Ivan IV the Terrible was the son of Elena Glinsky and Grand Duke Vasily III. He went down in the history of Russia as a very controversial person. On the one hand, he was a reformer and a talented publicist, author of brilliant literary "messages" to various statesmen of that time, and on the other, a cruel tyrant and a person with a painful psyche. Historians still wonder who Ivan the Terrible is - a genius or a villain?
Executive Summary
Tsar Ivan the Terrible began to rule with the participation of the Chosen One from the late 1540s. Under him, Zemsky Sobors began to be convened; the Judicial Code of 1550 was created. Transformations of the judicial and administrative systems were carried out - partial local self-government was introduced (zemstvo, labia and other reforms). After the king suspected of betrayal of Prince Kurbsky, the oprichnina was established (a set of administrative and military measures to strengthen tsarist power and destroy the opposition). Under Ivan IV, trade relations with Britain were established (1553), a printing house was founded in Moscow. The Kazan (in 1552) and Astrakhan (in 1556) khanates were conquered.
In the period 1558-1583, the Livonian War was actively conducted. The king wanted to gain access to the Baltic Sea. The stubborn struggle against the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey did not subside. After winning the battle of Molodinsky (1572th), the Moscow state gained actual independence and strengthened the rights to the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates, and also began to annex Siberia (1581th). However, the tsar’s domestic policy, after a series of setbacks during the Livonian War, became tough and repressive in relation to the nobility and the trading elite. Many years of exhausting war on different fronts led to an increase in the tax burden and increased dependence of the peasantry. The king was more remembered by his contemporaries for his excessive cruelty. Based on the foregoing, it is very difficult to unequivocally answer the question of who Ivan the Terrible was. Is this genius or villain, no doubt, an extraordinary ruler?
Childhood
After the death of his father, a three-year-old boy was brought up by his mother, who was his regent. But she died on the night of April 3-4, 1538. Until 1547, when the Tsarevich came of age, the boyars ruled the country. The future monarch Ivan 4 the Terrible grew up in the face of palace coups due to the constant struggle for power between the warring boyars of the Belsky and Shuiskys. The boy saw the killings, he was surrounded by intrigue and violence. All this left an indelible imprint on his personality and contributed to the development of traits such as suspicion, revenge and cruelty.
The tendency to mock living beings was manifested in Ivan already in childhood, and his inner circle approved of this. At the end of December 1543, the thirteen-year-old orphan prince first showed his burrows. He arrested one of the most influential boyars - Prince Andrei Shuisky - and "ordered him to be handed over to the kennel, and the kennel took and killed him when they dragged him to prison." "From that time (the annals notice), the boyars from the king began to have a great fear."
The Great Fire and the Moscow Uprising
One of the tsar’s most powerful youthful impressions was the “Great Fire” and the Moscow Uprising of 1547. 1700 people died in the fire. Then the Kremlin, various churches and monasteries burned. By the age of seventeen, Ivan had already committed so many executions and other cruelties that he perceived the devastating fire in Moscow as retribution for his sins. In a letter to the church council of 1551, he recalled: “The Lord punished me for my sins either by flood or by sea, and I did not repent. In the end, God sent great fires, and fear entered my soul, and trembling in my bones, and my spirit was embarrassed. " Rumors spread around the capital that the Glinsky “villains” were to blame for the fire. After the reprisal against one of them - a relative of the tsar - the rebellious people appeared in the village of Vorobyevo, where the great prince hid, and demanded the extradition of other boyars from this clan. With great difficulty, they managed to convince the angry crowd to disperse. As soon as danger passed, the king ordered the capture and execution of the main conspirators.
The wedding to the kingdom
The main goal of the king, outlined already in his youth, was unlimited autocratic power. She relied on the concept of "Moscow - the Third Rome" created by Vasily III, which became the ideological foundation of the Moscow autocracy. Ivan, given that his paternal grandmother Sofia Paleolog was the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine, considered himself a descendant of Roman rulers. Therefore, on January 16, 1547, the Assumption Cathedral hosted the wedding of Grand Duke Ivan to the kingdom. He was entrusted with symbols of royal dignity: a Monomakh hat, a barma and a cross.
The imperial title made it possible to take a more advantageous diplomatic position in relation to Western European countries. The grand ducal title of the Europeans is the same as “Grand Duke” or “Prince”. “Tsar” was not interpreted at all or translated as “emperor”. Thus, Ivan stood on a par with the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. However, this information does not answer the question of what Ivan the Terrible was. Was this man a genius or a villain?
Wars
In 1550-1551, the autocrat personally took part in the Kazan campaigns. In 1552 Kazan fell, and then the Astrakhan Khanate (1556). They became dependent on the Russian Tsar. Also, the khan of Siberia Ediger obeyed Moscow. In 1553, trade relations with Britain were established. In 1558, the monarch unleashed the Livonian War for the possession of the coast of the Baltic Sea. At first, the battles were successful for Moscow. In 1560, the Livonian army was completely defeated, and the Livonian Order ceased to exist.
