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The negotiations dragged on for three years. On November 12, the bride finally arrived in Moscow.

The wedding took place on the same day. The marriage of the Moscow sovereign with the Greek princess was an important event in Russian history. He opened the way for ties between Muscovy Rus and the West. On the other hand, together with Sophia at the Moscow court, some of the orders and customs of the Byzantine court were established. The ceremonial became grander and more solemn. The Grand Duke himself rose to prominence in the eyes of his contemporaries. They noticed that Ivan, after his marriage to the niece of the Byzantine emperor, was an autocratic sovereign at the Moscow grand-ducal table; he first received the nickname Grozny, because he was a monarch for the princes of the squad, demanding unquestioning obedience and strictly punishing disobedience. He rose to a royal unattainable height, before which the boyar, the prince and the descendant of Rurik and Gedimin had to reverently bow on a par with the last of the subjects; at the first wave of Ivan the Terrible, the heads of seditious princes and boyars fell on the chopping block.

It was at that time that Ivan III began to instill fear in his appearance alone. Women, contemporaries say, fainted from his angry gaze. The courtiers, fearing for their lives, had to amuse him in their leisure hours, and when he, sitting in an armchair, indulged in a nap, they stood motionless around, not daring to cough or make a careless movement so as not to wake him up. Contemporaries and immediate descendants attributed this change to the suggestions of Sophia, and we have no right to reject their testimony. The German ambassador Herberstein, who was in Moscow during the reign of his son Sophia, said about her: " This was a woman unusually cunning, according to her suggestion, the Grand Duke did a lot".

War with the Kazan Khanate 1467-1469

A message from Metropolitan Philip to the Grand Duke, written at the beginning of the war, has survived. In it, he promises a martyr's crown to all who shed their blood " for the holy churches of God and for the Orthodox Christianity».

At the very first meeting with the head Kazan army, the Russians not only did not dare to start a battle, but did not even make an attempt to cross the Volga to the other side, where the Tatar army stood, and therefore simply turned back; so, without even starting, the "campaign" ended in disgrace and failure.

Khan Ibrahim did not pursue the Russians, but made a punitive sortie to the Russian city of Galich-Mersky, which lay close to the Kazan borders in the Kostroma land, and plundered its environs, although he could not take the fortified prison.

Ivan III ordered to send strong garrisons to all border cities: Nizhny Novgorod, Murom, Kostroma, Galich and to make a retaliatory retaliatory attack. Prince Ivan Vasilyevich Striga-Obolensky expelled the Tatar troops from the Kostroma borders, and the attack on the Mari lands from the north and west was carried out by units under the command of Prince Daniil Kholmsky, which even reached Kazan itself.

Then the Kazan Khan sent a response army in the following directions: Galich (the Tatars reached the Yug River and took the Kichmen town and occupied two Kostroma volosts) and Nizhny Novgorod-Murmansk (near Nizhny Novgorod, the Russians defeated the Tatar army and captured the leader of the Kazan detachment, Murza Khoja-Berdy ).

"All Christian blood will fall on you because, having betrayed Christianity, you run away, not setting up a battle with the Tatars and not fighting them- he said. - Why are you afraid of death? You are not an immortal man, mortal; and without fate there is no death for man, neither for the bird, nor for the sound; Give me, the old man, an army in hand, you will see if I will deflect my face in front of the Tatars!"

The ashamed Ivan did not go to his Kremlin courtyard, but settled in Krasnoe Selts.

From here he sent an order to his son to go to Moscow, but he decided to incur his father's wrath better than to go from the coast. " I will die here, but I will not go to my father", he said to Prince Kholmsky, who persuaded him to leave the army. He prevented the movement of the Tatars, who wanted to secretly cross the Ugra and suddenly rush to Moscow: the Tatars were repulsed from the coast with great damage.

Meanwhile, Ivan III, having lived for two weeks near Moscow, recovered somewhat from fear, surrendered to the persuasion of the clergy and decided to go to the army. But he did not reach Ugra, but stood in Kremenets on the Luzha River. Here again fear began to overcome him and he was quite determined to finish the matter peacefully and sent Ivan Tovarkov to the Khan with petitions and gifts, asking for a salary, so that he would retreat away. Khan replied: " I am sorry for Ivan; let him come to beat his forehead, as his fathers went to our fathers in the Horde".

However, gold coins were minted in small quantities and for many reasons did not take root in the economic relations of the then Rus.

