Ivan IV Vasilyevich, nicknamed the Terrible. Born on August 25, 1530 in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow - died on March 18 (28), 1584 in Moscow. The Grand Duke of Moscow and All Rus' since 1533, the first Tsar of All Rus' (since 1547) (except for 1575-1576, when Simeon Bekbulatovich was nominally the "Grand Duke of All Rus'").

The eldest son of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III and Elena Glinskaya. On the paternal side, he descended from the Moscow branch of the Rurik dynasty, on the maternal side - from Mamai, who was considered the ancestor of the Lithuanian princes Glinsky. Paternal grandmother, Sophia Paleolog - from the family of Byzantine emperors.

Nominally, Ivan became ruler at the age of 3. After the uprising in Moscow in 1547, he ruled with the participation of a circle of close associates - the Chosen Rada. Under him, the convocation of Zemsky Sobors began, the Sudebnik of 1550 was drawn up. Reforms of the military service, the judiciary and public administration have been carried out, including the introduction of elements of self-government at the local level (labial, zemstvo and other reforms). The Kazan and Astrakhan khanates were conquered, Western Siberia, the Donskoy Host Region, Bashkiria, and the lands of the Nogai Horde were annexed. In this way, under Ivan IV, the increase in the territory of Rus' amounted to almost 100%, from 2.8 million km² to 5.4 million km², by the end of his reign, the Russian state had become larger than the rest of Europe.

In 1560, the Chosen Rada was abolished, its main figures fell into disgrace, and the completely independent reign of the tsar in Rus' began. The second half of the reign of Ivan the Terrible was marked by a streak of setbacks in the Livonian War and the establishment of the oprichnina, during which the old tribal aristocracy was struck and the position of the local nobility was strengthened. Ivan IV ruled longer than all those who headed the Russian state - 50 years and 105 days.

Basil III's firstborn. He was baptized in the Trinity Monastery by hegumen Joasaph (Skripitsyn); two elders were elected as godparents - Cassian Bosoy, a monk of the Joseph-Volokolamsk monastery, and hegumen Daniel.

Tradition says that in honor of the birth of John, the Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye was founded.

According to the right of succession established in Rus', the grand-ducal throne passed to the eldest son of the monarch, however, Ivan (“direct name” on his birthday - Titus) was only three years old when his father, Grand Duke Vasily III, became seriously ill. The closest contenders for the throne, except for the young Ivan, were Vasily's younger brothers. Of the six sons, two remained - Prince Staritsky Andrey and Prince Dmitrovsky Yuri.

Anticipating his imminent death, Vasily III formed a “seventh” boyar commission to govern the state (it was for the board of trustees under the young Grand Duke that the name "Seven Boyars", more often in modern times associated exclusively with the oligarchic boyar government of the era of the Time of Troubles in the period after the overthrow of Tsar Vasily Shuisky). The guardians were supposed to take care of Ivan until he reaches the age of 15. The Board of Trustees included Prince Andrei Staritsky, the younger brother of Ivan's father, M. L. Glinsky, the uncle of Grand Duchess Elena, and advisers: the Shuisky brothers (Vasily and Ivan), Mikhail Zakharyin, Mikhail Tuchkov, Mikhail Vorontsov. According to the plan of the Grand Duke, this was to preserve the order of government of the country by trusted people and reduce strife in the aristocratic Boyar Duma. The existence of the regency council is not recognized by all historians: for example, according to the historian A. A. Zimin, Vasily transferred the conduct of state affairs to the Boyar Duma, and appointed M. L. Glinsky and D. F. Belsky as guardians of the heir. A.F. Chelyadnina was appointed mother for Ivan.

Vasily III died on December 3, 1533, and after 8 days the boyars got rid of the main contender for the throne - Prince Yuri of Dmitrovsky.

The Board of Trustees ruled the country for less than a year, after which its power began to crumble. In August 1534, a series of reshuffles took place in the ruling circles. On August 3, Prince Semyon Belsky and the experienced military leader Ivan Lyatsky left Serpukhov and left for the service of the Lithuanian prince. On August 5, one of the guardians of the young Ivan, Mikhail Glinsky, was arrested, who then died in prison. For complicity with defectors, Semyon Belsky's brother Ivan and Prince Ivan Vorotynsky with their children were captured. In the same month, another member of the Board of Trustees, Mikhail Vorontsov, was also arrested. Analyzing the events of August 1534, the historian S. M. Solovyov concludes that "all this was the result of the general indignation of the nobles at Elena and her favorite Obolensky."

An attempt by Andrei Staritsky in 1537 to seize power ended in failure: locked in Novgorod from the front and rear, he was forced to surrender and ended his life in prison.

In April 1538, 30-year-old Elena Glinskaya died (according to one version, she was poisoned by the boyars), and six days later the boyars (princes I.V. Shuisky and V.V. Shuisky with advisers) also got rid of Obolensky. Metropolitan Daniel and clerk Fyodor Mishchurin, staunch supporters of a centralized state and active figures in the government of Vasily III and Elena Glinskaya, were immediately removed from government. Metropolitan Daniel was sent to the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery, and Mishchurin "was executed by the boyars ... not loving the fact that he stood for the Grand Duke of the cause."

According to the memoirs of Ivan himself, “Prince Vasily and Ivan Shuisky arbitrarily imposed themselves ... as guardians and thus reigned”, the future tsar and his brother George “began to be raised as foreigners or the last poor”, up to “deprivations in clothing and food”.

In 1545, at the age of 15, Ivan came of age, thus becoming a full-fledged ruler. One of the strong impressions of the tsar in his youth was the "great fire" in Moscow, which destroyed over 25 thousand houses, and the Moscow uprising of 1547. After the murder of one of the Glinskys, a relative of the tsar, the rebels came to the village of Vorobyovo, where the Grand Duke had taken refuge, and demanded the extradition of the rest of the Glinskys. With great difficulty, they managed to persuade the crowd to disperse, convincing them that there were no Glinskys in Vorobyov.

On December 13, 1546, Ivan Vasilievich for the first time expressed his intention to marry Macarius, and before that, Macarius invited Ivan the Terrible to marry the kingdom.

A number of historians (N. I. Kostomarov, R. G. Skrynnikov, V. B. Kobrin) believe that the initiative to adopt the royal title could not come from a 16-year-old youth. Most likely, Metropolitan Macarius played an important role in this. Strengthening the power of the king was also beneficial to his relatives on the maternal side. V. O. Klyuchevsky adhered to the opposite point of view, emphasizing the desire for power that was early formed in the sovereign. In his opinion, "the tsar's political thoughts were developed secretly from those around him", the idea of ​​​​a wedding came as a complete surprise to the boyars.

The ancient Byzantine kingdom with its divinely crowned emperors has always been a model for Orthodox countries, but it fell under the blows of the infidels. Moscow, in the eyes of the Russian Orthodox people, was to become the heiress of Tsargrad - Constantinople. The triumph of autocracy also personified the triumph of the Orthodox faith for Metropolitan Macarius. Thus intertwined the interests of the royal and spiritual authorities (Philotheus). At the beginning of the 16th century, the idea of ​​the divine origin of the power of the sovereign was becoming more widespread. One of the first to talk about this was Joseph Volotsky. A different understanding of the power of the sovereign by Archpriest Sylvester later led to the exile of the latter. The idea that the autocrat is obliged in everything to obey God and his institutions runs through the entire “Message to the Tsar”.

On January 16, 1547, a solemn wedding ceremony took place in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin., the rank of which was compiled by the metropolitan. The Metropolitan laid on Ivan the signs of royal dignity: the cross of the Life-Giving Tree, barmas and the cap of Monomakh; Ivan Vasilievich was anointed with chrism, and then the metropolitan blessed the tsar.

Later, in 1558, Patriarch Joasaph II of Constantinople informed Ivan the Terrible that “his royal name is commemorated in the Cathedral Church on all Sundays, as the names of former Byzantine Tsars; this is commanded to be done in all dioceses, where there are only metropolitans and bishops”, “and about your blessed wedding to the kingdom from St. Metropolitan of All Rus', our brother and comrade-in-arms, has been accepted by us for the good and worthy of your kingdom.” “Show us,” wrote Joachim, Patriarch of Alexandria, “in the present times, a new nurturer and providence for us, a good champion, chosen and God-instructed Ktitor of this holy monastery, what was once the divinely crowned and Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine ... Your memory will abide with us unceasingly not only on the church rule, but also at meals with the ancient, former kings.

The royal title allowed him to take a significantly different position in diplomatic relations with Western Europe. The grand ducal title was translated as "prince" or even "great duke". The title "king" in the hierarchy was on a par with the title of emperor.

Since 1554, the title of Ivan has been unconditionally recognized by England. The question of his title in Catholic countries, in which the theory of a single "holy empire" was firmly held, was more difficult.

In 1576, Emperor Maximilian II, wishing to bring Ivan the Terrible to an alliance against Turkey, offered him the throne and the title of "Eastern [Eastern] Caesar" in the future. John IV was completely indifferent to the "Greek tsardom", but demanded immediate recognition of himself as the king of "all Rus'", and the emperor yielded on this important matter of principle, especially since Maximilian I recognized the royal title for Vasily III, calling the Sovereign "God's grace Caesar and owner of the All-Russian and Grand Duke. The papacy turned out to be much more stubborn, which defended the exclusive right of the popes to grant royal and other titles to sovereigns, and on the other hand, did not allow violations of the principle of a “united empire”. In this irreconcilable position, the papal throne found support from the Polish king, who perfectly understood the significance of the claims of the Moscow Sovereign.

