Then he set to work on the principalities that remained outside of Moscow. In 1483, the prince of the Tver principality Mikhail Borisovich strengthened his alliance with Lithuania by marrying a relative of Casimir 4th. Having received news of what had happened, Ivan the 3rd went to war in the Tver lands. Mikhail was defeated and had no choice but to submit to Ivan.
Pretending that he had resigned himself, Mikhail secretly made attempts to contact Lithuania, wanting to disconnect from Moscow. Ivan again went to Tver, and in 1485 the Tver principality finally surrendered. Residents and boyars gladly sided with Moscow, and Mikhail fled to Lithuania.
As in Novgorod, Ivan settled Moscow nobles and boyars in the Tver lands, creating a strong support for himself, and at the same time exiled the Tver feudal lords to various regions of the Moscow state. In the same year, Ivan annexed the last inheritance - Vereisky.
In 1489, the second feudal republic of Vyatka was added to the territory of the Moscow lands. From a legal point of view, Pskov and Ryazan remained independent from Moscow. But Ivan’s governor was in Pskov, with his help the Pskovskaya was implemented, and Ivan felt like a complete master there.
In Ryazan, Ivan was actually considered the ruler, since the last Ryazan princes were his own nephews. One of them died, he had no children, and half of Ryazan went to Moscow. The other half retained its independence until 1521.
The annexation of the lands of Veliky Novgorod became the most important task facing Ivan III.
The Novgorod boyars, being under constant pressure from two powerful powers - Moscow and Lithuania, competing with each other, understood that the independence of Novgorod could only be preserved by concluding an alliance with one of them. The boyars were inclined towards an alliance with Lithuania, while the Moscow party consisted mainly of ordinary Novgorodians, who saw in the Moscow prince the entire Orthodox sovereign.
The reason for the campaign in 1471 was rumors that part of the Novgorod boyars, led by the mayor’s widow Marfa Boretskaya (Marfa Posadnitsa), had entered into an agreement of vassalage with Lithuania. In addition, Novgorod sought to create a church independent from Moscow.
The war with Novgorod was proclaimed as a campaign for the Orthodox faith, against apostates. The Moscow army was led by Prince Daniil Kholmsky. The Polish-Lithuanian king Casimir IV did not dare to open war with Moscow.
Removal of the veche bell - Miniature of the Front Chronicle. XVI century
In the battle on the river. Sheloni On July 14, 1471, the Novgorod militia was defeated, and the mayor Dmitry Boretsky was executed.
The Novgorodians refused an alliance with the Polish-Lithuanian king Casimir IV and paid the Muscovites 15.5 thousand rubles for military expenses. (the price of peasant households at that time was 2-3 rubles). From that time on, Novgorod recognized itself as the fatherland of Ivan III, who was given the right to judge the Novgorodians. However, the unrest in Novgorod continued.
In 1475, Ivan III made a long trip with his squad around the Novgorod land. On November 23, 1475, Ivan III entered Novgorod, accompanied by a large retinue, and acted as a fair judge defending the offended. As a result, many boyars were arrested, and some of them were sent to Moscow.
In 1477, Novgorod ambassadors recognized Ivan III as their sovereign, which meant the unconditional submission of Novgorod to the power of Moscow. After this, the Grand Duke demanded direct control of Novgorod and the elimination of its independence.
A split occurred in Novgorod: the townspeople spoke out in favor of joining Moscow, the boyars defended the inviolability of their estates and rights. At the meeting, some of Moscow's supporters were killed, and the Novgorod ambassadors refused to call Ivan III "sovereign".
As a result, a new campaign against Novgorod was undertaken. On January 15, 1478, the Novgorod authorities surrendered, and the Novgorodians swore allegiance to Ivan III.
Claudius Lebedev - Marfa Posadnitsa. Destruction of the Novgorod Veche.
The veche was cancelled, the symbol of Novgorod independence - the veche bell, as well as Marfa Boretskaya - were sent to Moscow. Ivan III confiscated the bishop's estates and 6 large monasteries.
In 1484-1499, the confiscation of boyar lands was carried out. Supporters of independence were executed, several thousand Novgorod families were transferred to other regions of the country. Instead of mayors and thousanders, Moscow governors began to govern the city. With the annexation of Novgorod, the territory of Muscovy doubled.
