The results of the feudal war of the 15th century. Great feudal war

In 1395 the Central Asian ruler Timur, who made 25 campaigns, the conqueror of Central Asia, Siberia, Persia, Baghdad, Damascus, India, Turkey - defeated the Golden Horde and moved to Moscow. Basil I(1389-1425) gathered a militia to repulse the enemy. The intercessor of Russia was brought to Moscow - Icon of Our Lady of Vladimir . When the icon was already near Moscow, Timur unexpectedly abandoned the campaign against Russia. The legend connected the miracle of the deliverance of Moscow with the intercession of the Mother of God.

Feudal warfare of the 15th century (1433-1453)

The strife, called the Feudal War of the 15th century, began after the death of Vasily I. By the end of the 14th century, several specific possessions were formed in the Moscow principality, which belonged to the sons of Dmitry Donskoy. The largest of them were Galician (Kostroma region) and Zvenigorodskoe, which were received by the youngest son of Dmitry Donskoy Yuri. According to Dmitry's will, he was supposed to inherit the grand throne after his brother Vasily I. However, the will was written when Vasily I had no children yet. Vasily I handed over the throne to his son, ten-year-old Vasily II (1425-1462).

Yuri Dmitrievich, as the eldest in the princely family, began the struggle for the grand prince's throne with his nephew. After the death of Yuri, the struggle was continued by his sons - Vasily Kosoy and Dmitry Shemyaka. First, the clash of princes is associated with the "old right" of inheritance from brother to brother. But already after the death of Yuri in 1434, it was a clash of supporters and opponents of state centralization. The Moscow prince advocated political centralization, the Galich prince represented the forces of feudal separatism.

The struggle went on according to all the "rules of the Middle Ages", that is, blinding, and poisoning, and deceit, and conspiracies were used. Twice Yuri captured Moscow, but could not stay in it. Opponents of centralization achieved their highest success under Dmitry Shemyak, who was briefly the Grand Duke of Moscow.

Only after the Moscow boyars and the church finally took the side Basil II the Dark(blinded by his political opponents, like Vasily Kosoy), Shemyaka fled to Novgorod, where he died. The feudal war ended with the victory of the forces of centralization. By the end of the reign of Vasily II, the possessions of the Moscow principality had increased 30 times compared to the beginning of the 14th century. The Moscow Principality included Murom (1343), Nizhny Novgorod (1393) and a number of lands on the outskirts of Russia.

Russia and the Union of Florence.

The refusal of Vasily II to recognize the union speaks about the strength of the grand ducal power ( union) between the Catholic and Orthodox churches under the leadership of the pope, concluded in Florence in 1439. The pope imposed this union on Russia under the pretext of saving the Byzantine Empire from conquest by the Ottomans. Metropolitan of Russia Greek Isidore who supported the union was deposed. A bishop of Ryazan was elected in his place Iona, whose candidacy was proposed by Vasily P. This marked the beginning of the independence of the Russian Church from the Patriarch of Constantinople (autocephaly). And after the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453, the choice of the head of the Russian church was already determined in Moscow.

Summing up the development of Russia in the first two centuries after the Mongol ruin, it can be argued that as a result of the heroic creative and military labor of the Russian people during the XIV and the first half of the XV centuries. conditions were created for the creation of a single state and the overthrow of the Golden Horde yoke. The struggle for the great reign was already underway, as the feudal war of the second quarter of the 15th century showed, not between separate principalities, but within the Moscow princely house. The Orthodox Church actively supported the struggle for the unity of the Russian lands. The process of formation of the Russian state with the capital in Moscow has become irreversible.

This video lesson is intended for self-acquaintance with the topic “Rus in the second quarter of the 15th century. feudal war. Vasily II. From it, students will be able to learn about the causes of the war - the death of Dmitry Donskoy and the reign of Vasily I. Next, the teacher will talk about the policy of all the rulers of the second quarter of the 15th century.

Topic: Russia in the XIV - the first half of the XV centuries

Lesson: Russia in the second quarter15th century feudal war. BasilII

1. Basil's reignI (1389-1425)

After the death of Dmitry Donskoy, his 15-year-old son Vasily I (1389-1425) occupied the thrones of Moscow and the Grand Duke, who successfully continued his father's policy of uniting the Russian lands. In 1392-1395. Nizhny Novgorod, Gorodets, Tarusa, Suzdal and Murom were annexed to Moscow. At the same time, the Grand Duke of Moscow began a war with Novgorod, during which he captured Torzhok, Volokolamsk and Vologda. True, the following year, having been defeated by the Novgorodians, Vasily was forced to return the Dvina land, but the most important shopping centers - Torzhok and Volokolamsk - remained with Moscow.

At the same time, Vasily I, taking advantage of the new “zamyatna” in the Horde, broke off tributary relations with the Tatars and stopped paying the hateful “Horde exit” to Sarai. But in 1408, one of the former emirs of Tamerlane, Edigei, who became the Khan of the Golden Horde, made a devastating raid on Russia and forced Moscow to resume paying tribute.

In 1406-1408. an unsuccessful Russian-Lithuanian war took place, during which Smolensk fell out of Moscow's sphere of influence for a whole century.

Rice. 1. Muscovite-Lithuanian war 1406-1408

The second half of the reign of Vasily I was not rich in events, except for a new war with Novgorod (1417), as a result of which Moscow annexed Vologda.

2. Feudal war and the reign of BasilII (1425-1462)

The process of political unification of the Russian lands around Moscow was significantly influenced by the feudal war of the second quarter of the 14th century, the causes of which many historians (L. Cherepnin, A. Zimin) traditionally saw as a dynastic crisis. The essence of the problem was this: for a long time in Russia there was a tribal order of succession to the throne, but after the famous plague epidemic of 1353, during which most members of the grand-ducal family died, it naturally transformed into a family order, which was not legally fixed anywhere. Moreover, according to the will of Dmitry Donskoy (1389), his sons Vasily and Yuri were to inherit his throne in turn. However, Grand Duke Vasily I, violating his father's will, transferred the throne to his 10-year-old son Vasily II (1425-1462), and not to his younger brother Yuri Zvenigorodsky (1374-1434).

Rice. 2. Monument to Yuri Zvenigorodsky ()

At the same time, Professor A. Kuzmin, the greatest connoisseur of Russian history, rightly points out that the cause of this war lay not only in the dynastic crisis. More significant was the fact that the actual ruler of Russia under Vasily II was his grandfather, the great Lithuanian prince Vitovt (1392-1430), which caused sharp rejection among many specific princes and boyars who united around Yuri Zvenigorodsky and his sons.

When studying the feudal war in Russia in historical science, they traditionally argued over two key issues:

1) what was the chronological framework of this war;

2) what was this war.

In the historical literature, one can find completely different chronological frames of this war, in particular, 1430-1453, 1433-1453. and 1425-1446. However, most historians (A. Zimin, L. Cherepnin, R. Skrynnikov, V. Kobrin) date this war to 1425-1453. and there are several main stages in it:

- 1425-1431 - the initial, "peaceful" period of the war, when Yuri Zvenigorodsky, not wanting to go into open conflict with Vitovt and Metropolitan Fitiy, tried to legally obtain a label for the great Vladimir reign in the Golden Horde;

- 1431-1436 - the second period of the war, which began after the death of Vitovt and Metropolitan Photius and was associated with the active hostilities of Yuri and his sons Vasily Kosoy and Dmitry Shemyaka against Vasily II, during which the Zvenigorod princes twice occupied the Moscow throne (1433-1434). However, after the death of Yuri, who was reputed to be an outstanding commander, Moscow troops defeated the Zvenigorod regiments at Kotorosl (1435) and Skoryatin (1436) and captured Vasily Kosoy, who was blinded.

