A history of Russia
Page 14
Daniel's son Iurii, or George, who succeeded him in 1303, attacked another neighbor, the prince of Mozhaisk, and by annexing his territory finally established Muscovite control over the entire flow of the Moscow river. After that he turned to a much more ambitious undertaking: a struggle with Grand Prince Michael of Tver for leadership in Russia. The rivalry between Moscow and Tver was to continue for almost two centuries, determined in large part which principality would unite the Russian people, and also added much drama and violence to the appanage period. In 1317 or 1318 Iurii married a sister of the khan of the Golden Horde, the bride having become Orthodox, and received from the khan the appointment as grand prince. During the resulting campaign against Tver, the Muscovite army suffered a crushing defeat, and, although Iurii escaped, his wife fell prisoner. When she died in captivity, Iurii accused Michael of poisoning her. The Tver prince had to appear at the court of the Golden Horde, where he was judged, condemned, and executed. In consequence, Iurii was reaffirmed in 1319 as grand prince. Yet by 1322 the khan had made Michael's eldest son, Dmitrii, grand prince. Iurii accepted this decision,
but apparently continued his intrigues, traveling in 1324 to the Golden Horde. There, in 1325, he was met and dispatched on the spot by Dmitrii, who was in turn killed by the Mongols. Dmitrii's younger brother, Alexander of Tver, became grand prince. However, he too soon ran into trouble with the Mongols. In 1327 a punitive Mongol expedition, aided by Muscovite troops, devastated Tver, although Alexander escaped to Pskov and eventually to Lithuania. In 1337 Alexander was allowed to return as prince of Tver, but in 1338 he was ordered to appear at the court of the Golden Horde and was there executed.
Following the devastation of Tver and Alexander's flight, Iurii's younger brother Ivan Kalita, Prince of Moscow, obtained the position of grand prince, which he held from 1328, or according to another opinion from 1332, until his death in 1341. Ivan Kalita means "John the Moneybag," and Ivan I remains the prototype of provident Moscow princes with their financial and administrative talents. Always careful to cultivate the Golden Horde, he not only retained the office of grand prince, but also received the commission of gathering tribute for the khan from other Russian princes. He used his increasing revenue to purchase more land: both entire appanages from bankrupt rulers and separate villages. The princedom of Vladimir, which he held as grand prince, he simply added to his own principality, keeping the capital in Moscow. He ransomed Russian prisoners from the Mongols to settle them on Muscovite lands. All in all, Ivan Kalita managed to increase the territory of his princedom severalfold.
It was also in Ivan Kalita's reign that Moscow became the religious capital of Russia. After the collapse of Kiev, and in line with the general breakup of unity in the land, no ecclesiastical center immediately emerged to replace Kiev, "the cradle of Christianity in Russia." In 1326 the head of the Russian Church, Metropolitan Peter, died while staying in Moscow. He came to be worshipped as a saint and canonized, his shrine bringing a measure of sanctity to Moscow. Moreover, in 1328 Ivan Kalita persuaded Peter's successor, Theognost, to settle in Moscow. From that time on, the metropolitans "of Kiev and all Russia" - a title which they retained until the mid-fifteenth century - added immeasurably to the importance and prestige of the upstart principality and its rulers. Indeed, the presence of the metropolitan not only made Moscow the spiritual center of Russia, but, as we shall see, it also proved time and again to be helpful to the princedom in diverse material matters.
Following the passing of Ivan Kalita in 1341, his son Simeon, surnamed the Proud, was confirmed as grand prince by the khan of the Golden Horde. Simeon's appellation, his references to himself as prince "of all Russia," and his entire bearing indicated the new significance of Moscow. In addition to emphasizing his authority over other Russian rulers, Simeon the Proud
continued his predecessor's work of enlarging the Muscovite domain proper. He died in 1353 at the age of thirty-six, apparently of the plague which had been devastating most of Europe. In his testament Simeon the Proud urged his heirs to obey a remarkable Russian cleric, Alexis, who was to become one of the most celebrated Muscovite metropolitans.
