The barbarian horde at Kezan still continued to annoy Russia with very many incursions.  Some were mere petty forays, others were extended invasions, but all were alike merciless and bloody.  In February, 1550, Ivan IV., then but twenty two years of age, placed himself at the head of a large army to descend the Volga and punish the horde.  The monarch was young and totally inexperienced in war.  A series of terrible disasters from storms and floods thinned his ranks, and the monarch in great dejection returned to Moscow to replenish his forces.  Again, early in December, he hastened to meet his army which had been rendezvoused at Nigni Novgorod, on the Volga, about three hundred miles west of Moscow.  In the early spring they descended the river, and in great force encamped before the walls of Kezan.  The walls were of wood.  The Russians were sixty thousand strong, and were aided with several batteries of artillery.  The assault was immediately commenced, and for one whole day the battle raged with equal valor on the part of the assailants and the defendants.  The next day a storm arose, the rain falling abundantly and freezing as it touched the ground.  The encampment was flooded, and the assailants, unable to make any progress, were again compelled to beat a retreat.  These reverses mortified the young tzar, though he succeeded in effecting a treaty with the barbarians, which in some degree covered his disgrace.

But the horde, entirely disorganized, paid no regard to treaties and continued their depredations.  Again, in the year 1552, the tzar prepared another expedition to check their ravages.  He announced to the council, in a very solemn session, that the time had arrived when it was necessary, at all hazards, to check the pride of the horde.

“God is my witness,” said he, “that I do not seek vain glory, but I wish to secure the repose of my people.  How shall I be able in the day of judgment to say to the Most High, ’Behold me and the subjects thou hast entrusted to my care,’ if I do not shelter them from the eternal enemies of Russia, from these barbarians from whom one can have neither peace nor truce?”

The lords endeavored to persuade the emperor to remain at Moscow, and to entrust the expedition to his experienced generals, but he declared that he would not expose his army to perils and fatigues which he was not also ready and willing to share.  Though many were in favor of a winter’s campaign, as Kezan was surrounded with streams and lakes which the ice would then bridge, yet Ivan decided upon the summer as more favorable for the transportation of his army down the rivers.  By the latter part of May the waters of the Volga and the Oka were covered with bateaux laden with artillery and with military stores, and the banks of those streams were crowded with troops upon the march.  Nigni Novgorod, where the Oka empties into the Volga, was as usual the appointed place of rendezvous.  The 16th of June Ivan took leave of the Empress Anastasia.  Her emotion at parting was so great that she fell fainting into the arms of her husband.