Simeon the proud short biography. Semyon Ivanovich is proud. Simeon Ioannovich Proud

The name Simeon, recorded in the Saints, according to the official Church Slavonic calendar in everyday life sounded like Semyon, just as John was called Ivan, Matthew - Matthew, Sergius - Sergei, etc. So in this essay we will call our next hero - Semyon Ivanovich. When his father, Ivan Danilovich Kalita, died, Semyon was twenty-five years old. Immediately after Kalita’s death, Konstantin, Prince of Tver, and Konstantin, Prince of Suzdal went to the Horde. Kalita’s son Semyon also went to pay his respects to the khan. Uzbek Khan received him warmly. Semyon Ivanovich received a label for the great reign with even greater powers than his father had. From the very first days the young prince led a decisive domestic policy. According to legends, the Grand Duke, having accepted all the princes into his hands, forced the appanage princes to “kiss the cross at their father’s tomb on the fact that they would all be at the same time and would honor him in their father’s place, having common enemies and friends.” Having achieved complete submission, Semyon makes another bold move - he tries to subordinate Novgorod to the grand ducal power. Instead of going to this city and resolving disagreements that arose during the next collection of tribute, as well as other pressing problems, showing by his appearance, as all the princes before Semyon Ivanovich did, respect for Novgorod customs, Semyon sent governors there. They captured Torzhok and, knowing about the strong position of their prince, began to collect tribute, oppress the population, and rob the inhabitants of the city and its environs. The Novgorodians wrote to the Grand Duke: “You have not yet sat down to reign with us, and your boyars are already committing violence!” Semyon read the message, gathered squads of princes who kissed the cross of loyalty to him, and went to war against Novgorod. The huge enemy army frightened the Novgorodians. At the meeting, they decided to ask Semyon for peace with the condition that everything should remain the same. The Grand Duke showed balance and calmness, gave in to the request, but took an indemnity from the Novgorodians for the peaceful end of the conflict, as from the vanquished - a “black forest” (capital tax), which hit the townspeople hard in the pocket. But this was not enough for the winner. He demanded that the Novgorod nobility ask him for forgiveness, and barefoot, humiliated, dressed in simple dresses, unkempt Novgorodians came to him, knelt down, lowered their eyes, wet with shame: for themselves - the weak and for Semyon - the proud. Semyon the Proud liked the humiliated Novgorodians and the submission they showed. “Simeon, having reached the rank of grand duke in his vigorous youth, knew how to use power, was not inferior in prudence to his father and followed his rules: to caress the khans to the point of humiliation, but he strictly commanded the Russian princes and earned the name of the Proud,” wrote N. M. Karamzin. His authority in the country and in the Horde, where he regularly brought tribute, frightened many. Other princes did not dare to go to war in the Zaokskaya land, although they often sorted things out among themselves with weapons in their hands. The Grand Duke treated petty disputes between fiefs surprisingly calmly: let them fight, as long as they pay tribute. Peace in the Zaokskaya land attracted people from other principalities. After the campaign against Novgorod Grand Duke disbanded the army, but it turned out that Semyon calmed down early. The period of wars between Rus' and Lithuania began: Olgerd, the son of Gediminas, approached Mozhaisk, besieged the city, and burned the outskirts. And then he unexpectedly went back to Lithuania. By the middle of the 14th century, the Lithuanians had become so strong that they constantly harassed the Russians on the western borders. They took Rzhev, Bryansk, and in their campaigns reached the Tver and Ryazan principalities. Olgerd was an excellent commander, “not only by force, but by skill,” with his campaign against Mozhaisk the so-called “Lithuanian war” began. It lasted for forty years, with victory going to one or the other opponent. People took advantage of this: there was somewhere to escape from persecution, they left the Moscow princes for Lithuania, and those who were guilty in Lithuania went to serve in Moscow. In 1341, another important event happened for Moscow and its princes: Khan Uzbek died, and a “jam” began in the Horde: khans, killing each other, were replaced almost every year. It was difficult to please them all. But in those decades, the Russian princes still had to please the khans: the khans were very strong, warlike and dangerous for Rus', even when they fought among themselves. How dangerous it is will become clear a little later, after the battle on the Kulikovo field, but in the meantime the great princes suffered humiliation, transported large carts of tribute to the Horde and strengthened Moscow. In terms of its size, economic power, cultural and spiritual values, Moscow in the first half of the 14th century was second only to cities such as Vladimir or Novgorod. This is indirectly evidenced by the fact that in 1334, during a fire, when all of Moscow burned out, the fire destroyed 28 churches. In 1340, a fire in Veliky Novgorod burned down 74 churches. However, we must not forget that Moscow in that century was surrounded by numerous densely populated villages, which together with the city formed a single economic, cultural and spiritual organism. As the city expanded, villages near Moscow became part of it, and this process continues to this day. In the early 1340s, stone construction, which had died out during the last period of the great reign of Ivan Kalita, was revived in Moscow. In 1344, it was in Moscow, and not in