In the XIII century, the country was exhausted under the humiliating yoke that imposed the Mongol conquest. The country was fragmented into smaller and larger principalities, which were at enmity with each other. The process of unification of the Russian lands was slow and dragged on for two centuries. Who in history has shown himself as a collector of Russian lands? One can distinguish several outstanding princes who turned a fragmented Russia into a holistic Russia.
The emergence of the Principality of Moscow
Dying, the great Alexander Nevsky allotted his youngest two-year-old son Daniel a tiny lot, in the center of which stood Moscow. Only at the age of fifteen Daniil Aleksandrovich began to reign in his lands with great care, trying to live peacefully with his neighbors, as he was weak.
Contemporaries appreciated the peaceful life of the Principality of Moscow, and people pulled into it. Moscow slowly overgrown with merchant shops, craft workshops. Only at the end of his life did Daniil Aleksandrovich attach Kolomna, which opened the way to the Volga, and Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, which was the "key" to the capital city of Vladimir, to his lands. We can assume that this was the first collector of Russian lands. He died at the very beginning of the 16th century and left behind his five sons, who continued his policy.
Ivan Danilovich
Prince Ivan was the fourth son of Daniel, and he practically had no hopes of reigning in Moscow. But his three older brothers - Yuri, Boris and Athanasius - died and left no heirs. So, in 1325, at the age of forty-two, Ivan I Danilovich began reigning in the Moscow lands. At this age, the princes often died, and with Prince Ivan, life had just begun. Then no one knew that he was a collector of Russian lands.
Two years later, the Horde were killed in Tver. This local uprising brought to Russia a punitive Mongol campaign. Prince Ivan was forced to go to suppress the uprising in Tver and as a result received Veliky Novgorod and Kostroma, as well as the throne of the Grand Duke of Vladimir.
Conditionally, Ivan Kalita became the senior prince over all the princes of Russia, such a right was granted to him by reigning in Vladimir. Firmly, by any means, Ivan Kalita established order. The collector of Russian lands united in Moscow ecclesiastical authority, which was formerly in Vladimir, with secular. To this end, in 1326, he laid for the Metropolitan Peter the Church of Our Lady. And after the death of Kalita, the Orthodox chair remained in Moscow. The Russian princes liked it or didn't like it, but Moscow united the whole northeast around itself.
Personality of Ivan I Danilovich
He avoided by all means conflicts with the Horde, because it disrupted the peaceful course of life. A tribute to him was entrusted to collect from all over Russia and send it to the Horde after the Tver uprising. But it was difficult. Everyone, under any pretext, especially the Novgorodians, sought to avoid paying tribute. It was necessary to frighten the invasion, then to please the obstinate. It was especially difficult when the Horde demanded extraordinary payments. In addition, I had to clean up the whole territory and crack down on the robbers who attacked the wagon trains with tribute and civilians. Thus, the number of robberies decreased, the life of ordinary people became easier.
Strange nickname
Prince Ivan received his nickname "Kalita" (wallet, bag of money) for his ability to manage the money that he willingly handed out to the poor when he left his wards. He was immediately surrounded by a crowd, and for everyone there was a coin.
Even if the same person approached him several times, the prince never refused. So he got another nickname - Good. In addition, he, knowing how to save, always sent a tribute in a timely manner, and therefore no one else went from the Russian princes to the Horde. This led to the fact that the exclusive right to communicate with the Horde was entrenched in his heirs. Ivan Danilovich disposed of the accumulated money for the benefit of the principality: he bought Uglich, Belozersk and Galich. So he was a collector of Russian lands.
Family life
The prince was married twice. The first wife was Elena, supposedly the daughter of a prince of Smolensk. The second wife was Ulyana, whom Ivan left a rich inheritance and gold jewelry of his first wife.
"Great silence"
And from 1328 to 1340 a long-awaited peace was established in the country. There were no more devastating raids of "filthy". Cities were being built and grown, the population that no one had destroyed or taken full, was growing, a peaceful and quiet life was established, and forces were accumulating to fight the Mongols. Prince Ivan Kalita made dynastic marriages of sons and daughters with the Yaroslavl, Rostov and Belozersky princes in order to dispose of their inheritance. And heir to Simeon Ivanovich married Gedimin’s daughter to ensure the security of the western borders. Prince Ivan Danilovich is also a collector of Russian lands. This is certain.
At this time, Ivan Danilovich strengthened Moscow. On Borovitsky hill he built five cathedrals. Metropolitan Peter laid the first stone with his own hands in the foundation of the Assumption Cathedral. So Moscow turned into a religious capital.
