The origins of the social upheavals of the "rebellious age"
A difficult situation at the end of the 16th century developed in the central districts of the state and to such an extent that the population fled to the outskirts, abandoning their lands. For example, in 1584, only 16% of the land was plowed up in the Moscow district, and about 8% in the neighboring Pskov district.
The more people left, the harder the government of Boris Godunov put pressure on those who remained. By 1592, the compilation of scribe books was completed, where the names of peasants and townspeople, owners of yards were entered. The authorities, having conducted a census, could organize the search and return of the fugitives. In 1592–1593, a royal decree was issued to abolish the peasant exit even on St. George's Day. This measure extended not only to the owner's peasants, but also to the state, as well as to the townspeople. In 1597, two more decrees appeared, according to the first, any free person who worked for six months for a landowner turned into a bonded serf and did not have the right to redeem himself for freedom. According to the second, a five-year period was set for the search and return of the runaway peasant to the owner. And in 1607, a fifteen-year investigation of the fugitives was approved.
The nobles were given "obedient letters", according to which the peasants had to pay dues not as before, according to the established rules and sizes, but as the owner wants.
The new “township structure” provided for the return of fugitive “taxers” to the cities, the assignment to the townships of the owner’s peasants who were engaged in crafts and trade in the cities, but did not pay taxes, the elimination of courtyards and settlements inside the cities, which also did not pay taxes.
Thus, it can be argued that at the end of the 16th century, a state system of serfdom, the most complete dependence under feudalism, actually took shape in Russia.
Such a policy caused great dissatisfaction among the peasantry, which at that time formed the overwhelming majority in Russia. Periodically, unrest broke out in the villages. An impetus was needed in order for discontent to turn into "distemper".
The impoverishment and ruin of Russia under Ivan the Terrible meanwhile did not pass in vain. Masses of peasants left for new lands from fortresses and state burdens. The exploitation of the rest intensified. The farmers were entangled in debts and duties. The transition from one landowner to another became more and more difficult. Under Boris Godunov, several more decrees were issued that strengthened serfdom. In 1597 - about a five-year term for the search for fugitives, in 1601-02 - about limiting the transfer of peasants by some landowners from others. The desires of the nobility were fulfilled. But social tension from this did not weaken, but only grew.
The main reason for the aggravation of contradictions in the late XVI - early XVII centuries. there was an increase in serf burden and state duties of peasants and townspeople (posad people). There were great contradictions between the Moscow privileged and the outlying, especially the southern, nobility. Made up of fugitive peasants and other free people, the Cossacks were a combustible material in society: firstly, many had blood grievances against the state, boyars-nobles, and secondly, they were people whose main occupation was war and robbery. There were strong intrigues between various groups of boyars.
In 1601–1603 an unprecedented famine broke out in the country. First there were heavy rains for 10 weeks, then, at the end of summer, frost damaged the bread. Another crop failure next year. Although the king did a lot to alleviate the situation of the hungry: he distributed money and bread, brought down the price of it, arranged public works, etc., but the consequences were severe. About 130,000 people died in Moscow alone from the diseases that followed the famine. Many, from hunger, gave themselves up as slaves, and, finally, often the masters, unable to feed the servants, expelled the servants. Robbery and unrest of runaway and walking people began (the leader of Khlopko Kosolap), who operated near Moscow itself and even killed governor Basmanov in a battle with the tsarist troops. The rebellion was crushed, and its participants fled to the south, where they joined the troops of the impostor, Bolotnikov and others.
"Salt" and "copper" riots in Moscow. Urban uprisings
The "salt" riot, which began in Moscow on June 1, 1648, was one of the most powerful actions of Muscovites in defense of their rights.
The "salt" rebellion involved archers, lackeys - in a word, those people who had reasons to be dissatisfied with the government's policy.
The rebellion began, it would seem, with a trifle. Returning from a pilgrimage from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the young Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was surrounded by petitioners who asked the Tsar to remove L.S. there was no response from the sovereign. Then the complainants decided to turn to the queen, but this also did not work: the guard dispersed the people. Some were arrested. The next day, the tsar staged a religious procession, but even here complainants appeared demanding the release of the arrested first number of petitioners and still resolving the issue of cases of bribery. The tsar asked his “uncle” and relative, the boyar Boris Ivanovich Morozov, for clarification on this matter. After listening to the explanations, the king promised the petitioners to resolve this issue. Hiding in the palace, the tsar sent four ambassadors for negotiations: Prince Volkonsky, deacon Volosheinov, Prince Temkin-Rostov, and roundabout Pushkin.
But this measure did not turn out to be a solution to the problem, since the ambassadors behaved extremely arrogantly, which greatly angered the petitioners. The next unpleasant fact was the exit from the subordination of the archers. Due to the arrogance of the ambassadors, the archers beat the boyars sent for negotiations.
On the next day of the rebellion, forced people joined the tsar's disobedient. They demanded the extradition of the bribe-taking boyars: B. Morozov, L. Pleshcheev, P. Trakhanionov, N. Chisty.
These officials, relying on the power of ID Miloslavsky, who was especially close to the tsar, oppressed the Muscovites. They "created an unfair trial", took bribes. Having taken the main places in the administrative apparatus, they had complete freedom of action. Raising in vain on ordinary people they ruined them. On the third day of the “salt” riot, the “mob” defeated about seventy courtyards of especially hated nobles. One of the boyars (Nazarius Pure) - the initiator of the introduction of a huge tax on salt, was beaten and chopped to pieces by the "mob".
After this incident, the tsar was forced to turn to the clergy and opposition to the Morozov court clique. A new deputation of the boyars was sent, headed by Nikita Ivanovich Romanov, a relative of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The inhabitants of the city expressed their desire that Nikita Ivanovich began to rule with Alexei Mikhailovich (it must be said that Nikita Ivanovich Romanov enjoyed confidence among Muscovites). As a result, there was an agreement on the extradition of Pleshcheev and Trakhanionov, whom the tsar, at the very beginning of the rebellion, appointed governor in one of the provincial towns. Things were different with Pleshcheev: he was executed the same day on Red Square and his head was handed over to the crowd. After that, a fire broke out in Moscow, as a result of which half of Moscow burned out. It was said that Morozov's people set the fire in order to distract the people from the rebellion. Demands for the extradition of Trakhanionov continued; the authorities decided to sacrifice him just to stop the rebellion. Streltsy were sent to the city where Trakhanionov himself commanded. On June 4, 1648, the boyar was also executed. Now the look of the rebels was riveted by the boyar Morozov. But the tsar decided not to sacrifice such a “valuable” person and Morozov was exiled to the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery in order to return him as soon as the rebellion subsided, but the boyar would be so frightened by the rebellion that he would never take an active part in state affairs.
In an atmosphere of revolt, the top tenants, the lower strata of the nobility sent a petition to the tsar, in which they demanded the streamlining of the judiciary, the development of new laws.
As a result of the petitioned authorities, they made concessions: the archers were given eight rubles each, the debtors were freed from beating money, the stealing judges were replaced. Subsequently, the rebellion began to subside, but not everything got away with the rebels: the instigators of the rebellion among the serfs were executed.
On July 16, the Zemsky Sobor was convened, which decided to adopt a number of new laws. In January 1649, the Council Code was approved.
Here is the result of the "salt" rebellion: the truth triumphed, the people's offenders were punished, and to top it all off, the Council Code was adopted, which was designed to alleviate the people's lot and rid the administrative apparatus of corruption.
Before and after the Salt Riot, uprisings broke out in more than 30 cities of the country: in the same 1648 in Ustyug, Kursk, Voronezh, in 1650 - "bread riots" in Novgorod and Pskov.