Rice. 3. Date of Dmitry Shemyaka with Vasily II ()

- 1436-1446 - the third period of the war, marked by a shaky truce of the parties, which ended with the capture and blinding of Vasily II (the Dark) and his abdication in favor of Dmitry Shemyaka;

- 1446-1453 - the fourth, final stage of the war, which ended with the complete victory of Vasily II and the death of Dmitry Shemyaka in Novgorod.

As regards the evaluation of the feudal war, there are three main approaches. One group of historians (L. Cherepnin, Yu. Alekseev V. Buganov) believed that the feudal war was a war between "reactionary" opponents (Zvenigorod princes) and "progressive" supporters (Vasily II) of the unification of Russian lands around Moscow. At the same time, the sympathies of these historians were clearly on the side of Vasily the Dark. Another group of historians (N. Nosov, A. Zimin, V. Kobrin) argued that during the feudal war the question was decided which branch of the Moscow princely house would lead and continue the process of unification of Russia. At the same time, this group of authors clearly sympathized with the “industrial North” and its princes, and not with the “serf center” and Vasily II, whom they considered “outstanding mediocrity”, since they believed that with the victory of the Galician-Zvenigorod princes, Russia could go more progressive ( pre-bourgeois) path of development than it actually happened. The third group of historians (R. Skrynnikov) believe that in the above concepts, a discrepancy between theoretical constructions and actual material is striking. According to these scholars, the feudal war was an ordinary, princely civil strife, well known from past centuries.

After the end of the feudal war, Vasily II successfully continued the policy of collecting lands around Moscow, in 1454 he conquered Mozhaisk from Lithuania, in 1456 he defeated the Novgorodians near Russa and imposed the Yazhelbitsky Treaty on them, which significantly limited the sovereign status of Novgorod in external relations with foreign powers ; in 1461 the grand duke sent his governor to Pskov for the first time.

In addition, during the reign of Vasily the Dark, another epoch-making event took place: refusing to sign the Union of Florence (1439), a new metropolitan was elected in Moscow for the first time without the sanction of Constantinople - Archbishop Jonah of Ryazan (1448), and ten years later the Moscow the metropolis became completely autocephalous, that is, independent of the Patriarchate of Constantinople (1458).

Rice. 4. Basil rejects the Union of Florence ()

List of references for studying the topic "Feudal war in Russia. Vasily II":

1. Alekseev Yu. G. Under the banner of Moscow. - M., 1992

2. Borisov N. S. Russian Church in the political struggle of the XIV-XV centuries. - M., 1986

3. Kuzmin A. G. History of Russia from ancient times to 1618 - M., 2003

4. Zimin A. A. Knight at the crossroads. Feudal war in Russia in the 15th century. - M., 1991

5. Skrynnikov R. G. State and Church in Russia XIV-XVI centuries. - M., 1991

6. Cherepnin L. V. Formation of the Russian centralized state in the XIV-XV centuries. - M., 1960

The reasons: After the death in February 1425 of Vasily I, his young son Vasily II (1425-1462), who was in his tenth year, became the Grand Duke of Moscow. However, the rights to the Moscow throne were presented by his uncle, the specific prince of Zvenigorod-Galich Yuri Dmitrievich (the second son of Dmitry Donskoy), who at that moment was fifty years old. He substantiated his claims with the will of Dmitry Donskoy, that is, it was possible to understand that after the death of Vasily I, the throne passed to Yuri. This clause of the testament was one of the reasons for the quarter-century struggle between Vasily II, on the one hand, and Yuri Dmitrievich and his sons, Vasily Kosy and Dmitry Shemyaka, on the other.

An additional reason for the intensification of internecine struggle was the consequences of the smallpox epidemic that swept Russian lands in 1425-1427. Many people died from smallpox, and princely families also suffered. So from the numerous offspring of the Serpukhov prince Vladimir Andreevich, one grandson survived. Escheated land holdings appeared, the status of which was not legally precisely defined. This caused additional quarrels and discord in the Moscow princely house.

In historical literature, in most cases, the feudal war of the second quarter of the 15th century. is assessed as a struggle between supporters of unification and strengthening of the grand duke's power and its opponents, that is, as a struggle between progressive (Vasily II) and reactionary (Yuri Dmitrievich and his sons) forces. It is unlikely that such an approach is justified. Both fighting groups sought to seize the throne of Moscow, but at the same time they were guided by various forces. Vasily II relied on the help of the Horde Khan and on a well-developed system of organizing military service feudal lords in the form of a grand ducal court. Yuri Dmitrievich and Dmitry Shemyaka relied on the trade and craft cities of the north of the Moscow principality with an underdeveloped system of organizing service feudal lords, which ultimately predetermined the outcome of the war.

In the many years of struggle within the Moscow princely house, several stages can be distinguished, which have a number of features.

First stage- from 1425 to 1432 - can be described as a diplomatic struggle for Moscow, as a prelude to war.

Immediately after the death of Vasily I, Yuri Dmitrievich was invited to Moscow to take the oath of allegiance to Vasily II. Yuri Dmitrievich did not accept the invitation. Leaving his capital Zvenigorod, he headed for the more militarily fortified Galich. This essentially meant direct disobedience of the appanage prince to the great Moscow prince. There was a real threat of the outbreak of hostilities. At this time, Metropolitan Photius was making great efforts to resolve the conflict peacefully. His trips between Moscow and Galich were crowned with success. In 1428, Yuri Dmitrievich signed an agreement with Moscow, in which he recognized the rights of his nephew to the great reign, and himself the "younger brother" of Vasily II. However, in the contract it was written that the final question of the great reign could be resolved only in the Horde.

The situation began to change in favor of Yuri by the end of 1430: on October 27 Vitovt died, and in the summer of 1431 Metropolitan Photius died. These events untied the hands of Yuri Dmitrievich. The dispute about the great reign was transferred to the Horde. Khan at that time was Ulu-Muhammed, the future founder of the Kazan Khanate.

The second episode, which contributed to the outbreak of war, occurred already at the wedding of Vasily II in February 1433. His cousins ​​Vasily Kosoy and Dmitry Shemyaka were present at the wedding of the Grand Duke. During the festival, a scandal broke out related to the golden belt. The essence of the story is as follows: this belt at one time from Dmitry Konstantinovich as part of the dowry passed to Dmitry Donskoy, at whose wedding the thousandth V.V. Velyaminov allegedly replaced this decoration and gave it to his son Nikolai, who was followed by another daughter of Dmitry Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod; from the Velyaminovs, the belt, also as part of the dowry, passed to the family of Prince Vladimir Andreevich, and then to the son of Yuri Dmitrievich, Vasily Kosoy. The mother of Vasily II, Sophia, during the wedding feast, plucked it from Vasily Kosoy. Insulted, the Yurievichs left Moscow for Galich. War became inevitable.

Second phase feudal war (1433-1434) is characterized by open confrontation between Vasily II and Yuri Dmitrievich.

Vasily Kosoy and Dmitry Shemyaka, who arrived in Galich after leaving the wedding, in the spring of 1433 took part in Prince Yuri's campaign against Moscow. On April 25, 1433, the hastily assembled army of the Moscow prince was defeated. Yuri Dmitrievich entered Moscow. Vasily II fled to Tver, but was not received there and retired to Kostroma. The Yurievichs laid siege to Kostroma. Grand Duke Yuri Dmitrievich, however, decided to act in the old traditions of the Moscow princely house. Vasily II was given Kolomna as an inheritance - the inheritance of his father, the second oldest city in the Moscow principality.

But now the children of Yuri Dmitrievich came out against the Grand Duke. Vasily II regarded this as a violation of the agreement with his uncle and at the beginning of 1434 moved his troops to Galich, which was taken and burned, and Yuri fled to Beloozero. The Moscow prince failed to consolidate his success: on March 20, he was defeated in the Rostov land and was forced to flee to Nizhny Novgorod.

