Ivan IV, known as Ivan the Great, was the first czar of Russia and an outstanding figure in history. Ivan the Terrible has a far-reaching influence on Russia. There have been countless legends about him for hundreds of years, and there have been different opinions on his historical evaluation. Traditionally, Ivan the Terrible was regarded as a tyrant. He is ruthless, cruel and suspicious, and treats human life like dirt. Especially in his later years, he almost fell into pathological doubts about the surrounding ministers and slaughtered them. On the other hand, there are a lot of historical data to prove that Ivan the Great was an outstanding politician and scholar in Russia at that time. He read widely, attached importance to education, and carried out a lot of reform measures with far-reaching significance in history, which laid the foundation for the development of Russia.
When Ivan the Great's father Vasily III was seriously ill, in order to ensure the stability of his son's throne in the future, he specially wrote to set up a regent's meeting composed of seven big noble, who assisted the young Ivan until he was fifteen years old. These seven people were all important officials at that time, headed by Ivan's uncle, Grand Duke Glinschi, followed by Vasily III's brother, Ivan's uncle Andre; Vassili and Ivan Joysky, prominent brothers of the family (another view of father and son), and the other three are Zakharin, Tuchkov and Vorinzov. According to the idea of Vassili III, this arrangement is enough to ensure the long-term stability of the country, and it can also ensure that young Ivan has enough ability to fight against the Duma in big noble where the opposition gathered.
1533 65438+On February 4th, Vassili III died. Three-year-old Ivan ascended the throne, known as Ivan IV in history. Although Vasily III stipulated that the Regent would help Ivan before his death, in fact, it was Ivan's mother yelena Gliska who had the most influence on state affairs. The young widow yelena soon got his favorite, a noble named Ivan Ober Lenski. With the support of Obey Lenski, yelena gradually came up with the idea of listening to politics, so he began to clear the Regent's Council.
In this way, less than a year after the death of Vassili III, the interior of the Grand Duchy began to split, with the Regent's Council Wang Party as one side and the Hou Party as the other side, and the power struggle began. In the first round, the dispute between the post-Party and the Wang Party ended with the victory of the Queen Mother.
The breakthrough of yelena's attack on Wang Dang was the defection of senior generals in the summer of 1534. On August 3rd this year, Grand Duke belsky and the famous Lyatski, who had been leading the military and political affairs in Serpu, a southern suburb of Moscow, defected to the Lithuanian Grand Duchy. Two days later, under the influence of defection, Archduke Glinschi, an aristocrat headed by the Regent's Council, was arrested and imprisoned (otherwise said to have been killed), and then Archduke Vorinzov was also arrested. Next, the Belsky and Rodzinski families who held military power were also implicated, and many people were arrested. After a series of arrests, yelena became the Regent with the support of Lenski, and actually monopolized the power.
During the regency of yelena Gliska, the Grand Duchy of Moscow was at war with Lithuania, Crimea and Kazan for many years. In order to ensure the stable development of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, when the Grand Duchy of Moscow gained the upper hand in these military conflicts, Queen Gliska successfully made peace with these hostile countries. In addition, Gliska also carried out an important financial reform-adding a new monetary unit in the Russian monetary system: Goby. According to European custom, the kopeck is defined as the second currency of the ruble, and 100 kopeck is equal to 1 ruble.
1538 On April 3rd, after four years of regency, Gliska suddenly died of illness. Historians believe that the Queen Mother Gliska was poisoned and murdered. In any case, young Ivan became an orphan. The Wangs are making a comeback. Six days after Gracka's death, she arrested Ober Lenski, the favorite of the Queen Mother, and put him in prison for execution. The Wangs, headed by the Joysky brothers, returned to the Regent's Council and manipulated Ivan to handle state affairs. Although the Joysky brothers are famous all over the world, they have no respect for Ivan IV. They bullied Ivan at a young age, did whatever they wanted in court, and even publicly insulted Ivan and his mentally retarded brother Yuri. After Vasily Joysky died, Ivan Joysky became the Regent.
