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Orthodox church, powerfully shaped and coloured men'soutlook and actions. Despite the social disparities andthe effect of the frontier, the Muscovite way of life had acertain unity, in so far as it was based on a commonattitude to life and Orthodoxy, a common ethical code, acommon acceptance of the place and meaning of rite,ceremonial, and tradition, and a common patrioticpride.This Muscovite way of life, that grew out of Byzantineand steppe grafts on Slav institutions and lore, was untilthe later seventeenth century very little affected byWestern culture (except in architecture), but it was exposedvery much earlier to Western technical and economicinfluences.Ivan the Great (grand-prince 1462-1505) had inaugurateda new period in the history of Russian relations withthe West by his multiplication of contacts with it, notablyas a result of his second marriage, to Zoe Palaeologus(1472; cf. p. 87). Henceforward the borrowing of Westerntechnical and material knowledge became a regularpolicy, while Muscovy became known to the Westthanks to a long series of envoys and adventurers.The borrowing was for long on a small scale andalmost entirely for the military needs of the state or therequirements of the court. Ivan the Great called in ahandful of Italian architects and engineers, led byAristotele da Fioraventi from Bologna, to refortify andembellish Moscow. Their work had much influence onbuilding in Muscovy, and produced the unique architecturalblend of the Kremlin, part fortress, part shrineof churches, part cluster of palaces (cf. pp. 180-181).The need for artificers, gunfounders, engineers, andspecialists of various kinds became more and more felt.It was met by importation, by hook or by crook, of allsorts and conditions of foreigners, not by any methodicallyorganized training of Russians at home, still lessabroad.Ivan the Terrible (reigned 1533-84) greatly increasedthe use of firearms, mercenaries, and foreign technicians.Thus, for instance, his capture of Kazan (1552) waslargely due to a Danish engineer in his service, "a327