Death of Vasily III. The mysterious death of Vasily Stalin

Chronicle of a dying “god” (the causes of death of Ivan the Terrible’s father) March 7th, 2011

Translated into modern Russian, this case history looks something like this (ellipsis is the text I deleted):

Male 54 years old. He fell ill on October 1, 1534. A small sore the size of a pinhead appeared on the bend of the thigh of his left leg, in the groin area; “There is no crust on it, no pus in it, but it itself is purple.”

Riding a horse became difficult for the patient due to pain. A week later, he could no longer sit and could only lie in bed. I could eat a little.

Treatment began by applying wheat flour with unleavened honey and baked onions to the sore; this caused the sore to turn red; ... “and a small pimple appeared on the sore, and a little pus appeared in it.” This went on for two weeks.

The pus practically did not come out of the sore, “there was no crust on it, but the wound was as if something had been stuck into it: it neither increased nor decreased.” They began to apply ointment to the sore, pus came out of it, first a little, and then up to the half-pelvis and throughout the whole pelvis. The patient was in a depressed mood and “at the same time his chest felt very tight.” For relief, they used three-day pots and seed plants, and from this “everything sank down,” but the disease did not recede. From that moment on, he practically stopped eating.

On October 26, the patient’s condition worsened so much that he rewrote his will.

....November 5, at night, the amount of pus that had flowed in already exceeded one pelvis, and a rod came out of the sore - more than thirty centimeters in size, but not all of it. Thinking that this was a sign of recovery, the patient’s mood improved. In addition, the new ointment reduced the swelling a little... He did not get out of bed at all, he lay all the time; and turn him from one side to the other, because he himself could no longer do it.

Eventually he stopped feeling pain; his wound did not enlarge, but only the smell came from it heavily and liquid oozed from it, as if from a corpse.

Before his death, the patient lost his command of the language, and then his right hand stopped rising.

Death occurred on December 3, 1534 at midnight. After death, he turned white, the smell from the wound disappeared and, moreover, became pleasant.

The first reconstruction of this disease was made at the beginning of the 19th century. It has been suggested that Vasily III died from a boil (boil) . Apparently, doctors are not considering the possibility that the grand duke was poisoned. Methods of treating the patient, namely applying baked onions, were common for treating ulcers in medieval Rus'.

Unfortunately, we do not know the composition of the ointment that was used to treat the “sore.” But judging by its effect, it is unlikely that it made the patient worse.

It is curious that the doctors who treated the Grand Duke survived after his death (back in the 15th century, such treatment of august persons ended death penalty). There were no accusations of poisoning either.

This, although weak, is still a confirmation of the fact that everything possible was done for that level of medicine. And everyone agreed with this.

From the point of view modern medicine disease Vasily III most likely it was purulent inflammation of the hip joint (purulent arthritis) . Treatment is through injections of antibiotics, and in advanced cases, surgery.

Also, given the lethality of the disease, it can be assumed that we're talking about about one of the most common infections of the Middle Ages - tuberculosis. As an example, the death of Prince Vasily the Dark in 1462 from pulmonary tuberculosis ("dry disease"). In the case of Vasily III, it was generalized tuberculosis - bone, with leakage and pulmonary tuberculosis (consumption).

Total:

Both probable diseases of Vasily III involve changes in the patient’s bones, which can be determined by exhumation of the body. His tomb is located in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin among the graves of other Russian princes of the pre-Romanov era. The walling of this (as well as the others) burial place is amazing. We can only hope that science will have an opportunity to establish the truth...

Literature

Vasily Shukshin And Lidiya Fedoseeva- one of the brightest couples of Russian cinema. They met on the set when Shukshin was 35 and Fedoseeva was 26. Each had a marriage behind them. But it was the Shukshin-Fedoseev couple that went down in history.

First meeting

As Lydia Nikolaevna herself later said, it was Shukshin who gave her a bouquet of flowers for the first time in her life. Field ones. They were traveling with a film crew on a bus across Crimea. A stop was made. Shukshin managed to collect the flowers and hid them under the hem of his jacket. And then he presented it to Lydia, who at that moment was sitting alone on an empty bus. Before that, they traveled together from Moscow on a train. And even earlier, Fedoseeva, having learned that Shukshin would be her partner in the film, to put it mildly, was not happy. Before this, she encountered Vasily Makarovich almost 10 years ago, as a first-year student at VGIK. Shukshin was a senior student at that time (he came to study after the army, having served 3 years in the navy, and also managed to work, including as a director rural school in his native Altai village of Srostki). There was a conflict between them at the institute. Shukshin scolded young Lidochka, so emotionally that it seemed to the girl that if he had a twig at hand, he would have whipped her. In general, the memories of him are not the most pleasant.

