9. The Emergence of Russia, Rus 2 Russia
It is often said that nature rests on the children of great men. Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky had several sons, but all of them were far from their great father.
Sons and sons-in-law
The older one, Vasiliy, who was put by Alexander in Novgorod, did not get along with the townspeople and was driven out; then, as we remember, he tried to raise Novgorod against the Tatar ambassadors, organizing a rebellion against his father. Alexander was magnanimous: Basil was allowed to die quietly and peacefully from drunkenness. More active princes were Dmitry and Andrey Alexandrovich. Dmitriy adhered to the Western direction, Andrei supported the khans of the Golden Horde.
By the end of the 13th century, signs of a new phase of Mongol ethno-genesis, the acmatic phase, were clearly visible in the Horde. The number of energetic, greedy people ready to do anything for the sake of glory, honors and booty increased dramatically, and, as a consequence, there was constant friction between them. The Temnik Nogai, the ruler of the western regions of the Golden Horde (the Black Sea steppes and the northern Crimea), attempted to throw off the power of the Golden Horde Khans and became an independent sovereign. Nogai relied on the Cumans, the natives of the Black Sea steppes. In addition, he needed support in Russia and negotiated an alliance with Dmitry Alexandrovich. As a result, the ambitious Temnik achieved great success, controlling the Khans of the Horde and implementing policies at his own discretion. It was not until Tochta Khan, a man of energy, negotiated an alliance with Prince Andrey Alexandrovich, (younger son), whose troops came to his aid.
А. M. Vasnetsov. Foundation of Moscow. Building the first walls of the Kremlin in the 12th century.
Prince Daniil Alexandrovich. Titularnik, 1672. (Youngest son)
In 1299 in a decisive battle somewhere between the Dnieper and Dniestr (the exact place of the battle is unknown) the Volga Tatars, supported by the Russian army, as well as Siberian and Central Asian Tatars of the Blue and White Hoard, gained the upper hand. Nogai himself was taken prisoner. The formidable dwarf was captured by a Russian warrior who, instead of taking him to the Khan, cut off his head, which he brought to Tokhtah. The act was, from the point of view of Mongol military ethics, un-personal: Nogai was to be executed as a criminal by the khan's verdict, not killed as a prisoner by lynching. And Tokhta ordered the head of the Russian soldier to be cut off. Later on, Tokhta, who became an independent ruler after the subduing of Nogai's rebellion, proved himself a staunch supporter of Russia and supported the Russian princes, to whom he gave "yakliks". In particular, prince Andrey with his help soon defeated his brother Dmitry.
Alexander Nevskiy's younger son Daniel was given a tiny town in the middle of nowhere - Moscow "in reigning". Daniel in contrast to other princes fought little. The Moscow prince devoted himself to the economy: he rebuilt his town, developed agriculture, started crafts. His only conquest was Kolomna - it belonged to the Ryazan princes. Thanks to The Russian Empire he was the most powerful prince in Russia, and by the beginning of the 14th century he became one of the most influential princes in Russia.
After the death of Andrei Alexandrovich (1304), who lived in Gorodets, the grand duke with the support of Tochta became Mikhail Yaroslavich Tverskoy, nephew of Alexander Nevskiy. Mikhail Yaroslavich in his composition was similar to epic heroes: brave, physically strong, loyal to his word, noble. Such qualities impressed the Khan, and Mikhail of Tver enjoyed his full confidence. With passing of the "great table" to Mikhail Tverskoy the real power left the hands of Alexander Yaroslavich's sons.
So already at the beginning of XIV century the former Kievan Rus fell into oblivion. Neither political, nor ethnic unity of the Russians existed any more. The people remained, but the very system of power and the organization of relations between people was finally destroyed. Instead of the old towns of the Dnieper region there were new centers. The most important of them were: Tver, (NE Moscow), a beautiful rich city on the Volga, which had a favorable geographical position; Smolensk, (West Moscow border Belarus), the western shield of Russia; Ryazan, (SW Moscow), which served as a protection against indiscriminate raids of steppe robbers; Nizhny Novgorod, (East of Moscow), conquered from the Mordva, a trading city and colonization center on the border with the Volga Bulgars; and the small, lost in the woods Moscow.
The Grand Duchy of Moscow in the XIV-XV centuries.
Tver. German engraving of XVII century.
