From the scolded council. Education of the elected council under Ivan the Terrible. Local government reform

First Russian Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich IV the Terrible was born on August 25, 1530, died on March 18, 1584.

After the death of Vasily III in 1533, his three-year-old son Ivan IV ascended the grand-ducal throne. In fact, the state was ruled by his mother, Elena Vasilievna, the daughter of Prince Glinsky, a native of Lithuania. Both during the reign of Elena and after her death (1538; there is an assumption that she was poisoned), the struggle for power between the boyar groups of the Belskys, Shuiskys, and Glinskys did not stop.

Boyar rule led to the weakening of central power, and the arbitrariness of the patrimonial owners had a serious impact on the position of the masses, causing discontent and open protests in a number of Russian cities.

The boy sovereign, naturally intelligent, lively, impressionable and observant, grew up in an atmosphere of abandonment and neglect. Thus, in the boy’s soul an early feeling of enmity and hatred towards the boyars as his enemies and thefts of power was formed. The ugly scenes of boyar self-will and violence and his own helplessness and impotence developed in him timidity, suspicion, distrust of people, and on the other hand, disdain for the human person and human dignity.

Having a lot of free time at his disposal, Ivan indulged in reading and re-read all the books that he could find in the palace. His only sincere friend and spiritual mentor was Metropolitan Macarius (from 1542), the famous compiler of the Four Menaions, a huge collection of all church literature known at that time in Rus'.

The young Grand Duke was not yet fully 17 years old when his uncle Mikhail Glinsky and his grandmother Princess Anna managed to prepare a political act of great national importance. January 16, 1547 Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of Moscow and All Rus' was solemnly crowned with the title of Tsar Ivan IV. The ceremony of accepting the royal title took place in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin. From the hands of the Moscow Metropolitan Macarius, who developed the ritual of crowning the king, Ivan IV accepted the Monomakh cap and other regalia of royal power. The Church seemed to affirm the divine origin of royal power, but at the same time strengthened its authority. Upon completion of the wedding ceremony, the Grand Duke became the “God-crowned Tsar.”

Thus, the new title - tsar - not only sharply emphasized the sovereignty of the Russian monarch in external relations, especially with the Horde khanates (khans in Rus' were called tsars), but also more clearly than before, separated the sovereign from his subjects. The royal title secured the transformation of vassal princes into subjects. The capital of the state, Moscow, was now adorned with a new title - it became the “reigning city”, and the Russian land - the Russian kingdom. But for the peoples of Russia, one of the most tragic periods of its history began. The “time of Ivan the Terrible” has come.

By the way, Russia as the name of the state appears in Russian sources in the second half of the 16th century. The term “Russia” is not Russian in origin, but Greek. It has been known in Byzantium since the 10th century. and was used in the lists of dioceses: the great princes in Greek were called archons of all Russia. During the wedding of Ivan IV, in order to give the individual more authority, they returned to this “foreign” word.

The term “Moscow State”, along with the name “Russia”, was used in official documents in the 16th-17th centuries. Russian began to mean belonging to the state, and “Russian” - to an ethnic group (nationality).

On June 21, 1547, a strong fire broke out in Moscow. The fire raged for two days. The city was almost completely burned out. About 4 thousand Muscovites died in the fire. Ivan IV and his entourage, fleeing smoke and fire, hid in the village of Vorobyovo. The cause of the fire was sought in the actions of real persons. Rumors spread that the fire was the work of the Glinskys, with whose name the people associated the difficult years of boyar rule.

A meeting gathered in the Kremlin on the square near the Assumption Cathedral. One of the Glinskys was torn to pieces by the rebel people. The yards of their supporters and relatives were burned and looted. With great difficulty the government managed to suppress the uprising. Actions against the feudal lords took place in the cities of Opochka, and somewhat later in Pskov and Ustyug.