Of course, she later heard his name more than once. Shukshin's stories were published in central literary magazines, he starred in several films, and they all “shot.” The very first was the film “Two Fyodors,” where he played while still a student. And Shukshin’s first book entitled “ Villagers"came out a year before he met Lydia on the set.

Vasily Shukshin in the film “Two Fedoras”, 1958. Photo: Still from the film

Fateful "Kalina Krasnaya"

How the already famous writer and actor Shukshin was traveling to soft coupe, but did not sit in his mansion and went to the artists in the usual reserved seat. They were already singing there. At some point, Lydia began to play Kalina Krasnaya. Shukshin began to sing along. When the people began to go to bed, Vasily went home, but soon returned again. They talked in whispers all night. She did most of the talking, and he, as was his habit as a writer, asked about his childhood and youth.

Lidia Nikolaevna grew up in a Leningrad communal apartment. Survived the blockade. She discovered acting abilities early on, which she developed from school - she went to the drama club at the House of Cinema. In high school, she starred in episodic roles in the films “Maxim Perepelitsa” and “Two Captains.” She entered VGIK, where she met her first husband, an actor. Vyacheslav Voronin. In this marriage, a daughter, Nastya, was born. However, the union itself turned out to be fragile. After the divorce, Nastya grew up with her father and his mother. Lidia Nikolaevna was finishing college at that time. However, Nastya’s stay with her father and grandmother dragged on until she grew up.

Margarita Kosheleva and Lydia Fedoseeva in the film “Peers”. 1959 Photo: RIA Novosti

Vasily Shukshin also had a little daughter, Katya. Her mom Victoria Sofronova worked as an editor in one of literary magazines. They met Vasily while discussing one of his stories. This marriage was not officially registered. Shukshin treated Katya, his first-born, with reverence. This is evidenced by the letters he wrote to his daughter, then still an infant. He wrote, as they say, “for growth.” When Vasily Makarovich started a family with Lydia Fedoseeva and Masha and Olya were born one after another, Shukshin did not stop caring for his eldest daughter. Ekaterina Shukshina always spoke and speaks of her father with great respect and love. She recalls that when her mother got married after the final separation from Vasily Makarovich, she hung a portrait of Shukshin in the apartment. To the surprised questions of those around her, she answered: “This is Katya’s father!”

Family nest

The rapprochement between Shukshin and Fedoseeva continued upon their return from filming to Moscow. One day Vasily handed Lydia the keys to his small bachelor apartment. Capital registration and housing went to Shukshin with with great difficulty. After graduating from VGIK, he wandered around Moscow for almost ten years - he spent the night at train stations, sometimes with friends, and sometimes climbed into the window of the dormitory of his native VGIK, where young comrades gave him shelter bypassing existing rules. Among the things I have with me is a briefcase with manuscripts.

Vasily Shukshin with his mother Maria Sergeevna, 1932. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

With his first large fee, Shukshin bought a house for his mother in his homeland, Altai Territory. Maria Sergeevna. Then he built the bathhouse himself. And in the Moscow apartment there was only a mattress. Shukshin’s daughter Maria said that Lidia Nikolaevna bought her first furniture at fair price in the store " Children's world" It was a small table and two chairs. Showing off - this will not be about them in the future. After the birth of two daughters, they continued to live in the same one-room apartment. While the girls were sleeping, Shukshin was working on a typewriter in the toilet. He put a board on his knees and placed the typewriter on it. Housing appropriate to his status famous writer, actor and director, he received a few years before his death. It was a four-room apartment in the center of Moscow, where with my own hands he laid tiles in the kitchen. She, by the way, continues to decorate the Shukshin family nest after half a century.

Vasily Shukshin and Lidiya Fedoseeva. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

“Died” on screen and in life

Over time, the family union with Lydia Nikolaevna also became a creative tandem.

