Andrei Mikhailovich Kurbsky

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Andrei Michailowitsch Kurbski also Andrei Prince of Yaroslavl ( Russian Андрей Михайлович Курбский ; * 1528 ; † 1583 ) was a Russian prince in the service of Tsarist Russia . He came from the princely Rurikiden branch line of the Kurbskis. It was also carried under the name Krupski and carried the "Lewart" coat of arms ( Grand Duchy of Lithuania , Poland-Lithuania ). Kurbsky was a close confidante and later a leading political opponent of the Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible . His correspondence with the tsar is a unique source for the history of Russia in the 16th century .

Life

Kurbsky came from a princely family of the Rurikids , which got its name from the town of Kurba near Yaroslavl . He distinguished himself in the regular campaigns against Kazan ( Moscow-Kazan Wars ) and in particular in the overthrow of the Udmurts , after which he rose to the boyar rank, and the subsequent capture of Kazan in 1552, where he commanded the right flank and was wounded. He became a friend and close advisor to Ivan IV. In the Livonian War he led the troops in the conquest of Dorpat in 1558. A few years later he fell out of favor and fled from certain death in April 1564 to Lithuania and led a Polish-Lithuanian army in the war against Ivan IV on behalf of Grand Duke Sigismund II August , which devastated the area around Velikije Luki . For this he received the city of Kovel from the Grand Duke , where he settled.

Between 1564 and 1579 he repeatedly wrote accusing letters to Ivan IV, in which he accused him of his cruelty and despotic arbitrariness with drastic words and detailed descriptions. He quotes classical authors such as Cicero and often the Bible (he compares Iwan with King Saul in the Bible, who listened to fortune tellers). Ivan answers just as drastically, comparing him to Judas and defending his rights as an absolute ruler who is responsible only to God. When Ivan received the first letter from Kurbsky, read by his loyal servant Shibanov, he is said to have rammed the iron tip of his stick into the foot of the servant after he was surprised by the accusatory tone and forced him to continue reading; later he had him tortured to death . Some historians (first Edward L. Keenan 1971) questioned the authenticity. According to Keenan, they would have been too literary and would have come about sixty to eighty years later. Most of the time they are considered to be authentic. The editor of the English edition, JLI Fennell, considered them to be extremely important for an understanding of medieval Russia . Otherwise there are hardly any letters from Ivan IV or members of his court.

His son converted to Catholicism (he appears as a character in Pushkin's drama Boris Godunov ).

Correspondence with Ivan the Terrible

  • Karl Stählin : Ivan the Terrible's Correspondence with Prince Kurbsky (1564-1579). Leipzig 1921 ( excerpts )
  • John Lister Illingworth Fennell (ed. And translator): The correspondence between Prince AM Kurbsky and Tsar Ivan IV of Russia: 1564 - 1579 , Cambridge: Univ. Press, 1955, 1963

literature

  • Inge Auerbach: Andrej Michajlovič Kurbskij: Life in Eastern European Noble Societies of the 16th Century , Munich: Sagner, 1985
  • Juliane Besters-Dilger: Andrej M. Kurbskij as translator: on Church Slavonic translation technology in the 16th century (= Monumenta Linguae Slavicae Dialecti Veteris Vol. XXXI), Freiburg i. Br.: Weiher, 1992
  • Vasilij Vasil'evič Kalugin: Andrej Kurbskij i Ivan Groznyj: (teoretičeskie vzuljady i literaturnaja technika drevnerusskogo pisatelja), Moscow: Jazyki Russkoj Kul'tury, 1998 (Russian)

Name variants

Andrej M. Kurbskij, André Kourbski, Andrej Kurbskij, Andrej Michajlovič Kurbskij, AM Kurbsky, Andreĭ Mikhaĭlovich Kurbskiĭ

Web links

Commons : Category: Andrey Kurbsky  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

References and footnotes

  1. ↑ s. LII “Skorowidz do herbow” (p. 871) “Herby Rycerstwa Polskiego. przez Bartosza Paprockiego zebrene i wydane r. 1584 (1789). Wydanie Kazimierza Jozefa Turowskiego. Krakow. Nakladem wydawnictwa biblioteki polskiej. 1858 r. »;
  2. ↑ s.504-506 tom 1 (index, tesserae gentiliciae in regno Poloniae s MD Lit.), "Orbis Poloni," Simone Okolski, Cracov, 1641 r .;
  3. ↑ p.554 (herb Krupskich), "Poczet herbow szlachty Korony Polskiey y Wielkiego Xięstwa Litewskiego: gniazdo y perspektywa staroświeckiey cnoty", Potocki Wacław, Krakow, 1696 r.
  4. ^ Józef Ludwik Wolff. Kniaziowie litewsko-ruscy od końca czternastego wieku. - Warszawa, 1895. - Cz. 1 str. 194-197 (Kurbski-Jaroslawski), Cz. 2 str. 662 (Kozar-Krupski)
  5. ^ Carr, Ivan the Terrible, p. 223
  6. Jump up ↑ Keenan, The Kurbskii-Groznyi Apocrypha, the 17th-Century Genesis of the "Correspondence" Attributed to Prince AM Kurbskii and Tsar Ivan IV, Russian Research Center Studies 66, Harvard University Press 1971
  7. ↑ Quoted from Francis Carr, Iwan der Schreckliche, Heyne 1990, p. 217
personal data
SURNAME Kurbsky, Andrei Michailowitsch
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian author, friend and later political opponent of Ivan the Terrible
DATE OF BIRTH 1528
DATE OF DEATH 1583