Russia A History Page 4
An even more destructive conflict commenced after the death in 1167 of Grand Prince Rostislav Mstislavich (who had appropriately succeeded his uncle Iurii). When a member of the next generation (Mstislav Iziaslavich, the prince of Volhynia) attempted to seize the throne, a coalition of princes formed to oppose him. Led by Iurii’s son Andrei Bogoliubskii, it represented the senior generation of eligible princes, but also included the sons of the late Grand Prince Rostislav and the princes of Chernigov. The conflict culminated in 1169, when Andrei’s sons led a campaign that resulted in the flight of Mstislav Iziaslavich and the sack of Kiev. Andrei’s brother Gleb, as prince of Pereiaslavl (traditionally the main seat of the house of Monomakh), became grand prince of Kiev.
Prince Andrei personified the growing tensions between the increasingly powerful principalities of Kievan Rus and their centre Kiev. As prince of Vladimir-Suzdal, he concentrated on the development of Vladimir and challenged the primacy of Kiev by building the Church of the Dormition in 1158 and his own Golden Gate. He also constructed his own palace complex of Bogoliubovo outside Vladimir, conducted campaigns against the Volga Bulgars, celebrated a victory over them in 1165 by building the Church of the Intercession nearby on the Nerl river, and extended his influence over Novgorod. Andrei used his power and resources, however, to defend the principle of generational seniority in the succession to Kiev. But his victory was short-lived: when Gleb died in 1171, Andrei’s coalition failed in its attempt to secure the throne for another of his brothers. The renewed struggle ended instead with a prince from the Chernigov line on the Kievan throne; his reign and the accompanying dynastic peace lasted until 1194.
By the turn of the century, eligibility for the Kievan throne was confined to three main lines: princes of Volhynia, Smolensk, and Chernigov. When the prince of Volhynia (representing the junior generation) claimed the throne, the rules of eligibility and succession were temporarily waived due to the sheer power that he was able to muster. Although the primacy of the senior generation was restored upon his death in 1205, new rivalries emerged. By the mid-1230s, princes of Chernigov and Smolensk were locked in a prolonged conflict over Kiev. But in this case the combatants were of the same generation and each was the son of a grand prince; dynastic traditions were offering little guidance for determining which prince had seniority.
The dynastic contests of the early thirteenth century had serious consequences. During the hostilities Kiev was sacked twice more, in 1203 and 1235. The strife revealed the divergence between the southern and western principalities (which were deeply enmeshed in the conflicts) and those of the north and east (which were indifferent). Intradynastic conflict, compounded by the lack of cohesion among the components of Kievan Rus, undermined the system of shared power that had previously ensured the integrity of the realm. Kievan Rus was thus left without effective defences when it had to face a new, overwhelming threat from the steppe—the Mongols.
The Rus Principalities under Mongol Domination
In 1237–40, the Mongols extended their empire, founded by Genghis Khan, over the lands of Rus. Their first victim was the north-eastern principality of Riazan. After besieging and sacking its capital, the Mongols next destroyed the fortified outpost of Moscow and then advanced northward towards the capital of the main principality in the north-east, Vladimir. By the time they arrived there in early February 1238, its prince, Iurii Vsevolodich, had left the city to gather an army; meeting little resistance, the invaders laid siege, stormed, and sacked Vladimir as well as the neighbouring town of Suzdal. When Prince Iurii belatedly brought up his army to face the Mongols, it suffered a crushing defeat in a battle on the Sit river (4 March 1238). The Mongols then proceeded westward towards Novgorod, but broke off their campaign to summer in the steppe. The following winter they subdued the Polovtsy and the peoples of the North Caucasus.
The Mongols resumed their assault on the lands of Rus in 1239, when they conquered Pereiaslavl (March) and Chernigov (October). A year later, after conducting additional campaigns in the steppe and the Caucasus, they laid siege to Kiev. The date of its fall—December 1240—marks the collapse of Kievan Rus. The Mongols continued their advance westward, subduing Galicia and Volhynia and pressing into Poland and Hungary. They halted their advance only in September 1242, when their leader Batu was recalled to Mongolia for the selection of a new great khan.
