Who was Vasily 3. Vasily III Ivanovich. Biography

Years of reign: 1505 - 1533

From the biography

• Son of Ivan 3 and Sophia Paleologus - nieces of the last Byzantine emperor, father of the future Tsar Ivan the Terrible (b. 1530)
• He is called “the last collector of the Russian land,” since the last semi-independent Russian principalities were annexed during his reign.
• In the treaty of 1514 With Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian 1- was the first to be named king.
• Idea " Moscow-third Rome"- is a political ideology that denotes the global significance of Moscow as a political and religious center. According to the theory, the Roman and Byzantine empires fell because they deviated from the true faith, and the Muscovite state is the “third Rome,” and there will be no fourth Rome, since Muscovite Rus' stood, stands and will stand. The theory was formulated by a Pskov monk Filofey in his messages to Vasily 3.

• FYI: in 395 the Roman Empire split into Western and Eastern. The Western Roman Empire fell in 476, breaking up into a number of independent states: Italy. France, Germany, Spain. The Eastern Empire - Byzantium - fell in 1453, in its place the Ottoman Empire was formed.
• Josephites these are representatives of the church-political movement that was formed during the reign of Vasily 3. These are followers Joseph Volotsky. They advocated strong church power, the influence of the church in the state, and monastic and church land ownership. Philotheus was a Josephite. Vasily 3 supported them in the fight against the opposition.
• Non-covetous - sought to restore the shaky authority of the church, which was caused by the desire of the clergy to take possession of more and more land. At the head - Neil Sorsky. They are for the secularization of church lands, that is, returning them to the Grand Duke.

The struggle between the non-covetous people and the Josephites, which began under Ivan 3, testified to difficult relationships princes with the church, constant competition for supremacy in power. Vasily 3 relied on the church opposition, and at the same time understood that relations with the church began to become complicated.

Historical portrait of Vasily III

Areas of activity

1.Domestic policy

2. Foreign policy

RESULTS OF ACTIVITY

• Under Vasily 3, the process of forming a centralized state was completed.
• A unified state ideology was created that contributed to the unification of the country.
• The church continued to play an important role in the state.
• The grand ducal power increased significantly.
• The public administration system was further improved, and a new government body emerged - the Boyar Duma.
• The prince pursued a successful policy in the west; many western lands were annexed.
• Vasily 3 held back the raids of the Crimean and Kazan khans with all his might, and managed to negotiate peace with them.
• Under Vasily 3, Russia's international authority significantly strengthened. Trade relations were carried out with many countries.

Chronology of the life and work of Vasily III

The imperious Prince Vasily 3 ruled the Moscow state from 1505 to 1533 and was the son of Ivan 3 Vasilyevich and Sophia Paleologus. Historians call the Grand Duke also a collector of Russian lands, but unlike his father, he did not have his talents. What Vasily III did not complete was completed. Under his rule, several territories were annexed - among them the Ryazan and Novgorod-Seversk principalities.

In royal weddings, the wedding was scheduled after lunch. Neither the groom nor his chosen one ate anything that day. After the wedding, the newlyweds were served wine, everyone ate, drank and congratulated the newlyweds. Then the royal bed awaited the newlyweds, and the wedding party extended their fun. There was no music then: only surnas were blown, there were tambourines and nakroms. The next day, to the simple accompaniment of timpani and tambourines, the young people were led to the soap shops.

The wedding ceremony took place over several days. Everyone congratulated and gave gifts, and the king generously rewarded his subjects on these joyful days. For several days they treated the clergy, the king donated money, and sent letters of prayer to remote cities. He himself went with the young queen to pray in. The people around him believed that Vasily 3 loved and respected his wife.

Solomonia Suzdal

And everything would have been fine, but the tragedy was that they had no children. Years passed, but the princess still did not have a child. Documents have been preserved that tell how the queen looked for various healers and healers, whatever she ordered - and all in vain.

Vasily’s situation was complicated by the fact that he did not want to leave his older brother Yuri, whom he could not stand and had conflicts with him. The relationship with the other brother was not bad, but there was no mutual love between them.

After 20 years, Vasily 3 looked after another betrothed - the young beauty Princess Elena Glinskaya. It was decided to divorce Solomonia.

A ritual was forcibly performed over Solomonia under the name of Sophia and the Nativity Monastery was sent to the Mother of God. She resisted being tonsured, then one of the boyars hit her with a whip because she was resisting the royal wave. Only then did the brave woman, putting on the robe of a nun, answer that God would punish the king.

But more plausible version, nevertheless, about the voluntary tonsure and grief of Vasily 3. This is described in a public chronicle, which was written not without the participation of the king. A date was chosen for the tonsure, which was celebrated as memorable in the Saburov family. The choice of Sophia’s name is also not accidental - it is the name of Vasily 3’s mother.

She was not in the Moscow monastery for long and was soon sent to the white-stone monastery of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary, which was located in Suzdal. Here Solomonia, known under the name Sophia, languished and died.

Soon a rumor spread that the princess was pregnant and gave birth to a baby in the monastic monastery. The king sent his associates to the monastery. The unfortunate woman tried to hide at the altar, but she was forcibly dragged out of the church and examined. The prince's noble representatives decided that the nun had never been pregnant.

