Ivan IV, the First Tsar
Ivan IV is crowned tsar, conquers Kazan and Astrakhan and turns on his own people in the Oprichnina, before his dynasty collapses into the Time of Troubles.
- Ivan the Terrible — Isabel de Madariaga, Yale University Press (2005)
- Russia: People and Empire, 1552–1917 — Geoffrey Hosking, Harvard University Press (1997)
- A History of Russia — Nicholas V. Riasanovsky and Mark D. Steinberg, Oxford University Press
In 1547 the sixteen-year-old Ivan IV of Moscow was crowned “tsar”, from the Roman caesar, a claim to the dignity of the fallen Byzantine emperors. His conquest of the Tatar khanates of Kazan (1552) and Astrakhan (1556) opened the whole Volga to Moscow and made it a multi-ethnic, multi-faith empire. St Basil’s Cathedral on Red Square was built to celebrate the fall of Kazan.
- Ivan the Terrible — Isabel de Madariaga, Yale University Press (2005)
- Russia: People and Empire, 1552–1917 — Geoffrey Hosking, Harvard University Press (1997)
From 1565 Ivan split the realm and unleashed the oprichnina, a black-clad private force that terrorised boyars, churchmen and whole towns. The 1570 massacre at Novgorod killed thousands. In 1581 he struck and killed his own son and heir in a rage. A long, failed war in Livonia and the end of his dynasty led to the “Time of Troubles” (1598–1613): famine, pretenders, Swedish intervention and a Polish–Lithuanian occupation of Moscow. A citizens’ militia drove the Poles out in 1612, and in 1613 an assembly elected Mikhail Romanov tsar.
- Ivan the Terrible — Isabel de Madariaga, Yale University Press (2005)
- A History of Russia — Nicholas V. Riasanovsky and Mark D. Steinberg, Oxford University Press
Why it matters today
"Grozny" means "formidable" or "awe-inspiring" more than "terrible", and Russians still argue over whether Ivan was a great state-builder or a paranoid tyrant. The question of whether greatness excuses cruelty, which returns with Peter and Stalin, starts here. National Unity Day on 4 November marks the end of the Troubles.