Sofia paleologist - biography, information, personal life. The original appearance of Sophia Paleolog and her great-granddaughter Maria Staritskaya

S. NIKITIN, forensic expert and candidate of historical sciences T. PANOVA.

The past appears before us both in the form of a fragile archaeological find that has lain in the ground for several centuries, and a description of an event that happened a long time ago and entered on the page of the chronicle in the silence of a monastery cell. We judge the life of the people of the Middle Ages by the magnificent monuments of church architecture and by simple household items preserved in the cultural layer of the city. And behind all this are people whose names did not always find their way into the annals and other written sources of the Russian Middle Ages. Studying Russian history, you involuntarily think about the fate of these people and try to imagine what the heroes of those distant events looked like. Due to the fact that secular art in Russia originated late, only in the second half of the 17th century, we do not know the true appearance of the great and specific Russian princes and princesses, church hierarchs and diplomats, merchants and chronicler monks, warriors and artisans.

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

But sometimes a fortunate combination of circumstances and the enthusiasm of researchers help our contemporary, as if with his own eyes, to meet a person who lived many centuries ago. Thanks to the method of plastic reconstruction from the skull, at the end of 1994, a sculptural portrait of the Grand Duchess Sophia Paleolog, the second wife of the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III, the grandmother of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible, was restored. For the first time in the last almost five centuries, it became possible to peer into the face of a woman whose name is well known to us from chronicle stories about the events of the late 15th century.

And long-standing events involuntarily came to life, forcing me to mentally plunge into that era and look at the very fate of the Grand Duchess and the episodes associated with her. The life path of this woman began between 1443-1449 (the exact date of her birth is unknown). Zoya Palaiologos was the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI (in 1453 Byzantium fell under the blows of the Turks, and the emperor himself died defending the capital of his state) and, orphaned early, was brought up with her brothers at the court of the Pope. This circumstance decided the fate of the representative of the once powerful, but fading dynasty, which lost both its high position and all material wealth. Pope Paul II, in search of a way to strengthen his influence on Russia, offered Ivan III, widowed in 1467, to marry Zoya Paleolog. Negotiations on this matter, which began in 1469, dragged on for three years - Metropolitan Philip sharply opposed this marriage, who was not inspired by the marriage of the Grand Duke to a Greek woman who was brought up at the court of the head of the Roman Catholic Church.

And yet, at the beginning of 1472, the ambassadors of Ivan III went to Rome for a bride. In June of the same year, Zoya Paleolog, accompanied by a large retinue, set off on a long journey to Russia, to "Muscovy", as foreigners then called the Muscovite state.

The convoy of the bride of Ivan III crossed the whole of Europe from south to north, heading to the German port of Lübeck. During the stops of the distinguished guest in the cities, magnificent receptions and knightly tournaments were held in her honor. The authorities of the cities presented gifts to the pupil of the papal throne - silver dishes, wine, and the townspeople of Nuremberg handed her as many as twenty boxes of sweets. On September 10, 1472, a ship with travelers headed for Kolyvan - that is how Russian sources then called the modern city of Tallinn, but arrived there only after eleven days: stormy weather was in the Baltic in those days. Then, through Yuryev (now the city of Tartu), Pskov and Novgorod, the procession went to Moscow.

However, the final transition was somewhat overshadowed. The fact is that the papal representative Antonio Bonumbre was carrying a large Catholic cross in the head of the convoy. The news of this reached Moscow, which caused an unprecedented scandal. Metropolitan Philip said that if the cross was brought into the city, he would immediately leave it. An attempt to openly demonstrate the symbol of the Catholic faith could not but disturb the Grand Duke. Russian chronicles, which were able to find streamlined formulations when describing delicate situations, this time were unanimously frank. They noted that the envoy of Ivan III, the boyar Fyodor Davydovich Khromoy, fulfilling the order of the prince, simply took the "roof" from the papal priest by force, meeting the bride's convoy 15 miles from Moscow. As you can see, the tough position of the head of the Russian Church in upholding the purity of faith then turned out to be stronger than the traditions of diplomacy and the laws of hospitality.

Zoya Palaiologos arrived in Moscow on November 12, 1472, and on the same day she was married to Ivan III. So the Byzantine princess, a Greek by birth, Zoya Paleolog - the Grand Russian Princess Sophia Fominichna, as they began to call her in Russia, entered Russian history. But this dynastic marriage did not bring tangible results to Rome either in resolving religious issues or in drawing Muscovy into an alliance to combat the growing Turkish danger. Pursuing a completely independent policy, Ivan III saw in contacts with the Italian city-republics only a source of advanced ideas in various fields of culture and technology. All five embassies that the Grand Duke sent to Italy at the end of the 15th century returned to Moscow accompanied by architects and doctors, jewelers and money-makers, experts in the field of weapons and serfdom. The Greek and Italian nobility, whose representatives labored in the diplomatic service, reached out to Moscow; many of them settled in Russia.

For a while, Sophia Paleolog kept in touch with her family. Twice her brother Andreas, or Andrei, as the Russian chronicles call him, came to Moscow with embassies. He was brought here primarily by the desire to improve his financial situation. And in 1480 he even favorably married his daughter Maria to Prince Vasily Vereisky, Ivan III's nephew. However, the life of Maria Andreevna in Russia was unsuccessful. And Sophia Paleolog was to blame for this. She gave her niece jewelry that once belonged to the first wife of Ivan III. The Grand Duke, who did not know about this, was going, it turns out, to give them to Elena Voloshanka, the wife of his eldest son Ivan the Young (from his first marriage). And in 1483, a big family scandal erupted: "... the great prince would like to give the daughter-in-law of his first Grand Duchess a fathom, and asked that second princess of the Grand Roman. gave, and a lot ... ", - so, not without gloating, many chronicles described this event.

Enraged, Ivan III demanded that Vasily Vereisky return the treasures and, after the latter refused to do so, wanted to imprison him. Prince Vasily Mikhailovich had no choice but to flee to Lithuania with his wife Maria; at the same time, they barely escaped the chase sent for them.

Sophia Paleolog made a very serious mistake. The grand ducal treasury was the subject of special concern for more than one generation of Moscow sovereigns, who tried to increase family treasures. The chronicles continued to allow not very friendly comments about the Grand Duchess Sophia. Apparently, it was difficult for a foreigner to comprehend the laws of a new country for her, a country with a difficult historical fate, with its own traditions.

And yet, the arrival of this Western European woman in Moscow turned out to be unexpectedly interesting and useful for the capital of Russia. Not without the influence of the Greek Grand Duchess and her Greek-Italian entourage, Ivan III decided on a grandiose restructuring of his residence. At the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century, according to the projects of invited Italian architects, the Kremlin was rebuilt, the Assumption and Archangel Cathedrals, the Palace of Facets and the Treasury in the Kremlin were erected, the first stone grand ducal palace, monasteries and temples were built in Moscow. Today we see many of these buildings the same as they were during the life of Sophia Paleolog.

Interest in the personality of this woman is also explained by the fact that in the last decades of the 15th century she took part in the complex dynastic struggle that unfolded at the court of Ivan III. Back in the 1480s, two groups of Moscow nobility formed here, one of which supported the direct heir to the throne, Prince Ivan the Young. But he died in 1490, at the age of thirty-two, and Sophia wanted her son Vasily to become the heir (in total, she had twelve children in her marriage to Ivan III), and not Ivan III's grandson Dmitry (the only child of Ivan the Young). The long struggle went on with varying success and ended in 1499 with the victory of the supporters of Princess Sophia, who experienced many difficulties along the way.

