Peter I the Great - Czar of Russia

The rise to power of Peter the Great was fraught with death and uncertainty, but his reign as czar greatly strengthened Russia in regard to its acquisition of territory in the Baltic and Black Sea regions, and the modernization of Russian society. Czar Alexei (1645–76) and his wife, Natalia Naryshkin, did not believe their son Peter would drastically change the course of Russian history when he was born on May 30, 1672.

The death of Czar Feodor III (1676–82) created a persoalan for the continuation of the Romanov dynasty in Russia since Fedor left no heirs; the debate developed concerning Ivan or Peter as successor.

Ivan was Fedor’s brother, but Ivan, who was 16 years old, was mentally and physically handicapped. Peter was the half brother of Ivan and had the support of many of the boyars and the patriarch Joachim, since this healthy 10-year-old offered stability to the Russian throne.

The Zemsky Sobor, an assembly of boyars, was assembled and voiced its support for Peter, but Sophia, Feodor’s sister, refused to allow Peter to be crowned as czar and attempted to incite the Streltsi, a regiment of guardsmen, to turn against Peter. On May 15, 1682, the Streltsi, upon hearing rumors that Ivan and a number of boyars were murdered, rebelled and stormed the Kremlin.

The Streltsi swore their loyalty to the Romanov family after Ivan Naryshkin and Doctor Van Gaden were brutally murdered. These two individuals were killed because the Streltsi believed they played a role in the presumed death of Ivan.

Following these murders, the Streltsi decided that Ivan and Peter would corule Russia, with Ivan acting as the senior czar and Sophia as the regent over both czars. The double coronation ceremony was held on May 26, 1682.

Sophia’s control over the Russian government quickly deteriorated with mounting tension between Sophia and Peter as Peter tried to assert his authority over her. In August 1689, Sophia called up some of the palace guards to protect her from a suspected attack from supporters of Peter.

This intensified the situation, because a number of people loyal to Peter believed that these guards were called up to attack him. Peter fled for refuge to the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, where he rallied a sizable force. Sophia, fearful of Peter’s increasing strength and of her declining support, capitulated.

Peter’s mother, Natalia, was selected to replace Sophia as the regent of the czars, but her regency was short, as she died in 1694. Ivan died shortly later in 1695, leaving Peter as the czar of Russia, and in a position to pursue his own policies.

Military Might

Peter’s first interests were against the Crimean Turks, as Peter was anxious to acquire access to the Black Sea so that Russia could trade with Europe throughout the whole year. The battle against the Turks at Azov in 1695 was a failure despite the fact that Peter assembled an army of approximately 31,000 men to attack Azov, and another 120,000 men to fight near the Dnieper River.

The reason for the failure was that the Turks could still ship supplies to Azov via water transport. Peter decided to correct this oversight in his strategy and collected money from monasteries and boyars to build a Russian naval fleet. The second attempt to take Azov in June 1696 with an army of 80,000 soldiers and a fleet was successful.

With the campaign against the Turks a success, Peter decided to focus his attention toward the West. In 1697, Peter and an entourage of 250 Russians toured Europe to examine Western knowledge and technology. Peter was impressed with the wealth Holland was able to acquire through its trading access and commercial fleet.

This wealth left such an impression on Peter that he was determined to emulate this success by constructing his own commercial fleet. He wanted to give Russia a window to the West via trade and to acquire more European technology to strengthen Russia.

Peter also wanted to import Western culture to Russia; he forced the nobles to shave their beards, changed the Russian calendar to conform to the European calendar, and made the Russian New Year conform to the European New Year.

In fact, the historian Paul Bushkovitch has credited Peter with introducing modern culture and political thought to Russia. Peter was also able to create a stronger state by making the Eastern Orthodox Church subservient to the Russian government.

The money Peter seized from monasteries and the reformed tax system helped Peter to build an academy to improve the education system in Russia. Peter was also able to bring order to the Russian social hierarchy by formulating the Table of Ranks in 1722, which determined an individual’s status in Russian society.

Moving West

Instead of pursuing Russian expansion to the south against the Turks, as previous Russian foreign policy dictated, Peter moved west, initiating hostilities against Sweden. The Great Northern War against Sweden dominated much of Peter’s reign.

In order to defeat the Swedish, Peter built a large army based on the same model as his Preobrazhenskii regiment, which had Western-style uniforms, training, and promotion through the ranks based on merit instead of birth. Poland sent a declaration of war to the Swedish government in January 1700, and Denmark quickly followed suit.

These two countries gave Peter allies in a war against Sweden, initiated when the Russian government declared war against the Swedish government on August 20, 1700. Unfortunately for Peter, the Danes sued for peace on August 20, 1700, leaving Russia and Poland to fight against the Swedish empire without this valuable ally.

