IVAN THE TERRIBLE

IVAN THE TERRIBLE

By the 15^th century the Mongol ruled Russia for 250 years. Russia regained its independence

Free Russia started to re-emerge when Ivan III, also called Ivan the Great, was crowned in Moscovy. It was a small state and its capital was Moscow. He achieved independence for his country and also for the surrounding territory.

IVAN THE GREAT

In 1480 Ivan proclaimed himself Tsar which means Emperor of all the Russians. The Kremlin in Moscow was only a wooden citadel till such time when Ivan transformed it into a master piece of Renaissance architecture,

KREMLIN

IVAN’S  SUCCESSORS

Ivan died in 1505 and his son followed his father on the throne as Vasily III. Under the reign of Ivan the Great and his son the Russian state expanded from 400,000 sq km to 2.5 million sq km. 

When Vasily died his son was only three but was crowned as the next Russia’s ruler. Until he was capable to rule himself others stepped in. When he was 16 and was able to rule for himself he proved to be a tough and energetic ruler. He limited the powers of the boyars who were Russians nobility and reformed the legal system. He led a campaign against Mongols and won.  His conquest was the Mongol cities Kazan and Astrakhan. This conquest brought the whole river Volga under his rule which opened up a trade route to the Caspian Sea.

The English diplomat in Moscow, Sir Jerome Horsey, described the young Ivan as ‘comely of person, imbued with great wit, excellent gifts and graces, fit for government for so great a monarchy.’

Only when Ivan grew older he changed and became unpredictable and violent. Soon became the nickname ‘Ivan the Terrible’. He started to imagine to be surrounded by enemies. He recruited a hand-picked police force called the oprichniki to protect him. They fasten a quiver of arrows and a broom. The broom was symbol of Ivan’s determination to sweep away treason.

The Oprichniki were soon known as savages. One story which went down in history were about seven monks who angered Ivan was to send to fight wild bears which were starved before the fight. On some other occasion Ivan killed the whole population of Novgorod because he thought they were disloyal to him.

Ivan was forever at war with some neighbouring state and therefore a lot of Russian’s lives were lost. Also the economy started to decline.

In 1571 a massive Tartar army from Crimea conquered the southern part of Russia. It was not very defended because Ivan was fighting in the North against Livonia, today’s Latvia. The Tartar burned Moscow to the ground.

In 1581 Ivan turned on his pregnant daughter-in-law in anger.  She was the wife of his eldest son and heir to the throne.  He started beating her and beaten her so badly that she had a miscarriage.  His son got angry with Ivan and Ivan hit him over the head with his wooden staff.  When his son died a few days later Ivan went nearly mad with regret.

He started to suffer form an incurable bone disease and his body became swollen and the skin peeling.  He was playing chess when he died in 1584

His son Feodor succeeded him but he was slow-witted but gentle person. During his 14 years of reign Russia experienced peace and prosperity. After his death in 1598 it marked the beginning of great trouble in Russia’s history.

The successor Boris Guduno and his successor, Dmitri, were murdered. The country became lawless and experience famine. At the same time rivals tried and fought for the crown. Foreign invaders marched into Russia and were looting and conquering. Moscow was under the rule of the Poles in 1605.

Due to the loss of their capital the Russian people were inspired by patriotism and formed a volunteer army. They managed to drive all invaders out in 1612.

In 1613 a national assembly was formed which included all sections of the population. They voted for the tsar that the Lord would indicate to us.

The decision fell on the 16 year old Mikhail Romanov. His family ruled Russia for the next 300 years.

MIKHAIL ROMANOV -- THE FIRST TSAR OF THE HOUSE OF ROMANOV