Ivan IV (the Terrible)

Ivan IV the Terrible: The History of the Reign of the Russian Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich of All Rus', Tsar and Grand Duke, as he was called during his lifetime, ruled Russia for more than 50 years The reign of Ivan IV the Terrible included unprecedented territorial acquisitions, the construction of cities, and major reforms. But also brutal executions, the devastation of the country, widespread repressions, and the corruption of morals. Biography of Ivan the Terrible Childhood. Youth. The Chosen Council Ivan the Terrible became tsar at the age of three (1533), after the death of Vasily III, his father. His mother Elena Glinskaya and the boyar council of seven nobles formed by Vasily were at the head of the state. Elena Glinskaya and her favorite Ivan Obolensky quickly dealt with the council. After the death of Ivan's mother (1538), power ended up in the hands of the boyar elite, headed by Vasily and Ivan Shuisky. In 1545, Ivan came of age. But he acquired real power gradually. His "curator" was Metropolitan Macarius (later the saint of the Russian church). Under his influence, in 1547, in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, Ivan was crowned as the first Russian tsar. A new government began to form around Ivan, which would go down in history as the "Chosen Rada". Its main members, in addition to Macarius, were Alexei Adashev, priest Sylvester and Andrei Kurbsky. However, there were never any lists of the Rada. This period can be called the most productive in the reign of Ivan IV. In 1549, the Zemsky Sobor was convened. In 1550, a new code of laws was adopted, that is, a set of laws, according to which Russia actually lived until the time of Nicholas I. Zemsky and labnaya reforms (local government) were carried out, a regular streltsy army was formed, and the system of orders (ministries) was rebuilt. The Stoglav Sobor put the church regulations in order. In 1552, following the results of the third Kazan campaign, the Kazan Kingdom became part of Russia. In 1556, the Astrakhan Kingdom became part of Russia.

In 1558, the Livonian War began (it lasted until 1583), which was successful for Russia at the first stage. The Livonian Order was destroyed, Ivangorod was built opposite Narva. Repressions. Oprichnina. Terror In 1560, Sylvester was exiled to the Belozersk Monastery, and Adashev was sent into "honorable exile." In 1563, Makarii died. In 1564, Andrei Kurbsky fled to Lithuania. The Elected Council ceased to enjoy the tsar's trust after the crisis of 1553, when, during the tsar's serious illness, a party appeared at court that supported not Ivan the Terrible's son, but his cousin Vladimir Staritsky, as heir to the throne. In 1565, the Tsar announced the introduction of the oprichnina. The chosen army outside the law of the country helped the Tsar concentrate all the power in his hands. The hereditary aristocracy was destroyed. There was a redistribution of wealth and possessions. In early 1565, the tsar abdicated the throne and moved to the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda. After a petition from Moscow, he agreed to rule, but on his own terms. Several waves of repressions took place among the highest ranks of the state. Metropolitan Philip (Kolychev), who later became one of the most revered Russian saints, was exiled and then killed for attempting to halt executions. In 1569, the tsar's cousin Vladimir Staritsky was killed with his wife and eldest daughter. In 1570, after the destruction of Tver, Klin, Torzhok and other cities, the tsar made a campaign against Novgorod - "to eradicate treason." According to various sources, from 3 to 10 thousand people were killed. The number of those who died of hunger after the destruction of supplies and farms cannot be counted. The city was robbed clean, including the Cathedral of St. Sophia and the archbishop's court. From that time on, Novgorod was never able to recover. In 1861, when the Monument to the Millennium of Rus' was opened in the city, there was no place for Ivan the Terrible among dozens of figures of people who influenced the development of the country.

