The policies of Ivan IV (the Terrible) and the consequences of his reign. The reign of Ivan IV the Terrible and the consequences of his reign The Terrible’s politics in the last years of his life: repentance

Foreign policy results

The results of the reign of Ivan IV were very disastrous. Failure in the Livonian War, the final turning point during which was not in favor of Russia - after the unification of Poland and Lithuania (in 1569 - the Union of Lublin). The new Polish king Stefan Batory intensifies the onslaught, in 1579 he took Polotsk, in 1882 a truce was concluded, under the terms of which Russia lost all its territorial acquisitions, obtained at such a price, and did not achieve access to the Baltic Sea.

The consequences were also severe for the socio-economic development of the country. The center and north-west were completely devastated, as a result of which the flight of peasants from their homes intensified.

The government responded to this by increasing the enslavement of peasants. In 1581–1582 “protected summers” were introduced (temporarily prohibiting the transfer of peasants to new owners). Economic devastation and increased oppression brought the country to “turmoil,” to a “war of all against all,” which broke out at the beginning of the 17th century.

The long-term psychological consequences of the tyranny of Ivan the Terrible were very severe. The country was dominated by an atmosphere of general fear and submission. Only a few people tried to challenge the king's actions. Prince Andrei Kurbsky, having entered the Lithuanian service, denounced tsarist despotism in his letters. However, the significance of this criticism was undermined by the fact that he became a traitor. The new Metropolitan Philip Kolychev also condemned the tsarist cruelty. By order of the tsar, he was defrocked, exiled and then strangled by Malyuta Skuratov. The majority meekly endured the atrocities. The Russian people have become increasingly accustomed to cruelty and submissiveness. state power, no matter how unfair it may be. Some historians believe that these psychological traits became part of the Russian national character, survived into our century and contributed to the formation of the Stalinist dictatorship.

In conclusion, let us return to the characterization of the personality of Ivan the Terrible. Speaking about its inconsistency, we should also mention his fanatical religiosity. Brutally dealing with his victims, Ivan at the same time was terribly afraid of the “wrath of God” and after mass executions dressed in a monastic robe, retired to a monastery and atone for his sins. This is clearly shown in one of the best works about this era - the novel by Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy "Prince Silver". The king was seized with such horror of punishment after death that he personally imagined the devils who had come to drag him to hell.

Being unusually cruel, Ivan was not distinguished by courage. During the Tatar raid, he abandoned Moscow to the mercy of fate, fleeing from it with his family and treasury. He was so afraid of treason that he conducted secret negotiations with Queen Elizabeth of England about escaping to her from Russia.

Very unattractive family life Ivan IV. He was married (contrary to the then church norms) 7 times, his behavior was characterized by extreme licentiousness. On the eve of his death, at the age of 54, he looked like a perfect old man, his powerful health was undermined by drunkenness and unseemly behavior.

Ivan’s unbridled temper was such that in a fit of anger he killed his son Ivan, which is depicted in the wonderful canvas by I.E. Repin.

The reign of Ivan IV - time difficult decisions and ambiguous actions. It is not easy to characterize the era of Ivan the Terrible’s activity, not only because of the difficulties in assessing such a strong and extraordinary personality as the first Russian Tsar. Perhaps the greatest difficulty is the lack of reliable historical material. There are very few original documents from the 16th century in modern archives. Neither oprichnina lists nor court documents have survived; even the well-known synodics have been restored in parts. Most of the written evidence of that period has undergone significant edits and adjustments at a later time - and this is noticeable even with the naked eye. Blots, additions, insertions, erasures made in the 17th-18th centuries - this is just a small list of difficulties that historians face when studying documents of the 16th century. And this, apparently, is the main reason why there is still no unambiguous assessment of either the activities of Ivan IV, or, moreover, his personality and the nature of his reign.

Results

The second half of the 16th century was a time of great changes and real upheavals for Russia. The structure that existed up to that moment was subjected to strict criticism and rethinking - and Ivan the Terrible turned out to be the ruler who was the first to think about the need to carry out large-scale reforms.

