The best that history gives us is the enthusiasm it arouses.

Goethe

The oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible is considered briefly by modern historians, but these were events that had a great influence both on the tsar himself and his entourage, and on the whole country as a whole. During the oprichnina of 1565-1572, the Russian tsar tried to strengthen his own power, the authority of which was in a very precarious position. This was due to the increased cases of treason, as well as the mood of the majority of the boyars against the current king. All this resulted in massacres, largely because of which the tsar received the nickname "Terrible." In general, the oprichnina was expressed in the fact that part of the lands of the kingdom was transferred to the exclusive rule of the state. The influence of the boyars was not allowed on these lands. Today we will briefly consider the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible, its causes, the stages of the reform, as well as the consequences for the state.

Reasons for the oprichnina

Ivan the Terrible remained in the historical view of his descendants a suspicious person who constantly saw conspiracies around him. It all started with the Kazan campaign, from which Ivan the Terrible returned in 1553. The tsar (at that time still the Grand Duke) fell ill, and greatly fearing the betrayal of the boyars, ordered everyone to swear allegiance to his son, baby Dmitry. The boyars and court people were reluctant to swear allegiance to the "diaper", and many even completely evaded this oath. The reason for this was very simple - the current king is very sick, the heir is less than a year old, a large number of boyars who claim power.

After recovery, Ivan the Terrible changed, becoming more cautious and angry with others. He could not forgive the betrayal of the courtiers (refusal of the oath to Dmitry), knowing full well what caused it. But the decisive events that led to the oprichnina were due to the following:

• In 1563, Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow dies. He was known for having a huge influence on the king and enjoyed his favor. Macarius restrained the aggression of the king, instilling in him the idea that the country was under his control and there was no conspiracy. The new metropolitan Athanasius took the side of the discontented boyars and opposed the tsar. As a result, the king only strengthened in the idea that there were only enemies around him.
• In 1564, Prince Kurbsky left the army and went to serve in the Principality of Lithuania. Kurbsky took with him many military commanders, and also declassified all Russian spies in Lithuania itself. It was a terrible blow to the pride of the Russian Tsar, who after that became completely convinced that there were enemies around him who could betray him at any moment.

As a result, Ivan the Terrible decided to eliminate the independence of the boyars in Russia (at that time they owned land, maintained their own army, had their assistants and their court, their own treasury, and so on). It was decided to create an autocracy.

The essence of the oprichnina

At the beginning of 1565, Ivan the Terrible leaves Moscow, leaving behind two letters. In the first letter, the tsar addresses the metropolitan, saying that all the clergy and boyars are involved in state treason. These people only want to have more land and plunder the royal treasury. With the second letter, the tsar addressed the people, saying that his reasons for his absence from Moscow were connected with the actions of the boyars. The tsar himself went to Alexander's settlement. There, under the influence of the inhabitants of Moscow, the boyars were sent in order to return the tsar to the capital. Ivan the Terrible agreed to return, but only on the condition that he receive unconditional power to execute all enemies of the state, and also to create a new system in the country. This system is called the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible, which is expressed in the division of all the country's lands into:

1. Oprichnina - lands that the tsar seizes for his own (state) administration.
2. Zemshchina - the lands that the boyars continued to control.

To implement this plan, Ivan the Terrible created a special detachment - guardsmen. Initially, their number was 1000 people. These people made up the king's secret police, which was directly subordinate to the head of state, and which brought the necessary order to the country.

Part of the territory of Moscow, Kostroma, Vologda, Mozhaisk and some other cities were chosen as oprichnina lands. Local residents who were not included in the state program of the oprichnina were forced to leave these lands. As a rule, they were given land in the most remote hinterlands of the country. As a result, the oprichnina solved one of the most important tasks that was set by Ivan the Terrible. This task was to weaken the economic power of individual boyars. This limitation was achieved due to the fact that the state took some of the best land in the country into its own hands.

The main directions of the oprichnina

Such actions of the king were met with sincere discontent of the boyars. Prosperous families, which previously actively expressed their dissatisfaction with the activities of Ivan the Terrible, now began to wage their struggle even more actively to restore their former power. To counter these forces, a special military unit "guardsmen" was created. Their main task, by order of the king himself, was to "gnaw" all traitors and "sweep" treason from the state. It was from here that those symbols that are directly related to the guardsmen went. Each of them carried a dog's head at the saddle of his horse, as well as a broom. The guardsmen destroyed or sent into exile all the people who were suspected of treason to the state.

