I. Tensions created by the challenge of the West.

A. Social and economic pressures.
B. Defense of traditional culture.

II. Muscovy becomes part of Europe.

A. Immediate neighbors.
B. What really mattered in Europe.
C. Foreign entanglements and "national" interest.

II. Pragmatic responses to needs of the state.

A. An era of military change.
B. Challenges of administration.

1. Decision-making at the top.
2. Bureaucracy in the center and provinces.
3. The will (and means?) to control.

C. Fiscal needs, their consequences for economic development, the fate of the gosti.
D. Tying down of the population (Ulozhenie of 1649).