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Ivan III Vasilyevich, called Ivan the Great 1440-1505
Grand Prince of Moscow and Grand Duke of Russia

Born in Moscow, he ruled from 1462, and ended his city's subjection to the Tatars. He gained control over a number of Russian principalities, including Novgorod, and after he married (1472) Sophia, a niece of Constantine XI Palaeologus, he assumed the title Sovereign of all Russia, and adopted the emblem of the two-headed eagle of the Byzantine Empire. He was the first Russian prince to establish contact with the West and laid the administrative basis of a centralized Russian state.

Bibliography: J L I Fennell, Ivan the Great of Moscow (1961)