But the woman herself claimed that she had a son, George, who was with reliable people. She said that the king was not worthy to see her child, and when he grew up, he would repay his mother’s humiliation.

The unsolved mystery of the disgraced princess

After much persuasion, the queen admitted that the child was born, but died immediately. The boyars were shown a small grave covered with a stone slab without an inscription. Everyone swore that this was the burial of the princess’s son.

They were afraid to open the burial because the baby died of smallpox, which was a fatal disease. With this news, the boyars returned to Moscow, and of course, did not add joy to the childless

The people did not believe in the fairy tale about the voluntary imprisonment of the princess. Popularity Solomonia Saburova she was huge among the people, during her lifetime she was considered a martyr and when she died, she was worshiped as a saint. In 1934, they decided to liquidate the burial place under the Intercession Cathedral.

The turn came to the forgotten, nameless children's grave. Under the slab they found a dugout wooden block coated with lime. In the deck lay a rag doll, dressed in decayed, expensive clothes embroidered with pearls. There is only one explanation: someone, apparently, was obliged to make sure that a non-fictional child was buried.

The famous robber Kudeyar was considered the son of the queen, who was born secretly in a nunnery. Elena Glinskaya did not have children for a long time. A rumor spread throughout Rus' that it was not the Solomonids’ fault that their child was not born.

Only 4 years later, Glinskaya gave birth to Vasily 3 and two heirs: Ivan and Yuri. One of them, Ivan Vasilyevich became the future Tsar Ivan 4 the Terrible. He was neither in character nor in appearance like the king. Three years later, Vasily dies, leaving Ivan on the throne surrounded by boyars who did not like him and hated his mother.

Today tourists, when visiting the famous monastery, are often interested in Solomonia Saburova. "Who is the Grand Duchess?" It turns out that we do not know such a queen, a Russian, holy woman.

Good luck everyone! See you again on the pages.

Was Ivan the Terrible the son of Vasily III, or Fictitious Alcoves mysteries XVI century

What is also confusing about this whole story is its continuation. Namely, Vasily III got married. Secondary. And there were no children again for a long time.

The sovereign approached the choice of a bride with all the sophistication of a man who had twenty years of marriage experience behind him. You cannot marry any of your own - princely and boyar daughters. A squabble will begin, a struggle for the right to become the king's son-in-law... Official matchmaking with foreign princesses did not suit the red tape of the process: just sending matchmakers and negotiating between diplomats would take several years. And we need to give birth to a son now. This means that there must be a foreigner, but one who does not take a long time to woo - that is, a representative of some disgraced or impoverished, but noble family. The clan must be worthy, but its representatives should not be able to interfere with Vasily III or dictate their will to him - simply put, the fewer relatives, the better. And, of course, the wife must be young, healthy, beautiful - in order to fulfill her destiny as quickly as possible...

Such an ideal candidate was found - a foreigner by birth, smart, beautiful, relatives in decline, the head of the family is generally sitting in a Russian prison. It couldn't be better. This was Elena Vasilievna Glinskaya, a representative of the Glinsky family who emigrated to Russia in 1508. Based on studies of bone remains and teeth, scientists believe that the princess was born around 1510–1512, that is, she got married at the age of 13–15. The groom, Vasily III, turned out to be almost three times older - he was 47 years old at the time of marriage.

The Glinskys, despite the difficult situation in which the family found itself at the beginning of the 16th century, were of significant interest from the point of view of genealogy. According to legend, after the death of the temnik Mamai, defeated in 1380 on the Kulikovo field, his sons fled to Lithuania, converted to Orthodoxy there and received the city of Glinsk as their inheritance, from where the Glinsky family came. It turned out beautifully: the son of Vasily III would become a descendant of both Mamai and Dmitry Donskoy. According to legends circulating in Lithuania itself, the Glinskys descended from Akhmat, Khan of the Great Horde. Since he was a Genghisid, this could provide certain prospects in the struggle for power in Kazan or in negotiations with Crimea: a descendant of Vasily III could appeal to his Genghisid origin and demand his share of power...

Head of the family famous Michael Glinsky was in prison since 1514. Emperor Maximilian asked for him. Having released Prince Mikhail from captivity, Vasily III killed several birds with one stone: he made a gesture goodwill addressed to the emperor, he committed an act of humanism in relation to the Glinskys (thus Mikhail found himself obliged to die, because for the charge of treason brought against him, he could easily rot in prison). Well, in the person of those close to the Glinsky court, Vasily III acquired a clan of personally devoted aristocrats who did not have close ties with the Russian boyars and served the sovereign “directly.” They could be relied on (since their position depended solely on the will of Vasily III), and doesn’t every ruler dream of such loyal people?

