The reason for the new aggravation of Russian-Kazan relations was the "dishonesty and shame" committed by Khan Safa-Girey (ruled 1524-1531, 1536-1549) to the Russian ambassador Andrei Pilyemov in the spring of 1530. The chronicler did not specify what the insult was. This incident overwhelmed Moscow's patience, and the Russian government decided to make another attempt to regain control of Kazan. Having covered the southern borders, from a possible attack of the Crimean troops, Vasily III in May 1530 moved two armies against the Kazan Khanate - a ship and a horse. The river flotilla was commanded by the governors Ivan Belsky and Mikhail Gorbaty. The horsemen were led by Mikhail Glinsky and Vasily Sheremetev.
Kazan was prepared for war. The Nogai troops under the command of Mamai-Murza and the Astrakhan detachments led by Prince Yaglych (Aglysh) came to the aid of the khanate. A prison was built near Kazan on the Bulak River, which was supposed to hinder the actions of the Moscow troops.
The ship's men made their way to Kazan without much difficulty. The cavalry regiments, having smashed the Tatars trying to prevent them in several skirmishes, safely crossed the Volga and on July 10 united with the ship's army. On the night of July 14, the regiment of Ivan Ovchina Obolensky took the enemy prison by storm, most of the garrison was killed. The successes of the Russian troops and the beginning of the bombing of Kazan alarmed the townspeople. Many began to demand the start of negotiations with Moscow and an end to the struggle. In the current situation, Khan Safa-Girey chose to flee the city.
However, the Russian governors were in no hurry to launch a decisive assault, although there were almost no defenders left in the city, and a significant part of the townspeople was ready for negotiations. The military leaders entered into a parochial dispute, figuring out among themselves who should be the first to enter Kazan. Suddenly a storm broke out and confused all the plans of the Russian command. The Tatars used this moment for an unexpected sortie. It was successful: Russian troops suffered significant losses, 5 Russian governors were also killed, including Fedor Lopata Obolensky, the Tatars captured part of the Russian artillery - 70 squeaky cannons. Recovering from the enemy attack, the Russians resumed shelling the city, but without much success. After a successful sortie, the Tatars were inspired and changed their minds to surrender. On July 30, 1530, the siege was lifted. The Russian army went beyond the Volga. On August 15, the Russians reached their borders. Ivan Belsky was found guilty of this failure. He was sentenced to death, but then the voivode was pardoned and imprisoned, where he remained until Vasily's death.
True, even before the return of Safa-Girey, who fled to Astrakhan, the Kazan nobility began negotiations with Moscow on taking the oath to Tsar Vasily Ivanovich. In the fall of 1530, the Kazan embassy arrived in Moscow. On behalf of the khan, the Kazan people asked the great Moscow prince to grant Safa-Girey “to make the king his brother and son, and the king wants to be in the sovereign’s will, and the princes and the entire Kazan land … bellies and their children”. The Tatar ambassadors gave Tsar Vasily a shert record (wool is an oath, contractual relations), promising that it would be approved by Safa-Giray and all Kazan princes and murzas.
The Russian ambassador Ivan Polev was sent to Kazan. He had to swear in the khanate and demand the return of prisoners and guns. However, Safa-Girey refused to approve the oath. Negotiations have resumed. Safa-Girei was dragging out time and making new demands. At the same time, he stubbornly sought help from the Crimean Khan Saadet-Girey. The Crimean Khanate was unable to provide direct assistance, weakened by the invasion of the Nogai and internal strife. True, the Crimean Tatars raided the Odoy and Tula lands. During the ongoing negotiations, the Moscow government was able to win over the Kazan ambassadors, princes Tabai and Tevekel. With their help, the Russian authorities established contacts with the most influential princes in Kazan, Kichi-Ali and Bulat. They believed that it was impossible to continue the ruinous war with Moscow. In addition, they were offended by the fact that Safa-Girey surrounded himself with Nogai and Crimean advisers, pushing aside the Kazan nobility. The cup of patience of the pro-Russian party was overwhelmed by the idea of the khan to arrest and execute the entire Russian embassy. This decision led to a new war of extermination against the Russian state. There was a palace coup, almost all of the Kazan nobility opposed Safa-Girey. The Khan fled, the Crimean Tatars and Nogai were exiled, and some were executed. A provisional government was created in Kazan.
