Vasily son of Sophia Paleolog. Sophia Paleolog: the most shocking facts. Role in history

Great love stories. 100 stories about a great feeling Mudrova Irina Anatolyevna

Ivan III and Sophia Paleolog

Ivan III Vasilyevich was the Grand Duke of Moscow from 1462 to 1505. During the reign of Ivan Vasilievich, a significant part of the Russian lands around Moscow was united and it became the center of the all-Russian state. The final liberation of the country from the rule of the Horde khans was achieved. Ivan Vasilyevich created the state, which became the basis of Russia up to the present.

The first wife of Grand Duke Ivan was Maria Borisovna, daughter of the Prince of Tver. On February 15, 1458, the son Ivan was born in the family of the Grand Duke. The Grand Duchess, who had a meek character, died on April 22, 1467, before reaching the age of thirty. The Grand Duchess was buried in the Kremlin, in the Ascension Convent. Ivan, who was at that time in Kolomna, did not come to his wife's funeral.

Two years after her death, the Grand Duke decided to marry again. After a consultation with his mother, as well as with the boyars and the metropolitan, he decided to agree to the recently received proposal from the Pope to marry the Byzantine princess Sophia (in Byzantium she was called Zoya). She was the daughter of the Morean despot Thomas Palaiologos and was the niece of Emperors Constantine XI and John VIII.

Decisive in the fate of Zoe was the fall of the Byzantine Empire. Emperor Constantine XI died in 1453 during the capture of Constantinople. After 7 years, in 1460, Morea was captured by the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II, Thomas fled with his family to the island of Corfu, then to Rome, where he soon died. In order to gain support, Thomas converted to Catholicism in the last year of his life. Zoya and her brothers - 7-year-old Andrei and 5-year-old Manuel - moved to Rome 5 years after their father. There she received the name Sophia. The paleologists came under the auspices of Cardinal Bessarion, who retained sympathy for the Greeks.

In those years, the Vatican was looking for allies to organize a new crusade against the Turks, intending to involve all European sovereigns in it. Then, on the advice of Cardinal Vissarion, the pope decided to marry Zoya to the Moscow sovereign Ivan III, knowing about his desire to become the heir to the Byzantine basils. The Patriarch of Constantinople and Cardinal Vissarion tried to renew the union with Russia with the help of marriage. It was then that the Grand Duke was informed of the stay in Rome of a noble bride devoted to Orthodoxy - Sophia Paleolog. Dad promised Ivan his support in case he wants to woo her. The motives for marrying Sophia with Ivan III, of course, were associated with status, the brilliance of her name and the glory of her ancestors played a role. Ivan III, who claimed the royal title, considered himself the successor of the Roman and Byzantine emperors.

January 16, 1472 Moscow ambassadors set off on a long journey. In Rome, the Muscovites were honorably received by the new Pope Sixtus IV. As a gift from Ivan III, the ambassadors presented the pontiff with sixty selected sable skins. The case quickly came to an end. Pope Sixtus IV treated the bride with paternal care: he gave Zoe a dowry, in addition to gifts, about 6,000 ducats. Sixtus IV in St. Peter's Cathedral performed a solemn ceremony of Sophia's absentee betrothal to the Moscow sovereign, who was represented by the Russian ambassador Ivan Fryazin.

On June 24, 1472, after saying goodbye to the pope in the gardens of the Vatican, Zoya headed to the far north. The future Grand Duchess of Moscow, as soon as she found herself on Russian soil, while still on her way down the aisle to Moscow, treacherously betrayed all the hopes of the pope, immediately forgetting all her Catholic upbringing. Sophia, who apparently met in her childhood with the elders of Athos, who were opposed to the subordination of the Orthodox to the Catholics, was deeply Orthodox at heart. She immediately openly, vividly and defiantly showed her devotion to Orthodoxy, to the delight of the Russians, kissing all the icons in all churches, impeccably behaving in the Orthodox service, being baptized as Orthodox. The plans of the Vatican to make the princess a conductor of Catholicism to Russia failed, since Sophia immediately demonstrated a return to the faith of her ancestors. The papal legate was deprived of the opportunity to enter Moscow, carrying a Latin cross in front of him.

In the early morning of November 21, 1472, Sophia Paleolog arrived in Moscow. On the same day in the Kremlin, in a temporary wooden church, set up near the Assumption Cathedral under construction, so as not to stop worship, the sovereign married her. The Byzantine princess saw her husband for the first time then. The Grand Duke was young - only 32 years old, handsome, tall and stately. Especially remarkable were his eyes, "terrible eyes." And before, Ivan Vasilyevich had a tough character, but now, having become related to the Byzantine monarchs, he turned into a formidable and powerful sovereign. This was a considerable merit of his young wife.

Sophia became a full-fledged Grand Duchess of Moscow. The very fact that she agreed to go to seek her fortune from Rome to distant Moscow suggests that she was a brave, energetic woman.

She brought a generous dowry to Russia. After the wedding, Ivan III adopted the coat of arms of the Byzantine double-headed eagle - a symbol of royal power, placing it on his seal. The two heads of the eagle face West and East, Europe and Asia, symbolizing their unity, as well as the unity (“symphony”) of spiritual and secular power. Sophia's dowry was the legendary "liberia" - the library (better known as the "library of Ivan the Terrible"). It included Greek parchments, Latin chronographs, ancient Eastern manuscripts, among which were the poems of Homer unknown to us, the works of Aristotle and Plato, and even the surviving books from the famous library of Alexandria.

According to legend, she brought with her a “bone throne” as a gift to her husband: its wooden frame was all covered with ivory and walrus ivory plates with biblical themes carved on them. Sophia brought with her several Orthodox icons.

The great Greek brought with her her ideas about the court and the power of power. Sophia Paleolog not only made changes at court - some Moscow monuments owe their appearance to her. Much of what is now preserved in the Kremlin was built during the reign of Grand Duchess Sophia.

In 1474, the Assumption Cathedral, built by Pskov craftsmen, collapsed. The Italians were involved in its restoration under the guidance of the architect Aristotle Fioravanti. When she built the Church of the Deposition of the Robe, the Faceted Chamber, named so on the occasion of finishing it in the Italian style - with facets. The Kremlin itself - a fortress that guarded the ancient center of the capital of Russia - grew and was created before her eyes. Twenty years later, foreign travelers began to call the Moscow Kremlin in a European way “castle”, due to the abundance of stone buildings in it.

So, through the efforts of Ivan III and Sophia Paleolog, the Renaissance flourished on Russian soil.

However, Sophia's arrival in Moscow did not please some of Ivan's courtiers. By nature, Sophia was a reformer, participation in public affairs was the meaning of the life of the Moscow princess, she was a decisive and intelligent person, and the nobility of that time did not like it very much. In Moscow, she was accompanied not only by the honors accorded to the Grand Duchess, but also by the hostility of the local clergy and the heir to the throne. At every step she had to defend her rights.

The best way to assert yourself was, of course, childbearing. The Grand Duke wanted to have sons. Sophia herself wanted this. However, to the delight of ill-wishers, she gave birth to three daughters in a row - Elena (1474), Elena (1475) and Theodosia (1475). Unfortunately, the girls died shortly after birth. Then another girl was born, Elena (1476). Sophia prayed to God and all the saints for the gift of a son. There is a legend associated with the birth of Sophia's son Vasily, the future heir to the throne: as if during one of the pilgrimage to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, in Klementyev, Grand Duchess Sophia Paleolog had a vision of St. gender." On the night of March 25-26, 1479, a boy was born, named after his grandfather Vasily. For his mother, he always remained Gabriel - in honor of the Archangel Gabriel. Following Vasily, she had two more sons (Yuri and Dmitry), then two daughters (Elena and Feodosia), then three more sons (Semyon, Andrei and Boris) and the last, in 1492, a daughter, Evdokia.

Ivan III loved his wife and took care of the family. Before the invasion of Khan Akhmat in 1480, for the sake of safety, with the children, the court, the boyars and the princely treasury, Sophia was sent first to Dmitrov, and then to Beloozero. Vladyka Vissarion warned the Grand Duke against constant thoughts and excessive attachment to his wife and children. In one of the chronicles, it is noted that Ivan panicked: “Horror is found on n, and you want to run away from the shore, and your Grand Duchess Roman and the treasury with her are ambassadors to Beloozero.”

