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79-470: It was first mentioned in 1594 as the settlement of Glukhovichi ( Глуховичи ), a votchina of a Ryazan archbishop . It used to be called Lukhovichi ( Луховичи ) until the mid-1920s. In 1957, it was granted town status. The town grew rapidly after the transfer of testing (and later production) facilities of the Mikoyan design bureau. Within the framework of administrative divisions , Lukhovitsy serves as

158-622: A tyrant came from politicised Western travel literature of the Renaissance era. Anti-Russian propaganda during the Livonian War portrayed Ivan as a sadistic and oriental despot. Vladimir Dal defines grozny specifically in archaic usage and as an epithet for tsars: "courageous, magnificent, magisterial and keeping enemies in fear, but people in obedience". Other translations have also been suggested by modern scholars, including formidable , as well as awe-inspiring . Ivan Vasilyevich

237-430: A votchina (hereditary land) and pomestye (service land). Service lands were given on condition of service, and so it reverted to the state upon the owner's death, while hereditary lands were considered to be family property. However, by the 16th century, it was common for sons or nephews to take over service land when the owner ( pomeshchik ) died or was unable to serve, with the continuation of military service. Until

316-502: A "Russe" and highlighting his "German" descent from Rurik. Such genealogies served to elevate the position of the Russian monarch in the eyes of his subjects and other European powers, who were also creating mythological ancestors for themselves. Despite calamities triggered by the Great Fire of 1547 , the early part of Ivan's reign was one of peaceful reforms and modernization. Ivan revised

395-545: A 1712 law prevented the surviving male in a family from selling or giving away the family's property to anyone who was not a part of the family. The Law of Single Inheritance ( Russian : Указ о единонаследии ), published on 24 March 1714, merged votchiny and pomestya and stipulated that the estates could only be passed to one heir. During the reign of Catherine II , the Charter to the Nobility of 1785 granted nobles and their heirs

474-472: A difficult position by 1579. The displaced refugees fleeing the war compounded the effects of the simultaneous drought, and the exacerbated war engendered epidemics causing much loss of life. Báthory then launched a series of offensives against Muscovy in the campaign seasons of 1579–81 to try to cut the Kingdom of Livonia from Muscovy. During his first offensive in 1579, he retook Polotsk with 22,000 men. During

553-642: A distinct legislative subject in the Sudebnik of 1550 . A council degree the following year also affected the ownership of votchiny by lay persons, but also princes in particular. The policy under Ivan IV of Russia greatly enlarged the pool of votchiny and enabled the tsar to reward servitors. In general, the rights of owners of hereditary estates earned through service ( vysluzhennyye votchiny ) were usually more restricted compared to those who owned ancestral estates, but still greater than owners of service estates. The Sobornoye Ulozheniye of 1649 enacted during

632-501: A few thousand Azaps and Akıncıs were sent to lay siege to Astrakhan and to begin the canal works while an Ottoman fleet besieged Azov . In early 1570, Ivan's ambassadors concluded a treaty at Constantinople that restored friendly relations between the sultan and the tsar. The envoys were directed to tell to the sultan: "My Tsar is not an enemy of the Moslem faith. His servant Sain Bulat rules

711-498: A new dimension of power that was intimately tied to religion. He was now a "divine" leader appointed to enact God's will, as "church texts described Old Testament kings as 'Tsars' and Christ as the Heavenly Tsar". The newly appointed title was then passed on from generation to generation, and "succeeding Muscovite rulers... benefited from the divine nature of the power of the Russian monarch... crystallized during Ivan's reign". Like

790-523: A prince ( knyaz ). The system disappeared in Russia largely due to reforms in the 18th-century. In medieval sources, noble landowners and princes would often refer to a votchina or otchina in connection to their own lands. The term votchina is now generally used in Russian historical terminology in reference to the main form of feudal landownership. From the 15th century, there were two legally distinct forms of land that could be owned by Russian nobles:

869-404: A right to freely move to different votchiny . Later, the administrative and legal powers of owners of votchiny were severely limited, and then completely revoked. In the mid-15th century, the right of certain categories of peasants in some votchiny to leave their master was limited to a period of one week before and after Yuri's Day (November 26). The Pomestnyi prikaz ("land department")

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948-525: Is a legend that he was so impressed with the structure that he had the architect, Postnik Yakovlev , blinded so that he could never design anything as beautiful again. However, in reality Postnik Yakovlev went on to design more churches for Ivan and the walls of the Kazan Kremlin in the early 1560s as well as the chapel over Saint Basil's grave, which was added to Saint Basil's Cathedral in 1588, several years after Ivan's death. Although more than one architect

1027-464: Is a somewhat archaic translation. The Russian word grozny reflects the older English usage of terrible as in "inspiring fear or terror; dangerous; powerful" (i.e., similar to modern English terrifying or formidable ). It does not convey the more modern connotations of English terrible such as "defective" or "evil". According to Edward L. Keenan , Ivan the Terrible's image in popular culture as

1106-406: Is located here. Lukhovitsy is famous for growing cucumbers ; there is a monument of a cucumber in the town. Votchina A votchina ( Russian : во́тчина , IPA [ˈvottɕɪnɐ] , pl.   вотчины , votchiny ) or otchina ( о́тчина – from the word for father ) was a land estate that could be inherited. The term votchina was also used to describe the lands of

1185-485: The oprichniki . Originally, it numbered 1000. The oprichniki were headed by Malyuta Skuratov . One known oprichnik was the German adventurer Heinrich von Staden . The oprichniki enjoyed social and economic privileges under the oprichnina . They owed their allegiance and status to Ivan, not heredity or local bonds. The first wave of persecutions targeted primarily the princely clans of Russia, notably

1264-541: The oprichnina and disbanded his oprichniki . In September or October 1575, Ivan proclaimed Simeon Bekbulatovich , his statesman of Tatar origin, the new grand prince of all Russia. Simeon reigned as a figurehead leader for about a year. According to the English envoy Giles Fletcher the Elder , Simeon acted on Ivan's instructions to confiscate all of the lands that belonged to monasteries, and Ivan pretended to disagree with

1343-472: The oprichniki . The later years of Ivan's reign were marked by the massacre of Novgorod by the oprichniki and the burning of Moscow by the Tatars . Ivan also pursued cultural improvements, such as importing the first printing press to Russia, and began several processes that would continue for centuries, including deepening connections with other European states, particularly England , fighting wars against

1422-547: The oprichnina and Tatar raids, the prolonged war and overpopulation caused a severe social and economic crisis in the second half of Ivan's reign. The 1560s brought to Russia hardships that led to a dramatic change in Ivan's policies. Russia was devastated by a combination of drought, famine, unsuccessful wars against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , Tatar invasions and the sea-trading blockade carried out by

1501-603: The Baltic ports owned by Livonia. Russia remained isolated from sea trade. Ivan established close ties with the Kingdom of England . Russian–English relations can be traced to 1551, when the Muscovy Company was formed by Richard Chancellor , Sebastian Cabot , Sir Hugh Willoughby and several London merchants. In 1553, Chancellor sailed to the White Sea and continued overland to Moscow, where he visited Ivan's court. Ivan opened up

1580-566: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania ), claimed descent both from Orthodox Hungarian nobles and the Mongol ruler Mamai (1335–1380). Born on 25 August, he received the name Ivan in honor of St.  John the Baptist , the day of whose beheading falls on 29 August. In some texts of that era, it is also occasionally mentioned with the names Titus and Smaragd, in accordance with the tradition of polyonymy among