In two of his famous films - “Stoves of the Shop” and “Kalina Krasnaya” - for the role main character he chose Fedoseeva. The duet was so organic that the audience unconditionally accepted the couple. By the way, the title of the story “Kalina Krasnaya”, on which Shukshin made the film, was invented by Lydia Nikolaevna. Vasily Makarovich wrote this story in the hospital, where he was taken ill with an exacerbation of an ulcer. This disease tormented me from the moment it passed conscript service in the navy. He gave the manuscript to his wife first to read. As she later recalled, the story of fate former criminal made such a strong impression on her that she cried all night. The manuscript had no title. And while talking with her husband on the phone, Lydia suggested: “Let it be called “Kalina Krasnaya.” Shukshin agreed. It was assumed that in the film Shukshin and Fedoseeva would perform the song “Kalina Krasnaya” together, but for this it was necessary to buy copyrights from the composer Frenkel. There were absolutely not enough funds for this. The budget for the film was not even meager - it was beggarly. The filming equipment is old. All this was more than covered by the director's and acting talent Shukshin, who also took on the main male role. According to the memoirs of Lidia Fedoseeva, when Shukshin was “dying” in the frame, all film crew cried. And when this episode was voiced, the actress herself suffered from a hypertensive crisis.

"Red viburnum." The duet was so organic that the audience unconditionally accepted the couple. Still from the film

“I killed Matvey!”

Shukshin, by his example, raised the creative bar incredibly high. He couldn't do it any other way. His close friend and fellow countryman, documentarian Alexander Sarantsev, I once remembered an episode that was indicative in this sense. He came to Vasily Makarovich. He was home alone. I sat at my typewriter and cried. - “What happened, Vasya?” - “Sanya... I... killed Matvey!” (character in the novel “I Came to Give You Freedom”). He passed each of his heroes through his heart. Maybe that's why it couldn't stand it...

Shukshin left at the peak of fame, in the prime of his creative powers, he was only 45 years old. This happened in 1974 - when the film “Kalina Krasnaya” became the absolute leader at box office in the country. It sold 62 million tickets.

The tragedy happened in the fall on the set of the film Sergei Bondarchuk“They Fought for the Motherland,” where Vasily Makarovich had one of the main roles. There were only a few days left until the end of filming. The group had been living on the ship for several months, since filming took place on the banks of the Don River. Actor Georgy Burkov, also involved in this picture, recalled that shortly before his unexpected death, Shukshin shared a dressing room with him. Vasily Makarovich was drawing something on a pack of cigarettes. When a colleague asked what exactly, Shukshin replied: a funeral. Burkov cursed his friend, said that all this was nonsense, and took the pack from him. And a couple of days later, on the morning of October 2, looking into Shukshin’s cabin, he found him dead. The arriving doctors named the cause of death as heart failure.

"Be Human"

Many close friends refused to believe it. It seemed strange to them that the tidy Shukshin had papers scattered around his cabin. At the same time, he himself was lying on the bed. There were other oddities in this story. But official version remained the same - heart problems.

Thanks to the persistence of Sergei Bondarchuk, Vasily Makarovich was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery. And thanks to my mother who came from Altai, they secretly sang the funeral service. And he publicly repented on the screen, when his hero in “Kalina Krasny” just before his death says: “Lord, forgive me if you can!” Viewers compared the feeling of watching this episode to spying on someone else's confession.

Believe that everything was not in vain: our songs, our fairy tales, our incredible victories, our suffering - do not give all this for a sniff of tobacco.

We knew how to live. Remember this. Be human."

....Lidiya Nikolaevna experienced the death of her husband very hard. She said that after the funeral I heard an unexpected phrase from his mother Maria Sergeevna. Like, you're still young. You can get married. Then it seemed strange to the grief-stricken widow. But that's exactly what happened. There will be two more marriages in her life, but in history she will forever remain Fedoseeva-Shukshina.

• 
  © Vasily Shukshin and Lydia Fedoseeva-Shushkina in the film “Kalina Krasnaya”, 1974
• 
  © Lidiya Fedoseeva-Shukshina in the film “They Fought for the Motherland”, 1975
• 
  © Lidiya Fedoseeva-Shukshina and Andrei Mironov in the serial film “12 Chairs”, 1976
• 
  © Lidiya Fedoseeva-Shukshina in the film “You Never Dreamed of It,” 1980

Shelepin had to deal with his fate in the KGB youngest son Stalin Vasily.