In 1566 another Zemsky Sobor was held. On it, the tsar was given an appeal with a request to eliminate the oprichnina. In response to this, Ivan the Terrible ordered the execution of all those who were involved in the transfer and in the compilation of this document. The reaction of the boyars and all the dissatisfied followed immediately. The most indicative is the decision of the Moscow Metropolitan Athanasius, who resigned his clergy. Metropolitan Philip Kolychev was appointed in his place. This man also actively opposed the oprichnina and criticized the tsar, as a result of which, just a few days later, Ivan's troops sent this man into exile.

Main blows

Ivan the Terrible sought by all means to strengthen his power, the power of the autocrat. He did everything for this. That is why the main blow of the oprichnina was aimed at those people and those groups of people who could really claim the royal throne:

• Vladimir Staritsky. This is the cousin of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, who enjoyed great respect among the boyars, and who was very often named as the person who should take power instead of the current king. To eliminate this man, the guardsmen poisoned Vladimir himself, as well as his wife and daughters. It happened in 1569.
• Velikiy Novgorod. From the very beginning of the formation of the Russian land, Novgorod had a unique and original status. It was an independent city that obeyed only itself. Ivan, realizing that it is impossible to strengthen the power of the autocrat without pacifying the recalcitrant Novgorod is impossible. As a result, in December 1569, the king at the head of the army went on a campaign against this city. On their way to Novgorod, the tsarist army destroys and executes thousands of people who in any way showed dissatisfaction with the actions of the tsar. This campaign lasted until 1571. As a result of the Novgorod campaign, the oprichnina army established the power of the tsar in the city and in the region.

Cancellation of the oprichnina

At a time when the oprichnina was being asserted by a campaign against Novgorod, Ivan the Terrible received news that Devlet Giray, the Crimean Khan, had raided Moscow with an army and almost completely set fire to the city. Due to the fact that almost all the troops that were subordinate to the tsar were in Novgorod, there was no one to resist this raid. Boyars, refused to provide their army to fight the royal enemies. As a result, in 1571 the oprichnina army and the tsar himself were forced to return to Moscow. To fight the Crimean Khanate, the tsar was forced to temporarily abandon the idea of ​​the oprichnina, uniting his troops and the zemstvos. As a result, in 1572, 50 kilometers south of Moscow, the united army defeated the Crimean Khan.

One of the most significant problems of the Russian land of that time was on the western border. The war with the Livonian Order did not stop there. As a result, the constant raids of the Crimean Khanate, the ongoing war against Livonia, internal unrest in the country, the weak defense of the entire state contributed to the fact that Ivan the Terrible abandoned the idea of ​​​​oprichnina. In the autumn of 1572, the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible, which we briefly reviewed today, was canceled. The tsar himself forbade everyone to mention the word oprichnina, and the guardsmen themselves became outlaws. Almost all the troops that were subordinate to the king and brought the order he needed were later destroyed by the king himself.

The results of the oprichnina and its significance

Any historical event, well, especially such a massive and significant one as an oprichnina, carries certain consequences after itself, which are important for posterity. The results of the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible can be expressed in the following main points:

1. Significant strengthening of the autocratic power of the king.
2. Reducing the influence of the boyars on state affairs.
3. The strong economic decline of the country, which came as a result of the split that has emerged in society because of the oprichnina.
4. The introduction of reserved years in 1581. The protected years, which prohibited the transition of peasants from one landowner to another, were due to the fact that the population of the central and northern parts of Russia fled en masse to the south. Thus, they were saved from the actions of the authorities.
5. Destruction of large boyar lands. One of the first steps of the oprichnina was aimed at destroying and taking away their property from the boyars, and transferring this property to the state. This has been successfully implemented.

Historical score

A brief narrative about the oprichnina does not allow us to accurately understand the whole essence of those events. Moreover, it is difficult to do even with a more detailed analysis. The most indicative in this regard is the attitude of historians to this issue. Below are the main ideas that characterize the oprichnina, and which indicate that there is no single approach to assessing this political event. The main concepts boil down to the following:

• Imperial Russia. Imperial historians presented the oprichnina as a phenomenon that had a detrimental effect on the economic, political and social development of Russia. On the other hand, many historians of imperial Russia said that it was in the oprichnina that one should look for the origins of autocracy and the current imperial power.
• The era of the USSR. Soviet scientists have always described the bloody events of the tsarist and imperial regimes with particular enthusiasm. As a result, in almost all Soviet works, the oprichnina was presented as a necessary element that shaped the movement of the masses against the oppression of the boyars.
• Modern opinion. Modern historians speak of the oprichnina as a pernicious element, as a result of which thousands of innocent people died. This is one of the reasons that allow you to accuse Ivan the Terrible of bloodshed.

The problem here is that the study of the oprichnina is extremely difficult, since there are practically no real historical documents of that era left. As a result, we are not dealing with the study of data, nor with the study of historical facts, but very often we are dealing with the opinions of individual historians, which are not substantiated by anything. That is why oprichnina cannot be assessed unambiguously.