In the year, an all-Russian Code of Law was published, with the help of which legal proceedings began to be carried out. The nobility and the army of the nobility began to play an important role. In the interests of the noble landowners, the transfer of peasants from one master to another was limited. The peasants received the right to make the transition only once a year - a week before the autumn St. George's Day, the Russian Church. In many cases, and especially when choosing a metropolitan, Ivan III behaved like the head of the church administration. The Metropolitan was elected by the Episcopal Council, but with the approval of the Grand Duke. Once (in the case of Metropolitan Simon) Ivan solemnly led the newly consecrated prelate to the metropolitan see in the Assumption Cathedral, thus emphasizing the prerogatives of the Grand Duke.

The problem of church lands was widely discussed by both the laity and the clergy. Many lay people, including some boyars, approved of the activities of the Trans-Volga elders aimed at spiritual revival and purification of the church.

The monasteries' right to own land also called into question another religious movement, which actually denied the entire institution of the Orthodox Church: ".

Potin V.M. Hungarian gold of Ivan III // Feudal Russia in the world-historical process. M., 1972, p. 289

Date of publication or update 01.11.2017

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Ivan III Vasilievich
Lived: January 22, 1440 - October 27, 1505
Years of government: 1462-1505
Grand Duke of Moscow from 1462 to 1505.

From the Rurik dynasty.

Military campaigns play an important role in the education of the heir to the throne. In 1452, Ivan was already sent as the nominal head of the army on a campaign against the Ustyug fortress of Kokshengu, which was successfully completed. Returning from the campaign with a victory, Ivan Vasilievich married his bride, Maria Borisovna (June 4, 1452). Soon Dmitry Shemyaka was poisoned, and the bloody feud that had lasted for a quarter of a century began to subside.

In 1455 Ivan makes a victorious campaign against the Tatars who invaded Russia. In August 1460, he became the head of the Russian army, which closed the way to Moscow for the advancing Tatars of Khan Akhmat.

By 1462, when Vasily died, 22 years old Ivan III Vasilievich was already a person who had seen a lot, ready to solve various state issues. He was distinguished by prudence, lust for power and the ability to steadily go towards the goal. The Grand Duke marked the beginning of the reign by issuing gold coins with the minted names of Grand Duke Ivan III and his son, heir to the throne, Ivan the Young. Having received the right to a great reign according to the spiritual charter of his father, for the first time since the invasion of Batu, Ivan did not go to the Horde to receive a label, and became the ruler of a territory of about 430 thousand square meters. km.

Throughout the reign Ivan III Vasilievich the main goal of the country's foreign policy was the unification of north-eastern Russia into a single Moscow state.

So, by diplomatic agreements, cunning maneuvers and force, he annexed the Yaroslavl (1463), Dimitrovskoe (1472), Rostov (1474) principality, Novgorod land, Tver principality (1485), Belozersk principality (1486), Vyatka (1489), part of Ryazan, Chernigov, Seversk, Bryansk and Gomel lands.

Ivan III Vasilievich mercilessly fought against the princely-boyar opposition, establishing the norms of taxes that were collected from the population in favor of the governors. The army of the nobility and the nobility began to play an important role. In the interests of the noble landowners, a restriction was introduced on the transfer of peasants from one master to another. The peasants received the right to move only once a year - a week before the autumn St. George's Day (November 26) and a week after St. George's Day. Under Ivan Vasilievich, artillery appeared as an integral part of the army.

In 1467 - 1469 Ivan III Vasilievich successfully conducted military operations against Kazan, eventually achieving its vassal dependence. In 1471 he made a campaign against Novgorod and, thanks to a blow to the city in several directions, committed by professional soldiers, during the battle of Shelon on July 14, 1471, won the last feudal war in Russia, having included the Novgorod lands in the Russian state.

After the wars with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1487 - 1494; 1500 - 1503), many Western Russian cities and lands ceded to Russia. According to the Annunciation Armistice of 1503, the Russian state included: Chernigov, Novgorod-Seversky, Starodub, Gomel, Bryansk, Toropets, Mtsensk, Dorogobuzh.

Success in the expansion of the country contributed to the growth of international relations with European countries. In particular, an alliance was concluded with the Crimean Khanate, with Khan Mengli-Girey, while the treaty directly named the enemies against whom the parties had to act together - the Khan of the Great Horde Akhmat and the Grand Duke of Lithuania. In subsequent years, the Russian-Crimean union showed its effectiveness. During the Russian-Lithuanian war of 1500-1503. Crimea remained an ally of Russia.

In 1476 Ivan III Vasilievich stopped paying tribute to the Khan of the Great Horde, which should have led to a clash between two old opponents. On October 26, 1480, the "standing on the Ugra River" ended with the actual victory of the Russian state, gaining the desired independence from the Horde. For the overthrow of the Golden Horde yoke in 1480 Ivan III Vasilievich received the nickname Saint among the people.