1659-687: The Habsburgs and other monarchs in Europe, the first Russian tsars adopted mythological genealogies that connected them to Ancient Rome . In The Tale of the Princes of Vladimir , their lineage is traced to Rurik , the first prince of Novgorod in northern Russia, while a certain Prus, an alleged brother of Augustus who ruled what would become Prussia , is mentioned as a direct ancestor of Rurik. Ivan IV often mentioned his apparent kinship with Augustus, claiming not to be

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1738-785: The Kazan Khanate repeatedly raided northeastern Russia. In the 1530s, the Crimean khan formed an offensive alliance with Safa Giray of Kazan , his relative. When Safa Giray invaded Russia in December 1540, the Russians used Qasim Tatars to contain him. After his advance was stalled near Murom, Safa Giray was forced to withdraw to his own borders. The reverses undermined Safa Giray's authority in Kazan. A pro-Russian party, represented by Shahgali , gained enough popular support to make several attempts to take over

1817-533: The Oka River , which defined the border. The following year, Devlet launched another raid on Moscow, now with a numerous horde, reinforced by Turkish janissaries equipped with firearms and cannons. The Russian army, led by Prince Mikhail Vorotynsky , was half the size but was experienced and supported by streltsy , equipped with modern firearms and gulyay-gorods . In addition, it was no longer divided into two parts (the oprichnina and zemsky ), unlike during

1896-474: The Ottoman Empire , and the conquest of Siberia . Contemporary sources present disparate accounts of Ivan's complex personality. He was described as intelligent and devout, but also prone to paranoia, rage, and episodic outbreaks of mental instability that worsened with age. Historians generally believe that in a fit of anger, he murdered his eldest son and heir, Ivan Ivanovich ; he might also have caused

1975-813: The Rurikids . Baptized in the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius by Abbot Joasaph (Skripitsyn), two elders of the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery were elected as recipients—the monk Cassian Bossoy and the hegumen Daniel. Tradition says that in honor of the birth of Ivan, the Church of the Ascension was built in Kolomenskoye . When Ivan was three years old, his father died from an abscess and inflammation on his leg that developed into blood poisoning . The closest contenders to

2054-1029: The Stroganov merchant family the patent for colonising "the abundant region along the Kama River", and, in 1574, lands over the Ural Mountains along the rivers Tura and Tobol . The family also received permission to build forts along the Ob River and the Irtysh River . Around 1577, the Stroganovs engaged the Cossack leader Yermak Timofeyevich to protect their lands from attacks of the Siberian Khan Kuchum . In 1580, Yermak started his conquest of Siberia. With some 540 Cossacks , he started to penetrate territories that were tributary to Kuchum. Yermak pressured and persuaded

2133-710: The administrative center of Lukhovitsky District . As an administrative division, it is, together with the settlement of stantsii Chernaya , incorporated within Lukhovitsky District as the Town of Lukhovitsy . As a municipal division , the Town of Lukhovitsy is incorporated within Lukhovitsky Municipal District as Lukhovitsy Urban Settlement . The town is served by the Tretyakovo Airport . A bus terminal

2212-582: The 1571 defeat. On 27 July, the horde broke through the defensive line along the Oka River and moved towards Moscow. The Russian troops did not have time to intercept it, but the regiment of Prince Khvorostinin vigorously attacked the Tatars from the rear. The Khan stopped only 30 km from Moscow and brought down his entire army back on the Russians, who managed to take up defense near the village of Molodi . After several days of heavy fighting, Mikhail Vorotynsky with

2291-556: The Kazan throne. In 1545, Ivan mounted an expedition to the River Volga to show his support for the pro-Russian party. In 1551, the tsar sent his envoy to the Nogai Horde , and they promised to maintain neutrality during the impending war. The Ar begs and Udmurts submitted to Russian authority as well. In 1551, the wooden fort of Sviyazhsk was transported down the Volga from Uglich all

2370-894: The Khanate of Kassimov; Prince Kaibula in Yuriev, Ibak in Suroshsk, and the Nogai Princes in Romanov.” In 1558, Ivan launched the Livonian War in an attempt to gain access to the Baltic Sea and its major trade routes. The war ultimately proved unsuccessful and stretched on for 24 years, engaging the Kingdom of Sweden , the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Teutonic Knights of Livonia. The prolonged war had nearly destroyed

