Princess Sophia paleologist story of life and death. Sophia Paleologue: biography of the Grand Duchess of Moscow. Married life

Sofia Palaeologus, aka Zoya Palaeologus (Ζωή Παλαιολόγου) was born around 1443-1448. Her father, Thomas Palaiologos, despot of the Morea (the medieval name for the Peloponnese), was the younger brother of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI, who died in 1453 during the fall of Constantinople.

After the capture of Morea by Mehmed II in 1460, Zoya, together with her two brothers, survived all the hardships of exile and flight - first to the island of Kerkyra (Corfu), and then to Rome, where she received the name Sophia.

After the death of her father, Sophia lived in the care of the Pope, who chose her as an instrument of his plans: in order to restore the Florentine union of churches and join the Moscow state to the union, he decided to marry the Byzantine princess to the Russian prince Ivan III, who was widowed in 1467.

The Pope began negotiations with him through Vissarion of Nicea, an outstanding Greek church leader and educator, a supporter of the union of Orthodoxy and Catholicism, who in February 1469 sent an envoy to Moscow to offer the hand of Sophia Paleologus to the Grand Duke. Ivan III liked the offer to become related to the Palaiologan dynasty, and the very next month he sent his ambassador to Rome, the Italian Ivan Fryazin (Gian Baptista della Volpe).

According to the wife of Lorenzo de Medici, Clarissa Orsini, young Sofia Paleologue was very pleasant: “Short in stature, an oriental flame sparkled in her eyes, the whiteness of her skin spoke of the nobility of her family.”

Already in June 1472, Sophia Palaeologus left Rome for Russia, and on October 1, a messenger rode to Pskov with an order to prepare for the meeting of the future empress.

Sophia, without stopping anywhere, accompanied by the Roman legate Anthony, hurried to Moscow, where she arrived on November 12, 1472. On the same day, her wedding to Ivan III took place, while the marriage of the Russian prince with the Greek princess had completely different consequences than the Pope had expected. Sophia, instead of persuading Rus' to accept the union, adopted Orthodoxy; the Pope's ambassadors were forced to leave with nothing.

Moreover, the Grand Russian Princess brought with her all the covenants and traditions of the Byzantine Empire, famous for its Orthodox faith and wise state structure: the so-called “symphony” (consent) of state and church power, transferring the rights of the Byzantine emperors to her Orthodox husband - the Moscow Grand Duke and her future (from him) Orthodox descendants.

This marriage had a great influence on strengthening the international authority of Rus' and the grand ducal power within the country. According to Bestuzhev-Ryumin, the legacy of Byzantium played a huge role, first of all, in the “gathering of Rus'” by Moscow, as well as in the development of the Russian national ideology of the Third Rome.

A visible sign of the continuity of Muscovite Rus' from Byzantium was the adoption of the dynastic sign of the Palaiologos - the double-headed eagle - as the state emblem, on the chest of which over time appeared the image of the ancient coat of arms of Moscow - a horseman slaying a serpent, while the horseman is depicted as St. George the Victorious, and the Sovereign, who strikes with his spear all the enemies of the Fatherland and all anti-state evil.

The Grand Ducal couple, Sofia Paleolog and Ivan III, had a total of 12 children.

Following two daughters who died immediately after birth, the Grand Duchess gave birth to a son, Vasily Ivanovich, having achieved his declaration as Grand Duke instead of Ivan III’s grandson, Dmitry, who was crowned king.

Vasily III, for the first time in the history of Rus', was named tsar in a treaty of 1514 with the Roman Emperor Maximilian I, inherited from his mother the Greek appearance depicted on one of the 16th-century icons, currently on display in the State Historical Museum.

The Greek blood of Sophia Palaeologus was also reflected in Ivan IV the Terrible, who was very similar in his Mediterranean type of face to his royal grandmother (the direct opposite of his mother, Grand Duchess Elena Glinskaya).

Sofia Paleologus helped ensure that her husband, following the traditions of the empire, surrounded himself with pomp and established etiquette at court. In addition, doctors, artists and architects were called from Western Europe to decorate the palace and capital.

So, in particular, Alberti (Aristotle) ​​Fioravanti was invited from Milan, who was to build the Kremlin chambers. The Italian architect was considered one of the best specialists in underground hiding places and labyrinths in Europe: before laying the walls of the Kremlin, he built real catacombs under it, where in one of the underground casemates the book treasures that the Rurikovichs inherited from the Paleologians were hidden - thirty heavy carts loaded chests of books that followed the Byzantine princess to Muscovy. According to contemporaries, these chests contained not only handwritten treasures from antiquity, but also the best of what was saved from the fire of the famous Library of Alexandria.

Aristotle Fioravanti built the Assumption and Annunciation Cathedrals. Moscow was decorated with the Faceted Chamber, the Kremlin towers, as well as the Terem Palace and the Archangel Cathedral, built on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin. The Grand Duke's capital was preparing to become royal.

But most importantly, Sofia Fominichna persistently and consistently supported her husband’s liberation policy against the Golden Horde.

Did you know that when a sculptural portrait of Princess Maria Staritskaya, the daughter of the disgraced Prince Vladimir Andreevich Staritsky, who was Ivan the Terrible’s cousin, was made, researchers were surprised by her resemblance to Sofia Paleolog, who was the girl’s great-grandmother.

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Byzantine princess

Sophia Paleolog. Reconstruction of S.A. Nikitina. 1994. On May 29, 1453, the legendary Constantinople, besieged by the Turkish army, fell. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, died in battle defending Constantinople.

His younger brother Thomas Palaiologos, ruler of the small appanage state of Morea on the Peloponnese peninsula, fled with his family to Corfu and then to Rome. After all, Byzantium, hoping to receive military assistance from Europe in the fight against the Turks, signed the Union of Florence in 1439 on the unification of the Churches, and now its rulers could seek asylum from the papal throne. Thomas Palaiologos was able to remove the greatest shrines of the Christian world, including the head of the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called. In gratitude for this, he received a house in Rome and a good boarding house from the papal throne.

In 1465, Thomas died, leaving three children - sons Andrei and Manuel and the youngest daughter Zoya. The exact date of her birth is unknown. It is believed that she was born in 1443 or 1449 in her father's possessions in the Peloponnese, where she received her early education. The Vatican took upon itself the education of the royal orphans, entrusting them to Cardinal Bessarion of Nicaea. Greek by birth, former Archbishop of Nicaea, he was a zealous supporter of the signing of the Union of Florence, after which he became a cardinal in Rome. He raised Zoe Paleologue in European Catholic traditions and especially taught her to humbly follow the principles of Catholicism in everything, calling her “the beloved daughter of the Roman Church.” Only in this case, he inspired the pupil, will fate give you everything. However, everything turned out quite the opposite.

In those years, the Vatican was looking for allies to organize a new crusade against the Turks, intending to involve all European sovereigns in it. Then, on the advice of Cardinal Vissarion, the pope decided to marry Zoya to the recently widowed Moscow sovereign Ivan III, knowing about his desire to become the heir to the Byzantine basileus. This marriage served two political purposes. Firstly, they hoped that the Grand Duke of Muscovy would now accept the Union of Florence and submit to Rome. And secondly, he will become a powerful ally and recapture the former possessions of Byzantium, taking part of them as a dowry. So, by the irony of history, this fateful marriage for Russia was inspired by the Vatican. All that remained was to obtain Moscow's consent.

In February 1469, the ambassador of Cardinal Vissarion arrived in Moscow with a letter to the Grand Duke, in which he was invited to legally marry the daughter of the Despot of Morea. The letter mentioned, among other things, that Sophia (the name Zoya was diplomatically replaced with the Orthodox Sophia) had already refused two crowned suitors who had wooed her - the French king and the Duke of Milan, not wanting to marry a Catholic ruler.

According to the ideas of that time, Sophia was considered a middle-aged woman, but she was very attractive, with amazingly beautiful, expressive eyes and soft matte skin, which in Rus' was considered a sign of excellent health. And most importantly, she was distinguished by a sharp mind and an article worthy of a Byzantine princess.

The Moscow sovereign accepted the offer. He sent his ambassador, the Italian Gian Battista della Volpe (he was nicknamed Ivan Fryazin in Moscow), to Rome to make a match. The messenger returned a few months later, in November, bringing with him a portrait of the bride. This portrait, which seemed to mark the beginning of the era of Sophia Paleologus in Moscow, is considered the first secular image in Rus'. At least, they were so amazed by it that the chronicler called the portrait an “icon,” without finding another word: “And bring the princess on the icon.”

However, the matchmaking dragged on because Moscow Metropolitan Philip for a long time objected to the sovereign’s marriage to a Uniate woman, who was also a pupil of the papal throne, fearing the spread of Catholic influence in Rus'. Only in January 1472, having received the consent of the hierarch, Ivan III sent an embassy to Rome for the bride. Already on June 1, at the insistence of Cardinal Vissarion, a symbolic betrothal took place in Rome - the engagement of Princess Sophia and the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan, who was represented by the Russian ambassador Ivan Fryazin. That same June, Sophia set off on her journey with an honorary retinue and the papal legate Anthony, who soon had to see firsthand the futility of the hopes Rome placed on this marriage. According to Catholic tradition, a Latin cross was carried at the front of the procession, which caused great confusion and excitement among the residents of Russia. Having learned about this, Metropolitan Philip threatened the Grand Duke: “If you allow the cross in blessed Moscow to be carried before the Latin bishop, then he will enter the only gate, and I, your father, will go out of the city differently.” Ivan III immediately sent the boyar to meet the procession with the order to remove the cross from the sleigh, and the legate had to obey with great displeasure. The princess herself behaved as befits the future ruler of Rus'. Having entered the Pskov land, the first thing she did was visit an Orthodox church, where she venerated the icons. The legate had to obey here too: follow her to the church, and there venerate the holy icons and venerate the image of the Mother of God on the orders of despina (from the Greek despot - “ruler”). And then Sophia promised the admiring Pskovites her protection before the Grand Duke.

Ivan III did not intend to fight for the “inheritance” with the Turks, much less accept the Union of Florence. And Sophia had no intention of Catholicizing Rus'. On the contrary, she showed herself to be an active Orthodox Christian. Some historians believe that she did not care what faith she professed. Others suggest that Sophia, apparently raised in childhood by the Athonite elders, opponents of the Union of Florence, was deeply Orthodox at heart. She skillfully hid her faith from the powerful Roman “patrons”, who did not help her homeland, betraying it to the Gentiles for ruin and death. One way or another, this marriage only strengthened Muscovy, contributing to its conversion to the great Third Rome.

Kremlin despina

Church procession. Fragment of the veil. 1498. In the first row with a tablion on her chest is Sophia Paleologus. Early in the morning of November 12, 1472, Sophia Paleologus arrived in Moscow, where everything was ready for the wedding celebration dedicated to the name day of the Grand Duke - the day of remembrance of St. John Chrysostom. On the same day, in the Kremlin, in a temporary wooden church, erected near the Assumption Cathedral under construction, so as not to stop the services, the sovereign married her. The Byzantine princess saw her husband for the first time. The Grand Duke was young - only 32 years old, handsome, tall and stately. His eyes were especially remarkable, “formidable eyes”: when he was angry, women fainted from his terrible gaze. And before, Ivan Vasilyevich was distinguished by a tough character, but now, having become related to the Byzantine monarchs, he turned into a formidable and powerful sovereign. This was largely due to his young wife.

The wedding in a wooden church made a strong impression on Sophia Paleolog. The Byzantine princess, raised in Europe, differed in many ways from Russian women. Sophia brought with her her ideas about the court and the power of government, and many of the Moscow orders did not suit her heart. She did not like that her sovereign husband remained a tributary of the Tatar khan, that the boyar entourage behaved too freely with their sovereign. That the Russian capital, built entirely of wood, stands with patched fortress walls and dilapidated stone churches. That even the sovereign's mansions in the Kremlin are made of wood and that Russian women look at the world from a small window. Sophia Paleolog not only made changes at court. Some Moscow monuments owe their appearance to her.

She brought a generous dowry to Rus'. After the wedding, Ivan III adopted the Byzantine double-headed eagle as a coat of arms - a symbol of royal power, placing it on his seal. The two heads of the eagle face the West and the East, Europe and Asia, symbolizing their unity, as well as the unity (“symphony”) of spiritual and temporal power. Actually, Sophia’s dowry was the legendary “Liberia” - a library allegedly brought on 70 carts (better known as the “library of Ivan the Terrible”). It included Greek parchments, Latin chronographs, ancient Eastern manuscripts, among which were unknown to us poems by Homer, works by Aristotle and Plato, and even surviving books from the famous Library of Alexandria. Seeing wooden Moscow, burned after the fire of 1470, Sophia was afraid for the fate of the treasure and for the first time hid the books in the basement of the stone Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary on Senya - the home church of the Moscow Grand Duchesses, built by order of St. Eudokia, the widow of Dmitry Donskoy. And, according to Moscow custom, she put her own treasury for preservation in the underground of the Kremlin Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist - the very first church in Moscow, which stood until 1847.

According to legend, she brought with her a “bone throne” as a gift to her husband: its wooden frame was entirely covered with plates of ivory and walrus ivory with scenes on biblical themes carved on them. This throne is known to us as the throne of Ivan the Terrible: the king is depicted on it by the sculptor M. Antokolsky. In 1896, the throne was installed in the Assumption Cathedral for the coronation of Nicholas II. But the sovereign ordered it to be staged for Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (according to other sources, for his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna), and he himself wished to be crowned on the throne of the first Romanov. And now the throne of Ivan the Terrible is the oldest in the Kremlin collection.

Sophia also brought with her several Orthodox icons, including, as is believed, a rare icon of the Mother of God “Blessed Heaven”. The icon was in the local rank of the iconostasis of the Kremlin Archangel Cathedral. True, according to another legend, this icon was brought to ancient Smolensk from Constantinople, and when the city was captured by Lithuania, this image was used to bless the Lithuanian princess Sofya Vitovtovna for marriage with the Great Moscow Prince Vasily I. The icon that is now in the cathedral is a list from that ancient image, executed by order of Fyodor Alekseevich at the end of the 17th century. According to tradition, Muscovites brought water and lamp oil to the image of the Mother of God “Blessed Heaven,” which were filled with healing properties, since this icon had a special, miraculous healing power. And even after the wedding of Ivan III, an image of the Byzantine Emperor Michael III, the founder of the Palaeologus dynasty, with which the Moscow rulers became related, appeared in the Archangel Cathedral. Thus, the continuity of Moscow to the Byzantine Empire was established, and the Moscow sovereigns appeared as the heirs of the Byzantine emperors.

After the wedding, Ivan III himself felt the need to rebuild the Kremlin into a powerful and impregnable citadel. It all started with the disaster of 1474, when the Assumption Cathedral, built by Pskov craftsmen, collapsed. Rumors immediately spread among the people that the trouble had happened because of the “Greek woman,” who had previously been in “Latinism.” While the reasons for the collapse were being clarified, Sophia advised her husband to invite Italian architects, who were then the best craftsmen in Europe. Their creations could make Moscow equal in beauty and majesty to European capitals and support the prestige of the Moscow sovereign, as well as emphasize the continuity of Moscow not only with the Second, but also with the First Rome. Scientists have noticed that the Italians traveled to the unknown Muscovy without fear, because despina could give them protection and help. Sometimes there is an assertion that it was Sophia who suggested to her husband the idea of ​​inviting Aristotle Fioravanti, whom she might have heard of in Italy or even known him personally, because he was famous in his homeland as the “new Archimedes.” Whether this is true or not, only the Russian ambassador Semyon Tolbuzin, sent by Ivan III to Italy, invited Fioravanti to Moscow, and he happily agreed.

A special, secret order awaited him in Moscow. Fioravanti drew up a master plan for the new Kremlin being built by his compatriots. There is an assumption that the impregnable fortress was built to protect Liberia. In the Assumption Cathedral, the architect made a deep underground crypt, where they placed a priceless library. This cache was accidentally discovered by Grand Duke Vasily III many years after the death of his parents. At his invitation, Maxim the Greek came to Moscow in 1518 to translate these books, and allegedly managed to tell Ivan the Terrible, son of Vasily III, about them before his death. Where this library ended up during the time of Ivan the Terrible is still unknown. They looked for her in the Kremlin, and in Kolomenskoye, and in Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, and at the site of the Oprichnina Palace on Mokhovaya. And now there is an assumption that Liberia rests under the bottom of the Moscow River, in dungeons dug from the chambers of Malyuta Skuratov.

The construction of some Kremlin churches is also associated with the name of Sophia Paleologus. The first of them was the cathedral in the name of St. Nicholas of Gostunsky, built near the bell tower of Ivan the Great. Previously, there was a Horde courtyard where the khan's governors lived, and such a neighborhood depressed the Kremlin despina. According to legend, Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker himself appeared to Sophia in a dream and ordered the construction of an Orthodox church in that place. Sophia showed herself to be a subtle diplomat: she sent an embassy with rich gifts to the khan’s wife and, telling about the wonderful vision that had appeared to her, asked to give her land in exchange for another - outside the Kremlin. Consent was received, and in 1477 the wooden St. Nicholas Cathedral appeared, which was later replaced by a stone one and stood until 1817. (Remember that the deacon of this church was the pioneer printer Ivan Fedorov). However, historian Ivan Zabelin believed that, on the orders of Sophia Paleologus, another church was built in the Kremlin, consecrated in the name of Saints Cosmas and Damian, which did not survive to this day.