The Mongol campaigns devastated the lands of Kievan Rus. Among its major towns, Riazan, Vladimir, and Suzdal in the north-east, and Pereiaslavl, Chernigov, and Kiev in the southwest had been severely damaged. The ruling élite was also decimated. At the Battle of Sit alone, Prince Iurii Vsevolodich, three sons, and two nephews had all been killed. The invaders also ravaged the villages and fields in their path; peasants who were not slain or enslaved fled to safer locales. Where the Mongols passed, farming, trade, and handicrafts ceased. The Mongol invasion shattered the economic vitality and cultural vibrancy characteristic of Kievan Rus.
The Mongol invasion, however, did not disturb all the norms and traditions of the Kievan Rus. The devastation was neither ubiquitous nor total. In the north-east some towns, such as Rostov, Tver, and Iaroslavl, had not been touched. Although initially strained by the influx of refugees, these communities ultimately benefited economically from the labour and skills brought by their new residents. Novgorod, which similarly escaped the Mongol onslaught, continued to engage in commercial exchanges with its Baltic trading partners and import vital goods, including silver, to the Rus lands.
Lines of authority also remained unbroken: the metropolitan of Kiev and all Rus was still the leader of the Orthodox community, and the Riurikid dynasty remained the ruling house of Rus. While the Mongols pursued their westward campaign, the Riurikid princes were left to restore order, organize recovery efforts, and attempt to avert further invasion and destruction. They followed dynastic custom: the senior surviving prince of the eldest generation assumed the highest position in the northeast. When Prince Iurii Vsevolodich of Vladimir was killed at the Battle of Sit, his brother Iaroslav succeeded to his throne; their younger brothers, sons, and nephews assumed the thrones of other principalities—Suzdal, Starodub, Rostov, and Novgorod—in accordance with the dynastic rules of succession. In the southwestern principalities the princes of Volhynia and Chernigov similarly resumed their former seats.
The distribution of lands and resources among the remaining princes facilitated effective defensive measures against other foes. As early as July 1240 Prince Alexander, son of Prince Iaroslav Vsevolodich, earned the epithet ‘Nevsky’ by defeating the Swedes in a battle on the Neva river, thereby repulsing their attempt to seize control over Novgorod’s routes to the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea. In another battle at Lake Peipus in 1242, he halted an eastward drive of the Teutonic Knights, who had been threatening the frontiers of Novgorod and Pskov.
When Batu returned to the steppe, he organized his realm as the Kipchak khanate or Desht-i-Kipchak, but commonly called the Golden Horde. It encompassed not only the Rus principalities but the steppe lands, extending from the Danube river in the west through the northern Caucasus and across the Volga river to the Sea of Aral. Its capital was Sarai, built on the lower Volga river. The Golden Horde constituted one component of the much larger Mongol Empire, which, at its peak, spanned an area stretching from Rus, Persia, and Iraq in the west to China and the Pacific Ocean in the east. The khans of the Golden Horde were subordinate to the great khan of the Mongol Empire (at least until the end of the thirteenth century), and their policies were shaped by imperial politics and their interactions with other components of the empire.
These factors influenced the nature of the khans’ relationships with the Riurikid princes. The khans assumed the right to confirm the Riurikid princes’ right to rule; to obtain a patent of authority (iarlyk), each prince had to present himself before the khan in symbolic recognition of his suzerainty. But to accomplish their broader goals, the khans also demanded from the Rus princes obedience and tribute—initially in
the form of men, livestock, furs, and other valuable products, later in silver. The Church also recognized the khan as the supreme secular authority in Rus.
The practice of issuing patents reflected the new association of the Riurikid princes with the Mongol khans; that association gradually altered the political, especially dynastic, structures inherited from Kievan Rus. In 1243 Batu issued a patent to Iaroslav Vsevolodich to rule in Vladimir; similarly, c.1245, he confirmed Daniil Romanovich as prince of Galicia and Volhynia. Only Mikhail of Chernigov, the last of the Riurikids to go to the horde, met a different fate: when he refused to perform the rituals of obeisance, the khan had him executed (September 1246). The Riurikids confirmed in office, however, collaborated with the khan and his agents (baskaki) in the implementation of his orders and policies. And, when Riurikid princes competed for seniority, they appealed to the khan for arbitration and support. Thus, when Prince Alexander Nevsky’s brother Andrei seized the throne of Vladimir from their uncle in 1248, and later conspired with Daniil of Galicia and Volhynia against the Mongols, Alexander turned to the Mongols for support. By placing Alexander (the elder of the two brothers) on the throne, the khan was upholding dynastic custom. Alexander subsequently obediently served the Mongol khan: he not only helped to remove his brother, but forced Novgorod in 1259 to submit to a Mongol census that then became the basis for tribute collection.