All we can talk about is that at the time of the oprichnina inside the country there were no clear criteria by which the definition of “oprichnik” and “zemstvo” took place. In this regard, the situation is very similar to the one that was at the initial stage of the formation of Soviet power, when dispossession took place. In the same way, no one had even a remote idea of ​​what a fist was, and who should be considered a fist. Therefore, as a result of dispossession as a result of the oprichnina, a huge number of people who were not guilty of anything suffered. This is the main historical assessment of this event. Everything else fades into the background, because in any state the main value is human life. Strengthening the power of the autocrat at the expense of the destruction of ordinary people is a very shameful step. That is why, in the last years of his life, Ivan the Terrible forbade any mention of the oprichnina and ordered the execution of practically people who took an active part in these events.

The rest of the elements that modern history presents as the consequences of the oprichnina and its results are very doubtful. After all, the main result, which all historical textbooks talk about, is the strengthening of autocratic power. But what kind of strengthening of power can we talk about if after the death of Tsar Ivan a troubled time came? All this resulted not just in some riots or other political events. All this resulted in a change in the ruling dynasty.

Oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible

Oprichnina is a state policy of terror that reigned in Rus' at the end of the 16th century during the reign of Ivan 4.

The essence of the oprichnina was to seize property from citizens in favor of the state. By order of the sovereign, special lands were allocated, which were used exclusively for the royal needs and the needs of the royal court. These territories had their own administration, and they were closed to ordinary citizens. All territories were taken from the landlords with the help of threats and force.

The word "oprichnina" comes from the old Russian word "oprich", which means "special". The oprichnina was also called that part of the state that had already gone into the sole use of the tsar and his subjects, as well as the guardsmen (members of the sovereign's secret police).

The number of oprichnina (royal retinue) was about a thousand people.

Reasons for the introduction of oprichnina

Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible was famous for his harsh temper and military campaigns. The emergence of the oprichnina is largely associated with the Livonian War.

In 1558, he began the Livonian War for the right to seize the Baltic coast, but the course of the war did not go as the sovereign would have liked. Ivan repeatedly reproached his governors for not acting decisively enough, and the boyars did not at all honor the tsar for his authority in military matters. The situation is aggravated by the fact that in 1563 one of Ivan's commanders betrays him, thereby increasingly undermining the tsar's trust in his retinue.

Ivan 4 begins to suspect the existence of a conspiracy between the governor and the boyars against his royal power. He believes that his entourage wants to end the war, overthrow the sovereign and put Prince Vladimir Staritsky in his place. All this forces Ivan to create a new environment for himself, which would be able to protect him and punish everyone who goes against the king. So the guardsmen were created - special soldiers of the sovereign - and the policy of the oprichnina (terror) was established.

The beginning and development of the oprichnina. Main events.

The guardsmen followed the tsar everywhere and were supposed to protect him, but it happened that these combatants abused their powers and committed terror, punishing the innocent. The king looked at all this through his fingers and always justified his guardsmen in any disputes. As a result of the excesses of the guardsmen, very soon they began to hate not only ordinary people, but also the boyars. All the most terrible executions and deeds committed during the reign of Ivan the Terrible were committed by his guardsmen.

Ivan 4 leaves for Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, where he creates a secluded settlement along with his guardsmen. From there, the tsar regularly raids Moscow in order to punish and execute those whom he considers traitors. Almost everyone who tried to prevent Ivan in his lawlessness soon died.

In 1569, Ivan begins to suspect that intrigues are being weaved in Novgorod and that there is a conspiracy against him. Gathering a huge army, Ivan moves to the city and in 1570 reaches Novgorod. After the tsar finds himself in the lair of, as he believes, traitors, his guardsmen begin their terror - they rob the inhabitants, kill innocent people, burn down houses. According to the data, every day there were mass beatings of people, 500-600 people each.

The next stop of the cruel tsar and his guardsmen was Pskov. Despite the fact that the tsar initially planned to also commit reprisals against the inhabitants, only a few of the Pskovites were eventually executed, their property was confiscated.

After Pskov, Grozny again travels to Moscow to find accomplices of the Novgorod treason there and commit reprisal against them.

In 1570-1571, a huge number of people died at the hands of the tsar and his guardsmen in Moscow. The king did not spare anyone, even his own close associates, as a result, about 200 people were executed, among which were the most noble people. A large number of people survived, but suffered greatly. Moscow executions are considered the apogee of the oprichnina terror.

