In the 16th century, a fundamentally new body of government - the Zemsky Sobor - emerged in Russia. The Zemsky Sobor is the highest estate representative institution of the Russian state, from the middle of the 16th to the end of the 17th century. This is a gathering of representatives of all strata of the population (except for the serf peasantry) where economic, political and administrative issues were discussed.
Composition of the Zemsky Cathedral
The Zemsky Sobor included: the tsar, the Boyar Duma, the Consecrated Cathedral in full force, representatives of the nobility, the upper ranks of the townspeople (merchants, large merchants), and sometimes state peasants. The Zemsky Sobor as a representative body was bicameral. In the upper chamber there was a tsar, the Boyar Duma and the Consecrated Cathedral were included, which were not elected, but took part in it in accordance with their position.
The procedure for electing a council
The members of the lower house were elected. The procedure for elections to the council was as follows. From the discharge order the voivods received an election order, which was read out to the residents of cities and peasants. After that, the estate elective lists were drawn up, although the number of representatives was not recorded. Voters gave orders to their electors. But elections were not always held. There have been cases when, at an urgent convocation of a council, representatives were invited by the tsar or local officials.
In the Zemsky Sobor, noblemen (the main service class, the basis of the army) and merchants played an important role, because the solution of monetary problems depended on their participation in this meeting to provide funds for state needs, primarily defense and military.
As representatives from the population, not specially elected deputies were invited, but mainly officials who stood at the head of local noble and posad communities. When making any decision, the members of the council pledged to at the same time be the executors of this decision. At the beginning of the 17th century, the cathedral representation was only elective, and its permanent members were representatives of the service and townspeople. The free peasantry, forming common "all-district worlds" with the townspeople, was also represented at the cathedrals, but the serfs did not take part in them.
"Tsar John IV opens the first Zemsky Sobor with his penitential speech"
Discussion of questions. Duration
At the Zemsky Sobor, discussion of issues took place according to ranks and in groups. After discussing the issue, the elected people submitted their written opinions to the groups - the so-called “fairy tales”.
The regularity and duration of council meetings were not regulated depending on the circumstances, importance and content of the issues discussed. There have been cases when Zemsky Cathedrals functioned continuously. They solved the main issues of foreign and domestic policy, legislation, finance, state building. The questions were discussed by estates (chambers), each estate submitted its written opinion, and then, as a result of their generalization, a sentence was drawn up, adopted by the entire composition of the cathedral.
Thus, the government had the opportunity to identify the opinions of individual estates and groups of the population. However, on the whole, the council acted in close connection with the royal power and the Duma. Cathedrals were gathered on Red Square, in the Patriarch's Chambers or the Kremlin's Assumption Cathedral, and later in the Golden Chamber or the Dining Hall.
In addition to the name "Zemsky Sobor", this representative institution had other names: "Council of All Land", "Cathedral", "General Council", "Great Zemstvo Duma".
First Zemsky Sobor
The first Zemsky Sobor was convened in Russia in 1549 and is known in history as the Sobor of Reconciliation. The reason for its convocation was the uprising in 1547 in Moscow and the need to reconcile the contradictions between the boyars and the nobility.
Zemsky Sobor 1613: made the Romanovs a royal dynasty
Based on historical documents, they are counted in the XVI-XVII centuries. about 50 such cathedrals. All of them can be conditionally divided into 4 groups: convened by the sovereign on his initiative; convened by the king at the request of the estates; convened by the estates on their initiative; cathedrals at which the king was elected.
The first group of cathedrals prevailed. The Council of 1549 belongs to the second group, because it was convened at the request of the estates. The council of 1598 elected to the kingdom, 1613 -.
The most complex and representative structure in the 16th century was the Stoglava Cathedral of 1551 and the Cathedral of 1566.
1551 - on the initiative of the sovereign and the metropolitan, a church council was convened, which was named Stoglavy, since its decisions were formulated in 100 chapters. The Council regulated church art, the rules of life for the clergy, and compiled and approved a list of all-Russian saints. The most controversial issue was the issue of church land ownership. Rituals were unified throughout the country. The Council approved the adoption of the Code of Law of 1550 and the reforms.
