3 prerequisites for the formation of the Russian centralized state. Preconditions, course and features of the formation of the Russian centralized state

Chronology

• 1276 - 1303 The reign of Daniel Alexandrovich. Formation of the Moscow principality.
• 1325 - 1340 The reign of Ivan Danilovich Kalita.
• 1462 - 1505 The reign of Ivan III Vasilievich.
• 1480 "Standing" on the Ugra River, liberation of the Russian lands from the Golden Horde yoke.

Rise of Moscow

The rulers of the principalities that entered into rivalry with Moscow, lacking sufficient on their own, were forced to seek support from the Horde or from Lithuania. Therefore, the struggle of the Moscow princes with them acquired the character of an integral part of the national liberation struggle and received the support of both the influential church and the population interested in the state unification of the country.

Since the end of the 60s. XIV century. a long struggle began between the Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich (1359-1389) and the creative prince Mikhail Alexandrovich, who entered into an alliance with the Grand Duke of Lithuania Olgerd.

By the time of the reign of Dmitry Ivanovich, the Golden Horde entered a period of weakening and protracted strife between the feudal nobility. Relations between the Horde and the Russian principalities became more and more tense. In the late 70s. Mamai came to power in the Horde, who, stopping the beginning of the collapse of the Horde, began preparations for a campaign against Russia. The struggle to overthrow the yoke and ensure security from external aggression became the most important condition for the completion of the state-political unification of Rus, begun by Moscow.

In the summer of 1380, having gathered almost all the forces of the Horde, which also included detachments of mercenaries from the Genoese colonies in the Crimea and vassals to the Horde of the peoples of the North Caucasus and the Volga region, Mamai set out to the southern borders of the Ryazan principality, where he began to wait for the approach of the troops of the Lithuanian prince Yagailo and Oleg Ryazansky. The terrible threat hanging over Russia raised the entire Russian people to fight the invaders. In a short time, regiments and militias from peasants and artisans from almost all Russian lands and principalities gathered in Moscow.

On September 8, 1380, the Battle of Kulikovo took place- one of the largest battles of the Middle Ages, which decided the fate of states and peoples

This battle showed the power and strength of Moscow as a political and economic center - the organizer of the struggle for the overthrow of the Golden Horde yoke and the unification of the Russian lands. Thanks to the Battle of Kulikovo, the tribute was reduced. The Horde finally recognized the political supremacy of Moscow over the rest of the Russian lands. For personal bravery in battle and military leadership, Dmitry received the nickname Donskoy.

Before his death, Dmitry Donskoy handed over the great reign of Vladimir to his son Vasily I (1389 - 1425), no longer asking for the right to a label in the Horde.

Completion of the unification of Russian lands

At the end of the fourteenth century. in the Moscow principality, several appanage estates were formed that belonged to the sons of Dmitry Donskoy. After the death of Vasily I in 1425, his son Vasily II and Yuri (the youngest son of Dmitry Donskoy) began the struggle for the grand princely throne, and after the death of Yuri, his sons Vasily Kosoy and Dmitry Shemyaka. It was a real medieval struggle for the throne, when blinding, poisoning, conspiracies and deceits were used (blinded by opponents, Vasily II was nicknamed the Dark One). In fact, it was the largest clash between supporters and opponents of centralization. As a result, according to the figurative expression of V.O. Klyuchevsky "under the noise of specific princely quarrels and Tatar pogroms, the society supported Vasily the Dark." The completion of the process of uniting the Russian lands around Moscow into a centralized state falls on the years of government

Ivan III (1462 - 1505) and Vasily III (1505 - 1533).

