The cancellation 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 today, when there are supporters of iron dictatorship and autocracy.
The spectrum of historical assessments of the oprichnina
Over the centuries that have passed since the death of Ivan the Terrible, 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.
History of the term "oprichnina"
What is the meaning of this term itself? It is known thatit came from the Slavic word "oprich", that is, "outside", "separately", "outside". Initially, it denoted the allotment provided to the widow after the death of her husband, and 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 class, 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 thousands of troops, assembled exclusively from the population of confiscated and transferred to the state, that is, "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 plan of the king, she was assigned the role of the national guard, endowed with broad powers and intended to strengthen state power.
The internal political crisis worsens
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, the reason for which was the disagreement on most issues of statepoliticians. 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 tsar's arbitrariness abroad.
Starting from 1560, the flow of fugitives was constantly increasing, which could not but cause 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.
Start of large-scale repressions
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 supportstate power. But this is in the future, and at that moment, before giving free rein to his wildness, the king had to enlist the support of the broad masses of the people, and with their tacit consent, begin his bloody feast.
Events accompanying the creation of the oprichnina
To this end, Ivan played a real performance. Having retired with his whole family to Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, and announcing his abdication from the throne because of the insults allegedly inflicted on him by the boyars and the clergy, he thereby set the lower classes on them, in the representation of which he was God's anointed and, in fact, His viceroy 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 the intensity 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. In early 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" counties. 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 detected sedition would be immediately swept away as harmful rubbish.
ContentNumerous and constantly growing oprichnina troops were assigned 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.
Under 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 de alt 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 Zemsky Sobor was convened, consisting of representatives of all classes. By requesting 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 duringoprichnina) 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 evident during his punitive campaign against the inhabitants of Novgorod, undertaken by him in 1569-1570.
Suspecting the Novgorodians of intending to come 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, in the capital's squares, they founddeath of more than two hundred convicts. 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. She clearly showed the worthlessness and empty burden for the state of this privileged military-political structure.
Documents that have survived from that long 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 tsar were physically destroyed, those who, in his own words, served as his support and protection fromanyone who was 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 Russia? 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 the baptized Tatar prince Simeon Bekbulatovich 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 clergymen, were among the criminals.
Cancellation of the oprichnina and its consequences
About what the oprichnina brought to the people of Russia, our pre-revolutionary historian V. O. Klyuchevsky. He quite rightly noted that in pursuit of imaginary sedition, the oprichnina became the cause of anarchy, and thus 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 the difficult situation in the west of the country, where hostilities were taking place against the Commonwe alth. 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 notbrought 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 cancellation 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 activities, the “father of nations” fully proved the sincerity of his judgment.
