Ivan IV of Russia

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Ivan IV Vasilyevich (Russian: Ива́н IV Васи́льевич) (August 25, 1530, Moscow – March 18, 1584, Moscow) was the Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547 and Czar of Russia from 1547 until his death. His long reign saw the conquest of Tartary^{[citation needed]} and Siberia^{[citation needed]} and subsequent transformation of Russia into a multiethnic and multiconfessional state. This tsar retains his place in the Russian tradition simply as Ivan Grozny (Ива́н Гро́зный listen (help·info)), commonly translated into English as Ivan the Terrible (using "terrible" in the somewhat archaic sense of "inspiring fear").

Contents 1 Early reign 2 Later reign 3 Death and legacy 4 Epistles 5 Sobriquet 6 Ancestors 7 The Image of Ivan IV in Russian Folklore 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 Further reading 12 External links

[edit] Early reign

Ivan (or Ioann, as his name is rendered in Church Slavonic) was a long-awaited son of Vasili III. Upon his father's death, he formally came to the throne at the age of three, but his minority was dominated by regents. Initially his mother Elena Glinskaya acted as regent, but she died when Ivan was only eight. She was replaced as regent by boyars from the Shuisky family until Ivan assumed power in 1544. According to his own letters, Ivan customarily felt neglected and offended by the mighty boyars from the Shuisky and Belsky families. These traumatic experiences may have contributed to his hatred of the boyars and to his mental instability. He was known to throw cats and dogs out of the Kremlin windows, among other cruel acts.

Ivan was crowned king with Monomakh's Cap at the Cathedral of the Dormition at age sixteen on January 16, 1547. He was the first ruler to be crowned 'Czar of All Russia.' Despite calamities triggered by the Great Fire of 1547, the early part of his reign was one of peaceful reforms and modernization. Ivan revised the law code (known as the sudebnik), created a standing army (the streltsy), established the first Russian parliament of the feudal estates (the Zemsky Sobor), the council of the nobles (known as the Chosen Council), and confirmed the position of the Church with the Council of the Hundred Chapters, which unified the rituals and ecclesiastical regulations of the entire country. He introduced the local self-management in rural regions, mainly in the Northeast of Russia, populated by the state peasantry. During his reign the first printing press was introduced to Russia (although the first Russian printers Ivan Fedorov and Pyotr Mstislavets had to flee from Moscow to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania).

In 1547 Hans Schlitte, the agent of Ivan, employed handicraftsmen in Germany for work in Russia. However all these handicraftsmen were arrested in Lübeck at the request of Poland and Livonia. The German merchant companies ignored the new port built by Ivan on the river Narva in 1550 and continued to deliver goods in the Baltic ports owned by Livonia. Russia remained isolated from sea trade.

Ivan formed new trading connections, opening up the White Sea and the port of Arkhangelsk to the Muscovy Company of English merchants. In 1552 he defeated the Kazan Khanate, whose armies had repeatedly devastated the Northeast of Russia,^[1] and annexed its territory. In 1556, he annexed the Astrakhan Khanate and destroyed the largest slave market on the river Volga. These conquests complicated the migration of the aggressive nomadic hordes from Asia to Europe through Volga and transformed Russia into a multinational and multiconfessional state. He had St. Basil's Cathedral constructed in Moscow to commemorate the seizure of Kazan. Legend has it that he was so impressed with the structure that he had the architects blinded, so that they could never design anything as beautiful again.

Other less positive aspects of this period include the introduction of the first laws restricting the mobility of the peasants, which would eventually lead to serfdom. The dramatic change in Ivan's personality is traditionally linked to his near-fatal illness in 1553 and the death of his first wife, Anastasia Romanovna in 1560. Ivan suspected boyars of poisoning his wife and of plotting to replace him on the throne with his cousin, Vladimir of Staritsa. In addition, during that illness Ivan had asked the boyars to swear an oath of allegiance to his eldest son, an infant at the time. Many boyars refused, deeming the tsar's health too hopeless to survive. This angered Ivan and added to his distrust of the boyars. There followed brutal reprisals and murders of innocent people, including Metropolitan Philip and Prince Alexander Gorbatyi-Shuisky.

Also problematic was the 1565 formation of the Oprichnina. The Oprichnina was the section of Russia (mainly the Northeast) directly ruled by Ivan and policed by his personal servicemen, the Oprichniki. This whole system of Oprichnina has been viewed by some historians as a tool against the omnipotent hereditary nobility of Russia (boyars) who opposed the absolutist drive of the tsar, while others have interpreted it as a sign of the paranoia and mental deterioration of the tsar.

