World History: The Rise of Russia

A map of Russian expansion

The last time we looked at Russia, here, the Grand Prince of Moscow, Ivan IV, was crowned Tsar of all Russia in 1547. Just over a hundred years prior Constantinople was captured by the Ottoman Empire and over the next century Moscow became the dominant power in eastern Europe. The Byzantines, who had ruled Constantinople, had been an Orthodox state which the future Tsardom of Russia was. Russia viewed itself as the 'Third Rome' and the rulers named themselves 'Caesars' which explains the etymological origins of the word 'tsar.' With this post we'll see how Russia's land, institutions, and society evolved since the reign of Ivan IV. We go from a largely Slavic population west of the Urals to a society stretching from Warsaw to Alaska comprising of Poles, Russians, Tatars, Kazakhs, and Chechens to name just some of the various ethnic groups to exist in the Empire. Writing in 1838 tutor to the royal family and conservative historian Mikhail Pogodin wrote:

Ten thousand versts in length, extending almost from the middle of Europe...to the faraway lands of America! And five thousand versts in width, running from Persia to the Polar Circle. What other state can compare to her in size? To half of her? How many states can even compare to a twentieth or fiftieth of her size?

Before we look at what would become the Russian empire at its height we need to look at Ivan IV who began the rapid expansion east, (and west), Ivan IV - or as he is better known Ivan the Terrible.

Ivan the Terrible

An 1897 painting of Ivan the Great

Ivan IV was born in 1530 and has gone by several titles. The most accurate titles are the Great, Awe-Inspiring, Formidable, or Awesome but in the West he is best known as 'the Terrible' for his tyranny of his later rule. Ivan's father, Vasili III, was the Grand Prince of Moscow but died through a abscess and inflammation in his leg when Ivan was aged three. His mother, Elena Glinskaya, was made regent but tragedy hit again at the age of eight when Elena died, possibly through an assassination via poisoning. Before her death the boyars (very important aristocrats) had been vying for power over the young Ivan, and after Elena's death this increased. It is quite possible that this court infighting might have contributed to Ivan's autocratic rule later in his life, especially as he started hunting and torturing animals before the age of 16. When he turned 16 the decision was made to crown Ivan 'Tsar of All Russians', on top of his title of Grand Prince of Moscow in 1547. There was a clear religious aspect to his enthronement. As mentioned earlier the Orthodox faith of Russia created the idea that Russia was the legitimate successor of Rome. When he went out in 1552 to conquer the primarily Muslim Khanate of Kazan, which was also the first time Muscovy annexed a non-Russian state, the chroniclers wrote about the conquest in very religious terms:

With the aid of our Almighty Lord Jesus Christ and the prayers of the Mother of God...our pious Tsar and Grand Prince Ivan Vasilievich, crowned by God, Autocrat of all Rus, fought against the infidels, defeated them firmly and captured the Tsar of Kazan Edigei-Mahmet. And the pious Tsar and Grand Prince ordered his regiment to sing an anthem under his banner, to give thanks to God for the victory; and at the same time ordered a life-giving cross to be placed and a church to be built, with the uncreated image of our Lord Jesus Christ, where the Tsar's colours had stood during the battle.

In reality religion was less of a factor in the conquest of the Asian khanates. Following the disintegration of the Golden Horde various khanates emerged creating an uneasy sea of shifting territories, alliances and enemies. As mentioned in the previous post the Kievan Rus had been conquered by the Mongols so the fear of the East had never truly left Russia. By almost nervously expanding eastwards this removed the existential and potential threat which the khanates offered. However, by framing expansion in a religious sense this was an attempt to legitimize Russia as the Third Rome; Russia was expanding against the Muslim 'infidel' and spreading Christendom. Although it should also be noted that Ivan did try westward expansion with the Livonian War which was an unsuccessful war to muscle into the Baltic. 

