Ivan IV

This marriage took place in 1547. The bride was Anastasia, daughter of the Romanovs, a popular family of the Moscow nobility. The groom was the seventeen-year-old Muscovite prince Ivan IV, who had just proclaimed himself Tsar of Russia. Ivan’s technique of choosing a wife was in the grand manner: he ordered two thousand girls lined up for his inspection; from this assembly he chose Anastasia. Nevertheless, Ivan was deeply in love with his young wife. When she died ten years later, Ivan suspected that she had been poisoned. His grief turned to rage and perhaps to madness.

His reign began with a series of useful administrative, legal and military reforms, including the promulgation of a revised Sudebnik in 1550. In this task the tsar was assisted by a group of able advisers known as the Chosen Council. But this ‘good phase’ did not last: in 1565 Ivan IV’s morbid suspicion of all those around him, especially the boyars (representatives of the titled and non-titled senior nobility and aristocracy), caused him to divide his country into two parts, one of which was placed under his complete personal dictatorship. This was known as the oprichnina, ‘special court territory’ or ‘realm apart.’ Within this area the tsar’s will was enforced by the oprichniki or members of the ‘special court’. Before long their activities spread beyond the boundaries of the oprichnina and subjected the entire Russian land to a reign of terror, culminating in a large-scale massacre of the citizens of Novgorod in 1569 (on the pretext of treasonable plotting with the king of Poland), and a similar pogrom in Moscow in 1572. The activities of oprichniki then gradually diminished, but not before they inflicted immense physical and psychological damage on the country.

Ivan was succeeded by his feeble second son, Fedor, who was succeeded in turn by the regent, Boris Godunov. Boris ruled as Tsar for five years. His death opened the door to a horde of claimants and pretenders — in Russian history, this period is known as the Time of Troubles. At one point, the throne was claimed by a son of the King of Poland. A Polish army occupied Moscow, entrenched itself in the Kremlin and burned the rest of the city. Besieged by the Russians, the Poles held out in the Kremlin for eighteen months, fending off starvation by eating their own dead. In November 1612, the Kremlin surrendered. Russia, which had had no tsar for three years, convened a national assembly, the Zemsky Sobor, to elect a new tsar.

The choice fell on another boy, 16-year-old Mikhail Romanov. By blood, Mikhail’s claim was weak: he was no more than the grandnephew of Ivan the Terrible. But he remained the only candidate on whom all the quarreling factions could agree. On a cold, windy day, March 1613, a delegation of nobles, clergy, gentry, traders, artisans and peasants, representing “all the classes and all the towns of Russia,” arrived at Kostroma on the Upper Volga to inform Mikhail Romanov that he had been elected Tsar. Mikhail tearfully accepted, and on July 11, 1613, in the Kremlin, the first Romanov tsar was crowned. (R. Massie. Nicholas and Alexandra)

1. What kind of marriage took place in 1547?

2. Who was the bride?

3. How did Ivan choose his bride?

4. What was the tragic end of their marriage and how did it influence Ivan’s reign?

5. How did Tsar Ivan IV start his reign?

6. What kind of group was the Chosen Council?

7. What caused Ivan to divide his country into two parts?

8. What is the metaphorical usage of the Russianism oprichnina?

9. What kind of person was Ivan’s successor?

10. Which period of Russia’s history is known as “the Time of Troubles”?

11. How was Tsar Mikhail elected?

12. What are the names of the dynasties Ivan IV and Tsar Mikhail belong to?

EXERCISE 5. Find in the text the English counterparts of the following Russian idionyms. §79.2

боярин <> великий князь Московский <> царь всея Руси <> окольничий <> свёкор <> серия полезных административных, законодательных и военных реформ <> “Судебник” <> “Избранная Рада” <> болезненная подозрительность <> “опричнина” <> опричник <> погром <> регент <> претендент <> самозванец <> Смутное время <> Кремль <> Земский Собор <> для избрания нового царя <> дворянство <>

EXERCISE 6. Work out a 50-word comment for a group of tourists about the fall of the Ryurik dynasty. §79.2

EXERCISE 7. Read the text and answer the questions given below. §79.2

Oprichnina

The defection of one of Ivan's outstanding field commanders, Prince Andrei Kurbsky, to Poland in 1564 greatly startled the tsar, who announced later that year his intention of abdicating in view of the boyars' betrayal. The Muscovites, however, led by the clergy, implored him to continue to rule, and in 1565 he acceded to their request on condition that he should be allowed to deal with the traitors as he wished and that he should form an oprichnina, i.e., an aggregate of territory that would be administered separately from the rest of the state and put under his immediate control as crown land.

