| | In the post-Mongol period, '''[[Muscovy]]'' gradually became the dominant principality and was able, through diplomacy and conquest, to establish [[suzerain]]ty over European Russia. [[Ivan III]] (1462-1505) referred to his empire as "the Third Rome" and considered it heir to the Byzantine tradition. [[Ivan IV]] (the Terrible) (1530-1584) was the first Russian ruler to call himself [[tsar]]. He pushed Russian eastward with his conquests but his later reign was marked by the cruelty that earned him his familiar epithet. He was succeeded by his feeble son, the childless Feodor I Ivanovich who reigned from 1584–1598. [[Boris Godunov]],the brother-in-law of Feodor, became the tsar Boris I. He ruled from 1598-1604 when he was disposed and killed, along with this wife and son, by a cabal of [[boyar]]. With the death of Boris I Russia commenced the so-called [[Time of Troubles]] which was to see further brief and bloody reigns. In 1613, after relative stability was achieved, fifteen year old [[Michael Romanov]] was selected by an assembled council of lay and ecclesiastical to be the new tsar. The dynasty that bore his name survived until 1917 with the death of Nichols II and his family. | | In the post-Mongol period, '''[[Muscovy]]'' gradually became the dominant principality and was able, through diplomacy and conquest, to establish [[suzerain]]ty over European Russia. [[Ivan III]] (1462-1505) referred to his empire as "the Third Rome" and considered it heir to the Byzantine tradition. [[Ivan IV]] (the Terrible) (1530-1584) was the first Russian ruler to call himself [[tsar]]. He pushed Russian eastward with his conquests but his later reign was marked by the cruelty that earned him his familiar epithet. He was succeeded by his feeble son, the childless Feodor I Ivanovich who reigned from 1584–1598. [[Boris Godunov]],the brother-in-law of Feodor, became the tsar Boris I. He ruled from 1598-1604 when he was disposed and killed, along with this wife and son, by a cabal of [[boyar]]. With the death of Boris I Russia commenced the so-called [[Time of Troubles]] which was to see further brief and bloody reigns. In 1613, after relative stability was achieved, fifteen year old [[Michael Romanov]] was selected by an assembled council of lay and ecclesiastical to be the new tsar. The dynasty that bore his name survived until 1917 with the death of Nichols II and his family. |
| | + | On June 16, 1552, a large and well-armed Russian force led by Ivan IV set out from Moscow towards [[Kazan]]. The Russian army numbered 150,000 men with 150 cannons, facing Khan Yediger’s 65,000 troops. Kazan’s garrison had 33,000 men and 70 cannons. |
| | + | On August 30, a detachment led by General A.B. Gorbaty defeated Kazan’s field forces and took control of the Arsk side of the city. The city’s water supply system was destroyed, and sections of the walls were breached. By September 30, the siege ring had tightened, with only a moat remaining between the Russian siege towers and the fortress. On October 1, during the Feast of the Protection of the Virgin, the moat was filled in, tunnels were dug under the city walls, and the walls were blown up. |
| | + | On October 2, 1552, after the garrison refused to surrender, the Russian army launched an assault on the fortress, and by midday, the defenders were overcome, and Kazan was captured. |
| | + | After the fall of Kazan, the [[Kazan Khanate]] was dissolved, and the Middle Volga region became part of the Russian Tsardom. This set the stage for expansion into the [[Urals]] and [[Siberia]], as well as increased trade with the [[Caucasus]] and [[Far East|the East]]. |