Zemsky Sobors. Zemsky Sobor (briefly)

The 19-year-old tsar initiates the “Cathedral of Reconciliation” in Moscow, in which selected representatives of all social groups of the Moscow state took part. The main question was eliminating corruption among local officials. Apparently, the population's dissatisfaction with the abuses of the royal governors had already taken the form of an acute conflict. The Council of Reconciliation later became known as the Zemsky Council, because its participants gathered from all lands. During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, an estate-representative monarchy began to take shape in Russia. Beginning in 1549, Zemsky Sobors were held in Russia until the beginning of the reign of Peter I.

It is characteristic that at the council Ivan IV delivered a speech of repentance to all the people. The Tsar publicly repented of his sins from the Execution Square in the Kremlin, which is evidence of his sincere Christian faith, because Confession is one of the main church sacraments. In this way, the king informed the people that he would take care of them in a Christian manner and protect them from corrupt officials honestly before God.

At the cathedral, it was announced that the population in the lands needed to elect elders, kissers, sotskys and courtiers, who should take away the functions of local government from the royal governors. Thus began the Zemstvo reform, which abolished the corrupt feeding system and infringed on the interests of the upper class. At the same time, the Zemstvo reform is usually attributed to the Elected Rada under the Tsar. The traitor-renegade Kurbsky, a supporter of the Chosen Rada, was the person who actually described the Chosen Rada. No one except Kurbsky mentions the Elected Rada. However, it was Kurbsky who was part of that group of royal people who ultimately suffered from the Zemstvo reform, losing the possibility of abuses on the ground. Therefore, the leading role of the Chosen Rada in the Zemstvo and other reforms of the tsar, who carried out active reforms, looks doubtful.

The code of law of Ivan IV (the Terrible) is adopted at the Zemsky Sobor and approved at the church Stoglavy Sobor

The Code of Law of Tsar Ivan, which was adopted at the Zemsky Sobor, was supposed to limit local corruption by strengthening the position of local government and expanding the role of the peasantry in judicial, tax and police matters. The mechanism for the transfer of a peasant from one owner to another was clarified, which made it impossible for the owners to abuse it. Criminal cases were transferred from the feeders to provincial elders, who, like the feeders, were chosen by the population from the nobles and children of the boyars.

In case of a deadlock, a judicial duel was resolved (Field). The disputing parties fought for their truth. It was impossible to conduct a Field between a warrior and a non-warrior (by age or occupation), except in cases where the non-warrior himself wanted it.

The Code of Law introduces an order system of public administration. Under Ivan IV, the following orders were created: Petition, Ambassadorial, Local, Streletsky, Pushkarsky, Bronny, Robbery, Printed, Sokolnichiy, Zemsky orders. The system of orders streamlined and placed state affairs under the control of the tsar, while infringing on the boyars, who previously carried out affairs without control. Boyars, nobles and clerks served in the orders. Only the court okolnichy and the clerk served in the Petition Order. The boyars negatively perceived their removal from government administration and formed conspiracies. For example, this state of affairs became one of the reasons for the state treason of one of the main commanders of the Russian army, Andrei Kurbsky.

The Tsar asked for the Code of Law to be approved at the Church Council of the Stoglavy in 1551. At the church council, Ivan complained that his boyars and nobles were mired in theft and injustice. However, the king called on all Christians for reconciliation.

In addition to approving the Code of Law, the Stoglavy Council unified church rites in the lands and transferred local saints to the status of all-Russian saints. Stoglav also ordered the organization of schools (schools at churches and monasteries) for teaching literacy. The first Russian Patriarch Job came from one of these schools. Usury was prohibited for Orthodox priests.

The church council also discussed the issue of secularization of church lands in the form of a dispute between the Josephites and non-covetous people. Metropolitan Macarius was on the side of the Josephites, and the king and priest Sylvester were on the side of the non-covetous. The young king hoped to secularize the church lands. However, the Josephite party did not allow this to happen and prevailed.

