Srbija - nacionalna revija - broj 54 - engleski - niska rezolucija

Princess Elena Vasilyevna, born as princess
Glinskaya, of Serbian origin, who
suffered envy of most princesses, from
co-principalities, those near Moscow and
in Moscow, ever since her marriage.
FIRM AS THE KREMLIN WALL
At the moment the boyars were completely
convinced of their success, in December
1533, Grand Princess Elena Vasilyevna
made an overturn and removed
from power those who wanted to be tutors
to little Ivan IV and regents of the
Grand Muscovite Principality. Returning
the last will of the deceased prince
to power, she became a very determined
first female ruler of already grand Muscovite
Russia, always emphasizing that
she is reigning on behalf of her son, displaying
him during the bringing crucial
decisions, requesting everyone to take a
vow of loyalty to him. Elena accelerated
the further construction of the Kremlin
and its buildings, to make the successes
of her and Ivan’s power more visible and
more astonishing. Her reign was “like the
wall of the then erected Kremlin”. She
showed determination towards external
enemies: in 1536, she forced the Polish
king Sigismund I to sign a peace agreement,
very favorable for Russia, and obligated
Sweden not to support the Livonian
Order in Lithuania. A special move in the
reign of Grand Princess Elena Vasilyevna
was establishing the grand prince’s right
to mint money for all co-principalities.
This was the biggest blow to the co-principalities,
which pushed them into an
even bigger conspiracy. She introduced
a common currency, silver kopeyka, the
so-called ivanovka (there is a page in the
Imperial Chronicle at the end of the last
volume, showing young Prince Ivan IV
and his mother Princess Elena supervising
the minting of money and checking
the minted kopeykas). The common currency
affirmed the economic unity of the
Grand Muscovite Principality, as well as
the conspiracy against the princess. After
five years of successful governance, Elena
Vasilyevna died at the age of thirty, under
mysterious circumstances (according to
present day explanations, the examination
of her bones, requested by historians,
discovered mercury poisoning, which
will probably be taken into consideration
by history, although it remains open how
history determined for centuries can be
re-determined, regardless of new facts).
Born as heir to the throne, grand
prince since the age of three, that is ever
since he had been aware of himself, prepared
and educated for dignity, Ivan IV
had five happy years of “princedom” with
his mother. After his mother’s death, it all
inverted and turned into a nightmare. The
Gratitude
Portrait of
Ivana IV the
Terrible, first
half of the 17 th
centuray, tempera,
wood
Conquering of
Kazan, fresco
(Illustrations on
pages 52 i 53: from
the book “Saint
Sava in Russian
imperial chronicle”,
Zavod za
udžbenike, Beograd,
2012)
As he showed his gratitude for support and education to Princess
Ana with defending her, Ivan IV also never forgot Fyodor
Demid, his teacher, advisor and friend. Respecting the court decision
on exile, one of the first regulations he brought, after gaining
power without regents, was proclaiming the Demidovs as a
royal family.
SERBIA • N O 54 • 2016
53