Birth name : Ivan IV Vasilievich Date of birth : August 25, 1530. Place of birth : Kolomenskoye, Moscow district, Date of death : March 18 (28), 1584. Genus : Rurikovich Children : sons: Dmitry, Ivan, Fedor, Vasily, Dmitry Uglitsky daughters: Anna, Maria, Evdokia
Ivan the Terrible is a Russian Tsar, who at baptism was named Titus-Smaragd-John Vasilyevich Rurik. He is deservedly considered the most controversial historical figure in Russian history. Many historians have ambivalent assessments of his activities. Some scientists are sure that the king was pious and may be canonized. Others consider Ivan a tyrant and executioner who disdained Orthodox shrines and blasphemed God.
The reign of Ivan the Terrible is associated with numerous executions, violence, and the appearance of guardsmen. On the other hand, it was then that the Principality of Moscow reached the pinnacle of its development and received a high status. Reforms were constantly carried out then. They helped the state become invincible and powerful. The Tsar doubled the size of the country - from 2.80 to 5.40 million square meters. km. The principality became larger than all the countries of Europe combined.
Childhood
Ivan the Terrible was born on August 25, 1530 in the small village of Kolomenskoye, which was located near Moscow. The father was Vasily the Third, the mother was Elena Glinskaya. Ivan is the eldest among the other sons, and therefore received the right to inherit the throne. However, they did not have to wait too long, since the father died when the legal heir reached the age of 3. Five years later, Ivan’s mother, the Lithuanian princess Elena, died. At the age of 8, the boy was orphaned.
During Ivan's childhood, palace coups, violence, and battles for power constantly occurred. It was precisely this situation that caused the young king’s cruel behavior. The trustees paid virtually no attention to the legitimate heir to the Russian throne. He had to be content with a small amount of food. Then the makings of a despotic character began to appear. At first, Ivan the Terrible took out his aggression on animals, then on his subjects.
When Ivan the Terrible was a minor, the rulers were the princes Belsky and Shuisky and relatives on his mother's side. They sold off state property. The sabotage became obvious even to the heir to the throne.
The guardians first saw the willful nature of the heir in 1543, when he ordered the murder of Andrei Shuisky. Then those close to him began to fear the future ruler. Basically, the state was ruled by the Glinskys. They gradually gained Ivan's trust and supported his behavior. Despite the developing situation at court, Ivan the Terrible studied various sciences and was fond of reading. Then Ivan decided practically nothing. This contributed to the formation of hatred towards the environment and the desire to seize power at any cost.
The long-awaited firstborn
Elena Glinskaya came from a Lithuanian-Russian family with Serbian and Tatar roots. Mother - Anna Stefanovna, daughter of the Serbian governor Stefan Jakšić. Father - Prince Vasily Lvovich Glinsky. In 1508, in response to the betrayal of Prince Mikhail Lvovich, who during the Russian-Lithuanian War went over to the side of Moscow, the Glinskys were expelled and, with the permission of Vasily III, settled in Russia; they were granted the cities of Yaroslavets and Borovsk.
At 18, Elena married 48-year-old Vasily III. This was already the second marriage of the Grand Duke. And completely unnecessary in the eyes of the well-born Moscow boyars: Elena was considered “rootless”, and besides, her uncle Mikhail Glinsky was in prison for treason. But this did not stop Vasily, who married “for the beauty of her face and the good looks of her age, and especially for the sake of chastity.” Elena was truly beautiful - big eyes, a thin straight nose, a beautiful curve of thin lips, a high forehead. Tall, red-haired... Despite her youth, she was well educated and well-mannered, knew German and Polish perfectly, spoke and wrote Latin. And besides, she had a cheerful disposition. With all this, Elena stood out clearly against the background of the wives of the Moscow boyars, for which she was unloved by the latter.
Vasily was also in love and happy. To please the bride, he even shaved off his beard and changed the traditional royal clothes to the Polish kuntush, fashionable in Europe. The outfit was completed with red boots with curved toes. It is worth emphasizing: at the beginning of the 16th century, such an act was considered immoral and reckless...
But the couple had to wait a long time for their first child. Elena could not get pregnant; for two years the tsar visited Russian monasteries, giving alms and praying for childbirth. The long-awaited son was born on August 25, 1530. At the hour of the birth of the heir to the throne, according to the chroniclers, there was a severe thunderstorm, nature went berserk...
Ten days later the baby was baptized at the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. The boy was named John, in honor of John the Baptist.
Beginning of reign
Ivan reached adulthood in 1545 and ascended the throne.
