Pelenski 1982, p. 316. Pelenski, Jaroslaw (1982). "The Contest between Lithuania-Rus' and the Golden Horde in the Fourteenth Century for Supremacy over Eastern Europe". Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi(PDF). Peter de Ridder Press. pp. 303–320. Retrieved 19 November 2024.
Pelenski 1982, p. 316. Pelenski, Jaroslaw (1982). "The Contest between Lithuania-Rus' and the Golden Horde in the Fourteenth Century for Supremacy over Eastern Europe". Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi(PDF). Peter de Ridder Press. pp. 303–320. Retrieved 19 November 2024.
Cox, Dunne & Booth 2001, p. 223, Moscow's seemingly fateful choice of identity as the 'gatherer of the Russian lands' functioned as a grand strategy for survival as an independent polity... Moreover, this expansion yielded the means eventually to halt and reverse the rapid westward advance of Poland-Lithuania, a rival claimant to the identity of 'gatherer of the Russian lands'.. Cox, Michael; Dunne, Timothy; Booth, Ken (2001). Empires, Systems and States: Great Transformations in International Politics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0-521-01686-5.
Curtis 1998, p. 12, In the fourteenth century, the grand princes of Muscovy began gathering Russian lands... The most successful practitioner of this process was Ivan III... Muscovy gained full sovereignty over the ethnically Russian lands... by the beginning of the sixteenth century virtually all those lands were united. Curtis, Glenn Eldon (1998). Russia: A Country Study. Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. ISBN978-0-8444-0866-8.
Curtis 1998, p. 12, By the fifteenth century, the rulers of Muscovy considered the entire Russian territory their collective property. Various semi-independent princes still claimed specific territories, but Ivan III forced the lesser princes to acknowledge the grand prince of Muscovy and his descendants as unquestioned rulers with control over military, judicial, and foreign affairs. Curtis, Glenn Eldon (1998). Russia: A Country Study. Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. ISBN978-0-8444-0866-8.
Ragsdale & Ponomarev 1993, p. 6, Ivan IV improved the security of the nation by his conquest of the Tatar territories in the Volga basin... and the government continued to address itself seriously to the apparently genuinely national goal of 'the gathering of the Russian lands'. Ragsdale, Hugh; Ponomarev, V. N. (29 October 1993). Imperial Russian Foreign Policy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0-521-44229-9.