Vasily II the Dark(1415-1462), Grand Duke of Moscow since 1425. The son of Vasily I. He won the war with the specific princes (1425-1453). Blinded (1446) by Prince Dmitry Shemyaka (hence the nickname). Attached to Moscow the Principality of Nizhny Novgorod, part of the Yaroslavl lands, etc. He carried out the unification of taxation, a census of the taxable population, etc.

Vasily II Vasilyevich Dark, Grand Duke of Moscow, 1415-1462, reigned in 1425. Uncle Vasily, Yuri, Prince Galich of Kostroma, taking advantage of his infancy, demanded a great reign; the fight went on for many years. In 1433, Yuri occupied Moscow, but soon died. His sons and Dmitry Shemyaka continued to fight. In 1436 Vasily blinded Kosoy. In 1445, Vasily was captured by the Kazan Tatars and released for a large ransom. In 1446, Vasily was blinded by Shemyaka and deprived of his great reign. In 1447, Vasily again established himself in Moscow; Shemyaka was poisoned. In 1448, he deposed Metropolitan Isidore for participating in the Union of Florence, elected Jonah Metropolitan in addition to the Patriarch of Constantinople, thereby making the Russian Church independent. Pestilence and famine raged in 1442-1448. The boyars and the clergy took the side of Vasily, Vasily's power grew and grew stronger in the midst of unrest. He punished Novgorod for helping Shemyaka, annexed the Mozhaisk and Serpukhov appanages to Moscow, subjugated Vyatka, and sent governors to the Ryazan land.

(1415-1462), Grand Duke of Moscow from 1425, son of Vasily I Dmitrievich. During the reign of Vasily II Vasilyevich, a long feudal internecine war took place. The opponents of Vasily II Vasilyevich were the reactionary coalition of specific princes, headed by his uncle, the Galician prince Yuri Dmitrievich and his sons and Dmitry Shemyaka. In the course of the war, complicated by the simultaneous struggle with Kazan and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the grand throne passed several times to the Galician princes, who were supported by Novgorod and temporarily Tver. Vasily II Vasilyevich was blinded (1446) by Dmitry Shemyaka (hence the nickname "Dark"), but in the end he won in the early 50s. 15th century victory. Vasily II Vasilyevich liquidated almost all small destinies within the Moscow principality, strengthened the grand ducal power. As a result of a series of campaigns in 1441-1460. the dependence on Moscow of the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod principality, Novgorod the Great, Pskov and Vyatka increased. By order of Vasily II Vasilyevich, the Russian bishop Jonah was elected metropolitan (1448), which marked the proclamation of the independence of the Russian church from the Patriarch of Constantinople and strengthened the international position of Russia.

Literature:

1. Tikhomirov M.N. Medieval Moscow in the XIV-XV centuries, M., 1957;
2. Cherepnin L.V. Formation of the Russian centralized state in the XIV-XV centuries. M., 1960.

Vasily II the Dark (1415-1462), Grand Duke of Moscow from 1425. The son of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily I and Sophia Vitovtovna. After the death of his older brothers, he became a possible contender for the Moscow table. In the early years of Vasily II, the state was ruled by the Grand Duchess Sofya Vitovtovna, Metropolitan Photius, boyar I. D. Vsevolozhsky. During the internecine war of 1425-1453. between Vasily II and his uncle Yuri Dmitrievich, and then the sons of the latter and Dmitry Shemyaka, Moscow changed hands several times. During the wedding of Vasily II with the Serpukhov Princess Maria Yaroslavna in February 1433, a quarrel between Vasily II and the Galician princes broke out; the army of Basil II was defeated in the battle on the river. Klyazma (April 25, 1433), Vasily II fled from Moscow, which was occupied by Prince Yuri Dmitrievich. Dissatisfaction with the policy of Yuri Dmitrievich led to the departure of many service people from the city to Vasily II, who was in Kolomna. Soon Yuri Dmitrievich was forced to leave Moscow. After a new defeat of Vasily II in the battle of March 20, 1434 and a week-long siege of Moscow. On March 31, the city was again occupied by supporters of Prince Yuri Dmitrievich, but after his imminent death (June 5, 1434), Vasily Kosoy declared himself the heir to the Moscow throne. A month later, "having taken gold and silver, his father's treasury and the entire city reserve", he left for Kostroma. Vasily II again entered Moscow and in January 1435 defeated the army of Vasily Kosoy. In 1436, on the orders of Vasily II, Dmitry Shemyaka, who arrived in Moscow, was captured, and the army was defeated on the river. Cherehe, he himself was brought to Moscow and on May 21, 1436 he was blinded. In 1439, when the army of Khan Ulu-Mukhammed appeared “unknown” under the walls of Moscow, Vasily II left the city, leaving Yuri Patrikeyev as governor, and went to the Volga; Ulu-Mohammed burned the Moscow settlements and after a ten-day siege of the city retreated, taking full. During a campaign against Kazan in July 1445, the wounded Vasily II was taken prisoner; power in Moscow passed to Dmitry Shemyaka. Soon after, a fire broke out in the city, destroying almost all the wooden buildings; about 2 thousand people died, the unrest of the townspeople began. In October 1445, Vasily II was released from captivity and arrived in Moscow, accompanied by the Tatars; Dmitry Shemyaka fled to Uglich, where he gathered an army, and on February 12, 1446 captured Moscow; Vasily II was captured in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, taken to Moscow, blinded (hence the nickname Dark) and exiled to Uglich. But already in December 1446, Vasily II again occupied Moscow, at the beginning of 1450 inflicted a decisive defeat on Dmitry Shemyaka. In 1451, the Tatar army approached Moscow: the Moscow settlements were burned, but the Kremlin resisted. Moscow and later repeatedly suffered from fires (in 1453 the Kremlin burned down; the fire of 1457 destroyed almost a third of the city).

Under Vasily II, the Dmitrov, Galitsky, Mozhaysky, Serpukhovo-Borovsky appanages were liquidated, the Nizhny Novgorod principality, part of the Yaroslavl lands, the cities of Venev, Teshilov, Rzhev, and others were annexed to Moscow, and the dependence of the Suzdal principality on Moscow increased. Strengthening power, Vasily II made co-ruler (not later than 1448) his son Ivan. He expanded the composition of the Sovereign's court to include the children of boyar, service princes. At the insistence of Vasily II, the Russian bishop Jonah was elected metropolitan. In Moscow, the churches of the Presentation of the Virgin at the Simonov Compound (1458), the Praise of the Virgin (1459), the Epiphany (in the Kremlin, at the courtyard of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery), John the Baptist (1460, at the Borovitsky Gates) and others were built. .

E.I. Kuksin.

(1415-1462) - Grand Duke of Moscow (1425-1433 under the regent-mother, 1434-1462 - ruled independently).

Born in Moscow on March 10, 1415, the son of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily I Dmitrievich and Sofya Vitovtovna, nee Princess of Lithuania, the grandson of Dmitry Donskoy.

During the early years of Vasily II, real power belonged to his mother, Sophia and Metropolitan Photius. Independent reign began in 1433, along with his marriage to his fourth cousin, Princess Maria Yaroslavna, the daughter of Prince Yaroslav (Athanasius) Vladimirovich of Borovsk, Serpukhov and Maloyaroslavl, the granddaughter of the hero of the Battle of Kulikovo. book. Vladimir Andreevich the Brave. She had nine children (seven sons and two daughters, of whom one survived).

The right to the Moscow throne after the death of his father was disputed by his uncle Yuri Dmitrievich - the prince of Zvenigorod and Galich (meaning the city of Galich in the Kostroma land). Based on the family order of inheritance, replaced by Vasily I with a family one, as well as on the will of their father Dmitry Donskoy, Yuri refused to recognize the legitimacy of the rights of the minor Vasily to the great reign. Yuri also had sons who were older than a ten-year-old cousin and had more rights to Moscow on the basis of the family order of succession to the throne.

Already in February 1425, Yuri began negotiations with Moscow on succession to the throne, but he did not dare to start a war, fearing the mother of Vasily II and the regent of the Moscow principality Sophia, behind whom the figure of the powerful ruler of Lithuania Vitovt was clearly visible. The cunning policy of Metropolitan Photius, who defended the interests of the regent and her son, made it necessary to postpone the issue of succession to the throne until the khan's decision, especially since Russia was engulfed by a "pestilence" (plague).

In 1427, Vasily's mother Sophia went to Lithuania to her father and there officially handed over to Vitovt the care of her son and the Moscow reign. Yuri was forced to admit that he would not "seek a great reign under Vasily."

But in 1430 Vitovt died. The brother-in-law and brother-in-law of Prince Yuri, another Lithuanian prince Svidrigailo, took the place of Vitovt. Counting on his support, Yuri renewed his claims to the throne. In 1431, he went to the Horde to sue his 15-year-old nephew Vasily II. In the Horde, he met him, accompanied by a group of boyars, led by Ivan Vsevolozhsky. The latter, having a marriageable daughter and hoping to become Vasily II's father-in-law, managed the matter so skillfully that the khan did not even want to hear about Yuri. In 1432, the khan gave the label to Vasily II. But upon her return from the Horde, Sophia insisted that her son be engaged not to the daughter of Vsevolzhsky, but to Princess Mary of Maloyaroslavl. A conflict broke out at the wedding (Sofya tore off the precious golden belt from the son of Yuri Dmitrievich, Vasily Yuryevich, saying that this belt was stolen and belonged to her family). The scandal became the pretext for a long feudal war. Offended by Sophia, Vsevolzhsky went over to the side of Yuri Dmitrievich and became his faithful adviser.

