MINISTRY OF CULTURE
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION THE RUSSIAN MILITARY
AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE NOVGOROD REGION STAR MEDIA PRESENT Al residents of Moscow came to look
at that grandioso building site. Neatly cut stone pillars
were reaching into the sky. The grandeur of what was being created
before their very eyes was breathtaking. However, a miracle didn’t happen. One summer night, the almost finished
cathedral suddenly fell. Great Prince was the first to arrive
to the place of the catastrophe. His dream was lying in front of him
in ruins, like bones on a plundered cemetery. Great Prince Ivan Vasilyevitch
would find strength to rebuild everything - the cathedral, Kremlin and the country. THE RURIK DYNASTY. Episode Seven In 1440, an exhausting feudal war
went on for over quarter of a century. Prince Vasiliy II, grandson
of Dmitry Donskoy, was fighting for power. Meanwhile, huge Princedom of Great Perm was ready to become an independent state. The Volga princedoms,
exhausted by the Tatars’ raids, were inclining towards the Horde. Novgorod was negotiating closely
with the Great Duchy of Lithuania. And on the Moscow throne, there was no man able to prevent
the collapse of the country. In winter of 1440, in a small monastery by Novgorod God’s fool monk Mikhail
proclaimed an unclear prophecy: “The Great Prince of Moscow
will soon be happy. A son will be born to the Great Prince. He will be his father’s successor,
and he’ll ruin the customs of our Novgorod lands,
and many lands will fear him”. On January 22, Great Prince Vasiliy
had a son called Ioann (Ivan). His contemporaries
will call him the Terrible. With time,
that name would pass to his grandson, while he would go down in history
under the nickname of the Great. Chapter One. Ivan II the Great Ivan was only five
when his father was defeated and taken prisoner by the Tatars. Soon, he returned
promising the Khan a huge ransom. But Moscow stood up against the Prince
who shamed himself with captivity. Vasiliy was dethroned, blinded
and thrown in prison in far-away Uglich. Now, he was called Vasiliy the Dark. His family shared the hardships
with the Prince. Six-year-old Ivan watched
his helpless and blind father diving out of the abyss of despair, gathering allies and fighting
the Moscow throne back. However,
Vasiliy the Dark needed an assistant. So, eight-year-old young Prince Ivan was announced to be his father’s
co-ruler and Great Prince. He had no childhood. He had to be with his father all the time, become his right hand,
assistant and guide. At 12,
he headed the troops for the first time and returned
from a far-away campaign with victory. At 22, after his father’s death,
he became a full-fledged ruler. He ascended the throne
with calm and dignity. He concluded an ally treaty
with the Princedom of Tver, bought rights to land
from a poor Prince of Yaroslavl, enthroned his relative in Ryazan
and signed an alliance with the Crimean Khan. By 27, Ivan realized that the title of the Great Prince was too small for him. He could rise in status via a marriage
to a girl from a European royal house. By that time,
Ivan had been a widower for two years – his wife,
young Princess Maria Borisovna died. Right after the funerals, Great Prince sent his people
around the world to look for a suitable bride for him. An Embassy from the Pope arrived
to Moscow with a letter stating: “Thomas Palaeologus of the kingdom
of Constantinople has daughter Sophia. If you want to marry her,
we’ll send her to your state”. Twenty-year-old Sophia belonged
to the Byzantine dynasty of Palaeologus and was a granddaughter of one emperor
and a niece to another. However,
the best years of Byzantine were over. The Empire collapsed, its Emperor died
when the Turks conquered Constantinople. Sophia and her family had to flee to Rome where Pope Paul II sheltered
the noble refugees. Pope came to care for them, and Sophia and her two younger brothers
had to convert into Catholicism. Ivan III knew why Pope was taking
such an active part in his family affairs. Princess Sophia was to become the source
of the Catholic influence at Rus. The Greeks had their own motives – they hoped that when the Prince
of Moscow became the successor to the Byzantine throne,
he would start a war with the Turks and get the throne back to them. Prince himself, however,
was playing by his own rules. He was calculating every detail.
