The first Russian Tsar Ivan IV, the son of Grand Duke Vasily III and Elena Vasilievna Glinskaya, came from the Rurik family, was a descendant of Dmitry Donskoy and Alexander Nevsky. He was born on August 25, 1530 in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow.
When the future king was three years old, his father died, and five years later his mother also died. From the age of eight, the future ruler witnessed the struggle for power between the boyar families of Shuisky and Belsky who are at war with each other. The intrigues and violence that took place around him contributed to the development of suspicion, revenge and cruelty in him. Ivan's tendency to torment living beings manifested itself in childhood, and those close to him encouraged her.
They crowned Ivan IV as king on January 16, 1547 in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. The royal title made it possible to take a new position in diplomatic relations with Western Europe. The grand-ducal title was translated as "prince" or even "grand duke". And the title "king" was translated as "emperor". The Russian autocrat thus stood on a par with the only emperor in Europe - the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire.
1549 - together with the Chosen Rada, the tsar carried out a series of reforms that were aimed at centralizing the state. In 1550 - 1551, Ivan IV personally took part in the Kazan campaigns. 1552 - Kazan was conquered, then the Astrakhan Khanate (1556), the Siberian khan Ediger and Nogai Bolshie fell into dependence on Ivan IV. 1553 - established trade relations with England. 1558 - the Russian tsar started the Livonian War - for the capture of the Baltic Sea coast. Initially, the hostilities were successful, three years later the army of the Livonian Order was finally defeated, and the order itself ceased to exist.
Meanwhile, major changes took place within the country. Around 1560, Ivan IV broke with the leaders of the Chosen Rada. According to historians, the reason was that some of its members, realizing the futility of the Livonian War for Russia, tried to persuade Ivan IV to come to an agreement with the enemy. Meanwhile, in 1563 Russian troops captured Polotsk, at that time a large Lithuanian fortress. The Tsar was especially proud of this victory, won after the break with the Chosen Council. But after just a year, Russia suffered serious defeats. Ivan the Terrible began to look for the "guilty", disgrace and executions began.
Ivan IV became more and more imbued with the idea of establishing a personal dictatorship. 1565 - he announced the establishment of the oprichnina - a state system with a special army consisting of oprichniks.
Each oprichnik had to take an oath of loyalty to the sovereign. They wore black clothes, similar to those of a monk. Horse guardsmen had special "identification marks". A broom was attached to the saddles - to sweep out treason, and a dog's head - to sniff out and gnaw it out. With the help of the guardsmen who were only under his jurisdiction, headed by Grigory Lukyanovich Skuratov-Belsky (Malyuta Skuratov), Ivan the Terrible confiscated the boyar estates, transferring them to the guardsmen from the nobility.
Executions and disgraces were accompanied by terror and robbery among the population. A major act of the oprichnina was the Novgorod pogrom in January-February 1570, the reason for which was the suspicion of Novgorod's desire to come under the rule of Lithuania. It is believed that the number of victims in Novgorod, with a population then no more than 30,000 people, reached 10-15,000.
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But the oprichnina failed when in 1571 the oprichnina army was unable to stop the invasion of Moscow by the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey. The villages were burnt, the fire spread to Kitai-Gorod and the Kremlin. Soon after that, Ivan the Terrible canceled the oprichnina.
As the Rada members predicted, the Livonian War ended in complete failure and the loss of the primordially Russian lands. Ivan the Terrible could see the objective results of his reign during his lifetime: it was the failure of all internal and foreign policy undertakings. Since 1578 Ivan IV has ceased to be executed. Almost at the same time, he ordered the compilation of synodiks (memorial lists) of those executed and sending donations to the monasteries for the commemoration of their souls; in the will of 1579 he repented of his deed.
And there was something to repent of. The refined cruelty with which the tsar executed not only his enemies, but also his loyal friends, who suddenly fell out of favor, is striking.