Sophia Paleolog died on April 7, 1503. She was buried in the grand ducal tomb of the Ascension Convent in the Kremlin. The buildings of this monastery were dismantled in 1929, and the sarcophagi with the remains of the Grand Duchesses and Empresses were transferred to the basement chamber of the Archangel Cathedral in the Kremlin, where they remain today. This circumstance, as well as the good preservation of the skeleton of Sophia Paleolog, allowed specialists to recreate her appearance. The work was carried out at the Moscow Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination. Apparently, there is no need to describe in detail the recovery process. We only note that the portrait was reproduced using all the scientific methods available today in the arsenal of the Russian school of anthropological reconstruction, founded by M. M. Gerasimov.

A study of the remains of Sophia Palaiologos showed that she was not tall - about 160 cm. The skull and each bone were carefully studied, and as a result it was found that the death of the Grand Duchess occurred at the age of 55-60 years and that the Greek princess ... I would like to stop here and remember deontology - the science of medical ethics. Probably, it is necessary to introduce into this science such a section as post-mortem deontology, when an anthropologist, forensic expert or pathologist is not entitled to inform the general public about what he became aware of the diseases of the deceased - even several centuries ago. So, as a result of research of the remains, it was found that Sophia was a plump woman, with strong-willed features and had a mustache that did not spoil her at all.

Plastic reconstruction (author - S. A. Nikitin) was carried out with the help of soft sculptural plasticine according to the original method, tested on the results of many years of operational work. The casting, which was then made in plaster, was tinted to look like Carrara marble.

Looking at the restored facial features of Grand Duchess Sophia Paleolog, one involuntarily comes to the conclusion that only such a woman could be a participant in those complex events that we described above. The sculptural portrait of the princess testifies to her mind, decisive and strong character, hardened and an orphan childhood, and the difficulties of adapting to the unusual conditions of Muscovite Russia.

When the appearance of this woman appeared before us, it became clear once again that nothing happens by chance in nature. We are talking about the striking resemblance of Sophia Paleolog and her grandson, Tsar Ivan IV, whose true appearance is well known to us from the work of the famous Soviet anthropologist M. M. Gerasimov. The scientist, working on the portrait of Ivan Vasilyevich, noted the features of the Mediterranean type in his appearance, linking this precisely with the influence of the blood of his grandmother, Sophia Paleolog.

Recently, researchers had an interesting idea - to compare not only portraits recreated by human hands, but also what nature itself created - the skulls of these two people. And then a study of the skull of the Grand Duchess and an exact copy of the skull of Ivan IV was carried out using the shadow photo overlay method developed by the author of the sculptural reconstruction of the portrait of Sophia Paleolog. And the results exceeded all expectations, so many coincidences were revealed. They can be seen in the photographs (p. 83).

Today, it is Moscow, Russia, that has a unique portrait-reconstruction of a princess from the Palaiologos dynasty. Attempts to discover lifetime pictures of Zoe in her younger years in the Vatican Museum in Rome, where she once lived, were unsuccessful.

Thus, the studies of historians and forensic experts made it possible for our contemporaries to look into the 15th century and get to know the participants of those distant events better.

The Grand Duchess of Moscow Sophia (Zoya) Palaiologos played a huge role in the development of the Muscovite kingdom. Many consider her the author of the concept "Moscow - the third Rome". And together with Zoya Palaiolognea, a double-headed eagle appeared. At first, it was the family coat of arms of her dynasty, and then migrated to the coat of arms of all the tsars and Russian emperors.

Childhood and youth

Zoya Palaiologos was born (presumably) in 1455 in Mistra. The daughter of the Despot of Morea, Thomas Palaiologos, was born in a tragic and critical time - the time of the fall of the Byzantine Empire.

After the capture of Constantinople by the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II and the death of Emperor Constantine, Thomas Palaiologos fled to Corfu with his wife Catherine of Achaia and their children. From there he moved to Rome, where he was forced to convert to Catholicism. Thomas died in May 1465. His death happened shortly after the death of his wife in the same year. Children, Zoya and her brothers - 5-year-old Manuel and 7-year-old Andrei, moved to Rome after the death of their parents.

The education of orphans was taken up by the Greek scientist, Uniate Vissarion of Nicaea, who served as a cardinal under Pope Sixtus IV (it was he who became the customer of the famous Sistine Chapel). In Rome, the Greek princess Zoe Palaiologos and her brothers were brought up in the Catholic faith. The cardinal took care of the maintenance of the children and their education.

It is known that Bessarion of Nicaea, with the permission of the pope, paid for the modest court of the young Palaiologos, which included servants, a doctor, two professors of Latin and Greek, translators and priests. Sophia Paleolog received a fairly solid education for those times.

Grand Duchess of Moscow

When Sophia came of age, the Venetian Signoria took care of her marriage. To take a noble girl as a wife was first offered to the King of Cyprus, Jacques II de Lusignan. But he refused this marriage, fearing a conflict with the Ottoman Empire. A year later, in 1467, Cardinal Vissarion, at the request of Pope Paul II, offered the hand of a noble Byzantine beauty to the prince and Italian nobleman Caracciolo. A solemn betrothal took place, but for unknown reasons, the marriage was canceled.

There is a version that Sophia secretly communicated with the Athonite elders and adhered to the Orthodox faith. She herself made efforts not to marry a non-Christian, frustrating all marriages offered to her.

In the turning point for the life of Sophia Paleolog in 1467, the wife of the Grand Duke of Moscow, Maria Borisovna, died. In this marriage, the only son was born. Pope Paul II, counting on the spread of Catholicism to Moscow, offered the widowed sovereign of all Russia to marry his ward.

After 3 years of negotiations, Ivan III, having asked for advice from his mother, Metropolitan Philip and the boyars, decided to marry. It is noteworthy that the papal negotiators prudently kept silent about the transition of Sophia Paleolog to Catholicism. Moreover, they reported that the proposed wife of Paleologne is an Orthodox Christian. They didn't even know it was true.

In June 1472, in the Basilica of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Rome, Ivan III and Sophia Palaiologos were betrothed in absentia. After that, the convoy of the bride left Rome for Moscow. The bride was accompanied by the same Cardinal Wisssarion.

Bologna chroniclers described Sophia as a rather attractive person. She looked 24 years old, she had snow-white skin and incredibly beautiful and expressive eyes. Her height was no higher than 160 cm. The future wife of the Russian sovereign had a dense physique.

There is a version that in the dowry of Sophia Paleolog, in addition to clothes and jewelry, there were many valuable books that later formed the basis of the mysteriously disappeared library of Ivan the Terrible. Among them were treatises and unknown poems.

At the end of a long route that ran through Germany and Poland, the Roman escorts of Sophia Palaiologos realized that their desire, through the marriage of Ivan III to Palaiologos, to spread (or at least bring closer) Catholicism to Orthodoxy was defeated. Zoya, who had barely left Rome, showed her firm intention to return to the faith of her ancestors - Christianity. The wedding took place in Moscow on November 12, 1472. The ceremony took place in the Assumption Cathedral.