The 1566 cathedral was more socially representative. 5 curiae were formed on it, uniting different strata of the population (clergy, boyars, clerks, nobility and merchants). At this council, the question of the war with Lithuania and Poland was decided.
Summarizing the competence of zemstvo councils, we can state that the following issues were considered:
Election to the kingdom;
War and Peace;
Adoption of new regulations;
Taxation.
In June 1547 the Moscow townspeople (townspeople) mutinied. The reason for the uprising was a terrible fire that destroyed almost the entire city north of the Moskva River (about 2 thousand people died). The delivery of food to the capital was suspended, and famine began. The people demanded an end to boyar arbitrariness, the removal of the Glinsky princes from power, and an increase in the role of Ivan IV in government decision-making. With great difficulty, the authorities managed to restore order in the city. This uprising was of great importance. First, Ivan IV saw with his own eyes the full force of the people's anger and later tried to use it in his political interests. Secondly, the tsar became convinced of the need for serious state reforms.
By 1549, a group of people close to him gradually formed around the young autocrat, which Prince Andrei Kurbsky (one of its participants) later called the Chosen Rada. It was not a government body, did not have a legal basis for its activities. Everything was built on the personal relationships of Ivan IV with his advisers, and while he was under their influence, gradual transformations were carried out in the country aimed at consolidating the ruling stratum and strengthening the administrative apparatus, strengthening the state, and solving foreign policy problems.
The nobleman Aleksey Adashev directed the activities of the Chelobitnaya Izba, which received complaints and denunciations, which was at the same time the personal office of the tsar. An active participant in the Chosen Council was the priest Sylvester, who influenced the spiritual life of the king, who introduced him to books. The circle of confidants also included: Metropolitan Macarius and a talented diplomat, Duma clerk Ivan Viskovaty.
In the early 1560s. Ivan IV is freed from the influence of the Chosen Rada. Almost all of its participants were repressed.
Zemsky Sobor 1549
In February 1549, on the initiative of Ivan IV, for the first time the central estate-representative legislative body, the Zemsky Sobor, was convened. Subsequently (until the middle of the 17th century), the use of Zemsky Sobors for solving the most important state issues became common practice. Zemsky councils were convened irregularly, exclusively at the will of the sovereign, they had no legislative initiative and, therefore, did not in any way limit the tsar's autocratic power.
The 1549 cathedral, which historians often call the "Cathedral of Reconciliation", was attended by the Boyar Duma, church hierarchs and representatives of landowners. At the very first meeting, the sovereign accused the boyars of "lies", abuse and "negligence." The boyars obeyed and tearfully begged for forgiveness, promised to serve "really, without any cunning." The tsar forgave them and called on everyone to live in peace and harmony, but nevertheless insisted on removing the "boyar children" (small and medium-sized landowners) from the jurisdiction of the governor-governors. During the council, decisions were also made on the need for judicial reform, on the "arrangement" of local self-government, on preparations for a war with the Kazan Khanate.
Code of Law 1550
In 1550, by decision of the Zemsky Sobor in 1549, a new Code of Law was adopted. He largely repeated the provisions that already existed in the Code of Laws of Ivan III, but took into account the accumulated legal practice and was significantly expanded.
At the expense of butlers, treasurers, clerks and all sorts of clerks, the composition of the judiciary expanded. Landowners were withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the boyars and governors. Nobles and merchants could elect special people - kissers, who participated in the governor's court. The rights of governors were also curtailed by the fact that the duty to collect taxes was transferred to elected people - beloved heads (elders), which prepared the abolition of the feeding system. The procedure for filing complaints against governors and volostels was established. Servicemen, who were the mainstay of the royal power, protected themselves from falling into servitude. The judicial privileges of appanage princes were also sharply reduced.
New in the Code of Law of Ivan IV was the concept of anti-state activity - "sedition", which included serious criminal offenses, conspiracies, and riots. The first articles of this body of laws established severe penalties for bribery and willful injustice.
Concerned the Code of Law and the situation of dependent peasants. Their attachment to the ground increased, since, despite the fact that the right of St. George's Day was preserved, the payment for the elderly increased.
