Ivan the Terrible suffered the betrayal of the governor of Kurbsky

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

455 years ago, voivode Andrei Kurbsky, an associate of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, fled from Russia to Lithuania. Scholars call Kurbsky one of the most "high-ranking defectors" in Russian history. His personality is still assessed very controversially: on the one hand, he was a talented military leader, a prominent thinker of his era and a defender of Orthodoxy in the Commonwealth, on the other, he committed a betrayal in relation to the tsar and to Russia.

Prince Andrei Kurbsky was born in 1528 in the family of the governor Mikhail Kurbsky. He belonged to a noble family that ascended to one of the branches of the Rurikovich - the princes of Yaroslavl. At the beginning of the 16th century, the Kurbskys, who often supported the opposition to the Grand Dukes of Moscow, were in disgrace and occupied a rather low position in society for their origin. However, this did not prevent Andrei Kurbsky from rising under Ivan the Terrible.

A talented commander

The young prince Kurbsky took part in the second campaign of Ivan IV against the Kazan Khanate with the rank of steward. Upon his return, he became a voivode in Pronsk and in 1551 already commanded a right-hand regiment, when the Russian army on the Oka was awaiting the Tatar invasion. Around the same time, Kurbsky was close to Ivan IV and began to carry out his personal orders.

In 1552, a detachment under the command of Andrei Kurbsky and Pyotr Shchenyatev lifted the Crimean Tatar blockade from Tula, and then defeated the Khan's army. Despite several severe wounds, Prince Kurbsky joined a new campaign against Kazan eight days later. During the capture of the city, the forces of Kurbsky blocked the Elbugin gates in order to prevent the Kazan garrison from retreating. When several thousand Tatars crossed the Kazanka River, Kurbsky with a cavalry detachment of about 200 people overtook the fugitives. He was wounded again, and at first he was even presumed dead.

At that time Kurbsky was already one of the tsar's closest associates. In 1554, he took part in suppressing the Kazan Tatars uprising, and two years later - in the defeat of the revolted Circassians and in the protection of the southern borders of the kingdom from the Crimean army. Soon after that, Ivan IV made Kurbsky a boyar.

In 1558 the Livonian War began. Kurbsky, together with Pyotr Golovin, commanded a patrol regiment. Then he was appointed the first commander of the first regiment, leading the vanguard of the Russian army. The campaign was successful - about 20 Livonian cities were captured.

Governors Prince Peter Ivanovich Shuisky and Prince Andrei Mikhailovich Kurbsky. Capture of Novgorodok, 1558 © Obverse chronicle collection of the 16th century.

After problems began in 1560 in Livonia, Ivan IV put Andrei Kurbsky at the head of the army operating there and at the same time appointed him a voivode in Yuryev. This was the peak of the prince's career. He inflicted several severe defeats on the Livonians. In the future, Kurbsky acted both independently and as part of a combined army together with Peter Shuisky and Ivan Mstislavsky.

It was Kurbsky's forces that took the first blow from the Polish-Lithuanian troops that entered the war for Livonia and successfully defeated the new enemy. Later he took part in the campaign against Polotsk. In 1562, Kurbsky suffered a setback: in the battle of Nevel, his detachment was defeated by the Lithuanians. However, the prince retained the status of the Yuryevsky governor and the command of the army entrusted to him earlier.

Flight to Lithuania

Historians still cannot answer the question of what exactly prompted Kurbsky to betray. After the defeat at Nevel and several more unsuccessful military episodes, he retained his post. And even when in Moscow several of the prince's close associates fell into disgrace, the tsar made no claims to Kurbsky. Nevertheless, the governor decided to flee from Russia.

“In this story, Kurbsky showed himself not from the best side. He began to bargain with the Polish-Lithuanian authorities, seeking certain privileges for himself. And immediately at the moment of flight, he abandoned all the troops entrusted to him and his family to the mercy of fate, said in an interview with RT a professor at the Faculty of Political Science of Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov, Doctor of Historical Sciences Sergei Perevezentsev.

During the negotiations, Kurbsky, in order to confirm the firmness of his intentions, according to some historians, conveyed to the enemy information about the movement of Russian troops, because of which the Russians suffered serious losses. On April 30, 1564, Kurbsky left Russia and crossed the Lithuanian border. Kurbsky's family in Russia was persecuted, some of his relatives, according to the testimony of Kurbsky himself, Ivan the Terrible allegedly "pissed off".

