Ivan IV the Terrible was the son of Elena Glinskaya and Grand Duke Vasily III. He entered the history of Russia as a very controversial personality. On the one hand, he was a reformer and a talented publicist, the author of brilliant literary "messages" to various statesmen of that time, and on the other, a cruel tyrant and a man with a sickly psyche. Historians are still wondering who Ivan the Terrible is - a genius or a villain?
Brief description of the board
Tsar Ivan the Terrible began to rule with the participation of the Chosen One since the late 1540s. Under him, Zemsky Sobors began to be convened, and the Sudebnik of 1550 was created. Transformations of the judicial and administrative systems were carried out - partial local self-government was introduced (zemstvo, lip and other reforms). After the tsar suspected Prince Kurbsky of betrayal, the oprichnina was established (a set of administrative and military measures to strengthen tsarist power and destroy the opposition). Under Ivan IV, trade relations with Britain were established (1553), a printing house was founded in Moscow. Khanates of Kazan (in 1552) and Astrakhan (in 1556) were conquered.
During the periodIn 1558-1583, the Livonian War was actively carried out. The king wanted access to the B altic Sea. The stubborn struggle against the Crimean Khan Devlet Giray did not subside. After the victory in the Battle of Molodin (1572), the Muscovite state gained de facto independence and strengthened its rights to the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates, and also began to annex Siberia (1581). However, the tsar's domestic policy, after a series of failures during the Livonian War, acquired a harsh repressive character against the boyars and the trading elite. Many years of exhausting war on various fronts led to an increase in the tax burden and increased dependence of the peasantry. The king was more remembered by his contemporaries for his excessive cruelty. Based on the foregoing, it is very difficult to unambiguously answer the question of who Ivan the Terrible was. Genius or villain, this, no doubt, an extraordinary ruler?
Childhood
After the death of his father, a three-year-old boy was raised by his mother, who was his regent. But she died on the night of April 3-4, 1538. Until 1547, when the prince came of age, the boyars ruled the country. The future monarch Ivan 4 the Terrible grew up in the conditions of palace coups due to the constant struggle for power between the warring boyar families of the Belsky and Shuisky. The boy saw the murders, he was surrounded by intrigue and violence. All this left an indelible mark on his personality and contributed to the development of such traits as suspicion, vindictiveness and cruelty.
The tendency to mock living beings manifested itself in Ivan already inchildhood, and the inner circle approved of it. At the end of December 1543, the thirteen-year-old orphan prince showed his temper for the first time. He arrested one of the most influential boyars - Prince Andrei Shuisky - and "ordered him to be given to the kennels, and the kennels took and killed him when they dragged him to prison." "From that time (notes the chronicle) the boyars began to have a great fear from the king."
The Great Fire and the Moscow Uprising
One of the strongest youthful impressions of the tsar was the "big fire" and the Moscow uprising of 1547. 1700 people died in the fire. Then the Kremlin, various churches and monasteries burned. By the age of seventeen, Ivan had already committed so many executions and other cruelties that he perceived the devastating fire in Moscow as retribution for his sins. In a letter to the church council of 1551, he recalled: “The Lord punished me for my sins either with a flood or a pestilence, and I did not repent. In the end, God sent great fires, and fear entered my soul, and trembling into my bones, and my spirit is troubled." Rumors spread around the capital that the "villains" Glinsky were to blame for the fire. After the massacre of one of them - a relative of the king - the rebellious people appeared in the village of Vorobyevo, where the Grand Duke hid, and demanded the extradition of other boyars from this family. With great difficulty we managed to convince the angry crowd to disperse. As soon as the danger passed, the king ordered the capture and execution of the main conspirators.
The wedding on the kingdom
The main goal of the king, outlined already in his youth, was unlimited autocratic power. She relied onthe concept of "Moscow - the Third Rome" created under Vasily III, which became the ideological basis of the Moscow autocracy. Ivan, given that his paternal grandmother Sophia Paleologus was the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine, considered himself a descendant of the Roman rulers. Therefore, on January 16, 1547, the wedding of Grand Duke Ivan to the kingdom took place in the Assumption Cathedral. Symbols of royal dignity were placed on him: Monomakh's cap, barmas and a cross.
The royal title made it possible to take a more advantageous diplomatic position in relation to Western European countries. The grand ducal title among Europeans is the same as "grand duke" or "prince". "Tsar" was not interpreted at all or was translated as "emperor". Thus, Ivan stood on a par with the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. However, this information does not answer the question of what Ivan the Terrible was. Was this man a genius or a villain?
Wars
In 1550-1551, the autocrat personally took part in the Kazan campaigns. In 1552, Kazan fell, and then the Astrakhan Khanate (1556). They became dependent on the Russian Tsar. Also, Yediger, Khan of Siberia, submitted to Moscow. In 1553 trade relations with Britain were established. In 1558, the monarch unleashed the Livonian War for possession of the coast of the B altic Sea. At first, the fighting went well for Moscow. In 1560, the Livonian army was completely defeated, and the Livonian Order ceased to exist.
Internal changes and the Livonian War
Insidecountries are undergoing major changes. Around 1560, the tsar quarreled with the Chosen Rada and subjected its members to persecution. Ivan became especially cruel to the boyars after the unexpected death of Tsarina Anastasia, suspecting that she had been poisoned. Adashev and Sylvester unsuccessfully advised the tsar to end the Livonian War. However, in 1563 the troops took Polotsk. At that time it was a serious Lithuanian fortress. The autocrat was especially proud of this particular victory, which was won after the break with the Rada. But already in 1564, the army suffered a serious defeat. The king began to look for the "guilty". Executions and other repressions began.