2449-763: The Moscow government to gain a foothold on the Middle Volga kept provoking uprisings of local peoples, which was suppressed only with great difficulty. In 1557, the First Cheremis War ended, and the Bashkirs accepted Ivan's authority. In campaigns in 1554 and 1556, Russian troops conquered the Astrakhan Khanate at the mouths of the Volga River, and the new Astrakhan fortress was built in 1558 by Ivan Vyrodkov to replace

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2528-578: The Ottoman Empire .) Khan Devlet I Giray of Crimea repeatedly raided the Moscow region. In 1571, the 40,000-strong Crimean and Turkish army launched a large-scale raid. The ongoing Livonian War left Moscow with a garrison of only 6,000 troops, which could not even delay the Tatar approach. Unresisted, Devlet devastated unprotected towns and villages around Moscow and caused the Fire of Moscow . Historians have estimated

2607-481: The Print Yard being burned in an arson attack. The first Russian printers, Ivan Fedorov and Pyotr Mstislavets , were forced to flee from Moscow to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania . Nevertheless, the printing of books resumed from 1568 onwards, with Andronik Timofeevich Nevezha and his son Ivan now heading the Print Yard. Ivan had Saint Basil's Cathedral constructed in Moscow to commemorate the seizure of Kazan . There

2686-920: The Swedes, the Poles and the Hanseatic League . His first wife, Anastasia Romanovna, died in 1560, which was suspected to be a poisoning. The personal tragedy deeply hurt Ivan and is thought to have affected his personality, if not his mental health. At the same time one of Ivan's advisors, Prince Andrey Kurbsky, defected to the Lithuanians, took command of the Lithuanian troops and devastated the Russian region of Velikiye Luki . This series of treacherous acts made Ivan paranoically suspicious of nobility. On 3 December 1564 Ivan left Moscow for Aleksandrova Sloboda , where he sent two letters in which he announced his abdication because of

2765-488: The Terrible with a message that proclaimed Yermak-conquered Siberia to be part of Russia to the dismay of the Stroganovs, who had planned to keep Siberia for themselves. Ivan agreed to reinforce the Cossacks with his streltsy, but the detachment sent to Siberia died of starvation without any benefit. The Cossacks were defeated by the local peoples, Yermak died and the survivors immediately left Siberia. Only in 1586, two years after

2844-523: The Turks, Ivan sent in 1558 a delegation to Egypt Eyalet by Archdeacon Gennady, who, however, died in Constantinople before he could reach Egypt. From then on, the embassy was headed by Smolensk merchant Vasily Poznyakov, whose delegation visited Alexandria, Cairo and Sinai; brought the patriarch a fur coat and an icon sent by Ivan and left an interesting account of his two-and-a-half years of travels. Ivan

2923-474: The White Sea and the port of Arkhangelsk to the company and granted it privilege of trading throughout his reign without paying the standard customs fees. With the use of English merchants, Ivan engaged in a long correspondence with Elizabeth I of England . While the queen focused on commerce, Ivan was more interested in a military alliance. Ivan even proposed to her once, and during his troubled relations with

3002-710: The age of 16, Ivan was crowned at the Cathedral of the Dormition in the Moscow Kremlin . The metropolitan placed on Ivan the signs of royal dignity: the Cross of the Life-Giving Tree , barmas, and the cap of Monomakh ; Ivan Vasilyevich was anointed with myrrh , and then the metropolitan blessed the tsar. He was the first Russian monarch to be crowned the tsar of all Russia , partly imitating his grandfather, Ivan III. Until then,