The Moscow uprising of 1662 (“Copper Riot”) was caused by a financial catastrophe in the state and the difficult economic situation of the working masses of the city and countryside as a result of a sharp increase in tax oppression during the wars of Russia with Poland and Sweden. The mass issue by the government of copper money (since 1654), equated to the value of silver money, and their significant depreciation to silver (6–8 times in 1662) led to a sharp rise in food prices, huge speculation, abuse and mass counterfeiting of copper coins ( in which individual representatives of the central administration were involved). In many cities (especially in Moscow), famine broke out among the bulk of the townspeople (despite good harvests in previous years). Great dissatisfaction was also caused by the decision of the government on a new, extremely difficult, extraordinary tax collection (pyatina). Active participants in the "copper" rebellion were representatives of the urban lower classes of the capital, and peasants from villages near Moscow. The uprising broke out in the early morning of July 25, when leaflets appeared in many districts of Moscow, in which the most prominent leaders of the government (I. D. Miloslavsky; I. M. Miloslavsky; I. A. Miloslavsky; B. M. Khitrovo; F. M. Rtishchev ) were declared traitors. Crowds of rebels went to Red Square, and from there to the village. Kolomenskoye, where Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was.
The rebels (4-5 thousand people, mostly townspeople and soldiers) surrounded the royal residence, handed over their petition to the tsar, insisting on the extradition of the persons indicated in the leaflets, as well as on a sharp reduction in taxes, food prices, etc. Taken by surprise, the tsar, who had about 1,000 armed courtiers and archers, did not dare to take reprisals, promising the rebels to investigate and punish the perpetrators. The rebels turned to Moscow, where, after the departure of the first group of rebels, a second group formed and the destruction of the courtyards of large merchants began. On the same day, both groups united, arrived in the village. Kolomenskoye, again surrounded the royal palace and resolutely demanded the extradition of government leaders, threatening to execute them even without the tsar's sanction. At this time in Moscow, after the departure of the second group of rebels in the village. With the help of archers, the Kolomenskoye authorities, by order of the tsar, switched to active punitive actions, and 3 archery and 2 soldier regiments (up to 8 thousand people) were already pulled into Kolomenskoye. After the rebels refused to disperse, the beating of mostly unarmed people began. During the massacre and subsequent executions, about 1 thousand people were killed, sunk, hanged and executed, up to 1.5-2 thousand rebels were exiled (with families up to 8 thousand people).
June 11, 1663 was followed by a royal decree on the closure of the yards of the "money copper business" and the return to the minting of silver coins. Copper money was redeemed from the population in a short time - within a month. For one silver kopeck they took a ruble in copper money. Trying to benefit from copper kopecks, the population began to cover them with a layer of mercury or silver, passing them off as silver money. This trick was soon noticed, and a royal decree appeared on the prohibition of tinning copper money.
So, the attempt to improve the Russian monetary system ended in complete failure and led to a breakdown in monetary circulation, riots and general impoverishment. Neither the introduction of a system of large and small denominations, nor an attempt to replace expensive raw materials for minting money with cheaper ones failed.
Russian monetary circulation returned to the traditional silver coin. And the time of Alexei Mikhailovich was called "rebellious" by his contemporaries
Peasant war led by S. Razin
In 1667, after the end of the war with the Commonwealth, a large number of fugitives poured into the Don. Famine reigned in the Don.
Back in March 1667, Moscow became aware that many residents of the Don "selected to steal to the Volga." The Cossack Stepan Timofeevich Razin stood at the head of the mass of unorganized, but brave, determined and armed people. He showed self-will by recruiting his detachment from the Cossack gola and alien people - fugitive peasants, townsmen tax-payers, archers, who were not part of the Donskoy army and were not subordinate to the Cossack foreman.
He conceived a campaign in order to distribute the captured booty to the needy, feed the hungry, clothe and shoe the undressed and undressed. Razin, at the head of a detachment of Cossacks of 500 people, did not go to the Volga, but down the Don. It's hard to tell what his intentions were at that moment. It seems that this campaign was aimed at lulling the vigilance of the Volga governors and attracting supporters. People came to Razin from different places. Lead your troops to him.
In mid-May 1667, the Cossacks and the fugitive peasantry crossed over the crossing to the Volga. Razin's detachment grew to 2000 people. First, the Razints met a large trade caravan on the Volga, which included ships with exiles. The Cossacks seized goods and property, replenished stocks of weapons and provisions, took possession of the plows. Streltsy commanders and merchant clerks were killed, and exiles, most of the archers and rivermen who worked on merchant ships voluntarily joined the Razintsy.
Cossacks clashed with government troops. As the events of the Caspian campaign developed, the rebellious nature of the movement became more and more manifest.
Avoiding a clash with government troops, he in a short time and with small losses spent his flotilla at sea, then moved to the Yaik River and easily captured the Yaitsky town. In all battles, Razin showed great courage. The Cossacks were joined by more and more people from the huts and plows.
Having entered the Caspian Sea, the Razintsy headed to its southern shores. Some time later, their ships stopped in the area of the Persian city of Rasht. The Cossacks sacked the cities of Rasht, Farabat, Astrabad and wintered near the "amusing palace of the Shah", setting up an earthen town in his forest reserve on the Miyan-Kale peninsula. Having exchanged the captives for the Russians in the ratio of "one to four", in this way they replenished with people.
The release of Russian captives languishing in Persia and the replenishment of the Razin detachment with the Persian poor goes beyond the scope of military predatory actions.
In a naval battle near Pig Island, the Razintsy won a complete victory over the troops of the Persian Shah. However, the trip to the Caspian Sea was marked not only by victories and successes. Razintsy had heavy losses and defeats. The fight with large Persian forces near Rasht ended unfavorably for them.
At the end of the Caspian campaign, Razin gave the governors a bunchuk, a sign of his power, and returned some of the weapons. Then the Razintsy, having received the forgiveness of Moscow, returned to the Don. After the Caspian campaign, Razin did not disband his detachment. On September 17, 1669, 20 versts from the Black Yar, Razin demanded that the archers' heads come to him, and renamed the archers and feeders into his "Cossacks".
The reports of the governors of the southern cities about the independent behavior of Razin, that he “became strong” and was again plotting “distemper”, alerted the government. In January 1670, a certain Gerasim Evdokimov was sent to Cherkassk. Razin demanded that Evdokim be brought in and interrogated him, from whom did he come: from the great sovereign or the boyars? The messenger confirmed that from the king, but Razin declared him a boyar scout. The Cossacks drowned the royal envoy. In the town of Panshin, Razin gathered the participants of the upcoming campaign in a large circle. The ataman announced that he intended to "go from the Don to the Volga, and from the Volga to go to Rus' ... so that ... from the Muscovite state, bring the boyars and duma people as traitors and in the cities the governors and clerks" and give freedom to "black people".
Soon 7000 Razin's army moved to Tsaritsyn. Having captured it, the Razintsy remained in the town for about 2 weeks. The fighting in the lower reaches of the Volga in the spring and summer of 1670 showed that Razin was a talented commander. On June 22, Astrakhan was captured by the Razintsy. Samara and Saratov passed to the Razintsy without a single shot.
After that, the Razintsy began the siege of Simbirsk. At the end of August 1670, the government sent an army to suppress the Razin uprising. A month's stay near Simbirsk was Razin's tactical miscalculation. It made it possible to bring government troops here. In the battle near Simbirsk, Razin was seriously wounded, and later executed in Moscow.
Apparently, one of the main reasons for the failure of the Simbirsk was the lack of a permanent staff in the rebel army. Only the core of the Cossacks and archers remained stable in the Razin army, while numerous peasant detachments, which made up the bulk of the rebels, kept coming and going. They did not have military experience, and during the period that they were not in the ranks of the Razintsy, they did not have time to accumulate it.
schismatic movement
An important fact of Russian history of the XVII century. there was a church schism, which was the result of the church reform of Patriarch Nikon.