Vladimir, Rostov or Suzdal, that the art of monumental church painting was resumed. The Greeks invited by Metropolitan Theognostus painted the Assumption Cathedral in the Kremlin in one summer. The Cathedral of the Archangel Michael was decorated by the Grand Duke's scribes; Zachary, Joseph, and Nikolai supervised the work. With the money of the first wife of Semyon the Proud, the Lithuanian princess Aigusta (Anastasia), in 1345 the Church of the Savior on Bor was painted by master Goitan. Then in Moscow the Church of St. John the Climacus was decorated with frescoes. In Moscow, under Semyon Proud, jewelry, icon making, pottery, and other types of arts and crafts began to develop. In 1345, master Boris cast three large and two small bells, ahead of other cities in this matter. According to chronicles, several years earlier, Novgorod Archbishop Vasily invited master Boris and his people from the capital city to cast a bell for the St. Sophia Cathedral. During Semyon's reign, rag paper appeared in Moscow, replacing parchment. His agreement with his brothers and the will of the Grand Duke are written on it. In those same years, the still little-known monk Sergius, originally from Radonezh, founded the famous Trinity Monastery near Moscow. In 1345, Olgerd became the only ruler of Lithuania, during these same years the Swedes became more active - the situation on the western and northwestern borders of the Russian land worsened. The Swedish king Magnus broke into the Principality of Novgorod and occupied Pskov. The Novgorodians gathered all the soldiers capable of standing up for themselves and their land, approached Pskov and on February 24, 1349, drove the enemy out of there with great losses for him. The victors had considerable booty: they sent 800 captives to Moscow, and used the silver captured from the Swedes to decorate the Church of Boris and Gleb. The Novgorodians did not stop there. They went to Norway, defeated the Swedes in the battle of Vyborg, and concluded a profitable peace with Magnus. And Semyon Ivanovich during these years kept peace in the Moscow land, always ready to march with a large army against the experienced Olgerd, and vigilantly monitored the mood of the khans. When the Grand Duke heard rumors that Olgerd had sent his brother Koriyad to the Horde with a request to provide assistance to the Lithuanians to fight the Germans, Semyon instantly responded to this news. He came to the khan and in a personal conversation “instilled in Dzhanibek that this insidious pagan is an enemy of Russia, subject to the Tatars, and therefore of the Tatars themselves...” wrote N.M. Karamzin. The Khan supported the Russian prince and even gave him Koriyad! And Olgerd was forced to help out his brother, sent ambassadors to Moscow with rich gifts, married Semyon the Proud’s daughter-in-law, Ulyana, and married his brother Lubart to the niece of the Grand Duke. It was a magnificent diplomatic victory for Semyon the Proud. However, suddenly an unexpected misfortune crept up: an epidemic of the “Black Death” - the plague - came to Rus'. In Rus', the plague was also called “pestilence.” The plague appeared in the 30s and 40s of the 14th century in India and China. It swept across Europe, claiming tens of thousands of lives. In Paris alone, up to eight hundred people died from it every day. The plague is believed to have been brought to Rus' by both European merchants and the Horde. In 1351, a pestilence came to Pskov, and at the beginning of 1353 it was already raging in Moscow. It was from the plague that Metropolitan of All Rus' Theognost died on March 11. In the same month, the sons of Semyon the Proud, Ivan and Semyon, died, and the Grand Duke himself fell ill with the plague. He recently turned only thirty-six years old. On the day when the Grand Duke wrote his will, he no longer had a single living son. But there was one hope - his pregnant wife Maria Alexandrovna, the Tver princess. The first wife of Semyon the Proud was the Lithuanian princess Aigusta, who took the name Anastasia in baptism. She died early. Her two sons also did not live long. In 1345, Semyon married for the second time the daughter of one of the Smolensk princes, Eupraxia. But a year later, the marriage with her was forcibly dissolved. Semyon, dreaming of continuation of the family, married for the third time - to the Tver princess Maria Alexandrovna. She bore him four sons, but they also died in early childhood. Having transferred the Moscow estate in his will to his pregnant wife, Semyon hoped that power would eventually pass to his son. He was not embarrassed by this issue even that the mother of his unborn son would be the Tver princess, and this, naturally, would exacerbate the contradictions between Moscow and Tver. Such a step for a proud man is generally logical: after all, the son from his beloved wife will be a prince. Further in his will, Semyon Ivanovich writes: “And with our father’s blessing he ordered us to live alone; I also command my brethren to live for one; but they would not listen to dashing people, they would listen to our father, Vladyka Alexei, as well as the old boyars, who wanted good for our father and for us, and I am writing you this word of sharing; so that the memory of our parents and ours would not cease, and the candle over the coffin would not go out..." These lines important document they say that in Moscow, by the middle of the 14th century, a connection had formed between the Grand Duke, the boyars and the metropolitan, and Semyon the Proud understood how important it was to preserve this dynamic unity of secular power, spiritual power and political power, which the boyars represented. After the death of Semyon the Proud, the brother of the deceased, Ivan Ivanovich the Red, became the Grand Duke of Vladimir, who received from the hands of Khan Janibek the label to collect tribute from all over Rus'.