The end of the oprichnina

The system began to fall apart in 1571, when the Crimean Khan Devlet Giray attacked Rus'. Oprichniki, accustomed to live off the robbery of their own citizens, turned out to be useless warriors and, according to some information, simply did not appear on the battlefield. It was this that forced the tsar to abolish the oprichnina and introduce the zemshchina, which was not much different. There is evidence that the tsar's retinue continued to exist practically unchanged until his death, changing only the name from "guardsmen" to "yard".

The results of the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible

The results of the oprichnina of 1565-1572 were deplorable. Despite the fact that the oprichnina was conceived as a means of uniting the state and the purpose of Ivan the Terrible's oprichnina was to protect and destroy feudal fragmentation, it eventually led only to chaos and complete anarchy.

In addition, the terror and ruin that the guardsmen arranged led to the fact that an economic crisis began in the country. The feudal lords lost their lands, the peasants did not want to work, the people were left without money and did not believe in the justice of their sovereign. The country was mired in chaos, the oprichnina divided the country into several disparate parts.

The main goal of the oprichnina was to establish the absolutely unlimited power of the tsar, close in nature to the eastern despotism. The meaning of these historical events is that in the middle - the second half of the XVI century. Russia faced the alternative of further development. The beginning of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the huge role that the Chosen Rada played at that time, the ongoing reforms, the convening of the first Zemsky Sobors could lead to the formation of a milder version of development, to a limited representative monarchy. But, due to the political ideas and character of Ivan the Terrible, another option was developed: an unlimited monarchy, an autocracy close to despotism.

Ivan the Terrible strove for this goal, stopping at nothing, not thinking about the consequences.

Oprichnina and Zemshchina

In December 1564, Ivan the Terrible, taking with him his family, "neighbor" boyars, part of the clerks and nobles, as well as the entire treasury, left Moscow on a pilgrimage to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, however, having been there for a week, he went further and stopped in the village of Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda. From there, in January 1565, a messenger arrived in Moscow with two messages, which were read publicly. In a letter addressed to the boyars, clergy, nobles and boyar children, it was said that the tsar puts "disgrace" on all of them for their "treason", plundering the sovereign's treasury and lands, for their unwillingness to protect him from external enemies. Therefore, he decided to renounce the throne and settle, "where God will instruct him, sovereign." The second letter was addressed to merchants and townspeople, it said that he was not angry with them.

The king, of course, was not going to abdicate the throne. He opposed the feudal lords to ordinary people, presenting himself as the defender of the latter. As it was calculated, the townspeople began to demand from the boyars to persuade the king not to leave the kingdom and promised that they would destroy the sovereign's enemies themselves. The tsar agreed to return to the throne to the delegation that arrived in Alexandrov Sloboda on the condition that they establish an “oprichnina” - to give him the right to execute “traitors” and confiscate their property at his own discretion.

The term "oprichnina" was known before. This was the name of the land that the prince bequeathed to his widow, in addition to the rest of the territory. Now the word has been given a new meaning. The entire territory of the Russian state was divided into two parts. The first is the oprichnina, a kind of inheritance that belongs only to the sovereign of all Rus' and taken under his control. The second part is the rest of the earth - the zemstvo. The feudal lords accepted into the oprichnina constituted a special "sovereign's court", became the personal servants of the tsar, and were under his special patronage. Both the oprichnina and the zemshchina had their own Boyar Duma and orders. The princes I. Belsky and I. Mstislavsky were put at the head of the zemshchina, who were supposed to report to the tsar on military and civil affairs.

In addition, Ivan the Terrible created a special personal guard "oprichnina". The guardsmen dressed in black, tied a dog's head and a brush in the form of a broom to the saddle as a sign that they would, like devoted dogs, gnaw on treason and sweep it out of the state. Whatever the guardsmen did, people from the Zemstvo could not resist in any way.

When the land was divided into oprichnina, volosts and uyezds with developed feudal land ownership were taken: central, part of the western and northern. At the same time, the tsar warned that if the income from these lands was not enough, other lands and cities would be taken into the oprichnina. In Moscow, the oprichnina part was also allocated, the border passed along Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street. The feudal lords who lived in the oprichnina lands and were not part of the oprichnina were supposed to be evicted, providing them with land elsewhere in the zemshchina, usually those who were evicted instead of estates received land in the estate. A continuous migration from the zemshchina to the oprichnina lands did not work out, although it was quite massive.

The reprisal of the king with the "enemies" of him and the state began. Frequent pretexts for this were denunciations, signed and anonymous, and the denunciations were not verified. According to the denunciation, the oprichnina army was urgently sent to the estate of the person who received the denunciation. Anything was expected of a suspect in treason: from relocation to another territory to murder. The property was given to the guardsmen, the land went to the oprichnina, the informer, if he was known, was entitled to a certain percentage of the property of the person subjected to execution.