Traditions call Sophia Palaeologus the founder of the Spassky Cathedral, which, however, was rebuilt during the construction of the Terem Palace in the 17th century and was then called Verkhospassky - because of its location. Another legend says that Sophia Paleologus brought the temple image of the Savior Not Made by Hands of this cathedral to Moscow. In the 19th century, the artist Sorokin painted an image of the Lord from it for the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. This image has miraculously survived to this day and is now located in the lower (stylobate) Transfiguration Church as its main shrine. It is known that Sophia Paleolog really brought the image of the Savior Not Made by Hands, which her father blessed. The frame of this image was kept in the Kremlin Cathedral of the Savior on Bor, and on the analogue lay the icon of the All-Merciful Savior, also brought by Sophia.

Another story is connected with the Church of the Savior on Bor, which was then the cathedral church of the Kremlin Spassky Monastery, and the despina, thanks to which the Novospassky Monastery appeared in Moscow. After the wedding, the Grand Duke still lived in wooden mansions, which constantly burned in the frequent Moscow fires. One day, Sophia herself had to escape the fire, and she finally asked her husband to build a stone palace. The Emperor decided to please his wife and fulfilled her request. So the Cathedral of the Savior on Bor, together with the monastery, was cramped by new palace buildings. And in 1490, Ivan III moved the monastery to the bank of the Moscow River, five miles from the Kremlin. Since then, the monastery began to be called Novospassky, and the Cathedral of the Savior on Bor remained an ordinary parish church. Due to the construction of the palace, the Kremlin Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary on Senya, which was also damaged by the fire, was not restored for a long time. Only when the palace was finally ready (and this happened only under Vasily III) did it have a second floor, and in 1514 the architect Aleviz Fryazin raised the Church of the Nativity to a new level, which is why it is still visible from Mokhovaya Street.

In the 19th century, during excavations in the Kremlin, a bowl with ancient coins minted under the Roman Emperor Tiberius was discovered. According to scientists, these coins were brought by someone from the numerous retinue of Sophia Paleologus, which included natives of both Rome and Constantinople. Many of them took government positions, becoming treasurers, ambassadors, and translators. In Despina's retinue, A. Chicheri, the ancestor of Pushkin's grandmother, Olga Vasilievna Chicherina, and the famous Soviet diplomat, arrived in Rus'. Later, Sophia invited doctors from Italy for the family of the Grand Duke. The practice of healing was then very dangerous for foreigners, especially when it came to treating the first person of the state. The complete recovery of the highest patient was required, but in the event of the patient’s death, the life of the doctor himself was taken away.

Thus, the doctor Leon, discharged by Sophia from Venice, vouched with his head that he would cure the heir, Prince Ivan Ivanovich the Young, who suffered from gout, the eldest son of Ivan III from his first wife. However, the heir died, and the doctor was executed in Zamoskvorechye on Bolvanovka. The people blamed Sophia for the death of the young prince: she could especially benefit from the death of the heir, for she dreamed of the throne for her son Vasily, born in 1479.

Sophia was not loved in Moscow for her influence on the Grand Duke and for the changes in Moscow life - “great unrest,” as boyar Bersen-Beklemishev put it. She also intervened in foreign policy affairs, insisting that Ivan III stop paying tribute to the Horde khan and free himself from his power. And as if one day she said to her husband: “I refused my hand to rich, strong princes and kings, for the sake of faith I married you, and now you want to make me and my children tributaries; Don’t you have enough troops?” As noted by V.O. Klyuchevsky, Sophia’s skillful advice always answered the secret intentions of her husband. Ivan III really refused to pay tribute and trampled on the Khan’s charter right in the Horde courtyard in Zamoskvorechye, where the Transfiguration Church was later built. But even then the people “talked” against Sophia. Before leaving for the great stand on the Ugra in 1480, Ivan III sent his wife and small children to Beloozero, for which he was credited with secret intentions to give up power and flee with his wife if Khan Akhmat took Moscow.

Freed from the khan's yoke, Ivan III felt himself a sovereign sovereign. Through the efforts of Sophia, palace etiquette began to resemble Byzantine etiquette. The Grand Duke gave his wife a “gift”: he allowed her to have her own “Duma” of members of her retinue and arrange “diplomatic receptions” in her half. She received foreign ambassadors and struck up polite conversation with them. For Rus' this was an unheard of innovation. The treatment at the sovereign's court also changed. The Byzantine princess brought sovereign rights to her husband and, according to historian F.I. Uspensky, the right to the throne of Byzantium, which the boyars had to reckon with. Previously, Ivan III loved “meeting against himself,” that is, objections and disputes, but under Sophia he changed his treatment of the courtiers, began to behave inaccessibly, demanded special respect and easily fell into anger, every now and then inflicting disgrace. These misfortunes were also attributed to the harmful influence of Sophia Paleologus.

Meanwhile, their family life was not cloudless. In 1483, Sophia's brother Andrei married his daughter to Prince Vasily Vereisky, the great-grandson of Dmitry Donskoy. Sophia presented her niece with a valuable gift from the sovereign's treasury for her wedding - a piece of jewelry that previously belonged to the first wife of Ivan III, Maria Borisovna, naturally believing herself to have every right to make this gift. When the Grand Duke missed the decoration to present his daughter-in-law Elena Voloshanka, who gave him his grandson Dmitry, such a storm broke out that Vereisky had to flee to Lithuania.

And soon storm clouds loomed over Sophia’s head: strife began over the heir to the throne. Ivan III left his grandson Dmitry, born in 1483, from his eldest son. Sophia gave birth to his son Vasily. Which of them should have gotten the throne? This uncertainty became the reason for the struggle between two court parties - supporters of Dmitry and his mother Elena Voloshanka and supporters of Vasily and Sophia Paleologus.

“The Greek” was immediately accused of violating the legal succession to the throne. In 1497, enemies told the Grand Duke that Sophia wanted to poison his grandson in order to place her own son on the throne, that she was secretly visited by sorcerers preparing a poisonous potion, and that Vasily himself was participating in this conspiracy. Ivan III took the side of his grandson, arrested Vasily, ordered the witches to be drowned in the Moscow River, and removed his wife from himself, demonstratively executing several members of her “duma.” Already in 1498, he crowned Dmitry as heir to the throne in the Assumption Cathedral. Scientists believe that it was then that the famous “Tale of the Princes of Vladimir” was born - a literary monument of the late 15th - early 16th centuries, which tells the story of Monomakh’s hat, which the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Monomakh allegedly sent with regalia to his grandson, the Kiev prince Vladimir Monomakh. In this way, it was proven that the Russian princes became related to the Byzantine rulers back in the days of Kievan Rus and that a descendant of the elder branch, that is, Dmitry, has a legal right to the throne.

However, the ability to weave court intrigue was in Sophia’s blood. She managed to achieve the fall of Elena Voloshanka, accusing her of adherence to heresy. Then the Grand Duke put his daughter-in-law and grandson into disgrace and in 1500 named Vasily the legal heir to the throne. Who knows what path Russian history would have taken if not for Sophia! But Sophia did not have long to enjoy the victory. She died in April 1503 and was buried with honor in the Kremlin Ascension Monastery. Ivan III died two years later, and in 1505 Vasily III ascended the throne.

Nowadays, scientists have been able to reconstruct her sculptural portrait from the skull of Sophia Paleologus. Before us appears a woman of outstanding intelligence and strong will, which confirms the numerous legends built around her name.

Biography

Family

Her father, Thomas Palaiologos, was the brother of the last emperor of Byzantium, Constantine XI, and despot of the Morea (Peloponnese Peninsula).

Despotate of the Morea in 1450

Her maternal grandfather was Centurion II Zaccaria, the last Frankish prince of Achaia. Centurione came from a Genoese merchant family. His father was appointed to rule Achaia by the Neapolitan king Charles III of Anjou. Centurione inherited power from his father and ruled the principality until 1430, when the Despot of the Morea, Thomas Palaiologos, launched a large-scale attack on his domain. This forced the prince to retreat to his ancestral castle in Messenia, where he died in 1432, two years after the peace treaty in which Thomas married his daughter Catherine. After his death, the territory of the principality became part of the despotate.

4 generations of Sofia's ancestors (family tree)

Zoe's elder sister Elena Paleologina of Morea (1431 - November 7, 1473) was the wife of the Serbian despot Lazar Branković from 1446, and after the capture of Serbia by Muslims in 1459, she fled to the Greek island of Lefkada, where she became a nun. Thomas also had two surviving sons, Andrei Paleologus (1453-1502) and Manuel Paleologus (1455-1512).

Italy

Sixtus IV Vissarion of Nicaea

The decisive factor in Zoya’s fate was the fall of the Byzantine Empire. Emperor Constantine died in 1453 during the capture of Constantinople, 7 years later, in 1460, Morea was captured by the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II, Thomas went to the island of Corfu, then to Rome, where he soon died. Zoya and her brothers, 7-year-old Andrei and 5-year-old Manuil, moved to Rome 5 years after their father. There she received the name Sofia. The paleologians settled at the court of Pope Sixtus IV (the customer of the Sistine Chapel). To gain support, Thomas converted to Catholicism in the last year of his life.

After the death of Thomas on May 12, 1465 (his wife Catherine died a little earlier in the same year), the famous Greek scientist, Cardinal Vissarion of Nicaea, a supporter of the union, took charge of his children. His letter has been preserved, in which he gave instructions to the teacher of orphans. From this letter it follows that the pope will continue to allocate 3600 ecus per year for their maintenance (200 ecus per month: for children, their clothes, horses and servants; plus they should have saved for a rainy day, and spent 100 ecus on the maintenance of a modest courtyard , which included a doctor, a professor of Latin, a professor of Greek, a translator and 1-2 priests).

After the death of Thomas, the crown of the Palaiologos was de jure inherited by his son Andrei, who sold it to various European monarchs and died in poverty. The second son of Thomas Palaiologos, Manuel, returned to Istanbul during the reign of Bayezid II and surrendered to the mercy of the Sultan. According to some sources, he converted to Islam, started a family and served in the Turkish navy.

In 1466, the Venetian lordship proposed Sophia as a bride to the Cypriot king Jacques II de Lusignan, but he refused. According to Fr. Pirlinga, the shine of her name and the glory of her ancestors were a poor bulwark against the Ottoman ships cruising in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Around 1467, Pope Paul II, through Cardinal Vissarion, offered her hand to Prince Caracciolo, a noble Italian rich man. They were solemnly engaged, but the marriage did not take place.

Wedding

Banner "Sermon of John the Baptist" from Oratorio San Giovanni, Urbino. Italian experts believe that Vissarion and Sofia Paleologus (3rd and 4th characters from the left) are depicted in the crowd of listeners. Gallery of the Province of Marche, Urbino.

Ivan III was widowed in 1467 - his first wife Maria Borisovna, Princess Tverskaya died, leaving him with his only son, heir - Ivan the Young.

The marriage of Sophia to Ivan III was proposed in 1469 by Pope Paul II, presumably in the hope of strengthening the influence of the Catholic Church in Rus' or, perhaps, bringing the Catholic and Orthodox churches closer together - restoring the Florentine union of churches. Ivan III's motives were probably related to status, and the recently widowed monarch agreed to marry the Greek princess. The idea of ​​marriage may have originated in the head of Cardinal Vissarion.

Negotiations lasted three years. The Russian chronicle tells: on February 11, 1469, the Greek Yuri arrived in Moscow from Cardinal Vissarion to the Grand Duke with a sheet in which Sophia, the daughter of the Amorite despot Thomas, an “Orthodox Christian” was offered to the Grand Duke as a bride (her conversion to Catholicism was kept silent). Ivan III consulted with his mother, Metropolitan Philip and the boyars, and made a positive decision.

Front chronicle: “That same winter in February, on the 11th day, a Greek named Yuri came from Rome from Cardinal Vissarion to the Grand Duke with a letter in which it was written that “in Rome, the Amorite despot Thomas the Old Speaker from the kingdom of Constantinograd has a daughter named Sophia, Orthodox Christian; if she wants to take her as a wife, then I will send her to your state. And the King of France and the Great Prince Medyadinsky sent matchmakers to her, but she doesn’t want to go into Latinism.” Also came the rags: Carlo named Ivan Fryazin, the Moscow moneyman, the elder brother, and the nephew, their elder brother’s son Anton. The great prince heeded these words, and having thought about this with his father, Metropolitan Philip, and with his mother, and with the boyars, that same spring, in March, on the 20th day, he sent Ivan Fryazin to Pope Paul and that cardinal Vissarion to see the princess. He came to the pope, saw the princess and explained what he was sent to the pope and told Cardinal Vissarion. The princess, having learned that the Grand Duke and his entire land were in the Orthodox Christian faith, delighted for him. The Pope, having honored the ambassador of the Grand Duke Ivan Fryazin, released him to the Grand Duke in order to give the princess for him, but let him send his boyars for her. And the pope gave his letters to Ivan Fryazin that the ambassadors of the Grand Duke should voluntarily walk for two years throughout all the lands that swear allegiance to his papacy, until Rome.”

Fedor Bronnikov. “Meeting of Princess Sofia Paleolog with the Pskov mayors and boyars at the mouth of the Embakh on Lake Peipus” Sofia Paleolog enters Moscow. Miniature of the Facial Chronicle Code

In 1469, Ivan Fryazin (Gian Batista della Volpe) was sent to the Roman court to woo Sophia for the Grand Duke. The Sofia Chronicle testifies that a portrait of the bride was sent back to Rus' with Ivan Fryazin, and such secular painting turned out to be an extreme surprise in Moscow - “... and the princess was written on the icon.” (This portrait has not survived, which is very unfortunate, since it was probably painted by a painter in the papal service of the generation of Perugino, Melozzo da Forli and Pedro Berruguete). The Pope received the ambassador with great honor. He asked the Grand Duke to send boyars for the bride. Fryazin went to Rome for the second time on January 16, 1472, and arrived there on May 23.

On June 1, 1472, an absentee betrothal took place in the Basilica of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. The deputy of the Grand Duke was Ivan Fryazin. The wife of the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo the Magnificent, Clarice Orsini, and Queen Katarina of Bosnia were present as guests. The father, in addition to gifts, gave the bride a dowry of 6 thousand ducats.

On June 24, 1472, a large convoy of Sofia Paleologus, together with Fryazin, left Rome. The bride was accompanied by Cardinal Vissarion of Nicea, who was supposed to realize the emerging opportunities for the Holy See. Legend has it that Sofia's dowry included books that would form the basis of the collection of the famous library of Ivan the Terrible.

• Sophia's retinue: Yuri Trakhaniot, Dmitry Trakhaniot, Prince Constantine, Dmitry (ambassador of her brothers), St. Cassian the Greek. And also the papal legate, the Genoese Anthony Bonumbre, Bishop of Accia (his chronicles are mistakenly called a cardinal). The nephew of diplomat Ivan Fryazin, architect Anton Fryazin, also arrived with her.

The travel route was as follows: north from Italy through Germany, they arrived at the port of Lubeck on September 1. (We had to go around Poland, through which travelers usually followed the land route to Rus' - at that moment she was in a state of conflict with Ivan III). The sea journey through the Baltic took 11 days. The ship landed in Kolyvan (modern Tallinn), from where the motorcade in October 1472 proceeded through Yuryev (modern Tartu), Pskov and Veliky Novgorod. On November 12, 1472, Sofia entered Moscow.

Even during the bride’s journey through Russian lands, it became obvious that the Vatican’s plans to make her a conductor of Catholicism failed, since Sophia immediately demonstrated a return to the faith of her ancestors. The papal legate Anthony Bonumbre was deprived of the opportunity to enter Moscow, carrying the Latin cross in front of him (see Korsun cross).

The wedding in Russia took place on November 12 (22), 1472 in the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow. They were married by Metropolitan Philip (according to the Sophia Vremennik - Kolomna archpriest Hosea). According to some indications, Metropolitan Philip was against a marriage union with a Uniate woman. The official grand ducal chronicle states that it was the metropolitan who crowned the grand duke, but the unofficial code (consisting of the Chronicles of Sophia II and Lvov) denies the participation of the metropolitan in this ceremony: “when the archpriest of Kolomna Osei crowned, he did not command the local archpriest and his confessor...”.

Dowry

The Moscow Kremlin Museums contain several items associated with her name. Among them are several precious relics originating from the Annunciation Cathedral, whose frames were probably created in Moscow. Judging by the inscriptions, it can be assumed that she brought the relics contained in them from Rome.

"Savior Not Made by Hands." Board - 15th century (?), painting - 19th century (?), frame - last quarter (17th century). Tsata and fraction with the image of Basil the Great - 1853. MMK. According to a legend recorded in mid. 19th century, the image was brought to Moscow from Rome by Sophia Paleologus.

Pectoral reliquary icon. Frame - Moscow, second half of the 15th century; cameo - Byzantium, XII–XIII centuries. (?)

Pectoral icon. Constantinople, X-XI centuries; frame - late 13th - early 14th centuries.

Icon "Our Lady Hodegetria", 15th century

Married life

Sofia's family life, apparently, was successful, as evidenced by her numerous offspring.

Special mansions and a courtyard were built for her in Moscow, but they soon burned down in 1493, and during the fire the Grand Duchess’s treasury was also lost. Tatishchev reports evidence that, thanks to Sophia’s intervention, the Tatar yoke was thrown off by Ivan III: when at the council of the Grand Duke Khan Akhmat’s demand for tribute was discussed, and many said that it was better to pacify the wicked with gifts than to shed blood, then Sophia allegedly burst into tears and with reproaches persuaded her husband to end the tributary relationship.

