Какую войну проиграл Иван Грозный? (Была ли Ливонская война главной войной Ивана Васильевича?)
What war did Ivan the Terrible lose? (Was the Livonian War the main war of Ivan Vasil’evich?)

Summary/Abstract: The article is devoted to the questions linked to the foreign policy of the Russian state under Ivan the Terrible and the place the wars against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Livonian Confederation, Sweden and the Tatar states took in it. The author offers an original approach to the analysis of these events and comes to the conclusion that it was not the Livonian War but the war against the Crimean and other Tatar khanates that was the main war of Ivan IV. Fighting in the southern and eastern «fronts» for almost 40 years distracted the basic resources of the Russian state and the attention of the Moscow government, while the western and north-western «fronts» in these sircumstances are automatically converted into secondary. There were serious grounds for that. If by chance the Russian state suffered a defeat in its confrontation with the Tartars, the history of Eastern Europe could go another way. Ultimately the Moscow state succeded in surviving in this struggle and protecting itself from the Tatr threat, but its struggle against the Tartars did not allow Ivan the Terrible to finish the confrontation with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and resolve the Livonian question in a manner that would be favourable for him.

• Details
• Contents