The most significant of the innovations adopted by Patriarch Nikon and the church council of 1654 was the replacement of baptism with two fingers with three fingers, the pronunciation of the praise to God "alelujah" not twice, but three times, the movement around the lectern in the church not in the course of the Sun, but against it. All of them dealt with the purely ritual side, and not with the essence of Orthodoxy.
The schism of the Orthodox Church took place at the council of 1666-1667, and from 1667 the schismatics were put on trial by the "city authorities", who burned them for "blasphemy against the Lord God." In 1682, Archpriest Avvakum, the main opponent of Patriarch Nikon, died at the stake.
Archpriest Avvakum became one of the brightest personalities in Russian history. Many considered him a saint and a miracle worker. He participated together with Nikon in correcting liturgical books, but was soon dismissed due to ignorance of the Greek language.
On January 6, 1681, the tsar went with a large number of people to consecrate the water. At this time, the Old Believers committed a pogrom in the Assumption and Archangel Cathedrals of the Kremlin. They smeared royal vestments and tombs with tar, and also placed tallow candles, which were considered unclean in church use. At this time, the crowd returned, and an associate of the rebels, Gerasim Shapochnik, began to throw “thieves' letters” into the crowd, which depicted caricatures of the tsar and the patriarchs.
The schism brought together a variety of social forces that advocated the preservation of the traditional character of Russian culture intact. There were princes and boyars, such as the noblewoman F. P. Morozova and princess E. P. Urusova, monks and the white clergy, who refused to perform the new rites. But there were especially many ordinary people - townspeople, archers, peasants - who saw in the preservation of the old rites a way of fighting for the ancient folk ideals of "truth" and "freedom". The most radical step taken by the Old Believers was the decision taken in 1674 to stop praying for the tsar's health. This meant a complete break of the Old Believers with the existing society, the beginning of the struggle to preserve the ideal of "truth" within their communities.
The main idea of the Old Believers was "falling away" from the world of evil, unwillingness to live in it. Hence the preference for self-immolation over compromise with the authorities. Only in 1675-1695. 37 fires were registered, during which at least 20 thousand people died. Another form of protest of the Old Believers was the flight from the power of the tsar, the search for the "secret city of Kitezh" or the utopian country Belovodie, under the protection of God himself.
The main contradictions in international relations
The emergence of centralized nation-states and the formation of the foundations of the capitalist structure in the countries of Europe had a significant impact on the nature of international relations. Two factors of influence acquire a vivid expression:
- dynastic aspirations of monarchs seeking to expand their possessions by capturing and annexing territories;
- the struggle for the mastery of overseas colonies and maritime trade routes necessary for the acquisition of markets for raw materials and the sale of goods far beyond the borders of Europe.
The second half of the $17th century turned into the rise of France. Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, after the end of the Thirteen Years, found themselves in a state of crisis. English kings being cousins of the French king Louis XIV have become addicted to it. Louis pursued an active foreign policy, expanding the borders of the state. In 1672 he fought with Spain, trying to capture the Netherlands. In 1681, the king provoked an attack by the Turks on Vienna and captured Strasbourg.
Remark 1
In 1688-1697, Louis XIV unleashed a war with all European countries. But it ended for France to no avail. The economy of the kingdom was undermined, a crisis began. At this time, England is getting stronger. She pushed Holland on the seas and in the colonies, starting to form her own colonial empire.
18th century wars
In the first half of the $XVIII$ century there were three big wars that led to a violation of the balance of power.
War of the Spanish Succession began in 1701, when the childless King Charles II of Habsburg died. He appointed Philip of Anjou, grandson of the French king Louis XIV, as his heir. There was a prospect to unite the enemies - Spain and France. The Holy Roman Emperor Leopold also belonged to the Habsburg dynasty, so he tried to take possession of the Spanish lands. He was supported by England and Holland. The Spanish-French alliance was defeated and in 1713 went to peace negotiations. The Peace of Utrecht was signed, and in 1714 the Rastatt Agreement. They secured the right of Philip to remain the king of Spain, but it was forbidden to unite the state with France forever. The Franco-Spanish alliance collapsed, France lost its hegemony in Europe. The principle of the balance of power was recognized as fundamental in the system of international relations.
In 1700-1721 passed North War. It was waged by European countries for the subjugation of the Baltic lands and the Baltic Sea. The war ended with the defeat and loss of power by Sweden. A new empire appeared on the world map - the Russian.
In 1740, the Austrian emperor from the House of Habsburg Charles VI died. started War of the Austrian Succession. European monarchs tried to challenge his will and dismember the possessions of this dynasty. The rulers of Spain, Bavaria, Saxony, Poland and Sardinia opposed the legitimate heir Stephen of Lorraine. England and Russia acted as allies of Austria. In October 1748, the Peace of Aachen was signed, which retained the existing order of land ownership. Only Silesia and Glatz were separated from Austria.
Seven Years' War
The years 1756-1763 went down in history as the time of the Seven Years' War. Military operations were conducted in Europe, America and Asia. This war can be considered a prototype of the world war. France, Russia and Austria entered into an alliance to fight Prussia and other German principalities. England provided assistance to the Germans, but did not take part in the war on the continent itself. England and Spain, taking advantage of the moment, seized the French colonies in America and India. Although Prussia was defeated, and France seized English possessions in Europe, these results were devalued by Russia's withdrawal from the war (Peter III, an admirer of Prussia, becomes the Russian emperor). Borders in Europe have not changed.
I. Introduction. Socio-economic conditions prevailing in Russia by the middle of the 17th century
II. The economic situation in Russia in the second half of the XVII century
III. The social structure of Russia in the second half of the XVII century
IV. Conclusion. Russia on the threshold of the 18th century
Introduction. Socio-economic conditions prevailing in Russia by the middle of the 17th century
Russia at the beginning of the 17th century - centralized feudal state. Agriculture remained the basis of the economy, in which the vast majority of the population was employed. By the end of the 16th century, there was a significant expansion of sown areas associated with the colonization of the southern regions of the country by Russian people. The dominant form of landownership was feudal landownership. Feudal ownership of land was strengthened and expanded, and the peasants were further enslaved.
In the leading branches of production, more or less large enterprises, mostly state-owned, began to occupy a prominent place: the Cannon Yard, the Armory, the City Order and the Order of Stone Affairs with its brick factories, etc. The creation and development of large enterprises contributed to the growth of the division of labor and the improvement of technology. characteristic feature The development of urban crafts was the emergence of new, increasingly narrow specialties.
The commercial and industrial population of Russia increased. Foreign specialists and merchants flocked to Moscow, which led to the emergence in Moscow of the German settlement, trading yards - English, Pansky, Armenian. This testifies to the ever-increasing role of trade in the Russian economy of that time.
The growth of handicrafts and trade was the first sign of the emergence of capitalist relations in Russia, but at that time there were no conditions that could radically change the existing economic structure in the country, while the economies of Western European countries were rapidly developing towards the establishment of capitalism. There was no single national market in Russia; commodity-money relations were based on the sale of the surplus product of the feudal natural economy. Market relations were based on the division of labor associated with differences in natural geographical conditions.
The beginning of the 17th century in the history of Russia was marked by major political and socio-economic upheavals. This time was called by historians the Time of Troubles. Numerous popular unrest, anarchy and arbitrariness of the Polish-Swedish interventionists led the country to unprecedented economic ruin. The consequence of the Time of Troubles was a powerful regression of the economic and socio-political situation compared to that achieved by the end of the 16th century. Documentary and literary sources of that time paint gloomy pictures of devastated, depopulated cities and villages, desolated arable land, the decline of crafts and trade. Nevertheless, the Russian people quickly coped with the disasters, and by the middle of the 17th century, life began to return to its former course.