The unification of the previously fragmented Russian lands into a single state strongly demanded the unity of the legal system. In September 1497, the Sudebnik was put into effect - a unified legislative code, which reflected the norms of such documents as: Russkaya Pravda, Charter letters (Dvinskaya and Belozerskaya), Pskov's letter of judgment, a number of decrees and orders of Moscow princes.

Time of reign Ivan III It was also characterized by large-scale construction, the erection of temples, the development of architecture, the flourishing of annals. So, the Assumption Cathedral (1479), the Faceted Chamber (1491), the Annunciation Cathedral (1489) were erected, 25 churches were built, the intensive construction of the Moscow and Novgorod Kremlin. Fortresses were built Ivangorod (1492), in Beloozero (1486), in Velikiye Luki (1493).

The appearance of the two-headed eagle as the state symbol of the Moscow state on the seal of one of the letters issued in 1497 Ivan III Vasilievich symbolized the equality of ranks of the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and the Grand Duke of Moscow.

Was married twice:

1) from 1452 on Maria Borisovna, daughter of the Tver prince Boris Alexandrovich (she died at the age of 30, according to rumors, she was poisoned);

son Ivan Young

2) since 1472 on the Byzantine princess Sophia Fominichna Palaeologus, niece of the last emperor of Byzantium, Constantine XI

sons: Vasily, Yuri, Dmitry, Semyon, Andrey

daughters: Elena, Feodosia, Elena and Evdokia

The marriage of the Moscow sovereign with the Greek princess was an important event in Russian history. He opened the way for ties between Muscovy Rus and the West. Ivan Vasilievich shortly thereafter, the first received the nickname Grozny, because he was a monarch for the princes of the squad, demanding unquestioning obedience and strictly punishing disobedience. At the first order of Ivan the Terrible, the heads of the disagreeable princes and boyars fell on the chopping block. After his marriage, Ivan took the title of "Sovereign of All Russia".

Over time, the 2nd marriage of the great Prince Ivan III Vasilievich became one of the sources of tension at court. There were 2 groups of court nobility, one of which supported the heir to the throne - Ivan Ivanovich Molodiy (son from the first marriage), and the second - the new Grand Duchess Sophia Paleologue and Vasily (Ivan Vasilyevich's son from his second marriage). This family feud, during which hostile political parties clashed, was also intertwined with the church question - about measures against Jewish people.

At first Ivan Vasilievich after the death of his son Ivan Ivanovich Molodoy (died of gout), he crowned his son, and his grandson Dmitry on February 4, 1498 in the Assumption Cathedral. But soon, thanks to a skillful intrigue on the part of Sophia and Vasily, he sided with them. On January 18, 1505, Elena Stefanovna, Dmitry's mother, died in captivity, and in 1509 Dmitry himself died in prison.

In the summer of 1503 Ivan III Vasilievich seriously ill, he went blind in one eye; there was a partial paralysis of one arm and one leg. Leaving business, Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich went on a trip to the monasteries.

October 27, 1505 Grand Duke Ivan III Vasilievich died. Before his death, he named his son Vasily his heir.

Historians agree that reign of Ivan III Vasilievich was extremely successful, it was with him Russian state by the beginning of the 16th century, it had taken an honorable international position, distinguished by new ideas, cultural and political growth.

09.06.2016

The peculiarities of human memory are such that it is easier for us to remember something outstanding, unusual, something that can greatly amaze the imagination than ordinary life events and people who do not have pronounced personality traits. This also applies to historical figures influencing the fate of entire countries. The same is the case with the two Russian tsars Ivans: each schoolchild without hesitation will list the deeds of the “great and terrible” Ivan the Terrible, but at the same time he will not immediately remember how his own grandfather, Ivan III, distinguished himself. Meanwhile, among the people, the grandfather of the Tsar the Terrible was nicknamed the Great among the people. How Ivan III the Great was and what he did for Russia, they will tell you a few interesting facts from his biography.

