Why did Ivan IV really become "terrible". Ivan the Terrible When the Terrible became "Terrible"

Ivan the Terrible is the first tsar of all Russia, known for his barbaric and incredibly harsh methods of government. Despite this, his reign is considered significant for the state, which, thanks to the foreign and domestic policies of Grozny, has become twice as large in its territory. The first Russian ruler was a powerful and very evil monarch, but he managed to achieve a lot in the international political arena, maintaining a total one-man dictatorship in his state, full of executions, disgrace and terror for any disobedience to power.

Childhood and youth

Ivan the Terrible (Ivan IV Vasilyevich) was born on August 25, 1530 in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow in the family of the Grand Duke and the Lithuanian princess. He was the eldest son of his parents, therefore he became the first heir to the throne of his father, whom he had to replace upon reaching the age of majority. But he had to become the nominal tsar of all Russia at the age of 3, since Vasily III became seriously ill and died suddenly. After 5 years, the mother of the future king also died, as a result of which, at the age of 8, he was left a complete orphan.

Wikipedia

The childhood of the young monarch passed in an atmosphere of palace coups, a serious struggle for power, intrigues and violence, which formed Ivan the Terrible's tough character. Then, considering the heir to the throne as an uncomprehending child, the trustees did not pay any attention to him, mercilessly killed his friends and kept the future king in poverty, even depriving him of food and clothing. This brought up in him aggression and cruelty, which already in his youth was manifested in the desire to torture animals, and in the future, the entire Russian people.

At that time, the country was ruled by the princes Belsky and Shuisky, the nobleman Mikhail Vorontsov and relatives of the future ruler on the maternal side of the Glinsky. Their reign was marked for all of Russia by the careless disposal of state property, which Ivan the Terrible understood very clearly.


Runiverse

In 1543, for the first time, he showed his guardians his temper, ordering the death of Andrei Shuisky. Then the boyars began to fear the tsar, power over the country was completely concentrated in the hands of the Glinskys, who began to please the heir to the throne with all their might, cultivating bestial instincts in him.

At the same time, the future king devoted a lot of time to self-education, read many books, which made him the most well-read ruler of those times. Then, being a powerless hostage of temporary rulers, he hated the whole world, and his main idea was to obtain complete and unlimited power over people, which he placed above any moral laws.

Board and reforms

In 1545, when Ivan the Terrible came of age, he became a full-fledged tsar. His first political decision was the desire to marry the king, which gave him the right to autocracy and the heritage of the traditions of the Orthodox faith. At the same time, this royal title also became useful for the country's foreign policy, as it allowed it to take a different position in diplomatic relations with Western Europe and claim Russia for first place among European states.


Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible. Artist Viktor Vasnetsov / The State Tretyakov Gallery

From the first days of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, a number of key changes and reforms took place in the state, which he developed with the Chosen Rada, and a period of autocracy began in Russia, during which all power fell into the hands of one monarch.

The next 10 years the Tsar of All Russia devoted to global reform - Ivan the Terrible carried out a zemstvo reform, which formed a class-representative monarchy in the country, adopted a new judicial code that tightened the rights of all peasants and serfs, introduced a lip reform that redistributed the powers of volostels and governors in favor of the nobility.

In 1550, the ruler distributed estates within 70 km from the Russian capital to a “chosen” thousand Moscow nobles and formed a streltsy army, which he armed with firearms. The same period was marked by the enslavement of peasants and the ban on Jewish merchants from entering Russia.


Wikipedia

The foreign policy of Ivan the Terrible at the first stage of his reign was full of numerous wars, which were very successful. He personally participated in campaigns and already in 1552 took control of Kazan and Astrakhan, and then annexed part of the Siberian lands to Russia. In 1553, the monarch began to organize trade relations with England, and after 5 years he entered the war with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in which he suffered a resounding defeat and lost part of the Russian lands.

After losing the war, Ivan the Terrible began to look for those responsible for the defeat, broke off law-making relations with the Chosen Rada and embarked on the path of autocracy, filled with repressions, disgraces and executions of everyone who did not support his policies.

Oprichnina

The reign of Ivan the Terrible at the second stage became even tougher and bloodier. In 1565, he introduced a special form of government, as a result of which Russia was divided into two parts - the oprichnina and the zemshchina. The guardsmen, who took an oath of allegiance to the tsar, fell under his complete autocracy and could not communicate with the zemstvos, who paid the lion's share of their income to the monarch.