Yuri Dmitrievich occupied Moscow for the second time. Dmitry Shemyaka and Dmitry Krasny were sent against Vasily II with troops. Vasily's situation seemed hopeless, he was going to flee to the Horde, but on April 5, 1434, Yuri Dmitrievich died suddenly in Moscow. At that moment, Vasily Kosoy was with his father, who proclaimed himself the Grand Duke.

Third stage feudal war (1434-1436) is characterized by the confrontation between Vasily II and Vasily Kosy. The seizure of the throne by Vasily Kosyy led to a split among the brothers.

Vasily Kosoy in the changed situation was forced to leave Moscow in a month. Vasily II again became the Grand Duke, actually put on the throne by Dmitry Shemyaka. As a reward, both Dmitry received solid land rewards to their inheritances at the expense of the inheritance of the recently deceased Prince Konstantin Dmitrievich.

However, the truce was short-lived. On May 14, 1436, on the Cherekha River in the Rostov land, Vasily Kosoy was defeated, captured, was taken to Moscow, and on May 21, 1436, he was blinded. In the future, Vasily Kosoy did not take part in political life and died in 1448. The Lot of Kosoy was attached to the great reign.

Vasily II defeated Vasily Kosoy thanks to the powerful support of the coalition in the person of the cousins ​​​​of princes Dmitry Shemyaka, Dmitry Krasny, Ivan Mozhaisky and Mikhail Vereisky. All of them recognized the seniority of the Moscow brother and achieved an increase in the territory of their destinies.

From the middle of 1436, a rather long break came in the feudal war - in fact, until the middle of the 40s. And yet these years cannot be considered exclusively peaceful. The flame of civil strife smoldered: each of the parties considered itself offended. Vasily believed that he had given up too much, while the brothers believed that they had not received enough land holdings and political rights.

During the lull, a number of important events take place that played a significant role in the subsequent history of Russia.

The first of them was connected with the Horde. As a result of the internal political struggle, Ulu-Mohammed was expelled from Sarai. In 1437, he and his horde settled in the area of ​​the city of Beleva in the upper reaches of the Oka. Such a restless neighborhood did not suit the Moscow government. An attempt to expel Ulu-Mohammed ended in failure. The assumption of the establishment of the horde of Ulu-Mohammed on the eastern borders of the Moscow principality was undoubtedly a negative fact of the reign of Vasily II.

The second event was that the grand ducal power managed to increase its influence on the church.

A metropolitan had already been appointed in Constantinople. The new metropolitan did not come to Moscow, remaining in Smolensk. The Greek Isidore was approved as metropolitan. In 1437 Isidore arrived in Moscow.

As a result of the non-recognition of the Union of Florence, the Russian Orthodox Church became autocephalous, that is, administratively completely independent from Constantinople, although at the same time it became dependent on the Grand Duke, who from now on largely determined the election of one or another metropolitan.

Meanwhile, from 1445 to 1453. the last stage of the feudal war begins. This was foreshadowed by the events of the end of 1444, when Ulu-Mohammed devastated the Nizhny Novgorod lands. As a result, Vasily II was defeated, many Muscovites died, many princes were captured, including the Grand Duke himself.

After the capture of Vasily II, power in Moscow passed to Dmitry Shemyaka. The collection of additional funds from the population to pay the ransom of the Grand Duke caused discontent among the broad sections of the Moscow population. This was taken advantage of by his opponents. In February 1446, Dmitry Shemyaka, in alliance with Prince Ivan Mozhaisky, captured Vasily II in the Trinity Monastery during a pilgrimage. On the night of February 13-14, Vasily II was brought to Moscow and blinded (hence the nickname "Dark"), and then exiled to prison in Uglich. Moscow was again in the hands of Dmitry Shemyaka.

Once in the Moscow Grand Duchy, Dmitry Shemyaka faced approximately the same problems that his father felt in 1433. Part of the Moscow service people fled to Lithuanian Rus, the other part continued to fight against Shemyaka (Shemyaka did not receive full support from the church either. Under By the pressure of church hierarchs, Shemyaka was forced to release Vasily II from imprisonment already in September 1446, allocating Vologda to him and taking from him a “cursed letter” (an oath promise not to seek a great reign).

The feudal war continued for several more years, but its territory narrowed noticeably. Shemyaka was finally defeated near Galich and fled to Novgorod, where in 1453 he was poisoned by supporters of Vasily II. The feudal war was over.

The basis of Moscow's military successes was the Sovereign's Court. According to A.A. Zimin, during the events of 1446, the old Court was restructured, the essence of which was to separate the Palace from it - an economic and administrative organization - and form a new Court - a military-administrative corporation of service people. Serving princes, boyars and boyar children created the core of the army, for which war became a profession. This was precisely the advantage of Vasily II over his rivals.

Feudal war in the second quarter of the 15th century. different from the internecine wars of the previous period. If in the strife of the previous time the struggle went on between the individual principalities for supremacy in Russia, now it unfolded within the Moscow princely house for the possession of Moscow. In the course of the struggle, ultimately, the grand ducal power was strengthened.

Background of the dynastic war

• The struggle of family (direct - from father to son) and tribal (indirect - by seniority from brother to brother) began in the inheritance of the princely throne;
• The controversial testament of Dmitry Donskoy, which could be interpreted from different hereditary positions;
• Personal rivalry for power in Moscow of the descendants of Prince Dmitry Donskoy

Rivalry for the power of the descendants of Dmitry Donskoy

Course of events of the dynastic war

Formation of the Russian centralized state in the XIV-XV centuries. Essays on the socio-economic and political history of Russia Cherepnin Lev Vladimirovich

§ 11. Feudal war in Russia in the second quarter of the XV century. (its causes and course until the 40s of the XV century.)

In the second quarter of the fifteenth century in North-Eastern Russia, a feudal war broke out, which lasted for almost thirty years. The path of the political development of Russia, as well as a number of countries in Western Europe, led from the system of feudal principalities to a centralized monarchy. Strong centralized power was the body of the ruling class of feudal lords. It gave him the opportunity to exploit the working people and provided him with protection from external enemies. But at the same time, the strengthening of central power meant that the feudal lords had to give up in its favor part of their material wealth and political privileges, which they received from the possession of land and dependent peasantry. At a certain stage in the development of feudal society, the indicated contradiction in the relations between individual feudal lords and groups of feudal lords and the central state power, as an organ of feudal domination over the working majority of the population, develops into a big feudal war. In this war, a centralized state is being forged.

In Russia, as well as in the countries of Western Europe (England, France, etc.), such a war took place in the 15th century. The growing power of the grand princes, based on the service boyars, the emerging nobility, supported by the townspeople, managed to suppress the resistance of the specific princely and boyar opposition coming from the feudal centers that defended their independence.

The course of the feudal war was influenced by the class struggle. The belligerents tried to use each of the class contradictions in their own interests. And the aggravation of the latter was a significant factor that forced the feudal lords to stop internal strife and rally their forces in the face of all of them, equally disturbing class danger. Thus, the rise of the anti-feudal movement was an essential link in the chain of causes that determined the path of political development of feudal society in the direction of state centralization.

In the first quarter of the XV century. the grand duke's power, which did not yet have sufficient funds to organize a centralized system of government throughout the territory annexed to Moscow, in some cases retained the system of appanages and even increased their number, while at the same time restricting the political rights of appanage princes. This was a step towards further state unification. By the second quarter of the 15th century. on the territory of the Moscow principality, several appanages developed, in which representatives of individual princely lines ruled. Before others, the specific Serpukhov principality was formed, which belonged to the descendants of Dmitry Donskoy's cousin, Vladimir Andreevich. After the death of the latter in 1410, the territory of the Serpukhov Principality was divided between his widow and five sons. Almost all Serpukhov princes died during the plague in 1426–1427. The only representative of the Serpukhov princely line was the grandson of Vladimir Andreevich - Vasily Yaroslavich. He owned only part of the territory that belonged to his grandfather - Serpukhov and Borovsk, as well as some other volosts. After the death of the latter, the inheritance of the son of Dmitry Donskoy, Andrey, was divided between his two sons: Ivan (to whom Mozhaisk with volosts passed) and Mikhail (who became the owner of Vereya with volosts). Thus, two small specific principalities were formed: Mozhaisk and Vereisky. The son of Dmitry Donskoy, Peter, received the Dmitrov and Uglich principalities as inheritance from his father.

