  vasily ii vasiliyevich tyomniy (blind) (ÐÐ°ÑÐ¸Ð»Ð¸Ð¹ ii ÐÐ°ÑÐ¸Ð»ÑÐµÐ²Ð¸Ñ Ð¢ÑÐ¼Ð½ÑÐ¹ in russian) (10 march 1415 â 27 march 1462, moscow) was the grand prince of moscow whose long reign (1425â1462) was plagued by the greatest civil war of old russian history. ==first ten years of internecine struggle==  vasily ii was the youngest son of vasily i of moscow by sophia of lithuania, the only daughter of vytautas the great, and the only son to survive his father (his elder brother ivan died in 1417 at the age of 22). on his father's death vasily was proclaimed grand duke at the age of 10. his mother acted as a regent. his uncle, yuri of zvenigorod (prince of galich-mersky), and his two sons, vasily the cross-eyed and dmitry shemyaka, seized on the opportunity to advance their own claims to the throne. these claims were based on the testament of dmitri donskoi, yuri's father and vasily's grandfather, who had stated that if vasily i died yuri would succeed his appanage. however, dmitri had written the testament when vasily i had no children of his own, and it might be argued that this provision had been made only for the case of vasily's childless death. vasily's claim was supported by vytautas, his maternal grandfather. the underlying causes for the great feudal war that followed are disputed. there are reasons to believe that yuri's family, whose northern dominions were rich in salt, ore, and other minerals could offer russia a more liberal, prosperous path of development. upon vytautas' death in 1430, yuri went to the golden horde, returning with a license to take the moscow throne. but the khan did not support him any further, largely due to the devices of the smolensk princeling and moscow boyarin ivan vsevolzhsky. when yuri assembled an army and attacked moscow, vasily, bet
1415_births 1462_deaths Blind_people_from_Russia Blind_politicians Blind_royalty_and_nobility Grand_Princes_of_Moscow Medieval_child_rulers Orthodox_monarchs Rurik_Dynasty Rurikids Russian_leaders Russian_people_of_Lithuanian_descent