THE SOVEREIGN AND HIS COUNSELLORS RITUALISED CONSULTATIONS IN MUSCOVITE POLITICAL CULTURE, 1350s–1570s SUOMALAISEN TIEDEAKATEMIAN TOIMITUKSIA ANNALES ACADEMIÆ SCIENTIARUM FENNICÆ Sarja-ser. HUMANIORA nide-tom. 307 SERGEI BOGATYREV THE SOVEREIGN AND HIS COUNSELLORS RITUALISED CONSULTATIONS IN MUSCOVITE POLITICAL CULTURE, 1350s–1570s Sergei Bogatyrev The Sovereign and His Counsellors: Ritualised Consultations in Muscovite Political Culture, 1350s-1570s. Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by due permission of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Helsinki in auditorium XII, on the 4th of March, 2000, at 10 o'clock. Annales Academiæ Scientiarum Fennicæ is part of the publishing cooperation between the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters and the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters. The series Humaniora continues the former ser. B. Editor: Associate Editor: Professor Heikki Palva Kaj Öhrnberg Viheriötie 5 Merikasarminkatu 10 B 43 04310 Tuusula 00160 Helsinki Finland Finland Tel. +358-9-2751443 Tel. +358-9-666786 © 2000 by Academia Scientiarum Fennica Layout: Federation of Finnish Learned Societies/Tiina Kaarela Cover design: Markko Taina Cover: the council of the grand prince (bas-relief on the tsar’s throne in the Cathedral of the Dormition in the Moscow Kremlin). From M. V. Alpatov, Uspenskii sobor Moskovskogo Kremlya (Moscow, 1971). Distributor: Bookstore Tiedekirja Kirkkokatu 14 FIN-00170 Helsinki Finland Email: [email protected] Fax: +358-9-635017 ISBN: 951-45-9148-8 (PDF version) ISBN: 951-41-0874-4 (printed version) Printed by Gummerus Printing, Saarijärvi 2000; Electronic by Helsingin yliopiston verkkojulkaisut, Helsinki 2000 Contents List of Plates, Charts and Tables.. 6 Acknowledgements . 7 INTRODUCTION . 9 1. The Method . 12 2. The Composition of the Elite in Muscovy . 16 3. The Sources . 26 CHAPTER I Apostle and Slave: The Role of the Counsellor in Muscovite Political Ideology 37 1. The “Sovereign–Counsellors” Topos. 38 2. The Visual Image of the Sovereign and His Counsellors. 69 3. The “Sovereign–Counsellors” Topos and Muscovite Political Practice . 78 CHAPTER II From the Inner Circle of Counsellors to the Privy Council . 99 CHAPTER III The Privy Council under Ivan the Terrible . 143 1. The Privy Council during the Period of Reforms (1550s) . 144 2. The Privy Council in the 1560s . 151 3. The Privy Council during the Tsar’s Campaigns (1571–1572). 177 CHAPTER IV The Privy Counsellors in the Muscovite State.. 187 1. The Counsellors and the Sovereign’s Court . 190 2. The Privy Council and the Administrative System . 202 3. The Privy Council and the Oprichnina. 213 CONCLUSION . 219 APPENDIX I The Muscovite Council in Historiography. 223 1. The Discovery of the Duma: The Tsar’s Council in Early Russian Historical Works (1730s–1840s) . 224 2. A Regular Institution? The Muscovite Council and the “State School” in Russian Historiography (1840s–1890s) . 227 3. The Advent and Victory of Sociology (1890s–1950s) . 238 4. The Prosopographical Image of the Council (from the 1950s until today) . 247 APPENDIX II List of Counsellors. 261 Glossary . 270 Abbreviations . 272 Bibliography . 273 Index . 288 5 Plates, Charts and Tables Sources: The miniatures of the Radziwi≥≥¬¬ Chronicle: Radzivillovskaya letopis’. [Faksimil’noe vospoizve- denie rukopisi]. Edited by M. V. Kukushkina, G. M. Prokhorov. Moscow, 1994. The miniatures of the Book of Tsardom: S. O. Shmidt, “Iz istorii redaktirovaniya Tsarstvennoi knigi: Izvestiya ob opale boyar letom 1546 g.” In Rossiya na putyakh tsentralizatsii. Sbornik statei. Edited by D. S. Likhachev and others (Moscow, 1982), 224-237. The bas-reliefs of the Tsar’s throne: F. G. Solntsev, Drevnosti rossiiskogo gosudarstva. Vol. 2 [Plates] (Moscow, 1851). Plates 1 The consultation between Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich and the boyars concerning the place and time for Rus’ acceptance of Christianity (Radziwi≥≥¬¬ Chronicle, miniature 131), p. 92 2 Prince Svyatoslav Izyaslavich’s consultation with the boyars concerning the blinding of Prince Vasilyok of Terebovl’ and Prince David Igorevich’s agreement with this decision (Radziwi≥≥¬¬ Chronicle, miniature 308), p. 92 3 The rule of the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (Radziwi≥≥¬¬ Chronicle, miniature 6), p. 93 4 The consultation between Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich and his armed retinue (Radziwi≥≥¬¬ Chronicle, miniature 93), p. 93 5 The boyar feuds in Vladimir under the young Prince Yaropolk Rostislavich (Radziwi≥≥¬¬ Chronicle, miniature 553), p. 94 6 Ivan IV and privy secretary V. Zakharov-Gnil’ev (The Book of Tsardom, f. 273), p. 95 7 The trial and execution of boyars (The Book of Tsardom, f. 273v.), p. 96 8 Ivan IV and privy secretary V. Zakharov-Gnil’ev. Second version of the miniature (The Book of Tsardom, f. 680), p. 97 9 The council of the Russian grand prince (the Tsar’s throne in the Cathedral of the Dormition in the Moscow Kremlin. Bas-relief no. 1), p. 98 10 The council of the Byzantine emperor (the Tsar’s throne in the Cathedral of the Dormition in the Moscow Kremlin. Bas-relief