As this alliance between Poland and Russia developed, Charles XII of Sweden reviewed his plans to protect his empire. Unfortunately, he was not able to recognize the major threat to his country’s boundaries. The Swedish strategy during the Great Northern War consisted of concentrating the main bulk of their forces against the Polish armies while Charles relied upon a token force to limit the Russian advance in the east.

It is true that the Swedes quickly attacked and defeated a Russian force at Narva on November 30, 1700. At this battle, a small Swedish force of 10,000 soldiers was able to overwhelm a Russian force of 40,000 men and seize the battlefield.

Despite this victory, the Swedes did not follow up their attack with further pressure against the Russians. The Swedish strategists preferred to concentrate their war effort against the Poles. It took the Swedes eight years to launch their second invasion into Russian territory.

Following his victory at Narva, Charles maintained a Swedish force of 15,000 men to protect his Baltic possessions. This force proved to be inadequate in the defense of the eastern portion of his empire against the armies of Peter. In January of 1702, Peter gained some momentum with his victory over the Swedes at Errestfer.

This battle had major consequences for the Swedish war effort since its army lost 3,350 soldiers. This Swedish defeat was compounded by another Swedish rout half a year later. This defeat cost the Swedish army a significant number of soldiers and provided the stimulus Peter needed in order to expand into the Baltic area.

Peter was able to strengthen Kronstadt after the capture of the fortresses of Nyenskans and Nöteborg. Peter was determined to hold on to his acquisitions in the Baltic region and give Russia closer ties with the rest of Europe by founding St. Petersburg in 1703, which became the future capital of Russia.

It is important to note that the Russian armies acquired more than territorial gains from this Baltic campaign. Through these military victories, the Russians were able to acquire more experience and confidence, as well as increase the size of their army.

When Charles XII finally turned his attention toward the Russian front, Peter had already established himself on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. The eight-year gap between the two Swedish invasions of Russian territory provided Peter with a reprieve in which he could strengthen his armies.

The number of cavalry regiments increased from two in 1700 to 34 regiments at the time of Charles’s return. As Charles advanced through the Ukraine, Peter was obliged to follow a scorched earth policy in order to stall for time and demoralize the invading Swedes.

Vicious methods were employed to deprive the Swedes of anything of use as the town of Dorpat was destroyed after the inhabitants were forcibly moved eastward and Russians were forbidden to provide Swedish troops with provisions.

Swedish Defeat

On May 11, 1709, the Swedish army unknowingly began a siege that would lead to the capitulation of the Swedish government 12 years later. The Poltava battle accurately foreshadowed the decline of Swedish power in the affairs of the Baltic as this battle cost the Swedish army 9,700 soldiers. This is a significant number of men compared to the 4,545 casualties the Russian army endured.

The consequences of this battle were further devastating to the Swedes. On July 1, 1709, fully 20,000 Swedes surrendered to the Russian armies at the town of Perovolochina. The Russians were unable to capture their royal opponent as Charles XII, who abandoned a significant portion of his army, fled south to the Ottoman Empire.

Poltava is recognized by scholars as a battle that not only changed the course of the Northern War, but completely altered the balance of power in northeastern Europe. It must be noted the governments of Western Europe were anticipating not only the destruction of the Russian army, but the further expansion of Swedish influence into eastern Europe.

The consequences of the Battle of Poltava ended any hope of imposing Swedish influence on the Russians. Not only did the Swedes lose a substantial portion of their army, but the old alliance against them was strengthened.

In this respect, Peter shifted from a passive role during the first alliance into a more active role. Peter, who encountered Augustus on the Vistula River, agreed to help his former comrade reclaim his throne since he was deposed following the Swedish victory over the Poles at Kliszow in 1702.

Peter attempted to make the Polish throne more secure to the family of Augustus by making the Polish monarchy a hereditary position. This illustrates the massive degree of power Peter now possessed in the internal affairs of the Polish government. The Danes, already allied to Augustus, wished to restore the old balance of power in northern Europe.

Invasion of Finland

Peter was able to use his gains in the Baltic to their fullest potential as he launched an invasion of Finland in order to strengthen his position at the upcoming peace negotiations with the Swedish government. The Russians won a remarkable victory against the Swedish at Storkyro in March 1714.

This land victory was followed by a Russian naval triumph over the Swedish navy at Gangut. In 1718, the Swedish government faced another threatening situation: Charles XII died during a battle in Norway. Ulrika, Charles’s sister, faced increasing pressure resulting from Peter’s invasions of the Swedish heartland.

The Russians were also enlarging the size of their Baltic fleet at an alarming pace. These threats compelled the Swedish government to end the war against the Russians. The Russians were able to gain a significant degree of power in the Baltic region from the Treaty of Nystadt.