But even this small part of Russia, which thanks to the policy of Alexander Nevsky had adopted a Tatar orientation, was not a coherent state entity. Immediately after Mikhail's death Tver became the enemy of Moscow. Suzdal, (NE Moscow), and Nizhny Novgorod, though they recognized the power of the great prince, gravitated toward independence. The Ryazan inhabitants, accustomed to war, were just as eager to "fight" with Moscovites as they were with the Tatars. Republican Novgorod at times ceased to consider itself part of the Russian land at all, having all chances to turn into a separate Slavic ethnos. Novgorodians, having a higher passion and preserving the tradition of Veche ruling, opposed the rest of Russia - the "lower lands". Novgorod also steadily maintained its Western sympathies. For example, some Novgorod priests accepted Western freethinkers and often opposed canonical Byzantine Orthodoxy. It is no accident, as we shall see later, that Novgorod in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was not only once a source of church heresies in Russia.
When a prince became the Grand Prince of Vladimir, (East of Moscow, half way to Novgorod), having received a label from the "Tsar", i.e. the Khan of the Golden Horde, he actually acquired as his subjects only the population of his appanage - Muscovites, Tverites or Suzdal inhabitants. And if they did not like this prince or his established order, they could quite freely cross over to any neighbouring principality a few tens of versts away, where they could feel quite independent.
The only binding thread for all Russian people of the 14th century was the Orthodox faith. Everyone who professed Orthodoxy and recognized the spiritual authority of the Russian Metropolitan was Russian. Although the "lower classes" considered Novgorodians to be Orthodox Christians, they never doubted for a moment that they had to be beaten, the theological basis for their unity was retained. And so, it was only the Orthodox Church that then resisted the disintegration of Russia. Further events confirmed the unconditional growth of the authority, that is the spiritual authority among the people.
During the reign of Prince Michael of Tver, an event that, at first glance, seems insignificant, but which in reality played a major role in the formation of the future Moscow state, occurred. The devout monk from Volynia, Peter was chosen metropolitan of Vladimir (the throne had been in Vladimir since 1299) in 1305. The new metropolitan, who settled in Vladimir, visited parishes and monasteries, and was engaged in his favourite pastime - painting icons. In short, his archpastoral ministry went well and smoothly. Unfortunately, the bishops, favorites of Prince Michael of Tver, began to intrigue against Metropolitan Peter and accused him of the sin of simony - simply put, of bribery. Selling ecclesiastical positions was considered a serious crime, threatening the hierarch with defrocking, but a decision by a council was required to depose the metropolitan.
Then the unexpected happened: many laymen from Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Kostroma, Ryazan and other cities came to the Council. And when the bishops began the session, the people, taking part in the "debate," forced the prince and the council to justify Peter. Naturally, after that Peter tried not to visit Tver, but he often went to Moscow, where he was very well received and duly respected by the ruler. The consequences of the quarrel with the metropolitan, which made the head of the Russian church a supporter of Moscow, did not affect them immediately, but they became fatal for Prince Mikhail and the whole Tver principality.
Prince George (Yuri). Engraving of 1850.
Prince Yaroslav Yaroslavich. Engraving of 1850.
Prince Daniil of Moscow had two sons. The eldest, Yuri, an indomitable, unprincipled and inconsiderate man, was the exact opposite of the youngest, the quiet, God-fearing and economical Ivan. Yuri and Ivan had only one thing in common: they were both deprived of the Grand Duchy and were both prepared to do anything to regain it. Yuri Danilovich, who had inherited the Moscow principality, hated Michael of Tver, who held the great ducal label. And fate smiled on the Moscow prince: The Khan in the Golden Horde changed.
Mikhail's patron - Tokhta, on his way to a summer pasture, died under unclear circumstances, and power was seized by Tsarevich Uzbek (1312). Uzbek was supported by numerous Horde Muslims who had settled in towns on the Volga River from the olden days, and so a new party, the Islamic party, came to power in Sarai. Heir to the traditions of Khan Berke - Uzbek - proved to be an extremely cruel ruler. Having converted to Islam, he demanded the same of all his subjects under penalty of death.
The Horde had never used repression on religious grounds before, so there was nothing surprising in the fact that many refused to accept the "faith of the Arabs. After all, according to Chinggis (Gangis) Khan's Yassa (law), a khan could not interfere in matters of faith, and freedom of conscience has always been understood by the monks as the individual freedom of man. The Uzbeks did not hesitate to reject this principle - all those who refused to convert to Islam, including 70 of the Chinggisid princes, were executed. However, a large number of Tatars (both Christians and pagans) who refused to convert to Islam were able to leave for Russia both under Uzbek rule and afterwards.
Yuri Danilovich of Moscow decided to take advantage of the change of power in the Horde in his fight with Michael of Tver. Tver was richer and more belligerent than Moscow, but the military clashes between Moscow and Tver did not produce a decisive advantage for either side, and it was therefore difficult for Yuri Danilovich to do without the help of the new Kipchak Khan. Yuri traveled to the Horde many times and managed not only to enlist the support of Uzbek, but also to become a khan's kinsman by marrying the khan's sister, Konchak. Having received Tatar help under the pretext that the Tverians were "pulling" on the enemies of the Tatars - the Lithuanians, and having concluded an alliance with Novgorod, Yuri moved on Tver.
