On a holiday dedicated to women, it is customary to talk about love. Big, clean beautiful and unparalleled fabulous. It is fairy-tale characters who, having fallen in love once and for all, then never part again, live happily ever after. As you know, people compose fairy tales not from scratch, and many characters have historical prototypes. And the events that take place in a fairy tale sometimes have a real basis.

Take a well-known, beloved and revered couple. Ivan Tsarevich and Elena the Beautiful (Wise). Who serves as the prototypes for the heroes of "The Tale of Ivan Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf"?

Tsarevich means the king's son. In Russia there were not so many kings and princes Ivanov, who would also have a son, Ivan. Ivan III, Grand Duke of Moscow (1462-1505), had a son, Ivan. He was nicknamed Young to distinguish him from his father, Prince Ivan III. Since 1471, he has been referred to as the Grand Duke - co-ruler of his father.

The wife of Ivan Tsarevich (aka Ivan the Young) in the fairy tale is Elena the Beautiful. And in real life too. Ivan Ivanovich's wife was Elena, the daughter of the sovereign and governor of Moldova, Stephen III the Great, and the Kievan princess Evdokia Olelkovna. Both in Moldavian and Russian sources of that time, we can meet the historical version of the name of the princess - Olen or Olyan. Oliana is a South Russian version of the name Elena (I remind you that Elena's mother and wife of Stephen the Great are from Kyiv). So, Elena the Beautiful of Russian folk tales is a Moldavian princess, the daughter of Stephen the Great. According to Russian sources - Elena Voloshanka, Princess Oliana - according to Moldavian.

Let us compare the main episodes from the life of Ivan Tsarevich and the well-known biographical details of Ivan Ivanovich Molodoy.

Ivan Tsarevich Ivan Young Ivan has two villainous brothers - Vasily and Dmitry. Ivan has brothers (by stepmother) Vasily (III) and Dmitry (Zhilka). In the royal treasury, some golden rarities begin to mysteriously disappear. Ivan's brothers turn a blind eye to this and Ivan is the only one who was able to catch the mysterious embezzler by the hand. Sophia Paleolog secretly plundered the royal treasury. Apparently, not without Ivan's initiative, the situation with the "queen's pendants" arose, and the robber was caught. The tsar is afraid to let Ivan out of the kingdom - "... the enemy will come under our regions, and there will be no one to control the troops." Ivan Molodoy commanded the Russian troops while standing on the Ugra, showing himself as a brave and determined commander. During the standing, Tsar Ivan III trembled and tried to withdraw the troops home, but Ivan the Young did not listen to his crowned father, and the matter ended in triumph. Ivan married Princess Elena the Beautiful (Wise), whom he brought home from far away lands, from a far away state. Ivan married Elena, the daughter of the Moldavian ruler Stephen III the Great and the Kievan princess Evdokia Olelkovna. Elena moved from Moldova to Moscow. Ivan was treacherously killed by his own brothers. Ivan was poisoned by his stepmother, the Byzantine princess Sophia, in order to clear the way for her sons to the throne. The king got angry at the Ivanov brothers and put them in prison. Shortly after Ivan's death, while trying to poison his son Dmitry, Sophia was exposed and sent to prison with her son Vasily.

True, some details differ from reality, but this is still a folk tale, and not historical chronicles. The sequence of the birth of the brothers in the fairy tale was as follows - first Dmitry, then Vasily, the last - Ivan. In reality, it was exactly the opposite - first Ivan appeared (1458), then Vasily (1479), then Dmitry (1481). "In between" was also brother Yuri (1480).

Ivan Olyan's wife, she is Elena Voloshanka (Moldavanka), born and raised in a European country, was distinguished by intelligence and progressive views. During the reign of her father, the culture and art of the handwritten book developed in Moldavia.

It is curious that in the tale about Ivan Tsarevich, Elena reproaches the insidious brothers with the following words: “You would then be good KNIGHTS if you went with him into an open field, but defeated him alive, otherwise you killed a sleepy one and what kind of praise will you receive for yourself?” This remark itself suggests that Elena, of course, came from a European country with a knightly code of honor. Moldova quite belonged to such countries.

Elena was highly educated, and in Moscow a circle of free-thinking people formed around her. It included, among other things, the freethinker Fedor Kuritsyn. In his book Writing About Literacy, he advocated - just think! - free will ("autocracy of the soul"), achieved through education and literacy. Elena, even after the death of her husband Ivan, for some time was able to keep the tsar from reprisals against dissidents, while the new tsar's wife Sophia demanded a cruel reprisal against "heretics".