“In Lithuania, Kurbsky immediately faced orders that were radically different from those in Russia. He took with him three carts of various goods, but he was robbed by the Polish-Lithuanian military, and the prince appeared before the king of Poland without any gift, added Perevezentsev.

However, the Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland Sigismund Augustus did not offend Kurbsky and his entourage. He granted the defector for temporary use extensive possessions in Western Russian lands: the city of Kovel with a castle, as well as several villages and estates. Three years later, the property was registered as the hereditary property of the Kurbsky family. Already in 1564-1565, the fugitive prince participated in hostilities with Russia on the side of the Polish-Lithuanian troops, in particular in the siege of Polotsk and in the devastation of the Velikolutsk region.

“Soon Kurbsky faced another peculiarity of life in the Polish-Lithuanian lands. Local tycoons created gangs that robbed neighbors and forcibly took their land. Kurbsky became a victim of such raids, but then he created his own gang and did the same,”said the expert.

Church of the Holy Trinity in the village of Verbki, near the town of Kovel, where the tomb of Prince Andrei Mikhailovich Kurbsky is located (from an engraving of 1848) © "The Military Encyclopedia of ID Sytin."

At the same time, Kurbsky was so successful in robbing and oppressing his neighbors that they complained about him to the king. But Sigismund August, who considered the transfer of Kurbsky under his rule a personal achievement, did not punish the defector.

In 1571, the monarch facilitated the marriage of Kurbsky to the rich widow Maria Kozinsky, but her relationship with Kurbsky did not work out, and the couple soon divorced. After that, the prince entered into a successful marriage with the Volyn noblewoman Alexandra Semashko, they had two children. In 1583, Kurbsky died on one of his estates.

Went over to the side of the enemy

“Andrei Kurbsky entered the history of the Rzecz Pospolita primarily as an active defender of Orthodoxy. In the 16th century, the persecution of the Orthodox Church began there, and he provided his co-religionists with all possible support: he stood up for them, helped with the publication of religious texts. True, when the question was raised that the son of Ivan the Terrible Fyodor could sit on the Polish throne as a result of the elections, Kurbsky opposed the Orthodox Lithuanian-Russian party and supported the Catholic one to prevent this from happening. In the future, this led to great difficulties for the Orthodox of the Commonwealth, Vadim Volobuev, a senior researcher at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said in an interview with RT.

In his opinion, despite the loud escape, Kurbsky did not play a practical role in Polish history.

“He weakened the front to some extent, but the Rzeczpospolita won the Livonian War much later. But his literary and ideological legacy was very significant,”explained Volobuev.

Messages from Andrei Kurbsky to Ivan the Terrible according to the list of the State Historical Museum, collection Uvarova

Immediately after his flight, Kurbsky sent a letter to Ivan IV, in which he tried to explain the motives of his act with his political views. Ivan the Terrible replied to the former subject in a caustic manner, making it clear that all his excuses are worthless. Subsequently, the correspondence resulted in a broad socio-political discussion. As Vadim Volobuev noted, the value of correspondence lies in the fact that it gives us an idea of the living speech of that era. In addition to written communication with the Russian tsar, Kurbsky also left behind a number of historical and literary works.

“Andrei Kurbsky has become a very controversial and dramatic figure in history. On the one hand, he was a talented military leader, defender of Orthodoxy, and an outstanding political thinker. On the other hand, he betrayed the sovereign and the Motherland, went over to the side of the enemy.

By the way, he became one of the highest-ranking defectors in the history of Russia, and perhaps the highest-ranking one. It's like Kutuzov in 1812 would have thrown the army and went over to Napoleon's side,”Perevezentsev noted.

Boris Chorikov "The capture of Narva by Ivan the Terrible", 1836

However, according to the historian, Andrei Kurbsky was guided by his own logic. First, he believed that the king should rely on his closest advisers and without them he could not make any important decisions. Based on this, he divided the reign of Ivan IV into two periods: when he listened to his surroundings and made the "right" decisions and when he stopped doing it, turning into a "despot".

Secondly, Kurbsky supported feudal ideas that gave princes and nobles the right to change their overlords. But if even a few decades earlier this was perceived as the norm, then in the second half of the 16th century, Kurbsky's act was already regarded as treason.

“The most striking legacy of Kurbsky was the myth he created for self-justification about the horror and terror that allegedly gripped Russia under Ivan the Terrible. It was picked up in the Commonwealth, which was at war with Russia, and then spread throughout Europe,”Perevezentsev noted.