In April 1433, Yuri moved to Moscow with regiments. The "battle of the great" happened not far from the Trinity-Sergius Monastery; Yuri utterly defeated his nephew 20 miles from Moscow. Vasily fled to Kostroma, where he was captured.

Yuri entered Moscow as a winner and took the throne. His sons and Dmitry (nicknamed Shemyaka) - offered their father to kill their cousin and rival, but Yuri "gave peace" to Vasily II - let him go from captivity, allowed him to go to Kolomna near Moscow, and even richly endowed him. However, this grand gesture did not save the situation: no one in Moscow wanted to recognize Yuri as a ruler, and princes, boyars, governors, nobles, servants began to flock to Kolomna to the exiled Vasily II. Seeing that he was “not called to reign,” Yuri “sent to Vasily to call back to the great reign,” and he himself left for Galich.

But the sons of Yuri did not want to humble themselves and give their brother what (they considered) belongs to them by right of kinship. In 1434 they went to war against their 19-year-old brother and defeated his army on the Kusi River. Vasily II, having learned that his uncle's regiments also took part in the battle against him, went to Galich and burned this city, and forced his uncle to flee to Beloozero. In the middle of 1434, the troops of Yuri and his sons jointly defeated the regiments of Vasily II near Rostov the Great. The Moscow prince had to seek protection first in Veliky Novgorod, then in Nizhny Novgorod and in the Horde. There he received news of the sudden death of his uncle.

The second period of the war began. It began with the fact that the two natural sons of the deceased Yuri - Dmitry Shemyaka and Dmitry Krasnoy (at that time in Russia, children were given names in honor of the saints who were born, so there could be two children with the same names in one family) - unexpectedly took the side of Vasily II. However, their aforementioned brother Vasily remained firm in his claims to the throne. In 1435, he gathered an army in Kostroma, summoning the Moscow prince to battle. Not far from Yaroslavl (on the banks of the Kotorosl River), the Muscovites won. At the conclusion of peace, Vasily promised to no longer "seek a great reign", but in 1436 he again began to claim the throne. Near Rostov the Great, near the village of Skoryatin, in the same 1436 he was defeated, taken prisoner and - according to the Byzantine custom applied to the vanquished - blinded. This gave him the nickname - "Slanting".

In 1439 Kazan Khan Ulu-Muhammed approached Moscow. Vasily II, not having time to gather an army, fled across the Volga, leaving the capital to the governor Yuri Patrikeev. Refusing to help his brother and ally at this difficult moment, Dmitry Shemyaka began, in fact, the third period of internecine struggle for power, which turned into an open confrontation in 1441. Circumstances were not in favor of Vasily: an epidemic of plague reached Russia.

The following years - 1442-1444 also turned out to be dry and hungry. At this time, the threats to Moscow from the Tatars intensified. The first successes of Vasily II (in 1445 he managed to defeat a 1,500-strong army of Kazan Tatars on the Nerl River) were replaced by defeats: near the Euthymius Monastery, he was badly wounded and captured by the Tatars, who chopped off several of his fingers, took off his pectoral cross and sent ambassadors to Moscow to his mother and wife, offering to agree on a ransom of 25 thousand rubles. To pay, Vasily's mother Sophia ordered to urgently introduce new taxes.

In February 1446, Vasily returned to Moscow and first of all went to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery to thank God for the miraculous salvation. Taking advantage of this, Dmitry Shemyaka captured Moscow, captured Sophia (sent her to Chukhloma) and devastated the treasury. After that, he ordered to bring Vasily II from the monastery. On February 16, 1446, on the orders of Dmitry Shemyaka, they did the same to him as was done to Dmitry: Vasily II was blinded (since then he received the nickname “Dark”) and exiled to Uglich with his wife.

But the Moscow boyars did not want to recognize the son of the Zvenigorod heir as their ruler. Many, before the return of the "legitimate prince", together with service people, rushed to Lithuania. Less than six months later, Dmitry Shemyaka came to Vasily in Uglich "to ask for forgiveness", richly endowed him, called him back "to the table" and, as a sign of reconciliation, "gave Vologda to his patrimony."

Blinded Vasily II did not believe the promises. He turned to the prince of Tver with a request for help, hoping to take revenge on Shemyaka. The prince of Tver agreed to provide regiments "to help" on the condition that his son Vasily, the young prince Ivan (future Tsar Ivan III) betrothed to his daughter, Princess Maria Borisovna. The conditions were accepted.

In 1447, the united army (Muscovites, Tverites, Lithuanian regiments) opposed Shemyaka and forced him to flee to Kargopol. Basil asked the church for help (from Metropolitan Jonah). The Council of Bishops condemned Yuryevich's "sedition." Returning to the capital, Vasily II hastened to free his mother, wife and children from captivity, and, in particular, his beloved son Ivan. In 1450, when Ivan was 10 years old, Vasily II called him the "Grand Duke" and ordered from then on to draw up all letters on behalf of the two Grand Dukes: his own and his son Ivan. This made Ivan III Vasilyevich the recognized heir to the great reign. In order to put an end to the opposition to Shemyaka forever, Vasily gave the order to pursue Dmitry to the last. In 1453 Shemyaka was captured in Novgorod and poisoned.

After Shemyakina's death, Vasily II put an end to all his former allies, annexing their lands to Moscow (in 1454 Mozhaisk, in 1456 Uglich); from Novgorod, the Moscow prince took 10,000 rubles as a ransom.

In 1462, shortly before his death, Vasily II for the first time used mass executions as a means of combating disobedient people and made a detailed will, transferring to the possession of five sons and his wife all the cities and volosts collected “under his hand”. Wanting to create an advantage over his brothers for his eldest son, he gave Ivan more cities than everyone else, laying the state foundation in princely inheritance and obliging all sons to obey the brother to whom the great reign was bequeathed.

Vasily II died on March 27, 1462 from a "dry disease" (neurosyphilis). He was buried in Moscow in the Archangel Cathedral.

The reign of Vasily II was estimated differently by historians. N.K. Karamzin believed that the creation of a unified Moscow state began with him. In the era of the Soviet political "thaw", an appeal to the history of Russia at the beginning of the 15th century. was a way to talk about the internecine war between Moscow and other lands as a war between feudal Moscow and the freedom-loving population of other parts of the country (A.A. Zimin). A decade later, the same war of Vasily II was presented in the writings of historians as a struggle between a progressive Moscow striving for centralization and the ideology of the old specific power-hungry principles (Yu.G. Alekseev). With such an interpretation of events, as well as with the fact that the bearer of the “nationwide idea of ​​unity” could be a “politically weak and evil character”, “who had neither political nor military talents” Vasily II, many did not agree (J.S. Lurie) .

During the reign of Vasily II, Nizhny Novgorod, the Principality of Suzdal, Murom were annexed to Moscow, Moscow governors were planted in the Ryazan cities, and Pskov, Novgorod and Vyatka were made dependent on Moscow. Under Basil II, the unification of taxation, a census of the taxable population was carried out. The strengthening of Moscow was supported by the Russian Orthodox Church, which advocated the unity of the Russian land. Russia also strengthened its international prestige by rejecting the decisions of the VIII Ecumenical Council in Florence (July 5, 1539) and the union adopted there between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, since it implied the supremacy of the Pope. Ryazan Bishop Jonah was named Metropolitan of Moscow under Vasily II (without the consent and permission of the Patriarchate of Constantinople).

Literature:

1. Zimin A.A. Large feudal patrimony and socio-political struggle in Russia (end of the 15th-16th centuries). M., 1977;
2. Presnyakov A.V. Formation of the Great Russian state. Pgd., 1918;
3. Tikhomirov M.N. Medieval Moscow in the XIV-XV centuries. M., 1957; Cherepnin L.V. Formation of the Russian centralized state in the XIV-XV centuries. M., 1960.

Lev Pushkarev, Natalya Pushkareva

(03/15/1415 - 03/27/1462) (knee 17) From the family of the Moscow Grand Dukes. The son of Vasily I Dmitrievich and the Grand Duchess of Lithuania Sophia Vitovtovna. Born on March 10, 1415. Grand Duke of Moscow in 1425-1433, 1434-1462.

Vasily II became the prince of Moscow when he was barely 10 years old. Meanwhile, his rights to the great reign were far beyond dispute, since his uncles Yuri, Andrei, Peter and Konstantin Dmitrievich were alive, of which the first - Yuri Zvenigorodsky - never hid his desires to become grand duke after the death of Vasily I (especially since this followed directly from the will of his father, Dmitry Donskoy). As soon as he heard about the death of his older brother, Yuri fled to Galich and from there began negotiations with Moscow. None of the parties dared to start a war, and through the mediation of Metropolitan Photius, it was decided to postpone the issue of succession to the throne until the khan's decision. However, in 1427, Vasily's mother went to Lithuania to her father Vitovt and entrusted him with her son and the entire Moscow reign. It was now difficult for Yuri to persist in his intention. In 1428, he promised not to seek a great reign under Vasily.

