Battle of Livonia year. “The Livonian War, its political meaning and consequences
Federal Agency for Education
State educational institution
higher professional education
RUSSIAN STATE HUMANITIES UNIVERSITY
Institute of Economics, Management and Law
FACULTY OF ECONOMICS
Bubble Kristina Radievna
“The Livonian War, its political meaning and consequences”
Abstract on the history of Russia
1st year student of distance learning.
2009-Moscow.
INTRODUCTION -2-
1. Prerequisites for the Livonian War -3-
2. Progress of the war -4-
2.1. War with the Livonian Confederation -5-
2.2. Truce of 1559 -8-
2.3. War with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania -10-
2.4. Third period of the war -11-
2.5. Fourth period of the war -12-
3. Results and consequences of the Livonian War -12-
CONCLUSION -14-
REFERENCES -15-
INTRODUCTION
The history of the Livonian War, despite the knowledge of the goals of the conflict, the nature of the actions of the warring parties, and the results of the military clash, remains among the key problems of Russian history. Evidence of this is the kaleidoscope of opinions of researchers who tried to determine the significance of this war among other major foreign policy actions of the Moscow state in the second half of the 16th century.
At the beginning of the 16th century, the formation of a strong centralized state, Muscovite Rus', was completed on Russian lands, which sought to expand its territory at the expense of lands that belonged to other peoples. To successfully implement its political aspirations and economic goals, this state needed to establish close ties with Western Europe, which could only be achieved after gaining free access to the Baltic Sea.
By the middle of the 16th century. Russia owned a small section of coastline on the Baltic Sea from Ivangorod to the area around the mouth of the Neva, where there were no good harbors. This slowed down the development of the Russian economy. To participate in the profitable maritime trade and intensify political and cultural ties with Western Europe, the country needed to expand its access to the Baltic, gaining such convenient ports as Revel (Tallinn) and Riga. The Livonian Order prevented Russian transit trade through the Eastern Baltic, trying to create an economic blockade of Muscovy. But united Russia became much more powerful than the Livonian Order and finally decided to conquer these lands by force of arms.
The main goal of the Livonian War, which was waged by Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible with the Livonian Confederation of States (Livonian Order, Riga Archbishopric, Dorpat, Ezel-Vik and Courland bishoprics) was to gain access to the Baltic Sea.
The purpose of this work is to study the political meaning of the Livonian War and its consequences.
Background of the Livonian War
Reforms of the state apparatus, which strengthened the Russian armed forces, and the successful resolution of the Kazan issue allowed the Russian state to begin the struggle for access to the Baltic Sea. The Russian nobility sought to acquire new lands in the Baltic states, and the merchants hoped to gain free access to European markets.
The Livonian feudal lords, as well as the rulers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Sweden, pursued a policy of economic blockade of Russia.
The Livonian Confederation was interested in controlling the transit of Russian trade and significantly limited the opportunities of Russian merchants. In particular, all trade exchanges with Europe could only be carried out through the Livonian ports of Riga, Lindanise (Revel), Narva, and goods could only be transported on ships of the Hanseatic League. At the same time, fearing the military and economic strengthening of Russia, the Livonian Confederation prevented the transport of strategic raw materials and specialists to Russia (see the Schlitte Affair), receiving the assistance of the Hanseatic League, Poland, Sweden and the German imperial authorities.
In 1503, Ivan III concluded a truce with the Livonian Confederation for 50 years, under the terms of which it had to annually pay tribute (the so-called “Yuriev tribute”) for the city of Yuryev (Dorpat), which previously belonged to Novgorod. Treaties between Moscow and Dorpat in the 16th century. Traditionally, the “Yuriev tribute” was mentioned, but in fact it was long forgotten. When the truce expired, during negotiations in 1554, Ivan IV demanded the return of arrears, the renunciation of the Livonian Confederation from military alliances with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Sweden, and the continuation of the truce.
The first payment of the debt for Dorpat was supposed to take place in 1557, but the Livonian Confederation did not fulfill its obligation.
In the spring of 1557, Tsar Ivan IV established a port on the banks of Narva ( “The same year, July, a city was built from the German Ust-Narova River Rozsene by the sea as a shelter for sea ships.”). However, Livonia and the Hanseatic League do not allow European merchants to enter the new Russian port, and they are forced to go, as before, to Livonian ports.
The Estonian and Latvian peoples have been connected with the Russian people since the times of the ancient Russian state. This connection was interrupted as a result of the conquest of the Baltic states by the German crusaders and the creation of the Livonian Order there.
While fighting the German feudal lords, the working masses of Estonia and Latvia saw their ally in the Russian people, and the annexation of the Baltic states to Russia as an opportunity for their further economic and cultural development.
By the middle of the 16th century. The Baltic issue began to occupy a prominent place in the international relations of European powers. Along with Russia, Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania showed particular interest in access to the Baltic Sea, in whose economies trade with Western European countries was of significant importance. Sweden and Denmark took an active part in the struggle for the Baltic states, striving to strengthen their economic and political positions in the area. During this struggle, Denmark usually acted as an ally of Ivan IV, and Denmark's enemy was Sweden in 1554-1557. waged an inconclusive three-year war with Russia. Finally, England and Spain, which competed with each other, were also interested in Eastern European sales markets. Thanks to friendly diplomatic and trade relations with Russia, England already from the late 50s of the 16th century. greatly displaced the Hanseatic traders of Flemish cloth in the Baltic markets.
Thus, Livonian War began in difficult international conditions, when its progress was closely monitored or the largest European powers took part in it.
Progress of the war
By the beginning of the war, the Livonian Confederation had been weakened by a series of military defeats and the Reformation. On the other hand, Russia was gaining strength after the victories over the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates and the annexation of Kabarda.
War with the Livonian Confederation
The invasion of Russian troops in January-February 1558 into the Livonian lands was a reconnaissance raid. 40 thousand people took part in it under the command of Khan Shig-Aley (Shah-Ali), governor Glinsky and Zakharyin-Yuryev. They walked through the eastern part of Estonia and returned back by the beginning of March. The Russian side motivated this campaign solely by the desire to receive due tribute from Livonia. The Livonian Landtag decided to collect 60 thousand thalers for settlements with Moscow in order to end the war that had begun. However, by May only half of the declared amount had been collected. In addition, the Narva garrison fired at the Ivangorod border outpost, thereby violating the armistice agreement.
This time a more powerful army moved to Livonia. The Livonian Confederation at that time could put no more than 10 thousand in the field, not counting the fortress garrisons. Thus, its main military asset was the powerful stone walls of the fortresses, which by this time could no longer effectively withstand the power of heavy siege weapons.