The fate of the future Grand Duke Ivan III was such that from a young age he became an indispensable assistant to his blind father, Vasily the Dark. Already in his youth, he received the experience of battles, learned to maneuver in the intricacies of intrigues that are inevitable under any throne. In his youth, Ivan participated in the fight against Dmitry Shemyaka.
The first wife of Prince Ivan was the meek disposition of Maria, who was destined to live a short life. It is believed that she fell victim to the intrigues of those close to the prince: she was allegedly poisoned during the absence of her husband.
On the monument in the Kremlin (in Veliky Novgorod), dedicated to the millennium of Russia, one can see, among other rulers, Grand Duke Ivan III. He stands almost trampling on defeated enemies: Tatar, Lithuanian and German. This is an allegorical depiction of the prince's real victories: he actually managed to save the Russian principality from expansion from the Baltic states and overthrow the yoke of the Golden Horde.
Standing on the Ugra River is an event that in 1480 determined the entire further move Russian history. There was no battle. Thanks to patience and the ability to outwit the enemy, Ivan III, without losing his soldiers, was able to achieve the departure of the Tatars home. From that moment Russia became free - it was no longer crushed by the heavy yoke of the Golden Horde. And for this feat, the people gave Ivan the nickname Saint.
Under Ivan III, the unification of the Russian lands is in full swing. Annexed to the Moscow principality: Yaroslavl, Rostov, Tver, Chernigov lands. The proud and rebellious Novgorod was conquered.
With the active participation of Ivan III Vasilyevich, the Code of Law was developed.
Ivan III assigns the peasants to the landlords, giving them the opportunity only twice a year to legally leave their landowners.
Historians, based on the testimonies of contemporaries, having analyzed the activities of Ivan III, give him the following characteristics. A cold, calm, very cautious, unhurried and secretive person. These qualities helped him to steadily pursue his policy without abundant bloodshed. He knew how to wait for the right moment and act deliberately, he knew how to feel the situation.
After the death of his first wife, Ivan III did not remain single for long. His new chosen one is the heiress of the Byzantine emperors - Zoya (Sophia) Palaeologus. The Pope hoped to use this marriage to influence the head of the Russian state, but he was mistaken in his expectations. Of course, Sophia made changes in the life of the subjects of the Grand Duke, but this influence benefited exclusively Russia, but not the Pope. Sophia was a strong-willed and intelligent woman.
Having become the wife of Ivan III, Sophia now considered Russia to be her fiefdom and thought about its welfare. Under her influence, the princely court acquired splendor, beauty and grandeur. Sophia contributed to the construction of the Assumption and Archangel Cathedrals. Under her, the Faceted Chamber was built. Moscow was decorated and flourished. Ivan consulted with his wife, including on political issues. The couple lived in perfect harmony for 20 years. Ivan grieved so much after the death of Sophia that he died out after 2 years.

Ivan III was one of those sovereigns who know how to set a goal and methodically, unhurried, but confident steps towards it. His whole life shows that the main subject of his reflections, his tireless concerns was the welfare of the state. He even chose a spouse for himself not based on personal preferences (Sophia was not distinguished by her beauty), but thinking about the future of Russia, about strengthening its international position. Ivan III deserves a grateful memory of his descendants. Contemporaries understood this - it was not for nothing that he became Holy and Great during his lifetime.

GRAND PRINCE OF MOSCOW IVAN III VASILIEVICH

Ivan III is the Grand Duke of Moscow and the Sovereign of All Russia, under whom the Russian state finally got rid of external dependence and significantly expanded its borders.

Ivan III finally stopped paying tribute to the Horde, annexed new territories to Moscow, carried out a number of reforms and created the basis of the state that bears the proud name of Russia.

At the age of 16, his father, Grand Duke Vasily II, nicknamed the Dark One because of his blindness, appointed Ivan as his co-ruler.

Ivan III, Grand Duke of Moscow (1462-1505).

Ivan was born in 1440 in Moscow. He was born on the day of remembrance of the Apostle Timothy, therefore in his honor he received a name at baptism - Timothy. But thanks to the next church holiday - the transfer of the relics of St. John Chrysostom, the prince received the name by which he is best known.

Ivan III took an active part in the struggle against Dmitry Shemyaka, went on campaigns against the Tatars in 1448, 1454 and 1459.

Grand Dukes Vasily the Dark and his son Ivan.

Military campaigns played an important role in the education of the heir to the throne. In 1452, twelve-year-old Ivan was already sent as the nominal head of the army on a campaign against the Ustyug fortress of Kokshengu, which was successfully completed. Returning from the campaign with a victory, Ivan Vasilyevich married his bride, Maria Borisovna, the daughter of Prince Boris Alexandrovich Tverskoy. This profitable marriage was to become a symbol of reconciliation between the eternal rivals - Tver and Moscow.

In order to legitimize the new order of succession to the throne, Vasily II called Ivan the Grand Duke during his lifetime. All letters were written on behalf of the two great dukes.

At the age of 22, he took the throne after the death of his father.

Ivan continued his father's policy of consolidating the Russian state.