The economic situation in Russia in the second half of the XVII century
1. General characteristics
Having recovered from the war and intervention at the beginning of the century, the country entered a new stage of socio-economic development. The 17th century was a time of significant growth in the productive forces in industry and agriculture. Despite the dominance of natural economy, the successes of the social division of labor led not only to the flourishing of small-scale production, but also to the emergence of the first Russian manufactories. The industrial enterprises of the merchants and the agricultural holdings of the large patrimonials and petty servants were throwing an increasing amount of surplus product onto the market. At the same time, not only domestic, but also foreign trade grew. The formation of the all-Russian national market was a qualitatively new phenomenon, which prepared the conditions for the emergence of capitalist production and, in turn, experienced its reverse powerful influence.
In the 17th century, there were signs of the beginning of the process of primitive accumulation - the emergence of merchants, owners of big capital, who amassed wealth through non-equivalent exchange (traders in salt, precious Siberian furs, Novgorod and Pskov flax).
However, under the conditions of the serf Russian state, the processes of monetary accumulation proceeded in a peculiar and slow manner, sharply differing from the rates and forms of initial accumulation in Western European countries. Russian state The 17th century did not have favorable conditions for its economic development: its trade and industry did not reach a level that could ensure the gradual elimination of the peasant's personal dependence; remote from the western and southern seas, it could not establish independent, active maritime trade; fur wealth of Siberia could not compete with the inexhaustible values of the American and South Asian colonies. Drawn into the whirlpool of world trade at the very beginning of the capitalist era, in the 17th century Russia acquired the importance of a raw material market, a supplier of agricultural products to economically more developed countries. Another condition slowed down the process of primitive capital accumulation. Huge land reserves, relatively easily accessible to settlers, contributed to the gradual thinning of the population in the historical center, mitigating the sharpness of class contradictions as a result, and at the same time spreading feudal relations to new, unoccupied territories.
The inhibition of the process of primitive accumulation led to important consequences for the entire subsequent economic development of the country. In Russia, the growth of commodity production for a long time outpaced the expansion of the labor market. Manufacturers sought to make up for the lack of civilian workers by recruiting serfs to work at their enterprises. Russia found itself in the position of a country that was drawn into world capitalist circulation and began to join capitalist production without having had time to get rid of inefficient corvée labor. The result of this dual situation was not only the intertwining of old and new production relations, but, up to a certain point, the simultaneous development of both. Feudal ownership of land continued to expand and consolidate, serving as the basis for the development and legalization of serfdom.
2. Agriculture
In the second half of the 17th century, grain farming remained the leading branch of the Russian economy. Progress in this sphere of material production at that time was associated with the widespread use of three-field cultivation and the use of natural fertilizers. Bread gradually became the main commercial product of agriculture.
By the middle of the century, the Russian people with hard work overcame the devastation caused by foreign invasions. The peasants repopulated the abandoned villages, plowed the wastelands, acquired livestock and agricultural implements.
As a result of Russian peasant colonization, new areas were developed: in the south of the country, in the Volga region, Bashkiria, and Siberia. In all these places, new centers of agricultural culture arose.
But the overall level of agricultural development was low. In agriculture, such primitive tools as plows and harrows continued to be used. In the forest regions of the North, the undercut still existed, and in the steppe zone of the South and the Middle Volga region, there was a fallow.
The basis for the development of animal husbandry was the peasant economy. Cattle breeding especially developed in Pomorye, in the Yaroslavl region, in the southern counties.
Noble land ownership grew rapidly as a result of numerous government grants of estates and estates to nobles. By the end of the 17th century, patrimonial noble land ownership began to exceed the previously dominant land ownership.
The center of an estate or patrimony was a village or village. Usually in the village there were about 15-30 peasant households. But there were villages with two or three courtyards. The village differed from the village not only in its large size, but also in the presence of a church with a bell tower. It was the center for all the villages included in his church parish.
Subsistence farming predominated in agricultural production. Small-scale production in agriculture was combined with domestic peasant industry and small-scale urban handicrafts.
In the 17th century, trade in agricultural products increased markedly, which was associated with the development of fertile lands in the south and east, the emergence of a number of fishing areas that did not produce their own bread, and the growth of cities.
A new and very important phenomenon in agriculture of the XVII century. There was his connection with industrial entrepreneurship. Many peasants in their free time from field work, mainly in autumn and winter, were engaged in handicrafts: they made linens, shoes, clothes, dishes, agricultural implements, etc. Some of these products were used in the peasant economy itself or given as quitrent to the landowner, the other was sold at the nearest market.
The feudal lords increasingly established contact with the market, where they sold the products and handicrafts received by dues. Not satisfied with dues, they expanded their own plowing and set up their own production of products.
Preserving a largely natural character, the agriculture of the feudal lords was already largely connected with the market. The production of foodstuffs for the supply of cities and a number of industrial regions that did not produce bread grew. The southern districts of the state turned into grain-producing regions, from where bread came to the region of the Don Cossacks and to the central regions (especially to Moscow). The counties of the Volga region also gave an excess of bread.
The main way for the development of agriculture of that time was extensive: landowners included an increasing number of new territories in the economic circulation.
3. Industry
Unlike agriculture, industrial production has advanced more noticeably. The most widespread domestic industry; throughout the country, peasants produced canvases and homespun cloth, ropes and ropes, felted and leather shoes, various clothes and utensils, and much more. Through buyers, these products entered the market. Gradually, peasant industry outgrows the domestic framework, turns into small-scale commodity production.
Among the artisans, the most numerous group was made up of draft workers - artisans of urban settlements and black-moss volosts. They carried out private orders or worked for the market. Palace artisans served the needs of the royal court; state-owned and written ones worked on orders from the treasury (construction work, procurement of materials, etc.); privately owned - from peasants, beavers and serfs - produced everything necessary for landowners and estate owners. Craft in pretty large sizes developed, primarily among the taxpayers, into commodity production.
Metalworking, which has long existed in the country, was based on the extraction of swamp ores. The centers of metallurgy were formed in the districts south of Moscow: Serpukhov, Kashirsky, Tula, Dedilovsky, Aleksinsky. Another center is the districts to the north-west of Moscow: Ustyuzhna Zheleznopolskaya, Tikhvin, Zaonezhye.
Moscow was a major center of metalworking - back in the early 1940s, there were more than one and a half hundred forges here. The best gold and silver craftsmen in Russia worked in the capital. The centers of silver production were also Ustyug the Great, Nizhny Novgorod, Veliky Novgorod, Tikhvin and others. Copper and other non-ferrous metals were processed in Moscow, Pomorie (the manufacture of cauldrons, bells of dishes with painted enamel, chasing, etc.).
Metalworking is to a large extent converted into commodity production, and not only in the towns, but also in the countryside.
Blacksmithing reveals tendencies towards the enlargement of production, the use of hired labor. This is especially true for Tula, Ustyuzhna, Tikhvin, Veliky Ustyug.
Similar phenomena, although to a lesser extent, are observed in woodworking. Throughout the country, carpenters worked mainly to order - they built houses, river and sea vessels. Carpenters from Pomorye were distinguished by special skill.
The largest center of the leather industry was Yaroslavl, where raw materials for the manufacture of leather products were supplied from many districts of the country. Worked here big number small "factories" - craft workshops. The leather was processed by craftsmen from Kaluga and Nizhny Novgorod. Yaroslavl tanners used hired labor; some “factories developed into manufactory-type enterprises with a significant division of labor.
With all its development, handicraft production could no longer satisfy the demand for industrial products. This leads to the emergence in the 17th century of manufactories - enterprises based on the division of labor between workers. If in Western Europe manufactories were capitalist enterprises, served by the labor of hired workers, then in Russia, under the dominance of the feudal serf system, the emerging manufacturing production was largely based on serf labor. Most of the manufactories belonged to the treasury, the royal court and large boyars.
