Ivan the Terrible or Ivan IV of Russia is one of the most important tsars in history, both for his legacy and for the atrocities he committed under his rule. An interesting biography that will make you think and reflect to learn more about the history of Russia.
Birth of Ivan the Terrible
Before being known as Ivan the Terrible, he was named Ivan IV Vasilievich or Ivan IV of Russia. He was born on August 25, 1530 in Moscowfruit of the union between Tsar Basilio III and his second wife Elena Glinski, being the first son of the Tsar.
It was crowned at a very young age, since he was only three years old in 1533, the year his father died. This meant that it was her mother who governed as regent, although five years later she was assassinated due to power disputes. At this time, he ruled his maternal Glinski family, the Bielskis and the Shuiskis.
Proclamation Grand Prince of Ivan the Terrible
As soon as he turned 18, his government began and also his marriage with the princess Anastasia Romanov. During the first twelve years of his reign he had a moderate mood, due to the influence of his wife as the Privy Council (Rada) which was made up of the most influential members.
The first years of his reign were dedicated to domestic politics of the country and, once this stage was completed, subsequently carried out a expansion foreign policy.
After the death of his wife, symptoms began to be perceived in him that today have been related to psychopathy and that led him to earn the title of El Terrible. In turn, his authoritarianism and his religiosity were exacerbated, reaching a point that some have called delusional.
Tsar Ivan IV of Russia
As an interesting curiosity, Ivan IV was the first of the Russian princes who called himself «tsar of all russias» officially.
Reforms of Ivan IV of Russia
The council chosen by the tsar, including Macarlo and the role of Anastasia is also fundamental, displaced the cruelty and homicidal impulses of the tsar towards the opponents. In turn, Macarlo also favored the czar’s creation of a Christian state whose pillar was justice, which marked the beginning of a series of reforms.
If in 1547 he came to the throne, in 1550 a new legal code. It included more favorable conditions for military service, administrative practice and greater local self-government was granted.
He personally participated in campaigns against the Tatars in three different periods. These battles led to the annexation of Kazan and the Volga, a river that came to be dominated by the Russians. Later, in 1556, Astrajan became Russian domain by accepting its supremacy and without the need for battles. These facts supposed food for the dream of expansion.
In these times, the nobility was increasing and that also meant more intrigues and conflicts. At one point when he fell ill, he forced the nobles to swear allegiance to his son Dimitri, future heir. Despite the fact that the boyars had at his own proposal, a cousin of the tsar, Ivan IV got everyone to swear allegiance to him, although after recovering from illness he grew distrustful of them. It is important to note that the Tsar believed that the boyars had been able to murder his wife in 1560.
Livonian Wars
The Livonian Wars were a military conflict that took place in from the year 1558 to 1583in which several countries -Denmark, Russia, Sweden and Poland- were submerged in order to control Livona (currently Estonia and Latvia).
One of the tsar’s interests in this conflict was the possibility of access the Baltic Sea through Livonia. They were years of long conflicts and finally peace was signed in 1852, under the Treaty of Yam Zapolski, between Russia and Poland.
Ivan IV had to give up his goals and this meant so much imbalance in the economy of the kingdom that he came to the ruin of Russia.
Ivan IV of Russia’s regime of terror
Little by little, the Tsar had been losing his mental balance and was giving more and more free rein to his cruelty. This was not only seen in his way of reigning, which as we had mentioned before was increasingly absolutist and in a terror regimeif not that it also meant a great physical deterioration that could be motivated by mistrust towards everyone.
The boyars, whom he especially had in his sights, became those who suffered a bloody repression. He killed princes and accused homosexuals to exercise justice. He led the army against ancient free cities Novgorod and Pskov where a real massacre and tortures were carried out, it was said that 50,000 rebels were impaled and beheaded, historians speak of 3000.
Some historians have said that Ivan IV, in this time of terror, also dedicated himself to deflower young people and murder their children if he got them pregnant.
Another of Ivan IV’s critical moments was when he killed his son with a stick in the head carried by a moment of anger. He had previously attacked one of her wives -Elena Sheremeteva- with the same cane, causing her to lose the baby with which she was pregnant and, when she went to rebuke her son, she hit him with a cane. It took her approximately three days to die and this was a severe blow to the tsar, since in addition to being his son and the bond that tied him emotionally to him, she was the future tsar of Russia and left his kingdom without an heir. . A great guilt would accompany him until his death, which was a few years later.
Marriages of Ivan IV
Ivan the Terrible married numerous times and it is believed that most of them were with Political purposes. Altogether, they were seven queensof which one of the marriages was not recognized by the church:
- Anastasia Romanovna Zakharina, died poisoned.
- Maria Temriukovna. She died shortly after her child was born, possibly poisoned.
- Marfa Vasilyevna Sobakina died shortly after marriage, possibly also poisoned
- Anna Ivanovna Koltovskaya. After two years of marriage she is separated from her and she is forced to go to a cloistered convent.
- Ana Grigórievna Vasílchikova, suffered the same fate as the previous one after less than a year of marriage.
- Vasilisa Melentieva, known for having a lover and having him impaled before her eyes. She was locked up in a convent.
- Maria Dolgorúkaya, is considered a bride, it turned out that Ivan IV said that she was not a virgin and the next day she drowned.
- Maria Fyodorovna Nagaya was the daughter of an okolnichi and was the only one who survived him.
Achievements of Ivan IV
Despite the atrocities committed, the reality is that his political and social legacy still remains today in the political structure that maintains the national governmentdisempowering the boyar class and favoring a more centralized state.
The desire for expansion was maintained after his death, although it cannot be said that in the economic aspect it was the best of the legacies.