Popular protests showed that the country needs reforms. Further development of the country required the strengthening of statehood and centralization of power. The nobility showed particular interest in carrying out reforms. Its original ideologist was the talented publicist of that time, nobleman Ivan Semenovich Peresvetov. He addressed the king with messages outlining a program of reforms. These proposals by Peresvetov largely anticipated the actions of Ivan IV.

Based on the interests of the nobility, I.S. Peresvetov sharply condemned the boyar arbitrariness. He saw the ideal of government in strong royal power, based on the nobility. “A state without a thunderstorm is like a horse without a bridle,” believed I.S. Peresvetov.

With the participation of Metropolitan Macarius, the young tsar was surrounded by those persons who were destined in the eyes of their contemporaries to symbolize the new government - the “Chosen Rada”. Around 1549 a new government was formed. It was called the Chosen Rada - that’s what A. Kurbsky called it in the Polish manner in one of his writings. The composition of the Elected Rada is not entirely clear. It was headed by A.F. Adashev, who came from a rich, but not very noble family. Representatives of various layers of the ruling class took part in the work of the Elected Rada: princes D. Kurlyatev, M. Vorotynsky, Moscow Metropolitan Macarius and the priest of the Annunciation Cathedral of the Kremlin (the home church of the Moscow kings) Sylvester, clerk of the Ambassadorial Prikaz I. Viskovaty. The composition of the Elected Rada seemed to reflect a compromise between various layers of the ruling class. The elected council existed until 1560 and was the body that carried out the transformations that were called the reforms of the mid-16th century.

On February 27, 1549, the First Zemsky Sobor was convened. He decided to draw up a new Code of Law (approved in 1550) and formulated a program of reforms in the mid-16th century. According to experts, more than 50 Zemsky Sobors took place; The last Zemsky Sobors in Russia met in the 80s. XVI century The Zemsky Sobors included the Boyar Duma, the Consecrated Cathedral - representatives of the highest clergy; Many Zemsky Sobors were also attended by representatives of the nobility and the upper classes of the town.

1. Under the Elected Rada, an order system of public administration is drawn up. Even before the reforms of the mid-16th century. certain branches of government administration of individual territories began to be entrusted (“ordered,” as they called it then) to the boyars. This is how the first orders-institutions appeared that were in charge of branches of public administration or individual regions of the country. In the middle of the 16th century. There were already two dozen orders. Military affairs were supervised by the Razryadny Prikaz (in charge of the local army), Pushkarsky (artillery), Streletsky (streltsy), Armory Chamber (arsenal), Foreign Affairs were in charge of the Ambassadorial Prikaz, state lands distributed to the nobles, the Local Prikaz; serfs - Serf order. There were orders that were in charge of certain territories: the order of the Siberian Palace governed Siberia; order of the Kazan Palace - annexed by the Kazan Khanate.

At the head of the order was a boyar or clerk - a major government official. The orders were in charge of administration, tax collection and the courts. As the tasks of public administration became more complex, the number of orders grew. By the time of Peter the Great's reforms at the beginning of the 18th century. there were about 50 of them. The design of the order system made it possible to centralize the management of the country.

2. It should be noted that at first the Elected Rada did not intend to radically change the existing order of local government. The Code of Law of Ivan IV only clarified the rights and responsibilities of feeders (deputies - in districts and volostels - in volosts) and at the same time expanded the competence of zemstvo elders and tselovniks, turning them into permanent jurors (before that they simply acted as witnesses at the trial of governors and volostels ).

A unified management system gradually began to be created locally. Local tax collection was previously entrusted to feeding boyars. They were actually rulers of individual lands. All funds collected in excess of the required taxes to the treasury were at their personal disposal, i.e. they “fed” by managing the lands. In 1556, feedings were abolished. Local administration (investigation and court in particularly important state affairs) was transferred to the hands of provincial elders (guba-okrug), elected from local nobles, zemstvo elders - from among the wealthy strata among the black-sown population where there was no noble land ownership, and city officials clerks or favorite heads - in cities. Thus, in the middle of the 16th century. An apparatus of state power emerged in the form of an estate-representative monarchy.