His first decision was the sacred coronation. He began to single-handedly rule the country and observe Orthodox traditions. Thanks to the presence of the royal title, Ivan's reign had a favorable impact on the foreign policy of the Moscow principality. The state has risen in the eyes of Western European countries. The country soon became a leader among other European countries - and in several respects at once. After the arrival of the young king, large-scale reforms began. They were approved by the Select Board. Russia began to gradually transition to autocracy. Power was concentrated in the hands of just one ruler. Grozny devoted the next decade to global reform. The tsar laid the foundation for the zemstvo reform and established a new code of laws - the legislative code of that time. Life for the lower class became significantly more difficult. The powers of the governors were distributed.
In 1550, Ivan the Terrible allocated land holdings located 70 kilometers from Moscow to the best thousand Moscow nobles. It was then that the Streltsy army appeared. The soldiers were armed with firearms. Peasants often fell into serfdom. European merchants were prohibited from entering the state.
In terms of foreign policy, Ivan the Terrible often fought successful wars. He personally commanded the army. Inspired warriors quickly occupied Kazan and Astrakhan. Soon the Siberian lands became part of the Russian state. In 1553, Grozny began to establish trade relations with Great Britain. In 1558 he began to fight against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. However, instead of victory there was defeat. The Russian state lost part of its lands.
After the crushing defeat, the king tried to find those responsible and stopped cooperating with the Elected Council. He decided to transfer the country to autocracy. Large-scale repressions and executions began. Persecution extended to all those who disagreed with the ruler's policies.
Oprichnina
The 2nd stage of the king's reign was marked by cruelty and bloodiness.
Thus, in 1565, an additional form of government appeared in the state, dividing it into zemshchina and oprichnina. The guardsmen supported the monarch in all his endeavors. They stopped communicating with the zemstvo people. They gave almost all their income to the sovereign. The oprichnina had a great army, which was located on estates. The ruler gave him complete freedom of action. The guardsmen were engaged in robbery and robbery. When the boyars began to show resistance, they were executed. In 1571, the Russian state faced an attack from the Crimean Khan named Devlet-Girey. The guardsmen, praised by the ruler, were unable to give a worthy rebuff to the enemy, because they were too spoiled and refused to fight. The warriors did not take part in the battles. Despite the fact that the sovereign managed to assemble one regiment, such a number of soldiers was clearly not enough against the Khan’s army. The result was the widespread abolition of the oprichnina. The repressions stopped. Over time, lists of people executed by the guardsmen were compiled. All monasteries began to pray for the repose of the souls of the murdered.
The reign of Ivan the Terrible ended with the complete collapse of the country's economy. In addition, under the sovereign, the Livonian War, which was considered the main business of the ruler’s life, was lost. Ivan Vasilyevich gradually realized that his reign had caused significant damage to the state. All that remained for the Terrible was to repent before God. It was then that the Russian monarch began to have attacks of uncontrollable aggression. During the next attack, Ivan the Terrible killed the only heir to the throne - his son Ivan Ivanovich. After the murder, Grozny planned to spend the rest of his life in a monastery.
Personal life of Ivan the Terrible
As for the personal life of the odious ruler, it was not easy.
Historians say that Ivan the Terrible married 7 times. The first wedding took place in 1574. Anastasia Zakharyina-Yuryeva became the tsar’s chosen one. During family life, 6 children were born. Only 2 of them survived - Fedor and Ivan. In 1560, the wife died. The Tsar married Maria Cherkasskaya, the daughter of a Kabardian prince. Maria gave birth to her only son, who lived only 1 month. Grozny was disappointed in his wife. She died 8 years after the birth of her first child.
The third wife of the ruler was Maria Sobakina, the daughter of a nobleman from the village of Kolomenskoye. The wedding took place in 1571. 15 days after this solemn event, Maria died. The true cause of the woman's death is still unknown.
Six months later, the tsar married again - to Anna Koltovskaya. There were no children in the marriage. 1 year after the wedding, the royal wife ended up in a monastery, where she died as a result.
The fifth wife of Ivan the Terrible, named Maria Dolgorukaya, is known for her sad fate. The ruler drowned the girl in a pond after the first night, when he learned that she had lost her virginity before marriage.
In 1575 the king married again. This time Anna Vasilchikova became the wife. She remained queen for a relatively short time. Ivan the Terrible forcibly exiled his wife to a monastery for treason.
The last, seventh wife of the sovereign, was Maria Nagaya. According to surviving written evidence, the wedding took place in 1580. In 1582, the wife gave birth to the heir to the throne, Dmitry. After the death of Ivan Vasilyevich, the new tsar exiled Maria to the city of Uglich. There he forced her to become a monk. In Russian history, she became known as the mother of False Dmitry, whose reign was marked by the beginning of the Time of Troubles in the state.
