Introduction

“Every nation has the right to be proud of its history. But the history of the Russian people is unique, special, distinctive. It was created by our ancestors for millennia, they formed statehood, bit by bit they collected land, honed the Russian language, augmented culture, forged the Russian character. What we inherited from past generations was obtained by the labor of millions of people. Therefore, we must remember with gratitude the deeds of the past, study and know the history of our Fatherland and our people. " Pashkov B.G. Rus - Russia - Russian Empire. Chronicle of events 862-1917, M.: 1994. C - 5.

The formation and development of the Russian centralized state is the main topic of my work today. Here, we have to understand this difficult, long and time-consuming process, get acquainted with the activities of many outstanding people and try not to lose sight of those important facts that served as an incentive for the unification of the Russian lands.

The Russian people traveled a long way before the formation of a single Russian state. The beginning of this path, the times of political fragmentation of the Kiev state. As a result of the fragmentation, new independent principalities appeared, which grew and developed rapidly. Political fragmentation did not at all mean the severing of ties between the Russian lands; did not lead to their complete disunity. This is evidenced by a single religion and church organization, a single language, the legal norms of Russian Pravda in force in all lands, and people's awareness of a common historical fate. The next step was the struggle of the Russian lands and principalities with the Mongol conquest and the crusaders. The overthrow of the Golden Horde yoke began in the XIII-XV centuries. the main national task. The restoration of the country's economy and its further development created the preconditions for the unification of the Russian lands. The question was decided around what center the Russian lands would unite. Moscow became this center, here in the future the process of centralization of the state will be completed. All this only briefly describes what our country had to face before becoming a single, independent state.

The main reasons for the centralization of Russian lands. The role of the foreign policy factor

Political fragmentation has become a new form of organization of Russian statehood in the context of the development of the country's territory and its further development along the ascending line. Arable farming has spread widely. The tools of labor were improved: archaeologists count more than 40 types of metal tools used in the economy. Even on the most remote outskirts of the Kiev state, boyar estates were formed. An indicator of economic recovery was the growth in the number of cities. In Russia, on the eve of the Mongol invasion, there were about 300 cities-centers of highly developed handicrafts, trade, and culture. The title of the Grand Duke was now called not only Kiev, but also the princes of other Russian lands. Although there was no longer political unity within Russia, the factors of future unification were objectively preserved: a single language, united faith, uniform legislation, common historical roots, the need to defend the country and survive on a vast territory with a harsh continental climate, a sparse population, marginal soils in the absence of natural borders. The idea of ​​the unity of Russia continued to live in the minds of people, and the experience of joint historical practice only confirmed the need for unity. The call of the author of "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" for inner peace and harmony in the fight against nomads in those conditions sounded like a call for the unity of Russia.

The struggle of the Russian lands and principalities against the Mongol conquest and the crusaders in the 13th century. - the next step on the ascending ladder to the unification of the country. V early XIII v. in Central Asia, on the territory from Lake Baikal and the upper reaches of the Yenisei and Irtysh in the north to the southern regions of the Gobi Desert and the Great Wall of China, the Mongol state was formed. By the name of one of the tribes who roamed near Lake Buirnur in Mongolia, these peoples were also called Tatars. Subsequently, all nomadic peoples, with whom Russia was fighting, began to be called Mongolo-Tatars. In 1235, at the Khural in the capital of Mongolia, Karakum, a decision was made about an all-Mongolian campaign to the West. In Russia, they knew about the impending menacing danger, but the princely feuds prevented them from joining forces to repel a strong insidious enemy. In 1237 Ryazan was the first of the Russian lands to be attacked by invaders. On the sixth day of the siege, the proud was taken. Then the whole of North-Eastern Russia was taken. The Russian lands devastated by the Mongols were forced to recognize their vassal dependence on the Golden Horde. The endless struggle that the Russian people waged against the invaders forced the Mongol-Tatars to abandon the creation of their own administrative bodies of power in Russia. Rus retained its statehood. This was facilitated by the presence in Russia of its own administration and church organization.

Crusaders. The attack on the Russian lands was part of the predatory doctrine of German knighthood. The invasion of the Crusaders into North-Western Russia was sanctioned by the Pope German Emperor Frederick 2. Germanic, Danish, Norwegian knights and troops from other northern European countries also took part in the crusade. The offensive of the knights especially intensified in connection with the weakening of Russia, which was bleeding to death in the struggle against the Mongol conquerors. A significant role in the country's defense was played by Prince Alexander Yaroslavovich Nevsky, who won several brilliant victories on the Neva and on the ice of Lake Peipsi. The significance of the victory on the Neva lies in the fact that it stopped the Swedish aggression to the east for a long time, and kept Rus' access to the Baltic coast.

The role of the foreign policy factor.

The Mongol conquest preserved political fragmentation. It weakened ties between different parts of the state. Traditional political and trade ties with other countries were disrupted. The vector of foreign policy, which ran along the "south-north" line (the fight against the nomadic danger, stable ties with Byzantium and through the Baltic with Europe), radically changed its direction to the "west-east". The pace has slowed down cultural development Russian lands. Alexander Nevsky understood this well, from 1252 to 1263. Grand Duke Vladimirsky. He embarked on a course for the restoration and recovery of the economy of the Russian lands. The policy of Alexander Nevsky was also supported by the Russian Church, which saw a great danger in the Catholic expansion, and not in the religious rulers of the Golden Horde. The center of Russian political life moved to northeastern (Vladimir-Suzdal) and northwestern (Novgorod) Russia. In this territory. based old Russian people the Great Russian (Russian) nationality was formed.

The recovery of productive forces and their further development took place faster in the field of agricultural production: the area of ​​arable land increased, the methods of tillage were improved, the three-field became more and more widespread, although the undercut and fallow were still preserved. Tools of labor - a plow with iron tips and a plow - began to be used more widely. Cattle breeding, fishing and hunting were further developed. Gardening and horticulture expanded.

The rise in agricultural production created favorable conditions for the restoration and further development of Russian cities. The defeat of the old large cities, such as Vladimir, Suzdal, Rostov, etc., changes in the nature of economic and trade relations led to the fact that the XIII-XV centuries. New centers developed significantly: Tver, Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow, Kolomna, Kostroma, and others. In these cities, the population increased, stone construction was revived, and the number of artisans and merchants grew. Despite the fact that the Golden Horde, Lithuania, Poland, the Genesian Union slowed down and tried to control the foreign trade of Rus, the cities became centers of not only internal but also foreign trade. The Gorda of Rus played a significant role in the unification process. They were the centers that maintained, although still weak, economic ties between individual parts of the country. The nature of handicraft production and trade ties determined the interest of the townspeople in the unification of the country. This was especially true for rather rapidly developing cities around Moscow. Orlov A.S., Georgiev V.A., Georgieva N.G., Sivokhina T.A. Russian history. M.: 2002. S.-62.

Political centralization of Russia in the XIII - XV centuries. passed much faster than its economic disunity was overcome. External

dangers from the east and west, the need to fight for the overthrow of the Golden Horde yoke, for the establishment of national independence accelerated this process. The unification of the Russian lands into the Russian centralized multinational state took about two and a half centuries.

At the end of the XIII - the first third of the XVI century.

The political system of Russia in the second half of the 13th - first half of the 15th century. The reasons and prerequisites for the unification of the northeastern lands. Socio-economic prerequisites for the formation of the Russian centralized state. Foreign policy conditions for the formation of the Russian centralized state

The initial stage of the formation of the Russian centralized state. Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Russian lands within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The beginning of the rise of Moscow. Moscow and Tver. Relations with the Golden Horde. The results of the religious and political activities of Ivan I Kalita.

Dmitry Donskoy, the Battle of Kulikovo and its meaning. The reasons and significance of the rise of Moscow.

The second stage of the unification process (Vasily I, Vasily II the Dark). Feudal war in the Moscow principality (1425 - 1453). The meaning of the victory of Vasily II the Dark.

The final stage of the unification (Ivan III, Vasily III). Reforms of Ivan III. Changing the system of government. Boyar Duma. Orders.

Code of Law 1497. The situation of the peasantry and slaves at the end of the 15th century.

The overthrow of the Mongol-Tatar yoke and the completion of the unification of the Russian lands. The international position of the Moscow state. Sophia Palaeologus, the theory “Moscow is the third Rome”, the problem of the “Byzantine heritage”. Struggle with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania for the return of Russian lands.

Leading trends in political development at the turn of the 15th - 16th centuries. The problem of the struggle between two trends in political development (autocracy and representative monarchy).

Russia during the reign of Ivan IV the Terrible

Regency of Elena Glinskaya and boyar rule.

Wedding to the kingdom of Ivan IV. Chosen Council, reforms of 1549-1560: causes, content, results.

Oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible - an attempt to establish autocracy in the political system of Russia second half of XVI v. relying on violence and terror. Political, socio-economic and religious-moral consequences of the oprichnina for the subsequent development of the Russian state.

Patrimonial land tenure in Russia in the 16th century. Feudal immunity. The development of a local land tenure system in the 16th century. The class of feudal lords and guardsmen. The position of the peasantry according to the Code of Law of 1550 and other documents of the 16th century. Serfs in Russia in the 16th century Serfdom legislation at the end of the 16th century

Foreign policy of the second half of the 16th century The main directions of foreign policy. Eastern policy: annexation of the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates, relations with the Crimean Khanate. Conquest of Siberia. Joining the Nogai Horde. Western direction: Livonian War (1558 - 1583). Main goals, milestones and outcomes.

Historians about the personality of Ivan IV.

Russia in Time of Troubles:

Late 16th - early 17th centuries

Economic, social, political, dynastic and religious and moral crises as causes of the events of the Time of Troubles. Stages of the Troubles. Political alternatives in the development of the country.

Dynastic stage of the Troubles. Struggle for the Moscow throne. Boris Godunov and False Dmitry I.

Social turmoil, internecine strife among all civilian strata of society. Vasily Shuisky, I. Bolotnikov's movement, False Dmitry II.

National-patriotic stage of the Troubles. Seven Boyars. Polish and Swedish intervention The struggle of the Russian people against the Polish and Swedish invaders. The movement of the First and Second Zemstvo militias to Moscow. Liberation of the capital by the militia of Kozma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky.

Zemsky Sobor in 1613 and the accession of the Romanov dynasty.

Results of the Troubles: economic, political, social and religious and moral.

Russia during the reign of the first Romanovs:

Board of Mikhail Fedorovich, Alexei Mikhailovich, Fedor Alekseevich. Changes in the political system of Russia. Evolution from estate-representative to autocratic monarchy. The concept of "autocracy". The beginning of the formation of the elements of absolutism.

Changes in the activities of the Boyar Duma. Development of the order system. The role of Zemsky Sobors in the formation of the Russian state and their fate. Local government.

Social relations and social conflicts in the country. Cathedral Code of 1649. Legal registration of serfdom. Urban uprisings (Salt and Copper riots in Moscow). The uprising led by Stepan Razin in 1670

Autocracy and the Church. Religious schism. The role of the church in the political life of Russia. Causes and preconditions for religious reform. Patriarch Nikon and His New Believer Reform. The split of Russian Orthodoxy into new believers and old believers. The Old Believers' movement is a social conflict in a religious form.

Development of the Russian economy. Feudal property and the class of feudal lords in the 17th century The process of convergence of estates and estates. Formation of a single economic space for Russia. The growth of commodity-money relations. Development of small-scale production. The emergence of manufactories and hired labor, especially the Russian manufactory. The position of the townspeople according to the Cathedral Code of 1649

Foreign policy of the Moscow state. Stolbovsky peace, Deulinsky truce. Russia and the Commonwealth. Smolensk war (1632 - 1634). Struggle for the entry of Ukraine into Russia. National liberation movement in Ukraine led by B. Khmelnitsky. Results of the war with the Commonwealth (1654 - 1667). The significance of the reunification of the Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples with Russia. "Eternal Peace" with Poland (1686). Further development Eastern Siberia and Of the Far East... Relationship with the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate. Crimean campaigns.

Working vocabulary:

Corvee- feudal form land rent for the leased land. It consisted in working in the fields and on the farm of the master without payment and with our own equipment. Appeared in Kievan Rus, strengthened in the 2nd half. XVI century and was widespread until the 1st half. XIX century. Legally abolished in 1882.

White Russia- the name of the Belarusian lands in the XIV-XVII centuries.

Boyars- in Russia IX-XVII centuries. the upper class of feudal lords (descendants of the tribal nobility, senior warriors, large landowners). They had their vassals and the right to leave for other princes. In the Novgorod Republic, in fact, they ruled the state. At the courts of the grand dukes, they were in charge of individual branches of the palace economy and the management of state territories. In the XV century. members of the Boyar Duma under the Grand Duke were an advisory body. The title was canceled by Peter I in the 18th century. In the XVIII century. finally merged with the nobles.