3. Code of Law 1550

The general trend of centralization of the country and the state apparatus led to the publication of a new collection of laws - the Code of Laws of 1550. Taking the Code of Laws as a basis Ivan III, the drafters of the new Code of Law made changes to it related to the strengthening of central power. It confirmed the right of peasants to move on St. George’s Day and increased the payment for the “elderly”. The feudal lord was now responsible for the crimes of his peasants, which increased their personal dependence on the lord. For the first time, punishment for bribery was introduced.

4. Even under Elena Glinskaya, monetary reform was started. The Moscow ruble became the main payment unit in the country. The right to collect trade duties passed into the hands of the state. The population of the country was obliged to bear taxes - a complex of natural and monetary duties. In the middle of the 16th century. a single unit for collecting taxes was established for the entire state - the large plow. Depending on the fertility of the soil, as well as the social status of the owner of the land, the plow amounted to 400-600 hectares of land. The tax reform further worsened the situation of the masses.

5. Military reform

Much has been done to strengthen the country's forces. The core of the army was the noble militia. Near Moscow, the “chosen thousand” were planted on the ground - 1070 provincial nobles, who, in the opinion of the tsar, were to become the support of power.

The “Code of Service” was drawn up. A votchinnik or landowner could begin service at the age of 15 and pass it on by inheritance. From 150 acres of land, both the boyar and the nobleman had to field one warrior and appear at the reviews “on horseback, in crowds and armed.”

A big step forward in the organization of Russian military forces was the creation in 1550 of a permanent Streltsy army. At first there were three thousand archers. In addition, foreigners began to be recruited into the army, the number of whom was insignificant. Artillery was reinforced. The Cossacks were recruited to perform border service.

The boyars and nobles who made up the militia were called “serving people for the fatherland,” i.e. by origin. Another group of people consisted of “service people according to the instrument” (i.e., recruited). In addition to the archers, there were gunners (artillerymen), city guards, and the Cossacks were close to them. Rear work (cart trains, construction of fortifications) was carried out by the “staff” - a militia from among the Black Sowings, monastery peasants and townspeople.

6. Limitation of localism

During military campaigns, localism was limited - the procedure for filling positions depending on the nobility and career of the ancestors. In the middle of the 16th century. an official reference book was compiled - “The Sovereign's Genealogist”, which streamlined local disputes.

7. Church councils

Significant reforms were carried out in the life of the church. During the period of feudal fragmentation, each principality had its own “locally revered” saints. In 1549, a church council carried out the canonization of the “new miracle workers”: local saints turned into all-Russian saints, and a unified pantheon was created for the entire country. In 1551 a new church council was held.

Stoglavy Cathedral

In 1551, on the initiative of the tsar and the metropolitan, a Council of the Russian Church met, which was called the Stoglavy Council, since its decisions were formulated in one hundred chapters. The decisions of the clergy reflected the changes associated with the centralization of the state. The Council approved the adoption of the Code of Law of 1550 and the reforms of Ivan IV. An all-Russian list was compiled from the number of local saints revered in individual Russian lands. Rituals were streamlined and unified throughout the country. Even art was subject to regulation.

The Council of the Hundred Heads in 1551 drew a line under the historical dispute between the Josephites and non-covetous people. Even before its convening in September 1550, an agreement was reached between the tsar and Metropolitan Macarius (1542-1568), according to which monasteries were forbidden to found new settlements in cities, and to establish new courtyards in old ones. The townspeople, who were hiding there from the burden of the burden, were expelled from the monastery settlements. In the future, clergy could buy land and receive it as a gift only with royal permission. Thus, on the issue of monastic land ownership, the line to limit it and control it on the part of the tsar won.