In favorable conditions for allocation in a special specific possession was the Galician land (with the center in Galich Mersky), inherited by the spiritual diploma of Dmitry Donskoy (together with Zvenigorod) to his second son Yuri (who in turn had three sons - Vasily Kosoy, Dmitry Shemyak and Dmitry Red). The Galician principality was mainly located along the left tributaries of the Volga - Unzha and Kostroma and in the basin of the Upper and Middle Vetluga. The lands around Galich were fertile and had a fairly dense population. Forests abounded in furs stretched along Unzha and Vetluga. Rich salt springs played an important role in the economic life of the region. The economic isolation of the Galician land contributed to its separation into a separate principality. Possessing significant material resources and maintaining a certain isolation (economic and political), the Galician principality showed in the second quarter of the 15th century. pronounced separatism.

The grand princely government, pursuing a policy of unification of Russia, sought to restrict the state rights of specific princes. This trend of grand princely power met opposition from the side of the princes of specific centers. In the second quarter of the fifteenth century an attempt to oppose the political order that was taking shape in the Moscow principality, which promoted the centralization of state power, was made by the Galician princes - Yuri Dmitrievich and his sons.

In 1425 c. Moscow prince Vasily Dmitrievich died. His ten-year-old son Vasily II Vasilyevich became the Grand Duke, in fact, the supreme power passed to the boyar government, in which Metropolitan Photius played a major role. Yuri Dmitrievich did not recognize his nephew as the Grand Duke and acted as a contender for the Grand Duke's table. Thus began a long exhausting feudal war for Russia.

The beginning of the feudal war coincided with other severe disasters for Russia. Chronicles speak of a terrible epidemic (“The pestilence was great”) that raged in 1425 and in the following years in Veliky Novgorod, Torzhok, Tver, Volokolamsk, Dmitrov, Moscow “and in all cities of Russians and villages.” At this time, a lot of the working population, urban and rural, perished. And now another misfortune befell the Russian people - the princely strife, disastrous in its consequences.

As soon as Vasily I died, Metropolitan Photius sent his boyar Akinf Aslebyatev to Zvenigorod the same night to fetch Yuri Dmitrievich, who, obviously, was to take the oath to his nephew in Moscow. But Yuri refused to come to Moscow, and went to Galich, where he began to prepare for war with Vasily II. In order to gain time for military training, Yuri concluded a truce with Vasily II, after which he began to gather the armed forces. According to the chronicle, the Galician prince “spread the same spring in his fatherland over all his people and as if descending to him from all his cities, and wanting to drink on the Grand Duke ...” It is difficult to say who consisted of the army assembled by Yuri. But judging by the expression of the chronicle - "all from all his cities", one can think that Yuri managed to attract the inhabitants of the cities of his inheritance.

Having learned about the military preparations of Yuri Dmitrievich, the Moscow government tried to seize the initiative from him. The Moscow army marched towards Kostroma. Then Yuri retired to Nizhny Novgorod, where he strengthened himself "with all his people." It is possible that he counted on the support of those Nizhny Novgorod feudal lords who sought to restore the independence of the Nizhny Novgorod principality. Following him, the armed Moscow forces moved under the leadership, according to some sources, of the appanage prince Konstantin Dmitrievich, according to others - Andrei Dmitrievich. But the collision between the Moscow and Galician armies did not happen, - why, - the annals speak about this in different ways. Those chronicles that attribute the leadership of the Moscow armed forces to Prince Konstantin Dmitrievich indicate that Yuri, “fearing” him, fled with his army across the Sura River, and Konstantin could not cross the river and, after standing for several days on its bank, turned into Moscow. In those vaults in which Prince Andrei Dmitrievich is named the leader of the army that pursued Yuri Dmitrievich, it is said in an unclear form that he "did not reach Prince Yuri's brother, but returned." And in the Ustyug chronicle there is an indication that Andrei, speaking officially on the side of the Moscow Grand Duke Vasily II, secretly acted in the interests of Yuri Dmitrievich (“and Prince Ondrei, striving for his brother Greater Prince Yuri, did not reach, come back”). It is quite possible to admit the presence of a secret conspiracy of the brothers of the late Basil I against their nephew.

One way or another, this time Yuri escaped the battle with the Moscow army and returned through Nizhny Novgorod to Galich. From there, he sent a proposal to Moscow to conclude a truce between him and Vasily II for a year. This issue was discussed in Moscow at a special meeting under the nominal chairmanship of the Grand Duke, with the participation of his mother Sophia Vitovtovna, Metropolitan Photius, specific princes Andrei, Peter and Konstantin Dmitrievich and a number of "princes and boyars of the land ..." At the council, it was decided to seek consent from Yuri on the conclusion is not a truce, but a lasting peace, and for this purpose send Metropolitan Photius to Galich. This decision was agreed with the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitovt, with whom the Moscow government sought to maintain allied relations.

There is interesting information in the annals about the diplomatic trip of Photius to Galich. Wanting to demonstrate his power to the metropolitan, Yuri Dmitrievich went out to meet him with representatives of the Galician feudal aristocracy (“with his children, and with the boyars, and with his best people”). In addition, Yuri gathered a large number of the trade and craft population of the cities of the Galician principality and local peasants and ordered all of them to stand on the mountain, where the metropolitan was supposed to enter the city. “... And having removed all the mob from their cities and volosts and from villages and from villages, and there were many of them, and put them on the mountain from the city from the arrival of the metropolitan, showing him many of your people.” Obviously, Yuri wanted to clearly show Photius how strong his support was among the broad masses of the local population. But the metropolitan, according to the chronicle, was not impressed by this demonstration, or he pretended that he was not at all surprised by the number of people who met him. He, judging by the chronicle, even reacted with irony to Yuri's attempt to impress him with the number of troops that he could field. “The prince, although he appears, as if he had many people, the saint in the mockery of these is imputed to himself.” Since many of those who met Photius were dressed in sackcloth clothes, the metropolitan fixed his attention on this circumstance and mockingly remarked to the Galician prince: “son, you don’t see so many people in sheep’s wool.”

What conclusions can be drawn from this story? It is clear that, speaking out against the Moscow Grand Duke, the Galician prince counted on the support not only of his boyars, but also of wide circles of townspeople, and finally, of the rural population. And, probably, such calculations had some real ground. The economic isolation of the Galician principality determined the well-known conservatism of the inhabitants of local cities, contributed to the preservation of elements of patriarchy in relations between them and the Galician princes. Galician townspeople were to a certain extent interested in preventing the penetration of Moscow feudal lords and merchants into the Galician principality, who became their competitors, starting trades and bidding here. The seizure of land in the Galician appanage by the Moscow boyars was accompanied by a deepening of serf relations here. Therefore, local peasants, dissatisfied with the strengthening of feudal oppression, probably supported the Galician princes until a certain time. Although they fought with the Moscow grand duchy for their own political interests, in the eyes of the peasants this struggle was perceived as a struggle to improve their situation, to return to the order that existed before the strengthening of the Moscow principality, accompanied by the growth of serfdom. It is difficult to admit that the Galician princes waged war with the Grand Duke of Moscow for almost thirty years, acting in alliance only with certain groups of feudal lords, without having a wider social base on which they could rely.

