Nature's Evil

Engendered by despair, avarice and calculation, Ivan’s project entailed a root and branch reform of the Muscovy tsardom. The tsar divided his country into two domains with different political-economic regimes – the exceptional domain under the direct rule of the sovereign, where old laws and customs were abolished, and the boyar-owned domain which preserved its traditional ways of life and property rights. Geographically, the northern State of Exception (Oprichnina ) was oriented towards the White Sea; economically, it focused on the new trade with England, and it depended on hemp and a few other commercial products of the north. In contrast, the southern Land Domain (Zemshchina ) relied on grain. Deprived of access to northern rivers, it was condemned to subsistence farming and barely paid duties to the crown. If it had a function in Ivan’s geopolitics, it was to defend the zone of exception from possible raids from the south. Economically, this project seemed beneficial to Ivan; politically, it gave rise to opposition from all those whom the tsar deprived of an exit to the wider world.

Trying to understand Ivan’s project, Russian historians have seen it as a feudal conflict with hostile aristocrats: like medieval English kings, Ivan wished to smash their estates and castles. I suggest the Oprichnina should be seen as the establishment of a royal monopoly on the local natural resources, mainly hemp. In fact, this State of Exception worked as a big, specialised plantation with fertile fields and forests, a competent population and convenient delivery routes – an internal colony with a special regime of trade and power. The navigable rivers that crossed the territory guaranteed the export of hemp and a few other resources – flax, timber, wax, salt – to the White Sea and then around Scandinavia to England. Serviced by English vessels, the same route promised generous imports of weapons and luxury goods. Grain fields and cattle to the south ensured food and protection for this northern plantation. It was at exactly this time that Elizabeth I – now the main partner and model for Ivan – established colonial plantations in several parts of Ireland. Started in the 1550s, these royal initiatives led to the development of the plantation of Ulster – a later and much smaller project than the Oprichnina but also a very bloody colonial establishment. Giving sense to the extraordinary history of the Oprichnina , all these conceptions – northern plantation, internal colony, state of exception – were perfectly intelligible to Ivan as well as to his enemies. He worked on reforms to his tsardom at the same time as conducting talks about a military and nuptial alliance with the English throne. By cordoning off his exceptional state, he had created an internal India which would sell its raw materials to England, subsidising the tsar along with his northern nabobs and planters. A site of development, this zone of exception would become a model for admiration and worship by the country and the world – a Holy Land, as Ivan put it. As for the rest of the country, this landlocked domain would be left to feed and police itself, albeit contributing nothing to the crown.

In 1571 Ivan abolished his Oprichnina regime after his relations with England cooled severely. In a letter to Queen Elizabeth, dated October 1570, he complained about English merchants and acknowledged the futility of his hopes for a dynastic marriage. He took away from the English their right of free trade along the Volga and opened the White Sea ports to Dutch traders. Observing these changes, the Muscovy Company had its own agenda. It hadn’t found a northern route to China, but it opened up a northern route to Persia via the Dvina and the Volga. The English hoped to trade their broadcloth, calicos and weapons in exchange for northern furs and Persian silk. Few of their hopes were realised. Furs were no longer available around the White Sea, and the Volga was too long a route to go for silk. The Muscovy Company focused on hemp, which grew abundantly along the banks of the northern rivers. The Pomors had taken a great fancy to English wares, and they could be relied upon to process their hemp cheaply and expertly. There were no aristocratic landowners around, and the English traders could deal directly with the local producers. The English merchants’ transactions with the Pomors were quite similar to their interactions with villagers back home, whereas the French would have to invent new methods for their dealings with the Huron. As was their usual custom at home, the English distributed their orders among peasant households, collected the processed commodity, checked the quality and paid the suppliers. Having a monopoly on transportation, they kept the lion’s share of the profits for themselves. Bypassing the rapacious Muscovy state, they established their own cottage industry on the shores of the White Sea.