Executions and torture of the era of Ivan the Terrible
One of the favorite types of execution of Ivan the Terrible is to sew the convict into a bear's skin (it was called “sheathe the bear”) and then hound him with dogs. So the Novgorod bishop Leonid was executed. Sometimes bears were set on people (of course, in this case, they were not sheathed with bears).
Ivan IV generally liked non-standard executions, including executions with savage "humor". So, by his order, a nobleman by the name of Ovtsyn was hanged on the same crossbar with a sheep. And once they tied several monks to a barrel of gunpowder and blew them up - let them, like angels, immediately fly to heaven.
The court doctor Elisey Bomel was executed as follows: they twisted his arms out of the joints, dislocated his legs, excised his back with wire whips, then tied him to a wooden post and lit a fire under it; in the end, the half-dead man was taken by sleigh to the prison, where he died of his wounds.
And the head of the Ambassadorial Prikaz (in the modern way - the Minister of Foreign Affairs) Viskovaty was tied to a post, and then the tsar's entourage approached the convict, and each cut a piece of meat from his body. One oprichnik, Ivan Reutov, cut out a piece so “badly” that Viskovaty died immediately. Then the tsar accused Reutov of doing this on purpose in order to reduce the suffering of Viskovaty, and ordered him to be executed. But Reutov "protected himself" from execution - he fell ill with the plague "in time" and died.
Among other types of exotic executions that Ivan the Terrible used, one should name the alternate pouring of boiling water and cold water on the convict; this is how the treasurer Nikita Funikov-Kurtsev was executed.
The Tsar loved to "combine" fanaticism. During the executions in Novgorod, Ivan IV ordered people to be set on fire with a special combustible compound ("fire"), and then, scorched and exhausted, they were tied to a sleigh and let "horses" gallop. Bodies dragged across the frozen ground, leaving bloody streaks in their wake. After they were thrown into the Volkhov River from the bridge. Together with these unfortunates, their wives and children were taken to the river. Women were twisted back their arms and legs, tied children to them and also thrown into the icy water. And there the oprichniks sailed in boats, who finished off those who surfaced, with gaffs and axes.
A special type of execution was used by the tsar in relation to those whom he considered treason. The sentenced person was put into a cauldron with oil, wine or water, his hands were put into rings specially mounted in the cauldron, and the cauldron was put on the fire, gradually bringing the liquid to a boil.
The wives of Ivan the Terrible
The exact number of Ivan IV's wives is unknown, but he was probably married seven times. Apart from the children who died in infancy, he had three sons. From his first marriage with Anastasia Zakharyina-Yuryeva, two sons were born, Ivan and Fedor. The second wife was the daughter of the Kabardian prince Maria Temryukovna. The third is Martha Sobakina, who died suddenly three weeks after the wedding.
According to church regulations, it was forbidden to marry more than three times. Therefore, in May 1572, a church council was convened to give permission for a fourth marriage - with Anna Koltovskaya. The marriage took place. But in the same year she was tonsured into a nun. Anna Vasilchikova, who became the fifth wife in 1575, died four years later. The sixth was possibly Vasilisa Melentyeva.
The result of the last marriage, concluded in the fall of 1580 with Maria Naga, was the birth of the Tsar's third son, Dmitry, two years later. He died in 1591 in Uglich.
Causes of death of Ivan the Terrible
The origins of the reasons for the incomprehensible death of Ivan the Terrible himself should be sought, as you can see, in those strange (and terrible) ailments - physical and mental, which began to torment the sovereign long before his death, as well as in his far from decent way of life.
The first breakdown in the psyche of Grozny occurred after a serious illness he suffered in 1553. What kind of illness it was is not known for certain, although a number of researchers believe it to be an attack of encephalitis or even the result of some kind of venereal infection. Just at this time, his suspicion took on a directly pathological character, which resulted in the establishment of the oprichnina, which led to the unleashing of bloody terror in the country.