Herberstein described the motives of Vasily III as follows: “As I learned, when taking as his wife the daughter of Vasily Glinsky, who fled from Lithuania, the sovereign, in addition to the hope of having children from her, was guided by two considerations: firstly, his father-in-law was descended from the Petrovich family, which once enjoyed great fame in Hungary and professed the Greek faith (this is the ambassador’s invention. - A.F.); secondly, the sovereign’s children in this case would have as uncles Mikhail Glinsky, an exceptionally successful husband with rare experience. After all, the sovereign had two more siblings, George and Andrei, and therefore he believed that if he had children from some other wife, then during the lifetime of his brothers they would not be able to safely rule the state (according to another publication: they would not admitted to rule by uncles who (may) consider them illegal -. A.F.). At the same time, he had no doubt that if he returned his favor to Mikhail and granted him freedom, then his children born from Elena, under the protection of their uncle, would live much more peacefully. Negotiations for the release of Mikhail were conducted in our (Herberstein. - A.F.) presence; Moreover, we had a chance to see how his shackles were removed and he was placed under house arrest with honor ( liberae custodiae), and then they were granted complete freedom.” (In another publication: “he was released, and many servants were assigned to him, more to look after him and guard him than to serve him.”) In fact, Glinsky was not released immediately. He gained complete freedom only in February 1527.

The wedding of Vasily III and Elena Glinskaya took place on January 21, 1526. Apparently, the sovereign was very worried about what was happening. In any case, it is clear that he did not treat Elena as a machine for child production, but tried to please her as a man. Being young and trying to look like the Lithuanian style, for the first time in his life he shaved his beard and walked only with a “mustache.” This caused a real shock at court; the boyars did not faint at the sight of the shaved sovereign. According to the canons of that time, it is impossible to violate the image and likeness of the Lord: a shaved person cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. First the divorce, then the shaving of the beard - really, Vasily III played dangerously with the canons!

Apparently, Vasily III really had some feelings for Elena that went beyond the scope of a “marriage of convenience.” He wrote her personal letters (several of them have survived). Contemporaries noted that the sovereign fell in love with Elena for the sake of her beauty and purity - for an almost fifty-year-old man a completely understandable reaction to a young girl glowing with girlish beauty, freshness and purity. This was apparently mixed with a feeling of gratitude - although not without incident, Elena nevertheless gave birth to Vasily III two sons and thus solved the problem of inheritance.

Thanks to the efforts of sculptor-anthropologists, in particular S.A. Nikitin, her appearance was reconstructed from the skull of Elena Glinskaya, and today we can imagine what this woman looked like, for whose sake the sovereign of all Rus' risked the contempt of his contemporaries by shaving off his beard. She had a narrow, elongated face with a narrow, sharply protruding straight nose and a high bridge of the nose. The chin is prominent and strong-willed. She was a tall woman for those times (162–165 centimeters). Elena's fingernail was preserved in the burial, from which one can recognize how the grand duchesses cut their nails in the 16th century: on both sides in a semicircle with a point in the center. Glinskaya had long legs, narrow hips, narrow shoulders, graceful hands - in a word, fragile, thin, young. Vasily III had something to fall into touching delight from.

The only thing that slightly spoiled the bride’s appearance was the condition of her front teeth. The incisors overlapped one another, the teeth grew crookedly and with gaps between them. That is, Elena was categorically not recommended to smile with her mouth open in public. At the same time, in combination with the appearance of a teenage girl, such teeth could add additional charm, touchingness and defenselessness... This has a great effect on fifty-year-old men.

The teeth, by the way, gave an important touch to psychological portrait Elena Glinskaya. She had the second premolar teeth of the lower jaw ground down to the roots on both sides. According to the reasonable assumption of T. D. Panova, these are traces of Elena’s passion for needlework - threads were pulled through her teeth when sewing and embroidering. Not every woman will have such perseverance and determination to sharpen her teeth with gold thread while embroidering artistic fabrics. This speaks of Elena’s strength of character, her willingness to go to great lengths for the sake of her goal.

But in this regard, the question arises about the secret of the birth of Ivan the Terrible. The fact is that the freshness of the young girl did not help Vasily III much: neither a year, nor two, nor three after the first wedding night there were no children. At least look for women with sunken noses and wet nightgowns again...

Vasily III's first-born was born only on August 25, 1530. Such a long period of time for conception from attempts at it (in 25 years with two women - one conception?!) Already among contemporaries gave rise to the suspicion that the father of Ivan the Terrible was not the barren Vasily III, Elena carried him from another. Evil tongues called lover Grand Duchess Prince Ivan Fedorovich Ovchin Telepnev Obolensky. He was undoubtedly the princess's lover - after the death of Vasily III, Elena, who came to power in 1535, openly made him her partner and co-ruler, her favorite. Herberstein directly attributed the cause of the death of Mikhail Glinsky to his attempts to shame his niece, who had fallen into prodigal sin: “... seeing that immediately after the death of the sovereign, his widow began to disgrace the royal bed with a certain [boyar] nicknamed Sheepskin ( Owczina), imprisoned her husband's brothers, treats them harshly and generally rules too cruelly, Mikhail, solely out of his straightforwardness and duty of honor, repeatedly instructed her to live honestly and chastely; She reacted to his instructions with such indignation and intolerance that she soon began to think about how to destroy him. A pretext was found: as they say, after some time Mikhail was accused of treason (another edition: the intention to betray the children (heirs) and the country to the Polish king. - A.F.), again thrown into prison and died a miserable death; [according to rumors, the widow was killed by poison a little later, and her seducer] Sheepskin was cut into pieces.”