On 1540, the regent of Joysky was expelled by the Duma of big noble and replaced by the upright Grand Duke belsky. Two years later, Joysky went undercover again, overthrew belsky and became Regent again. As soon as Joysky came to power, he persecuted courtiers who opposed him and arrested and killed many ministers who supported Ivan and belsky.
When Joysky was in power, he only paid attention to the ministers above the court, but forgot to pay attention to the precocious young archduke Ivan IV. 1543 12.29 During the meeting of the Duma in big noble, Ivan IV, then thirteen, suddenly ordered the guards to arrest Joysky. Although Joysky planted many cronies around Ivan and the DPRK at that time, the incident happened suddenly, and no one thought Ivan could do it, let alone openly oppose Dagong in the court. Ministers who supported Ivan took the opportunity to eradicate Joysky's influence in North Korea and elected Ivan's two uncles Mikhail and Yuri Glinschi as regents.
1546 12, Ivan iv decided to be responsible. The following year, in 65438+ 10, 16, Ivan ascended the throne and officially claimed to be the czar. Patriarch Joseph of Byzantium and other bishops of 36 Byzantine dioceses all recognized Ivan's title of czar, which was recognized by the Orthodox Church. This is a formal recognition of "divine right of monarchy" and "Moscow is the third Rome", that is, the power of Russian monarch comes from God, and Moscow is the heir of Constantinople, which is a dual legal recognition of divine right and monarchical right. Thus, tsarist Russia was born.
Ivan got married less than a month after he ascended the throne-the queen was Nasta Koshkina, daughter of courtier Roman Zakharin-Zhurjev. Nasta Sisi is the first empress in Russian history. She is famous for her gentle personality and kind heart. Romanov family became dignitaries because of their daughter's backwardness, and since then they have called themselves Romanov family. One hundred years later, the Romanov family established the second dynasty in Russia after the Lyurik dynasty. Peter I, the first emperor of the Russian Empire, was the nephew of Nasta Xi according to his genealogy.
The ambitious young tsar began to carry out a series of political and military reforms aimed at strengthening centralization and achieving the goal of making Qiang Bing rich. 1547 After the Moscow fire, Ivan IV quelled the riots caused by rumors in the city, and then began to form his own think tank.
Ivan IV and his think tank carried out a series of important reforms, including the establishment of a new aristocratic representative institution-the gentry's conference, and then the establishment of the first administrative yamen in Russian history to handle government affairs. Later, this administrative office became the predecessor of the central government, and since then, the diplomatic office and the criminal office have been separated from this department. Ivan IV also reformed the judicial system, changing the situation that the overseers and lords monopolized the judicial power of Russian towns in the past, stipulating that all criminal cases must be attended by local nobles and gentry, which is a jury system in a sense. The most realistic reform for tsarist Russia is military reform: Ivan IV ordered the establishment of a professional national army, unified the militia-like armed forces in the original city into a standing army, and appointed nobles as generals of these troops; The concept of service was formally introduced, stipulating that anyone who is paid must serve in the army. In this way, aristocratic children from all over the country are assigned to the army as generals at all levels, and an important way for aristocratic children to obtain official titles is to obtain military merits on the battlefield. In addition, Ivan IV also established a brand-new arms-the Shooting Army, which was stationed in Moscow. It was well equipped with the most advanced firearms at that time. Compared with the army in the cold weapon era, the shooting army is undoubtedly the elite force of czarist Russia. Later history proved that archers played an important role in Russian history for more than 200 years.
Ivan IV also officially confirmed the national emblem of Russia. Starting from Ivan IV, the national emblem of Russia is not only a double-headed eagle inherited from Byzantium, but also the family emblem of Ryurik family-a shield with the pattern of Saint George immediately wielding a spear to assassinate a dragon. This national emblem pattern has been used by the Romanov Dynasty in the Federal Republic of Russia.
1552, Ivan iv was in power for six years. Ivan, 22, is full of ambition. After successfully carrying out a series of reforms, strengthening centralization and stabilizing internal affairs, he decided to continue the unfinished expansion of his ancestors and parents. The first target he chose was Kazan khanate.