For 150 years before Ivan III, there was a gathering of Russian lands and the concentration of power in the hands of the Moscow princes. Under Ivan III Grand Duke rises above the rest of the princes not only in the amount of power and possessions, but also in the amount of power. It is no coincidence that the new title "sovereign" appears. The double-headed eagle becomes a symbol of the state when, in 1472, Ivan III marries the niece of the last Byzantine emperor, Sophia Palaeologus. After the annexation of Tver, Ivan III received the honorary title "by the grace of the sovereign of All Russia, the Grand Duke of Vladimir and Moscow, Novgorod and Pskov, and Tver, and Yugorsk, and Perm, and Bulgarian, and other lands."

The princes in the annexed lands became boyars of the Moscow sovereign. These principalities were now called counties, ruled by governors from Moscow. Localism is the right to occupy one or another position in the state, depending on the nobility and official position of the ancestors, their services to the Moscow Grand Duke.

A centralized administrative apparatus began to take shape. The Boyar Duma consisted of 5-12 boyars and no more than 12 okolnichy (boyars and okolnichy are the two highest ranks in the state). In addition to the Moscow boyars from the middle of the 15th century. local princes from the annexed lands, who recognized the seniority of Moscow, also sat in the Duma. The Boyar Duma had advisory functions on "affairs of the land." government controlled there was a need to create special institutions that would lead the military, judicial, financial affairs... Therefore, “tables” were created, controlled by clerks, which were later transformed into orders. The order system was a typical manifestation of the feudal organization of state administration. It was based on the principles of the indissolubility of the judicial and administrative authorities. In order to centralize and unify the procedure for judicial and administrative activities on the territory of the entire state, under Ivan III in 1497 the Code of Law was drawn up.

In 1480 it was finally overthrown. This happened after the clash between the Moscow and Mongol-Tatar troops on the Ugra River.

At the end of XV - early XVI centuries part The Russian state entered the Chernigov-Seversky lands. In 1510, the Pskov land was also included in the state. In 1514, the ancient Russian city of Smolensk became part of the Moscow Grand Duchy. And, finally, in 1521 the Ryazan principality also ceased to exist. It was during this period that the unification of the Russian lands was basically completed. A huge power was formed - one of the largest states in Europe. Within the framework of this state, the Russian nationality was united. This is a natural process historical development... From the end of the 15th century. the term "Russia" began to be used.

Socio-economic development in the XIV - XVI centuries.

The general trend in the socio-economic development of the country during this period - intense growth of feudal land tenure... The main, dominant form of it was the patrimony, land that belonged to the feudal lord by right of hereditary use. This land could be changed, sold, but only to relatives and other owners of estates. The owner of the patrimony could be a prince, a boyar, a monastery.

Nobles, those who left the court of a prince or a boyar, owned an estate, which they received on the condition of serving on the patrimonial land (from the word "estate", nobles were also called landowners). The service life was established by the contract.

In the XVI century. there is a strengthening of the feudal serf system. The economic basis of serfdom is feudal ownership of land in its three forms: local, patrimonial and state. A new term “peasants” appeared, which became the name of the oppressed class of Russian society. According to their social status, the peasants were divided into three groups: the proprietor peasants belonged to various secular and church feudal lords; palace peasants who were in the possession of the palace department of the Moscow grand dukes (tsars); black-sowed (later state) peasants lived in volost communities on lands that did not belong to any owner, but were obliged to perform certain duties in favor of the state.

The defeat of the old, large cities, such as Vladimir, Suzdal, Rostov, etc., a change in the nature of economic and trade ties and routes led to the fact that in the XIII-XV centuries. New centers developed significantly: Tver, Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow, Kolomna, Kostroma, etc. In these cities the population increased, stone construction was revived, the number of artisans and merchants grew. Such branches of craft as blacksmithing, foundry, metalworking, and coinage have achieved great success.