But in 1430 Vitovt died, and in 1431 Yuri went to the Horde to sue his nephew. Vasily followed, accompanied by his first boyars, on whose resourcefulness and dexterity he only had to count. At the head of the Moscow boyars was then Prince. Ivan Dmitrievich Vsevolozhsky, cunning, dexterous, resourceful, a worthy successor to those Moscow boyars who, under Vasily's father, grandfather and great-grandfather, were able to keep Moscow primacy and give it power. Upon arrival in the Horde, he managed the business so skillfully that the khan did not want to hear about Yuri. In the spring of 1432, the rivals began to sue in the face of the Tatar princes. Yuri based his rights on the ancient tribal custom, referred to the annals and the will of Donskoy. Ivan Dmitrievich spoke for Vasily. He said to the khan: “Prince Yuri is looking for the Grand Duchy by the will of his father, and Prince Vasily by your grace; you gave your ulus to his father Vasily Dmitrievich, who, based on your mercy, handed it over to his son, who has been ruling for so many years and has not been overthrown by you, therefore, he reigns by your own mercy. This flattery, expressing complete contempt for antiquity, had its effect: the khan gave the label to Vasily.

Vsevolozhsky, as a reward for the services he rendered to Vasily in the Horde, hoped that the Grand Duke would marry his daughter. Vasily, being in the Horde, gave Vsevolozhsky a promise for this. But upon arrival in Moscow, things changed. The mother of the Grand Duke, Sofia Vitovna, did not agree to this marriage in any way and insisted that her son be engaged to Princess Marya Yaroslavna. Then Vsevolzhsky, considering himself severely offended, left Moscow, went over to the side of Yuri and henceforth became his adviser.

In April 1433, Yuri moved to Moscow. In Moscow, they learned about Yuri's movement only when he was already in Pereyaslavl with a large army. Vasily, taken by surprise, sent his boyars to ask for peace from his uncle, whom they found in the Trinity Monastery. “And there was,” says the chronicler, “between the boyars there was great strife and an unkind word.” Then Vasily, having hastily gathered, as much as he could, military men and Moscow residents, guests and others, opposed his uncle, but was utterly defeated by the strong regiments of Yuri on the Klyazma, 20 miles from Moscow, and fled to Kostroma, where he was captured. Yuri entered Moscow and became the Grand Duke.

The sons of Yuri - and Dmitry Shemyaka - wanted to get rid of the opponent immediately after the victory, but Yuri did not have so much firmness to decide on violent measures. In addition, Yuri had an old favorite boyar Semyon Morozov, who, probably out of rivalry with Vsevolozhsky, stood up for the captive Vasily and persuaded Yuri to give Kolomna to the latter. In vain, Vsevolozhsky and Yuri's sons were angry and rebelled against this decision: Yuri gave the requested peace to his nephew, richly endowed him and let him go to Kolomna with all his boyars.

But as soon as Vasily arrived in Kolomna, he began to call people from everywhere to him, and princes, boyars, governors, nobles, servants began to flock to him from everywhere, refusing to serve Yuri, because, says the chronicler, they were not used to serving the Galician princes. In a word, all those who would have come to him and to Moscow at the first call gathered around Vasily, but did not have time to do this, because Yuri attacked his nephew by surprise and this was only due to his triumph. Yuri, seeing himself abandoned by everyone, sent to Vasily to call him back to the great reign, and he himself left for Galich. Vsevolzhsky was captured by Vasily and blinded; his villages were taken to the treasury.

Kosoy and Shemyaka did not participate in the father's agreement, and the war continued. In the same year, they defeated the Moscow army on the Kusi River. Vasily learned that the uncle's regiment was in the army of his sons. Therefore, in 1434, he went to Yuri to Galich, burned the city and forced his uncle to flee to Beloozero. In the spring, having joined with his sons, Yuri moved to Moscow. He met Vasily in the Rostov region near Mount St. Nicholas and broke it. Vasily fled to Novgorod, then to Nizhny. From here he was going to the Horde, when he suddenly found out about the sudden death of Yuri and that Vasily Kosoy took the Moscow table.

But the Kosoy brothers, two Dmitrys - Shemyaka and Krasny - sent to call Vasily to the great reign. Basil, as a reward for this, endowed them with volosts. Oblique was expelled from Moscow and deprived of inheritance. In 1435, he gathered an army in Kostroma and met with Vasily II in the Yaroslavl volost, on the banks of Kotorosl. Muscovites won. Both rivals made peace, and Kosoy once again promised not to seek a great reign.

But the peace was short-lived. The very next year, the war broke out with renewed vigor, and Kosoy was the first to send folding letters to Vasily II. Both troops met in the Rostov region near the village of Skoryatin. Oblique, not hoping to defeat the opponent by force, decided to use deceit: he concluded a truce with Vasily II until the morning, and when Vasily, relying on this, disbanded his regiments to collect supplies, he suddenly went on the offensive. Vasily immediately sent an order to all sides to gather, he himself grabbed the pipe and began to blow. The Moscow regiments managed to gather before the arrival of Kosoy, who was defeated and taken prisoner. He was taken to Moscow and blinded there.

Vasily II did not have a war with Dmitry Shemyaka at that time, and he calmly reigned in his inheritance. In 1439 Kazan Khan Ulu-Mukhammed approached Moscow. Vasily did not have time to gather his strength and left for the Volga, leaving the governor Yuri Patrikeev to defend Moscow. Khan stood under the city for 10 days, could not take it, but caused a lot of evil to the Russian land. Shemyaka, despite Vasily's repeated appeals, never came to his aid. Vasily, in revenge, went to Shemyaka and drove him to Novgorod. In the same year, Shemyaka returned with an army, but reconciled with Vasily.

In 1445, Ulu-Muhammed captured Nizhny Novgorod, and from there he came to Murom. Vasily went against him with all his might. Ulu-Muhammed retreated to the Lower and took refuge in it. Otherwise, the matter ended at the second meeting of Vasily with the Tatars. In the spring of the same year, news came to Moscow that the two sons of the Ulu-Mukhammedovs had again appeared at the Russian borders, and Vasily spoke out against them. In June, the Moscow army stopped on the Kamenka River. On the night from the 6th to the 7th there was still no news of the Tatars. Vasily sat down to dine with the princes and boyars; they got drunk at night, got up the next day after sunrise, and Vasily, having listened to matins, was about to go to bed again, when the news came that the Tatars were crossing the Nerl River. Vasily immediately sent this message to all the camps, put on armor himself, raised the banners and set out into the field, but he had few troops, only a thousand and a half, because the regiments of the allied princes did not have time to gather, and Shemyaka did not come, despite the fact that that have been sent to him many times. Near the Euphemia Monastery, on the left side, the Russian regiments met with the Tatars, and in the first skirmish the Grand Duke's army put the Tatars to flight. But when they began to chase them in disorder, the enemy suddenly turned around and inflicted a terrible defeat on the Russians. Vasily fought back bravely, received many wounds and was finally taken prisoner. The Khan's sons took off his pectoral cross and sent him to Moscow to his mother and wife. The prisoner himself was taken to the khan. Ulu-Mohammed agreed with him on a ransom. Its exact amount is not known, but, in any case, it was considerable.

Many Tatar princes left for Russia with the Grand Duke from the Horde. In the absence of Vasily, Moscow suffered a severe fire, the whole city burned out, thousands of people lost their property. When heavy taxes were imposed on the people to pay the ransom, strong displeasure was revealed on all sides. Shemyaka hurried to take advantage of this. The princes of Tver and Mozhaisk agreed to help him overthrow Vasily. Soon, many Moscow boyars and merchants, and even monks, joined the conspiracy.

In 1446, the Moscow conspirators let the allied princes know that Vasily had gone to pray at the Trinity Monastery. Shemyaka and Mozhaisky on the night of February 12 took Moscow by surprise, seized Vasily's mother and wife, plundered his treasury, intercepted and robbed loyal boyars. On the same night, Mozhaisky went to the Trinity with a large detachment of his henchmen. On the 13th, Vasily was listening to mass, when suddenly Bunko, a Ryazan, ran into the church and announced to him that Shemyaka and Mozhaisky were marching against him. Vasily did not believe him, because Bunko had recently left him for Shemyaka. “These people only embarrass us,” he said, “can it be that the brothers go after me when I kiss them on the cross?”, and ordered Bunk to be expelled from the monastery. But just in case, he nevertheless sent watchmen to Radonezh. The watchmen overlooked the military men of Mozhaisky, for they saw them before and told their prince, who hid the soldiers on carts under matting. Having driven up the mountain, the warriors jumped out of the wagons and intercepted the guards. Vasily saw the enemy only when they began to descend from the Radonezh mountain. He rushed to the stable yard, but there was not a single ready horse. Then Vasily ran to the monastery to the Trinity Church, where the sexton let him in and locked the doors behind him. Immediately after this, his enemies drove into the monastery. Prince Ivan Mozhaisky began to ask where the Grand Duke was. Vasily, hearing his voice, shouted to him from the church: “Brothers! Have mercy on me! Let me stay here, look at the image of God ... I will not leave this monastery, I will take my hair here, ”and, taking the icon of St. Sergius, went to the southern doors, unlocked them himself and, meeting Prince Ivan with an icon in his hands, said to him: “Brother! We kissed the life-giving cross and this icon in this very church, at this miracle-working tomb, that we can’t think of any harm against each other, and now I don’t know what is happening to me? Ivan hurried to reassure Vasily. He put the icon in its place, fell in front of the miraculous coffin and began to pray with such tears, wailing and sobbing that even his enemies shed tears. Prince Ivan, after praying a little, went out, saying to the boyar Nikita Konstantinovich: "Take him." Vasily, having prayed, got up and, looking around, asked: “Where is the brother, Prince Ivan?” Instead of answering, Nikita approached him, grabbed him by the shoulders and said: “You have been taken by Grand Duke Dmitry Yuryevich.” Basil answered this: “May the will of God be done!” Then Nikita took him out of the church and out of the monastery, after which they put him on a naked sleigh with a black man in front and took him to Moscow. He arrived here on the night of February 14 and was imprisoned in the courtyard by Shemyakin. On the 16th, at night, he was blinded and exiled to Uglich with his wife, and his mother, Grand Duchess Sofia Vitovtovna, was sent to Chukhloma.