3081-559: The age of 16. In the early years of his reign, Ivan ruled with the group of reformers known as the Chosen Council and established the Zemsky Sobor , a new assembly convened by the tsar. He also revised the legal code and introduced reforms, including elements of local self-government, as well as establishing the first Russian standing army, the streltsy . Ivan conquered the khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan , and significantly expanded

3160-488: The alleged embezzlement and treason of the aristocracy and the clergy. The boyar court was unable to rule in Ivan's absence and feared the wrath of the Muscovite citizens. A boyar envoy departed for Aleksandrova Sloboda to beg Ivan to return to the throne. Ivan agreed to return on condition of being granted absolute power. He demanded the right to condemn and execute traitors and confiscate their estates without interference from

3239-410: The boyar council or church. Ivan decreed the creation of the oprichnina . The oprichnina was a separate territory within the borders of Russia, mostly in the territory of the former Novgorod Republic in the north. Ivan held exclusive power over the territory. The Boyar Council ruled the zemshchina ('land'), the second division of the state. Ivan also recruited a personal guard known as

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3318-597: The boyars, he even asked her for a guarantee to be granted asylum in England if his rule was jeopardised. Elizabeth agreed on the condition that he provide for himself during his potential stay. Ivan corresponded with overseas Orthodox leaders. In response to a letter of Patriarch Joachim of Alexandria asking him for financial assistance for the Saint Catherine's Monastery , in the Sinai Peninsula , which had suffered by

3397-427: The boyars. There followed brutal reprisals and assassinations, including those of Metropolitan Philip and Prince Alexander Gorbatyi-Shuisky . Ivan ordered in 1553 the establishment of the Moscow Print Yard , and the first printing press was introduced to Russia. Several religious books in Russian were printed during the 1550s and 1560s. The new technology provoked discontent among traditional scribes, which led to

3476-410: The brother of Fredrick II and a former ally of Ivan, died in 1583, Poland invaded his territories in the Duchy of Courland , and Frederick II decided to sell his rights of inheritance. Except for the island of Saaremaa , Denmark had left Livonia by 1585. In the later years of Ivan's reign, the southern borders of Muscovy were disturbed by Crimean Tatars, mainly to capture slaves. (See also Slavery in

3555-450: The city. The oprichniki burned and pillaged Novgorod and the surrounding villages and the city has never regained its former prominence. Casualty figures vary greatly from different sources. The First Pskov Chronicle estimates the number of victims at 60,000. According to the Third Novgorod Chronicle, the massacre lasted for five weeks. The massacre of Novgorod consisted of men, women and children who were tied to sleighs and run into

3634-443: The conquest of Kazan, the Siberian khan Yadegar and the Nogai Horde , under Khan Ismail, pledged their allegiance to Ivan in the hope that he would help them against their opponents. However, Yadegar failed to gather the full sum of tribute that he proposed to the tsar and so Ivan did nothing to save his inefficient vassal. In 1563, Yadegar was overthrown and killed by Khan Kuchum , who denied any tribute to Moscow. In 1558, Ivan gave

3713-451: The decision. When the throne was returned to Ivan in September 1576 he returned some of the confiscated land and kept the rest. In 1547, Hans Schlitte, the agent of Ivan, recruited craftsmen in Germany for work in Russia. However, all of the craftsmen were arrested in Lübeck at the request of Poland and Livonia . The German merchant companies ignored the new port built by Ivan on the River Narva in 1550 and continued to deliver goods in

3792-480: The economy, and the oprichnina had thoroughly disrupted the government. Meanwhile, the Union of Lublin had united the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Kingdom of Poland , and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth acquired an energetic leader, Stephen Báthory , who was supported by Russia's southern enemy, the Ottoman Empire. Ivan's realm was being squeezed by two of the time's great powers. After rejecting peace proposals from his enemies, Ivan had found himself in

3871-460: The freezing waters of the Volkhov River, which Ivan ordered on the basis of unproved accusations of treason. He then tortured its inhabitants and killed thousands in a pogrom. The archbishop was also hunted to death. Almost every day, 500 or 600 people were killed, some by drowning, but the official death toll named 1,500 of Novgorod's "big" people (nobility) and mentioned only about the same number of "smaller" people. Many modern researchers estimate

