With the adoption in 1547 of the title of Tsar by Ivan the Terrible, the genealogy of the Grand Dukes of Moscow became one of the means to justify the claims of the ruling dynasty to tsarist power. Compiling a detailed genealogy was one of the main tasks of the scribes. As a result of their work, two remarkable monuments appeared, outwardly oriented towards the exposition of Russian history from ancient times: "Sovereign Genealogist" and "Graduate Book". However, their main goal was the aging of the clan of Moscow and Vladimir princes. The drafters developed the family tree of Ivan the Terrible, whose roots date back to the reign of Roman Emperor Octavian Augustus.
Reality
Ivan the Terrible was interested in genealogy not only because of the need to justify his claims to the royal title. In the Middle Ages in Russia, the church played a paramount role, not only providing a person’s connection with God, but also determining the entire system of private relationships. Particularly important communication with the church was for the ruling clan of the Rurikovich. Ivan the Terrible during the period of oprichnina even wore a monastic dress and conducted services according to the canons. But under his father's rule, the relationship between princes and church hierarchs was in jeopardy.
The Grand Duke Vasily III, the father of Ivan the Terrible, married Solomonia Saburova in 1505, but the marriage was childless. The married couple tried to solve the problem by all available means, that is, they often went for pilgrimage, prayed to the holy defenders, but the long-awaited heir did not appear. The desperate Solomonia even turned to the healers and sorcerers, but this could not be her - in 1525, with the connivance of Metropolitan Daniel, the wife of the grand duke was forcibly tonsured a nun, and the following year Vasily III married young Elena Glinsky.
Mother of Ivan the Terrible
The Grand Duke took an unprecedented step. Many church hierarchs, especially Maxim Grek, Vassian Patrikeev and Metropolitan Varlaam, openly condemned the actions of Basil and refused to recognize his new marriage as legal. The Moscow prince resolutely dealt with them and did not even stop to deprive the Metropolitan of dignity - again for the first time in Russian history.
The attitude towards Elena Glinsky in society was appropriate. Her Lithuanian origin, the way in which she became a princess, behavior that did not meet the standards - all this aroused hostility. Under the influence of his young wife, Vasily III despised another norm: he cut his beard. And soon rumors spread about the connection of the young princess with the governor Ivan Fedorovich Telepnev-Obolensky, nicknamed Ovchin. Evil tongues conveyed the same rumor: for four years, the second marriage of Vasily III remained childless until the princess met Ovchina. To this day, this allows some historians to believe that the Ivan the Terrible’s genealogy may not have included the Grand Dukes of Moscow.
Dynasty degeneration
The described events allow us to state that the Rurikovich dynasty, which ruled Russia from time immemorial, was approaching its end. It was impossible to say with complete confidence whether the father of Ivan the Terrible and his seriously ill brother Yuri Vasily III was. However, there are all signs of degeneration: the very first Russian tsar, especially after the death of his first wife, had a mental disorder, expressed in a tendency to cruelty. His eldest son Ivan had the same problem, and the second son, Fedor, according to contemporaries, was not from this world. He also failed to leave offspring.
There are various theories about the reason that the Moscow ruling house was on the verge of extinction. Someone blamed the wife of Ivan III - Zoya (Sofya) Paleolog, also a representative of the dying dynasty. Supporters of the fatherhood of Telepin-Obolensky indicate that among his ancestors there were people with nicknames indicating the presence of serious health problems. However, if we ignore the conspiracy theories, it seems inevitable that the life force of the ruling family in power, according to the annals, from 862 to the end of the 16th century simply dried up.
House Kalitichi
By the time Ivan the Terrible came to power, the family tree of the Rurikovich dynasty was highly branched. There were several local dynasties that had their origin in Rurik: Obolensky, Shuysky, Baryatinsky, Mezetsky, etc. To justify their rights to the supreme power of the Moscow dynasty, it was necessary to isolate themselves from the rest of the princes. In this regard, the founder of the dynasty of the Princes of All Russia began to be called the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky, Daniel (1277-1303).
However, this branch of the Rurikovich received its name in honor of the nickname of the most famous for the destructive Tver campaign of 1327 and for mutually beneficial cooperation with the Horde administration of Prince Ivan Kalita (1322-1340). This is not surprising: Ivan I was the only descendant of Daniel who was able to lay the foundations of the dynasty. In addition, it was during his reign that Moscow became a serious center of power, the supremacy of which Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod and Tver were forced to recognize. The visible embodiment of this change was the transfer of the metropolitan residence to Moscow in 1325.
It is the name of Kalita that lies at the base of Ivan the Terrible's pedigree: the descendants of this prince firmly held in their hands the Horde label for a great reign. Even the epidemic of the plague of the mid-14th century did not stop it. The activities of Kalita, aimed at ensuring the welfare of the Moscow principality, made possible an open struggle with the Tatars under his grandson Dmitry Donskoy (1359-1389). According to historians, it was during Kalita that a generation grew up that did not have a panic fear of the Mongols and was able to challenge him.
The dynastic origins of Grozny's cruelty
It is not necessary to blame Elena Glinsky for fornication. The descendants of Dmitry Donskoy in every generation showed all the great power and cruelty. The ancestors of Ivan the Terrible were dying at a very young age, passing the principality to young children, forced to confront other candidates for power. This trend reached its climax in 1425, when Vasily I, the son of Donskoy, died. For twenty years, with such difficulty, the created Moscow Principality plunged into the abyss of feudal warfare. Vasily II (1425-1453) in the course of the struggle, first with his uncle, and then cousins, used methods that were unexpected for the Russian people: on his orders, Prince Vasily Kosoy was blinded , and after a while the Moscow ruler suffered the same fate. Some idea of how the subjects treated Vasily II is given by the phrase attributed to the margins of the annals of his death: "I’m a murderer, your rock has come."
First Terrible
The son of Vasily II, the grandfather of Ivan the Terrible, Ivan III, was also distinguished by a severe temper. It was he who first received the title of sovereign (or sovereign) and the nickname Grozny. In the last years of his life, he faced a dynastic crisis: the established principle of inheritance of power from father to son was severely tested: the eldest son, Ivan Young, suddenly died. Ivan III needed to choose who is “older” - his grandson Dmitry or his second son, Vasily. The thoughts of the Grand Duke turned into the fact that at first the son Vasily tasted the princely dungeon, and then the grandson Dmitry died in it.
Thus, even a cursory glance at the family tree of Ivan the Terrible shows that it would be naive to explain the terrible events of his reign only as a possible adultery for his mother. The descendants of Ivan Kalita were quick to trial and reprisal and never stopped before the executions of their closest relatives. In the activities of the first Russian Tsar, this feature of the Russian dynasty overlapped with psychological trauma suffered in childhood and extremely ambitious plans.