Before the invasion of Akhmat in 1480, for the sake of safety, with her children, court, noblewomen and princely treasury, Sofia was sent first to Dmitrov, and then to Beloozero; if Akhmat crossed the Oka and took Moscow, she was told to flee further north to the sea. This gave Vissarion, the ruler of Rostov, a reason to warn the Grand Duke against constant thoughts and excessive attachment to his wife and children in his message. One of the chronicles notes that Ivan panicked: “he was horrified and wanted to run away from the shore, and sent his Grand Duchess Roman and the treasury with her to Beloozero.”

The family returned to Moscow only in winter. The Venetian ambassador Contarini says that in 1476 he introduced himself to the Grand Duchess Sofia, who received him politely and kindly and convincingly asked him to bow to the most serene republic on her behalf.

“Vision of St. Sergius of Radonezh to the Grand Duchess Sophia Paleologus of Moscow." Lithography. Workshop of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. 1866

There is a legend associated with the birth of Sophia’s son Vasily III, heir to the throne: as if during one of the pilgrimage campaigns to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, in Klementyevo, Grand Duchess Sophia Paleologus had a vision of the Venerable Sergius of Radonezh, who “was cast into the bowels of her as a young man floor."

Dynastic problems and rivalries

Over time, the Grand Duke's second marriage became one of the sources of tension at court. Soon enough, two groups of the court nobility emerged, one of which supported the heir to the throne, Ivan Ivanovich the Young, and the second, the new Grand Duchess Sophia Paleologue. In 1476, the Venetian A. Contarini noted that the heir “is in disgrace with his father, since he behaves badly with his despina” (Sophia), but already from 1477 Ivan Ivanovich was mentioned as his father’s co-ruler.

In subsequent years, the grand ducal family grew significantly: Sophia gave birth to the grand duke a total of nine children - five sons and four daughters.

"The Veil of Elena Voloshanka." Workshop of Elena Stefanovna Voloshanka (?) depicting the ceremony of 1498. Sophia is probably depicted in the lower left corner wearing a yellow cloak with a round patch on her shoulder - a tablion, a sign of royal dignity.

Meanwhile, in January 1483, the heir to the throne, Ivan Ivanovich the Young, also married. His wife was the daughter of the ruler of Moldova, Stephen the Great, Elena Voloshanka, who immediately found herself at odds with her mother-in-law. On October 10, 1483, their son Dmitry was born. After the annexation of Tver in 1485, Ivan the Young was appointed Prince of Tver by his father; in one of the sources of this period, Ivan III and Ivan the Young are called “autocrats of the Russian land.” Thus, throughout the 1480s, Ivan Ivanovich’s position as the legal heir was quite strong.

The position of the supporters of Sophia Paleologus was less favorable. Thus, in particular, the Grand Duchess failed to obtain government positions for her relatives; her brother Andrei left Moscow with nothing, and her niece Maria, the wife of Prince Vasily Vereisky (heir to the Vereisko-Belozersky principality), was forced to flee to Lithuania with her husband, which also affected Sophia’s position. According to sources, Sophia, having arranged the marriage of her niece and Prince Vasily Vereisky, in 1483 gave her relative a precious piece of jewelry - a “fat” with pearls and stones, which had previously belonged to the first wife of Ivan III, Maria Borisovna. The Grand Duke, who wished to bestow a fathom on Elena Voloshanka, upon discovering the loss of the jewelry, became angry and ordered a search to begin. Vasily Vereisky did not wait for measures against himself and, capturing his wife, fled to Lithuania. One of the results of this story was the transfer of the Vereisko-Belozersky principality to Ivan III according to the will of the appanage prince Mikhail Vereisky, Vasily’s father. Only in 1493 did Sofia obtain Vasily’s favor from the Grand Duke: the disgrace was lifted.

However, by 1490 new circumstances came into play. The son of the Grand Duke, heir to the throne, Ivan Ivanovich, fell ill with “kamchyuga in the legs” (gout). Sophia ordered a doctor from Venice - “Mistro Leon”, who arrogantly promised Ivan III to cure the heir to the throne; however, all the doctor’s efforts were fruitless, and on March 7, 1490, Ivan the Young died. The doctor was executed, and rumors spread throughout Moscow about the poisoning of the heir; a hundred years later, these rumors, now as undeniable facts, were recorded by Andrei Kurbsky. Modern historians regard the hypothesis of the poisoning of Ivan the Young as unverifiable due to a lack of sources.

On February 4, 1498, the coronation of Prince Dmitry took place in the Assumption Cathedral. Sophia and her son Vasily were not invited. However, on April 11, 1502, the dynastic battle came to its logical conclusion. According to the chronicle, Ivan III “put disgrace on his grandson, Grand Duke Dmitry, and on his mother, Grand Duchess Elena, and from that day on he did not order them to be remembered in litanies and litias, or named Grand Duke, and put them behind bailiffs.” A few days later, Vasily Ivanovich was granted a great reign; Soon Dmitry the grandson and his mother Elena Voloshanka were transferred from house arrest to captivity. Thus, the struggle within the grand ducal family ended with the victory of Prince Vasily; he turned into a co-ruler of his father and the legal heir of a huge power. The fall of Dmitry the grandson and his mother also predetermined the fate of the Moscow-Novgorod reform movement in the Orthodox Church: the Church Council of 1503 finally defeated it; many prominent and progressive figures of this movement were executed. As for the fate of those who lost the dynastic struggle themselves, it was sad: on January 18, 1505, Elena Stefanovna died in captivity, and in 1509, “in need, in prison,” Dmitry himself died. “Some believe that he died from hunger and cold, others that he suffocated from smoke,” Herberstein reported about his death.

Death

Death and burial of the Grand Duchess

She was buried in a massive white stone sarcophagus in the tomb of the Ascension Cathedral in the Kremlin next to the grave of Maria Borisovna, the first wife of Ivan III. The word “Sophia” was scratched on the lid of the sarcophagus with a sharp instrument.

This cathedral was destroyed in 1929, and the remains of Sophia, like other women of the reigning house, were transferred to the underground chamber of the southern extension of the Archangel Cathedral.

Personality

Attitude of contemporaries

The Byzantine princess was not popular; she was considered smart, but proud, cunning and treacherous. The hostility towards her was even reflected in the chronicles: for example, regarding her return from Beloozero, the chronicler notes: “Grand Duchess Sophia... ran from the Tatars to Beloozero, but no one chased her away; and through which countries she walked, especially the Tatars - from the boyar slaves, from the Christian bloodsuckers. Reward them, O Lord, according to their deeds and the wickedness of their undertakings.”

Shroud from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra

The disgraced Duma man of Vasily III, Bersen Beklemishev, in a conversation with Maxim the Greek, spoke about it like this: “Our Russian land lived in silence and in peace. Just as the mother of the Grand Duke Sophia came here with your Greeks, so our land was confused and great unrest came to us, just like you did in Constantinople under your kings.” Maxim objected: “Sir, Grand Duchess Sophia was from a great family on both sides: on her father - the royal family, and on her mother - the Grand Duke of the Italian side.” Bersen replied: “Whatever it is; Yes, it has come to our discord.” This disorder, according to Bersen, was reflected in the fact that from that time “the great prince changed the old customs,” “now our Sovereign, having locked himself in the third place at his bedside, does all sorts of things.”

Prince Andrei Kurbsky is especially strict towards Sofia. He is convinced that “the devil instilled evil morals into the good family of Russian princes, especially through their evil wives and sorcerers, just as among the kings of Israel, especially those whom they stole from foreigners”; accuses Sophia of poisoning John the Young, in the death of Elena, in the imprisonment of Dmitry, Prince Andrei Uglitsky and other persons, contemptuously calls her a Greek, a Greek “sorceress”.

The Trinity-Sergius Monastery houses a silk shroud sewn by the hands of Sophia in 1498; her name is embroidered on the shroud, and she calls herself not the Grand Duchess of Moscow, but “the princess of Tsaregorod.” Apparently, she highly valued her former title if she remembers it even after 26 years of marriage.

Appearance

When in 1472 Clarice Orsini and the court poet of her husband Luigi Pulci witnessed a wedding in absentia that took place in the Vatican, the poisonous wit of Pulci, in order to amuse Lorenzo the Magnificent, who remained in Florence, sent him a report about this event and the appearance of the bride:

“We entered a room where a painted doll was sitting in a chair on a high platform. She had two huge Turkish pearls on her chest, a double chin, thick cheeks, her whole face was shiny with fat, her eyes were open like bowls, and around her eyes there were such ridges of fat and meat, like high dams on the Po. The legs are also far from thin, and so are all the other parts of the body - I have never seen such a funny and disgusting person as this fairground cracker. All day long she chatted incessantly through an interpreter - this time it was her brother, the same thick-legged cudgel. Your wife, as if under a spell, saw a beauty in this monster in female form, and the translator’s speeches clearly gave her pleasure. One of our companions even admired the painted lips of this doll and thought that it spits amazingly gracefully. All day long, until the evening, she chatted in Greek, but we were not given food or drink in either Greek, Latin, or Italian. However, she somehow managed to explain to Donna Clarice that she was wearing a tight and bad dress, although the dress was made of rich silk and cut from at least six pieces of material, so that they could cover the dome of Santa Maria Rotunda. Since then, every night I dream of mountains of oil, grease, lard, rags and other similar disgusting things.”

According to the Bolognese chroniclers, who described the passage of her procession through the city, she was short in stature, had very beautiful eyes and amazingly white skin. They looked like she was 24 years old.

Sofia Paleolog

Good and evil measured
The scales of uneven domes,
O Byzantine brow,
Half-smile of bloodless lips!
Not by argument and not by sword
Constantinople was forged and molded.
The naive barbarian was seduced
His insidious splendor.
More than once a skilled god,
Creating on cypress boards,
Saved him from destruction
An image of flat faces.
And where are the limits to celebration?
When - the captured firebird -
They were transporting an overseas queen
To the capital of Moscow.
Like helmets there were domes.
They swayed in the ringing.
She kept it in her heart
Like the palms of white swallows.
And it was already undeniable
The law of the sword in conditional matters...
Half-smile of bloodless lips
She met the Third Rome.

In December 1994, research into the remains of the princess began in Moscow. They are well preserved (almost complete skeleton with the exception of some small bones). Criminologist Sergei Nikitin, who restored her appearance using Gerasimov’s method, points out: “After comparing the skull, spine, sacrum, pelvic bones and lower extremities, taking into account the approximate thickness of the missing soft tissues and interosseous cartilages, it was possible to find out that Sophia was of short stature, about 160 cm, plump, with strong-willed facial features. Based on the degree of healing of the sutures of the skull and wear of the teeth, the biological age of the Grand Duchess was determined to be 50-60 years, which corresponds to historical data. First, her sculptural portrait was sculpted from special soft plasticine, and then a plaster cast was made and tinted to resemble Carrara marble.”

The features of the “Mediterranean” anthropological type in the appearance of Ivan the Terrible and his resemblance to his paternal grandmother finally refuted the rumors that his mother Elena Glinskaya gave birth to him from her lover.

Sofia, reconstruction based on the skull

Vasily III, son

Ivan IV, grandson

Great-great-granddaughter, Princess Maria Staritskaya. According to scientists, her face shows a strong resemblance to Sofia

Role in history

There are different versions regarding the role of Sophia Paleologus in the history of the Russian state:

• Artists and architects were called from Western Europe to decorate the palace and capital. New temples and new palaces were erected. The Italian Alberti (Aristotle) ​​Fioravanti built the Assumption and Annunciation Cathedrals. Moscow was decorated with the Palace of Facets, the Kremlin towers, the Terem Palace, and finally the Archangel Cathedral was built.
• For the sake of the marriage of her son Vasily III, she introduced a Byzantine custom - a viewing of brides.
• Third Rome

In art

literature:

• Nikolai Spassky, novel “The Byzantine”. The action takes place in 15th-century Italy amid the aftermath of the fall of Constantinople. The main character intrigues to marry Zoya Paleolog to the Russian Tsar.
• Georgios Leonardos, novel “Sophia Palaiologos - from Byzantium to Russia.”
• Nikolai Aksakov dedicated a story to the Venetian doctor Leon Zhidovin, which spoke about the friendship of the Jewish doctor with the humanist Pico della Mirandola, and about the journey from Italy with the brother of Queen Sophia Andrei Paleologus, Russian envoys Semyon Tolbuzin, Manuil and Dmitry Ralev, and Italian masters - architects , jewelers, gunners. - invited to serve by the Moscow sovereign.
• Ivan Lazhechnikov. “Basurman” is a novel about the doctor Sofia.

in painting and graphics:

• As the 19th century dictionary indicates, there is a fresco on which, among the dethroned sovereigns surrounding Pope Sixtus IV, Sophia is placed; “but judging by the costumes, this image was probably made not in the 15th century, but much later.”
• Abegyan, Mher Manukovich (1909-1978). Drawing “The wedding of Ivan III with the Byzantine princess Sophia.”

Sofia Paleolog: genius and villainy

Start over. Sophia, or in infancy Zoya, was born into the family of Thomas Palaiologos, the despot of the Morea. He was the younger brother of the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI, who died during the fall of Constantinople in the mid-15th century.

It is after this phrase that sometimes chaos begins in people’s thinking. Well, if the father is a despot, then who should the daughter be? And a hail of accusations begins. Meanwhile, if we show a little curiosity and look into the dictionary, which does not always interpret words in monosyllables, then we can read something different about the word “despot”.

It turns out that the highest-ranking Byzantine nobles were called despots. And despotates are divisions in the state, similar to modern provinces or states. So Sofia’s father was a nobleman who led one of these pieces of the state - a despotate.

She was not the only child in the family - she had two more brothers: Manuel and Andrey. The family professed Orthodoxy, the mother of the children, Ekaterina Akhaiskaya, was a very church-going woman, which she taught her children.

But the years were very difficult. The Byzantine Empire was on the verge of collapse. And when Constantine XI died and the capital was captured by the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II, the Paleologus family was forced to flee their family nest. They first settled on the island of Corfu and later moved to Rome.

In Rome, children were orphaned. First, the mother died, and then, six months later, Thomas Paleologus also went to the Lord. The education of orphans was taken up by the Greek scientist, Uniate Vissarion of Nicea, who served as a cardinal under Pope Sixtus IV (yes, he was the one who ordered the construction of the chapel, which now bears his name - the Sistine).

And naturally, Zoya and her brothers were raised Catholic. But at the same time, the children also received a good education. They knew Latin and Greek, mathematics and astronomy, and spoke several languages ​​fluently.

The Pope showed such virtue not only out of compassion for orphans. His thoughts were much more pragmatic. In order to restore the Florentine union of churches and join the Moscow state to the union, he decided to marry Sophia Paleologus to the Russian prince Ivan III, who had recently been a widower.

The widowed prince liked the Pope's desire to unite the ancient Moscow family with the famous Paleologus family. But he himself could not decide anything. Ivan III asked his mother for advice on what to do. The offer was tempting, but he understood perfectly well that not only his personal fate was at stake, but also the fate of the state, whose ruler he would become. His father, Grand Duke Vasily II of Moscow, nicknamed the Dark One because of his blindness, appointed his 16-year-old son as his co-ruler. And at the time of the alleged matchmaking, Vasily II had already died.

The mother sent her son to Metropolitan Philip. He spoke out sharply against the upcoming marriage and did not give his highest blessing to the prince. As for Ivan III himself, he liked the idea of ​​marriage with a Byzantine princess. Indeed, by doing so, Moscow became the heir of Byzantium - the “third Rome”, which incredibly strengthened the authority of the Grand Duke not only in his own country, but also in relations with neighboring states.

After some thought, he sent his ambassador to Rome, the Italian Jean-Baptiste della Volpe, who in Moscow was called much more simply: Ivan Fryazin. His personality is very interesting. He was not only the main minter of coins at the court of Grand Duke Ivan III, but also the tax farmer of this very profitable business. But that’s not what we’re talking about now.

The wedding agreement was concluded, and Sofia, along with several accompanying persons, left Rome for Russia.

She crossed all of Europe. In all the cities where she stopped, she was given a magnificent reception and showered with souvenirs. The last stop before arriving in Moscow was the city of Novgorod. And then an unpleasant event happened.

In Sofia's train there was a large Catholic cross. The news of this reached Moscow and incredibly upset Metropolitan Philip, who had not given his blessing to this marriage anyway. Bishop Philip gave an ultimatum: if the cross is brought to Moscow, he will leave the city. Things were getting serious. The envoy of Ivan III acted simply in Russian: having met a convoy at the entrance to Moscow, he took and took away the cross from the representative of the Pope, who accompanied Sophia Palaeologus. Everything was decided quickly and without unnecessary fuss.

Directly on the day of her arrival in Belokamennaya, namely November 12, 1472, as the chronicles of that time testify, her wedding took place with Ivan III. It took place in a temporary wooden church, erected near the Assumption Cathedral under construction, so as not to stop the services. Metropolitan Philip, still beside himself with rage, refused to perform the wedding ceremony. And this sacrament was performed by Kolomna Archpriest Josiah, who was specially urgently invited to Moscow. Sofia Paleolog became the wife of Ivan III. But, to the great misfortune and disappointment of the Pope, everything turned out completely differently than he expected.

According to legend, she brought with her a “bone throne” as a gift to her husband: its wooden frame was entirely covered with plates of ivory and walrus ivory with scenes on biblical themes carved on them. Sophia also brought with her several Orthodox icons.