The main achievement of Sophia Paleolog, which turned into a huge boon for Russia, is considered to be her influence on her husband's decision to refuse to pay tribute to the Golden Horde. Thanks to his wife, Ivan the Third finally dared to throw off the centuries-old Tatar-Mongol yoke, although the local princes and the elite offered to continue paying dues in order to avoid bloodshed.

Personal life

Apparently, the personal life of Sophia Paleolog with Grand Duke Ivan III was successful. In this marriage, considerable offspring were born - 5 sons and 4 daughters. But it is difficult to call the existence of the new Grand Duchess Sophia in Moscow cloudless. The boyars saw the enormous influence that the wife had on her husband. Many people didn't like it.

Rumor has it that the princess had a bad relationship with the heir, born in the previous marriage of Ivan III, Ivan the Young. Moreover, there is a version that Sophia was involved in the poisoning of Ivan Molodoy and the further removal of his wife Elena Voloshanka and son Dmitry from power.

Be that as it may, Sophia Paleolog had a huge impact on the entire subsequent history of Russia, on its culture and architecture. She was the mother of the heir to the throne and grandmother of Ivan the Terrible. According to some reports, the grandson had a considerable resemblance to his wise Byzantine grandmother.

Death

Sophia Paleolog, Grand Duchess of Moscow, died on April 7, 1503. Husband, Ivan III, survived his wife only 2 years.

Sophia was buried next to the previous wife of Ivan III in the sarcophagus of the tomb of the Ascension Cathedral. The cathedral was destroyed in 1929. But the remains of the women of the royal house survived - they were transferred to the underground chamber of the Archangel Cathedral.

The sudden death of the first wife of Ivan III, Princess Maria Borisovna, on April 22, 1467, made the Grand Duke of Moscow think about a new marriage. The widowed grand duke opted for the Fechian princess Sophia Palaiologos, who lived in Rome and was known as a Catholic. Some historians believe that the idea of ​​the "Roman-Byzantine" marriage union was born in Rome, others prefer Moscow, others - Vilna or Krakow.

Sophia (in Rome she was called Zoe) Palaiologos was the daughter of the Morean despot Thomas Palaiologos and was the niece of Emperors Constantine XI and John VIII. Despina Zoya spent her childhood in Morea and on the island of Corfu. She came to Rome with her brothers Andrei and Manuel after the death of her father in May 1465. The paleologists came under the auspices of Cardinal Bessarion, who retained sympathy for the Greeks. The Patriarch of Constantinople and Cardinal Vissarion tried to renew the union with Russia with the help of marriage.

Arriving in Moscow from Italy on February 11, 1469, Yuri Grek brought Ivan III a certain “leaf”. In this message, the author of which, apparently, was Pope Paul II himself, and the co-author was Cardinal Bessarion, the Grand Duke was informed about the stay in Rome of a noble bride devoted to Orthodoxy, Sophia Palaiologos. Dad promised Ivan his support in case he wants to woo her.

In Moscow, they did not like to rush into important matters, and they pondered over the new news from Rome for four months. Finally, all reflections, doubts and preparations were left behind. January 16, 1472 Moscow ambassadors set off on a long journey.

In Rome, the Muscovites were honorably received by the new Pope Gikctom IV. As a gift from Ivan III, the ambassadors presented the pontiff with sixty selected sable skins. From now on, the case quickly went to completion. A week later, Sixtus IV in St. Peter's Cathedral performs a solemn ceremony of Sophia's absentee betrothal to the Moscow sovereign.

At the end of June 1472, the bride, accompanied by Moscow ambassadors, the papal legate and a large retinue, went to Moscow. At parting, the Pope gave her a long audience and his blessing. He ordered to arrange magnificent crowded meetings everywhere for Sofya and her retinue.

Sophia Paleolog arrived in Moscow on November 12, 1472, and her wedding with Ivan III took place right there. What is the reason for the rush? It turns out that the next day the memory of St. John Chrysostom, the heavenly patron of the Moscow sovereign, was celebrated. From now on, the family happiness of Prince Ivan was given under the patronage of the great saint.

Sophia became a full-fledged Grand Duchess of Moscow.

The very fact that Sophia agreed to go to seek her fortune from Rome to distant Moscow suggests that she was a brave, energetic and adventurous woman. In Moscow, she was expected not only by the honors rendered to the Grand Duchess, but also by the hostility of the local clergy and the heir to the throne. At every step she had to defend her rights.

Ivan, for all his love of luxury, was thrifty to the point of stinginess. He saved literally everything. Growing up in a completely different environment, Sophia Paleolog, on the contrary, strove to shine and show generosity. This was required by her ambition of a Byzantine princess, the niece of the last emperor. In addition, generosity made it possible to make friends among the Moscow nobility.

But the best way to assert yourself was, of course, childbearing. The Grand Duke wanted to have sons. Sophia herself wanted this. However, to the delight of ill-wishers, she gave birth to three daughters in a row - Elena (1474), Theodosia (1475) and again Elena (1476). Sophia prayed to God and all the saints for the gift of a son.

Finally, her request was granted. On the night of March 25-26, 1479, a boy was born, named after his grandfather Vasily. (For his mother, he always remained Gabriel - in honor of the Archangel Gabriel.) Happy parents connected the birth of their son with last year's pilgrimage and fervent prayer at the tomb of St. Sergius of Radonezh in the Trinity Monastery. Sophia said that when approaching the monastery, the great old man himself appeared to her, holding a boy in his arms.

Following Vasily, she had two more sons (Yuri and Dmitry), then two daughters (Elena and Feodosia), then three more sons (Semyon, Andrei and Boris) and the last, in 1492, a daughter, Evdokia.

But now the question inevitably arose about the future fate of Vasily and his brothers. The heir to the throne remained the son of Ivan III and Maria Borisovna, Ivan Molodoy, whose son Dmitry was born on October 10, 1483, in marriage with Elena Voloshanka. In the event of the death of the Sovereign, he would not hesitate in one way or another to get rid of Sophia and her family. The best they could hope for was exile or exile. At the thought of this, the Greek woman was seized with rage and impotent despair.

In the winter of 1490, Sophia's brother, Andrei Paleologus, came to Moscow from Rome. Together with him, the Moscow ambassadors who traveled to Italy returned. They brought to the Kremlin a lot of all kinds of craftsmen. One of them, a visiting doctor Leon, volunteered to heal Prince Ivan the Young of a leg disease. But when he put jars to the prince and gave his potions (from which he could hardly die), a certain malefactor added poison to these potions. On March 7, 1490, 32-year-old Ivan the Young died.

This whole story gave rise to many rumors in Moscow and throughout Russia. Hostile relations between Ivan the Young and Sophia Paleolog were well known. The Greek woman did not enjoy the love of Muscovites. It is quite clear that rumor attributed to her the murder of Ivan the Young. In The History of the Grand Duke of Moscow, Prince Kurbsky directly accused Ivan III of poisoning his own son, Ivan the Young. Yes, such a turn of events opened the way to the throne for the children of Sophia. Sovereign himself found himself in an extremely difficult position. Probably, in this intrigue, Ivan III, who ordered his son to use the services of a vain doctor, turned out to be only a blind tool in the hands of a cunning Greek woman.

After the death of Ivan the Young, the question of the heir to the throne escalated. There were two candidates: the son of Ivan the Young - Dmitry and the eldest son of Ivan III and Sophia

Paleolog - Vasily. The claims of Dmitry the grandson were reinforced by the fact that his father was the officially proclaimed Grand Duke - co-ruler of Ivan III and heir to the throne.