Even under Ivan III and Vasily III, the issue of church land ownership was acute. A number of clergy, whose spiritual forerunner was Nil Sorsky (1433-1508), advocated the renunciation of land ownership by monasteries and strict asceticism (hence their name - non-acquisitive). Another group of church leaders fought against this, the head of which was Abbot Joseph Volotsky (1439-1515), who believed that only a rich church could fulfill its high mission in the state. During the reign of Vasily Sh, the Josephites (money-grubbers) gained the upper hand.

During the Council of the Hundred Heads, the issue of church lands was raised again. It was decided to preserve the lands of churches and monasteries, but in the future their acquisition or receipt as a gift could only be carried out after a report to the king.

Reforms of the mid-16th century. significantly strengthened central power and public administration, which allowed Ivan IV to move on to solving foreign policy problems.

Agreement between the king and his closest advisers, i.e. Sylvester and Adashev did not last long: the ardent, power-hungry John soon began to be burdened by the influence of his favorites. This was also accompanied by their rivalry with the Zakharyins, relatives of the queen, and Anastasia herself’s dislike of them.

The beginning of this reluctance dates back to 1553. Soon after the Kazan campaign, the tsar fell into a serious illness; wrote a spiritual document, appointed his son, baby Dimitri, as heir, and demanded that the boyars swear allegiance to him. Then there was noise and abuse in the palace: some took the oath, others refused on the grounds that Dimitri was still small and the Zakharins would rule instead of him, that it was better for an adult to be sovereign, while they pointed to the royal cousin Vladimir (son of Andrei Staritsky) , the latter also did not want to swear allegiance to Dimitri, Sylvester and Adashev’s father sided with the disobedient boyars. Only after persistent persuasion by the king and the nobles loyal to him did the opposing side yield. John recovered, although he showed no signs of displeasure at first, but he could not forget this incident and began to look suspiciously at the people around him. The queen also considered herself offended.

After recovery, John with his wife and little Demetrius, according to a vow, went on a pilgrimage to the Kirillov Belozersky Monastery. First, the Tsar stopped by the Trinity Lavra. Here,” says Prince Kurbsky in his History of Ivan the Terrible, “the famous Maxim the Greek talked to him and persuaded him not to undertake such a long and difficult journey, but rather to work on alleviating the lot of widows and orphans who were left behind by the soldiers who fell under the walls of Kazan. But the king went by water to Kirillov. The journey was truly unhappy: John lost his son. On the way, in one monastery, he saw the former Bishop of Kolomna Vassian and asked him how one should reign in order to have nobles in obedience. “If you want to be an autocrat,” answered Vassian, “then do not keep advisers smarter than yourself” (a hint at Sylvester and Adashev).

Seeing John's cooling towards him, Sylvester himself withdrew from the court, and the king sent Adashev to Livonia (to the army). In 1560, Anastasia died. It was said at court that Sylvester and Adashev had harassed the queen. The Tsar imprisoned Sylvester in the Solovetsky Monastery, and imprisoned Alexei Adashev (in Yuryev). Relatives and supporters of the accused were exiled or executed.

The inspirer of the first Russian perestroika was Alexei Adashev

IN Russian history The name of Alexei Adashev turned out to be inextricably linked with the events of the first years of the reign of Ivan IV. Then, in the course of reforms decisively carried out by the young tsar and his inner circle - a circle of like-minded people from the “Chosen Rada”, a new model of state, public and military governance in Russia began to be created. At the beginning of this grandiose work stood the okolnichy, the head of the Petition Prikaz and the tsar’s bed servant Alexey Adashev.

The personal archive of the sovereign was under his direct control. He was in charge of the press “for urgent and secret matters”, supervised the work on compiling the official rank book of the “Sovereign’s Genealogist”, and edited the materials of the official “Chronicle of the Beginning of the Kingdom”. The posts, as we see, are serious, the responsibility is enormous, but Alexei Adashev coped with the tasks facing him so successfully that the tsar himself later became jealous of him and his assistants, declaring: “all power was removed from me, and they themselves ruled as they wanted.” Who was such a prominent person in Russian history in the mid-16th century, what kind of tribe was he, how was he able to achieve considerable ranks and significant influence in the Moscow state?