Cancellation of the oprichnina

formidable reform oprichnina

The division of the state into oprichnina and zemshchina, constant disgrace and executions weakened the state. It was dangerous, as the most difficult Livonian war was going on at that time. "Traitors" were blamed for the failures of military operations. Türkiye took advantage of the weakening of the country. Turkish and Crimean troops in 1571 besieged Astrakhan, and then the Crimean Khan Devlet Giray went to Moscow. Oprichniki, who were supposed to keep a barrier on the banks of the Oka, for the most part did not come to the service. Devlet-Girey set fire to the suburbs of Moscow, a fire started, the city burned down. The tsar fled from Moscow, first to Alexandrov Sloboda, then further, to Beloozero. The following year, the khan repeated the raid, hoping to capture the king himself. But this time Ivan the Terrible united the oprichnina and zemstvo troops, placing the disgraced Prince Vorotynsky at the head. In July 1572, in the battle near the village of Molodi, 50 km. from Moscow, the army of Devlet Giray was defeated.

In the same year, the tsar abolished the oprichnina, the lands were returned to some of the victims, the word "oprichnina" was banned, but the terror did not stop, everything continued as before.

Oprichnina results

As a result of the Livonian War and the oprichnina, the land was devastated. Peasants fled to the Don and Volga, many boyars and nobles became beggars. A land census conducted at the end of the century showed that about half of the previously cultivated land had become wasteland. This played an important role in the next stage of the enslavement of the peasants.

The oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible is a dark event in Rus' that happened in the period 1565-1572, which left a deep mark on the history of the Russian state. By this time, Rus' had already experienced more than one event that could affect statehood in general and the form of government in particular.

The sixteenth century was special because of the power of Ivan IV, whom the people gave the nickname "Terrible". Undoubtedly, the events described in this article will give a complete picture of what carried the threat.

There is a short saying in Eastern wisdom about life at an interesting time. The period of Ivan's reign can be easily attributed to such a formulation. After all, few people could feel completely safe, especially among the boyars.

What is oprichnina

By personal order of the first tsar (there is no exact motive), in Rus' all references to the guardsmen were removed from the annals. The term "oprichnina" was even forbidden to pronounce. Therefore, it is difficult for our contemporaries to imagine what it is.

From history, two meanings of this term are known, which varied from the purpose of interpretation:

1. Oprichnina is a royal destiny, which had its own state apparatus and personal army.
2. Oprichnina is a set of special measures taken by the tsar in the period from 65 to 72 years of the 16th century, aimed at restoring state order and destroying the opposition.

Of course, the tsar cannot own all the lands of the country alone, so other territories were allocated for the boyars. If the royal inheritance, in fact, is the oprichnina, then the boyar inheritance is the zemshchina.

The division scheme was simple: the most valuable lands were transferred to the use of the sovereign, and the rest should be taxed.

Reasons for the oprichnina

The prerequisite for the introduction of a special regime was the current political situation in the country. An unfortunate defeat in the west, the constant attacks of the Tatar Khan from the east, and disrespect for the authorities in the country - all this became the main reason for the beginning of the harsh intervention of the Russian tsar. He needed urgent action to contain the coming split.

The situation was aggravated by the betrayal of a prominent military leader from the state apparatus, who fled to hostile Lithuania. In a difficult political situation for the suspicious Ivan IV, such an event became a landmark.

Two years later, he introduced a new state regime - the oprichnina. Translated from Old Russian, the word meant "special position".

Another reason for the introduction of the oprichnina was Grozny's personal motives: to limit the influence of the opposition and church separatists.

Who were guardsmen in the time of Ivan the Terrible

After the introduction of the oprichnina in 65, the tsar, fearing for his life and autocracy, acquired personal protection from among the people of the royal inheritance - the oprichniki. So subsequently the oprichnina army was formed, which became famous for its repressive measures.

The most famous names of guardsmen:

• Skuratov Malyuta - the chief executioner of the oprichnina army. He is guilty of the murder of the Moscow metropolitan, who condemned the oprichnina, Philip of Moscow;
• Basmanov Fedor - the initiator of the oprichnina;
• Vyazemsky Afanasy - the head of the guardsmen;
• Cherkassky Mikhail - the service prince of the inheritance.

The essence of the policy of the oprichnina of Ivan IV

The start date of the main events is the 60s of the sixteenth century. Feeling threatened by his subjects, Ivan IV leaves Moscow. In his letters he accuses the boyars of betrayal.

There is a split between the army and the population. True, the tsar does not make a division into rich and poor, in addition, in a letter he indicates that he does not wish evil to "ordinary people."