Ivan Young was the son of Ivan III from his first wife Maria Borisovna, daughter of the Grand Duke of Tverskoy Boris Alexandrovich. Consequently, he was the legitimate heir to the throne of Moscow and Tver. At this time, the throne of Tver was occupied by Mikhail Borisovich, his mother's brother. Being childless and realizing his precarious position, he intrigued against the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III. In 1483, a marriage took place between Oliana (Elena Voloshanka) and Ivan the Young. And soon the young had a son and heir Dmitry. Thus, the position of the ruling Moscow dynasty was strengthened. In 1485, Mikhail Borisovich fled from Tver, and Ivan III sent his son there. Until the end of his life, Ivan the Young was not only the co-ruler of his father, but also the Grand Duke of Tver. So the marriage of the Moldavian princess and the Russian heir made it possible to annex Tver to the Muscovite state. What contributed to the creation of a single centralized Russian state in the XV century. At the same time, the second wife of Ivan III, Sophia Paleolog, fell out of favor. Jewelry began to disappear from the royal treasury. As the chronicles wrote about Sophia, "she used up the treasury of the Grand Duke a lot; she gave it to her brother, she gave some to her niece - and a lot ...". The grand ducal treasury was the subject of special concern for more than one generation of Moscow sovereigns, who tried to increase family treasures.

The priceless jewels of the Tver princess Maria (the first wife of Ivan III and the mother of Ivan the Young), Sophia, without asking anyone, gave her Italian niece. In 1483, during the baptism of the first tsar's grandson Dmitry, the son of Ivan the Young and Elena Voloshanka, a huge scandal erupted. The newborn Dmitry was the successor of the dynasties of both Moscow and Tver princes, and Moldavian rulers.

Ivan the Young died in 1490. Many believe he was poisoned. They say that Sophia Paleolog's people poisoned him. But there is no evidence for that. No one conducted investigations in those distant and dark times, and the doctor who treated Prince Ivan the Young was executed.

The political and dynastic struggle continued at the Moscow court. Oliana (Elena Voloshanka) experienced her triumph when in 1497 the grandfather and Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III crowned his grandson in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. A magnificent festive ceremony took place with a large gathering of clergy, boyars, princes of nobles, foreign guests and ambassadors, as well as ordinary Moscow people. This was the first crowning of a monarch to reign in the history of the Russian state. And the very first among the many monarchs in the history of Russia was Dmitry Vnuk (this was the nickname of the heir to the throne). A little boy, the grandson of two great contemporaries, the heir to the glory and power of his two glorious grandfathers, who went down in history under the names of Stephen III the Great, ruler and governor of Moldova, and the Grand Duke of Vladimir and Prince of All Russia Ivan III the Great. All subsequent wedding ceremonies of Russian tsars and emperors will copy and repeat the wedding ceremony for the reign of Dmitry Vnuk. For 400 years without one year (from 1497 to 1896), from Dmitry Vnuk to Nicholas II, this beautiful and solemn ceremony will be repeated.

But back to the tale. The fates of real and fairy-tale characters are different. But the people, this wise and subtle observer, chose one pair from the whole multitude of rulers and endowed it with ideal features. It is true that Ivan the Young (aka Ivan Tsarevich) and Oliana, Elena Voloshanka (aka Elena the Beautiful and Wise) deserved it. The people's memory preserved people and rulers as they were in life. So they appeared before us in a fairy tale. The ideal ruler, intercessor and defender of his native land is Ivan Tsarevich, prince. A beautiful and smart wife is Elena, a Moldavian princess.

And, of course, you can not do without love. She is the most and main character of both fairy tales and real events. Without love, this story would not exist.

