If we look at the actual results of the reign of John IV, we will see that the Tsar ruled for 51 years and during this time:
1. The growth of our state territory amounted to almost 100% (from 2.8 million sq. Km to 5.4 million sq. Km). The kingdoms of Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberia, as well as Nogai and part of the North Caucasus were annexed to Russia. The Russian State has become larger in size than the rest of Europe!
2. Population growth was 30-50%.
3. 4-5 thousand people were sentenced to death during this time.
4. The Russian sovereign was first married to the kingdom, took the royal title, equivalent to the imperial one, and became the first Anointed of God on the Russian throne.
5. A large-scale reform of the judiciary was carried out.
6. Introduced general election of local administration.
7. Trade with England, Persia and Central Asia developed at an unprecedented pace.
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8. By order of the Tsar, 155 cities and fortresses were founded, 40 churches and 60 monasteries were built.
9. The state post office was created, about 300 post stations were founded.
In the spiritual and cultural life during the reign of Ivan the Terrible:
1. The beginning of the regular convocation of Zemsky Sobor.
2. Passed the famous so-called. The "hundred-glavny" council of the Russian Orthodox Church, the first Local Council in the full sense of the word.
3. The Chetiya of the Menaion of Saint Metropolitan Macarius was created.
4. Book printing was started, two printing houses were created, the book treasury of the king was collected.
5. Given the state character of the chronicle, created the "Face set".
6. A network of general education schools has been created.
7. Through the efforts of Grozny, a new genre appeared in Russian literature - journalism.
And all this - despite numerous wars and a 20-year struggle with European countries that supported Poland, Lithuania and Sweden in the war against Russia (they were supported by the Vatican, France, Germany, Wallachia, Turkey, Crimea, Denmark, Hungary - who with money, who soldiers who are diplomatic intrigues).
Contrary to slander, the Terrible Tsar left to his heirs a powerful state and a battle-worthy army, which allowed his heirs to win the war over Sweden and deploy five hundred thousand troops in the field (in 1598). In a ruined state, this is impossible!
Summing up, we can confidently say:
The accusations against the Terrible Tsar are deliberate slander. Its first authors were the contemporaries of the Sovereign who were hostile to the Orthodox Moscow Autocracy, and then - engaged researchers seeking to discredit the noble Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible, and in his person - the idea of the Russian Orthodox Kingdom as a whole.