Oprichnina is terror for the sake of what?

The years of oprichnina had a significant impact on the formation and development of the Russian state. Tsar Ivan the Terrible took a place on the throne in 1547, during a stormy period of external and internal political upheavals. In the middle of the XVI century, the country needed large-scale reforms. At the same time, oprichnina is not the first global political measure of Ivan IV on the throne. It was preceded by an equally fateful for the country era of the Elected Council.

Reforms of the Elected Council

This name was received by a meeting of a number of noblemen, representatives of the clergy and government officials, who from 1547 to 1560 were the actual informal government in the state. In fact, all the reforms of this government were aimed at creating a sufficiently strong bureaucratic apparatus in the country, state bodies, judicial and administrative systems, and so on. Strictly speaking, it was time itself that required such centralization of power. After all, the absolutization of monarchies in the same period occurred throughout Europe and was at that time a progressive phenomenon.

Prerequisites of oprichnina

However, the activity and the very existence of the Elected Rada over time began to contradict for a number of reasons the aspirations of Ivan the Terrible. The final gap between the sovereign and his associates occurred around 1560, and as a result, oprichnina became the result. This happened mainly for the following reason. The Tsar simply did not like the unhurried, progressive character of the reforms of the Elected Rada. Over time, it began to seem to him that the boyars purposely tighten the centralization of power in order to preserve the survivals of feudal fragmentation, and, together with them, their power in the regions. So, in 1560 he accused two members of his own government body of intending to concentrate all state power in their hands. The last spark that finally roused the Tsar's hatred of the boyar aristocracy was the transfer of one of the former members of the government, Andrei Kurbsky, to the camp of the Poles during the Livonian War. The reason that prompted the boyar was just discontent and disagreement with the fact that the tsar trample on the age-old rights and liberties of the boyars. Ivan the Terrible, in turn, saw in this the proof of the treacherous essence of the boyars. It was after this moment that oprichnina was unleashed. This happened in 1565. The ruler was personally formed obedient military corps, which now had to use force to establish order in the state.

Reforms of oprichnina

From the middle of the 1560s in the Moscow kingdom a rigid course was launched for large-scale terror against the aristocracy. Oprichnina - this is essentially a literal physical destruction of the boyar stratum. For these purposes, the country was divided into two administrative districts, and one of these parts became the personal destiny of the ruler and was called the oprichnina. The second part was called Zemshchina and was governed by the Boyar Duma. The limits of Ivan IV's personal destiny constantly expanded and occupied all the large territories in the country. At the same time, the tsar obtained the unquestioning right for himself and the boyar consent that he could arbitrarily execute and expose anyone whom he considered to be a traitor. Needless to say once again that after the demarche of Andrei Kurbsky, the king saw traitors and conspirators everywhere among the highest aristocracy.

Results oprichnina

For several years hundreds of families of boyars were evicted from the patrimonial lands. Terror reached its apogee in 1570, when the last appanage prince in Russia, Vladimir Staritsky, was killed. Thus, along with the terror, feudal vestiges were overcome, which allowed Moscow to finally assemble under its power the Russian lands, create an effective bureaucratic apparatus, administrative and military systems, and lay the foundations for a future Russian empire.