The fact of a love affair with Ovchina is reliably established in relation to the years 1535–1538. But did this connection exist earlier, during her husband’s life? There is no evidence of this. Most scientists categorically deny this possibility, considering the father of Ivan the Terrible to be Vasily III, in whom, after 25 years of fruitless attempts, the ability to conceive children suddenly awakened. Anthropologists cite as their main argument external resemblance(the famous “Palaeologian” nose with a hump) of the images of Sophia Paleologus and Ivan the Terrible reconstructed from the skulls. And these “Palaeologian” signs could only be transmitted if the father of Ivan the Terrible was Vasily III himself. True, no portraits of Ovchina have survived, and no one knows what kind of nose he had.

Hypotheses have also been expressed in favor of Ovchina’s paternity, although they have not found any support in the scientific world. A.L. Nikitin drew attention to the following circumstance: we do not know of cases of sharp deviations in the psyche caused by hereditary psychiatric diseases, neither in the Kalitich family, nor in the Glinsky family. Right down to Ivan the Terrible himself, whom psychiatrists diagnose with paranoia. His brother Yuri is feeble-minded (Down's disease), his son Fedor is feeble-minded (imbecile or oligophrenic), and his other son Dmitry is epileptic. About the third son, Ivan, who was killed by his father in 1581, we know that he was distinguished by manic cruelty. Nothing like this had ever happened to the Kalitiches before. We do not have a map of the diseases of representatives of the Ovchina genus, but the nicknames of some representatives of the genus are typical: Mute, Shovel, Stupid, Bear, Telepen, Withered Arms. Is it not from here, asks A.L. Nikitin, that the “corruption” of the Kalitich family began?

It can probably be assumed that three years after the barren marriage, Elena began to understand that every day the repetition of Solomonia’s fate was becoming more and more real for her. She saw with her own eyes what happens in Rus' to grand duchesses who stubbornly refuse to give birth. She did not want such a fate for herself. For a woman who could grind her own teeth on gold thread for the sake of beautiful embroidery, the decision to find a way to conceive a child other than Basil III should not have been so difficult. There was no shortage of young, disagreeable nobles at court, and in secluded corners in the palace (especially with the frequent absences of Vasily III). And this one adultery would solve all problems. Who knew that Sheepskin would give birth to paranoids and downs...

Of course, all this is nothing more than fantasies on a given topic. There is no evidence. The only certainty is the fact of existence in Russia XVI centuries of rumors that Ivan the Terrible is a “bastard.” Herberstein wrote about Elena’s love affair with Ovchina. Mentions of the “blasphemy” against the tsar, which is leveled against him, “without knowing his royal birth,” are contained in the work of the 16th century publicist Ivan Peresvetov. Kurbsky makes some vague hints about the “bastard” next to the tsar: by this “bastard” one can understand the tsar himself, who cannot, as an illegitimate child, be allowed into the church. Typically, Ivan the Terrible became terribly excited when reading this phrase and wrote in response a heated rebuke, full of biblical quotes, from which it is difficult to understand what, in fact, the tsar is refuting...

There can be only one proof here: if a forensic medical examination comes to the aid of history. Genetic analysis of the remains of Vasily III, Elena Glinskaya, Ivan the Terrible will irrefutably put everything in its place. It may be possible to attract genetic material from the Obolensky princes, to whose family Ovchina belonged. It will be authentic exact knowledge. But for some reason no one is trying to get it, but everyone brushes it off, considering the very fact of conducting such a study indecent, “shameless slander against the grand ducal family.” Scientists are afraid of something. The truth?

Meanwhile, exact sciences are capable of producing absolutely unambiguous results that resolve historical mysteries. Thus, for many years it was believed that rumors about the poisoning of Elena Glinskaya in 1538 were nothing more than another horror story about evil boyars, slander, etc. However, a forensic examination of Elena’s remains gave an unexpected result: she was really poisoned. The background level for copper was exceeded 2 times, for zinc - 3 times, lead - 28 times (!), arsenic - 8 times, selenium - 9 times. But the main thing is mercury salts. Their normal background is from 2 to 7 micrograms per gram. Elena had 55 micrograms in her hair - comments, as they say, are unnecessary. Lithuanian princess, by the will of fate, elevated to the throne of the ruler of the largest power Eastern Europe, may have managed to deceive her husband - but she could not deceive fate. They never liked upstarts, and the bowl of boyar hell put an end to the fate of the second wife of Vasily III four years after his death.

The ultimate success of the unification of Russian lands in a single state was the achievement of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III Ivanovich (1505-1533). It is no coincidence that the Austrian diplomat Sigismund Herberstein, who visited Russia twice in the first third of the 16th century and left the famous “Notes on Muscovy,” wrote that Vasily III was superior in power to “almost all the monarchs of the whole world.” However, the sovereign was unlucky - a bizarre historical memory, having given due credit to his father and no less rightly cemented the cruel image of his son Ivan the Terrible, did not leave enough free space to Vasily III himself. As if “hovering” between two sovereign Ivans, Vasily III always remained in their shadow. Neither his personality, nor his methods of government, nor the forms of succession in power between Ivan III and Ivan the Terrible have yet been studied sufficiently fully.