[edit] Later reign

The later half of Ivan's reign was far less successful. Although Khan Devlet I Giray of Crimea repeatedly devastated Moscow region and even set Moscow on fire in 1571, the Czar supported Yermak's conquest of Tatar Siberia, adopting a policy of empire-building, which led him to launch a victorious war of seaward expansion to the west, only to find himself fighting the Swedes, Lithuanians, Poles, and the Livonian Teutonic Knights.

For twenty-four years the Livonian War dragged on, damaging the Russian economy and military and failing to gain any territory for Russia. In the 1560s the combination of drought and famine, Polish-Lithuanian raids, Tatar attacks, and the sea-trading blockade carried out by the Swedes, Poles and the Hanseatic League devastated Russia. The price of grain increased by a factor of ten. Epidemics of the plague killed 10,000 in Novgorod. In 1570 the plague killed 600-1000 in Moscow daily.^[2] Ivan's closest advisor, Prince Andrei Kurbsky, defected to the Lithuanians, headed the Lithuanian troops and devastated the Russian region of Velikiye Luki. This treachery deeply hurt Ivan. As the Oprichnina continued, Ivan became mentally unstable and physically disabled. In one week, he could easily pass from the most depraved orgies to prayers and fasting in a remote northern monastery.

Because he gradually grew unbalanced and violent, the Oprichniks under Malyuta Skuratov soon got out of hand and became murderous thugs. They massacred nobles and peasants, and conscripted men to fight the war in Livonia. Depopulation and famine ensued. What had been by far the richest area of Russia became the poorest. In a dispute with the wealthy city of Novgorod, Ivan ordered the Oprichniks to murder inhabitants of this city, which was never to regain its former prosperity. Between thirty and forty thousand might have been killed during the infamous Massacre of Novgorod in 1570; many others were deported elsewhere.^[3] Yet the official death toll named 1,500 of Novgorod big people (nobility) and only mentioned about the same number of smaller people. Many modern researchers estimate number of victims between two and three thousand. (After the famine and epidemics of 1560s the population of Novgorod did not exceed 10,000-20,000.)^[4]

In 1581, Ivan beat his pregnant daughter-in-law for wearing immodest clothing, causing a miscarriage. His son, also named Ivan, upon learning of this, engaged in a heated argument with his father, which resulted in Ivan striking his son in the head with his pointed staff, causing his son's (accidental) death. This event is depicted in the famous painting by Ilya Repin, Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan on Friday, November 16, 1581 better known as Ivan the Terrible killing his son.

Liz Altmeyer is perfect!!!

[edit] Death and legacy

Although it is thought by many that Ivan died while setting up a chess board, it is more likely that he died while playing chess with Bogdan Belsky on March 18, 1584. When Ivan's tomb was opened during renovations in the 1960s, his remains were examined and discovered to contain very high amounts of mercury, indicating a high probability that he was poisoned. Modern suspicion falls on his advisors Belsky and Boris Godunov (who became tsar in 1598). Three days earlier, Ivan had allegedly attempted to rape Irina, Godunov's sister and Feodor's wife. Her cries attracted Godunov and Belsky to the noise, whereupon Ivan let Irina go, but Belsky and Godunov considered themselves marked for death. The tradition says that they either poisoned or strangled Ivan in fear for their own lives. The mercury found in Ivan's remains may also be related to treatment for syphilis, which it is speculated that Ivan had. Upon Ivan's death, the ravaged kingdom was left to his unfit and childless son Feodor.

[edit] Epistles

D.S. Mirsky called Ivan "a pamphleteer of genius". The epistles attributed to him are the masterpieces of old Russian (perhaps all Russian) political journalism. They may be too full of texts from the Scriptures and the Fathers, and their Church Slavonic is not always correct. But they are full of cruel irony, expressed in pointedly forcible terms.

The shameless bully and the great polemicist are seen together in a flash when he taunts runaway Kurbsky with the question: "If you are so sure of your righteousness, why did you run away and not prefer martyrdom at my hands?" Such strokes were well calculated to drive his correspondent into a rage. "The part of the cruel tyrant elaborately upbraiding an escaped victim while he continues torturing those in his reach may be detestable, but Ivan plays it with truly Shakespearian breadth of imagination".^[5].

