In the royal chambers on July 3, 1583, one of the most mysterious and incomprehensible murders of the sixteenth century happened. The son of Ivan the Terrible, Ivan Ivanovich, was killed by his own father. In a fit of anger, the king poked his offspring that there are forces with his staff at the temple. The blow was accurate and strong - the prince died on the spot. It is amazing what a son Ivan the Terrible killed! The most beloved, the eldest, the one who had high hopes, because his second descendant, Fedor, was not ready to rule the country initially.
Over the past four hundred and fifty years, history has been overgrown with many legends; various versions of what happened have been put forward. The exact date of the death of the prince has not yet been established. Some researchers suggest that the tragedy occurred as far back as 1581, in November, others call it 1582, and still others, most of whom still adhere to the date of July 3, 1583. By and large, the numbers are not so important, the main task is to understand why Ivan the Terrible killed his son, and did he kill him at all? Let's try to figure it out.
First version. Political
Nikolai Karamzin in his History stated that politics has become a stumbling block between father and son. Filled with noble jealousy, the prince came to his parent and demanded to free Pskov, expel the enemy, restore the honor of the Russian Empire. In anger, John cried out that his son, together with the boyars, wanted to overthrow him from the throne, and raised his hand. Boris Godunov tried to hold her, but the tsar with his sharp wand inflicted several wounds on the nobleman, and then with a force struck the crown prince. He fell, drenched in blood. The death of Ivan - the son of Ivan the Terrible - came instantly. It is noteworthy that this version, which Karamzin considered to be true, was originally put forward by Antonio Posevino, the papal legate, who, admittedly, was, if not the most interested witness, then definitely not independent. Therefore, the reliability of such a statement is very doubtful, moreover, it is not confirmed by any other evidence. Then why did Ivan the Terrible kill his son? Move on.
The second version. Worldly
Only officially, Tsar John Vasilievich was married at least seven times. As you know, an apple from an apple tree falls close. So the young prince tried to keep up with his father. His first wife was the daughter of Saburov, Evdokia Bogdanova, after an unsuccessful marriage, she was forcibly tonsured a nun. The second wife, Theodosius Mikhailov, daughter of Solovov, suffered the same fate - she ended her life in a monastery. By 1583, Ivan was married to the daughter of the youngest of the Sheremetyev brothers, Elena. One morning, Ioann Vasilievich saw the Tsarevich’s pregnant wife in an inappropriate form: her belt was not tied, and the married woman did not have to go wide open. The king was enraged and weighed a couple of good slap-blows to his daughter-in-law. Elena fell and hit, and already the next night lost a child. Immediately, the prince ran into the chambers and began to rebuke his father, he stood up for his wife, and for this he got into the temple with a staff. It turns out that this is why Ivan the Terrible killed his son! However, not everything is clear here. The author of this version was the same Antonio Posevino, who was profitable to expose the ruler as a ruthless son-killer in order to legitimize the European Inquisition. So what really happened?
The third version. Love
The Russian tsar was very eager for women and, according to evidence, did not miss a single skirt. Once, somewhere in the wards, he met Elena, the wife of Tsarevich Ivan, about whom we already spoke, and began to force her to cohabit. It is not known for certain whether, as a result, Ioann Vasilievich became a daughter-in-law (in Russia it has long been called a man who shared one woman with his son), but the young princess told her husband about the harassment, and he decided to find out the relationship with his father. How it all ended, we know. The son of Ivan the Terrible, Ivan, fell with a broken temple, and his wife after some time was sent to the monastery. But was this really happening?
The fourth version. Rebuttal
Historians who lived much later than John Vasilyevich and his offspring thought: “Did Ivan the Terrible kill his son?” Perhaps this is just a fascinating legend? In other words, misinformation and slander? Indeed, at present, the fact of suicide is in great doubt. To understand why it is worth doubting, let us turn to the years 1883-1885 - the time when the work of art “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan on November 16, 1581” appeared under the brush of the famous Russian artist Ilya Repin.
