Welcome to Russian History Retold.

Episode 258 – The Strelcy

Last time, we finished the series on the Iron Curtain.

Today we head way back in time to an era dominated by one of Russia's most feared Zars – Ivan the Terrible.

Our episode will focus on the Strelcy, the military arm of Ivan's, which would serve the Russian Empire until their revolt during the reign of Peter the Great brought them down.

Before we get into the beginnings of the Strelcy, we need to review the situation in Russia when they came into being around the year 1550.

Ivan IV, Tsar of Russia, became the first Tsar of all Russia in 1547 after serving as the Grand Prince or Viliki Knyaz from 1533 to 1547.

He was in the midst of consolidating his power, laying his eyes on the boyars who had mistreated him during his childhood.

Therefore, Ivan needed a fighting force who would be utterly loyal to him.

The Great Fire of 1547 ravaged the city of Moscow, killing an estimated 3,700 people and leaving over 80,000 homeless.

However, instead of blaming the newly crowned Tsar, the people laid the blame at the feet of Ivan's maternal relatives, the Glinsky's.

Some of his uncles were murdered by the angry mob, but Ivan refused to turn over his grandmother whom some had accused of being a witch.

As the Glinsky's were advisers to Ivan, you might think their disposal would have weakened his position.

Actually, quite the opposite occurred. The mob had been modified and they were happy with the Tsar.

He would begin to reform laws, many of which favored the boyar class to the detriment of the middle class.

This reform package was known as the Sudepnik 1550 preceded by the Tsar's grandfather, Ivan the Great's Sudepnik of 1497.

The Sudepnik of 1550 liquidated the boyars' judicial privileges and strengthened the role of the state judicial bodies.

This would begin the creation of a massive bureaucracy that would continue to blow throughout the Tsar's rule.

Even though the Bolsheviks would condemn the bureaucracy of the Tsar, they would replace it with an even bigger one.

Even today, this is a significant problem in Russia. It leads to pervasive corruption, which is one of the issues facing the Russian military and their invasion of Ukraine.

So much money has been stolen over the years by those in the military bureaucracy that their vaulted army is a shell of what we thought of them before the outbreak of the war, and it all started in 1550.

The Sudepnik also provided for the active participation of the elective representatives of local communities and legal proceedings.

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