Ivan also tried to legitimize his rule domestically. In a similar way to how the Qing tried to legitimize themselves in China he had Metropolitan Makarii combine church, dynasty and land in order to tie it to an imperial heritage. These were compiled in the Great Almanach (Velikie Chet'i-Minei) and the Book of Degrees of the Imperial Genealogy (Stepennaia kniga tsarskogo rodosloviia). The Almanac was a collection detailing the lives of saints, church resolutions, sermons, epistles, and histories which was creatively laid out so each document could be read each day of the year. However, the most important aspect of the Almanac was that the documents were directly saying that from Creation to the present day God intended to create a Christian state in the lands of the Rus. The Book of Degrees was the 'secular' equivalent of the Almanac emphasizing the Orthodox Byzantine heritage of Russia while also ignoring or downplaying the claims of rival states as successors to Kiev; this included Novgorod, Lithuania, and the Golden Horde. Even in a seemingly secular text religion was present with the Book of Degrees saying itself that it was an account of the 'enlightened God-ordained sceptre-holders who ruled in piety the Russian land.' Russia's legacy of print culture began under Ivan with the Moscow Print Yard being formed in 1553 with the intention to print religious texts, much like the earlier Gutenberg printing press. Most famously Ivan IV had St. Basil's Cathedral constructed to commemorate his victory over the Kazan, and it remains one of Russia's major landmarks. 

Oprichnina 

Oprichniki by Nikolai Nevrev

This was the most famous part of Ivan's reign and the most infamous. From 1564 to 1572 around half the tsardom (including all the lucrative trading areas to the north and northwest of Moscow) was made Ivan's personal realm. We know half the reason why the oprichnina was implemented. In 1558 Ivan's request for the Livonian Confederation to allow him access to the Baltic Sea was rejected so he went to war which expanded when Denmark, Sweden and Poland-Lithuania also went to war against Russia. In 1564 Prince Andrei Kurbsky defected to the Lithuanians which made Ivan extremely paranoid of further aristocratic treason. However, some historians have retroactively diagnosed Ivan and have claimed that the oprichnina was part of a mental illness. Nancy Shields Kollman, for one, emphasizes the psychological aspect of the formation of the oprichnina; V.O. Kliuchevskii and S.B. Veselovskii have argued that Ivan was insane or paranoid; and Edward L. Keenan has argued that a debilitating spinal illness made Ivan create the oprichnina in order to abdicate power. Geoffrey Hosking has suggested that the oprichnina might have been an attempt to break the boyars' independence and have them beg him to return; especially as the zemshchina (the rest of Russia not in the oprichnina) were poorer and boyar land was seized in order to create the oprichnina. 

To rule the oprichnina Ivan created the oprichniki which he referred to as 'brothers.' They acted as a mixture of an army and secret police dressed in unadorned black clothes resembling a monk's habit in order to represent the ideal Christian life. The oprichniki were given free reign to ransack, torture, and kill anyone deemed to be treasonous. The exact figures of the oprichniki's victims remains unknown but the gentry and boyars were killed by the thousands, Suzdal for example lost 80% of its gentry. Ivan even managed to eliminate his most important dynastic rival, Vladimir Staritskii, in 1569 by making him drink poison after publicly accusing him of plotting to kill him. He also expected the city of Novgorod of supporting Staritskii so in January 1570 so he unleashed the oprichniki onto the city. Over the course of a few weeks up to 3,000 were executed, of which the nobility faced the brunt of the violence. Ivan even took his son to watch the sacking of the city. When the Crimean Khanate routed the oprichniki when Khan Devlet-Girei managed to sack Moscow Ivan had the oprichniki dissolved and the oprichnina merged with the zemshchina. 

As it was largely the nobility who faced the oprichniki's violence the common people have remembered Ivan's reign rather fondly as a result through fairly evident reasons. If it wasn't thanks to the oprichnina and later paranoia Ivan would likely be seen more positively. The rest of Ivan's reign was dominated by the Livonian War and increased bouts of paranoia. In 1574 he abdicated for a year before returning and married several times. When his son and heir apparent (tsarevich), Ivan, failed to quickly produce a son he had his daughter-in-law sent to a convent, and he did the same to Ivan's second wife. By 1581 the tsarevich he remarried, to Yelena Sheremeteva, and had started clashing with his father over the Livonian War. In October Yelena was pregnant but once she was wearing light clothing Ivan beat her making her miscarry. When the younger Ivan confronted him Ivan struck his son over the head with a staff which accidentally killed him. Ivan spent the rest of his life grieving until he died during a game of chess in 1584. His son Feodor succeeded him but was interested in politics. He died heirless.