The agreement between these two powers allowed the Russians to take possession of several islands, the territories of Livonia, Estonia, Ingermanland, and a section of Karelia. The Russians were given significant influence in Baltic affairs since they kept the fortress of Viborg.

More important, the Russian czar was regarded as an imperial monarch by the Prussians and the Dutch. Even the Swedes and other western Europeans eventually acknowledged this title.

Peter’s death on January 28, 1725, brought uncertainty to the succession of a new ruler for two reasons. Peter did not have a male heir to succeed him, and he failed to nominate his successor before he died. Peter’s only son and heir to the throne, Alexei, died on June 26, 1718, as a result of the torture inflicted on him for his rebellious attitudes.

Alexei was an outspoken critic of Peter’s reforms and feared the wrath of his father, resulting in his flight to Austria in 1716. Despite the fact that he was plotting against his father, Alexei was eventually persuaded to return to Russia and was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he later died. His wife, Catherine, was nominated to succeed Peter since she had the support of a number of Peter’s advisers and the Imperial Guard.

Treaty of Kaikhta

The Treaty of Kaikhta in 1727 between China and Russia defined the boundary between Russian Siberia and Chinese Outer Mongolia.

The Treaty of Nerchinsk of 1689 between China and Russia drew the boundary between the two empires between Russian Siberia and Chinese Manchuria in the northeast but left the boundary between Chinese Outer Mongolia and Russia undefined. Thus another treaty was needed to complete the border between these two empires and to settle other issues.

The first treaty with Russia allowed Qing (Ch’ing) emperor Kangxi (K’ang-hsi) to defeat the Olod Mongol chief Galdan in 1697, thus extending his domain to Outer Mongolia in the north and Hami in the northwest. However, China was still not completely secure from the Olod threat and feared plotting between them and Russia because the Olod had earlier become vassals of the Russian czars.


Russia was also anxious to negotiate with China over trade and the establishment of an Orthodox religious mission in Beijing (Peking). Meanwhile both rulers who had negotiated the Nerchinsk Treaty (Kangxi, emperor of China, and Peter the Great of Russia) had died, succeeded by Yongzheng (Yung-cheng) and Catherine I, respectively.

In 1725, Empress Catherine I sent envoy Sava Vladislavich Ruguzinski to China, ostensibly to congratulate Yongzheng on his accession to the throne. The Russian negotiations with China’s chief delegate Tulisen used Jesuit missionaries as interpreters.

They reached agreement in 1727; it was called the Treaty of Kaikhta, named after a frontier town where the signing took place. It provided for a commission to settle on the spot the border between the two countries from the Sayan Mountain and Sapintabakha in the west to the Argun River in the east.

In addition to existing trade at Nerchinsk, another trading station would be opened at Kaikhta and every three years a Russian caravan of 200 men would be allowed to go to Beijing to buy and sell goods without duties. Russia would be allowed to establish a religious mission and church in Beijing, and deserters and fugitives from each country to the other would be extradited.

Russia gained 40,000 square miles of territory between the Upper Irtysh and the Sayan Mountains and land south and southwest of Lake Baikal, trading concessions, and the right to open a religious mission in Beijing.

China gained security by cutting off Mongol tribes from access to Russia. A follow-up embassy from China to Russia in 1731 won for China the right to pursue the Mongol into Russian territory. This provision would be important in China’s quest to consolidate its northern border.

Both Treaties of Nerchinsk and Kaikhta were negotiated between two equal empires and to their mutual benefit. Unlike in relations with all other European nations, whose ambassadors to China were treated as tribute bearers from vassal states, the Russian envoys were regarded as representatives of an equal nation.

While Russian envoys performed the kowtow to the Chinese emperors, likewise the Chinese envoys to St. Petersburg kowtowed to the Russian monarchs. The Russian religious mission in Beijing that trained students in Chinese would give Russia an advantage in the 19th century in negotiations with China.

Ivan IV the Terrible

Ivan IV the Terrible

Ivan IV, the grand duke of Muscovy, or Moscow, is usually considered the first czar of Russia, although many historians argue that the title should belong to Ivan III (the Great). Ivan IV was born in 1530, the son of Vasili III, who had ascended the throne after the death of his father, Ivan III the Great, in 1505. Vasili continued the deliberative policy of “gathering in” the Russian lands begun by his father.

Vasili III also faced a threat from the Tartars, the Russian and Polish name for the Mongols. By 1519, the Golden Horde had been conquered by the Gerei dynasty of the Crimean Khanate, who would rule the Crimea until its last khan surrendered in 1783 to Catherine the Great of Russia. When Vasili died in 1533, he left a stable and expanded grand duchy to his successor, Ivan IV.