Torzhok. German engraving from the 17th century.
Coat of Arms of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Titularnik, 1672.
However, the commander of the Moscow prince was a lousy one. Mikhail defeated the army of Yuri and captured his wife, baptized Agafia. Alas, this success ruined the Tver prince. Agafia, after some time in captivity, died under very strange circumstances. Yury did not immediately take advantage of this: when he arrived in the Horde, he accused Mikhail of premeditated murder of Konchak-Agafia, and the fate of the Grand Duke was sealed.
Yuri received the "great throne" taken from Mikhail of Tver, and the Tver prince was summoned to the Horde. Not wishing to expose his native city to defeat, Mikhail went to the Uzbek and was executed by order of Khan. The sentence was carried out by the people of Yuri of Moscow and his associate, the Tatar Kavgadai. The great prince, imprisoned in a block, was tortured for a long time: badly fed, mocked the captive, and at last slaughtered.
The murder of the innocent did not benefit the initiators of the massacre. Kavgadyi was soon found guilty of his crimes and executed. Yuri was met in the Horde by Mikhail's son, Dmitry Groznye Ochi, and the young Tverian cut down the Moscow schemer. Because the right of trial and execution in the Horde belonged exclusively to the Khan, Dmitry Mikhailovich was executed for lynching. The heir of the Tver prince died, and his death had exceptional consequences. Mikhail's youngest son Alexander, learning of his brother's death, renounced the traditional alliance with the Horde and bet on Lithuania.
LITHUANIAN DEATH
The position of Lithuania was quite advantageous in comparison with the Vladimir principality. Lithuania also suffered a passionate push of the 13th century, reviving several Lithuanian tribes. Judging by the toponymy, the Lithuanian tribes in ancient times occupied territory almost as the presentday Tambov, but by the period of interest to us they had already disappeared in the south of the Russian (East European) plain, having merged with the local Ugro-Finnic and Slavic population. The ancient Lithuanian tribes survived only in Baltic and Belorussia, but even there they were in a state of homeostasis for many centuries. The central part of the Lithuanian area was occupied by the Litva or Lithuanian tribe; to the west of it lived the Žmūd, and still further to the west - the Prussians. In the east of modern Belarus were the Jatviags, and the Golyad tribe inhabited the region of Kolomna.
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the XIV-XV centuries.
The ruler who created the united Lithuania from these disparate fragments was the already mentioned peer of Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky, the Lithuanian prince Mindovg (Min-Daugas). After the tragic death of Mindovg, something that often happens at the beginning of the phase of a passionate rise, the Lithuanian princes were struggling for power during the entire 13th century. It was only at the beginning of the 14th century that one of them, Gedimin, finally defeated his rivals and began his conquest policy.
His first conquest was Black Russia - the area near the town of Grodno, (Western border of Belrus), the westernmost part of Russia. Then Gedimin subjugated the towns of what is now Belorussia: Polotsk, Minsk, Vitebsk. After that the Lithuanians began to gradually penetrate into Volhynia and Galicia, where the descendants of the "King of Little Russia", Daniel Romanovich Galician - Lev and Andrew, ruled. Galician princes had so little power that they could not properly resist either the Tatars, or Lithuanians, or Poles, or Hungarians. It is true that the Tatars at that time suppressed Nogai's rebellion, and they had no time for Volhynia, but the Lithuanians actively tried to seize this region.
Lithuanians hunting. Seventeenth-century engraving.
However, Gedimin failed to subdue Galicia. As a result of a series of small wars, which it makes no sense to list, Galicia was occupied by the Poles, Transcarpathian Rus - by the Hungarians, and the Lithuanians received only eastern Volhynia. Kiev was next in line. Prince Stanislaus of Kiev decided to defend his city, which still bore the glow of the great past. Stanislav invited other Russian princes to help, including the Prince to the North. At the River Irpen in 1321 he faced Gedimin's forces. The Lithuanians won and then laid siege to Kiev. Since there was no hope for help, the Kievers submitted to the great prince Gedimin on the basis of vassalage: all the "estates" were left to them, and the prince of Kiev became a mere "handmaiden" of the Lithuanian prince Gedimin.
