The Moscow Kingdom. The Origins of Russian Statehood

In the classic work of the famous Russian historian A. E. Presnyakov (1870–1929), the process of forming the centralized Moscow state in the 15th–16th centuries is researched in detail. The author examines not only the foreign policy successes of Moscow but also the deep socio-political transformations: overcoming feudal fragmentation, the establishment of the autocratic power of the grand princes, the evolution of the nobility and the service class, the role of the church, and the complex relationships between power and landowners. Special attention is given to the analysis of the "landowning" principle of rule, which became the foundation of Russian autocracy, and its embodiment in the practice of Ivan III and Vasily III. Presnyakov's book remains one of the most profound and comprehensive studies of the era of the birth of the Moscow kingdom.