History in faces
In the Novgorod monastery on the suburban tract of Klopsk in the 40s of the 15th century, blessed Michael, known in our calendar under the name of Klopsky, asceticised. In 1440, the local Archbishop Euthymius visited him. The blessed one said to the bishop: “And today there is great joy in Moscow.” - “What, father, is this joy?” - “The Grand Duke of Moscow gave birth to a son, who was given the name Ivan; he will destroy the customs of the Novgorod land and bring destruction to our City.”
Shortly before the fall of Novgorod, the founder of the Solovetsky Monastery, Ven. Zosima petitioned the authorities about the needs of his monastery. He also went to the boyar Marfa Boretskaya, the widow of the mayor, who enjoyed great influence in Novgorod society; but she did not accept the elder and ordered the slaves to drive him away. Leaving the courtyard of the arrogant noblewoman, Zosima shook his head and said to his companions: “The days will come when those living in this courtyard will not step on it with their feet, when its gates will be closed and will no longer open and this courtyard will be desolate,” which is what happened, the biography writer adds. Rev. Zosima.
Martha later changed her mind when she learned how cordially the Novgorod boyars received the hermit offended by her. She earnestly asked Zosima to come to her and bless her. Zosima agreed. Martha arranged a dinner for him with noble guests, the first Novgorod dignitaries, the leaders of the Lithuanian party, the soul of which was Martha. In the middle of dinner, Zosima looked at the guests and suddenly, in amazement, silently lowered his eyes to the ground. Looking another time, he did the same again; looked a third time - and again, bending down, shook his head and shed tears. From that moment on, he did not touch the food, despite the hostess’s requests.
Upon leaving the house, Zosima's student asked him what his behavior at the table meant. Zosima answered: “I looked at the boyars and saw that some of them were sitting without heads.” These were the Novgorod boyars whom Ivan III, in 1471, after the Battle of Shelon, ordered to beheaded as his main opponents.
Having decided to surrender to the Lithuanian king, the Novgorodians begged his assistant, Prince Mikhail Olelkovich, to become his viceroy. The fight with Moscow was being prepared. Posadnik Nemir, who belonged to the Lithuanian party, came to the Klop Monastery to visit the mentioned blessed Michael. Mikhail asked the mayor where he was from. “Father, he was with his great-mother-in-law (mother-in-law).” - “What are you thinking, son, what are you always thinking about with women?” “I hear,” the mayor said, “the Prince of Moscow is going to attack us in the summer, and we have our own Prince Mikhail.” “Then, son, he’s not a prince, but dirt,” the blessed one objected, “send ambassadors to Moscow as soon as possible, finish off the Moscow prince for his guilt, otherwise he will come to Novgorod with all his forces, you will go out against him, and you will not receive God’s help, and he will kill many of you, and even more will bring you to Moscow, and Prince Mikhail will leave you for Lithuania and will not help you in anything.” Everything happened as the blessed one predicted.
The world at this time
In Spain with new strength The Inquisition is revived. Torquemada becomes Grand Inquisitor.
The systematic persecution of “suspicious Christians” begins. The soul of the new Inquisition becomes the confessor of Queen Isabella of Castile, the Dominican monk Torquemada.
Thomas Torquemada, founder of the Spanish Inquisition
In 1478, the “Catholic kings” Philip and Isabella received a special bull from Pope Sixtus IV, which authorized the establishment of a new Inquisition.
in 1480, the first tribunal was established in Seville. By the end of the next year, it had already sentenced 298 heretics to execution.
The result of this was general panic and a whole series of complaints against the actions of the tribunal addressed to the pope, mainly from the bishops. In response to these complaints, Sixtus IV in 1483 ordered the inquisitors to adhere to the same severity in relation to heretics, and assigned the Archbishop of Seville, Inigo Manriquez, to consider appeals against the actions of the Inquisition. A few months later, he appointed the great gene. Inquisitor of Castile and Aragon Torquemado, who completed the work of transforming the Spanish Inquisition
As a result of the activities of the Spanish Inquisition under Torquemada, between 1481 and 1498, about 8,800 people were burned at the stake; 90,000 people were subjected to confiscation of property and ecclesiastical punishments; 6,500 people were able to escape from execution by flight or die without waiting for the verdict by their own death.