And he knew how to wait. He sent his ambassador to Rome
to look at the Princess. He even ordered a portrait
of the Princess in Rome from one of the painters who would paint
the Sistine Chapel in a couple of year. The portrait was brought to Moscow,
but there was no reply. Prince Ivan took a long pause. It took him three years
to agree to that marriage. Just in case, Pope decided to hold
an engagement ceremony of Princess Sophia in accordance with the Catholic ritual. It was grandiose and silly. Due to the absence of the groom,
the head of the Moscow Embassy Ivan Fryazin stood
by the altar instead of him. When a moment came to exchange
the wedding rings, it turned out that the Ambassador
didn’t have any. However,
the misunderstanding was solved fast, and the ceremony was completed. An endless
and non-comprehensive northern land, the icy Hyperborea. Sophia was shocked by the scale and scarcity
of her future husband’s lands. Rare cities were all wooden, and their residents dressed
in enormous fur coats were looking at the bright carts gloomily. The reason for their irritation
was Pope’s legate Antonio Bonumbre. In his fiery-red cloak
shining among the snow, he was stubbornly carrying
a tall Latin Cross in front of the procession
during the entire trip. In 15 versts from Moscow,
Ambassador of the Great Prince boyar Fedor Khromoy met them
and explained to Bonumbre that he should put the cross aside. Two months later, the legate would be
politely pushed out of the country. That was how the Catholic expansion
that Pope had planned, ended. To Sophia,
Moscow looked like a huge village. Over the sea of wooden houses,
an ancient fortress was towering; holes in its walls were covered with logs. Above those,
the low sky was constantly snowing. After the marble palaces
and bright colors of Italy she felt she could die
of depression there. On the main square of the city, a small wooden chapel was waiting
for them instead of a cathedral. Close to it, there was a half-finished
stone box covered with scaffolding. Sophia didn’t have time
to come to her senses when she was led into the church. The Greek Princess had to re-convert
to Orthodoxy and marry the Great Prince. In a small and stiffy chapel
she unexpectedly felt peace of mind, long forgotten among the cold marble
pillars of the Roman basilicas. There, it smelled of incense and wax,
like in her childhood, saints’ faces were shining in the darkness,
and priests in gilded cloaks as if stepped out of the Greek books. She felt she came home. Great Prince Ivan who was standing
by the altar was huge, shaggy and loud, he was filling the entire space
not letting the others breathe. His uncomprehensive Russian
sounded like a bear’s roar. The bride was noble indeed but she didn’t have anything. However, he didn’t need it.
He had what he needed. And he would gain
what he hadn’t already have. In the middle of the night,
the alarm sounded. Fire! Ivan rushed into the street. Sophia saw him riding in the direction where a pillar of fire was reaching
for the sky, giving orders on the way. How is it possible? Why did a ruler rush
into the fire himself? A bloody glow was shining
over the Kremlin. Great Prince was running
about the city like crazy. His loud voice was overpowering shouts
and cracking of the fire, pulling people out of panic. People followed him into the fire. Numb with horror, Sophia watched him jump into the midst of the fire
and pulling burning logs with a hook. Great Prince was bravely fighting
for his city, for his households, for his people. He was a master here.