Childhood, youth

Vasily III was born on March 25, 1479 and was named in honor of the confessor Vasily of Paria, inheriting one of the traditional names for the Moscow princely family of the Danilovichs. He became the first son from the second marriage of Ivan III to Sophia Paleologus, who came from the Morean line of the dynasty that ruled in Byzantium until 1453. Before Vasily, only girls were born to the grand ducal couple. In later chronicles, a wonderful legend was even recorded about how Sophia, who suffered from the absence of her son, received a sign from the very St. Sergius about the birth of the future heir to the throne. However, the long-awaited firstborn was not the main contender for the throne. From his first marriage, Ivan III had an eldest son, Ivan the Young, who was declared co-ruler of Ivan III at least eight years before the birth of Vasily. But in March 1490, Ivan the Young died, and Vasily had a chance. Researchers traditionally talk about the struggle between two court factions, which especially intensified in the second half of the 1490s. One of them relied on the son of Ivan the Young - Dmitry Vnuk, the other promoted Vasily. The balance of power and passion of this struggle is unknown to us, but we know its outcome. Ivan III, who initially declared Dmitry Vnuk as heir and even for some time imprisoned Vasily “for bailiffs in his own court,” changed his anger to mercy in March 1499: Vasily was proclaimed “Sovereign Grand Duke.”

Reign (1505-1533)

Vasily's co-government lasted more than six years. On October 27, 1505, Ivan III passed away, and Vasily became an independent sovereign.

Internal policy

Fight against destinies

Most of the possessions of the deceased Grand Duke passed to Vasily: 66 cities against 30 that went to the other four sons, and Moscow, which had always been split up between sons, now passed entirely to the eldest heir. The new principles of transfer of power established by Ivan III reflected one of the main trends political life country - the desire for autocracy: the appanage system was not only the main source of strife, but also a serious obstacle to the economic and political unity of the country. Vasily III continued the centralizing policy of his father. Around 1506, the Grand Duke's governor established himself in Perm the Great. In 1510, the formal independence of the Pskov land was abolished. The reason for this was a major clash between the Pskovites and the Grand Duke's governor, Prince Repnin-Obolensky. The Pskov residents’ complaint against the governor’s arbitrariness was not satisfied, but a stunning demand followed: “Otherwise you wouldn’t have had a veche, and naturally they would have removed the veche bell.” Pskov no longer had the strength to reject it. By order of Vasily III, many boyar families and “guests” were evicted from Pskov. In 1521, the Ryazan Principality, which followed Moscow policy for more than half a century, also joined the Grand Duchy of Moscow. The Pskov land and the Ryazan principality were strategically important outskirts in the northwest and southeast, respectively. A sharp strengthening of Moscow’s position here would extremely complicate its relations with its neighbors. Vasily III believed that the existence of buffer vassal lands located on strategically important outskirts was more expedient than their direct inclusion in the state while the state did not have sufficient forces to reliably secure new territories. The Grand Duke fought against the appanages using various methods. Sometimes the appanages were destroyed purposefully (for example, the abolition of the Novgorod-Seversky appanage in 1522, where the grandson of Dmitry Shemyaka, Prince Vasily Ivanovich, ruled), usually Vasily simply forbade his brothers to marry and, therefore, have legitimate heirs. After the death of Vasily III himself in 1533, the inheritance of his second son Yuri, as well as his brother Andrei Staritsky, remained. There also remained several minor fiefs of the Verkhovsky princes, located in the upper reaches of the Oka. But the specific system was essentially overcome.

Local system

Under Vasily III, the local system was strengthened - a mechanism that made it possible to solve two pressing problems facing the state: at that time, the needs of ensuring a combat-ready army were closely intertwined with the need to limit the political and economic independence of the large aristocracy. The essence of the mechanism of local land ownership was the distribution of lands to the “landowners”-nobles for temporary conditional possession for the period of the “princes’ service.” The “landowner” had to perform his service regularly, could lose his land for violating his duties, and had no right to dispose of the lands given to him, which remained the supreme property of the grand dukes. At the same time, they introduced social guarantees: if a “landowner”-nobleman died in service, the state took care of his family.

Localism

The principle of localism began to play a most important role in the work of the state machine under Vasily III - a system of hierarchy, according to which the highest positions in the army or in the civil service could be filled exclusively in accordance with the nobility of the prince or boyar. Although this principle prevented access to the administration of talented managers, it largely made it possible to avoid struggle at the top of the country's political elite, which was rapidly flooded with heterogeneous immigrants from different Russian lands during the formation of a unified Russian state.