At the turn of the XIII-XIV centuries, as a result of a long and exhausting struggle against the Majesty of the Golden Horde in Russia, the prerequisites were formed for the unification of disparate lands into a centralized state. Among these prerequisites, we should first of all note the ideological prerequisites, which matured long before the economic ones. Representatives of Russian political thought persistently pursued the idea of ​​the unity of all Russian lands as the basis of the state existence of Russia. Everywhere, both in cities and in the countryside, there was growing discontent of the population, which was tired of endless and senseless feudal wars, which did not stop even in cases when the country was devastated by an external enemy. The Russian land "from the Battle of Kalsk to the Mamayev massacre with longing and sadness is engulfed, crying, remembering its sons" notes "Zadonshchina", a monument to the history of the 15th century. The unification of the Russian lands becomes a national aspiration, the spokesmen for this idea and preachers in practice were the Moscow princes. But the main reason centralization of n states was a general rise in the productive forces. As a result of the tireless work of Russian peasants and artisans, conditions gradually matured for further development feudal economy. It was based on agriculture and handicrafts. It is known from the course on the history of the Fatherland that during this period in Russia there was a significant increase in sown areas, the introduction of a steam grain system of agriculture, possibly with a three-field crop rotation. Livestock and poultry farming is developing.

Crafts became an integral part of the economy (due to the invasion of Batu, there was stagnation). There is a separation of handicrafts from agriculture, a differentiation of handicrafts, and the number of handicraft specialties is growing. In connection with the development of crafts, cities are getting stronger. The political unification of the Russian lands required strengthening economic ties, territorial disunity and discord between the princes significantly hampered this sphere of the economy. The centralization of the state was facilitated by the ever-increasing class struggle of the peasants against the feudal lords, the latter, in order to suppress the resistance of the peasants, needed a strong centralized power. The rise of the economy and the emergence of the opportunity to receive an ever greater surplus product prompted the feudal lords to expand their holdings by acquiring new lands and strengthened the peasants already in their patrimony. The desire of the feudal lords to legally consolidate, i.e. to enslave the peasants to their estates.

The forms of class struggle were different, including: thief and robbery directed against feudal property and feudal lords, refusals of the peasants, i.e. unauthorized transitions from one owner to another, flight to the north, east and south. Thus, enslavement to the peasants could only be carried out in a powerful centralized state that unites the entire territory of Russia. The class struggle in the cities was expressed in the form of unrest and uprisings. It is known that in the XIV-first half of the XVI century in Moscow (1382, 1445, 1547), Novgorod the Great, Tver, Rostov, uprisings broke out against the Golden Horde oppression and feudal exploitation. The reason that hastened the unification of Russia was the need for protection from the incessant foreign invasion.

Among the prerequisites indicated above, the leading role was played by socio-economic development and class struggle. The very economic and social development XIV - first half. XVI centuries., Hardly led to the formation of a centralized state. The great Moscow princes were the initiators of the solution of the national task of uniting the Russian lands. First of all, large feudal lords and princes, who did not want to lose their independence, as well as the Golden Horde khans, opposed the unification. The peculiarity of the formation of the Russian centralized state was that it took shape as a multinational one. The Tatars, Mari, Udmurts, Sami, Komi, Mari, Khanty, Mordovians, Karelians, Chuvashs, Meshchera, etc. entered Russia oppression.

Moscow played a historical role in the unification of Russia into a centralized state, which eventually became the capital of the state, emerging as a city in the 12th century, Moscow was not the center of a special principality, only sometimes it was given to the younger sons of the Rostov-Suzdal princes. Since the XIII century. Moscow became a capital city with an independent prince. The first prince was Daniel - the son of Alexander Nevsky. Under Daniel, at the turn of the XIII - XIV centuries. the unification of the Russian principalities began. The foundation of the power of Moscow was laid during the reign of Daniel's son Ivan Kalita (1325-1340). Ivan Kalita received a label from the Tatar khans for a great reign, the right to collect tribute from almost all Russian lands. The flexible policy of Ivan Kalita allowed the Russian lands to recover from the wars, to ensure peace in Russia.

