A history of Russia

THE REIGNS OF IVAN THE TERRIBLE, 1533-84, AND OF THEODORE, 1584-98

There is nothing more unjust than to deny that there was a principle at stake in Ivan's struggle with the boyars or to see in this struggle only political stagnation. Whether Ivan IV was himself the initiator or not - most probably he was not - yet this 'oprichnina' was an attempt, a hundred and fifty years before Peter's time, to found a personal autocracy like the Petrine monarchy… Just as the 'reforms' had been the work of a coalition of the bourgeoisie and the boyars, the coup of 1564 was carried out by a coalition of the townsmen and the petty vassals.

POKROVSKY

The new system which he [Ivan the Terrible] set up was madness, but the madness of a genius.

PARES

With the reign of Ivan IV, the Terrible, the appanage period became definitely a thing of the past and Muscovite absolutism came fully into its own. Ivan IV was the first Muscovite ruler to be crowned tsar, to have this action approved by the Eastern patriarchs, and to use the title regularly and officially both in governing his land and in conducting foreign relations. In calling himself also 'autocrat' he emphasized his complete power at home as well as the fact that he was a sovereign, not a dependent, monarch. Nevertheless, it was Ivan the Terrible's actions, rather than his titles or ideas, that offered a stunning demonstration of the new arbitrary might of the Muscovite, and now Russian, ruler. Indeed, Ivan the Terrible remains the classic Russian tyrant in spite of such successors as Peter the Great, Paul I, and Nicholas I.

Ivan the Terrible's Childhood and the First Part of His Rule

Ivan IV was only three years old in 1533 when his father, Basil III, died, leaving the government of Russia to his wife - Ivan's mother Helen, of the Glinsky family - and the boyar duma. The new regent acted in a haughty and arbitrary manner, disregarding the boyars and relying first on her uncle, the experienced Prince Michael Glinsky, and after his death on her lover, the youthful Prince Telepnev-Obolensky. In 1538 she died suddenly, possibly of poison. Boyar rule - if this phrase can be used to

characterize the strife and misrule which ensued - followed her demise. To quote one brief summary of the developments:

The regency was disputed between two princely houses, the Shuiskys and the Belskys. Thrice the power changed hands and twice the Metropolitans themselves were forcibly changed during the struggle, one of them, Joseph,

being done to death. The Shuiskys prevailed, and three successive members of this family held power in turn. Their use of it was entirely selfish, dictated not even by class interests but simply by those of family and favour.

Imprisonments, exiles, executions, and murders proliferated.

All evidence indicates that Ivan IV was a sensitive, intelligent, and precocious boy. He learned to read early and read everything that he could find, especially Muscovite Church literature. He became of necessity painfully aware of the struggle and intrigues around him and also of the ambivalence of his own position. The same boyars who formally paid obeisance to him as autocrat and treated him with utmost respect on ceremonial occasions, neglected, insulted, and injured him in private life. In fact, they deprived him at will of his favorite servants and companions and ran the palace, as well as Russia, as they pleased. Bitterness and cruelty, expressed, for instance, in his torture of animals, became fundamental traits of the young ruler's character.

At the age of thirteen Ivan IV suddenly turned on Andrew Shuisky, who was arrested and dispatched by the tsar's servants. The autocrat entered into his inheritance. The year 1547 is commonly considered the introduction to Ivan IV's effective reign. In that year, at the age of sixteen, he decided to be crowned, not as grand prince, but as tsar, paying minute attention to details in planning the ceremony in order to make it as majestic and awe-inspiring as possible. In the same year Ivan IV married Anastasia of the popular Romanov boyar family: again, he acted with great seriousness and deliberation in selecting Anastasia from a special list of eligible young Russian ladies after he had considered and dismissed the alternative of a foreign marital alliance. The marriage turned out to be a very happy one. Still in the same year, a great fire, followed by a riot, swept Moscow. As the city burned, and even the belfry of Ivan the Great in the Kremlin collapsed, crazed mobs killed an uncle of the tsar and imperiled the tsar's own life before being dispersed. The tsar himself experienced one of the psychological crises which were periodically to mark his explosive reign. He apparently believed the disaster to be a punishment for his sins: he repented publicly in Red Square and promised to rule in the interests of the people.

What followed has traditionally been described as the first, the good, half of Ivan IV's rule. The young tsar, beneficially influenced by his kind and attractive wife, worked with a small group of able and enlightened advisers, the Chosen Council, which included Metropolitan Macarius, a priest named Sylvester, and a court official of relatively low origin, Alexis Adashev. In 1549 he called together the first full zemskii sobor, an institution similar to a gathering of the representatives of estates in other European countries, which will be discussed in a later chapter. While our knowl-

edge of the assembly of 1549 remains fragmentary, it seems that Ivan IV solicited and received its approval for his projected reforms, notably for a new code of law and for changes in local government, and that he also used that occasion to hear complaints and learn opinions of his subjects concerning various matters.

In 1551 a great Church council, known as the Council of a Hundred Chapters, took place. Its decrees did much to regulate the position of the Church in relation to the state and society as well as to regulate ecclesiastical affairs proper. Significantly, the Church lost the right to acquire more land without the tsar's explicit permission, a regulation which could not, however, be effectively put into practice. In general, Metropolitan Macarius and his associates accomplished a great deal in tightening and perfecting the organization of the Church in the sprawling, but now firmly united, Russian state. One interesting aspect of this process was their incorporation of different regional Russian saints - with a number of new canonizations in 1547 and 1549 - into a single Church calendar.

Ivan the Terrible also presented to the Church council his new legal code, the Sudebnik of 1550, and the local government reform, and received its approval. Both measures became law. The institution of a novel scheme of local government deserves special attention as one of the more daring attempts in Russian history to resolve this perennially difficult problem. The new system aimed at the elimination of corruption and oppression on the part of centrally appointed officials by means of popular participation in local affairs. Various localities had already received permission to elect their own judicial authorities to deal, drastically if need be, with crime. Now, in areas whose population guaranteed a certain amount of dues to the treasury, other locally elected officials replaced the centrally appointed governors. And even where the governors remained, the people could elect assessors to check closely on their activities and, indeed, impeach them when necessary. But we shall return to the Muscovite system of government in a later chapter.

In 1556 Ivan IV established general regulations for military service of the gentry. While this service had existed for a long time, it remained without comprehensive organization or standardization until the new rules set a definite relationship between the size of the estate and the number of warriors and horses the landlord had to produce on demand. It should be noted that by the middle of the sixteenth century the distinction between the hereditary votchina and the pomestie, granted for service, had largely disappeared: in particular, it had become impossible to remain a landlord, hereditary or otherwise, without owing service to the tsar. In 1550 and thereabout Ivan the Terrible and his advisors also engaged in an army reform, which included new emphasis on artillery and engineering as well as development of the southern defense line. Moreover, the first

permanent, regular regiments, known because of their chief weapon as the streltsy or musketeers, were added to the Russian army.

The military improvements came none too soon, for in the 1550's the Muscovite state was already engaging