- a gathering of representatives of different strata of the population of the Russian state to resolve political, economic and administrative issues. The word "zemstvo" meant "nationwide" (that is, the cause of "the whole earth").
Such meetings were convened to discuss the most important issues of the internal and foreign policy of the Moscow state, also on matters that did not tolerate delay, for example, they discussed issues of war and peace, taxes and fees, mainly for military needs.
In the 16th century, the process of the formation of this social institution was just beginning, initially it was not clearly structured, and its competence was not strictly defined. The practice of convening, the procedure for forming, especially the composition of the zemstvo councils for a long time was also not regulated.
The first is considered to be the Zemsky Sobor in 1549, which lasted for two days; it was convened to resolve issues about the new tsarist Code of Laws and the reforms of the "Chosen Rada". The sovereign, the boyars, spoke at the council, and later a meeting of the Boyar Duma took place, which adopted a provision on the non-jurisdiction (except for major criminal cases) of boyar children to governors.
There is also an opinion that it was the so-called "cathedral of reconciliation" (possibly, the tsar with the boyars or reconciliation between representatives of different estates among themselves).
"Tsar John IV opens the first Zemsky Sobor with his penitential speech." (K. Lebedev)
How it all happened ("Book of Degrees")
1549 - under the influence of the entourage, Tsar Ivan IV decided on a new step in Russian history - the convocation of the first Zemsky Sobor. “In the twentieth year of his age,” says the Book of the Degree, “seeing the state in great anguish and sadness from the violence of the strong and from untruths, the tsar thought to bring everyone into love. After consulting with the Metropolitan on how to eliminate sedition, destroy untruths, quench enmity, he urged to gather his state from cities of every rank. " When the elected officials gathered, the tsar went out with the cross to the Execution Ground on Sunday, and after the moleben began to speak to the metropolitan:
“I pray you, holy master! Be my helper and lover of love. I know that you desire good deeds and love. You yourself know that I am four years after my father, and eight years after my mother; my relatives did not care about me, and my strong boyars and nobles did not care about me and were autocratic, they stole dignities and honors for themselves with my name and practiced many selfish plunders and misfortunes. I was as if deaf and did not hear, and did not have in my mouth reproofs for my youth and helplessness, but they ruled. "
And, addressing the boyars who were on the square, Tsar Ivan threw them passionate words: “O unrighteous covetous people and predators and unrighteous judges! What answer will you give us now that many tears have raised upon themselves? I am clean of this blood, expect your reward. "
After, he bowed to all sides, Ivan IV continued: “People of God and those given to us by God! I pray your faith to God and love to us. Now we cannot correct your previous troubles, ruin and taxes due to my prolonged minority, the emptiness and untruths of my boyars and the authorities, the judgment of the unrighteous, covetousness and love of money. I pray you, leave each other hostility and burdens, except perhaps very big matters: in these matters and in new ones, I myself will be your judge and defense as much as possible, I will ruin the lies and return the stolen. "
On the same day, Ivan Vasilyevich granted Adashev to the entourage and told him at the same time: “Alexey! I instruct you to accept petitions from the poor and the offended and disassemble them carefully. Do not be afraid of the strong and glorious, who stole honor and rude to the poor and the weak with their violence; do not look at the false tears of the poor, slandering the rich, who wants to be right with false tears, but consider everything carefully and bring the truth to us, fearing the judgment of God; elect righteous judges from boyars and nobles. "
The result of the first Zemsky Sobor
No other information about the first Zemsky Sobor has survived to this day, however, by a number of indirect signs, one can see that the case could not be limited to one speech by the sovereign, and many practical questions were raised. Ivan IV ordered the boyars to make peace with all the Christians of the state. And in fact, soon after that, an order was given to all governors-nurses to end all lawsuits with zemstvo societies about feeding in a haste world order.
At the Stoglava Cathedral in 1551, Ivan Vasilyevich said that the previous council had given him a blessing to correct the old Code of Laws of 1497 and to establish elders and kisselovniks throughout all the lands of his state. This means that the Zemsky Sobor in 1549 discussed a number of legislative measures with the aim of restructuring local government.
