Drink. Anger. Sorrow. Drink. An endless cycle of the first Tsar of Russia, often all at once. A sick and twisted beginning, torturing animals, raping women, and drinking himself to death, the Grand Prince of Russia started here to end in almost the exact same place he started. Ivan the Terrible was true to his name, the first dictator of Russia was a cruel part of history that is never to be forgotten.
Born in the Rurik Dynasty, Ivan’s father was Vasili III who died when he was only a toddler. His mother, Elena Glinskaya, took his father’s place on the throne. Many had questioned her authority to rule, she was poisoned 5 years later when he was 8. Since then he had a deep-rooted paranoia towards the Boyars, a noble rank beneath prince, convinced that they had something to do with it. Left to the care of them he was often molested and neglected. Ivan, the Grand Prince of Russia, had to beg for food and clothes inside his own palace. Abuse, both verbal and physical, was common for the Prince. Unable to take his anger out on those who defiled him, he took to torturing small animals. “. . . he tore feathers off birds, pierced their eyes and slit open their bodies.” This gruesome pastime only grew
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He created the Oprichniki. He personally selected men, most of the criminal background, to swear an oath to him, to do as he asked. “The mere sight of the Oprichniki instilled fear: they dressed in black and rode black horses.” Breaking into churches while people worshipped, and abduct or murder the priest on the spot. Ivan had found himself to the abbot, or a friar, and the Oprichniki his monks. Performing sacrilegious masses that would be followed by “extended orgies of sex, rape, and torture”. Ivan also had peasant women strip from their clothes so that the Oprichniki could have target practice. Together, he and his “monks” ruled the Moscovian country in terror but he, Committed far worse crimes than
In The Reforming Tsar: The Redefinition of Autocratic Duty in Eighteenth Century Russia, Cynthia Whittaker argues that depending on the historical, cultural and contextual period, there can be demarcated two types, both distinctive and contrasting, of Russian sovereigns, namely the “good tsar” and the “reforming tsar”. The scholar juxtaposes the two models of monarchs against the backdrop of “medieval” versus “modern” type of governance. According to it the “good tsar” typology, which is typical for the earlier Muscovy realm, defines the ruler as pious and inert, characterized by its liturgical form and static nature of the rule. The “good tsar” is bound to uphold Orthodoxy, preserve and control public order, help the poor and the underdogs
Had Ivan not been paranoid and power hungry, the Russian State would not have been nearly as powerful and developed as it had become under Ivan’s rule. I believe that Ivan had some sort of mental illness and he directed his violent rage toward the boyars because of how they treated him during his childhood after the passing of his parents. Despite the fact that they should have been loyal to the then crowned Prince, they ignored his wishes, mistreated him, left him without enough food, and did not provide him with an education (Carswell
Ivan the Terrible was the worst czar to ever be alive. Ivan the terrible was also the first czar ever in Russia. Not only was Ivan The Terrible bad Russia was scared that this is what all of the czars would be like from now on. He was an awful leader and killed almost more people than Hitler. He would kill people for fun. Sometimes Ivan the Terrible would get everybody to come to executions and then would line everybody up and pick people to be executed.
The first of these tsars, Ivan III, also known as “Ivan the Great”, defied Mongol control and declared the autonomy of Moscow. Ivan III was soon followed by Ivan IV, also known as “Ivan the Terrible”, who declared his power by pushing aside his advisors, crowning himself tsar and crushing boyars, who were Russian nobles. At first, Ivan’s reign was successful as he added vast new territories to the Russian empire. Later, after his wife’s death, Ivan’s power and prosperity declined because he started persecuting those whom he believed opposed him. This resulted in the execution of many nobles and their families, friends, servants and peasants, in which he replaced with a new service nobility, whose loyalty was “guaranteed by their dependent on the state for land and titles.” [1] Ivan the Terrible nor Ivan III were never absolute rulers- their ways of ruling just helped lay the foundation for Russian absolutism. After Ivan IV and his successor died, Russia entered a “Time of Troubles”, which lasted from 1598-1613, in which the peasant warrior bands known as Cossacks, rebelled against their nobles who fought back and defeated the Cossacks. Ivan’s grand-nephew, Michael Romanov, was soon elected by the Zensky Sober- a body of nobles, and placed efforts toward state-building. He was succeeded by “Peter the Great”, the Russian king that truly consolidated Russian
In 1153 Ivan suddenly became ill, he demanded allegiance to his oldest son Dmitri. The boyars balked. Ivan recovered but his mistrust of the nobility grew. Dmitri was dropped into a river and drowned, Anastasia died in 1560. These two events snapped Ivan's mind out of the harmony it for thirteen had enjoyed. It also marked the beginning of the second half of Ivan's reign, split like so much else about Ivan's person.