Subject's age: 19
Place: Moscow
Path: Volga
Subject: Ivan IV the Terrible
Country: Moscow State
Geographic coordinates: 55.751666676667,37.617777787778
Year: 1549

Periodization of Zemsky Sobors
The periodization of Zemsky Sobors can be divided into 6 periods:
1. The history of zemstvo councils begins during the reign of Ivan IV the Terrible. The first council took place in 1549. Councils convened by the royal authorities - this period lasts until 1565.
2. Starting from the death of Ivan the Terrible and until the fall of Shuisky (1584-1610). This was the time when the preconditions for civil war and foreign intervention were taking shape, and the crisis of autocracy began. The councils performed the function of electing the kingdom and often became an instrument of forces hostile to Russia.
3. 1610-1613 The Zemsky Sobor under the militias turns into the supreme body of power (both legislative and executive), deciding issues of domestic and foreign policy. It was during this period of time that the Zemsky Sobor played the most important and significant role in the public life of Russia.
4. 1613-1622 The Council operates almost continuously, but as an advisory body under the royal authority. Resolves current administrative and financial issues. The tsarist government seeks to rely on zemstvo councils when carrying out financial activities: collecting five-dollar money, restoring the damaged economy, eliminating the consequences of the intervention and preventing new aggression from Poland. From 1622, the activity of the cathedrals ceased until 1632.
5. 1632-1653 Councils meet relatively rarely, but to resolve important issues of both domestic policy: drawing up the Code, the uprising in Pskov, and foreign policy: Russian-Polish and Russian-Crimean relations, the annexation of Ukraine, the question of Azov. During this period, the speeches of class groups intensifying, presenting demands to the government, not so much through zemstvo councils, but through submitted petitions.
6. 1653-1684. The importance of zemstvo cathedrals is declining (a slight rise was observed in the 80s). The last full council met in 1653 on the issue of admitting Ukraine to the Russian state.
The first is considered to be the Zemsky Sobor of 1549, which lasted two days and was convened to resolve issues about the new royal Code of Law and the reforms of the “Elected Rada”. During the council, the tsar and the boyars spoke, and later a meeting of the Boyar Duma took place, which adopted a provision on the non-jurisdiction (except in major criminal cases) of boyar children to the governors. According to I.D. Belyaev, elected representatives from all classes participated in the first Zemsky Sobor. The Tsar asked the saints who were at the cathedral for a blessing to correct the Code of Law “in the old way”; then he announced to representatives of the communities that throughout the state, in all cities, suburbs, volosts and churchyards, and even in the private estates of boyars and other landowners, elders and kissers, sotskys and courtiers, should be elected by the residents themselves; Charter charters will be written for all regions, with the help of which the regions could govern themselves without sovereign governors and volosts.

Zemsky Sobors are the Russian version of class-representative democracy. They differed fundamentally from Western European parliaments in the absence of a war of “all against all.”

According to the dry encyclopedic language, the Zemsky Sobor is the central estate-representative institution of Russia in the mid-16th-17th centuries. Many historians believe that zemstvo councils and estate representative institutions in other countries are phenomena of the same order, subject to the general laws of historical development, although each country had its own specific features. Parallels can be seen in the activities of the English Parliament, the States General in France and the Netherlands, the Reichstag and Landtags of Germany, Scandinavian Rikstags, and Diets in Poland and the Czech Republic. Foreign contemporaries noted the similarities in the activities of the councils and their parliaments.

It should be noted that the term “Zemsky Sobor” itself is a later invention of historians. Contemporaries called them “cathedral” (along with other types of meetings), “council”, “zemsky council”. The word “zemsky” in this case means state, public.

The first council was convened in 1549. It adopted the Code of Law of Ivan the Terrible, approved in 1551 by the Stoglavy Council. The Code of Law contains 100 articles and has a general pro-state orientation, eliminates the judicial privileges of appanage princes and strengthens the role of central state judicial bodies.

