The first king in Russia was born not in Moscow, but in Kolomenskoye. At that time, Moscow was small, and Russia was also small. However, the royal baby was clearly marked and kept by God. His calm childhood did not work. The guardians of the three-year-old tsar - the princes Shuysky brothers - created such a bloody terror in the palace that every evening they had to thank God that they were alive: they didn’t poison like their mother, they didn’t kill like their older brother, they didn’t rot in prison like their uncle didn’t torture as many close friends of his father - Prince Vasily III.
Contrary to everything, the first tsar in Russia survived! And at the age of 16, with an unexpected blow to boyar aspirations, he was crowned kingdom! Surely, historians say, it was suggested to him by the clever Metropolitan Macarius. But it may well be that he himself guessed that the country needed one strong hand to stop civil strife and to grow territories. The triumph of autocracy - the triumph of the Orthodox faith, Moscow - the heiress of Constantinople. Of course, the idea of ​​a wedding was also close and clear to the Metropolitan. The first tsar in Russia turned out to be real: both the boyars were tamed and the territories increased during the 50 years of reign - one hundred percent of the territories were added to the Russian state, and Russia became larger than the whole of Europe.
Royal title
Ivan Vasilievich (Grozny) used the royal title brilliantly, taking up completely different positions in European politics. The grand-ducal title was translated as “prince” or even “duke”, and even the king is the emperor!
After the coronation of the king’s relatives, the mother achieved many benefits, as a result of which an uprising began, which showed young John the real state of affairs regarding his reign. Autocracy is a new, arduous business, with which Ivan Vasilievich dealt more than successfully.
The reform
I wonder why the first king in Russia - John the Fourth? Where did this figure come from? And this was much later Karamzin wrote his "History of the Russian State" and began the countdown with Ivan Kalita. And during his lifetime, the first king in Russia was called - John I, the certificate of approval for the kingdom was kept in a special golden casket-ark, and the first king in Russia sat on this throne.
The tsar pondered the centralization of the state, carried out the Zemsky and Gubny reforms, transformed the army, adopted a new Code of Law and the Service Code, convened the first Zemsky Sobor and instituted a law banning the entry of Jewish merchants into the country. A new coat of arms with an eagle appeared, since Ivan the Terrible is a direct descendant of the Rurikovich. And not only them: on the maternal side, his close ancestor is Mamai, and even his own grandmother is Sophia Paleolog herself, the heiress of the Byzantine emperors. There is someone to be smart, proud, hardworking. And cruel, too, have someone. But, of course, at that time, and even in that environment without cruelty, those transformations that the first tsar had clearly performed in Russia would have been impossible. Army transformation - two words, and how much is behind them! A 25,000th archery army appeared, which was worth only equipping them with squeakers, reeds and sabers, and tearing them away from the farm! True, the archers were torn off from the economy gradually. At least 2 thousand guns appeared artillery. Ivan Vasilievich Grozny even dared to change taxation to the great murmur of the boyar duma. Of course, the boyars did not just murmur about the infringement of their privileges. They shook the autocracy to such an extent that they forced the appearance of the oprichnina. Oprichniki formed an army of up to 6 thousand soldiers, not counting almost a thousand trusted on special assignments.
Blood runs cold in my veins when you read about those tortures and executions that were made by wave of the sovereign. But not only Ivan the Terrible, even today's historians are sure that the oprichnina arose not by chance and not from scratch. Boyar needed to be tamed! In addition, heresies crawling from the West shook the foundation of the Orthodox faith so much that the throne staggered with the tsar and the whole Russian State sitting on it. Ambiguous relations developed between the autocracy and the clergy. Before mysticism, the believing king took away the monastic lands and subjected the clergy to repression. The metropolitan was forbidden to delve into the affairs of the oprichnina and zemstvos. At the same time, Tsar Ivan Vasilievich himself was an oprichnina abbot, performing many monastic duties, even singing on the choir.
Novgorod and Kazan
Before the new year 1570, the oprichnina army marched on Novgorod on suspicion of intending to betray Rus to the Polish king. The guardsmen had already made fun of the glory. Armed robberies with massacres in Tver, Klin, Torzhok and other associated cities, then destroyed Pskov and Novgorod. And in Tver, Malyuta Skuratov was strangled by Metropolitan Philip for refusing the blessing of this bloody campaign. Everywhere, the king destroyed the local nobility and clerks, one might say, purposefully, along with wives, children and household members. This robbery lasted for years, until the Crimean Khan Divlet-Girey attacked Russia . That's where the dare to show the young oprichnina army! But the army simply did not come to the war. The guardsmen were spoiled, lazy. With the Tatars-this is not with the boyars and their kids to fight. The war was lost.
And then Ivan Vasilievich was angry! Terrible glance turned to Kazan from Novgorod. Then the dynasty of Girey also reigned there. The sovereign abolished the oprichnina, even banned its name, executed many traitors and villains, and went to Kazan three times. The third time, Kazan surrendered to the mercy of the winner and after a while became a completely Russian city. Also from Moscow to Kazan, Russian fortresses lined up across the land. The Astrakhan Khanate was defeated, joining the Russian lands. In the end, the Crimean Khan also got into trouble: how much can you rob Russia with impunity and burn its beautiful cities? In 1572, the 120 thousandth Crimean army was defeated by the 20 thousandth Russian army.
Territory expansion through war and diplomacy
Then the Swedes were significantly beaten by the forces of the Novgorod army, and a favorable peace was concluded for as long as 40 years. The first tsar in Russia rushed to the Baltic, fought with Livonians, Poles, Lithuanians, from time to time even capturing the Novgorod suburbs, and so far (until the other great First Tsar - Peter) these attempts have been unsuccessful. But he frightened me abroad in earnest. He even established diplomacy and trade with England. And the king began to think about the Siberian land, unknown. But he was careful. It is good that Ermak Timofeevich with his Cossacks managed to defeat the army of Khan Kuchum before receiving the order of the tsar to return to the protection of the Perm lands, Russia thus grew Siberia. And after half a century, the Russians reached the Pacific Ocean.
Personality
The first king in Russia was not only the first king, but also the first person in terms of intelligence, erudition and education.
About the library of Ivan the Terrible , legends still do not subside. He knew theology at the level of learned men. He laid the foundation for jurisprudence. He was the author of many beautiful sticheras and epistles (poet!). He ordered the clergy to open schools everywhere to teach children to read and write. He approved polyphonic singing and opened something like a conservatory in the Alexander settlement. He was an excellent speaker. What about typography? And St. Basil’s Cathedral on Red Square? The question arose about the canonization of Ivan Vasilievich. But how to forget the robbery, torture, execution, disgrace and simply murder of the oprichnina and the followers of Orthodox clergy? After all, with the end of the oprichnina, it did not end as such, it simply began to be called differently. The king repented, wore chains, scourged himself. Huge amounts of money were donated to the church for the mention of the executed souls and for the health of the disgraced. He died a schema-monk.