According to legend, neighboring Pskov was saved from destruction by the intervention of the holy fool Ivan Salos, who handed the tsar a piece of raw meat with the words: “Here, you are eating human flesh.” Returning to Moscow, the Tsar organized mass executions. Among the dead was the de facto "prime minister" - clerk Ivan Viskovaty, killed along with his family with particular cruelty. In 1571, the Crimean Khan Devlet Giray made an unexpected campaign against Rus', easily reached Moscow, set fire to the outskirts, and as a result the city burned to the ground. The Tsar, having learned of the approach of the Tatars, fled from the capital. Devlet Giray repeated the campaign against devastated Rus' in 1572, but was defeated in the Battle of Molodi by the Zemstvo army. Recent years. Annexation of Siberia In 1572, the oprichnina was dissolved. The main reason was the low efficiency of the oprichnina army and the growing influence of prominent oprichniks in the country. In 1575, Ivan the Terrible abdicated the throne again. This time, Simeon Bekbulatovich, the Kasimov Khan, a Genghisid (a descendant of Genghis Khan), was declared tsar. Simeon Bekbulatovich understood the nominal nature of his reign, and this allowed Ivan IV to cancel all donations to churches and monasteries. After returning to the throne, the tsar was no longer as generous as before. In 1577, the Livonian War, which by this time had already become a Russo-Polish war, continued with renewed vigor. The King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Stefan Batory conducted a successful campaign, besieged Pskov, but the city defended itself heroically, and the Poles were forced to retreat. Nevertheless, under a 10-year truce (1582), Russia actually returned to its borders that existed at the beginning of the Livonian War. Under the Truce of Plussa (1583) with the Swedes, Russia lost Yam, Koporye, and Ivangorod.

In 1582, envoys from the Cossack ataman Yermak Timofeevich arrived in Moscow, reporting the defeat of the Siberian Khanate and its annexation to Russia. From that moment on, the colonization of Siberia by Russians began. Siberia would provide the country with material well-being for more than a hundred years to come. But by the end of his reign, Russia was devastated by the Livonian War, unpunished raids by the Crimeans, and the consequences of the oprichnina. Ivan the Terrible died in 1584. His successor was Fyodor Ioannovich, the last of the Rurik line on the Russian throne. Wives, personal life, mistresses and lovers of Ivan the Terrible Ivan the Terrible had 8 wives. But, strange as it may sound, most likely the tsar was a monogamist. His first wife Anastasia Romanova (Zakharyina-Yuryeva) was a truly dear person to him. In any case, it was after her death (1560) that Ivan's natural cruelty burst out. They married in 1547 (Ivan was 17, Anastasia was 15 or 17, according to different sources). The couple had six children (three daughters, three sons. Four died in infancy). After Anastasia's death, her relatives managed to maintain their influence, and ultimately it was the Romanovs who became the new reigning dynasty in 1613 after the Time of Troubles. Ivan was sure that Anastasia had been poisoned (which is partially confirmed by the examination of the queen's remains). It was in 1560 that the persecution of the Chosen Council began; in letters to Kurbsky, the tsar directly accused his associates: "And why did you separate me from my wife? If only they had not taken my young bride away from me, then there would have been no Kronov's sacrifice." The tsar's new chosen one was Maria, the 16-year-old daughter of the Circassian prince Temryuk. They lived together for 8 years and had only one child, a son named Vasily, who died in infancy. There is little reliable information about Maria Temryukovna, but since the period of life with her coincided with the most cruel and unbridled years of the oprichnina, a negative image of a malicious and harmful woman has been preserved in folklore.