A master of his country. Sophia hated that weird habit
of the Russians to come too close when talking to somebody. But now, something as if pushed her to him. He was dirty, burnt and exhausted. Now, Sophia could see: that man would achieve any goals. That man was able for anything. And that man was her husband. They managed to save the Kremlin,
and the Ascension Cathedral that was under construction
didn’t suffer from fire. It was a grandioso construction that
had been ongoing for a couple of years. After an old cathedral, small and shabby,
built 150 years ago by Ivan Kalita, the new ruler wanted to build
a huge cathedral resembling the one in Vladimir
but twice as big. Such huge buildings weren’t constructed
in Rus for a long time. The metropolitan sent his masters,
experienced architects, who had built numerous stone churches, and assured the Prince
they knew their job. But when the masters were already working
on the towers, the walls of the cathedral fell. It happened at night. A curious boy, son of Prince Fedor Pestriy,
was at the site. He managed to run
from the falling northern wall to the southern one that survived,
and didn’t die by sheer miracle. The masons summoned
from Pskov examined the ruins and drew a conclusion that the mortar
couldn’t hold such weight. However,
they refused to rebuild the cathedral. The grandioso scale of white-stoned
cathedrals of Vladimir were in the past, as all of them were constructed
before the Mongol invasion. However,
in far-away Italy architects were raising heavy walls of palaces
and cathedrals high into the sky. Why not do the same in Moscow? The metropolitan was against it. How could they let the Latin Christians, heretics build the main cathedral
of the Orthodox state? But that time,
Ivan didn’t listen to the priest. He sent his Ambassador Semyon Tolbuzin with an instruction
to hire the best architect. None of the Italian architects agreed
to go to the edge of the world, to wild and unknown Moscow. But after all searches and conversations,
Tolbuzin found a real treasure. “His name is Aristotle, -
Tolbuzin wrote to the Prince. He says he built a church of St. Mark
in Venice, a very good one, and the Venetian gates,
that are also very nice and good”. The famous architect hesitated for long,
and then demanded a colossal payment for his services –
10 rubles per month. Tolbuzin was happy. “Aristotle took his son Andrey and his assistant Peter, and went to Rus”. Aristotle Fioravanti, 54-year-old,
was a real man of Renaissance and could do anything. He was a jeweler, welder, engineer, he could move buildings
and straighten bell towers. However, Fioravanti didn’t create
a single building in Italy. In Venice, all he did was straighten
a crooked bell tower of the San-Angelo Church
that fell four days later, so Aristotle had to leave the city. Later in Rome, he was arrested
on accusations of minting false coins. He justified himself but was dismissed
from the position of Bologna architect. At that moment, the offer of the Prince
of Moscow came out of the blue. On his way to Moscow, Aristotle regret
agreeing to that adventure many times. But when they were approaching
the Russian capital, spring air suddenly came alive
with ringing of all the bells. Fioravanti was in awe
of such a solemn greeting. That morning,
Moscow was celebrating Easter, and the bells rang in all churches. After examining the ruins of the Kremlin, Fioravanti went to study the sample
for the future cathedral – the Ascension Cathedral in Vladimir. The Italian pressed his hand
against the smooth wall and said with certainty:
“Our people built it”. He had already realized that he would
have to make the impossible possible. He staked everything. Against the will of the client who wanted to restore
and finish the cathedral, Aristotle dismantled the remaining
walls that had been constructed three years earlier. He began to create a masterpiece
of his life from scratch. He was getting everything he needed –
huge money, any materials, numerous workers… However, that summer was very rainy. Aristotle was one on one with his Russian
masterpiece that was getting soaked. When autumn came,
the building site was frozen. However, the Italian engineer
was entrusted with another job. Great Prince Ivan
started a big Novgorod game. Long ago, first Princes from Vladimir,
and then from Moscow attempted to suppress rich Republic of Novgorod,
but in vain. Independent Novgorod was the last obstacle