Sigismund II Augustus submitted a note to the papal throne, in which he warned that the recognition by the papacy of Ivan IV of the title of "Tsar of All Rus'" would lead to the exclusion from Poland and Lithuania of the lands inhabited by the "Rusyns" related to the Muscovites, and would attract Moldovans and Vlachs to his side. For his part, John IV attached particular importance to the recognition of his royal title by the Polish-Lithuanian state, but Poland throughout the 16th century did not agree to his demand. Of Ivan IV's successors, his imaginary son False Dmitry I used the title of "emperor", but Sigismund III, who helped him take the throne of Moscow, officially called him simply a prince, not even "great".

After the coronation, the tsar's relatives strengthened their position, having achieved significant benefits, but after the Moscow uprising of 1547, the Glinsky family lost all its influence, and the young ruler became convinced of the striking discrepancy between his ideas about power and the real state of affairs.

With the accession to the throne in 1740 of the infant emperor John Antonovich, a digital indication was introduced in relation to the Russian tsars bearing the name Ivan (John). John Antonovich became known as John III Antonovich. This is evidenced by rare coins that have come down to us with the inscription "John III, by the grace of God, Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia."

"The great-grandfather of John III Antonovich received the specified title of Tsar John II Alekseevich of All Rus', and Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible received the specified title of Tsar Ivan I Vasilyevich of All Rus'." In this way, Ivan the Terrible was originally called John the First.

The digital part of the title - IV - was first assigned to Ivan the Terrible by Karamzin in the History of the Russian State, since he began counting from Ivan Kalita.

Since 1549, together with the Chosen Rada (A.F. Adashev, Metropolitan Macarius, A.M. Kurbsky, Archpriest Sylvester, and others), Ivan IV carried out a number of reforms aimed at centralizing the state.

In 1549, the first Zemsky Sobor was convened with representatives from all estates, except for the peasantry. A class-representative monarchy took shape in Russia.

In 1550, a new code was adopted, who introduced a single unit of tax collection - a large plow, which amounted to 400-600 acres of land, depending on the fertility of the soil and the social status of the owner, and limited the rights of serfs and peasants (the rules for the transition of peasants were tightened).

In the early 1550s, the zemstvo and gubernatorial (started by the government of Elena Glinskaya) reforms were carried out, which redistributed part of the powers of governors and volosts, including judicial ones, in favor of elected representatives of the black-haired peasantry and nobility.

In 1550, a "chosen thousand" of Moscow nobles received estates within 60-70 km from Moscow and a foot semi-regular archery army was formed, armed with firearms. In 1555-1556, Ivan IV canceled feeding and adopted the Code of Service. votchinniks became obliged to equip and bring soldiers, depending on the size of land holdings, on a par with landowners.

Under Ivan the Terrible, a system of orders was formed: Petition, Posolsky, Local, Streltsy, Pushkarsky, Bronny, Robbery, Printed, Sokolnichiy, Zemsky orders, as well as quarters: Galician, Ustyug, Novaya, Kazansky order.

In the early 1560s, Ivan Vasilyevich made a landmark reform of state sphragistics. From that moment on, a stable type of state seal appeared in Russia. For the first time, a rider appears on the chest of the ancient double-headed eagle - the coat of arms of the princes of the Rurik House, previously depicted separately, and always on the front side of the state seal, while the image of the eagle was placed on the back. The new seal sealed the treaty with the Danish kingdom of April 7, 1562.

Stoglavy Cathedral of 1551 regulated ecclesiastical matters.

Under Ivan the Terrible Jewish merchants are banned from entering Russia. When, in 1550, the Polish king Sigismund-August demanded that they be allowed free entry into Russia, John refused such words: “Don’t order Zhid to go to your states, we don’t want to see any dashing in our states, but we want God to give my people in my states in silence without any embarrassment. And you, our brother, would not write to us about Zhideh in advance. because they are Russian people “They were taken away from Christianity, and poisonous potions were brought to our lands and many dirty tricks were done to our people”.

In the first half of the 16th century, mainly during the reign of the khans from the Crimean family of Gireys, the Kazan Khanate waged constant wars with Muscovite Russia. In total, the Kazan khans made about forty trips to Russian lands, mainly to the regions of Nizhny Novgorod, Vyatka, Vladimir, Kostroma, Galich, Murom, Vologda. “From the Crimea and from Kazan to the semi-earth it was empty”, - the king wrote, describing the consequences of the invasions.

The history of the Kazan campaigns is often counted from the campaign that took place in 1545, which "was in the nature of a military demonstration and strengthened the position of the" Moscow Party "and other opponents of Khan Safa Giray." Moscow supported the ruler of Kasimov, Shah Ali, loyal to Rus', who, having become the Kazan khan, approved the project of a union with Moscow. But in 1546, Shah-Ali was expelled by the Kazan nobility, who elevated Khan Safa-Girey to the throne from a dynasty hostile to Rus'. After that, it was decided to move on to active actions and eliminate the threat posed by Kazan. “Starting from that moment,” the historian points out, “Moscow put forward a plan for the final crushing of the Kazan Khanate.”

In total, Ivan IV led three campaigns against Kazan. During the first (winter 1547/1548), due to an early thaw 15 versts from Nizhny Novgorod, siege artillery went under the ice on the Volga, and the troops that reached Kazan stood under it for only 7 days. The second campaign (autumn 1549 - spring 1550) followed the news of the death of Safa Giray, also did not lead to the capture of Kazan, but the Sviyazhsk fortress was built, which served as a stronghold for the Russian troops during the next campaign.

The third campaign (June-October 1552) ended with the capture of Kazan. The 150,000th Russian army participated in the campaign, the armament included 150 guns. The Kazan Kremlin was taken by storm. Khan Yediger-Magmet was captured by Russian commanders. The chronicler recorded: “On himself, the sovereign did not order to imati not a single coppersmith (that is, not a single penny), nor captivity, only the single king Ediger-Magmet and the royal banners and city cannons”. I. I. Smirnov believes that “the Kazan campaign of 1552 and the brilliant victory of Ivan IV over Kazan not only meant a major foreign policy success of the Russian state, but also contributed to strengthening the power of the tsar.” Almost simultaneously with the start of the campaign in June 1552, the Crimean Khan Devlet I Giray made a campaign to Tula.

In the defeated Kazan, the tsar appointed Prince Alexander Gorbaty-Shuisky as Kazan governor, and Prince Vasily Serebryany as his assistant.

After the establishment of the episcopal chair in Kazan, the tsar and the church council by lot elected hegumen Guriy in the rank of archbishop for it. Guriy received an order from the tsar to convert Kazanians to Orthodoxy solely at the request of each person, but “unfortunately, such prudent measures were not followed everywhere: the intolerance of the century took its toll…”.

From the first steps towards the conquest and development of the Volga region, the tsar began to invite to his service all the Kazan nobility, who agreed to swear allegiance to him, sending “dangerous letters to the black people who were tributary in all uluses, so that they would go to the sovereign without fear of anything; and who famously repaired, God took revenge on him; and their sovereign will grant, and they would pay yasaks, just like the former Kazan tsar. This nature of the policy not only did not require the preservation of the main military forces of the Russian state in Kazan, but, on the contrary, made Ivan's solemn return to the capital natural and expedient. During the Livonian War, the Muslim regions of the Volga region began to supply the Russian army with "multiple 30,000 fighting men", well prepared for the offensive.

Immediately after the capture of Kazan, in January 1555, the ambassadors of the Siberian Khan Ediger asked the king to “He took the whole Siberian land under his name and defended (protected) from all sides and put his tribute on them and sent his man to whom to collect tribute” .

In the early 1550s, the Astrakhan Khanate was an ally of the Crimean Khan, controlling the lower reaches of the Volga. Before the final subjugation of the Astrakhan Khanate under Ivan IV, two campaigns were made.

Campaign of 1554 was committed under the command of the voivode Prince Yuri Pronsky-Shemyakin. In the battle near the Black Island, the Russian army defeated the leading Astrakhan detachment, and Astrakhan was taken without a fight. As a result, Khan Dervish-Ali was brought to power, promising support for Moscow.

The campaign of 1556 was connected with the fact that Khan Dervish-Ali went over to the side of the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire. The campaign was led by governor Ivan Cheremisinov. First, the Don Cossacks of the detachment of ataman Lyapun Filimonov defeated the khan's army near Astrakhan, after which Astrakhan was again taken without a fight in July. As a result of this campaign, the Astrakhan Khanate was subordinated to the Russian kingdom.

In 1556, the capital of the Golden Horde, Sarai-Batu, was destroyed.

After the conquest of Astrakhan, Russian influence began to extend to the Caucasus. In 1559, the princes of Pyatigorsk and Cherkassky asked Ivan IV to send them a detachment to protect them against the raids of the Crimean Tatars and priests to maintain the faith; the tsar sent them two governors and priests, who renewed the fallen ancient churches, and in Kabarda they showed extensive missionary activity, baptizing many into Orthodoxy.