Biography of Ivan IV the Terrible
On January 16, 1547, Ivan IV was crowned king in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin.
This act was of great international significance, since it expressed the right of the Russian state to one of the first places among the states of Europe.
In 1562, the royal dignity was confirmed for the Russian Tsar by the Patriarch of Constantinople on behalf of himself and the Council of Constantinople.
Ivan the Terrible’s active participation in state activities began with the creation of a kind of council from among his like-minded people, the so-called Chosen Rada - the de facto government of the Russian state.
In 1549-1560, he carried out reforms in the field of central and local government (the most important orders were drawn up, the system of “feeding” was eliminated), law (a national code was drawn up - Sudebnik), the army (localism was limited, the foundations of the Streltsy army were created, guard service was established at the borders of the Russian state, artillery was allocated as an independent branch of the military, the first military charter appeared - “Boyar sentence on stanitsa and guard service”), etc. After the fall of the Elected Rada (1560), he single-handedly pursued a line to strengthen autocratic power.
Struggling with the power and influence of the boyars, as well as with the remnants of feudal fragmentation in the country, Ivan IV in 1565 introduced a special form of government - the oprichnina - a system of repressive measures against the boyars, aimed at strengthening the sole power of the tsar. The main methods of dealing with political opponents were executions, exile, and confiscation of land.
A major event of the oprichnina was the Novgorod pogrom in January-February 1570, the reason for which was the suspicion of Novgorod’s desire to go over to Lithuania. The Tsar personally led the campaign, during which all the cities along the road from Moscow to Novgorod were plundered.
From the bloody massacres and mass repressions of Ivan IV, both his political opponents and tens of thousands of peasants, serfs, and townspeople died. During one of his outbursts in 1582, he fatally beat his son Ivan. Among the people, Ivan IV received the nickname “The Terrible,” which reflected the idea of him as a tyrant king.
A characteristic feature of Ivan IV's social policy was the strengthening of serfdom (the abolition of St. George's Day and the introduction of reserved years).
In foreign policy, he pursued a course to bring to the end the struggle with the successors of the Golden Horde, expanding the territory of the state to the east and mastering the shores of the Baltic Sea to the west. As a result of the military campaigns of Ivan IV in 1547-1552, the Kazan Khanate was annexed, in 1556 - the Astrakhan Khanate; The Siberian Khan Edigei (1555) and the Great Nogai Horde (1557) became dependent on the Russian Tsar. However, the Livonian War (1558-1583) ended with the loss of part of the Russian lands and did not solve the main problem - access to the Baltic Sea. The tsar fought the invasions of the Crimean Khanate with varying degrees of success.
As a commander, Ivan IV was distinguished by the courage of his strategic plans and determination; he personally led troops in the Kazan campaigns, the campaign against Polotsk (1563), and the Livonian campaigns (1572 and 1577). In the fight for fortresses, he widely used artillery and engineering (mine-blasting) means.
Ivan IV developed political and trade relations with England, the Netherlands, the Kakheti Kingdom, the Bukhara Khanate, Kabarda, etc.
The tsar was one of the most educated people of his time, possessed a phenomenal memory and theological erudition. He is the author of numerous messages (including to Prince Andrei Kurbsky), music and text for the service of the feast of Our Lady of Vladimir, and the canon to Archangel Michael. Ivan the Terrible contributed to the organization of book printing in Moscow and the construction of St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square. Supported chronicle writing.
Ivan IV the Terrible died in Moscow on March 18, 1584. He was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.
Ivan the Terrible was married several times. Not counting the children who died in infancy, he had three sons. From his first marriage to Anastasia Zakharyina-Yuryeva, two sons were born, Ivan and Fedor. According to one version, the tsar accidentally killed Ivan’s eldest son and heir, hitting him in the temple with a staff with an iron tip. The second son, Fyodor, who was distinguished by illness, weakness and mental inferiority, became king after the death of Ivan the Terrible. The tsar's third son, Dmitry Ivanovich, born in his last marriage to Maria Naga, died in 1591 in Uglich. Since Fedor died childless, the reign of the Rurik dynasty ended with his death.
(Military Encyclopedia. Chairman of the Main Editorial Commission S.B. Ivanov. Military Publishing House. Moscow. in 8 volumes - 2004)
The material was prepared based on information from open sources
Death
The date of death of Ivan the Terrible is March 28, 1584. This happened during a game of chess. It is believed that death was caused by overgrown osteophytes, which made the ruler inactive. In addition to a serious illness, death could be caused by an unhealthy lifestyle and constant nervous shock. At the time of his death, Ivan Vasilyevich was 53 years old. Despite his relatively young age, he looked like an old man.