What was the composition of the cathedrals? This issue is examined in detail by the historian V.O. Klyuchevsky in his work “The Composition of Representation at the Zemstvo Councils of Ancient Rus'”, where he analyzes the composition of the councils based on the representation of 1566 and 1598. From the council of 1566, dedicated to the Livonian War (the council advocated its continuation), a verdict letter and a full protocol have been preserved with a list of names of all ranks of the cathedral, a total of 374 people. The members of the cathedral can be divided into 4 groups:

1. Clergy - 32 people.
It included the archbishop, bishops, archimandrites, abbots and monastery elders.

2. Boyars and sovereign people - 62 people.
It consisted of boyars, okolnichy, sovereign clerks and other senior officials with a total of 29 people. The same group included 33 simple clerks and clerks. representatives - they were invited to the council by virtue of their official position.

3. Military service people - 205 people.
It included 97 nobles of the first article, 99 nobles and children
boyars of the second article, 3 Toropets and 6 Lutsk landowners.

4. Merchants and industrialists - 75 people.
This group consisted of 12 merchants of the highest rank, 41 ordinary Moscow merchants - “Muscovites trading people,” as they are called in the “conciliar charter,” and 22 representatives of the commercial and industrial class. From them the government expected advice on improving the tax collection system, in conducting commercial and industrial affairs, which required trade experience, some technical knowledge that the clerks and indigenous governing bodies did not possess.

In the 16th century, Zemsky Sobors were not elective. “Choice as a special power for an individual case was not then recognized as a necessary condition for representation,” wrote Klyuchevsky. - A metropolitan nobleman from the Pereyaslavl or Yuryevsky landowners appeared at the council as a representative of the Pereyaslavl or Yuryevsky nobles because he was the head of the Pereyaslavl or Yuryevsky hundreds, and he became the head because he was a metropolitan nobleman; He became a metropolitan nobleman because he was one of the best Pereyaslavl or Yuryev servicemen ‘for the fatherland and for the service’.”

From the beginning of the 17th century. the situation has changed. When dynasties changed, new monarchs (Boris Godunov, Vasily Shuisky, Mikhail Romanov) needed recognition of their royal title by the population, which made class representation more necessary. This circumstance contributed to some expansion of the social composition of the “elected”. In the same century, the principle of forming the “Sovereign Court” changed, and nobles began to be elected from the counties. Russian society, left to its own devices during the Time of Troubles, “involuntarily learned to act independently and consciously, and the idea began to arise in it that it, this society, the people, was not a political accident, as Moscow people were used to feeling, not aliens, not temporary inhabitants in someone’s state... Next to the sovereign’s will, and sometimes in its place, another political force now more than once stood - the will of the people, expressed in the verdicts of the Zemsky Sobor,” wrote Klyuchevsky.

What was the election procedure?

The convening of the council was carried out by a letter of conscription, issued by the tsar to well-known persons and localities. The letter contained the agenda items and the number of elected officials. If the number was not determined, it was decided by the population itself. The draft letters clearly stipulated that the subjects to be elected were “the best people,” “kind and intelligent people,” to whom “the Sovereign’s and zemstvo’s affairs are a matter of custom,” “with whom one could speak,” “who could tell of insults and violence and ruin and what should the Moscow state be filled with” and “to establish the Moscow state so that everyone comes to dignity”, etc.

It is worth noting that there were no requirements for the property status of candidates. In this aspect, the only limitation was that only those who paid taxes to the treasury, as well as people who served, could participate in the elections held by estate.

As noted above, sometimes the number of elected people to be sent to the council was determined by the population itself. As noted by A.A. Rozhnov in his article “Zemsky Sobors of Moscow Rus': legal characteristics and significance”, such an indifferent attitude of the government to the quantitative indicators of popular representation was not accidental. On the contrary, it obviously flowed from the latter’s very task, which was to convey the position of the population to the Supreme Power, to give them the opportunity to be heard by it. Therefore, the determining factor was not the number of persons included in the Council, but the degree to which they reflected the interests of the people.

