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9 - The Growth of Muscovy (1462–1533)

from Part II - The Expansion, Consolidation and Crisis of Muscovy (1462–1613)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Donald Ostrowski
Edited by
Maureen Perrie
Maureen Perrie
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
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Summary

During the period between 1462 and 1533, Muscovy underwent substantial growth in land and population, virtually tripling in size (see Map 9.1). The Muscovite state gained a significant amount of land and population to the southwest in treaties with Lithuania, and annexed the principalities and republics of Iaroslavl’ (1471), Perm’ (1472), Rostov (1473), Tver’ (1485), Viatka (1489), Pskov (1510), Smolensk (1514) and Riazan’ (1521). But by far its greatest acquisition was through the annexation of Novgorod in 1478. At the same time, the ruling order – that is, the grand prince, princes, boyars and other landlords – consolidated its hold on the populace and countryside. One should not focus on the enormous expansion as the result of some kind of Muscovite ‘manifest destiny’ (the so-called ‘gathering of the Russian lands’), because the expansion itself occurred as the result of a significant refashioning and implementation of internal policies by the grand princes and ruling elite. These policies transformed Muscovy from a loosely organised confederation, roughly equivalent in structure to any of the neighbouring steppe khanates, into a monarch-in-council form of government with a quasi-bureaucratic administrative structure equal to that of any European dynastic state. These policies included more effective and uniform administrative institutions and methods, the creation of a ready and mobile military force, and the building of a spectacular citadel in the capital to impress all and sundry with the ruling power. Non-Russian princes and nobles were incorporated in large numbers. Added to these developments was an implacable aggrandisement of power on the part of those who ran the state.

Keywords

MuscovyIvanforeign institutionsforeign policiesdomestic policiesVasilii
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Russia , pp. 211 - 239
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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