This paper is going to analyse the efforts the Russian did to get access to the Mediterranean during the Tsardom. It is part of a series of 3 about the relationship that Russia has with navigation. It is a recapitulation paper so it will contain a recapitulative so what at the end. The goal is to prove that Russia is a peripherical state in the World System.
It is to notice that Russia as a unitary state was created after America’s discovery and the consequent resetting of trade from Mare Nostrum to the Atlantic. Given the nature of the topic, the sources will be academical mainly. Kievan Rus’ will be treated briefly to point out the painful switch from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age in terms of power and prosperity occurred at Europe’s borders.
Introduction
Kievan Rus’ was the first Slavic proto state, a system of principalities. It was a land of cities, encompassing 271 in 11th century. The number of them in Germany, during the same period, was not superior to 30[1]. Among those gorods, Kievan Rus’ had the leading role for cultural reasons. It was in Tri Marium (the land posed among three seas: the Mediterranean, the Black and the Baltic one) (https://www.limesonline.com/rivista/anteprima/trimarium-tra-russia-e-germania-il-nuovo-numero-di-limes-14682379/).
Prince Oleg signed a free trade agreement with Byzantium, ensuring an economic preeminent role for his polity amongst the other Russian cities in the late IX century AC. Shortly afterwards, Prince Vladimir of Kiev made his people converted to Christian Orthodoxism. Slavic people were still barbarians at the time (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vladimir-I). Also, he used the consequent wealth to embellish Kiev. Conversion made them linked to the Byzantine civilisation, at the time the most powerful and developed in the Mediterranean. Rus’ southern cities were well connected to the Black Sea and to Constantinople, the Eastern Roman Empire’s capital.
As represented in the map, there were many rivers in Eastern Europe, so Kievan Rus’ could use them to connect the Byzantine Empire with Scandinavia. From North to South, Rus’ merchants used to transport Viking goods, mostly beam, wax and metalware. From South to North, they used to bring refined jewellery, silk products and paper. Moreover, Rus’ warriors had been hired in the Empire’s rank as mercenaries, since they were known as fierce warriors. There was a huge number of gold coins circulating in Rus’ as a whole.
A little amount of exportation was composed by produce from Rus’ lands. Consequently, there were a few peasants in the primitive Slavic state. Given the scarce number of peasants, serfdom was not particularly heavy in Rus’ territories[2]. That reality was exactly the opposite in Western Europe, whose economy relied mainly on agriculture in the Middle Ages.
As the reader can imagine, the situation in Tri Marium (the land posed among three seas: the Mediterranean, the Black and the Baltic one) was particularly positive during the Middle Ages. In the 13thcentury, when the Mongol’s invasion occurred, it became even more. Mongol warfare proved itself superior to the Rus’ one. Basically, the last one was the same of Western Europe. Rus’ armies, based on heavy armoured knights, could not tackle the horseback archers from the steppes. Therefore, Rus’ princes bowed to their new masters, but the commoners continued to live according to their customs. The Tatars (as the Mongols were known in Eastern lands), who had already conquered China, brought the efficient bureaucratic system to Rus’. That innovation generated positive outcomes in administration[3]. The “Mongolian captivity” would have been ended up by Grand Duke Ivan III, known as the Great, in 1502 (https://www.britannica.com/summary/Ivan-III).
Corpus
In 1453, the Otman forces seized Constantinople. They destroyed the Byzantine Empire, (the historical commercial partner for Rus’ people) and closed the Dardanelles Straits, making impossible for Rus’ merchants to enter the Mediterranean. According to the present paper’s author, the initiatives Grand Prince Ivan III undertook were motivated by the reduced amount of monies Rus’ princes had to pay as a tribute to their Tatar masters.
Ivan III (1440-1505), he became Grand Duke of Moscow of Moscow in 1462. During the Tatar domination, Moscow outclassed Kiev as the most important Rus’ gorod in terms of richness and cultural influence. He started a series of military campaigns against the Tatars. The Grand Duke succeeded at ending their multi-century domination (https://www.britannica.com/summary/Ivan-III). In addition, he was the first Rus’ ruler using the title of Tsar, notwithstanding unofficially. Those events are both important since Moscow became powerful as a money lander during the Tatar captivity[4]. The landed monies used by other Rus’ nobles to pay tribute came from peasants’ intense exploitation in the Muscovy. According to the opinion of who is writing, with the isolation derived from the Bosphorus’ enclosure, the “Moscow model” became the most suitable to provide some power, despite not comparable to the one Kiev had.
In 1492, America was discovered. It took one century for the European commerce to move from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, as proved by F. Braudel[5]. It constituted a further blow for Rus’ land, because its access to the Atlantic is limited by harsh weather conditions and geography. The only city able to operate in the Atlantic commerce was Archangelsk.
It is interesting to notice that the myth of Moscow as Third Rome (a political and religious concept), started to get importance immediately after Constantinople’s Fall in 1453. Usually, polities in need of compensating their actual weakness do so recurring to a powerful ideology.
In 1547, Grand Duke Ivan IV (1530-1584), known as the Terrible, ascend to the Moscow’s throne. His coronation was particularly opulent. He self-proclaimed himself Tsar in the same year. He also made the title hereditary. His second act as a ruler was aggravating the serfs’ condition. After the title’s change, he undertook a series of efforts aimed at strengthening his country. To Export grain and raw materials abroad, Russia (from this moment onward a unified state. Rus’ was a confederation of principalities) had to reduce the great part of the serfs’ living standards more than in the past to create a strong nation. Moreover, he tore to the ground the city of Novgorod because of its elected government. Given Russia’s marginalisation, it was necessary to concentrate power in the hands of a sole authoritarian monarch to enserf most people. An elected government was not functional to do so.
Concerning the foreign policy, he started state-run commerce with the British through the Archangelsk’s harbour to reduce Russian isolationism (he even tried to marry Queen Elizabeth I of England, but he didn’t succeed). In addition, Tsar Ivan IV waged war against the Otman Empire to protect Russia’ southern expansion. According to the analyst’s opinion, Tsar Ivan IV was motivated by the need to retake access to the Mediterranean again. A war broke out in 1568 over the control of Astrakhan, a city the Russians got from the Golden Horde (a Mongolian khanate) in 1556 (https://history-maps.com/story/Tsardom-of-Russia). The war ended in 1570 with Ottoman forces’ defeat.
So What?
According to the opinion of who is writing, the “periphery condition” does not allowed to Russia to exert power during the Tsardom, that is, from Ivan IV reign to 1721, when the Empire was found by Peter the Great (https://www.britannica.com/place/Russian-Empire), because of its isolation from major naval commercial routes. Historically, a polity must exert influence on world commerce maritime routes to be powerful, but Russia did so in Rus time only. Moreover, the Mediterranean was the world commerce epicentre during the Middle Ages. In the best case, the Tsardom was a peripherical searching-for-assertiveness political community in the World System.
[1] An empire of the periphery, by B. Kagarlitsky.
[2] B. Kagarlitsky, Empire of the Periphery.
[3] B. Kagarlitsky, Empire of the Periphery.
[4] B. Kagarlitsky, Empire of the Periphery
[5] The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, Vol. 1. University of California Press