After the capture of Kiev, the Lithuanian expansion continued. Under attack of irrepressible Lithuanian horse cavalry all Russian cities up to Kursk (North of Belgorod), and Chernigov, (in Ukraine, close to Belerus and Russia), have fallen. So, under Gedimin and his son Olgerd the mighty Grand Duchy of Lithuania was created. It must be said that the characteristic feature of thirteenth-century Lithuania was the preservation of the ancient pagan belief in the warrior god Perun, (with human sacrifice) not all pagans were Perun, and a very bad attitude toward Christians, both Western and Eastern. Gedimin, however, a strong-willed and intelligent man, who was himself a pagan, was able to reckon with the Russian Christian population.
Gedimin's policy was continued by his sons Olgerd and Keistut. Russian chronicles tell a great deal about the former, and hardly ever mention the latter, while the crusader chronicles, on the contrary, often speak of Keistut and hardly notice Olgerd. This is due to the fact that the brothers divided their spheres of influence. Keystut sat in Zmudi and fought the Germans, while Olgerd, trying to seize as much Russian land as possible, fought with Moscow and the Tatars. At the same time, Olgerd and his nephew Vitovt adopted, albeit formally, Orthodoxy. Lithuanian princes married Russian princesses and united around themselves surviving Rurikovich's from Turovo-Pinsk land. Thus, gradually, the incorporation of the old Russian lands into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania took place.
View of Koporie Fortress at the end of the 17th century from a modern engraving
Russian warriors.
Olgerd managed to conquer a vast territory with borders almost on the Black Sea and the Don. In 1363, in a decisive battle with the Tatars at the Blue Waters (now the Sinukha River, a tributary of the Southern Bug), Olgerd defeated the steppes and thus seized the western part of the Great Steppe between the Dnieper and the mouth of the Danube, coming out to the Black Sea.
But Lithuania remained sandwiched between Orthodox Russia and an array of Catholic Europe. The Lithuanians were actively fighting the Germans, the anti-papist Livonian and Teutonic Orders, and therefore their objective allies could be the supporters of the Guelph party, primarily Catholics in Poland. Probably because of this, Gedimin allowed his subjects to adopt the Catholic faith. He probably considered that Lithuanians had not only ideological unity, but also one more basis for their alliance with the Poles. The Lithuanians were constantly committing raids on Poland, first of all on Mazovia, from where they brought Polish girls. Thus began a powerful process of Polish-Lithuanian integration.
Remember the wonderful ballad of A. Mickiewicz, translated by A.-S. Pushkin: "Three sons of Budrys, like him, three Lithuanians..." The old Lithuanian sends his sons to war: one - to rob the Russians in rich Novgorod, another - to the Baltic against the Crusaders, "damned kryzhaks", and the third son is sent to Poland. The end of the ballad is as follows: all three sons went to Poland and brought a bride from there.
The prerequisites for Polish-Lithuanian contact were in place. Poland, unaffected by the pas-Zionist shock, was in deep crisis. Masovia bordered on the possessions of the Order, which had invaded Prussia; Lesser Poland (the historical province centered in Krakow) was hardly ruled by the Czechs, who were expelled by the talented Polish king of the Piast dynasty - Wladyslaw Łokietek.
When the Piast dynasty was dissolved (1370), power in the country passed to the Frenchman Ludovic of Anjou, who in turn gave the Polish crown to his daughter Jadwiga. But when Jadwiga wished to marry her beloved Wilhelm, son of Leopold of Austria, Polish magnates intervened and suggested that the queen marry the Lithuanian prince Jagaila for the sake of national interest, thus uniting Polish and Lithuanian forces and stopping the expansion of the Germans. In the end, Wilhelm was sent back to Austria, and Jadwiga had to walk down the aisle with a hastily christened Lithuanian.
By marrying Jadwiga, Jagiello became the full ruler of the united Poland and Lithuania and as such ordered all non-Christians in Lithuania to adopt Catholicism. Thus, the Union of Krev (1386) came into being. Not everyone, however, welcomed this decision with enthusiasm. Those Lithuanians who had already bound themselves to the Russians - Gedimin's descendants and Vitovt's associates - did not want to accept Catholicism. Vitovt himself was a supporter of religious compromise, but the significant number of zealous Orthodox in Lithuania did not help to achieve it. Thus, the Lithuanian passionarity, due to the Lithuanian border position between Poland and Vladimir's Rus', was "drawn away" by the neighbors. Some Lithuanians embraced Catholicism, while others found Orthodoxy more acceptable. Such was the consequence of the passionary explosion.
The Church and Moscow
The increasing influence of Catholicism in Lithuania and the Lithuanian orientation of Prince Alexander of Tver had enormous implications for Moscow. Because Alexander enlisted the support of the pagan Lithuanian prince Gedimin, this made him an enemy of the Tatars, who compromised with the Christians. And so, the Russian Orthodox Church spoke out in support of Moscow.