His sons, as well as the princes of Tver, Suzdal, Yaroslavl and others went to the Horde. Some of them began to bother about a label for the great reign of Vladimir; but Uzbek decided the issue in favor of Kalita’s eldest son, Simeon, nicknamed Proud. In the autumn or winter of the same year 1341, Khan Uzbek died, with whose name it is associated highest degree the power of the Golden Horde and the establishment of Islam in it. Under him, up to ten Russian princes laid down their heads in the Horde. It is remarkable that, being a zealous Muslim, he did not change the usual religious tolerance of the Tatar khans, had friendly relations with the pope and allowed Latin missionaries to introduce Catholicism in the lands of the Black Sea and Caucasus subject to the Tatars, for example, in the country of the Yases (Circassians) or Alans (Ossetians). The Byzantine emperors, in view of the numerous enemies crowding their empire, ingratiated themselves with the Tatar khans and did not hesitate to send their own daughters to their harems. An example of this was set by the founder of the dynasty, Mikhail Paleologus, who sent one of his daughters, Maria, to Khan Hulagu in Persia, and the other, Euphrosyne, to Khan Nogai. (However, both were natural daughters). Uzbek also had among his main wives the daughter of Emperor Andronikos III.

After the death of Uzbek, his second son Janibek killed his older and younger brothers, and became the sole ruler of the Kipchak kingdom. Almost all the princes of North-Eastern Rus' went to bow to the new khan. Simeon the Proud and Metropolitan Theognostus also went. Janibek approved Simeon for the great reign and mercifully released him, but detained Theognost. Some Russian slanderers informed the khan that the metropolitan enjoyed large incomes. The Khan demanded annual tribute from him and, for refusing it, ordered him to be kept in close quarters. The Metropolitan distributed 600 rubles for gifts to the khan and barely managed to get him released to Rus'. However, he received a new label, which confirmed the previous benefits to the Orthodox clergy.

Prince Simeon Ivanovich traveled to the Horde several times and retained the favor and patronage of Janibek. During the years of the reign of Simeon the Proud, we hardly see news of either the Tatar devastation in Northern Rus' or the Baskaks.