Voivodes Alexey Basmanov and Danila Adashev arrived in Ivangorod. In April 1558, Russian troops besieged Narva. The fortress was defended by a garrison under the command of the knight Vocht Schnellenberg. On May 11, a fire broke out in the city, accompanied by a storm (according to the Nikon Chronicle, the fire occurred due to the fact that drunken Livonians threw an Orthodox icon of the Mother of God into the fire). Taking advantage of the fact that the guards had left the city walls, the Russians rushed to storm. They broke through the gates and took possession of the lower city. Having captured the guns located there, the warriors turned them around and opened fire on the upper castle, preparing the stairs for the attack. However, by the evening the defenders of the castle themselves surrendered, on the condition of free exit from the city.
The defense of the Neuhausen fortress was particularly tenacious. It was defended by several hundred warriors led by the knight von Padenorm, who repelled the onslaught of the governor Peter Shuisky for almost a month. On June 30, 1558, after the destruction of the fortress walls and towers by Russian artillery, the Germans retreated to the upper castle. Von Padenorm expressed a desire to hold the defense here too, but the surviving defenders of the fortress refused to continue their pointless resistance. As a sign of respect for their courage, Pyotr Shuisky allowed them to leave the fortress with honor.
In July, P. Shuisky besieged Dorpat. The city was defended by a garrison of 2,000 men under the command of Bishop Weyland. Having built a rampart at the level of the fortress walls and installed guns on it, on July 11, Russian artillery began shelling the city. The cannonballs pierced the tiles of the roofs of houses, drowning the residents taking refuge there. On July 15, P. Shuisky invited Weiland to surrender. While he was thinking, the bombing continued. Some towers and loopholes were destroyed. Having lost hope of outside help, the besieged decided to enter into negotiations with the Russians. P. Shuisky promised not to destroy the city to the ground and to preserve the previous administration for its residents. On July 18, 1558 Dorpat capitulated. The troops settled in houses abandoned by residents. In one of them, warriors found 80 thousand thalers in a cache. The Livonian historian bitterly tells that the people of Dorpat, because of their greed, lost more than the Russian Tsar demanded from them. The funds found would be enough not only for the Yuryev tribute, but also for hiring troops to defend the Livonian Confederation.
During May-October 1558, Russian troops took 20 fortified cities, including those that voluntarily surrendered and entered into the citizenship of the Russian Tsar, after which they went into winter quarters within their borders, leaving small garrisons in the cities. The new energetic master Gotthard Ketler took advantage of this. Having collected 10 thousand. army, he decided to return what was lost. At the end of 1558, Ketler approached the Ringen fortress, which was defended by a garrison of several hundred archers under the command of the governor Rusin-Ignatiev. A detachment of governor Repnin (2 thousand people) went to help the besieged, but he was defeated by Ketler. However, the Russian garrison continued to defend the fortress for five weeks, and only when the defenders ran out of gunpowder were the Germans able to storm the fortress. The entire garrison was killed. Having lost a fifth of his army (2 thousand people) near Ringen and having spent more than a month besieging one fortress, Ketler was unable to build on his success. At the end of October 1558, his army retreated to Riga. This small victory turned into a big disaster for the Livonians.
In response to the actions of the Livonian Confederation, two months after the fall of the Ringen fortress, Russian troops carried out a winter raid, which was a punitive operation. In January 1559, Prince-voivode Serebryany at the head of his army entered Livonia. The Livonian army under the command of the knight Felkensam came out to meet him. On January 17, at the Battle of Terzen, the Germans suffered a complete defeat. Felkensam and 400 knights (not counting ordinary warriors) died in this battle, the rest were captured or fled. This victory opened the gates to Livonia wide for the Russians. They passed unhindered through the lands of the Livonian Confederation, captured 11 cities and reached Riga, where they burned the Riga fleet at the Dunamun raid. Then Courland passed along the path of the Russian army and, having passed through it, they reached the Prussian border. In February, the army returned home with huge booty and a large number of prisoners.
After the winter raid of 1559, Ivan IV granted the Livonian Confederation a truce (the third in a row) from March to November, without consolidating his success. This miscalculation was due to a number of reasons. Moscow was under serious pressure from Lithuania, Poland, Sweden and Denmark, who had their own plans for the Livonian lands. Since March 1559, Lithuanian ambassadors urgently demanded that Ivan IV stop hostilities in Livonia, threatening, otherwise, to take the side of the Livonian Confederation. Soon the Swedish and Danish ambassadors made requests to end the war.
With its invasion of Livonia, Russia also affected the trade interests of a number of European countries. Trade on the Baltic Sea was then growing from year to year and the question of who would control it was relevant. Revel merchants, having lost the most important source of their profits - income from Russian transit, complained to the Swedish king: “ We stand on the walls and watch with tears as merchant ships sail past our city to the Russians in Narva».
In addition, the Russian presence in Livonia affected complex and confusing pan-European politics, upsetting the balance of power on the continent. So, for example, the Polish king Sigismund II Augustus wrote Queen of England Elizabeth I on the importance of Russians in Livonia: “ The Moscow sovereign daily increases his power by acquiring goods that are brought to Narva, because, among other things, weapons are brought here that are still unknown to him... military specialists arrive, through whom he acquires the means to defeat everyone...».
The truce was also due to disagreements over foreign strategy within the Russian leadership itself. There, in addition to supporters of access to the Baltic Sea, there were those who advocated continuing the struggle in the south, against the Crimean Khanate. In fact, the main initiator of the truce of 1559 was the okolnichy Alexei Adashev. This group reflected the sentiments of those circles of the nobility who, in addition to eliminating the threat from the steppes, wanted to receive a large additional land fund in steppe zone. During this truce, the Russians attacked the Crimean Khanate, which, however, did not have significant consequences. The truce with Livonia had more global consequences.
The region was annexed to Russia and immediately received special benefits. The cities of Dorpat and Narva were given: complete amnesty for residents, free practice of their faith, city self-government, judicial autonomy and duty-free trade with Russia. Narva, destroyed after the assault, began to be restored and even provided loans to local landowners at the expense of the royal treasury. All this seemed so tempting to the rest of the Livonians, who had not yet been conquered by the “hellish Tatars”, that by the fall 20 more cities voluntarily came under the rule of the “bloody despot”.
Truce of 1559
Already in the first year of the war, in addition to Narva, Yuryev (July 18), Neishloss, Neuhaus were occupied, the troops of the Livonian Confederation were defeated at Thiersen near Riga, Russian troops reached Kolyvan. The raids of the Crimean Tatar hordes on the southern borders of Rus', which occurred already in January 1558, could not fetter the initiative of Russian troops in the Baltic states.