The painting "Ivan the Terrible kills his son"
It was under this name that the canvas became known to the general public, which depicts how the Russian Tsar inflicted a death blow on the Tsarevich. On the red carpeted chambers in the twilight of the chambers lies an abandoned wand next to the overturned throne, and in the very center of the chambers two figures are illuminated: the father, who has just done something irreparable in an angry outburst, and the son, dying in his arms. Despair, immeasurable love and horror expresses the face of Ivan Vasilyevich, he frantically embraces the crown prince, tries to stop the blood by clamping a wound on his head, and the son, forgiving his father, falls to his chest. The senile appearance of the king with aggravated features looks in his loss at the same time pathetic and scary. Ivan’s face is more “lively”, spiritualized, human in comparison with him. Pity for the father overwhelms the Tsarevich, he feels a sense of forgiveness, it exalts him above all the petty passions that were not worthy of man, which caused his death, purify the soul. This is exactly what the painting "Ivan the Terrible kills his son" demonstrates.
The fate of Repin
Now the canvas is stored in Moscow, in the Tretyakov Gallery. A group of Orthodox activists and historians in 2013 requested to remove him from there, as it offends the patriotic feelings of Russians. The request was denied. I must say, this is not the first attack on the picture. When it was first introduced to the general public at the 13th traveling exhibition, the whole of Petersburg was agitated. Spectators literally besieged the building where the canvas hung. There were fierce debates: the intelligentsia and progressive youth were enthusiastically enthusiastic, while other Petersburgers were indignant: “Is it possible to show suicide?” Among those who did not like the work was Emperor Alexander III, as a result of April 1, 1885 he was banned from showing. This was the first censorship in the Russian Empire. However, three months later, at the request of the artist A. Bogolyubov, who was close to the court, the ban was lifted.
Was there a murder?
At the same exhibition in St. Petersburg in 1885, the painting “Ivan the Terrible Kills His Son” was noticed by the outstanding Russian thinker and chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod, Konstantin Pobedonostsev. He was indignant at her plot, because, in his opinion, fiction was presented as a fact. Pobedonostsev wrote a letter to Alexander III , in which he said that this work of painting cannot be called historical, because the moment depicted is purely fantastic. How so? We have always been told about the murder of Ivan Tsarevich Ivan as an indisputable fact, even in school textbooks it is written about this as an example of how cruel the Russian autocracy was distinguished. It was not entirely clear only why Ivan the Terrible killed his son. And how generally such information got into historical literature, no one thought.
Dramatic event
In 1913, something strange happened in the Tretyakov Gallery. When examining the canvas of Ilya Repin “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan on November 16, 1581”, the icon painter Abram Balashov shouted: “Too much blood!” Then he attacked the painting with a knife and cut it. Immediately Repin came to Moscow and, together with Igor Grabar, his former pupil and famous restorer, began restoration. In the press, the attempt on a work of painting received wide resonance, a dispute was even arranged on the topic of how ordinary people relate to the image of royal people. Repin was unexpectedly accused of deliberately provoking people to aggression and of not understanding the situation that has developed in Russia. The artist was confused and very annoyed. In frustrated feelings, he left Moscow and decided that he would never come to this city again.
What did the prince die from?
Metropolitan John of Ladoga and St. Petersburg in his book Autocracy of the Spirit denied the fact of the murder and stated that the death of Ivan the Terrible’s son came due to a serious illness. And the truth is, in the surviving historical documents there is not a word about suicide. But numerous factors were found confirming that the prince died as a result of poisoning. V. Manyagin in his 2003 work “The Leader of the Militant Church” wrote that Ivan was poisoned by sublimate - poison that causes painful death if taken in an amount of 0.18 grams or less.
Exhumation
In the Archangel Cathedral of the Kremlin in 1963, four tombs were opened: the commander Skopin-Shuisky, Tsarevich Ivan, Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich. During the study of the remains, scientists found that in all four skeletons contains approximately equal amounts of arsenic, and it does not exceed the norm. However, the bones of Tsarevich Ivan and Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich revealed the presence of mercury in a dose significantly exceeding the permissible norm. Some historians have argued that this is not poisoning, but the consequences of treatment with mercury ointments for syphilis. But as a result of research, no syphilitic changes were found in the remains of representatives of the royal family.
New facts
In 1990, a study was made of the graves of the great Moscow tsarina and princesses. As a result, it was discovered that Elena Glinskaya, the mother of Ivan the Terrible, who died in 1538, and Anastasia Romanova, his first wife, who died in 1560, were poisoned by a sublimate. That is, the royal family has been a victim of poisoning for several decades. The data from these and other studies led to the conclusion that the murder of the son of Ivan the Terrible by his own father is fiction, but in fact he was poisoned, in favor of this the fact that the content of poison in his remains exceeds the permissible norm many times. Thus, science categorically refutes the version of suicide.