Entry into the royal synclit

In the biographies of this outstanding politician, it is usually reported that Alexey Fedorovich Adashev comes from a rich, but not well-born family of Kostroma nobles who made a fortune from the salt trade. This is true, only biographers often forget to note one important but significant detail - the Adashevs were distant relatives of the okolnichy Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin, whose daughter Anastasia the young tsar married in 1547. The first marriage of Ivan IV elevated the relatives of the first Russian Tsarina, including Alexei Adashev. Thanks to his intelligence and brilliant organizational skills, he soon achieved the exceptional trust of the sovereign, who, according to Prince Andrei Kurbsky, could not “arrange or think of anything” without Adashev’s advice. Having thus become the tsar's closest advisor, Alexey Fedorovich gathered around himself, as they would say now, a team of like-minded people who strived to create a wise and fair order in the country, based on cooperation between the authorities and the “land,” that is, all classes of the Moscow state. Adashev’s closest friend was the priest Sylvester, who had a tremendous gift of persuasion. Together they headed the “Chosen Rada,” a government body that governed Russia for 10 years (from 1549 to 1560). The term “Chosen Rada” was first used by Prince Kurbsky, who fell into disgrace and fled, in fear for his life, outside Russia. While in Lithuania, he wrote the book “The History of the Grand Duke of Moscow”, in which he spoke about the time when Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich ruled the country in agreement with his advisers - the “Chosen Rada”.

Most researchers believe that this, in the Polish way, was what Kurbsky called a government body that actually had something else, Russian name. The question is indeed very complex - the records of the “Elected Rada” have not been preserved and its existence is not reflected in the chronicles. Perhaps that is why historian S.V. Bakhrushin suggested that Kurbsky called the Near Boyar Duma the “Chosen Rada”. But upon careful study of the composition of the Duma and the body known as the “Elected Rada”, it becomes clear that we are talking about different royal “councils”. After all, only about three close boyars of Ivan IV - Prince D.I. Kurlyateve, I.V. Sheremetev and M.Ya. Morozov - we know about the leaders of the “Chosen Rada”. Moreover, actively participating in the activities of this “government circle,” as historians sometimes call the “Chosen Rada,” Prince Andrei Kurbsky was granted the rank of boyar only in 1556 (at the age of 28). And the undeniable participation in the affairs of the “Chosen Council” of Metropolitan Macarius and priest Sylvester indicates a more complex composition of the royal synclite. If we take into account the important circumstance that the head of the government institution is not a high-born boyar, but a simple nobleman Alexey Adashev, it becomes clear that the “Chosen Rada” is not the Polish name for the Near Boyar Duma. The above, of course, does not exclude close interaction between the two “synclites”. In the mid-50s of the 16th century, Adashev and Kurbsky became members of the Near Boyar Duma and, together with Prince D.I. Kurlyatev, I.V. Sheremetev, M.Ya. Morozov, and possibly Prince D.F. Paletsky, constitute its stable majority. At the same time, it was during these years that the Near Boyar Duma included persons hostile to the leaders of the tsarist “synclitia,” as Grozny himself most often calls the “Chosen Rada”—the embassy clerk Ivan Viskovatov and the treasurer Nikita Funikov-Kartsev. So we can rightfully talk about a significant difference between the “Elected Rada” and the system of public administration that has developed in Rus'.

The “evil council”—as Ivan IV later began to call the “synclitia”—possessed real power and concentrated in its hands all the threads of governing the country. This could not but constrain the king’s power prerogatives. The same fugitive prince Kurbsky, as about the proper order of things, wrote that the king could not arrange or think of anything without the advice of the “synclitia”. In this feature of the “Chosen Rada” lies the answer to the question of the reasons for the fall and disgrace of the leaders of such a powerful and authoritative government body.

