Ivan IV Vasilyevich (; 25 August 1530), commonly known as Ivan the Terrible, was Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1533 to 1547 and the first Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia from 1547 until his death in 1584. Ivan's reign was characterised by Russia's transformation from a medieval state to a fledgling empire, but at an immense cost to its people and long-term economy.
Ivan IV was the eldest son of Vasili III by his second wife Elena Glinskaya, and a grandson of Ivan III. He succeeded his father after his death, when he was three years old. A group of reformers united around the young Ivan, crowning him as tsar in 1547 at the age of 16. In the early years of his reign, Ivan ruled with the group of reformers known as the Chosen Council and established the Zemsky Sobor, a new assembly convened by the tsar. He also revised the legal code and introduced reforms, including elements of local self-government, as well as establishing the first Russian standing army, the streltsy. Ivan conquered the khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan, bringing the entire length of the Volga River under Russian control.
After he had consolidated his power, Ivan rid himself of the advisers from the Chosen Council. In an effort to establish a stronghold in the Baltic Sea, he triggered the Livonian War of 1558 to 1583. The war ravaged Russia and resulted in failure to take control over Livonia and the loss of Ingria, but allowed Ivan to establish greater autocratic control over the Russian nobility. He conducted a violent purge using Russia's first political police, the oprichniki. The later years of Ivan's reign were marked by the massacre of Novgorod by the oprichniki and the burning of Moscow by the Crimean Tatars. Ivan also pursued cultural improvements, such as importing the first printing press to Russia, and began several processes that would continue for centuries, including deepening connections with other European states, particularly England, fighting wars against the Ottoman Empire, and the conquest of Siberia.
Contemporary sources present disparate accounts of Ivan's complex personality. He was described as intelligent and devout, but also prone to paranoia, rage, and episodic outbreaks of mental instability that worsened with age.Shvidkovskiĭ, Dmitriĭ Olegovich (2007) Russian Architecture and the West. Yale University Press. p. 147. .Yanov, p. 208Del Testa, David W. (2001) Government Leaders, Military Rulers and Political Activists. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 91. Historians generally believe that in a fit of anger, he murdered his eldest son and heir, Ivan Ivanovich; he might also have caused the miscarriage of the latter's unborn child. This left his younger son, the politically ineffectual Feodor Ivanovich, to inherit the throne, a man whose rule and subsequent childless death led to the end of the Rurik dynasty and the beginning of the Time of Troubles.
Epithet The English word terrible is usually used to translate the Russian word () in Ivan's epithet, but this is a somewhat archaic translation. The Russian word reflects the older English usage of terrible as in "inspiring fear or terror; dangerous; powerful" (i.e., similar to modern English terrifying or formidable). It does not convey the more modern connotations of English terrible such as "defective" or "evil". According to Edward L. Keenan, Ivan the Terrible's image in popular culture as a tyrant came from politicised Western travel literature of the Renaissance era. Anti-Russian propaganda during the Livonian War portrayed Ivan as a sadistic and oriental despot. Vladimir Dal defines specifically in archaic usage and as an epithet for tsars: "courageous, magnificent, magisterial and keeping enemies in fear, but people in obedience".Dal, Vladimir, Explanatory Dictionary of the Live Great Russian language, article ГРОЗИТЬ. Available in many editions as well as online, for example at slovardalja.net Other translations have also been suggested by modern scholars, including formidable,McConnell, Frank D. (1979). Storytelling and Mythmaking: Images from Film and Literature. Oxford University Press. ; p. 78: "But Ivan IV, Ivan the Terrible, or as the Russian has it, Ivan groznyi, 'Ivan the Magnificent' or 'Ivan the Great' is precisely a man who has become a legend". as well as awe-inspiring.
There is no evidence of being used as an epithet for Ivan during his own lifetime. According to Keenan, it only began to be used in reference to him in the 18th century. One of the first historians to use this epithet for him was Vasily Tatishchev, however, the epithet gained popularity with the writings of the historian Nikolay Karamzin.
Early life
Ivan Vasilyevich was the first son of Vasili III by his second wife, Elena Glinskaya. Vasili's mother, Sophia Palaiologina, was a Byzantine princess of the Palaiologos family. She was a daughter of Thomas Palaiologos, the younger brother of the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos (). Elena's mother was a Serbian princess and her father's family, the Tatar Glinski clan (nobles based in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania), claimed descent both from Orthodox Hungarian nobles and the Mongol ruler Mamai (1335–1380).Francis Carr, Ivan the Terrible, David & Charles Publishers (1981), p. 61Walter G. Moss, A History of Russia : To 1917, Volume 1, Anthem Press (2003), p. 130 Born on 25 August 1530, he received the name Ivan in honor of St. John the Baptist, the day of whose beheading falls on 29 August. In some texts of that era, it is also occasionally mentioned with the names Titus and Smaragd, in accordance with the tradition of polyonymy among the Rurikids. He was baptized in the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius by Abbot Joasaph (Skripitsyn) and two elders of the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery were elected as recipients—the monk Cassian Bossoy and the hegumen Daniel. Tradition says that in honor of the birth of Ivan, the Church of the Ascension was built in Kolomenskoye.