The main result domestic policy Grozny can easily be called a strengthening of the state. Aimed at centralizing power, such a policy brought not only advantages, but also disadvantages.

The first and most obvious change is the introduction of the title of Tsar and the declaration of Russia as a kingdom. This was not just a political gesture designed to emphasize Ivan’s chosenness and allow him to claim the title of Third Rome. First of all, the new title made it possible to strengthen central government and stop the feudal fragmentation of lands. The tsar became the central core around which new relations between the feudal lords - already nobles - and the state took shape.

Strengthening power and reducing the role of the retrograde boyars in governing the country are the main goals of Ivan the Terrible. And all his subsequent actions, including the oprichnina, fit perfectly into this scheme.

Historians include the implementation of numerous reforms among the actions of the first Russian Tsar. The introduction of a new Code of Law, the holding of a Zemsky Sobor, the creation of new Orders, changes in the taxation system, the weakening of the influence of monasteries and the deprivation of some of their benefits, monetary reforms - it is difficult to even imagine the scale of the changes initiated by the tsar in the state government system. And besides this, a military reform was carried out - and quite successfully - which brought numerous victories to the Russian army. It was thanks to the improvement of weapons, changes in the supply system, and the introduction of a new type of troops - Streltsy - that the state borders. The conquest of Astrakhan and Kazan, the elimination of the threat from the Crimean Khan, the conquest of Siberia - all this expanded the territory of the Russian state almost twice, bringing them closer to the modern borders of Russia.

Terror or good

Ivan the Terrible is called an extremely tough and even cruel ruler. According to some historians, the number of his victims reached four to five thousand people. This data was drawn mostly from the sovereign's synodics - special memorial lists that Ivan the Terrible sent to monasteries to read prayers for the deceased. Everyone was included in the synodics. Whom the king sentenced to death - for murder, rape, high treason and other crimes.

However, if you turn to European history the same period, then the list of four thousand victims immediately ceases to seem something daunting. One Night of St. Bartholomew exceeds the number of those killed by an order of magnitude, not to mention the victims of the Inquisition burned at the stake for heresy. Russia during the period of Ivan the Terrible was distinguished by rare tolerance towards other faiths, including Judaism and Islam.

Karamzin, a historian of the Romanovs, the author of “History of the Russian State” presented Ivan the Terrible as a bloody tyrant, a monster on the royal throne - and not least because of the oprichnina. And Karamzin’s assessment largely influenced the further understanding of Ivan as a tsar among historians of both the past and the present.

It is impossible to give an unambiguous assessment of the oprichnina. Years of terror and murder led to the fact that noble boyar families lost many of their representatives. The physical elimination of boyars who did not agree with the rule of Ivan the Terrible was a consequence of the struggle of the autocracy with the old form of power. However, it is worth remembering that the oprichnina as a result served as another factor strengthening the central government.

Despite disagreements in assessments of the personality of Ivan the Terrible, historians recognize that in the second half of the 16th century, a strong, tough sovereign ascended the throne, who had a clear goal - strengthening the state - and achieved it by all means.

Ivan the Terrible was the son of the Grand Duke Vasily III. The childhood and youth of the future ruler took place during a turbulent period of unrest in the Russian lands, which had a significant influence on Ivan IV’s further vision of his role as a prince. And as a result, the results of the reign of Ivan the Terrible became more important for further development country than the activities of any other Russian sovereign of that era.

According to a number of historians, it was then that the fate of Russia was laid as a special civilizational and geopolitical formation between East and West.

The activities of the prince and the most important results of the reign of Ivan the Terrible

Ivan IV ascended the throne while still a young man - in 1547. An important event This year was the Moscow uprising of the people protesting against the tyranny of the boyars. The unrest reached the point that some members were killed. Even for the seventeen-year-old prince, it became obvious that the state needed a wide range of reforms: the creation of a unified bureaucratic apparatus, the transformation of the judicial system, the publication of new legislation that would meet the requirements of the time, and so on. Actually, this activity determines the main results of the reign of Ivan the Terrible as a prince. In 1547, an unofficial government was formed at the prince's court, assembled from nobles, clergy and officials, the purpose of which was to carry out large-scale reforms in the state. The main areas of activity (the name of this government, entrenched in historiography) were the following:

Oprichnina and foreign policy. Results

However, after 1560, a conflict occurred between the leaders of the Chosen Council and the Grand Duke. The next period of Russian history is known as the “oprichnina,” during which Ivan IV personally formed a loyal corps of troops and waged real terror against the aristocracy of the Russian lands. On the one hand, this led to the establishment of an absolute monarchy, which was a fairly natural process for Europe at that time. On the other hand, the oprichnina laid the ground for a large-scale crisis that broke out half a century later and became known as the Great Troubles. The results of the reign of Ivan the Terrible for the international position of the Moscow state also became very important. It not only became the first powerful political formation of the Eastern Slavs since the times of Kievan Rus; in the middle of the 16th century, Moscow began an active struggle to expand its possessions. First of all, in the Baltic states and in the east due to the possessions of the former Tatar Horde, where Ivan the Terrible was the first of the Russian princes to actively attack. We will briefly summarize the results of the board in the table.

The main results of the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Table

	Domestic policy		Foreign policy
Activities	Reforms of the Chosen Rada	Oprichnina	Livonian War	Kazan campaigns
Results	Creation of a bureaucracy, centralization of the state, strengthening the power of the central government, reorganization of the judicial system	Physical destruction of part of the aristocracy, forcible deprivation of the boyars of their freedoms and privileges before the prince	Defeat and refusal as a result of the peace treaty from Livonia, part of the Belarusian lands, territories on the coast of the Gulf of Finland	Conquest of the Kazan and Astrakhan Khanates

However, it should be borne in mind that the tabular results are displayed very schematically.

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The reign of Ivan IV the Terrible and the consequences of his reign

1. Periods of the life of Ivan IV the Terrible

Ivan (Vasilievich) IV the Terrible (born 1530 - died 1584) is a controversial figure in history, he had both strong and weaknesses. N.M. Karamzin noted that there were two Ivan IVs - when approaching the assessment of Ivan IV, one cannot help but notice him strengths, but also the weak, because of them there were problems in his life and the life of the entire country.

He is the eldest son of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III and Elena Glinskaya. On his father's side he came from the Moscow branch of the Rurik dynasty, on his mother's side - from Mamai, who was considered the ancestor Lithuanian princes Glinskikh. My paternal grandmother, Sophia Palaeologus, is from the family of Byzantine emperors.

The life of Ivan the Terrible is divided into three periods.

Childhood and youth (1530-1547).

This period can be considered very unsuccessful both for Ivan the Terrible himself and for the entire state. At the age of three his father died, at the age of eight his mother died. He began to be raised by strangers who did not give him a proper education, but taught him cruelty, hypocrisy, lies, etc. There is a version about the mental illness of Ivan IV, mental disorders occurred precisely in childhood, but it is impossible to prove this now, this is - one of the historical hypotheses. At the same time, several of the most powerful boyar families fought for power and property. According to the memoirs of Ivan himself, “Prince Vasily and Ivan Shuisky arbitrarily imposed themselves as guardians and thus reigned.”

Society was dissatisfied with what was happening, with this struggle for power. The Moscow uprising of June 21, 1547 left a strong impression on Ivan IV. The Glinsky households that remained after the fire were burned and looted. Then the crowd tore apart a maternal relative, Yuri Glinsky. After the murder of the prince on June 29, the rebels came to the village of Vorobyovo, where Ivan IV had taken refuge, and demanded the extradition of the remaining Glinskys. With great difficulty, they managed to persuade the crowd to disperse, convincing them that they were not in Vorobyov. As soon as the danger had passed, the king ordered the arrest of the main conspirators and their execution.

Second period (1547-1560).

This was the most successful period in his life, and in the life of the state. On January 16, 1547, the solemn ceremony of crowning Ivan IV to the throne took place in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. On February 3, 1547, Ivan IV entered into his first marriage with Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yuryeva. His wife died in 1562, after her death great changes occurred with the king, this undermined his health. Then Ivan IV married three more times with other wives and at the end of his life had three more unmarried marriages. Soon the “Elected Rada” was formed - a circle of people who made up the informal government under Ivan IV the Terrible in 1549-1560, which helped him govern and carry out reforms in the state.

