4.29 Europe: a.d. 1501 to 1600  (Page 29/29)

Ivan IV, son of Basil, became the Russian sovereign in 1533. The Tatars still held Kazan, Astrakhan and the Crimea, but there was now reduced nomadic pressure so Ivan attacked and after a long siege he not only won but then massacred the people of Kazan. This eastern expedition gave Muscovy control of two vital rivers, the Kama and the Volga, opening the way to the Caspian Sea and trade with Persia beyond. (Ref. 260 ) The Cossacks of the Don (but not those of Kiev, now under Lithuania) now also bowed to Moscow's rule.

Ivan's next project was to try to gain access to the Baltic through Livonia and it was this that precipitated the 25 year Livonian War involving Sweden, Denmark and Poland as well as the Livonians, themselves. He did temporarily get a window on the Baltic at Narva in 1558 but it was closed to him again in 1581. Furthermore, trouble then developed at home, with plots, counter-plots, defection of key people to Poland, etc, so that Ivan had to start a revolution of his own. First he engineered a terrible purge of the nobility whom he thought might be against him, endeavoring to elevate a new class to political power. Actually the Orthodox Church remained the real ruler of Russia. Ivan was a barbarian struggling to be civilized, but failing. He gave his people a demoralizing example of pious cruelty and uncontrolled passion and well earned the name of "Ivan the Terrible".

One of the few constructive aspects of this reign may have been the church Council of Stoglav in which many reforms were instituted by the counsellor Sylvester, who later compiled a book for instruction of the people in morality and general education.

The Crimean Tatars had been only temporarily controlled and in 1571 they again sacked and burned Moscow. At that time they were vassals of the Ottoman Turks, but their only duty to the Turks was to bring the Khan some 20,000 to 30,000 horsemen, when summoned. The Poles under Stephen Bathory invaded Russia also in 1579, regaining much border territory in Livonia, although they could not retake Smolensk. It was the Swedes who took Narva in 1581, cutting off Russia again from the Baltic. In 1584 the Cossacks invaded a Siberian Khanate and opened up the eastward movement which was comparable to the later westward migration of the American colonists. (Ref. 139 , 8 , 260 )

Italians, Germans, Dutchmen and Englishmen penetrated Russia in this 16th century and one of the crucial issues was how to cope with these Europeans, much as it is today. With the arrival of German coins and ingots money began to be minted regularly, although still on a modest scale. (Ref. 260 ) A second big problem was control of the lower classes. In 1592 the Moscow government ordered the registration of all peasants and 5 years later decreed that any peasants who deserted could be returned to their former lawful masters, marking the initial steps toward curbing of peasant freedom, with the bulk of Russia's population turned into serfs. (Ref. 135 , 213 )

Ivan the Terrible killed his ablest son and bequeathed the throne to a weakling whose incapacity invited civil war. The actual control of the government fell to Nikita Romanov and when he died, by his brother-in-law Boris Godunov, with the latter being elected to the throne by the National Assembly in 1598. Although a novice in politics, Godunov's military record was an outstanding one. In the meantime, the Russian Church had become entirely independent from Constantinople, as the first Patriarch of Moscow was created in 1589. (Ref. 135 )

North of the Ural Mountains the Eurasian Nenets herded reindeer and hunted seals and whales in the Arctic Ocean. Prosperous herders of ten had two or more wives, who busied themselves setting up conical tents and dressing skins. In this and the next century, gun-bearing European settlers and hunters killed enough reindeer to start a decline in the number of the wild herds. (Ref. 288 )

Forward to Europe: A.D. 1601 to 1700