Map of Russia under the oprichnina (click to enlarge)

In 65, Grozny divided the country into oprichnina and zemshchina. With the help of the zemshchina, the royal treasury was partially replenished, since taxes went in favor of the oprichnina. However, in the end, the treasury was still empty.

From Sloboda, Ivan regularly came to Moscow to execute personal enemies and deprive the property of the boyars, whom he considered traitors. The bloody executions were an excellent demonstration of the king's determination to punish those who dared to contradict the ruler.

In the year 69 of the sixteenth century, Ivan learns about the impending conspiracy in Novgorod. It took him less than a year to bring a large force into the city. In a month and a half, over fifty beatings took place on the streets of the city. Not one house was burned down. As a result of such repressions, only one fifth of the population survived in the city. Any uprising became simply impossible.

From Novgorod, the tsar's punitive operation moved to Pskov, where the same thing happened again. After the punitive campaign, the tsar returned to the capital, where he found about two hundred traitors from among the senior boyars.

As a result of raids on cities, the number of potential defenders of the country was reduced. We had to regret this in 71, when Khan Girey, together with his army, approached the walls of Moscow and without much difficulty won the battle with the oprichnina troops of the Russian Tsar. They could not resist the Tatar warriors trained in raids. The Tatars set fire to the outskirts, causing enormous damage to the city.

Moscow was liberated a little later. But the defeat in the battle with the Tatars forced Grozny to unite the split army.

In the year 72 (1572 - the year of the abolition of the oprichnina), the oprichnina was finally abolished, giving way to serfdom. At the end of the oprichnina, the right and freedom were taken away from the peasants for many years.

Consequences of the oprichnina for the Russian state

Unfortunately, they are very large and tragic:

1. During the operation of such a regime, the Boyar Duma, which many times solved the political problems of Rus', ceased to exist as a state body, and became only a tribute to the past tradition.
2. Tens of thousands of people lost their lives. Moreover, for one murdered boyar, there were up to a dozen ordinary peasants and craftsmen, which led to a major crisis in the country's economy.
3. More than 80% of productive fields fell into disrepair. Agriculture practically did not develop.
4. Russia lost the Livonian War, which lasted over twenty years.
5. After the death of Ivan the Terrible, since there were no direct heirs to the royal throne, the Time of Troubles began. Many impostors tried to take the place of the Russian sovereign.

Pros and cons of oprichnina

It is difficult to find positive aspects in a totalitarian regime.

The main advantage of the oprichnina was the establishment of state power, as well as the complete destruction of the opposition.

Despite the large number of victims, Grozny managed to reform Orthodoxy and slightly strengthen foreign policy.

There were much more negative aspects in the providence of such a regime:

• the murder of Metropolitan Philip;
• six weeks of terror by the oprichny troops of Novgorod;
• practically contract killing of the tsar's brother Staritsky. On the same day, the entire Staritsky family was killed;
• economic crisis;
• the decline of agriculture;
• empty treasury.

Conclusion

Disputes about the meaning of such a cruel form of government are still ongoing in historical circles. Oprichnina refers to reasonable, and possibly necessary measures. The chronological framework in which the oprichnina is mentioned is the dark ages in world history.

Around the same time, such bloody events as the massacre on the night of St. Bartholomew take place. Therefore, one should not call Grozny some kind of unbalanced and cruel ruler. In such difficult times, he managed to avoid a stab in the back (remember Caesar) and lead the country out of the political "abyss".

The abolition of the oprichnina goes back centuries from year to year, and much of what its creation brought to the long-suffering Russian land is erased from people's memory. This is very unfortunate, since history has a habit of repeating again to people the lessons they have not learned. This is especially true in our days, when there are supporters of the iron dictatorship and autocracy.

The spectrum of historical assessments of the oprichnina

Over the centuries that have passed since the day, the attitude to the realities that characterized the era of his reign, and, in particular, to the oprichnina, has changed many times. The range of characteristics ranged from assessing them as a manifestation of the tsar's mental insanity (the point of view of most pre-revolutionary historians), to recognizing the actions of the oprichnina army as progressive, aimed solely at strengthening the state, centralizing power and overcoming feudal fragmentation (Stalin's position). In this regard, the abolition of the oprichnina was almost an obstacle to progress.

The history of the term "oprichnina"

What is the meaning of this term itself? It is known that it came from the Slavic word "oprich", that is, "outside", "separately", "outside". Initially, they designated the allotment provided to the widow after the death of her husband, and which was outside the main part of the property to be divided.

During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, this name was given to territories confiscated from their former owners, transferred to state use and became the property of his service people. The rest of the country was called "zemshchina". There is a clear cunning of the king. From the total mass of lands that belonged mainly to the boyar estate, he allocated a share for the state, the personification of which he himself was, and, calling it "the widow's share", assigned himself the role of a humble and offended sovereign, crushed by the arbitrariness of the boyars, in need of defenders.