Moscow became the residence of the metropolitan of the Orthodox Church, the metropolitan see was moved from Vladimir to Moscow. By the end of the XIV century. The Moscow principality became so strong that it switched to a policy of opposing the Tatar khans. The first crushing blows were dealt to the Golden Horde, the most significant of which was the victory of the Russian army under the leadership of the great Moscow prince Dmitry Ivanovich (1359-1389) on the Kulikovo field (1380). The final phase of the unification of the Russian lands came under Ivan III (1462-1505), when Novgorod the Great in 1478, the Grand Duchy of Tver in 1485, and the Cherkizovo-Seversky lands were annexed to the Moscow principality. After the famous "Standing on the Ugra" (1480), Russia finally freed itself from the Tatar yoke.

The unification of the Russian lands was completed at the beginning of the 16th century. under the Grand Duke Vasily III. He annexed Pskov to Moscow in 1510, Smolensk in 1514, the Ryazan principality in 1521. Under Ivan IV (1533-1584), the Russian state annexed the Kazan Khanate in 1552, the Astrakhan Khanate in 1556. , Siberia -1581 Along with the unification of Russia, the power of the Moscow Grand Duke increased with a simultaneous fall in the role of distant princes. A significant phenomenon was the division not into independent principalities and not even into appanages, but into simple administrative units - counties headed by representatives of the central government. Thus, the formation of a centralized Russian state was a progressive phenomenon in the history of the Russian state. The elimination of feudal fragmentation created an opportunity for the further development of the productive forces, the economic and cultural development of the country, and the international authority of the Russian state.

In parallel with the unification of the Russian lands, the creation of the spiritual foundation of the national state, there was a process of strengthening the Russian statehood, the formation of a centralized Russian state. The preconditions for this process were laid during the period Tatar-Mongol yoke.

Researchers note that the vassal dependence of the Russian lands on the Golden Horde, to a certain extent, contributed to the strengthening of Russian statehood. During this period, the volume and authority of the princely power inside the country increases, the princely apparatus overwhelms the institutions of popular self-government, and the veche, the oldest organ of democracy, is gradually disappearing from practice throughout the entire territory of the historical core of the future Russian state.

During the period of the Tatar-Mongol yoke, city liberties and privileges were destroyed. Outflow of money into The Golden Horde prevented the emergence of the "third estate", the support of urban independence in the countries Western Europe.

Significant changes took place in the main sphere of production - agriculture. Agriculture became more productive. Trade in grain and other agricultural products acquired a more lively character. In the localities (including in peasant villages), wealthy buyers of bread and other products appeared. The largest of them conducted trade operations not only within the parish, but also in larger areas. A large consumer of imported bread, meat and other products was Moscow with its 100,000 population. Some monasteries, especially Trinity-Sergievsky and Solovetsky monasteries, conducted large trading operations in bread and other products.

An important indicator of the strengthening of the social division of labor in the XV - XVI centuries. was the development of handicraft production. Trades and crafts developed both in the tree and especially in the city. Such largest cities like Moscow, Novgorod, there were thousands of craft yards; compared with Ancient Rus the number of handicraft specialties increased several times. At the same time, some of the artisans broke ties with agriculture, and began to work specifically for the market.

The development of handicraft production and trade led to an increase in the number of cities and an increase in their role in the life of the country. In about a century, by the middle of the 16th century, the number of cities more than doubled. At the end of the 15th - first half of the 16th centuries. on the ground, rows, torzhok, settlements grew rapidly, gradually turning into cities.

In Russian cities of the late 15th - mid-16th centuries. hardly more than 2-3% of the population lived, but many cities became centers of economic relations of the region, administrative and cultural centers, objectively turned into strongholds of state unification, although, unlike Western Europe, they did not become the main force of this process.

Thus, the main objective prerequisites for the formation of a single Russian state were economic development, the economic rapprochement of the Russian lands. However, this process until the middle of the XVI century. was still far from completion and developed more slowly than in a number of Western European countries (England, Holland, France, etc.).

