Vasily III Ivanovich. Biography. Vasily III: what mark did Sophia’s son Paleolog leave in history?

The imperious Prince Vasily 3 ruled the Moscow state from 1505 to 1533 and was the son of Ivan 3 Vasilyevich and Sophia Paleologus. Historians call the Grand Duke also a collector of Russian lands, but unlike his father, he did not have his talents. What Vasily III did not complete was completed. Under his rule, several territories were annexed - among them the Ryazan and Novgorod-Seversk principalities.

In royal weddings, the wedding was scheduled after lunch. Neither the groom nor his chosen one ate anything that day. After the wedding, the newlyweds were served wine, everyone ate, drank and congratulated the newlyweds. Then the royal bed awaited the newlyweds, and the wedding party extended their fun. There was no music then: only surnas were blown, there were tambourines and nakroms. The next day, to the simple accompaniment of timpani and tambourines, the young people were led to the soap shops.

Wedding ceremony took several days. Everyone congratulated and gave gifts, and the king generously rewarded his subjects on these joyful days. For several days they treated the clergy, the king donated money, and sent letters of prayer to remote cities. He himself went with the young queen to pray in. The people around him believed that Vasily 3 loved and respected his wife.

Solomonia Suzdal

And everything would have been fine, but the tragedy was that they had no children. Years passed, but the princess still did not have a child. Documents have been preserved that tell how the queen looked for various healers and healers, whatever she ordered - and all in vain.

Vasily’s situation was complicated by the fact that he did not want to leave his elder brother Yuri, whom he could not stand and had conflicts with him. The relationship with the other brother was not bad, but there was no mutual love between them.

After 20 years, Vasily 3 looked after another betrothed - the young beauty Princess Elena Glinskaya. It was decided to divorce Solomonia.

A ritual was forcibly performed over Solomonia under the name of Sophia and the Nativity Monastery was sent to the Mother of God. She resisted being tonsured, then one of the boyars hit her with a whip because she was resisting the royal wave. Only then did the brave woman, putting on the robe of a nun, answer that God would punish the king.

But a more plausible version, nevertheless, is about the voluntary tonsure and sorrow of Vasily 3. This is described in a public chronicle, which was written not without the participation of the king. A date was chosen for the tonsure, which was celebrated as memorable in the Saburov family. The choice of Sophia’s name is also not accidental - it is the name of Vasily 3’s mother.

She was not in the Moscow monastery for long and was soon sent to the white-stone monastery of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary, which was located in Suzdal. Here Solomonia, known under the name Sophia, languished and died.

Soon a rumor spread that the princess was pregnant and gave birth to a baby in the monastic monastery. The king sent his associates to the monastery. The unfortunate woman tried to hide at the altar, but she was forcibly dragged out of the church and examined. The prince's noble representatives decided that the nun had never been pregnant.

But the woman herself claimed that she had a son, George, who was with reliable people. She said that the king was not worthy to see her child, and when he grew up, he would repay his mother’s humiliation.

The unsolved mystery of the disgraced princess

After much persuasion, the queen admitted that the child was born, but died immediately. The boyars were shown a small grave covered with a stone slab without an inscription. Everyone swore that this was the burial of the princess’s son.

They were afraid to open the burial because the baby died of smallpox, which was fatal disease. With this news, the boyars returned to Moscow, and of course, did not add joy to the childless

The people did not believe in the fairy tale about the voluntary imprisonment of the princess. Popularity Solomonia Saburova she was huge among the people, during her lifetime she was considered a martyr and when she died, she was worshiped as a saint. In 1934, they decided to liquidate the burial place under the Intercession Cathedral.

The turn came to the forgotten, nameless children's grave. Under the slab they found a dugout wooden block coated with lime. In the deck lay a rag doll, dressed in decayed, expensive clothes embroidered with pearls. There is only one explanation: someone, apparently, was obliged to make sure that a non-fictional child was buried.

The famous robber Kudeyar was considered the son of the queen, who was born secretly in a nunnery. Elena Glinskaya did not have children for a long time. A rumor spread throughout Rus' that it was not the Solomonids’ fault that their child was not born.

Only 4 years later, Glinskaya gave birth to Vasily 3 and two heirs: Ivan and Yuri. One of them, Ivan Vasilyevich became the future Tsar Ivan 4 the Terrible. He was neither in character nor in appearance like the king. Three years later, Vasily dies, leaving Ivan on the throne surrounded by boyars who did not like him and hated his mother.