Wikipedia

In this way, a large army gathered on the estates of the oprichnina, which Ivan the Terrible freed from responsibility. They were allowed to organize robberies and pogroms of the boyars by force, and in case of resistance they were allowed to mercilessly execute and kill all those who disagreed with the sovereign.

In 1571, when the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey invaded Russia, the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible demonstrated complete incapacity to defend the state - the guardsmen spoiled by the ruler simply did not go to war, and out of the entire large army, the tsar managed to assemble only one regiment that could not resist the army of the Crimean khan. As a result, Ivan the Terrible canceled the oprichnina, stopped killing people, and even ordered that memorial lists of executed people be compiled so that their souls would be buried in monasteries.


Moscow dungeon. End of the 16th century. Artist Apollinary Vasnetsov / Museum of Moscow

The results of the reign of Ivan the Terrible were the collapse of the country's economy and a resounding defeat in the Livonian War, which, according to historians, was his life's work. The monarch realized that, while ruling the country, he made many mistakes not only in domestic but also in foreign policy, which by the end of his reign made Ivan the Terrible repent.

During this period, he committed another bloody crime and, in moments of rage, accidentally killed his own son and the only possible heir to the throne, Ivan Ivanovich. After that, the king completely despaired and even wanted to go to the monastery.

Personal life

The personal life of Ivan the Terrible is as rich as his reign. According to historians, the first tsar of all Russia was married seven times. The first wife of the monarch was Anastasia Zakharyina-Yuryeva, whom he married in 1547. In more than 10 years of marriage, the queen gave birth to six children, of whom only Ivan and Fedor survived.


Queen Marfa Sobakina / Sergey Nikitin, Wikipedia

After Anastasia died in 1560, Ivan the Terrible married the daughter of the Kabardian prince Maria Cherkasskaya. In the first year of married life with the monarch, the second wife bore him a son, who died at the age of one month. After that, Ivan the Terrible's interest in his wife disappeared, and after 8 years Maria herself died.

The third wife of Ivan the Terrible, Maria Sobakina, was the daughter of a Kolomna nobleman. Their wedding took place in 1571. The third marriage of the king lasted only 15 days - Mary died for unknown reasons. After 6 months, the king again married Anna Koltovskaya. This marriage was also childless, and after a year of family life, the tsar took his fourth wife to a monastery, where she died in 1626.


Maria Nagaya denounces False Dmitry / State Historical Museum

The fifth wife of the ruler was Maria Dolgorukaya, whom he drowned in a pond after the wedding night, as he learned that his new wife was not a virgin. In 1975, he remarried Anna Vasilchikova, who did not stay long as queen - she, like her predecessors, suffered the fate of being forcibly exiled to a monastery, allegedly for betraying the king.

The last, seventh wife of Ivan the Terrible was who married him in 1580. Two years later, the queen gave birth to Tsarevich Dmitry, who died at the age of 9. Maria, after the death of her husband by the new king, was exiled to Uglich, and after that she was forcibly tonsured a nun. She became a significant figure in Russian history as a mother, whose short reign fell on the Time of Troubles.

Death

The death of the first Tsar of All Russia, Ivan the Terrible, occurred on March 28, 1584 in Moscow. The ruler died while playing chess from the growth of osteophytes, which in recent years have made him practically immobile. Nervous shocks, an unhealthy lifestyle and this serious illness made Ivan the Terrible at the age of 53 a "decrepit" old man, which led to such an early death.

Documentary film "Ivan the Terrible. The myth of the bloody tyrant"

Ivan the Terrible was buried next to his son Ivan, who was killed by him, in the Archangel Cathedral, located in the Moscow Kremlin. After the burial of the monarch, persistent rumors began to appear that the king had died a violent rather than a natural death. The chroniclers claim that Ivan the Terrible was poisoned with poison, which after him became the ruler of Russia.

The version about the poisoning of the first monarch was checked in 1963 during the opening of the royal tombs - the researchers did not find a high content of arsenic in the remains, so the murder of Ivan the Terrible was not confirmed. On this, the Rurik dynasty was completely stopped, and the Time of Troubles began in the country.