The slower development of production and commodity-money relations in Russia is primarily due to the Tatar-Mongol yoke, which destroyed and slowed down the development of productive forces for a long time. Constant raids were a big obstacle to the normal economic development of the southern regions of Russia. Crimean Tatars, which continued in the 15th - 16th centuries, which ruined everything in their path and diverted significant forces of the Russian state onto themselves.

The influence of other factors also affected. While in Western Europe in the XV - XVI centuries. the peasant community was intensively destroyed, in Russia it still retained its isolation, which also hindered the development of commodity-money relations. The countries of Western Europe were also in more favorable natural and climatic conditions for the development of production, had more convenient sea and other communication routes. Russia, with its vast expanses and harsh winters, was cut off from the seas, land roads stretched with the thinnest threads, the rivers were covered with ice for six months. This created additional difficulties for the development of production and trade.

Consequence economic development Rus at this stage was not decomposition, but the strengthening of the feudal system, a certain restructuring of the forms of feudal economy and the exploitation of the peasants. The value of land and labor increased. The need for land grew, especially on the part of the serving nobility. The grand dukes began to widely distribute black-grained, state lands to service people. But this fund could not be spent endlessly, since the "sovereign tax" and treasury revenues were reduced. The struggle for land and for workers' hands within the class of feudal lords intensified. The lordly plowing increased due to the reduction of peasant lands. If before the XV century. the predominant form was rent in kind (natural rent), then from the end of the 15th - 16th centuries. labor rent - corvee - began to gain widespread acceptance. In Western Europe, it was already disappearing at this time.

Along with the corvée system, money rent began to develop, especially in the northeastern regions of Russia. The size of corvee and monetary dues grew.

All this led to an increase in the intensity of feudal exploitation of the peasants and the process of their enslavement, which in turn was accompanied by an exacerbation of class contradictions and class struggle. The class protest of the peasants and the urban lower ranks took various forms. These were open demonstrations of townspeople and peasants (a series of urban uprisings in 1547-1550, numerous attacks by peasants on the possessions of feudal lords, arson, etc.), and the flight of peasants and townspeople to the outskirts of the state (at this time the Don Cossacks began to take shape), and numerous cases of unauthorized plowing by peasants of the land of feudal lords, monasteries, felling of forests, etc., and the intensification of the ideological struggle, which took the form of heresies (the appearance of the sects of Josephites and non-possessors in the late 15th - early 16th centuries). To suppress the class protest of the lower classes, to ensure the exploitation of the peasants in the new conditions, the feudal class needed a strong, unified state.

The formation of the Russian centralized state in time coincided mainly with the formation of the Great Russian nationality (the beginning of its formation dates back to the XIV-XV centuries). The formation of the Great Russian nationality on the basis of an economic, cultural, linguistic, and territorial community accelerated the growth of national self-awareness and contributed to the unification of the Russian lands. In turn, the unified state contributed to the creation of a political community and the formation of the Great Russian nationality.

These are the internal socio-economic and political prerequisites for the formation of the Russian unified state.

An important role in this process was played by the foreign policy position of Rus. Not a single large state of Western Europe at the time of centralization was in such unfavorable external conditions as Russia, over which the Tatar-Mongol yoke gravitated for more than two hundred years and which for centuries had to ensure its security from the constant mass raids of the Crimean Tatars and the threat such at that time large and strong countries, like Sweden, Turkey, etc. History of State and Law of the USSR / Ed. Kalinina G.S. - M .: Legal Literature, 1972. - P. 148 All this led to severe destruction of the economy, to the death of thousands and thousands of people, to the diversion of huge forces and resources to fight external enemies, for centuries pressed on the consciousness of Russians of people. The need for liberation from the Tatar-Mongol yoke and defense against the constant threat of invasions by other foreign conquerors accelerated the formation of a unified Russian state.

The totality of all these reasons took shape and clearly manifested itself by the second half of the 15th century. By this time, there were also forces capable of ensuring the unification of Russia.