How should one evaluate the attitude of Metropolitan Photius to the “mob” demonstratively built in front of him by Prince Yuri? In the words of the metropolitan, cited in the chronicles, one can feel the contempt of the spiritual feudal lord for working people, for people simply dressed and smelling of sheep's wool. But Photius's "joke" covered his fear, although he diplomatically tried not to reveal his state of fear before Prince Yuri.

During diplomatic negotiations between the Moscow metropolitan and the Galician prince, both sides did not immediately come to a mutual agreement. Photius insisted that Yuri draw up a peace treaty with Vasily II. Yuri agreed only to conclude a truce. The disputes took on such a sharp character that the metropolitan even left Galich, "without blessing" Yuri "and his city", but then, at the request of the Galician prince, he returned back. In the end, Yuri promised to send his boyars to Moscow for peace negotiations and solemnly released the metropolitan.

To formalize the agreement between Yuri and Vasily 11, the boyars of the first came to Moscow - Boris Galichsky and Daniil Cheshko. The peace was concluded on the condition that the rivals would hand over the decision of the question of who should be the Grand Duke (Yuri or Vasily) to the Horde Khan: “whom the tsar will grant will be the prince of the great Vladimir and Novgorod the Great and all Russia ...” Yuri clearly wanted to return to those orders in which any prince could expect to receive a label from the khan for a great reign. If the Moscow government agreed to resolve the issue of the future Grand Duke in a similar way, then, obviously, it did so because it was counting on a diplomatic victory over Yuri at the Khan's court. It was possible to achieve such a victory both with the help of money and through political influence on certain groups of the Horde feudal lords.

On further inter-princely relations until the beginning of the 30s of the XV century. there is almost no data in the annals. They are partly replenished by the material of the princely treaty letters. So, the agreement between Vasily II and Yuri Dmitrievich, concluded by the princes in 1428, has come down to us. From it we learn that even after the princely completion of 1425, strife continued between Vasily II and Yuri Dmitrievich. The agreement of 1428 eliminates the consequences of “dislike”, “wars” between the named princes, “robbery” on the territories of the great reign and the Galician inheritance, which obviously took place in the three years from 1425 to 1428. Conditions were worked out for the princes to leave the “nyats” ( Polonyannikov). The final charter states that until 1428 the grand ducal governors, volostels, villagers, tiuns "kept in charge ... the fatherland" of Yuri Dmitrievich and the boyar villages in his "fatherland" (that is, they actually ruled the Galician principality on behalf of Vasily II). By 1428, a lot of controversial cases had accumulated (primarily land litigation), and this year the princes decided to transfer them to the court of the boyars, allocated both by Vasily II and Yuri Dmitrievich.

Under the treaty of 1428, Prince Yuri officially renounced all claims to grand-ducal rights, recognizing them for his nephew. However, a somewhat ambiguous formula was included in the final letter: “And we should live in our fatherland in Moscow and in vudelekh according to our spiritual literacy ... Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich ...” This article left Yuri the opportunity to resume the issue of the Grand Duchy by referring to the testamentary order of Prince Dmitry Donskoy , according to which the eldest son of Donskoy, Vasily I, was appointed the Grand Duke, and in the event of the death of the latter, his brother next in seniority.

Compiled after the death of the childless prince Peter Dmitrievich, the final letter of 1428 passed over in silence the question of the fate of his escheat Dmitrovsky inheritance. But both Vasily II and Yuri Dmitrievich claimed the latter. Thus, the agreement of 1428 did not stop the enmity between Yuri of Galicia and the Grand Duke of Moscow. Yuri continued to count on the occupation of the grand-ducal table and on the expansion of his possessions.

The new open speech of the Galician prince against Vasily II took place in a somewhat changed international situation. From the second half of the 20s of the XV century. the offensive of the Lithuanian feudal lords on the northwestern Russian lands intensified. In 1428, Vitovt, at the head of the Lithuanian army and hired Tatars, made a trip to the Pskov suburbs - Opochka, Voronach, Kotelno. This campaign was imprinted in the memory of the Pskovites. It is no coincidence that a special story about him is placed in the Pskov chronicles. The inhabitants of Opochka heroically resisted the enemy. Lithuanians and Tatars "started diligently towards the city of flattery," and the villagers "beat them with a stone, a well, cutting off fences, and beat a lot of them." After standing near Opochka for two days and not being able to take the cities, Vitovt's soldiers retreated. Around Voronach, the Lithuanians established vices, from which stones rained down on the city (“and having fixed the vices, shibahu on the city a great stone”). Skirmishes between the Lithuanian and Pskov troops also took place near Kotelno, near Velia, near Vrevo. The Pskovites turned to the Grand Duke of Moscow with a request to mediate between them and Vitovt, but Vasily II, being busy at that time arguing with Yuri Dmitrievich about his rights to the great reign and needing Vitovt's support, did not provide protection to the Pskovites, although he promised to do this: “and then he had a great fight with Prince Yuryem, build your own about the great reign, but don’t care about all that, talking about it.” Nor did the people of Novgorod help Pskov. Vitovt demanded that the Pskov government pay him 1,000 rubles, and only on this condition did he conclude peace with Pskov.

In 1427, Vitovt concluded an end with the Grand Duke of Tver Boris Alexandrovich, taking from the latter an obligation to subordinate the foreign policy of the Tver principality to the interests of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. “Be [Boris Alexandrovich] with him [Vitovt] at one with him, at his side, and help him on everyone, without taking anyone out,” we read in the aforementioned Lithuanian-Tver agreement of 1427.

In 1428, Vitovt organized an attack on Novgorod land, obliging Vasily II not to provide military assistance to either Novgorod or Pskov. The people of Pskov did not respond to the call of the Novgorodians for help either. Lithuanian troops approached Porkhov, surrounded it and lifted the siege from the city only after the inhabitants of Porkhov promised to pay Vitovt 5,000 rubles. The Novgorod ambassadors, headed by Archbishop Evfimy, who came to Porkhov to conclude peace with Vitovt, for their part, agreed to pay another 5,000 rubles to the Lithuanian government. According to the Tver collection, together with the Lithuanian army, the Tver military forces participated in the siege of Porkhov.

Around 1430, the Grand Duke of Ryazan Ivan Fedorovich “gave himself into the service” of Vitovt, taking upon himself the obligation to be “at one with him on everyone” and “without the Grand Duke ... Vitovtov’s will, do not finish with anyone, or help.” In the event of a war between Vitovt and Vasily II or his “uncles” and “brothers”, the Ryazan prince had to “help the Grand Duke Vitovt, his lord, against them without cunning.” On the same conditions, “finished off ... with a brow” and “was given ... into the service” of Vitovt around 1430, Pronsky Prince Ivan Vladimirovich.

The above material gives the right to draw interesting conclusions. Firstly, it is clear that political relations between the rulers of individual Russian lands were aggravated. Taking into account the strengthening of the Lithuanian principality, the princes of Tver and Ryazan are counting on using the latter to weaken the principality of Moscow and restore to some extent their political position in Russia, already lost by this time. Another thing is no less clear: the negative aspects of the feudal fragmentation that reigned in Russia were more and more clearly revealed, under which, in particular, there were no conditions for a real organization of the defense of Russian lands from enemies. It is enough to carefully analyze the events of 1426-1428 to be convinced of this. When Vitovt's troops smashed the Pskov suburbs, the Pskovites could not get military support from Novgorod. And when the Lithuanian army entered the Novgorod borders, the Tver armed forces acted with it against the Novgorodians, and the Pskovites adhered to a policy of neutrality. Finally, one more circumstance should be noted: Vitovt's policy clearly tended to make the rulers of individual Russian lands directly dependent on themselves, among them the Grand Duke of Moscow. This meant a belittling of the leading political role of the Moscow principality in Russia.

