[en] Livonia (present-day Latvia and Estonia) receives a particular attention in the Russian foreign policy from 1554 on, with the decline of traditional political powers (the Teutonic Order, the four princes-bishops of Riga, Dorpat, Oesel and Pilten), and with the reassertion of Russian historical claims on this territory. Invaded by Russia, Poland-Lithuania, Denmark and Sweden in the 1560ies, Livonia becomes the main issue of the Russian state in the second half of the 16th century under Ivan the Terrible. These events happen at the time when the Metropolitan of Russia Afanasij writes his monumental work, a decisive achievement for historiacal Russian thinking (1563) : the Book of Degrees of the Imperial Genealogy (Stepennaja Kniga Carskogo Rodoslavija),. The book itself takes its name from its structure, each seventeen super-chapters being a degree of the genealogy, an ancestor, of Tsar Ivan IV.This leads us to link the context, the War of Livonia, to the Book : Which effects do the Livonian events of the 1550-1560ies have on the Russian perception of Livonia expressed in the Book of Degrees written by the top official of the Russian Church? And, according to the author, what are the ties between Tsar Ivan's Dynasty and Livonia, the Book being the tale of the Dynasty's history, glory and piety?In order to answer these questions we will first investigate the way the author writes about the Livonian theme (1); then, Livonia being a territory with a population, we will analyze the author's perception of Livonian territory (2) and population (3); finally, we will focus on the Russian political and religious claim on Livonia as expressed in the Book (4).