All over Europe, banks belonging to Duke Lorenzo de' Medici the Magnificent are being bankrupted and closed.
1477 - the branch in London declares bankruptcy, 1478 - in Bruges and Milan, and in 1479 - in Avignon.
The main task facing the Moscow government in the 70s of the 15th century was the final liquidation of the independence of the Novgorod Republic. The Novgorod boyars, led by the widow of the mayor Marfa Boretskaya, carried out a campaign hostile to Moscow political course. In November 1471, they invited the Lithuanian prince Mikhail Olelkovich, grandson of Olgerd, to Novgorod to reign. In the spring of the following year, the Novgorod boyar government concluded an agreement on assistance with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Casimir IV.
In such a political situation in Moscow, a plan for a military campaign against Novgorod was developed. Several principalities sent their squads to participate in the campaign. The help that the Novgorod boyars were counting on was not provided to them. Lithuanian Prince Casimir IV feared uprisings in the Russian territories he had captured. The Russian population in Lithuania supported the policies of the Moscow prince and hoped for his help in the fight against the Lithuanian invaders. The Lithuanian governor also left the city. The army that the Novgorod boyars hastily assembled had weak combat capability and did not want to fight the Moscow army for the boyars' interests. In the battle on the Sheloni River, the Novgorod army was defeated.
In the town of Korostyny, an agreement was concluded according to which Novgorod Republic lost all right to lead independently foreign policy. The Novgorod boyars pledged to be “persistent” from the Moscow principality and to end separate relations with Lithuania. However, Novgorod was not yet included in a single centralized state, because political power the boyars were still quite strong. In order to undermine the political significance of his potential opponents, Ivan III used the hostility of the Novgorod settlement to the local boyars in the direction he desired.
In 1475, Ivan III made a trip to Novgorod. During his stay there, he examined complaints from peasants and artisans against the boyars. After the analysis, he condemned the most prominent representatives of the Novgorod boyars who were associated with Lithuania. He sent them into exile in Moscow and other cities. These repressions, which the Moscow prince brought down on the Novgorod boyars, temporarily won him the support of the “black people.” In addition, the boyar opposition was bled dry.
A new campaign of the Moscow army against Novgorod was organized in 1477. The Novgorod government was forced to ask Ivan III for peace. The Moscow prince agreed to peace on the condition that orders were introduced in the Novgorod land that already existed in all other regions of the Russian centralized state. A year later, this condition was officially ratified by the Novgorod government. The veche bell - a symbol of independent Novgorod - was removed and sent to Moscow. The bulk of the Novgorod lands came into the possession of Moscow.
The lands of Karelia became part of the Russian state at the same time as Novgorod. A significant part of the Karelian lands was under the rule of the Novgorod boyars. Agriculture, fishing and hunting were widely developed here. Among the crafts, blacksmithing, shipbuilding and weaving were especially prominent. Salt was boiled down on the White Sea coast. There were cities in Karelia, of which the largest were Korela and Orekhov.
Life has long been Karelian people was closely intertwined with the fate of the Russian people. Both peoples lived on the same territory, there was constant interaction in the field of cultural exchange. For example, Russian epics and the Karelian-Finnish epic “Kalevala” are permeated with common motifs.
The region in the upper reaches of the Vychegda and Kama, inhabited by the Komi people, was of great strategic importance. In 1472, “Great Perm” was included in the Russian state, thereby opening the way to the Trans-Urals. The Ugra land was inhabited by Voguls (Mansi) and Ostyaks (Khanty). In 1483, an expedition led by Fyodor Kurbsky was sent there. The expedition visited Tobol, Irtysh, Ob and led to the dependence of a number of Ugra princes on Moscow. In 1489, Moscow troops took the main city of the Vyatka land - Khlynov. Moscow acquired new territories and, accordingly, income. At the same time, the colonization of “black people” beyond the Urals was underway.