Of the boyars and servants of the Vasilievs, some swore allegiance to Shemyaka, others fled to Tver. But there were many who were ready to fight with weapons in their hands for the return of Vasily to the throne. All of them soon gathered in Lithuania. Shemyaka was frightened by the general mood in favor of the captive Vasily and, after long meetings with his supporters, decided to release him and give him a fiefdom. In the autumn of 1446, he arrived in Uglich, repented and asked Vasily for forgiveness. Basil, in turn, laid all the blame on himself alone, saying: “And it was not so necessary for me to suffer for my sins and perjury before you, my elder brothers, and before all Orthodox Christianity. I was worthy of the death penalty, but you. sovereign, showed mercy to me, did not destroy me with my iniquities, gave me time to repent. When he said this, tears flowed from his eyes in streams, all those present marveled at such humility and tenderness and wept themselves, looking at him. Shemyaka arranged a big feast for Vasily, his wife and children, which was attended by all the bishops and many boyars. Vasily received rich gifts and Vologda as his father, promising in advance Shemyaka not to look for a great reign under him.

But Basil's adherents waited only for his release and crowds rushed to him. Everything was ready for war, the difficulty was only in the promise given by Vasily. The abbot of Kirillov of the Belozersky monastery, Trifon, took the perjury upon himself when Vasily arrived from Vologda to his monastery under the pretext of feeding the brethren and giving alms. From Bela Lake, Vasily went to Tver. Prince Boris Alexandrovich of Tver promised help on the condition that he betrothed his eldest son and heir Ivan to his daughter Marya. Vasily agreed and with the Tver regiments went to Shemyaka to Moscow. An army of Basil's supporters, Moscow exiles, moved from Lithuania. Shemyaka with Prince Ivan Mozhaisky went to Volok to meet the enemy, but in their absence Moscow was easily captured by the boyar Pleshcheev. Upon learning of this, Shemyaka and Mozhaisky fled to Galich, from there to Chukhloma and Kargopol. Shemyaka released the captive Sofia Vitovtovna from Kargopol and began to ask for peace. The world was given to him. Of course, Shemyaka was ready to break the peace at any moment. Less than a year later, a lot of evidence of his perfidy accumulated in Moscow. Finally, a letter from Shemyaka to the Moscow tyun Vatazin was intercepted, in which Shemyaka ordered him to revolt the townspeople against Vasily.

Having received this evidence in his hands, Vasily handed over the case to the clergy for decision. The Council of Bishops unequivocally condemned Shemyaka's sedition. In 1448, Vasily went on a campaign against the recalcitrant Yurievich. Shemyaka got scared and asked for peace. The peace was concluded on the same terms, but in the spring of 1449 Shemyaka again violated the kiss of the cross, laid siege to Kostroma, fought for a long time near the city, but could not take it, because a strong garrison was sitting in it. Vasily with regiments opposed Shemyaka, but returned without giving a battle.

Finally, in 1450, Prince Vasily Ivanovich Obolensky attacked Shemyaka near Galich and inflicted a heavy defeat on him. After that, Galich surrendered to the Grand Duke. Shemyaka fled to the north and captured Ustyug. Meanwhile, in 1451, the Tatar prince Mazovsha came to Moscow and burned the entire settlement. In 1452, having fought off the Tatars, Vasily went to drive Shemyaka out of Ustyug. Yurievich took refuge in Novgorod, where he was poisoned and died in 1453.

As expected, Vasily armed himself after Shemyakin's death against his former allies. In 1454 Mozhaisk was annexed to Moscow. Prince Ivan fled to Lithuania. In 1456 they seized and imprisoned Prince Vasily Yaroslavich of Serpukhov in Uglich. Of all the destinies in Moscow, only one remained - Vereisky. In the same year, Vasily went to Novgorod, but reconciled, taking 10,000 rubles as a ransom.

In 1462, Vasily fell ill with a dry illness and ordered himself to use the medicine that was then common in this illness: to light tinder on different parts of the body several times; but the medicine did not help. It became very difficult for the patient, he wanted to take the veil as a monk, but the boyars dissuaded him, and on March 27, on Saturday, in the fourth week of Great Lent, Vasily died. Buried in Moscow in the Archangel Cathedral.

Ryzhov K. All Monarchs of the World Russia. 600 short biographies. M., 1999.