Simeon the Proud and other Russian princes

With such external calm, the Moscow principality enjoyed inner world, thanks to complete obedience, which younger sons Ivan Kalita was maintained in relation to his older brother. Simeon the Proud sealed these relations with a special agreement, according to which the brothers pledged to be all “for one” and to honor their elder brother “in their father’s place.” The elder brother Simeon pledged not to offend the younger ones regarding their destinies and not to “finish with anyone” without them. This agreement was sealed by a mutual oath and kissing the cross at the father’s tomb. The younger brothers, having received units in the city of Moscow itself, apparently stayed there to live, and did not stay in their specific cities.

In the west, Lithuania was then increasingly rising as a powerful rival to Moscow. Karamzin reports that in 1341 Olgerd (not yet the Grand Duke of Lithuania, but only one of the appanages) besieged Mozhaisk, thinking of conquering it for the Prince of Smolensk, an ally of Lithuania. But the city was not taken by him. Olgerd retreated, perhaps having learned about the death of his father, Gediminas, that had just happened.

The Novgorodians, who had previously entered into an alliance with Yuri Danilovich of Moscow against Mikhail Yaroslavich of Tver, did not rejoice for long at the humiliation of Tver and soon felt the heavy hand Moscow. Following the establishment of Simeon the Proud as a great reign, Moscow tribute collectors arrived in the Novgorod suburb of Torzhok, and not without various oppressions. Residents of Torzhok filed a complaint with Novgorod. He sent several boyars with an armed detachment; Moscow governors were captured and put in chains. But the mob of Torzhok, having heard about the preparations of the Grand Duke Simeon for a campaign and in vain expecting troops from Novgorod, rebelled against the boyars and freed the Moscow prisoners. Some boyar houses and villages were plundered by the mob during this rebellion. Meanwhile, Simeon the Proud gathered a large army and, together with the princes of Suzdal, Rostov, and Yaroslavl, moved towards Torzhok. The Novgorodians began to prepare for defense, and at the same time they sent the ruler and the thousand and the boyars to the Grand Duke to fight for peace. Prince Simeon Ivanovich agreed to make peace according to the old charters, but so that the Novgorodians would pay Black Forest(tribute) from all their volosts and, in addition, a thousand from Torzhok. There is news that Simeon the Proud demanded that the thousand and the Novgorod boyars who were with him in the embassy come to him barefoot, and on their knees, in the presence of the princes, ask for forgiveness. After the Peace of Torzhkov, Simeon Ivanovich sent his governor to Novgorod; and a few years later he himself went to Novgorod, was solemnly placed on a table there and stayed for three weeks.

Throughout the reign of Simeon the Proud, we do not see any clashes between him and other Russian princes; obviously he knew how to keep them in obedience. Tver and Ryazan calmed down. Only once does the news of some campaign of Simeon Ivanovich against Smolensk appear in the chronicles (1351); but the Smolensk ambassadors met him on the Ugra River and made peace with him. Of course, in connection with Smolensk relations, the ambassadors of Olgerd of Lithuania came to him on the same campaign and also made peace. Both grand dukes were in property. Olgerd's father Gedimin was in friendly relations with Ivan Kalita and married one of his daughters to Simeon Ivanovich. Although under Olgerd some hostile clashes are already beginning between Moscow and Lithuania, things have not yet reached a decisive struggle. Olgerd himself, shortly before the aforementioned Smolensk campaign, married the Tver princess Ulyana Alexandrovna. Tver began to draw closer to Lithuania, hoping to find support in it against Moscow.

Wives of Simeon the Proud

Simeon the Proud was married three times. His first wife Aigusta Gediminovna, baptized Anastasia, died early (1345). In the same year, Simeon married Eupraxia, the daughter of Fyodor Svyatoslavich, one of the small princes of Smolensk, whom he called back to him, giving him Volok Lamsky to rule. But the very next year the Grand Duke sent Eupraxia to his father. Sources tell us the following strange reason for this divorce: “ Grand Duchess ruined the wedding; will lie down with the Grand Duke, and she seems dead to him.” Simeon the Proud then married for the third time, to the Tver princess Marya, the daughter of Kalita’s former rival, executed in the Horde by Alexander Mikhailovich. Metropolitan Theognost, fulfilling the will of the Grand Duke, gave permission for new marriages.