This plan began with the urgent liquidation of all lawsuits between the zemstvo and the nurses, continued revision of the Code of Laws with the obligatory widespread introduction of elected elders and kissers to the court, and ended with the award of statutory letters that generally canceled the feeding. As a result of these measures, the local communities had to free themselves from the petty tutelage of the boyars-governors, collect taxes themselves and make their own courts. It is known that feeding, unjust courts and uncontrolled collection of taxes became the real scourge of Russian life by the middle of the 16th century.
Zemsky Cathedral. (S. Ivanov)
The many abuses of the boyars-governors in the performance of their duties are reported in all sources of that era. By canceling feeding and creating independent community courts, Ivan Vasilyevich tried to destroy the evil that had taken deep roots in Russian society. All these measures were fully consistent with the new mentality of the sovereign and stemmed from his speech delivered to all the people in 1549. But the letters, according to which the volosts were given the right to govern by both elected authorities, were ransom. The volost paid off the governors with a certain amount paid into the treasury; the government gave her the right to buy off at her request; if she did not hit her forehead, considering the new order of things unprofitable for herself, then she remained with the old one.
In the next year, 1551, a large and church council, usually called Stoglav, was convened to organize church administration and the religious and moral life of the people. It presented a new Code of Law, which was the Corrected and distributed edition of the old grandfather's Code of Law of 1497.
Zemsky Cathedral is called the highest estate-representative state institution, which was a meeting of representatives of the majority of the population (with the exception of serfs) to discuss administrative, economic, and political issues.
Convocation of the very first Zemsky Sobor in 1549(February twenty-seventh) coincided with the beginning of the period of reforms of Tsar Ivan the Fourth (the Terrible). It addressed two main issues: the abolition of feedings, as well as the abuse of local officials. The cathedral appears as a national analogue of city councils, which previously existed in large county cities. The first Zemsky Sobor united the higher clergy (members of the Consecrated Cathedral), boyars and appanage princes (Boyar Duma), wealthy townspeople, and also the king's courtiers. The meeting was held by rank, and the decisions taken were recorded as completely unanimous. The Zemsky Cathedral consisted of two chambers. The first consisted of: treasurers, entourage, butlers, and boyars. And in the second: great nobles, princes, boyar children and governors. The council lasted two days. During this time, the tsar, the boyars spoke three times and, finally, the boyar meeting took place.
This first Zemsky Sobor was nicknamed the "Cathedral of Reconciliation", since it was he who marked the change of the Russian state into an estate monarchy through the formation of an estate-representative central institution in which the nobility played a significant role. However, at the same time, the aristocracy was obliged to give up its privileges in favor of the simple stratum of the population. This cathedral also became famous due to the compilation (correction and addition) of a new Code of Law, which was approved already in June 1550.
Also, simultaneously with the Zemsky Sobor, meetings of the Church Council took place, by decision of which, after considering their lives, the celebration of sixteen saints was established.
Another innovation, introduced at the Zemsky Sobor in connection with the decision to "give judgment" to the boyars, was the petition for the boyars. It not only received petitions for the sovereign's name, but also made decisions. This Izba became a kind of control body and an appellate agency that supervised the rest of the institutions.
Zemsky Sobors are the Russian version of estate-representative democracy. They fundamentally differed from the Western European parliaments by the absence of a "all against all" war.
According to the dry encyclopedic language, the Zemsky Sobor is the central estate-representative institution of Russia in the middle of the 16th and 17th centuries. Many historians believe that zemstvo councils and estate-representative institutions of other countries are phenomena of the same order, obeying the general laws of historical development, although each country had its own specific features. Parallels can be seen in the activities of the British Parliament, the states general in France and the Netherlands, the Reichstag and Landtags of Germany, the Scandinavian Rikstags, the Seims in Poland and the Czech Republic. Foreign contemporaries noted the similarities in the activities of cathedrals and their parliaments.
It should be noted that the term "Zemsky Sobor" itself is a later invention of historians. Contemporaries called them "cathedral" (along with other types of meetings) "council", "zemstvo council". The word "zemstvo" in this case means state, public.
The first council was convened in 1549. The Code of Law of Ivan the Terrible was adopted at it, approved in 1551 by the Stoglav Cathedral. The Code of Law contains 100 articles and has a general pro-state orientation, eliminates the judicial privileges of appanage princes and strengthens the role of central state judicial bodies.