The sovereign was faced with a painful choice: to send either his wife and son to prison, or his daughter-in-law and grandson ... The murder of an opponent has always been the usual price of supreme power.

In the autumn of 1497, Ivan III leaned over to the side of Dmitry. He ordered to prepare for the grandson a solemn "marriage to the kingdom." Upon learning of this, supporters of Sophia and Prince Vasily formed a conspiracy that included the murder of Dmitry, as well as Vasily's flight to Beloozero (from where the road to Novgorod opened in front of him), the seizure of the grand ducal treasury stored in Vologda and Beloozero. However, already in December, Ivan arrested all the conspirators, including Vasily.

The investigation revealed the involvement in the conspiracy of Sophia Paleolog. It is possible that she was the organizer of the enterprise. Sophia got the poison and waited for the right opportunity to poison Dmitry.

On Sunday, February 4, 1498, 14-year-old Dmitry was solemnly declared heir to the throne in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Sophia Paleolog and her son Vasily were absent from this coronation. It seemed that their case was finally lost. The courtiers rushed to please Elena Stefanovna and her crowned son. However, the crowd of flatterers soon retreated in bewilderment. Sovereign did not give Dmitry real power, giving him control over only some northern counties.

Ivan III continued to painfully seek a way out of the dynastic impasse. Now his original plan did not seem successful. The Sovereign felt sorry for his young sons Vasily, Yuri, Dmitry Zhilka, Semyon, Andrey ... Yes, and with Princess Sophia he lived together for a quarter of a century ... Ivan III understood that sooner or later Sophia's sons would revolt. There were only two ways to prevent the performance: either destroy the second family, or bequeath the throne to Vasily and destroy the family of Ivan the Young.

Sovereign this time chose the second path. On March 21, 1499, he "granted ... the son of his prince Vasil Ivanovich, named him the sovereign of the Grand Duke, gave him Great Novgorod and Pskov to the Grand Duchy." As a result, three great princes appeared in Russia at once: father, son and grandson!

On Thursday, February 13, 1500, a magnificent wedding was played in Moscow. Ivan III gave his 14-year-old daughter Theodosius in marriage to Prince Vasily Danilovich Kholmsky, the son of the famous commander and leader of the Tver "fellowship" in Moscow. This marriage contributed to the rapprochement between the children of Sophia Paleolog and the top of the Moscow nobility. Unfortunately, exactly one year later Theodosius died.

The denouement of the family drama came only two years later. “The same spring (1502) the prince of great April And on Monday put disgrace on the grandson of his Grand Duke Dmitry and on his mother on the Grand Duchess Elena, and from that day he did not order them to be remembered in litanies and litias, nor to be called the Grand Duke, and put them on the bailiffs." Three days later, Ivan III "granted his son Vasily, blessed and planted autocrat on the Grand Duchy of Volodimer and Moscow and All Russia, with the blessing of Simon, Metropolitan of All Russia."

Exactly one year after these events, on April 7, 1503, Sophia Paleolog died. The body of the Grand Duchess was buried in the cathedral of the Kremlin Ascension Monastery. She was buried next to the grave of the Tsar's first wife, Princess Maria Borisovna of Tver.

Soon the health of Ivan III himself deteriorated. On Thursday, September 21, 1503, he, together with the heir to the throne, Vasily and his younger sons, went on a pilgrimage to the northern monasteries. However, the saints were no longer inclined to help the penitent sovereign. Upon returning from the pilgrimage, Ivan was stricken with paralysis: "... took away his arm and leg and eye." Ivan III died on October 27, 1505.

At the end of the 15th century, in the Russian lands united around Moscow, the concept began to emerge, according to which the Russian state was the successor of the Byzantine Empire. A few decades later, the thesis “Moscow is the Third Rome” will become a symbol of the state ideology of the Russian state.

A major role in the formation of a new ideology and in the changes that were taking place at that time inside Russia was destined to be played by a woman whose name was heard by almost everyone who had ever come into contact with Russian history. Sophia Paleolog, wife of Grand Duke Ivan III, has contributed to the development of Russian architecture, medicine, culture and many other areas of life.

There is another view of her, according to which she was the "Russian Catherine de Medici", whose intrigues set off the development of Russia along a completely different path and brought confusion to the life of the state.

The truth, as usual, lies somewhere in between. Sophia Paleolog did not choose Russia - Russia chose her, a girl from the last dynasty of Byzantine emperors, as a wife for the Grand Duke of Moscow.

Byzantine orphan at the papal court

Thomas Palaiologos, Sophia's father. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

Zoya Paleologina, daughter Despot (this is the title of the position) Morea Thomas Palaiologos, was born at a tragic time. In 1453, the Byzantine Empire, the successor of Ancient Rome, after a thousand years of existence, collapsed under the blows of the Ottomans. The fall of Constantinople was a symbol of the empire's death, in which Emperor Constantine XI, brother of Thomas Palaiologos and uncle of Zoe.

The Despotate of Morea, a province of Byzantium ruled by Thomas Palaiologos, held out until 1460. These years, Zoya lived with her father and brothers in Mystra, the capital of Morea, a city located next to Ancient Sparta. After Sultan Mehmed II captured the Morea, Thomas Palaiologos went to the island of Corfu, and then to Rome, where he died.

Children from the royal family of the lost empire lived at the court of the Pope. Shortly before the death of Thomas Palaiologos, in order to gain support, he converted to Catholicism. His children also became Catholics. Zoya after baptism in the Roman rite was named Sophia.

Vissarion of Nicaea. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

A 10-year-old girl, taken into the care of the papal court, did not have the opportunity to decide anything on her own. She was appointed mentor Cardinal Vissarion of Nicaea, one of the authors of the union, which was supposed to unite Catholics and Orthodox under the common authority of the Pope.

Sophia's fate was going to be arranged through marriage. In 1466 she was offered as a bride to a Cypriot King Jacques II de Lusignan but he refused. In 1467 she was offered as a wife Prince Caracciolo, a noble Italian rich man. The prince agreed, after which a solemn betrothal took place.

Bride on the "icon"

But Sophia was not destined to become the wife of an Italian. In Rome, it became known that the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III had been widowed. The Russian prince was young, at the time of the death of his first wife he was only 27 years old, and it was expected that he would soon be looking for a new wife.

Cardinal Vissarion of Nicaea saw this as a chance to promote his idea of ​​Uniatism to Russian lands. From his filing in 1469 Pope Paul II sent a letter to Ivan III, in which he proposed 14-year-old Sophia Paleolog as a bride. The letter referred to her as an "Orthodox Christian" without mentioning her conversion to Catholicism.

Ivan III was not devoid of ambition, which his wife would often play later on. Upon learning that the niece of the Byzantine emperor was proposed as a bride, he agreed.

Viktor Muyzhel. "Ambassador Ivan Fryazin presents Ivan III with a portrait of his bride Sophia Paleolog." Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

Negotiations, however, had just begun - it was necessary to discuss all the details. The Russian ambassador sent to Rome returned with a gift that shocked both the groom and his entourage. In the annals, this fact was reflected in the words “bring the princess on the icon.”

The fact is that in Russia at that time secular painting did not exist at all, and the portrait of Sophia sent to Ivan III was perceived in Moscow as an “icon”.