During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, trade relations between Russia and England were established across the White Sea and the Arctic Ocean, which hit the economic interests of Sweden, which received considerable income from transit Russian-European trade. In 1553, the expedition of the English navigator Richard Chancellor rounded the Kola Peninsula, entered the White Sea and anchored to the west of the Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery opposite the village of Nenoksa. Having received news of the appearance of the British within his country, Ivan IV wished to meet with Chancellor, who, having traveled about 1000 km, arrived in Moscow with honors. Shortly after this expedition, the Moscow Company was founded in London, which subsequently received monopoly trading rights from Tsar Ivan.

The Swedish king Gustav I Vasa, after an unsuccessful attempt to create an anti-Russian alliance, which would include the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Livonia and Denmark, decided to act independently.

The first motive for declaring war on Sweden was the capture of Russian merchants in Stockholm. On September 10, 1555, the Swedish admiral Jacob Bagge besieged Oreshek with a 10,000-strong army, the Swedes' attempts to develop an offensive against Novgorod were thwarted by a guard regiment under the command of Sheremetev. January 20, 1556 20-25 thousand. Russian army defeated the Swedes at Kivinebba and laid siege to Vyborg, but could not take it.

In July 1556, Gustav I made a peace proposal, which was accepted by Ivan IV. March 25, 1557 was concluded Second Novgorod truce for forty years, which restored the border, already defined by the Orekhov peace treaty of 1323, and approved the custom of diplomatic relations through the Novgorod governor.

In 1547, the king instructed the Saxon Schlitte to bring artisans, artists, doctors, pharmacists, printers, people skilled in ancient and new languages, even theologians. However, after the protests of Livonia, the senate of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck arrested Schlitte and his people.

In 1554, Ivan IV demanded from the Livonian Confederation the return of arrears under the “Yuryev tribute” established by the 1503 treaty, the rejection of military alliances with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Sweden, and the continuation of the truce. The first payment of the debt for Dorpat was to take place in 1557, but the Livonian Confederation did not fulfill its obligation.

In the spring of 1557, on the banks of the Narva, on the orders of Ivan, a port was set up: “The same year, July, a city was set up from the German Ust-Narova River Rozsene by the sea for the shelter of a sea ship”, “The same year, April, the tsar and the Grand Duke sent Prince Dmitry Semenovich Shastunov and Pyotr Petrovich Golovin and Ivan Vyrodkov to Ivangorod, and ordered to put on the Narova below Ivanyagorod at the mouth of the sea city for a ship shelter ... ”However, the Hanseatic League and Livonia did not allow European merchants to enter the new Russian port, and they continued to go , as before, to Revel, Narva and Riga.

The Posvolsky Treaty of September 15, 1557 of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Order created a threat to the establishment of Lithuanian power in Livonia. The coordinated position of the Hansa and Livonia to prevent Moscow from independent maritime trade led Tsar Ivan to the decision to start a struggle for a wide outlet to the Baltic.

In January 1558, Ivan IV began the Livonian War for the mastery of the coast of the Baltic Sea. Initially, hostilities developed successfully. The Russian army conducted active offensive operations in the Baltic states, took Narva, Derpt, Neishloss, Neuhaus, and defeated the order troops near Tirzen near Riga. In the spring and summer of 1558, the Russians captured the entire eastern part of Estonia, and by the spring of 1559 the army of the Livonian Order was finally defeated, and the Order itself actually ceased to exist. At the direction of Alexei Adashev, the Russian governors accepted a truce proposal coming from Denmark, which lasted from March to November 1559, and began separate negotiations with the Livonian urban circles to pacify Livonia in exchange for some concessions in trade from the German cities. At this time, the lands of the Order come under the protection of Poland, Lithuania, Sweden and Denmark.

In 1560, at the Congress of Imperial Deputies of Germany, Albert of Mecklenburg reported: “The Moscow tyrant begins to build a fleet on the Baltic Sea: in Narva he turns merchant ships belonging to the city of Lübeck into warships and transfers control of them to Spanish, English and German commanders.” The congress decided to turn to Moscow with a solemn embassy, ​​to which to attract Spain, Denmark and England, to offer the eastern power eternal peace and stop its conquests.

The Crimean khans of the Girey dynasty from the end of the 15th century were vassals of the Ottoman Empire, which was actively expanding in Europe. Part of the Moscow aristocracy and the Pope persistently demanded that Ivan the Terrible enter into a fight with the Turkish Sultan Suleiman the First.

Simultaneously with the start of the Russian offensive in Livonia, the Crimean cavalry raided the Russian kingdom, several thousand Crimeans broke through in the vicinity of Tula and Pronsk, and R. G. Skrynnikov emphasizes that the Russian government, represented by Adashev and Viskovaty, “should have concluded a truce on the western borders” , as it was preparing for a "decisive clash on the southern border." The tsar yielded to the demands of the opposition aristocracy about a campaign against the Crimea: “the brave and courageous men advised and urged that he (Ivan) move with his head, with great troops against the Perekop Khan.”

In 1558, the army of Prince Dmitry Vishnevetsky defeated the Crimean army near Azov, and in 1559 the army under the command of Daniil Adashev made a trip to the Crimea, ruining the large Crimean port of Gyozlev (now Evpatoria) and freeing many Russian captives. Ivan the Terrible offered an alliance to the Polish king Sigismund II against the Crimea, but he, on the contrary, leaned towards an alliance with the khanate.

On August 31, 1559, the Master of the Livonian Order, Gotthard Ketler, and the King of Poland and Lithuania, Sigismund II Augustus, concluded the Treaty of Vilna on the entry of Livonia under the protectorate of Lithuania, which was supplemented on September 15 by an agreement on military assistance to Livonia by Poland and Lithuania. This diplomatic action served as an important milestone in the course and development of the Livonian War: the war between Russia and Livonia turned into a struggle between the states of Eastern Europe for the Livonian inheritance.

In January 1560 Grozny ordered the troops to go on the offensive again. The army under the command of the princes Shuisky, Serebryany and Mstislavsky took the fortress of Marienburg (Aluksne). On August 30, the Russian army under the command of Kurbsky took the residence of the master - the castle of Fellin. An eyewitness wrote: "The oppressed est is more likely to submit to the Russian than to the German." All over Estonia the peasants revolted against the German barons. There was a possibility of a quick end to the war. However, the governors of the king did not go to capture Revel and failed in the siege of Weissenstein. Aleksey Adashev (voivode of a large regiment) was appointed to Fellin, but, being thin, he was mired in local disputes with the voivodes who stood above him, fell into disgrace, was soon taken into custody in Dorpat and died there of a fever (there were rumors that he poisoned himself, Ivan the Terrible even sent one of his neighbors to Derpt to investigate the circumstances of Adashev's death). In this regard, Sylvester left the courtyard and took the vows in the monastery, and with that, their smaller confidants also fell - the Chosen Rada came to an end.

In the autumn of 1561, the Union of Vilna was concluded on the formation of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia on the territory of Livonia and the transfer of other lands to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

In January-February 1563, Polotsk was taken. Here, on the orders of the Terrible, Thomas, a preacher of reform ideas and an associate of Theodosius Kosoy, was drowned in the hole. Skrynnikov believes that Leonid, hegumen of the Joseph-Volokolamsk monastery, who accompanied the tsar, supported the massacre of the Polotsk Jews. Also, on the royal order, the Tatars, who took part in hostilities, killed the Bernardine monks who were in Polotsk. The religious element in the conquest of Polotsk by Ivan the Terrible is also noted by Khoroshkevich.

On January 28, 1564, the Polotsk army of P. I. Shuisky, moving towards Minsk and Novogrudok, unexpectedly fell into an ambush and was utterly defeated by the troops of N. Radziwill. Grozny immediately accused the governor M. Repnin and Yu. Kashin (the heroes of the capture of Polotsk) of betrayal and ordered them to be killed. Kurbsky, in connection with this, reproached the tsar that he had shed the victorious, holy blood of the governor "in the churches of God." A few months later, in response to Kurbsky's accusations, Grozny directly wrote about the crime committed by the boyars.

At the beginning of December 1564, an attempt was made at an armed rebellion against the tsar, in which Western forces took part.

In 1565 Grozny announced the introduction of the Oprichnina in the country. The country was divided into two parts: "Sovereign Grace Oprichnin" and Zemstvo. In Oprichnina, mainly the northeastern Russian lands fell, where there were few boyars-patrimonials. The center of the Oprichnina was Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, the new residence of Ivan the Terrible, from where, on January 3, 1565, the messenger Konstantin Polivanov delivered a letter to the clergy, the boyar Duma and the people about the abdication of the king from the throne. Although Veselovsky believes that Grozny did not announce his resignation from power, the prospect of the departure of the sovereign and the onset of "stateless time", when the nobles can again force the city merchants and artisans to do everything for them for free, could not but excite the Moscow citizens.