Vasily II Vasilyevich Dark, Grand Duke of Moscow and Vladimir, son of Grand Duke Vasily I Dmitrievich. Born in 1415, reigned from 1425. He was 10 years old when his father died. His candidacy for the Grand Duke's table could also be considered legally unstable: the will of Dmitry Donskoy, his grandfather, contained words that substantiated the claim of Uncle Vasily, Yuri Dmitrievich, to a great reign. The solution of the dispute between the uncle and the nephew depended in practice on the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitovt, the guardian of the Vasily I family. Relying on him, Metropolitan Photius persuaded Yuri to a peace treaty (1425), according to which he pledged not to seek the great reign by force; only the khan's award was recognized as authoritative in case Yuri renewed his claims. Dependent on Vitovt, the Moscow government did not protest against the appointment of a special Western Russian metropolitan in 1425. It was not difficult for Vitovt to obtain the abdication (in 1428) of the Grand Duke of Moscow from an independent policy in Veliky Novgorod and Pskov. Yuri had to formally limit his possessions of Galich and Vyatka, renounce his claims to a great reign, undertake not to accept Moscow leavers, etc. In 1430 Vytautas died; in the Lithuanian Grand Duchy of the villages of Svidrigailo, and the property associated with him, Yuri, was not slow to renounce the treaty of 1428. At the beginning of 1431, Yuri and Vasily II were already in the Horde; the lawsuit dragged on there for more than a year and ended in favor of Vasily II. According to the chronicle story, Yuri stood on the basis of Donskoy's will; the Moscow boyar Ivan Dmitrievich Vsevolozhsky opposed the sovereign will of the khan to the will, denying the legal value of "dead" letters. Vasily II was put on the table by the Horde ambassador - for the first time in Moscow. Yuri Khan was given the city of Dmitrov, soon (1432) taken from him by Vasily. The promise given by Vasily at a critical moment to Vsevolozhsky to marry his daughter was violated, and in 1433 Vasily II married the daughter of the appanage prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich. In addition, at the wedding of the Grand Duke, his mother, Sofya Vitovtovna, was rude to Yuri's son, Vasily Kosy. Offended, Vsevolozhsky went over to Yuri's side; Vasily Kosoy with his brothers Dmitry Shemyaka and Dmitry Krasny went to his father. In April 1433, 20 miles from Moscow, Vasily II was defeated and took refuge in Kostroma, where he was taken prisoner. Of all the possessions, only Kolomna remained behind him. But disagreements among the winners forced Yuri to cede the great reign to Vasily II. The sons of Yuri did not lay down their arms; Yuri soon reconciled with them. Basil II suffered defeat after defeat. In 1434 he had to take refuge in Novgorod; Moscow was occupied by Yuri. The sudden death of Yuri for the second time split the opponents of Vasily II; the younger brothers did not stick to the eldest, Vasily Kosoy, who declared himself the Grand Duke; with their help, Vasily II regained his great reign. In 1435, Kosoy was defeated on the Kotorosl River and bound by an agreement. The position of Basil II was not, however, strong. The strife, which for several years in a row disrupted the economic life of the Moscow center, shook the loyalty of the Moscow commercial and industrial circles, who were looking for peace. In Tver, Shemyaka began to lean towards Kosoy (and was imprisoned on suspicion of this). Kosoy himself in 1436 violated the agreement and spoke out against Vasily II. In open battle he was defeated; in captivity he was blinded, Shemyaka was released and granted a fiefdom. So far there has been a purely dynastic dispute; the second bout of strife took place on both sides under the flag of the national principle. Two factors contributed to this. The Union of Florence in 1439 created a line between the Uniate (at first) and Catholic Lithuania - and Eastern Russia, which did not change Orthodoxy; at the same time, the aggressive policy of the Eastern Tatar hordes intensified, and the Tatar element began to penetrate into the ruling elites of Moscow society. At the very beginning, after pacifying the strife, the Moscow government allowed itself a bold policy in relation to Veliky Novgorod; it ceased to recognize the treaty of 1435 concluded with him at a difficult moment, sent a princely governor there, and in 1441, by a military expedition, forced the Novgorodians to buy a peace unfavorable for them for 8,000 rubles and formally renounce the conditions of 1435. In 1442 it was " dislike was thrown up” and on Shemyaka, who, under the new conditions, had nowhere to hide and no one to rely on; however, reconciliation took place with the assistance of the Trinity abbot. At the same time, Metropolitan Isidore, who concluded the Union of Florence, was not accepted. Khan Ulu-Mahmet, thrown out of the Horde to the Russian border, settled in 1438 in the city of Belev; besieged there by Moscow troops, he was ready to accept any conditions, surrendering to the full will of Vasily II. But the Moscow governors wanted a military victory - and were defeated, due to the betrayal of the Lithuanian governor sent to them to help. Ulu-Mahmet passed unhindered to Nizhny Novgorod, and in 1439 made a devastating raid on Moscow; the Grand Duke managed to escape, the stone "city" survived, but the settlements and the surroundings (up to and including Kolomna) were badly damaged. Nizhny Novgorod, where the Horde of Ulu-Mahmet was based, was under siege. Murom and Vladimir had to keep reinforced garrisons; between them roamed the residence of the Grand Duke. In 1445, Mahmet's movement was repulsed; believing that security was temporarily ensured, Vasily II returned to celebrate Easter in Moscow. Taking advantage of the weakness of the garrisons, Mahmet unexpectedly attacked Vasily II near the city of Yuryev and took him prisoner. The conditions of release - a heavy ransom (200,000 rubles) and a pretentious retinue of the Tatar nobility - created a favorable ground for Shemyaka, who rose again: relying on discontent in different sectors of society, he attracted the princes of Tver and Mozhaisk to his side. In February 1446, Vasily II was captured in the Trinity Monastery by the prince of Mozhai: Moscow was occupied by Shemyaka. Vasily II was brought here and blinded. His supporters found an honorable reception in Lithuania. Through the mediation of the Ryazan Bishop Jonah, to whom Shemyaka promised the metropolis, the new government succeeded in deceiving the children of Vasily II to Moscow; together with their father they were imprisoned in Uglich. This massacre did not strengthen Shemyaka's position; the concentration of dissatisfied on Lithuanian territory threatened with major complications. At the church-boyar council at the end of 1446, Shemyaka, under the influence of the especially compromised Metropolitan Jonah, agreed to release the blind Vasily II (1447). Vologda was given to him as a paternal and became the base of a movement that immediately began in his favor. Its center was moved to Tver, when the hegumen of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery Tryphon allowed Vasily II from kissing Shemyaka, and the Tver prince Boris lagged behind Shemyaka, and his daughter was betrothed to Vasily's son, Ivan (the future Grand Duke Ivan III); supporters of Vasily II from Lithuania also reached out to Tver. The Moscow cathedra, always a supporter of strong grand ducal power, did not miss the moment to rehabilitate itself and take the side of the strongest; Shemyaka's departure from Moscow handed over to her hands the vacillating population of the capital, who were exceptionally peaceful in their leading trading circles. A small detachment of supporters of Vasily II, who secretly penetrated into Moscow, did not have to intercept people close to Shemyaka and swear the Moscow mass (the Shemyaka oath could only be canceled by the highest local, that is, metropolitan, church authorities). From that moment on, Shemyaka's position deteriorated rapidly, and in 1448 he was forced to formally renounce the throne of Moscow. His ally Prince Mozhaisky, as well as the princes of Ryazan, Borovsky and Vereisk were bound by subordinating treaties. At the same time, the official consecration of Jonah as metropolitan by the church council took place; in a message announcing this, Jonah conjures everyone who has not yet gone over to the side of Vasily II, to beat with his brow the restored Grand Duke, under the threat of excommunication. In 1449, when Shemyaka again came out against Vasily II, the campaign of the Moscow troops had the character of almost a crusade: the metropolitan and bishops marched with the Grand Duke. In 1450 Shemyaka was completely exhausted near Galich and fled to Veliky Novgorod. From there, in 1452, he made a sortie, which ended unsuccessfully. In 1453 he died suddenly. The version that he was poisoned by Moscow efforts, according to some signs, can be considered plausible. The prince of Mozhaisk fled to Lithuania, and Mozhaisk was annexed to Moscow in 1454. Two years later, the same thing happened to the prince of Borov. The turn came to Veliky Novgorod; Novgorod troops were defeated, Novgorod was brought to obedience to the Grand Duke on unprecedentedly difficult conditions: 10,000 indemnity, the abolition of veche charters (“there will be no eternal charters”), replacing the Novgorod seal with the seal of the Grand Duke. This was the beginning of the end of Novgorod independence. The degree of irritation of the Novgorodians can be judged by the fact that on one of Vasily Vasilyevich's visits to Novgorod (1460), the question of the murder of the Grand Duke was discussed at a veche. In 1458-1459, Vyatka, in the strife of the 30s, standing on the side of Yuri and his sons, was forced to "finish off the grand duke with her brow with all her might." In the 50s, the Ryazan prince entrusted his principality and son to Moscow guardianship, expressed in sending governors there. The results of the reign of Vasily II can be characterized as a series of major successes: an increase in the territory of the Moscow Grand Duchy, independence and a new formulation of the tasks of the Russian Church, a renewed idea of ​​​​Moscow autocracy and an internally strengthened power of the Grand Duke. In 1450 Ivan, the eldest son of Vasily II, was made co-emperor; his name is found on state charters. All these are sprouts that blossomed in lush color during the reign of Ivan III. - Vasily Vasilyevich died on March 27, 1462 from a dry illness. Married to Princess Maria Yaroslavna since 1433, he had children: Yuri (died before 1462), Ivan, Yuri, Andrei the Great, Semyon, Boris, Andrei the Lesser and daughter Anna, who was married to Prince Vasily Ivanovich of Ryazan.

"An eye for an eye"

The grandson of Dmitry Donskoy, Vasily II, took over the Moscow throne in 1425, at the age of ten. But his uncle, Prince Yuri Dmitrievich of Galicia and Zvenigorod, did not want to recognize his nephew as the senior prince. The struggle between them went on for many years. In 1434, Yuri nevertheless occupied Moscow, but soon died. His sons - Vasily Kosoy and Dmitry Shemyaka - failed to retain the great reign. In 1436, Vasily II captured Vasily Kosoy and ordered him to be blinded. Dmitry Shemyaka calmed down for a while, but harbored revenge in his soul.

He had to wait a long time. Only 9 years later, in 1445, Shemyaka finally had an opportunity to take revenge on Vasily II. At this time, a small army of Kazan Tatars attacked the Vladimir-Suzdal lands - about three and a half thousand sabers. Basil II imprudently attacked the enemy, having at hand only one and a half thousand soldiers. In the battle near Suzdal, the Grand Duke showed miracles of courage, receiving many wounds. Despite this, the Moscow army was defeated, and Vasily II himself was captured. However, the Tatars themselves did not expect such a success and simply did not know what to do with their victory. Having dragged Vasily II with them for several months, they finally let him go for a ransom that was fabulous for those times - 200 thousand rubles.

However, these few months played a fatal role in the fate of Vasily II. Taking advantage of his absence, Dmitry Shemyaka suddenly broke into Moscow, captured the family of the Grand Duke, and the next year captured him. For Vasily II, judgment day has come. By order of Shemyaka, both eyes were gouged out and he was imprisoned in Uglich. Since then, the nickname Dark, that is, blind, has strengthened for Vasily II.

Shemyaka's reign in Moscow left a painful memory behind. From now on, the expression "Shemyakin Court" has become in Russia a synonym for an unjust court. In the end, Shemyaka had to flee from Moscow to Novgorod. But the hand of the Moscow prince overtook him there too. In 1453, the cook Shemyaki, bribed by the people of Vasily II, fed his master with poisoned chicken. Thus ended the most debilitating civil strife in the Muscovite state, which lasted almost 30 years.

Awake Sovereign

The Moscow prince Vasily II Vasilyevich, although he was nicknamed the Dark One, saw some things better than his sighted contemporaries. This was especially clearly manifested in the case of the union of the Eastern and Western churches, when the Moscow boyars and bishops almost overslept the Orthodox faith.

The main events at first unfolded far from the Russian land - in Byzantium and Italy. At the beginning of the 15th century, the Byzantine Empire was on the verge of collapse. As a matter of fact, it was no longer an empire, but a miserable piece of land around Constantinople. However, this last stronghold of the once great power was ready to be swallowed up by the Ottoman Turks. To ward off the Turkish threat from Byzantium, Emperor John VIII Palaiologos turned to Pope Eugene IV with a proposal to organize an all-European crusade against the Turks. The pope promised to support the emperor, but on the condition that the Orthodox Church submit to the throne of Rome. Politics prevailed over religious feelings, and John VIII gave in to the demands of the pope. However, such a case required the consent of all Orthodox dioceses. And so, in 1438, a church council met in Florence, to which church hierarchs of Orthodox countries, including Russia, were invited.

The Greek Metropolitan Isidore at that time was the Metropolitan of All Russia, since the Russian Church was still formally subordinate to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Isidore led a large Moscow delegation that arrived in Florence on a winter journey on two hundred sledges. Being a subject of the Byzantine emperor, Isidore did not even think of defending the interests of the Russian Church at the Florentine Council. Fulfilling the desire of John VIII, he announced on her behalf about joining Rome and assured the pope that upon his return to Moscow he would easily settle all the formalities. “Russian bishops are ignorant,” said Isidore, “but the Grand Duke is young and is in my will.”

And in fact, when Isidore announced in Moscow the final unification of the Eastern and Western churches, he did not meet with much resistance from the Moscow boyars and clergy. The theological aspects of the question brought boredom and drowsiness to everyone. The chronicler ingenuously reports that the boyars and bishops "everything kept silent and drowsed and fell asleep." Only Vasily II did not sleep. Having perfectly understood what Isidore was driving towards, the Grand Duke publicly called the Metropolitan a heretic and a false teacher and ordered him to be imprisoned in the Chudov Monastery. Then the boyars and the clergy came to their senses. “We were dozing,” they repented before Vasily, “and you, sovereign alone, were awake, discovered the truth, saved the faith.”