Reformer

The activities of the “Chosen Rada” are known to us, first of all, from the reforms of the 50s of the 16th century, aimed at strengthening the state and strengthening the authority of the central government, which had fallen during the years of boyar rule. The political system of Russia needed adaptation to new living conditions, a significant update of the state and legal system.

The most significant event of the “Elected Rada” is considered to be the compilation of a new Code of Laws - a set of basic laws that replaced the outdated Code of Laws of 1497. The decision to correct and supplement old laws with new articles was made by the first Zemsky Sobor in Russian history, convened on February 28, 1549 and called the “Cathedral of Reconciliation.”

The main work on preparing the Code of Law was taken on by Alexey Adashev. Leaving without any significant changes the norms that determined the relationship between land owners and arable peasants, the authors of the new laws changed the legal framework regulating the activities of central and local government bodies. Thus, the judicial and administrative power of feeders (officials who exercised local power) was limited. Why did they develop a regulation on the mandatory participation of zemstvo elders and zemstvo “best people” in court? The Code of Law was adopted on July 9, 1550 and became the main legal code of the Moscow state for almost 100 years. With his acceptance into Russian criminal law Punishment for bribes and judicial forgery by officials and clerks was first introduced. In close connection with the new government line developed during the preparation of the Law Code was the elimination of feeding - the system of maintaining royal governors and volosts at the expense of the local population.

The second significant act of the “Elected Rada” was the legal regulation of localism as a system of distribution of government, military and court ranks, taking into account the nobility of the family of any person, the official position occupied by his ancestors, and, already in last resort, the degree of his personal merit. Localism more than once became the cause of unsuccessful appointments, which had a detrimental effect on the state of affairs in the state. The January decree of 1550, which distributed voivodes by rank and established, in a number of cases, official appointments “without places,” took the first step towards limiting localism, which hampered the development of the military power of the Russian state. It should be noted that the strengthening and development of the Russian army was, of course, one of the main concerns of the Adashev government. For this purpose, in addition to limiting local disputes between governors, the pishchalnik detachments were reorganized into the Streltsy army, which became the backbone of the country's armed forces. Streltsy orders (regiments) were formed initially from the free townsman and district population, later the service of the streltsy became hereditary and lifelong.

In October 1550, a decision was made to place in Moscow and neighboring districts a selected thousand nobles, “the best servants” who became the economic, political and military support of the government.

Completed military reform"Code of Service" of 1555/1556, which determined the scope and nature of the official duties of landowners in strict dependence on the estates and estates they had. The grown-up “underage” - young nobles and boyar children were assigned to the service from the age of 15. From that moment on, they received local and monetary salaries depending on their origin, property status and personal merit. The usual local salary of a "novice" (a "minor" recruited into the service) ranged from 100 to 300 quarters of arable land and a salary of 4 to 7 rubles per year. Subsequently, the salary and salary of a serving person increased to an average of 700 quarters of land and 14 rubles. According to the Code, the owner of the estate was required to field a mounted armed warrior into the army from every 100 quarters of land.

Along with the compilation of the Code of Laws and the military reforms of the 1550s is the organization of orders - permanent central government bodies. And although the first command-type institutions appeared at the end of the 15th century, it was only in the mid-50s of the 16th century - with the formation of the Local, Rank, Ambassadorial and other orders - that a unified system of public administration was formed. Local authorities the authorities have also changed a lot. In 1555, in the Moscow state, the search and detention of “dashing people” was everywhere transferred to the hands of elected provincial elders, who were in charge of cases of “theft” - robberies and thefts and “murder” - murders. At the same time, in 1555-1556, in cities and counties with black-growing (depending directly on the state, not on private owners) population and in palace volosts, a zemstvo reform was carried out, which finally eliminated the feeding system. From now on, it was replaced by zemstvo self-government, the local representatives of which were zemstvo elders (“favorite heads”), kissers and zemstvo judges elected from among the tax-paying population of cities and black-growing peasants. They were in charge of collecting taxes, handling small court cases, and maintaining order in the territory of the volost or city.