Palace manufactories were created to produce fabrics for the royal court. One of the first palace linen manufactories was the Khamovny yard, located in the palace settlements near Moscow. State manufactories, which arose as early as the 15th century, were usually founded for the production of various types of weapons. The state-owned manufactories were the Cannon Yard, the Armory, the Money Yard, the Jewelery Yard and other enterprises. The population of Moscow state and palace settlements worked at state and palace manufactories. Workers, although they received a salary, were feudally dependent people, did not have the right to quit their jobs.
The patrimonial manufactories had the most pronounced serf character. Iron-making, potash, leather, linen and other manufactories were created in the estates of the boyars Morozov, Miloslavsky, Stroganov and others. Here, almost exclusively forced labor of serfs was used.
Wage labor was used in merchant manufactories. In 1666, the Novgorod merchant Semyon Gavrilov, having started the creation of an iron-working manufactory, laid the foundation for the Olonets factories. In Ustyuzhna, Tula, Tikhvin, Ustyug the Great, some wealthy merchants began to establish metalworking enterprises. In the 90s of the 17th century, the wealthy Tula blacksmith-artisan Nikita Antufiev opened an iron-smelting plant. Some manufactories and crafts were founded by wealthy peasants, for example, the Volga salt mines, leather, ceramic and textile manufactories. In addition to merchant manufactories, hired labor is also used in brick production, in construction, in the fishing and salt industries. Among the workers there were many quitrent peasants who, although personally not free people, sold their labor power to the owners of the means of production.
4. Trading
The growth of productive forces in agriculture and industry, the deepening of the social division of labor and territorial production specialization led to a steady expansion of trade ties. In the 17th century, trade relations already exist on a national scale.
In the North, in need of imported bread, there are grain markets, the main of which was Vologda. Novgorod remained a trading center in the northwestern part of the state - a large market for the sale of linen and hemp products. Important markets for livestock products were Kazan, Vologda, Yaroslavl, markets for furs - some cities in the northern part of Rus': Solvychegodsk, Irbit, etc. Tula, Tikhvin and other cities became the largest producers of metal products.
The main trading center throughout Russia was still Moscow, where trade routes converged from all over the country and from abroad. Silks, furs, metal and woolen products, wines, lard, bread and other domestic and foreign goods were sold in 120 specialized rows of the Moscow market. Fairs acquired all-Russian significance - Makarievskaya, Arkhangelsk, Irbitskaya. The Volga connected many Russian cities with economic ties.
The dominant position in trade was occupied by townspeople, primarily guests and members of the living room and cloth shop. Large merchants came out of wealthy artisans, peasants. They traded various goods and in many places; trade specialization was poorly developed, capital circulated slowly, free funds and credit were absent, usury had not yet become a professional occupation. The scattered nature of trade required many agents and intermediaries. Only towards the end of the century does specialized trade appear.
In Russia, the demand for industrial products increased, and the development of agriculture and handicrafts made it possible for stable exports.
In imports from Western European countries to Russia, an important place was occupied by silk fabrics, weapons, metals, cloth, and luxury goods. Furs, leather, hemp, wax, and bread were exported from Russia.
Trade with the countries of the East was lively. It was conducted mainly through Astrakhan. Silks, various fabrics, spices, luxury items were imported, furs, leather, handicrafts were exported. The Russian merchant class, which was less economically strong than the trading capital of Western countries, suffered losses due to Western competition, especially if the government granted European merchants the right to trade duty-free. Therefore, in 1667, the government adopted the Novotragovy Charter, according to which retail trade by foreigners in Russian cities was prohibited, duty-free wholesale trade was allowed only in border cities, and in inner Russia foreign goods were subject to very high duties, often in the amount of 100% of the cost. The Novotragovy charter was the first manifestation of the protectionist policy of the Russian government.
5. Public finances
With the formation of the Russian centralized state, a single monetary system was created (reform of 1535). Since that time, the minting of a new national coin began - Novgorod, or kopeck, and Moskovka-Novgorod. The structure of the Russian monetary system became decimal. The minting of coins was one of the items of state income. The vast majority of state revenues were numerous taxes - direct and indirect, which steadily increased. From the middle of the XVI to the middle of the XVII century. Tax rates have doubled.
In the 17th century, the system of direct taxes was changed. Land taxation was replaced by household taxation. The proportion of indirect taxes - customs and taverns - has increased. So, in 1679-1680. Indirect fees provided 53.3% of all state revenues, and direct fees - 44%.
The most important expenditure item in the budget (over 60%) was military spending.
The social structure of Russia in the second half of the XVII century
1. Estates
Among all classes and estates, the dominant place undoubtedly belonged to the feudal lords. In their interests, the state power carried out measures to strengthen the ownership of the land by the boyars and nobles and the peasants, to unite the strata of the feudal class. Service people took shape in the 17th century in a complex and clear hierarchy of officials who were obliged to the state by service in the military, civil, court departments in exchange for the right to own land and peasants. They were divided into the ranks of the duma (boyars, roundabouts, duma nobles and duma clerks), Moscow (stewards, solicitors, Moscow nobles and residents) and city (elected nobles, nobles and children of boyars yards, nobles and children of boyars city). By merit, service and nobility of origin, the feudal lords passed from one rank to another. The nobility turned into a closed class - an estate.
The authorities strictly and consistently sought to keep their estates and estates in the hands of the nobles. The demands of the nobility and the measures of the authorities led to the fact that by the end of the century they reduced the difference between the estate and the estate to a minimum. Throughout the century, governments, on the one hand, gave away vast tracts of land to the feudal lords; on the other hand, part of the possessions, more or less significant, was transferred from the estate to the estate.
Large land holdings with peasants belonged to spiritual feudal lords. In the 17th century, the authorities continued the course of their predecessors to limit church land ownership. The Code of 1649, for example, prohibited the clergy from acquiring new lands. The privileges of the church in matters of court and administration were limited.
Unlike the feudal lords, especially the nobility, the situation of peasants and serfs in the 17th century deteriorated significantly. Of the privately owned peasants, the palace peasants lived better, the worst of all - the peasants of the secular feudal lords, especially the small ones. The peasants worked for the benefit of the feudal lords in the corvée (“product”), made natural and cash quitrents. The usual size of the "product" is from two to four days a week, depending on the size of the lord's economy, the solvency of the serfs, and the amount of land they have. "Table supplies" - bread and meat, vegetables and fruits, hay and firewood, mushrooms and berries - were taken to the owners' yards by the same peasants. Nobles and boyars took carpenters and masons, brickmakers and other masters from their villages and villages. Peasants worked at the first factories and factories that belonged to feudal lords or the treasury, made cloth and canvas at home, and so on. Serfs, in addition to work and payments in favor of the feudal lords, carried duties in favor of the treasury. In general, their taxation, duties were heavier than those of the palace and black-mowed. The situation of the peasants dependent on the feudal lords was aggravated by the fact that the trial and reprisals of the boyars and their clerks were accompanied by overt violence, bullying, and humiliation of human dignity. After 1649, the search for fugitive peasants assumed wide dimensions. Thousands of them were seized and returned to their owners.
In order to live, the peasants went to waste, to "farm laborers", to work. The impoverished peasants passed into the category of beans.
Feudal lords, especially large ones, had many slaves, sometimes several hundred people. These are clerks and servants for parcels, grooms and tailors, watchmen and shoemakers, falconers, etc. By the end of the century, serfdom merged with the peasantry.
Life was better for the state, or black-mowed, peasants. They depended on the feudal state: taxes were paid in its favor, they carried various duties.
Despite the modest share of merchants and artisans in the total population of Russia, they played a very significant role in its economic life. The leading center of handicraft, industrial production, trade operations is Moscow. In the 1940s, masters of metalworking (in 128 forges), fur craftsmen (about 100 craftsmen), manufacturing of various food (about 600 people), leather and leather goods, clothes and hats, and much more - everything that a large populous city.
