The sixteenth century was thus a dynamic period for the founding of new towns, and especially the latter half. The same cannot be said of the commercial life of towns for which the second half of the century was to prove particularly difficult. Unfortunately the available statistics make tracing the expansion and contraction of towns over this period especially problematic and there are severe uncertainties about urban population levels and the character of the urban hierarchy. There can, however, be no doubt that the pinnacle of the urban hierarchy was Moscow. In the absence of cadastres and census books for the city, population estimates rely upon crude guesses by travellers like Herberstein, who related the tale that a recent official count had recorded 41,500 houses in the city.13 This has been interpreted as referring more correctly to the number of adult males in the city. For the end of the century a total population of 80,000-100,000 has been suggested.14 If this is accurate, it means that Moscow was one of the largest cities in Europe at the time (only nine
11 D.J. B. Shaw, 'Southern Frontiers of Muscovy, 1550-1700', in J. H. Bater and R. A. French (eds.), Studies in Russian Historical Geography (London: Academic Press, 1983), pp. 117-42.
12 V I. Kochedatov Pervye russkie goroda Sibiri (Moscow: Stroiizdat, 1978), pp. 20-1.
13 Sigismund von Herberstein, Description of Moscow and Muscovy, 1557, ed. B. Picard, (London: J. M. Dent, I969), p. 20.
14 M. N. Tikhomirov, Rossiia v XVI veke (Moscow: AN SSSR, 1962), p. 66; Istoriia Moskvy, vol. 1, Period feodalizma, XII - XVII vv. (Moscow: AN SSSR, 1952), p. 179; Ocherki istorii SSSR, period feodalizma, konets XVv. -nachalo XVIIv. (Moscow: AN SSSR, 1955), p. 266. Herberstein's visits were made in 1517-18 and 1526-7.
West European cities had populations in excess of 80,000 in 1600: London, Paris, Milan, Venice, Naples, Rome, Palermo, Seville and Lisbon).[74] Moscow was, ofcourse, the seat ofthe tsar and government with all the activities which these implied. It was also a major commercial and trading centre, a pivot of military and religious activity and much besides. In other words, it was the geographical focus of the realm.
By comparison with Moscow, other Russian cities paled in size and importance, though the evidence on population sizes is extremely patchy. Novgorod, for example, was no longer the leading commercial centre it had been before its annexation by Moscow in 1478 but nevertheless retained a significant role at least down to its sacking by Ivan IV's oprichniki in 1570. According to Chechulin's calculations, Novgorod had over 5,000 households in the late 1540s which, he believed, indicated a population of over 20,000.[75] Kazan' on the newly annexed south-eastern frontier had considerable commercial and military significance when it was described in a cadastre in the late 1560s. From this source Chechulin estimated a population of up to 15,000.[76] Other sizeable towns included Smolensk, Nizhnii Novgorod, Pskov, Kaluga, Kolomna, Vologda, Kostroma and Kholmogory. All appear to have contained at least 500 households at various points in the sixteenth century.[77] Iaroslavl', which was to become a major centre in the seventeenth century, may also have been in their number but the sources are uncertain.[78] Apart from the capital, therefore, Russia's larger towns included the centres of formerly and recently independent states or principalities (Kazan', Novgorod and Pskov), provincial centres (Nizhnii Novgorod, Kaluga, Kolomna, Vologda and Kostroma), and peripheral or border towns whose populations reflected the size oftheir commerce and/or of their garrisons (Novgorod, Smolensk, Kazan', Pskov and possibly Nizhnii Novgorod). Compared to Western Europe, Russian towns were relatively small at this time, with the important exception of Moscow. Russia lacked sizeable regional centres compared to Western Europe (though it was not unlike England and Scotland in this respect).[79] However, Gilbert Rozman argues that the settlement hierarchy reflected a society which was moving beyond a process of purely administrative integration to a stage where commercial integration was becoming more significant. In his view, Russia had thus reached a stage of development at which countries like England and France had arrived 100-150 years previously.21
While cadastres, census books and similar materials can give us an idea of a town's relative size at a particular point, very rarely are they frequent or comparable enough to allow growth or decline to be accurately gauged in this period. Other kinds of evidence can, however, give some notion of general trends. The issue of to what extent Russian towns flourished or declined has been debated, with Soviet historians inclined to take an optimistic view as towns participated in the move towards the 'all-Russian market' postulated by Lenin for the seventeenth century. Clearly, in and of itself, the proliferation in the number oftowns described above does seem to point towards some degree ofurban dynamism. At the same time, from at least the middle ofthe sixteenth century, many towns appear to have suffered, especially in central and northwestern Russia. Various kinds of evidence seem to point to the view that Russia shared in the economic upswing which apparently affected much of Europe from the latter part of the fifteenth century. But from the middle of the next century conditions in Russia, unlike Europe, seem to have deteriorated. The most frequently cited reason for this situation is the policies of Ivan IV.22 Ivan's plunging ofthe country into the long and disastrous Livonian war (1558-83) and his reign of terror known as the oprichnina (1565-72) both brought destruction on a large scale with few areas escaping completely. The sacking of Novgorod and Pskov (1570), the Crimean Tatar attack on Moscow (1571), the devastation of large areas ofthe countryside, and the large-scale migrations of peasants are some of the more memorable episodes in this grim period. Then, following Ivan's death (1584) and a brief period of recovery, the 1590s witnessed further war culminating in the disasters of Boris Godunov's reign (1598-1605) including famine in 1601-3, and the period of anarchy and warfare known as the Time of Troubles (1604-13).
Giles Fletcher, who visited Russia in 1588-9, was a witness of some of the depredations which resulted from the troubles of Ivan IV's reign. In Moscow, for example, he noted that 'there lieth waste a great breadth of ground which before was well set and planted with buildings -', the after-effects of the Tatar raid of 1571. Having mentioned a handful of other places, he asserts that 'the other towns have nothing that is greatly memorable save many ruins within their walls, which showeth the decrease of the Russe people under this government'. In the same vein he notes the desertion of many villages and towns, for
77
Tikhomirov
78
Tikhomirov