However, the most significant achievements of the “Chosen Rada” were related to the foreign policy of the Moscow State of that time. Its spearhead was aimed at strengthening Russian influence on the southeastern borders. The conquest of the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates, a hostile line towards the Crimean Khanate, which since 1475 had become a vassal of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire, forced Adashev, who led Russian foreign policy in 1553-1560, to strive to maintain peace and tranquility on the western border. The war with the Livonian Order, started by Ivan IV in January 1558, threatened serious complications with Russia’s European neighbors and hindered active politics in the East and South. Which was not approved by either Adashev or his like-minded people." It was their disagreement with those who, indulging the ambitious desires of the tsar, in response to Livonia's refusal to pay Rus' the ancient "Yuriev" tribute, advised him to seize the Baltic lands, and served as the formal reason for the fall of the "Chosen Rada" ".

Fall from Olympus

After the death of Ivan IV's first wife Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina in 1560, the leaders of the "Chosen Rada" Adashev and Sylvester were accused of poisoning her. Sylvester had to take monastic vows at the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, where he died around 1577. And Alexey Adashev was exiled to the voivodeship in Yuryev Livonsky (now the Estonian city of Tartu) and died there from a “fiery illness” on the eve of the reprisal being prepared against him. Later, in 1561-1564, disgrace and execution fell on the heads of the remaining members of the “Chosen Rada”, their relatives and friends. They were replaced by other people - A.D. Basmanov, V.M. Yuryev-Zakharyin, Prince A.I. Vyazemsky, who sought to strengthen the tsar’s autocracy at any cost, to give a completely different meaning to the concept of “autocracy,” which previously only meant that the Grand Duke himself, without Khan's label"holds" Russian land. This could not have happened without a fierce struggle. It was necessary not only to intimidate those who opposed the royal will, it was necessary to eradicate any, even the slightest, disloyalty to the king. The oprichnina terror, in the opinion of many Russian historians, was bloody and senseless, distinctly and visibly different from the previous time - the time of the reign of the “Chosen Rada”, was an attempt to establish in the country the absolute, unlimited autocracy of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible.

Special for the Centenary

The question arose about strengthening a single Russian state. To achieve this, it was necessary to take several decisive actions - to put an end to decentralization, to completely form a national apparatus and to expand the territory of the country. Vasily III only laid the foundation for this process, and it was left to his son Ivan, who was only three years old at the time of his father’s death, to solve the problems.

In 1546, the future Ivan IV reached the age of fifteen (at this age came of age), and power completely passed from his mother to him. In 1547 he took the title of king. The royal wedding took place in the Assumption Cathedral. In the same year, a series of fires and a popular uprising occurred, which proved that there was a confrontation between the boyars and the people in society. Ivan IV began an intensified struggle against the boyar power, bringing people from other classes closer to him. The circle of associates was called the “Chosen Rada”, which included such persons as Andrei Kurbsky, Metropolitan Macarius and Archpriest Sylvester. They carried out the following reforms that glorified the reign of Ivan:

1. In 1550, the so-called Sudebnik was published - a set of laws that strengthened the royal power.

2. The Streletsky army appeared in the army.

3. The financial system was reformed.

4. The local and central administration canceled feedings and introduced a system of orders.

5. Church reform was carried out.

The changes led to the fact that in a short time the authority of the authorities in the state grew noticeably. The elected Rada and its system of government turned out to be the most effective. All decisions made in the 50s of that century were aimed at centralizing the power of the king. Despite the fact that the Elected Rada and its reforms had a positive impact on the state and strengthened the royal power, it was dissolved in 1560. There were several reasons for this. The tsar stopped trusting his close people, especially when he suspected treason after Andrei Kurbsky escaped to Poland. Differences in views on foreign and domestic policy also grew.

