|
Soviet Union [USSR] The Evolution of Russian Autocracy
Outward expansion was accompanied by internal consolidation. By
the fifteenth century, the rulers of Muscovy considered the entire
territory their collective property. Various semi-independent
princes still claimed specific territories, but Ivan forced the
lesser princes to acknowledge the grand prince of Muscovy and his
descendants as unquestioned rulers and having control over
military, judicial, and foreign affairs.
Gradually, the Muscovite ruler emerged as a powerful,
autocratic ruler, a "tsar." By assuming the title "tsar," the
Muscovite prince underscored that he was a major ruler or emperor,
much like the emperor of the Byzantine Empire or the Mongol khan.
Indeed, Byzantine terms, rituals, emblems such as the double-headed
eagle, and titles were adopted by the Muscovite court after Ivan
III's marriage to Sophia Paleologue, the niece of the last
Byzantine emperor. Ivan III was the first Russian prince to begin
using the title "tsar and autocrat," mimicking the titles used by
Christian emperors of Constantinople. At first, "autocrat"
indicated merely that the tsar was an independent ruler, but in the
reign of Ivan IV (1533-84) the concept was enlarged until it came
to mean unlimited rule. Ivan IV was crowned tsar and was thus
recognized, at least by the Orthodox Church, as emperor. An
Orthodox monk had claimed that, with the fall of Constantinople to
the Ottoman Empire in 1453, the Muscovite tsar was the only
legitimate Orthodox ruler and that Moscow was the Third Rome
because it was the final successor to Rome and Constantinople, the
centers of Christianity in earlier empires.
Data as of May 1989
|