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Princess of Moscow, wife (from 12.1.1483) of the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan Ivanovich Molodoy, mother of Dmitry Ivanovich Vnuk. Daughter of the Moldavian ruler Stephen III the Great from his first marriage. Negotiations on marriage began at the initiative of the Moldavian side in the late 1470s and were resumed in 1481-82 by the Russian side. Their political background was the anti-Lithuanian and anti-Polish orientation of the foreign policy of the Russian state and the Moldavian principality. Elena Stefanovna arrived in Moscow in December 1482, accompanied by the Russian ambassadors boyar A.M. Pleshcheev and his brother P.M. Moldova. After the death of her husband (March 1490), she lived with her son under Ivan III in the Grand Duke's palace. In diplomatic correspondence with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL), the name of Elena Stefanovna was first mentioned in 1495 (3 years later than the name of her son) in the description of the send-off ceremony to Grand Duchess Elena Ivanovna in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The positions of Elena Stefanovna and her son in Moscow court and political life intensified in the fall, and especially at the end of 1497, after the disgrace of the Grand Duke 3. (S. F.) Paleolog and her eldest son, Prince Vasily (the future Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III Ivanovich) , and even more in the winter - summer of 1498, after the coronation of Dmitry Vnuk as co-ruler and heir to Ivan III. This was reflected in diplomatic etiquette (on behalf of Grand Duchess Elena Stefanovna, not only “bows were made”, but gifts were also presented to the Grand Duke of Lithuania and his wife; the procedure was similar when receiving Lithuanian ambassadors in Moscow). On the shroud with the image of the procession on Palm Sunday in 1498 and the prayer service of Metropolitan Simon in front of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God "Hodegetria", the image of Elena Stefanovna is placed in a more honorable place than the image of the wife of Ivan III. The composition and nature of the “party” of Dmitry Ivanovich Vnuk and Elena Stefanovna (whether it was a “ruling circle” or not) and goals (internal and foreign policy) remain controversial issues in Russian historical science. Undoubtedly, the sharp rivalry of Elena Stefanovna and her son with the Grand Duke 3. (S. F.) Paleolog and Prince Vasily Ivanovich. The disgrace of the Patrikeev princes and the execution of Prince S. I. Ryapolovsky (January - February 1499) weakened the leading position of Elena Stefanovna and her son, their importance at court decreased even more after the removal of disgrace from 3. (S. F.) Paleolog and Vasily Ivanovich ( 21. 3.1499). Soon the name of Elena Stefanovna disappears from diplomatic texts. On April 11, 1502, Ivan III imprisoned Elena Stefanovna (together with her son), she was deprived of her grand ducal title, and her name was forbidden to be “commemorated in octenias and litias.”

In a letter of 1504 to the confessor of Ivan III, Joseph Volotsky wrote that the Grand Duke confessed to him that the heretic I. Maksimov “brought my daughter-in-law into Judaism,” i.e., attracted the “Judaizers” to participate in the heresy (however, when this happened and how much Elena Stefanovna was involved in their activities remains unclear). A number of researchers associate with the arrival of Elena Stefanovna the appearance of the “Tale in Brief about the Moldavian Sovereigns” (or parts thereof), later included in the Resurrection Chronicle. According to one chronicle of the 1520s, Elena Stefanovna died "in custody" (imprisonment), according to another - "passed away ... necessary" (i.e., violent) "death in captivity."

Lit .: Kazakova N. A., Lurie Y. S. Anti-feudal heretical movements in Russia in the XIV - early XVI centuries. M.; L., 1955; Khoroshkevich A. L. The Russian state in the system of international relations of the late XV - early XVI century. M., 1980; Zimin A. A. Russia at the turn of the XV-XVI centuries. M., 1982; Lurie Ya. S. Two stories of Russia in the 15th century. SPb., 1994.

Elena Voloshanka was the wife of the eldest son of Ivan III, Ivan the Young, in this capacity - the princess of Tver.

Wedding of Elena Voloshanka and Ivan Ivanovich Molodoy

Elena Voloshanka was born around 1464 or 1466 in Suceava.

In 1479, Stefan cel Mare began negotiations on marriage between his daughter and the heir to the Moscow throne, Ivan Ivanovich.
To seal this union, Elena had to marry the eldest son of Ivan III Vasilyevich - Ivan Ivanovich Molodoy. Grand Duke Ivan III of Moscow sent ambassadors to Suceava to ask for the hand of Princess Elena for Ivan the Young.

The envoy of the prince, Andrey Pleshcheev, arrived in Moldova with a large retinue of Moscow boyars and with the authority to make a betrothal by proxy. After the celebrations and feasts, Elena went through Poland to Moscow. Stefan cel Mare ordered three boyars to accompany her: Lashka, Singer and Gerasim with the boyars.

Princess Elena arrived in Moscow at the Filippovsky (Christmas) post. The young princess was taken to the monastery, where she met her fiancé.
The wedding took place on January 12, 1483. Soon, on October 10 of the same year, Elena gave birth to a son, Dmitry.

Her happiness seemed assured. She was the favorite of Tsar Ivan, her father-in-law, who, after the birth of his grandson Dmitry, seeing the continuation of the dynasty, was very supportive of Elena. In Moscow, Elena was called "Voloshanka".

Court intrigues seriously affected not only the position of Princess Elena, but also her fate. Grand Duke Ivan, in his old age, married Sophia Paleologus (Byzantine imperial family, daughter of the last despot of the Peloponnese).

