Authors

Earl Hodil¹;  ¹ Pomona College, Department of History, United States

Discussion

In the mid-sixteenth century, Ivan IV commissioned the Litsevoi letopisnyi svod to chronicle biblical and classical history, as well as the stories of Kyivan' Rus and Muscovy. This work closes by describing the exploits of Ivan's grandfather and father, Ivan III and Vasilii III, respectively, as they reshaped the medieval Muscovite state into early modern Russia. Among its myriad accounts of these figures gathering the lands of Rus' or increasing influence among the Mongol successor states, the LLS also describes in detail their goal of reconstructing the city of Moscow. These feats include not only well-known projects, such as the building of new cathedrals in the Kremlin by Italian architects, but also seemingly mundane efforts to strengthen bastions and fix the water infrastructure of Moscow. Overall, the LLS reveals a city in flux from the late fifteenth to the early sixteenth centuries. That Ivan IV had this information included in arguably one of the greatest literary undertakings of his reign demonstrates the value he placed on the physical infrastructure of his capital city. As early modern Russia was born out of the Muscovite past, so too was Moscow reborn out of its medieval architecture and limits.