The biography of Ivan the Terrible still amazes many with its eccentricity and significance. This is one of the most famous Grand Dukes of Moscow and All Russia today, who actually led the country for 37 years, with the exception of a short period when Simeon Bekbulatovich was the nominal tsar. The reign of Ivan the Terrible was remembered by many for the unreasonable cruelty with which he led his subordinates.
Prince's childhood
The hero of our article was born in 1530. Talking about the biography of Ivan the Terrible, you need to start with the fact that he was already considered as a contender for the throne at the age of three, when his father Vasily III fell seriously ill.
Foreseeing his imminent death, he formed a boyar commission to govern the state, whose members were supposed to act as guardians. An interesting fact from the biography of Ivan the Terrible: he could become king only afterthe onset of 15 years.
Struggle for power
After the death of Vasily, everything was calm in the country for only about a year. In 1534, a series of reshuffles took place in the ruling circles. The influence was exerted by the fact that Prince Belsky and the devious Lyatsky went over to the service of the Lithuanian prince. Soon one of the guardians of Ivan Mikhail Glinsky, who died in prison, was arrested. Several more well-known boyars were arrested.
Ivan the Terrible became a full-fledged ruler only in 1545. In his memoirs, he described that one of his most vivid impressions of his youth was the so-called great fire in Moscow, when about 25 thousand houses were destroyed. Interesting facts from the life, biographies of Ivan the Terrible often amazed and surprised many. So, at the very beginning of his reign, he almost became a victim of an uprising. In 1547, the rebels killed one of the Glinskys, relatives of the tsar's mother, and then came to the village of Vorobyevo, where the Grand Duke was hiding. With great difficulty, the crowd managed to convince that the prince was not there.
The wedding on the throne
An important event in the brief biography of Ivan the Terrible, which is given in this article, was the wedding.
Historians are still arguing who insisted on this ceremony. Some argue that he was beneficial to the relatives of the king, while others believe that Ivan showed a desire for power at a young age. Therefore, it was his personal decision, which came as a complete surprise to the boyars.
There is also a version that he had a hand in the weddingMetropolitan Macarius, who benefited from bringing the church closer to the state. As a result, the solemn ceremony took place in January 1547. Macarius blessed Ivan to reign.
Reforms in Russia
An important role in the biography of Ivan the Terrible is played by reforms, of which he carried out a lot. Basically, all of them were aimed at strengthening power, centralizing the state, as well as building relevant public institutions.
In "Wikipedia" in the biography of Ivan the Terrible, interesting initiatives are often mentioned. In 1549, the first Zemsky Sobor was convened, in which all Russian classes took part, except for the peasantry. This is how the estate-representative monarchy officially took shape.
In 1550, a new code of law came out, which established a single unit of taxation for all, the amount of which depended on the social status of the owner and the fertility of the soil.
Then, the lip and zemstvo reforms took place in the country, which radically redistributed the powers of the governors in the volosts. In 1550, a streltsy army appeared.
It was under Grozny that a system of orders was formed in the state. In the 1560s, the familiar reform of state sphragistics was carried out, which established the type of state seal. A rider appeared on the eagle's chest, which was taken from the coat of arms of the Rurikids. The new seal was used for the first time on a treaty with the Kingdom of Denmark.
Military campaigns
In the biography of Ivan the Terribleturned out to be a large number of military campaigns. From the beginning of the 16th century, the Kazan Khanate was constantly at war with Moscow Rus. During these years, about forty trips to Russian lands were made. Kostroma, Vladimir, Vologda, Murom suffered the most.
Most historians believe that the first Kazan campaign took place in 1545. In total, Ivan the Terrible, a brief biography confirms this, made three trips to Kazan. The first ended in failure when the siege artillery left due to an early thaw. Therefore, those troops that reached Kazan stood under the walls of the city for only a week.
Failed to take the city during the second campaign, which began after the death of Safa Giray. But the Russian army built the Sviyazhsk fortress, which for many years became a stronghold for the Russian army.
Finally, the third campaign ended in triumph. In October 1552, Kazan was taken. It was attended by about 150 thousand soldiers armed with 150 guns. The Kremlin of Kazan was taken as a result of the assault. Khan is captured. This victory meant an important foreign policy success of the king, and also contributed to the strengthening of his power within the state.
Prince Humpbacked-Shuisky was left as Viceroy of Grozny in Kazan. After Ivan the 4th the Terrible, in a brief biography about this, took Kazan, he had ambitious plans to capture all of Siberia.
Trade ties with England
But Russia had problems not only with the Kazan Khanate. Soon they had to wage war against Sweden. An interesting fact from the biography of Ivan the Terrible, "Wikipedia" about himtells, like this article, is the establishment of trade relations with England. It was possible to establish communication through the White Sea and the Arctic Ocean. Previously, trade routes lay through Sweden, so the Scandinavians were at a loss, having lost a considerable share of the profit they received for providing transit.
The beginning of the relationship between Moscow and London was laid by the British navigator Richard Chancellor, who sailed to Russia through the White Sea in 1553. Ivan the Terrible met with him personally, shortly after that, the Moscow Company was founded in the English capital, which received a monopoly on trading rights from Ivan.
Confrontation with Sweden
Outraged Swedish king Gustav I Vasa tried to create an anti-Russian coalition, but this plan failed. Then he decided to act on his own.