The ruler was buried next to his son, Ivan. The final resting place was the Archangel Cathedral near the Moscow Kremlin. Immediately after the king’s burial, speculation began to appear that his death was due to poisoning. There was an assumption among the people that the poisoner was Boris Godunov, who ascended the Russian throne after Fyodor Ivanovich.
The widespread version of the poisoning of the Tsar was considered by historians until 1963, when the tomb of Ivan the Terrible was opened. Studies have shown the absence of arsenic in the remains of the sovereign. After this, the version of the violent death event ceased to be discussed by scientists. The death of Ivan Vasilyevich marked the end of the Rurik dynasty. Time of Troubles began in the Russian state.
Milli Firka
In 2011, the oldest city in Mordovia, Temnikov, will turn 475 years old. This event is an important milestone in the history of the unity of the Russian and Mordovian peoples. Three years ago, the Temnikovsky lay assembly proposed to perpetuate the memory of the city’s founder, Grand Duchess Elena Glinskaya, who died in 1538 at the age of 30. Criminal anthropologists not only recreated her appearance, but also established the cause of her early death and refuted accusations of adultery.
“Plague for the sake of her face...”
The Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III chose his first wife, Solomonia Saburova, from one and a half thousand noble and boyar daughter-brides. However, the marriage was childless; after 20 years of marriage, Vasily III imprisoned his wife in a monastery. Vasily III chose his second wife “for the beauty of her face and the beauty of her age, and especially for the sake of chastity.” She became Princess Elena Vasilievna Glinskaya, who was not distinguished by great nobility: her ancestors descended from Khan Mamai.
Wanting to please the European-bred Elena, the 45-year-old Grand Duke began to shave and changed his traditional Moscow attire for a fashionable Polish kuntush and red morocco boots with turned-up toes. Contemporaries considered this a violation of centuries-old Russian traditions and blamed the new wife for this.
The heir, the future Tsar of All Rus' Ivan IV the Terrible, was born only four years after the wedding - on August 25, 1530. In November 1531, the second son, Yuri, was born, sickly and weak-minded. There were rumors in Moscow: both children were not the children of the Grand Duke, but of Elena’s “heartfelt friend,” boyar Ivan Ovchina-Telepnev-Obolensky.
In 1533, Vasily III died. His last will was to transfer the throne to his son, and he ordered “his wife Olena with the boyar council” to “keep the state under her son” Ivan until he matures. Thus, real power in the state was in the hands of the young regent Elena Glinskaya.
Great Regent
Her five-year reign (1533-1538) was a continuous series of rebellions among various princely-boyar groups. The victim of this struggle was herself, her favorite - Ovchina-Telepnev-Obolensky and her son Yuri. However, not every king was able to do what Elena Glinskaya did during the years of regency over decades.
In 1535, she carried out a monetary reform that deprived appanage princes of the right to mint their own coins. A unified monetary system emerged, based on a silver ruble equal to 100 kopecks. “Kopeyka” - a coin with the image of a horseman with a spear in his hand - appeared under Elena Glinskaya.
The Lithuanian sovereign Sigismund was deceived in his calculations for the turmoil and impotence of a state led by a woman. In 1534 he started and lost a war against the Russian state. Glinskaya gave the order to build cities on the western Lithuanian borders, southern ones - from the Crimean Tatars, eastern ones - from the Kazan Tatars. Thanks to this order, in 1536 Temnikov was moved from the left bank of the Moksha to the right: “... because the old city was small and not strong and the Grand Duchess ordered it to be added and a new one to be built...”.
Scientists have established: Elena Glinskaya was faithful to the Tsar
In the 90s of the last century, a study began of the female necropolis of the grand-ducal family preserved in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, which makes it possible to discover many secrets of their life and fate, to restore the seemingly forever lost appearance of medieval women. Sergei Nikitin, a student of the famous anthropologist Mikhail Gerasimov, recreated, among others, the appearance of Elena Glinskaya. She was a tall, slender red-haired beauty. And not only this is important for us. “There are studies of her hair, bone structure, clothing remains, and a huge amount of mercury salts have been found everywhere. Poisoning is 100%,” said Sergei Nikitin.
Nikitin also refuted the version of Elena Glinskaya’s adultery. He took a copy of the skull of Ivan the Terrible and the skull of his grandmother, the niece of the last Emperor of Constantinople, Sophia Paleologus, and compared it using shadow photo overlay. The study of two reconstructed portraits made it possible to assert that Ivan the Terrible inherited the features of his appearance from his grandmother, the Greek Sophia Paleolog. This means that Ovchina-Telepnev-Obolensky has nothing to do with the paternity of Ivan the Terrible.
Justice was restored by Alexander SAZONKIN
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