At the beginning of Ivan IV's accession to the throne, with the vigorous expansion of ancestors, the territory actually controlled by Russia was equivalent to the total area of modern Germany and France. Russian territory starts from the Karelia Peninsula in the north and reaches the Pskov-Smolensk-Gomel-Cernikov line in the west, bordering the Lithuanian Kingdom. It is bordered by the Crimean khanate in the southwest, and the border line runs from Kursk and Elez to the confluence of Volga River and Sura River. Further south is the Don Grassland, where a large number of Cossacks live, including Slavs, Caucasians and Tatars, and then the Nogaikhand and Nogaikhand established by the Tatars. At the mouth of the Volga River flowing into the Caspian Sea, the Astrakhan khanate was founded by the Tatars. To the east, it is Russia's old rival Kazan Khanate.
There is an interesting historical phenomenon here: in the early days of Ivan IV's rule, in the south, east and north of tsarist Russia, the so-called boundary line was actually a geographical concept, vague and uncertain, with no clear boundary mark, which could be understood as a general sphere of influence. But in the western border, that is, the border with the Knights of Livonia and the Kingdom of Lithuania in Poland, it is strikingly similar to the western border of Russia today. The only difference is that chernigov and other places were already in Russia (now in Ukraine), and Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, was at the border; In addition, along the coastline of the Baltic Sea, there is a narrow strip with a width of 70- 100 km, that is, today's St. Petersburg area, which was then the territory of Livonia. Later, in order to compete for the Baltic Sea, Russia fought a war with its European neighbors for 25 years.
The most densely populated area in Russia is naturally Moscow. According to the statistics at that time, there were 410.5 million households in Moscow with more than 654.38+10,000 residents. At that time, Russia established a few settlements in the northern region, and the northernmost settlement was built in the Arctic Circle.
After a series of political and military reforms, Ivan IV greatly consolidated centralization and firmly grasped the political power and army. First of all, this is reflected in the army's combat capability: at that time, the Russian army was equipped with16th century weapons of mass destruction-artillery, and accordingly established a new service-artillery, becoming one of the strongest troops in Europe. After several years of fighting, the Russian army has a large number of artillery.
According to the secret letter written by John Cobenzelli, the ambassador of the Holy Roman Empire to Tsarist Russia at that time, to Emperor maximilian ii, every time the Russian army launched a large-scale campaign, it had to dispatch at least hundreds of cannons. Originally built in the Middle Ages, the insurmountable tall and solid city walls have been unable to stop the bombardment of Russian artillery. In addition, Ivan IV ordered the casting of heavy artillery, which actually weighed several tons and each shell weighed hundreds of kilograms. Whenever Russian guns roar on the battlefield, it can often cause great psychological shock to the enemy.
The guns ordered by Ivan IV are not only powerful, but also have an extraordinary service life. Every cannon has been in service for decades, and some cannons are still in use in the seventeenth century. This is of course because the artillery at that time was simple in structure, huge in size and not easy to be damaged; On the other hand, at that time, Russian artillery casting technology was superb and metal forging reached a certain level. This is also an important reason why the service life of artillery is as long as one hundred years.
After the Russian army exchanged guns for guns, the ambitious Ivan IV decided to expand his territory like his ancestors and parents. The first goal is Kazan khanate.
At that time, the rulers of Kazan Khanate and Kerim Khanate came from the Jilei family, and the monarch of Kazan Khanate also welcomed into Korea from Kerim Khanate. When Moscow was busy with civil strife, Kazan Khanate invaded the eastern border towns of Moscow many times, with the main targets being Nizhny Novgorod, Vyatka, Vladimir, Kostroma and other towns.
Ivan IV decided to conquer Kazan himself, not only to make Kazan bow to his knees and become a vassal state, but to completely conquer Kazan and bring it into Russian territory. In order to achieve this goal, Russian Ivan III of Russia visited Kazan Khanate three times. Due to the lack of weather and troops, the first two expeditions to the east failed.
1552 10, Ivan iv led the army to Kazan khanate for the third time. This time Ivan IV brought a huge army of 6.5438+0.5 million people, equipped with 654.38+0.5 guns. Kazan could not resist the Russian attack and soon fell. The Kazan khanate, which ruled for a hundred years, perished.
