By the creation of new appanages the Russian princes
continually destroyed the very unity for which they
labored. Moreover, at a time when the great nations
of the West were organizing, Muscovy or Russia had
no settled relations with their civilization.
The opening of the Renaissance, the progress of discovery,
the invention of printing—by these the
best spirits in Russia were stirred to fresh aspirations
for national organization and participation in the
great European movement.
According to the tradition, her deliverer had been
foretold and was expected. His triumphs were
predicted at his birth. The man through whom,
or at least in whose name, Russia was to be restored
to herself, to be freed from the Mongol yoke, and
brought into living connection with Western Europe,
was Ivan, son and heir of Vasili the Blind, Grand Prince
of Moscow.
This child became Ivan III, surnamed the “Great,”
because during his reign, 1462-1505, the expectations
of his country were largely realized. He was
the first who could call himself “Ruler of all
the Russias,” and he is regarded as the original
founder of the Russian empire. Already, at his
accession, the Muscovite principalities were beginning
to draw together, and circumstances were favorable
to the prosecution of the task upon which he was called
to enter—the completing of their union and
the securing of their national independence.
Ivan was a man of great cunning and prudence, and
was remarkable for indomitable perseverance, which
carried him triumphantly to the conclusions of his
designs in a spirit of utter indifference to the ruin
or bad faith that tracked his progress. Such a
man alone, who was prepared to sacrifice the scruples
of honor and the demands of justice, was fit to meet
the difficulties by which the grand princedom of Moscow
was surrounded. He saw them all clearly, resolved
upon the course he should take; and throughout a long
reign, in which the paramount ambition of rendering
Russia independent and the throne supreme was the leading
feature of his policy, he pursued his plans with undeviating
consistency.
But that policy was not to be accomplished by open
and responsible acts. The whole character of
Ivan was tinged with the duplicity of the churchmen
who held a high place in his councils. His proceedings
were neither direct nor at first apparently conducive
to the interests of the empire, but the great cause
was secretly advancing against all impediments.
While he forbore to risk his advantages, he left an
opportunity for disunion among his enemies, by which
he was certain to gain in the end. He never committed
himself to a position of the security of which he
was not sure; and he carried this spirit of caution
to such an extremity that many of the early years
of his reign present a succession of timid and vacillating
movements, that more nearly resemble the subterfuges
of a coward than the crafty artifices of a despot.