To a lesser, but quite noticeable degree, the craft developed in other cities of Russia. A significant part of the artisans worked for the state, the treasury. Part of the artisans served the needs of the palace (palace) and the feudal lords living in Moscow and other cities (patrimonial artisans). The rest were part of the township communities of cities, carried various duties and paid taxes, the totality of which was called tax. Craftsmen from township tax workers often switched from working on the order of the consumer to working for the market, and the craft, thus, developed into commodity production. Simple capitalist cooperation also appeared, hired labor was used. Poor townspeople and peasants went as mercenaries to the wealthy blacksmiths, boilermakers, bakers and others. The same thing happened in transport, river and horse-drawn.
The development of handicraft production, its professional, territorial specialization, revitalizes the economic life of cities, trade relations between them and their districts. It is to the XVII century. the beginning of the concentration of local markets, the formation of the all-Russian market on their basis. Guests and other wealthy merchants appeared with their goods in all parts of the country and abroad. During the Time of Troubles and after it, they more than once lent money to the authorities.
Wealthy merchants, artisans, industrialists ran everything in the township communities. They shifted the main burden of dues and duties to the poor peasants - small artisans and merchants.
In cities, peasants, serfs, and artisans have long lived in the yards and settlements that belonged to the boyars. They were engaged, in addition to serving the owners, and trade. Moreover, unlike the townspeople, they did not pay taxes and did not carry duties in favor of the state. This freed the people who belonged to the boyars and monasteries, in this case, artisans and merchants, from the tax.
2. Popular uprisings
From the middle of the 17th century, Russia was shaken by powerful uprisings that took place in response to government measures to intensify exploitation and further enslavement of the peasants - the growth of noble land ownership, the introduction of new fees and duties.
In 1648, a movement broke out in Moscow, which was called the “salt riot”. Beginning on June 1, the uprising continued for several days. The people smashed the courts of the Moscow boyars and nobles, clerks and wealthy merchants, demanding to extradite the hated officials Pleshcheev, who was in charge of the administration of the capital and the head of the government, boyar Morozov. To stabilize the situation, the authorities convened the Zemsky Sobor, which decided to prepare a new "Codex". Unrest in the capital did not stop until the end of the year. A powerful, albeit short-lived uprising broke out in Moscow - the "copper riot" on July 25, 1662. Its participants - the capital's townspeople and part of the archers, soldiers, reiter of the Moscow garrison - presented their demands to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich: tax cuts, which had greatly increased due to wars with Poland and Sweden, the abolition of copper money, issued in huge quantities and equated to silver. In addition, a lot of counterfeit money appeared on the market. All this led to a strong depreciation of the copper coin, high cost, hunger. This uprising was brutally suppressed by the authorities. At the beginning of 1663, copper money was abolished, frankly motivating this measure with the desire to prevent new bloodshed.
In 1667 On the Don, an uprising of Cossacks led by Stepan Razin broke out.
The introduction of a new code of laws, the “Council Code” of 1649, the cruel investigation of the fugitives, and the increase in taxes for the war heated up the already tense situation in the state. The wars with Poland and Sweden ruined the bulk of the working strata of the population. In the same years, crop failures, epidemics occurred more than once, the situation of archers, gunners, etc. worsened. Many fled to the outskirts, especially to the Don. In the Cossack regions, it has long been the custom not to extradite fugitives.
The bulk of the Cossacks, especially the fugitives, lived poorly, meagerly. The Cossacks were not engaged in agriculture. The salary received from Moscow was not enough. By the mid-1960s, the situation on the Don had deteriorated to the extreme. accumulated here a large number of fugitives. Hunger has begun. The Cossacks sent an embassy to Moscow with a request to accept them into the royal service, but they were refused. By 1667, the Cossack uprisings turned into good organized movement under the leadership of Razin. A large army of rebels was defeated in 1670 near Simbirsk. At the beginning of 1671, the main centers of the movement were suppressed by the punitive detachments of the authorities.
Conclusion. Russia on the threshold of the 18th century
During the 17th century, great changes took place in the history of Russia. They touched every aspect of her life. By this time, the territory of the Russian state had noticeably expanded, and the population was growing.
The 17th century was marked in the history of Russia by the further development of the feudal-serf system, the significant strengthening of feudal land ownership. The new feudal nobility concentrated vast patrimonial wealth in their hands.
ruling class in the seventeenth century. There were feudal landowners, secular and ecclesiastical landowners and estate owners. This class in this period began to acquire class isolation. Another class of feudal society included the peasantry, which by this time was gradually beginning to get rid of its former division into numerous categories. The Cathedral Code of 1649, which formalized the system of serfdom and completed the development of serf legislation, assigned privately owned peasants to landlords, boyars, and monasteries, and strengthened local dependence of peasants on feudal lords and on the state. According to the same Council Code, the heredity of serfdom and the right of the landowner to dispose of the property of a serf were established. Granting extensive serf rights to landowners, the tsarist government at the same time made them responsible for the performance of state duties by their peasants.
Under these conditions, the development of trade is of particular importance. Several large shopping centers were formed in Russia, among which Moscow stood out with its huge trade, with more than 120 specialized rows. Merchants were the leaders and masters of this process.
The growth of commodity production in the 17th century led to a sharp growth of cities. Suffice it to say that during this period there were more than 225 cities in Russia. The urban population increased sharply.
Meanwhile, in the same years, uprisings broke out in the country every now and then, in particular, the rather powerful Moscow uprising of 1662. The largest uprising was the uprising of Stepan Razin, who in 1667 led the peasants to the Volga.
After the peasant war in Russia, a number of important state measures were carried out, including the transition to a system of household taxation, transformations in the army, etc.
By the beginning of the XVIII century. Economically, Russia continued to lag behind the main Western European countries. It produced less industrial output than England, the Netherlands, and France. Manufactories in Russia were just emerging, among them capitalist enterprises constituted an insignificant minority. The economic situation in Russia was negatively affected by the fact that the country actually did not have free access to the sea. The Baltic was completely dominated by Sweden. The route to Western Europe through the White Sea was long and could only be used during the summer months.
During the period of colonial conquests in the world, Russia's economic backwardness from the West, which caused her military weakness, threatened her with the loss of national independence. To eliminate this threat and overcome economic, military and cultural backwardness, it was necessary to urgently implement a number of economic reforms: to further strengthen state power, to Europeanize public administration, create a regular army and Navy, to build a merchant fleet, to achieve access to the sea, to rapidly advance manufacturing production, to draw the country into the world market system, to subordinate the entire tax and monetary system to these tasks.
The economic prerequisites for the reforms of the early 18th century were created by the entire course of Russia's development in the 17th century. - the growth of production and the expansion of the range of agricultural products, the success of crafts and the emergence of manufactories, the development of trade and the growth of the economic role of the merchants.
Bibliography
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3. Druzhinin N. M. Socio-economic conditions for the formation of the Russian bourgeois nation // Questions of the formation of the Russian nationality and nation. Digest of articles. M.-L., USSR Academy of Sciences, 1958.
4. History of Russia from ancient times to the end of the 17th century / A. P. Novoseltsev, A. N. Sakharov, V. I. Buganov, V. D. Nazarov, - M .: AST Publishing House, 1996.
5. Munchaev Sh. M., Ustinov V. M. History of Russia. Textbook for universities. M., Publishing house Infra M-Norma, 1997.
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Alexei Mikhailovich (1645-1676)
Alexei Mikhailovich survived a turbulent era of "riots" and wars, rapprochement and discord with Patriarch Nikon. Under him, the possessions of Russia are expanding both in the east, in Siberia, and in the west. There is an active diplomatic activity.
Much has been done in the area domestic policy. A course was pursued towards the centralization of administration, the strengthening of autocracy. The backwardness of the country dictated the invitation of foreign specialists in manufacturing, military affairs, the first experiments, attempts at transformation (establishing schools, regiments of the new system, etc.).