Ivan IV abolished Kazan Khan, and his general Alexander Joysky was appointed as Kazan army supervisor, and Kazan was formally incorporated into Russian territory.
Historians admit that the conquest of Kazan is of great historical significance to Russia. Strategically, it changed the harsh geopolitical situation surrounded by Russia's powerful enemies, opened a gap in the east, lifted Russia's huge threat in the east, and protected border towns from frequent attacks by Tatar cavalry. In the long run, this has enabled Russia to destroy neighboring powers one by one with the tactics of divide and rule, and pushed its territorial expansion to an unprecedented extent. Secondly, the demise of Kazan khanate swept away the biggest obstacle to Russia's eastward advancement. After conquering Kazan, you can cross the Urals to the east and go south along the Volga River to the Caspian Sea, so Siberia and astrakhan become Russian targets.
In order to commemorate the conquest of Kazan khanate, Ivan IV ordered the establishment of a church in the square in front of the Kremlin, called Notre Dame, the Ascension Hall in today's Red Square.
After the death of Kazan Khanate, Russia stepped up its colonization in the Volga River basin. Immigrants from all over Russia moved eastward on a large scale, and floods crossed the Volga River and the Urals Mountains. Fur and wood became rolling wealth and flowed into Moscow through Kazan, which made Russia gain huge profits in its trade with Europe. In less than 20 years, Kazan has become a prosperous town with mixed nationalities.
In the following years, Ivan IV sent generals Semiyakin and Cheremisinov to attack the Astrakhan khanate. With the help of Cossack cavalry on the Don River, they hit the main force of Astrakhan Khan twice, and finally occupied astrakhan, the capital of the intersection of Volga River and Caspian Sea, without bloodshed. 1556, the death of the khanate of Astrakhan. In this way, Ivan IV's Tsar Russia conquered the entire Volga River basin, extending its territory to the Caspian Sea and reaching out to the Caucasus, Central Asia and Siberia. At this time, the Siberian khanate, the Nogai khanate and the Cossacks on the southern grasslands have nominally surrendered to Moscow. Cossacks guarded the southern frontier for the czar, and became a pioneer in opening up the eastern territory with the status of actual independence and the conditions of newly occupied land.
After a series of brilliant military and political victories, Ivan IV began to concentrate on dealing with the Crimean Khanate.
After the death of Kazan Khan and Astrakhan Khan, Devlet I of Gillette Dynasty vowed to restore Astala Khan and Kazan to the motherland. Before Devlet could take action, 1558, Vishnevsky, an ally of Moscow and a Polish general, led the army to defeat the Crimean army at the mouth of Azov, and then was defeated by the famous Adashev sent by Ivan IV in 1559, and the Crimean Khanate army retreated to the Crimean peninsula.
Adashev conquered the port city of Kaizlev, which was prosperous because of human trafficking, and rescued a large number of prisoners and slaves. Although Adashev's army won a series of victories, it failed to capture the Crimean Peninsula in the hinterland of the khanate, and failed to cause a devastating blow to the khanate. As a counterattack, Devlet I's Creole Army and Ottoman-Turkish Coalition invaded astrakhan twice, but both were defeated by Russian troops led by Adashev.
However, Devlet I didn't stop there, continued to explore Russia to the north, and finally captured Moscow in just three years, becoming a legend in the history of the Crimean Khanate.
Ivan IV scored frequently in external expansion, and the domestic political situation was turbulent. Events in the court gradually changed Ivan IV's character.
1553, Ivan iv suddenly fell ill and had a high fever. The court physician was helpless, and then it was reported that the tsar would die. As soon as the news that the czar was seriously ill came out of the palace, big noble immediately fought fiercely for power and for the division of power in the future. The fierce competition has reached an open level. But to everyone's surprise, Ivan IV miraculously recovered. Since then, the first legend about Ivan IV has emerged: it is said that Ivan IV did die at that time, and then another person took his place; Another way of saying it is that Ivan IV didn't die at that time, but a high fever made him crazy. Since then, he has claimed to be the vagrant Vasily Blarney. But neither of these two statements has been recognized by the official history.