Alexis, in fact, proceeded to play a leading role in the affairs of the Muscovite state both during the reign of Simeon the Proud's weak brother and successor, Ivan the Meek, which lasted from 1353 to 1359, and during the minority of Ivan's son Grand Prince Dmitrii. Besides overseeing the management of affairs in Moscow and treating with other Russian princes, the metropolitan traveled repeatedly to the Golden Horde to deal with the Mongols. Alexis's wise leadership of Church and State contributed to his enshrinement as one of the leading figures in the Muscovite pantheon of saints. During Ivan II's reign, beginning with 1357, civil strife erupted in the Golden Horde: no fewer than twenty rulers were to change in bloody struggle in the next twenty years. Yet, if Mongol power declined, that of Lithuania, led by Olgerd, grew; and the Moscow princes had to turn increasing attention to the defense of their western frontier.
Ivan the Meek's death resulted in a contest for the office of grand prince, with Prince Dmitrii of Suzdal and Ivan's nine-year-old son Dmitrii as the protagonists. In a sense, the new crisis represented a revival of old Kievan political strife between "uncles'" and "nephews": Dmitrii of Suzdal, who, as well as Dmitrii of Moscow, was descended directly from Vsevolod III, was a generation older than the Muscovite prince and claimed seniority over him. Rapidly changing Mongol authorities endorsed both candidates. The rally of the people of Moscow behind their boy-ruler and the principle of direct succession from father to son carried the day: Dmitrii of Suzdal abandoned his headquarters in Vladimir without a fight, and Ivan the Meek's son became firmly established as the Russian grand prince. The Kievan system of succession failed to find sufficient support in the northeast.
Grand Prince Dmitrii, known as Dmitrii Donskoi, that is, of the Don, after his celebrated victory over the Mongols near that river, reigned in Moscow for three decades until his death in 1389. The early part of his reign, with Metropolitan Alexis playing a major role in the government, saw a continuing growth of Muscovite territory, while in Moscow itself in 1367 stone walls replaced wooden walls in the Kremlin. It also witnessed a bitter struggle against Tver supported by Lithuania. Indeed Prince Michael of Tver obtained from the Golden Horde the title of grand prince and, together with the Lithuanians, tried to destroy his Muscovite rival. Twice, in 1368 and 1372, Olgerd of Lithuania reached Moscow and devastated its environs, although he could not capture the fortified town itself. Dmitrii managed to blunt the Lithuanian offensive and make peace
with Lithuania, after which he defeated Tver and made Michael recognize him as grand prince. Muscovite troops also scored victories over Riazan and over the Volga Bulgars, who paid tribute to the Golden Horde.
But Dmitrii's fame rests on his victorious war with the Golden Horde itself. As Moscow grew and as civil strife swept through the Golden Horde, the Mongol hegemony in Russia experienced its first serious challenge since the time of the invasion. We have seen that Dmitrii had successfully defied the Mongol decision to make Michael of Tver grand prince and had defeated the Volga Bulgars, whose principality was a vassal state of the Golden Horde. A series of incidents and clashes involving the Russians and the Mongols culminated, in 1378, in Dmitrii's victory over a Mongol army on the banks of the Vozha river. Clearly the Mongols had either to reassert their mastery over Moscow or give up their dominion in Russia. A period of relative stability in the Golden Horde enabled the Mongol military leader and strong man, Marnai, to mount a major effort against Dmitrii.
The Mongols made an alliance with Lithuania, and Marnai set out with some 200,000 troops to meet in the upper Don area with forces of Grand Prince Jagiello of Lithuania for a joint invasion of Muscovite lands. Dmitrii, however, decided to seize the initiative and crossed the Don with an army of about 150,000 men, seeking to engage the Mongols before the Lithuanians arrived. The decisive battle, known as the battle of Kulikovo field, was fought on the eighth of Septe
mber 1380 where the Nepriadva river flows into the Don, on a hilly terrain intersected by streams which the Russians selected to limit the effectiveness of the Mongol cavalry. The terrain was such that the Mongols could not simply envelop Russian positions, but had to break through them. Fighting of desperate ferocity - Dmitrii himself, according to one source, was knocked unconscious in combat and found after the battle in a pile of dead bodies - ended in a complete rout of Mamai's army when the last Russian reserve came out of ambush in a forest upon the exhausted and unsuspecting Mongols. Jagiello, whose Lithuanian forces failed to reach Kulikovo by some two days, chose not to fight Dmitrii alone and turned back. The great victory of the Russians laid to rest the belief in Mongol invincibility. What is more, the new victor of the Don rose suddenly as the champion of all the Russians against the hated Mongol oppressors. While certain important Russian rulers failed to support Dmitrii, and those of Riazan even negotiated with the Mongols, some twenty princes rallied against the common enemy in an undertaking blessed by the Church and bearing some marks of a crusade. The logic of events pointed beyond the developments of 1380 to a new role in Russian history for both the principality and prince of Moscow.