Ivan Danilovich in 1339 built a strong oak Kremlin. This was a very important matter. After all, the Mongols were very suspicious of any attempts to strengthen cities. Before his death, the prince took the tonsure and left the heir of his eldest son Simeon. Already after the repose of Ivan Kalita, in 1340, his sons completed decorating the temples with multicolored paintings, ordered ritual utensils for jewelers, and new bells were cast on the belfry.
Successors father and grandfather
The policy pursued by Ivan Kalita, a collector of Russian lands, in short, was continued by his sons Semyon Gordy and Ivan Krasny. They learned everything from their father - get along with neighbors and the Horde, pacify rebellious gifts or threats. In Russia as a whole, peace reigned. And so the time went on. The year 1359 came up. For thirty years of the world, a whole generation of people has grown up who did not know the Mongol raids. But the prince, whose fame did not fade for centuries, Dmitry Ivanovich, could not accept the economic and political dependence of Russia on the Horde. The Mongols no longer had the same unity. They were torn by internal contradictions. Dmitry Ivanovich decided to seize the opportunity and overthrow the yoke.
He won the bloody Battle of Kulikovo in early autumn of 1380, defeating the Mamaevo army. But the time for the complete liberation of Russia has not yet come. Two years later, Tokhtamysh’s troops devastated and burned Moscow, and again the Moscow princes, humiliating and frowning, went to the Horde khans with gifts and received a label for reigning.
Ivan Vasilievich - the last collector of Russian land
The son of Prince Vasily the Dark, who was blinded during the internecine wars by other Russian princes, who had high ambitions, from the age of eight sat next to his father and was his co-ruler. It was a tough, even cruel school. Prince Vasily himself was a mediocre ruler, but his son turned out to be a powerful statesman.
Having ascended the throne of Moscow in 1462, he did not go to the Mongols for a label on reign. Under him, the Principality of Moscow grew in lands and people. He resolutely ended up with a fragmented state. During his reign, the annexation of Yaroslavl (1463), Rostov (1474), Tver (1485) principalities, as well as the Vyatka land (1489). In 1478, he destroyed the republic in Novgorod and completely subjugated the city with the lands to himself. Of course, it was the Grand Duke - a collector of Russian lands.
Reconstruction of the Moscow Kremlin
Grandiose and large-scale work began in 1495. All the remains of the walls of the old Kremlin were torn down, new high towers and walls were built, and the Neglinka river was blocked.
It turned into a lake that guarded the Kremlin from the north from fires and enemies. We dug a moat along the eastern wall, and water from the lake went there. The Kremlin has become an impregnable island. In 1479, a new Assumption Cathedral was built inside the Kremlin. Then the Italians built the Faceted Chamber. It was intended for the receptions of foreign ambassadors. Several churches and temples were also built, and the Kremlin became completely unrecognizable.
Personal life
The Grand Duke of Moscow was married twice. Within his family there was constant strife. Ivan Young, a son from his first wife, was the heir. But he fiercely hated his father’s second wife, Sophia Paleolog, and her sons. The new Greek family answered him with the same hatred.
In 1490, Ivan the Young fell ill. The Greek woman gave him her doctor, and he died. Ivan III made his son Ivan the Young, Dmitry, his heir. But Vasily, the eldest son of Sophia, threatened his father that he would flee to Lithuania and start a war with him for the throne. Ivan III surrendered and bequeathed the throne to Basil. After the death of his father, Vasily sent all relatives to prisons, where they died. But earlier a significant event for Russia will occur.
On the Ugra River
Since 1476, Ivan III stopped paying tribute to the Horde. The horde became worried and began to gather strength on a campaign to Moscow. In 1480, the troops of the Great Horde, which had divided by this time into three khanates, which were at war with each other, led by Khan Akhmat, came almost a hundred kilometers to Moscow. It was late autumn. The Hordes tried several times to cross the Ugra river, but their attempts were repulsed by artillery, which Ivan III reorganized and made consistent with all the best examples.
The army was commanded by Ivan Young. Ivan III himself did not go into the field army, but prepared and delivered ammunition, fodder and food. For several weeks, two armies stood on different banks of the Ugra. The frost hit, and Khan Akhmat led his army back. Thus ended the 240-year-old yoke.
When Moscow princes showed the whole of Russian society that they want and can free the country from the Mongol yoke, then all the sympathies were on their side. But the end of shameful dependence required toughening up power within the state so that it would not again crumble into small destinies. But this is a task that will be solved by future generations. In the meantime, the victory was expressed in a new title - the sovereign of all Russia.