The Tver principality lost its independence following the loss of independence by Novgorod. Boyars and service people, feeling the futility of further resistance to the Moscow prince, began to go into his service. The Tver merchants, interested in expanding trade relations, also did not support their prince. Prince Mikhail Borisovich of Tver, deprived of social support in his principality, entered into an alliance with the Grand Duke of Lithuania Casimir IV to continue his struggle with Moscow. This alliance created a threat to Moscow. It served as the reason for two campaigns of Moscow troops against Tver. The last of them, which took place in 1485, ended with the liquidation of the independence of the Tver principality. Prince Mikhail of Tver fled to Lithuania.
Subordination of appanage principalities. Under Ivan III, the subjugation and annexation of appanage lands actively continued. Those of the small Yaroslavl and Rostov princes who still retained their independence before Ivan III, under Ivan, all transferred their lands to Moscow and beat the Grand Duke so that he would accept them into his service. Becoming Moscow servants and turning into boyars of the Moscow prince, these princes retained their ancestral lands, but not as appanages, but as simple fiefdoms. They were their private property, and the Moscow Grand Duke was already considered the “sovereign” of their lands. Thus, all the small estates were collected by Moscow; only Tver and Ryazan remained. These “great principalities,” which had once fought against Moscow, were now weak and retained only a shadow of their independence. The last Ryazan princes, two brothers - Ivan and Fyodor, were nephews of Ivan III (sons of his sister Anna). Like their mother, they themselves did not leave Ivan’s will, and the Grand Duke, one might say, himself ruled Ryazan for them. One of the brothers (Prince Fyodor) died childless and bequeathed his inheritance to his uncle the Grand Duke, thus voluntarily giving half of Ryazan to Moscow. Another brother (Ivan) also died young, leaving a baby son named Ivan, for whom his grandmother and her brother Ivan III ruled. Ryazan was under the complete control of Moscow. Prince Mikhail Borisovich of Tver also obeyed Ivan III. The Tver nobility even went with the Muscovites to conquer Novgorod. But later, in 1484-1485, relations deteriorated. The Tver prince made friends with Lithuania, thinking of getting help from the Lithuanian Grand Duke against Moscow. Ivan III, having learned about this, started a war with Tver and, of course, won. Mikhail Borisovich fled to Lithuania, and Tver was annexed to Moscow (1485). This is how the final unification of northern Rus' took place.
Platonov S.F. A complete course of lectures on Russian history. SPb., 2000 http://magister.msk.ru/library/history/platonov/plats003.htm#gl15
Mikhail again started relations with Lithuania; but his messenger was intercepted, the letter was delivered to Moscow, from where menacing, reproachful speeches soon came to Tver. Frightened Michael sent the bishop to beat John with his forehead, but he did not accept the petition; Prince Mikhail Kholmskaya arrived with a petition - John did not let this show him and began to gather an army. In August he set out for Tver with his son John, with his brothers Andrei and Boris, with Prince Fyodor Belsky, with the Italian master Aristotle, with cannons, mattresses and arquebuses. On September 8, the Moscow army surrounded Tver, on the 10th the posads were lit, on the 11th, the princes and boyars of Tver, seditious people, as the chronicler puts it, came from Tver to the Grand Duke’s camp and beat him into service; Mikhail Borisovich fled to Lithuania at night, seeing his exhaustion, and Tver swore allegiance to John, who imprisoned his son in it. Some chronicles directly say that John took Tver through boyar treason; in others we find the news that the main seditious person was Prince Mikhail Kholmskoy, whom John later exiled to prison in Vologda because, having kissed the cross to his prince Mikhail, Kholmskoy retreated from him. “It is not good to believe someone who lies to God,” said John on this occasion. Mikhailov’s mother was taken from the grand ducal family to Tver, from whom John inquired where her son’s treasury was; the old princess replied that Mikhail took everything with him to Lithuania, but later the women who served her reported that she wanted to send the treasury to her son, and indeed they found a lot of expensive things, gold and silver, for which the Grand Duke imprisoned her in Pereyaslavl . ABOUT future fate Prince Mikhail, we know that at first he remained in Lithuania for no more than a year and left somewhere: in September 1486, Ambassador Kazimirov told John: “You know well that our ally, Grand Duke Mikhail Borisovich of Tver, came to us and we him He beat him with his forehead so that we would help him; we wanted him to regain his fatherland without bloodshed, which is why we sent an ambassador to you, as you yourself know; They didn’t give us help, they didn’t refuse us bread or salt: he lived with us as long as he wanted, and just as he came to our land voluntarily, so we voluntarily let him go.”