Tales of Ivan the Terrible

It is significant that Ivan the Terrible became the first Russian tsar, about whom the people began to compose fairy tales. Himself, without any coercion by the state authorities. Prior to this, under this very compulsion, only chroniclers wrote about kings, who, as you know, were far from independent people.

There are many fairy tales about Grozny. And from them, by the way, the image of some kind of despot tormenting his people does not add up. On the contrary, every fairy tale about Ivan IV carries the thesis that the tsar is a man, that he was put on the kingdom by the Lord himself, that he, like any person, sins, but just like any other, he repents, and gravity he experiences his sins even during his lifetime.

"In general, Ivan the Terrible was not an arrogant tsar, simple. He liked to talk with ordinary people, learn about their troubles and hopes, and sometimes even argue."

"Ivan the wise and just was extremely quick-tempered and often did things that he later regretted."

We will cite only two tales about Ivan the Terrible - "Ivan the Pious" and "Ivan the Pevchy".

“Ivan was a formidable king, but a pious one. He sacredly honored the Christian commandments and was very sad because a lot of all kinds of evil spirits had spread on Russian soil. From the fortified cities they brought the old women-crossers to the square in Moscow, surrounded them with straw and set them on fire. But our witches turned out to be more agile than Western European ones: they turned into forty and scattered. However, they did not manage to escape: Ivan the Terrible was a pious tsar. He cursed the witches, and his righteous curse turned out to be stronger than their black charms. The old women forever remained magpies and, in order not to incur a new misfortune, since then they have not come close to Moscow."

"As a pious person, Ivan Vasilyevich loved church services. Especially chants. He himself was not deprived of his hearing and voice and was considered an excellent singer. Still, who would argue with the formidable king! There will always be a daredevil, a sage or a fool. He arrived somehow the tsar went to the Sergius Monastery for a vigil and heard a wonderful, fairy-tale singing. A local monk sang, whose name the fairy tale did not preserve. Captivated by a wonderful voice, Tsar Ivan wanted to know who this elder was, where he came from. But the royal monks neither answered questions nor prayed did not respond and continued to sing. When, finally, Ivan Vasilyevich became angry, the elder calmly replied that during the service in the church one voice should sound - his. Although the king wanted to sing, in the end he was forced to admit that the wise monk and for the mind to give him."

All the rulers in Russia were personalities with a capital letter. Each of them stood out with special qualities. Some have left a special mark in history. Such was the personality of the son of Vasily 3 (III) and Elena Glinskaya - John. Why was Ivan 4 nicknamed the Terrible? In this article, we will talk about the person of the king, who was considered the greatest despot in Russia.

Ivan the Terrible had a terrible character. He was extremely suspicious, harsh, intolerant, nervous. Everyone had to listen unquestioningly to the great king. His vindictiveness killed many innocent people. The boyars who disobeyed were executed along with their innocent servants, yard servants, peasants, and serfs. Even in adolescence, suspicion and cruelty began to appear, but there were reasons for this. The life of the king could hardly be called happy, and the orphan childhood was spent in fear of being killed by the boyars.

Prince Ivan IV of Moscow was crowned king in mid-January 1547. He did a lot for the development of the state, but his cruelty was known all over the world. He sees conspiracies and treason everywhere. Sometimes suspicions are confirmed.

In 1570, he kills almost the entire population of Novgorod. This terrible event happened due to the fact that people are suspected of treason and serving King Sigismund Augustus.

Tyrant Reformer

It is impossible to ignore the fact that the king did a lot for his state. He was a great reformer, but he could not cope with his cruelty and suspicion. His contemporaries could easily answer the question "Why was Ivan the Terrible nicknamed the Terrible?". Let us briefly outline the advantages of his reign, so as not to show an outstanding person only from the negative side.

  1. He opened the first post office and printing house in Russia, which was a real breakthrough.
  2. During his reign, population growth almost doubled.
  3. 30 new settlements and 155 fortresses were built.
  4. The territory of Russia doubled under his command. He returned Kazan, Astrakhan, western Siberia, the Central Urals.
  5. His reforms affected the military service, courts, government.

From this we can conclude that he ruled the state well. It is very difficult to describe this outstanding person briefly. Why was Ivan 4 nicknamed the Terrible? There were at least 5 reasons for this, which we will describe below.

Hard childhood

As a child, he constantly lived in stress. As a result, a developed paranoid fear of conspiracies and mass repressions appeared in adulthood.