In this marriage, the son of Vasily was born. Sophia Paleolog began to weave intrigues with the aim of eliminating Ivan the Young, Elena's wife, from succession to the throne.
On March 7, 1490, Ivan the Young died, possibly as a result of poisoning by a doctor who came from Venice to care for him. Since that time, Sophia Palaiologos began active actions to ensure the succession to the throne to her son Vasily.

Thus, the crisis of the Muscovite dynasty of 1497-1502 unleashed.

Sophia is preparing a conspiracy, planning not only to kill the son of her rival, but also, presumably, to carry out a coup d'etat, to overthrow Grand Duke Ivan III from the throne due to his old age and inability to govern the state.

The conspiracy was revealed, and all its participants were sentenced to imprisonment in monasteries.

Coronation of Prince Dmitry, son of Elena Voloshanka and Ivan Ivanovich Molodoy

On February 4, 1498, the coronation of 15-year-old Prince Dmitry took place with great pomp in the Assumption Cathedral with the participation of metropolitans and bishops, boyars and members of the royal family. Ivan III the Great blessed his grandson Dmitry, Prince of Vladimir, Moscow and Novgorod.

Elena's joy was so great that in her workshop the canvas "Church Ceremony" was woven with gold and silver threads, which was supposed to perpetuate the solemn act of 1498. Two months later, it was ready and installed in the Assumption Cathedral. This is the first secular picture in Russia.
Imprisonment of Elena Voloshanka and Prince Dmitry

But four years later, Sophia managed to win, convincing Ivan III that her daughter-in-law wanted to kill him in order to see her son as the Grand Duke of Moscow as soon as possible.
Ivan III annulled the decision to appoint Dmitry as heir and on April 11, 1502, ordered his daughter-in-law and former heir to be imprisoned and declared his son Vasily heir to the throne.

The conflict between Ivan III and Stefan cel Mare over Elena's imprisonment did not significantly affect Russian-Moldovan relations, although it caused some friction. Both rulers put political interests first, so the family quarrel had no further political consequences.

Stefan cel Mare, knowing what is happening with his daughter, asks the Lithuanian prince for free travel for his ambassadors to Moscow and receives a friendly answer:

“... if this time he wants to send ambassadors to his matchmaker, Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich, to make sure of the good health of his daughter, Grand Duchess, and his grandson, we will give his ambassadors free passage through our country to Moscow and from there back to their homeland” .

But in July 1504, Stefan cel Mare dies, and his daughter's last hope for salvation goes out with him.

Death of Elena Voloshanka and Prince Dmitry

Princess Elena died in prison on January 18, 1505 and was buried in the Ascension Monastery.
Elena's son, Dmitry, died in prison on February 14, 1509 and was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.
The Russian people preserved the memory of Elena Voloshanka, immortalizing her in the image of Elena the Wise in folk tales.

Legacy of Elena Voloshanka

At the court of Elena Stefanovna, at the suggestion of S. M. Kashtanov, in 1495 a chronicle code arose, reflecting the characteristic features of the policy of the Protver group.
Surrounded by Elena Voloshanka, a monument of ancient Russian artistic sewing arose - a veil, which depicts the solemn exit of Ivan III the Great with his family during the coronation of Dmitry.

In it, along with church motifs, secular motifs are also traced, combining the techniques of Russian and Moldovan art.

Princess Elena Stefanovna, nicknamed Voloshanka, was the daughter of the Moldavian ruler (prince) Stephen III the Great. "Voloshanka" literally meant "Moldovan". Her mother was the Kyiv princess Evdokia Olelkovna, married abroad to strengthen the diplomatic union of Russia and the Moldavian principality.

Interstate Union

Elena Stefanovna was born around 1464. There is very little information about the childhood and upbringing of the princess. In the 1480s, the Turks began to threaten the Moldavian principality. Stephen III turned for help to the Moscow prince Ivan III.

To consolidate the agreement between them, the daughter of the Moldavian prince was married to the son of Ivan III. This offspring of the sovereign was given the nickname Ivan the Young. The wedding was played in 1483. From Ivan Molodoy, the Moldavian princess gave birth to a son, Dmitry. The husband of Elena Stefanovna turned out to be in poor health and died 7 years after the marriage.

History with a dowry

One ugly story is connected with Elena Voloshanka and the second wife of Prince Ivan III, Sophia Paleolog. A year after the wedding of his son, Ivan III decided to give his daughter-in-law a pearl dowry of rare beauty. Previously, it belonged to Maria Borisovna, the first wife of Ivan III. The woman died - presumably, was poisoned - at a very young age (25 years).

