Ivan promulgates a new law code in 1550 and standardizes the duties and responsibilities of the aristocracy.

Russia remains isolated from sea trade, as the German merchant companies ignore the new port built by the young tsar on the river Narva in 1550 and continue to deliver goods in the Baltic ports owned by Livonia.

Eight years on, a lengthy military conflict will begin between the Tsardom of Russia and a variable coalition of Denmark, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Kingdom of Poland (later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), and Sweden for control of Greater Livonia (the territory of the present-day Estonia and Latvia).