August 25, 1530 - Ivan the Terrible

His reign divides sharply into two phases: an early period of genuine institutional reform and military expansion, and a later descent into paranoid repression that gave him his enduring epithet. The oprichnina — a state within a state staffed by personal loyalists — became the instrument of mass executions, forced relocations, and the destruction of the boyar class. The 1570 sack of Novgorod, carried out on his orders against his own subjects, remains one of the most devastating episodes of internal violence in Russian history. He consolidated and expanded the Russian state while simultaneously terrorizing it, a contradiction that has made him one of the most studied rulers of the early modern period.

From Wikipedia

Ivan IV Vasilyevich (Russian: Иван IV Васильевич; 25 August [O.S. 15 August] 1530 – 28 March [O.S. 18 March] 1584), commonly known as Ivan the Terrible, was Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1533 to 1547, and the first Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia from 1547 until his death in 1584. Ivan's reign was characterised by Russia's transformation from a medieval state to a fledgling empire, but at an immense cost to its people and long-term economy.

Ivan IV was the eldest son of Vasili III by his second wife Elena Glinskaya, and a grandson of Ivan III. He succeeded his father after his death, when he was three years old. A group of reformers united around the young Ivan, crowning him as tsar in 1547 at the age of 16. In the early years of his reign, Ivan ruled with the group of reformers known as the Chosen Council and established the Zemsky Sobor, a new assembly convened by the tsar. He also revised the legal code and introduced reforms, including elements of local self-government, as well as establishing the first Russian standing army, the streltsy. Ivan conquered the khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan, bringing the entire length of the Volga river under Russian control.

After he had consolidated his power, Ivan rid himself of the advisers from the Chosen Council.

⚠ Report a problem with this article