Embassy of Simeon the Proud in Tver

The Black Death and the death of Prince Simeon Ivanovich

Several significant fires visited Moscow under Simeon. In decorating the city, he diligently continued his father’s initiatives. Almost all the stone Moscow churches built by Kalita were painted with frescoes under Simeon. The Assumption Cathedral was painted by the Greeks, icon painters of Metropolitan Theognostus, and they completed it in one summer (1344). The Archangel Cathedral was painted by Russian scribes. Simeon the Proud and his younger brothers, apparently, jointly participated in the costs of decorating the Kremlin churches.

In 1352, a terrible disaster visited Russia - a pestilence (plague), known as the Black Death. They say it was brought from China and India to Syria; from there it was brought to Europe by ships; went around France, England, Germany, Scandinavia; and finally brought through the Baltic Sea to the Pskov and Novgorod lands. This highly contagious disease was detected by hemoptysis, followed by death on the third day. The skin of the dying was completely covered with dark spots, which is why the very name of the Black Death came about. The chronicle says that the priests did not have time to perform funeral services for the dead separately; every morning they found twenty and thirty dead in their churches; They performed a common prayer over them, and lowered five and ten corpses into one grave. The ulcer gradually spread to almost all of Russia. As an example of its devastation, the chronicle adds that in the cities of Glukhov and Belozersk all the inhabitants died.

The Black Death also visited Moscow. In March 1353, Metropolitan Theognost died and was buried in the Assumption Cathedral, “on the same wall with Metropolitan Peter the Wonderworker.” He had barely passed his “magpies” when Grand Duke Simeon Ivanovich the Proud died in the full bloom of his years (36). All his children died before their father. Simeon ordered his brothers to live alone and listen to Bishop Alexei and the old boyars who had served their father Ivan Kalita. Following Prince Simeon, his younger brother Andrei died. Simeon the Proud's successor remained his middle brother Ivan Ivanovich Krasny, father of Dmitry Donskoy.

Simeon Ivanovich Proud

Simeon Ivanovich (Proud). Historical portrait.

GENERAL INFORMATION

• years of life - 1317 - 1353

• eldest son of Ivan I Danilovich (Kalita)

• years of reign in Moscow - 1340 - 1353

AREAS OF ACTIVITY (main events)

1.maintaining good relations with the Horde

quote

“Simeon of Moscow went to the Horde five times and each time he returned from there with much honor and reward, as the chronicler puts it: the Tatar devastations, the violence of the Baskaks and ambassadors were not heard even during the reign of Simeon, as during the reign of his father; only once, in 1347, does the chronicler mention the arrival of the Horde prince Temir near the city of Aleksin: the Tatars burned the settlement and returned to the Horde with great booty.”

2.foreign policy

• fight with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

quote

“... from that time on, the grueling “Lithuanian war” began - continuous military clashes for almost 40 years.”

3.domestic politics

• attempt to subjugate Novgorod (appointment of Moscow mayors)

• conflict with Novgorod (campaign against Torzhok)

quote

“Considering himself to be the legitimate Sovereign of Novagorod, he sent governors to Torzhok to collect tribute. Dissatisfied with this action of autocracy, the local Boyars called on the Novgorodians, who, having imprisoned the Princely Viceroys in chains, declared to Simeon that he was only the Sovereign of Moscow; that Novgorod elects Princes and does not tolerate violence.”

• temporary agreement with Novgorod (consent of Novgorodians to pay tribute to Moscow)

quote

*Karamzin N.M. "History of Russian Goverment":

“The alarmed Novgorodians ordered the regional residents to go to the capitals to protect it; sent the Archbishop with the Boyars to Torzhok to demand peace; they gave Simeon all the people’s tribute collected in the region of this border city, or 1000 silver rubles, and were pleased that the Grand Duke, following custom, pledged to observe their ancient statutes by letter.”

quote

“Several significant fires visited Moscow under Simeon and, therefore, provided abundant food for his construction activities. As for decorating the capital city, he diligently continued his father’s initiatives. It was almost all the stone Moscow churches built by Kalita that were painted inside with fresco paintings..."