His father dies when Ivan was three years old from a hunting wound and blood poisoning. The mother, an insidious woman who killed two of her husband's brothers, passes away when the boy is eight years old. As it turns out later, Elena Glinskaya did not die a natural death, she was poisoned.

The child remains in the care of the boyars, who treated him very cruelly, they did not always remember that the baby needed to be fed, they beat him severely for the slightest offense, and sometimes they simply took out their anger on him. Ivan's childhood passed in fear that he could be killed at any moment. The boyars quarreled among themselves, some of them destroyed each other.

The beginning of the oprichnina, the reign of terror

In January 1565, the ruler introduced the oprichnina. Now he has absolute power in his hands. The oprichnina is the land that he allots for himself, confiscating from the boyars and their families. He sends these people to distant and poor parts of the state - the zemshchina. Most noble families decide to flee. Among the petty nobles, he chooses the most cruel and makes them his guardsmen, in fact, mercenaries who engage in terror. The king pays them off with the lands confiscated by them.

The oprichnina lasted seven years. During this time, mercenaries kill people with impunity, rob them. The regime allowed the ruler to imprison a large number of boyars and mock them.

Great ingenuity in torture and sophistication in atrocities

Prisons were built in Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, in which the executioners used:

  • stakes;
  • peaks;
  • whips;
  • burning coals;
  • rope, which was used to cut the body into pieces.

There were boilers with boiling and ice water. A person objectionable to the sovereign was lowered in turn into boiling water, then into cold water. Because of these manipulations, soon the skin itself began to peel off the human body in shreds. That is why Ivan 4 was nicknamed the Terrible.

His atrocities knew no bounds. In 1581, Elyseus Bomelius fell under suspicion of poisoning. He not only treated the ruler, but also supplied poisons for Ivan the Terrible. The unfortunate medic was hung on a rack and fried.

He locks a company of monks in a courtyard with wild angry bears. Of the weapons, the clergy had only rosaries and stakes. The courtyard is surrounded by high walls, because of which it is impossible to get out.

Particularly perverted torture was patricide and fratricide. The son had to kill his own father in prison in order to be released, the brother had to take the life of his brother. Naturally, after committing a crime, these people were not pardoned, but executed.

He was very vindictive

If we talk about why Ivan 4 is called Grozny, then it is worth mentioning his rancor. Even after many years, he could remember the offense and punish the person. This is what happened to his cousin.

In 1553, the king became very ill and everyone believed that he was dying. At this time, his brother Vladimir Andreevich has the intention to ascend the throne and is plotting. Ivan the Terrible suddenly recovers, and they report to him about the betrayal of a relative. He will take revenge on him in 16 years, when his wife, Queen Mary, dies. He will accuse Vladimir Andreevich of poisoning his wife. An innocent relative and his family are forced to drink poison and die.

Killing a son with his own staff

In fits of anger, Ivan the Terrible used his favorite object - a wooden staff with an iron tip. He beat them with people he did not like to such an extent that some gave their souls to God. In 1581 he quarrels with his son. There were two reasons for this. On the eve of Ivan the Terrible, he beat his pregnant wife, whose behavior seemed obscene to him. The second reason is the divergence of views on the tactics of conducting the Lithuanian war. Enraged, in a frenzy, he hits his son on the head, hitting the temple. The young man, having suffered for two days, dies. He was 27 years old. Infanticide is one of the most terrible reasons why Ivan 4 was nicknamed the Terrible.

Son Fedor, crowned in 1584, is trying to somehow correct the mistakes of his father. After the death of the most cruel ruler in the history of Russia, it became clear why Ivan IV was nicknamed the Terrible.

We call Ivan IV the Terrible because we were told to call him that in history class. However, few people can answer the question of when and why Ivan IV became "Terrible". We tried.

Not only Ivan IV

Ivan IV was not the only "terrible" tsar in Russian history. “Terrible” was also called his grandfather, Ivan III, who, in addition, also had the nicknames “justice” and “great”. As a result, the nickname “great” was assigned to Ivan III, and his grandson became “terrible”.

It is also interesting that Ivan the Terrible was not always Ivan IV. For the first time, this digital part of the title was officially assigned to him in his “History of the Russian State” by Nikolai Karamzin, he led the reckoning of kings from Ivan Kalita. "Before Karamzin" Ivan the Terrible was "listed" as Ivan I.