In 1485, Tver, besieged by him, swore allegiance to Ivan III without a fight. […] Such is the change that has occurred in the position of the Moscow principality. Territorial expansion in itself is a purely external, geographical success; but it had a powerful effect on the political position of the Moscow principality and its prince. It was not the number of new spaces that was important. In Moscow they felt that a great long-standing matter was coming to an end, deeply concerning the internal structure of zemstvo life. […] If you imagine the new borders of the Moscow Principality created by the listed territorial acquisitions, you will see that this principality has absorbed an entire nation. We know how in specific centuries, through colonization in Central and Northern Rus', a new tribe was formed within the Russian population, a new nationality was formed - the Great Russians. But until the half of the 15th century. this nation remained only an ethnographic fact, without political significance: it was divided into several independent and diversely structured political parts; National unity was not expressed in state unity. Now this entire nation is united under one state power, all covered by one political form. This imparts a new character to the Moscow Principality. Until now it was one of several great principalities of Northern Rus'; now it remains the only one here and therefore becomes national: its borders coincide with the borders of the Great Russian nation. The former popular sympathies that drew Great Rus' to Moscow now turned into political ties. This is the basic fact from which the rest of the phenomena that fill our history in the 15th and 16th centuries came from. This fact can be expressed this way: the completion of the territorial gathering of north-eastern Rus' by Moscow turned the Moscow principality into a national Great Russian state and thus conveyed to the Grand Duke of Moscow the significance of a national Great Russian sovereign. If you recall the main phenomena of our history in the 15th and 16th centuries, you will see that the external and internal position of the Moscow state at that time is made up of the consequences of this basic fact.
Klyuchevsky V.O. Russian history. Full course of lectures. M., 2004. http://magister.msk.ru/library/history/kluchev/kllec25.htm
Surrounded on all sides by Moscow possessions, Tver still raised its independent head, like a small island in the sea, constantly threatened with drowning. Prince Mikhail Borisovich, Ioannov’s brother-in-law, knew the danger and did not believe either the property or the treaty letters with which this Sovereign confirmed his independence: he had to humbly leave the throne at the first word or protect himself with a foreign alliance. Lithuania alone could serve as a support for him, albeit a very weak one, as the lot of Novagorod testified; but Kazimirov’s personal hatred of the Grand Duke, the example of the former Tver Rulers, from time immemorial friends of Lithuania, and the gullibility of hope instilled by fear in the faint-hearted, turned Mikhail to the King: being a widower, he decided to marry his grandson and entered into a close relationship with him. Until then, John, having had the Tver army at his disposal in necessary cases, left his brother-in-law alone: having learned about this secret alliance and, probably delighted by the just cause for the break, he immediately declared war on Mikhail (in 1485). This Prince, trembling, hurried to appease John with sacrifices: he renounced the name of his equal brother, recognized himself as younger, ceded some lands to Moscow, and pledged to go to war with him everywhere. The Tver Bishop was a mediator, and the Grand Duke, wanting to usually appear moderate and long-suffering, delayed the death of this Power. In the peace treaty document, then written, it is said that Mikhail breaks off the alliance with the King and, without the knowledge of Ioannov, should not have any relations with him, neither with the sons of Shemyaka, Prince of Mozhaisk, Borovsky, nor with other Russian fugitives; that he swears for himself and for his children not to succumb to Lithuania forever; that the Grand Duke promises not to invade Tver, and so on. But this agreement was the last act of Tver independence: John in his mind decided its fate, as before Novgorod’s; began to press the land and the subjects of Mikhailov: if they annoyed the Muscovites in any way, then he threatened and demanded their execution; and if the Muscovites took away their property and inflicted the most intolerable insults on them, then there was no court or justice. Mikhail wrote and complained: they didn’t listen to him. The Tverites, seeing that they no longer had a defender