Ryazan

The Principality of Ryazan always had difficulties standing out due to its proximity to Tatar lands and limited access to Western influence. After being the first Russian city to fall during the Mongol invasion, the capitol of the Principality was moved to the town of Pereslavl, which started to be informally referred as “New Ryazan” and later, officially, just Ryazan. Despite the new location, the town was pillaged many times, leading to a drastic low rate of urbanization even for Russian standards.

This choice, however, was also caused by the great fertility of the Chernozemie, the black earth territory just south of Ryazan, which made the princedom the breadbasket of Russia. The Great Famine of 1601 brought many desperate people to the region, hoping to find nourishment regardless of the very real threat of the Crimean Khanate in the south. Salvation came for many, but at the cost of perpetual serfdom to the Ryazanian nobility. The boyars were made even more powerful with the signing of a defence pact with Dimitri I Belsky. The new Grand Prince of Rus gave the Ryazanians many privileges which were denied to more threatening Principalities like Moscow. This pact put at his disposal the armies and lands of the southern Princedom, which had been barely grazed by the Polish armies. However, when Dimitri turned against his former supporters, the Ryazanians were quick to react and incited the peasant rebellion that toppled the last Grand Prince.

The terror caused by Dimitri’s “hunt for the boyars” hastened the introduction of Cossack soldiers into the Ryazanian army, bringing the Pricedom even closer to its untameable neighbours. The origins of the Cossack is controversial and their settlement in areas depopulated by Tatar raids lead many to speculate that they might not have Russian origin. Despite these rumours, since the 17th century the Cossacks have proved to be an effective shield against Crimean and Astrakhani raids, by either direct confrontation or by colonization of the steppes.

These “Hosts” stretch all the way from the Southern Bug river to the Volga and many Cossack communities also live in Novgorodian lands, where they occupied lands cleared of the Bashkirs or the Siberians. While western Cossacks have developed a strong bond with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the eastern Hosts were reluctant to accept the protection of a Russian prince, who often could offer little in exchange for the requested assistance, often against fellow Christians. Consequently, the southern Hosts have remained militarized communities pushing deeper into Tatar-inhabited territory (going as far as conquering the fabulous Saraj the Great [Volgograd] from the Astrakhan Khanate).

Only a small portion of the Cossacks settled in the rich Chernozemie, awarded by Ryazanian boyars in exchange for the military support. As many serfs seemed to prefer the harsh, albeit free, life of the Cossack communes to the privilege of serfdom, the Ryazanian Duma expanded part of its jurisdiction to the Cossack territories, angering those who had been the main supporters of Ryazanian independence for decades.

Unlike its northern neighbours, the Princedom of Ryazan has a very low esteem for the title of Prince and has embraced the tradition of elective monarchy of its most powerful neighbour, albeit by sugar-coating it with remembrances of ancient Slavic customs. By the time Feodor II Belsky had almost assimilated all Russian principalities, the Ryazan Rurikid branch had died out with Anastasia, the only Princess in the history of Russia ruling on her own right, who was forced to abdicate after a few months in favour of her husband Nicholas Repnin, from a minor but wealthy Rurikid branch with substantial Tatar contamination.

Favoured by Nicholas and Anastasia numerous offspring, the Ryazanian Duma has always picked a Repnin ever since, but the possibility of declaring loyalty to a charismatic unifier, like at the time of the Troubles, remains a very possible circumstance. The Repnin family, however, has produced very capable albeit unlucky rulers like Alexander II “the Gunpowder Prince”, whose ambition to annex the patrimony of his dead father-in-law Kiril I Rurikid was crushed first in the Muscovite Duma and later on the Sparrow Hills by his brother-in-law Sergei Lyapunov.

Currently, Michael II Repnin rules in Ryazan and his fondness of military affairs has led many boyars to think that he is not very interested in politics. Despite the appearances, Michael II has been creating an ever-growing network of collaborators, especially among the praetorian Russo-Cossack caste of the military vertices. His despise for serfdom and boyar excesses is becoming more and more evident, but the apparent stalemate in the North between Yaroslavl and Moscow, despite their territorial disputes, has given Michael II no occasions to trigger his plan of radical (and violent, if necessary) reform of the Principality of Ryazan. Will the Duma crumble under the Prince-in-the-Barrack or will they pull another trick hidden under the sleeve to preserve their perpetual privileges?