The Origins of Autocracy

41. Daniil (a pupil of Iosif's and his successor as abbot of Volokolamsk), who was made a metropolitan by Vasilii in 1522, proved, aside from everything else, to be the inventor of an effective political tactic, used with great success many generations later by another leader (who had also had theological training). While his opponents wrote books, made inspired speeches, and edited the canonical texts, Daniil methodically and stubbornly placed his own men in the key positions in the hierarchy. The majority in the assembly consisted of men who were personally loyal to him, and when matters came down to a vote, the Non-Acquirer leaders proved to be generals without an army. Only a month after he became a metropolitan, Daniil appointed Iosif's brother Akakii to be bishop of Tver', and then appointed Iosif's nephew Vassian Toporkov as bishop of Kolomna; later, the ordained monk Savva Slepushkin of the Volokolamsk Monastery was appointed bishop of Smolensk, and Makarii (the future metropolitan and comrade- in-arms of Ivan the Terrible) was made archbishop of Novgorod. Thus, exactly as Stalin did later, Daniil smothered the opposition in its cradle, and made it voiceless in the church assemblies.

43. M. Raev, "O knige Allena Bezansona," p. 220.

9. Nosov, Soslovno-predstavitel'nye, p. 344.

10. Ibid., pp. 365-66.