Thus, Russia avoided the danger of becoming an ecclesiastical appendage of Rome and retained its spiritual identity. At the same time, Isidore's betrayal served as an excuse to put an end to Russia's ecclesiastical dependence on the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Bishop Jonah of Ryazan, Russian by nationality, was elected the new Russian metropolitan. Since then, the Russian Church has become an independent, autocephalous diocese.

"Short Tatar"

During the reign of Vasily II the Dark, Moscow again saw the Tatars under its walls. This Tatar raid of 1451 received the name "fast Tatar" in ancient Russian literature, because it ended as suddenly as it began.

This time, Vasily II prepared well for the attack, setting up a barrier on the Oka. However, the Moscow governor, who was put at the head of the defense, was frightened by the Tatar hordes and cleared the river bank. Encountering no resistance, the Tatars, under the command of Tsarevich Mazovsha, rushed to Moscow and early in the morning on Friday, June 3, appeared under its walls. There was a drought, so when the Tatars lit the wooden Moscow suburbs, the fire immediately engulfed the stone Kremlin from all sides. Smoke covered the whole city, making it difficult to see the preparations of the enemy. The enemy approached the city gates and weak sections of the city fortifications, where the stone walls had not yet been erected. But Muscovites everywhere successfully beat off attacks. When the settlements surrounding the Kremlin burned out and it finally became possible to breathe deeply, the defenders of Moscow began to make sorties here and there. By dusk, the Tatars retreated from Moscow, and the townspeople began to hastily prepare for tomorrow's battle, putting in order guns, guns, bows, shields and other weapons.

Great was their amazement and joy when the next morning it was discovered that the Tatars had suddenly fled. The empty Tatar camp was littered with loot, heavy items made of iron and copper. Apparently, Mazovsha was convinced that it was useless to besiege a strong city with a large garrison and left, leaving behind everything that could slow down the rapid retreat.

Fast Tatars” ends the list of Moscow disasters of the XIV-XV centuries. Fires still devastated Moscow, the Tatars threatened it again in 1480. However, from the second half of the 15th century, a new growth of the Muscovite state began, associated with the name of the unifier of Russia - Ivan III Vasilyevich.
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Vasily II Vasilyevich Dark
Years of life: 1415-1462
Years of government: 1432-1446, 1447-1462

From the Rurik dynasty. From the family of the Moscow Grand Dukes. Son of Grand Duke Vasily I Dmitrievich and Princess of Lithuania . Grandson .

Vasily Dark became a Moscow prince at the age of 9, after the death of his father Vasily I Dmitrievich in 1425. The real power was with the widow-princess Sophia Vitovtovna, the boyar I.D. Vsevolozhsky and Metropolitan Photius. However, Vasily's uncles, Yuri, Andrei, Peter and Konstantin Dmitrievich, claimed the board. At the same time, Yuri Zvenigorodsky, according to the will of his father Dmitry Donskoy, was to receive a great reign after the death of his brother, Vasily I Dmitrievich.

Both sides began preparations for an internecine war, but agreed on a temporary truce and in 1428 signed an agreement according to which the 54-year-old uncle Yuri Zvenigorodsky recognized himself as the "young brother" of the 13-year-old nephew Vasily Vasilyevich. At the same time, Sofya Vitovtovna took advantage of the influence of her father Vitovt, after which it was difficult for Yuri to persist in his desire to take the throne.

Prince Vasily the Dark

The beginning of the reign of Vasily Vasilyevich was marked by an epidemic of plague and a terrible drought in 1430, 1442 and 1448. The reign of Vasily II Vasilyevich spent his whole life in the conditions of a long internecine struggle for power with Prince Yuri Dmitrievich of Zvenigorod, and then with his son.

In 1430, Yuri terminated the peace, taking advantage of the death of the actual head of Metropolitan Photius, as well as the grandfather of Vasily Vasilyevich - Vitovt. Yuri Dmitrievich went to the Horde to sue Vasily. Vasily Vasilyevich hastily also went to the horde with his boyars.

In the spring of 1432, the rivals faced the Tatar princes. Yuri Yuryevich defended his rights according to the law of the ancient tribal custom, referring to the annals and the will of his father Donskoy. From Vasily's side, Ivan Dmitrievich Vsevolozhsky spoke about rights, with skillful flattery he was able to persuade the khan to give a label to Vasily.

Vsevolozhsky hoped that the Grand Duke would marry his daughter. But upon arrival in Moscow, things took a different turn. Sofia Vitovna, the mother of Vasily Vasilyevich, insisted that her son become engaged to Princess Marya Yaroslavna, considering this marriage more advantageous from various points of view. Vsevolzhsky harbored a grudge and left Moscow, and soon went over to the side of Yuri and became his adviser.

Vasily the Dark years of reign

After Vasily received the label, the struggle for power did not stop. In 1433, a battle took place between an uncle and a nephew on the banks of the river. Klyazma near Moscow, and Yuri won.

Yuri exiled Vasily from Moscow in 1433. Vasily II received the title Prince of Kolomna The city of Kolomna became the center of the united forces that sympathized with the prince in his policy of "gathering Russia". Many Muscovites refused to serve Prince Yuri, and came to Kolomna, which for some time became an administrative, economic and political state. Having received support, Vasily Vasilyevich was able to regain the throne in 1434 after the death of Yuri, but during the war he lost it several more times.

In 1436, Yuri's son Vasily Kosoy spoke out against Vasily II Vasilyevich the Dark, but was defeated, captured and blinded.

The refusal of Basil II in 1439 to accept the Florentine union with the Roman Catholic Church was of great importance for the preservation of their own culture and statehood.

On July 7, 1445, in a battle near the outskirts of Suzdal, Vasily II Vasilyevich with the combined Russian troops was defeated by the Kazan troops under the command of the Kazan princes - Mahmud and Yakub (sons of Khan Ulu-Mohammed). After that, Vasily II and his cousin Mikhail Vereisky were taken prisoner, but on October 1, 1445 they were released. A large amount was given for them, and a number of cities were given to the Kazan princes. Under the terms of this enslaving treaty, the Kasimov Khanate was created within Russia, in Meshchera, the 1st khan of which was Tsarevich Kasim, the son of Ulu-Mohammed.

Why Vasily the Dark

In 1446 Vasily II was captured in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and on February 16 at night on behalf of Dmitry Yuryevich Shemyaka, John Mozhaisky and Boris Tverskoy and was blinded, after which he received the nickname "Dark". Then, with his wife, Vasily Vasilyevich was sent to Uglich, and his mother Sofya Vitovtovna was exiled to Chukhloma.

But Vasily II continued the war anyway. In 1447, Vasily received Martinian's blessing for a campaign against Dmitry Shemyaka, who had captured Moscow, visiting the Ferapontov Monastery. With great difficulty, Vasily the Dark regained the throne of Moscow, having won in the early 50s. 15th century victory.

By order of Vasily II, in 1448, the Russian Bishop Jonah was elected metropolitan, which became a sign of the proclamation of the independence of the Russian Church from the Patriarch of Constantinople and strengthened the international position of Russia.

After the death of Shemyaka in 1453, thanks to successful campaigns against Novgorod, Pskov and Vyatka, Vasily was able to restore the unity of the lands around Moscow, eliminating almost all small destinies within the Moscow principality.

Vasily II Vasilyevich the Dark died of a dry disease - tuberculosis in 1462 on March 27. Before his death, he wanted to take the veil as a monk, but the boyars dissuaded him. Buried in Moscow in the Archangel Cathedral.

During the reign of Vasily the Dark, the city of Kazan was restored, the Kingdom of Kazan was founded and the Crimean Khanate arose.

The only wife of Vasily II since 1433 was Maria Yaroslavna, daughter of the appanage prince Yaroslav Borovsky.

Vasily and Maria had 8 children:

• Yuri the Great (1437 - 1441)
• Ivan III (January 22, 1440 - October 27, 1505) - Grand Duke of Moscow from 1462 to 1505.
• Yuri Molodoy (1441 - 1472) - Prince of Dmitrovsky, Mozhaisk, Serpukhov.
• Andrei Bolshoi (1444-1494) - Prince of Uglich, Zvenigorod, Mozhaisk.
• Simeon (1447-1449).
• Boris (1449-1494) - Prince of Volotsk and Ruz.
• Anna (1451-1501).
• Andrei Menshoi (1452-1481) - Prince of Vologda.

Great Moscow prince.

Brief biography of Vasily the Dark

Vasily was the youngest son in the family. When his father died, the boy was only ten years old. Basil could claim the throne, but his position was precarious for several reasons:

• young age;
• the presence of older children in the family;
• the will of the grandfather, who secured the right to the throne for Vasily's uncle - Yuri Dmitrievich.

The decision who would take the throne depended on the Lithuanian prince Vitovt, who was the guardian of the Vasily family after the death of his father. Thanks to the will of Vytautas and the word of Metropolitan Photius, in 1425 a peace treaty was concluded between the uncle and nephew, according to which Vasily the 2nd received the throne, and Yuri gave his word not to try to seize power by force.

However, in 1430, Prince Vitovt dies, and Yuri Vladimirovich, with the support of other princes, creates a coalition with which he opposes Vasily and his right to power. The struggle for the throne begins, which ends with Yuri seizing power and expelling Vasily 2nd from Moscow in 1433. Vasily receives only the title of Prince of Kolomna, many of its inhabitants leave the city with him, refusing to serve Yuri.

After some time, Vasily gathered an army, drove Yuri out of Moscow and again became the Grand Duke. In the future, Basil lost the throne several more times during the feudal wars, but each time he regained power again. As a result of another struggle for the throne, he was blinded by Prince Dmitry Shemyaka in 1446, for which he received the nickname Dark.

