All rulers in Russia were personalities with a capital letter. Each of them stood out for its special qualities. Some left a special mark in history. Such was the personality of the son of Vasily 3 (III) and Elena Glinsky - John. Why was Ivan 4 called 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 was terrible in character. He was suspicious, harsh, intolerant, nervous to the limit. Everyone had to listen implicitly to the great king. His vengeance killed many innocent people. The disobeyed boyars were executed along with their innocent servants, courtiers, peasants, and slaves. Even in adolescence, suspicion and cruelty began to appear, but there were reasons for this. It was difficult to call the life of the king happy, and the orphan childhood passed in fear of being killed by the boyars.
Prince of Moscow Ivan IV was crowned king in the middle of January 1547. He did a lot for the development of the state, but his cruelty was famous throughout the world. Everywhere he sees plots and treason. Sometimes suspicions are nevertheless confirmed.
In 1570, he kills almost the entire population of Novgorod. This terrible event occurred due to the fact that people are suspected of high treason and service to King Sigismund Augustus.
Reformer Tyrant
The fact that the king did a lot for his state cannot be ignored. 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 called Grozny?" Briefly outline the advantages of his reign, so as not to show the outstanding person only on the negative side.
- He opened the first mail and printing house in Russia, which was a real breakthrough.
- During his reign, population growth almost doubled.
- 30 new settlements and 155 fortresses were built.
- The territory of Russia has doubled under its beginning. He returned Kazan, Astrakhan, western Siberia, the Central Urals.
- His reforms concerned military service, courts, and government.
From this we can conclude that he ran the state well. It is very difficult to talk about this outstanding person briefly. Why was Ivan 4 called the Terrible? At least there were 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 conspiracy and mass repression in adulthood appeared.
His father dies when Ivan was three years old, from hunting injuries and blood poisoning. Mother - an insidious woman who killed her husband's two siblings - dies when the boy turns eight years old. As it turns out later, Elena Glinskaya did not die her death, she was poisoned.
The child remains under the guardianship of the boyars, who treated him very cruelly, they did not always remember that the baby needed to be fed, severely beat him for the slightest fault, and sometimes they simply frustrated him with anger. Ivan's childhood passed in fear that they could kill him at any time. The boyars quarreled among themselves, some of them destroyed each other.
The beginning of the oprichnina, the kingdom of terror
In January 1565, the ruler introduced the oprichnina. Now in his hands is absolute power. Oprichnina is the land that he takes for himself, confiscating from the boyars and their families. He sends these people to distant and poor parts of the state - the zemstvo. Most noble families decide to flee. Among the small nobles, he chooses the most cruel and makes them his guardsmen, in fact, mercenaries who engage in terror. The tsar pays them the lands confiscated by them.
Oprichnina lasted seven years. During this time, mercenaries kill people with impunity and 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
In Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, prisons were built in which the executioners used:
- stakes;
- peaks;
- whips;
- burning coals;
- the rope used to cut the body into pieces.
There were boilers with boiling and ice water. An objectionable emperor was alternately dipped in boiling water, then in cold water. Due to these manipulations, the skin itself soon began to tear off from the human body in shreds. That is why Ivan 4 was nicknamed the Terrible.
His atrocities knew no bounds. In 1581, Eliseus Bomelius fell under suspicion of poisoning. He not only healed the ruler, but also supplied poisons for Ivan the Terrible. The unfortunate medic was hung up on a rack and fried.
He locks the company of monks in the yard with wild furious 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 so that he would be released into freedom, his brother - to take his brother's life. Naturally, after the commission of the 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 vindication. Even after many years, he could remember the insult and punish the person. This 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 intentions to ascend the throne and is plotting a conspiracy. Ivan the Terrible suddenly gets better, and they report to him on the betrayal of a relative. He will avenge him after 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 they die.
Killing a son with his own staff
In the fits of anger Ivan the Terrible used a favorite subject - a wooden staff with an iron tip. He beat them to people who were objectionable to him to such an extent that some gave their soul to God. In 1581, he quarreled 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. Being furious, in a frenzy, he strikes his son on the head, falling into the temple. A young man, tormented for two days, dies. He was 27 years old. Infanticide is one of the worst 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 they called Ivan IV the Terrible.