Sofia Paleolog. Reconstruction from the skull of S. Nikitin. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

However, having figured out what was happening, the Moscow prince was pleased with the appearance of the bride. In historical literature, there are various descriptions of Sophia Paleolog - from beauty to ugliness. In the 1990s, studies of the remains of the wife of Ivan III were carried out, during which her appearance was also restored. Sophia was a short woman (about 160 cm), prone to corpulence, with strong-willed features that can be called, if not beautiful, then rather pretty. Be that as it may, Ivan III liked her.

The failure of Vissarion of Nicaea

The formalities were settled by the spring of 1472, when a new Russian embassy arrived in Rome, this time for the bride herself.

On June 1, 1472, an absentee betrothal took place in the Basilica of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. Russian Deputy Grand Duke Ambassador Ivan Fryazin. The guests were wife of the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo the Magnificent, Clarice Orsini and Queen Katarina of Bosnia. The Pope, in addition to gifts, gave the bride a dowry of 6,000 ducats.

Sophia Paleolog enters Moscow. Miniature of the Front Chronicle. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

On June 24, 1472, a large convoy of Sophia Paleolog, together with the Russian ambassador, left Rome. The bride was accompanied by a Roman retinue led by Cardinal Bessarion of Nicaea.

It was necessary to get to Moscow through Germany along the Baltic Sea, and then through the Baltic states, Pskov and Novgorod. Such a difficult route was due to the fact that Russia once again began to have political problems with Poland during this period.

From time immemorial, the Byzantines were famous for their cunning and deceit. The fact that Sophia Palaiologos inherited these qualities in full, Bessarion of Nicaea found out soon after the bride's convoy crossed the border of Russia. The 17-year-old girl announced that from now on she would no longer perform Catholic rites, but would return to the faith of her ancestors, that is, to Orthodoxy. All the ambitious plans of the cardinal collapsed. Attempts by Catholics to gain a foothold in Moscow and increase their influence failed.

November 12, 1472 Sophia entered Moscow. Here, too, there were many who were wary of her, seeing her as a "Roman agent." According to some information, Metropolitan Philip, dissatisfied with the bride, refused to hold the wedding ceremony, because of which the ceremony was held Kolomna Archpriest Hosea.

But be that as it may, Sophia Paleolog became the wife of Ivan III.

Fedor Bronnikov. "Meeting of Princess Sophia Paleolog by Pskov posadniks and boyars at the mouth of the Embakh on Lake Peipsi". Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

How Sophia delivered Russia from the yoke

Their marriage lasted 30 years, she gave birth to her husband 12 children, of which five sons and four daughters survived to adulthood. Judging by historical documents, the Grand Duke was attached to his wife and children, for which he even received reproaches from high-ranking ministers of the church, who believed that this was detrimental to state interests.

Sophia never forgot about her origin and behaved as, in her opinion, the emperor's niece was supposed to behave. Under her influence, the receptions of the Grand Duke, especially the receptions of ambassadors, were furnished with a complex and colorful ceremonial, similar to the Byzantine one. Thanks to her, the Byzantine double-headed eagle migrated to Russian heraldry. Thanks to her influence, Grand Duke Ivan III began to call himself the "Russian Tsar". Under the son and grandson of Sophia Paleolog, this naming of the Russian ruler will become official.

Judging by the actions and deeds of Sophia, she, having lost her native Byzantium, seriously set about building it in another Orthodox country. To help her was the ambition of her husband, on whom she successfully played.

When the Horde Khan Akhmat prepared an invasion of Russian lands and in Moscow they discussed the issue of the amount of tribute with which you can pay off misfortune, Sophia intervened in the matter. Bursting into tears, she began to reproach her husband for the fact that the country was still forced to pay tribute and that it was time to end this shameful situation. Ivan III was not a warlike person, but his wife's reproaches touched him to the core. He decided to gather an army and march towards Akhmat.

At the same time, the Grand Duke sent his wife and children first to Dmitrov, and then to Beloozero, fearing a military failure.

But failure did not happen - on the Ugra River, where the troops of Akhmat and Ivan III met, the battle did not happen. After what is known as “standing on the Ugra”, Akhmat retreated without a fight, and dependence on the Horde ended completely.

15th century rebuilding

Sophia inspired her husband that the sovereign of such a great power as he could not live in the capital with wooden churches and chambers. Under the influence of his wife, Ivan III began the restructuring of the Kremlin. For the construction of the Assumption Cathedral from Italy was invited architect Aristotle Fioravanti. At the construction site, white stone was actively used, which is why the expression “white-stone Moscow”, which has been preserved for centuries, appeared.

The invitation of foreign experts in various fields became a widespread phenomenon under Sophia Paleolog. The Italians and Greeks, who took up the post of ambassadors under Ivan III, will begin to actively invite their fellow countrymen to Russia: architects, jewelers, coiners and gunsmiths. Among the visitors there were a large number of professional doctors.

Sophia arrived in Moscow with a large dowry, part of which was occupied by a library that included Greek parchments, Latin chronographs, ancient Eastern manuscripts, among which were poems Homer, essays Aristotle and Plato and even books from the Library of Alexandria.

These books formed the basis of the legendary missing library of Ivan the Terrible, which enthusiasts are trying to find to this day. Skeptics, however, believe that such a library did not really exist.

Speaking about the hostile and wary attitude towards Sophia of the Russians, it must be said that they were embarrassed by her independent behavior, active interference in state affairs. Such behavior for Sophia's predecessors as Grand Duchesses, and simply for Russian women, was uncharacteristic.

Battle of the heirs

By the time of the second marriage of Ivan III, he already had a son from his first wife - Ivan Young who was declared heir to the throne. But with the birth of children, Sophia began to grow tension. The Russian nobility split into two groups, one of which supported Ivan the Young, and the second - Sophia.

Relations between the stepmother and stepson did not work out, so much so that Ivan III himself had to exhort his son to behave decently.

Ivan Molodoy was only three years younger than Sophia and did not feel respect for her, apparently considering his father's new marriage a betrayal of his dead mother.

In 1479, Sophia, who had previously given birth only to girls, gave birth to a son named Vasily. As a true representative of the Byzantine imperial family, she was ready to provide her son with the throne at any cost.

By this time, Ivan the Young was already mentioned in Russian documents as a co-ruler of his father. And in 1483 the heir married daughter of the ruler of Moldavia, Stephen the Great, Elena Voloshanka.

The relationship between Sophia and Elena immediately became hostile. When in 1483 Elena gave birth to a son Dmitry, Vasily's prospects for inheriting his father's throne became completely illusory.

Women's rivalry at the court of Ivan III was fierce. Both Elena and Sophia were eager to get rid of not only their rival, but also her offspring.

In 1484, Ivan III decided to give his daughter-in-law a pearl dowry left over from his first wife. But then it turned out that Sophia had already given it to her relative. The Grand Duke, enraged by the arbitrariness of his wife, forced her to return the gift, and the relative herself, together with her husband, had to flee from the Russian lands out of fear of punishment.

Death and burial of Grand Duchess Sophia Paleolog. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

The loser loses everything

In 1490, the heir to the throne, Ivan the Young, fell ill with "aching legs." Especially for his treatment from Venice was called doctor Lebi Zhidovin, but he could not help, and on March 7, 1490, the heir died. The doctor was executed by order of Ivan III, and rumors circulated in Moscow that Ivan Young died as a result of poisoning, which was the work of Sophia Paleolog.

