a potential threat to his absolute authority. However, some scholars claim votchina owning boyars presented no threat and were bound to collapse as a major social institution. Despite what may have been, Ivan IV set out to insure that they would never threaten his authority.
             Ivan IV, in the beginning of his reign, had attempted to deal with the boyar problem in a relatively mild manner. In 1549 Ivan IV convoked a new state institution called the zemskii sobor. The zemskii sobor was much like
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