The main significance of this marriage was that the marriage to Sophia Paleolog contributed to the establishment of Russia as the successor of Byzantium and the proclamation of Moscow as the Third Rome, the stronghold of Orthodox Christianity. After his marriage to Sophia, Ivan III for the first time dared to show the European political world the new title of sovereign of all Russia and forced him to recognize it. Ivan was called "the sovereign of all Russia."

Inevitably, the question arose about the future fate of the offspring of Ivan III and Sophia. The heir to the throne remained the son of Ivan III and Maria Borisovna, Ivan Molodoy, whose son Dmitry was born on October 10, 1483, in marriage with Elena Voloshanka. In the event of the death of his father, he would not hesitate in one way or another to get rid of Sophia and her family. The best they could hope for was exile or exile. At the thought of this, the Greek woman was seized with rage and impotent despair.

Throughout the 1480s, Ivan Ivanovich's position as the legitimate heir was quite strong. However, by 1490, the heir to the throne, Ivan Ivanovich, fell ill with "kamchugo in the legs" (gout). Sophia ordered a doctor from Venice - "Mistro Leon", who presumptuously promised Ivan III to cure the heir to the throne. Nevertheless, all the efforts of the doctor were fruitless, and on March 7, 1490, Ivan the Young died. The doctor was executed, and rumors spread around Moscow about the poisoning of the heir. Modern historians regard the hypothesis of the poisoning of Ivan the Young as unverifiable due to a lack of sources.

On February 4, 1498, the coronation of Prince Dmitry Ivanovich took place in the Assumption Cathedral in an atmosphere of great splendor. Sophia and her son Vasily were not invited.

Ivan III continued to painfully seek a way out of the dynastic impasse. How much pain, tears and misunderstanding had to be experienced by his wife, this strong, wise woman who was so eager to help her husband build a new Russia, the Third Rome. But time passes, and the wall of bitterness, which was erected with such zeal around the Grand Duke by his son and daughter-in-law, collapsed. Ivan Vasilyevich wiped away his wife's tears and wept with her himself. As never before, he felt that the white light was not sweet to him without this woman. Now the plan to give the throne to Dmitry did not seem successful to him. Ivan Vasilyevich knew how all-consumingly Sophia loved her son Vasily. He was sometimes even jealous of this motherly love, realizing that the son completely reigns in the heart of the mother. The Grand Duke felt sorry for his young sons Vasily, Yuri, Dmitry Zhilka, Semyon, Andrey ... And he lived together with Princess Sophia for a quarter of a century. Ivan III understood that sooner or later the sons of Sophia would revolt. There were only two ways to prevent the performance: either destroy the second family, or bequeath the throne to Vasily and destroy the family of Ivan the Young.

On April 11, 1502, the dynastic struggle came to its logical conclusion. According to the chronicle, Ivan III "placed disgrace on the grandson of his Grand Duke Dmitry and on his mother, Grand Duchess Elena." Three days later, Ivan III "granted his son Vasily, blessed and planted autocrat on the Grand Duchy of Volodimer and Moscow and All Russia."

On the advice of his wife, Ivan Vasilievich released Elena from prison and sent her to her father in Wallachia (good relations with Moldova were needed), but in 1509 Dmitry died “in need, in prison”.

A year after these events, on April 7, 1503, Sophia Paleolog died. The body of the Grand Duchess was buried in the cathedral of the Kremlin Ascension Monastery. Ivan Vasilyevich, following her death, lost heart, became seriously ill. Apparently, the great Greek Sophia gave him the necessary energy to build a new power, her mind helped in state affairs, her sensitivity warned of dangers, her all-conquering love gave him strength and courage. Leaving all his affairs, he went on a trip to the monasteries, but failed to atone for sins. He was stricken with paralysis: "... took away his arm and leg and eye." On October 27, 1505, he died, "having been in the great reign for 43 years and 7 months, and all the years of his stomach 65 and 9 months."

This text is an introductory piece.

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"Your fate is sealed

-That's what they say when in heaven
Known for choice and soul
inevitability accepts,
Like a lot she's made."

Marina Gussar

Grand Duchess Sophia Paleolog

“The main effect of this marriage ... was that Russia became more famous in Europe, which honored the tribe of the ancient Byzantine emperors in Sofia and, so to speak, followed it with its eyes to the borders of our fatherland ... Moreover, many Greeks who came to us from the princess, became useful in Russia with their knowledge in the arts and in languages, especially in Latin, which was then necessary for external state affairs; enriched the Moscow church libraries with books saved from Turkish barbarism and contributed to the magnificence of our court by telling it magnificent Byzantine rites, so that from now on the capital of Ioannov could really be called the new Tsaremgrad, like ancient Kyiv "

N. Karamzin

“Great Constantinople (Tsargrad), this acropolis of the universe, the royal capital of the Romans, which, by God’s permission, was under the rule of the Latins” fell on May 29, 1453.

Capture of Constantinople by Turkish troops

The great Christian city was dying, slowly, terribly and irrevocably turning into the great Muslim Istanbul.

The struggle was merciless and bloody, the resistance of the besieged was incredibly stubborn, the assault began in the morning, the Turks failed to take the city gates, and only in the evening, breaking through the wall with a powder explosion, the besiegers broke into the city, where they immediately encountered an unprecedented rebuff - the defenders of the ancient Christian stronghold stood to death - still! - how could one be cowardly or retreat when among them, like a simple warrior, the whole wounded and bloodied great emperor fought to the last breath Constantine XI Palaiologos, and then he did not yet know that in just a few seconds, in the dazzling last moment of his life, rapidly falling into darkness, he would forever go down in history as the last Byzantine emperor. Falling whispered: "Tell Thomas - let him protect his head! Where the head is - there is Byzantium, there is our Rome!". Then he wheezed, blood rushed from his throat, and he lost consciousness.

Constantine XI, Sophia's uncle. 19th century drawing

The body of Emperor Constantine was recognized by the small golden double-headed eagles on purple morocco boots.

The faithful servant understood perfectly well what the words of the late emperor meant: his younger brother - Thomas Palaiologos, the ruler, or, as they said here, the despot of the Morea, must make every effort to preserve and protect from the Turks the greatest Christian shrine that he kept - the most revered relics of the intercessor and patron of the Byzantine, Greek church - the head Apostle Andrew.

Saint Andrew the First-Called. St. Andrew's flag - firmly established itself in the Russian navy, and its meaning is also well-established: it was accepted "for the sake of Russia receiving holy baptism from this apostle"

Yes, yes, that same Andrew the First-Called, the brother of St. Peter, an equally great martyr and faithful disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ himself ...

Foma took very close to his heart the dying request of his brother, who fell heroically in battle, and thought for a long time about what he should do in order to fulfill it properly ...

The great shrine, which was kept in Patros it was necessary not only to save it from capture by the Turks, it had to be preserved in time, transferred somewhere, hidden somewhere ... Otherwise, how should one understand the words of Constantine "Where the head is, there is Byzantium, there is our Rome!"? The head of the apostle is now here, with Thomas, Rome - in Italy, the Byzantine Empire - alas! - fell with the fall of Constantinople ... What did the brother mean ... What does "our Rome" mean? Soon, with all the inexorability of cruel truth, it became clear that Morea could not withstand the onslaught of the Turks. The last fragments of Byzantium - the second great Roman Empire crumbled to dust. Peninsula, southern part of Greece, in ancient times the Peloponnese; received the name Morey in the 13th century, from the Slavic "sea". In the XV century. in the Peloponnese there were several despotates who formally depended on Byzantium, but in fact obeyed only their rulers - despots, two of whom - Thomas and Michael were the younger brothers of Emperor Constantine.

Thomas Palaiologos. 11 - Despot of the Morea

And suddenly Thomas had an insight - he suddenly understood what his brother meant - Constantine undoubtedly believed in a new revival of the empire, he believed that it would certainly arise where our main Greek shrine would be! But where? How? In the meantime, it was necessary to take care of the safety of his wife and children - the Turks were approaching. In 1460, Morea was captured by the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II, Thomas and his family left Morea. The despot (the name of the highest title of the Byzantine nobles, corresponding to the European title "duke") Thomas Palaiologos had four children. The eldest daughter Elena had just left her father's house, having married the Serbian king, the boys Andreas and Manuel remained with their parents, as well as the youngest child, daughter Zoya, who was 3 years old by the time the fall of Constantinople.