3950-424: The grim conditions of the epidemic, a famine and the ongoing Livonian War, Ivan grew suspicious that noblemen of the wealthy city of Novgorod were planning to defect and to place the city under the control of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. A Novgorod citizen, Petr Volynets, warned the tsar about the alleged conspiracy, which modern historians believe not to have been real. In 1570 Ivan ordered the oprichniki to raid

4029-429: The influential families of Suzdal. Ivan executed, exiled or forcibly tonsured prominent members of the boyar clans on questionable accusations of conspiracy. Among those who were executed were the Metropolitan Philip and the prominent warlord Alexander Gorbaty-Shuisky. In 1566 Ivan extended the oprichnina to eight central districts. Of the 12,000 nobles, 570 became oprichniki and the rest were expelled. Under

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4108-403: The law code, creating the Sudebnik of 1550 , founded a standing army (the streltsy ), established the Zemsky Sobor (the first Russian parliament of feudal estates) and the council of the nobles (known as the Chosen Council) and confirmed the position of the Church with the Council of the Hundred Chapters (Stoglavy Synod), which unified the rituals and ecclesiastical regulations of

4187-408: The main part of the army flanked the Tatars and dealt a sudden blow on 2 August, and Khvorostinin made a sortie from the fortifications. The Tatars were completely defeated and fled. The next year, Ivan, who had sat out in distant Novgorod during the battle, killed Mikhail Vorotynsky. During Ivan's reign, Russia started a large-scale exploration and colonization of Siberia . In 1555, shortly after

4266-492: The mid-17th century, a pomestye could only be exchanged for another pomestye , but the Sobornoye Ulozheniye of 1649 allowed for pomestya to be exchanged for votchiny and vice versa. The term originated in the law of Kievan Rus' . An owner of a votchina , known as a votchinnik ( Russian : вотчинник ), not only had property rights to it, but also some administrative and legal power over people living on its territory. These people, however, were not serfs , as they had

4345-435: The mighty boyars from the Shuisky and Belsky families. In a letter to Andrey Kurbsky , Ivan remembered, "My brother Iurii, of blessed memory, and me they brought up like vagrants and children of the poorest. What have I suffered for want of garments and food!" That account has been challenged by the historian Edward Keenan, who doubts the authenticity of the source in which the quotations are found. On 16 January 1547, at

4424-412: The miscarriage of the latter's unborn child. This left his younger son, the politically ineffectual Feodor Ivanovich , to inherit the throne, a man whose rule and subsequent childless death led directly to the end of the Rurik dynasty and the beginning of the Time of Troubles . The English word terrible is usually used to translate the Russian word grozny ( грозный ) in Ivan's epithet, but this

4503-446: The new political system the oprichniki were given large estates but, unlike the previous landlords, could not be held accountable for their actions. The men "took virtually all the peasants possessed, forcing them to pay 'in one year as much as [they] used to pay in ten. ' " This degree of oppression resulted in increasing cases of peasants fleeing, which in turn reduced overall production. The price of grain increased ten-fold. Ivan

4582-430: The number of casualties of the fire to be 10,000 to 80,000. To buy peace from Devlet Giray, Ivan was forced to relinquish his claims on Astrakhan for the Crimean Khanate, but the proposed transfer was only a diplomatic maneuver and was never actually completed. The defeat angered Ivan. Between 1571 and 1572, preparations were made upon his orders. In addition to Zasechnaya cherta , innovative fortifications were set beyond

4661-409: The number of victims to range from 2,000 to 3,000 since after the famine and epidemics of the 1560s the population of Novgorod most likely did not exceed 10,000–20,000. Many survivors were deported. The oprichnina did not live long after the sack of Novgorod. During the 1571–72 Russo-Crimean War the oprichniki failed to prove themselves worthy against a regular army. In 1572, Ivan abolished