When Ivan was three years old, his father died from an abscess and inflammation on his leg that developed into blood poisoning. The closest contenders to the throne, except for the young Ivan, were the younger brothers of Vasily. Of the six sons of Ivan III, only two remained: Andrey and Yuri. Ivan was proclaimed the grand prince at the request of his father. His mother Elena Glinskaya initially acted as regent, but died in 1538,Pushkareva, N. (1997) Women in Russian History. M. E. Sharpe. pp. 65–67. . when Ivan was eight years old; many believe that she was poisoned. The regency then alternated between several feuding boyar families that fought for control. According to his own letters, Ivan, along with his younger brother Yuri, often felt neglected and offended by the mighty boyars from the Shuisky and Belsky families. In a letter to Andrey Kurbsky, Ivan remembered, "My brother Iurii, of blessed memory, and me they brought up like vagrants and children of the poorest. What have I suffered for want of garments and food!"Kurbsky, Andrey, Ivan IV, The Correspondence Between Prince A. M. Kurbsky and Tsar Ivan IV, of Russia, 1564–1579, Cambridge University Press, 1955, 275 pp., , p. 75. That account has been challenged by the historian Edward Keenan, who doubts the authenticity of the source in which the quotations are found.
On 16 January 1547, at the age of 16, Ivan was crowned at the Cathedral of the Dormition in the Moscow Kremlin. The metropolitan placed the signs of royal dignity on Ivan: the Cross of the Life-Giving Tree, barmas, and the cap of Monomakh; Ivan Vasilyevich was anointed with myrrh, after which the metropolitan blessed the tsar. He was the first Russian monarch to be crowned the tsar of all Russia, partly imitating his grandfather, Ivan III. Until then, the rulers of Moscow were crowned as grand princes, but Ivan III assumed the title of sovereign of all Russia and used the title of tsar in his correspondence with other monarchs.
Two weeks after his coronation in 1547, Ivan IV married Anastasia Romanovna, a member of the Romanov family, who became the first Russian tsaritsa.Perrie, Maureen (ed.). The Cambridge History of Russia, Volume 1: From Early Rus’ to 1689. Cambridge University Press, 2006.Crummey, Robert O. The Formation of Muscovy, 1304–1613. Routledge, 2015.
By being crowned tsar, Ivan was sending a message to the world and to Russia that he was now the only supreme ruler of the country, and his will was not to be questioned. According to historian Janet Martin, the new title "symbolized an assumption of powers equivalent and parallel to those held by the former Byzantine caesar and the Tatar khan, both known in Russian sources as tsar. The political effect was to elevate Ivan's position". The new title not only secured the throne but also granted Ivan a new dimension of power that was intimately tied to religion. He was now a "divine" leader appointed to enact God's will, as "church texts described Old Testament kings as 'Tsars' and Christ as the Heavenly Tsar".Bogatyrev, p. 245 The newly appointed title was then passed on from generation to generation, and "succeeding Muscovite rulers... benefited from the divine nature of the power of the Russian monarch... crystallized during Ivan's reign".
Like the Habsburgs and other monarchs in Europe, the first Russian tsars adopted mythological genealogies that connected them to Ancient Rome. In The Tale of the Princes of Vladimir, their lineage is traced to Rurik, the first prince of Novgorod in northern Russia, while a certain Prus, an alleged brother of Augustus who ruled what would become Prussia, is mentioned as a direct ancestor of Rurik. Ivan IV often mentioned his apparent kinship with Augustus, claiming not to be a "Russe" and highlighting his "German" descent from Rurik. Such genealogies served to elevate the position of the Russian monarch in the eyes of his subjects and other European powers, who were also creating mythological ancestors for themselves.
Domestic policy Despite the devastation caused by the Great Fire of 1547, the early years of Ivan IV's reign were characterized by a period of reform and modernization. Ivan revised the legal code, issuing the Sudebnik of 1550, and established a standing army, the streltsy. He also convened the Zemsky Sobor, regarded as the first Russian parliament of feudal estates. He also established the Chosen Council, a body of advisers drawn from the nobility and clergy.
In ecclesiastical matters, Ivan strengthened the authority of the Russian Orthodox Church through the Council of the Hundred Chapters (Stoglavy Sobor, 1551), which standardized rituals and ecclesiastical law across the realm. He further introduced forms of local self-government in rural areas—particularly in northeastern Russia, populated by state peasants—to improve local administration and tax collection.
In 1553, Ivan suffered a near-fatal illness and was thought not able to recover. While on his presumed deathbed Ivan had asked the boyars to swear an oath of allegiance to his eldest son, an infant at the time. Many boyars refused since they deemed the tsar's health too hopeless for him to survive. This angered Ivan and added to his distrust of the boyars. There followed brutal reprisals and assassinations, including those of Metropolitan Philip and Prince Alexander Gorbatyi-Shuisky.