Sofia, whose goal was to persuade Rus' to Catholicism, became Orthodox. The angry ambassadors of the union left Moscow with nothing. A number of historians are inclined to believe that Sophia secretly communicated with the Athonite elders, learning the basics of the Orthodox faith, which she liked more and more. There is evidence that several people of other faiths approached her, whom she refused solely because of differences in religious views.

“The double-headed eagle, the dynastic sign of the Paleologus family, becomes a visible sign of the continuity of Rus' from Byzantium”

Be that as it may, Paleologue became the Grand Russian Duchess Sophia Fominichnaya. And she didn’t just become one formally. She brought with her a great baggage to Rus' - the covenants and traditions of the Byzantine Empire, the so-called “symphony” of state and church power. And these were not just words. A visible sign of the continuity of Rus' from Byzantium becomes the double-headed eagle - the dynastic sign of the Paleologus family. And this sign becomes the state emblem of Rus'. A little later, a horseman was added to it, striking a serpent with a sword - Saint George the Victorious, who used to be the coat of arms of Moscow.

The husband listened to the wise advice of his enlightened wife, although his boyars, who previously had undivided influence over the prince, did not like this.

And Sofia became not only her husband’s assistant in government affairs, but also the mother of a huge family. She gave birth to 12 children, 9 of whom lived long lives. First, Elena was born, who died in early infancy. Fedosia followed her, followed by Elena again. And finally - happiness! Heir! On the night of March 25-26, 1479, a boy was born, named Vasily in honor of his grandfather. Sofia Paleologus had a son, Vasily, the future Vasily III. For his mother, he always remained Gabriel - in honor of the Archangel Gabriel, to whom she tearfully prayed for the gift of an heir.

Fate also gave the couple Yuri, Dmitry, Evdokia (who also died as an infant), Ivan (who died as a child), Simeon, Andrei, again Evdokia and Boris.

Immediately after the birth of the heir, Sofia Paleologus ensured that he was declared Grand Duke. With this action, she practically ousted Ivan III’s eldest son from a previous marriage, Ivan (Young), from the line for the throne, and after him, his son, that is, Ivan III’s grandson, Dmitry.

Naturally, this led to all sorts of rumors. But it seemed that the Grand Duchess did not care about them at all. She was worried about something completely different.

Sofia Paleolog insisted that her husband surround himself with pomp, wealth and establish etiquette at court. These were the traditions of the empire, and they had to be observed. From Western Europe, Moscow was flooded with doctors, artists, builders, architects... They were given an order - to decorate the capital!

Aristotle Fioravanti was invited from Milan, who was charged with the task of building the Kremlin chambers. The choice was not accidental. Signor Aristotle was known as an excellent specialist in underground passages, hiding places and labyrinths.

And before laying the walls of the Kremlin, he built real catacombs under them, in one of the casemates of which a real treasury was hidden - a library in which manuscripts from antiquity and volumes saved from the fire of the famous Library of Alexandria were kept. Remember, on the Feast of the Presentation we talked about Simeon the God-Receiver? His translation of the book of the prophet Isaiah into Greek was kept in this library.

In addition to the Kremlin chambers, the architect Fioravanti built the Assumption and Annunciation Cathedrals. Thanks to the skill of other architects, the Faceted Chamber, the Kremlin towers, the Terem Palace, the State Court and the Archangel Cathedral appeared in Moscow. Moscow became more and more beautiful every day, as if preparing to become royal.

But this was not the only thing our heroine cared about. Sofia Paleologus, having great influence on her husband, who saw in her a reliable friend and wise adviser, convinced him to refuse to pay tribute to the Golden Horde. Ivan III finally threw off this long-term yoke. But the boyars were very afraid that the horde would go wild when they learned about the prince’s decision, and bloodshed would begin. But Ivan III was firm, enlisting the support of his wife.

Well. For now, we can say that Sofia Paleologus was a kind genius both for her husband and for Mother Rus'. But we forgot about one person who didn’t think so at all. This man's name is Ivan. Ivan the Young, as he was called at court. And he was the son from the first marriage of Grand Duke Ivan III.

After Sophia's son Palaeologus was declared heir to the throne, the Russian nobility at court split. Two groups formed: one supported Ivan the Young, the other supported Sophia.

From the very moment of his appearance at court, Ivan the Young did not have a good relationship with Sophia, and she did not try to improve it, being busy with other state and personal affairs. Ivan Young was only three years younger than his stepmother, and like all teenagers, he was jealous of his father for his new lover. Soon Ivan the Young married the daughter of the ruler of Moldavia, Stephen the Great, Elena Voloshanka. And at the time of the birth of his half-brother, he himself was the father of Dmitry’s son.

Ivan the Young, Dmitry... Vasily’s chances of taking the throne were very slim. And this did not suit Sofia Paleolog. It didn't suit me at all. Two women - Sofia and Elena - became sworn enemies and simply burned with the desire to get rid of not only each other, but also the offspring of their rival. And Sofia Paleologus makes a mistake. But about this in order.

The Grand Duchess maintained very warm and friendly relations with her brother Andrei. His daughter Maria married Prince Vasily Vereisky in Moscow, who was the nephew of Ivan III. And one day, without asking her husband, Sofia gave her niece a jewel that once belonged to the first wife of Ivan III.

And the Grand Duke, seeing his daughter-in-law’s hostility towards his wife, decided to appease her and give her this family jewel. This is where the great failure occurred! The prince was beside himself with anger! He demanded that Vasily Vereisky immediately return the heirloom to him. But he refused. They say it's a gift, sorry! Moreover, its cost was very, very impressive.

Ivan III was simply furious and ordered Prince Vasily Vereisky and his wife to be thrown into prison! The relatives had to hastily flee to Lithuania, where they escaped the wrath of the sovereign. But the prince was angry with his wife for this act for a long time.

By the end of the 15th century, passions in the grand ducal family had subsided. At least the appearance of a cold world remained. Suddenly a new misfortune struck: Ivan Molodoy fell ill with aching legs and was practically paralyzed. The best doctors from Europe were quickly prescribed to him. But they could not help him. Soon Ivan Molodoy died.

The doctors, as usual, were executed... But among the boyars, the rumor began to emerge more and more clearly that Sofia Paleologus had a hand in the death of the heir. They say she poisoned her competitor Vasily. Rumor reached Ivan III that some dashing women came to Sofia with a potion. He flew into a rage, did not even want to see his wife, and ordered his son Vasily to be kept in custody. The women who came to Sophia were drowned in the river, many were thrown into prison. But Sofia Paleolog did not stop there.

After all, Ivan the Young left an heir, known as Dmitry Ivanovich Grandson. Grandson of Ivan III. And on February 4, 1498, at the end of the 15th century, he was officially proclaimed heir to the throne.

But you have a bad idea of ​​the personality of Sophia Paleologue if you think that she has resigned herself. Quite the opposite.

At that time, the Judaizing heresy began to spread in Rus'. She was brought to Rus' by some Kiev Jewish scientist named Skhariya. He began to reinterpret Christianity in the Jewish manner, denied the Holy Trinity, put the Old Testament above the New, rejected the veneration of icons and relics of saints... In general, in modern terms, he gathered sectarians like him who had broken away from holy Orthodoxy. Elena Voloshanka and Prince Dmitry somehow joined this sect.

This was a great trump card in the hands of Sofia Paleolog. Immediately, Ivan III was reported about sectarianism. And Elena and Dmitry fell into disgrace. Sofia and Vasily again took their previous position. From that time on, the sovereign began, according to the chroniclers, “not to care about his grandson,” and declared his son Vasily the Grand Duke of Novgorod and Pskov. Sofia achieved that it was ordered to keep Dmitry and Elena in custody, not to remember them at litanies in the church and not to call Dmitry the Grand Duke.

Sophia Paleologus, who actually won the royal throne for her son, did not live to see this day. She died in 1503. Elena Voloshanka also died in prison.

Thanks to the method of plastic reconstruction based on the skull, at the end of 1994 the sculptural portrait of Grand Duchess Sophia Paleologue was restored. She was short - about 160 cm, plump, with strong-willed features and had a mustache that did not spoil her at all.

Ivan III, already feeling weak in health, prepared a will. It lists Vasily as heir to the throne.

Meanwhile, the time has come for Vasily to get married. An attempt to marry him to the daughter of the Danish king failed; then, on the advice of one courtier, a Greek, Ivan Vasilyevich followed the example of the Byzantine emperors. It was ordered to bring the most beautiful maidens, daughters of boyars and boyar children to the court for the viewing. One and a half thousand of them were collected. Vasily chose Solomonia, the daughter of the nobleman Saburov.

After the death of his wife, Ivan Vasilyevich lost heart and became seriously ill. Apparently, Grand Duchess Sophia gave him the necessary energy to build a new power, her intelligence helped in state affairs, her sensitivity warned of dangers, her all-conquering love gave him strength and courage. Leaving all his affairs, he went on a trip to the monasteries, but failed to atone for his sins. He was paralyzed. On October 27, 1505, he departed to the Lord, outliving his beloved wife by only two years.

Vasily III, having ascended the throne, first of all tightened the conditions of detention for his nephew, Dmitry Vnuk. He was shackled and placed in a small, stuffy cell. In 1509 he died.

Vasily and Solomonia had no children. On the advice of those close to him, he married Elena Glinskaya. On August 25, 1530, Elena Glinskaya gave birth to an heir, Vasily III, who was named John at baptism. Then there was a rumor that when he was born, a terrible thunder rolled across the entire Russian land, lightning flashed and the earth shook...

Ivan the Terrible was born, as modern scientists say, in appearance very similar to his grandmother, Sofia Palaeologus. Ivan the Terrible is a maniac, sadist, libertine, despot, alcoholic, the first Russian Tsar and the last in the Rurik dynasty. Ivan the Terrible, who took the schema on his deathbed and was buried in a cassock and doll. But that's a completely different story.

And Sophia Paleologus was buried in a massive white-stone sarcophagus in the tomb of the Ascension Cathedral in the Kremlin. Next to her lay the body of Ivan III’s first wife, Maria Borisovna. This cathedral was destroyed in 1929 by the new government. But the remains of the women of the royal house have been preserved. They now rest in the underground chamber of the Archangel Cathedral.

This was the life of Sophia Paleolog. Virtue and villainy, genius and meanness, the decoration of Moscow and the destruction of competitors - everything was in her difficult, but very bright biography.

Who she is - the embodiment of evil and intrigue or the creator of a new Muscovy - is up to you, the reader, to decide. In any case, her name is inscribed in the annals of history, and we still see part of her family coat of arms - a double-headed eagle - on Russian heraldry today.

One thing is certain - she made a huge contribution to the history of the Moscow Principality. May he rest in peace! The mere fact that she did not allow Moscow to become a Catholic state is priceless for us Orthodox!

The main photo is the meeting of Princess Sofia Palaeolog with Pskov mayors and boyars at the mouth of the Embakh on Lake Peipsi. Bronnikov F.A.

"Your fate is sealed,

-That's what they say when in heaven
Known choice and soul
Inevitability accepts
Like the lot she created."

Marina Gussar

Grand Duchess Sophia Paleologue

“The main effect of this marriage... was that Russia became more famous in Europe, which honored the tribe of the ancient Byzantine emperors in Sofia and, so to speak, followed it with its eyes to the borders of our fatherland... Moreover, many Greeks who came to us with princess, they became useful in Russia with their knowledge of arts and languages, especially Latin, which was then necessary for external affairs of state; enriched Moscow church libraries with books saved from Turkish barbarism and contributed to the splendor of our court by imparting to it the magnificent rites of Byzantium, so that from now on the capital of Ioann could truly be called the new Constantinople, like ancient Kiev.”

N. Karamzin

“Great Constantinople (Constantinopolis), this acropolis of the universe, the royal capital of the Romans, which by God’s permission was under the rule of the Latins,” fell on May 29, 1453.

Capture of Constantinople by Turkish troops

The great Christian city was dying, slowly, terribly and irrevocably turning into the great Muslim Istanbul.

The struggle was merciless and bloody, the resistance of the besieged was incredibly stubborn, the assault began in the morning, the Turks failed to take the city gates, and only in the evening, having broken through the wall with a gunpowder explosion, the besiegers burst into the city, where they immediately encountered unprecedented resistance - the defenders of the most ancient Christian stronghold stood to the death - of course! - how could one chicken out or retreat when among them, like a simple warrior, the wounded and bloodied great emperor fought until his last breath Constantine XI Palaiologos, and then he did not yet know that just a few seconds later, in the dazzling last moment of his life, rapidly collapsing into darkness, he would forever go down in history as the last Byzantine emperor. Padaya whispered: “Tell Thomas - let him save his head! Where the head is - there is Byzantium, there is our Rome!” Then he wheezed, blood gushed from his throat, and he lost consciousness.

Constantine XI, Sophia's uncle. 19th century drawing

The body of Emperor Constantine was recognized by small golden double-headed eagles on purple morocco boots.

The faithful servant understood perfectly what the words of the late emperor meant: his younger brother - Thomas Paleologus, the ruler, or, as they said here, the despot of Morea, must make every effort to preserve and protect from the Turks the greatest Christian shrine that he kept - the most revered relics of the intercessor and patron of the Byzantine, Greek church by the entire Orthodox world - the head Apostle Andrew.

Saint Andrew the First-Called. St. Andrew's flag is firmly established in the Russian navy, and its meaning is also well-established: it was accepted “for the sake of the fact that Russia received holy baptism from this apostle”

Yes, that same Andrew the First-Called, the brother of St. Peter, an equally great martyr and faithful disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ himself...

Thomas took the dying request of his brother, who heroically fell in battle, very close to his heart and thought for a long time about what he should do to fulfill it properly...

The great shrine, which was kept in Patros It was necessary not only to save it from being captured by the Turks, it had to be preserved in time, moved somewhere, hidden somewhere... Otherwise, how should we understand the words of Constantine “Where the head is, there is Byzantium, there is our Rome!”? The head of the apostle is now here, with Thomas, Rome is in Italy, the Byzantine Empire - alas! - fell along with the fall of Constantinople... What did the brother mean... What does “our Rome” mean? Soon, with all the inexorability of the cruel truth, it became clear that Morea would not withstand the onslaught of the Turks. The last fragments of Byzantium, the second great Roman Empire, crumbled to dust. Peninsula, southern part of Greece, in ancient times the Peloponnese; received the name Moray in the 13th century, from the Slavic “sea”. In the 15th century in the Peloponnese there were several despotates who were formally dependent on Byzantium, but in fact obeyed only their rulers - despots, two of whom, Thomas and Michael, were the younger brothers of Emperor Constantine.

Thomas Paleologus. 11 - Despot of Morea

And suddenly Thomas had an epiphany - he suddenly understood what his brother meant - Constantine undoubtedly believed in a new revival of the empire, he believed that it would certainly arise where our main Greek shrine would be located! But where? How? In the meantime, the safety of his wife and children had to be taken care of - the Turks were approaching. In 1460, Morea was captured by the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II, Thomas and his family left Morea. Despot Thomas Palaiologos had four children. The eldest daughter Elena had just left her father's house, having married the Serbian king, the boys Andreas and Manuel remained with her parents, as well as the youngest child, daughter Zoya, who was 3 years old at the time of the fall of Constantinople.

In 1460, despot Thomas Palaiologos with his family and the greatest shrines of the Christian world, including the head of the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, sailed to the once Greek island Kerkyra, which since 1386 belonged to Venetian Republic and therefore was called in Italian - Corfu. The city-state of Venice, a maritime republic that was experiencing a period of greatest growth, remained the most prosperous and rich city in the entire Apennine Peninsula until the 16th century.

Thomas Palaiologos began to establish relations with Venice, a longtime rival of the Byzantines, almost simultaneously with the capture of Constantinople by the Turks. Thanks to the Venetians, Corfu remained the only part of Greece that did not fall under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. From there the exile is transported to Ancona, a port under the control of the Republic of St. Mark. There is no doubt that in 1463 Thomas Palaiologos, together with the Papal-Venetian flotilla, was going to go on a campaign against the Ottomans. His family at that time was under the guardianship of the Venetians in Corfu, they also transported Zoya and her brothers to Rome, having heard about their father’s illness, but, obviously, even after that the Venetian Senate did not interrupt ties with high-born refugees.

Long before the siege of the Byzantine capital, the wise Konstantin secretly, under the guise of ordinary merchant cargo, he sent Thomas a collection of the most valuable books from the Constantinople library, accumulated over centuries. In the far corner of the large harbor of the island of Corfu there was already one ship of Thomas Palaiologos, sent here a few months earlier. In the holds of this ship were treasures of human wisdom that almost no one knew anything about.

There were a large number of volumes of rare publications in Greek, Latin and Jewish languages, ranging from unique and very ancient copies of the gospels, the main works of most ancient historians, philosophers and writers, works on mathematics, astronomy, the arts, and ending with secretly kept manuscripts of predictions of prophets and astrologers , as well as books that reveal the secrets of long-forgotten magic. Constantine once told him that the remains of the library burned by Herostratus, papyri of Egyptian priests, and sacred texts taken by Alexander the Great from Persia are kept there.

One day, Thomas brought ten-year-old Zoya to this ship, showed her the holds and said:

- “This is your dowry, Zoya. The knowledge of great people of the past is hidden here, and their books contain the key to the future. Some of them I will later give you to read. The rest will wait for you to come of age and marry.”

So they settled on the island Corfu, where they lived for almost five years.

However, Zoya hardly saw her father during these years.