In 1460, Despot Thomas Palaiologos, with his family and the greatest shrines of the Christian world, including the head of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, sailed to the once Greek island Kerkyra, which since 1386 belonged to Republic of Venice and therefore was called in Italian - Corfu. The city-state of Venice, a maritime republic that experienced a period of great prosperity, remained the most flourishing and wealthy city in the entire Apennine peninsula until the 16th century.

Thomas Palaiologos began to improve relations with Venice, a longtime rival of the Byzantines, almost simultaneously with the capture of Constantinople by the Turks. Thanks to the Venetians, Kerkyra remained the only part of Greece that did not fall under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. From there, the exile is transported to Ancona, a port under the control of the Republic of St. Mark. There is no doubt that in 1463 Thomas Palaiologos, together with the Papal-Venetian flotilla, was going to set out on a campaign against the Ottomans. His family at that time was under the care of the Venetians in Corfu, they also transported Zoya and her brothers to Rome, having heard about their father's illness, but, obviously, even after that the Venetian Senate did not break ties with noble refugees.

Long before the siege of the Byzantine capital, the wise Konstantin secretly, under the guise of an ordinary merchant's cargo, he sent Thomas a collection of the most valuable books accumulated over the centuries from the library of Constantinople. In the far corner of the great harbor of the island of Corfu, there was already one ship of Thomas Palaiologos, sent here a few months earlier. In the holds of this ship were treasures of human wisdom, about which almost no one knew anything.

There were a large number of volumes of the rarest editions in Greek, Latin and Jewish, ranging from unique and very ancient lists of the gospels, the main works of most ancient historians, philosophers and writers, works on mathematics, astronomy, arts, and ending with secretly kept manuscripts of predictions of prophets and astrologers , as well as books that reveal the secrets of long-forgotten magics. Constantine once told him that the remains of the library burnt by Herostratus, papyri of Egyptian priests, sacred texts taken by Alexander the Great from Persia are stored there.

Once Foma brought ten-year-old Zoya to this ship, showed her holds and said:

- "This is your dowry, Zoya. The knowledge of the great people of the past is hidden here, and their books contain the key to the future. Some of them I will later give you to read. The rest will wait for you to come of age and marry."

So they settled on the island Corfu where they lived for almost five years.

However, Zoya almost did not see her father during these years.

Having hired the best mentors for the children, he left them in the care of his mother, his beloved wife Catherine, and, taking with him a sacred relic, went to Rome in 1460 in order to solemnly present it to Pope Paul II, hoping in return to receive confirmation of his rights to the Constantinople the throne and military support in the struggle for its return - by this time Thomas Palaiologos remained the only legitimate heir the fallen Emperor Constantine.

Dying Byzantium, hoping to receive military assistance from Europe in the fight against the Turks, signed in 1439 year Union of Florence for the unification of the Churches, and now its rulers could seek asylum from the papacy.

March 7, 1461 in Rome, the Despot of the Morea was met with worthy honors, the head Apostle Andrew during a magnificent and majestic service with a huge confluence of people placed in the cathedral St. Peter's, and Thomas was assigned a very high content for those times - 6,500 ducats a year. The Pope awarded him the Order of the Golden Rose. Foma stayed in Italy.

However, over time, he gradually began to realize that his hopes were unlikely to ever come true and that, most likely, he would remain a respected but unwanted exile.

His only consolation was his friendship with the Cardinal Vissarion, which began and grew stronger in the process of his efforts to get support from Rome.

Vissarion of Nicaea

This unusually gifted man was known as the leader of the Byzantine Latinophiles. A literary gift, erudition, ambition and the ability to seduce the powers that be, and, of course, the commitment to the union contributed to his successful career. He studied in Constantinople, then took monastic vows in one of the monasteries of the Peloponnese, and in the capital of the Morea, Mistra, labored at the philosophical school of Gemistus Plethon. In 1437, at the age of 35, he was elected Metropolitan of Nicaea. However, Nicaea had long been conquered by the Turks, and this magnificent title was needed to give additional weight to the supporters of the union at the meetings of the upcoming council. For the same reasons, another Latinophile, Isidore, was ordained metropolitan of Moscow by the Patriarch of Constantinople without the consent of the Russians.

Catholic Cardinal Bessarion of Nicaea, a Greek favorite of the pope, advocated the unification of Christian churches in the face of the Turkish threat. Coming every few months to Corfu, Thomas would talk with the children for a long time, sitting in his black chair-throne, inlaid with gold and ivory, with a large double-headed Byzantine eagle above the headboard.

He prepared the youths Andreas and Manuel for the humiliating future of princes without a kingdom, impoverished petitioners, seekers of rich brides - he tried to teach them how to maintain dignity in this situation and arrange their lives tolerably, not forgetting belonging to their ancient, proud and once powerful family . But he also knew that without wealth and land, they had no chance of resurrecting the former glory of the Great Empire. And so he pinned his hopes on Zoya.

His beloved daughter Zoya grew up as a very smart girl, but from the age of four she knew how to read and write in Greek and Latin, she was very capable of languages, and now, by her thirteen years, she already knew ancient and modern history very well, mastered the basics mathematics and astronomy, retold whole chapters from Homer by heart, and most importantly, she loved to study, in her eyes a spark of thirst for knowledge of the secrets of the world that opened before her sparkled, moreover, she already seemed to guess that her life in this world would be not at all simple, but this did not frighten, did not stop, on the contrary, she strove to learn as much as possible, as if with passion and rapture she was preparing for a long, dangerous, but unusually exciting game.

The twinkle in Zoya's eyes inspired great hopes in the father's heart, and he gradually and gradually began to prepare his daughter for the great mission that he was going to entrust to her.

When Zoya was fifteen years old, a hurricane of misfortunes hit the girl. At the beginning of 1465, Catherine's mother Zaccaria suddenly died. Her death shocked everyone - children, relatives, servants, but she simply struck Thomas. He lost interest in everything, yearned, lost weight, seemed to be decreasing in size, and it soon became clear that he was fading away.

However, the day suddenly came when it seemed to everyone that Thomas seemed to come to life: he came to the children, asked Zoya to accompany him to the port, and there they went up to the deck of the very ship where Zoya's dowry was kept, and sailed with her daughter and sons to Rome .

Rome. The eternal City

However, they did not live together in Rome for a long time, soon on May 12, 1465, Thomas died at the age of 56. The self-esteem and beauty that Foma managed to maintain until his advanced years made a great impression on the Italians. He also pleased them by formally converting to Catholicism.

The education of the royal orphans took over Vatican, entrusting them to the cardinal Vissarion of Nicaea. The Greek from Trebizond was equally at home in both Greek and Latin cultural circles. He managed to combine the views of Plato and Aristotle, the Greek and Roman form of Christianity.

However, when Zoya Palelog was in the care of Vissarion, his star had already set. Paul II, who put on the papal tiara in 1464, and his successor Sixtus IV did not like Vissarion, who supported the idea of limiting papal power. The cardinal went into the shadows, and once he even had to retire to the monastery of Grota-Feratta.

Nevertheless, he raised Zoya Palaiologos in the European Catholic tradition and especially taught that she should humbly follow the principles of Catholicism in everything, calling her "the beloved daughter of the Roman Church." Only in this case, he inspired the pupil, fate will give you everything. “You will have everything if you imitate the Latins; otherwise you won't get anything."

Zoya (Sophia) Paleolog

Zoya has turned over the years into an attractive girl with dark sparkling eyes and pale white skin. She was distinguished by a subtle mind and prudence in behavior. According to the unanimous assessment of contemporaries, Zoya was charming, and her mind, education and manners were impeccable. Bologna chroniclers in 1472 enthusiastically wrote about Zoya: “Truly, she is ... charming and beautiful ... Short in stature, she seemed to be about 24 years old; the eastern flame sparkled in her eyes, the whiteness of her skin spoke of the nobility of her family. The Italian princess Clarissa Orsini, who came from a noble Roman family, closely associated with the papal throne, the wife of Lorenzo the Magnificent, who visited Zoya in Rome in 1472, found her beautiful, and this news has been preserved for centuries.

Pope Paul II released 3600 ECUs per year for the maintenance of orphans (200 ECUs per month - for children, their clothes, horses and servants; plus it was necessary to save for a rainy day, and spend 100 ECUs on the maintenance of a modest court). The court included a doctor, a professor of Latin, a professor of Greek, an interpreter and 1-2 priests.