Metropolitan Peter's successor, the Greek Theognost, preferred to deal with Moscow, which had proved itself a stronghold of the Metropolitan See, rather than with Tver, which had become an ally of the Catholics. Meanwhile, the Moscow principality passed to Ivan Danielovich Kalita, brother of the late Yuri (1325). The basis of the policy of Kalita was the desire to use the alliance with the Tatars in the interests of Moscow. Prince Ivan also tried to buy from impoverished feudal princes, their estates, and they had no choice but to sell their estates: small principalities could not compete with the rich Moscow, created by Daniel and inherited by Ivan Kalita. During the years of his reign, Ivan Kalita significantly expanded the borders of the principality, in particular, he acquired a large ancient city of Rostov.
But the main merit of Ivan Kalita, still unappreciated by traditional historiography, seems to lie elsewhere. Under Ivan Kalita a new principle of state-building - the principle of ethnic tolerance - was finally realized. Unlike Lithuania, which favored Catholics, and the Horde, where Muslims became predominant after the Uzbek revolution, Moscow selected its military men according to their merits alone. Kalita and his successors employed Tatars (Christians and pagans who had fled the Horde after the victory of Islam and did not want to surrender their religious beliefs), Orthodox Lithuanians who fled Lithuania because of the intolerable Catholic pressure, and simple Russian people whose only wealth was their horse and saber. These people had no possessions, so they sought service, i.e., state military duties, the fulfillment of which was rewarded by the Prince of Moscow in the form of "fodder" from a small village. Orthodox faith was a force linking all the "newcomers" in Moscow. Voluntary baptism was a prerequisite for entry into the Moscow service. Baptism was also required for marriage. Many of the Tatar natives of the Horde married Russian beauties, and Tatar women married Russian men.
А. M. Vasnetsov. The Moscow Kremlin under Ivan Kalita
Prince Ivan Danilovich. Titularnik, 1672.
Thus, gradually Orthodoxy triumphed in the whole Northeastern land, although some pagan customs were preserved. The strengthening of Christian traditions in Northeastern Russia in the XIV century affected first of all the servicemen. As in Kievan Rus' after Baptism, so in Rus' of the 14th century one could become a combatant, a guardsman of a prince or a close relative of a boyar only if one was a Christian. Since this condition was strictly observed, for the principled opponents of Christianity (pagan passionaries) and for the principled opponents of any principles (lazy sub-passionaries) there was no way to make a career in Russia. And here the Tatars came to the aid of the Russian pagans. After all, the Mongol khans took into service anyone. Russian pagans as part of the khan's troops went first to the Volga, and then to the Far East and China. So near Beijing arose Russian slobodas, whose residents formed a separate division in the Mongolian army, who went to Indochina and Burma, where they fought and won victories for the Mongol khan. Russian settlements in China lasted till the end of the 14th century, until they were destroyed together with their inhabitants during the anti-Mongol rebellions.
Thus, the active anti-Christian part of Rus' population simply disappeared as a result of migration, while the number of active Christians in Moscow grew due to an influx of passionaries from the Horde, Lithuania, and the peripheral Russian principalities. The Russian Orthodox people in Moscow (a community formed from various substrata) considered the spiritual ruler of Russia, the metropolitan, to be their head, and therefore effective Orthodoxy became the leitmotif, the behavioral dominant of the emerging new ethnic entity. This fact is also reflected in the name of the new community. It was at this time, in the fourteenth century, that Russia was called "Holy". The characteristic epithet indicated that in place of the old Kievan Rus' an entirely new ethnos, Velikorussian, with its own ethno-social system, Moscow Rus', emerged.
Since Russian rulers and their flock considered the observance of the canon of Byzantine Orthodoxy their ideal, Russia's relations with Constantinople underwent significant changes. The Paleologians, who seized the Basilian throne in 1261, found themselves emperors without an empire, rulers of a dilapidated city surrounded on all sides by enemies. The Basilevs, who had neither the strength nor the means, had to look for allies, the strongest of which could be the Ottoman Turks in the east and the Crusaders in the west. Since the Turks were advancing on Byzantium and the Crusaders had left Constantinople, the Palaeologians tried to conclude a treaty with the papal throne and get the necessary help from the West to push back the Turks and prevent the Muslims from seizing Asia Minor. But the papal throne made the conclusion of a religious union a prerequisite for helping the Greeks. This meant that the Orthodox Church would have to submit to Rome and adopt a Catholic "creed," though retaining the basic forms of the Eastern rites. In ethnic terms, the union would mean the incorporation of Byzantium into the Western European super-ethnos, with all the ensuing consequences.
