Roots of contemporary Russia

Article #2 of series of articles on the influence of Russian history on contemporary politics

By Slava Tsukerman

The territory of 1462 (in dark green) is the territory of Moscow principality ruled by the Grand Prince Ivan III, from which contemporary Russia started.

In my previous article I wrote that the first Russian state was Kievan Rus’, and Kiev, today’s capital of Ukraine, was its capital. The state existed from 10^th to 12^th century. After destruction of Kiev by the invasion by Tatar-Mongol Golden Horde, a new entity, which incorporated several East Slavic principalities in one state, was created in 12^th century with its center in Vladimir. Later, in 15^th century, the center of consolidation of the East Slavic principalities moved to Moscow, one of then newly built cities of Vladimir principality. The Princes of Moscow became the Grand Princes (in several translations the position called Grand Duke) of several principalities. Later they took title Tsar. Moscow became the center of creation of the contemporary Russian state.

• The territory of Kievan Rus’, when it was created, included most of the contemporary territories of Russia, Ukraine and Belorussia. But it didn’t include some territories on the North-East from Kievan Rus’, where later appeared new centers of consolidation of Slavic tribes: Vladimir and Moscow.
• At the time of the birth of Kievan Rus’ the main inhabitants of its territory was a Slavic tribe of the Polans. The contemporary Polish nation is also formed by descendants of this tribe.
• In the North-Eastern territories, where later Vladimir and Moscow were built, there lived other tribes: drevlyans, radzimichy, vyatichi, severians and krivichi.
• Here is a quote of the first Russian chronicle “Tale of Bygone Years”, written in the turn of XI and XII centuries:
• “Polans have the customs of their fathers, meek and quiet, and drevlyans, radzimichy, vyatichi, severians and krivichi live by animal customs, like animals in the forest, and as all the beasts they kill each other. They eat unclean, and don’t know marriages…”

When in 15^th century the Grand Prince Ivan III, then his son Vasiliy and then his grand son Ivan the Terrible ruled their Moscow centered state, created with the help of Tatar-Mongol occupants, this state included only 15 % of territories populated with Russian speaking people. Most of descendants of ancient Kievan Russians leaved in the territories belonging to Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (70%). In Lithuania Russian was the official state language.

Ivan the Terrible officially pronounced himself “Tsar and autocrat by the grace of God of all Russia”, and coined the word Russia, but his self-appointment into tsarhood wasn’t recognized by the rest of the world for a long time. The territory on the east of Lithuania and Poland was usually called not Russia but

Muscovy. The West European maps called this territory Tataria, or Tartaria (reference to Tartar] assuming that a country ruled by Tatars should have their name. A lot of European maps kept this definition until 18^th century.

The princes of Vladimir and Moscow principalities certainly had very specific way of ruling, which by the opinion of many historians determined the character of the future Russian state.

Prior to establishment of the power of these princes, most of East Slavic cities were ruled by veche – get–together of all their citizens. The princes of Vladimir started tradition of eliminating of veches in old cities and creating new cities without veche. By the time of ruling of Ivan III (15^th century) only several cities in the area saved this democratic form of ruling. The most powerful of them was Novgorod, а merchant city-republic, in many ways similar to Venice of the same period. In attempt to include Novgorod in his state Ivan III led several extremely violent wars against the city. Novgorodians were ready to join Lithuania or German Livonia, rather then Muscovy. They bravely defended their democratic freedoms. Only Ivan the Terrible, the grand son of Ivan III, managed to finally conquer Novgorod, by practically killing the majority of its citizens.

One of the reasons why Moscow princes were very friendly with Tatar-Mongol occupants was the fact that their concepts of government were very similar.

So Tatar-Mongols readily helped these princes to create their state. Russian Tsars’ way of ruling was officially called in Russian samoderzhavie, which means absolute power of the Tsar. In 1913, when the first census was made in Russia, the last Tsar Nikolas II defined his occupation as “the master of the Russian land”.

The majority of Russians were peasants, who during the early years of Russian history were loosing their freedom step by step, being turned into serfs. Finally Ivan the Terrible took away the rest of their remaining rights, turning them indeed into slaves.

In the beginning of Russian history, the country had aristocracy: big landowners – boyars, who constituted the highest rank of feudals, second only to the ruling princes. Boyars had considerable power through their military support of the Kievan princes. The boyars occupied the highest state offices and, through a council (Boyars’ Duma), advised a Grand Prince. Russian boyars were very similar to knights. Power and prestige of many of them, however, in the Vladimir and Moscow centered Russia came to depend almost completely on service to the state, family history of service and, to a lesser extent, land ownership.

When Ivan the Terrible came to power in 1547, the boyars’ independent political power became obsolete. The boyars attempted to resist, but Ivan ruthlessly crushed the opposition. Land grants were given to subjects that provided loyal military service, and soon this type of land grant became more common compared to inherited land among the boyars. Ivan IV consolidated his power, making every effort possible to curb the influence of the other princes and boyars. And with passing years even the word boyars became in Russia only historical term.

Since the 14th century the new type of nobility: dvoryanstvo appeared in Russia. Finally it became the term describing every member of Russian nobility.

The Russian word dvoryanstvo derives from the Russian word dvor, meaning the court of a Prince and later, the court of Tsar or Emperor. A Russian nobleman is called a dvoryanin (plural: dvoryane). The word dvor has also in Russian another meaning: yard. A janitor, who cleans yards and streets is called in Russian dvornik. Every Russian understands that dvoryanin and dvornik are words with the same root. Obligation of service is a main characteristic of dvoryanstvo.

Dvoriane were granted estates, including lands and surfs, in return for their military or civil service to Tsar, for as long as they performed the service. They were completely dependent on Tsar’s will. They staffed most of the Russian government apparatus until the Revolution of 1917.

In his letters Ivan the Terrible clearly explained that he believed that all the people living is his country, including aristocracy, were his slaves, who should feel happy if he would decide even to deprive them of their own lives.

Here are a couple of quotes from memoirs of foreigners, who visited Russia in 16^th and 17^th centuries.

Isaac Massa (1586-1643), a Dutch grain trader, traveler and diplomat, the Envoy to Muscovy wrote:

“Muscovites consider their Tsar being God.”

Johan Georg Korb, the Austrian ambassador to Russia in 1699 said:

“Muscovites obey their Tsar not like subjects, but rather like slaves, taking him for God.”

It’s interesting that immigration of the freedom loving people from Russia to Western countries is also an ancient Russian tradition. In 15^th century, when the Muscovy state just started its history, people regularly were escaping from Muscovy to Lithuania. In 18^th century Peter the Great had built Petersburg, the new capital of Russia, in the area, which previously had belonged to Sweden. A city Nyenstadt with mixed Swedish/Russian population had existed in that place. When Peter took the area, most of the local Russians fled to Sweden. The letters of those Russians, asking for Swedish citizenship, had been published later in Sweden. The Russians explained their desire to immigrate: “We accustomed to be free people, not slaves”.

Doesn’t this reason for emigrating from Russia then sound almost like today?