Vasili III of Russia

Vasili III Ivanovich, born 25 March 1479, was the second son of Ivan III and Sophia Paleologue. He became Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia in 1505 and spent the next twenty-eight years erasing what remained of Russian fragmentation. Pskov and Ryazan—the final autonomous Russian territories—were annexed outright; Smolensk was wrested from Lithuania. He extended Russian sway into Kazan and along the Volga, tightening the grip his father had begun. Nobles who criticized the program were exiled, sentenced, or executed. He died 3 December 1533, having turned a patchwork into something closer t…