The third wife of the Tsar was 18-year-old Marfa Sobakina. She died in 1571, two weeks after the wedding. According to church laws, even a third marriage was considered an exceptional event. But Ivan, who had long been unable to object, was believed that he "did not lie" with his third wife because of her illness. And they allowed a fourth marriage - with Anna Kotlovskaya (1572). But the relationship with her did not work out either. Six months after the wedding, Anna was tonsured a nun. Why - remains a mystery. Historians see the hand of the powerful oprichnik Malyuta Skuratov in this. Opinions differ about the next wife. Most likely, it was Anna Vasilchikova (1575-1576), who was forcibly tonsured as a nun after a year of marriage. But before her, the tsar's wife was supposedly Anna Dolgorukova. However, most likely, Ivan did not formalize his relationship with her. As well as with Vasilisa Melentyeva, who supposedly replaced Vasilchikova. Such discrepancies in the data are explained by the fact that Ivan did not always consider it necessary to formalize his relationships, and he could make any woman in his state his concubine. And the church could not approve of all marriages after the third according to any canons. Ivan the Terrible's last wife was Maria Nagikh. No matter what her number was (if you don't count the semi-legendary Dolgorukova and Melentyeva, then she was the sixth, if you cross out Sobakina, then the fifth), this marriage could not have been approved by the church. Most likely, after Anna Kotlovskaya left for the monastery, Ivan did not marry any of his subsequent wives. That is, formally they cannot be considered either wives or queens. However, Ivan himself established laws, including church ones. Children of Ivan the Terrible Ivan the Terrible had eight children whom he acknowledged. Five of them died in infancy. Moreover, Tsarevich Dmitry, his first son in his marriage to Anastasia Romanova, died during a pilgrimage. The boyars dropped the baby in the water.

Their second son, Ivan Ivanovich (1554-1581), was to become Ivan V. He was married three times. His first two wives were forcibly tonsured as nuns. Formally, due to childlessness. His third wife, Elena Sheremetova, was pregnant when the most terrible tragedy in the Tsar's family occurred. According to the story of the papal ambassador Antonio Possevino, who was well informed about Russian affairs, the Tsar, seeing his daughter-in-law in what he considered an indecent state, began to beat her. Tsarevich Ivan tried to stop his father, but was hit on the head with a staff. From which he died a few days later. His wife lost her child and was tonsured as a nun at the Novodevichy Convent. Russian chronicles do not report anything about the cause of the Tsarevich’s death, limiting themselves to the laconic “he passed away.” Another son of Ivan, Fyodor (b. 1557), became the last Russian tsar from the Rurik dynasty (1584-1598). He prayed a lot, delved little into the affairs of the state, completely entrusting the reign to the brother of his beloved wife - Boris Godunov. The years of his reign were very successful for Russia. Godunov's competent domestic policy led the country out of crisis. The system of border towns became an effective barrier against the raids of the Crimean Tatars. Among other achievements was the establishment of the patriarchate in Rus' (1589). Ivan IV's last son Dmitry was born in 1582 to Maria Nagaya. This marriage was not recognized by the church and the prince could not formally claim the royal throne. Immediately after the death of Ivan the Terrible, Tsarina Maria Nagaya and her son were sent to Uglich under the supervision of the Tsar’s administrators. In May 1591, the Tsarevich died. The circumstances of his death remain mysterious. The Tsarina's court insisted that the boy had been murdered. The enraged crowd immediately tore to pieces the Tsar's manager, his son, and several other people. The riots were suppressed. To investigate the case, the de facto ruler of the state, Boris Godunov (the future Tsar), sent a special commission to Uglich headed by Vasily Shuisky (the future Tsar).