on the way of unification of the lands and creation
of the united Russian state. Besides,
it possessed great economic potential that Moscow needed to fight the Horde. Great Master Novgorod managed
to evade the Mongol invasions. Its huge lands stretched
from the Baltic Sea to the Urals and from the White Sea to the Volga. International trade and forest hunting
brought fairy-tale profits. Novgorod was ruled by a corporation
of aristocrats and the richest merchants. It was a flourishing boyar republic. A tasty morsel for two giant neighbors, two great princedoms
of Moscow and Lithuania. For centuries,
Novgorod was maneuvering between the devil and the deep blue see,
hinting to Moscow that it could accept the patronage
of Lithuania anytime. Ivan III decided to use that
to his own benefit. The negotiations of the Novgorod nobility
with the Lithuanian Catholic Prince were proclaimed the betrayal of Orthodoxy. Now,
it was the duty of the Prince of Moscow, as the defender of the true faith, to pull
Novgorod out of the hands of heretics. Basing on that idea,
the Novgorod operation was developed. Great Prince opened a camp
in three versts from the city. The residents of Moscow
under the head of Aristotle Fioravanti began to build a pontoon bridge
across the Volkhov. Novgorod was besieged,
and the Moscow cannons, welded in advance by the same Fioravanti,
were now directed at it. The sly Italian blueprinted
Moscow’s strategic armament. Novgorod couldn’t oppose
that barrage of fire. After two weeks of siege,
Great Novgorod surrendered. It recognized Great Prince as its master, and it meant the complete liquidation
of the republic and its administrative
and political system. Dozens of Novgorod boyars
who owned huge land plots, got imprisoned on accusations
of connections with Lithuania. They confirmed the treason to Rus
and Orthodoxy and were executed. Ivan moved thousands of citizens
and their families to the south, into the land of Moscow. The lands of Novgorod
belonged to the ruler now. Ivan III divided them into estates
and allotted to his loyal servants. An estate is a piece of state land
that was given by the ruler for personal use on conditions
of military service. The size of the estate was defined
in the way to allow its owner to live from it and to fully equip
himself for campaigns. As opposed to the patrimonies,
or hereditary land plots, owners of the estates were completely
dependent on the will of the ruler. The system of estate ownership
would become a powerful instrument for strengthening of the “vertical
of power” and define the economic and political development
of Russia for centuries to come. Great Prince returned to Moscow
as a winner. Fioravanti came much earlier,
to prepare the Prince’s next triumph. On August 12, 1479 the entire Moscow came to the Kremlin where the new Ascension Cathedral
was to be sanctified. Nobody had ever seen it before. Only a mass of construction
scaffolding towered over the city. With loud noise, the planks
of scaffolding fell to the ground. When the dust fell,
the crowd heaved a sign. Nobody had ever seen
anything like that before. A chronicler recorded:
“That church was incredible in terms of its grandeur, height, lightless and sound and space. Nothing like that has ever been
in Rus before. It stood as one stone”. The Ascension Cathedral of the Moscow
Kremlin was built in the mixed technic. The walls were made of blocks
of white stone, arches and towers – from reinforced bricks that significantly
decreased the pressure of the top parts of the building
on the walls and pillars. The building was built with a help
of a pair of compasses and a ruler, on the basis
of exact engineering calculations. The use of new technical means
and engineering decisions allowed to increase
the internal space of the cathedral. Thin round pillars
didn’t take too much space and didn’t separate it into sections, creating an impression
of a huge palace hall. Aristotle Fioravanti
who boasted building Venice though was considered just an engineer
and jeweler in Italy and not an architect,
created a real masterpiece here, in the far-away northern country. For Ivan III, the Ascension Cathedral
became a real manifesto by incarnation idea of his future state –
unity, power and scale. Great Prince was moving towards
the realization of his grandioso plans with huge steps. In the middle of summer,
bad news arrived in Moscow. Khan of the Big Horde Ahmat
and his innumerable army went to Rus to make the Prince of Moscow