The most prominent boyars became the first victims of the oprichnina: the first voivode in the Kazan campaign A. B. Gorbaty-Shuisky with his son Peter, his brother-in-law Pyotr Khovrin, the roundabout P. Golovin (whose family traditionally held the positions of Moscow treasurers), P. I. Gorensky-Obolensky ( his younger brother, Yuri, managed to escape in Lithuania), Prince Dmitry Shevyrev, S. Loban-Rostovsky and others. With the help of guardsmen, who were released from legal responsibility, Ivan IV forcibly confiscated boyar and princely estates, transferring them to noble guardsmen. The boyars and princes themselves were granted estates in other regions of the country, for example, in the Volga region.

The decree on the introduction of the Oprichnina was approved by the highest bodies of spiritual and secular power - the Consecrated Cathedral and the Boyar Duma. There is also an opinion that this decree was confirmed by the decision of the Zemsky Sobor. However, according to other sources, members of the Council of 1566 sharply protested against the oprichnina, filing a petition for the abolition of the oprichnina for 300 signatures; 50 of the petitioners were subjected to commercial execution, several had their tongues cut off, and three were beheaded.

For the consecration to the rank of Metropolitan Philip, which took place on July 25, 1566, a letter was prepared and signed, according to which Philip promised “not to intervene in the oprichnina and royal life and, upon order, because of the oprichnina ... not to leave the metropolis.” According to R. G. Skrynnikov, thanks to the intervention of Philip, many petitioners of the Cathedral of 1566 were released from prison. On March 22, 1568, in the Assumption Cathedral, Philip refused to bless the tsar and demanded the abolition of the oprichnina. In response, the guardsmen beat the Metropolitan's servants to death with iron sticks, then a trial was initiated against the Metropolitan in the church court. Philip was defrocked and exiled to the Tver Otroch Monastery.

As an oprichnina "abbot", the king performed a number of monastic duties. So, at midnight everyone got up for the midnight office, at four in the morning - for matins, at eight mass began. The tsar set an example of piety: he himself called for matins, sang in the kliros, prayed fervently, and read the Holy Scripture aloud during the common meal. In general, the service took about 9 hours a day. At the same time, there is evidence that orders for executions and torture were often given in the church. Historian G. P. Fedotov believes that “without denying the tsar’s repentant moods, one cannot but see that he was able to combine brutality with church piety in well-established everyday forms, defiling the very idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe Orthodox kingdom.”

In 1569, the tsar's cousin, Prince Vladimir Andreevich Staritsky, died (presumably, according to rumors, on the orders of the tsar, they brought him a bowl of poisoned wine and an order that Vladimir Andreevich himself, his wife and their eldest daughter drink the wine). Somewhat later, the mother of Vladimir Andreevich, Efrosinya Staritskaya, who repeatedly stood at the head of boyar conspiracies against John IV and was repeatedly pardoned by him, was also killed.

In December 1569, suspecting the Novgorod nobility of complicity in the "conspiracy" of Prince Vladimir Andreevich Staritsky, who had recently been killed on his orders, and at the same time of their intention to turn themselves over to the Polish king, Ivan, accompanied by a large army of guardsmen, set out on a campaign against Novgorod. Moving to Novgorod in the autumn of 1569, guardsmen staged massacres and robberies in Tver, Klin, Torzhok and other neighboring cities.

In the Tver Otrochy Monastery in December 1569, he personally strangled Metropolitan Philip, who refused to bless the campaign against Novgorod. The Kolychev family, to which Philip belonged, was persecuted; some of its members were executed on Ivan's orders.

Having dealt with Novgorod, the tsar marched on Pskov. The tsar limited himself only to the execution of several Pskovites and the robbery of their property. At that time, as the legend says, Grozny was visiting a Pskov fool (a certain Nikola Salos). When it was time for dinner, Nikola handed Grozny a piece of raw meat with the words: “Here, eat, you eat human meat,” and after that he threatened Ivan with many troubles if he did not spare the inhabitants. Grozny, having disobeyed, ordered to remove the bells from one Pskov monastery. At the same time, his best horse fell under the king, which impressed Ivan. The tsar hurriedly left Pskov and returned to Moscow, where a “search” for the Novgorod treason began, which was carried out throughout 1570, and many prominent guardsmen were also involved in the case.

In 1563 and 1569, together with the Turkish troops, Devlet I Giray made two unsuccessful campaigns against Astrakhan. The Turkish fleet also participated in the second campaign, and the Turks also planned to build a canal between the Volga and the Don to strengthen their influence in the Caspian, but the campaign ended in an unsuccessful 10-day siege of Astrakhan. Devlet I Giray, not happy with the strengthening of Turkey in this region, also secretly interfered with the campaign.

Starting from 1567, the activity of the Crimean Khanate began to increase, campaigns were made every year. In 1570, the Crimeans, almost without rebuff, subjected the Ryazan region to terrible devastation.

In 1571, Devlet Giray undertook a campaign against Moscow. Having deceived Russian intelligence, the Khan crossed the Oka near Kromy, and not at Serpukhov, where Ivan was waiting for him, and rushed to Moscow. Ivan left for Rostov, and the Crimeans burned Moscow, with the exception of the Kremlin and Kitay-gorod protected by stone walls. In the correspondence that followed, the tsar agreed to cede Astrakhan to the khan, but he was not satisfied with this, demanding Kazan and 2,000 rubles, and then announced his plans to capture the entire Russian state.

Devlet Giray wrote to Ivan: "I burn and waste everything because of Kazan and Astrakhan, and I apply the wealth of the whole world to dust, hoping for the majesty of God. I came to you, I burned your city, I wanted your crown and head; but you did not come and did not become against us, and you also boast that I am the sovereign of Moscow! If you had shame and dignity, then you would come against us and stand ".

Stunned by the defeat, Ivan the Terrible replied in a response that he agreed to transfer Astrakhan under Crimean control, but Kazan refused to return Gireyam: “You write about the war in a letter, and if I start writing about the same, then we won’t come to a good deed. we must have your ambassadors, and it is impossible to do such a great deed as messengers; until then, you would have granted, given terms and did not fight our land ".

Ivan came out to the Tatar ambassadors in a sermyage, saying to them: “Do you see me, what am I in? So the king (khan) made me! All de my kingdom cast out and burned the treasury, give me nothing to the king ".

In 1572, the Khan began a new campaign against Moscow, which ended with the destruction of the Crimean-Turkish army in the Battle of Molodi. The death of the elite Turkish army near Astrakhan in 1569 and the defeat of the Crimean horde near Moscow in 1572 put a limit to the Turkish-Tatar expansion in Eastern Europe.

There is a version based on the “History” of Prince Andrei Kurbsky, according to which the winner at Molodi, Vorotynsky, was accused of intending to bewitch the tsar the following year, following a denunciation of a serf, and died of torture, moreover, during the torture, the tsar himself raked coals with his staff.

Unsuccessful actions against Devlet-Giray in 1571 led to the final destruction of the oprichnina elite of the first composition: the head of the oprichnina duma, the royal brother-in-law M. Cherkassky (Saltankul Murza) "for deliberately bringing the tsar under the Tatar attack" was impaled; nursery P. Zaitsev hanged on the gates of his own house; Oprichny boyars I. Chebotov, I. Vorontsov, butler L. Saltykov, kravchiy F. Saltykov and many others were also executed. Moreover, the reprisals did not subside even after the Battle of Molodi - celebrating the victory in Novgorod, the tsar drowned "children of the boyars" in Volkhov, after which a ban was introduced on the very name of the oprichnina. At the same time, Ivan the Terrible brought down repressions on those who had previously helped him deal with Metropolitan Philip: the Solovki hegumen Paisius was imprisoned on Valaam, the Ryazan bishop Filofei was defrocked, and the bailiff Stefan Kobylin, who oversaw the metropolitan in the Otroche Monastery, was exiled to the distant Stone Monastery. islands.

As a result, during the new invasion in 1572, the oprichnina army was already united with the zemstvo; in the same year the tsar abolished the oprichnina altogether and banned its very name, although in fact, under the name of the “sovereign court”, the oprichnina existed until his death.

In 1575, at the request of Ivan the Terrible, the baptized Tatar and Khan of Kasimov Simeon Bekbulatovich was crowned king as "the Grand Duke of All Rus'", and Ivan the Terrible himself called himself Ivan of Moscow, left the Kremlin and began to live on Petrovka.

According to the English historian and traveler Giles Fletcher, by the end of the year, the new sovereign had taken away all the charters granted to bishops and monasteries, which the latter had been using for several centuries. All of them were destroyed. After that (as if dissatisfied with such an act and the bad rule of the new sovereign), Grozny again took the scepter and, as if to please the church and the clergy, allowed him to renew the letters that he had already distributed from himself, holding and adding to the treasury as much land as he himself had whatever.

In this way, Grozny took away from bishops and monasteries (except for the lands attached to the treasury) a myriad of money: from some 40, from others 50, from others 100 thousand rubles, which was done by him with the aim of not only increasing his treasury, but also removing a bad opinion of his cruel rule, setting an example even worse in the hands of another king.

This was preceded by a new surge of executions, when the circle of close associates that had been established in 1572, after the destruction of the oprichnina elite, was defeated. Having abdicated the throne, Ivan Vasilyevich took his "destiny" and formed his own "specific" Duma, which was now ruled by the Nagy, Godunovs and Belskys. After 11 months, Simeon, retaining the title of Grand Duke, went to Tver, where he was given an inheritance, and Ivan Vasilyevich again began to be called the Tsar and Grand Duke of All Rus'.