Boyar Duma- the estate-representative body of the princely-boyar aristocracy. Actively functioned in the XV-XVI centuries. In 1613 there were 40 people in the Boyar Duma, in 1679 - 97 people. With the formation of the Senate in 1711, the Boyar Duma was liquidated.

"Rebellious Age"- so called contemporaries of the XVII century. in the history of Russia - the time of various popular movements: two peasant wars (I. Bolotnikov and S. Razin), the Salt Riot of 1648, urban uprisings of 1648-1650, the Copper Riot of 1662 in Moscow, the uprising of 1682 (Khovanshchina ) in Moscow.

Great Russia - official name from the 2nd floor. XVII century the European part of the Russian state. It was used in the royal title since the 16th century, as a geographical concept arose in connection with the annexation of the Left-Bank Ukraine (Little Russia).

Volostel- an official of the XI-XVI centuries. On behalf of the grand or appanage prince, he managed the volost, was in charge of administrative and judicial affairs. Not receiving a salary from the government, "fed" at the expense of the taxable population of the volost.

All-Russian market- stable trade and economic ties between individual regions of the state. The origin dates back to the 17th century. In Russia, with simple commodity production through the market, there is a spontaneous adaptation of the structure of production of goods to exchange and the structure of social needs. It finally took shape in the 2nd floor. XIX century.

Palace (specific) lands- lands that belonged to the Grand Duke personally in Russia, and later to the Tsar by right of feudal property. They provided food and agricultural raw materials for the royal palace and the palace economy.

Nobility- the dominant privileged class in the era of feudalism. In Russia, it arose in the XII-XIII centuries. as the lowest part of the feudal military-service class, from the XIV century. began to receive land (estates) for service. All R. XVI century the role of the nobility is strengthened, its rights and participation in state administration are formalized. In the XVII century. the nobility is included in special rank lists, and genealogies are recorded in the Sovereign's genealogy.

Duma ranks- in the Russian state of the XV-XVII centuries. members of the Boyar Duma: boyars, okolnichy, Duma noblemen (3rd rank of the Boyar Duma members - after the boyars and okolnichi), Duma clerks (4th, lower members of the Boyar Duma).

Zemsky Cathedrals- the highest estate-representative institutions in Russia ser. XVI - late XVII centuries The Zemsky Sobor included representatives of the higher clergy, the Boyar Duma, representatives of the provincial nobility and townspeople. They considered the most important national issues. The first Zemsky Sobor was convened in 1549. More than 50 Zemsky Sobors were held in total. This is the period of the estate-representative monarchy in Russia.

Cossacks- the military estate in pre-revolutionary Russia in the 18th - early 20th centuries. In the XVI-XVII centuries. Cossacks are free people who were not subject to taxes, who carried out military service in the border regions. The Cossacks took Active participation in popular uprisings in Ukraine in the XVI-XVII centuries, peasant wars in Russia in the XVII-XVIII centuries. Cossacks participated in all the wars of Russia in the 17th-20th centuries. At the beginning of the XX century. there were Don, Kuban, Orenburg, Transbaikal, Tersk, Siberian, Ural, Astrakhan, Semirechenskoe, Amur, Ussuri Cossack troops.

Equestrian- the highest court office in the Russian state of the 15th-17th centuries, the head of the Boyar Duma.

Feeding. Local government in XV - mid. XVI centuries. was represented by governors (counties) and volostels (volosts, stans), who received the territory for "feeding". In favor of the breeder, court fees and part of the taxes were levied. So he received taxes, entry and exit, wedding, etc. The feeding system was not effective within a centralized state, causing discontent among the population. The abolition of feeding in 1556 was an important step in strengthening autocratic power. Feeding was gradually replaced by voivodship administration, which meant a higher degree of centralization.

Serfdom- the form of non-economic dependence of the peasants: their attachment to the land and subordination to the administrative and judicial power of the feudal lord. The rural population of Russia turned from tenants to serfs between 1550 and 1650. By the Code of Law of 1497, Moscow limited the time for peasants to move from landlord to landowner to 2 weeks (St. George's Day). Events of the 2nd half. XVI century (the conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan and the discovery of virgin lands; oprichnina and persecution) forced the government to take decisive measures to stop peasant resettlement. Beginning in 1550, decrees were issued prohibiting the "black peasants" from leaving their seats. At the same time, peasant traders and artisans, who were also considered "black", were attached to the site. The peasants living in estates and estates were also enslaved - by a combination of economic pressure and legislative acts. In 1580, the government temporarily canceled the exit of peasants on St. George's Day, and since 1603 it has banned the exit altogether (the introduction of "reserved years"). 1581 to 1592 the government drew up a cadastre that officially registered the place of residence of the peasants. The next stage of enslavement was the introduction of "lecture years". In 1597 the government decreed that the peasants who fled after 1592 were to be captured and returned to the landlord. Later, the statute of limitations for the capture of fugitive peasants always repelled from 1592. In fact, it was already a full-fledged serfdom... The Code of 1649 abolished all time restrictions on the return of fugitive peasants. The first steps to emancipate the population of Russia were taken by Alexander I, in 1861 Alexander II abolished serfdom.

Peasants- the taxable population of Russia. In pre-reform Russia, they were divided into 3 main categories: landlord (serfs), state, specific. The free rural population of Russia in the 16th-17th centuries, directly dependent on the state, was called the black-sowed peasants. Subsequently, in the XVIII-XIX centuries. they came to be called state peasants. They bore obligations in favor of the state, but were considered personally free. In the XII-XIII centuries. dependent peasants appear, who with the development of serfdom completely lose their economic and personal freedom and become landowners (or serfs). They work for the landlord and have no right to leave him. Only in 1861 did they receive personal freedom, granted by the emperor. However, some landowners had previously released their peasants to freedom. Obligated peasants are serfs who, by decree of 1842, by agreement with the landowner, received personal freedom and land for hereditary use for the payment of duties. With the development of industry, there is a need for workers' hands. Since the 18th century. Possessional peasants appear in Russia - i.e. serfs assigned to manufactories. They could not be sold separately from enterprises, transferred to agricultural work. It was canceled in 1861. The registered peasants were somewhat different from them - the category of the dependent population in the 17th-19th centuries, who were obliged to work at state or private factories instead of poll and quitrent taxes; liquidated in 1861. Part of the peasants belonged directly to the tsarist family, worked for the tsarist economy and were called appanage peasants. there was also a category of church peasants (until 1864) - i.e. peasants belonging to the church.

Little Russia - historical name Galicia-Volyn land in the XIV-XV centuries. and the territory of the Dnieper region in the XV-XVI centuries.

Manufactory- (from the Latin word - hand and manufacture), a capitalist enterprise based on the division of labor and manual craft techniques, existed in Russia from the second half. XVII century

Localism- a system of service relations that grew out of customs during the reign of Ivan III and his son Vasily. Place (genealogical) - the level occupied by each member of the surname on the family ladder of seniority according to its distance from the ancestor. Place (official) - the initial concept was formed among the boyars at the princely table, where they were seated in the order of official and genealogical seniority. Then it was transferred to all service relationships, to government positions. The system of parochialism was consolidated in 1556 by the sovereign's genealogy, where the “place” of up to 200 noble surnames was written. Thus, when appointing to positions in the state, not abilities and merits were taken into account, but "breed", origin. The descendants of the great dukes became higher than the descendants of the appanage princes, the descendants of the appanage prince - higher than the simple boyar, the Moscow grand-ducal boyar - higher than the service prince and the appanage boyar. The service life of surnames at the Moscow court was also taken into account. Among the noble families are the descendants of the great Russian princes Penkovs, Shuisky, Rostov, Belsky, Mstislavsky, Patrikeevs, Golitsyns, Kurakins; from the oldest untitled boyars - Zakharyins, Koshkins, descendants of appanage princes - Kurbsky, Vorotynsky, Odoevsky, Belevsky, Pronsky, Moscow boyars - Velyaminovs, Davydovs, Buturlins, Chelyadnins. Localism was the mainstay and guarantee of the political position of the boyars, it hindered the development of society, and was abolished in 1682.

"Moscow - the Third Rome"- this provision is one of the components of the ideology of the Russian autocracy. The Rome of Peter and Constantine fell as a punishment for heresy. Moscow became the Third Rome, and as such it will stand forever, for there will not be a fourth. Russia is the most flawless and pious Christian kingdom on earth. This idea was formed in the 1st floor. XVI century Pskov monk Filofei and became an integral part of the official political theory of Moscow Russia.

Direct taxes- taxes imposed on income and property.

Indirect taxes- taxes mainly on consumer goods, as well as on services. Included in the price of goods and services (for example, the tax on salt under Alexei Mikhailovich).

Viceroy- an official in the XII-XVI centuries, who headed the local government. Until mid. XVI century was appointed by the tsar and the Boyar Duma.

Non-covetous- religious and political trend in the Russian state at the end of the XV - early XVI centuries They preached asceticism, withdrawal from the world, demanded that the church renounce land ownership. Ideologists: Nil Sorsky, Vassian Kosoy and others.

Oprichnina. Reforms mid. XVI century contributed to the strengthening of the Russian centralized state, the strengthening of the local nobility. However, Ivan IV was faced with the task of breaking the power of the princely-boyar aristocracy by eliminating its landholdings and providing wide circles of the nobility at the expense of the boyar lands. The tsar divided the state into oprichnina and zemstvo. The oprichnina (from the word "oprich", except), directly subordinate to the tsar, included the best lands around Moscow, taking into account the military-strategic position. The oprichnina (a special courtyard, as the Moscow chroniclers put it) included about half of the entire state. It was a palace economic and administrative institution in charge of the lands allocated for the maintenance of the royal court. In the oprichnina there were special boyars, butlers, treasurers, clerks, courtyards, etc. The rest of the territory was allocated to the zemstvo. At the head of the Zemshchina was the Boyar Duma, the orders and the entire control system were preserved. Thus, there were, as it were, two parallel structures of power. But, as V. Klyuchevsky writes, in the oprichnina "it is necessary to distinguish between territory and purpose." Oprichnina is the policy of Ivan the Terrible, directed against the boyar aristocracy. She repeatedly changed her shape and direction. At first, its edge was directed against the princely-boyar nobility, then - nobles, clerks and townspeople. Oprichnina is a policy of terror as the main means of strengthening autocratic power. The oprichnina troops were created from ordinary landowners, initially in 1 thousand people. 1565-1572 - the first period of the oprichnina. The defeat of the boyar opposition. In 1567 a boyar conspiracy and numerous executions were revealed. In 1570, punitive campaigns to Novgorod, Torzhok, Tver. In total, about 4 thousand people were executed. 1572-1584 - the second period of the oprichnina. The repressions also affected the princes from among the guardsmen. Revealed and her negative sides: the ruin of the country and the peasants as a result of massive land redistribution and plunder. The sharp isolation of the oprichnina and the zemstvo created partitions that impeded the merger and strengthening of the Russian lands. Economic fragmentation has not been eradicated. The oprichnina interrupted the connection of the descendants of the appanage princes with their territories. However, it coincided with the defeat in the Livonian War, droughts and, as a result, famine, plague epidemics. Desolation and turmoil were the result of the oprichnina policy of Ivan the Terrible.

Osiflians- a religious and political trend in the Russian state at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries, ideologist Joseph Volotsky. In the struggle against non-possessors, they defended the inviolability of church dogmas, defended church and monastery land tenure. (In the 16th century, 1/3 of the entire land was owned by the Russian clergy.) Sometimes Osiflians are called covetous people. The church, in their opinion, should work closely with the monarchy.

Local land tenure... It was established in the Moscow state in the 15th-16th centuries. An estate in Muscovite Rus is a plot of state or church land given by the sovereign or the church for the personal possession of a serving person on condition of service, i.e. as a reward for service and, at the same time, as a means for service. ("At the place" of service to feed). By its conditional, personal and temporary character, the local ownership differed from the "fiefdom", which constituted the full hereditary land property of its owner. Thus, local land tenure artificially developed private land tenure. In the XVIII century. according to the laws of Peter I and Empress Anna, the estates became the property of the owners, finally merged with the estates, and the word "landowner" itself acquired the meaning of a landowner from the nobility.

Posad people- in Russia, the commercial and industrial urban population.

