Education, History
Collector of Russian lands. History of Unification of Russia
In the thirteenth century, the country was exhausted under the humiliating yoke imposed by the Mongol conquest. The country was divided into smaller and larger principalities, which were at enmity between themselves. The process of uniting the Russian lands was slow and dragged on for two centuries. Who in history has shown himself as a collector of Russian lands? It is possible to single out several outstanding princes who transformed the fragmented Russia into an integral Russia.
The appearance of the Moscow Principality
Dying, the great Alexander Nevsky gave his youngest two-year-old son Daniil a tiny lot, in the center of which stood Moscow. Only at the age of fifteen, Daniel Alexandrovich began to reign in his lands with great care, trying to live peacefully with his neighbors, because he was weak.
Contemporaries appreciated the peaceful life of the Moscow principality, and people were drawn into it. Moscow slowly overgrew merchant shops, handicraft workshops. Only towards the end of his life Daniel Alexandrovich attached Kolomna, which opened the way to the Volga, to its lands, and Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, which was the "key" to the so many degrees of Vladimir. We can assume that this was the first collector of Russian lands. He died at the very beginning of the sixteenth century and left behind five sons who continued his policy.
Ivan Danilovich
Prince Ivan was the fourth son of Daniel, and he had practically no hopes of reigning in Moscow. But his three older brothers - Yuri, Boris and Athanasius - died and left no heirs. Thus, in 1325, at forty-two, Prince Ivan Danilovich began reigning in the Moscow lands. At this age the princes were already often dying, and Prince Ivan's life had just begun. At that time no one knew that he was a collector of Russian lands.
Two years later, the Horde were killed in Tver. This local uprising brought a punitive Mongolian campaign to Russia. Prince Ivan was forced to go to suppress the uprising in Tver and as a result received Novgorod and Kostroma, as well as the throne of the Grand Duke Vladimir.
Conditionally Ivan Kalita became the eldest prince over all the princes of Russia, this right was given him by the reign in Vladimir. Firmly, by any means established the order of Ivan Kalita. The collector of the Russian lands united in Moscow the ecclesiastical authority, which formerly was in Vladimir, with the secular. For this purpose in 1326 he laid for the Metropolitan Peter the temple of the Mother of God. And after Kalita's death, the Orthodox department remained in Moscow. I liked it Russian princes or did not like it, but Moscow united all around the northeast.
Personality of Ivan I Danilovich
He avoided all means of conflict with the Horde, because it violated the peaceful course of life. The tribute was entrusted to him to collect from all over Russia and send it to the Horde after the Tver insurrection. But it was difficult. Everyone, under any pretext, especially Novgorod, tried to avoid paying tribute. I had to frighten the invasion, then please the gifts of the obstinate. It was especially difficult when the Horde demanded extraordinary payments. In addition, it was necessary to restore order throughout the territory and severely deal with the robbers who attacked both the baggage allowance and the civilians. Thus, the number of robberies has decreased, the life of ordinary people has become easier.
Strange nickname
His nickname "Kalita" (purse, bag of money), Prince Ivan received for the ability to manage the money, which he willingly distributed to the poor when leaving their chambers. He was immediately surrounded by a crowd, and for each was a coin.
Family life
The prince was married twice. The first wife was Elena, presumably the daughter of the Smolensk prince. The second wife was Ulyana, to whom Ivan left a rich inheritance and gold jewelry of his first wife.
"Silence is great"
And the long-awaited peace was established from 1328 to 1340 in the country. There were no more devastating raids of "filthy". Constructed and grew cities, a population that no one destroyed and did not take in full, increased, established a peaceful and quiet life, accumulated forces to fight the Mongols. Prince Ivan Kalita concluded dynastic marriages of sons and daughters with Yaroslavl, Rostov and Belozersk princes in order to dispose of their possessions. And he inherited Simeon Ivanovich's heir to Gedimin's daughter, in order to ensure the security of the western borders. Prince Ivan Danilovich is also a collector of Russian lands. This is certain.
At this time, Ivan Danilovich strengthened Moscow. On the Borovitsky hill, he built five cathedrals. Metropolitan Peter himself laid the foundation stone of the Assumption Cathedral. So Moscow turned into a religious capital.
