Ivan IV of Russia

::Ivan the Terrible links here. For other uses, see Ivan the Terrible (disambiguation).

Early reign

Ivan was a long-awaited son of Vasily III. He formally came to the throne at age of three, but his minority was dominated by the strong personality of his mother Elena Glinskaya. According to his own letters, Ivan customarily felt neglected and offended by the mighty boyars from the Shuisky and Belsky families. In one letter he painfully recalls an episode when one drunken boyar put his dirty boots on Ivan's bed. These traumatic experiences doubtlessly contributed to his hatred for the boyars and psychopathic character in general.

Related Topics:
Vasily III - Elena Glinskaya - Boyars - Shuisky - Belsky

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Ivan was crowned tsar with Monomakh's Cap at the Cathedral of the Dormition at age sixteen on January 16 1547. The early part of his reign was one of peaceful reforms and modernization. Ivan revised the law code, created a standing army, established the Zemsky Sobor, the council of the nobles, and subordinated the church to the state, making a system of rituals and regulations. 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 Grand Duchy of Lithuania).

Related Topics:
Monomakh's Cap - Cathedral of the Dormition - January 16 - 1547 - Zemsky Sobor - Printing press - Ivan Fedorov - Pyotr Mstislavets - Grand Duchy of Lithuania

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Ivan formed new trading connections, opening up the White Sea and the port of Archangel to the Muscovy Company of English merchants. He also annexed the Kazan and Astrakhan Khanates to the east, thus transforming 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.

Related Topics:
White Sea - Archangel - Muscovy Company - English - Kazan - Astrakhan - Khanate - St. Basil's Cathedral - Moscow

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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 nigh-fatal illness in 1553 and the death of his first wife, Anastasia Romanovna. Ivan suspected boyars of poisoning his wife and of plotting to replace him on the throne with his cousin, Vladimir of Staritsa. There followed brutal reprisals and mass murders of innocent people, including Metropolitan Philip and Prince Alexander Gorbatyi-Shuisky.

Related Topics:
Peasant - Serf - 1553 - Anastasia Romanovna - Vladimir of Staritsa - Metropolitan Philip - Alexander Gorbatyi-Shuisky

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Also problematic was the 1564 formation of the Oprichnina (or Ochrana (??????), meaning security). The Oprichnina was the section of Russia directly ruled by Ivan and policed by his personal servicemen, the Oprichniks. 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.

Related Topics:
1564 - Oprichnina - Oprichnik - Boyar - Paranoia

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