Moscow institutions:the Zemsky Sobor
The duma has existed for a long time , an institution that brings together boyars and whose function is to take care of all state affairs. The boyars who are part of the Duma give their agreement or not on the decisions of the sovereign. The zemsky sobor , created in 1613 under Ivan the Terrible, is an assembly which meets when necessary by order of the tsar when it comes to important problems to be settled, or other subjects to be discussed. The assembly numbers between two hundred and five hundred people, including some of the clergy, boyars, townspeople, and it has even happened that peasants are part of it.
It was Michael Romanov, in particular, who most often resorted to zemsky sobor , as for example during the capture of Azov or the question of Ukraine, when the Cossacks asked to be protected by Muscovy. Despite its capital importance within the power, the zemski sobor never questioned monarchical power. However, with the establishment of the autocracy, this institution gradually lost its importance and its necessity with the tsar. Especially since absolutism generates a unification and a centralization of the country:the small towns which form Muscovy, as well as the neighboring towns over which it extends, lose their cultures and their traditions to attach themselves to those of Moscow. . Indeed, in the seventeenth century, Russia opened up and grew considerably. Its greatest expansion remains that of Siberia, between 1610 and 1640.
The zemski sobor , very important during the Muscovite era, will disappear under the Russian Empire in the 18th century.
Siberia
The Muscovites see a commercial interest in Siberia. Indeed, there are many fur-bearing animals, such as sable, and the indigenous populations help to establish this trade. Because under the authority of Moscow, they pay a fur tax called the yassak .
Art and literature
After the correspondence between André Kourbski and Ivan IV fleeing to Lithuania, as well as Avvakum's autobiography during his captivity between 1672 and 1675, the 17th century inserted the Russian language into literature and also developed a strong westernization of Muscovy via art.
Among painters, we see the appearance of portraits, while the court witnessed the rise of the theater under Alexis I. The latter even had one built for his wife, Natalia Narychkina, future mother of Peter the Great. It is this sovereign who, seduced by art, imports it to Russia. From then on, many foreigners crossed Europe to come to Muscovy.
In literature, various stories, tales or songs enrich literary culture, whether oral or written, such as The Judgment of Chemiaka . Pushkin is one of the precursors.