The reason for the war with Sweden was the capture of Russian merchants in Stockholm. The Swedes went on the offensive, capturing Oreshek, but they could not reach Novgorod. In January 1556, the 25,000-strong Russian army utterly defeated the Swedes, besieging Vyborg, but could not capture it.
Then Gustav I proposed a truce, to which Ivan the Terrible agreed. In 1557, the Novgorod truce was concluded for a period of 40 years. It also stipulated diplomatic relations through the governors of Novgorod.
Livonian War
In life, the biography of Ivan the Terrible was another important war - the Livonian. Its main goal was to take possession of the B altic coast. At first he accompanied the Russian armysuccess: Narva, Neuhaus, Dorpat were taken, the order troops were defeated near Riga. By 1558, the Russian army captured almost the entire eastern part of Estonia, and in 1559 actually completed the defeat of the Livonian Order.
Only then did the governors decide to accept the offer of peace put forward by Denmark. The parties were able to maintain neutrality until the end of 1559. At the same time, they began to actively negotiate peace with Livonia, in exchange for certain concessions from the German large cities.
In the biography of Ivan the Terrible, interesting facts were often encountered. So, thanks to his military successes, he was able to gain respect among foreign leaders. As a result, in 1560, an imperial congress of deputies was convened in Germany, at which foreigners finally recognized the strength and power of the Russian army. It was decided to send an embassy to Moscow and offer the Tsar eternal peace.
The appearance of the oprichnina
In addition to militancy, Grozny also became famous for the introduction of the oprichnina in the country. He announced this in 1565. After that, the country, by his decree, was divided into two parts - the oprichnina and the zemshchina.
The concept of "oprichnina" existed in Russia from 1565 to 1572. So Ivan the Terrible called the personal lot, which was his own army and state apparatus. At the same time, revenues went to the state treasury.
In those days, the same word began to call the policy of terror, which was introduced in the country by the king. He conducted it in relation to any opposition-minded citizens in allareas of society. According to many historians, the oprichnina took the form of a terrorist despotism under the autocracy.
In the oprichnina there were areas in the north-east of the country, where boyars-patrimonials rarely met. Its center was Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, which the tsar declared to be his new official residence. It was from there that in 1565 he sent a letter addressed to the boyars, the clergy and all the people, that he was abdicating the throne. This news greatly excited the people of Moscow. The prospect of anarchy did not please anyone.
Victims of terror
Soon there were the first victims of the terror arranged by Ivan the Terrible. The first victims of the oprichnina were well-known and status boyars. Oprichniki were not afraid of any punishment, because they were released from criminal liability. The tsar began to forcibly confiscate the estates, transferring them to the nobles from among the guardsmen. He gave estates to princes and boyars, from whom he took away lands, in other regions of the country, for example, in the Volga region.
It is worth noting that the decree on the introduction of the oprichnina in Russia was officially approved by both secular and spiritual authorities. It is believed that this decision was approved by the Zemsky Sobor. At the same time, most of the Zemshchina protested against this state of affairs. For example, in 1556, about 300 representatives of the nobility turned to the tsar with a petition with a request to cancel the oprichnina. Three of them were executed by beheading, some had their tongues cut out, and about 50 were subjected to public corporal punishment.
The end of the oprichnina
The end of the oprichnina for many came as unexpectedly as herStart. In many ways, this was facilitated by the invasion of Russia by the Crimean Khan Devlet Giray in 1571. By that time, many of the guardsmen had already demonstrated their complete incompetence, morally decomposed. They are accustomed to the robbery of ordinary citizens and simply did not show up for a real battle.
As a result, Moscow was burned down. By 1572, the oprichnina army was united with the zemstvo, and the tsar decided to completely abolish the oprichnina in Russia. Although the name itself, in the sense of his sovereign's court, survived until the death of Ivan IV.
Death of Ivan the Terrible
The study of the remains of the king showed that in the last years of his life he developed various diseases. In particular, he developed an osteophyte, due to which he could not walk, he was carried around the wards on a stretcher. Due to this immobility, which was aggravated by an unhe althy lifestyle and constant stress, by the age of 50 the king looked like a decrepit old man.
Back in 1584, he was engaged in state affairs, but by March his he alth had deteriorated sharply. The king fell into unconsciousness. On March 18 he died. His body was swollen and smelled bad. The British ambassador to the Russian court, Horsey, claimed that Grozny played chess just before his death.
Versions of the king's death
Contemporaries have not been able to reliably establish whether the king died of illness or for some violent reason. There was immediate confusion in the court.
There were persistent rumors that the king was poisoned by his entourage. In particular, Boris Godunov and Bogdan Belsky were suspected of this. There were evenevidence that Godunov bribed the doctor who treated Grozny, fearing that he himself would be executed along with other nobles.
Horsey put forward a version of the strangulation of Ivan IV, also suspecting Godunov of this. The Englishman claimed that at first the king was given poison, and in the confusion that arose when he fell, they also strangled him.
In the middle of the 20th century, the version of poisoning was not confirmed. As a result of the analysis, a normal content of arsenic was found in his remains, but there was a lot of mercury, which, however, was explained by the fact that in the 16th century it was part of many medicines. She was even treated for syphilis, from which, presumably, the king also suffered.
According to other researchers, Ivan the Terrible's arsenic norm for humans was exceeded twice. They suspected that he was the victim of a deadly "cocktail" of mercury and arsenic. And they gave it to Grozny for a certain time, so it was not possible to unequivocally immediately confirm the version of the poisoning.