Bedclothes- court boyar position from the inner circle of the tsar in the XV-XVII centuries. He accompanied the king, kept his personal seal, and often headed his personal office. He was in charge of the bed treasury - the repository of the royal clothes, jewelry, dishes, icons, archives, etc. He was in charge of the weavers' settlements and the workshop chamber, where they sewed clothes for the royal family.

Orders. Central bodies of state administration and control. They begin to form under Vasily III and finally take shape under Ivan the Terrible. This is the beginning of the industry principle in the system Russian administration... Later they received the right to court and pass laws within their competence. Orders ensured the administration of a centralized state. One of the first orders was the Chelobitnaya hut, headed by A. Adashev. In fact, it was the supreme control body of the state. Foreign affairs were in charge of the Ambassadorial Prikaz, headed by clerk Ivan Viskovaty. He led the country's foreign policy for 20 years, was executed during the years of the oprichnina. The local order distributed estates and estates. The discharge order was the prototype of the general staff, tk. together with the Streletsky order, he was in charge of the armed forces and their support. The Rogue Order was in charge of fighting crime. Siberian - ruled over the annexed Siberian territories. The order system existed for almost 200 years and was reorganized during the period of Peter's reforms.

Split- separation from the Russian Orthodox Church of some of the believers who did not recognize Nikon's church reform (1653-1656). The reform was supposed to eliminate discrepancies in church books and differences in the conduct of rituals; it did not touch the essence of Orthodoxy. However, under the slogan of returning to the old faith, people united who did not want to put up with the strengthening of state-bureaucratic pressure, the growing role of foreigners, etc. The schism united the most diverse forces that advocated the inviolability of traditional Russian culture. Supporters of the schism began to be called schismatics = Old Believers = Old Believers. As a result of the split, the Central Committee fell into complete dependence on the state.

Rent- income regularly received from capital, land, property, not associated with entrepreneurial activity (in Russia in the 15th century, the peasants of feudal estates paid rent to the landowner).

Autocracy- a monarchical form of government in Russia, in which the bearer supreme power- to the tsar, to the emperor - all power belongs. Autocracy in Russia grew out of a patrimonial system and therefore has its own peculiarities. In the economic sphere, this is expressed in the inability and unwillingness to draw a theoretical and practical distinction between three types of property: 1) property belonging to the monarch personally; 2) the property of the state; 3) the property of individuals. By the end of the XIX century. the autocracy had almost monopoly control over economic resources and trade. State administration grew up on the idea that the ruler and the state were identical, and hence the autocracy had by the end of the 19th century. monopoly of political power. The adoption of Orthodoxy has become a fateful factor in Russian history. The entire ideology of the Russian autocracy was developed by the church. Its main components:

1) The idea of ​​the Third Rome;

2) The idea of ​​an empire - The Moscow sovereigns are the heirs of the Emperor Augustus, their dynasty is the oldest and most venerable in the world. The corresponding genealogy was developed under the leadership of Metropolitan Macarius, and was formalized in the "Book of Degrees";

3) Russian rulers are ecumenical Christian sovereigns, emperors of all Orthodox Christians in the world;

4) Divine origin of royal power.

Sloboda- permanent markets, which were arranged in cities and villages by peasants who sat on the lands of secular and church owners. Slobozhany traded, but did not bear their share of the tax (since it was paid by the landowner, who let his peasants trade in the settlement). They competed with the posads. It is incorrect to interpret the settlement only as a suburb, a settlement near the city - i.e. as a territorial unit.

Service people- in the Russian state of the XIV-XVII centuries. people who were in public service. From ser. XVI century were divided into service people according to the "fatherland" (boyars, nobles, their children, who owned land with the peasants), who had privileges and occupied leadership positions in the army and the state, as well as servicemen "by choice" - archers, gunners, city Cossacks, etc., recruited from peasants and townspeople who received salaries and land.

"Time of Troubles" ("Troubles")- events of the late 16th - early 17th centuries. in Russian history. The term was introduced by Russian writers of the 17th century.

The cathedral. The golden age of the Cathedral followed the Time of Troubles (1598-1613). In 1613, a particularly representative Council elected Mikhail Romanov to the throne. Then he sat almost without interruption until 1622, helping the bureaucracy to restore order in the wounded country. After 1653 the Cathedral disappears from Russian life. The cathedral differs from similar Western institutions. The Council was not a representation of the estates with their rights and privileges (like the States General). Russian Councils were a collection of "all the ranks of the Moscow state." Their members were considered to be in government service, and they were paid a salary from the treasury. Attendance at the Council was an obligation, not a right. The cathedral was in Russia a link between the crown and the province. With the improvement of the bureaucratic apparatus, the need for Councils has disappeared.

The conciliarity of Russia. Cathedral - A meeting of secular and clerical officials for council and decision of important matters in the XVI-XVII centuries. (Zemsky, Ecumenical, Local). The first council was convened by Ivan the Terrible in February 1549 - the so-called “council of reconciliation”, at which the tsar called after the mutinies and raids of the Kazan and Crimean Tatars to jointly protect state interests. The "Cathedral of Reconciliation" was the first Zemsky Sobor, i.e. a meeting of representatives of the estates. In 1556, they were already attended by representatives of the upper echelons of the commercial and industrial population. The Russian state became a class-representative monarchy. Important state measures began to be carried out with the approval of the Zemsky Councils, at which the decisive word belonged to the nobility. Another meaning of the word "conciliarity" is high spirituality, the ideal of spiritual unity, available in real life to only a few. Very often, in this sense, the word sobornost is used where it would be more correct to use the word communality - as a psychological-physical unity, which is the lot of the overwhelming majority of the population of Rus.

Estate- a social group of society that has rights and obligations enshrined in custom or law and inherited. The class organization is characterized by a hierarchy, expressed in the inequality of their position and privileges. In feudal France XIV-XV centuries. society was divided into the upper classes (nobility and clergy) and the unprivileged third class (artisans, merchants, peasants). In Russia from the 2nd half. XVIII century the class division into the nobility, the clergy, the peasantry, the merchant class, and the bourgeoisie was established. The vestiges of estates persist in the West to the present day.

Estates-representative monarchy- form feudal state, under which the power of the monarch was combined with the bodies of estate representation of the clergy, nobles, townspeople. It developed in most European countries in the XIII-XIV centuries. (bodies of estate representation - the Parliament in England, the States General in France, the Cortes in Spain). Estate representation in the form of zemstvo councils also existed in Russia (XIV-XVII centuries), from mid. XVII century the transition to absolute monarchy begins.

Old Believers- one of the names of the supporters of the Old Believers.

Old Believers- a set of religious groups that did not accept the church reforms of the mid-17th century. and became oppositional or hostile to the official Orthodox Church and the state. These are supporters of Orthodox Orthodoxy. Until 1906 they were persecuted by the tsarist government. They were divided into a number of currents (priests, bespopovtsy, runlopopovtsy) and confessions. The main idea of ​​the Old Believers was "falling away" from the world of evil, unwillingness to live in it. Therefore, they are characterized by isolation and unwillingness to contact other believers. In search of the "secret city of Kitezh" and the utopian country of Belovodye, which are under the protection of God himself, the Old Believers settled a significant part of Siberia and created a base for the development of new lands. The statistics of the Old Believers is unreliable: according to the 1897 census, there were 2 million Old Believers and sectarians (although, according to unofficial data, about 20 million people).

Cathedral Code of 1649 is a code of all legislative norms, an expression of the current state, civil and criminal law. It covered all spheres of state life and consisted of 25 chapters, almost 1,000 articles. The legislative material was not mechanically transferred, but developed and amended. New articles often took the form of major social reforms. The Code of Laws canceled the regular years for the search for fugitive peasants and finally attached them to the land. This was in the interests of the service class and meant the final consolidation of serfdom. The Code forbade the clergy to acquire estates, which was in the interests of the service class. Limited judicial benefits and privileges of the clergy. The Code for the first time consistently consolidated and isolated the townspeople, turning it into a closed class. It is now impossible to leave the posad, but no one else can enter either. The code was imperfect, later it was corrected and supplemented in parts by new articles.

Tax- monetary and state obligations of peasants and townspeople in the 15th - early 18th centuries; in the XVIII-XIX centuries. - the obligation of the peasants in favor of the landlords.

Heavy peasants- in the Russian state of the 15th - early 18th centuries. private peasants who paid state taxes and carried state duties. Since 1722 - taxable population.

Kissing man- an official in the XV-XVIII centuries, elected from the townspeople or black-haired peasants to carry out financial and legal matters. The growth of influence is associated with the reforms of Ivan III in the field of local government. Among other people, they provided income, participated in judicial and police supervision. They were elected from among the taxing people, they took an oath (they kissed the cross).

Literature:

1. Zimin A.A. On the Eve of Terrible Shocks: Preconditions for the First Peasant War in Russia. M., 1986.

2. Zimin A.A. Reforms of Ivan the Terrible: Essays on the socio-economic and political history of Russia in the middle of the 16th century. M., 1960.

3. Zimin A.A. Russia at the turn of the XV-XVI centuries: Essays on socio-political history. M., 1982.

4. History of the fatherland: people, ideas, solutions. Essays on the history of Russia in the 9th - early 20th centuries. M., 1991.

5. Kashtanov SM Socio-political history of Russia at the end of the 15th-first half of the 16th century. M., 1967.

6. Koretsky VI Formation of serfdom and the First peasant war in Russia. M., 1975.

7. Koretsky V.I. The enslavement of the peasants and the class struggle in Russia in the second half of the 16th century. M., 1970.

8. Korolyuk V.D. The Livonian War: From the History of Foreign Policy of the Russian Centralized State in the Second Half of the 16th Century. M., 1954.

9. Lurie Ya.S. Two stories of Russia in the 15th century: Early and late, independent and official annals about the formation of the Moscow state. SPb., 1994.

10. Mankov A.G. The Code of 1649 is the code of the feudal disposition of Russia. M., 1980.

11. Nazarov V.D. The overthrow of the Horde yoke in Russia. M., 1983.

12. Novoselsky A.A. Research on the history of the era of feudalism. M., 1994.

13. Novoseltsev A.P., Pashuto V.T., Cherepnin L.V. Ways of development of feudalism: Transcaucasia, middle Asia, Rus, Baltic. M., 1972.

14. Platonov S.F. Essays on the history of the Troubles in the Muscovite State of the 16th-17th centuries: Experience in studying the social system and class relations in the Time of Troubles. 5th ed. M., 1995.

15. Rumyantseva B.C. Popular anti-church movement in Russia in the 17th century. M., 1986.

16. Sakharov A.M. Formation and development of the Russian state in the xvi - xvii centuries. M., 1969.

17. Sakharov AM Formation and development of the Russian state in the XIV-XVII centuries. M., 1969.

18. Cherepnin L.K. The formation of the Russian centralized state in the XIV-XV centuries: Essays on the socio-economic and political history of Russia. M., I960.

19. Schmidt SO At the origins of Russian absolutism. Study of the socio-political history of the time of Ivan the Terrible. M., 1996.

Part 3

Russian state

Similar information.

The rise of Moscow and processes

Board of the first Romanovs

Time of Troubles

Moscow state in the 16th century. Ivan groznyj.

The rise of Moscow and the processes of centralization of Russian lands

Lecture 3. Muscovy

Describe the features of the development of individual ancient Russian territories of the era of disintegration.

Describe the role of the Varangian factor in the formation of Kievan Rus.

3. What is the specificity of the formation of social groups ancient Russian society?

4. What are the causes and consequences of the collapse of Kievan Rus?

6. What are the historical consequences of the Mongol-Tatars invasion of Russia?

7. How can you characterize the role of Western states in the events of Russian history in the 13th - 14th centuries?

8. What were the prerequisites for the creation of a unified state on the territory of North-Eastern Russia?

The reasons for the rise of Moscow. Among the numerous estates of north-eastern Russia, the largest were the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov, Ryazan, Tver and Yaroslavl principalities. Their rulers, even in the absence of a label for the reign of Vladimir, had the title of grand dukes. By the beginning of the XIV century. The label was owned by the princes of Tver.

Moscow, first mentioned in the annals of 1147 (during the reign of Yuri Dolgoruky in the Rostov-Suzdal principality), for a long time remained a small border town, and quite late found its own prince - the founder of the dynasty. This happened in the 1270s, when the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky, Daniel (1276-1303), was established on the throne. The principality was insignificant in size, and the Moscow prince had no political weight among the Rurikovichs. His descendants could not claim the great reign of Vladimir. This was the lot of representatives of the older lines of the offspring of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich - from the Tver and Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod dynasties.