In 1565, Ivan IV established a new sovereign appanage - the oprichnina, which included economically developed territories.

Here the tsar formed his government bodies - the Duma, the court, the orders, as well as the oprichnina army, which later turned into an instrument. The Elected Rada and the oprichnina were endowed with punitive functions, but if the first punished only the boyars, then the oprichnina had power over all classes. As a result of the dominance of the oprichnina, a despotic regime of power under Ivan IV was established in the state. During these harsh years, the tsar received the nickname “Terrible”.

However, the reign of terror turned out to be less effective than the Elected Rada and its policies. As a result, the king in 1572. After this, the country experienced political events in the 70s and 80s. In addition, there was the destruction of peasant farms, which were the basis of the country's economy - the Elected Rada focused on them. The oprichnina largely determined the general crisis of power and the coming Time of Troubles.

“The Chosen Rada” is a term introduced by Prince A.M. Kurbsky to designate the circle of people who made up the informal government under Ivan the Terrible in 1549-1560. The term itself is found only in the work of Kurbsky, while Russian sources of that time do not give this circle of people any official name.

Creation

The formation of a select circle of people around the tsar occurs after the Moscow events of the summer of 1547: fire, and then the uprising of Muscovites. According to Kurbsky's version, during these events the king came to Archpriest Sylvester, and “threatened the king with a terrible curse from the Holy Scriptures,<...>to<...>stop his riots and moderate his violent temper.”

Compound

The composition of the “Elected Rada” is the subject of debate. Definitely, the priest of the Annunciation Cathedral of the Kremlin, the confessor of the Tsar Sylvester and a young figure from a not very noble family, A.F. Adashev, participated in the “Rada”.

On the other hand, some historians deny the existence of the Elected Rada as an institution led exclusively by the three above-mentioned persons.

Activity

The elected council lasted until 1560. She carried out transformations that were called reforms of the mid-16th century.

Reforms of the Chosen One:

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

Code of Law 1550 - development of the provisions of the Code of Law of Ivan III, limitation of the power of governors and volosts, strengthening of control of the tsarist administration, a uniform amount of court fees, preservation of the right of peasants to cross on St. George’s Day.

Stoglavy Cathedral 1551 - unification of church rituals, recognition of all locally revered saints as all-Russian, establishment of a strict iconographic canon, demands for improving the morals of the clergy, prohibition of usury among priests.

Military reform 1556 – the Service Code was adopted: restriction of localism for the period hostilities, in addition to the mounted local militia, the organization of a standing army - archers, gunners, a unified order of military service.

Formation of the order system.

In 1556, a reform of local government was carried out.

The reforms of the Elected Rada outlined the path to strengthening and centralization of the state and contributed to the formation of an estate-representative state.

Fall of the Chosen Rada

Some historians see the reason for the tsar's disfavor in the fact that Ivan IV was dissatisfied with the disagreements of some members of the Rada with the late Anastasia Zakharyina-Yuryeva, the tsar's first wife. This is also confirmed by the fact that after the death of his second wife, Maria Temryukovna, Ivan the Terrible also carried out executions of those disliked by the queen and accused the boyars of “harassing” (poisoning) Maria.

In 1553, Ivan the Terrible fell ill. The illness was so severe that the question of transfer of power arose in the Boyar Duma. Ivan forced the boyars to swear allegiance to their infant son, Tsarevich Dmitry. But among the members of the Rada the idea arose to transfer the Moscow throne cousin Tsar - Vladimir, Prince Staritsky. In particular, Sylvester noted that Vladimir’s quality is that he loves advisers. However, Ivan recovered from his illness, and the conflict, at first glance, was settled. But the king did not forget this story and later used it against Sylvester and Adashev.

The main contradiction was the radical difference in the views of the Tsar and the Rada on the issue of centralization of power in the state (the process of centralization is the process of concentrating state power). Ivan IV wanted to speed up this process. The elected Rada chose the path of gradual and painless reform.