Since 1740, when the infant emperor John Antonovich (Ivan VI) came to the Russian throne, a digital part was added to all Russian Ivan tsars. Ivan Antonovich himself began to be called John III, his great-grandfather became John II, and Ivan the Terrible received the title of Tsar Ivan I Vasilyevich of All Russia.

When did Grozny become "Terrible"?

When and why did Ivan IV begin to be called "terrible"? The question is far from idle. If you ask a person about this, he will most likely answer that the tsar began to be called that way for his boundless cruelty, for the oprichnina and manic-depressive syndrome. Because that's what they tell us in history class. The question is: who called him that and when? After all, there was no such title, no one called Ivan IV “terrible” during his lifetime, just as he did not call Ivan IV. He was Ivan Vasilyevich.

The absurdity of the situation with the nickname of the tsar is confirmed by the fact that once Alexander Dumas wrote literally the following: “Ivan the Terrible was called “vasilyich” for his cruelty.”

Here is what Skrynnikov, the most prominent researcher of the life of Ivan the Terrible, writes about this: “The nickname “Grozny” was not found in the sources of the 16th century. Most likely, Tsar Ivan received it when he became the hero of historical songs.

That is, even Skrynnikov cannot answer the question: “When exactly did the nickname“ formidable ”appear. But he says that this nickname was given to the king by the people. And not during the life of Ivan IV, but after his death. That is, it turns out that “terrible” is, as it were, a nickname not even for the king, but for the memory of him.

When did this happen? Skrynnikov writes that, most likely, during the Time of Troubles. When the country was going through a difficult situation: the Polish-Swedish intervention, high mortality, low yields. Everything was bad. And then the king, who was no longer there, began to be called "terrible."

What does "terrible" mean?

The question is also not idle: what did the people put into the word “terrible” when they called the tsar that way? In today's view, this word has only a negative connotation, but not everything is so obvious.

The tsar in fairy tales and songs was not remembered at all as a petty tyrant, they were remembered with some kind of folk nostalgia, as a strong sovereign. And this despite the fact that it was Ivan the Terrible, who accelerated the Russian car to the speed of uncontrollability, and predetermined the Time of Troubles itself, when he did not leave behind anyone who could retain power.

The historian Skrynnikov writes: “In an atmosphere of unheard-of disasters, the time of Tsar Ivan began to be remembered as the era of the might of the Russian state, its prosperity and greatness. The bloody and dark deeds were forgotten."

He also writes that “in the minds of the people of that time, the “thunderstorm” symbolized the sizzling, inevitable and brilliant element, moreover, the element was not so much natural as divine, a sign of the intervention of heavenly forces in people’s lives.”

Ivan the Terrible thought of himself as God's anointed, and all his deeds, up to executions, fit into the logic of this mission. He did not just execute bodies, he also executed souls, performing his executions in such a way that the criminals became "dead dead." Practiced: drowning (sending criminals to their "native" element - to evil spirits, persecution of suicide bombers by bears (bears were considered "clean" animals, so they punished a person for his sins).

The repressive machine did not work for the purpose of demonstrating "to disgrace others." The king was already feared and respected by everyone. Any speech against the Crowned One was supposed to be “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit,” that is, a sin that cannot be expiated.

Not only the criminals themselves were subject to execution, but also their property (including household members), which was recognized as “bad” and “unclean”. Here the king was strictly guided by the Old Testament Book of Joshua, namely the capture of Jericho by the ancient Jews. According to Scripture, the fate of the inhabitants of Jericho was terrible: “... everything in the city, both husbands and wives, both young and old, and oxen, and sheep, and donkeys, they destroyed everything with the sword ... And they burned the city and everything in it fire”, except for “silver and gold, and copper and iron vessels”, which were declared “sworn”, and which were forbidden to be taken for personal use, they were to be transferred only to Jewish priests.

I must say that in the Middle Ages, the biblical tradition of destroying "unclean" property was strictly observed in almost all European countries.

He was a cruel monster. 470 years ago, Ivan IV was proclaimed Grand Duke and Tsar of All Russia. He laid the foundation for modern Russia, but also became the ruler, during whose time terror reigned in the state. After a mistake in translation, he was nicknamed Terrible - "terrible." Here are five reasons why this epithet could be applied to him.

