Ivan IV (The Terrible)
Ivan IV (The Terrible)
Pretend that the greatest leader to ever rule your country wanted to resign. You would want him to come back, but the price of that is to give him complete and absolute power. Would you pay that price? The people of Russia did, and as soon as Ivan IV came back, he killed them by the thousands. Ivan Vasilyevich began as Tsar at the age of 16. He was a great ruler for the first part of his life. He unified, and vastly improved his country, creating a more modern government. Unfortunately, his mental state unraveled as he got older, and he was prone to violent fits of rage that would lead to his own people calling him Ivan the Terrible. During his time as Tsar, he conquered vast amounts of land, greatly contributing …show more content…
to Russia’s size today. Up to that point, Ivan IV was Russia’s greatest and most terrible ruler.
The succession of rule from father to son had only recently begun, and there was a bloody dispute to make it that way. The brother of a Grand Prince obviously wanted to succeed him. However, that led to assassinations, so the succession became more vertical, directly from father to son. As a result of this, Ivan IV had to rule at a very young age. Vasili III, Ivan’s father, died when he was three. His mother ruled until he was eight, when she was assassinated, as most people were unhappy with her. During his childhood, the future Grand Prince of Moscow was intelligent and sensitive, brought up by Boyars (a class below prince), and was neglected and mistreated, which made him dislike them even more because he already believed they were responsible for the death of his mother. He tortured small animals, but still developed a taste for the music and literature. There was constant fighting for the throne, so he was also under a serious threat of assassination. As a result of being brought up in a dangerous environment, he developed paranoia. He began rule eight years after his mother’s death, at the age of 16. When he began as ruler, to Russia’s surprise, he was wasn’t crowned as Grand Prince, but as Tsar (God’s Anointed). In the same year, 1547, he married Anastasia Romanov, and he was very happy. In the first year of his rule, a fire burned down two-thirds of Moscow including the Kremlin. In the fire’s wake. a mob attacked the Kremlin, capturing and killing a relative of Ivan’s who was thought to be responsible for starting the fire. Responding to the violence Ivan and his men arrested the political adversaries who he claimed had started the riot, took them to the center of the city and hanged them. At this point he was still in his teens, so he was proving himself to be a strong leader in the eyes of the people. His goal as ruler was to make a Christian state based on the principles of justice. He formed a council in 1547, by which he agreed not to do anything without approval from it. This was called the “Chosen Council”, and was composed of Ivan’s favorites. He performed all of his changes only with the approval of this council. This limited the powers of the upper classes because they could no longer make changes that could be unfair to the population, the Chosen Council would deny it. The district rulers were elected by people of the upper class who had been elected by Ivan, so there were no unfit rulers who had power through their bloodline. Through all this, he created a centrally controlled government, that limited the powers of the upper class, and gave power to the service gentry. The service gentry were a group of people who earned land and power only through service to the government, so they owed everything they had to the sovereign, and thusly the Tsar. Ivan also strengthened their church in Russia by having meetings called the Zemski Sobor, affirming their orthodoxy. They also canonized many Russians. During these meetings, he also drew a more detailed and fair legal code, affirming statutory law and reforming tax collection. Vasilyevich also reformed the military, mostly the same was that he reformed the government; he appointed military commanders by merit, instead of by birthright. He also improved conditions for the soldiers and reorganized the armed forces. When his wife died in 1560, and one of his best commanders defected to Poland, he threatened to abdicate the throne.