• foundation of the Trinity Monastery (modern Trinity-Sergius Lavra - 1345) by Sergius of Radonezh

quote

*Klyuchevsky V.O. " Historical portraits. Figures of historical thought":

“Reverend Sergius, with his monastery and his disciples, was the model and pioneer in this revival of monastic life, “the leader and teacher of the entire monastery in Rus',” as the chronicler calls him. The colonies of the Sergius monastery, monasteries founded by the disciples of the monk or the disciples of his disciples, were counted in dozens, accounting for almost a quarter of the total number of new monasteries in the second century Tatar yoke, and almost all of these colonies were desert monasteries like their metropolis.”

quote

*Kostomarov N.I. “Russian history in the biographies of its main figures”:

“Earlier than all and more than all the saints who appeared in the Moscow land, he gained the popular respect of all Rus' Venerable Sergius, founder of the famous Trinity-Sergius Lavra, who in the eyes of the Great Russian people received the significance of patron, intercessor and guardian of the state and church. In addition, the personality of Sergius seems historically important because he was the father of many monasteries; some of them were founded during his lifetime, and even more of them arose after the death of Sergius, founded by his associates and students or students of his students.”

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ACTIVITY

1.continuation of the policy of his father - Ivan Kalita

quote

*Karamzin N.M. "History of Russian Goverment":

quote

*Sakharov A.N. Tutorial“History of Russia from ancient times to late XVII century":

“The policy of Ivan I Danilovich Kalita was continued by his son, Semyon Proud. This policy was far-sighted and purposeful - acting different methods, using weapons, money and cunning, Semyon slowly but surely strengthened his power, the position of Moscow as the political center of Rus', and united the Russian lands around it.

Prince Semyon ruled firmly and powerfully (hence his nickname Proud), other Russian princes obeyed him.”

quote

*Ilovaisky D.I. "Russian history. vol. 2. Moscow-Lithuanian period, or Collectors of Rus'":

“... Simeon Ivanovich, together with his brothers, traveled to the Horde several times, and managed to retain the favor and patronage of Janibek to the end. Thanks to this disposition of the khan, during the reign of Simeon we hardly see in the chronicles either the Tatar devastation in Northern Rus', or the Baskaks or the great khan’s ambassadors, whose visit sometimes amounted to an entire raid...”

quote

*Soloviev S.M. “History of Russia from ancient times”:

“...but the Moscow principality was calm under Simeon, as under his father; the people did not tolerate either the Tatars or the strife. Simeon lived peacefully with his brothers; a curious agreement between him and them has reached us. The agreement begins like this: “I, the Great Prince Simeon Ioannovich, of all Rus', with my younger brothers, with Prince Ivan and Prince Andrei, kissed the cross with each other at my father’s tomb. We will be at the same time until death, have an older brother and honor him in our father’s place; and you, Mr. Great Prince, cannot finish with anyone without us.”

2.raised the importance of Moscow to the level of an all-Russian capital

quote

*Nikolaev A. Article in the “Big Biographical Encyclopedia”:

“Almost all researchers who have studied the time of Simeon Ivanovich, when assessing the activities of this Moscow prince, come to the conclusion that Simeon Ivanovich is a prominent person among the first Moscow prince-gatherers. He skillfully continued the work begun by his predecessors. He is an emerging type of the Moscow sovereign who finally developed in the 16th century.”

quote

*Tikhomirov M.N. "Ancient Moscow. XII-XV centuries":

“On the seals of Simeon the Proud we read for the first time: “Seal of the Great Prince Semyonov of All Russia,” while his father Ivan Kalita called himself on the seals only the Grand Duke. Before this, the title of “All Rus'” applied to Russian metropolitans. During the time of Simeon the Proud, Moscow’s position as the ecclesiastical and secular capital of “all Russia” was consolidated.

quote

“Semyon Ivanovich managed to preserve, consolidate and strengthen the work of his father, bringing and maintaining the land and power - the great reign of Vladimir - to the beginning of a new national upsurge of Vladimir Rus', which, by that time, had already become Moscow Russia.”