In order to compete for the Baltic Sea, Russia waged a protracted war with its neighbors in this region. In the era of Ivan IV, Russia's borders were the northern shore of Lake Chude and the western shore of Lake Ladoga, which were parallel to the Gulf of Finland and only 70 kilometers away from the nearest Russian territory, the Gulf of Finland. Getting access to the Baltic Sea is not only a territorial expansion in the general sense, but also a huge strategic and economic benefit. If Russia can establish a port in the Gulf of Finland, it can run through the entire northern trade route and go to sea by itself, and conduct free trade in Britain and Denmark without passing through Poland, Lithuania or Sweden; Secondly, without port cities, it is impossible to build a strong navy and ensure Russia's political presence in this region.
1556, Russian troops launched an attack on Sweden. The war lasted for a year and ended with the signing of the Peace Treaty of Novgorod. The war did not bring any practical results to Ivan IV: the border between the two sides remained the same, and each side returned the other's prisoners. The only thing worth noting is that Sweden unconditionally released Russian prisoners of war, and Russia returned them only after receiving the ransom from Sweden.
1558, Ivan IV launched an attack on Livonia. After the war began, the Russian army won one after another, even four cities, and the order in Livonia was hit hard. The war lasted until 1559, and Livonia actually no longer existed, and its territory was incorporated into the sphere of influence of Poland, Lithuania, Sweden and Denmark.
At that time, all kinds of terrible legends about tsarist Russia were widely circulated in European countries. From ordinary people to princes and monarchs, few Europeans have been to Moscow. The result of hearsay is to imagine Russia as a semi-open country and Russians as barbarians who eat their hair and drink their blood. It can be said that Europe compares Russia to Tatars and Ottoman Turkey.
Russia's military action along the Baltic Sea has caused panic in Europe. Then the war between Poland, Lithuania, Sweden and Russia is inevitable. The Livonia War, which is about to end with the victory of the Russian army, has become long-term. The warring parties stopped fighting and kept talking and fighting, so the war continued until 1583. In the end, Russia failed to get access to the Baltic Sea. The Livonia War, which lasted for 25 years, not only failed to achieve the expected goal, but ended with Sweden occupying six cities in the northwest territory of Russia.
1560, Nasta ·Xi· Gliska, the queen of Ivan IV, died of sudden illness. In fact, the queen died of poisoning. More than 400 years later, at the beginning of 2 1 century, Russian scientists opened Queen Gliska's coffin, sampled Nasta's hair for chemical analysis, and found a lot of lead, mercury and arsenic in her body, which proved that Queen Ivan IV was indeed poisoned.
After his wife's death, Ivan IV's personality changed greatly, becoming more and more suspicious and indifferent. Ivan IV's suspicion of surrounding ministers and nobles gradually turned into suspicion and even hatred. Always thinking about how to consolidate the monarchy and weaken the aristocratic power, Ivan IV became irritable and began to attack ministers.
1562, Ivan iv announced "the abolition of vassals", directly deprived all nobles of their territories, and announced that all Russian land was owned by the tsar alone, which is probably the so-called "the world is big, is it the land of kings?" At this time, Russia was a typical monarchical state, which implemented the system of enfeoffment. All the vassal governors and nobles ruled their own territory on behalf of the tsar, which is the so-called "territory, not for princes" As a result, the nobles who lost their territory became "public servants" living on state salaries, not only deprived of power, but also trapped in the situation of being subject to the czar economically.
The tsar's behavior attracted the unanimous opposition of many nobles. After being suppressed, many nobles secretly contacted the Lithuanian kingdom of Poland, and even radical nobles planned to overthrow Ivan IV and set up a new czar. This led Ivan IV to take severe measures to suppress the nobles.
Ivan IV first cleaned his recent ministers and promoted some ministers who were not noble. It was because of their non-aristocratic background that they won the trust of the tsar. And these recent ministers also spared no effort to win the trust and favor of Ivan IV by eliminating the nobles and ministers of the DPRK. Among these modern ministers, the most famous is the imperial courtier Gregory Skuratov. Because of his short stature, he was nicknamed "Skuratov the Dwarf".