However, in March 1559, under the influence of Denmark and representatives of the large boyars, who prevented the expansion of the scope of the military conflict, a truce was concluded with the Livonian Confederation, which lasted until November. Historian R. G. Skrynnikov emphasizes that the Russian government, represented by Adashev and Viskovaty, “had to conclude a truce on the western borders,” as it was preparing for a “decisive clash on the southern border.”
During the truce (August 31), the Livonian Landmaster of the Teutonic Order, Gothard Ketler, concluded an agreement in Vilna with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Sigismund II, according to which the lands of the order and the possessions of the Riga Archbishop passed under “clientella and protection,” that is, under the protectorate of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the same 1559, Revel went to Sweden, and the Bishop of Ezel ceded the island of Ezel (Saaremaa) to Duke Magnus, the brother of the Danish king, for 30 thousand thalers.
Taking advantage of the delay, the Livonian Confederation gathered reinforcements, and a month before the end of the truce in the vicinity of Yuriev, its troops attacked Russian troops. Russian governors lost more than 1000 people killed.
In 1560, the Russians resumed hostilities and won a number of victories: Marienburg (now Aluksne in Latvia) was taken; German forces were defeated at Ermes, after which Fellin (now Viljandi in Estonia) was taken. The Livonian Confederation collapsed.
During the capture of Fellin, the former Livonian landmaster of the Teutonic Order, Wilhelm von Furstenberg, was captured. In 1575, he sent his brother a letter from Yaroslavl, where the former landmaster had been granted land. He told a relative that he “has no reason to complain about his fate.”
Sweden and Lithuania, who acquired the Livonian lands, demanded that Moscow remove troops from their territory. Ivan the Terrible refused and Russia found itself in conflict with the coalition of Lithuania and Sweden.
War with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
On November 26, 1561, the German Emperor Ferdinand I banned supplies to the Russians through the port of Narva. Eric XIV, King of Sweden, blocked the port of Narva and sent Swedish privateers to intercept merchant ships sailing to Narva.
In 1562, there was a raid by Lithuanian troops on the Smolensk and Velizh regions. In the summer of the same year, the situation worsened southern borders The Moscow state, which moved the timing of the Russian offensive in Livonia to the fall.
The path to the Lithuanian capital Vilna was closed by Polotsk. In January 1563, the Russian army, which included “almost all the armed forces of the country,” set out to capture this border fortress from Velikiye Luki. At the beginning of February, the Russian army began the siege of Polotsk, and on February 15 the city surrendered.
Mercy towards the vanquished was typical for the army of Grozny: when Polotsk was recaptured from the Poles in 1563, Ivan released the garrison in peace, giving each Pole a sable fur coat, and preserving the city's legal proceedings according to local laws.
Nevertheless, Ivan the Terrible was cruel towards Jews. As the Pskov Chronicle reports, during the capture of Polotsk, Ivan the Terrible ordered all Jews to be baptized on the spot, and ordered those who refused (300 people) to be drowned in the Dvina. Karamzin mentions that after the capture of Polotsk, John ordered “all Jews to be baptized, and the disobedient to be drowned in Dvina.”
After the capture of Polotsk, there was a decline in Russia's successes in the Livonian War. Already in 1564, the Russians suffered a series of defeats (Battle of Chashniki). A boyar and a major military leader, who actually commanded the Russian troops in the West, Prince A. M. Kurbsky, went over to the side of Lithuania; he betrayed the king’s agents in the Baltic states to the king and participated in the Lithuanian raid on Velikiye Luki.
Tsar Ivan the Terrible responded to military failures and the reluctance of eminent boyars to fight against Lithuania with repressions against the boyars. In 1565 the oprichnina was introduced. In 1566, a Lithuanian embassy arrived in Moscow, proposing to divide Livonia on the basis of the situation existing at that time. The Zemsky Sobor, convened at this time, supported the intention of the government of Ivan the Terrible to fight in the Baltic states until the capture of Riga.
Third period of the war
The Union of Lublin, which in 1569 united the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into one state - the Republic of Both Nations, had serious consequences. A difficult situation has developed in the north of Russia, where relations with Sweden have again become strained, and in the south (the campaign of the Turkish army near Astrakhan in 1569 and the war with Crimea, during which the army of Devlet I Giray burned Moscow in 1571 and devastated the southern Russian lands). However, the onset of a long-term “kinglessness” in the Republic of Both Nations, the creation in Livonia of the vassal “kingdom” of Magnus, which at first had an attractive force in the eyes of the population of Livonia, again made it possible to tip the scales in favor of Russia. In 1572, the army of Devlet-Girey was destroyed and the threat of large raids by the Crimean Tatars was eliminated (Battle of Molodi). In 1573, the Russians stormed the Weissenstein (Paide) fortress. In the spring, Moscow troops under the command of Prince Mstislavsky (16,000) converged near Lode Castle in western Estland with two thousand Swedish army. Despite the overwhelming numerical advantage, the Russian troops suffered a crushing defeat. They had to leave all their guns, banners and convoys.
In 1575, the Saga fortress surrendered to the army of Magnus, and Pernov to the Russians. After the campaign of 1576, Russia captured the entire coast except Riga and Kolyvan.
However, the unfavorable international situation, the distribution of land in the Baltic states to Russian nobles, which alienated the local peasant population from Russia, and serious internal difficulties negatively affected the further course of the war for Russia.
Fourth period of the war
Stefan Batory, who ascended the Polish throne with the active support of the Turks (1576), went on the offensive and occupied Wenden (1578), Polotsk (1579), Sokol, Velizh, Usvyat, and Velikiye Luki. In the captured fortresses, the Poles and Lithuanians completely destroyed the Russian garrisons. In Velikiye Luki, the Poles exterminated the entire population, about 7 thousand people. Polish and Lithuanian troops ravaged the Smolensk region, the Seversk land, the Ryazan region, the southwest of the Novgorod region, and plundered Russian lands right up to the upper reaches of the Volga. The devastation they caused was reminiscent of the worst Tatar raids. The Lithuanian governor Philon Kmita from Orsha burned 2,000 villages in the western Russian lands and captured a huge town. In February 1581, the Lithuanians burned Staraya Russa.
In 1581, the Polish-Lithuanian army, which included mercenaries from almost all of Europe, besieged Pskov, intending, if successful, to march on Novgorod the Great and Moscow. In November 1580, the Swedes took Korela, where 2 thousand Russians were exterminated, and in 1581 they occupied Narva, which was also accompanied by massacres - 7 thousand Russians died; the victors did not take prisoners and did not spare civilians.
