Unification of Russian lands in 1549 , 1584 Vasily III, in his policy towards other principalities, continued his father's policy of
gathering of the Russian lands. He focused much of his reign on consolidating the territorial gains achieved by Ivan. Vasili
annexed the last remaining
autonomous provinces in Russia: the republic of
Pskov in 1510 and the principality of
Ryazan in 1521. In 1509, while in Veliky Novgorod, Vasily ordered the Pskov mayor and other representatives of the city, including all the petitioners who were dissatisfied with them, to gather with him. Upon arriving at his place at the beginning of 1510 on the feast of
Epiphany, the Pskovites were accused of distrust of the Grand Duke, and their governors were executed. The Pskovites were forced to ask Vasily to accept them into his patrimony. Vasily ordered to cancel the meeting. At the last
veche in the history of the
Pskov Republic, it was decided not to resist and to fulfill Vasily's demands. On 13 January, the veche bell was removed and, with tears, sent first to the Snetogorsky Monastery, and then to Moscow. On 24 January, Vasily arrived in Pskov and treated him in the same way as his father did with the
Novgorod Republic in 1478. 300 of the most noble families of the city were resettled to Moscow lands, and their villages were given to Moscow
service class people. It was the turn of Ryazan, which had long been in Moscow's sphere of influence. In 1517, Vasily summoned to Moscow the Ryazan prince
Ivan V Ivanovich, who was trying to enter into an alliance with the
Crimean Khan, and ordered him to be put into custody (later Ivan was tonsured a monk and imprisoned in a monastery, and took his inheritance for himself in 1521. After Ryazan, the Starodub Principality was annexed in 1523. The
Principality of Novgorod-Seversk also united with Moscow; its prince
Vasili Ivanovich Shemyachich followed the example of the Prince of Ryazan, who was imprisoned in Moscow.
Wars against Lithuania : The dying Vasily III lies on his bed, to the left of him is his son
Ivan, receiving a blessing from his father; near the bed, wearing a crown symbolizing the rights of the regency, sits
Elena Glinskaya with her son
Yuri in her arms. The composition expresses the idea of the ideal death of the monarch. In 1508, Vasily, taking advantage of the turmoil in the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania following the death of the Lithuanian prince
Alexander Jagiellon, put forward his candidacy for the throne of
Gediminas. In 1508, the rebellious Lithuanian boyar
Michael Glinski was received very warmly in Moscow. The
war with Lithuania led to a rather favorable peace for the Moscow prince in 1509, under which the Lithuanians recognized his father's conquests. Vasili also took advantage of the difficult position of
Sigismund I the Old in the
Kingdom of Poland. In 1512, a
new war with
Lithuania began. On 19 December, Vasily, Yuri Ivanovich, and Dmitry Zhilka set out on campaign.
Principality of Smolensk, the great eastern fortress of Lithuania, was besieged, chiefly through the aid of the rebel Lithuanian prince
Michael Glinski, who provided him with artillery and engineers. On 14 June, Vasily set out on campaign again, but, having sent his commanders to Smolensk, he himself remained in Borovsk, awaiting further action. Smolensk was again besieged, and its governor, Yuri Sologub, was defeated in the open. Only then did Vasily personally return to his troops. But this siege was also unsuccessful: the besieged managed to rebuild what had been destroyed. Having devastated the city's environs, Vasily ordered a retreat and the Russian army returned to Moscow in March 1513. On 8 July 1514, the army led by the Grand Duke marched on Smolensk for the third time; this time, Vasily was accompanied by his brothers Yuri and Semyon. A new
siege began on 29 July. The artillery, commanded by the gunner Stefan, inflicted heavy losses on the besieged. That same day, Sologub and the city's clergy came to Vasily and agreed to surrender the city. On 31 July, the residents of Smolensk swore allegiance to the Grand Duke, and Vasily entered the city on 1 August. Soon, the Lithuanian fortresses of
Mstislav,
Krichev and
Dubrovno were also captured. But Glinsky, to whom the Polish chronicles attributed the success of the third campaign, entered into negotiations with King Sigismund I. He hoped to receive Smolensk as a fiefdom from Vasily III, but the sovereign decided otherwise. The conspiracy was soon exposed, and Glinsky himself was imprisoned in Moscow. Some time later, the Russian army, commanded by Ivan Chelyadinov,
suffered a heavy defeat at Orsha, but the Lithuanians were never able to recapture Smolensk. The conspiracy was soon exposed, and Glinsky himself was imprisoned in Moscow. In 1522, a treaty was signed that called for a five-year truce, no prisoner exchange, and for Moscow to retain control of Smolensk. The truce was subsequently extended to 1534.
Wars against Kazan Vasili saw some success against the
Crimean Khanate. Although in 1519 his armies were defeated along the Oka River and he was obliged to buy off the Crimean khan,
Mehmed I Giray, under the very walls of Moscow, towards the end of his reign he established Russian influence on the
Volga. In 1531–1532 he placed the pretender
Cangali khan on the throne of
Khanate of Kazan. In 1522, Moscow again expected the Crimeans; Vasily and his army even stood on the Oka. The Khan never arrived, but the danger from the steppe had not passed. In 1523, following another massacre of Russian merchants in Kazan, Vasily declared a new campaign. Having devastated the khanate, on his return journey, he founded the city of Vasilsursk on the Sura (a tributary of the
Volga), which was intended to become a new, secure trading post with the Kazan Tatars. In 1524, Prince
Ivan Belsky led the 150,000-strong Russian army against the Tatar capital. After that, the third campaign against Kazan, Sahib Giray, a Crimean ally, was overthrown, and Safa Giray was proclaimed khan in his place. In 1527, Islam I Giray's attack on Moscow was repelled. Russian troops took up defensive positions 20 km from the
Oka River. The siege of Moscow and Kolomna lasted five days, after which the Muscovite army crossed the Oka River and routed the Crimean army at the Osetr River. Another steppe invasion was repelled. In 1531, at the request of the people of Kazan, the Kasimov prince
Dzhan-Ali Khan was proclaimed khan, but he did not last long - after the death of Vasily, he was overthrown by the local nobility.
Relations with Europe Charles V near
Mozhaysk Unlike his son,
Ivan IV, Vasili did not officially hold the title of
tsar within Russia; however, externally, such as in diplomatic documents produced by and for the
Holy Roman Empire, he would alternatively be called tsar, grand prince, or, as by
Maximilian I,
kayser. In this naming custom, as well as in using the
double-headed eagle of the
Byzantine Empire, Vasili continued practices begun by his father and predecessor,
Ivan III. The seal and the introduction of Byzantine ceremonies and court etiquette seem to have been inspired by Vasili's mother
Sophia Paleologue. Like his father, Vasili fought for recognition of the equality of the titles of tsar and emperor by other European monarchs. He achieved some success in 1514, when the
Holy Roman Emperor implicitly recognized the Russians' insistence to be treated as an equal, whether this was by accident or by design. The letter by Maximilian I was later used by
Peter the Great () when he proclaimed himself as
imperator of Russia. == Family ==