It was then that Cardinal Vissarion very carefully and delicately hinted to the Byzantine princess about the possibility of marriage with one of the richest young people in Italy, Federico Gonzago, the eldest son of Ludovik Gonzago, ruler of the richest Italian city of Mantua.

Banner "Sermon of John the Baptist" from the Oratorio San Giovanni, Urbino. Italian experts believe that Vissarion and Sophia Paleolog (3rd and 4th characters from the left) are depicted in the crowd of listeners. Gallery of the Province of the Marche, Urbino

However, as soon as the cardinal began to take these actions, it suddenly turned out that the father of a possible groom had heard from nowhere about the extreme poverty of the bride, lost all interest in her as in the alleged bride of his son ..

A year later, the cardinal hinted at Prince Carraciolo, who also belonged to one of the richest families in Italy, but as soon as things began to move forward, some pitfalls were again discovered.

Cardinal Vissarion was a wise and experienced man - he knew perfectly well that nothing happens by itself.

After conducting a secret investigation, the cardinal found out for sure that with the help of complex and subtle intrigues, cleverly woven by Zoya herself with the use of her maids and maids, in both cases she tried to upset the matter, but in such a way that the refusal would in no case come from her, poor orphan, who should not be neglected by such suitors.

After a little thought, the cardinal decided that it was a matter of religion and that Zoya must have wanted a husband who belonged to the Orthodox Church.

To test this, he soon offered his pupil an Orthodox Greek - James Luzinian, the illegitimate son of the Cypriot king John II, who, having taken the crown from his sister by force, usurped his father's throne. And then the cardinal was convinced that he was right.

Zoya really liked this proposal, she carefully examined it from all sides, hesitated for a while, it even came to betrothal, but at the last minute Zoya changed her mind and refused the groom, but then the cardinal knew exactly why and began to understand something. Zoya correctly calculated that the throne under Jacob was tottering, that he had no sure future, and then in general - well, what kind of kingdom is this, after all - some kind of miserable island of cyprus! Zoya made it clear to her tutor that she was a Byzantine princess, and not a simple princely daughter, and the cardinal stopped his attempts for a while. And here the good old Pope Paul II unexpectedly fulfilled his promise to the orphan princess so dear to his heart. Not only did he find a worthy groom for her, he also solved a number of political problems.

The fate-demanded gift of cutting awaits

The marriage of Princess Zoe, renamed Sophia in the Russian Orthodox fashion, with the recently widowed still young Grand Duke of the distant, mysterious, but, according to individual reports, unheard of rich and strong Moscow principality, was highly desirable for the papal throne for several reasons.

Firstly, through a Catholic wife, it would be possible to positively influence the Grand Duke, and through him the Orthodox Russian Church in the implementation of the decisions of the Union of Florence - and that Sophia is a devoted Catholic, the pope had no doubt, because she, one might say, grew up on the steps of his throne.

Secondly, it would be a huge political victory to enlist Moscow's support against the Turks.

And finally third, in itself, strengthening ties with distant Russian principalities is of great importance for all European politics.

So, by the irony of history, this fateful marriage for Russia was inspired by the Vatican. It remained to obtain the consent of Moscow.

In February 1469 In the 18th century, the ambassador of Cardinal Vissarion arrived in Moscow with a letter to the Grand Duke, in which he was invited to marry legally with the daughter of the Despot of Morea.

According to the ideas of that time, Sophia was already considered an elderly woman, but she was very attractive, with amazingly beautiful, expressive eyes and delicate matte skin, which in Russia was considered a sign of excellent health. And most importantly, she was distinguished by a sharp mind and an article worthy of a Byzantine princess.

The Moscow sovereign accepted the offer. He sent his ambassador, the Italian Gian Battista della Volpe (he was nicknamed Ivan Fryazin in Moscow) to Rome to woo. This nobleman from Vicenza, a city under the rule of Venice since 1404, originally lived in the Golden Horde, in 1459 moved to the service of Moscow as a miner and became known as Ivan Fryazin. And in the Horde, and in Moscow, he was probably at the behest of his Venetian patrons.

The ambassador returned a few months later, in November, bringing with him a portrait of the bride. This portrait, which seems to have begun the era of Sophia Paleolog in Moscow, is considered the first secular image in Russia. At least, they were so amazed by him that the chronicler called the portrait an “icon”, not finding another word: “And bring the princess on the icon.” By the way, the word "icon" originally in Greek meant "drawing", "image", "image".

V. Muyzhel. "Ambassador Ivan Frezin presents Ivan III with a portrait of his bride Sophia Paleolog"

However, the matchmaking dragged on, because Metropolitan Philip of Moscow objected for a long time to the marriage of the sovereign with a Uniate woman, moreover, a pupil of the papal throne, fearing the spread of Catholic influence in Russia. Only in January 1472, having received the consent of the hierarch, Ivan III sent an embassy to Rome for the bride, since a compromise was reached: in Moscow, the secular and church authorities agreed that Zoya would be baptized according to the Orthodox rite before the wedding.

Pope Sixtus IV

On May 21, a solemn reception of Russian ambassadors was held by Pope Sixtus IV, which was attended by representatives of Venice, Milan, Florence, the Duke of Ferrara.

Reception at Sixtus IV. Melozzo da Forli

Already on June 1, at the insistence of Cardinal Vissarion, a symbolic betrothal took place in Rome - the engagement of Princess Sophia and the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan, who was represented by the Russian ambassador Ivan Fryazin.

Pope Sixtus IV treated the orphan with paternal care: he gave Zoya as a dowry, in addition to gifts, about 6,000 ducats and sent letters in advance to the cities, in which, in the name of respect befitting the apostolic throne, he asked to receive Zoya with disposition and kindness. Bessarion was busy with the same thing; he wrote to the Sienese in case of the bride's passage through their city: "we earnestly ask you to mark her arrival with some kind of festivity and make sure of a worthy reception." Not surprisingly, Zoe's journey was something of a triumph.

On June 24, after saying goodbye to the pope in the gardens of the Vatican, Zoya headed to the far north. On the way to Moscow, the bride of the “white emperor”, as Ivan III called in his message, the Milanese Duke Francesco Sforza, was accompanied by a retinue of Greeks, Italians and Russians, including Yuri Trakhaniot, Prince Konstantin, Dmitry, the ambassador of the Zoya brothers, and the Genoese Anton Bonumbre , Bishop of Accia (our chronicles erroneously call him a cardinal), a papal legate whose mission should act in favor of subordinating the Russian Church.

Many cities in Italy and Germany (according to the surviving news: Sienna, Bologna, Vicenza (Volpe's hometown), Nuremberg, Lübeck) met and saw her off with royal honor, and held festivities in honor of the princess.

Almost the Kremlin wall in Vicenza. Italy

So, in Bologna, Zoya was received in his palace by one of the main local lords. The princess was repeatedly shown to the crowd and aroused general astonishment with her beauty and richness of outfit. With extraordinary pomp, the relics of St. Dominica, she was accompanied by the most distinguished young people. The Bologna chroniclers narrate about Zoya with delight.

Saint Dominic. Founder of the Dominican Order

On the 4th month of the journey, Zoya finally entered Russian soil. On October 1st she left Kolyvan(Tallinn), was soon in Derpt, where the Grand Duke sent to meet their future empress, and then went to Pskov.

N. K. Roerich. Old Pskov. 1904

On October 1, a messenger galloped to Pskov and announced at the veche: "The princess has crossed the sea, the daughter of Thomas, the Tsar of Constantinople, is going to Moscow, her name is Sophia, she will be your sovereign, and the wife of Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich. And you would meet her and accept her honestly." The messenger galloped on, to Novgorod, to Moscow, and the Pskovites, as the chronicle reports "... posadniks and boyars went to meet the princess in Izborsk, lived here for a whole week, when a messenger arrived from Dorpat (Tartu) with an order to go to meet her on the German coast."

The people of Pskov began to satiate the honey and gather fodder, and sent in advance six large, packed ships, posadniks and boyars, in order to "honorably" meet the princess. On October 11, near the mouth of the Embakh, the posadniks and boyars met the princess and beat her with foreheads with goblets and golden horns filled with honey and wine. On the 13th, the princess arrived in Pskov, stayed exactly 5 days. The Pskov authorities and the nobility presented her and her retinue with gifts and brought her 50 rubles. The affectionate reception touched the princess, and she promised the Pskovites her intercession before her future husband. The legate Accia, who accompanied her, had to obey: follow her to the church, and there bow to the holy icons and venerate the image of the Mother of God on the orders of the Despina.

