ABSTRACT
Through the sixteenth century Muscovy developed into a major eastern European power. Its sovereign headed a political system that was able to organize armies sufficient to expand the realm territorially and to construct a bureaucratic apparatus capable of imposing the sovereign’s will, laws, and taxes throughout his domain. At least five factors contributed to Muscovy’s political success: a stable dynasty; the Church that contributed an ideology that defined and legitimized the sovereign’s powers and justified his elevation above other princes and aristocrats; the cooperation of members of the court and administration; a military force subordinate and loyal to the sovereign; and a socio-economic base with the capacity to sustain the political and military elites. These institutions and structures developed in response to and account for the growth of Muscovy in size, power, and stature during the sixteenth century. They also comprise the legacy left by sixteenth-century Muscovites to their seventeenth-century heirs. But by the end of the century they were in disarray. Conditions developing during the second half of the century strained them to the limits, and in some cases beyond the limits, of their capabilities. The modernizing tendencies of the seventeenth century, which will be explored in this volume, developed from Muscovy’s reactions to its sixteenth-century crises. Its attempts to build upon and compensate for its flawed legacy, its efforts to blend and balance tradition and innovation as it addressed inherited and new challenges thus contributed to the dynamic processes of modernization. This essay will review Muscovy’s sixteenth-century political, military, and socioeconomic institutions and structures. It will highlight the multiple crises that Muscovy faced at the end of the century and that generated the motivations for change and, ultimately, modernization during the seventeenth century.