1564 65438+On February 3rd, Ivan IV left Moscow for Alexanderov, a small town near Moscow. Here, Ivan IV sent a personal letter to the palace in Moscow, accusing the bishops and nobles in Moscow of colluding with the Lithuanian kingdom of Poland and accusing them of treason. Ivan IV said that he was deeply humiliated and announced that he would abdicate and no longer be a czar. But at the same time, did Ivan IV indicate who will inherit the throne? When the imperial edict reached Moscow, the ministers and bishops of the DPRK were speechless: as we all know, Ivan IV's so-called treason charges were fabricated out of thin air, and he announced his abdication without naming an heir, which was obviously a gesture. However, these ministers don't want to be flatterers, they don't want to praise Ivan IV publicly, and they don't want to show their loyalty. In the end, they had to be silent and didn't respond.
The silence of Moscow officials angered Ivan IV, who regarded it as a sign of disloyalty. Ivan IV announced the establishment of the extermination area, and selected the best young people in the extermination area, trained them strictly, and established the imperial army of the tsar. The so-called vassal areas are directly under the jurisdiction of the tsar, and administratively they are directly under the jurisdiction of the tsar. The San Francisco area covers several cities around Moscow and several streets in Moscow. In feudal areas, only the imperial army carried out the will of the tsar, integrated justice, trial and law enforcement, and was only responsible to the tsar. This enables Ivan IV to arrest anyone at any time according to his own wishes, convict him at will and dispose of him without any judicial procedure.
Imperial soldiers rode horses, armed to the teeth and carrying brooms behind them, symbolizing the need to sweep away all "traitors"; There is a dog's head hanging under the horse's neck, which symbolizes loyalty to the tsar and is ready to kill anyone at any time according to the tsar's wishes. They patrolled the San Francisco area all day and arrested a large number of nobles who were "traitors and defectors". Most of the arrested people were quickly executed, and a few people were lucky enough to live, but they were exiled to the northern alpine region. According to historical records, sometimes so many people were executed in one day that the Kallner River flowing through Aleksandrov was dyed red.
Ivan IV returned to Moscow after basically destroying his two ministers. At this time, Ivan IV's autocratic power reached its peak, and all Russia was silent, and no one dared to make any remarks contrary to the tsar.
When the nobles collectively lost their voices, only the church representing theocracy dared to openly oppose the tsar. 1568, the venerable Bishop Philip refused to support Ivan IV's feudal system, claiming many times that the czar's behavior was against heaven and did not conform to Christian principles. Ivan IV was not afraid, because Bishop Philip was respected and spoke in the name of God. In a rage, he ordered Bishop Philip to be put into prison, and the next year, he was killed in prison by Schula toffler, a dwarf.
After killing the nobles, Ivan IV did not stop, and the wave of cleansing and repression was further amplified by the imperial army of the czar. According to the tip-off, Ivan IV believed that Novgorod colluded with the Lithuanian kingdom of Poland and plotted a mutiny, so he sent the imperial army into the city to arrest and execute him, and Novgorod was caught by the imperial army.
Ivan IV won the title of "Ivan the Terrible" because of the horrible means he showed in the process of destroying the princes.
However, other historical data show that Ivan IV's dictatorship may have been exaggerated, and the repression and cleansing did not reach the legendary scale. For example, he personally pardoned many nobles, and strictly abided by Christian teachings to keep the administration clear. As a czar, he gets up at four o'clock every morning to deal with government affairs and spends a lot of time praying in church every day. Ivan IV, who pretends to be a devout Orthodox Christian, tries his best to show his generosity and kindness, but still bears the reputation of a tyrant.
Most of the history before and after the abolition of vassals now comes from the records of foreign envoys in Russia and nobles who opposed Ivan IV. At that time, the printing and publishing in Russia was far less developed than that in Europe, and the historical circulation recorded by Russian court historians was far less than that of the former. In other words, Ivan IV lost the right to speak and lost to the opposition in the news war. But Ivan IV didn't care about his historical reputation at that time, he only cared about how to consolidate the monarchy.
The domestic political turmoil inevitably leads to a large-scale invasion by foreign enemies. The south has been looking for a gap to covet Russia's Crimea khanate to gather troops and start attacking Russia.