Cities, together with their counties, formed electoral districts. At the end of the elections, minutes of the meeting were drawn up and certified by all those participating in the elections. At the end of the elections, a “choice in hand” was drawn up - an election protocol, sealed with the signatures of voters and confirming the suitability of the elected representatives for the “Sovereign and Zemstvo Cause”. After this, the elected officials with the voivode’s “unsubscribe” and the “election list in hand” went to Moscow to the Rank Order, where the clerks verified that the elections were being held correctly.

Deputies received instructions from voters, mostly verbal, and upon returning from the capital they had to report on the work done. There are known cases when attorneys, who were unable to achieve satisfaction of all the requests of local residents, asked the government to issue them special “protected” letters that would guarantee them protection from “all bad things” from disgruntled voters:
“The governors in the cities were ordered to protect them, the elected people, from the city people from all sorts of bad things, so that your sovereign’s cathedral Code, according to the petition of the zemstvo people, is not against all articles of your sovereign’s decree.”

The work of the delegates at the Zemsky Sobor was carried out mainly free of charge, on a “social basis”. Voters provided the elected officials only with “reserves”, that is, they paid for their travel and accommodation in Moscow. The state only occasionally, at the request of the people’s representatives themselves, “complained” them for performing parliamentary duties.

Issues resolved by the Councils.

1. Election of the king.
Council of 1584. Election of Fyodor Ioannovich.

According to the spiritual year of 1572, Tsar Ivan the Terrible appointed his eldest son Ivan as his successor. But the death of the heir at the hands of his father in 1581 abolished this testamentary disposition, and the tsar did not have time to draw up a new will. So his second son Fedor, having become the eldest, was left without a legal title, without an act that would give him the right to the throne. This missing act was created by the Zemsky Sobor.

Council of 1589. Election of Boris Godunov.
Tsar Fedor died on January 6, 1598. The ancient crown - the Monomakh cap - was put on by Boris Godunov, who won the struggle for power. Among his contemporaries and descendants, many considered him a usurper. But this view was thoroughly shaken thanks to the works of V. O. Klyuchevsky. A well-known Russian historian argued that Boris was elected by the correct Zemsky Sobor, that is, which included representatives of the nobility, clergy and the upper classes of the townspeople. Klyuchevsky’s opinion was supported by S. F. Platonov. The accession of Godunov, he wrote, was not the result of intrigue, for the Zemsky Sobor chose him quite deliberately and knew better than us why he chose him.

Council of 1610. Election of the Polish king Vladislav.
The commander of the Polish troops advancing from the west to Moscow, Hetman Zholkiewski, demanded that the “Seven Boyars” confirm the agreement between the Tushino Boyar Duma and Sigismund III and recognize Prince Vladislav as the Moscow Tsar. The “Seven Boyars” did not enjoy authority and accepted Zolkiewski’s ultimatum. She announced that Vladislav would convert to Orthodoxy after receiving the Russian crown. In order to give the election of Vladislav to the kingdom the appearance of legality, a semblance of the Zemsky Sobor was quickly assembled. That is, the Council of 1610 cannot be called a full-fledged legitimate Zemsky Sobor. In this case, it is interesting that the Council, in the eyes of the then boyars, was a necessary tool for legitimizing Vladislav on the Russian throne.

Council of 1613. Election of Mikhail Romanov.
After the expulsion of the Poles from Moscow, the question arose about electing a new tsar. Letters were sent from Moscow to many cities of Russia on behalf of the liberators of Moscow - Pozharsky and Trubetskoy. Information has been received about documents sent to Sol Vychegodskaya, Pskov, Novgorod, Uglich. These letters, dated mid-November 1612, ordered representatives of each city to arrive in Moscow before December 6, 1612. As a result of the fact that some of the candidates were delayed in arriving, the cathedral began its work a month later - on January 6, 1613. The number of participants in the cathedral is estimated from 700 to 1500 people. Among the candidates for the throne were representatives of such noble families as the Golitsyns, Mstislavskys, Kurakins, and others. Pozharsky and Trubetskoy themselves put forward their candidacies. As a result of the elections, Mikhail Romanov won. It should be noted that for the first time in their history, black-growing peasants took part in the Council of 1613.