At the end of the reign of Vytautas, the position of the Principality of Lithuania was greatly strengthened. At the initiative of Emperor Sigismund, who was interested in breaking the Polish-Lithuanian union, in 1429 the question was raised about the adoption of the royal title by Vytautas, which should have meant the transformation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into an independent kingdom. The act of coronation of Vitovt was already being prepared, for participation in which the princes of Moscow, Ryazan, Metropolitan Photius, the Grand and Livonian masters, ambassadors of the Byzantine emperor, Tatar khans gathered in Lithuania (first in Troki, then in Vilna). But in 1430 Vitovt died. A feudal war broke out in Lithuania between two contenders for the Lithuanian grand ducal table: Svidrigailo Olgerdovich (supported by the feudal lords of the Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian lands of the Principality of Lithuania) and Sigismund Keistutovich (a candidate nominated by the Polish gentry and accepted by a significant part of the Lithuanian feudal lords). In 1432, the Principality of Lithuania was divided into two parts: "...Lithuania...setting the Grand Duke Zhigimont Kestoutevich to the great reign of Vilnius and Trotsekh ... and the princes of the Rousks and the boyars, setting Prince Shvitrigail to the great reign of Rowskoye..." Both princes sought to extend their power all over Lithuania.

It was no accident that the beginning of the feudal war in Lithuania coincided with the intensification of the hostile actions of Prince Yuri Dmitrievich of Galicia against the Moscow Grand Duke Vasily II. Until 1430, peaceful relations were maintained between the named princes. So, when in 1429 the Tatars attacked Galich and Kostroma, Vasily II sent his regiments against them under the leadership of the appanage princes Andrei and Konstantin Dmitrievich and the boyar Ivan Dmitrievich Vsevolozhsky. Under 1430, a number of chronicles contain the news that Yuri Dmitrievich broke peace with Vasily II (“the same summer, Prince Yuri Dmitrievich broke peace with Grand Duke Vasily Vasilyevich”). Probably, the impetus for Yuri's speech was given by the death of Vitovt and the transfer of power in Lithuania to the "brother" (brother-in-law) of the Galician prince - Svidrigailo. In 1431 Metropolitan Photius died. And in the same year, Vasily II and Yuri Dmitrievich went to the Horde to sort out the question of which of them should be the Grand Duke. The coincidence of all these events is quite understandable. The almost simultaneous death of Vytautas, who was presented with the spiritual life of Vasily I (who appointed his son Vasily II as Grand Duke), and Photius (this is the will of the signatory) gave Yuri reason to raise the question of revising the named spiritual one. When deciding on the order of succession to the throne, Yuri sought to return to the testament of Dmitry Donskoy on the transfer of the grand prince's table to Vasily I, and after the death of the latter to his brother (in order of seniority).

But which of the princes owns the initiative to travel to the Horde? According to the annals, it is not so easy to establish this. In the Novgorod First Chronicle and in the Chronicle of Abraham it is said in a very general form that "the princes of Rustei went to Rdu Yury Dmitrievich, Vasily Vasilyevich." In somewhat more detail, but in approximately the same terms, they talk about the visit to the Horde by Vasily II and Yuriy Sophia First, the Printing Chronicle and the Ustyug Chronicle: “The same summer, in the fall, the great prince Vasily Vasilyevich and Prince Yury Dmitrievich, hiding about the great reign, went to the Horde to Makhmet" (Khan of the Horde). From these chronicle texts, it seems that one can conclude that both princes left for the Horde at the same time. But other chronicles emphasize that Vasily II was the first to go there. So, in the Tver collection we read: "The great prince Vasily of Moscow went to the Horde and left the Horde for another summer, and Prince Yurii." Chronicles Sophia II, Lvov, Yermolinskaya also indicate that Vasily II was ahead of Yuri of Galicia: "the same summer, the great prince went to the Horde and Prince Yuri after him, swearing about the great reign." A similar version (in a more expanded form) is available in the Moscow code, in the annals of Voskresenskaya, Simeonovskaya, Nikonovskaya. Attention should also be paid to the fact that on the reverse side of the contractual letter of Vasily II and Yuri Dmitrievich in 1428 there is a note: “And this letter was sent to the great prince by prince Yuria, folded together, to the Horde.” Comparing all the above evidence from sources, one can, I think, come to the conclusion that the initiative to transfer the case of succession to the throne belonged to the Galician prince, who, as a sign of the break in peaceful relations with the Grand Duke of Moscow, returned his copy of the contract of 1428 to him. But Vasily II tried to warn Yuri before him to visit the Horde in order to achieve a decision in his favor. If Vasily II had not had time to do this, then Yuri would have been able to bring a Tatar detachment from the Horde to Russia, which would have caused unnecessary military complications.

Chronicles describe in different ways and what happened in the Horde. Many of them say briefly that in 1432 the Horde Khan handed over the great reign to Vasily II, and Dmitrov gave Yuri Dmitrievich. In some annals (for example, Sofia II, Lvov) it is indicated that Vasily II was "planted" in the great reign by the Horde ambassador Mansyr-Ulan who came to Russia. According to the Pskov First and Novgorod First Chronicles, the question of who should be the Grand Duke remained unresolved in the Horde. In the Pskov First Chronicle it is written: “... the great prince Vasily Vasilyevich came from the Horde from the tsar, and with him came the great prince Georgy Dmitreevich, and all their boyars are kind and healthy with them, and not a single reign was taken". In short, the Novgorod First Chronicle and the Chronicle of Abraham say the same thing: “the princes of Rustia left the Horde without grand reign».

The Simeonovskaya, Voskresenskaya, Nikonovskaya chronicles contain a detailed account of the proceedings in the Horde of the case of Vasily II and Yuri Dmitrievich. In another work I have already subjected this story to an analysis which I will not repeat now. I will dwell only on those moments that I did not touch on in that work. Each of the Russian princes tried to rely on certain groups of Horde feudal lords. Vasily II immediately came into contact with the Moscow "road" Min-Bulat. Prince Yuri was patronized by the “prince of the great Orda” Tyaginya (from the surname Shirinov), who took him with him “to spend the winter in the Crimea”. The interests of Vasily II were defended in the Horde by his boyar Ivan Dmitrievich Vsevolozhsky. In the absence of Tyagin, he tried to persuade the "princes of the Tatars" that if Yuri received a great reign in Russia, then with the help of his "brother" - the Lithuanian prince Svidrigail, he would help to rise in the Horde of Tyagin and remove other Horde princes from power. Vsevolozhsky's agitation was a success: the Horde princes turned the khan against Tyagin. Therefore, at the time when the latter came to the Horde from the Crimea and when the khan's trial took place in the case of the Russian princes, Vasily II had more supporters from among the Horde feudal lords than Yuri. At the trial, Vasily II motivated his rights to the great reign by the fact that it belonged to his grandfather and father and should pass in a straight line to him; Yuri Dmitrievich referred to the spiritual testament of Dmitry Donskoy and to the chronicles, apparently picking up historical examples about the transition of the grand-ducal table to the eldest in the family (“the prince of the great fatherland and grandfather, looking for his table, Prince Yury’s chroniclers, and old lists , and the spiritual father of his Grand Duke Dmitry"). Boyarin I. D. Vsevolozhsky, rejecting the arguments of Prince Yuri in court, diplomatically opposed his father’s “dead letter” as a documentary basis for occupying the right of the grand prince’s table, another legal basis - the khan’s “salary”. It was a clever political move, calculated to turn the court's decision in the interests of Vasily II. And this move turned out to be correct. Khan pronounced a verdict on the transfer of the great reign to Vasily II. But then strife began in the Horde. Another contender for the Golden Horde table, Kichik-Mukhammed, opposed Khan Ulug-Mukhammed, who was also supported by Tyaginya. In such an environment, the khan did not want to quarrel with Tyaginya and released the Russian princes "to their homelands", transferring Dmitrov to Yuri, and leaving the question of the great reign unresolved.