Today tourists, when visiting the famous monastery, are often interested in Solomonia Saburova. "Who is the Grand Duchess?" It turns out that we do not know such a queen, a Russian, holy woman.

Good luck everyone! See you again on the pages.

After the death of Grand Duke Ivan III in 1505, Vasily III took the grand-ducal throne. He was born in 1479 in Moscow and was the second son of Ivan III and Sophia Paleologus, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor. Vasily became heir to the throne after the death of his older brother Ivan in 1490. Ivan III wanted to transfer the throne to his grandson Dmitry Ivanovich, but shortly before his death he abandoned this intention. Vasily III in 1505 he married Solomonia Saburova, who came from an Old Moscow boyar family.

Vasily III (1505-1533) continued his father’s policy of creating a unified Russian state and expanding its borders. During his reign, the last Russian principalities were annexed, which had previously formally retained their independence: in 1510 - the lands of the Pskov Republic, in 1521 - the Ryazan principality, which in fact had long been completely dependent on Moscow.

Vasily III consistently pursued a policy of eliminating appanage principalities. He did not fulfill his promises to provide inheritance to noble immigrants from Lithuania (princes Belsky and Glinsky), and in 1521 he liquidated the Novgorod-Seversky principality - the inheritance of Prince Vasily Ivanovich, the grandson of Shemyaka. Everyone else appanage principalities either disappeared as a result of the death of their rulers (for example, Starodubskoye), or were liquidated in exchange for the provision of high places to the former appanage princes at the court of Vasily III (Vorotynskoye, Belevskoye, Odoevskoye, Masalskoye). As a result, by the end of the reign of Vasily III, only the appanages that belonged to the brothers of the Grand Duke - Yuri (Dmitrov) and Andrei (Staritsa), were preserved, as well as the Kasimov principality, where pretenders to the Kazan throne from the Chingizid dynasty ruled, but with very limited rights of princes (they were it was forbidden to mint their own coins, judicial power was limited, etc.).

The development of the local system continued, the total number of service people - landowners - was already about 30 thousand.

Basil III supported the expansion of the political role of the church. Many temples were built with his personal funds, including the Kremlin Annunciation Cathedral. At the same time, Vasily III completely controlled the church. This is evidenced, in particular, by his appointment of Metropolitans Varlaam (1511) and Daniel (1522) without convocation Local Council, that is, in violation of church law. This happened for the first time in the history of Rus'. And in former times, princes played an important role in the appointment of metropolitans, archbishops and bishops, but at the same time church canons were necessarily observed.

The accession of Varlaam to the metropolitan throne in the summer of 1511 led to the strengthening of the position of non-covetous people among the highest church hierarchs. By the beginning of the 20s, Vasily III lost interest in non-covetous people and lost hope of depriving the church of its land holdings. He believed that much more benefits could be derived from an alliance with the Josephites, who, although they held tightly to church possessions, were ready for any compromise with the Grand Duke. In vain did Vasily III ask Metropolitan Varlaam, a non-covetous man by his convictions, to help him fraudulently lure to Moscow the last Novgorod-Seversk prince Vasily Shemyachich, who, without the metropolitan's safe conduct, resolutely refused to appear in the capital. Varlaam did not make a deal with the Grand Duke and, at the insistence of Vasily III, was forced to leave the metropolitan see. On February 27, 1522, the more accommodating abbot of the Valaam Monastery, Josephite Daniel, was installed in his place, becoming an obedient executor of the will of the Grand Duke. Daniil issued a “metropolitan letter of protection” to Vasily Shemyachich, who, upon entering Moscow in April 1523, was captured and imprisoned, where he ended his days. This whole story caused a storm of indignation in Russian society.

Contemporaries remembered Vasily III as a powerful man, who did not tolerate objections, and who single-handedly made the most important decisions. He dealt harshly with those he disliked. Even at the beginning of his reign, many supporters of Prince Dmitry Ivanovich (grandson of Ivan III) fell into disgrace; in 1525, opponents of the divorce and second marriage of the Grand Duke, among them were the then leader of the non-covetous Vassian (Patrikeev), a prominent church figure, writer and translator Maxim Greek (now canonized), prominent statesman and diplomat P.N. Bersen-Beklemishev (he was brutally executed). In fact, Vasily’s brothers and their appanage yards were in isolation.