Internal Change and the Livonian War
Serious changes have begun within the country. Around 1560, the king quarreled with the Chosen Rada and persecuted its members. Ivan became especially cruel to the boyars after the unexpected death of Queen Anastasia, suspecting that she had been poisoned. Adashev and Sylvester unsuccessfully advised the tsar to end the Livonian war. However, in 1563, troops took Polotsk. At that time he was a serious Lithuanian fortress. The autocrat was especially proud of this victory, which was won after the break with the Rada. But already in 1564 the army suffered a serious defeat. The king began to look for the "guilty." Executions and other repressions began.
Oprichnina
The reign of Ivan the Terrible went on as usual. The autocrat was increasingly imbued with the idea of establishing a personal dictatorship. In 1565, he announced the creation of the oprichnina. In fact, the state was divided into two parts: zemstvo and oprichnina. Each oprichnik had to take an oath of allegiance to the autocrat and made a promise not to have contact with the Zemsky. They all wore black robes, like monastic ones.
Horse guardsmen were marked with special insignia. To their saddles they clung to the gloomy signs of the era: brooms to drive them to treason, and the heads of dogs to gnaw at it. With the help of the oprichniks, who were exempted by the tsar from any kind of responsibility, Ivan the Terrible took by force the noble estates and handed them over to the oprichnik nobles. Executions and persecutions were accompanied by unprecedented terror and robbery of the population.
A landmark event was the Novgorod pogrom of 1570. The reason for him was the suspicion of Novgorod's desire to secede to Lithuania. The monarch personally led the campaign. All villages were looted along the way. During this campaign, Malyuta Skuratov in the Tver monastery strangled Metropolitan Philip, who tried to admonish Grozny, and then confront him. It is believed that the number of killed Novgorodians was about 10-15 thousand. At that time, no more than 30 thousand people lived in the city.
Abolition of the oprichnina
It is believed that the reasons for the oprichnina Ivan the Terrible are of a personal nature. A difficult childhood left its mark on his psyche. Fear of conspiracy and betrayal has become paranoia. In 1572, the king abolished the oprichnina. He was inclined to this decision by the unseemly role played by his guardsmen in the attack on the Crimean Khan in Moscow in 1571. The army of the guardsmen could not do anything. In fact, it fled. Tatars set fire to Moscow. The Kremlin also suffered from the fire. It is very difficult to figure out such a person as Ivan the Terrible. He was a genius or a villain, it is definitely impossible to say.
Results of the oprichnina
Tsar Ivan the Terrible greatly undermined the oprichnina’s economy of his state. Separation was very detrimental. A significant part of the land was destroyed and devastated. In 1581, in order to prevent desolation, Ivan established reserved summers - a ban on peasants to change their owners, which took place on St. George's Day. This contributed to even greater oppression and the establishment of serfdom.
The foreign policy of Ivan the Terrible was also not particularly successful. The Livonian war ended in complete failure with the loss of territories. The objective results of the reign of Ivan the Terrible were visible even during his lifetime. In fact, it was the failure of most endeavors. Since 1578, the king ceased to execute executions. These times of Ivan the Terrible were also well remembered by contemporaries. The king became even more devout. He ordered to make memorial lists of those killed on his orders and to send them to monasteries for commemoration. In the will of 1579, he repented of perfect. The history of the oprichnina fully reveals why Ivan the Terrible was called Grozny.
Killing son
Periods of repentance and prayer were replaced by terrible fits of rage. It was during one of them in 1582 in the Alexander settlement that the autocrat accidentally killed his son Ivan, hitting him with a staff with a metal tip in the temple. After 11 days, he died. The self-murder of the heir terrified the king, as his other offspring Fyodor was not able to rule, because he was weak in mind. The king sent a huge sum to the monastery for the mention of the souls of his child. He even thought to cut his hair as a monk.
Wives
The reign of Tsar Ivan the Terrible was rich in royal marriages. The exact number of autocrat wives is not known for certain, but most likely there were eight of them (including a one-day marriage). In addition to the children who died in childhood, the monarch had three sons. The first marriage with Anastasia Zakharyina-Koshkina brought him two descendants. The second wife of the autocrat was the daughter of the Kabardian nobleman - Maria Temryukovna. The third wife was Martha Sobakina, who unexpectedly died three weeks after the wedding. According to church canons, it was impossible to marry more than three times. In May 1572, the church cathedral was held. He allowed a fourth marriage. Anna Koltovskaya became the sovereign's wife. However, in the same year the king imprisoned her for treason. The fifth wife was Anna Vasilchikova. She died in 1579. The sixth, most likely, was Vasilisa Melentieva. The last wedding took place in 1580 with Maria Nagoy. In 1582, they had a son, Dmitry, who was killed in Uglich after the death of the autocrat.
Summary
Ivan 4 remained in history not only as a tyrant. The monarch was one of the most educated people of his era. He possessed simply a phenomenal memory, distinguished by the erudition of a theologian. The king is the author of numerous messages that are of great interest from a creative point of view. Ivan wrote music and texts of worship. Grozny contributed to the development of typography. When it was built the temple of St. Basil. However, the rule of the king was essentially a war against his people. Under him, state terror has reached unprecedented proportions. The autocrat in every possible way strengthened his power, not disdaining any methods. In Ivan incomprehensibly, talents were combined with extreme cruelty, piety with sexual debauchery. Modern experts in the field of psychology believe that absolute power disfigures a person. And only a few are able to cope with this burden and not lose any human traits. Nevertheless, an indisputable fact is that the personality of the king left a huge imprint on the entire subsequent history of the country.