1. Massive repressions motivated by revenge and paranoid fear of conspiracies

At the age of three, little Ivan lost his father, and at the age of eight, his mother. He was left to the will of the boyars, representatives of the Russian nobility, who ruled, quarreling among themselves and brutally destroying each other. And it is the boyars who turn the life of the future tsar into hell. He is humiliated, beaten, he lives in constant fear that at any moment he can be killed. So during his reign, hiding anger and hatred against the boyars, he seeks to destroy them. Under the pretext of a conspiracy, treason, real or imagined, he passes cruel, lawless sentences: disgrace, exile, execution, torture, imprisonment, confiscation of property. Hundreds of high-ranking officials become victims of his atrocities, which also affect their families and inner circle (they are cut off their heads, impaled, imprisoned in monasteries, exiled ...). Massacres are considered in the order of things. So, in 1570, on the orders of Ivan IV, the inhabitants of Veliky Novgorod were exterminated: they are suspected of treason in favor of the Polish king Sigismund August.

2. The beginning of the oprichnina, the reign of terror

Context

Russia loves Ivan the Terrible again

Politico 02.11.2016

"Third Rome" by Ivan the Terrible

Polonia Christiana 01/18/2017

The Kremlin honors the insane killer Ivan the Terrible

wPolityce 24.10.2016

Ivan the Terrible by Pavel Lungin

Le Figaro 25.01.2010
At the beginning of January 1565, the tsar establishes the Oprichnina, giving himself absolute power. The oprichnina is the territory that he allocates to himself by confiscating it from the families of the boyars who owned it, who are evicted to more remote and poorer territories. Noble families are forced to flee. Ivan IV relies on guardsmen, selected from among the petty nobles, who receive confiscated lands and act as mercenaries for the tsar. For seven years, until the very end of the existence of this "service" in 1572, they kill, terrorize, ruin people, destroy and plunder part of Russia, while enjoying complete impunity. This new regime once again presented Ivan the Terrible with the opportunity to destroy and imprison many boyars.

3. Great ingenuity in torture and sophistication in atrocities

In the prisons that the tsar built in his residence in Alexander Sloboda, 80 km northeast of Moscow, executioners use whips, stakes, pikes, tongs, burning coals, rope (which cut the body due to friction). However, Ivan IV is constantly looking for new types of executions and instruments of torture. So, he sets up huge cauldrons of boiling and icy water, into which the unfortunate victims are alternately dipped until their skin shreds off. In 1581, he tortures his physician and supplier of poisons, Elyseus Bomelius, by roasting him suspended on a rack. In the same year, he unleashes wild bears on the monks, locked in a courtyard surrounded by high walls, the monks are armed with rosaries and stakes. A particularly perverse torture was to force a son in prison to kill his own father in order to save his life, or to force a brother to stab his brother and then execute these people for parricide or fratricide.

4. He never had a final pardon.

Even if Ivan IV could show mercy and forgiveness, he never completely pardoned. He never forgot his insults and betrayal, so revenge for what he had done long ago could overtake a person years later. This is exactly what happened to the tsar's cousin Vladimir Andreyevich, who plotted in March 1553, when the monarch was believed to be terminally ill. However, the patient recovered. And 16 years later, after the death of Queen Mary, Ivan the Terrible decides to avenge himself by accusing his relative of poisoning his wife. "Guilty", his wife and children are forced to drink poison, presumably the one from which the deceased queen died.

5. The iron staff became the weapon that made the king the killer of his own son.

Ivan the Terrible had a long wooden staff with a steel tip, with which he beat people in fits of anger, wounding them until they bled, sometimes so badly that they died. In November 1581, the tsar quarreled with his son because of the Lithuanian war or because of the beatings inflicted on his pregnant daughter-in-law because of what he considered to be indecent behavior. In a fit of rage, he brutally beats the prince with his staff on the head and shoulders. Having received a blow to the temple, the 27-year-old young man falls to the floor. He is in agony for several days and dies on November 19th. Ivan the Terrible becomes a child-killer and murderer of the heir to the Russian throne, his beloved son, with whom he together enjoyed pictures of human suffering during torture.

After the death of Ivan the Terrible on March 18, 1584, and the ascension to the throne of his blessed son Fyodor, this page of cruelty is turned in Russian history. But new ones will follow along with the Time of Troubles.

The materials of InoSMI contain only assessments of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the editors of InoSMI.

Loading...Loading...