ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the relationship between nobles and tsar in sixteenth-century Russia. With this purpose in mind it first gives a brief insight into the governmental, social, and economic situation of sixteenth-century Russia, and then discusses the question of an autocratic government versus a government based on consensus and the question of resistance of nobles to the tsar. Russia in the sixteenth century experienced a time of both consolidation and reform. Russian territory grew as a result of land annexations in the west and the north, which led to economic improvement in the domestic situation as well as in international trade with the English Muscovy Company. Russian nobles described their relationship with the tsar in terms of servility, calling themselves the slaves of the tsar, and thus emphasized his power compared to all other European rulers. Though personal ego-documents of Russian nobles are scarce, other sources, including architecture, provide an alternate narrative of the symbolical communication among Muscovy's ruling ranks.
