From the Moscow principality to the Tsardom of Russia
A principality becomes a tsardom
Viktor Vasnetsov, Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible, 1897. A nineteenth-century vision of the ruler whose reign defined much of the new tsardom, not a portrait made from life. Viktor Vasnetsov. Public domain (PD-Art reproduction). Image source.
The end of Horde rule did not produce a finished state. The sections below follow the rulers, institutions, conquests, and crises that turned Muscovy into the Tsardom of Russia—and show how expansion and concentrated power carried costs of their own.