4740-485: The old Tatar capital. The annexation of the Tatar khanates meant the conquest of vast territories, access to large markets and control of the entire length of the Volga River. The subjugation of the Muslim khanates turned Russia into an empire. After his conquest of Kazan, Ivan is said to have ordered the crescent, a symbol of Islam, to be placed underneath the Christian cross on the domes of Orthodox Christian churches. In 1568, Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha , who

4819-450: The reign of Alexis of Russia distinguishes between the deti boyarskiye ( boyar scions ) of old ancestry and other deti boyarskiye in connection with buying land and turning it into a votchina . Chapter 16 (on service lands) and Chapter 17 (on hereditary lands) in particular addressed the two main types of private landowning. As peasants were now tied to a land and enserfed, the fate of peasants who had fled from votchiny and pomestya

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4898-418: The right to hold land without requiring state service. Ivan the Terrible Ivan IV Vasilyevich ( Russian : Иван IV Васильевич ; 25 August 1530 – 28 March [ O.S. 18 March] 1584), commonly known as Ivan the Terrible , was Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1533 to 1547, and the first Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia from 1547 until his death in 1584. Ivan's reign

4977-430: The rulers of Moscow were crowned as grand princes, but Ivan III assumed the title of sovereign of all Russia and used the title of tsar in his correspondence with other monarchs. Two weeks after his coronation, Ivan married his first wife, Anastasia Romanovna , a member of the Romanov family , who became the first Russian tsaritsa . By being crowned tsar, Ivan was sending a message to the world and to Russia that he

5056-519: The second, in 1580, he took Velikie Luki with a 29,000-strong force. Finally, he began the Siege of Pskov in 1581 with a 100,000-strong army. Narva , in Estonia , was reconquered by Sweden in 1581. Unlike Sweden and Poland, Frederick II of Denmark had trouble continuing the fight against Muscovy. He came to an agreement with John III of Sweden in 1580 to transfer the Danish titles of Livonia to John III. Muscovy recognised Polish–Lithuanian control of Livonia only in 1582. After Magnus von Lyffland ,

5135-422: The territory of Russia. After he had consolidated his power, Ivan rid himself of the advisers from the Chosen Council and triggered the Livonian War of 1558 to 1583, which ravaged Russia and resulted in failure to take control over Livonia and the loss of Ingria , but allowed him to establish greater autocratic control over the Russian nobility , which he violently purged using Russia's first political police,

5214-562: The throne, except for the young Ivan, were the younger brothers of Vasily. Of the six sons of Ivan III , only two remained: Andrey and Yuri . Ivan was proclaimed the grand prince at the request of his father. His mother Elena Glinskaya initially acted as regent, but died in 1538, when Ivan was eight years old; many believe that she was poisoned. The regency then alternated between several feuding boyar families that fought for control. According to his own letters, Ivan, along with his younger brother Yuri , often felt neglected and offended by

5293-443: The various family-based tribes to change their loyalties and to become tributaries of Russia. Some agreed voluntarily because they were offered better terms than with Kuchum, but others were forced. He also established distant forts in the newly conquered lands. The campaign was successful, and the Cossacks managed to defeat the Siberian army in the Battle of Chuvash Cape , but Yermak still needed reinforcements. He sent an envoy to Ivan

5372-454: The way to Kazan. It was used as the Russian place-of-arms during the decisive campaign of 1552. On 16 June 1552, Ivan led a strong Russian army towards Kazan. The last siege of the Tatar capital commenced on 30 August. Under the supervision of Prince Alexander Gorbaty-Shuisky, the Russians used battering rams, a siege tower, undermining, and 150 cannons. The Russians also had the advantage of efficient military engineers. The city's water supply