Council of 1645. Approval of Alexei Mikhailovich on the throne
For several decades, the new royal dynasty could not be sure of the firmness of its positions and at first needed the formal consent of the estates. As a consequence of this, in 1645, after the death of Mikhail Romanov, another “electoral” council was convened, which confirmed his son Alexei on the throne.

Council of 1682. Approval of Peter Alekseevich.
In the spring of 1682, the last two “electoral” zemstvo councils in Russian history were held. At the first of them, on April 27, Peter Alekseevich was elected tsar. On the second, May 26, both of Alexei Mikhailovich’s youngest sons, Ivan and Peter, became kings.

2. Issues of war and peace

In 1566, Ivan the Terrible gathered the estates to find out the opinion of the “land” on the continuation of the Livonian War. The significance of this meeting is highlighted by the fact that the council worked in parallel with the Russian-Lithuanian negotiations. The estates (both nobles and townspeople) supported the king in his intention to continue military operations.

In 1621, a Council was convened regarding the violation by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of the Deulin Truce of 1618. In 1637, 1639, 1642. estate representatives gathered in connection with the complications of Russia's relations with the Crimean Khanate and Turkey, after the capture of the Turkish fortress of Azov by the Don Cossacks.

In February 1651, a Zemsky Sobor was held, the participants of which unanimously spoke out in favor of supporting the uprising of the Ukrainian people against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but no concrete assistance was provided then. On October 1, 1653, the Zemsky Sobor made a historic decision on the reunification of Ukraine with Russia.

3. Financial issues

In 1614, 1616, 1617, 1618, 1632 and later zemstvo councils determined the amount of additional fees from the population and decided on the fundamental possibility of such fees. Councils 1614-1618 made decisions on “pyatina” (collection of a fifth of income) for the maintenance of service people. After this, the “Pyatiners” - officials who collected taxes, traveled around the country, using the text of the conciliar “verdict” (decision) as a document.

4. Domestic policy issues
The very first Zemsky Sobor, which we have already written about, was dedicated precisely to internal issues - the adoption of the code of law of Ivan the Terrible. The Zemsky Sobor of 1619 resolved issues related to the restoration of the country after the Time of Troubles and determining the direction of domestic policy in the new situation. The Council of 1648 - 1649, caused by massive urban uprisings, resolved issues of relations between landowners and peasants, determined the legal status of estates and estates, strengthened the position of the autocracy and the new dynasty in Russia, and influenced the solution of a number of other issues.

The next year after the adoption of the Council Code, the cathedral was once again convened to stop the uprisings in Novgorod and Pskov, which were not possible to suppress by force, especially since the rebels retained their fundamental loyalty to the monarch, that is, they did not refuse to recognize his power. The last “Zemstvo Council”, which dealt with issues of domestic policy, was convened in 1681-1682. It was dedicated to carrying out the next reforms in Russia. The most important of the results was the “conciliar act” on the abolition of localism, which provided a fundamental opportunity to increase the efficiency of the administrative apparatus in Russia.

Duration of the cathedral

Meetings of the council members lasted for different periods of time: some elected groups deliberated (for example, at the council of 1642) for several days, others for several weeks. The duration of the activities of the gatherings themselves, as institutions, was also uneven: issues were resolved either in a few hours (for example, the council of 1645, which swore allegiance to the new Tsar Alexei), or within several months (councils of 1648 - 1649, 1653). In 1610-1613 The Zemsky Sobor, under the militias, turns into the supreme body of power (both legislative and executive), deciding issues of domestic and foreign policy and operating almost continuously.

