The Tsar’s Appanage and the Possessions of the Zemschina in the Post-Oprichnina Period (1573–1584)

Introduction. The paper focuses on the territories that were included in the sovereign’s appanage after the abolition of the oprichnina and the possessions that remained in the zemshchina – the national land fund. The article examines the controversial issue of the consequences of the court policy in the post-oprichnina period (1573–1584). Methods and materials. The source base of the research is the act documents of the monastery chanceries, acts of secular landowners, and documents of the central state institutions (Razryadny and Pomestny Prikaz). The article uses the methodology of source study analysis of act documents and methods of paleographic and archaeographic analysis. Analysis. It was established that from the former oprichnina possessions, Yaroslavl, Rostov, Suzdal, Starodub Ryapolovsky, Staritsa, Kozelsk, Belev, Peremyshl, Likhvin, Rzheva Volodimerova, Klin, Dvina, Kholmogory, Kargopol, Vologda, Ustyug Veliky, and Sol-Vychegodskaya were included in the appanage. Of the cities that had not previously been in the oprichnina, Dmitrov, Zubtsov, Yuryev-Polskoy, Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, Porkhov, Pskov, and its suburbs Sebezh, Krasny, and Opochka were included in the appanage. Previously, Galich, Uglich, Kostroma, Maly Yaroslavets, Medyn, Vyazma, Mozhaisk, Borovsk, Beloozero, and the lands of Veliky Novgorod, which were part of the oprichnina, on the contrary, formed the possessions of the zemshchina. The zemshchina also included Moscow, Kolomna, Kashira, Serpukhov, Tver, Bezhetsky Verkh, Kostroma, Gorodets, Uglich, Ryazan, Tula, Aleksin, Kaluga, Vorotynsk, Meshchevsk, Vereya, Ruza, Dorogobuzh, Belaya, Vodskaya, Shelonskaya, Derevskaya, Bezhetskaya pyatinas of the Novgorod land, Toropets, Rzheva Pustaya, Kola district, Perm, and Vyatka. Results. The study showed that the sovereign’s appanage arose even before the accession of the baptized Khan Simeon Bekbulatovich to the grand princely throne. Probably, by February 16, 1574, Kargopol was included in the appanage, by January 6, 1575, Ustyug Veliky, and by May 6, 1575, Varzuga. The post-oprichnina land policy in its scale, territorial coverage, and land resettlement was slightly inferior to the oprichnina. Therefore, in the opinion of the author of the article, those researchers who consider the post-oprichnina period to be the “second edition” of the oprichnina are closer to the truth

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