What was the composition of the cathedrals? This issue is considered in detail by the historian V.O. Klyuchevsky in his work "The composition of the representation at the zemstvo councils of ancient Russia", where he analyzes the composition of the cathedrals based on the representation of 1566 and 1598. From the cathedral of 1566, dedicated to the Livonian War (the cathedral spoke in favor of its continuation), a sentence was preserved, a full protocol with a list of all the ranks of the cathedral, a total of 374 people. The members of the cathedral can be divided into 4 groups:
1. Clergy - 32 people.
It included the archbishop, bishops, archimandrites, abbots and monastery elders.
2. Boyars and sovereign people - 62 people.
Consisted of boyars, okolnichy, sovereign clerks and other high officials, a total of 29 people. The same group consisted of 33 ordinary clerks and clerks. representatives - they were invited to the council because of their official position.
3. Military service people - 205 people.
It included 97 nobles of the first article, 99 nobles and children
boyars of the second article, 3 Toropets and 6 Lutsk landowners.
4. Merchants and industrialists - 75 people.
This group consisted of 12 merchants of the highest rank, 41 ordinary Moscow merchants - “the merchants of the Muscovites,” as they are called in the “cathedral charter,” and 22 representatives of the commercial and industrial class. From them, the government expected advice on improving the tax collection system, in the conduct of commercial and industrial affairs, which required commercial experience, some technical knowledge that did not possess the orderly people, the indigenous government.
In the 16th century, Zemsky Sobors were not elective. “Choice as a special power in a particular case was not then recognized as a necessary condition for representation,” wrote Klyuchevsky. - A metropolitan nobleman from the Pereyaslavl or Yuryev landowners came to the cathedral as a representative of the Pereyaslavl or Yuryevsky nobles because he was the head of the Pereyaslavl or Yuryevsky hundreds, and he became the head because he was a metropolitan nobleman; he became a nobleman in the capital because he was one of the best service people from Pereyaslavl or Yuryevsk ‘in his homeland and in service’ ”.
Since the beginning of the XVII century. the situation has changed. With the change of dynasties, the new monarchs (Boris Godunov, Vasily Shuisky, Mikhail Romanov) needed recognition of their royal title by the population, which made the estate representation more necessary. This circumstance contributed to a certain expansion of the social composition of the "elected". In the same century, the principle of the formation of the "Tsar's Court" changed, and nobles began to be elected from the counties. Russian society, left to itself in the Time of Troubles, “involuntarily learned to act independently and consciously, and the idea began to arise in it that it, this society, the people, was not a political accident, as Moscow people used to feel, not newcomers, not temporary inhabitants in someone's state ... Next to the sovereign's will, and sometimes even in its place, now more than once another political force appeared - the will of the people, expressed in the verdicts of the Zemsky Sobor, "wrote Klyuchevsky.
What was the election procedure?
The convocation of the cathedral was carried out by a letter of appeal, heard from the tsar to famous people and localities. The letter contained the issues on the agenda, the number of electors. If the number was not determined, it was decided by the population itself. The draft letters clearly stipulated that “the best people”, “kind and intelligent people”, “sovereigns and zemstvo deeds for the custom,” “who could talk to,” “who knew how to express insults and violence, and resentment and what to fill the Muscovite state with ”and“ would arrange the Muscovite state so that everyone would come to dignity ”, etc.It is worth noting that there were no requirements for the property status of candidates. In this aspect, the only limitation was that only those who paid taxes to the treasury, as well as people who served, could participate in the elections held by estates.
As noted above, sometimes the population itself determined the number of elected people to be sent to the council. As A.A. Rozhnov in his article "Zemsky Sobors of Muscovite Russia: Legal Characteristics and Significance", such an indifferent attitude of the government to the quantitative indicators of the people's representation was not accidental. On the contrary, it obviously flowed from the very task of the latter, which was to convey the position of the population to the Supreme Power, to enable it to be heard by it. Therefore, the decisive factor was not the number of persons who made up the Council, but the degree to which they reflected the interests of the people.
