The invasion of the Mongols proved to be, indirectly, the
making of the Russian state. Before they came the country was a patchwork of
rival, and often warring, principalities. The need of union against the common
enemy welded them together. The principality of Muscovy, so named from the
capital city of Moscow, conquered its neighbors, annexed the important city of
Novgorod, whose vast possessions stretched from Lapland to the Urals, and
finally became powerful enough to shake off the Mongol yoke.
REIGN OF IVAN III, THE GREAT, 1462-1505 A.D.
The final deliverance of Russia from the Mongols was
accomplished by Ivan III, surnamed the Great. This ruler is also regarded as
the founder of Russian autocracy, that is, of a personal, absolute, and
arbitrary government. With a view to strengthening his claim to be the
political heir of the eastern emperors, Ivan married a niece of the last ruler
at Constantinople, who in 1453 A.D. had fallen in the defense of his capital
against the Ottoman Turks. Henceforth the Russian ruler described himself as
"the new Tsar [13] Constantine in the new city of Constantine,
Moscow."
[13] The title Tsar, or Czar, is supposed to be a
contraction of the word Caesar.