Having hired the best mentors for the children, he left them in the care of their mother, his beloved wife Catherine, and, taking with him the sacred relic, he went to Rome in 1460 in order to solemnly present it to Pope Paul II, hoping in return to receive confirmation of his rights to the Constantinople throne and military support in the fight for his return - by this time Thomas Palaiologos remained the only legal heir fallen Emperor Constantine.

Dying Byzantium, hoping to receive military assistance from Europe in the fight against the Turks, signed a 1439 year Union of Florence for the unification of Churches, and now its rulers could seek refuge with the papal throne.

On March 7, 1461, in Rome, the Morean despot was greeted with worthy honors, the head Apostle Andrew during a magnificent and majestic service with a huge crowd of people placed in the cathedral St. Peter's, and Foma was assigned a very high salary for those times - 6,500 ducats per year. The Pope awarded him the Order of the Golden Rose. Thomas remained to live in Italy.

However, over time, he began to gradually understand that his hopes were unlikely to ever be realized and that, most likely, he would remain a respected but useless exile.

His only consolation was his friendship with the cardinal Vissarion, which began and strengthened in the process of his efforts to receive support from Rome.

Vissarion of Nicaea

This unusually talented man was known as the leader of the Byzantine Latinophiles. Literary gift, erudition, ambition and ability to flatter the powers that be, and, of course, commitment to the union contributed to his successful career. He studied in Constantinople, then took monastic vows in one of the monasteries of the Peloponnese, and in the capital of the Morea, Mystras, he asceticised at the philosophical school of Gemistos Pletho. In 1437, at the age of 35, he was elected Metropolitan of Nicaea. However, Nicaea had long been conquered by the Turks, and this magnificent title was needed to give additional weight to the supporters of the union at the meetings of the upcoming council. For the same reasons, another Latinophile, Isidore, was ordained metropolitan of Moscow by the Patriarch of Constantinople without the consent of the Russians.

Catholic Cardinal Bessarion of Nicea, a Greek and a favorite of the pope, advocated the unification of Christian churches in the face of the Turkish threat. Coming every few months to Corfu, Thomas would talk for a long time with the children, sitting in his black throne-chair, inlaid with gold and ivory, with a large double-headed Byzantine eagle above the head.

He prepared the young men Andreas and Manuel for the humiliating future of princes without a kingdom, poor petitioners, seekers of rich brides - he tried to teach them how to maintain dignity in this situation and arrange their lives tolerably, not forgetting belonging to their ancient, proud and once powerful family . But he also knew that without wealth and lands they had no chance of reviving the former glory of the Great Empire. And therefore he pinned his hopes on Zoya.

His beloved daughter Zoya grew up as a very smart girl, but from the age of four she knew how to read and write in Greek and Latin, was very capable of languages, and now, by the age of thirteen, she already knew ancient and modern history perfectly well, mastered the basics mathematics and astronomy, recited entire chapters from Homer from memory, and most importantly, she loved to study, a spark of thirst for knowledge of the secrets of the world that was opening up before her sparkled in her eyes, moreover, she already seemed to guess that her life in this world would be not at all simple, but this did not frighten her, did not stop her, on the contrary, she strove to learn as much as possible, as if she were preparing with passion and ecstasy for a long, dangerous, but unusually exciting game.

The twinkle in Zoya’s eyes instilled great hope in her father’s heart, and he began to gradually and gradually prepare his daughter for the great mission that he was going to entrust to her.

When Zoya was fifteen years old, a hurricane of misfortunes hit the girl. At the beginning of 1465, Catherine Zaccaria's mother suddenly died. Her death shocked everyone - children, relatives, servants, but she simply struck down Foma. He lost interest in everything, was sad, lost weight, seemed to be decreasing in size, and it soon became clear that he was fading away.

However, suddenly the day came when it seemed to everyone that Thomas seemed to come to life: he came to the children, asked Zoya to accompany him to the port, and there they climbed onto the deck of the very ship where Zoya’s dowry was kept, and sailed with their daughter and sons to Rome .

Rome. The eternal City

However, they did not live together in Rome for long; soon, on May 12, 1465, Thomas died at the age of 56. The sense of self-worth and beauty that Thomas managed to preserve into old age made a great impression on the Italians. He also pleased them by officially converting to Catholicism.

Took over the education of the royal orphans Vatican, entrusting them to the cardinal Vissarion of Nicea. A Greek from Trebizond, he was equally at home in both Greek and Latin cultural circles. He managed to combine the views of Plato and Aristotle, the Greek and Roman forms of Christianity.

However, when Zoya Palelog found herself in Vissarion’s care, his star had already set. Paul II, who donned the papal tiara in 1464, and his successor Sixtus IV did not like Vissarion, who supported the idea of ​​​​limiting papal power. The cardinal went into the shadows, and once he even had to retire to the monastery of Grota Feratta.

Nevertheless, he raised Zoe Paleologue in European Catholic traditions and especially taught her to humbly follow the principles of Catholicism in everything, calling her “the beloved daughter of the Roman Church.” Only in this case, he inspired the pupil, will fate give you everything. “You will have everything if you imitate the Latins; otherwise you will get nothing.”

Zoya (Sofia) Paleolog

Zoya has grown over the years into an attractive girl with dark, sparkling eyes and soft white skin. She was distinguished by a subtle mind and prudence in behavior. According to the unanimous assessment of her contemporaries, Zoya was charming, and her intelligence, education and manners were impeccable. Bolognese chroniclers wrote enthusiastically about Zoe in 1472: “Truly she... is charming and beautiful... She was short, she seemed about 24 years old; the eastern flame sparkled in her eyes, the whiteness of her skin spoke of the nobility of her family.” The Italian princess Clarissa Orsini, who came from a noble Roman family closely associated with the papal throne, the wife of Lorenzo the Magnificent, who visited Zoe in Rome in 1472, found her beautiful, and this news has been preserved for centuries.

Pope Paul II allocated 3,600 ecus per year for the maintenance of orphans (200 ecus per month for children, their clothes, horses and servants; plus it was necessary to save for a rainy day, and spend 100 ecus on the maintenance of a modest courtyard). The court included a doctor, a professor of Latin, a professor of Greek, a translator and 1-2 priests.

It was then that Cardinal Vissarion very carefully and delicately hinted to the Byzantine princess about the possibility of marriage with one of the richest young men in Italy, Federico Gonzago, the eldest son of Louis Gonzago, ruler of the richest Italian city of Mantua.

Banner "Sermon of John the Baptist" from Oratorio San Giovanni, Urbino. Italian experts believe that Vissarion and Sofia Paleologus (3rd and 4th characters from the left) are depicted in the crowd of listeners. Gallery of the Province of Marche, Urbino

However, as soon as the cardinal began to take these actions, it suddenly turned out that the father of the possible groom had heard from nowhere about the extreme poverty of the bride and lost all interest in her as his son’s prospective bride.

A year later, the cardinal hinted at Prince Carracciolo, who also belonged to one of the richest families in Italy, but as soon as the matter began to move forward, some pitfalls were again revealed.

Cardinal Vissarion was a wise and experienced man - he knew very well that nothing happens on its own.

Having conducted a secret investigation, the cardinal definitely found out that with the help of complex and subtle intrigues, deftly woven by Zoya herself using her maids and chambermaids, in both cases she tried to upset the matter, but in such a way that the refusal in no case came from her, poor orphan, who should not neglect such suitors.

After thinking a little, the cardinal decided that it was a matter of religion and that Zoya must want a husband who belonged to the Orthodox Church.

To check this, he soon offered his pupil an Orthodox Greek - James Lusignian, the illegitimate son of the Cypriot king John II, who, having forcibly taken the crown from his sister, usurped his father's throne. And then the cardinal became convinced that he was right.

Zoya really liked this proposal, she carefully examined it from all sides, hesitated for some time, it even came to an engagement, but at the last minute Zoya changed her mind and refused the groom, but then the cardinal knew exactly why and began to understand something. Zoya correctly calculated that the throne under Jacob was shaking, that he did not have a confident future, and then in general - well, what kind of kingdom is this, after all - some kind of pitiful Cyprus island! Zoya made it clear to her teacher that she was a Byzantine princess, and not a simple prince’s daughter, and the cardinal temporarily stopped his attempts. And it was then that good old Pope Paul II unexpectedly fulfilled his promise to the orphan princess so dear to his heart. Not only did he find her a worthy groom, he also solved a number of political problems.

Destiny's sought-after gift awaits cutting

In those years, the Vatican was looking for allies to organize a new crusade against the Turks, intending to involve all European sovereigns in it. Then, on the advice of Cardinal Vissarion, the pope decided to marry Zoya to the Moscow sovereign Ivan III, knowing about his desire to become the heir of the Byzantine basileus.

The marriage of Princess Zoe, renamed Sophia in Russian Orthodox fashion, with the recently widowed young Grand Duke of the distant, mysterious, but, according to some reports, incredibly rich and powerful Moscow principality, was extremely desirable for the papal throne for several reasons.

Firstly, through a Catholic wife it would be possible to positively influence the Grand Duke, and through him the Orthodox Russian Church in implementing the decisions of the Union of Florence - and the Pope had no doubt that Sophia was a devoted Catholic, for she, one might say, had grown up on the steps of his throne.

Secondly, it would be a huge political victory to gain Moscow's support against the Turks.

And finally, Thirdly, in itself, strengthening ties with distant Russian principalities is of great importance for all European politics.

So, by the irony of history, this fateful marriage for Russia was inspired by the Vatican. All that remained was to obtain Moscow's consent.

In February 1469 In the same year, the ambassador of Cardinal Vissarion arrived in Moscow with a letter to the Grand Duke, in which he was invited to legally marry the daughter of the Despot of Morea.

According to the ideas of that time, Sophia was considered a middle-aged woman, but she was very attractive, with amazingly beautiful, expressive eyes and soft matte skin, which in Rus' was considered a sign of excellent health. And most importantly, she was distinguished by a sharp mind and an article worthy of a Byzantine princess.

The Moscow sovereign accepted the offer. He sent his ambassador, the Italian Gian Battista della Volpe (he was nicknamed Ivan Fryazin in Moscow), to Rome to make a match. This nobleman from Vicenza, a city ruled by Venice since 1404, originally lived in the Golden Horde, in 1459 he entered the service of Moscow as a coin master and became known as Ivan Fryazin. He ended up in both the Horde and Moscow, probably at the behest of his Venetian patrons.

The ambassador returned a few months later, in November, bringing with him a portrait of the bride. This portrait, which seemed to mark the beginning of the era of Sophia Paleologus in Moscow, is considered the first secular image in Rus'. At least, they were so amazed by it that the chronicler called the portrait an “icon,” without finding another word: “And bring the princess on the icon.” By the way, the word “icon” originally meant “drawing”, “image”, “image” in Greek.

V. Muizhel. “Ambassador Ivan Frezin presents Ivan III with a portrait of his bride Sophia Paleolog”

However, the matchmaking dragged on because Moscow Metropolitan Philip for a long time objected to the sovereign’s marriage to a Uniate woman, who was also a pupil of the papal throne, fearing the spread of Catholic influence in Rus'. Only in January 1472, having received the consent of the hierarch, Ivan III sent an embassy to Rome for the bride, since a compromise was found: in Moscow, secular and church authorities agreed that before the wedding Zoya would be baptized according to the Orthodox rite.

Pope Sixtus IV

On May 21, a ceremonial reception of Russian ambassadors took place at Pope Sixtus IV, which was attended by representatives of Venice, Milan, Florence, and the Duke of Ferrara.

Reception at Sixtus IV. Melozzo da Forli

Already on June 1, at the insistence of Cardinal Vissarion, a symbolic betrothal took place in Rome - the engagement of Princess Sophia and the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan, who was represented by the Russian ambassador Ivan Fryazin.

Pope Sixtus IV treated the orphan with paternal concern: he gave Zoe as a dowry, in addition to gifts, about 6,000 ducats and sent letters in advance to the cities in which, in the name of respect due to the apostolic see, he asked to accept Zoe with goodwill and kindness. Vissarion was also concerned about the same thing; he wrote to the Sienese in case the bride passed through their city: “We earnestly ask you to mark her arrival with some kind of celebration and take care of a dignified reception.” Not surprisingly, Zoe's journey was something of a triumph.

On June 24, having said goodbye to the pope in the Vatican gardens, Zoya headed to the far north. On the way to Moscow, the bride of the “white emperor,” as the Duke of Milan Francesco Sforza called Ivan III in his message, was accompanied by a retinue of Greeks, Italians and Russians, including Yuri Trachaniot, Prince Constantine, Dmitry - the ambassador of the Zoe brothers, and the Genoese Anton Bonumbre , Bishop of Accia (our chronicles mistakenly call him a cardinal), papal legate, whose mission should act in favor of the subordination of the Russian Church.

Many cities in Italy and Germany (according to surviving news: Sienna, Bologna, Vicenza (Volpe’s hometown), Nuremberg, Lubeck) met and saw off her with royal honor, and held festivities in honor of the princess.

Almost the Kremlin wall in Vicenza. Italy

So, in Bologna, Zoya was received in his palace by one of the main local lords. The princess repeatedly showed herself to the crowd and aroused general surprise with her beauty and richness of attire. The relics of St. were visited with extraordinary pomp. Dominica, she was accompanied by the most distinguished young people. Bolognese chroniclers talk about Zoya with delight.

Saint Domenic. Founder of the Dominican Order

On the 4th month of the journey, Zoya finally set foot on Russian soil. On October 1st she left Kolyvani(Tallinn), was soon in Dorpat, where the messengers of the Grand Duke came to meet their future empress, and then went to Pskov.

N.K. Roerich. Old Pskov. 1904

On October 1, a messenger galloped to Pskov and announced at the assembly: “The princess crossed the sea, the daughter of Thomas, the Tsar of Constantinople, is going to Moscow, her name is Sophia, she will be your empress, and the wife of Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich. And you would meet her and accept her honestly.” The messenger galloped further, to Novgorod, to Moscow, and the Pskovites, as the chronicle reports “... the mayors and boyars went to meet the princess in Izborsk, lived here for a whole week, when a messenger arrived from Dorpat (Tartu) with an order to go meet her on the German coast.”

The Pskovites began to feed the honey and collect food, and sent six large decorated ships, posadniks and boyars in advance to “honorably” meet the princess. On October 11, near the mouth of the Embakh, the mayors and boyars met the princess and beat her with cups and golden horns filled with honey and wine. On the 13th, the princess arrived in Pskov and stayed for exactly 5 days. The Pskov authorities and nobles presented her and her retinue with gifts and gave her 50 rubles. The affectionate reception touched the princess, and she promised the Pskovites her intercession before her future husband. The legate Accia, who accompanied her, had to obey: follow her to the church, and there venerate the holy icons and venerate the image of the Mother of God on the orders of the despina.

F. A. Bronnikov. Meeting the princess. 1883

Probably, the Pope would never have believed it if he had known that the future Grand Duchess of Moscow, as soon as she found herself on Russian soil, while still on her way to the wedding in Moscow, insidiously betrayed all his quiet hopes, immediately forgetting all her Catholic upbringing . Sophia, who apparently met in childhood with the Athonite elders, opponents of the Union of Florence, was deeply Orthodox at heart. She skillfully hid her faith from the powerful Roman “patrons”, who did not help her homeland, betraying it to the Gentiles for ruin and death.

She immediately openly, brightly and demonstratively showed her devotion to Orthodoxy, to the delight of the Russians, venerating all the icons in all the churches, behaving impeccably at the Orthodox service, crossing herself as an Orthodox woman.

But even before that, while on board the ship carrying Princess Sophia for eleven days from Lübeck to Revel, from where the cortege would head further to Moscow by land, she remembered her father.

Sophia sat thoughtfully on the deck, looking somewhere into the distance beyond the horizon, not paying attention to the persons accompanying her - Italians and Russians - standing respectfully at a distance, and it seemed to her as if she saw a light radiance that came from somewhere above, permeating everything the body is carried away into the heavenly heights, there, far, far away, where all souls are carried away and where the soul of her father is now...

Sophia peered into the distant invisible land and thought only about one thing - whether she did the right thing; Did you make a mistake in your choice? Will she be able to serve the birth of the Third Rome where her tight sails are now carrying her? And then it seemed to her that an invisible light warmed her, gave her strength and confidence that everything would succeed - and how could it be otherwise - after all, from now on, where she, Sophia, is, there is now Byzantium, there is the Third Rome, in her new homeland - Muscovy.

Kremlin despina

Early in the morning of November 12, 1472, Sophia Paleologus arrived in Moscow, where her first meeting with Ivan and the throne city took place. Everything was ready for the wedding celebration, timed to coincide with the name day of the Grand Duke - the day of remembrance of St. John Chrysostom. The betrothal took place in the house of the Grand Duke's mother. On the same day, in the Kremlin, in a temporary wooden church, erected near the Assumption Cathedral under construction, so as not to stop the services, the sovereign married her. The Byzantine princess saw her husband for the first time. The Grand Duke was young - only 32 years old, handsome, tall and stately. His eyes were especially remarkable, “formidable eyes.”

Ivan III Vasilievich

And before, Ivan Vasilyevich was distinguished by a tough character, but now, having become related to the Byzantine monarchs, he turned into a formidable and powerful sovereign. This was largely due to his young wife.

The wedding of Ivan III with Sophia Paleologus in 1472. Engraving from the 19th century.