However, in the XIV century. The Moscow principality entered the struggle for the possession of the label, and won a victory over Tver. The Tver principality had an advantageous geographical position. There were numerous trade routes far from the Horde, and the population flocked to these territories in search of a quiet life. It was in Tver that stone construction began for the first time in northeastern Russia after the invasion of Batu. This indicates a fairly large economic potential of the principality. The Tver dynasty had authority among other princes. But these factors turned out to be insignificant in the fierce confrontation with Moscow. The decisive role here was played by the policy of the Moscow princes, who often acted in opposition to the established norms, but thoughtfully and aggressively.

Activities of the first Moscow princes. Even Daniil Alexandrovich of Moscow managed to increase the territory of the principality by capturing Kolomna (it became the second most important city) and the annexation of the Pereyaslavl principality. The entire course of the Moskva River was in the possession of Muscovites. The increased resources, to which the captured Mozhaisk was added, allowed Yuri Danilovich (1303-1325) to enter the struggle with Tver. He spent several years in the Horde and married the sister of Uzbek Khan. According to historians, Yuri Danilovich received a label for the Grand Duchy of Vladimir, slandering Mikhail Yaroslavich of Tverskoy, whom the Horde executed.

Ivan I Danilovich, nicknamed Kalita (1325-1340), used the precedent set by his brother. At the head of the Horde detachment in 1327, Kalita suppressed a popular uprising in Tver and, having won the favor of Khan Uzbek, received a label for the great reign of Vladimir. Khan entrusted him with the collection Horde exit from all Russian lands. Possession of significant material resources (especially from Veliky Novgorod) allowed Ivan Danilovich to actively buy up land territories, increasing his own principality and expanding his influence in other people's possessions.

The consolidation of the position of the Moscow principality was facilitated by the flexible policy of its rulers in relation to the church. It led to the fact that in 1328 the metropolitan moved to Moscow, making the city his residence. So Moscow turned into the spiritual center of northeastern Russia.

Thanks to the authority and trust of Ivan Kalita with the Khan Uzbek, the Russian lands were not subjected to devastating Horde raids. The Moscow principality was given the opportunity to accumulate strength for future battles. However, their prospects loomed not only in the East, but also in the West - in relations with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia. Here in 1316 Gediminas came to power. He actively annexed the ancient Russian lands, helped Tver in the struggle against Moscow, tried to extend his influence to Veliky Novgorod and Pskov. But Gediminas did not enter into an open conflict with Moscow, since Lithuania was conducting military operations against the Livonian Order. Under Gedimin's son, Grand Duke Olgerd (1341-1377), the situation changed. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia intensified their expansion to the east, becoming a dangerous enemy of Moscow.

After the death of Ivan Kalita, his father's policy was continued by Simeon Ivanovich, nicknamed Proud (1340-1353), who was also supported by the Horde. Olgerd's attempt to create a Lithuanian-Horde alliance against Moscow failed. The Moscow principality, free from Tatar raids, was gradually gaining strength, demonstrating solidarity, lack of strife and fragmentation into numerous appanages. In 1359, the nephew of Simeon the Proud, Prince Dmitry Ivanovich (1359-1389), was on the Moscow throne. The rise of Moscow ended the first stage of the centralization of the Russian state.

Moscow, Horde and Lithuania. At the time of coming to power, nine-year-old Dmitry could not independently exercise his functions. On his behalf, decisions were made by Metropolitan Alexy and the most prominent boyars. This situation seemed beneficial to the enemies of Moscow, and they tried to take advantage of it. The Tver and Suzdal people began to dispute the label for the great reign of Vladimir. Olgerd of Lithuania, having defeated the Horde forces in 1363 at the Blue Waters, was ready to render his help to the Tver prince. But all subsequent claims of Tver, with the support of Lithuania, were suppressed by a series of striking victories of Prince Dmitry Ivanovich over his competitors (in 1368, 1370, 1372). After that, the Tver prince was forced to abandon the claims to the Vladimir reign, and recognized himself as subordinate to Moscow.

The apparent strengthening of the Moscow principality caused the alarm of the temnik Mamai, who seized power in the Horde - by that time already weakened by twenty years of internecine strife. In the decisive battle on the Kulikovo field On September 8, 1380, Prince Dmitry Ivanovich, together with his allies (Russian squads and Horde rivals of Mamai), defeated the army of Mamai, whose allies were the Lithuanian prince Yagailo and Dmitry's Russian competitors. The warriors of Prince Dmitry, nicknamed Donskoy since then, were blessed for the battle by the famous ascetic and founder of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery - Sergius of Radonezh (1314-1392). It was also an act of spiritual recognition of Moscow as the center of all Russian lands.

However, Moscow, weakened by huge losses at the Kulikovo field, could not defend itself against the invasion of the Horde Khan Tokhtamysh in 1382. During the invasion, approx. 24 thousand Muscovites. Payment of tribute was resumed again. The Golden Horde could still show its strength, but the laws of decay inexorably acted in it, leading to the weakening of the once powerful state. The Moscow principality, which consolidated its moral and political authority, on the contrary, was gaining strength. Dying, Dmitry Donskoy bequeathed to his eldest son Vasily the Vladimir principality as his fatherland, as his own possession.

During the reign of Vasily I (1389-1425), the expansion of the territory of the Moscow state continued due to the annexation of the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod and Murom principalities. The princes of Tver no longer entered into an open struggle with Moscow. The horde, devastated in 1395 by the campaign of the Central Asian ruler Timur, was losing its influence more and more. A secret raid on Moscow by Emir Edigei in 1408 testified to the Horde's fear of meeting the Russians in an open battle. Lithuania remained the most dangerous enemy of the Moscow principality.

Back in 1385, the Lithuanian prince Jagailo (1377-1392) entered into an alliance with the Polish state (Kreva Union), converted to Catholicism and married the Polish queen. Catholicism gradually began to spread in the principality of Lithuania, and the Orthodox population began to experience oppression. In 1392 Vitovt (1392-1430) became the prince of Lithuania, with whom Vasily I became related by marrying his daughter Sophia. However, Vitovt continued to nurture plans to seize Russian lands. Repeatedly he fought with Veliky Novgorod and Pskov, captured Smolensk, and dreamed of subjugating Moscow. But the matter did not come to an open armed conflict between Lithuania and Moscow. Repeatedly the forces of the two sides opposed each other, but each time everything ended in a peace treaty. For political reasons, Vasily I even handed over his young son to Vitovt's care. And after Vitovt's death in 1430, Moscow has already acquired the shape of the undisputed leader of North-Eastern Russia. But the course of centralization processes was complicated by the inflamed civil strife among the descendants of Ivan Kalita.

Dynastic war and its consequences. For almost a quarter of a century - from 1431 to 1453 - the war continued in the Moscow principality, caused by the clash of old appanage traditions and new trends. According to the will of Dmitry Donskoy, in the event of the death of the eldest of his sons, power passed to the next brother. But Vasily I, bypassing his brother - Yuri Dmitrievich Zvenigorodsky and Galitsky, transferred the throne to his ten-year-old son Vasily (1425-1462). However, the death of Vitovt, the powerful guardian of the Moscow young prince, untied the hands of his competitors. In the course of fierce hostilities, Vasily II Vasilyevich - nicknamed the Dark (he was blinded by enemies) repeatedly lost the Moscow throne, but the support of the boyars and clergy ensured him victory over his dynastic rivals - Uncle Yury Dmitrievich and brothers - Vasily Yuryevich Kosim and Dmitry Yuryevich Shemyaka.

The result of the war was the consolidation of the power of the Moscow prince. Many Moscow princely estates were liquidated, and Veliky Novgorod and Pskov were brought to submission. Relations with the Horde changed, as a result of the collapse of which the Kazan, Crimean Khanates, and the Nogai Horde were separated. Some Tatar princes went to serve in the Moscow principality, converted to Orthodoxy, and became service princes. On the territory subject to Moscow, the Tatar Kasimov "kingdom" arose, whose task was to protect the border lands of Moscow.

The relationship between the Church and the Grand Duke entered a new phase. In the years 1438-1439. in Italy, the Ferraro-Florentine Council took place, which adopted a union (union) between the Orthodox and Catholic churches. This was the means that Byzantium counted on in the struggle against the Ottoman Turks. But Moscow categorically rejected union, and Metropolitan Isidore, who represented the Russian metropolitanate at the council, was imprisoned. In turn, the agreement with the Catholics undermined the influence of the Church of Constantinople. In 1448, a council of bishops in Moscow for the first time independently elected Metropolitan of the Ryazan hierarch Iona, whose candidacy was pleasing to the Grand Duke. The Moscow metropolis became autocephalous, independent of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. And in 1453, under the blows of the Ottoman Turks, Constantinople fell. The center of Orthodoxy was increasingly associated with Moscow, and the Moscow prince gradually acquired the status of the main Orthodox sovereign - the heir to the Byzantine emperors.

Thus, the prerequisites were created for the decisive step in the creation of a centralized Russian state, which was to be made by the son of Vasily the Dark, Ivan III.

Formation of the Moscow State. The final stage of the centralization of Russian lands included: collecting largest territories north-eastern Russia around one center; gaining independence from the Horde; domestic reforms. Only a strong state could withstand competitors - the principality of Lithuania, the Livonian Order, Sweden and the formations that arose on the ruins of the Golden Horde.

During the reign of Ivan III Vasilyevich (1462-1505), the possessions of the Moscow prince increased significantly. Peacefully, the Yaroslavl (1463) and Rostov (1474) princedoms were annexed to Moscow. As a result of hostilities in 1471-1478. was subdued Novgorod Republic... The armed forces were used in the subordination of the Tver principality (1485). They had to wage a war with Lithuania for the annexation of the upper principalities (in the upper reaches of the Oka River). Vyatka land (1489), Great Perm (1472) and Ugra land (1500), where the Finno-Ugric and other peoples lived, became part of the Moscow principality.

Pskov and the Ryazan principality, which had long fallen into the sphere of influence of Moscow, were annexed under Vasily III Ivanovich (1505-1533) in 1510 and 1521, respectively. And in 1514 Moscow annexed Smolensk.

While the Muscovite state was consistently strengthening, disintegration processes continued on the territory of the Golden Horde. The Siberian, Astrakhan, Kazakh, Uzbek Khanates arose. An attempt to restore its former power was undertaken by the Khan of the Great Horde - Akhmat. He decided to bring the Russian ulus to obedience, which stopped paying tribute. However, the events of 1480, which went down in history under the name “ standing on the Ugra river", Showed the illusory nature of this plan. Despite the difficult situation - the onslaught of the Livonian Order in the west, Lithuania's performance as an ally of Akhmat, an internecine quarrel with the Grand Duke of the brothers Ivan III - the Moscow state was able to emerge victorious, demonstrating its strength. Moscow was perceived by the population as an all-Russian center that was solving the problem of people's liberation. Akhmat led his army from the banks of the river. Ugrians, which became the fact of the end of the Horde's rule over Russia. This is how national sovereignty was acquired. A. in 1502, under the blows of the Crimean Khanate, the Big Horde was finally defeated.

The principality of Moscow, after the fall of Byzantium, remained the only independent Orthodox state. In 1485 Ivan III took the title of "Sovereign of All Russia". As a result of the build-up of political power, the tasks of both foreign and policy changed. Moscow is beginning to actively enter the international arena. More than two dozen European and Asian states are becoming Russia's diplomatic partners. Among the allies of Ivan III are the Crimean Khanate and the Kazan Khanate, where a protege of Moscow was placed on the throne. Relations are being established with the Ottoman Empire, Rome, Venice, Milan, Moldova, Hungary, the Holy Roman Empire. Many Western experts are invited to Moscow: doctors, architects, builders, jewelers, foundry workers, cannon masters, ore seekers. Roman diplomacy considered it possible to use the growing Rus in the fight against the Turkish threat.

In the restless Baltic region for Moscow, the threat came from the Livonian Order and Sweden. Moscow's longtime enemy, the Lithuanian principality, intended to create an anti-Russian coalition, and the fight against it diverted a lot of energy. True, success accompanied Moscow, since due to national and confessional oppression, the Russian princes of Lithuania tried to go under the leadership of Ivan III. So the Novgorod-Seversky lands, the possession of the princes Starodubsky, Trubetskoy, Mosalsky, turned out to be part of Russia. The western border of Russia has advanced a hundred kilometers.