There is no evidence for this, however. After the death of Ivan the Young, his son became the new heir, known in Russian historiography as Dmitry Ivanovich Vnuk.

Dmitry Vnuk was not officially proclaimed heir, and therefore Sophia Paleolog continued her attempts to achieve the throne for Vasily.

In 1497, a conspiracy of supporters of Vasily and Sophia was uncovered. Enraged, Ivan III sent its participants to the chopping block, but did not touch his wife and son. However, they were in disgrace, actually under house arrest. On February 4, 1498, Dmitry Vnuk was officially proclaimed heir to the throne.

The fight, however, was not over. Soon, Sophia's party managed to achieve revenge - this time, the supporters of Dmitry and Elena Voloshanka were given into the hands of the executioners. The denouement came on April 11, 1502. New accusations of a conspiracy against Dmitry Vnuk and his mother Ivan III considered convincing, sending them under house arrest. A few days later, Vasily was proclaimed co-ruler of his father and heir to the throne, and Dmitry Vnuk and his mother were placed in prison.

Birth of an empire

Sophia Paleolog, who actually elevated her son to the Russian throne, herself did not live up to this moment. She died on April 7, 1503 and was buried in a massive white stone sarcophagus in the tomb of the Ascension Cathedral in the Kremlin next to the grave. Maria Borisovna, the first wife of Ivan III.

The Grand Duke, who was widowed for the second time, outlived his beloved Sophia by two years, passing away in October 1505. Elena Voloshanka died in prison.

Vasily III, having ascended the throne, first of all tightened the conditions of detention for a competitor - Dmitry Vnuk was shackled in iron shackles and placed in a small cell. In 1509, the 25-year-old noble prisoner died.

In 1514, in an agreement with Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I Vasily III for the first time in the history of Russia is called the emperor of the Rus. This charter is then used Peter I as proof of their rights to be crowned as emperor.

The efforts of Sophia Palaiologos, a proud Byzantine who set about building a new empire to replace the lost one, were not in vain.

At the end of June 1472, the Byzantine princess Sophia Palaiologos solemnly set off from Rome to Moscow: she was on her way to a wedding with Grand Duke Ivan III. This woman was destined to play an important role in the historical fate of Russia.

Byzantine princess

May 29, 1453 the legendary Constantinople, besieged by the Turkish army, fell. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, died in battle defending Constantinople.

His younger brother Thomas Palaiologos, ruler of the small appanage state of Morea on the Peloponnese, fled with his family to Corfu and then to Rome. After all, Byzantium, hoping to receive military assistance from Europe in the fight against the Turks, signed the Union of Florence in 1439 on the unification of the Churches, and now its rulers could seek refuge from the papal throne. Thomas Palaiologos was able to take out the greatest shrines of the Christian world, including the head of the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called. In gratitude for this, he received a house in Rome and a good boarding house from the papacy.

In 1465, Thomas died, leaving three children - the sons of Andrei and Manuel and the youngest daughter Zoya. The exact date of her birth is unknown. It is believed that she was born in 1443 or 1449 in her father's possessions in the Peloponnese, where she received her primary education. The education of the royal orphans was taken over by the Vatican, entrusting them to Cardinal Bessarion of Nicaea. A Greek by birth, a former archbishop of Nicaea, he was an ardent supporter of the signing of the Union of Florence, after which he became a cardinal in Rome. He brought up Zoya Palaiologos in European Catholic traditions and especially taught that she should humbly follow the principles of Catholicism in everything, calling her "the beloved daughter of the Roman Church." Only in this case, he inspired the pupil, fate will give you everything. However, it turned out quite the opposite.

In those years, the Vatican was looking for allies to organize a new crusade against the Turks, intending to involve all European sovereigns in it. Then, on the advice of Cardinal Vissarion, the pope decided to marry Zoya to the recently widowed Moscow sovereign Ivan III, knowing about his desire to become the heir to the Byzantine basileus. This marriage served two political purposes. First, they expected that the Grand Duke of Muscovy would now accept the Union of Florence and submit to Rome. And secondly, it will become a powerful ally and recapture the former possessions of Byzantium, taking some of them as dowry. So, by the irony of history, this fateful marriage for Russia was inspired by the Vatican. It remained to obtain the consent of Moscow.

In February 1469, the ambassador of Cardinal Vissarion arrived in Moscow with a letter to the Grand Duke, in which he was invited to marry legally with the daughter of the Despot of Morea. In the letter, among other things, it was mentioned that Sophia (the name Zoya was diplomatically replaced with the Orthodox Sophia) had already refused two crowned suitors who were wooing her - the French king and the Duke of Mediolan, not wanting to marry the Catholic ruler.

According to the ideas of that time, Sophia was already considered an elderly woman, but she was very attractive, with amazingly beautiful, expressive eyes and delicate matte skin, which in Russia was considered a sign of excellent health. And most importantly, she was distinguished by a sharp mind and an article worthy of a Byzantine princess.

The Moscow sovereign accepted the offer. He sent his ambassador, the Italian Gian Battista della Volpe (he was nicknamed Ivan Fryazin in Moscow) to Rome to woo. The messenger returned a few months later, in November, bringing with him a portrait of the bride. This portrait, which seems to have begun the era of Sophia Paleolog in Moscow, is considered the first secular image in Russia. At least, they were so amazed by him that the chronicler called the portrait an “icon”, not finding another word: “And bring the princess on the icon.”

However, the matchmaking dragged on, because Metropolitan Philip of Moscow objected for a long time to the marriage of the sovereign with a Uniate woman, moreover, a pupil of the papal throne, fearing the spread of Catholic influence in Russia. Only in January 1472, having received the consent of the hierarch, Ivan III sent an embassy to Rome for the bride. Already on June 1, at the insistence of Cardinal Vissarion, a symbolic betrothal took place in Rome - the engagement of Princess Sophia and the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan, who was represented by the Russian ambassador Ivan Fryazin. In the same June, Sophia set off with an honorary retinue and the papal legate Anthony, who soon had to see firsthand the vain hopes placed by Rome on this marriage. According to Catholic tradition, a Latin cross was carried in front of the procession, which led to great confusion and excitement among the inhabitants of Russia. Upon learning of this, Metropolitan Philip threatened the Grand Duke: “If you allow in blessed Moscow to carry the cross in front of the Latin bishop, then he will enter the single gate, and I, your father, will go out of the city differently.” Ivan III immediately sent a boyar to meet the procession with an order to remove the cross from the sleigh, and the legate had to obey with great displeasure. The princess herself behaved as befits the future ruler of Russia. Having entered the Pskov land, she first of all visited an Orthodox church, where she kissed the icons. The legate had to obey here too: follow her to the church, and there bow to the holy icons and venerate the image of the Mother of God by order of the despina (from the Greek despot- "ruler"). And then Sophia promised the admiring Pskovites her protection before the Grand Duke.

Ivan III did not intend to fight for the "inheritance" with the Turks, much less to accept the Union of Florence. And Sophia was not at all going to Catholicize Russia. On the contrary, she showed herself to be an active Orthodox. Some historians believe that she did not care what faith she professed. Others suggest that Sophia, apparently raised in her childhood by the elders of Athos, opponents of the Union of Florence, was deeply Orthodox at heart. She skillfully hid her faith from the powerful Roman "patrons" who did not help her homeland, betraying her to the Gentiles for ruin and death. One way or another, this marriage only strengthened Muscovy, contributing to its conversion into the great Third Rome.

