Ancient Kazan (Iske Kazan) was founded in the late 13th century by the Mongols (Tatars) of the Golden Horde after their overthrow of the Bulgar kingdom on the middle Volga. It was located about 28 miles (45 km) upstream on the Kazanka and was transferred to the mouth of the river at the end of the 14th century. After the disintegration of the Golden Horde in the 15th century, Kazan became the capital of an independent khanate. It developed as an important trading centre; annual fairs were held on an island in the Volga. In 1469 Ivan III captured Kazan, but his puppet khan organized a massacre of all Russians in the town in 1504. Finally in 1552 Ivan IV the Terrible captured Kazan after a long siege and subjugated the khanate. The old Tatar fortress was rebuilt as a Russian kremlin, the white walls and towers of which survive as a feature of the modern skyline. Kazan was seized in a revolt of 1773–74, and much of the city was burned to the ground; Catherine II the Great rebuilt it on a gridiron pattern. The Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul dates from the 18th century.
As Siberia was opened up, Kazan's trading importance greatly increased, and industry developed in the 18th century; by 1900 it was one of the chief manufacturing cities of Russia. In its wide range of industries, some long-established ones still flourish on a large scale: soapmaking, leatherworking, shoemaking, and fur preparation. New industries include oil refining, electrical and precision engineering, and chemical production. Linen and foodstuffs are also produced. In 1920 Kazan became the capital of the Tatar A.S.S.R. (now Tatarstan, Russia).
Kazan is a major cultural and educational centre. Kazan State University was founded in 1804. The mathematician N.I. Lobachevsky was its rector in 1827–46, and among those who studied there were Leo Tolstoy (Tolstoy, Leo), the composer M.A. Balakirev, and Vladimir I. Lenin (Lenin, Vladimir Ilich). There is also a branch of the Academy of Sciences, a conservatory, and other institutions of higher education. Kazan has a theatre of Tatar opera and ballet, a philharmonic society, and a noted Tatar museum. Pop. (2006 est.) 1,112,673.
oprichnina
▪ Russian history
private court or household created by Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible (1565) that administered those Russian lands (also known as oprichnina) that had been separated from the rest of Muscovy and placed under the tsar's direct control. The term also refers generally to the economic and administrative policy that divided the Russian lands into two parts and established the new court.
The oprichnina land area was located in northern and central Muscovy and was created by the forcible removal of boyars (boyar) (upper nobility) from their estates; the boyars were either executed or relocated on land that continued to be ruled in the traditional manner.
The term oprichnina also refers to this reign of terror, which was conducted by the oprichniki, members of the tsar's new court, who were primarily drawn from the lower gentry and foreign population. The terror culminated with the proscription of the entire population of Novgorod and the sack of that northern city, which opposed Muscovite dominance (1570). The policy reduced the boyars' political power, disrupted the Russian economy, and contributed to the centralization of the Muscovite state. After 1572, when the oprichniki were disbanded, the term dvor (court) replaced oprichnina.
Livonian War
▪ Russian history
(1558–83), prolonged military conflict, during which Russia unsuccessfully fought Poland, Lithuania, and Sweden for control of greater Livonia—the area including Estonia, Livonia, Courland, and the island of Oesel—which was ruled by the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Knights (Order of the Brothers of the Sword (Brothers of the Sword, Order of the)).
In 1558 Ivan IV of Russia invaded Livonia, hoping to gain access to the Baltic Sea and to take advantage of the weakness of the Livonian Knights; he seized Narva and Dorpat and besieged Reval. The Knights, unable to withstand the Russian attack, dissolved their Order (1561); they placed Livonia proper under Lithuanian protection and gave Courland to Poland, Estonia to Sweden, and Oesel to Denmark.
Ivan was then obliged to wage war against Sweden and Lithuania to retain his conquests in Livonia. Initially successful, the Russians captured Polotsk, in Lithuanian Belorussia (1563), and occupied Lithuanian territory up to Vilna. In 1566 the Russian zemsky sobor (“assembly of the land”) refused a Lithuanian peace proposal. But as the war progressed, Russia's position deteriorated; during the 1560s Russia experienced severe internal social and economic disruptions while Lithuania became stronger, forming a political union with Poland (1569) and acquiring a new king, Stephen Báthory (1576).