On January 23, 1577, the 50,000-strong Russian army again besieged Revel but failed to take the fortress. In February 1578, Nuncio Vincent Laureo reported to Rome with alarm: "The Muscovite has divided his army into two parts: one is waiting near Riga, the other near Vitebsk." By this time, all of Livonia along the Dvin, with the exception of only two cities - Revel and Riga, was in the hands of the Russians.

In 1579, the royal messenger Wenceslas Lopatinsky brought a letter to the tsar from Bathory declaring war. Already in August, the Polish army took Polotsk, then moved to Velikiye Luki and took them.

At the same time there were direct peace negotiations with Poland. Ivan the Terrible offered to give Poland all of Livonia, with the exception of four cities. Batory did not agree to this and demanded all the Livonian cities, in addition to Sebezh, and the payment of 400,000 Hungarian gold for military expenses. This infuriated Grozny, and he responded with a sharp letter.

After that, in the summer of 1581, Stefan Batory invaded deep into Russia and laid siege to Pskov, which, however, could not be taken. Then the Swedes took Narva, where 7,000 Russians fell, then Ivangorod and Koporye. Ivan was forced to negotiate with Poland, hoping to conclude an alliance with her then against Sweden. In the end, the king was forced to agree to conditions under which “the Livonian cities, which are for the sovereign, to yield to the king, and Luke the Great and other cities that the king took, let him yield to the sovereign” - that is, the war that lasted for almost a quarter of a century ended in restoration status quo ante bellum, thus becoming barren. A 10-year truce under these conditions was signed on January 15, 1582 in the Yama Zapolsky.

After the intensification of hostilities between Russia and Sweden in 1582 (the Russian victory near Lyalitsy, the unsuccessful siege of Oreshok by the Swedes), peace negotiations began, the result of which was the Plus Truce. Yam, Koporye and Ivangorod passed to Sweden along with the adjacent territory of the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. The Russian state was cut off from the sea. The country was devastated, and the northwestern regions were depopulated. It should also be noted that the Crimean raids influenced the course of the war and its results: only for 3 years out of 25 years of the war there were no significant raids.

On January 15, 1580, a church council was convened in Moscow. Addressing the higher hierarchs, the tsar directly said how difficult his situation was: “countless enemies rose up against the Russian state,” which is why he asks for help from the Church.

In 1580, the tsar defeated the German settlement. The Frenchman Jacques Margeret, who lived in Russia for many years, writes: “The Livonians, who were taken prisoner and brought to Moscow, professing the Lutheran faith, having received two churches inside the city of Moscow, sent a public service there; but in the end, because of their pride and vanity, the said temples ... were destroyed and all their houses were ruined. And, although in winter they were driven out naked and in what their mother gave birth, they could not blame anyone but themselves for this, for ... they behaved so arrogantly, their manners were so arrogant, and their clothes were so luxurious that they could all be was mistaken for princes and princesses ... The main profit was given to them by the right to sell vodka, honey and other drinks, on which they make not 10%, but a hundred, which seems incredible, but it's true.

In 1581, the Jesuit A. Possevino went to Russia, acting as an intermediary between Ivan and Poland, and, at the same time, hoping to persuade the Russian Church to unite with the Catholic. His failure was predicted by the Polish hetman Zamoyski: “He is ready to swear that the Grand Duke is disposed towards him and will accept the Latin faith to please him, and I am sure that these negotiations will end with the prince hitting him with a crutch and driving him away.” M. V. Tolstoy writes in the History of the Russian Church: “But the hopes of the pope and the efforts of Possevino were not crowned with success. John showed all the natural flexibility of his mind, dexterity and prudence, to which the Jesuit himself had to do justice, rejected harassment for permission to build Latin churches in Rus', rejected disputes about faith and the unification of the Churches on the basis of the rules of the Florentine Council and was not carried away by the dreamy promise of acquiring all Byzantine empire, lost by the Greeks as if for retreat from Rome. The ambassador himself notes that "the Russian Sovereign stubbornly evaded, avoided talking on this topic." Thus, the papacy did not receive any privileges; the possibility of Moscow's entry into the bosom of the Catholic Church remained as vague as before, and meanwhile the papal ambassador had to begin his mediating role.

The conquest of Western Siberia by Yermak Timofeevich and his Cossacks in 1583 and his capture of the capital of the Siberian Khanate - Isker - marked the beginning of the conversion of the local population to Orthodoxy: Yermak's troops were accompanied by four priests and hieromonks. However, this expedition was carried out against the will of the tsar, who in November 1582 scolded the Stroganovs for calling into their patrimony the Cossacks - "thieves" - the Volga chieftains, who "previously quarreled with us with the Nogai Horde, the Nogai ambassadors on the Volga on they beat the transporters, and the Ordobazarians were robbed and beaten, and many robberies and losses were repaired by our people. Tsar Ivan IV ordered the Stroganovs, under fear of "great disgrace", to return Yermak from a campaign in Siberia and use his forces to "protect the Perm places." But while the tsar was writing his letter, Yermak had already inflicted a crushing defeat on Kuchum and occupied his capital.

A study of the remains of Ivan the Terrible showed that in the last six years of his life he developed osteophytes, and to such an extent that he could no longer walk - he was carried on a stretcher. M. M. Gerasimov, who examined the remains, noted that he had not seen such powerful deposits even among the deepest old people. Forced immobility, combined with a general unhealthy lifestyle, nervous shocks, etc., led to the fact that in his 50s, the tsar looked already a decrepit old man.

In August 1582, A. Possevino, in the report of the Signoria of Venice, stated that "the Moscow sovereign will not live long." In February and early March 1584, the tsar was still engaged in state affairs. By March 10, the first mention of the disease dates back (when the Lithuanian ambassador was stopped on the way to Moscow "due to the sovereign's illness"). On March 16, deterioration began, the king fell into unconsciousness, but on March 17 and 18 he felt relief from hot baths. But in the afternoon of March 18, the king died. The body of the sovereign was swollen and smelled bad "because of the decomposition of the blood."

Vifliofika preserved the tsar’s dying order: “When the Great Sovereign of the last farewell was honored, the most pure body and blood of the Lord, then as a testimony presenting his confessor Archimandrite Theodosius, filling his eyes with tears, saying to Boris Feodorovich: I command you my soul and my son Feodor Ivanovich and daughter my Irina ... ". Also, before his death, according to the chronicles, the tsar bequeathed to his youngest son Dmitry Uglich with all the counties.

It is difficult to reliably find out whether the death of the king was caused by natural causes or was violent.

There were persistent rumors about the violent death of Ivan the Terrible. A chronicler of the 17th century reported that "the close people gave poison to the king." According to the testimony of the clerk Ivan Timofeev, Boris Godunov and Bogdan Belsky "prematurely ended the life of the tsar." The crown hetman Zholkiewski also accused Godunov: “He took the life of Tsar Ivan by bribing the doctor who treated Ivan, because the case was such that if he had not warned him (hadn’t gotten ahead of him), he himself would have been executed along with many other noble nobles” . The Dutchman Isaac Massa wrote that Belsky put poison in the royal medicine. Horsey also wrote about the secret plans of the Godunovs against the tsar and put forward a version of the tsar's strangulation, with which V.I. , and also strangled. The historian Valishevsky wrote: “Bogdan Belsky with his advisers brought down Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, and now he wants to beat the boyars and wants to find the kingdom of Moscow under Tsar Fedor Ivanovich for his adviser (Godunov).”

The version of the poisoning of Grozny was tested during the opening of the royal tombs in 1963: studies showed a normal content of arsenic in the remains and an increased content of mercury, which, however, was present in many medicines of the 16th century and which was treated for syphilis, which the tsar was supposedly ill with. The version of the murder remained a hypothesis.

At the same time, the chief archaeologist of the Kremlin, Tatyana Panova, together with the researcher Elena Alexandrovskaya, considered the conclusions of the 1963 commission to be incorrect. In their opinion, Ivan the Terrible exceeded the allowable rate of arsenic by more than 2 times. According to them, the king was poisoned by a "cocktail" of arsenic and mercury, which was given to him for some time.

Wives of Ivan the Terrible:

The number of wives of Ivan the Terrible has not been precisely established; historians mention the names of six or seven women who were considered the wives of Ivan IV. Of these, only the first 4 are “married”, that is, legal from the point of view of church law (for the fourth marriage, prohibited by the canons, Ivan received a conciliar decision on its admissibility).

The first, longest marriage was concluded as follows: on December 13, 1546, 16-year-old Ivan consulted with Metropolitan Macarius about his desire to marry. Immediately after the wedding in January, noble dignitaries, devious and clerks began to travel around the country, looking for a bride for the king. A review of the brides was arranged. The choice of the king fell on Anastasia, the daughter of the widow Zakharyina. At the same time, Karamzin says that the tsar was guided not by the nobility of the family, but by the personal merits of Anastasia. The wedding took place on February 13, 1547 in the Church of Our Lady. The tsar's marriage lasted 13 years, until the sudden death of Anastasia in the summer of 1560. The death of his wife greatly influenced the 30-year-old king, after this event, historians note a turning point in the nature of his reign. A year after the death of his wife, the tsar entered into a second marriage, combined with Maria Temryukovna, who came from a family of Kabardian princes. After her death, Marfa Sobakina and Anna Koltovskaya became wives in turn. The third and fourth wives of the king were also chosen according to the results of the bride review, and the same one, since Martha died 2 weeks after the wedding.