Note one more point. While promising the Greeks help against the Turks, Rome was actually unable to provide it. The wars with Germanic emperors, especially Frederick II, and the French Albigensians, as well as setbacks in the Holy Land, deprived the See of any real meaningful engagement to Greek affairs. The position of the papacy itself was also rather precarious. Pope Nicholas III Orsini was expelled from Naples by the Angevin. The French captured and imprisoned Pope Boniface VIII, and one of his enemies, Count Colonna, even punched the Roman high priest in the face. And besides, the Latins were not particularly eager to help the Greeks: what did they have to worry about "schismatics"?
Church of the Savior on Boroo
Metropolitan Peter
The "Korsunian" gate of the Cathedral of St. Sophia in Novgorod (fragment). XII-XIV centuries.
Nevertheless, negotiations between the Greek emperors and the popes began, and, naturally, a strong opposition to the idea of a union arose among sincere Orthodox Greeks. One center of the opposition was the army. The Greek generals were well aware that no real help could be obtained from Rome, which meant that they had to defend themselves all the same. The second mainstay of opposition was the Orthodox intellectuals, priests and monks who rejected Unia on principle, for theological reasons. Since opponents of Uniatism were not welcomed in the capital, Orthodox believers had to leave Constantinople and withdrew to the monasteries of Mount Athos.
Since Mount Athos was also subordinate to the central government, being on Mount Athos did not provide much in the way of religious propaganda. The Orthodox monks of Mount Athos then created a new form of religious life: Hesychasm (from the Greek hesychia meaning rest, silence). The Hesychists, having taken a vow of silence, spoke only on rare occasions when it was necessary. Understandably, the government was powerless against the silent monks. Thus, two religious centers came into being in Byzantium: Constantinople, which was striving for union, and Mount Athos, which not only continued the Orthodox tradition but also developed it. A new religious system was born, which in the same 14th century was carried over to Russia.
In Rus' people were well aware of the religious disputes in Byzantium. Russians recognized the spiritual authority of the patriarch of Constantinople, but they could not fail to understand that since the patriarch was set up by an emperor bent on union, to submit to him in practice meant acting to their own detriment. By this time the Russians had fully appreciated the consequences of their alliance with the West. After all, the Paleologians, in need of help, had opened the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles to Italian ships. Since Venice was against the impoverished Byzantine Empire, the Genoese were favored. The Genoese built forts in the Crimea and developed a lively trade, first in the Volga region among the Tatars, and then in Russia, expanding their influence as far as Veliky Ustyug. Nothing good came out of this for the local population: it is not without reason that Dante wrote in his Divine Comedy that the lowest circles of hell are occupied by the Genoese, who are all scoundrels on scoundrels.
The teachings of the monks of Athos, on the other hand, corresponded to the aspirations of Moscow. Hesychasm and monastic communities of kinoviats were widespread in Rus' in the 14th century. The great Russian ascetic Sergius of Radonezh was the founder of the first monastery with the strictest monastic rule. Sergius spoke little: in fulfilling his obedience, he mostly carried water to the monastery and stood at church services. But when Sergius said something, people listened to him, for he was speaking his mind. This system of behavior had many followers. An aura of sanctity and respect was created around the monastery of St. Sergius, and his disciples began to found monasteries with his blessing.
The effectiveness of this kind of spiritual expansion was enormous. Each monastery played the role not only of a church, but also of a hospital, a school, and a library. Of course, there were fewer doctors among the monks than in a modern polyclinic, and fewer books than in the library of the Academy of Sciences, but doctors healed and books were read. The influence of the abbots and monks was growing. People who came to the monastery began to believe that Orthodox Russia could live by helping itself, without relying on the forces of the Tatars or Lithuanians. This growing conviction made the Russians fundamentally different from the Byzantines, where no party could succeed without the help of the Turks or Italians. The growing passionarity of the Russian people turned out to be directed by orthodoxy toward the common goal of building Holy Russia. Under these conditions, Moscow was able to seize the initiative in domestic and foreign policy.
Coats of arms of Pskov, Lithuania, Smolensk and Tver. Titularnik of 1672.
The question of why Moscow was in the most advantageous position has been debated for at least a hundred and fifty years. Many have seen the reason in the geographical position of Moscow: it was located in the center of the Russian land, at a crossroads. But Tver was also in the "center," and Uglich or Kostroma were in a much more favorable position in relation to the trade routes, but these cities did not become the capitals of the new Russia.