repay his debts for eight years. Ahmat was moving slowly. He was waiting for his ally Casimir, Great Prince of Lithuania
and King of Poland, to join his campaign. In September, the Horde crossed
the Oka to the south of Kaluga, on the Lithuanian territory. Prince’s elder son,
22-year-old Ivan the Young rushed to the Russian-Lithuanian border
and arrived there before the Tatars did. The Moscow cannons held all the crossings at the border river of the Ugra
under their control. Ivan III left his troops there
and returned to Moscow. Rus was encircled by the enemies. There was no way out of that loop. For the first time in his life,
Great Prince didn’t know what to do. The boyars, his advisors were saying: “Prince, run. Your father, your grandfather
and even your great-grandfather, Dmitry Donskoy, was running away. The ruler shan’t die, he is the light, he is the pillar,
he holds everything together.” But when the ruler,
light and pillar, approached Moscow, an angry crowd didn’t let him go. If the Tatars break through
the barrier at the Ugra River, that would be the end of Moscow. Instead of standing there
to the bitter end, Prince left the troops and fled. People were shouting insults
and mocked in Ivan’s face, and he didn’t have what to reply. With great difficulty,
he reached the Kremlin. Somebody was waiting for him there. The metropolitan of Rostov Vassian
couldn’t contain himself: “Prince, you’re not great,
you’re a coward. All the blood of the Christians
will be your fault, for you gave us to the Tatars and fled. Are you scared of death? Then give the soldiers to me, an old man,
and I’ll stand up against the Tatars”! His mother was silent,
and her hard gaze was burning Prince as if with melted lead. Ivan didn’t have what to say. He needed time to think it all over,
to calculate. But there was no time. A messenger rode to the Ugra
with Great Prince’s order to his son – to return to Moscow immediately. But Ivan the Young refused
to leave his army point-black. The Great Prince didn’t expect
such heroism from the young man. He had to re-evaluate everything
and act in a different way. An old treaty came into use. The Crimean Khan which whom Ivan III
had concluded an agreement many years ago,
agreed to send his soldiers into a campaign against King Casimir,
and pushed him out of the game. Now, it was just Moscow
and the Horde against each other. The fire of the cannons and harquebuses
were inflicting heavy losses on the Horde when it tried to cross
the river separating the armies. Ahmat took a pause. Then, Ivan III made his step. He sent his messenger
to the Khan for negotiations. Ahmat arrogantly demanded
that Ivan should come to him himself as the Russian princes did before. The ambassadors from Moscow were holding
long and confusing conversations. Soon, Khan guessed that Great Prince
was simply biding his time. “The winter is approaching, -
he said via the Ambassador. – The rivers would stand,
and there would be many roads to Rus”. Meanwhile,
the Moscow intelligence reported that the Tatars were exhausted
and completely unprepared for winter. While Ahmat was sitting at the Ugra, Ivan III ordered a Russian detachment
to go down the Volga in boats and rob helpless Saray,
the capital of the Big Horde. On October 26, first frosts began. The Ugra froze, and the last obstacle
on the way of the Horde disappeared. On November 9, Ahmat rose the Horde. But instead of crossing the Ugra,
he turned around and left for the steppes. Nobody could understand the reason. Maybe the raid at Saray played its part. Or maybe Ahmet realized that his ragged
and frost-bitten soldiers could rebel any moment. Ivan waited for a catch for 1.5 months – a bypassing maneuver or a trap. But the Horde didn’t return. Ever. Standing on the Ugra River marked
the end of the Mongol-Tatar Yoke that lasted for over 240 years. The Big "Volga" Horde ceased its existence
in 1502, the Kazan and Astrakhan Khanates
joined Russia in Ivan’s the Terrible times, the Siberian Khanate –
under his son Fedor. The Crimean Khanate held on
longer than the others. From 1475,
it had been a vassal to the Turkish sultan. In the course of three centuries,
the Crimean Tatars were the masters of the Wild Field to the south of Kursk, makings raids and demanding tribute
from the Russian tsars. The Crimea would only become a part
of the Russian Empire in 1783, under Ekaterina II. The dreams of many generations came true.
