern and Western Rus' were reclaimed.
But doing nothing was impossible! After all, Poland, having "digested" Southwestern Rus' and fully integrated into Europe, would then lock itself into all trade and financial flows in Eastern Europe. To the north and south, the blockade was maintained by Sweden and the Crimean Khanate, backed by the powerful Ottoman Empire. Muscovite Rus' would become isolated, a second-rate power, and would suffer the same fate as insular China. Becoming an economic semi-colony under the guns of the European powers, it would either be torn to pieces and devoured.
That's why Moscow began the Livonian War, marching its regiments against the degraded Livonian Order. The war began victoriously. Livonia was falling apart. Russian troops recaptured Narva and Reval. The powerful Russian artillery She cracked the old knight's castles like nuts. It seemed that just a little more and victory would be complete.
However, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth came to the aid of Livonia, or rather, to swallow it up (the Union of Lublin united the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania). Then, one of the most powerful military powers in Europe at the time, Sweden, which also laid claim to the Baltic lands, opposed Moscow. The Crimean Horde, supported by the Ottoman Turks, attacked from the south. Rus' was forced to fight powerful enemies on three fronts – west, north, and south. The enemy was supported by almost all of Europe: Hungarian troops fighting under the banner of Stefan Batory, mercenaries from the German principalities, Italy, England, and Scotland. Poland was supported by the German Emperor and the Holy See.
A conventional war between two Eastern European states – Muscovy and Livonia – turned into a civilizational confrontation. A world war between West and East, with the Muslim world (Crimea and Turkey) also involved. A religious war between Catholics and Protestants (Lutherans) against the Orthodox. "Civilized" Europe against "Russian barbarians," against "Tartaria."
The goal of the Russian invasion of Livonia, according to Livonians Johann Kruse and Elert Taube, was “…the final destruction and devastation of the entire Christian world, the Kingdom of Poland, Lithuania, and our ill-fated homeland… And all these actions were against God, against honor, against the Christian Church…”.
It was then that the mythological image of Russians as bearded, cruel, and terrifying barbarians (Scythians, Huns, Mongols, Cossacks), as eternal aggressors, enemies of the "free and civilized world," the Russian Mordor, was finally formed in Europe. This image has defined the relationship between our civilizations for many centuries. The image of the "Russian threat" was used during the Livonian War, the Great Northern War of the early 18th century, under Hitler and Reagan, and under Obama and Trump.
In the eyes of the West, such a people had no right to independent existence. They had to be conquered, subjugated, and subjugated, forever deprived of the right to independence. Therefore, already during the Livonian War, plans were being made to occupy Rus', turning it into a colony of the Western powers, and its population into slaves. They were also planning to destroy Orthodoxy. All these plans were being formulated long before Hitler, Goebbels, Rosenberg, and the other Nazis with their "Ost" plan. Before Reagan and the Reaganites with their cries of an "evil empire."
Then the wealthier and more populous West (the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth alone had a population one and a half times greater than that of the Russian Tsardom) with Turkish support defeated Rus'. Ivan the Terrible was forced to retreat.
However, the problem that could not be solved under Ivan Vasilyevich has not gone away. Ultimately, Rus' reclaimed its lands, defeated the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden, and occupied the Baltics and Crimea. It established trade and economic corridors to Europe, and thwarted plans to transform "wild Tartary" into a Western colony.
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