5451-485: The whole country. He introduced local self-government to rural regions, mainly in northeastern Russia, populated by the state peasantry. In 1553 Ivan suffered a near-fatal illness and was thought not able to recover. While on his presumed deathbed Ivan had asked the boyars to swear an oath of allegiance to his eldest son, an infant at the time. Many boyars refused since they deemed the tsar's health too hopeless for him to survive. This angered Ivan and added to his distrust of

5530-452: Was a government department ( prikaz ) that supervised hereditary estates ( votchiny ) in addition to service estates ( pomestya ). It also recorded the votchiny of the service estates, which were given to minor nobles in exchange for military service, and registered the dependent population and later any transactions concerning the estates. Like other departments, it handled the litigation of cases in its area. Votchiny first appeared as

5609-435: Was also regulated, with no restriction on the right to return fugitive peasants with force. Three types of votchiny appeared in the Ulozheniye : the old ancestral estates ( rodovyye votchiny ), estates granted for service ( vysluzhennyye votchiny , votchiny za sluzhby dannyye ), and bought estates ( kuplennyye votchiny ). By the time of Peter I , pomestya and votchiny were treated as equivalent forms of landowning and

5688-423: Was associated with that name, it is believed that the principal architect is the same person. Other events of the period include the introduction of the first laws restricting the mobility of the peasants, which would eventually lead to serfdom and were instituted during the rule of the future Tsar Boris Godunov in 1597. (See also Serfdom in Russia .) The combination of bad harvests, devastation brought by

5767-448: Was blocked and the walls were breached. Kazan finally fell on 2 October, its fortifications were razed and much of the population massacred. Many Russian prisoners and slaves were released. Ivan celebrated his victory over Kazan by building several churches with oriental features, most famously Saint Basil's Cathedral on Red Square in Moscow. The fall of Kazan was only the beginning of a series of so-called " Cheremis wars". The attempts of

5846-417: Was characterised by Russia's transformation from a medieval state to a fledgling empire, but at an immense cost to its people and long-term economy. Ivan IV was the eldest son of Vasili III by his second wife Elena Glinskaya , and a grandson of Ivan III . He succeeded his father after his death, when he was three years old. A group of reformers united around the young Ivan, crowning him as tsar in 1547 at

5925-419: Was now the only supreme ruler of the country, and his will was not to be questioned. According to historian Janet Martin, the new title "symbolized an assumption of powers equivalent and parallel to those held by the former Byzantine caesar and the Tatar khan, both known in Russian sources as tsar. The political effect was to elevate Ivan's position". The new title not only secured the throne but also granted Ivan

6004-452: Was repentant after the death of his son and his actions with the oprichnina , and afterwards, he sent out lists compiling the deaths of his Christian victims killed by the system and asked monasteries to pray for every known one. Conditions under the oprichnina were worsened by the 1570 epidemic, a plague that killed 10,000 people in Novgorod and 600 to 1,000 daily in Moscow. During

6083-528: Was the first ruler to begin cooperating with the free cossacks on a large scale. Relations were handled through the Posolsky Prikaz diplomatic department; Moscow sent them money and weapons, while tolerating their freedoms, to draw them into an alliance against the Tatars. The first evidence of cooperation surfaces in 1549 when Ivan ordered the Don Cossacks to attack Crimea. While Ivan was a child, armies of

6162-535: Was the first son of Vasili III by his second wife, Elena Glinskaya . Vasili's mother, Sophia Palaiologina , was a Byzantine princess of the Palaiologos family . She was a daughter of Thomas Palaiologos , the younger brother of the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos ( r.  1449–1453 ). Elena's mother was a Serbian princess and her father's family, the Tatar Glinski clan (nobles based in

6241-399: Was the real power in the administration of the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Selim , initiated the first encounter between the Ottoman Empire and its future northern rival. The results presaged the many disasters to come. A plan to unite the Volga and Don by a canal was detailed in Constantinople. In the summer of 1569, a large force under Kasim Pasha of 1,500 Janissaries , 2,000 Sipahis and

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