At the same time, Vasily III sought to substantiate the allegedly divine origin of the grand ducal power, relying on the authority of Joseph Volotsky, who in his works acted as an ideologist of strong state power and “ancient piety” (canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church), as well as on the ideas of “The Tale of princes of Vladimir”, etc. This was facilitated by the increased authority of the Grand Duke in Western Europe. In the treaty (1514) with the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian III, Vasily III was even named king.

Vasily III pursued an active foreign policy, although it was not always successful. In 1507-1508 he waged a war with the Principality of Lithuania, and Russian troops suffered a number of serious defeats in field battles, and the result was the preservation of the status quo. Vasily III managed to achieve success in Lithuanian affairs thanks to the events that unfolded in the lands subject to Lithuania.

At the court of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Alexander Kazimirovich, the Glinsky princes, who descended from Mamai and owned vast lands in Ukraine (Poltava, Glinsk), enjoyed enormous influence. Sigismund, who replaced Alexander, deprived Mikhail Lvovich Glinsky of all his posts. The latter, together with his brothers Ivan and Vasily, raised a rebellion, which was hardly suppressed. The Glinskys fled to Moscow. Mikhail Glinsky had extensive connections at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian (it was the largest empire of that time, including almost half of Europe). Thanks to the mediation of Glinsky, Vasily III established allied relations with Maximilian, who opposed Poland and Lithuania. The most important success of Vasily III's military operations was the capture of Smolensk after two unsuccessful assaults. The war continued until 1522, when a truce was concluded through the mediation of representatives of the Holy Roman Empire. Although Lithuania did not recognize the loss of Smolensk, the city became part of the Russian state (1514).

The eastern policy of Vasily III was quite complex, where the central factor was the relationship of the Russian state with the Kazan Khanate. Until 1521, under the khans Mohammed Edin and Shah Ali, Kazan was a vassal of Moscow. However, in 1521, the Kazan nobility expelled the protege of Vasily III of Kasimov Khan Shah-Ali and invited the Crimean prince Sahib-Girey to the throne. Relations between Moscow and Kazan have deteriorated sharply. Khanate of Kazan essentially abandoned obedience to the Russian state. Both sides began using military force. Kazan raids resumed, that is, military campaigns on Russian lands, organized by the top of the Kazan Khanate to capture booty and prisoners, as well as an open demonstration of force. In 1521, Kazan military leaders took part in the great Crimean campaign against Moscow; Kazan troops made 5 raids on the eastern regions of the Russian state (Meshchera, Nizhny Novgorod, Totma, Uneka). Kazan raids were also undertaken in 1522 (two) and in 1523. To defend the eastern border, in 1523 the Russian fortress Vasilsursk was built on the Volga at the mouth of the Sura. However, Moscow did not abandon its attempts to restore its control over the Kazan Khanate and return the obedient Shah Ali Khan to the Kazan throne. For this purpose, a number of campaigns were made against Kazan (in 1524, 1530 and 1532), however, they were not successful. True, in 1532 Moscow still managed to place Khan Jan-Ali (Yenaley), Shah-Ali’s brother, on the Kazan throne, but in 1536, as a result of another palace conspiracy, he was killed, and Safa-Girey became the new ruler of the Kazan Khanate - representative of the Crimean dynasty, hostile to the Russian state.

Relations with the Crimean Khanate also worsened. Moscow's ally, Khan Mengli-Girey, died in 1515, but even during his lifetime, his sons actually got out of the control of their father and independently carried out raids on Russian lands. In 1521, Khan Magmet-Girey inflicted a serious defeat on the Russian army, besieged Moscow (Vasily III was even forced to flee the city), later Ryazan was besieged, and only the skillful actions of the Ryazan governor Khabar Simsky (who successfully used artillery) forced the khan to go back to Crimea. Since that time, relations with Crimea have become one of the most pressing problems of Russian foreign policy for centuries.

The reign of Vasily III was almost marked by a dynastic crisis. Vasily’s marriage to Solomonia Saburova was childless for more than 20 years. The dynasty of Moscow princes could be interrupted, especially since Vasily III forbade his brothers Yuri and Andrei to marry. In 1526, he forcibly tonsured Solomonia into a monastery and the next year married Princess Elena Vasilyevna Glinskaya, who was half her husband’s age. In 1530, the fifty-year-old Grand Duke gave birth to a son, Ivan, the future Tsar Ivan IV.