The Moscow sovereign originally planned to restore Shah-Ali, known for his loyalty to Moscow, on the Kazan throne. He was sent to Nizhny Novgorod, closer to Kazan. However, the Kazan government, headed by princess Kovgar-Shad (the sister of the deceased Khan Muhammad-Amin and the only surviving representative of the Ulu-Muhammad clan, the founder of the Kazan Khanate), and the princes Kichi-Ali and Bulat, refused to accept the unpopular ruler in the Tatar environment. The people of Kazan asked for Shah-Ali's younger brother Dzhan-Ali (Yanalei) as a khan. He was at that moment 15 years old and all his short reign (1532-1535) he was under the complete control of Moscow, Princess Kovgar-Shad and Prince Bulat. With the permission of the Moscow Grand Duke Vasily, he married the Nogai princess Syuyumbika, who later played a significant role in the history of the Kazan state. Thus, a lasting peace and close alliance was established between Moscow and Kazan, which held out until the death of Vasily Ivanovich.
On the Crimean border
On the border with the Crimean Khanate, during the Russian-Kazan war of 1530-1531, there was a relative calm, which from time to time was violated by attacks of small Tatar detachments. Special attention continued to be paid to the protection of southern Ukraine. The slightest threat elicited a quick response. The situation changed by 1533. The enmity of two brothers, Saadet-Girey and Islam-Girey, unexpectedly ended with the victory of Sahib-Girey (Sahib I Giray, ruled 1532-1551), who was supported by Porta. Saadet Giray was forced to renounce the throne and leave for Istanbul. And Islam Giray occupied the throne for only five months.
In August, Moscow received news of the beginning of the campaign against Russia 40-thous. Crimean horde, led by the "princes" Islam-Girey and Safa-Girey. The Moscow government did not have accurate data on the direction of movement of the enemy troops, and was forced to take emergency measures to protect the border areas. Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich stood up with reserve troops in the village of Kolomenskoye. A host was sent to Kolomna under the command of Prince Dmitry Belsky and Vasily Shuisky. A little later, the regiments of the princes Fyodor Mstislavsky, Peter Repnin and Peter Okhlyabin entered the same place. From Kolomna, light regiments of Ivan Ovchina Telepnev, Dmitry Chereda Paletsky and Dmitry Drutsky were sent against the Tatar round-up detachments.
The Crimean princes, having received information about the advancement of the Moscow regiments to the border, changed the direction of the blow and attacked the Ryazan land. Crimean troops burned out the suburbs, tried to storm the fortress, but could not take the city. The Ryazan land has undergone terrible devastation. The light regiment of Dmitry Chereda Paletsky was the first to enter the area of operations of the Tatar detachments. Near the village of Bezzubovo, 10 versts from Kolomna, his regiment defeated a Tatar detachment. Then other light regiments came into contact with the enemy. Facing resistance, the Tatar corral units retreated to the main forces. The Crimean army struck a blow at the Russian regiments, which were led by Ivan Ovchina Telepnev. The Russian light regiments withstood the hard battle, but were forced to retreat. The commanders of the Tatar army, fearing the approach of the main Russian forces, did not pursue the "lekhki voivods" and began to retreat, taking away a huge full.
Break with Kazan. War with Safa-Giray
The death of Tsar Vasily (December 3, 1533) significantly complicated the foreign policy position of the Russian state. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania entered the war with Moscow (the Russian-Lithuanian war of 1534-1537), anti-Russian sentiments prevailed in Kazan. In the winter of 1533-1534. Kazan detachments ravaged the Nizhny Novgorod and Novgorod lands, took away a large one. Then raids on the Vyatka lands began. The Moscow authorities tried to reason with Kazan, but Khan Dzhan-Ali, who remained loyal to the Russian state, no longer enjoyed the support of the local nobility. Kazan felt the change in the situation and the weakening of Moscow. The final break between the Russian state and the Kazan Khanate took place on September 25, 1534. As a result of a palace coup organized by Princess Kovgar-Shad, Khan Dzhan-Ali and his Russian advisers were killed. Many leaders of the pro-Russian party were forced to flee to the Moscow state. Safa-Girey, an old and convinced enemy of Russia, returned to the Kazan throne.
The accession of Safa-Girey led to the beginning of a new big war on the Volga. The first serious clashes occurred in the winter of 1535-1536. In December, the Tatar detachments, due to the careless service of the Meshchera governors Semyon Gundorov and Vasily Zamytsky, reached Nizhny Novgorod, Berezopolye and Gorokhovets. In January, the Tatars burned Balakhna and retreated when troops were transferred from Murom under the command of the governor Fyodor Mstislavsky and Mikhail Kurbsky. However, it was not possible to overtake the main forces of the Kazan Tatars. The Tatars dealt another blow to Koryakovo on the Unzha River. This raid ended in failure. Most of the Tatar detachment was destroyed, the prisoners were executed in Moscow. At the end of July, the Tatars invaded the Kostroma lands, destroying the outpost of Prince Peter the Motley Zasekin on the Kusi River. In the fall of 1536, Tatar and Mari troops invaded the Galician lands.
