1) On the paternal side, the family of the first Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible goes back to the participant of the Kulikovo battle, Grand Duke Dimitri of the Donskoy, and on the maternal side, he directly goes back to another participant in the battle, Tsar Mamai. King Mamai himself came from the ancient Kiyat clan
(clan of Prince Kiy To, the founder of Kievan Rus). “Judging by the surviving data, Mamai's homeland was Lukomorye - the coast of the Russian (Black) Sea” (E. Gladilin). Until now, these places have retained the toponymic names associated with his name: the Mamayka River, Mamaev Kurgan, Cape Mamayka (Sochi), etc. The grandson of Mamai Alex in 1390 was forced to be baptized in Kiev and was baptized Alexander, and his son Ivan Alexandrovich won the title of Prince Glinsky from the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitovt in 1399. And as everyone knows, the mother of Ivan the Terrible was Elena Glinskaya.
2) It is also known from the results of the autopsy of the tomb, carried out in 1963, that he was a red-haired broad-shouldered hero with a height of 180 cm, and not a skinny scrawny, which artists love to depict him so much.
The abundance of osteophytes on the bones of the skeleton shows that, unfortunately, in the last years of his life, Ivan IV the Terrible was practically paralyzed.
According to the reports of the European ambassadors to their rulers, Ivan IV the Terrible did not smoke, did not drink alcohol, was not noticed in love affairs, was distinguished by incredible efficiency.
3) It was Ivan IV the Terrible, having inherited, in fact, only the Moscow and Novgorod regions - he created Russia with its modern (European) borders from them and founded at least a quarter of the currently existing cities. It was he who abolished feudalism in Russia, legally leveling ordinary peasants with noble princes, it was he who introduced universal election to local legislative and executive bodies of power, it was he who guaranteed all segments of the population representation in the highest legislative / deliberative body of the state: the Zemsky Sobor, and it was he who introduced in Russia universal primary education.
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4) Ivan IV the Terrible in his life did not lose a single war. Even the "Livonian War" ended with the defeat of Poland and Sweden, and peace treaties with them on the terms "Peace in exchange for the return of all occupied territories."
5) In 1571, Ivan IV the Terrible moved his capital to Veliky Novgorod, where a 14.5 hectare palace was built on the site of Yaroslav's courtyard, and large-scale works were carried out to improve the city. The treasury, the royal family, and all government services were transported to Novgorod.
There was a palace here. In 1580 it burned down, and Ivan the Terrible moved to Staritsa. Not that Veliky Novgorod would be the capital of Russia to this day
In 1572, when the entire Russian army was fighting the Tatar / Ottoman army near Molody, and Ivan IX the Terrible, along with his retinue and personal guards, went to besiege Weissenstein (the fortress, of course, was taken. During the assault, many boyars from the tsar's personal retinue were wounded, the commander of the royal guard Malyuta Skuratov died) - during this period the royal family and the treasury were exclusively under the protection of the Novgorodians.
The confidence of Ivan IV the Terrible in the loyalty of the Novgorodians on the one hand and their exceptional loyalty on the other (there is no evidence of unrest or protests of the townspeople against the tsar) clearly prove that the "Novgorod massacre of 1570" reported by Western human rights organizations, neither the tsar, neither the Novgorodians themselves knew anything in the 16th century.
6) Metropolitan Philip, a little-known provincial hegumen, was appointed to his post by Ivan IV the Terrible despite the resistance of the church hierarchs, at the time of the dispute for the metropolitan's chair between Archbishop Pimen of Novgorod and Archbishop German of Kazan, who had already managed to sit in this place.
Metropolitan Philip was a faithful ally of Ivan IV the Terrible and is well known for his sermons condemning the conspirators who took part in the sedition of Fedorov-Chelyadin.
Overthrown as a result of a conspiracy of Archbishop Pimen, killed by a member of the conspiracy, bailiff Stefan Kobylin, who received a life sentence for his crime.
There is not a single mention of any disagreements between Ivan IV the Terrible and Metropolitan Philip in historical documents.
7) The murder of Tsarevich Ivan, which is reported by Western human rights organizations, Ivan IV the Terrible could not commit for medical reasons - the tsar was paralyzed.
8) Executions of numerous Russian governors and statesmen reported by Western human rights organizations - such as Prince Mikhailo Vorotynsky, Bishop Korneliy of Pechora, Duma boyar Mikhail Kolychev, Master von Fustenberg, Prince Afanasy Vyazemsky, Prince Ivan Shishmety, Prince Ivan Shere Vladimir Staritsky and many, many other boyars and priests - for some unknown reason, they pass unnoticed for the "executed", because according to the paintings of the Discharge Order, after their death, the victims of terror continued to go to service, command regiments, marry and marry, give birth to children.
For example, Mikhailo Vorotynsky, twice executed, three years after the second (!) Execution contrived to draw up the first ever charter of the border service ("Boyarsky verdict on the stanitsa and guard service"), and Maria Staritskaya, poisoned, suffocated with smoke and drowned in Sheksna, a year after her executions leaves for Europe as the wife of the Danish Prince Magnus.
9) After his death, Ivan IV the Terrible left to his heirs a rich, well-fed and vast power with the most powerful army in the world and a full treasury. In any case, for 20 years after his death, until the Time of Troubles, not a single dog dared to start a new war with Russia.
In 1585, the Voronezh fortress was built in Russia, in 1586 - Livny. To ensure the safety of the waterway from Kazan to Astrakhan, cities were built on the Volga - Samara (1586), Tsaritsyn (1589), Saratov (1590). In 1592 the town of Yelets was restored.
The city of Belgorod was built on the Donets in 1596, and Tsarev-Borisov was built to the south in 1600. In the period from 1596 to 1602, one of the most grandiose architectural structures of pre-Petrine Rus was built - the Smolensk fortress wall, which later became known as the "stone necklace of the Russian Land".
In other words: after the death of Ivan IV the Terrible, extensive construction throughout Russia continued actively - that is, the gold in the deep tsarist treasury was enough for all current expenses and even for many excesses!
Perhaps this is the actual minimum that every educated person should know about Ivan IV the Terrible.