Besides his letters to Kurbsky he wrote other satirical invectives to men in his power. The best is his letter to the abbot of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, where he pours out all the poison of his grim irony on the unascetic life of the boyars, shorn monks, and those exiled by his order. His picture of their luxurious life in the citadel of ascetism is a masterpiece of trenchant sarcasm.

[edit] Sobriquet

The English word terrible is usually used to translate the Russian word grozny (similar to the city name Grozny) in Ivan's nickname, but the modern English usage of terrible, with a pejorative connotation of bad or evil, does not precisely represent the intended meaning. Grozny's meaning is closer to the original usage of terrible—inspiring fear or terror, dangerous (as in Old English in one's danger), formidable, threatening, or awesome. Perhaps a translation closer to the intended sense would be Ivan the Fearsome, or 'Ivan the Dreadful'. The Russian people gave Ivan this nickname after he seized Kazan.

[edit] Ancestors

Ivan's ancestors in three generations

Ivan IV of Russia	Father: Vasili III of Russia	Paternal Grandfather: Ivan III of Russia	Paternal Great-grandfather: Vasili II of Russia
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Maria of Borovsk
		Paternal Grandmother: Sophia Paleologue	Paternal Great-grandfather: Thomas Palaiologos
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Catherine Zaccaria of Achaea
	Mother: Elena Glinskaya	Maternal Grandfather: Prince Vasili Lvovich Glinsky	Maternal Great-grandfather:
			Maternal Great-grandmother:
		Maternal Grandmother: Princess Anna of Serbia	Maternal Great-grandfather:
			Maternal Great-grandmother:

Preceded by Vasili III	Grand Prince of Moscow 1533–1547	Succeeded by became Tsar
Preceded by None	Tsar of Russia 1547–1584	Succeeded by Feodor I

[edit] The Image of Ivan IV in Russian Folklore

The image created of Ivan IV throughout Russian folklore is a direct contrast to that which is typically painted of him and his rule by historians. As folklorist Jack V. Haney claims, the tales “about Ivan IV, known as the Terrible, are especially interesting in that they portray the first Orthodox Tsar of All Russia in quite a different light than historians do”.^[6] By studying a variety of folktales about Ivan the Terrible, we can see that, in general, the overall image of this tsar is a positive one. Maureen Perrie states that “in so far as he is the friend of the common people, and the enemy of the boyars, he (Ivan IV) is seen as a ‘good tsar’”.^[7] By creating the tsar to be either a friend of the commoners or an enemy to the boyar, a positive image of Ivan IV is represented through the particular folktale.

Primarily, throughout folktales, the tsar is typically described as an “ally and protector of the ordinary people against their common enemies, and especially the boyars”.^[8] One example of a folktale in which the tsar befriends the commoner can be found in Samuel Collins’ recording.^[9] In this story, a friendship develops between a disguised Ivan and a thief. Eventually the thief asks the tsar if he wants to go robbing with him and the tsar agrees. After they had robbed from a few shops in the marketplace, the tsar wanted to test his new friend’s loyalty and suggests that they rob the treasury.^[10] At this suggestion, the thief slaps the tsar saying that ‘I’ve been thieving for ages, but I’ve never dreamt of robbing the tsar!”.^[11] The story continues that the thief suggests that instead of robbing the tsar, the two should rob the boyars because “they get their money for nothing”.^[12] For his faithfulness and respect for the tsar, Ivan rewards the young man by asking him to become his counselor.^[13]

This tale exemplifies a story in which the tsar befriends a common peasant. Collins’ tale also provides us evidence that the folklore regarding Ivan the Terrible often shows him heroically allying with those of the lower classes against the sly and devious middle and upper class citizens.^[14] By agreeing to help the thief rob the boyar, the tsar is ultimately legitimizing the thief’s actions.^[15] Continually, Maureen Perrie justifies the formation of the friendship between the tsar and the thief because “the tsar endorses the values and attitudes of the representative of the people, and demonstrates that he has more in common with them than with the boyars”.^[16] Consequently, the image depicted of Ivan is not one in which he is a “meaningless, bloodletting” ruler, but rather he is kind and compassionate towards his lower subjects.^[17]

The second way a positive image of Ivan was created though folklore can be found by looking at examples that show Ivan was “an enemy of the boyar”.^[18] Through tales such as the “The Potter,” we see how the tsar was often depicted as siding with the commoner against the boyars and other aristocratic individuals. Throughout “The Potter” a friendship develops between Ivan and a common potter. The tsar is attracted to the potter because of his ability to answer riddles. Because the tsar is impressed by his quick wittedness, he vows that, “if you (referring to the potter) stick to me, and I’ll stick to you”.^[19] Consequently, the tsar helps this potter create a monopoly against the other boyars over the pottery sales in Russia. When an un- expecting boyar is unable to pay for the merchandise he ordered, the tsar punishes him by making the boyar switch social roles with the potter.^[20]