At this point, the number of legal marriages of the king ended, and further information becomes more confused. It was 2 similarities of marriage (Anna Vasilchikova and), covered in reliable written sources. Probably, the information about the later "wives" (Vasilisa Melentyeva and Maria Dolgorukaya) are legends or pure falsification.

In 1567, through the plenipotentiary English ambassador Anthony Jenkinson, Ivan the Terrible negotiated marriage with the English Queen Elizabeth I, and in 1583, through the nobleman Fyodor Pisemsky, he wooed a relative of the queen, Maria Hastings, not embarrassed by the fact that he himself was once again married at that time .

A possible explanation for the large number of marriages, which was not typical for that time, is K. Valishevsky's assumption that Ivan was a great lover of women, but at the same time he was a great pedant in observing religious rites and sought to possess a woman only as a lawful husband. On the other hand, according to the Englishman Jerome Horsey, who knew the king personally, "he himself boasted that he had corrupted a thousand virgins and that thousands of his children were deprived of their lives" According to V. B. Kobrin, this statement, although it contains a clear exaggeration, vividly characterizes the depravity of the king. The Terrible himself in spiritual literacy recognized for himself both "fornication" simply, and "supernatural wanderings" in particular.

Anastasia Romanovna

Anastasia Zakharyina-Yuryeva (1532-1560) was a representative of the boyar family, which had no political power in the country. It was only later that he gained both weight and position, and later the Romanov dynasty emerged from it. But at the moment being described, the Zakharyins-Yurievs did not think of anything like that.

Anastasia herself was the youngest of 2 daughters. In 1543 her father died, and the girl lived with her mother. It should be noted that her physique was fragile and graceful, her face was beautiful, and her mind was sharp and inquisitive.

In 1547, the time came for the sovereign to marry. A cry was thrown across Rus' - to provide all the boyar families with their daughters, who are marriageable, for the bride. Special people examined the girls, and the best ones were sent to the palace to the crowned groom. There were up to 500 beauties collected from all over the Russian land. Among them was 14-year-old Anastasia.

It was she who liked the young autocrat. He took a liking to her heart and soul, and on February 3, 1547 they played a wedding to the delight of all honest people. The bride and groom were crowned by Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus' Macarius.

The couple have been married for 13.5 years. The queen gave birth to 6 children. Four of them died in infancy. Son Ivan Ioannovich died during a quarrel with his father in 1581. Son Fyodor Ioannovich later became the king of all Rus'. Anastasia had a very great influence on her husband, which caused discontent in the royal environment.

This truly wise woman died suddenly on August 7, 1560. Her death caused a lot of gossip and suspicion. Of course, the woman was not so young by the standards of the XVI century. Moreover, she gave birth to 6 children. But, as a rule, at that time, the reigning persons went to another world, having crossed the 50-year mark. Cosmetics were to blame for this, which contained a large amount of arsenic, lead and mercury. These harmful components slowly killed the body. But on the eve of the 30th anniversary, it was possible to die only from a large dose of poison.

In 2000, the remains of the deceased were examined. Conducted a thorough spectral analysis of the queen's hair. They had a huge concentration of mercury. No cosmetics could give such a high content of this toxic substance. Therefore, the version of the poisoning looks quite real.

Anastasia was buried in the Ascension Monastery of the Kremlin. The king wept bitter tears and could hardly stand on his feet, so dear to him was this woman. Throughout his subsequent life, he remembered her with warmth and tenderness.

Maria Temryukovna

The second wife of the autocrat was Princess Kuchenei (1545-1569), daughter of the Kabardian prince Temryuk (principality in the North Caucasus). The rumor about her beauty reached Moscow, and the sovereign expressed a desire to tie the knot with her. The wedding took place on August 21, 1561. The bride and groom were crowned again by the permanent Metropolitan Macarius. Before the wedding celebrations, the bride was baptized and named Maria Temryukovna.

It should be noted that the young woman had a very cruel and domineering character. It is she who is accused of completely spoiling the character of the sovereign. But it seems that if a person did not want to, then no one would have influenced him. The importance of Mary in the life and formation of the personality of Ivan the Terrible is greatly exaggerated.

Maria Temryukovna died on September 6, 1569. According to other sources, she died on September 1, having lived in marriage for 7 years. In 1563 she gave birth to a boy, Vasily. The baby died at 2 months of age. The second wife was buried next to the feather, and the sarcophagus with the body was placed to the left of Anastasia's sarcophagus. The king associated the sudden death of Mary with poisoning. This aggravated the political situation in the country.

Marfa Sobakina

The third betrothed of the sovereign was Marfa Sobakina, a Kolomna noblewoman. The king chose her after the usual procedure of the bride. The marriage ceremony took place on October 28, 1571. But even as a bride, Martha caught a cold and fell ill. Already on November 13, 1571, she died suddenly, having been queen for only 15 days. The terrible sovereign considered that the third wife was also poisoned. An investigation was organized, as a result of which 2 dozen people were executed.

In the late 90s of the XX century, the remains of the queen were subjected to examination. But no poisonous substances were found. However, it can be assumed that the woman was given a poison of plant origin. After centuries, such a poison is impossible to detect.

Anna Koltovskaya

The Orthodox Church allowed men to have only 3 wives. But the tsar told the clergy that Sobakina did not have time to become his betrothed because of her quick death. Therefore, the list of wives of Ivan the Terrible on Marfa did not end. Anna Koltovskaya continued it. It is noteworthy that she participated in the same bride as Martha Sobakina. The king noticed her, but gave preference to another. Then he remembered this noble girl when the 3rd marriage did not work out.

The marriage ceremony took place on April 29, 1572. After that, the newlyweds lived 4 months soul to soul. Apparently, the young woman was distinguished by an extraordinary mind, as she managed to tame the formidable temper of the king. It is she who is credited with the successful fight against such a terrible phenomenon on Russian soil as the oprichnina.

The woman managed to prove to the sovereign that terror, unjustified by anything, brings terrible harm to the Russian land. After such conversations, the tsar began to destroy the leaders of terror. The heads of Mikhail Cherkassky, the fierce Vyazemsky, Vasily Gryazny, Alexei Basmanov flew off. The horrendous phenomenon has almost vanished. But for some reason, the love between the spouses also ended.

In September 1572, at the behest of the Tsar, Anna retired to a monastery and took monastic vows under the name Daria. Until the end of her life, she remained a nun-queen, and died on April 5, 1626, having survived both an ungrateful spouse and difficult Time of Troubles. She was buried in the Tikhvin Vvedensky Monastery.

Maria Dolgorukaya

After the marriage with Anna Koltovskaya, the sovereign exhausted the limit of wives. According to the canons of the Orthodox Church, he no longer had the right to bind himself to someone by marriage. However, history recorded the 5th wife - this is Princess Maria Dolgorukaya. In modern terms, in November 1573, Ivan and Maria had an affair.

The feelings were so strong that the lovers secretly got married. But on the wedding night it turned out that the chosen one is not a virgin. Shocked and heartbroken, the sovereign ordered to tie the deceiver to the tails of the horses. The horses were burned with whips, and they rushed in different directions. It is not difficult to imagine what remains of the body of Maria Dolgoruky.

Anna Vasilchikova

Anna Vasilchikova is considered the 6th wife of the formidable Tsar of All Rus'. The woman was from the boyar family of the Vasilchikovs, but many historians do not consider her a wife and queen. The wedding, which supposedly took place in December 1574, is also called into question. However, there was a love affair, but a year passed, and the king lost interest in his beloved. After that, the woman was forcibly tonsured a nun and sent to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery. It is believed that the unfortunate woman died either in December 1576 or in January 1577. Her body was buried in the same monastery.

Vasilisa Melentievna

The wives of Ivan the Terrible after the first 2 long marriages changed like gloves. Vasilisa Melentyeva is considered the seventh wife. This is a noblewoman and a widow. She had a love affair with the sovereign either at the end of 1575, or at the beginning of 1576. The king made her his wife through prayer, but there was no wedding. At the end of April 1577, the husband became jealous of his unmarried betrothed to one of the courtiers. Togo was executed, and Vasilisa was tonsured a nun in May 1577. The further fate of this woman is unknown.

Maria Nagaya

The last 8th wife is Maria Nagaya. She came from the boyar family Nagy, the daughter of Fedor Fedorovich Nagoy. She became the unmarried wife of the king in 1580, when he was 50 years old. In October 1582 she gave birth to a son, Dmitry. He became the last child of the formidable autocrat. He died in 1591 at the age of 8.

In 1583 she fell into disgrace. But her husband did not have time to send her to the monastery, as he died. Other people did it. Maria, together with her son, was removed to live in Uglich. After the tragic death of the boy, she took monastic vows and took the name Martha.

This woman played a minor political role in the Time of Troubles. In 1604, she was brought to Moscow to confirm the death of her son. This was due to the appearance of False Dmitry I. But she did not say anything new to Boris Godunov. In July 1605, Naguya was again taken to Moscow, but already on the orders of False Dmitry I. The woman publicly recognizes him as her son. However, a year later she withdrew her confession due to the execution of the impostor.