The Time of Troubles

Ivan IV had shook up Russian society and the sickly Feodor I was taken advantage of. For example, the eastern Patriarchs in 1589 were convinced to make the Metropolitans of Moscow Patriachs. Ivan's youngest son, Dmitrii, (who was born after Ivan died), mysteriously vanished in 1591. With no heir the throne was offered to Feodor's regent and brother-in-law Boris Godunov. Initially, as he was not from the main branch of the Rurik dynasty the zemsky sobor (the Russian estates) offered him the throne but with reduced powers. However, Boris kept on refusing until the sobor chose stability over limiting Boris and granted him the throne with full powers. Boris gained supporters among nobles who feared the peasantry moving to richer lands so he started passing laws preventing peasants from moving; something which caused a schism among the landowners who had benefited from this. Soon he started arresting and executing enemies while a series of bad harvests hit from 1601 to 1603. Not long after someone claiming to be Dmitrii came out attracting support from nobles, peasants wanting an end to serfdom, and Cossacks wanting their independence back. The Boris died in 1605 followed by an invasion by Poland-Lithuania and Sweden. After a series of wars, pretenders and famines (which caused 2 million to starve) in 1613 the zemsky sobor elected a new tsar, Mikhail Romanov, whose dynasty would last until 1917. The Romanovs were closely related to the Ruriks so it was a clear attempt to continue a hereditary dynasty. Meanwhile, the Time of Troubles weakened the boyars in a way which the oprichnina never could do. The rift among the boyars and rise of nobles owning serfs displaced the power the boyars once had.

The Peasantry

Serfs in Russia

Until Stalin's industrialization the peasantry played a huge role in Russian society. Although it is important to remember that not all the peasantry were farmers and serfs. Trappers, artisans, fishers, loggers, and manual laborers often originated in the peasant class, or were serfs themselves. One of the famous images of the serfs was a painting of burlaki, barge-haulers. The army also drew heavily from the peasantry; in 1727 Prince Menshikov  in a report said 'The army is so necessary that without it the state cannot stand, and for its sake we must take care of the peasants; for the soldier is bound to the peasant, like the soul to the body, and if there is no peasant, then there will be no soldier.' One of the stereotypes about the Russian peasantry is that they were all serfs. This is partially due to how serfdom lasted in Russia until the 1800s. In 1784 visiting Englishman William Richardson wrote that 'the peasants in Russia...are in a state of abject slavery, and are reckoned the property of the nobles to whom they belong, as much as their horses or dogs.' This is rather ironic seen as at this time a huge portion of British wealth was made by the slave trade in the Caribbean. Serfdom developed in Russia centuries after western Europe so it generated much criticism from the rest of Europe. By 1811 58% of Russia's population were serfs. The move towards serfdom began under Ivan IV where in 1580 he suspended a practice which allowed a household to move elsewhere on St. George's Day, and in 1603 it was abolished. In 1581 and 1592 land cadasters established a peasant's legal residence, and it was legal for landowners to reclaim them if they moved illegally. Finally, the Law Code of 1649 bound a peasant, or their family, to the land they lived on. 

Although conditions for serfs were horrific, especially for women, they had some agency. For one, they had some independence as richer serfs could be taxed, and others could be enlisted into the army to get money. Often peasants retained their own courts independent from the state courts. In particular peasants used religion to define themselves. Especially with those moving east peasants regularly came into contact with non-Russians and they used their Orthodox faith to identify themselves. The Russian empire was made up of a multitude of peoples of various faiths so Russians used Orthodoxy to distinguish themselves from the empire's Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jewish and other populations. However, peasant Orthodoxy was different to the Orthodoxy of the cities. Until the rise of the Soviet Union the Russian peasantry was largely illiterate and no Russian Bible emerged until the nineteenth century. Instead they often mixed Orthodoxy with pre-Christian ideas; so much so that city-dwellers often commented that the peasants might as well be worshiping a different religion. The Baba Yaga, the witch of Russian folklore, is believed by some folklorists to have originated as a pre-Christian 'mother spirit' who turned into an evil force with the arrival of Christianity. 