Through this story we see that a friendship between the tsar and the potter develops out of the mutual dislike of the boyars. We are also provided with evidence that the tsar is more willing to help the common potter than he is the boyar. In addition, the tsar is attracted to the potter’s quick wittedness and consequently he was more willing to help the witty man from the lower social classes than he was the “stupid” middle- upper class boyars.^[21] Finally, this story is an example of Haney’s claim that through many folktales, Ivan is depicted as a “resolute but compassionate and an enlightened ruler, anxious to protect the peasants from the landowners, and he goes to some extraordinary lengths to do so”.^[22]

As the above examples of folklore show, a positive image of Ivan the Terrible can be found whenever a folktale has Ivan either a friend to a common peasant or an enemy to the boyar. There are a few reasons that folklorists provide us with that explain why this positive image of Ivan IV was created throughout Russian folklore. One valid reason is that the common people did not see the Ivan’s actions as negative- he was simply doing his job as the tsar.^[23] They believed that it was the tsar’s responsibility to protect his country, and he should do whatever it takes to accomplish that obligation.^[24] Unfortunately, these people were blinded by their own naïve instincts, and were able to overlook the tyrannical actions of Ivan IV.

In addition, because the tsar was seen as their only benefactor, the peasants often would not like to ridicule or satirize the tsar because they feared upsetting him. They hoped to create and tell stories about Ivan IV that would be pleasing to him, which would be build a better relationship between the tsar and the “commoners.” In addition, these stories also created the “ideal tsar” that many Russians hoped would run their country someday. Ivan IV was, for many of the peasants, was the only figure of authority they knew and they did not know any other type of ruling. Consequently, the folklore “represents an artistic response to a historical event or character, and, in the case of a historical figure such as Ivan”.^[25] The stories regarding Ivan the Terrible were subjected to the tellers’ interpretations and opinion regarding him and his practices, and the folklore’s image of Ivan IV describes the ruler that so many Russians had hoped Ivan would become.

[edit] See also

• Ivan the Terrible - the film by Sergei Eisenstein.
• Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future - the film by Leonid Gaidai
• Ivan Basso - a bicycle racer whose nickname is "Ivan the Terrible"