Ivan was only three years old when his father died, and his childhood was a nightmare of a sanguinary feud between the dominant families of the Kremlin and the Shuisky and Belsky families. He was purposely ignored, an object of contempt, and lived a life in fear of assassination. At the age of 13, he dramatically demonstrated his right to rule against the elite families of the boyars, or high nobility.


On December 29, 1543, 13-year-old Ivan called for Prince Andrew Shuisky to be arrested and thrown to starving hunting dogs. Ivan showed clear signs of sadism through his treatment of animals and women as well, whom he and his compatriots often raped and killed.

In January 1547, Ivan IV was crowned with great ceremony as the Russian czar. He underscored his “Russianness” by marrying a native-born Russian woman, Anastasia Romanova, of the wealthy Romanov dynasty. The Romanovs, while not hereditary boyars, were a wealthy trading family, whose fortune depended on royal patronage.

In this, Ivan was following the model of most European monarchs, who were now favoring the ascendant middle class, who would be beholden to them directly, rather than their ancestral nobles, many of whom also had claims to the thrones of their countries.

The early years of Ivan’s reign were indeed promising for Russia, and he seemed to be following in the careful, almost analytic footsteps of Ivan III and Vasili III. It was the same cautious way that Russia would expand into Central Asia, beginning in Ivan’s own reign, by fortifying each resting place before undertaking further progress.

Ivan called a Russian great council and swore that he would carry out continual reforms in the government of the state. Reforms were carried out in local government to diminish the influence of the boyar nobility and enhance the participation of all classes, in a conscious attempt to bind them to throne. A Foreign Ministry was officially established, and a Ministry of War was also put on a permanent foundation.

Ivan IV in Livonian War

In 1550, Ivan embarked on a period of military reform that essentially made him the father of the Russian army. He realized the importance of muskets and artillery as a way to overcome Tartar tactics. The reliance on muskets and artillery assured Muscovite, or Russian, superiority in most battles.

In 1552, Ivan felt confident enough to use his new army to attack the Khanate of Kazan, one of the successor states to the Golden Horde. Since all such kingdoms traced their origins to sons or grandsons of Genghis (or Chingiz) Khan, these are known to history as the “Chingizid” khanates.

Kazan fell to Ivan, as did the Khanate of Astrakhan in 1556. The Khanate of the Crimea felt sufficiently threatened by Ivan’s sudden eastward expansion that in 1555 Dawlet Gerei Khan had raided Moscow, but the attack did not deter Ivan.

In the same year, the Crimean Tartars raided Moscow, Ivan began the Livonian War in 1555. It would end fitfully in 1583, absorbing most of Ivan’s energies, manpower, and treasure for three decades. (Some accounts give the dates of the Livonian War as 1558–82.) Taking advantage of Ivan’s preoccupation in the Livonian War, the Crimean Tartars returned in 1571 to burn Moscow.

Still, the extensive negotiations Ivan carried out with Elizabeth I of England not only ensured England a welcome partner in the lucrative Baltic Sea trade, but also supplied Ivan with a reliable source of high-grade gunpowder for his army. The downside, however, was that the war produced the political union of Lithuania and Poland in 1569, although the two countries had been united by royal marriage since 1386.

In March 1553, the second, darker, period of Ivan’s reign began, after he recovered from a high fever. When his queen, Anastasia, died in 1560, he had several of the boyars tortured and executed because he suspected them of poisoning his wife.

boyarin Feodorov, arrested for treason

Then in 1564, he left Moscow, vowing never to return. Ivan established the oprichniki, who may have terrorized Muscovites in earlier years. When he felt Novgorod defied him, he had the city destroyed, and Pskov almost suffered the same fate.

The oprichnina, among whom were Boris Godunov and Anastasia’s brother, Nikita Romanov, rode with dogs’ heads (some say heads of wolves) dangling from their saddles and established a reign of terror. The oprichnina was an attempt by Ivan to terrorize all Russians into obeying his will without complaint. Ivan’s experiment in state-sponsored terror succeeded.

Although many causes have been brought forward to explain Ivan’s apparent insanity, one seems to have received comparatively little attention—mercury poisoning. It is known that in his later life Ivan ingested large quantities of toxic mercury. Mercury was used as late as the World War I as a treatment for syphilis, a disease a later autopsy determined Ivan had.

Syphilis itself in its simpulan phase can also cause insanity. In November 1581, Ivan IV, in a rage, raised the iron-tipped staff he carried and struck dead his beloved son, Ivan. The czar never recovered from his terrible act. In March 1584, Ivan IV died while playing a game of chess.

Ivan III the Great

Ivan III the Great

Ivan III, grand duke of Moscow (or, Muscovy), was the first monarch to begin the creation of a recognizable Russian state, earning him the title “Ivan the Great.” Born in 1440, he ascended the throne in 1462 and ruled continuously until his death in 1505, giving Muscovy a stable period for its political evolution.