" " and "non-possessors"

In the era of Vasily III, the problem of monastic property, primarily the ownership of land, was actively discussed. Numerous donations to the monasteries led to the fact that by the end of the 15th century, a significant part of the monasteries became wealthy landowners. One solution to the problem was proposed: to use funds to help the suffering, and to make stricter regulations in the monasteries themselves. Another decision came from the Monk Nilus of Sorsky: the monasteries should completely abandon their property, and the monks should live “by their handicrafts.” The grand ducal authorities, interested in the land fund necessary for distribution to estates, also advocated limiting monastic property. At a church council in 1503, Ivan III made an attempt to carry out secularization, but was refused. However, time passed, and the position of the authorities changed. The “Josephite” environment put a lot of effort into developing the concept of a strong state, and Vasily III turned away from the “non-acquisitive”. The final victory of the “Josephites” took place at the council of 1531.

New political theories

Successes in state building, the strengthening Moscow self-awareness, political and ideological necessity gave impetus to the emergence of new political theories, designed to explain and justify the special political rights of the Grand Dukes of Moscow. The most famous are “The Tale of the Princes of Vladimir” and the messages of Elder Philotheus to Vasily III about the Third Rome.

Foreign policy

Russo-Lithuanian wars (1507-1508; 1512-22)

During the Russian-Lithuanian wars, Vasily III managed to conquer Smolensk in 1514, one of the largest centers of the Russian-speaking lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Smolensk campaigns were led personally by Vasily III, and in the official chronicle the triumph of Russian weapons will be expressed by the phrase about the liberation of Smolensk from “evil Latin charms and violence.” The crushing defeat of Russian troops in the Battle of Orsha in the fall of 1514 that followed the liberation of Smolensk stopped Moscow’s advance to the West. However, during the military campaigns of 1517 and 1518, Russian commanders managed to defeat the Lithuanian forces near Opochka and Krevo.

Relationships with Orthodox peoples

The reign of Vasily III was marked by the deepening of Russia's contacts with Orthodox peoples and lands conquered by the Ottoman Empire, including Mount Athos. The severity gradually softens church schism between the Metropolis of All Rus' and the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which began in the middle of the 15th century after the election of the Russian Metropolitan Jonah without the sanction of Constantinople. A clear confirmation of this is the message of Patriarch Theoliptus I to Metropolitan Varlaam, compiled in July 1516, in which the patriarch, long before the official adoption of the royal title by the Russian sovereigns, awarded Vasily III with royal dignity - “the highest and shortest king and the great king of all Orthodox lands, Great Rus' "

Russian-Crimean relations

Russian-Crimean relations were not easy. They reached their peak when, in July 1521, Khan Muhammad-Girey made a devastating campaign against Rus' with the goal of “putting an end to the outrageous rebellions of idolaters fierce against Islam.” The southern and central volosts of the Moscow principality (the advanced forces of the Krymchaks reached the outskirts of Moscow) suffered enormous damage. Muhammad-Girey captured a huge full. Since then, the defense of the Coast - the southern border, which ran along the Oka River - has become the most important task ensuring state security.

Relations with the West

Attempts that began during the time of Ivan III to achieve an alliance with the Grand Duchy of Moscow against Ottoman Empire continued under Vasily III. The sovereigns invariably emphasized hatred of the infidel “terror” and “enemies of Christ,” but did not enter into an agreement. They equally refused to become subordinate to the “Latins” and did not want to spoil the still quite friendly relations with the Ottoman Empire.

Personal life

In 1505, Vasily III married Solomonia Saburova. For the first time, a representative of a boyar, and not a princely family, became the wife of the Grand Duke of Moscow. The couple, who had been married for twenty years, had no children, and Vasily III, who needed an heir, decided to marry a second time. Solomonia was sent to a monastery, and Elena Glinskaya, who came from a family of Lithuanian boyars who went to serve in Moscow, became the new wife of the sovereign. From this marriage the future Tsar of All Rus' Ivan the Terrible was born.

On December 3, 1533, Vasily III died due to a progressive illness that appeared during a hunt. Before his death, he accepted monasticism with the name Varlaam. Soon after the death of the Grand Duke, the most interesting “Tale of the Illness and Death of Vasily III” was created - a chronicle of the last weeks of the sovereign’s life.

Biography

Internal affairs

Unification of Russian lands

Foreign policy

Annexations

Marriages and children

Vasily III Ivanovich (March 25, 1479 - December 3, 1533) - Grand Duke Moscow in 1505-1533, son of Ivan III the Great and Sophia Paleologus, father of Ivan IV the Terrible.

Biography

Vasily was the second son of Ivan III and the eldest son of Ivan's second wife Sophia Paleologus. In addition to the eldest, he had four younger brothers:

• Yuri Ivanovich, Prince of Dmitrov (1505-1536)
• Dmitry Ivanovich Zhilka, Prince of Uglitsky (1505-1521)
• Semyon Ivanovich, Prince of Kaluga (1505-1518)
• Andrei Ivanovich, Prince of Staritsky and Volokolamsk (1519-1537)

