protect his people from injustice, punish evil, and render true justice. In Muscovy
people energetically used the court system; individuals petitioned for grievances
(involving land disputes, crime, military service, taxation, and other realms) and
courts responded in the ruler’s name. Not only individuals but communities
Figure 6.2 Hierarchs and secular leaders of conquered Novgorod prostrate themselves
before Ivan III in the literal meaning of“petition”in Russian, to“beat one’s forehead”to
the ground. Here illustrated in the mid-sixteenth-centuryIlluminated Chronicle, submitting
a personal petition to the ruler was the normal form of interacting with the tsar’s bureau-
cracy. With permission of AKTEON Publishers.
138 The Russian Empire 1450– 1801