in their Sovereign, looked for him in Moscow: Princes Mikulinsky and Dorogobuzhsky entered the service of the Grand Duke, who gave the first Dmitrov estate, and the second Yaroslavl. Following them came many Tver Boyars. What was left for Mikhail? Prepare refuge for yourself in Lithuania. He sent a faithful man there: they detained him and presented John with Michael’s letter to the King, sufficient evidence of treason and perfidy: for the Prince of Tver promised not to communicate with Lithuania, and in this letter he also incited Casimir against John. The unfortunate Mikhail sent the Bishop and Prince of Kholmsky to Moscow with an apology: they were not received. John ordered the Governor of Novgorod, Boyar Yakov Zakharyevich, to go with all his might to Tver, and he himself, accompanied by his son and brothers, set out from Moscow on August 21 with a large army and with a firearm (entrusted to the skillful Aristotle); On September 8, he besieged Mikhail's capital and set fire to the suburbs. Two days later, all his secret well-wishers of Tver, Princes and Boyars came to him, leaving their Sovereign in misfortune. Michael saw the need to either flee or surrender into the hands of John; I decided on the former and left for Lithuania at night. Then the Bishop, Prince Mikhail Kholmsky with other Princes, Boyars and Zemstvo people, remaining faithful to their rightful Ruler to the end, opened the city to John, went out and bowed to him as the general Monarch of Russia. The Grand Duke sent his Boyars and Deacons to take an oath from the inhabitants; forbade soldiers to rob; On September 15, he entered Tver, listened to the Liturgy in the Church of the Transfiguration and solemnly announced that he was granting this Principality to his son, John Ioannovich; left him there and returned to Moscow. After some time, he sent his Boyars to Tver, to Staritsa, Zubtsov, Opoki, Klin, Kholm, Novogorodok to describe all the lands there and divide them into plows for payment of government taxes. So easily the existence of the famous Tver Power disappeared, which from the time of St. Michael Yaroslavich was called the Great Reign and argued for a long time with Moscow about primacy.
After the end of the Livonian War, that is, in the words of the Russian general “along with concerns about restoring the charm of the Russian name in the far west of its possessions”, Moscow Grand Duke Ivan III continued to gather Russian lands into a single centralized state.
Let's compare the maps presented according to Figures 1 and 2. Any reader can easily find them on the Internet if desired. The maps clearly show how, over the centuries, step by step, an all-Russian state was created with its center in Moscow and the territories annexed to the Grand Duchy of Moscow under Ivan III are clearly shown (Figure 2). The work done under Ivan III to unify the Russian lands is impressive.
After liberation from the yoke of the Horde, in order to achieve the great goal of uniting Rus', however, as before the victory over it, Grand Duke Ivan III used a variety of methods to annex various state entities that time on Russian soil.
For example, the Vologda land was annexed as follows. Andrei Vasilyevich Menshoi (1452 - 1481), appanage prince of Vologda and the youngest of the seven sons of Vasily II the Dark, died at the age of twenty-nine. He never clashed with his older brother Ivan III, whom his victory at the crossings of the Ugra River made him Great. During strife in the grand ducal family in 1480, Prince Andrei Menshoi sided with the grand duke, was childless, and before his death bequeathed his inheritance to his elder brother.
Figure 1 – Growth of the territory of the Grand Duchy of Moscow
in 1300 – 1462
There were other appanage princes who, for a variety of reasons, bequeathed to transfer their lands to the Moscow Grand Duke after their death.
After the annexation of the Novgorod land, the issue of annexing the lands of the Tver Principality became acute on the agenda. The solution to this issue was a necessary condition for further continuation of the development of statehood of Rus'.
Figure 2 – Growth of the territory of the Grand Duchy of Moscow
in 1462–1533 (under Ivan III and his son Vasily III)
Even a cursory analysis of the maps (Figures 1 and 2) gives a clear idea that immediately after standing on the Ugra, things became extremely difficult for the Moscow Principality. topical issue specifically about the annexation and integration of the Tver land, which turned out to be practically surrounded by Moscow lands. Previously, the Horde could intervene in resolving the Tver issue, but now any threat of Horde intervention in Russian affairs was unrealistic. But the threat of Lithuanian intervention remained real.