Vasily the 2nd Dark ruled from 1425 to 1462.

Foreign policy of Basil the 2nd

During the reign of Basil the 2nd, Russia was dependent on two states - the Golden Horde and the Principality of Lithuania.

Relations with Lithuania

In 1426, the Lithuanian prince Vitovt invaded the territory of Russia and tried to capture Pskov, but his campaign was unsuccessful. After the defeat, Vitovt tried to conclude an agreement with Pskov. Vasily at that time was a political ally of Pskov and decided to take advantage of the situation and try to soften the terms of peace with Lithuania, but he also did not achieve any success in the negotiations.

Relations with Novgorod

Vasily had difficult relations with Novgorod. In 1435-1436. Vasily tried to normalize relations with his uncle's son Vasily Kosy, who then ruled in Novgorod. In order to avoid unnecessary clashes, Vasily the 2nd gave part of his lands to Novgorod and gave a number of obligations, which he soon abandoned when the rival was defeated. In 1347, Novgorod not only did not receive what was promised, but was also forced to pay a huge tribute to Moscow.

In 1440, Basil again undertook a campaign against Novgorod in response to the fact that the Novgorodians had made an alliance with Lithuania. Novgorod was again defeated and in 1441 concluded a peace treaty with Moscow and again paid a huge tribute.

In 1449, Vasily concluded peace treaties with the great Lithuanian prince and the Polish king.

In 1456, a final victory was won over Novgorod, the latter recognized its dependence on Moscow.

Relations with the Horde

Vasily had a difficult relationship with. Basil tried to defend the independence of Russia from the Mongol-Tatar yoke and constantly made campaigns against the Horde and its khans.

In 1437, Vasily the 2nd sent troops to the city of Belev. The Russian army defeats the Tararas and forces them to negotiate, but the Russian governors break off the negotiations, relying on their own strength, and as a result suffer a terrible defeat from the Tatars.

In 1439, the Tatars, inspired by the success in Belev, approached Moscow. Vasily leaves the city, leaving the governor Yuri Patrikeevich at the head. However, the Tatars fail to take Moscow.

Until 1443, the Mongol-Tatars constantly raided Russian lands, devastating and destroying them.

In 1444, a fierce struggle for Nizhny Novgorod unfolded between the Tatar Khan and Vasily 2nd. The Horde manages to capture the city, but not for long, soon Vasily again returns Novgorod to the rule of Moscow.

In 1445, Vasily was captured by the Tatars, but very soon they ransomed him, and he returned to Moscow.

In general, foreign and domestic policy, as well as all the activities of Vasily the 2nd Dark, was aimed at uniting the lands and subordinating as many territories as possible to the power of Moscow and the Grand Duke of Moscow.

The results of the reign of Vasily 2

• Vasily strengthened the grand ducal power and united the territories around Moscow.
• The Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod, Novgorod, Pskov principalities and the Vyatka land fell into dependence on Moscow.
• Under Basil, the first Russian Bishop John was elected, who was ordained a metropolitan by the Council of Russian Bishops. This marked the beginning of the independent Russian Orthodox Church.

Vasily the 2nd Dark died in 1462, he suffered from tuberculosis and gangrene. After the death of the sovereign, his son ascended the throne -.

600 years ago, on March 10, 1415, Vasily II Vasilyevich was born, the fifth (youngest) son of the Grand Duke of Vladimir and Moscow Vasily I Dmitrievich and Sofia Vitovtovna. Vasily Vasilyevich fell into a heavy lot. Almost all of his reign was filled with conflicts and tragedies.

He was only 10 years old when his father Vasily I died, which led to a long feudal internecine war (1425-1453). The internal conflict lasted almost the entire reign of Vasily Vasilyevich. Vasily II was opposed by a coalition of appanage princes led by his uncle, Prince Yuri Dmitrievich, who had the right to the throne under the will of his father Dmitry Donskoy and his sons Vasily and Dmitry Yuryevich. During this feudal strife, Vasily Yuryevich was captured and blinded, for which he was nicknamed Kosym. Dmitry Yuryevich, in order to avenge the blinding of his brother, blinded the Moscow prince, so the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily II was nicknamed the Dark.

Yuri Zvenigorodsky at the end of his life was able to take the grand throne twice for a short time (in 1433 and 1434). Vasily Yuryevich took the throne of Moscow after the death of his father in 1434, but the younger Yuryevichs did not recognize his reign: "If God did not want our father to reign, then we ourselves do not want you." They called Vasily Vasilyevich to the Grand Duke's table. Vasily Yurievich was defeated, was captured and blinded. He ended his life in prison. Dmitry Shemyaka also twice occupied the Moscow table - in 1445 and 1446-1447. As a result, he was poisoned.

This internal confrontation was complicated by the simultaneous struggle with the Horde, Kazan and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Vasily Vasilyevich in 1445 was defeated by the Kazan Khan Ulu-Mukhammed and for the first time and once in the history of the Muscovite state was captured. For his ransom, a huge tribute had to be collected. In addition, Novgorod and Tver supported the Zvenigorod princes, which complicated the situation of Muscovite Russia.

The main milestones of the reign of Vasily the Dark

The reign of Vasily Vasilyevich was predetermined by three main factors: relations with the Horde and new state formations emerging in its place, relations with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and internal long-term strife, which lasted intermittently for more than two decades.

The degradation of the Golden Horde elite, already noticeable during the time of Dmitry Donskoy and the Battle of Kulikovo, led to a logical outcome. In the 1420-1440s, the Siberian, Uzbek, Crimean and Kazan khanates, the Nogai Horde stood out. After the death of Khan Kichi-Mohammed in 1459, the Golden Horde ceased to exist as a single state, and the Great Horde arose. Khan Ulu-Muhammed established himself in the lands of the Middle Volga region (Bulgaria), trying to subjugate part of North-Eastern Russia. He and his sons made a number of trips to Russia, reached Moscow. From that moment, until the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible, the dual story of the union and enmity of Moscow and Kazan begins, when periods of allied relations and patronage of Muscovite Russia were replaced by fierce wars, bloody raids and burned cities, taking tens of thousands of people into slavery. In the future, another heir to the Horde, the Crimean Khanate, will become a terrible enemy of Russia, which will poison the relationship between Moscow and Kazan with its influence.

Relations with the Tatars were traditional, the Horde degraded and could not offer anything new. Moscow and the princes had to pay money. The Tatar khans were not averse to punishing Moscow, if the force was on their side, to plunder cities and villages, and take them away into a crowd of people. At the same time, Islam, which was just taking root and did not have total power over the semi-pagan masses, was not of a radical nature. There were no religious complications that could lead to a war based on religion.

In general, at the beginning of the reign of Vasily the Dark, it seemed that the power of the Golden Horde was forever undermined and its decline was inevitable. Therefore, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia seemed to be a more dangerous neighbor then, whose power was based on control over the vast western Russian lands. It is worth remembering that the Lithuanian state spoke Russian. Russian was the state language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia. Orthodoxy was the faith of the majority of the population of the Principality of Lithuania. It would seem that two, in fact, Russian (in the then Lithuania, up to 80% of the population were Russian) states have nothing to share. However, the Lithuanian elite, originally pagan, and then Christian (at the beginning it seemed that the eastern branch of Christianity - Orthodoxy, would win upwards, but in the end Catholicism won), claimed the role of the main center controlling Russia. And as the influence of Poland and Catholicism gradually increased in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the enmity between the two political centers, claiming to be the collector of the Russian land, only intensified.

The Grand Duke of Lithuania Olgerd, even before the Battle of Kulikovo, twice “broke a spear” against the walls of the Moscow Kremlin. The marriage of Prince Vasily I of Moscow with the Lithuanian princess Sophia Vitovtovna (daughter of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitovt) somewhat improved relations between the two powers. However, relations were still difficult and were on the verge of a major war. In 1404 Vitovt occupied Smolensk and annexed it to Lithuania. The western border then passed just west of Pskov, in the region of Rzhev, Smolensk and Bryansk. This boundary has been established for quite a long time.

There was no national and religious enmity between Lithuania and Moscow. It was two Russian states. This also explains the ease with which some Moscow boyars and princes left for the Grand Duchy of Lithuania after a conflict with the rulers of Moscow, and vice versa - Lithuanian-Russian princes and boyars went to the service of the Moscow princes. The conflict was at the level of ruling elites, dynasties. Then the conflict began to intensify due to the gradual drift of Lithuania towards the West. Polonization and catholicization of the Russian-Lithuanian elite began. First, the Grand Dukes, their entourage, and then all representatives of the privileged classes began to accept Catholicism. The result was a strange "hybrid" - Russian in terms of territory, population and faith, the state was headed by people oriented to the West. The culmination of this process will be the unification of Lithuania and Poland into the Commonwealth.

The third factor that predetermined the history of Russia at that time was the intra-elite conflict. The essence of the strife was that after the death of Grand Duke Vasily I Dmitrievich, his brother Yuri Dmitrievich laid claim to the Moscow table. Formally, Yuri had the right to do so. He interpreted the words of the testament of Dmitry Donskoy: “And by sin, God will fuck my son Prince Vasily, and who will be under that my son, otherwise Prince Vasilyev will be my son’s lot.”