F. A. BRONNIKOV Meeting of the princess. 1883

Probably, the Pope would never have believed if he knew that the future Grand Duchess of Moscow, as soon as she found herself on Russian soil, while still on her way down the aisle to Moscow, treacherously betrayed all his quiet hopes, immediately forgetting all her Catholic upbringing . Sophia, apparently, who met in her childhood with the Athos elders, opponents of the Union of Florence, was deeply Orthodox at heart. She skillfully hid her faith from the powerful Roman "patrons" who did not help her homeland, betraying her to the Gentiles for ruin and death.

She immediately openly, vividly and defiantly showed her devotion to Orthodoxy, to the delight of the Russians, kissing all the icons in all churches, impeccably behaving in the Orthodox service, being baptized as Orthodox.

But even before that, while on board the ship that had been carrying Princess Sophia from Lübeck to Revel for eleven days, from where the cortege would go further to Moscow by land, she remembered her father.

Sophia sat thoughtfully on the deck, looking somewhere far beyond the horizon, not paying attention to the faces accompanying her - Italians and Russians - respectfully standing at a distance, and it seemed to her that she saw a slight radiance that comes from somewhere above, pervades her everything. body and is carried away to the heavenly heights, there, far, far away, where all souls are carried away and where the soul of her father is now ...

Sophia peered into the distant invisible land and thought only of one thing - did she do the right thing; did you make a mistake in your choice? Will she be able to serve the birth of the Third Rome where tight sails are now carrying her? And right away it seemed to her that an invisible light warmed her, gave her strength and confidence that everything would work out - and how could it be otherwise - because from now on, where she, Sophia, is now Byzantium, there is the Third Rome, in her new homeland - Muscovy.

Kremlin Despina

In the early morning of November 12, 1472, Sophia Paleolog arrived in Moscow, where her first meeting with Ivan and the throne took place. Everything was ready for the wedding celebration, timed to coincide with the name day of the Grand Duke - the day of memory of the saint John Chrysostom. The betrothal took place in the house of the mother of the Grand Duke. On the same day in the Kremlin, in a temporary wooden church, set up near the Assumption Cathedral under construction, so as not to stop worship, the sovereign married her. The Byzantine princess saw her husband for the first time then. The Grand Duke was young - only 32 years old, handsome, tall and stately. Especially remarkable were his eyes, "terrible eyes."

Ivan III Vasilievich

And before, Ivan Vasilyevich had a tough character, but now, having become related to the Byzantine monarchs, he turned into a formidable and powerful sovereign. This was a considerable merit of his young wife.

The wedding of Ivan III with Sophia Paleolog in 1472. Engraving of the 19th century.

The wedding in a wooden church made a strong impression on Sophia Paleolog. One can imagine how she was shocked by the old Kremlin cathedrals dating back to the Kalitinsky era (the first half of the 14th century) and the dilapidated white stone walls and towers of the fortress built under Dmitry Donskoy. After Rome, with its St. Peter's Cathedral and the cities of continental Europe with their magnificent stone structures of different eras and styles, it was probably difficult for the Greek princess Sophia to come to terms with the fact that her wedding ceremony took place in a temporary wooden church that stood on the site of the dismantled Assumption Cathedral XIV century.

She brought a generous dowry to Russia. After the wedding, Ivan III adopted the Byzantine double-headed eagle as a coat of arms - a symbol of royal power, placing it on his seal. The two heads of the eagle face West and East, Europe and Asia, symbolizing their unity, as well as the unity (“symphony”) of spiritual and secular power. Actually, Sophia's dowry was the legendary "liberia" - the library (better known as the "library of Ivan the Terrible"). It included Greek parchments, Latin chronographs, ancient Eastern manuscripts, among which were the poems of Homer unknown to us, the works of Aristotle and Plato, and even the surviving books from the famous library of Alexandria. Seeing wooden Moscow, burned after a fire in 1470, Sophia was frightened for the fate of the treasure and for the first time hid the books in the basement of the stone church of the Nativity of the Virgin on Senya - the home church of the Moscow Grand Duchesses, built by order of St. Evdokia, the widow of Dmitry Donskoy. And, according to the Moscow custom, she put her own treasury for preservation in the underground of the Kremlin Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist - the very first church in Moscow, which stood until 1847.

According to legend, she brought with her a “bone throne” as a gift to her husband: its wooden frame was all covered with plates of ivory and walrus ivory with biblical scenes carved on them; an image of a unicorn was placed on the back of the throne. This throne is known to us as the throne of Ivan the Terrible: the tsar is depicted on it by the sculptor M. Antokolsky. (In 1896 the throne was installed in Assumption Cathedral for the coronation of Nicholas II. But the sovereign ordered to place it for Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (according to other sources - for his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna), and he himself wished to be crowned on the throne of the first Romanov). And now the throne of Ivan the Terrible is the oldest in the Kremlin collection.

Throne of Ivan the Terrible

Sophia brought with her several Orthodox icons.

Mother of God Hodegetria. The gold earrings with eagles, attached to the head of the Mother of God, were undoubtedly "attached" by the Grand Duchess

Mother of God on the throne. Cameo on lapis lazuli

And even after the wedding of Ivan III, an image of the Byzantine emperor Michael III, the ancestor of the Palaiologos dynasty, with which the Moscow rulers intermarried, appeared in the Archangel Cathedral. Thus, the continuity of Moscow to the Byzantine Empire was affirmed, and the Moscow sovereigns appeared as the heirs of the Byzantine emperors.

With the arrival in the capital of Russia in 1472 of a Greek princess, the heiress of the former greatness of the Palaiologos, a rather large group of immigrants from Greece and Italy was formed at the Russian court. Many of them eventually occupied significant government positions and more than once carried out important diplomatic missions of Ivan III. The Grand Duke sent embassies to Italy five times. But their task was not to establish contacts in the field of politics or trade. All of them returned to Moscow with large groups of specialists, among whom were architects, doctors, jewelers, coiners and gunsmiths. Sophia's brother Andreas came to the capital of Russia twice with Russian embassies (Russian sources called him Andrey). It so happened that the Grand Duchess for some time kept in touch with one of the members of her family, which fell apart due to complex historical events.

It should be recalled that the traditions of the Russian Middle Ages, which strictly limited the role of a woman to the circle of household chores, extended both to the family of the Grand Duke and to representatives of noble families. That is why so little information about the life of the great Russian princesses has been preserved. Against this background, the life story of Sophia Paleolog is reflected in written sources in much more detail. However, it is worth noting that Grand Duke Ivan III treated his wife, who received a European upbringing, with great love and understanding, and even allowed her to give audiences to foreign ambassadors. In the memoirs of foreigners about Russia in the second half of the 15th century, records of such meetings with the Grand Duchess have been preserved. In 1476, the Venetian envoy Contarini was introduced to the Moscow empress. Here is how he recalled this, describing his trip to Persia: “The Emperor also wished me to visit Despina. I did this with proper bows and appropriate words; followed by a long conversation. Despina addressed me with as kind and courteous words as could be said; she urgently requested that her greetings be conveyed to her most illustrious signoria; and I said goodbye to her." Sophia, according to some researchers, even had her own thought, the composition of which was determined by the Greek and Italian aristocrats who came with her and settled in Russia, in particular, the prominent diplomats of the end of the 15th century Trachaniotes. In 1490, Sophia Paleolog met in her part of the Kremlin Palace with the Caesar's ambassador Delator. Special mansions were built for the Grand Duchess in Moscow. Under Sophia, the grand-ducal court was distinguished by splendor. The dynastic marriage of Ivan III with Sophia Palaiologos owes its appearance to the ceremony of crowning the kingdom. Near 1490 For the first time, an image of a crowned double-headed eagle appeared on the main portal of the Faceted Chamber.

Detail of the throne of Ivan the Terrible

The Byzantine concept of the sacredness of imperial power influenced the introduction by Ivan III of "theology" ("God's grace") in the title and in the preamble of state letters.