The heroic defense of Pskov in 1581-1582 determined a more favorable outcome of the war for Russia: it forced the Polish king to abandon his further plans and conclude a truce with the Russian government in Zapolsky Yam in 1582 for 10 years. Under the terms of this truce, the old state border was preserved. For the Russian state, this meant the loss of Livonia. The following year, 1583, a truce was concluded on the Plussa River with the Swedes, who retained the Russian cities of Koporye, Yam, Ivangorod and the entire coast of the Gulf of Finland, except for a small outlet to the Baltic Sea near the mouth of the Neva.
Results and consequences of the Livonian War
In January 1582, in Yam-Zapolsky (near Pskov) a 10-year truce was concluded with the Republic of Both Nations (the so-called Yam-Zapolsky Peace). Russia renounced Livonia and Belarusian lands, but some border lands were returned to it.
In May 1583, the 3-year Truce of Plyus with Sweden was concluded, according to which Koporye, Yam, Ivangorod and the adjacent territory of the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland were ceded. The Russian state again found itself cut off from the sea. The country was devastated, the northwestern regions were depopulated. The war was lost on all counts. The result of the war and the repressions of Ivan the Terrible was a population decline (decreased by 25%) and the economic ruin of the country. It should also be noted that the course of the war and its results were influenced by the Crimean raids: only 3 years out of 25 years of the war there were no significant raids.
The Livonian War, which lasted a quarter of a century (1558-1583) and cost enormous victims to the Russian state, did not solve the historical problem of Russia's access to the Baltic Sea.
As a result of the Livonian War, Livonia was divided between Poland, which received Vidzeme, Latgale, Southern Estonia, the Duchy of Courland, and Sweden, which received Northern Estonia with Tallinn and Russian territory near the Gulf of Finland; Denmark received the island of Saaremaa and certain areas in the former Bishopric of Kurzeme. Thus, the Latvian and Estonian peoples remained politically fragmented under the yoke of the new conquerors.
But the Livonian War was not inconclusive for the Russian state. Its significance was that Russian troops defeated and finally destroyed the Livonian Order, which was a cruel enemy of the Russian, Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian peoples. During the Livonian War, the friendship of the Estonian and Latvian peoples with the Russian people strengthened.
CONCLUSION
In 1558, Moscow troops entered Livonia. The Livonian Order was unable to fight and disintegrated. Estland surrendered to Sweden, Livonia to Poland, the order retained only Courland. By 1561, Russian troops finally defeated the Livonian Order. The first period of the war turned out to be very successful for Russia. Russian troops occupied the cities of Narva, Dorpat, Polotsk, and Revel was besieged.
With its invasion of Livonia, Russia also affected the trade interests of a number of European states. Trade on the Baltic Sea was then growing from year to year and the question of who would control it was relevant.
In addition, the Russian presence in Livonia affected complex and confusing pan-European politics, upsetting the balance of power on the continent.
Military operations were victorious for Moscow until Stefan Batory, who had undoubted military talent, was elected to the Polish-Lithuanian throne.
The following periods of the war were unsuccessful for Russia. Since 1579, it switched to defensive actions. Batory, having become king, immediately launched a decisive offensive against Ivan the Terrible. Under the pressure of united troops, the Russians abandoned Polotsk and the strategically important fortress of Velikiye Luki. In 1581, Batory besieged Pskov, intending to march on Novgorod and Moscow after capturing the city. Before Russia arose real threat loss of significant territories. The heroic defense of Pskov (1581-1582), in which the entire population of the city participated, predetermined the outcome of the war that was relatively favorable for Russia.
The results of the Livonian War, which lasted twenty-five years, were very difficult for Russia. Russia suffered territorial losses, hostilities devastated the country, the treasury was emptied, and the central and northwestern districts were depopulated. The main goal of the Livonian War - access to the Baltic Sea coast - was not achieved.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Volkov V.A. Wars and troops of the Moscow state. - M. - 2004.
Danilevsky I.N., Andreev I.L., Kirillov V.V. Russian history. From ancient times to the beginning of the 20th century. – M. - 2007.
Karamzin N. M. History of the Russian State. Volume 8. Volume 9.
Korolyuk V.D. Livonian War. - M. - 1954.
Platonov S. F. Complete course of lectures on Russian history
Solovyov S. M. History of Russia since ancient times, volume 6. - M., 2001
Skrynnikov R. G. Ivan the Terrible. - M. - 2006.
Shirokorad A. B. Northern wars of Russia. - M. - 2001.
The Livonian War became one of the largest military conflicts of the 16th century, engulfing Russia and northeastern Europe. The armies of the Livonian Confederation, Moscow, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Swedish and Danish kingdoms fought on the territory of modern Estonia, Latvia and Belarus. Following state interests, Ivan IV the Terrible, who became famous as an ambitious and wayward monarch, decided to take part in the upcoming redistribution of Europe due to the extinction of the once strong Livonian Order. As a result, the protracted conflict was not crowned with success for Moscow.
First, you should briefly talk about the participants in this war and find out the strengths of the parties.
Livonian Confederation
The Livonian Order, or the Brotherhood of the Knights of Christ of Livonia, is a military-religious organization of crusader knights that settled in northeastern Europe back in the 13th century. Relations between the Livonians and the Russian principalities did not work out from the very beginning; in 1242, the knights who were still part of the Teutonic Order took part in the campaign against Pskov and Novgorod, but were defeated in a battle known as Battle on the Ice. By the 15th century, the order had weakened, and Livonia was a confederation of the Order and four princely bishoprics that competed fiercely with each other.
Map of the Livonian Confederation
TO XVI century the internal political situation only worsened, social and political disunity in the order lands increased to a critical limit. Therefore, it is not surprising that Livonia’s non-peaceful neighbors, namely Sweden, Denmark and Russia, circled like vultures over the Baltic states, expecting quick prey. One of the predecessors of Ivan the Terrible, Grand Duke Ivan III, at the beginning of the 16th century concluded a peace treaty with the Order, according to which the Livonians paid an annual tribute to Pskov. Subsequently, Ivan the Terrible tightened the terms of the treaty, additionally demanding the abandonment of military alliances with Lithuania and Sweden. The Livonians refused to comply with such demands, and in 1557 the Order signed a treaty of vassalage with Poland. In 1558, a war began, which put an end to the Livonian Confederation.
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
A vast state, located on the territory of modern Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania, was formed in the 13th century, and since the 16th century it existed as part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the 15th-16th centuries, the Principality of Lithuania was Moscow's main rival for dominance over the territories from Smolensk to the Bug and from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Therefore, the active participation of the Litvins in the Livonian War is not at all surprising.