Some of Ivan’s greatest triumphs took place within Russian territory. Domestically, his greatest achievement was the incorporation of the city of Nizhny Novgorod, also called Lord Novgorod the Great, into the Grand Duchy of Muscovy.

In 1471, Novgorod had made an alliance with Lithuania and Poland, which had been united since the marriage of Queen Jadwiga of Poland to the grand duke Ladislaus Jagiello of Lithuania in 1386. He became king of Poland as Ladislaus II.


Fearing encirclement, Ivan III launched his first attack on Novgorod in 1471, before the Polish king Casimir V could come to the city’s aid. Cowed by the appearance of the Muscovite army, the citizens of Novgorod submitted. However, the boyars (the noble class) were divided between Polish and Muscovite factions, and the division spread throughout the city.

Novgorod held off making simpulan submission to Ivan III until he declared war on Novgorod a second time in November 1478. This time, faced with destruction at his hands, the city capitulated completely to Grand Duke Ivan. The richest city in Russia, made so by its trading, now belonged to the Grand Duchy of Muscovy.

In 1480, Ivan demonstrated a streak of daring that no previous Russian ruler had exhibited. Since the invasions of 1240–41, the Mongols (or Tartars, as the Poles and Russians called them) had been a constant threat to the Russians. During their onslaught of 1240–41, which carried them as far as Poland and Hungary, they burned Kiev to the ground.

Although the age of great Mongol supremacy had passed, the Khanate of the Golden Horde remained one of the most powerful states in Central Asia and eastern Europe. At that time, the khan of the Golden Horde was Ahmed.

Then in 1480, Ivan III refused to pay the annual tribute to Ahmed Khan. Ivan’s determination, in the face of years of fear of the Tartar rampage, marked the real independence of the Russian state from Tartar rule. Ivan made an alliance with the rival Crimean Khanate to make war on Poland, to prevent the Poles from attacking from the west as he confronted the Golden Horde.

Ahmed mustered an army to battle Ivan in September 1480, but just as he was about to fight, he received word that a Muscovite and Crimean Tartar army was headed toward his capital at Sarai. Rather than face Ivan, he withdrew. Such seeming cowardice could not be tolerated in the Golden Horde, and Ahmed was soon assassinated. His place as khan was taken by Shaykh Ahmed in 1481.

The defiance of the Golden Horde led to a renaissance in the Grand Duchy of Muscovy. Ivan felt secure enough to exchange ambassadors with such world powers as the Vatican, Turkey, and the Holy Roman Empire.

Earlier (in 1472) the Vatican under Pope Sixtus IV had given to Ivan as a bride Zoe (Sophia), the daughter of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine Palaeologus, who had died defending his capital of Constantinople from the attack of the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II in May 1454.

It was fitting that when Ivan III died in 1505, he was buried in the Archangel Cathedral in the Kremlin in Moscow, which he had made the first city of Russia, earning the title of Ivan the Great.

Boris Godunov - Russian Czar

Boris Godunov - Russian Czar

Boris Godunov was born in about 1551 and was one of the transitional figures in a nation’s history who keeps the machinery of state running in times of crisis. Godunov first came into prominence as one of the apparatchiks of Ivan IV (the Terrible), who helped that czar organize his social and administrative system.

This must have also clandestinely involved operating the oprichnina, the secret state police that Ivan used to keep his realm in a state of terror. The oprichniki, as they were called, used to ride through Russia with wolves’ heads tethered to their saddles to frighten the population into submission.

Ivan IV died in 1584 at the height of his power, having carried on a long correspondence with none other than Queen Elizabeth I of England. In the year after his death, the Cossack Yermak died in Siberia, but not before starting the massive Russian drang nach osten (drive to the east) that would take the Russians to the shores of the Pacific Ocean.


There they established the city of Vladivostok. When Ivan died, his son Theodore succeeded him to the throne as Theodore I. Theodore charged Boris with leading the Russian counterattack again Kuchum, the Siberian khan who had killed Yermak. Under Boris’s firm military hand, the Russians built two fortified trading posts at Tobolsk and Tyumen to guard their new frontier in Siberia.

Theodore’s younger brother, Dimitri, died in 1591, and Theodore followed him in 1598. Whatever scruples the Russians may have had in the deaths of Ivan’s two sons, they were willing to sacrifice everything on the altar of expediency.

Caught between a hostile Poland and Ottoman Turkey, they needed a strong man in the Kremlin to guide the affairs of the state, and Boris seemed the most likely candidate. Any doubts about Boris’s suitability to rule had been washed away in the year of Dimitri’s death. In that year, a vast horde of 150,000 Tartars swept out of the Crimean Khanate.