Completing the history of cathedrals

In 1684, the last Zemsky Sobor in Russian history was convened and dissolved.
He decided on the issue of eternal peace with Poland. After this, the Zemsky Sobors no longer met, which was the inevitable result of the reforms carried out by Peter I of the entire social structure of Russia and the strengthening of the absolute monarchy.

The meaning of cathedrals

From a legal point of view, the tsar's power was always absolute, and he was not obliged to obey zemstvo councils. The councils served the government as an excellent way to find out the mood of the country, to obtain information about the state of the state, whether it could incur new taxes, wage war, what abuses existed, and how to eradicate them. But the councils were most important for the government in that it used their authority to carry out measures that under other circumstances would have caused displeasure, and even resistance. Without the moral support of the councils, it would have been impossible to collect for many years those numerous new taxes that were imposed on the population under Michael to cover urgent government expenses. If the council, or the whole earth, has decided, then there is nothing left to do: willy-nilly, you have to fork out beyond measure, or even give away your last savings. It is necessary to note the qualitative difference between zemstvo councils and European parliaments - at the councils there was no parliamentary war of factions. Unlike similar Western European institutions, the Russian Councils, possessing real political power, did not oppose themselves to the Supreme Power and did not weaken it, extorting rights and benefits for themselves, but, on the contrary, served to strengthen and strengthen the Russian kingdom.

Application. List of all cathedrals

Quoted from:

1549 February 27-28. About reconciliation with the boyars, about the viceroyal court, about judicial and zemstvo reform, about the compilation of the Code of Laws.

1551 from February 23 to May 11. On church and state reforms. Drawing up the “Cathedral Code” (Stoglava).

1565 January 3. About the messages of Ivan the Terrible from Alexandrova Sloboda to Moscow with the notification that due to “treasonable deeds” he “left his state.”

1580 no later than January 15. On church and monastic land ownership.

1584 no later than July 20. On the abolition of church and monastic tarkhanov.

May 15, 1604. About the break with the Crimean Khan Kazy-Girey and the organization of a campaign against his troops.

1607 February 3-20. On the release of the population from the oath to False Dmitry I and on the forgiveness of perjury against Boris Godunov.

1610 no later than January 18. On sending an embassy from Tushino to Smolensk on behalf of the Zemstvo Council for negotiations with King Sigismund III about zemstvo affairs.

February 14, 1610. A response act on behalf of King Sigismund III, addressed to the Zemsky Sobor.

1610 July 17. About the dethronement of Tsar Vasily Shuisky and the transfer of the state until the election of the Tsar under the authority of the boyar government (“seven boyars”), headed by the boyar Prince. F.I. Mstislavsky.

1610 August 17. Judgment record on behalf of the Zemsky Sobor with Hetman Zholkiewski on the recognition of the Polish prince Vladislav as the Russian Tsar.

1611 no later than March 4 (or from the end of March) to the second half of the year. The activities of the “council of all the earth” during the first militia.

1611 June 30. “Sentence” (constituent act) of “the whole earth” on the state structure and political order.

October 26, 1612. The act of recognition by the Polish invaders and members of the boyar duma who were with them in the siege in Moscow of the sovereignty of the Zemsky Sobor.

1613 no later than January to May. On the election of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov to the kingdom.

1613 until May 24. About sending collectors of money and supplies to the cities.

1614 until March 18. On the suppression of the movement of Zarutsky and the Cossacks.

1614 until April 6. On the collection of five-point money.

September 1614 1. About sending an embassy to the rebel Cossacks with an exhortation to submit to the government.

1615 until April 29. On the collection of five-point money.

1617 until June 8. On the collection of five-point money.

1618 until April 11. On the collection of five-dollar money.

1637 around September 24-28. About the attack of the Crimean prince Safat-Girey and the collection of dates and money for the salaries of military men.

1642 from January 3 to January 17. Appeal to the Russian government of the Don Cossacks regarding the admission of Azov to the Russian state.

1651 February 28. About Russian-Polish relations and the readiness of Bogdan Khmelnitsky to transfer to Russian citizenship.