Russian kingdom
As we have already mentioned, the initiator of the Livonian War was Ivan the Terrible, one of the most famous Russian sovereigns. From father Vasily III he inherited a strong state, even if it had been waging incessant wars for the expansion of territory since the beginning of the 16th century. One of the goals of the active tsar was the Baltic states, since the Livonian Order, falling into insignificance, could not provide significant resistance to Russia. The entire strength of the Livonians lay in their medieval heritage - many fortified castles that formed a powerful defensive line capable of for a long time bind the enemy's forces.
Ivan the Terrible (Parsun of the late XVI century)
The basis of Ivan the Terrible's army were the archers - the first regular Russian army, recruited from urban and rural residents, armed with cannons and arquebuses. Seemingly unapproachable medieval castles could not protect their owners from rapidly developing and improving artillery. Shortly before the start of the war, in 1557, the tsar gathered an army of forty thousand in Novgorod for the upcoming campaign and was confident of the impending success.
Initial period of the war
The war began on January 17, 1558 with a reconnaissance raid of Russian troops on Livonian territory, which was led by the Kazan Khan Shah-Ali and the governors Glinsky and Zakharyev-Yuryev. The diplomatic justification for the campaign was an attempt to obtain the tribute due to Pskov from the Livonians, but the Order had no chance of collecting the required amount of 60 thousand thalers.
Narva was a strong border fortress of the Livonian Order, founded by the Danes in the 13th century. On the other side of the border, to protect against a possible invasion, the Ivangorod Fortress was erected at the end of the 15th century. The distance between the fortifications was about two kilometers, which, after the outbreak of hostilities, allowed the garrison of Narva, commanded by knight Focht Schnellenberg, to open fire on Ivangorod, provoking a long artillery firefight. By April 1558, Russian troops led by governors Daniil Adashev, Alexei Basmanov and Ivan Buturlin approached Narva. The siege began.
On May 11, the fortress was engulfed in fire, which grew due to strong wind. The defenders of Narva had to leave the walls and rush into an unequal battle with a more powerful enemy - the raging flame. Taking advantage of the panic in the city, Ivan the Terrible's troops launched an assault and broke through the gates without hindrance. Having quickly captured the lower city along with enemy artillery, they opened fire on the upper city and the citadel. The besieged quickly accepted their inevitable defeat and surrendered on the terms of free exit from the city. Narva was taken.
Along with the fortress, Ivan the Terrible received a harbor with access to the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea - it became the cradle of the Russian fleet.
In addition to the quick capture of Narva with little bloodshed, 1558 was crowned with no less successful operations Russian army. At the end of June, despite heroic defense, Neuhausen Castle fell, whose garrison was led by the knight Uexküll von Padenorm - the fortress successfully fought back for a whole month, but true knightly courage turned out to be powerless against the artillery of the governor Peter Shuisky. In July, Shuisky captured Dorpat (modern Tartu) - for seven days artillery destroyed the fortifications almost point-blank, after which the besieged could only negotiate surrender.
Gotthard von Ketler (portrait of the last third of the 16th century)
As a result, during the spring-autumn period of 1558, the Streltsy army captured two dozen fortresses, including those that voluntarily came under the authority of the Russian Tsar. By the end of the year, the situation changed - the Livonians decided to launch a counterattack. By 1559, Gotthard von Kettler became the new head of the Order, becoming the last in history to hold the title of Landmaster of the Teutonic Order in Livonia...
Campaign of 1559
At the end of the year, when the Russian troops retreated to winter quarters, leaving garrisons in the captured fortresses, the new landmaster, with some difficulty, managed to gather an army of ten thousand and approached the fortress of Ringen, guarded by only a few hundred archers. The defenders, doomed to defeat, heroically defended themselves for five weeks. Voivode Repnin came to the aid of Ringen, but his detachment of two thousand people was defeated by Ketler’s army. When the archers ran out of gunpowder, the Livonians were able to capture the fortress. All its defenders were destroyed. However, the capture of Ringen can hardly be called a success for the Livonians - after spending more than a month and losing a fifth of his army during the siege, Ketler was unable to continue the offensive and retreated to Riga.
After the capture of Ringen by the Livonians, Tsar Ivan the Terrible decided to give the Order an adequate response. At the beginning of 1559, the archers, led by governor Vasily Semenovich Serebryany-Obolensky, crossed the Livonian border and on January 17 met with the army of the knight Friedrich von Felkersam near the city of Tirzen (now Tirza in Latvia). The battle ended in a crushing defeat for the Livonians - Frederick himself and 400 knights (not counting ordinary soldiers) died, the rest were captured or fled. Taking advantage of the success, Russian troops marched through the Livonian lands through Riga to the Prussian border, capturing 11 more cities.
This operation caused the complete collapse of the Livonian army, whose combat effectiveness decreased to a catastrophic level. By the spring of 1559, all the neighbors of the Order had significantly revived, since not only Moscow had views of the lands of Livonia. Lithuania, Poland, Sweden and Denmark demanded that Ivan the Terrible stop the campaign, threatening to take the side of the Livonian Confederation.
An equally important factor was the concern of European monarchs about the strengthening of Moscow. Thus, the Lithuanian Prince Sigismund II, not without notes of panic, reported in a dispatch to Queen Elizabeth of England:
“The Moscow sovereign daily increases his power by acquiring goods that are brought to Narva, because, among other things, weapons are brought here that are still unknown to him... military specialists arrive, through whom he acquires the means to defeat everyone...”
Another difficulty was disagreements in Moscow itself. The lack of a common military strategy, when some of the boyars considered access to the Baltic the highest priority, and the other advocated the rapid liquidation of the Crimean Khanate, caused heated debate among the tsar's associates. If the emergence of Moscow-controlled Baltic ports redrew the geopolitical and commercial map of Europe, significantly tilting the scales in favor of Ivan the Terrible, then a successful southern campaign would have ensured the protection of the borders from constant raids and enriched the governors and boyars with new land acquisitions.
Sigismund II Augustus, Grand Duke of Lithuania (portrait by Lucas Cranach, 1553)
As a result, the king made concessions and agreed to give the Livonians a truce from March to November 1559. The Order used the resulting respite to its maximum benefit. Unable to cope with the tsar alone, the Livonians decided to invite more participants to the gambling table, drawing Poland and Sweden into the conflict with Ivan the Terrible. However, this intrigue did not help them much. Gotthard von Ketler concluded an agreement with the Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund II, according to which the lands of the Order and the Archbishop of Riga fell under the protectorate of Lithuania. Later, Revel went to the king of Sweden, and the island of Ezel (Saaremaa) to the brother of the Danish king, Duke Magnus.
Having received external assistance, in the early autumn of 1559, the Livonians violated the truce and, with an unexpected attack, defeated the detachment of governor Pleshcheev near Dorpat. However, by the time they reached the fortress, the head of the garrison, Voivode Katyrev-Rostovsky, had time to prepare for defense. 10 days of siege and mutual artillery salvos did not produce results, and Ketler was forced to retreat.