Played a role and personal ambitions. Yuri was the son of Dmitry Donskoy, he was christened Sergius of Radonezh. The prince was popular as a good manager, a successful commander and an experienced diplomat, as well as a patron of the arts and literature. Yuri rebuilt the Zvenigorod town and built two stone cathedrals - the Assumption Cathedral in the Zvenigorod town and the Nativity Cathedral in the Savvino-Storozhevsky monastery founded close to him by Savva Storozhevsky. Yuri Dmitrievich also built a stone Trinity Cathedral in the Trinity Monastery (modern Trinity-Sergius Lavra). Yury's lands (Zvenigorod, Vyatka, Galich, Ruza) prospered, the prince minted his own coin, which created an economic basis for the struggle for a great reign. The prince became famous for his successful campaigns in the Tatar lands, where he defeated many cities and took huge booty. In 1414, Yuri captured Nizhny Novgorod, annexing it to Moscow.

However, in Moscow, the old ladder tradition has long been abandoned. Starting with Daniel of Moscow and his descendants, there are no traditions of "Kievan" Rus, no ladder of succession. In the Principality of Moscow, the order of succession to the throne followed a descending straight line: from father to son. Only if the prince died childless, the table could get a brother. Therefore, the Moscow boyars, and the clergy, and the metropolitan showed quite clearly that they were on the side of Vasily Vasilyevich. Vasily became the Grand Duke. Apparently, family ties with Vytautas also played a role. The Grand Duke of Lithuania was more profitable for a young prince, a grandson in Moscow, than a skilled manager and an experienced commander. Yuri Zvenigorodsky could argue with the Moscow boyars, but he could not fight with Vitovt of Lithuania, the weight categories were too different.

Therefore, there were no open hostilities in 1425. There were just disputes, conversations, intrigues and military demonstrations. Yuri, who had gone to Moscow at the invitation of Metropolitan Photius to take the oath to the new Grand Duke, changed his mind and turned to Galich. Both sides signed a truce and prepared for war. Yuri received the approval of the veche of residents from all over his estate. Having joined forces with his uncles Andrei, Peter and Konstantin Dmitrievich, Vasily II, without waiting for the end of the truce, marched to Kostroma. Yuri retreated to Nizhny Novgorod. Metropolitan Photius was able to conclude a peace agreement. After the death of Prince Dmitrovsky Peter Dmitrievich, there was a new aggravation. Yuri claimed Dmitrov. But the lot of the deceased prince was annexed to Moscow. In 1428, Yuri recognized Vasily as his "elder brother".

In 1430, a new stage in the struggle for the Moscow table began. Vitovt, who stood behind Vasily, died. An open war begins, which will continue intermittently for more than 20 years. At first, Yuri and Vasily tried to find external support, arguing for the rights of the Grand Duke in the Horde, where Ulu Muhammad then ruled. In the end, through the efforts of the boyar Vsevolozhsky, Vasily got the label. But the Horde nobleman Teginya, who actively supported Yuri, was able to insist on a half-hearted decision. The label for a great reign was given to Prince Vasily, and Prince Yuri received Dmitrov with volosts.

Open conflict began with a scandal. In Moscow on February 8, 1433, the wedding of Vasily and Maria Yaroslavna took place. Naturally, relatives were invited to the wedding, including cousins ​​Vasily Yuryevich and Dmitry Shemyaka. One boyar, seeing a beautiful belt on Vasily Yuryevich, told the story that when Dmitry Donskoy married the daughter of the Suzdal prince, this prince gave two belts as a gift - one to the Grand Duke, and the other to the Moscow Thousand. However, they have been changed. Vasily Yurievich allegedly had a belt intended for Dmitry Donskoy. How it really was unknown. It is also unknown whether this story was told at a feast by chance, or whether it was a subtle calculation. Sofya Vitovtovna, the mother of the Grand Duke, a woman with a very tough character, accusing Vasily Kosoy of embezzling someone else's property, took and removed his belt. In the Middle Ages, it was a terrible insult that was washed away with blood. The male belt was an important symbol. And the princely belt served as a sign of princely power and dignity. Belts were decorated in every possible way, they were kept in the treasury, dressed for celebrations and passed on by inheritance. It is clear that after such an insult, war became inevitable.

Apparently, it was someone organized and very subtle provocation, which for a long time brought Muscovite Russia out of active political players. For a long time, Russia was engulfed in an internal war, on which the time and energy of a whole generation were spent.

Karl Goon. "Grand Duchess Sofia Vitovtovna at the wedding of Grand Duke Vasily the Dark"

More than one large article can be devoted to this feudal war (more details can be found in the book by A. A. Zimin “The Knight at the Crossroads: Feudal War in Russia in the 15th century”). It is interesting that Vasily Vasilyevich in this war looks like a real loser. There was no decisive battle that Vasily II would not have lost. The Grand Duke of Moscow looks just like a sample of bad luck. He lost all the main battles, was captured more than once, and repeatedly renounced the Moscow great reign in favor of his offenders. In 1445 he was defeated by the Tatars in the battle of Suzdal, was taken prisoner. For the ransom, a huge tribute had to be collected, which ruined the Russian lands. Finally, in 1446, Vasily II was captured in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra on behalf of Dmitry Yuryevich Shemyaka, Ivan Mozhaisky and Boris Tverskoy. According to the historian Karamzin, Vasily was ordered to say: “Why do you love the Tatars and give them Russian cities to feed? Why do you shower unbelievers with Christian silver and gold? Why are you harassing the people with taxes? Why did you blind our brother, Vasily Kosoy? Vasily was blinded, which is why he received the nickname "Dark".

The result was an amazing phenomenon: Vasily Vasilyevich was a nonentity as a politician, manager and commander, especially standing out for his mediocrity against the background of his successful uncle. However, he won, since the Church, most of the boyars and the nobility and the people as a whole were on his side. Vasily defeated his more successful and skillful rivals, since Moscow was on his side, preferring the established order to elite civil strife. You may be a complete nonentity, but you are our prince, and that is enough. We will do the rest ourselves.

In the decisive battle on the Klyazma River on April 25, 1433, Prince Yury Dmitrievich of Zvenigorod defeated Vasily and occupied Moscow. Grand Duke Vasily II fled to Tver, and then to Kostroma. Yuri reconciled with his nephew and gave him Kolomna as an inheritance. However, the people did not accept Yuri. Moscow boyars and service people began to run across to Kolomna. Even Dmitry Shemyaka and Vasily Kosoy, who quarreled with their father, fled to Kolomna. As Karamzin noted: “This city has become the true capital of a great reign, both crowded and noisy.” Yuri, realizing that he had lost, returned the throne to Vasily.

It seemed that the conflict was settled, but Vasily himself starts a new war. He begins to pursue his former opponents. Moscow troops moved to Kostroma, where the Yurievichs were sitting. The sons of Yuri defeated the Moscow army on the river. Kusi and suggested that his father go to Moscow. However, true to his obligations, Yuri abandoned this idea. Then Vasily, having learned that the Galicians supported the Yurievichs in the unsuccessful battle for him on Kusi, moved his army to Galich. The Moscow army burned the suburbs and returned home. In 1434, Yuri teamed up with his sons and in the decisive battle on the Mogze River defeated the troops of Vasily II and again took Moscow. Vasily fled to Novgorod. Yuri carried out a number of reforms aimed at strengthening the autocracy, began to issue a coin with a horseman - George the Victorious (Saint patron of Yuri). However, he soon died.

Vasily Yurievich could not stay on the Grand Duke's table, his younger brothers did not support him, making peace with Vasily II. As a result, Vasily Yurievich was defeated. Vasily Yuryevich himself was taken prisoner and blinded, apparently on the orders of the Moscow prince, for which he was nicknamed Kosym. Vasily Yurievich will die in captivity.

In 1446, it seemed that Vasily II would lose the Moscow table forever. After the defeat from the Tatars, a huge tribute and the arrival of the prince in Moscow with the Horde, Vasily's prestige fell sharply. Many boyars, representatives of the clergy and merchants, outraged by the behavior of Vasily II, went over to the side of Dmitry Yuryevich. Vasily is captured in the Trinity Monastery and blinded. The blind prince is exiled to Uglich, then to Vologda. Basil will sign the so-called "cursed letters", in which he will renounce everything and if he breaks his oath, he will be cursed by God and posterity.

Dmitry liquidated the Nizhny Novgorod-Suzdal principality, which was restored by Ulu-Mukhammed, returning its lands to the Grand Dukes and returning the supreme sovereignty over them to the Moscow sovereigns.

However, this does not help either! The abbot of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery Tryfon arrives in Vologda and says that Vasily Vasilyevich should go to Moscow, and the abbot will take the curse and pray for the prince. Vasily is supported by Tver, Yaroslavl, Starodubsky, Borovsky and other princes. Vasily the Dark solemnly enters Moscow. Dimitri is running. Dmitry Shemyaka resisted for several years, lost all his strength and fled to Novgorod, where he was poisoned in 1453. As a result, the princes, boyars, clergy and townspeople again supported Vasily the Dark.

Of the useful deeds done under Vasily the Dark, two can be noted. By order of Grand Duke Vasily II, the Russian Bishop Jonah was elected metropolitan. It was approved not by the Patriarch of Constantinople, but by the Council of Russian Bishops. Thus, the Russian Church became autocephalous (independent).

In addition, Vasily II makes Prince Ivan his co-ruler. Ivan III Vasilyevich bears the title of "Grand Duke", letters are written on behalf of the two great princes, they both seal these letters, as a specific prince he rules Pereslavl-Zalessky, one of the key cities of the Moscow principality, is the leading commander of Moscow. As a result, Ivan III will begin to rule Muscovite Russia, already a very mature statesman and military leader. This will have the most positive impact on the reign of Ivan III.