Kremlin construction

The "Great Grekinya" brought with her her ideas about the court and the power of power, and she did not like many Moscow orders. She did not like that her sovereign husband remained a tributary of the Tatar Khan, that the boyar entourage behaved too freely with their sovereign, so the boyars were hostile to Sophia. That the Russian capital, built entirely of wood, stands with patched fortifications and dilapidated stone churches. That even the sovereign's mansions in the Kremlin are wooden, and that Russian women look at the world from the little window of the lighthouse. Sophia Paleolog not only made changes at court.

Some Moscow monuments owe their appearance to her. There is no doubt that the stories of Sophia and the representatives of the Greek and Italian nobility who came with her about the excellent examples of church and civil architecture of Italian cities, about their impregnable fortifications, about the use of everything advanced in military affairs and other branches of science and technology to strengthen the position of the country, influenced the decision of Ivan III to "open a window to Europe", to attract foreign craftsmen to rebuild the Kremlin, especially after the catastrophe of 1474, when the Assumption Cathedral, built by Pskov craftsmen, collapsed. Rumors immediately spread among the people that the trouble had befallen because of the “Greek”, who had previously been in “Latinism”. However, the great man of the Greeks wanted to see Moscow equal in beauty and majesty to European capitals and maintain his own prestige, as well as emphasize the continuity of Moscow not only with the Second, but also with the First Rome. Such Italian masters as Aristotle Fiorovanti, Ptro Antonio Solari, Marco Fryazin, Anton Fryazin, Aleviz Fryazin, Aleviz Novy took part in the reconstruction of the residence of the Moscow sovereign. Italian masters in Moscow were called by the common name "fryazin" (from the word "friag", that is, "franc"). And the current cities of Fryazino and Fryazevo near Moscow are a kind of "Little Italy": it was there that at the end of the 15th century Ivan III issued estates to numerous Italian "fryagi" who came to his service.

Much of what is now preserved in the Kremlin was built during the reign of Grand Duchess Sophia. Several centuries have passed, but exactly the same as now she saw the Assumption Cathedral and the Church of the Deposition of the Robe, the Faceted Chamber (named so on the occasion of finishing it in the Italian style - with faces) built by her. Yes, and the Kremlin itself - a fortress guarding the ancient center of the capital of Russia - grew and was created before her eyes.

Faceted Chamber. 1487-1491

Interior view of the Palace of Facets

Scientists have noticed that the Italians went to the unknown Muscovy without fear, because the despina could give them protection and help. Like it or not, only the Russian ambassador Semyon Tolbuzin, sent by Ivan III to Italy, invited Fioravanti to Moscow, because he was famous in his homeland as "new Archimedes", and he gladly agreed.

In Moscow, a special, secret order was waiting for him, after which, in early July 1475, Fioravanti set off on a journey.

Having inspected the buildings of Vladimir, Bogolyubov and Suzdal, he went further north: on behalf of the Duke of Milan, he needed to get him white gyrfalcons, which were highly valued in Europe. Fioravanti drove to the coast of the White Sea, visiting on the way Rostov, Yaroslavl, Vologda and Veliky Ustyug. In total, he walked and drove about three thousand kilometers (!) And reached the mysterious city of "Xalauoco" (as Fioravanti called it in one of his letters to Milan), which is nothing more than a distorted name Solovkov. Thus, Aristotle Fioravanti turned out to be the first European who, more than a hundred years before the Englishman Jenkinson, went from Moscow to Solovki.

Arriving in Moscow, Fioravanti drew up a master plan for the new Kremlin being built by his compatriots. The construction of the walls of the new cathedral began already in 1475. On August 15, 1479, the solemn consecration of the cathedral took place. The following year, Russia was freed from the Tatar-Mongol yoke. This era was partly reflected in the architecture of the Assumption Cathedral, which became a symbol of the Third Rome.

Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin

Its five powerful heads, symbolizing Christ surrounded by four evangelist apostles, are notable for their helmet-like shape. Poppy, that is, the top of the temple dome, symbolizes the flame - a burning candle and fiery heavenly forces. During the period of the Tatar yoke, the poppy becomes like a military helmet. This is just a slightly different image of fire, since the Russian soldiers revered the heavenly host as their patrons - angelic forces led by Archangel Michael. The helmet of a warrior, on which the image of Archangel Michael was often placed, and the helmet-poppy of a Russian temple merged into a single image. Outwardly, the Assumption Cathedral is very close to the cathedral of the same name in Vladimir, which was taken as a model. Luxurious painting was mostly completed during the lifetime of the architect. In 1482, the great architect, as chief of artillery, participated in the campaign of Ivan III against Novgorod, and during this campaign he built a very strong pontoon bridge across the Volkhov. After this campaign, the master wanted to return to Italy, but Ivan III did not let him go, but, on the contrary, arrested him and imprisoned him after trying to secretly leave. But he could not afford to keep Fioravanti in prison for a long time, since in 1485 a trip to Tver was planned, where "Aristotle with guns" was necessary. After this campaign, the name of Aristotle Fioravanti is no longer found in the annals; there is no evidence of his return to his homeland. He probably died soon after.

There is a version that in the Assumption Cathedral the architect made a deep underground crypt, where they put a priceless library. It was this cache that Grand Duke Vasily III accidentally discovered many years after the death of his parents. At his invitation, in 1518, Maxim the Greek came to Moscow to translate these books, who allegedly managed to tell Ivan the Terrible, the son of Vasily III, about them before his death. Where this library ended up during the time of Ivan the Terrible is still unknown. They searched for her in the Kremlin, and in Kolomenskoye, and in Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, and at the site of the Oprichny Palace on Mokhovaya. And now there is an assumption that Liberia rests under the bottom of the Moscow River, in the dungeons dug from the chambers of Malyuta Skuratov.

The construction of some Kremlin churches is also associated with the name of Sophia Paleolog. The first of these was the cathedral in the name of St. Nicholas Gostunsky, built near the bell tower of Ivan the Great. Previously, there was a Horde courtyard where the khan's governors lived, and such a neighborhood depressed the Kremlin despina. According to legend, the saint himself appeared in a dream to Sophia Nicholas the Wonderworker and ordered to build on that place Orthodox church. Sophia proved herself to be a subtle diplomat: she sent an embassy with rich gifts to the wife of the khan and, having told about the miraculous vision shown to her, asked to give her land in exchange for another - outside the Kremlin. Consent was obtained, and in 1477 a wooden Nikolsky Cathedral, later replaced by a stone one and stood until 1817. (Recall that the first printer Ivan Fedorov was the deacon of this church). However, the historian Ivan Zabelin believed that, on the orders of Sophia Paleolog, another church was built in the Kremlin, consecrated in the name of Saints Cosmas and Damian, which did not survive to this day.

A. Vasnetsov. In the Moscow Kremlin. Watercolor

Traditions call Sophia Palaiologos the founder Spassky Cathedral, which, however, was rebuilt during the construction of the Terem Palace in the 17th century and began to be called Verkhospassky at the same time - because of its location. Another legend says that Sophia Palaiologos brought to Moscow a temple image of the Savior Not Made by Hands of this cathedral. In the 19th century, the artist Sorokin painted from him the image of the Lord for the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. This image miraculously survived to this day and is now located in the lower (stylobate) Church of the Transfiguration as its main shrine. It is known that this image Savior Not Made by Hands, blessed by her father. In the Kremlin Cathedral Savior on Bor a salary from this image was kept, and on the lectern lay the icon of the All-Merciful Savior, also brought by Sophia. Then this icon was used to bless all the royal and imperial brides. The miraculous icon "Praise of the Virgin" remained in the temple. Recall that the Savior Not Made by Hands is considered the very first icon, revealed even during the earthly life of the Lord, and the most accurate image of the Savior. It was placed on princely banners, under which Russian soldiers went to battle: the image of the Savior marked the vision of Christ in the sky and foreshadowed victory.

With the Church of the Savior on Bor, which was then the cathedral church of the Kremlin Spassky Monastery, another story is connected with Despina, thanks to which a Novospassky Monastery.