On the way back, Ketler undertook a siege of the Lais fortress, which the Streltsy leader Koshkarov, together with a garrison of 400 people, bravely defended for two days, until the Livonians retreated again. The Order's autumn campaign not only failed to produce any results, but also provoked Moscow into resuming hostilities.
1560 Campaign
In the summer of 1560, Ivan the Terrible sent an army of sixty thousand with 40 siege troops and 50 field guns under the command of Ivan Mstislavsky and Pyotr Shuisky. The target of the subsequent attack was to be Fellin (modern Viljandi), the most powerful fortress of the Order in eastern Livonia.
According to intelligence, the Livonians were transporting a rich treasury to Gapsal (Haapsalu in northwestern Estonia), and the Russian vanguard of twelve thousand horsemen was in a hurry to block the road from Fellin to the sea. By August 2, the horsemen had set up camp a few kilometers from Ermes Castle (now Ergeme in Latvia). Meanwhile, Livonian troops, led by Landmarshal Philipp von Boell, “the last hope of Livonia,” gathered at Trikata Castle to repel the enemy. Also on August 2, three dozen knights went for forage, where they encountered numerous enemy patrols.
Both sides opened fire, one Russian was killed, the rest chose to retreat to the camp. The knights split up: 18 turned for reinforcements, 12 rushed after the retreating ones. When the first detachment returned to the camp, Belle ordered 300 horsemen to be deployed against the Russians, since he had no idea about the number of the enemy, and the arriving knights saw only small detachment. The Livonian horsemen who set out were quickly surrounded, and when the battle began, many of them fled. As a result, more than 250 knights died, many were captured. Among them was Philip von Bell - the “last hope” did not justify itself, and the road to Fellin was now open.
Siege of Fellin (engraving from the book of Leonhard Fronsperger, 16th century)
The army of Mstislavsky and Shuisky reached Fellin in August of the same year. The siege began. The fortress was defended by a garrison under the leadership of the former master Firstenberg. For three weeks, Russian artillery continuously shelled the walls of the old but strong castle. Attempts by the Livonian troops to lift the siege were successfully repulsed by the archers. When the outer fortifications fell and a fire started in the city, Firstenberg, not wanting to negotiate and surrender, ordered defense in an impregnable castle inside the fortress. However, the garrison, which had not received pay for several months, was not ready for such heroism and refused to carry out the order. On August 21, Fellin capitulated.
The defenders received the right to free exit from the city, important prisoners were sent to Moscow, and the garrison soldiers who reached Riga were hanged by the Livonians for treason. The fall of Fellin practically put an end to the existence of the Livonian Order. In 1561, von Kettler finally transferred his lands to Polish-Lithuanian ownership, which was what the neighbors were counting on. According to the Treaty of Vilna of November 1561, the Order officially ceased to exist, and Ketler received the Duchy of Courland. The division of rich spoils began: Revel (Tallinn) recognized Swedish citizenship, Denmark laid claims to the islands of Hiiumaa and Saaremaa. Thus, instead of one weakened Order, several European states stood in the way of Moscow, despite the fact that the tsar’s army lost the initiative, not having time to capture the ports of Riga and Revel and gain access to the sea.
But Ivan the Terrible refused to retreat. Real war was just beginning.
To be continued
After the conquest of Kazan, Russia turned its gaze to the Baltic and put forward plans to capture Livonia. There were two main reasons for the Livonian War: the right to trade freely in the Baltic, and for opponents the issue of preventing Russia from becoming a European state was resolved. The Order and the German merchants hindered the growth of Russian trade. Therefore for Russia main goal The Livonian War was the conquest of access to the Baltic Sea. The struggle for supremacy at sea was between Lithuania and Poland, Sweden, Denmark and Russia.
The reason for the start of the war was the failure of the Livonian Order to pay tribute, which the Yuryev (or Dorpat) bishopric undertook to pay under the peace treaty of 1554.
In 1558, Russian troops invaded Livonia.
At the first stage of the war (1558-1561), several cities and castles were taken, including such significant ones as Narva, Dorpat, Yuryev.
Instead of continuing the successfully launched offensive, the Moscow government granted the Order a truce and at the same time equipped an expedition against the Crimea. Taking advantage of the respite, the Livonian knights gathered military forces and, a month before the end of the truce, defeated the Russian troops.
Russia did not achieve results in the war against the Crimean Khanate and missed favorable opportunities for victory in Livonia. In 1561, Master Ketler signed an agreement under which the Order came under the protectorate of Lithuania and Poland.
Moscow made peace with Crimea and concentrated all its forces in Livonia. But now, instead of one weak order, he had to deal with several strong contenders for his inheritance. If at first it was possible to avoid a war with Sweden and Denmark, then the fight with the main heir of the Livonian Order, i.e. with the Polish-Lithuanian king turned out to be inevitable.
The second stage of the war (1562-1578) for Russia passed with varying degrees of success.
Russia's highest achievement in the Livonian War was the capture of Polotsk in February 1563, after which military failures and fruitless negotiations followed. The Crimean Khan refused an alliance with Moscow.
In 1566, Lithuanian ambassadors came to Moscow with a proposal for a truce and so that Polotsk and part of Livonia would remain with Moscow. Ivan the Terrible demanded all of Livonia. Such demands were rejected, and the Lithuanian king Sigismund Augustus resumed the war with Russia.
In 1568, Sweden dissolved its previously concluded alliance with Russia. England refused to sign the plan developed by Russian diplomats alliance treaty. In 1569 Poland and Lithuania united in single state- Rzeczpospolita. Russia had to continue the Livonian War without allies under the most unfavorable conditions.
However, both the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russia equally needed peace, so both countries concluded a three-year truce in 1570.
At this time, Russia was conducting military operations with the Swedes, resorting to the help of Denmark. Ivan the Terrible decided to create a vassal Livonian kingdom from the conquered lands, on the throne of which it was promised to place the Danish prince Magnus, married to the royal niece. He tried to expel the Swedes from Reval (Estonia) in early 1577, but the siege was unsuccessful. Sweden then made peace with Denmark.
After the death of Sigismund Augustus in 1572, a period of kinglessness began in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the struggle of contenders for the throne, the Transylvanian prince Stefan Batory won in 1576. He created an anti-Russian alliance and assembled a significant army.
The third stage of the Livonian War (1679-1583) began with the invasion of Russia by the Polish king Stefan Batory. At the same time, Russia had to fight with Sweden. For the first time during the Livonian War, Russia’s opponents actually joined their military efforts.