The cities, together with their counties, constituted constituencies. At the end of the elections, the minutes of the meeting were drawn up, which was certified by all those who participated in the elections. At the end of the elections, a "choice by hand" was drawn up - an electoral protocol, sealed with the signatures of voters and confirming the eligibility of the elect for the "Tsar and the Zemstvo affair." After that, the elected officials with the "unsubscribe" of the voivode and the "electoral list by hand" went to Moscow to the Discharge Order, where the clerks made sure of the correctness of the elections.
The deputies received instructions from the voters, mostly oral, and upon returning from the capital had to report on the work done. There are cases when attorneys, who were unable to achieve satisfaction of all the petitions of local residents, asked the government to issue them special "safe" letters that would guarantee them protection from "any bad" from the disgruntled voters:
"It was ordered them, elected people, in the cities to the governors from the city people from every bad thing to protect, so that your sovereign at the cathedral Code on petition of the zemstvo people is not against all articles, your state clerk has learned the decree"
The work of the delegates at the Zemsky Sobor was carried out mostly free of charge, on a "voluntary basis." Voters provided the electors with only “supplies,” that is, they paid for their travel and accommodation in Moscow. The state, however, only occasionally, at the request of the deputies themselves, "granted" them for carrying out their duties as a deputy.
Questions resolved by Councils.
1. The election of a king.Cathedral 1584 Election of Fyodor Ioannovich.
In the spiritual 1572, Tsar Ivan the Terrible appointed his eldest son Ivan as his successor. But the death of the heir by his father's hand in 1581 abolished this testamentary disposition, and the tsar did not have time to draw up a new will. So his second son Fedor, having become the eldest, was left without a legal title, without an act that would give him the right to the throne. This missing act was created by the Zemsky Sobor.
Cathedral 1589 Election of Boris Godunov.
Tsar Fedor died on January 6, 1598. The ancient crown - the cap of Monomakh - was put on by Boris Godunov, who won a victory in the struggle for power. Among his contemporaries and descendants, many considered him a usurper. But this view was thoroughly shaken thanks to the works of V.O. Klyuchevsky. The well-known Russian historian argued that Boris was elected by the correct Zemsky Sobor, that is, it included representatives of the nobility, clergy and the upper ranks of the posad population. The opinion of Klyuchevsky was supported by S.F. Platonov. Godunov's accession to the throne, he wrote, was not the result of intrigue, for the Zemsky Sobor had chosen him quite deliberately and knew better than us what he had chosen.
Cathedral 1610 Election of the Polish king Vladislav.
The commander of the Polish troops advancing from the west to Moscow, Hetman Zolkiewski, demanded that the "seven-boyars" confirm the agreement of the Tushino Boyar Duma with Sigismund III and the recognition of the king's son Vladislav as Tsar of Moscow. "Seven Boyarshina" did not enjoy authority and accepted Zholkevsky's ultimatum. She announced that Vladislav would convert to Orthodoxy after receiving the Russian crown. In order to give the appearance of legitimacy to the election of Vladislav to the kingdom, a semblance of a Zemsky Sobor was hastily assembled. That is, the Sobor of 1610 cannot be called a full-fledged legitimate Zemsky Sobor. In this case, it is interesting that the Council, in the eyes of the then boyars, was a necessary tool for the legitimization of Vladislav on the Russian throne.
Cathedral of 1613 Election of Mikhail Romanov.
After the expulsion of the Poles from Moscow, the question arose of electing a new tsar. From Moscow to many cities of Russia, letters were sent on behalf of the liberators of Moscow - Pozharsky and Trubetskoy. Received information about the documents sent to Sol Vychegodskaya, Pskov, Novgorod, Uglich. These letters, dated mid-November 1612, ordered representatives of each city to arrive in Moscow before December 6, 1612. As a result of the fact that some of the candidates were late in arriving, the cathedral began its work a month later - on January 6, 1613. The number of participants in the cathedral is estimated from 700 to 1500 people. Among the candidates for the throne were representatives of such noble families as the Golitsyns, Mstislavsky, Kurakin and others. Pozharsky and Trubetskoy themselves nominated themselves. As a result of the elections, Mikhail Romanov won. It should be noted that for the first time in their history, Black-sowed peasants took part in the Council of 1613.
