Crisis of the late 16th century in Russia
Russia suffered from an economic and social crisis in the second half of the 16th century which led to famines, depopulation and the abandonment of agricultural lands. The economic crisis overlapped with the oprichnina and happened at the time when Russia waged the Livonian War. The crisis is considered to be one of the precursors of the Time of Troubles.[1][2]
Crisis of 1560-1570s
The crisis started in mid-1560s when the poor harvest of 1567 became the trigger of the crisis. The taxes had risen significantly in the previous decades as the state waged expensive wars against the
The
The crisis weakened the state considerably. The Crimean Tatars attacked Russia in 1571 burning down Moscow, devastating large areas of the country and carrying 100,000 prisoners into slavery.[9] In the 1570s the earlier gains made by Russia in Livonia were lost and some additional territory was lost to Sweden.[10]
The contemporaries called the crisis porukha (поруха) which could be translated as damage, loss or calamity.[2] The peasants of the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery explained the drop in land under cultivation by a combination of the pestilence, Tatar raids, bad harvests and heavy taxation.[11]
Aftermath and consequences
The acute phase of the crisis was over when
As a consequence of population decline the wages increased significantly and the land rents decreased. The wages of labourers in
The recovery was slow and some historians say that the crisis was not over by the end of the 16th century.[15][1] According to Turchin and Nefedov the imbalance between the increasing elite numbers and declining commoner population was not resolved and became one of the reasons of the Time of Troubles.[12]
References
- ^ a b Каштанов & Столярова 2020, p. 48.
- ^ a b Шишков 2005.
- ^ a b Turchin & Nefedov 2009, p. 252.
- ^ Колычева 1987, p. 177.
- ^ a b c Turchin & Nefedov 2009, p. 253.
- ^ Колычева 1987, pp. 179–180.
- ^ Martin. Medieval Russia, 980-1584. [p 369]
- ^ Колычева 1987, p. 181.
- ^ Turchin & Nefedov 2009, pp. 252–253.
- ^ Riasanovsky 2000, p. 152.
- ^ Колычева 1987, p. 193.
- ^ a b c d e Turchin & Nefedov 2009, p. 254.
- ^ Turchin & Nefedov 2009, p. 255.
- ^ Платонов 2022, p. 75.
- ^ Колычева 1987, p. 200.
Bibliography
- Каштанов, С. М.; Столярова, Л. В. (2020). Иван Грозный и его время [Ivan the Terrible and his time] (in Russian). ДиректМедиа. ISBN 9785449912459.
- Платонов, С. Ф. (2022). Иван Грозный. Борис Годунов. Смутное время [Ivan the Terrible, Boris Godunov, Time of Troubles] (in Russian). Litres. ISBN 9785041136598.
- Turchin, Peter; Nefedov, Sergey A. (2009). Secular Cycles. ISBN 9780691136967.
- Колычева, Евгения Ивановна (1987). Аграрный строй России XVI в. [The agrarian system of Russia in the 16th century] (in Russian). Наука.
- Шишков, Александр (2005). "Очищение от Смуты" [Cleansing from Troubles]. Родина (российский исторический журнал) (in Russian). 11. ISSN 0235-7089. Archived from the originalon 3 January 2013.
- Riasanovsky, Nicholas V. (2000). A History of Russia. Oxford University Press. p. 152. ISBN 0195121791.