Thus, the version of the Pskov First and Novgorod First Chronicles that at the time of their return to Russia from the Horde, neither Vasily II nor Yuri were officially considered grand dukes, turns out to be correct. Only more than three months after the arrival of the indicated princes from the Horde in the Russian land and, obviously, after the end of the turmoil there, the Khan's ambassador Mansyr-Ulan appeared in Russia, confirming Vasily II on the grand prince's table.

Meanwhile, the feudal war resumed in Russia. The troops of Vasily II occupied Dmitrov. The Galician governors were partially captured there, partially expelled from there by the Moscow army. Preparing for the continuation of the war with the Galician prince, Vasily II at the beginning of 1433 tried to connect with himself a chain of agreements (not completely extant) of specific princes - Vasily Yaroslavich of Borovsky, Ivan Andreevich Mozhaisky, Mikhail Andreevich Vereya. On behalf of Vasily II and the named appanage princes, an end was drawn up with the Ryazan prince Ivan Fedorovich, who in 1430 surrendered under the patronage of Vitovt of Lithuania, and now went over to the side of the Grand Duke of Moscow.

Preparations for the continuation of the war were carried out not only by Vasily II, but also by his opponent Yuri, who established relations with some of the Moscow boyars. He was joined by a major Moscow boyar ID Vsevolozhsky, who so actively supported Vasily II in the Horde in 1432. Vsevolozhsky in 1433 fled from Moscow through Uglich (where Konstantin Dmitrievich reigned) and through Tver to Galich to Yuri Dmitrievich "and began to persuade him to a great reign." Having betrayed Vasily II, I. D. Vsevolozhsky obviously began to probe the soil in a number of feudal centers of Russia in order to try to put together an opposition bloc against the Grand Duke of Moscow. What explains such a sharp change in political course by a prominent Moscow boyar? To answer this question, it is necessary to say a few words about the general mood of the Moscow boyars of the period under study, and then characterize I. D. Vsevolozhsky as one of the major representatives of the boyars.

In the paragraph devoted to the invasion of Russia by Edigey, I raised the question of the split among the boyars, which was reflected in the annalistic stories about the named event. Speaking of such a split, the chronicles draw two political programs put forward by one "old", the other - "young" boyars. The first adhered to more conservative views, imagining political centralization in the form of unification on the basis of a certain equality of individual Russian principalities as part of the great Vladimir reign. As for the "young" boyars, their program was to subjugate other Russian lands to the Moscow principality. In the field of foreign policy, the "old" boyars kept a moderate course, which was supposed to ensure the security of Russian lands from attacks by the Horde and Lithuanian feudal lords; The "young" boyars spoke in favor of offensive actions against the hostile neighbors of Russia.

The ideology and political line of I. D. Vsevolozhsky were determined by the views of the "old" boyars. He occupied a prominent position at the Moscow Grand Duke's court, was present at the drafting of Vasily I's spiritual letters, and played a major political role in the early childhood of Vasily II. A number of letters of commendation issued on behalf of Vasily I and Vasily II (in the first years of the reign of the latter) were signed by I. D. Vsevolozhsky. The nature of ID Vsevolozhsky's domestic policy can be judged from one act associated with his name. I mean the Sudebnik of the Grand Duchess Sofya Vitovtovna, which has come down to us as part of the so-called Lip Record of the second half of the 15th century. This Code of Laws was published in the first years of the reign of Vasily II, when his mother Sofya Vitovtovna was the regent, and ID Vsevolozhsky was her right hand. Traces of the named Sudebnik were preserved in the “Lubnaya Record” in the form of the following text: “In the old days, it happened that all the courts and the palace grand duchesses and appanage princes were narrowed down by the governor of the Bolshei, there was no judge behind him; and the Great Princess Sophia did this under John under Dmitrievich (Vsevolozhsky. - L. Ch.), who is the judge behind them”. From the above quotation, it can be seen that Sofya Vitovtovna and I. D. Vsevolozhsky carried out a reform of the judiciary: if earlier (obviously, since the time of Dmitry Donskoy) the judge in Moscow was the “big” grand-ducal governor, now the judicial rights of appanage princes have expanded, which have received the opportunity to send to the court of the "big" governor of their representatives. Such a reform corresponded to the tasks of ensuring that path of political centralization, which was followed by the "old" boyars.

The moderate nature of the foreign policy program of I. D. Vsevolozhsky can be judged by his active behavior in 1432 in the Horde, where he acted in the spirit of Ivan Kalita, trying to appease the Tatar feudal lords and thereby ensure their recognition of the rights of Vasily II to the great reign.

One must think that with the approval of Vasily II on the grand-ducal table, the Moscow government (in which the role of the “young” boyars increased) began to take more decisive measures to restrict the privileges of the appanage princes and the boyar aristocracy. This led ID Vsevolozhsky to betray the Grand Duke of Moscow. And one more circumstance should be mentioned. In the second chapter of the monograph, I pointed out that from about 1433, the terms “children of the boyars” and “nobles” began to be systematically used in the act material and in the annals. This means that that layer of the ruling class (small and medium-sized grand ducal servants, holders of land under the condition of fulfilling military duties), which was the backbone of the centralization policy pursued by the grand dukes, has grown stronger. All of the above gives the right to assert that the feudal war under consideration was indeed a decisive stage in the process of formation of the Russian centralized state, because in its course there were significant differences among the ruling class, which could not be resolved without a sharp struggle.

The conclusions drawn should still be verified by analyzing one interesting story, placed in a number of chronicles, which raises the question of the reasons for the aggravation of relations between Vasily II and Yuri of Galicia in 1433. The wedding of Vasily II and the sister of the Serpukhov-Borovsk prince Maria Yaroslavna is described. The grand-ducal wedding was attended by the sons of Prince Yuri Dmitrievich of Galicia - Vasily and Dmitry Shemyaka. Vasily was wearing a "belt of gold on a cap with a stone." This circumstance, according to the chronicler, was the reason for the further princely strife (“we are writing for this sake, because much evil has begun from this”). One of the grand ducal boyars (in various chronicles the name of either Peter Konstantinovich Dobrynsky or Zakhary Ivanovich Koshkin is indicated) identified this belt as a thing that supposedly belonged to the number of grand ducal regalia. Dmitry Donskoy allegedly received this belt as a dowry from Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich of Suzdal, whose daughter he married. At the wedding of Dmitry Donskoy, the thousand Vasily Velyaminov managed to steal this belt from the Grand Duke, replacing it with another. From the thousandth Vasily Velyaminov, the stolen belt came to his son Mikula, then to I. D. Vsevolozhsky, and finally to Prince Vasily Yuryevich, who appeared in it for the wedding of Vasily II. Here, at the wedding, it was established that the belt was stolen from the grand ducal treasury, as a result of which Sofya Vitovtovna publicly removed it from Vasily Yuryevich. After that, the latter, together with his brother Dmitry Shemyaka, "angry", ran to his father in Galich. Yuri, on the other hand, "gathered with all his people, although to go against the Grand Duke."

The above story at first glance gives the impression of a simple court gossip. However, it has a certain political meaning. The main tendency of the chronicle story is reduced to the ideological substantiation of the rights of the grand ducal power in its struggle against the specific princely and boyar opposition. The chroniclers, speaking from the standpoint of the Moscow grand duke's power, proved the illegality of appropriation by specific princes of regalia that did not belong to them. The golden belt plays the same role in this story as the princely barms, the "Monomakh's cap" and other signs of princely dignity, on which feudal political literature concentrated its attention.