According to his father's will, Ivan received the largest inheritance in terms of territory and significance, which, in addition to part of Moscow, included Kolomna, Vladimir, Pereyaslavl, Kostroma, Ustyug, Suzdal, Nizhny Novgorod and other cities.

Ivan III Vasilievich

His brothers Andrei Bolshoi, Andrei Menshoi and Boris received Uglich, Vologda and Volokolamsk as their fiefdoms. Ivan became a "gatherer" of Russian lands with the help of skillful diplomacy, bought them and captured them by force. In 1463 the principality of Yaroslavl was annexed, in 1474 - the principality of Rostov, in 1471-1478. - vast Novgorod lands.

In 1485, Ivan's power was recognized by the besieged Tver, and in 1489 - Vyatka, most of the Ryazan lands; influence on Pskov was strengthened.
As a result of two wars with Lithuania (1487-1494 and 1501-1503), significant parts of the Smolensk, Novgorod-Seversky and Chernigov principalities passed into the possession of Ivan.

For thirty years there were no enemies under the walls of Moscow. A whole generation of people has grown up who have never seen the Horde on their land.
The Livonian Order paid tribute to him for the city of Yuryev. He became the first prince of Moscow to lay claim to the entire territory of Kievan Rus, including the western and southwestern lands, which at that time were part of the Polish-Lithuanian state, which became the cause of the centuries-old feud between the Russian state and Poland.

Assumption Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin

Having strengthened his position, Ivan III began to behave like an independent sovereign from the Mongols, stopped paying them tribute.

Khan Akhmat decided to restore the rule of the Horde over Russia. Ambitious, intelligent, but cautious, he had been preparing for a campaign against the Russian land for several years. With victories in Central Asia and the Caucasus, he again raised the power of the khanate, strengthened his power. However, Akhmat was unable to stay in Crimea. Here on the khan's throne sat the vassal of the Turkish sultan Mengli-Girey. The Crimean Khanate, which had separated from the Golden Horde, anxiously watched the strengthening of Akhmat's power. This opened up the prospects for Russian-Crimean rapprochement.

Under Ivan III, the process of unification of the Russian lands was completed, which required centuries of intense efforts of the entire people.

In 1480, the energetic and successful Akhmat, having concluded an alliance with the Lithuanian king Casimir, raised the Great Horde on a campaign against Russia, gathering all the forces of his huge, still formidable empire. Danger again loomed over Russia. The khan chose the moment for the invasion very well: in the north-west there was a war between the Russians and the Order; Casimir's position was hostile; a feudal rebellion began against Ivan Vasilyevich, his brothers Andrei Bolshoi and Boris, on the basis of territorial disputes. Everything seemed to be in favor of the Mongols.

Akhmat's troops approached the Ugra River (a tributary of the Oka), which flowed along the border of the Russian state and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Attempts by the Tatars to cross the river were unsuccessful. The "standing on the Ugra" of enemy troops began, which ended in favor of the Russians: on November 11, 1480, Akhmat turned away. Somewhere in the winter quarters at the mouth of the Northern Donets, Ivan Vasilyevich overtook him with someone else's hands: the Siberian Khan Ivak cut off Akhmat's head and sent it to the Grand Duke as proof that the enemy of Moscow had been defeated. Ivan III warmly greeted the ambassadors of Ivak and presented them and the khan with gifts.

Thus, the dependence of Russia on the Horde fell.

Ivan III Vasilievich

Back in 1462, Ivan III inherited from his father, Vasily the Dark, a considerable Moscow principality, whose territory reached 400 thousand square meters. km. And to his son, Prince Vasily III, he left a vast power, the area of which increased more than 5 times and exceeded 2 million square meters. km. A powerful state was formed around the once modest principality, which became the largest in Europe: “Astonished Europe,” wrote K. Marx, “at the beginning of Ivan’s reign, not even suspecting about Muscovy, squeezed between Lithuania and the Tatars, was stunned by the sudden appearance of a huge empire on its eastern borders, and Sultan Bayazet himself, before whom she was in awe, heard for the first time haughty speeches from the Muscovites. "

Under Ivan, the complex and strict palace ceremonies of the Byzantine emperors were introduced.

The first wife of the Grand Duke of Tver, Princess Maria Borisovna, died in 1467, before she was thirty. Two years after the death of his wife, John III decided to marry again. His chosen one was Princess Sophia (Zoya), the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI, who died in 1453 during the capture of Constantinople by the Turks. Sophia's father, Thomas Palaeologus, a former despot of Morea (the Peloponnese peninsula), soon after the fall of Constantinople fled with his family from the Turks to Italy, where his children were taken under papal protection. Thomas himself, for the sake of this support, converted to Catholicism.

