The years of the oprichnina Ivan the Terrible played a significant role in the history of the formation of the Russian state. The king was seated on the throne in 1547. But in the first years of his reign, the main political course of the state was not at all the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible.
Briefly about the reforms of the Elected Rada
The elected Council became the actual government, assembled from noble boyars, nobles, some government officials and representatives of the clergy. This government operated from 1547 to 1560. In fact, all of his reforms were aimed at centralizing the state and absolutizing the authorities, creating state bodies and orders that were unified throughout the country. Actually, such trends were required by time itself. The absolutization of monarchical rule occurred in the same way in Western Europe.
Oprichnina Ivan the Terrible: briefly about the reasons
However, the activity and the very existence of the Chosen Rada for a number of reasons over time begins to contradict the aspirations of Ivan the Terrible. In 1560, there was a gap between the tsar and his associates, the result of which was the oprichnina Ivan the Terrible. Briefly speaking about the reasons for the breakdown of this union, it should be noted that the progressive nature of the reforms of the Elected Rada over time bothered the king. The latter began to think that the centralization of the state was deliberately delayed by the boyars, moreover, in 1560 he accused two members of the Elected Rada
- Sylvester and Adashev - that they want to concentrate the real levers of power in their own hands. An important reason for the gap is the conflict between the leaders of the informal government and the royal wife Anastasia Yurieva. After her imminent death, the king repeatedly accused the boyars of having “squeezed her from the light." The last spark that finally ignited the dislike of Ivan IV to the boyar elite was the transition of one of the members of the former Elected Council of Andrei Kurbsky to the side of the Poles during the
Livonian War. The reason that prompted the latter to do this was dissatisfaction with the fact that the tsar was violating the utter liberties and rights of the boyars. In response to this, the king forms an obedient corps of oprichniks, which begins large-scale terror against the aristocracy in the country.
Oprichnina Ivan the Terrible: briefly about conducting
In 1565, a fierce struggle began in the Moscow kingdom to eliminate, or rather, physically destroy, the boyar layer. The country was divided into two parts: one of the parts became the personal inheritance of the king and was called the oprichnina. The other was controlled by the boyar duma and was called the zemstvo. The territory of the oprichnina continuously increased and covered most of the land in the country. The political essence of the guardship of Ivan the Terrible was that the tsar had obtained for himself the right and consent of the boyars that he could arbitrarily disgrace and execute all those whom he himself considered traitors. Needless to say, after the flight of Kurbsky to the tsar, traitors and conspirators were seen everywhere among the boyar elite? Over the following years, hundreds of families of aristocrats were evicted from their lands, which went to the guardsmen. Terror reached its climax by 1570, when the last in Russia specific prince Vladimir Staritsky was killed. Punitive campaigns were carried out to Novgorod, Klin, Torzhok, Tver. Hundreds of villages were burned, mass executions were carried out in Moscow.
Results of the oprichnina
The result of this policy was the weakening of the political role in the country of boyars. As a result, the king achieved autocracy. On the one hand, despotism and the very fact of mass ruin and murder are negative trends. However, autocracy made it possible to create a strong army and an efficient state apparatus for its time , which resulted in a gradual expansion of state territories.