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above, extending far to the east of the Dvina and theDnieper. For these three centuries Muscovy stoodagainst Lithuania and Poland in almost continual struggle,for one century unsuccessfully, for the next successfully,for the last again unsuccessfully, until (1654-67) the tideturned definitively in her favour. Muscovite foreignpolicy from Ivan the Great to Alexis Mikhailovich (1462-1676) was centred upon Lithuania-Poland and theCrimean Tatars, with Sweden a good third for the lasthundred years.It has already been emphasized (p. 26) that one majorconsequence of the Mongol invasion was the completedisruption of Kiev Russia. The principalities betweenthe Oka and the Volga and, to the north, Novgorod andPskov developed along their own lines in vassalage to theGolden Horde. The Russian principalities of the upperDnieper and westwards, including Kiev itself, harriedby and paying frequent tribute to the Tatars, slowlycoalesced into the loosely knit grand-duchy of Lithuania.The rich Galician principality, likewise Russian, after aperiod of independent brilliance in the thirteenth century,sank into being an apple of discord between Lithuania,Poland, and Hungary and after 1350 fell to Poland.Thus, between 1250 and 1450, before Muscovybecame consolidated, Lithuania rose to be the majorRussian state. By 1450 she stretched from the Balticabout Memel to the Black Sea, very insecurely at themouths of the Dniester and the Dnieper; from the Bugon the west, eastwards well beyond the Dnieper andSmolensk and Kiev. She was within a hundred milesof Moscow and doing her best to prevent the growth ofMuscovy: she was pressing hard upon Novgorod andexpanding to the upper Oka and into the wooded steppebeyond the Dnieper (see map 5).This was a joint Lithuanian-Russian achievement; forexcept in the north, where the Lithuanian tribes formeda solid block, the grand-duchy was peopled by Russians,developing into White Russians and Ukrainians. It hadbeen built up by the energy and adaptability of fouroutstanding Lithuanian military leaders, in part byconquest, in part by marriages, treaties, and purchase.203