Sophia and her brothers were brought up by the learned Greek Cardinal Vissarion of Nicea (the former Greek Metropolitan - "architect" of the Florentine Union of 1439), who was known as a staunch supporter of the subordination of the Orthodox Churches to the Roman throne. In this regard, Pope Paul II, who, according to the historian S.M. Solovyov, “no doubt wishing to take the opportunity to establish relations with Moscow and establish his power here through Sophia, which, by her very upbringing, could not suspect of alienation from Catholicism ”, In 1469 he proposed to the Grand Duke of Moscow a marriage with a Byzantine princess. At the same time, wishing to gain accession to the union of the Muscovite state as soon as possible, the Pope gave instructions to his envoys to promise Russia Constantinople as "the legitimate legacy of the Russian Tsars."

Zoya Palaeologus

Negotiations on the possibility of concluding this marriage lasted three years. In 1469, an envoy from Cardinal Vissarion arrived in Moscow, who brought an offer to the Moscow prince to marry Princess Sophia. At the same time, the transition of Sophia to Uniatism was concealed from John III - he was informed that the Greek princess refused two suitors - the French king and the Duke of Mediolana, allegedly out of devotion to the paternal faith. The Grand Duke, as the chronicler says, "took these words into thought," and, after consulting with the Metropolitan, mother and boyars, agreed to this marriage, sending Ivan Fryazin, a native of Italy in the Russian service, to the Roman court to woo Sophia.

“The Pope wanted to give Sophia a Moscow prince, to restore the Florentine union, to acquire a powerful ally against the terrible Turks, and therefore it was easy and pleasant for him to believe everything that the Moscow ambassador said; and Fryazin, who renounced Latinism in Moscow, but was indifferent to the difference in confessions, told what did not exist, promised what could not be, just to settle the matter as soon as possible, which was desired in Moscow no less than in Rome, ”writes about these negotiations of the Russian envoy (who, we note, being in Rome, fulfilled all Latin customs, hiding that he had taken the Orthodox faith in Moscow) S.M. Soloviev. As a result, both sides were satisfied with each other and the Pope, who from 1471 was already Sixtus IV, having transferred the portrait of Sophia as a gift to John III through Fryazin, asked the Grand Duke to send boyars for the bride.

On June 1, 1472, an absentee betrothal took place in the Basilica of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. The Grand Duke of Moscow was represented during this ceremony by Ivan Fryazin. On June 24, a large train (convoy) of Sofia Paleologue, together with Fryazin, left Rome. And on October 1, as S.M. Soloviev writes, “Nikolai Lyakh drove to Pskov as a messenger from the sea, from Revel, and announced at the veche:“ The princess has moved the sea, is going to Moscow, daughter of Thomas, Prince of the Sea, niece of Constantine, Tsar of Constantinople , grandson of John Palaeologus, son-in-law of Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich, her name is Sophia, she will be your Empress, and Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich will be your wife, and you would have met her and received her honestly. "

Having announced this to the Pskovites, the messenger rode to Novgorod the Great on the same day, and from there to Moscow. " After a long journey, on November 12, 1472, Sophia entered Moscow and on the same day was married by Metropolitan Philip to Prince John III of Moscow in the Assumption Cathedral.

Grand Duke Ivan III and Sophia Paleologue.

The Pope's plans to make Princess Sophia a conductor of Catholic influence failed completely. As the chronicler noted, upon the arrival of Sophia on the Russian land, “his lord (the cardinal) was with her, not according to our custom, dressed all in red, in gloves, which he never removes and blesses in them, and they carry a cast crucifix in front of him, spiked high on the shaft; he does not approach icons and does not cross himself; in the Trinity Cathedral he venerated only the Most Pure One, and then by order of the princess. " This unexpected circumstance for the Grand Duke forced John III to convene a conference, which was to decide a fundamental question: whether to let into Moscow a Catholic cardinal, who walked everywhere in front of the princess with a high-raised Latin cross. The outcome of the disputes was decided by the word of Metropolitan Philip, conveyed to the Grand Duke: “It is impossible for an ambassador not only to enter the city with a cross, but also to drive up close; But if you allow him to do this, wishing to honor him, then he will have one gate to the city, and I, your father, will have another gate from the city; it is indecent for us to hear about it, not only to see it, because whoever loves and praises someone else's faith has quarreled with his own. " Then John III ordered to take the cross from the legate and hide it in the sleigh.