FAMILY (wife and children)

• first wife - Anastasia (Aigusta) Gediminovna, daughter of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas

• the second - Eupraxia - daughter of Dorogobuzh-Vyazma Prince Fyodor Svyatoslavovich

• third - Maria - daughter of Alexander Mikhailovich Tverskoy

CHARACTER

• wildness and courage

quote

*Tikhomirov M.N. Ancient Moscow. XII-XV centuries

“In character, he bore little resemblance to the reserved and cautious Kalita. In his unbridledness and courage, Simeon was more like uncle Yuri Danilovich. That’s why they gave him the nickname Proud.”

• humiliation before the khans of the Horde and arrogance with the Russian princes

quote

*Karamzin N.M. "History of Russian Goverment":

“Simeon, having reached the rank of grand duke in his vigorous youth, knew how to use power, was not inferior in prudence to his father and followed his rules: he caressed the Khans to the point of humiliation, but strictly commanded the Princes of Russia and earned the name of the Proud.”

• high morality

quote

*Balashov D.M. "Simeon the Proud":

“Unfortunately, the examples of architecture and painting that

Simeon decorated the capital of his principality, and therefore we do not know the level of his aesthetic tastes, but only the chronicle information about the concerns of this prince in decorating hometown They’re already talking about a lot.”

quote

*Balashov D.M. "Simeon the Proud":

“The fate of Prince Simeon, both personal and state, was tragic. Not

It would be too daring to assume that Semyon Ivanovich, being a man of high morality, should have considered his family failures, and even the death of his children and his own during the great plague of the mid-14th century, as retribution for the sins of his father and his own, committed in the fight against Tver princely house."

CONTEMPORARIES

• Olgerd - Grand Duke of Lithuania, son of Gediminas, reign from 1345 to 1377.

• Janibek - Khan of the Golden Horde from 1342 to 1357, third son of Uzbek Khan

• Konstantin Vasilyevich Suzdal (?-1355) - Prince of the Suzdal Principality from 1332 to 1355.

• Olgerd (c.1296-1377) - Grand Duke of Lithuania, son of Gediminas, who during his reign from 1345 to 1377 significantly expanded the borders of the state.

• Theognostus (?-1353) - saint, metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus', successor of holy metropolitan Peter.

• Sergius of Radonezh (in the world Bartholomew, 1314-1392) - monk of the Russian Church, founder of the Trinity Monastery near Moscow, transformer of monasticism in Northern Rus'.

• Alexy (in the world Elevfery Fedorovich Byakont, 1292-1378) - Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus', saint, statesman, diplomat.

Balashov D.M. “Simeon the Proud” is a novel about the events of the mid-14th century, about the fate of the son of Ivan Kalita, the great Simeon the Proud, who, in the difficult conditions of his reign (1341-1353), managed to consolidate his father’s state acquisitions, prevent the aggression of the Principality of Lithuania and thereby strengthen the position of the Moscow Principality as the center of Vladimir Rus'. This is the fourth book in the “Sovereigns of Moscow” series.

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Solovyov Sergei Mikhailovich (1820-1879) - Russian historian.

Sakharov Andrey Nikolaevich (1930) - Soviet and Russian historian.

Kostomarov Nikolai Ivanovich (1817-1885) Russian historian, publicist and poet.

Klyuchevsky Vasily Osipovich (1841-1911) - Russian historian.

Ilovaisky Dmitry Ivanovich (1832-1920) - Russian historian.

Karamzin Nikolai Mikhailovich (1766-1826) - Russian historian and writer.

Tikhomirov Mikhail Nikolaevich (1893-1965) - Soviet historian.

Balashov Dmitry Mikhailovich (1927-2000) - Russian Soviet writer, Russian philologist.

