MUSCOVITE RUSSIA, 1480–1689 - Russia: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 15

M USCOVITE R USSIA

1480-1689

Ivan III, later known as Ivan the Great (r. 1462-1505), is often considered to
have started the true Muscovite Russia. A ruler at age 22, after already assisting
his blind father as coruler, Ivan III took over Novgorod and Tver, finished the
process of forming single rule over Russia, and stopped paying tribute to the
Mongols. This latter event is often considered as marking the end of Mongol
rule in Russia, even though Mongol armies continued to threaten Russian cities
for the next century. Ivan III is best known, however, by his renunciation of
any further allegiance to the Golden Horde in 1480. The stage was set for a mil-
itary confrontation between the two. Playing on the diplomatic rivalries of the
day, the Mongol Khan tried to get help from Polish and Lithuanian forces, while
Ivan got help from the khan of Crimea. At the Battle of the Ugra River, the
Mongols retreated, seeking to go back and defend their capital Sarai from Rus-
sian and Turkish forces.
With this victory in hand, Ivan III considered himself rightful heir to all the
former Kievan lands, which he saw as his patrimony, and in 1493 he assumed
the title sovereign of all Russia. The only challenge to Moscow's claims to the
lands of the former Kievan Rus was Lithuania, which had taken over parts of the
western and southwestern Kievan territories, but in 1503 Lithuania recognized
Ivan's right to these territories. He further consolidated his claims to the Ortho-
dox mantle by marrying a Byzantine princess, Zoe (Sophia), the niece of the last
Byzantine emperor. Ivan added the Byzantine two-headed eagle to his family's
crest and developed a court ceremony based on the Byzantine model. Modeling
himself on the Byzantine emperor, he adopted the title of czar, the Russian form
of the word caesar. The Muscovite state encouraged legends about Christianity
coming to Russia through the apostles, about Muscovite princes descending from
Roman emperors, and more lastingly about Moscow as the new Third Rome.
Ivan was succeeded by his son Vasili III (r. 1505-33), who annexed all
remaining appanages, continued fights against Lithuania for more land, and
advanced Muscovy's borders at the expense of the Crimean khanate. Looking
beyond the traditional borders of Russian diplomacy, Vasili also established
diplomatic relations with the Holy Roman Empire, Suleiman I the Magnificent's
Ottoman Empire, and even the court of Babar, Mogul ruler of India. He also