And the next day after the wedding, when the papal legate, presenting gifts to the Grand Duke, had to talk to him about the unification of churches, he, as the chronicler says, was completely at a loss, because the metropolitan put up the scribe Nikita Popovich against him for a dispute: at Nikita's, the Metropolitan himself spoke to the legate, forced Nikita to argue about something else; the cardinal could not find what to answer, and ended the dispute, saying: "There are no books with me!" Moscow prince did not entail any visible consequences for Europe and Catholicism. " Sophia immediately abandoned the forced Uniatism, demonstrating a return to the faith of her ancestors. “So unsuccessfully ended the attempt of the Roman court to restore the Florentine union through the marriage of the Moscow prince to Sophia Palaeologus,” concluded SM Soloviev.

The consequences of this marriage turned out to be completely different than expected by the Roman pontiff. Having intermarried with the Byzantine imperial dynasty, the Moscow prince, as it were, symbolically received from his wife the rights of sovereigns who fell under the Turks of the Second Rome and, taking this baton, opened new page in the history of the Russian state as the Third Rome. True, Sophia had brothers who could also claim the role of heirs of the Second Rome, but they disposed of their hereditary rights differently. As N.I.Kostomarov noted, “one of her brothers, Manuel, submitted to the Turkish sultan; the other, Andrei, twice visited Moscow, both times did not get along there, went to Italy and sold his inheritance rights to the French king Charles VIII, then to the Spanish king Ferdinand the Catholic. In the eyes of Orthodox people, the transfer of the rights of the Byzantine Orthodox monarchs to some Latin king could not seem legitimate, and in this case, much more right was presented to Sophia, who remained faithful to Orthodoxy, was the wife of the Orthodox Sovereign, had to become and became the mother and foremother of his successors , and during her life she earned the reproach and censure of the Pope and his supporters, who were very mistaken in her, hoping to introduce the Florentine union into Moscow Russia through her. "

“The marriage of Ivan and Sophia acquired the significance of a political demonstration,” noted V.O. Klyuchevsky, “by which they declared to the whole world that the princess, as the heir to the fallen Byzantine house, transferred his sovereign rights to Moscow as to the new Constantinople, where she shares them with her spouse. "

The symbol of the continuity of Muscovite Rus from Byzantium was the adoption by John III as the state emblem of Muscovite Russia of a two-headed eagle, which was considered the official coat of arms of Byzantium during the last dynasty of the Palaeologus (as you know, at the head of the wedding train of Princess Sophia, a golden banner developed with a black two-headed eagle woven on it) ...

And much more from that time in Russia began to change, taking on a semblance of the Byzantine. “This is not done all of a sudden, it happens throughout the reign of Ivan Vasilyevich, and continues after his death,” noted N.I. Kostomarov.

In court use, there is a loud title of the king, kissing the royal hand, court ranks (...); the importance of the boyars, as the upper stratum of society, falls before the autocratic Emperor; all were made equal, all were equally his slaves. The honorary name "boyar" becomes a dignity, rank: the Grand Duke grants the boyar for merits. (...) But the most important and essential was the internal change in the dignity of the Grand Duke, strongly felt and clearly visible in the actions of the slow-moving Ivan Vasilyevich. The Grand Duke became the Sovereign autocrat. Already in his predecessors, sufficient preparation for this is visible, but the Grand Dukes of Moscow were still not completely autocratic monarchs: Ivan Vasilyevich became the first autocrat and became especially after his marriage with Sophia. All his activities since then have been more consistent and unswervingly devoted to the strengthening of autocracy and autocracy. "

Speaking about the consequences of this marriage for the Russian state, the historian SM Soloviev rightly remarked: “The Grand Duke of Moscow was in fact the strongest of the princes of Northern Russia, whom no one could resist; but he still continued to bear the title of Grand Duke, which meant only the eldest in the princely family; not long ago he bowed in the Horde not only to the khan, but also to his nobles; the kinship princes still did not cease to demand kindred, equal treatment; members of the squad still retained the old right to leave, and this lack of strength in official relations, although in reality it had come to an end, gave them a reason to think about the old days, when the combatant, at the first displeasure, drove away from one prince to another and considered himself entitled to know all the thoughts of the prince ; at the Moscow court, a crowd of serving princes appeared, who did not forget about their origin from the same ancestor with the Moscow Grand Duke and stood out from the Moscow squad, becoming higher than it, therefore, having even more ambitions; the church, assisting the Moscow princes in the establishment of autocracy, has long tried to give them the highest importance relative to other princes; but for the most successful achievement of the goal, the help of the traditions of the Empire was needed; these legends were brought to Moscow by Sophia Palaeologus. Contemporaries noticed that after his marriage to the niece of the Byzantine emperor, John was a formidable sovereign at the Moscow grand-ducal table; he was the first to receive the name of Terrible, because he appeared for the princes and squads as a monarch, demanding unquestioning obedience and strictly punishing disobedience, rose to a royal unattainable height, before which the boyar, the prince, the descendant of Rurik and Gedimin had to reverently bow on a par with the last of the subjects; at the first wave of Ivan the Terrible, the heads of seditious princes and boyars lay on the chopping block. Contemporaries and immediate descendants attributed this change to the suggestions of Sophia, and we have no right to reject their testimony. "