After her, a rich dowry was left, which the widower decided to give to Elena Voloshanka. But it turned out that Sophia Paleolog had already given it to her niece. She did this without asking permission from her husband. The prince became furious, took away the gift from his wife's niece. This incident marked the beginning of a secret enmity between Elena Voloshanka and Sophia Paleolog.

Rivalry of princesses

In 1497, Ivan III declared Elena's son, Dmitry, his heir. The mother of the heir to the throne was a very active woman. Elena participated in court intrigues, and also adopted the teachings of heretics - Judaizers who opposed the feudal nobility. Sophia Paleolog, who dreamed of seeing her son as the heir to the throne, took advantage of the situation and whispered to her husband about Elena's secret addictions.

As a result of these intrigues, Dmitry lost the right to inherit the throne. It passed to Sophia's son, Vasily. The prince and Elena Voloshanka were arrested. In 1505, the daughter-in-law of the Moscow prince died in prison (probably was killed). A quarrel broke out between Elena's father and Ivan III. As a result, the sovereign men reconciled, and the death of Elena Stefanovna was forgotten. In the first place, the princes put political interests.

Elena the Wise and the Beautiful

Many historians and ethnographers believe that Elena Stefanovna, who ended her days in the dungeons, became the prototype of the famous heroine of Russian fairy tales, Elena the Beautiful (as an option, Wise). The princess was not only pretty, but also distinguished by progressive views. Hence the image of a wise beauty. Her husband, Ivan Molodoy, who died of an unknown disease (they say that he was poisoned by Sophia Paleolog), became the prototype of Ivan Tsarevich.

Like the hero of a fairy tale, Ivan the Young literally brought his betrothed from far away, from the Moldavian principality. And the Russian people composed a beautiful fairy tale about the love of Elena the Beautiful and Ivan Tsarevich, about rival brothers and the Gray Wolf.

CHISINAU, May 24 - Sputnik. The first dynastic connection between the ruling families of the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Principality of Moldavia dates back to the 15th century, when in 1483 the eldest son and heir of Ivan III, Ivan Ivanovich, married the daughter of Stefan the Great, Elena, who in Russia began to be called Elena Voloshanka.

According to the well-known Russian historian Yevgeny Pchelov, Elena was her husband's second cousin, and the genealogical connections of Elena Voloshanka covered the family of Stephen the Great, the dynasties of the Moscow and Tver Ruriks and the Lithuanian dynasty of the Gediminids.

As many people know, the son Dmitry was born from the marriage of Ivan Ivanovich and Elena Stefanovna.

"In February 1498, Dmitry Ivanovich was solemnly married to the Grand Duchy of Moscow in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin with a Monomakh's hat. It is important to note that this was the first coronation ceremony in this temple and it was with the use of this famous regalia - from here the whole further tradition of Russian coronations went right up to the coronation of Nicholas II, Ivan III, intended to make Dmitry's grandson heir to the throne, but these plans failed to materialize," the historian stressed.

According to him, in April 1502, disgrace was imposed on Elena Stefanovna and her son, and Vasily Ivanovich, the future Vasily III, the eldest son of Ivan III from his second marriage to Sophia Paleolog, was declared the new heir to the throne.

“The reason for the dramatic change in the dynastic situation was, of course, not only the intrigues of Sophia Palaiologos. Elena Stefanovna was accused of having links with heretics. Elena and Dmitry were imprisoned, where they died - Elena in January 1505, and her son in February 1509. Their graves have been preserved in the Moscow Kremlin. Dmitry was buried in the Archangel Cathedral next to his father, and Elena Stefanovna was buried in the Ascension Monastery, but her remains were transferred to the basement chamber of the Archangel Cathedral in 1929 before the destruction of this monastery, "Pchelov writes in his work, dedicated to Russian-Moldovan relations.

He added that Elena Voloshanka, while in Russia, ordered to weave a veil. Now the veil of Elena Voloshanka is kept in the Historical Museum in Moscow. It depicts a procession in the Moscow Kremlin on Palm Sunday, April 8, 1498. Among the characters accompanying the icon of the Mother of God are Ivan III, his grandson Dmitry, son Vasily, Sophia Paleolog, and, apparently, Elena Voloshanka herself.

The marriage of Elena Stefanovna was reflected in the Russian genealogy with another interesting connection. To her brother Ivan (in the documents of that time - Ivan Vechin - ed.), Tradition traces the origin of the noble family of the Rakhmaninovs, who gave Russia and the world a great composer.

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