Without a leader, his people begged for him to return. He made a deal with the Muscovites, that if he came back and led them, he would get absolute power and control of the area, with the ability to punish traitors and lawbreakers with confiscation of property and execution. This state he created was called the Oprichnina. When he returned to rule, he began executing all of the local boyars, who he believed had killed his mother and his wife and then started his reign of terror for 24 years upon all of the boyars of Russia. At this point in his reign of terror, he was four times remarried but still had not succeeded in recapturing the happiness that he enjoyed with Anastasia. Also during this time, through the Oprichnina, Ivan IV created his own private army to act as bodyguards and secret police, called the Oprichniki. The Oprichniki contained 1,000-6,000 men. He destroyed all of the major Boyar families in the area and not just the men, he ordered the execution of women and children as well. One of his worst displays of terror is the sacking of Novgorod. Novgorod was a very wealthy city and was a strategic defense point for the Livonian war. Vasilyevich was paranoid, and believed that the city would defect to the enemy, so Ivan sent the Oprichniki to pillage Novgorod and all areas around it. He killed thousands of families and left nothing behind. All of the lands that he claimed was given to his chosen class of gentry. He tortured his enemies and even friends for simply displeasing him. He boiled them in oil, cut out their tongues, and impaled them on spikes, starting at the top, the more the person moved, the faster the spike would move through them, and this was a very long and drawn out death. This and many other heinous displays of rage led him to be nicknamed “Grozny”. This roughly translates to formidable or sparking terror or fear. The
Oprichniki lasted only 7 years until they were abolished because they had failed to defend Moscow, and they were then merged with the zemshchina, the army controlled by the boyars of Moscow. His outbursts worsened and grew more frequent as he got older. He beat his daughter-in-law, causing a miscarriage, blinded the great architect who constructed St. Basil’s Cathedral, and later killed his groomed and only worthy heir to the throne, Ivan, by striking him with a staff during one of their arguments. He had not purposely murdered him, and his son died in his arms, leaving the only heir to the throne, Theodore, to be an incompetent one. With the threat of all he had done for his country being undone at the hands of his unworthy son, near the end of his life, Ivan IV became obsessed with death. He tried everything, no matter how unorthodox the methods, to extend his life. He died on March 28, 1584, playing chess with his bodyguard and closest confidant Bogdan Belsky. It was not until 1953 that his corpse was exhumed and examined with modern forensics. It was found out that Ivan had been afflicted with arthritis and had been given a painkiller with mercury in it for a large part of his life. One of the side effects of mercury poisoning is sporadic fits of rage. When he passed he left his country in complete disarray, and this began the catastrophic time period later dubbed the Time of Troubles. Ivan IV’s son Theodore was retarded, and could not maintain control, and the country did not regain order until nearly a century later. During his life, Ivan IV conquered vast amounts of land, to the east, fighting off Tatars, the descendants of Genghis Khan, and to the west, trying to conquer Lithuania to gain access to the Baltic sea for trade. In 1552, he fought for and took Kazan, a seemingly impenetrable city, and in 1556, he took Astrakhan, giving him access to the Caspian sea which created a buffer zone against the Mongols. He began his journey westward, by fighting and crushing Livonian armies, but Lithuania, seeing the danger of the Muscovites reaching their borders, backed Livonia with more warriors. Lithuania and Poland merged, allowing them to become stronger, and Sweden began supporting them with even more military, and together they pushed back the Russians, reclaiming some of their lands. On the other front, the Tatars began pushing back and fought all the way to Moscow, where they burned everything except for the Kremlin. With defeat in sight, Ivan IV asked for the Pope’s help in writing a peace treaty with the western countries, and made peace with them, for the price of giving them most of their lands back.
Despite his failure in westward expansion, Ivan the Terrible had successfully expanded his country, created a centrally controlled government, reformed most Russian laws, limiting the powers of the noble classes and giving it to his chosen gentry. Through his ruthless methods, he turned Russia into a thriving country. The Boyars would not allow the necessary change to take place, for fear of losing their power, so the country needed a ruler who put his country before the people of the country. Ivan was exactly what Russia needed to become a world power, and someone had to do what he did, despite his fits of unreasonable rage. Grozny turned the country around by undermining the authority of the Boyars, who it seems he was raised to despise. Ironically, despite being one of the most ruthless and fearsome rulers in history, Ivan IV led his country to economic success. Without Ivan, Russia may not even exist today, let alone be a world power.