Nevertheless, the years following the great victory at Kulikovo saw a reversal of its results. In fact, only two years later, in 1382, the Mongols
came back, led this time by the able Khan Tokhtamysh. While the surprised Dmitrii was in the north gathering an army, they besieged Moscow and, after assaults failed, managed to enter the city by a ruse: Tokhtamysh swore that he had decided to stop the fighting and that he and his small party wanted to be allowed within the walls merely to satisfy their curiosity; once inside, the Mongols charged their hosts and, by seizing a gate, obtained reinforcements and hence control of Moscow, which they sacked and burned. Although Tokhtamysh retreated, with an enormous booty, rather than face Dmitrii's army, the capital and many of the lands of the principality were desolated and its resources virtually exhausted. Dmitrii, therefore, had to accept the overlordship of the Mongol khan, who in return confirmed him as the Russian grand prince. Still, after Kulikovo, the Mongol grip on Russia lacked its former firmness. Dmitrii Donskoi spent the last years of his reign in strengthening his authority among Russian princes, especially those of Tver and Riazan, and in assisting the rebuilding and economic recovery of his lands.
When Dmitrii Donskoi died in 1389 at the age of thirty-nine, his son Vasilii, or Basil, became grand prince without challenge either in Russia or in the Golden Horde. Basil I's long reign, from 1389 until his death in 1425, deserves attention for a number of reasons. The cautious and intelligent ruler continued very successfully the traditional policy of the Muscovite princes of enlarging their own principality and of making its welfare their first concern. Thus, Basil I acquired several new appanages as well as a number of individual towns with their surrounding areas. Also he waged a continuous struggle against Lithuania for western Russian lands. Although the warlike Grand Prince Vitovt of Lithuania scored some victories over his Russian son-in-law, Basil's persistent efforts led to a military and political deadlock in much of the contested area. It might be noted that, after the conclusion of a treaty with Lithuania in 1408, a number of appanage princes in the western borderlands switched their allegiance from Lithuania to Moscow.
Relations with the East presented as many problems as relations with the West. In 1395 Moscow barely escaped invasion by the army of one of the greatest conquerors of history, Tamerlane, who had spread his rule through the Middle East and the Caucasus and in 1391 had smashed Tokhtamysh. Tamerlane's forces actually devastated Riazan and advanced upon Moscow, only to turn back to the steppe before reaching the Oka river. Around 1400 Muscovite troops laid waste the land of the Volga Bulgars, capturing their capital Great Bulgar and other towns. In 1408 the Golden Horde, pretending to be staging a campaign against Lithuania, suddenly mounted a major assault on Moscow to punish Basil I for not paying tribute and for generally disobeying and disregarding his overlord. The Mongols devastated the principality, although they could not capture the
city of Moscow itself. In the later part of his reign, Basil I, preoccupied by his struggle with Lithuania and Tver, maintained good relations with the khan and sent him "gifts."
The death of Basil I in 1425 led to the only war of succession in the history of the principality of Moscow. The protagonists in the protracted struggle were Basil I's son Basil II, who succeeded his father at the age of ten, and Basil II's uncle Prince Iurii, who died in 1434 but whose cause was taken over by his sons, Basil the Squint-eyed and Dmitrii Shemiaka. Prince Iurii claimed seniority over his nephew, and he represented, in some sense, a feudal reaction against the growing power of the grand princes of Moscow and their centralizing activities. By 1448, after several reversals of fortune and much bloodshed and cruelty - which included the blinding of both Basil the Squint-eyed and of Basil II himself, henceforth known as Basil the Blind - the Muscovite prince had prevailed. Dmitrii Shemiaka's final rebellion was suppressed in 1450. Indeed, having obtained sufficient support from the boyars and the people of Moscow, Basil II managed, although at a very heavy cost, not only to defeat his rivals but also to expand his principality at the expense of Basil the Squint-eyed and Dmitrii Shemiaka and also of some other appanage princes.