At the beginning of 1537, the army of the Kazan Khan launched a new offensive. In mid-January, the Tatars unexpectedly left Murom and tried to take it on the move. Kazan troops burned out the posad, but could not take the fortress. Three days later, after an unsuccessful siege, they hastily retreated, having received a message about the appearance of Russian regiments from Vladimir and Meshchera under the command of Roman Odoevsky, Vasily Sheremetev and Mikhail Kubensky. From the Murom land, the Kazan army moved to Nizhny Novgorod. The Tatars burned the upper posad, but were repulsed and went down the Volga to their borders. In addition, the sources noted the appearance of Tatar and Mari detachments in the vicinity of Balakhna, Gorodets, Galician and Kostroma lands.
The Moscow government, alarmed by the increased activity of the Kazan Tatars and the weak cover of the eastern borders, begins to strengthen the border along the Volga. In 1535 a new fortress stands in Perm. In 1536-1537. build fortresses on the Korega River (Bui-gorod), in Balakhna, Meshchera, at the mouth of the Ucha River (Lyubim). The fortifications in Ustyug and Vologda are being renewed. Temnikov was moved to a new place, after the fires, defensive structures in Vladimir and Yaroslavl were restored. In 1539, on the border of the Galician district, the city of Zhilansky was erected (in the same year it was captured and burned). The bit records of 1537 for the first time contain a list of voivods from the Kazan "Ukraine". The main army under the leadership of Shah Ali and Yuri Shein was in Vladimir. In Murom, the troops were commanded by Fedor Mstislavsky, in Nizhny Novgorod - Dmitry Vorontsov, in Kostroma - Andrei Kholmsky, in Galich - Ivan Prozorovsky. Approximately the same disposition of troops on this line was maintained in subsequent years.
In the spring of 1538, a march to Kazan was planned. However, in March, under pressure from the Crimean Khan, the Moscow government began peace talks with Kazan. They dragged on until the fall of 1539, when Safa-Girey resumed hostilities and attacked Murom. The Kazan army, reinforced by the Nogai and Crimean detachments, devastated the Murom and Nizhny Novgorod lands. At the same time, the Tatar detachment of Prince Chura Narykov devastated the outskirts of Galich and, destroying the Zhilinsky town, moved to the Kostroma lands. Russian regiments were sent to Kostroma. A stubborn battle took place on Pless. At the cost of heavy losses (among the killed there were 4 Russian governors), the Russian troops were able to put the Tatars to flight and liberate the entire population. In 1540, 8 thous. Chura Narykov's detachment again devastated the Kostroma lands. The Tatar army was again overtaken by the troops of the governors of Kholmsky and Gorbaty, but they were able to fight back and leave.
On December 18, 1540, the 30,000-strong Kazan army, reinforced by the Nogai and Crimean detachments led by Safa-Giray, reappeared under the walls of Murom. The siege lasted two days, the Russian garrison defended the city, but the Tatars captured a large city in the vicinity of the city. Having learned about the approach of the grand-ducal regiments from Vladimir, Safa-Girey retreated, devastating the surrounding villages and partly, Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod places.
Military actions alternated with peace negotiations, during which Safa-Girey tried to avoid retaliatory attacks from the Russian army, and then again raided the Moscow state. The Moscow government, disenchanted with the ineffective struggle against the sudden raids of the Kazan Tatars, whose pursuit was made difficult by the massive forests, relied on the internal Kazan opposition. Moscow tried to eliminate the influence of the Crimea, by the hands of the citizens of Kazan themselves. The search begins for those dissatisfied with the khan's policy, the dominance of the Crimean Tatars. The situation was eased by Safa-Girey himself, who accused part of the Kazan nobility of treason and began executions. Princess Kovgar-Shad was one of the first to be executed, then other prominent princes and murzas were killed. Fear for their lives forced the Kazan nobility to oppose the khan and his Crimean advisers. In January 1546, an uprising began in Kazan. Safa-Girei fled to the Nogai horde, to his father-in-law, Bey Yusuf. The provisional Kazan government, headed by Chura Narykov, Beyurgan-Seit and Kadysh, invited Moscow's protege Shah-Ali to the throne. However, they refused to let him into the city together with 4-thous. Russian detachment. Only Shah-Ali himself and a hundred Kasimov Tatars were allowed into Kazan. Shah Ali's position was very precarious, due to the unpopularity of the new khan. The new Kazan ruler held out on the throne for only a month. Yusuf gave the Nogai army to Safa-Giray and he recaptured Kazan. Shah Ali fled to Moscow. The war immediately began, which continued until the unexpected death of Safa-Girey in March 1549.
