Basil, who ruled from 1389 to 1425, was prince both of Moscow and Vladimir, and during his time the relative importance of the former city was still further enhanced, while Vladimir was compelled to take second place and even ancient Novgorod, whatever else it did, was forced to make the Muscovite its prince.
This prince was succeeded by another Vassilli surnamed Blind, who ruled from 1425 to 1462. His reign was marked by a civil war which lasted twenty years, between the different members of the Donskoi family, which resulted in fixing more firmly the power of the Autocracy.
It would be tiresome to go into details over the long series of wars and intrigues which occupied his reign, at the end of which, although we find Moscow strengthened, the heel of the Tartar still rested upon the Russian neck.
It was Ivan III, called "The Great," who finally accomplished the liberation of Russia from her degrading Tartar servitude. He accomplished this chiefly at the behest of his second wife. She was Sophia, the daughter of Constantine, the last Greek emperor at Byzantium, as the modern Constantinople was then called.
This empire, which had been crumbling for generations, in spite of the fact that its capital was located where it had a geographic advantage over all the commercial world of its time, had at last come under the sway of the horrible Turk, and there, by the way, upon the Golden Horn, commanding the Dardanelles, sits the Turk yet, in spite of the anathemas of Popes, the intrigues of European courts and generations of hostile warrior kings. In fact, the Sultan promises to stand fast for an indefinite period. However, his first inroad and settlement upon the Bosphorus was indirectly a good thing for Russia.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
