in 1389 gains a label, becomes, among other titles, Prince of Moscow. Vitold, in the meantime, decides to compete with the force already shaken in internecine quarrels by the Golden Horde, refuses extradition, deprived of the post of Khan Tokhtamish, to another applicant of this high rank, Yedigei. The maximum task is to plant Tokhtamysh in the Horde, with the help of his own, who became a very powerful protege, to occupy the throne of the sovereign of all Russia. The forces of the parties: Vytautas, knights of the Teutonic Order, Tokhtamysh – 38 thousand soldiers. The Golden Horde – 90 thousand soldiers. The battle will take place on the River Worksla (north of present Ukraine, in part – Russia). The interest of the Order is the promised by Vitovt, in case of victory, of course, Pskov. The heavily armed knights pursue the feigned retreat of the enemy, then their horses, weakly protected by armor, are bent out of bows and crossbows. On the shoulders, now quite sincerely retreating the Teutons, the Horde crash into the enemy infantry and complete the rout. Litvinov lost about 18 thousand, Horde people – it is not known, there are also such estimates as «very few» in the sources.
Several times recovered from the defeat of Vytautas, along with a fellow competitor, the Polish King Jagiello still dreams of becoming a unifier of the East Russian lands. In 1408, the (first) standing on the Ugra River occurs (somewhat north of present-day Kaluga). For some reason (the attack of the units of Yedigei in the territory of Russia and of Lithuania itself, etc.), in the face of an even more formidable opponent, the battle does not take place. At the same time, the Horde, displeased with the delay in the payment of tribute, approaches Moscow, ravages the neighborhood and, apparently, has received a substantial otkupnye, returns to its steppes.
Obliged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by his initial advancement, his wife, and still unknown what, Basil I quite easily concedes to the western neighbors Vyazma, Smolensk, and many other Russian lands.
Vasily II Vasilyevich (Dark), 1415—1462, the son of Basil the First and Sophia Vitoldovna. He spends a lot of time in a viscous muddy battle for the throne with many competitors, one of which is the little-known prince of Zvenigorod, Yuri Dimyevich Shemyaka («Sheemyaka», that is, one who can easily namet the neck – a generic nickname), the son of Dmitry Donskoy, also his own, the eldest son, Vasily Yurievich (nickname «Kosoy»), as well as his younger son – Dmitri Y. Shemyaka. The court of the Golden Horde, in such a dubious dispute about inheritance, issues a label to Vasily Vasilievich. Then follows a series of conflicts, battles against external and internal enemies, with an uncertain outcome, repressions against opponents of opponents, giving rise to the secret «fifth column», and new coups. Actually, all the characters designated here take up the Russian throne for some time. Basil II is the only one who manages to stay on it a little longer than the others.
The second success – perhaps, Prince Dmitry Yurievich. Having lost the Moscow reign, he immediately leads the prestigious Novgorod republic. But, in the end, the people of Basil the Dark are bribed by the prince’s cook (nicknamed «The Gangbang») and that «armor» greens (apparently, arsenic) in the chicken that the ruler gives.
The confessor of Basil II, Martinian Belozersky, after learning about what happened, takes the prince a severe penance, but, as a result, he is only deprived of the post of hegumen of the Trinity Monastery.
The right of inheritance becomes direct, not «lestivichnym» («On the stairs») as before, that is, from father to son, bypassing all younger brothers.
An important event of the time – the Russian Church becomes autocephalous, that is, completely independent. In 1435, Metropolitan of the Grand Duchy of Moscow (formally – Kiev and All Russia) on the proposal of the Patriarch of Constantinople, the Greek by origin, Isidore (Kiev), is proclaimed. In Moscow, he convinces, not at all kindly welcoming the innovations of Basil II, the importance of convening the Ecumenical Council, where the contradictions between Catholics and Orthodox are necessarily blurred. The prince gives the metropolitan a hundred men of the suite, who need money for wandering, and sends them to Italy, with the order something like: «That nothing new should happen to us.» In March of 1441, after a lot of misunderstanding in Europe, Isidore returns to Moscow, the message of Pope Eugene the Fourth with the request to the Metropolitan in an important matter for the reunification of the Catholic and Russian churches. During the episcopal service in the Assumption Cathedral, among the priests of the Church, Isidore mentions the Pope. Three days later, on the orders of Basil, the Metropolitan is taken into custody, is the Chudov Monastery. In the same year, probably with the prince’s secret permission, flees to Europe, Byzantium, then Rome, where he manages the revenues of the Holy College of Cardinals. In 1452, together with a small squad of soldiers arrives at the Constantinople, surrounded by Turks, reminds the priests of the (formal) union of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. Participates in the defense of the city, unrecognized falls into captivity, flees, returns to Rome, where he receives a titular (without the appropriate jurisdiction and material base) of the patriarch of Constantinople.
So, we see how the first serious misunderstanding in Russia between the power of the church and the secular, (outwardly) ends in the victory of the earthly ruler. Vasily II, through a partially controlled cathedral of Russian bishops, in 1448, asserts on the spiritual throne of the long-conceived unquestioning patriarch Ion. Russia loses its spiritual connection with Europe, refuses any burning disputes at all, stops in its development, which leads to the next two centuries later, the too hasty and fierce reforms of Nikon, which has not healed the Dissolution of the Orthodox Church.
It should be mentioned and the failed predecessor Isidore, hieromonk Gerasim, bishop of Smolensk, at the will of the Prince of Lithuania Svidrigailo (Rus-2), who went to Constantinople to beg the patriarch for the saint of the metropolitan of «all the Russian land.» He gets the San, but, within the limits of the Lithuanian Principality (Vitebsk), falls into the disgrace of an extremely suspicious prince, and is extremely cruelly killed.
Any violent actions against members of the elected government – whether spiritual or secular, echo in the whole society with a loud echo. In the end, we see how the Grand Duchy of Lithuania gradually loses its meaning, becomes a province, joins Russia, where the attitude towards the leaders, even if they are recognized as disagreeable, and excommunicated, is at least somewhat more humane.
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1. Rzeczpospolita (Poland-dependent Ukraine + Grand Duchy of Lithuania) within the borders of 1619 in comparison with the borders of modern states. 1) The Kingdom of Poland (Crown), 2) The Duchy of Prussia is the Crown vassal, possession of the Teutonic Order. Before that, it’s the so-called. (the motto: Help-Protect-Heal), which emerged from the Order of the Hospitallers, was reborn, almost in its opposite, repeatedly attacked the principality of Lithuania, but in 1410 suffered a crushing defeat in the Battle of Grunwald from the Polish-Lithuanian (Russian) troops under the command of Jagiello and his cousin Vytautas. 3) – the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, 4) the Duchy of Zadvin, the condominium of Lithuania and the Crown, 5) the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, the vassal of Lithuania, from 1569 – the Commonwealth.
2. Location of the Russian “Gulyai-city” in the Battle of Molodia, August 11—15, 1572. Photo of the author. Behind the residential buildings one can see the Resurrection Church (1703 years of foundation), in which, alas, there are no steles, plates, other signs of the great event that took place here. According to the testimony of the old-timers, burial mounds of the heroes of the battle could be seen until the 50s of the last century: after that, beets were either plowed up for sowing or built up.
3. Fragment of Gulyai-city (“Walking city”). Historical reconstruction.
…Ivan the Third Great ruled in the Principality of Moscow from the