Kremlin Despina

Early in the morning of November 12, 1472, Sophia Paleolog arrived in Moscow, where everything was ready for the wedding celebration, timed to coincide with the name day of the Grand Duke - the day of memory of St. John Chrysostom. On the same day in the Kremlin, in a temporary wooden church, set up near the Assumption Cathedral under construction, so as not to stop worship, the sovereign married her. The Byzantine princess saw her husband for the first time then. The Grand Duke was young - only 32 years old, handsome, tall and stately. Especially remarkable were his eyes, "terrible eyes": when he was angry, women fainted from his terrible look. And before, Ivan Vasilyevich had a tough character, but now, having become related to the Byzantine monarchs, he turned into a formidable and powerful sovereign. This was a considerable merit of his young wife.

The wedding in a wooden church made a strong impression on Sophia Paleolog. The Byzantine princess, brought up in Europe, was different from Russian women in many ways. Sophia brought with her her ideas about the court and the power of power, and many Moscow orders were not to her liking. She did not like that her sovereign husband remained a tributary of the Tatar Khan, that the boyar entourage behaved too freely with their sovereign. That the Russian capital, built entirely of wood, stands with patched fortifications and dilapidated stone churches. That even the sovereign's mansions in the Kremlin are wooden, and that Russian women look at the world from the little window of the lighthouse. Sophia Paleolog not only made changes at court. Some Moscow monuments owe their appearance to her.

She brought a generous dowry to Russia. After the wedding, Ivan III adopted the Byzantine double-headed eagle as a coat of arms - a symbol of royal power, placing it on his seal. The two heads of the eagle face West and East, Europe and Asia, symbolizing their unity, as well as the unity (“symphony”) of spiritual and secular power. Actually, Sophia's dowry was the legendary "liberia" - a library allegedly brought on 70 carts (better known as the "library of Ivan the Terrible"). It included Greek parchments, Latin chronographs, ancient Eastern manuscripts, among which were the poems of Homer unknown to us, the works of Aristotle and Plato, and even the surviving books from the famous library of Alexandria. Seeing wooden Moscow, burned after a fire in 1470, Sophia was frightened for the fate of the treasure and for the first time hid the books in the basement of the stone church of the Nativity of the Virgin on Senya, the home church of the Moscow Grand Duchesses, built by order of St. Evdokia, the widow of Dmitry Donskoy. And, according to Moscow custom, she put her own treasury to be stored in the underground of the Kremlin Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist - the very first church in Moscow, which stood until 1847.

According to legend, she brought with her a “bone throne” as a gift to her husband: its wooden frame was all covered with ivory and walrus ivory plates with biblical themes carved on them. This throne is known to us as the throne of Ivan the Terrible: the tsar is depicted on it by the sculptor M. Antokolsky. In 1896, the throne was installed in the Assumption Cathedral for the coronation of Nicholas II. But the sovereign ordered to place it for Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (according to other sources - for his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna), and he himself wished to be crowned on the throne of the first Romanov. And now the throne of Ivan the Terrible is the oldest in the Kremlin collection.

Sophia brought with her several Orthodox icons, including, as they say, a rare icon of the Mother of God "Blessed Heaven". The icon was in the local rank of the iconostasis of the Kremlin Archangel Cathedral. True, according to another legend, this icon was brought to ancient Smolensk from Constantinople, and when Lithuania captured the city, this way they blessed the Lithuanian princess Sofya Vitovtovna for marriage with the great Moscow prince Vasily I. The icon, which is now in the cathedral, is a list from that ancient image, executed by order of Fyodor Alekseevich at the end of the 17th century. According to tradition, Muscovites brought water and lamp oil to the image of the Mother of God "Blessed Sky", which were filled with healing properties, since this icon had a special, miraculous healing power. And even after the wedding of Ivan III, an image of the Byzantine emperor Michael III, the ancestor of the Palaiologos dynasty, with which the Moscow rulers intermarried, appeared in the Archangel Cathedral. Thus, the continuity of Moscow to the Byzantine Empire was affirmed, and the Moscow sovereigns appeared as the heirs of the Byzantine emperors.

After the wedding, Ivan III himself felt the need to rebuild the Kremlin into a powerful and impregnable citadel. It all started with the catastrophe of 1474, when the Assumption Cathedral, built by Pskov craftsmen, collapsed. Rumors immediately spread among the people that the trouble had befallen because of the “Greek”, who had previously been in “Latinism”. While they found out the reasons for the collapse, Sophia advised her husband to invite Italian architects, who were then the best masters in Europe. Their creations could make Moscow equal in beauty and majesty to European capitals and maintain the prestige of the Moscow sovereign, as well as emphasize the continuity of Moscow not only to the Second, but also to the First Rome. Scientists have noticed that the Italians went to the unknown Muscovy without fear, because despina could give them protection and help. Sometimes there is a statement that it was Sophia who suggested to her husband the idea of ​​​​inviting Aristotle Fioravanti, whom she could hear about in Italy or even know him personally, because he was famous in his homeland as the “new Archimedes”. Like it or not, only the Russian ambassador Semyon Tolbuzin, sent by Ivan III to Italy, invited Fioravanti to Moscow, and he happily agreed.

In Moscow, a special, secret order awaited him. Fioravanti drew up a master plan for the new Kremlin being built by his compatriots. There is an assumption that an impregnable fortress was built to protect Liberia. In the Assumption Cathedral, the architect made a deep underground crypt, where they put a priceless library. It was this cache that Grand Duke Vasily III accidentally discovered many years after the death of his parents. At his invitation, in 1518, Maxim the Greek came to Moscow to translate these books, who allegedly managed to tell Ivan the Terrible, the son of Vasily III, about them before his death. Where this library ended up during the time of Ivan the Terrible is still unknown. They searched for her in the Kremlin, and in Kolomenskoye, and in Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, and at the site of the Oprichny Palace on Mokhovaya. And now there is an assumption that Liberia rests under the bottom of the Moscow River, in the dungeons dug from the chambers of Malyuta Skuratov.

The construction of some Kremlin churches is also associated with the name of Sophia Paleolog. The first of these was the Cathedral in the name of St. Nicholas Gostunsky, built near the bell tower of Ivan the Great. Previously, there was a Horde courtyard where the khan's governors lived, and such a neighborhood depressed the Kremlin despina. According to legend, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker himself appeared in a dream to Sophia and ordered to build an Orthodox church on that place. Sophia proved herself to be a subtle diplomat: she sent an embassy with rich gifts to the wife of the khan and, having told about the miraculous vision shown to her, asked to give her land in exchange for another - outside the Kremlin. Consent was obtained, and in 1477 the wooden Nikolsky Cathedral appeared, later replaced by a stone one and stood until 1817. (Recall that the first printer Ivan Fedorov was the deacon of this church). However, the historian Ivan Zabelin believed that, on the orders of Sophia Paleolog, another church was built in the Kremlin, consecrated in the name of Saints Cosmas and Damian, which did not survive to this day.

