Adrian Jones discusses the retinue of the Grand Prince, the group that gradually evolved into an aristocracy. He questions some of the stereotypes about autocracy in Russia, emphasising oligarchical aspects of the Russian polity.

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Emergence of the Aristocracy

In this subject, students examine the emergence, consolidation and development of Russian state and society in a hitherto 'wild' region in eastern Europe. The formative phase in the political, social and intellectual history of the Tsardom of Muscovy is traced. The focus is on the interplay of strange dichotomies like those between autocracy and oligarchy, patriarchy and communalism, xenophobia and Westernism, in shaping Russian state, society and culture in the turbulent era of Ivan the Terrible.