Although his son, Ivan the Terrible, is remembered more often, it was Vasily III who largely determined both the vectors of state policy and the psychology of the Russian government, which was ready to do anything to preserve itself.

Spare king

Vasily III came to the throne thanks to the successful struggle for power carried out by his mother, Sophia Paleologus. Vasily's father, Ivan III, declared his eldest son from his first marriage, Ivan the Young, as his co-ruler. In 1490, Ivan the Young suddenly died of illness and two parties began to fight for power: one supported Ivan the Young’s son Dmitry Ivanovich, the other supported Vasily Ivanovich. Sofia and Vasily overdid it. Their plot against Dmitry Ivanovich was discovered and they even fell into disgrace, but this did not stop Sofia. She continued to influence the authorities. There were rumors that she even cast a spell against Ivan III. Thanks to the rumors spread by Sofia, Dmitry Ivanovich's closest associates fell out of favor with Ivan III. Dmitry began to lose power and also fell into disgrace, and after the death of his grandfather he was shackled and died 4 years later. So Vasily III, the son of a Greek princess, became the Russian Tsar.

Solomonia

Vasily III chose his first wife as a result of a review (1500 brides) during his father’s lifetime. She became Solomonia Saburova, the daughter of a scribe-boyar. For the first time in Russian history the ruling monarch took as his wife not a representative of the princely aristocracy or a foreign princess, but a woman from the highest stratum of “service people.” The marriage was fruitless for 20 years and Vasily III took extreme, unprecedented measures: he was the first of the Russian tsars to exile his wife to a monastery. Regarding children and inheritance of power from Vasily, who was accustomed to fight for power by everyone possible ways, there was a “fad”. So, fearing that the possible sons of the brothers would become contenders for the throne, Vasily forbade his brothers to marry until he had a son. The son was never born. Who is to blame? Wife. Wife - to the monastery. We must understand that this was a very controversial decision. Those who opposed the dissolution of the marriage, Vassian Patrikeev, Metropolitan Varlaam and the Monk Maxim the Greek, were exiled, and the Metropolitan was defrocked for the first time in Russian history.

Kudeyar

There is a legend that during her tonsure, Solomonia was pregnant, gave birth to a son, George, whom she handed over “to safe hands,” and announced to everyone that the newborn had died. Afterwards this child became the famous robber Kudeyar, who with his gang robbed rich carts. Ivan the Terrible was very interested in this legend. The hypothetical Kudeyar was his older half-brother, which means he could lay claim to power. This story is most likely a folk fiction. The desire to “ennoble the robber”, as well as to allow oneself to believe in the illegitimacy of power (and therefore the possibility of its overthrow) is characteristic of the Russian tradition. With us, no matter what the chieftain, he is the legitimate king. Regarding Kudeyar, a semi-mythical character, there are so many versions of his origin that there would be enough for half a dozen atamans.

Lithuanian

For his second marriage, Vasily III married a Lithuanian, young Elena Glinskaya. “Just like his father,” he married a foreigner. Only four years later, Elena gave birth to her first child, Ivan Vasilyevich. According to legend, at the hour of the baby's birth, a terrible thunderstorm allegedly broke out. Thunder struck from the clear sky and shook the earth to its foundations. The Kazan Khansha, having learned about the birth of the tsar, announced to the Moscow messengers: “A tsar was born to you, and he has two teeth: with one he can eat us (Tatars), and with the other you.” This legend stands among many written about the birth of Ivan IV. There were rumors that Ivan was an illegitimate son, but this is unlikely: an examination of the remains of Elena Glinskaya showed that she had red hair. As you know, Ivan was also red-haired. Elena Glinskaya was similar to the mother of Vasily III, Sofia Paleologus, and she handled power no less confidently and passionately. After the death of her husband in December 1533, she became the ruler of the Grand Duchy of Moscow (for this she removed the regents appointed by her husband). Thus, she became the first after Grand Duchess Olga (if you don’t count Sofia Vitovtovna, whose power in many Russian lands outside the Moscow principality was formal) was the ruler of the Russian state.

Italian mania

Vasily III inherited from his father not only a love for strong-willed overseas women, but also a love for everything Italian. Italian architects hired by Vasily the Third built churches and monasteries, kremlins and bell towers in Russia. Vasily Ivanovich’s security also consisted entirely of foreigners, including Italians. They lived in Nalivka, a “German” settlement in the area of modern Yakimanka.