The wedding in a wooden church made a strong impression on Sophia Paleolog. One can imagine how shocked she was by the old Kremlin cathedrals dating back to the Kalitin era (the first half of the 14th century) and the dilapidated white stone walls and towers of the fortress built under Dmitry Donskoy. After Rome, with its St. Peter's Cathedral and the cities of continental Europe with their magnificent stone structures of different eras and styles, it was probably difficult for the Greek princess Sophia to reconcile with the fact that her wedding ceremony took place in a temporary wooden church that stood on the site of the dismantled Assumption Cathedral XIV century.

She brought a generous dowry to Rus'. After the wedding, Ivan III adopted the Byzantine double-headed eagle as a coat of arms - a symbol of royal power, placing it on his seal. The two heads of the eagle face the West and the East, Europe and Asia, symbolizing their unity, as well as the unity (“symphony”) of spiritual and temporal power. Actually, Sophia’s dowry was the legendary “Liberia” - a library (better known as the “library of Ivan the Terrible”). It included Greek parchments, Latin chronographs, ancient Eastern manuscripts, among which were unknown to us poems by Homer, works by Aristotle and Plato, and even surviving books from the famous Library of Alexandria. Seeing wooden Moscow, burned after the fire of 1470, Sophia was afraid for the fate of the treasure and for the first time hid the books in the basement of the stone Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary on Senya - the home church of the Moscow Grand Duchesses, built by order of St. Eudoxia, the widow of Dmitry Donskoy. And, according to Moscow custom, she put her own treasury for preservation in the underground of the Kremlin Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist - the very first church in Moscow, which stood until 1847.

According to legend, she brought with her a “bone throne” as a gift to her husband: its wooden frame was entirely covered with plates of ivory and walrus bone with scenes on biblical themes carved on them, and an image of a unicorn was placed on the back of the throne. This throne is known to us as the throne of Ivan the Terrible: the king is depicted on it by the sculptor M. Antokolsky. (In 1896 the throne was installed in Assumption Cathedral for the coronation of Nicholas II. But the sovereign ordered it to be staged for Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (according to other sources, for his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna), and he himself wished to be crowned on the throne of the first Romanov). And now the throne of Ivan the Terrible is the oldest in the Kremlin collection.

Throne of Ivan the Terrible

Sophia also brought with her several Orthodox icons.

Our Lady "Hodegetria". The gold earrings with eagles attached to the necklace of the Virgin Mary were undoubtedly “attached” by the Grand Duchess

Our Lady on the throne. Cameo on lapis lazuli

And even after the wedding of Ivan III, an image of the Byzantine Emperor Michael III, the founder of the Palaeologus dynasty, with which the Moscow rulers became related, appeared in the Archangel Cathedral. Thus, the continuity of Moscow to the Byzantine Empire was established, and the Moscow sovereigns appeared as the heirs of the Byzantine emperors.

With the arrival in the capital of Russia of the Greek princess, the heir to the former greatness of the Palaiologans, in 1472, a fairly large group of immigrants from Greece and Italy formed at the Russian court. Over time, many of them occupied significant government positions and more than once carried out important diplomatic assignments for Ivan III. The Grand Duke sent embassies to Italy five times. But their task was not to establish connections in the field of politics or trade. They all returned to Moscow with large groups of specialists, among whom were architects, doctors, jewelers, coiners and gunsmiths. Twice Sophia's brother Andreas came to the Russian capital with Russian embassies (Russian sources called him Andrey). It so happened that the Grand Duchess for some time maintained contact with one of the members of her family, which had broken up due to difficult historical events.

It should be recalled that the traditions of the Russian Middle Ages, which strictly limited the role of women to household chores, extended to the family of the Grand Duke and representatives of noble families. That is why so little information has been preserved about the lives of the great Russian princesses. Against this background, the life story of Sophia Paleolog is reflected in written sources in much more detail. However, it is worth noting that Grand Duke Ivan III treated his wife, who received a European upbringing, with great love and understanding and even allowed her to give audiences to foreign ambassadors. In the memoirs of foreigners about Rus' in the second half of the 15th century, records of such meetings with the Grand Duchess were preserved. In 1476, the Venetian envoy Contarini was introduced to the Moscow empress. This is how he recalled it, describing his trip to Persia: “The Emperor also wished me to visit Despina. I did this with due bows and appropriate words; then a long conversation followed. Despina addressed me with such kind and courteous speeches as could be said; she urgently asked that her greetings be conveyed to the Serene Signoria; and I said goodbye to her.” Sophia, according to some researchers, even had her own thought, the composition of which was determined by the Greek and Italian aristocrats who came with her and settled in Rus', in particular, the prominent diplomats of the late 15th century Trachaniotes. In 1490, Sophia Paleologus met in her part of the Kremlin palace with the Tsar's ambassador Delator. Special mansions were built for the Grand Duchess in Moscow. Under Sophia, the Grand Duke's court was distinguished by its splendor. The kingship ceremony owes its appearance to the dynastic marriage of Ivan III with Sophia. Near 1490 In 1999, for the first time, an image of a crowned double-headed eagle appeared on the front portal of the Chamber of Facets.

Detail of the throne of Ivan the Terrible

The Byzantine concept of the sacredness of imperial power influenced Ivan III’s introduction of “theology” (“by God’s grace”) in the title and in the preamble of state charters.

Construction of the Kremlin

The “Great Greek” brought with her her ideas about the court and the power of government, and many of the Moscow orders did not suit her heart. She didn’t like that her sovereign husband remained a tributary of the Tatar Khan, that the boyars’ entourage behaved too freely with their sovereign, so the boyars were hostile to Sophia. That the Russian capital, built entirely of wood, stands with patched fortress walls and dilapidated stone churches. That even the sovereign's mansions in the Kremlin are made of wood and that Russian women look at the world from a small window. Sophia Paleolog not only made changes at court.

Some Moscow monuments owe their appearance to her. There is no doubt that the stories of Sophia and the representatives of the Greek and Italian nobility who came with her about the beautiful examples of church and civil architecture of Italian cities, about their impregnable fortifications, about the use of everything advanced in military affairs and other branches of science and technology to strengthen the position of the country, influenced the decision of Ivan III to “open a window to Europe”, to attract foreign craftsmen to rebuild the Kremlin, especially after the disaster of 1474, when the Assumption Cathedral, built by Pskov craftsmen, collapsed. Rumors immediately spread among the people that the trouble had happened because of the “Greek woman,” who had previously been in “Latinism.” However, the great husband of the Greeks wanted to see Moscow equal in beauty and majesty to the European capitals and to maintain his own prestige, as well as to emphasize the continuity of Moscow not only to the Second, but also to the First Rome. Such Italian masters as Aristotle Fiorovanti, Pietro Antonio Solari, Marco Fryazin, Anton Fryazin, Aleviz Fryazin, Aleviz Novy took part in the reconstruction of the residence of the Moscow sovereign. Italian craftsmen in Moscow were called by the common name “Fryazin” (from the word “fryag”, that is, “franc”). And the current towns of Fryazino and Fryazevo near Moscow are a kind of “Little Italy”: it was there at the end of the 15th century that Ivan III gave out estates to numerous Italian “fryags” who came to his service.

Much of what is now preserved in the Kremlin was built precisely under Grand Duchess Sophia. Several centuries passed, but she saw exactly the same as now the Assumption Cathedral and the Church of the Deposition of the Robe, the Faceted Chamber (named after its decoration in the Italian style - with edges), built under her. And the Kremlin itself - the fortress that guarded the ancient center of the capital of Rus' - grew and was created before her eyes.

Faceted Chamber. 1487-1491

Interior view in the Chamber of Facets

Scientists have noticed that the Italians traveled to the unknown Muscovy without fear, because despina could give them protection and help. Whether this is true or not, only the Russian ambassador Semyon Tolbuzin, sent by Ivan III to Italy, invited Fioravanti to Moscow, because he was famous in his homeland as “new Archimedes,” and he happily agreed.

A special, secret order awaited him in Moscow, after which at the beginning of July 1475 Fioravanti set off on a journey.

Having examined the buildings of Vladimir, Bogolyubov and Suzdal, he went further north: on behalf of the Duke of Milan, he needed to get him white gyrfalcons, which were very highly valued in Europe. Fioravanti reached the shore of the White Sea, visiting along the way Rostov, Yaroslavl, Vologda and Veliky Ustyug. In total, he walked and drove about three thousand kilometers (!) and reached the mysterious city of “Xalauoco” (as Fioravanti called it in one of his letters to Milan), which is nothing more than a distorted name Solovkov. Thus, Aristotle Fioravanti turned out to be the first European who, more than a hundred years before the Englishman Jenkinson, walked the path from Moscow to Solovki.

Arriving in Moscow, Fioravanti drew up a master plan for the new Kremlin, being built by his compatriots. Construction of the walls of the new cathedral began already in 1475. On August 15, 1479, the solemn consecration of the cathedral took place. The following year, Rus' was freed from the Tatar-Mongol yoke. This era was partly reflected in the architecture of the Assumption Cathedral, which became the symbol of the Third Rome.

Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin

Its five powerful chapters, symbolizing Christ surrounded by the four evangelist apostles, are notable for their helmet-like shape. The poppy, that is, the top of the temple dome, symbolizes the flame - a burning candle and fiery heavenly forces. During the period of the Tatar yoke, the crown becomes like a military helmet. This is only a slightly different image of fire, since Russian warriors considered the heavenly army as their patrons - angelic forces led by Archangel Michael. The warrior’s helmet, on which the image of the Archangel Michael was often placed, and the poppy helmet of the Russian temple merged into a single image. Externally, the Assumption Cathedral is very close to the cathedral of the same name in Vladimir, which was taken as a model. The luxurious painting was mostly completed during the architect's lifetime. In 1482, the great architect, as the chief of artillery, took part in Ivan III’s campaign against Novgorod, and during this campaign he built a very strong pontoon bridge across the Volkhov. After this campaign, the master wanted to return to Italy, but Ivan III did not let him go, but, on the contrary, arrested him and put him in prison after trying to leave secretly. But he could not afford to keep Fioravanti in prison for a long time, since in 1485 a campaign against Tver was planned, where “Aristotle with guns” was necessary. After this campaign, the name of Aristotle Fioravanti no longer appears in the chronicles; there is no evidence of his return to his homeland. He probably died soon after.

There is a version that in the Assumption Cathedral the architect made a deep underground crypt, where they placed a priceless library. This cache was accidentally discovered by Grand Duke Vasily III many years after the death of his parents. At his invitation, Maxim the Greek came to Moscow in 1518 to translate these books, and allegedly managed to tell Ivan the Terrible, son of Vasily III, about them before his death. Where this library ended up during the time of Ivan the Terrible is still unknown. They looked for her in the Kremlin, and in Kolomenskoye, and in Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, and at the site of the Oprichnina Palace on Mokhovaya. And now there is an assumption that Liberia rests under the bottom of the Moscow River, in dungeons dug from the chambers of Malyuta Skuratov.

The construction of some Kremlin churches is also associated with the name of Sophia Paleologus. The first of them was the cathedral in the name of St. Nikolai Gostunsky, built near the bell tower of Ivan the Great. Previously, there was a Horde courtyard where the khan's governors lived, and such a neighborhood depressed the Kremlin despina. According to legend, the saint himself appeared to Sophia in a dream Nicholas the Wonderworker and ordered to build in that place Orthodox church. Sophia showed herself to be a subtle diplomat: she sent an embassy with rich gifts to the khan’s wife and, telling about the wonderful vision that had appeared to her, asked to give her land in exchange for another - outside the Kremlin. Consent was received, and in 1477 a wooden St. Nicholas Cathedral, later replaced by a stone one and stood until 1817. (Remember that the deacon of this church was the pioneer printer Ivan Fedorov). However, historian Ivan Zabelin believed that, on the orders of Sophia Paleologus, another church was built in the Kremlin, consecrated in the name of Saints Cosmas and Damian, which did not survive to this day.

A. Vasnetsov. In the Moscow Kremlin. Watercolor

Legends call Sophia Paleologus the founder Spassky Cathedral, which, however, was rebuilt during the construction of the Terem Palace in the 17th century and began to be called Verkhospassky at the same time - because of its location. Another legend says that Sophia Paleologus brought the temple image of the Savior Not Made by Hands of this cathedral to Moscow. In the 19th century, the artist Sorokin painted an image of the Lord from it for the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. This image has miraculously survived to this day and is now located in the lower (stylobate) Transfiguration Church as its main shrine. It is known that this is the image Savior Not Made by Hands, which her father blessed her with. In the Kremlin Cathedral Spasa na Bor the frame of this image was kept, and on the analogue lay the icon of the All-Merciful Savior, also brought by Sophia. Then all the royal and imperial brides were blessed with this icon. The miraculous icon “Praise of the Mother of God” remained in the temple. Let us remember that the Savior Not Made by Hands is considered the very first icon revealed during the earthly life of the Lord, and the most accurate image of the Savior. It was placed on princely banners, under which Russian soldiers went to battle: the image of the Savior signified the vision of Christ in the sky and foreshadowed victory.

Another story is connected with the Church of the Savior on Bor, which was then the cathedral church of the Kremlin Spassky monastery, with the despina, thanks to which the Novospassky Monastery.

Novospassky Monastery in Moscow

After the wedding, the Grand Duke still lived in wooden mansions, which constantly burned in the frequent Moscow fires. One day, Sophia herself had to escape the fire, and she finally asked her husband to build a stone palace. The Emperor decided to please his wife and fulfilled her request. So the Cathedral of the Savior on Bor, together with the monastery, was cramped by new palace buildings. And in 1490, Ivan III moved the monastery to the bank of the Moscow River, five miles from the Kremlin. Since then the monastery began to be called Novospassky, and the Cathedral of the Savior on Bor remained an ordinary parish church. Due to the construction of the palace, the Kremlin Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary on Senya, which was also damaged by the fire, was not restored for a long time. Only when the palace was finally ready (and this happened only under Vasily III) did it have a second floor, and in 1514 the architect Aleviz Fryazin raised the Church of the Nativity to a new level, which is why it is still visible from Mokhovaya Street. Under Sophia, the Church of the Deposition of the Robe and the State Courtyard were built, the Annunciation Cathedral was rebuilt, and the Arkhangelsk Cathedral was completed. The dilapidated walls of the Kremlin were strengthened and eight Kremlin towers were erected, the fortress was surrounded by a system of dams and a huge moat on Red Square. The defensive structures built by Italian architects withstood the siege of time and enemies. The Kremlin ensemble was completed under the descendants of Ivan and Sofia.

N.K. Roerich. The city is being built

In the 19th century, during excavations in the Kremlin, a bowl with ancient coins minted under the Roman Emperor Tiberius was discovered. According to scientists, these coins were brought by someone from the numerous retinue of Sophia Paleologus, which included natives of both Rome and Constantinople. Many of them took government positions, becoming treasurers, ambassadors, and translators.

Under Sophia, diplomatic ties began to be established with European countries, where the Greeks and Italians who had initially arrived with her were appointed envoys. The candidates were most likely selected not without the participation of the princess. And the first Russian diplomats were strictly punished in their service letters not to drink alcohol while abroad, not to fight among themselves and thereby not disgrace their country. The first ambassador to Venice was followed by appointments to a number of European courts. In addition to diplomatic missions, they also carried out other missions. Clerk Fyodor Kuritsyn, ambassador to the Hungarian court, is credited with the authorship of “The Tale of Dracula,” which was very popular in Rus'.

In Despina's retinue, A. Chicheri, the ancestor of Pushkin's grandmother, Olga Vasilievna Chicherina, and the famous Soviet diplomat, arrived in Rus'.

Twenty years later, foreign travelers began to call the Moscow Kremlin a “castle” in European style, due to the abundance of stone buildings in it. In the seventies and nineties of the fifteenth century, master money makers, jewelers, doctors, architects, minters, gunsmiths, and various other skilled people, whose knowledge and experience helped the country become a powerful and advanced power, came to Moscow from Italy and then from other countries.

Thus, through the efforts of Ivan III and Sophia, the Paleologus Renaissance flourished on Russian soil.

(To be continued)

Sophia Paleologue is known as the second wife of the Moscow Tsar Ivan III, the mother of Vasily III and the grandmother of Ivan the Terrible. She was a representative of the Palaiologan dynasty and the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine. This kinship will later be used by Russian rulers, emphasizing their continuity from the Byzantine kings and the idea of ​​“Moscow is the third Rome.”

Family of the future queen

The Greek version of the name Sophia Fominichna Paleolog is Zoya Paleologina. She was born around 1455 into the Palaiologan dynasty of Byzantine emperors. Her family was quite noble for that time:

1. Father Thomas was the youngest son of the Byzantine emperor and despot (governor) of the province of Morea (Peloponnese peninsula - an autonomous Greek entity within Byzantium) in 1428-1460. He was the legal heir of his older brother and could take the Byzantine throne.
2. Father's brother (Sophia's uncle) Constantine XI was the eldest son of the emperor and ruled Byzantium in 1449-1453. He died during the capture of Constantinople by the Turkish wars. His niece was about 8 years old at the time.
3. The mother was Catherine Tsakkaria - the daughter of the last king of Achaia.
4. The mother's father (Sophia's grandfather) was Centurion II Tsaccaria, who belonged to a famous merchant family. The throne of Achaia passed to him from his father, who was assigned there by the Neapolitan king. In 1430, the Principality of Achaia was captured by Thomas Palaiologos. Centurion was forced to conclude a peace treaty with the enemy, the terms of which forced his daughter Catherine to marry Thomas. After Centurion's death, his lands passed to Thomas.

Princess Sophia also had an older sister, who became the wife of a Serbian despot, and two older brothers: Andrei and Mikhail. The first became despot of Morea after his father.

