Ivan IV
Ivan IV (1530–1584) was the first Russian ruler to call himself Tsar (Latin: Ceasar), he was called "the terrible", which back then, meant "extraordinary" or "awesome". In 1533, he took the throne at age 13, went from grand prince to the first to take the title czar in 1547, and reigned till he died in 1584, having Russia's longest reign at 51 years.
Ivan only lost two wars, which were the Livonian War and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth War. According to Russian sources, traditionalist Czar Ivan IV "the Terrible" was not as tyrannical as often portrayed.[1][2][3] Since he was paralyzed in the last four years of his life, he did not hit or kill his son in spite of a public relations myth coming from senior Jesuit Antonio Possevino, and like his wives, his son was poisoned according to forensic experts in 1963.[4] The accusations that he blinded his architect was proven false as well.[5]
Andrei Kurbsky wanted to overthrow Ivan IV by joining the Polish army. There was no massacre at Novgorod, in which 27,000 people resided, even though western historians claim that 200,000 were killed while it was only 1,500. The purpose of the Oprichnina was to get rid of oligarchs and state traitors, as mentioned by French historian Alfred Rambaud.[6]
As a result of declining mental health, it got excessive enough to getting innocents killed, including Metropolitan Phillip, one of his strongest allies. [7][8] However, he did repent of killing innocents.[9] Aside from the period he went paranoid, the Russian monarchy was working until Enlightenment influence took advantage of the Old Believer's schism which was a response to Patriarch Nikon's reforms to correct canonical errors to get in line with the Greek Orthodox Church. Ivan was succeeded by his son, Feodor.
References
- ↑ [1](Russian)
- ↑ [2](Russian)
- ↑ [3](Russian)
- ↑ https://www.rbth.com/history/333821-mysterious-death-tsarevich-dmitry-uglich
- ↑ https://www.rbth.com/history/336388-did-ivan-terrible-really-blind-architects
- ↑ History of Russia by Alfred by Alfred Rambaud and L. B. Lang
- ↑ http://orthochristian.com/calendar/20180109.html.
- ↑ http://www.holyresurrection.us/Saintsoftheday/January.html
- ↑ https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2009/04/elder-nikolai-gurianov.html
External links
- Ivan IV, at the Encyclopædia Britannica
- Ivan IV, "The Terrible" (Russia) (1530–1584; Ruled 1533–1584), at Encyclopedia.com
- Biography, at Biography.com
- [4] (Russian)
