The end of the 15th century was marked by an important event in the history of Ancient Russia - the entry of the Vyatka land into the Moscow principality. Grand Duke Ivan III managed to make a significant contribution to the "gathering of Russian lands", begun by Ivan Kalita. However, despite all the expediency of this process, he and his predecessors had to face the active opposition of the Vyatichi, who created a veche republic and did not want to lose freedoms so dear to them.
Where did the Vyatka land come from?
According to chroniclers and data obtained during archaeological excavations, the first Russian settlers appeared in the basin of the Vyatka River - the largest tributary of the Kama - approximately at the end of the 12th - beginning of the 13th centuries, and during the period of the Tatar-Mongol yoke their number was significant increased. Earlier, this vast territory was inhabited by the Udmurts, who were a conglomerate of Finno-Ugric tribes.
Having settled down in new places, the settlers founded the first cities of the Vyatka land - Kotelnich, Nikulitsyn and a number of others. The largest settlementthere was Vyatka, which received the same name as the whole region. By the end of the 14th century, it had grown so much that it became its administrative and economic center.
Pattern of Democracy
Due to the fact that the Vyatka land was significantly removed from Moscow and large grand princely estates, its population had the opportunity to enjoy independence in resolving most issues. It developed a kind of Novgorod Republic, which at the same time had its own characteristic features.
The administrative apparatus of Vyatka consisted of elected officials and was divided into councils, each of which had powers in a certain area - military, police, judicial, civil, etc. The heads of the councils were elected, as a rule, from among the most notable townspeople - boyars, governors and merchants. The executors of their decisions were simple peasants and artisans. In the villages, all power was concentrated in the hands of the elders and centurions.
Dubious reputation
In the middle of the 15th century, the capital of the region was renamed Khlynov, and this name remained with it until 1780, after which it again became Vyatka. The reason for the renaming can be found in the ancient chronicle, known as the Tale of the Land of Vyatka. According to its compiler, the Vyatichi, who were distinguished by an extremely free disposition, have long been famous for robberies and robberies of their neighbors. With daring raids, they ravaged even the suburbs of Veliky Novgorod.
Because of this, in relation to them it was often usedthe old Russian word "khlyn", which means "robber" and "thief". Over time, it transformed into "Khlynov" and became the name of the city, which has been preserved for more than three centuries. This is the version of the chronicler, and no one today can vouch for its authenticity. Looking ahead, we note that in 1780 the former name was returned, and already in 1934 it was changed again. Vyatka was then renamed Kirov.
Allied with Separatists
Keeping all the attributes of a veche republic, the Vyatka land at the end of the 14th century became the patrimony of the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod prince Dmitry Konstantinovich, about which he and the inhabitants of the region signed an agreement. After his death, a bloody internecine war for inheritance began between his sons and close relatives, as a result of which Khlynov, as well as the territories adjacent to it, went to the sons of the deceased - Semyon and Vasily. However, their reign did not last long - soon both died. Their death served as a prerequisite for the annexation of the Vyatka land to Moscow, which was carried out in 1403 by Grand Duke Vasily III.
Until his death, which followed in 1457, the Vyatichi remained completely loyal to him, but then everything changed. The struggle for the vacant throne between the Moscow and Galician boyars, who advocated the sovereignty of their possessions, grew into an armed confrontation, and the Vyatichi took the side of the latter. In this they miscalculated. The separatists were defeated, and their leader Dmitry Shemyaka was killed.
Confrontation with the Grand DukeBasil II
From now on, the Vyatka land is formally out of the jurisdiction of the Moscow princes. It grouped supporters of the former feudal way of state life, many of whom came there from the devastated and burned Galich. From them, as well as from among the most active citizens, a powerful party is being formed, whose supporters manage for some time to resist the then ruling Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily II the Dark.