Novospassky Monastery in Moscow

After the wedding, the Grand Duke still lived in wooden mansions, now and then burning in the frequent Moscow fires. Once Sophia herself had to escape from the fire, and she finally asked her husband to build a stone palace. The sovereign decided to please his wife and fulfilled her request. So the Cathedral of the Savior on Bor, together with the monastery, was constrained by new palace buildings. And in 1490 Ivan III moved the monastery to the banks of the Moskva River, five miles from the Kremlin. Since then, the monastery has been called Novospassky, and the Cathedral of the Savior on Bor remained an ordinary parish church. Due to the construction of the palace, the Kremlin Church of the Nativity of the Virgin on Senya, which also suffered from a fire, was not restored for a long time. Only when the palace was finally ready (and this happened only under Vasily III), did it have a second floor, and in 1514 the architect Aleviz Fryazin raised the Nativity Church to a new level, which is why it is still visible from Mokhovaya Street. Under Sophia, the Church of the Deposition of the Robe, the Treasury were built, the Annunciation Cathedral was rebuilt, and the Archangel Cathedral was completed. The dilapidated walls of the Kremlin were strengthened and eight Kremlin towers were erected, the fortress was surrounded by a system of dams and a huge moat on Red Square. The fortifications built by Italian architects withstood the siege of time and enemies. The Kremlin ensemble was completed under the descendants of Ivan and Sofia.

N. K. Roerich. The city is being built

In the 19th century, during excavations in the Kremlin, a bowl with antique coins minted under the Roman emperor Tiberius was discovered. According to scientists, these coins were brought by someone from the numerous retinue of Sophia Palaiologos, in which there were natives of both Rome and Constantinople. Many of them took government posts, became treasurers, ambassadors, translators.

Under Sophia, diplomatic relations began to be established with the countries of Europe, where the Greeks and Italians who first arrived with her were appointed envoys. The candidates were selected, most likely, not without the participation of the princess. And the first Russian diplomats in their service letter were strictly punished abroad not to get drunk, not to fight among themselves and thereby not to shame their country. The first ambassador to Venice was followed by appointments to a number of European courts. In addition to diplomatic missions, they also carried out other missions. Dyak Fyodor Kuritsyn, the ambassador at the Hungarian court, is credited with the authorship of The Tale of Dracula, which is very popular in Russia.

A. Chicheri, the ancestor of Pushkin's grandmother, Olga Vasilievna Chicherina, and the famous Soviet diplomat, arrived in Russia in the retinue of Despina.

Twenty years later, foreign travelers began to call the Moscow Kremlin in a European way "castle", due to the abundance of stone buildings in it. In the seventies and nineties of the 15th century, master moneymakers, jewelers, healers, architects, chasers, gunsmiths, and various other skilled people, whose knowledge and experience helped the country become a powerful and advanced power, went to Moscow from Italy, and then from other countries.

So, through the efforts of Ivan III and Sophia Paleolog, the Renaissance flourished on Russian soil.

(To be continued)

What did Sophia Paleolog do? Sophia Paleolog a brief biography of the famous Greek princess will tell about her contribution to history.

Sophia Paleolog biography the most important thing

Sophia Paleolog is an outstanding woman in Russian history. Sophia Paleolog is the second wife of Grand Duke Ivan III, as well as the mother of Vasily III and the grandmother of Ivan IV the Terrible. Her exact date of birth is unknown, but scholars suggest that she was born around 1455.

In 1469, the Great Moscow Prince Ivan III, who by this time had been a widower for two years, decided to marry again. But he could not decide on the role of the bride. Pope Paul II invited him to marry Sophia. After much deliberation, he was seduced by her title of Greek princess. The wedding of crowned individuals took place in 1472. The ceremony took place in the Assumption Cathedral, the couple was married by Metropolitan Philip.

Sophia was very happy in a marriage in which 9 children were born - four daughters and five sons. For the Grand Duchess of Greek origin, separate mansions were built in Moscow, which, unfortunately, perished during a fire in 1493.

Sophia Paleolog what did she do? According to contemporaries, Sophia Paleolog was a smart woman who skillfully directed her husband to actions. There is an opinion that it was Sophia who pushed Ivan III to the decision not to pay tribute to the Tatars.

With the advent of Sophia and her children at the Moscow court, real dynastic strife began in the city. Ivan III had a son, Ivan Young from his first marriage, who was supposed to inherit the throne. Sophia's son, Vasily, it seemed, was not destined to be the heir to his father's power.

But fate decreed otherwise. Ivan Young, who already had a family and a son, received the Tver lands, but suddenly fell ill and died. After that, rumors circulated for a long time that he had been poisoned. Sophia's son Vasily Ivanovich remained the only heir of Ivan III.

The attitude towards the wife of Ivan III in the princely environment was different. One of the nobility revered the Grand Duchess, respected her for her mind, while the other considered her very proud, not considering anyone's opinion, and the third side was convinced that with the advent of the Greek princess in Moscow, Prince Ivan III because of her "changed the old customs ".

Sophia Palaiologos died two years before the death of her husband in 1503. Until the end of her life, she considered herself a princess of Tsaregorod, a Greek, and only then the Grand Duchess of Moscow.

Sofia Paleolog: biography

Most historians agree that the grandmother of Ivan the Terrible, the Grand Duchess of Moscow Sophia (Zoya) Paleolog played a huge role in the formation of the Moscow kingdom. Many consider her the author of the concept "Moscow - the third Rome". And together with Zoya Palaiolognea, a double-headed eagle appeared. At first, it was the family coat of arms of her dynasty, and then migrated to the coat of arms of all the tsars and Russian emperors.

Zoya Paleolog was born (presumably) in 1455 in Morea (as the current Greek peninsula of the Peloponnese was called in the Middle Ages). The daughter of the Despot of Morea, Thomas Palaiologos, was born in a tragic and critical time - the time of the fall of the Byzantine Empire.

Sofia Paleolog |

After the capture of Constantinople by the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II and the death of Emperor Constantine, Thomas Palaiologos fled to Corfu with his wife Catherine of Achaia and their children. From there he moved to Rome, where he was forced to convert to Catholicism. Thomas died in May 1465. His death happened shortly after the death of his wife in the same year. Children, Zoya and her brothers - 5-year-old Manuel and 7-year-old Andrei, moved to Rome after the death of their parents.

The education of orphans was taken up by the Greek scientist, Uniate Vissarion of Nicaea, who served as a cardinal under Pope Sixtus IV (it was he who became the customer of the famous Sistine Chapel). In Rome, the Greek princess Zoe Palaiologos and her brothers were brought up in the Catholic faith. The cardinal took care of the maintenance of the children and their education. It is known that Bessarion of Nicaea, with the permission of the pope, paid for the modest court of the young Palaiologos, which included servants, a doctor, two professors of Latin and Greek, translators and priests.

Sophia Paleolog received a fairly solid education for those times.

Grand Duchess of Moscow

Sofia Paleolog (painting) http://www.russdom.ru

When Sophia came of age, the Venetian Signoria took care of her marriage. To take a noble girl as a wife was first offered to the King of Cyprus, Jacques II de Lusignan. But he refused this marriage, fearing a conflict with the Ottoman Empire. A year later, in 1467, Cardinal Vissarion, at the request of Pope Paul II, offered the hand of a noble Byzantine beauty to the prince and Italian nobleman Caracciolo. A solemn betrothal took place, but for unknown reasons, the marriage was canceled.

There is a version that Sophia secretly communicated with the Athonite elders and adhered to the Orthodox faith. She herself made efforts not to marry a non-Christian, frustrating all marriages offered to her.

Sofia Paleolog. (Fyodor Bronnikov. “Meeting of Princess Sophia Paleolog by Pskov posadniks and boyars at the mouth of the Embakh on Lake Peipsi”)

In the turning point for the life of Sophia Paleolog in 1467, the wife of the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III Maria Borisovna died. In this marriage, the only son Ivan Young was born. Pope Paul II, counting on the spread of Catholicism to Moscow, offered the widowed sovereign of all Russia to marry his ward.

After 3 years of negotiations, Ivan III, having asked for advice from his mother, Metropolitan Philip and the boyars, decided to marry. It is noteworthy that the papal negotiators prudently kept silent about the transition of Sophia Palaiologos to Catholicism. Moreover, they reported that the proposed wife of Paleologne is an Orthodox Christian. They didn't even know it was true.

Sophia Paleolog: wedding with John III. 19th century engraving | AiF

In June 1472, in the Basilica of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Rome, the correspondence betrothal of Ivan III and Sophia Palaiologos took place. After that, the convoy of the bride left Rome for Moscow. The bride was accompanied by the same Cardinal Wisssarion.

Bologna chroniclers described Sophia as a rather attractive person. She looked 24 years old, she had snow-white skin and incredibly beautiful and expressive eyes. Her height was no higher than 160 cm. The future wife of the Russian sovereign had a dense physique.

