The Russian state began to take shape more than a thousand years ago and went through several stages in its development. One of the most difficult and dramatic of them is the time of feudal fragmentation. Its signs appeared already in the middle of the 11th century. Historians identify several reasons for the emergence of feudal fragmentation in Russia.
Preconditions for feudal fragmentation
Traditionally, it is believed that the period of feudal fragmentation began in Kievan Rus in the first third of the 12th century. But individual signs of the political disunity of the Russian lands were visible long before that. In fact, Kievan Rus already at that time was a number of independent principalities. Initially, Kiev was the most powerful center of the country, but over the years its influence has weakened, and its leadership has become only formal.
At the end of the 11th century, there was already a steady growth in the population of cities, which contributed to the strengthening of urban settlements. Subsistence farming made individual princes completely independent large owners of estates. Small principalities could produce almost everything that was required for life, and depended little on commodity exchange with other lands.
Russia at that time did not have a strong, influential and charismatic ruler who could unite the country under his rule. Sufficient authority and outstanding personal qualities were required to subjugate all Russian lands. In addition, many princes in Russia had many children, which inevitably led to strife, struggle for inheritance and isolation of the descendants of the princes.
Russia in the period of fragmentation
The sons of Yaroslav the Wise, who for the time being together made military campaigns and actively defended the Russian lands, eventually disagreed on the management of the lands, began to feud among themselves and staged a long and brutal struggle for power. In 1073 Svyatoslav expelled Izyaslav, the eldest of the brothers, from Kiev.
The inheritance system adopted at that time contributed to civil strife and fragmentation. When the old prince died, the right to reign usually passed to the eldest member of the family. And most often it became the brother of the prince, which caused indignation and irritation of the sons. Not wanting to put up with their position, the heirs in every way tried to push their rivals out of power, not stopping before bribery, betrayal and direct use of force.
Vladimir Monomakh tried to rectify the situation by introducing a new system of succession to the throne. However, it was she who subsequently became the cause of enmity and fragmentation, since it made power the privilege of local princes. At the beginning of the 12th century, the situation began to heat up, and internecine clashes took on a bloody character. It got to the point that individual princes brought militant nomads to their lands to fight opponents.
Rus was sequentially split at first into fourteen principalities, and by the end of the XIII century the number of separate independent lands had increased to fifty. The consequences of fragmentation were disastrous for Russia. The small princes could not oppose significant forces to the external threat, and therefore the borders of the principalities were constantly attacked by the steppe nomads who sought to use the political situation in their weakened neighbors. Feudal fragmentation also became the main reason why Russia came under the rule of the Tatar-Mongol invaders.