Barberbearer

Vasily III was the first Russian monarch to get rid of chin hair. According to legend, he trimmed his beard to look younger in the eyes of Elena Glinskaya. He did not last long in a beardless state, but it almost cost Rus' independence. While the Grand Duke was flaunting his clean-shaven youth, the Crimean Khan Islyam I Giray, complete with armed, sparsely bearded fellow countrymen, came to visit. The matter threatened to turn into a new Tatar yoke. But God saved. Immediately after the victory, Vasily grew his beard again. So as not to wake up the dashing.

The fight against non-covetous people

The reign of Basil III was marked by the struggle of the “non-possessors” with the “Josephites.” For a very short time, Vasily III was close to the “non-covetous”, but in 1522, instead of Varlaam, who had fallen into disgrace, the disciple of Joseph of Volotsk and the head of the Josephites, Daniel, was appointed to the metropolitan throne, who became an ardent supporter of strengthening the grand-ducal power. Vasily III sought to substantiate the divine origin of the grand ducal power, relying on the authority of Joseph Volotsky, who in his works acted as an ideologist of strong state power and “ancient piety.” This was facilitated by the increased authority of the Grand Duke in Western Europe. In the treaty (1514) with the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian III, Vasily III was even named king. Vasily III was cruel to his opponents: in 1525 and 1531. Maxim the Greek was twice condemned and imprisoned in a monastery.

Reign of Vasily III (briefly)

On March 25, 1479, Vasily the Third, the future ruler, was born. Vasily was born into the family of Ivan the Third and was his second son. For this reason, in 1470, the prince announced Ivan the Young (eldest son) as his co-ruler, intending to transfer complete rule to him in the future. However, unfortunately, Ivan died in 1490, and already in 1502, Vasily the Third Ivanovich, who at that time was already the Pskov and Great Novgorod prince, was declared co-ruler and future full-fledged heir of Ivan the Third.

In his policy, Vasily the Third fully adhered to the course that was chosen by his father. Its main goals were:

· centralization and strengthening of power;

· defending the interests of the Orthodox Church.

During the reign of Vasily the Third, the Starodub and Novgorod-Seversky principalities, as well as the lands of Ryazan, Smolensk and Pskov, were annexed to the Moscow principality.

Trying to protect Russian borders from active regular Tatar raids from the Crimean and Kazan kingdoms, Vasily the Third introduced the practice of introducing Tatar princes into the service, giving them considerable territories for this. The policy of this ruler in relation to distant states was quite friendly. Vasily even discussed with the Pope about the possibility of a union against Turkey, which was disadvantageous for both, and also tried to develop trade contacts with Austria, Italy and France.

In domestic policy Vasily the Third concentrated his efforts on strengthening the autocracy, which soon led to the “curtailment” of the privileges of the boyars and princes. For example, they were removed from solving important state issues, which from now on were taken exclusively by Vasily the Third and his circle of close advisers. At the same time, representatives of the boyar class were able to retain important places in the prince’s army.

Historians indicate that the prince was married twice. The first time was with Solomonia Saburova, who herself was from a noble boyar family, but turned out to be childless. And the second time he married Elena Glinskaya, who bore him two sons, the youngest of whom, Yuri, suffered from dementia.

On December 3, 1533, Moscow Prince Vasily the Third died from a blood poisoning disease, after which he was buried in the Moscow Kremlin (Archangel Cathedral). In subsequent years, the boyars Belsky and Glinsky acted as regents for the young Ivan.

The ultimate success of the unification of Russian lands in a single state was the achievement of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III Ivanovich a (1505-1533). It is no coincidence that the Austrian diplomat Sigismund Herberstein, who visited Russia twice in the first third of the 16th century and left the famous “Notes on Muscovy,” wrote that Vasily III was superior in power to “almost all the monarchs of the whole world.” However, the sovereign was unlucky - the bizarre historical memory, having given due credit to his father and no less rightly cementing the cruel image of his son Ivan the Terrible, did not leave enough free space for Vasily III himself. As if “hovering” between two sovereign Ivans, Vasily III always remained in their shadow. Neither his personality, nor his methods of government, nor the forms of succession in power between Ivan III and Ivan the Terrible have yet been studied sufficiently fully.