Cathedral of 1645 Approval of the throne of Alexei Mikhailovich
For several decades, the new tsarist dynasty could not be sure of the firmness of its positions and at first needed the formal consent of the estates. As a result, in 1645, after the death of Mikhail Romanov, another "electoral" council was convened, which approved his son Alexei on the throne.
Cathedral of 1682 Approval of Peter Alekseevich.
In the spring of 1682, the last two "electoral" zemstvo councils in the history of Russia were held. At the first of them, on April 27, Petr Alekseevich was elected tsar. On the second, on May 26, both the youngest sons of Alexei Mikhailovich, Ivan and Peter, became tsars.
2. Questions of war and peace
In 1566 Ivan the Terrible gathered the estates to find out the opinion of the "land" about the continuation of the Livonian War. The significance of this meeting is emphasized by the fact that the cathedral worked in parallel with the Russian-Lithuanian negotiations. The estates (both nobles and townspeople) supported the tsar in his intention to continue military operations.
In 1621, a Council was convened on the occasion of the violation of the Deulinsky truce of 1618 by the Rzecz Pospolita. In 1637, 1639, 1642. estates gathered in connection with the complication of relations between Russia and the Crimean Khanate and Turkey, after the capture of the Turkish fortress of Azov by the Don Cossacks.
In February 1651, the Zemsky Sobor was held, the participants of which unanimously expressed support for the uprising of the Ukrainian people against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but no concrete assistance was provided then. On October 1, 1653, the Zemsky Sobor adopted the historic decision to reunite Ukraine with Russia.
3. Financial issues
In 1614, 1616, 1617, 1618, 1632. and later zemstvo councils determined the amount of additional fees from the population, decided the question of the fundamental possibility of such fees. Cathedrals of 1614-1618 made decisions on "pyatins" (collection of a fifth of the income) for the maintenance of service people. After that, the "pyatinschiki" - officials who gathered to file, using the text of the conciliar "verdict" (decision) as a document, dispersed across the country.
4. Domestic policy issues
The very first Zemsky Sobor, which we have already written about, was dedicated to just internal issues - the adoption of the law-enforcement officer Ivan the Terrible. The Zemsky Sobor in 1619 resolved issues related to the restoration of the country after the Time of Troubles and the determination of the direction of domestic policy in the new situation. The Council of 1648-1649, caused by massive urban uprisings, resolved issues of relations between landowners and peasants, determined the legal status of estates and estates, strengthened the position of the autocracy and the new dynasty in Russia, and influenced the solution of a number of other issues.
The next year after the adoption of the Council Code, the council was once again convened to end the uprisings in Novgorod and Pskov, which could not be suppressed by force, especially since the insurgents retained fundamental loyalty to the monarch, that is, they did not refuse to recognize his authority. The last “zemstvo council” dealing with domestic policy issues was convened in 1681-1682. It was dedicated to carrying out the next transformations in Russia. The most important of the results was the "conciliar act" on the abolition of parochialism, which made it possible in principle to increase the efficiency of the administrative apparatus in Russia.
Cathedral duration
The meetings of the members of the cathedral lasted for different periods of time: some groups of electives deliberated (for example, at the council of 1642) for several days, others for several weeks. The duration of the activities of the collections themselves, as institutions, was also not the same: issues were resolved either in a few hours (for example, the council of 1645, which had sworn allegiance to the new Tsar Alexei), then within several months (councils of 1648-1649, 1653). In the years 1610-1613. Under the militia, the Zemsky Sobor turns into the supreme body of power (both legislative and executive), deciding issues of domestic and foreign policy and operates almost continuously.Completion of the history of cathedrals
In 1684, the last Zemsky Sobor in Russian history was convened and dissolved.He was deciding the question of eternal peace with Poland. After that, Zemsky Sobors were no longer convened, which was the inevitable result of the reforms of the entire social structure of Russia carried out by Peter I and the strengthening of the absolute monarchy.