Pretend that the greatest leader to ever rule your country wanted to resign. You would want him to come back, but the price of that is to give him complete and absolute power. Would you pay that price? The people of Russia did, and as soon as Ivan IV came back, he killed them by the thousands. Ivan Vasilyevich began as Tsar at the age of 16. He was a great ruler for the first part of his life. He unified, and vastly improved his country, creating a more modern government. Unfortunately, his mental state unraveled as he got older, and he was prone to violent fits of rage that would lead to his own people calling him Ivan the Terrible. During his time as Tsar, he conquered vast amounts of land, greatly contributing …show more content…
to Russia’s size today. Up to that point, Ivan IV was Russia’s greatest and most terrible ruler.
The succession of rule from father to son had only recently begun, and there was a bloody dispute to make it that way. The brother of a Grand Prince obviously wanted to succeed him. However, that led to assassinations, so the succession became more vertical, directly from father to son. As a result of this, Ivan IV had to rule at a very young age. Vasili III, Ivan’s father, died when he was three. His mother ruled until he was eight, when she was assassinated, as most people were unhappy with her. During his childhood, the future Grand Prince of Moscow was intelligent and sensitive, brought up by Boyars (a class below prince), and was neglected and mistreated, which made him dislike them even more because he already believed they were responsible for the death of his mother. He tortured small animals, but still developed a taste for the music and literature. There was constant fighting for the throne, so he was also under a serious threat of assassination. As a result of being brought up in a dangerous environment, he developed paranoia. He began rule eight years after his mother’s death, at the age of 16. When he began as ruler, to Russia’s surprise, he was wasn’t crowned as Grand Prince, but as Tsar (God’s Anointed). In the same year, 1547, he married Anastasia Romanov, and he was very happy. In the first year of his rule, a fire burned down two-thirds of Moscow including the Kremlin. In the fire’s wake. a mob attacked the Kremlin, capturing and killing a relative of Ivan’s who was thought to be responsible for starting the fire. Responding to the violence Ivan and his men arrested the political adversaries who he claimed had started the riot, took them to the center of the city and hanged them. At this point he was still in his teens, so he was proving himself to be a strong leader in the eyes of the people. His goal as ruler was to make a Christian state based on the principles of justice. He formed a council in 1547, by which he agreed not to do anything without approval from it. This was called the “Chosen Council”, and was composed of Ivan’s favorites. He performed all of his changes only with the approval of this council. This limited the powers of the upper classes because they could no longer make changes that could be unfair to the population, the Chosen Council would deny it. The district rulers were elected by people of the upper class who had been elected by Ivan, so there were no unfit rulers who had power through their bloodline. Through all this, he created a centrally controlled government, that limited the powers of the upper class, and gave power to the service gentry. The service gentry were a group of people who earned land and power only through service to the government, so they owed everything they had to the sovereign, and thusly the Tsar. Ivan also strengthened their church in Russia by having meetings called the Zemski Sobor, affirming their orthodoxy. They also canonized many Russians. During these meetings, he also drew a more detailed and fair legal code, affirming statutory law and reforming tax collection. Vasilyevich also reformed the military, mostly the same was that he reformed the government; he appointed military commanders by merit, instead of by birthright. He also improved conditions for the soldiers and reorganized the armed forces. When his wife died in 1560, and one of his best commanders defected to Poland, he threatened to abdicate the throne.