In August 1579, Batory's army conquered Polotsk, and a year later Velikiye Luki and other cities. In an attempt to take Pskov, Batory suffered the biggest failure in the war with Russia. Meanwhile, hostilities continued in Livonia and Estonia, where the Swedes took the cities of Padis, Wesenberg, and Kexholm in Karelia from the Russians, and on September 9, 1581, Sweden captured Narva, then Ivangorod, Yam, and Koporye fell.
With the loss of Narva, continuing the struggle for Livonia lost its meaning for Grozny.
Realizing the impossibility of waging war against two opponents at once, the tsar began negotiations with Batory on a truce in order to concentrate all forces on the reconquest of Narva. But plans to attack Narva remained unfulfilled.
The result of the Livonian War was the conclusion of two treaties that were unfavorable for Russia.
On January 15, 1582, the Yam Zapolsky Treaty on a 10-year truce was signed. Russia ceded all its possessions in Livonia to Poland, and Batory returned to Russia the fortresses and cities he had conquered, but retained Polotsk.
In August 1583, Russia and Sweden signed the Treaty of Plus on a three-year truce. The Swedes retained all the captured Russian cities. Russia has retained a section of the coast of the Gulf of Finland with the mouth of the Neva.
The end of the Livonian War did not give Russia access to the Baltic Sea. This was very important for Russia, but still the main strategic task of the Livonian War for Ivan IV was different. The annexation of Livonia was necessary to stop the centuries-old “onslaught to the east” from the Vatican to enslave Rus'.
The reasons for the defeat in the difficult 25-year Livonian War were the economic weakness of Russia, its internal difficulties, and the backwardness of the Russians in the art of war compared to Western Europeans. Political shortsightedness, Ivan the Terrible's ignorance of his rivals, and his desire for quick results at any cost could not but lead to a major international conflict.
The consequence of the Livonian War was an extremely difficult situation for Russia; the country was ruined.
Owned it since then for the most part modern Baltic states - Estland, Livonia and Courland. In the 16th century, Livonia lost some of its former power. From within, it was engulfed in strife, which was intensified by the church Reformation that was penetrating here. The Archbishop of Riga quarreled with the Master of the Order, and the cities were at enmity with both of them. Internal turmoil weakened Livonia, and all its neighbors were not averse to taking advantage of this. Before the start of the conquests of the Livonian knights, the Baltic lands depended on the Russian princes. With this in mind, the Moscow sovereigns believed that they had completely legal rights to Livonia. Due to its coastal position, Livonia was of great commercial importance. Afterwards, Moscow inherited the commerce of Novgorod, which it had conquered, with the Baltic lands. However, the Livonian rulers in every possible way limited the relations that Muscovite Rus' conducted with Western Europe through their region. Fearing Moscow and trying to interfere with its rapid strengthening, the Livonian government did not allow European craftsmen and many goods into Rus'. The obvious hostility of Livonia gave rise to hostility towards it among the Russians. Seeing the weakening Livonian Order, the Russian rulers feared that his territory would be taken over by some other, stronger enemy, who would treat Moscow even worse.
Already Ivan III, after the conquest of Novgorod, built the Russian fortress Ivangorod on the Livonian border, opposite the city of Narva. After the conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan, the Chosen Rada advised Ivan the Terrible to turn to the predatory Crimea, whose hordes constantly raided the southern Russian regions, driving thousands of captives into slavery every year. But Ivan IV chose to attack Livonia. The successful outcome of the war with the Swedes of 1554–1557 gave the king confidence in easy success in the west.
Beginning of the Livonian War (briefly)
Grozny remembered the old treaties that obligated Livonia to pay tribute to the Russians. It had not been paid for a long time, but now the tsar demanded not only to renew the payment, but also to compensate for what the Livonians had not given to Russia in previous years. The Livonian government began to drag out negotiations. Having lost patience, Ivan the Terrible broke off all relations and in the first months of 1558 began the Livonian War, which was destined to drag on for 25 years.
In the first two years of the war, Moscow troops acted very successfully. They destroyed almost all of Livonia, except for the most powerful cities and castles. Livonia could not resist powerful Moscow alone. The order's state disintegrated, surrendering piecemeal to the supreme power of its stronger neighbors. Estland came under the suzerainty of Sweden, Livonia submitted to Lithuania. The island of Ezel became the possession of the Danish Duke Magnus, and Courland was subjected to secularization, that is, it turned from a church property into a secular one. The former master of the spiritual order, Ketler, became the secular Duke of Courland and recognized himself as a vassal of the Polish king.
Entry of Poland and Sweden into the war (briefly)
The Livonian Order thus ceased to exist (1560-1561). His lands were divided by neighboring powerful states, which demanded that Ivan the Terrible renounce all the seizures made at the beginning of the Livonian War. Grozny rejected this demand and opened a fight with Lithuania and Sweden. Thus, new participants were involved in the Livonian War. The struggle between the Russians and the Swedes proceeded intermittently and sluggishly. Ivan IV moved his main forces to Lithuania, acting against it not only in Livonia, but also in the regions south of the latter. In 1563, Grozny took the ancient Russian city of Polotsk from the Lithuanians. The royal army ravaged Lithuania all the way to Vilna (Vilnius). The war-weary Lithuanians offered Grozny peace with the concession of Polotsk. In 1566, Ivan IV convened a Zemsky Council in Moscow on the question of whether to end the Livonian War or continue it. The Council spoke in favor of continuing the war, and it went on for another ten years with the Russians outnumbered, until the talented commander Stefan Batory (1576) was elected to the Polish-Lithuanian throne.
The turning point of the Livonian War (briefly)
By that time, the Livonian War had significantly weakened Russia. The oprichnina, which ruined the country, undermined its strength even more. Many prominent Russian military leaders fell victims to the oprichnina terror of Ivan the Terrible. From the south they began to attack Russia with even greater energy Crimean Tatars, whom Ivan the Terrible frivolously allowed to conquer or at least completely weaken after the conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan. Crimeans and Turkish Sultan They demanded that Russia, now bound by the Livonian War, renounce possession of the Volga region and restore the independence of the Astrakhan and Kazan khanates, which had previously brought it so much grief with brutal attacks and robberies. In 1571, the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey, taking advantage of the diversion of Russian forces to Livonia, staged an unexpected invasion, marched with large army all the way to Moscow and burned the entire city outside the Kremlin. In 1572 Devlet-Girey tried to repeat this success. He again reached the Moscow outskirts with his horde, but the Russian army of Mikhail Vorotynsky at the last moment distracted the Tatars with an attack from the rear and inflicted a strong defeat on them in the Battle of Molodi.