Relations with the Mongols continued to be turbulent as the Golden Horde began to break up and Moscow asserted its independence. In 1445 Basil II was badly wounded and captured in a battle with dissident Mongol leaders, although soon he regained his freedom for a large ransom. The year 1452 marked a new development: a Mongol prince of the ruling family accepted Russian suzerainty when the princedom of Kasimov was established. Basil II had taken into his service Mongol nobles with their followers fleeing from the Golden Horde, and he rewarded one of them, Kasim, a descendant of Jenghiz Khan, with the principality for his important assistance in the struggle against Dmitrii Shemiaka. The creation of this Mongol princedom subject to the grand prince of Moscow was only one indication of the decline of Mongol power. Still more significant was the division of the vast lands held directly by the Golden Horde, with the Crimean khanate separating itself in 1430, that of Kazan in 1436, and that of Astrakhan in 1466 during the reign of Basil II's successor, Ivan III. In 1475 the Crimean state recognized Ottoman suzerainty, with Turkish troops occupying several key positions on the northern shore of the Black Sea. Of course, the khans of the Golden Horde tried to stem the tide and, among other things, to bring their Russian vassal back to obedience. Khan Ahmad directed three campaigns against Moscow, in 1451, 1455, and 1461, but failed to obtain decisive results. For practical purposes, Moscow can be considered as independent of the Mongols after 1452 at least, although the formal and final abrogation of the yoke came only in 1480. In fact, Vernadsky regards the establishment of the principality of Kasimov as a decisive turning point in
the relations between the forest and the steppe and thus in what is, to him, the basic rhythm of Russian history.
Basil II's long reign from 1425 to 1462 also witnessed important events in Europe which were to influence Russian history profoundly, although they did not carry an immediate political impact like that implicit in the break-up of the Golden Horde. At the Council of Florence in 1439, with Byzantium struggling against the Turks for its existence and hoping to obtain help from the West, the Greek clergy signed an abortive agreement with Rome, recognizing papal supremacy. The Russian metropolitan, Isidore, a Greek, participated in the Council of Florence and, upon his return to Moscow, proclaimed its results during a solemn service and read a prayer for the pope. After the service he was arrested on orders of the grand prince and imprisoned in a monastery, from which he escaped before long to the West. A council of Russian bishops in 1443 condemned the Church union, deposed Isidore, and elected Archbishop Jonas metropolitan. The administrative dependence of the Russian Church on the Byzantine came to an end. Furthermore, many Russians remained suspicious of the Greeks even after they repudiated the very short-
lived Union of Florence. Then in 1453 Constantinople fell to the Turks, who proceeded to acquire complete control of the Balkan peninsula and of what used to be the Byzantine Empire. As we know, it was with Byzantium and the Balkan Slavs that ancient Russia had its most important religious and cultural ties, in the appanage period as well as in the days of Kiev. The success of the Turks contributed greatly to a weakening of these ties and, therefore, to a more complete isolation of Russia. As we shall see, it also strengthened Muscovite xenophobia and self-importance and various teachings based on these attitudes. It should be noted that this boost to Muscovite parochialism occurred at the very time when the northeastern Russian princedom was being transformed into a major state that was bound to play an important role in international relations and was in need of Western knowledge.
The Reigns of Ivan III and Basil III
The long reign of Ivan III, which extended from 1462 to 1505, has generally been considered, together with the following reign of Basil III, as the termination of the appanage period and the beginning of a new age in Russian history, that of Muscovite Russia. These two reigns provide a fitting climax to the story of the rise of Moscow. Ivan Ill's predecessors had already increased the territory of their principality from less than 600 square miles at the time of Ivan Kalita to 15,000 toward the end of Basil II's reign. But it remained for Ivan III to absorb such old rivals as Novgorod and Tver and to establish virtually a single rule in what used to be appanage Russia. Also, it was Ivan III who, as the conclusion to the developments