Non-standard solutions of the first Russian tsar abruptly changed the country, but not all of them were successful.
485 years ago, 2 of September (in a new style) 1530, a storm raged over Moscow and its surroundings: the wind pulled up ancient trees with roots, rain that seemed to flood, flooded the pavements and houses that stood in the lowlands, and thunder thundered the Muscovites in horror: “ Holy, holy, holy, Lord of hosts! ”- such a hurricane did not happen long ago. On this day in the village of Kolomna, the summer residence of the Moscow princes and the first Russian tsars, the long-awaited heir, the future grand prince and first Russian Tsar Ivan, who later received the nickname Grozny, was born in the family of Grand Duke Vasily III Ivanovich and his wife Elena Glinskaya.
Victor Vasnetsov
“Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible”
“Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible”
His father soon died, and already at the age of three, Ivan became the nominal ruler of Great Russia, a state that increasingly declared itself internationally. However, before the 17 anniversary - the official term of the wedding of the kingdom, that is, for 14 years, the country was first ruled by his mother with her relatives, and after her early death - the boyars who shared power and glory, which ruined the country. As a result, the revolt of 1547 of the year, which resulted in the brutal murder of Yuri Glinsky, a relative of the young sovereign, and the ruin of the estates of all the relatives of the deceased Queen.
Seeing and realizing, long before Pushkin, that the Russian revolt was senseless and merciless, the king, who had matured early, drew the appropriate conclusions. But first, becoming the full and legitimate ruler of the state, he persistently sought and sought the unity of power and people. Ivan Vasilyevich, as chronicles testify, repeatedly gathered Muscovites and representatives of other cities and lands subordinate to him on Cathedral Square of the Kremlin in order to convey his views and ideals to the people, to get support in the lower classes. The historian Nikolai Karamzin describes such scenes in this way: “... Then the Emperor bowed to all sides and continued: People of God ... I pray ... be generous to me! You can not fix the past evil - I can only continue to save you from such harassment and robbery. Forget what is no longer and never will be; leave hate, enmity; unite all Christian love. From now on, I am your judge and protector! ”
The king did not deceive the people with promises. Under his rule, the regular convening of the Zemsky Sobor began, where all classes were widely represented. Under it, the Code of Laws was adopted - a set of laws, reforms of the military service and state administration. The Kazan and Astrakhan Khanates hostile to Russia were conquered in his reign, Western Siberia, the region of the future troops of the Don, Bashkiria, and the land of the Nogai Horde were annexed. Thus, the increase in the territory of the Russian state under Ivan IV was almost 100 percent - from 2,8 million to 5,4 million square meters. The Russian state became larger than the rest of Europe. It caused fear, distrust, panic there. Since then, Russia began to deliberately present itself to Europeans as a barbaric country, and intrigues and conspiracies supported by the Vatican began to lag against its rulers.
The connection of the lower classes with the Tsar Ivan the Terrible was really strong, but in this way he was hampered by the boyars and some former princes. They were not without reason afraid of gaining autocratic power, and therefore often became participants in conspiracies and intrigues. These include poisoning of the beloved wife of Tsar Anastasia or an attempt to drag in to weaken the country as much as possible in Russia in a long and exhausting war with the Crimean Khan, with whom the Tsar had very difficult relations. A series of betrayals of the governor of the border fortresses began: Prince Dmitry Vishnevetsky, the voivode of the forces of southern Russia, crossed over to the Poles, and Prince Andrei Kurbsky, the governor of the sovereign in Derpt (Yuryev, Tartu) fortress, left the Lithuanians, leaving his wife and son. Betrayal among the boyars close to the tzar became frequent.
Then Ivan Vasilyevich made an out-of-the-box decision, to put it bluntly: in early December 1564 left with his wife and children from Moscow to Alexander settlement, and sent a messenger to the bewildered people, who handed letters to the metropolitan and Moscow commoners. It was declared that the sovereign no longer “wanted to tolerate many changeable affairs, he left the state out of great heart pity and went where God would show the way”. He laid the whole blame on the traitors-boyars and princes, but asked for support from the people. And she was immediately received.
When the first torpor of Muscovites passed, the capital literally exploded with meetings: “The sovereign left us,” the people shouted. - We are dying. Who will be our defender? People demanded that the metropolitan, who represented the only legitimate authority, rather return the king to the throne: “Let the king execute his lihodey: in the stomach and in death, his will; but the kingdom will not be left without a head! He is our sovereign, God-given: we do not know anything else ... ”The choice of the people was unequivocal, the necessary support was received, and Ivan the Terrible already in February 1565 returned to Moscow.
His first step in returning to the capital was the introduction of the oprichnina, about which many rumors still circulate. Meanwhile, the remnant of the manor, received by the nobleman from the tsar for service, was called the oprichnina in Russia, when in the event of his death it returned to the treasury, except for the old Russian part of the plot left to feed the family. Not the stupidest decision, however. At first, persons especially devoted to the sovereign, from whom oprichny regiments were created, were written into the oprichnina. A dog's head and a broom attached to the saddle became their distinctive sign - a sign that their carriers are like a dog loyal to the tsar and are ready to gnaw his enemies, sweeping the whole sedition with a broom from Russia. They were engaged not only in internal search, performing some kind of functions of the security service and partly of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but also participated in the hostilities. Not without their efforts, although with difficulty, the Crimean raids on Moscow in 1571 – 1572 were reflected. Ivan IV himself was then with the troops in Livonia, where the best oprichnny military leaders, who had successfully fought against the Lithuanians and Poles, were transferred.
However, the oprichnina idea did not bring the expected result to Ivan the Terrible. One of the reasons is that careerists, temporary workers, random people, who went to serve in privileged formations for mercenary motives, quickly penetrated here: to advance faster in service, to receive property, rewards, therefore, after distorting the ideas of reasonable royal initiative, they allowed various violations, slander of honest people, robbery, looting, causing the people and the clergy fair criticism.
As a result, the oprichnina was abolished by the king himself. The official reason is the breakthrough of the Crimean cavalry towards Moscow, unsuccessful actions of the leaders of the capital oprichnina left to defend the capital. Its head, Tsarist brother-in-law Mikhail Cherkassky (Saltankul Murza) “for deliberately bringing the tsar under the Tatar strike” was impaled, the nursery Pyotr Zaytsev was hanged on the gate of his house, oprichnye boyars Ivan Chebotov, Ivan Vorontsov, butler Leonty Saltykov, also executed Fedor Saltykov and others. Disappointed with his own project - the creation of a personal guard, Ivan the Terrible became even more closed, became suspicious and irritable. Then he began to get sick and in March 1584, he suddenly died. According to some historians, the tsar was hunted down by a “cocktail” of arsenic and mercury for several years in a row and enemies that were not uprooted from his surroundings.
Thus, an attempt to introduce a direct sovereign in Russia through the creation of special security agencies ended ingloriously. Repeated it, having come to power, the Bolsheviks, who formed the repressive apparatus of the Cheka, led by the “knight of the revolution” Felix Dzerzhinsky. But this is another история.