Childhood, youth

Vasily III was born on March 25, 1479 and was named in honor of the confessor Vasily of Paria, inheriting one of the traditional names for the Moscow princely family of the Danilovichs. He became the first son from the second marriage of Ivan III with Sophia Paleologus, who came from the Morean line of the dynasty that ruled in Byzantium until 1453. Before Vasily, only girls were born to the grand ducal couple. In later chronicles, a wonderful legend was even recorded about how Sophia, who suffered from the absence of her son, received a sign from the very St. Sergius about the birth of the future heir to the throne. However, the long-awaited firstborn was not the main contender for the throne. From his first marriage, Ivan III had an eldest son, Ivan the Young, who was declared co-ruler of Ivan III at least eight years before the birth of Vasily. But in March 1490, Ivan the Young died, and Vasily had a chance. Researchers traditionally talk about the struggle between two court factions, which especially intensified in the second half of the 1490s. One of them relied on the son of Ivan the Young - Dmitry Vnuk, the other promoted Vasily. The balance of power and passion of this struggle is unknown to us, but we know its outcome. Ivan III, who initially declared Dmitry Vnuk as heir and even for some time imprisoned Vasily “for bailiffs in his own court,” changed his anger to mercy in March 1499: Vasily was proclaimed “Sovereign Grand Duke.”

Reign (1505-1533)

Vasily's co-government lasted more than six years. On October 27, 1505, Ivan III passed away, and Vasily became an independent sovereign.

Domestic policy

Fight against destinies

Most of the possessions of the deceased Grand Duke passed to Vasily: 66 cities against 30 that went to the other four sons, and Moscow, which had always been split up between sons, now passed entirely to the eldest heir. The new principles of transfer of power established by Ivan III reflected one of the main trends political life country - the desire for autocracy: the appanage system was not only the main source of strife, but also a serious obstacle to the economic and political unity of the country. Vasily III continued the centralizing policy of his father. Around 1506, the Grand Duke's governor established himself in Perm the Great. In 1510, the formal independence of the Pskov land was abolished. The reason for this was a major clash between the Pskovites and the Grand Duke's governor, Prince Repnin-Obolensky. The Pskov residents’ complaint against the governor’s arbitrariness was not satisfied, but a stunning demand followed: “Otherwise you wouldn’t have had a veche, and naturally they would have removed the veche bell.” Pskov no longer had the strength to reject it. By order of Vasily III, many were evicted from Pskov boyar families and "guests". In 1521, the Ryazan Principality, which followed Moscow policy for more than half a century, also joined the Grand Duchy of Moscow. The Pskov land and the Ryazan principality were strategically important outskirts in the northwest and southeast, respectively. A sharp strengthening of Moscow’s position here would extremely complicate its relations with its neighbors. Vasily III believed that the existence of buffer vassal lands located on strategically important outskirts was more expedient than their direct inclusion in the state while the state did not have sufficient forces to reliably secure new territories. The fight against destinies Grand Duke drove using various methods. Sometimes the appanages were destroyed purposefully (for example, the abolition of the Novgorod-Seversky appanage in 1522, where the grandson of Dmitry Shemyaka, Prince Vasily Ivanovich, ruled), usually Vasily simply forbade his brothers to marry and, therefore, have legitimate heirs. After the death of Vasily III himself in 1533, the inheritance of his second son Yuri, as well as his brother Andrei Staritsky, remained. There also remained several minor fiefs of the Verkhovsky princes, located in the upper reaches of the Oka. But the specific system was essentially overcome.

Local system

Under Vasily III, the local system was strengthened - a mechanism that made it possible to solve two pressing problems facing the state: at that time, the needs of ensuring a combat-ready army were closely intertwined with the need to limit the political and economic independence of the large aristocracy. The essence of the mechanism of local land ownership was the distribution of lands to the “landowners”-nobles for temporary conditional possession for the period of the “princes’ service.” The “landowner” had to perform his service regularly, could lose his land for violating his duties, and had no right to dispose of the lands given to him, which remained the supreme property of the grand dukes. At the same time, social guarantees were introduced: if a “landowner”-noble died in service, the state took care of his family.

Localism

The principle of localism - a system of hierarchy, according to which senior positions in the army or in the civil service they could be engaged exclusively in accordance with the birth of the prince or boyar. Although this principle prevented access to the administration of talented managers, it largely made it possible to avoid struggle at the top of the country's political elite, which was rapidly flooded with heterogeneous immigrants from different Russian lands during the formation of a unified Russian state.