The exact date of Maria Nagoya's death is unknown. She rested in the Goritsky Resurrection Monastery either in 1608 or in 1610. Thus ended the life of the last wife of Ivan the Terrible.

Children of Ivan the Terrible:

Sons:

1. Dmitry Ivanovich (October 11, 1552 - June 4 (6), 1553), heir to his father during a fatal illness in 1553; in the same year, when the royal family was descending from the plow, the gangway overturned, and the baby drowned.

2. Ivan Ivanovich (March 28, 1554 - November 19, 1581), according to one version, died during a quarrel with his father, according to another version, he died as a result of an illness on November 19. Married three times, left no offspring.

3. Fedor I Ioannovich, (May 11, 1557 - January 7, 1598), no male children. Upon the birth of his son, Ivan the Terrible ordered to build a church in the Feodorovsky Monastery in the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky. This temple in honor of Theodore Stratilates became the main cathedral of the monastery and has been preserved to this day.

4. Vasily (son from Maria Kucheni) - died in infancy (1563).

5. Tsarevich Dmitry, (1582-1591), died in childhood (according to one of the versions, he stabbed himself to death in an epileptic fit, according to another, Boris Godunov's people killed him).

Daughters (all from Anastasia):

Ivan was born in the family of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III (Rurikovich) and the Lithuanian princess Elena Glinskaya in 1530, but already in 1533 Ivan lost his father, and in 1538 his mother also died. After the death of his father, little Ivan IV witnessed a fierce struggle between the boyar clans of the Velskys and Shuiskys, which caused the tsar's suspicious suspiciousness and distrust of the boyars.

In 1547, Ivan decides to marry the kingdom, which significantly raised the status of the Moscow ruler to the title of emperor or khan. Already after 2 years, Ivan creates the Chosen Rada from his like-minded people, which initiated a number of reforms. The Rada included the most progressive people of their time - Alexei Adashev, Andrei Kurbsky, Archpriest Sylvester, Metropolitan Macarius. In 1550, a streltsy army was created, which significantly increased the country's defense capability, a Code of Laws was compiled, which streamlined all the existing regulatory legal acts of that time. In 1555, Ivan adopted the Code of Service, a document that regulated the passage of public service, and also explained the rules of land ownership. By 1556, the feeding system was abolished throughout the country and local government was created, which at the state level was crowned with a system of orders. Some of them were sectoral, and some were territorial.

In the foreign policy of Ivan IV, two directions are strictly distinguished: eastern and western. In 1552, Ivan IV was waiting for the first success - the Russian troops took Kazan, which meant the annexation of the entire Kazan Khanate to Russia, and in 1556 Astrakhan was annexed. Since 1581, the active penetration of Russians beyond the Ural Range, into Western Siberia, begins.

Success in annexing Astrakhan and Kazan confirmed Ivan's opinion about the invincibility of his new army. He decided to annex the territory of the weakening Livonian Order. In 1558, the Livonian War began, in which Sweden, Poland and Denmark entered. As a result of this protracted conflict, in 1583 Ivan had to admit his defeat and give up a number of territories in the Baltic.

Contradictions on foreign policy issues affected the relationship between the tsar and Alexei Adashev, the leader of the head of the Chosen Rada. The death of Empress Anastasia (1560) increased the suspicion of the king, and from 1565 to 1572 the country was divided into two parts - the zemshchina and. Oprichniki constituted a special military monastic order, the hegumen of which was Ivan the Terrible himself. As a result of the activities of the oprichnina troops, many cities were devastated and devastated, in which some historians see the reasons for the Time of Troubles.

Ivan the Terrible died in 1584 under mysterious circumstances.

The reign of Ivan IV the Terrible (briefly)

The reign of Ivan the Terrible - a brief description

Ivan the Fourth was the son of Prince Vasily III and Elena Glinskaya. After the death of his father, his mother took over the reign (it lasted five years), and then all power passed into the hands of the Seven Boyars.

The childhood years of the future tsar passed in an atmosphere of constant struggle between the families of Obolensky, Shuisky, Belsky. According to researchers of the life of Grozny, it was the scenes of boyar violence and self-will that contributed to the development in Ivan of distrust and suspicion of people.

The independent reign of Ivan the Fourth began on January 16, 1547, when he took the title of tsar, and two years later a reform party was formed, headed by A. Adashev and called the Chosen Rada. It included such royal associates as the clerk Viskovaty, the priest Sylvester, Metropolitan Macarius, and others. It was from this moment that the era of Ivan the Terrible began, which was marked by unprecedented successes, both in foreign and domestic politics.

Together with the Chosen Rada, Ivan carried out a series of reforms that were aimed at centralizing the state, and the uprising in Moscow in 1547, which was able to show the tsar that his power was not autocratic, influenced the harsh nature of these reforms.

During the first convocation of the Zemsky Sobor (Great Zemsky Duma) in 1550, Ivan the Fourth showed the boyars that their power had passed and now the reins of government were in his hands. The main fruit of the meeting was the updated Sudebnik of 1477, which was not only corrected, but also supplemented with various letters and decrees that improved judicial procedures.

Already a year after the Zemsky Sobor, the Church Council was convened, where they read the "Royal Questions", which were divided into one hundred chapters. The church reform of Grozny concerned monastic land ownership, and according to it it was forbidden to acquire new lands for churches, and it was also attributed to return the lands that the Boyar Duma had previously transferred to monasteries.

In 1553, Ivan the Terrible introduced printing in Rus', which became a new craft, headed by Ivan Fedorov.

In order to strengthen the armed forces, a streltsy army is organized, formed from three thousand archers for the personal royal guard.

The main point of Grozny's foreign policy was the total crushing of the Tatar force. Already in 1552, Kazan was conquered, and in 56 the tsar's army captured Astrakhan. The defeat of these cities put an end to the three-century power of the Tatars in the Volga region.

Ivan IV Vasilyevich (Grozny) - the first tsar from the Moscow Rurik dynasty, known for tough measures to strengthen his power and fight against the opposition boyars (oprichnina).

Also known as the "attachment" to Moscow of the Astrakhan, Kazan and Siberian khanates, as a ruler who tried to get for his state access to the Baltic. The article describes the biography of Ivan the Terrible: briefly, concisely and with the maximum number of historical facts.

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Biography and years of government

The biography of Ivan Vasilievich (the story of his life and even death) both as a king and as a person (husband and father) is full of various events. All these events have influence on the development of the state, some of them became the root cause of the events referred to in historiography Time of Troubles.

Origin

Ivan IV Vasilyevich descended in a straight line from Moscow Rurikovich(by father, Vasily III) and from the Tatar Khan Mamai (by mother, Elena Glinskaya). He was also close relative of the Byzantine dynasty Paleologov (after grandmother Sophia Paleolog).

He was eldest son in the family(this was the second marriage for Vasily III, the first was childless). Born 08/25/1530 ( years of life: 1530-1584). Named after St. John the Baptist. The parents of Ivan the Terrible were very happy about the birth of their son.

Attention! It was in honor of the birth of his first son that Vasily III ordered the construction of the famous Church of the Ascension near Moscow.

early years

Formally, Ivan became king at three years old. In 1533 his father fell ill and died.

Realizing that a young son could have problems with succession to the throne (at that time his uncles, the sons of Ivan III, were alive), the parents of Ivan the Terrible formed under him regency council, the so-called Seven Boyars(not to be confused with the Seven Boyars of the Time of Troubles!).

It included the closest relatives of the little king and the most influential boyars.

But the power of the council did not last long, soon many of its members either fled abroad, or were killed (like Prince Yuri Dmitrovsky), or imprisoned (in 1537 Andrei Staritsky was besieged there, who tried to seize power in Moscow).

Ivan's mother came to power, Elena Glinskaya, which managed to carry out a number of domestic and foreign policy reforms. But in 1538 she died(probably poisoned; who poisoned - unknown, presumably Shuisky), and power was seized boyars Shuisky(Vasily and Ivan).

Ivan Vasilievich himself recalled the reign of the Shuisky brothers with a shudder. In his memoirs, he wrote that he and his younger brother Yuri were often left hungry and not given clean clothes. Naturally, education the young king also no one did.

Beginning of independent government

In 1546 the young ruler married Anastasia Romanova. It was at this time that Metropolitan Macarius, who was faithful to him, proposed royal wedding. Ivan agreed. After marriage and official wedding to the kingdom ( 1547) the need for the regency of the Shuiskys disappeared (official years of reign: 1547-1584 ).

Attention! The crowning of the kingdom and the adoption of the official title of tsar by Ivan IV was officially recognized by many countries: the Patriarchate of Constantinople, England, Spain, Florence, Denmark.

A family. Wives

There are a lot of rumors about Ivan the Terrible, his personal life. The king was officially married 6 times(although this figure is still not considered accurate):

1. Anastasia Romanova (wedding date - 1547) - first wife.
2. Maria Temryukovna (Cherkasy princess; wedding date - 1561) - second wife.
3. Marfa Sobakina (wedding date - 1571) - third wife.
4. Anna Koltovskaya (wedding date -1572) - fourth wife (a divorce was forcibly filed, the woman was tonsured into a monastery).
5. Anna Grigorievna Vasilchikova (wedding date - 1575) - fifth wife (divorced, tonsured a nun).
6. Maria Nagaya (wedding date - 1580) - the sixth wife (survived her husband).