A bodyguard of 1,000-6,000 men, known as the oprichniki, was raised; and specified towns and districts all over Russia were included in the oprichnina, their revenues being assigned to the maintenance of the tsar's new court and household, which consisted of a number of carefully selected boyars and service gentry. Ivan lived exclusively in this entourage and withdrew from the day-to-day management of Russia's administrative apparatus (now called the zemschina, or "the land"), which he left in the hands of leading boyars and bureaucrats. Ivan cut himself off from almost all communication with them, while the oprichniki trampled with impunity on everyone beyond Ivan's immediate circle. (EncBr)

1. What provoked Ivan IV’s decision?

2. Why was Kurbsky’s betrayal so painful to the Tsar?

3. What kind of arrangement did the Tsar think of?

4. Why did he call the part of the country under his direct rule “Oprichnina”?

5. What kind of metaphorical meaning did the word acquire?

6. How large was the bodyguard of those who were to enforce Ivan’s rule?

7. Where did the Tsar himself reside meanwhile?

8. Who was responsible for the day-to-day management of Russia's administrative apparatus?

9. What was Russia's administrative apparatus referred to?

10. What tactics did the oprichniki pursue?

EXERCISE 8. Write two 100-word versions of the “Oprichnina” 200-word text – first, for a popular encyclopedia; second, to be presented orally to a group of tourists. §79.2

EXERCISE 9. Translate this text into English. §79.2

Михаил Борисович Ш Е И Н

Полководец и государственный деятель России. В 1602-1603 гг. участвовал в подавлении выступлений крестьян и холопов; в 1606-1607 - в подавлении крестьянского восстания Ивана Болотникова. Окольничий с 1605 года, боярин с конца 1606 года. С конца 1607 года воевода Смоленска. Во время польско-литовской интервенции возглавлял оборону Смоленска, попал в плен и в 1611-1619 гг. оставался в Польше. По возвращении из плена стал одним из ближайших к патриарху Филарету. В 1620-х гг. возглавлял один из сыскных приказов, а в 1628-1632 гг. - Пушкарский приказ.

Активно участвовал в многочисленных дипломатических, в том числе секретных, переговорах. В ходе русско-польской войны 1632-1634 гг. был командующим русской армией. После вынужденной капитуляции русских войск в 1634 году был необоснованно обвинён в многочисленных ошибках, включая измену в пользу Владислава IV, и был казнён по приговору Боярской думы.

EXERCISE 10. Read this poem, pick basic Russian xenonyms. Choose any part of the poem and turn it into the shortest possible description of the corresponding part of Russian history. Supply parallel explanation of those xenonyms which are less familiar to foreigners. §79.2

RUSSIAN HISTORY IN BRIEF (A guide for beginners)

I

Scythians, steppe, kurgans – antiques…

From the Varangians to the Greeks.

Kievan Rus’. Conversion. Battles.

Novgorod – veche, birch-bark letters.

Ryuriks. Shchi and kasha, kvas.

Skomorokhi, gusli, skaz.

II

Laws of Yaroslav the Wise.

Tale of Bygone Years narration

And Prince Igor’s lamentations.

Swedes. The Battle on the Ice –

Western Teutonic crusaders.

In the east – Mongol invaders.

III

Genghis Khan – Eurasian lord.

Tatar Yoke – Golden Horde.

Yarlyk, baskak, executions,

Tribute… Slow evolution.

Field of Kulikovo, and

Russians triumph – happy end!

IV

Ivans. Muscovy. Third Rome.

Kremlin. Ukase. Onion Dome.

Strel’tsy, boyars – coats of beavers.

Cossacks cross Siberian rivers.

False Dimitry – Godunov.

Time of Troubles, on and off.

V

Nikon, Schism, Old Believers,

Avvakum, fanatic dreamers.

Peter – bold aspirations.

Wars with all the neighboring nations.

Catherine, conquest of Crimea.

Pugachev, Radishchev. Fear.

VI

Paul, Napoleon – Moscow Fire.

Pushkin. Decembrists misfire.

Dead Souls. Crimean humiliation.

Herzen. Serfs’ Emancipation.

Dostoevsky. Nihilists.

Chekhov. Swan Lake. War and Peace.

VII

Nicholas and Alexandra.

Jews – pogroms. Tsushima’s thunder.

Sick Tsarevich – therein

Wonder-worker Rasputin.

Bolshevik-Kerensky show –

Red October overthrow.

VIII

Trotsky, Lenin, Stalin – fights.

Civil War of Reds and Whites.

NEP – a short-lived restoration.

Kulaks, collectivization.

Five-Year plans and Reconstruction.

Purges, trials – self-destruction.

IX

Nazis, losses, fast retreat.

Panic. Fear of defeat.

Moscow. Siege of Leningrad.

SMERSH. Kaput at Stalingrad.

Storming westward. Hitler’s fall.

Iron Curtain. Berlin Wall.

X

Khrushchev. Cuban Crisis. Sputniks.

KGB, GULag, refuseniks.

Slow-down of Soviet troika.

Gorby: glasnost’, perestroika.

El’tsin, marketing, OMON.

Time of Troubles – on and on.