Ivan the Terrible, on the one hand, a wise reformer, an outstanding and talented figure in the Muscovite state, on the other hand, a bloody tyrant, a real murderer who subjected his subjects to monstrous repressions. How did the formation of the personality of one of the most extraordinary rulers, who had a noticeable impact on the course of Russian history, take place?
Probably, the reasons for suspicion, self-will, vindictiveness and unjustified cruelty of Ivan IV lie in the events that happened to him in his childhood and youth. What was the ruler's childhood like?
According to legend, on August 25, 1530, at the very moment when Ivan the Terrible, the first-born of Grand Duke Vasily III and his second wife Elena Glinskaya, was born, a terrible thunderstorm broke out throughout the kingdom, in which contemporaries saw evil omen. The baby was named Ivan in honor of the predecessor of Jesus Christ - John the Baptist. The grandfather of the little prince also bore the name Ivan. His father, Prince Vasily, lived only three years after the birth of the heir.
The court chronicles claim that the mortally ill Vasily III blessed his offspring to rule the state, and punished his wife, whom he considered courageous and wise, until Ivan came of age to keep the state "under his son." There is another source indicating that Prince Vasily transferred control not to the princess, but to the boyars. This version seems more plausible, because he had no right to violate the ancient traditions and centuries-old customs that did not allow women to participate in government affairs.
At the bedside of the patient, the board was handed over to the boyars - the "seventh" council of trustees, which was headed by the specific prince Andrey Staritsky. Shortly after the day when the Grand Duke passed away, through the efforts of the boyars, three-year-old Ivan was crowned. The nominal reign of Ivan the Terrible began.
It is rather difficult to briefly describe the thirteen years that passed between the coronation and the crowning of the kingdom. Ivan was an 8-year-old boy when his mother Elena Glinskaya died. Feelings of orphanhood and loneliness have developed in him the habit of constantly looking around and listening.
Ivan the Terrible, surrounded during the ceremonies by royal luxury and servile humility, in everyday life he fully experienced embarrassment in everything, indifference and neglect on the part of boyars and princes. Childhood hardships were aggravated by the brutal struggle for power of boyar groups, accompanied by murders, intrigues and violence.
The childhood of Ivan the Terrible was the time whenunattractive traits of his character: secrecy, suspiciousness, pretense, duplicity and cruelty.
At the age of 12, an embittered teenager tortured and maimed animals, throwing them from high towers, at 13 he gave the order to kill one of the boyars. According to a contemporary, from the age of 15, the future king had a new fun - to ride horses with young men through the streets and markets, to beat and rob ordinary people.
The Tsar of All Russia Ivan the Terrible became in January 1547, when the wedding ceremony took place in the Assumption Cathedral - a solemn ceremony borrowed from Byzantium. During the wedding, the future sovereign was dressed in royal clothes and a crown was placed on him. Thus ended the childhood and adolescence of the first tsar of the Russian kingdom.