Three weeks after the death of the leader, on March twenty-sixth of fifty-three, by order of the Minister of Defense Marshal Bulganin, Aviation Lieutenant General Vasily Iosifovich Stalin was transferred to the reserve without the right to wear military uniform. And a month later, on April twenty-eighth, the son of the leader, from whom dust had previously been blown away, was arrested.

The arrest order was signed by the head of the investigative unit for special important matters Ministry of Internal Affairs, Lieutenant General Lev Emelyanovich Vlodzimirsky.

Why was Stalin's son treated so harshly?

The machinations of Lavrenty Pavlovich, who took revenge on his son for his father? But Beria himself was arrested two months later, and Vasily Stalin continued to sit in prison. He was accused of being a drunkard and “not showing up for work. He received reports from his subordinates at his apartment or dacha. He instilled servility in the apparatus subordinate to him.” But they don’t go to prison for this. Accused of squandering public funds. But this is not the most serious crime. The real charge was brought against him under the notorious fifty-eighth article - for anti-Soviet statements.

He was tried in an accelerated manner, adopted after the murder of Kirov in December thirty-four: without a lawyer and without a prosecutor. His father came up with this idea to quickly send “enemies of the people” to the next world. He probably didn’t think that it would turn against his own son.

The case of Vasily Stalin was considered by the military collegium of the Supreme Court and on September 2, 1955, it sentenced him to eight years in prison. He was supposed to be sent to a camp, but he was kept in the Vladimir prison, away from people.

Why is this severe punishment? For drunkenly promising to go to foreign correspondents and say everything he thinks about the current leaders of the country?

The verdict included: for illegal expenditure and appropriation of state property (abuse of official position under especially aggravating circumstances, Article 193-17 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR) and for “hostile attacks and anti-Soviet slanderous fabrications against the leaders of the CPSU and Soviet state"(and this is already a deadly dangerous article 58-10).

His sister, Svetlana, recalls that Vasily was arrested after a drinking session with some foreigners. Later, during the investigation, scams, embezzlement, and abuse of official position came to light. The investigation lasted two s. more than a year. The security officers arrested Vasily's adjutants and his colleagues, and they quickly signed necessary for the investigation indications.

But the main thing is different - people who were imprisoned by the light hand of Vasily Stalin returned from places not so distant. And these were not ordinary people, and marshals and generals.

Not only the major military men, but also the party leaders really had reason to hate the younger Stalin. First of all, the all-powerful Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov, whose career was almost ruined by Vasily Stalin.

So, it turns out that Vasily Stalin was punished for the fact that at one time he gave his father a hard time about generals and party officials? Got revenge? This is one reason. There is another - he ceased to be a celestial being, and he was no longer allowed those liberties that were forgiven to the son of a leader.

Vasily was not liked by the Minister of War, Marshal Bulganin, with whom the younger Stalin behaved familiarly, if not boorishly. After the death of the leader, everything changed, but Vasily Iosifovich continued to talk with Bulganin, and with other members of the Presidium of the Central Committee in the same way as before.

He publicly said about Bulganin:

Killing him is not enough!

And all Vasily’s words were recorded and reported to the party leadership.

Vasily Iosifovich was called by the head of the main personnel department of the Ministry of Defense, Colonel General Zheltov, who gave him a copy of the dismissal order. Vasily began to ask to be given some work.

Bulganin accepted him. Suggested:

Will you go as head of the flying club to Morshansk?

Vasily exploded:

This is a position for a senior lieutenant. I won't go to it.

Bulganin said:

Then I have no place for you in the army...

Apparently there was another motive. Subconsciously, by imprisoning the younger Stalin, members of the Presidium of the Central Committee were freed from the mystical fear of this name.

In the Vladimir prison, the leader’s son was kept under the name “Vasiliev”. He, still a very young man, was already very ill - apparently due to excessive consumption of strong drinks. And the Soviet prison quickly destroys health.

Khrushchev once asked Shelepin:

How does Vasily Stalin behave? Talk to him, consult with Svetlana.

Stalin Jr. swore to Shelepin that he would behave with dignity.

Khrushchev said:

I am for his release.