Because he was too young to actually rule, his mother Elena Glinskaya acted as his advisor until she later died when Ivan was only eight years old. When she died, she was replaced by a wise group of nobles. Because he was so young at the time, these nobles felt that it was a disgrace to have such a young child
However, one key similarity does exist as an exception to the otherwise different style of the Ivan’s rule in Russia. The Ivan’s did claim that they were ruling as a God given right as did the rulers of western nations. Lastly Ivan IV ascends to the throne at the age of sixteen. He ordered extraordinarily heinous acts. He murdered major boyars who opposed his actions, which was a major difference from the action of Western nations, although there were political implications for their actions, it did not appear that noble individuals were murdered.
The author argues that his book takes a more sympathetic interpretation towards the Russian leader than many Soviet or Western scholars do. Therefore, in his literary piece, Lieven focuses on the political and dynastic elements of Nicholas II’s reign as well as the social and political contexts in which Nicholas II was living. By doing so, Lieven demonstrates that Nicholas was not solely to blame for Imperial Russia’s collapse. While Lieven does believe that Nicholas II’s indecisive nature paired with his feelings of insecurity did influence the later revolution, he
The accumulation of the repressive and ineffective government policies throughout the reign of autocratic Tsar Nicholas II sparked public discontent,
As Ivan grew older, he began to under stand the benefits of being a prince Czar. Because Ivan grew up the way he did was why he became the ruler that he did. He knew from experience what would happen if he wasn't a strong ruler. As a Czar, when Ivan met someone new, he would look for the thing to fear in that person, then, he would do whatever it took to minimize whatever that something was that he was afraid of. It might require taking harsh action, but then Ivan wouldn't have to worry about that person becoming too powerful.
After her and Ivan’s marriage, their life was normal until she got pregnant in their first kid. She became bad temper and abused him with crude terms when he did not fulfill her demands. As a result of Praskovya’s bad treatment toward her husband, Ivan was escaping is bored time
Ivan the Terrible was born Ivan IV Chetvyorty Vasilyevich on August 25, 1530, in… Muscovy, Russia (). He was the grandson of Ivan III Vasilyevich, or Ivan the Great, who was known for helping Russia gain its independence from the Tatars. In 1547, Ivan IV was crowned the first czar, or emperor, of Russia; in the same year he also married Anastasia Romanovna. She died in 1560 which resulted in him re-marrying multiple times, but his marriage to Anastasia was considered the happiest. After her death, he became depressed and erratic. He suspected a boyar, a member of the old aristocracy in Russia, murdered her which made him even more paranoid. This death affected him on such a large scale that it caused him to go on a reign of terror for the
During his 72 year reign he began a golden age for France in art, culture, and literature, he expanded France through fighting in many wars, and made an aggressive foreign policy. While Ivan the Terrible, began his reign at 8 years old after his two parents died. He became the first Tsar of Russia. The reconstructive period is when he married his wife, Anastasia Romanovna, he made reforms in government,law, tax, and church. However, after his wife died he turned “evil” and reigned in terror.
Various aspects of Nicholas II’s political decisions reflected his clear unsuitability for the role of Tsar, and these decisions form a preliminary basis for both his own legacy of incompetency & the eventual undoing of the Romanovs. In comparison to rulers preceding, Nicholas was ill-prepared for the role: his father, Alexander III, failed to adequately develop his son’s understanding of civil & state responsibilities before his death in 1894, under the guise that he would live long enough to teach Nicholas of these affairs. Upon his consecration as Tsar, Nicholas spoke in his diary of his apprehensiveness
At the age of 10, Joseph “Stalin” Djugashvili attended Gori’s religious elementary school. His mother, Yekaterina, wanted him to be a priest and would usually beat her son if he son whenever he misbehaved. These beatings were never as bad as those