Sophia Paleologue

Sophia, who left a memory of herself in Europe with her extraordinary stoutness, had an extraordinary mind and soon achieved a noticeable influence. Ivan, at her insistence, undertook the restructuring of Moscow, erected new brick Kremlin walls, a new palace, a reception hall, the Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady in the Kremlin, and much more. Construction was carried out in other cities as well - Kolomna, Tula, Ivan-gorod.

Under John, Muscovite Rus, strengthened and united, finally threw off the Tatar yoke.

As early as 1472, the Khan of the Golden Horde, Akhmat, undertook, at the suggestions of the Polish king Casimir, a campaign against Moscow, but took only Aleksin and could not cross the Oka, behind which a strong army of John had gathered. In 1476, John refused to pay tribute to Akhmat, and in 1480 the latter again attacked Russia, but at the Ugra River he was stopped by the army of the Grand Duke. Even now, John himself hesitated for a long time, and only the persistent demands of the clergy, especially the Rostov bishop Vassian, prompted him to personally go to the army and break off negotiations with Akhmat.

Several times Akhmat tried to break through to the other side of the Ugra, but all his attempts were suppressed by Russian troops. These military actions went down in history as "standing on the Ugra".

Throughout the fall, the Russian and Tatar armies stood one against the other for different sides the Ugra rivers; when it was already winter, and severe frosts began to disturb Akhmat's poorly dressed Tatars, he, without waiting for help from Casimir, retreated on November 11; the next year he was killed by the Nogai prince Ivak, and the power of the Golden Horde over Russia collapsed completely.

Ivan III began to call himself the Grand Duke of All Russia, and this title was recognized by Lithuania in 1494. The first of the Moscow princes, he was called "tsar", "autocrat". In 1497 he introduced a new coat of arms of Muscovite Rus - a black two-headed Byzantine eagle. Moscow, thus, claimed the status of the successor of Byzantium (later the Pskov monk Philotheus called it “the third Rome”; the “second” was the fallen Constantinople).

Sovereign Grand Duke Ivan III Vasilievich.

Ivan had a tough and stubborn disposition, insight and foresight were inherent in him, especially in matters of foreign policy.

Ivan III Vasilievich Gatherer of the Russian land

In domestic politics, Ivan strengthened the structure of the central government, demanding the unquestioning obedience of the boyars. In 1497, a code of laws was issued - the Code of Laws, drawn up with his participation. Centralized government led to the establishment of a local system, and this, in turn, contributed to the formation of a new class - the nobility, which became the mainstay of the autocrat's power.

The well-known historian A. A. Zimin assessed the activities of Ivan III: “Ivan III was one of the outstanding statesmen of feudal Russia. Possessing an extraordinary mind and breadth of political ideas, he was able to understand the urgent need to unite the Russian lands into a single state ... The state of All Russia replaced the Grand Duchy of Moscow. "

“In 1492, Ivan III made a decision New Year to calculate not from March 1, but from September 1, since it is much more convenient for the national economy: the results of the harvest were summed up, preparations were made for winter, weddings were played. "

"Ivan III territorially expanded Russia: when in 1462 he assumed the throne, the state was 400 thousand square kilometers, and after his death, in 1505, it amounted to more than 2 million square kilometers."

In the summer of 1503 Ivan III Vasilyevich fell seriously ill, he went blind in one eye; there was a partial paralysis of one arm and one leg. Leaving business, Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich went on a trip to the monasteries.

In his will, he divided the volosts between five sons: Vasily, Yuri, Dmitry, Semyon, Andrey. However, he gave the eldest all seniority and 66 cities, including Moscow, Novgorod, Pskov, Tver, Vladimir, Kolomna, Pereyaslavl, Rostov, Suzdal, Murom. Nizhniy and others ”.

The Grand Duke was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.

Historians agree that the reign of Ivan III Vasilyevich was extremely successful, it was under him that the Russian state by the beginning of the 16th century. took an honorable international position, standing out with new ideas, cultural and political growth.