Oprichnina
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The Oprichnina (Russian: Опричнина) formed a section of Russian territory ruled directly by Ivan the Terrible. The term derives from the obsolete Russian word "опричь" (oprich), meaning apart from, except of.
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[edit] Creation
On the third of December, 1564, Tsar Ivan left Moscow, carrying all of its religious and historical relics with him in his entourage, for the neighboring suburb of Alexandrov. The church, unable to do anything but gawk astonished, begged the tsar to return to Moscow. In 1565, the officials of the church met with Ivan and consented to his creation of the Oprichnina in exchange for his return to Moscow. That same year, Ivan formed the Oprichnina which gave him a section of territory in which he could be free from noble interference and rule as a completely unlimited autocrat.
[edit] Existence
The Oprichnina contained much of Russia's best land, including parts of Moscow and many of the large central cities. In total area, the Oprichnina covered almost one-third of all Russian lands. The rest of the country was referred to as the zemshchina; these areas were ruled by powerful boyars.
The Oprichnina was treated very similarly to the church at the time, enjoying the same freedom from taxes and monastic organization (with the tsar himself as abbot). The main difference between the two was that, instead of being a religious body, the oprichnina was exclusively Ivan's means of carrying out his will. (3)
The Oprichnina was administered by the oprichniks, who used extreme violence against any opposition to Ivan's rule. This included both nobles and peasants, with many of the oprichniks being members of the elite.. The oprichniki were described as "trusties of Ivan who wore black cowls and carried brooms and dogs' heads at their saddle-bows" (1). During the era of the Oprichnina, oprichniks killed thousands and devastated the area. For example, in 1570 Ivan's concern at the strategic value of the city in the war with the Teutonic Order and Sweden led him to order the sacking of Novgorod. The oprichniks plundered the city in response and killed as many as 30,000 of its inhabitants (2).
[edit] Disbandment
The Oprichnina was a total failure and Ivan was forced to disband it in autumn of 1572. He had several of its leaders executed, however, the remaining oprichniki, about 600 men, continued to plunder Russia without the consent of the tsar. When, in 1571 the Crimean Tatars marched on Moscow, the garrison of oprichniki did nothing and the city was plundered.
What had once been Russia's best and most fertile areas had been devastated and had fallen well below the rest of the country. Those that had not been killed by the oprichniki or forcefully deported often fled into other areas of Russia on their own. Tax revenues had not increased as the tsar had hoped, and Russia quickly lost all of its gains in the war for Livonia. Although the Oprichnina was succesful in instilling a fearfully submissive view towards the tsar in Russians across the kingdom, it ultimately posed as no tangible improvement if not a detriment to the economy and stability of Russia.
[edit] Legacy
Years after the reign of Ivan the Terrible, tsar Peter the Great of Russia and even Stalin, himself, based their own purging schemes on the 'terrible, blood thirsty' Oprichnina.
Sergei Eisenstein depicted the oprichniki as healthy, loyal, clean-looking persons in the movie Ivan The Terrible, Part I and then proceeded to show them in a less flattering light in Ivan The Terrible, Part II.
[edit] References
- Philip Longworth, Russia: The Once and Future Empire (New York, 2005), pp98-105
- S. B. Veselovskii, Isledovaniia po istorii oprichniny (Moscow, 1963) pp. 133ff.
- R. Skrynnikov, Ivan Groznyi (Moscow, 1980), pp. 233-43, pp. 172f., 168ff.
- A. Dvorkin, Ivan the Terrible as a Religious Type (Erlangen, 1992), p. 105