Fulfilling the will of the first secretary, on January 5, 1960, KGB Chairman Shelepin and attorney general Rudenko was reported to the Central Committee:

“Stalin V.I. imprisoned for six years and eight months. During this period of time, the administration of places of deprivation of liberty was characterized positively.

Currently, he has a number of serious diseases (heart disease, stomach disease, leg blood vessels and other ailments).

Taking into account the above, we ask the Central Committee of the CPSU to consider the following proposals: apply to Stalin V.I. a private amnesty, release him from further serving his sentence and expunge his criminal record; instruct Mossvet to provide Stalin with V.I. in Moscow, a three-room apartment; instruct the USSR Ministry of Defense to assign Stalin a pension in accordance with the law, provide him with a trip to a sanatorium for a period of three months and return the property that personally belonged to him confiscated during the arrest; extradite to Stalin V.I. thirty thousand rubles as a one-time benefit..."

On January 8, the proposals of Shelepin and Rudenko were accepted.

On January 11, Vasily Stalin was released early. But Vasily Stalin did not have time to take advantage of anything that was promised to him. He began drinking heavily again, and three months later, on April sixteenth, he was arrested again “for continuing anti-Soviet activities.”

This was reflected in his visit to the Chinese embassy, ​​where he made a “slanderous statement of an anti-Soviet nature,” as stated in KGB documents.

The chairman of the presidium talked with Vasily Stalin in a fatherly manner Supreme Council Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov. The elderly marshal reproached him for drinking:

I have known you since the day you were born, I had to babysit you. And I wish you only the best. But now I will tell you unpleasant, bad things. You must become a different person. You're still young, but you're so bald. Your father did not have one, although he lived to be seventy-four years old. All this is because you lead too hectic a life, you don’t live the way you should. You bear the name of a great man, you are his son, and you should not forget this..

Vasily Stalin repented and asked to give him a job. Khrushchev did not like Voroshilov’s conversation with Stalin.

Khrushchev did not like the recording of Voroshilov’s conversation with Stalin. On the fifteenth of April he arranged a discussion of their conversation. All members of the Presidium of the Central Committee, as one, attacked Voroshilov, although Kliment Efremovich did nothing wrong.

Vasily Stalin is an anti-Soviet, an adventurer,” said Mikhail Andreevich Suslov, a member of the presidium and secretary of the Central Committee. - It is necessary to stop his activities, cancel the decree on early release and place him back in prison. The behavior of Comrade Voroshilov - there was no need to get involved. It seems that you support this scum.

Put him in prison,” Nikolai Ignatov supported Suslov. - Rebirth led him to treason.

Vasily Stalin turned out to be a vile, dirty person, said Nuritdin Akramovich Mukhitdinov, a member of the presidium and secretary of the Central Committee, recently transferred to Moscow from Uzbekistan. - Why did Comrade Voroshilov need to accept him?

Vasily Stalin is a traitor to his homeland, his place is in prison, and you caressed him,” Frol Kozlov scolded Marshal. After the conversation with Comrade Khrushchev, he did not run anywhere, but after the conversation with you he ran to the Chinese embassy.

Vasily Iosifovich wanted to ask the Chinese embassy to allow him to go to China for treatment and work. The party leadership had no intention of letting the leader’s son go to China, with whom relations were deteriorating before our eyes.

Vasily Stalin is a state criminal,” said Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin, a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee and Khrushchev’s deputy in the government. - He needs to be isolated. But Comrade Voroshilov is behaving incorrectly.

Shelepin was present at the meeting, but did not speak.

The decision of the Presidium of the Central Committee stated:

"In connection with the criminal antisocial behavior V. Stalin to cancel the resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated January 2, 1960 on the early release of V. Stalin from further serving his sentence and the removal of his criminal record; place V. Stalin in prison to serve his sentence according to the verdict of the Military Collegium Supreme Court USSR dated September 2, 1953."

Vasily Stalin was returned to prison to serve his sentence in full. A year later, the prison term ended. They didn’t want to let him into Moscow.

Shelepin and Rudenko proposed “as an exception to the current legislation, to send V.I. Stalin, after serving his sentence, was sent into exile for a period of five years in the city of Kazan (foreigners are prohibited from entering this city). In case of unauthorized departure from specified location“According to the law, he can be prosecuted.”