Ivan groznyj. Painting by V. Vasnetsov, 1897
The energetic Stefan Batory began decisive action against Grozny just when the oprichnina brought the central regions of the Moscow state to desolation. The people fled en masse from the tyranny of Grozny to the southern outskirts and to the newly conquered Volga region. The Russian government center is depleted of people and resources. Grozny could no longer easily send large armies to the front of the Livonian War. Batory's decisive onslaught did not meet with adequate resistance. In 1577, the Russians achieved their last successes in the Baltic states, but already in 1578 they were defeated there near Wenden. The Poles achieved a turning point in the Livonian War. In 1579 Batory recaptured Polotsk, and in 1580 he took the strong Moscow fortresses of Velizh and Velikiye Luki. Having previously shown arrogance towards the Poles, Grozny now sought the mediation of Catholic Europe in peace negotiations with Batory and sent an embassy (Shevrigin) to the pope and the Austrian emperor. In 1581
In parallel with the internal breakdown and struggle since 1558, Grozny waged a stubborn struggle for the Baltic coast. The Baltic issue was one of the most difficult issues at that time. international problems. Many Baltic states argued for dominance in the Baltic, and Moscow’s efforts to become a seashore with a firm foot it raised Sweden, Poland, and Germany against the “Muscovites.” It must be admitted that Grozny chose the right moment to intervene in the struggle. Livonia, towards which he directed his attack, was at that time, to use an apt expression, a country of antagonisms. There was a centuries-old tribal struggle between the Germans and the aborigines of the region - Latvians, Livonians and Estonians. This struggle often took the form of an acute social clash between the alien feudal lords and the serf native masses. With the development of the Reformation in Germany, religious ferment spread to Livonia, preparing the secularization of the order's possessions. Finally, to all the other antagonisms there was also a political one: between the authorities of the Order and the Archbishop of Riga there was a chronic feud for supremacy, and at the same time there was a constant struggle between the cities with them for independence. Livonia, as Bestuzhev-Ryumin put it, “was a miniature repetition of the Empire without the unifying power of Caesar.” The disintegration of Livonia did not escape Grozny's attention. Moscow demanded that Livonia recognize its dependence and threatened with conquest. The question of the so-called Yuryevskaya (Derpt) tribute was raised. From the local obligation of the city of Dorpat to pay a “duty” or tribute to the Grand Duke for something, Moscow made a pretext for establishing its patronage over Livonia, and then for war. In two years (1558–1560) Livonia was defeated by Moscow troops and disintegrated. In order not to give in to the hated Muscovites, Livonia piecemeal succumbed to other neighbors: Livonia was annexed to Lithuania, Estland to Sweden, Fr. Ezel - to Denmark, and Courland was secularized into fief dependence on the Polish king. Lithuania and Sweden demanded that Grozny clear their new possessions. Grozny did not want to, and thus the Livonian War from 1560 turned into the Lithuanian and Swedish War.
This war dragged on for a long time. At first, Grozny had big success in Lithuania: in 1563 he took Polotsk, and his troops reached as far as Vilna. In 1565–1566 Lithuania was ready for an honorable peace for Grozny and ceded all its acquisitions to Moscow. But the Zemsky Sobor of 1566 spoke in favor of continuing the war with the aim of further land acquisitions: they wanted all of Livonia and the Polotsk district to the city of Polotsk. The war continued sluggishly. With the death of the last Jagiellon (1572), when Moscow and Lithuania were in a truce, even the candidacy of Ivan the Terrible arose for the throne of Lithuania and Poland, united into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. But this candidacy was not successful: first Henry of Valois was elected, and then (1576) the Semigrad prince Stefan Batory (in Moscow “Obatur”). With the advent of Batory, the picture of the war changed. Lithuania went from defense to offense. Batory took Polotsk from Grozny (1579), then Velikiye Luki (1580) and, bringing the war within the boundaries of the Moscow state, besieged Pskov (1581). Grozny was defeated not only because Batory had military talent and good army, but also because by this time Grozny had run out of means of waging war. Due to the internal crisis that struck at that time Moscow State and society, the country, according to modern expression, “was exhausted into a wasteland and came to desolation.” The properties and significance of this crisis will be discussed below; Now let us note that the same lack of forces and means paralyzed the success of Ivan the Terrible against the Swedes in Estland.
Siege of Pskov by Stefan Batory in 1581. Painting by Karl Bryullov, 1843
The failure of Batory near Pskov, who heroically defended himself, allowed Grozny, through the papal ambassador Jesuit Antonius Possevinus, to begin peace negotiations. In 1582, peace was concluded (more precisely, a truce for 10 years) with Batory, to whom Grozny ceded all his conquests in Livonia and Lithuania, and in 1583 Grozny made peace with Sweden by ceding Estland to it and, in addition, his lands from Narova to Lake Ladoga along the shore of the Gulf of Finland (Ivan-Gorod, Yam, Koporye, Oreshek, Korelu). Thus, the struggle, which lasted a quarter of a century, ended in complete failure. The reasons for the failure lie, of course, in the discrepancy between Moscow’s forces and the goal set by Ivan the Terrible. But this discrepancy was revealed later than Grozny began the struggle: Moscow began to decline only in the 70s of the 16th century. Until then, its forces seemed enormous not only to Moscow patriots, but also to Moscow’s enemies. Grozny's performance in the struggle for the Baltic Sea, the appearance of Russian troops near the Gulf of Riga and Finland and hired Moscow privateer ships in the Baltic waters amazed central Europe. In Germany, the “Muscovites” seemed to be a terrible enemy; the danger of their invasion was outlined not only in the official communications of the authorities, but also in the extensive flying literature of leaflets and brochures. Measures were taken to prevent Muscovites from accessing the sea and Europeans from entering Moscow and, by separating Moscow from the centers of European culture, to prevent its political strengthening. In this agitation against Moscow and Grozny, a lot of unreliable things were invented about Moscow morals and the despotism of Grozny, and a serious historian should always keep in mind the danger of repeating political slander and accepting it as an objective historical source.
To what has been said about the policies of Ivan the Terrible and the events of his time, it is necessary to add mention of the very known fact the appearance of English ships at the mouth of the S. Dvina and the beginning of trade relations with England (1553–1554), as well as the conquest of the Siberian kingdom by a detachment of Stroganov Cossacks led by Ermak (1582–1584). Both were accidents for Ivan the Terrible; but the Moscow government managed to take advantage of both. In 1584, Arkhangelsk was built at the mouth of the S. Dvina, as sea port for fair trade with the British, and the British were given the opportunity to trade in the entire Russian north, which they very quickly and clearly studied. In those same years, the occupation of Western Siberia began by the forces of the government, and not the Stroganovs alone, and many cities were established in Siberia with the “metropolitan” Tobolsk at its head.