" " and "non-possessors"

In the era of Vasily III, the problem of monastic property, primarily the ownership of land, was actively discussed. Numerous donations to the monasteries led to the fact that by the end of the 15th century, a significant part of the monasteries became wealthy landowners. One solution to the problem was proposed: to use funds to help the suffering, and to make stricter regulations in the monasteries themselves. Another decision came from the Monk Nilus of Sorsky: the monasteries should completely abandon their property, and the monks should live “by their handicrafts.” The grand ducal government, interested in the land fund necessary for distribution to estates, also advocated limiting monastic property. At a church council in 1503, Ivan III attempted to carry out secularization, but was refused. However, time passed, and the position of the authorities changed. The “Josephite” environment put a lot of effort into developing the concept of a strong state, and Vasily III turned away from the “non-acquisitive”. The final victory of the “Josephites” took place at the council of 1531.

New political theories

Successes in state building, the strengthening of Moscow's self-awareness, and political and ideological necessity gave impetus to the emergence in the era of Vasily III of new political theories designed to explain and justify the special political rights of the Grand Dukes of Moscow. The most famous are “The Tale of the Princes of Vladimir” and the messages of Elder Philotheus to Vasily III about the Third Rome.

Foreign policy

Russo-Lithuanian wars (1507-1508; 1512-22)

During the Russian-Lithuanian wars, Vasily III managed to conquer Smolensk in 1514, one of the largest centers of the Russian-speaking lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Smolensk campaigns were led personally by Vasily III, and in the official chronicle the triumph of Russian weapons will be expressed by the phrase about the liberation of Smolensk from “evil Latin charms and violence.” The crushing defeat of Russian troops in the Battle of Orsha in the fall of 1514 that followed the liberation of Smolensk stopped Moscow’s advance to the West. However, during the military campaigns of 1517 and 1518, Russian commanders managed to defeat the Lithuanian forces near Opochka and Krevo.

Relations with Orthodox peoples

The reign of Vasily III was marked by the deepening of Russia's contacts with Orthodox peoples and lands conquered by the Ottoman Empire, including Mount Athos. The severity gradually softens church schism between the Metropolis of All Rus' and the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which began in the middle of the 15th century after the election of the Russian Metropolitan Jonah without the sanction of Constantinople. A clear confirmation of this is the message of Patriarch Theoliptus I to Metropolitan Varlaam, compiled in July 1516, in which the patriarch, long before the official adoption of the royal title by the Russian sovereigns, awarded Vasily III with royal dignity - “the highest and shortest king and the great king of all Orthodox lands, Great Rus' "

Russian-Crimean relations

Russian-Crimean relations were not easy. They reached their peak when, in July 1521, Khan Muhammad-Girey made a devastating campaign against Rus' with the goal of “putting an end to the outrageous rebellions of idolaters fierce against Islam.” The southern and central volosts of the Moscow principality (the advanced forces of the Krymchaks reached the outskirts of Moscow) suffered enormous damage. Muhammad-Girey captured huge full. Since then, the defense of the Coast - the southern border, which ran along the Oka River - has become the most important task of ensuring the security of the state.

Relations with the West

Attempts that began during the time of Ivan III to achieve an alliance with the Grand Duchy of Moscow against Ottoman Empire continued under Vasily III. The sovereigns invariably emphasized hatred of the infidel “terror” and “enemies of Christ,” but did not enter into an agreement. They equally refused to become subordinate to the “Latins” and did not want to spoil the still quite friendly relations with the Ottoman Empire.

Personal life

In 1505, Vasily III married Solomonia Saburova. For the first time, a representative of a boyar, and not a princely family, became the wife of the Grand Duke of Moscow. The couple, who had been married for twenty years, had no children, and Vasily III, who needed an heir, decided to marry a second time. Solomonia was sent to a monastery, and Elena Glinskaya, who came from a family of Lithuanian boyars who went to serve in Moscow, became the new wife of the sovereign. From this marriage the future Tsar of All Rus' Ivan the Terrible was born.

On December 3, 1533, Vasily III died due to a progressive illness that appeared during a hunt. Before his death, he accepted monasticism with the name Varlaam. Soon after the death of the Grand Duke, the most interesting “Tale of the Illness and Death of Vasily III” was created - a chronicle last weeks life of the sovereign.