Williams, Harold Whitmore (1876-1928) Russia of the Russians - London 1914
I. The grows of Russia
...The Baltic coast was held by Livonian knights, and Sweden, a growing power in the north, occupied Finland. The second half of the reign of Ivan the Terrible was mainly absorbed in a conflict with these three powers. The immediate result of a war which Ivan undertook with the Livonian Order and in which Sweden, Denmark, and Poland intervened, was that the Order fell to pieces and its territory was divided, the southern half falling to Poland, and the northern half to Sweden. The Muscovite State became involved in long and exhausting wars with Poland and Sweden, from which it drew no direct profit. Both these Western powers were bent on preventing such intercourse between Moscow and Western Europe as might have a civilising effect on the Russians, and so increase their political power.
...The attempts made by Ivan the Terrible to secure from Western Europe skilled craftsmen and instructors were frustrated by Germany and Poland.
...The Baltic coast was held by Livonian knights, and Sweden, a growing power in the north, occupied Finland. The second half of the reign of Ivan the Terrible was mainly absorbed in a conflict with these three powers. The immediate result of a war which Ivan undertook with the Livonian Order and in which Sweden, Denmark, and Poland intervened, was that the Order fell to pieces and its territory was divided, the southern half falling to Poland, and the northern half to Sweden. The Muscovite State became involved in long and exhausting wars with Poland and Sweden, from which it drew no direct profit. Both these Western powers were bent on preventing such intercourse between Moscow and Western Europe as might have a civilising effect on the Russians, and so increase their political power.
...The attempts made by Ivan the Terrible to secure from Western Europe skilled craftsmen and instructors were frustrated by Germany and Poland.