The meaning of cathedrals
From a legal point of view, the tsar's power was always absolute, and he was not obliged to obey the Zemsky Councils. Councils served the government as an excellent way to find out the mood of the country, to get information about the state of the state, whether it can incur new taxes, wage war, what abuses exist, and how to eradicate them. But councils were most important to the government in that it used their authority to carry out such measures that, under other circumstances, would have caused displeasure, if not even resistance. Without the moral support of the councils, it would have been impossible to collect for many years the many new taxes that were imposed on the population under Michael to cover urgent government expenses. If the council, or the whole land, has decreed, then there is nothing to do: willy-nilly, you have to fork out beyond measure, or even give up your last savings. It should be noted that the Zemstvo Councils differ qualitatively from European parliaments - there was no parliamentary war of factions at the councils. Unlike similar Western European institutions, Russian Councils, possessing real political power, did not oppose themselves to the Supreme Power and did not weaken it, extorting rights and privileges for themselves, but, on the contrary, served to consolidate and strengthen the Russian kingdom.Application. List of all cathedrals
Quoted from:1549 February 27-28. About reconciliation with the boyars, about the governor's court, about judicial and zemstvo reform, about drawing up the Code of Law.
1551 from February 23 to May 11. About church and state reforms. Drawing up the "Cathedral Code" (Stoglava).
1565 January 3. About the messages of Ivan the Terrible from Alexandrova Sloboda to Moscow with the notification that due to "treasonous deeds" he "left his state."
1580 no later than January 15. About church and monastery land tenure.
1584 no later than July 20. On the abolition of the church and monastery tarhans.
1604 May 15. About the break with the Crimean Khan Kazy-Girey and the organization of a campaign against his troops.
1607 February 3-20. On the release of the population from the oath to False Dmitry I and on the forgiveness of the perjury against Boris Godunov.
1610 no later than January 18. About sending an embassy from Tushino to Smolensk on behalf of the Zemsky Sobor for negotiations with King Sigismund III on Zemsky Affairs.
1610 February 14. A response act on behalf of King Sigismund III, addressed to the Zemsky Sobor.
1610 July 17. About the deprivation of the throne of Tsar Vasily Shuisky and the transfer of the state before the election of the tsar under the rule of the boyar government ("seven-boyars") headed by the boyar Prince. F.I. Mstislavsky.
1610 August 17. The verdict on behalf of the Zemsky Sobor with Hetman Zholkevsky on the recognition of the Polish king's son Vladislav as the Russian tsar.
1611 no later than March 4 (or from the end of March) to the second half of the year. The activities of the "council of all earth" at the first militia.
1611 June 30. "Verdict" (constituent act) "of the whole earth" on the state structure and political order.
1612 October 26. The act of recognition of the sovereignty of the Zemsky Sobor by the Polish invaders and the members of the Boyar Duma who were under siege in Moscow with them.
1613 no later than January to May. On the election of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov to the kingdom.
1613 until May 24. About the sending of collectors of money and supplies to the cities.
1614 to March 18. About suppression of the movement of Zarutsky and the Cossacks.
1614 until April 6. On the recovery of five-piece money.
1614 September 1. About sending the embassy to the insurgent Cossacks with an admonition to submit to the government.
1615 until April 29. About the recovery of five-piece money.
1617 until June 8. On the recovery of five-point money.
1618 until April 11. On the recovery of five-piece money.
1637 around September 24-28. About the attack of the Crimean prince Safat-Giray and the collection of subsidies and money for the salaries of military men.
1642 from January 3 to January no earlier than 17. Appeal to the Russian government of the Don Cossacks regarding the admission of Azov to the Russian state.
1651 February 28. About Russian-Polish relations and about Bogdan Khmelnitsky's readiness to become a citizen of Russia.
1653 May 25, June 5 (?), June 20-22 (?), October 1. About the war with Poland and the annexation of Ukraine.
Between 1681 November 24 and 1682 May 6. Council of the sovereign military and zemstvo affairs (on military, financial and zemstvo reforms).
1682 May 23, 26, 29. About the election of John and Peter Alekseevich to the kingdom, and the supreme ruler of Princess Sophia.
There are 57 cathedrals in total. One must think that in reality there were more of them, and not only because many sources have not reached us or are still unknown, but also because in the proposed list the activities of some cathedrals (during the first, second militias) had to be indicated in general, in while there have probably been more than one meeting and it would be important to mark each one.