Khan Ghazi Gerei II was determined to destroy Russia before it could attack the Crimea. On July 4, 1591, outside Moscow Boris met the Tartars with a fraction of the Russian army. The muskets and artillery held by Boris and his commander, Prince Theodore Mstislavsky, wreaked terrible slaughter as thousands of Tartars were killed or wounded. The next day, Godunov and Mstislavsky launched a furious pursuit of the panicstricken Tartars, marking the beginning of the decline of the Crimean Khanate.

To the Russian people, Boris was obviously the man to lead them, and he was raised to be czar by the Russian Great Assembly in February 1598. Constantly insecure on his throne, Boris feared one family among the boyars—the Romanovs. Ivan IV’s first wife, Anastasia, had been a member of the Romanov family and had been the wife of Theodore I.

With the death of Theodore I, the Riurik dynasty became extinct, and the Romanovs had an excellent claim on the throne. In June 1601, Boris moved against the Romanovs, taking their lands and banishing them from Moscow. He continued efforts to modernize the medieval Grand Duchy of Muscovy into the Russian empire. The Russian Orthodox Church was formally organized, and Boris continued a policy of peace in the west.

In 1604, Boris faced a new danger. A challenger to the throne, known as the False Dimitri, appeared, supported by the Poles, who were determined to weaken the growing Russian state. Dmitri claimed to be the son of Ivan come back to claim his father’s throne. People rallied to him.

The Cossacks, always looking for an opportunity for a good fight and loot, joined his cause. In spring 1604, Boris’s brother and minister of the interior, Simeon, led a force against the Cossacks. However, he was defeated by them and sent back with the message that the Cossacks would soon enough arrive with the real czar—Dimitri.

In November 1604, Dimitri committed a grave tactical mistake. Rather than pressing on to take Moscow, he committed his army to the prolonged siege of the city of Novgorod Seversk. The commander of Novgorod Seversk, Peter Basamov, managed to defeat all attempts to take the town. On January 20, 1605, battle erupted.

None could make headway against the closely mustered musketeers and artillery of Boris’s army. However, in a major tactical blunder, the leaders of Boris’s relief army squandered their victory. Rather than pursue the enemy into the steppes, they instead decided on punishing the cities that had sworn allegiance to the false czar.

Suddenly in April 1605, Czar Boris died; many suspected he had been poisoned. In May 1605, Peter Basamov, the defender of Novgorod Seversk, swore allegiance to Dimitri. With Peter’s support, Dimitri entered Moscow in triumph. Both Dimitri and Basamov would be killed. Foreign invasion and internal dissent continued to tear apart the Russian state.

Cossacks

Cossacks

The Cossacks originally settled in the southern steppes of Europe and into Russia. As early as 1380, the Cossacks along the Don River are recorded as fighting with the Russian grand duke Dmitri against the Mongols. On September 8, 1380, Dmitri won a decisive victory over the Mongols at Kulikovo by the Don River, effectively marking the end of Mongol rule over much of Russia.

By the 16th century, the Cossacks had merged into two large autonomous bands, the Don Cossacks and the Zaporojie, who lived along the bends of the river Dnieper. (Zaporojie is translated as “below the bend in the river.”) Other historians have pointed to additional areas of Cossack settlement as time progressed, including areas in which entire settlements of Cossacks resided.

While surrounded by the power of the growing Russian state of Poland in addition to the Crimean Tartars (or Mongols), the Cossacks still managed to keep a large measure of independence because of their military prowess.

Many serfs, or slaves, ran off to join the Cossacks because the measure of freedom enjoyed under the Cossack leaders (called atamans or hetmans) was not found anywhere else in Russia or East Europe during that period. The word Cossack is derived from the Turkic term kazak, meaning “free man.”


Most of the Cossacks were of Slavic descent, and the majority Christian, usually of the Russian Orthodox faith. The Cossacks were governed by the Rada, or Legislative Assembly, led by the ataman. During wartime, the ataman served as the supreme war commander.

The Cossacks realized that keeping their freedom meant keeping their military skills at a high degree of readiness. Their lifestyle reflected the influence of the Mongols before them. Boys were given weapons almost as soon as they could hold them and taught to ride sometimes before they could even walk.

Indeed, the main strength of the Cossacks came from the quick charges they could execute on their horses. The atamans staged sham battles with the younger boys to accustom them to a military life from as early an age as possible. Brave and daring boys were noticed by the leader and were marked from an early age for advancement.

Cossacks began to use their centralized position to raid the domains of the nations growing around them, although most of their attacks were directed toward the Muslim Tartars of the Crimea and the Turks of the Ottoman Empire. At the same time, when the frontiers of the powers in East Europe were so fluid, each county could see the value of the Cossacks as frontier troops, perfectly suited to counter raiders from enemy lands.

centralized position

In 1569, Poland and Lithuania formally became the Union of Lublin. Lithuanian grand duke Jogaila ruled the united monarchy as Ladislas (Władysław) II Jagiello, first of the Jagiello dynasty. The pact that set the state for his marriage to the queen of Poland stipulated that he become a Roman Catholic, the religion of Poland.