In the middle of the XVII century. increased tax burden. The treasury felt the need for money both for the maintenance of the growing apparatus of power, and in connection with the active foreign policy(wars with Sweden, the Commonwealth). According to the figurative expression of V.O. Klyuchevsky, "the army seized the treasury." The government of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich increased indirect taxes, raising the price of salt by 4 times in 1646. However, the increase in the tax on salt did not lead to the replenishment of the treasury, as the solvency of the population was undermined. The salt tax was abolished in 1647. It was decided to collect arrears for three recent years. The entire amount of the tax fell on the population of the "black" settlements, which caused discontent among the townspeople. In 1648 it culminated in an open uprising in Moscow.
In early June 1648, Alexei Mikhailovich, who was returning from a pilgrimage, received a petition from the Moscow population demanding that the most mercenary representatives of the tsarist administration be punished. However, the demands of the townspeople were not satisfied, and they began to smash merchant and boyar houses. Several major dignitaries were killed. The tsar was forced to expel the boyar B. I. Morozov, who headed the government, from Moscow. With the help of bribed archers, whose salaries were increased, the uprising was crushed.
The uprising in Moscow, called the "salt riot", was not the only one. For twenty years (from 1630 to 1650) uprisings took place in 30 Russian cities: Veliky Ustyug, Novgorod, Voronezh, Kursk, Vladimir, Pskov, Siberian cities.
Cathedral Code of 1649“Fear for the sake of civil strife from all black people,” as Patriarch Nikon later wrote, the Zemsky Sobor was convened. Its meetings were held in 1648-1649. and ended with the adoption of the "Council Code" of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. It was the largest Zemsky Cathedral in the history of Russia. It was attended by 340 people, most of whom (70%) belonged to the nobility and the top tenants.
The "Cathedral Code" consisted of 25 chapters and contained about a thousand articles. Printed in an edition of two thousand copies, it was the first Russian legislative monument published in a typographical way, and remained valid until 1832 (naturally, with changes). It was translated into almost all European languages.
The first three chapters of the "Code" dealt with crimes against the church and royal power. Any criticism of the church and blasphemy was punishable by burning at the stake. Persons accused of treason and insulting the honor of the sovereign, as well as boyars, governors, were executed. Those who "will come en masse and in conspiracy, and learn whom to rob or beat" were ordered to "execute to death without any mercy." A person who unsheathed a weapon in the presence of the king was punished by cutting off his hand.
The "Cathedral Code" regulated the performance of various services, the ransom of prisoners, customs policy, the position of various categories of the population in the state .. It provided for the exchange of estates, including the exchange of estates for patrimonies. Such a transaction was required to be registered in the Local Order. The "Council Code" limited the growth of church land ownership, which reflected the tendency for the church to be subordinate to the state.
The most important section of the "Cathedral Code" was Chapter XI "Court on the Peasants": an indefinite search for fugitive and taken away peasants was introduced, peasant transitions from one owner to another were prohibited. This meant the legal registration of the system of serfdom. Simultaneously with the privately owned peasants, serfdom extended to the black-haired and palace peasants, who were forbidden to leave their communities. In the event of flight, they were also subject to an indefinite investigation.
Chapter XIX of the "Cathedral Code" "On the townspeople" made changes in the life of the city. The "white" settlements were liquidated, their population was included in the settlement. The entire urban population had to bear the tax on the sovereign. Under fear death penalty it was forbidden to move from one settlement to another and even marry women from another settlement, i.e. the population of the settlement was assigned to a certain city. Citizens received a monopoly on trade in cities. The peasants did not have the right to keep shops in the cities, but could only trade from carts and in the malls.
By the middle of the XVII century. Russia, having restored the economy, could focus on solving the problems of foreign policy. In the northwest, the primary concern was to regain access to the Baltic Sea. In the west, the task was to return the Smolensk, Chernigov and Novgorod-Seversky lands lost during the period of the Polish-Lithuanian intervention. The solution to this problem was aggravated in connection with the struggle of the Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples for reunification with Russia. In the south, Russia constantly had to repel the incessant raids of the Crimean Khan, a vassal of powerful Turkey.
In the 40-50s of the 17th century, the Zaporizhzhya Sich became the center of the struggle against foreign enslavers. To protect against raids Crimean Tatars here, behind the Dnieper rapids, the Cossacks built a special system of fortifications from felled trees - "notches" (hence the name of this territory). Here, in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, a kind of Cossack republic was formed, a free military brotherhood headed by elected kosh and kuren chieftains.
The Commonwealth, wanting to attract the Cossacks to their side, began to compile special lists - registers. A Cossack, recorded in the register, was called a registered one, was considered in the service of the Polish king and received a salary. In accordance with the established order, the hetman was at the head of the Zaporizhian army. In 1648, Bogdan Khmelnytsky was elected hetman of the Zaporizhzhya Sich, who received the traditional signs of power: a mace, a bunchuk and a military seal.
He showed himself early as a talented leader. The Cossacks elected him to the post of military clerk (one of the most important in the Zaporozhian Sich).
Like many other residents of Ukraine, Bohdan Khmelnytsky experienced cruelty and injustice on the part of foreign enslavers. So, the Polish gentry Chaplinsky attacked the farm of B. Khmelnitsky, plundered the house, burned the apiary and the threshing floor, marked his ten-year-old son to death, and took away his wife. In 1647, B. Khmelnitsky openly opposed the Polish government.
B. Khmelnytsky understood that the struggle against the Commonwealth would require a huge effort, and therefore, from the first steps of his activity, he advocated an alliance with Russia, seeing in it a true ally of Ukraine. However, urban uprisings were raging in Russia at that time, and, moreover, it was still not strong enough to enter into confrontation with the Commonwealth. Therefore, at first, Russia limited itself to providing Ukraine with economic assistance and diplomatic support.
Having announced the general mobilization of the gentry, the Commonwealth moved its troops against the army of B. Khmelnitsky. In the summer of 1649 near Zborov (Prykarpattya) B. Khmelnytsky defeated the Polish army. The Polish government was forced to conclude the Zborow peace. According to this agreement, the Commonwealth recognized B. Khmelnitsky as the hetman of Ukraine.
The Zborow peace was in fact a temporary truce. In the summer of 1651, the superior forces of the Polish magnates met with the troops of B. Khmelnitsky. The defeat near Berestechko and the defeat of individual uprisings by punitive expeditions forced B. Khmelnitsky to conclude peace under difficult conditions near the White Church.
On October 1, 1653, war was declared on Poland. An embassy headed by the boyar Buturlin left for Ukraine. January 8, 1654 in the city of Pereyaslavl (now Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky) a Rada (Council) was held. Ukraine was admitted to the Russian state. Russia recognized the electivity of the hetman, the local court and other authorities that were formed during the liberation war. The tsarist government confirmed the class rights of the Ukrainian nobility. Ukraine received the right to establish diplomatic relations with all countries except Poland and Turkey, and to have registered troops of up to 60 thousand people. Taxes were supposed to go to the royal treasury. The reunification of Ukraine with Russia had a huge historical meaning. It liberated the people of Ukraine from national and religious oppression, saved them from the danger of being enslaved by Poland and Turkey. It contributed to the formation of the Ukrainian nation. The reunification of Ukraine with Russia led to a temporary weakening of serf relations on the Left Bank (serfdom was legally introduced in Ukraine in the second half of the 18th century).
The reunification of Left-bank Ukraine with Russia was an important factor in strengthening Russian statehood. Thanks to the reunification with Ukraine, Russia managed to return the Smolensk and Chernigov lands, which made it possible to start a struggle for the Baltic coast. In addition, a favorable prospect was opening up for expanding Russia's ties with other Slavic peoples and Western states.