Moscow's claims to a worthy role in world politics were not least determined by the idea of ​​Russian succession from Byzantium. The second wife of Ivan III was the niece of the last Emperor of Constantinople - Sophia Palaeologus. Probably, not without her influence, a ceremonial was established in Moscow, demonstrating the special position of the sovereign-autocrat, free in making his decisions. The genealogy of the Moscow Rurikovichs was traced back to the ancient Roman emperor Augustus. Imperial ambitions were expressed in the work "The Legend of the Princes of Vladimir". The Russian state adopted the Byzantine coat of arms - in the form of a two-headed eagle, and a grandiose construction of the Kremlin according to the plan of Aristotle Fiorovanti and temples was launched in Moscow, designed to prove the greatness of the "Third Rome". This idea - of Moscow as the "Third Rome" - sounded at the beginning of the 16th century. in the message of the Pskov elder Philotheus to Vasily III. According to this idea, the Moscow state is assigned a special historical mission: being the center of the true Christian faith, it must be responsible for the fate of the entire Orthodox world.

Internal transformations. The new lands, included in the Moscow principality, retained their characteristics for a long time. But the logic of the centralization process required the introduction of uniform norms of life throughout the country. This concerned central and local government, tax and legal systems, and the spiritual sphere. In 1497, the first all-Russian Code of Law... It was mainly devoted to the issues of legal proceedings. It also introduced the norm of a single term for the transfer of private peasants from one owner to another. The transition was allowed in the fall, a week before St. George's Day(November 14) and a week after St. George's Day, subject to payment of the elderly (tax). This measure was relevant in the context of the development of the local system.

The annexation of new territories to Moscow, and the policy of confiscation from the local nobility and the church (especially in the Novgorod possessions) allowed Ivan III to concentrate in his hands III a large fund of state lands. These lands were distributed in the estate to the nobles for service. So the formation of the service class, directly dependent on the sovereign, proceeded. It consisted of the prince's lackeys, the landowners of the former appanage princes, the impoverished patrimonials of the princely and boyar families. Moreover, estates could simultaneously have estates and estates located in different regions of the country.

These noble landowners formed the noble militia, which replaced the former princely squads. The Moscow state now had a strong, well-armed army, designed to repel external aggression. But it needed land provision, and this implied the further growth of the territories and the processing of them by dependent peasants. Therefore, the strong power of the sovereign, who granted estates, seemed to be the ideal of the serving nobility.

The highest position in the social hierarchy was occupied by the descendants of appanage princes - representatives of the Rurik family. They found themselves in the service of the Moscow ruler, and they were "charmed". Added a new meaning of the word "boyar", meaning "rank". The boyars, along with the okolnichi, sat in the Boyar Duma, a deliberative body under the sovereign. The old Moscow boyars were ousted from power. Princes and boyars formed the core of the Tsar's court, from which all appointments to military and civilian service were made. Seniority was determined by the origin and service significance of the clan.

The most important central authorities were the Grand Palace and the Treasury. Here the order system and sectoral management in the state apparatus were born. Over time in orders the leading role will be played by clerks - people from various social strata. The local government of the country, which was divided into counties, volosts and camps, was represented by governors and volosts. Their activities were carried out with the help of the staff, which they brought with them. All the servants of the Moscow sovereign addressed him in official documents according to the formula: "Se yaz, your servant."

The growing autocratic power was supported by the church. But among the churchmen there was no unity on the issue of land ownership by monasteries. Some of the church leaders, followers of Joseph Volotsky - the Josephites, considered it necessary to provide monasteries with land ownership for the possibility of active social activity. Their ideal was the union of church and state. Others, followers of the Trans-Volga elder Nil Sorsky - non-possessors - expressed an opinion about the detachment of monks from worldly concerns, increasing the moral authority of the clergy, free from land ownership. Ivan III first accepted the point of view of the non-possessors, which was in his interests.

However, at a church council in 1503, the Josephites won. The Church managed to defend its right to own land. The Grand Duke was forced to accept, and supported the followers of Joseph Volotsky. The Josephites put forward the thesis of the divine origin of the grand ducal power. The union of the autocratic state and the Orthodox Church became even closer.

Centralization processes continued in the 16th century, by the beginning of which the name "Russia" was increasingly assigned to the Moscow state.

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Reasons and features of the process of centralization of Russian lands

The centralization of Russian lands, or "gathering of Russian lands" began in the 13th century. The absorption of some principalities by others took place in different ways.

In XIII he initiated a process of intense feudal fragmentation. Despite this, the Vladimir-Suzdal land retained the status of the strongest and most influential principality in Russia, which retained political unity under the leadership of the Vladimir Grand Duke, until the invasion of the Tatar-Mongols.

Galicia-Volyn land occupied the northeastern slopes of the Carpathians. South of the Carpathians, the principality occupied the territory between the Dniester and the Prut. The western borders were Hungary and Poland, and the eastern borders were the Kiev land and the Polovtsian steppe.

This principality was one of the oldest centers of arable agricultural culture. Eastern Slavs... Handicraft production has reached high level, and its separation from agriculture had a beneficial effect on the growth of cities, of which there were much more here than in other Russian lands. The largest of them were Galich, Vladimir-Volynsky, Przemysl, Lvov, etc. As in Vladimir-Suzdal Rus, in the Galicia-Volyn principality there was a significant economic upturn, which served as the basis for the struggle waged by local boyars and princes for independence from Grand Duke of Kiev. In the first years after secession from Kiev, Galicia and Volyn principality existed as independent states. Their unification took place under the Volyn prince Roman Mstislavich in 1199. Later, in 1203, he captured Kiev and assumed the title of Grand Duke. Thus, one of the largest states in Europe was formed. The successors of Prince Roman Mstislavich were forced to wage a long struggle for the father's throne with the Hungarian, Polish, Russian princes, with the local boyars. Only in 1240 was it possible to re-unite South-Western Russia and the Kiev land. However, in the same year Galicia-Volyn principality was captured by the Mongol-Tatars, and 100 years later, these lands were part of Lithuania and Poland.

The Novgorod land had a special political system, which was significantly different from other principalities. This system was formed in the XII century. The ancient center of the Novgorod-Pskov land was a territory between Ilmen and Lake Peipsi, and along the banks of the Volkhov, Lovati, Velikaya, Mologa and Meta rivers, geographically divided into five areas, that is, into five regions: Vodskaya - between the Volkhov rivers and Lugoi, Obonezhskaya - on the sides of Lake Onega; Drevskaya - between the rivers Meta and Lovatya; Shelonskaya - along the Shelon river; Bezhetskaya - in the direction of the Volga. In addition, in administrative terms, the Novgorod land was divided into graveyards and hundreds. Pskov, Ladoga, Staraya Russa, Velikiye Luki, Bezhichi, Torzhok acted as important factor on trade routes and served as military strongholds on the borders of the principality.

Pskov was a large city that held a special position in the Novgorod Republic. It was distinguished by the most developed handicraft production and its own trade with the Baltic states and some German cities. Pskov actually became an independent feudal republic in the second half of the 13th century.

Veliky Novgorod was one of the largest cities not only in Russia, but also in Europe. It was its advantageous location that caused its rise. It was located at the intersection of trade routes connecting the Baltic Sea with the Black and Caspian. These trade routes were of great importance for Russia and the countries of Eastern Europe. The trade business of the Novgorod land was based on the handicrafts and various trades developed here. Novgorod artisans, who were distinguished by a wider specialization and professional skill, worked mostly to order, but a small share of their products through merchants-buyers still came to the foreign market. Merchants and artisans had their own territorial and professional associations, which played an important role in the political sphere of Novgorod's life. The most influential of the associations was the association of the merchant-voschnikov. They united the elite of the Novgorod merchants and conducted mainly wax trade abroad. But despite the clear predominance of the trade and craft population in Novgorod, the Novgorod economy was based on agriculture and related industries.

On the territory of Novgorod, a large boyar, and later ecclesiastical, land tenure developed early and took a dominant position. In the Novgorod land freed from the power of Kiev, a peculiar socio-political system was established, in which the republican governing bodies stood next to and above the power of the prince. Novgorod independently chose princes for itself on certain conditions. The prince served as a link, on the one hand, between Novgorod and Russia and the orders in the rest of its lands, and on the other, separate parts of the Novgorod land. Also, the powers of the prince included the solution of issues of protection of the principality and its oppression by external enemies, was the highest court. But he did not carry out all these judicial and administrative actions alone, and not on his own initiative. The elective Novgorod mayor agreed to carry out these actions.

In the course of acquiring a more pronounced boyar-oligarchic character of the political system of Novgorod, the rights and sphere of activity of the princely power steadily decreased.

The lowest level of organization and management in the Novgorod principality was the unification of neighbors headed by elected elders. Five urban districts formed territorial-administrative and political units, which were governed independently. They also had special lands in collective feudal ownership. In these areas, their veche gathered, at which the elders were elected. Supreme body power, which represented all areas, was considered the city veche meeting of free citizens and owners of city courtyards and estates. All the important questions of life Novgorod principality were previously discussed in a narrow circle of a small group of the most influential boyars before they were brought to the veche. The bulk of the urban population, who lived on lands and estates that belonged to feudal lords, were in the position of tenants or enslaving and feudal-dependent people and did not have the right to participate in passing sentences at the veche. Veche considered the most important issues of domestic and foreign policy, invited the prince, concluded an agreement with him, elected a mayor and a tysyatskiy (chief government officials) and a commercial court, which was of particular importance in Novgorod. The posadnik was elected from among the most influential boyars for an indefinite period. He was an intermediary between the prince and the people and, together with the prince, had the right to judge and rule. His competence included leadership of veche meetings, negotiating on behalf of Novgorod with other principalities and foreign states. In addition, the mayor replaced the prince in his absence. Tysyatsky was the head of the city militia and the commercial court. He oversaw the tax system. During the entire existence of the Novgorod Republic, the posts of mayor and tysyatsky were held only by representatives of 30-40 boyar families (the elite of the Novgorod nobility). In order to further strengthen the independence of Novgorod from Kiev and turn the Novgorod bishopric from an ally of the princely power into an instrument of their political domination, the Novgorod nobility achieved the election in 1156 of the Novgorod bishop, later called the archbishop, who, as the head of the powerful church feudal hierarchy, soon turned into one of the first dignitaries of the republic. He could take part in all civil matters of importance, had his own court, his own staff and, above all, his own military regiment. The veche system in Novgorod and Pskov was a kind of feudal democracy, in other words, one of the forms of the feudal state, where the democratic principles of representation and election of officials at the veche created the actual appearance of democracy and the participation of Novgorod as a whole in government, but in fact, all power was concentrated in the hands of the boyars and the privileged elite of the merchant class. Taking into account the political activity of the urban population, the boyars cunningly used the democratic traditions of self-government as the personification of Novgorod's freedom, which covered up their political leadership and provided them with the support of the urban population in opposing the power of the prince.

Feudal fragmentation marked by the cultural and economic upsurge of the Russian lands. Old cities expanded and new ones grew. In the XIII century, there were about three hundred of them. In political terms, feudal fragmentation to some extent created in the future the necessary conditions for the unification of Russia at a qualitatively new, high level.

Consider the reasons and prerequisites for unification processes. First, the revival and gradual strengthening of trade ties between Russian regions. Secondly, there was a threat of an attack from the outside, which served as an incentive for unification, and with the weakening of the Horde, the Russian lands gained more and more independence. The third reason was the gradual resettlement of the population in the territories that were least accessible to the Mongols. This led to economic growth, which became the basis for the rise of the individual political centers of the association. Fourth, the development of the strata that were interested in unification, since they were in the service of the Grand Duke. Another reason is the subjective desire of some princes to subordinate all Russian lands to their control. Moreover, several succeeded due to their favorable location, significant resources and the emergence of successful warrior politicians. And, finally, the last reason was the preservation of the historical memory of the population about a single Old Russian Orthodox culture and statehood as opposed to Western European and Mongolian.

The end of the XIII - the beginning of the XIV centuries in Eastern Europe, after the fragmentation of the Russian lands and the establishment of the dictatorship of the Golden Horde, two potential centers of unification of the Russian principalities gradually began to form: North-Eastern Russia and the Lithuanian principality, which consisted mostly of Slavic territories and included a large part southwestern and western Russian lands, which actively influenced the policy of the Lithuanian princes, their culture and legislation. Inside North-Eastern Russia, centers of unification of the north-eastern Russian lands gradually emerged. These centers were the Moscow, Tver and Nizhny Novgorod princedoms.

Consider the stages of the unification of Russian lands: The end of the XIII - the first half of the XIV century: the formation of large feudal centers in North-Eastern Russia and the selection of the strongest among them, which will later become the political center of the state. Moscow and Tver were the main rivals. In fact, Moscow had great advantages, since important trade routes were located on its territory, and the lands themselves were much less likely to be subjected to sudden raids by nomads and other enemies, because they were protected from the northwest from Lithuania by the Tver principality, and from the east from the Horde by others. Russian lands.