Rus was free. The Horde’s yoke got covered with ashes. The strength and glory of the independent
Russian state were on the rise. Five years after the Ugra, the Great Prince started
a grandioso construction in his capital. He had to rebuild the entire Kremlin – the towers, walls, cathedrals and palaces. Ivan II believed that only the Italians, best architects of Europe, could do that. His ancient comrade Fioravanti
drew up a general plan of the fortification structures
for the Kremlin. But the architect was too old
and exhausted by service in Moscow. It needed new masters. The Great Prince remembered Antonio Jilardi,
or Anton Fryazin, since he was a boy. Sixteen years ago, he arrived together
with an Embassy from Rome and stayed. For huge money, Moscow invited a master
of murals from Milan – Marco Ruffo. A famous architect Pietro Antonio Solari also promised to come after finishing
works for the Duke of Milan. The task Great Prince entrusted them
with was the following: “No army shall be able
to seize this fortress, and nobody shall be able
to take one’s eyes off it. Everybody who sees it shall feel
with all heart how powerful, inviolable and sacred this country is
under the authority of its ruler”. The Kremlin fortress was built
by the last standards of the European fortification to withstand
heavy besieging artillery. The walls were 2,235 meters long,
up to 4.5 meters thick, and from 5 to 19 meters tall. The walls had gun slots
and inter-wall passages. Twenty powerful towers were equipped
with defense means – gun slots, secret wells, acoustic chambers for disclosing of underground tunnels. The Kremlin occupied territory
of 28 hectares, and the entire population of the city
could hide behind its walls. For a long time, the fortress of Kremlin remained one of the strongest in Europe, and it has never been seized with storm. In the 15th century,
it became the political and spiritual center of the country, its symbol,
and remains its centerpiece nowadays. For ten years, the Kremlin
became a huge construction site. The old constructions were dismantled, and the news ones
were built to replace them. It was his happiness to watch a dream
being born out of the chaos of bits and pieces, dust,
crackling and noise. It was still covered
with wooden scaffolding. He was building his country
in the same way – according to exact calculations, carefully
and almost unnoticeably for the outsiders. During the sixth year of construction, Pietro Antonio Solari proudly
demonstrated the parade part of the palace to the Prince –
the snowy-white Hall of Facets. Inside, its arches reminded of the usual
style of the Russian households, and outside, its carved stones reminded
of the Italian palazzos. As if from crude scaffolding,
unexpectedly for Europe, a far-away northern country, half-wild, poor and dependent of the Tatars, transformed into a state that even
the Holy Roman Empire had to reckon with. Now, it was not Moscow Rus,
and not Moscovia, as the jealous Lithuanians
used to call it, but Russia. In the diplomatic correspondence,
Ivan III was called autocrat, and that title was borrowed
from the Byzantine Emperors. The patriarchal life of the Moscow Princes was replaced by a complicated
ceremonial ritual developed by the example of Byzantine
with a help of the Greeks from Princess Sophia’s circle. Ambassador of the Emperor
Friedrich III of Hapsburgs solemnly passed an offer to the Russian
Prince to accept a title of a king. But Ivan III declined that high honor. He decided to be called simply: “Ioann, ruler of the entire Rus and Great Prince of Vladimir, Moscow, Novgorod, Pskov, Tver, Perm, Hungary, Bulgaria and other lands”. Russia’s territory was now almost
equal to the Holy Roman Empire. Therefore, as a sign of equality
with the Western Emperor the Russian ruler ordered to put
a two-headed eagle on his stamp. It was the emblem of the kin
of the Palaeologus from Byzantine. His wife Sophia belonged to it
by the right of birth and Ivan himself – by the right of marriage. That’s how the official symbol
of the Russian stardom that would become the state emblem
of the Russian Empire, was born. It was abolished after the revolution
and restored in the present-day Russia. The Russian state needed
a united system of governance. The army was now composed
of the “ruler’s serving people”. The war leaders were appointed
by the Great Prince. Officials called dyaks
and sub-dyaks were dealing with the routine affairs of the army,
treasury, palace and embassies. Ivan III