In 1596, the Union of Brest united the Russian Orthodoxy of Lithuania with the Roman Catholicism of Poland to form what was known as the Uniate Church. The Uniate Church began a persecution of Orthodox believers who would not convert, and perhaps thousands fled to the Sech Commonwealth of the Cossacks.

In 1645, Ladislas IV sought to involve the Cossacks, who by now were within the boundaries of Polish power, in war against the Ottoman Empire. When his plans were revealed, the Cossacks feared becoming the scapegoats for the two countries.

In addition to the continued persecution of the Orthodox Church, the exposure of Ladislas’s secret treaty led the Cossacks under Bohdan Khmelnitsky to rise up against Poland in 1648, the very year that the Treaty of Westphalia sought to bring peace to Europe by ending the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48).

Khemelnitski formed an alliance with the Tartars and the Zaporojie Cossacks and led an invasion of Poland. Polish serfs rose up when Khmelnitski approached. For six years, the rebellion ravaged Poland and the Ukraine. Thousands of Poles and Jews were massacred in some of the most savage butchery ever seen in Europe.

Finally in 1654, seeing that the destruction of the Polish Kingdom was beyond his means, Khmelnitski took the irrevocable step of making an alliance with Czar Alexei, the second of the Romanov dynasty. Tragically for the Cossacks’ love of freedom, Khmelnitski had exchanged one master for another, the Polish king for a Russian czar.

Under the Romanovs, the 17th century saw a tightening of the control of Russia over the Cossacks. The Russians saw the Cossacks as excellent troops to be used against the Ottoman Turkish Empire.

The Cossacks carried out fierce raids against the Tartars and in 1663, Turkish sultan Mohammed IV sent a large army against the Zaporojie Cossacks. Although the Zaporozhians were asleep after a drinking bout, one aroused himself in time to see the Turks approaching. Incredibly, the Cossacks were able to fend off their attackers and force them to retreat.

Eventually, the tension between Russian rule and the Cossacks’ desire for freedom led to the rebellion of Stephan (Stenka) Razin in the last years of Czar Alexei’s reign. Razin turned against the Russians in 1670, beginning what became a full-fledged Cossack revolt.

Although many Cossacks joined him, others allied themselves with the Russians, whose disciplined troops soon crushed Razin’s uprising at Simbirsk. After undergoing torture in Moscow, Razin was beheaded in 1671. Ever after, he became a symbol of Russian resistance to tyranny.

The son of Czar Alexei, Peter I, or Peter the Great, recognized the military potential of the Cossacks, despite their rebelliousness. In 1696, Peter seized the Black Sea port of Azov from the Turks, thanks to his Cossack allies.

The greatest test of Peter’s reign came in the Great Northern War against King Charles XII of Sweden (1700–21). Ivan Mazeppa was the leading Cossack hetman at the time, and he reestablished the Cossacks as an important factor in eastern European affairs, balancing the ambitions of Poland and Russia.

When Peter decisively defeated Charles at Poltava in July, Mazeppa was forced to flee. Mazeppa died of natural causes in September 1709, before Peter could catch him. After Mazeppa, the Cossacks became a part of the Russian Army, even raiding Berlin in the army of Czarina Elizabeth during the Seven Years’ War (1756–63) against Frederick II of Prussia.

rebelliousness

However, the Cossacks’ love of liberty would lead to one more rebellion before the close of the 18th century. When Elizabeth died in 1762, her son Peter III was overthrown and killed in a palace coup by his wife, Catherine. Catherine, who would be known to history as Catherine the Great, was faced in September 1773 with the rebellion of the Don Cossack Emelian Pugachev.

To the serfs of Russia, little better than slaves, Pugachev seemed to be their champion, as he fought against the oppressing landlords. In March of 1774, Pugachev was defeated by Catherine’s troops at Orenburg; as was Razin, he was executed by beheading.

The rebellion of Pugachev was the last real defiance against the loss of the Cossacks’ liberty. It is one of the great ironies of history that in later years, the Cossacks would become some of the most ruthless defenders of the Russian despotism against which they once had fought so bravely.

Yaroslav the Wise

Yaroslav the Wise

Also called Iaroslav, or Yaroslav Mudryi in Russian, Yaroslav the Wise was grand prince of Kiev from 1019 to 1054, one of the brightest representatives of the Riurykide (Rurikovich) dynasty, who was best known in eastern European history as a powerful leader of the early centralized Kievan Rus state. He was the son of Grand Prince Vladimir I (Volodymyr) (Vladimir the Great).