Unexpected fits of anger, which were accompanied by manifestations of reckless cruelty, especially increased in Ivan the Terrible after the death of his first wife. Some of the researchers believe that because of this tragedy, his mind was somewhat clouded. From time to time, Ivan Vasilyevich had seizures, during which he seemed to fall into complete madness: he rolled on the floor, biting the carpets, his body bent in an arc, and foam appeared on his lips. During one of these attacks, on November 9, 1582, in his country residence - Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, Ivan Vasilyevich accidentally killed his eldest son Ivan, hitting the iron tip of his staff right in his temple.
Seized by despair and a deep sense of guilt, the sovereign banged his head against the coffin with the body of his son, and then wandered in a clouded mind, through the corridors and chambers of the palace, trying to find the deceased heir. After this tragedy, Ivan the Terrible sent a great contribution to the monastery to commemorate his son's soul and even thought about leaving for the monastery himself.
The tsar's way of life could also have been the cause of his death: the wild mixture of unrestrained drunkenness, bloody orgies and earnest atonement for sins did not at all contribute to the improvement of the sick psyche. Having been married many times, the autocrat was never able to find happiness in family life.
There is evidence that, in addition to possessing numerous concubines and mistresses, the king was no stranger to homosexual relationships. Rumor attributes to him such a relationship with his favorite Bogdan Velsky, as well as with Fedor Basmanov and with young bodyguards.
And in the last years of his life, the autocrat was tormented by some incomprehensible and terrible disease: his body was swollen and spread a disgusting smell, the skin burst and separated from the flesh. Doctors, however, only spoke vaguely about the decomposition of blood and damage to the entrails. Only a hot bath brought relief, no other methods of treatment helped.
The mysterious death of Ivan the Terrible
1963 - a commission established by the USSR Ministry of Culture after opening the tombs of Ivan IV and his sons, Ivan and Fyodor, found a large amount of mercury in the remains of the autocrat and the eldest son. At that time, drugs based on it were used to treat a specific disease - syphilis. Long-term exposure to such drugs leads to chronic poisoning of the body.
Ivan the Terrible could have contracted syphilis during his orgies, and the fact that the remains of his son also contained traces of mercury suggests that he also managed to catch syphilis.
Moreover, in his morals, Tsarevich Ivan was not very different from his father and, apparently, took part with him in drinking and other "entertainments." And besides this, it is known that many royal mistresses subsequently passed on to their son. So the disease that punished both of them could have come from the same source.
In light of these facts, the deliberate poisoning of Ivan IV seems unlikely. And yet, many of the researchers do not deny that the autocrat could have been "helped" to go to the next world by using a slow-acting poison, because the degree of suspicion of the insane tsar towards his entourage grew rapidly in the last years of his reign. Moreover, the struggle for influence at court continued with unrelenting strength and with refined cunning. Therefore, the likelihood of poisoning the king is quite real.
Most likely, the great and terrible Tsar Ivan the Terrible actually died from the effects of poison, which was aggravated by a sick mentality disturbed from childhood and a rapidly developing physical illness, as well as acute hallucinations, which are known to be provoked by mercury compounds.
But the death of Ivan the Terrible still remains a mystery. And this mystery is reinforced by another, absolutely mystical event that allegedly took place.
The autocrat was predicted that the last day of his life would be March 18, 1584. In the evening of that day, Ivan the Terrible summoned the soothsayers and asked if they should be put to death for a false prophecy. And in response I heard that the day was not over yet.
The Tsar still ordered to read his will aloud, went to the bathhouse, and then decided to play chess with Bogdan Velsky. But when he began to arrange the figures, he suddenly fell on the bed and died. The prophecy has come true.
In conclusion, it should still be noted that Ivan the Terrible went down in history not only as a tyrant. He was one of the most educated people of his time, possessed a phenomenal memory and theological erudition. He is the author of numerous letters (including to Prince Kurbsky), music and text of the service of the feast of the icon of the Vladimir Mother of God, the canon to the Archangel Michael. The autocrat contributed to the organization of book printing in Moscow and the construction of a unique St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square.
V. Pimenova