was solving important state issues together with the Council of Boyars –
Duma. He appointed his trusted boyars
as governors to the new lands, and they acted as administrators,
war leaders and judges, all in one. To avoid differences
in the local legal norms, Ivan III ordered to collect
all the existing laws and instructions, from the Russian Truth to his own decrees, and work out a united code
for the entire country. In September of 1497, after some discussions and negotiations in the Duma and personal amendments
made by Ivan III, a new code of laws called
“Sudebnik” (“Code of Law”) was approved by the ruler and became
obligatory all over the country. The Code of Law determined
the system of court hearings. The mob law was outlawed. The plaintiff and respondent
could defend their interests, involving witnesses who had to swear
telling the truth by kissing the cross. The judge acted as an arbiter
and passed the decision. In complicated cases,
the plaintiff and the respondent could fight in the presence
of the official persons, using any weapons
except for bow and harquebus. The outcome of the fight determined the sentence. Women, old men and disabled
could hire a professional fighter, and then the other side could do the same. It was permitted to torture suspects
of serious crimes – armed robbery, murder and treason. The Code of Law of Ivan III said: “Nobody shall take bribes in the court. If somebody comes to a boyar
with a complaint, he shall not send them away
but help solve the issue and take a decision regarding the matter”. Incorruptibility and accessibility
of the court for all categories of population,
including dependent ones, were announced
to be the main principles of the court. Great Prince himself remained
above the laws, and all his subjects, including the noblest of the boyars,
had to obey him unconditionally. Ivan III borrowed the concept
of the higher power as of unconditional, autocratic and limitless,
from Imperial Byzantine. There were times when the ruler
was campaigning himself, and helped extinguish fires in the city,
and listened the complaints of residents of Novgorod for long hours. Aristotle couldn’t understand
why he was doing that. At some point, he finally did.
And was proud of it. For some Venetian doge,
it would be unthinkable to climb the scaffolding and to sit there with an architect
having heart-to-heart talks. Now, Prince couldn’t climb anywhere. He gained much weight. Silver plates were clinging
from his heavy steps. His servants were pressing themselves
against the walls. He didn’t talk to anyone now.
Everybody was afraid of him. Everybody. Aristotle wanted to go home
and die in his native Bologna, but no. He was locked up,
like a dog – know your place, architect! Your fate was to die in Moscow.
Prince wouldn’t even remember about him. The Austrian diplomat
Baron Sigismund Herberstein wrote about Great Prince Ivan III: “The access of the poor
and insulted to him was closed. During mealtimes, he drank so much
that he was falling asleep afterwards. All the people invited to dinners
were afraid of him and kept silence. He has never fought in battles
but was always victorious. Great Stephan of Moldavia said
that while he was fighting daily, trying to defend his borders, Ivan was widening his country
by sitting at home and sleeping”. As a result of an unannounced war
with the Great Duchy of Lithuania that ended with big campaigns
of Moscow in the West, Russia got border lands and Vyazma. The following war was waged
with much more numerous forces. The troops of Ivan III
easily defeated the army of the Great Duke of Lithuania,
and as a result of that, Russia obtained a third of the territory
of Lithuania with Chernigov, Novgorod-Severskiy, Gomel, Bryansk, Dorogobuzh and some others. His unbreakable will was uniting
the huge lands of the new country, Russia, with iron hoops. However,
there was no order in his own family. The relations between his son Ivan
the Young and Sophia weren’t the best. Why would Princess love her stepson? That boy blocked the way to power
to her own son, Vasiliy, descendant of the Palaeologus. For some time, he was hopeful – the heir could die in the battle
with the Tatars and free the place. But it didn’t happen. Ivan the Young returned with a victory, married Princess of Moldavia
Yelena Voloshanka and she gave him a son, Dimitriy. Great Prince Ivan liked
the young couple and was moved by the smiles of his first grandson,
black-eyed and lovely Mityusha. It was hard for Sophia
