ABSTRACT
Ivan the Great to Peter II, 1462-1762 Ivan III or the Great (r. 1462-1505), Basil’s successor, continued with the policy of not only separating Muscovite Russia from Greek control, but also of having Russia replace the Greeks, who were now under Muslim control, as the Godordained leaders of Orthodox Christianity, leaders who would put the pope in his place and reclaim the Orthodox peoples and lands of Poland-Lithuania. The first order of business was to subject other Russian princes to Muscovite control. The major rival was Novgorod the Great. Ivan attacked Novgorod in 1471 and then again in 1478 when he took firm control and purged the Western-leaning elite and closed Novgorod’s one Catholic Church. Ivan also subjected other Russian principalities to his authority and became known as the “gatherer of the Russian lands.”