Prior to this, the Crimean Khanate never stopped invading southern Russia. Long before Ivan IV wiped out the princes, the Crimean Khanate joined forces with the Turkish Coalition forces in 1552, and dispatched more than 7,000 cavalry to Tula, which was repelled by the local defenders. Later, more than 60,000 troops invaded, but they were repulsed again by the 7,500 elite archers led by Archduke Sheremetyev.
157 1 year, the Lithuanian king Sigmund Auguste persuaded Clim Hendrette I to attack Russia. Devlet I always regarded himself as the leader of the Tatar khanate, and had vowed to restore Kazan khanate and Astrakhan khanate before, so he made full preparations and marched into the Northern Expedition. This year, Devroedt I assembled 40,000 elite soldiers from the khanate, and also recruited Cherkesi from the khanate of Nogai and the Caucasus to send troops to the north. Soon, the allied forces of the Crimean Khanate arrived in the hinterland of Russia and occupied a large area of land south of Moscow. At first, Devlett I did not intend to attack Moscow, which was well-armed and well-fed, but on the way to the Northern Expedition, he met a small number of Russian troops who betrayed Ivan IV and came to Klingham. According to the information disclosed by the rebels, Russia has not only caused political turmoil due to the disappearance of vassals, but also suffered a large-scale famine this year. In addition, hundreds of thousands of people died of hunger and plague, and Moscow was empty and unable to fight against the Crimean army. Upon hearing this, Devlet immediately decided to attack Moscow with all his might.
Dev Park Jung Su I was an excellent military commander. In the case of disparity in strength, I still dare not underestimate my enemy. He sent a small number of troops to pretend to attack the Sherpukhov fortress, the south gate of Moscow, which was closely guarded by Russian troops. He led the main force to bypass the fortress, crossed the Uggla River to the west and attacked Moscow from the southwest. There were 6,000 defenders in southwest Moscow, and they were quickly wiped out. Since then, Devulet's army has met with no effective resistance and reached the gate of Moscow.
Ivan IV once had many wives, and there were seven or eight officially recorded in the history books. According to Orthodox regulations, the czar can only get married three times, and other wives are illegal and cannot be recognized by the church. Before the October Revolution, civil affairs such as marriage and having children were not the responsibility of the administrative department, and the church had the right to recognize whether marriage was legal and valid. After Ivan IV's first wife Nasta Xi was poisoned in the summer of 1560, Ivan IV remarried the following year, but his second wife died soon. After that, Ivan IV's third wife died before she got married, so he remarried frequently until his eighth wife.
The church only recognized Ivan IV's first four wives as legal. The four wives were officially declared queens only after they were recognized by the church. Ivan IV's frequent remarriage was unusual at that time.
Ivan IV was a devout Orthodox Christian. On the one hand, he strictly adhered to the teachings, but on the other hand, after his wife was killed, his personality became suspicious and irritable. Some of his second wives were suspected by Ivan IV, and in a rage, they ordered poisoning or drowning themselves. Another important reason is that Ivan IV always wanted an heir.
Ivan and Nastasi gave birth to five children. The eldest daughter Anna and the second daughter Maria both died at a very young age. Then Ivan gave birth to another son, Dmitry. He could have been the Crown Prince, but when Dmitry was two years old, he was accidentally thrown into the river by the nanny and drowned. Ivan and Nasta West's two sons, one named Ivan and the other named Feodor, are mentally retarded younger sons (the history is strikingly similar: Ivan IV's younger brother Yuri is also mentally retarded). Ivan IV and three other lawful wives have no children, so Ivan IV only has two sons, Ivan and fyodor. Feodor was mentally retarded and could not inherit reunification, so Ivan became the sole heir and was made the Crown Prince.
1580, Ivan iv got married for the last time. His last wife gave birth to a son and Ivan named him Dimitri. Because this marriage was approved by the church, Dimitri was considered an illegitimate child born illegally.
This year, under the auspices of Ivan IV, fyodor, a mentally retarded son, got married. The bride was Irina, the daughter of the imperial general Godonov who abolished the feudal lords. After marriage, the Godonov family became a royal family, so the whole family was upgraded, and Boris, the eldest son of the family, was awarded the title of big noble.