If there was an understanding of the critical role of trade in raising taxes and creating prosperity that could be taxed, it was to be found in the Rada, that inner council of advisors, where Sylvester, Adashev, and Kurbsky tried to restrain their rash young Tsar from imprudent ventures. Historians, however, have not always considered this reason either the ultimate or the immediate cause of the war. With Turkish forces soundly beaten in th…
He may not have even intended to start a major war at all.
The outbreak of war was preceded by Russian – Livonian negotiations resulting in the 1554 treaty on a fifteen – year armistice. The Livonian War, also known as the Livonian-Pskovian War, was a conflict that took place along the Baltic Sea from 1610 to 1612, between the Duchy of Livonia and the Principality of Pskov.
The insanity theory, however, makes the history of this era meaningless, and, moreover, it overstates the case. Ever they sought to put off the day when independence would be acknowledged as lost. This was a staggering 40,000 talers money that Ivan could use to reequip his army, a fortune that the Livonians could use themselves to hire a mercenary army. Yet payment meant official recognition of Ivan's most extreme claims, something that the Confederation hesitated to give. THE SECOND WAR .
borderlands, with the Moscovite state in disarray. But Ivan was consistent in claiming hereditary rights over Livonia, rights he supported later by installing Russian officials in conquered lands and founding Russian Orthodox Churches there.
This presents us with some intellectual puzzles that reveal much about the difficulties historians face in attempting to explain the past.
Nevertheless, public opinion was hard to shake, especially when aspects of its beliefs were confirmed: if Ivan had not been insane, then he must have been a man with cunning plans for unifying Russia and creating a strong centralized state. Ivan had little understanding of the need to improve the economy by supporting foreign trade, and he had no love for his own merchant class something he later demonstrated by his massacre of the Novgorodians. Since Ivan had given setbacks to the Lithuanians as well, they and the Livonians in the spring of 1557 entered into negotiations for a military alliance that became the Treaty of Pozwol in September. Therefore, it’s best to use Encyclopedia.com citations as a starting point before checking the style against your school or publication’s requirements and the most-recent information available at these sites:However, from the 1960s on, the thesis of economic (trade) interests underlying Ivan IV's decision to make war on Livonia has been subjected to sharp criticism. Certainly Ivan was proud and stubborn enough to make war over an issue such as tribute, particularly if he thought he could win the war easily. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). Against this popular view a number of new publications appeared, each stating that Ivan could not be understood as a modern man. some lands, but to hold onto the rest. BIBLIOGRAPHY Secondly, the history of the Dorpat diocese had long demonstrated that the inland church was concerned with different problems than those THE FIRST WAR The number of historians who would consider Ivan sane throughout his reign is smaller than the number who believe that he was a paranoid madman. During that period the Master and the Archbishop did not dare divide the country again by a murderous civil war. The critics pointed out that the tsar, justifying his military actions in Livonia, never referred to the need for direct trade with It is most likely that Ivan IV started the war with no strategic plan in mind: He just wanted to punish the Livonians and force them to pay the contribution and fulfil all the conditions of the previous treaty. Knud Rasmussen reached much the same conclusion, that the attack of 1558 was Ivan's seizure of an opportune moment, a time when Poland-Lithuania was hindered by a Tatar attack from intervening in what appeared would be a short and decisive dampaign. Western accounts of Ivan generally stressed the unpredictable and tyrannical aspects of Ivan's personality. preferring to allow each autonomous government to seek its own resolution of the religious and social problems of the Reformation era. The outcome of this Livonian War (1558–1582) was a Russian defeat, but also the dissolution of the Livonian Order. (1966). Many scholars believe that greater opportunity for trade was an important goal of this innovative Tsar. The Germans who were attacked by Ivan had first come to Livonia as merchants and as crusaders. As mentioned above, historians have not agreed upon a single interpretation of the reasons behind the sudden declaration of war.