The main results of the reign of Ivan the Terrible

Ivan the Terrible was the son of Grand Duke Vasily III. The childhood and youth of the future ruler passed during a turbulent period of unrest in the Russian lands, which had a considerable influence on Ivan's further vision of his role as a prince. And as a result, the results of the reign of Ivan the Terrible became more important for the further development of the country than the activities of any other Russian sovereign of that era.

According to a number of historians, it was then that the fate of Russia was laid as a special civilizational and geopolitical formation between East and West.

The activities of the prince and the most important results of the reign of Ivan the Terrible

Ivan IV joined the throne as a very young man - in 1547. An important event of this year was the Moscow uprising of the people, protesting against the tyranny of the boyars. The disturbances reached the point that some members of the Rurik dynasty were killed . Even for the seventeen-year-old prince it became obvious that the state needs a wide range of reforms: the creation of a single bureaucratic apparatus, the transformation of the judicial system, the promulgation of new legislation that would meet the demands of the time, and so on. Actually, this activity determines the main results of the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the prince's domestic policy . In 1547, at the court of the prince, an informal government was formed, assembled from noblemen, clergy and officials, whose purpose was to carry out large-scale reforms in the state. The main areas of activity of the Elected Rada (the name of this government, which has become stronger in historiography) are the following:

• The reorganization of the judicial system and the publication of a full-scale judicial document in 1550;
• Religious unification of church canons throughout the Russian land and the subordination of the church to the secular government;
• The transformation of the state apparatus, which led to the conversion of all aristocrats into government officials and the strengthening of the dependence of local administrations on the central government;
• Military reform, which envisaged the introduction of a uniform order of service throughout the country and the creation of new types of regular troops (archers, gunners). The result of this activity was the emergence of a strong centralized state at the site of the Russian principalities that had been divided several decades ago.

Oprichnina and foreign policy. results

However, after 1560 there is a conflict between the leaders of the Chosen Rada and the Grand Duke. The next period of Russian history is known as "oprichnina," during which Ivan IV personally formed a dedicated corps of troops and led real terror toward the aristocracy of Russian lands. On the one hand, this led to the establishment of an absolute monarchy, which was quite a natural process for Europe at that time. On the other hand, the oprichnina paved the way for a large-scale crisis that broke out after half a century and became known as the Great Troubles. Very important were the results of the reign of Ivan the Terrible for the international position of the Moscow state. It was not only the first powerful political formation of the Eastern Slavs since the times of Kievan Rus, in the middle of the 16th century Moscow began an active struggle to expand its possessions. First of all, in the Baltic States and in the east due to the possessions of the former Tatar Horde, where the first of the Russian princes began to aggressively attack Ivan the Terrible. The results of the board are briefly summarized in the table.

The main results of the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Table

However, it should be borne in mind that the tabular results are shown very schematically.