On April twenty-eighth, sixty-first, Vasily Iosifovich was transferred to Kazan. They took him to the chairman of the KGB of Tatarstan, who explained to the leader’s son that he could not leave the city for the next five years.

Vasily Stalin, already a seriously ill man, lived in freedom less than a year. He was given a one-room apartment and a pension of one hundred and fifty rubles. He drank constantly. He willingly told his drinking buddies, neighbors and just random people about himself, explaining meaningfully:

They put me in prison because I know too much.

He did not receive a passport for a long time because they demanded that he change his last name to Dzhugashvili, but he flatly refused. Finally, the local KGB made a deal with him. Vasily demanded to be given a larger apartment, an increase in his pension and a car. Moscow agreed to his demands.

On January 9, 1962, he was given a passport with the last name Dzhugashvili. He immediately married nurse Maria Ignatievna Shevargina. She looked after him at the A.V. Institute of Surgery. Vishnevsky, where he lay after prison, and followed him to Kazan.

There was listening equipment in the apartment, so the security officers knew that Vasily continued to vilify Khrushchev. He believed that they were not allowing him into Moscow because they were afraid of him.

He drank almost every day. He was very old and looked bad. Doctors had difficulty getting him out of his drinking bout. On March fourteenth, sixty-two, a teacher from the Ulyanovsk Tank School came to his home. A native of Georgia, he brought with him large number red wine. A three-day binge led to alcohol intoxication, and Vasily Stalin’s heart could not stand it.

On March 19, the new chairman of the KGB, Vladimir Semichastny, reported to Khrushchev that Vasily Iosifovich Dzhugashvili (Stalin) had died in Kazan: “According to preliminary data, the cause of death was alcohol abuse. Dzhugashvili, despite repeated warnings from doctors, systematically drank.”

The KGB chairman proposed to bury Vasily Iosifovich Dzhugashvili in Kazan without military honors. The proposal was accepted.

Years of reign: 1505 - 1533

From the biography

• Son of Ivan 3 and Sophia Paleolog – the latter’s nieces Byzantine emperor, father of the future Tsar Ivan the Terrible (b. 1530)
• He is called “the last collector of the Russian land,” since the last semi-independent Russian principalities were annexed during his reign.
• In the treaty of 1514 With Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian 1- was the first to be named king.
• Idea " Moscow-third Rome"- This political ideology, which meant worldwide significance Moscow as a political and religious center. According to theory, Roman and Byzantine Empire fell because they evaded true faith, A Moscow State is the “third Rome”, and there will be no fourth Rome, since Muscovite Rus' stood, stands and will stand. The theory was formulated by a Pskov monk Filofey in his messages to Vasily 3.

• FYI: in 395 the Roman Empire split into Western and Eastern. The Western Roman Empire fell in 476, breaking up into a number of independent states: Italy. France, Germany, Spain. Eastern Empire— Byzantium fell in 1453, and in its place the Ottoman Empire was formed.
• Josephites these are representatives of the church-political movement that was formed during the reign of Vasily 3. These are followers Joseph Volotsky. They advocated strong church power, the influence of the church in the state, and monastic and church land ownership. Philotheus was a Josephite. Vasily 3 supported them in the fight against the opposition.
• Non-covetous - sought to restore the shaky authority of the church, which was caused by the desire of the clergy to take possession of more and more land. At the head - Neil Sorsky. They are for the secularization of church lands, that is, returning them to the Grand Duke.

The struggle between the non-covetous people and the Josephites, which began under Ivan 3, testified to difficult relationships princes with the church, constant competition for supremacy in power. Vasily 3 relied on the church opposition, and at the same time understood that relations with the church began to become complicated.

Historical portrait of Vasily III

Areas of activity

1.Domestic policy

2. Foreign policy

RESULTS OF ACTIVITY

• Under Vasily 3, the process of forming a centralized state was completed.
• A unified state ideology was created that contributed to the unification of the country.
• The church kept playing important role in the state.
• The grand ducal power increased significantly.
• The public administration system was further improved, and a new government body emerged - the Boyar Duma.
• The prince pursued a successful policy in the west; many western lands were annexed.
• Vasily 3 held back the raids of the Crimean and Kazan khans with all his might, and managed to negotiate peace with them.
• Under Vasily 3, Russia's international authority significantly strengthened. Trade relations were carried out with many countries.