Oprichnina
The reign of Ivan the Terrible went on as usual. The autocrat was more and more imbued with the idea of establishing a personal dictatorship. In 1565, he announced the creation of the oprichnina. In fact, the state was divided into two parts: Zemshchina and Oprichnina. Each guardsman had to take an oath of allegiance to the autocrat and promised not to have contacts with the Zemstvo. They all wore black robes, similar to monastic ones.
Equestrian guardsmen were marked with special insignia. They clung to their saddles the gloomy signs of the era: brooms to drive treason with them, and dog heads to gnaw it out. With the help of the oprichniki, who were released by the tsar from any kind of responsibility, Ivan 4 the Terrible by force took away the boyar estates and transferred them to the oprichnina nobles. Executions and persecution were accompanied by unprecedented terror and robbery of the population.
The Novgorod pogrom of 1570 was a landmark event. The reason for this was the suspicion ofthe desire of Novgorod to secede to Lithuania. The monarch personally led the campaign. All the villages were plundered along the way. During this campaign, Malyuta Skuratov in the Tver monastery strangled Metropolitan Philip, who tried to reason with Grozny, and then resist him. It is believed that the number of Novgorodians killed was about 10-15 thousand. No more than 30 thousand people lived in the city at that time.
Abolition of the oprichnina
It is believed that the reasons for the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible are of a personal nature. A difficult childhood left its mark on his psyche. The fear of conspiracies and betrayals has become paranoia. In 1572, the tsar abolished the oprichnina. He was led to this decision by the unseemly role played by his oprichny associates during the attack on Moscow by the Crimean Khan in 1571. The army of guardsmen could not do anything. In fact, it fled. Tatars set fire to Moscow. The Kremlin also suffered from the fire. It is very difficult to understand such a person as Ivan the Terrible. Whether he was a genius or a villain, it is definitely impossible to say.
Results of the Oprichnina
Tsar Ivan the Terrible greatly undermined the economy of his state with the oprichnina. The division had a very detrimental effect. Much of the land was destroyed and devastated. In 1581, in order to prevent desolation, Ivan established reserved summers - a ban on the change of owners by peasants, which took place on St. George's Day. This contributed to even greater oppression and the establishment of serfdom.
The foreign policy of Ivan the 4th the Terrible was also not particularly successful. Livonian Warended in complete failure with the loss of territories. The objective results of the reign of Ivan the Terrible were visible even during his lifetime. In fact, it was the failure of most undertakings. Since 1578, the king stopped carrying out executions. These times of Ivan the Terrible were also well remembered by contemporaries. The king became even more pious. He ordered that commemorative lists of those killed be made on his orders and sent to monasteries for commemoration. In his will of 1579, he repented of what he had done. The history of the oprichnina fully reveals why Ivan the Terrible was called Grozny.
Murder of son
Periods of repentance and prayer were replaced by terrible fits of rage. It was during one of them in 1582 in the Alexander Sloboda that the autocrat accidentally killed his son Ivan, hitting him with a staff with a metal tip in the temple. He died 11 days later. The autocratic murder of the heir horrified the king, since his other offspring Fedor was not able to rule, because he was weak in mind. The king sent a huge amount to the monastery for the remembrance of the soul of his child. He even thought about getting a monk's haircut.
Wives
The reign of Tsar Ivan the Terrible was rich in royal marriages. The exact number of wives of the autocrat is not known for certain, but most likely there were eight of them (including a one-day marriage). In addition to children who died in childhood, the monarch had three sons. The first marriage with Anastasia Zakharyina-Koshkina brought him two descendants. The second wife of the autocrat was the daughter of a Kabardian nobleman - Maria Temryukovna. The third wife was Martha Sobakina, who died unexpectedly three weeks after the wedding. According to church canons, it was impossible to marry more than three times. In May 1572, a church council was held. He allowed a fourth marriage. Anna Koltovskaya became the sovereign's wife. However, for treason, the king in the same year imprisoned her in a monastery. The fifth wife was Anna Vasilchikova. She died in 1579. The sixth, most likely, was Vasilisa Melentyeva. The last wedding took place in 1580 with Maria Naga. In 1582, their son Dmitry was born, who, after the death of the autocrat, was killed in Uglich.
Results
Ivan 4 remained in history not only as a tyrant. The monarch was one of the most educated people of his era. He possessed a simply phenomenal memory, distinguished by the erudition of a theologian. The king is the author of numerous messages, which are of great interest from a creative point of view. Ivan wrote music and texts of divine services. Grozny contributed to the development of book printing. Under him, the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed was built. However, the reign of the king was essentially a war against his people. Under him, state terror reached simply unprecedented proportions. The autocrat strengthened his power in every possible way, not shunning any methods. In Ivan, in an incomprehensible way, talents were combined with extreme cruelty, piety with sexual depravity. Modern experts in the field of psychology believe that absolute power disfigures the individual. And only a few are able to cope with this burden and not lose some human traits. Nevertheless, the indisputable fact is that the personality of the king imposeda huge imprint on the entire subsequent history of the country.