Historians know the names of at least 3 women who could be married to the tsar, but the fact is that in the Muscovite state only first four marriages, all subsequent marriages of the king were rejected by the church (each time a special permission was taken).

Ivan the Terrible with his wife.

A family. Children

From all marriages the king had 5 sons and 3 daughters. Moreover, all the female children of Ivan the Terrible died in infancy. Two sons - the eldest Dmitry (from Anastasia) and the youngest Vasily (from Maria) also died before reaching a year. Moreover, the eldest, Dmitry, did not die from an illness. He drowned due to an oversight (and possibly malicious intent) of the nanny.

The second oldest son of Ivan IV - Ivan Ivanovich, according to historians, was killed by his father during a quarrel. He was married 3 times, but left no male heirs.

Two sons, the third Fedor (from Anastasia) and the youngest Dmitry (from Maria Nagoya) outlived father. But Dmitry died(or was killed) in Uglich in 1591, and Fedor was so weak in health that, although he inherited his father, he himself left no male heir.

Important! Thus, the Muscovite dynasty was interrupted. This was the main reason for the Time of Troubles at the beginning of the 18th century.

Reforms of the Chosen One

In 1547, an uprising took place in Moscow, which led to the fact that the Glinsky boyars, the closest relatives of the tsar, were removed from power (many were killed). This uprising not only frightened Ivan IV, but also forced the young ruler to take a fresh look at the state of affairs in the state.

Ivan IV formed a small circle of associates, called the Chosen Rada in historiography. Its members, under the leadership of the king, carried out a number of quite timely reforms in the state aimed at building state institutions.

Reforms of the elected Rada (table).

Chronology (years)	Name of the reform (measure)	Outcome
1549	Convocation of the first Zemsky Sobor	Formation of a class-representative monarchy
1550	Publication of the Sudebnik	Streamlining the tax system, the beginning of the formation of serfdom
1550	Local government reform	Streamlining the system of local self-government
1550	Army reform	Formation of the "chosen thousand" - regular noble army
1551	Creation of an order system	Formation of a system of centralized government
1551	Stoglavy Cathedral and Stoglav's Edition	Regulation of questions of church government, church land tenure, divine services
1560-1562	The emergence of a new state emblem	Strengthening the power of the Moscow ruling house in the eyes of European rulers

Oprichnina (1565-1572)

The reasons that Ivan IV embarked in 1560 on the path of tightening the regime of sole power:

• completion of the reform program of the 50s;
• differences of opinion with some members of the Elected Rada;
• failures in foreign policy;
• growth of boyar separatism.

The king was forced to resort to harsh measures immediately after boyar uprising of 1564. In 1565, by blackmail (flight to Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda), Ivan IV forced the Boyar Duma and the clergy to recognize as legitimate division of the country into(royal possession) and zemshchina.

At the same time began mass repression against the most prominent boyar families and the confiscation of their lands and property in favor of the noble guardsmen, who formed the personal army of the king.

By the end of 1569, almost the entire boyar opposition in the country (including Metropolitan Philip and the Staritsky house) was completely destroyed.

The end of the oprichnina came only in 1572.

Foreign policy

The entire foreign policy of Ivan the Terrible can be briefly represented in the form of the following table:

War	Chronology (years)	Target	Results
Kazan campaigns	1547 — 1552	Expand the boundaries of the Moscow state, eliminate the constant danger of military invasion to the southeastern lands	The capture of the Kazan Khanate and its complete subordination to the Moscow Tsar (liquidation as a political unit)
Astrakhan campaigns	1554 — 1557	Control over the Lower Volga region, elimination of an ally of the Crimean Khanate	Capture of the Astrakhan Khanate, complete control over the Volga route
Russo-Swedish War	1554 — 1557	Attempt to reach the Baltic Sea	Failures on both sides the signing of a truce for 10 years in 1557
Livonian war (Russian-Polish war 1577-1582)	1558 — 1583	Another attempt to expand the borders of the Moscow State to the Baltic Sea	Complete defeat of the Muscovite state, deprivation of access to the Baltic and the Gulf of Finland, the ruin of the northwestern territories

The foreign policy of the first half of the reign was successful, but, with the introduction of the oprichnina, the state no longer had enough forces and resources to conduct full-scale military operations. In the second half of the reign, only the annexation of the Siberian Khanate (1583) by the forces of Yermak can be considered a relative geopolitical success, such as the military campaign against Kazan and Astrakhan was in its time.

Death

The king died in March 1584 after a long illness.

Attention! Some researchers believe that the tsar could have been poisoned by the boyars Belsky, who were close to him, or Boris Godunov. For the latter, the death of Ivan IV was especially beneficial, since the weak and weak-willed Fedor, who was his brother-in-law and was under his influence, "sat" on the throne.

Personal and activity assessment

cultural activities

It is known for certain that Ivan IV, having an explosive character, was one of the most educated people of their time. He was in constant correspondence with all the rulers of Europe, was author of numerous theological works and secular treatises on government.

It is also known that he favored the cause of education in every possible way (which Ivan the Terrible became famous for, except for the oprichnina):

• tried to open the first printing house in Moscow;
• set up the Printing Yard;
• kept a whole unique library inherited from her grandmother Sophia Paleolog (currently considered lost).

About Ivan the Terrible responded with respect many of his contemporaries. Naturally, they accused him of excessive cruelty, but, at the same time, they said that he managed to create a strong state and consolidate your power.

Tsar Ivan the Terrible had an explosive temper.

Relations with the Church

Tsar was very pious, but this absolutely did not prevent him from giving orders for executions and torturing people with his own hands. His relations with church hierarchs (with the exception of Metropolitan Macarius) were very difficult.

Who is Ivan the Terrible (briefly)

Foreign policy of Ivan the Terrible. Russia in the XVI-XVII centuries.

Political results of the reign

Almost all historians of the 19th and 20th centuries admit that the greatest number of positive achievements occurred in the first half of the reign. The second half, directly related to the oprichnina, was extremely unsuccessful, although in this way the tsar managed to completely destroy the boyar opposition and create conditions for the promotion of a new, service class, on which the monarch could rely - the nobility.

There are a lot of rumors about Ivan the Terrible. It is they that do not make it possible to give an objective assessment of the many activities of the king, to correctly understand his actions or decisions. Perhaps his cruelty is a product of difficult childhood without parents, it is also possible that the death of his first wife Anastasia, who, according to some reports, was poisoned by the boyars, led to his bitterness.

Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible was born on August 25, 1530 in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow. In 1533, his father, Grand Duke Vasily III (Rurikovich), died. In 1538, Ivan Vasilyevich's mother, Princess Elena Glinskaya (Lithuanian princess), passed away. The childhood of the future tsar passed in an atmosphere of palace intrigues, struggle for power, coups between the warring boyar families of the Belskys and Shuiskys.

In 1547, a solemn wedding ceremony was held for the reign of Grand Duke Ivan IV in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. At that time, his title was translated as "emperor", which put Ivan the Terrible on a par with the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

The affairs of the internal policy of the tsar were assisted by the advisers of the Chosen Rada, which included Metropolitan Macarius, A.F. Adashev, A.M. Kurbsky, Archpriest Sylvester.

Domestic politics

In 1549, Ivan Vasilyevich convened the first Zemsky Sobor, which was attended by all segments of the population except for the serfs, and political, administrative, and economic issues were resolved. From the end of the 40s, the tsar carried out a number of reforms: zemstvo, military, labial, symbolic.

In 1550, Ivan IV's Sudebnik was adopted, in which peasant communities were granted the right to self-government, restore order, and distribute taxes. In 1551, the tsar convened the Stoglavy Council, which resulted in the adoption of a collection of decisions on church life - "Stoglava". In 1555-1556, the "feeding" system was abolished and the "Code of Service" was adopted, which made it possible to form a new army structure.

In 1565, Ivan the Terrible, whose biography already spoke for him as a great monarch, introduced a special form of government - the oprichnina, aimed at strengthening the autocracy. In 1572, the oprichnina was dissolved.

Foreign policy

In foreign policy, Ivan IV pursued a course of expanding territories in the east, capturing the shores of the Baltic Sea in the west, and bringing to an end the struggle against the successors of the Golden Horde.

Grozny made significant military campaigns, as a result of which in 1547-1552 the Kazan Khanate was annexed to the Russian territories, in 1556 the Astrakhan Khanate, the lands of the Urals and the Volga region. In 1555 - 1557, the Siberian Khan Ediger and the Great Nogai Horde fell under Ivan IV's dependence. In 1556, Russian troops destroyed the capital of the Golden Horde, Sarai-Batu.

In 1554-1557, Grozny's troops won the war with Sweden, which was started by the Swedish king Gustav I. In 1558-1583, Grozny's troops failed in the Livonian War. At the same time, Ivan IV waged wars with the Crimean Khanate with varying success.

Tsar Ivan the Terrible died on March 18, 1584 in Moscow. The great ruler was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.

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