The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Vasily III
(Vasily Ivanovich) (vs´lyvä´nvch) (KEY) , 1479–1533, grand duke of Moscow (1505–33). Carrying on the policies of his father, Ivan III, he rounded out the territorial consolidation of the Russian state, formally annexing Pskov (1510), Ryazan (1517), and Novgorod-Seversk (1523) and gaining Smolensk (1514) in a war with Sigismund I of Poland and Lithuania. In 1525, he forced his childless first wife to become a nun and soon remarried. His older son from the second marriage succeeded him as Ivan IV.
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ch) (KEY) , 1479–1533, grand duke of Moscow (1505–33). Carrying on the policies of his father, Ivan III, he rounded out the territorial consolidation of the Russian state, formally annexing Pskov (1510), Ryazan (1517), and Novgorod-Seversk (1523) and gaining Smolensk (1514) in a war with Sigismund I of Poland and Lithuania. In 1525, he forced his childless first wife to become a nun and soon remarried. His older son from the second marriage succeeded him as Ivan IV.