Therefore, after 1480, Ivan III actively began to look for the possibility of annexing the Tver Principality to Moscow. The Grand Duke of Tver Mikhail Borisovich (1453 - 1505) understood that the days of his principality’s existence were numbered. He clearly did not want to part with the grand-ducal power. In 1483, when Mikhail Borisovich was widowed, he decided to enter into a dynastic marriage with the granddaughter of Casimir IV, the ruler of Poland and Lithuania united by a treaty of union. And relations with Lithuania between the Moscow Principality remained extremely tense and no improvement in Russian-Lithuanian relations was expected. For example, the chronicle reports that in 1482, Ivan III actively pushed his ally, the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey, to raid Lithuanian lands. According to Figure 3, the chronicle reports about the next attack of the Crimean Horde on Podolia.
Figure 3 – PSRL. T. 12. VIII. A chronicle collection called the Patriarch's or Nikon's Chronicle. St. Petersburg: Printing house I.N. Skorokhodova, 1901.
Fragment of page 215
The bride of the Tver prince, the granddaughter of the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania, was, of course, a Catholic. According to the harsh laws of that time, marriage took place only in the church during the sacrament of wedding. This means that both spouses had to belong to only one denomination of the Christian church. It was not difficult to guess which of the future spouses Casimir IV would offer to change his faith. And Mikhail Borisovich Tverskoy, most likely, will not refuse his powerful father-in-law. The further consequences of this marriage were quite simple to calculate - the Roman Catholic Church in the very heart of Rus' would have received a springboard for missionary activity, and then armed struggle against Orthodox Christians. Therefore, when in 1483 Ivan III Vasilyevich learned about the matchmaking of the Tver prince, he naturally "overclockingѣ Vasya" and immediately decided to nip in the bud a possible Lithuanian-Tver dynastic union. According to Figure 4, the chronicle message is presented.
Figure 4 – Pskov Chronicles. Second issue. Edited by
A.N. Nasonova - M.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1955.
Fragment of page 66
Mikhail Borisovich Tverskoy was frightened by the wrath of the Moscow prince and immediately recognized himself as Ivan’s younger brother III Vasilievich, that is, Mikhail moved from the great princes to the category of appanages. All agreements between Tver and Lithuania were terminated.
But Mikhail Borisovich slyly reconciled himself and continued negotiations with Lithuania. The Grand Duke of Moscow received very concrete evidence about these negotiations - a messenger from Prince Michael to the Lithuanian Grand Duke Casimir IV was captured. In September 1485, the troops of Ivan III surrounded Tver. The Moscow prince forbade plundering the city and its environs. There were enough supporters of Moscow among the Tver residents, and the city was preparing for capitulation. Before the surrender of the city, Prince Mikhail Borisovich fled with the treasury to Lithuania, where his exile ended life path. Tver surrendered and became the personal inheritance of the heir to the Moscow throne - the young Prince Ivan Ivanovich. The Tver Chronicle's account of these events is presented in accordance with Figure 5.
Thus ended the almost two-hundred-year civil strife between Moscow and Tver, which was destroying the Russian people's consciousness and depleting the people's strength.
Figure 5 – Chronicle collection called the Tver Chronicle. St. Petersburg: Leonid Demis Printing House, 1863. Fragment of page 500
In Lithuania, Prince Mikhail Borisovich of Tver became completely naturalized - he married the granddaughter of Casimir IV (even then in Europe they showed some concern for Russian traitors - what if they were good for something), shaved his beard and dressed in Polish fashion. Apparently, the stolen treasury of the Tver principality also helped the prince to settle well in a foreign land. Surprisingly, modern Russian dissidents, including so-called human rights activists, for some reason are still partial to government money. There is something wrong with dissent here.
Prince Mikhail (Figure 6) wanted to regain the Tver throne and asked his father-in-law for troops for this purpose. But he wisely refused the fugitive prince.
Figure 6 - Prince of Tverskoy, in a cap and long clothes, in front of the waist is a saber covered with purple. Unknown artist of the 15th century (portrait, apparently for life)
Bibliography
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- PSRL. T. 12. VIII. Chronicle collection, called the Patriarchal or Nikon Chronicle [Text] - St. Petersburg: Printing house I.N. Skorokhodova, 1901. – 267 p.
- Pskov Chronicles. Second issue. Edited by A.N. Nasonova [Text] – M.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1955. – 365 p.
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