Ivan the Great of Russia

We are loving the lessons in The Mystery of History volume 3.  We are moving a little slower than I would like but there is so much to take in, I do not want to miss any of it.

Ivan the Great, also known as Ivan III, was a child when the land that we know as Russia was under the rule of the Tatar Mongols.

According to history, these were not the friendliest people.  Genghis Khan ring a bell?  The Tartar Mongols were descendants of Genghis Khan and history relates that they were known for eating their captives.

This is where Ivan comes in.  Ivan was the Prince of Muscovy which was in the region that includes Moscow.    He wanted to free Russia from the Tartar Mongols.

He married a girl named Sophia who was the niece of the last emperor of the Byzantine Empire.  A side note, her Greek name was actually Zoe Palaiologina  but she changed it to Sophia.  I just thought this was interesting.

Anyway with this union blended the power of the church and the state.  So in other words, the leader of the church was also the leader of the state.  Sophia was also the last member of the royal family from the Byzantine Empire which meant she inherited the remaining powers of her uncle when he was killed in battle and since she was married to Ivan, the leadership of the church transferred to him.

Ivan eventually did free Russia.  He changed the laws of Russia and moved the capital to Moscow.  The buildings in the Kremlin were also rebuilt in his honor.  The Kremlin contains many beautiful palaces and breath taking cathedrals. Ivan is also credited with basically starting feudalism.  Feudalism was the system for which peasants or serfs (slaves) worked for their landowners in exchange for food and shelter.  This system lasted until 1861.


As you can see, this is just a brief, brief summary of a part of the history of Russia.  I know I have quite a few readers that check in from Russia (Thanks for that!) so if I have any of this wrong, please feel free to let me know.