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Mark Schaus. Episode 10, Ivan the Great, Part 1.

There is a Russian legend that in 1440 a monk named Michael Klopski proclaimed that there was great joy in Moscow as a son.

A boy who would do great things, who would become famous famous was born. In 1462 Vassili the blind, also known as Vassili

the second, was dead and a

22-year-old who was already co-ruler with his father took sole possession of the

title of Grand Prince of Moscow, a role he would hold on to for an astonishing

43 years.

The Russian people would know of this man for the rest of history.

At the time he was known as Ivan Vassilievich,

Ivan the third. History would know him as Ivan the Great. He would lay the groundwork for the

beginnings of an empire. Before we talk about the life of Ivan, we need to

backtrack a bit and again talk about the fall of

Constantinople, the gem of the Eastern Roman Empire, the seat of the Orthodox

Church. In the years leading up to its eventual fall in 1453, the outside world knew the end was near.

Some of the city's wealthier citizens were already leaving.

But where to go? If they held their religion dear to their hearts,

Moscow was the place to head to, as the Russian city was thinking itself as the third Rome.

Slowly, refugees from Constantinople trickled in to Moscow.

Churchmen, aristocrats, aristocrats, and other men of expertise in military and administrative affairs arrived in the center of Russian life.

But unlike the Romans who would rule and tolerate multiple nationalities, the Muscovite leaders demanded

that the incoming peoples rusify themselves as now Russia was the center of the Orthodox

...