There is a version that in the dowry of Sophia Paleolog, in addition to clothes and jewelry, there were many valuable books that later formed the basis of the mysteriously disappeared library of Ivan the Terrible. Among them were the treatises of Plato and Aristotle, the unknown poems of Homer.

At the end of a long route that ran through Germany and Poland, the Roman escorts of Sophia Palaiologos realized that their desire, through the marriage of Ivan III to Palaiologos, to spread (or at least bring closer) Catholicism to Orthodoxy was defeated. Zoya, who had barely left Rome, showed her firm intention to return to the faith of her ancestors - Christianity.

The main achievement of Sophia Paleolog, which turned into a huge boon for Russia, is considered to be her influence on her husband's decision to refuse to pay tribute to the Golden Horde. Thanks to his wife, Ivan the Third finally dared to throw off the centuries-old Tatar-Mongol yoke, although the local princes and the elite offered to continue paying dues in order to avoid bloodshed.

Personal life

Evgeny Tsyganov and Maria Andreichenko in the film "Sofia Paleolog"

Apparently, the personal life of Sophia Paleolog with Grand Duke Ivan III was successful. In this marriage, considerable offspring were born - 5 sons and 4 daughters. But the existence of the new Grand Duchess Sophia in Moscow can hardly be called cloudless. The boyars saw the enormous influence that the wife had on her husband. Many people didn't like it. Rumor has it that the princess had a bad relationship with the heir, born in the previous marriage of Ivan III, Ivan the Young. Moreover, there is a version that Sophia was involved in the poisoning of Ivan Molodoy and the further removal from power of his wife Elena Voloshanka and son Dmitry.

Evgeny Tsyganov and Maria Andreichenko in the film "Sofia Paleolog" | Region.Moscow

Be that as it may, Sophia Paleolog had a huge impact on the entire subsequent history of Russia, on its culture and architecture. She was the mother of the heir to the throne, Vasily III, and the grandmother of Ivan the Terrible. According to some reports, the grandson had a considerable resemblance to his wise Byzantine grandmother.

Maria Andreichenko in the film "Sofia Paleolog"

Death

Sofia Palaiologos, Grand Duchess of Moscow, died on April 7, 1503. Husband, Ivan III, survived his wife only 2 years.

Sophia was buried next to the previous wife of Ivan III in the sarcophagus of the tomb of the Ascension Cathedral. The cathedral was destroyed in 1929. But the remains of the women of the royal house survived - they were transferred to the underground chamber of the Archangel Cathedral.

In the middle of the 15th century, when Constantinople fell under the onslaught of the Turks, the 17-year-old Byzantine princess Sophia left Rome to transfer the spirit of the old empire to a new, still emerging state.
With her fabulous life and journey full of adventures - from the poorly lit passages of the papal church to the snowy Russian steppes, from the secret mission behind the betrothal to the Moscow prince, to the mysterious and still not found collection of books that she brought with her from Constantinople, - we were introduced by the journalist and writer Yorgos Leonardos, the author of the book "Sophia Palaiologos - from Byzantium to Russia", as well as many other historical novels.

In a conversation with an Athens-Macedonian Agency correspondent about the filming of a Russian film about the life of Sophia Palaiologos, Mr. Leonardos stressed that she was a versatile person, a practical and ambitious woman. The niece of the last Palaiologos inspired her husband, Prince Ivan III of Moscow, to create a strong state, earning the respect of Stalin almost five centuries after her death.
Russian researchers highly appreciate the contribution that Sophia left in the political and cultural history of medieval Russia.
Yorgos Leonardos describes Sophia's personality as follows: “Sophia was the niece of the last emperor of Byzantium, Constantine XI, and the daughter of Thomas Palaiologos. She was baptized in Mistra, giving the Christian name Zoya. In 1460, when the Peloponnese was captured by the Turks, the princess, along with her parents, brothers and sister, went to the island of Corfu. With the participation of Vissarion of Nicaea, who had already become a Catholic cardinal in Rome by that time, Zoya moved to Rome with her father, brothers and sister. After the premature death of her parents, Vissarion took over custody of three children who converted to the Catholic faith. However, Sophia's life changed when Paul II took the papacy, who wanted her to enter into a political marriage. The princess was betrothed to Prince Ivan III of Moscow, hoping that Orthodox Russia would convert to Catholicism. Sophia, who came from the Byzantine imperial family, was sent by Paul to Moscow as the heiress of Constantinople. Her first stop after Rome was the city of Pskov, where the Russian people enthusiastically accepted the young girl.

The author of the book considers visiting one of the Pskov churches a key moment in Sophia’s life: “She was impressed, and although the papal legate was next to her, following her every step, she returned to Orthodoxy, defying the will of the pope. On November 12, 1472, Zoya became the second wife of the Moscow prince Ivan III under the Byzantine name Sophia.
From this moment, according to Leonardos, her brilliant path begins: “Under the influence of a deep religious feeling, Sophia convinced Ivan to throw off the burden of the Tatar-Mongol yoke, because at that time Russia paid tribute to the Horde. Indeed, Ivan liberated his state and united various independent principalities under his rule.

Sophia's contribution to the development of the state is great, because, as the author explains, "she started the Byzantine order at the Russian court and helped create the Russian state."
“Since Sophia was the only heiress of Byzantium, Ivan believed that he had inherited the right to the imperial throne. He adopted the yellow color of the Palaiologos and the Byzantine coat of arms - the double-headed eagle, which lasted until the revolution of 1917 and was returned after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and also called Moscow the Third Rome. Since the sons of the Byzantine emperors took the name of Caesar, Ivan took this title for himself, which in Russian began to sound like "tsar". Ivan also elevated the Archbishopric of Moscow to a patriarchy, making it clear that the first patriarchy is not Constantinople captured by the Turks, but Moscow.”

According to Yorgos Leonardos, “Sofia was the first to create in Russia on the model of Constantinople a secret service, a prototype of the tsarist secret police and the Soviet KGB. This contribution of hers is recognized by the Russian authorities today. So, the former head of the Federal Security Service of Russia, Alexei Patrushev, on the Day of Military Counterintelligence on December 19, 2007, said that the country honors Sophia Palaiologos, as she defended Russia from internal and external enemies.
Also, Moscow “owes her a change in its appearance, since Sofia brought here Italian and Byzantine architects who built mainly stone buildings, for example, the Archangel Cathedral of the Kremlin, as well as the Kremlin walls that still exist. Also, according to the Byzantine model, secret passages were dug under the territory of the entire Kremlin.

© Sputnik. Sergei Pyatakov

“Since 1472, the history of the modern - tsarist - state begins in Russia. At that time, due to the climate, they did not engage in agriculture here, but only hunted. Sophia convinced the subjects of Ivan III to cultivate the fields and thus laid the foundation for the formation of agriculture in the country.
Sophia’s personality was also respected under the Soviet regime: according to Leonardos, “when the Ascension Monastery was destroyed in the Kremlin, in which the remains of the queen were stored, not only were they not disposed of, but by Stalin’s decree they were placed in a tomb, which was then transferred to Arkhangelsk the cathedral".
Yorgos Leonardos said that Sophia brought 60 carts from Constantinople with books and rare treasures that were kept in the underground treasuries of the Kremlin and have not been found so far.
“There are written sources,” says Mr. Leonardos, “indicating the existence of these books, which the West tried to buy from her grandson, Ivan the Terrible, to which he, of course, did not agree. Books continue to be searched to this day.

Sophia Palaiologos died on April 7, 1503 at the age of 48. Her husband, Ivan III, became the first ruler in the history of Russia, who was named the Great for his deeds, committed with the support of Sophia. Their grandson, Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible, continued to strengthen the state and went down in history as one of the most influential rulers of Russia.

“Sofia transferred the spirit of Byzantium to the Russian Empire, which had just begun to emerge. It was she who built the state in Russia, giving it Byzantine features, and on the whole enriched the structure of the country and its society. Even today in Russia there are surnames that go back to Byzantine names, as a rule, they end in -ov,” said Yorgos Leonardos.
As for the images of Sophia, Leonardos emphasized that “her portraits have not been preserved, but even under communism, with the help of special technologies, scientists recreated the appearance of the queen from her remains. This is how the bust appeared, which is placed near the entrance to the Historical Museum next to the Kremlin.”
“The legacy of Sophia Paleolog is Russia itself…” Yorgos Leonardos summed up.

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