Báthory launched a series of campaigns against Russia, recapturing Polotsk (1579) and laying siege to Pskov. In 1582 Russia and Lithuania agreed upon a peace settlement (Peace of Yam Zapolsky), whereby Russia returned all the Lithuanian territory it had captured and renounced its claims to Livonia. In 1583 Russia also made peace with Sweden, surrendering several Russian towns along the Gulf of Finland (its only access to the Baltic Sea) and giving up its claims to Estonia.
zemsky sobor
▪ Russian assembly
(“assembly of the land”), in 16th- and 17th-century Russia, an advisory assembly convened by the tsar or the highest civil authority in power whenever necessary. It was generally composed of representatives from the ecclesiastical and monastic authorities, the boyar council, the landowning classes, and the urban freemen; elections for representatives and the sessions of each group were held separately.
Zemskie sobory were first called by Ivan IV the Terrible, and the assemblies met often during his reign; the most important one (1566) considered the Livonian War against Poland. After a zemsky sobor confirmed the accession of Fyodor I in 1584, none was called until the assembly that elected Boris Godunov tsar in 1598. During the Time of Troubles (1598–1613), the assemblies were again convened frequently and were highly influential; the zemsky sobor that assembled in 1613 elected Michael Romanov tsar. Several others subsequently assisted with internal reforms, but after 1622 the zemsky sobor declined in importance; the last one was convened in 1653.
In the 19th century the Slavophiles (Slavophile) revived the concept of the zemsky sobor, considering it a reflection of the ideal union between the tsar and the Russian people; a proposal to reestablish the institution resulted in the dismissal of the minister who suggested it, N.P. Ignatiev.
Troubles, Time of
▪ Russian history
Russian Smutnoye Vremya,
period of political crisis in Russia that followed the demise of the Rurik dynasty (1598) and ended with the establishment of the Romanov dynasty (1613). During this period foreign intervention, peasant uprisings, and the attempts of pretenders to seize the throne threatened to destroy the state itself and caused major social and economic disruptions, particularly in the southern and central portions of the state.
The Time of Troubles was preceded by a series of events that contributed to the country's instability. In 1598 Fyodor, the last in the line of the Rurik Dynasty, died; he was succeeded as tsar of Russia by his brother-in-law Boris Godunov. Boris (Godunov, Boris) was faced with problems of famine (1601–03), boyar opposition, and the challenge of a Polish-supported pretender to the throne, the so-called False Dmitry, who claimed to be Dmitry, half brother of the late tsar and legitimate heir to the throne. (The real Dmitry had died in 1591.) Boris was able to maintain his regime, but when he died (April 1605), a mob favouring the False Dmitry killed Boris' son and made “Dmitry” tsar (June 1605).
The boyars, however, soon realized that they could not control the new tsar, and they assassinated him (May 1606), placing the powerful nobleman Vasily Shuysky (Vasily (IV) Shuysky) on the throne. This event marked the beginning of the Time of Troubles. Although Shuysky was supported by the wealthy merchant class and the boyars, his rule was weakened by a series of revolts, the most important of which was a peasant rebellion led by the former serf Ivan Isayevich Bolotnikov in the southern and eastern sections of the country. Shuysky also had to contend with many new pretenders, particularly the Second False Dmitry, who was supported by the Poles, small landholders, and peasants. Claiming to have escaped assassination in 1606 and recognized by the wife of the First False Dmitry as her husband, the new Dmitry established a camp at Tushino (1608) and besieged Moscow for two years. A group of boyars, including the Romanovs, joined him at Tushino, forming a government there that rivaled Shuysky's. While elements of “Dmitry's” army took control of the northern Russian provinces, Shuysky bargained with Sweden (then at war with Poland) for aid. The arrival of Swedish mercenary troops caused “Dmitry” to flee from Tushino. Some of his supporters returned to Moscow; others joined the Polish king Sigismund III (Sigismund III Vasa), who declared war on Muscovy in response to the Swedish intervention and in September 1609 led an army into Russia and defeated Shuysky's forces (June 1610).