to contain her irritation. However,
descendants of the Palaeologus kin learnt how not to lose face
since childhood. Once, an Italian doctor noticed
that Prince Ivan the Young suffered from pains in his legs,
and offered his services. In the course of treatment, the state
of the patient deteriorated rapidly, and soon he died. The doctor was executed, and there was no investigation –
despite the rumors that it was Princess Sophia
who sent the doctor to the heir. At his old age,
ruler Ivan III seemed to lose his grip. Waiting for his imminent death, the Moscow nobility was already
dividing into two camps. One was supporting old Princess Sophia
and her son Vasiliy, the second one –
young widow Yelena and her son Dmitriy. However, Ivan III had no plans of dying. He chose his grandson Dmitriy
to be his heir. Then, Princess Sophia staked it all. She organized the conspiracy of the boyars to help her son Vasiliy ascend the throne. The conspiracy was disclosed, and all its participants were arrested. Vasiliy was under home arrest and Sophia fell out of grace. The investigation found out
that via “bad women” she found poison and was going to poison Dmitriy,
or maybe Great Prince himself. On February 4, 1498
the first coronation ceremony in the Russian history,
developed by the example of Byzantine, was held in the Ascension Cathedral. The metropolitan put the Hat of Monomakh, an ancient symbol of power
of the Princes of Moscow – on the head of 14-year-old Dmitriy. Ivan III solemnly passed the family relics
to his grandson. One year later,
Ivan III suddenly changed his mind. He forgave his son Vasiliy
and gave him the permission to rule over Pskov and Novgorod
and the title of the “Ruler and Great Prince”. Now, there were three Great Princes
in the country – father, son and grandson. That was a direct path
towards disturbances. There shall be only one ruler. No matter who Ivan would choose, son Vasiliy who was growing
his first beard, or his grandson, big-eyed Mitya, he was condemning the other one for death. Ivan III was thinking for three years. And then, as the author
of the Ustyug chronicle wrote, “made his son Vasiliy the Great Prince, and imprisoned his grandson Dmitriy
and handcuffed him in iron”. In spring of 1503,
Great Princess Sophia died. She lived with Ivan for over 30 years,
gave him five sons and seven daughters, and made sure to leave his throne for her son, descendant of the Palaeologus. Widowed Prince Ivan went to pray
in the Trinity monastery with his sons. On the way back to Moscow,
he suffered a stroke and partial paralysis – “his arm,
leg and eye went numb”. In that state,
he continued to rule the country and wage war for another 1.5 years. Ivan III was dying. The bells were ringing
behind his windows – it was the day of Holy Martyr Dimitriy. The birthday of his grandson Mitya
locked up in the damp cellar of a prison in Kremlin. Before his death,
Great Prince summoned his grandson Dmitry and told him: “Dear grandchild, I sinned before God and before you
by throwing you to jail. I pray for you to forgive me, be free and use all your rights”. Touched by that speech,
Dmitry gladly forgave his grandfather. But when he came out of his room,
he was captured at the order of his uncle Vasiliy
and thrown into the prison again. Some historians think he died
of hunger and cold, the others – that he choked on smoke from the fire… Ivan III didn’t know about that. Before his death,
the metropolitan wanted to prepare him, according to an ancient custom,
to take the vows of schema but the Prince refused. Why try to cheat on the all-powered God? Let him judge his slave Ioann
not by the cut hair and black clothes but by his deeds. The country Ivan III bequeathed
to his heir was a couple of times bigger than the one he himself had inherited. The first autocrat
of the Russian history dictated his will to those who stood in his way,
destroyed without mercy and regret. He was the first Prince in 220 years
who had never gone to the Horde to confirm his authority
and held his title of a Great Prince without the Khan’s yarlyk. He drove the Horde away from Russia and created a powerful state
between Europe and Asia. He achieved so many successes that they would be enough
for many human lives. The ideas he didn’t have time to realize
determined the Russian history for the nearest 200 years. The grandioso ideas
of Ivan the Great will only be realized by the next ruler of Russia
nicknamed the Great – Peter I,
the founder of the Russian Empire.