In Western Europe, the decisive force for the formation of centralized states was the union of royal power and cities with the support of petty chivalry. In Russia, growing cities also often united around the great princely power in the struggle for unification. Residents of a number of cities (Tver, Novgorod, etc.) active participation contributed to the annexation of lands to Moscow. But one can hardly speak of a strong and permanent alliance of the cities with the Grand Duke. In Russia, XV century. in contrast to Western Europe, the townspeople have not yet become "more necessary to society than the feudal nobility." The main political force in the creation of the Russian unified, and then the centralized state was the growing feudal nobility in alliance with the grand princely power with the support of the cities. Some boyars, whose interests were closely connected with the great Moscow prince, also stood for a strong unified state. The Russian Church as a whole also needed a strong state power to secure your privileges. However, she also entered into a struggle with the princely power, when it affected the land and other interests of the church and monasteries.

At the center of the entire economic and political process of the unification of Rus were the peasants and urban townspeople. Their labor created the economic conditions for unification. The centuries-old military labor, exploits and sacrifices of the people led to the overthrow of the Tatar-Mongol yoke. The masses stood for the elimination of civil strife, for a strong state capable of defending the country's independence.

On the way to the process of unification, it was necessary not only to overthrow the foreign yoke, but also to overcome the resistance of significant internal forces of the great and appanage princes, the boyar elite. These elements were strong not in numbers, but in their economic and political power, influence on various groups of the population associated with them, the strength of age-old traditions and habits.

The most developed and strong Moscow principality, which led all the Russian lands in the struggle against the Tatar-Mongols, became the center of the unification of the Russian lands.

The Russian centralized state took shape in XIV-XVI centuries. (14-16)

Groups of prerequisites for the formation of the Russian centralized state .

• 1. Economic preconditions : by the beginning of the XIV century. in Russia, gradually after the Tatar-Mongol invasion, economic life was revived and developed, which became the economic basis of the struggle for unification and independence. Cities were also restored, residents returned to their homes, cultivated the land, were engaged in handicrafts, and trade relations were established. Novgorod contributed a lot to this.
• 2. Social prerequisites : by the end of the XIV century. the economic situation in Russia has already completely stabilized. Against this background, late feudal signs are developing, and the dependence of peasants on large landowners is increasing. At the same time, the resistance of the peasants is also growing, which reveals the need for a strong centralized government.
• 3. Political premises , which in turn are subdivided into domestic and foreign policy:
• 1.internal: in the XIV-XVI centuries. the power of the Moscow principality is growing and expanding significantly. His princes build a state apparatus to strengthen their power;
• 2. foreign political : home foreign policy challenge Rus consisted in the need to overthrow the Tatar-Mongol yoke, which hindered the development of the Russian state. The restoration of the independence of Russia demanded general unification against a common enemy: the Mongols from the south, Lithuania and the Swedes from the west.

One of the political prerequisites for the formation of a unified Russian state was Union of the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Western Church signed by the Byzantine-Constantinople Patriarch. Russia became the only Orthodox state that simultaneously unites all the principalities of Rus.

The unification of Rus took place around Moscow.

The reasons for the rise of Moscow are :

• 1.favorable geographic and economic position;
• 2. Moscow was independent during foreign policy, it did not gravitate either to Lithuania or the Horde, therefore it became the center of the national liberation struggle;
• 3.support of Moscow from the largest Russian cities (Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod and etc.);
• 4. Moscow - the center of Orthodoxy in Russia;
• 5. the absence of internal enmity among the princes of the Moscow house.

Features of the union :

• 1. the unification of the Russian lands took place not in the conditions of late feudalism, as in Europe, but in the conditions of its heyday;
• 2. the basis for unification in Russia was the union of the Moscow princes, and in Europe - the urban bourgeoisie;
• 3. Russia was united initially for political reasons, and then for economic reasons, while the European states - primarily for economic ones.

