Ivan IV Vasilievich (August 25, 1530 - March 18, 1584), also known as Ivan the Terrible, Ivan the Great, monarch of the Rurik dynasty, the first tsar in Russian history. Grand Duke of Moscow from 1533 to 1547 and Tsar from 1547 to 1584.

The tsar does not make the good afraid, but the evil afraid... The sword is not hung in vain. Those who do good will be rewarded and those who do evil will be punished. I will demote and execute those who do not discipline, deprive them of their property, and establish a municipality for myself-Ivan IV

Among the past European emperors, if a terror ranking was established, Ivan IV would undoubtedly occupy a prominent position on this ranking. It is probably difficult to count how many people he has killed in his life. In fact, the politics of terror is a major feature of Ivan the Great, but he also has many other actions that should be remembered by future generations.

Ivan IV was fortunate to have been born into the chant of Kay, which led to the unification of Russia and its march towards a world power. His grandfather, Ivan III, and his father, Vasily III, were dedicated to the cause of Russian unification, leaving him a large imperial legacy. But he was also unfortunate. He lost his father at the age of 3 and his mother at the age of 8. He lived in the blood and blood of the dark court since he was a child, and was manipulated by a group of unpredictable nobles. This made him suspicious and ruthless.

The mother of Ivan IV, Yelena, was a descendant of the Great Khan of the Golden Horde of Mongolia. After marrying Vasily III, who was nearly 50 years old and still had no children, she finally gave birth to an heir. Ivan IV was born with lightning and thunder, so he was called Ivan the Terrible, but his name probably came from the subsequent shocking purges. The Mongols' enthusiasm for territorial expansion was also passed on to Ivan IV by Yelena. When Vasily III died in 1533, Yelena and seven great nobles formed a regency council to act as the official government before Ivan IV came of age. However, Yelena soon became at odds with many of the big nobles. She abolished the regency council, took power exclusively, and forced Vasily III's two younger brothers to death. In 1538, when Yelena died suddenly and was said to have been poisoned by political enemies, Ivan IV was just 8 years old. Ivan IV showed a bloodthirsty side from an early age, loving to torture small animals and watch them die cruelly. At the age of 13, he had his protector Shuisky killed by a dog.

After Yelena's death, her brother Glinsky defeated his political opponents and continued to control the court. In 1547, Ivan was officially crowned. In the same year, Glinsky was killed in a popular uprising caused by a big fire, and Ivan IV officially came to the fore and ruled the country in his own unique way.

It should be said that until 1560, his rule was running on a smooth and productive track. With the assistance of Adashev and Sylvester, he promulgated a new code, reorganized the administrative structure, reformed the military system, strengthened the military force, and destroyed the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates in the east, and forced the Siberian khanates to submit. But after the death of his first wife, Anastasia, in 1560, his consciousness became increasingly abnormal, and most historians believe that he had syphilis, which, when it reached an advanced stage, would cause the patient to become insane.

In the winter of 1564, Ivan IV suddenly left Moscow with his family, went to the village of Alexandrov near the capital, and sent a letter back: "Because I cannot tolerate the betrayal around me, I no longer govern this country, but follow the path pointed by God. "His actions caused panic in Moscow, and after receiving the Archbishop's promise to him that he had the right to execute any traitor who wanted to be executed, he returned to Moscow.

Subsequently, he implemented his original "special jurisdiction" throughout the country, dividing the country's territory into two parts. One was the special jurisdiction, which was directly administered by the tsar, and the other was the ordinary district, mainly the remote and backward areas, which were administered by the noble lords. Many of the great nobles were driven from the special jurisdiction to the ordinary district, which greatly weakened their power. Ivan the Terrible also formed a special army that was absolutely loyal to the tsar and ruthless and tyrannical to his subjects. Then, a series of massacres began, culminating in the period of special jurisdiction from 1565 to 1572. The targets of the massacres were mainly feudal princes and great nobles who had the strength to resist the tsar. Over a seven-year period, more than 4,000 great nobles were killed. Ivan IV, while eradicating the great nobles, fostered the power of the small nobles and the citizens, and the positive effect of the special jurisdiction system was to eliminate the hidden danger of the division of local lords and strengthen the centralization of power. This may have been a necessary step in the development of Russian history, although the method adopted was too intense.

Ivan IV Vasilyevich

But some of the other tyranny of Ivan the Great can only be explained by the tyranny of an absolute monarch. His army looted Novgorod, which had always had an independent and republican tendency, and it was estimated that tens of thousands of people were put in jeopardy. They also massacred the Kazan people when they annexed the Kazan Khanate. Finally, in 1581, Ivan IV accidentally killed his successor Prince Ivan in a rage. His massacre finally came to an end in irreparable guilt.

Ivan IV was very successful in territorial expansion. He successively annexed the Kazan Khanate (1552), Astrakhan Khanate (1556) and Siberian Khanate (1579), and also defeated the Krimu Khanate. Russia's territory advanced eastward significantly, and the Mongols were no longer a threat. He personally fought in some of these battles, fought bravely, and proposed strategies such as "continuously attacking the enemy" and "taking the enemy's active forces as the starting point in the field." In addition, he annexed the Great Norge Khanate and Bashkiya, bringing many ethnic groups in the North Caucasus to Russia. In 1558, he launched the Livonian War in an attempt to seize the mouth of the Baltic Sea. The war lasted for a quarter of a century (1558-1583) and consumed most of Ivan's life. The major Baltic countries were involved in it. Russia was isolated and helpless, and finally failed. The long-cherished dream of seizing the mouth of the Baltic Sea was not completed until Peter the Great more than 100 years later.

Ivan IV's internal affairs strategy, in addition to the above-mentioned elimination of the big aristocrats, supporting the small and medium aristocrats, and strengthening centralization of power, also had an important point. It was to reiterate Ivan III's rule that farmers had to leave their landlords on the Day of Yuri, and to enrich some provisions. Russia has plunged another step into the quagmire of serfdom. During the reign of Ivan IV,"Tsar" became the official title for the Russian monarch (this title comes from the Russian term for the Byzantine monarch, which Ivan III had used but had not yet fixed).

Ivan IV was highly literate and actively promoted printing in Russia. He was an excellent orator.

Judging from the historical process of Russia, Ivan IV has obvious traces of inheriting Ivan III from the title of Tsar to the choice of the direction of expansion, to internal policies and army building. In this regard, Ivan IV's influence on history should be lower than that of Ivan III. But on the other hand, Ivan IV brutally suppressed the big aristocrats, supported the small aristocrats, and strengthened monarchical power, putting Russia on the path of strengthening centralization and consolidating the nation-state that was in line with the historical trend of the time. This surpassed Ivan III. Ivan IV should be listed among the most influential emperors, and he ranks 89th in this ranking.

Comment: For Russia, which had just achieved independence and unity in the era of Ivan IV, there were two options, one was to form a state under loose grand aristocratic autonomy, and the other was to centralize state power. The traditions formed by Moscow in the long struggle and the influence left by the Mongols, as well as the ambitions of Ivan IV himself, made the latter inevitable. Ivan IV's tyranny can basically be explained by the need to maintain unity and centralization, which made the brutal Ivan IV still considered a great czar.