From the point of view of the passionary theory of ethnogenesis, the reason for the rise of Moscow was that it was the Moscow principality that attracted many passionate people: the Tatars, Lithuanians, Russians, Polovtsians - all who wanted both confidence in the future, and a social position commensurate with their merits. All of these newcomers Moscow was able to use, applying to their inclinations, and unite them in a single Orthodox faith. For the most part, energetic and principled people went to Moscow. For example, the Golden Horde Tatars, who fled to Moscow after Uzbek's Islam coup, formed the backbone of the Russian cavalry, which subsequently ensured victory at the Kulikovo field.
Plan of ancient Novgorod
Metropolitan Peter lays the foundation of the Cathedral of the Assumption in the Moscow Kremlin.
The ethnic synthesis of the Moscow land in the phase of the passionate rise proved to be a decisive factor. The passionate potential of Moscow "prevailed" over the wealth of Novgorod, the prowess of Tver and the dynastic pretensions of Suzdal. In the first half of the 14th century, Ivan Kalita, supported first by Khan Uzbek and then by his son Dzhanibek, took over the function of paying tribute for all of Russia. Now Moscow collected tribute as a tax from all the Russian principalities and paid to the Horde what was called the "exit". And if, for example, the Tverians called the Lithuanians against Moscow, the Tatar detachments coming from the Volga protected the Khan's source of income. Moscow became virtually invulnerable from the west, while Smolensk was captured by Vitovt, (Lithuania), Tver weakened, and Novgorod wallowed in internal conflicts. The decline of passionarity in ancient Russian centers stood in stark contrast to its growth in Moscow. The people of Novgorod, who in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were considered so wild that princes refused to go to them because they were impossible to control, by the fourteenth century had become the peaceful inhabitants of a quiet bourgeois city.
At the time when Novgorod was losing its positions, the Moscow princes became stronger and began to make real claims to the Novgorod possessions: in the XIV century Moscow already had annexed the Great Ustyug, which sharply increased its enmity with Novgorod. Novgorodians traditionally sought to exploit the vast territory of the north up to the Stone Belt, i.e., up to the Ural Mountains. Ustyuzhans also claimed the role of colonizers of the north and were natural rivals for Novgorodians. Detachments of Novgorod ushkuyniks, who tried to capture the Zavolotsk chud - a relic ethnos, which had lost its passion, living in the basin of the Northern Dvina and Sukhona - met resistance not only from the Zavolotsk chud, but also from the Ustiuzha. All Novgorodians, without exception, were killed by Ustyuzhan. Naturally, the Novgorodians also made punitive expeditions to Velikiy Ustyug, also exterminating the captives.
As we can see, the war was actually a three-way war, and the northern territories to the White and Barents Seas and to the Urals, which all historical maps show as Novgorodian, were only a zone of Novgorod's influence, but no more. That is why Novgorod strengthened its trade with Western Europe. Although Novgorodians themselves did not sail on the Baltic Sea, as the Baltic way was entirely controlled by the Germans, West European merchants came to Novgorod and made profitable deals. It would seem that this was enough for this ancient city to exist on its own. But in fact, there were natural obstacles on the way to its complete independence.
Coats of arms of Nizhny Novgorod, Chernigov, Ryazan, Polotsk. Titularnik of 1672.
Prince Simeon the Proud. Engraving of 1850.
Prince Ivan Ivanovich Krasny. Titularnik, 1672.
In the 14th century, the humidification zone of the Eurasian continent shifted to the north. In the north-west of Eurasia, it often rained, so there were constant crop failures. Novgorod, for all its wealth, chronically lacked its own bread. Since it was impossible to bring grain from Europe at that time, Novgorodians received bread "from below". Consequently, whoever owned the area between the Oka and the Volga, could always, by stopping the caravans with bread, force Novgorod to capitulate.
First the Suzdal and then the Moscow princes, who owned the Volga-Oka interfluves, took advantage of the situation. The Moscow princes made an exception only when Novgorod allied with them against Tver, because Tver was declared by Moscow to be a princedom with treasonous, pro-Lithuanian aspirations. This was partly true, but for our theme something else is essential: a new ethnic community formed in the land of Moscow - the Muscovites - already under Ivan Kalita began to oppose the population of other cities and principalities, claiming the role of an arbitrator in all-Russian disputes.
At the same period Muscovites faced Ryazan, which claimed independence. To call the Ryazanians traitors to Orthodoxy proved difficult: Ryazan, lying in the steppe borderland, was fighting against Tatar raids, so it was inconvenient to accuse the Ryazan princes of treason, but Muscovites also managed this task by inventing that the Ryazan prince Oleg also had contacts with Lithuania. Of course, Oleg had no friendship with Lithuania, but the goal was achieved: Ryazan was isolated.