In the XIV century. Moscow has become a major trade and craft center. Danil (the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky) became the founder of the dynasty of Moscow princes. During his reign, the rapid growth of the Moscow principality fell, the territory doubled. His son Yuri fought against the princes of Tver for the title of Grand Duke of the Vladimir throne. Ivan Kalita in 1327 became a participant in the brutal suppression of the uprising in Tver, during which almost all the Baskaks of Cholkhan were killed. Kalita received a label for the great reign. For the first time, the Horde entrusted the prince to collect tribute from Russia. This contributed to the strengthening of Moscow. Kalita sought to establish close ties with the Horde. With the disaffected on the Russian lands, he was extremely cruel. Kalita found support in the church as well. This is evidenced by the events of 1299: the Kiev Metropolitan Maxim moved his see to Vladimir-on-Klyazma; Ivan Daniilovich became close to Metropolitan Peter, who often visited Moscow; Peter's successor, Theognost, completely moved to Moscow. Objectively, Kalita's policy allowed the population of Russia in the North to rest for some time from the raids of the nomads. Kalita's descendants Semyon Proud and Ivan Krasny continued the work of their father, and the former even claimed the title of Grand Duke.

The second half of the 14th - the middle of the 15th century was characterized by the defeat of its rivals in the 60s and 70s by Moscow and the transition from the establishment of political supremacy behind it to the beginning of the state unification of the Russian principalities around it and the organization of an all-Russian struggle for the elimination of Horde dependence. The end of the 60s of the XIV century was filled with a struggle between the Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich and the Prince of Tver Mikhail Alexandrovich, who entered into an alliance with the Grand Duke of Lithuania Olgerd. Olgerd twice approached Moscow, but he could not master it. In 1372, Mikhail Tverskoy received a label for the great reign, but Dmitry refused to admit it. The reason was the weakening of the Horde by internal unrest. In the 70s, the disintegration of the Horde was suspended by the temnik Mamai. In the summer of 1380, he gathered the main forces of the Horde, then made an alliance with Oleg of Ryazan and the Lithuanian prince Yagailo and set off to conquer northeast Russia. Rus put forward an army under the command of Dmitry. The battle on the Kulikovo field on September 8, 1380 ended with the defeat of Mamai. Dmitry received the nickname "Donskoy". But in 1382 Khan Tokhtamysh made an unexpected campaign against Russia. He burned Moscow, and Dmitry had to pay tribute again. At the end of the XIV century, Russia began to be threatened by the Central Asian ruler Timur and his successors. The Moscow princes entered into a temporary alliance with the Lithuanian princes on the occasion of a new danger from the east. At the end of the 14th century, Moscow established itself as the territorial and national center of the emerging state. Under Dmitry, Dmitrov, Starodub, Uglich and Kostroma, large territories in the Volga region, a number of principalities of the upper Oka were annexed.

At the end of the XIV century, the Murom and Nizhny Novgorod principalities and the lands along the Vychegda River were annexed to Moscow.

In the second quarter of the 15th century, Dmitry transferred the best part of the inheritance to his eldest son, but the younger children also inherited their "destinies", of which the Galician principality turned out to be the most competitive in terms of resources. It went along with Zvenigorod to Dmitry's second son, Yuri. After the death of Vasily I, Yuri began a struggle for the grand-ducal throne with his nephew Vasily II Vasilyevich. Twice Yuri captured Moscow, but he did not succeed in establishing himself in it. After the death of Yuri, his children (Vasily Kosoy and Dmitry Shemyaka) continued the fight against Vasily I. In February 1446, Vasily II was seized and blinded on a pilgrimage at Trinity-Sergiev, after which he was exiled to Uglich, and Moscow for the third time passed into the hands of the Galician princes. At the end of 1446 Shemyaka was expelled from Moscow. The reign of Basil II was restored again. The eldest sons of the great Moscow princes received, of course, much larger allotments than the rest of the children. This ensured their initial advantage in strengthening their power.

The period from the second half of the 15th to the beginning of the 16th century was marked by the completion of the unification of the Russian lands around Moscow and the liquidation of large independent feudal centers in Russia and foreign domination. This task was solved during the reign of Ivan III and Vasily III. The first bequeathed to the eldest heir an allotment with 66 cities, while the rest of the sons received a total of 30 cities. The independence of Novgorod was abolished in 1478 after the campaign of Ivan III, but it still retained traces of its former autonomy some time later. There were also other territorial annexations, for example, in 1485 the military annexation of Tver was carried out, in 1489 - the Vyatka land, in 1494 - according to an agreement with Lithuania, the lands in the upper reaches of the Oka and the city of Vyazma were included in Rus. In 1500-1503, the upper reaches of the Oka, lands along the Desna with tributaries, part of the lower reaches of the Sozh and the upper reaches of the Dnieper, Chernigov, Bryansk and Rylsk, after a successful war for Moscow, went to it. In 1510, the Pskov Republic became a part, in 1514 - Smolensk. In fact, the Ryazan principality, which had long been subordinate to Moscow, ceased to exist in 1521. This was the end of the merger. In 1480 the Horde yoke was overthrown. Akhmat Khan (ruler of the Great Horde), in alliance with the Polish king Casimir IV, tried to subjugate Russia. Akhmat Khan's attempt in October 1480 to force the Ugra River turned out to be a failure. "Standing on the Ugra" was the last act Tatar-Mongol yoke in Russia.

The centralization of the state was an internal source of strengthening the power of the great princes.

Let's single out the economic factor: the beginning of the fragmentation of the Russian lands ceases in the IV century, giving way to their unification. This was a consequence, first of all, of the strengthening of economic ties between the Russian principalities, which was a prerequisite for the general economic development of the country as a whole.

At this time, intensive development of agriculture begins. Agricultural production is characterized in this historical period of time by the widespread use of arable system, which required regular tillage. Since the peasant deals with only one piece of land, resting from sowing only after a year or two, there is an urgent need to fertilize the fields. All this requires the improvement of the tools of labor.

However, the rise of agriculture was due not so much to the development of tools of production, but to an increase in acreage due to the development of new and previously abandoned areas. The expansion of the surplus product in agriculture made it possible to develop animal husbandry and sell grain outside the territory of the principality.

The need for agricultural implements grew, which determined the necessary development of handicrafts.

As a result, the process of separation of handicrafts from agriculture is going deeper and deeper. It carries with it the need for exchange between peasant and artisan, that is, between town and country. This exchange took place in the form of trade, which during this period was correspondingly intensified. The first local markets are created on the basis of exchange. The natural division of labor between individual regions of the country, which was determined by their natural characteristics, laid the foundation for the formation of economic ties on the scale of all of Russia. The establishment of these ties also contributed to the development of foreign trade. For all this, the political unification of the Russian lands was necessary. In other words, the creation of a centralized state was required. Nobles, merchants, artisans were interested in this.

In the 16th-15th centuries, the Russian economy experienced an upswing. However, unlike the West, where the political factor was decisive, in Russia it was not. Russian land Principality of Novgorod

Another factor that determined the unification of the Russian lands was a sharp exacerbation of the class struggle, the strengthening of the class resistance of the peasantry. The rise of the economy and the opportunity to receive a larger surplus product prompted the feudal lords to intensify the exploitation of the peasants. At the same time, the feudal lords sought to economically and legally secure the peasants for their estates and estates. This policy aroused the natural discontent of the peasantry, which took on the most diverse forms: the murder of feudal lords, the seizure of their property, the burning of estates. Monasteries often suffered such a fate. Sometimes a form of class struggle was robbery, which was directed against the masters. The flight of the peasants (mostly to the south) to lands free of landowners also assumed considerable proportions.

In these conditions, the feudal lords faced the task of keeping the peasantry and completing its enslavement. This task had a solution only if there was a powerful centralized state that would be able to fulfill the main function of the exploiting state, that is, suppress the resistance of the exploited masses.

In itself, economic and social development countries in XIV - XVI centuries was not yet capable at that time to lead to the formation of a centralized state. The above two reasons played a major role in the unification of Rus, the process of centralization could not have achieved any significant success without them.

Despite the fact that economic ties in this historical period reached significant development, they were still not wide and strong enough to connect the whole country together. This was one of the differences between the formation of the Russian centralized state and similar processes in Western Europe, where centralized states were created as capitalist relations developed. In Russia, in the XIV-XVI centuries, there was still no talk of the emergence of capitalism and any bourgeois relations.

The same should be noted when considering the development of class relations and struggle. However, this struggle did not take on the forms that have already been achieved in the West.

The Russian Church was the bearer of the national Orthodox ideology, which played a leading role in the formation of Rus. To build an independent state and introduce foreigners into the fence of the Christian church, Russian society needed to strengthen its moral strength. A trinity church was built, in which they saw a call for the unity of the Russian land. Heretical movements expressed a peculiar form of protest. At a church cathedral in 1490, the heretics were cursed and excommunicated. They linked their ideas to centralization objectives. The heretics opposed ecclesiastical land ownership and the existence of an estate of clergy and monasticism. The close union of church and state was the main goal that was set by the Josephites. The positions of the participants in this movement were in everything absolutely opposite to the views of Joseph: they demanded a clear separation of church and state, their mutual independence from each other. Similarly, much attention is paid to the development of religious ideology, within the framework of which the theory of "Moscow-Third Rome" is being formed, which provided a compromise between the tsarist government and the church. The development of this theory took place in conditions of a sharp ideological struggle within the church between the Josephites and opponents of church land tenure, who most actively used this concept to strengthen the economic and political power of the church.

In the very first years of his reign, Ivan Kalita transferred the metropolitan's chair from Vladimir to Moscow.

The Metropolitan was supposed to periodically visit the Russian dioceses in the south. During these trips, he stayed in Moscow.

In 1308, a successor to Metropolitan Maxim was appointed, Peter, who developed a very close relationship with Ivan Kalita. Together they laid the foundation stone for the Cathedral of the Assumption in Moscow. Metropolitan Peter lived in the diocesan city in the old courtyard of Prince Yuri Dolgoruky, from where he later moved to the site of the future foundation stone of the Assumption Cathedral. Peter's successor Theognost did not want to live in Vladimir and moved to a new metropolitan courtyard in Moscow.

The founder of the dynasty of Moscow princes is the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky, Daniel. During his reign, the rapid growth of the Moscow principality began. In 1301, Daniil Alexandrovich captured Kolomna, and in 1302 the principality of Pereyaslavl passed to him by the will of the childless prince. In 1303, Mozhaisk, which was part of the Smolensk principality, was annexed, as a result of which the Moscow River, which at that time was an important trade route, turned out to be from source to mouth within the Moscow principality. In three years, the Moscow principality almost doubled and became one of the largest and strongest principalities in North-Eastern Russia. The Moscow prince Yuri Daniilovich considered himself powerful enough to join the struggle for the grand prince's throne.

Mikhail Yaroslavich of Tver, who received the label for the great reign in 1304, strove for sovereign rule over the whole of Russia and the subordination of Novgorod and the rest of the Russian lands by force. The prince was supported by the church and its head, Metropolitan Maxim, who moved his residence from Kiev to Vladimir in 1299.

Mikhail Yaroslavich tried to take Pereyaslavl away from Yuri Daniilovich, which led to a protracted and bloody struggle between Tverby and Moscow, in which the question of political supremacy in Russia was decided. In 1318, Mikhail Yaroslavich was killed in the Horde on a tip from Yuri Daniilovich, and the label for the great reign was transferred to the Moscow prince. However, in 1325 Yuri Daniilovich himself was killed in the Horde by one of the sons of Mikhail Yaroslavich, who wanted to avenge his father's death. Then the label for the great reign again passed into the hands of the princes of Tver.

In relations with the Horde, Kalita continued the line of external observance of vassal obedience to the khans, outwardly observance of vassal obedience to the khans, outlined by Alexander Nevsky, in order to prevent them from giving them reasons for new invasions of Russia, which almost completely ceased during his reign, the chronicler wrote, assessing the reign of Kalita. The Russian lands received the respite they needed to restore and raise the economy, accumulate forces for the upcoming struggle to overthrow the yoke. Kalita collected tribute from the land. This contributed to the concentration in the hands of the Moscow prince of significant funds, which gave him the opportunity to exert political pressure on Novgorod and other Russian lands. Kalita managed, without resorting to weapons, to expand the territory of his possessions by receiving from the khan, for rich gifts, labels to certain lands. These lands were Galich, Uglich and Beloozero. During the reign of Kalita, the foundation of the power of Moscow was laid. The son of Kalita, Prince Semyon Ivanovich had already claimed the title of "Grand Duke of All Russia" and for his arrogance received the nickname "Proud".

