«Ideal storm»: social and ecological crisis in the Russian state in the 2nd half of 60s – early 70s XVI century – a look through the prism of «environmental history»

Abstract

In recent decades, in Western historiography, the so-called. «Environmental history» (the Russian equivalent of this term is usually the phrase «environmental history»). In modern domestic historical science, this direction is making its first steps. Note, however, that certain serious developments in this area were made by a number of Russian scientists at the end of the last – the beginning of this century. In this article, the author offers to look at the events of Russian history in the 2nd half of the 60s – the beginning of the 70s. XVI century from a different angle of view than before. The author proposes to use the methodology adopted in environmental history as the basis for a new approach to the analysis of those events. On the basis of an analysis of the chronicle evidence and scanty data of assembly materials, the author comes to the conclusion that the sharp deterioration of the climate in the second half of the XVI century led to the depletion of the stock of stability of peasant farms as the basis of the economy of the Russian state. That followed at the end of the 60s of the XVI century its collapse was caused by a severe plague epidemic and the resulting famine. Together they led to a large-scale socioecological crisis and the subsequent multi-year depression and launched the mechanisms of a large-scale socio-economic and political crisis in the Russian state. It can be considered the trait that divided the reign of Ivan the Terrible into «light» and «dark» halves.