Vasilii i Dmitrievich

Born 1371; died 1425. Grand prince of Moscow from 1389. The eldest son of Dmitrii Ivanovich Donskoi and of Grand Princess Evdokiia, daughter of the grand prince of Suzdal’, Dmitrii Konstantinovich.

Vasilii I continued the unification of Russian lands. In 1392 he annexed the principalities of Nizhny Novgorod and Murom; in 1397-98 he added Bezhetskii Verkh, Vologda, Ustiug, and the lands of the Komi people. Feudal land-ownership continued to grow during his reign. The growth of the grand prince’s power brought about the removal of some court cases from the jurisdiction of the feudal lords and their transfer into the hands of the grand prince’s vicegerents and the chiefs of volosti (small rural districts).

In order to avert the danger posed by the Golden Horde, Vasilii entered into an alliance with Lithuania in 1392. The alliance, however, proved unstable, since Prince Vitovt (Vytautas) captured Viaz’ma and Smolensk in 1403-04. After Tamerlane defeated the Golden Horde in 1391 and 1395, Vasilii refused to pay tribute. However, after Edigei’s invasion in 1408, he was forced to resume the payment of tribute to the Horde.