During the reign of Kalita, Moscow achieved significant superiority in material and human resources, supported by the erection of a stone Kremlin in 1367, which strengthened the military-defensive potential of the Moscow principality. In the conditions of renewed invasions of the Tatars and the offensive of Lithuanian feudal lords on the Russian lands, the Moscow principality became a fence from the struggle with external enemies. The rulers of the principalities that entered into rivalry with Moscow did not have sufficient powers of their own and were forced to seek support in the Horde or from Lithuania, to pursue an anti-national policy of alliance with external forces hostile to Russia, thereby dooming themselves to political isolation in their country. As a result, they doomed themselves to defeat in the fight against Moscow. The struggle of the Moscow princes with them acquired a national liberation character of a struggle and received the support of the bulk of the ruling class of feudal lords, residents of cities and villages, the church, interested in the state unification of all the forces of the country.

The factor that accelerated the centralization of the Russian state was the threat of an external attack, which gave motivation to rally the Russian lands in the face of a common enemy.

After the beginning of the formation of the Russian centralized state, it became possible to defeat the Golden Horde on the Kulikovo field. Ivan III managed to collect almost all Russian lands and lead them against the enemy. The yoke was finally overthrown.

The formation of a unified state is a natural process in the history of the country. It was prepared by the long-term socio-economic and political development of Rus. Not taking into account the enormous destruction of the economy and culture that had been caused by the Tatars from the end of the 13th-early-14th centuries, agriculture began to recover, cities grew, and trade revived. Significant changes have taken place in the main area of ​​production. Agriculture became more productive. Rich buyers of bread appeared in the localities. The slower development of production in Russia was primarily due to the Mongol yoke, which destroyed and slowed down the development of the productive forces. A great obstacle to the normal economic development of the southern regions was the constant raids of the Crimean Tatars, which ruined everything and diverted significant forces of Russia.

The chronicle displays Moscow among the new towns of the Rostov land that arose during the reign of Yuri Dolgoruky. This town appears for the first time in the chronicle with the meaning of the border point between the northern Suzdal and southern Chernigov-Seversky regions, to which in 1147 Yuri Dolgoruky invited his ally of the Novgorod-Seversky prince Svyatoslav Olgovich. This was the first mention of Moscow. Obviously, the village was then a rural princely estate or, more precisely, a station yard in which the Suzdal prince stayed during his trips to the Kiev south and back. In 1156, according to the chronicle, Prince Yuri Dolgoruky laid Moscow the bottom of the mouth of the Neglinnaya. Thus, he surrounded his Moskvoretsky courtyard with wooden walls and turned it into a city.

The unification of the Russian lands around Moscow led to a radical change in the political significance of this city and the great Moscow princes. They, the recent rulers of one of the Russian principalities, found themselves at the head of the largest state in Europe. The emergence of a unified state created favorable conditions for development National economy and to repel external enemies. The inclusion of a number of non-Russian nationalities in a single state created conditions for the growth of ties between these peoples with a higher level of economy and culture of Russia.

Moscow turned into a large trade and craft center in the 14th century. Moscow artisans gained fame as skilled craftsmen in foundry, blacksmithing and jewelry. It was in Moscow that Russian artillery was born and received its baptism of fire. The trade ties of Moscow merchants stretched far beyond the Russian lands. Covered from the northwest of Lithuania by the Tver principality, and from the east and southeast of the Golden Horde by other Russian lands, the Moscow principality was to a lesser extent exposed to the sudden ruinous raids of the Golden Horde. This allowed the Moscow princes to gather and accumulate strength, gradually create superiority in material and human resources, which6you act as organizers and leaders of the unification process and liberation struggle... The geographical position of the Moscow principality also predetermined its role as the ethnic nucleus of the emerging Great Russian nationality. All this, coupled with the purposeful and flexible policy of the Moscow princes in relations with the Golden Horde and other Russian lands, ultimately determined the victory of Moscow for the role of leader and political center of the formation of a single Russian state.

In the first period (the end of the XIII - the middle of the XIV centuries), two processes took place: the addition of large feudal centers in north-eastern Russia, examples of such centers are the Tver and Moscow princedoms; the selection of the most powerful future nucleus and political center from them in the formation of a centralized state. The first stage ends with the acquisition by Moscow of the status of the strongest principality. On this basis, it defeated its main opponents: Tver, the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod principality in the 60-70s of the XIV century. By this time, the Moscow principality had accumulated such a quantity of human, material and political resources that in the struggle for unification it practically did not need support, and its opponents were forced to seek help on the side. The third forces were the Horde and Lithuania.

The second period (2 half of the XIV-50 of the XV century) was characterized by the defeat of the main opponents. During this period, Moscow began to unite the lands around itself. The annexation of the principalities meant the loss of their state sovereignty.

At this time, Moscow stands at the head of the struggle against the Tatar-Mongol yoke. The will of the testator as the only basis for this order, participation in the division of the inheritance of all members of the family of the testator prince and the apparent legal indifference of the movable and real estate, territorial possessions. With the general desire of the appanage princes for isolation and mutual alienation, the fathers wanted their sons to meet more often in a common family nest.

Starting with Kalita and ending with Ivan III, almost every Moscow prince left behind an heir; there are two orders of inheritance: by law or custom and by will.

Period III (the reign of Ivan III and partially the reign of Vasily III) is determined by the continuation of the process of territorial unification. This process is due to endless wars with Lithuania, since the Russian lands began to pass back under the rule of Moscow.

During this period, the elimination of the Tatar-Mongol yoke took place.

The beginning of the formation of a new state structure was laid.

Alexander Nevsky had four sons. The youngest son of Nevsky, Daniel, after his death, received Moscow as his inheritance. Daniel was the first prince to raise the significance of this city. Daniel died in 1303.

Daniel left five sons: Yuri, Ivan, Alexander, Boris and Athanasius. Yuri and Ivan significantly raised the level of Moscow's importance.

Yuri's brother, Ivan, nicknamed Kalita, remained for a long time in the shadow of his older brother, but when Yuri received the great reign and left for Novgorod, Moscow was left at Ivan's complete disposal. During his reign, Moscow rose to prominence. He was forward-thinking and hardworking. Despite the poverty of his lot, he, thanks to his thrift, became much more prosperous than other princes. Hence his nickname - Kalita. He was called the first collector of Russia. From his brother Yuri, he received three cities, and left 97 cities and villages to his children. In 1328, Ivan receives from Uzbek a label for the great reign, after which, after a while, Uzbek allowed Kalita to collect tribute and deliver it to the Horde, thanks to which the Russians got rid of the Baskaks. The Tatars did not visit the Moscow principality at that time.

After Simeon the Proud, his brother Ivan Krasny ruled. Both princes did not distinguish themselves in anything important during their reign.

Ivan's successor was nine-year-old Dmitry.

The Moscow boyars stood behind the young Dmitry.

In 1359, the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod prince Dmitry Konstantinovich was able to take possession of the title of the Grand Duke of Vladimir. A struggle flared up between Dmitry Konstantinovich and the group of the Moscow boyars. In 1366, Dmitry Konstantinovich renounced his claims to the Vladimir throne.

At the end of the XIV century, several appanage principalities were formed on the territory of the Moscow principality, which were allocated. The largest and most economically developed was the Galician principality, which went to the second son of Dmitry Donskoy - Yuri. After the death of Vasily I, Yuri began a struggle with his nephew Vasily II for the grand prince's throne. Not finding support from Metropolitan Photius and the Moscow boyars, Yuri attempted to get a label for the great reign of the Horde. But the rulers of the Horde, where another turmoil was taking place, did not want to quarrel with Moscow, and Yuri began an armed struggle, relying on the resources of his principality, twice he managed to seize Moscow. However, Yuri did not succeed in establishing himself in it.

After the death of Yuri in 1434, a struggle broke out between Vasily Kosy and Dmitry Shemyaka, which became a decisive clash between supporters and opponents of state centralization. A coalition of appanage princes led by the Galician princes unleashed a feudal war. It represented a feudal-conservative reaction to the successes achieved by Moscow in the political unification of the country and to the strengthening of the grand ducal power by narrowing and eliminating the political independence and sovereign rights of princes in their domains.

The struggle of Basil II with the coalition of appanage princes was soon complicated by the active intervention of the Tatars. Khan Ulu-Muhammad considered the feudal turmoil in Russia as the most fortunate condition to capture Nizhny Novgorod and devastating raids deep into the Russian lands. In 1445, in the battle of Suzdal, the sons of Ulu-Muhammad defeated the Moscow army and captured Vasily II, releasing him only for a huge ransom. He was released from captivity for a huge ransom. Dmitry Shemyaka and the appanage princes who supported him took advantage of this, who perpetrated a conspiracy against Vasily II, to which a part of the Moscow boyars, merchants and clergy joined. In February 1446, Vasily II was extradited by the monks to the conspirators, blinded and exiled to Uglich.

Shemyaka's policy contributed to the restoration and strengthening of the order of feudal fragmentation. The great Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod principality was restored to its rights. Shemyaka pledged to observe and defend the independence of the Novgorod boyar republic, expanded the scope of the inviolable rights of the feudal nobility.

Shemyaka's policy provoked a broad movement against him among the serving feudal lords, the masses of the townspeople and the clergy interested in strengthening the power of the Grand Duke.

At the end of 1446 Shemyaka was expelled from Moscow. The honor of being the Grand Duke again fell on Vasily II, who was nicknamed the Dark One. Shemyaka was forced to flee to Novgorod, where he died in 1453.

The feudal war ended with the defeat of the coalition of appanage princes, who tried to suspend the elimination of the order of feudal fragmentation and defend the independence of their principalities.

Ivan III John was a creative genius. He completed the period of the identity of the Russian people and began the period of the identity of the Russian state. He was not afraid of the hatred of others, because it arose only in the weak, he himself hated only the strong. Such a formidable political weapon posed a threat. But Ivan the third knew how to act competently with them: he destroyed local rights, statutes and institutions, replaced them with his own, but only the most general statutes, concentrating everything in a single will of his.

The Moscow princes gradually brought their principality out of its initial close limits by means of their means and forces.

At that time, Dmitrov, Klin, Volokolamsk, Mozhaisk, Serpukhov, Kolomna and Vera were not part of the Moscow territory. Before the seizure of Mozhaisk and Kolomna, the lot of Prince Daniel occupied the middle space of this province along the middle course of the Moscow River with a continuation to the east along the upper Klyazma. In the possession of Prince Daniel were Moscow, Zvenigorod, Ruzsky and Bogorodsky with a part of Dmitrovsky districts.

The first Moscow prince Daniel caught the Ryazan prince Constantine by surprise by attacking and defeating him. He captured and took away Kolomna from him. From the prince of Smolensk - the city of Mozhaisk. Among other things, Daniel received Pereyaslavl-Zalessky according to the will of the childless Pereyaslavl prince.

Yuri Daniilovich tried to get from the Horde a label for the great Vladimir reign. He entered into a struggle for Vladimir with Prince Mikhail Yaroslavich of Tver. The struggle was fought in the Horde through intrigue. Both princes were killed.

The khans of the Golden Horde actively intervened in the unfolding struggle for political supremacy in Russia between the Moscow and Tver princes, who sought to prevent any of the warring parties from strengthening.

By arbitrarily transferring the label of the great reign from hand to hand, the khans tried to prevent the possibility of political unification of the Russian princes. They always wanted to have a pretext for the next devastating pogrom of the Russian lands. The struggle against the Horde yoke in Russia assumed an increasingly acute and universal character.

The largest uprising against the Horde was the uprising in Tver in 1327. It was caused by massive violence and beatings from the Khan Baskak Cholkhan and his people who came from the Horde. Attempts to find protection from the tyranny of the Mongol-Tatars with their prince were unsuccessful. Residents of Tver rushed to beat the Horde from the evening gathered by the alarm bell. Cholkhan tried to find refuge in the prince's palace, but the people set fire to the courtyard and killed the hated Baskak.

Ivan Kalita took advantage of the uprising in Tver to defeat his most powerful rival. He took part in the punitive campaign of the Mongol-Tatar army, which was sent by Khan Uzbek to Russia. Kalita was able to direct her blow only against the Tver land. Kalita cruelly dealt with the Tver inhabitants in alliance with the Mongols and subjected the Tver principality to a terrible pogrom, which for a long time eliminated the Tver princes from an active struggle for political supremacy in Russia. The Tver prince fled to Pskov. In 1328, Kalita, who thus earned the trust of the khan, received a label for the great reign of Vladimir in joint possession with the Suzdal prince. A popular uprising in Tver and protests against the Horde in other Russian cities forced the khan to transfer to Kalita the right to collect tribute from all Russian lands and deliver it to the Horde. This contributed to the elimination of the Basque system.