Ivan Danilovich built a strong oak Kremlin in 1339. This was a very important matter. After all, the Mongols were very suspicious of any attempts to strengthen cities. Before his death, the prince took tonsure and left the heir to his eldest son Simeon. Already after the repose of Ivan Kalita, in 1340, his sons completed the decoration of churches with a multicolored painting, ordered jewelers ritual utensils, poured new bells into the belfry.
The continuers of the case of the father and grandfather
The policy pursued by Ivan Kalita, the collector of Russian lands, briefly, was continued by his sons Semyon Proud and Ivan Krasny. They have learned everything from their father - to get on with neighbors and the Horde, to pacify the unruly with gifts or threats. In Russia, the world as a whole reigned. And so time passed. 1359 came up. For thirty years of the world a whole generation of people grew up, who did not know the raids of the Mongols. But the prince, whose glory does not fade in the centuries, Dmitry Ivanovich, could not reconcile with the economic and political dependence of Russia on the Horde. The Mongols no longer had the same unity. They were torn apart by internal contradictions. Dmitry Ivanovich decided to take advantage of the right moment and overthrow the yoke.
He won in the early autumn of 1380 the bloody Kulikovo battle, defeating the Mamaevo army. But the time of complete liberation of Rus has not yet come. Two years later, the troops of Tokhtamish ravaged and burned Moscow, and again the Moscow princes, humbling and roaming, went to the Horde khans with gifts and received a label for reigning.
Ivan Vasilyevich is the last collector of the Russian land
The son of Prince Basil the Dark, who was blinded during internecine wars by other Russian princes who had high ambitions, was sitting next to his father since eight years and was his co-ruler. It was a tough, even cruel school. Prince Vasily himself was a worthless ruler, but his son turned out to be a powerful statesman.
Restructuring of the Moscow Kremlin
Grandiose and large-scale work began in 1495. All the remains of the walls of the old Kremlin were razed, new towers and walls were built, the Neglinka river was blocked.
It turned into a lake that guarded the Kremlin from the north from fires and enemies. We dug a ditch along the eastern wall, and water from the lake went there. The Kremlin has become an impregnable island. In 1479 a new Uspensky Cathedral was built inside the Kremlin. Then the Italians built the Faceted Chamber. It was intended for receptions of foreign ambassadors. Several churches and temples were built, and the Kremlin became completely unrecognizable.
Personal life
The great Moscow prince was married twice. Within his family there were constant strife. Ivan Young, son of the first wife, was heir. But he bitterly hated the second wife of his father, Sophia Palaeologus, and her sons. The new Greek family responded with the same hatred.
In 1490, Ivan the Young fell ill. The Greek woman gave him her doctor, and he died. Ivan III made his heir the son of Ivan the Young, Dmitry. But Basil, the eldest son of Sophia, threatened his father that he would flee to Lithuania and start a war with him for the throne. Ivan III surrendered and bequeathed the throne to Basil. After the death of his father, Vasily sent all his relatives to prisons, where they died. But before that, a significant event for Russia will take place.
On the river Ugra
From 1476 Ivan III stopped paying tribute to the Horde. The Horde worried and began to gather strength in the campaign against Moscow. In 1480, the troops of the Great Horde, which was divided at that time into three khanates, feuded among themselves under the leadership of Khan Ahmat, came almost a hundred kilometers to Moscow. It was late autumn. The Horde tried several times to cross the river Ugra, but their attempts were repulsed by artillery, which Ivan III reorganized and made appropriate to all the best specimens.
The army was commanded by Ivan Molodoy. Ivan III himself did not go to the active army, but prepared and supplied ammunition, fodder and food. For several weeks two armies stood on different shores of the Ugra. The frosts hit, and Khan Akhmat led his army back. So ended the 240-year-old yoke.
When the Moscow princes showed the whole of Russian society what they wanted and could free the country from the Mongol yoke, then all sympathies were on their side. But the end of shameful dependence required toughen the power inside the state, so that it would not fall apart again into small parts. But this is a task that will be addressed by the next generation. And while the victory was expressed in a new title - the sovereign of all Russia.
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