Years of life : 1316 - April 27 1353 .

Reign: Great prince of Moscow and Kyiv (1340 - 1353); Prince of Novgorod (1346 - 1353).

The eldest son of Ivan Kalita and his wife Elena. Born on September 7, 1316 in Moscow. Having occupied the Moscow grand-ducal table in 1340 after the death of his father, he went to the Horde in 1341 and without much difficulty received from the Uzbek Khan a label certifying that he was the “Grand Duke of All Rus'” (later this was stamped on his seal) and that “all princes The Russians are under his hand." Semyon made an agreement with the brothers: “to be one to the stomach and harmlessly own their own,” but this “harmlessness” was ostentatious. Chronicles testify that the prince treated other princes and rulers of the lands under his control harshly, for which he received the nickname “Proud”.

With handouts and flattery, cunning and will, Semyon the Proud ensured the life of the Moscow principality without wars and blood. Five times (in 1341 twice, in 1342, 1344, 1351) he went to the Horde, which earned him the special favor of the khan and returned from the Horde each time “with great honor.” The appanage princes considered him a judge in resolving disputes.

The strengthening of power was facilitated by the campaign against Torzhok in 1341, from which a tribute of 1000 rubles was taken. In the same year, the Lithuanian prince Olgerd Gediminovich brought his army to Mozhaisk, but was unable to take it. Through a skillful diplomatic struggle, Semyon the Proud gained the upper hand: the khan, fearing the strengthening of Lithuania, betrayed Ambassador Alderberg to the Moscow prince and the outcome of the struggle was decided in favor of Moscow. In 1351 Proud continued the fight against Lithuania (the campaign against Smolensk).

Soon, together with Metropolitan Theognost, he made a campaign against Novgorod with the aim of liberating the grand-ducal governors who were collecting tribute there. Having taken a ransom from Novgorod, he installed a governor from Moscow there. Expanded the territory of the Moscow Principality in the southeast due to the Protva basin and the escheated Yuriev Principality with fertile lands and salt springs. The contractual letter with the brothers Ivan and Andrey (1350–1351) and the spiritual letter of 1353 (both documents were written on paper, which was first used in Rus') indicate a further strengthening of the power of the eldest among the princes of the Moscow house. In the Treaty Charter, Semyon Proud is named “Great Prince Semyon Ivanovich of All Rus'”, it confirms his seniority (“honor your elder brother ... in his father’s place”).

Lucky in government affairs, Semyon the Proud was unhappy in family life. In 1333, he married with his first marriage the daughter of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gedemin Augusta (she died in 1345), with his second marriage - in 1345 - with the daughter of the Ryazan prince Fyodor Svyatoslavich (and sent her back to her father, but in fact divorced, probably because of " barrenness" in 1346), with a third marriage - to the Tver princess Maria Alexandrovna. The Metropolitan initially refused to officiate the last marriage, but succumbed to persuasion: Semyon the Proud dreamed of an heir and this explained all his actions. All of Semyon's children (including those born from his third marriage, with Maria) died in early age. Desperate, Semyon became a monk and in his spiritual testament left his fortune to his third wife Maria and his future son, leaving empty place for his name: “I am writing this word to you so that the memory of our parents and ours does not cease, so that the candle does not go out.” The “Spiritual” (testament) of Semyon the Proud has survived to this day; it is one of the first Russian wills written on paper (parchment was used before it).

At the time of writing the will - in 1351-1353 - a plague epidemic was raging in Rus' ("pestilence", "black death", which, according to legend, was brought to Rus' from Europe by the "Germans", more precisely - by the Livonians - through trading cities). From her died in Moscow Metropolitan Theognost (March 1351), Semyon's brother Andrey (April 27, 1353), all of Semyon's children, and soon - on April 26, 1353 - the 36-year-old Prince of Moscow himself. He was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Kremlin.

After the pestilence in Moscow, only Semyon’s brother, Prince Ivan Ivanovich (Ivan the Red), and Maria, who became a widow, survived and gave Ivan everything bequeathed by her husband. Ivan Ivanovich became the ruler of the Moscow principality.