Even after Ivan Kalita became Grand Duke, the Moscow inheritance remained very insignificant.

All his patrimonial possessions consisted of seven cities with counties. These were Moscow, Kolomna, Mozhaisk, Zvenigorod, Serpukhov, Ruza, Radonezh.

In the counties there were 51 rural parishes and up to 40 palace villages.

Moscow princes, who had free money, began to buy land from private individuals, church institutions, the metropolitan, monasteries and other princes.

Ivane Ivan Kalita acquired Belozersk, Galich, Uglich and its districts.

Under Simeon Gord and Ivan the Red, Vereya, Borovsk, Volokolamsk, Kashir were acquired.

Dmitry Donskoy captured Starodub on the Klyazma and Galich with Dmitrov. He drove the local princes out of their estates. His son Vasily appeased the Tatar princes and the khan himself, and for a weighty ransom received a label to reign in Murom, Tarusa and the Nizhny Novgorod principality.

With the capture of Mozhaisk and Kolomna, the Moscow prince acquired the entire course of Moscow. The receipt of the grand-princely region and the Starodub principality allowed him to consider the whole Klyazma as the master. After the annexation of Kaluga, Meshchera at Donskoy, Kozelsk, Likhvin, Aleksin, Tarusa and Murom, with his son, the entire course of the Oka (from the confluence of the Upa and Zhizda, ending with Kolomna and from Gorets Meshchersky to Nizhny) was under the control of the Moscow prince, so that the Ryazan principality it turned out on three sides among the volosts of Moscow and Vladimir, which were in Moscow's hands. Similarly, with the acquisition of Rzhev, Uglich and the Nizhny Novgorod principality under the same princes and Romanov under Vasily the Dark. With the continuous possession of Kostroma, almost a greater stretch of the Upper Volga was in the possession of Moscow. The princedoms of Tverskoe and Yaroslavl were surrounded from different sides by Moscow possessions. After the acquisition of the principalities of Belozersky and Galitsky, a wide outlook was opened for Moscow crafts in the upper Trans-Volga region.

The second stage of the unification process begins in the second half of the 14th century. This stage was characterized by the defeat of Moscow in the 60-70s of its main political rivals and the transition from securing Moscow's political supremacy in Russia to the state unification of the Russian lands around it and organizing a nationwide struggle for the overthrow of the Horde dictatorship.

The break that Kalita granted to Russia during his reign contributed to the restoration of the national economy and the beginning of an economic upturn that swept all Russian lands. By the middle of the fourteenth century, two more great principalities were formed: Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod and Ryazan, whose rulers were actively involved in the struggle for political supremacy in Russia. In 1359, the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod prince Dmitry Konstantinovich tried to take advantage of the receipt of the juvenile Dmitry Ivanovich the right to reign in Moscow in order to get a label for the great reign in the Horde. But Metropolitan Alexei and the boyars, who ruled in the early years instead of Dmitry, skillful politics in the Horde and direct military pressure on Suzdal prince forced him to abandon the claim to the great reign. In addition, he found himself in complete isolation. Moscow's main rival was still Tver, which had recovered from the pogrom of 1327.

From the end of the 60s of the fourteenth century, a protracted struggle began between the Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich and the Tver prince Mikhail Alexandrovich, who entered into an alliance with the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Olgerd.

Olgerd, who sought to extend his power over North-Eastern Russia, understood that this could only be achieved if Moscow was conquered. In turn, for Dmitry Ivanovich, the failure of Olgerd's cruel plans became the main condition for the defeat of the Russian princes who competed with Moscow and relied on an alliance with Lithuania. Olgerd twice managed to approach Moscow, but he could not take possession of the stone Kremlin. In 1327, he once again tried to invade the Moscow territory. But after the defeat of his forward regiment near Lyubutsk, he decided to put an end to the struggle and made peace with Dmitry.

Olgerd's unsuccessful campaigns prompted the Tver prince to look for new allies in the Horde, whose rulers anxiously watched the strengthening of Moscow and were ready to support any of its rivals. In 1371, Michael received a label in the Horde for a great reign, but Dimitri Ivanovich refused to recognize him as the Grand Duke, feeling already strong enough that we would decide to go into conflict with the Horde. Refused to recognize Mikhail and Vladimir, who remained loyal to the Moscow prince.

In 1375, Michael again achieved in the Horde receiving a label for the great reign. In response, Dmitry Ivanovich, at the head of the Moscow troops and military forces, which had gathered from many Russian lands, besieged Tver. The campaign of the Moscow prince against Tver, which was blocked with the worst enemies of Russia, for the first time took on the character of an all-Russian national patriotic enterprise. Refused to support their prince and the population of the Tver principality. They demanded that he surrender the city and conclude peace with Moscow. The Tver prince was forced to abandon his claims to the great reign and to recognize the eldership of the Moscow prince, to undertake not to enter into relations with the Horde and Lithuania without his knowledge, to help the Moscow prince in the struggle against his enemies. Similar agreements on the recognition of the eldership of the Moscow prince were concluded by Dmitry with the Ryazan and other princes.

In his will, Dmitry Donskoy inherited the great reign of Vladimir as the "fatherland" of the Moscow princes to his eldest son Vasily I Dmitrievich, thereby showing the non-recognition of the khan's right to dispose of this land. Thus, the process of the unification of the Vladimir principality and the associated "oldest" princely title in Russia with the Moscow one was completed. Also in his will, Dmitry expressed his hope for an early complete liberation from the Horde yoke, which became an important motivational background for the actions of his successors.

With the gathering into a single whole of the "great reign of Vladimir" with the Moscow principality, the latter affirmed the role and significance of the territorial and national, as well as the political center of the emerging Russian state. The territorial growth of the Moscow principality became a fundamental factor for the state unification of the Russian lands and had a significance that cannot be overestimated. Dmitrov, Starodub, Uglich and Kostroma, vast territories in the Trans-Volga region in the area of ​​Beloozero and Galich Merskoy and a number of Upper Oka small principalities were annexed to Moscow under Dmitry Donskoy.

At the end of the XIV century, the Nizhny Novgorod principality lost its independence. In the late 70s and 80s, the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod princes pursued a policy openly hostile to Moscow, and even went so far as to take part in Tokhtamysh's campaign against Moscow. In 1393, Vasily I ingeniously took advantage of Tokhtamysh's plight (he was busy fighting Timur): the prince got the khan's consent to transfer the Murom and Nizhny Novgorod principalities to Moscow, which in turn allowed him to start creating a common Russian system of border defense with the Horde. The annexation of the Nizhny Novgorod principality took place on a voluntary basis - without the use of force. Own boyars did not support the Nizhny Novgorod prince, telling him that they were already the boyars of the Moscow prince and would stand for him, and the prince might not count on their help in the fight against Moscow. This clearly demonstrated the desire for state unity even of the privileged elite of the specific boyar nobility.

At the end of the fourteenth century, the Moscow government took the first steps to limit the independence of the Novgorod boyar republic and to include its lands in the Moscow principality.

However, Vasily I failed in his attempt to annex to Moscow the richest Novgorod colony - the Dvina land. The Novgorod Republic was the largest and most powerful feudal center of Russia, which remained outside the sphere of political domination of Moscow and opposed it; Novgorod became the main stronghold of all the forces of feudal decentralization.

At the end of the fourteenth century, the lands in the basin of the Vychegda River, inhabited by the people of Great Perm, were annexed to Moscow. The most important role was played by Christianization in the unification of lands, in particular, in the subordination of the northern and Volga peoples, although it was often carried out with the help of very cruel violent actions. Among the Permians, a prominent church figure of those times, the educated monk Stefan of Perm, who preached in the native language of the Permians, was engaged in missionary activity. He compiled the alphabet of their language and initiated the translation of books into the Perm language. This side of the activities of Stefan Permsky was not only of great cultural and educational significance, but, of course, political.

By the end of the fifteenth century. all the factors were formed that contributed to the transition of the process of centralization of Russian lands to the final stage - the formation of a unified Russian state.

The result of the victory of the grand ducal power in the internecine wars was the disappearance of some small principalities, which made it possible to take the first step towards the subordination of the Novgorod boyar republic. To confront Moscow, some Novgorod boyars and part of the clergy tried to turn to the Lithuanian feudal lords for support, offering their subordination to Lithuania, but only while maintaining the political power of the boyars within the borders of the Novgorod lands. In the 40s of the XV century. the first step in this direction was taken: Novgorod concluded an agreement with the Polish king and the Lithuanian Grand Duke Casimir IV, according to which he had the right to collect tribute from some Novgorod volosts. The opposition of the Novgorod boyars to the rest of Russia, the intensification of feudal exploitation, the exacerbation of the class struggle, which eventually resulted in large antifeudal actions of the urban population and peasants in 1418, 1421, 1446 and other years - all this helped the Moscow government in the struggle for the subordination of Novgorod. In 1456, Vasily II made a campaign against Novgorod.

The defeat of the Novgorod militia near the Russa River forced the boyars to accept the terms of peace put forward by the Grand Duke. According to the Yazhelbitsky Treaty, Novgorod was obliged to pay the Grand Duke a large indemnity, and also not to continue to provide support to the opponents of the unification of the Russian lands. Novgorod cities were legally assigned to Moscow, which actually joined it under Vasily I - Bezhetsky Verkh, Volok Lamsky and Vologda with nearby volosts.

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Historically, there have been several periods of centralization (as well as its centers) in Russia. But only the result of the unification around Moscow received an obvious continuation - the formation of now existing state Russian. However, it is impossible to confuse: at the end of the Middle Ages, not Russia, but the Moscow state was formed.

External and internal factors

Chronologically, the process of the new unification covers the XIII-XVI centuries. Outside threats have been a stimulating force pushing individual principalities towards unification. However, only internal restructuring contributed to the possibility of realizing the idea of ​​unity.

The external factor was the Germans and Swedes in the north (Alexander Nevsky was unable to completely discourage their appetite for Russian lands), traditionally the Golden Horde in the south and east and Lithuania in the west. Accordingly, those principalities that were located at a relative distance from all three were in a better position. Moscow and Vladimir met these conditions (initially it was about the struggle for the Grand Duke's throne in Vladimir, and not about unification around Moscow).

In the middle of the 13th century, Russia had already recovered somewhat economically from the Mongol invasion. Again, those principalities were in the most advantageous position that did not "fall under the distribution" first in the event of any conflicts. This is also a plus for Moscow.

A subjective factor is the appearance in Moscow in the XIV-XV centuries almost in a row of several rulers who want to increase their influence and are able to attract enough allies. This, Ivan Krasny,.

The main stages of the process

There are several versions about this, but usually historians distinguish 3 stages of unification and date the process itself from the middle of the 13th century to the end of the 15th century. In fact, the merger continued further, but its center was already obvious and had no competitors.

The first stage stretches from the middle of the XIII century to the end of the reign of Dmitry Donskoy (1389). It is characterized by the transformation of Moscow into one of the clear leaders-unifiers and the consolidation of the grand-ducal table for the Moscow princes.

The second stage lasts until the middle of the 15th century. He is characterized by the definition of Moscow as the only real unifier in North-Western Russia (it enters the orbit of its influence, the importance of Tver is falling).

The third stage is characterized by the deliverance from Mongol rule (1480), (1485) and Novgorod (1471). Ivan the Terrible then still had to fight local "separatism" and try to win back some of the ancestral lands from his neighbors, but no one had any doubts that the Moscow state had taken place.

In the first two stages, several centers of unification were visible. So, at the first, Lithuania and Tver acted as such. The Tver princes ruled over Vladimir for a long time, they were richer than the Moscow ones. Lithuania, on the other hand, demonstrated tremendous successes in the wars with the Tatars (there was such an outstanding Lithuanian commander, Prince Vitovt, who reached the Black Sea with his troops), annexed Kiev, and its rulers did not care about national or religious issues. As a result, the Slavs under the "hand" of the Lithuanian princes did not live badly at all. But in 1395 the situation changed - Prince Jagiello accepted the Polish crown and Catholicism, and began the forcible catholicization of his subjects. After that, the Russian lands continued to remain part of Lithuania and from time to time to join it (Smolensk turned out to be a stumbling block), but this was done already through wars with Moscow.

Methods and results

As for the methods of centralization, everything was used - intrigues, conspiracies, military force, bribery, purchase, "behind-the-scenes" agreements and normal allied relations. No one at the time considered any of these techniques unacceptable, so the "international standards" were respected.

As a result, a large and rather strong state appeared on the map. It was named on foreign maps "Russia" or "Muscovy", and the first to call himself "Tsar of Moscow and All Russia".