The unification of the Russian lands took place under the leadership of the prince of Moscow Ivan 3. He was the first to become the king of all Russia. V 1478 g. after the unification of Novgorod and Moscow, Russia finally freed itself from the yoke. In 1485, Tver, Ryazan, etc. joined the Moscow state. Now the appanage princes were controlled by proteges from Moscow. The Moscow prince becomes the supreme judge, he considers especially important cases. The principality of Moscow creates a new class for the first time nobles (service people), they were the warriors of the Grand Duke, who were awarded land on the terms of service. At the end of the 15th century. the first code of law of 1497 was adopted.

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The process of the formation of the Russian centralized state was led by certain economic, social, political and spiritual prerequisites.

There are different points of view on the issue of reasons the formation of a centralized state. Economic:

It is believed that the reasons for political centralization and its very process in Russia were the same as in the countries of Western Europe, the material basis for the formation of a single Russian state with a center in Moscow was the appearance in the XIV century. in the Russian lands such signs of early bourgeois relations, as the development of crafts, trade and the market (J. Duby). Indeed, the unification of principalities and lands in the most developed countries of Western Europe took place in connection with the growth of material production due to the development of commodity-money relations, the destruction of the natural economy as the basis of the economy, the beginning of the formation of capitalist relations. End of the 15th century many historians define it as the transition from the Middle Ages to the New Age - the Renaissance. In the current conditions royalty relying on the wealth of cities, sought to unite the country. The process of unification was led by the monarch, who stood at the head of the nobility - the ruling class of that time. At the same time, in Western Europe, the rights of feudal owners were enshrined in a personal contract, and feudal immunity was protected by law.

However, attempts to bind Russian history to Western European do not find confirmation. The development of handicrafts, trade and the market in the Russian lands is not evidence of the emergence of early bourgeois relations, but took place on the basis of deepening feudal relations and the emergence, along with fiefdoms, of conditional feudal land tenure. Medium and small feudal lords needed a strong centralized government, which could keep the peasants in subjection and limit the feudal rights and privileges of the boyars-votchinniks (M. M. Gorinov, A. A. Gorsky, A. A. Danilov, etc.).

The free peasant community was almost completely absorbed by the feudal state. The peasants still retained the right of free transition from one feudal lord to another, but in practice this right more and more often turned out to be formal. The main form of large feudal land ownership in Russia in the XIV century. there was a patrimony - princely, boyar, church (Sh. M. Munchaev, V. M. Ustinov). The involvement of the entire rural population in the system of feudal relations led to the disappearance of many terms that in the past denoted various categories of the rural population ("people", "smerds", "outcasts", etc.), and the appearance by the end of the XIV century. new term "Peasants". This name has survived to this day.

In the process of the formation of the Muscovy in the Russian lands, the social group of owners was actually destroyed and the power-property was established in the person of the tsar and the state bureaucracy. So, if at the beginning of the XV century. 2/3 of all convenient lands belonged to the boyars, princes, the Church, and the Grand Duke - only 1/3, then by the middle of the XVI century. the situation changed to the diametrically opposite: among the nobility and the Church - 1/3, and the Grand Duke - 2/3.

During this period, the isolation of the Moscow state from the European world intensified. The path "from the Varangians to the Greeks" under the conditions of the Mongol conquest lost its significance, due to which the activity of the economic and trade relations of the Russian lands with Europe decreased. It almost disappeared after the annexation of commercial Novgorod and the severing of ties between North-West Russia and Hanseatic League... The only strong state with which Russia in the XIII-XV centuries. had constant and direct contacts, was the Golden Horde.

The spiritual and mental isolation of Muscovy from Europe intensified even more after the signing by many Orthodox states, or rather their churches, the Florentine Union of 1439. Orthodox Church in fact, it broke away from the entire Christian, including the Orthodox, world, since all international contacts of the Moscow Metropolitanate went mainly through the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Thus, one can trace absence in Russia sufficient socio-economic prerequisites for the folding of a single state. If in Western Europe:

Senior relations prevailed;

The personal dependence of the peasants was weakened;

Strengthened cities and the third estate;

Development of interstate relations.