1653 May 25, June 5(?), June 20-22(?), October 1. About the war with Poland and the annexation of Ukraine.

Between 1681 November 24 and 1682 May 6. Council of Sovereign Military and Zemstvo Affairs (on military, financial and zemstvo reforms).

1682 May 23, 26, 29. About the election of John and Peter Alekseevich to the kingdom, and Princess Sophia as the supreme ruler.

There are 57 cathedrals in total. One must think that in reality there were more of them, and not only because many sources have not reached us or are still unknown, but also because in the proposed list the activities of some cathedrals (during the first and second militias) had to be indicated in general, in while more than one meeting was probably convened, and it would be important to note each of them.

highest class-representative institutions in Russia ser. XVI - XVII centuries They included members of the Consecrated Cathedral, the Boyar Duma, the “sovereign court,” elected from the provincial nobility and the elite of the townspeople. We considered the most important national issues.

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ZEMSKY Cathedrals

central estate-representative institutions in Russia in the 16th-17th centuries. They included members of the Consecrated Council - archbishops, bishops and others, headed by the metropolitan, and from 1589 - by the patriarch, members of the Boyar Duma, the “sovereign court”, elected from the provincial nobility and the elite of the townspeople. The most important national issues were considered at the Z.S. At the beginning of the 17th century. During the period of mass popular movements, Polish and Swedish intervention, the “Council of All the Earth” was convened, the continuation of which was Z.S. in 1613, which elected the first Romanov, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, to the throne. During his reign, the Z.S. was convened most often. The practice of convening and conducting meetings of the Z.S. was not strictly regulated. The councils confirmed or elected kings, approved the conciliar code of 1649, abolished localism in 1682, approved treaties on the reunification of Ukraine with Russia, on “eternal peace” with Poland in 1683-1684, with their help the government introduced new taxes, changed existing ones, discussed foreign policy issues, the need to recruit troops, etc. Sometimes unplanned issues were proposed for discussion, for example, at the Council of 1566 the question of abolishing the oprichnina introduced by Ivan IV the Terrible was raised. From the middle of the 17th century. Z.S.’s activities are fading, which is explained by the strengthening of absolutism in Russia.

Composition of Z.s. was formed through representation from class groups, socio-political and state institutions. Representation was conditional on the status of the person, determined by choice or, possibly, by appointment (invitation). Core Z.s. and its permanent parts (curias) were: the Consecrated Council, headed by the Moscow Metropolitan (from 1589 - the Patriarch) and including archbishops, bishops, archimandrites, abbots of influential monasteries; The Boyar Duma (including Duma nobles and Duma clerks), as well as (until the beginning of the 17th century) persons who ex officio had the right of a boyar court (butlers, treasurers, printers). The bulk of the secular feudal lords of the 16th century. represented various groups of the Sovereign's court (stewards, solicitors, Moscow and elected nobles, clerks). From the trade and craft population to Z.s. privileged groups of merchants were represented (guests, members of the Living Room and Cloth Hundreds). From 1584 to W.s. there were “elected people” from the district nobility, from 1598 sotskys of the Moscow Black Hundreds, from 1612 – elected representatives from the peasants. Z.s. lost importance by the end of the 17th century.

First Z.s. (1549 and 1566) are organically included in the system of institutions of the estate-representative monarchy that emerged by the middle of the 16th century, when a number of political reforms were carried out.

In June 1566 on W.S. Only representatives of the zemshchina were present; delegates were appointed by the government. Here for the first time the government faced strong opposition. A large group of boyars and nobles turned to the tsar with a petition for the resignation of the oprichnina. Z.s. stands out in particular. 1613: it was broader and more democratic in terms of representation than the previous ones - a new dynasty was elected to the Moscow throne. Some time after the election of Mikhail Fedorovich Z.s. did not dissolve and acted as the supreme body under the king. At the beginning of the 17th century. frequent meetings of Z.s. were necessary to make unpopular decisions about the new tension of the country's military and economic forces.

