Deeply shocked by the tragedy, Ivan IV died of natural causes on 18 March 1584. His death gave rise to typical rumours about his assassination, but, judging
48 For new archaeological material on the burial of members of the Staritsa family, see T. D. Panova, 'Opyt izucheniia nekropolia Moskovskogo Kremlia', in V F. Kozlov et al. (eds.), Moskovskii nekropol'. Istoriia, arkheologiia, iskusstvo, okhrana (Moscow: Nauchno- issledovatel'skii institut kul'tury, 1991), pp. 101-4; T. D. Panova, Nekropoli Moskovskogo Kremlia (Moscow: Muzei-zapovednik 'Moskovskii Kreml'', 2003), p. 31, no. 94.
49 I. A. Komarov et al. (eds.), Armoury Chamber of the Russian Tsars (St Petersburg: Atlant, 2002), pp. 44, 300.
50 A. V Antonov, 'Serpukhovskie dokumenty iz dela Patrikeevykh', Russkii diplomatarii 7 (Moscow: Drevlekhranilishche, 2001): 304-5.
by the archaeological evidence, there is little basis for such gossip. The remains of a poisoned infant from the Staritsa family buried in the Kremlin have very high arsenic content in comparison with the bodies of other members of the dynasty. At the same time, the poisoning did not affect the mercury level of the victim. A high level of arsenic in comparison with other bodies can thus be seen as circumstantial evidence of poisoning. As the content of arsenic in Ivan IV's remains is one of the lowest among those examined by archaeologists in the Kremlin, the probability that he was poisoned should be minimised.[94] The autopsy on Ivan IV also revealed spinal disease and large amounts of mercury in his body. However, it would be risky to attribute Ivan's unpredictable political actions and erratic family life to mercury poisoning, since there is no direct connection between the chemistry of a person's body and his or her behaviour. As the autopsy shows, the chemical composition of Ivan Ivanovich's remains is highly similar to that of the tsar, including the same high level of mercury. Ivan Ivanovich, however, never demonstrated such extravagant behaviour as his father did.
Ivan IV's next son, Fedor, inherited the throne. When his elder brother was alive, Fedor occupied a rather modest position in the family. Foreign and later Muscovite sources suggest that Fedor was retarded, though L.E. Morozova questions the reliability of this evidence.[95] Whatever his mental health, Fedor was capable ofparticipating in military campaigns and court ceremonies. Fedor became the last member of the Riurikid dynasty on the throne.
Building the realm
At the beginning of Ivan's reign, the population of his realm, which received in English the established but somewhat inaccurate name of Muscovy, was predominantly Russian-speaking and Orthodox. Non-Russian ethnic groups resided in the periphery of the realm and were numerically rather small. Language and religion were important consolidating factors, which, however, did not remove substantial regional differences across the country. In the northern part of the country, remote territories along the White Sea coast sported self-sufficient communities of peasants and fishermen, which enjoyed much autonomy in local affairs throughout Ivan's reign. In the north-west, the towns of Novgorod and Pskov boasted developed urban communities. The local elites of the Trans-Volga, Riazan' and Trans-Oka regions often retained their hereditary lands and local affiliations, provided they remained loyal to Moscow.
During Ivan's minority, the ruling circles took a series of measures with the aim of integrating the vast realm. The central authorities carried out a large programme of land surveying in the late 1530s and 1540s. During the surveys, the authorities extended common tax burdens and other obligations to various segments ofthe local population. The surveys also shaped the local landscape by defining and describing all of its significant elements.[96] The government- sponsored surveys, therefore, not only registered local peculiarities, but also contributed to the formation oflocal identities. In the first halfofthe sixteenth century, the authorities replaced various quit-rents in kind with payments in money. To keep up with the growing role of money in the economy of Muscovy, Elena Glinskaia successfully implemented a currency reform by unifying monetary units across the realm in the second half of the 1530s. The new monetary system effectively incorporated the local currencies of Novgorod and Pskov and facilitated the integration of these economically important regions into the realm.[97]
The central authorities experimented with various methods of involving different regional groups in maintaining law and order in the provinces. Though these attempts were not limited to the provincial cavalrymen, it was precisely this group that became the chief agent of the government in local affairs. Cavalrymen had sufficient military skills and organisational experience as military servitors and estate owners. Beginning in the 1550s, the provincial cavalrymen started dominating the local district (guba) administration, which was responsible for law and order in the provinces, control over the local population's mobility, the distribution of service lands, the gathering of taxes, the mustering of local military forces and the certifying of slavery contracts. Since the authority of the guba elders covered various groups of the local population, the guba administration was an important factor in consolidating local communities. The guba administration was also open to cavalrymen ofnon-Muscovite origin and thereby facilitated their integration. The state thus actively participated in the formation of local identities and made use of them for its own political needs.
The townsmen and peasant communities also received limited autonomy in local affairs during the reforms of the 1550s. These changes in provincial administration led to some redistribution of authority in favour of urban and rural communities at the expense of the local representatives of the central authorities (vicegerents or namestniki). Contrary to widespread opinion, the vicegerent administration, however, was not abolished in the middle of the sixteenth century.[98] In the 1550s, the ruling circles attempted to standardise judicial and administrative practices across the country by introducing a new law code (1550) and delegating routine administrative and financial tasks to the increasingly structured chancelleries (prikazy).[99]
The position of elite military servitors became more stable thanks to the standardisation of the terms of their service, improved registry, and the regulation of service relations among them during campaigns. As a result of the reforms of the 1550s, the sovereign's court, a hierarchical institution made up of the ruler's elite servitors, acquired a complicated rank structure.[100] Service relations between courtiers were subject to rules of precedence (mestnich- estvo), a complex system that defined the status of a courtier on the basis of the prominence and service appointments of his ancestors and relatives. There are different opinions about who benefited from mestnichestvo. Kollmann sees it more as a means ofconsolidating the elite in the traditional patrimonial political system than as a means for the affirmation of the tsar's power. According to S. O. Shmidt, the system of precedence functioned on the basis of a mixture of the traditional principles of family honour and the principles of service relations that were formulated by the royal power. The monarchy could thus use mestnichestvo for controlling the elite. In line with this view, Ann M. Kleimola notes that mestnichestvo, which took its final shape during the minority of Ivan, caused a fragmentation of the elite and prevented the formation of a cohesive hereditary aristocracy which could have checked the autocratic power of the ruler. Shmidt's and Kleimola's points of view may explain why the elite servitors failed to effectively oppose the tsar's transgressions and his personal interference with the system of precedence.[101]
94
SeeM. M. Gerasimov, 'Dokumental'nyiportret IvanaGroznogo', in
96
Those lands and meadows that were not covered by surveys often remained nameless. See Kashtanov,
98
On the local administration, see N. E. Nosov
99
See Horace W Dewey, 'The 1550 Sudebnik as an Instrument of Reform',
100
On the sovereign's court, see Bogatyrev,
101
Nancy Shields Kollmann,