He is also recognized as a skillful administrator, military leader, and diplomat who put the Kievan Rus state on the political map of medieval Europe as one of the important powers of his era. At the end of Yaroslav’s rule in Rostov (c. 988–c. 1010) the new city of Yaroslav (about 100 miles from Rostov) was established in his honor. He was then sent to rule the city of Novgorod in the northern part of Kievan Rus.

Yaroslav preferred to use Viking (Varangian) mercenaries in Novgorod (the Riurykide dynasty, in fact, was of Viking descent). The Vikings, the privileged and favorites of the prince, were cruel and violent toward locals. In 1014 Yaroslav decided not to pay tribute to his father, Grand Prince Vladimir. The angry father prepared to fight his son but soon died of illness.


After the death of Vladimir, his eldest son, Svyatopolk, decided to win the throne of Kiev. To prevent his brothers from ascension to the throne, Svyatopolk killed Boris, Gleb, and Svyatoslav and acquired the throne. Svyatopolk, who became known as the Accursed (Okayannyi in Russian) for killing his own brothers, was very unpopular among ordinary citizens, soldiers, and the nobility in Kiev.

Yaroslav, whose life was spared by the distance between Kiev and Novgorod, challenged Svyatopolk. He relied greatly on the help of Viking mercenaries as well as on citizens of Novgorod who were more than happy to assist him in his battle against Svyatopolk the Accursed. After a long battle with Svyatopolk, Yaroslav defeated him and seized power in 1016.

Svyatopolk escaped to Poland. The Polish king Boleslas, interested in helping Svyatopolk in exchange for territorial concessions, sent his troops to Kiev. Yaroslav was defeated in a bitter battle in 1017 and escaped to Novgorod. By 1019 he gathered more troops from Novgorod.

In a decisive battle he defeated his brother and became the grand prince of Kievan Rus. It took him about two decades to assert his authority over some remote parts of his country, since he fought with another brother, Mstislav. From 1036 Yaroslav was the sole ruler of Kievan Rus.

Yaroslav ruled Kievan Rus for about 35 years, consolidating political and economic power and making the city of Kiev one of the greatest cultural centers in eastern Europe. He was notable for his military achievements, as he defeated the powerful and destructive nomadic Pechenegs on the Kievan southern frontier in 1036–37.

Yaroslav statue

In a series of campaigns on the western frontier in the 1030s and 1040s he weakened the Polish state, won the province of Galicia from Poland, and expanded his possessions in the Baltic region by subduing Estonians, Lithuanians, and other tribal confederations. He also attempted to challenge the political dominance of the Byzantine Empire in southeastern Europe but was defeated at Constantinople in 1043.

The cultural and religious development of Kievan Rus was greatly advanced by Yaroslav during his rule. He promoted the spread of Christianity, which was formally introduced by his father, Vladimir, in 988. A considerable number of religious and some secular books were brought from the Byzantine Empire and were translated from Greek to the Old Slavonic and Old Church Slavonic languages.

It is important to highlight that the close religious ties of Yaroslav with the Byzantine Church contributed to the future isolation of Russia from the Roman Catholic Church and consequently from Latin civilization. Yaroslav understood the significance of art. He encouraged Byzantine artists and artisans, especially architects, to settle in his capital.

New churches were built, and the first Russian monasteries were established during the reign of Yaroslav to signify the central role of the Christian church in the state. The monumental cathedral of St. Sophia and the Golden Gate of the Kievan Fortress became the most famous examples of the Kievan architecture. Under the order of Yaroslav, the country’s legal system was codifi ed and completed with publication of the legal code called Yaroslav’s Justice (Pravda Yaroslava in Slavic).

Yaroslav was continuously replacing tribal leaders with his own associates and vigorously persecuting pagan leaders and suppressing paganism. These actions further contributed to transformation of the East Slavic tribal confederations into a dynamic feudal state and strengthened positions of the religious clergy in the political affairs. In 1051 Yaroslav appointed the local metropolitan Illarion for the first time without the participation of Constantinople.

Yaroslav pursued a very active foreign policy; he supported and promoted international trade. Russian merchants successfully traded as far as the Byzantine Empire, France, Hungary, Norway, and Persia.

He built alliances with several central European and western powers through dynastic marriages, as his daughter Elizabeth was married to Harald III of Norway, daughter Anna to Henry I of France, and Anastasia to Andrew I of Hungary. Yaroslav was married to a Swedish princess and his sister married a Byzantine prince. This cemented the high prestige of the Kievan Rus state, and Yaroslav’s dynasty in Europe.

Yaroslav died in 1054, respected as a successful builder of the centralized Kievan Rus state. In his will he divided his domain among his five sons, entrusting the Kievan throne to his eldest son, Izaslav. However the state was ripped apart very soon after Yaroslav’s death by his ambitious, but not farsighted sons.