Childhood and youth

The fall of Byzantium seriously affected the fate of the future queen of Russia. The girl's uncle died in 1453 during the siege of Constantinople; 7 years later, enemies besieged and captured the Despotate of Morea. Thomas Palaiologos went to the island of Corfu, then to Rome, where he died. According to some reports, he converted to Catholicism shortly before his death. Mother Catherine died a few months before her husband.

Zoya and her brothers moved to Rome only in 1465. At the same time, she received the name Sophia. Cardinal Vissarion of Nicaea took up the task of raising the children.

The money given for the maintenance of children by the Pope was enough not only for food and clothing, but also for the maintenance of a small courtyard. In addition, it was possible to save modest amounts.

After the death of Thomas, the eldest, Andrei, inherited the crown. He sold it to European rulers and died poor. The second son, Michael, went into the service of the Sultan, received a pension and lived in Constantinople. According to some reports, he converted to Islam and served in the navy.

They tried to marry Sophia three times:

1. In 1466, the candidacy of an 11-year-old girl was proposed to the Cypriot king, but he refused.
2. The following year, Pope Paul II offered the girl's hand to the Italian prince Caracciolo. The engagement took place, but there was no wedding.
3. The latter proposal was also put forward by Pope Paul in 1469: this time the groom was predicted to be the Russian Prince Ivan III, who lost his wife in 1467.

The reasons that prompted the parties to agree are difficult to guess.

Most likely, Pope Paul II hoped to increase the influence of his church in Russia or wanted a rapprochement between Catholicism and Orthodoxy. Prince Ivan III was most likely attracted by the status of his bride - the niece of the last Byzantine emperor. It is possible that Cardinal Vissarion was also involved in the case.

Wedding and moving to Moscow

Negotiations about the wedding lasted 3 years. In 1469, the Greek Yuri came to Moscow with an offer to the prince to marry Sophia. At the same time, it was indicated that she was an Orthodox Christian, although in fact the girl at that time belonged to the Catholic faith. Ivan III consulted with his mother, boyars and metropolitan and made a positive decision.

In the same year, Ivan Fryazin (a native of Italy, Gian Batista della Volpe) was sent to Rome for matchmaking. The Pope received him well, but asked him to send boyars for Sophia. As the chronicle of the city of Sofia says, the Russian groom was sent a portrait of the bride, which greatly surprised the court.

Sophia Paleolog's appearance was pleasant, although she was plump by Italian standards of beauty: short (160 cm), the girl had beautiful eyes, white skin and typical features of a Mediterranean woman. Later, the similarity of the facial features of Sophia and Ivan the Terrible will become proof of their relationship.

The second time Ivan Fryazin went in 1472 for 17-year-old Sophia. A few days after his arrival, the newlyweds were betrothed in absentia in the Basilica of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. Less than a month later the procession gathered back. Among the bride's dowry were books that would later become the basis of Ivan IV's library. The girl also brought some relics of saints, for whom precious reliquaries were created in Russia.

Zoya Paleolog arrived in Moscow on November 12, the wedding took place 10 days later in the Assumption Cathedral. According to the official princely chronicle, Metropolitan Philip married the couple. According to unofficial sources, the wedding was performed by a local archpriest.

Family life

The marriage of Ivan 3 and Sophia Paleologue was successful: 5 sons and 6 daughters were born. Only the two older girls died in infancy. The queen's eldest son, heir Vasily Ivanovich, would later become known as Moscow Prince Vasily III. At that time, Ivan III already had an heir - Ivan the Young, a son from his first marriage.

The prince built a mansion for his young wife, which, however, burned down in 1493. In 1480, before the invasion of the Horde Khan Akhmat, Sophia and her children moved to Dmitrov, then to Beloozero. If Akhmat took Moscow, the queen had to flee further to the north. The family returned to Moscow in the winter of that year.

Two legends are associated with the name of Sophia Paleologue, the prince’s wife at that time:

1. The queen was present at the council of her husband with the boyars regarding the demand for tribute from the khan. Hearing the advice of many boyars to agree and pay, Sophia began to cry and persuaded her husband to end the Tatar yoke.
2. The second legend is connected with the birth of the son of Vasily III: during a service in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Sergius of Radonezh appeared to Sophia, who predicted that she would give birth to a son.

But still the princess was not loved at court, was considered cunning and proud, and was even accused of witchcraft. Some boyars were convinced that Sophia poisoned the heir Ivan and was involved in the imprisonment of many close associates.

Sophia Paleologus died in 1503 - two years before the death of her husband.

Inheritance issues

Two groups formed around Prince Ivan III: those supporting his eldest son from his first marriage and those supporting his young wife. At first, the first group won: in 1477, the elder Ivan the Young was appointed co-ruler with his father. 6 years later he got married (his daughter-in-law and mother-in-law turned out to be enemies), and in the same year Ivan III’s grandson Dmitry was born.

At first, the position of the heir to Ivan Ivanovich was quite strong, but everything changed in 1490, when he fell ill with gout. Sophia invited a doctor to Russia, who promised that he would quickly cure the heir. But the doctor’s efforts were in vain: in 1490, Ivan Ivanovich died. The doctor was executed, but rumors spread throughout Moscow that the heir had been poisoned.

In 1498, the coronation of the heir Dmitry Ivanovich took place, but already in 1502 the grandson fell into disgrace and was arrested along with his mother. The mother died in 1505, the grandson in 1509. Vasily III Ivanovich became the heir.

The life of Sophia Paleolog can hardly be called eventful. At the age of 17, she became the second wife of the Russian Tsar Ivan III, gave birth to a huge number of children and took some part in the political life of the country. Otherwise, Sophia is better known as the wife of the Tsar and the grandmother of Ivan the Terrible, as the queen who invited foreign architects to Russia. During her reign, Kremlin cathedrals and new palaces were erected.

This woman was credited with many important government deeds. What made Sofia Paleolog so different? Interesting facts about her, as well as biographical information, are collected in this article.


Sofia Fominichna Paleolog, aka Zoya Paleologina, was born in October 1455. Origins from the Byzantine imperial dynasty of the Palaiologos.
Grand Duchess of Moscow, second wife of Ivan III, mother of Vasily III, grandmother of Ivan the Terrible.

Cardinal's proposal

The ambassador of Cardinal Vissarion arrived in Moscow in February 1469. He handed over a letter to the Grand Duke with a proposal to marry Sophia, daughter of Theodore I, Despot of Morea. By the way, this letter also said that Sofia Paleologus (real name is Zoya, they decided to replace it with an Orthodox one for diplomatic reasons) had already refused two crowned suitors who had wooed her. These were the Duke of Milan and the French king. The fact is that Sofia did not want to marry a Catholic.

Sofia Paleolog (of course, you can’t find a photo of her, but portraits are presented in the article), according to the ideas of that distant time, was no longer young. However, she was still quite attractive. She had expressive, amazingly beautiful eyes, as well as matte, delicate skin, which in Rus' was considered a sign of excellent health. In addition, the bride was distinguished by her stature and sharp mind.

Who is Sofia Fominichna Paleolog?

Sofia Fominichna is the niece of Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last emperor of Byzantium. Since 1472, she was the wife of Ivan III Vasilyevich. Her father was Thomas Palaiologos, who fled to Rome with his family in 1453 after the Turks captured Constantinople. Sophia Paleologus lived after the death of her father in the care of the great Pope. For a number of reasons, he wished to marry her to Ivan III, who was widowed in 1467. He agreed.


Sofia Paleolog gave birth to a son in 1479, who later became Vasily III Ivanovich. In addition, she achieved the declaration of Vasily as the Grand Duke, whose place was to be taken by Dmitry, the grandson of Ivan III, crowned king. Ivan III used his marriage to Sophia to strengthen Rus' in the international arena.


Icon "Blessed Heaven" and the image of Michael III

Sofia Palaeologus, Grand Duchess of Moscow, brought several Orthodox icons. It is believed that among them was the “Blessed Heaven” icon, a rare image of the Mother of God. She was in the Kremlin Archangel Cathedral. However, according to another legend, the relic was transported from Constantinople to Smolensk, and when the latter was captured by Lithuania, this icon was used to bless the marriage of Princess Sofya Vitovtovna when she married Vasily I, Prince of Moscow. The image that is in the cathedral today is a copy of an ancient icon, made at the end of the 17th century by order of Fyodor Alekseevich.

Muscovites traditionally brought lamp oil and water to this icon. It was believed that they were filled with healing properties, because the image had healing powers. This icon is one of the most revered in our country today.

In the Archangel Cathedral, after the wedding of Ivan III, an image of Michael III, the Byzantine emperor who was the founder of the Palaeologus dynasty, also appeared. Thus, it was argued that Moscow is the successor of the Byzantine Empire, and the sovereigns of Rus' are the heirs of the Byzantine emperors.

The birth of the long-awaited heir

After Sofia Palaeologus, the second wife of Ivan III, married him in the Assumption Cathedral and became his wife, she began to think about how to gain influence and become a real queen. Paleologue understood that for this she had to present the prince with a gift that only she could give: to give birth to him a son who would become the heir to the throne. To Sofia’s chagrin, the first-born was a daughter who died almost immediately after birth. A year later, a girl was born again, but she also died suddenly. Sofia Palaeologus cried, prayed to God to give her an heir, distributed handfuls of alms to the poor, and donated to churches. After some time, the Mother of God heard her prayers - Sofia Paleolog became pregnant again.

Her biography was finally marked by a long-awaited event. It took place on March 25, 1479 at 8 pm, as stated in one of the Moscow chronicles. A son was born. He was named Vasily of Paria. The boy was baptized by Vasiyan, the Rostov archbishop, in the Sergius Monastery.

What did Sofia bring with her?

Sofia managed to instill in her what was dear to her, and what was valued and understood in Moscow. She brought with her the customs and traditions of the Byzantine court, pride in her own origins, as well as annoyance at the fact that she had to marry a tributary of the Mongol-Tatars. It is unlikely that Sophia liked the simplicity of the situation in Moscow, as well as the unceremoniousness of the relations that reigned at the court at that time. Ivan III himself was forced to listen to reproachful speeches from the obstinate boyars. However, in the capital, even without it, many had a desire to change the old order, which did not correspond to the position of the Moscow sovereign. And the wife of Ivan III with the Greeks she brought, who saw both Roman and Byzantine life, could give the Russians valuable instructions on what models and how they should implement the changes desired by everyone.

The prince's wife cannot be denied influence on the behind-the-scenes life of the court and its decorative environment. She skillfully built personal relationships and was excellent at court intrigue. However, Paleologue could only respond to political ones with suggestions that echoed the vague and secret thoughts of Ivan III. The idea was especially clear that by her marriage the princess was making the Moscow rulers successors to the emperors of Byzantium, with the interests of the Orthodox East clinging to the latter. Therefore, Sophia Palaeologus in the capital of the Russian state was valued mainly as a Byzantine princess, and not as a Grand Duchess of Moscow. She herself understood this. As Princess Sofia, she enjoyed the right to receive foreign embassies in Moscow. Therefore, her marriage to Ivan was a kind of political demonstration. It was announced to the whole world that the heiress of the Byzantine house, which had fallen shortly before, transferred its sovereign rights to Moscow, which became the new Constantinople. Here she shares these rights with her husband.


Ivan, sensing his new position in the international arena, found the previous environment of the Kremlin ugly and cramped. Masters were sent from Italy, following the princess. They built the Faceted Chamber, the Assumption Cathedral (St. Basil's Cathedral), and a new stone palace on the site of the wooden mansion. In the Kremlin at this time, a strict and complex ceremony began to take place at the court, imparting arrogance and stiffness to Moscow life. Just as in his palace, Ivan III began to act in external relations with a more solemn gait. Especially when the Tatar yoke fell off the shoulders without a fight, as if by itself. And it weighed heavily over all of northeastern Russia for almost two centuries (from 1238 to 1480). A new language, more solemn, appeared at this time in government papers, especially diplomatic ones. A rich terminology is emerging.

Sofia Paleologue was not loved in Moscow for the influence she exerted on the Grand Duke, as well as for the changes in the life of Moscow - “great unrest” (in the words of boyar Bersen-Beklemishev). Sofia interfered not only in domestic, but also in foreign policy affairs. She demanded that Ivan III refuse to pay tribute to the Horde khan and finally free himself from his power. The skilful advice of the Paleologist, as evidenced by V.O. Klyuchevsky, always responded to her husband’s intentions. Therefore he refused to pay tribute. Ivan III trampled on the Khan's charter in Zamoskovreche, in the Horde courtyard. Later, the Transfiguration Church was built on this site. However, even then the people “talked” about Paleologus. Before Ivan III left for the great stand on the Ugra in 1480, he sent his wife and children to Beloozero. For this, the subjects attributed to the sovereign the intention to give up power if Moscow was taken by Khan Akhmat, and to flee with his wife.

"Duma" and changes in treatment of subordinates

Ivan III, freed from the yoke, finally felt like a sovereign sovereign. Through the efforts of Sofia, palace etiquette began to resemble Byzantine. The prince gave his wife a “gift”: Ivan III allowed Sofia to assemble her own “duma” from the members of her retinue and organize “diplomatic receptions” in her half. The princess received foreign ambassadors and politely talked to them. This was an unprecedented innovation for Rus'. The treatment at the sovereign's court also changed.

Sophia Palaeologus brought her husband sovereign rights, as well as the right to the Byzantine throne. The boyars had to reckon with this. Ivan III used to love arguments and objections, but under Sophia he radically changed the way he treated his courtiers. Ivan began to act unapproachable, easily fell into anger, often brought disgrace, and demanded special respect for himself. Rumor also attributed all these misfortunes to the influence of Sophia Paleologus.

Fight for the throne

She was also accused of violating the succession to the throne. In 1497, enemies told the prince that Sophia Palaeologus planned to poison his grandson in order to place her own son on the throne, that she was secretly visited by sorcerers preparing a poisonous potion, and that Vasily himself was participating in this conspiracy. Ivan III took the side of his grandson in this matter. He ordered the sorcerers to be drowned in the Moscow River, arrested Vasily, and removed his wife from him, demonstratively executing several members of the “Duma” Paleologus. In 1498, Ivan III crowned Dmitry in the Assumption Cathedral as heir to the throne.
However, Sophia had the ability for court intrigue in her blood. She accused Elena Voloshanka of adherence to heresy and was able to bring about her downfall. The Grand Duke put his grandson and daughter-in-law into disgrace and named Vasily the legal heir to the throne in 1500.

The marriage of Sofia Paleolog and Ivan III certainly strengthened the Moscow state. He contributed to its transformation into the Third Rome. Sofia Paleolog lived for more than 30 years in Russia, giving birth to 12 children to her husband. However, she never managed to fully understand the foreign country, its laws and traditions. Even in official chronicles there are entries condemning her behavior in some situations that are difficult for the country.

Sofia attracted architects and other cultural figures, as well as doctors, to the Russian capital. The creations of Italian architects made Moscow not inferior in majesty and beauty to the capitals of Europe. This contributed to strengthening the prestige of the Moscow sovereign and emphasized the continuity of the Russian capital to the Second Rome.

Death of Sofia

Sofia died in Moscow on August 7, 1503. She was buried in the Ascension Convent of the Moscow Kremlin. In December 1994, in connection with the transfer of the remains of the royal and princely wives to the Archangel Cathedral, S. A. Nikitin, using the preserved skull of Sophia, restored her sculptural portrait (pictured above). Now we can at least approximately imagine what Sophia Paleolog looked like.

At the end of June 1472, the Byzantine princess Sophia Paleologus solemnly set off from Rome to Moscow: she was going to a wedding with Grand Duke Ivan III. This woman was destined to play an important role in the historical destinies of Russia.

Byzantine princess

On May 29, 1453, the legendary Constantinople, besieged by the Turkish army, fell. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, died in battle defending Constantinople.

His younger brother Thomas Palaiologos, ruler of the small appanage state of Morea on the Peloponnese peninsula, fled with his family to Corfu and then to Rome. After all, Byzantium, hoping to receive military assistance from Europe in the fight against the Turks, signed the Union of Florence in 1439 on the unification of the Churches, and now its rulers could seek asylum from the papal throne. Thomas Palaiologos was able to remove the greatest shrines of the Christian world, including the head of the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called. In gratitude for this, he received a house in Rome and a good boarding house from the papal throne.

In 1465, Thomas died, leaving three children - sons Andrei and Manuel and the youngest daughter Zoya. The exact date of her birth is unknown. It is believed that she was born in 1443 or 1449 in her father's possessions in the Peloponnese, where she received her early education. The Vatican took upon itself the education of the royal orphans, entrusting them to Cardinal Bessarion of Nicaea. Greek by birth, former Archbishop of Nicaea, he was a zealous supporter of the signing of the Union of Florence, after which he became a cardinal in Rome. He raised Zoe Paleologue in European Catholic traditions and especially taught her to humbly follow the principles of Catholicism in everything, calling her “the beloved daughter of the Roman Church.” Only in this case, he inspired the pupil, will fate give you everything. However, everything turned out quite the opposite.

In those years, the Vatican was looking for allies to organize a new crusade against the Turks, intending to involve all European sovereigns in it. Then, on the advice of Cardinal Vissarion, the pope decided to marry Zoya to the recently widowed Moscow sovereign Ivan III, knowing about his desire to become the heir to the Byzantine basileus. This marriage served two political purposes. Firstly, they hoped that the Grand Duke of Muscovy would now accept the Union of Florence and submit to Rome. And secondly, he will become a powerful ally and recapture the former possessions of Byzantium, taking part of them as a dowry. So, by the irony of history, this fateful marriage for Russia was inspired by the Vatican. All that remained was to obtain Moscow's consent.