The reviewed chronicle text is also interesting in one more respect. It makes it possible to reveal the connections of I. D. Vsevolozhsky and to a certain extent sheds light on his political views. The closeness of Vsevolozhsky to the Velyaminovs, from whose midst the Moscow thousands came out, is indicative. Speaking about the struggle for the post of thousand in Moscow during the reign of Semyon Ivanovich, I pointed out that V.V. Velyaminov was distinguished by a conservative political mood, that he was against the intensification of the foreign policy of the Moscow principality, defended the line of his subordination to the Horde. The son of V. V. Velyaminov - I. V. Velyaminov acted in alliance with Prince Mikhail Alexandrovich of Tver against Dmitry Donskoy. All this helps to understand the moods and actions of that boyar milieu to which I. D. Vsevolozhsky also belonged.

Yuri in a short time organized a campaign to Moscow, and acted in such a way that his preparations remained unknown to Vasily II. When the Galician troops were already in Pereyaslavl, the Grand Duke received news of their attack on Moscow from the Rostov governor Peter Konstantinovich Dobrynsky. Having failed to properly prepare for the meeting of the enemy, Vasily II sent ambassadors Fyodor Andreevich Lzh and Fyodor Tovarkov to him for peace negotiations. The Moscow ambassadors met with Yuri Dmitrievich when he was in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. According to the Simeonovskaya and some other chronicles, Yuri "is not for the world," and I. D. Vsevolozhsky, who was with him, "did not say a word about the world." Between the boyars of Yuri and Vasily II, "the scolding is great and the words are unlike." Peace negotiations turned out to be inconclusive "and tacos returning ate the Grand Duke of idleness."

Vasily II had to hastily gather “people”, “what was around him then” (that is, obviously, the servants of his Moscow “court”). He also attracted Moscow townspeople (“guests and others ...”) into his army. With these insignificant forces, Vasily II marched against Yuri. The battle between the troops of two opponents took place on the Klyazma River, 20 miles from Moscow. The army of Vasily II was defeated, and he fled "in awe and in a hurry" to Moscow, and from there he went with his wife and mother, first to Tver, and then to Kostroma. Yuri occupied Moscow and declared himself Grand Duke.

Chronicles explain the defeat of Basil II in different ways. The most primitive explanation boils down to the fact that Yuri was on the side of God's help (“God help Prince Yuri”). It is also said that Vasily II did not have time to organize a rebuff to the enemy (“he did not have time to copulate”). Finally, the annals place the responsibility for the capture of Moscow by the Galician ratio on the Moscow city militia (“there was no help from the Muscovites”), reproaching its participants for drunkenness (“get drunk from them byakha and bring honey with you, what else to drink”).

Such a deliberate desire of the chroniclers to find an excuse for an unprecedented fact - the expulsion of the Grand Duke from Moscow by one of his relatives - involuntarily makes us wary. Obviously, contemporaries had something to think about. And no matter what excuses the chroniclers give to what happened, one cannot deny the obvious sluggishness shown by Vasily II. In the very first military clash in which he had to participate, he showed himself to be a poor organizer and warrior. On the other hand, there is no doubt that Yuri had good organizational skills and military experience. In addition, he had significant military forces at his disposal, and the latter circumstance indicates that he enjoyed support in various social strata (I spoke about this above). Finally, it should be noted that the Moscow boyars, who went over to the side of Yuri (like I. D. Vsevolozhsky), also accumulated, during the years in which they led the political life of the Moscow principality, a lot of organizational experience and enjoyed authority among various groups of landowners and townspeople. The petty grand ducal servants, although they belonged to that ascending rank of the ruling class, which had the future, did not have such economic weight as the "old" boyars, lagged behind them in many respects militarily and, on the way to victory over them, passed through a series of defeats. The attempt of the chroniclers to shift all the blame for the surrender of Moscow to the Galician troops on the Moscow townspeople is clearly untenable.

By agreement with Vasily II, Yuri gave him Kolomna as an inheritance. Some chronicles indicate that this was done by the Galician prince on the advice of his beloved boyar Semyon Fedorovich Morozov: “Semyon Ivanovich brought the world together (it is necessary: ​​Fedorovich. - L. Ch.) Morozov, lover of princes Yuryev, ”we read in the Ermolin Chronicle. The Nikon Chronicle says in more detail about the role of S. F. Morozov as an intermediary between Vasily II and Yuri: “Semyon Morozov has a lot of power with his master, Prince Yury Dmitrievich and he has given peace and love and destiny to Kolomna to Grand Duke Vasily Vasilyevich.”

According to the act material, S. F. Morozov acts as a landowner and owner of salt pans in the Galician district. His political connection with Yuri Dmitrievich is quite understandable. At the same time, he apparently belonged to that part of the boyars, which was distrustful of Yuri's actions, foreseeing their ultimately unfavorable outcome. Therefore, while maintaining closeness to the Galician prince, S. F. Morozov, just in case, tries to ensure a favorable attitude towards himself from Yuri's political opponent, Grand Duke Vasily II, and seeks to provide the latter with the Kolomna inheritance. Judging by the Nikon chronicle, this behavior of S. F. Morozov irritated I. D. Vsevolozhsky and his supporters. “Ivan Dmitrievich is indignant about this and it’s not nice for him to be this very much that he gives him a sheet, and he also wants to give him an inheritance; and not just one Ivan Dmitreevich, but also many other boyars and slaves who were furious about this and did not like this for all of them.

In Kolomna, Vasily II began to accumulate military forces in order to return Moscow with their help. The Simeon Chronicle and other chronicles say that "many people began to refuse Prince Yuri for the Grand Duke and went to Kolomna without ceasing." In a number of chronicles (for example, in Yermolinsky), the somewhat vague term "people" is deciphered; it is indicated that “all Muscovites, princes, and boyars, and governors, and boyar children, and nobles, from young to old, all went to Kolomna to the Grand Duke.” It is hardly possible to unconditionally and literally accept the given chronicle version that all representatives of the ruling class rushed to Kolomna. But the annals are unanimous that this influx was quite large. And the annals here can be trusted, especially when they talk about the departure from Moscow to Kolomna of the children of boyars and nobles.

What is the reason for the mass transfer of boyars and servants from Yuri to the service of Vasily II? Least of all, probably, in the authority that the latter enjoyed as a ruler. It is even difficult to say how great was his initiative in the matter of conscripting Moscow servicemen to Kolomna. True, the Nikon Chronicle notes that Vasily II, having come to Kolomna, "began to invite people from everywhere." But the point was, obviously, not so much in the organizational skills and energy of Vasily II, but in the fact that, as the Yermolinsky Chronicle indicates, the Moscow boyars, nobles, boyar children “were not accustomed to serving as an appanage prince ...” Indeed, in the Moscow principality, it has long been formed a stable system of land relations between local boyars and servants, on the one hand, and the grand ducal authorities, on the other. The arrival in Moscow of specific princes with their “court”, whose members, in turn, were interested in land acquisitions, in promotions, was supposed to introduce disorganization into this system, entail the redistribution of land funds, and the enumeration of the servants of Vasily II. Therefore, when the Moscow boyars and servants became aware that their prince was not far from Moscow, in Kolomna, a stream of boyars, nobles, and boyar children moved towards him. It is no coincidence that ID Vsevolozhsky objected to giving Vasily II the Kolomna inheritance. This was a risky move on Yuri's part. And he himself and his sons (Vasily and Dmitry Shemyaka) understood this when the Galician prince found himself in isolation, and the ranks of his rival, who was in Kolomna, began to increase continuously. The sons of Yuri blamed S. F. Morozov for all this and killed him as a “coarman” and a “likhodee”. But if S. F. Morozov played a role as one of the persons who facilitated the transition of a number of Moscow service people to the side of Vasily II, then the main reason for such a transition must (as indicated) be sought in the general conditions for the development of feudal landownership and the formation of a new layer of the ruling class. class - service nobility.