However, in 1459, he sent a large army to Khlynov (Vyatka), led by governor Ivan Potrineev, who, after a many-day siege, forced his defenders to surrender. After that, the recalcitrant city was again annexed to the Moscow principality, but with the preservation of all forms of local self-government.
The last days of the veche republic
The Vyatichi managed to keep these republican liberties until 1489, until they were put an end to by the Grand Duke Ivan III Vasilyevich (grandfather of Ivan the Terrible). It is with his name that the final annexation of the Vyatka land to the Muscovite state is connected. Deciding to eradicate the republican spirit from his subjects forever, he not only sent a large army against the Vyatichi, but also turned against them the Tatars, whose detachment of seven hundred horsemen, led by Khan Urik, smashed and burned the city suburbs.
From the pages of the Arkhangelsk Chronicle it is known that the total number of the Grand Duke's troops brought to Vyatka in August 1489 reached 64 thousand people, which far exceeded the number of defenderscities. Nevertheless, the Muscovites' expectation of their unconditional surrender did not materialize. Hiding behind the city walls, the Vyatichi prepared for defense.
An attempt to bribe the governor and subsequent events
The same chronicle says that even before the start of hostilities, the inhabitants of Khlynov tried to bribe the grand ducal governors and thus avert trouble from themselves. But Ivan III, knowing the morals of his subjects and foreseeing this possibility, warned in advance that greed would lead them to the chopping block. This argument had an effect, and the governors refused the money. Moreover, they informed the Vyatichi who came to them that the only condition for saving the city could be general surrender, an oath to the Grand Duke of Moscow (kissing the cross) and the extradition of the main initiators of the resistance.
Wishing to somehow buy time, the besieged asked for two days to think, and after their expiration they refused. Seeing that the conditions presented by them were rejected and a peaceful outcome of the case was impossible, the governors began preparations for the attack, for which they brought many bundles of firewood to the city walls and poured resin on them. These preparations had a strong psychological effect on the besieged. Realizing that the governors intended to burn the city and put them to a painful death, they trembled.
The end of former liberty
Remembering one of the conditions put forward by him, the Vyatichi gave the besiegers the leaders of the anti-Moscow party that had been created in the city: Fyodor Zhigulev, Ivan Opilisov, Fyodor Morgunov and Levonty Manushkin. All four wereimmediately delivered to Moscow and hanged there by order of Ivan III. In the city itself, delivered from the fire at the cost of capitulation, numerous executions were also carried out of those who did not want to recognize the power of the Moscow princes over themselves and openly expressed their dissatisfaction.
The final annexation of the Vyatka land to the Moscow principality was completed by the fact that most of its inhabitants were subjected to forced resettlement. In order to exclude the possibility of organizing a new rebellion, Ivan III ordered that they be sent by families and one by one to various, for the most part, remote regions of the state, and the vacated territory should be populated by loyal and non-threatening residents of the Moscow region. It should be noted that this was not the first case of mass deportation in the history of Russia. In 1478, a similar measure was applied to the inhabitants of the conquered Veliky Novgorod.
Despite the fact that after the events of 1489 described above, the Vyatka Veche Republic was no longer revived, many of its citizens did not want to pacify their freedom-loving spirit and, contrary to the requirements of grand ducal officials, refused to move to the places indicated for this. These people, having broken with their former lives, went en masse to the Volga, where they became inaccessible to the government. There, some of them united in gangs and hunted by robbery, which was a common thing for many (it was not for nothing that they were called “hlyns”), while others dissolved among the Volga Cossacks and did … about the same thing.
The price of betrayal
But not all fate prepared such a sad denouement. Those Vyatichi who voluntarily volunteered to cooperate with the Moscow governors and regularly reported on all manifestations of discontent among their fellow countrymen were showered with grand ducal favors. Many of them received from Ivan III the estates left by the previous owners, extensive land plots and large sums of money. The history of the land of Vyatka knows many famous noble families, whose ascent began with the fall of the veche republic.