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Russian chronicles record about forty attacks of Kazan Khans on the Russian territories (mainly the regions of Nizhniy Novgorod, Murom, Vyatka, Vladimir, Kostroma, and Galich) in the first half of the 16th century. In 1521, the combined forces of Khan Muhamed Giray and his Crimean allies attacked Russia and captured more than 150,000 slaves. The Full Collection of the Russian Annals, vol.13, SPb, 1904
2. ^ R.Skrynnikov, "Ivan Grosny", M., AST, 2001
3. ^ According to the Third Novgorod Chronicle, the massacre lasted for five weeks. Almost every day 500 or 600 people were killed or drowned. The First Pskov Chronicle estimates the number of victims at 60,000. These sources are not impartial, however.
4. ^ Having investigated the report of Maljuta Skuratov and commemoration lists (sinodiki), R. Skrynnikov considers, that the number of victims was 2,000-3,000. (Skrynnikov R. G., "Ivan Grosny", M., AST, 2001)
5. ^ D.S. Mirsky. A History of Russian Literature. Northwestern University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8101-1679-0. Page 21.
6. ^ Haney, Jack V. An Introduction to the Russian Folktale. The Complete Russian Folktale. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1999. pg 9.
7. ^ Perrie, Maureen. The Image of Ivan the Terrible in Russian Folklore. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. pg 65
8. ^ Perrie, Maureen. The Image of Ivan the Terrible in Russian Folklore. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. pg 47
9. ^ Perrie, Maureen. Folklore as Evidence of Peasant Mentalite: Social Attitudes and Values in Russian Popular Culture. The Russian Review. Vol. 48. 1989. pg 133.
10. ^ Perrie, Maureen. Folklore as Evidence of Peasant Mentalite: Social Attitudes and Values in Russian Popular Culture. The Russian Review. Vol. 48. 1989. pg 133.
11. ^ Perrie, Maureen. Folklore as Evidence of Peasant Mentalite: Social Attitudes and Values in Russian Popular Culture. The Russian Review. Vol. 48. 1989. pg 133.
12. ^ Perrie, Maureen. Folklore as Evidence of Peasant Mentalite: Social Attitudes and Values in Russian Popular Culture. The Russian Review. Vol. 48. 1989. pg 133.
13. ^ Perrie, Maureen. Folklore as Evidence of Peasant Mentalite: Social Attitudes and Values in Russian Popular Culture. The Russian Review. Vol. 48. 1989. pg 133.
14. ^ Perrie, Maureen. The Image of Ivan the Terrible in Russian Folklore. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. pg 47
15. ^ Perrie, Maureen. Folklore as Evidence of Peasant Mentalite: Social Attitudes and Values in Russian Popular Culture. The Russian Review. Vol. 48. 1989. pg 133.
16. ^ Perrie, Maureen. The Image of Ivan the Terrible in Russian Folklore. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. pg 35.
17. ^ Perrie, Maureen. The Image of Ivan the Terrible in Russian Folklore. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. pg 7
18. ^ Perrie, Maureen. The Image of Ivan the Terrible in Russian Folklore. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. pg 65
19. ^ Afanas'ev, Aleksandr. "The Potter." Russian Fairy Tales. Trans. Norbert Guterman. New York: Pantheon Books, 1945. pg 208.
20. ^ Afanas'ev, Aleksandr. "The Potter." Russian Fairy Tales. Trans. Norbert Guterman. New York: Pantheon Books, 1945. pg 208.
21. ^ Perrie, Maureen. The Image of Ivan the Terrible in Russian Folklore. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. pg 45.
22. ^ Haney, Jack V. An Introduction to the Russian Folktale. The Complete Russian Folktale. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1999. pg 9.
23. ^ Perrie, Maureen. The Image of Ivan the Terrible in Russian Folklore. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. pg 10.
24. ^ Perrie, Maureen. The Image of Ivan the Terrible in Russian Folklore. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. pg 10.
25. ^ Perrie, Maureen. The Image of Ivan the Terrible in Russian Folklore. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. pg 88.

[edit] References

• Bobrick, Benson. Ivan the Terrible. Edinburgh: Canongate Books, 1990 (hardcover, ISBN 0-86241-288-9).
• Madariaga, Isabel de. Ivan the Terrible. First Tsar of Russia. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2005 (hardcover, ISBN 0-300-09757-3); 2006 (paperback, ISBN 0-300-11973-9).
• Payne, Robert; Romanoff, Nikita. Ivan the Terrible. Lanham, MD: Cooper Square Press, 2002 (paperback, ISBN 0-8154-1229-0).
• Troyat, Henri. Ivan the Terrible. New York: Buccaneer Books, 1988 (hardcover, ISBN 0-88029-207-5); London: Phoenix Press, 2001 (paperback, ISBN 1-84212-419-6).
• Ivan IV, World Book Inc, 2000. World Book Encyclopedia.

[edit] Further reading

• Cherniavsky, Michael. "Ivan the Terrible as Renaissance Prince", Slavic Review, Vol. 27, No. 2. (Jun., 1968), pp. 195–211.
• Hunt, Priscilla. "Ivan IV's Personal Mythology of Kingship", Slavic Review, Vol. 52, No. 4. (Winter, 1993), pp. 769–809.
• Perrie, Maureen. The Image of Ivan the Terrible in Russian Folklore (Cambridge Studies in Oral and Literate Culture; 14). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987 (hardcover, ISBN 0-521-33075-0); 2002 (paperback, ISBN 0-521-89100-0).
• Perrie, Maureen. The Cult of Ivan the Terrible in Stalin's Russia (Studies in Russian and Eastern European History and Society) . New York: Palgrave, 2001 (hardcopy, ISBN 0-333-65684-9).
• Perrie, Maureen; Pavlov, Andrei. Ivan the Terrible (Profiles in Power). Harlow, UK: Longman, 2003 (paperback, ISBN 0-582-09948-X).
• Platt, Kevin M.F.; Brandenberger, David. "Terribly Romantic, Terribly Progressive, or Terribly Tragic: Rehabilitating Ivan IV under I.V. Stalin", Russian Review, Vol. 58, No. 4. (Oct., 1999), pp. 635–654.

[edit] External links

• BBC History page - Ivan the Terrible
• "Mad Monarchs" - Ivan IV
• The ancestors tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich the Terrible (in the Russian languages)