1. At the end of the Livonian War The heroic defense of Pskov by Russian troops and residents of the city from the army of Stefan Batory was the last chord of the confrontation between Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Livonian War. This war, which lasted from 1558 to 1583, was the largest conflict involving virtually all the states of Eastern and partly Central Europe. The objective prerequisites for Russia's struggle for access to the Baltic Sea were rooted in the needs of its socio-economic development. It was vital for the Russian state to establish permanent economic, political and cultural ties with the countries of Western Europe. The progressive significance of the Livonian War was determined not only by the objective needs of Russia's further development. It also corresponded to the national aspirations of the Latvian and Estonian peoples, who were crushed by the most severe oppression of the German feudal lords. It is not by chance that the first years of military operations were accompanied by mass armed actions of Latvian and Estonian peasants against their secular and ecclesiastical masters .1 This to a certain extent contributed to the victories of Russian weapons. When the Livonian Order collapsed under the blows of the Russian army in 1561, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania intervened in the armed conflict over the Baltic lands, behind which stood Poland united with it by the Union of Lublin (in 1569 they were united into one state-the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth), Sweden and Denmark. Despite the deep contradictions of interests, the common point in the policy of these states was the desire to deprive Russia of communication with Western Europe through the Baltic Sea. At the final stage of the Livonian War, especially at the end of the 1577 campaign, when almost all of Livonia north of the Western Dvina (with the exception of Riga and Revel) fell under the rule of the Russian state, the goal of the arduous war seemed close to being ... Read more