The Formation of Muscovy 1300-1613

303 Pages·2013·7.54 MB·English

by  Crummey Robert O.

The Formation of
Muscovy
1304-1613
Robert 0. Crummey
LONGMAN HISTORY OF RUSSIA
General Editor: Harold Shukman
"'Kievan Russia 850 - 1240
Simon Franklin and Jonathan Shepard
;:‘The Crisis of Medieval Russia 1200 - 1304
John Fennell
"The Formation of Muscovy 1304 - 1613
Robert O. Crummey
"'The Making of Russian Absolutism 1613 - 1801
Paul Dukes
"'Russia in the Age of Reaction and Reform 1801 — 1881
David Saunders
^Russia in the Age of Modernisation and Revolution 1881 - 1917
Hans Rogger
The Russian Revolution 1917
Steve Smith
"‘The Soviet Union since 1917
Martin McCauley
"already published
LONGMAN HISTORY OF RUSSIA
The Formation of
Muscovy 1304-1613
ROBERT O. CRUMMEY
O Routledge
Taylor & Francis Croup
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 1987 by Addison Wesley Longman Limited
Seventh impression 1996
Published 2013 by Routledge
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ISBN 13: 978-0-582-49153-3 (pbk)
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Crummey, Robert O.
The formation ofMuscovy 1304—1613.—
(Longman history of Russia)
1. Soviet Union — History — 1237—1480
2. Soviet Union — History — Period of consolidation, 1462—1605
I. Title
947'.03 DK71
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Crummey, Robert O.
The formation ofMuscovy 1304—1613-
(Longman history of Russia)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Soviet Union - History 1237-1480.
2. Soviet Union - History - Period of consolidation, 1462-1605
3. Soviet Union - History - Epoch of confusion, 1505-1613.
I. Title.
II. Series.
DK100.C78 1987 947 86-16033
Contents
List of maps............................................................................................... vi
Note on transliteration, dates and sources.............................................. vii
Abbreviations............................................................................................ ix
Notes on plates.......................................................................................... x
Preface........................................................................................................ xiv
Chapter one Land and people................................................................ 1
Chapter two Moscow and its rivals, 1304-1380................................. 29
Chapter three Moscow’s victory, 1380-1462....................................... 56
Chapter four Building the autocracy, 1462 — 1533............................... 84
Chapter five The Eastern Orthodox Church in Muscovy................. 116
Chapter six The reign of Ivan the Terrible.......................................... 143
Chapter seven The arts and culture....................................................... 179
Chapter eight The Time of Troubles..................................................... 205
Afterword Looking ahead: the seventeenth century........................... 234
Select bibliography.................................................................................... 242
Maps........................................................................................................... 255
Index.......................................................................................................... 263
v
List of maps
Map 1. The Mongol Empire 256
Map 2. The principalities of Rus in the mid-thirteenth century 257
Map 3. North-east Russia, 1425 258
Map 4. North-east Russia, 1462 259
Map 5. Muscovy, 1462 — 1533 260
Map 6. Livonia, 1558-1583 261
Map 7. Muscovy, 1533-1613 262
(N.B. These maps are based on a wide variety of sources. Sketches for most
of the maps were taken from Atlas istorii SSSR, Chast I, eds K. V. Bazilevich,
I. A. Golubstov, M. A. Zinovev. Moscow, 1950.).
vi
Note on transliteration,
dates and sources
In transliterating Russian names and terms, I have followed the Library of
Congress system, except for soft and hard signs and the diaeresis on ë which
I have omitted. Since this book is intended for the general reader as well as
the specialist, I have tried to reduce the culture shock students suffer when
dealing with large numbers of Russian names and terms. For this reason, I
have given familiar names of people and places in the form best known to
English and American readers (e.g. Moscow for the city, Alexander Nevskii,
St Sergius, Joseph of Volokolamsk) and used English spelling for first names
when the Russian is very similar (e.g. Michael, Daniel, Alexis, Peter). To do
so, inevitably leads to some inconsistencies. Two are deliberate. When a first
name appears with a patronymic or surname, I normally use the Russian form
for both (e.g. Michael, but Mikhail Olelkovich; Daniel, but Daniil Adashev).
In women’s first names thé second T in the ending is omitted (e.g. Maria,
not Mariia). The names of non-Russian places and people appear in the ver­
sion most familiar to English-speaking readers (e.g. Tamerlane, Cyprian,
Photius, John III).
