Since nearly all the documents relating to this epoch were destroyed in one of Moscow's periodic fires, historians tend to give differing explanations for Ivan's actions during this part of his reign. The majority tend to the view that the struggle was between the tsar and the old hereditary nobility, which, jealous of surrendering its power and privileges, had resisted his internal reforms and military projects. The oprichnina thus may have been Ivan's attempt to create a highly centralized state and destroy the economic strength and political power of the princes and the high nobility. The increasingly resentful boyars had indeed opposed Ivan and plotted against him on occasion, but the reign of terror that Ivan initiated by the oprichnina proved far more dangerous to the stability of the country than the danger that it was designed to suppress. In 1570, for example, Ivan personally led his oprichniki troops against Novgorod, destroying that city and executing several thousand of its inhabitants. Many boyars and other members of the gentry perished during this period, some being publicly executed with calculated and symbolic cruelty. Ivan later sent to various monasteries memorials (sinodiki) of more than 3,000 of his victims, most of whom were executed in the course of the oprichnina.
The oprichnina lasted only seven years, from 1565 to 1572, when it was abolished as a result of the failure of the oprichnina regiments to defend Moscow from attack by the Crimean Tatars. The oprichnina army was reintegrated with that of the zemschina, and some of the estates confiscated by Ivan's followers were returned to their owners. The entire episode of the oprichnina leaves a bloody imprint on Ivan's reign, causing some doubts about his mental stability and leaving historians with the impression of a morbidly suspicious and vindictive ruler.
Later years
Withdrawal and flight are themes that run through the later years of Ivan's reign. He expressed an interest in establishing diplomatic and trade relations with England, even suggesting his readiness to marry an English noblewoman. In 1575 he seems to have abdicated for about a year in favour of a Tatar prince, Simeon Bekbulatovich. During the 1570s he married five wives in succession in only nine years. Finally, in a fit of rage, he murdered his only viable heir, Ivan, in 1581. This murder set the clock ticking for the political crisis, known as the Time of Troubles (Troubles, Time of), that began with the extinction of the Rurik dynasty upon the infirm Fyodor's death in 1598.
Assessment
Ivan's achievements were many. In foreign policy all his actions were directed toward forcing Russia into Europe—a line that Peter I the Great was to continue. Internally, Ivan's reign of terror eventually resulted in the weakening of all levels of the aristocracy, including the service gentry he had sponsored. The prolonged and unsuccessful Livonian War overextended the state's resources and helped bring Russia to the verge of economic collapse. These factors, together with Tatar incursions, resulted in the depopulation of a number of Russian provinces by the time of Ivan's death in 1584. Nevertheless, he left his realm far more centralized both administratively and culturally than it had been previously.
Ivan also encouraged Russia's cultural development, especially through printing. He himself wrote well, and, though his surviving writings are mainly of a political nature, his command of words and his biting sarcasm are very evident. Ivan was a devout adherent of the Orthodox church. His arguments on religious questions are striking in their power and conviction, but he placed the most emphasis on defending the divine right of the ruler to unlimited power under God—a view with which most other monarchs of the time would have been in agreement.
Nikolay Andreyev Ed.
Additional Reading
Biographies of Ivan include S.F. Platonov, Ivan the Terrible (1974, reissued 1986); Robert Payne and Nikita Romanoff, Ivan the Terrible (1975); Ruslan G. Skrynnikov, Ivan the Terrible (1981), interesting for its official Soviet interpretation of his place in history; and Benson Bobrick, Fearful Majesty: The Life and Reign of Ivan the Terrible (1987).
tsar
▪ Russian ruler
also spelled tzar , or czar , English feminine tsarina, tzarina , or czarina
title associated primarily with rulers of Russia. The term tsar, a form of the ancient Roman imperial title caesar, generated a series of derivatives in Russian: tsaritsa, a tsar's wife, or tsarina; tsarevich, his son; tsarevna, his daughter; and tsesarevich, his eldest son and heir apparent (a 19th-century term).
In medieval Russia the title tsar referred to a supreme ruler, particularly the Byzantine emperor, who was considered the head of the Orthodox Christian world. But the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 and the Ottoman Turks' conquest of the Balkans left the grand princes of Moscow as the only remaining Orthodox monarchs in the world, and the Russian Orthodox clergy naturally began to look to them as the defenders and possible supreme heads of Orthodox Christianity. Claims were put forth that Moscow would become the “third Rome” in succession to Constantinople (now Istanbul) and Rome itself. In 1472 Ivan III, grand prince of Moscow, married Sofia (Zoë) Palaeologus, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor. Sofia brought with her the traditions of the Byzantine court and its concept of the exalted nature of monarchical power.
In 1547 Ivan IV the Terrible, grand prince of Moscow, was officially crowned “tsar of all Russia,” and thus the religious and political ideology of the Russian tsardom took final form. As tsar, Ivan IV theoretically held absolute power, but in practice he and his successors were limited by the traditional authority of the Orthodox church, the Boyar Council, and the legal codes of 1497, 1550, and 1649.
In 1721 Tsar Peter I discarded the title of tsar for that of “emperor of all Russia” as part of his effort to secularize and modernize his regime and assert the state's primacy over the church. “Emperor” remained the official title for subsequent Russian rulers, but they continued to be known as “tsars” in popular usage until the imperial regime was overthrown by the Russian Revolution of 1917. The last Russian tsar, Nicholas II, was executed by the Soviet government in 1918. The early Bulgarian emperors (10th to 14th century AD) and the 20th-century kings of Bulgaria (from 1908 to 1946) also called themselves tsars.
Kazan
▪ Russia
capital city, Tatarstan republic, western Russia. It lies just north of the Samara Reservoir on the Volga River, where it is joined by the Kazanka River. The city stretches for about 15 miles (25 km) along hills, which are much dissected by ravines.