Vasili III, the Grand Prince of Moscow, founded the Novodevichy Convent in 1524 in commemoration of his conquest of Smolensk in 1514. The structure began as a fortress at a curve of the Moskva River three versts to the south-west of the Moscow Kremlin. It became an important part of the southern defensive belt of Moscow, which had already included a number of other monasteries. Upon its founding, the Novodevichy Convent was granted 3,000 rubles and the villages of Akhabinevo and Troparevo. Vasili's son, tsar Ivan the Terrible , would later grant a number of other villages to the convent. The Novodevichy Convent housed many ladies from the Russian royal families and boyar clans who had been forced to take the veil, such as Ivan the Terribles daughter-in-law Yelena Sheremeteva , Feodor I's wife Irina Godunova , Sofia Alekseyevna , Eudoxia Lopukhina , and others. In 1610-1611 a Polish unit under the command of Aleksander Gosiewski captured the Novodevichy Convent. Once Russian forces had retaken the convent, tsar Michael Fyodorovich supplied it with permanent guards . By the end of the 17th century, the Novodevichy Convent possessed 36 villages  in 27 uyezds of Russia. In 1744, it owned 14,489 peasants.. Which happened first, Vasili III's conquest of Smolensk or he founded the Novodevichy Convent?