Siberia

Russia expanded quickly after 1500. In the seventeenth century around 51,000 square miles were added to Russia a year, mostly in Siberia. When the Russians destroyed the khanates this opened up Siberia for Russian conquest and colonization. To an extent it can be compared to the colonization of the Americas. Initially trade was established between Russian merchants and the Siberian tribes with fur in particular being popular. In Russia stereotypical, and at times demeaning, depictions of the Siberians started appearing in Russian prints. Slowly Russian rule started expanding to include Siberia over various ways. One was offering protection to tribes from nomads in return for a tribute in the form of fur. A second way was direct conquest and then expulsion for settlers. The third way was direct settlement, often followed by Cossacks or the military attacking the Siberians. Fleeing serfs, convicts and Old Believers (those who opposed the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow), often made up the settles by the 1700s. Soon enough Russian settlement came into conflict with China who under the Qing were eager to look outwards. To avoid conflict the Treaty of Nerchinsk was signed in 1689 where the Kangxi emperor looked favorably on Russian culture; he even practiced Russian eating and drinking habits when he met Russians. In an odd turn Russia even colonized Alaska possibly in the 1600s in order to obtain Alaskan furs. It was sold in 1867 to the United States when the beaver and mink populations dropped.

Looking West

Peter the Great in an 1838 painting

Russia has always had an existential relationship with the West. Being one of Europe's most easternmost state with most of its land being east of the Urals Europe has long condemned it for not being European enough. Meanwhile, Russia has always seen itself as European. At various intervals Russia has attempted to 'westernize', or more accurately, reinterpret European ideas for Russia itself. Catherine the Great adapted ideas of the Enlightenment, Alexander II issued reforms to liberalize the empire, Joseph Stalin started rapidly industrializing to replicate the industrial prowess of Britain and Germany, and most recently Boris Yeltsin adapted the neo-liberalism of the EU and USA. Peter the Great is perhaps the most famous example of Russia looking west for inspiration. After a failed war against the Ottoman empire for the Black Sea Peter began the 'Grand Embassy' in 1697. Traveling incognito with a Russian delegation across Europe for a year he visited many European courts and peoples to understand what he saw there. In 1698 he returned to very brutally put down a rebellion, where 1,200 were tortured, executed and publicly displayed. Peter then began his reforms. Russia's calendar started from the estimated time of the Creation making the year 7207, so Peter changed it to starting with the birth of Christ making the year 1700. He ordered that Western clothing should be worn over Russian clothing, put a tax on boyars who refused to shave their beards, and banned arranged marriages as he argued that it encouraged domestic violence. Following victory in the Great Northern War in 1722 Peter wanted to break the boyar influence in the army so issued the Table of Ranks where merit over birth determined rank. He also replaced a land tax for a poll tax to fund his new capital in the lands taken from Sweden during the Great Northern War. This city would remain Russia's capital until 1917 and is today's St. Petersburg. 

Conclusion

The period covering Russian history from the start of the sixteenth century until the start of the eighteenth century served to greatly influence the rest of Russian history. The dawn of the multi-ethnic Russian state, the gradual destruction of the boyars' power, the rise of serfdom, and its identity of a European v. Asian state all found its roots in this time period. This turbulent time greatly shaped Russia and its view of being a 'Third Rome.' For centuries to come Russia being the beacon of Roman civilization would greatly influence thought in the Russian empire. The next World History post shall discuss another part of European history which greatly influenced thought for centuries to come: the Renaissance and Scientific Revolution.

The sources I have used are as follows:

-Willard Sunderland, 'Russian Empire, 1552-1917', in John Marriott and Philippa Levine (eds.), The Ashgate Research Companion to Modern Imperial Histories, (Oxon, 2012)

-Geoffrey Hosking, Russia: People and Empire, 1552-1917, (London, 1997)

-Nancy Shields Kollman, 'Muscovite Russia 1450-1598', in Gregory L. Freeze, Russia: A History, Third Edition, (Oxford, 2009)

-Hans-Joachim Torke, 'From Muscovy to St Petersburg,' Ibid

-John T. Alexander, 'The Petrine Era and After 1689-1740', Ibid

-James H. Billington, The Icon and the Axe: An Interpretive History of Russian Culture, (New York, 1970)

-George Vernadsky, A History of Russia, Volume V: The Tsardom of Moscow, 1547-1682, Parts 1 and 2, (Binghamton, 1969)

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post. For other World History posts please see here. For future posts please see our Facebook or get me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.