Chronology of the life and work of Vasily III

Under Vasily III, the long-awaited order was established in Rus', Tatar yoke And princely feuds left behind. Vasily annexed the ancient Russian lands of Pskov, Ryazan, and Smolensk to his possessions. The construction of stone buildings on an unprecedented scale continued in the country - the Archangel Cathedral in the Kremlin, the Church of the Ascension in the village of Kolomenskoye; In Kolomna, against the raids of the Tatars, a huge brick Kremlin with 17 powerful towers was built, not much inferior to the Moscow Kremlin. In memory of the annexation of Smolensk to the united Russian land, a grandiose golden cross rose on the Devichye Pole near Moscow. New monastery, now known as Novodevichy.

The first sign of Tsar Vasily III

And then the sun rose in the morning, damaged, its top seemed to have been cut off. And then the sun began to wane and decreased to a third, and became like a boat, and then it arrived again. "So what? - we, today, will say, “an ordinary eclipse and a curious spectacle.” And then there was talk in Rus' that this was not good, we must wait for changes in the state. But what kind of trouble is on the doorstep?

It would have been understandable if this happened a little earlier. The Tatar came. Came from Crimea with a huge army. While the governors were gathering the Russian army in Kolomna, the “godless” surrounded Ryazan, burned all the volosts and towns around the city, beat all the people and took them captive and attacked the walls, but they also recaptured the city with great damage. The Russian army came from Kolomna and drove them away. Prince Telepnev-Ovchina also crossed the Oka with his army, attacked the Tatars, but they retreated and, with a cunning maneuver, lured the prince into a trap, where the Russian army was almost completely defeated. But help arrived and, under the threat of encirclement, the Tatars fled, and it was not possible to catch up with them.

The Grand Duke of Moscow did not take direct part in hostilities, his headquarters was in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow, but he traveled a lot, preparing to meet the enemy on the outskirts, who after Ryazan would head to Moscow. When the threat had passed, the prince went to the Troetsky Monastery to pray on the day of remembrance of Sergius the Wonderworker (October 8, according to the New Style) for the deliverance of Rus' from its enemies. His family also went with him: Elena, his second wife, a beauty from the Lithuanian Glinsky family (partly of Tatar blood - the family descended from Mamai), and two young sons, Ivan, who later became Tsar Ivan the Terrible, and Yuri (and these, thus , were descendants of both military leaders who met a century and a half ago on the Kulikovo Field - both Dmitry Donskoy and Mamai). From Trinity the princely family headed to Volok Lamsky, present-day Volokolamsk.

And suddenly - a sign for the Russian Tsar Vasily 3 of a new misfortune.

Stopover

Here, on the way, the prince had to stop in his village of Ozeretskoye, which even now stands halfway between Sergiev Posad and Dmitrov. The reason for stopping seemed trivial - a small sore that suddenly appeared on the left thigh, on the bend, just at the place where the horse’s saddle ends. The sore was only about the size of a pinhead, but its color was purple and the pain was unbearable.

But things didn’t get any easier in Ozeretskoye. We drove on and got to Volok: the prince was not able to ride for a long time on horseback. But he didn’t want to show that he was succumbing to the disease and ordered a large sovereign hunt to be organized: with hunters and dogs, accompanied by the boyars’ children and his brother, Andrei Ivanovich. However, he was no longer able to return from hunting to Volok; he came to the remote forest village of Kolp, which still stands among the forests, and here he finally fell ill. Seeing that the disease was taking a serious turn, Vasily called his personal healers - Nikolai Nemchin and Theophilus, and first ordered to apply wheat flour with unleavened honey and baked onions to the sore. As a result of this treatment, the sore began to turn red, a small pimple appeared, and there was a little pus in it. The prince lay in Kolpi for two weeks, and when he decided to return to Volok, it turned out that he was no longer able to mount a horse, and the boyar children carried him on a stretcher.

Second sign of the life of Tsar Vasily 3

The prince lay in Volok in great sorrow and torment, the pus did not come out of the sore, and the pain was as if a red-hot needle had been stuck into his body; and the pain neither increased nor decreased. The prince stopped eating and secretly sent his faithful people for the spiritual certificates of his father and grandfather. Vasily hid this from everyone: from the boyars, and from the princes, from his brothers and even from his wife.