no. 8), p. 98 11 The structure of the supreme power in Muscovy in the Oprichnina period (1564–1572), p. 164 12 Communications between the Tsar, the Council and the Military Chancellery, p. 209 Charts 1 Boyars in the Privy Council between 1553 and 1572, p. 193 2 Okol’nichie in the Privy Council between 1553 and 1572, p. 193 3 Princes in the Privy Council between 1553 and 1572, p. 197 Tables 1 The Composition of the Inner Circle (the mid-14th to the mid-16th centuries), p. 261 2 Changes in the Composition of the Privy Council, 1553–1572, p. 263 6 Acknowledgements I owe many people a debt of gratitude. In Moscow, the boyar council was proposed to me as a research subject by Sigurd Ottovich Shmidt, full mem- ber of the Russian Academy of Education. His profound knowledge, broad erudition, and familiarity with the sources, along with his personal gen- erosity and positive attitude made the period I worked with him unforget- table. I am indebted to E. I. Kouri, professor of general history at the University of Helsinki, who has supervised my studies with consideration and interest. Thanks to his wide-ranging knowledge in general history, valuable advice, and effective help, my work has acquired its final shape. Professor Paul Bushkovitch (Yale University), a leading expert in the histo- ry and culture of Muscovite Russia, kindly agreed to be the opponent at the defence of my doctoral dissertation. Special thanks are due to Docent Timo Vihavainen, the former Co-ordinator for the Russian and East European Studies Programme at the Renvall Institute, University of Helsinki, and cur- rently the Director of the Finnish Institute in St. Petersburg. Thanks to Timo Vihavainen’s broad interest in Russian history, I had the unique opportuni- ty to articulate and discuss the main ideas of this work durimg the lecture courses that I gave under the auspices of the Programme. I am deeply grateful to those of my colleagues who read the manuscript for their con- structive critical comments: Peter Brown (Rhode Island College), David Goldfrank (Georgetown University), Marshall Poe (School for Historical Studies, Princeton), and Jaakko Lehtovirta (University of Turku). I would also like to thank Professor Jukka Korpela (University of Joensuu) for his detailed and penetrating comments on the results of my study. The Centre for International Mobility and the University of Helsinki have provided financial support for this study. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the staffs of the Russian State Archives of Ancient Records and the Slavonian Library of Helsinki University. Thanks to the generosity of a close friend of mine, Victor Leonidov (Russian Foundation for Culture) I have become acquainted with the resent Russian publications on the subject of my work. I am also grateful to John Pickering, Roderick McConchie (Department of English, University of Helsinki), Mark Shackleton (Department of English, University of Helsinki), Nicholas Hill (Department of History, University of Helsinki and University of Wisconsin- Madison), and Johannes Remy (Renvall Institute, University of Helsinki) for their help and suggestions. Kaj Öhrnberg has been an encouraging and 7 helpful editor. Jutta Ivaska has helped greatly in the preparation of the index of names for this book. Finally, throughout the entire work, I have constantly benefited from the reliable and patient support of my parents, Valentina Bogatyreva and Nikolai Bogatyrev. Without the help of all of these people, this book would never have seen the light of day. However, I alone am responsible for all interpretations and opinions in this book. 8 Introduction Starting from the 14th century, the Moscow princes’ power began to spread to other Russian lands. In the course of the next two centuries, Moscow gained dominion over huge territories with a variety of economic, political and cultural traditions. In order to control and rule such an extensive and varied country, the princes of Moscow developed a special kind of power, which is generally referred to as autocracy. The autocracy was a complex system which ought not to be reduced to the figure of the monarch alone.1 The Muscovite sovereign handled domestic and foreign policy with the aid of a close circle of counsellors. These counsellors played a highly impor- tant role in political and court life, participating in the preparation and implementation of political and administrative decisions. Historians have a variety of opinions about the nature of the relations between the monarch and his counsellors in the Muscovite state. According to Richard Pipes, the crown tended to “humiliate anyone who by virtue of ancestry, office or wealth may have been inclined to become self-important.”2 In contrast, Edward Keenan argues that the Muscovite state was ruled by a centralised boyar oligarchy while the grand prince/tsar was little more than a figure- head.3 Similar ideas have been advanced by N. Sh. Kollmann.4 Muscovite understanding of how the autocratic ruler and his subjects should interact with each other was explicitly expressed in ritualised con- sultations between the sovereign and his counsellors.