They were an army of many thousands, assembled exclusively from the population of the confiscated and transferred to the state, that is, the "oprichnina" territories. In 1565, when this innovation was established, the army amounted to a thousand people, but by 1572, when the abolition of the oprichnina became inevitable, it had increased almost six times. According to the king's plan, she was assigned the role of the national guard, endowed with broad powers and intended to strengthen state power.

Aggravation of the internal political crisis

Speaking about the reasons that prompted Ivan the Terrible to create the oprichnina, as a rule, they first of all note his conflict with the boyar Duma, which was caused by disagreements on most issues of state policy. Unwilling to listen to anyone's objections, inclined to see signs of a hidden conspiracy in everything, the tsar soon moved from debates to tightening power and mass repressions.

The conflict took on a particular urgency when in 1562 the royal decree limited the patrimonial rights of the boyars, as a result of which they were equated with the local nobility. The result of the current situation was a tendency among the boyars to flee from the tsarist arbitrariness outside the borders of the state.

Beginning in 1560, the flow of fugitives constantly increased, which could not but arouse the anger of the sovereign. Of particular resonance was the secret departure to Poland of one of the most prominent tsarist dignitaries, Andrei Kurbsky, who dared not only to arbitrarily leave the country, but also send Ivan a letter containing direct accusations against him.

The beginning of large-scale repression

The reason for the start of mass repressions was the defeat of the Russian troops in the battle with the Lithuanians on the Ula River in 1564. It was those who, in the opinion of the king, were the direct or indirect culprit of the defeat, became the first victims. In addition, in December of the same year, rumors appeared in Moscow that many eminent boyars, fearing disgrace, had gathered a considerable army in Lithuania and Poland and were preparing a violent seizure of power.

Thus, the creation of the oprichnina army became a protective measure of the king against real, and often imaginary danger, and the abolition of the oprichnina, which will be discussed below, was a consequence of its complete failure as a pillar of state power. But this is in the future, and at that moment, before giving free rein to his unbridledness, the king had to enlist the support of the broad masses of the people, and with their tacit consent, begin his bloody feast.

Events that accompanied the creation of the oprichnina

To this end, Ivan played a real performance. Retiring with his whole family and announcing his abdication of the throne because of the insults allegedly inflicted on him by the boyars and the clergy, he thereby set the lower ranks of the people on them, in the representation of which he was God's anointed and, in fact, His vicegerent on earth. The tsar agreed to change his mind only on the condition that he was given complete freedom to judge and punish all those who aroused his wrath.

His actions provoked an intensification of anti-boyar sentiments among the people, forced the Duma to ask Ivan the Terrible to continue his reign on all the conditions put forward by him. At the beginning of January 1565, a people's deputation arrived in Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, at the same time the tsar decided to establish an oprichnina.

Organization of a new military structure

As mentioned above, the first detachment consisted of a thousand people and was completely formed from the inhabitants of the "oprichnina" districts. All recruits swore allegiance to the tsar and a complete break in communication with the zemstvo. Their distinguishing marks were dog heads hanging from the necks of horses, symbolizing their readiness to look for sedition, and brooms attached to the saddles - a sign that the discovered sedition would be immediately swept away as harmful rubbish.

The content of the numerous and constantly growing oprichnina troops was entrusted to a number of Russian cities, among which the largest were Suzdal, Kozelsk, Vyazma and Vologda. In Moscow itself, several streets were given to them, such as: Nikitskaya, Arbat, Sivtsev Vrazhek and others. Their former inhabitants were forcibly expelled from their homes and relocated to remote parts of the city.

Undermining the economy, the first manifestations of discontent

The confiscation of the lands belonging to the zemshchina and their transfer to the possession of the guardsmen dealt a blow to the land ownership of the large feudal nobility, but at the same time undermined the country's economy. The reasons for the abolition of the oprichnina, which followed in 1572, included the destruction by the new landowners of the system of providing the country with food that had been established for centuries. The fact is that the lands that became the property of the new elite were mostly abandoned, and no work was done on them.

In 1566, another one was convened, consisting of representatives of all classes, with a request for the abolition of the oprichnina, its deputies did not yet dare to express the dissatisfaction that had arisen among the people with the arbitrariness of the “service people”, nevertheless, they turned to the tsar with a petition to take measures against their atrocities. Ivan the Terrible regarded any such speech as an attack on his royal rights, and as a result, three hundred petitioners ended up behind bars.

