Editing Vasily II of Moscow (section)

===Kazan and Shemyaka===
During Vasily II 's reign, the [[Golden Horde]] collapsed and broke up into smaller [[Khanate]]s. Now that his throne was relatively secure, he had to deal with the Tatar threat. In 1439, Vasily II had to flee the capital, when it was besieged by [[Ulugh Muhammad]], ruler of the nascent [[Kazan Khanate]]. Six years later, he personally led his troops against Ulugh Muhammad, but was [[Russo-Kazan Wars|defeated and taken prisoner]]. The Russians were forced to gather an enormous ransom for their prince, so that Vasily II could be released some five months later.

During that time, the control of Moscow passed to Dmitry Shemyaka. Keeping in mind the fate of his own brother, Dmitry had Vasily&nbsp;II blinded and exiled him to [[Uglich]], in 1446; hence, Vasily&nbsp;II's nickname, "the blind". As Vasily&nbsp;II still had a number of supporters in Moscow, Dmitry recalled him from exile and gave him [[Vologda]] as an appanage. That proved to be a mistake, as Vasily II quickly assembled his supporters and regained the throne.{{cn|date=December 2022}}

Vasily&nbsp;II's final victory against his cousin came in the 1450s, when he captured Galich-Mersky and poisoned Dmitry. The latter's children managed to escape to [[Lithuania]]. These events finally put to rest the principle of [[Order of succession#Rota system|collateral succession]], which was a major cause of medieval internecine struggles, and was a definitive victory for the principle of succession from father to son as against the previous practice. This also paved the way for political centralization of power, which was popular in the country at the time.<ref name="intro">{{cite book |last1=Auty |first1=Robert |last2=Obolensky |first2=Dimitri |title=Companion to Russian Studies: Volume 1: An Introduction to Russian History |date=1976 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-28038-9 |page=89 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D0iVBLGd9xEC |language=en}}</ref>