Reforms of the Chosen One are welcome.

The First Zemsky Sobor of 1549. This is the body of class representation, ensuring the connection between the center and the localities, the speech of Ivan IV from the front: condemnation of the wrong boyar rule, announcement of the need for reforms.

Code of Law of 1550. It contained the development of the provisions of Code of Law of Ivan III, limitation of the power of governors and volosts, strengthening of control of the tsarist administration, a uniform amount of court fees, preservation of the right of peasants to move from one landowner to another on St. George’s Day.

Order reform of 1550 Formation of the order system (central government reforms): The Code of Law of 1550 established a system of order administration, the basic framework of which was preserved until the end of the 17th century. Orders (departments, sectoral bodies) were established to provide for basic state needs: Petition, Ambassadorial, Local, Streletsky, Pushkarsky, Bronny, Robbery, Pechatny, Sokolnichiy, Zemsky orders, as well as quarters - Galitskaya, Ustyug, Novaya, Kazan orders. The orders brought order to the management of various areas of the state’s economy. The Council of the Hundred Heads in 1551. The unification of church rituals was carried out, the recognition of all locally revered saints as all-Russian, the establishment of a strict iconographic canon, requirements for improving the morals of the clergy, and the prohibition of usury among priests. Military reform of 1556. The Code of Service was adopted: restriction of localism for the period of military operations, in addition to the mounted local militia, organization of a standing army - archers, gunners, a unified order of military service.

Sagittarius - a service man “by recruiting” in the 16th and early 18th centuries; a horseman or infantryman armed with small arms. The Streltsy in Russia constituted the first regular army, and not a militia army, which was assembled only when there was a threat of a military attack.

Local government reform in 1556. Feedings were abolished.

Feeding is a type of grant from the great and appanage princes to their officials, according to which the princely administration was supported at the expense of the local population during the period of service. The place of feeders was taken by the bodies of zemstvo self-government - heads and kissers. Granting them the rights of provincial nobility.

Tselovalniki are officials in the Russian state, elected by the zemshchina in districts and townships to perform judicial, financial and police duties. The chosen person swore to honestly fulfill his duties and, in confirmation of the oath, kissed the cross, which is where the name comes from.

These reforms were necessary for the state, were implemented in a timely manner and significantly strengthened the country. It is no coincidence that the second period was marked by military victories.

Kazan campaigns (1547-1552), three campaigns in total, in October 1552 Kazan was taken by storm.

Astrakhan campaigns (1554-1556), during this period the Astrakhan Khanate was an ally of the Crimean Khan, controlling the lower reaches of the Volga, two campaigns were carried out, after which Astrakhan was taken without a fight. After the conquest of Astrakhan, Russian influence began to extend to the Caucasus.

Third period (early 1560s-1584).

Since the beginning of the 1560s, changes have occurred that show that before us is not one person, Ivan IV, but two. After the death of his first wife in 1562, Ivan IV began to suspect everyone of treason. A sharp change occurred in last days 1564, marking the beginning of the third period - the tsar left Moscow with his retinue and for two weeks no one knew where the tsar was. Two weeks later two letters arrived:

The first is that the nobles and boyars do not obey him, and in such conditions he cannot rule and leaves his post. Second - that everything ordinary people, his people, are not to blame.

The tsar hoped that after such letters the people would rise up in rebellion against the boyars; in early December 1564, an attempt was made to carry out an armed rebellion against the tsar, in which Western forces took part. When everything calmed down, the people asked Ivan IV the Terrible to return to Moscow.

He put forward his demands:

He rules alone and decides everything himself; Decided to disband the “Chosen Rada”, introduces state oprichnina.

In 1565, Grozny announced the introduction of the Oprichnina in the country. The country was divided into two parts: “To the Sovereign's Grace Oprichnin” and the zemstvo. Oprichnina included mainly northeastern Russian lands, where there were few patrimonial boyars. The center of Oprichnina became Alexandrovskaya Sloboda - the new residence of Ivan the Terrible.