The Commonwealth did not recognize the reunification of Ukraine with Russia. Russo-Polish war became inevitable. The war was marked by the success of the Russian and Ukrainian troops. Russian troops occupied Smolensk, Belarus, Lithuania; Bohdan Khmelnitsky - Lublin, a number of cities in Galicia and Volhynia.
Sweden opened military operations against it. The Swedes took Warsaw and Krakow. Poland was on the brink of destruction.
Alexei Mikhailovich, counting on the royal throne, announced to the warrior Sweden (1656-1658). A Russian-Polish truce was signed.
Russia's successes were crossed out by the betrayal of the Ukrainian hetman I. Vyhovsky, who replaced B. Khmelnitsky, who died in 1657. I. Vyhovsky agreed to a secret alliance with Poland against Russia.
In 1658, a Russian-Swedish truce was concluded for three years, and in 1661, the Kardis (near Tartu) peace. Russia returned the territories conquered during the war. The Baltic remained with Sweden. The problem of access to the Baltic Sea remained a top priority, the most important task of foreign policy.
The exhausting, protracted Russian-Polish war ended in 1667 with the conclusion of the Andrusovsky (near Smolensk) truce for thirteen and a half years. Russia abandoned Belarus, but left behind Smolensk and the Left-Bank Ukraine. Kyiv, located on the right bank of the Dnieper, was transferred to Russia for two years (after the end of this period, it was never returned). Zaporozhye came under the joint control of Ukraine and Poland.
It is impossible to overestimate the significance of the events taking place in Russia in the second half of the 17th century. On the one hand, the state is getting stronger. Autocracy is being strengthened in the country. There is a rapid development of handicrafts, the number of manufactories is growing. The birth of capitalist relations begins (although all the conditions necessary for the development of capitalism have not yet been created). On the other hand, the position of the bulk of the population, the peasants, is constantly deteriorating. Riots break out in the country one after another, which are becoming increasingly difficult to pacify. In foreign policy, Russia is waging a bitter struggle for access to the Baltic Sea and seeks to protect its borders in the south.
- - The rebellion of the inhabitants and laity of the Solovetsky monastery was a speech not only against Nikon's reform, but also against the arbitrariness of power. The most influential center of Orthodoxy in Russia opposed political and church reforms.
- - The dissatisfaction of the rebellious people was associated with the arbitrariness of local authorities, bribery, high taxes. The centers of uprisings flared up in many cities throughout the country. The peasants staged pogroms of the houses of the boyars and officials up to the Kremlin itself.
- - The Russian people are a very dangerous and terrible force, especially in anger. Dissatisfaction with the tsarist government in the 17th century led to the uprising of Stepan Razin. It was a very powerful movement, assertive and formidable, which in our history has received the name "peasant war".
- - The Duma, as the highest legislative and judicial institution, consisted of the most influential and wealthy feudal lords of Russia. Initially, it included members of princely families and relatives of the king. But gradually there were people who took high positions due to personal merit. Over time, there was a bureaucratization of the Duma, as well as a limitation of its political influence.
- - The Russian government, outraged by the violations of the Bakhchisaray truce, was forced to conduct two military campaigns against Turkish troops. By participating in the anti-Turkish coalition, Russia fulfilled its allied obligations, although the campaigns were generally unsuccessful.
- - The article covers the events of the Russian-Turkish 1676-1681. The problem covers the issues of the chronological framework of the confrontation, its causes, as well as the results and consequences for the fate of not only Russia and Ottoman Empire, but also for Ukraine and Poland.
- - The military conflict between the Commonwealth and Sweden has grown into large-scale contradictions with Russia. The unleashed war with Sweden was not always successful for Russia, but the conclusion of the Andrusovo truce also had positive aspects. As a result of hostilities, Russia lost access to the Baltic Sea.
- - The organized Zemsky Sobor unanimously spoke in favor of continuing the siege of the Azov fortress, but the problematic economic and social state of the Muscovite state forced the government to surrender Azov to Turkish troops. The troops were sent to eliminate the Polish oppression in the territory of Western Ukraine.
- - Don Cossacks, having settled at the mouths of the main southern rivers, gained more and more military force, which allowed them to succeed in the siege of the Azov fortress. But the further maintenance of the conquests and the advancement of troops could only be provided by government reinforcements.
- - Unsuccessful for the troops of Stepan Razin, the siege of Simbirsk ended in the flight of the rebels. The leader of the uprising was caught and sentenced to death. Torture and quartering were committed in public, but this could not completely extinguish the ardor of the rebels. The final defeat was carried out a little later.
- - The uprising of Stepan Razin acquired more and more oppressive scope. Many peasant villages, attracted by "charming letters" joined the rebellious troops. The movement has grown into a real peasant war, requiring immediate action from government armies.
- - Every person has heard about Stepan Razin, even those who are quite far from history. Much that is said about this character has already acquired folk legends and fictional facts. However, such a person really existed, and his life was interesting.
- - Although the Russian rebellion is elemental, it will grow for a long time, gradually, expressed in popular discontent. The tsar rejected the Cossack proposal to take the army of Vasily Us to the service and thus sowed the seed of doubt among the people. It happened 4 years before the rebellion of Stepan Razin.
- - Characteristics of the historical situation preceding the copper rebellion. Causes and goals of popular discontent. Description of the uprising. Victims associated with its suppression. The final consequences of the rebellion.
- - The need to repay Sweden's debt and the difficult economic situation in the country force the government to take unpopular measures, the result of which is the Bread Riot in Pskov and Novgorod in 1650.
- - The historical consequences and significance of the abolition of localism for the development of the Muscovite state after 1682. A new procedure for appointment to public office.
- - The growth of cash receipts to the state treasury contributed to the speedy introduction of innovations in the organization of the regular troops. Thanks to the use of advanced training methods at that time and the importation of more effective firearms, the combat capability of the army was significantly increased.
- - Arbitrariness local authorities particularly acutely felt by the poor. After the census of households in 1678, a tax reform came into force, implying an increase in the number of payers. As a consequence, tax evasion has become a widespread phenomenon.
- - Orders were created to manage key branches of state and territorial administration. The chiefs of most orders were boyars or nobles. Bureaucracy has become increasingly important in the system of state power. This made management more efficient, but made it difficult to resolve current minor issues.
- - Zemsky Sobors acted in the most difficult years of the struggle against external enemies and internal problems. These were class-representative institutions, meetings of representatives of all classes (except for serfs). But with the strengthening of absolutism, the Zemsky Sobors were abolished.
- - During the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, it was possible to finally overcome the consequences of the Time of Troubles. Contemporaries called him "the quietest." This adjective refers not to the character of the king, but to his ability to maintain order in state administration.
- - A prerequisite for the formation of the all-Russian market was the regional division of labor. Moscow, which became the most important transport hub, was of exceptional importance in this process. The development of trade gradually led to the formation of a new estate - the merchant class.
- - In the 17th century, the production of flax, grain, salt and many other important products was especially developed in Russia. The specialization of each area was determined by climatic conditions and the presence of passing trade routes. The largest shopping centers were Astrakhan, Arkhangelsk, Vologda.
- - IN Russia XVII century is characterized by the appearance of the first manufactories, which belonged mainly to the metallurgical industry. But their number did not grow as rapidly as the number of small handicraft industries oriented to the market. Peasant crafts gained great popularity and occupied a significant share in trade.
- - With the development of trade and commodity-money relations, serfdom between peasants and landowners became more and more toughened. The organization of agriculture did not experience significant innovations and improvements, which affected the volume and quality of products.
- - There are a large number of opinions about the reasons for the emergence of serfdom in Russia. The main prerequisites are denounced when comparing Russian history and the history of Western states. The further development of serfdom was due to the peculiarities of the geographical position of Russia and the specifics of Russian self-consciousness.