When Alexander Nevsky died in 1263, the khan passed over the rebellious Andrei (who had become prince of Suzdal), and conferred the office of grand prince on their younger brothers—first Iaroslav Iaroslavich (d. 1271/2), then Vasilii (d. 1277). When the throne passed to the next generation, however, Alexander Nevsky’s sons competed to become grand prince of Vladimir. Like their father, they each appealed to the Mongols for help. But the horde itself was engaged in a power struggle that lasted through the 1280s and 1290s. As a result, Mongol support was divided: Alexander’s eldest son and legitimate heir received a patent and military assistance from Nogai, a powerful Mongol chieftain in the western portion of the horde’s lands, while his younger brother obtained the support of the khan at Sarai. The contest lasted until the elder brother died in 1294, and the younger legitimately succeeded to the throne. By 1299 the Mongols’ internal dissension ended with the military triumph of Khan Tokhta, the death of Nogai, and reassertion of the khan’s authority over the entire horde.
Even as Nevsky’s two sons waged their battles, two other princes—their younger brother Daniil and their cousin Mikhail Iaroslavich of Tver—emerged as influential political figures in north-eastern Rus. With Daniil’s death in 1303, followed by that of the grand prince in 1304, the throne of Vladimir passed with the approval of the khan to the next eligible member of their generation—Mikhail of Tver. But then a radically new situation arose. The princes of Moscow refused to recognize Mikhail. Under the leadership of Prince Iurii Daniilovich they went to war against him in 1305 and again in 1308. In 1313 Mikhail went to pay obeisance to the new Khan Uzbek. In his absence Iurii extended his own influence over Novgorod, whose commercial wealth was critical for satisfying the khan’s demand for tribute. When summoned to appear before the khan and account for his behaviour, Iurii deftly used his new resources to outbid and outbribe Mikhail. He not only avoided punishment, but won the hand of Uzbek’s sister in marriage as well as the patent for the throne of Vladimir. For his refusal to acquiesce Mikhail was recalled to the horde and in 1318 he was executed. Iurii held the throne of Vladimir until 1322.
According to dynastic rules, however, Prince Iurii of Moscow lacked legitimacy; his authority depended solely on the endorsement and military support of Uzbek. The khan’s favour was contingent upon Iurii’s ability to perform his functions as senior prince—to collect and deliver the tribute from Rus. But Iurii did not have the support of all the Riurikids; four times in as many years Uzbek had to dispatch military expeditions to assist his brother-in-law, and in 1322 he returned the throne of Vladimir to the legitimate heir, Alexander of Tver. Five years later an anti-Mongol uprising in Tver forced Alexander to flee. In the aftermath Iurii’s brother Ivan (known later as ‘Ivan Kalita’ or ‘Money-bags’) secured the Vladimir throne. With the exception of a few brief interludes later in the fourteenth century, the princes of Moscow retained the position of grand prince until their dynastic line expired at the end of the sixteenth century.
By the time the princes of Moscow had gained seniority in northern Rus, the south-western principalities were wholly detached. Like their northern neighbours, they too had recognized the suzerainty of the Golden Horde after the Mongol invasion. But by the middle of the fourteenth century, Galicia and Volhynia had been absorbed into the realms of Poland and Lithuania. During the following decades Lithuania added Kiev, Chernigov, and Smolensk to its domain as well. The lands of Rus lost their territorial integrity.
Simultaneously, the unity of the metropolitanate was also being threatened. Despite the broadening political gulf between the northern and south-western principalities, they had all continued to form a single ecclesiastical community. After Metropolitan Maxim moved from Kiev to the north-east in 1299, however, the unity of the see was repeatedly challenged. First, the prince of Galicia secured the establishment of a short-lived metropolitanate (c.1303–8); later, the rulers of Poland and Lithuania urged the creation of separate metropolitanates for the Orthodox inhabitants of the lands they had incorporated. Church patriarchs established a series of sees (c.1315–1340s), but under pressure from the metropolitans in north-eastern Rus, disbanded each of them.
Thus, a century after the Mongols destroyed Kiev, the institutions that had given cohesion both to Kievan Rus and to the post-invasion principalities were crumbling. The state had fragmented, and the unity of the Church was in jeopardy. Furthermore, the dynasty’s complex rules of seniority and succession had been supplanted by the authority of the khans, who had begun to confer the throne of Vladimir not on the dynasty’s legitimate heirs—the senior, eligible princes—but on the princes most likely to fulfil their demands: the Daniilovichi of Moscow.