Traditions call Sophia Paleolog the founder of the Spassky Cathedral, which, however, was rebuilt during the construction of the Terem Palace in the 17th century and began to be called Verkhospassky at the same time - because of its location. Another legend says that Sophia Palaiologos brought to Moscow a temple image of the Savior Not Made by Hands of this cathedral. In the 19th century, the artist Sorokin painted from him the image of the Lord for the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. This image miraculously survived to this day and is now located in the lower (stylobate) Church of the Transfiguration as its main shrine. It is known that Sophia Paleolog indeed brought the image of the Savior Not Made by Hands, with which her father blessed her. In the Kremlin Cathedral of the Savior on Bor, a salary from this image was kept, and on the lectern lay the icon of the All-Merciful Savior, also brought by Sophia.

Another story is connected with the Church of the Savior on Bor, which was then the cathedral church of the Kremlin Spassky Monastery, and Despina, thanks to which the Novospassky Monastery appeared in Moscow. After the wedding, the Grand Duke still lived in wooden mansions, now and then burning in the frequent Moscow fires. Once Sophia herself had to escape from the fire, and she finally asked her husband to build a stone palace. The sovereign decided to please his wife and fulfilled her request. So the Cathedral of the Savior on Bor, together with the monastery, was constrained by new palace buildings. And in 1490 Ivan III moved the monastery to the banks of the Moskva River, five miles from the Kremlin. Since then, the monastery has become known as Novospassky, and the Cathedral of the Savior on Bor has remained an ordinary parish church. Due to the construction of the palace, the Kremlin Church of the Nativity of the Virgin on Senya, which also suffered from a fire, was not restored for a long time. Only when the palace was finally ready (and this happened only under Vasily III), did it have a second floor, and in 1514 the architect Aleviz Fryazin raised the Nativity Church to a new level, which is why it is still visible from Mokhovaya Street.

In the 19th century, during excavations in the Kremlin, a bowl with antique coins minted under the Roman emperor Tiberius was discovered. According to scientists, these coins were brought by someone from the numerous retinue of Sophia Palaiologos, in which there were natives of both Rome and Constantinople. Many of them took government posts, became treasurers, ambassadors, translators. A. Chicheri, the ancestor of Pushkin's grandmother, Olga Vasilievna Chicherina, and the famous Soviet diplomat, arrived in Russia in the retinue of Despina. Later, Sophia invited doctors from Italy for the family of the Grand Duke. The occupation of medicine was then very dangerous for foreigners, especially when it came to treating the first person of the state. A complete recovery of the highest patient was required, but in the event of the death of the patient, the life of the doctor himself was taken away.

So, the doctor Leon, discharged by Sophia from Venice, vouched with his head that he would cure the heir who suffered from gout - Prince Ivan Ivanovich the Younger, the eldest son of Ivan III from his first wife. However, the heir died, and the doctor was executed in Zamoskvorechye on Bolvanovka. The people blamed Sophia for the death of the young prince: the death of the heir could be especially beneficial for her, for she dreamed of the throne for her son Vasily, who was born in 1479.

Sophia was not loved in Moscow for her influence on the Grand Duke and for the changes in Moscow life - “great discords,” as the boyar Bersen-Beklemishev put it. She also interfered in foreign policy affairs, insisting that Ivan III stop paying tribute to the Horde Khan and free himself from his power. And as if once she said to her husband: “I refused my hand to rich, strong princes and kings, for faith I married you, and now you want to make me and my children tributaries; do you not have enough troops? As noted by V.O. Klyuchevsky, Sophia's skilful advice always met her husband's secret intentions. Ivan III really refused to pay tribute and trampled on the Khan's charter right in the Horde courtyard in Zamoskvorechye, where the Transfiguration Church was later erected. But even then the people "spoke" of Sophia. Before leaving for the great stand on the Ugra in 1480, Ivan III sent his wife with small children to Beloozero, for which he was credited with secret intentions to quit power and flee with his wife if Khan Akhmat took Moscow.

Having freed himself from the yoke of the Khan, Ivan III felt himself a sovereign sovereign. Through the efforts of Sophia, palace etiquette began to resemble Byzantine. The Grand Duke gave his wife a "gift": he allowed her to have her own "thought" of the members of the retinue and arrange "diplomatic receptions" in her half. She received foreign ambassadors and struck up a courteous conversation with them. For Russia, this was an unheard-of innovation. The treatment at the sovereign's court also changed. The Byzantine princess brought sovereign rights to her husband and, according to the historian F.I. Uspensky, the right to the throne of Byzantium, which the boyars had to reckon with. Previously, Ivan III loved “a meeting against himself”, that is, objections and disputes, but under Sophia he changed his treatment of the courtiers, began to keep himself inaccessible, demanded special respect and easily fell into anger, now and then disgracing himself. These misfortunes were also attributed to the pernicious influence of Sophia Paleolog.

Meanwhile, their family life was not cloudless. In 1483, Sophia's brother Andrei married his daughter to Prince Vasily Vereisky, the great-grandson of Dmitry Donskoy. Sophia presented her niece for the wedding with a valuable gift from the sovereign's treasury - an ornament that had previously belonged to the first wife of Ivan III, Maria Borisovna, naturally believing that she had every right to make this gift. When the Grand Duke missed the jewelry to welcome his daughter-in-law Elena Voloshanka, who gave him a grandson Dmitry, such a storm broke out that Vereisky had to flee to Lithuania.

And soon storm clouds hung over the head of Sophia herself: strife began over the heir to the throne. Ivan III had a grandson Dmitry, born in 1483, from his eldest son. Sophia gave birth to his son Vasily. Which of them should have taken the throne? This uncertainty caused a struggle between the two court parties - supporters of Dmitry and his mother Elena Voloshanka and supporters of Vasily and Sophia Paleolog.

"Grekinya" was immediately accused of violating the legitimate succession to the throne. In 1497, enemies told the Grand Duke that Sophia wanted to poison his grandson in order to put her own son on the throne, that she was secretly visited by fortune-tellers preparing a poisonous potion, and that Vasily himself was participating in this conspiracy. Ivan III took the side of his grandson, arrested Vasily, ordered the fortune-teller to drown him in the Moscow River, and removed his wife from himself, defiantly executing several members of her “thought”. Already in 1498, he married Dmitry in the Assumption Cathedral as heir to the throne. Scientists believe that it was then that the famous “Legend of the Princes of Vladimir” was born - a literary monument of the late 15th - early 16th centuries, which tells about the Monomakh's hat, which the Byzantine emperor Konstantin Monomakh allegedly sent with regalia to his grandson - Kyiv prince Vladimir Monomakh. Thus, it was proved that the Russian princes had become related to the Byzantine rulers back in the time of Kievan Rus, and that the descendant of the older branch, that is, Dmitry, had a legal right to the throne.

However, the ability to weave court intrigues was in Sophia's blood. She managed to achieve the fall of Elena Voloshanka, accusing her of adherence to heresy. Then the Grand Duke placed his daughter-in-law and grandson in disgrace and in 1500 named Vasily the legitimate heir to the throne. Who knows what path Russian history would have taken if not for Sophia! But Sophia did not have long to enjoy the victory. She died in April 1503 and was buried with honor in the Kremlin Ascension Monastery. Ivan III died two years later, and in 1505 Vasily III ascended the throne.

Nowadays, scientists have managed to restore her sculptural portrait from the skull of Sophia Paleolog. Before us appears a woman of outstanding mind and strong will, which confirms the numerous legends built around her name.