Without a leader, his people begged for him to return. He made a deal with the Muscovites, that if he came back and led them, he would get absolute power and control of the area, with the ability to punish traitors and lawbreakers with confiscation of property and execution. This state he created was called the Oprichnina. When he returned to rule, he began executing all of the local boyars, who he believed had killed his mother and his wife and then started his reign of terror for 24 years upon all of the boyars of Russia. At this point in his reign of terror, he was four times remarried but still had not succeeded in recapturing the happiness that he enjoyed with Anastasia. Also during this time, through the Oprichnina, Ivan IV created his own private army to act as bodyguards and secret police, called the Oprichniki. The Oprichniki contained 1,000-6,000 men. He destroyed all of the major Boyar families in the area and not just the men, he ordered the execution of women and children as well. One of his worst displays of terror is the sacking of Novgorod. Novgorod was a very wealthy city and was a strategic defense point for the Livonian war. Vasilyevich was paranoid, and believed that the city would defect to the enemy, so Ivan sent the Oprichniki to pillage Novgorod and all areas around it. He killed thousands of families and left nothing behind. All of the lands that he claimed was given to his chosen class of gentry. He tortured his enemies and even friends for simply displeasing him. He boiled them in oil, cut out their tongues, and impaled them on spikes, starting at the top, the more the person moved, the faster the spike would move through them, and this was a very long and drawn out death. This and many other heinous displays of rage led him to be nicknamed “Grozny”. This roughly translates to formidable or sparking terror or fear. The
Oprichniki lasted only 7 years until they were abolished because they had failed to defend Moscow, and they were then merged with the zemshchina, the army controlled by the boyars of Moscow. His outbursts worsened and grew more frequent as he got older. He beat his daughter-in-law, causing a miscarriage, blinded the great architect who constructed St. Basil’s Cathedral, and later killed his groomed and only worthy heir to the throne, Ivan, by striking him with a staff during one of their arguments. He had not purposely murdered him, and his son died in his arms, leaving the only heir to the throne, Theodore, to be an incompetent one. With the threat of all he had done for his country being undone at the hands of his unworthy son, near the end of his life, Ivan IV became obsessed with death. He tried everything, no matter how unorthodox the methods, to extend his life. He died on March 28, 1584, playing chess with his bodyguard and closest confidant Bogdan Belsky. It was not until 1953 that his corpse was exhumed and examined with modern forensics. It was found out that Ivan had been afflicted with arthritis and had been given a painkiller with mercury in it for a large part of his life. One of the side effects of mercury poisoning is sporadic fits of rage. When he passed he left his country in complete disarray, and this began the catastrophic time period later dubbed the Time of Troubles. Ivan IV’s son Theodore was retarded, and could not maintain control, and the country did not regain order until nearly a century later. During his life, Ivan IV conquered vast amounts of land, to the east, fighting off Tatars, the descendants of Genghis Khan, and to the west, trying to conquer Lithuania to gain access to the Baltic sea for trade. In 1552, he fought for and took Kazan, a seemingly impenetrable city, and in 1556, he took Astrakhan, giving him access to the Caspian sea which created a buffer zone against the Mongols. He began his journey westward, by fighting and crushing Livonian armies, but Lithuania, seeing the danger of the Muscovites reaching their borders, backed Livonia with more warriors. Lithuania and Poland merged, allowing them to become stronger, and Sweden began supporting them with even more military, and together they pushed back the Russians, reclaiming some of their lands. On the other front, the Tatars began pushing back and fought all the way to Moscow, where they burned everything except for the Kremlin. With defeat in sight, Ivan IV asked for the Pope’s help in writing a peace treaty with the western countries, and made peace with them, for the price of giving them most of their lands back.
Despite his failure in westward expansion, Ivan the Terrible had successfully expanded his country, created a centrally controlled government, reformed most Russian laws, limiting the powers of the noble classes and giving it to his chosen gentry. Through his ruthless methods, he turned Russia into a thriving country. The Boyars would not allow the necessary change to take place, for fear of losing their power, so the country needed a ruler who put his country before the people of the country. Ivan was exactly what Russia needed to become a world power, and someone had to do what he did, despite his fits of unreasonable rage. Grozny turned the country around by undermining the authority of the Boyars, who it seems he was raised to despise. Ironically, despite being one of the most ruthless and fearsome rulers in history, Ivan IV led his country to economic success. Without Ivan, Russia may not even exist today, let alone be a world power.