Ivan III, pursuing a policy of centralization, took care of the transfer of full power through the line of his eldest son, with a limitation of power younger sons. Therefore, already in 1470, he declared his eldest son from the first wife of Ivan the Young as his co-ruler. However, in 1490 he died of illness. Two parties were created at court: one grouped around the son of Ivan the Young, the grandson of Ivan III Dmitry Ivanovich and his mother, the widow of Ivan the Young, Elena Stefanovna, and the second around Vasily and his mother. At first, the first party had the upper hand; Ivan III intended to crown his grandson as king. Under these conditions, a conspiracy matured in the circle of Vasily III, which was discovered, and its participants, including Vladimir Gusev, were executed. Vasily and his mother Sophia Paleologue fell into disgrace. However, the grandson’s supporters came into conflict with Ivan III, which ended in the grandson’s disgrace in 1502. On March 21, 1499, Vasily was declared Grand Duke of Novgorod and Pskov, and in April 1502, Grand Duke of Moscow and Vladimir and All Rus', autocrat, that is, he became co-ruler of Ivan III.

The first marriage was arranged by his father Ivan, who first tried to find him a bride in Europe, but ended up choosing from 1,500 girls presented to the court for this purpose from all over the country. The father of Vasily Solomonia's first wife, Yuri Saburov, was not even a boyar. The Saburov family descended from the Tatar Murza Chet.

Since the first marriage was barren, Vasily obtained a divorce in 1525, and at the beginning of the next (1526) year he married Elena Glinskaya, daughter Lithuanian prince Vasily Lvovich Glinsky. Initially new wife also could not get pregnant, but in the end, on August 15, 1530, they had a son, Ivan, the future Ivan the Terrible, and then a second son, Yuri.

Internal affairs

Vasily III believed that nothing should limit the power of the Grand Duke, which is why he enjoyed the active support of the Church in the fight against the feudal boyar opposition, harshly dealing with all those who were dissatisfied. In 1521, Metropolitan Varlaam was exiled due to his refusal to participate in Vasily’s fight against Prince Vasily Ivanovich Shemyachich, the Rurik princes Vasily Shuisky and Ivan Vorotynsky were expelled. The diplomat and statesman Ivan Bersen-Beklemishev was executed in 1525 because of criticism of Vasily’s policies, namely because of open rejection of Greek novelty, which came to Rus' with Sophia Paleologus. During the reign of Vasily III, the landed nobility increased, the authorities actively limited the immunity and privileges of the boyars - the state followed the path of centralization. However, the despotic features of government, which were fully manifested already under his father Ivan III and grandfather Vasily the Dark, only intensified even more in the era of Vasily.

In church politics, Vasily unconditionally supported the Josephites. Maxim the Greek, Vassian Patrikeev and other non-covetous people were sentenced at Church Councils to death penalty, who are to be imprisoned in monasteries.

During the reign of Vasily III, a new Code of Law was created, which, however, has not reached us.

As Herberstein reported, at the Moscow court it was believed that Vasily was superior in power to all the monarchs of the world and even the emperor. On the front side of his seal there was an inscription: “Great Sovereign Basil, by the grace of God, Tsar and Lord of All Rus'.” On the reverse side it read: “Vladimir, Moscow, Novgorod, Pskov and Tver, and Yugorsk, and Perm, and many lands of the Sovereign.”

The reign of Vasily is the era of the construction boom in Rus', which began during the reign of his father. The Archangel Cathedral was erected in the Moscow Kremlin, and the Ascension Church was built in Kolomenskoye. Stone fortifications are being built in Tula, Nizhny Novgorod, Kolomna, and other cities. New settlements, forts, and fortresses are founded.

Unification of Russian lands

Vasily, in his policy towards other principalities, continued the policy of his father.

In 1509, while in Veliky Novgorod, Vasily ordered the Pskov mayor and other representatives of the city, including all the petitioners who were dissatisfied with them, to gather with him. Arriving to him at the beginning of 1510 on the feast of Epiphany, the Pskovites were accused of distrust of the Grand Duke and their governors were executed. The Pskovites were forced to ask Vasily to accept themselves into his patrimony. Vasily ordered to cancel the meeting. At the last meeting in the history of Pskov, it was decided not to resist and to fulfill Vasily’s demands. On January 13, the veche bell was removed and sent to Novgorod with tears. On January 24, Vasily arrived in Pskov and dealt with it in the same way as his father did with Novgorod in 1478. 300 of the most noble families of the city were resettled to Moscow lands, and their villages were given to Moscow service people.

It was the turn of Ryazan, which had long been in Moscow’s sphere of influence. In 1517, Vasily called to Moscow the Ryazan prince Ivan Ivanovich, who was trying to enter into an alliance with the Crimean Khan, and ordered him to be put into custody (after Ivan was tonsured as a monk and imprisoned in a monastery), and took his inheritance for himself. After Ryazan, the Starodub principality was annexed, in 1523 - Novgorod-Severskoye, whose prince Vasily Ivanovich Shemyachich was treated like the Ryazan principality - he was imprisoned in Moscow.