The commission found that the tsarevich had impaled himself on a knife as a result of an attack of "black infirmity" (epilepsy). Subsequently, Shuisky changed his conclusions about the case twice, and the impostors who went down in history as False Dmitrys appeared several times during the Time of Troubles. The cause of death of Ivan IV the Terrible Tsar Ivan ascended the throne at the age of three, was the head of state for 51 years, and died at 54, which is quite an advanced age for the 16th century. The Tsar drank a lot, had numerous sexual relationships with men and women, and suffered from mental disorders. Considering the level of medicine at that time, it is safe to say that he had many illnesses. Although in his youth Ivan was described as quite tall for those times (about 180 cm) and a strong man, in his last years foreign ambassadors noted his excessive obesity, weakness, and sickly appearance, and three years before his death they assured that he would not last even a few months. In 1963, Soviet scientists opened the grave of Ivan the Terrible in the Kremlin's Archangel Cathedral. Research has shown that the tsar was not poisoned. The traces of mercury found in his remains are within normal limits and are most likely the result of treatment. Most likely, according to scientists, the tsar suffered from syphilis. Truth and Lies about Ivan IV the Terrible 1. During the tsar's lifetime, no one called him the Terrible. This nickname belonged to his grandfather Ivan III. The opinion about Ivan the Terrible and his reign changed after the Time of Troubles. The Russians, who found themselves in a situation where Russia practically ceased to exist, created a legend about the "golden age" under the formidable Tsar Ivan. A similar situation happened with the distant ancestors of Ivan the Terrible - two Vladimirs - Vladimir Svyatoslavich the Holy and Vladimir Monomakh, who entered the epics as Vladimir Krasnoe Solnyshko. 2. Ivan's childhood was terrible. At the age of three he lost his father, at 8 - his mother, at 15 a crowd dealt with his mother's relatives before his eyes. Until adulthood he was under the rule of the boyars, who did not always take him seriously.

Ivan was cruel to both animals and people from childhood. During the first stage of his reign, Metropolitan Macarius and Ivan's first wife Anastasia Romanova "softened his morals". 3. We know about the Tsar's cruelties during the Oprichnina from the memoirs of the oprichniks of Livonian and German origin. For obvious reasons, Russian chroniclers did not tell us much. And most of the documents were destroyed during the numerous Moscow fires. The oprichniks' stories were often used for propaganda against "wild Muscovy", however, there is no reason not to trust them in general. Moreover, at the end of his life, Ivan carefully reported to God for his victims and ordered funeral services. By the names of everyone he remembered. With the note "and you know the rest yourself." It is known how, during the capture of Polotsk, all Lutherans and Jews were exterminated with particular cruelty. The Novgorod pogrom went down in history as an example of merciless terror. 4. Under Ivan the Terrible, Russia was a rather backward and closed state. Largely due to the West's reluctance to share its technical achievements. A major breakthrough in this regard was the arrival of the English merchant Richard Chancellor in Arkhangelsk. His ship was part of an unsuccessful expedition to India via the Arctic Ocean. Chancellor was delivered to Moscow. English merchants received unprecedented privileges for trading in Russia, and the Tsar established relations with the English court. 5. Ivan was constantly afraid for his life. He was maniacally afraid of conspiracies. A cell was always ready for him in the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. He built an alternative courtyard-fortress in Moscow opposite the Kremlin (on the site of today's Manezh). An impregnable fortress in the Alexandrovskaya Sloboda. During the period of choosing a new wife in 1567, Ivan wooed the English Queen Elizabeth I. And in 1583 - her relative Maria Hastings. The queen rejected the tsar, but such close ties allowed Ivan to ask the queen for asylum for himself and his treasury in the event of another imaginary (or not, who knows now) conspiracy against him.

6. It is believed that Tsar Ivan was subject to the "sin of Sodom", that is, had homosexual relations. The boyar Fyodor Basmanov is said to be the Tsar's lover. Andrei Kurbsky writes about this in letters to the Tsar, and oprichniks of foreign origin testify to this. Of course, there is no evidence of such a relationship in Russian documents. It is believed that Fyodor, on the orders of the Tsar, personally executed his father, the prominent political figure Alexei Basmanov. Fyodor was exiled by the Tsar. But his name is in the "Synodicon of the Disgraced" of Ivan the Terrible, which lists the names of his victims. 7. Ivan the Terrible was one of the most educated people of his time, he had literary talent, as evidenced by his letters to Prince Kurbsky. The Tsar was in personal correspondence with the English Queen, with representatives of other royal houses. He was well versed in church matters and knew the Scriptures. 8. In the film "Ivan Vasilyevich Changes Profession" there is a character - Tsarina Marfa Vasilyevna. This is Marfa Sobakina, the third wife of the Tsar, who died two weeks after the wedding. This episode allows us to accurately date the time of the film's action - 1571.