Oprichnina is a specially created lottery and personal security of the Russian king Ivan Grozny, was responsible for mass executions, the persecution of the monarch's enemies and the confiscation of property: they enjoyed and abused the phenomenal scale of the authorities. But why did this vintage black special services appear?
Uncompromising, ruthless and forever loyal king, they terrorized the whole country and even had the last word in court. The head of the dog hung from the neck of their neck, and they wore outfits, similar to the dark mantle of the monk. Everyone was afraid of them, from the poor to the nobles.
Ivan Grozny, the Grand Duke of Moscow, who allegedly killed his son, is associated with one of the most gloomy periods in the history of Russia. The frightened ruler created a new social class: his personal security and the secret police - invented an oprichnin. He used this particular class of loyalists to punish those who were unmarked to him.
Emergency measures
When Andrei Kurbsky, a warrant of noble origin and the closest friend of Ivan the Terrible, betrayed him in 1564, the latter made an unprecedented step. He left Moscow, while Russia led War with Lithuania. After a quick prayer, the king gathered his family, putting the state treasury, and secretly left the Kremlin. But the flight from Moscow later turned out to be a bad decision.
Panic occurred in the capital. People were afraid that the country was left without the ruling top. Crowds flocked outside the Alexandrovsky Kremlin, demanding the return of Ivan to Moscow and put an end anarchy that gave rise to chaos in the capital.
A month later, Ivan Grozny returned to Moscow with an ultimatum: he will continue the reign, but the country will be divided into two parts. One half remains in the full power of the king of his oprichnin, the other - goes to the boyars and the princely elite. All other classes will continue their accommodation in the usual places.
Dog class
Official members were chosen from the lower classes. The main criterion was that they did not have any connections with any of the noble dynasties. Each member, or a scramble, promised to be a faithful king and swore to live in a special code: to refrain from food, drinking or maintaining connections with someone who was not a member of Official. If the scrapper violated these rules, then he, and his comrade, sentenced to execution.
Orympic members lived in a separate part of the city, in several central regions of Moscow (around the old Arbat and Nikitskaya Street). Ivan unceremoniously displaced the former tenants to settle his faithful guard, and people were literally kicked out in disbound, being forced to look for a new shelter with their households.
Personal security of the king initially numbered 1000 русски, and later this number increased to 6,000 people.
King's execution
The political justification of the Okrichnina was to prevent dissent in the country and maintain control over the authorities. It was at that time that the term "crime against sovereign" appeared for the first time as a real basis for repression (it began to be used only in 1649).
According to historical chronicles, members of the Okrichnina led mass executions, robbed and plundered people. In 1570, all the Novgorod nobility was accused of treason against the king. "The accusation was clearly absurd and controversial," said Vladimir Kobrin's historian. Despite this, noble Novgorods were executed, as well as several hundreds of residents. They were poured by a resin, set fire and threw in Moscow the river alive.
The Legal Code of Ivan the Terrible made the death penalty in one of the most frequent sentences. Sometimes one word of the scramble was enough. After the execution of the Ochrichnik demanded all the property of the "traitor", and the most active were generously rewarded.
It is not surprising that no one appreciated the conviction of the evidence presented in support of the executions "by the will of the king"; Some accusations were frankly fictitious.
Oprichnina, in the end, weakened to such an extent that it was not able to defend themselves from external enemies. A year after the empty of Novgorod in 1571, Crimean Khan attacked Moscow. Oprichnina barely managed to protect the throne, because of which Ivan Grozny dismissed them and did what he did best: executed his senior officers.
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