Z.s. gathered in one of the Kremlin chambers (Granovitaya, Stolovaya and others). The cathedral was opened by the clerk or the king himself. The clerk read out the “letter” (agenda) for the cathedral. The answer to the agenda item was given on “separate articles” by each estate.

Duration Z.s. ranged from several hours (1645) and days (1642) to several months (1648–1649) and even years (1613–1615,1615-1619,1620–1622).

Solutions Z.s. were formalized in a conciliar act-protocol under the seals of the Tsar, the Patriarch, the highest ranks and the kissing of the cross for lower ranks. Z.s. existed until the end of the 17th century, gradually losing their significance and role in the life of the state.

Great definition

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The Zemsky Sobor is part of the history of the development of Russian society, the first evolutionary steps of the state apparatus in modern times, evidence of changes in the class system. In the 16th century, this social institution was just beginning to take shape and had neither clear tasks nor strictly established powers. Even the procedure for convening and the composition of participants were not clearly defined. Meanwhile, the very fact of the creation of the cathedral was a big step in the development of the young Moscow state.

The first representative body of the Russian kingdom

The Zemsky Sobor was the highest estate-representative institution of the Russian Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries, created to discuss administrative, economic, political and economic issues. All social strata of the population were represented in it (with the exception of serfs). The word “cathedral” itself is known from ancient Russian sources and means “council”, “general council” or “council of the whole earth”.

Cathedral of Reconciliation

The first Zemsky Sobor, at the suggestion of Metropolitan Macarius, was convened by the young Tsar Ivan IV. The purpose of this meeting was to restore order in the country after the period of boyar rule and the 1547 uprising in Moscow. The meeting was called the “Cathedral of Reconciliation.” It began in February 1549. Its participants condemned the strife among the Russian people and called on the people to forgive each other for the “untruths” and insults caused during the period of boyar rule. In addition, the reforms carried out by the “Chosen Slave” were supported.

Chronology

Further, important political decisions were made at these meetings. At the Zemsky Sobor in 1566, it was decided to continue the Livonian War. The Zemsky Sobor in 1584 established Fyodor Ivanovich, the son of Ivan IV, as king. In addition, kings were elected at Zemsky Sobors: Godunov in 1598, Shuisky in 1606, Prince Vladislav in 1610, Mikhail Fedorovich in 1613, as well as Ivan and Peter Alekseevich in 1682. In 1645, the Zemsky Sobor recognized the dynastic right of Alexei Mikhailovich.

Composition of meetings

The participants of the Zemsky Sobors were the Boyar Duma, representatives of the higher clergy (Consecrated Cathedral), and delegates from the estates. The composition of the latter varied depending on what issue was being considered. The Zemsky Sobor of 1613 became the largest and most complete in composition. Among others, its participants included representatives of the palace and black-mown peasant volosts. In total, the number of “elected people” reached 800 people, who represented a total of 58 cities in the country. Initially, the venue for Zemsky Sobors was Red Square. However, starting in 1598, when Boris Godunov was elected to the kingdom, meetings began to be held in various palace premises and patriarchal chambers. Under the Romanovs, councils were convened in the royal rooms.

Changing permissions

During the Time of Troubles, the Zemsky Sobor governed the main issues of foreign relations and internal policy of the state. In the seventeenth century, councils made decisions on financial fees (“pyatina”). In 1613-22. Zemsky councils met almost continuously. But the gradual restoration of the state apparatus and the strengthening of the foreign policy status of the Moscow state allowed Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich to abandon the Zemsky Councils, and they were not convened for ten years. In 1642, the cathedral refused the request of the Don Cossacks to help Azov, which they had captured. In 1653, the Zemsky Sobor decided to annex the Left Bank part of Ukraine to the Russian state. In 1682 he abolished localism.

The Last Zemsky Sobor

It was convened in 1682. He was called upon to ratify eternal peace with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Zemsky Sobors were no longer convened, which was a natural consequence of the reforms carried out by Peter I and aimed at strengthening absolutism.