The Foundations of Muscovy
Daniilovich rule was not automatically accepted by the rest of the dynasty. Although the legitimate heir, Alexander of Tver, had been soundly defeated, opponents of Daniilovich dominance surfaced repeatedly through the fourteenth century. Their pressure compelled the Muscovite princes to adopt policies aimed at retaining Mongol favour, neutralizing the dynastic opposition, and developing domestic sources of legitimacy. As a result of such efforts to stay in power, they also strengthened their own territorial, economic, and military base. The Daniilovichi thus transformed the distribution of power in the lands of northern Rus and laid the foundations for a new state—Muscovy.
The adversaries of the Daniilovichi were also Riurikids. Their domains, known as apanages (udely), had been carved out of older, larger principalities in accordance with a custom, dating from the Kievan Rus era, of subdividing the lands ruled by a dynastic branch to accommodate all its members and also to share the responsibilities for administration and defence. The practice was particularly pronounced among the Rostov clan, whose lands were carved into numerous apanages, including Iaroslavl, Beloozero, and Ustiug. The apanage princes of Rostov joined the various coalitions against the Daniilovichi and in support of the legitimate princes from the house of Tver.
Their protests, however, made virtually no impression on the Mongol khans, who maintained the Moscow princes—Ivan Daniilovich, then his sons Semen (ruled 1341–53) and Ivan II (ruled 1353–9)—in power. Only once did an anti-Daniilovich coalition achieve success: when Ivan II died and the Golden Horde itself entered a period of internal conflict, a coalition secured the confirmation of the prince of Suzdal as grand prince. Within three years, however, the Moscow line in the person of Dmitrii Ivanovich (later known as Dmitrii Donskoi) had recovered the Vladimir throne.
Although the Mongol khans paid little attention to them, the Daniilovichi themselves did respond to their dynastic opponents. One strate
gy they adopted to neutralize them was to form marital alliances. Ivan I arranged marriages for his daughters with the sons of two of his most vocal opponents, the princes of Beloozero and Iaroslavl; his niece became the wife of Prince Konstantin Mikhailovich of Tver, a champion of the anti-Daniilovich group. Ivan’s son Semen married the daughter of the late Alexander of Tver despite the Church’s disapproval of this, his third marriage. In 1366 Prince Dmitrii followed the pattern by marrying the daughter of his former rival, the prince of Suzdal. These marriages, all concluded with dynastic branches whose members had been reluctant to recognize the predominance of Moscow, created bonds of kinship and alliance. Although they could not transform the Daniilovichi into the senior dynastic line, they did have the effect of elevating the Daniilovichi’s informal status with their in-laws and, thereby, helped to mute, if not completely neutralize, their opposition.
Another strategy adopted by the Daniilovichi was to subordinate princes from other branches of the dynasty and simultaneously to expand their own territorial domain. The Moscow princes ruled two sets of territories: lands that belonged to their patrimony (otchina) of Moscow and lands that were attached to the grand principality of Vladimir. Even before they became grand princes of Vladimir the princes of Moscow had extended their realm to include Serpukhov, Kolomna, and Mozhaisk; through the fourteenth century they continued to acquire new territories and add them to their patrimonial domain. Ivan Kalita is credited with aggressively expanding his family’s domain and acquiring the principalities of Beloozero and Uglich (formerly Rostov apanages) and Galich. His grandson, Dmitrii Donskoi, consolidated control over Galich, absorbed the principality of Starodub, and also brought the independent principality of Rostov under his influence.
Territorial expansion provided a variety of assets and advantages. One was control over rivers, which had strategic as well as commercial value. By acquiring Serpukhov, Kolomna, and Mozhaisk, Muscovy encompassed the entire length of the Moscow river as well as the segment of the Oka between Kolomna and Serpukhov that formed the southern boundary of the principality. Dmitrii Donskoi later sponsored the construction of walled monasteries at these towns and, thereby, fortified the border. The Moscow princes also controlled a significant section of the Volga river from Kostroma (part of the grand principality of Vladimir) to Nizhnii Novgorod. The principality of Uglich, located between two of the remaining independent principalities, Iaroslavl and Tver, contained another segment of the Volga. Remote from the main body of Moscow’s holdings were Beloozero and the independent but subordinate principality of Ustiug, which commanded the main trade routes that spanned the lands of the north.