Foreign policy

At the beginning of his reign, Vasily had to start a war with Kazan. The campaign was unsuccessful, the Russian regiments commanded by Vasily’s brother, Prince of Uglitsky Dmitry Ivanovich Zhilka, were defeated, but the Kazan people asked for peace, which was concluded in 1508. At the same time, Vasily, taking advantage of the turmoil in Lithuania after the death of Prince Alexander, put forward his candidacy for the throne of Gediminas. In 1508, the rebellious Lithuanian boyar Mikhail Glinsky was received very cordially in Moscow. The war with Lithuania led to a rather favorable peace for the Moscow prince in 1509, according to which the Lithuanians recognized the capture of his father.

Began in 1512 new war with Lithuania. On December 19, Vasily Yuri Ivanovich and Dmitry Zhilka set out on a campaign. Smolensk was besieged, but it was not possible to take it, and the Russian army returned to Moscow in March 1513. On June 14, Vasily set out on a campaign again, but having sent the governor to Smolensk, he himself remained in Borovsk, waiting for what would happen next. Smolensk was again besieged, and its governor, Yuri Sologub, was defeated in the open field. Only after that Vasily personally came to the troops. But this siege was also unsuccessful: the besieged managed to restore what was being destroyed. Having devastated the outskirts of the city, Vasily ordered a retreat and returned to Moscow in November.

On July 8, 1514, the army led by the Grand Duke again set out for Smolensk, this time his brothers Yuri and Semyon walked with Vasily. A new siege began on July 29. The artillery, led by gunner Stefan, inflicted on the besieged heavy losses. On the same day, Sologub and the clergy of the city came to Vasily and agreed to surrender the city. On July 31, the residents of Smolensk swore allegiance to the Grand Duke, and Vasily entered the city on August 1. Soon the surrounding cities were taken - Mstislavl, Krichev, Dubrovny. But Glinsky, to whom the Polish chronicles attributed the success of the third campaign, entered into relations with King Sigismund. He hoped to get Smolensk for himself, but Vasily kept it for himself. Very soon the conspiracy was exposed, and Glinsky himself was imprisoned in Moscow. Some time later, the Russian army, commanded by Ivan Chelyadinov, suffered a heavy defeat near Orsha, but the Lithuanians were never able to return Smolensk. Smolensk remained a disputed territory until the end of the reign of Vasily III. At the same time, residents of the Smolensk region were taken to the Moscow regions, and residents of the regions closest to Moscow were resettled to Smolensk.

In 1518, Shah Ali Khan, who was friendly towards Moscow, became the Khan of Kazan, but he did not rule for long: in 1521 he was overthrown by his Crimean protege Sahib Giray. In the same year, fulfilling allied obligations with Sigismund, the Crimean Khan Mehmed I Giray announced a raid on Moscow. Together with him, the Kazan Khan emerged from his lands, and near Kolomna, the Crimeans and Kazan people united their armies together. Russian army under the leadership of Prince Dmitry Belsky, it was defeated on the Oka River and was forced to retreat. The Tatars approached the walls of the capital. Vasily himself at that time left the capital for Volokolamsk to gather an army. Magmet-Girey did not intend to take the city: having devastated the area, he turned back to the south, fearing the Astrakhan people and the army gathered by Vasily, but taking a letter from the Grand Duke stating that he recognized himself as a loyal tributary and vassal of the Crimea. On the way back, having met the army of governor Khabar Simsky near Pereyaslavl of Ryazan, the khan began, on the basis of this letter, to demand the surrender of his army. But, having asked the Tatar ambassadors with this written commitment to come to his headquarters, Ivan Vasilyevich Obrazets-Dobrynsky (this was Khabar’s family name) retained the letter, and dispersed the Tatar army with cannons.

In 1522, the Crimeans were again expected in Moscow; Vasily and his army even stood on the Oka River. Khan never came, but the danger from the steppe did not pass. Therefore, in the same 1522, Vasily concluded a truce, according to which Smolensk remained with Moscow. The Kazan people still did not calm down. In 1523, in connection with another massacre of Russian merchants in Kazan, Vasily announced a new campaign. Having ruined the Khanate, on the way back he founded the city of Vasilsursk on Sura, which was supposed to become a new reliable place of trade with the Kazan Tatars. In 1524, after the third campaign against Kazan, Sahib Giray, an ally of Crimea, was overthrown, and Safa Giray was proclaimed khan in his place.

In 1527, the attack of Islam I Giray on Moscow was repelled. Having gathered in Kolomenskoye, Russian troops took up defensive positions 20 km from the Oka. The siege of Moscow and Kolomna lasted five days, after which the Moscow army crossed the Oka and defeated the Crimean army on the Sturgeon River. The next steppe invasion was repulsed.

In 1531, at the request of the Kazan people, the Kasimov prince Jan-Ali Khan was proclaimed khan, but he did not last long - after the death of Vasily, he was overthrown by the local nobility.

Annexations

During his reign, Vasily annexed Pskov (1510), Smolensk (1514), Ryazan (1521), Novgorod-Seversky (1522) to Moscow.

Marriages and children

Wives:

• Solomonia Yuryevna Saburova (from September 4, 1505 to November 1525).
• Elena Vasilievna Glinskaya (from January 21, 1526).

Children (both from his second marriage): Ivan IV the Terrible (1530-1584) and Yuri (1532-1564). According to legend, from the first, after the tonsure of Solomonia, a son, George, was born.