Oprichnina (1565-1572) was part of state policy in the Russian state, which consisted of the seizure in favor of state property for the needs of the royal court and its employees - nobles and troops, state terror and a system of emergency measures. Also called “oprichnina” was a part of the state, with special administration, allocated for the maintenance of the royal court and oprichniki (“Gosudareva oprichnina”). Oprichniki were the people who made up the secret police (bodyguards, guards) of Ivan the Terrible and directly carried out repressions. The guardsmen began to create lawlessness and terror in the state, sometimes accusing the boyars of the most noble families of treason without proper evidence.

Main events of the oprichnina.

Ivan the Terrible was very afraid for his power and his life and suspected treason everywhere, so he quite often forced his guardsmen to carry out executions. As a result, the actions of the tsar's soldiers sometimes went beyond his orders and became extremely brutal; the guardsmen killed, robbed and took property from often innocent people.

In 1569, information reached Ivan IV that Novgorod was preparing a campaign against him and regicide. Ivan gathered a huge army consisting of his guardsmen and moved towards Novgorod. His guardsmen simply robbed the residents and killed them, taking their property for themselves. After Novgorod, the tsar moved to Pskov, where he saw new conspiracy. In Pskov, the guardsmen limited themselves to only executing some residents, whom the tsar called traitors. The era of rampant oprichnina has arrived. In 1570-1571, Ivan the Terrible returned to Moscow. By this time, the tsar saw conspiracies almost everywhere, so real terror began in Moscow. Almost everyone was executed, including those closest to him. Moscow was mired in chaos and blood.

The end of the oprichnina.

Over time, the guardsmen turned from warriors into an analogue of the royal court. In 1571, the Crimean Khan attacked Rus'. Ivan the Terrible sent his guardsmen against him, but they refused to go to war, continuing to rob ordinary citizens. Seeing what his reforms led to, Ivan the Terrible abolished the oprichnina and replaced it with a softer version - zemshchina (he allocated a part of the state to the boyars and his associates to govern). However, according to historians, only the name has changed, but the essence remains the same. Fortunately, the terror has subsided.

2. Consequences of the reign of Ivan IV the Terrible

Consequences of the oprichnina.

The results of the oprichnina of 1565-1572 were extremely sad. The guardsmen's retinue was created in order to protect the king and avoid fragmentation of the state, but instead of benefit it brought only troubles. Rus', tormented by terror, found itself in a difficult economic and political situation, the flourishing lands were deserted, people fled from them to the north of the country, some fled abroad, many people were killed, and the defense capability of the state also suffered. The oprichnina divided the country into parts and led to a serious decline, undermining the power of the country. The Livonian war for lands in the west was fought for 25 years and was ultimately lost.

The Livonian War (1558-1583) was a major military conflict of the 16th century, in which the Livonian Confederation, the Russian Empire, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Swedish and Danish kingdoms took part. The war began with the attack of the Russian Empire on Livonia in January 1558. At the first stage of the war, Russian troops achieved significant success, conquering Narva. In 1563, Polotsk was taken by the Russian army, but it was not possible to develop the success. In 1569, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania united with the Kingdom of Poland into a single Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Following the unsuccessful siege of Revel by Russian troops (1577), the troops of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth returned Polotsk and unsuccessfully besieged Pskov. The Swedes took Narva and unsuccessfully besieged Oreshek.

The war ended with the signing of the Yam-Zapolsky (1582) and Plyussky (1583) truces. Russia was deprived of all conquests made as a result of the war, as well as lands on the border with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and coastal Baltic cities. The territory of the former Livonian Confederation was divided between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sweden and Denmark. Thus, Russia's access to the Baltic Sea failed.

To summarize, it should be noted that many circumstances indicate the contradictory personality of Ivan IV the Terrible. Although many of the atrocities attributed to him may simply be a “fiction” of Western politicians who did not want his rapprochement with the West and Russia’s access to the Baltic Sea. Despite a number of reforms carried out by Ivan IV, he nevertheless weakened his state by the end of his reign, leading the state to the Time of Troubles, which later engulfed Russia.

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