The moscow fire of 1547 and its political consequences: the experience of rein-terpretation

Author(s):  V.V. Penskoy, Dr., associate Professor, Belgorod National Research University, Belgorod, Russia, penskoy@bsu.edu.ru

Issue:  Volume 46, № 3

Rubric:  Topical issues of russian history

Annotation:  The author considers the events of June 1547 in Moscow, the capital of the Russian state. The great fire of June 21, 1547 destroyed a large part of the city and became the reason for the uprising of June 26–29. The uprising was accompanied by riots in the capital and the killings of those whom Moscow posad people considered guilty of their misfortunes. This uprising was part of the general political crisis in the Russian state in the 30s and 40s of XVI century and became the largest and only of comparable magnitude in the XVI century. It had serious political consequences for the further development of the Russian state and this circumstance also caused great interest on the part of Russian and foreign historians. The author argues that their interpretation of those events because of the scientific paradigm that dominated Soviet historiography left a definite imprint on the interpretation of the June 1547 events in Moscow. The author proposes to reinterpret these events by rejecting the previous bias and a new look at the sources and the information contained in them.

Keywords:  Early Modern period, Russia, Ivan the Terrible, «boyar’ rule», political crisis, Moscow fires, urban uprisings.

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