Territory and Population

chapter 32 Territory and Population

In Chapter 17 on Western Russia we noted that only three of the old principalities which made up the Kievan realm remained in the hands of Rurikid princes after the invasion of the Mongols in the 13th century and the growth and expansion of the Lithuanian grand principality in the following centuries. All the western principalities became part of Lithuania, later on united with Poland, and only the principalities of Novgorod Velikii (the Great), Vladimir- Suzdal’-Rostov and Murom-Riazan’ were still ruled by the descendants of the Kievan grand princes, albeit under Tatar suzerainty. Still, from these modest beginnings a united Russian state eventually arose.

The Growth of the Principality of Moscow

In 1263 Moscow first appeared as a separate (apanage) principality within the grand principality of Vladimir. In 1276 it was granted by the Vladimir grand prince Dmitrii to his youngest brother Daniil (both sons of Aleksandr Nevskii). By the time of his death in 1303, Daniil had acquired the contigu- ous territories of Kolomna and Pereiaslavl’-Zalesskii. His eldest son Iurii succeeded him as prince of Moscow. He added the territory of Mozhaisk to Moscow in 1304 and attempted for many years to wrest the grand principality of Vladimir from Mikhail, prince of Tver’ (a distant cousin). After gaining favour with the Tatar khan, he finally achieved his goal in 1319, when Mikhail had been killed at the khan’s court in 1318 by Iurii’s servants. Iurii then was himself killed by Mikhail’s son Dmitrii Groznye Ochi (“the Fierce-Looking”) in 1325. The scale of Moscow’s expansion increased considerably under Iurii’s suc- cessor, his brother Ivan i Kalita (prince of Moscow since 1325, and grand prince of Vladimir since 1328). Ivan Kalita acquired control over large territories to the North of his Moscow base, the principalities of Kostroma, Uglich, Galich and Beloozero, although it is not entirely clear how these acquisitions were made. The principalities of Uglich, Galich and Beloozero were mentioned in Dmitrii Donskoi’s will of 1389 as the “purchases” (kupli) of his grandfather, and for this reason it was usually assumed that Ivan Kalita (Dmitrii Donskoi’s paternal grandfather) had bought them by paying the khan for the necessary

Territory and Population 823 patent (iarlyk).1 But K.A. Aver’ianov has argued persuasively that the territories of Uglich, Galich and Beloozero had in fact come to Ivan Kalita through the dowries of spouses of his brother Iurii, himself and his brother Afanasii (both brothers died without leaving sons).2 At that time (the first quarter of the 14th century) a Russian prince unquestionably needed the approval of the khan before being able to rule a principality, so Aver’ianov’s version complements, rather than contradicts, the traditional view. It seems, moreover, that the local princes of Uglich, Galich and Beloozero retained their positions for a while, until they died out or were expelled by their Moscow cousins later on during the 14th century.3 The reigns of Ivan Kalita’s sons, Semën the Proud (1341–1353) and Ivan ii the Handsome (1354–1359), saw some minor acquisitions, but were character- ized by quiet consolidation rather than expansion. Then, under Ivan ii’s son Dmitrii Donskoi (*1350, † 1389), the formal incorporation of the large territories of Kostroma, Uglich, Galich and Beloozero was realized and other territories (such as the principalities of Starodub and Dmitrov) were added to the Moscow principality as well. At the end of his reign, Dmitrii Donskoi united the grand principalities of Vladimir and Moscow, which had been in the hands of his father, uncle, and grandfather. Dmitrii Donskoi had established unequivocal primogeniture for the succession and Moscow was ruled by a succession of six generations of fathers and sons after him (if one disregards the dynastic upheavals following the death of Vasilii i in 1425). Dmitrii Donskoi’s eldest son, Vasilii i, was granted the grand princely dignity of Moscow by his father (the first time this happened without seeking the approval of the Tatar khan), together with more land than had been allotted to his four brothers together. Both Dmitrii Donskoi and Vasilii i had been involved for many years in a feud with the grand princes of Suzdal’ and Nizhnii Novgorod (Dmitrii Kon- stantinovich and his kin). The third party in this feud were the Tatar rulers. The Golden Horde was experiencing major political convulsions at this time, when, along with the regular rulers, – the khans (especially Tokhtamysh), pow- erful warlords, such as Timur, Mamai and Edigei pursued their own interests. Russian princes, as well as their Tatar counterparts, all attempted to exploit

1 ddg No.12, at 36. 2 K.A. Aver’ianov, Kupli Ivana Kality, Moskva, 2001. As Aver’ianov pointed out, great-uncles were commonly called dedy, along with grandfathers. 3 The princes of Uglich were apanage princes of the princes of Rostov, and the princes of Galich and Beloozero were minor independent princes.