Between 1304 and 1613, Russian historical sources date events according
to the Byzantine ecclesiastical calendar based on the assumption that Christ
was born 5,508 years after the Creation. The year began on 1 September.
Therefore the first eight months of 1304 belong to the year 6812 and the last
four to 6813. Conversely, if a chronicle gives the years in which an event took
place but does not specify the month, it is unclear in which of two years, ac­
cording to modern calendars, it occurred. Thus 7060 could be either 1551 or
1552 or, for short, 1551/2. All writers on early Russian history follow these
principles in translating dates into modern terms.
Although they would like to know far more than they do, historians of
Muscovite Russia have an extensive body of sources from which to work.
For political events, the most important are the chronicles most of which
have been published in the Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles
(Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopiset). A number of the grand princes’ wills and
treaties with their kinsmen have also come down to us. Concerning
Muscovy’s international relations, we have extensive fragments of diplomatic
vir
THE FORMATION OF MUSCOVY 1304-1613
correspondence and accounts of the exchanges of ambassadors from the fif­
teenth century on. Information about the Muscovite economy and social rela­
tions is considerably sparser, especially before the late fifteenth century: some
fragmentary land cadastres survive and the archives of the great Eastern Or­
thodox monasteries contain documents on estate management and peasant
life. Historians derive many of their impressions of Muscovite institutions
and customs from the accounts of foreign diplomats and travellers who visited
Russia, especially in the sixteenth century. Moreover, we learn a great deal
about official Muscovite thinking and widely accepted ideals, values and stan­
dards of beauty from polemical writings and works of literature and art. Final­
ly, any historian of Muscovite Russia owes a great debt to earlier scholars
whose work of reconstruction and analysis has helped greatly in making these
sources intelligible.
vni
Abbreviations
AAE Akty, sobrannye v bibliotekakh i arkhivakh Rossiiskoi imperii
Arkheograficheskoiu ekspeditsieiu. 4 vols. St Petersburg, 1836.
DDG Dukhovnye i dogovomye gramoty velikikh i udelnykh kniazei
XIV-XV vekov, eds. S. V. Bakhrushin and L. V. Cherepnin.
Moscow-Leningrad, 1950.
FzOG Forschungen zur osteuropäischen Geschichte.
GVNiP Gramoty Velikogo Novgoroda i Pskova, ed. S. N. Valk.
Moscow-Leningrad, 1949.
JfGO Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas.
PRP Pamiatniki russkogo prava, 8 vols. Moscow, 1952-63.
PSRL Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei.
Structure The Structure of Russian History, ed. Michael Cherniavsky. New
York, 1970.
TODRL Trudy Otdela drevnerusskoi literatury.
TR Priselkov, M. D., Troitskaia Letopis. Rekonstruktsiia teksta.
Moscow-Leningrad, 1950.
IX
Notes on plates
(between pages 192 and 193)
Plate 1 Ustiug Annunciation. Novgorodian (?). Late 1100s.
This icon illustrates the sophistication of painters in Russia before the
Mongol invasion. It portrays the Archangel Gabriel announcing to the Virgin
Mary that she will bear the Christ, shown in embryonic form on her breast.
Note that, from the top of the panel, God, the ‘Ancient of Days’, looks down
on the scene. The unknown artist created a harmonious composition, united
by the curving lines of the figures and the Archangel’s gesturing hand. He
painted the central figures with great skill: their faces are strong, yet delicate,
and the drawing of their garments and the Archangel’s wings is fine. The
icon’s colours are rich, varied and subtle.
Plate 2 The Cathedral of the Dormition, Vladimir. 1185 — 1189.
The national cathedral of north-east Russia in pre-Mongol times and model
for the cathedral of the same name, built in 1475-1478 in Moscow under
the patronage of Grand Prince Ivan III. Set on a bluff above the Kliazma river,
this imposing church has a dominant cupola in the centre and smaller ones
on the four corners of the structure. Delicate carving on the façade, the apses,
and the supporting drums of the cupolas give lightness and grace to the
exterior of the massive building.
Plate 3 The Church of the Veil on the Nerl, Bogoliubovo (near Vladimir).
1165.
This small votiye church is probably the loveliest work of architecture
constructed in north-east Russia before the Mongol invasion. Although
frequently restored over the centuries, it retains its harmonious proportions
and remarkable verticality which, unlike many Russian churches, leads the
viewer’s eye upward toward heaven. The plan is simple-three aisles and apses
surmounted by a single cupola. Like the Dormition Cathedral in Vladimir,
the church was constructed of soft white stone that could be decorated with
delicate carving. The ‘typically Russian’ onion-shaped cupola is the work of
nineteenth-century restorers.