That in Russia:

State-feudal forms prevailed;

The relationship of the personal dependence of the peasants on the feudal lords was just taking shape;

The cities were in a subordinate position in relation to the feudal nobility;

Isolation of Russian lands.

At the same time, there were strong political reasons formation of a unified Russian state:

As internal political reasons it is possible to determine the aspiration of several feudal centers: Moscow, Tver, Suzdal, and others to seniority and the gradual submission of their power to the less powerful lands. Wherein the struggle took place under the slogan of a return to the system of grand ducal power announced by the ancestors. The land acquired by the treasury was used primarily for the maintenance of the local noble army, which becomes the main support of the autocracy.

National association Russia, the formation of a unitary state, which began almost simultaneously with similar processes in England, France and Spain, but had a number of features.

First, the Russian state from the very beginning was formed as military-national, whose driving force was the leading need for defense and security.

Secondly, the formation of the state took place on multinational basis(in Western Europe - on the national).

Thirdly, oriental style of political activity. Autocratic power was formed according to two models - the Byzantine Basileus and the Mongol Khan. Western kings were not taken into account, due to the fact that they did not possess real state sovereignty, were dependent on the Roman catholic church... The Russian princes adopted the state policy from the Mongols, which reduced the functions of the state to collecting tribute and taxes, maintaining order and protecting security. However, this public policy was completely deprived of the consciousness of responsibility for public welfare. The Tatar element, not from outside, but from within, took possession of the soul of Russia, and in this respect the Moscow princes proved to be the most consistent in the “gathering” of Russian lands, which was accomplished by “eastern methods”: violent seizures of territories; treacherous arrests of rival princes; the withdrawal of the population to Moscow and its replacement by newcomers; violent measures against local customs and traditions.

Thus, the unification of the Russian lands was based on the desire of the Rurikovichs to return the "fatherland". The most vain, capable and flexible Moscow princes won.

Basic foreign policy reason the need to confront the Horde and To the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Thanks to this factor, all segments of the population were interested in centralization. Such a “outstripping” (in relation to socio-economic development) nature of the unification process determined the characteristics of the process that was formed by the end of the 15th century. the state. The principality of Moscow was an ulus of the Golden Horde. As soon as the power in the Horde began to weaken, and the direct heirs of Genghis Khan were exterminated, the Russian princes boldly entered the struggle for the inheritance of the Genghisites. Moscow most consistently expressed the idea of ​​Russian statehood, other political centers pursued narrow princely interests. If Tver was guided by Lithuania, then Moscow entered into a strong alliance with the Tatars. At the same time, the Moscow princes professed the principle of ethnic tolerance, recruiting people exclusively for their business qualities. The Moscow court was replenished with people from the Horde who did not accept the religious policy of Khan Uzbek, who in 1313 proclaimed Islam the official religion of the Golden Horde.

Thus, the founders of the state were not Kiev princes, and the Moscow tsars, successors of the Mongol khans. After the collapse of the Horde, the capital was moved from Sarai to Moscow, and after the annexation of Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberia to the Muscovite kingdom, the Horde was revived in the guise of the Muscovite state.

Indeed, on the one hand, the Mongol-Tatar invasion and the Golden Horde yoke slowed down the socio-economic development of the Russian lands. In contrast to the advanced countries of Western Europe, the formation of a single state in Russia took place under the complete dominance of the traditional mode of economy of Russia - on a feudal basis. This makes it possible to understand why a bourgeois, democratic, civil society began to form in Europe, and serfdom, estates, and the inequality of citizens before the laws will dominate in Russia for a long time to come.

On the other hand, Russia received a huge inheritance, on the basis of which the descendants received a unique opportunity to become the greatest power in the world. No Russian empire nor Soviet Union nor modern Russia they could not digest the riches that had fallen on them, and the "sovereigns" continued and continue to rule the country in an old-fashioned way.