In February 1469, the ambassador of Cardinal Vissarion arrived in Moscow with a letter to the Grand Duke, in which he was invited to legally marry the daughter of the Despot of Morea. The letter mentioned, among other things, that Sophia (the name Zoya was diplomatically replaced with the Orthodox Sophia) had already refused two crowned suitors who had wooed her - the French king and the Duke of Milan, not wanting to marry a Catholic ruler.

According to the ideas of that time, Sophia was considered a middle-aged woman, but she was very attractive, with amazingly beautiful, expressive eyes and soft matte skin, which in Rus' was considered a sign of excellent health. And most importantly, she was distinguished by a sharp mind and an article worthy of a Byzantine princess.

The Moscow sovereign accepted the offer. He sent his ambassador, the Italian Gian Battista della Volpe (he was nicknamed Ivan Fryazin in Moscow), to Rome to make a match. The messenger returned a few months later, in November, bringing with him a portrait of the bride. This portrait, which seemed to mark the beginning of the era of Sophia Paleologus in Moscow, is considered the first secular image in Rus'. At least, they were so amazed by it that the chronicler called the portrait an “icon,” without finding another word: “And bring the princess on the icon.”

However, the matchmaking dragged on because Moscow Metropolitan Philip for a long time objected to the sovereign’s marriage to a Uniate woman, who was also a pupil of the papal throne, fearing the spread of Catholic influence in Rus'. Only in January 1472, having received the consent of the hierarch, Ivan III sent an embassy to Rome for the bride. Already on June 1, at the insistence of Cardinal Vissarion, a symbolic betrothal took place in Rome - the engagement of Princess Sophia and the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan, who was represented by the Russian ambassador Ivan Fryazin. That same June, Sophia set off on her journey with an honorary retinue and the papal legate Anthony, who soon had to see firsthand the futility of the hopes Rome placed on this marriage. According to Catholic tradition, a Latin cross was carried at the front of the procession, which caused great confusion and excitement among the residents of Russia. Having learned about this, Metropolitan Philip threatened the Grand Duke: “If you allow the cross in blessed Moscow to be carried before the Latin bishop, then he will enter the only gate, and I, your father, will go out of the city differently.” Ivan III immediately sent the boyar to meet the procession with the order to remove the cross from the sleigh, and the legate had to obey with great displeasure. The princess herself behaved as befits the future ruler of Rus'. Having entered the Pskov land, the first thing she did was visit an Orthodox church, where she venerated the icons. The legate had to obey here too: follow her to the church, and there venerate the holy icons and venerate the image of the Mother of God by order of despina (from the Greek despot- “ruler”). And then Sophia promised the admiring Pskovites her protection before the Grand Duke.

Ivan III did not intend to fight for the “inheritance” with the Turks, much less accept the Union of Florence. And Sophia had no intention of Catholicizing Rus'. On the contrary, she showed herself to be an active Orthodox Christian. Some historians believe that she did not care what faith she professed. Others suggest that Sophia, apparently raised in childhood by the Athonite elders, opponents of the Union of Florence, was deeply Orthodox at heart. She skillfully hid her faith from the powerful Roman “patrons”, who did not help her homeland, betraying it to the Gentiles for ruin and death. One way or another, this marriage only strengthened Muscovy, contributing to its conversion to the great Third Rome.

Kremlin despina

Early in the morning of November 12, 1472, Sophia Paleologus arrived in Moscow, where everything was ready for the wedding celebration dedicated to the name day of the Grand Duke - the day of remembrance of St. John Chrysostom. On the same day, in the Kremlin, in a temporary wooden church, erected near the Assumption Cathedral under construction, so as not to stop the services, the sovereign married her. The Byzantine princess saw her husband for the first time. The Grand Duke was young - only 32 years old, handsome, tall and stately. His eyes were especially remarkable, “formidable eyes”: when he was angry, women fainted from his terrible gaze. And before, Ivan Vasilyevich was distinguished by a tough character, but now, having become related to the Byzantine monarchs, he turned into a formidable and powerful sovereign. This was largely due to his young wife.

The wedding in a wooden church made a strong impression on Sophia Paleolog. The Byzantine princess, raised in Europe, differed in many ways from Russian women. Sophia brought with her her ideas about the court and the power of government, and many of the Moscow orders did not suit her heart. She did not like that her sovereign husband remained a tributary of the Tatar khan, that the boyar entourage behaved too freely with their sovereign. That the Russian capital, built entirely of wood, stands with patched fortress walls and dilapidated stone churches. That even the sovereign's mansions in the Kremlin are made of wood and that Russian women look at the world from a small window. Sophia Paleolog not only made changes at court. Some Moscow monuments owe their appearance to her.

She brought a generous dowry to Rus'. After the wedding, Ivan III adopted the Byzantine double-headed eagle as a coat of arms - a symbol of royal power, placing it on his seal. The two heads of the eagle face the West and the East, Europe and Asia, symbolizing their unity, as well as the unity (“symphony”) of spiritual and temporal power. Actually, Sophia’s dowry was the legendary “Liberia” - a library allegedly brought on 70 carts (better known as the “library of Ivan the Terrible”). It included Greek parchments, Latin chronographs, ancient Eastern manuscripts, among which were unknown to us poems by Homer, works by Aristotle and Plato, and even surviving books from the famous Library of Alexandria. Seeing wooden Moscow, burned after the fire of 1470, Sophia was afraid for the fate of the treasure and for the first time hid the books in the basement of the stone Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary on Senya - the home church of the Moscow Grand Duchesses, built by order of St. Eudokia, the widow of Dmitry Donskoy. And, according to Moscow custom, she put her own treasury for preservation in the underground of the Kremlin Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist - the very first church in Moscow, which stood until 1847.

According to legend, she brought with her a “bone throne” as a gift to her husband: its wooden frame was entirely covered with plates of ivory and walrus ivory with scenes on biblical themes carved on them. This throne is known to us as the throne of Ivan the Terrible: the king is depicted on it by the sculptor M. Antokolsky. In 1896, the throne was installed in the Assumption Cathedral for the coronation of Nicholas II. But the sovereign ordered it to be staged for Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (according to other sources, for his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna), and he himself wished to be crowned on the throne of the first Romanov. And now the throne of Ivan the Terrible is the oldest in the Kremlin collection.

Sophia also brought with her several Orthodox icons, including, as is believed, a rare icon of the Mother of God “Blessed Heaven”. The icon was in the local rank of the iconostasis of the Kremlin Archangel Cathedral. True, according to another legend, this icon was brought to ancient Smolensk from Constantinople, and when the city was captured by Lithuania, this image was used to bless the Lithuanian princess Sofya Vitovtovna for marriage with the Great Moscow Prince Vasily I. The icon that is now in the cathedral is a list from that ancient image, executed by order of Fyodor Alekseevich at the end of the 17th century. According to tradition, Muscovites brought water and lamp oil to the image of the Mother of God “Blessed Heaven,” which were filled with healing properties, since this icon had a special, miraculous healing power. And even after the wedding of Ivan III, an image of the Byzantine Emperor Michael III, the founder of the Palaeologus dynasty, with which the Moscow rulers became related, appeared in the Archangel Cathedral. Thus, the continuity of Moscow to the Byzantine Empire was established, and the Moscow sovereigns appeared as the heirs of the Byzantine emperors.

After the wedding, Ivan III himself felt the need to rebuild the Kremlin into a powerful and impregnable citadel. It all started with the disaster of 1474, when the Assumption Cathedral, built by Pskov craftsmen, collapsed. Rumors immediately spread among the people that the trouble had happened because of the “Greek woman,” who had previously been in “Latinism.” While the reasons for the collapse were being clarified, Sophia advised her husband to invite Italian architects, who were then the best craftsmen in Europe. Their creations could make Moscow equal in beauty and majesty to European capitals and support the prestige of the Moscow sovereign, as well as emphasize the continuity of Moscow not only with the Second, but also with the First Rome. Scientists have noticed that the Italians traveled to the unknown Muscovy without fear, because despina could give them protection and help. Sometimes there is an assertion that it was Sophia who suggested to her husband the idea of ​​inviting Aristotle Fioravanti, whom she might have heard of in Italy or even known him personally, because he was famous in his homeland as the “new Archimedes.” Whether this is true or not, only the Russian ambassador Semyon Tolbuzin, sent by Ivan III to Italy, invited Fioravanti to Moscow, and he happily agreed.

A special, secret order awaited him in Moscow. Fioravanti drew up a master plan for the new Kremlin being built by his compatriots. There is an assumption that the impregnable fortress was built to protect Liberia. In the Assumption Cathedral, the architect made a deep underground crypt, where they placed a priceless library. This cache was accidentally discovered by Grand Duke Vasily III many years after the death of his parents. At his invitation, Maxim the Greek came to Moscow in 1518 to translate these books, and allegedly managed to tell Ivan the Terrible, son of Vasily III, about them before his death. Where this library ended up during the time of Ivan the Terrible is still unknown. They looked for her in the Kremlin, and in Kolomenskoye, and in Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, and at the site of the Oprichnina Palace on Mokhovaya. And now there is an assumption that Liberia rests under the bottom of the Moscow River, in dungeons dug from the chambers of Malyuta Skuratov.

The construction of some Kremlin churches is also associated with the name of Sophia Paleologus. The first of them was the cathedral in the name of St. Nicholas of Gostunsky, built near the bell tower of Ivan the Great. Previously, there was a Horde courtyard where the khan's governors lived, and such a neighborhood depressed the Kremlin despina. According to legend, Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker himself appeared to Sophia in a dream and ordered the construction of an Orthodox church in that place. Sophia showed herself to be a subtle diplomat: she sent an embassy with rich gifts to the khan’s wife and, telling about the wonderful vision that had appeared to her, asked to give her land in exchange for another - outside the Kremlin. Consent was received, and in 1477 the wooden St. Nicholas Cathedral appeared, which was later replaced by a stone one and stood until 1817. (Remember that the deacon of this church was the pioneer printer Ivan Fedorov). However, historian Ivan Zabelin believed that, on the orders of Sophia Paleologus, another church was built in the Kremlin, consecrated in the name of Saints Cosmas and Damian, which did not survive to this day.

Traditions call Sophia Palaeologus the founder of the Spassky Cathedral, which, however, was rebuilt during the construction of the Terem Palace in the 17th century and was then called Verkhospassky - because of its location. Another legend says that Sophia Paleologus brought the temple image of the Savior Not Made by Hands of this cathedral to Moscow. In the 19th century, the artist Sorokin painted an image of the Lord from it for the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. This image has miraculously survived to this day and is now located in the lower (stylobate) Transfiguration Church as its main shrine. It is known that Sophia Paleolog really brought the image of the Savior Not Made by Hands, which her father blessed. The frame of this image was kept in the Kremlin Cathedral of the Savior on Bor, and on the analogue lay the icon of the All-Merciful Savior, also brought by Sophia.

Another story is connected with the Church of the Savior on Bor, which was then the cathedral church of the Kremlin Spassky Monastery, and the despina, thanks to which the Novospassky Monastery appeared in Moscow. After the wedding, the Grand Duke still lived in wooden mansions, which constantly burned in the frequent Moscow fires. One day, Sophia herself had to escape the fire, and she finally asked her husband to build a stone palace. The Emperor decided to please his wife and fulfilled her request. So the Cathedral of the Savior on Bor, together with the monastery, was cramped by new palace buildings. And in 1490, Ivan III moved the monastery to the bank of the Moscow River, five miles from the Kremlin. Since then, the monastery began to be called Novospassky, and the Cathedral of the Savior on Bor remained an ordinary parish church. Due to the construction of the palace, the Kremlin Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary on Senya, which was also damaged by the fire, was not restored for a long time. Only when the palace was finally ready (and this happened only under Vasily III) did it have a second floor, and in 1514 the architect Aleviz Fryazin raised the Church of the Nativity to a new level, which is why it is still visible from Mokhovaya Street.

In the 19th century, during excavations in the Kremlin, a bowl with ancient coins minted under the Roman Emperor Tiberius was discovered. According to scientists, these coins were brought by someone from the numerous retinue of Sophia Paleologus, which included natives of both Rome and Constantinople. Many of them took government positions, becoming treasurers, ambassadors, and translators. In Despina's retinue, A. Chicheri, the ancestor of Pushkin's grandmother, Olga Vasilievna Chicherina, and the famous Soviet diplomat, arrived in Rus'. Later, Sophia invited doctors from Italy for the family of the Grand Duke. The practice of healing was then very dangerous for foreigners, especially when it came to treating the first person of the state. The complete recovery of the highest patient was required, but in the event of the patient’s death, the life of the doctor himself was taken away.

Thus, the doctor Leon, discharged by Sophia from Venice, vouched with his head that he would cure the heir, Prince Ivan Ivanovich the Young, who suffered from gout, the eldest son of Ivan III from his first wife. However, the heir died, and the doctor was executed in Zamoskvorechye on Bolvanovka. The people blamed Sophia for the death of the young prince: she could especially benefit from the death of the heir, for she dreamed of the throne for her son Vasily, born in 1479.

Sophia was not loved in Moscow for her influence on the Grand Duke and for the changes in Moscow life - “great unrest,” as boyar Bersen-Beklemishev put it. She also intervened in foreign policy affairs, insisting that Ivan III stop paying tribute to the Horde khan and free himself from his power. And as if one day she said to her husband: “I refused my hand to rich, strong princes and kings, for the sake of faith I married you, and now you want to make me and my children tributaries; Don’t you have enough troops?” As noted by V.O. Klyuchevsky, Sophia’s skillful advice always answered the secret intentions of her husband. Ivan III really refused to pay tribute and trampled on the Khan’s charter right in the Horde courtyard in Zamoskvorechye, where the Transfiguration Church was later built. But even then the people “talked” against Sophia. Before leaving for the great stand on the Ugra in 1480, Ivan III sent his wife and small children to Beloozero, for which he was credited with secret intentions to give up power and flee with his wife if Khan Akhmat took Moscow.

Freed from the khan's yoke, Ivan III felt himself a sovereign sovereign. Through the efforts of Sophia, palace etiquette began to resemble Byzantine etiquette. The Grand Duke gave his wife a “gift”: he allowed her to have her own “Duma” of members of her retinue and arrange “diplomatic receptions” in her half. She received foreign ambassadors and struck up polite conversation with them. For Rus' this was an unheard of innovation. The treatment at the sovereign's court also changed. The Byzantine princess brought sovereign rights to her husband and, according to historian F.I. Uspensky, the right to the throne of Byzantium, which the boyars had to reckon with. Previously, Ivan III loved “meeting against himself,” that is, objections and disputes, but under Sophia he changed his treatment of the courtiers, began to behave inaccessibly, demanded special respect and easily fell into anger, every now and then inflicting disgrace. These misfortunes were also attributed to the harmful influence of Sophia Paleologus.

Meanwhile, their family life was not cloudless. In 1483, Sophia's brother Andrei married his daughter to Prince Vasily Vereisky, the great-grandson of Dmitry Donskoy. Sophia presented her niece with a valuable gift from the sovereign's treasury for her wedding - a piece of jewelry that previously belonged to the first wife of Ivan III, Maria Borisovna, naturally believing herself to have every right to make this gift. When the Grand Duke missed the decoration to present his daughter-in-law Elena Voloshanka, who gave him his grandson Dmitry, such a storm broke out that Vereisky had to flee to Lithuania.

And soon storm clouds loomed over Sophia’s head: strife began over the heir to the throne. Ivan III left his grandson Dmitry, born in 1483, from his eldest son. Sophia gave birth to his son Vasily. Which of them should have gotten the throne? This uncertainty became the reason for the struggle between two court parties - supporters of Dmitry and his mother Elena Voloshanka and supporters of Vasily and Sophia Paleologus.

“The Greek” was immediately accused of violating the legal succession to the throne. In 1497, enemies told the Grand Duke that Sophia wanted to poison his grandson in order to place her own son on the throne, that she was secretly visited by sorcerers preparing a poisonous potion, and that Vasily himself was participating in this conspiracy. Ivan III took the side of his grandson, arrested Vasily, ordered the witches to be drowned in the Moscow River, and removed his wife from himself, demonstratively executing several members of her “duma.” Already in 1498, he crowned Dmitry as heir to the throne in the Assumption Cathedral. Scientists believe that it was then that the famous “Tale of the Princes of Vladimir” was born - a literary monument of the late 15th - early 16th centuries, which tells the story of Monomakh’s hat, which the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Monomakh allegedly sent with regalia to his grandson, the Kiev prince Vladimir Monomakh. In this way, it was proven that the Russian princes became related to the Byzantine rulers back in the days of Kievan Rus and that a descendant of the elder branch, that is, Dmitry, has a legal right to the throne.

However, the ability to weave court intrigue was in Sophia’s blood. She managed to achieve the fall of Elena Voloshanka, accusing her of adherence to heresy. Then the Grand Duke put his daughter-in-law and grandson into disgrace and in 1500 named Vasily the legal heir to the throne. Who knows what path Russian history would have taken if not for Sophia! But Sophia did not have long to enjoy the victory. She died in April 1503 and was buried with honor in the Kremlin Ascension Monastery. Ivan III died two years later, and in 1505 Vasily III ascended the throne.

Nowadays, scientists have been able to reconstruct her sculptural portrait from the skull of Sophia Paleologus. Before us appears a woman of outstanding intelligence and strong will, which confirms the numerous legends built around her name.