Note 15 — Chapter I · THE JEWISH DIASPORA IN EASTERN EUROPE

[During the early centuries of its existence Russia was made up of a number of independent principalities, over which the Principality of Kiev, "the mother of Russian cities," exercised, or rather claimed, the right of overlordship. From 1238 to 1462 the Russian lands were subject to the dominion of the Tatars. During the fourteenth century, while yet under Tatar rule, the Principality of Moscow gained the ascendancy over the other Russian states. The absorption of the latter and the creation of the autocratic Tzardom of Muscovy was the work of Ivan III. (1462-1505), his son Basil (1505-1533), and his grandson Ivan IV. the Terrible (1533-1584).]