The miracle of Taidula's healing by Metropolitan Alexius
Such a policy, expressing Moscow's desire for leadership and assertion of Orthodoxy, continued steadily after the death of Ivan Kalita (1340). Note that Ivan's children - Simeon the Proud and Ivan Ivanovich Krasny - had no special talents. But with the general passionate rise of the ethnos, having a sovereign on the throne, who did not shine as a bright individual was more of a blessing than a harm. Such a prince was happy to give the initiative to his fellow-boyars, among whom were many talented voivodes, (local ruler) dodgy diplomats, and savvy managers. Princes Simeon and Ivan did not interfere with such people "to do" domestic and foreign policy of Moscow as they saw fit, and limited their contribution to the observance of court etiquette, the distribution of awards and the imposition of penalties.
The de facto head of state after the death of Ivan Kalita was his godson, Metropolitan Alexis, who succeeded Feognost in his archpastoral ministry. Alexis came from a noble boyar family of Pleshcheyevs and was a man of great intelligence, great tact, and a broad political outlook. He had the support of the majority of the Orthodox people who lived in the principality of Moscow, which was of critical importance at the time. As the supreme head of the Russian Church, Alexey wielded real power over all Russian princes without exception.
Apart from the Tver princes, the Suzdal princes also became opponents of Moscow under Alexius. They had their own system of political orientation which was rather flexible and deeply rooted. In essence the Suzdal princes stood up for ancient Russia, with its appanage orders, although in the XIV century, as we remember, most of the native lands of Kievan Rus' were given to the Lithuanians almost without resistance, and only those lands which were under Tatar rule survived. The tradition of the proximity with the Tatars of the Suzdal princes had also existed, and, as A. N. Nasonov has noted, had its roots in the times of Batyj. Suzdal's citizens supported Alexander Nevskiy's policy, but categorically didn't want any changes. The proximity with Tatars, calm and tolerant, demanding the minimum "exit" (tax), provided for their existence: after all the Suzdal state included rich towns of Volga region, the main of which was Nizhniy Novgorod. The wealth brought by trade allowed the Tatars to easily pay tax to maintain the army, and therefore all efforts of Suzdal princes were aimed at development of trade in their princedom, and not at unification of the country, as it was in Moscow. For this reason, the Suzdal and the Tatars were not at all as friendly as the Muscovites.
Hierarchs Peter and Alexis, Metropolitans of Moscow. Drawing from an icon of the Moscow Assumption Cathedral. Lithograph by V. Prokhorov.
Whereas in Moscow the Tatars accepted Orthodoxy, married Russian women and in the next generation integrated into the general Muscovite mass, retaining (or not retaining) only the memory of their origins, there was no unification in the Suzdal princedom. The Suzdal princes did not baptize the Tatars, accepting them for service; they simply chose as their political ally the Muslim Tatars who continued to live on the Volga. This is understandable: the zealots of Suzdal sought the independence of their cities and the revenues of their trade, and were loath to share them.
Since Moscow, in the person of Metropolitan Alexii, proclaimed a different dominant position, becoming in essence a unifying theocratic monarchy, for the Suzdal princes Alexii was enemy number one. Suzdal's attempt to seize the initiative resulted in a war between the two Dmitry's: Dmitry Konstantinovich of Nizhni Novgorod and Dmitry Ivanovich of Moscow. The conflict ended in reconciliation and the marriage of Dmitry Ivanovich and a Suzdal princess (1366). Metropolitan Alexius, even this time, achieved the desired, though not yet lasting peace in Russia.
Conversation between Metropolitan Alexius and Prince Dmitry Ioannovich
This peace could not be permanent, for not everyone shared Moscow's desire for unity. Novgorod, Tver, Ryazan, and the very same Suzdal still dreamed of overthrowing the Moscow prince and taking the Grand Duchy from the Muscovites. Opposition to Moscow clearly is also recorded in literary monuments. Thus, V. L. Komarovich, examining the Kitezh legend, showed that the word "Tatars" was used in it as a censor cipher. By "Tatars" in the legend was meant... Moscow, which, capturing city after city, established in them new orders, very unpleasant for the zealots of antiquity. (10)
Such an experienced politician as Metropolitan Alexius could not fail to understand the threat to Moscow's power posed by the opposition. The crown princes of Moscow were still issued by the Khans of the Horde and, therefore, the loss of the crown princes of Moscow could negate all the efforts of the Moscow princes to unite the Russian lands over the years. Aleksei had only one way out - to abandon the ancient system of the transmission of power in Russia and try to make the grand reign a part of the possession of the Moscow sovereigns. This enormous task, with the support of all of Moscow, was carried out with honour. But to understand why this was possible, one must look at the situation in the Horde at that time.
К. Schultz. Alexeevsky monastery.
.