Novgorod tragedy

It is known that the reign of Ivan the Terrible (especially during the oprichnina period) is characterized by large-scale terror against the population of their own country, the cause of which was the unbridled cruelty of the autocrat, and the motives were suspicion and suspiciousness. This was especially clearly manifested during his punitive campaign against the inhabitants of Novgorod, undertaken by him in 1569-1570.

Suspecting the Novgorodians of intending to pass under the jurisdiction of the Polish king, Ivan the Terrible, accompanied by a large oprichnina army, marched to the banks of the Volkhov to punish the guilty and intimidate future traitors. Having no reason to blame anyone in particular, the king poured out his anger on everyone who got in his way. For several days, drunk with impunity, the guardsmen robbed and killed innocent people.

Demoralization and decomposition of the oprichnina army

According to modern researchers, at least 10-15 thousand people became their victims, despite the fact that the total population of the city at that time did not exceed 30 thousand inhabitants, that is, at least 30% of the townspeople were destroyed. It is fair to say that the abolition of the oprichnina of 1572 was largely the result of the fall in the moral authority of the royal power, the bearer of which was henceforth considered not as a father and intercessor, but as a rapist and robber.

However, having tasted blood, the king and his servants were no longer able to stop. The years that followed the Novgorod campaign were marked by numerous bloody executions both in Moscow and in many other cities. Only at the end of July 1670, more than two hundred convicts were found dead in the capital's squares. But this bloody revelry had an irreversible effect on the executioners themselves. The impunity of crimes and the ease of prey completely demoralized and corrupted the once quite combat-ready army.

Deserters

This was just the beginning. The abolition of the oprichnina was largely a consequence of the events associated with the invasion of the Tatars in 1671. Then, having forgotten how to fight and having learned only the habit of robbing the civilian population, the guardsmen, for the most part, simply did not appear at the assembly points. Suffice it to say that of the six regiments that came out to meet the enemy, five were formed from representatives of the Zemstvo.

In August of the following year, an event occurred, after which the long-awaited abolition of the oprichnina followed. The Battle of Molodi, in which Russians and Tatars clashed fifty kilometers from Moscow, without the participation of guardsmen, was brilliantly won by the Zemstvo army, led by princes Vorotynsky and Khvorostinin. It clearly showed the worthlessness and empty burden for the state of this privileged military-political structure.

Documents that have survived from that ancient time indicate that the abolition of the oprichnina, the date of which (as is commonly believed) is 1572, was being prepared much earlier. This is evidenced by the endless series of executions of the most prominent close associates of the king from among the high-ranking guardsmen, which followed as early as 1570-1571. Yesterday's favorites of the king were physically destroyed, those who, in his own words, served as his support and protection from all who were ready to encroach on the throne. But the year 1572 has not yet brought the final liberation of the people from their oppressors.

The death of the king and the final abolition of the oprichnina

In what year did the oprichnina period finally end in Rus'? This is a question that does not have a clear answer. Despite the official decree of the tsar to abolish this structure, the actual division of Russian lands into zemstvo and oprichnina remained until his death (1584).

In 1575 Ivan the Terrible put a baptized Tatar prince at the head of the Zemstvo. This appointment was preceded by another series of executions. This time, dignitaries who took places in the tsar's entourage after he defeated the oprichnina elite in 1572, as well as a number of high-ranking clerics, were among the criminals.

Cancellation of the oprichnina and its consequences

Our pre-revolutionary historian very aptly expressed what the oprichnina brought to the people of Russia. He quite rightly noted that in pursuit of imaginary sedition, the oprichnina became the cause of anarchy, and thereby gave rise to a true threat to the throne. He also noted that those massacres, with the help of which the royal servants tried to protect the sovereign, undermined the very foundations of the state system.

The abolition of the oprichnina (the year the royal decree was issued) was marked for Russia by a difficult situation in the west of the country, where military operations were conducted against the Commonwealth. The Russian army, weakened by the economic crisis that reigned in the country, was pushed back by the Poles. The Livonian War, which had ended by that time, also did not bring the expected success. In addition, Narva and Koporye were under Swedish occupation, and their further fate was alarming. Due to the inaction mentioned above and the actual desertion of the oprichnina troops in 1671, Moscow was devastated and burned. Against the backdrop of this difficult situation, the abolition of the oprichnina was announced.

In what year and by whom was the bloody despot not only rehabilitated, but also recognized as the arbiter of progress? The answer can be found in the criticism with which Stalin attacked the first series of Eisenstein's film Ivan the Terrible, released in 1945. According to him, picked up by Soviet propaganda, the role of Ivan the Terrible in history was deeply positive, and all actions were reduced only to ensuring centralized power and creating a powerful state. As for the methods by which the set goals were achieved, this, according to Stalin, was a secondary issue. By his own activity, the “father of nations” fully proved the sincerity of his judgment.